Three more COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Sendhwa area of Barwani district, a state health official informed. The Block Medical Officer further told ANI that the three victims fell prey to COVID-19 after coming in contact with a 90-year-old man, who had recently travelled to Saudia Arabia. "They are kin of a 90-year-old person who had died after returning from Saudia Arabia. However, his report of coronavirus is awaited," he added. The medical officer also said that they will soon collect the samples of those people who came in contact with the three men who have recently developed virus. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday said that there are 3,072 coronavirus positive cases in India, including 2,784 active cases, 213 cured/discharged/migrated people and 75 deaths. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Its certainly opportunistic, said Daniel Auble, senior researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, a research organization that tracks money in politics. Everybodys searching for every way that they can get some kind of assistance, whether its cash or delaying a regulation that will cost them money to implement and may or may not have an effect on their performance during the crisis in essential ways. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 19:51:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MADRID, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of new cases of the coronavirus infection and new deaths continued to fall in Spain, according to the daily data published by the Spanish Ministry for Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Services on Sunday. A total of 6,023 new infections were registered between Saturday and Sunday, fewer than the 7,026 new cases in the previous 24 hours and 7,472 between Thursday and Friday, bringing the country's total infection cases to 130,759. The number of deaths from the virus in Spain rose by 674 to 12,418 on Saturday, 135 fewer than 809 deaths seen in the previous 24 hours. This means the country has seen the new daily deaths fall for three consecutive days. Meanwhile, 58,744 patients have needed hospital treatment in Spain, 1,132 more than Saturday, with 6,861 requiring intensive care -- an increase of 329 in the last 24 hours. Madrid and the Catalan Region continued to be the two hardest hit parts of Spain. Madrid has reported 4,941 deaths from a total number of 37,584 confirmed cases, while the Catalan Region has registered 2,637 deaths from 26,032 cases. Meanwhile the number of patients who have now recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the coronavirus, increased by 3,861 to 38,080 on Sunday. On Saturday Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave a televised press conference in which he said he would ask the Spanish Parliament to extend the State of Alarm, which was imposed on the country on March 14 and due to expire on April 12, until "24 hours on April 25." Sanchez said the continued fall in the number of new cases showed that the lockdown imposed on Spain and other measures were "giving their reward but that Spain needed "to maintain the same discipline and the same tenacity." The prime minister explained that measures would remain in place after the State of Alarm was lifted and their duration would depend "on their efficiency and on how much the Spanish people respect them." Sanchez's request to extend the State of Alarm is certain to be approved after the opposition parties (People's Party and Ciudadanos) both said they would support his proposal. Spanish TV network RTVE reported on Sunday morning that Sanchez held a video conference with the leaders of Spain's 17 Autonomous Communities in which he promised his government would distribute a million tests for the coronavirus during the coming week. A State of Alarm is the first of three emergency levels a Spanish government can apply under exceptional circumstances, with the others being "A State of Exception" and "Martial Law" (Estado de Sitio). A State of Alarm grants the government special powers to limit the movement of citizens, control the means of production and use private assets if needed and also use the military to carry out essential logistical and supply jobs. It was a tough decision, says Paul Stephenson, to leave his mistress of 10 years. But thats what he recently decided to do: retire. His mistress The ASK (Attitude, Skills and Knowledge) Academy will no doubt miss him, too. He leaves her in good hands; his last day is July 1. (My late wife Melanie) always referred to the academy as my mistress, he explained. We spent so much time building it up to what it is. Five, 10 years ago, I never imagined where my heart would be, to let the academy go. But that decision has been made. Change is hard for anybody, Stephenson, 61, said. I give credit to my God for preparing me emotionally, physically and spiritually. There have been a few constants in the 10-year history of The ASK Academy, which now educates sixth- through 12th-graders, in Rio Rancho. True, the charter school has had three locations, but that hasnt mattered when it comes to churning out top-notch students in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math hence its claim to being a STEM school. When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic last month, The ASK Academy barely blinked. We can reach out to 100 percent of our kids, virtually, when theyre studying at home; we have a structured timeline and more, Stephenson said. There was some ramped-up learning, (but our scholars) are learning from their living rooms, bedrooms, closets We know that we have a 1-to-1 ratio of technology to our kids; its stuff that we do daily communicate with our kids daily in the normal world probably easier for us than most, he said. Two ASK constants are the founders, former Rio Rancho High School science teachers Dan Barbour and Stephenson, the schools director of curriculum. One will remain there as the 2020-21 school year begins. In education for nearly three decades, Stephenson said it all began at Laguna-Acoma, where I cut my teeth there coming out of the business world. I was there for five years before Russ Fisher-Ives called me. Fisher-Ives, he said, had been hired in 1996 to head the Science Academy at Rio Rancho High School, which opened in late August 1997. Fisher-Ives, Barbour and Stephenson knew each other through competitions in MESA, New Mexico Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement, a pre-college program that prepares students for college and careers in mathematics, engineering, science or technical fields. I was happy to kick their butts, Stephenson said. Stephenson said being hired by Rio Rancho Public Schools was a career highlight. Being hired to teach at RRHS as part of the inaugural staff, and that concept that made Time Magazine (in October 1997) was career-changing, he said. I learned so much from that experience. ASK would be at the top that experience of seeing where the Rio Rancho school district was going, away from what the inaugural staff called the academy concept, and being able to give (the area a choice) drove me to put in the idea of a charter school, he said. Other highlights were being one of three creators of the Rio Grande Consortium, a week-long math and science boot camp for teachers from nine districts, and Intel asking him and Fisher-Ives to put on math and science workshops for three summers. What makes The ASK Academy successful, Stephenson was asked. Being small, I think, he said. One of the detriments in public education is school districts are way too large. Were also a school of choice that means that families choose us. They dont come to us because of the ZIP codes they live in, he said, noting some of ASKs more than 500 scholars commute from Cuba, Jemez, Corrales, Bernalillo, Placitas and Albuquerques east and west sides. About 80 percent is from Rio Rancho. Whats next? Initially, I am divorcing myself from the mistress; let them be. I may come back and be on the board, he said. On my bucket list is doing announcing: I sing, Im an actor I can do voiceovers, a venture out of education. I want to use some of my creative, artsy, theatrical acting and skills Ive been blessed with. Fisher-Ives asked me to come on board with them, do some international traveling with RoboRAVE I may go to Cuba later this year, use some of my Spanish. And I want to do some traveling. Im actually looking forward to retirement, he concluded. I want to write some books, putting some of my experiences into a career in education for others to learn from if they wish. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:12:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The National Center for Disease Control of Libya's UN-backed government on Sunday announced one new COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 18. The center said in a statement that it tested 31 suspected cases, 30 of which were negative and one positive. The country announced the first death from COVID-19 on Thursday, an 85-year-old woman who was diagnosed with the disease after she passed away. UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj in mid-March declared a state of emergency and mobilization against the virus. His government has taken a series of measures against the pandemic, including closing airports, border crossings, mosques and educational institutions, banning mass gatherings and movements among cities, and imposing a curfew. The government also stipulated daily working hours from 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) to 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) local time. On March 24, Libya announced its first COVID-19 case, a 73-year-old man who returned from Saudi Arabia. Ranking Member on Parliament's Gender and Children Committee, Hajia Laadi Ayamba is asking for the voluntary testing of head porters, also known as Kayayei under the care of government for the novel coronavirus. As part of measures to reach out to the vulnerable in the period of partial lockdown, the government is providing food and shelter to some head porters and other such individuals. Speaking to Citi News, the Pusiga MP indicated that testing these persons will help ascertain the level of risks these vulnerable persons are exposed to. What we hear is that they have been sent to certain places and are being fed. How sure are we that the food and running water are enough? Its still a good thing but what measures are we putting in place to ensure that at the end of the day, these people are not the same persons who will get back into communities and then maybe bring problems? she asked. I am talking about even voluntary testing. Just let them understand that if they are tested and they come out positive, they will go into treatment for about 14 days or one month. Once they know that government will be the one who will take up this, theyll really come out themselves for the test. But weve just kept them there and we say we are feeding them. Its not a matter of feeding them. Some of them its not a matter of they only getting food to eat. They are the breadwinners of their families back at home. And so there is still a lot to be done, she added. Kayayei fleeing to their hometowns Following the announcement of a partial lockdown of Accra, Kasoa, Tema and Kumasi, head porters in Accra made the move to return back to their homes in northern Ghana. Unfortunately for some of them, Police at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region intercepted two cargo trucks which were transporting over 70 kayayei, up north on Monday, March 31, the day the lockdown began. The drivers had covered the trucks with tarpaulins to try and outsmart the security personnel stationed at the various checkpoints. Passengers onboard the vehicles were mostly head porters who were travelling with their children in a bid to escape the partial lockdown in Accra. The police then instructed the driver to return them back to Accra. This was after a huge number of people, mostly kayayei had left the capital to Bimbilla in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern region a day before. On Sunday, March 29, 2020, about six VIP buses carrying over 200 passengers were seen entering Bimbilla. A COVID-19 taskforce formed by the Nanumba North Municipality directed all the buses to the Bimbilla Senior Hgh School where their temperatures were taken and sensitized on COVID-19 preventive measures. Food, shelter for kayayei Upon return to Accra, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) provided the kayayei with temporary shelter. They were screened in accordance with the COVID-19 medical protocols, given food, water and soft drinks by the AMA and the BN Michael Ministries. The government has also committed to feeding and housing all needy kayayei in Kumasi and the Greater Accra Region during the partial lockdown. At a press conference on Wednesday morning, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Mamle Morrison, revealed that the government had already scouted possible locations for housing the kayayei. For those who have their apartments, we will find ways of sending logistics to them to keep them from coming to town and for those who we are going to keep at identified places that we have found, we are going to cater for them, she explained. The Minister also noted that the state had gotten support from some corporate bodies and groups which have committed to providing meals for them so all in all we have enough food for them. In addition, to the food and housing, the kayayei will get further education on the novel coronavirus prevention. The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has also donated GHS500 to each of the stranded kayayei who were stopped at Ejisu on their way to the Northern Region. ---citinewsroom Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 13:40:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close FUZHOU, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A team of 12 medical experts departed from Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province, for the Philippines Sunday morning to aid the archipelagic country to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. The team comprises medical experts from three hospitals and the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) of Fujian, as well as two liaison staff from the provincial foreign affairs office. The experts specialize in various areas, including respiratory, intensive care, hospital infection control, nursing, integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and microbiological testing. Their missions will include sharing China's experience in the testing, treatment, and prevention and control of COVID-19 with local hospitals and experts, and providing treatment advice. On March 24, medical experts from eastern China's Zhejiang Province shared COVID-19 treatment experience with peers from the Philippines via an online meeting. The medical team is expected to arrive at Manila this afternoon. The team also carries urgently needed medical supplies donated by the provincial government, including 30 ventilators, 5,000 protective suits, 300,000 medical masks, 30,000 N95 respirators and 5,000 face shields. Another 12 tonnes of anti-epidemic materials were sent with the team as well, which are donated by various associations and foundations of overseas Chinese as well as local governments of Quanzhou, a city home to 9.5 million Chinese living overseas in more than 170 countries and regions, with 90 percent in Southeast Asia. Zheng Huiwen, leader of the expert team, said the team is honored to bring friendship and warmth to the Filipinos on behalf of China and Fujian Province, as the COVID-19 outbreak is growing fast and posing a grave threat to public health in the Southeastern Asian country. "We will work closely with our Philippine peers, and I am confident that we will come through this together," Zheng said. Zhuo Huichang, a member of the first batch of healthcare workers sent to Wuhan, treated COVID-19 patients for more than 40 days in the former epicenter of the outbreak. Zhuo just completed his isolation period Saturday in Fuzhou after returning from Wuhan. Now he is heading for the Philippines after only several hours of a family reunion. "The epidemic is a common enemy of mankind. I will share my clinical experience with my Philippine colleagues and do my part in the global anti-epidemic battle," Zhuo said. China has dispatched medical experts to multiple countries, including Italy, Serbia, Pakistan and Venezuela, and shared its experience with more than 100 countries and over 10 international and regional organizations, according to China's National Health Commission. An estimated 1.2 million ethnic Chinese live in the Philippine, with many tracing their ancestry to Fujian Province. Boris Johnson remains in charge of the government, we are told by Downing Street, but the news that he is in hospital even though it was not an emergency admission is bound to heighten the sense of crisis. This is a precautionary step, the Downing Street statement said. While some of the prime ministers colleagues seem to have shaken off the infection, he continues to have a high temperature and a cough after 10 days. Long gone is the time when a prime ministers doctor could expect to conceal any change in their patients condition. News of Winston Churchills stroke in 1953 was withheld from the public, and the business of government was carried on by the small group of intimates around him. Now, 67 years later, journalists were already asking about contingency plans before it was announced by Johnson himself in an online video that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Downing Street had already officially confirmed that, if the prime minister became too ill to work, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, would deputise for him. Since Johnson was diagnosed, there has been much interest among journalists in the mechanics of how he has continued to run the government while in quarantine although most of the general public seem quite relaxed about it, and many are now compulsorily familiar with the technology of remote working. Alarm bells started to ring when the prime minister appeared unwell in his latest video missive on Friday. They rang louder as Matt Hancock, the health secretary, who had announced he had tested positive for coronavirus at the same time as the prime minister, returned to work full of vigour, taking the daily news conferences as well as the media round of the morning TV and radio shows. The prime ministers spokespeople could not confirm when Johnson would return to work, and, when pressed, admitted that he still had a fever. Todays Sunday Times reported that Johnson had been coughing and spluttering on video conference calls. No prime minister ever wants to admit physical frailty. Tony Blair went to elaborate lengths to distract attention from his surgery to correct a heart flutter, which was conducted under local anaesthetic, and during which, The Independent reported, aides insisted that Mr Blairs appetite for the job was undiminished. He combined the announcement, in 2004, with the news that he intended to fight the coming election dashing Gordon Browns hope of succeeding him before then. All prime ministers are also aware of the cautionary tale of Harold Macmillan, who may have given up office in 1963 because he thought he was seriously ill (although he may have used it as an excuse to get out in the wake of the Profumo scandal), but who quickly recovered and went on to live to the age of 92. Nor does any prime minister want to hand over the reins of power to a deputy, however briefly, for fear that it will be hard to get them back. For the rest of us, there is the concern that the government will not be best able to manage the crisis if the prime minister is not at full strength, or if there are doubts about who is in charge. Two factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State have continued to attack each other over the arrest of a chieftain of the party in the state, Nwajoku Okugo, by the police. While one faction led by the state chairman, Ben Nwoye, blames the foreign affairs minister, Godfrey Onyeama, for Mr Okugos arrest, another faction loyal to the minister contends that he has no hand in the arrest. The arrest Mr Okugo was arrested over his alleged social media comment that Mr Onyeama had tested positive to COVID-19 and subsequently came to Enugu to infect the people with the virus. He was said to have been arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police intelligence unit. Mr Okugo, who is the Youth Leader of the APC in Enugu West Senatorial Zone, was whisked away from his fathers home in Oduma, Aninri Local Government Area, on Friday. Faction blames Minister for arrest The APC chairman in the state, Ben Nwoye, accused the minister of using his position to oppress members of the party in the state. Mr Nwoye, who spoke to journalists on Saturday, claimed that the minister was using his office to harass and intimidate the party members in the state and wondered why such a civil matter could lead to the continued detention of Mr Okugo without bail. He expressed regrets that even when the partys legal adviser, Benjamin Nembe, and other lawyers appealed to the police to allow them take the party chieftain on bail, the police refused, insisting that they were acting on orders from above. Mr Nwoye said the commando style of arresting Mr Okugo was bad. He called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to wade into the matter, saying the continuous detention of the party chieftain without charging him to court amounted to a breach of his fundamental human rights. It is unfortunate that the minister who ought to be using his position to better the fortunes of the party, chose to always create unnecessary problems for the party in the state, the party chairman said. The APC legal adviser, who also spoke to journalists, said efforts made to take him on bail proved abortive. The worst is that the police refused me, Nwanjokus wife and other members of the family access to him, he lamented. Ministers faction reacts However, some members of the party in the state while reacting to the allegations said the minister has no hand in the arrest of the youth leader. A chieftain of the party, Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha, in her reaction condemned the continuous attack on the minister by officials of the party in Enugu State. Mrs Ogbu-Aguocha, who was the Enugu East senatorial candidate of APC in the 2019 general election, argued that the minister had no hand in the arrest. According to her, the arrest of Mr Nwanjoku was a result of a petition by a member of the party to the Inspector General of Police and it has nothing to do with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Although the minister has come under extreme provocation from diabolical and divisive forces within the party in the state; as the perfect gentleman he is, the honourable minister has always shrugged off all the numerous slurs on his character with grace, she said People cannot hide under the cover of social media, maliciously concoct and spread fictitious stories that has no bases and publish same to malign the image and integrity of our leaders, then turn around to cry intimidation. So Mr. Nwanjoku and his sponsors should face the consequences of their fake news peddling and leave Mr Onyeama out of it. Nigerians know that the Honorable Minister is a man of outstanding character and integrity and cannot be distracted from the excellent service he has been providing for the nation and Mr. President, She said. Another Enugu APC chieftain, Ginika Tor, described Mr Nwoyes factions attacks on the minister as a shameful and wicked act. This is the height of irresponsibility on the part of those that hatched the news. Definitely we cannot continue to look the other way while our leaders name and reputation is constantly tarnished. Advertisements Mr. James Nwanjoku Okugo should be made to face the music and answer for his crimes of bandying fake news in order to ridicule the reputation of a high ranking Federal Government Official because as an adult he must have weighed the consequences of his actions before embarking on this journey. This factional politics by Ben Nwoye and his gang has been taken too far and must be stopped, she said. An associate of Mr Onyeama, Collins Egbo, also said the minister had no hand in the arrest of Mr Okugo The minister doesnt like getting involved in such issues. It was a member of the party who petitioned the Police, he said. I petitioned the Police Ministers Aide Meanwhile, the personal assistant to the minister, Flavour Eze, has exonerated his principal from the travails of Mr Okugo. Mr Eze in a statement said he was the one who wrote to the police because Mr Okugo in the said social media post also allegedly defamed his person. He said he wrote in his personal capacity as a Nigerian who deserves justice. My attention has been drawn to the attempt by Mr. Ben Nwoye, a supposed Chairman of the Enugu State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to politicise a case that I reported to the police against one Nwanjoku James Okugo, who criminally defamed me through various publications in social and print media The said Nwanjoku, a close associate of Ben Nwoye, alleged that the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama and I; Chief Flavour Eze, his Personal Assistant, were the two persons who tested positive for the Covid-19 virus and had gone to Enugu with the deliberate intention of spreading the disease in the state. He further called on the Government of the State to arrest us. Mr Eze said the sole intention of the allegations was to cause widespread alarm and panic in the state and endanger the lives of the minister and myself by inciting hatred against us through demonization. I, in my personal capacity, reported the matter to the Nigerian Police after the period given to the author of the article to retract the malicious write-up had elapsed. The police have since swung into action; arrested the suspect and are currently making progress in their investigation, he said. My candid advice to them is to face the case with the police and stop looking for scapegoats Meanwhile, I am not unaware of the role of Mr. Ben Nwoye, the boss of Nwanjoku in the whole affair. His time will come, Mr Eze said. Police refuse to speak The police spokesman in Enugu, Daniel Ndukwe, said he does not have details of the matter. He asked for some time to make enquiries and get back to this reporter. Hours later he was yet to do so. The federal police spokesman, Frank Mba, did not return calls to his phone. It is a cry from the heart and the stomach that is reverberating across African towns and cities reeling under lockdowns and curfews to contain the spread of the coronavirus. "How can anyone stay home without anything to eat?" asked Garcia Landu, a motorcycle taxi driver in the bustling Angolan seaside capital of Luanda. He ventured out to try and earn a living, defying the government-ordered anti-coronavirus restrictions. "We have responsibilities towards our families. We have to go out and get food," said Landu, sporting a helmet in the national red-and-black colours. It's "better to die of this disease or a gunshot than to starve to death," he said. "To starve to death, I will never, ever accept that. I can't". Days after the government declared a state of emergency and imposed restrictions on March 26, crowds continue to mass at markets, in front of shops or by water points in Luanda. Under the restrictions, President Joao Lourenco has banned travel, meetings and public activities as the country reported 10 infections with two deaths. "The situation demands... sacrifices from all citizens, whose rights and professional and social life will have to be restricted," Lourenco said in a televised speech last week. 'I have nothing at home' But not to the point of depriving people of water, retorted Quechinha Paulina, a widow who has no running water in the heavily-populated Cazenga municipal district in the capital of the oil-rich country. So she is forced to buy from private water bowsers. She placed an order and still awaits delivery. "It's been two weeks and it hasn't come," she said. "So today I got up at 3am to buy (elsewhere). The lockdown order has largely gone unnoticed in the daily grind and hustle on the capital's streets. By Osvaldo Silva (AFP) "I have nothing at home. I have children," she said, complaining that nearly a week into the new month, she hasn't received her social grant payment yet. Despite the lockdown, many view earning money, finding food and fetching water as legitimate reasons to leave home. Announcing a slew of measures to help keep people at home, the government also promised to distribute water in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Telephone operators have joined in by offering free call minutes to avoid queues of people buying airtime recharge vouchers at their outlets. But all that has failed to empty the streets of Luanda. On the eve of the state of emergency, the police chief, Paulo de Almeida, vowed to hammer home the message about the seriousness of the virus. "But we will not tolerate disobedience," he warned. "It's a question of everyone's health." 'People are stubborn' On Friday, Interior Minister Eugenio Laborinho reported that 1,209 people had been detained in just days, more than 1,000 of them for having entered Angola after the borders were shut on March 27, and 189 for violating the state of emergency. "The police are not on the ground to please (people) or to distribute chocolates," Laborinho told journalists. "People are stubborn anyway, they know they have to stay home". The lockdown order has largely gone unnoticed in the daily grind and hustle on the capital's streets. "The disease is dangerous, we see that. Everyone sees that, everyone knows," said Domingos Joao, a taxi driver. Despite the lockdown, many view earning money, finding food and fetching water as legitimate reasons to leave home. By Osvaldo Silva (AFP) "But (by) staying at home, we won't achieve anything. That is why we are in the streets, working with (and obeying) the rules, as you see. "Before passengers climb in, they are disinfected first," he said showing a bottle of hand sanitiser. Out doing his shopping, teacher Geraldo Dala, is fearful that "if COVID-19 starts spreading here, that will be it! Thousands will be infected". But he justified his and others being out on the streets because "people have to go out for bread or a kilo of rice". "The state of emergency will not be respected as long as people depend on street hawking to feed their families," said veteran journalist Rafael Marques. Marques, who is usually critical of the government, agrees the emergency steps "were taken for the good of the people". In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Royal Bhutanese Embassy in Delhi has written to Sharda University in Greater Noida to make arrangements for students to reach the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on April 9 so that they can be flown back to Bhutan in a special flight. University authorities said the university and the Bhutanese embassy have been in touch for the past one month to ensure the safety of Bhutanese students. The embassy has asked Sharda University to make arrangements for the students to reach the IGI airport from the university campus. Due to the Covid-19 situation, the Royal Government of Bhutan is planning to evacuate its citizens from India to Bhutan on a special flight. The students will have to travel from their current location to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi so that they can all travel together in the same flight, said Dolay Tshering, education attache, Royal Bhutanese Embassy in his letter to the Sharda University authorities. The Bhutanese government is sending its national carrier Druk Air to evacuate the students and its other citizens. A total of 41 students from Gautam Budh Nagar will go back to Bhutan in the special flight that will leave at 2pm on April 9. Out of 41 students, 39 are from Sharda University while two are from other colleges. We have been in touch with various embassies since the Covid-19 outbreak started to ensure that no student or their family member gets worried. The Bhutanese embassy has asked us to make arrangements for vehicles so that the students can reach the airport. We will take all the required permissions to drop these students to the airport, said Ashok Daryani, director, international relations, Sharda University. Over 94 Bhutanese nationals study at Sharda University, out of which 60 have opted for staying the university hostel. Currently, 25 students are living in the hostel, while 14 are staying outside the campus. Few of the students had left before the national lockdown was announced, the university officials said. The students will leave in a Druk Air flight from Delhi to Paro on April 9. Recently, the government had also taken over Sharda Hospital to treat Covid-19 patients, and we are in touch with the concerned officials to get the required permission to facilitate the students travel to the international airport amid ongoing lockdown. The Bhutanese Embassy is also trying to get the permission for hassle-free movement of students from our campus to the airport, Daryani added. Students who will leave for Bhutan want to get back to their families soon and said they are scared that it will take months for everything to get back to normal. It looks that it is going to take a long time before things get back to normal so we are happy that our government has made arrangements for us to go back home. I am not sure about when I will come back to India as we dont know how long it will take for the situation to come under control. The university authorities are providing us all the facilities, but we want to go back to our families, said Tenzin Drakpa, 24, a third-year BBA student. A lot of our friends have gone back home. Few of us are left behind, and some of us are inside the campus. University authorities are taking the pandemic seriously and our following the lockdown instruction strictly, nobody is allowed to leave the campus or to come inside. We are hopeful that the situation gets normal soon, Ugyen Dema, 20, another third-year BBA student, said. More than 3,000 foreign nationals study in Greater Noida, out of which, over 2,000 students are pursuing various courses at Sharda University. Pune's COVID-19 count increased by 21 on Sunday to 104, health officials said. The district also witnessed three deaths from the infection over the past two days, including one on Sunday, they added. "Seventeen cases were reported in Pune Municipal Corporation limits while four were in Pimpri Chinchwad area on Sunday. The total number of deaths in Pune region has now touched five," an official said. "The samples of a 60-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man who died on Saturday have tested positive for the virus. A 69-year-old woman, who tested positive on April 2, died of a gail bladder ailment on Sunday," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 8 Malaysian Tablighis men, trying to flee India, caught at Delhi airport India oi-Deepika S Chennai, Apr 05: Eight Malaysian nationals, all attendees of the Nizamuddin congregation in Delhi were detained Sunday at Delhi Airport while trying to leave India on a special flight. The Malaysians were intercepted by immigration officials after being alerted by the Delhi police. Reportedly, the Malaysian nationals were hiding in different parts of Delhi and gathered at the airport on Sunday to flee the country. Of the 167 Malaysian Tamils who boarded the flight, 8 people, were offloaded after it was ascertained that they had participated in the recent meeting at the national capital, they said. The flight departed with 157 passengers after some delay, officials added. After participating in the meeting, they had visited Tenkasi district in southern Tamil Nadu and had stayed there before coming here to board the flight. It is, however, not immediately known if the Jamaat participants will be quarantined by health authorities or not. All the passengers were Malaysian Tamils who had got stranded in different parts of Tamil Nadu before the commencement of lockdown on March 24. Today, they were sent to their country through a special chartered flight following consultations between Indian and Malaysian governments on their return. According to the government, more than 2,000 of the Tablighi Jamaat participants were foreigners. After the gathering, over 800 of them toured various parts of the country. So far, 1,023 of the 3,072 positive cases in India have been traced to that one congregation. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 19:01 [IST] New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO will accept online its subscribers' Aadhaar card as valid proof to rectify their date of birth to ensure that the account is KYC compliant, the labour ministry said on Sunday. "In a move to extend the availability and reach of online services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPFO (Employees' Provident Fund Organisation) has issued revised instructions to its field offices to facilitate PF members to rectify their date of birth in EPFO records, thus ensuring that their UAN is KYC compliant," a ministry statement said. According to the statement, the date of birth recorded in Aadhaar will now be accepted as valid proof of date of birth for the purpose of rectification, provided that the difference in the two dates is less than 3 years. The PF subscribers can submit the correction requests online. It said that this will enable the EPFO to validate the birth date of members online with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) instantaneously, thus authenticating and reducing the processing time of change requests. The EPFO has instructed field offices to expedite disposal of online requests, enabling Provident Fund members in financial distress, to apply online for availing non-refundable advance from their PF accumulations to tide over COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, the EPFO allowed its subscribers to withdraw three months basic pay and dearness allowance as non-refundable advance on the ground of COVID-19 lockdown from March 28, 2020. However, the facility was available to those members whose KYC (Know You Customer) compliance was complete. Now, this decision would help the members to make their universal account numbers KYC compliant. The US Surgeon General has said he was wrong to compare coronavirus to the flu in a tweet from just two months ago, as the nations top health official faces criticism on Twitter over objectivity and professionalism in the face of the pandemic. Broadcaster Soledad OBrien called out Jerome Adams by quote-tweeting a post from 1 February in which he wrote: Roses are red, violets are blue, risk is low for #coronarvirus, but high for the #flu. So get your #FLUSHOT! On Sunday, he replied: Maam: youve met me. You know I always try to give the best information I can based on the best available evidence. He said that circumstances change but was a true statement at the time it was made when roughly 20,000 people had died from the flu. Lets focus on the next 30 days not the last 30, he added. But she pushed back at his claims, saying: Sir: you are a medical professional and a public health professional. Your job is not to suck up to the President of the United States, but [present] factual information. She said the surgeon general calling the president healthier than what I am was obviously untrue and works to undermine the public trust. He replied: I dont want to get into a distracting back-and-forth but I respect your advocacy and Ive said this publicly ... I have heart disease, asthma, am pre-diabetic, and spent a week in the ICU for a heart condition. I shouldnt have compared, but please dont presume about my health. Other White House officials, including Donald Trump, also compared the virus to the flu at the time, as recently as within the last several weeks, in press briefings and at rallies in front of thousands of people. Those claims were echoed in the media and by pundits defending the administrations response. On 31 March, the president admitted for the first time that Covid-19 is not the flu and said its vicious. The surgeon general has also been criticised for contradictory instructions for Americans to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the virus. On 29 February, the surgeon general urged people to stop buying masks and said theyre not effective to prevent transmission. In an interview with Fox & Friends a few days later, he said: You can increase your risk of getting [Covid-19] by wearing a mask if you are not a health care provider ... Folks who dont know how to wear them properly tend to touch their faces a lot and actually can increase the spread of coronavirus. On Friday, the surgeon general admitted that his reversal has been confusing to the American people as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance telling Americans to wear non-medical face coverings in public, amending previous statements that doing so would likely be ineffective at slowing transmission. The next day he shared a video instructing people how to make homemade masks using T-shirts. Mr Adams also appeared on Fox News on Sunday to warn Americans to prepare for the hardest and saddest week as quarantine efforts have been put in place for most of the country and hospitals brace for a potential surge in new patients. He also urged governors to tell residents in their states to stay at home as much as possible, absent a national stay-at-home order at the federal order that the president has said he does not intend to issue. The latest criticism follows growing concerns about the administrations response to the outbreak and the presidents repeated attempts to downplay its impacts. Within a month, the president claimed the virus would disappear with infections going down to zero before admitting the crisis would be the worst thing the country has probably ever seen. Ugandan officials on Saturday donated food to vulnerable people living in the metropolitan area of Kampala, which is under lockdown. Social distancing measures put millions out of jobs in the East African country, including casual labourers, taxi drivers and others working hand-to-mouth. Uganda's Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda gave a speech at one food delivery saying the food relief was for "those who have been badly hit" by the freedom of movement restrictions. The door-to-door food distribution targeting 1.5 million people, had been halted by the parliamentary speaker, who wanted authorities to commit to a nation-wide arrangement before the start of relief efforts in Kampala. She was overruled. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in a speech on Friday suggested there wasn't enough money to help everyone, saying food donation is not an exercise in poverty reduction. The food distribution was launched in the Kampala suburb of Bwaise, which has a substantial population of the urban poor. 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 vast majority of people recover. The Taoiseach has re-registered as a doctor and will be offering his services to the HSE during the Covid-19 pandemic. Leo Varadkar has offered to work on the front line once a week to help in the ongoing battle against coronavirus. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Jason Hargrove was furious. A woman on his bus had just coughed four or five times, unguarded. He went on Facebook and vented his anger, cursing at times. In a video posted on March 21, he railed against the disrespect that he said passengers like her had shown workers like him who were trying to make Detroit run in the midst of a pandemic. Were out here as public workers, doing our job, trying to make an honest living to take care of our families, he said. But for you to get on the bus, and stand on the bus, and cough several times without covering up your mouth, and you know that were in the middle of a pandemic, that lets me know that some folks dont care. On Wednesday, a week and a half after recording the video outside his bus, Mr. Hargrove, a 50-year-old, married father of six, died from complications of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to his union and city officials. Mr. Hargroves video has since been viewed more than half a million times, and has resonated as a reminder of the dangers that transit employees and other blue-collar workers face as they suddenly find themselves on the front lines of the coronavirus. So many are stressing the importance of our nation coming together to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and restart our economy as soon as possible. I believe they represent the vast majority of Americans. That said, why is Speaker Pelosi announcing a select committee to look into President Trumps response to the virus and handling the $2 trillion economic rescue law right now? (Washington Post, April 2, 2020) Over the last three years, Democrats conducted many useless and costly investigations. And while China was lying and concealing the outbreak of COVID-19, the giddy Democrats had the government entangled in a useless impeachment. If history is an example, dont expect this inquiry to be any different. They wont ask why the Chinese concealed the virus for months or why the World Health Organizations Dr Bruce Aylward said on March 12 (Associated Press) that to fight the virus it doesnt help to restrict movement. They wont mention how layers of bureaucratic regulations delayed effective tests for the virus? And no Democrat will denounce the NYC Health Commissioner on Feb. 2 claiming the virus was not as widespread as people thought and that New Yorkers should take the subway and not miss the parade in Chinatown. Rather, expect expert witnesses roundly denouncing President Trump. Democrats are scrambling to resuscitate a faltering Joe Biden. They must somehow compete with Trumps daily pressers. Joe Bidens live-streaming from his bunker has been described as word salad. His performance is somewhat reminiscent of Chevy Chases comic portrayal of Gerald Ford in a SNL parody of presidential debates way back in 1976. Its possible both scripts were written by Al Franken. That might explain a lot. How many times did we hear Democrats say their sole reason for running for President was to defeat Donald Trump? Everything theyve done since November 2016 has been driven by an obsession bordering on monomania. And in spite of all that has happened, for Pelosi and her crowd, nothing has really changed. Ralph Miller Information publiee le 5 avril 2020 par Universite de Lausanne (source : Michaela Mudure International Association of Multicultural Discourses Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Letters, English Department Hangzhou Normal University, China 7th International Conference on Multicultural Discourses Multicultural Discourses in a Turbulent World The successful international conferences on Multicultural Discourses organized in China, Brazil, and the Netherlands, respectively, have reinforced the importance of Cultural Discourse Studies in contemporary social science and the humanities. The 7th International Conference on Multicultural Discourses, under auspices of the International Association of Multicultural Discourses, will be co-organized by the English Department of the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania and the School of Contemporary Chinese Communication Studies, Hangzhou Normal University, China. The event will be hosted at the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania from October 24-26, 2020. Mankind is witnessing yet again the centennial moment of global transformation and the world is ridden with grave challenges and great opportunities. To answer to these uncertain winds of change, scholars from various fields such as communication, media, language, literature, society, culture, international relations, etc. are encouraged to offer their insights into topics including, though not restricted to, the following: Multicultural discourses of (anti)globalization, diversity, connectivity, globalism Multicultural discourses of security, conflict, war, peace Multicultural discourses of protectionism, (in)tangible borders, immigration, racism Multicultural discourses of development, the Developing World, the Global South Multicultural digital, multimodal, literary, cinematic discourses Multidisciplinary, multicultural approaches to human discourses * Abstracts of about 250 words, panel proposals of about 500 words (of min 4 speakers with 250 words abstracts) should be sent to the organizers at the following email address: Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals: July 15, 2020. Notification of acceptance will be sent out not later than July 30, 2020. Conference fee: 150 euros (coffee breaks, lunches and conference materials will be covered); 75 euros for doctoral students and young researchers (under 26). Ph.D. candidates should present a document from their home institution proving their academic status. 75 euros for participants from Romanian universities; 30 euros for doctoral students from Romanian universities. The conference fee can be paid on the spot or electronically. Details will be provided after the acceptance of the papers. CONFERENCE WEBSITE https://multiculturaldiscourses7.blogspot.com/ * Registration The participants will be notified of their proposals acceptance / rejection. Registration procedure to be added soon. A growing number of out-of-work Illinoisans are frustrated with the states unemployment application process, which has buckled amid a record number of claims. Illinoisans trying to file for unemployment benefits found the Illinois Department of Employment Security website temporarily down for part of Thursday. One employee working valet at a live-performance venue said the night a major comedian was set to take to the stage, she was told it was canceled because of restrictions on event sizes. She had to tell guests for 90 minutes that the show was off and shes been out of work since with no luck getting unemployment. Another said shes had problems with the states website and every time shes called in the past week, the system hangs up on her. Kara Bono, who lives in Litchfield, said she has been trying to file for unemployment since her vehicle sales job let her take off to be with her children after the governor closed all of the states schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That was two weeks ago. She said she cant go to the local unemployment office because its closed. The Illinois Department of Employment Securitys website hasnt been helpful, she said. It freezes up, Bono said. It wont let you go any further, and Im just kind of at my wits end as to how am I going to get unemployment, especially if I dont get to work for the next month to support my kids. The Illinois Department of Employment Security website Thursday said online filing was temporarily unavailable. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday said the computers the state uses to process claims were 10 years old and the systems werent acting properly given the volume of applications. He has asked people to space out filings by only applying on specific days based on the first letter of your last name. I dont know exactly that were going to fix it entirely so that everybody could do it all at once, but we have asked that people spread out their calls and spread out their applications online, Pritzker said. State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, said people have been forced out of their livelihoods because of the government-imposed shutdown in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and theyre frustrated with the inability to file for unemployment. He suggested hiring a private-sector firm to manage the backlog. Its way past time, Wilhour said. These things are doable. Get it done. Stop complaining about the federal response and take care of the things in your own state. Pritzker has been critical of President Donald Trumps response to the pandemic, as have governors in other states. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, 178,133 workers filed for unemployment benefits for the week ending March 28, a 56 percent increase over last weeks record 114,114 filings. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 16:49:56|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close By Julia Pierrepont III LOS ANGELES, April 4 (Xinhua) -- During a two-day online conference earlier this week jointly sponsored by the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and the Chinese Association of Chest Physicians, the Chinese physicians and scientists shared some important findings with their U.S. counterparts. "We want to share our success and failures," said Dr. Bin Cao, a respiratory expert and vice president of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital (CJFH) in Beijing, who attended the online seminars with some other Chinese experts, including Chen Wang, president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and president of the Chinese Association of Chest Physicians (CACP), and Qingyuan Zhan, chief of Medical ICU at CJFH and chair of the CACP's Critical Care Committee. "China has a three-month head-start on the frontlines of the outbreak and has amassed enormous amounts of valuable data to share," Cao said. One of thousands of Chinese physicians and scientists, who have been working around the clock to seek potential COVID-19 treatment and develop drug therapies since the outbreak of the epidemic, Cao and Zhan have served on the frontlines in the Chinese city of Wuhan and are now leading clinical trials of key anti-viral drugs used to effectively treat patients in China. China has been engaged in important clinical trials on a host of anti-viral drugs they used to treat COVID-19 patients, such as Remdesivir, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Favipiravir, Ribavirin, Galidesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Chloroquine, and Medrol, among others, Cao said. These trials ensure that the drugs they give to patients will be effective in treating the disease and helping them recover. Lopinavir/Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor, and Remdesivir, a nucleotide analogue, appear to be among the most effective and were found to have significantly better outcomes in a shorter time than the control groups, Chinese experts said at the conference. According to their exchange via the online conference, another promising treatment involves using "humanized antibodies" to help prevent the virus from invading host cells. "Humanized antibodies" are from animal species whose proteins have been modified to increase their similarity to human antibodies so they can be effective in humans too. Since the virus needs to convert "negative" genetic material into "positive" genetic material in order to replicate itself in the host cell, drug therapies like Meplazumab also seem effective in reducing the virus' ability to convert and reproduce. China also advocated the efficacy of certain traditional Chinese medicine treatments, such as Lianhuan-Qingwen, to lessen symptoms, as well as the older, tried and true technique of using convalescent plasma to treat some patients. Convalescent plasma is the liquid part of blood that has viral antibodies present in the plasma that can help ward off infection. Dr. Chris Carol, professor of pediatric critical care at the University of Connecticut Hartford and head of the CHEST Critical Care Network moderated the online seminar."Their presentation has been enormously helpful to us all -- it can help prepare us to treat COVID-19 patients more effectively in the U.S.," Carol said, referring to the Chinese guest speaker physicians. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 16:22:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, April 5 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Gavin Newsom said Saturday that the state has launched an official website to deal with the shortage of medical supplies and help combat rampant fraud amid the spread of COVID-19. The website would allow individuals and companies to donate, sell and offer to manufacture essential medical supplies including N95 masks and testing materials, which are badly needed by local hospitals, Newsom said at a daily briefing. The governor disclosed that the state is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a number of fraud allegations involving medical supplies, saying some people, taking advantage of the shortage, claimed that they could deliver medical supplies that they don't have. On Friday, local health care provider Kaiser Permanente said it had cooperated with federal law enforcement in investigating a failed deal for 39 million N95 masks. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers West, a California health care workers' union, announced last month that it had found these masks somewhere and could sell them to hospitals at 5 U.S. dollars each, but the delivery was never implemented. This week, the union distanced itself from the arrangement, saying that the union only connected the supplier to the hospitals and had no involvement afterwards. Kaiser spokesman Marc Brown told the Los Angeles Times that his company backed out of a planned purchase of 6 million masks after learning that the supplier never had possession of the masks. The company decided to cooperate with federal law enforcement in their investigation of suspected fraud in this case, Brown was quoted as saying. There was no indication that SEIU was a target of the investigation, and the exact reasons why the masks didn't come through remain unclear, the report said. Joe Exotic, the star of Netflix's latest viral docu-series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, has given his first interview from prison since the show premiered. The seven-part series sees Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 57, in his antics as a zookeeper, together with a long-running feud between his arch-rival and fellow big cat enthusiast Carole Baskin. Exotic, 57, was jailed in April 2019 and is currently serving 22 years for 17 counts of animal abuse and a murder-for-hire plot of Baskin who runs her own 'big cat' sanctuary in Tampa, Florida. Joe Exotic is the star of Netflix's new hit series Tiger King filmed in Oklahoma. He has just given a short interview to the streaming service from jail A primary focus of the seven-part documentary series was the vengeful grudge between Exotic and animal rights campaigner Carole Baskin which he now says he is 'done with' Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as 'Joe Exotic.' Maldonado-Passage was convicted in an unsuccessful murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue, who he has repeatedly accused of killing her husband Jack 'Don' Lewis In a brand new interview with Netflix, Exotic says he is 'done with the Carole Baskin saga', turning over a new leaf and focusing on trying to get released from prison and to clear his name. 'I'm done with the Carole Baskin saga,' he said. 'It's now time to turn the tables and Joe gets out of jail a free man and exonerated from all these charges.' Exotic sounds mournful at the fact he not a free man and able to enjoy his new-found fame. 'You know it would be nice if I could actually see me being famous out there, but I've seen these same four walls for a year and a half now,' he said in the March 22 interview which was posted to Twitter this weekend. His time spent incarcerated has also given him some insight into how he treated his animals. Carole Baskin was depicted at the arch nemesis of Joe Exotic, an animal rights campaigner and CEO of Big Cats Rescue based in Tampa, Florida In a brand new interview with Netflix, Exotic says he is 'done with the Carole Baskin saga', is turning over a new leaf and focused on trying to get released from prison and clear his name 'Go sit in a cage with your animals for a week,' he said. 'I mean, when I left the zoo and I sent my chimpanzees to the sanctuary in Florida and imagined what my chimpanzees went through for 18 years, I'm ashamed of myself.' Exotic paid thanks to his husband, Dillon Passage, 24, who has remained by his side throughout his legal battles and subsequent jailing. The pair had only been married for eight months before the Tiger King was sent to prison. On Thursday, Joe was removed from precautionary coronavirus isolation and transferred to a prison medical center. The former zookeeper is currently receiving care at the Federal Bureau of Prisons-operated Federal Medical Center Forth Worth in Texas, according to inmate records. 'When I walk out of here am I going to be as crazy as I was before? That will never change!' he said during the latest interview. The show was released on March 20 and has remained the most-watched Netflix show since In the short clip, Joe Exotic speaks openly about his time in prison and the newfound fame that has come from the Netflix docu-series, pictured According to Joe's fourth husband, Passage, Exotic was being held in isolation at the Grady County Jail in Chickasha, Oklahoma due to his previous jail having had COVID-19 cases. A Grady County Jail staff member revealed via phone that Joe was 'no longer here at this facility' and that the facility itself has 'no comment' on the matter. Passage, during an interview with Andy Cohen last Friday, revealed that Exotic was in a '14-day coronavirus quarantine in jail' and had not yet seen the seven-part series based on his dramatic downfall. But, even without having watched a single scene of the Netflix docu-series, Passage said the attention alone had made Joe an instant fan. 'Joe's the type of person, he loves the attention obviously,' he explained to Cohen during his SiriusXM show. Passage continued: 'Any kind of fame or spotlight that he has, it was greatly appreciated.' Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness entered Netflix's queue on March 20, was met with immediate popularity, and continues to sit at number one. The day prior to the docu-series' premiere date, Exotic filed a lawsuit against the federal government and asked president Donald Trump for an official pardon. Specifically, the Oklahoma native wants Trump to pardon his murder-for-hire conviction, as well as his Endangered Species Act violations. The lawsuit, announced on Joe's Facebook page, 'is demanding a combined $94 million from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.' Joe wrote of his lawsuit: 'This lawsuit has been filed in the name of Justice, The Trump Administration must be made aware of the Overreach, perjury, abuse of power and the failure to uphold the Oath of their position which is truth and Justice for all.' Two employees of the Mumbai civic body who were quarantined at a civic hospital ran away from the facility blaming inadequate services and food on Sunday, an official said. He said the duo were put into quarantine at V N Desai Municipal Hospital in suburban Santacruz after they came into contact with a person, who later died of COVID-19. "The two employees have run away claiming that they were not getting enough food and other facilities," he said. Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said she would look into the issue. The mayor visited the hospital on Sunday afternoon, a day after staffers held a protest lleging lack of sufficient equipment, material and food. "The entire staff in the hospital on Saturday suspended the work over the issue. They resumed work only after getting an assurance from officials of the BMC," said a staff member. Meanwhile, Pednekar said at least 17 staffers were suspected to have exposed to the patient who died due to coronavirus. At present, none of them have shown any symptoms and have been put under quarantine for 14 days beginning Friday. When asked about the two staffers fleeing the hospital, she said the BMC is hopeful of tracing them. With 29 fresh cases on Sunday, Mumbai's COVID-19 count now stands at 406. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British Serviceman First Confirmed Coronavirus Case in Falklands Islands Sputnik News 12:38 GMT 04.04.2020 In just the first three months of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has enveloped the world and seen governments impose restrictions in order to stop the spread of the virus. The United Kingdom has introduced a full-scale lockdown with the public only being allowed out of their homes for exercise and essential shopping. A member of Britain's armed forced has become the first confirmed coronavirus case on the Falkland Islands, it was revealed in a statement by the regional authorities on Saturday. The government said that the serviceman was transferred from a military base to the sole civilian hospital on the British overseas territory at the end of March, showing symptoms of Covid-19. A spokesperson confirmed that the patient had tested positive for the virus after being admitted from the Mount Pleasant Complex. "They have been cared for with all necessary isolation precautions and continue to be so. The patient, who is not on a ventilator, is in a stable condition and being carefully looked after by the hospital staff", they said The Ministry of Defence (MOD) confirmed that a member of the "British Forces South Atlantic Islands personnel" had tested positive for coronavirus, but that there is "no threat to colleagues or the work environment". The Falkland Islands' government has imposed measures to help reduce the spread of the virus. Last Friday, all schools and nurseries were shut and all non-essential workers have been told to remain at home. Around a sixth of the territory's population is classed as "high-risk". The Falklands remain disputed territory between Argentina and the United Kingdom. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A woman, who recently returned from Bangladesh, tested positive for coronavirus in Jharkhand's Bokaro district on Sunday, taking the count in the state to three, an official said. A 22-year-old Malaysian woman and man from Hazaribagh had tested positive for coronavirus on March 31 and April 2 respectively, he said. "Three couples from Chandrapura block in Bokaro district had recently returned to their homes from Bangladesh.They were quarantined and their swab samples sent for tests.The result of the woman has returned positive," Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Kumar said. All persons suspected to have come in contact with the woman are being screened, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wang Quanzhang was arrested in 2015 in a sweeping crackdown on more than 200 lawyers and government critics. A leading Chinese human rights lawyer has been released from prison after almost five years behind bars, his wife said on Sunday. Wang Quanzhang, 44, was first arrested in 2015 in a sweeping crackdown on more than 200 lawyers and government critics in China as President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on power. But Wang has yet to return home to his family in the Chinese capital and was instead escorted on Sunday to a property he owns in eastern Shandong province for 14 days in quarantine as a precaution against the coronavirus, according to wife Li Wenzu. Li told AFP news agency from Beijing, where she lives with the couples young son, that she feared Wang would be placed under house arrest despite his release from prison, and would be subject to surveillance. I think [authorities] have been lying to us step by step, Li said. They used the pretext of the epidemic as an excuse to quarantine him for 14 days when he should have been able to return to his home in Beijing according to the relevant legal guidelines. Calls to the prison went unanswered on Sunday and Shandongs justice department did not respond to enquiries from AFP. 709 crackdown Wangs initial detention in 2015 came as part of the so-called 709 crackdown, nicknamed as such because it began on July 9 that year. But it was not until January 2019 that he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for subverting state power in a closed-door trial. A prominent lawyer who has defended political activists and victims of land seizures, Wang was held incommunicado prior to the trial. He worked for the now-closed law firm Fengrui, which has represented clients such as the artist Ai Weiwei. The lawyer was repeatedly involved in politically charged cases which centred on religious freedom, press freedom and forced displacement. Zhou Shifeng, the founder of the firm, was sentenced to seven years in prison. I am really worried they plan on putting him under long-term house arrest and will prevent us from being reunited as a family, said Li, who had tirelessly campaigned for her husbands release. Police had forcibly evicted tenants from Wangs property in the city of Jinan to make way for his return to Shandong, his wife added. Li said she believed his stay there was not out of choice. His speech is being restricted. He phoned me yesterday saying he would go to Jinan, she said. Is this what a rational person would do after being separated from their wife and child for almost five years? Lis first trip to see her husband since his arrest in 2015 came in June last year when she was granted a prison visit after repeated denials, she said. My husbands health has deteriorated during the long incarceration, he has lost so much weight, Li told AFP at the time. Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since Xi took power in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of speech and arresting hundreds of activists and lawyers. - There was panic in Benin after the results of two patients who earlier tested negative for coronavirus later came out positive - One of the patients is now one of the casualties of coronavirus in Nigeria - The patient who passed away had chronic kidney disease There was confusion at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in Benin City, Edo state following the conflicting results of two patients who are suspected to be infected with the dreaded coronavirus. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had on Friday, April 3, disclosed that two persons, one in Edo and the other in Lagos, lost their lives to COVID-19, without giving further details, leading to panic in Benin and its environs. The Nation reports that two patients at UBTH, who earlier tested negative to the coronavirus pandemic, were later declared positive, after further tests. Following the initial negative result, the umbrella body of doctors, National Association of Residents Doctors (NARD), UBTH chapter, had told members that both patients were moved to the isolation ward on March 31, based on suspicion of COVID-19. The Chief Medical Director of UBTH Prof. Darlington Obaseki has called for calm, while insisting that the situation was under control Source: UGC In its update to members, it stated that both patients were being managed for medical illnesses: Chronic Kidney Disease and Bronchopneumonia. NARD added that samples were sent for PCR at the federal government-owned Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo state the same day. The patient with chronic kidney disease, unfortunately, died, while the other patient is still receiving care. Both results have returned negative for COVID-19. The exco wishes to reassure members that there is no confirmed case of COVID-19 being managed anywhere in UBTH, it added. In another update, members of the executive of NARD in UBTH shared their surprise at how the earlier results of the two suspected COVID-19 cases turned out to be positive after initial tests came back negative. The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the UBTH, Prof. Darlington Obaseki, on Saturday, April 4, has called for calm, insisting that the situation was under control. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app In an internal memo, Obaseki confirmed the receipt of the conflicting results on the COVID-19 status of two patients in the hospital. Recall that the federal government announced that two more deaths were recorded as the patients succumbed to the pandemic. "Two new deaths have been recorded in Lagos and Edo state. As at 10:30 pm 3rd April, there are 210 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria," the tweet from the NCDC read. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. Abba Kyari, El-Rufai, other VIPs who have tested positive for Coronavirus | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng Advertisement Britain's coronavirus death toll has gone up by 621 to 4,934 - including 29 patients who did not have any underlying health conditions. The patients were between 33 years and 103 years old, with 29 of them, aged between 35 and 95 years old, having no known underlying health conditions. The level of infections has risen sharply by almost 60 per cent, from 5,903 to 47,806, dashing hopes the rate of people getting the disease was starting to level out. Just days ago, Stephen Powis, the medical director of England, said there had been a 'bit of a plateau' in the number of people testing positive. The Department of Health also said that, as of 9am on Sunday, a total of 195,524 people have been tested, up from 183,190 the previous day - pushing the amount of tests done daily to more than 12,000. It comes amid concerns a huge backlog of potential patients awaiting their results could mean infections are far higher than is being reported. If the backlog for processing the tests is too great, the rate of infections will remain at roughly the same level, with the services already pushed to the brink and only able to carry out a certain number of tests per day. Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, told MailOnline: 'The UK numbers are masked by the inability of the laboratories.' NHS England gave the breakdown by region of the 555 deaths of patients in England: - East of England 40 - London 174 - Midlands 74 - North East & Yorkshire 103 - North West 47 - South East 81 - South West 36. Public Health England reported an extra 555 deaths in England, Public Health Wales recorded 12, and there have been 7 in Northern Ireland. In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said authorities there had recorded an additional two extra deaths in Scotland, up to 220, but said the number was based on a new way of counting deaths and is 'likely to be artificially low'. It came as Matt Hancock this afternoon backtracked on a threat to ban outdoor exercise if people do not comply with the coronavirus lockdown. The Health Secretary this morning blasted sunbathers for flouting the rules and warned the government would ban 'all forms' of public exercise if a 'small minority' refuse to stay at home. However he later updated his comments while speaking at the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference and said he did not want anyone to believe that a further crackdown was in the works. Mr Hancock said the end of lockdown will be determined by 'how much people follow the rules on social distancing' and 'the more people follow the rules then the faster we will all be through it'. He then issued a direct plea to people who are 'breaking the rules or are pushing the boundaries', telling them: 'You are risking your own life and the lives of others and you are making it harder for us all.' He concluded: We have included exercise as one of the things that you can leave your house to do because exercise is good for our physical and our mental health but please do not bend or break this rule. We cant rule out further steps but I dont want anyone to think that any changes to the social distancing rules are imminent because the vast majority are following the rules. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson repeated the importance of staying at home this morning as he tweeted he knows it is 'tough' but it will mean 'saving lives'. Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson's comments came after a south London park was shut indefinitely yesterday after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' not to as green spaces and beaches across the UK filled up. Mr Hancock previously told Sky News: 'It is quite unbelievable frankly to see that there are some people who are not following the advice.' He added: 'Of course I understand how difficult this is but the problem is that when you go out it is not only that you might directly interact with somebody closer than two metres, it is also that you can spread the virus through touching something which somebody else then touches. You could pick it up that way. 'We are crystal clear in the guidance on what people should and shouldn't do. That guidance is backed up in law. It is not a request, it is a requirement in law and people need to follow it.' Mr Hancock admitted this morning that hitting his promise of 100,000 coronavirus tests by the end of April will be 'hard' and that people involved in the efforts will have to 'put their shoulders to the wheel' to hit the target. He also insisted Mr Johnson is 'okay' despite still being in coronavirus self-isolation, with the Health Secretary saying the PM 'has very much got his hand on the tiller' of the crisis. Mr Hancock's comments came as: Health experts said the UK is now seven to 10 days away from the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Sadiq Khan hit out at commuters for failing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for coronavirus. Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson's pregnant fiancee, said she had spent the last week in bed suffering coronavirus symptoms, but is 'on the mend'. Health chiefs fear more than 50 doctors could die 'if the PPE dries up and we have no choice but to treat our patients without the right equipment'. The Ministry of Justice said hundreds of risk-assessed prisoners within two months of their release date are to be temporarily released. The UK death toll from the virus rose by 708 - bringing the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths to 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday. Matt Hancock today backtracked on a threat to ban all public exercise after people continued to break the coronavirus lockdown rules Prime MinisterBoris Johnson today urged people to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown Sadiq Khan hits out at commuters who refuse to stay at home after 'devastating' deaths of five bus workers Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. Meanwhile, trade union Unite said the deaths were a 'terrible tragedy'. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' So far coronavirus has taken the lives of 4,313 people in the UK, with 41,903 cases of the disease. Advertisement In other developments Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' The nation will tonight hear from the Queen as the monarch delivers an address in which she will urge Britain to prove that this generation is 'as strong as any'. There are fears the current warm weather could tempt people to disobey social distancing measures and the government will be hoping the Queen's address will persuade people to stick to the rules, especially as the sun shines. Lambeth Council tweeted yesterday to say that Brockwell Park had been shut because of the 'unacceptable' behaviour of some people. Mr Hancock today said ending lockdown measures 'depends on how people behave' as he urged everyone to stay at home but failed to set out a timeline for life to go back to normal. He told Sky News: 'Every single person watching this programme can do their bit to get us out of this faster and they do their bit by following the social distancing rules.' Labour's new leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party will back the government if it decides to ban public exercise. He told the BBC: 'Yes, we would. We do have to take whatever steps are necessary and social distancing, staying indoors is really difficult for people but we have got to get through this and every time people break the guidance from the government they put other people at risk.' It came as it emerged that Mr Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are locked in a battle over when to lift the economically devastating lockdown. Mr Sunak has made 'robust' representations to the Health Secretary, arguing that unless a path is mapped now for a swift return to normal economic activity it could cause lasting damage to the country. Government critics of Mr Hancock argue his 'careerist' fear of being personally blamed for a collapse in the NHS is blinding him to the dangers of a protracted lockdown. But allies of Mr Hancock hit back last night, saying: 'He is just doing his job, which is to protect the NHS.' Police pour water over couple's barbecue Police in Sussex were forced to pour a helmet full of water over a couple's barbecue after they refused to follow the government's lockdown rules. The pair started a barbecue on Hove beach yesterday. Police confirmed a 31-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman, both from Hove, are set to be summoned to court for breaching Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. On social media Sussex Police said they were disappointed that the couple showed 'disregard for public safety'. A message on the Sussex Police Facebook page read: 'We can only express disappointment in the two people who showed disregard for public safety and started a BBQ on Hove beach today. 'The severity of this public health emergency means they will be summonsed to court for breaching the Coronavirus Act 2020. 'Sunday is set to be another pleasant day and we again appeal to everyone to continue show their support for our NHS and stay at home.' Advertisement A formal decision about the extension of the strict social distancing rules cannot be made until Good Friday the earliest point at which its effects would register on the infection figures. However, with more than 700 extra deaths recorded yesterday, an extension for at least another three weeks after Easter is seen as a formality. Mr Hancock today dismissed the claims regarding his relationship with Mr Sunak as he said: 'We are working very closely together and what matters is that we can get out of this as fast as possible and to do that we have to make sure that as many people as possible follow the rules so that we can slow the spread.' The Queen will tonight deliver a televised message in which she will recognise the pain felt by many families living through this 'time of disruption'. She will personally thank front-line NHS staff, care workers and others carrying out essential roles for their efforts, in what is expected to be a deeply personal message reflecting her experience in other difficult times. The UK death toll yesterday rose by 708 - bringing the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths to 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday, up from 3,605 the day before. A five-year-old child was among the victims. The Queen will say in her address to the country and Commonwealth: 'I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. 'And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. 'That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise this country.' Brockwell Park in south London is now shut after thousands of people flocked there yesterday. The gates to the park are pictured today as people observe social distancing rules as they pass by There were plenty of people out in Greenwich Park today. The government has said people can leave their homes for exercise Green spaces across the UK were full of people yesterday despite the government lockdown in place. Pictured is Regent's Park in central London People flock to Greenwich Park in London amid the Government lockdown currently in place across the country Cyclists ride through London's Regents Park today as temperatures continue to rise across the country amid the Government lockdown She will acknowledge the 'grief' some have experienced, the 'financial difficulties' many face, and the 'enormous changes' the country is enduring, after almost two weeks of lockdown to tackle the spread of Covid-19. With hundreds of thousands answering the call for NHS volunteers and others supporting vulnerable people in their communities, the monarch will say she hopes in the future everyone will be able to feel 'pride' in how they rose to the challenge. Commenting on the difficulties facing the nation, the Queen, 93, will say: 'I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. 'A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.' In reference to the warm weather, the Queen will thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. The televised address will be a rare event, with the head of state only making three previous appearances during troubled times. Speeches were broadcast after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, ahead of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral in 1997, and about the first Gulf War in 1991. One in five doctors are off work because of coronavirus reveals shocking new survey as thousands of NHS staff wait to be tested despite pledge to check 100,000 people a day by the end of the month One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work, despite Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying on Thursday that there is a 5.7 per cent absence rate among doctors. The figures come just a day after Britain's death toll from the virus jumped to 708 in 24 hours, with a five-year-old child being among the 4,313 known to have died, out of 41,903 confirmed cases. The poll, conducted by The Sunday Times and the Royal College of Physicians, found that the worst-hit areas for absences are central London and the northeast, where 30 per cent of doctors are off work. One in three - 34 per cent - have been absent at some point during the coronavirus crisis. The shocking figures will pile pressure on ministers to ensure that NHS staff are told whether or not they have the virus, with thousands still waiting to be tested despite a pledge to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed Professor Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which represents 3,500 critical care medics, told The Sunday Times: 'I know there are departments where up to 50 per cent of their medical staff are unable to work because of this.' An A&E doctor at a London hospital said staff were 'dropping like flies', while as many as 27 nurses from Southend Hospital's A&E department in Essex are said to have become ill. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This is despite claims from ministers that they have distributed millions of items. At least eight NHS staff have already been killed by the virus, including three nurses, two of whom were mothers in their thirties. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work and it comes just a day after Britain's death toll jumped to 708 in 24 hours. Pictured: An NHS worker puts their completed test into a container at a testing site near The 02 in Greenwich on Saturday His mother, Gina Gustilo, 50, told The Mail on Sunday her son had not been wearing the right protective clothing at work. He returned home on Friday following a night shift, after complaining of suffering a headache and high temperature throughout the night. Ms Gustilo said her son's colleagues told her he was not wearing 'proper' protective clothing, adding: 'They wear PPE, but not totally protective of the mouth. They wear the normal masks.' Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said between 20 and 30 per cent of ambulance staff were off work either with Covid-19 symptoms or self-isolating. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. He is believed to have died after falling ill with coronavirus Yesterday, Michael Gove said at a Downing Street press conference that just under 11,000 people were tested for the virus on Friday. This is far short of the 100,000 figure which Health Secretary Matt Hancock had promised by the end of the month. Britain's biotech scientists also broke their silence on Saturday to warn that they do not have enough equipment to fulfil Mr Hancock's pledge. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) The 'frustrated' Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), which represents around 17,000 NHS lab scientists and staff, warned that Mr Hancock's plan would not work if things stay as they are. The body said there is a lack of chemical reagents, test tubes and swabs, forcing its president Allan Wilson to warn that the Government's strategy is a 'bit of a muddle'. It has forced Boris Johnson to compete with prime ministers and presidents around the world by personally calling major companies making test kits to try to secure more supply for the UK. The IBMS said it could only increase testing capacity 'if we are given what we need' and that their current supply of materials was being 'tested to the limit'. Lord Bath of Weymouth dies from coronavirus, aged 87: Eccentric owner of Longleat Safari Park known for his string of 'wifelets' and frescos of the Kama Sutra at his stately home passes away after a week in hospital by Lara Keay for MailOnline The eccentric owner of Longleat Safari Park Lord Bath has died aged 87 after testing positive for coronavirus. Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath yesterday after being admitted on March 28. He was the owner of Longleat Safari Park in Warminster, but was best known for his flamboyant dress sense and affairs with as many as 70 women, which he referred to as his 'wifelets'. Viscount Weymouth gave many of his mistresses homes to live in within the grounds of his sprawling Wiltshire estate. Lord Bath of Longleat is pictured outside Longleat House in Wiltshire, where Longleat Safari Park is situated. He has died aged 87 Lord Bath is pictured feeding giraffes at Longleat in Wiltshire in 1993 They caused upset when his son, Ceawllin Thynn, took over day-to-day management of Longleat in 2010 and eventually ended with him boycotting his son's wedding to Strictly Come Dancing star Emma Weymouth. She paid tribute to him with an Instagram post earlier today, which read: 'It is with the deepest sadness that I share the news that my father in law, Lord Bath, has died of the age of 87.' Viscount Weymouth was married to Anna Gael, with whom he had two children, but had affairs with 70 'wifelets' who he tried to put up around the Longleat estates. He was a prolific amateur painter and studied art in Paris in the 1950s, where he is believed to have picked up his colourful taste in clothes. The eccentric aristocrat also had frescoes done of the Kama Sutra so he could decorate his lavish home with erotic images. In 2009 he was ranked 359th in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated net worth of 157million. Lord Bath is pictured being touched by a chimpanzee called 'Teddy' at Longleat Safari Park in April 1996 Lord Bath is pictured with his son Viscount Weymouth at Longleat Safari Park Lord Bath - then Viscount Weymouth - was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he was president of the famous Bullingdon Club. He was involved in politics, and stood in the very first European parliamentary elections in 1979, representing the Wessex Regionalist Party which he helped to found. After inheriting the Marquess seat in 1992, he then sat as a Liberal Democrat in the House of Lords but lost his seat when Labour reforms excluded most hereditary peers. The flamboyant aristocrat was also a regular feature of the Animal Park television show about his estate. TV presenter Ben Fogle paid tribute to Lord Bath on Twitter, posting a picture of him and his colleague Kate Humble with the safari park owner. He wrote: 'Devastated to hear the sad passing of Lord Bath. We spent nearly two decades with the eccentric and colourful Lord at Longleat filming Animal Park. Ceawlin Thynn, Lord Bath's son, is married to model and socialite Emma McQuiston, now known as Emma Weymouth 'He will be missed. Sending my love and condolences to the family @Emmaweymouth1 and everyone at @Longleat.' Kate Humble added: 'Very sad to hear about Lord Bath of @Longleat. 'Everyone will describe him as eccentric - & he was, gloriously so - but he was also king & fun - & we all need a bit of kindness & fun in our lives.' Piers Morgan also paid tribute to him, describing him as 'one of Britain's most colourful characters'. Longleat Safari Park said in a statement: 'It is with the deepest sadness we have to announce Lord Bath has died at the age of 87. 'The family would like to express their greatest appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately for Alexander in these extremely difficult times for everyone.' Britons continue to flock to the country's outdoor spaces amid the Government's social distancing guidelines Britons descending upon the nation's sun-soaked outdoor spaces today as the UK's coronavirus cases continue to rise. Hundreds were seen flouting the social distancing guidelines set out by the Government to enjoy the warm weather sweeping the nation. Despite the lockdown currently in place, people were seen taking to the country's many parks and beaches to enjoy the rising temperatures which are set to hit 20C. Today revellers flocked to London's Battersea Park and Greenwich park to embrace the warm weather and defy the lockdown in place. Meanwhile in the capital's Regent's Park, officers were stopping those who had chosen to leave their homes and flout Government rules. Yesterday, thousands were seen descending upon a beach in Hove and London's Regent's Park to enjoy the sunny weather despite the social distancing guidelines in place. South London's Brockwell park was also shut indefinitely after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' as green spaces and beaches filled up across the UK in defiance of Boris Johnson's plea for Brits to stay indoors. A group of cyclists ride their bikes through London's Battersea Park despite the social distancing rules currently in place A police officer speaks to people sunbathing in Greenwich Park, London, today and hundreds of people continue to flock to the capital's outdoor spaces Revellers took to Battersea Park in west London today despite the Government's coronavirus lockdown currently in place Sunbathers took a stroll through the capital's Battersea Park today despite the social distancing measures currently in place Meanwhile in Burgess Park, South London, revellers in their masses continued to flout government guidelines by leaving their homes for the public space A police officer speaks to people in Greenwich Park in London as people continue to flock to the nation's crowded parks Police officer speak to people in Greenwich Park, London, as hundreds of revellers continue to ignore the coronavirus social distancing rules A group of cyclists were seen riding around Regent's Park in London today despite the Government's pleas to stay at home Police officers on their horses speak to people out and about in Greenwich Park, London, as hundreds flock to the capital's outdoor spaces Officers speak to a person laying on the grass at Greenwich park in London today as the government urges people to stay indoors People walk through Greenwich Park on a sunny day in London today despite the Health Secretary Matt Hancock urging people to stay indoors Earlier today a group of cyclists sat down in Regents Park, London, as the country continues to remain in lockdown Police patrolling St James' Park in London speak to people who have left their homes as the number of coronavirus cases in the country continues to rise A police officer on horseback speaks to people in Greenwich Park on a sunny day in London today as the country remains in lockdown A police officer speak to a person sat in Greenwich Park, London, as hundreds of people across the UK continue to flout Government rules People in London cross a bridge in St James' Park, London, today as the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise Police officers patrolling St James' Park in London stop to talk to a sunbather as the country continues to tackle the surge in coronavirus cases A police officer talks to a cyclist in Battersea Park in London as hundreds of people continue to flout the Government's lockdown rules In London, some people decided to flout the Government lockdown rules in place by descending upon Greenwich Par India told to 'prepare for an onslaught' as one of Asia's biggest slums suffers first coronavirus death as Russian doctor is detained for challenging Kremlin's figures and newborn babies are protected with face shields in Thailand By Isabella Nikolic For MailOnline Indian doctors have warned that the country must prepare to face an 'onslaught' of cases that could cripple the health system after it suffered its first death. A 56-year-old man died due to Covid-19-related illness in Dharavi slum, in Mumbai on Wednesday. The Dharavi slum is home to roughly one million people and its population density is 60 times greater than London - about 280,000 people per square kilometre. A 56-year-old man died due to Covid-19-related illness in Dharavi slum, in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pictured are repatriated Indian citizens after leaving quarantine at a hospital in Bangalore Indian doctors have warned that the country must prepare to face an 'onslaught' of cases that could cripple the health system after it suffered its first death. Pictured are citizens of Rohini village in India In Thailand, newborn babies are being protected with miniature face visors while they are in hospital Dr. Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director of the Medanta-the Medicity hospital in Gurugram, near New Delhi, told CNN: 'Once we know that one slum has got it, and we lock it down, and we feed everybody and we keep them isolated for the next two weeks, we keep them well fed, it will work its way out. 'We will know the critical ones, and the ones who are mild, they can be quarantined at home, and the population at large can be monitored.' Coronavirus cases in India nearly doubled in just four days, and its current total is 2,547. Some 62 people have died from the disease. Doctors say they hope the lockdown will delay the peak of infections so hospitals have a fighting chance to treat incoming caseloads. Coronavirus cases in India nearly doubled in just four days, and its current total is 2,547. Some 62 people have died from the disease Dr Om Shrivastav, director of Infectious Diseases at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai, said his worst fear is that India only starts preparing for the crisis 'after it's on our hands.' India has been under lockdown for four weeks now and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for citizens to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to 'challenge the darkness' of the coronavirus In Russia, a doctor has been arrested after challenging coronavirus figures being released by the state. Anastasia Vasilieva, head of the Alliance of Doctors - an independent doctors' union, is an outspoken critic of the Kremlin. India has been under lockdown for four weeks now and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for citizens to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to 'challenge the darkness' of the coronavirus. Pictured is a worker on a train carriage that has been converted into an isolation ward She dismissed their official number of coronavirus deaths and infections as lies. The Kremlin claim that 45 people have died from coronavirus in Russia, while 5,389 are infected. Before her arrest, Dr Vasilieva said she had been called in for questioning over her comments, declaring that 'You can send whomever you want to get me the Federal Security Service, the fire service but the truth will not change.' The real number of coronavirus cases, she said, 'is much higher than the authorities say.' She provided no evidence of any cover-up. Her detention also increased skepticism about the readiness of Russia's health care system to cope with the pandemic. In Russia, a doctor has been arrested after challenging coronavirus figures being released by the state. Pictured are medical workers in Moscow The virus has also slowed Russia's economy, posing another problem for the Kremlin less than a month after it pushed through constitutional changes to allow Mr. Putin to dispense with term limits and stay in power until 2036. The Kremlin said that Vladamir Putin has been tested regularly and that 'everything is OK.' On Friday, Russia suspended the last remaining flights into the country, halting even special flights bringing Russians home from abroad, the Interfax news agency reported. All land borders have already been closed. Moscow, St Petersburg and many Russian regions this week ordered residents not to leave their homes except to buy food and medicine or walk their dogs. The Kremlin claim that 45 people have died from coronavirus in Russia, while 5,389 are infected. Pictured are workers at the construction site of a new coronavirus hospital in Moscow Dr Vasilieva appeared in court on Friday charged with disobeying police orders and violating quarantine restrictions but was released later that day after paying a small fine. The Prime Minister of Denmark has announced that the country will slowly begin to lift its lockdown measures. Mette Frederiksen shut the country down three weeks ago. He said: 'When we open our society again, we have to do it gradually and we have to make it staggered.' More than 4,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Denmark. Some 161 have died, 1,283 recovered and 507 are in hospital, including 142 in intensive care. On Friday, Russia suspended the last remaining flights into the country, halting even special flights bringing Russians home from abroad. Pictured is a food delivery driver on a swing in Moscow during lockdown In Thailand, newborn babies are being protected with miniature face visors while they are in hospital. More than 1.2million cases, including 65,272 deaths, have been reported in 190 countries and territories around the world since the virus first emerged in China in December, according to an AFP tally. Italy has the highest official death toll with 15,362 fatalities. Spain follows with 12,418, the United States is on 8,503, France 7,560 and Britain 4,313. Spain saw its third consecutive daily decline in deaths from the virus, recording another 674 fatalities on Sunday. A day earlier, Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care cases drop for the first time - from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994. New York state, epicentre of the US outbreak, reports 630 new deaths in one day, its largest 24-hour spike. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio issues an emergency plea for volunteers, estimating the city will need 45,000 more medical personnel to fight the pandemic through April and May. President Donald Trump warns Americans to brace for a 'very horrendous' number of coronavirus deaths in coming days. The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates says it has doubled to $70billion a stimulus package to support the Gulf state's economy. More than 300 Europeans on Saturday leave Bolivia for France on a charter flight. Some 170 people, mostly French but including Swiss, Belgians, Germans and Britons, leave Moscow on Saturday on a repatriation flight organised by the French embassy. Bolivia on Saturday repatriates 480 nationals who had been blocked at the Chilean border. And 740 Algerians stuck in Turkey after their flights were cancelled are repatriated on Saturday. Algeria has announced it will extend its night-time curfew - until now in place only in the capital and 13 of its 48 provinces - across the whole country. LAGOS, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Chinese Women in Nigeria on Saturday said it has distributed food items to an orphanage in southwest Ogun to support its COVID-19 fight. The donations, presented by Zhou Jun, president of the Association, was meant to help the children amid a 14-day lockdown announced by the Nigerian federal government to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The association, which has been supporting orphanages and vulnerable persons in different communities in Nigeria, said the donation was their way to identify and show love to the orphans in the home. "We are worried about likely food shortage for the children in the orphanage in this lockdown period," the association's head said in a statement reaching Xinhua in Lagos. The items include 20 bags of rice, 80 packs of water, 100 cartons of biscuits, and 50 cartons of noodles. She added that the Chinese association had donated to the VictimsSupport Fund set up by the Lagos state government following the gas explosion that destroyed more than 100 homes in Ado Soba area of the state. Receiving the items, Obakoya Victoria Abosede, head of the Ijamido Children's Home, thanked the Chinese women association for the gesture, especially at this crucial time. She said the donation was timely and would go a long way in assisting the less-privileged in the society. New online library memberships have rocketed by up to 770% in some parts of the UK, as the nation turns to books for solace during the Covid-19 outbreak. With strict instructions to stay at home to prevent the spread of Covid-19, e-and-audio books are being increasingly sought to help soothe anxious minds, the Local Government Association (LGA) in Britain said. Despite all council-owned library buildings closing amid the pandemic, services have seen a surge in requests for digital resources. Hampshire County Council has seen a 770% increase in new digital users, Cornwall Council a 630% increase and Hertfordshire County Council an increase of 332%. Hampshire libraries have seen a 23% rise in the number of e-books loaned and a 52% increase in the number reserved. With audiobooks, they have seen a 31% increase in loans and a 20% increase in reservations. The percentages were calculated by comparing borrowing activity on March 11, before the lockdown started, with use on March 18. In Cornwall, e-book loans and reservations increased by 56% and 68% in the last week of March, compared to the first. And audiobook loans and reservations increased by 27% and 23% over the same time period. Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, chairman of the LGAs culture, tourism and sport board, said: The number of people registering to use digital library services across some parts of the country has rocketed. Council libraries provide a vital service for residents and act as community hubs in normal times. Their online digital contribution has now become equally important as people turn to them as a way to help pass the time at home. Councils are doing everything they can to protect their residents wellbeing during this difficult time. Extra funding would help libraries extend their licences and meet this growing demand. The LGA wants the UK Government to provide 5 million(5.6m) to help libraries increase their digital lending capacities. They are also asking for publishers of e-materials, in the short term, to be more flexible on prices to reflect the current need. Independent libraries which do not offer e-books also reported an increase in the number of books people have borrowed. Melanie Duffill-Jeffs, director at Bromley House Library in Nottingham, said: Before we closed, we gave members 48 hours notice so that they could take as many books as they could physically carry. They really did take us up on that challenge and we issued over 10 times as many as we would normally do in the same period over 1,000 books. That says a lot about books being seen as an essential item in a time of crisis, alongside pasta and toilet rolls. Morrab Library in Penzance, Cornwalls only independent library, lifted maximum loan restrictions so members could stock up ahead of the lockdown. They lent more than a months worth of books in three-and-a-half days, its librarian Lisa Di Tommaso said. She said: We are also keeping in touch via direct mailings, and through our social media platforms, sending images for the collections, poetry, and links to useful cultural and practical sites to keep them busy. Library staff also directly call many of our particularly vulnerable members without access to the internet, to check on how they are. We feel a particular duty of care, and fondness for our membership as the vast majority are elderly, and most at risk. Emma Marigliano, chairwoman of the Independent Libraries Association, said: Our libraries have certainly been working all out to continue to interact with their members and their many other users. And if public libraries have seen such a surge in activity during these rather strange times then Id say this is definitive proof that a) books and reading are still lifelines for so many, and b) of claims that libraries work just as well as centres for community cohesion which they absolutely do. It comes as Penguin Random House UK is distributing thousands of free books to people affected by the crisis, including families on low incomes and older people facing isolation, through the community platform Neighbourly. The publisher hopes this will provide mental stimulation, company and comfort at a time when people will need the power of books more than ever. There is rising tension in Nigeria as the coronavirus infection rate has continued to rise daily while deaths from isolation and treatment centres are slowly increasing. However, statistics of recoveries is also rising, indicating that as more people are being infested more people are also getting cured while few people die. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its update statistics on Saturday indicated that at 10:30pm on Friday the country has recorded 209 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, 4 deaths and 25 recoveries. Meanwhile, the testing capacity of the federal government is very low. Till date, the government has only 7 test centres across the country, servicing the 36 states of the federation. The Minister of Health had at the media briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 early in the week, said that the government can now 2,000 persons daily. Meanwhile, in South Africa, the government deployed 67 mobile test units in the country, and in one week of lockdown, 47,000 persons have been tested. The South African government as of Friday has developed the capacity of its health institutions to conduct 30,000 coronavirus tests daily on the citizens. Nigeria is still struggling with 7 test centres and 2,000 daily test capacity. The absence of test centres in several states generates fears that the 209 confirmed infection cases may be an under-reporting of the actual infection rate in Nigeria. Citizens in several state on Saturday complained that there is no test centre in their states, expressing fear that some people may be dying silently from coronavirus without detection. While several states have ordered lockdown, some are recently setting up isolation centres. Apparently, citizens in states that have not been listed among detected confirmed cases, still doubt that all residents are immune from coronavirus infection. The citizens have, therefore, demanded for coronavirus test to be conducted in their states. This, in their views, will give the actual infection rate in Nigeria. PV: 0 Vineet Upadhyay By Express News Service DEHRADUN: As the number of coronavirus cases increase in the state, Uttarakhand police chief on Sunday evening warned Tablighi Jamaat followers that if anyone dies due to COVID-19, a case of murder will be registered against them. Director-general of police Uttarakhand Anil Raturi requested Tablighi Jamaat followers to come forward by Monday if they had any travel history to Delhi or attended any congregation during the period of coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 LIVE | Death toll at 83 as confirmed cases across India mount to 3577 'I request all Tablighi Jamaat or any other Jamaat followers with travel history of attending the congregation in Nizamuddin or elsewhere to come forward till April 6 2019, and we will provide every medical help. If need be you will be helped with quarantine facilities and furthermore,' said Anil Raturi. Raturi further added that if anyone hides facts of travel history or being exposed to that leads to death of anyone, a case of murder, attempt to murder and other sections will be registered for further action. Cases in Uttarakhand have spiked from seven to 26 out of which 19 were identified as Tablighi Jamaat followers who attended the religious congregation in Delhi. A lot of small businesses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its global spread. I wanted to give a firsthand account of how this situation has personally impacted my company and those I work with, as well as offer some perspective to help businesses move forward. I am the cofounder of Darkroom, a digital-marketing agency that helps ecommerce companies build their brands and drive revenue through online channels. We also work extensively with sourcing networks and are in the process of launching a luxury sneaker brand called NERA. I was one of the early alarmists among my co-workers and friends when COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan. I was aware of how lucky we were to have avoided a total SARS outbreak back in 2002. The writing was on the wall.... However, this didnt keep me from traveling to Ukraine and Italy in February, as COVID-19 still seemed to be isolated to China. I shot an ad campaign at our shoe factory in Italy and finalized our production run. After that trip, however, the virus quickly escalated. Italy saw a tremendous spike in cases just four days after we had departed. Now Italy has been under total lockdown for weeks, our factory has shut down and the United States is racking up cases at an alarming rate particularly in my home state of New York. I have seen businesses I work with go from doing well to rethinking their entire operation, while others have gone from good to great. Related: Free Webinar Coronavirus Emergency Loans for Small Businesses Consumer sentiments have changed drastically. Luxury-goods clients have slashed creative budgets. Layoffs have begun. A lot of people have asked me how bad this is going to get. There are a couple things we must remember moving forward. Nice-to-have products must adapt to survive In economic downturns, consumer demand for nice-to-have products goes down as buyers focus on their more basic needs. Health, wellness and safety products that fit into the lower parts of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs become the top priority. For venture-backed and bootstrapped startups either pre-launch or in their initial stages, the coronavirus situation may necessitate a shift in strategy. Strands Hair Care, a direct-to-consumer custom shampoo and conditioner brand backed by data, is one example of a startup that is adapting to changing consumer preferences. Eric Delapenha, the companys founder and CEO, explained to me during a recent phone call that he has been very cautious with the coronavirus situation: The way we position Strands will be paramount if we are going to go through with this. If we shut everything down right now, it would be a travesty. The crisis has prompted them to highlight specific aspects of the brand that are relevant to new consumer norms, and they've begun to test ads that focus more on the consumer and their need for self-care from the comfort of their home. Our customers still want to look and feel good," says Delapenha. "Our messaging has not changed that much; were just highlighting different needs. Were focusing on how to do that now. Overseas supply chains are bound for disruption The World Health Organization has confirmed COVID-19 cases in almost every country. If you source products from particularly hard-hit areas, expect delays or timeline changes associated with producing or shipping as the situation evolves, if this has not already been the case. Some factories will try to stay open. Despite the government-mandated, non-essential-labor shutdown in Italy, many factories (including our own) remained open through late March until the country finally closed them down. This will likely start occurring in other parts of the world. Factories that insist on staying open will still experience issues. Facilities that insist on taking orders may not be able to fulfill orders and instead may be relying on immediate cash flow to hold them over. A factory cant move into production if virtually all of their raw material suppliers are shut down. Delays are inevitable, and as a small business, its important to predict these issues and make an informed decision. Unfortunately, smaller businesses will most certainly be placed behind larger corporations for order fulfillment when production ramps up again. At our factory in Italy, which produces for some of the most notable European fashion houses, we will be considered lower priority in terms of production, potentially causing further delays. In times like these, production diversification has distinct advantages. For those that have not already diversified, itll be important to prepare for when things do get back to normal. Create new opportunities in select markets, and diversify production COVID-19 has resulted in accelerated customer acquisition as market conditions favor certain brands. For instance, there has been a significant uptick in cannabis sales, as California labeled cannabis companies essential businesses for their health benefits. In this case, self-quarantine causes customers stuck at home to try new products, especially those with positive mind and body attributes. Michael Kamins, a partner at OpenNest and the founder of Humakina, expressed to me how even a positive market impact necessitates a heightened sense of preparedness for pre-launch brands: We have been adapting our launch strategy for a COVID world. There have been no holdups in our supply chain thus far, and we feel very fortunate for this. But we understand that the rapidly evolving developments might cause negative impacts on supply chains at any time. We are continuously monitoring the situation, assessing the impacts and preparing actions to respond. A fairly diversified supply chain also helped Humakina. When critical suppliers in China shut down, U.S.-based operations continued. Open communication with multiple stateside suppliers helps them prepare for additional shutdowns, a practice other businesses should emulate coming out of this crisis. Related: Inside the DIY Movement to Make Face Shields and Masks for Healthcare Workers Nows the time to move forward with confidence Things will eventually go back to normal as infection rates decrease, markets rebound and people go back to work. However, the timing of this rebound is still unclear and might not occur for several months. In the interim, brands that dont fit into those immediate needs discussed above may need to alter the way they communicate value propositions to their customers and look for opportunities to capitalize on changing consumer preferences. There is a lot of uncertainty right now for small businesses, but with that, there is tremendous opportunity. Stay healthy, and use this period to your advantage to consider how you can improve your operations for the future. Related: How UAE Businesses Can Protect The Ecosystem While Navigating The COVID-19 Pandemic Fight for Your Franchise What COVID-19 Means for Ecommerce Startups Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Every community requires essential infrastructure, from government and business to highways and education. The stealth invasion of COVID-19 is complicating that infrastructure, in particular, for working parents. They are multi-tasking in new and taxing ways, including struggling to support their school-age childrens learning and development. Its a stark reminder of how much we depend on our institutions to foster our childrens enrichment, including out-of-school programs, of which Im a staunch advocate. The question is how do we maintain them at a time when isolation is fundamental to survival? Whether early childhood, afterschool programs or organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA and Big Brothers Big Sisters, they all provide peace of mind to parents and guardians in the workforce. Similar to senior centers, they foster connections, deliver nourishment and offer comfort, mentorship and activities that fill voids and enrich lives. They help create conditions for growth and learning. Its why in this moment we need to strategize new models to deliver these services to help young people, not sideline them because the old way of providing them is no longer viable in the short term. If anything, we should seize this time to do, not ponder what is lost. For me, its about creating a new vision, new collaborations and new pathways for our communities. Im optimistic and for good reason! All across Wyoming, people are coming together in unique ways, both anticipating and responding to the urgent needs of their neighbors. Especially now, Wyomings dynamic networks and strong relationships, which have been nurtured over the years and across long streets, is paying dividends. Take for example, the First Ladys initiative to fight childhood hunger; its mission was recently expanded to garner more resources and enable greater access to food. As well, the shift to remote learning has blurred typical boundaries between in-school and out-of-school time, opening new and valuable lines of communication. Case in point: organizations seasoned in maximizing the out-of-school hours in less formal contexts, and which are adept at building relationships and mentoring opportunities, are being called upon by educators and parents alike to lend a knowing and helping hand. Finally, I want to give a shout-out to youth leaders, who are using their social media skills and connections to support kids. Theresa Pacheco and her team at the Rawlins Boys & Girls Club are a great example. They plan to distribute curbside Easter activity baskets to kids. They and so many others like them are exemplars of the aspirational words found in Wyomings constitution: the power inherent in the people and equality of all. When this moment of crisis passes, in its wake will be devastation, but also promise. My hope is that communities across the state will commit to assessing what worked, what could and should be done differently, and what partnerships and alliances have developed or been strengthened such that renewed focus and resources be invested where they will benefit the most vulnerable and neediest among us. The way I see it, Wyomings secret sauce is its citizens and their ability to unite, especially when the going gets tough. Its not the tough times that define us, but how we navigate them. To that end, and in short order, we will want to recognize, lift up and identify concrete ways to more fully value and extend the work that organizations are doing to enrich not only childrens lives, but all of our lives. These are critical supports for families supports they will need in spades in order to get back to work, school and other activities that have become meaningful and valued parts of daily life. As the backbone of a robust and thriving state, lets work together to ensure these critical supports and the organizations which provide them can maintain deep roots in our communities. Michelle Sullivan is the director of the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance, an initiative of the Wyoming Community Foundation. (Newser) Accused of profiting off insider information, Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler defended her stock deals by saying they were made by financial consultants acting on their own. So far, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, she's presented no evidence of that. Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, sold stocks in a list of companies after senators were briefed in January about the coming pandemic. She cashed in stock in an online travel booking company, for instance, just before the US blocked travel from Europe, per the Daily Beast. Members of both parties have called for investigations of the deals or for Loeffler's resignation. "There is a range of different decisions made every day with regard to my savings and 401(k) portfolios that I am not involved in, Loeffler, a Republican, told Fox News, per the Journal-Constitution. "And certainly, like any other trade, you cant see into the future." story continues below Loeffler has not said who's managing her portfolio, or how, or what the arrangement is, or whether she and her husband give even general instructions. Sprecher is chairman of the New York Stock Exchange; estimates put the couple's wealth at more than $500 million. In a review of her financial disclosures, the Journal-Constitution found the couple sold stock in retail companies and bought stock in a company that produces COVID-19 protective garments. Loeffler had toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on March 5 with President Trump, days before he announced the travel ban. It's illegal for senators to profit from information that is provided to them because of their office and is not provided to the public. A spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell said Saturday that Loeffler still has the Republic leader's support. (Another senator's stock sales are being investigated.) Life for Anisha Ramakrishna from Family Karma gets downright uncomfortable as she tries to navigate through the awkwardness with Vishal Parvani. The friends have a Friendsgiving at Bali Chainanis home before heading ou to Key West. While Bali Chainani worries about the overall wild vibe of Key West, Ramakrishna is more concerned about being stuck on a germy party bus with friends she is having tension with too. Bali Chainani, Monica Vaswani, Brian Benni, Anisha Ramakrishna, Amrit Kapai, Vishal Parvani, Shaan Patel | Tommy Garcia/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images This Key West trip is my worst nightmare, Ramakrishna says in a confessional. Im petrified of germs, plus Im mad at half of the people on this trip and Im going to be on a bus with them? The bus is karma. Ramakrishna is overheard saying she needs a Xanax. Anisha and Vishal try to talk it out Previews show that Parvani and Ramakrishna try to resolve their dispute at Chainanis Friendsgiving party. Drama occurred at a recent gala with Parvanis future mother in law. Ramakrishna, who is close to Parvani wanted to know what happened and called him to find out. Parvani didnt want to talk about it so he apparently ghosted Ramakrishna. Although the radio silence annoyed Ramakrishna, she became extremely heated when she found out what happened when Chainani tried to discuss the matter with Parvani at dinner. Chainani told Ramakrishna that Parvani downplayed their friendship. Plus Amrit Kapai then wondered if Ramakrishna was annoyed because she has a crush on Parvani. That remark infuriated her even more. They try to resolve the tension before the Key West trip but it was still present. I wasnt lying, Parvani says to Ramakrishna in a private conversation in Key West. I didnt say we werent close friends. But Ramakrishna does not think Chainani lied to her. He tries to explain himself but Ramakrishna cuts him off. Are you still trying to be an actor? Because you need a refresher course. The conversation goes in circles I am disappointed in Vishal, Ramakrishna says in a confessional. Adding, I am hurt. I never fought with Vishal, ever. And weve been friends since we were kids. But then Parvani says something that may have added fuel to the fire. Honestly I think weve both been stupid, he says. We shouldnt let these petty issues come between She cuts him off saying she hasnt been stupid and that he stopped calling her for two weeks. He insists she should know as a friend he needed some hang time before he would want to talk about the gala. Ramakrishna insists that when she called him, he berated her, saying she was harassing him when he was trying to make million-dollar deals. At this point, Kapai, who is eating with the rest of the friends on the couch, steps in. But Parvani says to him, Mind giving us a second? Ramakrishna laughs, Look, I wanna move forward, I dont want you to be the lawyer. You cant get involved, youre in the middle. Parvani insists they are good friends. And you were rude to me, she responds. He still doesnt see it, which prompts her to shoot back, Im the crazy one. I didnt hear from you He continues to talk too, saying he was in meetings when she called. Do the friends ever work it out? Tune in to Family Karma on Sunday at 9/8c on Bravo. For the first time in two years, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are under the same roof at Windsor Castle undergoing isolation due to COVID-19. The Queen, 93, left Buckingham Palace earlier in March to self-isolate at Windsor Castle. She will be staying there for the duration of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Prince Philip, 98, was flown in from Sandringham to join her. The coronavirus outbreak has reunited the royal couple who have been married for 72 years together in quarantine. Meanwhile, Prince Charles, who is heir to the throne has recently finished his self-isolation at his Birkhall home after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. Prince Philip has been based at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk since he retired in 2017. The couple, who wed in 1947, is expected to remain in the castle for the duration of the outbreak. They are currently practicing social distancing while in quarantine. Reports said the senior-most royal couple is in good health even after their son Prince Charles' diagnosis which raised alarm that other members of the family may have been infected by the illness as well. The Prince of Wales, 71, was in self-isolation at the castle in Scotland with his wife Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, when he was confirmed for the coronavirus. However, a new report claimed that doctors are on alert for the frail Prince Philip. The 98-year-old is surmised to be "enormously vulnerable" to the illness. Also Read: China Province Imposes New Coronavirus Lockdown, Fears of Second Wave The Queen and Prince Philip have been living with a distance of more than 100 miles apart for the past two and a half years. After the Duke of Edinburgh moved away from the bustling streets of London to Norfolk on the Sandringham estate, the Queen is still the current head of state. Therefore, she needed to remain at Buckingham Palace because these quarters are the official working residence of the monarch. The Queen released a statement she made in March confirming the reunion, "As Philip and I arrive at Windsor today, we know that many individuals and families across the United Kingdom, and around the world, are entering a period of great concern and uncertainty." The monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh have always made efforts to keep their relationship in good terms despite the distance between them by regularly seeing one another as during the week or on weekends when the Queen is not working. Because of Prince Philip's frail health, the news would provide the occasional update about him from time to time. But he still makes his presence known at events including the wedding ceremony of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston at Windsor Castle. The monarch and the prince have been communicating through phone calls and letters since his retirement from the public in 2017. While the Wood Farm is the duke's home, she spends her working week at Buckingham Palace and resides at Windsor Castle where she is said to feel most at home for the weekends. Sandringham is also the Queen's favored summer home. Prince Philip made an appearance (in photograph form) for her Christmas message, conveying he is very much on her mind. Related Article: After Meghxit, Who Will Shoulder Meghan Markle's 1 Million-Worth Wardrobe? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] British politicians fear that the coronavirus pandemic might have been caused by a leak from a Chinese laboratory, The Mail on Sunday has revealed. Senior sources in the British government say that while 'the balance of scientific advice' is still that the deadly virus was first transmitted to humans from a live animal market in Wuhan, a leak from a laboratory in the Chinese city is 'no longer being discounted'. One member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's emergency committee said last night that while the latest intelligence did not dispute the virus was 'zoonotic' originating in animals it did not rule out that the virus first spread to humans after leaking from a Wuhan laboratory. The member of the 'Cobra' comittee, which receives detailed classified briefings from the security services, said: 'There is a credible alternative view [to the zoonotic theory] based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan. It is not discounted.' Wuhan is home to the Institute of Virology, the most advanced laboratory of its type on the Chinese mainland. Lab fears: A laboratory leak in Wuhan is believed to have caused the coronavirus pandemic The $36million institute, based ten miles from the infamous wildlife market, is supposed to be one of the most secure virology units in the world. The state-run People's Daily newspaper said in 2018 that it was 'capable of conducting experiments with highly pathogenic microorganisms' such as the deadly Ebola virus. Scientists at the institute were the first to suggest that the virus's genome was 96 per cent similar to one commonly found in bats. But despite its reputation for high security, there have been unverified local reports that workers at the institute became infected after being sprayed by blood, and then carried the infection into the local population. A second institute in the city, the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control which is barely three miles from the market is also believed to have carried out experiments on animals such as bats to examine the transmission of corona viruses. American biosecurity expert Professor Richard Ebright, of Rutgers University's Waksman Institute of Microbiology, New Jersey, said that while the evidence suggests Covid-19 was not created in one of the Wuhan laboratories, it could easily have been. Prof Ebright said he has seen evidence that scientists at the Centre for Disease Control and the Institute of Virology studied the viruses with only 'level 2' security rather than the recommended level 4 which 'provides only minimal protections against infection of lab workers'. He added: 'Virus collection, culture, isolation, or animal infection would pose a substantial risk of infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker then the public.' He concluded that the evidence left 'a basis to rule out [that coronavirus is] a lab construct, but no basis to rule out a lab accident'. A study by the South China University of Technology concluded that Covid-19 'probably' originated in the Centre for Disease Control although shortly after its publication, the research paper was removed from a social networking site for scientists and researchers. Intriguingly, when the wildlife market was closed in January, a report appeared in the Beijing News identifying Huang Yanling, a researcher at the Institute of Virology, as 'patient zero' the first person to be infected. The claim was described as 'fake information' by the institute, which said Huang left in 2015, was in good health and had not been diagnosed with Covid-19. As the rumors spread, Shi Zhengli, a lead researcher on batrelated viruses at the institute, went public to say she 'guaranteed with her own life' that the outbreak was not related to the lab. Despite the denials, Beijing has issued new laws that call for the improved management of viruses and for facilities to ensure 'biological safety'. In 2004, a leak from a Chinese laboratory led to an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), killing one person and infecting nine others. The Chinese government said the leak was a result of negligence and five senior officials at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention were punished. Last night Prime Minister Boris Johnson's administration said it 'did not recognize' claims the virus came from a Chinese laboratory. The Chinese embassy declined to comment, but in a letter to the Mail on Sunday last week, the embassy's Zeng Rong writes: 'Such reports completely disregard the tremendous efforts and huge sacrifice of China and its people, and deny China's significant contribution to global public health and safety.' Ms Rong adds: 'China wasted no time in identifying the virus's pathogen, sharing the genetic sequence with the World Health Organisation, taking the most effective, strict and comprehensive measures to contain the spread of the disease, sharing experience with other countries in need, and providing assistance to more than 120 countries, including the UK, and to four international organisations.' A Chinese embassy spokesman said: 'There has been no scientific or medical conclusion yet on the origin of COVID-19, as relevant tracing work is still underway. 'The WHO has made repeated statements that what the world is experiencing now is a global phenomenon, the source is undetermined, the focus should be on containment and any stigmatizing language referring to certain places must be avoided.' 'The value of the pound fell 1.2pc against the US dollar at 1.224 and was down 0.6pc against the euro at 1.134.' Photo: Hannah McKay/Reuters London markets slumped after new figures suggested the UK is on the path to a recession. Traders were unnerved after the latest IHS Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers' index delivered its worst ever reading, highlighting a dramatic slowdown for the services sector. Economists said the figures, which came days after a major decline in manufacturing was revealed, point towards a steep contraction in the UK economy. The FTSE 100 closed 64.72 points lower at 5,415.5 at the end of trading on Friday. The pound was also weakened by the PMI figures, which were worse than analysts' expectations, bringing to an end the currency's recent rebound. The value of the pound fell 1.2pc against the US dollar at 1.224 and was down 0.6pc against the euro at 1.134. Europe's largest markets also slumped as traders reacted badly to PMI figures which were largely worse than the UK's set of statistics. The German Dax decreased by 0.47pc, while the French Cac moved 1.57pc lower. Global markets were also knocked by the latest set of disappointing US labour figures, although analysts said traders once again took the data in their stride. CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) The total number of coronavirus cases in Moldova has increased by 112 to 864 in the past 24 hours, and one person has died over the period bringing the death toll to 15, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said on Sunday. "Today we have confirmed 112 new coronavirus cases, we have the total of 864 cases. Also today, one person died a 56 year-old man, who also had other diseases. In total, 15 people died, and 30 recovered," Dodon said at a briefing. Since March 17, a 60-day state of emergency has been in place in Moldova. The country has suspended air traffic entirely and closed its land borders. All public gatherings were banned, including for cultural and religious purposes; schools were closed, along with public food services. All citizens aged over 63 have been banned to leave home for non-essential reasons. The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 1,196,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 64,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor San Fransisco has reversed its plastic bag ban and will instead put a ban on reusable bags and totes in an effort to prevent the CCP virus from spreading further. In an order issued on March 31, the San Fransisco Department of Public Health said people are not allowed to bring their reusable items, such as bags, totes, and mugs, to stores under a measure aimed at preventing unnecessary contact. Also under that measure includes prohibiting people from accessing to self-serve food items. Lids from food bars will be provided by staff and individuals arent allowed to grab them for themselves. Bulk food items, such as bins or containers, are also under the same restriction. The order is expected to last until end of day on May 3, unless it is lifted or extended by officials as they continue to monitor the situation in the city, the order said. It comes after a 13-year ban on plastic bags in San Fransisco, as the city was one of the first United States cities to ban the use of plastic shopping bags back in 2007, according to the Hill. Other states have also moved to implement similar tactics in an effort to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Some stores, including Starbucks and Peets Coffee have also stopped accepting reusable items, according to the Washington Times. In New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu issued an executive order prohibiting the use of reusable bags. Instead, stores are instructed to use new paper or plastic bags. With identified community transmission, it is important that shoppers keep their reusable bags at home given the potential risk to baggers, grocers, and customers, Sununu said. California reported 14,225 confirmed cases of the CCP Virus with 568 confirmed cases in San Fransisco. A total of 325 have die in the state, with 8 of those deaths in San Fransisco, according to the Johns Hopkins University resource center. Another three banks cut rates Advance Bank, State Bank of NSW and Challenge Bank followed the four major banks in reducing their home and business lending rates. Advance Bank announced its home loan would fall half a percentage point to 16.5 per cent immediately for new borrowers and from June 1 for existing borrowers. The bank's prime lending rate will be cut from 19.75 to 18.75 per cent from May 1. The State Bank of NSW also cut its variable rate housing loans to 16.5 per cent. Navy clears decks for petticoat captains Women will be trained by the Navy in combat and combat-related jobs despite the government ruling out women fighting in such positions. Under the plan, they will be trained in these roles only during peacetime and would not be expected to fight in combat roles. A major restriction on women at sea has been the provision of separate billets aboard ships. The increase in women at sea will proceed only as quickly as resources become available to convert billets. Queen told: it's time you ran out of puff In order to make the admission process easier and accessible for candidates, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has developed a mobile app they can be used instead of visiting CBT centres. The app enables candidates to access the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) for all their admission-related issues from the comfort of their homes, the agency said. It said the development is coming as some institutions are about to conclude their admissions processes. CAPS is an admission flow chart through which a candidate can accept or reject admission offers. Candidates can also print admission letters and proceed to the institution for further admission processing. The Market Place feature in CAPS provides a mechanism for the institutions to source for candidates who may not have chosen the institution for admission consideration. In its weekly bulletin sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, the spokesperson of the board, Fabian Benjamin, said all the candidates need to do is to download the JAMB CAPS mobile app on their phones. He said candidates who are still expecting 2019 admissions from any institutions need not visit any CBT centre or cyber cafe to check their admissions status for necessary action. Usage He said candidates are to login to the JAMB CAPS mobile app with the phone number they had used for the UTME registration. After login, the candidate will then key in his Registration Number and click on ENTER to get started. A verification process would be carried out on the provided information and if successful, an OTP code would be sent to the provided mobile number. The candidate is to enter the OTP code and click on VERIFY to complete the verification exercise, he said. The spokesperson said upon the completion of verification, the candidate would be taken to the requisite admission page which has his/her admissions information to accept or reject the admissions offer, accept or reject transfer consideration by institutions that have if any, as well as accept or reject market place consideration by institutions. He said the candidate will also see their Olevel results and other biodata. If candidates accept their offers of admission, they are to proceed to register online for the requisite academic session in their institutions of choice, he said. He said candidates are advised to take advantage of this mobile app to check their admissions status as JAMB staff are working from home to ensure that the public is adequately served and all processes are active. Issues Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the federal government has ordered the closure of all Nigerian institutions to help contain the spread. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) also embarked on an indefinite strike after the expiration of its two weeks warning strike on March 23 over the non-payment of salaries of their members who failed to enrol into the federal governments IPPIS, a payroll software mandated for all public officials. Kathmandu, April 5 The government of Nepal on Saturday decided to tighten restrictions imposed during the lockdown period introduced to control the coronavirus outbreak in the country. A Cabinet meeting held yesterday evening decided to stop citizens from moving from one local unit to another and from one district to another, according to the government spokesperson, Minister for Finance Yuba Raj Khatiwada. The government decision comes just a few hours after the country confirmed three new infected cases in a single day. Among the three cases, one is a 34-year-old woman, who happened to be the first Covid-19 patient of the country who was not recently abroad while all other cases till today belong to the people who recently returned to the country from other countries. The countrys health officials and experts have said this incident marks Nepals entry to the second stage of coronavirus infection, suggesting more restrictive measures. Meanwhile, the government could not make any decision regarding extending the lockdown. The lockdown was first announced till March-end and was extended by one week later. Khatiwada says the Cabinet will decide whether to extend the lockdown in its next meeting. It has been learned that the government is concerned about Indias next move and its impact on the human movement in Nepal as the two countries share a long open border and hence waiting for the Indian move to make a concrete decision. Racist abuse of Asians continues on social media despite pledges by Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to tackle issue. Jing He has become used to online racist abuse. The 26-year old from Shanghai began posting a video diary about the COVID-19 outbreak to her social media accounts in early March. Her aim was to depict life in her home city as the epidemic peaked in China. More than 60,000 people viewed her first Facebook video on the topic, with many sharing messages of thanks and support. But virulent, hateful abuse began to appear on later posts. One comment under a video Jing made for the Facebook page of the China Minutes news site mocked the appearance of Asian people, referring to them as slanty eyed b****rds. Another detailed a conspiracy theory of how China was responsible for the virus as a means of population control. These posts and many others, which appear to have since been removed, left Jing hurt and wondering whether she should ever share her content again. I wasnt expecting it, she said. Racism is never okay. COVID-19 hate Jing is far from alone in being subjected to racist abuse around the outbreak of COVID-19. There have been numerous reports of anti-Asian racism on the streets of Australia, India and the United Kingdom. In the United States, the reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate has recorded more than 1,100 instances of anti-Asian harassment since it was set up in late March. On social media sites, the scale of abuse is even more apparent. An analysis by Al Jazeera found more than 10,000 posts on Twitter that included the term kung-flu during March alone although the true total was likely much higher given a number of variations of the phrase were being used across the site. While some uses of kung-flu related to news reports of a White House official allegedly using the term, thousands of others sought to employ it to describe the virus or to antagonise users who were offended by its use. Other posts employing racist and offensive language such as chop fluey and rice rabies were also visible on the micro-blogging platform. Elsewhere, there had been 110 million views of posts tagged #chinese_coronavirus on the Chinese-owned app TikTok as of Saturday. Some videos lamented the use of such terms as a subtle form of racism. Others, however, included a clip of a man with chopsticks in his hair and pulling his eyes back to audio of US President Donald Trump explaining why he called COVID-19 the Chinese virus. A separate post seen by Al Jazeera showed a picture of a man in a hazmat suit with accompanying text stating he was just going to pickup [sic] a Chinese. On the photo-sharing app Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, Al Jazeera found 72,000 posts tagged #WuhanVirus and 10,000 tagged #KungFlu. Although the first cases of coronavirus were reported in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organization (WHO) employs the name COVID-19 so as not to stigmatise any ethnic group or nationality and give rise to harmful stereotypes. Responding to Al Jazeera, a Facebook company spokesperson said: Racism and abusive behaviour is not tolerated on Facebook or Instagram and we remove it when we become aware of it. Those who repeatedly break our guidelines will be banned. We encourage people to report this content when they see it, so we can act. Twitter said it was continuing to review and require the removal of Tweets that do not follow the Twitter Rules half of which we catch before theyre ever reported to us. It added that it would remain vigilant of the evolving global conversation. Al Jazeera reached out to TikTok but the company did not provide an on the record response. None of the companies contacted by Al Jazeera responded to questions about how many posts they had taken down or the number of users they had reprimanded for racist, xenophobic and inappropriate content since the outbreak began. I am not a virus Social media firms have faced intense scrutiny around misinformation and fake news since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok have all taken action to ensure reliable sources of information on COVID-19 are promoted high on their sites and atop searches and user feeds. The platforms have also been used for campaigns such as #IamNOTAVIRUS which have sought to counter racist narratives as well as empower those who have faced abuse. Research by the Atlantic Council think-tanks Digital Forensics Lab (DFRLab) noted there was a significant spike in social media posts employing dog whistle terms such as Chinese virus after they had been used in news conferences or on news shows by US politicians. Such findings emphasise that what appears on social media is often a reflection of what happens in the real world. However, politicians and activists Al Jazeera spoke to believe there is still far more the platforms can do to confront online racism. Sarah Owen, a UK member of parliament and chair of the Chinese for Labour group, said many social media sites have not adequately dealt with racism, homophobia or any other kind of abuse in the past. Owen, who is British-Chinese, said she had been subjected to old-fashioned racist tropes when posting about the pandemic online, including accusations that we all eat strange things. She added that the use of racist language, especially by public figures, and attributing this virus to just one ethnicity also pours fuel [on] existing prejudices. Cynthia Choi of the US-based Chinese for Affirmative Action said a reference to the coronavirus/COVID19 other than its scientific name is irresponsible and goes against every leading public health expert because of the stigmatising effect. She added that online verbal abuse and threats of violence can lead to offline acts. Jing, the Chinese vlogger, says the online abuse she experienced noticeably increased after Trump labelled the new coronavirus the Chinese virus. Yet having now had time to process the abuse and the hurt it initially caused, she now does not blame the platforms but rather the people who posted the comments themselves. If you are racist towards me or have hate towards me, you have hate in you, Jing said. She is also grateful to commenters who stood up for her and tried to shout down those directing the abuse in subsequent posts. If more people call this out, thats how we slowly overpower the force of racism, she said. I feel they [those posting abuse] are blaming a race for what they are responsible for in their own lives. More than anything, we need to call them out. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 09:19:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held telephone conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Perez-Castejon, on Saturday and discussed the global COVID-19 situation, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Modi expressed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the three countries, and stressed on the importance of international cooperation for fighting the global health crisis. He reiterated India's solidarity with the United States in overcoming this global crisis together, as the duo agreed to deploy full strength of the India-U.S. partnership to resolutely and effectively combat COVID-19. They also discussed the significance of Yoga practices and Ayurveda (the traditional Indian herbal medicine practice) for ensuring physical and mental well-being in this difficult time, and agreed that their officials would remain in close touch with respect to the global COVID-19 crisis. During his talk with the Brazilian president, Modi assured him all possible support in this difficult hour, and they agreed to jointly fight COVID-19 and its emerging challenges. The Indian prime minister and his Spanish counterpart talked over the phone and agreed on the importance of international cooperation for fighting the global health crisis, said an official statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. A raging forest fire engulfed 250 acres around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant this weekend, surging radiation levels in the exclusion zone. Ukraine's emergency services ministry scrambled 130 firefighters and two planes to tackle the blaze which ignited yesterday. The inferno spiked existing radiation levels in the area surrounding the site of the 1986 reactor explosion, according to Yehor Firsov, head of the country's ecological inspection service. Ukraine's emergency services ministry scrambled 130 firefighters and two planes to tackle the blaze But after extinguishing the fire, background gamma levels have been brought down to a typical amount, the State Emergency Services reportedly said. The government said that as of 7am this morning, 'there was no open fire, only some isolated cells smoldering.' The 1,000-square mile exclusion zone, which was established to prevent exposure to lethal gamma, is largely deserted except for about 200 people who have defied orders to leave. No threat to these settlements has been reported. Several regions have reported bushfires this week amid unusually dry weather. Like most countries, Ukraine's frontline workers are already trying to wrestle its own coronavirus epidemic, which has infected 1,251 and killed 32. A worker takes a radiation control at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine last September Radiation in the control room currently exceeds normal readings by 40,000 times. Visitors have to wear protective masks, suits and helmets Since the hit HBO series Chernobyl, tourists have flocked to the site of the reactor to glimpse the fallout from the explosion. Even the control room, which has 40,000 times the average amount of radiation, is open to visitors, who don protective suits as they tour the compound. The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, at unit number four in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The staff on duty made errors during a safety test that triggered the nuclear reactor's explosion. The normally bustling streets and parks of Serbia's capital, Belgrade, were deserted after the Serbian government ordered a weekend curfew in an effort to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. RFE/RL filmed an empty city on Sunday, April 5, under the measure in force from Saturday afternoon through Monday morning. Limited exceptions were allowed for pet owners. Three weeks ago, Serbia imposed a night curfew and mandatory self-isolation for elderly people. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged 130 crore Indians to express solidarity with "the frontline warriors in the battle against the pandemic" when they light Diyas and lamps tonight at 9 pm on the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Let us express our solidarity to the frontline warriors in the battle against the pandemic & show that 130 crore people of India are together in dispelling the darkness caused by #COVID2019. As we light the lamps, let us pray for good health and prosperity of all," a tweet from the official handle of the Vice President of India on Sunday read. Naidu, in a series of tweets, urged the people to come together and "display our collective resolve to fight COVID-19 by lighting lamps and candles" and also asked citizens to "not be cowed down by the enormity of the challenge. Let us continue to dispel the gloom and doubts by spreading the light of hope, illumination of knowledge and the bright spirit of working together." However, Naidu also reminded the people to follow social distancing and practice all instructions given by authorities and health experts to prevent the transmission of the infection. Earlier, in a video message, the Prime Minister had asked citizens to turn all lights off in their houses at 9 pm on Sunday (April 5) and to stand at their doors or windows with a candle, diya and torch for 9 minutes to show solidarity with each other in the battle against the COVID-19. This is in follow up to the 'Taali, thali' event held on March 22, the day when 'Janata curfew' was observed throughout the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reminded people to be on their terrace and balconies and clap to express their gratitude for all those who were 'working 24/7' to fight COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Director Aditya Dhar says choosing Vicky Kaushal for his next, actioner "The Immortal Ashwatthama" was a split-second decision as the actor fit the bill perfectly. Aditya, who broke out on the Bollywood scene with his 2019 blockbuster debut "Uri: The Surgical Strike" starring Vicky, is once again teaming up with the actor. "Uri" was an eventful film for the actor-director duo, who went on to win their first National Film Award -- best director for Aditya and best actor for Vicky. The director, who has begun pre-production work on "Ashwatthama", said he scouts for actors who share the same passion and dedication like him. "My criteria is simple, I require fantastic actors who are ready to give their best and are easy to work with. I don't like people with a lot of baggage and rather those who are simple and straightforward and their agenda is to make a brilliant film," Aditya told PTI in an interview here. "If my priority is Ashwatthama', my actor's priority should also be Ashwatthama'. Vicky fits the character, it was a no-brainer for me because when he is doing a project then nothing else matters to me, he will give his blood and sweat for it, he did that with Uri..'. And he will remain my first choice for all my films," he added. The film, billed as a superhero action film set in modern times, is being planned as a trilogy but Aditya said they will make the third one depending on the response to the first two. Though the team has cracked the basic idea for all the three parts but they are concentrating on the first one at the moment, he added. "The film requires a lot of planning because this is something that has never been done before, it is huge. The work is on in terms of writing," the director said, adding the team aims to start rolling by year end or early 2021. Aditya believes spectacle films such as "The Immortal Ashwatthama" with a touch of Indian mythology must be served more to the audience. As per the epic Mahabharata, Ashwatthama was the son of guru Dronacharya, who fought for the Kauravas in the battle of Kurukshetra. "It was high time we brought such stories to the audience, the kind of fantastic stories we have in our mythology. I wonder why nobody made those into films in so many years. My idea is to create something that is at par with everything that is around the world or Hollywood." The director said that Vicky is currently busy prepping for "Takht", which will in a way help the actor to work on "Ashwatthama". "It will be unfair for me to tell him to do anything right now related to 'Ashwatthama'. I want him to give his 100 per cent for Takht'. There is a huge prep for our film but I don't want to distract him from Takht'. Once he gets done then he will have to concentrate on our film." Besides Vicky, Aditya said the team is looking for a female actor and a villain, who will have well-written arcs. "It is one of the strongest female characters we have ever seen but we haven't finalised anyone yet, we also have a strong antagonist. We are looking across the spectrum for it, like from the south. Maybe a newcomer, we are keeping our options open," he added. In a genre largely dominated by men, Aditya believes filmmakers must learn from Hollywood action films and create well-rounded characters for women actors. "Unfortunately, the mistake lies within us, as filmmakers we don't write that many (strong) characters, we need to write it. It is not that they are not capable. "We see Gal Gadot and we say she is so good at action or Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow' and we say wow', they train and become like that. It is not that difficult. Produced by Ronnie Screwvala, 'The Immortal Ashwatthama" will be shot in a start-to-finish schedule, spread across 80 to 90 days, in locations such as Greenland, Iceland, Tokyo, New Zealand and Namibia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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 1.2 million Global deaths: At least 65,711 US cases: At least 312,245 US deaths: At least 8,503. The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 5:32 pm: Tiger at the Bronx Zoo tests positive for the coronavirus A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York has tested positive for the coronavirus. The 4-year-old female Malaysian tiger, Nadia, had developed a dry cough and was tested "out of an abundance of caution," the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo said in a statement. The diagnosis was confirmed by the United States Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratories. It is the first confirmed COVID-19 case in a tiger, according to the USDA. Several tigers and lions at the zoo showed symptoms of a respiratory ilness, the USDA said. The tiger who tested positive is believed to have become infected by a zoo employee. The tiger first began to show symptoms on March 27, the USDA said. Kevin Stankiewicz 5:08 pm: Boeing extends Seattle-area production shutdown until further notice amid coronavirus pandemic Boeing is extending the production shut down at its Seattle-area airplane factories "until further notice" because of the coronavirus pandemic, the company said Sunday. The manufacturer last month said it would pause production for two weeks at the facilities, where it produces wide-body planes. It had already suspended production in January of the 737 Max, which has been grounded for more than a year after two fatal crashes. "These actions are being taken in light of the company's continuing focus on the health and safety of employees, current assessment of the spread of COVID-19 in Washington state, the reliability of the supply chain and additional recommendations from government health authorities," Boeing said in a statement. Leslie Josephs 4:28 pm: British PM Boris Johnson admitted to hospital for tests over 'persistent' coronavirus symptoms Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to the hospital for tests 10 days after testing positive for the coronavirus. A Downing Street spokesperson said it's a "precautionary step" since the prime minister continues to have persistent symptoms of the virus. "The Prime Minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the Government's advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives," the spokesperson said. Emma Newburger 4:20 pm: New York City expects to run out of ventilators by Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio says Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday that New York City only has enough live-saving ventilators to get through until Tuesday or Wednesday. The mayor originally expected the city to run out as soon as today. "I want to be clear, it only means a few more days, nothing more I can guarantee beyond that," de Blasio said at a press briefing. The mayor said the city needs 1,000 to 1,500 additional ventilators over the next week but only has 135 left in stock. There are about 10,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile and 2,800 ventilators in the state stockpile, de Blasio said. As of Saturday, the city had 67,551 confirmed coronavirus cases, up from 63,306, according to the NY governor's office. Emma Newburger 4:15 pm: Democratic lawmakers urge Mnuchin against 'unreasonable conditions' on airline coronavirus aid Leading congressional Democrats on Sunday urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to quickly reach agreements and not place onerous conditions on $25 billion in payroll grants for airlines reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Mnuchin last month said taxpayers must be "compensated" for aid given to airlines. Treasury guidelines state the department said it may demand warrants, options, preferred stock or other securities in exchange for the grants. But industry members, unions and others have argued that if the Treasury Department is too aggressive in its demands, such as by insisting on large equity stakes, it could deter airlines from taking the grants altogether. In addition to payroll grants, Congress also approved $29 billion in loans to passenger and cargo airlines as part of the historic $2 trillion coronavirus aid package last month. "The intent of this program was very clear: keep America's hardworking aviation professionals in their jobs through direct payroll payments from the Treasury Department," wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and other top Democrats. "We are concerned the Treasury Department's recent guidance on the 'Airline Industry Payroll Support' Program does not fully reflect the intent of Congress," they wrote. Lauren Hirsch, Leslie Josephs 3:50 pm: France's death toll slows but coronavirus still hits hard France's daily death toll from the novel coronavirus fell in the past 24 hours and admissions into intensive care also slowed, the health ministry said on Sunday, thanking citizens for largely respecting a lockdown to halt the spread of the virus. The health ministry data showed that 357 people died from COVID-19 in hospitals, compared with 441 in the previous 24 hours, taking the total toll in hospitals to 5,889. It said that 2,189 people had died in nursing homes since March 1, taking France's total death toll to 8,078. "These data confirms that the epidemic is ongoing in the country, and continues to hit hard," the ministry said. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in France since the start of the epidemic rose by 2.7% or 1,873 to 70,478, the ministry said in daily update of the situation. Reuters 3:41 pm: GM encouraging auto suppliers to assist in efforts to produce medical masks General Motors is encouraging and empowering its suppliers to assist in production of medical face masks for frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a note to the suppliers on Saturday, Shilpan Amin, GM's vice president of global purchasing and supply chain, said it is making the automaker's step-by-step manufacturing plans for the personal protective equipment available to any company willing to join in the cause. "Our ultimate goal is to get more masks to the people who desperately need them," he said in part of the message obtained by CNBC. "We also recognized it would be counterproductive if GM or any other manufacturer competed for supplies with existing medical-mask companies. By making available GM's production processes to our global supply base, we hope to facilitate other companies' efforts to bring more materials, more equipment and ultimately more facemasks to the community." GM, according to a spokesman, will provided suppliers detailed specs on materials, equipment, and processes essentially, what suppliers would need to know to ramp up their own production lines. He said the message was sent to 600 suppliers. Michael Wayland 2:48 pm: Canada coronavirus deaths jump 20% to 258 in a day The number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada has jumped by just over 20% to 258 in a day, officials said on Sunday. The number of those diagnosed with the coronavirus had risen by almost 12% to 14,426, the public health agency said. The respective figures on Saturday were 214 deaths and 12,924 positive diagnoses. Reuters 2:40 pm: US Navy captain fired for seeking coronavirus help has reportedly tested positive Captain Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, addresses the crew during an all-hands call on the ship's flight deck in the eastern Pacific Ocean December 19, 2019. Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas Huynh | US Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the now-fired Navy captain who wrote a letter asking for help dealing with a coronavirus outbreak on his ship, has tested positive for COVID-19, The New York Times reported Sunday. The Times' report cited two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier who have a relationship with the officer and his family. Crozier began to show symptoms of COVID-19 before he was removed from the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday, The Times reported. He is being quarantined on Naval Base Guam, The Times reported. Kevin Stankiewicz 2:00 pm: Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar returns to medical practice to help in coronavirus crisis Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will work one shift a week to help during the coronavirus crisis, a spokesman for his office said on Sunday. Varadkar worked as a doctor for seven years before leaving the profession to become a politician and was removed from the medical register in 2013. Reuters 1:20 pm: Turkey's coronavirus death toll rises by 73 to 574 Turkey's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 73 on Saturday to total 574. Confirmed cases rose by 3,135, increasing the country's total to 27,069, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter. He added that 20,065 tests for the COVID-19 disease were performed in Turkey in the last 24 hours. Reuters 1:05 pm: US banking group warns of 'massive' delays, tech issues with small-business rescue program Maskot Hundreds of U.S. lenders are struggling to access the technology system for distributing $349 billion of government rescue loans, while the pot of money is insufficient and will soon be expended, a top banking group warned over the weekend. Congress last month created the unprecedented program as part of a $2 trillion stimulus package to help businesses that have either shut down or have been dramatically curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic. Borrowers could apply for the loans via participating banks from Friday until June 30. The program is being jointly administered by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA). "Community bankers are frustrated with failed technology links and portals. Even those banks with access to the (SBA) system have shared their experiences of significant challenges with user access and latency in application processing," the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) wrote in a letter to the Treasury and SBA on Saturday evening. The powerful lobby group, which represents thousands of small banks, added that lenders are "experiencing massive delays and (an) inability to process loans or even access the SBA." Reuters 12:22 pm: Italy reports 525 new deaths, slowest rise in over two weeks The death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 525 to 15,887, the lowest daily death toll in more than two weeks, while the number of patients in intensive care fell for the second day running, the Civil Protection department said on Sunday. The total number of confirmed cases rose to 128,948 from 124,632 reported on Saturday, a lower increase than the day before which added to signs the epidemic has reached a plateau nearly a month after the government imposed a countrywide lockdown on March 9. Of those originally infected nationwide, 21,815 were declared recovered on Sunday, compared with 20,996 a day earlier. There were 3,977 people in intensive care, a fall of 17 from 3,994 on Friday, when officials reported the first drop in intensive care numbers since the outbreak of the epidemic in northern Italy on Feb. 21. Reuters 12:11 pm: Carnival's struggle to survive the coronavirus as outbreak wipes out the cruise industry Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, has been at the heart of the industry's struggle against the coronavirus. COVID-19 has spread on ships across nearly half of its brands, infecting hundreds of passengers and killing others. Shares of Carnival are down more than 80% in 2020 alone, and the company said in a securities filing that it couldn't predict when any of its ships would begin to sail again or when ports would reopen. Yet, time after time, Carnival has proven resilient, despite seemingly insurmountable setbacks. The company has experienced everything from norovirus outbreaks to fires and capsizes, and it's still bounced back after every crisis. Some experts say this time it's different. For the moment, it doesn't look as though the U.S. government will be coming to the rescue of any of the major cruise lines. The $2 trillion relief package excludes companies which are not incorporated in the U.S. and don't have significant operations in and a majority of its employees based in the U.S. MacKenzie Sigalos 12:01 pm: New York governor sees slight plateauing in the death toll, but said it could be a 'blip' The death toll from the coronavirus in New York state has reached 4,159, up from 3,565 on Saturday morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Total confirmed cases have risen to 122,031, up from 113,704, and the number of people hospitalized in the state has reached 16,479, up from 15,905. The governor said there appears to be a slight plateauing in the death toll data but emphasized that the statistic could be a "blip." Cuomo also said the state could be near an apex, though it won't be clear for the next few days. There's been a shift of cases numbers to Long Island while cases in New York City are reduced, likely a result of people traveling out of the hard-hit city to take refuge elsewhere. Emma Newburger 11:55 am: Demand for jigsaw puzzles is surging as coronavirus keeps millions of Americans indoors Sara's jigsaw puzzles Sara Salinas As coronavirus sweeps the country and sends millions sheltering in place, Americans are increasingly spending their time, and money, on jigsaw puzzles. The majority of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home instructions, and businesses across the country are sending employees home. In the face of what health officials warn could be months of widespread closures, consumers are snapping up the time-tested indoor games, depleting inventories and driving up prices. Gamemaker Ravensburger has seen U.S. puzzle sales soar 370% year over year in the past two weeks, according to the company's North America CEO Filip Francke. Factoring in the recent surge, the company is averaging closer to 20 puzzles sold per minute for 2020. "Puzzles are not a necessity, of course, but the consumer is clearly telling us that there's a large need that we can help fill at these times," Francke said. Hannah Miller 11:47 am: Michigan governor criticizes lack of national strategy Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer once again criticized the lack of national support and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first-term Democratic governor, who President Donald Trump has belittled in recent weeks, said the "patchwork" policies that put much responsibility of state governments could prolong the pandemic. "Not having a national strategy where there is one policy for the country as opposed to a patchwork based on whomever the governor is, is something that I think is creating a more porous situation where COVID-19 will go longer, more people will grow sick and sadly more lives may get be lost," she told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Whitmer, who Trump last month referenced as a "half" wit, said if there was a national strategy, "it would be better for us in the long run." Michigan, specifically Detroit, has rapidly become a hot spot for COVID-19. As of Saturday, the state had 14,225 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 540 deaths. Whitmer said many hospitals in Southeast Michigan, where Detroit is located, are already at-capacity and running low on personal protective equipment for employees. "Michigan is a hot spot," she said. "We need assistance and I'm grateful for any partnership at the federal level or any partnerships with businesses that want to help out because we desperately need PPE. Lives are on the line here." Michael Wayland 11:38 am: Fed's James Bullard says US economy is not in a 'free fall' St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard pushed back against the suggestion that the U.S. economy and the jobs market are in a "free fall" on CBS's "Face the Nation." "We're asking people to stay home to invest in national health, and we're asking them to use the unemployment insurance program in order to get the transfers they need to be able to pay bills while they're at home, while they're not able to work because health authorities are trying to get the virus under control," Bullard said. In fact, the 10 million jobless claims in the last weeks can "in some ways" be seen positively, he said. "It means you're getting the transfers to the people that are being disrupted by this health shutdown," Bullard argued. "There's nothing wrong with the economy itself. The economy was actually doing quite well going into this health situation." The Fed's St. Louis district in late March predicted the U.S. unemployment rate could rise to more than 30% as a result of the coronavirus, a figure higher than what was seen during the Great Depression. Kevin Stankiewicz 11:31 am: For a city in lockdown, two minutes of rambunctious joy to give thanks to frontline workers Between the incessant screams of ambulance sirens rushing new patients to hospitals all day, and the non-stop negative news headlines, there is one moment each day in New York City that breaks up the daily monotony that is the new normal. At 7 p.m. each night, New Yorkers open a window, or step out onto balconies or rooftops and make some noise for two minutes. We scream, we clap, we bang pots and pans, we make music, but most of all we give thanks and gratitude to all the frontline workers who are risking their lives every day. It is an emotional and powerful moment to see and feel New Yorkers come together as one to reassure each other that we will get through this. It is a moment where those who feel powerless can show their gratitude to all the health-care workers, delivery drivers, grocery store workers and everyone else who is out there, every day, in the thick of it. My kids and I look forward to these two minutes because there are no negative headlines, there are no sirens blaring. There are just New Yorkers united together to see this through. Adam Jeffrey 11:09 am: Spain's coronavirus death toll rises by 674 but the pace keeps slowing The rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths in Spain slowed again as the country, suffering from one of the world's worst outbreaks of the pandemic, began its fourth week under a near-total lockdown. Deaths from the highly infectious COVID-19 respiratory disease rose to 12,418 on Saturday the second-highest worldwide after Italy. However, the toll of 674 people who died during the past 24 hours was down from Saturday's 809 and well below Thursday's daily record of 950, the Health Ministry said. Sunday's rise represented a 6% increase in total deaths, about half the rate reported a week ago. The total number of registered infections rose to 130,759 from Saturday's 124,736. "The data from this week and today confirm the slowing down of infections," Health Minister Salvador Illa told a news conference. "The data confirms that confinement is working." He said one million testing kits were to arrive in Spain on Sunday and Monday and would act as "rapid screening" in places such as hospitals and nursing homes, part of an effort to pinpoint the true extent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters 11:05 am: History will remember your actions in this crisis, Queen Elizabeth II plans to say In a rare address to the nation, Queen Elizabeth II plans to exhort Britons to rise to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, drawing on wisdom from her decades as Britain's head of state to urge discipline and resolve in a time of crisis. The 93-year-old monarch is expected to acknowledge the suffering that many families have experienced because of the COVID-19 crisis, which has infected more than 42,000 people in the U.K. and killed at least 4,313 of them. She will seek to lift spirits and offer hope to the country in its hour of need. "I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time,'' she plans to say, according to excerpts released ahead of remarks that were being broadcast Sunday night. "A time of disruption in the life of our country; a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all." The queen will laud Britain's beloved National Health Service and others in essential services, together with around 750,000 people who volunteered to help the vulnerable. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. Those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any,'' she plans to say, according to excerpts. "That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country." Associated Press 10:50 am: New York fashion icons embrace New York governor's mask challenge Protective masks for sale are displayed in a store in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn on April 2, 2020 in New York City. Stephanie Keith | Getty Images New York City-based fashion designers Christian Siriano and Naeem Khan, and clothing companies Rag and Bone and Eileen Fisher, have started making coronavirus masks. They are answering the call to New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plea to businesses to pitch in with personal protective equipment for health-care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak. The federal government is now advising everyone to wear a mask, rather than limiting the advisory to people who are sick. Anjali Sundaram 10:40 am: Bill Gates calls pandemic a 'nightmare scenario,' but predicts lower death toll than Trump The coronavirus pandemic is a "nightmare scenario," but the death toll due to the disease may not be as high as some, including President Donald Trump, have predicted, according to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Trump last week predicted that the U.S. could see between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from COVID-19 before the outbreak is under control, echoing forecasts from White House health advisor Anthony Fauci. "If we do the social distancing properly, we should be able to get out of this with a death number well short of that," Gates told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. He said it's "very important" those figures are out there so people understand the severity of the situation. Michael Wayland 10:37 am: Biden says Navy captain who warned of ship outbreak should receive commendation Captain Brett Crozier addresses the crew for the first time as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during a change of command ceremony on the ship's flight deck in San Diego, California, U.S. November 1, 2019. U.S. Navy | Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Sean Lynch | Reuters Former Vice President Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump and the military's response to a navy officer who was relieved of his command for speaking out about a coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosovelt. "I think it's close to criminal the way they're dealing with this guy," Biden told ABC's This Week. "I think he should have a commendation rather than be fired." The officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, wrote a letter earlier this week to military leadership asking for help with a coronavirus outbreak on the warship. The letter, which was dated March 30, was sent via nonsecure unclassified email and also outside the chain of command. The letter was later leaked to the media. Trump, in a press conference Saturday, called the captain's letter "terrible" and backed the decision to relieve the officer of his command. Spencer Kimball, Will Feuer 10:27 am: Illinois is nearing its coronavirus peak, governor says Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state is quickly approaching its likely peak of COVID-19 cases. "It depends on what model you believe, but I think they zero in on the later half of April. So we're really just less than two weeks away from the beginning of peaking," Pritzker said on CNN's "State of the Union." Illinois has more than 10,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins data. Pritzker added the state believes it needs "a few thousand more" ventilators than it has now, potentially up to 4,000. "That's what we've asked the federal government for," he said. The state has so far received 450, the Democrat said. "We're looking everywhere and anywhere across the world to get ventilators." Kevin Stankiewicz 10:25 am: Washington governor says it's 'ludicrous' Trump hasn't issued a national stay-at-home order Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said his state has had some success in "flattening the curve" of new cases by acting early and aggressively with a stay-at-home order. Inslee called for a national stay-at-home order, saying it is "ludicrous" that President Donald Trump and the federal government have not done more to mobilize a national effort to fight the outbreak. "I think it would be good to have national stay-at-home order and the reason is even if Washington does get on top of this fully, if another state doesn't it can come back and come across our borders two months from now," Insee told NBC's Meet The Press. The governor reiterated his calls for Trump to mobilize the nation's manufacturing base and use the Defense Production Act more aggressively to build the medical equipment needed to fight the virus. Spencer Kimball 10:16 am: Bidding wars for medical-grade protective equipment a 'global jungle,' Arkansas governor says Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AK) William B. Plowman | NBCUniversal Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said his state was outbid for face masks, calling the rush for personal protective equipment a "global jungle." "We have had the circumstance that we're trying to collect our PPE, our protective masks, and we've been outbid by another state after we had the order confirmed," Hutchinson told NBC'S Meet The Press. "We recognize that the federal government has said, 'We're your backstop, you have to get out there and compete.' It literally is a global jungle that we're competing in now." Arkansas also lost out on order for 500 ventilators after New York state submitted a bid that was $20,000 higher, according to Dr. Steppe Mette, CEO of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Arkansas has closed bars, restaurants, and schools but has not issued a stay at home order. Hutchinson called it a targeted approach and said the state is encouraging Arkansans to bring masks with them if they can't social distance. Spencer Kimball 10:12 am: Italy's leaders rely on science, not politics, as virus ravages the country Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said all political decisions must be made based on scientific evidence as the country remains in a nearly total nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus. "We're suffering very much," Conte said during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's a devastating pain." The pandemic has ravaged Italy, which has at least 124,632 total cases and at least 15,362 deaths. The number of new cases appears to be leveling off, likely due to the country's aggressive lockdown measures. But health officials warn that Italy has not reached its peak as the death toll continues to increase. The prime minister said he doesn't know when the lockdown will end because he is following guidance from scientists. "Our response may not be perfect, but we have acted in the best of our knowledge," he said. "The results so far indicate we are on the right path." Emma Newburger 10:04 am: Louisiana may reach ventilator capacity Thursday, governor says Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told CNN the state's current models project it will reach its ventilator capacity Thursday. "We definitely see we will exceed our ventilator capacity at some point," Edwards said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We're trying to push that as far into the future as possible, but all of our modeling, even under the best-case scenario, show that we will do that." Louisiana received 200 ventilators from the national stockpile on Saturday, Edwards added. Kevin Stankiewicz 10:01 am: Coronavirus cases in Austria still rising but figures 'hopeful,' minister says The number of new coronavirus infections in Austria rose on Sunday to 11,897, but the Alpine country reported more newly recovered than newly diagnosed patients and a declining number of people in intensive care. The number of new cases had risen by 270 since Saturday morning, while the number of recoveries rose by 491, according to the health ministry. It said the daily rate of new COVID-19 infections has fallen significantly in recent days. "These are some hopeful figures, but now...we must remain consistent and not give up...Hence my appeal: No private Easter celebrations and Easter holidays," said Health Minister Rudolf Anschober. Reuters 9:57 am: Firefighters say outbreak will obstruct emergency service, evacuations as wildfire season closes in Fire is seen near Getty Center in Los Angeles, the United States, Oct. 28, 2019. Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes after a fast-moving wildfire erupted early Monday morning near the famous Getty Center in Los Angeles in the western U.S. state of California. Qian Weizhong | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images Firefighters across the country are ill or under quarantine. Others worry they'll contract the coronavirus in crowded base camps during wildfire outbreaks. This year, preparations have stalled. The pandemic has hit the country's already strained emergency services, raising concerns over inadequate disaster relief during peak fire season. In wildfire-prone states like California and Washington, the outbreak has already strained emergency resources and hindered preparation for the upcoming season. Wildfires typically start in mid-May and will be made worse this year by low spring snowpack and a dry winter up North. "There's a lot of anxiety," said Tim Edwards, president of CAL FIRE Local 2881. "When we have firefighters falling ill, we're not going to have personnel to respond appropriately to fires. And the fires will get bigger and more destructive." Emma Newburger 9:41 am: UK coronavirus death toll rises by 621 to 4,934 The United Kingdom's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 621 to 4,934 on April 4, the health ministry said. A total of 195,524 people had been tested, of which 47,806 tested positive, the health ministry said. Reuters 9:39 am: The Streaming Wars may be put on hold during quarantines as free content takes over Quarantines have boosted streaming video usage but spiking job losses may not bode well for subscription video services. Big media companies have started to offer free video offerings for content that is typically pay-walled. User-generated free services like Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube may ultimately be the winners over all subscription services. Alex Sherman 9:32 am: Coronavirus could impact military readiness, Esper says U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said there "could be an impact" on military readiness from the coronavirus pandemic. "All the units report they're very capable. They remain very ready," Esper said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We have had to cancel exercises. We've had to constrain basic training, for example, but we think those are all manageable." Kevin Stankiewicz 9:15 am: Pope celebrates Palm Sunday without the public in St. Peter's VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - FEBRUARY 02: Pope Francis celebrates the Holy Mass on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, in St. Peter's Basilica on February 02, 2019 in Vatican City, Vatican. Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis | Corbis News | Getty Images Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday Mass without the public because of the coronavirus pandemic, which he said should focus people's attention on what's most important, despite heavy hearts using one's life to serve others. "Today, in the tragedy of a pandemic, in the face of the many false securities that have now crumbled, in the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon our hearts, Jesus says to each one of us: 'Courage, open your heart to my love,'" Francis said. Francis urged people to hold fast to "what really matters in our lives." "The tragedy we are experiencing summons us to take seriously the things that are serious, and not to be caught up in those that matter less, to rediscover that life is of no use if not used to serve others," the pontiff said in his homily. In a remark directed to young people, Francis said: "Dear friends, look at the real heroes who come to light these days: they are not famous, rich and successful people." Instead, he said, "They are those who are giving themselves in order to serve others. Feel called yourselves to put your lives on the line." Associated Press 8:55 am: Map of the outbreak in New York City 8:50: How to protect yourself from the coronavirus at the grocery store With most Americans living under-stay-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic, trips to the grocery store are one of the few reasons people can venture out. However, with the virus continuing to spread, many may wonder how they can best protect themselves from getting sick if they do need to go shopping. Consumers should first evaluate their own risk level for catching the virus before deciding to visit a grocery store, according to Karen Hoffmann, a registered nurse and the immediate past president of The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Those who are highly immunosuppresed, have cancer, are on certain medications or are over the age of 65, should consider other options such as buying online or having someone else shop for them, according to Hoffmann. Before visiting the store, shoppers should also have a solid plan of what they're going to buy and prioritize what they they need. "People should try to think in terms of buying at least two weeks' worth so they can minimize the number of trips that they're actually taking to the grocery store," Hoffmann said. Hannah Miller 8:45 am: Pharmacies in New York City struggle to keep key medications stocked amid coronavirus outbreak As tens of thousands of people test positive in New York City and many more show symptoms and are presumed to have the virus, communities are turning to their neighborhood pharmacies for prescription and over-the-counter medicines to alleviate their symptoms. The unprecedented demand created by the global pandemic is creating shortages for even basic over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol, as supply chains strain from the manufacturers that produce the medications to the wholesalers that deliver them to pharmacies, making it extraordinarily difficult to keep shelves fully stocked for key items in hot zones like New York. "I never thought a pharmacy in the 21st century can run out of essentials, the most basic medications," said Emanuel Simhayev, a pharmacist in Astoria, Queens. "When you face this hardship you cannot really help much. You do your best." Spencer Kimball 8:40 am: Trump says 1,000 military personnel deploying to NYC, warns coming week is toughest yet New Delhi, April 5 : FICCI has suggested announcement of a special liquidity line for non-banking financial companies (NBFC) from banks among other measures to support the NBFCs amid the coronavirus crisis. As per the industry body, cash inflows of the NBFC will suffer due to moratorium of three months and the impact of a higher incidence of credit costs, cash outflows may not commensurately reduce as NBFCs have increasingly moved towards financing flows from the capital markets where the moratorium does not apply. In a note, it has also suggested allocation of a significant amount from the targeted long term repo operation (TLTRO) to the NBFCs. "We would accordingly request a special liquidity line to NBFCs from banks as well as a significant allocation from the TLTRO operations mandatorily flowing to the NBFCs," it said. This could be in two forms as per FICCI, with additional 10 per cent loan by banks under a special COVID-19 program and an amount of 10 per cent of total borrowings as refinance against existing listed NCDs held by the NBFCs and HFCs also. It also requested the RBI to support NBFCs by temporarily amending the definition of non-performing assets (NPA). Following the announcement made by the RBI on the need to provide moratorium of term loans, NBFCs will be able to offer this relaxation to their borrowers only to the extent they are supported by their liability side, the FICCI note said. It added that the liabilities profile of an NBFC is about 40-50 per cent from the banking system and the other 50-60 per cent is from other segments like capital markets, retail public lenders and so on. These other than banking segments of lenders are not allowed to provide moratorium under the RBI relaxation considering the mode of lending and hence this would in turn limit the ability of NBFCs to offer moratorium, which may give birth to large NPAs on the NBFC books, since largely all sectors are affected by Covid-19 either directly or indirectly. "To address this issue, the RBI is requested to support the NBFC sector by temporarily amending the NPA definition, such that NPAs would be reckoned if past due for 180 days (instead of 90 days past due as is currently the provision)." This takes into account the three-month moratorium window that has in any case been considered by the RBI. The Special Mention Account definitions may also be accordingly revised wherein the SMA1 definition be changed from 1-30 days to 1-90 days and SMA2 definition be changed from 31-90 days to 91-180 days to address this situation. A similar kind of relaxation was also granted by the regulator in the year 2008, it said, adding that this temporary additional days' extension in NPA calculation would ease out the NPAs for NBFCs. Among other measures, it has suggested that there should be a standstill on recognition of past overdue by borrowers till June end. It said that NBFCs and HFCs are also not able to contact customers to collect their dues. Borrowers will see a long-term impact and they will not be able to pay EMIs for next few months. They will also not be able to clear overdues as on February-end. Hence, we request that this moratorium should also be applicable to all delinquent and overdue loans as on February 29, 2020. There should therefore be a standstill on their recognition of past overdue till June end, FICCI recommended. Staying safe at home during the coronavirus pandemic is a luxury afforded the rich while low-income workers have no choice but to be out and about and travel to work, according to analysis of smartphone location data. Around 297 million Americans - about 90 percent of the population - have now been ordered to stay home after at least 38 states have issued lockdowns. But while the rich have holed up in their homes or even fled to their second homes in rural and beachside towns to hideout from the outbreak, poorer people across the US are continuing to move around despite lockdown rules and have an increased risk of catching the killer virus, smartphone location data from Cuebig and analyzed by the New York Times has revealed. This worrying trend lays bare the mounting evidence that the poorest in society are most at risk of being exposed to the deadly illness. Analysis of smartphone location data shows people in all income groups are moving around less than they did before the outbreak, but richer people are staying home far more, especially during the working week Lower-income neighborhoods, such as Queens and the Bronx in New York City, have already been some of the hardest-hit areas by the outbreak. Wealthy people have been able to escape densely populated cities like New York to flee to their summer oasis in the Hamptons. They also have more job security and benefits. And, as the data suggests, they may also be in a position where they can stay at home more easily and practice social distancing. The data showed that people in all income groups are moving around less than they did before the outbreak, but richer people are staying home far more, especially during the working week. Esential grocery store workers in Amagannsette (pictured). Staying safe at home during the coronavirus pandemic is a luxury afforded the rich while low-income workers have no choice but to be out and about and travel to work, according to analysis of smartphone location data The Hamptons, New York: While the rich have holed up in their homes or even fled to their second homes in rural and beachside towns to hideout from the outbreak, poorer people across the US are continuing to move around Across almost every US state, richer people also started limiting their movements days before the poor, meaning they had a headstart on social distancing practices before the pandemic escalated. In metro areas under stay-at-home orders which have the greatest difference in wealth between the richest and the poorest, the richest have almost halted movement completely. People in lower-income neighborhoods in these metro areas also drastically reduced their movement, but there was a renewed spike in movements after the third weekend of March - the start of the next workweek. In areas where the difference between the richest and poorest is less stark, both groups continued to move around. Around 297 million Americans - about 90 percent of the population - have now been ordered to stay home after at least 38 states have issued lockdowns. But for essential workers - many of whom have low incomes - it is business as usual Movement data shows a worrying trend that the poorest in society are most at risk of being exposed to the deadly illness. This is likely linked to the nature of jobs by income level Essential workers have no choice but to travel to work - and often on packed subways 'People want to talk about this virus as an equal opportunity pathogen, but it's really not,' Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a doctor and public health professor at Columbia University, told the Times. 'It's going right to the fissures in our society.' One reason for the disparity in movement is the types of jobs the richest and poorest in society hold. Many of the jobs classed as essential amid the pandemic are those often held by lower socioeconomic groups, such as grocery store workers, care home workers, warehouse staff and delivery drivers. If they quit, they will often not be entitled to claim unemployment benefits. So these workers have no choice but to travel to work - and often on packed subways. 'The people at this income, they're either furloughed and not coming in to work, or they are essential construction, grocery cashiers, workers in long-term care institutions,' Matthew Rae, who directs a program on health care markets at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told the Times. In contrast, many high-income jobs are either non-essential or desk-based meaning wealthier workers are now either working from home or have been furloughed. Home care worker Adarra Benjamin, 26, is worried about the dangers of catching coronavirus but cannot afford to leave her job and travels 20 miles a day to get to it by bus 'Covid-19 is exposing a lot of the structural disadvantages that low-income people face,' including a lack of job security and uneven access to health care, said Adie Tomer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who has studied the essential work force, to the Times. 'The well-off are employed in industries where they are at a desk, and so there are some advantages built into these high-income neighborhoods during this pandemic.' Essential workers have begun striking and raising the alarm over the risks they are going through in their duties to help keep the economy up and running and ensuring Americans can get the essential goods they need. US Postal Service workers in California and Florida blew the whistle this week sayind they are being forced to work in unsanitary conditions in post offices. This came after Amazon workers went on strike Monday claiming that the company had not provided adequate protective gear or cleaned the Staten Island warehouse after at least seven workers fell ill from coronavirus. Home care worker Adarra Benjamin, 26, is an essential worker in Illinois, Chicago. AMAZON WORKERS STRIKE OVER CORONAVIRUS RISK Amazon worker Christian Smalls led a walkout of staff on Monday, claiming that the company had not provided adequate protective gear or cleaned the Staten Island warehouse after at least seven workers fell ill from the virus. Staff have also claimed they are struggling to access sick pay and fear colleagues are coming to work ill - as they paint a grim picture of coronavirus protections inside warehouses where 'everything has been touched by 1,000 hands.' Smalls was fired by the company following the walkout, with the retailer claiming he violated a company-mandated 14-day quarantine after he was in contact with an infected employee. A leaked memo obtained by Vice News revealed top executives planned to smear Smalls and discussed placing him as the face of the workers' walkout. Advertisement She told the Times that she has to take the bus every morning 20 miles to get to her job, cooking, cleaning and shopping for elderly clients where she gets paid $13 an hour. Benjamin is worried about the dangers of catching coronavirus but cannot afford to leave her job. Her only option is to carry bottled soap and hand sanitizer with her, she said. 'I just really want people to understand that it's hard right now to go to work and live for other people,' she said. 'I want to make sure that they know we're all in this together. Everyone is scared, but the world is in this together.' The risk is greater still to low-income workers once they catch the virus, as they are less likely to have health insurance, Rae added. While the federal government's bailout package has offered relief for the millions of Americans who have found themselves jobless overnight, many feel the pleas of essential workers have so far been ignored. The Democrats have been calling for expanded occupational safety requirements and hazard pay for workers on the frontline, but so far neither have materialized. Higher movement among the poorest could also be attributed to them visiting grocery stores regularly. The stockpiling frenzy is a luxury only afforded the rich. Lower-income households often live paycheck to paycheck and so cannot stump up the cash to bulk buy several weeks' worth of groceries and essential goods. Instead, they must make regular trips to stores - another possible reason for the greater movement and greater risk. The headstart on the virus among the richest has also put them at an advantage, said Dr. Vasan, the Columbia professor. He told The Times that just a few days can make a big difference to the spread, said Dr. Vasan, the Columbia professor: 'It's just moving like wildfire through communities.' Vasan cautions that it is in the interest of both the rich and the poor to enable the poor to stay home. Pockets of people who are untested or who don't get the appropriate medical treatment can quickly become new clusters, he warned. AOC calls for coronavirus reparations for black and brown communities as map of NYC zip codes shows the hardest-hit areas are also the poorest Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants black and brown communities to get coronavirus reparations, because a history of inequality has left them at higher risk of suffering from the deadly virus. Her comments came after a stark New York City map showed that there are higher numbers of cases of coronavirus in poorer New York neighborhoods than in wealthier zip codes. In overcrowded areas like the South Bronx and Harlem, residents are still commuting to work, while in places such as Greenwich Village they can afford the luxury of working from home. 'COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities,' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Friday morning. Poor boroughs like Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx have disproportionately higher numbers of coronavirus cases than Manhattan and Staten Island She added: 'Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions. 'Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.' AOC's district, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens, has been among the hardest hit by coronavirus in New York City. People in poorer boroughs like Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens have been hit especially hard by coronavirus. The Democratic socialist has also criticized responses to coronavirus by both the federal and city government officials. A map of coronavirus cases by NYC zip code has revealed that the city's poorest neighborhoods are being hardest hit by the pandemic When Congress passed its $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, it excluded any specific funds set asides for disadvantaged communities. 'We're essentially rewarding and offering preferential treatment to landowners and folks who are more wealthy, and we're not offering that same kind of relief to renters,' Ocasio-Cortez told WNYC's 'The Brian Lehrer Show' on Wednesday. In February, the Association of American Medical Colleges cautioned the coronavirus outbreak would have a disproportionate effect on poor communities. Residents in those traditionally save less money than people in other communities and are more likely to live paycheck-to-paycheck. People living in poor communities also have a harder time avoiding crowded areas. AOC slammed the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for giving mortgage relief to people in the state but not those people rent. 'We're kind of creating a class and race issue,' Ocasio-Cortez said. The coronavirus test result of a 55-year-old man who has passed away recently came positive for COVID-19, said Varanasi District Magistrate (DM). The man returned from Kolkata on March 15 and died on April 3. "He had complained of cold and cough on March 27 and he then went for private treatments at two places. On April 2, a private doctor suggested him to visit BHU where he was directly taken to the ICU," said Kaushal Raj Sharma, District Magistrate (DM), Varanasi. The deceased person was diabetic and he was taking treatment for Blood Pressure (BP) and diabetes for many years. BHU had collected his samples twice. His samples were tested positive on April 4, Sharma added. As many as 10 family members of the deceased reside in Gangapur and that ward and several other areas have been sealed. "Senior citizens, BP and diabetic patients are the most vulnerable to COVID-19," said Sharma. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday said that there are 3030 active cases of coronavirus in India, out of which 266 have been cured/ discharged/ migrated. A total of 77 people have lost their lives to lethal infection so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hyderabad: The effect on pharmaceutical companies of the national lockdown has heavily impacted the supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, especially from China, while the export of drugs to Europe and the United States of America has been curtailed. The impact is particularly severe on biological medicines such as those used in the treatment of cancer, since they are transported by flights, which have been suspended. Dr Arun Singh, an economist, explains, raw material dependency on China is creating uncertainty regarding normalisation of supply chains. Since 85 per cent of active pharmaceutical ingredients come from China, till the lockdown in India ends, this problem will continue. Bulk drug intermediaries are imported from China (68 per cent), United States (four per cent) and Italy (three per cent). These too have been badly impacted. The production of in-house materials is continuing and that will ensure that the supply chain does not get too badly affected. The effect has been moderate in the case of vaccines and anti-viral drugs and other generic medicines for consumption in the country. Pharma companies are also rotating their staff, one lot coming to work for office and laboratory work for a certain number of days and working from home on other days when another lot works in the office. Production schedules have been chalked out according to the availability of the work force as many employees are not able to come to work due to the restrictions. Rajiv Nath, forum co-ordinator of the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry said, We have got some relief from states after continuous dialogue with them and with the local administration in the last one week. But there are many workers and officials who live close to inter-state borders and are unable to move despite having a pass. March 27, 2020 Jeff Wolin , (719) 748-3253 ext. 202 Florissant, CO Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, in response to guidance from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, is announcing additional modifications to operations to support federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As of Saturday, March 28, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument will offer limited services outside those that support visitor or resource protection. At Florissant Fossil Beds, the following services and operations will be suspended in order to comply with the Colorado order: The visitor center, visitor center parking lot, and adjacent picnic area and pit toilets will be closed. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at Florissant Fossil Beds is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website (www.nps.gov/flfo) and social media channels. All the Monuments trails remain accessible to the public in accordance with the latest federal, state, and local health guidance, in addition to entry fees being waived for visitors. Pets are not allowed on the Monuments trails. Service dogs that are specifically trained to perform a task to assist a person with a disability are permitted on a leash. Access to the Monuments trails is available at the Hornbek Homestead parking lot and the Barksdale picnic area. There are no restroom facilities available. The NPS encourages people who choose to visit Florissant Fossil Beds during this pandemic to adhere to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health authorities to protect visitors and employees. As services are limited, the NPS urges visitors to continue to practice Leave No Trace principles, including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces safe and healthy. Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus. Please check with individual parks for specific details about park operations. www.nps.gov California Knights of Columbus Respond to Coronavirus Announce at Home Initiative for Catholics Temporarily Unable to Attend Mass Due to COVID-19 NEWS PROVIDED BY Sit Stand Kneel April 4, 2020 SAN DIEGO, April 4, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- As the world confronts the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic, the Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world, announce a Spiritual Communion Service at Home program. Since the outbreak, "Knights have been active with their local dioceses delivering groceries to the homebound, assisting first responders, and offering many other charitable services, but continue to ask what more they can do to help in their communities," said Rene Trevino, State Advocate for the Knights of Columbus of California. "The home service is not meant to be a substitute for participation in a traditional Sunday liturgy and Mass," said Dave Abbott, State Deputy for the Knights of Columbus, California, "but is provided as a temporary means of renewing our commitment to the Lord and His table each week until such time as regular Masses resume." State Deputy Abbot also encourages those who use the service to continue supporting their home parishes financially according to their means during this time of crisis, and to take advantage of the live streaming of Masses while away from direct participation in the sacraments. This initiative also corresponds with the 2015 mandate of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson for the Knights to build the domestic church, a term that refers to the family, the smallest body of gathered believers in Christ. Leaders across the Knights' vast network have thrown down the gauntlet for the parent(s) in each family to prepare to lead their family in strengthening the domestic church which is dedicated to the well-being and support of Catholic family life. Emphasizing the importance of finding creative ways to keep holy the Sabbath at home, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said, "I highly recommend Spiritual Communion Service at Home for our Catholic families, to rediscover the communion of family life, to remain in spiritual communion with the family of faith that is the Church, and to continue to keep the Lord's day holy for now, as we must, at home, rather than at church." Organizers believe efforts to strengthen the domestic church during this difficult time will help keep the fires of faith burning in everyone's hearts until we can stand together again at Mass. The Spiritual Communion Service operates in accordance with USCCB guidelines with permissions granted through April 15 at which time reapplication will be made should there be a continued need. Access installments at (www.sitstandkneel.com). SOURCE Sit Stand Kneel CONTACT: James Aitchison, 626-627-1318, james@aitchison.us Related Links www.sitstandkneel.com Share Tweet Roberta Gorman is the new NPS Structural Fire Prevention Program Manager NPS News Release Date: March 12, 2020 Contact: Candice Stevenson, 208.387.5239 Roberta Gorman has been selected as the new structural fire prevention program manager for the National Park Service (NPS) Structural Fire Program under the Division of Fire and Aviation Management (DFAM). In her new role, Roberta will be responsible for the Structural Fire Prevention Program, which centers on the preservation of life and the protection of NPS buildings and their contents from structure fires. Roberta has more than 19 years of experience as a federal employee and nearly 8 years as a federal contractor. She began her career at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as a lead interpreter and supervisory park ranger/education specialist. She graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences and recently completed an Associate of Science in Fire Services Administration from Idaho State University. No stranger to the Structural Fire Program, Robertas interest in structural fire began at Lake Mead National Recreation Area where she completed her first firefighter class as a seasonal employee and grew as she became certified as a Firefighter I and II by the State of Indiana. In 2008, she began working for the Structural Fire Program part-time from Badlands National Park, designing educational presentations, updating the programs website, and preparing newsletters. Since 2012, Roberta has worked as a contractor involved in most aspects of the Structural Fire Program in Boise, ID. She has managed the structural fire protection internship program, completed A123 audits, created policy, collaborated with external programs, and coordinated suppression training. Prior to moving to the Boise area in 2010, Roberta served as the lead voluntary service specialist for Veterans Affairs at the VA Black Hills Health Care System in Sturgis, SD. She managed a volunteer program consisting of 500 volunteers at two medical centers and 13 community-based outpatient clinics that served the needs of area veterans. Brian Johnson, chief of Structural Fire for DFAM, is excited to have Roberta in her new role, Roberta has worked for us for a long time and has a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of the Structural Fire Program. She has a passion for the NPS and the Structural Fire Program that is sure to provide quality work in her new role. We look forward to seeing where she will take the program in the future. Working for the NPS again in the Structural Fire Program is a wonderful opportunity and Im thankful to have been selected. Ive enjoyed experiencing the programs growth over the years. I look forward to continuing to learn from and work with structural fire leaders throughout the Service who strive to protect lives and structures from the devasting effects of structure fire, shared Roberta. Roberta resides in Idaho with her husband Mark, a retired NPS employee, and their three children. They enjoy raising chickens, hiking, and exploring backcountry roads in their Jeep, Firecracker. Roberta will be stationed at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, ID and will begin her new position on March 15, 2020. Issues with attracting migrant labour due to the Covid-19 pandemic could result in "huge challenges" for Irish fruit and vegetable growers, according to the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA). Paul Brophy, IFA chairman of horticulture and head of Brophy Produce, which grows broccoli in Naas, said farmers would face considerable challenges in growing fruit and vegetables if the pandemic hadn't cleared by June. He said he had heard of some migrants choosing not to leave their countries due to the virus, which was leading to some farmers questioning whether to plant seeds. Brophy believes issues facing the sector, which typically attracts up to 2,000 workers each year, could immediately affect soft fruit growers, who start picking berries soon. A lack of migrant labour arriving could hit stocks of some affected growers' produce. Other seasonal growers don't start until June. Flight cancellations have disrupted the routes taken by migrant labour. David Keeling, chief executive of Keelings Retail, an Irish fruit and vegetable grower, wholesaler and brand, said he is considering chartering flights to ferry workers here as a back-up plan should routes be cancelled in the future. "We are open to anything," he said. "At the moment there are still clear flights to the UK and from the UK to Ireland. That's the first choice. "In terms of chartering flights and those different things that would be a back-up plan if it became necessary. "We basically listed the options. Number one is the normal routine. If that doesn't work, then we don't think it is impossible to charter flights, because people are doing it from the UK." Keeling, who said his business had made progress in attracting overseas workers, believes the European Commission helped the industry by designating horticulture as critical. He admitted, though, that the sector was in uncertain times. "For us to predict how the next two months will go, which is when we will find out a lot in terms of staff, we are more uncertain than we have ever been," he said. "We hope there will be support in terms of ensuring critical workers are there to provide food for the nation. We are hopeful, but not certain." Over the past two weeks, Keelings has advertised for roles at its farm aimed at people in Ireland. Keeling said it was still early days but admitted interest had been reasonably limited. "It could be a good news story," he said, "if people come and help keep the nation fed." Paducah's 56th Dogwood Trail April 8-15 Apr. 03, 2020 By Apr. 03, 2020 PADUCAH - Paducah Civic Beautification Board encourages Paducah to "light your dogwoods, blooming trees, front doors and American flags". On April 8th, Paducah's 56th Annual Dogwood Trail will officially open for viewing. Jackie Smith, Dogwood Trail Chairman says, "Celebrating the resilience and beauty of the dogwood tree seems fitting while we as a city face the challenges of COVID-19. We ask that our community light their dogwood trees, landscaping and most importantly their American Flags, to celebrate our traditions and patriotism. Please use good judgement and practice safe distancing as you work in your yards using what you already have in your possession to enhance natures beauty. As a show of unity, the prize money this year will be donated to Community Kitchen to help those most in need at this time. Next year we will resume awarding prizes to our best on and off the trail. Thank you to Paducah Power for graciously sponsoring this years Dogwood Trail." The Dogwood Trail is marked with signs leading walkers, bikers and drivers throughout Paducah-from neighborhood to neighborhood. Viewers can enter the trail at any point and signs (like the one to the left) will signal you when to turn. If no signs, just follow the road you are on until a sign appears. The trail is beautiful both day and night. Accounting Technicians Ireland (ATI) has donated 20,000 to support Pieta House in the charitys work to highlight the psychological challenges of the fight against Covid-19. Gillian Doherty, Chief Operations Officer with ATI, said the Institute had made the donation on behalf of its community of 10,000 members and students to support mental health services in these unprecedented times. Although ATIs Annual Charity Lunch scheduled for April 24 has been cancelled, its nominated charity, Pieta House, will not be at a loss as ATI has committed 20,000 to help support people in distress. We as human beings are not always aware of our capacity for personal resilience and in these uncertain times, we may need additional support, said Ms Doherty. With the help of the frontline staff of Pieta House, we can avail of their experience and expertise in recovering wellness. ATIs President and Grant Thornton Partner Sinead Donovan said support for Pieta House is now more important than ever as peoples psychological health comes into focus as a result of the restrictions on daily life. The core theme of our Annual Charity Lunch was to have been wellness, with a particular emphasis on mental health, said Ms Donovan. Charities like Pieta House require strong support at this time as peoples psychological wellbeing comes into focus given the restrictions on daily life. Pieta House, which has recently postponed its Annual Darkness Into Light walk, warmly welcomed the donation. For those in difficulty, Pieta House can be contacted free at 1800 247 246 or by texting HELP to 51444. Pakistan has quarantined 20,000 worshippers and is still searching for tens of thousands more who attended an Islamic gathering in Lahore last month despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic, officials said Sunday. Authorities said they want to test or quarantine those who congregated at the event held by the Tablighi Jamaat -- an Islamic missionary movement -- between March 10-12 over fears they are now spreading COVID-19 across Pakistan and overseas. More than 100,000 people went to the meeting, organisers said, undeterred by government requests for it to be cancelled as the virus hit the country. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have so far quarantined 5,300 Tablighis or Islamic preachers who attended the Lahore meeting. "Health officials are conducting tests for coronavirus and some of them have tested positive," Ajmal Wazir, a spokesperson for the region, told AFP on Sunday. Wazir said thousands of Tablighis from his province were stranded in other regions because of the closure of major highways across the country. About 7,000 have been quarantined in the central Punjab city Lahore, while in southern Sindh province up to 8,000 Tablighis have been quarantined, government officials said. Dozens more have been forced to self-isolate in southwestern Balochistan province. The Tablighi mosques and the movement's other places of worship were shut down or marked as quarantine centres at the end of March. At least 154 worshippers who went to last month's Jamaat had tested positive for coronavirus, with two fatalities, authorities told AFP. Coronavirus has killed at least 45 people in Pakistan but with only limited testing available, observers worry the number is far higher. Tablighi Jamaat is considered one of the world's largest faith-based movements, with millions of followers, particularly in South Asia, and sends preachers to countries to spread Islam's ideas. Numerous foreign nationals attended this year from countries including China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Afghanistan, organisers said. About 1,500 foreigners are now quarantined in Pakistan, but others left the country without being tested. Gaza's health ministry confirmed last month its first two cases of coronavirus were Palestinians who had attended the gathering. Pakistan's science minister Fawad Chaudhry earlier expressed exasperation that the event had gone ahead, blaming the "stubbornness of the clergy". Organisers said they cut the gathering short following advice from the authorities, however at the time they said it was due to rainy weather. Similar Tablighi Jamaat congregations held in Malaysia and India during the coronavirus pandemic have been blamed for spreading the virus to other nations. ak-kf-la-mak/sjd/ecl/rbu/it The government is planning to form a panel comprising industry leaders such as Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran which will develop a technology platform to contain the Covid-19 outbreak. The platform will help enable social distancing after the lockdown ends and alert people if they have been exposed to the virus. The committee will also be tasked with improving the performance of Aarogya Setu app, particularly privacy issues, within three months. Aarogya Setu app was created by the eGov Mobile Apps division of NIC. The app would be used in contact tracing of the suspect coronavirus cases, reducing time and error in manual identification. The app has permission to use the phone's Bluetooth and once it comes within close proximity with another phone, it will identify the other device with its Bluetooth prints. "This is a one-of-a-kind exercise to enable social distancing among people even as we allow them to move about freely after the lockdown, and to allow prompt evaluation if they have been possibly exposed to the virus," a report in The Economic Times cited a senior government official as saying. Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Maharashtra worst-affected state with 490 COVID-19 cases; death tally at 24 The panel will also examine proposals from academicians, technology and healthcare professionals and people on tackling the Covid-19 outbreak. Principal Scientific Advisor K VijayRaghavan, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman RS Sharma, Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Sawhney and Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash will also be part of the committee. The panel will study how technology is being used globally to display the places where people infected with Covid-19 or with mild symptoms of the pandemic are living. The information would be important in places that witness large congregations such as schools, offices and markets. "The committee will take a call on various privacy issues that could be involved in tracking. For instance, in Europe, telcos are sharing anonymised data with health departments in Italy, Austria and Germany to uphold privacy of individuals while alerting others," the official told ET. Coronavirus in India: ICMR data raises questions on COVID-19 infection rate "Once a Covid-19 patient is identified, with the person's consent, health officials could redact the location trail of the patient and broadcast it to others." In countries such as Taiwan, a mobile phone app was being used to find the location of people quarantined at home. "Since India is such a large country, we will need to develop solutions that are workable here and also use the app and technology to inform people what are the places closest to them where they can find essential items such as masks." By Aseem Thapliyal As India reached the halfway point in the 21-day coronavirus lockdown on April 4, some states and rail and airline operators were considering measures to relax restrictions in phases from April 15. Simultaneously, the Centre has drawn up a cluster containment strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas. According to sources, all the 17 railway zones and divisions are preparing plans to identity trains for phased resumption of operations from April 15, taking into account the availability of rakes. Passenger services were suspended from March 25 for 21 days due to the national lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A Railways official, however, said no final decision has been taken on the restoration of passenger train services. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2 told chief ministers to focus on COVID-19 containment measures -- testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine -- with a common goal of ensuring minimum loss of life, and pitched for a joint strategy for a "staggered" exit from the ongoing 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 According to data provided by the state governments, the number of COVID-19 deaths inched towards 100 on Saturday and confirmed infections crossed 3,000. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state government was considering relaxation of the lockdown restrictions in a staggered manner. "Discussions are on about whether the lockdown can be relaxed in phases. Strict rules will have to be followed in the containment zones," Tope said in a live webcast. Earlier in the day, he had said the Maharashtra government may not lift the lockdown from April 15 if people did not observe discipline and the number of COVID-19 cases kept rising. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said lifting of lockdown in the state will depend upon the compliance by people to the government directives. He reiterated that no permission will be granted to religious or sporting events in the state till further notice to avoid mass gathering of people. Maharashtra accounted for nearly 550 of the over 3,000 COVID-19 cases in the country with the tally for Mumbai alone being 330, according to state data. The death toll for the state stood at 26. A central official said all measures to implement the lockdown have been effective till now and the supply of essential goods and services has been "satisfactory". Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written to states and Union Territories to ensure that the supply chain of essential items is not obstructed during the lockdown period, Punya Salila Srivastava, a joint secretary in the Union Home Ministry, told reporters. Budget carrier AirAsia India said bookings for its flights are open from April 15, but it is open to any change in case aviation regulator DGCA issues fresh directives on resumption. Domestic and international commercial flights in the country are suspended till April 14. Most of the airlines have commenced taking bookings for their flights from April 15 onwards. On April 2, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said airlines are free to take ticket bookings for any date after April 14. No-frills carriers IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir said they are taking bookings for domestic flights starting April 15. In the case of SpiceJet and GoAir, they have started selling tickets for international flights from May 1. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also discussed the detailed action plan with his officials for the state to follow after the lockdown comes to an end. "The boundaries of the state are international, inter-state and inter-district. Thus, movements at these places will also have to be taken care of," he was quoted as having said in an official statement released by the state government. To compensate the impact of the lockdown on the state's economy, he said discussions should be held with the state and district level bankers from now and a strategy be prepared accordingly. According to a Union Health ministry document, the government has drawn out a containment plan as clusters posing high risk of further spread of COVID-19 cases have emerged in several states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana as also Delhi and Ladakh. The cluster containment strategy would "include geographic quarantine, social distancing measures, enhanced active surveillance, testing all suspected cases, isolation of cases, quarantine of contacts and risk communication to create awareness among public on preventive public health measures", it said. As far as the evidence for implementing geographic quarantine is concerned, the document said the "current geographic distribution of COVID-19 mimics the distribution of H1N1 pandemic influenza". "This suggests that while the spread of COVID-19 in our population could be high, it's unlikely that it will be uniformly affecting all parts of the country," the ministry said, stressing that this calls for differential approach to different regions of the country, while mounting a strong containment effort in hot spots. The government will lobby China through international forums to enforce its ban on the trade in wild animal meat. Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs Jason Wood said it was an "absolute no-brainer" to close down Asian wet markets because of "barbaric cruelty to wildlife" and major health risks. A Chinese shopper wears a mask at a Beijing market. Credit:Getty Images A long-time wildlife campaigner, Mr Wood has pushed for harsher animal cruelty penalties and successfully lobbied his own party to ban trophy hunters importing rhino and lion body parts, including entire stuffed bodies, paws and skulls. He said wet markets were a proven health risk, citing the World Health Organisation, and many practised acts of animal cruelty. It should be noted that the fancy rat is not one that has put on airs. Rather, it is described as the domesticated form of the common Norway rat. It is known as Rattus norvgicus domestica, and is bred to be a household pet. The description Fancy comes from the idea that the rat is fancied, that its owners fancy it as a pet. Of the new cases, six are from Kasaragod district and one each from Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Palakkad and Kannur districts. (PTI) Thiruvananthapuram: Eleven people tested positive for coronavirus in Kerala on Saturday, three of whom had returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, taking the total number of COVID-19 patients in the state to 254, health minister K K Shailaja said. Of the new cases, six are from Kasaragod district and one each from Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Palakkad and Kannur districts, she said. "Five of the new cases confirmed today are those who returned from Dubai, three came back from the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin, one who came back from Nagpur and two got infected through primary contact locally," she said. In a relief to the health department, eight patients -- 7 from Kannur and one from Thiruvananthapuram -- were discharged. Kerala has so far reported 306 confirmed COVID-19 cases and as of now, 1,71,355 persons are under observation. "As many as 1,70,621 people are under home observation and 734 in hospitals and 174 persons were hospitalised today. A total of 9,744 samples of those who had symptoms were sent for testing and 8,586 reports were negative," Shailaja said. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan held a video conference with legislators and sought their cooperation in the "joint- fight" against the pandemic. He urged them to monitor community kitchens in their areas and ensure that food was made available to the needy. Opposition Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala wanted the government to allot a special fund for local self government institutions to fight the pandemic. Meanwhile, rapid testing for coronavirus started at Pothencode panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district, from where the second COVID-19 death was reported. The panchayat and a 3-km area around it has been locked down completely in an effort to track down all of those who had come in contact with the deceased man. The state had received 1,000 rapid testing kits on Friday and at least 2,000 more are expected on Sunday. With these kits, the results of COVID-19 tests, which takes at least 7-8 hours, will be out in 2.5 hours. As per the latest health ministry report, Kasaragod has 123 positive cases and 195 are in isolation wards. Neighbouring Kannur district has 47 positive cases and Ernakulam has 18 cases of COVID-19. Kozhikode district has the most number of people under observation in the state --21,934, followed by Palakkad where 19,325 are under observation. Caracas Condemns EU for Endorsing US Plan on Setting Transitional Venezuelan Government Sputnik News 06:52 GMT 04.04.2020 BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - Venezuela is condemning the European Union's endorsement of the United States' proposal to establish a transitional government in the Latin American country as silence in the face of Washington's "aggression against Venezuelan sovereignty," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Gorge Arreaza has said. "Venezuela condemns the support by the EU of unconstitutional and interventionist US initiatives. [Venezuela] condemns the EU's silence in the face of the [US President Donald] Trump administration's aggression against Venezuelan sovereignty," Arreaza wrote on Twitter. In March, the United States voiced the proposal to establish an interim government in Venezuela as part of a broader plan to resolve the Venezuelan crisis through what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called a peaceful democratic transition. The EU has endorsed the proposal as coinciding with its own views on how to achieve peace in Venezuela through negotiations. Under Washington's Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela, the interim Venezuelan government would consist of National Assembly members agreed by both the incumbent Venezuelan government and the opposition. Washington said it would lift sanctions from the Latin American country if the plan was observed, including its part on holding presidential and general elections in 6-12 months. The political situation in Venezuela derailed in January 2019 after opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president. Several countries, including the US, endorsed him as Venezuela's leader and urged the incumbent president, Nicolas Maduro, to step down. The US then imposed several rounds of sanctions against Venezuelan officials and entities, blocking $7 billion in assets belonging to Venezuela's national oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and its subsidiaries. Maduro, whose presidency was supported by Russia and China, among other states, has denounced the sanctions as an illegal attempt to seize the country's sovereign assets. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Maharashtra Police personnel on deputation in the CID and ACB have now been called for regular duties as the state police force is facing shortage of manpower in its efforts to strictly enforce the lockdown. Maharashtra Director General of Police Subodh Jaiswal issued an order recently, directing the Crime Investigation Department (CID), the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) cell, considered as non- regular units, to release the personnel on deputation there. These personnel have been asked to report to their respective police units immediately. Personnel of these special units are appointed on deputation from the state police force. "Additional manpower is required to maintain law and order in the state and to enforce the lockdown amid the increasing coronavirus cases," a police official said. In its order, the DGP office said the coronavirus is spreading its tentacles in the state, hence preventive measures are needed to be taken immediately. "The current staff available with Commissioners of Police and Superintendents of Police is falling short and hence all non-executive staff and officials should be released as per the need," the order said. There are nearly 2.20 lakh personnel on Maharashtra Police rolls, including the 10 per cent staff serving in the CID, ACB and PCR. After the lockdown was announced to contain the spread of coronavirus, the entire police staff was deployed for its enforcement. Units of the Homeguard were also roped in for field duties to share the burden at various places. However, there is still shortage of security personnel for bandobast duties as the existing police force is stretched to its limits, the official said. Deployment of additional force could be an indication that the 21-day lockdown period may get extended, if not in the entire state but in specific areas that would require more security measures, sources said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) King Mohammed VI has granted pardon to 5,654 detainees and gave orders to take all the necessary measures to strengthen the protection of inmates, particularly against the spread of the Coronavirus epidemic, the Ministry of Justice announced this Sunday. As part of the attention paid by the Sovereign to inmates in penitentiary and rehabilitation institutions, the Commander of the Faithful has granted his pardon to 5.654 detainees, the ministry underlined in a statement. The prisoners who were granted the royal pardon were selected on the basis of human and strictly objective criteria, which take into account their age, their health condition, the length of detention, as well as good conduct, good behavior and discipline they have shown throughout their incarceration, the statement said. Given the exceptional circumstances associated with the health emergency order, this process will be carried out in successive stages. In accordance with the high royal instructions, the beneficiaries of the Royal pardon will be held under surveillance, will be submitted to medical tests, and quarantined, at their homes, to safeguard their security. The Monarch also gave instructions to take all necessary measures to strengthen the protection of inmates, particularly against the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, the Justice Ministry pointed out. Donald Trump has condemned the former captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier who was relieved of his command after sounding the alarm about a coronavirus outbreak onboard. The president was asked about the US Navys decision on Thursday to remove Captain Brett Crozier during his latest White House press conference on the crisis on Saturday, speaking as the number of crewmen infected aboard the 5,000-strong nuclear-powered vessel rose by 13 per cent in 24 hours to 155. Captain Crozier had written a scathing memo about the Navys failure to do more to protect his staff and requested a chance to take the bulk of his crew ashore for treatment in isolation, a move that led to his dismissal by acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, who said he had demonstrated extremely poor judgement. We are not at war... Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to take care of our most trusted asset, ours sailors, the captain said in his controversial dispatch to superior officers. Mr Trump yesterday agreed his actions were not appropriate. Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Show all 25 1 /25 Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of empty Bourbon street in the French Quarter amid the coronavirus pandemic in New Orleans, Louisiana Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Nyla Clark, 3, accompanied by her mother, Chavonne Clark, sits in a baby stroller at a corner in New Orleans, hoping to get a few dollars from an occasional passerby. Clark was a phlebotomist with a local company until she lost her job because of the coronavirus pandemic. She is waiting for unemployment The Advocate via AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man boards a streetcar Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Jackson Square, normally bustling with tourists, is seen deserted AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Words from Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" are painted onto plywood covering the window of a closed business AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Street performer Eddie Webb looks around the nearly deserted French Quarter looking to make money AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Boarded up businesses Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans The normally bustling tourist mecca of Bourbon Street lies deserted in the early afternoon Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A sign along I-10 informing persons who travel from Louisiana to quarantine AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man cycles along Jackson Square AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Elena Likaj, prevention department manager at Odyssey House Louisiana (OHL) which runs a drive-through testing site, takes the temperature of New Orleans resident Peyton Gill Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man walks his dog past a boarded up business on Frenchmen Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans An empty Bourbon street Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A meal is distributed at the Lantern Light Ministry at the Rebuild Center Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A woman walks in the French Quarter Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans People practice social distancing as they queue up for a meal at the Lantern Light Ministry at the Rebuild Center Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans French Quarter Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A sign is pictured in the French Quarter amid the outbreak Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of Bourbon Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans National Guard members walk down Rampart Street AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man rides his bicycle in front of a boarded up French Quarter restaurant Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A shuttered business is pictured on Decatur Street AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans The normally bustling tourist mecca of Bourbon Street lies deserted Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of Canal Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A New Orleans firefighter works to contain an early morning fire Reuters I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam and people got off in Vietnam and perhaps you dont do that in the middle of a pandemic... History would say you dont necessarily stop and let your sailors get off, the president began, blaming the man at the centre of the storm for a crisis he was seeking to avert. More importantly, he wrote a letter, he continued. The letter was a five-page letter from a captain and the letter was all over the place. Thats not appropriate. I dont think thats appropriate. And these are tough people. These are tough, strong people. I thought it looked terrible to be honest with you. Now theyve made their decision - I didnt make the decision. [But] I thought it was terrible what he did. To write a letter? This isnt a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship thats nuclear powered and he shouldnt be talking that way in a letter. He could call and ask and suggest, Mr Trump concluded. I agree with their decision 100 per cent. Videos circulated on social media on Friday of the captain being cheered by his former charges as he departed the Roosevelt in Guam, the assembled crowd hugely appreciative of his efforts to save their lives and visibly incensed by his fate. And thats how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had! exclaims a loyal sailor in one of the posts, amid thunderous applause. On Friday, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said defence secretary Mark Esper supported Acting Secretary Modlys decision to fire Captain Crozier from his command job and that Mr Esper he had lost confidence in the captain. Army general Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, subsequently told Fox News that he too backed Mr Modlys judgement but accepted it was a difficult decision and reaffirmed that the secretary is accountable to the American people. A group of prominent Democratic senators have nevertheless formally requested that the Pentagons independent inspector general investigate the firing. Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland led the push and were joined by 15 others, including Bernie Sanders and his former 2020 rivals Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris. John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, others to lead day of prayer, fasting amid COVID-19 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A cadre of renowned Christian leaders, including theologian John Piper and Joni Eareckson Tada, are leading a prayer and fasting call Saturday to intercede for the world in the throes of a pandemic. The global evangelical group The Gospel Coalition is facilitating the day. In a video promoting the effort, TGC President Julius Kim explained that they envisioned the day having three parts: morning prayer where Christians pray with a guide based on Psalm 27; a mid-day prayer where participants pray with others in their communities, families, or small groups; and an evening prayer on TGC's Facebook page with Christians from around the world. "We want to pray to the Lord in faith, trusting what it says in passages like Psalm 10:17. 'O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear,'" he said, quoting the passage. Pastors and musicians such as Keith and Kristyn Getty will guide the evening hour. Among those involved are theologian and pastor Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie, pastor John Onwuchekwa, Bible teacher Jen Wilkin, scholar Ligon Duncan, and speaker and author Tada. "Much has already been lost, and the uncertainty of what more can be lost and when it will stop leaves people deeply anxious," Kim wrote on the group's website, noting that fasting and praying can unify Christians around the world amid social distancing and growing scattering. "But we worship a mighty and sovereign God who is not helpless. We cry out to him in our distress because he is steadfast and unchanging a mighty refuge in a world of storms." The pandemic besieged many nations in the height of Lent, the 40-day penitential season that precedes Easter. Holy Week begins April 5 with Palm Sunday. As of Friday, the death toll from the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States reached 6,803 with 266,259 documented cases, according to Worldometers. "It doesnt take living in this world very long to feel the weight of its brokenness," wrote Sammy Rhodes, a campus minister with Reformed University Fellowship at the University of South Carolina, on the TGC site Friday, commenting on the worldwide disease outbreak. "Whether its a stroke or a deadly virus, we know the world is not as it should be. Everything is not whole. Everything is not in its right place. We do our best to manage things with some semblance of controlonly to find out (often quite suddenly) that the control we thought we had was a laughable illusion." "Wheres Jesus in all of this? Loving us in sickness, just as much as in health," he said. Recent surveys show many Americans have been increasingly turning to prayer, interceding for an end to the pandemic. Similarly, many are streaming church services online due to stay-at-home orders to prevent further spread of the virus, and are gathering in parking lots of hospitals to pray for medical personnel and patients inside. A team of the health department was attacked in a Muslim-dominated locality near Sherpur Chowk of Ludhiana on Sunday. Sahnewal senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Poonam said the incident took place in the afternoon when the health department workers were visiting the street number 4 for ferrying two persons suffering from flu. She said when the team reached a house, they were surrounded by some men and were assaulted with sticks. One of the health workers was thrashed badly. We have brought the matter to the notice of the authorities, said Dr Poonam. She added that the health workers sought the help of police after which they were rescued. The suspected flu patients were rushed to hospital. Moti Nagar additional station house officer (SHO) Surinder Singh said both the parities reached a compromise and refused to lodge any complaint. Civil surgeon Dr Raajesh Bagga said Deepak Uppal, the husband of area councillor Kitty Uppal, mediated to help them reach a compromise. Her new documentary The Justice Project premieres on Oxygen this Sunday. And reality star turned aspiring lawyer Kim Kardashian was hard at work plugging the film on her Instagram page the day before the big debut. The 39-year-old TV personality posted an album in which she reflected on dropping into a Zoom Georgetown class where speakers included recently released prisoners. Busy: Kim Kardashian reflected on Instagram about going to D.C.'s Correctional Treatment Facility 'to discuss the Georgetown Prison Scholars program with Dr. @marcmhoward' 'Back in July, I visited the Correctional Treatment Facility in Washington D.C. to discuss the Georgetown Prison Scholars program with Dr. @marcmhoward,' shared Kim, whose documentary features Marc M. Howard. 'Recently, I spoke to Dr. Marc as he teaches his course at Georgetown University. I seen a few familiar faces that were recently released from prison,' she wrote. 'They all spent over two decades in prison and they were also on the chat speaking to students as Dr. Marc teaches his course. Their names are Momolu Stewart, Halim Flowers & Roy Middleton.' Guest star: The 39-year-old TV personality posted an album in which she reflected on dropping into a Zoom Georgetown class where speakers included recently released prisoners Kim added: 'This makes me so happy to see them recently released from prison doing such great things.' She concluded: 'I cant wait for you guys to watch my documentary, to get a better understanding of the justice system and see what its like for someone like these men to get a second chance at life after prison. Tune-in' to my 2-Hour documentary #KKWTheJusticeProject this Sunday, April 5th at 7/6c on @oxygen.' The first review of the documentary was a bristling response from Variety that branded Kim's effort an 'unpleasant spectacle', as well as 'garish and gross'. Virtual reunion: She shared that during her guest appearance in the Zoom chat 'I seen a few familiar faces that were recently released from prison' Wisdom from experience: 'They all spent over two decades in prison and they were also on the chat speaking to students as Dr. Marc teaches his course,' explained Kim Free: 'Their names are Momolu Stewart, Halim Flowers & Roy Middleton,' Kim wrote Earlier this week she told Gayle King in a CBS interview: 'Well, honestly, this is the most important work that I've ever done.' Kim's work in this area first gained attention with the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother who spent more than two decades in jail on nonviolent drug charges. The reality TV diva paid a visit to the White House and appealed to President Donald Trump in a successful bid to gain clemency for Alice. The COVID-19 Assessment Centre is operating outside the emergency entrance at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. People should self-isolate and call 625-5900 or 1-888-294-6630 if they develop symptoms for the coronavirus. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 23:53:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, April 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five Yemeni women prisoners were killed Sunday when a shelling attack targeted the central prison in the southwestern province of Taiz, a security official told Xinhua. The local security source based in the city said on condition of anonymity that "a number of Houthi-fired shells indiscriminately struck the women's section at the central jail in Taiz province." He confirmed that the shells killed at least five women prisoners and wounded more than 20 others at the scene. The source accused the Houthi fighters stationed in Taiz's western part of launching an indiscriminate shelling attack against the city's central jail. Meanwhile, the government's health department in Taiz confirmed that "the Houthis committed a horrific crime by bombing the women's section of the central prison in Taiz." The city center of Taiz is currently under the control of the Yemeni government, while the outskirts of the city and areas in the countryside of the province are still witnessing armed confrontations between pro-government forces and the Houthi rebels. The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi rebels overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa. The observation of the National Sanitation Day must be strengthened but should mainly be targeted at cleaning markets and shopping centres to rid them of filth to ensure food and public safety. Colonel Eric Aggrey-Quarshie, the Director of Public Relations at the Ghana Armed Forces, told the media after the Military High Command, led by Lieutenant-General Obed Boamah Akwa, Chief of Defence Staff, toured the markets and the principal streets in Accra being cleaned to assess the progress of work. He said the nation would maximize the health benefits from the exercise when efforts from all stakeholders were coordinated to increase better hygiene and food safety in those areas. We should, therefore, look at the situation where we will make positive use of the national sanitation day and target our shopping areas, our markets for general cleaning, he emphasized. Major General Oppong Peprah, Chief of the Army Staff; Rear Admiral Seth Amoama, Chief of Naval Staff; Air Vice Marshal Frank Hanson, Chief of Air Staff and Brigadier Michael Amoah Ayisi, Chief Staff Officer, Army Headquarters, were part of the team that toured Central Business District. Also included were Brigadier-General Mohammed Abdulai, Director General, Joint Operations and Colonel Kenneth Kweku Kumi, Acting Command Support Service Brigade Group and other officers from the Support Service Brigade and Army Headquarters. They were accompanied by Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE). The Ghana Armed Forces has deployed 400 all rank officers to participate in the three-day major exercise, which started on Friday, to rid open public places in the capital of filth. It is being organised by the Ministry of Sanitation, through the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in collaboration with Zoomlion Ghana and other sanitation partners. On the clean-up exercise, Colonel Aggrey-Quashie said the exercise was a reinforcement of the Services relentless contribution to national development. He expressed satisfaction over the progress made so far and urged city authorities to sustain the cleaning activities. 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. Featured Video New York: In the days after China made the disclosure about its coronavirus outbreak, nearly 430,000 people arrived in the US on direct flights from the country, including thousands who travelled directly from Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, a report in The New York Times said. Over 1,300 direct flights from China to 17 US cities brought back hundreds of thousands of people before President Donald Trump imposed travel restrictions. "Since Chinese officials disclosed the outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness to international health officials on New Year's eve, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the United States on direct flights from China, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after President Trump imposed restrictions on such travel, according to an analysis of data collected in both countries, the report said. It added that testing at the airports and follow-ups with travellers coming from China was not stringent enough. During the first half of January, when Chinese officials were underplaying the severity of the outbreak, no travellers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus. Health screening began in mid-January, but only for a number of travellers who had been in Wuhan and only at the airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, it said. By that time, about 4,000 people had already entered the US directly from Wuhan, the report quoted VariFlight, an aviation data company based in China. The bulk of the 430,000 passengers, who were of multiple nationalities, arrived in January at airports spread across the length and breadth of the US-Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark and Detroit. Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, as American public health officials were only beginning to assess the risks to the US, the report said. According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 1.2 million coronavirus cases across the world, the highest being in the US (311,544) as of April 4. More than 64,000 people have died globally with 8,400 in the US. Even as severe restrictions on travel and movement of people were eventually put in place, flights continued this past week, with passengers travelling from Beijing to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, under rules that exempt Americans and some others from the clampdown that took effect on February 2. In all, 279 flights from China have arrived in the US since then, and screening procedures have been uneven, the report said. While President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that his travel measures impeded the virus' spread in the US and we're the ones that kept China out of here, the NYT report said analysis of the flight and other data shows the travel measures, however effective, may have come too late to have kept China out. Given that health officials now believe that as many as 25 per cent of people infected with the virus may never show symptoms, infectious-disease experts suspect that the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks after the first American case was confirmed in Washington State on January 20. In fact, no one knows when the virus first arrived in the US, it said. In January, before the broad screening was in place, there were over 1,300 direct passenger flights from China to the United States, according to VariFlight and two American firms, MyRadar and FlightAware. About 381,000 travellers flew directly from China to the United States that month, about a quarter of whom were American, according to data from the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. Several passengers arrived from China after transiting through other countries. While actual passenger counts for indirect fliers were not available, Sofia Boza-Holman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said they represented about a quarter of travellers from China. The report also added that about 60 per cent of travellers on direct flights from China in February were not American citizens, according to the most recently available government data. Most of the flights were operated by Chinese airlines after American carriers halted theirs. Unfortunately for some shareholders, the American Express (NYSE:AXP) share price has dived 32% in the last thirty days. That drop has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 34% in that time. Assuming nothing else has changed, a lower share price makes a stock more attractive to potential buyers. While the market sentiment towards a stock is very changeable, in the long run, the share price will tend to move in the same direction as earnings per share. So, on certain occasions, long term focussed investors try to take advantage of pessimistic expectations to buy shares at a better price. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). A high P/E ratio means that investors have a high expectation about future growth, while a low P/E ratio means they have low expectations about future growth. See our latest analysis for American Express How Does American Express's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers? American Express's P/E of 9.19 indicates some degree of optimism towards the stock. The image below shows that American Express has a higher P/E than the average (3.8) P/E for companies in the consumer finance industry. NYSE:AXP Price Estimation Relative to Market April 5th 2020 American Express's P/E tells us that market participants think the company will perform better than its industry peers, going forward. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So further research is always essential. I often monitor director buying and selling. 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. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers. Story continues American Express had pretty flat EPS growth in the last year. But over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have increased by 7.5%. Don't Forget: The P/E Does Not Account For Debt or Bank Deposits The 'Price' in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth. While growth expenditure doesn't always pay off, the point is that it is a good option to have; but one that the P/E ratio ignores. American Express's Balance Sheet American Express's net debt is 68% of its market cap. This is enough debt that you'd have to make some adjustments before using the P/E ratio to compare it to a company with net cash. The Bottom Line On American Express's P/E Ratio American Express has a P/E of 9.2. That's below the average in the US market, which is 12.2. While the recent EPS growth is a positive, the significant amount of debt on the balance sheet may be contributing to pessimistic market expectations. Given American Express's P/E ratio has declined from 13.5 to 9.2 in the last month, we know for sure that the market is more worried about the business today, than it was back then. For those who prefer invest in growth, this stock apparently offers limited promise, but the deep value investors may find the pessimism around this stock enticing. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. 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. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock. Of course you might be able to find a better stock than American Express. 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. India has been under lockdown since March 25. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people have been ordered not to go out of their houses. The lockdown is scheduled to last till April 14; so far, no official statements have been made with regard to whether or not this will be extended. While most people are abiding by the regulations, there are quite a few who seem to have little, if any, regard for the rules. Many people have violated the lockdown and several have been booked for it. Delhi Police alone has booked 66,000 violators. PTI In addition to this, it has also 3,350 FIRs, impounded 10,000 vehicles and filed cases against 40 people for violating home quarantine, according to senior officers, as per a report in Hindustan Times. "Apart from this, 3,350 FIRs have been lodged under Section 188 of IPC (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 10,000 vehicles have been impounded so far and 40 FIRs have been lodged against those who were caught violating home quarantine, said Additional commissioner of police (crime) MS Randhawa. PTI The people have been booked under the Delhi Police Act. Ever since the lockdown was enforced, the police are doing their bit to tell people not to come out of their homes, to in order to not risk getting exposed to or spreading the COVID-19 virus. PTI Randhawa also said that with the help of NGOs, Delhi Police have been providing food to around 200,000 people and ration to 6,000 families for the last 10 days. The total number of confirmed cases in India has crossed 3,000 and the death toll is nearing 100. Worldwide over 60,000 are dead and more than 12 lakh affected. The death toll due to coronavirus rose to seven in Punjab on Sunday after two elderly women succumbed to the infection in the state, an official said. While one of them belonged to Ludhiana, the other was a Pathankot resident. Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Rajesh Kumar said over the phone that a 69-year-old woman died at a private hospital there. The woman, a resident of Shimlapuri area in Ludhiana, was admitted to the hospital in a serious condition on March 31. She was a heart patient and suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes, he said. Earlier, she had gone to Mohali to meet her relatives. The second victim was a 75-year-old woman from Pathankot district, who died at an Amritsar hospital, officials said. Amritsar Civil Surgeon Prabhdeep Kaur Johal said she was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital on April 3 after she complained of breathlessness, cough and fever. Meanwhile, three more persons tested positive for the infection in Punjab, taking the total count of confirmed cases to 68 in the state. Among fresh cases was a person from Ludhiana who had attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month, a medical bulletin said. A 44-year-old woman from Barnala district tested positive for the infection despite having no travel history to any COVID-hit area, officials said, adding that his contacts are being traced. A 42-year-old man from Dera Bassi in Mohali contracted coronavirus and was admitted to a Sector 32 hospital in Chandigarh. The maximum 19 cases in the state have been reported from Nawanshahr, followed by Mohali (15), Amritsar (8), Hoshiarpur (7), Jalandhar (6), Ludhiana (5), Mansa (3) and one each in Patiala, Rupnagar, Faridkot, Barnala and Pathankot, as per the medical bulletin. One patient is critical and is on ventilator support, the medical bulletin said. Of the total 68 patients, seven have died while four have been discharged from hospital. A total of 2,208 samples have been taken so far in the state, of which the 1,711 tested negative for the infection. Reports of 429 are awaited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chennai, April 5 : A group of people assaulted healthcare workers near Kovilpatti in the Thoothukudi district of the state when they tried to take family members of a Covid-19 patient for tests, said the police on Sunday. According to the police, a person who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi tested positive for coronavirus. On Saturday, health officials visited his residence and requested the family members to come to hospital for tests. The family members initially refused, but later relented and boarded the vehicle requisitioned by the health officials. However, a group of people gathered there to prevent the family of five to be taken to hospital for Covid-19 tests, a police official told IANS. The people also attacked the health officials. But with the help of the police, the family members were taken to the hospital and thier samples were collected. The family is being kept at the hospital. We have to get the economy going again, and it is time to start thinking about how this might safely be done. Sadly, the peak in UK deaths may not be for another week, as the Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned. Even then, severe restrictions on movement will surely remain in place, and may even need to be tightened. Looking ahead: Normal life will eventually have to be rebuilt, and the more swiftly and thoughtfully that can be done, the lower the long-term cost to all of us But normal life will eventually have to be rebuilt, and the more swiftly and thoughtfully that can be done, the lower the long-term cost to all of us. This is a global economic imperative, as we can see from the soaring unemployment projections around the world, but it is also a social one. Stopping people from carrying out their daily activities is bad for their physical and mental health, as well as their family finances. The Government has done much of what it can to buffer us from the worst effects of a frozen economy. But whatever it does will never be enough, for there will always be firms and individuals who will fall through the cracks. Some industries are particularly vulnerable: the airlines, for example. But every day that passes reveals less obvious examples of the damage. A good, if deeply troubling instance is the plight of farmers who need to get people to harvest their crops, as we report on the page opposite. Another is Nationwide scrapping its plans to go into the business market. The UK's biggest building society would have been a truly welcome competitor to the mainstream banks. But it cannot now justify the investment. We have no idea how many shuttered small businesses will reopen, but we know for sure that some won't. So we have to find ways to get things moving. Other countries have started to think about this. The IFO Institute, the leading German economic research group, is pulling together a group of doctors, scientists and economists to develop a plan for a gradual easing of restrictions. These ideas include much more testing, something that Germany seems to be doing well, and also a phased path back to normality. 'Sectors with a low risk of infection, such as highly automated factories, and areas with less vulnerable persons, such as schools and universities, should be first to have restrictions lifted,' it says. The IFO president Clemens Fuest puts the challenge this way: 'Public health and a stable economy are by no means mutually exclusive. 'Just as positive economic development is not possible with an uncontrolled spread of the virus, the efficiency of our health system cannot be maintained without a functioning economy.' We need the functioning economy. No European country is yet in the position to start easing restrictions, which for the time being carry solid popular support. It may be some weeks before we can safely do anything. But that should not stop us planning and figuring out some way to get those crops harvested before they rot in the fields is not a bad place to start. Worst quarter for UK and US shares since 1987... At times like this history gives us something to hold on to. March marked the end of the worst quarter for both UK and US shares since the final quarter of 1987. The FTSE 100 index was down 25 per cent and the Dow down 23 per cent. Shocking? Well, yes, but so far remarkably similar not only to the 1987 crash but also to two other humdingers, the falls that began in October 1929 and October 2008. Unfortunately, the trajectory of a crash tells us nothing about the timing or strength of the recovery. In 1929, the plunge on Wall Street ran on until March 1933. The killer for most investors was not the initial crash in 1929, though that still resonates, but the grinding downward slide of the next two-and-a-half years. After 2008, the bottom was in February 2009, so a three-month slither. But in 1987, the bottom was reached in November, the next month, and that proved a great buying opportunity. So is this more like 1929, 1987 or 2008? Longview Economics, which pulled up the data, suggests that bear markets go through three phases: panic, relief, and demoralisation. We have had the panic, and with that modest rally towards the end of last month, the relief. Now we should be prepared for the demoralisation, when markets go back towards (or below) their previous lows as they did in 2008 then begin the long climb back up. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 18:16:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Sunday reported nine new cases infected with the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number to 226. The new cases are from Ramallah, Jenin and towns of East Jerusalem, said Kamal al-Shakhra, director of the primary health care department in the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The health ministry is discussing to close the hospital which is visited by the infected patients with the virus before transferred to a specialized center, he said. He called on the people to stay at home in the next weeks, adding that "the situation is not safe." Palestine has witnessed a significant increase in the number of coronavirus cases and the trend would continue over the next couple of weeks, he said. For a month, the Palestinian people live under strict precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus among the residents. On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared extending the state of emergency in the Palestinian territories for 30 days. In the Gaza Strip, there are 12 cases infected with the virus, while the Hamas government announced a new set of precautionary measures, such as closing the restaurants and the beach. The "twin buses" for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, top, and the Civil Together, bottom, are unveiled at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap By Kang Seung-woo The nation's two major parties are using tricks not to violate the Election Law in their simultaneous campaign for themselves and their satellite offshoots ahead of the upcoming general election. Following a revision to the Election Law last year, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) have created respective "paper" affiliates Civil Together and the Future Korea Party (FKP) to try and gain a few more proportional representation seats in the National Assembly by sending their lawmakers to the minor parties that they will incorporate later. The new system was aimed to better reflect votes cast for minor parties, but the DPK and the UFP and their satellite parties have been under fire for hijacking its original intention. The brouhaha surrounding this is now expanding to their election campaigns. As soon as official campaigning for the April 15 elections kicked off, Thursday, the DPK and its paper party became embroiled in controversy over possible violations of the Election Law, which stipulates one party cannot campaign for another. The two sides unveiled their "twin buses," both of which were wrapped in blue colors that represent the DPK, with the numbers "1" and "5" emblazoned in large letters. They claimed the numbers represented the election day, April 15, but actually 1 was the number given to the DPK and its candidates on the ballot paper for constituency votes, while 5 is that for Civil Together and its proportional representation vote. In response, the National Election Commission (NEC) advised the two parties Friday to stop operating the buses or correct the lettering, saying the vehicles could be violating the law. "The Election Law stipulates that party vehicles cannot have anything other than names, phone numbers and slogans printed on them," an NEC official said. "We concluded that the big-lettered numbers could conjure up the DPK and the Civil Together." While accepting the NEC advice, the two parties complained the election watchdog was excessively imposing strict standards. "The NEC enforces stern regulations under the name of a fair election, but they are restricting freedom of speech," the two parties said in a joint statement. "We want to ask if the NEC measures are rather obstructing the election." On the UFP and the FKP's side, they have called on voters to support "second place" on the ballots. The UFP is the second-largest party and its candidates are placed second on the ballot paper for the constituency vote. And the FKP is also placed second on the ballot paper for the proportional representation vote, when the order was set according to the number of incumbent lawmakers the parties have. The UFP and the satellite party are appealing to voters with the second-place catchphrase if a UFP member encourages people to vote for the FKP during campaign, it will be in violation of the law, but if the person encourages people to vote for the second place for both constituency and proportional representation votes, they won't be. In addition, members of the satellite party are wearing number-less pink jumpers the color of the UFP and use detachable stickers to cover their assigned number in order to launch joint campaigns with the "parent" party. "Although many voters are still confused with the UFP and the FKP, we are sibling parties and both sit in the second-highest slot," FKP Chairman Rep. Won Yoo-chul said. "We will do our best to appeal to voters within legal boundaries." After the onslaught of new arrivals in week 13 things are starting to normalize in our trending chart. The top three have remained the same, but this time it's the Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G that's taking the top step. The Huawei P40 Pro+ settles for the silver medal once more, while the P40 Pro is down in third. The Redmi K30 Pro has gained a spot to place fourth, just ahead of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which was in tenth last week. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G makes a return in sixth, while the yet-to-be-announced Reno Ace 2 captures the seventh spot. The Samsung Galaxy A51 is another well familiar face to make a return, while the last two spots go the Redmi Note 8 duo with the Pro leading the vanilla version. This means the Huawei P40, Redmi Note 9S, Redmi K30 Pro Zoom and Samsung Galaxy M51 only got a single week in the top 10 before dropping back down. L.A. Emergency Operation Center Discuss County Assistance for Residents and Small Businesses during COVID-19 Pandemic Friday, April 3. The L.A. Emergency Operation Center welcomed the Departments of public health and Social Services, to announce resources Angelenos have access to during this time of uncertainty. The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors recognize the number of people who are need of assistance during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Antonia Jimenez, Director of Public Social Services, listed the county resources available as Angelenos face the COVID-19 pandemic. The Social Service offices are temporarily closed, but Jimenez ensured that the DPSS is still accessible and readily available to assist those in need. L.A. County officials confirmed that social services such as CALFresh and CALWorks are still in full swing. Combating the severe respiratory syndrome has been an uphill battle, applying immense pressure on every type of Economic function in the city. Over 800,000 California natives have filed for unemployment, L.A. officials go into detail about the two trillion-dollar federal relief bill. it will assist with the financial struggle that Los Angeles families are facing. The L.A. Director of Public Health shared the Global status surrounding the viral pandemic, zooming into the COVID-19 data affecting the L.A. County. Los Angeles Supervisor, Hilda L. Solis dissected the impact of financial struggle due to the Corona Virus pandemic. Solis explained more than 878,000 people applied for unemployment in California; narrowing down to 250,000 Angelenos in the Los Angeles County. Hilda Solis delivered a silver lining, the federal relief bill that approved two-trillion dollars to be granted to assist Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hilda stated, Many Americans will receive a stimulus check, to help mitigate the losses suffered during the COVID-19 crisis. The 1st District Supervisor of L.A. explained it will be distributed either by direct deposit or by mail, taxpayers who provided banking information should receive a direct deposit by April 17. Although check form will have a five month delay, You can find out more information by going to the following website: irs.gov/coronavirus ADVERTISEMENT Hilda Solis delivered news regarding aide for small businesses and reducing lay-offs. Solis paraphrased Governor Newsoms announcement, L.A. County will be receiving state funding to assist local workers and businesses. Within the two million dollars allocated to L.A. County, $500,000 will be used as grants to eligible businesses that were impacted by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is put in place to keep businesses operational and retain employees. Supervisor Solis disclosed there is a new central portal that focuses on L.A. workers and small businesses, called Business and Worker Disaster Help Center. Within its first week of launching, they have taken over 1,000 calls from business owners and workers looking for guidance during the COVID-19 crisis. Director of Public Health, Barbara Ferrer announced the latest updates on the COVID-19 Virus. Globally, there are now over a million cases of COVID-19. The global cases face a 5% mortality rate. In the United States, 250,000 individuals are affected with Corona Virus. In California there is approximately 11,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. As of Wednesday, April 1. Over 26,000 people have been tested for COVID-19, 13-14% were positive for the virus. Ferrer shared on April 3. there were 11 additional deaths, 7 of these individuals were between the ages of 65 and over, with underlining health conditions. This brings the total COVID-19 related deaths in the L.A. County to 89. Barbara disclosed as of Friday, April 3. There are 521 new COVID-19 reports, in summary there is a total amount of 4,566 cases in the Los Angeles region. Over the last 48 hours, there has been 1,055 reports. These numbers are reflective of 153 in Long Beach and 37 reports coming from Pasadena. Of these new cases, 7 additional individuals who have tested positive are unsheltered. Approximately 22% of those infected with COVID-19 are hospitalized at some point. Data is reflecting 1.9% of carriers of the Corona Virus have died, which is higher than the general mortality rate for influenza related deaths in the United States. Barbara Ferrer disclosed that there is a projected amount of 1,000 new COVID-19 cases every day. At a time when the medical services across the country are supposed to be at their highest efficiency - due to the COVID-19 outbreak - a woman lost her life due to the sheer careless attitude of a hospital. The woman, identified as Laxmibai Chauhan, a resident of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, had complained of breathlessness and high blood pressure, so she was taken to hospital. REUTERS On Thursday night, she was first brought to the Ujjain district hospital. But after her condition worsened, doctors decided to shift her to the hospital in Madhav Nagar - meant for COVID 19 cases - for taking samples to conduct coronavirus test. As her condition further deteriorated the Madhav Nagar Hospital referred the 55-year-old to the RD Gardi Medical College and Hospital, a private medical college. But when the ambulance carrying Chauhan reached RD Gardi Medical College, the family was told that the ICU was locked and the staff who had the key can't be traced. As the panicked family pleaded with the hospital staff someone broke open the door and rushed her inside. By then it was too late and Chauhan lost her battle with life. She was declared brought dead by the doctors. The reports for coronavirus test results of the 55-year-old woman are still awaited. BCCL/ FILE Following the incident, two senior doctors - civil surgeon Dr. RP Parmar and Madhav Nagar Hospital in-charge, Dr. Mahesh Marmat, have been removed from their posts, for failing to provide a ventilator to the woman. According to Ujjain Chief Medical Officer, Anasuya Gawli, the patient was suffering from chronic illnesses like hypertension, diabetes. She, however, added that they are conducting a probe into the matter. This shocking lapse comes at a time when the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Ujjain, reached seven, on Saturday. So far, 137 samples have been sent for test to the laboratory, out of which reports of 97 samples have been received. AFP In Madhya Pradesh, Indore has the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 128, out of the 181 cases reported in the state, followed by Bhopal at 15. The death toll in the state till Sunday was 11. Those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh included three top health officials who were involved in the state's policy-making on dealing with the pandemic. A total of ten areas near the homes of these officials in Bhopal have been declared as containment zones. In a relief to foreign students, including from India, facing financial hardships during the coronavirus pandemic, the Australian government has announced that those who have completed one year of stay in the country were eligible to access their superannuation. The latest move comes a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that overseas students were not eligible for any financial support as under their visa arrangements, it was a requirement for them to support themselves for a year in Australia. However, the Acting Immigration Minister Alan Trudge issued a statement, saying ''students who have been here longer than 12 months, who find themselves in financial hardship will be able to access their Australian superannuation.'' "The Government will undertake further engagement with the international education sector who already provide some financial support for international students facing hardship.. for example, we understand there are some education providers that are providing fee discounts to international students," he said. "There are 565,000 international students in Australia, mainly studying in the higher education or vocational education sector. They are an important contributor to our tertiary sector and economy, supporting 240,000 Australian jobs,'' he noted. India is the second largest source of students for Australia with more than 140,000 enrolments recorded in 2019 in the country's several educational institutions. Trudge added that the students are encouraged to rely on family support, part-time work and their own savings to sustain themselves in Australia. "As part of their visa application, international students have had to demonstrate that they can support themselves completely in their first year,'' he added. The government will also be flexible in cases where the pandemic has prevented foreign students in meeting their visa conditions such as not being able attend classes. The government also relaxed working hours for international students allowing them to work for up to 40 hours per fortnight from May 1 this year in places like elderly care facilities and major supermarkets, while nurses have had these hours extended to support these critical sectors. : As the number of coronavirus cases has been escalating at a rapid pace across the state due to transmission from Tablighi Jamaat attendees, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday directed the authorities to open testing labs in each district and also create isolation wards in all hospitals. Of the total 220 active Coronavirus cases in the state as on Sunday, close to 90 per cent relate to the Jamaat participants and their close contacts. The Chief Minister asked the health authorities to immediately complete testing of all those who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation and their primary contacts. In the next step, the secondary contacts of the Jamaat attendees should be tested, he said at a high-level review meeting on COVID-19. Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy informed the Chief Minister that seven labs were working in the state with a capacity to test over 900 blood samples per day. He said steps were being taken to increase the testing capacity of the labs in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Jawahar Reddy explained about the special approach undertaken on an experimental basis in Visakhapatnam city, where the identified red zones (having Corona positive patients) were divided into eight clusters and 20 samples were tested on a random basis from each cluster. Those who returned from abroad and persons in the high- risk age groups (below 10 and above 65 years) were chosen at random and their blood samples were tested. "All these samples turned negative in the tests," the Special CS said. The Chief Minister then asked the Special CS to set up a lab in every district as the number of cases was mounting. Jagan directed the officials to ensure the lockdown guidelines were scrupulously followed, particularly in the identified red zones and hotspots. He also asked them to be prepared to implement any fresh guidelines from the Centre after the lockdown period ends on April 14. Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Director General of Police D G Sawang, Principal Secretary Praveen Prakash and other senior officials attended. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MG Motor India is in talks with three medical device makers, including GE, to produce ventilators at its Halol facility to help meet demand during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a top company official. The company, which has also launched a hunt for a low-cost ventilator design through a challenge, is also developing its own ventilator and hopes to be ready with a prototype within a week as part of its three-pronged approach to get into ventilator manufacturing considering the shortage during this health crisis. "We are talking to medical equipment companies like GE and some other companies, which already have established and approved designs. If they can tell us, then we can start manufacturing based on their design in our plant," MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba told PTI. He further said all three companies have responded positively and that can be the fastest solution if there is a design approved by the medical body already and everything is in place. Besides, he said, "In the last 10 days, our engineering team is busy making a prototype. I'm happy to say that we have already made the drawings and everything. We have talked to the medical experts, our prototype should be ready in the next one week. If that prototype is approved, then our own designed ventilator can be manufactured by MG in India." However, this approach will take some more time as it needs regulatory approvals, he added. The company has also announced a Rs 10 lakh grant through its "challenge to youngsters and young engineers that if they want to make a low-cost design, we are going to help them", Chaba said. On the manufacturing of ventilators, he said MG Motor India will create infrastructure at its Halol facility and would even carve out a separate unit if need be. "If the car demand is not too much in future then my existing manpower can work on this project. We may have to have some new capex for this kind of a thing, although I don't know exactly how does that look like. But then we will look at putting the right capex into this project to make the ventilators," he said. On the other hand, Chaba said if the demand for the company's vehicles continues and have waiting period as it is now and "if our people get busy making the cars, I feel we would carve out a separate unit for ventilators." "If we have to recruit more people, we will do it to have more people into this project because this virus is not going to go away in the next three years or so," he said, stressing that even if vaccines are developed for the coronavirus it is going to take long to make them available at a mass scale. He further said in India at the moment there is a huge gap between demand and supply for ventilators. "We don't want to make this as a profit making venture. If we can keep it low cost and operate at breakeven and supply to the community, to the government, it will be a great service," Chaba said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this evening. Low around 10F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%.. Tonight Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this evening. Low around 10F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. At 9 pm on Sunday, April 5, Indians took to their windows, balconies and streets for the second time amid the "total" 21-day lockdown to fight coronavirus. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to light diyas and candles for 9 minutes at 9 pm, Indians came out with all flames blazing to mark their solidarity. Some Indians, however, seem to have confused the call to light candles as the celebration of Diwali. Starting at 9 pm, several cities lit up not just with the light of candles but also the sound of crackers. Yes, in a bid to fight coronavirus which causes respiratory problems among other symptoms in those who contract it, many Indians burst crackers increased air pollution, all in the name of the PM. Several such instances were reported on social media from cities like Delhi and Mumbai among others. Actress Sonam Kapoor Ahujatweeted about crackers being burst in South Delhi. There was complete peace and quite, and now the birds ,dogs and sirens are freaking out in south Delhi because some morons decided to burst fire crackers tonight. Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) April 5, 2020 People are bursting crackers. Just FYI . They dogs are freaking out. Do people think its Diwali? Im so confused. Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) April 5, 2020 Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai also tweeted about it, as did comedian and social media celebrity Bhuvan Bam. RT if you can hear crackers too. Bhuvan Bam (@Bhuvan_Bam) April 5, 2020 Some people in my area now bursting crackers. What kind of utter nonsense is this. You have singularly mocked at PMs appeal: this is not bloody Diwali but a solemn occasion. Spend money you just did on crackers on meals for the poor. Absolutely shameful. Sorry, just not done! Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) April 5, 2020 News18 journalists also reported the bursting of crackers in Delhi. I am seeing some people on roads who are bursting fire-crackers.Dear Delhi, when did the PM ask you to do this? Idea was to light a diya, say a prayer & not to pollute the air.Aren't crackers burnt to celebrate? What are you celebrating? Lack of proper facilities for doctors? Saahil Murli Menghani (@saahilmenghani) April 5, 2020 Other Twitter users also posted videos of crackers being burnt on balconies and within housing complexes. Following are some of the videos doing the rounds on social media. okay, so people are dying due to coronavirus and dumbfcuks here are celebrating it by bursting crackers, just fcuking wow!#99 #9Minute9baje pic.twitter.com/wlMN02rlUc (@abhipvtx) April 5, 2020 Few fucking idiots just bursting crackers in our apartment rooftop. This is not Diwali you goatbrain Hypocrites pic.twitter.com/BE117vKsDS Mr. J (@JaiJerish) April 5, 2020 Modiji requested to light diyas for 9 minutes , My neighborhood thought its diwali and burning fire crackers like crazy!!! #99 pic.twitter.com/NmH0QBhY4I Sambhav Gupta (@sambhavgupta6) April 5, 2020 Firecrackers on the streets, During lockdown how crackers sold ? #Celebration pic.twitter.com/HHKtx644mQ HAMDAN SAYED (@HamdanINC05) April 5, 2020 This was tweeted from Delhi. People are bursting crackers in delhi! Come on guys its not diwali, its not celebration! pic.twitter.com/N7MQ7JJPyO Niranjan kumar (@niranjan2428) April 5, 2020 This tweet came from Gurgaon. This one came from Lucknow. #Live from #lucknow The PM said light a #diya...People heard prepare for #Coronas wedding celebrations/ its encounter! All we hear is the sound of firecrackers, gunshots and rockets being launched! #Covid19Out #9pm9minutes pic.twitter.com/BlpvTpa6e1 Prof. Ali Khan Mahmudabad (@Mahmudabad) April 5, 2020 This was the scene from a Kolkata rooftop, as tweeted by a Twitter user. Some idiots bursting crackers in Kolkata! Pandemic apparently is a cause for celebration #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/siwcwzdKT3 TimePasam (@pasam) April 5, 2020 View from our apartment.. Total black out, city of joy KOLKATA lighten up with diyaas... Fire crackers bursting across the city. Kudos to @narendramodi ji. No leader could create such electrifying environment amidst dullness created by a pandemic! #9PM9minute #99 pic.twitter.com/k5wiVwP6ew Sumit kadel (@SumitkadeI) April 5, 2020 This video was shared from Dehradun. I dont know why people are burning cracker what the hell ! ... Some people have not followed instructions and rules which have given by PM sir ... I havent expected this from DEHRADUN CITY people... Thoes people who haved burned cracker its not a DIWALI pic.twitter.com/EzbdRcfJ4h Mohan Negi (@MohanNe94386574) April 5, 2020 Similar scenes unfolded across several Indian cities. A Twitter user From Jaipur's Vaishali Nagar even tweeted a video of a building that caught fire due to the bursting of crackers. Yet another fire was reported at Solapur Airport by former journalist and Congress worker Srivatsa. Massive fire in a building in my neighborhood from bursting crackers for #9baje9mintues. Fire brigade just drove in. Hope everyone's safe. pic.twitter.com/NcyDxYdeFW Mahim Pratap Singh (@mayhempsingh) April 5, 2020 Fire near Solapur Airport.Tell me again, why were crackers exploded?pic.twitter.com/4EX3xXffPP Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) April 5, 2020 Many wondered where people were getting crackers from at a time when even essential commodities were ar a premium. People are finding it difficult to get essential commodities only. Where are they getting these crackers from? #9MinutesForIndia #9Minute9baje Shilpa Nair (@NairShilpa1308) April 5, 2020 At a time when the total number of deaths due to coronavirus has crossed 79 in India with global deaths crossing of 65,000, the bursting crackers and the jubilation comes across as crass and illogical. Many took to social media to ridicule those who burst crackers. We are in the midst of a pandemic and people are celebrating Diwali. Bursting crackers too. No trace of pain of poor. Black comedy. #Hum_Light_Nahi_Bujhaenge nikhil wagle (@waglenikhil) April 5, 2020 #9baje9mintues People using Crackers for celebrating this mini Diwali,Bhai Virus kum tha jo Pollution bhi badha rhe ho Sociopath Memer (@sociopath_ladka) April 5, 2020 Delhi, Kolkata one in top 5 most polluted cities tonight.Still better than what we've seen, yes.But unnecessary cracker bursting.In some cities AQI is as low as 2 https://t.co/WyH7xasuc3 pic.twitter.com/UB4DXyUrL6 Sana Khan (@Sanakhan_m) April 5, 2020 Bernard Okalia Bilai, Gouverneur de la Region du Sud-Ouest Archives Bernard Okalia Bilai, Governor of Cameroons South West Region has said public servants as well as users of public services within his jurisdiction must put on protective masks before rendering or accessing services. In a communique dated April 4, 2020, the no-nonsense civil administrator says this new order goes into effect from Monday, April 6, 2020 till further notice. The Governor of the South West Region informs the population that, as from Monday the 6th of April 2020 till further notice, all those visiting public services in the Region must put on a protective mask before accessing these services, Okalia said. It should be noted that this measure equally applies to the personnel of the concerned structures and comes to add to the already existing measures taken by Government to stop the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Governor counts on the usual understanding and collaboration of the public. Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that of the 555 known cases of the novel coronavirus in Cameroon, the South West Region has unfortunately made its own contribution with one case transferred to Douala from Limbe for treatment and another who died in Buea. Governor Okalia had earlier on prohibited drinking in off-licences, snacks, nightclubs, palm wine joints, and eating in restaurants within the framework of the implementation of the measures prescribed by the government to fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic within the region. The Governor reminded the public that those who buy drinks from drinking spots and food from restaurants need to carry them home for consumption. These measures equally apply to palm wine sellers, he said, charging administrative and municipal authorities as well as forces of law and order to ensure the strict implementation of the said measures. The countrys Public Health Minister, Dr. Manaouda Malachie has on several occasions taken to twitter to remind the public that the Coronavirus is a reality that should not be ignored. Let's protect our loved ones, protect ourselves: respect basic hygiene rules and stay at home as much as possible. I would also like to ask everyone, apart from the opinion of scientists, to cover their mouths and noses when going out, he said. At this stage, everyone must protect themselves and others by covering their mouths and noses when leaving their homes, especially if they have to take public transportation or go to the market. Otherwise the recommended option is to stay at home as much as possible. Hodo Bassey, a corps member serving in Cross River state, has reportedly donated his N33,000 one-month allowance to support the figh... Hodo Bassey, a corps member serving in Cross River state, has reportedly donated his N33,000 one-month allowance to support the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. Philip Obin, technical assistant on new media to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo media, took to his verified Twitter page on Wednesday to announce the feat. Obin said Bassey handed out his allowance to the state government through Betta Edu, the commissioner for health, in what he described as a commendable gesture. Hodo Bassey has donated his one month Allawi of N33,000 to the Cross River state government through the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Betta Edu in the fight against the pandemic, he wrote. This is commendable, a worthy sacrifice indeed. Anyone who has the contact of this corps member should please forward it to me. He deserves a space in a national daily, just like others who have also donated billions. A donation is a donation, no matter the amount. This is commendable, a worthy sacrifice indeed. #COVID19 : A corps member, Mr Hodo Bassey, has donated his one month Allawi of N33,000 to the Cross River State government through the Commissioner for Health, Dr Betta Edu in the fight against the pandemic.This is commendable, a worthy sacrifice indeed. pic.twitter.com/gcjdK1A3r3 April 1, 2020 Basseys gesture comes at about the same time when the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria reached 210 as many states across the country have remained under a compulsory lockdown. The tweet was accompanied with pictures that showed Bassey handing out a white envelope to the health commissioner while maintaining social distance as a precaution against COVID-19. The United States has the worlds highest number of known cases of Covid-19, the flu-like respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. More than 306,000 people have tested positive in the United States and over 8,300 have died. But that isnt stopping a church in a suburb of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from celebrating the Palm Sunday this weekend. Despite warnings from local and state officials, Solid Rock had been holding its 1,000-strong gatherings in person, and plans keep the church open on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week in Christian churches. Were defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel, Louisiana pastor Tony Spell said on Saturday. Louisiana has become a US hot spot for the virus, and reported a jump in deaths to 409 on Saturday. Millions of American Christians will observe Palm Sunday at home this weekend, as the vast majority of US churches have moved services online to comply with stay-at-home rules. But, like Solid Rock, pockets of churches from Florida to Texas and across to California are keeping their doors open and inviting worshippers to attend services this weekend. Satans trying to keep us apart, hes trying to keep us from worshipping together. But were not going to let him win, Kelly Burton, pastor at Lone Star Baptist Church in Lone Star, Texas, wrote in a post on Facebook. President Donald Trump told Americans to brace for a big spike in coronavirus fatalities in the coming days, as the country faces what he called the toughest two weeks of the pandemic. Theres going to be a lot of death, Trump said at a briefing with reporters on Saturday. White House medical experts have forecast that between 1,00,000 to 2,40,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed. In the grimmest day yet for the US state hit hardest by the pandemic, coronavirus-related illnesses killed 630 people in the last 24 hours in New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Jay-Z and Meek Mill's criminal justice reform organization, REFORM Alliance, is donating masks to prisons as more incarcerated individuals are getting sick with COVID-19. The organization is partnering-up with criminal justice reform advocate Shaka Senghor to send out 100,000 surgical masks to prisons across the country. Per ABC News, 50,000 masks are going to be sent to Rikers Island in New York, and 2,500 more are being sent to the prison's medical facility. The Tennessee Department of Corrections will be receiving and distributing 40,000 masks to facilities within the state, and 5,000 will go to Mississippi State Penitentiary. "We are on the verge of a humanitarian crisis," Jessica Jackson, chief political officer at REFORM Alliance, said in a statement to ABC News. "There are horror stories coming from people in jails and prisons across the country. REFORM Alliance is seeking help to get medical supplies into correctional facilities, and we're also pushing Governors across the country to enact our SAFER Plan recommendations to get people out quickly and safely." Jackson also told CBS News, "We're really worried about the number of people coming in and out of the facility, and the fact that the people living there might be sitting ducks during this pandemic." Though some jails are releasing prisoners to help with the crowding situation and prevent the spread of the virus, there have also been issues regarding the treatment of incarcerated people over the past month. Many are voicing out complaints and saying that they aren't receiving the care and equipment they need to protect themselves from COVID-19. Some inmates have even sued their facility's staff members for not taking the proper precautions to help them during this time. If you want to know how you can help prisoners during this time, read more here. Rudy Giuliani at an even at the White House in July of 2019. Read more WASHINGTON Rudy Giuliani, who was in the center of the impeachment storm earlier this year as an unpaid private attorney for President Donald Trump, has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short circuit the coronavirus epidemic. In one-on-one phone calls with Trump, Giuliani said, he has been touting the use of an anti-malarial drug cocktail that has shown some early promise in treating covid-19, but whose effectiveness has not yet been proved. He said he now spends his days on the phone with doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives promoting the treatment, which Trump has also publicly lauded. "I discussed it with the president after he talked about it," Giuliani said in an interview. "I told him what I had on the drugs." Giuliani's advice to Trump echoes comments the former New York mayor has made on his popular Twitter feed and a podcast that he records in a makeshift radio studio installed at his New York City apartment, where he has repeatedly pushed the drug combination, as well as a stem cell therapy that involves the extraction of what Giuliani termed "placenta 'killer cells.' " The former New York mayor is part of a chorus of prominent pro-Trump voices who at first downplayed the severity of the virus and then embraced possible cures worrying health experts who fear such comments undermine efforts to slow the virus's spread and downplay the risks of the unproven treatments. Giuliani's controversial comments have helped him regain a bit of the prominence he had during impeachment last week, he was back in the spotlight when Twitter briefly locked his account for promoting misinformation about covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. "He's been out of the news and out of the limelight since the end of the impeachment drama," said Andrew Kirtzman, a Giuliani biographer who is writing his second book about the former New York mayor. "What you're seeing is an effort to regain relevance." The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the president's conversations with Giuliani. Giuliani's name has not come up during meetings of the administration's coronavirus task force, according to two members of the group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal dynamics. However, Giuliani said he has spoken directly to Trump three or four times about the potential coronavirus treatment, describing to him the results of an initial small-scale study in France that suggested the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine may help treat covid-19. Giuliani said he has not spoken to other White House officials about his views. "There are obviously other people around him who agree with me," Giuliani said. The drug cocktail has been touted on Fox News and One America News Network, a cable news favorite of the president, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has said there is a "good basis" to believe the treatment could work and directed that it be distributed to New York hospitals. At his daily briefings, Trump has praised the drug combo, saying it could be one of "the biggest game changers in the history of medicine." Last week, the FDA issued emergency authorization for the use of the anti-malarial drug for some covid-19 patients. FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said decision was made by expert career staffers, after extensive discussions with officials at other government agencies and based on the scientific evidence available. "The known and potential benefits to treat this serious or life-threatening virus outweigh the known and potential risks when used under the conditions described in [the order]," he said. On Saturday, Trump said the drug had passed the "safety test" and that he had seen results that were positive. "I hope they use it, because I'll tell you what, what do you have to lose?" the president said, adding: "I may take it. I'll have to ask my doctors about that." In his newly fashioned role, Giuliani who was widely praised for steering New York City with a steady hand through the 2001 terrorist attacks has solicited medical tips from a controversial Long Island family doctor with a following in the conservative media, as well as a former pharmacist who once pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort the actor Steven Seagal. "Got lots of positive reports on hydroxy and Zithromax," Giuliani tweeted on March 26. It was one of at least 14 messages Giuliani posted during the past three weeks referring to the combination of the anti-malarial drug and the antibiotic azithromycin. "The Hydroxy treatment, first introduced by POTUS, appears to be working so far!" he tweeted two days later. Another message blasted the "demented left" that he claimed wished to ban the therapy. Giuliani said that while he is hoping to turn his podcast into a moneymaking venture, he is not working for any of the companies involved with the treatments he has promoted. He said he last worked for medical companies a decade ago, when he represented Pfizer and Purdue. "I'm not trying to get a dime out of this," he said. Some doctors say the anti-malarial treatment has appeared anecdotally to help some covid-19 patients, but it has not yet been proved effective in valid clinical trials. Anthony Fauci, the White House task force's infectious-disease expert, has repeatedly counseled caution until more research is completed. Fauci warned in an interview on "Fox and Friends" on Friday that there is not yet any "strong" evidence that it is effective in treating covid-19, and he has been aggressive in making that argument internally, officials said. Giuliani said that he has not discussed the treatment with Fauci, but that Trump agrees with him. "I'm sure he thinks I am an ignoramus," he said of Fauci. "They've thrown cold water on it because they are academics," he said of scientists such as Fauci. " 'You can't blind test it.' I know you can't blind test it. But we've got thousands of people dying, sweetheart. And by the time you blind test it, we'll have 100,000 people who are dead. Why don't we get in the real world of being a doctor instead of being an academic?" "We've got to take a little risk if we want to save lives," he added. "We are looking at a slaughter." Giuliani said he knew the medicine had side effects, but he said that even if it is "marginally" helpful, it should be used. Joel Farley, a professor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, said it concerned him to hear prominent political figures publicly advocate for FDA action on any specific covid-19 treatment. "It worries me that political pressure could be applied and potentially distract from other possible treatments," Farley said. The avid promotion of the unproven treatment by nonmedical experts has worried scientists, who are concerned they downplay some known side effects of the medications and could lead to hoarding of drugs used to treat other ailments, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. "You should be listening to credible scientists, ideally physicians and researchers who approach this issue with a respect for the scientific method. Rudolph W. Giuliani is the opposite of that kind of person," said David Juurlink, an internist and head of the division of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto. Juurlink said that some of Giuliani's "statements are dangerous and are not to be believed." HELP US REPORT: Are you a health care worker, medical provider, government worker, patient, frontline worker or other expert? We want to hear from you. On March 27, Twitter locked Giuliani's account until he deleted one of his messages that indicated the treatment had been "100 percent effective" in treating covid-19, part of an effort to crack down on misinformation about the virus being spread on the platform, a company spokeswoman said. Giuliani said he "didn't think" he knew of the action by Twitter. He says he has been consulting widely with medical professionals on the treatment and that at least 20 have told him that they are enthusiastic about its promise. While some doctors in China and France have said they have used hydroxychloroquine on patients with covid-19 and seen improvements, Juurlink said the studies have been small and contradictory. And the medicine does in rare cases have serious side effects, including lethal cardiac complications. Its interactions when used in combination with azithromycin, as Giuliani has promoted, are not well-understood, he said. "The issue is that these are powerful medications that may or may not work for the desired efficacy but nevertheless have a side-effect package," said Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic who published an article last week in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings warning health-care providers about hydroxycholoroquine's cardiac side effects. Still, he said, it may not hurt for figures such as Giuliani and Trump to share their enthusiasm over the early reports that the medicine has helped some people. "Hope is a powerful medicine," he said, cautioning against drawing political battle lines over treatments that could work. Many of Trump's allies had hoped Giuliani's influence over Trump might end with the impeachment crisis a drama he helped spark with his efforts to find damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Ukraine. Two Giuliani associates who assisted in the project were arrested and charged with campaign finance violations. Late last year, federal prosecutors in New York sought information that indicated that they were scrutinizing Giuliani's consulting and legal work on behalf of foreign clients. He has not been charged, and Giuliani has denied wrongdoing. In early February, when Trump was acquitted by the Senate of charges that he had abused his office, Giuliani declared vindication. ("Acquitted for life!" he tweeted just after the vote). He then spent weeks continuing to press his case against Biden in his podcast "Common Sense," which debuted in January. By March, as the virus spread across the globe, Giuliani changed his focus to the growing crisis at times calling for unity and comparing the moment to how the U.S. pulled together after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at other times issuing biting attacks against Trump's perceived enemies. In early March, he posted a sobering interview about the virus with Joe Lhota, a former mayoral aide who now serves as a top executive at New York University's Langone Health center. Lhota explained that researchers increasingly believed that people with no symptoms could be spreading the deadly virus. "They may not even know they have it?" Giuliani responded, exclaiming, "Oh my goodness!" But days later, like other Trump supporters who at the time believed the virus was being exaggerated by Democrats to hurt the president's poll numbers, Giuliani appeared to play down the threat. On March 10, he tweeted statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing how many people die of various ailments in the U.S. each year. "Heart Disease: 635,260; Cancer: 598,038," the list began, followed by four other common causes of death, including the flu. "Likely at the very bottom, Coronavirus: 27," he wrote. On March 26, he tweeted a quote from prominent Trump supporter Candace Owens: "Approximately 7500 people die every day in the United States. That's approximately 645,000 people so far this year. Coronavirus has killed about 1,000 Americans this year. Just a little perspective." Giuliani said his tweets were referring to the fact that a small percentage of people who contract coronavirus will die. "I was right," he said. He did not address projections that more than 100,000 people in the United States could die from the virus. His messages echoed arguments made at the time by Trump, who repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the flu and played down its severity as he resisted efforts to shut down the economy. Among those with whom Giuliani has consulted about the virus are Vladimir "Zev" Zelenko, a family doctor from Monroe, New York, who has repeatedly been featured in conservative media after reporting that he successfully treated hundreds of suspected covid-19 patients with what he called a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc sulfate. Experts say his results are anecdotal and need to be validated through controlled scientific studies. "We text," Zelenko said in an interview when asked about his communication with Giuliani. Zelenko has also been in touch with White House officials, including Trump's new chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as The Washington Post previously reported. Giuliani said he met the New York doctor through a rabbi and now speaks with him several times a day to compare notes. Appearing on Giuliani's podcast last week, Zelenko said that no one under 60 should be given the medications, because they would overcome infections from the coronavirus without them. "Your immune system is strong enough. Statistically, it's been proven. You will recover," Zelenko said. While younger people are less at risk, Juurlink said it is "just not true" that people under 60 all recover. On March 27, Giuliani hosted Robert Hariri, a doctor and chief executive of a New Jersey biotech firm Celularity that has been experimenting with using stem cells harvested from placentas to treat various forms of cancer. Hariri said he believes the treatment could be effective with covid-19. Giuliani pressed to know when Hariri's company would receive approval to begin administering the experimental treatment to covid-19 patients. "The general reputation of the FDA and I don't mean to be critical at a time like this but that it's very slow," Giuliani said. "I've represented pharmaceutical companies in very, very difficult situations, and it was my observation that they just took forever." Hariri told Giuliani that he expected to hear from the FDA on a request to conduct an early clinical trial within days; five days later, the company announced that the FDA had approved a study using the therapy in up to 86 covid-19 patients. Felberbaum, the FDA spokesman, said the agency cannot by law comment on pending applications, but he said they are subject to "internal scientific review" to determine whether it is "reasonably safe to move forward with testing the drug in humans." Through a spokeswoman, Hariri declined to comment. He told The New York Times last week that he has known Giuliani for years. He described the podcast appearance as "a friendly chat between people who know each other and who share a common interest in this particular response to this disease." He said Giuliani had no financial relationship with him or his company. Another recent podcast guest, Julius Nasso, who runs a company that supplies medical equipment to the shipping and cruise industries, used his March 25 appearance to pitch U.S. and state authorities on his idea for them to lease empty cruise ships to care for covid-19 patients. "You can't have any higher than the president's personal attorney," Nasso said in an interview. "He's the one that basically gets it to the right channels." Nasso said he had been in touch with federal officials about his idea. He also credited himself with prompting Trump's March 26 suggestion that cruise companies repatriate their holdings from tax havens to receive state aid. "That was all a result of my interview with Rudolph W. Giuliani," Nasso said. He declined to provide additional details. Giuliani denied connecting Nasso with the White House. But, he said, "I did put him on my podcast, and I know people there listen." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. On the broadcast, Giuliani praised Nasso's cruise ship idea. "Frankly, a lot of these people are not that sick. It'd be kind of a nice environment for them, too," Giuliani said, adding: "Could they use the pool?" The former mayor described Nasso as a Brooklyn-raised pharmacist and shipping industry figure who was "another one of those great American success stories." In August 2003, Nasso pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort Seagal, the actor, and was sentenced to a year in prison. In 2008, he received a payment from Seagal in a civil legal settlement to resolve a business dispute. The year before he was indicted, Nasso launched a film-production company whose board members included Paul Manafort, the political strategist who would go on to chair Trump's presidential campaign. Manafort is now serving a 7 1/2-year federal prison sentence for financial crimes. In a telephone interview, Nasso said that he had known Giuliani for 35 years but that they had no business relationship. Nasso declined to comment on his criminal conviction. Before the pandemic, Giuliani would spend long hours with friends at exclusive cigar bars and traveled the world tending to foreign clients. These days, Giuliani said, he "keeps up with the six-foot thing," but spends time with his usual "six or seven people around him," including Denny Young, his former chief counsel at City Hall, who is now living with him. The former mayor says he goes on drives every other day to inspect New York. When he records his podcast in his apartment, ambulance sounds often intrude. I dont think the Grand Havana Room is open, he said of one of his favorite cigar haunts in New York City. If it was open, nobody would be there. I can dream of it coming back. Thats what I did after 9/11. I dreamed of all the things coming back. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 15:25 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd1bfc 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,South-Korea,LG,PCR-test,rapid-testing Free Some 50,000 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) COVID-19 test kits from South Korea are expected to arrive at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Sunday afternoon, the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul has said. The embassy announced on Sunday that the PCR diagnostic kits had been donated by four companies under South Korea's LG group, namely LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG Innotek and LG International Indonesia. The kits were sent from Seoul on Garuda Indonesia flight GA879 directly to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Greater Jakarta. The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) expressed gratitude for the LG group donation. "Here we can see that LG is not only an investor but also Indonesia's best friend. We certainly hope that the current solid ties between the two countries will become stronger," BKPM spokesperson, Tina Talisa said in a written statement on Tuesday. Experts consider PCR tests the gold standard of COVID-19 testing. Rapid tests, though faster, are less accurate. According to the Health Ministry, only 9,712 people nationwide had undergone PCR testing as of Saturday. Of those tested, 2,092 have tested positive, while 7,620 have tested negative. "I worry about Jordan every day he leaves for work,'' Wagener said. "It's scary to think about him being right in the middle of this. I know it is mentally and physically exhausting for him. He unfortunately sees the worst victims of this virus and how it has turned everyone's world's upside down.'' Ashley Hayes welcomed her first child, Leighton Rowe, to the world in November of 2019. After four months of sharing Leighton with the world, the Taylor Ridge mother and daughter went into lockdown as soon as the coronavirus took hold in the United States. "Isolation is hard,'' Hayes, a stay-at-home mom, said. "I walked to the mailbox yesterday just to feel outside. Nothing will get in the way of keeping the baby safe, but you worry. This is amazing being a mother but it gets tempered with the precautions you take to keep things safe. Still, though, it's incredible being a mom.'' The Wageners believed it was the perfect time to bring a child into the world. Who wouldn't? Who knew the coronavirus would stop a nation in its tracks? Pope Francis appealed Sunday for courage in the face of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 65,000 lives across the globe in just three months. US President Donald Trump has already warned Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" number of deaths in the coming days, as the number of confirmed cases there surged past 300,000 -- the highest in the world. Queen Elizabeth II was also set to give a rare address on Sunday aimed at rallying Britain, where the government is warning of tougher measures on social distancing to try to curb surging infections. The deadly march of the virus has left about half the planet confined to their homes, drastically altering life for billions of people and plunging the global economy into deep recession. With over 1.2 million people confirmed to be infected, the virus is also putting massive pressure on healthcare services in nations both rich and poor which are struggling to find enough staff and equipment. Despite Trump's bleak warning for the United States, there were glimmers of hope in hard-hit Italy, ground zero for COVID-19 in Europe, and in Spain. Pope Francis held Palm Sunday mass behind closed doors. By Alberto PIZZOLI (POOL/AFP) Pope Francis, who himself has been tested twice for the new coronavirus, delivered Palm Sunday mass by livestream with Saint Peter's Square empty of the usual huge crowds. "Today, in the tragedy of a pandemic, in the face of the many false securities that have now crumbled, in the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon our hearts, Jesus says to each one of us: 'Courage, open your heart to my love'," he said. 'Cure cannot be worse than the problem' On Saturday, Trump warned that the United States was entering "a time that's going to be very horrendous" with "some really bad numbers." "This will probably be the toughest week," he said at the White House. "There will be a lot of death." But he stressed that the world's largest economy -- where over 8,500 people have died from the virus -- cannot remain shut down forever. Shortages of key personnel and equipment needed to fight the coronavirus. By Alain BOMMENEL (AFP) "Mitigation does work but again, we're not going to destroy our country," he said. "I've said it from the beginning -- the cure cannot be worse than the problem." Over 47,000 global deaths have been recorded in Europe, with Britain reporting a new daily high in fatalities, taking the overall toll to 4,300. Queen Elizabeth is to make a "deeply personal" speech to urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus, and personally thank frontline healthcare workers. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge," she will say, according to extracts released Saturday. The British government warned it may ban outside exercise if people flout stringent guidelines aimed at curbing virus transmission as warmer weather stoked fears people could congregate in parks and open spaces. US President Donald Trump warned Americans to expect a "tough week" ahead. By JIM WATSON (AFP) The pandemic has hammered the global economy, with businesses hit hard as people are forced to stay indoors. Governments have rolled out massive, unprecedented stimulus programmes to ease the pain, but economists have warned that the crisis could worsen poverty levels with millions of jobs lost. Poor economies, such as Iraq, are struggling, with charities and volunteers rallying to provide food to the needy. "This is more dangerous than Daesh," said Iraqi volunteer Mustafa Issa, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group that swept through a third of the country in 2014. Tide turning in Italy? There was, however, some encouraging news from Europe. Italy, which has registered over 15,000 deaths, cheered after seeing the number of intensive care virus cases drop for the first time on Saturday. Even some of the most cautious Italian health officials seized on the figures as evidence that the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II. A delivery man leaves a restaurant with food for health workers in Barcelona. By Josep LAGO (AFP) "This is a very important data point," said civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli. "It allows our hospitals to breathe." Spain, which is under a near-total lockdown, saw a third successive daily fall in coronavirus-related deaths with 647 fatalities, taking its total to over 12,400. Although the number of new cases also slowed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extension of a lockdown until April 25. Worst-hit Italy saw intensive care virus patients drop for the first time this weekend. By Miguel MEDINA (AFP) At a field hospital in Madrid set up at a conference centre, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged. Builder Eduardo Lopez, 59, gave a "10/10" rating to the staff who cared for him "with tenderness and a great dose of humanity". 'We need you' New York state, the US epicentre, saw a record 630 deaths in a single day and Governor Andrew Cuomo warned the worst was yet to come. The state has recorded a total of 3,565 deaths. New York City has appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. By Bryan R. Smith (AFP) Cuomo also cautioned that already strained hospitals were not prepared. New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. "Anyone who's not already in this fight, we need you," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Trump said 1,000 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, would be deployed to help in the city, which he described as "the hottest of all the hot spots". U-turn on masks Several Western countries including the US, Germany and France have in recent days encouraged the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces. The U-turn has angered and confused some citizens, and spurred a flurry of online tutorials for DIY masks. The advice came after some studies suggested the new coronavirus can be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing. US authorities said wearing a simple homemade mask or scarf could help stem rocketing infection rates. The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give "a false sense of security," leading people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing. burs-txw/bsp The Reverend Kingsley Appiagyei, Head Pastor of the Trinity Baptist Church, on Sunday appealed to Ghanaians to adhere to the precautionary measures outlined by government and health experts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These include regular handwashing with soap under running water, use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, covering the mouth or nose when coughing or sneezing, avoiding handshakes and crowded places, maintaining social distancing and staying home as much as possible. He said in the Bible, Joshua instructed the people to stay home today and sanctify yourself because tomorrow we shall see wonders. So the lockdown is a sanctification period and after its over we shall see wonders. Rev. Appiagyei made the appeal during a live televised sermon titled: Our Comforter in Times of Need. Quoting the scriptures, he said: Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me. He said the use of social media had impacted social lives, hence, people now preferred to live according to social media standards instead of totally relying on Gods word. Rev. Appiagyei said if citizens sought for Gods strength and assurance in faith, the nation would win the fight against the COVID-19. This is the time that knowledge and wisdom should be your tools as believers. Know God personally and seek His face during this quarantine period, he said. Christians must remember that they are the ambassadors of Christ. Create a friendship bond with Christ and connect with Him like never before. Rev. Appiagyei said the lockdown period was a time for families to bond: husband and wife staying stronger, knowing their children better by spending quality and uninterrupted time together, and instilling the knowledge of Christ in them. As we stay home as a family and dine together, it represents what Jesus Christ did over thousands of years ago, when He dined with his followers and shared bread (His body) amongst them, he said. He prayed to God to heal all infected persons, grant government the wisdom to handle the pandemic and protect frontline health workers from any dangers associated with their duties. 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. Featured Video PARISA man wielding a knife attacked residents of a French town while they ventured out to shop amid a nationwide lockdown over the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, killing two people and wounding five others in an act that led authorities to open a terrorism inquiry. Frances counter-terrorism prosecutors office said the assailant was arrested near the scene of the attack in the town of Romans-sur-Isere, south of Lyon on Saturday, as he was kneeling on the sidewalk praying in Arabic. It said one of his acquaintances also was detained. Prosecutors did not identify the suspect. They said he had no identifying documents but claimed to be Sudanese and to have been born in 1987. During a subsequent search of his home, authorities found handwritten documents that included arguments about religion and a complaint about living in a country of unbelievers, officials said. The prosecutors office did not confirm reports that the man shouted Allahu akbar (God is great) as he stabbed and slashed people. Like the entire population of France, Romans-sur-Iseres residents have been ordered to stay home except for a few exceptions. The victims were doing their food shopping, one of the permitted outside activities, on the street that has bakeries and grocery stores, the prosecutors office said. French media reported that the knifeman first attacked a man who had just left home for a daily walkslitting his throat in front of the victims girlfriend and son. Next, the assailant went into a tobacco shop, stabbed the tobacconist and two customers, and then went into the local butchers shop, according to French news reports.. He grabbed another knife and attacked a customer with the blunt end before entering a supermarket, the media said. By Thomas Adamson NTD staff contributed to this report STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York City education officials are not permitting the use of video conferencing tool Zoom for remote learning due to concerns about security and privacy on the platform, according to a memo sent to school principals and obtained by the Advance/SILive.com. The memo stated that the city Department of Education (DOE) received requests from faculty, students, and service providers to use Zoom during remote learning while schools are closed until at least April 20, with the possibility of extended closures until the end of the school year. In the course of its credentialing process, the DOE has received various reports documenting issues that impact the security and privacy of the Zoom platform. Based on the DOEs review of these documented concerns, the DOE will no longer permit the use of Zoom at this time," reads the memo. According to the memo, staff should immediately stop using Zoom and migrate to Microsoft Teams instead as it sufficiently supports the diverse virtual conferencing needs, while also providing the necessary privacy protections for our staff and students. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** A Staten Island teacher named Debra, who would only be referred to by first name, said she doesnt use Zoom for remote teaching, but that many of her colleagues have been using it. She said she uses Google Meet. It [Google Meets] is now being looked into and we are waiting to see if it will be allowed to be used going forward. Every day is something new with the DOE, she said. They gave us no guidance with unclear expectations and basically threw us to the wolves. We had to learn everything on our own and now we finally figured it all out, its not good. She added: Its just extremely discouraging that the mayor and chancellor are putting so many demands on us, not taking into account us needing to care for our own family, as well as teaching remotely." The DOE is not permitting the use of Zoom at this time after a review of documented concerns. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Boston bureau shared a warning last week about using Zoom for teleconferencing or remote learning due to reports of VTC hijacking, also known as Zoombombing. That means that people can hijack remote learning Zoom classrooms or other teleconferencing without permission. The FBIs Boston bureau recommended exercising due diligence and caution while using the video platform, such as making meetings or classrooms private, not sharing the link to a teleconference publicly on social media, manage screen sharing options, and have the updated version of Zoom with proper security updates. The DOE is instead reinforcing the migration to Microsoft Teams, which allows for video calls, pre-recorded meetings, the ability to share a desktop computer, create discussion threads and other tools. Google Classroom -- a platform many teachers are using -- continues to be permitted for use. Chancellor Richard A. Carranza tweeted on Sunday that the city education department confirms Googles Meet video conferencing tool is a safe, secure virtual meeting service for schools. Many are already using @GoogleEdu & we can now confirm their Meet tool is a safe, secure virtual meeting service for schools. Well share guidance for @NYCSchools educators about Meet soon. If you're using K-12 @GoogleEdu tools like Classroom, Drive, & Meet, keep going! [2/4] Chancellor Richard A. Carranza (@DOEChancellor) April 5, 2020 Google said it updated its remote learning Controls for Google Meet in March, which includes updates that only meeting creators and calendar owners can mute or remove other participants in meetings, and that meeting participants cant re-join nicknamed meetings once the final participant has left. Google also said Meet employs a vast array of counter-abuse measures to keep video meetings safe, such as anti-hijacking controls for both web video meetings and telephony dial-ins. Before remote learning began, the DOE said it set up Microsoft accounts for all students, which will allow students to sign in with their DOE student account credentials, and staff to use their DOE credentials. The DOE said it has been training schools on Microsoft Teams for several weeks and will hold another training session on Monday. According to the DOE, the agency doesnt have a central contract with Zoom. The DOEs decision to stop the use of Zoom was made in partnership with NYC Cyber Command. The DOE said it will continue to review and monitor developments with Zoom and will update the DOE community with any changes. During a press conference Sunday, Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza said the city is concerned about all students getting the support they need, but not at the risk of privacy. Does anybody really think that we want students personal information out there for anybody to see, for anybody to access? That is absolutely unacceptable," he said. Zoom, and weve been working with Zoom, is unwilling and unable to meet the security needs of our students. We will not put our students information out in cyberspace for anybody to access. That is unacceptable. So the notion that we would let that happen is just not, its not reality. Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said the agency was supporting staff and students in transitioning to different platforms, like Microsoft Teams that "have the same capabilities with appropriate security measures in place. Carranza said on Twitter that training will take place for Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Providing a safe and secure remote learning experience for our students is essential, and upon further review of security concerns, schools should move away from using Zoom as soon as possible," said Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the DOE. There are many new components to remote learning, and we are making real-time decisions in the best interest of our staff and student. A statement from Zoom said its use an ability to handle significantly increased demand without service interruption has made it the platform of choice for schools, universities and others during the global health crisis. We are proud of the role we are playing during this challenging time and proactively engaging to make sure schools and other new users understand how to best use the platform, said Zoom in a statement. Zoom is committed to providing educators with the tools and resources they need on a safe and secure platform, and we are in continued dialogue with NYCs Department of Education about how Zoom can be of service during this time. REMOTE LEARNING It was a learning curve for many New York City teachers when remote learning began on Monday. In addition to educating their students, preparing lessons, uploading videos, and grading assignments, they also needed to be able to help their own children navigate the new distance learning model. Staten Island parents are saying that while the new normal of remote learning was a bit overwhelming at first, both teachers and students are living up to the task. It was a little overwhelming at first, said Kerryann Hassan, the parent of both a fifth-grader at PS 50, Oakwood, and a freshman at New Dorp High School. Im fortunate enough to work from home; they wouldnt have done anything. They cant copy and paste; they cant open this so it was a bit of a struggleBut we got through it. Jennifer Kain, a parent of a seventh-grader and eighth-grader, both at Barnes Intermediate School (I.S. 24) in Great Kills, said the first day of remote learning went well. The support they are receiving from their teachers and their administrative staff is amazing, she said. "The teachers have checked in on them at least one to two times a day. They are answering all their questions and calming them down if they get upset about not being able to access a document. Before remote learning began, some Staten Island parents were trying to secure electronic devices last week to allow their kids to participate in online learning. The city is still working to distribute necessary technology to the estimated 300,000 students who currently lack an internet-connected device. Those who are in need of technology should fill out an online form to sign up for a remote learning device via the Department of Education (DOE). For students who lack an internet-connected device, the DOE has provided supplemental learning materials to keep them engaged during the transition to remote learning. Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has asked parents to sign up for the NYC Schools account, which will be critically important as the DOE pushes information out and resources for remote learning needs. You can go to www.myschools.nyc for more information. 42 NYC on pause: A month into the battle against deadly coronavirus Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE: CUNY shortens spring recess at all schools, including CSI St. Johns University cancels commencement exercises Uplifting video shows teachers dancing for their students Remote learning a juggling act for those teachers with kids at home Staten Island school principal tests positive for coronavirus New York Public Library: Free virtual tutoring, read-alouds and more College of Staten Island vacates dorms; may be used as medical facilities DoorDash will deliver meals to medically fragile NYC kids Will first responder child care centers offer special ed services? Staten Island parents on remote learning: Teacher, school support amazing' First responder child care centers open with a lot of precautions Mayor: NYC schools may be closed for rest of 2019-2020 academic year FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. India has made it known to the US that it is a responsible country and will do all to supply hydroxychloroquine, a prophylactic for health care workers fighting against coronavirus, but only after making its own 1.3 billion population secure against the pandemic. We will do all what we can was apparently what PM Modi told the US President Donald Trump during an extensive call on Saturday evening. Besides focusing on bilateral cooperation against the pandemic, President Donald Trump recalled his visit to India in late February. According to government sources, India is stockpiling the drug for its population in the event of a worst case scenario and will lift the export control order only after it has enough to take care of all Indians. Other countries are also doing the same. India is one of the largest manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine, which has been used for treatment of malaria and lupus. Also Watch | Why PM Modis call to light candles on April 5 is not mere symbolism While India is all for honouring its contracts for supply of this drug to American companies, it is also willing to be on the frontline of human clinical trials of a future Covid 19 vaccine with its body of highly professional doctors , laboratories and transparent feedback to the manufacturers. This may not be possible in African countries as well as in China. Also Read: Therell be a lot of death, Trump tells US as Covid-19 cases surge In the past two weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working the phones and video-conferences with all the major global leaders to fight the pandemic. Since the lockdown, he has spoken to G-20 leaders, majority of SAARC leaders and leaders from Israel, Spain and Brazil. Supplementing the global effort is external affairs minister S Jaishankar who is in constant touch with his counterparts in Gulf countries and has touched base with nearly 100 foreign ministers in the past two months. While the extensive telephone call between PM Modi and US President Trump was focused on the fight against coronavirus, the conversation between EAM Jaishankar and his US counterpart Mike Pompeo went beyond coronavirus and touched on bilateral relations. Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla has also been on the phone in this context. In the past two weeks, he has spoken to his counterparts in India-Pacific region including the US, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. Worried at the spike in coronavirus cases due to the infection spread at Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin, India is seriously ramping up its pharmaceutical capacities too as there would be a price to pay to whoever develops the Covid-19 vaccine first. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A 2005 photo of Lucky Boys Confusion, showing Joe Sell second from right. (Handout) When Kaustubh Stubhy Pandav and Adam Krier wrote songs for west suburban-based rock band Lucky Boys Confusion, their melodies were never quite complete until guitarist Joe Sell got a hold of them. Joe would add the attitude and the swagger to it, Pandav said. Advertisement Sell, a self-taught guitarist with the local band that made it big with songs like Fred Astaire and Dumb Pop Song, was found dead on Chicagos West Side Tuesday. Following an autopsy, a cause of death for the 33-year-old Naperville resident was pending toxicology test results. Officials said he had been found on the 2700 block of West Superior Street, which Pandav said is close to the band's rehearsal space. Advertisement Friends and family say Sell had a natural talent for music, learning piano at a young age, then teaching himself guitar as a teen while attending Naperville Central High School. In 1997, he and other local musicians formed Lucky Boys Confusion, which went on to record two albums with Elektra Records and tour nationwide with their blend of punk, rock and ska. Pandav said his friend had the rare gift of perfect pitch and a keen understanding of his craft. One of the greatest memories I will always have of him is showing him a song, and while Im showing it to him you could see his mind working and writing his parts in his head, he said. It was just brilliant. To watch him work, he really was a wonderful guitar player, a wonderful musician. In the past four years or so, the band had become a part-time gig for its five members, and Pandav said they played about a dozen shows a year including one just weeks ago in Urbana. The guitarist had been hospitalized earlier this year for troubles with his pancreas, Pandav said, but seemed to be feeling better. Sell continued to live in Naperville and had recently started a job at Caribou Coffee, according to sister, Karen Gutierrez, 27. She said her brother had battled drug addiction, but was excited to be getting back on his feet. Gutierrez said she will remember her brother as the calm in the storm. Advertisement He was the best listener, she said. He was the best big brother. He would sit and talk for hours and he always offered the best advice. There was not a mean bone in his body. When he wasnt playing guitar, Sell could often be found with his head buried in a book. He could take complex challenging books that take people months to go through and would read them in a few hours, Gutierrez said. Carrie Soukup, 31, of Austin, Texas, met Sell about a decade ago while he was reading the work of Jack Kerouac in a Missouri coffee shop before a concert. The two instantly bonded and she started taking in Lucky Boys Confusion shows whenever she got the chance. He was brilliant, she said. If it was his time to shine he took it over and you couldnt take your eyes off him. Advertisement Gutierrez said her family appreciates the kind words friends and fans have been leaving on Sells Facebook page. Visitation for Sell will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at Grace Pointe Church, 1320 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville. Funeral services will follow at 10 a.m. Saturday at the church. Irish premier Leo Varadkar is going back to work as a doctor during the coronavirus outbreak. The 41-year-old leader of Fine Gael will carry out one session a week for the Health Service Executive. Dr Varadkar qualified as a GP after studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin. He left the Irish Medical Council register in around 2013 after his political career took off and was appointed Taoiseach after winning the leadership of Fine Gael in 2017. However his registration is now listed as active on the Irish Medical Council. Fine Gael confirmed that the Taoiseach had rejoined the medical register last month as Covid-19 began to hit the country. He has offered his services to the HSE for one session a week in areas that are within his scope of practice, a party spokesperson said. Many of his family and friends are working in the health service. He wanted to help out even in a small way. It follows pleas from the Irish government to retired or unregistered doctors to return to the profession to help with the fight against the pandemic. Several British MPs have responded to similar calls in the UK, including Conservative Maria Caulfield, a registered nurse, and Labours Rosena Allin-Khan, a doctor. Dr Allin-Khan, who is helping her local A&E department, told The Independent: Im proud to pull on my scrubs and get stuck in alongside my phenomenal NHS colleagues, especially when Im inundated with messages of concern about the conditions they are having to work in. Two coronavirus patients have been ordered to wear location-tracking ankle bracelets after refusing to follow medical advice to self-isolate. A family member of one of the patients was also ordered to wear one of the devices in Louisville, Kentucky. Judge Charles Cunningham ordered two relatives to wear ankle monitors late last month after they both refused to stay indoors - despite one of them testing positive for the virus. The third was issued in the past few days when a local who had tested positive for coronavirus refused to self-isolate. Any violations may result in arrest and criminal charges. The judge told the Courier-Journal: "It's something we're all feeling our way through. We're trying to figure out how this should be done." Amy Hess, the city's chief of public services, said the house arrest approach is useful when it comes to enforcing social distancing. "The home incarceration program is well-suited for this," she said. "It provides us with the proper amount of distancing. We can monitor activity after the device gets affixed to them ... to make sure they're not further affecting the community." But concerns have been raised about the ethics of the move. Tracy Dotson, spokesman for the union that represents Metro Corrections workers, questioned the ethics of using tracking devices on residents who have not been charged with a crime. Our mandate is once people are charged with a crime, we're to do whatever it is we do with them. "These people aren't charged with a crime," he said. "For my people on the ground, that's a concern for them." On March 29, Nigerians woke up to the news that the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University College Hospital (UCH), Jesse Otegbayo, had tested positive for COVID- 19. Declaring this in a statement he personally signed, Mr Otegbayo said his samples were taken after he came in contact with someone who presented what appeared to be symptoms of COVID-19. The result returned positive. However, barely four days after this declaration, the hospital announced that a new test carried out on him (CMD) came out negative. I have the pleasure to announce that the repeat test of the UCH CMD, Professor Jesse Abiodun Otegbayo has returned negative, the Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Toye Akinrinlola, said. The news of the result returning as negative has left Nigerians wondering if the COVID-19 virus leaves the body system that quickly. Nothing is impossible A renowned virologist, Oyewale Tomori, said it is possible for a positive case to become negative without necessarily undergoing treatment. He also said the virus can leave a body with strong immunity. You want to look at the scenario of when he got infected. At what stage of the disease were test one and test two done? The laboratory test also contributes to this. Was the right sample taken? Was it well stored? Was it well delivered? The way your body will clear a virus is different from the way my body will clear a virus, even without treatment. So if your immunity is that strong, it can clear anything, he said. Professor Oyewale Tomori [Photo: The Guardian Nigeria] Mr Tomori, a professor and former regional virologist for the World Health Organisation, also said some people are not showing any symptoms of the virus yet the laboratory results shows they are positive. So we have to take each case by its own merit, he said. Henry Ewunonu, a pathologist, said the negative result means the virus has been cleared from the body. This he said is possible due to the body immunity of the carrier. The immunity might have cleared out the COVID-19 virus in his system within that short period of time. There are people with such super immunity, he said. He also said there might have been a case of false positive because of either human or machine error. At the second point of testing he might have had a false negative. Meaning he might still be having the virus but due to human error, the result came out negative. The last possibility is the phase of the infection when he was tested. Was he in the recovery stage already?. The COVID-19 virus is still new so for now all facts are imagined, he said. How this works Olaide Shuaib, a Medical Laboratory Scientist explains how the COVID-19 virus detection and treatment works. Advertisements When a person has a viral infection, the severity of the infection has to do with the mode of entry, the viral load, the replication and the receptor. The receptor is what the virus will bind unto. If there is no receptor for the infection, then the person wont be down with the viral infection, he said. Mr Shuaib explained what might have happened in the UCH chiefs case. The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University College Hospital (UCH), Jesse Otegbayo.[PHOTO CREDIT: Tribune] COVID-19 has 45 circles before it could be detected in the system. The circle is when the positive and negative situation can be ascertained. This varies depending on the viral load in the body system. If a person has CT of 20, that means the viral load is much in the system of the carrier. When this is the case, it will take at least 15 days before treatment will be able to cater for the infection. If the person has CT of 45 that means the viral load in the body system is lower. It will just take a few days of treatment to cater for the infection. This is the case of the CMD, he doesnt have many viruses in his body system. That was why the treatment was able to cater for the infection in just four days, he said. More medical scientists speak Mike Ogirima, a Professor of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery said it is possible for a positive case to become negative once the virus leaves the body. Former NMA President, Mike Ogirima, a professor of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery It is possible, depending on the period you caught him to be positive before. It is a neurological reaction and if the virus is no more in the system, of course, you may not be able to find the trace of the antigen in the system. But if you look for the antibody which is the principle neurologists use for vaccine production, the antibody will be there. But he is negative, he cant infect any other person, he said. An oncologist, Oseremen Shadrach, said scientifically when a positive case suddenly becomes negative, it means that the antigen you were looking for is no longer there. It means the person has developed antibodies. So in this case, the person has successfully mounted a reaction against the antigen which is against the offending agents. So I dont know the extent to which the test is positive or negative, he said. Chief Medical Director Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES in an interview, the UCH spokesperson, Mr Akinrinlola said Mr Otegbayo has not exhibited any symptoms of Covid-19 till date. University College Hospital Ibadan He, however, did not disclose if the CMD underwent treatment after the result came out positive. He observed the prescribed self-quarantine. He complied with all the safety guidelines given by the World Health Organization and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. It should be noted he didnt exhibit any symptoms of COVID 19 and he still hasnt exhibited any, he said. He said, on Friday, that the CMD will do the final test within 72 hours to be double sure. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) The Chinese government has sent in a team of medical experts as well as a fresh batch of medical supply donations to help the Philippines combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foreign Affairs Department said Sunday. The group, composed of 10 medical professionals and two Chinese officials, was welcomed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday afternoon, DFA said. The team which held out a banner saying "Laban Pilipinas" (Fight, Philippines) is expected to share technical advice on the prevention and control of the infectious disease in the country, the department added. "The Chinese experts arrived with invaluable firsthand experiences to share on fighting and containing COVID. Thank you China," Locsin wrote on his official Twitter account. Apart from the medical team, the Chinese government has also donated a fresh batch of medical supplies including 300,000 surgical masks, 30,000 medical N95 masks, 5,000 medical protective suits, 5,000 medical face shields, and 30 non-invasive ventilators. The Health Department earlier said the medical experts would be visiting various local health facilities to see how the country is managing the spread of COVID-19. Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergiere said among the facilities the group will visit are the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila and the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, both of which are COVID-19 referral hospitals. The agency, however, did not specify how long the experts would be staying in the country. China, ground zero of the highly-contagious disease, has recorded over 82,000 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, making it the sixth most infected country in the world. The Philippines, on the other hand, has reported 3,246 cases of the infectious disease, with 152 fatalities and 64 recoveries. FDNY Deputy Chief Inspector Syed Rahman died on Sunday as a result of the coronavirus. FDNY/Twitter FDNY Deputy Chief Inspector Syed Rahman, who served the department for more than 25 years, died of the coronavirus on Sunday. He was 59. Rahman served as DCI for 22 years, and he was part of the clean-up and recovery crew after the 9/11 attacks. Rahman is survived by his wife Radia and four sons. Friends and colleagues set up an GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his children, who are in middle school, according to the site's description. "Chief Rahman would often call his friends & colleagues 'legends' when they mastered a work task or even simply fixed something on his computer desktop," the campaign description read. "Little did many know that Syed Rahman was quite the 'legend' himself." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. The New York fire department's Chief Inspector Syed Rahman died of the coronavirus last Sunday, the department announced Friday. He was 59. Rahman served as DCI for the FDNY for 22 years, and was part of the clean-up and recovery crew for the 9/11 attacks in 2001. "Deputy Chief Inspector Rahman dedicated his life to helping others through his service to the Department, and New Yorkers were safer because of his outstanding work," Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said in a statement. "Every day, he helped accomplish FDNY's lifesaving mission and ensured construction, demolition, and abatement took place safely in our city. Our entire Department mourns his loss." Prior to his death, Rahman was preparing to assist the Bureau of Fire Prevention on an assignment "related to COVID-19 capacity enforcement," according to a statement posted by the department on Instagram. The news of Rahman's death comes in tandem with the department announcing that 24% of its EMS staff which has more than 4,000 EMTs and paramedics are out on medical leave, NBC News' Tom Winter reported. Rahman is survived by his wife Radia and four sons. Friends and colleagues set up an GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his children, who are in middle school, according to the site's description. Story continues "Chief Rahman would often call his friends & colleagues 'legends' when they mastered a work task or even simply fixed something on his computer desktop but so few knew of Chief Rahman's time spent at ground zero because he was very humble and kept his experiences close to his heart," the campaign description read. It continued: "Little did many know that Syed Rahman was quite the 'legend' himself." Read the original article on Insider Mumbai, April 5 : A residential building in the city's Malad area, where several celebrities including actress Ankita Lokhande stays, has been entirely sealed off after a man in the complex tested positive for COVID-19. The person in question had returned from Spain last month, according to a report in timesofindia.com. The apartment society has five wings and is also home to the television couples Natasha Sharma and Aditya Redij, and Ashita Dhawan and Shailesh Gulabani, besides actor Mishkat Verma. The website reports a resident of the society as saying on grounds of anonymity: "A man who stays in the D-wing returned from Spain earlier this month. He tested negative at the airport and was advised self-quarantine for 15 days. However, on the 12th day he developed symptoms of coronavirus, and was taken to the hospital along with his wife. While he tested positive, his wife's test results are negative. Every person who could have possibly come in contact with the couple was also tested. Fortunately, all those test results are negative. This happened on March 26 and the society has been sealed off since. Cops have been stationed outside the building to make sure that no one exits or enters the society premises." It is a question being asked in hospitals across the country: What is the duty to treat in a viral pandemic, particularly one in which health workers are getting infected and there is a dearth of personal protective equipment? The question could be glibly dismissed. Medicine is a humanitarian profession, the argument would go. Health care workers have a duty to care for the sick. By freely entering into the profession, we have implicitly agreed to accept the risks. Medical societies have generally been supportive of this idealistic viewpoint. The ethics manual of the American College of Physicians, for example, states that the ethical imperative for physicians to provide care overrides the risk to the treating physician, even during epidemics. The American Medical Association asserts that individual physicians have an obligation to provide urgent medical care during disasters, emphasizing that this duty persists even in the face of greater than usual risks to physicians own safety, health, or life. However, this argument seems to minimize the quandary my colleagues are facing as they try to balance their obligations as professionals with their duties as husbands, wives, parents and children. The risk to personal health from the coronavirus is alarming enough, but the risk of infecting our families because of exposure on the job is for some unacceptable. With the rates of infection among health workers so high nearly 14 percent of confirmed cases in Spain, for example the risk of transmission to our loved ones is not insignificant. How do we balance our professional and personal obligations? A former lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, has claimed that he has been receiving different threatening calls from unknown people ever since he publicly stated that the president should reject the launch of the 5th Generation (5G) network. Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC) has enacted a set of temporary job cuts. A company official said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg published on Friday that it has furloughed 200 staff members at its retail outlets. However, at the same time it plans to reopen some of the company-owned stores in its native Canada. The furloughs are, naturally, connected to the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus outbreak and its resulting economic slowdown. They come only a short time after Canopy Growth shuttered the 23 company-owned dispensaries located in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador. It also closed the visitors' center at its Ontario headquarters building. In the article, the Canopy Growth representative didn't specify how many stores the company was aiming to reopen, nor where any were located. The status of dispensaries in Canada during the coronavirus outbreak is mixed. Most provinces are allowing them to stay open, considering them "essential" businesses in their community like grocery stores and traditional pharmacies. One glaring exception is Canopy Growth's home of Ontario, which did not include cannabis on its latest list of essential services, updated on Friday, April 3. Marijuana companies are eager to remain open for business, since an extended shutdown could risk their very existence. Many are chronically unprofitable, and more than a few have significant cash flow difficulties. Although Canopy Growth still has rather full coffers because of the $4 billion investment Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) made in the company starting in 2017, it has struggled on the bottom line like many peers. On Friday, Canopy Growth shares fell by almost 4%, a deeper fall than those recorded by the key stock market indexes on that day. Sorry! This content is not available in your region As for the American press, it was slow to accept the reality of the pandemic and is often overly defensive and allergic to introspection. Well continue to learn more about the virus, but as the death count rises, so will political and social tensions, all of which will be seized upon by trolls, opportunists and even foreign actors trying to sow division. What we dont know about Covid-19 will degenerate into ever more intricate conspiracies some almost believable, some outrageous but all dangerous. Were in a stream of ever-evolving data, and its being shaped around cognitive biases, partisanship and preferences embedded in our cultural identities, Peter Pomerantsev, a senior fellow at the London School of Economics and the author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, told me. I called Mr. Pomerantsev because the information vacuum around the virus made me think of the title of his earlier book on Russia Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible. In the absence of new, vetted information, reckless speculation takes its place, muddling our conception of the truth. A pandemic seems like a unique opportunity to set aside our differences and focus on the facts. After all, were in this crisis together. And we need to trust experts epidemiologists, doctors and scientists because theyre all weve got. But in crisis situations especially early on our desire for information exceeds our ability to accurately deliver it. Add to this the complexities of epidemiology: exponential growth; statistical modeling; and the slow, methodical nature of responsible science. Together, they create the ideal conditions for distrust, bad-faith interpretations and political manipulation, the contours of which were only beginning to see. The really big question that haunts me is, When do we return to reality? Mr. Pomerantsev mused over the phone from his own quarantine. Or is it that in this partisan age absolutely everything is chopped, cut and edited to fit a different view? Im waiting for society to finally hit up against a shared reality, like diving into the bottom of swimming pool. Instead we just go deeper. This piece has been updated to reflect news developments. 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. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. Workers transfer medical supplies from China in a warehouse at the Almaty International Airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan, April 2, 2020. (Kursiv Newspaper/Handout via Xinhua) No country can detach itself from such a severe pandemic. China has helped solve the pressing needs of many virus-hit countries with assistance and experience, thus contributing to mankind's fight against the contagion. China is never on its agenda to make aid a ploy to pursue influence. BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- As the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic is taking a heavy toll globally, China has provided much-needed medical supplies and treatment experience to help many countries defeat the fatal virus. However, certain critics and media have tried to politicize China's sincere and substantial assistance, alleging "politics of generosity," "mask diplomacy" and "propaganda." Some of them said "there is a geopolitical component, including a struggle for influence through spinning and the politics of generosity." It should be noted that some Western politicians just overthink and gauge the heart of a gentleman with their own standards. China has been offering emergency humanitarian aid to other countries, especially hard-hit or inadequately prepared nations to save more lives, to jointly control the global pandemic as early as possible. Fan Xianrong (L), the Chinese ambassador to Ukraine, delivers aid to Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Andrii Semyvolos at the Boryspil International Airport in Kiev, Ukraine, April 1, 2020.(Xinhua/Li Dongxu) China's government, enterprises at home and abroad, institutions, and provinces and cities have donated large amounts of face masks, test kits and protective suits to 120 countries and four international organizations. Chinese companies run day and night to produce ventilators and protective gear to deliver urgent orders from international clients while meeting domestic demands. Chinese front-line medical experts have shared without any reserve their valuable treatment experience with peers in more than 100 countries and regions, through nearly 30 video conferences. China has sent teams of medical experts to Iran, Iraq, Italy, Serbia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos and Venezuela to help contain COVID-19. When facing severe shortages of protective gear in its early battle against the epidemic, China received medical materials from many countries and organizations. As China has turned the tide in its domestic fight against the virus, its massive aid to others is in return for global support. It shows the responsible country's substantial efforts in joining the international community to defeat the common enemy of humanity. No country can detach itself from such a severe pandemic. Having contained COVID-19 domestically, China has helped solve the pressing needs of many virus-hit countries with assistance and experience, thus contributing to mankind's fight against the contagion. As China has always done things fair and square, it is never on its agenda to make aid a ploy to pursue influence. The paranoid critics should stop politicizing and distorting Chinese assistance, as their comments run counter to the vital global solidarity in handling the deteriorating public health crisis. Anyone traveling to Nashville who is a Civil War enthusiast should consider visiting Fort Negley for a couple of reasons. The first is to have the opportunity to view from a high elevation the immense construction that is taking place in what is now Tennessees largest city (Shelby is the largest county). From a viewpoint on the knoll at Fort Negley observers can see a multitude of high level cranes engaged in elevating the Music Citys skyline. From a historical perspective Fort Negley is an important part of the Civil War involvement of our state's capital in 1862-1867. Although the wooden structure that comprised the fortifications of the area are gone, much history pertaining to the area remains. After its occupation on February 25, 1862, by Union forces, Nashville was the second most fortified city in America after Washington, D.C. The original fort was named after James S. Negley, provost marshal and commander of Federal forces in the city. In 1865 the location was renamed Fort Hacker in honor of the death of General Charles G. Hacker, who was killed at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia. The changing of the name of the fort was based on General Negleys alleged poor performance at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. However, he was later exonerated of the charges and the fort was known locally as Fort Negley. Negley would later serve as a Congressman and railroad president. After the defeat of the Confederate Army at Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862, the citizenry and government officials realized that the occupation of Nashville was imminent and an era known as The Great Panic took place. Governor Isham Harris and the Tennessee General Assembly members left for Memphis by rail with the state's Archives. When the Confederate Army under the command of General Albert S. Johnston fled the city on February 25, Union troops arrived headed by General Don Carlos Buell. Terms of surrender were negotiated by Major Richard B. Cheatham and Nashville remained under federal occupation throughout the war. The erection of Fort Negley was originally designed to protect any attack on Nashville. It was located atop St. Cloud Hill, south of the city. Local male and female slaves were the primary labor force that erected a star-shaped structure of limestone block. An agreement was made that the runaway slaves who worked on the construction of the fort would have their status of slaves revoked. Free blacks were also forcibly conscripted for the work. Of the 2,768 blacks on the project, only 310 were ever paid and 600-800 men were killed while working. Although Fort Negley was erected for the defense of Nashville when Confederate forces attacked the capital in the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16, 1864, most of the fighting was on the south end of the city. Although units at the impressive Fort Negley fired an occasional volley toward the invading southern troops of General John Bell Hood, its role was of minor involvement. The fort remained under federal control and martial law until 1867. After the end of the Civil War, the fort fell into a state of deterioration and was abandoned. The site became a meeting place for secret rallies of the Ku Klux Klan until 1869. In 1937 the Federal Works Progress Association (WPA) reconstructed the fort as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal. However, the site has had a checkered history. After the 1937 reconstruction the fort was allowed to fall into ruins until attention was once again brought to its existence in the 1964 Civil War Centennial Celebration. In 1975, Fort Negley was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. In 1980 the Metro Historical Commission marked the site with a historical marker. Rehabilitation of the fort began in 2002 with stabilization of the fort and installation of interpretive panels outlining the history of the fort. Accessible walkways were erected. Fort Negley reopened on the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Nashville in December 2004. The modernistic Fort Negley Visitors Center opened in 2007 and includes many Civil War historical features about Nashville and other areas. Admission to the fort is free and information as to hours and dates of operation can be obtained at (615) 862-8470 or www.nashville.gov/parks-and-recreation-historic-sites-fort-negley.aspx. Although an administrative blunder in 2017 resulted in the removal of all of the trees from the site, both reasons stated above justify a visit to Fort Negley as an opportunity to learn the past and see the proposed future of Nashville. New Delhi, April 5 : Delhi Police have suspended a constable who was helping the Jamaatis to cross Delhi-UP border under the protection of 'khaki'. Constable Imran was posted with the security branch of Delhi Police. He allegedly took people linked to Nizamuddin's Tablighi Jamaat and corona suspects to Ghaziabad. After the the incident, which took place on Friday, Imran and Jamaatis have been quarantined. Ghaziabad's Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kalanidhi Naithani confirmed that Imran and others were quarantined on Saturday. District police spokesman Sohanveer Singh Solanki told IANS: "The police have arrested Shahid, Aasif, Jameel, Ayyub, Intzar, Wasim, Imran, Usman and Gufran." He further said that during the interrogation, Imran told police that he is a constable in Delhi Police and presently posted with the police headquarters' security team. "Beside Imran, one of the people who were travelling in car claimed to be the owner of the vehicle, while others introduced themselves as Jamaatis," Tila More police station SHO Ranveer Singh said. Thereafter, the Ghaziabad police informed Delhi Police about the incident. Consequently, the DCP (Security Branch) suspended Imran. A departmental probe will be held and further action will only be taken after the allegations were established. "Presently, all have been admitted to the quarantine home. Some of them were coming from Amroha while others joined them from Muradnagar," the SHO said. (Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be reached to sanjeev.c@ians.in) "I seriously don't know how I am going to get any work done, it's so stressful," said my friend who is now working in the family's small home, along with her husband and two primary school-aged children. Although her husband is a great supporter of equality and the fair division of domestic labour, he assumes the mother is the natural inheritor of the supervision of the kids' education now they're predicted to be home-schooling for some time. A mass shift to working at home has produced some domestic revelations. Credit:iStock There is nothing evasive about it, it was a default setting, rather like the assumption women find it easier and their work and image will suffer less than men's if they leave early to pick up kids from school, manage an extra-curricular activity or whatever. The reality is, of course, that stigma around that is exactly as bad for working mothers as it is for working dads. Her two had started remote learning before term 1 broke up, and my friend (who used childcare prior to school to cover her work) was already struggling with her new, isolation workload. You cannot sit a six-year-old in front of a PC and expect the teacher to pull off miracles. Ver esta publicacion en Instagram A mi salida del Hospital Naval, en la Av. Venezuela, recibi el caluroso saludo y mensajes de aliento de la gente que vive cerca. Gracias por su compromiso con nuestro pais, son la fuerza que necesitamos para seguir adelante. #ElPeruPrimero, la gente primero, siempre! Advertisement Shocking graphs have revealed the United States is still 11 days away from its coronavirus peak when it is predicted 2,644 people will die in 24 hours across the nation. The stark new model - created by researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics - also shows the country is also 10 days from its peak resource use, when 262,092 hospital beds will be needed. That is 87,674 less than the number of beds the U.S. has to its disposal, the predictions show. A staggering 39,727 ICU beds will be required; the estimated shortage of these will be 19,863, it adds. Researchers also warn 100,000 Americans will die by August 4. Previous White House predictions have put the figure between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the US if the nation continues on its trajectory and current social distancing guidelines are maintained. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics's model details a grim state-by-state breakdown of when hospitals will be overwhelmed and how many will die. Shocking graphs have revealed the United States is still 11 days away from its coronavirus peak when it is predicted 2,644 people will die in 24 hours across the nation Researchers also warn 100,000 Americans will die by August 4, pictured. Previous White House predictions have put the figure between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the US if the nation continues on its trajectory and current social distancing guidelines are maintained The stark new model - created by researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics - also shows the country is also 10 days from its peak resource use, when 262,092 hospital beds will be needed The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics's model details a grim state-by-state breakdown of when hospitals will be overwhelmed and how many will die. The figures for all beds are shown The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics's model details a grim state-by-state breakdown of when hospitals will be overwhelmed and how many will die. The figures for all ICU beds are shown The team warns that the protections for each state is assuming that social distancing measures are maintained, such as people staying home and nursing homes barring visitors It allows users to search predictions for any state, not only shows deaths but the demand for hospital services in each state, including the availability of ventilators, general hospital beds, and ICU beds. The team warns that the protections for each state is assuming that social distancing measures are maintained, such as people staying home and nursing homes barring visitors. It shows New York - which continues to bear the brunt as the epicenter of the outbreak in the US - will reach its peak in five days with 855 deaths on April 10. It will need more than 76,000 beds a day before. More than 16,000 people will die by August 4 in New York, the graphs show. But as the nation looks on in despair at the Empire State, others are fast on track to become the new deadly hotspots. The figures for Illinois make for particularly grim reading. COVID-19 deaths there are expected to hit 3,386 by August 4 with the state's peak in 15 days when an estimated 109 people will die in 24 hours. In Florida, the state's peak is expected on May 4, with 175 deaths over a 24-hour period. The model shows Michigan will hit its peak in six days, when 173 deaths are predicted on April 11. The US death toll skyrocketed to 9,662 Sunday and the number of cases surged to 337,915 Americans infected by the killer virus. It shows New York - which continues to bear the brunt as the epicenter of the outbreak in the US - will reach its peak in five days with 855 deaths on April 10. It will need more than 76,000 beds a day before In Florida the state's peak is expected on May 4, with 175 deaths over a 24 hour period In Georgia the state's peak is expected on April 25, with 96 deaths over a 24 hour period In Illinois the state's peak is expected on April 20, with 109 deaths over a 24 hour period Louisiana has become a key concern as it reported a jump in deaths to 409 on Saturday. The graphs show the state will reach its peak in five days, with 76 COVID-19 deaths projected on April 10. More than 1,800 people are predicted to die there by August 4. The Gulf state's largest city, New Orleans, where Mardi Gras celebrations in late February are believed to have helped spread the virus before social distancing orders were imposed, has become a focal point of the health crisis. Patients in New Orleans are dying at twice the rate per capita as in New York. Louisiana Governor John Edwards said he spoke with Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday - and that he had been promised an additional 200 ventilators from the national stockpile. California is projected to see 119 COVID-19 deaths on April 26, its predicted peak; 5,068 deaths are projected by August 4. Washington state, the first epicenter of the outbreak in the US, is predicted to see its peak of the virus in 4 days and experts say nearly 1,000 people could die there by August 4. In Louisiana the state's peak is expected on April 10, with 76 deaths over a 24-hour period In Michigan the state's peak is expected on April 11, with 173 deaths over a 24-hour period In New Jersey the state's peak is expected on April 9, with 104 deaths over a 24-hour period Massachusetts is expected to see its peak in 12 days and more than 2,300 deaths by August 4. New Jersey will peak in four days; Georgia in 20. Dr Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, explained that the model used mortality rates because when researchers began working on it, the numbers of those tested for the virus were low. 'There wasn't enough capacity for testing so we didn't know how many people are positive,' he told DailyMail.com. '[The graphs] remind us that staying home is very helpful,' Dr Mokdad said. 'It will makes lives on our physicians much easier. We don;t want them to decide which patients are on a ventilator and which aren't as we've seen in other countries, like Italy.' In Washington the state's peak is expected on April 9, with 22 deaths over a 24-hour period A 37-year-old suspected Covid-19 patient tried to kill himself by jumping off the third floor of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital building in central Delhi late Saturday, the police said. The mans legs were fractured. He is being treated at the hospital, they said. They added that the man, a shopkeeper, does not have any travel history abroad, and his test reports are awaited. Prima facie, it appears that he was depressed and feared being infected with Covid-19, a police officer said. The police said the man is not from the Nizamuddin Markaz, from where more than 2,300 people, including foreigners, were evacuated by authorities after many across the country who had attended a religious congregation there were found Covid-19 positive. Sanjay Bhatia, the deputy commissioner of police (central), said the man, who lives with his family in a residential area not too far from the hospital, had walked into the hospital on March 31, complaining about cold and cough. After initial medical tests, the doctors said he was suffering from regular flu and had no symptoms of Covid-19. They discharged him but he returned the same day and insisted on being admitted so that his tests could be done again. The man was admitted, Bhatia said, adding that the result of the mans test for Covid-19 test was awaited. On Saturday around 11.30pm, DCP Bhatia said, the man jumped from the third floor of the hospital. He first fell on the metal roof below and then landed on the ground, because of which he survived, but fractured his legs. Doctors have told us that his condition is stable, Bhatia said. An official from the hospital, which has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 hospital, also confirmed that the suspected patient jumped from the building. We do not know the reason yet. He is alive and his injuries are currently being evaluated and treatment is being given, the official said. Whether it was a suicide or accident is being investigated, another senior official from the hospital administration said. On March 18, a 35-year-old man who had returned from Sydney and immediately moved to Safdarjung Hospital on suspicion of being infected with Covid-19 allegedly killed himself by jumping from the hospital building. An official from the hospital had said that the man was suspected of being infected with the virus, but the disease was not confirmed, as his test result was awaited. His test reports later showed that he didnt have the disease. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To the annoyance of some shareholders, Guangzhou Automobile Group (HKG:2238) shares are down a considerable 31% in the last month. Indeed the recent decline has arguably caused some bitterness for shareholders who have held through the 30% drop over twelve months. Assuming nothing else has changed, a lower share price makes a stock more attractive to potential buyers. While the market sentiment towards a stock is very changeable, in the long run, the share price will tend to move in the same direction as earnings per share. So, on certain occasions, long term focussed investors try to take advantage of pessimistic expectations to buy shares at a better price. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios. View our latest analysis for Guangzhou Automobile Group How Does Guangzhou Automobile Group's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers? Guangzhou Automobile Group's P/E is 9.06. The image below shows that Guangzhou Automobile Group has a P/E ratio that is roughly in line with the auto industry average (9.1). SEHK:2238 Price Estimation Relative to Market April 5th 2020 Guangzhou Automobile Group's P/E tells us that market participants think its prospects are roughly in line with its industry. If the company has better than average prospects, then the market might be underestimating it. Checking factors such as director buying and selling. could help you form your own view on if that will happen. How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings. Guangzhou Automobile Group saw earnings per share decrease by 39% last year. But EPS is up 21% over the last 5 years. Story continues Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. 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. Is Debt Impacting Guangzhou Automobile Group's P/E? Guangzhou Automobile Group has net cash of CN20b. This is fairly high at 22% 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 Guangzhou Automobile Group's P/E Ratio Guangzhou Automobile Group trades on a P/E ratio of 9.1, which is fairly close to the HK market average of 9.1. While the lack of recent growth is probably muting optimism, the relatively strong balance sheet will allow the company to weather a storm; so it isn't very surprising to see that it has a P/E ratio close to the market average. Given Guangzhou Automobile Group's P/E ratio has declined from 13.1 to 9.1 in the last month, we know for sure that the market is more worried about the business today, than it was back then. For those who prefer invest in growth, this stock apparently offers limited promise, but the deep value investors may find the pessimism around this stock enticing. When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. So this free visualization of the analyst consensus on future earnings could help you make the right decision about whether to buy, sell, or hold. But note: Guangzhou Automobile Group may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20). 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. Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker of the house of representatives, says the lower chamber is considering a second stimulus bill that will a... Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker of the house of representatives, says the lower chamber is considering a second stimulus bill that will allow Nigerians to enjoy electricity for two months without paying charges. In a tweet on Saturday, Gbajabiamila said engagements are ongoing with electricity distribution companies to work out the details. At a meeting today, between @nassnigeria and the minister of finance, @ZShamsuna and her team, I disclosed that @HouseNGR is considering a second stimulus bill that will provide Nigerians with free electricity supply for two months to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, he wrote. The proposed bill will boost the economy through the informal sector and is to be considered immediately @HouseNGR reconvenes from its ongoing break. The house leadership had engaged the Discos in the last few days to work out the details. At a meeting today, between @nassnigeria and the Minister of Finance, @ZShamsuna and her team, I disclosed that @HouseNGR is considering a second Stimulus Bill that will provide Nigerians with free electricity supply for two months to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic pic.twitter.com/qVMQfJA3Ws April 4, 2020 Various measures have been put in place to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, this includes a postponement of the implementation of the new electricity tariff by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, is also scheduled to announce the fiscal stimulus measures to be taken by the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and drop in oil price. The minister will announce the measures at a press conference that will hold on Monday. President Muhammadu Buhari had set up a special ministerial taskforce for advice on the general economic outlook, stimulus plans and packages to save the Nigerian economy. The task force is headed by Ahmed. Other members of the team are Clem Agba, minister of state for budget and national planning; Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources; Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria governor; and Mele Kyari, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Flight attendants. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes Some flight attendants are worried that they may be spreading coronavirus because of travel and lack of personal protective equipment. Flight attendants around the world are mostly exempt from lockdown order, because they're considered essential employees. The coronavirus has infected more than a million people around the world. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Along with doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other essential workers, flight attendants are on the frontlines facing COVID-19, the coronavirus disease. Several flight attendants told Time that they fear they're spreading COVID-19 with every flight they take and passenger they interact with as they lack PPE. The coronavirus has infected more than one million around the world. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it a pandemic. The virus has disrupted travel worldwide, leading to flight cancellations, quarantines, and other breakdowns in movement and supply chains. Airlines have been hit especially hard, and several have already collapsed. Despite these conditions, some airlines are still flying, and flight attendants are afraid. Here's what they had to say. One flight attendant said "They are doing nothing but giving us wipes. We're like bees scattering pollen everywhere." Flight attendants. Reuters Source: Time Flight attendants say they can only get out of work with a doctor's note or positive COVID-19 test result, and some say they've even had to fly while awaiting test results. Flight attendants. Reuters Source: Time They describe feeling worry and guilt while assisting elderly passengers, because they could be exposing them to the virus. Flight attendants. Reuters Source: Time Flight attendants said that previously they could be punished for wearing protective equipment like masks and gloves. Flight attendants. REUTERS Source: Time Now, they say that they aren't provided with sufficient equipment like masks and cleaning products to keep them safe. Story continues File photo: Flight attendants wear medical masks at Novosibirsk International Airport, January 30, 2020. Kirill Kukhmar\TASS via Getty Images Source: Time Some are sharing tips for cleaning cabins with homemade products beyond what is mandated by the airline. Empty plane. Getty Source: Time Flight attendants fear that they are constantly at risk, sitting next to each other on flights and using the same bathrooms as passengers. Air travelers grab carry-on luggage behind rows of empty seats aboard a Delta flight, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disruption continues across the global industry, from New York's JFK International Airport to San Francisco, California, U.S., March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Source: Time When medical emergencies happen, flight attendants are expected to act as emergency personnel without PPE. A Japan Airlines staff member not the woman who was infected wears a mask while working in Los Angeles International Airport on January 23, 2020. Mario Tama/Getty Images Source: Time One flight attendant told Time that she cries every time she goes to the airport, fearful that she will catch the virus from one of her coworkers. A U.S. health official in a protective suit standing in front of a portable bio-containment unit speaks to U.S. passengers who have chosen to leave the Diamond Princess cruise ship, on a chartered evacuation aircraft to fly back to the United States, at Haneda airport in Japan, February 17, 2020. Philip and Gay Courter/Reuters Source: Time Some also said that they are staying in apartments with other flight crews so they don't infect their families. Flight attendants. Adnan Abidi/Reuters Source: Time They worry about being stuck quarantined away from their home cities if they test positive or are exposed to the coronavirus while on a trip. File photo: JANUARY 23, 2020: A Rospotrebnadzor (Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being) official uses a thermal imaging device to conduct a temperature check of passengers arriving at Krasnoyarsk International Airport on a plane from Cam Rahn, Vietnam, in connection with an outbreak of coronavirus. Andrei Samsonov/Getty Source: Time Read the original article on Business Insider Queen Elizabeth II rallied her fellow Britons on Sunday evening to confront the coronavirus pandemic in a rare televised address that was followed almost immediately by news that the nations most prominent victim of the virus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, had been admitted to the hospital. Johnsons office said he was hospitalized because he still has symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus. Downing Street said his admission was a precautionary step and Johnson remains in charge of the government. Johnson, 55, has been quarantined in his Downing Street residence since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26. News of Johnsons admission to a hospital came an hour after the queen made her address to the nation, urging Britons to remain united and resolute in the fight against the virus. Drawing parallels to the struggle of World War II, the 93-year-old queen said that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time, the queen said in taped remarks from Windsor Castle, where she has sequestered herself against a virus that has infected at least 40,000 people in Britain. Among them are her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles. The queen called it a time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. It was only the fourth time in her 66-year reign that the queen has addressed the British people, apart from her annual Christmas greeting. FRANCE Transit mobilized to move patients The high-speed train whooshing past historic World War I battle zones and through the chateau-speckled Loire Valley carried a delicate cargo: 20 critically ill COVID-19 patients and the machines helping keep them alive. The TGV-turned-mobile-intensive-care-unit is just one piece of Frances nationwide mobilization of trains, helicopters, jets and even a warship, deployed to relieve congested hospitals and move hundreds of patients and medical personnel in and out of coronavirus hot spots. The Rungis food market south of Paris, Europes biggest, is transforming into a morgue as Frances death count surpassed 8,000. Nearly 7,000 patients are in intensive care, pushing French hospitals to their limit and beyond. Doctors are rationing painkillers and re-using masks. VATICAN Few are in pews for Palm Sunday Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in the shelter of St. Peters Basilica without the public because of the coronavirus pandemic, while parish priests elsewhere in Rome took to church rooftops and bell towers to lead services so at least some faithful could follow the ritual. Looking pensive and sounding subdued, Francis led the first of several solemn Holy Week ceremonies that will shut out rank-and-file faithful from attending, as Italys rigid lockdown measures forbid public gatherings. Normally, tens of thousands of Romans, tourists and pilgrims would have flocked to an outdoor Mass led by the pontiff. Instead, Francis celebrated Mass inside St. Peters Basilica. A few invited prelates, nuns and laypeople were present, staggered far apart in the pews to reduce the risks of contagion. BRAZIL Warning issued on shortage of tests Brazilian health officials grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak have issued a stark warning about a lack of hospital beds, masks, testing devices and trained staff across Latin Americas largest nation. A Health Ministry report found Brazil can carry out 6,700 COVID-19 tests a day, but that it will need to process as many as 50,000 tests daily during the peak of the outbreak, expected in June. The assessment raises serious questions about its capacity to face the outbreak in a country of more than 210 million. CZECH REPUBLIC Volunteer pilots deliver medical aid More than 300 pilots in the Czech Republic have joined forces in a group of volunteers who use their private planes to distribute medical equipment across the country. The Pilots to the People project is meant to help the state authorities fighting the coronavirus to deliver supplies to any place in the country as soon as possible. Chronicle News Services A cheering crowd of sailors on board the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt bid farewell to their captain as he disembarked the ship Friday, video footage circulating on social media showed, one day after the commander was removed by the Navy for alerting his superiors about the virus outbreak on the vessel. Video clips showed that service members gathered around Captain Brett Crozier as he made his way off the ship through a hangar. "Captain Crozier!" they chanted repeatedly in chorus while clapping hands. "Wrongfully relieved of command but did right by the sailors," read a tweet by Dylan Castillo with an embedded video showing the scene. Crozier was relieved of his duty for speaking out in a recent internal letter to higher-ranking officials about what he viewed as the Pentagon's insufficient response to a coronavirus outbreak on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is currently docking in Guam. In the letter, which was first made public by the San Francisco Chronicle, Crozier asked the Pentagon to facilitate in moving 90 percent of the crew into isolation for two weeks on Guam, otherwise "we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our Sailors." "Decisive action is required. Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed US nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure," the letter read. "Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care." Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly announced Crozier's removal Thursday, for the reason that he allowed "the complexity of his challenge with the COVID breakout on the ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally when acting professionally was what was needed at the time." The drama became increasingly political Friday as a group of Democratic senators urged Acting Inspector General for the Department of Defense Glenn Fine to launch a formal investigation into the Navy's response to the COVID-19 outbreak on the Roosevelt, as well as its decision to fire the captain. "It is essential that your office conduct a comprehensive investigation to avoid any potential conflicts of interest within the Navy chain of command, and we encourage you to evaluate all relevant matters associated with the dismissal and the outbreak on the ship," the senators wrote in a letter to Fine. Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden voiced support for Crozier, saying in a tweet that "Captain Crozier was faithful to his duty - both to his sailors and his country." "Navy leadership sent a chilling message about speaking truth to power. The poor judgment here belongs to the Trump Admin, not a courageous officer trying to protect his sailors," he added. Modly on Thursday acknowledged Crozier's popularity. "I am entirely convinced that your Commanding Officer loves you, and that he had you at the center of his heart and mind in every decision that he has made. I also know that you have great affection, and love, for him as well," he said. As of Friday, 41 percent of the crew had been tested for COVID-19, yielding 137 positive results, the Navy said, adding that 400 more sailors testing negative will be moved to hotels in Guam for quarantine, bringing the total of those transferred to 576. The Navy planned to move 2,700 of the roughly 5,000 service members off the Roosevelt, leaving the rest of the crew on board to maintain the ship's operation. Meanwhile, some positive COVID-19 tests have emerged on aircraft carrier USS Donald Reagan, U.S. media reported citing defense officials. Alameda County Superior Court officials said Thursday they've extended the closure of most of the county's courts through May 1 because of the decision by health officials earlier this week to extend shelter-in-place rules until May 3. May 1 is a Friday, so the earliest Alameda County's courts could reopen would be Monday, May 4, the day after the current shelter-in-place order could expire. Alameda County court officials said California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in an order earlier this week authorized all superior courts in the state to issue implementation orders that would extend the time for holding preliminary examinations and criminal arraignments and further continue civil and criminal jury trials. Alameda County Superior Court Presiding Judge Tara Desautels said that in response to the chief justice's order, she's issued her own order extending the time for in-custody arraignments and preliminary examinations and continuing criminal trial dates by 60 days. However, court officials said that during this emergency period they are continuing to work with its justice partners and other stakeholders to maintain due process rights and expand and enhance its provision of essential services as resources permit. Mill Valley firefighters contained a fire to a shed and saved two nearby houses that had been evacuated, Mill Valley police said. The fire was reported at 8:36 p.m. Saturday at the shed behind houses near Overhill Road and Camino Alto. No one was injured, and all residents eventually returned to their homes. Mill Valley and Southern Marin firefighters fought the blaze. The cause of the fire appeared to be related to combustion due to stored varnish and related pigments. A stolen car suspect was arrested Saturday after leading officers on a pursuit Saturday from the city of Sonoma to Novato in Marin County, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said. The auto theft was reported to Sonoma police between 6 and 6:30 p.m. and sheriff's deputies spotted and pursued the vehicle, but called it off "due to the suspect's increasingly reckless driving behavior" that included driving southbound on the shoulder of northbound U.S. Highway 101, the Sheriff's Department said. Sheriff's Department helicopter Henry-1, which had been on routine patrol in Santa Rosa, tracked the car as it continued into Marin County and left the freeway in Novato. After the car was disabled by spike strips deployed by the Marin County Sheriff's Office, the driver fled on foot but was taken into custody by Marin deputies. A man and woman died in a solo vehicle crash early Sunday morning in West Oakland, police said. Oakland police responding about 2:30 a.m. to the crash at Seventh Street and Frontage Road at Interstate Highway 880 found a silver 2004 Honda Civic that had struck a concrete wall. The Oakland Fire Department arrived to tend man and woman in the car who had severe injuries, but they were pronounced dead at the scene. The identities of the victims, both Oakland residents, are being withheld pending notification of their families. It is unknown whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation. Napa Fire Department crews extinguished a small fire that was sparked by charcoal barbecue remnants early Sunday morning, according to fire officials. The fire was reported at a home in the 500 block of Montgomery Street at about 2:32 a.m., Fire Captain Dan D'Angelo said. The fire didn't damage any primary structures and burned somewhat into a neighbor's storage shed. According to D'Angelo, a resident had placed charcoal ash into a trashcan. Despite the ashes being cold, D'Angelo said they do sometimes contain hot spots. Nobody was injured or displaced. The damage is estimated at $30,000. The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases as of Sunday at Laguna Honda Hospital stands at 14, San Francisco officials announced. The total includes 11 staff members and three residents. Of the staff members, eight have had patient care duties. All 14 patients are described as in good condition. The count a week ago was two patients and seven staff members. In response to a request from the city, the California Department of Public Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sent skilled personnel to Laguna Honda, including infection control nurses, infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists. Contra Costa County saw the number of confirmed COVID-19 coronavirus increase to 386 as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday, up from 353 cases Saturday night and 307 Saturday morning. The number of hospitalized cases in the county is unchanged at 31 and the number of deaths is now six, up one from Saturday. The county had tested 5,240 people as of Sunday morning. The number of cases in Alameda County as of Sunday is 539, up from 510 on Saturday. Alameda County has 12 deaths, unchanged from Saturday. Berkeley, one of three California cities with its own health department, reported 27 residents as of Friday who have tested positive for COVID-19, with no deaths. Berkeley figures are not included in the county total. City parking lots in Benicia are closed to the public due to activity violating the novel coronavirus social distancing order, officials said Friday. The city announced the closure of parking lots at Matthew Turner Shipyard (12th Street) Park and Alvarez Ninth Street Park, as well as parking at the foot of First Street for the beach and pier. "The Police Department has received and verified complaints of people parking in these locations and not staying to themselves, but rather walking between cars, window to window interactions, etc.," the city said in an announcement. "As a result, these parking lots will be blocked to vehicle traffic with the exception of a few boat parking spaces at the Ninth Street parking lot." Officials said that the areas will remain open for walking, but that social distancing would be enforced. 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. For centuries the most admirable trait of the Thoroughbred has been speed. Their ability to carry that speed is what separates the good ones from the great ones. As we soldier our way through the COVID-19 pandemic, the skills, talents, and, most of all, patience of everyone in the industry will be asked to stretch out from sprinting to going two turns. While the breeding season rolls on the best it can, racing has been reduced to but a precious few tracks. Gulfstream Park held its Florida Derby program March 28 without fans or even connections for that matter. Watching via the track feed, we enjoyed the racing but were concerned over the sight of the outriders wearing surgical masks. Swiss Skydiver gave owner Peter Callahan a thrill winning the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2), but he was frustrated with the fact he had to watch from more than a social distance. Peter really loves going to the races, said winning trainer Ken McPeek. He was thrilled with the fillys race but was upset we all couldnt be there to enjoy it. He watched it at his home in Palm Beach (Fla.) by himselfbut he really would have enjoyed being there in person. The sport is a personal game. So, too, are the breeding industry and the sale arena. At present, the major 2-year-old in training sales have been pushed to May and June, but who is to say those dates will hold? The first of the yearling sales is slated to get underway in mid-July. Again, who is to say when those venues will be open for commerce and under what conditions? For many products there is the virtual marketplace, but Thoroughbreds are a hard commodity to sell without actually touching and observing the animals up close. McPeek, a major buyer of yearlings, can relate to that. Ive worked some Brazilian sales where they have videotaped each and every horse and you have walking videosyou can see quite a bit, but I do think that being there in person is dramatically a better way to judge a horse, he said. Im not sure exactly how something like this moves forward, but it is doable to do it online, but I like to look at horses two, three, maybe four times and at different scenarios such as early in the day and later in the day to see what kind of energy level they have. It wouldnt surprise me, and I dont think it would be a terrible thing, for those companies to push those sales further back in the year, McPeek said. Even if we held a sale such as the (Fasig-Tipton Kentucky) October sale in December, it wouldnt really matter. We need to make sure everybody continues to practice social distancing and all of those things, and if that means the sales are later in the year or early in 2021, thats OK. You are going to get better sale numbers if everyone is comfortable being there. If the sale companies push their auctions to where breeders could sell their product, it would work for everybody. However, Im not overly worried about the yearling sales just yet. As well he shouldnt be just yet. McPeek, like other horsemen, has stable help and staff in multiple locations. Keeping tabs on them and making sure the crew is healthy, sound, and safe are more important. While McPeek is in Kentucky with about 10 horses stabled at Keeneland, he has more at Gulfstream Park along with 90-plus horses at his training center, Summerfield Training Center, in central Florida. We kept everybody at status quo, he said. Everybody is holding their positions, and I have really good guys at each point. Assistant trainer Greg Geier saddled Swiss Skydiver at Gulfstream. Dominic Brennan is running the Summerfield location, and he has decades of experience and has a really good staff. We have our own dormitory at Summerfield where a good portion of the staff lives, and we are making sure they have everything they need to keep the place disinfected and clean. Most importantly, McPeek said: The staff has been unaffected up to nowand we are praying it stays that way. Lets all continue to stay the course and get the trip. NEW YORK, April 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJCAJC) welcomed newly elected Labour Party head Keri Starrmer's public apology to the British Jewish community for the failure to address rising antisemitism within the party's ranks and in the United Kingdom. "Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party. I have seen the grief that it's brought to so many Jewish communities," said Starmer soon after his election yesterday. "On behalf of the Labour Party, I am sorry. I will tear out this poison by its roots and judge success by the return of Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us." Starmer won 56.2 percent of the vote to succeed Jeremy Corbyn, who has led Labour since 2015. Congratulating Starmer, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, said: "We were very pleased that he and all the other leadership contenders signed up to the Board of Deputies' Ten Pledges on antisemitism. Now they must act to rid the party of the awful disease of anti-Jewish racism." "Keir Starmer's election and commitment to assertively take on antisemitism are rays of light in what has been for Jews a particularly dark period in British history," said David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the leading global Jewish advocacy organization. "We agree with our partner organization, the British Board of Deputies, that concrete action to assertively eliminate hatred of Jews inside the Labour Party must now follow Sir Starmer's pledge." In January, the Community Security Trust reported an increase in antisemitism in the UK for the fourth consecutive year. There were 1,805 incidents in 2019, the highest number ever logged in a calendar year and a 7% increase on 2018. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org Its sometimes said that China is the worlds manufacturer, but the U.S. is the worlds consumer. When theres less trade happening between these two giants, its not good for either one. Neither are the tariffs on that trade. As The Heritage Foundation writes, its been a little over two months since China began shutting down its domestic economic activity (restricting travel, closing movie theaters, limiting factory workers, etc.) to curb the spread of the coronavirus. New U.S. statistics show the negative effects the coronavirus is having on U.S.-China trade, now that both the supply and demand for globally traded goods has taken a hit with the U.S. significantly slowing its own economic activities. From January to February, the monthly trade in goods with China decreased $10.9 billionmostly from a decline in imports from China. A decrease in exports to China is generally bad for U.S. producers, and a decrease in imports tends to be bad for U.S. consumers. Although there was less trade in a variety of goods, the largest decrease in imports from China were of data processing machines and certain telephones. The largest decrease in exports to China were of soybeans, machines for manufacturing semiconductors, and civilian aircraft and parts. Not all trade with China saw a decrease. There was increased trade in sorghum, palladium (a metal used in catalytic converters for cars and dental implants), magnesia (a chemical sometimes used in antacids), integrated circuits, and medical diagnostic parts. But including trade with China, U.S. total trade with the world was $15 billion less in February than January. U.S. trade in services decreased $3.1 billion, with the biggest decreases in travel and tourism. A decrease in both imports and exports is worrisome. While some in Washington would like to see a further decline in trade, but that is unlikely. Americans will continue to benefit by trading hundreds of billions worth of goods every monthincluding with China. But decreasing imports and exports suggests troubling economic times ahead. The Cost of Tariffs Since coming into office, the Trump administration has waged a trade war with China that has resulted in hundreds of billions worth of traded goods seeing higher tariffs. This has meant an additional $48 billion tax on American consumers and a disruption to U.S supply chains. There have been new tariffs on other imports as well. A Phase One deal to wind down the U.S.-China trade war was reached in early January, just as the coronavirus took hold in China. At that time, there were punitive tariffs on medical supplies and various chemicals. The Trump administration has since granted more medical supply importers exemptions from these tariffs. There were reports the Trump administration could pause the collection of certain tariff for 90 days to allow businesses to focus on production of essential goods, but President Trump has denied these reports. A snapshot of U.S.-China trade In 2019, the U.S. and China traded $560 billion worth of goodswhich made China our 4th largest trading partner behind the European Union with $856 billion, Mexico with $621 billion, and Canada with $619 billion. The E.U. also is Chinas largest trading partner, with the U.S. a close second. China accounts for 13% of total U.S. trade and 2.6% of U.S. GDP. For China, trade with the U.S. accounts for 12% of its total trade and 3.8% of its GDP. Chinas domestic economy continues to struggle to recover from the effects of the coronavirus. And so long as its biggest customers are slowing economic activity, Chinas economy wont return to normal. In the first two months of the year, large enterprises in China saw a 40% decrease in profits. One estimate suggests Chinas economy could contract by 10% in the first quarter (the months of January, February, and March). It wouldnt be surprising to see U.S.-China trade (as well as U.S. total trade with the world), continue to decline over the next month. As the nation is graplling with the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called two former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil to hold discussions on COVID-19 related issues. It is learnt that the prime minister also called two former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda to discuss the deadly virus and the steps taken by the governments at Central and state levels to combat the menace. He also called up leaders of various political parties like Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, KCR, Stalin and Parkash Singh Badal. The prime minister talked to these senior leaders hours before millions of people across India are gearing up to turn off lights at their homes for nine minutes at 9 pm as requested by PM Modi in his address to the nation on Thursday (April 2). In his addressm the prime minister had urged Indians to stand together to "fight the darkness of coronavirus pandemic". In a video message, the prime minister made an appeal to the nation: "On April 5, Sunday, at 9 pm, I want 9 minutes from all of you. Turn off all the lights in your homes, stand at your doors or balconies and light candles, diya (lamp) or mobile flashlights for 9 minutes. No one is alone during the lockdown, the collective superpower of 130 crore Indians is with every citizen." This was PM Modi's address to the nation since the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the country. India currently has over 3374 COVID-19 cases including 77 deaths while 267 patients have recovered. India is under a 21-day lockdown period after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it on March 24 asking people to restrain for going out of their homes and maintain social distancing in order to curb the spread of coronavirus. In a sudden flare-up, five terrorists and three Indian soldiers were killed and three Pakistan soldiers injured in two separate incidents on the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday in Jammu & Kashmir. Defence spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia told IANS, "Five terrorists and three soldiers were killed when the Indian Army intercepted a group of heavily armed infiltrating terrorists in Rungdori Behak area of Keran sector". The Pakistan army also violated ceasefire on the LoC in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district today. A defence sources said, "Indian positions retaliated strongly and effectively. Three Pakistani soldiers, including a JCO and two other soldiers, were injured. "The injured Pakistani soldiers include JCO Mukhtar, sepoy Ajmal and sepoy Nadeem. They have removed the injured to military hospital Kharian on their side of the LoC", the source added. The security forces have killed nine terrorists in Kashmir during the last 24 hours. Four terrorists belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit were killed yesterday in an encounter with the security forces in Kulgam district. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The outcome is of particular importance because the two most liberal presidential candidates, Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, were surpassed in the primary race by the more moderate Mr. Biden. Ms. Warren ended her presidential bid last month, and Mr. Sanders still says his campaign has a narrow path but is facing increased calls from allies to cede the nomination to Mr. Biden. The left-wing Working Families Party had to recall waves of canvassers who were collecting signatures for congressional, state and local candidates endorsed by the group. It has also scrapped multiple in-person initiatives: a volunteer training program that was to begin imminently and a two-day organization-wide convention in Milwaukee that was scheduled for May. On the campaign side, Ohio canceled its primary just one day before voters in the states Third Congressional District were set to vote in a Democratic primary between Morgan Harper, a community activist who had previous jobs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and as a corporate lawyer, and Representative Joyce Beatty, an incumbent with a long history in state politics. The state has rescheduled its primary to April 28, but has also mandated that nearly all voters submit ballots by mail, a move Ms. Harper said might depress turnout and give an advantage to candidates with higher name recognition. People are very stressed about contracting an infectious disease that has the potential to kill you while also dealing with the disruption to financial life right now, Ms. Harper said. And in the midst of that, while experiencing extreme financial stress, were going to ask them to have the wherewithal to go to a website, request an application, print it out and mail it back in just to get a ballot. Suraj Patel, one of several challengers running in New Yorks 12th Congressional District against the incumbent Democrat, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, contracted the coronavirus in March, forcing him into quarantine. The situation disrupted his campaign schedule, though he has been trying to work from home. Mr. Patel said his small dollar fund-raising had dropped off by 80 percent by the end of March. Rajesh Kumar Thakur By Express News Service PATNA: In a first such move in the Indian railways, a village in Bihar's Rohtas district namely Mundiyar, has been adopted by employees of Signal and Telecoms (S&T) wing of East Central Railway (ECR). The employees are arranging everything right from commodities to other basic needs to more than 500 residents of this nondescript village, which falls under the Mughalsarai division of ECR in Rohtas district of Bihar. "We,the employees of S&T, have taken up a pledge together to carry out our social responsibility duringthe on going lockdown period becoming friends for these hundreds of poor people, said Laxman Kumar, one of the employees. The employees are also conducting an awareness drive across the areas in addition to providing essential commodities and services. Chief spokesperson of ECR headquarter, Rajesh Kumar said that this kind of dedicated community service by railway employees at Mundiyar village under Akorigola block has started from April 1. "Railway employees after conducting their duties ,make daily visit to this village from Dehari -on- sone with the stocks of commodities including bottles of mineral water and snacks to the villagers. The entire expenses are met by the employees from their own salaries". Till date,1000 masks and 500 soaps have been distributed in addition to foods and other commodities. "ADRM of Mughalsarai division Atul Prasad is personally monitoring this community service and staff in groups of 25 visit the village", Kumar said, adding that medical camp is also to be set up in the village soon. Impressed by such a move, the local police and district officials are extending their support to the railway employees. Kumar said that GM LC Trivedi has come up with full praises to the employees for initiating the first of its kind community service amid the Covid -19 lockdown. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 4) As COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, many Catholics are being told to celebrate Holy Week from the safety of their homes. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) encouraged the public to stay home during Holy Week and follow liturgical activities on television, radio or online. CBCP Spokesperson Fr. Jerome Secillano assured Catholics that priests will continue to celebrate the mass within the confines of the Church, which the public may participate in virtually. "The message can actually be communicated to the people by means of technology that we have nowadays," Secillano said in an interview on CNN Philippines. Spiritual graces coming from the sacraments that are celebrated by the Church can be imparted to them [through technology], he added. Secillano stressed the need to follow the quarantine protocols that are being implemented by the government. We don't want to compromise the security and health of the people, Secillano said. The CBCP advised the public to check their official Facebook page regularly for the schedule of activities, which will be posted online. Ahead of the celebration of Holy Week, Pope Francis sent a video message to Christians around the world. In his message, Pope Francis acknowledged that Christians will celebrate Holy Week in a truly unusual way this year but added that this week sums up the message of the Gospel Gods boundless love. And in the silence of our cities, the Easter Gospel will resound, Pope Francis said in a video message. In the risen Jesus, life conquered death. This Paschal faith nourishes our hope. I would like to share it with you this evening. It is the hope of a better time, in which we can be better, finally freed from evil and from this pandemic. It is a hope: hope does not disappoint; it is not an illusion, it is a hope, he added. He urged the faithful to prepare for a better time in love and patience given that many are quarantined in their homes during this time. Make a gesture of tenderness towards those who suffer, towards children, and towards the elderly, Pope Francis said. Russia has launched what appears to be its first criminal probe into suspected public dissemination of false information about the new coronavirus just two days after President Vladimir Putin signed a new law on knowingly misinforming the public into the nation's criminal code. St. Petersburg activist Anna Shushpanova said on her personal social-media page on April 4 that local investigators searched her apartment a day earlier and took her computers and telephone after she posted local residents' concerns about possibly inadequate quarantine measures at a clinic and hospital in the town of Sestroretsk in a group on VKontakte, a popular Russian equivalent of Facebook. She said she is currently a witness in the investigation. Russia on April 4 announced 582 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths during the previous 24 hours, bringing its total number of declared cases to more than 4,700 and the death toll to 43. But critics think the real number of cases is higher and have accused Russian authorities of underreporting the extent of the outbreak. Shushpanova did not say what exactly she posted on the topic on the evening of April 2. Russian state news agency TASS reported that she wrote that an individual with signs of coronavirus entered the Sestroretsk clinic, made contact with doctors and visitors, and was sent home on public transport. The clinics department head was forced to step down following the incident, TASS cited her post as saying. Shushpanova said another individual had posted about the alleged incident before her and that local residents replied to it. That individual then wrote under Shushpanova's post that he called the coronavirus hotline to report the incident and also wrote about it on the personal social-media page of St. Petersburg's governor. Shushpanova said she thinks she is being targeted for her activist work in Sestroretsk on "hot topics" including ecological issues and city beautification and doesn't understand why her devices were seized if she is just a witness. She said Open Russia, a civil rights advocacy group, has already reached out to defend her. "I have the impression that the current situation is an attempt to silence me, to stop me from writing about the problems in the area and stop me from attracting media and public attention [to the problems]," she said, adding that she will be serving as an observer from the opposition party Yabloko during the upcoming vote on constitutional changes. Shushpanova said she was surprised by the speed of the probe, pointing out that about 10 investigators were at her door 18 hours after her post. Why Numbers Dont Tell The Full Story A daily compilation of global coronavirus cases by Johns Hopkins University is currently the most comprehensive in the world, but it relies on information provided by governments. In many countries, there are restrictions on releasing such information or reasons why the full story might not want to be told. The methodology, immediacy, transparency, and quality of this data can vary dramatically country by country. She said investigators also searched her sister's apartment and took both of them to the station. The investigators' search warrant was not signed by a court, she said. "This is really like a bad April Fool's joke," she said. Russia has been increasing pressure on civil society in recent years amid signs of growing public dissatisfaction with living standards. Putin on April 1 signed into law an amendment to the Russian Criminal Code allowing for the punishment of people who knowingly spread false information about the coronavirus. Punishments include fines of up to 700,000 rubles ($8,800), correctional work up to 360 hours, and up to 3 years in prison. Shushpanova said the authorities first must prove the information she posted is false and then prove that she knew it was false. With reporting by Vedomosti and TASS One of the most challenging things about COVID-19 is unpacking misinformation. From Chinas lies about the diseases origin, contagiousness, and mortality rate, to the confusion arising from the different ways in which different countries attribute (or dont attribute) deaths to coronavirus, its been difficult to know precisely how big a challenge America is facing. But what happens when it's Americans who are lying about the data? This story begin on April 1, when Gov. Lamont sent out a tweet explicitly stating that a Connecticut infant died from complications relating to COVID-19": Testing confirmed last night that the newborn was COVID-19 positive. This is absolutely heartbreaking. We believe this is one of the youngest lives lost anywhere due to complications relating to COVID-19. (2/3) Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) April 1, 2020 This is a virus that attacks our most fragile without mercy. This also stresses the importance of staying home and limiting exposure to other people. Your life and the lives of others could literally depend on it. Our prayers are with the family at this difficult time. (3/3) Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) April 1, 2020 By Friday, though, Candace Owens had some very different information to report. Based on conversations with people who had first-hand knowledge, she contended that Governor Lamont had deliberately lied about the infants death. In a video, Owens, a Connecticut native, explained that she first realized Lamont was lying because of the weasel words linked to COVID-19. Lamont is facing a serious shortage of funds in his state, making it important for him to receive federal dollars. Owens stated, without giving away details, that the infant died in a tragic accident at home that had nothing to do with COVID-19. After Owens went public, a reporter asked Lamont about her contention. Lamont immediately handed the question to the states very nervous Director of Infectious Diseases, who explained in general terms that his office does not confirm the cause of someone's death. Here it is! @GovNedLamont pressed today about my earlier report that he LIED about the infant #coronavirus death. Look at this coward as hes too scared to answernow claiming they have no idea how the baby died! It was an at-home tragedy. He should be forced to RESIGN for this pic.twitter.com/lJ2ohO7Gv9 Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 3, 2020 The most significant thing that Director said is that it can take the medical examiner months to figure out what actually causes death. In other words, hes saying that many of those who have died may test positive for COVID-19, but that the presence of COVID-19 in the deceased's body may have nothing to do with what caused the person's death. By Saturday, Owens was able to give more information about how the infant died, and it definitely wasnt COVID-19. Instead, a caretaker accidentally suffocated the poor baby and the police responded to a 911 call. With this kind of detail, says Owens, Lamont KNEW how the baby had died, and lied anyway, because he wants more Federal money. Since word is getting out I can now confirm that the infant in CT was accidentally suffocated by its caretaker, who then called the police. @GovNedLamont KNEW this, & then lied to the world by linking it to the #coronavirus because he wants more Federal money. He should RESIGN. https://t.co/q6L5V55DWh Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 4, 2020 Having dropped this bombshell, Owens started to receive word about other suspicious COVID-19 claims: Georgia Department of Public Health officials have walked back their earlier report that an 11 year old had died from #coronavirus. He would have been the youngest victim in the state. Just a reporting error. Like all the rest of them.https://t.co/kVzSIaWHSS Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 3, 2020 Currently, Americans are living in fear, our economy is cratering, and livelihoods are being destroyed and politicians may be lying for political advantage. There had better be a very serious reckoning at the end of the day. Without it, we will be a broken banana republic, done in by Chinese and American lies. With the 21-day lockdown in force to check Sars-Cov-2 spread, educational institutions are closed. But that does not mean a break from learning. Teachers of government primary and upper primary schools are voluntarily reaching out to their students via WhatsApp groups to keep them engaged in the teaching-learning process. Deepshikha Sharma, who works as an assistant teacher in Primary School Roja Jalapur, said she was running an online English learning programme for students and also guiding them as to how they could make use of different programmes being aired on radio channels, like Meena ki Duniya, Full on Nikki etc. Due to the lockdown, I started online classes and the students are very excited. They like the new technique of teaching, she claimed. Encouraging the children to study at home in this crucial time, Primary School Darigpur in Sheetalpur block of Etah district has formed a WhatsApp group with 8 members so that children can use the lock-down period gainfully. Our objectives is to share school- related educational information and videos of various activities and role play done by students with parents, said Roopam Saxena, assistant teacher at this primary school. Hemant Katara, head teacher at Model English Medium Primary School in Gangauli block of Hathras said, During the lockdown, we observed the power of radio as an education tool. It is also a way to share lessons with all the students who are unable to attend school due to public health concerns. We are using radio as an integral part of our programme. He said, The radio programme aims at improving access to quality education for in-school and out-of-school students in government elementary schools in Uttar Pradesh using interactive radio instructions to deliver English lessons and teaching material on air as well as promoting child centred practices out of the classrooms, encourage participation of parents, increase students retention rates and improve teaching quality and learning outcome. In many places, basic education teachers were utilising the lockdown period to knock down negativity through various available resources, said national awardee teacher of Basti Dr Sarvesht Mishra. He said, Many of our teachers are in touch with their pupils through their school WhatsApp group. Through it we are sending e-papers, e-books, comics, home assignments and many more learning activities, he said. Ajay Singh, a teacher in Sitapur district has prepared a question bank for his students. Sampann Nigam of Barabanki district is working on a craft book which he shared with others on social media. Ashutosh Awasthi of Barabanki is working on science and maths videos whereas Shivam Singh of Jaunpur is giving a rhythmic touch to the basic education poems under the title Swaranjali, he said. Mishra is bringing all innovative teachers on one platform through Zoom application. It seems the two-way effort will bring back the glory of basic education. The UP government and teachers self initiative will be fruitful for society. The team of Mission Shikshan Samvad is on to making of best educational videos, questionnaires, documents, e-books and many more resources for students, he said. In a unique initiative, the state Basic Education department, in association with All India Radio and other community radio platforms, is continuing with teaching learning work, educating students on the importance of staying at home. The department had planned to air a radio programme for students of government schools, Aao English Seekhein an official of the basic education department said. He said the programme was prepared by a team of UNICEF and Learning Resources from Pune. He said in the past, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Uttar Pradesh and United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) jointly prepared a unique project Aao Angrezi Seekhein (Come lets learn English). The initiative aims at benefiting students of underprivileged section of society to learn English as the basic education department has converted many of its schools into English medium ever since the Yogi Adityanath government came to power. Officials claim that though the focus of the mission is on the girls of Kasturba Gandhi schools, an effort would also be made to enable an additional 1.25 crore students enrolled in government-run primary and upper primary schools to benefit from the broadcast. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Agricultural Bank of China Limited (HKG:1288) saw a double-digit share price rise of over 10% in the past couple of months on the SEHK. As a large-cap stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the companys outlook is already priced into the stock. However, what if the stock is still a bargain? Today I will analyse the most recent data on Agricultural Bank of Chinas outlook and valuation to see if the opportunity still exists. View our latest analysis for Agricultural Bank of China What is Agricultural Bank of China worth? The share price seems sensible at the moment according to my price multiple model, where I compare the company's price-to-earnings ratio to the industry average. Ive used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because theres not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stocks ratio of 4.7x is currently trading slightly below its industry peers ratio of 5.2x, which means if you buy Agricultural Bank of China today, youd be paying a reasonable price for it. And if you believe Agricultural Bank of China should be trading in this range, then there isnt much room for the share price to grow beyond the levels of other industry peers over the long-term. So, is there another chance to buy low in the future? Given that Agricultural Bank of Chinas share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us an opportunity to buy later on. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility. Can we expect growth from Agricultural Bank of China? SEHK:1288 Past and Future Earnings April 5th 2020 Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. 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. With profit expected to grow by a double-digit 16% over the next couple of years, the outlook is positive for Agricultural Bank of China. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? 1288s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at 1288? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below the industry PE ratio? Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on 1288, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around industry price multiples. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for 1288, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters the fundamentals before you make a decision on Agricultural Bank of China. You can find everything you need to know about Agricultural Bank of China in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Agricultural Bank of China, 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. HONG KONG A Chinese human rights lawyer who took up sensitive cases of journalists, democracy advocates and followers of banned spiritual movements was released from prison on Sunday after being held for nearly five years, his wife said. The lawyer, Wang Quanzhang, was the last of hundreds of legal workers to face prosecution after a widespread crackdown by China on the field in 2015. He was not tried until December 2018, more than three years after his detention. During his trial, which was held in secret, he was sentenced to four and half years in prison for subversion of state power, a charge used to target people the authorities believe are attempting to organize challenges to the ruling Communist Party. Mr. Wangs wife, Li Wenzu, wrote on Twitter that she received a call from him on Sunday morning saying he had been released from prison but she had said in recent days that she feared they would not be able to reunite. Mr. Wang, 44, and his family have long lived in Beijing, the capital, but he was ordered to remain in Shandong Province, where he had been imprisoned and which is the site of his household registration, Ms. Li said. Ms. Li could not be immediately contacted. But in a video posted online she said that as a native of Hubei, where the coronavirus pandemic began late last year, she would not be allowed back into Beijing if she left because of quarantine rules. By Jeffrey Dastin and Krystal Hu (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has been in contact with the CEOs of two coronavirus test makers as it considers how to screen its staff and reduce the risk of infection at its warehouses, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuters. The chief executives of Abbott Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc have told Amazon they would like to work with the e-commerce company, though the U.S. government is taking up all of their testing capacity at present, the notes said By Jeffrey Dastin and Krystal Hu (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has been in contact with the CEOs of two coronavirus test makers as it considers how to screen its staff and reduce the risk of infection at its warehouses, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuters. The chief executives of Abbott Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc have told Amazon they would like to work with the e-commerce company, though the U.S. government is taking up all of their testing capacity at present, the notes said. The company also discussed whether it could start such tests in at least one warehouse near its Seattle headquarters, the status of which was unclear. The nature of Amazon's conversations with the test makers and the exact assistance they might offer were unclear. The document separately indicated Amazon is looking into the ability to screen more than one person at a time for the virus, and it also wants to partner with a medical organization in its testing efforts. It did not give further details on multi-person testing or name a partner. In a statement on Saturday, Abbott Laboratories confirmed it has been contacted by Amazon and other companies to provide testing for their workforces. "We know it's important for several industries for their workforces to be safe, but as we've said, right now we've prioritized the healthcare frontline workforce in outbreak hotspots and have been working with the White House Task Force, FDA, FEMA and CDC and state authorities to ensure they get to those areas," said an Abbott spokesperson. Thermo Fisher did not return a request for comment late Friday. Amazon declined to comment. Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is rolling out face masks and temperature checks for workers at all its U.S. and European warehouses by next week. Longer term, however, it wants to test workers for the virus and hopes other companies will follow suit, according to the notes, in which Amazon's general counsel also criticized an employee who was fired on Monday. The notes reveal how the company is focused on coronavirus testing as important to its operation and to bolstering the U.S. economy. They also show how Amazon remains in the early stages of determining how to start checks for the virus and tackle a shortage of tests. The attempts to increase screening measures come at a time when high-profile protests have hit several Amazon warehouses, as employees increasingly fear they will contract the virus by showing up to work. The COVID-19 disease already has been reported among staff from at least 19 of its U.S. warehouses. More than a million people globally have been infected and more than 58,000 have died in the pandemic. Abbott has U.S. marketing approval for a diagnostic test that can give patients results in minutes, for use in physicians' offices and other community healthcare settings. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a Thermo Fisher test as well. The type of evaluation Amazon was considering was also unclear, whether diagnostic to detect current infections or an antibody test to tell if someone may be immune. Amazon has had a growing interest in healthcare. The company announced a partnership with Berkshire Hathaway Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co two years ago to lower health costs for their employees, a venture now known as Haven. Other retailers, meanwhile, including rival Walmart Inc, have worked with the White House on drive-through testing for first responders. (Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco, and Krystal Hu and Carl O'Donnell in New York; Editing by Peter Henderson, Pravin Char and Daniel Wallis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ Visa Denials: How to avoid it and what to do if your Visa is denied? When it comes to visa stories, there are as many success stories out there as there are sob stories. It is even safe to say that the sob stories exceed the success stories these days. And they continue to grow by the day. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted on U.S. immigration history, it has been established that the United States alone denies nearly 4 million visa applications every year for a variety of reasons. And like that wasnt enough; under the administration of Donald Trump, the denial rate has jumped from 8.3% to 11.3 percent in the last few years, a 37% jump in rejection rate. What does this then tell you? That people are getting their visa applications denied almost every day! As disheartening as that may sound, it is just the truth. But what can one do when their visa is denied? Some people often wonder. Do I just throw my hands in the air and lick my wounds? Or is there still a last play left to be made? Read on to find out whether there is something you can do when your visa is denied. How to avoid visa denial Before we go into the discussion of what you can do when your visa is denied, it is first important to highlight the things you can do to avoid denial in the first place. After all, if youre well-equipped to navigate the visa process in the first place, you wont need any help on how to reverse a denial. Research the visa opportunities available to you First and foremost, what type of visa do you seek? A type 1, type 2, type 3, or type 4 visa? More often than not, visas are rejected because the reasons for which the applicant wants to use them arent convincing enough. For starters, type #1 visas are meant for people looking to travel for pleasure or tourism reasons, type #2 are made for those looking to travel for immigration and neutralization reasons, type #3 are meant for students, and type #4 are reserved for people looking to travel for business or work purposes. However, it is important to know that depending on your country of destination; there can be other visa opportunities available to you. For starters, there can be a modification of any of the four basic types of visas available depending on the immigration system of the country. Take the United States, for instance. Besides these basic visa types, the country also offers another type of visa known as the ESTA visa, a travel permit that is specially designed for citizens of some particular 38 countries. This visa allows people traveling from these countries to visit the US for a period of 90-days. Among them are the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, France, Chile, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Greece, and lots more. So, researching the available opportunities and making the right choice, along with the right document preparations, can save your application from being denied. Verify Your Information before applying I know you might be tempted to visit immigration forums or ask your friends friend for information regarding visa applications, but these are the worst places you can go to for heads up. More often than not, many of the info theyll give you will most likely mislead than help you. If you end up getting and using outdated or inaccurate information, you could jeopardize the outcome of your visa applicationand maybe even your future, depending on what your travel ambitions are. Check Your Social Media For some types of visas now, applicants are asked to provide their social media histories (going back five years). As part of the new vetting initiative by the current administration, applicants are asked to tender their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other relevant social media handle in the five years preceding their application. In what is meant to show the adjudicators what your social media life is like, this new measure is one of the basic requirements for some visas like student visas, and depending on the info found on your handles, your visa application can be denied or accepted. What to do if your Visa is denied? If your visa is denied, it does not have to be the end of your journey. You can always reapply. In fact, some individuals are approved on their second (or even third!) application. Again, make sure you do your research. Understanding the reason for your denial is the first step in having it overturned. You will receive a notice stating the reason you were denied. The State Department provides a list of ineligibilities, so you can learn more about your specific reason for denial. There may be steps you need to take before you can reapply if you are hoping to receive a different result. For example, make sure you provide any new documentation or additional evidence that is necessary to overcome the previous ineligibility. This could include financial records, property statements, or educational records, depending on the reason for denial. Above all, never lie or misrepresent any information in your application, documentation, or interview. This will absolutely result in a visa denial. Plus, it could make you entirely ineligible to appeal or receive a visa in the future. However, if you stay informed and follow the correct procedures and processes, you might soon be on your way to fulfilling your ambitions abroad. By Uday Tank 2020 Copyright Uday Tank - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr Shane Ross has thanked all those working in the transport network ensuring the delivery of essential goods to Ireland. The Minister said, Id like to acknowledge the immense contribution of the people working to transport goods, foods and medications in a timely manner to all of us at home in Ireland. We know it is vital that our health service receives the medical equipment delivered by our transport workers in order to fight against this virus and care for all in need. I applaud and thank them for keeping the supply chain moving at this very difficult time. The Minister was speaking after a Cabinet Committee meeting at which he outlined the on-going work in the transport supply chain. He went onto say, every element of the supply chain is a vital link in ensuring a continuous flow of goods. I know work has been on-going to ensure Dublin Port remains free from blockages and I would encourage retailers, where possible, to take delivery of their goods. If this is not possible, I ask that they seek alternative storage arrangements to ensure that the passage of essential products through the port is not impeded. In making his comments, the Minister noted that warehousing and support activities for transportation are deemed essential workers even if they are not dealing with essential goods. We are providing additional guidance on this matter to all stakeholders in the supply chain. The Minister finished by saying, In times of need, Irish people pull together and I know that everyone will do their part in ensuring the supply chain runs as smoothly as possible so critical needs can be met quickly. Peacekeepers help fragile countries navigate conflict and COVID-19 4 April 2020 - Even as UN peacekeepers adapt to the challenges posed by the coronavirus, they continue to perform their vital peace and security tasks while helping to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Peacekeeping operations must be able to continue their critical work and to maintain operational capability, so we can deliver on our life-saving mandates promoting conflict resolution and helping to protect the populations we serve, as well as our UN personnel", said the UN chief of peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix. In line with the Secretary-General's call for an immediate global ceasefire, peacekeeping operations are encouraging parties to the conflict to 'silence the guns', facilitate humanitarian access and to dedicate their efforts towards preventing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19. UN Peacekeeping has put in place a number of measures to prevent the pandemic from spreading among its personnel and to ensure that peacekeepers are not a contagion vector while minimizing its adverse impact on carrying out mandated tasks. These include working closely with national authorities and setting up World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. "On the ground, we quickly added additional precautionary measures including quarantine and containment of incoming personnel in cooperation with host country authorities", said Mr. Lacroix. Troop rotation halted On 27 March, the UN chief informed Member States that the UN is working with troop-contributing countries to manage rotations in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. The Secretary-General maintained that because moving troops in and out of countries during a global health pandemic is "extremely challenging", the UN had postponed rotations. "Criteria are being developed to determine when rotations can take place in the current circumstances, and we are in close dialogue with host countries and troop contributing countries and police contributing countries in order to overcome the difficulties that exist today", explained Mr. Guterres. Battling COVID-19 Arm-in-arm In addition to protecting themselves from the coronavirus, peacekeeping missions are doing everything possible to assist national authorities. "We are providing multi-faceted support", Mr. Lacroix elaborated, such as providing technological capabilities to facilitate remote communications, helping to maintain critical supply chains and raising awareness through local radio, digital media platforms and during patrols. He pointed out that in support of local authorities, the Joint African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has delivered equipment and supplies, such as generators to local authorities in north Darfur. And earlier this week, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) donated surgical masks, gloves and protective suits to the Naqoura Municipality, which hosts the UN Mission's Headquarters in south Lebanon. Mandated duties Peacekeeping operations also continue to implement their mandates to protect and assist the people they serve. In the UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), peacekeepers had provided vital logistical and operational support in the preparations for last Sunday's legislative vote and secured polling stations on election day. Blue Helmets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo helped free 38 civilians, including women and children, who had been abducted by an armed group in the country's east, as it aided the national army to repel an attack. UN Peacekeeping's ongoing efforts demonstrate that the fight against the deadly virus requires everyone to be united and to act together. "All the UN peacekeepers who are currently deployed deserve our gratitude and support", concluded Mr. Lacroix. "These women and men continue to serve under the blue flag in the cause of peace, in conditions even more difficult due to COVID-19". More than 95,000 military, police and civilian personnel are deployed across 13 UN peacekeeping operations around the world. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mawlawi Abdullah aka Aslam Farooqui, the so-called emir of Pakistan-sponsored module of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), is under detention by Afghan forces for the massacre of 27 Sikh worshippers at Shor Bazaar Gurudwara in Kabul on March 25. The ISKP has been on its back foot in recent months following continued operations by the US forces and separately by the Taliban. Last November, Afghan officials said the ISKP was completely defeated in Nangarhar, one of the key eastern provinces where it first sought to establish a stronghold after its birth in January 2015. In the years since, they have claimed responsibility for a string of horrific bombings across Afghanistan, according to Al Jazeera. The group emerged in Afghanistan following Pakistan's operation against armed groups in North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, which displaced more than one million people. Farooqi had been active in several roles within the group, both in Pakistan and in Afghanistan, the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a statement after the interrogation of the ISKP chief. As the Afghan NDS said, it was understood that Farooqi is a Pakistani national and belongs to the Mamozai tribe and from the Orakzai agency area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He was earlier associated with the proscribed Lashkar-e-Tayebba (LeT) group and then the Tehreek-e-Taliban terror group. Farooqi replaced Mawlawi Zia-ul-Haq aka Abu Omar Khorasani as the ISKP chief in April 2019. Along with operative's chief, four Pakistani nationals and ISIS members - Masoudullah from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khan Mohammad from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Salman from Karachi, and Ali Mohammad from Islamabad were also arrested in the special operation conducted by the Afghan security forces on Saturday. The above evidence show that the Kabul gurdwara attack must have been orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) which is trying to promote ISKP in Afghanistan to keep a check on the Taliban. This was the deadliest attack since the peace deal was signed between the US and the Taliban in Doha in February end. The US has agreed to completely withdraw its troops from war-torn Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan has been trying to take advantage of this opportunity to help terrorist groups operate freely in Afghanistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 During a meeting of permanent government members in Hanoi on April 3, PM Phuc stressed that Decree No.16 must be implemented more seriously in the near future with the aim of preventing the spread of the virus in the community. It is time to mobilise all means to fight the epidemic in the next 15 days, he said, adding that administrations at all levels, sectors and localities need to work closely and flexibly together, and take quick and sound actions in the effort. Hailing the media for highlighting good examples to cheer up the power of Vietnam in the fight against COVID-19, the PM said the Government has outlined a resolution on social welfare which will be soon issued to support workers, the poor and vulnerable groups hit by the pandemic. The leader lauded the health sector for treating infected patients with more recovery cases. In case there are any deaths, it could be attributed to their old age or existing serious illnesses, he stated. Vietnams food exports are under well control and the country never lacks food despite the epidemic and uncertain weather conditions, he affirmed. About the country's economic performance in the first quarter, the PM said though the economy only grew by 3.82% during the period, Vietnam still posted the highest growth in the Southeast Asian region, thanks to the utmost efforts by authorities at all levels, sectors and the entire people. He emphasised the Governments policy of sacrificing economic benefits in the short term to protect health and lives of people, which he said, is the ultimate goal of the Government under the Party leadership at present. A general view of the meeting. (Photo: NDO/Tran Hai) Amid the complicated developments of the pandemic in many countries worldwide, the PM highlighted the need to take more stronger and drastic measures for the synchronous implementation of directions by the Politburo, the Party Central Committees Secretariat, the Government and the Prime Minister, at administrations at all levels and sectors. Further attention should be paid to the poor to meet their demand for electricity, water, rice, vegetables and medicines, he said, adding that behaviours regarding speculation of fake and sub-standard goods must be strictly punished, as well as launching criminal proceeding against violations in epidemic prevention and control as warnings to others. The PM reiterated the need to strictly implement social distancing, prepare for complicated cases, and step up preparations for medical equipment, especially ventilators. The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control was also asked to actively build full scenarios in response to the possible widespread of the pandemic. The Government leader also requested devising a plan to build field hospitals and use hotels and schools as quarantine areas if necessary at the earliest. He requested administrations at all levels and sectors to change working methods, develop digital economy and e-commerce, saying that it is time to accelerate administrative reforms in providing public services. The PM ordered ensuring security and order in rural areas, preventing robbery and murder, strictly dealing with those that dishonestly fill in health declarations, including foreigners, as well as enhancing prevention and control at nursing homes, rehabilitation centres and prisons across the country. American Airlines passenger planes crowd a runway where they are parked due to flight reductions to slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. March 23, 2020. Leading congressional Democrats on Sunday urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to quickly reach agreements and not place onerous conditions on $25 billion in payroll grants for airlines reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Mnuchin last month said taxpayers must be "compensated" for aid given to airlines. Treasury guidelines state the department said it may demand warrants, options, preferred stock or other securities in exchange for the grants. But industry members, unions and others have argued that if the Treasury Department is too aggressive in its demands, such as by insisting on large equity stakes, it could deter airlines from taking the grants altogether. In addition to payroll grants, Congress also approved $29 billion in loans to passenger and cargo airlines as part of the historic $2 trillion CARES act signed into law last month. "The intent of this program was very clear: keep America's hardworking aviation professionals in their jobs through direct payroll payments from the Treasury Department," wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and other top Democrats. "We are concerned the Treasury Department's recent guidance on the 'Airline Industry Payroll Support' Program does not fully reflect the intent of Congress," they wrote. According to the bill signed into law, the Treasury "may" request equity or other financial instruments as part of the grants, leaving open the option it does not at all. The Treasury Department had advised airlines requesting payroll grants to submit their proposals by this past Friday. Airlines, including Delta, JetBlue, American, United and Spirit, have said they applied for portions of the aid. They did not disclose the amounts they requested, nor the structure they proposed. Airlines and the Treasury Department will now begin negotiations under a tight timeline the CARES act states that initial payments to airlines and carriers should go out no later than ten days after signing, a deadline that falls on Monday. Democrats' goal is to get the payroll assistance out next week, a person familiar with the situation said. As such, they want Treasury to be judicious in its requests. "Assistance must not come with unreasonable conditions that would force an employer to choose bankruptcy instead of providing payroll grants to its workers," wrote Pelosi, Schumer, as well as Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. "While we appreciate the Department's desire to seek 'warrants' in exchange for payroll assistance, we do not support any effort that would undermine the ability of any aviation worker to receive direct payroll assistance," the lawmakers added. The letter comes after Sen. Schumer and other top Democrats similarly called on Mnuchin to protect the oversight function of the $500 billion bailout fund established as part of the $2 trillion deal. Mnuchin was a key figure during those negotiations, and he will help run the $500 billion fund. Democrats have said they will closely watch all money dispensed from the bailout fund, including airline aid. The Treasury Department did not immediately return a request for comment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 13:12 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fcb25e 1 World #refugees,refugee,Indonesia,Medan,#Medan,UNHCR,#UNHCR,COVID-19,#COVID19,coronavirus,#coronavirus,face-mask,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,pandemic,#pandemic Free As the world scrambles to slow the spread of COVID-19, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Indonesia is working to ensure that refugees, one of the most vulnerable populations to the virus, are not left behind. UNHCR representative to Indonesia Ann Maymann said she was closely observing the developments in Indonesia and the countrys response to the virus, which has infected more than 2,000 people in Indonesia and killed 191. The well-being of refugees, the persons of concern, are at the center of our prevention and response efforts. Together with our partners, we are coordinating closely with the Indonesian government to ensure that refugees are included in the COVID-19 national response system, Maymann said on Saturday. She said that, under the Indonesian governments protocol, refugees had access to COVID-19-related services, including testing and treatment provided by the Health Ministry. The refugee groups in the country, she said, had been informed of such protocol, which covers information on prevention measures, symptoms, necessary action and where to look for help. By January this year, there were 13,623 refugees spread across Indonesia, including Medan, North Sumatra; Pekanbaru, Riau; and Bogor, West Java, according to UNHCR data. Read also: International refugees in Indonesia explained Indonesia is home to among the fewest refugees in the world, as most refugees that enter seek resettlement elsewhere. As a nonparty to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Indonesia is not obligated to receive or take care of refugees. However, Indonesia issued in 2016 a presidential decree that provides legal certainty and standards for government agencies to coordinate and collaborate on the handling of refugees a move that was lauded by the international community. Article 26 of the decree stipulates that basic necessities such as clean water, food, clothing, health care, hygiene and religious facilities should be sought from international organizations. Despite the low number of refugees compared to that of other countries, refugees in Indonesia are vulnerable, with many living in crammed rooms and tents with no access to electricity and running water. Read also: Refugees in Jakarta near breaking point In a bid to prevent the spread of the virus among the refugees, UNHCRs Indonesia office has been working with various partners and local governments to distribute sanitation kits including face masks and disinfectants. UNHCR Indonesia provides cash assistance to those most vulnerable and at risk in this current situation to promote improved health and sanitation. With additional funding, the UNHCR aims to also expand this cash assistance to more refugee families, Maymann said. She said that many refugees in Indonesia had skills and resources they could offer in the time of crisis. Some of the refugee women in Medan, supported by partner Mapanbumi, have produced washable face masks that will be distributed to vulnerable Indonesians and those who continue to work outside their homes in order to support themselves and their families. The women aim to produce 1,000 masks for people in Medan. The pandemic is a global challenge that must be addressed through national and international solidarity and cooperation. It also serves as a reminder that, in order to effectively address a public health emergency, everyone including refugees should be treated in a nondiscriminatory manner, Maymann said. After Indonesia implemented travel and transit restrictions for foreign visitors, the number of refugees arriving in Indonesia reduced. Read also: Indonesia to bar foreigners from entering in bid to curb imported cases The number of newly arrived refugees who approached the UNHCR office in Indonesia remains relatively low and the UNHCR continues to follow-up with the governments counterparts to ensure that the restrictions do not negatively impact asylum access for refugees who are seeking protection in Indonesia, Maymann said. Refugee camps abroad, meanwhile, are on high alert as most facilities lack the capacity for testing or supportive treatment. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Thursday that 23 migrants at the Ritsona camp tested positive for COVID-19. The refugee camp, the first in Greece to be hit by the disease and hosting hundreds of people, was immediately quarantined, Reuters reported. London: China should be sued under international law for trillions of dollars for its initial cover-up of the coronavirus pandemic which has caused more than 60,000 deaths and trillions of dollars in economic damage, a new report says. The report said damages should be for at least the 3.2 ($6.5 trillion) being spent by G7 nations propping up their domestic economies as governments forced their citizens to stay at home so they could try and contain the disease's spread. Chinese President Xi Jinping, fourth from left in front row, with other Chinese leaders during national mourning for victims of coronavirus at the Zhongnanhai Leadership Compound in Beijing on Saturday, April 4. Credit:Xinhua via AP And it singled out Prime Minister Scott Morrison's unprecedented $130 billion in government support for workers and businesses, saying Australians too were owed at least that amount in compensation. BEIJING Wang Quanzhang, a prominent Chinese rights lawyer, was released from prison Sunday after being held for more than four years, his wife said. It was unclear whether he would be allowed to return to Beijing, where he practiced and lived with his wife and young son. Police took him to his house in his hometown of Jinan in eastern China, his wife said in a tweet on her verified Twitter account. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tracy Rucinski (Reuters) Sun, April 5, 2020 14:04 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fcfbed 2 News travel,Airlines,coronavirus,COVID-19,American-Airlines,flights Free When Reuters photographer Carlos Barria boarded American Airlines flight 4511 from Washington Reagan National Airport to New Orleans on Friday for an assignment, he was the only passenger on the 76-seat jet. "There were some awkward moments," Barria said. Like when the gate agent announced a formal boarding process only to remember that Barria was the sole passenger who would board, or when the pilot approached his seat to personally explain a delay in take-off due to a mechanical issue, rather than speak over the PA system. The two flight attendants invited Barria to sit in a first-class seat and went through the safety demonstration for Barria alone. "I felt I had to pay attention," he said. Nearly vacant flights have become the norm for US airlines, despite a drastic reduction in the number of planes they put in the air each day as passenger traffic has diminished in the midst of the new coronavirus gripping countries across the globe. American Airlines Group Inc flew 119 flights out of Washington Reagan National on Friday; eight of those departures had only one passenger (including Barria's) and many had just a handful, an American official said. On the same day last year, American operated 254 flights out of the same airport. "Pretty soon we'll even run out of people to cancel on US airlines," American's senior vice president of network strategy Vasu Raja told Reuters on Thursday. Read also: American Airlines suspending flights to Milan after US travel warning The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 129,763 travelers on Friday versus 2.48 million on the same day a year ago, according to daily data it is providing on its website. US airlines, who say they are burning through cash every day, have applied for government aid meant to help them meet payroll and ensure they have trained staff available once the health crisis subsides and demand recovers. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 277,205 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 37,926 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,150 to 6,593. Flight attendants continue to do their jobs, despite some telling Reuters that they fear contracting the virus and infecting at-risk family at home. One of the flight attendants on Barria's flight said she would be flying from New Orleans on to her hometown Miami, where she was due to take her father for a cancer treatment after her four-day trip rotation that included sleeping in hotels every night. "Our elected officials want us to continue to provide safe air travel through this crisiswe need to continue flying as requested and serving those that need to travel," American Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker said in a video message last week. In an effort to protect passengers and crew, airlines have scaled back beverage and snack services, increased cabin cleaning procedures and allow flight attendants to wear gloves, though they are not given masks. By the end of Barria's flight, he felt a camaraderie with the crew. "I was thanking them for what they do and they were thanking me for what I do," he said. By Trend Azerbaijan has confirmed 63 new coronavirus cases, Trend reports on April 5 referring to the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers. The condition of 14 people out of them is severe, the condition of 21 people is assessed as moderate while the condition of the rest is stable. So far, 584 people have been infected with coronavirus in Azerbaijan. Some 32 of them recovered, five people died. Some 547 people are being treated in special hospitals. As part of the government measures to prevent the wide spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in Azerbaijan, people are required to stay in their homes, apartments, permanent or temporary places of residence. To this end, all kinds of operations, except for the vital work and services, have been suspended from 00:00 on March 31, 2020 through 00:00 on April 20, 2020. The luxury of working from home is not an option for our patients. Commuting to work on the 7 train for a night shift, I still see plenty of workers returning from their jobs in Manhattan, using the cheapest form of transportation available to them. Our patients cannot shelter in second homes or purchase private ventilators. An entirely different part of the health care system serves that slice of society. Rather, our patients ask how they can avoid spreading the virus to their older parents or young children in their small apartments. I have no good answer. The neighborhood has among the highest rates of severely crowded housing in the city. Landlords convert single-family homes into cramped, poorly ventilated apartment units. Years ago, an ambulance brought to our hospital two unconscious girls and a man almost unrecognizable from his burns the victims of a house fire in a subdivided building. An additional victim was not discovered until the next day, dead in the attic where he had been living. Such living conditions leave little room for social distancing. New York Citys public hospital system serves more than a million New Yorkers each year, regardless of their ability to pay. Beyond the undocumented and uninsured, Elmhurst Hospital serves other vulnerable populations neglected by the private medical system: prisoners, the homeless, the drug-addicted and the mentally ill. Public hospitals are where the police bring those too mentally ill and violent for the shelter system, where desperate families bring demented older relatives whom they can no longer properly care for. Not infrequently, patients come to me with notes from medical professionals at other hospitals who told them to come to us for an essential but nonemergency procedure. Ostensibly, these referring hospitals also receive tax exemptions and nonprofit status for the indigent care they provide, but in the profit-driven, competitive landscape of New York City hospitals, the public system picks up the slack in caring for the vulnerable. Queens has 1.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared to 5.3 in Manhattan. Typically serving what the health care industry calls an unfavorable payer mix and as a result dependent on government funding, public hospitals often lack the resources of the parallel nonpublic hospital system in New York City. Even during normal times, patients at Elmhurst Hospital experience long waits for mundane medical concerns, which is indicative of their lack of access to more reliable primary care. Inpatient hospital beds are often full, as are the intensive care units. And so it is wholly unsurprising that this hospital would be overwhelmed now by an enormous surge of patients. President Trump has expressed a hollow-sounding allegiance with the plight of this community, claiming to have grown up in the neighborhood, a surprising acknowledgment given his antipathy to immigrants. The presidents neglect of his hometown is as disappointing as the broad incompetence of his administrations Covid response. The peak of the Covid pandemic is still ahead of us, but one day it will pass, and when that happens, I hope we remember the social failures that enabled Covid to so extensively affect communities like Elmhurst. Ben McVane is an emergency medicine doctor at Elmhurst Hospital Center. 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. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. A 58-year-old man died of coronavirus infection in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district on Sunday, an official said. This is the first COVID-19 death reported from the state's Marathwada region. The man was admitted to the Government Medical College and Hospital here as a coronavirus suspect two days back. His test report came out positive on Sunday morning and he died in the afternoon, the hospital's dean Dr Kanan Yelikar said in a release. The man died of acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID-19, the dean said, adding that he was also suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Till Saturday, 32 deaths were reported from the state, including 22 from Mumbai, two from Pune, five from Mumbai Metropolitan Region excluding Mumbai, and one each from Buldhana, Jalgaon and Amravati. Meanwhile, an official said the eight districts in Aurangabad division have 20 COVID-19 patients as on Sunday. He said the administration had kept 8,314 beds aside to combat the outbreak, including 1092 for COVID-19 patients. He said the eight districts in Aurangabad have 265 people who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat event held in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month. Several attendees of the event have tested positive for the virus and it is being seen as a primary catalyst for its spread across several states. The 265 people comprise 109 who arrived in Aurangabad, 12 in Jalna, 18 in Parbhani, 30 in Nanded, 16 in Hingoli, 26 each in Latur and Osmanabad and 28 in Beed, he said, while ten are yet to be traced, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eugene, Ore. -- For Donna and Jim Anderson, "it's good to be home" means a whole lot more after weeks on a cruise ship, one charter flight and another from San Francisco that landed just this morning. "I'm a native Oregonian and I've never been so happy to be home in my whole life in Oregon," said Jim Anderson. What was supposed to be a relaxing cruise around South America turned upside down as the coronavirus spread rapidly around the globe. Within a week of their March 7 start date, complications with the trip began. "The first week of the cruise, we were stranded," Anderson said. "None of the South American would permit the ship to dock." "But we could still walk around the ship at that point," Donna, his wife, chimed in. "And it all changed very dramatically once we were quarantined," Jim said. Confined to their staterooms with meals being provided like room service, the mood on the ship changed. The Zaandam continued it's trek up the west coast of South America looking for a friendly harbor. Then things took a drastic turn. "Around the time we came to Panama, they made the announcement that four people on the ship had passed," Jim says. "And this kind of changed the whole atmosphere." Two of those four deaths were directly related to COVID-19. Holland America, the cruise ship company, dispatched another of their ships, the MS Rotterdam, to offload asymptomatic passengers. Both ships then traveled to Florida where they were initially met with resistance from the state government. "I thought, 'what if he keeps this from happening? What do we do then?'" Donna said. "I had one bad night like that but other than that no." Eventually the state and federal government agreed to allow both ships to dock. Donna and Jim were then allowed to take a charter flight to San Francisco, with customs agents cheering them on. "(They were) wishing us safe travel and saying, 'Oh we'll see you when you get off tomorrow and welcome home and stuff,'" Donna said with a smile. "That was very heartening." "When we finally took off everybody was cheering," Jim concluded with a laugh. After weeks at sea and two days in transit, the Andersons are home and not looking to leave anytime soon. "There's an old Grand Funk Railroad song that says I'm your captain, I'm your captain and I'm feeling mighty sick,;" Donna joked. "And he says, 'If you return to me to my home port, I will kiss you mother earth.' I knew what it meant after that." As for now, they're getting some much-needed rest, and will they go on a cruise again? They both say yes, maybe just not one as long this time. Chron.com is compiling the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area. See live updates from HoustonChronicle.com here. 5:33 p.m. There are now 652 positive COVID-19 cases in Harris County, according to Harris County Public Health. Harris County health officials now say that 152 patients have recovered. Fort Bend County officials have reported another 12 cases and one new death. 4:41 Harris County Sheriff's Office announced that two more Harris County Sheriff's Office employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Officials say that a Courts division deputy and a detention sergeant had contracted coronavirus. This brings the total confirmed cases for HCSO to 18. 4:20 pm Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo announced that 19 employees have now tested positive for COVID-19. One officer is currently on a ventilator and is being treated at a local hospital. "Please pray for him and all impacted by the virus," Acevedo said in a tweet on Sunday afternoon. Two officers have returned to work after testing positive, Acevedo said. 2:32 p.m. DPS checkpoints are now being set up on all roads entering Texas from Louisiana as of Sunday, April 5, according to Louisiana State Police. The new measure is to prevent travelers from the state of Louisiana from spreading COVID-19 in Texas. Texas Governor, Greg Abbott weighed about this order, Every person who enters the State of Texas through roadways from Louisiana shall be subject to mandatory self-quarantine. 12:15 p.m. A new mobile testing site for seniors and first responders is slated to open in Jacinto City, according to U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. The site will be located at the Jacinto Community Building. "Our senior citizens and first responders are extremely vulnerable to this devastating virus and we must take extra measures to protect them," Jackson Lee said in a statement. Read the full details in Gwendolyn Wu's report. 10:55 a.m. Houston mayor, Sylvester Turner is slated to tour several local churches on Sunday afternoon. Houston faith leaders joined Turner to urgently remind people to stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. Turner spoke at the Fountain of Praise in southwest Houston "This is not the time to become complacent. The month of April is a critical, critical month," Mayor Turner said. "I'm expecting the numbers to continue to rise because we are doing more testing. There are many other regions where they're facing the problem even more. We're going to have to do more in Houston and Harris County." 9:25 a.m. If you need a protective mask during this COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers will be handing those at Sharpstown Park Sunday morning from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., as Gwendolyn Wu reports. "We have many people in my district who can not afford masks, don't know where to find masks or simply do not have access in such a short amount of time," State Representative Gene Wu said. Sharpstown Park is located at 6855 Harbor Town Drive in Houston. 8:27 a.m. Houston Methodist Hospital successfully transfused blood from recovered COVID-19 patients into two severely ill patients on Friday. Hospital officials said that the patients are still alive, but provided no more detail on their condition. The initial results have been very promising and the improvement has been dramatic in some cases, wrote Dr. Jason Knight, chief medical officer at Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital. Read more about this experimental therapy in Todd Ackerman's report. 8:19 a.m. Texas coronavirus cases have now climbed to 6,762 people who have contracted coronavirus, with a death toll rising to 124. There are currently 2,084 COVID-19 cases in the Houston area, according to local data, and 26 have died from the virus. Get in-depth, live updates with Houston Chronicle's Sunday Coronavirus Blog from Gwendolyn Wu. The coronavirus cases worldwide have reached 1,218,474, according to Johns Hopkins University. COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have climbed to 312,249. Newsfrom Japan Kisarazu, Chiba Pref., April 5 (Jiji Press)--A ceremony to mark the launch of a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force unit to operate Osprey transport planes was held on Sunday, but without the presence of any of the U.S.-developed aircraft. No Osprey took part in the ceremony, held at the GSDF camp in the city of Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, eastern Japan, due to a delay in a decision on a definite place to host the aircraft. The Kisarazu camp is set to temporarily host the Osprey for five years. Two Ospreys are slated to arrive at the camp from the United States in June and later, and a total of 17 units of the aircraft will be deployed at the facility within the five-year provisional period. The new unit, comprising about 430 GSDF members, was formed in March. "The unit is very important for the defense of southwestern islands of Japan," Col. Satoru Fuwa, 45, head of the unit, said in a press conference at the camp on Sunday. "We are grateful to the local communities for accepting the unit, so we will do our best to ensure safe operations." The Defense Ministry has decided to deploy 17 Ospreys at the GSDF between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2021. But negotiations on using Saga Airport, in the southwestern city of Saga, which the ministry believes is the best place to host the Ospreys, have run into difficulties. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] The agency is likely to recommend that people who can consistently wear N95 or KN95 masks, rather than cloth masks, should do so. Coming Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. ET Washington President Donald Trump is firing the intelligence community inspector general whose insistence on telling lawmakers about a whistleblower complaint about the president's dealings with Ukraine triggered impeachment proceedings last fall, the president told lawmakers in a letter late Friday. The move came as Trump announced his intent to name a White House aide as the independent watchdog for $500 billion in corporate pandemic aid and notified Congress of other nominees to inspector general positions, including one that would effectively oust the newly named chairman of a panel to oversee how the government spends $2 trillion in coronavirus relief. The slew of late-night announcements raised the specter of a White House power play over the community of inspectors general independent officials whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the government. Trump is ousting the intelligence community inspector general, Michael Atkinson, because he lost confidence in him, the president wrote in a letter to leaders of the two congressional intelligence committees. He gave no further explanation. "As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as president, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general," Trump wrote. "That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general." Trump has long discussed his desire to fire several inspectors general, and he has been talking to aides about his desire to oust Atkinson since last fall, tarring the inspector general as disloyal because he sought to share information with Congress about the president's efforts to pressure Ukraine into delivering him personal political benefits. Atkinson's fate was sealed after the trial on impeachment charges ended, said one administration official, who was granted anonymity. Under the law that created the position of the inspector general for the intelligence community, the president can only remove that person a month after notifying the intelligence communities of his intentions and rationale. But rather than being permitted to serve for another month, the White House told Atkinson late Friday that he is being placed on administrative leave, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The move effectively circumvents the 30-day safeguard by sidelining him immediately. The official described the move as part of a broader shake-up of the intelligence community that the president has set in motion in the past several weeks. He recently installed Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany known for his combative conservatism, as acting director of national intelligence, a position where presidents typically look to install career officials or apolitical appointees. And Trump has nominated one of his top allies in Congress, Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas, to take over the post permanently. The ouster of Atkinson came as the White House announced five nominees for inspector general positions. They included Brian D. Miller, an aide to Trump in the White House Counsel's Office, who was tapped to be the newly created special inspector general for pandemic recovery. Miller served as an inspector general for the General Services Administration, but in more recent years he has performed a more political role. Among other things, he helped respond to oversight requests for White House documents during Trump's impeachment trial. His nomination requires Senate confirmation. Trump also nominated a senior Customs and Border Protection policy official, Jason Abend, to be the Department of Defense inspector general. That position is vacant and is held on an acting basis by Glenn Fine, the deputy inspector general at the Pentagon and a longtime Justice Department inspector general with a reputation for independence. Earlier this week, a group of fellow inspectors general named Fine to be chairman of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, with control of an $80 million budget to police how the government carries out the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. If Abend is confirmed, Fine would lose his acting role and could no longer lead the committee. Trump also nominated three current and former Justice Department officials to be the new inspectors general at the CIA, the Department of Education and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Trump has been focused for weeks on rooting out administration officials perceived as disloyal. Before his role in bringing to light Trump's actions toward Ukraine that led to his impeachment, Atkinson had been nominated to the position by Trump and confirmed unanimously by the Senate. The two top Democrats on the intelligence oversight committees expressed objections on Friday, portraying Trump's move as political and retribution. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee who was the lead impeachment manager, called the "dead of night" firing in the midst of a national emergency "yet another blatant attempt by the president to gut the independence of the intelligence community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing." And Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "The work of the intelligence community has never been about loyalty to a single individual; it's about keeping us all safe from those who wish to do our country harm. We should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicize the nation's intelligence agencies." The top Republicans on both committees, including Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, chair of the Senate panel, did not immediately comment on Atkinson's dismissal. Trump told lawmakers in his letter Friday that he will later submit a nominee to replace Atkinson who "has my full confidence and who meets the appropriate qualifications." An intelligence official said Thomas A. Monheim, general counsel of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, would serve as acting inspector general. Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Philadelphia Police Department Car parked in the streets responding to a call in September. Read more A man who was attempting to rob a store in the 2700 block of Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia was shot several times and fatally wounded Saturday, police said, and detectives were questioning the shops owner. They said the man, described as being in his 20s, suffered multiple wounds throughout his body and was taken to Temple University Hospital. A weapon has been recovered. Police did not disclose the names of either the victim or the shop owner. The Congress on Sunday said lighting lamps alone will not help win the war against coronavirus and demanded answers from the government on the safety of health workers in the 'absence' of adequate protective gear. IMAGE: People buy earthen lamps to light them at 9 pm on Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal to express togetherness against COVID-19, during the nationwide lockdown, in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo The party also said lifting of lockdown should not be done in an unplanned manner as its implementation. "Just as lockdown alone cannot fight coronavirus, lighting alone cannot help. Merely lighting a lamp will not help win the war against coronavirus. If the Government of India does not fulfill its duties, it is not possible to fight the war against coronavirus," Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev said at a press conference through video conferencing. "There has to be proper planning and provision of personal protection equipment to those fighting this war. There is also the need for an economic package for the poor and vulnerable," she said. Highlighting the absence of enough protective gear for the medical workers dealing with COVID-19 cases, Dev said at least 50 doctors have been infected by the deadly virus. She also sought to know when would the Centre provide compensation to those who have died due to coronavirus, as she said state governments were not financially equipped to provide the same. "Hundred people have died so far, will the central government give compensation to their families? These are some questions which we ask in national interest and not in criticism of the government," she said. Asked if the Congress supported lifting the lockdown, Dev said it is for the government to decide. "We only hope it is not done in an unplanned manner as the lockdown was imposed -- the sacrifice of people and the hardship faced by them for the last 21 days should not go waste," she noted. The Congress leader also alleged that against the demand of 62 lakh PPE kits, only 3.34 lakh kits are available for doctors and paramedical staff at present. "If we cannot protect our doctors, nurses, technicians and other paramedical staff who are in the forefront of fighting this war against coronavirus, then this country is not prepared for this fight," Dev said. Accusing the government of delaying by five weeks issuing orders for allowing manufacture of PPEs locally in the absence of guidelines till March 24, she said the 50 doctors who contracted the disease could have been averted. She also asked if the government has approved any agencies to test these PPEs manufactured locally. Dev also questioned the government on increasing the number of ventilators required in the country, as only 40,000 of them are available, of which 20,000 are not working properly, according to reports. She also called for large-scale testing to curb the spread of the disease. "We cannot be successful in this war against coronavirus unless the government increases the scale of testing," the Congress leader said. Syracuse, N.Y. The deadliness of the COVID-19 virus became clear locally this week as the death toll in Central New York rose from two to eight people. Those deaths represent a steep increase in fatalities here. Experts believe we are still about two weeks away from the apex of the virus statewide, and Syracuses peak is likely weeks after that. Three people died this week from the coronavirus in Onondaga County. Another two died in Oneida County and one in Madison County. They are generally older and have some health issues, the group with the most to risk in this crisis. A man in his 80s who had been hospitalized is Onondaga Countys most recent victim. Amid that jump in deaths, new orders from the governor have suddenly jeopardized critical gear like ventilators and masks, which inflamed tribalistic Upstate-Downstate prejudices. And several local hospitals have sent doctors and nurses to New York City to aid in the fight against the virus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order forcing hospitals to give up 20% of their excess ventilators and ship them downstate, where hundreds of people are dying every day. In New York City, more than 1,100 people died Friday and Saturday alone. The city is in desperate need of equipment. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said he doubts Cuomo will come for any of Onondaga Countys ventilators, since he said there arent any extras here. But he also said hes willing to help. Im not going to get in a food fight with the governor, because I support what the governor is going through and what he is trying to do, McMahon said Friday. We just need to figure out what our ability is to help. In Syracuse, hospitals are equipped and ready for a surge in patients. Theyre freeing up beds and emptying intensive care units to make ready for more patients. Doctors and nurses see worrying trends in patient recidivism, but ultimately feel prepared. The hospitals are taking a beating, financially, as all elective surgeries have been suspended. Crouse Hospital alone is losing about $300,000 a day. And workers at each hospital are getting sick at a high rate. At least 16 employees at Upstate University Hospital have tested positive. Another seven have tested positive at St. Josephs Health and four more at Crouse. The number of people hospitalized with the virus continues to grow. Saturday, there were 29 people from Onondaga County hospitalized with the coronavirus -- 14 in intensive care. Just a week earlier, 20 people were in the hospital and 8 were in intensive care. But the number of new cases has not spiked this week in the county. Each day brings a new group of anywhere from 21 to 28 new sick people. Its not a reduction, but its not shooting up. Its too early to know what that means, but it is a step in the right direction. Another promising trend emerged this week: People began recovering. Last Sunday, officials announced the recovery of the first handful of COVID-19 patients in Onondaga County. By Saturday, more than 100 people had successfully fought off the disease. Of the 52 people admitted to the hospital with the virus, 24 in Onondaga County had been discharged. Its been just more than a month since the first case of the virus was first discovered in New York state, and three weeks since the first cases in Central New York. Since then, Central New Yorkers have gotten used to hearing daily updates from people like McMahon and Cuomo. Those updates -- broadcast live -- teeter between sobering statistics and cautious optimism. Both say efforts to flatten the curve will save lives. Meanwhile, a shutdown that once seemed unthinkable has spread to 41 of the 50 states. And the new normal continues to evolve. Friday, the nations top doctors recommended everyone wear a mask whenever they leave the house. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Editor: Dont trust them, judge. Like sugarcoating the coronavirus is creating chaos, sugarcoating our education crisis will also be a disaster. With lights flashing red, politicos are rushing full steam ahead on the wrong track. We cant trust the governor or lawmakers to fix our broken education system as ordered by the Yazzie/Martinez suit. As one of the organizers of the suit that began 15 years ago, most politicos are guilty of nonfeasance. Theyve failed our kids for decades but still have the audacity to want the suit dismissed? Dont be fooled by tossing more money at teacher salaries or other soup du jour programs. As structured, its like just adding another taco day for our kids. Theyve thrown more than $664 million against a shattered education structure with no plan. Republican and Democrat administrations used to fund education at 55 percent of state spending. Today its about 46 percent, and politicos are gleefully chest-bumping for a minute increase in spending. We need a lot more money, but well-spent money, not the moon shots our governor brags about. Even good ideas without a comprehensive plan are irresponsible. We need a new educational paradigm a new approach to education because where were going is nose-diving. Ever wonder why Mexico has a higher literacy rate than New Mexico? But, universities, the ones responsible for bringing us into the 21st century, seem oblivious to our new reality: Most students are and will always be culturally distinct. The biggest failure is with Latino students, who outnumber white, Indian, black and Asian students put together. Schools are failing to graduate half of Latino kids but, amazingly, theres no specific focus on their needs. When experts sounded an alarm by reporting it would take 100 years to eliminate the achievement gap between Latino and white students, community leaders responded by getting the Hispanic Education Act passed. Its mission was to eliminate that gap. But 10 years later, zero dollars have been allocated to this mission with a measurable goal! Latino elected officials are MIA advocates for their community. Black and Indian champions abound, while whites quietly dominate a disproportionate share of resources and jobs. Gutless politicos cant even utter the word Latino, much less fight for us. Latinos need new, unashamed champions to put our children, who make up 63 percent of all students, at the front of the line for programs, jobs, etc. Whats the answer? Start with a comprehensive plan for a new education paradigm its already been mostly articulated with all stakeholders input with measurable goals, resources to meet those goals and a system responding in real time to whats working or not working. The governor and lawmakers have shown their disdain to follow the courts directives. Only the court holds the power to make them comply with the law. We should all urge the court not to dismiss this landmark suit that would improve the quality of lives of every New Mexican, but only if done right Jose Armas, PhD Albuquerque States in the country are willfully violating federal laws that hold government officials accountable, a PREMIUM TIMES and UDEME investigation has revealed. A decade after the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was passed in the country, no fewer than 16 states are yet to domesticate it or create comparative and parallel mechanisms that serve to promote transparency and accountability in government. The 16 states include Imo, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Osun, Ogun, Plateau, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe. As part of ongoing investigations to promote tranparency and accountability in the public sector, PREMIUM TIMES and UDEME submitted 162 FOI requests across the 36 states of the federation. The requests generated a pattern of excuses ranging from absence of organised records, additional clearance mechanism unrecognised by law and blatant denial of access to information except through governors approval. These are requirements unknown to the law in Nigeria. Experts believe that states are taking advantage of conflicting judicial pronouncements to indulge in this bad behaviour. Public interest lawyer, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, explains it thus: There are two conflicting judgments of the Court of Appeal on the applicability of the Freedom of Information Act in the states. One says that it is applicable throughout the country. Another one says that it is not applicable to states on the grounds that it is a federal enactment. Apart from Ekiti State which has a Freedom of Information Law other state governments prefer to hide under the judgment of the Court of Appeal that says that the FOI Act is not applicable to the states. Mr Falanas view is shared by Nkemdilim Ilo, the Chief Executive of Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), an organisation noted for promoting transparency in the procurement processes. She said one way to ensure the FOI Act is efficiently utilised across Nigeria is when all stakeholders finally get to sit on the conflicting decisions of applicability of the Act at the state level. If there are states that do not fit the category of the FOI laws neither are they part of the OGP (Open Government Partnership), that is now an open ended conversation because you now go to the Court of Appeal for the constitution that says the FOI laws does not need to be domesticated, that it should be applied universally. Although there is also a contrary Court of Appeal decision from another institution that says it is not applicable across board, she noted. Low FOI responses In the past two years, the UDEME project distributed over 600 FOIs to Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). In this time, only 30 per cent of such requests were effectively treated and the information requested disclosed. The remaining were either ignored or acknowledged with no information provided. In order for citizens to reap the dividends of democracy, federal, state and local governments must be accountable for how funds internally generated and/or received from the Federation Account (FAAC) are utilised, the experts said. The monies donated by international organisations must also be well accounted for vis a vis infrastructural developments. The UDEME projects 2020 focus is to create awareness around the use of FOI as a tool for demanding accountability from the government and empower citizens with resources that help them interrogate the process. Non-ratification and consequent non-compliance of most states is an obstacle in promoting transparency and accountability in the budgeting and capital projects execution process in the state. Monopolising the power to make information public negates the need for which the FOI Act was passed into law. And that is the need for openness, transparency and decentralisation of information from the side of the government to the people and thereby build trust which in turn makes room for good governance delivery, said Idayat Hassan, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD). READ ALSO: It is heartbreaking that in a time when other countries are looking for better ways to promptly disclose information to the public and pave the way for accountability and transparency, ours is hiding theirs (its) and asking that whoever wants certain information should institute a court proceeding to compel the institution to divulge the information needed. That is not right, she said. The Violators In the UDEMEs FOI requests, nine selected MDAs in 17 states were targeted with similar requests. These MDAs are State Universal Basic Education Boards, State Primary Health Care Boards, State Ministries of Education, State Ministries of Health, State Ministries of Water Resources, State Ministries of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, State Ministries of Works, State Offices of the Accountant General of the Federation and State Ministries of Finance. The 17 states are Imo, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Osun, Ekiti, Ogun, Plateau, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe. The crux of the FOI request was to access the data on projects within the 9 MDAs implemented by state governments from 2016 till date. Advertisements These data include cash releases from 2016 till date as well as names of contractors, budgeted project amounts and status of projects. The responses were expected to provide insight into state governments contracting and procurement procedures. Obstacles The first challenge to the distribution of FOIs was the absence of updated contact information and addresses for state government parastatals on the internet. For state governments with visibility online, such as Kogi, Ekiti, Kano, Oyo, Edo, the contact addresses obtained failed to state where some of the MDAs are located. Another challenge was the incessant change of nomenclature of state MDAs and parastatals. Different administrations change the names of the ministries or collapse some functions to fit their vision. These often resulted in letters being returned and needing to be re-addressed and re-sent to the MDAs. In terms of compliance to the Act, the Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board (PSUBEB), stated that it would be difficult to get exact approval of payments as different projects are treated daily by both the headquarter and the local governments. The agencys Legal Officer, C.Y Nanyap, said the board has no central database and as such, collating all information will be a herculean task. I will appreciate it if you can visit our office whenever youre in Jos so we can show you how we operate, he noted over the phone, adding the Plateau State government is also committed to foster accountability and transparency in Nigeria and we are open for suggestions on how to make the process better. However, Nasarawa State offers a stark absence of coherence in its policy regarding the administration of transparency laws. Whereas Doc Zax from the states Office of the Accountant General said that only the state ministry of works and the Nasarawa Urban Development Board have the mandate to implement projects, this view was not shared by Abdullahi Ogoshi from the state ministry of health, who said: that only the state governor has the power to issue such a directive for the ministries to comply. Both Messrs Zax and Ogoshis positions stand in contrast with the 2019 comments of the states commissioner for information, Dogo Shammah, who assured citizens that the FOI Actwill be domesticated in Nasarawa State. Till date, that remains undone. At the Ekiti ministry of health, Doc Alabi, a director, said the information requested is confidential and only the governor has the power to authorise the disclosure of such information. The letter should first be sent to the governor, and then he will give a go-ahead, Mr Alabi noted, obviously a violation of Section 5(1) of even the Ekiti state Freedom of Information Law 2011, which states that the head of the government of a public institution has control over the record. The document further stated that he/she shall, not later than 14 working days after receipt of application, give written notice to applicant if access has been granted or provide the requested information. Meanwhile, in a response to our letter, the Edo, Kogi and Nasarawa state ministries of finance referred the outfit to their financial statements online. Different, but opaque Bauchi provides a different but no less opaque scenario where Harisu from Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Board said that the Board must first give approval before any request can be processed. These instincts to centralise information in political authority and away from citizens have drawn rebuke from scholars, civic leaders and legal experts. Lai Oso, the former dean of the School of Communication at the Lagos State University, worries that governments all over the world are wont to manage the news and one of the ways is withholding information or releasing the type of information that will not damage their interest. However, he insists that journalists and the civil society must continue to pry the boxes of secrecy. This view is shared by CDDs Ms Hassan who adds that: It is totally inappropriate for us to pretend we have a functional FOI Act especially in a situation where only governors have the powers to give approval for the release of information to the public who pay with their taxes pay their salaries. Implication Non-compliance to the FOI Act at the subnational level is a direct contradiction of Nigerias stated goals, especially as a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Where it may be difficult for citizens to comprehend happenings at the national level, transparency and accountability at state and local government level brings government closer to the people it serves. It allows them to ask questions and make informed electoral decisions. It also guarantees that the dividends of democracy are delivered to citizens at the grassroots. Kolawole Olaniyan, who is the legal adviser for Amnesty International in the United Kingdom and author Corruption Human Rights says, the FoI is so central and relevant to the fight against corruption because it is essential for actualising the peoples right to know, and for transparency and accountability in the management of public resources. Mr Olaniyan believes that the FOI can act as a check against incompetence, venality, or bias as well as help to encourage elected officials to act in the public interest. According to him, this, in turn, can stimulate more knowledgeable public consideration of transparency, accountability and human rights issues, and perhaps even encourage individual citizens to come forward with constructive suggestions. In sum, the FoI is without doubt a great victory for transparency and accountability in the country. Although he lauded the achievements so far recorded as a result of using the tool, he noted that the impact is somehow limited. The main problems include lack of effective implementation by MDAs, absence of political will at the highest level of government, and the argument by several states that the FoI is not directly applicable in their states without domestication. That argument is not backed by our constitutional jurisprudence, but the issue is still being tested in court, he added. New Delhi: Bhojpuri bombshell Aamrapali Dubey clearly knows how to keep herself and her several fans entertained amid the coronavirus lockdown. The actress has been constantly sharing interesting TikTok videos on her Instagram profile and her fans couldnt be more elated. Aamrapali recently posted a video of herself grooving to her favourite song Kyunki Itna Pyar Tumko from Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoors film Kyon Ki Its Fate and captioned the post as, Thodi si fikar kar lo. Favourite song, adding a heart-eyed emoji. Forget blinking for a few minutes while watching the video as her expressions are on point. Take a look: Just last week, Aamrapali shared a video of herself lip-syncing rapper Badshah and Jacqueline Fernandez's latest song 'Genda Phool' and switched to a Bengali avatar for her fans. Watch it here: Aamrapali is an A-lister of the Bhojpuri industry, having worked with all the big names. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in the Bhojpuri movie business and is also a social media sensation. Her on-screen pairing with Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua is loved by the audiences. She started off from television and later established a career in the Bhojpuri industry. Researchers have discovered a trial medication that efficiently blocks the cellular door Sars-CoV-2 utilizes to infect its hosts, a development that they say might give a prospective therapy for the novel coronavirus. The research, released in the journal Cell, supplies new understandings right into essential aspects of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. It additionally supplies information regarding the interactions of the infection on a mobile level, as well as how it can infect blood vessels and also kidneys. We are enthusiastic our results have effects for the advancement of a unique drug for the treatment of this unmatched pandemic, stated Josef Penninger, from the College of British Columbia in Canada. The researchers said ACE2 a healthy protein externally of the cell membrane layer is currently at centre-stage in this outbreak as the key receptor for the spike glycoprotein of Sars-CoV-2. In earlier job, Penninger and also associates at the College of Toronto and also the Institute of Molecular Biology in Austria found that in living microorganisms, ACE2 is the vital receptor for SARS, the viral respiratory health problem acknowledged as a worldwide hazard in 2003. The absence of a clinically confirmed antiviral therapy or a treatment especially targeting the important SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 on a molecular level has actually implied an empty collection for healthcare service providers battling to deal with serious situations of Covid-19, the scientists stated. Our new research provides quite required straight evidence that a drug called APN01 (human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 hrsACE2) soon to be checked in scientific trials by the European biotech business Apeiron Biologics, is useful as an antiviral treatment for Covid-19, said Art Slutsky, a professor at the College of Toronto. In cell cultures, hrsACE2 hindered the coronavirus tons by an aspect of 1,000-5,000, the scientists discovered. In crafted reproductions of human blood vessel and also kidneys organoids grown from human stem cells the researchers showed that the virus can straight infect and also duplicate itself in these tissues. This provides crucial details on the growth of the disease and the truth that extreme instances of Covid-19 present with multi-organ failing as well as evidence of cardio damage, they said. The team discovered that clinical-grade hrsACE2 also lowered the SARS-CoV-2 infection in these engineered human cells. Making use of organoids allows us to evaluate in a very agile way treatments that are currently being utilized for other conditions, or that are close to being verified, stated Nuria Montserrat, a professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain. The infection triggering Covid-19 is a close brother or sister to the initial SARS virus, Penninger included. Previous work aided the scientists to swiftly determine ACE2 as the entry entrance for Sars-CoV-2, which explains a lot about the illness. In the current study, they discovered that a soluble type of ACE2 that captures the infection away, could be a really reasonable treatment that specifically targets the gate the virus must require to infect individuals. A top White House health official has warned to avoid going to the grocery store or the pharmacy unless it is essential for the next two weeks to prevent further spread of coronavirus. The advice was directed mainly at residents of Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C. who are still only on the upside of the outbreak curve, meaning it is essential that people remain at home and practice social distancing now to lessen the virus' impact. Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, revealed during Saturday's press briefing that hotspots of New York, Detroit and Louisiana are predicted to reach the peak of their death tolls in the next six to seven days but that there are other areas of concern emerging around the country. The data shows that the daily death toll in New York City could reach as high as 855 people before it is predicted to subside in a week's time. It came as national deaths reached record highs on Saturday rising by 1,497 to a total of 8,503. Scroll down for video Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, speaks at the coronavirus briefing at the White House on Saturday. She warned that the next two weeks are the crucial times to practice social distancing and remain inside, even avoiding the grocery store According to the model from The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, if the country continues on track with social distancing and lockdowns as it is, the country will reach the peak of its daily deaths from the outbreak in 12 days, on April 16, when 2,644 are predicted With the current measures in place, the models predict that there will be a total of 93,531 deaths nationally but that social distancing guidelines will see the daily death totals level off 'The next two weeks are extraordinarily important,' said Birx. 'This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing their hands.' Birx' comments came after Trump warned America to brace itself for a 'lot of deaths' in the coming week, adding that it will be a 'very horrendous' time for the nation, as US virus fatalities top 8,500 with at least 311,632 cases as of Saturday night. 'This will probably be the toughest week - between this week and next week,' Trump told reporters. 'There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done,' he added of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus. The president was joined Saturday by coronavirus taskforce members including Vice President Mike Pence. Dr. Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci were also on hand, as was Dr. Stephen Hahn of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, would not comment on when the worst day would be but suggested the current hotspots should see the maximum number of daily deaths in the next six to seven days is social distancing has worked Trump let Dr. Birx take the lead when asked by a reporter about when the peak of the country's outbreak could be expected. She was hesitant to put a number of when the hotspots will see the most extreme number of deaths but said that it may be in the next six to seven days. The curve toward this peak will see a dramatic number of deaths as those who were infected two weeks ago begin to suffer the worst of the illness. 'They are predicting in those three hotspots, all of them hitting together in the next six to seven days,' she said of New York, Detroit and Louisiana. She also noted that Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C. are only 'starting to go on that upside' of the coronavirus mortality curve as she urged residents there to stay at home if they could, even avoiding grocery stores and pharmacies when possible. The grim news came as the death toll reached record heights on Saturday with nearly 1,500 deaths in 24 hours. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States have increased by more than 100,000 in the past three days as the national death toll stretched over 8,500 on Saturday. Many states are now frantically attempting to provide ventilators for hospitals most in need as federal emergency workers also try to answer desperate pleas for respirators. New York City remains the epicenter of the national outbreak where hundreds of people are dying a day. As of Saturday night, 2,624 people have lost their lives there. Dr. Birx explained that the city may start to see a drop in the number of new daily cases in the next week but that the death rate would lag and continue to grow. 'What we're seeing today is the people who were infected two to three weeks ago,' she said. 'If social distancing and other mitigation efforts worked in New York, and we believe it is working, the cases are going to start to go down, but the mortality will be a lag behind that.' According to predictions highlighted by the White House coronavirus task force, the U.S. can expect to hit the peak of its deaths per day on April 16, 12 days from now, when there will be a predicted 2,644 new deaths reported nationwide. If the model tracked by the task force is correct, the curve across the country will then start to move downward with less deaths per day. There are a total of 93,531 deaths predicted. according to this model. The data for the models was collected by Dr. Christopher Murray and researchers from The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent population health research center at UW Medicine which is part of the University of Washington. Dr. Birx has in recent days guided questions about what can be expected toward the site established by the institute. The peak in national deaths per day could see 2,644 new deaths on April 16, based on current data, but daily deaths will then begin to fall as the effects of social distancing are felt New York, Louisiana and Michigan are all expected to reach their peak before April 16. The data shows that New York is six days away from its peak, on April 10, when it could suffer 855 deaths a day. The model predicts there will be 16,261 total deaths in the city. Louisiana is also six days away from its peak when there are 76 deaths a day expected. Michigan is predicted to reach its peak in seven days on April 11 when 173 deaths are expected. New York is predicted to reach its peak in six days when there could be 855 deaths a day. The city is thought to be nearing the top of its outbreak curve if current guidelines stay in place The states Dr. Birx warned about are still only on the upward trajectory and have a longer line to wait until they reach the predicted peak number of deaths. Washington D.C. may not reach the peak until April 13 in nine days time. Colorado has an expected peak in 14 days on April 18 when the model shows there could be 85 new deaths. Pennsylvania has an even longer wait with the predictions showing 15 days, April 19, before the state reaches peak deaths. It is thought deaths may reach 79 on that day. The peak in daily deaths in Colorado is predicted to come after the national peak. It will hit on April 18, according to the current model, and Dr. Birx has encouraged residents there to stay inside to ensure that the spread is limited as it starts to rise up the curve of the outbreak The District of Columbia may reach the peak of its daily deaths in nine days time if social distancing guidelines continue to be maintained and the current spread is limited Pennsylvania could experience almost 80 deaths a day at its peak of the coronavirus outbreak but Dr. Birx warned that people must continue to social distance to not extend this further Nearly 1.3 million coronavirus tests have been conducted with one-fifth coming back positive, according to new data. Across state and local laboratories, 1,290,619 tests for the virus, have been run, according to The COIVD Tracking Project. And while the majority of swabs have come back negative, at least 270,000 people - including 33,000 who have been hospitalized - been confirmed to have the virus. However, with health experts say that with millions across the US still awaiting tests, the number of tests that have been performed are far from adequate. Dr Birx says they 50 percent of the data for tests that have been conducted. On Thursday, Birx said that all tests were required to be report their results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the $2 trillion economic stimulus measure signed into law by President Donald Trump. 'Well, I'm telling you, I'm still missing 50 percent of the data from reporting,' she told reporters. 'I have 660 [thousand] tests reported in. We've done 1.3 million...So, we do need to see - the bill said you need to report. We are still not receiving 100 percent of the tests.' With all the chaos in our world right now, many of us are clinging to the truth in Psalm 30:5. This long-proven truth reminds us that our most painful, frightening, and difficult seasons wont last. Gods goodness will break through like the morning dawn, resulting in resounding joy. Such joy, in fact, itll almost be as if the darkness of night never fell. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5 With all the chaos in our world right now, many of us are clinging to the truth in Psalm 30:5. This long-proven truth reminds us that our most painful, frightening, and difficult seasons wont last. Gods goodness will break through like the morning dawn, resulting in resounding joy. Such joy, in fact, itll almost be as if the darkness of night never fell. As questions and uncertainties abound, may we find comfort in the depths of Gods promise, penned first by a man named David, ancient Israels second king. A surface-level reading certainly bolsters the heart, but what do these oft-quoted words truly mean, and how can we apply the promises they convey to our most unsettling challenges? Photo Credit: Unsplash Understanding the Context of Joy Comes in the Morning Initially, David suffered greatly, and Im certain his trials felt anything but temporary. Though hed been anointed as ancient Israels ruler at a young age and had been proclaimed as a hero, he spent nearly a decade fleeing a tyrannical madman, King Saul. David hid in caves and at one point, fearing eminent death, feigned insanity. I imagine he didnt know who he could trust and wondered if hed be living as a fugitive forever. Yet, though his circumstances were far from joyful, he still found cause for joyin God. When Saul learned a priest had offered David aid, he had 85 men of God slaughtered. Can you imagine the depth of sorrow and guilt David felt? Yet, in response, he wrote, Why do you boast about your crimes, great warrior? Dont you realize Gods justice continues forever? (Psalm 52:1, NLT) Or, translated more literally, Dont you realize the hesed, Gods steadfast, merciful, fierce and faithful love, endures forever? He continued in verse 8, But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God, flourishing and ever-fruitful. I trust in the hesed of God forever and ever (ESV). David found joy amidst grief by trusting in the goodness of God, His joy-giver. Amid his most terrifying circumstances, David declared, aforehand, in essence, My weeping wont last forever. Come morning, Gods dawn will break through with joy. Years later, when he penned Psalm 30, from which countless devotions have come, he was able to declare that God indeed had done just that. You turned my wailing into dancing, he wrote, You removed my sackcloth, symbolic of weeping, and clothed me with joy (Psalm 30:11-12, NIV). Joy Made Greater by the Night: Important Contrasts in Psalm 30:5 1. Gods Anger and Favor Gods anger, which is as fleeing as a moment, contrasts with His favor, which endures forever. In New Testament terms, we could phrase this as Gods discipline, which He lovingly applies to reroute us when were heading toward self-destruction, compared to His never-ending grace for all who trust in Him. We dont often like thinking about Gods anger, and we might even wonder how a loving God could display such an intense emotion. But both aspects, His anger and His favor, stem from His love. For example, I feel deep, righteous anger when I think of children sold into sex trafficking or experiencing abuse at the hands of their parents. Im certain this anger reflects Gods heart for both situations and is intended to stir me to action. I might also become angry when someone I love makes a harmful, life-altering choicenot at them, but at the situation and the pain I know lies ahead. And in my anger, many times I weep. But I weep with hope because I know Gods ultimate favorthe gift of heaven and an eternity spent with Himis coming. Thanks to Christs death and resurrection, one day God will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4, NIV) 2. Night and Morning Throughout Scripture, night is portrayed as darkness and a time for ungodly acts. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul, the author told ancient believers they were children of the light and children of the day and that they did not belong to the night or to the darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5, NIV). In verses 7 and 8, he continued, saying, For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. In Psalm 130:6 the psalmist says, during a time of great anguish, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. As nineteenth century theologian Albert Barnes states, The idea is that of watchersnight guardswho look anxiously for the break of day that they may be relieved. It is not that of persons who simply look for the return of day, but of those who are on guardor it may be who watch beside the sick or the dyingand who look out on the east to mark the first indications of returning light. In contrast, the Bible presents day, dawn, or daylight as godliness, hope, healing, and cause for joy. In 2 Samuel 23:4, David said the king who ruled with righteousness was like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning. This was another way to say, like the break of dawn after the dark of night. Jesus is referred to as the light of the world, as are His children, and whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life (John 8:12, NASB). But the most powerful example of Gods darkness-shattering grace comes from Luke 24, which tells us about Christs first post-resurrection appearance that occurred at dawn. Can you imagine the joy the women felt, after mourning their Savior for three long days, to see Him alive once again? 3. Weeping and Joy Weeping and joy reveal intense emotions, both as opposite one another as a feeling can be. Weve all experienced a sorrow so deep, we literally felt the pain physically. Perhaps when we lost a loved one, a relationship was shattered, or we witnessed the suffering of someone we care about. Our grief or distress, whatever its provocation, stir within us a longing for heaven and point to a profoundly-felt truthlife wasnt supposed to be this way. But lest we remain in despair, God made a promise, from the moment mans sin first brought sickness and death to His very good creationone day good and life and light will reign (Genesis 3:15). In fact, whereas the sorrow might tarry, as the ESV puts it, joy (rinnah in the original Hebrew) will burst forth like a jubilant shout. As nineteenth century theologian Charles Ellicott so beautifully put it, Sorrow is the wayfarer who comes to the tent for a nights lodging, but the metaphor of his taking his leave in the morning is not carried on, and we have instead the sudden waking with a cry of joy, sudden as the Eastern dawn, without twilight or preparation. But perhaps most importantly, our joy, which is given to us by the Holy Spirit and comes through our relationship with Christ, soaks deep into our soul, giving us strength when we feel weak. Photo Credit: Unsplash/Andre Benz How to Live for the Hope of the Morning from Psalm 30:5 For many, a time of weeping is here now. Perhaps a family member battles illness. Maybe a job has been lost, or an adult child has turned their back on us or the faith. As a result, circumstances feel dark, as if the night has landed for good. But Scripture promises that isnt true. Night might linger, but dawn is coming. It will burst forth with hope and life and light, and when it does, oh, the joy that will enter our souls, such joy we wont be able to keep it in. Well shout and dance and sing Gods praises, every tear but a distant memory. A memory that not only will never dampen our celebration but will in fact make it all the sweeter. Why does joy come in the morning? Because the night will always pass, and Gods grace falls afresh with the dawn of every new day. Hold tight to that truth and stand, like a watchman, anxiously awaiting the break of dawn, because it is sure to come. A Prayer for Joy in the Morning We confess our need for you, for your Spirit to fill our lives afresh with great joy and strength. The hard times can often leave us feeling dry and defeated. Weve been weary and burdened. Weve struggled through for so long, its hard to see light at the end of the tunnel anymore. Would you please give us a glimpse of your goodness again, reminding us that you have never left us and that you have promised to see us through. Thank you for your faithfulness Lord. Forgive us for not trusting you, for buying into the lies of the enemy, and not focusing on what we know to be true from your word. Breathe your joy and peace into our lives again, cover us in the shadow of your wings, shine the light of your truth over us. At the start of each day, help us to recognize you above all else. Enlighten the eyes of our heart that we might see you and notice how you're at work through our lives. Give us wisdom to make the best choices, fill us with a desire to seek after you more than anything else. Please allow your Spirit and power to work mightily within us, through us, again, fresh and new. Thank you that you are greater than anything we may face in our day, or in these difficult seasons. Thank you that your presence goes with us, and that your joy is never dependent on our circumstances; but it is our true and lasting strength, no matter what we might be up against in this world. We ask that your Spirit lead us, that your peace would guard our hearts and minds in you. We ask for your grace to cover our lives, and that you would bring us through every dark season with your joy and favor. We love you Lord. We need you today, and always. In Jesus' Name, Amen. (prayer by Debbie McDaniel, A Prayer for the Joy of the Lord) Design Credit: SWN/Bethany Pyle Jennifer Slattery is a writer and speaker who hosts the Faith Over Fear podcast. Shes addressed womens groups, Bible studies, and writers across the nation. Shes the author of Building a Family and numerous other titles and maintains a devotional blog at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud.com. As the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries, shes passionate about helping women experience Christs freedom in all areas of their lives. Visit her online to learn more about her speaking or to book her for your next womens event and sign up for her free quarterly newsletter HERE and make sure to connect with her on Facebook and Instagram. This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today. "Be Still and Know that I Am God" "Pray Without Ceasing" "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" "All Things Work Together for Good" "Do Not Fear" The number of novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. has grown from one on Jan. 21 to more than 312,000 by early Sunday, per Johns Hopkins. The big picture: Roughly three-quarters of the American population is on lockdown, with social distancing measures and other orders in place across the country. Here's how Americans are coping with the massive upheaval the outbreak has brought, in photos. Miami residents applaud from their balconies in solidarity for health care workers, first responders, supermarket employees and all the professions helping to fight COVID-19. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images A sanitation station in Philadelphia. Photo: Cory Clark/NurPhoto via Getty Images The Samaritan's Purse emergency field hospital for coronavirus patients in New York City's Central Park. Photo: Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images Cellist Jodi Beder performs a daily concert on her front porch in Mount Rainier, Maryland, to help people passing by and her neighbors cope with the outbreak. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Martha's Table volunteer Poet Taylor helps distribute hundreds of free hot meals to people in need in Washington, D.C. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, which typically serves 8.2 million passengers a month, has closed two of its seven runways as the pandemic has significantly reduced air travel. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images People keep to social distancing guidelines in Portland, Oregon. Photo: Alex Milan Tracy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Signs are posted throughout Long Beach, California, reminding residents of what areas are closed. Photo: Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images A police officer outside the closed Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Photo: Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images U.S. Customs officers at the U.S.-Canada border in Lansdowne, Ontario. Photo: Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images The L.L. Bean plant in Brunswick, Maine, has begun producing safety masks during the COVID-19 epidemic. Photo: Blake Nissen for The Boston Globe via Getty Images A police officer at the entrance to a coronavirus testing center in Hansen Dam Park, Pacoima, California. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images People around the world have been placing stuffed bears in their windows to keep kids entertained during the outbreak including this house in Boston's Hyde Park. Photo: Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Go deeper: What a coronavirus exit ramp looks like Good Morning, welcome to Information Nigerias Newspaper headlines for today, 5th April 2020. Here are the major headlines. Missing Osun Coronavirus Patient Found The State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs Funke Egbemode has confirmed that the coronavirus patient that absconded from the Osun isolation centre has returned. COVID-19: FG Seeks NASS Approval For N500Bn Intervention Fund Following the move by the federal government of Nigeria to eradicate the novel coronavirus in the country, an approval has been sought from the National Assembly for an N500 billion intervention fund, Channels TV reports. COVID-19: No License For 5G Has Been Issued In Nigeria Series of conspiracy theories has been making the rounds drawing the relationship between electromagnetic waves emitted from 5g networks and the novel coronavirus. What Chinese Doctors Are Coming To Do In Nigeria FG The federal government of Nigeria has come out to clarify that the 18-man Chinese medical team coming to Nigeria are coming to share their experience on how they handled the novel coronavirus in their country and not to take over the treatment of patients in the country. Coronavirus: FG Set To Evacuate Nigerians Stranded Abroad The ministry of foreign affairs has directed all its missions abroad to get the list of Nigerians abroad who are willing to return back into the country following the coronavirus rampaging countries. Expect Palliatives Soon Wike Tells Residents Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike has asked the state residents to maintain their calm adding that palliatives would soon be sent out to them so as to alleviate their struggle following the total lockdown of the state over the novel coronavirus. Coronavirus: FG Hints On Date For Lockdown Ending The federal government of Nigeria has stated that depending on how Nigerians behave during the initial 14-days lockdown, the nation may or may not head for a further lockdown over the novel coronavirus. Why Foreign Countries Are Evacuating Their Citizens From Nigeria FG Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, says there is nothing to cause worry over some countries evacuating their citizens from Nigeria. Speculations had started to build up over the evacuation of foreign citizens from the country. Bayelsa Governor Diri Signs Executive Order On COVID-19 The Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri has signed an Executive Order on COVID-19 measures to contain the spread of the virus in the state. Governor Udom Announces 14-day Lockdown In Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom has announced a total shutdown of movements and prohibition of all events of any nature for 14 days in the State. While many hundreds of Canadians nationals and permanent residents return to the country on a series of six flights from New Delhi and Mumbai, Indian citizens are stranded in Canada till the time commercial flights become available. Ironically, the flights from India to Canada are being operated by Air India but the national carrier is expected to return to India without any passengers. According to estimates, there may be more than 3,00,000 Indian passport holders in Canada including a sizeable number of students, who could account for half that number. Canada issued 6,00,000 visas to Indians last year and there are nearly 2,00,000 Indian students enrolled in Canadian universities and colleges, the highest contingent from any country. Indias High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria tweeted a simple message to them: Our advice to Indians in Canada: Stay calm, stay safe, stay where you are! The High Commission in Ottawa, along with Consulates in Toronto and Vancouver have set up special telephone numbers for Indians to call in for information on travel to India and emergency consular matters. These have been augmented with a chatbot answering queries in this regard on the websites of the missions as well as on Whatsapp. As some of the students and temporary workers from India struggle because of closed educational insitutions and dwindled employment opportunities, Indo-Canadian organisations have stepped up support to them. The Indo-Canadian Association in Kingston, Ontario, the Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran and Sikh Cultural Center in British Columbia, the Gujarati Group of Brampton, Ontario, Hindu Heritage Center in Mississauga, Khalsa Aid Canada, and stores in Montreal, as well as numerous temples and gurdwaras across the country are among those that have offered services to those in need like students and seniors. These include tiffin and groceries, assistance with accommodation, delivery of medicines, and transportation. Meanwhile the Canada India Foundation along with the Hindu Federation has launched a portal, covid-19-help.ca, to consolidate and disseminate information of various individuals & organisations; who are engaged in relief measures during this pandemic to seniors, international students and fellow citizens in need. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are 'taking a few months' off before their plans to launch a brand and charity because they 'need a break', a royal expert has claimed. Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, last week shared their final post on the Sussex Royal Instagram account and officially stepping down as working senior royals on Tuesday. After months of build-up, the couple, who are believed to be living in Malibu with 10-month-old Archie, were rumoured to be revealing their new brand and charity last week, with Instagram being their launch platform of choice. However, speaking on the Heir Pod podcast, royal commentator Omid Scobie claimed the pair have 'surprised everyone' by taking time off after the 'build up' of them dropping their HRH titles. Meanwhile a royal source told The Sunday Times that Prince Harry appeared to be hedging his bets over staying in the US permanently, saying: 'The duke has not made an application for dual citizenship and I don't think he will apply for a green card at any point.' Prince Harry , 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, are 'taking a few months out' before plans to launch a charity because they 'need a break' after stepping back from life in The Firm, a royal expert has claimed (They are pictured attending the Commonwealth Day Service 2020, their last outing as senior royals) If Prince Harry applied for US citizenship, he would have to renounce his titles in the UK and it would also expose him to US taxation on his earnings across the world. It is unknown whether he entered the country last month on a 90-day visa waiver programme, which is available to most Britons. He may have entered using a diplomatic or different special visa, such as one available for entrepreneurs who are willing to invest in America or the O-1 visa for 'individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement'. Royal expert Omid revealed how Prince Harry and Meghan will now 'take a break' as they relax into life in the US. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are currently living in California with their son Archie having stepped back from royal life last week . They are pictured with 10-month-old Archie in South Africa He said: 'It is interesting because we had such a build-up since January to the departure of Meghan and Harry stepping back as senior working royals. 'Suddenly on March 31 it sort of crept up on us really quickly, we had the couple announcing the beginning of their transition period over the next year on Instagram. 'At the same time, they were announcing that they are closing down their social media and their website and taking a break for the next few months. I think it has really taken everyone by surprise. 'Because there was so much talk about the couple preparing projects and ready to launch initiatives. When actually it was two people that were like, "We need a break too".' The couple promised in last week's Instagram post last night to continue their charity work behind the scenes. Between them Harry and Meghan boasted 11.3 million followers on their current SussexRoyal Instagram account, and were expected to launch a series of projects following the announcement of their image revamp. The move was set to spark an upsurge in activity for both Prince Harry and Meghan, who have been laying the foundations for life after royal duty. Omid's comments come after royal commentator Camilla Tominey claimed on on This Morning that all plans to 'rebrand as celebrities' have been put 'on ice'. The couple, who dropped their royal titles last week after giving up their positions as senior members of the Firm, posted a message to their account at the time to say farewell to their 11 million followers She told the couple have decided against launching new projects at the moment, because they wouldn't get the 'column inches' they wanted, as well as feeling it's 'inappropriate' to rebrand at this time. Host Phillip Schofield, said the post was the couple 'signing off', Camilla agreed: 'Wasn't it? Very much so. What's interesting is, this week they were meant to be launching their life as non-royals. 'Today marks the end of that transition period, where they they were meant to officially step down, but of course due to the coronavirus outbreak they haven't been able to do that. They've effectively put these all on ice. 'I think they regarded it as not only inappropriate to be rebranding at a time like this, but equally, they aren't going to get the column inches they wanted. ' Meghan is understood to have 'heaps of projects' in the works after stepping back from her duties as a senior royal, with her first gig voicing a Disney documentary about elephants Meghan 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. Their final Instagram post last week, which had the comments switched off, racked up thousands of likes within minutes and signed off with 'Harry and Meghan'. Researchers warn COVID-19 lockdown will cause thousands of deaths in US Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 6:11 AM Public health specialists in the US are warning that mass shutdowns of businesses and schools to enforce social distancing measures over the coronavirus outbreak will lead to thousands of deaths and suicides that are unrelated to the disease itself. The US and other countries have taken sweeping suppression steps to combat the coronavirus that could last for months or more, and the longer the suppression lasts, the worse the unintended outcomes will be, Reuters said in a report, citing interviews with researchers. During the 2007-2009 economic recession, the bleak job market triggered a surge in suicide rates in the United States and Europe, claiming the lives of 10,000 more people than prior to the downturn, researchers found. A surge of unemployment in 1982 also cut the life spans of Americans by a collective two to three million years. This time, such effects could be even deeper in the weeks, months and years ahead if, as many business and political leaders are warning, the economy crashes and unemployment skyrockets to historic levels. A spike in unemployment to 20 percent in Western economies, which is a common forecast now, could cause an additional 20,000 suicides in the United States and Europe among the jobless, the report said. A recent report by researchers from Imperial College London found that the coronavirus could kill 2 million people in the US and 500,000 in the UK unless their governments enforced strict social distancing measures. In the United States and Europe, suicide rates rise about 1 percent for every one percentage point increase in unemployment, according to research published by Oxford University. "Sadly, I think there is a good chance we could see twice as many suicides over the next 24 months than we saw during the early part of the last recession," Reeves told Reuters. That would be about 20,000 additional dead by suicide in the United States and Europe. However, researchers say that such severe responses will trigger health impacts of their own, over the short, mid and long term. Already, there are reports that isolation measures in the US and Europe are triggering more domestic violence in some areas. Trapped at home with their abusers, some domestic violence victims in the US are already suffering more frequent and extreme violence, Katie Ray-Jones, the chief executive officer of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, told Reuters. Domestic violence programs across the US have cited increases in calls for help, Reuters said in its report. "There are special populations that are going to have impacts that go way beyond COVID-19," said Ray-Jones, citing domestic violence victims as one. Rises in unemployment during large recessions can set in motion a domino effect of reduced income, additional stress and unhealthy lifestyles. Those setbacks in income and health often mean people die earlier, said Till von Wachter, a University of California Los Angeles professor who researches the impact of job loss. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address : The coronavirus curve was surging upward at a rapid pace in Andhra Pradesh as 26 cases were added during the day on Sunday, taking the overall tally past the 250 mark to 252, with Kurnool district fast becoming the hotbed of the pandemic. In all 62 cases were added in the state since Saturday night. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy over phone on Sunday evening and discussed the situation in the wake of the mounting number of positive cases, primarily due to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation attendees. The two discussed the measures being taken to contain the disease as well as the facilities for the affected persons, official sources said. Covid cases, which were just four till yesterday, shot up to 27 since Saturday night and further up to 53 by Sunday evening in Kurnool district, as per the latest bulletin of the Medical and Health Department. Close to 190 people from Kurnool district attended the Jamaat event in New Delhi, the largest delegation from AP. And this was clearly reflecting in the increasing number of coronavirus cases from the district, official sources said. "Results of more tests from the district are awaited while many persons and their contacts still remain to be tested. The numbers may go up further," the sources added. While Kurnool topped the state list with 53 cases, SPS Nellore came second with 34 and Guntur third with 30 cases. More than 90 people from Guntur and 70 from SPS Nellore district attended the Jamaat event. With five coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals after recovery, and the death of a 55-year old man, the number of active cases in the state stood at 246, according to the latest bulletin. The two north coastal Andhra districts of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram are the only ones that remain unaffected by the virus as they did not record a single positive case so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) OSNABURG TOWNSHIP, Ohio A man was seriously injured Saturday night in an explosion inside a Stark County home, authorities said Sunday. The explosion happened about 8:45 p.m. at a house on Broadway Avenue NE in Osnaburg Township, about seven miles east of downtown Canton, the Stark County Sheriffs Office said in a news release. A 41-year-old man from nearby Louisville was injured in the explosion, the release states. He was taken to MetroHealth via LifeFlight for treatment. Sheriffs deputies believe the 41-year-old man was creating an incendiary device using smokeless gun powder when the explosion occurred, according to the news release. Authorities did provide any additional details about the explosion. The incident remains under investigation. This post will be updated if more information is provided Sunday. More Northeast Ohio crime news: Maple Heights police search for man accused of opening fire into home Man found dead in Cuyahoga River in the Flats, Cleveland police say One dead, two injured following shooting in Cleveland funeral home parking lot Vietnams airlines have halted providing flights on most international air routes because of the Covid-19 crisis. This is causing big losses to air carriers and land service companies. On March 23, Noi Bai International Airport, the second largest airport in Vietnam, witnessed a record low number of international flights and international travelers. Six flights on the day were cancelled, two others were re-directed, and only four flights to Noi Bai were reported. All 276 passengers landing in Noi Bai that day were Vietnamese. In 2019, the airport every day received 31,200 international travelers. One flight took off or landed every two minutes. The only busy area now at the airport is the quarantine area. Very few taxis are outside T2 Terminal. All international travelers entering Vietnam are carried directly to isolation zones. In a report released in mid-February 2020, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) estimated that the losses caused by the epidemic may reach VND25 trillion. In early March, the ministry raised the estimated losses to VND30 trillion. For Vietnam Airlines, the suspension of the air routes to China and the reduction of numbers of flights to other markets alone have caused the loss of VND12 trillion in revenue and the profit decrease of VND5.88 trillion. For Vietnam Airlines, the suspension of the air routes to China and the reduction of numbers of flights to other markets alone have caused the loss of VND12 trillion in revenue and the profit decrease of VND5.88 trillion. Meanwhile, Jetstar Pacific predicted the loss of revenue of VND732 billion. The figures would be higher if counting the other international air routes that have stopped since the beginning of March and the decrease in number of domestic passengers as a result of the policy on restricted travel. To overcome the difficulties, some airlines have reduce managers salaries, encouraged workers to take unpaid leave, and negotiated with partners on suspending aircraft chartering contracts. Having no passengers, airlines still have to spend money to maintain their operation. The biggest fixed expense item is aircraft chartering. With wide-body aircraft (A350, B787), the charter and maintenance fee is $1 million for every aircraft, while the figure is $350,000 a month for narrow-body aircraft (A320, A321). They also have to pay for parking fee, VND13.5 million for each aircraft a month. Vietnam Airlines has more than 100 aircraft, and Vietjet over 80, while Jetstar Pacific and Bamboo Airways have 20 each. ACV predicted that the number of passengers to go through 21 airports put under ACV management willdecrease by 40 percent compared with 2019. Its profit is predicted to decrease by VND10 trillion this year. Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) has reported that the total number of flights it managed had decreased by 40 percent in February compared with the same period last year. The figure is expected to continue to be 47 percent in March. Thanh Mai Airlines to stop carrying passengers to Vietnam from April 1 The Ministry of Transport has asked airlines to stop carrying passengers to Vietnam as from 00:00 of April 1 until the end of April 15 as part of measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Three months after the Coronavirus was recognized as a National Emergency, the continuing shortfalls in vital medical equipment is deeply disturbing. Daily reports and news conferences from governors, hospital administrators, medical groups and medical personnel highlight the acute shortage. As do the Presidents Task Force reports of taking new measures to secure vitally needed supplies. For the worlds largest and most highly developed economy and the worlds only superpower, our response to the Coronavirus National Emergency is deeply troubling. Our national government seems more interested in passing a multi-trillion dollar legislation extending benefits than lighting a fire to resolve the widely advertised supply shortages in medical equipment needed to save lives. Its worth recalling our we handled the last National Emergency. Within days of Pearl Harbor our Congress gave FDR virtually unlimited freedom to win the war. Our huge auto factories were quickly converted to build an astonishing number of aircraft about 100,000. Factories producing guns, ammo, military clothing, food rations, shoes, etc. were soon running 24/7 non-stop. We produced thousands and thousands of liberty ships eventually building them within in just seven days. Here in Connecticut, tens of thousands from the South were recruited to work in our burgeoning war industries. Bridgeport became world famous as the arsenal of Democracy producing prodigious quantities of munitions so critically required in Europe. Pratt & Whitney produced half the airplane engines used by the Allies. Electric Boat in Groton built astonishing numbers of the 12,000-mile-range Long Range Submarines. Connecticuts war industries were well-known throughout the world. Something has changed these last 70 years in how we handle a national emergency. Its astonishing that three months after the declaration were still having problems producing enough ventilators. And that medical personnel on the front lines lack necessary protective gear. Or after three months were still uncertain how to provide additional hospital beds. We seem more focused about airlines, cruise ships, travel restrictions and how much funding well each get from Uncle Sam. To an earlier generation who witnessed Americans come together as a mighty force to fight Japan and Germany some 70 years ago, our current seemingly half-hearted effort is deeply troubling. Rather than getting the job done, we seem engrossed in pointing fingers, complaining and doing everything but rolling up our sleeves. Making us wonder what would happen if a much much greater National Emergency suddenly fell upon us. Peter I. Berman is a resident of Norwalk. The opportunity to become an official transport business enterprise would help Grab bring multiple benefits to its customers United mindset important to drive progress of transport technology When deploying Decree No.10/2020/ND-CP on car transport business, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) as the body helping the government compile and execute this important legal document, has a thorough grasp of the document for enforcement in practice. Several localities, however, do not properly understand the document, leading to inadequate enforcement and confusing businesses. Some localities assumed that it is time for ride-hailing firms to stop the trial period. Some others thought these car firms need to operate by the same rules as taxis. Some even believe it is time to encourage drivers of tech-based transport firms to shift into other modes of operation after the pilot project for tech cars ended following the enforcement of Decree 10 from April 1, 2020. The pilot project for tech-based cars was implemented following Decision 24/QD-BGTVT dated January 7, 2016, which allowed ride-hailing cars to operate in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Danang, Khanh Hoi, and Quang Ninh. These thoughts do not align with the intentions and actions of the government and the MoT. The articles of Decree 10 make significant headway towards solidifying the legal basis of ride-hailing firms and defining their role and position in the local transport market. In the past, there were no different concepts about tech-based car operations. Now this business form has been somewhat legalised, with moves to accept their participation in transport operation, for instance. The decree consists of clear regulations on using software for booking or cancellation, fare calculation or connection with customers through electronic devices, thus acknowledging the existence and official operation of new modes of transport like tech car firms. Furthermore, it accepts the e-contract concept which is applied by ride-hailing business, providing better fundaments. Simultaneously, the Decree refers to transport connection support software which provides connection protocols between transport business units, between drivers and passengers or transport service leasers. These connections all take place in the digital environment. The MoT has given instructions to businesses providing transport connection software like Grab, Be, and Fast Go to ensure the smooth implementation of Decree 10. In light of Article 35 of Decree 10, these businesses will have the following two options to choose. In the first option, they only provide transport connection services, which means they could not directly operate cars and decide rates. In the second option, they can handle at least one of the main tasks in transport activities for the purpose of turning profit. In the words of Tran Bao Ngoc, head of the Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport, units providing transport connection support software need to select the suitable business mode for their business to ensure compliance with Decree 10. This means Grab and other ride-hailing apps can only begin official operations, continuing providing jobs to driver-partners and serving their existing customer base, once they have selected a mode. Stopping trial run, Grab begins official operation With progress in diverse areas, Decree 10 would pave the way to modernise transport and the operation of ride-hailing firms like Grab. With diverse progresses, Decree 10 would pave the way to modernise transport and the operation of ride-hailing firms like Grab. The decrees apparent progress lay the fundament for Grabs long-term, official operation in a healthy business environment. This legal base enables Grab to begin official operation in Vietnam instead of operating under a trial scheme as in the past. A representative from Grab said that the new decree would not bring major changes to the companys existing operations as it solidifies the legal grounds for them without requiring major alterations. In the near term, one small change is that all GrabCar vehicles will need to have three stamps: a sign applied to contract-based cars stuck to the front windshield, a co-operative logo on the door, and the GrabCar stamp inside the front windshield. GrabBike service will operate based on Decree No.52/2013/ND-CP on e-commerce by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the representative noted. As the time for compliance with these requirements is from July 1, 2020, Grab believes it will have sufficient time for careful preparation. Grab driver-partners and customers, therefore, need not worry of interruptions to normal services like vehicle booking, GrabFood, or shipping on the Grab platform as all will continue unchanged with the usual promotion policies. Customers to benefit from healthy competition The new decree is expected to put an end to the long-lasting dispute between traditional and tech-driven taxis. All service will be transparent under the management of state management agencies. Using stamps would help Grab keep track of its fleet, resolving the problem of cars operating illegally which has been plaguing the company for a long time. Grabs driver-partners will still have a stable job and the opportunity to raise their income leveraging the companys platform and policies. The opportunity to become an official transport business would help Grab bring multiple benefits to its customers. Particularly, the greatest beneficiaries of increased transparency in Grabs operations will be the customers as their safety would be better assured when Grab can fully manage its fleet in operation. Service quality would then improve, and customers will find it easier to spot Grab cars. Decree 10 also enables Grab to expand its service across the country, as with this clear legal basis, there will be no geographical restrictions to its operations. The Grab representative affirmed, Our companys operating principle is ensuring maximum benefits for the customers and driver-partners in total adherence to the law and striving for the communitys sustainable development. Rick and Wendy de Pinho love to take cruises. Theyve been on 20 to 30 of them. So as concerns over coronavirus spread began to be felt worldwide in early March, the Somerset County couple decided to go forward with the two-week South American excursion theyd booked months before. The coronavirus pandemic outpaced their ship, with four deaths of elderly passengers (two blamed on the virus), scores more sickened and port after port denying entry to their Holland America-operated ship, the Zaandam. It was only early Saturday morning -- about 1:20 a.m., to be precise -- that the de Pinhos set foot back in their Warren Township home, 30 days after they flew to Buenos Aires. They made it back by Uber from John F. Kennedy International Airport roughly 15 hours after Florida allowed the Zaandam and its sister ship the Rotterdam to disembark in Fort Lauderdale after officials initially balked. The ships were just two of many placed in limbo by the outbreak, which has shattered the cruise industry and left passengers stuck for weeks in quarantined cabins -- or worse. The trip had a surreal quality to it, Rick de Pinho said. At first, it was wonderful, with life on the cruise seemingly untouched by the increasingly dire news on television, the pools still crowded and social distancing nowhere to be seen. The first week was awesome, the pictures were amazing and we had a great time, said de Pinho, a patent attorney. But that quickly changed, and on March 22 passengers were confined to their rooms, with the fun ending and the wait to get off beginning. On March 27, Holland America announced the deaths on board the ship, and said that 57 passengers and 87 crew members had reported flu-like illnesses, with at least two testing positive for COVID-19. Rick and Wendy de Pinho were on a Holland America cruise in South America that was hit by a coronavirus outbreak. They returned to their Warren Township home on Saturday after Florida allowed passengers to disembark in Fort Lauderdale. Also on the ship were Richard and Constance Quinn of North Caldwell, who too made it home early Saturday after plane hopping from Fort Lauderdale. While the cruise was horrifying for those who were sickened, Richard Quinn said, it wasnt as bad as cable news has made it out to be. Both the Quinns and de Pinhos did not get sick, and they were part of a group of healthy passengers on the Zaandam who were transferred to the Rotterdam on March 28 for their protection. Throughout their trip, Quinn and his wife of 51 years had a veranda that allowed them to get fresh air. They read, watched television, used their iPhones and iPads and ate three good meals a day, said Quinn, a 76-year-old retiree. He praised the cruises crew, saying they made the best of bad circumstances. We do extensive traveling and this was one of the most unique, Quinn said. In a written statement, Holland America expressed relief that passengers were making it home, after the ships gained permission to pass through the Panama Canal and ultimately dock in Florida. Our guests on board both ships have been truly incredible, and we extend our deepest thanks and appreciation to all of them, said Orlando Ashford, the lines president. Their cooperation, support and understanding throughout this entire experience helped us best protect the health of all on board." Both Quinn and de Pinho said that before the cruise, theyd considered canceling their plans, given coronavirus developments. But at the time, South America was not a hotspot for the disease and lockdowns in the U.S. and elsewhere were still seemingly unthinkable. Back then, the news was go about your business, Quinn said. It was no panic. It was played up as, go about your daily life. Both Quinn and de Pinho said they plan to self-isolate for the next two weeks. 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. Riley Yates may be reached at ryates@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com. When the leaders of D.C., Maryland and Virginia announced unprecedented stay-at-home orders this week to control spread of the coronavirus, the moves sparked questions about how far police might go to enforce them. But as one of the nation's largest metropolitan regions has snapped shut, the campaign to keep people from going out for all but the most essential trips to jobs, grocery stores, doctors and pharmacies has so far relied more on education than enforcement. Police across all three jurisdictions have the power to charge residents with misdemeanors if they violate the stay-at-home orders - a conviction can carry jail time and fines in the thousands. But a Washington Post survey of local departments has found only one such arrest in the region in the first days the orders were in effect. Local police departments have also made clear they won't employ more heavy-handed tactics some residents feared, like checkpoints, random stops of drivers to ensure their trips are essential and asking people to present documentation about why they are out. Instead, nearly every department has told officers to urge people to follow the new rules and rely on arrests only as a final option. For instance, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham has instructed officers to make an arrest only if the suspect does not "voluntarily comply" with the order, and then only after getting permission from the watch commander. And, according to the directive, the watch commander "shall consider all other options" before making an arrest or issuing a citation. "Recognizing there is confusion and this is a difficult time for everyone, the guidance given to officers is to take an opportunity to educate the public, gain voluntary compliance and criminal enforcement is a last resort," Arlington (Virginia) Police spokeswoman Ashley Savage said. "Our goal continues to be to gain voluntary compliance through education." The gentler approach is playing out in different ways across the region, but it has mostly resulted in officers issuing warnings to nonessential businesses and larger groups of people congregating in parks, playgrounds and ballfields, officials said. In D.C. on Tuesday, a police officer used the loudspeaker in his patrol car to urge a large groups of walkers and runners at Capitol Hill's Lincoln Park to disperse. The scene played out one day before Mayor Muriel Bowser's stay-at-home order officially went into effect, but after she announced it. "Attention everyone. Attention everyone. We are currently in a public health emergency," the officer told the crowd. "Your gathering puts both you and others at unnecessary risk. We encourage you to use proper social distancing and refrain from gathering in large groups." In Fairfax County, Virginia, officials said 52 resource officers for the now-closed schools have been redeployed to handle complaints about stay-at-home order violations and other minor issues by working the phones. They only escalate the issues to patrol officers if they can't gain compliance with a call. In Maryland, the state police have proactively checked more than 8,800 shops and restaurants to ensure they have remained closed since Gov. Larry Hogan ordered a shutdown on nonessential businesses on March 24, a spokesman said. Police officials said there had been little resistance to the stay-at-home orders, something they attributed to the grim threat of a pandemic and the fact that area residents dealt with increasing restrictions in the weeks leading up to stay-at-home orders. There have not been a flood of complaints to police departments about people violating the orders. As of Thursday, the Maryland State Police and the state's other local departments have fielded 615 calls for violations of the stay-at-home and other orders by the governor since March 24, the governor's office said. The Loudoun County (Virginia) Sheriff's Office has handled 68 calls for overcrowding during the same period. Fairfax County police have only handled about eight a day related to the stay-at-home order last week. "We have been getting voluntary compliance," Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. said. Still, there have been some issues. In Prince George's County, Maryland, on Tuesday, police officers told a group of people who were panhandling and asking people if they wanted car washes at a gas station in Landover to go home because of the stay-at-home order, according to a news release. One of the people refused to comply, became combative and was pepper-sprayed, police said. The man was charged with failure to comply with a state emergency and other counts. Maryland State Police report there have been seven arrests for violating orders issued by Hogan since March 24. On March 29 before the current stay-at-home order in Maryland, the MSP charged a man with hosting a party for teens at a hotel in Carroll County in violation of the governor's order banning the assembly of more than 10 people, police said. Two days earlier, a Charles County man was arrested and accused of refusing to shut down a bonfire party of about 60 people at his home. The latter story generated national headlines. As of Thursday in Virginia, the state police and several local departments in the Washington region had not reported any arrests related to the stay-at-home order or other restrictions by Gov. Ralph Northam. ACLU chapters in D.C., Maryland and Virginia have not received complaints related to the enforcement of the orders, spokespeople said. They were concerned about police resorting to arrests, given the threat of coronavirus in some local jails. "Arrest should be the very last resort, especially because we should instead be focused on reducing the number of people in detention," Meredith Brooks, an ACLU of Maryland spokeswoman wrote in an email. But while police report most citizens are complying with the stay-at-home orders, some officials worry residents may be tempted to congregate again as the orders drag on and warm spring weather arrives. "I'm concerned if the weather gets better people are not going to adhere to social distancing and neighbors are going to spread it to neighbors," Roessler said. - - - The Washington Post's Rachel Weiner contributed to this report. One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work, despite Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying on Thursday that there is a 5.7 per cent absence rate among doctors. The figures come just a day after Britain's death toll from the virus jumped to 708 in 24 hours, with a five-year-old child being among the 4,313 known to have died, out of 41,903 confirmed cases. The poll, conducted by The Sunday Times and the Royal College of Physicians, found that the worst-hit areas for absences are central London and the northeast, where 30 per cent of doctors are off work. One in three - 34 per cent - have been absent at some point during the coronavirus crisis. The shocking figures will pile pressure on ministers to ensure that NHS staff are told whether or not they have the virus, with thousands still waiting to be tested despite a pledge to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed Professor Alison pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which represents 3,500 critical care medics, told The Sunday Times: 'I know there are departments where up to 50 per cent of their medical staff are unable to work because of this.' An A&E doctor at a London hospital said staff were 'dropping like flies', while as many as 27 nurses from Southend Hospital's A&E department in Essex are said to have become ill. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This is despite claims from ministers that they have distributed millions of items. At least eight NHS staff have already been killed by the virus, including three nurses, two of whom were mothers in their thirties. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work and it comes just a day after Britain's death toll jumped to 708 in 24 hours. Pictured: An NHS worker puts their completed test into a container at a testing site near The 02 in Greenwich on Saturday His mother, Gina Gustilo, 50, told The Mail on Sunday her son had not been wearing the right protective clothing at work. He returned home on Friday following a night shift, after complaining of suffering a headache and high temperature throughout the night. Ms Gustilo said her son's colleagues told her he was not wearing 'proper' protective clothing, adding: 'They wear PPE, but not totally protective of the mouth. They wear the normal masks.' Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said between 20 and 30 per cent of ambulance staff were off work either with Covid-19 symptoms or self-isolating. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. He is believed to have died after falling ill with coronavirus Yesterday, Michael Gove said at a Downing Street press conference that just under 11,000 people were tested for the virus on Friday. This is far short of the 100,000 figure which Health Secretary Matt Hancock had promised by the end of the month. Britain's biotech scientists also broke their silence on Saturday to warn that they do not have enough equipment to fulfil Mr Hancock's pledge. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) The 'frustrated' Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), which represents around 17,000 NHS lab scientists and staff, warned that Mr Hancock's plan would not work if things stay as they are. The body said there is a lack of chemical reagents, test tubes and swabs, forcing its president Allan Wilson to warn that the Government's strategy is a 'bit of a muddle'. It has forced Boris Johnson to compete with prime ministers and presidents around the world by personally calling major companies making test kits to try to secure more supply for the UK. The IBMS said it could only increase testing capacity 'if we are given what we need' and that their current supply of materials was being 'tested to the limit'. We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Australian Agricultural Company Limited (ASX:AAC). What Is Insider Selling? Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required. We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'. Check out our latest analysis for Australian Agricultural The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Australian Agricultural In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when insider Bryan Glinton bought AU$7.1m worth of shares at a price of AU$1.18 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being AU$1.15). While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when an insider has purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Bryan Glinton was the only individual insider to buy over the year. Bryan Glinton bought a total of 19.36m shares over the year at an average price of AU$1.06. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! Story continues ASX:AAC Recent Insider Trading April 5th 2020 There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying. Insider Ownership Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Australian Agricultural insiders own about AU$347m worth of shares (which is 50% of the company). Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders. What Might The Insider Transactions At Australian Agricultural Tell Us? It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded Australian Agricultural shares in the last quarter. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. With high insider ownership and encouraging transactions, it seems like Australian Agricultural insiders think the business has merit. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Australian Agricultural you should know about. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. 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 Texas Department of Public safety ramped up efforts to screen drivers entering Texas through the Lousiana border Sunday. DPS troopers set up roadway screening stations to gather required forms from road travelers along high-traffic paths, according to a DPS news release. On Sunday, traffic along Interstate 10 at the border was relatively light. Troopers allowed 18-wheelers to stay on the highway, while passenger vehicles were detoured toward the Texas Travel Information Center. The checkpoint appeared to delay travelers for less than five minutes. DPS had approximately a dozen vehicles at the I-10 location. All of the officers were wearing personal protective equipment. Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said all six county judges in the Southeast Texas Regional Operations Center supported the screening. They are letting 18-wheelers through, he said. If you have someone that is working in Alabama, but coming back home to Texas, I think they will let them come in. On Sunday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the state could run out of ventilators by the end of the week. Louisiana had 13,010 confirmed cases and 477 deaths from COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Louisiana Department of Public Health. Im very concerned, Branick said about people coming into the county from Louisiana. Im concerned that having had Mardi Gras, which attracted so many people, was not a good move for the state of Louisiana. The county judge said he suggested that Southeast Texas refineries, which have essential workers who travel back and forth to Louisiana, stay in Texas. He said he had not heard back from the refineries as of Sunday afternoon. The Texas DPS said in the news release that, although the department does not discuss specifics related to its operational plans regarding enforcement, we want the public to be prepared for increased patrols and additional law enforcement presence along the Texas/Louisiana border as we work to enforce the governors executive order. The department said drivers should be prepared to stop and fill out forms that require travelers names, vehicle information, driver license number, home address, phone number and location at which the traveler will be quarantined. Failure to comply with the executive order could be punishable with a fine up to $1,000 and 180 days in jail. chris.moore@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/chris_moore09 Moggi's story about Zidane's transfer from Juventus to Real Madrid Real Madrid The Frenchman moved in 2001 Zinedine Zidane was desperate to make the move from Juventus to Real Madrid despite the Italian club making it clear they were against the move, former general director Luciano Moggi has revealed. Recalling the move in 2001, Moggi explained how he tried to put a halt to the transfer. "I took Zidane out of the dressing room after a game against Atalanta, when he was pressuring us to go to Spain, and I told him to tell Florentino Perez that I wouldn't let him leave," he told Juventibus. "Florentino understood that to have him he would have to pay an amount of money that he wasn't thinking about." Zidane's pressure worked in the end, though, and on July 9, 2001, he was presented as a Real Madrid player. He cost 11,500 million pesetas (75 million euros) to become the world's record signing, but would prove to be a good investment. There are fears of a breakdown in law and order in New York as the city's key agencies feel the brunt of the coronavirus. The NYPD has reported that up to a sixth of its force, or around 6,500 members called out sick towards the end of last week and the numbers are not expected to improve over the coming days. Things are even worse at the FDNY with the number of those having to stay at home because of the disease even higher. One in four members of its EMT paramedic team, about 4,000 people, are currently having to stay off work. Among firefighters as a whole, around 17 percent are off on sick leave. The NYPD was forced to beg the government to send more masks for officers, after cops were risking their lives responding to house calls without protective gear The combined number of FDNY firefighters and paramedics no longer able to work is around 3,000 according to NBC4. The huge shortfall in those working on the front line of the emergency services comes as the city is expected to enter its worst week so far, as the numbers of deaths are expected to continue to rise as the virus takes hold. A police car sits outside an emergency field hospital in Central Park in New York City The city's cops say they are sacrificing their own health during the pandemic in order to protect New York residents and with with every new arrest comes a risk of infection The absence of key emergency response workers comes at a crucial time for the city as the coronavirus has led to an all-time high in the sheer number of 911 calls coming in with new records being set almost every day over the last week. To put in some perspective, a 'busy day' would normally consist of around 4,000 calls, however last Monday the FDNY had to deal with more than 6,500. FDNY Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Frank Dwyer called the volume of calls received over a three day period the 'largest in our history.' Residents are now being advised not to call 911 unless the symptoms they are experiencing are severe or not related to the COVID-19 disease. The grim outlook also applies to hospital too with facilities stretched to the limit on staffing, bed and equipment. The absence of key emergency response workers comes at a crucial time for the city. Some 3,000 emergency medical technicians, paramedics and firefighters have called out sick New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) wearing protective gear wheel a sick patient to a waiting ambulance during the coronavirus outbreak Over at the NYPD the virus has hit just as hard with one in six, or about 18 percent, either sick or quarantined. The presence of the disease has added a whole new level of stress and anxiety to the work of officers with every arrest or interview having the potential to be infected by the virus. 'It's a stressful job at the best of times,' the police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea last week. 'Right now, I don't think you can imagine a worse point of time.' Officers are falling sick in areas that endure some of the highest crime rates including the Bronx, Washington Heights and Harlem. Some precincts reported up to a third of their members were unable to report for duty, according to the New York Times, and there are no guidelines that dictate exactly what should be done. Emergency protocols for those used after a terror attack or even a hurricane are different to what is occurring now with the emergency lasting several weeks and sickening hundreds more each day. One thing that has made the work of city cops slightly easier is the absence of any events or large gatherings which they would normally have to patrol. 'It's a stressful job at the best of times,' New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said (pictured) 'Right now, I don't think you can imagine a worse point of time.' Rape, robbery and assault crimes have dropped significantly compared to the days before the lockdown was implemented. 'Nobody's on street and that's really helping us,' Shea said. According to data released by the NYPD for the last month, between March 16 and March 22, there was a 17 percent drop in major felonies while grand larceny was down 31 percent and misdemeanor assaults by 21 percent when compared to the same time last year. Although many city streets remain quieter with all but essential businesses open, shops along some of the more wealthier streets, including parts of Fifth and Madison Avenues in Manhattan and the trendy Soho neighborhood, have boarded up their shop windows just incase there is civil unrest. The wealthy businesses had already been ordered closed along with bars and restaurants as part of the shelter in place protections but they are now taking further steps to secure their property and products. Some high end stores boarded up with plywood windows and entrances to prevent possibly looting in Manhattan as the NYPD reports that it has been hard hit by the coronavirus An inspirational message is painted on a boarded up business. Some have boarded up to protect against possible civil unrest and looting The rows of boarded up buildings are a stark reminder of the newly unemployed workers who lost their jobs after the scale of the outbreak forced stores, bars and restaurants to shut their doors for the foreseeable future. The NYPD is reporting a 75 percent increase in burglaries of commercial premises compared with the same time last year. The increase has coincided with the dates when the city ordered bars and restaurants to close and for other nonessential businesses to shut up shop. 'We knew with the closing of many stores that we could see an increase and, unfortunately, we are,' said NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri to the Wall Street Journal. There has been an increase in the number of supermarkets and eateries being burgled. A NYPD officer patrols Times Square. At the NYPD one in six are calling out sick - around 6,500 members in total, or one sixth of the total force At the NYPD, the lack of personal protective equipment which has affected hospital workers across the country may also have exposed police officers to the virus unnecessarily. According to the Times, some officers say that a shortage of masks and gloves is likely behind the rapid rise in infections. One detective who eventually had to call out sick with coronavirus symptoms told how he was given an N95 protective mask and a couple of disinfectant wipes which were to last him several days. An NYPD union began handing out 80,000 pieces of hand sanitizer and 500 gallons of bleach to police officers on Friday so they can clean their equipment and wipe down their patrol cars The masks are really only supposed to be once before being thrown away. The NYPD was forced to beg the government to send more masks for officers, only for the White House to turn it into a publicity stunt with the catchy name 'Operation Blue Bloods' and then boast about its own response. NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan (pictured) begged the government to send more masks for officers, only for the White House to turn it into a publicity stunt with the catchy name 'Operation Blue Bloods' and boast about its own response On Monday, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan had sent a desperate email to the White House pleading for more protective gear. Shortages of masks have left officers at an increased risk of contracting the infection, as they are left with no choice but to make house calls across the city without any protective equipment. The city's cops sacrificing their own health during the pandemic in order to protect New York residents. 'It's so disappointing given the fact that we are revered as the best in the world,' one detective said. 'It's a damn shame that a city like New York that is the epicenter of the coronavirus and the financial capital of the world can't afford a $3 mask,' said another officer working in the south Bronx. NYPD officers have been sacrificing their own health during the pandemic in order to protect New York residents Auxiliary Police Lt. Pierre Moise (pictured) also died of coronavirus, pushing the number of NYPD employees to die of the disease to ten The NYPD Police Commissioner announced two more employees died of coronavirus this week, including Luis Albino (pictured) On Friday, Police Commissioner Shea revealed that two more NYPD officers died of coronavirus. School Safety Agent Luis Albino died Friday after spending 20 years with the department. Auxiliary Police Lt. Pierre Moise, who joined the force in 1994 and worked in Brooklyn, also passed away. The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed 300,000 on Saturday, an increase of more than 32,000 from the day before, as the pandemic continued to exact a grim toll on the nation. The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed 300,000 on Saturday New York City accounted for more than a quarter of the U.S. coronavirus deaths. New York state recorded 630 deaths in the past 24 hours, the biggest one-day toll there yet, taking the total fatalities to 3,565. 'It is like a fire spreading,' New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, of the alarming spread of the virus from the New York City epicenter. 'The fire, it doesn't max out in one place, but it consumes where it is and it's moving out.' Michigan now has more cases than California, with 12,744 in Michigan and 12,603 in California. Outside of New York City, Detroit is the metro area with the highest death toll, with 223 dead in Wayne County. White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed. New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo said that new cases are still rising at an alarming rate, with New York's apex, or the peak in the number of new daily cases, likely about a week away. 'By the numbers, we're not yet at the apex. We're getting closer depending whose model you're looking at,' said Cuomo. 'We're somewhere in the seven day range.' By Michelle Conlin and Rich McKay (Reuters) - Her house sits on a tidy, peaceful suburban street outside Cincinnati. For the past few weeks, she has been doing everything right: sheltering at home and working out of her makeshift office to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus. By Michelle Conlin and Rich McKay (Reuters) - Her house sits on a tidy, peaceful suburban street outside Cincinnati. For the past few weeks, she has been doing everything right: sheltering at home and working out of her makeshift office to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus. The Ohio megachurch down the road, Solid Rock, has charted a different course. Despite warnings from local and state officials, Solid Rock had been holding its 1,000-strong gatherings in person, and plans keep the church open on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week in Christian churches. "I think they should obey the laws of the land, like the way the Bible tells us to," said Sandra, who lives a few miles from the site and asked not be identified by last name. Reuters was able independently to corroborate her address and identity. The local mayor and health officials have asked the church to close, so far to no avail. Solid Rock did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters but in a statement on its website said, in part, that "we are taking all necessary precautions to ensure the health and safety of anyone who comes to Solid Rock Church. We have scaled back our normal services; and there are not large numbers of worshipers in the facility, but we are we are open and continuing to practice and sustain our faith." Millions of American Christians will observe Palm Sunday at home this weekend, as the vast majority of U.S. churches have moved services online to comply with stay-at-home rules. But, like Solid Rock, pockets of churches from Florida to Texas and across to California are keeping their doors open and inviting worshipers to attend services this weekend. "We're defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel," Louisiana pastor Tony Spell said in an interview with Reuters. Spell, 42, who plans to hold three services at his 1,000-member Life Tabernacle megachurch in a Baton Rouge suburb on Palm Sunday, has defied state orders against assembling in large groups and has already been hit with six misdemeanors. "The church is the last force resisting the Antichrist, let us assemble regardless of what anyone says," he said. For Spell and others, the public health orders are a threat to religious freedoms and constitutional rights. "Satan's trying to keep us apart, he's trying to keep us from worshipping together. But we're not going to let him win," Kelly Burton, pastor at Lone Star Baptist Church in Lone Star, Texas, wrote in a post on Facebook. Lone Star has been holding services in the parking lot - what it calls "Church on the Lot" - and will do so on Palm Sunday. CORONAVIRUS VS COMMUNION Gatherings organized by at least two churches - one in France, another in South Korea - have been linked to the spread of the virus. In California, Sacramento County officials said on Friday that they have identified one evangelical church that has a cluster of 71 positive cases. They offered few details but said that while the church itself is closed, church members continue to gather in fellow parishioners' homes. Others in California are defying the ban. Rob McCoy is one of them. He is the mayor of Thousand Oaks, in the Los Angeles area, but also the pastor of Godspeak Calvary Chapel, where he will offer communion on Palm Sunday - though encouraging worshipers to stand six feet apart. "It's very important theologically that communion not be taken alone," said McCoy. "What we are doing is exercising our inalienable rights. Communion is non-negotiable for us." About 400 miles (644 km) north of Thousand Oaks, police in Lodi, California, interrupted a service late last month at the Cross Culture Christian Center, an evangelical church with about 80 regular attendees, to tell members they were violating stay-at-home orders. They have since been given a warning posted on the church door, a "Notice of Public Nuisance," demanding the center stop holding services, according to local officials. "This is a serious public health threat," said city spokesman Jeff Hood. Still, the pastor plans to hold services on Palm Sunday, said the church's attorney, Dean Broyles. "Simply put, no, we're not going to obey it," Broyles told Reuters. "The virus does not suspend our constitutional rights, the right to assemble, freedom of religion and freedom of speech." Broyles said the church is taking steps to mitigate risks, including sanitizing the building before services and asking that the elderly or those with health problems remain at home. "We're much safer than a Walmart or grocery store," said Broyles, who is also president of the National Center for Law & Policy, a legal advocacy group based in San Diego. "Think about it, you're crammed into (store) aisles inches apart from other shoppers. Here we're sitting six feet apart." (Reporting by Michelle Conlin in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Daniel Wallis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Nerijus Adomaitis OSLO (Reuters) - Western Europe's largest oil and gas producer Norway said on Saturday it would consider cutting its oil production if a global deal to curb supply is agreed by the world's biggest producers. OPEC and its allies are working on a deal for an oil output cut equivalent to about 10% of world supply in what member states expect will be an unprecedented global effort including the United States. Washington, however, has yet to make a commitment to join the effort. Oil prices have shed two thirds of their value in the first quarter of the year, pummelled by a drop in demand due to coronavirus lockdowns and after Russia and Saudi Arabia failed to agree on further output cuts. The price of North Sea oil touched an 18-year low of $21.65 a barrel on March 30. It has since recovered to more than $30 a barrel on hopes of a new global oil output deal. "If a broad group of producers agree to cut production significantly, Norway will consider a unilateral cut if it supports our resource management and our economy," Norwegian Oil and Energy Minister Tina Bru said in an email to Reuters. She said Norway had been in a dialogue with other oil producing countries, without elaborating on a potential size of the output cut. Norway, which meets about 2% of global oil demand, is not a member of OPEC. It has cut its oil output several times before, including in 1990, 1998 and in 2002, always in tandem with other producers when prices fell. During the first half of 2002, Norway cut its output by around 150,000 bpd after oil prices fell to below $20 a barrel following attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Norway's crude oil production stood at 1.75 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, up 26% from a year ago thanks to the ramp-up of state-controlled Equinor's giant Johan Sverdrup oilfield. Equinor said on March 30 it expected Sverdrup, Western Europe's largest oilfield, to hit a daily output of 470,000 bpd in early May, up from around 350,000 bpd at end-2019. Story continues Norway's crude oil production peaked in 2001 before declining somewhat. It has been rising again since 2014, with most of its oil being exported to Britain and other European countries. Aside from Equinor, other companies producing oil off Norway include Aker BP, ConocoPhillips, Lundin Energy, Eni's subsidiary Vaar Energi, Shell, Total, OKEA and DNO. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Gwladys Fouche and Christina Fincher) By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Saturday, the city corporation provided breakfast to 27,951 people and lunch to 28,089 people through the various community kitchens set up in 25 health circles here. As many as 27,523 people also got dinner from the kitchens taking the total number of food packets distributed on the day to 83,567. Donations are coming in from everywhere to support the cause. NSS taluk union bought rice and vegetables for the community kitchen. NSS taluk union president M Sangeeth Kumar handed over the items to Mayor K Sreekumar. On behalf of the Southern Naval Command, captain S S Sanooj handed over five sacks of rice. KSEB officers in Chackai also handed over five sacks of rice. Others who came forward with contributions on Saturday are Thirumala pensioners union and Mohanlal fans and welfare association. The aid from Dooradarshan was handed over by assistant director Baiju. The city corporation volunteers will come and collect the donations from anyone willing to donate. For queries, contact: 8590036770. Sidharth Shukla who has become the brand name for all Bigg Boss lovers has recently posted a Pakistani fan who has been found positive for COVID 19. The internet all went to provide praise Sidharth Shukla for his kind gesture and his thoughts for everyone. He talks to everyone in the same manner and he treats everybody equally. It doesnt matter for him if the person is Hindu, Muslim or India or Pakistani. He treats all his fans with a huge heart. Amid coronavirus, the actor has enough time to interact with the fans and he being least social is not getting highly active on social media. Siddhartha Shukla followed the thread on Twitter and wrote for the Pakistani fan, he said that he heard about her reports being positive and he sad about it. Sidharth Shukla said that he prayed for her and will pray more. Shukla said he is sure that she will be alright and will get well soon. She asked her to take can and hopped that she might be getting all the medical facilities. The actors gesture impressed the fans and then everyone started trend Sidhearts. Well, Bigg Boss 13 winner Sidharth Shukla garnered a lot of popularity after the show and now he is making everyone happy with his actions and his all attention to them. While quarantine a few actors are continuously posting their pictures, videos and other things to maintain the social interaction with there fans. Well, you can enjoy and track the fans for more fun, stay home! Stay safe! For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App Eight Bells for Mental Health receives donation from Alcatel A NEWBURY mental health charity is continuing to support its members and has received tech donations to help keep people in touch during the Covid-19 lockdown. Eight Bells for Mental Health helps people with mental health issues in Newbury, Thatcham and surrounding areas to improve their wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem. The charity has had to close its meeting house owing to the coronavirus pandemic, but has said the welfare of its members remains paramount. Chairman of trustees Steve Masters said: Unfortunately we had to close given the Government guidelines and the lockdown. While the social club is no longer, members have got WhatsApp to support themselves and each other and we also have our co-ordinator Kathryn Dundas if they have any urgent pressing mental health issues, or others, like DWP forms to fill in. The work of Eight Bells is continuing, apart from the day-to-day activities that we hold at the meeting house. Mr Masters said the charity was looking to extend through video conferencing to keep activities and socialising going. The whole premise is about members supporting themselves and each other and that continues through their network, he said. Eight Bells received the charity award at the Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards (pictured) and donations from those present. Eight Bells has received donations of mobile phones and tablets from Alcatel to help its members stay in touch during the lockdown. UK and Ireland country director of Alcatel William Paterson said: Were extremely happy that were able to help such an important charity. Amplifying the importance of mental health is something which is very dear to those who work at Alcatel and with the current situation, its more important than ever. Being able to offer technology, ensuring that people stay in touch, is something were very glad we can do to help. Mr Masters said: This very generous donation of mobile phones and tablets will enable our volunteers and staff to communicate and support safely the vulnerable members of our community as we roll out the Community Navigators scheme in the coming weeks and months. I would like to thank Alcatel and Williams team here in the UK for this wonderful donation. We are excited to be expanding the service here at Eight Bells across West Berkshire and this will help us in this new outreach project. Eight Bells is also raffling a 1kg Easter egg to help keep its support group running during the coronavirus pandemic. Raffle tickets can be purchased through The Good Exchange at 1 a ticket or five for 4. The prize will be delivered free if the winner lives within a 10-mile radius of Newbury. Donations can be made via The Good Exchange here Visit the Eight Bells for Mental Health Newbury Facebook page for further details. The Mental Health Foundation has issued advice on looking after mental health during the coronavirus outbreak. The advice includes maintaining contact electronically or over the phone and creating a new daily routine. Its full advice can be found at www.mentalhealth.org.uk A Russian man said he was detained while walking his dog in a Moscow park for violating the citys coronavirus-induced quarantine. Iisus Vorobyov said he was stopped by police April 4 at Patriarch Pond, a small park in a wealthy neighborhood near the center of Moscow, and faces arrest, TASS reported. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on March 29 put the city on near lockdown through April to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Residents are only allowed to leave their apartments for specific needs, including going to work, seeking medical help, visiting the grocery store, and walking their dogs. However, visiting parks and other recreational areas is forbidden. On April 2, Sobyanin signed a law imposing fines on violators. Vorobyov said he was not the only one in the park. Workers are currently renovating a restaurant there, yet the police did not question them, he said. The police said in a statement their officers warned Vorobyov several times that he was in violation of the quarantine regime. The police claim Vorobyov at first ignored the officers and then argued with them. They took him to the station because he refused to identify them, his lawyer said. Vladimir Burmatov, a member of the lower house of parliament representing the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, asked prosecutors to look into whether the officers overstepped their authority in detaining Vorobyov. With reporting by TASS The Peoples Democratic Party has charged the national assembly to ensure transparency in the disbursement of the N500 billion intervention fund demanded by the federal government for the fight against the novel coronavirus. Read Also: Over 6,700 Confirmed Cases Of Coronavirus In Africa According to a statement on the official Twitter handle of the party, NASS was charged to ensure that the funds reach its intended targets and prevent diversion of the funds. PDP wrote: COVID-19: PDP Charges NASS To Ensure Transparency in N500bn Intervention ProposalWorried By Fraud Allegations in FG Palliatives Pay out The @OfficialPDPNig charges the National Assembly to comprehensively scrutinize the overall profile of the N500 billion proposed by https://t.co/Ut8sCHORwr the Federal Government as intervention fund against the COVID-19 pandemic so as to ensure that the fund reached the desired target. The party urged the legislature to examine the expenditure layout and put adequate clauses to eliminate diversion, ensure prudence as well as guarantee broad-based transparency in target-specific disbursements across all need areas in the fight against the pandemic. The @OfficialPDPNigs call is predicated on apprehensions in the public space over allegations of fraudulent diversion of fund in the recent disbursement of N20,000 social palliatives, with many Nigerians rejecting the figures put out by the Federal Government. The party therefore urged the @nassnigeria to demand the Federal government to furnish it with details of how the N500bn would be spent; what amount would be spent on interventions on individuals and families as well as a template that guarantees that the fund gets to the targeted vulnerable Nigerians. The @OfficialPDPNig insists that such information should also include details of what each state of the federation gets; the parameters for allocations, the monitoring system as well as foolproof measures to plug all loopholes and check fraud. The Federal Government needs to place these details before the @nassnigeria. This money, which is to be mopped up from various special government accounts, belongs to Nigerians. As such, the National Assembly must ensure that it is fully utilised for their wellbeing. Furthermore, the @OfficialPDPNig called on the @nassnigeria to direct a quick investigation into allegations of fraudulent diversion of palliative money in the cash disbursement of N20,000 to some Nigerians, by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disasters Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouk. This investigation has become imperative given allegations that the resort to cash disbursement directly by a minister instead of using cash disbursement facilities by the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN), is part of the design to manipulate the system, stifle accountability and pave way for the alleged syphoning of huge chunk of the funds. The @OfficialPDPNig urged the @nassnigeria to order the minister to immediately account for the money, given outcry by Nigerians that bulk of the fund did not get to designated beneficiaries. COVID-19: PDP Charges NASS To Ensure Transparency in N500bn Intervention ProposalWorried By Fraud Allegations in FG Palliatives Pay out The @OfficialPDPNig charges the National Assembly to comprehensively scrutinize the overall profile of the N500 billion proposed by pic.twitter.com/Ut8sCHORwr Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) April 4, 2020 the Federal Government as intervention fund against the COVID-19 pandemic so as to ensure that the fund reached the desired target. Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) April 4, 2020 The party urged the legislature to examine the expenditure layout and put adequate clauses to eliminate diversion, ensure prudence as well as guarantee broad-based transparency in target-specific disbursements across all need areas in the fight against the pandemic. Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) April 4, 2020 NEW YORK - Soldiers in camouflage and civilians in polo shirts lined up for a life-or-death battle: Keeping a potentially deadly microbe from overrunning this makeshift hospital inside a 2.1 million-square-foot convention center within the densest, most populous city in America. Colored tape on the floor marked where to stand. Six feet. Six feet. Six feet. Proceed to the neon yellow box. Answer the soldier's questions. "Do you have the covid virus?" "Have you touched someone who is covid positive without PPE?" "Do you have a fever or cough?" "Are you feeling ill today?" No, ma'am. No, ma'am. A drone with an infrared sensor perched on the entry desk like a robotic raven taking people's temperatures. In Nanjing, China, the government sent a similar drone flying apartment to apartment to ferret out the sick. Here, if someone "pops hot," as one soldier said, they'll be descended upon by medics and rushed to an isolation tent. Every visitor cleared to enter is also issued protective gear, including a face mask. This is the procedure for entering the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, steps from the Hudson River on Manhattan's west side. The massive, glass-walled event hall, usually home to cocktail-swilling conference-goers or Comic-Con superfans, has been abuzz with urgent activity in a race to assist a city being overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 15 city, state and federal agencies - ranging from military engineers to Javits Center carpenters - built the initial 1,000-bed hospital from scratch inside of a week. On Thursday night they finished with a second wing holding 2,000 additional beds. By Tuesday, they project to have finished the third and final phase, adding 1,000 more. Other convention centers in Detroit and Miami have been calling for advice - how do you build a hospital in a place that wasn't designed for it? - as this brutal disease spreads. The plan until Wednesday had been to keep the Javits New York Medical Station, or JNYMS as they're calling it, free of covid-19. The station was to take on "low acuity" patients, those recovering from surgery or with diabetes flare-ups who could be released in a few days, to relieve hospitals citywide, where the crush of thousands of covid-19 patients has left no capacity for treating other ailments. By Thursday, however, amid an outcry from hospital administrators incredulous that the Javits Center was sitting near-empty while their doctors and nurses were being overwhelmed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced that he'd requested, and that President Trump had granted, permission for the convention hall to assume a new mission. The makeshift medical station that was supposed to be covid-free is now covid-only. Its 11 patients were transferred to the USNS Comfort, the military medical ship deployed from Norfolk, and docked around 20 blocks north of the Javits at Pier 90. On Saturday, Fox News reported that a few of those transferred to the Comfort, which was supposed to remain free of covid patients, tested positive for the disease and were sent back to the Javits Center. (As seen with cruise ships and the covid-embattled aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the virus can ravage close quarters at sea.)Officials who confirmed the development characterized it as a mistake. Navy officials called it part of the process and that medical professionals assessed risk to the crew was low. As of Saturday evening, the JNYMS had 40 patients. - - - Folding table upon folding table, each with its own set of workers, divided by stanchions, filled the Multi-Agency Command Center on Level 4. Sunlight poured in from 135-foot-high glass walls. Uniformedpersonnel from the Army and Air Force National Guard, the Navy, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the New York City Department of Health practiced social distancing. The array of jumpsuits and military jargon could be confusing to the civilians present. "What I've learned is that if you're in the military, you only talk in acronyms, and I don't follow acronyms very well," said Javits CEO Alan Steel, who said he was nonetheless impressed at how his military colleagues' practice of having a meeting every hour kept communication flowing. "Attention all personnel, remember to maintain six feet of separation to prevent the spread of the virus. Thank you," blared an announcement scheduled to go off every hour. Almost no one wore a mask, though that changed just as soon as the first covid patients arrived. The Javits Center is owned by New York state, but the 4,000-bed medical center inside it is a federal operation. In mid-March, when Cuomo ordered an end to gatherings larger than 500 people, Steel put his staff in"maintenance mode" - mainly restoring the building and planning for the shows they hope to start hosting again in July. He sent most to work from home. The 3,000 skilled, hourly-rate tradesmen - carpenters, electricians, plumbers, forklift operators - reverted to "their normal work condition, which is if there is not an event, then they're not working here," he said. But within days, the Army Corps of Engineers inquired about turning the conventional hall into a possible hospital. The first supplies arrived March 20, and people went back to work. One hundred and sixty miles to the north, in Rotterdam, New York, Col. Dennis Deeley's phone rang. The Guard had an assignment for him. "I called my fiance of 20-some-odd years and said, 'Hey, I gotta go, can you start packing?' And she said, 'We've been though this before. I'm packing,' " said Deeley, who is now the JNYSM incident commander. "I'm really just the coordinator," he says. "I'm getting everybody together to meet from all the different colored jumpsuits you saw out there." From an initial team of 10, Deeley's core staff grew to 50, while the total National Guard presence is around 400. Overall, the total number of people on site fluctuates between 1,000 and 1,500. "I don't know how to manage a hospital," Deeley said, noting that the health care portion of the operation comprises medical experts from the Army and the U.S. Public Health Service. "I can build one, but I don't know how to manage it." This is the biggest job Deeley has ever done, he said - a big step up from serving as a task force commander with 600 soldiers reporting to him in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which throttled the Northeast in 2012 requiring the Pentagon to assemble a massive humanitarian response. Having only military folks to command back then, he said, "I'd just tell them what I needed them to do and they'd do it. So right now, because I'm tired, it feels like 10 times more than what I've handled before." If he could do anything over again, he said he'd bring "somebody else so I could get some sleep." Meanwhile, Ken Dixon, the Javits Center's head of security, was dealing with a nightmare of protecting the building from both unauthorized visitors and an invisible enemy in covid-19. His team is using only two of the building's 225 perimeter doors - with the help of the New York City police, the New York State police and the National Guard. Already, they've had patients who've tried to walk in through the front door - seeking a coronavirus test or trying to get admitted - rather thanfirst seeking transfer from a hospital. They called an ambulance for the woman who showed up with covid-19 symptoms, but a Javits security guard is now one of two people on staff who have the disease - and 25 percent of Dixon's security team is self-quarantining. "It's not even a comparison," said Dixon, when asked whether this is bigger and more stressful than a normal Javits show. "It's a major undertaking. It's a 24-hour operation, really, without an end date." - - - On Level 3, in the big expo halls that around now would be hosting the New York Auto Show, carpenters arrived that first week and built out the bones of the medical station within four hours. Union electrician Robert Porazzo, was pulling up cables he'd just put down for the third time in a corner of Phase 2 that had started off as hospital beds, turned into a spot for X-ray unit, and was now going to be a place for doing lab tests. "We consider this to be a show. We do this all the time," he said. "We get one plan, okay, we put everything out, no wait, hang on, they want something else." After this job, Porazzo said, he expects to seek unemployment benefits. Typically, events such as the auto show employ up 2,000 people. The hospital build has required fewer than 100. Mariam Karim, the head of in-house catering, had to transition from designing menus of luxury hors d'oeuvres to mimicking buffet meals at a military mess hall. "We got everyone to agree on the same menu," Karim said. "Do I want to have contracts with 17 different agencies? No." The JNYSM includes a pharmacy in a concession stand and nursing stations built from scratch. Kenneth Sanchez, head of facilities for the Javits Center, said that one of the hardest things to find were the 50 mobile showers his team amassed from as far away as Georgia. The vendors had to unlock their businesses to fill the orders, he said. Already, supplies like the modular walls Javits used are growing scarce, as convention centers around the country have started to build their own emergency hospitals. "Whereas three weeks ago, you could have called someone and said, 'Give me a thousand walls tomorrow,' " Steel said, "now they'll say, 'I'm sorry. They're in Chicago. They're in Las Vegas. They're in Houston.' " The expectation is that FEMA will reimburse the Javits Center for their costs. As a "public benefit corporation" that provides a service to the state by bringing in people who spend money on restaurants and hotels, the facility doesn't rely on taxpayer dollars. It simply looks to break even each year. Down another corridor strange commands floated into the hallway: "Forward, back, down, up," a medic told a National Guardsman who was wearing an N95 mask under what looked like the hood for a hazmat suit. Soldiers were lined up - six feet apart - for the chance to bow and shake like they were at a concert thrashing in a mosh pit. It was a simulation to test the fit of their masks and mimic a confined environment. A day later, covid-19 entered the building. - - - The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report. By Express News Service PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry administration cordoned off Muthialpet area in Puducherry after a person from adjoining Kottakuppam area of Tamil Nadu tested positive for COVID-19. The person from Kottakuppam had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi and tested positive for the coronavirus. The man was admitted to the Mundiyampakkam government medical college hospital. He was residing near the Kottakuppam police station, which is around 100 metres from Puducherry border at Muthialpet. COVID-19 LIVE | Mumbai sees biggest one-day spike, records 103 confirmed cases, says BMC Though Kottakuppam is geographically in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, it is practically associated with Puducherry for its needs. The Muthialpet market is frequented by Kottakuppam residents. Following this case, Puducherry officials engaged in containing COVID-19 in the area. The measure was led by District collector T Arun camped at Muthialpet as a precautionary measure. All the four roads to Muthialpet including Mahatma Gandhi Road were blocked and Muthialpet Market, all shops in the containment areas area up to Ezmariamman Koil and Solai Nagar have been closed. People have been advised to stay at home and have been assured that essential supplies will be provided at the doorstep. As being done in Ariyankuppam and Thirubuvanai, the government will start the provision of door-to-door delivery of essential commodities in Muthialpet from Monday. Later Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and the Revenue minister visited Muthialpet and asked people to remain indoors and cooperate with the government in its efforts to prevent the spread of COVID 19. Ways to make an ever-popular New Year's resolution a reality Getting started on a healthy program can be easy with some professional help. Kang arrived in North Korea in August 2001 when he was 17, after four years in China. He says he did not fit in at school when he first arrived, and he ended up working as a laborer until he was 25. In the latest development in the row between who is responsible over the plunging oil prices, the virtual meeting planned between the OPEC and Russia scheduled for April 6 has been postponed to later next week. The international news agency said, that the meeting is now likely to take place after April 9 in order to allow more time for negotiations between both sides amid the ongoing crisis of coronavirus outbreak. Azerbaijans energy ministry spokesperson, Zamina Aliyeva also confirmed the same to the international news agency, adding that they are not aware of the reasons but were informed by the OPEC. The postponement of Russia and OPEC meeting came irrespective of the fact that United States President Donald Trump is mounting pressure on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, also known as OPEC+, to ramp up their efforts in stabilising the global oil markets which have been severely impacted due to the pandemic. According to reports, the oil prices hit an all-time low in the last 18 years on March 30 due to a decrease in demand caused mainly by lockdowns on major cities across the globe to curb the drastic spread of COVID-19. Along with the pandemic, another factor that led to oil markets being unstable is the failure of OPEC and other countries that are headed by Russia to extend the deal on output curbs that expired on March 31. Read - Saudi Arabia Sharply Rebukes Russia Over Oil Price Collapse Read - Saudi Ministers Criticise Russia Over Oil Crisis Russia blames Saudi Arabia According to reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin put the blame on collapsing prices of oil on Saudi Arabia while the United States has not yet confirmed to join the efforts by OPEC+. Moreover, Russias comments fueled the Kingdoms harsh response saying that it was Moscow that first declared in public that all participating countries are absolved of their (output) commitments starting from April 1. OPEC and its allies are reportedly negotiating to reduce the production of oil by at least ten per cent of the global supply. But in a meeting with major oil producers on April 3, even though Putin cited the first reason for plunging oil prices as the coronavirus outbreak, he added, that the second reason remains the withdrawal of Russian partners from Saudi Arabia from OPEC+ deal. According to international media reports, the prices had bounced back from the lows of $20 per barrel this week but still remained far below the $66 closing level at the end of 2019. Read - White House Convenes Oil CEOs As Bust Threatens US Boom Read - Putin Says Russia Ready To Cooperate On Cutting Oil Production (With agency inputs) (Image Source: AP) (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia is delaying the release of its closely-watched monthly oil-pricing list until later this week as the kingdom spars with Russia over a potential meeting of global producers that would aim to halt the collapse in crude. State oil producer Saudi Aramco is now set to announce its official selling prices for May on Thursday, according to people with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The OSPs, as the prices are known, were due on Sunday. Aramco is holding off on the announcement to await signs of what may happen when suppliers meet Thursday to discuss crude production. The companys media office declined to comment on the delay. With the coronavirus pandemic gagging oil demand, benchmark Brent crude has plunged 48% this year. Saudi-Russian diplomatic barbs, which are opening a fresh rift between the worlds two largest oil exporters, jeopardize a deal to cut output and keep crude from tumbling further. The coalition known as OPEC+ had curbed production since 2017, but limits on its members output expired at the end of March after Saudi Arabia failed to persuade Russia to accept deeper cuts. While the Saudis have changed course and are now ramping up production to record levels, U.S. President Donald Trump said suppliers are open to pumping less to take 10 million to 15 million barrels of unwanted crude off the market. The debate over new production cuts poses a challenge for the worlds most valuable listed company as it tries to decide how to price its crude. By delaying its announcement, Aramco can better gauge the amount of oil it may have available to sell next month. The postponement would also give it time to deepen its price discounts should an OPEC+ deal fall apart, as Aramco is competing for sales in a glutted market. The kingdoms energy ministry dictates Saudi oil output, so any decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers would determine the amount of crude that Aramco can offer customers. Story continues Refiners and traders expect Aramco to cut pricing for May due to the collapse in demand. The delay could be interpreted as an effort to put the global price war on hold and give countries more room to negotiate reductions in output. This is the second consecutive time that Aramco has delayed its key pricing announcement beyond its traditional deadline of releasing the numbers by the 5th day of each month. When it comes, the decision may affect about 14 million barrels a day of exports from the Persian Gulf because other producers in the region often follow Aramcos lead in setting prices for their own shipments. (Updates with date for pricing announcement in second 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. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. JetBlue and United Airlines are offering out of state healthcare workers free roundtrip flights to help New York combat coronavirus, Mayor De Blasio announced Friday. De Blasio called on the federal government on Friday, to institute an essential draft of all private medical personnel. In addition to this, he asked any healthcare workers out of state who can help join New Yorkers on the front line, to come. Our healthcare workers are heroes, and right now they need reinforcements to save as many lives as they can, said De Blasio. I am calling on medical professionals from across the country to come to New York City and help us win this fight. This invaluable partnership with JetBlue and United Airlines will ensure we can provide transportation to these fearless warriors at no additional cost. The Mayors Fund to Advance New York City and New York City Emergency Management will work closely with JetBlue, United Airlines, and other carriers who wish to participate, to coordinate travel for these healthcare workers. JetBlue has started transporting medical professionals and has flown more than 50 into New York City. JetBlue president and chief operating officer, Joanna Geraghty, stated they will continue to provide critical travel needs to medical professionals and first responders. The work of first responders is tireless, and the hours long. For those volunteering to help in areas of need, the last thing they need to worry about is how they will get here to answer the call, said Geraghty. We applaud the healthcare workers who are helping us get through this challenging time and inspiring humanity along the way. It is our hope that providing air travel at no cost will allow additional dedicated volunteers and first responders the ability to reach the Tri-State area, that has been hit hardest by COVID-19, said Jill Kaplan, President, New York / New Jersey for United Airlines. Aside from United and JetBlue, other businesses, individuals, governments, and philanthropies have rallied around the city to provide support for healthcare workers in New York City. The below list is everyone who have donated: Facebook for 25,000 masks and 48,000 pairs of gloves Missions of Qatar for 60,000 surgical masks Natixis for 70,000 respirators and makes Municipality of Shanghai for 20,000 masks The Met for 33,000 gloves, 350 N95s, protective suits, and booties Rudin Management for 10,000 pairs of gloves New York Road Runners for 20,000 pairs of gloves A Million Masks for 1,000 N95 masks Ford for 50,000 face shields American Express for 36,000 N95 masks Louis Vuitton for 21,000 N95 masks Discovery for airing PSAs about the Citys free grab and go meals Uber for $750,000 in free rides for health care workers and first responders UberEATS for $250,000 in food codes on the UberEATS app for healthcare workers and firefighters Goldman Sachs for their donation to the Fund for Public Schools Rihanna and the Clara Lionel Foundation for their donation to the Fund for Public Schools Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE: Spring break completely canceled for NYC schools; learning to continue on Good Friday, Passover First responders show thanks to hospital staff in West Brighton At least 5,000 coronavirus patients will be in citys ICU beds, mayor says, as NYC waits for supplies, military personnel from DC EMTs to stop taking patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals if resuscitation isnt successful Crime down, except for burglaries, across NYC amid coronavirus shutdown Staten Island healthcare facilities to receive funding to battle coronavirus Data analysis: Three weeks in, how the coronavirus has spread in our borough Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP The utter chaos in Americas response to the coronavirus pandemic shortages of equipment to protect hospital workers, dwindling supplies of ventilators and critical medications, jaw-dropping confusion over how $2.2tn of aid in the recent coronavirus law will be distributed was perhaps predictable in a nation that prides itself on competitive individualism and hates centralized power. Related: How science finally caught up with Trump's playbook with millions of lives at stake But it is also tailor-made for Donald Trump, who has spent a lifetime exploiting chaos for personal gain and blaming others for losses. I dont take responsibility for the slow rate of coronavirus testing in the US, he said. On Friday, when asked if he could assure New Yorkers there would be enough ventilators next week when virus victims are expected to overwhelm city hospitals, he replied: No. They should have had more ventilators. Trump has told governors to find life-saving equipment on their own. He refuses to create a central bargaining agent, arguing the federal government is not a shipping clerk. This has left states and cities bidding against each other, driving up prices. Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, described how ventilators went from $25,000 to $45,000 because we bid $25,000. California says, Ill give you $30,000 and Illinois says, Ill give you $35,000 and Florida says Ill give you $40,000. And then, Fema [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] gets involved and Fema starts bidding! And now Fema is bidding on top of the 50! So Fema is driving up the price. What sense does this make? Were literally bidding up the prices ourselves. New York state is paying 20 cents for gloves that normally cost less than five cents, $7.50 for masks that normally go for 50 cents, $2,795 for infusion pumps that normally cost half that, $248,841 for a portable X-ray machine that typically sells for $30,000 to $80,000. Whos pocketing all this? An array of producers, importers, wholesalers and speculators. State laws against price gouging usually dont apply to government purchases. Story continues Some of it may be finding its way into this falls election campaigns. The veteran Republican fundraiser Mike Gula and Republican political operative John Thomas just started a company selling coronavirus testing kits, personal protective equipment and other hard to find medical supplies to beat the outbreak. They call themselves the largest global network of Covid-19 medical suppliers. Asked how hed found such equipment, Gula explained: I have relationships with a lot of people. Thomas added: In politics especially if youre at a high enough level you are one phone call away from anybody in the world. Workers wheel a body from the Wyckoff Heights medical center during the coronavirus outbreak in New York. Trump has told governors to find life-saving equipment on their own. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters Meanwhile, Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner whos one phone call away from anyone is running a shadow coronavirus task force that has been enlisting the private sector and overseeing the Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies, all out of public view. Its supposed to be our stockpile its not supposed to be state stockpiles, he said cryptically on Thursday. Oh, and lets not forget the giant coronavirus bill Trump signed into law on 27 March, which created a $500bn fund that Trump and his treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, will distribute to the private sector. Most of it will backstop $4.5tn of subsidized loans (ie, bailout money) coming from the Fed, also distributed by the Treasury. In a signing statement, Trump said he wouldnt agree to provisions in the bill for congressional oversight meaning the wheeling-and-dealing will be in secret. When the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said shed form a special select committee to watch how the money is spent, Trump accused her of conducting partisan investigations in the middle of a pandemic, adding: Here we go again Its witch hunt after witch hunt. Is there any doubt Trump will try to use this money, as well as his son-in-laws secretive dealings, to improve his odds of re-election? Trump was impeached a mere three and a half months ago on charges of abuse of power and obstructing investigations. Eight months ago, he phoned the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, seeking dirt on Joe Biden and threatening to hold up military aid to get it. Related: Sean Hannity defends Fox News against claims of coronavirus misinformation: 'I never called it a hoax In June 2016, his son Donald Jr and Jared Kushner met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, after a Russian intermediary contacted Trump Jr with a promise to provide material that would incriminate Hillary Clinton and be very useful to your father, adding it was part of the Russian governments support for Trump. Donald Trump calls allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election a hoax. He called his impeachment a hoax. He initially called the coronavirus a hoax. But the real hoax is Trumps commitment to America. In reality he will do anything anything to hold on to power. In his mind, the coronavirus crisis is just another opportunity. 122 Irish troops arrived back from serving in Syria and the Golan Heights last night. They had spent six months in Syria on peace-keeping missions. The majority of the soldiers are based at Custume Barracks in Athlone. The Defence Forces say all 122 will spend the next two weeks in isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ireland's defence forces have been involved in the State's operation to maintain the Covid-19 outbreak. Members of the countrys Reserve Defence Forces (RDF) are being prepared for mobilisation in the event that they are needed in the fight against Covid-19. However, years of neglect by successive governments means that, while eager to help, their strength is not what it once was. South Africa: COVID-19 cases rise to 1 585, 9 deaths South Africa now has nine deaths associated with COVID-19, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Saturday. At the same time the Minister revealed that the countrys confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen by 80 from Friday to 1585. The country has conducted 53 937 COVID-19 tests. Gauteng remains the province with the highest number of cases with 693, followed by the Western Cape with 433 cases. KwaZulu-Natal now has 232 confirmed cases of Coronavirus. In a statement issued on Saturday evening, the Minister confirmed reports of 11 positive cases at the St Augustines private hospital in Durban. We have received a report from KZN Health MEC, Ms Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu that KwaZulu-Natal has 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to St Augustines Hospital, in Durban. Furthermore, 3 of the deceased patients from KZN had been admitted at the hospital, he said. The COVID-19 positive cases include patients, health workers and other staff members. He said the KZN Department of Health and Netcare management agreed that the sections of the hospital affected be closed and no new patient admissions be permitted. This is a precautionary measure to allow for a thorough identification of areas within the hospital where there may have been infection control lapses. The areas that were exposed to positive patients are also being disinfected, he said. At this stage more than 150 tests have been conducted within the hospital and contact tracing is underway. We have advised that more tests be done on both staff and patients in order to determine the true extent of the existence of the infection in the facility, which may call for further interventions. As part of intensifying the contact tracing and testing process, MEC Simelane-Zulu has also requested that Netcare avails a list of its patients that were exposed to the hospital as from the beginning of March. Mkhize said: We therefore make a public announcement that if you were a patient at St Augustines Hospital from 1 March 2020 to date, we request that you contact the KZN Department of Health. The Minister expressed condolences to the families and loved ones of the deceased. He thanked the doctors, health workers and all staff members of the hospital for their commitment to serve during these difficult times. - SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: By Francesca Landini MILAN (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has urged the European Union to launch a "recovery bond" to help fund the response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying failure to tackle the emergency would be a "tragic mistake" for the bloc. In an interview with Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Saturday, Conte said a common debt instrument was needed to spearhead a European recovery and reinvestment plan to support the economy of the whole area. Using, instead, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to borrow on the market and lend cheaply to governments under some conditionality would not be the right response, he said. "The ESM is a tool created to help single member states that face financial problems caused by asymmetric shocks," Conte said, adding that the virus outbreak was instead causing a shock for whole Europe. "If Europe does not prove to be up to this historic challenge, the whole European building risks losing, in the eyes of our own citizens, its raison d'etre". Conte added that, even with the launch of a European recovery bond, each country would continue to remain responsible for its public debt. A summit of EU leaders on Thursday failed to reach an agreement over a joint economic response to the virus and gave euro zone officials two weeks to come up with a way to support the economy during the epidemic. The support tools need to satisfy members with completely opposing views: those calling for joint debt issuance and those fiercely against it. Nine countries, including Italy, France and Spain, have called for common debt, but Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland are opposed. Italy, which has seen more fatalities from the coronavirus than any other country so far, is preparing a second stimulus package in April worth more than the 25 billion euro (22.5 billion pounds) one adopted in March. Conte confirmed in the interview that the total value of the stimulus measures would be more than 50 billion euros, adding the country's public debt would not spiral out of control. Story continues "Our debt is completely sustainable," he said. The extra spending means Italy's 2020 budget deficit looks certain to climb above 4% of GDP, from the 2.2% target set in September and the 1.6% reported in 2019, which was the lowest in 12 years. Credit rating agency Scope warned on Thursday the economic costs of the epidemic could easily push Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio above 145%. (Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Mark Potter) Photograph: Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images Agencies and organisations tasked with feeding children, the poor and the elderly in Washington state during the coronavirus crisis will experience shortages of food and supplies as early as mid-April, according to state government emergency planning documents obtained by the Guardian. Related: Face masks: can they slow coronavirus spread and should we be wearing them? A 27 March situation report (SitRep) document produced by the Unified Command of Washingtons State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) projects that a combination of acute demand at food banks and schools, supply problems for food and cleaning supplies, plus staffing shortages, will mean government and NGOs will struggle to provide for hungry people whose incomes have disappeared as the states economy stutters. This raises the prospect of food bank shortages in Washington but also nationwide, as food banks across the US are being increasingly utilized by unprecedented numbers of people in an economy that has been abruptly slowed to fight the spreading pandemic. Washington state has experienced one of the earliest and most serious outbreaks of Covid-19 in the US. Governor Jay Inslee has received praise in recent days for his decisive response, which is thought to have prevented an even worse crisis. But the document suggests that at the predicted peak of the epidemic, which has already infected at least 4,896 Washingtonians and killed at least 195, the state will need to head off a parallel humanitarian crisis. The SitRep document, produced by the emergency agency coordinated by Washington states military department and distributed to state and local agencies involved in the emergency response, details emerging problems and frantic efforts to solve them across a range of numbered emergency support functions (ESF), including communications, firefighting, and energy. Under the heading ESF11 Agriculture and Natural Resources, the SitRep details the growing problems in food security. Many of the problems involve food banks non-governmental organizations that deliver food to needy people. Story continues The document says there is already a shortage of food at food banks, which is projected to become worse. It says: NGOs have food on hand. However, burn rate is increasing fast. Demand is growing dramatically so supply is quickly being used up. It goes on to warn: Food banks expect a significant gap in the food supply across the whole system by mid-April (April 10-20). It then offers insight into spiking demand at specific NGOs delivering food in Washington: Northwest Harvest (a statewide food bank service) reported they are distributing 450,000lbs of food this week. It continues: The burn rate and demand are rising sharply. These NGOs are seeing 30 percent to 100% increases in the number of people served. In a telephone conversation, Northwest Harvest chief executive Thomas Reynolds said of his food banks: We dont predict peak demand for another three weeks and then we anticipate peak demand for 12 to 20 weeks. He added: I worked for 15 years for Care International. So what it reminds me of is earthquakes in Nepal, the tsunami in Japan, food crises in Yemen. And the difference is theres a lot more experience in a place like Nepal or Yemen to respond to emergencies. The document says rural counties are already moving to rationalize food delivery in the face of demand. Chelan county is moving away from using small distribution centers. Instead they are going to start using a single, mass-distribution site for emergency food, it says. It continues with a prediction: Its a model we will likely see more of in the days and weeks to come. On Wednesday, Inslee, announced he had mobilized 130 National Guard members to provide support for food banks in Chelan and four other counties, with potentially more to follow. The problems are being compounded by supply problems in other goods necessary for food service, such as supplies used to clean kitchens. As in other states, Washington has closed schools, but many districts have maintained school lunch delivery as a way of feeding needy children. These programs, too, are under strain, according to the SitRep. Related: 'Overwhelming': British hiker emerges from wilderness to find New Zealand in grip of Covid-19 One issue is in the workforce, which is a growing issue because schools rely on older people to work in food service and as bus drivers. These are two job categories important to food assistance. The document says older workers are opting not to work because of Covid concerns and that schools are also experiencing supply problems. The document does offer some hope that solutions to shortages are emerging, but leaves open the question of whether they will arrive in time. Chris McGann, a spokesman for the Washington state department of agriculture, said in an email: The current situation with its rapidly increasing demand and limited resources is putting incredible strain on the social safety net. Hunger relief is no different. He added: We have called on the federal government and private industry to identify and commit additional resources to help us make sure families have the nutritional support they need to make it through this crisis. He also said that the problem was so far confined to food banks. The food supply chain is otherwise operational and functional. People will still be able to get food at the grocery store. Reynolds stressed that Northwest Harvest was working well with the state and has good relationship with our local elected officials. But he said he hoped food security will become more central to political debate. I think we should be asking people who are running for office. What is your food policy? Three Sudanese refugees were in custody in France today following the first terrorist attack in Europe during the Coronavirus lockdown - raising fears that they were part of an ISIS-style cell. One, identified as 33-year-old Abdallah A.O, stabbed two people to death and severely wounded seven others during a bloody rampage in the French town of Romans-sur-Isere, south of Lyon, on Saturday. He then wanted police to shoot him dead, as he screamed 'Allahu Akbar'- Arabic for God is the Greatest - but was instead arrested. One attacker has been identified as Abdallah A.O. He launched the rampage in Romans-sur-Isere, south of Lyon, on Saturday. He stabbed two people Detectives later found extremist literature in his house, including a complaint by Abdallah that he hated 'living in a country of non-believers'. On Sunday, anti-terrorism prosecutors confirmed that a two other Sudanese refugees who were 'close friends' of the perpetrator had also been arrested. One lived in the same house in Romans-sur-Isere, while another was based nearby. All are thought to have entered France in early 2017, and were seeking asylum having complained about persecution in the east African country. Now investigators are trying to work out whether they made up a terrorist cell linked to extremist Islamists in Sudan. Abdallah was granted refugee status on June 29, 2017 and was given a ten-year residence permit in July of the same year. A crazed knifeman stabbed two people to death and injured seven in France yesterday. Pictured: Emergency services at the scene His attack on Saturday corresponded to numerous suicidal knife attacks carried out by Islamic State-linked terrorists in France in recent years. It lasted just under 15 minutes, and saw Abdallah murder a 55-year-old butcher with his own knife, as well as 44-year-old waiter. Among the most seriously wounded was Serge Founier, who was attacked in his own tobacco shop. 'I'm still in shock but I'm trying to keep my spirits up,' Mr Founier said from his hospital bed on Sunday. His partner, Ghislaine Auclair, was also injured, and is recovering at home. None of the other victims have yet been named. France has been on Coronavirus lockdown for 20 days, meaning that anyone on the street has to have documentation. This has made the country as vulnerable to terrorist attack as ever, especially as police and soldiers are stretched enforcing the lockdown. Among those knifed by Abdallah were people standing in a queue outside a bakers. France's anti-terrorism prosecutors said Abdallah had been seeking asylum in the country despite 'complaining about living in a country of non-believers'. One of the wounded was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. Pictured: Police at the scene A spokesman for the office said: 'During a search carried out at his home, police found handwritten documents with religious connotation in which the author of the lines complains in particular of living in a country of non-believers.' The spokesman said an enquiry had been launched into 'two assassinations and attempted assassinations in relation to a terrorist enterprise.' The Sudanese are one of the biggest groups seeking asylum in France, with many feeling violence and extreme poverty in the Darfur region, as well as political persecution. The UK was there preferred destination for many years, but the closure of the so-called 'Jungle' refugee camp in Calais made it more difficult to cross the English Channel. Saturday's murders follow a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives in France, dating back to early 2015 The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris. Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died. Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside. The attack comes on France's third week of lockdown due to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 6,500 people in the country alone. Pictured: Police at the scene after the attack In July 2016, 86 people were called and more than 400 injured when a 19-tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, in the South of France. The terrorist turned out to be a Tunisian immigrant who was shot dead by police. During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy. There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police. In October of last year, a radicalised computer operative working at the Paris Prefecture stabbed four of his colleagues to death. The attacker - who was also shot dead - turned out to be a Muslim convert who kept extremist Al-Qaeda and Islamic State literature and images on his computer. While Jacksonville Public Library remains closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, heres a closer look at some of its offerings beyond the book shelf: Here are some databases that can be accessed using your Jacksonville Public Library card. For a full listing of all databases available through the library and to access the featured databases this week, visit jaxpl.org/databases.asp A-Z World Food: Many of us are spending more time at home than we ever have before. Many also are using this time to bake homemade bread, learn new recipes, and try something different. A-Z World Food is a food database that contains traditional recipes including appetizers, soups, salads, breads, main courses, side dishes, desserts and beverages from 174 countries worldwide. You can find something fantastic to make today. Newspaper Archive: Are you interested in local or national history? Newspaper Archive allows you to search historic Jacksonville and Morgan County newspapers using names, keywords, dates and more. There also are many national newspapers available. While it doesnt include every newspaper, Newspaper Archive is an easy place to start your genealogy or local history research. You also can download and print articles for later use. Remote Social Work Help: Through the public librarys collaboration with MacMurray Colleges social work department, the librarys social work intern still is able to be contacted for remote assistance. Megan Evans is available to help with employment issues, social services, advocacy and emotional support. She can be reached at megan.evans@student.mac.edu. Remote Reference Help: Even though the library remains closed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, the public librarys reference librarian still is available to help you from a distance. If you need help accessing any of the librarys e-resources, including instructional assistance, she can be reached via email at ssnyder@jaxpl.org. If you have any questions at all about anything and youre having trouble finding the answer yourself, please reach out to Sarah. Librarians are the worlds original search engines. P olice have fined three men in east London for breaching lockdown restrictions to drink beer in the sunshine. Hackney MPS tweeted about the incident on Sunday, when balmy temperatures lured thousands of people out of their homes. Patrolling officers found the small group sitting at a small picnic bench in Victoria Park, which had been shut as part of a social distancing crackdown. Following the encounter, the force wrote: The park is currently closed to the public yet weve discovered three males had jumped the fence to have a sit down picnic on a bench drinking beers! All fined. Under current Government measures, Brits can only leave the house if they are key workers travelling to their jobs, shopping for health essentials, or to take exercise once a day. New emergency powers granted to police mean they are able to serve on-the-spot fines of 30 to anyone ignoring stay at home orders. Hackneys officers proved in an earlier tweet that they were sticking by official instructions to the letter. Writing from Well Street Common, they said: Reading a book in the park is not an essential reason to be out. Stay home save lives, protect the NHS and other key workers. Meanwhile volunteer officers from the Met's Special Constabulary added: "For avoidance of doubt - kite boarding, drone flying and picnicking are not essential activities..." And in south London, Richmond Police issued a video plea to the public. It tweeted an announcement made by one of its officers urging people to "go home" because there were too many people in the area to "implement social distancing." Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast Alongside the clip, the force wrote: "This message is being echoed across areas of #Richmond "Keep yourself, family + NHS safe. Stay home unless essential "We moved people on for sun bathing, meeting friends etc. VANCOUVERThe federal and provincial governments are facing a potential disaster if more protections and social-distancing guidelines arent extended to migrant agricultural workers, advocates say. The warning comes days after 14 migrant workers at a Kelowna, B.C., nursery tested positive for COVID-19. The workers all live in on-site housing, and the Interior Health said there was enough space for each resident to safely self-isolate. Bylands Nursery, which employs the workers, said in a statement posted on its website that it has been recognized as one of the best employers of temporary foreign workers in B.C. There were 13,252 positions for temporary foreign workers approved in B.C. in last year, but the Migrant Workers Centre said the actual number of workers could be much higher. Anelyse Weiler, a University of Toronto PhD candidate whose research focuses on migrant agricultural workers, said not enough is being done to protect the vulnerable workers during the pandemic. The government needs to ensure they are receiving solid information, that their rights are enforced, that they are receiving income during self-isolation and there are solid logistics in place to self-quarantine, she said. If not, were looking at a potential disaster. In 2017, over 59,000 temporary foreign workers were hired to work in the Canadian agriculture industry and still more than 15,000 jobs remain unfilled. Mary Robinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said foreign workers are a steady and reliable stream of labour. Theyre incredibly important, particularly for horticulture. As British Columbians self-isolate and businesses face steep fines for not abiding by social distancing declarations, migrant advocates say farms and farmers are being allowed to self-regulate and ensure the provincial guidelines are followed, which is causing concern. The government is assuming the public will abide by the public-health orders but were saying thats not sufficient to protect workers, said Natalie Drolet, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Centre. The same inspections that can lead to business shutdowns in major cities is not being seen at farms in the Fraser Valley or the Okanagan, she added. But Robinson said the industry is doing a good job of working hand-in-hand with various levels of government. The producers are more than interested in making sure they do it right, she said about following government guidelines on isolation and distancing. These people are coming into a producers workspace and in a lot of situations, where they live. Its incredibly important from the producers side to make sure people are well. British Columbias government waived the waiting period for medical coverage for temporary foreign workers this past week, allowing health coverage for COVID-19 claims. But Byron Cruz, a member of Sanctuary Health, a group which delivers aid and legal advice to migrants, said the actions arent enough to protect workers. We want the government to make enforceable rules, not guidelines, said Cruz. While farmers are responsible for looking after their workers, Cruz said government guidelines dont include food supplies for workers. As a result, Sanctuary Health is co-ordinating food deliveries to workers across the Lower Mainland and Kelowna. A confrontation this week between Amazon and its U.S. warehouse workers over health risks posed by the coronavirus outbreak escalated significantly on Wednesday, when leaders of some of the countrys largest labor unions sent a letter to Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos calling on the company to temporarily close all facilities until it addresses the infection dangers. A nationwide closure would be crushing for the company, crippling its distribution network amid a spike in demand for Amazons delivery service as hundreds of millions have been forced into their homes, several logistics experts and a Wall Street analyst told Yahoo Finance. Still, the experts acknowledged that the company will likely have to reach a middle ground with the workers. Dale Rogers, a professor of logistics and supply chain management at Arizona State University, called potential widespread warehouse closures disastrous, noting that even if the closures were temporary, it would prove challenging for the company to quickly reopen the large facilities. People think you can turn something off and turn it back on, and it works the same but thats not the case, Rogers adds. Right now theyre being asked to deliver a lot more stuff to meet more demand. Warehouse closures would deliver a body-blow disruption to Amazon that would pose major logistical issues, says Dan Ives, an equity analyst at Wedbush focused on tech companies. It would obviously be a clear concern for investors in terms of the e-commerce piece. On Monday, workers at a warehouse in Staten Island where an employee tested positive for coronavirus last week walked out during a shift over infection fears, and the dispute deepened when later that day the company fired one of the participating workers, Chris Smalls, for allegedly violating social distancing guidelines. Smalls, union leaders, New Yorks attorney general, and elected officials like Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have publicly criticized the companys conduct toward him. Story continues Two days later, leaders of the some of the nations largest labor organizations including AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and the American Federation of Teachers which count tens of millions of members combined called on the company for the reinstatement of Smalls and the temporary closure of all U.S. warehouses as well as full compensation for workers until it addresses their health concerns. We write to you today shocked at reports that Amazon warehouses are not practicing the protocols necessary to protect the well-being of your workers and of the public, says a letter signed by the labor leaders and addressed to Jeff Bezos as well as other Amazon executives. The letter questions the veracity of Amazons public statements about steps it has taken to address safety concerns at its facilities, which include enhanced cleanings the company has conducted at some warehouses and paid sick leave it has made available for all employees diagnosed with coronavirus, among other steps taken to address the health risks. 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 on March 30, 2020 in New York. - Amazon employees at a New York City warehouse walk off the job March 30, 2020, as a growing number of delivery and warehouse workers demand better pay and protections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) The letter is also signed by dozens of elected officials in New York, where Attorney General Letitia James is considering legal options to punish Amazon for the seemingly retaliatory firing of Smalls, Yahoo Finances Alexis Keenan reported. (James did not sign the letter). Workers at Amazon warehouses nationwide in recent weeks have accused the company of having inadequate safety measures and insufficient paid sick leave. In at least ten 10 different Amazon facilities, employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Washington Post reported. The company has more than 110 fulfillment centers in North America, according to its website. In response to the letter, Amazon Spokesperson Kristen Kish said, These accusations are simply unfounded. Nothing is more important than the safety of our teams. We are encouraging those who are unwell to stay home and taking extreme measures to keep people safe in our buildings, she adds. Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to proactively respond, ensuring we continue to serve customers while taking care of our associates and teams. Amazon plans to implement temperature checks and provide protective masks for employees at all of its facilities in the U.S. and Europe by next week, Reuters reported on Thursday. The closure of all U.S. Amazon warehouses would be a huge disruption, says Yossi Sheffi, a professor at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. Pointing to the dependence of many Americans on Amazon for shipments of food and medical supplies, Sheffi said its highly unlikely such a closure would take place. Its not going to happen, he says. Rogers and Ives both shared that sentiment, saying a widespread warehouse closure would not come about because it would hurt the company and consumers alike. But the company will likely have to compromise with the workers in order to ensure that theyre safe on the job, the experts said. Its a clear balancing act for Amazon, Ives says. Theyre going to have to come to some middle ground. Read more: Editors note: The Journal-Courier has been working with a group of business and community leaders to shine a light on the importance of the sometimes behind-the-scenes work taking place to improve the present and build for the future of our hometown. I enjoy this quote by W. Edward Deming: It is not necessary to change, survival isnt mandatory. Not all change is good, not all change is bad, it just is. When we review change in the review mirror, we can often evaluate what the ramifications of those changes have been. In the case of most small and mid-sized communities, the change that has taken residents and business away from the city core have certainly opened up new opportunities, but at what cost? Much of this change is a ticking time bomb creating an unsustainable community economic model when measured over the course of decades and future generations. As we moved away from the urban model of living to a more suburban model of living, on one hand, it has expanded our communities and opportunities. On the other hand, it has also created an uncalculated financial burden that many communities are just now coming to grips with. Let me further explain by using a paragraph that I recently read in Strongtowns by Rachel Quednau. I quote, When our towns changed course in the 1950s and 60s from the traditional to the suburban model of development, they were setting themselves up for this financial mess they didnt calculate the future maintenance cost that would have shown them that. They just kept building roads and subdivisions and strip malls. Today, were left to figure out how to pay for it all, and because so many homes and streets were built at the same time, theyre all falling apart and in need of maintenance. Let me continue with the why in Quednaus piece, While a traditional street built hundreds of years ago may have housed 40-50 families and businesses in compact, modest buildings, the typical suburban street now houses just over 20 families in homes with large yards, spread apart from one another. We have half the number of households paying for a street thats twice as big. No wonder the math doesnt work out. It isnt whether urban or suburban living is right or wrong, both have their strengths. It is simply that the suburban financial structure, unless modeled and planned for decades in advance, is built in such a way that it will eventually become a huge financial burden to communities. That is even greater for communities that struggle with lower incomes and poverty. Small or mid-sized communities need to understand that there is a way out of this dilemma, but it involves new thinking and bold actions. Let me offer just a few. Knowing that altering the current taxing system would take a yeomans effort requiring years of time, communities must adopt strategies that are implemented quickly. Finding ways to return residents and business to their downtowns can start the change. Adopting strategies such as tax reduction or tax elimination for new downtown projects for a limited amount of time is a start. Encouraging and even incentivizing the revitalization of older buildings into loft apartments and better business opportunities should be a communitys top priority. Adopt the if you build it, they will come strategy for those downtown resident and business efforts. This pays for itself over time, as infrastructure upkeep is lower over the long haul. The more people sharing this financial burden will reduce the pressure on the community as it relates to upkeep and so forth. One need not just consider the downtown core. Look at the neighborhoods surrounding the core. What can be done to assure all that space is fully utilized? Assuring all those homes are restored and occupied, or torn down so new homes can be built is a must. Providing incentives for this ought to be a top priority. Simply by limiting the additional building outside of your current community footprint, you can avoid adding to the already difficult to maintain community infrastructure footprint. We arent advocating greater control of where people build, but taxing bodies need to recognize this is a long-term burden and plan accordingly. The best strategy a community can adopt is not falling for the same past traps we have been sucked into. As you build farther out from your core, know and understand the financial ramifications of this strategy moving forward. Most communities already have too many roads that are failing. Think twice before adding more. . John A. Newby helps communities and media companies work together for the betterment of cities and towns. He can be reached at john@360MediaAlliance.net. Syracuse, N.Y. Annette Adams Brown tends to the needs of her 87-year-old mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease 12 years ago. Shortly after Bertha Adams diagnosis, a doctor asked her daughter: Now what are YOU doing to take care of yourself and your mental health? Im fine, she replied, but her doctor warned that the role of a caregiver can be consuming, mentally and physically. Brown, an actress, didnt realize it then but now shes fully aware of the mental toll it takes, especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The health risks and economic impact of the pandemic are putting extra pressure on those taking care of Alzheimers patients at home. Its a group already stressed, but these times have brought more demands and taken away some help. Brown lost her acting jobs in the virus shutdown, turning her into a full-time caregiver, like hundreds of other situations across Central New York. Other full-time caregivers are still trying to work from home, too. The stress of it is not good for anybody, said Brown, 60, who lives with her mother in Geddes. According to an annual report by the Alzheimers Association, 59 percent of dementia caregivers report the emotional strain and mental strain of caregiving to be high or very high. Now, add in the new social distancing guidelines and the need to protect older people from the virus. Caregivers have fewer resources than ever to help. Adult day centers have closed, in-home support options have dwindled, and family and friends are advised to keep their distance. The Alzheimers Association offers help for caregivers during the pandemic, such as care planning meetings, education programs and remote support groups via video conference and a 24/7 helpline for questions and support, which Brown calls a lifesaver. I would encourage everyone to have and to use (the helpline) because I couldnt wrap my head around the situations with my mother. Some things would break my heart. Id go in my room and Id just cry, she said. Brown says the most devastating symptom to accept was her mothers memory loss, which caused her to repeat the same questions. Before her mom was diagnosed, she recalls her mom asking, What day is it? five times in a matter of minutes. She used the helpline to communicate with experts from the Alzheimers Association, which ultimately helped her find a local support group where she was able to meet people who shared similar experiences. Im just so grateful theres an organization thats very familiar with the circumstances around this condition, and it takes a huge toll on caregivers especially if they dont care for themselves, Brown said. People with Alzheimers disease and all other dementia may also forget to wash their hands or take other precautions. Diseases like COVID-19 and the flu also may worsen cognitive impairment, the association said. The organization recommends placing written reminders in the bathroom to get the person to wash their hands with soap for 20 seconds. Since everyone is advised to stay home, Brown has found herself using meditation, prayer and exercise to cope with her new reality. She also enjoys the simplicity of a car ride. She says its important to do things that stimulate her mind. Another complication: Many Alzheimers patients are in assisted living facilities, which dont allow visitors now. That is extremely stressful for many of our caregivers, said Cathy James, CEO at the Central New York chapter of the Alzheimers Association. Our 24/7 helpline is even more vital for family members during this time and we want folks to know that even though they might be isolated, they dont need to be alone in this. The Alzheimers Associations 24/7 Helpline (800-272-3900) serves people with memory loss and caregivers by providing information such as how to get a diagnosis, community support, and legal or financial advice. The organization also offers peer- and professionally-led support groups for caregivers and others living with Alzheimers disease. All support groups now are meeting virtually or through a phone conference. Specialized groups for individuals with early-stage Alzheimers, LGBTQ caregivers and younger-onset caregivers are also available. Contact Mike Curtis anytime at mcurtis@syracuse.com or find him on Twitter at @MikeACurtis2. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS A 'sparkly' mother-of-three and grandmother has died from coronavirus after contracting the virus late last month. Learning Mentor Carole Flynn, 54, from Coventry, succumbed to the virus early on Thursday after contracting it at the end of March. The grandmother had worked at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School in Coventry for 16 years. Colleagues at the school told The Sun: '[Carole was] a truly remarkable and sparkly person who would fill a room with warmth and laughter by simply being present'. Learning Mentor Carole Flynn, 54, from Coventry, succumbed to the virus early on Thursday after contracting it at the end of March Ms Flynn leaves behind her two sons, a daughter, and a grandson - she had become a grandmother at the end of 2019. A spokesman for Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School told Coventry Live: 'We are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend and colleague Carole Flynn. 'Carole has been the heart and soul of Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School for 16 years and has supported children, parents and staff alike during this time. 'The children of Corpus Christi, past and present, were at the forefront of all that she did in her role as a learning mentor, and she carried a special place in her heart for each and every one of them.' Ms Flynn leaves behind her two sons, a daughter, and a grandson - she had become a grandmother at the end of 2019 Tributes paid to Ms Flynn by students at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School, Coventry The school said: 'Carole has been the heart and soul of Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School for 16 years and has supported children, parents and staff alike during this time' The Corpus Christi spokesman added: 'Not only was Carole an integral cog in school life, she was also at the heart of the parish and the wider community. 'She leaves behind her two sons, her daughter and her newly arrived grandson, and our thoughts are with them at this incredibly sad time. 'Carole was fun-loving and kind, and will be truly missed by the whole school and the wider academy.' - A Ghanaian midwife identified as Cecilia Awinsongya, who is registered with the Ghana Health Service, has claimed that she was assaulted by an army personnel - Cecilia Awinsongya claimed that she was on her way home after work when the military man assaulted her - She shared images showing bruises on parts of her body along with her allegation on social media - The post has erupted mixed reactions online Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana A female Ghanaian midwife identified as Cecilia Awinsongya has claimed that she was assaulted by an army personnel on her way home after work amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to details on Facebook, she is a registered midwife with the Ghana Health Service. Cecilia Awinsongyas recent claims add to a series of allegations by some residents in affected areas of the ongoing partial lockdown who have equally shared footages to back claims of assault. On March 27, 2020, President Akufo-Addo imposed a partial lockdown in parts of the country as part of measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus. It was earlier reported that some parts of Accra, Tema, Kasoa, Kumasi and its surrounding communities are observing a partial lockdown as a result of the presidents order. This means people in the affected areas can only go out for essential services such as food, medicine, water, undertake banking transactions, or to use public toilet facilities. The partial lockdown does not include hospitals especially when the services of health authorities and workers are crucially required to aid the preventive and treatment against the spread of the novel coronavirus. READ ALSO: COVID-19 lockdown: Asantehene launches GHC1m fund to support the needy in Kumasi In a recent post on Facebook, the Ghanaian midwife claimed that she was on her way home after work when a military man assaulted her ''Today am very sad i dont know what was my fault, for being in uniform and still assaulted by a military man today when I closed from work. Did the president really told the military men to come to Kumasi to beat us including health workers who [are] working tirelessly day and night risking the lives to save the lives of people. Pls friends and family pls help me to share this pictures to reach the media houses n the various stakeholders to fight for our rights, I dont think military men have to put the laws into their hands to abuse people like common criminals,'' Cecilia Awinsongyas first posted. Her post generated mixed reactions with many demanding for more evidence to back her claims. Nana Kowas wrote under her second post: ''This lady is lyin oooooooooo.'' Janet Angmorteh responded saying: ''Lying for wat boss. She is my colleague midwife wae.'' Indeed most of the people who commented under her posts appeared to be more concerned about the image of the Ghana Armed Forces than the safety of the midwife. Others demanded more evidence. Kwaku Poku Darko wrote: ''Give full account of what happened and the exact location.'' In response, Cecilia Awinsongya posted another image along with the caption: ''People are saying that am not a nurse and they hv not seen my picture.So they are not convinced, am sad though but I think the 67yr old market women who was assaulted is enough for people to kw that this military men are really assaulting people. I think is high time us we Ghanaians to stop this unlawful n injustice.'' While some of these videos have been fact-checked and emerged as false, some also proved that some security officers from the combined military and police forces had taken the law into their own hands. This adds to the series of reports by many who had claimed that they had been brutalised by either personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces or the Ghana Police Service. Cecilia Awinsongya's claim can be verified because she a registered nurse with the Ghana Health Service. Meanwhile, it was reported that Ghana's coronavirus confirmed cases have shot up to 204. The Ghana Health Service said the nine additional cases were all recorded in Accra Ghana's case previously stood at 195. In other news, Ghanas First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has personally received 5000 boxes of food items on behalf of the Rebecca Foundation to donate to the poor and needy. The Rebecca Foundation launched the Relief Boxes Challenge on April 2, 2020, to support the national effort of the preventive and treatment measures instituted by the government against the spread of the COVID-19. READ ALSO: Coronavirus: 12-year-old Ghanaian becomes the youngest girl in Europe to die from disease One on one with the young Ghanaian genius Angela Tabiri who has a Ph.D. in Mathematics | #Yencomgh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh I am home these days. Full time. Every day. My calendar is blank, with no real-time get-togethers. No gym. No dinners with friends. No friends with benefits. No meetings. I've been waking up every morning with a feeling of terror, one that encompasses the unknowns of the pandemic and the emptiness ahead. "What do I do with myself?" I keep asking. I've been Zoom-ing along, which is to say using that internet conferencing platform to participate in online yoga and meditation classes; I've had a couple of Skype dates; and I'm having "Zoom cocktails" tonight with some neighbors. My brother created a family text group he calls "The Clan." Much of it is filled with updates on what we're doing - a lot of jigsaw puzzles and crafts, for sure - but also about how we're feeling. A sister-in-law refers to "this challenging and uncertain time." A niece advises us of an online class about "well-being and happiness." Under a stay-at-home order, because nothing is open except for essential services, I'm doing my best to stay outwardly connected to friends, family and colleagues. But I'm also connecting inward. This winter I spent a week at a silent meditation retreat in snowy Finland. The intent was to disconnect from our usual ways of being: No talking. No use of devices. No reading. No sex and no eye contact with others. (I was permitted to keep a journal because I was on assignment; otherwise that, too, would have been forbidden.) I initially thought the prohibition on eye contact was silly if not excessive. But then I came to realize that there's a language of the eyes. Think about how much we connect through our gaze: humor (the eye roll), flirtation (the arched eye) and anger (the perfect smoky eye). Early on, Leena Pennanen, one of our teachers who runs Finland's Center for Mindfulness, advised, "The goal is not to do but to be." Distractions and diversions are actions - "doing" of some sort, Pennanen said, reminding me of what Jon Kabat-Zinn wrote in Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment - And Your Life: "If we are not careful, it is all too easy to fall into becoming more of a human doing than a human being, and forget who is doing all the doing, and why." With shutdowns and lockdowns in place, I understand the urge to continue to be a "human doing." At the retreat, the goal was to reconnect with our inner selves (our feelings!), a terrain that is challenging to me, especially as a guy who's flown more than 2 million air miles in the past two decades. But having cut the external umbilical cord, I now suddenly found myself face to face with what Bob Stahl, a senior teacher at Brown University Mindfulness Center, referred to in a talk as "our thousand joys and sorrows." I leaned toward the sorrows, which I'd describe as feelings of loneliness, fear, grief and anger. Busyness masks a great deal. We meditated for 11 hours a day. "Who's counting the days?" I scribbled in my journal in longhand. "Who's counting the number of sits?" (Believe me, I was.) Today, with the whole world confronting coronavirus, I am doing the same thing: How many days, weeks or months before we can come out from under our rocks, sit down face-to-face, embrace and hug again? I'm asking myself. At the retreat I feared that I was the outlier; but I could see I wasn't alone in this restlessness. My fellow retreaters got up, then sat down. Or laid down. A fellow turned his chair away from us, and meditated looking out the window. It felt as though he'd given us the finger. Now many are being bludgeoned with stay-at-home directives, nearly 1 million Americans. "It is not easy meeting change, especially when it's not welcome," said Stahl to me this week in an email. "And yet, this is the way it is right now." What did I learn in my meditation retreat that might be helpful now? Be honest about the challenge. On day four of the retreat we had a group check-in, where eight of us could talk together for 30 minutes. I went first and confessed to my struggle of detaching myself from my devices. One by one the others piled on: "I'm exhausted from doing nothing - nothing!" "I am so unsettled." "My life is unmanageable." "Too much stress, too much fear of living in these times." And "too much pain of loneliness." A mother broke down in tears, missing her son. A scientist told us, "I fear for the planet." "We are frankly a beautiful collection of frayed and wobbly human beings," I wrote later that day. "Connection made." "For many of us," Stahl explained later, "it's not easy to be inside our skin, muscle, connective tissue, bones, bone marrow and being." Back to the now, my friend Jennifer, a publicist in New York, emails me an update about her now confined coronavirus life: "I was so much better last week. Now I feel every breath and wonder if I have tightness. I'm constantly feeling my face for temperature change." Her disclosure allows me to do so in kind: "I'm working, worrying, meditating, worrying, eating, worrying," I tell her, "This week is so much harder." Do something for others. Before the start of the retreat I had obsessively confirmed that there would be coffee, which is how I became barista-in-chief. Each morning I arrived at the hall at 6:30, 30 minutes before everyone else, to fire up the water. Yes, I wanted my cup o' joe, but this task allowed me to give something to the group. In silence, eyes averted, the others nodded in thanks, or made a small namaste bow. This, I realized, is "being" with my new circle of friends. I was unhurried enough to recognize this is what's often called the "kindness contagion," where kindness begets kindness in a viral way. How a kindness contagion improves live, especially now Now I'm calling friends who are home alone, to make sure they're okay. I've put a Post-it reminder on my door to remind me later this week to call back a friend in Los Angeles whose husband just died; she is not okay. Allow for the unexpected. By the end of the retreat my hips and back had settled. My mind, too. I'd lost count of the remaining hours of meditation to come, just as I'd forgotten how many we had done already. Without so many of our modern-day distractions - especially devices - I found myself sleeping better than in years, which meant I was actually rested. After one of the final meditation sits, I wrote in my journal: "A slow turning to the big question on the horizon - what do I do with my life? A life more directed at service?" All those cocktails get-togethers - Zoom or otherwise - have prevented me from this inner monologue. At long last, it's begun. And now, I've been self-quarantined at home for nearly two weeks. I've lost count of the days since this all began; and like everyone I have no idea how many are to come. I wonder, "When will it end?" and the thought makes me very uncomfortable. "Impermanence can be a powerful teacher, it can help us awaken, and remind us of the preciousness and fragility of life," Jan Landry, a co-leader of the retreat, reminds me in an email. She urges me "to live fully, here, now, to become present." I'm not immune to how woo-woo these words may sound. Still, I translate them in my own way. I am going on food shopping runs for older neighbors, helping them to limit their exposure to the virus. I am posting a photograph daily on Facebook, one that embodies beauty and gratitude to remind us all that this pandemic cannot kill our spirit. I am telling jokes in phone calls and on social media - bad ones I admit - but they sometimes make people laugh. ("Did you see the cartoon of the dog and his master who's wearing one of those dog cone collars? Says the dog, 'I'm just trying to stop you from touching your face!' ") On one level these might seem like "doing" - after all they're actions - but they feel like a part of the new me that's emerging and turning my life to be more of service to others. And maybe that's some good that will come about from these very unsettling times. So Zoom inward. Who knows what you might find there. See Full Image Gallery >> Once upon a time, a Pontiac advertising executive named Jim Wangers created a countrywide contest with this gorgeous 1965 Pontiac Hurst GTO serving as the grand prize. The contest was centered around "GeeTO Tiger," a song by musical artists The Tigers. A 19-year-old took home the golden muscle car at the time, but now anybody can buy the rare car through an upcoming Mecum auction. As a way to boost sales and awareness of the Pontiac GTO and its performance parts, Wangers partnered up with Royal Pontiac, George Hurst, and Petersen Publishing in 1965 to create a contest. Royal provided the car, Hurst dressed it up, and Petersen distributed the contest in publications across the country. In order to participate, people were asked to provide a reason why they wanted the car and identify how many times the word "tiger" was used in the promotional song "GeeTO Tiger" (pronounced G-Tee-Oh) by The Tigers. A 19 year-old kid named Alex Lampone from West Allis, Wisconsin, won the contest and took delivery of this jazzed-up GTO at the 1965 NHRA Indy Nationals. The prize car was completely kitted out and described by Wangers as "the nicest GTO you could put your hands on." It had more than 28 factory options, including a black cordova top, power windows, power steering, power brakes, a tilt steering wheel, a power driver's seat, dual-speed windshield wipers, a custom sport steering wheel, a rally gauge cluster, a push-button AM/FM radio with power antenna, and a Verba phonic rear speaker. What makes it stand out is the Hurst-inspired gold theme, which includes gold paint, gold mag wheels, and a gold-plated Hurst Shifter. Under the hood, this GTO has a Tri-Power 389 V8 engine that pairs with a four-speed manual transmisison. It also has a 3.55 Safe-T-Track rear axle and dual exhaust. Throughout the years, this car has exchanged hands many times and has undergone a few changes. It's been repainted, and the engine has also been rebuilt, but Mecum says it's otherwise highly original. Ony 59,000 miles have turned over on the odometer. Story continues The GeeTO Tiger Pontiac is scheduled to go up for auction in Indianapolis this June. Visit Mecum for more information. Related Video: Click here to See Video >> You Might Also Like Tehran mayor elaborates on crippling impacts of sanctions on fighting COVID19 IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency London, April 4, IRNA -- Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi in an article published by the British daily newspaper 'The Guardian' seriously criticized the US sanctions in a situation that countries are fighting coronavirus, saying sanctions have disturbed the process of fighting the pandemic in Iran. Head of Iran's Health Ministry Public Relations Office Kianoush Jahanpour said on Saturday that 19,736 people out of a total of 55,743 infected by the coronavirus have survived while 3,452 have unfortunately succumbed to death. The full-text of Hanachi's article is as follows: To many of us urban administrators in Iran, the onslaught of coronavirus has underscored an important fact of life: no town, city or nation can be indifferent to global crises, even in far-flung corners of our world. Indeed, while the mantra of good governance over the past century has been to "think global, act local", we must today think and act both locally and globally. Unfortunately, the small-mindedness that has dominated the politics of various countries in past years has not dissipated. Rather, those who have aggressively advocated the pursuit of narrowly defined "national interests" at any cost are doubling down. The consequences of this posturing are many. In Iran, urban administrators are left facing an unprecedented public health crisis. Figures show that 3,160 had died from the disease by 2 April and there are more than 50,000 cases of infection. The rate of infections is not yet slowing, and many of them are in Tehran, the city of which I am mayor. Doubtless, there are things that we could do differently, like every country in the world. But we are operating against the backdrop of the most extreme sanctions regime in history. The US embargo not only prohibits American companies and individuals from conducting lawful trade with Iranian counterparts but given that the sanctions are extra-territorial, all other countries and companies are also bullied into refraining from doing legitimate business with Iranians, even the selling of medicines. As a result, the ability of my colleagues and me to provide the health, logistical and other essential infrastructure necessary to combat the disease has been drastically reduced. We experience this loss every day, and it can be counted in people that would not have died. This unjust treatment of Iran has come about via the policies of one country the United States whose ruling administration does not seem to prioritize even its own national interests, but instead the narrow interests of a governing party. The outcome of such irresponsible policies and behavior is not limited to Iran; they have also inflicted harm on the American public. Indeed, the Donald Trump administration's refusal to halt its economic warfare against Iran is directly impeding our efforts to deal with a virus that knows no borders. Is it in the US's national interest for the coronavirus pandemic to become permanent? In order to better confront these new global crises, there is a need for politicians to realize that the path to pursuing national interests is not separate or contrary to that of global interests and international accountability. Of equal importance, it must be recognized that as long as the general consensus in international politics does not actively move toward reducing injustice and inequality beyond national and racial boundaries, global crises will continue to indiscriminately endanger every country in the world. The world cannot go on like this. If global leaders fail to seize the opportunity to embrace change, we will all continue to remain highly vulnerable to communicable diseases, environmental catastrophes, global warming, terrorism, violent extremism, and other shared threats. 9376**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address - Reported COVID-19 cases around the world surpassed 1 million on Thursday, April 2 - The COVID-19 worldwide death toll also passed 50,000, according to Johns Hopkins University - That is double the total in a week as the virus spreads across the globe - Italy had the most deaths, more than 13,900, followed by Spain - The United States had the most confirmed cases of any country, more than 240,000 - Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Reported COVID-19 cases around the world surpassed 1 million on Thursday, April 2. doubling in a week as the virus spreads across Europe and North America and establishes a toehold in Africa. Just before global cases surprised the 1 million mark, the COVID-19 worldwide death toll passed 50,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. READ ALSO: Bishop Titi-Ofei withdraws building offer for coronavirus isolation center Just before global cases surprised the 1 million mark, the COVID-19 worldwide death toll passed 50,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Source: UGC READ ALSO: 6 celebrities who have died from coronavirus, COVID-19 complications Italy had the most deaths, more than 13,900, followed by Spain. The United States had the most confirmed cases of any country, more than 240,000, the data showed. In Italy, which hit a daily peak of 6,557 new cases on March 21, 2020, and accounts for around 28% of all global fatalities, the death toll climbed to 13,915 on Thursday, April 2. But it was the fourth consecutive day in which the number of new cases stayed within a range of 4,050-4,782, seeming to confirm government hopes that the epidemic had hit a plateau. READ ALSO: Report tenants who returned to Ghana between March 3 and 23 GIS to Landlords The world knew almost nothing about the virus in December 2019, when reports of a new coronavirus started to surface in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has spread to nearly every country in the world, disrupting daily life for millions under lockdown measures meant to curb the virus' rapid spread. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing at the Geneva headquarters Wednesday, April 1, the number of cases grew exponentially. READ ALSO: Updates on COVID-19 as the news portals reported on Wednesday April 1 "Over the past five weeks, we have witnessed a near exponential growth in the number of new cases, reaching almost every country, territory and area," he said. Confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 500,000 a week ago, according to Hopkins. Since then, the US surpassed China as the country with the most reported cases of COVID-19 in the world. However, economists and US officials have said Chinese officials are likely underreporting the number of infections. Confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 500,000 a week ago, according to Hopkins. Since then, the US surpassed China as the country with the most reported cases. Photo: MSN Source: UGC Infections in the US now account for more than 20% of infections globally. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday, April 2 that the virus had infected more than 92,000 people in New York state alone, White House officials estimate that between 100,000 to 240,000 people in the US will die from COVID-19 with a peak in fatalities over the next two or so weeks. READ ALSO: Idris Elba worries about being asthmatic & contracting coronavirus The virus threatens to spread widely across Africa, where a number of countries have seen hundreds of positive tests, according to Hopkins. The virus has infected more than 1,300 people in South Africa, according to Hopkins data, and more than 900 in Algeria. The WHO has repeatedly emphasized the potentially devastating impact of epidemics across Africa, where many health systems are ill-equipped to care for critical patients. This brave man is risking his life to educate Ghanaians about the spread of Coronavirus | #Yencomgh READ ALSO: COVID-19: Ghana Armed Forces denies videos on social media are real Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh By Express News Service DEHRADUN: Sub-inspector Shahida Parveen's demeanour fails to give any hint of cancellation of her wedding scheduled on April 5 2020, while she is on duty. Unperturbed by the fact that her wedding has to be postponed due to coronavirus pandemic, she is on her usual routine duty, checking on alerts of suspicion arrival, attending calls and distress calls in Muni ki Reti police station in Tehri district of Uttarakhand. 'My wedding can wait. Nation and duty come first at this hour. We are at war with an enemy which is invisible and dangerous. I am just doing my bit,' says 27-year-old Parveen with a nonchalant smile. Her wedding was to be solemnized with Muhammad Shahid of Haridwar in her home town. COVID-19 LIVE | India 'turns-off' light to show solidarity in fight against coronavirus 'Both of our families are ok with this decision. At this time, it would be like endangering lives and running away from our duty,' said her fiance, Shahid. Parveen joined the Uttarakhand police force three years back as a sub-inspector and has been performing her duties in the department after completing her training. People and officials of the state police department are all praise for the cop on duty. Ashok Kumar, additional director general of police, law and order said, 'Our whole department is working 247. Police personnel are looking after our families, parents while working for the people. Parveen has set a benchmark of sacrifice.' China in Focus (April 4): Xi Jinping Wears Mask Despite Claims CCP Virus Under Control Chinese leader Xi Jinping is seen wearing a mask, despite China claiming that the CCP virus pandemic is under control in the country, leading many to question the true situation. Front line medical staff in China have been fighting the outbreak since the beginning. Months later, many are complaining that money the regime promised never came. The Chinese regime calls whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang a martyr. But Chinese netizens are not convinced, saying they would rather Li still be alive. A Swedish politician calls for an investigation into the Chinese regimes coverup of the virus pandemic. And a European diplomat warns of the politics of generosity. New York sees its highest toll yet: 630 die from the virus in one day. Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more first-hand news from China For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday appealed to people to switch off the lights in their homes and light a 'diya' to mitigate the darkness of coronavirus. "We are fighting this battle in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he appealed to people to light a diya at their balcony or doorstep for nine minutes at 9 pm. So, I also appeal to people to switch off the lights and light a diya to mitigate the darkness of coronavirus," Chouhan said. "Only lights should be switched off and all other electronics will remain on. Lights of hospitals, Police Stations and street lights will not be off," he added. Earlier, the Prime Minister had urged people to join hands for a unique exercise on April 5 at 9 pm to show they are together in the fight against coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) April 3, 2020 Springdale, UT- The National Park Service (NPS) received a letter today from the Executive Director for the Utah Department of Health recommending the full closure of Zion National Park. Upon receiving this request from the state health department, Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh, with the support of the NPS Deputy Director, Operations, David Vela and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, made the decision to immediately close the park until further notice. "We appreciate the collaboration with state and local agencies and their expertise in steps to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19, said Zion National Park Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh. Zion has been carefully assessing our ability to provide a safe environment amid this crisis and in making progressive changes to operations as needed. However, visitors are continuing to come to the park from all across the country at numbers difficult to maintain social distancing. State Route 9 (Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and Tunnel) and Kolob Terrace Road, the two roads through Zion National Park will remain open for the safety and needs of local residents only. Stopping at pull offs will be prohibited. Im grateful to the Department of the Interior for recognizing the need to close Zion National Park as quickly as possible, Governor of Utah Gary Herbert said. Even with stay home orders and directives in place across the nation, Zion still continues to receive a high number of visitors each day, which greatly increases the risk of infection to communities near the park. We look forward to the day that this pandemic draws to a close and we can once again welcome the world to Utahs public lands. The health and safety of park visitors, employees, local residents, volunteers, and partners in and around Zion National Park is the Service's number one priority. The NPS has consistently assessed its park units and made modifications to its operations in accordance with CDC, state and local public health guidance. The NPS will continue to follow the guidance of public health officials in making operational decisions in response to this pandemic. MIDDLEBURG A Snyder County man pleaded no contest to indecent assault of two young girls in October 2014. Craig L. Poust, 46, entered the no-contest plea via video Monday in Snyder County court. He is to be sentenced after an assessment is made whether he is a sexually violent predator. The plea agreement calls for a sentence to run concurrent to the up to 43 years he is serving in two other cases one in which he convicted in 2018 of having sex with a young girl after giving her marijuana and alcohol, and 2016 conviction on drug and weapons charges. District Attorney Michael Piecuch said he made the plea offer to spare the two girls from having to go through a trial. Its been a very long road for them, he said, referring to the many delays in the case. The most recent was a mistrial declared in March 2019 at the conclusion of the prosecutions case, which included testimony by the girls. Prior to the mistrial, Judge Michael H. Sholley had granted a defense motion that resulted in Poust being acquitted of 30 counts and his girlfriend, Chanel H. Kantz, being acquitted of 43 counts. Charges involving a third girl were dismissed, as were counts in which the two victims said they were unconscious or unaware of what had occurred. Poust and Kantz, 28, were charged following an 11-month state police investigation into drug- and alcohol-related activities in the camper they shared in the Port Trevorton area. The probe began after a women, then 20 years old, saw a photo that made her realize that when she was a minor, she had performed oral sex in the camper. Two other women made similar allegations against Poust and Kantz, who fled to California. They were were arrested there June 1, 2016. Jury selection for a new trial for Poust and Kantz was scheduled for May but it had been continued due to the coronavirus situation. There are pretrial motions outstanding for Kantz who is free on bail. Poust already is required to register as a sex offender. The United Kingdom on April 4 recorded the death of its youngest victim after a five-year-old boy with pre-existing underlying health issues died due to coronavirus. According to the United Kingdom's health ministry, the five-year-old was among the 708 COVID-19 patients who lost their lives on April 4. The National Health Service (NHS) said that 637 of the total latest deaths were reported from England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who himself is in self-isolation after testing positive for the virus, ordered a nationwide lockdown starting from March 23 in order to block the spread of the disease. Businesses and educational institutions are shut in the country with its borders closed. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that if social distancing orders are eased there will be more deaths in the country. Read: COVID-19: Differently-abled Chess Prodigy Donates National Award Money To PM CARES Fund The United Kingdom has surpassed China's death toll as more than 4,300 deaths have occurred due to coronavirus in the country so far. According to data, the United Kingdom has logged in 41,903 confirmed coronavirus cases, of which 37,455 are still active. The United Kingdom has successfully treated more than 135 patients, while 163 remain under critical. Read: Coronavirus Survivors Donate Blood Plasma To Help Sick People Fight The Pandemic Coronavirus outbreak COVID-19 has claimed more than 64,700 lives across the world and has infected over 12,02,700 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last month before Italy and Spain overtook it to become countries with the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. Read: COVID-19: Telangana Minister Lauds 'small Farmer With Big Heart' For Donating Rs 50,000 The United States, Iran and France have also surpassed China in terms of the number of deaths recorded, where the combined death toll as of April 5 stands at 19,466. 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: Amid The Coronavirus Outbreak 93-yr-old Granny Sends Adorable Message To Her Family; Watch (Image Credit: AP) Following the global impact of COVID-19, and precautionary measures taken by the UAE Government against the spread of the virus, Meydan Hotels and Hospitality has made the decision to temporarily close The Meydan Hotel and Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa. "With people encouraged to stay home and practice social distancing, our main priority is to safeguard the well-being of our community. Therefore both properties will remain closed from March 26 until April 15. All facilities, including the swimming pool, gym, spa and restaurants will be closed. The Meydan Grandstand event operations will also be temporarily closed," the group said in a statement. All customers who have placed bookings with the two hotels will be given the option to change their booking for a later date, receive a full refund or be recommended to other hotels in the surrounding area. Meydan Hotels and Hospitality is devoted to ensuring the health and safety of its staff, residents and visitors and is adhering to the Governments regulations and directives. It will use the following two weeks to deep clean, refresh amenities and make product improvements to provide guests with unmatched services and experiences upon reopening, it said. Mohamed Shawky, hotel manager, The Meydan Hotel, said: These are incredibly difficult times for us all. While we are temporarily closing our doors with a heavy heart, we know that this is the right decision to ensure the health and safety of our community. We are working very closely with local authorities as the situation evolves and very much look forward to reopening our doors next month. In the meantime, we urge everyone to stay home, stay safe and make healthy choices. Ziad Sleiman, hotel manager, Bab Al Shams Desert Resort and Spa, said: During this unprecedented period, our thoughts are with our guests and staff. We have chosen to use this time to carry out essential works and maintenance at both properties, so that when we reopen, we will continue to provide seamless, five-star, experiences to higher standards for all of our guests. We will remain optimistic, work together to overcome this crisis and look forward to welcoming our communities, local residents and tourist back with warmth and care. - TradeArabia News Service The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. Follow this story and more by signing up for national breaking news email alerts. An average Indian cinema-lover cant be expected to know who is a Djibril Diop Mambety of Senegal or how effusively Jitka Bendova of Czechoslovakia expresses emotions. Yet, we encourage the average cine-goer, splitting his hair out of boredom during the lock-down to explore these non-Indian and non-English films of World Cinema for their content and artistry. Cinema, more than often, serves as a prelude to lives of alien lands. What better way of using these extra time given back to you than opening a new window and taking a fresh view of lives we have never lived, enjoy cultures we know nothing of. It is April, and spring has sprung for the birds. Every morning in the predawn hours, when I go outside to collect my newspaper, I am welcomed by birdsongs. These cheery songs are a comfort, especially now in these unsettling times. While we are being bombarded with COVID-19 updates and practicing social distancing, the birds are unaffected and going about their usual spring rituals. One of these rituals is spring migration. This is when birds leave their wintering grounds and fly north to their summer nesting grounds. We are fortunate in New Mexico to be on a major migratory pathway for a variety of bird species. Some of these migrating birds will travel through New Mexico heading to nesting grounds farther north. Others will make New Mexico their final destination and settle in to nest and raise a family. Here are some of the common backyard birds to look and listen for right now in New Mexico: American Robin: This common and familiar bird is often the harbinger of spring. Robins are fairly large, averaging about 10 inches long, with a dark head and rusty belly. Listen for their beautiful singing in the predawn hours and at dusk. Robins love to splash in birdbaths. Curve-billed Thrasher: Another large bird, averaging 11 inches long, is brownish overall with a long, slightly curved bill. Thrashers are found in desert landscapes and often build their nests in cholla cactus. Thrashers are a member of the mimid family of birds, known for their beautiful, varied songs. Look for the male thrasher to be perched on the top of a pinon tree or cactus when singing. Thrashers will eat dried mealworms, suet and sunflower seed. Broad-tailed Hummingbird: This is usually our first arriving hummingbird. The male has a green back, buffy breast and a red throat. Females have similar coloration, with no color on the throat. Listen for the loud, whistle-like sound the male hummingbird makes with its wings. Now is the time to put out a nectar feeder with a sugar water solution of four parts water to one part white table sugar (no red coloring needed) to get a close-up view of this amazing little bird. Western Tanager: This gorgeous bird, about 7 inches long, is hard to miss. This tanager has a yellow body, orange-red head and black wings with white wing bars. Watch for this colorful bird at your birdbath. Tanagers can also be attracted by providing grape jelly and suet. This virus has many of us staying home to reduce the spread in our communities, but it doesnt have to keep us from enjoying our natural surroundings and the birds that inhabit them. The National Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology are two trusted organizations that have many fun and educational activities to keep you and your family connected to the birds while at home. Go to birds.cornell.edu/home and audubon.org for more information. Be well and stay healthy. Mary Schmauss is the owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Albuquerque. Shes a lifelong birder and author of For the Birds: A Month-by-Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard. The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. TOP OF THE HOUR: 13 hospitalized, 1 dead from cruise ship with coronavirus victims in Miami Washington will return over 400 ventilators to be given to harder-hit states South Korea reports 47 new cases of coronavirus UN Secretary-General says domestic violence reports on rise during pandemic China reports 38 new coronavirus cases, all but one imported British Prime Minister Johnson admitted to a hospital with the coronavirus. Bronx Zoo tiger tests positive for the coronavirus. Fauci: Very good chance coronavirus will assume a seasonal nature. ___ SEOUL, South Korea South Koreas vice health minister has urged vigilance to maintain hard-won gains against the new coronavirus. Kim Gang-lip expressed concerns over loosened attitudes toward social distancing that he says puts the country at potential risk of an infection explosion similar to Europe and the United States. His warning on Monday came after the country reported 47 new cases of the coronavirus, the smallest daily jump since Feb. 20. Infections have continued to wane in the worst-hit city of Daegu, where 6,781 of the countrys 10,284 cases have been reported. However, theres alarm over a steady rise in infections linked to international arrivals as students and other South Korean nationals flock back from the West amid broadening outbreaks and suspended school years. This has inflated the caseload in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Koreas 51 million people live, prompting Gyeonggi province governor Lee Jae-myung to warn last week that an explosion in infections is almost certain. Theres still danger that an explosion in local transmissions which we have been seeing in Europe and the United States can happen in our society at any time, which would collapse our hospital system and spike death rates, Kim said. Story continues Kim pleaded for people to stay at home, citing smartphone data that showed increased crowds in Seouls public parks and leisure districts over the past two weeks. While South Koreas government has shut schools and issued social-distancing guidelines for the public, it has not enforced lockdowns or ordered unessential businesses to close. ___ MIAMI Authorities say 14 people have been taken to hospitals from a cruise ship that docked in Florida with coronavirus victims aboard and one of them has died. Two fatalities were reported earlier aboard the Coral Princess, which docked Saturday in Miami. The ship had more than 1,000 passengers and nearly 900 crew members. Authorities did not immediately disclose whether the 14 people removed for immediate medical attention had a confirmed coronavirus link. The Princess Cruises line ship began disembarking fit passengers cleared for charter flights Sunday. The cruise line said it was delayed by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention policy preventing passengers from being placed on commercial flights. Anyone with symptoms of the disease or recovering from it were being kept on ship until medically cleared. ___ OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the state will return more than 400 ventilators of the 500 it has received from the federal government so they can go to New York and other states hit harder by the coronavirus. The Democratic governor said Sunday that his statewide stay-at-home order and weeks of social distancing have led to slower rates of infections and deaths in Washington. Washington state has 7,666 confirmed cases of the virus and 322 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally on Sunday afternoon. New York has more than 122,000 confirmed cases and more than 4,000 deaths. Washington received 500 ventilators last month from the Strategic National Stockpile. Ive said many times over the last few weeks: We are in this together, Inslee said. This should guide all of our actions at an individual and state level in the coming days and weeks. ___ SEOUL, South Korea South Korea has reported 47 new cases of the coronavirus and three more fatalities, bringing its totals to 10,284 infections and 186 deaths. South Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said at least 769 of the infections were linked to passengers arriving from overseas, with most of the cases detected in the past three weeks in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area. The countrys caseload has slowed from early March, when it was reporting around 500 new cases a day, but officials have raised concern over a steady rise in infections imported from overseas or occurring in hospitals, nursing homes and other live-in facilities. During the weekend, officials extended a government guideline urging people to social distance to slow the spread of the virus by two weeks, guarding against increasing infections in the Seoul metropolitan area and broadening outbreaks in Europe and the United States. ___ UNITED NATIONS United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there has been a horrifying global surge in domestic violence in recent weeks as fear of the coronavirus pandemic has grown along with its social and economic consequences. The U.N. chief, who appealed on March 23 for an immediate cease-fire in conflicts around the world to tackle COVID-19, said in a statement Sunday night it is now time to appeal for an end to all violence, everywhere, now. Guterres said that for many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest in their own homes. And, so, I make a new appeal today for peace at home and in homes around the world, he said. The secretary-general said in some countries, which he didnt name, the number of women calling support services has doubled. At the same time, he said, health care providers and police are overwhelmed and understaffed, local support groups are paralyzed or short of funds, and some domestic violence shelters are closed while others are full. I urge all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19, Guterres said. ___ BEIJING -- China on Monday reported 39 new cases of coronavirus infection 38 of them imported one additional death, 10 suspected cases and 1,047 asymptomatic cases under observation. There were no new confirmed or suspected cases in the epicenter city of Wuhan, where a 14-week lockdown is due to be lifted on Wednesday. China has now recorded a total of 81,708 cases and 3,331 deaths since the COVID-19 illness was first detected there in late December. ___ LONDON British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to a hospital with the new coronavirus. Johnsons office says he is being admitted for tests because he still has symptoms, 10 days after testing positive for the virus. Downing St. says the hospitalization is a precautionary step and he remains in charge of the government. Johnson, 55, has been quarantined in his Downing St. residence since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26. ___ NEW YORK A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday. The 4-year-old Malayan tiger, and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill, are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. The first animal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16. The finding raises new questions about transmission of the virus in animals. The USDA says there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock. The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven by person-to-person transmission, experts say. There have been reports of a small number of pets outside the United States becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldnt pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners. ___ Boeing said it will continue its shutdown of production indefinitely at its Seattle-area facilities because of the spread of the coronavirus. The company in an email to Washington employees said it is extending the planned two-week shutdown rather than reopening Wednesday. The decision affects about 30,000 of Boeings 70,000 employees in the state. The company said the decision is based on the health and safety of its employees, assessment of the coronavirus spread, supply chain concerns and recommendations from government health officials. ___ Republican U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, who was the first congressman to test positive for coronavirus, announced on Twitter that he is now virus free. Today, after being deemed #COVID19 free by my doctor, I was able to reunite with my family in Miami. Though still a bit weak, I feel well, & I applied to participate in the @RedCross plasma donation to help those with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections. ___ NEW ORLEANS The citys Catholic population struggled to celebrate Palm Sunday at a time when the citys churches have stopped holding services under the states stay-at-home mandate. That has meant finding creative ways for pastors to meet the spiritual needs of their parishioners. Rev. Emmanuel Mulenga is the pastor at Saint Augustine Catholic Church, a nearly 200-year-old church in the citys historically African American Treme neighborhood. On Palm Sunday, the church would normally have a special ceremony to commemorate Jesuss entry into Jerusalem. This Sunday, he still gave out palm fronds to parishioners who wanted them while still adhering to social distancing guidelines. He blessed the fronds and put them on a table near the back of the church where people could easily spot them when they came in the back door. About 50 to 60 parishioners turned out, Mulenga said. Despite the social distancing ... the spiritual aspects of our lives, faith, still continues, and I personally believe that under the present circumstances we need those personal connections and prayer even more, he said. ___ The company 3M said it is working with German authorities to determine whether an incorrect report of one of its mask shipments being diverted to the United States was due to fraud. Berlin authorities had said last week that a shipment of 200,000 masks intended for Berlin police had been seized in Thailand en route from China. In a statement Sunday, 3M said it had no record of an order for Berlin police and has offered to help governments verify the authenticity of any offers to sell protective masks, which are used to prevent the spread of coronavirus to health workers and others. ___ Louisiana health officials reported 68 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, marking the states biggest jump in reported deaths since the outbreak began. The Louisiana Department of Health reported the figures on its website Sunday. The number of infections reported to the state also increased by more than 500 cases from 12,496 to 13,010. Before Sunday, the largest number of deaths reported in a single day was 60. The numbers represent when the tests were reported to the state, not necessarily when the infections or deaths occurred. Louisiana and the New Orleans area have been an epicenter for the virus, and Gov. John Bel Edwards has repeatedly warned of looming shortages for ventilators and intensive care units. ___ WASHINGTON The District of Columbia has announced 96 more positive infections from the COVID-19 coronavirus, bringing the total up to 998, with 22 deaths. Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued a stay-home order for Washingtons approximately 700,000 residents. Neighboring Maryland and Virginia have done the same. Bowser has declared a state of emergency, shuttered all schools and ordered all non-essential businesses to close. White House and Capitol tours have been cancelled and the National Zoo, Smithsonian museum network and Kennedy Center have closed. ___ ANNAPOLIS, Md. Gov. Larry Hogan announced new mandates for Marylands nursing homes in order to dull the spread of COVID-19, which has invaded dozens of facilities in the state. Under the threat of criminal penalties, Hogans order and directive from his health secretary demand that nursing home employees in close contact with residents wear facemasks, gloves, gowns and other personal protective gear when providing care. Nursing homes must have expedited testing for the new coronavirus and designated areas where residents with known or suspected COVID-19 are treated, according to the new rules. Violating the rules is a misdemeanor punishable by fines and prison. Hogan said more than 80 nursing homes and long-term care facilities have positive cases or clusters of cases. The most intense cluster is at the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy, where four more residents diagnosed with COVID-19 have now died, bringing the total to nine, health officials announced this weekend. More than 100 residents or staff have tested positive there. The Maryland health department issued guidance nearly four weeks ago to restrict resident visitations and control infections. ___ ATLANTA One of the daughters of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will help lead a new outreach committee in Georgia as the state copes with the coronavirus, Gov. Brian Kemp announced. Bernice King, CEO of The King Center, will co-chair the committee with Engaged Futures Group LLC President Leo Smith, Kemp said. More than a dozen other members, including business and nonprofit leaders, make up the committee. Officials did not immediately release additional details about what the committee will do. Georgia has seen more than 200 deaths in the state and more than 1,200 have been hospitalized. Total infections confirmed in the state exceed 6,600. ___ SIOUX FALLS, S.D. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Dakota rose to 240 Sunday as President Donald Trump declared a major disaster for the state. Trumps order directs federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in areas hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The South Dakota Department of Health reported 28 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus Sunday. That number does not include tests pending in private labs or those who are not being tested. Minnehaha County reports 23 new positive tests, bringing the total number of cases in South Dakotas most populous county to 104. Eighteen of those patients in Minnehaha County have recovered. ___ SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico The ACLU says it is seeking an injunction to block part of Puerto Ricos strict curfew against the new coronavirus and argues that some of its restrictions are unconstitutional. The curfew imposed March 15 has shuttered non-essential businesses in the U.S. territory and ordered people to stay home from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. and remain there even outside those hours unless they have to buy food or medicine, go to the bank or have an emergency or health-related situation. Violators face a $5,000 fine or a six-month jail term, and police have cited hundreds of people. A spokesman for the U.S. territorys Justice Department said Sunday there was no immediate comment. It is the first time the ACLU has decided to file a lawsuit in a U.S. jurisdiction related to a coronavirus curfew. ___ Defense Secretary Mark Esper has issued new requirements for those visiting or working on Department of Defense installations regarding the use of cloth face coverings. Esper says that to the extent practical, all individuals on DOD property will wear the face coverings when they cannot maintain 6 feet of social distance from others. The guidance is effective immediately. It follows a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that encourages people, especially in areas hit hard by the spread of the coronavirus, to use rudimentary coverings such as T-shirts, bandannas and non-medical masks to cover their faces while outdoors. Esper outlined the new requirements in a memorandum to senior military leaders Sunday. Esper said the requirement doesnt apply to a service members personal residence on a military installation. But it does apply to work centers and other public areas. He says exceptions may be approved by local commanders or supervisors and then submitted up the chain of command for awareness. ___ PARIS France reported 357 deaths in hospitals from the virus in a single day Sunday but showed signs that its spread is slowing after 20 days of national confinement. The country remains among the hardest hit in the world, with 8,078 confirmed deaths since the virus arrived in January. More than a quarter of those who died were in nursing homes, according to figures from the national health service Sunday night. Frances intensive care units continue to fill up fast, with 390 new arrivals since Saturday for a total of 6,978 people in critical care beds. But the daily growth has been slowing, and 250 people left intensive care in the same one-day period. Most of those in intensive care are older, but 106 are under 30 years old. While still high, the number of new deaths in hospitals dropped Sunday for the second day straight and was the lowest since March 29. France continued Sunday to transport critically ill patients out of saturated regions to those with more hospital space and has brought in hundreds of medical personnel to help in the overwhelmed Paris region. ___ WASHINGTON Dr. Anthony Fauci says there a very good chance the new coronavirus will assume a seasonal nature because it is unlikely to be under control globally. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He says the virus is unlikely to be completely eradicated from the planet this year. That means the U.S. could see the beginning of a resurgence during the next flu season. Fauci says the prospect of a resurgence is the reason the U.S. is working so hard to get its preparedness better than it was. He says that includes working to develop a vaccine and conducting clinical trials on therapeutic interventions. Fauci also says states that dont have stay-at-home orders are not putting the rest of the country at risk as much as they are putting themselves at risk. Fauci spoke on CBSs Face the Nation. ___ LOUISVILLE, Ky. Some Kentucky churches held Palm Sunday services in defiance of Gov. Andy Beshears warning against in-person worship. Dozens of people were at Maryville Baptist Church in Louisville on Sunday, news outlets reported. A video showed a pianist playing and choir members singing during the late morning service. Louisvilles Our Savior Lutheran Church streamed its in-person service live on YouTube. The church had required online registration beforehand and restricted seating to every other pew. The video stream did not show the audience. Beshear warned during his daily briefing on Saturday that mass gatherings are spreading the coronavirus. We care about each other in this state, and our faith guides us and gives us the wisdom to do the right thing to protect each other. Some states, including Florida, have made exemptions to allow religious gatherings to proceed during the coronavirus. Kentucky does not have that exemption. ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak A man in central Russia shot and killed five people for talking noisily at night under his windows, investigators said Sunday. The shootings took place in the Ryazan region during stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. A 32-year-old man from the small town of Yelatma opened fire on a group of four young men and a woman who "were talking loudly in the street under his windows" at around 10 pm on Saturday, investigators said. Yelatma is located near the city of Ryazan, which is situated some 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of the capital Moscow. The man went to his balcony to complain to the group and a dispute erupted before he reached for his single-barrel hunting rifle, the Investigative Committee said. "They all died of their injuries on the spot," it said in a statement. The suspect whose name was not released has been arrested. His apartment has been searched and the weapon seized. Deputy Ryazan region governor Igor Grekov travelled to the scene of the shootings on Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Donald Trump to Fire Inspector Who Defied Him on Whistleblower Complaint - Reports Sputnik News 06:02 GMT 04.04.2020 Last year, Michael Atkinson notified the US Congress that he'd receiving a complaint from an intelligence officer concerning the July telephone conversation between the US President and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. The content of the conversation ultimately became the reason for the impeachment proceedings against Trump. US President Donald Trump has notified Congress that he intends to dismiss Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who was investigating an informant complaint that initiated the impeachment process, the Washington Post reported, citing a letter from the president. In November of last year, the New York Times, citing a source, reported that Trump was considering dismissing Atkinson because he did not understand why he had filed the complaint. At the same time, other newspaper sources noted that although Trump did express such an idea, "the dismissal of Atkinson was never seriously considered." "This is to advise that I am exercising my power as President to remove from office the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, effective 30 days from today," Trump wrote in a letter quoted by The Hill. According to the Washington Post, Trump sent a letter of intent to Congress on Friday night. Trump's impeachment process began after a complaint by an unnamed intelligence officer about his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Atkinson was investigating the informant's complaint about Trump's conversation with Zelensky, which led to the start of the impeachment investigation. On 5 February, Trump was acquitted by the Senate of charges that he had abused the powers of his office and obstructed Congress as it probed his alleged attempts to press Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter regarding their potentially illegal business activities in the country. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lenovo Legion is set to deliver gaming enthusiasts with more immersive experiences. Its upcoming PC line-up will feature the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU with Max-Q Design and up to new 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series mobile processors. New Lenovo Legion 7i laptop to unveil this year Powered by the new GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs with Max-Q Design on the new Lenovo Legion 7i laptop, gamers will enjoy higher clock speeds and new levels of realism in todays AAA games. Its sibling, the new Lenovo Legion 5i laptop, will offer up to RTX 2060 GPU. Lenovo Legions new gaming PCs will also support NVIDIA G-SYNC technology for smoother, tear-free gameplay. Both new Lenovo Legion laptops will offer up to the latest 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series mobile processors too. Whats more, the new Lenovo Legion PCs, including the Lenovo Legion 7i and Lenovo Legion 5i, will also be the first to feature the new NVIDIA Advanced Optimus technology for improved battery efficiency.1 Developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, Advanced Optimus dynamically detects GPU workloads and automatically connects either the NVIDIA GPU (for demanding workloads) or the IGP (for light workloads) to the display. This helps to preserve battery life when light workload applications are running and delivers maximum performance and framerates when games are being played. New Lenovo Legion 5i laptop to unveil this year Availability and Pricing The Lenovo Legion 5i and the Lenovo Legion Y540 laptops with the RTX 2060 GPU option will be available starting at US$999. Lenovo Legion 7i and Lenovo Legion Y740 laptops with the RTX 2070 GPU will be available starting at US$1199. Availability will vary by region. https://www.aish.com/sp/pg/Passover-and-the-Three-Phases-of-Life.html Its no accident that life is comprised of highs and lows. Life is made up of three distinct phases that repeatedly occur. Knowing how these three phases work gives you a deeper understanding in how to live more meaningfully. Phase One is an exciting, euphoric, high moment which is a gift a freebie an undeserved handout which was unearned. Phase Two is the moment when the euphoria, high excitement and high feeling dissipates and the high turns to a mundane, difficult and trying time. Phase Three is the return of the high feeling, only now it is mine, deserved and earned rather than having been a handout or freebie. Here are a few examples: Phase One: Your eyes meet across a crowded room. Instant attraction. Fireworks. Chemistry. You keep hearing the theme song of the Titanic playing as you walk down the street together. Infatuation. Courtship. Romance. Falling in Love. This phase is a freebie. Its an unearned gift. Enjoy it! Phase Two: Commitment. Then a ring. Then marriage. Then reality sets in. Why did you leave the cap off of the toothpaste? Why didnt you call to say that you would be late? Why cant you be more supportive of me when Im down. You dont bring me flowers anymore. This is the trying phase when the excitement of the courtship/honeymoon period wears off in order to give the couple the chance to work through issues and make the relationship work, through their own efforts. It is at this point when many couples in our immediate gratification society break up. When the romance, the good times and the fun of the relationship are not good for me anymore I walk. The secret is to work through the differences in our respective upbringing and think of how to make things work. Phase One was a gift in order to taste how good the relationship could possibly be. Then the magic is taken away on purpose to allow the couple to work for and earn the gift of the relationship. They work on themselves and the relationship and make it their own. Phase Three: The couple achieve a working modus operandi in the relationship whereby they begin to understand each other and their respective needs. The couple learns to be giving to each other rather than being takers. They learn to understand the way the other person thinks and thus learn to respect one another while not necessarily agreeing with each other. The relationship begins to bond and gel. It flows. The relationship now belongs to the couple. They have earned the success in the relationship through hard work, each working on his or her own personality and personal self-control. It may take three, five or ten years. They recreate the feelings they experienced in Phase One, only now, the feelings are more grounded and based in reality rather than infatuation and fantasy. Precisely at the moment when the excitement and euphoria of Phase One begins to wane is the moment to hang in there and invest more energy and effort in making it work. The same three-phase model applies to a new job or project. Even though I got good grades in school, secured positive recommendations and got some good work experience, at the end of the day Ive got to be in the right place at the right time, and that usually has nothing to do with my own deserving efforts. At first I am offered the job having been headhunted or chosen from among many applicants. Congratulations! Did you earn this opportunity? It is a freebie. Thats Phase One. Then deadlines set in. I have to make the success happen. I have to earn the freebie. Thats Phase Two. Then, when I meet the deadline and achieve success, the job or project become mine. Thats Phase Three. Precisely at the moment when the excitement and euphoria of Phase One begins to wane is the moment to hang in there and invest more energy, effort and time in making it work. At the moment when many people give up on a relationship, when I might say, This is not for me, that is exactly the moment to keep going and keep trying. Otherwise the relationship is not mine. I have to make it mine by digging deep into my spiritual center, and reflecting on how I can change myself, rather than change the situation or my partner. The challenge is sent to me not to break me but to re-create me. It is up to me to re-create myself. To walk away without a full, concerted and spirited effort is to miss the point of the challenge. Designed by God God gives us the freebie in the first place, allowing us to taste how sweet romance can be by introducing us to our future soul mate, falling in love, the wedding and honeymoon. Then, no sooner than we taste the sweetness of being in love, God purposely brings us down to the reality of setting up a home, bills, and how come you dont pick up after yourself. It is God Who removes the euphoric honeymoon feeling so that we can start earning the right to the original free handout. When we work through the issues, then we earn the success of the relationship through our own efforts and arrive at a new level of understanding in the relationship. As soon as we feel the euphoria of Phase 1 waning, it is precisely then that we must realize that God is challenging us to maintain our faith and to begin earning our undeserved handout so that we can arrive at Phase 3, which is a new and even more rewarding level. Passovers Three Phases The source of this model can be found in Passover. Phase 1: The Israelites were taken out of Egypt by Gods outstretched arm through the Ten Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea, even though they did not deserve to be redeemed. They had forgotten the ways of their forbears, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and engaged in the worship of idols much the same as their Egyptian overlords. God gave them an undeserved handout by redeeming them, anyway. He did this because of His original promise to Abraham that He would one day redeem Abrahams descendants and bring them to the Promised Land. Phase 2: After experiencing the Splitting of the Sea and the euphoria of freedom from their oppressors, the Israelites had to face the prospect of living in the harsh Sinai desert. Although the Clouds of Glory protected them from the elements to a great extent, nevertheless, they had to face their share of difficulties. They had to come to terms with their freedom by maintaining their faith in God despite their ordeals, thereby earning their previously undeserved freedom. Phase 3: After wrestling with their faith in God in the desert, the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. They earned their right to receive this Blueprint of Life after their struggle through the desert which earned them their spiritual redemption. Receiving the Ten Commandments was their spiritual reward. Many people throughout history have been inspired by the Israelites Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Thomas Jefferson wanted to use the Exodus scene as the motif of the founding of the United States of America. The Civil Rights movement identified their quest for equal rights as a reenactment of the Israelites quest for freedom. We are in fact the most free society in history. The question we must ask ourselves is: what are we doing with our freedom? Are we making use of our time in this world constructively or are we just passing the time? When God challenges us with crises like the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, He is speaking to us and is urging us to rethink our priorities. He is challenging us to work on ourselves and to redouble our efforts to make our lives count. Splitting of the Sea The Midrash tells us that Moses had a dialogue with the Red Sea as the Israelites approached it when they were being chased by the Egyptians. Moses told the sea to split. The sea responded that it would not as it was fulfilling Gods will by flowing in its natural state. But when the sea saw the coffin of Yoseph Hatzaddik Joseph the Righteous approaching, the Book of Psalms states, hayam raah vayanos The sea saw and it fled (Psalms 114:3). Joseph is called righteous because he went against his natural inclination and resisted the seductive advances of Potiphars wife. The Torah states: But he left his garment in her hand, and he fled (Genesis 39:12). The sea saw that Joseph rose above his nature so it too could go against its nature and stop flowing naturally to allow the Israelites to cross through the sea. Since Joseph fled, the sea too fled and split, measure for measure. We were created in order to develop and refine our natural tendencies, not to become entrenched in them. Our purpose in life is to overcome and to grow in character and personal refinement. We cannot say: Well, thats the way God made me. Im short tempered, lazy, unmotivated, its just the way I am. We were created in order to develop and refine our natural tendencies, not to become entrenched in them. Our job is to take charge of our personalities and to change our natural way of doing things in order to achieve our potential. We each have an area of constructive talent that we need to develop and bring to the world. There is one area which gives full expression to your highest attribute, i.e. kindness, leadership, empathy, integrity. Actualizing that attribute and giving it to the world brings meaning and fulfillment to our life. That is our personal unique Passover offering to the world. And we each have a particular weakness that we need to rectify and refine. It may be anger, sadness or negativity. My great teacher, Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, ztzl, taught that each of us knows, deep down, what we need to fix. It is our life task to take a personal inventory of our strengths and weaknesses and to work on ourselves in order to make our unique positive contribution and rectify our unique personal weakness. The great ethicist, Rabbi Yisroel Salanter tells us how we can discover the flaw that we need to rectify. The prophet Hoshea 14:2, states: And you shall stumble on your mistake. Rabbi Salanter explains that if there is a certain mistake I continuously make, and it bothers me to my core, that is my soul speaking to me, asking me to fix it. If, for example, I am always losing my temper, I am always jealous, or am always letting people down, and it really gets me upset, then chances are that is the issue I need to address. If we resolve to work on our personal character flaw and rededicate ourselves to making our unique contribution to the world, then we will have a personal redemption from our personal Egyptian exile the exile from our true selves and G0d willing redeem ourselves and the world from this tragic plague. Each of us can and must do our part to redeem the world. Sir Keir Starmer has made leadership rival Lisa Nandy his shadow foreign secretary as the new Labour leader announced a series of senior appointments to his top team - and ousted allies of Jeremy Corbyn. Sir Keir has handed massive promotions to shadow junior Treasury minister Anneliese Dodds who he has made his shadow chancellor while shadow junior Home Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds is now shadow home secretary. Meanwhile, Angela Rayner, who was yesterday elected deputy party leader, has been appointed party chairman, while Rachel Reeves, who last served in Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet in 2015, returns as shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The final appointment made by Sir Keir today sees Jonathan Ashworth kept on as shadow health secretary. The new Labour leader said all of the above people will now serve in a shadow Covid-19 committee which will determine the party's response to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Sir Keir's overhaul of the Labour frontbench is likely to spark accusations of a bonfire of the Corbynites after he moved to get rid of three of the old leader's most vocal supporters. Ian Lavery announced before Sir Keir published the new appointments he was out as party chairman while Barry Gardiner and Jon Trickett did the same as they were told they would not be returning as shadow international trade secretary and shadow minister for the Cabinet Office respectively. This morning Sir Keir pledged his shadow cabinet will be 'balanced' in comments viewed as a commitment that he will bring Blairite MPs who were effectively banished during Mr Corbyn's tenure back into the fold. Sir Keir started to reshape his Labour top team after he savaged Boris Johnson's handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing the Prime Minister of making 'serious mistakes'. Sir Keir Starmer, pictured this morning arriving at the BBC, has started to make appointments to his Labour frontbench after winning the party leadership yesterday Lisa Nandy has been appointed shadow foreign secretary while Anneliese Dodds (pictured right) is the new shadow chancellor Nick Thomas Symonds is the new shadow home secretary while Rachel Reeves returns to the frontbench as the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Jonathan Ashworth has been kept on as shadow health secretary while Angela Rayner is the new party chairman. Sir Keir Starmer's new top team in full The new Labour leader set out a handful of senior appointments to his shadow cabinet this evening. They are: Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Lisa Nandy, Shadow Foreign Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Home Secretary Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Nick Brown has been re-appointed Chief Whip and Angela Smith remains Shadow Leader of the Lords. Advertisement Sir Keir takes over the Labour leadership at a uniquely challenging time due to the spread of coronavirus. His shadow cabinet appointments represent a significant moment because they will set the tone for the start of his premiership. The elevation of Ms Nandy, who came third in the leadership contest, comes at the expense of Emily Thornberry who had served as shadow foreign secretary since June 2016. However, Ms Thornberry is expected to stay in the shadow cabinet in a new role when the rest of Sir Keir's appointments are announced tomorrow. Nick Brown has also been kept on as chief whip while Angela Smith is still shadow leader of the House of Lords. Sir Keir said: 'We are living through a national emergency. Under my leadership, the Labour Party will always act in the country's interest to save lives and protect livelihoods. That will be the number one priority of my shadow cabinet. 'We will be a responsible opposition that supports the government where we believe they are right and challenge them when we believe mistakes are being made.' John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, had already made clear they intended to return to the Labour backbenches. But the futures of other senior prominent Corbyn-era figures remain unclear. One of the main questions now facing Sir Keir is whether he will offer his other leadership challenger, Rebecca Long-Bailey, currently the shadow business secretary, a role in his team. Meanwhile, the removal of Mr Lavery, Mr Trickett and Mr Gardiner is likely to worry those on the left of the party who will fear Sir Keir is trying to ease away from Mr Corbyn's hardline socialist vision for the UK now that he has won power. Mr Lavery fired a warning shot across the bows of Sir Keir as he said that 'Saturday marked a change in leadership but there can be no turning back the clock'. Sir Keir was earlier asked during his first broadcast interview since becoming leader if his shadow cabinet will look like Mr Corbyn's or if it will have elements from across the Labour Party. He replied: 'I am not going to go into individual names but it will be balanced across the party, it will be balanced across the country and of course it will be balanced in terms of diversity.' While Sir Keir would not discuss specific names, he hinted he did intend to give roles to centrist and moderate MPs who did not get jobs under Mr Corbyn. He told the BBC: 'I will have in my shadow cabinet those who want to serve towards the future aim of winning that next general election. It will be a talented, balanced shadow cabinet.' His shadow cabinet appointments were initially delayed this afternoon because he had to take part in a briefing phone call with the Cabinet Secretary, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser. Sir Keir has agreed to work with the government after receiving an invite from Boris Johnson yesterday. The PM wrote to the leaders of the UK's main opposition parties to ask them to help him defeat coronavirus. They are due to meet for a briefing this week. Jon Trickett, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, has also been pushed out of the shadow cabinet Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, said he had been 'stood down' by Sir Keir Sir Keir said he will attend the briefing but risked souring relations with the PM before they meet as he launched an outspoken attack on his rival. Appearing on the BBC, Sir Keir said Labour 'won't demand the impossible' from the government but that Mr Johnson can expect a grilling on key issues like testing and protective equipment for NHS staff. Sir Keir said: 'I do think getting the balance right is important here. We have got to be constructive, we have got to pull together, support the government where it is right to do so but asking those difficult questions matters. 'You can see that when the difficult questions were asked on testing things began to move, same thing with equipment on the frontline.' Sir Keir said Labour would 'do our bit to offer solutions' but would also 'speak for those who have been ignored', and expose mistakes where they are found 'to ensure that they are rectified as soon as possible'. Writing in The Sunday Times, he said: 'And let's be honest, serious mistakes have been made. 'The public is placing an enormous trust in the government at the moment: it is vital that that trust is met with openness and transparency about those mistakes and the decisions that have been made.' Tanaiste Simon Coveney pictured being given a tour of Smarttech247's new Security Operations Centre by CEO Ronan Murphy. IRISH hospitals and healthcare facilities have been warned they are now being targeted by ruthless international cyber criminals seeking to exploit the Covid-19 crisis. Cork-based cyber protection firm, Smarttech247, said hospitals across Ireland and Europe now face an unprecedented threat from gangs seeking to cash-in on the pandemic. Interpol, in a formal warning to Ireland and other European countries, said hospitals and healthcare agencies at the forefront of the global response to the Covid-19 outbreak have become targets of ransomware attacks designed to lock them out of their critical systems in an attempt to extort payments. Global cybergangs, having initially ignored the pandemic, are now seeking to exploit the Covid-19 crisis for profit. The international police agency said the threat was very serious - and could have devastating consequences if key hospitals are effectively locked-out of their core IT systems, with the potential for lives to be lost. Smarttech247 said it had noted an alarming increase in "brute force" attacks aimed at overpowering IT security systems. The issuing of a so-called Purple Notice by Interpol to all 194 of its member countries shows how serious the threat has become," Smarttech247 general manager Raluca Saceanu said. "Cybercriminals had previously been reluctant to target medical institutions during the crisis, however these are often ruthless individuals driven by profit at any cost." "Our security operations centres have noted a significant spike in so-called brute force attacks, as well as ransomware attempts in the past three weeks." "Hospitals here need to be sure that their systems have been fully updated, and patched against any threats that have previously been identified. The Cork-based firm said it is working round-the-clock with several Irish agencies to beef-up protection against such mounting cyber attacks. "Security operations centres like ours are closely monitoring the activities of these criminals globally, and we urge IT managers with concerns to urgently engage external support to ensure the delivery of care in our hospitals can continue without interruption from cyber-attack." "We are willing to join the national effort to support hospitals who have concerns, and ensure they are protected at no extra cost during this critical time. IT experts have urged hospitals and healthcare facilities to exercise extreme care and to follow simple guidelines including: avoid clicking on links or open attachments in suspicious or unexpected emails; ensure all important files are backed up; ensure anti-virus solutions are in place for all devices; use strong, unique passwords for all systems and update all passwords regularly. The Cork Airport based operation ranks not only as one of the most advanced cyber security firms in Ireland but in the world. The Cork complex has a 'live' link to the IBM supercomputer and Palo Alto Networks which allows even sophisticated State-backed cyber attacks to be identified and tackled in between two and five minutes. Tackling such attacks by manual means could require six weeks. It was Smarttech that revealed last year a major ransomware attack on Ireland was the work of North Korean-backed cyber criminals. Since 2015, the number of ransomware attacks on firms has increased by a staggering 1,500pc. The HSE have said 794 people are currently in hospital being treated for Covid-19. 142 of the 794 patients are being treated in intensive care units (ICU). HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor said the capacity is in place to cope with any surge in cases. She said: "We still have 2,562 vacant beds, even though we are seeing numbers grow, our capacity in our hospital system, and that doesn't take into account the private system, is still very significant and we still have a lot of capacity." "We also still have 109 critical care beds, that we can use immediately and we have a surge plan, for critical care, within the public system alone, that would see us go up to 800 [beds]." 1,100 ventilators in Ireland with 250 more expected for hospitals this week HSE chief executive Paul Reid said there are currently 1,100 ventilators in Ireland. In an online briefing today, Mr Reid also more ventilators had been secured and are being tested, with 250 expected to be delivered to hospitals this week. His comments came as Dr.Catherine Motherway, the President of the Intensive Care Society, warned that intensive care units (ICU) can only guarantee space if the rate of Covid-19 infection continues to fall. 158 people are now being treated in ICUs across the country, with units in Dublin said to be under the most pressure. This news comes as the NHS in the UK sadi it was also assessing its own ventilator capacity. The UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the UK health service may not reach full ventilator capacity before the peak of the coronavirus. He said that the health authorities expect the peak of the coronavirus outbreak will hit within a week to 10 days. 65% of new PPE suitable for direct use, 15% for substitute use and 20% unsuitable 80% of personal protective equipment (PPE) received from China this week as apart of a 200m order was suitable for distribution among staff. 65% was immediately distributed for use after examination while 15% was identified as a substitute for some equipment. In an online briefing this morning, HSE CEO Paul Reid said the remaining 20% of personal protective equipment that has arrived in Ireland so far is not suitable for general healthcare use. Millions of euro worth of PPE has already been flown here from China for use by medical staff. The HSE insisted some of the 20% of equipment not suitable could be used for other purposes, such as in isolation facilities. CEO Paul Reid said they have tried to make sure this does not happen again. He said: "We have been in discussions with the supplier, we don't want any further delivery of this kit in the next orders. "We want the required specification that we have set out and we have had discussions with them this week, "And we are expecting to see some samples, with the revised specifications, sent to us." Concerns were also raised about the increase in nursing home infections from 14 clusters to 40 and the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) to treat patients. Target is to test 4,500 Covid-19 cases from next week HSE CEO Paul Reid gives an update in Dublin (Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland/PA) The HSE said they will be in position from next week to test 4,500 cases per day. This is an increase from 1,500 cases tested per day the previous week. HSE Paul Reid said that steps have been taken also to secure supply chains for the new laboratory testing centres. The supply of reagents will be critical to carry out this level of testing according to the HSE. COVID19 (coronavirus) update from PPE distribution centre, Rathcoole https://t.co/u6tahU1Fri HSE Ireland (@HSELive) April 5, 2020 The HSE held an online press briefing today amid the Covid-19 outbreak due to social distancing measures. Journalists were not present and questions were submitted by text message. More to follow as we get it ... So many people are doing so much good right now in the midst of a worldwide catastrophe. Its unprecedented the challenges we face, and were going to need an unprecedented boost from all corners to get through, and over, this. There is no way to highlight everyone and every group that is pitching in. I recognize that, you recognize that. But when I stumble into something, Im going to share it. Why not share the good, right? So lets talk about Dr. Lawrence Boyd and the work hes doing as both the pastor (along with his wife) of his church Chosen Generation on North Montgomery Street and as the head honcho of HelpSelf, a non-profit in the city. Also note, for the record, Boyd has a 9-to-5 as a New Jersey Head Start family partnership coordinator, and hes a father to two small children. The man is busy, to be sure. And hes mostly busy helping others. We want to do our part during this pandemic, Boyd told me. Weve given out baskets of food to all of our families, enough food for a week. We did that in partnership with our church. Obviously, when this started, we thought it would be for two weeks. Now its until whenever. This past Friday evening, the church gave out hot meals to residents in need, both as a grab n go and through deliveries. Boyd and his volunteers have packed bags of snacks for countless Trenton residents, and have made sure some of their food and snacks have made it to the senior citizen high rises. Were a small church and small organization, but have been helping people with food and workshops for 12 years, Boyd said. HelpSelf, along with the church and other partners, runs an after-school program for 35 kids, grades K-8. The organization also has a food pantry twice a month that serves about 50 families. And during the summertime, HelpSelf offers a low cost nine-week summer program for about 50 students. For the record, theyve been doing all this and more on about $50,000 a year. A lof of volunteers! Boyd said, laughing, when I asked how he pulls this off. Obviously, right now, there are no after-school programs, no twice-monthly food pantries, summer camp is even up in the air. So Boyd pivoted. First with the food, next with the kids. We delivered pencils and pens and crayons and notebooks and all kinds of other educational supplies, Boyd said. Kids are expected to keep up in school, we wanted to make sure they had the materials. Additionally, Boyd said he was able to reroute some grant funding and are now operating on virtual level, doing virtual reading and math lessons, along with family engagement and stress relief. We just really believe something good is going to come out of all this, Boyd said. We enjoy pastoring the church, but our greatest joy is doing things of this nature. Chinese police officers wear protective masks as they march in formation away from a national flag at half staff after observing three minutes of silence to mark the country's national day of mourning for COVID-19 at Beijing Railway Station in Beijing on April 4, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Chinese Netizens Angry at Beijings Public Mourning Over Virus Victims Many Chinese netizens were displeased at the central governments announcement of a nationwide public mourning for people who died in the current pandemic. They criticized authorities for putting on a show while failing to disclose the truth of the outbreak. Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese holiday when people pay their respects to ancestors. Its celebrated on the 15th day after the spring equinox; this year, it falls on April 4. Chinas State Council issued a statement on April 3 declaring that mourning activities for victims of the CCP virus would be held across the country the following day. Flags were to be flown at half-mast across the country and at overseas embassies. All leisure activities in the country would also be suspended. Finally, people should mourn for three minutes beginning at 10 a.m. on April 4. Cars, trains, warships, and air defense would also blow their horns. Some Chinese government websites were converted to black and white on April 4, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. Chinese state-run media Xinhua reported that several of Chinas top leaders, including Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, and Li Zhanshu, with white flowers pinned to their chests, stood in silence for 3 minutes beginning at 10 a.m. on April 4 at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) compound in Beijing. Beijings public display of grief drew outcry from many Chinese netizens, who said these were acts of sheer hypocrisy. One netizen wrote on Weibo: You [Chinese authorities] choke on their throats when theyre alive, then you mourn for three minutes after theyre dead. Arent you being a hypocrite? Can you be nice to people when they are still alive? Another netizen wrote: All of these horns and sirens are nothing compared to the sound of whistleblowing. They were alluding to authorities silencing of eight doctors, among them ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, after they posted on Chinese social media in December about a new form of pneumonia that was spreading in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Li was subsequently summoned to a police station where he was reprimanded for rumor-mongering and was forced to sign a confession statement. Li passed away in early February after contracting the virus from an infected patient. Chinese netizens expressed frustration after Beijing announced the results of an investigation into Lis case on March 19, in which officers at the local police station were given administrative punishment. Some netizens said the actions were not enough and failed to apprehend those truly responsible for silencing Li. Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer in Beijing, who asked to remain anonymous, said he believed that Beijings coverup led to the spread of the SARS virus in 2002 t0 2003, and this time, the coverup is even more serious. The SARS pandemic in 2002 to 2003 infected 2,769 and killed 425 people outside of mainland China, according to data from the World Health Organization. Experts say the numbers inside China are likely much higher than officially reported. The Chinese Communist Partys evil nature determines how it deals with a crisis. Its first priority is not about peoples lives, but the stability of its authoritarian rule, the lawyer told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in an interview. He said the public mourning was just a show for public consumption, as Chinese officials have continued to suppress freedom of speech while covering up the true scale of the outbreak. Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Washington-based advocacy group, issued a report on April 1, documenting 897 cases involving Chinese internet users being penalized by police for their online speech or info-sharing about coronavirus from Jan. 1 to March 26. The punishments handed out by police fall largely into several types: administrative detention, criminal detention, enforced disappearance, fines, warnings/interrogations, forced confessions and educational reprimand, the report stated. Mr. Li, a resident of Jianan district in Wuhan, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that Chinese leaders were the ones responsible for allowing the virus to spread. Instead of public mournings, Li said that the real way to offer condolences to the dead would be for the CCP to investigate the initial coverup and the origin of the virus. Many victims of the virus are calling on the CCP to apologize and step down [from its rule], Li said. Batangas City (CNN Philippines, April 5) A councilor of Batangas City who tested positive for COVID-19 has died, local officials said Sunday. The Batangas City council said Julian Pedro "Nitoy" Pastor one of the ten residents of the city who tested positive for the highly-contagious disease passed away on Saturday night. He was also the second reported fatality in the area. Authorities said Pastor was brought to a hospital in Metro Manila following the onset of symptoms. No further details were provided regarding the case, but the council said Pastor's colleagues have undergone home quarantine. The Philippines has recorded 3,094 cases of the infectious disease, as of the Health Department's latest record. Of this number, 144 have died, while 57 have recovered. Stringer Ron Lozano contributed to this report. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, we are living in the United States of Propaganda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices As schools lie empty, students still have to learn. But officials in New York City say schools are not permitted to use Zoom for remote teaching, citing security concerns with the video conferencing service. "Providing a safe and secure remote learning experience for our students is essential, and upon further review of security concerns, schools should move away from using Zoom as soon as possible," said Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for the New York City Dept. of Education. "There are many new components to remote learning, and we are making real-time decisions in the best interest of our staff and students." Instead, the city's Dept. of Education is transitioning schools to Microsoft Teams, which the spokesperson said has the "same capabilities with appropriate security measures in place." The ban will cover some 1.1 million students in more than 1,800 schools across the city's five boroughs. The decision to ban Zoom from schools was made in part by New York City's Cyber Command, which launched in 2018 to help keep the city's residents safe. Zoom did not comment by the time of publication, but Zoom's chief marketing officer Janine Pelosi later told TechCrunch that the company was in "continued dialogue" with the city "about how Zoom can be of service during this time." News of the ban comes after a barrage of criticism over the company's security policies and privacy practices, as hundreds of millions of users forced to work during the pandemic from home turn to the video calling platform. On Friday, Zoom's chief executive apologized for "mistakenly" routing some calls through China, after researchers said the setup would put ostensibly encrypted calls at risk of interception by Chinese authorities. Zoom also apologized for claiming its service was end-to-end encrypted when it was not. Zoom also changed its default settings to enable passwords on video calls by default after a wave of "Zoombombing" attacks, which saw unprotected calls invaded by trolls and used to broadcast abusive content. Story continues Not all schools are said to be finding the transition easy. As first reported by Chalkbeat, Zoom quickly became the popular video calling service of choice after city schools closed on March 16. But one school principal in Brooklyn warned the publication that the shift away from Zoom would make it harder to remotely teach their classes, citing a "clunkiness" of Microsoft's service. The city spokesperson said it had been training schools on Microsoft Teams for "several weeks." But the spokesperson did not rule out an eventual return to Zoom, saying that the department "continues to review and monitor developments with Zoom," and will update schools with any changes. Updated with comment from Zoom. This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. D-Day was approaching and Frances 2nd Armored Division was ready to take part. Rafael Gomez Nieto, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and the divisions mostly Spanish Nueve unit shipped off from North Africa to England. The division, led by Gen. Philippe Leclerc, then crossed the English Channel and La Nueve made its way through the French countryside. Mr. Gomezs unit narrowly survived a German encirclement in a French village. He and his comrades forged on, reaching the southern edge of Paris on Aug. 24, 1944. In an armored vehicle named Guernica, he wound his way through side streets to avoid German soldiers and then raced at full speed toward City Hall. His unit turned out to be the first Allied force to take part in the liberation of Paris. I entered Paris with the Guernica, we were Spanish and voila! Mr. Gomez recalled in a documentary aired by Canal Sur, a regional Spanish channel. People were surprised to see French troops speaking to them in Spanish. As the world settles into a new normal, religious institutions in Saskatoon are finding ways to bring people together and practice their faith while maintaining distance. Saskatoon Morning's Heather Morrison spoke with a Catholic priest, a Rabbi, a Minister and an Imam on how they are coping. On the menu: Confession Father Darryl Millette with Holy Spirit Family Church has created a website where he has compiled live streams of masses from the diocese around Saskatoon and added a playlist of homilies from around the city too. Another creative thing Millette did was set up a parking lot confession station. Confessions have to be in person. Millette set up some cones in the church parking lot where he would stand and more cones for where the people would stand. They were at least 10 to 12 feet away from each other and the lineup was mapped out via cones further back in the parking lot so no one could overhear confessions. "It was all done in person, outside, with the cones set up for physical distancing purposes," Millette said. "It worked out fairly well." Passover via Zoom Just like Millette with the need for confessions to be in person, other faith leaders were coming up against obstacles in their traditional models. According to Jewish law, you need 10 people under the same roof to do the most important parts of a service, including the reading of the Torah. Yet, the Jewish community has found a way to go ahead via online services, like most other faith organizations. "All these restrictions in the past, they were pushing people to be together, to create community," Rabbi Claudio Jodorkovsky said. "Now we cannot do that because it's for our health ... and now online, we all read together." Passover is also coming up on April 9. Usually, people would gather together for Passover Seder, a special celebration with symbolic foods. But this year people will make their own Seder plates and video chat each other on Zoom. Jodorkovsky said he plans to connect with some of his family in Chile for the celebration as well. Story continues Mini congregations Imam Ilyas Sidyot from the Islamic Centre ran into a bit of a snag for his online preparations. He is able to do an Arabic sermon and the call to the prayer which is a signal to members that it is time to pray. But Sidyot said people cannot follow an Imam in prayer in their home. They can listen to the sermon and the call to the prayer, but then someone in the home has to lead the prayer. "They can have their own little congregation in the home," Sidyot said. "I have received many, many messages from the community members that they were very happy and they did appreciate that we reached out to them and we kept them together." Virtual coffee meetups Minister Karen Fraser Gitlitz from the Unitarian Centre is making a point of reaching out to the members of her church and focusing on the times when they can (virtually) be together on Sundays. She said they'll have reached out to every member of their church by this Sunday. "[We want to] see, what is it like for them and what are they dealing with to make sure that we're meeting people's needs and connecting with them and letting them know that we have people who volunteer to get groceries and stuff like that," she said. After their online Sunday services, the group breaks off into smaller groups via video to mingle together. People told Gitlitz they were connecting with people they never had before because of these groups. The Unitarian Centre is also offering phone tutoring for people who want to participate in the service but are less comfortable with technology to show them how these online platforms work. When industries or government agencies receive permits to pollute under federal environmental laws, theyre typically required to monitor, sample, and test regularly, and report the results. But on March 26, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that when companies cant do this work due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it wont penalize them. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has also offered some flexibility. These moves have drawn varying degrees of concern from environmental groups in Montana, as regulators and permit holders from wastewater treatment plants to oil refineries face the challenge of protecting air, land and water amid an unprecedented situation. When the policy was first announced, it drew condemnation from some former EPA officials who considered it a large-scale relaxation of environmental laws. A coalition of environmental groups filed a petition to tighten it. The agency issued a follow-up statement reiterating that the policy does not say that the COVID-19 pandemic will excuse exceedances of pollutant limitations in permits, regulations, and statutes. This doesnt say," said Michelle Bryan, professor of law at the University of Montana, "that the agencies are giving a free pass to polluters. The EPAs policy, released on March 26, states that in general, the EPA does not expect to seek penalties for violations of routine compliance monitoring, integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification obligations in situations where the EPA agrees that COVID-19 was the cause of the noncompliance and the entity provides supporting documentation to the EPA upon request. The policy does not apply to Superfund sites, imports or criminal violations. I think it puts the burden on a company that has reporting observations to explain how COVID-19 restrictions interfered with their ability to report, Bryan said. I dont read it as saying polluters have to stop reporting. I read it as saying if social distancing requirements or access to labs or things like that are impacting your reporting ability, the reporting requirements are not loosened in that situation. While the directive was issued for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality generally enforces the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act within the Treasure State. The policy does allow authorized states or tribes to take a different approach, but Rebecca Harbage, the departments public policy director, says the DEQ also plans to offer some wiggle room. We have heard here and there that (permittees) have concerns about things like supply chain (and) safety of employees, she said. Were working right now to put together some Montana-specific guidance. These are challenging times and we will strive to be flexible where we can." The departments memo, issued Tuesday, offered some limited flexibility to permit holders, and encouraged them to contact the department about compliance issues to resolve them on a case-by-case basis. We are not saying if someones out of compliance, theyre going to be exempt, Harbage said. Thats totally different from a reporting issue. But, said Anne Hedges, lobbyist and executive director for the Montana Environmental Information Center, reporting is foundational to our system of protecting people from air and water pollution. Its the only way we know whether theyre complying with the law, with public health safeguards. If they dont report it, nobody knows. These are hard times, and we are going to push this system, in a lot of ways, to the limit, Hedges said. Companies need to know that theres someone out there thats going to be checking their work. Many of the Montana Petroleum Associations member firms hold Clean Air Act emissions permits. Our intentions are to abide by the law as it is, said Alan Olson, the groups executive director. Speaking with the Missoulian Wednesday, Olson said he was not aware of any monitoring or sampling work being complicated by COVID-19. If the pandemic does prevent monitoring work, he said that our intentions are to notify the Montana Department of Environmental Quality of any issues that may arise from that and do the best that we can do to stay in compliance with the rules and the laws as they exist. The City of Missoula's wastewater treatment facility holds a permit to discharge waste into the Clark Fork River. Missoula's Public Works Department and its Wastewater Treatment Facility will endeavor to meet all regulatory requirements, wrote Gene Connell, the facility's superintendent, in an email. At the same time, he said, the demands of social distancing have put some wrinkles in operations. A portion of our operations personnel have been sent home to self-isolate. These employees are on standby should we need them. As many administrative staff as possible are working remotely. Staff that are being asked to stay on duty are following recommended industrial and CDC guidelines for personal protection and hygiene. Some environmental groups are taking a wait-and-see approach. Tim Preso, an attorney with Earthjustice in Bozeman, wrote that "while it may be appropriate to ensure that enforcement obligations are not unnecessarily putting people in harms way for disease infection, the failure to meet those obligations should not put people in harms way from toxic pollution. Fortunately, many of our environmental laws allow citizens to enforce essential protections for our air and water where the government fails to uphold its responsibility. We are prepared to take enforcement action if polluting industries abuse these EPA and DEQ decisions to unleash harmful pollution on vulnerable communities." In Missoula, the Clark Fork Coalition's legal director, Andrew Gorder, said that if contractors and employees are furloughed and theyre unable to go to work for public reasons, then I do think it does make sense for some flexibility." Both he and UMs Bryan noted that the EPA has allowed some narrow exemptions from environmental laws in the past for instance, when natural disasters made full compliance impossible. But Gorder pointed out that this enforcement discretion was the most recent in a wave of deregulation by the Trump Administration. The New York Times found that the federal government rolled back 95 environmental rules from January 2017 through December 2019. This past week, it also reduced Obama-era car mileage standards. Gorder called the enforcement discretion, on top of these other moves, troubling, because its just generally characteristic of the current administrations policies when it comes to protecting the environment, and I think thats a lot of the outcry that were seeing right now from the environmental community." When you look at the administrations track record, he added, I think that sort of hesitancy and confusion and fear is well-founded. For now, Gorder said, this rules effects have yet to be seen on the ground or in the water of western Montana. While the nonprofit environmental group is concerned about the prospect of wastewater discharge, he said that for now, its just difficult to predict what it could mean in terms of negative impacts. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. By Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Four men acquitted in the kidnapping and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan have been rearrested and will stay in jail while prosecutors appeal the ruling, officials said. A Pakistani court sparked US outrage on Thursday after it quashed the murder conviction of British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh who had been on death row over the 2002 killing. Three alleged accomplices also had their convictions overturned. But Pakistan's interior ministry said late Friday the four would remain in jail while prosecutors appeal their acquittals in the country's Supreme Court. The men have been rearrested and will be detained "for a period of three months pending filing of the appeal", the interior ministry said. The statement reiterated the government's "commitment to follow due process under the laws of the country to bring terrorists to task". Omar Sheikh's kidnapping conviction was upheld by the lower court. He was to spend seven years in jail for that offence and could have walked free for time already served if the government had not intervened. Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants. A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month later. Alice Wells, the top US diplomat for South Asia, called the overturning of the sentences "an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere". She welcomed Friday's decision to appeal. "Those responsible for Daniel's heinous kidnapping and murder must face the full measure of justice," Wells wrote on Twitter. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the US would not forget Pearl. "We continue to honor his legacy as a courageous journalist and demand justice for his brutal murder," Pompeo said. Pearl's killing provoked international revulsion at the time, putting pressure on Pakistan's then military government just as it was trying to remake its image following years of backing for the hardline Islamist Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. Leading scientist Neil Ferguson has admitted that airport officials only stopped a third of Britons returning to the UK with coronavirus. In early March at the beginning of the crisis passengers arriving from countries hit by the pandemic complained there were no checks on landing back in the country. And just last week planes continued to come in from Covid-19 hotspots, with thousands of passengers streaming through major airports with very little medical screening. On Andrew Marr this morning, Professor Ferguson said experts believed health officials had only managed to intercept and isolate about one-third of the people who had flown into the UK having become infected with the virus. Passengers from the Holland America Line ship Zaandam walk through arrivals in Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport in London, after flying back on a repatriation flight from Florida on Saturday He said: 'We seeded infections in different parts of the country and some countries like northern Italy were very unlucky and clearly had community transmission starting very early. 'Here it did start a little bit later.' Some Britons arriving at London's Heathrow Airport were left 'shocked' by the few medical checks being carried out. One passenger Mete Coban, a 27-year-old charity pioneer and Hackney councillor, who returned to Heathrow Airport from the U.S. on March 16, said: 'Considering just how seriously authorities were treating Covid-19 in the US, I was shocked at just how little the UK authorities seemed to care when arriving at Heathrow. 'I think it's completely irresponsible that we're not at least providing guidance to people about social distancing and giving medical advice.' Professor Neil Ferguson, director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London, speaking via video link about the coronavirus outbreak at the Science and Technology Committee at the House of Commons in late March While Chloe Sloggett, a 24-year-old aesthetics practitioner from north London, who arrived at Heathrow on Saturday with her fiance Toby Hastie, said there were far more medical checks in place in Cambodia and Malaysia than upon her arrival in the UK. Ms Sloggett, who has been self-isolating since returning home, said: 'As we walked through Heathrow there were posters to explain dos/don'ts and signs to keep two metres' distance, but no-one there was enforcing it. 'We had our temperature checked in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) twice and then again in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), but nothing when we landed in the UK.' Meanwhile Marc Wilson, a 33-year-old postman from Southampton, said he was similarly confused by a lack of advice on what to do upon his arrival from Guatemala via Mexico and the US. Professor Ferguson also said on Andrew Marr that he could not predict exactly when the lockdown would be lifted. One passenger Mete Coban (left), 27, who returned to Heathrow Airport from the U.S. on March 16, said it was 'completely irresponsible that we're not at least providing guidance to people about social distancing' 'When the lockdown ends will depend on what happens with this epidemic - how quickly case numbers decline,' he said. 'There is no point, having gone through this effort, in releasing a lockdown at a point where case numbers are still high and will resurge even faster than we have seen before. 'We want case numbers to get to a low point where we can start substituting other measures for the most intrusive and economically costly aspects of the current lockdown. 'Almost certainly those additional measures will involve massively ramped-up testing, going back to trying to identify contacts of cases and stopping chains of transmission. 'That can only feasibly be done when we have many few cases per day than we have at the moment.' Even as companies see fall in business amid lockdowns world over, employees have been assured by a number of firms about no or insignificant layoffs. There are companies that have even taken a 90-day no-layoff pledge as lockdown continues amid the coronavirus pandemic, including various global companies with a sizeable presence in India. According to a report in Times of India, firms such as SAP, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, among others are also safeguarding jobs by cutting down on fresh hiring. Firms such as Tata-Starbucks are offering COVID-19 paid leave to employees tested positive. Funds are being set up to help the employees and tackle the pandemic. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Maharashtra reports 25 new COVID-19 cases in Pune, Ahmednagar and Aurangabad "Today we announced a COVID Relief Fund - seed contribution from our mgmt, the board, the company and me of 4M+ - we will match employees 4x. Foregoing salary to contribute. Also, committed to no COVID related layoffs to allay concerns of our employees," Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora tweeted. Most companies have seen fall in business in the past few months after the COVID-19 breakout that has severely affected revenue. The US media quoted Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman as saying that the jobs of the employees would be safe this year. Also read: Coronavirus lockdown: WHO says domestic violence on rise, asks nations to take measures Meanwhile, last week, Moody's Investors Service sharply cut India's growth forecast for calendar 2020 to 2.5 per cent, from 5.3 per cent estimated earlier, after the government ordered a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already predicted that the world has entered recession in the wake of a devastating impact due to the pandemic. The agency, however, projected recovery in the global economy next year. INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. Say the name Jimmy Page and a few images will pop into the minds of rock fans. Many will envision Page at work on his Gibson double-neck guitar during a live rendition of Stairway to Heaven in the 1970s. Or maybe youll see Page duck-walking on stage, playing another Led Zeppelin track. But the chances of someone picturing Page playing a bass guitar are slim-to-none. Outside of a rare 1965 solo record on which Page did everything bass, harmonica, and vocals in addition to guitar the Zep founder and guitar giant rarely played bass professionally. So when you hear that Page joined The Yardbirds as the groups bass player in 1966, we dont blame you for scratching your head. But Page, along with his buddy Jeff Beck (then playing lead guitar in The Yardbirds) had their reasons for Pages odd instrument assignment. Jimmy Page turned down the Yardbirds guitar gig on 2 occasions The Yardbirds pose for a portrait after their show in Los Angeles in September 1966. (L-R) Chris Dreja, Keith Relf, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Jim McCarty | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images The first question many people have about Page and The Yardbirds is the obvious one: Why didnt they ask him to play guitar in the band? And the answer is equally simple: They did, on two separate occasions. The first time came when Eric Clapton was still playing lead in the band. In a 1977 Trouser Press interview, Page described the circumstances of the initial Yardbirds offer. The very first time [Yardbirds manager] Giorgio Gomelsky said that Eric was going to have a holiday, and I could step in and replace him, Page said. That didnt sit right with him. The way he put it to me, it just seemed really distasteful and I refused, Page said. Eric had been a friend of mine and I couldnt possibly be party to that. When Clapton left the group in 1965, The Yardbirds again turned to Page, who turned them down a second time. Thats when he recommended his pal Beck for the lead-guitar spot, and after The Yardbirds agreed everyone seemed happy. However, following a 1966 gig that Page attended, the band started splintering apart. Page finally joined The Yardbirds when the bassist quit suddenly Jimmy Page and Keith Relf of the rock band The Yardbirds perform onstage on August 10, 1966 in Michigan. | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Page got his third offer to join The Yardbirds in 1966. Following a raucous Oxford gig that summer, Paul Samwell-Smith announced he was quitting the band, effectively immediately. Page, whod gone with Beck to watch the group play that night, saw it happen. On the way home, Beck asked if hed finally join and take Samwell-Smiths place until they could find another bassist. Page agreed, thinking hed sit in until they found someone to play the instrument. However, Beck had other motives. Jimmy wasnt a bass player, Beck told Brad Tolinski in the Page biography, Light and Shade. But the only way I could get him involved was by insisting that it would be okay for him to take over on bass in order for the band to continue. Gradually within a week, I think we were talking about doing dueling guitar leads. To make that happen, they switched rhythm-guitarist Chris Dreja to bass and unleashed Page and Beck as the bands leads. Later in 66, during a grueling American tour, Beck left the group, giving Page an unexpected opening as the key figure in The Yardbirds. From there, it wasnt long before he founded Led Zeppelin from the remains of The Yardbirds. Also see: Why Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page Had a Falling-Out in the 1960s With the state reporting two more Covid-19 positive cases on Sunday, the Odisha government allayed earlier fears of community transmission of the coronavirus but asked people to adhere to the lockdown till April 14. Two new coronavirus cases were reported from Bhubaneswar taking the total count in the state to 23. The first was a 29-year-old man from Bomikhal area of Bhubaneswar, where three brothers living in an apartment tested positive on Friday. The person who tested positive on Sunday is another brother. A 70-year-old man in the city who had returned to Bhubaneswar on March 22 from Australia also tested positive. Earlier in the day, Odisha chief secretary Asit Tripathy made it clear that community transmission of the disease is yet to happen in Odisha due to the lockdown and social distancing measures undertaken. As the travel history of the fifth Covid-19 positive patient, a 60-year-old man with co-morbidity conditions was not found initially, we were scared of seeing more positive cases due to community spread. But, we contained it by sealing the area and enforcing a shutdown in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Jajpur. We have actively contained the Covid-19 hotspots during the 48-hour shutdown and hope to continue the same in the near future. The local administration has been empowered to implement the closure of possible infection hotspots for containment of the deadly virus, he said. Though the 60-year-old man from Bhubaneswar had no travel history, yesterday it emerged that his daughter had travelled to Kolkata and stayed there for four days. On Friday, 4 members of the mans family and 3 members of his tenants family tested positive. The chief secretary said the 48-hour shutdown in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Jajpur would come to an end on 8 pm Sunday, but advised people against going out en masse afterwards. Even after shutdown, people are requested to abide by the lockdown rules and avoid gatherings. Social distancing is the only weapon for containment to fight the deadly virus. You might be out to buy vegetables or grocery but will be coming back with the disease, said Tripathy. He further warned that the state would seal small areas if any positive cases were found anywhere in the state. Meanwhile, a team of police in Cuttack was pelted with stones while they were undertaking regular patrolling during the 48-hour shutdown in place this morning. The attack occurred in Kesharpur area. As many as 15 people were arrested over their involvement in the incident. Meanwhile, 400 women self-help groups in Odisha have manufactured over one million masks for distribution among people. The SHGs - under the Odisha governments Mission Shakti programme - made around 50,000 masks every day, as part of its efforts to help the state government in its fight against the coronavirus. Some of the SHG groups have been visiting villages across the state to generate awareness about the disease and are distributing cooked food among the poor, amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown. Queensland police have fined 58 people for breaching tough new coronavirus-related movement restrictions at a private car rally in Brisbanes south. Police say around 150 cars and a large group of people were gathered in a warehouse carpark on Brickworks Place at Rochedale around 10pm on Saturday night. Because they were not socially distancing and the event was not considered an appropriate reason for people to be out of their houses, officers fined multiple people. Some of the drivers attempted to drive off when officers arrived but many cars became bogged in nearby fields, police said. On Sunday, April 5 at 8pm, the Queen's pre-recorded address from Windsor Castle was broadcast to the nation. Below is her full speech: I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. I want to thank everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all. I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times. I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones. The Queen records her address to the nation from Windsor Castle, which was broadcast at 8pm on Sunday, April 5 Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britonsof this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future. The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children. Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort. The Doyle family, in the village of Bishop's Itchington in Warwickshire, join Britons up and down the country to watch Her Majesty's message And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation. It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety. Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do. While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, betterdays will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again. But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all. An 82-year-old man who has recovered from Covid-19 says being diagnosed felt like a death sentence. Tom Gunn from Co. Tipperary served for years with the Defence Forces, was deployed in the Congo and survived the siege of Jadotville. He says tackling the virus was the biggest challenge he faced. He said: "Well I was two days in isolation in a ward on my own, and waiting for the test, and when I got the result, at my age this was the death sentence. "So then you have to try and gather yourself together and fight it off, and definitely all whole life appears in front of you, 'Did you do this, did you do that,' it's a frightening experience. "I was in Jadotville which was a picnic compared to this [coronavirus]." Meanwhile, Nursing Homes Ireland said the Government did not prioritise the sector and were "late to the table" in recognising the threat of Covid-19 to the sector. 40 clusters of Covid-19 infections have been identified in the country - mainly in the east of the country. The group has however welcomed the announcement yesterday of financial support to the care homes and the plan for staff to be checked for Covid-19 symptoms. Forty-four new coronavirus cases surfaced in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, taking the count to 278, an official said. About half of the total are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, from where participants took the virus to several parts of the country. Nine of the 44 fresh cases are from Ghaziabad, eight from Meerut, seven from Lucknow, three each from Agra, Lakhimpur Kheri and Shamli, two each from Varanasi, Hapur, Ghazipur and Rae Bareli, and one each from Barabanki, Auraiya and Banda. Gautam Buddh Nagar district, which includes the New Delhi suburb of Noida, remains the worst-hit with 58 coronavirus positive cases, according to a statement by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) Joint Director Vikasendu Agrawal. Agra follows with 47 cases so far, Meerut 33, Ghaziabad 23, Lucknow 17, Saharanpur 13, Shamli 9, Kanpur 7, Varanasi 7, Banda 6, Bareilly 6, Basti 5, Ghazipur 5, Lakhimpur Kheri 4, Firozabad 4 and Hathras 4, among other districts. Three people have died in the state so far, one each from Basti, Meerut and Varanasi. Altogether, 21 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital eight each from Agra and Noida, three from Ghaziabad and one each from Lucknow and Kanpur. Earlier, Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said 138 cases, about half of the total, are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. He said most of the Jamaat-related cases were detected in Agra (29), Ghaziabad (14), Meerut (13), Shamli (8), Maharajganj (6), Kanpur (6) and Ghazipur (5). The official said so far 31 districts have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The third coronavirus-related death in the state was reported in Varanasi on Friday. Prasad said the patient suffered from diabetes. By the time he came to BHU hospital, his situation had deteriorated," he said, urging people to get themselves tested if they show symptoms of the disease. "The public can avail the benefit of the health department helpline 18001805145. The trained staff will tell you whether you need to get yourself admitted or there is no reason to worry," he said. He said there is no need to panic. "People should adhere to social distancing and wash hands properly. The use of masks is advisable when you go to a public place," he said. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on said the lockdown to contain coronavirus will be lifted on April 15 but called for a mechanism to avoid crowding by people. In a video conference with Members of Parliament from the state, he said all efforts will go waste if this happens after the lockdown is lifted. The three-week nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ends on April 14 midnight. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The national death toll of Australia's 2019/2020 bushfire season was 33 as of Monday, March 2, with 25 confirmed deaths in New South Wales, three in South Australia and five in Victoria. OCTOBER New South Wales: Robert Lindsey, 77, and Gwen Hyde, 68, were found in their burned out Coongbar home near Casino on October 9th. NOVEMBER New South Wales: The body of 85-year-old George Nole was found in a burnt out car near his home in Wytaliba, near Glen Innes. Vivian Chaplain, a 69-year-old woman from Wytaliba, succumbed to her injuries in hospital after attempting in vain to save her home and animals from the blaze. The body of 63-year-old Julie Fletcher was pulled from a scorched building in Johns River, north of Taree. Barry Parsons, 58, was found in a shed at Willawarrin, near Kempsey. Chris Savva, 64, died after his 4WD overturned near burnt-out South Arm bridge, near Nambucca Heads. A 59-year-old man was founded sheltered in a Yarrowitch water tank on November 7. He died of injuries on December 29. Victoria: David Moresi, 69, died after being involved in a traffic incident while working at the at the Gelantipy fire in East Gippsland on November 30. DECEMBER New South Wales: Firefighters Andrew O'Dwyer, 36, and Geoffrey Keaton, 32, died on December 19 after a tree fell on their truck while they were travelling through Buxton, south of Sydney. Samuel McPaul, 28, was battling a blaze in Jingellic, in Green Valley, about 70km east of Albury on the border of NSW and Victoria, on December 30 when a 'fire tornado' caused his 10-tonne firetruck to roll. South Australia: The body of 69-year-old Ron Selth was found in his Charleston home, which was destroyed by the Cudlee Creek blaze on December 21. NEW YEAR'S EVE FIRES New South Wales: Dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, died trying to save their property in Cobargo, near Bega, on December 31. A 70-year-old man, named by local media as Laurie Andrew, was found dead outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola. The body of a 70-year-old man was found in a burnt vehicle on a road off the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah on the morning of New Year's Day. The body of a 62-year-old man was found in a vehicle on Wandra Road at Sussex Inlet about 11.30am on New Year's Day. A body, believed to be a 56-year-old man, found outside a home at Coolagolite, east of Cobargo on New Year's Day. An off-duty RFS firefighter, believed to be 72-year-old Colin Burns, was found near a car in Belowra after the New Year's Eve fires swept through. Victoria: Beloved great-grandfather Mick Roberts, 67, from Buchan, in East Gippsland, was found dead at his home on the morning of New Year's Day. Fred Becker, 75, was the second person to die in Victoria. He suffered a heart attack while trying to defend his Maramingo Creek home. JANUARY New South Wales: David Harrison, a 47-year-old man from Canberra, suffered a heart attack defending his friend's home near Batlow on Saturday, January 4. A 71-year-old man was found on January 6. Police have been told the man was last sighted on December 31, 2019 and was moving equipment on his property in Nerrigundah. An 84-year-old man who stayed to defend his home in Cobargo, NSW, dies in hospital three weeks after fire hit. His pet dog Bella, who stayed by his side as fires raged, was also killed in the disaster. Three American firefighters are killed when Coulson Aviation C-130 Hercules water bomber Zeus crashed while fighting fires near Cooma on Thursday January 23. They have been named as Capt. Ian H. McBeth, 44, First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson and Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr, 43. On January 24, Michael Clark, 59, was found in a Bodalla home destroyed by bushfires near the NSW South Coast town of Moruya. Victoria: Forest Fire Management firefighter Mat Kavanagh, 43, was killed Friday January 3 when he was involved in a two-car crash on the Goulburn Valley Highway. Bill Slade, a 60-year-old father of two from Wonthaggi was fighting fires with Parks Victoria at Omeo when he died on January 11. He has been remembered as one of the longest serving, most experienced and fittest firefighters. South Australia: Well-known outback pilot Dick Lang, 78, and his 43-year-old son, Adelaide surgeon Clayton Lang, died in the Kangaroo Island bushfire after their car was trapped by flames. A man on a park bench eating a kebab. A mother breastfeeding a baby in a park. Another man sun baking. People walking on a beach promenade. Australians seemingly enjoying the most basic freedoms in their downtime over the past week. Except that, in the time of coronavirus, authorities have moved them on. Police have extraordinary new powers to enforce social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Cole Bennetts The NSW Police Facebook page has been peppered with queries from citizens concerned they are breaking the law by heading out for a group motorbike ride, how the rules apply to car pooling and whether a trip to a doughnut shop to cheer up an unhappy child is allowed. "Are doughnuts considered as an essential? It does help in improving moods," reads one query on the page. "And my son is crying for some ... my husband too. I told my husband not to take the risk because it may not be a valid reason if we are caught en route. Please advise, serious query." As we are learning nowadays, hope should be tempered by facts that change daily. So when writing about Comet ATLAS, here are the possibilities: It may be the next great comet, a naked-eye dazzler, something to cheer us in late April and May when we could use a thrill. Or it may be kind of dim. A faint little fuzzball. A dud. That wont stop people from trying to see it. I tried to observe it last week, said Bill Cloutier of New Milford, one of the directors of the John J. McCarthy Observatory in New Milford. But anyone who hypes a comet may be in for a disappointment. They tend to be very unpredictable. It is very difficult to say, said Bob King, an astronomer and writer whose AstroBob blog can be found atastrobob.areavoice.com and who has written about ATLAS for Sky & Telescope Magazine. I think the high estimates as bright as the moon are way off. But, King said, even if it underperforms people should be able to see ATLAS with a pair of binoculars in the northwest sky a nice comet, if not a great one. It could be pretty good, he said. ATLAS stands for the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, a NASA-funded asteroid warning system centered at the University of Hawaii. Its staff spotted the comet in December, 2019. Its full name is ATLAS (C/2019-Y4.) At first, it seemed another faint object in the sky. But it the last few months, it brightened so dramatically that it got people thinking ATLAS could be special. A great comet is one that people can see in the night sky without telescope or binoculars. They are ghostly and wonderful. Anyone who was around for Comet Hyakutake in 1996 or Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 will remember the thrill of looking up in the night sky and getting the gift, freely given, of just seeing them. You could see it from a city, Diana Hannikainen, observing editor for Sky & Telescope, said of Hyakutake. People are amazed when I show them pictures of those comets, said Cloutier. Its amazing that people didnt see them. What gives people hope for ATLAS is that it is following the same orbit as the Great Comet of 1844. ATLAS and the 1844 comet may be part of a larger object that broke apart many millennia ago. Astronomers have calculated that its hyperbolic orbit takes it past our solar system and around the sun every 4,800 to 5,000 years or so. Which means that the last humans to see it, if they saw it, were Bronze Age people. The next time it comes around will be in the 7000s. Heidi Hammel, a planetary astronomer who is vice president for science at AURA The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy said ATLAS comes from the vast region lying between the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto dwells, and the Oort Cloud, the far, far distant region ringing our solar system, filled with trillions of objects. At its most distant, ATLAS swings out 57 billion miles from the sun. It sounds like a lot, but its not, Hammel said. Comets along with being beautiful contain elements that give astronomers new insights about the origins and formation of the solar system. Some comets circle through our solar system regularly, Hammel said, and have shed a lot of their material. But a visitor from so far away is a little more interesting. Its a little more pristine, Hammel said. As comets approach the sun, they melt, leaving behind a trail of dust and debris that we see as the comets tail. These can be spectacular Hyakutakes spread far behind it, while Hale-Bopp had two tails. But sometimes, as comets approach the sun, they fragment. Thats what happened in 2013 to Comet ISON another great comet hope that tattered. Theres a fear that could happen to Comet ATLAS. At its closest to the sun, on May 31, it will be only 23.5 million miles away closer than the planet Mercury. It could fall apart as well. Or, having freshened so quickly, it may get brighter than it is now. Right now, its near the Big Dipper in the north sky you may be able to see it with binoculars. By May it will move closer to the northwest horizon. And if it gets brighter still? If becomes, well, great? Its a different story, Hammel said. Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com The US Surgeon General has offered some of the starkest warnings yet as he braced Americans for the worsening fallout from the coronavirus as the country's death toll climbed past 8400. The United States enters one of the most critical weeks so far in the coronavirus crisis with the death toll exploding in New York, Michigan and Louisiana and some governors calling for a national order to stay at home. "Our Pearl Harbour, our 9/11": US Surgeon General Jerome Adams. Credit:AP New York is the hardest-hit state with more than 4150 fatalities with 594 in the past 24 hour alone. There had been more than 122,000 confirmed cases in New York State by Sunday. "This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly," the country's top medical officer, Jerome Adams, warned on Sunday. Bowdoin Produces Face Shields for Medical Staff Using a 3D printer, staff and faculty at Bowdoin College have begun producing National Institutes of Health-approved visors for personal protective equipment (PPE) face shields. A first batch of more than a dozen has already been delivered to LincolnHealth in Damariscotta. The 3D printer is working around the clock at the home of staffer David Israel, who works in Bowdoins Academic Technology and Consulting Group (AT&C) and has much experience in 3D printing. I cant really work on campus, so I put the printer in the back of my car and brought it home. Its not very large, but it is a little noisy. Were all 100 percent on board with the project goals, though, so we put up with it running pretty much 24-7! Israel said he started working on the project himself before being contacted by Assistant Professor of Biology Andrew Mountcastle 01 at Bates College. He asked if I was interested in collaborating with Bates and Colby on a COVID-19 response project that would address the issue of hospitals and first responders running dangerously low on PPE supplies, he explained. The small group of folks from Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby who have access and experience with 3D printers and laser cutters started talking online. While some people contacted hospitals and first responders to figure out their needs, others worked on figuring out the right design and sourcing the correct materials. One of those involved in the discussions was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Stephen Perkinson, who had been helping to coordinate Bowdoins broader effort to donate PPEs to area hospitals. The visors are paired with the clear plastic dividers used in three-ring binders to compose face shields. Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Digital and Computational Studies Erin Johnson is gathering the printed components from the various printers and coordinating the making and purchasing of the clear plastic components of the shields. She is also organizing deliveries of the shields to health practicioners and reaching out to other people with 3D printers who want to help. We are all so grateful for the tireless work that health practitioners are doing across the country and here in Maine. This is an effort, however small, to support them in their work and increase their safety on the job, said Johnson. While many posted pictures of lighting "diya", some expressed anguish over bursting of crackers as the nation responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a nine-minute candlelight vigil on Sunday. Modi had called for a nine-minute candlelight vigil on Sunday as a means to dispel the darkness spread by the coronavirus pandemic. He had asked people to switch off the lights at their homes and light a candle or a "diya" at their doorsteps or in their balconies at 9 pm. Many Union ministers and celebrities put up video clips and pictures of themselves lighting candles with their family members. "Privileged and honoured to join Hon'ble PM's initiative of national solidarity to fight Covid-19," tweeted a user with a picture of his house lit with candles. "Though symbolic, lighting diyas truly brought positive vibes and a sense of unity," Kavya said in a tweet. However, many social media posts came down heavily against those bursting crackers. Netizens put up video clips and pictures of people bursting crackers and shouting slogans as 9 pm approached. "Corona ke Bharat aagman par deshwaasi khushi manate hue. Well done (people welcoming the entry of corona to India)," tweeted Arun Arora, taking a dig at those bursting crackers. Twitter user Sparsh Oberoi, however, attributed the celebrations to boredom. "I find that we are getting crazier by every activity. Is this due to being bored of the lockdown or just no idea of what's going on around us. The PM never asked to burst crackers. We are not celebrating anything ppl," he tweeted. Disability rights activist Nipun Malhotra urged people not to burst crackers and reminded them that this was not a joyous moment. "Light a diya. Be united. But crackers? Really? This ain't a party!" he tweeted. Standup comic Vir Das indicated that he had preempted this reaction to the PM's call two days in advance. "Repeat: Sunday is an INDOORS show of solidarity. It is NOT diwali," he said, re-tweeting an April 3 tweet of his with a solitary "sigh". Many wondered how people procured firecrackers during a nationwide shutdown. "Who declared crackers as essential service?" wrote Anivar Aravind. Tweeting from the handle @_NairFYI, one user saw the bursting of crackers during a pandemic as an ominous sign and said, "Before the Titanic went down they did fire rockets to alert nearby ships." Some Twitter users also said slogans were raised as 9 pm approached. "This is so incredible & mesmerising, to my surprise ppl even shouted slogans "Bharat Mata Ki Jay" & "Vande Mataram"... #9pm9minute," tweeted Amol Siddham. However, there were some who found humour even in the mass voluntary blackout. "Itna andhera ho gaya hai poore India main, Corona ne rasta bhatak kar wapas China chale jana hai (there is so much darkness in India that corona has lost its way and gone back to China)," tweeted a user from the handle @swatic12. Another user, Rangjogi, said, "Well, right after the first 2 quaint minutes, there were rockets in the sky. Mithai anyone??" tweeting with the hashtag #DiwaliAgainstCorona. According to the Health Ministry, the number of coronavirus cases climbed to 3,374 in the country on Sunday, while the death toll rose to 77. Of these, the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 3,030, while 266 people were cured and one had migrated, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the Chornobyl zone, where a large-scale forest fire broke out on April 4, there is no open fire, the radiation background is normal, as State Emergency Service (SES) reports. "As of 07:00 on April 5, there is no open fire, smoldering of individual foci is observed. Aerial reconnaissance by the State Emergencies Ministry is underway. The radiation background is within normal limits," the statement reads. It is noted that at 08:40 the An-32 plane of the State Emergencies Ministry took off from Nizhyn to the Zone of Exclusion and unconditional (mandatory) resettlement to extinguish the fire. At 09:53, another An-32 aircraft flew into the Exclusion Zone. As we reported before, in Kyiv, on Khreshchatyk, a strong fire broke out in an underground collector where electrical cables are located "A fire occurred in an underground collector that contains electric cables of various voltages. To de-energize electric wires emergency crew of DTEK "Kyiv Electric Grids" was called. Due to the high voltage of electric cables, firefighters could not immediately begin to liquidate the fire," the message said. Pakistan train accident: Death toll rises to 65 as two passenger trains collide in Sindh's Ghotki district Highest ever: Why did India report 61,48 deaths in a single day Reports on COVID-19 related deaths are an audacious assumption says Govt Death toll in Cyclone Shaheen now five as storm moves into Oman Coronavirus death toll sees highest jump on Saturday India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 05: The total cases of the novel coronavirus pandemic crossed the 3,000-mark in the country on Saturday after a record jump in infections in the past 24 hours, while 13 new fatalities took the death toll to 75, the Union Health Ministry said. The active COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) cases stand at 2,784, while 212 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, according to the ministry data. The death toll rose to 75 after 13 fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours -- eight in Maharashtra, two each in Delhi and Gujarat, and one in Tamil Nadu. The confirmed cases due to the deadly contagion saw the highest jump in a single day after 525 new infections took the total to 3,072, including 57 foreign nationals, it stated. Unlocking India post April 14: Govt plans two zones to curtail coronavirus outbreak Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said 79,950 samples had been tested so far and 3,113 people tested positive. However, the nationwide tally is higher after taking into account data from all the states. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has reported the most coronavirus deaths (24) so far, followed by Gujarat (10), Telengana (7), Madhya Pradesh and Delhi (6 each) and Punjab (5). Karnataka and West Bengal reported three COVID-19 deaths each, followed by two each in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh have reported a fatality each, according to the data. The highest number of confirmed cases was reported from Maharashtra at 490, followed by Delhi with 445 and Tamil Nadu with 411 infections. Kerala has 295 positive cases so far, while the number of cases has gone up to 200 in Rajasthan and 174 in Uttar Pradesh. There are 161 cases in Andhra Pradesh, while Telengana has 159 infections. The COVID-19 cases have risen to 128 in Karnataka, followed by 105 in Gujarat and 104 in Madhya Pradesh. 83% of India's coronavirus patients are below the age of 50: Govt Jammu and Kashmir has 75 cases so far and West Bengal has 69. Punjab has reported 57 infections so far, followed by Haryana with 49. Thirty people are afflicted with COVID-19 in Bihar, while Assam has 24 cases. Chandigarh has 18 infections, followed Uttarakhand with 16 and Ladakh with 14. Ten cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Chhattisgarh has nine infections. Goa has reported seven, followed by Himachal Pradesh with six, and Odisha and Puducherry with five cases. Jhakhand and Manipur have reported two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradeh have reported an infection each. "State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation," the ministry said on its website. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 9:00 [IST] Washington: President Donald Trump has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug. Trump said he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxychloroquine - an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria - for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily news conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on April 4 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine and its formulations with immediate effect and made it clear that there will be no exceptions. Trump said he would appreciate if India releases the amount of Hydrocoralline that the US has ordered. "And I said I would appreciate if they (India) would release the amounts that we ordered, he said, without mentioning that quantity of Hydroxychloroquine that has been ordered by US companies from India. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the global epicentre of the deadly coronavirus disease to which there has been no cure. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended the anti-malarial drug for those involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus and also, for the asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases. Scientists across the world are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine for the successful treatment of coronavirus. Following a quick provisional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration last Saturday, the malaria drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York, the epicentre in the US. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. In the next several weeks, health experts in the US have projected between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, which due to human-to-human transmission is spreading like a wildfire in the country. In anticipation of it being a successful drug in the treatment of coronavirus, the US has already stockpiled some 29 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine. It is in this context Trump requested Modi to help US get millions of doses of Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that can be produced at mass scale in India. Prime Minister Modi on Saturday said he held a detailed discussion on the coronavirus crisis with President Trump and resolved to deploy the full strength of the Indo-US partnership to fight the global pandemic. "We had a good discussion and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19," Modi wrote on Twitter on his "extensive" telephonic conversation with Trump. The prime minister and the US president exchanged views on the pandemic and its impact on the global well-being and economy, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said. Stressing on the special relationship between the two countries, Modi reiterated India's solidarity with the US in overcoming this global crisis together. "The two leaders agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to resolutely and effectively combat COVID-19," the PMO said. Modi and Trump also exchanged notes on the steps taken in their countries for mitigating the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. The two leaders also touched upon the significance of practices such as yoga and ayurveda for ensuring physical and mental well-being in these difficult times, the PMO statement said. They agreed that their officials would remain in close touch on the global health crisis, it added. Modi also conveyed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the US and his prayers for an early recovery of those still suffering from the disease. The discussion came at a time when both countries are in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Trump said that he would take Hydroxychloroquine, if needed. "I think people should if it were me, in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, Ok? I may take it. And, I'll have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it, he said in response to a question. London: The Queen will urge Britain to prove that this generation is "as strong as any" in her address to the nation, as the new Labour leader criticised the government's response to the coronavirus crisis. The Queen's deeply personal message comes as infection rates and deaths from the virus continue to rise around the world, but two of the hardest hit countries, Italy and Spain, expressed hope that the crisis was peaking. The formal address from the Queen will acknowledge the hardship being faced by many families. Credit:AP The number of people infected in the US has soared to more than 300,000 as the fatalities climbed past 8400. Globally, there have been 1.2 million infections, and the death toll neared 65,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University. US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that the country could be headed into its toughest weeks, but also said he's eager to get it reopened and its stalled economy back on track. WOOD RIVER Calhoun County is the latest local county reporting a coronavirus case, with a death from the virus reported in Montgomery County, according to figures released by the Illinois Department of Public Health on Sunday. Statewide there are now 11,256 COVID-19 cases and 274 deaths. Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike on Sunday continued to stress staying home, good hygiene and social distancing, saying those actions will help save lives. On Saturday the Calhoun County Health Department reported its first case of COVID-19, a man in his 20s. The case is non-travel related, and the patient is self-quarantining at home while the health department attempts to identify and contact any close contacts. Also on Saturday the Christian County Coroners Office, the Chris-Mont County Office of Emergency Management and the Montgomery County Health Department confirmed a COVID-19 death. The victim was identified only as a Montgomery County man in his 50s, pending notification of his relatives. In Madison County, the state and Madison County Health Department on Sunday were both reporting 48 cases, up one from Saturday. The county health department has also added some data to its daily updates, listing on Sunday there were 25 female and 23 male victims. Of those, 13 were hospitalized and 12 had recovered, meaning they had completed their isolation periods. The department also included a graph showing the rise in COVID-19 cases on its Facebook page. The department was criticized last week for not providing additional information, specifically which communities the cases came from. Health department director Toni Corona previously said there were too few cases in too small of a population area to allow the release of that information because of privacy concerns. However, she said they were constantly reevaluating that and would release additional data when possible. Among information on the departments Facebook page is advice on the publics use of masks, an evolving issue nationwide. Wearing a mask in public, when you do have to leave to visit an essential business, can offer a bit of extra protection, stated a posting on the page. However, do not let it give you a false sense of security. You still need to Stay at Home unless necessary and continue to also practice social distancing and healthy hygiene. As of Sunday, the only county in The Telegraphs circulation area not showing cases was Greene County. A second case was reported in Jersey County, with three in Bond County, five in Macoupin County and 10 each in Monroe and Clinton counties. The state reported 87 cases and two deaths in St. Clair County; however, the St. Clair County Health Department reported a third death on Saturday. During Gov. J.B. Pritzkers daily briefing, Ezike noted one of the recent deaths was a second person from Stateville Correctional Center. These numbers represent people, she said, referring to the total death county. They represent our fellow Illinoisans. She said the safety precautions people are being asked to do are unprecedented, adding she could not stress enough their need. She also said people need to reconsider taking the entire family to the grocery store. Pritzker spent most of his time on Sunday talking about emergency child care services, both the vital need they fulfill and ways to help providers during and after the pandemic. That includes paying emergency childcare providers additional money after April 1 to help with expenses and cutting through the red tape so providers can receive state payments more quickly. He said providing child care is a high-risk, low revenue business with razor thin margins. He added the state has to support those who closed during stay-at-home order, and emergency providers who are operating at reduced capacity and income. Pritzker said a webinar for childcare providers is set for Monday, but did not give additional details. Information is available at www.coronavirus.illinois.gov. For more information in Macoupin County, call the Macoupin County COVID-19 hotline at 217-313-5078; in Jersey County, the COVID-19 hotline number is 618-639-4277. More information is the departments respective Facebook pages, including the one for the Calhoun County Health Department. In Madison County, for information about COVID-19 visit www.madisonchd.org, www.coronavirus.illinois.gov, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus, and the Madison County Health Department, Madison County Government and Madison County EMA 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, call the IDPH coronavirus hotline at 800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov for general questions. Donald Trump has continued to pressure the American public into taking an anti-malaria medication to treat Covid-19 symptoms despite the lack of evidence thus far showing the drug could have an impact. The president's praise for the medication came again during his daily press briefing on Saturday. "What do you have to lose?" Mr Trump said. "It's been out there for a long time. What do you have to lose? I hope they use it." "I may take it. I have to ask my doctors," he added. Clinical trials launched last month for hydroxychloroquine, a variant of chloroquine, but there has been no definitive study to show the drug can prevent or diminish Covid-19 symptoms. It was previously approved for use in malaria patients and to aid lupus sufferers. The Mayo Clinic released a warning for healthcare providers last week about the dangers the drug could pose on some patients, which includes it potentially causing sudden cardiac death when taken. The European Commission also announced on Tuesday there was no proof hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, which is also used for malaria, could treat the coronavirus. "The efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19 patients has to date not been proved," a spokesman for the European Commission said. But on Sunday, the FDA authorised emergency use for the drug on Covid-19 patients. "The question I most hate the answer to is what happens if you do have a ventilator? What are your chances? I just hope that hydroxychloroquine wins," Mr Trump told the public on Saturday. Patients going on ventilators has been the concern with the virus because of how it attacks the upper respiratory system. Once a patient goes on a ventilator, their chances of survival diminish. So scientists are working to find drug therapies, such as hydroxychloroquine, to relieve symptoms created by Covid-19. "Hydroxychloroquine. Try it. If you'd like," the president added, saying people should talk to their doctors about the potential benefits. "Take it." The president's response about the drug starkly contrasted with infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci, who said during the press briefing scientists have yet to find "data to say anything definitively" about the drug's benefits. Clinical studies are testing if hydroxychloroquine could be preventative, meaning it could stop someone from getting the virus, and if it could lessen Covid-19 symptoms in patients already infected. Scientists from the University of Minnesota, which is leading two clinical trials, previously told The Independent that there will not be data into the potential benefits of hydroxychlorquine, if there are any, for another month. Leader of Opposition in Nagaland T R Zeliang has said that people must follow the guidelines and instructions on COVID-19, disseminated by the central and state governments, to fight the disease. It is of paramount importance that the state government comes up with prudent and pragmatic measures to handle COVID-19 patients in case of an outbreak in the state, the former chief minister said in his message here on Friday. The government must frame immediate policies to secure the lives of front-line workers such as health professionals, police and home guard personnel, magistrates and government officials on duty, he said. "Though Nagaland has not reported any COVID-19 cases so far, we cannot forget that we are still directly connected to two affected neighbouring states, Assam and Manipur, and even share a 215 km international border with Myanmar," the former chief minister said. "We simply cannot afford to become complacent. We must be alert even as we utilise the available time at hand to prepare ourselves and to remain a zero COVID-19 state even in the days to come," he said. Zeliang urged every citizen to cooperate with the government in its fight against the COVID-19. He also said everyone can make an effort to save society by staying at home. "Therefore, choose to stay at home if you love yourself and your people," Zeliang said. "Stay at home, stay safe and save lives," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People on the front lines in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic from grocery clerks to health care professionals to firefighters will get priority in arranging child care based on an executive order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday. The order allows parents in essential jobs to bypass administrative and eligibility requirements in order to enroll their children in programs when they are working. The order will be administered by the Department of Social Services and the Department of Education. Newsom gave the state agencies until Tuesday to work out the details such as how the child care will be facilitated while maintaining the required social distancing of the shelter-in-place order. This can be a real game-changer, Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, said in a statement. Weve seen too many health care workers, including nurses and respiratory therapists, who are critical in caring for infected patients cut back hours because they have no one to care for their children. The order also mandates that children in the program receive access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to make sure these kids are fed at little or no cost to their parents. Child care is essential for working families, and in particular, for low-income and other parents who are considered essential critical infrastructure workers during this emergency, reads the proclamation, which included health care workers; emergency response personnel; key governmental staff; law enforcement; food and agriculture workers, including grocery workers; and education and care providers. Care for abused and neglected children, who already receive priority, will not be impacted. If health care workers can get their kids into safe child care programs, said Rosselli, they will be in a much better position to meet the needs of their patients and provide for their families. The guidelines to be adopted will be spelled out in coming days under the authority of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said Kate Folmar, deputy secretary for consumer affairs. 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 program already has a head start because 57 pop-up child care providers for essential workers have been identified statewide since the shelter-in-place order was imposed. The number of pop-ups is climbing each day, said Kris Perry, deputy secretary for early childhood development. Perry said these centers have already found effective workarounds to teach the children to maintain 6 feet between them. They are finding ways to keep the childrens learning tools in separate bins, Perry said. Part of the program is teaching them how to create social distancing inside and outside. Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF The debate around alcohol and the coronavirus pandemic touches on issues of health, the economy, and worker safety Some countries have banned alcohol, others say liquor shops are essential services, and one top official even suggested a tipple after another long day trapped at home can be a necessary restorative. The debate around alcohol and the coronavirus pandemic touches on issues of health, the economy, worker safety -- and whether for some a glass of wine may indeed help cope with the stress of seeing their lives upended in the space of weeks. Police in South Africa are brutally enforcing a ban on all alcohol sales during the shutdown. But in North America and much of Europe, alcohol stores remain open, and busy -- often protected under the same regulations that allow business such as supermarkets or pharmacies to operate. In Canada -- where legal cannabis stores have also stayed open -- Quebec's premier Francois Legault justified the decision to keep alcohol sales flowing, a move welcomed by consumers but criticized by a trade union concerned for shop workers. "To reduce the stress, you have to do some exercise, so have a walk -- but sometimes a glass of wine may help," he said. Unlike much of the world Canadians are not under official lockdown, but they have been urged to stay home and practice social distancing -- and that has been enough to send alcool sales soaring. "Everyone feels like it is Friday or Saturday all the time," said Catherine Paradis, an analyst at the Canadian Center on Addictions and Substance Use. Consumers are hitting stores like "in the weeks before Christmas" as well as buying at peak levels online, according to a spokesman for the Societe des alcools du Quebec (SAQ) -- a government corporation which last year reported net earnings of CAN$1.146 billion. Nationwide, Paradis notes that closing stores selling alcohol would cut off a significant source of government revenue -- estimated at about 411 Can dollars ($288) annually per person. - Sauna, then vodka? - On the other side of the border, New York, the epicenter of the epidemic in the United States, has also placed wine and spirits stores on the list of "essential" businesses. Story continues The New York State Liquor Stores Association confirms that sales have increased significantly. "In a way, we are helping the economy," president Stefan Kalogridis told AFP. Experts also note that for people who are addicted, the side effects of abrupt alcohol withdrawal can include tremors, insomnia and nausea. This "could have serious complications, especially if the person is confined to their home, it is very, very dangerous," says Anne-Elizabeth Lapointe, director of the Addiction Prevention Center in Montreal. But even for the majority of moderate alcohol consumers, closing liquor stores could lead to increased anxiety and stress. Since the start of the epidemic, alcohol has served other purposes too. In France, where wine merchants remain open, Pernod Ricard and Bacardi were also among the first beverage giants to convert part of their production into alcohol-based hand sanitizer gel. In Poland meanwhile, almost half a million liters of contraband vodka and illegally-produced pure alcohol have been used as a disinfectant instead of being destroyed. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has even recommended drinking a 100-ml glass of vodka after going to the sauna -- as a spurious miracle remedy for coronavirus. At the other end of the spectrum Hong Kong executive Carrie Lam has banned all restaurants and bars from serving alcohol -- arguing that easy access could harm social distancing. "Sometimes people get a bit intimate when they are drunk, and this will raise the risk of infection," she said. A perhaps more serious risk linked to excessive alcohol consumption, points out addiction specialist Paradis, is domestic violence under the lockdown and mounting stress. To limit the risk, Greenland has temporarily banned sales in its capital Nuuk. This is not the time for politicking or display of partisanship. The virus doesnt care which party you belong to. The enemy is the virus. Those are not my words; they are the words of the First Gentleman of our land and the Commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo. The President is a consummate diplomat so he cleverly avoided mentioning names and giving clues, but we can read between the lines and decipher the conundrum. That there are more than ten registered political parties currently on the books of the Electoral Commission (EC) is a fact no one can deny. Ever since the deadly coronavirus reared its ugly head in Chairman Mao's homeland, it is only one party among the lot that has sought to play politics with the pandemic in our country. It is an open secret that Zu-za had been praying fervently for the virus to extend its tentacles into the country to compel the EC to cancel the compilation of a new voters' register. We also saw and heard their reckless call for the country to evacuate its citizens from China, which turned out to be a very bad call. But for the resilience and wisdom displayed by President Nana Dee, only Heavens know what our fate would be! For nations that went along that path are the severest affected by the virus. We also saw the commissioning of the party's parallel COVID-19 team, which has so far engaged in nothing but pure partisanship. No forgetting the consistent criticism of government's response to the pandemic in the bid to cause fear and panic and make the Nana Dee government look incompetent. So when the President admonishes his compatriots to eschew politicking and partisanship, he needn't mention names for us to fully understand those he refers to. But blinded by their desire to win the 2020 polls at all cost, they've ignored the wise counsel and continued their folly. I'm sure you've heard the wicked stories from the Zu-za camp that President Nana Dee and some of his appointees had tested positive to the virus. The President has since delivered three presidential addresses and chaired numerous meetings. All we see is a 76-year-old who looks stronger and healthier than those peddling the tales. Even when he tested negative to the virus, the mischievous lots are still not satisfied and are calling for the publication of the result. Leading the mischief-makers is one Member of Parliament popularly known as Hon. Dining Hall Prefect. So you see, while other countries are battling only one enemy, which is the virus, Dr Kwame Okro's Ghana is compelled to battle another enemy called Zu-za. But with the help of the Bearded Old Man above, we shall overcome! Unfortunately for this country, another enemy called foolishness has reared its ugly head following the viral outbreak. I'm still at a loss as to why people would deliberately go against the partial lock-down measures and endanger their lives and the lives of others. I have no other name for it but foolhardiness. We should drum it hard into people's ears that the fight against coronavirus is not the sole responsibility of Government. As individuals, we also have a responsibility in the fight to limit community spread. If we shirk that responsibility, our folly will make us become victims, which will affect our families, communities and country at large. As I write, the richest and most powerful nation on earth, United States, and Spain are reported to have recorded about 1,300 and 1,100 deaths respectively in one day. Italy is also recording similar numbers and the death toll continues to rise in those three developed countries. Yet, a partial lock-down, which is the most effective tool left for a poor country like Ghana, has become a problem for people to obey. Are we so irrational to pretend to be oblivious of the threats of the virus? Indeed, if countries that have easily raised trillions of dollars to fight COVID-19 are nowhere near winning the fight, then one can only imagine the fate of countries like ours who are struggling to raise a measly $100million to fight the pandemic. Yes, I do believe in the power of prayers. But prayers can only work if we use some common sense. What will be the use of prayer if we continue to foolishly endanger our lives and the lives of others? Make no mistake; if we allow the situation to degenerate, then it is going to be a disaster. There wouldn't be enough ambulances to transport the sick to hospitals. Hospitals would be choked and virtually become transit points on the way to the land of the dead. I shudder to imagine because it would be nothing less than terrifying. So while we pray for Mawu's protection, let's use some common sense and only go out if absolutely necessary. Otherwise, stay home and be safe! See you next week for another konkonsa, Deo volente! Sometimes, a break from the fast pace of New York City is much needed. But instead of booking a getaway halfway across the country or to the other side of the world, jump on the train or get into your car and head to some of the most scenic spots not far from NYC. From parks to mountain ranges, here are 10 beautiful hiking spots that are close to New York City: 10. Breakneck Ridge Breakneck Ridge is a popular scramble in the Hudson Highlands in New York. Image credit: Jeffrey Pang from Madison, NJ, USA/Wikimedia.org If you are a seasoned hiker, this trail is for you. Luckily it could not be easier to get to Breakneck Ridge as trains run frequently from Grand Central Station. The hike begins on flat ground but ascends 1,500 feet up a steep ridge with plenty of obstacles in the way. It is worth it though, as when you reach the top you will be greeted with incredible panoramic views of the Hudson River. Be sure to visit on a clear day as you will be able to see the Manhattan skyline on the horizon. 9. Van Cortlandt Park The entrance to Van Cortlandt Park in Kingsbridge/Riverdale. The park is located at the last stop of the Number 1 subway line. Image credit: Anthony22/Wikimedia.org You do not have to travel far if you want to enjoy nature. Van Cortlandt Park is located in the Bronx and is easily accessed from all four corners of New York City. The park spans more than one thousand acres and offers five trails that vary from easy to difficult intensity. Stroll along the John Muir route and enjoy the sounds of birdsong as you pass through a forest that is dense with red oak, sugar maple and tulip trees. 8. Bearfort Ridge Surprise Lake. Image credit: Robin Ferand/Wikimedia.org Spend your Saturday morning hiking from Bearfort Ridge to Surprise Lake. This particular hike is located in the Abraham Hewitt State Forest in New Jersey, just an hour and a halfs drive from New York City. The trail begins on Bearfort Ridge with a short, sharp and steep incline taking you up and along the ridge. As you journey towards Surprise Lake, you will happen upon rhododendron tunnels, glacial ponds, and views of the New York skyline. Take a break when you get to the lake and enjoy the stunning vistas. This is a moderate to difficult hike with lots of loose rocks and hand scrambles along the way. 7. Blue Mountain Reservation Image credit: Fitt.co The Blue Mountain Reservation is a 1,538-acre park located in Westchester County. Accessible by train or car, the Reservation makes for a great day out. If you want to spend time on a leisurely stroll, there are a number of flat loops and trails available. For those who want something a little more challenging, there are hikes that will take you to the top of the Reservations peaks: Mount. Spitzenberg and Blue Mountain. After your hike, have a picnic by Lounsbury Pond and admire the tranquil surroundings. 6. Rockefeller State Park Preserve Stone arch bridge over the Pocantico River in Rockefeller State Park Preserve, Sleepy Hollow, NY, USA. Image credit: Daniel Case/Wikimedia.org Take it easy with a relaxing wander through Rockefeller State Park Preserve. This beautifully maintained park is situated just 30 miles north of New York City and is open to the public all year round. With landscapes varying from huge hardwood forests to rolling fields and impressive rock outcroppings, you will be captivated throughout your hike. The park offers a number of easy intensity trail routes so the kids can join in too. A highlight of Rockefeller State Park is Swan Lake, it is the perfect spot to sit and relax. 5. The Appalachian Trail Wheelchair accessible portion of the Appalachian Trail on the Osborne Tract of Cross Mountain, near Shady Valley, Tennessee. Image credit: Sparkgap/Wikimedia.org The Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking trail in the world. Spanning 2,193 miles, the trail traverses 14 states including New York. Walk a portion of this iconic route and discover many fantastic attractions along the way. Start with a trip to the Trailside Museums where you can learn about Native American history and local Geology. Trekking fans should make their way to the Bear Mountain Bridge which was once the longest bridge in the world. The bridge will take you to Anthonys Nose, which offers some of the best views of the Hudson River. Please be aware you may need to use your hands to scramble when ascending Anthonys Nose as the route is very rocky. 4. Arden Point and Glenclyffe Image credit: www.businessyab.com Take the Metro North from Grand Central Station to Garrison Station and embark on the low-intensity Arden Point and Glenclyffe hike. Your journey will begin with a walk through woodland and over bridges; stop at a clearing in the trees to admire the stunning Hudson River. As this hike is mostly flat, it is something all the family can enjoy. It is a great route for dogs, too. 3. The Adirondack Mountain Reserve Adirondack Mountains; Trail to Cascade Mountain. Image credit: Yinan Chen/Public Domain You will be spoilt for choice when you visit the Adirondack Mountain Reserve thanks to the 27 excellent hiking trails. One of the best trails in the Reserve is the Indian Head and Rainbow Falls route. On this easy to moderate route, will pass by a number of incredible waterfalls. Walk beneath the Rainbow Falls before you ascend Indian Head. When you reach the top, pause for a moment and marvel at the vista of the Adirondack Mountains. 2. Storm King State Park Storm King Mountain from atop Break Neck Ridge. Image credit: Ahodges7/Wikimedia.org Situated in New Yorks Orange County, Storm King State Park spans an impressive 1,972 acres. There are four moderate-intensity hikes varying in distance and height. Hiking enthusiasts should take on the challenge of ascending Storm King Mountain. The trail is a gift that keeps on giving thanks to the multiple viewpoints along the way. The route is well marked and the views of the Hudson Valley from the top are second to none. 1. The Stairway to Heaven The Stairway to Heaven. Image credit: Troika33 The Stairway to Heaven Trail is located in New Jersey and is a favorite among hikers. Your journey will begin with a leisurely amble on a boardwalk across flat marshlands; you will then traverse through woodland before crossing Route 94 where the path becomes dominated by boulders. Keep an eye out for the stone steps, or, the stairway to heaven as they will take you up to the incredible Pinwheel Vista. Take a moment to admire the unobstructed views of the verdant valley. This is an easy to moderate hike and the views make it entirely worth it. The Uttarakhand police on Sunday warned that residents of the state, who last month attended a gathering at Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Delhi that has since emerged as a Covid-19 hotspot, will be booked for murder and attempt to murder if they fail to report to the authorities by April 6 and in the meantime infect others with the disease. As many as 26 people, including 18 who attended the gathering, have tested positive for Covid-19 in Uttarakhand. The state police suspect many others who were a part of the congregation have not shown up for testing in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts bordering Uttar Pradesh. Uttarakhand police chief Anil Kumar Raturi issued a video message saying the state intelligence wing has identified many followers of the Jamaat and were searching for more, who are either hiding or trying to sneak into the state discreetly. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic I want to appeal to all those Jamaatis to come forward and present themselves before the police by April 6. If they fail to do so and police find them after April 6, those caught will be booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Disaster Management Act. However, if anyone gets infected due to their negligence, we will file cases against them on charges of attempt to murder and murder also, Raturi said. He also said if the Jamaat followers come forward on their own, they will be provided all medical help. Raturi added that those under quarantine were cooperating with the authorities. The spurt in Covid-19 cases linked to the Jamaat gathering continued on Sunday in the southern states. In Tamil Nadu, where the number of cases increased to 571, 85 Jamaat gathering attendees were tested positive for Covid-19. Of these 571 cases, 522 had attended the Delhi meet, according to government data. Half of the eight people tested positive in Kerala on Sunday had attended the gathering in Delhi. As of date, 10 people, who returned from Nizammuddin in Delhi, have been tested positive, said Kerala health minister K K Shailaja. In Karnataka, seven new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Sunday. Five of them also participated in the Jamaat congregation. A Telangana ophthalmologist has been placed under hospital quarantine after it emerged that he had attended a preparatory meeting for the Jamaat congregation, officials said. In Uttar Pradesh, authorities said that 1,205 people from the state, who attended the congregation in Nizamuddin, have returned and been quarantined. In all, 1,499 persons from the state, who attended the Jamaat gathering, have been identified, said additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi. He said among the attendees were 305 foreigners, whose passports have been seized. Cases have also been registered against 295 foreigners, he said. So far, 138 of the attendees have tested positive and that is a reason for concern, he said. Awasthi said contact tracing of all the positive cases was being done. We have also got complaints that attendees were not cooperating with hospital authorities, he said. (With agency inputs) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The federal government delivered 100 ventilators from the national stockpile to Massachusetts on Saturday, Gov. Charlie Baker said Sunday while discussing the states preparation for a predicted surge in COVID-19 cases. It is just 10 percent of the total number of ventilators requested by Baker and approved by the federal government last week. Baker, on March 30, said the states request for at least 1,000 ventilators was quickly approved. Baker expected to receive all 1,000 pieces of lifesaving equipment by this week. The remaining 900 will be delivered in batches, he said. We believe that the process, as its been laid out to us, is going to be an incremental one, Baker said. We dont believe this is the last shipment. We fully expect that well get additional ventilators over the course of the next two weeks. The Boston Globe reports the additional ventilators will add to the states supply of roughly 1,400. Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito spoke Sunday outside the first responders testing center opened Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. The expectation is Massachusetts will see a surge in coronavirus cases between April 10 and April 20. Massachusetts could see between 47,000 and 172,000 cases, Baker said. Massachusetts has already set up remote hospitals and the drive-thru testing centers for first responders. We are planning for a variety of scenarios, Baker said. As of Saturday, there were 216 coronavirus-related deaths in Massachusetts and 11,736 positive cases. Sign up for free text messages about important updates on coronavirus in Massachusetts Related Content: Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Paul Faith with Joe Stenson in Dublin (Agence France-Presse) Belfast, United Kingdom Sun, April 5, 2020 09:05 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc2c3e 2 Health Ireland,Belfast,ice-cream,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,Britain,elderly Free Ice cream vans are normally a common sight on Britain's residential streets and in parks when warmer days arrive in the spring and summer months. But with the country in lockdown because of the coronavirus, there are no customers to buy their cones, ice lollies and choc-ices. In Belfast, however, at least one van is still operating -- bringing essential supplies to the elderly and vulnerable forced to stay at home. "When we had seen that the current situation was starting to arise, we knew that there would be problems for some families and elderly who cannot get access to food," said Steven Pollock, of Greater Shankill Action for Community Transformation group. The group asked an ice cream van owner to carry supplies to under-served areas with at-risk residents in self-isolation to avoid infection. "The community are totally over the moon with it," Pollock told AFP. "They're just concerned about shops and going out in general." "It gives them a bit more peace of mind that it's basically on their doorstep so they're not leaving anything to chance." Read also: Home deliveries for Turkey's elderly come in a basket through the window Inside scoop Parked in west Belfast on Wednesday, two workers in rubber gloves and face masks sold toilet roll, bread, milk and eggs through the hatch. For the duration of the coronavirus crisis, whipped ice creams are off the menu on the side of the van as its fridges are stocked with essential foodstuffs. Drivers still play the cheerful music, which in normal times is the sign for children to pester their parents for a sweet treat. This year it lets the elderly and vulnerable know they will not go without potatoes, cornflakes and even hand sanitizer -- essentials needed to wait out the pandemic in safety. Some 30 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died so far in British-run Northern Ireland. The province has 689 confirmed cases, according to Public Health Agency (PHA) figures released Wednesday. To stem the virus spreading further, the British government has advised the elderly and vulnerable to self-isolate. "The critical thing we must do is stop the disease spreading between households," Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is himself recovering from COVID-19, said last week. Read also: Elderly in UK care home embrace technology to beat coronavirus lockdown Surviving isolation For the elderly and vulnerable without a support network that can create issues. Each trip to the shop becomes a gamble. "They say it's quite handy, especially for the older people and people with disabilities and health problems -- they don't have to travel too far," said 21-year-old van worker Kyle Milligan. Those on low incomes are also forced to make more frequent trips as they cannot "stockpile" like others have done, stripping supermarket shelves. Across Northern Ireland, some 40,000 pensioners live in poverty, according to a 2018 report from charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. "A lot of elderly people, or people who might not have as much, are only operating on a weekly or day-to-day basis," Pollock said. On Wednesday, Northern Ireland health minister Robin Swann estimated that under a "worst case scenario" 3,000 may die across the province over a 20-week epidemic. If the crisis lasts that long, Pollock is prepared to continue and expand the project to serve other areas of Northern Ireland with more vans. "We have been looking at ways that are long term and sustainable answers to this, so that it's not just a quick reactionary solution," said Pollock. "We're starting to see that people want it replicated throughout the country." Three more passengers from the troubled Ruby Princess cruise ship have died, taking the coronavirus death toll to 16 in NSW, which includes another death also reported overnight. NSW has recorded 87 new COVID-19 cases, with 39 people in intensive care and more than half of those on ventilators. At a press conference on Sunday morning, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the updated figures, current as at 8pm Saturday, brought the state's coronavirus infection total to 2580. "This is a very dangerous virus and it is still marching through our community. It has killed, at this stage in NSW, 16 people," Mr Hazzard said. Around 50% of the Covid-19 patients in Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, have no recent travel history or exposure to another person infected by the coronavirus, indicating that they caught the disease possibly through community transmission, health officials said. Indore recorded its first Covid-19 case on March 25, five days after the first four cases in the state were reported from Jabalpur. The number of cases grew steadily -- five more on March 26, four each on March 27 and 28 and three on March 29. The spurt started on March 30, when 19 new cases were identified. As of Thursday night, Indore accounted for 82 of Madhya Pradeshs 107 Covid-19 patients. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic Only 40 of the 82 people identified as Covid-19-positive had a travel history or exposure to a person known to be suffering from the disease, indicating the likelihood of community transmission, said a health department official of Indore district, who is maintaining records of all Covid-19 positive cases. Community transmission, known as stage 3 in a pandemic of the Covid-19 kind, is suspected when the source of infection cannot be identified and is seen as a sign of the virus spreading in local communities. Indian medical authorities have so far not acknowledged that the country has reached that stage. A health department official, requesting anonymity, said that when the initial cases were reported in Indore, little screening of people had taken place in the densely populated neighbourhoods where they surfaced. The complete lockdown starting on March 25 had also not been strictly enforced, the official said. This may have caused some community spread, the official added. The Madhya Pradesh government on March 30 replaced collector Lokesh Kumar Jatav and deputy inspector general of police Ruchivardhan Mishra with Manish Singh and Harinarayan Chari Mishra,respectively. Jatav declined speak on alleged lapses that took place in containing the spread of infections at the onset of the virus in Indore. The new collector should brief the media about the situation in Indore, Jatav said. Singh said they were alert about the situation and strict lockdown has been enforced in all these localities. What shocked health officials was that about 70 patients, or 80% of the Covid-19 patients identified as of Thursday night, had no recent history of travel. Chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Indore, Dr Praveen Jadia said, Most of the cases dont have a travel history. We suspect that the first four cases may have got the disease from one source and may have unknowingly spread it to others. The first cases were reported from Ranipura, Chandan Nagar and Khajrana and they spread to new neighbourhoods like Daulatganj and Azad Nagar, indicating that the enforcement of the lockdown had been lax. Anwar Qadri, a local corporator , agreed with Jadia. We are also baffled as to how the virus spread so fast in these localities, he said, that unlike in other places, Indores Muslims had an insignificant association with the Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic group whose Delhi headquarters hosted an international congregation last month and emerged as a hotspot of the coronavirus disease. Even three days after the spurt happened, the district administration is yet to complete contact tracking of all the Covid-10 patients. Commissioner, Indore division, Akash Tripathi said: We are trying to know as to how many persons came in contact with Covid-19 positive cases to identify and screen such people. But we are yet to know as to whom it all started from. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Jordan said it is to use drones and surveillance cameras to monitor compliance with a nationwide curfew imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. "The armed forces and security services will ensure the curfew is being respected by using modern technology such as drones and surveillance cameras," the minister of state for information, Amjad al-Adayleh, told a press briefing late Saturday. Jordan has declared five dead and 323 cases of the COVID-19 illness. Adayleh, who also serves as government spokesman, warned that authorities would take "the necessary measures against anyone violating decisions" taken to contain the outbreak. Jordan says it has arrested at least 1,600 people for violating the curfew, which imposes heavy penalties and has been in force since last month. It has sealed off the capital and all the country's provinces, suspended flights in and out of Jordan, closed schools and banned all public gatherings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Looking out over the marsh on a midsummer morning, one could see acres of magenta flowers, their color just coming to life as the sun rose over the ridge. The person next to me said, Isnt that beautiful? I guess it was, in a way. If one did not know that the sun was shining upon waves of purple loosestrife, an invasive plant that crowds out other species, devastating the complex habitat required for native insects, waterfowl and songbirds, one might almost think the sight was, indeed, beautiful. Knowledge can shatter the illusion of beauty; it can also reveal a substantial beauty underlying appearance. This is a fact overlooked by most people today. We tend to think of beauty as superficial, as all about image rather than substance. Do a Google search for beauty and one finds thousands of ads featuring photoshopped images of young, attractive models. It is no surprise that many people think of beauty as something that hides what is real, rather than revealing it. Yet, many ancient thinkers linked beauty with truth and goodness as one of three transcendental values providing a glimpse of reality lying beyond our everyday senses. The Greeks had two words for beauty: kalos (noble, good) and cosmos (order). The close relationship between beauty and goodness was revived in the 18th century by philosophers like Hutcheson and Lord Shaftsbury, who advocated the moral sense theory, the idea that human beings are naturally disposed to take pleasure in virtue. The problem is, human beings can learn to take pleasure in all sorts of things, not just virtue but vice as well. And if today we tend to think beauty is an unreliable guide to virtue, it could be because we tend to confuse genuine beauty with its counterfeits. So, how do we know genuine beauty? The first characteristic of beauty is that it cannot be possessed, manufactured or manipulated. Whenever we experience genuine beauty, it seems like an act of grace a pure gift from somewhere outside our control. Second, in the presence of genuine beauty, we are transported to a place outside of time. The experience has a duration, but it feels eternal. Third, beauty is ineffable. No description, however detailed, can convey it to another. We try to tell a friend about the sunset over the bluffs, the way the light broke through the clouded horizon, illuminating the river below, but words fail us. You had to be there, we finally concede. The final way we know beauty is by the emotions it arouses within us. In the presence of genuine beauty, we invariably feel lifted up and inspired. The world around us seems grander, more substantial, and we ourselves feel humbled, as if our ordinary worries and concerns were not as significant as they were moments before. Beautys counterfeits, by contrast, arouse desire and envy. They do not take us out of ourselves, they enmesh us even more deeply in our own private concerns and preoccupations. One of the few places beauty still finds serious consideration today is in nature writing, and that is most likely due to the influence of Aldo Leopold. Leopold considered beauty central to the Land Ethic, writing: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. His best-known work, A Sand County Almanac, shows us how to look more deeply at the world, seeing beyond the surface to the complex interrelationships among plants, animals and humans. As soon as we do so, we begin to see beauty all around us, even where we had never looked for it before. It is the same way with people. As soon as we know how to look, we begin seeing people differently, and we discover beauty in every act of generosity, every act of courage, every smile sincerely worn on a kindly face. The other day I was out walking with a friend. We were on a trail along the Mississippi River, the sun just coming up, geese flying overhead, and there was a peacefulness to the scene at odds with the chaos being felt all over the world. Doesnt this seem strange? he observed. I knew exactly how he felt. But that is only because we had been distracted, and the simple act of going for a walk along the river had restored us to our senses. I went back home to my office on the second floor, turning on the computer to face another long day filled with conference calls and Zoom meetings. People appeared on my screen, some I had known for years and others I was meeting for the first time all of them working long hours while caring for their children, their parents, their spouses, working in isolation from their colleagues and uncertain about their futures. They were dressed in T-shirts and hoodies, their faces illumined by the harsh blue glare of laptops, stressed, anxious and determined. Every one of them eager to do more. My God. I have never seen so many beautiful people. Richard Kyte is director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University. He also is a community member of the La Crosse Tribune editorial board. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A Stateville Correctional Center inmate who was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting a boy from Oak Forest in 1980 and later sexually assaulting a boy from Calumet City has died from COVID-19, according to a statement from the Grundy County Coroners Office on Sunday. A charity boss has filmed an emotional tribute to his 30-year-old cousin who died after testing positive for coronavirus. Ali Hussain passed away recently after contracting the deadly virus. Following his death, cousin Atiq Rehman, who co-founded Peterborough-based charity Children of Adam UK, posted an emotional video in which he paid tribute to Mr Hussain, who he described as an 'untouchable soul'. He also urged people not to take Covid-19 as 'a joke'. In the two minute video, posted on Facebook, Mr Rehman said: 'Reaching out to all my loved ones out there, this by far is one of the hardest videos i have ever done. Ali Hussain, 30, passed away recently after contracting Covid-19, which has killed almost 4,000 people across the UK so far 'We as a whole family are lost for words that our cousin brother Ali has sadly passed away form this horrific coronavirus. 'He was 30 years of age with Autism with a untouchable soul, always happy, loving, caring and very handsome. 'The reason for this post is please don't take this whole thing as a joke, people are still out and about like nothing has happened. 'I have lost the light of our home, my cousin brother is no longer with us due to this horrific virus, from all my family we are asking you all look at what we are going through right now. Following his death, cousin Atiq Rehman, who co-founded Peterborough-based charity Children of Adam UK, posted an emotional video in which he paid tribute to Mr Hussain, who he described as an 'untouchable soul' During the video Mr Rehman becomes emotional. He describes coronavirus as 'horrific' and warns others to 'look what we are going through' as he urges people to take it seriously 'This has broken our whole family to pieces. He added: 'Ali I will always love you from my soul, on behalf of my whole family we thank the all the doctors and nurses who worked around the clock to give him life but was unable to save his soul. 'Take this as a wake up call, fix up and only go out if it is a must.' The Helping Hands Group, a charity based in Peterborough which helps adults with mental and physical disabilities, added on Friday night: 'It is with immense sadness and shock that we tonight learnt of the passing of our beloved Ali. 'All of our thoughts and prayers are with the Hussain family during this tragic time.' In the five weeks since coronavirus hit Ireland, businesses the length and breadth of the country have had to make the often heartbreaking decision to pull down their shutters and close. Despite this, many companies have refused to cave in to Covid-19. Many have diversified into new fields to help the public - and keep people in jobs. Michaela Herron, a product regulatory partner with Mason Hayes and Curran, said her firm had experienced a sharp increase in the number of queries from businesses looking to develop new products during the pandemic. She said businesses were looking to do what they could to help. She pointed to reports that alcohol companies such as Irish Distillers were assisting with the production of hand sanitisers and noted that companies with 3D printers such as Riot Games were exploring the possibilities of printing face shields. Despite the rush to help, Herron said it was important that companies considered the regulatory environment. "While a lot of businesses have been quick to want to offer help, there are still regulatory issues that have to be considered," she said. "Most queries relate to what companies need to do to supply these products. "Product liability issues are also something that companies do have to consider and think about before deciding if they want to go down the route of manufacture." Stephen Dillon, founder of startups.ie, said many small and medium enterprises had also got involved. He believes such firms have benefited from being agile and able to pivot operations toward new spaces. "It's been a tsunami for a lot of businesses," he said. "Depending on the business, it reflects how you can adapt. "The massive winners in all this will be those looking to online, delivering their services remotely because logistics will still be working." From stage manufacturers producing work desks to drones delivering medicines, Irish companies are playing their part on the front line in the battle against coronavirus. The Sunday Independent has identified five companies looking to keep the lights on through the pandemic. Flying Elephant When the coronavirus started its spread across Ireland, businesses opted to shut their offices. Subsequently, working from home has become the new normal. As it spread, orders dried up for Flying Elephant, which makes stages and bars for festivals and gigs. Company director Michael Keelan was forced to consider how he could keep the doors open. Inspiration wasn't long in coming. "One of the lads in the office said: 'My friend is looking for a desk so he can work from home, can we make one?'. I just thought: 'You know what, yeah we will'. We put the desk up on Instagram to gauge interest and the rest is history." The growth in popularity of the 150 desk has been phenomenal. On the first day of manufacture in early March, the firm made 10. On Thursday, the firm made 120, with the level of demand set to grow further as it gets set for launch in the UK. "The feedback has been unbelievable. We want to keep the ball rolling and the lights on. When all this madness is over, we'll get back to what we were doing before." LogoGrab Visual AI detection company LogoGrab's co-founders Luca Boschin and Alessandro Prest were looking to their homeland of Italy and growing concerned. The spread of coronavirus appeared relentless. The Dublin-based firm, which typically helps multinationals such as eBay detect brands and counterfeits online, sought to use its technology in any way it could to help combat the spread. Two weeks ago, alongside research firm GhostData, LogoGrab carried out a study in Italy to detect how many people were breaking quarantine regulations. The recognition software was used to detect social media posts where people were gathering in numbers and in places they shouldn't have been. Its publicly-available results allowed people to identify what regions individuals were breaking the rules in, and get the public to take more responsibility. "This was about a couple of concerned citizens looking to deliver technology that would be of use where our friends and family live in Italy," said Boschin. "No one asked for this. It's our way of helping in the fight against coronavirus." Boschin said he had no plans at the moment to research the lockdown in Ireland, as the country is following the rules. However, he did say LogoGrab would engage in further studies and could look at how it can combat the spread of misinformation here on social media. Ambr Eyewear/LensBuild With opticians limited to offering emergency services or deliveries, Dan Nugent, founder of anti-blue light glasses firm Ambr Eyewear, decided it was time to launch a business that had been on his mind for some time. Launched last week, Lensbuild.com is a by-mail lens replacement service. It means customers can order new glasses or sunglasses lenses online to be put into their existing frames. The customers can then send for and receive the frames, complete with new lenses, through the mail without leaving their home. Nugent admits he had been thinking about launching Lensbuild for nearly a year. He felt that with people's movements limited, and revenue nearly doubling since mid-March at Ambr, the time was right for launch. "The opticians are closed, and the necessity for reading and screen time has never been higher," he said. "If people don't have suitable eyewear, they'd be in big trouble." Legit Fit Having received warnings from friends in Spain, Ryan O'Neill, founder of Legit Fit, knew the arrival of coronavirus in Ireland would soon result in the closure of gyms nationwide. With Legit Fit focused on helping fitness providers manage their businesses by offering automated booking, payments and management services, O'Neill's company faced revenue streams being wiped out. To maintain the current business, O'Neill and his team took it upon themselves to diversify into helping providers deliver online virtual training sessions to their clients, who were forced to stay home. O'Neill and his team helped providers to set up on Zoom and use it in tandem with their Legit Fit app. This allowed fitness providers to use virtual rooms as their own gyms/studios. Clients of Legit Fit's providers can continue to pay and book as normal through the app and join the interactive virtual sessions. Legit Fit is also building a fully integrated solution to make the move online completely seamless through its app. The app will automatically set up providers on Zoom and also develop notifications for their clients to alert them when their virtual sessions are starting. "If people's gyms are closed and they're looking to work out, they can contact us and we'll connect them with one of our providers," said O'Neill. "It's our own way of helping people stay home, but also to stay active." Manna Aero In March, Bobby Healy, founder of drone takeaway delivery firm Manna Aero, saw his company's planned trial with Camile Thai takeaway at UCD disrupted due to coronavirus. The serial entrepreneur, who also helped build CarTrawler, has remained busy, even diversifying Manna into a new sector. On Twitter, Dynamo Ventures, one of the firm's backers, confirmed Manna would soon begin testing the delivery of medicines to the most vulnerable people in Moneygall, Co Offaly. According to the Wall Street Journal, Manna is to drop prescription orders to about a dozen residences in Moneygall. The company hopes its demonstration could lead to the widespread use of its delivery drones across rural Ireland. American exceptionalism is premised on an unparalleled elevation of personal liberty as paramount. The Declaration of Independence recites life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as primary values, but the COVID-19 pandemic has jumbled these three into conflict with life threatened, both liberty and economic prosperity are in jeopardy. Our lives are threatened with doom; gloom hovers over our liberties and economy. America has many times been compelled to balance its citizens vital interests between this Scylla and Charybdis. Presently both menacing shores are shrouded in mist the degree of threat to human health a terrifying whirlpool, pushing us toward the many-headed beast of economic destruction. An implosion of the economy could exceed the threat to human life posed by the coronavirus but it is uncertain how severe is the medical emergency. In truth, only in hindsight will we know exactly how best to have responded thus the difficulty in estimating projected casualties to be 100,000 or 240,000, as reflected in a recent analysis. Even those speculative numbers have been revised upward. The President and other leaders face damnation on either side act too slowly, and they are blamed for mass graves; act too rashly, they will be faulted for eviscerating the economy. And the howling of political sirens of both extremes fills all ears with terror. Some allege that the threat is overblown, or that the entire alarm is a hoax -- a move by a New World Order and elitists to enslave us all. Which is worse? -- an enslaving plague or a plague of enslavers? It is not just our leaders who are navigating between two existential threats. If we overreact, we may have abandoned freedoms and plunged our national and global economies into a downward spiral from which we cannot easily return. Yet, if we balk for such fears, how bad could it get? There is indeed a middle course. Serological tests are being developed which will allow reliable assessment of those infected who may safely return to normalcy; many who have been tested positive but recovered can go back to work; some drugs promise to reduce mortality rates and save lives. We will emerge from the curve in due time. Despite uncertainty, we certainly must bravely discern the light at this dark tunnels end. The White House indicates that without restrictive measures, millions might die. Should that prove true, it would not bode well in the November elections that many on the Right dillydallied by alleging a conspiracy, even as their President called for restraint. The United Kingdom reported 1,000 virus deaths March 28th; 3,000 one week later. The numbers there suggest nearly 10% of those infected over the age of 80 succumb; 5% of those over 70. Another report estimates a hospitalization rate of 19% for over-80s. If hospitals are overrun, many patients are denied care, and the rates of death climb. Thus, emerging data from Spain and Italy suggest an across-the-board mortality rate exceeding 10%, and this may exclude uncounted victims who perished at home. Some claim New York City is lying by counting all those who test positive at death as virus victims, but what of those who die who do not have coronavirus but would have lived had they received routine care but did not because of COVID-19? Protocols are shifting so that EMTs will not bag heart attack or overdose victims is New York City lying (and underreporting causative deaths) by excluding those? Exact measurements are simply impossible, but a generalized assessment yields frightening potential impacts in America. In 2016, there were an estimated 49.2 million Americans over age 65; in 2017, an estimated 26.55 million were aged 75 or over. No degree in rocket science required. New York experienced 630 (alleged) coronavirus deaths in one day: this is not a run-of-the-mill flu. This is why the White House warns that if Americans ignore this contagion, millions could perish. In 1918, the Spanish Flu was not dismissed as a media-crafted fabrication. The current distrust of the mainstream media, and of the federal government, is warranted theyve both earned it. The MSM may though be that boy who cried wolf, now telling the truth while many scoff at the reality for Italy, Spain, the UK, France, and other nations. If so, those scoffers may pay both a medical and a political price. Indeed, a fictitious claim of false alarm would later serve those who desire to force vaccines or quarantines upon the citizenry. In such event, America would lose all three parts of its exceptional equation the life part, the liberty part, and the pursuit of happiness. That is a bad recipe. We would do better to seek the path that best balances the preservation of all three. Washington The new coronavirus might spread through the air via normal breathing and speaking, a top US scientist said yesterday as the government was poised to recommend the use of face masks for everyone. Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told Fox News the guidance on masks would be changed because of some recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak, as opposed to coughing and sneezing. As it stands, the official advice is that only sick people need to cover their faces, as well as those caring for them at home. Faucis comments come after the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) sent a letter to the White House on April 1 that summarised recent research on the subject. It said that though the research isnt yet conclusive, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolisation of virus from normal breathing. Until now, US health agencies have said that the primary pathway of transmission is respiratory droplets, about one millimetre in diameter, expelled by sick people when they sneeze or cough. These quickly fall to the ground around a meter away. But if the virus can be suspended in the ultrafine mist we expel when we exhale, in other words, an aerosol, it becomes much harder to prevent its spread, which in turn is an argument in favour of everyone covering their faces. The aerosol debate A recent NIH funded study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could become an aerosol and remain airborne for up to three hours. This triggered a debate even as critics said the findings were overblown because the team behind the study used a medical device called a nebulizer to deliberately create a viral mist and argued this would not occur naturally. The NAS letter pointed to preliminary research by the University of Nebraska Medical Center that found the genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, its RNA, were found in hard to reach areas of patients isolation rooms. The NAS scientists also pointed to two other studies -- both not yet peer-reviewed -- from Hong Kong and from mainland China. The Hong Kong researchers collected viral samples from patients with the coronavirus and other viral respiratory illnesses, and gave some of the patients face masks. The masks reduced the detection of both droplets and aerosols for coronavirus patients. Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has pledged monthly ration to support 1,00,000 households of daily wage workers belonging to the All India Film Employees Confederation amid the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative will be supported by Sony Pictures Networks India and Kalyan Jewellers. "Given the unprecedented nature of the situation we are in, an initiative undertaken by Mr Bachchan, WE ARE ONE' has been supported by Sony Pictures Networks India and Kalyan Jewellers, through which the monthly ration of 1,00,000 households across the country will be funded," a statement released by Sony Pictures Networks on Sunday read. "Through a commercial tie-up with a leading chain of hypermarkets and grocery stores in India, digitally barcoded coupons have been distributed to a verified list of workers from the All India Film Employees Confederation. Furthermore, monetary help has also been extended to those in need," it added. However, there was no information till when these daily wage workers will receive monthly ration from the donators. NP Singh, managing director and CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India, said as part of its CSR outreach, SPN took the initiative of working alongside Bachchan to support the households of daily wage earners of the Indian film and television industry. Bachchan, 77, has been hosting the reality game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" for Sony since 2010. "SPN's support will ensure that at least 50,000 workers and their families have their home supplies for a month," he added. Along with this, Bachchan will also feature in a short film "Family", which has been conceptualised and virtually directed by Prasoon Pandey. "Family", which talks about the importance of staying at home, maintaining hygiene and social distancing, also features Rajinikanth, Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Alia Bhatt, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Mammootty, Sonali Kulkarni, Shiv Raj Kumar, Prosenjit Chatterjee, and Diljit Dosanjh. The short film will telecast across Sony Network on April 6. "Family" aims to capture the resilience of human spirit amid tough times, Singh added. The cannabis bankruptcy filings are starting to roll in. Already plagued by a tough regulatory environment, disappointing sales and capital markets that had closed to all but the strongest companies, the industry is now facing a coronavirus pandemic-related collapse in stock markets and ever-shrinking financing options. Pot companies completed two capital raises worth just $5.6 million (U.S.) the week ended March 27, according to data from Viridian Capital Advisors. Thats the lowest level of activity this year and compares to 17 capital raises worth $169 million for the same period in 2019. The lack of financing is starting to take its toll on the weakest companies. Last week, CannTrust Holdings Inc. and James E. Wagner Cultivation Corp. both filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada. For CannTrust, it was the end of a nine-month-long saga that began when regulators discovered it grew pot in unlicensed areas and ultimately suspended its license, a blow it wasnt able to recover from. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated what were already difficult circumstances, the company said in a statement, making it even more challenging for CannTrust to attract new financing or a strategic partner. There are other signs of strain, even in relatively healthy companies. Cronos Group Inc., which is well capitalized thanks to a large investment by tobacco giant Altria Group Inc., delayed the release of its fourth-quarter results and restated its financials for the previous three quarters because of issues with the way it reported certain bulk resin purchases. The companys weak revenue in the quarter just $7.3 million prompted at least three analysts to downgrade the stock. Hexo Corp. missed its quarterly filing deadline and, when it did report, announced $266 million (Canadian) of writedowns and impairment charges. Revised debt covenants require it to raise $40 million in equity by April 30, a startling sum that could mean severe downward pressure on the stock, according to CIBC analyst John Zamparo. If it cant secure that financing, that would put its going concern status at risk, said BMOs Tamy Chen. Although cannabis sales jumped as self-isolation orders took effect last month, providing a rare respite for the struggling industry, there are already signs the initial spike is starting to wane. After a notable increase in mid-March, sales velocity meaningfully decelerated on the Ontario Cannabis Store website last weekend, suggesting that this recent surge may be transitory unless COVID-19 quarantine measures are meaningfully extended, Chen said in a note. We believe the COVID-19 fallout presents incremental downside for industry sales over the balance of this year. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to ligth diyas for nine minutes on Sunday to mark the fight against coornavirus, priests at Shri Siddhi Vinayak Ganpati Mandir in Mumbai lit earthen lamps. Modi had appealed to all to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 pm for 9 minutes and just light a candle,'diya' or mobile's flashlight. Scores of people in the country joined in by turning off lights at their residence, responding to her Prime Minister Modi's '9 pm, 9 min' appeal to defeat the coronavirus in the country. The total number of cases rose to 3,577 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. And 83 deaths have been reported so far in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Australian locked in quarantine in South Korea says its like being in prison but also a travel experience hell never forget. David Zheng, a GP from Carnegie, in Melbournes south-east, has always wanted to visit this country, just not in this way. Welcome to South Korea: Melbourne GP David Zheng in his ''cell'' in quarantine. Credit:David Zheng Sunday was day five of his incarceration in a converted police academy - "like a two star hotel" - in Asan, 90 kilometres south of Seoul. In a small cell he has no human contact and three cold meals a day left outside his door. Amsterdam RVs - be they modest campers or massive bus-sized homes on wheels - have long evoked images of the open road, and the uniquely American freedom to roam seemingly endless highways. But now these recreational vehicles symbolize something else: The need to stay put and self-quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic. RV dealers across the nation are getting calls from governments, utilities and even individuals who need the mobile housing units to sequester people like doctors, nurses and utility workers who need to stay on the job no matter what. Living in an RV is one way to isolate oneself from potential corona carriers, or keeping the virus from spreading it to family members. Ive had a couple of calls from people who are interested in what we could do for them, said Jason Rattray, sales manager for RVs at the Alpin Haus dealership, which has outlets in Amsterdam, Saratoga and Port Jervis. While the sales floor isnt open, Rattray - like those in other industries such as real estate - is using web-based videos, apps and old-school phone calls to communicate with customers. People are inquiring about RVs as potential quarantine chambers, a temporary home where a person or family member who may have coronavirus can stay until he or she gets over it and doesnt need to worry about spreading the disease. The converse is also true, since a person can live in the RV and keep themselves away from others who might spread the virus, which causes the COVID-19 illness. Recently Rattray said, they delivered an RV to a woman who works in the health care field near Utica, with the idea that she could be self-isolated in case she got the illness. Another vehicle went to the Warrensburg area where a man purchased one for his son who works as a prison correctional officer. Theres been a lot of concern lately about the potential for coronavirus to quickly spread in confined spaces like prisons. Another customer from the Woodstock area bought an RV when his son came home from college, which closed early for the year. Additionally, Rattray said, people are picking up their stored units earlier than usual. As well as selling and servicing RVs, Alpin Haus also has space for summer users to store their RVs for the winter. While people often wait until mid-April to start retrieving them, some are getting them now. About 10 million American households have an RV, said Monika Geraci, spokeswoman for the national RV Industry Association. And while the RV factories, mostly based in Indiana, are currently closed due to coronavirus, there are plenty on dealership lots. And while tourism RV rentals have dried up, some have rented them for one-way trips instead of risking airline travel, when there is more viral exposure. Overall though, most of the current business is from government or corporate buyers. Geraci noted that some state governments, including California, Texas and Louisiana, have purchased RVs. They are being used for command posts or mobile testing centers. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. In Los Angeles, the county government has acquired a fleet of RVs to house people, including the homeless, to keep them from spreading the illness. People also are offering use of their unused RVs for medical professionals who are constantly being exposed to the coronavirus at work. The "RVs 4 MDs to Fight the Corona Virus" page on Facebook has become a clearinghouse for that. In the Capital Region, the New York Independent System Operator, which oversees the states power grid, and National Grid, have both gotten RVs to house employees who need to keep the power flowing day and night. We dont want people seeing this as a vacation, Geraci said of the RVs being to used to shelter people. They may have no place else to go. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU Top 5 Recommended Onsen for Solo Female Travelers Being a solo female traveler can sometimes be fraught with unique challenges, but that never means you should stop exploring! In 2019, Rakuten Travel put out a study showing the five best onsen locations for Solo Female Travellers. Taking into account things like distance from public transport and length of stay, this study has found the most desirable onsen destinations for flying solo. Lets have a look at those spots right now! 1. Hakodate Yunokawa Onsen (Hokkaido) This spot consistently tops lists all over the country for the best onsen spot. Located on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, this is a great retreat for those wanting to see more of rural Japan. In addition, its in a prime location: less than 15 minutes by taxi to Hakodate Airport, this is also a great point from which to see various other famous spots in Hakodate. This onsen water is good for the mind, body, and soul, and various types of hot spring hotels means you can meet your budget to be as luxurious or shoestring as you like. 2. Dogo Onsen (Ehime) Dogo Onsen is located in Ehime Prefecture, located on Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands. Dogo Onsen has been a top pick for onsens through the ages--besides being a legendary bathing place for princes, its famous wooden mazed Dogo Onsen Honkan is often said to be the inspiration for the bathhouse in the famous film Spirited Away. This location is slightly harder to get to, but its popularity means there are several easy ways to get to the onsen area. In addition, its popularity as a safe and comfortable place to bathe means theyve upped their women-only plans to be better valued with more privacy. 3. Hakone Yumoto Onsen (Kanagawa) juan hung-yen / Shutterstock.com juan hung-yen / Shutterstock.com Hakone Yumoto Onsen is an extremely popular onsen spot. Its proximity to Tokyo means by Odakyu Romance Car (a limited express reserved seat train), you can be in Hakone in less than 90 minutes. This makes it an easy choice for travelers looking to stay on the main island and hoping for a simple day or overnight trip. The waters here are some of the best in all of Japan, and many hotels and ryokans dont require an overnight stay to use their baths. Come in from Shinjuku in the morning, take in the picturesque views of Mt. Fuji, have a tasty lunch and a hot bath, and be back in your Tokyo bed before the sun sets! Story continues 4. Yugawara Onsen (Kanagawa) Tucked in between Atami and Hakone, the humble Yugawara Onsen can sometimes be overlooked in favor of its more popular cousins. However, this small onsen town has been beloved since the Heian period and is the only onsen mentioned by name in the first anthology of Japanese poetry. This water contains gypsum and a low salt content, making it easier on sensitive skin than some of the harsher natural hot springs in the area. The area is also covered in u-pick tangerine orchards, making for a delightful outdoor activity in the late fall and early winter. 5. Yufuin Onsen (Oita) Niradj / Shutterstock.com Niradj / Shutterstock.com Yufuin is also sort of a hidden-gem: located directly next to Beppu, this onsen has been a quiet time capsule for many years. This Onsen is also not on the main island, located on the northern side of the other small Japanese island of Kyushu. This town is known for its sweet, charming, walking paths through the city streets lined with cafes and boutiques, with the beautiful Mt. Yufu rising majestically in the distance. This town still spreads out like old Japan, and visitors will be delighted to take morning walks along the rice paddies. This is a great choice for the visitor who wants a total getaway, and several easy train routes to Fukuoka mean its not too difficult to get to. Last Word No matter where you choose to go, remember a few rules for the onsen. Unfortunately, most onsen still dont allow tattoos in the bath, so make sure you know whether you can even use the public baths you reserve. Also, most baths require you to be fully naked and are separated into gendered sections. You are meant to wash yourself in the showers before getting in the bath, to make sure youre fresh and clean by the time you enter. To all about to bathe, we salute you, and wish you a warm, safe, and healthy trip to the healing waters of Japans natural onsens! Written by HanaSera Ito Dear Editor, As I look upon the response of the federal government to the coronavirus, I am disappointed, especially in the Department of Defense response. Its annual budget is $738 billion. We have 800 military bases in 70 counties. But when the citizens of the U.S. are under direct attack by the coronavirus, the Department of Defense is is ineffective. The USNS Comfort docked in New York City with 1,000 beds and 1,200 personnel and now has few patients on it. I thought New York City is dealing with a coronavirus pandemic. Why is the USNS Comfort not accepting these patients? That is the immediate medical need in New York City. I do not know why the Comfort is not taking COVID-19 patients. The Comfort is not helping. The U.S. Navy has relieved Capt. Brett Crozier of his command. He was the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Dozens of his crew had tested positive for the coronavirus and he wanted them to disembark in Guam so they could receive proper medical treatment. My solution to this problem: Reduce the Department of Defense budget by half and use that money to improve the medical system in the U.S. A military threat from foreign adversaries is always a major concern. But our obsession with high Department of Defense budgets is unsustainable. Edward G. Doran Stone Ridge, N.Y. Doctors, residents and politicians in popular Victorian holiday spots are pleading with Melburnians to leave the health facilities for locals and stay away over the Easter break. Megan Belot, a GP in the small town of Cohuna in northern Victoria and president of the Rural Doctors Association of Victoria, said regional healthcare resources arent designed to cope with extra people in a pandemic. Victorian Tourism Minister Martin Pakula said the government's "message to Victorians is clear stay home". Credit:Paul Jeffers Dr Belot said metropolitan and rural residents must stay at home so the government knows where you are and where we need services. Healthcare should be prioritised. Leave the health facilities for the locals. Its harsh, but thats the reality. Saudi rocket attack kills entire Yemeni family in Sa'ada Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 10:01 AM Saudi Arabia has conducted a rocket attack on a border district in Yemen's northwestern Sa'ada Province, killing all members of a family. The al-Masirah television network reported that the family consisting of a father, a pregnant mother and two children had lost their lives in the Saudi rocket strike on BeniSayyah area of Sa'ada's Razih district. Sa'ada's border neighborhoods are subjected to daily Saudi shelling which cause civilian casualties and destroy properties, the report added. The fresh Saudi crime comes amid a global fight against the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which first showed up in China in late December 2019 before spreading to other parts of the world. Yemen has not recorded any COVID-19 cases to date, but the possibility of an outbreak threatens the country's fragile healthcare system, which is already struggling to fight cholera and dengue fever. Last month, OsamahAlfakih, advocacy director of the independent Yemeni rights group Mwatana, estimated that attacks on hospitals and clinics have closed over half of Yemen's pre-war facilities. "Even those hospitals that remain open lack specialists, equipment and medicine. We currently only have 10 healthcare workers per 10,000 people instead of the standard 22," he said, adding that the constant threat of being targeted makes it very difficult for doctors and nurses to work. On March 25, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Yemen's rival parties to work with his special envoy, Martin Griffiths, to achieve a nation-wide de-escalation, saying, "a political solution is the only way to a comprehensive and sustainable resolution of the conflict in Yemen." It followed an earlier call by Guterres for "an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world" to tackle the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The popular Houthi Ansarullah movement said any political solution to the Yemen conflict should begin with an end to the US-sponsored Saudi military aggression and the blockade on the impoverished state. According to a tally released last November by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project or ACLED, more than 100,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war. The Western-backed bombing campaign, coupled with a naval blockade, has plunged Yemen into what the UN says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 2,000 stuck on cruise ship in Goa after crew members test positive for COVID-19 Cruise ship sails back to Mumbai with all passengers as Covid-19 infected patients refuse to get down at Goa No night curfew in Goa, but gatherings with over 100 people in open spaces banned No community transmission of COVID-19 in Goa India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Panaji, Apr 05: There is no community transmission of novel coronavirus in Goa, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Saturday, adding that six of the seven COVID-19 patients had foreign travel history while one was an infected person's brother. He said the lockdown in force must be adhered to strictly to effectively combat the virus outbreak. "There is no community transmission of coronavirus in Goa. Six patients had come from abroad and one is the brother of an infected person," he told reporters. "We have not progressed to community transmission stage because of lockdown and social distancing measures put in place," he said. Coronavirus death toll sees highest jump on Saturday Meanwhile, the state government has warned landlords not to evict tenants during the lockdown period. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 9:15 [IST] NEW YORK --- On Sunday the Governor updated the public regarding the response with COVID-19. The updated numbers relating to COVID-19: -The number of total positive tests is 122,031. -16,479 are currently hospitalized. (+574) -4,376 ICU patients (+250) -12,187 patients have been discharged (+1,709) Total deaths in the state now stand at 4,159 which is an increase of 594. The governor mentioned an anomaly in the numbers in today's briefing. The number of new patients hospitalized on Sunday dropped to 574 when on Saturday that number was at 1,095. As for explaining that number, the Governor hopes that this means we are closer to an apex or a plateau in the "curve". But said the statisticians won't know for another week. The state is expected to hit the apex of the pandemic by next week. The Governor mentioned that hospitalizations here in Upstate have remained roughly the same. Cuomo also spoke about cabin fever and the Governor said it's beginning to be recognized as a potential mental health problem. The Governor encourages that while maintaining social distancing, people should make every effort to get outdoors. Gov. Kristi Noem drafts bill limiting 'action civics' This legislation prohibits colleges and schools from directing, requiring or compelling students to protest or lobby as part of a grade or a class. A week after forming 11 empowered panels comprising senior bureaucrats to monitor all aspects of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a review meeting of all the groups. According to a government official familiar with the matter, only the heads of the 11 panels -- 10 empowered groups and a task force -- interacted with the PM. The group leaders spoke on issues and challenges that need to be addressed and the Prime Minister told them that the government is closely working with the states to combat the deadly virus. Later, in a series of tweets, the PM said that countrywide preparedness in terms of availability of hospitals, proper isolation and quarantine facilities, and disease surveillance, testing and critical care training were reviewed at the meeting. According to the official cited in the first instance, the meeting also identified areas needing attention. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic The Prime Minister also emphasized on ensuring sufficient production, procurement and availability of all essential medical equipment such as PPEs, masks, gloves and ventilators. Many states have sought more medical equipment such as protective gear, gloves and masks from the Centre apart from financial packages. The Prime Minister was also appraised of the steps being taken in the past seven days to ramp up the production of medical equipments. Earlier, in a meeting it was found that more than 20,000 ventilators in India are lying unused due to shortage or spares or servicing. The Narendra Modi government on Sunday established ten empowered groups and a key strategic task force to look into all aspects of the Corona outbreak. the measure turns at least 68 senior bureaucrats into a consorted planning and implementing machinery as India scrambles to minimize the impact of the deadly diseases that continues to kill thousands across the world. Last Sunday, the government announced working groups with specific task assigned to countrys top bureaucrats and experts to cover all aspects of the current situation arising out of the Corona outbreak. Groups have been formed with focus areas such as the medical emergency management plan, availability of hospitals, isolation and quarantine facilities, disease surveillance and testing and critical care training and facilitating supply chain and logistics management for availability of necessary items such as food and medicine and other issues. All the ten empowered groups have representatives from the cabinet secretariat and PMO for better coordination. A six-member Strategic Task Force has also been formed which will exclusively deal with issues related to the ongoing three-week lockdown that ends on April 14. Niti Ayog member Dr. VK Paul, home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, secretary (coordination) VP Joy and three officials from the Prime Ministers Office AK Sharma, Arvind Srivastava and Abhishek Shukla. PM will also be meeting his council of ministers and the Union Cabinet on Monday via video conferencing. HARRISBURG Tens of thousands of medical workers across the United States are suddenly out of work as operating rooms and doctors offices go dark, casualties of urgent calls to prioritize coronavirus patients at overwhelmed hospitals and of the economic waves the crisis is churning. Even as hospitals scrounge for professionals from the industry to treat the burgeoning numbers of people with COVID-19, others are on the sidelines as elective procedures, diagnostics and appointments are canceled or postponed. For instance, many nurse anesthetists in Pennsylvania have been laid off, even though they are particularly critical to the coronavirus response because they can help intubate patients and manage them on ventilators. "I certainly never thought there would be a day as a nurse that I would be filing for unemployment, so it's quite surreal for all of us," said Jess Poole, a nurse anesthetist who, until a couple weeks ago, worked for an anesthesia practice in the Pittsburgh area. Big-city physician and specialist groups, tiny independent hospitals from Oregon to Connecticut, and big multistate hospital systems such as Steward Health Care are seeing big dropoffs in revenue and laying off or furloughing hundreds of workers. A tally of out-of-work medical professionals is elusive, since the coronavirus began taking a devastating toll on jobs only in mid-March. Many institutions have said nothing publicly, quietly making cutbacks, and the monthly jobs report issued Friday by the federal government showed 42,000 job losses in health care just a small indication of what's to come, because the government surveyed employers before the heaviest layoffs hit. RELATED: N.J. pleads for more medical volunteers as coronavirus surge keeps hitting hospitals RELATED: New York gets ventilators in China; Trump wants more thanks Not all states release that data in real time, although Minnesota reported that from March 16 through March 31, more than 13,600 health care practitioners or technicians filed unemployment claims in that state alone. Some layoffs, the generally permanent loss of a job, and furloughs, a reduction in hours or a leave of absence with the option to return, are focused on nonclinical staff. Elsewhere, clinical professionals specialists, lab techs, operating room staffs, nurse specialists, support staff suddenly find themselves with a cut in pay or hours or sitting at home, including some in coronavirus hotspots. In hard-hit Michigan, Mercy Health and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, which runs eight hospitals in the state, said it will furlough 2,500 workers, including an undisclosed number of clinical staffers, and shift others to jobs "needed to respond to the crisis." The cuts are driven primarily by pressure from state and federal officials to shelve elective procedures, appointments, diagnostics and other services to preserve hospital beds, while many patients are postponing appointments to observe social distance restrictions. For some provider groups and hospitals, the lion's share of their revenue has dried up. While $100 billion from the federal relief package signed last month by President Donald Trump might help cover that, it's not clear how the money will be distributed, or how soon, or whether it will be enough. Erlanger Health System, which operates six hospitals in Tennessee and one in western North Carolina, reported it lost millions of dollars in the past week alone. "The financial bleeding was immediate," said Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals. The federation said it believes hospitals are eligible to apply for loans in the federal emergency relief bill to maintain payroll or rehire workers, loans that can then be forgiven. In the meantime, states reeling from the pandemic are calling for help from medical professionals or relaxing regulations to allow retired workers, students or out-of-state professionals to come to the rescue. Some hospitals such as rural hospitals or urban ones with a heavy Medicaid caseload were on precarious financial footing when the crisis struck, sending some states scrambling to keep them open, including in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In North Carolina, Cape Fear Valley Health system is furloughing about 300 employees but offering idled specialty nurses the opportunity to fill open positions as floor nurses. Hospital executives say they have no choice but to issue furloughs and meet the most immediate needs, while shifting to telemedicine and retraining or moving some clinical staff. Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, gave 37-year nurse Bruce Moore the option of a furlough from the cardiac catheterization lab with no guarantee of a recall or retrain to care for coronavirus patients on ventilators in the intensive care unit. Moore took the retraining, with a mix of emotions: worried that he would never be recalled if he went on furlough, wanting to help, and apprehensive about the adequacy of two or three weeks of retraining and the prospect of using rationed masks and gowns, which are in short supply. "Nurses are being expected to do things that they've never done," Moore said. Hospital officials say furloughed employees, in most cases, can expect to be recalled if they are needed or when the crisis subsides. Clinical staff members being sent home are not treating coronavirus patients, or they have little to do in suddenly quiet offices and facilities where there is no crisis, the institutions' leaders say. "But they may be in areas where there will be growth in the virus, which makes layoffs particularly alarming, because hospitals are gearing up or should be gearing up even in places where coronavirus is not an emergency as it in other parts of the country," said Tricia Neuman, who directs the Medicare policy program at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Alex Hlumyk, of Hubbard, Ohio, a certified medical assistant, had been helping screen potential coronavirus patients before his Steward-owned physicians' practice furloughed him. I was pulled into a back room and told, Were furloughing you because we dont have the money, Hlumyk said. He's not sure how he would sign up to help in areas slammed by the virus, and his employer didn't give him any guidance, he said. Thats the problem with the for-profit health care system, Hlumyk said, citing the tendency of hospitals to compete for resources instead of sharing them. In recent days, hospitals watching the spreading outbreak in the Pittsburgh area are building disaster relief plans and contacting Poole, the nurse anesthetist, to see if she would come in in an emergency. She's saying yes. "We don't know if or when we're going to be called back to work," Poole said. "We're kind of stuck in between right now." ___ Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter. The AP Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Three days after China demitted Presidency of the UN Security Council, 10 non-permanent members led by Dominican Republic have forced the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to agree to a closed-door informal consultation on the Covid-19 pandemic this week. This comes after an attempt by Estonia to have the UNSC discuss the pandemic with more transparency and accountability was blocked by China, Russia and South Africa who argued that the coronavirus spread was not a peace and security issue and hence outside the UNSCs mandate. According to diplomatic sources in Washington and Delhi, the demand for informal consultation on the pandemic, made as it impacts the peace and security of the world, was pushed by UNSC President Dominican Republic on Friday. It was backed by Vietnam, Indonesia, Germany, Belgium, Estonia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Niger and Tunisia. It is understood that UN Secretary General Guterres will first address the UNSC through video conference and then announce the date for informal consultations this week. Guterres is expected to brief the member countries on the status of the pandemic and measures taken to control the killer disease. There is, however, a huge question on the possible outcome of the discussions on the disease that originated in Chinas Wuhan city before it rapidly spread across the world. China is expected to be supported by Russia. The United States, on the other hand, is yet to take a stand. But the Trump administration has of late adopted a softer stand on China, particularly after Beijing supplied 1,000 ventilators for New York. France and the United Kingdom are likely to be in favour of an outcome at the informal consultations. As per John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen has infected 1.2 million people across the world and killed 66,542. The US has reported the maximum number of cases with over 3,12,000 Covid-19 patients and over 8,500 deaths. Experts believe that the virus will destroy a lot more lives than it will take. Governments across the world have ordered lockdowns to slow the pandemic and minimise the lives that it takes, forcing the global economy into a recession that may take years to get over. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants a global ceasefire to be announced so that member countries can focus on the fight against the virus and the global misery that will follow. But this may not be accepted by Russia which has stakes in the Syrian civil war and the Libyan strife. To be sure, little is expected of the informal consultations on Covid-19 at UNSC. But permanent member China, which is riled up at any description of the disease as Wuhan virus, will have to allow itself to be targeted by other UNSC members. UNSC members also surely expected to raise questions on the role of World Health Organisation that failed to recognise the disease as a pandemic earlier and Beijings initial denials when the outbreak took place as early as November 17, 2019 SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 12:45 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fca6c4 1 City anies-baswedan,deputy-governor,city-council Free The Jakarta City Council is pressing ahead with its plan to select Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedans deputy governor on Monday despite an extension of the citys COVID-19 state of emergency. The councils selection committee previously agreed to delay the search for the deputy governor until Monday, days after the COVID-19 emergency status in Jakarta was supposed to end on April 2. But the continued spread of COVID-19 cases forced Anies to extend the emergency status until April 19, which also extended large-scale social restrictions that have been in place since March, suspending school, office, religious and public activities. The selection process for Anies second-in-command will involve a plenary meeting that would vote between Gerindra Party politician Ahmad Riza Patria and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Nurmansyah Lubis. The schedule remains the same so far [for April 6], Basri Baco, the councils selection committee deputy chairman and a Golkar Party member, said on Friday. The council held a confirmation hearing on Friday behind closed doors, during which the two candidates presented their vision and mission before the councillors. The two-hour session was reportedly attended by less than 20 attendees, including the committee members, one representative of each faction and the councils leadership. After COVID-19 spread to Indonesia, the feasibility of a plenary meeting came into question, with the central government and the city administration advising against large-scale meetings. The deputy governor seat has been left vacant since the former deputy governor, Gerindra politician Sandiaga Uno, resigned to run as a vice-presidential candidate alongside fellow Gerindra politician Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential election. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) holds the most seats on the 106-strong council with 25, followed by Gerindra with 19 seats and the PKS with 15. Riza, a former House of Representatives member, has said he was backed by, among others, the Golkar Party and the PDI-P. Meanwhile, Nurmasyah said he was backed by council deputy speaker Abdurrahman Suhaimi of the PKS. Read also: Anies' deputy hopefuls to roll up sleeves on floods Jakarta politicians, particularly the supporters of Riza, have insisted that a deputy governor is needed now more than ever to help Anies in handling the COVID-19 outbreak in the capital. The councils selection committee chairman, Farazandi of the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the committee had ensured that COVID-19 precautionary measures would be properly implemented on the day of voting. [The plenary meeting] will be closed to the public and will be held in a sterile environment. The process will be recorded and distributed [to journalists] after the meeting, he said. The plenary meeting is typically attended by at least 54 councillors, as mandated by the council's code of ethics. We will implement physical distancing. Only the governor, the candidates and the councils leadership members [will be in the room]. The rest will observe from a sterile chamber and take turns casting their votes, he said. The country reported more than 2,000 COVID-19 cases with 191 fatalities as of Saturday. Jakarta is the hardest-hit province with 1,028 confirmed cases and 89 deaths. Read also: Jakarta extends COVID-19 state of emergency to April 19 Despite the decision by majority approval to hold the plenary meeting as scheduled, some councillors have continued to raise their objections, saying the council should focus on handling COVID-19. The councillors should stop talking about deputy governor [vote] and instead they should start discussing the reallocation of the city budget for COVID-19 measures, Wibi Andrino of the NasDem Party told The Jakarta Post. The council leadership should have initiated an emergency meeting to summon the governor because we have to make a swift decision regarding this particular budget. A PKS councillor made a similar argument. We still have some time to postpone the deputy governor selection after the COVID-19 emergency status is lifted. The selection process is not as simple as only listening to a speech. It should be interactive and require more time, PKS councillor Nasrullah said in a written statement. Read also: Councilors defer selection of Anies deputy governor until after COVID-19 emergency Observers have repeatedly warned the councillors against using the pandemic as justification "to speed up" the plenary meeting without keeping transparency and good governance in check. They urged the Jakarta City Council to start the confirmation hearing only after the outbreak is completely over to allow the standard process to take place. They [councillors] seem to have reasoned that a deputy is needed to help the governor [during the COVID-19 pandemic]. Urgent or not, this is political and therefore they will always find justifications, Indonesia Political Review executive director Ujang Komarudin said. Vacaville Fire Department firefighters were battling a two-alarm fire Saturday night that completely engulfed a barn near the intersection of Willow and Poplar Roads. The fire, about a half-mile east of Leisure Town Road, was first reported at 6:18 p.m. There were no immediate reports of injuries. A South African Muslim cleric, who recently returned from India after attending the Nizamuddin congregation, has died after contracting the novel coronavirus, according to his family members. Moulana Yusuf Tootla, 80, attended the March 1-15 Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the Nizmuddin area, that has emerged as the epicentre for the spread of the coronavirus in different parts of India and abroad after thousands of people took part in it. Tootla, who died on Tuesday, was buried after his body was collected in a bag by the Islamic Burial Council (IBC). The Nizamuddin area is famed for the shrine of the 14h century Sufi mystic Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya. Indian authorities have launched a nationwide search for participants of the huge religious gathering amid fears that thousands present there could have carried the infection to the length and breadth of the country. Various nationals, particularly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan come for Tabligh activities in Delhi. A family member of the cleric, on the basis of anonymity, told local media that Tootla began showing flu-like symptoms on his return from India. Subsequent tests at a private facility revealed that he had the virus. By the past weekend Tootla had almost fully recovered from his treatment, but by Monday morning he started feeling ill again. His condition deteriorated rapidly, the family member said. Tootla was reportedly advised not to travel to India for the gathering, but he was adamant to go. He had participated in scores of similar gatherings across the globe, according to fellow clerics, but none of whom could confirm if other South Africans had also attended. He (Tootla) said his fate is in Allah's hands, as He (God) had already decided when he would recall him, said the family member. Tootla's extended family is in self-isolation for 14 days, although none of them have tested positive for the virus. IBC chairperson Salim Kazi said small adjustments were made for Muslim burials to ensure compliance with the government guidelines during the 21-day nationwide lockdown which is now in its 8th day. The guidelines restrict the number of people who can attend a funeral, so hundreds of people who had known the Islamic leader had to be advised to offer prayers for him in their homes. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, South Africa has 1,585 COVID-19 cases and nine people have died of the disease in the country. Meanwhile, majority of the people who tested positive for the disease in New Delhi are those who took part in the religious congregation. According to Delhi's Health Department, 301 patients out of the 445 cases in the state are those participated in the Tablighi Jamaat, and Chief Minister Kejriwal said that the number of cases could spike as all 2,300 people evacuated from the Tablighi's 'markaz' were being tested. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Sudan has announced its first case of COVID-19, making it the 51st of Africa's 54 countries to report the disease. A UN worker who arrived in the country from Netherlands on February 28 is ill with the disease, confirmed First Vice President Riek Machar and the UN mission in South Sudan. The patient, a 29-year-old woman, first showed signs of the disease on April 2 and is recovering, said officials. South Sudan, with 11 million people, currently has four ventilators and wants to increase that number, said Machar, who emphasized that people should stay three to six feet apart from others. The only vaccine is social distancing, said Machar. The patient is under quarantine at U.N. premises and health workers are tracing the people who had been in contact with her, said David Shearer, head of the UN operations in South Sudan. He said he hoped the measures would contain the case. To prevent the spread of the virus in South Sudan, President Salva Kiir last week imposed a curfew from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am for six weeks and closed borders, airports, schools, churches and mosques. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and the vast majority survive. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can be more severe, even causing pneumonia or death. Recovering from a five-year civil war, South Sudan has several camps of thousands of displaced people. Across the border in Uganda is Bidibidi camp with with more than 250,000 refugees from South Sudan. Crowded and with rudimentary facilities, the camps are viewed as high risk areas for the spread of the virus, according to health experts. With the disease in South Sudan, now just three countries in Africa have not reported any cases of COVID-19: the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa, and the island nations of Comoros and Sao Tome and Principe. Ethiopia on Sunday reported its first death from the virus and announced five more cases bringing its total to 43, most of them imported by travellers. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held discussions Sunday with opposition party leaders on measures to combat the virus. A number of Ethiopia's regional states have implemented bans on movement of people and vehicles, but not yet in the capital Addis Ababa. In Kenya, the government extended its travel ban for 30 days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A property tycoon has threatened to bankrupt businesses forced to close because of the lockdown unless they pay their rents on time. Agents acting for multi-millionaire Asif Aziz have sent out final demands threatening to wind up firms who are as little as one day late settling their bills, despite the unprecedented circumstances. Cafe owner Sanar Alserdare accused Mr Aziz who has been nicknamed 'Mr West End' because of the amount of property his firm Criterion Capital has in Central London of showing a lack of compassion over the uncompromising warning he received. Mr Alserdare wrote to his landlord a fortnight ago hoping to discuss his concerns about the effect of the lockdown on his livelihood. Asif Aziz pictured leaving the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where he claimed his former "wife" is not entitled to a share in a 1.1 billion fortune because they were never legally married He has run Crepes, Coffee & Chai on Tottenham Court Road in Central London for six years and never missed a payment on his 200,000-a-year rent. But he heard nothing until last week when he received an email the day after his last payment was due, threatening to bankrupt the business if the rent was not paid on time. Despite Government pleas for landlords to show understanding, the email, sent by a cashier at Orbit Property Management on Mr Aziz's behalf, said: 'We request that you immediately pay the rent due and currently outstanding. 'If you do not pay, your landlord's mortgage providers require them to issue the statutory demand that we have drafted to wind up your company. 'Please do not respond to this email unless it is to confirm payment in full.' They said the same approach would be taken with other tenants. Malawi-born father-of-four Mr Aziz, 53, appeared in The Sunday Times Rich List in 2008 when he was estimated to be worth 79million. He hit the headlines in 2005 when he bought the Trocadero leisure complex on Piccadilly Circus in a 225million deal, and he also has a charity foundation in his name. Mr Alserdare, 34, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I tried to enter a dialogue with Criterion, but all I got back was a threat to put me out of business. BMW garage on Park Lane, London W1, in property owned by Asif Aziz, who owns almost forty London properties, worth around 950 million and has pledged to in increase his portfolio These are unprecedented times and I would have hoped someone like Mr Aziz, who is well known for his charitable work, would be prepared to show some compassion.' Andrew Sell, head of asset management for Criterion Capital, said: 'We have been seeking payment of rent by our tenants on a basis consistent with the terms of their leases. 'The Government at no time have said that commercial tenants should receive a rental holiday, yet many, but not all, are choosing to withhold rent.' By Trend The meeting of ministers of OPEC+ countries has been postponed to April 9, 2020, Advisor to the Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Zamina Aliyeva told Trend. Azerbaijan is ready to make its contribution to the process of global regulation of the oil market by taking part in the planned meeting of the ministers of OPEC+ in a video conference format to stabilize the oil market. The meeting will be attended by all ministers of OPEC+ countries and will be focused on discussion of the new "Declaration of Cooperation. This meeting will be held at the invitation of Saudi Arabia, as a result of negotiations conducted with the mediation of US President Donald Trump. The meeting of OPEC+ ministers was planned on April 6 this year. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: One of ANI's editor Ishaan Prakash apologised for the news agency's inaccurate report on Telangana government's decision on extending the lockdown in the state. Auto refresh feeds Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Union health ministry told mediapersons that 267 people have recovered from the infection till now. The Union health ministry on Sunday said that 505 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 3,577. Further, the total number of deaths has risen to 83. Out of the 26 cases, 17 were reported from Pune, four from its neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad township, three from Ahmednagar and two from Aurangabad, he said. As many as 26 new coronavirus patients were reported from Maharashtra on Sunday, taking the total such cases in the state to 661, a health official said. The West Bengal health department had earlier mentioned seven deaths due to the disease, though the state government had confirmed only three. Till Saturday, the state had registered 68 coronavirus cases. The Union health ministry website mentioned three deaths due to the contagion in the state. As many as 12 people tested positive for COVID-19 in West Bengal on Sunday, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 80, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said in its website. The 55-year-old announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 on 27 March, describing a cough and a fever in a video posted to Twitter. In an update on Friday, Johnson said that he continued to experience a temperature. "On the advice of his doctor, the prime minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement, adding that the tests were part of a "precautionary step" due to Johnson's lingering symptoms. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to the hospital for the novel coronavirus-related tests, Downing Street said Sunday, after ten days of testing positive for the virus. The number of coronavirus cases also went past 4,000 as states reported 541 fresh cases on Sunday, the fourth straight day of 500-plus infections in the country. India's toll from the COVID-19 outbreak surged past 100 with 27 patients succumbing to the infection in the past 24 hours or so, the highest number of casualties reported in a day so far on Sunday. The five countries with most cases as of Sunday: The global tally of confirmed coronavirus cases has reached 1.27 million and as many 69,456 individuals have lost their lives due to COVID-19, according to according to Johns Hopkins University. "At the same time, we are expecting delivery of Rapid Test kits (blood based) for use in response to COVID-19 situation. By Wednesday this should be up and running," he said, adding, "We aim to start rapid antibody based blood test in clusters (with containment zones), and in large migration gatherings/evacuees centres." Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division of the ICMR speaking to The Hindu said that over all testing for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA, is increasing and that India will be approaching full capacity soon. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the rapid antibody based blood test for COVID-19 will be deployed by this Wednesday in clusters or containment zones and hot spots showing high incidence of confirmed cases. "He worked as a watchman at a wholesale vegetable market and was suffering from asthma since long," Dr Rajesh Sharma from the private hospital said. The man recently tested positive for coronavirus and died at a private hospital where he was undergoing treatment on Sunday night, Bhopal Collector Tarun Pithode said. A 52-year-old man died of coronavirus in Bhopal, taking the toll in Madhya Pradesh to 14, an official said on Monday. This is the first death of a COVID-19 patient in the state capital, he said. Of the 113 new cases, 81 are from Mumbai, 18 from Pune, 4 from Aurangabad, 3 from Ahmednagar, two from Kalyan- Dombivli and Thane, one each from Osmanabad and Vasai. Another cases is from neighbouring Gujarat state, as the infected person is undergoing treatment n Maharashtra, he added. Maharashtra on Sunday recorded 113 fresh cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of such people to 748 in the state. Simultaneously, the toll due to coronavirus rose to 45 with 13 more people succumbing to the infection, a health official said. The number of new cases was lower than the 5,936 new infections reported on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 92 to 1,434. Germanys confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 3,677 in the past 24 hours to 95,391 on Monday, the fourth straight drop in the daily rate of new cases, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. In the video which went viral on social media, Tiwari could be seen resorting to celebratory firing, flouting the norms of lockdown order. District President of Bharatiya Janata Party's woman wing in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur, Manju Tiwari fired shots in air on Sunday while observing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for candlelight vigil at 9 pm. Two coronavirus deaths were reported in Andhra Pradesh, taking the toll in the state due to the disease to three. The state also recorded 14 new cases since Sunday night, taking the tally to 266. Twelve new confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported in Karnataka, taking the state tally to 163, including four deaths and 18 discharged. Of the 12 new cases, three have a history of travel to Delhi. The Moranis are in self-quarantine at their Juhu residence. My daughter Shaza has not mingled with any foreign travellers and had no COVID-19 symptoms at all. It is my duty to inform you as we are law-abiding citizens. We are admitting her in Nanavati Hospital to be kept under isolation. The municipal authorities will be here tomorrow at 10:30 pm, a report in SpotboyE had quoted him as saying. Bollywood producer Karim Moranis daughter Shaza Morani has tested positive for coronavirus. She has been admitted to Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital. Karim Morani, who has been part of films such as Ra.One and Chennai Express, had sent a text message to his friends before admitting his daughter to the hospital. Chhattisgarh health minister TS Singh Deo on Monday said that the ninth patient of coronavirus, of a total of 10, in the state has fully recovered. "So now there is only one person in Chhattisgarh who has COVID-19 and he is being looked after by a team of expert doctors, all other patients have been cured." The Union Cabinet on Monday approved an ordinance amending the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, which will result in the reduction of allowances and pension of the politicians by 30 percent from 1 April, 2020 for a year. "PM said it is imperative that leaders communicate exhaustively with the state and district administration, especially in districts which are hotspots for COVID-19 pandemic, to be apprised of the ground situation and also provide solutions to the emerging problems," the statement said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday interacted with the Union ministers via video conference, the Prime Minister's Office said. Modi "approved of the leadership of the ministers and said that the continuous feedback provided by them has been effective in strategizing for tackling COVID-19. "76 percent cases have been reported in men and 24 percent in women," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry. The health ministry on Monday said that 693 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 4,067 in India out of which 1,445 cases are related to Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Delhi on 13 March. The Himachal Pradesh Police on Monday said that one more local attendee of the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has tested positive in the hilly state, and advised those who travelled from Delhi in state transport buses on 18 March and 4 pm and 9.30 pm, to self quarantine themselves after three other patients had taken the same route. "If a coronavirus positive person spits on any person, then, he/she will be charged with attempt to murder. If the person who has been spat upon dies, the coronavirus positive person will be charged with murder," said Himachal Pradesh DGP SR Mardi. "Rs 1,100 crores have already been released from National Health Mission Funds for the states. Also an additional amount of Rs 3,000 crores has been released today," he said. "During the lockdown over coronavirus, 16.94 lakh metric tonnes of food grains have been transported across India till now. In 13 states, 1.3 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and in eight states, 1.32 lakh metric tonnes of rice have been allotted. Health ministry joint secretary Lav Aggarwal said that in the last 13 days, Indian Railways transported sugar through 1,340 wagons, salt through 958 wagons and edible oil through 316 wagons/tanks, to different parts of the country, amid the lockdown over coronavirus. Home affairs ministry joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that the Centre has quarantined over 25,000 Tablighi Jamaat workers and their contacts. She added that five villages in Haryana have been sealed. ICMR's R Gangakhedkar said that an order has been placed for 5 lakh testing kits for the novel coronavirus. He added that 2.5 lakhs kits to be delivered between 8 and 9 April. Jitendra Bhawalkar, dean of the DY Patil Medical College in Pune was quoted as saying that a total of 42 doctors and 50 other medical staff of the hospital have been put under quarantine after a patient involved in an accident, who was being treated at the hospital, was found positive for coronavirus. She added that the state government is setting up a policy making panel for the COVID-19 response and that Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee will be engaged. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that as of 12 pm on Monday, the total number of active coronavirus cases reported in West Bengal is 61, of which 55 cases are from seven families only. Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that only 3,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) have been sent by the Centre on Sunday. "I myself arranged 2,27,000 PPEs," she added. The WHO South-East Asia, which is one of the regional offices of the global organisation, said that it doesn't prescibe any protocol for lockdowns in any country. Hardest-hit Italy has 15,877 deaths and Spain 13,055. France has reported 8,078 fatalities while Britain has 4,934. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 50,000 people in Europe, mostly in Italy, Spain, France and Britain, according to an AFP tally using official figures on Monday. With a total of 50,209 deaths, Europe is the continent with the most COVID-19 fatalities, out of 675,580 declared cases, the report said. The Tablighi Jamaat event was attended by more than 2,000 people from all over the country and abroad, and has emerged as one of the major hotspots of coronavirus in the country after several people in various states tested positive for the infection. The Mumbai Police and Commissioner of Police tweeted on Monday calling for people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizammudin on 13 March to report their travel history by calling the BMC's helpline. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu will donate 30 percent of his salary for the next one year towards the fight against the spread of COVID-19. ANI reported that a disinfection tunnel has been installed at the entrance of Government Medical College in Jammu. Jammu and Kashmir principal secretary Rohit Kansal said that a total of 109 coronavirus cases have been reported in the union territory, with three new cases reported in Kashmir. He also said that 85 of the 103 active cases are in Kashmir and 18 are in Jammu. The Nepal government has decided to extend the lockdown over coronavirus in the country till 15 April. Earlier, the lockdown was ordered to be imposed in Nepal till 7 April. Haryana chief minister ML Khattar said that so far there are 90 coronavirus cases in the state. Out of the 90 cases, 29 persons have recovered and one person has passed away.: Haryana CM ML Khattar "Out of the total number of cases, 330 people are linked to Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi. Around 1,000 samples of are being tested for COVID-19 daily," he said. Additionally, he said one patient had died in the last 24 hours and 25 others are on ventilators. The total number of deaths is at 7 now. Cases of coronavirus in Delhi rose to 532 on Monday after 20 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Of the new cases, 10 are attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the Nizammudin area of the National Capital. The health bulletin said that the government is still trying to get details of whether the COVID-19 cases in Mysuru with travel history to Delhi are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat event, adding that one of the 12 new cases from Bangalore Rural attended the event and returned on 20 March. The Karnataka government said that as of 5 pm on Monday, 12 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of positive cases to 163 in the state. Additionally, the state has reported four deaths while 20 people have recovered. "We have opened our borders to people from neighbouring states who require medical facilities in Kerala. 29 people from Bairakuppe in Karnataka have used medical facilities in Wayanad and 44 from Tamil Nadu," he added. Kerala reported 13 new COVID-19 positive cases on Monday, of which nine were reported in Kasargod district, two in Malappuram, one in Pathanamthitta and one in Kollam. The total number of positive cases in the state now stands at 327, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. "As many as 266 coronavirus positive cases have detected till 9 am on Monday. 243 of them are those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi and their contacts," said Jawahar Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Medical&Health Department Special Chief Secretary. Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday held a review of the COVID-19 situation in the state and the measures being taken to contain its spread. There has been an increase of 704 COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths in the last 24 hours, the biggest rise so far in India, the Union health ministry said. India's positive cases are at 4,067 (including 3,851 active cases, 318 cured/discharged/migrated people and 111 deaths). "If people from Assam, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, do not report by today evening, then legal action will be taken against them from tomorrow onwards," he said. Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event to report their travel history to the authorities. Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said that 50 new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in the state on Monday, taking the total cases to 621. 48 of the new cases are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, 570 of the total COVID-19 cases are Tablighi Jamaat returnees. China stepped up border control measures on Monday as the number of imported coronavirus cases rose sharply to 951 while the asymptomatic cases also surged, raising fears of a second wave of the COVID-19 infections, mainly from Chinese returning home from abroad despite drastic containment efforts, PTI reported. The 21-day day lockdown as a measure to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March and is bound to end on 14 April. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that the lockdown over coronavirus shall continue in the state after 14 April till 3 June. "There are 308 active positive cases in state now. There are 172 positive cases who have attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi event and through them another 93 people got the virus," he said. Telangana chief minister KC Rao said that as of Monday, 25,937 people have been under quarantine, who are all people who have come from abroad. Earlier, ANI reported that the Telangana government had announced an extension of the lockdown. "He took a reference from BCG report which suggested lockdown in India will be good until 3 June. No announcement of extension yet," the report said. In a clarification of the report that the Telangana government was planning to extend the lockdown in the state, ANI quoted the Telangana Chief Minister's Office as saying that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao only suggested extension of lockdown for two more weeks after 15 April. "The health survey will map the travel history of people and check whether anyone is having symptoms like that of COVID-19. Our government servants including teachers and anganwadi workers will visit every house booth-wise. By engaging 7,000 to 8,000 government servants, survey would be conducted on three days." Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said that an extensive survey is scheduled to be conducted from 11 to 13 April. "The vendor run a tea stall in the locality. After he was found positive, contact tracking is going on," he said. As a precautionary measure, the BMC has sprayed disinfectants in the area. A vendor who sells tea near 'Matoshree', the private residence of Maharashtra chief minster Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra, has been found positive for novel coronavirus infection, a civic body official said on Monday. A total of 1,01,068 samples have been tested till 9 pm on 6 Aprill , ICMR said. Earlier, the report said that Telangana chief minister KCR had announed that the nationwide lockdown would be extended till 3 June. Later, they clarified that that KCR had only suggested an extention. One of ANI's editor Ishaan Prakash apologised for the news agency's inaccurate report on Telangana government's decision on extending the lockdown in the state. The first COVID-19 positive case was reported in Tripura on Monday, reports said. A 45-year-old woman is reportedly the patient and is admitted in the Agartala Government Medical College hospital. She is from the Gomati district As of 0800 GMT on April 6, a total of 208,837 people had been tested of which 51,608 were positive, it said. The United Kingdom coronavirus death toll rose by 439 to 5,373 people as of 1600 GMT on April 5, the health ministry said on Monday. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan writes to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray,"I'd like to draw your attention to a situation which has been reported to us regarding plight of nurses in Mumbai.They're requesting necessary steps be taken to provide PPE and separate accommodation to employees COVID19 positive". UK prime minister Boris Johnson was admitted to a hospital with "persistent symptoms", including a fever, on Sunday evening, BBC reported. Johnson tested positive for coronavirus at least a week ago. The report said that the admission to a hospital was a "precautionary measure" and that he continues to remain in charge of the UK government. Four new positive cases of coronavirus were reported in Himachal Pradesh on Monday, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 18, said RD Dhiman, Aditional Chief Secretary Health Department, Himachal Pradesh. One more doctor and 11 nursing officers of Delhi State Cancer Institute have tested positive for COVID-19. A total of two doctors and 16 nursing officers of the Institute have tested positive till now, ANI reported. "It has been emphasized upon as there is a critical need to maintain an adequate supply of medical oxygen in the country in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and as medical oxygen is also included in the national list and WHO's list of essential medicines." A statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday said, "As part of maintaining smooth supply of essential items in the country, Union Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla has written to State chief secretaries to give special attention on keeping the supply of medical oxygen smooth and hassle-free. Alert! First #COVID19 positive case detected at Tripura. The patient is from Udaipur. Don't Panic, we are taking proper care of the patient. Stay Home Stay Safe. Update at: 8PM / April 6 The first COVID-19 positive case was reported in Tripura on Monday, reports said. A 45-year-old woman is reportedly the patient and is admitted in the Agartala Government Medical College hospital. She is from the Gomati district A statement released by Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital said, "The patient who was admitted in the hospital for different illness, with no travel history was tested positive about few days back and we had sensed the need to make diligent checks amongst staff & patients starting then, to ensure safety. In continuation to the precautionary measure, the hospital has suspended its OPD services and elective admissions temporarily only to plan alternatively for a situation like this to be avoided in near future. We have assured the authorities that we will resume right after all measures to eradicate suspect are taken." As of 0800 GMT on April 6, a total of 208,837 people had been tested of which 51,608 were positive, it said. The United Kingdom coronavirus death toll rose by 439 to 5,373 people as of 1600 GMT on April 5, the health ministry said on Monday. A lot of press on Ivermectin, a head-lice drug with potential activity against the novel coronavirus. Problems/caveats: 1. Work is in vitro only, in cell lines, not in people 2. Very high singe dose at concentration of 5 uM 3. Unknown toxicity profile 4. Unknown mode of action pic.twitter.com/UHvQOwDfqv Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan writes to Maharashtra CM,"I'd like to draw your attention to a situation which has been reported to us regarding plight of nurses in Mumbai.They're requesting necessary steps be taken to provide PPE&separate accommodation to employees COVID19 positive". pic.twitter.com/HE33a51yUO Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan writes to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray,"I'd like to draw your attention to a situation which has been reported to us regarding plight of nurses in Mumbai.They're requesting necessary steps be taken to provide PPE and separate accommodation to employees COVID19 positive". Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as Im still experiencing coronavirus symptoms. Im in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe. UK prime minister Boris Johnson was admitted to a hospital with "persistent symptoms", including a fever, on Sunday evening, BBC reported. Johnson tested positive for coronavirus at least a week ago. The report said that the admission to a hospital was a "precautionary measure" and that he continues to remain in charge of the UK government. Four new positive cases of coronavirus were reported in Himachal Pradesh on Monday, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 18, said RD Dhiman, Aditional Chief Secretary Health Department, Himachal Pradesh. One more doctor and 11 nursing officers of Delhi State Cancer Institute have tested positive for COVID-19. A total of two doctors and 16 nursing officers of the Institute have tested positive till now, ANI reported. "It has been emphasized upon as there is a critical need to maintain an adequate supply of medical oxygen in the country in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and as medical oxygen is also included in the national list and WHO's list of essential medicines." A statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday said, "As part of maintaining smooth supply of essential items in the country, Union Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla has written to State chief secretaries to give special attention on keeping the supply of medical oxygen smooth and hassle-free. Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: One of ANI's editor Ishaan Prakash apologised for the news agency's inaccurate report on Telangana government's decision on extending the lockdown in the state. Earlier, the report said that Telangana chief minister KCR had announed that the nationwide lockdown would be extended till 3 June. Later, they clarified that that KCR had only suggested an extention. A 38-year-old pregnant woman from Mumbai's Nalasopara who tested positive for coronavirus, passed away on Monday at Nair House, the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation was quoted as saying by ANI. Meanwhile, the state health department said that 120 new COVID-19 positive cases and seven deaths were reported in the state on Monday, taking the total number of positive cases in Maharashtra to 868, with 52 deaths. The Telangana Chief Minister's Office clarified that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao only suggested extension of lockdown for two more weeks after 15 April. "He took a reference from BCG report which suggested lockdown in India will be good until 3 June. No announcement of extension yet," ANI quoted the statement as saying. Earlier, ANI reported that the Telangana government had announced an extension of the lockdown. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that the lockdown over coronavirus shall continue in the state after 14 April till 3 June. Kerala reported 13 new COVID-19 positive cases on Monday, of which nine were reported in Kasargod district, two in Malappuram, one in Pathanamthitta and one in Kollam. The total number of positive cases in the state now stands at 327, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. "We have opened our borders to people from neighbouring states who require medical facilities in Kerala. 29 people from Bairakuppe in Karnataka have used medical facilities in Wayanad and 44 from Tamil Nadu," he added. There has been an increase of 704 COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths in the last 24 hours, the biggest rise so far in India, the Union health ministry said. India's positive cases are at 4,067 (including 3,851 active cases, 318 cured/discharged/migrated people and 111 deaths). Cases of coronavirus in Delhi rose to 532 on Monday after 20 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Of the new cases, 10 are attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the Nizammudin area of the National Capital. Additionally, he said one patient had died in the last 24 hours and 25 others are on ventilators. The total number of deaths is at 7 now. "Out of the total number of cases, 330 people are linked to Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi. Around 1,000 samples of are being tested for COVID-19 daily," he said. The Mumbai Police and Commissioner of Police tweeted on Monday calling for people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizammudin on 13 March to report their travel history by calling the BMC's helpline. The Tablighi Jamaat event was attended by more than 2,000 people from all over the country and abroad, and has emerged as one of the major hotspots of coronavirus in the country after several people in various states tested positive for the infection. The number of COVID-19 deaths stand at 109, with 30 people succumbing to it on Sunday, the Union health ministry said. The statement added that 63 percent of the deaths have been reported among people over 60 years age, 30 percent in age bracket of 40 to 60 years and 7 percent victims were below 40 years age. The number of COVID-19 deaths stand at 109, with 30 people succumbing to it on Sunday, the Union health ministry said. The statement added that 63 percent of the deaths have been reported among people over 60 years age, 30 percent in age bracket of 40 to 60 years and 7 percent victims were below 40 years age. The Himachal Pradesh Police on Monday said that one more local attendee of the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has tested positive in the hilly state, and advised those who travelled from Delhi in state transport buses on 18 March and 4 pm and 9.30 pm, to self quarantine themselves after three other patients had taken the same route. The Union Cabinet on Monday approved an ordinance amending the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, which will result in the reduction of allowances and pension of the politicians by 30 percent from 1 April, 2020 for a year. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that the government will take action against all those who had attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz and test positive for COVID-19. "As per the lists we received from Centre and local info, we've names of 831 people from Assam who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event. 491 samples have been collected. We've contacted Mosque Committees to identify remaining people and collect their samples," said Sarma. A second notice was issued to Maulana Saad, the chief of the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz, under Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Delhi Police sources told ANI. Sixteen people have tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh, taking the total number of cases in the state close to 300. Six samples from Lucknow, eight from Sitapur and two samples sent from Agra have tested positive for the infection. With the fresh cases, the total in the state reaches 294 and is likely to cross the 300-mark as more reports are expected later in the day. India's efforts have set an example before the world in tackling the coronavisus pandemic, said Narendra Modi. "India is one of the countries which understood seriousness of this disease and waged a timely war against it. India took several decisions and tried its best to implement them on ground," said the prime minister. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres late on Sunday urged governments around the world to consider protecting women as part of their response to the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic. "Violence is not confined to the battlefield. For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest. In their own homes," said Guterres in a statement. "Over the past weeks as economic and social pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence. I urge all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for Covid-19," he added. Singer Kanika Kapoor, who had earlier tested positive for the novel coronavirus after returning to India from London, has tested negative for the virus in her sixth report. According to ANI, she has been discharged from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow. A 52-year-old man died of coronavirus in Bhopal, taking the toll in Madhya Pradesh to 14, an official said on Monday. This is the first death of a COVID-19 patient in the state capital, he said. The man recently tested positive for coronavirus and died at a private hospital where he was undergoing treatment on Sunday night, Bhopal Collector Tarun Pithode said. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the rapid antibody based blood test for COVID-19 will be deployed by this Wednesday in clusters or containment zones and hot spots showing high incidence of confirmed cases. Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division of the ICMR speaking to The Hindu said that over all testing for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA, is increasing and that India will be approaching full capacity soon. "At the same time, we are expecting delivery of Rapid Test kits (blood based) for use in response to COVID-19 situation. By Wednesday this should be up and running," he said, adding, "We aim to start rapid antibody based blood test in clusters (with containment zones), and in large migration gatherings/evacuees centres." India's toll from the COVID-19 outbreak surged past 100 with 27 patients succumbing to the infection in the past 24 hours, the highest number of casualties reported in a day so far on Sunday. The number of coronavirus cases also went past 4,000 as states reported 541 fresh cases on Sunday, the fourth straight day of 500-plus infections in the country. The Union health ministry on Sunday said that 505 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 3,577. Further, the total number of deaths has risen to 83. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Union health ministry told mediapersons that 267 people have recovered from the infection till now. Meanwhile, people across the country responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to light lamps and candles for nine minutes to show solidarity in the fight against COVID-19. Modi, along with several political leaders and other celebrities, tweeted videos showing lamps at their residence In several parts of the country, people also burst firecrackers, leading to criticism from Twitter users, who pointed that firecrackers can damage the respiratory system, making people more susceptible to the novel coronavirus. Official figures The active COVID-19 cases stand at 3,219, while 274 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry stated. However, a PTI tally based on figures reported by states directly showed at least 126 deaths across the country, while the confirmed cases reached 4,111. Of them, 315 have been cured and discharged. According to the Health Ministry data, Delhi has reported the highest number of confirmed cases at 503. As many as 26 new coronavirus patients were reported from Maharashtra on Sunday, taking the total such cases in the state to 661, a health official said. Out of the 26 cases, 17 were reported from Pune, four from its neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad township, three from Ahmednagar and two from Aurangabad, he said. Asked about any new cases from Mumbai, the official said, The figures are being verified, hence Mumbai figures will be released later." Madhya Pradesh reported 36 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the state so far to 215, officials said. Simultaneously, the number of deaths caused by coronavirus infection rose to 13 with two persons succumbing to the deadly virus. Among cities, the state capital led the chart by recording the highest number of 23 new cases in the last 24 hours, which took its tally to 40 so far. As many as 62 COVID-19 cases were reported in Telangana, taking the total number of cases in the state to 289, the state government said. No death occurred in the state and the number of people who died due to the virus continued to remain at 11, it said. Thirty three people have been discharged, a media bulletin said. No evidence of COVID-19 being airborne disease, says health ministry Asserting that there was no evidence that coronavirus was an airborne infection, the health ministry also said the rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days currently, but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days. "If it was an airborne infection then in a family whoever has a contact they all should come positive because they are living in same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in hospital, other patient would have got exposure (if it was air borne) but that is not the case, an official of the Indian Council of Medical Research said. Unsure of what turn the COVID-19 pandemic will take in India, various key ministries and departments have cautiously started to chalk out re-emergence plans and strategies to come out of the 21-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Globally, the pandemic has claimed more than 65,600 lives gand inflicted over 12 lakh people Meanwhile, the government has directed all district heads to ensure seamless functioning of pharma units making devices and medicines. Union HRD minister minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said a decision on reopening of schools and colleges will be taken on 14 April after a review of the coronavirus threat in an indication that the 21-day lockdown could be lifted as scheduled. In an interview to PTI, he said the safety of students and teachers is of utmost importance to the government and his ministry is prepared to ensure there is no academic loss to students if schools and colleges needed to remain shut beyond 14 April. The focus of the Central and state governments currently appeared to be on two key aspects ---continuing with efforts on a war footing to contain the fast-spreading virus, and working on exit and staggered re-emergence from the lockdown. During his interaction with chief ministers last week through video conferencing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pitched for formulating a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ended. While making it clear that a decision on how and when to restore passenger services will be taken in coming weeks, sources in the Indian Railway said several proposals were being looked at as it was gearing up for the end of the lockdown on 14 April. From making passengers wear masks to using the Arogya Setu app to check their health status before allowing them to travel and encouraging social distancing on board are a few proposals that are being looked at, sources said. In continued efforts to fight the virus, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba instructed district level officials to ensure that pharma units making devices and medicines run seamlessly. The direction came a day after India put curbs on exports of diagnostic kits with a view to discourage shipments and meet domestic requirement. Gauba met Sunday with district magistrates, superintendents of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries and district health secretaries and chief secretaries, Joint Secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said. Modi speaks to allies, Opposition leaders Meanwhile, the prime minister spoke to several leaders, including his predecessor Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former president Pranab Mukherjee, on the situation arising out of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Sources said Modi also called up various leaders, including Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, DMK's M K Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal. Modi spoke to former president Pratibha Patil and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda to discuss issues related to the deadly COVID-19. The prime minister will also interact with floor leaders of various political parties via video conference on Wednesday. With a rise in number of coronavirus cases in the national capital, Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has directed the health department to identify private hospitals which can be taken over by the government, official sources told PTI. They said the government has limited resources and hence ICU wards, beds and other facilities of private hospitals can be used to deal with the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases. Officials have been asked to prepare a list of private hospitals that can be taken over if needed. "In a recent meeting, the LG directed officials to prepare a list of private hospitals which can be taken over by government in case a need arises and their infrastructure can be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The government will provide treatment to coronavirus patients admitted at these hospitals," a source said. Nine districts in Wuhan classified as low-risk China has reported 30 new cases of the novel coronavirus, including five locally transmitted infections, even as nine of the 13 administrative districts of virus-hit Wuhan city were declared low-risk areas' signifying a gradual return to normalcy, officials said on Sunday. China's National Health Commission (NHC) in its daily report said other than the 30 new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in the mainland on Saturday, 47 new asymptomatic cases were also reported. The NHC said 1,024 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation, including 244 from abroad. Asymptomatic coronavirus cases are those who test positive for the virus but do not show any symptom and have the potential to cause sporadic infection clusters. Three deaths were also reported on Saturday -- all from virus epicentre Hubei Province -- taking the coronavirus death toll in China to 3,329 people. With inputs from PTI By PTI NEW YORK: New York State, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, continued to record the highest count of daily deaths from COVID-19 as a staggering number of 630 people died in a 24-hour period and Governor Andrew Cuomo said the outbreak in the state could peak in about seven days. The state had recorded the highest single increase in the number of deaths from novel coronavirus in a single day between April 2 and 3 when 562 people had died, one person dying from the viral infection almost every two-and-a-half minutes. In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to 630, "all-time increase" up to a total of 3,565, up from 2,935 on Friday morning, Cuomo said. The daily death toll in New York continues to grow at record numbers as the state remains the most impacted in the US from coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in New York State now stand at 113,704, out of the country's total number of 312,146. New Jersey, the second most impacted state in the US, has about 30,000 COVID-19 cases. New York City alone has 63,306 coronavirus patients, up from 57,169 the previous 24 hours, and 2,624 deaths. Cuomo said the apex in the state, the point where the number of infections on a daily basis hits the high point, is still about 4-8 days away. "We have been talking about hitting that apex, the high point of the curve. I call it the battle of the mountaintop. That's going to be the number one point of engagement of the enemy," he said. "But our reading of the projections is we're somewhere in the seven-day range, four, five, six seven, eight day range. Nobody can give you a specific number, which makes it very frustrating to plan when they can't give you a specific number or a specific date, but we're in that range," Cuomo said. ALSO READ | Donald Trump requests PM Modi to release Hydroxychloroquine ordered by US "We are not yet at the apex. Part of me would like to be at the apex and just let's do it. But there's part of me that says it's good that we're not at the apex because we're not yet ready for the apex either, still working on the capacity of the (healthcare) system," the governor said. Cuomo has expressed anger over the short supply of essential medical equipment for healthcare professionals to help them deal with the surge in coronavirus cases across the state and the country. He said personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gowns and face shields are in short supply in New York as they are across the country and there is need for companies to make these materials. "It is unbelievable to me that in the New York State, in the United States of America, we can't make these materials and that we are all shopping China to try to get these materials and we're all competing against each other," he had said earlier. Cuomo said on Saturday that the state has 85,000 volunteers, including 22,000 from outside the state, and he will also be signing an executive order to allow medical students who were slated to graduate to begin practising, supplementing the state's healthcare professional capacity. On ventilators, he said the state had ordered 17,000 but there was not enough supply in the federal stockpile to meet this growing demand across the state. "China is remarkably the repository for all of these orders - ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China, which long term we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don't have the manufacturing capacity in this country," he said, adding, "New York has been shopping in China." ALSO READ | Hunt for medical supplies creates marketplace of desperation in US The Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will arrive at the JFK Airport in the city, he said, as he thanked the Chinese government, Alibaba head Jack Ma, the Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba co-founder co-founder Joe Tsai and China's Consul General Huang Ping. In addition, the state of Oregon would deliver 140 ventilators to New York. Cuomo has signed an executive order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment from hospitals, private sector companies and institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator. The 2,500-bed facility at the Javits Convention Centre, which was supposed to be used for non-COVID patients, will now be used as COVID-positive facility. "The federal government will staff that and the federal government with equip that. That is a big deal because that 2,500-bed facility will relieve a lot of pressure on the downstate system as a significant number of beds and that facility has to make that transition quickly and that's what we're focused on," Cuomo said. Cuomo emphasised that he wants the pandemic to end as soon as possible as it is taking an unprecedented strain on life. "I want this to be all over. It's only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime. I think we all feel the same. This stresses this country, this state, in a way that nothing else has frankly, in my lifetime. It stresses us on every level. The economy is stressed, the social fabric is stressed, the social systems are stressed, transportation is stressed," he said. An 18-year-old Winnipeg man has been charged with mischief as Winnipeg police continue the investigation into three incidents of graffiti downtown in late February. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/4/2020 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An 18-year-old Winnipeg man has been charged with mischief as Winnipeg police continue the investigation into three incidents of graffiti downtown in late February. The graffiti, first noticed on Feb. 26, appeared on MP Dan Vandals constituency office on St. Marys Road, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the RCMP D Division headquarters on Portage Avenue. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The vandalism, which included slogans such as "U fail us do better" and "Land back," was thought to be linked to rail blockades and protests related to the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline. Protesters erected blockades at several points on both the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway from Feb. 6 to March 5 to denounce construction of the pipeline. "I recognize recent events across the country are concerning for all Canadians, however acts of vandalism like this are not the answer dialogue is," Vandal the MP for Saint Boniface-Saint Vital and northern affairs minister said in a statement at the time. "From day one, ministers have engaged directly with Indigenous leaders, and premiers. Our work was always focused on finding a peaceful and lasting resolution in a way that builds trust and respect among all parties involved. We will never close the door on dialogue." Carter Raymond Peter Grycko, 18, has been charged with three counts of mischief under $5,000, police said. Grycko, a former River East Collegiate student, was arrested Feb. 28, and released with conditions. Police said the investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact investigators at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477). Pndtindore.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. 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Basic Information PAGE TITLE Welcome To PCPNDT INDORE DESCRIPTION Hamariladli, pcpndtindore.com, PCPNDT, Indore, Active Tracker KEYWORDS Hamariladli, pcpndtindore.com, PCPNDT, Indore, Active Tracker OTHER KEYWORDS profile, registration, center registration, minister shri, powered by, center, events The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Microsoft-IIS/7.5 (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server. 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Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND A large gathering on Saturday prompted officials in Keyport to shut down its waterfront and close municipal parking lots in the immediate area of the Raritan Bay. Gatherings in New Jersey have been banned for several weeks following an executive order issued by Gov. Phil Murphy that attempts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. We are asking non-residents to please not travel to our waterfront as per the governors executive order, the boroughs Office of Emergency Management said in a statement Saturday night. While people will still be permitted to walk along the promenade as long as they adhere to social distancing guidelines, the closure of the lots along American Legion Drive will be in effect until further notice. Fishing will no longer be permitted on the promenade, but anglers can still fish from the pier as long as they keep at least six feet apart. Numerous other towns in Monmouth and other counties along the Jersey Shore have previously closed their beaches and boardwalks due to concerns about COVID-19. 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. 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. The mission is bigger than any one person. Marina Salandy-Brown has employed that self-sacrificial task-focused approach to successfully create the most influential modern literary movement in the Caribbean: the Bocas Lit Fest. In 11 short years Salandy-Brown, as founder and president of the Bocas Lit Fest, has brought together the best and brightest of Caribbean literature for the annual celebration, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, sparking a literary renaissance of sorts in the region. UP to poll in 7 phases, counting on Mar 10 UP assembly polls will be about '80 per cent vs 20 per cent'; BJP will win: Yogi Adityanath UP: Elections not won on exit polls basis, results will be surprising: Kamal Nath 94 of 234 cases of COVID-19 in UP linked to Tablighi Jamaat India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 05: With 60 more people confirmed positive for the coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, the total number of cases climbed to 234 in the state, officials said. Of the total cases, at least 94 are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, they said. As many as 21 cases have fully recovered while others are undergoing treatment at various hospitals, Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said. The state's count on Friday was 174 and two people -- one each in Basti and Meerut -- have died. There has been a steep rise in the cases in the past two days, primarily because of a number of those linked to the Tablighi Jamaat testing positive, Prasad said. According to an official bulletin, the total cases testing positive in the state has reached 234, with 60 fresh cases being reported on Saturday. 110 Tablighi congregation attendees traced in Gujarat The number of districts of the state affected by the virus has also gone up to 28, as per the bulletin said. Cases were reported from Agra, Ghaziabad, Gautambudh Nagar, Varanasi, Shamli, Baghpat, Ghazipur, Pratapgarh, Saharanpur, Banda, Maharajganj, Hathras and Mirzapur on Saturday. The overall district-wise tally since the coronavirus crisis began is Gautam Buddh Nagar (58), Agra (44), Meerut (25), Ghaziabad (14), Saharanpur (13), Lucknow (10) , Kanpur (7), Bareilly, Shamli and Maharajganj (6 each), Basti, Varanasi (5 each), Firozabad and Hathras (4 each ), Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur , Bulandshahr, Pratapgarh (3 each), Pilibhit, Mirzapur, Baghpat (2 each), Shahjahanpur Hardoi, Hapur, Moradabad, Lakhimpur Kheri and Banda (1 each). An aggressive campaign has been undertaken and those showing symptoms are quarantined and their samples sent for testing, Prasad said. The numbers are rising because of an aggressive strategy that has been adopted by the state for containment of the spread of the virus, he said, adding a total of 57,963 people who have come from abroad to the state were taken into surveillance, out of which 41,506 have completed 28-day quarantine period. 69 Tablighi Jamaat members yet to be traced Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said a total of 1,281 people associated with the Jamaat have been identified, of which 977 have been quarantined. Besides, 306 foreigners have been identified in the state and 36 FIRs have been registered under the Foreigners Act, he said, adding that 228 passports have been seized. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will hold a video conference with religious leaders of different districts on Sunday, Awasthi said. The chief minister has directed that places which have been identified as hotspots, the district magistrates should launch all out efforts to minimise the load of infection to ensure that the disease is controlled. Fire brigade teams who have been involved in sanitisation work have started working in Lucknow and all the districts having fire brigade vehicles should use them, Awasthi added. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page Coronavirus has brought about an unprecedented global shutdown. China imposed lockdowns in some Wuhan cities and other cities in the province of Hubei from late January, many of which are starting to relax. Much of Europe is under what largely amounts to house arrest. The UK government, meanwhile, recommends stringent social distancing for the most vulnerable for a minimum of 12 weeks. Schools, universities, bars, restaurants, gyms and non-essential shops are closed, with no timetable for reopening. We can only imagine what the repercussions of this will be. Many of us are gripped by the fear of not knowing what the next days, weeks and months will bring. For the first time, perhaps ever, we are not able to plan ahead. We are all being asked to put our lives on hold. But how are we to do this? To state the obvious: we must let go of our plans: exams, work trips, holidays even supper with family who live elsewhere. But this is a very hard thing to do. The practice of planning and setting goals is hardwired in most of us they are ubiquitous practices of modern life. The first planner was published in Philadelphia by an American company Lefax in 1910, and the British Filofax launched in 1921. For many, the paper planner has now been replaced by virtual organisational tools. Planning is how we make sense of time. The tools of life planning might be fairly recent, but debates about how to organise time and the moral justification for this has dominated philosophical thinking for more than 2,000 years. These revolve around the principle of teleology: the explanation of a phenomenon according to the purposes that it serves. Put simply, that ends justify means. The ethics of teleology was first developed by the Ancient Greeks, entered the English language in the 18th century, were debated by Kant and then rejected by empirical philosophers in the 20th century. There is still no philosophical consensus about the merits of ends and means. Philosophers have taken two millennia to debate the merits of teleology. So distilling these philosophical musings into the timeframe of a lockdown is a very difficult thing to do. But, at this unique time in history, these debates have never been more relevant. Coronavirus has obliterated deep-rooted expectations that we can work towards our goals and plan accordingly. Immanuel Kant debated the ethics of teleology (Getty) Does this mean we have to reject teleology completely? If so, what can we replace it with? Insights from philosophy and psychology can help navigate this new normal. The American pragmatic philosopher John Dewey argues that ends and means are actually the same things and that it makes sense to concentrate on means as these are closest to us. According to Dewey, we should focus on the next action as the most important end to discover. Giving up heavy drinking, for example, requires discovering a course of action that has nothing to do with the habit of drinking. In order to reach an end, we need to forget about it and fix our attention on the next act to perform. Keep intentions to do things, particularly those that may seem suddenly unnecessary or trivial. Seasoned home-workers are familiar with the importance of morning routines From a slightly different perspective, the Hungarian-American positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi advises that happiness requires having realisable goals and getting feedback on them. In the absence of long-term planning, feedback can only be realised for goals that are achievable in a condensed time period. Faced with the temporal crisis of a lockdown, this can be aligned with Deweys writings about means and ends. In doing so, we can embrace a non-teleological perspective that does not give up on intention. We still need purpose, but this should be directed towards actions that are closest to us. One way to illustrate what a non-teleological practice might entail can be found in David Sudnows insightful description of learning to play improvised jazz piano. By its very definition, jazz piano is not defined by a specific goal: there is no musical score to follow. Sudnow defines jazz as particular ways of moving from place to place. To master jazz piano requires intuitive understanding of the fundamental facts of song structure. Sudnow did not master jazz piano through learning to improvise (the end) but through the embodied skills of playing chords and scales (the means). Many are taking this time as an opportunity to teach themselves a new skill like learning an instrument (iStock) These reflections and observations might help us deal with the need to rapidly reorientate everyday life. If you do want to learn a new skill, be prepared for it to happen slowly. And if you have the opportunity, learn collectively Keep intentions to do things, particularly those that may seem suddenly unnecessary or trivial. Seasoned home-workers are familiar with the importance of morning routines and getting ready for work. Routines are important as they direct us towards moving from one immediate action to another. Prioritise activities that are achievable and familiar. It might be tempting to use isolation to learn something new, but this can often lead to the frustration of goals that are out of reach. Learning a new skill is exasperating because we struggle to achieve even the first steps. Ive observed this frustration teaching students to crochet, who initially find it difficult to complete one simple stitch. The tendency is to give up an outcome to be avoided at the present time. If you do want to learn a new skill, be prepared for it to happen slowly (Getty) If you do want to learn a new skill, be prepared for it to happen slowly. And if you have the opportunity, learn collectively there are increasing opportunities to do so online. There will be greater possibilities for feedback if new activities are done together. Lockdown is not a good time to try and revisit a task or skill that you failed to achieve in the past. It might be tempting to use this time to embrace the big projects you have been putting off: the great novel to read, craft projects to complete, a book to write. But replacing external long-term plans associated with work and family leisure with existing personal grand challenges might not be productive at this time. To adapt Deweys advice, we should focus on in-between projects: start with easier books to read, smaller craft projects and shorter writing projects. Recognise that some people find it much harder to give up on plans. Young people are particularly vulnerable. Youth is defined by and organised around actions such as lessons, exams or work experience that are designed in-order-to get you somewhere. These are suddenly not available as teaching stops and examinations are cancelled. Feeling upset and scared is part of the new normal. We need to support not only those that are most at risk from the virus but those around us who struggle with the new normal of time under lockdown. Clare Holdsworth is a professor of social geography at Keele University. This article was first published on The Conversation Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 6) Dagupan City reported its first coronavirus death on Sunday after a patient under investigation was confirmed to have contracted the viral disease. The city's public information office said in a statement that an 80-year-old patient under investigation (PUI), who died on April 2, had tested positive for COVID-19. The city only received his test results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on Sunday. The patient from Barangay Pogo Chico was the 6th confirmed COVID-19 case in the city. He was also one of the three PUIs who died before their test results were released; the two others are still awaiting results. The patient was cremated on April 3. He had no travel history, but he was exposed to a person who had traveled to Metro Manila. Dagupan City has a total of 1,867 persons under monitoring and 38 patients under investigation five of which remain admitted in hospitals. In the Philippines, there are 3,246 confirmed cases, 152 deaths, and 64 recoveries. North Chinas Tianjin and the city of Anyang in Central Chinas Henan province both reported two new cases of the highly transmissible omicron variant over the weekend. Both cities have launched new rounds of mass testing and designated more Covid-19 risk areas to control the spread of the virus Jan 10, 2022 06:18 PM United States President, Donald Trump, has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to release the US order of Hydroxychloroquine tablets, so that coronavirus patients can be treated. During a press briefing at the White House, Trump said he spoke to Modi on the phone and urged him to allow the export of hydroxychloroquine. Reuters Just a day after "choosing not to" wear a face mask amid the coronavirus outbreak, Trump admitted that he may need tablets of hydroxychloroquine. "I may take it too, will have to talk to my doctors. India makes a lot of it. They need a lot too for their billion-plus people. The hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug will be released through the Strategic National Stockpile for treatment," he said. "I said I would appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered of hydroxychloroquine," he added. Reuters Before Trump's announcement, PM Modi took to his official Twitter handle saying, "Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realDonaldTrump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19." Coronavirus has claimed over 60,000 lives and more than 12,00,000 people are affected worldwide. In USA, the number of cases have crossed 300,000 and the death toll is mounting at an alarming rate. Reuters The virus started in China and made it's way to other parts of Asia followed by Europe and then North America. New York has been the worst affected and is pretty much on lockdown, though no such order has been officially issued by Trump. Meghan Markle has not seen her mother Doria since moving back to Los Angeles despite living just 10 miles apart. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are continuing to isolate themselves at a secluded mansion in a private gated community with baby Archie after moving from Vancouver Island, Canada, earlier this month. They have so far been unable to visit Meghan's 63-year-old mother as a result of the coronavirus epidemic. Meghan Markle has not seen her mother Doria (pictured together in 2018) since moving back to Los Angeles despite living just 10 miles apart A source told the Sun on Sunday: 'Meghan is absolutely heartbroken - after all, one of the main reasons she decided to live in LA was to be near her mum. 'Because of her age, Doria obviously has to be careful and Meghan and Harry are sticking rigidly to all formal guidelines when it comes to coronavirus. 'They've been WhatsApping and FaceTiming almost daily but obviously it's not the same.' The source went on to say that Meghan, 38, will now be using much of her free time to focus on her philanthropic causes after she and Harry, 35, officially stepped down as senior working royals earlier this week. It is thought that the couple are continuing to look for their forever home in the affluent area of Malibu. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are continuing to isolate themselves at a secluded mansion in a private gated community with baby Archie The couple have so far been unable to visit Meghan's 63-year-old mother as a result of the coronavirus epidemic. Pictured: Doria accompanying Meghan to her wedding in 2018 Last month sources claimed the couple plan to rent a sprawling $20million mansion in the area to get a feel for SoCal life post Megxit. The huge eight-bedroom, 10-bathroom property, costs a hefty $15,950 a night, but sources told DailyMailTV the couple is keen to sample Malibu before laying down any long term roots. Former royal butler Paul Burrell has previously claimed that Princess Diana was planning on moving to the sprawling Malibu home to escape the scrutiny of the British press before she died. Malibu's most famous residents include the likes of Cindy Crawford, Courteney Cox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg and Patrick Dempsey. Last month sources claimed the couple plan to rent a sprawling $20million mansion in the area to get a feel for SoCal life post Megxit The huge eight-bedroom, 10-bathroom property, costs a hefty $15,950 a night, but sources told DailyMailTV the couple is keen to sample Malibu before laying down any long term roots The move to America is thought to have been prompted by Meghan's plans to return to acting. But an industry source exclusively told DailyMail.com earlier this week that she is only interested in working with A-list directors in the hopes she will be taken seriously as an actress. The former Suits actress is thought to be worried critics are going to be especially hard on her and so she wants to make sure a director of the right caliber is attached to the project. The move to America is thought to have been prompted by Meghan's plans to return to acting. But Harry has already instructed his and Meghan's agent that the couple would not take any jobs that mocked the Queen or the royal family On Friday Disneynature released its documentary on elephants on Disney+ which is narrated by Meghan The Duchess of Sussex has 'been telling her agents that she wants Ava DuVernay involved, and that they need to find the right script,' the insider added. Although Meghan has received lots of offers 'she thinks the majority of them are cheesy and beneath her'. On Friday Disneynature released its documentary on elephants on Disney+ which is narrated by Meghan. It marks the first solo job Meghan took since stepping back from her duties as a senior royal family member. Harry has already instructed his and Meghan's agent that the couple would not take any jobs that mocked the Queen or the royal family. The Texas City nursing home where more than 80 residents and employees have tested positive for the coronavirus was recently cited for failing to provide a safe and sanitary environment for its residents and the public. At the Resort at Texas City, 83 residents have been confirmed to be infected with COVID 19 the apparent largest cluster in the Houston region. The outbreak was traced to March 28, when an employee tested positive for the virus, leading the Galveston County Health District to test 146 residents and employees in partnership with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Experts said the Resorts inspection violations, all of which were deemed corrected a month later, are symptomatic of a larger problem when it comes to health and sanitary practices of long-term care facilities, as well as lax regulatory oversight. Infection control failings at nursing homes across the country are remarkably basic such as staff not properly washing hands, which happens to be the primary way coronavirus spreads, said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy organization for long-term care facilities. Things that pretty much every 8-year old knows is what were talking about here, Mollot said. It really comes down to extremely poor enforcement of those standards. They know they can get away without following the protocols and they do. Theyre sent a message by the state and the federal government that those things are OK. It is not yet clear how the virus was introduced at the 135-bed nursing home. The Galveston County Health District declined to give a breakdown of how many residents and employees tested positive, nor did it give an exact number of hospitalizations out of this group. Philip Keiser, the countys local health authority, said at a news conference Friday evening that he suspects the mass infection at the Resort came from multiple part-time employees who may have unknowingly carried the coronavirus with them from other long-term care facilities they worked at in Galveston County. When asked if the nursing home could have prevented the coronavirus outbreak, Keiser said he believed they were largely a victim of bad luck, and said the health district was more focused on testing and isolating coronavirus-positive residents and employees than scanning inspection reports for red flags. When we did visit there, we found the staff to be on top of things, theyve been following all of the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, we found them to be professional and caring and doing everything that they could, Keiser said. But federal reports indicate that the Resort was falling short of health and safety standards even before the outbreak occurred. The facility recently received the second-lowest possible ratings 2 out of 5 stars for health and fire inspections, staffing levels and quality of resident care. Experts called the violations a symptom of what experts say is a larger problem when it comes to health and sanitary practices of long-term care facilities, as well as lax regulatory oversight. The reports documented incidents where Resort staff failed to exercise proper sanitation and infection control measures. A report from July cited the nursing home for failing to maintain mechanical and electrical equipment in safe operating condition, specifically noting two industrial washing machines that were not kept in proper working condition. This failure could place all residents who had their clothes laundered by the facility at risk of infection from not having their clothes properly cleaned and sanitized, the report said. In the same report, the nursing home was cited for failing to store, prepare, distribute and serve food in accordance with professional standards, as well as stained ceiling tiles and dirty air-conditioning units that placed (residents) at risk of an unsafe environment and decreased quality of life. The Resort at Texas City administration has not released any public statement since the initial outbreak at the facility was first reported Wednesday. A woman who answered the phone at the facility Saturday hung up on a reporter several times before declining to comment. Amanda Fredriksen, state director for advocacy and outreach for AARP in Austin, said Texas regulations allow facilities with violations that cause actual harm to residents the violations at The Resort were deemed minimal harm to correct them to avoid paying a fine. If the violation hasnt been corrected within 2 years, the facility can charge them triple the penalty. I have no idea how often (penalties for failing to correct) happen, to be quite frank, Fredriksen said. I think it probably doesnt happen very often because theres always more (violations) to find. Nursing home staff working at multiple facilities have also proven to be vectors for coronavirus infections. In Washington state, CDC officials found that staff members who worked while sick at multiple long-term care facilities contributed to the spread of coronavirus among vulnerable elderly in the Seattle area. Its a real worry. Even if youve got a facility that is just being as vigilant as they possibly can be, if they cant control what happens when the staff leave their facilities, they can only control what happens when they try to come back, Fredriksen said. The Galveston County Health District on Friday issued a public health order requiring all long-term care facilities in the county to prohibit workers at facilities with positive coronavirus residents from working at other long-term care facilities. The county is also committing to eventually test residents and employees at all of its long-term care facilities for the coronavirus. Across Southeast Texas, however, Galveston Countys nursing home restrictions are an outlier. While almost all Houston-area counties are restricting nonessential visitors from accessing long-term care facilities, some of those county officials detailed a more reactive approach to battling the coronavirus in those places. Among the counties that responded to requests for comment Harris, Liberty, Brazoria and Waller none intends to conduct more widespread testing at nursing homes. The Department of State Health Services, which acts as the local health authority for some counties in the state such as Waller, has not found a need for widespread testing at nursing homes in counties it oversees. It really is driven by the need at the time and the disease investigation, said Chris Van Deusen, the departments director of media relations. That really guides what testing looks like. But there have already been consequences to this reactive approach. The Montgomery County judge last Monday issued a shelter-in-place order at the Conservatory of The Woodlands, a luxury retirement community, after at least 12 people tested positive for the new coronavirus. Three elderly men from that community died shortly after the order was issued. For Larry Edrozo, whose mother, Helen, 87, is a resident at the Resort at Texas City who tested positive for the coronavirus but is asymptomatic, his biggest fear is that her condition will worsen to the point that she might die before he gets to see her again. Yet Edrozo said he doesnt blame Resort staff, knowing that the virus is indiscriminate, regardless of how it entered the facility. I feel sorry for them, Edrozo said. I know they must feel like theyre in a war zone and theyre doing what they can. I recognize the severity of the situation, but Ill be very upset if I dont get to say goodbye to Mom. nick.powell@chron.com More than 30,000 doctors, including retired government and Armed Forces Medical Services, and private physicians have volunteered to help the government fight against COVID-19 pandemic, a senior government official said on Friday. The government on March 25 had appealed to retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or private doctors to come forward and join the efforts to fight the pandemic caused by the deadly novel coronavirus. 30,100 volunteer doctors, including retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or private doctors have signed up to the government to battle COVID-19 pandemic, the official told PTI. The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,301 in the country on Friday while the death toll rose to 56, according to the Union Health Ministry. In a statement posted on Niti Aayogs website on March 25, the government had said those who wish to contribute to this and be a part of this noble mission to serve the country may register themselves on a link provided on the official website of the Niti Aayog. The Government of India requests for volunteer doctors who are fit and willing to be available for providing their services in the public health facilities and the training hospitals in the near future. We appeal to such doctors to come forward at this hour of need. You could also be a retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or a private doctor, the statement said. REUTERS It had noted that in case the outbreak leads to a high number of infected individuals, Indias public health facilities will face tremendous load to take care of a large number of patients. Many countries, including the US, Italy, the UK and Vietnam, have urged retired health workers to come back to work amid the pandemic. Islamabad: Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Saturday warned Pakistanis about the danger of Coronavirus epidemic. He assured that Pakistan would overcome strength after facing this challenge. Please tell that 2,818 cases of Coronavirus infection have been reported in Pakistan, while 41 people have lost their lives due to this deadly virus infection. Imran Khan arrived in Lahore to review the measures being taken by the Government of Pakistan to deal with the Coronavirus epidemic. He made these comments right there. The number of infected people in this province has crossed 1000. He has said that, "Nobody is happy that he is safe from this virus." Look at New York, where the richest people live. If the coronavirus will reappear, we don't even know what can happen. " Imran Khan said that the government is making all possible efforts to save the people. Imran Khan further said that, "When we overcome this challenge, we will have become a completely different country. It is only by facing such challenges that countries are empowered. Also Read: Big news! Scientists tested a medicine which can kill coronavirus in 48 hours Tragic accident in Colombia, 11 miners killed in coal mine explosion maulana who attended Delhi Tablighi Jamaat program dies of coronavirus Corona could not reach this city of world yet, already made strong arrangements Dear EarthTalk: Internet data centers are fast becoming the largest power hogs in the world. Whats being done in this industry to make internet usage more energy-efficient? M. T., Reno, Nev. Though our online activity uses no paper, it still consumes quite a lot of energy. Data centers account for much of this energy use. These warehouse-sized buildings contain arrays or farms of servers, which are essentially souped-up computers that have many uses, including storing data and supporting all the activity on the internet. They are the hardware behind the proverbial cloud. Like the personal computers we all use, servers require electricity to function. Since internet users can call upon them to provide information at any time, they must remain on 24/7. Furthermore, as with any form of electrical activity, the functioning of this large number of servers packed together in a small area can result in overheating, making the need for cooling an additional energy cost for data center managers. According to data center provider vXchnge, U.S. data centers alone use over 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually about what 34 coal-powered plants generating 500 megawatts each produce. ComputerWorld magazine reports that the energy consumption of data centers worldwide will likely account for 3.2% of global carbon emissions by 2025 about as much as the airline industry and as much as 14% by 2040. In light of all this, finding ways to cut energy use has become a big priority in the industry. One of the simplest strategies is to locate data centers in cool climates, and use outdoor air to counter excessive heating. Alternate options include cooling inlet air by running it underground, or using a nearby water source for liquid cooling. Another issue is separating hot air produced by servers from the colder air used to cool them no easy task if the servers are all housed together. But there are plenty of cheap solutions. Google, for example, uses low cost dividers from meat lockers for this purpose. Another way data centers can reduce cooling costs is to design servers that can operate at high temperatures without overheating. Recent research shows that servers can operate at much higher temperatures than initially believed without compromising safety or efficiency. But not all data centers are comfortable letting their servers run hot. Other ways to make server farms more efficient include optimizing grid-to-server electrical conversions and reducing the energy required by sleeping servers. The good news is the industry is making strides in the right direction. Apple, Facebook and Google all power 100% of their data center and other operations with renewables, albeit through the purchase of renewable energy credits akin to carbon offsets that air travelers can buy to keep their carbon footprints in check. Microsoft is moving toward 70% renewable energy by 2023, while laggard Amazon still only gets about half its data center power from renewables. And Switch, one of the largest U.S.-based data center companies, transitioned all of its facilities to run on nothing but renewables in 2016, including the nations largest data center in Reno, Nevada. 2020 E/The Environmental Magazine Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has met Tablighi Jamaat leaders here and urged them to hand over the list of all the people from the state who had attended the outfit's event in Delhi. A total of 26 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Assam and all barring one are related to the Tablighi Jamaat event organised in the national capital's Nizamuddin area in March. "In view of situation arising out of the Nizamuddin Markaj event, we met Guwahati Lakhtokia Masjid leaders where HQ of Tablighi Jamaat is situated on Saturday to request them to share list of all who visited Markaz for it's important to quarantine them," Sarma said in a tweet on Sunday. The state health minister on Saturday asked the imams and amirs of mosques to submit the names of people in their areas who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event and warned of action if they fail to do so by Sunday. "Nizamuddin is an evolving story with several cases having connection with the congregation but we have not got the desired cooperation from the mosques," Sarma had said. Terming the situation "very serious", Sarma appealed to all those who attended the Jamaat congregation to call helpline number 104 or contact health workers so that their samples could be tested and their contacts traced. Altogether, 1,529 samples have been tested so far, with 812 of them having links to the Nizamuddin event, he said. The number of coronavirus positive cases is swelling as the disease is spreading due to the infection caused by Nizamuddin returnees "from Silchar in Barak Valley to Lakhimpur in upper Assam, Morigaon in central Assam to Kamrup and Nalbari in lower Assam", the minister said. Of the 26 COVID-19 cases in the state, Golaghat district has reported the highest with nine followed by Nalbari and Morigaon with four each, Goalpara with three, Cachar with two and Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup, Lakhimpur and South Salmara with one each, health officials said. Sarma, while visiting Golaghat Civil hospital on Friday, assured the isolated coronavirus patients that they are not being targeted and urged them to cooperate with healthcare providers. "This virus can infect any community and due to an unfortunate situation, it infected people of a certain community. A community must not think that they are being targeted. No one has such intentions. Tomorrow I, too, may get infected... anybody can be. "England's crown prince and prime minister have been infected. Anybody who tests positive should not think they are being targeted. Doctors have been told to explain to these patients about the infection to dispel their misconceptions," the minister said. Meanwhile, a Congress MLA from Assam with travel history to Delhi on March 16 has been placed under quarantine for 28 days, health officials said. The legislator had gone to Delhi in connection with a Supreme Court case, met his lawyer and spent two hours at Assam House there before returning to the state the same day, they said. After his return to his constituency, health authorities had taken his sample and advised him to remain in home quarantine, the officials said. "The doctors are regularly conducting my health check-ups. I am fine but I will stay home quarantined as per their advice," the MLA said. The legislator also appealed to people who had travelled in March by any mode of transportation to self- report to health authorities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the global crisis the novel pandemic coronavirus has caused, another deadly thing to watch out for is the spread of fake news. During a time like this, fake news has the potential to cause a lot of damage and people around the world should be vary of it. While India is no stranger to fake news, the UK is struggling to make sure that they don't become victims to it as well. According to a BBC report, an investigation around mobile phone masts being set on fire, is taking place due to conspiracy theories which are claiming a link between 5G and coronavirus. The UK Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), busted the theories and tweeted about the same. In the tweet, they said, 'We are aware of inaccurate information being shared online about 5G. There is absolutely no credible evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus'. We are aware of inaccurate information being shared online about 5G. There is absolutely no credible evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus For COVID-19 advice: NHS https://t.co/EI0XLYsqWE GOVUK https://t.co/aWe30Ayl8X Full Fact research https://t.co/QWYcc4bOEg DCMS (@DCMS) April 3, 2020 The report also added that their have been mast fires in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside, and a video of a fire was shared on YouTube and Facebook with the false claims of linking 5G to the spread of coronavirus. The video is authentic in nature and belongs to the fire that took place in Merseyside, but in no way is it clear or confirmed that the mast was 5G. Several other videos were posted on Facebook with the same fake claim. However, the page was taken down by the social networking website because it breached its policies and had potential of causing real-world damage. Twitter According to Birmingham Live, Mobile UK, the trade body which represents network providers said, "It is concerning that certain groups are using the Covid-19 pandemic to spread false rumours and theories about the safety of 5G technologies. More worryingly some people are also abusing our key workers and making threats to damage infrastructure under the pretence of claims about 5G. This is not acceptable and only impacts on our ability as an industry to maintain the resilience and operational capacity of the networks to support mass home working and critical connectivity to the emergency services, vulnerable consumers and hospitals." Birmingham Live Please be aware of fake news and cross-check every piece of information that comes your way. On Tuesday, we featured on the front page a graph that told a number of stories : primarily, that we should not get too excited about the widely-discussed flattening of the curve, even though the slowing daily rate of new infections is encouraging. But it also showed the huge spike in COVID-19 infections spread by the arrival of cruise ship Ruby Princess in Sydney on March 19. Some 340 passengers, crew and their contacts have now tested positive for the virus. Data analysis is a huge part of the unfolding coronavirus story, and we are using it more and more across the Herald and The Age to help report on the pandemic when words might not be enough. Data journalists Nigel Gladstone and Pallavi Singhal in Sydney and Craig Butt in Melbourne are working with health editors and other senior reporters to mine all the data we can get our hands on to enhance our storytelling across our platforms. Of course, the row continues between state and federal authorities over whose fault it was to let passengers disembark without isolation measures being enforced. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday night accused the ships staff of being less than truthful. Federal authorities have previously blamed NSW Health for failing to appropriately quarantine the ship. We will continue to pursue this story and, in the data sphere, we expect to launch a number of new features on our website next week, so keep an eye on our homepage. Loading The biggest news this week has been the enormous additional government stimulus packages designed to keep Australian businesses afloat and workers paid during the crisis. The measures culminated in a $1.6 billion package to temporarily provide free childcare to all workers who need it. This came on top of the $130 billion dollar JobKeeper scheme, in which companies hit by the virus can continue to keep their workforce in place, with a $1500 per fortnight payment. This news was a comfort to some households that are under incredible stress - of course, the mammoth hit to the budget long term is going to be an economic case study for the ages, something we explored in an editorial earlier in the week. Amid all the grim news and challenges, we are trying hard to find the light and shade in life for Australians, and I hope you caught up with some of the more upbeat offerings this week, via our dedicated Good News page, including those championing a touch of kindness in this difficult time, the Country Womens Association going online to fundraise with a virtual scone recipe sale, and the gin makers turning their hands to - well, hands! As columnist Wendy Squires writes, its the small wins that are going to get us through this national crisis. Finally, at a time when we could all use a distraction, premium subscribers are now able to challenge themselves with daily quick or cryptic crosswords on our website and mobile app. If you are on a Starter Digital subscription you can easily upgrade to Premium at no additional cost for the first three months. And there is a two-week archive to get you started at our crosswords page here. A young mother whose newborn son died 10 minutes after birth has spoken of the torment of having to grieve alone because of strict coronavirus lockdown rules. Aroha Nicola, 23, lost her baby boy to medical complications on Thursday after spending five days alone in a New Zealand hospital - knowing during that time he would not survive. To add further heartbreak, Nicola was still mourning her brother Cody Ayers, 28, who died suddenly from cardiac arrest just three weeks earlier. Aroha Nicola, 23, was forced to grieve alone for her newborn son who died 10 minutes after birth because of strict coronavirus lockdown rules. She is pictured with her partner and father of her child Lee Paaki Due to Ministry of Health restrictions Ms Nicola's partner Lee Paaki, 28, was only allowed to come into her hospital room when she went into labour at 21 weeks. As part of the lockdown, hospitals have imposed strict access rules on their wards, restricting visitors and allowing only one person to attend the birth itself. The young mother was first rushed to hospital last Sunday suffering from severe bleeding, but was told the boy - who they named Te Whakanga after the father's uncle - would not survive. 'Not having my partner or my mum with me while I was grieving was really hard. I get anxiety and it was really tough,' she told the NZ Herald. 'I was grieving alone for my brother, knowing my baby was going to die after I gave birth to him.' During the time in isolation, she also missed another of her son's first birthday. Her brother Cody Ayers, a husband and father-of-four, suffered a heart attack on March 7. The young mother (pictured with her partner) was first rushed to hospital last Sunday suffering from severe bleeding, but was told the boy would not survive Nicola warned others in New Zealand giving birth they may too suffer her pain. 'When people die, you're not going to be able to have your family and friends and it is going to be extremely hard,' she said. The 23-year-old also urged New Zealanders to take the 'level four alert' lockdown the country is under seriously. If they did not abide by the lockdown rules, she said, more would have to experience the pain of losing a loved one in isolation. Pictured: The young boy's grave. The family set up an online fundraiser to hep pay for Te Whakanga's burial costs An online fundraiser has since been set up by the father to help his family pay for their baby's burial costs. 'Our son Te Whakanga Rawiri was born at 21 weeks. He lived a short time before grabbing his mum's finger and taking his last breath. This page has been made to help our family through this tough time,' the 28-year-old wrote. 'Aroha spent a lot of time alone and couldn't be with anyone most of the time - not even her kids.' The couple share four other children and plan to bury Te Whakanga once the lockdown has passed. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has put in place a 'level four alert' lockdown for four weeks - although it still remains unclear if those restrictions will be lifted in 16 days. 872 people have contracted COVID-19 in New Zealand, while one person has died from the illness. Hyderabad: BJP MLA T. Raja Singh talks to the media, in Hyderabad on Aug 12, 2018. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS Hyderabad, April 5 : BJP's lone MLA in Telangana Raja Singh led a unique protest against coronavirus Sunday night by raising slogans of "Chinese virus go back". The MLA, along with his supporters, lit torches in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to switch off electrical lights and light 'diyas', candles or flashlight on mobile phones as a mark of solidarity in the fight against coronavirus. Holding fire torches in their hands, Raja Singh and his followers raised slogans of "go back, go back, Chinese virus go back". The controversial MLA, who represents Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, was accompanied by more than a dozen supporters. While Raja Singh and five others were holding fire torches in their hands, others were carrying candles. The number of deaths from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) topped 100 on Sunday as the total infections crossed 4,000 503 of them in Delhi with the central government pegging the doubling rate of the pathogens spread at 4.1 days, a figure it said would have stood at 7.4 in the absence of the Nizamuddin cluster. Sixteen fresh deaths and 514 new infections were reported on Sunday, the 12th day of a national lockdown that has been put in place to break the chain of infections. Our focus is that we chase the virus, rather than the virus chasing us, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said during a news briefing. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic The recent spike in infections has largely been propelled by the detection of hundreds of patients who attended the congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group, in New Delhis Nizamuddin Basti last month in a violation of several restrictions. Cases linked to the meet have been reported across 17 states and Union Territories so far. In Delhi, the number of Covid-19 cases climbed to 503 and the death toll rose to seven, with 58 fresh cases and one death being reported. The cases included 320 people who took part in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin. A 52-year-old man admitted at the Maharaja Agrasen hospital was the seventh person to die in the national capital. If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days, Agarwal said. Eight Malaysian attendees of the congregation were on Sunday offloaded from a special chartered flight to Malaysia from Delhi. In Tamil Nadu, 86 people, including 85 returnees from the Tablighi Jamaat meet, tested positive on Sunday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 571. Sunday was the fifth straight day the state witnessed a sharp rise in the number of positive cases linked to the Nizamuddin congregation. Experts say that the nationwide lockdown, one of the few weapons against the highly contagious infection that has killed 67,000 worldwide, will not achieve its objective if the positive cases originating out of such clusters are not contained in time. In Mumbai, eight people died of Covid-19, while the number of positive cases in the financial hub increased by 103 to touch 433, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. This took the total number of deaths in Mumbai to 30, the highest in the country. The Union health ministry said that 505 new Covid-19 cases and 15 deaths were reported since Saturday and the total Covid-19 cases were 3,577, with the death toll being 83. However, a tally by Covid19india.org that was cross-checked by HT, showed that the number of cases stood at 4,198, with 114 deaths. There is a lag in the Union health ministrys data when compared to that of states. Officials say this is because of procedural delays in state-wise cataloguing of cases. An official of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is not airborne. If it was an airborne infection, then in a family whoever has a contact they all should come positive because they are living in same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in hospital, other patients would have got exposure (if it was airborne) but that is not the case, said Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR. ICMR has issued an advisory that said spitting in public places could enhance the spread of Covid-19. On the question of rapid antibody tests, Gangakhedkar said test kits should be available by Wednesday. The countrys apex biomedical research organisation on Saturday released an advisory on how and where to use the rapid test, which can determine the immunity of an individual and help people get back into the workforce. The advisory includes people in high-risk areas (containment zones), large migration gatherings and evacuation centres. A task force constituted to review the testing guidelines did not open up rapid testing to the private sector. At the briefing, Agarwal said cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting with district magistrates, superintendents of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries, district health secretaries and chief secretaries to review the situation. District officials shared strategies on how they delineated containment and buffer zone, how they carried out door-to-door survey through special teams and how through telemedicine and call centres people who came from foreign countries were monitored. Covid-19 cases have been reported in 274 districts (till Sunday afternoon) and the cabinet secretary requested all DMs to maintain uniformity in their response and establish a crisis management plan, he said. The government said all states were asked to put in place a district-specific containment strategy in place based on the detailed large outbreak control plan issued by the health ministry on Saturday. Surveillance and contact tracing has been our main focus, and we will continue to put emphasis on that, said Agarwal. Brazilian health officials grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak have issued a stark warning about a lack of hospital beds, masks, testing devices and trained staff across Latin Americas largest nation. A Health Ministry report issued on Friday said Brazil can currently carry out 6,700 COVID-19 tests a day, but that it will need to process as many as 30,00050,000 tests daily during the peak of the outbreak, expected in June. This latest assessment of the public healthcare system raises serious questions about its capacity to face the outbreak in a country of nearly 210 million. It also calls for the maintenance of quarantine measures in states that are most badly hit, challenging President Jair Bolsonaros more laid-back approach to the virus. Bolsonaro has compared the new coronavirus to a little flu and publicly attacked governors that introduced quarantine measures, such as in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, two of the countrys biggest clusters. As of Saturday afternoon, the health ministry had reported 10,278 confirmed cases and 431 deaths. But the outbreak is still in its early phase, the report said, and the countrys hospitals are not ready to handle a peak. Officials pointed to a shortage in trained health professionals to handle mechanical ventilation equipment, respiratory physiotherapy and advanced nursing care for critically ill patients, while intensive care units and general hospitalization beds are not properly structured or in sufficient numbers. The assessment, done in compliance with World Health Organization directives, said logistical issues had prevented hospitals from acquiring sufficient personal protective equipment, placing workers in an important risk group. Authorities are seeking partnerships between the public and private sectors to address shortages in testing capacities, but such agreements would not bear fruit for at lest another two weeks they said. Officials say past studies of influenza, another respiratory disease caused by viral infection, show that Brazils continental size and varied climates temperate, subtropical and equatorial mean the COVID-19 disease will likely spread and peak at different times of the year, in different regions, making it more challenging for authorities to prepare a national plan. 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. Bolsonaro has increasingly isolated himself politically by maintaining that jobs and the economy must prevail and that Brazil cannot stop. His message and public appearances showing him with supporters are at odds with recommendations from Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta. Tensions between the two men have risen as Mandetta, until recently a largely unknown technocrat, emerged as a reassuring figure in the midst of a public health crisis. The minister has garnered support among Brazilians with daily updates on the coronavirus, filled with technical details, best practices and recommendations from authorities such as the World Health Organization. In a radio interview, Bolsonaro said his health minister lacked humility. Mandetta, asked about the presidents declaration, said he would not quit: A doctor does not abandon his patient. In Fridays report, the health ministry urged all states to maintain self-isolation measures. Social distancing strategies adopted by states and municipalities contribute to avoiding the collapse of local health systems, the report said, citing efforts to fight the virus in Italy, Spain, China and New York City. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, says Nigeria and other African countries need to quickly pressure the G7 and G20 for ... Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, says Nigeria and other African countries need to quickly pressure the G7 and G20 for debt-relief in other to deal with the economic and health issues arising from the novel coronavirus. Okonjo-Iweala, who was very instrumental in getting Nigeria an $18 billion debt-relief as minister of finance, said African countries in debt need to apply for such relief to free up resources to battle COVID-19. According to her, if African countries get debt relief, the monies they should pay in servicing debts which for Nigeria is N2.72 trillion in 2020 budget can be channeled towards dealing with COVID-19. In a chat with the BBC, the former managing director of the World Bank, said Africa needs multiple sources of funds to tackle the global pandemic and its economic effects. You know we have several sources, youve got the African Development Bank, which has just floated a social bond for $3 billion that will be available to the countries on the continent, she said. You have the World Bank that has set aside $14 billion of which theyve already committed $2 billion to 25 countries and 11 of them are Africans. Many of our countries need to move, to take advantage of this, and they are willing to commit $150 billion dollars over the next 15 months. 80 COUNTRIES HAVE APPLIED FOR IMF COVID-19 FUND She said the IMF has put forward $50 billion as an emergency fund, and already 80 countries have applied for this, many of them African. It also has a $1 billion grant fund; catastrophe containment and relief trust, which they can approach. Let me mention my own organisation, GAVI, where I am chair of the board. We have made immediately available $200 million to $300 million grant. Once these monies become available, if the countries get debt relief, that means that the monies they would have been paying to service the debt that theyve taken from other countries; bilateral debts or from institutions, this monies can now be used to procure food and supplied and support the livelihood of people in the rural and urban area. Government can use these resources as part of an intervention fund to help people directly, and I think this is what they should be looking to do. But we need to move quickly, the debt relief we havent got it yet. There needs to be a great deal of pressure on the G7, G20 to come forward with this measure and then countries need to start availing themselves of the already available resources, and then pressure for the debt relief. OKONJO-IWEALA SECURED $18BN DEBT RELIEF FOR NIGERIA Before 2005, Nigeria had an external debt stock of $36 billion, which had been carried over from the military years, dating back to 1985. In October 2005, with Okonjo-Iweala as finance minister, Nigeria, and the Paris Club announced a final agreement for debt relief worth $18 billion after Nigeria paid $12 billion. The deal was completed on April 21, 2006 when Nigeria made its final payment and its books were cleared of any Paris Club debt, bringing Nigerias external debt profile to just $3 billion while domestic debt was only about N1 trillion. An FIR has been registered in UP's Ghaziabad district against 10 Indonesian nationals, including five women who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month, for violating tourist visa norms. All of them have been sent to a quarantine facility. Besides the Indonesians, police have booked a local guide and four others who provided them accommodation. "An FIR has been filed against 10 Indonesians for violating tourist visa norms in Sahibabad area of Ghaziabad. They have been sent to the quarantine facility. A local guide and four others who provided them accommodation have also been booked," Ghaziabad SSP Kalanidhi Naithani told ANI. Earlier in the day, the Ghaziabad Police said that the Indonesians have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, sections of Epidemic Diseases Act and Foreigners Act, 1897.The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana.The total number of cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.Out of these cases, 3030 are active cases, 266 have been cured or discharged, while 77 deaths have been reported so far in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-05 15:13:03 Health Experts Confirm No Link Between 5G and COVID-19 GSMA Condemns Attacks Against Mobile Phone Masts Media Contacts: For the GSMA GSMA Press Office pressoffice@gsma.com Gearoid Cashman Associate Director M +44 79 7679 0169 E gcashman@webershandwick.com 2 Waterhouse Square, 140 Holborn, London, EC1N 2AE, United Kingdom webershandwick.co.uk webershandwick.com Police and counter-terrorism authorities are investigating acts of arson against mobile phone masts in the UK. The GSMA condemns these acts of violence designed to weaken our communications networks in a time of crisis. Our vision at the GSMA is to unlock the power of connectivity so that people, industry and society thrive. We must unite in the global fight against COVID-19 and combat the fake news and violent actions linking 5G communications technology to the spread of the virus. This disinformation campaign is inciting fear, aggression, and vandalism against the critical infrastructure and essential maintenance workers who are keeping our public services connected, as well as our economy running. Englands National Medical Director Stephen Powis has been widely reported in the media as saying, The 5G story is complete and utter rubbish, its nonsense, its the worst kind of fake news. The GSMA calls on internet giants, content providers and social media platforms to accelerate their efforts to remove fake news linking 5G to the spread of COVID-19. Full Fact, the UKs independent fact-checking charity has confirmed that there is no link between 5G and COVID-19. We also urge governments around the world to take swift action against disinformation, vandalism and threats against mobile network field engineers. The telecoms industry is working around the clock to keep vital health, education and emergency services online, businesses running, and friends and families connected, said Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA, the global communications industry body. It is deplorable that critical communications infrastructure is being attacked based on outright mistruths. We urge everyone to trust health authorities and rest assured communications technology is safe. There is no link between 5G and COVID-19. Last month, an independent international watchdog confirmed there is no risk of harm to people, including children, from exposure to radio frequencies from mobile networks, including 5G. In its findings, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection reviewed 20 additional years of research and echoed previous reassurances from the World Health Organization. More information is available at https://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/presentations/IC -ENDS- 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/20200405005 Thailand goes into curfew as coronavirus cases surge close to 2,000 by MAE YEN YAP April 03,2020 | Source: Mashable Want to leave your house in the middle of the night to hang out with your friends, grab a quick supper, or go on a quick jog around the neighborhood? Well, if you're in Thailand, tough luck. The Thai government has imposed a curfew throughout the nation. Beginning April 3, all residents are banned from leaving their homes between the hours of 10pm to 4am in the government's efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Also known as COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic has taken over the nation with 1,875 positive cases of the virus reported and a total death toll of 15 as of April 2. The capital city of Bangkok remains the hot spot of new coronavirus infections, according to The Thaiger. Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced the curfew on April 2, calling for the public to not panic buy and stock up on food as they're still allowed to go out during the day, as long as they observe social distancing rules. "I won't let anyone hoard the products and take advantage of people during this difficult time," he said, according to the Bangkok Post. The government will also be setting up outlets to distribute face masks and plans to introduce economic stimulus packages, including financial aid, debt suspension, and a liquidity boost. Of course, there are exemptions to the curfew restrictions. According to the Bangkok Post, this includes: -- medical and banking personnel -- logistic workers handling consumer goods, -- agricultural produce, pharmaceutical products, as well as medical supplies and equipment -- workers for newspapers, fuel, and postal services -- products bound for exports and imported goods -- employees working night shifts -- individuals heading to or from airports with necessary documents stating their purpose -- officials carrying out official orders and those who have received prior permission from officials to leave for emergencies The Thai government will also begin blocking all travels into the country, including those by Thai nationals, to prepare quarantine facilities for travelers. The semi-travel ban also begins on April 3 and will continue to April 15. "In the meantime, agencies will prepare the venues and coordinate with Thai embassies to ensure all Thai returnees will be quarantined and get proper medical checks," the prime minister said, according to the Bangkok Post. Although the new ban doesn't apply to people who've already received permission to travel to Thailand, spokesman for the government's Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) Taweesin Visanuyothin urged affected travelers to contact their local Thai embassies for further instructions. Rev Asia Theme(s): Others. A plane from Beijing landed Sunday morning in Lisbon carrying medical supplies, including 144 ventilators and respiratory protection masks, destined for health authorities in Portugal. The Airbus A330-941, chartered to TAP by the Portuguese government, carried a total of 20 tonnes and 160 cubic metres of medical cargo, which also included visors and protective suits, and a mixture of donations and purchases from the Portuguese government intended to equip hospitals. The 144 ventilators are part of an order for 1,500 made by the Portuguese Ministry of Health, some of which correspond to donations. EDP, the main energy company in Portugal, controlled by China Three Gorges Holding, contributed largely. Portugal's parliament and government endorsed last Thursday a two-week extension of the country's state of emergency, while granting authorities enhanced powers to block the new coronavirus's spread. The state of emergency now runs through April 17. As of Sunday, Portugal has officially recorded 11,278 cases of COVID-19, with 295 deaths. 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 vast majority of people recover. Image Credits: AP A man wears a mask in a Metro tunnel in downtown Los Angeles. Scientists say it's possible that the new coronavirus can spread through talking or breathing. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) It's possible that the new coronavirus can spread from person to person simply by talking, or even breathing, according to new guidance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The limited studies examined by a National Academies committee on emerging infectious diseases suggest that people who are infected with the novel virus may exhale infectious "bioaerosols" although if they do, it's not clear whether the amount would be enough to make another person sick. "The results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing," the head of the committee, Dr. Harvey Fineberg, wrote in a letter to to Kelvin K. Droegemeier, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The letter was drafted to answer a question posed by Droegemeier: Can the virus responsible for COVID-19 spread through conversation? To formulate an answer, the committee considered a study posted last week by a team from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Researchers there collected air samples from 11 isolation rooms where COVID-19 patients were treated. They also looked for evidence of the virus on surfaces. The researchers found viral RNA in air that was captured more than six feet from patients. They also found it in air from the hallway outside patient rooms, according to the study. Notably, the researchers said none of the patients were seen coughing while air samples were being taken. "You don't have to be hacking, coughing ... in order to be producing a particle that at least has viral RNA in it," study leader Joshua Santarpia, a professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in an interview. The study was published on a website for time-sensitive medical research and has not been through the traditional peer-review process. In summarizing the findings, Fineberg wrote: "While this research indicates that viral particles can be spread via bioaerosols, the authors stated that finding infectious virus has proved elusive." Story continues He added that the Nebraska team is conducting additional experiments to see whether the amount of virus in their air samples is dangerous. Dr. George Rutherford, epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco, said he wasn't surprised that the virus could spread by breathing and talking. "Think of what your breath looks like when you go to Mammoth Mountain and you can see it those are respiratory droplets," he said. "Of course, you can get it while you're talking to somebody. If you're within six feet, you're at some risk for that." Infected droplets can also spread in the air by singing, Rutherford said, citing the case of a choir practice in Washington state last month. A total of 45 people who attended that practice were diagnosed with COVID-19; two have died and at least three have been hospitalized. The National Academies letter also highlighted a study, which was published Friday as a brief communication in the journal Nature Medicine, that suggests surgical masks can help keep an infected person from transmitting the virus to others. The study authors collected air samples of breaths exhaled by patients in a Hong Kong clinic between 2013 and 2016. Some patients wore masks, and some didn't. For people who were infected with a common type of coronavirus that causes colds not the one associated with the current pandemic the virus was sometimes found in exhalations when no face mask was worn. But when masks were in place, no virus particles could be detected. "This has important implications for control of COVID19, suggesting that surgical face masks could be used by ill people to reduce onward transmission," wrote the study authors, who were from the University of Hong Kong, the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Maryland School of Public Health. On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance and advised Americans to wear face coverings when they leave their homes. Map of the COVID-19 global outbreak, as of 04/04/20. Image credit: By Raphael Dunant - Own work, data from 201920 coronavirus pandemic data and List of countries and dependencies by population, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88208245 In what is the biggest public health catastrophe to hit the world in modern times, the COVID-19 virus has been spreading rapidly - worldwide figures have crossed the 1 million mark with close to 60,000 deaths. A majority of the worlds population is under some restriction and India has imposed the worlds largest lockdown with its 1.3 billion people quarantined in their homes since March 26th, 2020. Though the 2020 quarantine is unprecedented in its sheer numbers, the practice of quarantining is a rather ancient one and has been used since ages as a means of controlling epidemics. It was followed during Biblical times, and the Old Testament Book of Leviticus speaks of leprosy as being the first disease where people were isolated. The early understanding that leprosy was a contagious disease led to patients being kept in separate colonies. People afflicted with the disease had to yell out unclean, unclean to announce their presence. The plague, lazarettos and leper houses The term quarantine, which means to isolate people or animals who may have come in contact with contagious diseases, originated in the Middle Ages when the city of Venice kept ships arriving in the port for 40 days before landing, to curb the spread of the plague. It comes from the Italian word quaranta giorni, meaning 40 days. The quarantine followed the trentino, or 30-day isolation period, which had first been imposed in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This was at a time when maritime trade was booming, and many infectious diseases such as leprosy and the plague spread across Europe with the movement of the travellers. In 1377, the port city of Dubrovnik decried that anyone visiting its port would have to spend 30 days at a location outside the city to ensure that symptoms did not appear. The Bubonic plague, which spread across the world, killing 20 million in Europe was said to have a 37-day period between infection and death. In 1423, Venice set up the first Lazaretto, or isolation station on an island near the city where people who were quarantined were isolated. This became a model for other countries, which set up Lazarettos to contain the spread of the Plague and other infectious diseases. In most cases, these lazarettos were located in areas that were away from the city and away from humanity. Story continues The Spinalonga Leper Colony in Greece housed people suffering from leprosy. Image credit: Kiriakos Gogopoulos / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) Leper houses, where people affected by leprosy were sent to live in, also became widespread across Europe and India during the Middle Ages. Some of these colonies were located high up in the mountains to ensure that they were well away from humanity, while others were located on main roads so that donations could be raised. One of the last leper colonies were established on the Greek island of Spinalonga, in the Gulf of Mirabello in 1903, it functioned till 1957. India also has a number of leprosy colonies, with the one in Tahirpur, in the outskirts of Delhi as the largest. The Yellow fever and the Spanish Flu The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine facility built in the United States. Image credit: Kiriakos Gogopoulos / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) While the first outbreak of yellow fever happened in the United States in the late 1690s, it resurfaced in 1793 when people fleeing a yellow fever outbreak in the Caribbean reached Philadelphia. The disease spread fast and between August 1 and November 9, 1793, nearly 5,000 people were listed in the registry of deaths - 10 per cent of the citys 50,000 strong populations. Major port cities such as Baltimore and New York placed quarantines against people and goods coming from Philadelphia. Many people were housed at the old Lazaretto which had been erected in 1743 to house patients. However, as more people fell ill, the original Lazaretto proved insufficient. A new Lazaretto was built in 1799 on a 10-acre plot, 10 miles south of the citys borders. The Philadelphia Lazaretto could house up to 500 patients at one time and had beautifully designed buildings. The quarantine, however, was not effective as the yellow fever was caused by a mosquito and the disease vanished as the mosquitos that caused the illness died once winter started in November. The Spanish Flu, which killed 50 million people across the world and considered to be one of the worst pandemics in history, lasted from January 1918 to December 1920. The influenza was caused by an H1N1 virus and infected nearly 500 million people. While the rest of Europe such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom tried to play down the casualties of the flu, the Spanish papers reported it extensively, hence, giving the impression that the country was the hardest hit. To counter the spread of the flu, a number of countries implemented various forms of isolation and quarantine, while schools were closed and a ban was implemented on large public gatherings. The flu entered India via Bombay, reportedly brought by troops who were returning from Europe during World War 1. It spread across the country, disrupting lives and livelihoods and killed between 10-20 million people, making India the worst affected country. As there was no vaccine to protect against the influenza infection or antibiotics to cure it, the British Government tried to control the spread through quarantines and by recommending hygiene and self-isolation. Modern quarantines Nigerian doctors training on PPE by WHO during the Ebola breakout Image credit: By CDC Global - PPE Training, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36016390 In November 2002, China suffered an outbreak of SARS after the first case of atypical pneumonia was recorded in the Guangdong province in China. The SARS virus spread rapidly, inflicting 5,300 people and killing 349 in China, crossing borders into Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore, and from there moving onward. Around 8,096 people were affected globally, while 774 people died. China and the rest of the world followed containment practises such as infection control in hospitals and other facilities, contact management, temperature screening, mask use, the monitoring of travellers and isolation and quarantine. Through these measures, governments were able to contain the spread of SARS by July 2003. One of the deadliest outbreaks in terms of fatality was the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in Western Africa, which had an estimated fatality ratio of between 25 and 90 per cent. The largest outbreak of the virus happened in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in Western Africa, where 29,000 people were affected and more 11,000 died. Over the course of the epidemic, it spread to Senegal, Italy, Mali, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom. While authorities in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia announced the enforcement of mass quarantines and travel restrictions, at least 18 states in the US placed three-week-long quarantines on people returning from West Africa. The quarantines were highly controversial. Lawsuits were filed in New Jersey and Connecticut pursuant quarantines being imposed on returning health-care workers. One of the lawsuits against the Governor in New Jersey led to the drafting of a new rule which said that quarantine after exposure to the Ebola virus would only happen if medically necessary. In a statement, the organisation Doctors Without Borders had said, "It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola, as they end up driving people underground and jeopardizing the trust between people and health providers. A team of University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientists has been awarded a grant from the Good Food Institute to create tasty, plant-based, protein-rich food that's similar in texture to whole chicken, pork or beef. Distinguished Professor of Food Science David Julian McClements, well-known for his cutting-edge work in food design and nanotechnology, leads the multidisciplinary team that specializes in taste physiology and sensory science, gut health, food processing and plant-based meat product development. The other food scientists are Amanda Kinchla, extension associate professor; Jiakai Lu, assistant professor; Alissa Nolden, assistant professor; David Sela, associate professor; and Hang Xiao, professor and Clydesdale Scholar. Under its competitive research grant program, the Good Food Institute recently announced 2020 grants totaling $4 million awarded to support 21 open-access research projects, based in nine countries. These projects aim to improve the sensory qualities, cost and profitability of alternative proteins. The UMass Amherst team will receive $200,000 over two years. Our 2020 grantees are leading biochemists, tissue engineers, computational modeling experts, plant geneticists and food scientists." Austin Clowes, Good Food Institute's scientific research funding coordinator McClements points to a growing desire among consumers to reduce the amount of animal-based foods they eat for environmental, ethical and health reasons. "This grant will allow us to explore the use of applied nanotechnology and structural design to create molecular architectures from plant proteins that resemble those in meat," he explains. "In particular, we aim to simulate the properties of whole chicken, pork or beef - rather than burgers, sausages or nuggets that exist already." The not-for-profit Good Food Institute promotes plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy and eggs, as well as cultivated "clean meat" grown from animal cells in a facility. McClements and his team hope to develop an innovative approach to creating fiber-like structures from plant proteins that improve the texture of plant-based meat. "This would advance our technological ability to create meat-like fibers without the process of extrusion," says McClements, author of "Future Foods: How Modern Science Is Transforming the Way We Eat" (Springer Nature, 2019). The institute's Clowes concludes, "We are thrilled to catalyze high-quality research that will produce open-access data to enable the entire sector to advance more efficiently and bring plant-based and cultivated meat to the masses. These projects will fill key research white spaces and help build the scientific foundation of a healthy, sustainable and just food system." A powerful new committee will monitor the Morrison governments performance in the coronavirus crisis after weeks of tension over the power of the Parliament to scrutinise sweeping health measures and massive budget outlays. Parliament is expect to give the go-ahead for at least one committee to monitor the government's performance on coronavirus. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Parliament is set to authorise at least one committee and possibly two in order to call ministers to account and question officials over their decisions on community shutdowns and financial assistance. The government could be forced to accept the Senate select committee unless it embraces an alternative approach and votes with Labor, the Greens and crossbench MPs on a form of additional review. While countries including the United Kingdom and New Zealand have used parliamentary committees to oversee government decisions during the global crisis, there is no similar Australian structure. Queen Elizabeth assured people in the Commonwealth in a rare broadcast on Sunday evening that we will succeed in the fight against coronavirus, and rallied Britons by citing pride in the countrys past to stay resolute in the present. The queen, 93, delivered the assurance as the death toll in the United Kingdom rose to 4,934 and the number of cases to 47,806. She and Prince Philip have moved to the Windsor Castle from Buckingham Palace as the UK hunkered down in homes during the three-week lockdown. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic Queen Elizabeth is the head of the Commonwealth comprising India and 53 countries. She said: Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again, the monarch added. Noting crises overcome in the past, she said the coronavirus challenge is different: This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. Besides the annual Christmas Day broadcast, the special message, recorded in close consultation with Downing Street and by crew in protective equipment, was the fourth such special message during her 68-year reign. She recalled delivering her first address in 1940 as a teenager during the Second World War. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future, she said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prasun Sonwalkar Prasun Sonwalkar was Editor (UK & Europe), Hindustan Times. During more than three decades, he held senior positions on the Desk, besides reporting from Indias north-east and other states, including a decade covering politics from New Delhi. He has been reporting from UK and Europe since 1999. ...view detail What if you get stuck on the highway in a storm? Here are some tips Bankrupt playboy James Stunt has blasted his former in-law Bernie Ecclestone for fathering a child at 89. He hit out after the F1 tycoon revealed wife Fabiana, 45, is pregnant. Stunt has been in a war of words with Bernie following his split from daughter Petra. He is also smarting after being evicted from his central London home. He said: I would say that a 90-year-old and 45-year-old would struggle to get pregnant. Of course, its not normal. Stunt went on to make bizarre, unfounded suggestions that Bernie, living in Brazil, got his wife pregnant for legal reasons. He said: If you have a child with a Brazilian national you cant be extradited from Brazil. Lets just say I see this as Bernie Ecclestone taking out insurance. He added: I think its nice because Fabiana is a nice lady, I like her. I dont like Bernie but I loved him once. So I will give him congratulations because his son will effectively be the uncle of my children. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Vestnik Kavkaza received an official statement from the Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Over the past 28 years relations between the two countries have reached a qualitatively and fundamentally new level. Today, Russian-Azerbaijani relations have the nature of strategic partnership and cover all areas of cooperation, including political, economic, trade, social, cultural, humanitarian, educational areas, and also include large-scale military-technical cooperation, Azerbaijani diplomats stressed. Undoubtedly, the atmosphere created between Azerbaijan and Russia is based on mutual trust and friendship between leaders of the two countries, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. In recent years, regular meetings and mutual visits of heads of state have given an important impulse to the acceleration of Azerbaijani-Russian relations, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Russia noted. There is a very intense political dialogue between the two countries. Inter-parliamentary relations, activities of the Intergovernmental State Commission for Economic Cooperation, numerous contacts between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, other ministries, as well as other departments and institutions have further enriched cooperation based on the policy of good neighborliness, centuries-old traditions of friendship and mutual respect, the statement reads. Its necessary to emphasize the role of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in the development of cultural ties between the two countries. As a result of the Funds activities, our culture is widely promoted in Russia, numerous events are held each year, including exhibitions, competitions, festivals and concerts, the Embassy of Azerbaijan noted in its statement. First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva, during her official visit to Moscow on November 20-24, 2019, held high-level bilateral meetings, spoke at the 10th Azerbaijan-Russia Interregional Forum, took part in the opening of the restored National Pavilion of Azerbaijan at the territory of the VDNKH exhibition complex, which is a symbol of Azerbaijani-Russian friendship, Azerbaijani diplomats said. Things achived over the past 28 years make us believe that theres strong will and determination of the leaders of our states to further develop existing relations between the two countries, which helps to further strengthen friendly relations between peoples and maintain peace in the region, representatives of the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in Russia concluded. WOOD RIVER Calhoun County is the latest local county showing positive coronavirus cases and a death from the virus has been reported in Montgomery County, according to figures released by the Illinois Department of Public Health on Sunday. Statewide there are now 11,256 COVID-19 cases, and 274 deaths as Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike continued to stress staying home, good hygiene and social distancing, saying those actions will help save lives. On Saturday the Calhoun County Health Department reported its first case of COVID-19, a male in their 20s. The case is non-travel related, and the patient is self-quarantining at home while the health department attempts to identify and contact any close contacts. Also on Saturday the Christian County Coroners Office, Chris-Mont County Office of Emergency Management and the Montgomery County Health Department confirmed a COVID-19 death. The victim was identified only as a man in his 50s, from Montgomery County, pending notification of his relatives. In Madison County, the state and Madison County Health Department were both reporting 48 cases, up one from Saturday. The Health Department has also added some additional data to its daily updates. The Health Department noted there were 25 female and 23 male victims. Of those, 13 were hospitalized and 12 recovered, meaning they had completed their isolation period. The department also included a graph showing the rise in COVID-19 cases. The department had been criticized for not providing additional information, specifically which communities the cases came from. Department Director Toni Corona had said previously there were not enough cases and they were in too small a population area to allow the release of that information because of privacy concerns. However, she said they were constantly re-evaluating that and would add additional data when possible. Among the information on its Facebook page, the Health Department put out information on the publics use of masks, which has been an evolving issue nationwide. Wearing a mask in public, when you do have to leave to visit an essential business, can offer a bit of extra protection, stated a posting on the page. However, do not let it give you a false sense of security. You still need to Stay at Home unless necessary and continue to also practice social distancing and healthy hygiene. The only county in The Telegraphs circulation area not showing any positive cases is Greene County. A second case was reported in Jersey County; a total of three in Bond County, and 10 each in Monroe and Clinton counties. The state reported 87 cases and two deaths in St. Clair County, however, the St. Clair County Health Department reported a third death on Saturday. As part of Gov. JB Pritzkers daily briefing, Ezike noted that one of the deaths was a second person from Stateville Correctional Center. These numbers represent people, she said, referring to the total death county. They represent our fellow Illinoisans. She noted the safety precautions people are being asked to do are unprecedented, however she said I cannot stress enough the need. She also said people need to reconsider taking the entire family to the grocery store. Pritzker spent most of his time talking about emergency child care services, both the vital need they fulfill and ways to help providers during and after the pandemic. That includes paying emergency childcare providers additional money after April 1 to help with additional expenses and cutting through the red tape so providers can receive state payments more quickly. He noted that providing child care is a high-risk, low revenue business with razor-thin margins. He added the state has to support those who closed during stay-at-home order, and emergency providers who are operating at reduced capacity and income. Pritzker said a webinar for childcare providers is set for Monday, but did not give additional details. Information is available at www.coronavirus.illinois.gov. For more information, in Macoupin County call the Macoupin County COVID-19 hotline at 217-313-5078; in Jersey County, the COVID-19 hotline number is 618-639-4277. Or visit the departments respective Facebook pages. In Madison County, for information about COVID-19 visit www.madisonchd.org, www.coronavirus.illinois.gov, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus, and the Madison County Health Department, Madison County Government, and Madison County EMA 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 contact the Illinois Department of Public Healths coronavirus hotline at 800-889-3931 or dph.sick@illinois.gov for general questions. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has said that his government is providing free meals to 1 lakh people on an average every day at 498 special 'daal- bhat' centres opened across the state for feeding the needy during the lockdown period. Besides, 875 regular 'daal-bhat' centres are also operational, out of which 388 outlets are serving 'khichdi', Soren said in a letter addressed to the MPs and MLAs from the state. Also, the Jharkhand Police is running community kitchens in 342 police stations, Soren said. The state government has allotted Rs 50 lakh each to the deputy commissioners of the 24 districts and Rs 10,000 each to mukhiya of 4,562 panchayats in the state for combating coronavirus, he said. Necessary funds have been given for distribution of 5,000 'emergency relief packets' in Ranchi district and 2,000 packets in each of the remaining 23 districts, the chief minister said. An emergency relief packet contains 2 kg of flattened rice, 500 gm of jaggery and 500 gm of chickpea, he said. The state government has given ration for the months of April and May to 48 lakh ration card holders and nine lakh Antyodaya families, the chief minister said. Ten kg of rice is also being provided to seven lakh ration card applicants and all types of pensions have been released till the month of April, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) I love you, little brother. With that terse but powerful declaration, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed his status as the crisis leader in North America. Frank admission of emotional vulnerability takes guts for most men, even in private. But in public, day after day, the 62-year-old, tough, often abrasive and far from universally loved three-term governor has offered hope, emotional candour and tough truths about the reality facing his citizens. From the beginning he has demonstrated confidence, a total grasp on the facts and new data, delivered clearly and, occasionally, with a dry sense of humour. His pledge of love to Chris Cuomo, the famed CNN host, who had contracted the coronavirus the day before, would have seemed unheard of for a hardened old political pro to offer on national television a month ago. He praised his little brother for doing his regular night time show from his own basement. The following day a clearly feverish Chris Cuomo appeared at his brothers briefing by video. The governor offered his praise for his brothers courage in being willing to appear, and thanked him for helping to demystify the horror of the disease. Pop would have been very proud of you, he said earlier. Pop was another iconic New York governor, their father Mario Cuomo. The governor described his deep fear at receiving the news. I was, I am, frightened. He added he knows more deeply now what it feels like for all our people, all our families in this situation, where no one, no one, is protected. Later he described every COVID-19 death as a failure, and personally wounding and painful. It will change me Cuomos stunning performances reportedly enraged Donald Trump who stormed angrily at his staff that Cuomo was criticizing him for Washingtons failures to New York. He challenged Cuomo to run against him if he wanted a fight. Cuomo flicked him off saying that the president should understand that this is a not a moment for political games; adding that he would, and had, congratulated Trump when he did well by New York, but he would continue to push him publicly when he failed. Anonymous insiders say Trump was actually more enraged at Cuomos far higher popularity and five star reviews. Interestingly, by last week Trump had pivoted to Cuomos style more serious, more fact based, and less demented ranting. The man who had compared COVID-19 to the flu, called it a hoax, and said it would magically disappear by Easter, was now sombrely predicting the epidemic would take months to defeat and restrictions would continue until at least May. Given his erratic history it is not clear that he can stick to his new more presidential style, or whether voters will soon forget the usual Trump. In Canada, most of our leaders have performed coolly and well, though there have reportedly been some rather heated conversations between premiers and the prime minister behind the scenes. Premier Francois Legault has won an almost unbelievable level of popularity over 90 per cent in some surveys. Justin Trudeaus performance remains solid and reassuring, though a little less formally scripted performance would serve him better. Chrystia Freeland is also reportedly performing her COO role seamlessly. Teaching crisis leadership is hard. Some of its qualities come from the soul and character of the candidate, the product of genes and a lifetime of hard choices. They can never be taught. Its also hard to dissect the elements of success, because it is the package that is compelling: confidence, honesty, authenticity, and a willingness to admit fear and the unknown and unknowable. For many politicians simply admitting weakness, fear or ignorance are unforgivable foolishnesses in a crisis they anoint you as serious and authentic. Watching Andrew Cuomos month of daily, hour-long masterclasses would probably be hard for the best teacher to beat. Next we will need to pivot to recovery and rebuilding. New York, like every other jurisdiction is tens of billions of dollars in the hole. The trust and confidence of our leaders performance in these dark days is what will give them the credibility to propose difficult changes in response to the looming economic crisis. At a time when it is a cliche to bemoan the lack of serious political leadership anywhere, Cuomos potent combination of power, empathy, and impressive competence is proof that the qualities of earlier wartime leaders does prevail. Robin V. Sears is a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and was an NDP strategist for 20 years. He is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: is a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and was an NDP strategist for 20 years. He is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robinvsears Read more about: Prime Minister on Friday appealed to the public to switch off lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm on Sunday, and instead light candles, torches or mobile flashlights at their doors, on their balconies to show solidarity during the After concerns were raised by some that the blackout might lead to a failure of the power grid, grid operators brainstormed through Saturday on how to handle the nine-minute blackout. The is confident that the is prepared to handle fluctuations ranging from 12-15 gigawatt (GW). Measures are in place to ensure nothing goes wrong, according to the ministry. Anticipating a significant fluctuation in power demand for a short duration, the along with the Corporation of India (PGCIL) and Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) have been busy drafting a plan for managing the grid and efficient supply. Power ministrys advice to public Switch off only the lights at your house- The ministry argued that the PM had not asked people to switch off all electric appliances. Do not switch off other household equipment such as fridge, TV, fans, etc- There is no call to switch off appliances like computers, TVs, fans, refrigerators and ACs in the homes. Only lights should be switched off, a statement issued by S N Sahai, secretary, ministry of power, said. Streetlights and electricity supply to hospitals, police stations and other essential services will not be shut- The lights in hospitals and all other essential services like public utilities, municipal services, offices and police stations would remain on, according to the statement. The Centre has also asked all local bodies to keep the street lights on for public safety. All states, regions, generators and grid operators to be on alert- POSOCO issued an advisory to all states, power generating companies, transmission companies, regional and state-level load despatch centres to manage the event. POSOCO is expecting a reduction in load of the order of 12-13 GW within two to four minutes and recovery of the same nine minutes later within two to four minutes. Power stations have been asked to be on alert to provide supply instantly. Thermal stations would be ramped up post 9 pm once the demand starts going up. Hydro and gas units are used for meeting emergency needs. These units have a flexible capacity of nearly 18 GW which would be used for ramping up and down the supply on Sunday, POSOCO said in its advisory. India has 40 million urban households and 170 million rural homes. With industrial activity shut, the countrys current peak power demand stands at 120-150 GW, which is 30-40 per cent lower than normal peak demand. The total domestic lighting demand at an all-India level is estimated at 12-13 GW, which is 10 per cent of the countrys total power demand. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are expected to have the highest load fluctuation on Sunday. Arch-Bishop, Cardinal, Raphael Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki died late March 2020 at the age of 89.He died during pandemic times of covid-19, this were times which the world was observing the policy of self-isolation in effort to avert spread of the covid-19 disease. In Kenya, we had already begun observing the burial policy of not having more than fifteen family members to attend a burial. This was so bad experience , especially when one imagines about a cardinal of democracy, freedom, justice, truth and human rights in the station of Mwana A Nzeki c being buried by less than a dozen people. I tell you, version 19 of the Corona virus is an impeachment to our human civilization. An impeachment that has been tried by history and proved to be harmless, harmless in evidence of the historical fact that huge crowds at ones burial are not an indicator of future greatness, burial crowds dont matter in ones posthumous(post-burial)life and history. Karl Marx was buried by less than five people; one among them was Hellene Demuth, his house girl and secret mother to Marxs bastard son, but few years later, three quarters of the governments of the world were formed on the basis of Marxist thought, two of them emerged to be world powers, I mean Russia and China. Karl Marx died in the same century Leo Tolstoy died, Tolstoy died on a wooden bench at an abandoned railway station in a company of his under- aged daughter, and indeed it was so miserable and discouraging. But look! After the philosophical explosion of Nihilism and Tolstoys inspiration to great minds like Gandhi and King Jnr., Tolstoyan literature is now a cultural world-power ruling nations of minds and thrones of cultures, even the early-grade hearing and seeing impaired school girls of today are all aware of Anne Karenina, War and Peace, How Much land does a Man need and the Resurrection. Little did I need to mention that Jesus Christ was buried in a borrowed grave-the grave which his two brothers; John and James who were employed to work as donkeycart drivers for Joseph of Arimathea had borrowed from their employer, and not to forget the death in humility of Prophet Muhammad who died after being sick from food poisoning by a Qurayish tribes-woman, he was sick for some time and then died on the borrowed death-bed in the house of his sister. But today the world is ruled by Christianity and Islam.This is a clear testimony that humility in death is not a decimation to ones future history, and hence humble burial of Bishop Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki in the times of covid-19 will not deface future history of Kenyas struggle to freedom from Gestapo tyranny of Mois time, Cardinal Ndingi, your death in times of Covid-19 is a platform on which future history of freedom and Justice will stand to get glorified all over the world, no conscious humanity will ever forget what you did for the powerless people of Kenya under the tyrannical reign of Moi. And it is true, we still remember, we have not forgotten that those pretending to be angels of empathy at your funeral, sending out condolences and commiserating with your family and the entire catholic fraternity are just faceless pretenders. We know them; they come from the generation of vipers. They are shrewd serpents of selfish politics of Kenya, only taking advantage of your well spend-life to be used as a basis of gaining their personal political mileage. We know them, they were very silent and wearing the blinkers on the political brutality of the day when you were the only one among very few others that braved up to shout the truth at power, when power had brutally murdered Father John Kaiser, Julie Ward, Robert Ouko, Titus Adongosi, Dr Fred Masinde, Bishop Alexander Muge and many other poor souls of Kenya that had been by then crushed under the brutal foot of detention without trial,state-sponsored tribal violence looming from Mount Elgon to Molo as well as tribal profiling that had condemned Kenyan workers to the abyss of poverty and despair. My dear young reader, Cardinal Ndingi was productive in his mid-age years, when he was the Bishop of Nakuru Diocese. This was during the 80s and 90s of the last century. By then I was a Catholic faithful in my twenties but properly crushed by child-hood poverty, poverty that was intentionally propagated by the panicky and selfish political leadership of that time. In those days, Nakuru town was a criminalized region, some characters had jumped out of the pages of Imbugas Betrayal in the City, Orwells 1984, Zolas Seminal, Ngugis Matigari and as well as some characters retrograding from the future pages of Ngugis Wizard of the Crow to mislead the Jogoo and Nyayo government in Kenya of that time that some followers of Fidel Castro, Julius Nyerere, Walter Rodney, Frantz Fanon, Paul Freire, Pablo Neruda, Antonio Gramsci , Mao Tse Tung, Leon Trotsky, Gamal Naser, Che Gue Vera and Muhmmar Gadaffi were footloose gadabouts and layabouts walking around the back streets of Nakuru town with nefarious intentions of peeling off the mask of power. So, in brief, it was not easy time for those living with liberal mind. But against all odds, the moneyless, physically insignificant and materially humble Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki was living as liberal and free-thinking politico-spiritual leader. He spoke truth to power without fear; he shared this bitter crown of thorns with the Mauverick Sheikh Mbalala of Mombasa. Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki did this in contradistinction to fashionable sell-out choices of his religious colleagues in the likes of Bishop Okullu and Bishop Cornelius Korir, they were working as spies on the religious community on behalf of the then Kenyan Gestapo government, the sorriest was Bishop Cornelius Korir who believed that it was not sin for a politically correct Kalenjin clansman and Catholic faithful to take a bow and an arrow then pierce to death a politically marginalized Kikiyu catholic owning a handkerchief sized parcel of land in Molo town . Cornelius Korir was a beautiful pretender, he was an epitome of the ethnic based upper class Christians betraying the lower class Christians, just the same way the Christian spiritual leaders in the charismatic Pentecostalism within the realm of chiliastic movement were only preaching the end of the world and the urgent need for poor faithful to bring money to the church for pastors to use in serving God ; good luck, Ndingi was not part of this sleazy buffoonery, he was focused on the imperative issue of the day; Daniel Toroitich arap Moi to stop oppressing Kenyans, period. A lesson enough for illiterate and primitive shamans like the self-congratulatory Dr David Awuori stop telling people that covid-19 is killing people because Jesus is coming. It is shame for a molecular scientist like Dr Awuori to tell Kenyans that people are getting killed by covid-19 because Jesus is coming; only a rapscallion can perpetrate such religious sludge. This can be described as nothing else other than utter betrayal to the church, the church which must have gotten disillusioned off its traditionally universalized fog of chiliastic phantasmagoria to preach science for the sake of human comfort and safety. And it is not difficult task if only one resolves, the series of repulses will do nothing, they did nothing to the resolute Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki. He did not have arms or weapons to fight Mois Gestapo State machinery. Ndingi was only armed with one weapon; love for truth. He had passionate love for truth. He was not armed with a loud voice to shout the truth; he was a low voiced, ever smiling soft-spoken tireless speaker of truth. He was neither arrogant nor haughty in pose, but instead he was humble in a long catholic black dress for the priests. But in a full military gear of spiritual eclat, composed of intellectual honesty, intellectual bravado, love for justice and readiness to die for what God wants mankind to follow. The virtues which thrived from his inner potential that was fertile enough to nourish righteousness, the inner potential that was made of being satisfied with what you are but not being a captive of the snobbish syndrome that drives many to chase after property including property that they dont need. He was not any exception, Just like many other lovers of truth, Ndingi was a victim of a thousand and one plots of betrayal, but as of today I have realized that betrayal is petty, I mean any form of betrayal; from sorcery to envy, snobbery to bigotry, conspiracy to hatred, assassination to detentions, censuring to economic persecutions, mudslinging to witch-hunting- I can confirm to you my dear reader, they are all petty. All are efforts of the vain mankind that cannot undermine Gods plan through a chosen one. This is why the words of Amilcar Cabral in his homage to Kwame Nkurumah as published in Unity and Struggle have some value in this moment; You cannot betray brightness of the sky by covering it with your own stretched fingers; You cannot vilify the sky by throwing saliva at it, you only end up vilifying your own face. And it is true, those that wanted to vilify the sky-like broadly good course of Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki, they only vilified their own personal faces. Vivam. Alexander Opicho writes from Lodwar, Kenya - [email protected] Pope Francis has begun the first of several Holy Week ceremonies that will be held behind closed doors this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Normally, tens of thousands of Romans and pilgrims, clutching olive branches, would have flocked to an outdoor Mass led by the pontiff. Instead, Francis was leading the ceremony inside the shelter of St Peter's Basilica, which seemed even more cavernous than usual because it was so empty. Pope Francis has begun the first of several Holy Week ceremonies that will be held behind closed doors this year because of the coronavirus pandemic Normally, tens of thousands of Romans and pilgrims, clutching olive branches, would have flocked to an outdoor Mass led by the pontiff Besides his aides, a few invited prelates, nuns and laypeople were present, sitting solo in the first pews and staggered, so they could stay a couple of metres apart to reduce risk of contagion. Wearing red robes and appearing pensive, Francis blessed braided palms held by the others, then held one himself. The Vatican has said there are seven cases of Covid-19 among residents or employees of the tiny independent city state. The socially distanced ceremonies come as it was revealed that Italy's death toll may be far higher than reported 'because the country cannot spare resources to test every dead body'. Meanwhile, Panama's Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa took to the skies to deliver the traditional Catholic Palm Sunday blessing from a helicopter. Instead, Francis was leading the ceremony inside the shelter of St Peter's Basilica, which seemed even more cavernous than usual because it was so empty Besides his aides, a few invited prelates, nuns and laypeople were present, sitting solo in the first pews and staggered, so they could stay a couple of metres apart to reduce risk of contagion Panama's Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa took to the skies to deliver the traditional Catholic Palm Sunday blessing from a helicopter Italy first emerged as the European epicentre of the virus before rocketing to become the country with the most deaths from infection globally. The country's death toll currently stands at 15,362, dwarfing the 3,318 recorded in China, where the outbreak began. A nursing home in Coccaglio, close to Milan, reported that 24 residents died during March, none of whom were tested for the coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported, claiming the same situation was true in another care facility in a nearby town called Lodi. The Vatican has said there are seven cases of Covid-19 among residents or employees of the tiny independent city state Italy first emerged as the European epicentre of the virus before rocketing to become the country with the most deaths from infection globally The publication analysed deaths in Lombardy, one of the areas hardest-hit by the disease, and found they are not isolated. Many citizens who die from COVID-19 do not make it to hospital to be tested, the WSJ reported. This means the human toll from the virus is likely to be much more devastating than originally thought. Older people in hard-to-reach locations and those unable to access treatment due to the health-care crisis are particularly at risk to becoming an uncounted victim of the virus. 'There are many more dead than are officially declared. 'But this is not a j'accuse [an accusation]. People died and they were never tested because time and resources are limited,' Eugenio Fossati, deputy mayor of Coccaglio, told the WSJ of deaths caused by the virus. According to interviews with local officials, doctors and funeral-service providers, the people most in contact with the dead, the analysis predicts that around two of the main virus hotspots in the country, Bergamo and Brescia, the death toll is at least double what has been recorded since February. UP CM Yogi lights diyas to form 'Om' in response to PM's call Crackers being burst as lights are switched off 'Power demand went down from 117 GW to 85.3 GW during the lights off: Power Minister All students from Class 1 to 8 in Haryana to be promoted without exams: CM Khattar A housing complex lit up by earthen lamps, Delhi, Apr 5, 2020.(Amal KS /HT Photo) The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country rose to 3,577 by Sunday evening. Of these, there were 3,219 active cases, 83 deaths, 274 cured / discharged and one migrated case, according to the health ministry. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call, people across the country switched off lights in their homes at 9 pm for nine minutes and lit earthen lamps, candles or switched on the torches and mobile phone lights in a show of solidarity in fight against the coronavirus pandemic. 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However, milk booths and medicine shops have been exempted from the lockdown restrictions, besides, goods and other essential services will be available at doorstep every day. According to the district administration, the decision comes after two bureaucrats and a health officer here were found positives for covid-19. Additional District Magistrate Satish Kumar S. issued a revised order of a complete lockdown in the state capital from April 5 midnight. The authorities have also ordered closure of all the 'mandis'. Vehicles of all government and private officials engaged in essential services will be exempted from this ban. Besides, media personnel are also exempted from the restrictions. Traffic in any area will be completely restricted. Passes given for reasons other than emergency services have also been suspended, the district officials added. BNEI BRAK, ISRAELUltra-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 per cent of the residents are ultra-Orthodox, the number of confirmed cases nearly doubled in recent days, to 508. The total was nearly that of Jerusalem, which has a population four times bigger. Although they make up only 12 per cent of Israels population, the ultra-Orthodox account for 40 to 60 per cent of 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. Experts attribute the proliferation among the ultra-Orthodox to overcrowding and large families, deep distrust of state authority, ignorance of the health risks among religious leaders, an aversion to electronic and secular media that they believe is mandated by religious law and a zealous devotion to a way of life centred on communal activity. All of which add up to stiff resistance to heeding social-distancing orders that require people to stay home except for vital errands and prohibit meeting in groups, including for prayer. These rules threaten fundamental activities for the ultra-Orthodox including worship, religious study and the observance of life-cycle events such as funerals and weddings. The wildfire pace of infection has inflamed tensions between the ultra-Orthodox, known in Hebrew as Haredim, or God-fearers, and other Israelis, as a series of gotcha videos and photos have circulated showing large groups of ultra-Orthodox dancing at weddings or shopping on busy streets, as if doing so posed no risk. The funeral of a rabbi in Bnei Brak on Saturday night, which drew several hundred mourners to the citys streets, prompted angry denunciations by Israelis who called the participants murderers or worse. It took place days after all Israelis were ordered to stay indoors, with few exceptions. In the predominantly secular city of Ramat Gan, which adjoins Bnei Brak, the mayor on Monday demanded a curfew on Bnei Brak, saying the hot spot there isnt any longer a ticking bomb, its a powerful bomb that blew up in our faces. And the director general of Bnei Braks only hospital, Dr. Moti Ravid, pleaded with authorities to bar residents from leaving the community for at least a week. He said the infection rate in ultra-Orthodox parts of the country was four to eight times higher than elsewhere in Israel. Bnei Brak itself may prove resilient, he said, because its people have so many children, and young people have been less vulnerable. But if they help to infect others, the result will be that many old people will die, he said in an interview. Bnei Braks mayor, Avraham Rubinstein, insisted the city had done its best but could not expect religious Jews to embrace the restrictions. Do you know what it is to close synagogues? he said. He also assailed the central government, saying the Health Ministry had hoarded information and that police had failed to show a firm-enough hand. Late Monday, Bnei Brak said it would begin testing residents in grocery stores. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to ultra-Orthodox non-compliance Monday night, saying it was putting the majority at risk and promised to beef up enforcement. No public prayers, he said. No weddings, not even with less than 10 people. Funerals will be held with 20 people in open areas. Epidemiologists have had little difficulty explaining the spread of the virus in ultra-Orthodox cities, where time is marked by the Jewish calendar. The holiday of Purim, a day of carousing and socializing, began the night of March 9, when gatherings of up to 100 people were still permitted. A week later, the ultra-Orthodox hamlet of Kiryat Yearim, near Jerusalem, had about a quarter of its 7,000 residents in quarantine. But when the government ordered the closing of all schools, and initially capped gatherings at 10 people the minimum needed for a quorum, or minyan, for Jewish worship services ultra-Orthodox rabbis did not all acquiesce, said Gilad Malach, an expert on the ultra-Orthodox at the Israel Democracy Institute. Some ultra-Orthodox rabbis, many of whom are predisposed to suspect the state as a secularizing influence, asserted the importance of prayer and Torah study, arguing, Itll rescue us from this virus, Malach said. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis wield great authority over their congregations. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 92, the most revered figure in one of the largest ultra-Orthodox branches in Israel, the Lithuanians, appeared in a March 11 video with his grandson in which he rejected the idea of closing schools, saying to do so was more dangerous than leaving them open. You saw that the rabbi doesnt know anything about the epidemic, about the corona, Malach said of the widely shared video. But the adoration for him is so great, they refer to him as a prophet. So there was a delay in the shutdown of these schools. Kanievsky finally issued a new edict on Sunday, echoing state authorities by decreeing that Jews pray alone in their homes, not in groups of any size, not even outdoors. But even Haredim who professed their affection for Kanievsky were still flouting his latest ruling and the governments current restrictions on Monday. A stroll through Bnei Brak revealed dozens of quiet prayer quorums, some of as many as 50 men, often hidden behind the hedges or walls in front of apartment buildings, synagogues and religious schools. At one synagogue, where worshippers shooed away a journalist and photographer, the morning service was still being held indoors. Those ignoring the rules rationalized the decision or said they were unaware that rabbinical guidance had changed. There are rabbis who say we shouldnt pray at all, others who say to pray outside, said Yakov Levy, 21, who was part of a large prayer group. A friend, Moshe Cohen, 25, acknowledged his fear of the virus, alluding to the death notices popping up for prominent ultra-Orthodox Jews all over, including in Brooklyn, N.Y., the biggest concentration of Haredim outside Israel. At the beginning, it wasnt so scary, he said. Now we see how many Haredim died in America, and how serious it is. Read more about: FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County By Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global benchmark oil prices traded as much as $3 a barrel lower as the market opened for Monday's trading session, reflecting fears of oversupply after Saudi Arabia and Russia postponed to Thursday a meeting about a potential pact to cut production. Late last week, prices had surged, with both U.S. and Brent contracts posting their largest weekly percentage gains on record due to hopes that OPEC and its allies would strike a global deal to cut crude supply worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has cut demand and a month-long price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has left the market awash in crude. During the month, prices have plummeted as the market has waited for a plan to cut production from OPEC and its allies. Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia sent a signal that a production cut deal may be ahead, potentially muting the price decline. U.S. President Donald Trump said he will put pressure on Saudi Arabia and its allies for such a deal. "I don't know that anyone is going to get too aggressively short before the meeting," said Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Brent crude traded lower by $2.39 a barrel, or 7%, by 6:16 p.m. EDT (10:16 GMT) after earlier touching a session low of $30.03 a barrel. U.S. crude traded down $2.41 a barrel, or 8.5%, at $25.93 a barrel. Saudi Arabia's decision to postpone its posting of the international prices for its crude for the first time indicates that it is not eager to flood the market with low-priced crude before a potential agreement. "That's a pretty clear sign that they are open to cutting production in May," McNally said. The kingdom delayed the release until Friday to wait for the outcome of the meeting between OPEC and its allies regarding possible output cuts, a Saudi source told Reuters. Trump said on Saturday that he will put tariffs on Saudi and Russian production, potentially accelerating an output cutback. OPEC and its allies postponed an emergency meeting scheduled for Monday, led by Saudi Arabia, where the oil cuts could be agreed upon. A senior Saudi source told Reuters on Sunday that the kingdom would now host the meeting via videoconference on Thursday and the delay was to allow more time to bring other producers on board. Story continues Russian President Vladimir Putin put the blame for the crash in prices on Saudi Arabia on Friday - prompting a response from Riyadh the following day disputing Putin's assertions. OPEC and its allies are working on a global agreement for an unprecedented oil production cut equivalent to around 10% of worldwide supply in what they expect to be a global effort including countries that do not exert state control over output, such as the United States. Trump has, however, made no commitment to take the extraordinary step of persuading U.S. companies to cut output. Per Magnus Nysveen, head of analysis at Rystad Energy, said the decline in global demand because of the coronavirus pandemic and the global lockdowns was larger than the proposed cuts by the OPEC+ alliance. "It is not strange for the market to hike prices by enthusiasm such as Friday's, but for the levels to stay stable for more than a day or two, it takes concrete developments and deals on the ground," he said. (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar and Julia Payne; Additional reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault; Writing by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Pravin Char, Peter Cooney and Diane Craft) President Donald Trump answers questions in the press briefing room with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in Washington on April 4, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) Trump Defends Firing of Intelligence Watchdog: Hes a Total Disgrace President Donald Trump on April 4 defended his decision to fire Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, telling reporters at the White House that Atkinson mishandled the whistleblower complaint that led to the first partisan impeachment of a president and his subsequent acquittal. Hes a total disgrace, Trump said. Thats my decision. I have the absolute right. The president noted that the anonymous whistleblowers complaint didnt have to be rushed and that Atkinson himself determined that there were indications of political bias by the complainant. In a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee on April 3, Trump said that he would remove Atkinson from office effective 30 days from today. As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as president, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general. That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general, Trump said in the letter. Atkinson played a central role in the genesis of the impeachment probe against Trump. He vetted the whistleblower complaint and determined that it should be forwarded to Congress as an urgent concern. The complaint centered on Trumps call last July with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Many questions remain about some controversial aspects of Atkinsons involvement. Shortly after the submission of the Ukraine complaint, the intelligence community inspector generals (ICIG) office altered its whistleblower complaint form to remove instructions that directed complainants that the office would only review firsthand information. The impeachment whistleblowers complaint consisted almost entirely of secondhand claims. Atkinson issued a lengthy explanation of why the form was altered, explaining that the firsthand requirement was removed due to scrutiny from the media. He explained that the ICIG does not actually have a requirement for firsthand information and that the form was adjusted accordingly. The whistleblower also falsely claimed on the complaint form that he or she hadnt spoken to Congress about the matter. Atkinson testified before the House Intelligence Committee during its impeachment inquiry. His testimony is the only one that remains classified and was never released by the Democrat-controlled committee. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) later revealed that his office had in fact communicated with the whistleblower prior to the submission of the complaint. Schiff, the leader of the impeachment inquiry and trial, defended Atkinson on Twitter. Actually, he abided by the law and the complaint was spot on, Schiff wrote on Twitter. Someone who follows the law and their conscience is no disgrace. Republicans have long suggested that Atkinsons unreleased testimony hurt the Democrats case for impeachment. Of course Adam Schiff is complaining about ICIG Atkinson being fired. He was Schiffs key impeachment enabler, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote on Twitter, pointing out that Atkinson allegedly let the whistleblower lie about meeting with Schiffs staff and didnt disclose the fact that the [whistleblower] worked for [Joe] Biden. Schiff still wont release Atkinsons transcript! Jordan added. During his July 25, 2019, call with Zelensky, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to look into the firing of Ukraines top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Shortly before his forced ouster, Shokins office seized the assets of Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma. Bidens son, Hunter Biden, held a paid position on the board of Burisma at the time of Shokins firing. In sworn testimony, Shokin said that he was fired under pressure from Joe Biden because Shokins office was going after Burisma. Joe Biden has publicly bragged about forcing Shokins ouster by withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine. The Bidens have denied any wrongdoing. The younger Biden eventually stepped down from the board of Burisma. Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 15:37:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A medical expert heading to the Philippines waves goodbye before departure in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, April 5, 2020. A team of 12 medical experts departed from Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province, for the Philippines Sunday morning to aid the archipelagic country to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. The team comprises medical experts from three hospitals and the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) of Fujian, as well as two liaison staff from the provincial foreign affairs office. Their missions will include sharing China's experience in the testing, treatment, and prevention and control of COVID-19 with local hospitals and experts, and providing treatment advice. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong) FUZHOU, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A team of 12 medical experts departed from Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province, for the Philippines Sunday morning to aid the archipelagic country to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. The team comprises medical experts from three hospitals and the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) of Fujian, as well as two liaison staff from the provincial foreign affairs office. The experts specialize in various areas, including respiratory, intensive care, hospital infection control, nursing, integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and microbiological testing. Their missions will include sharing China's experience in the testing, treatment, and prevention and control of COVID-19 with local hospitals and experts, and providing treatment advice. On March 24, medical experts from eastern China's Zhejiang Province shared COVID-19 treatment experience with peers from the Philippines via an online meeting. The medical team is expected to arrive at Manila this afternoon. The team also carries urgently needed medical supplies donated by the provincial government, including 30 ventilators, 5,000 protective suits, 300,000 medical masks, 30,000 N95 respirators and 5,000 face shields. Another 12 tonnes of anti-epidemic materials were sent with the team as well, which are donated by various associations and foundations of overseas Chinese as well as local governments of Fujian's Quanzhou, a city home to 9.5 million Chinese living overseas in more than 170 countries and regions, with 90 percent in Southeast Asia. Zheng Huiwen, leader of the expert team, said the team is honored to bring friendship and warmth to the Filipinos on behalf of China and Fujian Province, as the COVID-19 outbreak is growing fast and posing a grave threat to public health in the Southeastern Asian country. "We will work closely with our Philippine peers, and I am confident that we will come through this together," Zheng said. Zhuo Huichang, a member of the first batch of healthcare workers sent to Wuhan, treated COVID-19 patients for more than 40 days in the former epicenter of the outbreak. Zhuo just completed his isolation period Saturday in Fuzhou after returning from Wuhan. Now he is heading for the Philippines after only several hours of a family reunion. "The epidemic is a common enemy of mankind. I will share my clinical experience with my Philippine colleagues and do my part in the global anti-epidemic battle," Zhuo said. China has dispatched medical experts to multiple countries, including Italy, Serbia, Pakistan and Venezuela, and shared its experience with more than 100 countries and over 10 international and regional organizations, according to China's National Health Commission. An estimated 1.2 million ethnic Chinese live in the Philippine, with many tracing their ancestry to Fujian Province. Jinjiang, a county-level city in Quanzhou, shipped 1.4 million face masks and 3,000 protective suits to its sister city of Davao in the Philippines via a charted plane on Thursday. Besides donating to hard-hit countries and regions, Quanzhou also set up several medical consulting groups on China's social messaging app WeChat and 24-hour hotlines for Chinese stranded abroad. The long-awaited medical team is highly valued and welcomed among the overseas Chinese living in the tropical country, which is running short of anti-epidemic materials and health workers. Ke Xianqu, a Quanzhou local who migrated to the Philippines in 1990, said the arrival of the Chinese experts will boost confidence among the Chinese communities in tackling the pandemic and improve the country's ability to prevent and control the virus outbreak. He said while distributing food and masks to those in need, the Chinese communities are also calling on businesses to pay subsidies to their employees to help them tide over the difficult times, as the lockdown of the country has caused many impoverished families to lose the source of income. As of Saturday afternoon, the Philippines has reported 3,094 confirmed cases of COVID-19, while the death toll has risen to 144. Corporate directors have splashed out more than $300 million to buy up shares in major listed companies during the coronavirus crisis, lifting their stakes despite threats of a major global slowdown. Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest bought $242.8 million of the miner's shares over a week from February 20, which coincidentally was the day the benchmark ASX/200 index peaked at 7197.2 points. The mining magnate bought a further $35.16 million of FMG shares in March. Mining magnate Andrew Forrest. Credit:Kym Smith Scores of other directors also bought stock in their companies in March. And some, particularly those who bought early, could still be nursing on-paper losses. Raphael Geminder, chairman of packaging company Pact Group, made two purchases in March, adding more than 10.1 million Pact shares to his holding with a total investment of $19.46 million. Speaking on the development, Mustafa maintained that there was high suspicion of the patient being a COVID-19 case, and the patient was referred to LUTH due to insufficient bed space at LASUTH as at the time he was at the facility. Older people remain most at risk of dying from the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19. The majority of people who get COVID-19 have minor or moderate sickness. But majority does not mean all. So, who else should be concerned about contracting severe, even deadly, cases of COVID-19? It may be months before scientists have enough data to say for sure who, aside from the old, is most at risk and why. But, medical experts have already learned some helpful information from numbers on early cases around the world. Not just the old getting sick In China, 80 percent of COVID-19 deaths were among people in their 60s or older. This alone means some countries face higher percentages of deaths from the disease. Italy has the worlds second oldest population after Japan. Italy has reported more than 80 percent of deaths in the country so far were among those 70 or older. But, the idea that this is purely a disease that causes death in older people we need to be very, very careful with, said Dr. Mike Ryan. He is the World Health Organizations emergencies chief. Between 10 and 15 percent of people under 50 have moderate to severe infections, he said last week. Young people are not invincible, said the WHOs Maria Van Kerkhove. She noted that more information is needed about the disease in all age groups. Italy reports 25 percent of its confirmed cases are among people ages 19 to 50. In Spain, about 33 percent are under the age of 44. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions first examination of cases found that 29 percent were ages 20 to 44. Then there is the mystery of how the disease affects children. They have made up a small amount of the worlds case counts to date. Most appear to get only mildly ill. Another question is what part children play in spreading the virus. Researchers at Canadas Dalhousie University recently wrote in The Lancet Infectious Disease publication: There is an urgent need for further investigation of the role children have in the chain of transmission. Pre-existing conditions Along with age, existing health conditions are a major predictor of who suffers most from COVID-19. In China, 40 percent of people who required critical care had health problems before they became infected. COVID-19 deaths in China were highest among people who already had heart disease, diabetes or chronic lung diseases. Pre-existing health problems can also increase risk of infection. This includes people who have weak immune systems caused by things such as cancer treatment. Additional threats are likely to be discovered. Italy reported that of the first nine people younger than 40 who died of COVID-19, seven were confirmed to have serious health issues such as heart disease. Heart disease is a very general term. But, so far, it looks like those most at risk have serious cardiovascular disease such as congestive heart failure or severely blocked or hardened arteries, said Dr. Trish Perl. She is infectious disease chief at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Arteries are the largest tubes through which blood flows around the body. Any sort of infection generally makes diabetes harder to control. But it is not clear why diabetics appear to be at greater risk with COVID-19. As for preexisting breathing diseases, this is really happening in people who have less lung capacity, Dr. Perl said. Asthma, a breathing condition that affects 300 million people worldwide, is also a special worry. The gender mystery Several countries have observed that men are more likely to get severely sick from COVID-19. This is not a surprise to researchers. During the outbreaks of the coronavirus diseases SARS and MERS, scientists also found that men generally had more severe cases than women. In China, a little more than half the COVID deaths have been among men. Some other parts of Asia report similar amounts. In Italy, men so far make up 58 percent of infections. And a report on Britains first 200 coronavirus patients admitted to critical care said that about sixty-five percent were male. One reason? Worldwide, men are more likely to have smoked more heavily and for longer periods than women. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control is urging research into smokings connection to COVID-19. Sex hormones may be involved also. In 2017, American researchers who infected mice with SARS found that male mice were more likely to die. Estrogen -- a female sex hormone -- seemed protective. When the mice had their ovaries removed, deaths among female mice increased. Im Ashley Thompson. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story mild - n. not harsh or severe invincible - adj. impossible to defeat or overcome transmission - n. the act or process by which something is spread or passed from one person or thing to another role - n. a part that someone or something has in a particular activity or situation diabetes - n. a serious disease in which the body cannot properly control the amount of sugar in your blood because it does not have enough insulin chronic - adj. continuing or occurring again and again for a long time immune system - n. the system that protects your body from diseases and infections asthma - n. a physical condition that makes it difficult for someone to breathe hormones - n. natural substances produced in the body which influence the way the body grows or develops ovary - n. one of usually two organs in women and female animals that produce eggs and female hormones By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. Some states and cities that have been shipped masks, gloves, ventilators and other essential equipment from the nations medical stockpile to fight the coronavirus have gotten an unwelcome surprise: the material is unusable. Nearly 6,000 medical masks sent to Alabama had dry rot and a 2010 expiration date. More than 150 ventilators sent to Los Angeles were broken and had to be repaired. In Oregon, it was masks with faulty elastic that could cause the straps to snap, exposing medical workers to the disease. Several of the shipments we have received from the strategic national stockpile contained (personal protective equipment) well past expiration dates and, while we are being told much of the expired equipment is capable of being used for COVID-19 response, they would not be suitable for use in surgical settings," Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, said in an email. He said some of the equipment had been purchased during the H1N1 outbreak more than a decade ago and that the masks with the fragile elastic had been among products previously recalled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state did not distribute them to medical workers. A shortage of protective gear has imperiled doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers. Life-saving ventilators have been in short supply as more and more states experience outbreaks of the COVID-19 disease, which typically causes mild or moderate symptoms but can be especially perilous for older adults and people with existing health problems. Many younger adults and medical workers also have succumbed to the disease. Numerous governors have complained about delays in getting equipment from the Strategic National Stockpile or receiving amounts of gear far below what they had requested. That frustration is compounded when equipment arrives, but cant be used. Dr. Don Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association and the former top public health official in the state, said he received multiple emails from hospitals about stockpile shipments of N95 masks in which the rubber bands that hold the mask tight around the users face had dry rot. They couldn't be used unless the bands were replaced. Montgomery County received nearly 6,000 medical masks of a different type that had dry rot, a shipment that was replaced about a week later. Its really alarming because those masks are desperately needed," said U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama. When our national stockpile is not monitored enough to know that youve got expired masks and rotted masks out there and not replenished, that is a real problem. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado on Friday requested a probe into the management of the supply and distribution of ventilators from the national stockpile. Among other things, he cited reports that maintenance failures were contributing to the lack of operational ventilators at a time our country desperately needs them. Los Angeles received about 170 ventilators from the national stockpile that were in disrepair. Gov. Gavin Newsom said they were sent to a company to be fixed. In New Hampshire, the congressional delegation wrote to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services saying many of the supplies the state received were expired. In addition, more than 16,000 latex gloves couldn't be used in a medical setting because of latex allergies. The CDC acknowledged late last month that some items in the U.S. stockpile have exceeded their manufacturer-designated shelf life. They were nevertheless being sent to hospitals due to the potential urgent demand caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency, the CDC said. ___ Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; and Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon, contributed to this report. A Russian Air Force AN-124 plane, similar to that pictured, landed at JFK Airport in New York on Wednesday with a cargo of ventilators to help the city deal with the coronavirus pandemic: (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) A delivery of ventilators, transported from Moscow to New York this week to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic, were manufactured by a Russian company that is currently subject to US sanctions. NBC News reports that as the boxes of desperately needed ventilators were unloaded at New Yorks John F Kennedy Airport, they were discovered to be a model of ventilator called the Aventa-M manufactured by the subsidiary of a sanctioned Russian firm. Russian media group RBC identified the manufacturer as Ural Instrument Engineering Plant (UPZ), based in Chelyabinsk, almost 1,000 miles east of Moscow. UPZ is part of Concern Radio-Electric Technologies (KRET), a unit of defence and technology conglomerate Rostec. Both KRET and Rostec have been sanctioned by the US since 2014, forbidding US firms and citizens from doing business with them. More follows... The number of new confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Jersey topped 4,000 for the second day in a row Saturday. The 4,229 cases brought the state total to 34,124. They were announced along with 200 new deaths. 846 people in N.J. have now died in connection with COVID-19. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage This pandemic is writing one of the greatest tragedies in the states history," Gov. Phil Murphy said Saturday during his daily briefing. Is the chart not displaying properly? Click here. After speaking with top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, Murphy said the state is about a week away from a surge in cases like the one New York has faced in recent days. New York has more than 113,000 cases and more than 3,500 deaths, both worst in the country. Is the chart not displaying properly? Click here. The new deaths brought New Jersey to a grim total that surpassed the states death toll on Sept. 11, 2001. Though state officials have not released information on the number of patients who have recovered from the disease, Murphy said the state should be able to release more detailed statistics and projections next week. Is the chart not displaying properly? Click here. 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. J. Dale Shoemaker is a reporter on the data & investigations team. He can be reached at jshoemaker@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JDale_Shoemaker. The one thing Australians share today is fear. We fear contracting the coronavirus. We fear people we love getting it. We fear that person walking towards us on the street might have it so we steer well clear of them. Given that we see ourselves as social beings, having fearfulness influencing so much of our behaviour is utterly dire. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Illustration: Jim Pavlidis Credit: But it can work for us, too. Fear has enabled humanity to survive and develop. Its proven throughout history to be the most powerful motivator of all. One of the positives of fear is that it can force you to discipline your mind and sort out your priorities. In other words, to wake up to yourself. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 20:52:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Liang Hui JAKARTA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The world needs stronger cooperation in the face of the pandemic, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States told Xinhua in a recent interview. "Faced with the pandemic, the world needs stronger cooperation, particularly the cooperation between China and (the) U.S.," said Dino Patti Djalal, founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia and former deputy foreign minister of Indonesia. Dino said that China and the United States have strong medical capabilities, and the whole world is expecting their close cooperation in fighting COVID-19. The global COVID-19 caseload breached the 1.2 million mark on Friday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. At present, COVID-19 has engulfed almost all countries in the world, with the United States and Europe being hit hard by the spread of the virus. Dino appreciated China's contributions to the world in battling the pandemic and defined China as "a more reliable partner." He was puzzled by some critics questioning China's aid, saying "the only reason why they criticize China is that the aid comes from China, but not from them." "They always hold double standards and have prejudices against China," said Dino, saying people who provide help "should be appreciated." China's strict and effective prevention and control measures in the past three months have made great achievements, Dino said, and China has been providing support to other countries suffering from the virus. The pandemic is a big test for global solidarity, he said, calling on the international community to work together to fight it. He also emphasized the importance of the World Health Organization (WHO) in this global battle. "The world looks forward to receiving help from (the) WHO, especially the vast majority of developing countries," Dino said. The number of total confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 2,273 in Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia and the fourth most populous country in the world, while the death toll from the disease climbed to 198, according to the government's spokesperson for COVID-19-related matters Achmad Yurianto. Dino is worried that Indonesia would become the next COVID-19 hotspot of the world, suggesting that Indonesia should acquire medical technologies and gain experience from China in dealing with the virus. Warm weather has proven to be too tempting for the British public, many of whom have flouted coronavirus lockdown rules by flocking to parks to lie in the sun. Photos have emerged of dozens of people sunbathing, some in large groups, despite repeated warnings from authorities not to do so. Temperatures over the weekend are among the warmest recorded so far this year, but the public has been urged by authorities not to be tempted to flout the rules and be out of their homes for longer than necessary. After 3,000 people visited Brockwell Park, in south London, on Saturday, Lambeth Council made the decision to close the park as the number of people who were sunbathing was unacceptable. The council said: We are sorry to take this decision. This wouldnt need to happen if people followed the clear instructions from the government. We are doing this for the wider safety of the public. Parks are not the only public area having trouble with a large volume of people. Epping Forest tweeted they have had to close their car parks due to overcrowding. It said: Police are redirecting cars to go home and stay local. The Forest is still open for locally-based exercise if you access on foot or bicycle. On Sunday morning, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned the public that the government has been absolutely clear that no one should be going outside unless it is for medical reasons, to buy food, to go to work or to exercise. Of course I understand how difficult this is, he added during an interview on Sky News. But the problem is that when you go out, its not only that you might directly interact with someone closer than two metres, its also that you can spread the virus through touching something which somebody else then touches, or you could pick it up that way. Members of the public relax in the sun in Regents Park, London (PA) So were crystal clear in the guidance of that people should and shouldnt do. That guidance is backed up in law, it is not a request, it is a requirement in law and people need to follow it. Mr Hancock also warned the UK government could ban outdoor exercise altogether if members of the public continue to flout the social distancing guidelines. On the BBCs Andrew Marr programme, he said: If you dont want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then youve got to follow the rules and the vast majority of people are following the rules. Lets not have a minority spoiling it for everybody. Members of the public relax in the sun despite repeated warnings not to (PA) Council authorities all over the country have reiterated the guidelines on social distancing and advised people to stay at home. Liverpool City council said: "If you are thinking of heading to one of our parks today: DON'T picnic, DON'T sunbathe, DON'T play sports." Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville urged people to stick to the guidelines and said: Parks are a lifeline for Hackney together we can keep them safe and open. Peter John, leader of Southwark Council in London, said: "Today - please do NOT congregate, sunbathe, picnic, or barbecue in Southwark parks. STOP the spread of this disease and SAVE LIVES." The UK has been under lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus since 19 March, with all restaurants, pubs and shops closed and non-essential workers told to stay home. As of Sunday, 47,806 people have tested positive for coronavirus, with 4,934 deaths. Those who have chosen to ignore the rules have been criticised harshly on social media, including by Piers Morgan. Mr Morgan commented on a video of sunbathers on Twitter, calling them traitors to every NHS worker. He also said in another tweet: If you go out today to sunbathe, you are a selfish, reckless b******. Police move on sunbathers in Regents Park, London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus (PA) Activist Gina Martin tweeted: I know you cant sit and sunbathe may sound unbelievable, illogical and unfair. But thats because youre still mentally operating on life as you knew it a month ago. That lifestyle has gone. Now is basically wartime. And war is about individual action to keep everyone safe. Another person said: If you go out and ignore government guidelines, sunbathe and catch up with friends, you are literally making a mockery out of NHS doctors and nurses, some who have DIED treating people like YOU. It could be YOU one day that theyre risking their lives for. Scum bags. STAY HOME. ROYAL OAK, MI The Forgotten Harvest Food Bank in Royal Oak will become the fifth food bank in the state to receive hands-on help from members of the Michigan National Guard amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Support, which will be provided by approximately 10 airmen from the 127th Wing, Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, will begin at the site Monday, April 6, according to a news release from Gov. Gretchen Whitmers office. Assistance at the Royal Oak food bank is expected to continue through the end of April. This is an example of how the men and women of the Michigan National Guard are helping their communities, Whitmer said in a statement. They are assisting Michiganders all across this state in response to COVID-19, and I am very proud of their professionalism and commitment. Food banks in Ann Arbor, Comstock Park, Flint, and Pontiac began receiving help from the Michigan National Guard on March 30 and will continue for two more weeks, according to Bobby Leddy, deputy press secretary for the governors office. RELATED: National Guard to assist new drive-thru food pantry at Woodland Mall Michigan National Guard personnel at those four locations have been helping with mobile food distribution, directing traffic at the drive-through distribution site and assisting with packing bags of fruit and handing bags to cars over the past week. Each of the National Guards missions were originally assessed to be three weeks, Leddy told MLive. The Royal Oak mission was activated a week later, and therefore extended a week beyond the prior four missions. We will continue to evaluate the needs of each community to determine whether an extension is necessary to keep people healthy and safe during this pandemic." In addition to helping with food distribution, other response activities include logistics support for medical equipment, medical screening operations, planning augmentation and support for construction of alternate care facilities. The Michigan National Guard strives to be part of the fabric of every Michigan community, said Maj. Gen. Paul Rogers, Adjutant General of the Michigan National Guard and Director of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, in a statement. Members of the Michigan National Guard live in every county of this state, and we care deeply about supporting our communities as we all respond to COVID-19. The Michigan National Guard, according to the release, has an additional 6,600 members ready to assist at the request of Michigans communities. Guard members are screened prior to conducting response activities, and perform their duties with personnel protective equipment as advised by the Michigan National Guards medical staff. Michigan seniors in need of food assistance can also get free meal delivery and daily wellness checks during the coronavirus outbreak. Residents 60 and older are eligible for home-delivery or pick-up meals during the outbreak. Fill out the form here. Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Also on MLive: Sunday, April 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Michigan National Guard to staff food banks, while restaurants can sell groceries as part of coronavirus response Michigan seniors can get free meal delivery, daily wellness checks during coronavirus outbreak National Guard to assist new drive-thru food pantry at Woodland Mall Michigan National Guard building temporary medical station in Detroit to support coronavirus patients New coronavirus cases in Michigan take a dip, deaths climb to 540 A 58-year-old man from a village in Haryana's Karnal district, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died at the PGIMER here on Sunday, Karnal's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ashwani Kumar said. Haryana's second COVID-19-related death occurred on a day when six more persons were tested positive for coronavirus in the state with the number of cases rising to 76 on Sunday. The patient, who died in PGIMR, Chandigarh, tested positive for coronavirus infection on April 2 and was also having underlying health conditions including diabetes and asthma, karnal CMO told PTI over phone. He said some of the Karnal villager's family members too have been kept under isolation at Kalpana Chawla Medical College, Karnal. The report of three of his family members has come, which is negative while the report of nine others is awaited, he said. Haryana had recorded its first COVID-19 death on Wednesday when a 67-year-old man from Ambala district, who, according to doctors, had underlying health conditions, had also passed away at PGIMER here. Haryana has so far reported 76 positive cases and the patient who passed away was the only positive case from Karnal district so far. Out of total positive cases in the state, 15 have been discharged. The fresh cases reported on Sunday included five from Nuh and one from Gurugram. Home Minister Anil Vij on Sunday said 29 of the total positive cases are of the Tablighi Jamaat members. Amid reports that there could be a few more Jamaat members in the state who were yet to be tracked down, Vij said, While we believe we have tracked all of them, but if a few of them could still be hiding, they should themselves report to the concerned district administration so that they could be quarantined. However, if they fail to do so over the next couple of days, then strict action as per law will be taken against them, he said. Haryana has so far reported one death due to COVID-19 after a 67-year-old man from Ambala district passed away at PGIMER earlier. Of the total 76 cases, four are Sri Lankan nationals and one is from Nepal while 20 are from other states of India, the bulletin said. Vij said earlier as many as 652 of the 1,300 Tablighi members had been traced from Nuh district alone. Over 1,300 Tablighi Jamaat members, including 107 foreigners, came to Haryana before the lockdown came into force on March 25, Director General of Police Manoj Yadava had said on Friday. All of them have been quarantined, DGP had said, adding five FIRs have been registered under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Foreigner's Act against the foreigners among the Tablighi Jamaat members for various violations. Vij, meanwhile, said tenders had recently been floated and now four firms will be supplying 1,000 each Personal Protection Equipment needed by doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff at the frontline of battle against COVID-19. Officials said that intensive testing will be done in districts including Nuh, Palwal, Gurugram, Panipat and Faridabad, which have seen maximum cases. Micro plan/containment plan are being prepared for district of Faridabad, Gurugram and Ambala. On the lockdown in the state, he said while it took couple of days initially to persuade people to stay indoors, but now they were complying with the government orders. People are showing great restraint and cooperating with the authorities, said Vij. Meanwhile, supervisory officer would be appointed at five private labs to monitor the updation of data related to COVID-19 testing. Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora on Sunday directed the district Deputy Commissioners of the state to prepare and implement plans at the micro-level in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their respective districts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shimla: A 38-year-old man belonging to the Gujjar community in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday committed suicide owing to social boycott by locals for his links with those who returned from the congregation in Delhi`s Nizamuddin Markaz in March. Director General of Police S.R. Mardi told the media that one person hanged himself at his home in Una district. "When he returned to his village from quarantine and his coronavirus test was negative, he faced social boycott and for his reason, he committed suicide, Mardi said in a video message. "I want to tell everyone, social distancing does not mean social discrimination. Such type of behaviour will not be tolerated at any cost," he warned. The victim has been identified as Dilshad Muhamud who ran a shop in Una town. Mardi said 85 members of the Tablighi Jamaat have been booked in the state for deliberately hiding the information. "A total of 277 people belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat have been quarantined. I have asked all those who returned from the Nizamuddin Markaz and even came from foreign travel to reveal their identity, otherwise they will be booked for attempt to murder under Section 307 of the IPC, besides the Disaster Management Act," he said. The Jamaat district heads would be booked for murder under Section 302 of the Indian penal Code (IPC) if any person is found infected with coronavirus due to their negligence, he said. The police chief said six coronavirus patients have been undergoing treatment in the state, while four belonging to a business family are hospitalized in Vedanta in Delhi. Chinese authorities locked down a county in Henan Province starting from April 1the first time Chinese officials placed an area under quarantine after the regime announced that lockdowns would be lifted nationwide. After pressure from inside and outside China, the regime has now begun publishing cases of asymptomatic CCP virus patients. But those cases still wont be included in the countrys confirmed count. This helps keep its number of infections artificially low. As people in China slowly get back to work, questions remain whether the countrys economy will quickly bounce back. How is the Chinese regime pushing its propaganda narrative, twisting a research paper published by U.S. scientists to claim that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, is not from Wuhan. And is the outbreak really under control? A Shanghai resident told us he thinks the Chinese regime is the real virus in the country. And in the United States, the CCP viruss death toll exceeds 4,000, with many of those in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces that he plans to do more to stem the spread of the virus. Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more first-hand news from China For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) The province of Camiguin has recorded its first COVID-19 case. In a video posted on his Facebook page, Governor JJ Romualdo said the 32-year-old patient previously traveled to Manila to attend a conference. Romualdo said the patient was placed under a 21-day quarantine after returning to the province as it was learned that at least one lecturer at the conference tested positive for the virus. The patient was confirmed to have COVID-19 on March 3. Romualdo said contact-tracing was done immediately in a bid to stem the spread of the virus and he has also urged residents to stay at home. He added the province does not have sufficient resources to provide for all residents. Camiguin has been placed under Preemptive Community Quarantine since March 23 via EO 15 issued by Romualdo. Other areas in northern Mindanao with confirmed COVID-19 cases are Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte and Iligan City. Health Minister gives ventilator update and says Wales will follow NICE critical care guidelines This article is old - Published: Sunday, Apr 5th, 2020 Minister for Health Vaughan Gething AM today issued a written statement detailing how Wales will follow critical care guidelines, as well as giving a detailed update on the numbers of critical care beds and ventilators. The Minister explains how extra areas have been identified in hospitals to provide more invasive ventilation to patients over and above the space normally available in critical care units, that is in addition to those areas identified as surge capacity for critically ill patients as part of existing plans to double capacity when needed. Within Wales, the number of critical care beds is normally around 153. As of April 3rd, there were 353 critical care or invasively ventilated beds. Currently occupancy is around 48% with just over half the beds occupied with patients with confirmed COVID-19. The Minister notes, There is significant variation in occupancy rates across Wales. Everything possible is being done to provide support to hospitals that are under the most pressure such as those in the Aneurin Bevan health board area. The statement explains work has taken place to clarify the number of ventilators currently available within NHS Wales, noting two main types an invasive and non-invasive ventilator. An invasive ventilator is a machine that helps with breathing, a tube is placed in the mouth, nose or through a small cut in the throat (tracheostomy). Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) machines connect to a mask that covers the nose or face. These are used to support the lungs and make breathing easier. The Minister says, Currently within NHS Wales, we already have 415 ventilators in Welsh hospitals which can provide invasive ventilation. There are a further 349 anaesthetic machines with ventilator capacity and 207 non-invasive ventilators. An additional, 1,035 ventilators are also being procured by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership and through UK arrangements. We expect Wales to receive a population-based share of UK procurement. This includes 385 invasive ventilators, 270 dual purpose (invasive or non-invasive machines) and 380 non-invasive machines. Work is continuing to procure machines which may help ease the burden on intensive care and help with patients breathing. So far, 100 dual purpose machines have already been received and are being distributed. We are expecting a further 75 ventilators to be delivered by the start of this coming week, 40 invasive ventilators and 35 non-invasive ventilators. I know you will all appreciate that we need more than just a ventilator to open an additional critical care bed in Wales. We also need to ensure there is sufficient staffing, medicines and other necessary equipment. Work is continuing at an incredible pace to bring all of these elements together to maximise the number of critical care or invasively ventilated beds in Wales. The Minister has also given an update on the guidelines for critical care, with it now confirmed that the NICE system is being used in Wales. Over the last week we have asked questions of the the Health Minister, the First Minister and the Chief Exec of NHS Wales on this topic. In todays statement the Health Minister says In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published its COVID-19 rapid guideline for critical care in adults (NG159) to maximise the safety of patients who need critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic, while protecting staff from infection and also enabling services to make the best use of NHS resources. The now updated full guidance also includes the following diagram to support decision making, changed from a previous version. Earlier versions had caused concern, for example responding to the changes Mencap have said, The revised guidance now makes clear that the clinical frailty scale should never be used to assess patients aged under 65, or patients of any age with stable long-term disabilities (for example cerebral palsy), learning disabilities or autism. On Thursday we asked Andrew Goodall , Chief Executive of NHS Wales, A surgery in Maesteg wrote to patients with significant life-limiting illnesses noting possible limited treatment if they had Covid-19. Is there a COVID-19 ethical decision making framework for Wales, and does it rule out defined age based decisions on care, and does it ensure that those with learning disabilities are not disadvantaged ? Mr Goodall paraphrased the question as wanting to know about concerns about letters and information that was passed to patients at the Maesteg surgery earlier this week, and about decision making around patients. Mr Goodall answered, I just wanted to say in response to that, that I was really concerned to see the nature of the correspondence that happened, and I wouldnt wish to defend at all the manner in which that was done. I know the practice itself has apologised for that communication. It certainly wasnt under any guidance from either the Health Board locally or from a Welsh Government perspective. I think what the coronavirus that makes us all reflect on however, is the importance of being able to talk to our families about what is happening around us at this stage and understanding what our own thoughts and needs are, as we all go through these very difficult circumstances. I hope that as were able to focus on ethical decision making and the nature of the demand into our system over the course of the next few weeks, that we will have people whove been able to think through their concerns and actually how they would wish us to respond on behalf of themselves and their families. On Friday we submitted a question to the First Minister, As a 65 year old what are your personal thoughts about the NICE COVID-19 guidelines, and do you think your age or frailty should be a factor in deciding if you would benefit from critical care intervention? however it was not put to him. Todays statement by the Health Minister wraps up by saying, I will keep you and the public regularly updated as this work progresses. I urge you to: Stay at home. Protect our NHS. Save lives. Television and film actor Ankita Lokhandes apartment complex in Mumbai was reportedly sealed after a resident tested positive for the coronavirus last week. According to a The Times of India report, the man had returned from Spain recently. Not just Ankita but other celebrities such as Ashita Dhawan-Shailesh Gulabani, Natasha Sharma-Aditya Redij and Mishkat Verma also live in the same apartment complex in Malad. A source told TOI, A man, who stays in the D-wing, returned from Spain earlier this month. He tested negative at the airport and was advised self-quarantine for 15 days. However, on the 12th day, he developed symptoms of coronavirus, and was taken to the hospital along with his wife. While he tested positive, his wifes test results are negative. Also read: Saif Ali Khan says mom Sharmila Tagores lockdown attitude scares him The mans diagnosis was made on March 26 and anyone who came in contact with the couple was also tested for the disease. However, no one else was found positive. The source also mentioned that police personnel have been stationed outside the building to make sure no one exits or enters. Actor Ashita also confirmed the news. Yes, a resident in my wing tested positive and is currently in a quarantine facility. I am all praise for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mumbai Police. The BMC officials have been extremely helpful. Earlier today, my mother-in-law exhausted her medicines and the medical stores close by didnt have the stock. So, one BMC official collected a list of medicines from every flat and bought them for us. They have been keeping a close watch on everyone to ensure that we are safe. Of course, these are tough times for all of us, but we will do whatever it takes to ensure everyones safety. We have been asked to maintain no contact with outsiders. We are also following the WHO guidelines to keep the deadly virus at bay, she said. The number of Covid-19 deaths inched towards 100 in India on Saturday and the count of confirmed infections rose by a new single-day record of over 600 to cross 3,600. Globally, more than 11 lakh people have tested positive so far since the outbreak of this deadly virus in December last, which has left over 60,000 dead. The US alone has seen over 2.7 lakh confirmed cases while it recorded nearly 1,500 deaths within 24 hours between Thursday and Friday. Italy has recorded the maximum deaths at nearly 15,000. Follow @htshowbiz for more From Kanaga Varathan's team in Tamil Nadu working for the trans community, to the support Caremongers have offered to the disabled and elderly, initiatives led by ordinary people have helped thousands to survive the lockdown put in place to counter the coronavirus pandemic Every time the world is hit by a disaster of any sort, there arises an army of people who step forward to help those in need. These people conceptualise, implement and execute initiatives, and encourage others to come forward and make a difference in those lives that we would never give a second thought to, on a regular day. These are people like IT professional Kanaga Varathan from Tamil Nadu, who has worked extensively with the transgender community in the region. During the recent Chennai floods, Kanaga was part of a team that worked towards providing groceries to the trans community. We helped around 90 people then and wanted to do the same now," she says of the efforts they wanted to undertake during the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, "But the lock-down was announced suddenly and grocery distribution became impossible. The on-ground team, working across the state, decided to deposit funds collected in accounts, to help the community monetarily. This idea enabled us to reach out to more people; we are now providing around 200 people with Rs 3500 each, to meet their expenses. These are people who work menial jobs, and the desperation to earn can mean that they step out looking for work in crowded places like a petrol bunk or a market that is functioning. This money, deposited in their accounts, gives them a means to survive and keeps them off the road, Kanaga explains. Each recipient is vetted to ensure the money is going to deserving individuals. Kanaga says it warms her heart when some people say that they have received the help they need from NGOs and ask for that the assistance be given to those who may need it more. Chandni Asnani, who has been on a sabbatical in her hometown of Bhopal, too, realised that there are people who need support, since they can no longer step out to work. It was when my mother asked our house help to stop coming and to stock her home that I realised stocking up is not something daily wagers can do, she says. Chandni spearheads the Feeding Bhopal initiative with a core team of eight people. She speaks emphatically when she says that these people should not be indiscriminately labelled as poor, rather they are daily wagers and migrant workers who are unable to earn right now. The core team, which includes a doctor, has been trained in taking the necessary safety measures when heading out to distribute groceries to around 350 families in bastis around New Bhopal. Families are provided with a weeks worth of essentials, and the aim is to soon include sanitary napkins in the package provided. This group of young people has also taken it upon themselves to feed the stray animals that they find along the way. On their Instagram handle, the group has organised one-hour shows featuring local artists, all of whom perform and encourage people to donate to the cause. Lack of availability of essentials is the problem we face. Shops either dont have stocks or have hiked up prices. While one supplier does give us goods at regular rates, we are looking for more such businesses to come forward," Chandni says. While some are hoping for establishments to come forward, others are looking at conscious and aware individuals for support, such as the waste pickers, dumpyard dwellers, the homeless and migrating workers that the Dalith Bahujan Resource Center, India (DBRC) take cares of. These people, scattered around Guntur and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, have been receiving dry rations and hot meals organised by the DBRC since 1992. We are also trying to provide drinking water which is scarce in the region, considering the intense heat which is on the rise right now, says Samuel Anil Kumar. The DBRC also helps with procuring documents. Waste pickers often belong to migrating tribes and do not have any documentation. The volunteers work with municipality officers to get them Aadhaar and ration cards. Currently, ration cards are being procured on priority, so that these people can avail the benefits of the food distribution system. The DBRC has also started awareness programs on COVID-19, with a focus on hygiene, sanitation and social distancing. A productive approach to social distancing is what the people at Makers Asylum in Mumbai have undertaken. Makers Asylum is a community space for creators, with equipment for woodwork, electronics, metal work, laser cutting and 3D printers, which people use to create a range of products. On 24 March, when the lockdown was announced, Vaibhav Chhabra (founder) and Narender Sharma (lab head) decided to move into Makers Asylum so that they could work on what they do best create, says Richa Shrivastava, managing partner at the space. They have created face shields for medical professionals personal protective equipment (PPE) devices that are used for protection from bodily fluids, from splashes, spray and spatter. With the lockdown, the need was to create these locally and distribute them. We have run through 17 iterations of the piece and found that using laser cutters gives us the ability to make one every three minutes, and 500 pieces a day, at the cost of Rs 50 per piece," Richa explains. Their first shipment saw 500 shields reach Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The trio has made the design for the face shield available online, for all maker spaces across the country to use freely and locally to create and distribute shields to the first line of defence in this battle against the coronavirus our medical professionals. Madhumita Kalauny, who spearheads HUG based in Bengaluru, says that food is the first line of security to break down in a crisis. Having worked for years now for people living in slums around LR Nagar near the National Games Village, Madhumita speaks of how the supply of hot food, left over from corporate lunches, to the slum was stopped during the lockdown. People had not eaten for a day and a half. Nearly 1500 people here had to stop their daily wage jobs, and there were not enough groceries to go around, she explains. HUG put out a public request for the HUG pack, which consists of five essential items to help a family through a fortnight, priced at Rs 500 (its easy for people to contribute in multiples, says Madhumita). Over two days, they were able to raise enough money for 4000 kilos of rations. Various measures to ensure safety are adhered to during the distribution process, to ensure that social distancing is maintained. Word of mouth has helped identify areas in the city that require these essentials, from slums to areas with street dwellers and folks from the LGBT+ community. With the aid of volunteers from across the country, HUG has been able to make a difference in seven cities: Hyderabad, Pune, Bhopal, Delhi and Indore, among others. Another movement that has made a pan-India impact is that of Caremongers. Mahita Nagaraj didnt realise the difference she was going to make in peoples lives when she first helped the ailing parents of a friend based abroad, by helping them get medication. One thing led to another and a single post on Facebook saw Mahita begin Caremongers, a community of volunteers across the country who fulfill requests for help of any kind from people who truly need it. An aid initiative veteran, Mahita was quick to think on her feet and was able to get a system up and running in a short period of time. From requests for senior citizens to be taken for medical treatments, to requests for groceries and medication, to even helping a wheelchair-bound person service his wheelchair during the lockdown, Caremongers has fulfilled over 600 requests across the country since 20 March, with the start of its helpline. While some of these initiatives work through the year, many have spontaneously begun and structured themselves so as to care for those who are vulnerable and need support. What is most heartening is that these initiatives are but a drop in the ocean of goodwill on display during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. April 3, 2020 Brenda Pennington , 615-624-2351 Jim Lewis , 615-904-4977 Murfreesboro, TN Stones River National Battlefield is announcing additional modifications to operations to support the Governor of Tennessees Executive Order 23. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective April 4, 2020, Stones River National Battlefield will be closed to all park visitors until further notice. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website and social media channels. The NPS encourages people to take advantage of the many digital tools already available to explore Stones River National Battlefield, including: Stones River Theater Web Page Photo Gallery OnCell National Park Service Touring App (Available on most smartphones) Includes photos, videos and primary source materials focused on the Battle of Stones River and the Cemetery Community. Updates about NPS operations will be posted on . CHICO, Calif.- Local and state health officials and the CDC are recommending that people cover their faces when they go out. Action News Now reporter Kristian Lopez spoke with people in Chico who are stepping up to make masks for those who need them. Saturday, many people stopped by local fabric stores to stock up on supplies. There was a long line outside of Joann Fabric & Crafts before the store opened. Carrie Dumont, from Chico says, "I'm getting stuff to make masks for some girlfriends who work in the Bay Area." Jennifer Waite said, "I'm making masks for my friends who live in Connecticut. Patricia Wang, from Chico has made more than 200 masks in the last two weeks. "I did a whole bunch of research on what is needed to make a good mask, I found that fit, filtration and comfort are three of the biggest things," Wang said. Health officials say surgical and N95 masks are in short supply and should be reserved for those who work in the medical field. So what is the difference between an N95 mask and a homemade mask? An N95 mask seals around the nose and mouth, filtering 95% of disease causing particles, while homemade masks, can help stop you from spreading a disease to others. Wearing a mask is not a requirement, but a recommendation. People should still continue to follow social distance guidelines and stay home. For information regarding homemade face masks, or if you are able to donate elastic material, contact Patricia Wang at pkaygrier@yahoo.com Trump Fires Intelligence Official Involved In Impeachment Probe By RFE/RL April 04, 2020 U.S. President Donald Trump has fired the intelligence official who handled the whistle-blower complaint involving aid to Ukraine that triggered Trump's impeachment. Trump informed the Senate Intelligence Committee late on April 3 of his decision to fire Michael Atkinson. Atkinson served as inspector-general of the intelligence community and was the first to inform Congress about an anonymous whistle-blower complaint last year that described Trump's pressure on Ukraine to investigate former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son. Atkinson, a Trump appointee, told lawmakers he believed the complaint was "urgent" and "credible." The whistle-blower complaint, which was eventually released publicly, revealed that Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate the Bidens. The complaint prompted a House investigation that ultimately resulted in Trump's impeachment. The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in February. Trump said in the letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee that it was "vital" that he has confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors-general, and "that is no longer the case with regard to this inspector-general." He did not elaborate, except to say that "it is extremely important that we promote the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of federal programs and activities," and that an inspector-general is critical to those goals. The letter was addressed to Representative Adam Schiff (Democrat-California), the head of the House Intelligence Committee, and Devin Nunes (Republican-California), the top Republican on the committee. Schiff called the firing a "blatant attempt to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing." "It puts our country and national security at even greater risk," he said on Twitter. Trump wrote that he planned to nominate an individual "who has my full confidence" to replace Atkinson at a later date. With reporting by AP and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump- fires-intelligence-official-involved-in- impeachment-probe/30529761.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SALT LAKE CITY (AP) For the first time in more than 70 years, top leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will deliver speeches at the faith's signature conference this weekend without an in-person audience in the latest illustration of how the coronavirus pandemic is altering worship practices around the world. The twice-yearly conference normally brings some 100,000 people to the church conference center in Salt Lake City to attend five sessions over two days. This event, though, will be only a virtual one. Church leaders will be inside a small auditorium with only a few other people as the speeches are broadcast live online in 33 different languages. Even the faith's well-known choir will stay at home. The music will be prerecorded. Leaders from the Utah-based faith that counts 16 million members worldwide utilize the conference to provide spiritual guidance, underscore the religion's key beliefs and, sometimes, announce new initiatives or rules. The last time the church conference was held without people in attendance was during World War II because of wartime travel restrictions. Flu epidemics forced the church to postpone the conference in 1919 by two months and cancel the conference in the fall of 1957, according to a church history of the conference. Staying home and watching the speeches on TV or their computers or tablets won't feel much different for many church members, since most watch from their living rooms and attend only occasionally or on special occasions because tickets are limited. The religion has been planning since last year to use this conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of when their founder Joseph Smith, then a teenager, says he had a vision of God and Jesus Christ in the woods of upstate New York that led to the formation of the church 10 years later. That will likely still be the centerpiece theme of the weekend, with leaders also providing message of reassurance to weary members, said Patrick Mason, a religious scholar who is the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. Story continues I expect that we are going to hear a lot of messages of reassurance, like God is still in charge, God still loves us, God is still taking care of us, Mason said. I think they are going to do a lot to ease peoples fears, ease people's anxieties. Like most religions, the faith known widely as the Mormon church has taken significant steps to prevent gatherings and religious activities that could contribute to the spread of COVID-19. The faith has shut down its temples that are used for the most sacred rituals including weddings, shuttered normal Sunday worship services at churches and brought home thousands of young people who were serving missions in foreign countries. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia. More than 56,000 people have died from the virus while more than 220,000 people worldwide have recovered, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Mason said it will be interesting to see if the church takes any precautions to adhere to social distancing guidelines for the leaders who will be speaking and in attendance, many of whom are 75 or older. Church President Russell M. Nelson is 95, his first counselor Dallin H. Oaks is 87 and his second counselor Henry B. Eyring is 86. They usually sit side-by-side on stage along with the other members of the top governing board called The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. SACRAMENTO The federal three-judge panel that previously set a population cap for the California prison system has rejected an effort by activists to require further inmate releases to slow the spread of the coronavirus behind bars. In an order filed Saturday evening, the judges ruled that they did not have authority to consider the request because the panel had originally been convened to address a different issue: prisoners lack of access to adequate medical and mental health care. Advocates said they would pursue their motion in other courts. We take no satisfaction in turning away Plaintiffs motion without reaching the important question of whether Defendants have implemented constitutionally adequate measures to protect the inmates of Californias prisons from the serious threat posed by this unparalleled pandemic, the judges wrote. In a separate but related matter, Californias Judicial Council, which sets policy in state court, was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to vote on nearly a dozen temporary rules, including a proposal to lower bail to $0 for misdemeanor and lower-level felony offenses, the Associated Press reported. The measure is aimed at reducing the prison population and halting the spread of the coronavirus. Also among the councils proposed rules is conducting criminal and juvenile proceedings by video or telephone. The move is designed to ensure that defendants get timely hearings. While the federal judges over the weekend did not take up the request to expedite releases, they said that advocates could instead seek relief for inmates before their individual courts, which could then potentially order other safety measures. If those measures proved inadequate to protect prisoners, the three-judge panel could reconsider a release order. Each of the judges is from a different federal court. We recognize the deference that is due to prison authorities to determine which additional measures must be taken to avoid catastrophic results, the judges wrote. The number of infections in the prison system is relatively low, but growing. The corrections department has reported 60 confirmed cases: 47 staff members across the state and 13 inmates, mainly at the prison in Los Angeles County. Advocates fear that, without drastic measures to allow for social distancing, the virus could tear through overcrowded dormitories where inmates share cramped bunk beds and bathrooms. The prison system is currently operating at nearly 134% of its design capacity, slightly below a population cap of 137.5% mandated by the three-judge panel in 2009. Attorneys representing inmates filed their emergency motion last week asking the federal judges to order the release of thousands who are most vulnerable to the virus because of their age or underlying medical conditions and those nearing the end of their sentences. Michael Bien, one of the lawyers, said Saturday that he did not consider the order a defeat, because all three judges seemed to be very much in agreement with us that the spread of the virus in the prisons is a crisis. He said they will continue to pursue their motion before the individual judges, but its our hope that the governor and other state officials reading this opinion will see the message is very clear and act on their own. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Tuesday it would review up to 3,500 inmates for early parole if they are within 60 days of their earliest possible release and were not convicted of a violent offense. That follows an executive order last month by Gov. Gavin Newsom suspending prison intake, which the state said could reduce the prison population by about 3,000 people over the next month. There were 113,643 inmates Wednesday, down 524 from the week before. The order speaks for itself, Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said in email Saturday, but CDCR has taken significant steps to address the safety and well-being of inmates and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Corrections officials have also canceled regular family visits, added hand sanitizer dispensers to common areas, and begun screening the temperature of everyone who enters the prisons. Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff Oil prices slide 7% after producers' meeting is postponed FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County By Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global benchmark oil prices traded as much as $3 a barrel lower as the market opened for Monday's trading session, reflecting fears of oversupply after Saudi Arabia and Russia postponed to Thursday a meeting about a potential pact to cut production. Late last week, prices had surged, with both U.S. and Brent contracts posting their largest weekly percentage gains on record due to hopes that OPEC and its allies would strike a global deal to cut crude supply worldwide. [O/R] The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has cut demand and a month-long price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has left the market awash in crude. During the month, prices have plummeted as the market has waited for a plan to cut production from OPEC and its allies. Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia sent a signal that a production cut deal may be ahead, potentially muting the price decline. U.S. President Donald Trump said he will put pressure on Saudi Arabia and its allies for such a deal. "I don't know that anyone is going to get too aggressively short before the meeting," said Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Brent crude traded lower by $2.12 a barrel, or 6.2% at $31.99, by 7:11 p.m. EDT (11:11 GMT), after earlier touching a session low of $30.03 a barrel. U.S. crude was off $2.04 a barrel, or 7.3%, at $26.30 a barrel. Saudi Arabia's decision to postpone its posting of the international prices for its crude for the first time indicates that it is not eager to flood the market with low-priced crude before a potential agreement, McNally said. "That's a pretty clear sign that they are open to cutting production in May," he said. The kingdom delayed the release until Friday to wait for the outcome of the meeting between OPEC and its allies regarding possible output cuts, a Saudi source told Reuters. Trump said on Saturday that he will put tariffs on Saudi and Russian production, potentially accelerating an output cutback. Story continues OPEC and its allies postponed an emergency meeting scheduled for Monday, led by Saudi Arabia, where the oil cuts could be agreed upon. A senior Saudi source told Reuters on Sunday that the kingdom would now host the meeting via videoconference on Thursday and the delay was to allow more time to bring other producers on board. Russian President Vladimir Putin put the blame for the crash in prices on Saudi Arabia on Friday, prompting a response from Riyadh the following day disputing Putin's assertions. OPEC and its allies are working on a global agreement for an unprecedented oil production cut equivalent to around 10% of worldwide supply in what they expect to be a global effort including countries that do not exert state control over output, such as the United States. Trump has, however, made no commitment to take the extraordinary step of persuading U.S. companies to cut output. Per Magnus Nysveen, head of analysis at Rystad Energy, said the decline in global demand because of the coronavirus pandemic and the global lockdowns was larger than the proposed cuts by the OPEC+ alliance. "It is not strange for the market to hike prices by enthusiasm such as Friday's, but for the levels to stay stable for more than a day or two, it takes concrete developments and deals on the ground," he said. (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar and Julia Payne; Additional reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault; Writing by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Pravin Char, Peter Cooney and Diane Craft) Effects of COVID-19 ripple through Vietnam's fisheries sector April 04,2020 | Source: VNA The adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt in Vietnams fisheries sector, with export value falling 30 percent year-on-year in March. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) reported that fisheries export revenue reached just 549 million USD in the month, with declines seen in the export of tra fish and tuna fish (over 29 percent), squid (31 percent), and shrimp (about 15 percent). The sharpest fall was seen in the EU (of 40 percent), followed by China (25 percent), the Republic of Korea (24 percent), and Japan (19 percent). Total export turnover had reached over 1.5 billion USD as of the end of March, a fall of 14 percent, with the sharpest contraction seen for tra fish, mainly due to shrinking exports to China in the first two months. Some 35-50 percent of shrimp orders from the US and the EU have been suspended or cancelled, according to Le Van Quang, Chairman of the Minh Phu Seafood Corp. A similar situation was seen by mid-March in orders from the Middle East, Asia, and South America. Quang said that despite such difficulties, domestic firms have still purchased shrimp from tens of thousands of farmers in the Mekong Delta in an effort to shore up employment. Apart from market obstacles, businesses must also shoulder the burden of extra container storage charges as well as expenses for equipment like face masks, thermometers, and sanitier used to fight COVID-19. VASEP General Secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said concerns over falling shrimp and tra fish prices prompted farmers to conduct an early harvest. If farmers cut production at this time, this will lead to a shortage of materials at the end of this year when the disease has been stamped out and consumption demand is increasing, he warned. Local fisheries processors and exporters have proposed the Government instruct the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour to consider exemptions of trade union fees and social insurance collections this year. They also called for reductions in corporate income tax and bank fees along with other credit incentives. VietnamPlus, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Theme(s): Others. A nine-minute lights-out event on Sunday evening went off well without any disruption in the electricity grid after the government and utilities put in place elaborate plans to deal with the sudden drop and then a quick spurt in demand. IMAGE: People come out in their balcony and light lamps amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Lucknow. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged people to switch off the lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to display the country's "collective resolve" to defeat coronavirus. Power Minster R K Singh said, "The power supply ramp down and ramp up -- they (officials) handled very smoothly, and I along with my senior officials -- power secretary, POSCO CMD -- were personally monitoring the situation from National Monitoring Centre in the ministry. I congratulate all the engineers of NLDC, RLDC and SLDCs for handling the situation very efficiently especially in huge response to the Prime Minister's call". The power consumption went down from 117GW to 85.30GW within the spin of around four minutes leading up to 9PM. That means this was much more than anticipated fall of 12GW, the minister said. The ramp up was very smooth at around 110 GW after the dip in demand during light-out, he said, adding that no incident of any power failure reported. He also lauded power gencos NTPC and NHPC for rising up to the occasion. Also, there was good contribution from the hydro power sector, Singh added. There were apprehensions about adverse affect on the electricity grid due to the blackout among the people which were dispelled by the ministry of power on Saturday saying these are misplaced. The government on Saturday sought to assuage fears of electricity grid instability due to simultaneous switching on and off of most lights in the country, saying adequate protocols are in place to handle the variation in demand without causing any damage to appliances. Several states shot off letters to power utilities to take steps to deal with the possibility of a sudden drop in electricity demand, which has already dipped 25.82 per cent to 125.11 GW on April 4 from 168.66 GW on the same day last year, mainly due to the lockdown, which shut down most businesses. Power System Operation Corp Ltd, the agency responsible for managing electricity grid, had said the lighting load of household consumes may be no more than 12-13 GW. "Unlike normal operation, this reduction in load of the order of 12-13 GW would happen in 2-4 minutes and recover nine minutes later. "This sharp reduction in load and recovery, which is unprecedented, will need to be handled through hydro and gas resources," it had said. Its game plan of managing the sudden change in demand was to reduce hydro power generation during 6:10 pm to 8:00 pm on Sunday and conserve it for providing flexibility during the 9:00 pm event. Also, coal-based generators as well as gas fired power stations were to be scheduled in a manner so as to manage the peak demand. The government on its part moved to assuage any concerns on this front, saying the call was only for voluntary switching off the lights, and appliances such as computers, TV, refrigerators and ACs are to function normally. Also, lights in all essential services including hospitals, police stations and manufacturing facilities as well as street lights are not to be switched off. "Some apprehensions have been expressed that this may cause instability in the grid and fluctuation in voltage which may harm the electrical appliances. These apprehensions are misplaced," power ministry had said on Saturday. "There is no call to switch off either street lights or appliances like computers, TVs, fans, refrigerators and ACs in the homes. Only lights should be switched off. The lights in hospitals and all other essential services like public utilities, municipal services, offices, police stations, manufacturing facilities, etc will remain on," the ministry further said. Stating that the PM has appealed to the people to voluntarily switch off their lights between 9:00 p.m to 9:09 pm, the ministry had said that all local bodies were advised to keep the street lights on for public safety. State load dispatch centres and other state utilities had also shot off advisories for the purpose. This was not the first time the country went for a blackout, as earlier too such exercises have been conducted for initiatives like 'Earth Hour'. The country had gone through a grid failure in 2012 due to technical reasons. Keir Starmer was yesterday elected leader of the UK Labour Party, pledging to bring an end to years of bitter infighting and to work with the government to contain the raging coronavirus pandemic. Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions who was known for a forensic attention to detail when opposing Brexit, won with 56pc of the vote. The comprehensive defeat of an ally of outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the election of Angela Rayner as Starmer's deputy, heralds the end of the party leadership's embrace of a radical socialism crushed in December's UK general election. Starmer, who takes over immediately, said he would work constructively with government when it was the right thing to do, while testing UK prime minister Boris Johnson's arguments and challenging the failures. "Our purpose when we do that is the same as the government's, to save lives," he said. Starmer added that once the country emerges on the other side, once the hospital wards have emptied and the threat subsided, it would need to build a fairer society, in which key workers on the frontline receive decent salaries and better chances in life. Johnson said on Twitter he had congratulated Starmer and the two agreed on the importance of working together. The party of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown endured its worst election performance since 1935 in December, when infighting over strategy, a confused policy over Brexit and allegations of unchecked anti-Semitism turned traditional voters away. Starmer pushed for a second Brexit referendum but said the election result had "blown away" that argument. Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey came second in yesterday's vote with 28pc and Lisa Nandy third with 16pc. Many centrist Labour politicians celebrated the result as a sign the government would finally face proper scrutiny. Well ahead in opinion polls, Johnson's Conservatives have also occupied much of traditional Labour territory, with the coronavirus crisis prompting the ruling party to deliver unprecedented state support to workers and businesses. Starmer is 5/2 favourite to become the next prime minister, according to Ladbrokes. In another sign of a power shift in the party, three candidates seen as Blairite won seats on the party's National Executive Committee. Starmer, who served as head of the Crown Prosecution Service and accepted a knighthood in 2014, has struggled to shake off perceptions of privilege. But he has stressed his upbringing by his toolmaker father and nurse mother in Southwark, south London, when dismissing allegations he is too middle-class to speak to the party's historic heartlands. His CV includes advising the Policing Board to ensure the Police Service of Northern Ireland complied with human rights laws. He entered parliament as MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015 and was quickly elevated to the front bench, serving as a shadow Home Office minister before being promoted to shadow Brexit secretary soon after the EU referendum in 2016. Starmer was instrumental in getting Labour to back a second referendum. He has since said the issue is settled, but refused to rule out campaigning for Britain to return to the EU in the long term. The leadership contest was triggered in December when Corbyn announced he would quit as Labour leader. He had presided over years of factional fighting, accusations of institutional anti-Semitism and bitter divisions over Brexit. The veteran left-winger became party leader in 2015, a result which marked a fundamental change of direction for Labour. He led the party through two general election defeats, the last of which saw seats which had been Labour for generations turn blue as the party's hitherto impregnable "red wall" crumbled in the face of the Tory advance. New Delhi, April 5 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh on Sunday announced here that regular air cargo supplies, including essential commodities and medical equipment, are reaching the northeast and there is no dearth of any items in the days to come. In a brief to the media, Singh said air cargo flights carrying essential supplies became operational on priority in the northeastern region as well as other distant regions including the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, and the island territories soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Air cargo flights, through Air India as well as Indian Air Force, started operating, he said. Giving details, Singh said, the first air consignment through Air India landed at Guwahati Airport on March 30 late night and the very next morning on an Indian Air Force cargo flight landed at Dimapur. "Ever since then, there has been a regular inflow of air cargo consignments, as a result of which, for example, Nagaland has so far already received three big air consignments and Manipur three air cargo consignments." As for the demand for face masks, Singh said a consignment of 30,000 N-95 masks has already landed in Guwahati for further distribution. "In future also, arrangement is in place to arrange for an air cargo flight at a short notice, whenever a demand or requirement is raised," the minister assured. Depending upon the nature and the quantum of the consignment, Air India and the Indian Air Force will work in coordination with each other, he said. "There is also a mechanism in place for real-time monitoring and we are in constant touch with all the state governments." At the same time, Singh said that the international border measuring about 5,500 kms along northeast India stands fully sealed. "This has, in turn, helped in containing the spread of coronavirus." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Marijuana stocks had a rough 2019. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (OTC:HMLSF) fell 39% last year as the S&P 500 rose by 29%. The honeymoon stage for the cannabis industry is long over. And although the outbreak of the coronavirus isn't going to do the industry any favors this year, the reality is that marijuana stocks were going to face problems in 2020 either way. It's a year that will separate the pretenders from those that will be around for years, and it's not going to be an easy one for many companies. Here are some of the things investors can expect to see in 2020. Layoffs and cost reductions wherever possible Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACB) made headlines in February when it announced that not only would CEO Terry Booth be stepping down, but also that it would be cutting 500 jobs. It also wrote down more than one billion Canadian dollars' worth of assets, including goodwill, from its balance sheet. It was a big blow for the pot stock, which was once a key rival of industry leader Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC). And even Canopy Growth had its own round of layoffs, when it announced in early March that it would be letting go of 500 workers and shutting down two of its greenhouses. These are two of the bigger, more notable cannabis companies in the industry, and these decisions happened before the coronavirus pandemic really took center stage. That means we've likely seen just the first wave of job cuts, as companies in the industry are going to face even more pressure to trim their costs as much as they can in what's likely to be a very difficult year for economies around the world. Smaller cannabis companies are facing even bigger problems, as many are still in their early growth stages. Raising cash, for instance, is going to be more difficult going forward. To say that investors are bearish on pot stocks would be a gross understatement, as 90% stock losses over the past year aren't uncommon. ACB data by YCharts That's where being self-sufficient and keeping costs down is going to be more important than ever before. Bankruptcies In February, Kentucky-based hemp producer GenCanna filed for bankruptcy . And that may be just the first of many this year for the industry. A full year of legal edibles and ingestibles in Canada, along with more states in the U.S. legalizing pot, was supposed to make 2020 a stronger year for the cannabis industry. But with the coronavirus pandemic creating job losses and lots of instability in the economy, the recreational market for pot is bound to suffer. And with revenue growth out of the question, the one option left for companies who need to conserve cash is to continue slashing their costs. That's why more layoffs are likely in the future, and cannabis companies will need to operate tighter ships if they want to be operating at all. But the problem is that there may not be enough time. Investment bank Ello Capital already saw many cannabis companies struggling with liquidity pre-coronavirus -- in February, for example, it calculated that Aurora may only have enough cash on hand to continue operating for a little more than two months. Bankruptcy may be the only option at this point, as companies are moving away from acquisitions rather than pursuing them, despite the potential targets' low valuations. Harvest Health & Recreation (OTC:HRVSF) announced on March 26 that it was walking away from an $850 million acquisition of Verano Holdings. The companies initially announced the deal in March 2019, but both companies have since agreed to abandon it, blaming the challenges in getting the necessary regulatory approvals and "current market conditions." Although valuations may be low, companies have to be extra careful in deciding where to spend their limited cash. And issuing shares at a time when pot stocks are crashing is not going to win over many investors, either. That's why there may not be many mergers and acquisitions this year to bail out struggling pot stocks -- again, leaving bankruptcy as possibly the only option. A good example of that is CannTrust Holdings (OTC:CNTTQ), which entered creditor protection on March 31. The company acknowledged that its shares will likely soon be delisted from both the NYSE and the TSX. CannTrust's fall was predictable, given that Health Canada suspended its license to sell pot last year after officials found that about its illegal growing operations. But what may be more surprising is that no one acquired the company for its assets. Aphria (NASDAQ:APHA) did show an interest in CannTrust's assets, but nothing materialized from that. What does this mean for investors? The days of cannabis companies aggressively pursuing growth opportunities and acquisitions in Europe or even North America are likely long gone, at least for now. Whether it's because of the coronavirus or a desire to keep costs down, growth is not something cannabis producers will be able to focus on moving forward. This year could be a critical one for the industry, as many companies could go under if they're not able to trim enough costs from their financials to become sustainable. The safest route for investors at this point is to hold off investing in any pot stock until the dust clears and the coronavirus pandemic is under control. It could be a hectic year, and while some pot stocks could double if they can weather the storm, there are others that are likely to file for bankruptcy. Life has come fast at Sarah Estrada. Last month, she was finishing up with final exams at the Art Institute of Chicago and preparing for a chance to showcase her art in front of companies seeking an artist. Then, as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated, she was given 25 hours notice to move out of her dorm in Chicago. She returned to her parents home with a sense of defeat, but over the last week, she has turned her artistic talent to help with a timely cause: sewing handmade face masks to give away to San Antonians. I was really heartbroken. We were working hard just to finish finals. We had this other opportunity to be pushed out there (in front of employers), and then being evacuated from my dorm and coming home with this whole pandemic. Its heartbreaking, emotionally draining and it caused me to be depressed, Estrada said. I was like, Im tired of sleeping and doing online classes. I dont have a job. ... And people are fighting for masks, fighting to get toilet paper. Its so scary; so Im going to put my creativity into motion making these masks. Since she began making the masks March 28, her family has made 500 of them using sewing machines and they have a backlog through this week. Sarahs 12-year-old brother Pedro even pitched in his $150 in birthday money to buy a sewing machine and join in. I got real good, Pedro said of his newfound sewing skills. I picked it up quick. Personal protective equipment, including masks, has been stretched thin among health care workers combating the pandemic across the nation. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all Americans wear some form of face mask in public. Medical experts say the masks dont necessarily prevent someone from contracting the coronavirus. But face masks are effective at preventing those who have the virus but may not show symptoms from spreading it. But as the public has sought to acquire masks, global demand has skyrocketed opening an opportunity for locals to step in and fill the void. For mother Christina Morales, that has meant she has had a busy Facebook page. There were days we were just sad. But its like I told my kids: Either we sit here and be sad, or we start doing something to help, Morales said. And thats what were doing. Morales said the family has been giving the masks away and accepting donations in return typically about $5 for a mask, which takes about 20 minutes to make. Others in the city have joined in to create their own startup mask-manufacturing operations as well. Marty Gonzalez and a group of four others pooled resources to start pumping out masks for the public. Gonzalez said they have six seamstresses working three in the workplace, three at home sewing masks to fulfill orders that Gonzalez said started pouring in on her Facebook page, too. The group has sold more than 4,000 masks since beginning to produce them March 24. They plan to produce at least 5,000 more masks, Gonzalez said. The masks are made with cotton and a polypropylene plastic lining, as well as elastic to wrap around the ears. Gonzalez said she was spurred to action when she learned from news reports that UT Health San Antonio was in need of donations of personal protective equipment. We were going to try to donate 100 masks, handmade and hand-sewn individually. Were keeping people employed making masks. From those 100, one of my partners said, Hey, why dont we try to get more donated? Gonzalez said. Once I put it on my (Facebook) page, it kind of went crazy. Since the orders began flooding in, Gonzales said, she has had to source fabric and elastic from China in order to meet demand. Gonzalez charges $5 per mask now that the cost of acquiring fabric has risen. Gonzalez said theyve fulfilled mask orders for groups such as the Rey Feo Scholarship Foundation, as well as for a heavy-duty industrial cleaning company and for home hospice workers. Gonzalez is fielding orders for masks on the Facebook page for her business, Brand & Stitch, Ink. Morales said her family has fulfilled orders for employees at Walmart and for staff at the San Antonio Food Bank. She said purchase limits at fabric stores are the only thing preventing her two children from producing even more masks. She said the family has been seeking fabric donations. While the federal government has not certified handmade fabric masks for medical professional use, the CDC says some form of facial covering is better than none. For the Morales family, the mask-making has served as an opportunity to proactively help at a time when many Americans are confined to their homes. I plan to just keep pumping out these masks as much as I can rather than wait for these masks to be produced, Estrada said. We dont have time for that. People are dying and getting sick. We need these masks to protect ourselves. (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump warned that deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. will escalate over the next one to two weeks, and could be on par with the number of fatalities seen in world wars. Theres going to be a very, very deadly period, unfortunately, Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday. The president said that as the number of deaths peak, I really believe we probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers, maybe during the war -- a world war. A World War I or II or something. The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, its going to be our 9/11 moment, its going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press. Separately, on Fox News Sunday, Adams said that the difference between the current situation and those historic events were its not going to be localized. Its going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that. Trump didnt give any estimates of how many will die in the coming weeks. Earlier this week, Trump administration officials said as many as 200,000 Americans could die from the virus, less than if the government hadnt taken aggressive mitigation steps. Governors and state health officials have raised alarm about a lack of ventilators in some areas, saying shortages will likely lead to deaths among victims who are critically ill. The soaring rate of infections is straining hospitals -- especially in New York -- that are struggling to care for infected patients and obtain desperately needed supplies. Trump told reporters his administration is working to lose as few lives as possible and is distributing ventilators to states that need them the most. Cities in Trouble More than 300,000 people in the U.S. have contracted the virus and more than 8,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Administration officials raised concern about increasing deaths in cities, including New York, Detroit and Chicago. They said theyre also closely watching an upswing in cases in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. Story continues This is the moment to do everything you can by following guidelines on social distancing and avoiding crowds, said White House virus task-force coordinator Deborah Birx. She said guidelines encouraging social distancing are working, and that new cases in some areas will start going down. An increase in deaths in the next week will be a result of people who were infected several weeks ago, she said. As much as much as you go up, you have to come down the other side because coming down is a reflection of the cases that were coming in before, Birx said. Vice President Mike Pence told Americans not to be discouraged by deaths in the weeks ahead. Its going to be a difficult week for the American people, Pence said. Projections made public last weekend about the number of people who may die from the virus helped persuade Trump to back away from his desire to ease social distancing guidelines by Easter Sunday, April 12. Trump extended them until April 30, despite the damage those tactics have done to the U.S. economy. (Updates with Surgeon General in fourth 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 COVID-19 crisis has its frontline heroes, from Anthony Fauci, who's been leading federal efforts against infectious disease for almost 40 years, to the doctors, nurses, first responders and others who come in direct contact with those sickened by the novel coronavirus, sometimes themselves becoming infected and even dying. They are our warriors, our first defense against a new and mighty enemy that has swept the planet in a frighteningly short few months and may, before it passes, claim victims possibly exceeding 1 million. These defenders deserve, and get, spotlights daily. Behind them are the support troops, the tens of thousands of more people whose jobs or volunteer duties put them in a place of helping others. They provide services, transportation, food, shelter, clothing. While they may never deal directly with the virus, they are nonetheless mindful of its specter and determined to serve in their individual ways. Starting today and for the foreseeable future, we'll be introducing you to a few of these everyday heroes. Tammy Ogden, senior recreation therapist, department of psychiatry, Albany Medical Center For many patients receiving psychiatric treatment at Albany Medical Center, the world can seem an overwhelming place even in good times. When the hospital, city, state, nation and much of the globe are all in different stages of crisis and lockdown, helping them manage greater daily anxiety and stress is even more important for Tammy Ogden. A senior recreation therapist in the department of psychiatry who has been on the job for 29 years, Ogden works with patients dealing with suicidal feelings, eating disorders and a variety of other psychiatric diagnoses. Her department of eight, half of whom are on staff full time, sees 15 to 20 regular in-patients per day, plus more who are in the hospital's locked, 26-bed psychiatric ward. While Albany Med has been keeping its employees abreast of coronavirus developments since early this year, Ogden said, "With the patients, things really start to intensify about three weeks ago." Changes have been as small as asking the temporarily closed Rivers Casino in Schenectady to donate decks of playing cards, so patients don't have to share them. And they have been as profound as the banning of visitors. "Not being able to see their family is a really big thing," said Ogden. "Something else you might not think of at first is that (patients) can't have anybody bring them a charger" for phones or other mobile devices. Solution: She sought out Batteries + Bulbs, a national chain with three Capital Region locations that donated chargers. For the recreation-therapy staff, the COVID-19 pandemic has required creative solutions unique in the career of the 58-year-old Ogden. "It's a new world for everybody," Ogden said, adding, "The cyber community has really exploded with access options for people." Among the most important, she said, has been the way online technology facilitates interaction with those outside the hospital. A patient with substance-abuse issues attends daily online Narcotics Anonymous meetings, Ogden said. Another patient, who is retired and accustomed to spending all of his time in the company of his wife, was profoundly disrupted by being unable to be with her after his hospitalization. "Now they just go through the day with FaceTime on all the time," Ogden said. The video app allows constant virtual togetherness, even if the couple is not always directly interacting with one another. Everyday heroes We are surrounded by people who risk their health to keep us fed and healthy, or go well above their job description to bring some normalcy or comfort to others during these perilous times. To tell us about your everyday hero, you can: Leave a voice mail here 518-454-5432 (Landline) By email at submit@timesunion.com See More Collapse "Sometimes (the wife) may be cleaning in the background and he's doing something else, but when a doctor comes in to talk to him, she's always right there; she never misses anything," Ogden said. In another example cited by Ogden, a patient with young children has been able to spend time with them via a family-interaction app called Caribu, which allows parents and grandparents to to read, draw and play games with kids they can't be with in person. AT&T is funding two free months of Caribu for everyone during the COVID-19 crisis, both companies announced in late March. "The kids can turn the pages of the books when they read together," said Ogden. "This mother, she just loved it." For Ogden's patients, the focus is not on long-term goals or on recovering from the respiratory virus that is being battled elsewhere in the hospital. It is instead, Ogden said, on today and tomorrow. "We try to get to the basics of stress management and the things you can control," said Ogden. "You can't control the news. We say to look at what's in front of you that you can control and how you can make that happen." Richard Castiglia Jr., medical transportation driver After a decade in restaurant kitchens and food retail, Richard Castiglia found an unexpected and rewarding next career after a family friend, who used to babysit his kids, started a business transporting people to medical appointments and other essential services. "When you see the same customers a few times a week for several years, you develop a bond with them," said Castiglia, 37. He lives in Rotterdam, where the company, Care 4 You Transportation, is based. Among its core clientele are people with brain injuries or other special needs, populations with whom Castiglia previously had only minimal interaction. "I thought it was going to be a challenge," he said, "but I came to the realization it wasn't a challenge at all. They needed somebody who was prompt and reliable and could help them in and out of the car, and they needed somebody to talk to. It was easy for me to do all that." Castiglia, the first non-family member hired by company founder Joanne Lombardi after she launched Care 4 You in May 2016, grew from driver to supervisor of nine vehicles and 10 drivers. Combined, they handled 200 trips a week in January, the busiest month yet f0r Care 4 You. Mostly, the rides are for Medicaid-eligible people needing transportation to day programs for rehabilitation, dialysis, chemotherapy, other doctor's appointments and seniors on supermarket outings, in Albany, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties. "Everything's basically shut down, so we do a lot less now," said Castiglia, estimating the company provided about 25 rides last week, for dialysis and other essential procedures. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "Some of them are understandably concerned, so we tell them about all the steps we take, the sanitizing between every passenger, how we have the cars professionally cleaned every weekend," he said. "It's still really about giving them somebody to talk to." He continues to talk to regulars who can't go to their programs now, checking in over the phone and even texting with those who have left the area but wanted to keep in touch. He's also working with Lombardi on applying for grants and other government and private aid for small businesses that are suffering from severe COVID-19 related declines. "In that way we're trying to keep everything buttoned up, so it's ready to go when we come out of this," he said. "And we still have people who need to get to dialysis. They have to get there; without it, they'd die. It really keeps up your sense of urgency and purpose." Emrys Young, chef-owner, Kitchen 216, Albany Albany city schools closed on March 16. Since the following day, Emrys Young has been feeding scores of a kids a healthful lunch every Tuesday through Friday from Kitchen 216, the Central Avenue soul-food restaurant she and her husband, Wasiim Young, own. "I thought of all the kids who depend on school lunches," said Young, 29, who opened Kitchen 216 on Lark Street in 2018 and moved it to the present location, a few blocks away, last spring. She said, "For some of them, it may be the best meal they get every day, and I wanted to be able to provide a replacement for that." Although the restaurant officially caps free lunches at 75 daily, "We usually end up doing more," Young said. "It's hard to say no to hungry kids." Lunches include meat, starch and vegetable, which in recent days has meant barbecued chicken, rice and beans, and greens. Collards are standard, but, because they've been difficult to source and take extra time to prepare, Kitchen 216 has been substituting steamed kale, to no apparent dissatisfaction from young palates. "The kids seem to like kale," Young said with a laugh. "I wouldn't have guessed that, but they do." Lunches are available for pickup from 1:15 to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at Kitchen 216, located at 85 Central Ave. (The number in the name came from its Lark Street address.) The restaurant's regular hours for takeout and delivery from its new, abbreviated menu are 1 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. On busy days, Young said, 200 or more meals leave the kitchen, where she works with her husband, supervised by their toddler, Nubia. "She used to have a sitter, but with things the way they are, it seemed the best, safest place for her to be is with us," Young said. The cost for free lunches has been covered by the restaurant. "With everything else we're doing, it's not that difficult or expensive to do the lunches too," said Young. She generally declines monetary donations, though, she said, "Somebody dropped off a big bag of rice the other day. That was really nice." Kitchen 216 will continue to provide free lunches until schools reopen. "Times are scary now," Young said. If the restaurant's lunches provide a modicum of routine and security in addition to nutrition, she said, the extra effort and expense are more than offset. "We provide enough food that there's enough for dinner, too," Young said. "If this madness goes on for months, kids with no money and no real food pretty much can get by on this. That's why we do it." Three soldiers of the Indian Army have died and five terrorists killed on Sunday during an anti-infiltration operation in Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district, officials said. Sources said four more soldiers have been injured during the operation to flush out infiltrators along the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector of the district, which was launched two days ago. The army said the operation is still underway. Unfortunately, two more soldiers succumbed to their injuries and others are presently undergoing treatment. Total three soldiers have been martyred, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, the spokesperson of the army, said. Despite prevailing inclement weather conditions, casualties have been evacuated, Col Kalia said. The army had said earlier in the day that alert troops braving inclement weather and hostile terrain had killed the five terrorists in the operation in Keran sector. The five, believed to be part of a group of infiltrators who had recently sneaked into the Valley, were attempting to infiltrate across LoC taking advantage of the bad weather, it said. The army said it has killed nine terrorists, including the five infiltrators, in the last 24 hours. Four terrorists were killed in Batapura of south Kashmirs Kulgam on Saturday. Four terrorists who were involved in the killing of innocent civilians were eliminated at Batapura area of south Kashmir on April 4, Col Kalia said. Nouakchott, 5 April 2020 (SPS) - The Mauritanian political party, Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) has expressed condolences to the Sahrawi people and the family of the deceased leader, Emhamed Khaddad, who died on Wednesday after a long illness. "We received with great sadness and sorrow the news of the passing of the great late Emhamed Khaddad Moussa," said the Mauritanian party in a message of condolence addressed to President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali. He had many good qualities and was one of the first founding pioneers who carried the cause of their people with merit, and fought with courage, sincerity and dedication to achieve the highest goals of self-determination. The late Emhamed Khaddad worked continuously and earnestly to develop historical fraternal relations between the two brotherly Sahrawi and Mauritanian people, it added. (SPS) 062/SPS/T - Captain Daudi Kibati flew the last Kenya Airways plane from USA ferrying Kenyans who were stuck there - He succumbed to coronavirus on April 1 while undergoing treatment at Agha Khan Hospital, Nnairobi - He was buried on Sartuday, April 4, at his home village in Kitui county - His wife Jane Mwende described Kibati as a loving husband who was always protective of his family Wife to the Kenya Airways pilot Captain Daudi Kibati who succumbed to the dreaded COVID-19 has penned an emotional tribute to her husband. Widow Jane Mwende said they first met when Kibati went to look for her at their home along with other friends. READ ALSO: Eldoret landlady on the spot for removing iron sheets from tenant's house over KSh 500 rent arrears Captain Daudi Kibati succumbed to the coronavirus on April 1. Photo: Daily Nation Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kakamega police plead with locals to surrender teargas canisters they were hurling at them during curfew Although the reception at first was not that good, he was later allowed to visit her regularly by Mwende's father who gave him very strict conditions when he visited his daughter before they got married. Mwende described her late husband as a loving man who was always protective of his family and everyone around him. "You told me that the world was mine to explore and I never needed to consult you. You gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted as long as it met the minimum expectations. We were great friends and I thank God for you," said Mwende in her tribute. Jane Mwende's tribute to late husband Captain Daudi Kibati. Photo: Daily Nation Source: UGC READ ALSO: Penzi lachemsha jamaa, amwandalia afisa wa jeshi maakuli mazuri Mwende hailed her late husband as a selfless man who always paid for their holidays even when he personally could not make it to go with them. "We shall cherish every moment we were with you because you are our father," she said. Kibati was laid to rest on Sartuday, April 4, at his Mavindini village home in Kavisuni area of Kitui county amid tight security. The family of the late Captain Daudi Kibati. Photo: Daily Nation Source: UGC READ ALSO: DCI detectives arrest six notorious criminals who have been terrorising Kilimani residents The ceremony was attended by 15 people including captain Kibatis wife, sons, siblings, parents, a priest who conducted the funeral mass and a representative from Kenya Airways. Police officers were deployed at his home to enforce the social distancing rule imposed by the government. Many of his relatives, friends, neighbours and colleagues, who would have wanted to witness Mr Kibatis burial were locked out. Captain Kibati was in charge of the last KQ Dreamliner 787 flight from New York to Nairobi which evacuated Kenyans stranded in the United States, before the government ban on international flights took effect on Wednesday last week. He succumbed to the virus on April 1. He is believed to have contracted the virus while flying commercial jetliners. 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 Indias national air carrier, Air India has been monumental in several rescue missions historically and continues to do so amidst the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. Its latest heroic feat though drew appreciation from the most unlikely quarters - Pakistans Air Traffic Control (ATC). Air India recently operated two flights - a Boeing 777 and a 787 - to ferry European and Canadian citizens stuck in India amidst the lockdown to Frankfurt, Germany, along with relief materials from New Delhi and Mumbai. On its way to Frankfurt, when the flights entered the Pakistani airspace, the exchange between the Indian pilot and Pakistans ATC is something we all feel about the Airlines achievement. "As we entered Pakistan's Flight Information Region (FIR) and the Pakistan Air Traffic Controller (ATC) greeted us 'Assalaam Alaikum! This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the senior captain of the relief flight told ANI in an exclusive interview. Pakistans Air Traffic Control didnt just welcome the Air India flights into their airspace but they also took a moment to appreciate the efforts of the latter at a time when no kind gesture is too small and no person too big to help. Reuters After Pakistan's ATC cleared the Air India flights through the countrys Flight Information Region, they were quoted saying, "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, good luck!" "Thank you so much," the captain of the flight responded. But that wasnt all. Pakistans ATC also helped the AI flights get clearance from the Iranian airspace by conveying the Indian jets cor-ordinates and other details to the Tehran ATC. "For the first time in my entire career as a pilot, Iran gave a direct routing for about 1,000 miles, a privilege enjoyed as special flights, in all especially in the recent tense situation in the Iranian airspace," the AI captain told ANI. The gesture has been drawing praises on Twitter as people are calling this a victory for humanity: Before everything else we are humans , we need compassion , love , appreciation and togetherness. Borders , hatred , intolerance , inequality are all the constructs of insecure distrustful little souls. Stay Home Stay Safe (@battleofshire) April 5, 2020 Humanity never dies Sir. syedfasiuddin (@syedfas10002423) April 5, 2020 Awesome to hear that! Ofcourse humanity comes first and afterall we are all part of same motherland divided by politics!The common ppl there live n some of wrst conditions & hv zero rivlary with India. lyk here cuz f a grp of hatemongers,the undue hate exists. kudos! Thks 2 dm Sruthy Suresh (@Sru2890) April 5, 2020 Thanks Shashi and the captain of Air India for sharing love message. Let's defeated hate with love #SpreadTheLove #WorldFightsCorona #IndiaFightsCorona Ahmar Siddiqui (@ahmar_99) April 5, 2020 Air India will operate 18 more flights to ferry German, French, Irish and Canadian nationals stuck in India, as requested by their respective embassies. Besides this, the airlines will also bring in essential medical equipment to Delhi from Shanghai via cargo flights scheduled to run till April 9. While these unsung heroes continue to do their bit in fighting the pandemic, we request our readers to also contribute in saving the world in the easiest way possible - by staying home. Scientists have discovered an 'Achilles heel' of the coronavirus that could open a path for a potential vaccine. A study used an antibody from a SARS survivor and tracked how it latched on to a specific area of the SARS virus in order to kill it. The team at Scripps Research then observed how the SARS antibody gripped on to the same spot on the COVID-19 coronavirus sample. This spot of weakness could can be targeted with drugs and guide the development of a vaccine. Now researchers are seeking former coronavirus patients who have recovered and are willing to donate blood to screen for antibodies. The discovery comes as international researchers race to find a vaccine or cure for the pandemic, which has killed 70,000 people worldwide. A new study shows that scientists have discovered an 'Achilles heel' of the coronavirus that an be targeted with drugs and other therapies Scientists examined an antibody from a SARS patient and tracked how it latched onto a specific area of the SARS virus. The team then observed how the SARS antibody gripped on to the same spot on the coronavirus sample The scientists examined an antibody that had been taken from a SARS patient years ago. No cases of SARS have occurred since 2004. The antibody taken from the SARS patient - called CR3022 - was isolated in 2006 by the pharmaceutical company Crucell Holland BV in the Netherlands. SARS-CoV, which causes SARS, led to an epidemic in Asia in the early 2000s after jumping from a bat to humans in China. The study's lead author Dr Ian Wilson said they have found a possible 'Achilles heel' It eventually infected more than 8,000 people and killed almost 800 before it was quelled by lockdowns, quarantines and other measures. The novel coronavirus currently ravaging the globe - SARS-CoV-2 - is a closely related coronavirus that causes COVID-19. In experiments, the scientists in San Diego noticed the SARS antibody latched onto virtually the same spot on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as the SARS coronavirus. The antibody did not grip the 'SARS-CoV-2' sample quite as hard as the SARS sample. But that doesn't mean it won't kill it. The work helped identify the spot as a possible weak point in the makeup of the virus. 'That high degree of similarity implies that the site has an important function that would be lost if it mutated significantly,' Scripps Research said in a statement. The study's lead author Dr Ian Wilson told the San Diego Tribune that he described the area of the virus as a 'possible Achilles heel'. The vulnerable area is difficult to find, however, 'adding to the mystery', the researchers said. The antibody taken from the SARS patient is called CR3022, and was isolated for in 2006 by the pharmaceutical company Crucell Holland B.V. in the Netherlands HOW COULD THIS RESEARCH LEAD TO A CURE? The Scripps study used an antibody from a recovered SARS patient called CR3022. CR3002 neutralizes the SARS viruss ability to infect cells in some indirect way. It was originally isolated in 2006 by the pharmaceutical company Crucell Holland B.V. in the Netherlands. It is part of Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. A report from Chinese scientists earlier this year indicated that CR3022 works against SARS-CoV-2. The team at Scripps found the antibody binds to SARS-CoV-2 - but less tightly than with the SARS virus. CR3022 now holds promise as a potential to be developed as a therapeutic agent, alone or in combination with other neutralizing antibodies. Research using the donated blood of COVID-19 patients will identify any other useful antibodies. If killer antibodies could be developed into therapies, then COVID-19 patients could be treated. The therapy could also provide temporary protection from the virus to uninfected individuals such as doctors, nurses and vulnerable people. Advertisement 'We found that this region is usually hidden inside the virus, and only exposed when that part of the virus changes its structure, as it would in natural infection,' co-author Dr Meng Yuan said. Dr Wilson said: 'The knowledge of conserved sites like this can aid in structure -based design of vaccines and therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2, and these would also protect against other coronaviruses including those that may emerge in the future.' The discovery, published Friday in the journal Science, provides vital information about the structure of the coronavirus. It a vulnerable spot which would be vulnerable to certain drugs, and is crucial to showing how it spreads, according to Scripps scientists. The team's primary goal is to keep mapping the structure of the coronavirus and use it to design a vaccine. They believe they could create a temporary vaccine-like protection for people, for example frontline doctors, using antibodies. Labs at Scripps Research and throughout the world are currently seeking blood donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19 for further studies. The blood can be screened for potentially useful antibodies that can neutralize the virus. Humans have five basic types on antibodies, but there are lots of variability among those groups. Already donated blood is being used to treat COVID-19 patients. The antibody-rich plasma of a survivor is injected into the patient's blood to help their body fight the infection. The century-old treatment, called convalescent plasma, is just one of many therapies being trialled in the fight to find an effective cure. With no other options, doctors are using a collection of drugs for people critically ill with COVID-19 that are licensed but have not been proven to work yet. Thousands of patients worldwide are being given the much-hyped antimalarials chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, the experimental Ebola drug remdesivir, the Japanese flu treatments favipiravir and the anti-HIV medicine lopinavir. Clinical trial results are being published at speed, but are not conclusive. Therefore, research into other new therapies is ongoing. New graphs reveal the United States is still 11 days away from its coronavirus peak when it is predicted 2,644 people will die in 24 hours across the nation. The stark new model - created by researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics - also shows the country is also 10 days from its peak resource use, when 262,092 hospital beds will be needed. That is 87,674 less than the number of beds the U.S. has to its disposal, the predictions show. A staggering 39,727 ICU beds will be required; the estimated shortage of these will be 19,863, it adds. Researchers also warn 100,000 Americans will die by August 4. Previous White House predictions have put the figure between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the US if the nation continues on its trajectory and current social distancing guidelines are maintained. County confirms 23 covid-19 cases at assisted living center The Henderson County Department of Public Health said Sunday that it had confirmed 23 positive cases of COVID-19 linked to residents and staff at Cherry Springs Village, an assisted living community on Clear Creek Road. The additional testing that led to these results was part of a comprehensive public health investigation based on a single confirmed case that was identified on Wednesday. I want to acknowledge the obvious concerns this will create for residents and their families. It is a very difficult situation for all involved, said Henderson County Health Director Steve Smith. The new cases raised the total number of Covid-positive patients to 51 20 more than Buncombe County's total. Since the identification of the additional cases, the staff and leadership of the facility and all of public health partners including Pardee Hospital, AdventHealth and Henderson County Emergency Services have been communicating and prioritizing strategies and actions to care for those affected and to reduce the risks for others at the facility. All residents and their families have been notified along with staff. Cherry Springs Village also confirmed the cases in a statement it issued Sunday. "Those individuals are being treated in isolation by health professionals and the community is under quarantine until further notice," the facility said. "Since early February, Cherry Springs Village has adhered to aggressive infection-control policies, in compliance with guidelines set by the CDC and the NC State Health Department. We will continue to work with the local health department in maintaining the health of our community. We appreciate the support of our families and the public at this time." Because COVID-19 is most commonly spread through respiratory droplets, the Health Department urges everyone to take precautions to protect themselves from the spread of all respiratory illness. It recommends that people: o Stay home, and only go out for necessities or exercise, and only have contact with the people you live with. o Avoid contact with persons that you know are sick o Cover your cough (cough into the crook of your elbow; or use a tissue and throw in trash) o Practice good hand hygiene (wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing) o If you do not have access to soap and water use hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol o Routinely clean frequently touched surfaces with household cleaners Routine use of these measures by everyone will decrease the spread of viruses and respiratory diseases in our community. Delhi Police has urged residents not to come out of their houses to celebrate Shab-e-Barat later this week. The Police has also urged cooperation from religious leaders and Resident Welfare Association( RWA) in maintaining the Covid-19 lockdown. This comes after the Police held a meeting with all the Muslim leaders in Sangam Vihar and asked them not to indulge in any gathering on April 8 and 9 on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat. Since the safety of citizens is our utmost priority, Delhi Police spoke to religious leaders and asked them to refrain from any gathering on Shab-e-Barat on April 8/9, said the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Delhi. Coronavirus cases in the national capital stand at 445. The sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in Delhi come after thousands of people gathered for an event at the Markaz in Nizamuddin area and scores of them were found Covid-19 positive, spreading the virus to other states like Tamil Nadu. The number of coronavirus cases in the country on Sunday rose to 3,374. As per the figures updated by the Ministry of Health, the number of active cases in India stands at 3,030 while 266 people have recovered from the infection. As many as 77 people have been killed by Covid-19 in the country. As directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country will observe 9 minutes of blackout tonight at 9 pm. The country entered the 12th day of the 3-week coronavirus lockdown on Sunday. The lockdown will come to an end on April 14. In total, 5 Ukrainians died from coronavirus abroad, while 11 people recovered Open source The number of Ukrainians with coronavirus abroad has increased to 170 people, as the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Facebook reports. 170 citizens of Ukraine undergo treatment in countries such as Austria - 3 people, UK - 1, Belgium - 1, Greece - 16, Dominican Republic - 4, Spain - 5, Italy -121, Nigeria - 1, Netherlands - 1, Poland - 4, United Arab Emirates - 1, Portugal - 1, Russia - 1, Seychelles - 1, Serbia - 1, USA - 1, Thailand - 1, Germany - 4, Switzerland - 1, and Sweden - 1. In total, five Ukrainians died from coronavirus abroad, while 11 people recovered. 10,869 Ukrainian citizens expressed a desire to return home by contacting foreign consular offices under the Protection program. As we reported before, as of 10:00 p.m. April 4, 1225 cases of infection with the Covid-19 coronavirus were recorded in Ukraine. 129 new cases of Covid-19 were registered. Of all 1225 cases, 32 were fatal, another 25 people recovered. Over 300 Tablighi Jamaat members have been tested coronavirus positive till Sunday in Pakistan's Punjab province, amid efforts by authorities to track down and quarantine thousands of people who attended a massive congregation of the Islamic group last month. Authorities have placed the entire city of Raiwind that houses headquarters of the Pakistani faction of the Jamaat under quarantine and completely restricted the mobility of people within or outside the city. According to the data released by the primary and secondary health care corona monitoring room on Sunday, over 300 preachers of the Tablighi Jamaat at quarantine centres in different parts of Punjab province have so far been tested positive for COVID-19. Most of them belong to Lahore's Tablighi Jamaat Markaz that has been turned into quarantine centre. The other centres where Tablighi preachers have been kept include Rawalpindi, Jehlum, Nankana Sahib, Sargodha, Vehari, Faisalabad, Kalashah Kaku and Rahim Yar Khan districts of Punjab. A large number of preachers who are suspected to be COVID-19 carrier are also being kept in these quarantine centres. A large number of preachers who had attended a major congregation in early March in its headquarters in Lahore were later tracked down across the country and placed in quarantine centres. Some 50 members of the Jamaat, including five Nigerian women, suspected to be carriers of coronavirus, are admitted to a quarantine centre in Kasur, some 50 kms from Lahore. In Sindh, over 50 Tablighi members have been tested positive and some in Kyber Pakhtaunkhawa. Over 200 Shia pilgrims who returned from Iran and tested corona positive have been quarantined in Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan districts of Punjab province. According to the government, in March the Tablighi Jamaat went ahead with its annual congregation in Raiwind, Lahore against its advice' that the gathering might spread the virus. Pakistani authorities had urged the cancellation of the five-day Tablighi congregation, which was attended by thousands of people from several countries. Authorities are still trying to track down and quarantine all those who attended Jamaat's event. Tablighi Jamaat members have emerged as the prime suspects among potential coronavirus carriers, not just in Pakistan but in India, Malaysia and Brunei. In India, the Jamaat has come under severe criticism for defying the lockdown and organising a congregation. Fifty-three people who took part in the Jamaat congregation in south Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz last month have tested positive for coronavirus till now. In Middle East, Gaza's first two confirmed coronavirus patients had also attended the Jamaat congregation in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the COVID-19 patients number spiked to 2,883 with 40 deaths till Sunday afternoon. Punjab has most 1,196 cases followed by Sindh 830. There are now more than 1.2 million confirmed cases across the world, and around 65,000 people have died since the virus first emerged in China late last year, according to a John Hopkins University tally. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Aden (Yemen), Apr 5 (UNI) Yemen's government forces has declared that 25 Houthi fighters were killed during an armed ambush in the country's northeastern province of Marib. The government forces on Saturday lured groups of the Houthi rebels into a well-prepared armed ambush in Sirwah district located in the western part of Marib, Saba News Agency reported. "The ambush resulted in the killing of more than 25 members of the Houthi rebels and wounding several others while the rest of them escaped under the army's strikes," the report said. It pointed out that Saudi-led coalition warplanes targeted some Houthi positions and reinforcements in various parts of the Sirwah front, destroying a number of their combat vehicles. However, no information was given about casualties among the soldiers of the government during the armed clashes in Marib. Last month, Yemen's Houthi militia stepped up its military operations and carried out all-out offensives against the oil-rich province of Marib. Intensified and coordinated armed military attacks were launched by the Houthis against several sites of the government forces stationed in the western outskirts of Marib, 170 km east of the country's capital Sanaa. UNI XC AVK Coronavirus deaths in France have slowed for a second day running as the nation records 357 fatalities - its lowest daily death rate in a week. The French Government released the latest figures earlier today which showed 70,478 confirmed cases across the country with a total death toll of 8,078. The death rate includes 5,889 patients who died in hospital and 2,189 people in old age homes and other medical facilities. France has reported its lowest daily death rate in a week after recording 357 coronavirus fatalities. Pictured: Medical staff in Bordeaux It said there are now 28,891 people with coronavirus in French hospitals with 6,978 in intensive care. Patients admitted into ICU within the past 24 hours was 140 which was also the lowest daily increase in several days. France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly pathogen. Only essential trips have been allowed and these must be justified with a signed piece of paper. France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly pathogen. Pictured: An empty Champs Elysee avenue in Paris amid the coronavirus lockdown Only essential trips have been allowed and these must be justified with a signed piece of paper. Pictured: French police checking 'right to travel' papers in Paris Officials urged people to continue heeding the lockdown rules despite the warm weather over the weekend as the Easter holiday period begins. Police checks continued as people around the country were observed flouting restrictions to jog in groups, gathering in green spaces and allowing children to play together. Rural areas also received holidaymakers contrary to the government's confinement orders. 'The end of confinement is not yet on the cards, a deadline has not been set,' interior ministry number two Laurent Nunez said. 'I remind you of the rule... one goes out only when it is strictly necessary.' Valerie Pecresse, president of the larger Paris Ile-de-France region, which is hardest hit by the pandemic, added: 'It's the holidays, the weather is nice, don't give in to the temptation.' It comes after 41 patients had to be evacuated from Ile-de-France's overflowing hospitals earlier today and taken to Brittany via two specially-equipped high-speed trains. In total, more than 550 patients have so far been evacuated from Ile-de-France and the east of France which was the first pandemic hotspot. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 09:20:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, April 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 19 people were killed and one wounded in a confrontation between alleged criminal groups in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua, authorities said Saturday. The shootout was first reported at 6:35 p.m. local time (0030 GMT) on Friday in the town of Chuhuichupa in the municipality of Madera in western Chihuahua, the state attorney general's office said in a statement. Local police and soldiers who responded to the report found 18 people dead at the scene and two more injured, one of whom died later at hospital. "The search for the armed men continues in the vicinity of the scene, while experts and investigators from the state attorney general's office are searching the scene of events for evidence," the statement said. The small community where the shooting took place is located in the mountainous area near Chihuahua's border with the state of Sonora, a region that has been the center of a feud between rival drug cartels for control over trafficking routes, according to local authorities. A few weeks ago, at the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis, Philadelphias mayor made a very public show of support for the Chinese community by taking several City Council members and eating a meal in Chinatown. This was done to allay any fears that you could get the then-named Wuhan Virus from eating Peking Duck (you might get a lot of things from eating Peking Duck, but the deadly virus wasnt among them.) I applauded his move, even though I thought it was a bit of PC virtue signaling, particularly since he didnt travel to any Italian restaurants. My ancestral home has surpassed China in the number of people who have died because of the disease, so a little sympathy and concern might have been in order for the Italians as well. But people tried to explain that Kenney and his cohort were worried that Chinese businesses might suffer because people were afraid to eat their eggrolls, etc, and since no one was staying away from pizza there was no need to sample la dolce vita. OK, Ill give him the benefit of the doubt, even though Im not so sure he would have schlepped to his old hunting grounds in South Philadelphia for some meatballs and red gravy. The idea that we cannot blame an entire ethnicity or citizenry for the bad acts of its government or rogue agents is solid, and should be followed by everyone who rejects the idea that the people of the United States are responsible for the My Lai massacre or the Avianco tragedy. But I am finding it increasingly difficult to stomach the suggestion that anyone who blames China for the worldwide pandemic, even to simply point out that it started with them and could have ended with them, is shilling for President Trump. If you look at Twitter (a venue often more toxic and infectious than COVID-19,) you will see a lot of folks rejecting out of hand any argument that had China not lied about what was happening in Wuhan and refrained from disappearing the courageous Chinese whistleblowers who tried to alert the world to its subterfuge, Italy might not have lost thousands, the highest echelons of the British government and monarchy would not be infected, the streets of Paris would not bear the stamp of a nuclear holocaust and we in the United States would not be on the verge of an economic collapse. I, however, do believe that the flapping of a hummingbirds wings in Wuhan did cause a tsunami that engulfed the rest of the world. And I do not believe that tracing the tragedy back to China constitutes racism, or deflection from any mistakes or malfeasance on the part of this administration. I am not the sort of person who will defend this president with closed eyes, simply because I find the alternative to be far more grim. It is no secret that I cannot stand Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the posse they run with. There is very little of honor and selflessness that I find among the Democrats these days, not that the GOP is acting like a passel of Mother Theresas. But there is a thinly veiled glee among a few on the left at the political purchase they can draw from this human tragedy. Its obvious, and it also expresses itself in subtleties. One of those is the suggestion that blaming China is racist, and that blaming the president is legitimate. Cards on the table time: No one has acted with complete grace, competence and altruism; no one that is except the scientists who are desperately trying to find a cure for the virus, or at the very least find ways to mitigate its spread. We could also include in that limited group the health care workers, first responders, and the people who are trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy in this maelstrom. When I was a little girl, I remember reading the story of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who ministered to the lepers of Molokai. He touched them, fed them, prayed with them and was with them in the moments before the finite light of this world was extinguished, and the bright light of eternity poured out of the heavens. He ultimately contracted the disease, and died of it. I look at those who are in the world, now, fighting to keep the illness at bay, like Father Damien. I look at the essential workers in stores and picking up trash and policing our streets with almost the same awe. But aside from these great people, there are many who will exploit this crisis for either political or personal gain, as I have written in the past. What angers me the most are those who play around, as they usually tend to do, with the racism card. Lets be clear, here. China knew from the very beginning, back in November, what they were up against. Chinas government deliberately hid information from the rest of the international community because it didnt want to expose itself to embargos, travel bans and economic repercussions. China lied about the number of fatalities. China, however, didnt even need to have a legitimate reason to hide the information from the world. Chinas government has operated in this subversive, totalitarian and nihilistic way for generations, since well before I was born. I have handled cases of Chinese dissidents in my immigration practice, people who have been jailed for wanting to have a second child, or forced to worship in underground churches. China does not need a reason to hurt and harm. It is an established modus operandi. Its own people are its greatest victims, but now the rest of the world is suffering. This is not to take blame away from other countries who have fumbled their response to this plague. Italy, the U.K., South Korea and the United States have been slow and unprepared, sometimes doing more damage than good. President Trumps early travel ban from China was a start, (and provoked cries of racism from those who throw the word around like candy on Halloween) but it wasnt sufficient. We had knowledge of the crisis back in January, and should have taken bolder action then, instead of waiting as the deaths mounted and our streets were turned into ghostly avenues. I blame the White House for this, and I blame the states that refused to recognize the gravity of the situation. But when a murderer fires a bullet into the heart of an innocent man, you look at the hand holding the gun. You blame the shooter for the carnage. You might also criticize the doctors who fail to perform the lifesaving acts that would stop the bleeding, or the family members of the shooter who failed to report him to the police at the first signs of violence, or any other party third and fourth and fifth degree removed from the initial act. But we do not hesitate to name the killer, the one who set the tragedy in motion. In this case, China held the gun. Lets stop pretending that naming this killer is racist. At Least 19 Killed in Clashes Between Armed Groups in Mexico Sputnik News 20:25 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 20:42 GMT 04.04.2020) A joint operation of the Public Security Secretariat and the Mexican army has been launched to find the whereabouts of the armed groups involved in the clashes. At least 19 people have been killed in clashes between armed groups in Madera, the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, the state Prosecutor's Office said on Saturday. "The operation was immediately deployed when a report was received Friday at approximately 6:35 p.m., regarding a possible confrontation between rival groups linked to organised crime, in an area that leads from Las Varas to Largo Maderal", the General State Prosecutor's Office (FGE) of Chihuahua said in a statement. The police forces who arrived at the scene located the bodies of 18 civilians, 18 long weapons, two vehicles and two grenades that were seized. Two injured men were also found by the police and taken to hospital, but one of them died, bringing the death toll in the incident to 19. The other man remains in custody. Raids of this type are not rare in Mexico, where violent armed groups are a sad reality. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is illegal for oil producers to meet to discuss pushing up oil prices under U.S. antitrust law, but perfectly legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels for them, U.S WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is illegal for oil producers to meet to discuss pushing up oil prices under U.S. antitrust law, but perfectly legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels for them, U.S. antitrust experts said on Friday. That said, the decision by a Texas state official to talk with Saudi Arabia and Russia about supporting oil prices marks a sharp contrast with U.S. policy. A year ago President Donald Trump tweeted that OPEC needed to "increase the flow of oil. World Markets are fragile, price of Oil getting too high." A two-thirds drop in oil prices in the last three months has swiftly changed Washington's thinking on whether or not it should meddle in the energy market. Trump has called on top producers to stop a market rout caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as OPEC and its allies work on a deal for an unprecedented oil production cut equivalent to around 10% of global supply. "Trump himself, other federal officials, and Congress cannot violate antitrust (law) by any official actions they take. It doesn't apply to them," said Chris Sagers, who teaches antitrust at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. When oil prices are high, anti-OPEC bills, nicknamed NOPEC, gained traction in Congress. The bills would allow OPEC to be sued in U.S. courts for violating antitrust laws. Such bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for more than a decade, but have never succeeded. In February 2019, the latest version was approved by the House Judiciary Committee. "From an antitrust perspective, businesses have been complaining about OPEC and complaining about these foreign systems for years," said Barbara Sicalides, an antitrust expert at Pepper Hamilton LLP. "I don't think it's an antitrust violation. It's certainly a change in policy." Oil prices have fallen to around $20 per barrel from nearly $65 at the start of the year as more than 3 billion people went into a lockdown, reducing global oil demand by as much as a third. Texas regulator Ryan Sitton, one of three members of the Texas Railroad Commission, waded into oil diplomacy on Thursday, calling Russia's energy minister to discuss possible oil production curbs and angling for talks with Saudi Arabia as many producers in the U.S. state's biggest industry warned it was near collapse. The Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance has urged its state's regulator to curtail crude oil production. This kind of conduct in private industry would not be permitted, but under the state action doctrine it is allowed if it is done under the commission's authority, said Sicalides. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Daniel Wallis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Why kids kill is a question that has been long debated by psychologists, with the overriding belief while nature has a role to play with some killers, nurture will make murderers of others. But how do you spot a child set to commit these crimes? And how can you prevent a child on the wrong path from becoming a cold-hearted killer? TV psychologist Emma Kenny, London, gave FEMAIL her expert opinion and outlined the qualities that many child killers share, including an unhealthy fixation with fire and being prosocial - or caring little about others. However she insisted that not all child killers are born evil and that some become murderous as a result of their upbringing. Emma was speaking ahead of new Crime+Investigation series, Kids Who Kill: Evil Up Close, which takes an in depth look at some of the most disturbing young criminals through the eyes of those who loved, trusted and knew them best. The show features notorious killers such as Aaron Campbell, 17, who was who was convicted of raping and murdering six-year-old Alesha MacPhail , Matthew Hardman, 17, who murdered his neighbour, Mabel Leyshon at her home. Early signs of a child killer Emma told that according to research, you can spot problem behaviours in young children by measuring the deceitful and callous scale. Children that score highly on these are more likely to be less prosocial - meaning they are less likely help other people, and are less concerned with the rights, feelings, and welfare of others Outlining the signs, she said: 'A child doesn't seem guilty after misbehaving, punishment doesn't change their behaviour, the child is selfish or won't share, the child lies, the child is sneaky and tries to get around adults. 'Other signs include, gaining pleasure from hurting animals, having an unhealthy obsession with fire, being involved in criminality. ' What children have high risk factors? Aaron Campbell, 17, who was who was convicted of raping and murdering six-year-old Alesha MacPhail (left) and Matthew Hardman who was found guilty of murdering his neighbour, Mabel Leyshon at her home, 17, (right) both featured in the Crime+Investigation series However not all children who will eventually commit these crimes are born with an affliction to kill. Some develop murderous tendencies as a product of their environment. Key factors include children who are terrorised or let down by primary caregivers; children who struggle to contain rage; or children who suffer abuse that affects their sexual identities and attitudes towards sex. But Emma noted that most children with these traits, or these experiences, will not become killers. 'However, should these issues come to light,'said Emma, 'it would be wise to ensure that they receive therapy to ensure that they work through some of their challenges meaning that they deflect further from any negative potential.' She added: 'It is very hard to know who will become a killer, however, knowing the risk factors can help to prevent these behaviours in the long-term by providing the correct environment, support and therapy for young people displaying disturbing behaviour. ' The argument over genetics Lucas Markham (left) and Kim Edwards (right), believed to be Britain's youngest double murderers, who can now be named as the two 15 year olds who were convicted of murdering Edwards' mother and sister in Spalding, Lincolnshire. They feature in the series There is no 'main reason' why children kill. There are a whole host of factors that go into 'creating' a child killer, including a 'potential predisposition for anti-social, or sadistic behaviour'. However many experts believe that genetics are, at least in part, behind a murderous tendency in children. Emma continued: 'Research has indicated that that the majority of violent criminals carry the genes known as MAOA and CDH13. 'This noted, up to 30 per cent of men carry this gene, meaning that more is required in creating a sadistic murderer than genes alone'. She explained those who kill often have attachment issues, or have been sexually, physically, emotionally abused, or neglected as children. 'These deep fractures understandably impact on their emotional development. This said, most people who have terrible and abusive childhoods do not become killers'. Other research has highlighted more organic impairments. Criminologist Dr Adrian Raine scanned the brains of 40+ convicted killers and compared them to 'ordinary people'. He found that serial killers have lower activity in the prefrontal area of the brain, the area that controls aggression, concentration and regulates impulse control. Emma said: 'Psychopaths also have shrunken amygdala, the seat of the brain that controls emotion, which explains their lack of empathy, remorse or guilt when they hurt others. 'Finally, there is always the autonomy of the individual. Choice exists, and no matter what problematic genetic, environmental, familial, or physical factors, what separates a teenage killer from their peers is the decision they make to murder. ' New Crime+Investigation series Kids Who Kill: Evil Up Close airs on Mondays at 9pm. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:44:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The east-based army of Libya on Sunday announced the killing of six troops of the UN-backed government's forces in the south of Tripoli, as the armed conflict between the two rivals continues. The east-based army's information office accuses one of the killed troops, a field commander, of involvement in the 2016 deadly bombing of a police training camp in the western city of Zliten, some 160 km east of the capital Tripoli. Earlier in the day, the east-based army said it targeted positions of the UN-backed government's forces, as well as ammunition stores in the city of Zuwara, some 120 km west of Tripoli. The east-based army also said it shot down three Turkey-made drones belonging to the government forces near the city of Misurata, some 200 km east of Tripoli. Meanwhile, Mohamed Gonono, spokesman of the UN-backed government's forces, announced the downing of a cargo plane carrying ammunition belonging to the east-based army in Tarhuna city, some 90 km south of Tripoli. On April 4, 2019, the east-based army launched a military campaign in and around Tripoli in an attempt to take over the city and topple the rival UN-backed government. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has documented at least 356 civilian deaths and 329 injuries since the outbreak of the armed conflict. Nearly 150,000 people in and around Tripoli have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of the conflict, and 345,000 civilians remain in frontline areas, while an estimated 749,000 others live in areas affected by the clashes, according to UNSMIL. The wife of former Long Branch Mayor Philip D. Huhn died Friday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Monmouth County Prosectors Office said Saturday. Police were called to the couples Norwood Avenue home at about 12:51 a.m. Friday for an unconscious and bleeding woman. They found June Chronic-Huhn, 73, laying on the floor with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said in a statement. During an autopsy on Saturday at the Middlesex County Regional Medical Examiners Office, Dr. Stephen Melito determined Chronic-Huhn died from a a single gunshot wound to the chest and ruled it a suicide, the statement says. Huhn served two terms mayor of Long Branch, from 1982 until 1990, and then later served as the Borough Manager in Keansburg and Township Administrator in Neptune. Current Mayor John Pallone told the Asbury Park Press that hes known the Huhns for years, and would see them walking on the boardwalk together. Im very sad for the Huhn family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, Pallone said. Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is investigating an incident that occurred in Ashiaman, Accra on Sunday 5 April 2020 leading to the death of one person. The incident involved an attempt by a civilian to disarm a soldier who was conducting an arrest as part of operation (OP) COVID SAFETY. A statement signed by the Director of Public Relations, Colonel Aggrey-Quashie explained that "the civilian was being arrested on suspicion of indulging in illegal conduct contrary to the Narcotics Act". Initial reports are that the suspect in resisting arrest attempted to disarm the soldier leading to a struggle during which the soldiers rifle accidentally went off. The suspect who sustained life-threatening injuries, unfortunately, passed on while being conveyed to the hospital for medical attention. The body has been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra. Investigations have already commenced into the incident. "The Ghana Armed Forces wishes to assure the general public that details of its investigations will be duly communicated" the statement added. 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. Featured Video The Basic Law has brought "institutional dividend" to the prosperity and stability of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Hong Kong must safeguard the constitutional order established by the Constitution and the Basic Law for better development in the future, experts said at a seminar on April 4. Nearly 100 experts from the mainland, HKSAR and the Macao Special Administrative Region participated in an online seminar on the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of the HKSAR Basic Law co-hosted by a number of academic institutions and think tanks. Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former secretary-general of the HKSAR Basic Law Consultative Committee, said in his speech that the drafting of the HKSAR Basic Law is rigorous, scientific, democratic and meticulous, and Hong Kong's experience in the past over 20 years since its return to the motherland has proved that the legal provisions of the Basic Law are complete. However, he pointed out that the political work on the Basic Law still needs to be strengthened. "We must take pains to explain and interpret the Basic Law to the Hong Kong society and the international community." Wang Hanbin, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and deputy director of the drafting committee for the HKSAR Basic Law, said in a written speech that the Basic Law has played an important role in realizing the smooth return of Hong Kong and in promoting Hong Kong's development on all aspects. The HKSAR Basic Law has withstood various tests and served as the fundamental guarantee for "one country, two systems," showing great vitality and adaptability, Wang said. "In the future we must also act in strict accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law, fully and accurately implement the principle of the 'one country, two systems', improve the systems and mechanisms related to the implementation of the Basic Law, and continuously carry out publicity and education on the Constitution and the Basic Law," Wang added. Tam Wai-chu, deputy director of the HKSAR Basic Law Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, noted that the drafting of the HKSAR Basic Law took four years and eight months and many of its provisions were finalized after several rounds of discussions. "The Basic Law takes into account the interests of all parties and helps build a broad consensus, fully embodying the spirit of the 'one country, two systems' principle. It has brought 'institutional dividend' to the prosperity and stability of the HKSAR, and at the same time ensured that Hong Kong residents enjoy a wide range of rights and freedoms, which is a significant improvement over that before Hong Kong's return," she said. Some incidents seriously challenging the bottom line of "one country, two systems" have occurred in Hong Kong in recent years, she noted, calling for legislation in Hong Kong to safeguard the national security and territorial integrity. Rao Geping, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Research Center of Peking University, said "'one country, two systems' is the best institutional arrangement for Hong Kong's governance after its return, and the Basic Law is the guardian of this system." He added that if Hong Kong wants to develop better in the future, it must make adherence to the Basic Law a social consensus in getting out of the current predicament. Wang Zhenmin, director of the Center for Hong Kong and Macao Studies at Tsinghua University, emphasized that the HKSAR must safeguard its constitutional order established by the Constitution and the Basic Law. "The future of all Hong Kong residents relies on the Basic Law," he pointed out, adding that "only by cherishing and studying the Basic Law, safeguarding its dignity, consciously abiding by the Basic Law and acting in strict accordance with it, can Hong Kong enjoy a bright future." New Delhi: As many as 505 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed and 11 more deaths reported, taking the total number of cases in the country to 3,577 and the death toll to 83, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. Addressing a media briefing, Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said 472 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths have been reported since Saturday. The total coronavirus cases stand at 3,374 and the death toll now stands at 79. He said 267 people have recovered. Uttar Pradesh In Uttar Pradesh, the Coronavirus tally has risen to 276 with 48 new cases testing positive on April 5. Sixteen persons have tested positive for coronavirus at the King George`s Medical University in Lucknow. Three more persons in Agra tested positive, taking the total number of positive cases in the district to 48. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday that District Magistrates would be held responsible if people go without food. Maharashtra In Maharashtra, as many as 113 people tested positive for coronavirus in Mumbai on Sunday (April 5), taking the total number of such cases in Maharashtra 748, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said. According to a health ministry data, the death toll in Maharashtra due to Coronavirus increased to 45 after 13 new deaths were reported on Sunday, 8 in Mumbai, 3 in Pune and 1 each in Kalyan, Dombivali and Aurangabad. According to officials, so far 56 people have been treated and discharged in the state after recovering from the disease. Jammu and Kashmir In Jammu and Kashmir, at least 14 more tested positive for the deadly virus on Sunday, taking the total number to 106. Out of these positive cases, four have completely recovered while two succumbed in the hospital, leaving the number of active cases in J&K at 100 out of whom 82 are in Kashmir division and 18 in Jammu division. Two patients have died so far, four recovered and seven tested negative after undergoing treatment. These patients will undergo another test before they will be discharged from the hospital. More than 28,000 people have been kept under surveillance, including 10,600 who are either on government-established quarantine facilities or in home isolation. Tamil Nadu In Tamil Nadu, 86 new COVID-19 cases reported in the state on Sunday, 85 of which wer jamaat conference attendees. With this, the total number of positive cases in the southern state reached to 571; while the death toll stood at 5. A total eight people have been treated and discharged in the state till date. Haryana In Haryana, six new patients were registered in the state on Sunday, five from Muslim-dominated Nuh, taking the total coronavirus patients to 76, the government said. According to the state`s medical bulletin, the total patients comprised four are from Sri Lanka and one from Nepal. Gurugram saw the highest number of 18 cases, followed by Palwal (17), Faridabad (14), Nuh (eight) and Panipat (four). So far one death is reported in the state from Ambala city at the PGIMER in Chandigarh. Andhra Pradesh In Andhra Pradesh, 26 more coronavirus cases reported in the state, taking its total number of positive Coronavirus patients to 252. Total number of cases now 252: state govt. Punjab Coronavirus cases in Punjab rose to 68 after three more persons tested positive for deadly infection on Sunday. The state has also reported six deaths so far. The three new positive cases are from Ludhiana, SAS Nagar and Barnala. The person found positive in Ludhiana had attended a Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. A total of 241 Tablighi Jamaat attendees have been traced in Punjab and among them, seven have tested positive for novel coronavirus. Jharkhand Jharkhand reported third coronavirus case on Sunday. The third case is of a woman from the Bokaro district. She had attended a religious congregation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She had returned to Bokaro with husband on March 15. She tested Covid-19 positive on Sunday. Several others from Telo village, under the Chandrapura police station of the Bokaro district too had visited Bangladesh. Kerala Eight new cases on Sunday have taken the total number coronavirus positive people under treatment in Kerala to 256. According to Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja, 314 people have been cured. On two deaths reported previously, the Minister said they had other serious underlying ailments as well. A man was killed in a clash between two groups of villagers allegedly over setting up of a quarantine centre at a village school in Birbhum district on Saturday Suri: A man was killed in a clash between two groups of villagers allegedly over setting up of a quarantine centre at a village school in Birbhum district on Saturday night. The incident occurred in Talibpur village under Parui police station. "A clash broke out between two groups of villagers. Prima facie a man succumbed to bomb injuries," Superintendent of Police Shyam Singh said. Police forces have been deployed in the village where the situation is tense but under control, he said. The police, however, did not say anything on the reason behind the clash. Local sources claimed that the administration has decided to set up a quarantine centre for suspected COVID-19 cases at a school in the village and it was not liked by a section of villagers while others were in favour of it. An altercation on the issue between members of the two groups led to a clash and a middle-aged was killed, they said. Unlocking India post April 14: Govt plans two zones to curtail coronavirus outbreak India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 05: The Union Health Ministry is putting in place measures to ensure that the coronavirus does not spread further, following the nation wide lockdown coming to an end. Post the lockdown that ends on April 14, the focus would be on the hotspots. Ministry sources tell OneIndia that the focus would be largely on the hotspots and densely populated areas. The government is taking a cue from the 2009 outbreak of H1NI, which had a bigger impact on well connected cities when compared to smaller towns and villages with lower population. During the recent deliberations, it was decided that post the lockdown there would be different approaches in different parts of the country. The containment efforts would be extremely strong in the hotspots and the lockdown would not be lifted suddenly in such areas. Coronavirus lockdown: Significant improvement in air quality The Health Ministry in particular is concerned about the community transmission of the coronavirus. Health Ministry officials say that the outbreak is still under control and has not reached the community transmission stage as yet. Post the lockdown a separate plan of action would be in place to ensure that the spread is under control, the official also said. The government plans to divide hot spots into the quarantine and a buffer zone. The quarantine zone would focus on areas where there are a large number of cases. The buffer zone will include certain blocks or districts around it. The buffer zones would be decided by the authorities on a case to case basis. 83% of India's coronavirus patients are below the age of 50: Govt In these zones, outbound travel will be cut off. Movement of all vehicles and public transport too would be stalled. However an exception would be made to those with special passes to ensure that the supply of essential commodities are not hit. In these zones schools and colleges will be closed and mass gatherings would be banned. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 8:42 [IST] (Natural News) Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dropped a bombshell on New Yorkers: the entire state could run out of ventilators within the next six days. Cuomo made the announcement Thursday after dispatching 400 of the life-saving machines to New York City hospitals, as well as 200 more to hospitals and facilities in suburban counties. Right now, we have a burn rate of about six days in the stockpile, Cuomo said during the press conference. We have extraordinary measures in place that can make a difference if we run into a real ventilator shortage, Cuomo added. According to Cuomo, only 2,200 ventilators remain in the states stockpile, and that an additional 350 of the life-saving machines a day are needed to save critically ill coronavirus-stricken patients. If that rate continues, in our stockpile we have about six days, Cuomo said, adding that once the apex increases, New York will have an issue with ventilators. If a person comes in and needs a ventilator and you dont have one, the person dies. Thats the blunt equation here. Cuomo added that he and the rest of the states officials are working on extraordinary measures to handle the ventilator problem before the states stockpile burns out, such as looking for more ventilators around the world that the state government can purchase. I can say with confidence we have researched every possibility, every idea, Cuomo said. Every measure you can possibly take to find ventilators, this state has done. That I can promise you. State officials are also looking into the possibility of using anesthesia machines as ventilators, as well as the splitting of hospitals existing ventilator tubes so two patients can use one machine at once. In addition, the state is looking to convert Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure, or BiPAP machines, into ventilators. BiPAP machines are normally used to help people with sleep apnea and are not considered as critical-care machines. Cuomo also implored those in the manufacturing sector to pivot to producing medical equipment like gowns for PPEs. We will pay a premium, the governor assured business owners. In his address, Cuomo noted one other thing: New York is on its own. The federal government is very aware of our situation. I dont think the federal government is in the position to provide ventilators to the extent needed by the nation, he stated, adding that he wouldnt be surprised if the White House didnt have enough of the machines in their stockpile to provide for the communities that need them. Medical practitioners are starting to feel the pressure as they are forced to make life-and-death decisions, Art Fougner, a medical doctor and president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, said in a statement addressing New Yorks glaring ventilator shortage. According to Fougner, if the pandemic does not let up, and if New Yorks stock of ventilators doesnt get replenished, its current crop of doctors might end up with grave cases of depression and other mental health issues. For sure, we will be seeing increasing depression and PTSD that will eclipse todays physician burnout, Fougner said, in reference to stories of physicians being told to use their judgment in deciding who should be hooked up to a ventilator. In addition, Fougner advised medical centers and their physicians that in the absence of clear orders from the state health department, they should refer to the state Department of Healths 2015 guidelines on ventilator allocation, which were written to help hospitals decide who should get ventilators in the event of an influenza pandemic. As per the guidelines, doctors should prioritize patients for whom ventilator therapy would most likely be lifesaving. At this point, the most difficult decisions facing physicians will have to be made, Fougner explained. Already, some emergency physicians are reporting being told the equivalent of Use your best judgment. Youre on your own.' De Blasio, NY health officials to New Yorkers: Wear face masks! Addressing the lack of vital machinery in both state and city levels, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked New Yorkers to wear masks or even just a simple homemade face covering when they go outside, in a bid to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. When you put on that face covering, youre protecting everyone else, he urged the public at a meeting, Thursday. According to de Blasio, these face coverings could be a scarf or a bandanna or anything homemade, but it should not be a surgical mask, as these are badly needed by frontline medical workers. When you think of masks, you think of what our health care workers and first responders need and those precious supplies that were bringing in, those PPEs, thats for them and all those people at the front line who need it, de Blasio explained. De Blasios recommendation was backed up by New York City health officials. Oxiris Barbot, the commissioner of the citys Department of Health, said that cloth coverings and face masks would work for the general population, just as long as they cover the face and mouth. Barbot stressed, however, that masks are not, in any way, a replacement for social distancing. The city governments new recommendation came after the CDC published a report that looked at how presymptomatic or asymptomatic carriers could spread SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. As detailed in the report, the researchers found that asymptomatic carriers, despite feeling healthy, could pose a threat to disease control. These findings also suggest that to control the pandemic it might not be enough for only persons with symptoms to limit their contact with others because persons without symptoms might transmit infection, the CDC researchers wrote on their report. As of press time, COVID-19 has claimed over 8,000 lives and infected more than 300,000 people in the United States. Sources include: NYDailyNews.com Independent.co.uk NPR.org CNBC.com CDC.gov Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Negligence is the key factor for the spread of novel coronavirus, so I want to be a motivator and support other patients battling the pandemic, said a 24-year-old youth, who was the first person in Krishna district tested Covid-19 positive. Within 17 days, he had completely recovered from coronavirus. He was reunited with his family members after being discharged from the New Government General Hospital on Saturday. The youth, a resident of One Town in Vijayawada, is pursuing his higher studies in Paris. From there, he returned to New Delhi on March 15 and flew to Hyderabad and arrived in Vijayawada in a private cab on March 17. However, he didnt have any symptoms on his arrival. On the night of March 18, the youth started suffering from high fever and was admitted to the New GGH on March 20. ALSO WATCH In an interaction with TNIE, the youth said, Right from my childhood, I was never admitted to hospital for any ailment, but all of a sudden after arriving in the city, I was diagnosed positive with novel coronavirus. I couldnt believe it. But took the next step and got admitted to the hospital. Soon after, I was diagnosed positive with coronavirus my parents, friends and doctors stood behind me and kept on motivating me and that helped me a lot to get cured from the virus along with my willpower and the immunity system working for my well-being. When asked about the symptoms he experienced, the youth said he had high fever on the night of March 18 and was shifted to the hospital in an ambulance. After being admitted to the hospital, doctors conducted various tests and I was diagnosed positive with the virus. As I was admitted to the hospital during the initial stage, I managed to battle with the virus successfully. I didnt suffer any headache, body pains, breathing problem, asthma and diarrhoea symptoms to be faced by the persons in the next stages of the pandemic, he said. I am appealing to the people diagnosed with the virus not to panic. If the virus affects a healthy person it can be cured if proper medication in the isolation ward is taken. But for those with several health complications, the virus can be threatening, he said. In this regard, the people with the symptoms of the virus infection like high fever should be socially responsible and voluntarily contact the doctors and get tested to prevent further spread of the pandemic to their family members, friends and relatives. Vaccination is not there for the virus, but medication can help the combat the virus, the youth said and suggested that people stay indoors as advised by the government and prevent the community spread. Informing about the treatment given to him, the youth said the doctors and the medical staff didnt exhibit any fear during his hospitalisation. I was kept in an isolation ward for more than two weeks and never felt like admitted in the hospital. A team of doctors, thoroughly monitored my case by examining my pulse, sugar levels and temperature at regular intervals. The isolation techniques, moral support and care given by the doctors helped me a lot, the youth added. Case history Two men have been arrested in Dublin in relation to a nationwide spate of burglaries in the past week. They were taken into custody yesterday afternoon. Gardai on patrol had noticed a car in the Saggart area yesterday afternoon, believed to have been used in nine robberies between March 27 and April 1. They included six homes, a construction site and two businesses. When officers approached the car, two men fled the scene, and following a foot chase, two men in their 20s were arrested and taken to Clondalkin Garda Station. The car was seized for a technical examination to take place. Meanwhile, the Gardai arrested three men in Dublin yesterday after drugs worth nearly 37, 500 were seized on the canal bank in Clondalkin. Gardai, targeting drug dealing in the area, found the three men in a tent hidden in undergrowth with cannabis, cocaine and Dimorphine. A packaging and distribution facility was also found while 108 packets of cigarettes and tobacco products were located in a follow-up search by the Garda Dog Unit. Coronavirus: What you need to read Coronavirus maps: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Cases and deaths worldwide Vaccines: Tracker by state | Booster shots | For kids 5 to 11 | Guidance for vaccinated people | How long does immunity last? | County-level vaccine data What you need to know: Omicron variant | Breakthrough infections | Symptoms guide | Masks FAQ | Delta variant | Other variants | Follow all of our coverage and sign up for our free newsletter Impact of the pandemic: Supply chain | Education | Housing Got a pandemic question? We answer one every day in our coronavirus newsletter BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 5 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 22 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Apr. 5. 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 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. New Delhi, April 5 : A Delhi Police Crime Branch team is making the rounds of Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Nizamuddin area to look for evidence against Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, who has claimed to be in quarantine. On the other hand, Shamli police in Uttar Pradesh is monitoring through a drone the farmhouse of Maulana Saad in Uttar Pradesh, though Delhi Police have not got in touch with its counterparts in UP. According to sources in Delhi Police, Joy Tirkey, Deputy Commissioner of Police, himself visited the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters to collect evidences. He was accompanied by several ACP and inspector level officers. This is the first time in the history of Markaz Nizamuddin that such a large posse of police visited the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters. Delhi Police have registered an FIR against Maulana Saad and six others for holding a religious congregation in Nizamudding allegedly in violation of the lockdown orders and not maintaining social distancing to contain the spread of Covid-19. After the case was lodged, Maulana "diappeared", claiming to be in self-isolation and only communicated through his lawyer and son. According to sources, Delhi Police videographed the whole area during its visit on Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, Shamli police, speaking to IANS,on Sunday, said that Delhi police have not contacted them for information on Maulana Saad. A police officer in Shamli, who did not wish to be identified, said, "Maulana Saad has not been seen coming or going to his farmhouse in recent days. We are monitoring through drone the entire area. We are collecting the footage and will investigate it. Some people have been seen on the roofs. If there is any gathering, we will take action." March 24, 2020 Jody Mays , 229-924-0343 Andersonville, Georgia Andersonville National Historic Site, in response to Executive Order 03.23.20.01 issued by the Governor of the State of Georgia, is announcing additional modifications to operations to support federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As of March 24, 2020, Andersonville National Historic Site will offer limited services outside those that support visitor or resource protection. At Andersonville National Historic Site, the following services and operations will be suspended in order to comply with the state order: The National Prisoner of War Museum and the historic site of Camp Sumter military prison will be closed to public access. The park will not operate or provide public restrooms. No visitor information services, programs, or events will be offered or conducted. No committal services or rendering of military honors will be permitted in Andersonville National Cemetery. No more than ten (10) immediate family members may be present to witness burials. The family may request to conduct a proper committal service when conditions permit. ( https://www.nps.gov/ande/index.htm ) and social media channels ( The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at Andersonville National Historic Site is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor COVID-19. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website) and social media channels ( http://facebook.com/AndersonvilleNPS and http://www.twitter.com/andeNHS ). Andersonville National Cemetery remains accessible to the public from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. daily in accordance with the latest federal, state, and local health guidance. Burial services for eligible veterans and family members continue to be offered. encourages people who choose to visit Andersonville National Historic Site during this pandemic to adhere to guidance from the The NPSencourages people who choose to visit Andersonville National Historic Site during this pandemic to adhere to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health authorities to protect visitors and employees. As services are limited, the NPS urges visitors to continue to practice Leave No Trace principles , including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces safe and healthy. The NPS encourages people to take advantage of the many digital tools already available to explore Andersonville National Historic Site, including: https://www.gpb.org/education/virtual/andersonville A virtual tour of Andersonville National Historic Site, conducted by one of our park rangers in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting, available at An audio tour of the national cemetery available on our website (near the bottom of the page) at https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/photosmultimedia/multimedia.htm ) ( https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/photosmultimedia/story-in-stone.htm ) and on our YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2IJCqxeKsKMlxDH5dfYMhA ) Videos about the park, its history, and American prisoners of war available on our website ( https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/photosmultimedia/multimedia.htm Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus . Please check with individual parks for specific details about park operations. Posted by Jeremy on at 12:32 AM CST You'd better be staying in on April 8th becausefeatures heavily in the second to last episode of LEGO Masters.The reality competition television series - hosted by Will Arnett and special guests R2-D2, C-3PO and BB-8 - will be all aboutas the remaining contestants slug it out through a series of challenges, including recreating the Battle of Hoth fromArnett is no stranger to the popularity of; he voiced Batman in, who seemingly abandoned Emmet and Wildfyre when he jumped aboard the Millennium Falcon. Series consultant and Certified LEGO Professional Nathan Sawaya's almost life-size Han Solo trapped in carbonite is still one of the brick artist's most famous sculptures.LEGO Mastersspecial airs on Wednesday, April 8th at 9/8c on Fox. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 14:53:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LHASA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, releases 563.47 tonnes of oxygen each year through its afforestation project, according to the city's forestry and grassland bureau. The city launched an afforestation project in 2012 and has planted and preserved more than 234 hectares of forests. Lhasa has carried out a series of afforestation experiments at various altitudes and in different seasons to screen out suitable seedlings. The city has planted more than 1.2 million seedlings, including shrubs and flowers, according to the bureau. At some point, even the most pleasant of quarantines becomes unbearable even for a king. Following his enjoyable days in isolation with his 20-member harem at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Garmisch (as previously reported by BILD), duty unfortunately calls for the king of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn (67), also known as Rama X. BILD has learned that the monarch clandestinely left the 4-star hotel the day before yesterday, the reason being that, in Thailand, the Chakri Festival will begin today (Monday). The festival commemorates the establishment of the royal dynasty: an unmissable event for the controversial ruler, who is increasingly facing resistance within his kingdom. Under the slogan Why do we need a king?, a steadily growing group of dissidents are demanding the kings abdication. Lesen Sie auch EU Commissioner Jourova Corona Fake News are dangerous for our health For weeks, targeted fake news and propaganda have been flooding Europe. Commissioner Jourova, in charge of fighting them, talks to BILD. The extremely rich king (his wealth is estimated to be 60 to 100 billion euros) does not really care. Criticizing his rule is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment. As BILD reported two weeks ago, his minister for communication and digital issues made it clear on Twitter that the royal court will show no mercy to those engaged in resistance. In any case, Rama Xs travel plans will not be disrupted. According to a secret plan devised by his palace, which BILD has seen, he left the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in the dead of night on Saturday and drove to Munich airport. He boarded his Boeing 737-800 and flew to Zurich with his entourage. Rama met with his wife, Suthida (41), who had been staying at the Hotel Waldegg in Engelberg, Switzerland, for weeks. Early on Sunday afternoon, at 2:52 p.m., a Thai Airways airliner brought them to Bangkok. The plane landed there on Monday at 6 a.m. local time. Thai Airways suspended its regular operations over a week ago due to Corona. The company was happy to make an exception for the monarch, however, and exclusively transported the king back home with special permission. BIZARRE: Bangkok airport, which is enormous, has been closed for the past three days. The official reason is the turmoil that was caused by 100 Thai tourists who, following their arrival at Bangkok, refused to go to the states quarantine facility. ABSURD, however, is what is potentially the real reason for the closure: The airports arrival area was allegedly being disinfected. Human rights journalist and Thailand specialist Andrew MacGregor Marshall (49) told BILD: Closing the airport for merely three days makes little sense in terms of halting the pandemics spread. It is more plausible that it was closed in order to minimize the risk of infection for the king. Thailand expert Andrew MacGregor Marshall Foto: AFP Rama X also wants to minimize the time hell spend in his kingdom. BILD has learned that he wants to be back on a plane to Zurich as early as Tuesday morning, at 1:05 a.m. followed by an onward flight to Munich. It is doubtful whether his jaunt and his return to Garmisch comply with quarantine regulations. He only received the District Administration Office of Garmisch-Partenkirchens permission to stay in the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl because he and his entourage constitute a homogenous unit. 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Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f0482481d90)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0482348298)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f0482481d90)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0482348298)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f0482473cb8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0482348298)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0482348298)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0481b67a48)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f04824672a0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f04824672a0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 The fear of a big-three cartel emerging to resurrect oil prices are overblown. The only silver lining, amid the darkness over the Indian economy, is that crude prices have crashed, offering the country billions of dollars in savings. Recent attempts by major oil producers to negotiate a joint production cut and force prices up are floundering. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia have had to push back a planned meeting on such cuts to next week. The two main participants, Riyadh and Moscow, have spent the past few days trading bitter rhetoric. The United States (US), the worlds largest oil producer, has abandoned an earlier attempt to broker an understanding between itself, Saudi Arabia and Russia. President Donald Trump has ordered his government to boost demand for US oil by topping off its strategic oil reserve. The main reason why an agreement is proving so difficult is the magnitude of the cuts required. All the three main players are trying to minimise their share of the burden. Most estimates say the pandemic has reduced global oil demand by about 20 million barrels per day. With Riyadh and Moscow showing little signs of reconciliation, New Delhi has every reason to presume a financial windfall over the coming months. A complete collapse, say down to $10 a barrel, is not necessarily a good thing. Smaller producers would close down and future investment would dry up all of which cut production and drive up prices. But those are long-term considerations, out of place in a time of the coronavirus pandemic. 1 of 2 Global COVID-19 death toll crosses 64,000, total cases over 12 lakh Globally, there have been over 12 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 64,600 people have died so far. The United States, Spain, Italy, Germany and France have registered more cases than China, where the outbreak started. The outbreak is having a major impact on global economy and the stock market. Spain's Covid-19 cases surpassed Italy as Europe's two main epicentres continue to struggle to curtail the virus, with PM Pedro Sanchez planning to extend the country's lockdown by two weeks until April 25. A nationwide 15-day state of emergency was first announced on March 14. It was to end on April 11 after being extended by two weeks. Germany and Canada are among countries that are accusing the United States of virtually hijacking much-coveted medical material that are in short supply in the global war on the coronavirus, aggravating Washingtons already testy ties with some of its major allies. Read More... Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:33:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that the existing restrictions imposed to curb the COVID-19 spread in the country would be eased gradually in the following weeks, official IRNA news agency reported. The authorities have decided to ease some restrictions implemented in the country over the past days, Rouhani said in a meeting of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus. Low-risk businesses will resume their activities from April 11 in different provinces except Tehran and from April 18 in Tehran, said Rouhani. "Two thirds of all government employees will work in the office from next Saturday (April 11)," the Iranian president added. A person who tests positive for coronavirus is obliged to inform his manager and put himself under a two-week self-quarantine, he noted. But resumption of high-risk economic activities that "require a large population involvement" is still forbidden, Rouhani noted. Rouhani also denied differences between the ministry of health and the ministry of industry over dealing with the issues around COVID-19 in the country. Both the health condition of the Iranians and the economy of the country should be taken into account when deciding on the management of the novel coronavirus, he said. A day earlier, Rouhani said the authorities would launch a "smart distancing" plan based on a principle of balance between social health condition and the economy of the country to continue fights against the novel coronavirus in the country. Iran has so far reported 58,226 COVID-19 cases, of whom 3,603 have died. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Sun, April 5, 2020 11:29 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc81dd 2 World COVID-19,New-York-City,hospital,patients Free A military hospital ship which arrived in New York City on Monday is fighting to stay in a coronavirus-free "bubble" so as not to risk bringing the disease on board, its medical officer said. The 1,000-bed USNS Comfort, previously deployed to conflict and natural disaster zones, was sent to Manhattan to ease the strain on health centers in the city at the epicenter of America's outbreak by caring for patients other than those diagnosed with the virus. By Friday it had received 21 patients, according to the ship's press officer Lieutenant Commander Amelia Umayam. "We consider the USNS Comfort to be in a bubble," said medical officer Captain Patrick Amersbach as he explained the procedures followed by the ship's crew to shield it from the virus, including not disembarking for as long as it is docked. Patients are arriving directly from New York hospitals and will be screened in advance to make sure they are free of the coronavirus. For the time being, even relatives of patients are not allowed to board the ship -- though Amersbach said a protocol for loved ones to visit was being put in place "because nobody wants to be without their family members." If a worker needs to board the ship to perform installations or repairs, they must be examined, wash their hands in front of a witness, and put on a mask before being escorted to the precise location on the ship where they will work. Once finished, they will be escorted directly off again. New York City has had more than 57,000 positive coronavirus cases since the arrival of the pandemic and 1,867 deaths. The nearby Javits Center, which has been converted into a field hospital by the US military and was not originally intended to house coronavirus patients, will now do so. But there are no plans for the USNS Comfort to make such a move. "We're going to try and stay in that bubble," said Amersbach. The 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby on Sunday, cleared by SEPTA of homeless people earlier in the week. Read more Sometime last week, SEPTA ended the homeless encampment at the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby. And then the agency barred anyone who was not a customer from the busy transit hub. That entrenched population that had congregated at 69th Street dispersed. Now, Upper Darby is trying to find its members. Dont get me wrong, I completely understand SEPTAs need to protect their employees and the essential employees that need to use the system to get to work," Vince Rongione, Upper Darbys chief administrative officer, said Sunday. The problem is, it really highlights the fragility of how we deal with homeless in a system where everyone knows these transit stations are kind of de facto homeless shelters." Rongione said the township was working hard to find out and figure out where the homeless population, which he estimated at about 100, ended up. At a time when volunteer organizations and churches have cut back or ceased operations entirely, he said people are very concerned. Efforts to reach the director of the Life Center of Eastern Delaware County, a homeless shelter on 63rd Street, were unsuccessful. Rongione said he was concerned that Upper Darby had not been consulted nor notified before SEPTA moved in and acted at the 69th Street terminal, restricting it to anyone other than ticketed riders. The typically busy public transportation nexus just over the Philadelphia city line connects the Market-Frankford El with the Norristown High Speed Line and suburban bus lines. SEPTA has instituted similar policies at other busy hubs, including the Frankford Transportation Center at the other end of the Market-Frankford El, and at Jefferson Station. We were caught off guard," Rongione said. SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said the new policy began about mid-week, but said nobody was forcibly removed from the 69th Street terminal by SEPTA police or other employees. He said SEPTA had a responsibility to make the busy stations safe for the people still needing to use the rail lines, most of whom are working at hospitals and other essential businesses. Were trying our best here to communicate stuff, said Francis Kelly, SEPTAs assistant general manager for public and governmental affairs. Unfortunately, if that didnt get communicated, Im sorry. Kelly said the agency had no choice but to restrict access to the busy terminals, and said it was working on other related problems, including people boarding at the rear doors of buses and riding buses with no apparent destination. Its a vulnerable population, said Kelly. Theyre all over the system. Thats why we have a concerted effort to limit access as much as we possibly can. But Rongione said he was concerned about locating those who were displaced in order to provide services and would be working with Delaware County officials and local homeless service providers. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines state that, Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19." Clearing encampments, the CDC says, "can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread. Delaware County Councilmember Monica Taylor said Sunday the county would be working with Upper Darby to develop a plan for the newly vulnerable homeless, including creating sanitation areas near 69th Street and setting up additional shelters. One location under consideration as a temporary short-term shelter was the former Watkins Avenue Senior Center, she said. There are not as many supports in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. Some of [the dispersed] are newly homeless. We have to figure out how to get them into rapid rehousing. Especially with funds coming to Upper Darby from the stimulus program, Rongione said, it was critical to locate the people who could benefit. On Day 1 and Day 2, we might have had a really good shot at providing those services, Rongione said. Its Day 5. Now theyre dispersed. Pandemic-hit Italy cheered Saturday after seeing its number of intensive care cases for the coronavirus that stretched its healthcare system to breaking point drop for the first time. Even some of the most cautious health officials seized on the figures as evidence that the tide might be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II. Civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli called the drop from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994 on Saturday a big moment in Italy's battle against COVID-19. "This is a very important data point because the figure is decreasing for the first time," Borrelli told reporters. "It is important because it allows our hospitals to breathe." - Caught off guard - The pace and strength with which the new disease swept across Italy's northern industrial heartland caught the country off guard. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte decided to impose an economically crippling lockdown in a bid to save the health care system from collapse. He called in thousands of retired doctors and spent hundreds of millions of euros to shore up Italy's emergency wards. But some hospitals still had to send out critical patients for treatment in less overwhelmed regions last month. And doctors in the hardest hit areas at the peak of the Italian wave had to make life and death decisions about whom to try to save -- and whom to send home. But their efforts appeared to be showing results Saturday. Italy's coronavirus emergency commissioner Domenico Arcuri said the total number of intensive care beds across the country had almost doubled to 9,284 in the past month. "Our fight against this unknown and invisible enemy continues unabated," Arcuri said Saturday. - No easing - Borrelli has been extremely careful not to give Italians false hope in his daily rundown of how many people have died where. But his tone Saturday was markedly more upbeat. He cast the figures showing Italy's toll rising by 681 to 15,362 -- officially higher than in any other country -- in a positive light. "This figure is constantly decreasing," the civil protection service chief stressed. "I want to remind you that (on March 27), we had almost 1,000 dead." Italy recorded 969 deaths that day -- a record that stood until the United States reported nearly 1,500 fatalities between Thursday and Friday. But officials here are still not declaring victory. Instead some are preparing the country for at least another month of life under a general lockdown that many would like to see end. The drop in critical care patients "is a strong signal but it should absolutely not be read as a sign that we have overcome the critical stage," the government's scientific council head Franco Locatelli said. "It shows that the measures that we have been applying have had success." Milan's northern Lombardy region -- home to 10 million people and over a fifth of Italy's total economic output -- had been under lockdown since the end of February. The measures there are getting more stringent by the day. It banned jogging two weeks ago and announced a requirement for everyone to ware a facemask starting Sunday. The region's stores will also have to provide customers with disposable plastic gloves. xxx Police patrol the streets of Rome to ensure the lockdown is respected This solidarity table in a street in Naples is for people to leave food for those struggling to afford it Students wait to pick up laptops at Linda Esperanza Marquez High School in Huntington Park on March 26. (Los Angeles Times) To the editor: With the COVID-19 pandemic erasing a third of the school year for our children, educational leaders are fretting over how the lost class time can be "made up." ("15,000 L.A. high school students are AWOL online, 40,000 fail to check in daily amid coronavirus closures," March 30) What is being overlooked is that the experience may also allow schools to evaluate current trends in education and to pave the way for new educational practices to be tested. We're learning that the trend toward using technology to improve learning is not in the future any more. We have also learned that putting the needed technology into the hands of all students comes at an extremely high cost. Most importantly, we are learning that having a well-trained, creative teacher in the classroom is indispensable. Technology can provide information and processes for students to interact with our modern curriculum, but learning has always been a social process of comparing new information with what is already known and experienced. Children need constant interaction with adults and other children to absorb new knowledge. While our schools struggle with determining how to make up for the lost learning caused by this pandemic, let us also begin discussing how our teachers will be trained and how our schools will be financed so they can prepare students to meet the needs of our rapidly changing world. Bobbi Bruesch, Rosemead The writer is a board member of the Garvey Unified School District and an inductee into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. .. To the editor: I am an educator who now teaches 187 students remotely from my home. Although only about 60% of my students are participating regularly with my lessons, the majority of students that are virtually absent are not the disadvantaged kids in my classes. My district has made great efforts to ensure that all students have internet access and a laptop to use at home. Rather, most of the students missing online lessons are digitally well-connected and technologically savvy and were earning good grades before our school's closure. They know through district communications that their grades cannot be negatively affected by any work they do or not do. Story continues Without that accountability, I believe they have just logged off for the year. Paul Andersen, Santa Ana .. To the editor: More than a decade ago I worked in the Los Angeles Unified School District's technology department assisting in the district's goal of using online learning. I can confirm Supt. Austin Beutner's statement that the "harder part is establishing a connection to the student." Without the human connection embedded in the "hybrid" model of online learning, students will become frustrated, particularly in mathematics, and just sign off. Paul Burns, Granada Hills MOSCOWRussias 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 Putins cool-headed 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 accelerating spread of the virus, the mayor decreed last Sunday evening, all residents of the capital would be forbidden to leave their homes and will need special passes to move around the city. By late Monday earlier this week, 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 country, 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. But in recent days, they have come around to where much of the world has been for some time: forced to accept desperate measures to try to contain the outbreak. In a country where all important events usually revolve around Putin, however, the president has been curiously absent or tardy. He held a teleconference with the Kremlins representatives in the regions, endorsing Mayor Sergei Sobyanins lockdown decree as justified and necessary while presenting himself as the defender of ordinary Russians by ordering a crackdown on speculation and price-gouging. Our country is one big family, Putin said. But as they say, Every family has its black sheep. Putin, said Ekaterina Schulmann, a political commentator and former member of the Kremlins human-rights council, wants to bring only good news, not bad news. As of the time of this writing, by the official count, Russia has 1,836 confirmed cases far fewer than the 143,000 in the United States and the nearly 100,000 in Italy, but a fivefold increase over a week ago. Only 14 Russians have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. But the number of infections in the country has been growing rapidly, posing a test for Putins security state. Of the 302 new cases countrywide reported last Monday the biggest one-day rise yet 212 were in Moscow, Russias largest city. Russia has conducted more than 260,000 tests, but this includes cases of multiple tests on the same person, lowering the head count considerably. Holed up for much of the past week at his country estate outside Moscow, Putin left it to Sobyanin to order the citys 13 million residents to stay at home. Sobyanin vowed tougher and tougher measures to keep people indoors. As snow returned to the capital, police cordoned off parks in downtown Moscow, but did not stop pedestrians. Traffic on the citys central ring road, while lighter than usual, was still heavy. There was no sign of panic, despite efforts to stoke it on social media, on which fake reports and videos appeared of troops and armoured vehicles advancing on the capital to take control. For the moment, the restrictions in Moscow seem to have reassured rather than alarmed the public. They also turned pet dogs into especially valuable possessions because the only outdoor leisure activity permitted under Sobyanins order is walking a pet within a 100-yard radius of home. Walking her corgi on a back street in the centre of the city, Anna Ivanova, a 55-year-old economist, said she supported the lockdown and believed that Russia has the pandemic under control because she does not know many people infected with the virus. Russian stubbornness, she added, meant that authorities needed to introduce controls step by step if the public is to obey them. If we were to enact tough measures immediately, wed have the same kind of panic as in Italy, she said. As typically happens in times of crisis, many Russians recalled that they had seen much worse before. The coronavirus, said Lyudmila Yevgenyevna, 64, is nowhere near as perilous as the Second World War or the siege of Leningrad. Everything passes, she said. Wars end, as do epidemics and quarantines. But others wondered whether the virus really exists. I dont believe in coronavirus, said Larisa Ilyinichna, 60. Our authorities need this for something. Russia closed its 4,185-kilometre border with China in late January and said this weekend that it was closing all land borders with the dozen other countries with which it shares a frontier. The first crack in the Kremlins facade appeared Wednesday, when Sobyanin warned Putin publicly that the real number of sick people was much bigger than official numbers indicated. That, he said, was because many of those returning from hard-hit European countries had not yet been tested. More troubling, a still small, but growing portion of recent infections are the result of community transmission rather than people returning from abroad. A sudden surge in infections would probably overwhelm Russias extensive but often ramshackle state medical system. The health service includes a few showcase facilities, including a new, state-of the-art infectious-diseases hospital in Moscow that Putin visited a couple of weeks ago. But much of it, particularly in more remote areas of the country, is plagued by shortages of money, medicine and modern equipment. The Moscow mayors stay-at-home order is technically a recommendation, as the city government has no legal right to confine people to their homes. But it suggested that at least some senior officials are taking the coronavirus threat seriously, rather than viewing it merely as something that the state media can use to gloat over the travails of foreigners and promote Putins image as the saviour of a besieged country. Putin, always wary of associating himself with bad news, last week delivered a surprise television address to the nation, warning that Russia cannot isolate itself from the threat, but then announced a weeklong paid vacation for the whole country. This left the streets of Moscow and other cities filled with people enjoying their time off. The Kremlin later had to clarify that the country was not being given a bonus vacation, but was simply being asked to stay at home. Tatiana Stanovaya, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie Moscow Center, said that Putins public detachment from the health crisis fit into what since he annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 has been his view that the presidency is not so much a job as a sacred mission. This is all connected to his sense of having a personal mission, she said. Why should he spend his sacred political capital on a virus? Read more about: Do trial runs! Ensure you have good internet connectivity that day. Check the weather! If it is going to be raining, have backup options. Maybe ensure your webinar is also running on a different computer. Have co-hosts helping you so they can take over if you drop off. Check to make sure you have a way to still communicate with your panelists if there's any technical glitches. How has the coronavirus global pandemic affected your personal and professional life?My family was supposed to be in Sydney, Australia, for my nieces wedding, which was originally scheduled for April 4. We started planning for that two-week trip of a lifetime last summer, which included scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef. Sadly, like plans for so many others, the pandemic changed all of that.(Side note: Yes the wedding did go on. The wise couple actually accelerated their happy day. They were married in their church just before the lockdown was declared in the land down under.)So we are spending Spring Break at home in Michigan this year with plenty of social distancing and video conferencing with family near and far, while church and work events and meetings have all moved online. No doubt, my kids are already stir crazy, but we feel blessed that everyone remains healthy (so far).As part of that Australia trip, I was invited to speak at a Cyber Risk Meetup in Sydney on April 7 to a group of security professionals, including many CIOs, CISOs and other CxOs. The title of the planned keynote session was: How I almost got fired as a CISO the good, bad and ugly, stories from the frontline. This was the original website announcement:The founder and leader of www.cyberriskmeetup.com events is Ms. Shamane Tan, who I interviewed for "Lohrmann on Cybersecurity" last year after she published her excellent first book, Cyber Risk Leaders: Global C-Suite Insights. When the April event was canceled due to the global pandemic, the organizers asked if we could move the presentation online, like so many of the recent conferences around the world. After some back and forth conversations with Ms. Tan, we decided to hold a global fireside chat on the same topic with Shamane leading the conversation from her home in Sydney, Australia. My participation was from my home office (with gas fireplace) in Michigan.The online event was held at 12 noon in Sydney on April 1, which was 9 pm ET on March 31 in the USA.While the original intention for the live event was to cover security career stories in a 45-minute session regarding seven reasons why security pros fail and what to do about it , the online event was 15-minutes shorter with fewer stories.I wont go into each of the stories from the session in this blog, but my regular readers in the USA will be familiar with several of them. You can read the story about how I almost got fired over a WiFi project in Michigan Government in 2004 (and what I learned from the experience) in this InfoSecurity Magazine article . More important, that experience led to a new mindset for me and lessons learned for security professionals that continue to apply to BYOD and other new technologies, such as IoT, which are covered in that article as well.How can security pros get funding when they don't have it? I end my conversation with Shamane describing how security leaders need to be getting on boats that are leaving the dock, with business projects, as described in this CSO Magazine article If you have the time, you can watch the recorded online conversation on YouTube here:So why I am sharing these event and online details? Besides the importance of these security career topics for a global audience, similar event cancellation situations are happening all over the world right now. As in-person conferences are canceled, more and more events are becoming online webinars.One of the benefits offered by these online events include the opportunity for a new global reach. On this session we had people from all over Australia and Asia, as well as people who connected from India, Canada, Nigeria, Portugal, Lebanon, the USA and more. Heres how Shamane Tan described the session later in the week in a LinkedIn post:We did have a technical glitch at the start of the webinar, which is edited out of the video above. Because of a major thunderstorm in Sydney, Shamanes video dropped off the screen when she lost power. I kept speaking for a minute or so, but then stopped for a minute to ask if Shamane was still available. Thankfully, she came back quickly, and webinar continued from there.Here are some lessons learned that Shamane posted for others from that experience:Stay safe during these crazy times.I read or hear words similar to this multiple times every day while working from home over the past month.Our thoughts and prayers are with the first responders and especially the medical staff as we watch so many people suffer with the coronavirus. Lets all do our part to keep our families healthy (wash hands, etc.), support others in the community when we must go out to grocery stores (wear masks, etc.) and also assist global governments, businesses, security and technology communities by reaching beyond our typical network. We can also give to many good causes , but be sure to vet the links and beware of scams.Perhaps, someone on the other side of the world is now listening as I just learned. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 15:39:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a news conference at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Trump said Brett Crozier's "five-page" letter, which pleaded help from his superiors and called for protecting the sailors, "looked terrible" and was "not appropriate." WASHINGTON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he supported the ousting of Brett Crozier, the whistleblower captain who sounded alarm about the COVID-19 outbreak on aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Trump told reporters at the White House that Crozier's internal letter pleading help from his superiors to contain the virus' spread on the nuclear-powered vessel "looked terrible." "He wrote a letter. A five-page letter from a captain. And the letter was all over the place. That's not appropriate, I don't think that's appropriate," Trump said. Potrait of Brett Crozier, the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier. (Credit: U.S. Navy) In the letter Crozier sent to the Navy's Pacific Fleet earlier this week, the captain asked the Pentagon to facilitate in moving 90 percent of the crew into isolation for two weeks on Guam, otherwise "we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset -- our Sailors." "Decisive action is required. Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed US nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure," the letter read. "Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care." Now docking in Guam, the Roosevelt has 155 positive cases as of Saturday, up 13 percent within 24 hours, and 44 percent of the roughly 5,000 crew have been tested, according the Navy. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) transits the Pacific Ocean, on April 7, 2017.(Credit: U.S. Navy) The Navy planned to transfer a total of 2,700 sailors onto Guam, leaving the rest of the crew on board to maintain the operation of the ship. As of Saturday, 1,548 service members have been evacuated and none of those infected with the disease have been hospitalized, the Navy said. Navy officials initially believed a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam, between late February and early March might be related to the spread of the coronavirus among the crew members, but Navy Admiral Michael Gilday downplayed that hypothesis at a briefing on Wednesday. "We don't have any forensics to indicate" that the stop in Da Nang caused the virus' spread on the ship, Gilday said, adding that all crew members were tested for symptoms before returning to the ship. "Understanding who patient zero is probably going to be an impossible task," the admiral said, citing the reason that sailors leave and board the ship frequently during its deployments. Sailors man the rails aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) as it pulls into its homeport in San Diego, the United States, on May 7, 2018. (Credit: U.S. Navy) Trump, however, chided Crozier for the port call. "Perhaps you don't do that in the middle of a pandemic," Trump said. "History would say you don't necessarily stop and let your sailors get off," he said at the White House briefing on Saturday. Crozier received standing ovation from a large crowd of sailors under his command when disembarking the ship Friday. They chanted his name repeatedly in chorus while clapping hands. Also on Friday, Senate Democrats called for a formal investigation into the Navy's response to the virus outbreak as well as its decision to remove the captain, while Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden hailed Crozier as being "faithful to his duty." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 15:06 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd159e 1 Health laundry,COVID-19,coronavirus,health,pandemic,clothes Free Doing your laundry during the coronavirus pandemic could be more complicated than it used to be. When you leave your house, to buy groceries for example, there is a chance that your clothes could become contaminated with the virus. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can live up to several hours outside of human body, depending on what kind of surface it lands on. COVID-19 is spread in tiny droplets ejected from the nose or mouth of an infected person after they cough or sneeze. A single cough can produce up to 3,000 droplets about 1 to 5 micrometers in size 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair. A recent study by Neeltje van Doremalen, a virologist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and her colleagues at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, on the lifespan on the virus on different surfaces suggested that the virus could survive up to 24 hours on cardboard and 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces. The study also found that the virus could survive and remain infectious while floating in still air for three hours after being coughed. Read also: How to do online grocery shopping in a time of coronavirus Therefore, even if you do not touch anything while outside, there is a possibility that you may walk through contaminated air and that the virus may be caught in the fibers of your clothing. Vincent Munster, head of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, however, suggested that the virus may dry up more quickly on absorbent natural fibers. It is thought that the virus will weaken faster on clothes than on hard surfaces. We speculate, due to the porous material, it desiccates rapidly and might be stuck to the fibers, he told BBC.com. No study has determined how long the virus can survive on clothing. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that clothes worn outside should be washed immediately with the warmest appropriate water along with good quality detergent, as quoted by the South China Morning Post. Hot water plus soap is proven to effectively deactivate the deadly virus. And the hotter the water, the better. The CDC says that temperatures above 75 degree Celsius can kill most flu-causing viruses. You can wash your clothes by machine or by hand. However, make sure that you wash your hands after you handle dirty clothes. If you do not have the time or resources to wash your clothes immediately, it is advisable to store the clothes in a clean bag or hamper until laundry day. Dont forget to clean and disinfect the hampers and bags after they are emptied. (gis/wng) London, April 6 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital on Sunday. According to the BBC, a Downing Street spokesperson said: "On the advice of his doctor, the prime minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests. "This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus ten days after testing positive for the virus," the spokesperson said. The Downing Street spokesperson said: "Prime Minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the Government's advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives." For purely precautionary reasons, he has gone to hospital for tests. It was considered sensible for doctors to see Mr Johnson in person given he has ongoing symptoms, the spokeswoman says. He remains in charge of the UK government, and is in contact with ministerial colleagues and officials. The news comes a day after Johnson's pregnant fiancAe Carrie Symonds announced that she had experienced coronavirus symptoms. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to remain in hospital overnight. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is expected to chair the government's next coronavirus meeting. Johnson has worked from home since it was announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus on 27 March. Since then Johnson continued to have persistent symptoms, including a high temperature. He chaired a coronavirus meeting via video-link on Friday morning. He was last seen in public applauding the NHS and other key workers from his flat in Downing Street on Thursday. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text United States President, Donald Trump has told Americans to prepare for a lot of death in the coming week as the dreadful Coronavirus surges. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 1.1 million people and killed more than 60,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US has more than 300,000 cases and more than 8,100 deaths, according to revised figures. Trump on Saturday said Theres going to be a lot of death, unfortunately. He said federal assistance would now be focused on areas that need it most. In some cases we are telling governors we cannot go there as we dont think they need it, or someone else needs it, he said. There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. There will be death. We are looking for an obvious focus on the hardest hit regions. Some spring up, they hit you like you got hit by a club, he said. Trump added: were going to be adding a tremendous amount of military, thousands of soldiers, medical workers, professionals, to help deal with the pandemic. The military personnel will soon be advised of their assignments, he said, adding that 1,000 military personnel were being deployed to New York City, BBC reports. Trump also said that he was employing the Defence Production Act, a federal law instituted in response to the Korean War in 1950, which allows it to requisition materials and facilities seemingly confirming mask manufacturer 3Ms claim that it had been told by the US government not to send masks to Canada or Latin America. Fema [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] has ordered 180 million N95 masks and were working now with 3M to see if that works out, he said. But we want them to help our country. We need the masks, we dont want other people getting it you could call it retaliation. Sacramento California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an initiative Friday to place homeless people in hotel and motel rooms around the state in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA and California counties have identified 6,867 rooms that are now in state possession, and they're looking to identify up to 15,000 rooms in total as an initial goal. The "Project Roomkey" initiative is the first of its kind in the nation, in which the federal agency would reimburse state and local governments up to 75 percent of the costs of the rooms, including services such as meals and security and custodial services, for the next three months, CBS SF Bay Area reports. Essential behavioral health and health care services will also be provided by the local governments and community partners as needed. The agreements provide for extensions beyond the three-month period. "Homeless Californians are incredibly vulnerable to COVID-19 and often have no option to self-isolate or social distance," Newsom said in a news release Friday. "By helping the most vulnerable homeless individuals off the street and into isolation, California can slow the spread of COVID-19 through homeless populations, lower the number of people infected and protect critical health care resources." Advocates for the homeless, however, have been frustrated, The Associated Press reports. The governor said two weeks ago that California would quickly move to get more than 50,000 hotel rooms. The 7,000 rooms the state now has are housing almost 900 people, said Newsom. That accounts for a fraction of what's needed, the governor acknowledged. There are an estimated 150,000 homeless people in the state. US-VIRUS-HEALTH-EPIDEMIC Homeless tents are seen on San Julian Street in the Skid Row area in downtown Los Angeles, California on March 19, 2020. Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images The hotel and motel rooms will be reserved for extremely vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness, as health officials around the state seek to flatten the curve and preserve hospital capacity. Story continues "We had a number of counties in the last days that have reported incidences of positive test results [among the homeless] in counties large and small, including San Francisco, but other counties in L.A. that have shown at least a dozen, in fact 14 in our last count. By the way, that's an under count, we know. That's just what has been reported to us," Newsom said, according to CBS SF Bay Area. Newsom said Chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen will be providing meals to some of the homeless people relocated to hotels. Saturday Sessions: Adeline performs "Come & Go" Saturday Sessions: Adeline performs "Twilight" Saturday Sessions: Adeline performs "Middle" Less Than a Moment is Steven Havills 24th Posadas County Mystery, and youd think with that many installments in the same series the author would be hard-pressed to come up with yet another original plot. Not Havill. His brain clicks into gear when he sits down to write. In a phone interview from his home in Datil, he lightheartedly and candidly calls the process butt to chair. The stories dont go away. (Its about) just finding the time and energy to get them written. In this latest police procedural, someone steals the school superintendents car for a late-night drive-by shooting of the offices of the weekly newspaper, injuring cub reporter Rik Chang and editor Pam Gardiner. Figuring out the who and why of the shooting, and the ballistics analysis of the firearm, is the job of sensible, personable Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, the main protagonist, and her boss, the short-tempered Sheriff Robert Torrez. Was Torrezs nephew Quentin, who had been charged with his third DWI, the shooter? The injuries arent severe, but the victims are hospitalized. Pam, it is discovered, has a preexisting brain aneurysm. If she dies, a case of malicious vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon could become a murder charge. The newspaper is in the fictional small town of Posadas, the seat of fictional Posadas County, New Mexico, on the Mexican border. About halfway through the book, a second mystery surfaces with the death of the newly arrived Kyle Thompson, who bought up more than 1,000 acres of ranchland. The land is next to Miles Waddells NightZone, an enormous commercial development that includes an observatory and radio telescopes, open space attracting birders and cactus lovers, a narrow-gauge rail line, a tram, a restaurant/hotel. NightZone is an economic boon for the rural county. Thompsons unexplained plans worry Waddell. He fears the possibility of light pollution will interfere with night-sky viewing. Initially, deputies wonder whether Thompson fell or was pushed to his death from a ledge onto a cluster of rocks below. Given the distance of the fall, Reyes-Guzman and Torrez think Thompson was killed. Waddell isnt a suspect. Hes Mister Nice Guy, though overly solicitous. Thompsons widow, Lydia, may be. Shes an annoying snoop. The book concludes with a shootout between Torrez and a surprise villain. The scene ties together Thompsons murder and the drive-by. A State Police formal inquiry into the shootout follows, the novel says, because an officer-involved shooting must be probed by a disinterested agency. Less Than A Moment reveals Posadas sense of small-town life through the conversations of multiple characters and by rolling them into the narrative, whether theyre related or unrelated to the crimes. We see, for example, moments of Reyes-Guzmans personal and professional life with her physician-husband, Francis. Their son, Francisco, a classical pianist, is of interest to curious newsmen and townsfolk who want to know whether he and his family are making Posadas their new home. The undersheriff remains buddies with retired Sheriff Bill Gastner, protagonist earlier in the series. Gastner is now tracing the history of a rusted Colt revolver manufactured in 1889 that he found and restored. In shaping his characters, Havill said, You draw on who you know, who youve met. Their characteristics show up. The 74-year-old Havill loves small-town life. He and his wife moved to Datil after having resided in Raton and Lincoln. Havill holds two degrees from the University of New Mexico, a bachelors in English and a masters in education. Advertisement Modi conveyed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the US, saying he was praying for the early recovery of those still suffering from the disease.Stressing the special relationship between the two countries, the Prime Minister reiterated India''s solidarity with the US in overcoming this global crisis together.The Prime Minister and the US President exchanged notes on the respective steps taken in each country for mitigating the health and economic impacts of the pandemic."The two leaders also touched upon the significance of practices such as yoga and ayurveda for ensuring physical and mental wellbeing in these difficult times.They agreed that their officials would remain in close touch with respect to the global Covid-19 crisis," said a statement issued by the Centre. Modi also took to Twitter to announce, "Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realDonaldTrump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19."As on Saturday evening, India had over 3,000 active coronavirus cases besides reporting 75 deaths. The situation in worse in the US where the number of cases have reached 277,613 so far.Source: IANS By Peter Hobson LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Three of the world's biggest gold refineries said they will partially reopen after a two week closure that disrupted global supply of the metal. Valcambi, Argor-Heraeus and PAMP, located near the Swiss border with Italy, were shut by a local government order on March 20 which closed non-essential industry to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Together they process about 1,500 tonnes of gold a year -- equivalent to a third of global supply -- and are a key transit point, purifying mined material and reshaping metal moving between markets that require gold in different sizes and shapes. Fears that it would be impossible to turn enough 400 ounce bars stored in London into 100 ounce bars used in New York drove U.S. gold futures sharply above London prices after the refiners closed. Valcambi and Argor said on Sunday they had received government approval to partially reopen on April 6. PAMP said on Friday it had permission to restart. They said this was on condition that they observe more stringent hygiene and safety measures. Valcambi and PAMP said this meant they would operate at less than 50% capacity. Argor said it would have a "reduced work regime", splitting staff into three groups working separate shifts. The economic shock caused by the coronavirus outbreak is pushing up demand for gold from retail and financial investors. Gold is traditionally seen as a 'safe-haven' asset which holds value better than others through times of turmoil. The three refineries also process silver and other precious metals. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; editing by Jason Neely) The intensity of the COVID-19 response may have focused CSOs on securing remote workers, but an international cyber warfare expert has warned Australian CSOs to be extra vigilant against cyber security strikes from nation-states seeking strategic advantage against distracted rivals. Its dangerous when all eyes are on one piece of news, Charity Wright, a cyber threat intelligence analyst with IntSights, told CSO Australia. [ How much does a cyber attack really cost? Take a look at the numbers. | Get the latest from CSO by signing up for our newsletters. ] How Australians are being attacked Australian payments-fraud firm EFTsure recently reported that Australian businesses have been targeted with 15 times as many false invoices, requests for changes of banking details and other fraud-related messages. And security firm Security in Depth reports a 40 percent surge in spear-phishing emails against Australian targets over the past fortnight. Companies face additional threats from nation state-linked attacks like Emotet, a widespread malware attack that was called out by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) late last year as threatening a variety of sectors in the Australian economy and was recently flagged by Cisco Talos as targeting US military installations. The coronavirus pandemic has been flagged as threatening to reshape the strategic landscape of the world. And, without a strong proactive response from CSOs, this rebalancing could easily spill over into new cybersecurity threats for any Australian company. There have been a lot of questions about whether foreign actors will attack commercial interests during times of conflict and disruption, Wright said. I even have doctors offices freaking out and asking whether they should be worried. But the enemy always has a very specific motive and target and I tell CSOs to look at who are the targets of this adversary, what are their tactics, what are their tools, and what are your vulnerabilities to those things? Wright said. Coronavirus-related sites are now a vector for cyber attacks IntSights and many other firms have observed surges in cyber criminal activity on the back of the escalating pandemic, with Sydney-based risk-management firm Sectara warning that cyber criminals including state-sponsored actors are creating or taking over coronavirus information sites that deliver malicious payloads. Sectara has been applying models from the Security Risk Management Body of Knowledge (SRMBOK) to the coronavirus situation, offering its software free during the pandemic. There are a wide range of groups who are executing malware and ransomware attacks to profit from the global health pandemic and these attacks are only likely to grow as the pandemic continues, security risk management expert Julian Talbot warned. Despite Chinas success with the lockdown, there is really no exit strategy until we have a vaccine, which is unlikely to be this year. Hackers and state-sponsored actors will continue to build ever more sophisticated attacks if we are not vigilant. More nation-states may be tempted to mount cyber attacks Recent tensions between Iran and the United States, for example, had fuelled a rise in cybersecurity activity, creating an opening for other states keen to capture a geopolitical advantage. Russia, in particular, takes advantage of these situations where everyone is distracted as it did in 2018, when concerns about that countrys active probing of millions of routers worldwide led to calls for Australia to develop an offensive asymmetric capability. Even companies that might not normally consider themselves targets for nation-state actors should be wary, Wright said: With coronavirus dominating news cycles and corporate response plans leaving cybersecurity competing for oxygen during board meetings, Australias involvement in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing community could potentially make them targets as well. Weakened by its spiralling COVID-19 death count, Iran could potentially lean heavily on cyber criminal capabilities which Wright said are kind of limited compared with others around the world to reassert its regional and global political relevance. Even smaller countries could pose new threats in the rapidly changing global environment, she noted. Many countries have economic or political agendas but they are unable to purchase expensive military equipment, she explained. Cyber operations really level the field for everyone and smaller countries are realising that if they put resources into cyber, they can really stand up for themselves. Venezuela, for example, had turned to cyber crime to compensate for recent socio-political changes including vulnerable technological infrastructure, users moving to dark web sites for censored information, a migration to cryptocurrency due to the collapse of the local currency, and cyber criminals operating in the open without any concerns about being caught. A Second World War hero who was part of the famous Damusters squadron has died after contracting coronavirus. Kenneth Law Sumner, 96, passed away at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary on April 2 after suffering a short illness and testing positive for Covid-19. It comes after two bishops from the same church in Wolverhampton were also killed by the deadly pathogen with figures now reporting 47,806 confirmed cases and 4,934 deaths across the UK. Kenneth Law Sumner, 96, (pictured) passed away at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary on April 2 after suffering a short illness and testing positive for Covid-19 Ken, as he was known by his friends and family, was born in Sackatchewan, Canada, but returned to the North East of England when he was a young man. He joined the RAF aged just 18 in July 1941. He won a Distinguished Flying Medal for his bravery while serving in '44 'Rhodesia' Squadron after flying a total of 27 operations in Lancaster Bomber planes. Ken went on to join the famous '617 'Dam Buster' Squadron, known for its strategically vital attacks on German dams using bouncing bombs, at 21 years old. It was there that he met his future wife Phyllis 'Rennie' Reynolds to whom he was married from 1946 to her death in 2015. Ken (left) had joined the famous '617 'Dam Buster' Squadron, known for its strategically vital attacks on German dams using bouncing bombs, at 21 years old Grandson Kenneth Shepherd said he and his family 'could not have wished for a bigger hero to look up to' than his 'flawless' grandfather. He said: 'He was a true gentlemen who never stopped loving his family, his wife of over 60 years Rennie and, of course, his cat Patchy. 'As they say, they don't make them like them anymore: there was never a truer saying.' Kenneth said his whole family wanted to thank the NHS staff who had been treating the war hero. He said the loss of his grandfather, who he had 'really thought was going to walk out of hospital with his medals on', further highlighted the need to observe vital lockdown rules intended to slow the spread of coronavirus and protect the elderly and vulnerable. Ken's death comes after two religious leaders from the Church Of God Of Prophecy in Wolverhampton were also among the latest coronavirus victims. Reverend Bishop Theophilus Augustus McCalla MBE, 86, and Reverend Bishop Horatio Fearon, 80s, died just 24 hours apart after contracting Covid-19. It is thought up to ten members from the same denomination, including senior ministers, have also died in recent weeks. One churchgoer who knew both Reverend McCalla and Reverend Fearon told Sky News they were concerned that a significant number of other worshippers could die following the outbreak. Reverend Bishop Theophilus Augustus McCalla MBE, 86, (pictured) was also among the latest coronavirus victims Reverend Bishop Horatio Fearon, 80s, (pictured), from the same church had died just 24 hours earlier They said: 'The virus seems to have affected several in our community. 'Some have died, others are still struggling with it. 'Our small church community will not be the same when the outbreak ends because some of our key leaders, who meant so much to us, have gone. 'We continue to pray, and trust God for recovery of those who are sick, and may the dead rest in eternal peace.' Both men were religious leaders from the Church Of God Of Prophecy in Wolverhampton (pictured) The Church Of God Of Prophecy has between 60 and 70 congregations across the UK. It is understood that all public and private worship services have been suspended across all of its branches. The deaths come as the deadly pathogen continues to spread across the UK with the latest figures reporting 47,806 confirmed cases and 4,934 fatalities. Queensland has no immediate plans to expand its testing regime for the novel coronavirus, despite cases of unknown transmission in the state starting to increase. The state on Sunday recorded its lowest increase in overall case numbers for several weeks, with just nine more people testing positive for COVID-19, bringing the overall tally to 907. Those figures were released as the state death toll rose to five on Sunday afternoon, after a 78-year-old man died in Brisbane's Prince Charles hospital. He was the fourth Queensland death linked to a cruise ship and the third to the ill-fated Ruby Princess, which has seen more than 600 cases and 10 other deaths. It has also requested leaders of agencies under municipal and provincial Departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to step up urgent measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Overseas Vietnamese labour management boards should encourage Vietnamese labourers to stay calm, observe host countries regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control, and avoid trips to disease-hit areas, while ensuring rights and interests of the labourers who are affected by the epidemic. In its document sent to relevant agencies, the ministry said that scheduled inspections will be also halted at this time, adding that online inspections in the sphere of labour are encouraged. The ministry urged medical declaration at the request of the Ministry of Health, especially among the elderly and sick people, and ensuring safety during social welfare payment. The number of coronavirus-related deaths in New York has dropped for the first time, though Governor Andrew Cuomo warns that the significance of the daily drop is "too early to tell." Within the last 24 hours, 594 people have died, a decrease from 630 reported deaths from the day before. At least 4,159 people in the state have died. Of those deaths, more than 3,500 have been reported in New York City, eclipsing the city's death toll from 9/11. The governor cautions the latest drop may be a "blip," but daily intubation rates and hospitalisations are also down. As of 4 April, 316 people were intubated, down slightly from 351 on 3 April. New hospitalisations also dropped, from 1,095 on 3 April to 594 on 4 April, according to the governor's office. Nearly three-quarters of all patients who have been hospitalised were discharged and recovered, he said, while newly identified cases in New York City have remained "flat" over the last few days. He said: "We could be very near the apex ... We won't know until the next few days." The governor added that "we're all watching a movie [and] waiting to see what the next scene is." But Governor Cuomo said the state still is "two or three or four days" away from depleting its medical supplies and available staff. Despite donations of ventilators, masks and other supplies, the state is "literally going day to day" with its stocks of critically needed medical equipment and personal protective gear. Governor Cuomo confirmed that 325 US military medical personnel have been sent to the state's hospitals, following the Pentagon's announcement of hundreds of service members being deployed to New York City, which has emerged as a viral epicentre in the US, as its hospital system braces for a surge in patients. On Sunday, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said "we will be sending up over a thousand medical professionals today, tomorrow and the next day" to assist New York hospital staff. Secretary Esper said that the Jacob K Javits Convention Center a massive makeshift hospital with 2,500 beds to ease the burden on local hospitals has been established as "the largest hospital in the United States" to be run by the military. Governor Cuomo said the state is moving to a "surge and flex" strategy that organises hospitals into one "system" and attempts to balance the patient load, rather than over-stress one area. The state will move ventilators upstate from New York City and new viral hotspot Long Island, then back, as needed. More than 122,031 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed across the state, roughly a third of all cases in the US.. The US total has reached 312,481, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. A New Mexico man allegedly splashed gasoline on his wife and attempted to set her on fire after she says he became upset because he did not qualify for a coronavirus stimulus check. Police say Joe Macias, 63, attacked his wife at their mobile home at a trailer park at the 7400 block of San Pedro NE, just north of San Antonio, New Mexico Albuquerque police responded to the scene at about 8:30pm to find his disabled wife lying on the floor, with her hair and pajamas drenched in gasoline. Macias has been charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated battery against a household member. Joe Macias, 63, was charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated battery against a household member after allegedly dousing his wife with gasoline Macias also allegedly drenched his trailer home with gasoline and attempted to set it on fire Macias' wife reportedly told police that he walked into his mobile home on Wednesday at around 5pm with a four-pack of beer. After discovering he wouldn't get the government check, he asked his wife for her car keys. But when she wouldn't hand them over, she claims he screamed 'you're going to pay the consequences' , the Albuquerque Journal reports. She said he returned a few hours later with a gas can and shoved her to the floor. Macias then allegedly threw gasoline on her and throughout the mobile home before flicking his lighter to light a cigarette. But some of gasoline had doused his lighter, preventing it from sparking a blaze. Police reported finding Macias walking down the street with his clothes soaked in gasoline. He is being held at the Albuquerque's Metropolitan Detention Center. Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill lit two lamps on Sunday for motivation and in the memory of those who died of coronavirus and said he will light seven more if the government lives up to people's expectations. Shergill said while he lit two lamps -- one for motivation and another in the memory of those who died of coronavirus -- he will light seven more when adequate testing kits are made available by the government, free COVID-19 tests are done, doctors are provided with PPE kits and relief is given to labourers and those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. "9 diyas-Lit up 1 Diya for "Motivation", 1 in memory of lives claimed by Covid19 - 7 when Government focuses on "Preparation": 1. Testing Kits+ 2. PPE+ 3. Free Testing 4. Quarantine Beds+ 5. Relief for Labourers 6. Loan Waiver on EMI for salaried class 7. Employment generation," he said in a tweet. The Congress leader was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for lighting lamps for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to show solidarity with the war against the coronavirus outbreak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China is hurting. The entire global economy has taken a huge hit from the spread of the coronavirus, but so far none have been hit as hard as China, where the COVID-19 pandemic originated. The worlds second-largest economy came to a grinding halt back in January, leading to a historic economic slump for the nation that has seen nothing but growth in recent years. Last month Business Day reported that China suffered an even deeper slump than analysts feared at the start of the year as industrial output plunged 13.5% in January and February from a year earlier, retail sales fell 20.5%, and fixed-asset investment dropped 24.5%. The unemployment rate jumped to a record 6.2% in February, when the outbreak worsened and much of the economy was shut down. That has major implications for all of us. China Stopped Its Economy to Tackle Coronavirus. Now the World Suffers, proclaimed a New York Times headline early last month. If the coronavirus plunges the world into recession, China will be the biggest reason, the article reads. To make matters worse, for many economists, the looming recession seems to be a matter of when, not if. Economists caution that [Chinas] shutdown threatens the economies of Japan, South Korea, Europe and even the United States. Huge corporations like Apple, Microsoft, AB InBev and Pfizer have already seen an impact, and even those warnings understate Chinas reach. The oil industry is no exception. As Chinas economy halted and the coronavirus continued to spread, oil demand plummeted. This led to a disagreement between the OPEC+ members of Saudi Arabia and Russia, which resulted in a broken alliance and then an all-out oil price war. Now. were suffering from one of the biggest oil price crashes in history, the Permian Basin is being rocked by tens of thousands of layoffs, and the first major United States shale company has already succumbed to the crisis and declared bankruptcy this week. And that company, Whiting Petroleum, is just the first domino to fall in US shale wipeout, according to CNBC. And now, with crude oil prices through the floor, the Chinese economy has emerged from its slumber to buy it all up. China is moving forward with plans to buy up oil for its emergency reserves after an epic price crash, Bloomberg reported this week. The worlds biggest importer is taking advantage of a 60 percent plunge this year to snatch up cheaper barrels for its stockpiles, a source of considerable speculation in the oil market because of the governments reluctance to release information about their formation, size or use. The country intends to buy up so much crude oil in the coming weeks that they wont have enough state-owned storage to hold it all. According to interviews with industry insiders who asked Bloomberg to maintain their anonymity, Beijing has plans to use commercial storage space as well, while also reaching out to the private sector to encourage them to fill their own tanks with cheap gas as part of a nationwide contingency plan. The initial target is to hold government stockpiles equivalent to 90 days of net imports, which could eventually be expanded to as much as 180 days when including commercial reserves, the Bloomberg report continues. Ninety days of net crude imports is about 900 million barrels [...]. While the current size of Chinas state reserves is unknown, and Beijing could use a different method for calculating net imports, oil traders and analysts estimated it could amount to China buying an additional 80 million to 100 million barrels over the course of the year. This could be great news for the global oil market, which desperately needs to sell off some of the glut that brought oil prices so low in the first place, but likely will not make enough of a dent to correct the problem any time soon. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: SUNDAY PUZZLE Jim Peredo is a steady contributor with nine New York Times puzzles, but we havent seen a weekend grid from him since 2014. I know him only from the Grumpy Cat memorial puzzle, his most recent, but I find his style of cluing really distinctive and enjoyable. Will Shortzs introduction refers to geocaching as one of Mr. Peredos inspirations; I was struck by the number of interesting historical figures that come up today, from all walks of life. This theme is a slow burner and very creative, plenty of steak as well as sizzle for everyone who loves the whims and idioms of language. Puzzling Things to Do While You Are Home Peter Ritmeesters site, pzzl.com, is hosting some free grids by the likes of Fred Piscop, as well as a wide range of sudoku puzzles. Tricky Clues I found this a pretty rich Sunday, and if youre not good with names then Id imagine it would be hard to get started. SAL, MIA, LEWIS, HAL, GENE, SNERD, ESAI, CASTRO and GUSTAV were all among the early entries I filled in. I had no idea who ANAIS Mitchell is, but Im glad I know her now (this appears to be her debut in the grid, and the first non-Nin reference to ANAIS weve gotten in the Times puzzle). As far as SAM, I dont know if Mr. Peredo means Samantha Bee or Sam Ezersky, since both work with the clue. Emerging investment instruments, REITs and InvITs, seem to be gaining pace, with mutual funds investing a whopping Rs 980 crore in such units in January 2020, a surge of 58 per cent from the preceding year. Fund managers infused Rs 71 crore in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Rs 909 crore in infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) in January this year, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). In comparison, an investment of mere Rs 7 crore was seen in REITs in January 2019 and Rs 611 crore in InvITs. Mutual funds have been increasing their exposure in these investment avenues over the last one year. In the year 2019, mutual funds invested over Rs 12,000 crore in such units. It includes Rs 670 crore in REITs and Rs 11,347 crore in InvITs. Market experts believe that REITs could be a potential investment option with good returns as interest of investors in the residential segment is declining due to inability to monetise assets and limited appreciation in property prices. Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi, who met scores of foreign investors in the US in October, said he saw keen interest from them in emerging areas such as REITs and InvITs. During the meeting, the participants were enthusiastic about emerging areas such as REITs and InvITs, which have more than USD 10 billion asset size as on date. Sebi first issued guidelines for REITs and InvITs in 2014, and revised them in 2016 and 2017. However, mutual funds, which are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors and invest in stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets, were allowed to invest in REITs and InvITs in February 2017. The move was part of the markets watchdog Sebi's effort to get more investors into such instruments. Under the norms, a mutual fund has been permitted to invest only up to 5 per cent of its net asset value in units of a single issuer of alternative securities. The maximum allowed investment in alternative instruments by a single fund has been capped at 10 per cent. Ever since Sebi introduced InvITs, markets have witnessed listing of two public InvITs -- IRB InvIT Fund and India Grid Trust. Four InvITs -- IndInfravit Trust, India Infrastructure Trust, Oriental InfraTrust and Tower Infrastructure Trust -- were privately placed. On the other hand, Embassy Office Parks REIT is the only listed real estate investment trust. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: A dairy farmer in Himachal Pradesh who tested negative for COVID-19 ended his life on Sunday after villagers allegedly blamed him for spreading the virus. Dilshad Muhamud of Bangarh village in Una district of the state had reportedly met two attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Delhi's Markaz. Police sources said that Muhamud, who belonged to the Gujjar community hung himself in his house after villagers had stopped buying milk from him. He was a native of the village and also a Below Poverty Line (BPL) cardholder. His community lived and sold milk in Una and nearby Punjab. "On April 2, Dilshad was taken by the local police to the regional hospital in Una for COVID-19 testing. After his report came negative, the police dropped him back to his place in an ambulance on Saturday, said a police officer. The deceaseds family members allege that Dilshad was insulted by the villagers because of which he resorted to suicide, further adding that he met everyone in the morning after which he went to offer namaz, locking the door behind him. His family members got suspicious as he didn't come out for a long time. They broke open the door and found him hanging from the ceiling. "We are being victimized and people were not buying milk from us. It was the only source of income. Dilshad was tested negative and he never visited the congregation in Delhi. Despite this, the harassment continued and he could not take it anymore, said a family member. It is learnt that a case is likely to be registered after a postmortem is done. Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on Jeevan Aastha helpline 1800 233 3330. Queen to address the nation: Those who come after us will say that Britons of this generation were as strong as any The Queen will urge Britain to rise to the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, speaking of her faith that this generation will prove themselves as strong as any that have come before. Invoking the spirit that saw the country through the Second World War, the 93-year-old monarch will talk of her hope that Britons will be able to take pride in how they responded, drawing on the traits of self-discipline, quiet good-humoured resolve and fellow-feeling that characterise the UK. No 10 said The Queens intervention was designed to lift the nations spirits as the Government urged people to follow lockdown rules designed to slow the spread of Covid-19 and prevent the NHS being overwhelmed. Sunday Telegraph Comment Only with data will we know if right ethical calls were made, Liam Fox Sunday Telegraph Rallying words of our constant Queen bring touch of wartime resolve, Camilla Tominey Sunday Telegraph >Today: MPs ETC: Coronavirus Count >Yesterday: Ministers 1) Raab: We must unite nationally and globally As we face this unprecedented challenge of pulling the country through the coronavirus pandemic, the government is doing everything it can to protect lives and reinforce the NHS. The single biggest thing we can all do is to follow the guidance to stay home and limit our social interaction with others to deny coronavirus the ability to spread. Its a team effort, and a national mission, to defeat an international pandemic. As Health Secretary Matt Hancock set out this week, we have a plan to increase testing to 100,000 per day by the end of April, to return more NHS staff safely back to the frontline. We have a plan to provide the protective equipment frontline staff need and equip the NHS as demonstrated by the construction of NHS Nightingale hospital at the ExCeL centre in London, a phenomenal achievement, set to be followed in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. This way, the NHS will be able to deal with the virus at its peak. Sunday Telegraph Johnson and Raab warn against protectionism after Trumps raid on masks Sunday Telegraph PM warns countries against acting in their own interests Mail on Sunday Treasury plans to take emergency stakes in corporate casualties Sunday Telegraph No 10 makes U-turn to offer free holiday meals to pupils Sunday Times Abu Dhabi charges NHS millions in rent for super-hospital Sunday Times Comment We need Churchills can-do spirit to get our bureaucratic health system moving, Daniel Hannan Sunday Telegraph >Yesterday: Ministers 2) Prime Minister sets free 4,000 prisoners Ministers have ordered the release of 4,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus crisis, despite officials warning that some of them will reoffend and may even commit murder. About 3,500 prisoners within two months of the end of their sentence will be temporarily released from jail on licence, and will be fitted with GPS tags from this week. A further 500 prisoners who are pregnant or old and vulnerable will also be allowed out. Boris Johnson signed off on the move last week, after being warned that a coronavirus outbreak in prison would make it impossible for prison staff to cope. Sunday Times Ministers 3) Sunak at war with Hancock over best way out of lockdown Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made robust representations to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, arguing that unless a path is mapped now for a swift return to normal economic activity it could cause lasting damage to the country. Government critics of Mr Hancock argue his careerist fear of being personally blamed for a collapse in the NHS is blinding him to the dangers of a protracted lockdown. But allies of Mr Hancock hit back last night, saying: He is just doing his job, which is to protect the NHS. It comes as The Mail on Sunday has learned recovery teams being put in place across Whitehall to rebuild Britain after the epidemic are not expected to start work until July. Mail on Sunday Inside No 10 everyone is at war over coronavirus Sunday Times The week when ministers struggled to keep pace Observer Tories lash out at sanctimonious Hunt Mail on Sunday Comment A week of missed chances, blame games and a loss of confidence, Edward Malnick Sunday Telegraph The Tories call to protect the NHS is a disgraceful hypocrisy, Simon Hattenstone Observer Ministers 4) Lord Bethell made de facto minister for testing Lord Jim Bethell has been tasked with leading the governments rapid uptake in coronavirus testing after figures showed the number of people being tested had slipped below 10,000 a day. It comes amid a growing blame game about the UKs poor performance at diagnosing patients compared to countries such as Germany, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisting on a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April. Public Health England (PHE), the body responsible for protecting the nation during health emergencies, has come in for criticism over the weak efforts to kickstart mass testing of COVID-19 patients and frontline NHS staff. Mail on Sunday Global cases pass 1.2m as Trump warns US of worse to come Donald Trump has warned the US the worst is yet to come, as global cases passed 1.2m and the governor of New York thanked China for donating 1,000 ventilators. The state recorded 630 deaths on Saturday in its worst day. This is a big deal and its going to make a significant difference for us, said Andrew Cuomo, who has repeatedly warned that the states supply of the vital machines would be exhausted in days if current trends continued. Trump also warned the next two weeks would be the toughest and that there would be a lot of death. He would deploy thousands of military personnel to support the states, the president said. Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio have repeatedly implored the federal government for more help. Observer >Today: Raab ally calls for delay to Brexit talks A leading Brexiteer has called on Boris Johnson to seek an extension of the transition period, urging the prime minister to get on the front foot. Nick de Bois, a former Tory MP who served as chief of staff to Dominic Raab when the latter was Brexit secretary, says the public would find it illogical and incomprehensible to divert people and resources to Brexit trade talks in the middle of the pandemic. He spoke out as ministers and advisers said they were coming round to the view that the UK would have to seek a delay in the talks. Downing Street flatly denies claims that Johnsons team is moving towards accepting a delay. This is not true, a senior source said. Sunday Times New Labour leader slams PMs serious mistakes Labours newly elected leader will ramp up the pressure on Boris Johnson over the coronavirus pandemic today as he demands the government come clean on the serious mistakes made. In an exclusive article for The Sunday Times, he writes: The public is placing an enormous trust in the government at the moment: it is vital that that trust is met with openness and transparency about those mistakes and the decisions that have been made. In an effort to neuter further criticism, the prime minister last night wrote to the leaders of the opposition parties inviting them to attend a briefing this week with him and Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser. Sunday Times Comment Do not be fooled, Keir Starmer is no centrist, Robbie Gibb Sunday Telegraph Starmer must put clear red water between Labour and Corbyn era or risk irrelevance, Tom Harris Sunday Telegraph >Today: >Yesterday: About 40,000 crew and seafarers stranded on cargo and cruise vessels across the globe are awaiting return to Indian shores, with the government assuring to extend help once the nationwide lockdown on account of coronavrius outbreak is lifted, maritime bodies have said. There are about 15,000 seafarers onboard about 500 cargo vessels across the globe, and another 25,000 on cruise ships. Maritime bodies like NUSI, MUI and MASSA told PTI they have raised the issue with the Shipping Ministry, which has assured to extend all possible help for return of these seafarers after the lockdown is lifted. "It is estimated that around 40,000 Indian seafarers are stranded on cargo and cruise vessels across the globe and are waiting to come back home since their job contracts have expired," said Capt Shiv Halbe, CEO of Maritime Association of Shipowners, Shipmanagers and Agents (MASSA). He said the issue was raised before Shipping Minister Mansukh Lal Manadaviya, who assured their safe passage back home once the lockdown is lifted. "However, the minister said that the seafarers will need to be tested and then quarantined or isolated," he added. The maritime bodies and other stakeholders from port sector held a meeting with Mandaviya, through video conferencing, to discuss the plight of Indian seafarers, who are outside India currently, and various issues faced by the Indian maritime industry due to COVID-19 pandemic. Halbe called the meeting "extremely fruitful" and said he expects the government to take steps after the lockdown is over. Maritime Union of India (MUI) General Secretary Amar Singh Thakur said, "The minister agreed that there is a need to treat seafarers as 'essential workers' and to provide smooth relief facilities in ports. Their welfare should be looked after whilst they are onboard and in transit." National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) General Secretary Abdulgani Serang said, "I assured the minister that NUSI will certainly do the needful to financially support Indian seafarers in the current scenario when Indian economy is passing through a rough phase due to pandemic across the globe." He said NUSI has earmarked a corpus of Rs 10 crore to support retired Indian seafarers, disabled seafarers, widows of seafarers and jobless seafarers who have been out of job for the past nine months. "This novel move is aimed at alleviating their economic hardships in the current pandemic scenario," he added. Mandaviya on Friday had exhorted port officials and other stakeholders to convert the present crisis into an opportunity by ensuring smooth cargo operations so that supplies are not hit during the lockdown. The representatives from ports sector had raised concerns on high port operation cost, port congestion, shortage of labourers, movement of workers and truck drivers, among others, due to the lockdown. India has 12 major ports -- Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V.O. Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Oman's Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has successfully produced medical equipment using 3-D printing technology as part of the national efforts to combat Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, said a report. The project has been carried out by MoCI in cooperation with the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn), Oman Technology Fund (OTF) and a number of small and mid-sized enterprises specialising in 3-D printing technology, the Oman Daily Observer report said. It has also coordinated with a plastic production factory to provide plastic materials to produce protective gear as per the standards stipulated by the ministry of health and the Directorate General for Standards and Metrology (DGSM). Further, the MoCI pointed out that it welcomes all initiatives that would serve the health sector in particular and other sectors in general under the current situation, the report added. TradeArabia News Service The Amazing Race 'influencer team' Sidney Pierucci and Ashley Ruscoe split in November last year, after competing on the show. And on Sunday, the former couple headed out for a coffee run in Sydney. Dressed in black activewear, the pair engaged in conversation as they also enjoyed a casual stroll. Out and about: Former Amazing Race 'influencer' couple Sidney Pierucci (left), 27, and Ashley Ruscoe (right), 30, met for a coffee in Sydney on Sunday, after their shock split Ashley showed off her trim figure in a black windcheater with colour block panels and coordinating leggings. The 30-year-old kept light on her feet in a pair of black sneakers, and carried just her phone and wallet on the outing. Ashley swept her blonde locks into a high ponytail, and wore minimal makeup. Meanwhile, Sidney donned a black T-shirt, workout shorts, socks pulled up and trendy white sneakers. Amicable split: The reality stars engaged in conversation as they also enjoyed a casual stroll in the area The 27-year-old looked ready to break a sweat, draping a towel over his shoulder. Ashley told Daily Mail Australia on Sunday that they are not back together, and were simply discussing a business idea. In November, Ashley announced their split during an interview with TV Week magazine. Looking fit: Ashley showed off her trim figure in a black windcheater with colour block panels, coordinating leggings and black sneakers Ashley said they parted ways shortly after completing their round-the-world journey. And while she admitted filming had caused tension between them, it wasn't the sole reason for their split. 'Sid and I have a great relationship; we just decided not to continue our romantic relationship,' she explained. Ready to break a sweat? Sidney donned a black T-shirt, workout shorts, socks pulled up and trendy white sneakers. He also draped a striped towel over his shoulder Reflecting on their challenges, Ashley added: 'I knew we'd clash and we did. But we managed to bounce back most of the time.' The announcement came one week after Sidney was slapped with an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) after an alleged domestic violence incident involving Ashley. 'Police have charged a 27-year-old man following a domestic related incident at Bellevue Hill,' police said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia at the time. Sidney and Ashley were billed as 'The Bondi Influencers' on The Amazing Race, in reference to the fact they have a combined 37,000 followers on Instagram. President Akufo-Addo has granted a three months tax relief to health workers and frontline workers fighting the coronavirus. President Nana Akufo-Addo made this known on April 5, 2020 as he delivered his fifth address to the nation. He says for the months of April, May and June, health workers shall not pay taxes on their emoluments. Again, he said all frontlines health workers will receive an additional allowance of 50 percent on their income for the months of March April and May. He thanked health workers, describing them as the heroes and heroines of Ghana. Daily Guide CARACAS, Venezuela With gas lines across Venezuela growing, a controversial shipping magnate has stepped in to prevent the country from running out of fuel amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press has learned. The fuel shortage, in the nation that sits atop the worlds largest crude reserves, is the latest threat to Nicolas Maduros rule at a time hes under intense U.S. pressure to resign. Wilmer Rupertis Maroil Trading Inc. obtained up to 250,000 barrels of 95-octane gasoline, according to a copy of an invoice obtained by the AP. The gasoline was purchased from an undisclosed Middle Eastern country, said two people familiar with the transaction on the condition of anonymity. The single gas shipment isnt going to resolve Venezuelas supply problems. But with the economy paralyzed, any amount of fuel that arrives will come as welcome relief, analysts said. Ruperti, a former oil tanker captain, has a colorful history of coming to the rescue of Venezuelas socialist revolution at critical junctures, something that endeared him to the late Hugo Chavez. But his latest gambit, which could help stave off a deepening humanitarian crisis, is bound to irritate the Trump administration, which last week doubled down on its support of opposition leader Juan Guaido, sending naval ships to the Caribbean on a narcotics mission following Maduros indictment in New York on narcoterrorist charges. Venezuelas oil fields and refineries have crumbled from years of mismanagement. In Venezuela, the only thing spreading faster than the coronavirus are the gasoline shortages, said Russ Dallen, head of Caracas Capital Markets, a brokerage firm. In recent days, gas lines have popped up across Caracas, which is typically immune from days-long waits common in the rest of the country. The government blames U.S. aggression for the gas shortages. On Friday, it said it was formulating a special fuel supply plan to restore stockpiles in the shortest possible time, allowing the nation to combat the coronavirus. Joshua Goodman and Scott Smith are Associated Press writers. An update issued Saturday by the Wisconsin Department of Human Services shows an increase of 19 COVID-19 deaths from the previous days report, raising the total number of deaths from the virus to 56. The department summary lists a total of 2,112 positive tests for COVID-19, a jump of 196 from Friday. A total of 588 people have been hospitalized. The MIlwaukee County Medical Examiners Office reported six new deaths on Saturday, bringing the total number of deaths in the county to 34. Nearly 24,000 people have tested negative for the virus, according to the human services report. The states chief medical officer, Dr. Ryan Westergaard, said Friday that data was showing that the state was flattening the curve. Gov. Tony Evers announced Saturday that the federal government has issued a major disaster declaration for Wisconsin. It provides access to public assistance programs for all 72 Wisconsin counties and the states federally recognized tribes. I am grateful for the swift action of the federal government in reviewing our request for a major disaster declaration, Evers said. The assistance granted today will help ensure Wisconsin can gain access to critical assistance as we continue our work to respond to this pandemic. INDIA-Tanzania business relations have received yet another boost as an Indian investor Purandare Industries (T), Ltd plans to establish a megasugar processing factory in the countrys capital, Dodoma. According to the companys Managing Director, Satish Purandare, operations at the factory which will have the capacity to produce 5,000 tonnes of sugar per year are expected to kick off in June 2021. In an interview with the Daily News, Mr Purandare said the first sugar industry in the countrys capital will be located at Dabalo Ward in Chamwino District80 kilomtres from the city centre, and that his company expects to enter into a contract with farmers within the district to grow sugar cane for the factorys raw materials. I am happy that the government under president John Magufuli has been giving me a lot of collaboration, and at this stage we are just waiting for all legal documents which are at the final stage of delivery by different government entities, he said. According to him, the construction of a 20,000 acres factory is expected to kick off in June this year, and that the operations are expected to kick off in June next year. The new investment comes almost four years since President John Magufuli invited more Indian investors to come and set up businesses in the country. The call was made at the State House in Dar es Salaam when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the country in July 2016. At a media briefingback then, Dr Magufuli and the Indian leader agreed to deepen the India-Tanzania ties in business, agriculture, food security, trade, natural gas and other vital sectors. In an interview, Mr Purandare was optimistic that the investment will play a pivotal role in improving the economic sphere in Chamwino District. Despite providing permanent jobs for hundreds of farmers, the plant will also stimulate different socioeconomic activities in the district and the region at large, he said, adding: I want to see Tanzanians becoming investors in their nation. According to the companys MD, Purandare Industries (T) Limited intends to provide technology support and inputs to out grower farmers for sugar cane production and also add value to the cane produced. He said that Dabalo sugar which will be produced at the hightech factory will carry its brand name Sukari Halisi. The new factory comes as good news as it will help to reduce sugar deficit in the country. According to Mr Purandare, his company was equally planning for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes in Chamwino District, especially on education and health care. Today, ventilators help pump air into the lungs of patients with the novel coronavirus and other illnesses who cannot get enough oxygen on their own. Modern units are relatively compact. But in the past, massive iron lungs were the only option for people with polio and other illnesses - and a tussle over one person's iron lung would help pave the way for the Americans With Disabilities Act, ADA. Paralyzed from the neck down, Ed Roberts needed an iron lung to help him breathe. But when officials at the University of California at Berkeley learned he planned to bring his 800-pound breathing device with him to college in 1962, they tried to revoke his acceptance. Nouakchott, 5 April 2020 (SPS) - Mauritanian Reform Party has sent a message of condolence to President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, mourning the death of Emhamed Khaddad. "We learned in the Mauritanian Reform Party the news of the death of leader Emhamad Khadad, he was a man of courage and high values, who was a fortified bridge to ensure communication and common destiny of our Mauritanian and Sahrawi peoples," said the party. Therefore, we send you and through you to the Sahrawi people and leadership and the family of the deceased our utmost sympathy and condolences, asking God Almighty to blessed him with his mercy, it added. (SPS) 062/SPS/T U.S. State Dept. calls for Taiwan to receive WHA observer status ROC Central News Agency 04/04/2020 12:43 PM Washington, April 3 (CNA) The United States State Department on Friday called for Taiwan to receive observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), and said Taiwan's model for fighting the COVID-19 coronavirus could benefit countries around the world. "Taiwan is a leader in preventing the spread of COVID-19. The United States and Taiwan hope to share the Taiwan Model with countries around the world. Taiwan has a role to play in global health and should be a World Health Assembly observer," the department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs tweeted. The two countries have closely collaborated on public health efforts in recent weeks, as the U.S. deals with a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, which numbered 277,000 as of Friday, and have resulted in 7,141 deaths. In a speech on Wednesday, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen () announced a donation of 10 million surgical face masks to countries hard hit by the coronavirus, of which 2 million masks will be allocated to the U.S. Taiwan is also shipping 100,000 masks per week to the U.S. under a bilateral epidemic prevention cooperation agreement, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would push for an "appropriate role" for Taiwan at the WHA -- the policy-setting body of the World Health Organization (WHO). Taiwan participated in WHA events as an observer from 2009-2016 under the designation "Chinese Taipei" when relations between Beijing and Taipei were good under the previous ruling party Kuomintang, which had accepted the concept that the two sides are a part of one China, with each side free to interpret what that means. Since 2017, however, Taiwan has been excluded from the United Nations-affiliated body, due to opposition from China, which has objected to Taiwan's new ruling Democratic Progressive Party rejecting that concept. On Tuesday, Taiwanese and American officials also held a virtual forum to discuss efforts to reinstate Taiwan's WHA observer status, and to share its "successful and internationally lauded" model for fighting COVID-19 with countries around the world, the State Department said in a press release Thursday. (By Stacy Hsu and Matthew Mazzetta) Enditem/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal As COVID-19 takes a toll on Native communities in the Four Corners, locals are helping those most affected by the virus, the restrictions and the food shortages. A group of Indigenous women started the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief project. In 10 days, a GoFundMe effort raised $250,000. The movement was the brainchild of Ethel Branch, former attorney general for the Navajo Nation. Volunteers deliver supplies to elders and families in need so they can follow the stay-at-home order and curfew. These high-risk elders that were delivering to are often disabled, asthmatic, diabetic, said Cassandra Begay of the groups communications team. Our elders are our knowledge keepers and we are trying to protect them. Any time we lose an elder it is absolutely devastating for our community. The group collects and sanitizes non-perishable food and supplies, and delivers to homes based on requests from residents, family members, community health representatives and chapter houses. Stockpiling food and other supplies is a luxury many of our families dont have, said Janene Yazzie, who coordinates the effort in New Mexico. We know these types of pandemics disproportionately affect Indigenous people. This has shown us the vast network of people we have to create that social net that all our communities have always deserved. These people dont have much, but they are helping any way they can, like offering their trucks and trailers to transport supplies, Begay said. Our people are resilient, we are strong, we are survivors. For Navajo, our actions are rooted in Ke, which means acknowledging we live our lives in an interconnected and rooted way. We can do this together. In Montezuma Creek, Utah, the Utah Navajo Health System started its own relief effort in a similar vein. Spokesman Pete Sands said he asked if he could start delivering firewood, water and necessities, including healthy food, to seniors, and the organization was on board. So far, he said, on Thursday he had already made 100 deliveries. While he concentrates his efforts in his hometown, he said he knows communities all over the Navajo Nation are going through the same shortages and have the same concerns. Everything is so far away and so scarce, Sands said. Its tough, its hard. I think about communities and how to help each other. Quadrant chairman Chris Hadley. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit: Spare a thought for the investment gurus at Chris Hadleys Quadrant Private Equity. After years of making a motza, theyve managed to end up with a portfolio of businesses uniquely challenged by the coronavirus pandemic. Quadrant owns the Fitness First and Barrys Bootcamp chains (shuttered), the Ghan and Indian Pacific rail business (shuttered) and Rockpool restaurant group (shuttered). The latter, which owns everything from the eponymous Rockpool Bar & Grill to the Fratelli Fresh chain, was minutes away from being carved up before the pandemic hit. That deal would have left chef Neil Perry with the group's premium restaurants. Perry had already spoken publicly about expanding overseas and looking forward to being his own boss. Sadly, we can reveal that split is now off while the impact of the pandemic on the business is assessed. And that could take a while. Washington: US President Donald Trump has said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the amount of Hydroxychloroquine ordered by the United States after India last month banned the drugs for exports. Trump said that he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxycholoroquine for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily news conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on March 25 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the worst sufferers of the deadly coronavirus diseases to which there has been no cure. Scientists across the world in particular in the US are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine, a decades old malaria drug, for the successful treatment of coronavirus. Following a quick provisional approval from the US Federal Drug Administration last Saturday, the malaria drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. Trump said that he would take Hydroxychloroquine, if needed. "I think people should if it were me, in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, Ok? I may take it. And, I'll have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it, he said in response to a question. In the next several weeks, health experts in the US has projected between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to coronavirus, which due to human-to-human transmission is spreading like a wildfire in the US. In anticipation of it being a successful drug in the treatment of coronavirus, the US has already stockpiled some 29 million doses. It is in this context Trump requested Modi to help US get millions of doses of Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that can be produced at mass scale in India. Trump said he would appreciate if India releases the amount of Hydroxychloroquine that the US has ordered. "And I said I would appreciate if they (India) would release the amounts that we ordered, he said, without mentioning that quantity of Hydroxychloroquine that has been ordered by US companies from India. The Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Trump said that people in malaria affected-countries take Hydroxychloroquine and not many people are infected by coronavirus. This post is not intended either to condemn or to condone how federal, state, and local governments are trampling civil liberties. It is, instead, a reminder that weve been down this road before and, thankfully, recovered. Does that mean we can recover this time too? Who knows? The left in America has never been as ascendant as it is now, so that may shift the outcome. Still, heres at least a little food for thought. To begin, youre not imagining it. America is a less free nation than it was even a month ago. Whether in a spirit of glee (Finally, we can control those darn citizens!) or in a spirit of panic (Oh, my God! People are outdoors. Were all going to die!), our traditional American rights to move about and assemble freely have been thrown out the window. Before digging into history, it's only honest to point out that one of the oldest core functions of government, even limited government, is to defend against pandemic diseases. Whether the government is competent at that task is another question entirely. Still, only the government has the reach and power to force changes that (theoretically) tamp down the spread of epidemic diseases. Whats unnerving today is that the governments response is driven by so much misinformation and questionable information. The misinformation, of course, is the fact that China started this whole thing out with a host of lies. Without reliable numbers from COVID-19's Ground Zero, we still dont understand how infectious the disease is, what the spread of infection is, or the actual mortality rate. The questionable information comes from three sources: (1) How countries do post-mortem coronavirus tests, which affects how deaths are reported; (2) the Garbage In; Garbage Out principle for all the models that are driving decisions; and (3) possibly dishonest reporting for political ends. Until America has its own consistent, honest statistics, everything is guesswork. Whether driven by a lust for power or fear, the fact is that we Americans are being locked up and denied the right freely to assemble. Mostly, Americans, afraid of endemic disease, are going along with it. However, in some jurisdictions, the authorities have crossed into crazy territory. For example, in Encinitas, California, deputies cited 22 people for going to a beach to watch a sunset, even though there was no evidence they were in close contact. Also, in California, a lone paddle-boarder was arrested in Malibu for violating quarantine rules. Libertarians and conservatives are rightly concerned both by how Americans seem willing to give up their freedoms and by the vigor with which the government seizes them. This post is a reminder that we have successfully clawed back stolen liberties before. If you time travel back to 2006, you will remember that, before Trump became Hitler because of abortion and gay rights, George Bush was Hitler for the same reasons. Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, attempted to calm his fellow Progressives down by reminding them that, even though other presidents have squished civil liberties, America had rebounded: Democratic presidents have been responsible for some of the worst violations of civil liberties. Woodrow Wilson suppressed free speech during World War I, while Franklin D. Roosevelt interned 120,000 Japanese-Americans in World War II. [snip] Although usually ranked among the near great presidents, Woodrow Wilsons record is one of the very worst. He authorized the massive suppression of free speech during World War I and earlier imposed racial segregation among federal employees. Walker is correct that Wilson was awful. Many of his policies were the inspiration for Hitlers later fascist policies. Even Republican presidents have gone on power grabs. After all, during the Civil War, Lincoln officially suspended writs of habeas corpus, which allowed him to order indefinite, and almost certainly unlawful, imprisonment for people he considered dangerous. In each case, when the crisis or war ended, Americans were able to regain their rights. Again, with today's ukase's against constitutional rights, those who dream of complete power have before figured so large in American politics. Still, if history is a guide, its reasonable to believe that, when the dust settles and the panic ends, Americans return to their traditional understanding of their liberties. Indeed, with luck, a lot of them may have seen what happened as a close-up look into socialisms dark heart a world without a free market and under total government control -- and rightly feared what they saw. Radhakrishan Damani, promoter of Avenue Supermarts, which owns retail brand D-Mart, on Saturday donated Rs 155 crore for the fight against coronavirus. While Rs 100 crore was donated to the PM-CARES Fund, remaining Rs 55 crore was committed towards various state relief funds. The donation was made by Radhakrishan Damani through group company Bright Star Investments, the company said in a statement. "We are fully supportive of the swift actions taken by the Central, State and Local Government Bodies of India to protect the general public. Each of us also needs to do our best to protect our communities and fellow countrymen," the statement added. India is currently under a 21-day lockdown until April 14 on account of coronavirus pandemic. While Maharashtra and Gujarat received Rs 10 crore each, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Punjab received Rs 5 crore each of the total Rs 55 crore given to the relief funds of the state governments. Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh received Rs 2.5 crore in donation, the company statement also said. The hypermarket chain D-Mart operates in over 200 locations across the country. Some of the other major corporate houses to contribute towards the PM Cares Fund include Reliance (Rs 500 crore), ONGC and IOC over Rs 1,000 crore, BPCL Rs 175 crore, HPCL Rs 120 crore, among others. The employees of SBI also donated Rs 100 crore to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, as part of its preparations to exit the lockdown, PM Modi on Thursday asked chief ministers of states to formulate a staggered plan. On Saturday, PM Modi urged the citizens of the country to keep their spirits high amid the lockdown owing to COVID-19. He also asked the people to light candles at the doorsteps of their homes on Sunday to spread light in these dark times. Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Maharashtra worst-affected state with 490 COVID-19 cases; death tally at 24 Also Read: 9pm lights-out: How power system will be managed during light-a-candle event Chandigarh, April 5 : An empowered committee on logistics and supply chain has been set up and several steps been taken to ensure smooth movement of goods, besides resolving problems faced by the food processing industry. While interacting with major industry associations through video link on Sunday, Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal discussed interventions required by the government to revive the food processing sector after the lockdown. Senior officials of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries also spoke about measures taken by the central and state governments to ease the business environment. According to an official statement, the empowered committee is taking up grievances for redressal, even as steps had been taken to issue only one document for rail movement besides following up with district officials on a daily basis to ensure easy movement of foodstuff. She said more exemptions had been issued, like movement of agriculture machinery, truck repairs, milk collection, mandis operated by the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), and intra and inter-state movement of harvester combines. The grievance cell, set up to resolve the micro issues faced by the industry, to facilitate supply chain and logistics management for availability of food and medicines, has resolved 50 per cent of 348 queries received. The industry representatives while giving suggestions to streamline food processing units, said encouragement to labour to return to work was needed. They also urged special trains for goods as well as labour. They also sought GST waiver for three months to allow breathing space to the industry. Your browser does not support the audio element. As the Vietnamese government has ordered nationwide social distancing due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, a seafood restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City has taken all possible measures to adapt to the new situation. The restaurant, located in Tan Binh District, no longer serves sit-down diners owing to the new regulation requiring it to only offer takeout and delivery. So it has transformed into a fresh seafood store amid the physical distancing measure to stall the virus spread. Upon arriving at the venue, customers are guided by security guards through a disinfection chamber and to a special area where they place their orders. A sign reminds customers to keep a safe distance from each other. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre Large tables have been set up to make sure buyers stand two meters, the advised distance, away from each other. Multiple chairs are also prepared for people to rest while waiting to take their food, and there is a safe distance between these seats. All transactions are made via a racket with a long handle. Everyone at the store is required to keep their face masks on all the time. A disinfection chamber is placed at the entrance of the store. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre The operation of the fresh seafood store has been examined and approved by local authorities. I usually buy my groceries online due to the epidemic. But when it comes to seafood, I have to make a direct purchase to ensure freshness and quality, said Tram Anh, a resident in Tan Phu District. I feel really safe thanks to the professional operation of this store. Hand sanitizer is provided free of charge at the venue. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre Tables and chairs are spaced to make sure customers keep a safe distance from one another. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre A transaction is made via a long-handle racket at the fresh seafood store. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre Tables and chairs are spaced to make sure customers keep a safe distance from one another. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:59:33|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LAPD officers pose for photos in Los Angeles, after they received face masks donated by Chinese American people from the Chinese-American community in Palos Verdes and the Greater South Bay area in Southern California, the United States, on March 26, 2020. "We are ordinary Chinese American people, we are trying to do a little to help our neighborhood, our city, with our ability, during COVID-19 pandemic," said Maggie Wang, one of the organizers of a Wechat group that has 218 members from the Chinese-American community in Palos Verdes and the Greater South Bay area in Southern California. (Xinhua) by Julia Pierrepont III, Gao Shan LOS ANGELES, April 5 (Xinhua) -- "We are ordinary Chinese American people, we are trying to do a little to help our neighborhood, our city, with our ability, during COVID-19 pandemic," said Maggie Wang, one of the organizers of a Wechat group that has 218 members from the Chinese-American community in Palos Verdes and the Greater South Bay area in Southern California. "We should come out stronger with more love and hope at this difficult time," she told Xinhua in a recent interview. Maggie and her friends heard about the drastic shortage of masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment (PPE's) at local hospitals and decided to do something about it. They mobilized to source medical supplies to help meet their local community healthcare-worker's and first responders' needs. Galvanized by the seriousness of the situation, they raised 28,400 U.S. dollars from the Chinese American community to buy medical supplies. They also called on their tightly-knit community to get the word out: "Donate your extra masks, disinfectant, sanitizer, and, yes, toilet paper! Donate what you can!" And the donations came flooding in. Some donations of N95 face masks even came to them still in their DHL shipping bags from China, having been sent to them by family and loved ones overseas. Altogether, the group donated nearly 79,000 face masks, 4,000 medical grade gloves. A total of 20,000 face masks and 4,000 medical grade gloves were donated to the office of LA City Councilman, Joe Buscaino's office, who have quickly distributed the personal protective equipment to LA police officers, fire fighters and first responders within an hour of receiving them. Additionally, some of their donations went to Long Beach Community Hospital, a newly opened hospital designated to combat the coronavirus, to their local City Council, and to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a senior center for low income seniors in nearby city of San Pedro. Some masks have been distributed to local post offices, supermarkets and police stations. "Normally we might mind our own business, but not with a crisis on our hands that is spreading so rapidly and affects everyone," said Mingli Wang, another organizer of the social media group. "We can stay home, but police officers, firefighters, city officials and other first responders have to respond to the community's needs. We should and must support them," said Mingli. "Love spreads more rapidly than the virus," she posted on her WeChat Moments in March, as well as sending many other posts to encourage her friends to make a difference by stepping in to fight the coronavirus pandemic in China, the United States and other parts of the world. "Viruses know no national boundaries or races," she noted. The group had donated money to buy personal protective equipment for six hospitals in Hubei, Beijing and Shandong in February after the outbreak of COVID-19 in China. Little did they know then that just two months later they would find themselves in a similar crisis in America. It turns out that for many Chinese Americans, public service is a deeply engrained family thing, especially amid a serious crisis. Daphne Dai instructed her 11-year old son to call the local police department himself to arrange to donate the masks they'd bought so the boy would learn how to actively contribute to his community. Her 7-year old daughter had amassed 30 dollars in allowance for helping around the house, then the tenderhearted philanthropist-in-the-making donated 20 dollars of it to her mom's coronavirus effort. "I hope to be an active role model for my children at this difficult time. It's good for our children to see us stand up, be courageous, and do something to help," the donor mothers explained. While Maggie Wang was working more than 12 hours a day on their COVID-19 fundraiser, her German-American husband stepped in to help pick up the slack at home and take care of their child. Why? "Because I'm proud of you," he told her. "Every time, when we need more donations, he will open up his checkbook and write a number," Maggie joked, truly thankful for the support of her beloved family members. And their donations have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated by their SoCal recipients. "Thank you so much!" responded Gabriel Medina, the District Director for LA City. Councilman Joe Buscaino, upon receiving the group's donations. "You don't understand what an impact you and the rest of the group have made, we truly appreciate it." Medina told Mingli in a message that those PPE's are much needed and appreciated by "the happy recipients." "It is getting increasingly harder to find the things you and your wonderful group are donating," wrote Anita Uhrich, Volunteer Coordinator at Little Sisters of the Poor in an email to Mingli. "We are so blessed to have your love and generosity towards our Home and all who benefit from your kindness." Officer Drake Madison, from the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations, told Xinhua, "As a police officer, helping out the community is what we do, so it's really nice to see the community want to help us out in return." Queen Elizabeth II will urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak, in a rare special address to Britain and Commonwealth nations on Sunday. In extracts released Saturday of what royal officials said was a deeply personal speech, the 93-year-old monarch will say she has faith that people will respond, despite the difficulties. The broadcast, scheduled to air at 1900 GMT on Sunday, is only the fourth time in her 68-year reign that she has made a special televised address outside her annual Christmas Day message. It comes as daily deaths in Britain hit a record high of 708, including a five-year-old child on Saturday, taking the overall toll to 4,313 -- and as the country prepared for a third week of lockdown. According to Buckingham Palace, the queen will personally thank frontline healthcare staff and other key workers for their efforts during the crisis. I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time, she will say in the speech, which was recorded at Windsor Castle, west of London. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has tested positive for COVID-19, has put his government on a war footing, calling for a collective response to the outbreak. Some 750,000 people responded to his call for volunteers to support the state-run National Health Service (NHS), the elderly and vulnerable currently in self-isolation. The initial appeal was for 250,000, while business and industry have been mobilised in a way unseen since World War II. The queen will say: I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The queen and her 98-year-old husband Prince Philip moved to Windsor Castle on March 19 as a precaution because of their age, which puts them in a high-risk category. Royal officials have said the couple were in good health and following government guidelines. Her eldest son and heir Prince Charles, 71, has been in self-isolation on her sprawling Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland after developing mild symptoms of COVID-19. As a precaution, he officially opened by videolink a new 4,000-bed field hospital in east London which will treat the most seriously ill patients on Thursday. The royal family has cut its engagements, and Sundays speech was recorded by a single camera operator wearing personal protective equipment, royal officials said. Specific advice from royal doctors was sought to mitigate any risk to the queen and others, they added. The queens intervention is her first at troubled times since the death of her mother in 2002. Before that, she addressed the nation on the eve of Diana, princess of Wales funeral in 1997. She also broadcast a message in 1991 during the first Gulf War. A fourth message in 2012 was to thank the public after celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee, marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.(AFP) RUP RUP Sidewalks in Philadelphias Center City neighborhoods are covered with exuberant chalk designs that get more elaborate as the Covid-19 plague continues to sequester families in their houses. Some of our poorest neighborhoods have additional chalk drawings proliferating along with the citys 19% increase in murders from last year (and up from 2018 too). Instead of solving the problem, local politicians are now aiming fire at each other, with uber-progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner taking (often justifiably) most of the incoming. They could be working together to relaunch Philadelphia-appropriate versions of focused deterrence and other anti-violence programs, giving our new police commissioner the tools to implement it. Instead, hospital beds that should be open for coronavirus patients are filled with shooting victims. Way to mangle both plagues. Editorial cartoons from this week include: The coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses around the world, putting particular pressure on organizations that rely on international trade. Cybercriminals around the world have not missed the trend and, as discovered by Kaspersky researchers, started actively using the topic in spreading malware such as backdoors and spyware in the past few weeks. Phishers have long used emails faking business logistics, such as orders and bookings, in order to target organizations and spread malware in email attachments. The more these emails resemble reality and contain correct information, the better they work in fooling the victims and with the coronavirus outbreak making the headlines daily, scams are only becoming more convincing. Last autumn Kaspersky experts shared research about the RevengeHotels campaign, during which cyber criminals sent out targeted booking emails mimicking various trustworthy organizations and even real people, going on to infect hotel computers and being able to steal clients credit card data. This type of phishing is especially dangerous for employees of organizations that sell goods they often receive requests for supplies and various orders. It is difficult to determine whether an email is real or not, even for very careful and attentive employees, which is why the number of scams is continuing to grow. In the most recent cases, cybercriminals have referred to delivery issues caused by the pandemic: from their supplier in China not being able to produce the products on time, to checking if the victim would be able to fulfill the order that they have agreed to. In some cases, cybercriminals discuss urgent orders and this puts pressure on victims. The main purpose of these emails is to make the victim open a malicious attachment, ultimately infecting the device and giving cybercriminals remote control or access to the organizations system. In order to trigger them to do so, cybercriminals ask victims to check delivery information, payment or order details that seemingly are in the attachment. Such phishing schemes are not as widespread as the regular ones we usually see, but they are often focused on a specific group of organizations and are quite regularly targeted. The best medicine from such a threat is a good security solution that can detect various threats in attachments and has a database of cataloguing these types of scams. The other piece of advice is remaining calm and attentive to details, and this is something we need to continue doing regardless of any external circumstances, comments Tatyana Shcherbakova, Kasperskys senior web content analyst. To minimize the risk of your business falling victim to spam and phishing, here are some tips on how to recognize it: Carefully look at the files extensions. If it is an executable file, it is most likely not safe to open. Check whether the company that sent you an email actually exists and look it up in a web search or on social media. If you cannot find any evidence of its existence, reconsider whether you should be working with such firm. Check whether the information in the automatic signature and in the Sent field is the same. If it is different, it is likely that the email was sent by a spammer. Remember that cybercriminals can create fake documents by using information about the company they are pretending to be. Even if the information in the official email is the same as on the official resources of the organization, but you still doubt its safety, reach out to the company in order to get a confirmation of this email having been sent. Kaspersky also recommends organizations follow these cybersecurity practices: After weeks of assuring the public there are no cases of coronavirus among the states nearly 95,000 prisoners without saying whether significant numbers of prisoners had been tested the Florida Department of Corrections acknowledged its first positive test involving an inmate. That was quickly followed by a second. One lawmaker, a Democrat, called the situation in the states prison system, which employs 24,000 staffers, a ticking time bomb, although another, a Republican, said the department was doing an exceptional job. Michelle Glady, a prison system spokeswoman, would not say how many inmates have been tested because testing numbers are constantly changing. The first prisoner with the positive test, whose name was not released, had been locked up at the Blackwater River Correctional Facility near Pensacola, a private prison under the states purview run by the GEO Group. The information was posted on the departments website Saturday. The website was updated Sunday to list a second inmate, also from Blackwater. As of the Sunday update, 26 prison staff members and contract staff have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. In three cases, the department acknowledged the positive tests only after they were first reported by prison insiders to the Miami Herald, which contacted the prison system seeking confirmation and comment. After that, the department began to list positive tests by facility on its website. There were no inmate positives logged until Saturday. The secretary of the department, Mark Inch, has not responded directly to requests from the Miami Herald to comment about the volume of testing for inmates and the safeguards the system is undertaking, although a list of policies has been posted on the website.. In the vacuum caused by lack of information, rumors have spread among prisoner families about large numbers of untested but symptomatic inmates. The department says it consults with county health departments on whether an inmate should be tested. Story continues The Florida system has been criticized for years for, among other things, substandard healthcare and revolving-door administration. The inmates under its care often enter the system in poor health due to drug dependencies, poverty and lack of insurance and have sometimes gone to court over lack of access to prescribed medicine. Poor inmate health, an aging population and proximity to other inmates render Florida prisons vulnerable to a pandemic. In other states like Florida with a high volume of COVID-19 and large incarcerated populations Texas, Louisiana, and New York among them cases have been acknowledged early on in correctional settings. Prison deaths linked to the coronavirus have popped up around the country, including four at one Louisiana facility. But Floridas Department of Corrections, the countrys third-largest state system, continued to report no inmate positives, much less deaths, until Saturdays first acknowledged positive test. Concerns over potentially pervasive spread have led other states to adopt proactive measures, such as early release of nonviolent inmates with minimal time left to serve. California, the nations largest system, is discharging 3,500 near the end of their stretches. Illinois announced a similar program. Mark Inch is the secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections. It was always a ticking time bomb waiting to happen, said Democratic State Rep. Anna Eskamani, who represents Orange County. Its seems highly unlikely that just one person was positive because of just how fast and easily COVID-19 is transmitted and in prisons you cant social distance, Eskanami said, before the second case was posted. I think its problematic. Even if theyre not lying. Perception really matters in these situations. The prisons have enforced social distancing during dining and recreation times, Inch wrote in a March 28 letter to families of the incarcerated. As for other measures enacted by the FDC, co-pays for inmates with respiratory illness have been waived, staffers are cleaning and disinfecting facilities with more frequency and visitations have been suspended. After a two-week suspension of new inmates being introduced into the prison system, the FDC resumed inmate intake this past Monday. The FDC had asked county jails to quarantine inmates for 14 days before sending them to prison when possible. Blackwater River Correctional Facility Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Winter Park Democrat, took to Twitter on Saturday asking why the department does not track and publish person by person testing results like the Department of Health does. We demand transparency, Smith wrote. At Century Correctional Institution in Escambia County, where an employee tested positive for COVID-19, social distancing was not being enforced as recently as March 28, according to the relative of an inmate there, who contacted the Herald anonymously. The relative wrote that the FDC is not testing inmates, they are not isolating them and they do not treat them. The Herald could not confirm that statement. I am very concerned about the health and safety of my [relative], the relative wrote. He broke the law, he was sentenced, but he did not get the DEATH PENALTY. A staffer at an unidentified prison told the Miami Herald Sunday that supervisors have refused to let employees wear protective masks and that inmates who transfer in, even from medical facilities, are not being quarantined to determine if they have symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Glady, the FDC spokeswoman, said the department is committed to providing accurate data about the number of positive coronavirus cases. If a test for COVID-19 is reported as positive, the health department will work with FDC to conduct a contact investigation with notification of all potentially impacted, wrote Chris Taylor, a legislative specialist with the department, in an email to a lawmaker obtained by the Herald. State Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Pinellas County Republican, said the FDC is doing an exceptional job caring for Floridas inmates. Being more transparent about its testing numbers would earn the department more trust from the public, he said. The best thing that the department can do is to over-communicate and be completely transparent about whats going on, he said. This is an incredibly challenging issue to deal with. Australia's leaders must make a difficult choice over the next two weeks: deciding what social distancing measures the nation is willing to live under over the long term and what death toll they are willing to bear. The success of harsh social distancing rules means Australia appears close to passing the first peak of the coronavirus pandemic, according to one mathematical model, but leading epidemiologists say the moment Australia loosens those rules, infection rates will climb. This graph shows the theory behind "flattening the curve". Credit:Matthew Absalom-Wong The pandemic will only end when enough people have been infected to achieve herd immunity or scientists develop a vaccine, likely at least 12 months away, experts said. In interviews with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald this week, leading epidemiologists laid out two roads for the nation. 1.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard For some people, opinion is a point of view about an issue, while analysis interprets the significance of events or the quality of a policy. Ideally, opinion should be as fact-based as analysis. Thats especially important when the levers of power rely on lies, illusion and propaganda to survive. So it is with the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea that were all in this together offers comfort during a time of pandemic and economic collapse. But the comfort disappears once you realize that our experience over the past several weeks depends largely on who we listen to, where we live, and other factors like gender, race, ethnicity, religion and citizenship. You see how empty the phrase were all in this together can be. That moment when Trump acknowledged COVID-19 is real and catastrophic ultimately means nothing. Were living in a 21st century version of Lord of the Flies, as states are pitted against each other in the quest for personnel, medical supplies and respirators. Predictably, Trump is making sure his pet states get more medical supplies than they need, while he berates blue states where doctors and nurses are now wearing masks that used to be changed after every patient several times, sometimes until they fall apart. As a result, these states are resorting to creativity and resourcefulness while Trump indulges in petty polemics. Those who took COVID-19 seriously are starting to see signs of a flattening curve, but not without facing a 21st century pandemic with the government and supply chain comparable to an under-developed country in the 19th century. While states like New York, Washington and California are seeing staggering numbers of new diagnoses and staggering death numbers, we still have states claiming low numbers and doing little to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of a virus that is as cruel and as ruthless as Donald Trump. Of course those states have a low number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 because they also dont test. Part of that is because gaining access to a test depends on who you know. If youre Donald Trump, you only need enough curiosity to qualify to be tested. If youre someone who knows Donald Trump, worships the ground he walks on or donated to his campaign, you merely need to mention your loyalty to dear leader. If youre in prison or a Trump-inspired concentration camp, social distancing, soap and hot water are a privilege that other people have. Odds of getting tested are low and the odds of getting treatment are lower still. If you work at one of these facilities, you probably have what passes for PPE in America. Youre way better off than healthcare providers at the over-flowing hospitals, but there is still no guarantee that you wont be infected and that you wont take the virus home to your family and friends. Those silly restrictions, like being on your death bed or knowing someone who is diagnosed or having recently visited China, are for the little people. If youre little enough, the diagnosis wont come in until after youre dead. If by some lotterys chance in hell you are still alive when diagnosed and youre dying, you wont have family with you during your last moments. Youll be left to suffocate to death alone, unless you have the good fortune to have an over-worked nurse hero by your side. In all this, we see the fact that Trump tried to talk us out of seeing: this virus is dangerous and ruthless and doesnt care about anything except infecting the next pair of lungs. It doesnt care about your pedigree or if youre from the mid-West. Contrary to earlier observations, it doesnt care how old you are. Any open mouth or nostrils will do. That makes this deadly virus an equalizer. Where equality needs to be the guiding principle, we have instead a president who plays favorites. The best novelists couldnt come up with a plot like our current reality. This is why it means nothing that Trump eventually acknowledged COVID-19 is real and dangerous. As we saw, Trump still gonna Trump. When the captain of an aircraft carrier demanded better health protection for his crew, Trump fired him for sending an email over an unsecured server. Of course, we still wonder why Jared, Ivanka and for that matter, Donald Trump have security clearances. If ever there was a time to stop the petty partisan politics, its when were in a pandemic with medical supplies and personnel running short. Many of us want to be in this together, in ways that matter. Helping where help is most needed, sharing resources, knowledge and war stories. Maybe whoever it was who finally convinced Donald Trump that CODVID-19 really is a thing, could take him to volunteer at an under-equipped and under-staffed New York Hospital maybe even the one in his old neighborhood. If nothing else, some Americans will get a few pennies of labor from the man who stole the most valuable resource America has the unity and health and well-being of its people. He might no longer send governors and hospitals on scavenger hunts for precious life-saving equipment. If there is any justice, todays Lord of the Flies tribal chief will dishonorably discharge himself. Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. B.N. writes: I looked for a safe investment for 20,000 and came across Wellesley & Co, which advertised a property bond. I enquired on its website and two days later received a call, apparently from Wellesley but which turned out to be from a scammer. He sent correspondence on the genuine company's documentation, and I instructed my bank, Halifax, to transfer my money to the account the scammer set up in the name of Wellesley. Buried: The Financial Conduct Authority put the scam on its website You quickly found you had been defrauded. But what you also discovered is truly shocking. Two weeks after you made the transfer, you spoke to the real Wellesley and found you had been tricked by a clone. But you also found that when you made the transfer, the real Wellesley already knew about the impostor. So did your own bank, Halifax. So did Prepay Technologies Limited, the finance firm that operated the fake Wellesley account that received your money. And so did the Financial Conduct Authority. It seemed everyone knew except you, the victim who was left to hand over 20,000 to a bunch of crooks. The genuine Wellesley told me that as soon as it realised its name was being misused, it notified the FCA. It also told the police via Action Fraud. And it contacted the internet host GoDaddy, which took down the crooks' website. The FCA put a warning on its website, but as always, this was buried among lots of other warnings and the watchdog appears to have taken no further action. The shocking thing is that the warning appeared six weeks before you lost your 20,000, which means that despite the regulator being alerted, the fraudsters were still in business a month and a half later. And despite the watchdog's website warning, Halifax told me: 'At the time of payment, there was no information available to us to indicate that the receiving account was being used as part of a scam.' Halifax says the FCA warning was useless on its own. What it would need is details of the receiving bank account. Nevertheless, Halifax agrees counter staff did not give you any specific warnings about investment scams. It has refunded 10,000 half your losses plus a further 100 as it took a long time to get this far. Prepay Technologies told me it only became aware of the scam two months after the FCA posted its website warning and then only because the genuine Wellesley tipped it off. It immediately blocked the scam account, but your 20,000 had already been withdrawn. What this reveals is that the regulator's website warnings are close to useless without further action from it. Neither Halifax nor Prepay Technologies was aware of the warning. I asked the FCA about this. Its reply was astonishing. It expects the public to check its website regularly for warnings. But banks, finance companies, credit card issuers and so on, are not expected to pay the same attention and the watchdog says they have no duty to do so. Contrast this with the FCA's own internal financial crime guide which says it is 'poor practice' whenever 'a bank fails to act on actionable, credible intelligence shared at industry forums or received from other authoritative sources such as the FCA or City of London Police'. The fact that the watchdog now holds the public to a higher standard than the professional firms it authorises and regulates is a disgrace and a cop-out. Lose money because you failed to look at its website, and that is your fault. Lose money because your bank failed to look at that same website, and that is not the bank's fault. The FCA has given consumer protection a back seat for years. Its website warnings should be the start of action, but all too often they are the end. Time for a serious shake-up of priorities or top personnel. WE'RE WATCHING YOU A major scam that I exposed three weeks ago is still in business, despite being forced to change its bank account and telephone number. Data Financial Services has contacted victims of a wide range of different frauds, claiming it can recover their losses and demanding an up-front fee. Working from contact lists obtained from the operators of earlier scams, the firm was posing as the genuine company Data Financial Services Limited. The Financial Conduct Authority placed a warning on its website in February, but firmer action came from Hertfordshire Trading Standards, acting on a tip-off from a potential victim. Officials told me they supplied information to the police so the scam firms telephone number could be shut down. But a reader contacted by the fraudsters within the past week says it has a new number 0207 315 4076. Like the number I published a few weeks ago, this is one of a block belonging to Dolphin Com Limited, a company based in Crewe, Cheshire. Trading under the name Callready, this company offers phone numbers with area codes from anywhere in the country to give the false impression of where a business is really located. It advertises: These geographical numbers can divert either to your mobile or to a landline. And the crooks have a new bank account. Payments for the fake Data Financial Services go to Lloyds Bank, with the sort code 30-90-09 and account number 5598- 7168. I alerted the bank last Wednesday, where officials had also just been contacted by another bank that had suspicions about the account. Within hours, Lloyds told me it had blocked the account and was closing it down. Excellent. That just leaves the fake phone line to be disconnected. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said AIIMS, Jhajjar will function as a dedicated COVID-19 hospital with 300-bed isolation wards, which would ensure a prompt care for the patients in isolation requiring advanced medical support. The minister visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Haryana's Jhajjar to take stock of its preparedness to combat COVID-19. He inspected various facilities in the state-of-the-art building with the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients and visited the Vishram Sadan, the residential quarters for doctors and other health personnel, an official statement said. Vardhan spoke to some COVID-19 patients via a video call and enquired about their well-being. He sought their feedback on the facilities at AIIMS, Jhajjar so that necessary improvements can be made. Vardhan appreciated AIIMS, Jhajjar for ensuring 24x7 monitoring of the well-being of the confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients using digital platforms, video and voice call technologies. "In the last few days, I have visited various hospitals -- AIIMS (Delhi), LNJP, RML, Safdarjung and now AIIMS, Jhajjar -- to review the preparedness to tackle COVID-19. It is heartening to see the high morale of our health warriors in these testing times," the minister said. On the issue of ostracisation of doctors and health workers by patients and their relatives, he said the Home Ministry has taken cognisance of such incidents and advised authorities to take stringent action under the National Security Act. "Now our doctors and health warriors should work without fear as the government is standing with all its strength with them. Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers deserve our respect, support and cooperation to keep the fight going," Vardhan said. He said the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 were being monitored at the highest level and various actions were initiated in collaboration with the states. Vardhan urged the countrymen to observe the lockdown in its letter and spirit and treat it as an effective intervention to curb the spread of COVID-19. "People the world over are working tirelessly day and night to find a vaccine against the dreaded virus and still it has not been found. We must treat the combination of lockdown and social distancing as an effective social vaccine against COVID-19," he said. On the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, N95 Masks and ventilators, the health minister said, "We have already placed orders for a sufficient quantity in order to meet the increasing requirement of the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Natural News) Although lockdowns are working to stop the spread of the virus, we now have enough knowledge to end the lockdowns, halt the pandemic and get our world back to work. It can be accomplished with four simple things that are available right now. No, the world doesnt have to wait for a vaccine that may or may not work. We dont have to remain prisoners in our homes and apartments, on and off for the next year, waiting for Big Pharma to turn us into vaccine sheeple with mandatory vaccine tracking and medical tyranny. (Thats the Dr. Anthony Fauci plan, which is now being called national suicide.) Heres the simple solution: 1) Everybody needs to wear a mask. 2) Everybody needs to take zinc + vitamin D. 3) Hydroxychloroquine must be made widely available to treat serious patients. 4) The government must start testing asymptomatic people to identify stealth carriers. We need a national program right now to manufacture and distribute zinc supplements at no charge to the entire population. We need large-scale, war time production of masks and testing kits. And we need public education programs that reverse the idiotic advice of government officials who told Americans to stop buying masks! and other similar nonsense. Most importantly, we need to end the Big Pharma stranglehold over America, because its Big Pharma thats pushing the censorship of truthful knowledge about zinc, vitamin D and natural cures. Big Pharma controls the media, the medical schools, lawmakers and even the tech giants. Dr. Fauci is a puppetmaster of Big Pharma, and he represents their interests, not the interests of the American people. The bottom line? If we continue to allow Big Pharma to control all information about public health, potentially millions will die and our economy will collapse from the repeated lockdowns. Big Pharma will destroy America just to push their monopolistic control over public health, and they absolutely do not want zinc, vitamin D or even off-patent, cheap drugs like hydroxychloroquine to solve this problem before a vaccine comes along. Every death that occurs from this coronavirus is a death of ignorance. Millions do not need to die. The economy doesnt need to collapse. We dont need to live as prisoners in our own homes, surveiled by a medical police state that answers to Big Pharma and the NIH (Dr. Fauci). Watch and share this mini-documentary everywhere, and together we can defeat the globalists by ending the pandemic and getting America back on its feet: Brighteon.com/bded5422-309d-48c7-859c-6de827faa8d7 A team of Delhi Police Crime Branch on Sunday visited at Markaz Nizamuddin for an investigation in connection with a congregation held here in which thousands of people took part between March 13 and March 15. The number of cases in the country witnessed a sudden surge in the last week as hundreds tested positive after attending the religious gathering held by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month. People from across the country and the world had attended the event. On Wednesday, the Delhi government, in a joint operation with the police, evacuated over 2,300 people from the Markaz and sanitised the area. Evacuees were sent to hospitals or put under quarantine at different facilities. Earlier, Delhi Police had served a notice to the Jamaat chief asking several questions regarding the congregation held at Nizamuddin after an FIR was registered in the matter under the Epidemic Disease Act. Several state governments are identifying and tracing all those who attended the gathering. A large number of people in different states have already been placed under quarantine as a precautionary measure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 19:57:15|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The relations between China and the southern African country Namibia are further strengthened by strong mutual support in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, said Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming on Saturday. Zhang said that when the novel coronavirus outbreak was rapidly spreading in China, Namibia's President Hage Geingob expressed support for the Chinese people and their fight against the virus, "demonstrating the all-weather friendship between the two countries." The Chinese side has regularly briefed the Namibian government on China's COVID-19 situation, he told Xinhua in an interview. Meanwhile, "We have updated the Namibian government on the living and study conditions of some 500 Namibian students in China and maintained close interaction to jointly make sure the students are safe and sound," Zhang added. In quick response to Namibia's coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese ambassador said the embassy has donated 1,000 test kits to the Namibian government, adding that Alibaba's Jack Ma had donated 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 protective suits for medical staff and face shields to Namibia. "Chinese medical experts held a video conference to share their fighting COVID-19 experience with their African Union counterparts and 24 other African countries, including Namibia," he said. The envoy said that China, as President Xi Jinping pledged in a phone conversation held Friday with Geingob, is expected to step up assistance to Namibia and other African countries to support their fight against COVID-19. The two presidents' phone conversation injected new, strong impetus into the development of bilateral relations, the Chinese ambassador said, adding he was confident about a closer relationship between the two countries. "The year marked the 30th anniversary of China-Namibia diplomatic relations and the bilateral relations are faced with new historical opportunities," said Zhang. Over the past 30 years, "the two countries have made great headway in cooperation in economy, trade and investment," he said. "In recent years, under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the cooperation between our two countries has entered a fast track," Zhang said, adding that jointly building the Belt and Road is another big step in enhancing practical bilateral cooperation. China is currently Namibia's largest source of foreign investment and export market, Zhang said. "Nowadays, on the Chinese dining table, we can see Namibia's high-quality free-range beef and fresh Atlantic oysters." He said that he believes that in the future, the two countries will continue their traditional friendship, maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges, strengthen coordination in international affairs, and further enhance their mutual political trust. In particular, continued bilateral cooperation under the frameworks of FOCAC and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:22:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TORONTO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Canadian government is recruiting volunteers to support frontline healthcare workers to combat the COVID-19 crisis. "For those of you with specialized skills looking to help our frontline workers, we do want to hear from you," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at his daily press conference on COVID-19 Sunday morning at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, where he has been self-isolating even after his wife announced recovery from the COVID-19 illness last week. Trudeau said that Health Canada will be building "an inventory of specialized work volunteers" that provinces and territories can draw on and that some of the work may include tracking COVID-19 cases and tracing contacts. Meanwhile, he said that reservists in the Canadian Armed Forces will be offered full-time jobs over the coming months, with the same pay and benefits as regular enlisted members. "Bolstering the military's ranks will help offset some of the economic consequences of COVID-19 and ensure that our communities are well-supported," Trudeau said. Volunteer applications will be open until at least April 24, while reservists across the country are going to be contacted directly by Trudeau government. Trudeau also said his government is considering measures to encourage students to take up summer jobs in the agriculture and fishing sectors that are normally filled by temporary foreign workers. Trudeau added that his government officials are working day and night to secure additional, desperately needed personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers. On Saturday, Trudeau announced millions of medical masks would be arriving in Canada from China within 48 hours and he would not take retaliatory measures one day after U.S. President Donald Trump banned exports of American-made N95 masks to other countries, including Canada. Trudeau said Canada has leased a warehouse in China to collect and distribute additional medical supplies "as quickly as possible." The number of COVID-19 cases is rising in Canada. As of 1 p.m. Sunday Canada Eastern Time, there were 14,469 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 258 deaths in the country, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. A person from Cachar in Assam who attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event in Delhi was tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Assam to 26, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. "One more #Covid_19 positive case from Cachar District has been confirmed, taking the total number in Assam to 26. This patient is also related to #NizamuddinMarkaz event in Delhi," Sarma tweeted. Earlier, Sarma said that twenty-four out of 812 people, who attended the Nizamuddin Markaz have tested positive for coronavirus. "812 tests have been conducted of those who attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event. Of these, 24 have tested positive for the COVID-19, while 636 tested negative and 152 results are awaited," said Sarma. The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. Several state governments are tracing and identifying all those who attended the gathering. A large number of people in different states have already been placed under quarantine as a precautionary measure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, April 5 : A In a bid to provide food to the needy and underprivileged amid the nation-wide lockdown, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has opened its kitchens at 10 locations across the country for feeding the underpriviledged and those in need of food. In a tweet, M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka said that 50,000 meals were supplied this week. He also said that the company is making its kitchen infrastructure for others to use. "On clarion call from @PiyushGoyal Mahindra opened its kitchen at 10 locations. We have supplied 50000 meals, 10000 rations this week. Making our kitchen infra available for others to use for up to 10000 meals a day. Please contact @shi_joshi @MahindraRise," he said. Sharing his tweet, Mahindra Group Chairman, Anand Mahindra said: "To our team: You have opened up not only our kitchens, but our hearts. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart..." Mahindra Group has also come up with several efforts to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Among other initiatives, engineers of M&M are also working on manufacturing ventilators. Anand Mahindra also offered Mahindra Holidays resorts as temporary care facilities. By Patricia Epple We want the public to know that Pennsylvanias independent pharmacists are doing all we can to make sure families in our local communities have the medicine they need while remaining at home and practicing social distancing. We are following the practice of: Step Up Pitch In Limit Contact Make Free Deliveries. As you well know, Medicaid patients not only have numerous physical health care deficiencies, but also deal with a myriad of behavioral and social problems psycho-social issues, literacy and poverty to name a few. Where would these individuals turn for help when their local independent pharmacy is no longer there? Thats a real possibility due to the behavior of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) during this pandemic. What are PBMs doing? At a time when independent pharmacists are going above and beyond the already superior service we provide, PBMs are slashing our reimbursements to line their own pockets. Their dramatic cuts in reimbursements are nothing less than a form of price gouging at a time when we should all be pulling together to fight this pandemic. Since the pandemic hit the United States and Pennsylvania, PBMs have cut reimbursements for a variety of drugs, including those that treat high blood pressure, depression, high cholesterol, ADHD and heartburn. For example: PBMs cut the reimbursement for aripiprazole, a medication that treats depression and bipolar disorder, from $86 to $17. A heartburn medication, omeprazole, reimbursed for $9.11 as recently as Feb. 20. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, its been reduced to $1.72. Pharmacies are being paid less than $1 for some blood pressure medications. Not only does this not cover the cost of the medication in many instances, it fails to consider that a pharmacys overhead to fill a prescription is between $12 and $13. These are just some of the frightening examples of how PBMs are pocketing Medicaid dollars. PBMs are supposed to negotiate lower drug prices for Pennsylvania families that rely on Medicaid, but theyre getting very rich. In 2017, Pennsylvania taxpayers paid $2.86 billion to PBMs for Medicaid enrollees, according to the state Department of Human Services. That marked an increase of 100 percent in just four years, up from $1.41 billion in 2013. Weve been calling for comprehensive PBM reform in Pennsylvania that focuses on transparency, protecting taxpayer Medicaid dollars, and lowering prescription drug costs for all. Legislation would also forbid PBMs from owning or being affiliated with large pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens. CVS is affiliated with a PBM, CVS Caremark. Walgreens is the preferred pharmacy chain for Optum, another PBM. This price gouging during a pandemic is inexcusable and yet another reason why PBM reform is so desperately needed. We are also asking state officials to immediately investigate and stop this price gouging and pass reform legislation before it leads to the closing of independent pharmacies. If we close our doors, there will be less competition for large, corporate pharmacies, and that means higher prescription drug prices for Pennsylvania. Walgreens understands this. The company recently sent out letters during the pandemic asking if they could buy independent pharmacies across the state. Pennsylvanias independent pharmacists will continue to serve their communities, but simply cannot continue to operate like this. We will continue to do all that we can as long as we are able. Patricia A. Epple is the CEO of the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association and a member of a new coalition, Your PA Community Pharmacies. Find more information at ypacp.org. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 10:42 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc7165 1 National KPK,Corruption-Eradication-Comission,selection,police-generals,National-Police,corruption,antigraft-body,competitions Free After days of pressure from civil society organizations over a lack of accountability, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has revealed the names of the three remaining candidates for the commissions deputy for law enforcement position. KPK acting spokesperson Ali Fikri said in a statement on Friday that all of the remaining candidates were police generals: Yogyakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Karyoto, South Sumatra Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Rudi Setiawan and National Police Education and Training Institute (Lemdiklat Polri) detective training program head Brig. Gen. Agus Nugroho. The three candidates passed the administrative assessment in early March. They will undergo the next phases of the selection process, a medical checkup and interview, from April 2 to 7. Whoever triumphs will hold a key position within the antigraft body, as the deputy for law enforcement oversees all legal processes against graft suspects. While the position is usually filled by police generals or other law enforcement officers, anticorruption activists have said that putting a police general in the position would cause conflicts of interest. Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said on Wednesday that public trust in the antigraft body would be eroded further if the position was filled by people lacking integrity and capacity. Read also: 'Maybe it's working': KPK says lack of raids thanks to successful prevention method Ali dismissed the criticism, saying the selection process had been carried out openly. He said the KPK had not restricted anyone from applying for the position. As long as the applicants fulfill our terms and conditions, they are welcome to enter the selection process, Ali said. The KPK already has a good work system. All of our work here can be measured for its accountability. Activists have also demanded that the antigraft body restart the selection process, saying the commission had not been transparent about the process. The KPK had not previously disclosed the names of candidates. The KPK also did not involve the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in this years selection. The institution was involved in checking the financial backgrounds of each candidate in previous searches. In addition to the deputy for law enforcement position, the KPK is also selecting candidates to fill other key posts, namely investigation director, legal bureau head as well as deputy for information and data. The last position is responsible for all wiretapping conducted by the antigraft body. All the remaining candidates for the other three positions have given presentations and have been interviewed. Since police general Firli Bahuri was inaugurated as the KPK chairman in December 2019, the antigraft body has been routinely criticized for its sluggish law enforcement. It has only arrested two high-profile graft suspects in the period: Sidoarjo Regent Saiful Ilah and General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner Wahyu Setiawan. by Ernesto Che Guevara Translated: Beth Kurti This simple celebration, another among the hundreds of public functions with which the Cuban people daily celebrate their liberty, the progress of all their revolutionary laws, and their advances along the road to complete independence, is of special interest to me. Almost everyone knows that years ago I began my career as a doctor. And when I began as a doctor, when I began to study medicine, the majority of the concepts I have today, as a revolutionary, were absent from my store of ideals. Like everyone, I wanted to succeed. I dreamed of becoming a famous medical research scientist; I dreamed of working indefatigably to discover something which would be used to help humanity, but which signified a personal triumph for me. I was, as we all are, a child of my environment. After graduation, due to special circumstances and perhaps also to my character, I began to travel throughout America, and I became acquainted with all of it. Except for Haiti and Santo Domingo, I have visited, to some extent, all the other Latin American countries. Because of the circumstances in which I traveled, first as a student and later as a doctor, I came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment, to the point that a father can accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident, as occurs often in the downtrodden classes of our American homeland. And I began to realize at that time that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming a famous or making a significant contribution to medical science: I wanted to help those people. But I continued to be, as we all continue to be always, a child of my environment, and I wanted to help those people with my own personal efforts. I had already traveled a great deal - I was in Guatemala at the time, the Guatemala of Arbenz- and I had begun to make some notes to guide the conduct of the revolutionary doctor. I began to investigate what was needed to be a revolutionary doctor. However, aggression broke out, the aggression unleaded by the United Fruit Company, the Department of State, Foster Dulles- in reality the same thing- and their puppet, called Castillo Armas. The aggression was successful, since the people had not achieved the level of maturity of the other Cuban people of today. One fine day, a day like any other, I took the road of exile, or at least, I took the road of flight from Guatemala, since that was not my country. Then I realized a fundamental thing: For one to be a revolutionary doctor or to be a revolutionary at all, there must first be a revolution. Isolated individual endeavour, for all its purity of ideals, is of no use, and the desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone, solitarily, in some corner of America, fighting against adverse governments and social conditions which prevent progress. To create a revolution, one must have what there is in Cuba - the mobilization of a whole people, who learn by the use of arms and the exercise of militant unity to understand the value of arms and the value of unity. And now we have come to the nucleus of the problem we have before us at this time. Today one finally has the right and even the duty to be, above all things, a revolutionary doctor, that is to say a man who utilizes the technical knowledge of his profession in the service of the revolution and the people. But now old questions reappear: How does one actually carry out a work of social welfare? How does one unite individual endeavour with the needs of society? We must review again each of our lives, what we did and thought as doctors, or in any function of public health before the revolution. We must do this with profound critical zeal and arrive finally at the conclusion that almost everything we thought and felt in that past period ought to be deposited in an archive, and a new type of human being created. If each one of us expends his maximum effort towards the perfection of that new human type, it will be much easier for the people to create him and let him be the example of the new Cuba. It is good that I emphasize for you, the inhabitants of Havana who are present here, this idea; in Cuba a new type of man is being created, whom we cannot fully appreciate here in the capital, but who is found in every corner of the country. Those of you who went to the Sierra Maestra on the twenty-sixth of July must have seen two completely unknown things. First, an army with hoes and pickaxes, an army whose greatest pride is to parade in the patriotic festivals of Oreinte with hoes and axes raised, while their military comrades march with rifles. But you must have seen something even more important. You must have seen children whose physical constitutions appeared to be those of eight or nine-year-olds, yet almost all of whom are thirteen or fourteen. They are the most authentic children of the Sierra Maestra, the most authentic offspring of hunger and misery. They are the creatures of malnutrition. In this tiny Cuba, with its four or five television channels and hundred of radio stations, with all the advances of modern science, when those children arrived at school for the first time at night and saw the electric light bulbs, they exclaimed that the stars were very low that night. And those children, some of whom you must have seen, are learning in collective schools skills ranging from reading to trades, and even the very difficult science of becoming revolutionaries. Those are the new humans being born in Cuba. They are being born in isolated areas, in different parts of the Sierra Maestra, and also in the cooperatives and work centres. All this has a lot to do with the theme of our talk today, the integration of the physician or any other medical worker, into the revolutionary movement. The task of educating and feeding youngsters, the task of educating the army, the task of distributing the lands of the former absentee landlords to those who laboured every day upon that same land without receiving its benefits, are accomplishments of social medicine which have been performed in Cuba. The principle upon which the fight against disease should be based is the creation of a robust body; but not the creation of a robust body by the artistic work of a doctor upon a weak organism; rather, the creation of a robust body with the work of the whole collectivity, upon the entire social collectivity. Some day, therefore, medicine will have to convert itself into a science that serves to prevent disease and orients the public toward carrying out its medical duties. Medicine should only intervene in cases of extreme urgency, to perform surgery or something else which lies outside the skills of the people of the new society we are creating. The work that today is entrusted to the Ministry of Health and similar organizations is to provide public health services for the greatest possible number of persons, institute a program of preventive medicine, and orient the public to the performance of hygienic practices. But for this task of organization, as for all the revolutionary tasks, fundamentally it is the individual who is needed. The revolution does not, as some claim, standardize the collective will and the collective initiative. On the contrary, it liberates man's individual talent. What the revolution does is orient that talent. And our task now is to orient the creative abilities of all medical professionals toward the tasks of social medicine. We are at the end of an era, and not only here in Cuba. No matter what is hoped or said to the contrary, the form of capitalism we have known, in which we were raised, and under which we have suffered, is being defeated all over the world. The monopolies are being overthrown; collective science is coring new and important triumphs daily. In the Americas we have had the proud and devoted duty to be the vanguard of a movement of liberation which began a long time ago on the other subjugated continents, Africa and Asia. Such a profound social change demands equally profound changes in the mental structure of the people. Individualism, in the form of the individual action of a person alone in a social milieu, must disappear in Cuba. In the future individualism ought to be the efficient utilization of the whole individual for the absolute benefit of a collectivity. It is not enough that this idea is understood today, that you all comprehend the things I am saying and are ready to think a little about the present and the past and what the future ought to be. In order to change a way of thinking, it is necessary to undergo profound internal changes and to witness profound external changes, especially in the performance of our duties and obligations to society. Those external changes are happening in Cuba every day. One way of getting to know the Revolution and becoming aware of the energies held in reserve, so long asleep within the people, is to visit all Cuba and see the cooperatives and the work centres which are now being created. And one way of getting to the heart of the medical question is not only to visit and become acquainted with the people who make up these cooperatives and work centres, but to find out what diseases they have, what their sufferings are, what have been their chronic miseries for years, and what has been the inheritance of centuries of repression and total submission. The doctor, the medical worker, must go to the core of his new work, which is the man within the mass, the man within the collectivity. Always, no matter what happens in the world, the doctor is extremely close to his patient and knows the innermost depths of his psyche. Because he is the one who attacks pain and mitigates it, he performs and invaluable labour of much responsibility in society. A few months ago, here in Havana, it happened that a group of newly graduated doctors did not want to go into the country's rural areas, and demanded remuneration before they would agree to go. From the point of view of the past it is the most logical thing in the world for this to occur; at least, so it seems to me, for I can understand it perfectly. The situation brings back to me the memory of what I was and what I thought a few years ago. [My case is the] story all over again of the gladiator who rebels, the solitary fighter who wants to assure a better future, better conditions, and to make valid the need people have of him. But what would have happened if instead of these boys, whose families generally were able to pay for their years of study, others of less fortunate means had just finished their schooling and were beginning the exercise of their profession? What would have occurred if two or three hundred peasants had emerged, let us say by magic, from the university halls? What would have happened, simply, is that the peasants would have run, immediately and with unreserved enthusiasm, to help their brothers. They would have requested the most difficult and responsible jobs in order to demonstrate that the years of study they had received had not been given in vain. What would have happened is what will happen in six or seven years, when the new students, children of workers and peasants, receive professional degrees of all kinds. But we must not view the future with fatalism and separate all men into either children of the working and peasant classes or counter-revolutionaries, because it is simplistic, because it is not true, and because there is nothing which educates an honorable man more than living in a revolution. None of us, none of the first group which arrived in the Granma, who settled in the Sierra Maestra, and learned to respect the peasant and the worker living with him, had a peasant or working-class background. Naturally, there were those who had had to work, who had known certain privations in childhood; but hunger, what is called real hunger, was something none of us had experienced. But we began to know it in the two long years in the Sierra Maestra. And then many things became very clear. We, who at first punished severely anyone who touched the property of even a rich peasant or a landowner, brought ten thousand head of cattle to the Sierra one day and said to the peasants, simply, 'Eat'. And the peasants, for the first time in years and years, some for the first time in their lives, ate beef. The respect which we had had for the sacrosanct property right to those ten thousand head of cattle was lost in the course of armed battle, and we understood perfectly that the life of a single human being is worth a million time more than all the property of the richest man on earth. And we learned it; we, who were not of the working class nor of the peasant class. And are we going to tell the four winds, we who were the privileged ones, that the rest of the people in Cuba cannot learn it also? Yes, they can learn it, and besides, the Revolution today demands that they learn it, demands that it be well understood that far more important than a good remuneration is the pride of serving one's neighbor; that much more definitive and much more lasting than all the gold that one can accumulate is the gratitude of a people. And each doctor, within the circle of his activities, can and must accumulate that valuable treasure, the gratitude of his people. We must, then, begin to erase our old concepts and begin to draw closer and closer to the people and to be increasingly aware. We must approach them not as before. You are all going to say, 'No. I like the people. I love talking to workers and peasants, and I go here or there on Sundays to see such and such.' Everybody has done it. But we have done it practising charity, and what we have to practice today is solidarity. We should not go to the people and say, 'Here we are. We come to give you the charity of our presence, to teach you our science, to show you your errors, your lack of culture, your ignorance of elementary things.' We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people. Later we will realize many times how mistaken we were in concepts that were so familiar they became part of us and were an automatic part of our thinking. Often we need to change our concepts, not only the general concepts, the social or philosophical ones, but also sometimes, our medical concepts. We shall see that diseases need not always be treated as they are in big-city hospitals. We shall see that the doctor has to be a farmer also and plant new foods and sow, by example, the desire to consume new foods, to diversify the Cuban nutritional structure, which is so limited, so poor, in one of the richest countries in the world, agriculturally and potentially. We shall see, then, how we shall have to be, in these circumstances, a bit pedagogical- at times very pedagogical. It will be necessary to be politicians, too, and the first thing we will have to do is not to go to the people to offer them our wisdom. We must go, rather, to demonstrate that we are going to learn with the people, that together we are going to carry out that great and beautiful common experiment: the construction of a new Cuba. Many steps have already been taken. There is a distance that cannot be measured by conventional means between that first day of January in 1959 and today. The majority of the people understood a long time ago that not only a dictator had fallen here, but also a system. Now comes the part the people must learn, that upon the ruins of a decayed system we must build the new system which will bring about the absolute happiness of the people. I remember that some time in the early months of last year comrade Guillen arrived from Argentina. He was the same great poet he is today, although perhaps his books had been translated into a language or two less, for he is gaining new readers every day in all languages of the world. But he was the same man he is today. However, it was difficult for Guillen to read his poems here, which were popular poetry, poetry of the people, because that was during the first epoch, the epoch of prejudices. And nobody ever stopped to think that for years and years, with unswerving dedication, the poet Guillen had placed all his extraordinary poetic gift at the service of the people and at the service of the cause in which he believed. People saw him, not as the glory of Cuba, but as the representative of a political party which was taboo. Now all that has been forgotten. We have learned that there can be no divisions due to the different points of view of certain internal structures of our country if we have a common enemy and a common goal. What we have to agree upon is whether or not we have a common enemy and whether or not we are attempting to reach a common goal. By now we have become convinced that there definitely is a common enemy. No one looks over his shoulder to see if there is anyone who might overhear- perhaps some agent from the embassy who would transmit the information- before giving an opinion against monopolies, before saying clearly, 'Our enemy, and the enemy of all America, is the monopolistic government of the United States of America.' If now everyone knows that is the enemy, and it is coming to be known also that anyone who fights against that enemy has something in common with us, then we come to the second part. Where and now, for Cuba, what are our goals? What do went want? Do we or do we not want the happiness of the people? Are we, or are we not fighting for the total economic liberation of Cuba? Are we or are we not struggling to be a free nation among free nations, without belonging to any military bloc, without having to consult the embassy of any great power on earth about any internal or external measure that is going to be taken here? If we plan to redistribute wealth of those who have too much in order to give it to those who have nothing; if we intend to make creative work a daily, dynamic source of all our happiness, then we have goals toward which to work. And anyone who has the same goals is our friend. If he has other concepts besides, if he belongs to some organization or other, those are minor matters. In moments of great danger, in moments of great tensions and great creations, what count are great enemies and great goals. If we are already agreed, if we all know now where we are going - and let him grieve to whom it will cause grief- then we have to begin our work. I was telling you that to be a revolutionary you have first to have a revolution. We already have it. Next, you have to know the people with whom you are going to work. I think that we are not yet well acquainted, that we still have to travel a while on that road. You ask me what are the vehicles for getting to know the people beside the vehicle of living in the cooperatives and working in them. Not everyone can do this, and there are many places where the presence of a medical worker is very important. I would say that the revolutionary militias are one of the great manifestations of the solidarity of the Cuban people. Militias now give a new function to the doctor and prepare him for what was, until a short time ago, a sad and almost fatal reality for Cuba, namely, that we are going to be the victim of an armed attack of great breadth. I ought to warn you that the doctor, in the function of soldier and revolutionary, should always be a doctor. You should not commit the same error which we committed in the Sierra. Or maybe it was not an error, but all the medical comrades of that period know about it. It seemed dishonorable to us to remain at the side of a wounded man or a sick one, and we looked for any way possible of grabbing a rifle and going to prove on the battlefront what we could do. Now the conditions are different, and the new armies which are being formed to defend the country must be armies with different tactics. The doctor will have an enormous importance within the plan of the new army. He must continue being a doctor, which is one of the most beautiful tasks there is and one of the most important in a war. And not only the doctor, but also the nurses, laboratory technicians, all those who dedicate themselves to this very human profession, are of he utmost importance. Although we know of latent danger and are preparing ourselves to repel the aggression which still exists in the atmosphere, we must stop thinking about it. If we make war preparations the centre of our concern, we will not be able to devote ourselves to creative work. All the work and all the capital invested in preparing for a military action is wasted work and wasted money. Unfortunately, we have to do it, because there are others who are preparing themselves. But it is- and I say this in all honesty, on my honour as a soldier- the truth is that the outgoing money which most saddens me as I watch it leave the vault of the National Bank is the money that is going to pay for some weapon. Nevertheless, the militias have a function in peacetime; the militias should be, in populous centres, the tool which unifies the people. An extreme solidarity should be practiced, as I have been told it is practised in the militias of the doctors. In time of danger they should go immediately to solve the problems of the poor people of Cuba. But the militias offer also an opportunity to live together, joined and made equal by a uniform, with men of all social classes of Cuba. If we medical workers- and permit me to use once again a title which I had forgotten some time ago- are successful, if we use this new weapon of solidarity, if we know the goals, know the enemy, and know the direction we have to take, then all that is left for us to know is the part of the way to be covered each day. And that part no one can show us; that part is the private journey of each individual. It is what he will do every day, what he will gather from his individual experience, and what he will give of himself in the exercise of his profession, dedicated to the well-being of the people. Now that we have all the elements for our march toward the future, let us remember the advice of Marti. Although at this moment I am ignoring it, one should follow it constantly, "The best way of telling is doing." Let us march, then, toward Cuba's future. With shops and stores shuttered, streets empty, and the country on lockdown, we are living through unprecedented and drastic measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. For most of us, this global pandemic is bringing the importance of strong public services into sharp focus. But some people will never pass up an opportunity to attack public sector workers. Already, right-wing columnists are calling on governments to send public sector workers to the unemployment lines until this outbreak is over. Just last weekend, Premier Jason Kenney issued pink slips to 26,000 education workers in Alberta. This approach is flat-out wrong. No credible economist in Canada thinks putting people out of work during an emergency like this is helpful. And as we reach the third week of a crisis that could last months, our public service workers are proving their value. While most of us are safe at home, public service workers are still going to work, risking their well-being to keep their communities safe, healthy, and running as close to normal as possible. As president of Canadas largest union, representing front-line public service workers, I hear stories from across the country of everyday heroes doing their part. Like the childcare workers in Toronto looking after kids so their parents can staff essential jobs. Or municipal workers in rural Beresford, N.B., who are running food, medication and other necessities to residents in need. Im thinking of the education assistant in Edmonton who, even though school is closed, is still helping her student with developmental disabilities over video conference so she doesnt miss a single lesson. Now, because of Kenneys short-sighted and mean-spirited cuts, that woman no longer has a job and that child no longer has a mentor. The pandemic has exposed just how vital public services are to everyday life, as well as the cruelty of depriving people who depend on them. It has also exposed the devastating impact of cuts and neglect to the services and supports we depend on in emergencies. Our health care system, for example, was running over 100 per cent capacity long before this crisis. Now our health care workers are facing a pandemic surge in hospitals and long-term care facilities without the beds, staffing, or even basic equipment they need to keep themselves and the people they care for safe. Im thinking about the paramedic in Peterborough who told me social distancing doesnt exist for front-line health care workers. They arent getting two metres space from this crisis theyre going face-to-face with it. Theyre facing down the uncertainty, and theyre facing down the risks to their families and their coworkers. And theyre doing it increasingly short-staffed and with a looming shortage of personal protective equipment. There are hundreds of thousands of workers, just like these, who deserve our support now, and when this crisis is over. Mark Hancock is president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 700,000 workers in sectors like health care, education, transportation, and municipal and social services. Read more about: The snub poured fuel on a smouldering fire in Italy, where euroscepticism has been on the rise in the decade since the European debt crisis and an influx of migrants pitted countries in the south against those in the north. Those same dynamics are playing out 10 years later as the coronavirus crushes Europe's economy and pushes Italy's already fragile balance sheet towards the point of no return. Old wounds are being reopened. The Schengen Agreement, which is meant to permit frictionless travel inside the EU, was quickly cast aside as countries sealed borders or introduced stringent checks. State-based solutions won out over a collective response to a shared crisis. A particularly severe rupture is now emerging over whether to embrace controversial "coronabonds" as a longer-term measure to repair the continent's shattered economy. The coronabond fight is getting ugly and has already compounded the fallout from Europe's failure to respond quickly to Italy's plea. Some political leaders and experts even fear the brawl could cause Italy to step out of the eurozone and possibly the EU altogether in favour of a closer relationship with an opportunistic China and Russia. Coronabonds would allow the EU to jointly raise debt, which would be shared across all member countries. Raising debt with the might of much healthier balance sheets in the north would drive down the individual borrowing costs for countries in the south which are still highly leveraged following the 2010-2012 debt crisis and may struggle to get the money needed to properly fund the coronavirus recovery. About 135 per cent, Italy's debt to GDP ratio is the second highest in Europe and one of the largest in the world, and there are real fears it and perhaps Spain could collapse under the crushing weight of the pandemic, triggering a full-blown debt crisis that engulfs Europe and jolts already-hammered global markets. Lower borrowing costs and easier access to money could prevent that catastrophic outcome. Joint debt would mean countries in the north pay more in borrowing costs and carry a higher degree of risk than they do now, and it would be seen by some taxpayers as nothing more than a wealth-transfer scheme. Opponents of a coronabond scheme also make the compelling argument that it would take years to design and implement. The coronabond approach was floated during the debt crisis under the badge of "euro bonds" but the plan was shot down by countries in the north who did not want to be on the hook for the failures of the south. German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously said then that she would never accept common debt as long as she drew breath. A coalition of the "frugal four" Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland are again pushing back hard against new enthusiasm for shared debt. Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra inflamed tensions by sensationally suggesting an investigation might be needed into why Spain and other countries were not in a sound financial position to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Portugal's Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, described those remarks as "repugnant". Enraged Italian mayors even took out an ad in a conservative German publication to remind Berlin that Italy, Spain and others forgave much of Germany's debt in the wake of World War II. "Dear German friends, remembrance helps one make the right decisions," they wrote. Conte, whose response to the devastation in Italy has led to soaring poll popularity, is all in on the coronabond idea and is backed up by Spain's Costa, as well as the leaders of France, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Luxembourg. "We're not in the process of writing an economic textbook here, we are writing a page in history," Conte said in a rare interview with German television. "We are being called to manage a challenge of epic proportions and find a way out of this devastating emergency." Loading Jerome Roos, a fellow in international political economy at the London School of Economics, says the approach of the frugal four is misplaced and does not reflect the gravity of the crisis. "What they fear is that a coronabond would essentially induce moral hazard because it would cause these countries in southern Europe to continue to spend more than they earn and to basically use the subsidy from the north in the form of lower of borrowing costs to maintain that profligate behaviour," Roos says. "That's obviously nonsense because this is not about profligate behaviour it's about responding collectively to a common crisis." He also warns the unwillingness of the north to accept slightly higher borrowing costs under a joint debt instrument could backfire in the long term through the demise of the euro and hard-right politicians using disunity within the EU to push the case for its disbanding. "The point is that disintegration of the eurozone would be so infinitely more costly to Europe," Roos says. "It would make that slight increase in borrowing costs and increased burden and risk-sharing look really insignificant. A breakup would be catastrophic." Matteo Salvini, the firebrand former deputy prime minister of Italy, is waiting in the wings to capitalise on Italy's dissatisfaction with the EU's response. Even Conte has hardened his stance against the EU over recent days and a future centrist government could come under real pressure to retaliate. In the north, Dutch far-right party leader Geert Wilders is also reviving anti-Euro sentiment by arguing that too much taxpayer money is being funnelled to the south. "That's the narrative, and the risk of course is that you will end up with this intensified contradiction where Europe's leaders end up playing into the hands of both these types of politicians," Roos says. "That might lead to a situation where the eurozone could actually break apart if there's no way to find that common ground and express solidarity in a much more serious and institutional level." On the medical front, Europe has stepped up its game after the initial stumble, and Germany, France and Austria have now sent millions of masks and hundreds of ventilators to Italy. In a less-than-subtle attempt to counter Beijing's "face mask diplomacy", glossy memes on the EU's social media accounts note Germany and France combined have "donated to Italy more masks than China". A section of the EU website has been set up, cheerfully titled "snapshots of European solidarity". The European Union is under huge strain as coronavirus sweeps across the continent. Credit:Bloomberg The Centre for European Reform's Luigi Scazzieri notes that the EU also hasn't been entirely sitting on its hands over fiscal policy, citing a relaxation of deficit rules and a mooted 100 billion fund to support workers in hard-hit communities. "But I would say this is an attempt to deflect attention from the bigger disagreements," he says. "When you think that most of Europe's economy is not producing anything for months, the scale of this downturn will require enormous amounts of guarantees and funding, and 100 billion compared to the size of the economy is absolutely nothing. "My fear is that enough will be done to keep countries like Italy solvent, but not enough will be done to change their political trajectory. Similarly to what happened in the way Europe rectified its initial missteps on sending medical help to Italy, the same might happen economically but you may have aid to Italy but that is too late and that results in a strengthening of eurosceptic forces." A 69-year-old COVID-19 positive woman, with co-morbid conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, died at a private hospital in Ludhiana on Sunday, bringing the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Punjab to six, a health official said. Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Rajesh Kumar also said the woman had no recent foreign travel history. "She was a heart patient and had high blood pressure and sugar. She had earlier tested positive for novel coronavirus," Kumar told PTI over the phone. The official said she was admitted to a private hospital in Ludhiana in a serious condition on March 31. A resident of Shimlapuri area in Ludhiana, the woman had earlier gone to Mohali to meet her relatives, he said. Punjab has so far reported 68 coronavirus cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) LANSDALE If you suddenly have free time, or are looking for a way to help those who are hurting these days, theres a new local group that is looking for you. Lansdale Neighbors United is a new online community aiming to match those in need with others who can help them get through the current coronavirus crisis. These are pretty crazy times, but we need leaders that are positive and want to get things done and have the ability to unite people, said co-founder Don Bradley. The new Lansdale group is modeled after a similar organization a few miles north, Doylestown Neighbors United, which so far has raised over $9,700 in donations to support fellow community members, while also connecting those in need with those who provide food, healthcare resources, domestic violence information, and other means of support. Bradley is the owner of two Manhattan Bagel shops, one in Lansdale and another in Doylestown, and said when the Doylestown group began mobilizing donations of food for workers at Grandview Hospital, the idea of a similar effort in Lansdale took hold. It was primarily formed to provide assistance to local municipalities, that I think are overwhelmed right now and dont have the ability, without business leaders and professionals, to get organized, he said. While Bradleys business is one of the few still open in both towns, hes been busy organizing donations of bagels and other breakfast foods to hospital workers. Hes also trying to find people willing to organize donation drives for local nonprofits like Manna on Main Street, and more. In Lansdale, I realized pretty quickly there wasnt an organization in place to do the same thing for Lansdale that Doylestowns did. And I lived in Lansdale for a long time, I love Lansdale, thats why I got into business here, he said. All of these entrepreneurs that dont have any bandwidth to get by I wanted to get the community organized around this same message, he said. The Lansdale Neighbors United group has nearly 200 members as of Thursday afternoon, and features discussion threads talking where to find temporary jobs, projects needing volunteers, restaurants offering takeout, even requests from local residents in need, including a resident with specific food allergies that the group helped get groceries. Success stories are also shared in the group, including food donations to area hospitals, where workers may be too busy caring for others to think about their own needs. The hospitals, in Lansdale and in Doylestown, theyre working so hard, and they continue to contact me and say how much it means to them, to get some love, Bradley said. Thats what were trying to do: were trying to provide information, and love, and just get everyone connected, he said. The Doylestown group says its mission is to strengthen and enhance that community by linking those in need with those who can offer a hand up, and Bradley said he hopes the Lansdale group does the same, particularly for workers in fields like the restaurant industry who have had their stability shattered with the sudden shutdowns of the past few weeks. If communities across the country can unite and be prepared, they should. We can get through this, but we just need to be organized, and have a way to help, he said. For more information search for Lansdale Neighbors United on Facebook. As classrooms are still shut under the Covid-19 precautionary guidelines, university professors and students are trying to get accustomed to distance learning Mustafa Kamel Al-Sayed and Hala Seoudi are Cairo University professors. Married for over three decades, the couple have, for their first time, been working from home. The two prominent professors of political science have been working from two adjacent rooms, each with a laptop and a shared Internet connection. Two weeks ago, Egyptian authorities announced the suspension of academic activities, including university classes, to reduce infections from the new coronavirus. This was part of other social distancing measures that the state has been adopting as part of the fight against Covid-19. However, professors and university students were not sent home for a holiday. They were rather sent home to teach and learn. A first for us, Seoudi said. We were given options on how to upload the lectures for the benefit of our students and each professor chose the method that was compatible with their command of IT skills. Seoudi chose to upload the otherwise customary PowerPoint review of the lecture and to add an audio recording for explanation. Not sure if this is fully effective. I mean yes, in the classroom I present PowerPoint and then I talk but it is not a one-way performance. There is also the interaction with the students who get to ask questions and this allows for the lecture to develop, Seoudi said. The lack of professor-student communication is not the only problem that Seoudi has faced during the past two weeks. She has to also worry about the quality of the audio and the synchronisation of the voice with the flow of the PowerPoint display that she is using. Seoudi has to send the file to an IT person who is assigned by the Faculty of Political Science to upload the lectures of all professors to the website of the faculty for the students to be able to access. In the first week, Seoudi received a call from one of her students, probably the first to look for the lecture, to inquire about the audio. After a back and forth with the concerned technician, Seoudi had to redo the recording, and again send her file to the technician who duly uploaded the lecture. Al-Sayed too had to go through the same process. One day, Seoudi and Al-Sayed were each trying to communicate with the IT administrator to get something or other fixed. Other professors and students were also trying to reach out for IT help. The swamped technician eventually got four assistants to help with the work of the three departments of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, with their Arabic, English and French divisions. It is an incredible amount of work for only five technicians. The Faculty of Economics and Political Science has three departments and each has three language divisions. For the second term of this academic year, the technical team had to attend to hundreds of students who kept calling with queries about a particular lecture of a particular professor. Technicalities aside, Al-Sayed argued, there is serious concern about the quality of education. University education cannot be a monologue-based process. There has to be discussion and communication, he said. There are ample IT programmes that would make it possible for professor and student to go online for lectures, especially for a faculty where a class is around 80 students. Ideally, we could have used Skype for lectures but given that this application is suspended in Egypt and given that alternative applications like Zoom require quite a substantial subscription, it becomes unlikely that the full scale of IT would be harnessed to serve the education process at this challenging moment, Al-Sayed said. Al-Sayed decided to subscribe to Zoom, these days the most popular remote conferencing services company. He paid his own subscription and has been trying to invite small groups of students for discussion. Apart from post-graduate students, Al-Sayed teaches around 300 students in different classes in different divisions. Not all were invited to Zoom conference chats. Some were invited to send questions by e-mail. I guess we are all experimenting with the process, professors and students alike, he said. Most other professors, according to students from several universities in the country, have been opting either for a PowerPoint/audio recording mix, or lectures on a YouTube channel that is either self-administered or administered by the faculty or a department at the faculty. Sherif Younis is a professor of history. He teaches four groups of students at Helwan University. Unlike those of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Younis students both at the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Pedagogy, are in the hundreds. I have over 700 students enrolled in one of my classes. I could argue that in any given lecture not all these students were in class, so I cannot tell how the entire class is benefiting or not benefiting from uploading the lectures on the universitys site, Younis said. Younis opts for the PowerPoint/audio mix. Like Al-Sayed and Seoudi, Younis agreed that there are technical hiccups and lack of communication issues. But this is an extraordinary moment with so many unprecedented questions. We are all trying and learning in the process, he said. Students of several disciplines from several universities were not so sure they were actually learning enough from the current electronic mode of teaching. Alaa Mohsen is a student of English literature at Cairo University. She said it has not always been easy. Some professors, she said, have been posting PowerPoint slides without enough audio lecturing, or have been conducting a YouTube lecture without a PowerPoint presentation, she said. And in both cases, Mohsen added, she and other students in her class have been finding it very difficult to really get a handle on the subjects we are supposed to study. Some professors are more willing to help, of course. They promptly answer questions that we send by e-mail or WhatsApp, but not everyone, Mohsen argued. Ahmed Fawzi, a student of law at Cairo University, is also finding it difficult to depend on the uploaded lectures of his professors. This is not about what the professor does or doesnt do. It is about the fact that some classes and some material need more extensive discussion and explanation. Just having a recording or a recording and a PowerPoint slide show is not helping much, Fawzi said. For Mahmoud Ahmed, a student of philosophy at Assiut University, and Ahmed Abdallah, studying commerce at Tanta University, the question is not just about the quality of recorded lectures but access to them. The Internet is perturbing when following a 90-minute lecture much less getting a grip on the ideas professors want to share with their students. Then, according to Ahmed Said, a student of commerce at Cairo University, there is the mother of all questions: how will the exams be conducted, and what will be included and what will not be included? Some of Saids professors have chosen to put their lectures on Telegram. Others have been sending long voice notes on WhatsApp groups. Said has not been paying a lot of attention to any. I am just filing them to see how things would go with the exam because if they decide to cancel the exams and relegate part of the material for next year then I should not be working on it now. Nobody is telling us anything about the exams, he said. University professors say they are still waiting for the guidelines of the Higher Council of Universities. This week, the minister of education announced that final exams would only cover curricula material that was covered up until 15 March, the day the academic year was suspended. University students are now wondering whether the decision will also apply to them or all academic classes including the final years. And while these are tough questions for students of humanities, there are perhaps more complex questions for students of scientific and applied schools. Particularly challenged are the students of medicine. Ahmed AlMinawi, a professor of gynaecology and obstetrics, is chair of the e-learning committee at the Faculty of Medicine of Cairo University. The unit opened just a few months ago as part of a modernisaiton process. And it has proven to be purposeful, because we managed to keep the process going significantly well, AlMinawi said. All the material of the first three years of med school is already uploaded with lectures of many professors. The textbooks of Cairo Universitys Faculty of Medicine students have dynamic QRCs that allow them to access the lectures of many professors on any material. According to AlMinawi, the teaching of the first three academic classes could be safely managed online, including subjects like anatomy because we have a digital anatomy programme for our students. The question, he agreed, relates more to clinical teaching that students go through in the last three classes. This includes the part that deals with patients and this might be slightly tricky because ultimately medicine is about practice, he said. But at least for now we have about 70 per cent covered and we will see how things go and act accordingly. Students of medicine at Ain Shams and Cairo University say that it should be possible for them to manage parts of the material but it would be impossible to miss sections and rounds where students get to study clinical subjects in small groups and see doctors examining patients in hospitals. Usually it is around 40 students per section and the same for rounds. We could split these groups in two or three. This would mean smaller groups and consequently less hazardous situations, said Amal Mahmoud, a student of medicine. Like other students, Mahmoud is worried that if the entire clinical part is scratched this would mean a significant delay and would consequently postpone graduation. Already the suspension of all academic activities has been extended for two more weeks. As students of medicine we know very well that this coronavirus problem is not going to go away in four weeks, she said and it will continue to be concerning to allow large groups to gather for at least eight more weeks. Now we dont know what this means for us. *A version of this article appears in print in the 2 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: A corona positive case in Maharashtras Nashik district, which came to light on March 30, has forced Asias largest onion trading market, Lasalgaon, to suspend operations, affecting supplies, an official of the market said. Panic spread far and wide, prompting six villages adjoining Lasalgoan to bar the entry and exit of people from outside, according to the official. These villages are the main source of labour and are also home to traders who transact in the market. This disrupted supplies across the country. The Lasalgoan market is now set to open on Tuesday, the official said. We at Lasalgaon have decided to resume trading on Tuesday (April 7). The district collector ordered the shutdown because the corona positive case was a major bakery supplier who regularly supplied pav (Indian bread) to the entire area, said Narendra Wadhwane, the secretary of the Lasalgaon agriculture produce market committee or APMC. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic APMCs are state-regulated bodies that run wholesale markets in the country under the APMC Act. Onion supplies to rest of India are down 35% due to closure of the financial year in March, lack of labour due to the lockdown and the emergence of the corona case in Nashik. I hope we will have adequate labour when we resume operations, he said. According to the government note, Maharashtra officials have complied a list of all onion traders and suppliers and shared the list to counterparts in various states so that they could directly get in touch with supply agents. While Lasalgaon, a crucial nationwide supplier of onions, shut down due to the coronavirus scare, neighbouring Pimpalgaon, another onion trading hub, had been nearly idle since March 26, Wadhwane said. Too many things coincided. Two cultural events, Gudi Parva and Amawasya, had resulted in diminished trading in the last week of March. The corona case then totally cut off labour, said Prakash Kumawat, the assistant secretary of the APMC market. According to the markets chief Wadhwane, of the 17 APMC markets in Nashik, which is part of a supply chain serving various trading points in the country, only two were open briefly Lasalgaon and Chandwar. Without labour, wholesale buying and selling came to a halt, he said. He said traders were able to send 40% of shipments. According to a government note accessed by HT, the principal secretary of agricultural marketing recommended market committees to tell farmers to bring harvest pre-packed in gunny backs to speed up trade. These gunny bags come in various capacities, mostly 50kg packs. So its easy to load in the absence of weighmen, said Wadhwane. However, Wadhwane said farmers did not have access to gunny bags. Every establishment was closed due to the corona scare. Since the lockdown, 1,650 truckloads of onions have been dispatched by traders of Nashik district to various parts of the country, which has helped in maintaining in steady supplies, the government note said. According to Wadhwane, thats about 35% less than usual supplies. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Zia Haq Zia Haq reports on public policy, economy and agriculture. Particularly interested in development economics and growth theories. ...view detail Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global endocrine testing market is expected to reach USD 13.02 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing geriatric population and growing rate of diseases such as obesity and diabetes is expected to drive the market growth. The presence of a large population over 60 years, having lower immunity levels and are prone to neurological diseases, cardiac problems, cancers, and spinal injuries, is a high impact-rendering driver for the growth of endocrine testing market over the forecast period. Sedentary lifestyles of people with unhealthy food habits and increasing stress levels resulted in an increase in the diabetic and obese population. This demographic is highly susceptible to endocrine diseases and is anticipated to contribute to industry growth substantially. Technological advancements in terms of accuracy and affordability resulted in an increased usage of these tests. For instance, the influx of test kits, for home-based testing has fostered the demand for these techniques, helping the market to grow. Advancement in technology ensures diagnosis in less time and faster initiation of treatment. Software have been designed to manage the workflow in the laboratories. Newer mobile apps have been introduced wherein a patient can be reminded about his appointment or test, and he will be able to contact physician whenever he wants. These advancements in technology is anticipated to propel the market growth over the forecast period. Further key findings from the study suggest : The global thyroid stimulating hormone testing market is anticipated to reach 3.6 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 10.2% from 2016 to 2024 In terms of test type, insulin test is expected to show the fastest growth over the forecast period In terms of technology, Tandem Mass Spectrometry (TMS) held the largest share in 2016 and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period In terms of technology, sensor technology is expected to show the fastest growth during the forecast period North America is expected to dominate the market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific region Asia Pacific is projected to drive the market growth and provide numerous opportunities to industry players. Key factors attributed to market growth include growing R&D expenditure by the government and private agencies in order to improve diagnostic and therapeutic areas in the region Some of the key companies present in the market include Abbott Laboratories, AB Sciex, Agilent Technologies, Biomedical Technologies, bioMerieux SA, Bio Rad Laboratories, DiaSorin, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., LabCorp, and Quest Diagnostics. Request a Sample Copy of the Global Endocrine Testing Market Research Report @ www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/endocrine-testing-market/request/rs1 Grand View Research has segmented the global endocrine testing market report on the basis of test type, technology, end use, and region: Test Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Estradiol FSH hCG LH DHEAS Progesterone Testosterone TSH prolactin cortisol Insulin Others Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Tandem Mass Spectrometry Immunoassay Monoclonal & Polyclonal antibody technologies Sensor technology Clinical chemistry Others End Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Hospital Commercial Laboratory Ambulatory Care Centers Others Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North America US Canada europe UK germany Asia Pacific japan china Latin America brazil mexico MEA South Africa Access full research report on global endocrine testing market: www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/endocrine-testing-market Top image wdongxv/Unsplash By the time you read this, Gabriela Ho will be a mother. Gabby, my ex-colleague, is due to give birth to her first child six days after our phone interview (hello, socially distant journalism). Like any mother-to-be, shes a little nervous about the delivery. Its gonna be a natural birth, but my baby is a bit bigger than average, so it might take a while to push him out, she says, sounding both matter-of-fact and slightly apprehensive. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Liz Morse, also an ex-colleague and first-time mum, has just managed to get her newborn daughter to take a nap before getting on the phone with me. Perfect timing, she laughs. Its been a huge learning curve for my husband and I, she says of the last few weeks. One moment were like, this is hard work but its got beautiful moments and so far were okay. In the next we feel like were in over our heads and have no idea how were gonna get through this. All these things wrapped up into one. Liz gave birth on March 5th, almost a month after MOH raised the DORSCON level to Orange. On March 11th, six days later, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Since then, the outbreak has been pronounced the greatest crisis facing the world since World War II. In the time that Liz and Gabby have had their lives forever transformed, the world, too, has been navigating a new normal, waking up to all the ways in which things will never be the same. When the coronavirus first landed in Singapore in late January, just before Chinese New Year, Liz and Gabby were in the final trimesters of their pregnancies. Like most people, they were a little wary but not worried. I was like okay, its good to be cautious, but I wasnt overly anxious. It wasnt like I was staying home because I was afraid of catching the virus, says Liz. Similarly, while Gabby had been hearing about trouble afield from her sister in Hong Kong, she didnt feel like things had changed in Singapore. Story continues The virus had yet to make an impact here, both practically and psychologically. To Liz and Gabby, Covid-19 was a distant abstraction against the here-and-now of pregnancy: feeling their babies kick, being in discomfort virtually all the time, learning how to live in bodies they no longer recognised. Preparing to bring a new human into the world left very little bandwidth for anything else. Then February happened. Things continued relatively unchanged for Gabby, who went on maternity leave early in the month. Liz and her husband Anthony, however, found themselves right in the eye of the gathering storm. Anthony works as a freelance actor and host, doing mainly travel programmes (you might have caught him hosting Channel NewsAsias The New Silk Road). In early February, when Chinas caseload was nearing its peak, he was due to film a new series in Tibet. Everything had been good to go when he boarded his flight from Changi. While he was still up in the air, somewhere between Singapore and Beijing, the project was called off. He walked off the plane to the news that he was out of work. To make things worse, when he caught a flight back to Singapore the next day, he got caught up in the restrictions being imposed on travellers coming from China. He would have to go into isolation for two weeks, just as Liz was entering her final weeks of pregnancy. I was like, what? You mean Im not going to be able to see my husband!? recalls Liz. So that all became very real. And we were in our 9th month by then, getting close to our due date. If he had been quarantined right up till then it would have been hard. So far, Singapore has remained relatively insulated from the chaos affecting thousands of mothers-to-be around the world. With cities in lockdown and hospitals overwhelmed, women from Barcelona to Boston are bracing themselves to lose access to their doctors, give birth at home, or go weeks without seeing their familiesnot to mention terrified of getting sick. (We still dont know much about transmission in utero, but theres a possibility that pregnant mothers can pass the virus to their unborn children.) Still, the outbreak has taken its toll here in other, subtler ways. The day after I speak with Liz and Gabby, two doctor friends tell me that elective Caesareans, like many other non-urgent surgeries, are being cancelled to free up bed space and manpower. (I reached out to several hospitals for comment on this, but did not receive a response.) In addition, hospitals have been tightening their visitor policies to protect patients. Gabby tells me that at her delivery, only her husband will be allowed in, and only one visitor will be able to see her at a time after the birth. For families welcoming children in the coming months, a normally jubilant occasionthink of maternity wards strewn with flowers, stuffed animals, and adoring visitorswill have to be something much quieter. Even delivery plans have been disrupted. Gabby and Liz mention that around late February, as the situation picked up, hospitals began asking gynaecologists to pick a single hospital to work from, rather than operating out of several hospitals as they normally would. (I also reached out to hospitals to verify this, but did not receive a response.) As such, many mothers-to-be have had to make a choice: follow their gynaecologist, or stay with their hospital. Gabby hasnt been affected; her gynaecologist will be staying at the hospital she has chosen to give birth at. Liz and Anthony, however, werent as lucky. Theyd planned to have the delivery at Mount Alvernia, but their gynaecologist was no longer based at that hospital. The policy had kicked in just days before she was due. Since Eleanors birth, Liz has been spending time at home, recovering from the delivery and slowly adjusting to motherhood. With social distancing having kicked in, both she and Gabby are secretly glad to have an excuse not to constantly entertain visitors. Honestly, when youre a new parent, your house is a riot, says Liz. Everything smells like spit-up. You dont feel beautiful. Youre on baby timetable, and you dont really know when to tell people to come visit it sounds a bit brutal, but to be honest, were not that ready to have people come over. Everyones been super understanding and responsible about keeping their distance, but in that sense, social distancing is kind of nice. Gabby, counting down the days, is also looking forward to the space. She doesnt expect to have many visitors after the delivery, though they might still hold a small man yue (the traditional Chinese celebration of a babys first month of life) if the situation allows for it. All things considered, she admits, Ive been in a pretty privileged position throughout my pregnancy, even with Covid. For now, her family remains financially stable. Although her husband is currently the sole breadwinner, his job hasnt been too badly affected by the downturn. And at this advanced stage of her pregnancy, her in-laws have been taking care of most of the chores and grocery shopping, leaving her free to focus on preparing for motherhood. Im just trying to be more intentional about my interactions and not feed into the paranoia. I dont actively seek out the news about, like, how many people have died in China, she says, when I ask if shes actively tried to avoid getting stressed out. I just try to surround myself with things that are more positive, and take it a day at a time. Liz, who has also never been big on social media, admits that this has probably helped keep her sane. Im generally not glued to my phone watching updates, she admits. Although there have been a couple of times where my mum and Anthony were talking about the virus and Im like, can we please have a break from talking about the virus? (I tell her we would all like one, too.) Covid-19 hasnt entirely faded into the background, though. For her and Anthony, the much more pressing issue has been its impact on their finances. Liz will be on maternity leave for several months, but more significantly, both she and Anthony are freelance actors. With shows being cancelled and work drying upin particular, Anthonys travel gigs, which provide the bulk of their incomeneither of them have any jobs confirmed for the next few months. I have one paycheque coming in the next 45 days for a job I did some time ago, so that might meet us at a good point. But there arent any other outstanding cheques after that. Paying for Eleanors birth swallowed a chunk of their finances, although they had saved up to prepare for this. The rest of their savings will tide them over for a while, given that theyre mostly staying in with Eleanor, and Lizs parents have chipped in to help for the time being. Still, diapers, formula, and paediatricians visits all add up. Is this something we talk about every day? No, because that would exacerbate the anxiety, and we dont want to go down the slippery slope of feeding off each others anxieties, she admits. But its definitely in the back of our minds. When is our next paycheque coming in? How are we gonna hustle during this time, now [that] its not just two adults were taking care of and we have a little one? All I can say is that this is where our faith comes in. And yet, in many ways, even the extraordinary times we are living in cant compare to the perpetual strangeness of motherhood. Both Liz and Gabby assert that they feel lucky to be here in Singapore, where the outbreak has been relatively contained and the healthcare system appears to be coping with the strain. For now, kids can still catch a break at the playgrounds. Their husbands can still go to the supermarket. On the outside, life is clinging to what normalcy it can. Internally, normal has been a foreign concept for the last nine months. My doctor told me I had the option of medically inducing yesterday, because the babys getting hard to push out, says Gabby. I was a bit stunned. Like, what?! In three days time I have to hold a baby?! Even at this late stage in pregnancy, I was still pushing back against the idea of having to care for another person. My brain hasnt caught up. I wake up in the morning and go, oh, youre not out yet? Okay. But with each day that passes, I feel like its getting more and more real. Even for Liz, just coming to terms with her role as a parenta journey marked by more ambivalence than many feel comfortable admittinghas taken far more energy than dealing with the madness of the last two months. Its so surreal, Soph, she muses. Sometimes I say out loud to her, You are my daughter, and I am your mother, and its just the wildest thing. I mean, when you meet your future husband its not like it happens overnight. You date them and then the wedding happens and youre married and its that gradual progression. But you give birth and this tiny, beautiful, miraculous human being is in your lap all of a sudden. Youre a mother overnight. Im a mother for life now. No mother, given a choice, would want to welcome her child into a world battling a pandemic. Half the planet is in lockdown; our economies are imploding. Every day seems to bring some new devastation. We seem to be teetering on the brink of something we cant define, bracing ourselves for even deeper loss. And yet, the upheaval of the last two monthscancelled Caesareans, massive job losses, endless disruptionis, fundamentally, no different from the uncertainty which defines parenthood itself. No mother, after all, can prepare to give birth in a pandemic any more than she can direct how her childs life will turn out. Parenthood is the ultimate masterclass in how much of life is beyond our control. Whatever our hopes, Mother Nature will do as she pleases with us all. Its a bit unfortunate that Covid-19 has hit at this late stage of pregnancy, but I think the only thing I can do is take it a day at a time, says Gabby. In terms of the relative uncertainty of Covid versus the real uncertainty of parenthood, the real uncertainty trumps it every time. How my child will turn out, if hell be healthy, whether hell have any hereditary or neurological disorder all that far outweighs Covid. Send us your thoughts on this story at community@ricemedia.co. The post Bringing Life Into A Changed World: Giving Birth in Singapore During Covid-19 appeared first on RICE. On the same day as the state's first reported death from COVID-19, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Thursday issued a shelter-in-place order, a measure meant to keep the state's 1.06 million residents at home in an attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Im heartbroken to learn of Montanas first death due to COVID-19," Bullock said in a press release late Thursday. "Especially during these times, Montana truly is one big small town this news hits us hard, but were in this together. My family and I send our love and support to the family, friends and community of our fellow Montanan. No further information was released about the death Thursday night as local public health officials worked to contact the person's family. The order to stay at home, which takes effect Saturday at 12:01 a.m. and expires April 10, will have a dramatic effect on day-to-day life here. Bullock said Thursday he understands the hardships it places on Montanans, but told residents it's a necessary step to do everything possible to try to prevent an even sharper spike in COVID-19 cases that would flood the state's health care system. "I'm taking these measures today because we need to stay in front of this pandemic and slow the growth of infection so that our health care system is not overwhelmed," Bullock said. "It's our front-line doctors and nurses and taking care of our friends and neighbors. I'd rather be accused of overreacting than having a health care system overwhelmed and unable to help our most-at-risk Montanans when they need it the most. I'd rather our doctors and our nurses and our health care professionals know that Montanans from all across our state have their backs and are doing our part to lessen their burdens. I'd rather keep as many people as healthy as possible. After all, in order to have a healthy economy, we need to have a healthy population." Montana reached 90 known cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, by Thursday afternoon. Since the first four cases were announced March 13, the virus has spread from the urban population centers to remote corners of the state, reaching 16 counties. Gallatin has been hardest hit, reporting 38 people who had tested positive by Thursday afternoon, making up 42% of the state's cases. That community is the only one in Montana to report evidence of community spread, in addition to cases related to domestic and international travel. Seven people in the state have been hospitalized because of COVID-19. Bullock's order generally tells people to stay home except to conduct essential activities like purchasing groceries or medications and to travel to some types of work and to care for others in need. Essential businesses are allowed to operate, but all others must close. Employees are allowed to work from home when possible, however. Essential businesses that keep operating must comply with social distancing requirements. This follows previous orders that shut down public K-12 schools, as well as bars, theaters, gyms and other places where theaters congregate. Restaurants are still allowed to offer to-go and delivery services under Bullock's directive. Similar orders telling residents to stay at home are in place in other states in the region, like Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado and New Mexico, according to a map compiled by the New York Times. Across the country, a total of 22 states including Montana have some sort of statewide order, while about 15 others have some sort of orders issued by counties or cities. Under Montana's shelter-in-place order, people will still be allowed to exercise outdoors near their homes, but must follow orders banning nonessential social and recreational gatherings outside a home or place of residence, if a distance of at least 6 feet between people cannot be maintained. Earlier in the week Bullock asked stores to follow rules keeping people 6 feet apart, though he exempted essential places like grocery stores, health care facilities and pharmacies. Essential businesses include health care and public health operations; human services operations; essential governmental functions; the media and essential infrastructure functions. Also exempt are stores that sell groceries and medicine; food and beverage production; agriculture operations; food banks and shelters; gas stations; and things that facilitate transportation such as auto repair and bicycle shops. Also still open are banks; hardware and supply stores; and trades like plumbers, electricians, cleaning services for commercial and government buildings; mail and delivery services; laundromats and dry cleaners; and to-go and delivery from restaurants. Lyft and Uber services are also allowed, as are home-based care and services. Real estate services are also allowed. Hotels also may stay open, as will funeral services. All travel should be limited to essential travel, which includes to care for others and to get to essential jobs. Public transit may remain open, but riders must follow social distancing requirements. People may leave their homes to address their own or their household's heath and safety needs, such as to purchase supplies, seek emergency services or see a doctor. Households include people and pets. People may also leave their homes to care for others. The directive is a public health order enforceable by county attorneys, the state attorney general and the Department of Public Health and Human Services, though Bullock said he hoped Montanans would willingly comply in recognition of the measure's necessity to keep residents safe. "What I hope will happen is that we'll all be self-enforcing," Bullock said. "It shouldn't take a sheriff to say 'Let's use some common sense here.' But it does have enforcement authority in it." Public health experts have said because Montana was among the last states to announce a known COVID-19 case and is less densely populated than others, it has a chance to act aggressively to slow the spread of the virus and learn from the responses in areas that have been hit hard, like Seattle, New York and San Francisco. While it's too soon to tell how those measures might slow the spread of the virus, Montanans are seeing shock waves through the economy with businesses closed. Bullock said 21,000 people have already filed unemployment benefit claims with the state. Being vigilant about social distancing is the best way to keep people safe and healthy and slow the spread of the virus, Stacey Anderson, lead epidemiologist at the state health department, said Thursday. "This is a community effort. This is something we can all do together to protect the people in our community who are at the highest risk of COVID-19," Anderson said. Counties now have the option of holding the June 2 primary by mail, though Bullock's directive this week also expanded the early voting period where people can cast ballots in person. Elections administrators must ensure people follow rules on social distancing and keep at least 6 feet apart while voting or registering to vote. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A picture of a banner with message saying 'entry of Muslims for business is not allowed' in Madhya Pradesh's Borud village went viral on social media on Sunday, prompting authorities to clarify it was put up last month before the lockdown and immediately removed by locals. "Vyapar ke liye is gaon me Musalmano ka aana pratibandhit hai" (the entry of Muslims for business purpose is not allowed in this village), reads the message with the name of the village written below on the banner put up on a road signboard. When contacted, Dhar Superintendent of Police Aditya Pratap Singh told PTI that it is an "old issue". "The banner was put up on March 17 and immediately removed by villagers after they came to know about it. Now, there is no such banner," he said. Borud resident Narendra Choyal said "someone" put up the banner in their village, but they removed it as soon as they got to know about it. "This is an old case before the announcement of lockdown," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A German priest is recording church services for parishioners to view on the internet due to social distancing measures amid the coronavirus outbreak. Priest Christian Rauch of St Andreas parish in Lampertheim - about 60 km (37 miles) south of Frankfurt - asked members of his parish to hang pictures of themselves on the church benches while he speaks to the camera. Rauch was inspired by a priest who did the same in northern Italy. "People who were missing the service and who are getting the feeling that by having their picture here they are here in person," Rauch said on Saturday at the recording of his service for the following day. He said he prefers to look at the photos than at empty benches when he records his service which is to be streamed on the internet. Germany has 95,637 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, and 1,395 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University at 2000 GMT on Saturday. 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 vast majority of people recover. Adel al-Jubeir, 58, the current Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, was the authority who allegedly endorsed the origin of the $100 million that was transferred to an account linked to Spains then-King Juan Carlos I in Swiss private bank Mirabaud. Thats according to documents from a probe in the latter country being carried out by the public prosecutor, and to which EL PAIS has had access. Adel al-Jubeir is one of the most-seen faces in Saudi Arabian politics, having served as foreign policy advisor to King Abdullah, who died in 2015, as well as formerly holding the role of minister of foreign affairs. The document states that it is a free donation to Juan Carlos from the king of Saudi Arabia The manager of the Swiss bank account in question, Arturo Fasana, met on two occasions with Adel al-Jubeir: the first time in July 2008, in the Saudi embassy in Washington where they ate together, and the second in the terminal of the aviation company Jet Aviation in Basel, Switzerland. Both times, according to Fasanas testimony to Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa, the Saudi diplomat explained that the money was a gift. The manager said in his judicial declaration that he asked whether it was in exchange for any service, and added that the ambassador responded: No, its a gift for his brother. Juan Carlos and King Felipe VI in a file photo. Paco Campos This version of the origin of the Saudi donation appears in the know your client document that was filled out for the Mirabaud private bank by Fasana when the account was opened in Geneva in the name of the Panamanian company Lucum, the main beneficiary of which was the then head of state. In the part of the form corresponding to the origin of the money, the document states that it is a free donation from the king of Saudi Arabia, who at that time was King Abdullah. Fasana told the prosecutor that he filled out that document based on the aforementioned interviews with the Saudi diplomat. The funds entered the Swiss bank account via a deposit made by the Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry. The bank was presided at the time by its then-owner, Yves Mirabaud. The compliance department of the private bank, which was then family owned, did not stand in the way of the operation despite the fact that the main beneficiary of the Lucum foundation was the then-king of Spain. In terms of financial regulations, Juan Carlos was what is referred to as a politically exposed person, or PEP, according to the version offered by the bank to the Swiss justice system. Judicial sources say that Saudi Arabia does not usually respond to letters rogatory from European courts Based on these documents, which were gathered during a number of searches as part of the judicial probe, Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa pointed to Adel al-Jubeir as the person who attested to the origin of the funds. The prosecutor included this information in the letters rogatory that he sent last August to Spanish High Court Judge Manuel Garcia Castellon. Bertossa is investigating a possible offense of money laundering. Adel al-Jubeir has not responded to questions sent by EL PAIS to the Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry. Sources close to the Swiss judicial probe said that there is no evidence that Bertossa has managed to secure the testimony of the Saudi diplomat in order to confirm whether or not the manager of the account, Arturo Fasana, met with him to account for the origin of the $100 million. The account manager has testified to the prosecutor that the confirmation of the origin of the funds was merely verbal, i.e. via the word of the ambassador, and was not backed by any documentary evidence. Judicial sources say that Saudi Arabia does not usually respond to letters rogatory from European courts. In 2012, a total of 64.8 million was transferred from that account to Corinna Larsen, a Monaco-based businesswoman described as a close friend of Juan Carlos. The funds were paid into a bank in the Bahamas called Gonet & Cie. The Swiss prosecutor is investigating whether the aforementioned deposit is related to alleged commissions paid for the construction of the high-speed AVE train link to Mecca, which was carried out by a consortium of Spanish companies led by Spain-based multinational OHL. Larsens defense lawyers deny this, and claim that the money was a donation from Juan Carlos. Corinna Larsen, pictured in New York in 2016. Andrew Toth (GETTY) According to the prosecutor, the winning companies in the consortium had included in their offer a 30% discount. In his letters rogatory, Bertossa ties this project to the deposit that was made in the Lucum account, and to the later transfer of the money to the account held by Larsen in the Bahamas. Last month, Spains current king, Felipe VI, announced he is relinquishing any inheritance from his father, after news emerged that he himself was a beneficiary of Lucum and another foundation named in the investigation. On May 27, 2019 Juan Carlos dropped all official activities and retired from public life. He abdicated the throne in 2014, in the wake of waning popularity fueled in part by a corruption scandal involving his son-in-law and by a hunting trip during which his relationship with Corinna Larsen emerged. Juan Carlos, who served on the throne for 39 years and is widely credited with helping stop the February 23, 1981 coup attempt in Spain, has hired a former anti-corruption prosecutor, Javier Sanchez-Junco Mans, to represent him if he ultimately faces a judicial investigation. Experienced diplomat Adel al-Jubeir is an experienced diplomat and the first Saudi foreign affairs minister who does not belong to the royal family. He has been part of the Saudi diplomatic service since 1987, and graduated from the University of North Texas having studied politics and economics. In 2005, King Abdullah named him foreign policy advisor at the Royal Court. He served as ambassador in Washington from 2007 to 2015, a time during which the FBI dismantled a plan allegedly concocted by Iran to assassinate him, according to then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton. As well as the war in Yemen, one of his major diplomatic challenges has been to respond to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He was the first Saudi official to class the disappearance of the reporter as a killing, during an interview with the US network Fox News. During a visit to Madrid, in November 2017, Adel al-Jubeir granted an interview to EL PAIS, during which, when referring to the purge and arrest of 200 Saudi princes and business figures, he said: When there is corruption there is no justice. When there is corruption there is waste and bad management. There must be a clean government that is accountable. English version by Simon Hunter. Sri Lanka extended the suggested quarantine period from two weeks to four on Sunday after a 34-year-old man who returned home from South Korea tested positive a week after leaving isolation. Army chief Shavendra Silva -- who operates several quarantine facilities -- told those who are completing the mandatory two-week quarantine to isolate themselves for a further 14-day period. "Even those who are under self-quarantine are urged to spend another two weeks isolating themselves," Silva said. Although not a mandatory order, local health officials have been told to ensure people follow the extended isolation, official sources said. Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said 43,500 people who returned to Sri Lanka since March 11 had registered for home quarantine, and 18,000 of them had already completed the process. Sri Lanka's main trade union of government sector doctors said the country should step up testing if authorities were serious about containing the spread of COVID-19. The disease has claimed the lives of five people and infected at least 174 so far. The main testing facility -- the Medical Research Institute -- has a capacity of testing 200 samples, which the doctors' union says is grossly inadequate. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) April 2020 Non-Deal Virtual Roadshow Presentation Sydney, April 6, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Genex Power Ltd ( ASX:GNX ) provide their April 2020 Non-Deal Virtual Roadshow Presentation with significant highlights.EnergyAustralia (EA) has signed a Binding Energy Storage Services Agreement (ESSA) for the Kidston Hydro Project. The binding agreement significantly de-risks the development of the K2-Hydro Project. The key terms of the ESSA are:- A term of up to 30 years with an initial 10 year period and two options (at EA's election) to extend for a further ten years each;- Genex will provide full operational dispatch rights to EA in exchange for a fixed rental annual rental payment, escalating over the total term;- Following the expiry of the full 30 year term, EA have the right to acquire Genex's shareholding in the K2-Hydro project for a fixed cash payment; and- The ESSA is subject to a number of conditions precedent, including financial close, which must be satisfied prior to closure sunset date of 31 December 2020.The signing of the ESSA reflects a significant step towards achieving financial close of the Kidston Hydro Project.K2 -Hydro - Status of CounterpartiesEnergy offtake- Energy Storage Services Agreement signed with EnergyAustralia.Genex equity investor- MOU signed for equity investment in Genex Power.EPC Contractor/supplier of pump turbines- Binding EPC Contract ready to execute, Early Works Stage 1 completed, pricing to be revalidated in April 2020.Federal GovernmentSole lender providing up to $610 million of long long-term, concessional debt.- Final Board Investment Decision granted, preparing to resubmit based on revised offtake arrangement.Federal Government Grant Body- Discussions being finalised.Queensland GovernmentConstruct and operate 275kV transmission line from Kidston to Mt Fox.- Offer to Connect submitted, GPS approved, pricing being revalidated.Treasury/DNRME- co -funding of Transmission line- Discussions well advanced, to be concluded as a priority.Kidston: Benefits to Northern Queensland - support local businessesFirst pumped storage hydro project in Australia for 40 years:- Third largest pumped storage in Australia; and- Global first in repurposing of an abandoned mine.Critical contribution to grid stabilisation in North Queensland.Shovel ready project - construction anticipated to start 2020, operational in 2024.500+ direct construction jobs:- Unlocking additional solar and wind, with another 500+ jobs in the same timeframe.Strong local economic benefits:- Local employment in Kidston, Einasleigh and surrounding area;- Support local businesses; and- Townsville: base for FIFO, port gateway for imported equipment.50MW Jemalong Solar ProjectLocated 26km south south-west of Forbes, NSW.50MW Jemalong Solar ProjectProvides geographic diversity in GNX portfolio.128,700MWh per annum forecast (P50).Construction underway: Beon Energy Solutions EPC and O&M.Project has a capacity factor of 29%.30 year project lifespan.Approximately 150,000 Jinko solar panels.Expected to generate enough energy to power up to 23,000 homes.Potential to deliver a step change in revenue by Q4 CY2020.To view the presentation, please visit: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. Morocco has booked hotel rooms for 1000 of its nationals who have been stranded in Istanbul after the country imposed a passenger flight ban over coronavirus fears. The Moroccan consulate in Istanbul booked 479 rooms in 16 hotels in Istanbul for the stranded Moroccans. Turkey has become a favorite destination for Moroccan middle class tourists due mainly to visa-free travel, lower costs and cultural attractions. Coronavirus has complicated the travel of many Moroccans as consular services across the globe set up hotlines for stranded Moroccans. Separately, the department of the Moroccans living abroad announced that it will pay for the burial costs of deceased Moroccans from needy families without insurance coverage in the Muslim squares at the cemeteries of their residence countries due to the coronavirus restrictive measures banning the repatriation of coffins to Morocco. Media personality Daddy Freeze has reacted to the story of the French doctor who suggested that the COVID 19 drug be tested in Africa. News surfaced a few days ago that a French doctor on live TV suggested that the COVID 19 drugs be tested in Africa. His suggestion in no time sparked outrage online as many took time out to slam and drag the doctor. Read Also: Africa Is Not A Testing Ground Drogba, Etoo Slam French Doctors Over Racist Comments Seeing the level of outrage, the doctor tendered an apology but this of course was of no effect on many. Reacting to the news and apology, Daddy Freeze suggested that the drug be tested on his parents before calling him a dingbat, and as expected many of his followers agreed with him. They should test it on his parents dingbat! https://www.instagram.com/p/B-kK-Fhhu-7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Chairman of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board Health Board echoes call for business support in PPE production This article is old - Published: Sunday, Apr 5th, 2020 The Chair of North Wales Health Board has welcomed the First Ministers plea today for urgent business support in producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline staff fighting the coronavirus outbreak. First Minister Mark Drakeford said more than 5 million pieces of PPE have been provided from pandemic stocks in recent weeks, which is over and above the normal supplies available to the health service. Deliveries have also been made to GP surgeries, pharmacies and through local government to care homes. However, the leader of the Welsh Government said he understood worries about the availability of equipment. Mark Polin, chair of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) said now is the time to appeal to businesses again to show their support for health and care staff working across North Wales. This is a rallying call for arms for companies to change their production lines where possible and start making this hugely important protective equipment, he said. It is paramount that our brave and committed frontline colleagues feel safe and are safe so that they can in turn protect and provide the best care they can to those requiring their help. I urge those companies here in North Wales who can assist in any way to come forward. Whether it is visors, masks, aprons or gloves, a change in government guidance explaining when PPE should be worn will no doubt see demand for these items rise further throughout the country in the coming days, weeks and months. As we are all aware, this virus shows no discrimination as each and every one of us is vulnerable towards it, some more than others. We all have a part to play in making sure our loved ones continue to receive the best care we can give and that our colleagues remain as safe as possible for those of us that will sadly require specialist frontline care. Last week it was announced that more than 400,000 surgical masks, donated by Airbus to the NHS, have been collected today from Airbus Broughton plant. There are a number of ways for companies to help this urgent request for PPE: Visit the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board website via bcuhb.nhs.wales or the North Wales NHS Charity website via awyrlas.org.uk Emailing the Procurement Department via nwssp.nwales.procurement@wales.nhs.uk BCUHB would like to say a very big thank you to organisations and individuals who have already been in touch to offer their support and generosity during this outbreak. This assistance is greatly appreciated. A further and urgent call for volunteers and trained return to practice clinical staff is still needed more than ever to offer additional support to the Health Board and the temporary hospitals currently being constructed across North Wales. Heres how to get involved: Visit the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board website to become a public volunteer Trained healthcare staff wanting to join the staff bank should contact BCU.TemporaryStaffingAdmin@wales.nhs.uk In a video clip from mid-February, circulating on social media in recent days, a former Islamic Republic minister, Parviz Fattah, has disclosed that Qods Force former commander Qassem Soleimani once asked him to help finance Fatemiyoun Brigade. The military unit, also known as Fatemiyoun Division, is a mainly Afghan Shi'a militia formed by the IRGC's Qods Force in 2014 to fight in Syria on the side of forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. "I do not have money to pay Fatemiyoun wages in Syria," Parviz Fattah cited Soleimani as saying, without mentioning when the incident took place. Speaking to the state-run news agency, Iqna (Ikna) at the time, one of the commanders of the Fatemiyoun, Samad Rezaei, had announced that more than 80,000 Afghan fighters had deployed in war-torn Syria. Other forces have put the number at less than 30,000. Various sources in the past have said that Iran-sponsored fighters in Syria were receiving around $900 a month. Fattah was the executive director of the IRGC Cooperative Foundation at the time. Later, in July 2019, the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed Fattah as the head of an influential tax-exempt entity, the Mostazafan (Oppressed) Foundation. The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Fattah in December 2010 for his activities in the IRGC Cooperative Foundation (Bonyad Taavon Sepah). Fattah's comment has for the first time revealed that the Islamic Republic was struggling with a lack of money, while fully engaged in the Syrian civil war. The Islamic Republic authorities have repeatedly insisted that Fatemiyoun Brigade is a self-sufficient volunteer Afghan force, trained by the Qods. In the final minutes of Thursday April 2, 2020 Deji Adeyanju (forget the comrade title he bestowed on himself) tweeted The problems we had in 2015 are worse now. Our economy is worse. Our currency is more hopeless. Insecurity is worse. Corruption is worse. So why was changing PDP necessary? Adeyanju described himself in his Twitter profile as Activist. Prisoner of Conscience. Anti-Government, Pro-people. Convener, @ConcernedNIG which largely ignored what many critical Nigerians think is his most important role, designation and conviction: anarchist. Prior to his arrest and being held in custody while on trial for murder, Adeyanju, in the eyes of many critics, had shown the opportunistic streak associated with several so-called activists. What is the value and benefits of those they lead in different protests some of who often suffer all sorts of harm each time there is problem with the law enforcement agencies? His case is not the chicken and egg conundrum but rather he went into custody on several times for different criminal allegations against him. The beating he reportedly received at the hands of the protesters at the free Omoyele Sowore riots was not responsible for his porting to this questionable side. He mislead the public into believing that he was almost lynched by a random gang of hoodlums. But the other side of the narrative in some quarters is that, his beating was, probably, linked to an allegation that some fellows protested failure to pay hired anti-government protesters and so went violent against those that hired them. You can chose which side of the story to believe. In all probability, Adeyanju might not be a total stranger to this controversial brand of activism in Nigeria. He is a sympathiser to the dreaded group, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), whose protests were marked by violence, arson and deaths. Is it not interesting how the sect deployed violent tactics against the state? They have since learnt that it is a slippery slope from which there is no climbing back. The taste for violence and killing that this kind of activism taught the sect is not one that can be given up easily. Rather than speed up the release of their leader, Ibraheem el-Zakzaky, who is standing trial for allegations of sundry crimes, the strategy introduced to IMN has led to the earning of the label of a terrorist organization while further diminishing whatever sympathies Nigerians hitherto felt for the sect. It is therefore no surprise that at a time that the world is focused on slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, IMN is not trending; the potential revenue from that group has dwindled as it became evident that its leader has a case to answer before the court. The virus is also not trending for pseudo-activism and their practitioners. For Adeyanju, for instance, what is trending now is to furiously retweet the attacks emanating from PDP, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the government in power. Adeyanju's Twitter timeline is an aggregator that has produced one collage of hate as expressed by his followers and associates in the bash-the-government competition. Going by widely acclaimed antecedents of Adeyanju as an activist who gravitates towards opportunism where personal interest is higher, the emergency love for promoting PDP has little to do with being partisan, which he should not be if he were truly an activist that is interested in the improvement of Nigeria. Is his support for PDP for public good or pecuniary interest? Is it a surprise that Adeyanju is a great sympathiser of a disorganised opposition party, PDP, that is reportedly committed to destabilizing the government of the day after its bitter loss at the 2019 General Elections, which the likes of Adeyanju failed to swing for it in spite of a long running campaign of calumny against President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC)? It is noteworthy that at the height of the electioneering in 2019, the PDP was said to have plans A, B and C. Plan A was said to fraudulently win the vote through a combination of propaganda, fake news and compromising the process through rigging and violence that included hiring terrorists and foreign mercenaries to create the impression that the country was not safe enough to have the elections. Plan B was to precipitate anarchy when PDP loses the election such that the military could be forced to step in and at some points return power to the opposition party. Plan A and B failed spectacularly of course and now the implementation of Plan C is ongoing with hired strategic executors and you can easily guess these paid strategic executioners. This time, Plan C is to repeatedly discredit the government with anything the opposition and controversial activists like Adeyanju can lay their hands upon. The intention is to blame the government for everything from the economy to the spread of Corona Virus such that citizens will get angry to the point where they will take to the streets and sack the government. This is why they are making comparison between now and the period when PDP was in power. They are also making efforts to whip up ethno-sectarian sentiments in the military and security sector with the intention of creating factions in the military that they can use to hack their attempt of Masses Uprising overthrowing the government. This was why they cast the recent redeployments in the army in ethnic light in the hope that they can create and deepen disaffection within the ranks. The military will have to be at alert as this syndicate will execute even more sinister plots aimed at undermining the system for them to have their way. These plans are bound to fail. The basis of their argument is flawed, and the average right-thinking person can easily see through the disinformation they are attempting. The world over, economies are taking severe beating from COVID-19 to the extent that the global economic concept and practice will be redrawn when the virus is done. So what point are the PDP and Adeyanju trying to make about the Nigerian economy and currency being worse off when everything has melted down globally? As for insecurity, the logical thing is for Adeyanju and the PDP to start by assisting the country by asking their mercenaries to stand down so that the military and security agencies can deal with whatever is left Only the cessation of these distractions as well as sponsored violence will allow Nigeria to be peaceful to the point where it can become prosperous and the citizens at peace. But again, how will those who hate stable democracy and prosperous Nigeria feed if Nigeria is at peace and everything resets to normal? Duniya writes this piece from Kaduna. Schools and non-essential businesses are closed as New York remains under a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of coronavirus. Essential workers, such as law enforcement, healthcare professionals and staff at grocery stores and restaurants, are still on the job; the rest of us are supposed to only go out for essentials, like food and medicine, and practice social distancing by staying six feet apart from other people at all times. So... are we doing a good job? Is Central New York staying at home? Google mobility data released Tuesday shows where people in 131 countries are going amid the COVID-19 pandemic, using anonymous location data from users of Google products and services. The information is compiled into charts showing population trends in six categories: Retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. The COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports website breaks down the data by state and county, showing which regions are following social distancing rules by comparing baselines from late January to the end of March. Heres how well were doing in New York state, Onondaga County and the surrounding area: NEW YORK STATE: Retail & Recreation: -62% (compared to baseline from six weeks ago) Grocery & Pharmacy: -32% Parks: -47% Transit stations: -68% Workplace: -46% Residential: +16% ONONDAGA COUNTY: Retail & Recreation: -53% Grocery & Pharmacy: -29% Parks: +38% Transit stations: -55% Workplace: -36% Residential: +11% MADISON COUNTY: Retail & Recreation: -40% Grocery & Pharmacy: -18% Parks: Not enough data Transit stations: -62% Workplace: -36% Residential: +22% CORTLAND COUNTY: Retail & Recreation: -42% Grocery & Pharmacy: -9% Parks: Not enough data Transit stations: Not enough data Workplace: -31% Residential: +22% CAYUGA COUNTY: Retail & Recreation: -39% Grocery & Pharmacy: -15% Parks: Not enough data Transit stations: -49% Workplace: -29% Residential: +20% OSWEGO COUNTY: Retail & Recreation: -39% Grocery & Pharmacy: -14% Parks: +15% Transit stations: Not enough data Workplace: -26% Residential: +10% ONEIDA COUNTY: Retail & Recreation: -45% Grocery & Pharmacy: -25% Parks: -6% Transit stations: -50% Workplace: -33% Residential: +10% The charts show residential data usage increased in every county, while it declined dramatically in retail and recreation (such as movie theaters and libraries), grocery stores and pharmacies, transit stations and workplaces. In some cases, there was an increase at parks, where people may be able to exercise in open spaces and continuing to practice social distancing. In other words, people appear to be staying at home more and limiting trips to stores and other places. The figures also match grades given by human mobility data company Unacast last week, showing most Empire State residents were making improvements in social distancing compliance through GPS location monitoring data. But is it enough? Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced Friday that the county has now seen the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalized and critical all more than double over the past week. There have been 322 confirmed cases, up from 123 cases last Friday; 52 hospitalized, up from 19 a week ago; and three deaths. Last week, McMahon expressed frustration with some Central New Yorkers continuing to gather in large groups, including a tailgate party in Radisson. He issued an emergency order last Friday making a party, celebration or other social gathering of any sort a crime, a misdemeanor punishable by a short jail sentence. Coronavirus cases also continue to grow across the state. More than 100,000 New Yorkers have been confirmed for COVID-19, with over 2,900 deaths. CNBC reports Googles data could help public health departments identify potential hotspots and prepare for treatment, and also give officials the ability to take action when residents are flouting the rules. At the same time, it could reignite concerns over how Google collects information about users locations. As global communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing emphasis on public health strategies, like social distancing measures, to slow the rate of transmission, the company said in a blog post. In Google Maps, we use aggregated, anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are helping identify when a local business tends to be the most crowded. We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19. Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Coronavirus parties: NY bar owner arrested as some ignore social distancing rules Coronavirus: Sorry, hanging out 6 feet apart isnt social distancing, expert says Coronavirus social distancing: Can children play ball? Whos checking this stuff? South Africa: North West quarantines all confirmed COVID-19 patients The North West Department of Health has taken a decision to put all confirmed COVID-19 patients and their contacts under its supervision to avoid further spread of the virus. The decision was made after a COVID-19 patient from Bloemhof could not be found at home and had to be tracked down to a farm in Welkom in the Free State province. North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha said the patient was immediately put under the care of the department. The person is now under the care of the department. We should at all time know where COVID-19 positive people and their contacts are to prevent further spread. That way, we will be able to monitor their prognosis and make appropriate decisions, Sambatha said. Meanwhile, MEC Sambatha together with his Agriculture counterpart in the province, Desbo Mohono, inspected two mine hospitals in the Matlosana area for their readiness to receive state patients. The two hospitals, Westvaal in Orkney and Duff Scott in Stillfontein have been earmarked as overflow facilities should Klerksdorp Hospital be overwhelmed. This is to ensure that health service delivery in the area is not compromised. Klerksdorp Hospital is the only designated COVID-19 hospital in the North West. We have done inspection on additional bed capacity. In the programme of fighting COVID-19, each province has to have additional bed capacity in case our facilities were to be overwhelmed like what is happening in affected countries globally. The facilities we inspected are ready to be accessed and utilized should the need arise. We are looking for another facility, this time in Bojanala Platinum District where most positive cases for COVID-19 have been confirmed thus far, he said. The North West province has 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases. No deaths have been recorded in the province. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. President Moon Jae-in speaks during a teleconference with G20 leaders from his office, March 26. The rival parties are using new campaign strategies for the April 15 general election as the world looks to Korea's model in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae By Yi Whan-woo The rival parties are using new campaign strategies for the April 15 general election, after Korea has emerged as an exemplar in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had called for the need to support the party and the government when the country became one of the worst-hit countries after the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak in January. The DPK is now underscoring how reliable and dependable the party and the government are, as Korea is being lauded by other countries for its swift implementation of a mass-scale testing regimen as well as its consistent, transparent messaging to the public throughout the arc of the crisis. The main opposition United Future Party (UFP) had called for "judging" the Moon Jae-in administration on election day for its "bungled response" to the virus. The UFP now appears to be refraining from criticizing the government over the preventive measures it has taken against the COVID-19 outbreak. Its criticism rather focuses on the sluggish economy, for which the government has been blamed, claiming that the UFP is capable of providing solutions for an economic revival. Senior officials of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) pose before a banner that read, "Let's overcome COVID-19, let's defend the people," during a meeting to encourage medical and emergency workers at a regional party office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, April 1. / Yonhap "We defend the people and we'll accordingly win the war against COVID-19," the DPK officials jointly chanted during a launch ceremony, April 2, for the official, 13-day election campaign. A party official said, "We came up with the slogan, because we believe that we're trustful and dependable even in a time of crisis." A second party official explained the slogan was chosen after considering public sentiment for the government has been "in a recovery phase." The official pointed out that President Moon's approval rating rose to its highest level in more than a year at 52.9 percent in a survey released by pollster Realmeter, April 2. The disapproval rating was 44 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from a week earlier. The survey result came after the President announced a massive financial aid package for low-income households and small businesses as part of his government's efforts to prop up the coronavirus-battered economy. Realmeter noted that the self-employed and other small-business owners were behind the rise in Moon's approval rating. Some 49.6 percent of them, up from 44.8 percent in the previous poll, said Moon was doing a good job. The DPK also had 43 percent support, while the UFP had 28.2 percent. The gap between the two parties had narrowed to just a little more than 5 percent in late February, when the government fell short of taking preemptive measures against the spread of the coronavirus. Main opposition United Future Party (UFP) election camp chief Kim Chong-in, second from right, speaks before a banner that reads, "We must change to live," during a meeting in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, April 2. / Yonhap Alabamas prisons are underprepared to prevent and manage the spread of COVID-19, prompting a worst-case scenario plan that could call on the National Guard to work in the prisons should the virus take hold in the system, according to an internal Department of Corrections document obtained by AL.com. The 263-page planning document states that the physical design of Alabama's prisons, severe overcrowding and understaffing combine to make it impossible to follow recommended protocols for keeping prisoners and employees from contracting the coronavirus. In the worst-case scenario outlined in the plan, system-wide shortfalls could result in widespread infection, the need for military intervention and nearly 200 inmate deaths. And the plan shows that the department anticipates that it may need to spend more than $2 million on supplies to respond to the pandemic, including personal protective equipment, medication and body bags. AL.com obtained a copy of the document, dubbed 2020 Pandemic Continuity of Operations Plan, on Thursday, the same day some officials first received it via email. The document was dated April 1 and signed on that date by Ruth Naglich, the departments associate commissioner for health services. Inmates and their families, correctional officers, attorneys, journalists and other stakeholders have been asking the department about the impact of coronavirus on the state prison system and its nearly 22,000 inmates for weeks. Epidemiologists, professors and other experts have been ringing alarm bells about the need for Alabama and other states with overcrowded prisons to take swift, decisive action to keep coronavirus from spreading behind bars and killing large numbers of prisoners. In a telephone call Friday night, DOC Commissioner Jefferson Dunn said he and the department he runs are doing everything in their power to avoid such a result in Alabama. "The number one thing in my mind is safety, is trying our best to prevent the virus from getting into the facilities, and then mitigating the impact," he said. But the DOC has provided little in the way of information about how it is managing the crisis, beyond three written statements since March 19 that failed to address many concerns about its coronavirus response. The DOC planning document was dated nearly three weeks after Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency in response to coronavirus on March 13, the same day her office released a statement about Alabamas first confirmed COVID-19 case. The department says that none of its prisoners have been diagnosed with COVID-19. It recently posted a chart on its website detailing the amount of testing for the virus that has been undertaken in its facilities. The chart showed that only 17 state prisoners had been tested for the virus as of Tuesday. Twelve of those tests came back negative and the results of the other five were still pending, according to the chart. The department, which operates more than two dozen correctional facilities across the state, reported on Wednesday that two of its employees had tested positive for coronavirus as of that date. The planning document characterizes prisoners as being at Very High risk of being exposed to the disease and says it is unrealistic to assume cases of COVID-19 will not be found within one or more ADOC facilities. The department states elsewhere in the document that "[w]ithout containment and in consideration of underlying risk factors the projected potential deaths within ADOC inmate population" due to COVID-19 total 185. Crowded conditions Alabama's state prisons were not designed for anywhere near the number of inmates they currently hold, and the strain on the system makes it more difficult to stop infectious diseases from spreading, according to the document. "It is expected that the current limitations within our prison system, which typically relies upon open-bay and double-bunk dormitories housing 150 to 200 inmates each, may accelerate the transmission of disease among the inmate population, as well as the ADOC staff," it states. Elsewhere, the document states that the reality of approximately "21,900 inmates being housed in crowded dormitories create[s] a Very High Exposure Risk situation." Conditions in Alabamas prisons have long been decried by inmates and advocates as inhumane and dangerous. That scrutiny has intensified since April 3, 2019, when the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that the states prisons were plagued by unconstitutional levels of violence and sexual abuse. In recent years, state leaders have debated a proposal first floated by former Gov. Robert Bentley to shutter Alabamas aging prisons and replace them with a handful of mega-prisons that estimates suggest would cost the state more than $1 billion. Ivey has pushed an updated version of the proposal and in February 2019 announced her administration was seeking bids to build three regional mega-prisons, but progress toward implementing such a plan has been slow. Dunn said that the overcrowding makes it impossible to follow social-distancing guidelines within DOC facilities. "We're 170 percent overcrowded and you've seen the pictures," he said. "There's not enough physical space in our system right now to do the six-feet distancing, so then what do you do?" He said that before anyone enters one of its facilities, the DOC is requiring their temperatures be taken, and if they have a fever or other symptoms of illness, they are turned away. The document states that housing units and common spaces should be cleaned and sanitized twice daily. The plan lays out protocols for quarantining or isolating prisoners who are diagnosed with COVID-19, prisoners suspected of having the disease and newly arrived inmates. But it anticipates that some facilities will not have enough space to quarantine or isolate everyone who falls under those categories. "If the number of quarantined individuals exceeds the number of individual quarantine spaces available in the facility, be especially mindful of those who are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19," the document says. It also states that there is not enough personal protection equipment (PPE) for everyone in Alabama's prisons who may need it: "Infection control supplies would not be available at levels required to address inmate needs during a pandemic event" and "[t]he assurance of available PPE supplies cannot be guaranteed to staff other than direct health care providers at this time." Dunn said that while many people working and living in state prisons currently do not have access to sufficient personal protective equipment, the department is working to fill that gap. "The supplies, as you know, are low. We are seeking supply chains to our vendors and other ways but as we wait on those, we're also making it ourselves and by probably the end of next week we'll have that distributed out. And we're going to start with our staff and then those inmates that are most vulnerable and then the entire inmate population," he said. The DOC announced on its website Wednesday that inmates in work plants in two Alabama prisons had begun sewing facemasks for staff and inmates to wear and that the department expects them to be able to produce 2,000 to 2,500 masks per day. The prisoners are making simple cloth masks, not the higher-grade N95 masks that health experts recommend medical professionals wear when caring for COVID-19 patients. The document says that even prison health care workers may not have access to N95 masks and other personal protective equipment. "Major distributors in the U.S. have reported shortages of PPE, specifically N95 respirators, facemasks, and gowns, it states. Alternatives due to shortages should be considered. Facemask should be used if respirator not available. Respirators are expected with confirmed COVID-19 cases, as available. Prioritize use of PPE if shortage is significant." Dunn said that the cloth masks inmates are producing offer meaningful protection from the virus. "These masks have been looked at by the [Alabama] Department of Public Health and they have been indicated that yes, [they] can prevent droplets from going from one person to another," he said. "So, I guess the question is if I don't have anything else right now, would you rather I don't do that? Of course not. We do what we can with what we have immediately while we're trying to pursue and find better and more equipment and supplies." Staffing issues If the coronavirus outbreak becomes severe enough, the planning document states that the DOC expects that up to 50 percent of correctional officers, contracted medical professionals and other workers in the prisons could call out of work at the same time. That level of absenteeism could leave the already understaffed facilities unable to operate without outside assistance. "ADOC would not be able to hire enough security personnel to adequately ensure the primary mission essential functions relative to facility security and public safety are performed during a pandemic event," the document states. "ADOC would be forced to request outside assistance from other state law enforcement agencies, as well as the Alabama National Guard to ensure facility security and public safety are maintained," it says elsewhere. In fact, the document states that an agreement is already in place to provide for members of the National Guard to fill "perimeter posts" if necessary. But the plan states that members of the Guard would likely also need to work inside the prisons. The combination of widespread absences among prison health care workers and the surge in inmates needing medical attention due to COVID-19 symptoms would also greatly strain the system's ability to provide adequate health care to inmates, according to the document. "Competition will increase for health care resources and supplies that are already in short supply, including health care personnel and medication," the document states. "Health care operations will focus on critical care issues. The opportunity to meet all routine health care needs of the inmates will be severely compromised." The document also includes a table called "Care and Treatment Supply List" that lists supplies with a total cost of $2.3 million. It lists a wide range of items that the DOC and Wexford Health Services could have to purchase to respond to a bad coronavirus outbreak in the prisons, including thousands of wipes, gloves and paper towels, 300 COVID-19 diagnostic tests, 1,300 boxes of N95 masks and 312 body bags. Woefully underprepared Experts say that prisons and jails are breeding grounds for disease, and correctional facilities across the U.S. including the jail complex on Rikers Island in New York City are already experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19. Dr. Sarah Fortune, chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, wrote in an open letter that it is vital that leaders immediately take decisive action to stop coronavirus from running rampant through prisons and jails. "As state and local officials work to mitigate the threat of the disease, they must take proactive steps to reduce their detained populations before an outbreak occurs," she wrote. "Failure to act now will endanger the lives of both detained and non-detained people alike." The Alabama prison system is particularly ill-equipped to stop the spread of coronavirus, according to Amy Kimpel, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and director of the school's Criminal Defense Clinic. "Obviously the more overcrowded facilities are, the more difficult it is to deal with any infection. If it does get into the prison system, with how overcrowded and understaffed Alabama prisons are, I worry that thats a real recipe for disaster," she said. Jenny Carroll, the Wiggins, Child, Quinn & Pantazis Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law, said she and her colleagues have heard from numerous correctional officers and inmates in Alabama prisons who worry the DOC is "woefully underprepared" for coronavirus. Dunn said the DOC is following the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "If you look at and go compare what we're doing with the CDC guidelines on correctional facilities, we are almost in lockstep with them to the max extent that we can be," Dunn said. "If there's things we can do better, great. Bring them on." But Carroll said that if COVID-19 spreads widely within Alabama prisons, it would ultimately strain the limited resources of hospitals across the state. "If all these people get infected, we know a certain percentage of them are going to require a higher level of care than is available in these facilities. So they are going to burden hospitals that are already under stress," she said. "Theyll either have to start taking inmates to free-world facilities for care or the alternative is you're going to start seeing the bodies pile up." The DOC needs to move quickly if it hopes to avoid grim outcomes, Carroll said. "We need to be thinking about housing alternatives. Other jurisdictions have been looking at empty hotels and empty dorm rooms and the advantage of this is it allows people to maintain social distancing and allows for better hygiene," she said. Another option would be to release nonviolent offenders and people with compromised immune systems and other major health issues from custody, either via parole, furlough or other means, according to Kimpel. That would greatly reduce the chance of infection for the prisoners most at risk of contracting the virus while cutting the prison population, which would reduce strain on prison health care facilities and resources while allowing for more social distancing among inmates. On March 20, the DOC announced it was halting the transfer of inmates from county jails to state correctional facilities for 30 days to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus. On Tuesday, Ivey issued a proclamation encouraging local officials to help slow the spread of COVID-19 by reducing the number of local inmates held in county jails in a way that does not jeopardize public safety. She did not propose releasing state prisoners. States including California, Michigan, New Jersey and New York have selected subsets of prisoners i.e. the elderly, those who have severe medical conditions, or those who have little time remaining on their sentences to release in response to the coronavirus. "To whatever extent possible, reduce the population," Kimpel said. "We need to get folks at least temporarily furloughed who are in those high-risk situations." Fortune echoed such statements in her open letter. "Anybody detained for a non-violent offense or who does not pose an immediate danger to themselves or others should be released immediately, before an outbreak occurs," she wrote. "This is especially true of medically vulnerable people, including elderly, immunocompromised, and pregnant individuals." If the DOC does not take meaningful action now, Carroll said she worries that COVID-19 could kill hundreds of people in Alabama prisons. If the estimate is 185 [deaths], I would say thats low, she said. Im talking to people in New York and what theyre telling me is the rate of infection theyre seeing among the incarcerated population in New York is eight to 10 times what theyre seeing in the free population. Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned domestic demand for university places may spike next year amid prolonged weakness in the job market, and universities will likely need to play catch-up with first-year students to compensate for this year's coronavirus-related disruptions. He also indicated that funding hurdles for universities - which emphasise graduate employment outcomes - may be waived on account of the unprecedented global pandemic. Education Minister Dan Tehan has moved to assure students about their future. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Tehan said state and territory authorities will need to alter their approach to assessments and the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank "to enable year 12 students to ... acquire some sort of a leaving certificate" to protect pathways into tertiary education, vocational training and work. He also acknowledged it was possible demand for university would spike due to the lacklustre jobs market and the government would look at any extra support required by the sector. He said there might be a need to "reassess" the ordinary funding rules for universities. (Newser) The US entered this health crisis with greater expertise and resources than scores of nations that are doing a better job of protecting lives from COVID-19. Much like the period before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, warnings were given to the president but ignored, the Washington Post reports. The result is a casualty list longer than any other nation's. The Trump administration learned of the coronavirus outbreak on Jan. 3. Days later, American spy agencies were warning of the danger, including it in the president's daily intelligence brief. But President Trump didn't treat the virus as the serious threat it was for 70 days. That wasted two-month period, a Post investigation found, was critical in bringing about the catastrophe the country faces now. story continues below Intelligence officials have worried from the beginning about Trump's lack of interest in the daily intelligence briefings, and the government failures in this case were widespread. Infighting between the White House and public health agencies, and within the coronavirus task force, delayed the response. And the stockpile of emergency supplies was inadequate to start with. The administration is taking the pandemic more seriously now, but it's likely that a quicker, more forceful response would have saved lives. Now, the surgeon general said Sunday, per USA Today, the nation is beginning a week that will be "the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives." The role of the US as an effective global leader in crisis could change: "This has been a real blow to the sense that America was competent," an intelligence expert said. (Read the full investigation here.) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie and Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 15:23 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd15cb 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,COVID-19-medical-supplies,medical-workers,IDI Free At least 18 doctors across Indonesia have died in the fight against COVID-19, the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) said on Sunday. One of the 18 doctors died from exhaustion while fighting the pandemic while the others had tested positive or were under surveillance for COVID-19. Wahyu Hidayat and Heru Sutantyo were the latest doctors confirmed to have died of COVID-19, the association announced on Sunday. Wahyu, an otolaryngologist, died at Pelni General Hospital in Bekasi, while Heru, a doctor from Diponegoro State University, died at Pertamina Central Hospital. On Saturday, the association announced three coronavirus-related deaths of doctors, including Lukman Shebubakar from South Jakarta, who was also a professor at the University of Indonesia Medical School, who passed away at the Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta after he was referred from Bintaro Premier Hospital in South Tangerang. He was treated for about 2 weeks with the status of patients under surveillance [PDP]. He was a civil servant at the Fatmawati Hospital [in South Jakarta] and also practiced in several private hospitals, IDI spokesperson Halik Malik said on Saturday. The second doctor announced was Bernadette Albertine Francisca from Makassar, South Sulawesi, who died in Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital in Makassar after she tested positive for COVID-19 through a rapid test. They have not had time to conduct a swab test on her, which is scheduled for today, Halik added. The third was Ketty Herawati Sultana from South Tangerang, Banten, who passed away at the Medistra Hospital in South Jakarta, where she worked and had been undergoing treatment for seven days after she tested positive for COVID-19. On Friday, the association announced that Nasrin Kodim, a professor at the University of Indonesias Faculty of Public Health, had passed away. [Nasrin] died at the Cipto Mangunkusumo National Central General Hospital [in Central Jakarta] with the status of PDP, Halik told The Jakarta Post. Nationwide, the official number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had surged to 2,092 as of Saturday, with 191 deaths. According to data from the Jakarta administration, as many as 95 medical workers in the capital alone had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday. Responding to the growing numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases among medical staff and doctors, a group of 20 nongovernmental organizations have called on the government to provide better protection for medical workers on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19. The coalition, which includes Amnesty International Indonesia and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), demanded that the government provide sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, gloves and hazmat suits, to medical workers and be more transparent about the deaths of medical workers. The Health Ministry has so far refused to provide data about the number of medical workers who have tested positive for or died from COVID-19, claiming it does not keep track of such data. The government needs to provide room for medical workers to express their criticism or suggestions about hospital conditions or other medical services related to COVID-19, the coalition said in public statement on Sunday. Its probable that when the coronavirus pandemic passes, we will see changes in health standards. Thats one of historys lessons. Take typhoid, for instance. Typhoid fever, a bacterial infection caused by the ingestion of contaminated food or water, once plagued America for decades, was once feared in America. As coronavirus continues to rage, here is a look at three instances in which typhoid played a deadly role in Harrisburg and Pennsylvania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It helped motivate a movement to institute sanitation in Harrisburg, killed dozens and infected hundreds in the midstate in 1916, and led to the creation of the state Department of Health. Cleaning up Harrisburg In the early 1900s, Harrisburg looked more like an an overgrown country town than a capital city, according to historian George P. Donehoo. It needed a makeover. So civic leaders launched a campaign of public improvements that included beautifying the city, creating a park system and instituting government reforms. The campaign was part of the City Beautiful movement, a national crusade of which Harrisburg was a leader. A major part of City Beautifuls program was sanitary drinking water to combat typhoid. More: Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 took deadly toll on central Pennsylvania More: Click here for all of PennLives coronavirus coverage J. Horace McFarland, one of City Beautifuls leaders, wrote in a pamphlet titled The Awakening of Harrisburg that typhoid cases were increasing radically each year. In recent years, historian William H. Wilson has cast doubt on that claim. Still, there is no question that Harrisburg needed clean drinking water and that typhoid was a problem. The citys water came unfiltered from the Susquehanna River, into which Harrisburgs sewage and unfiltered effluent from upriver towns entered. Its polluted tributary the Paxton Creek also carried disease. In slideshows that McFarland presented throughout the city, he urged audiences to Vote the anti-typhoid ticket. In 1902, voters did. As a result, the city installed intercepting sewers and a water filtration plant with regular inspection of the water quality. Tainted ice cream causes epidemic In August 1916, Harrisburg faced a typhoid epidemic, but water wasnt to blame. Everybodys favorite treat, ice cream, was the culprit. Contaminated milk from midstate dairy farms sold in Harrisburg ice cream shops caused the epidemic, health officials found. To stop the spread, the City Council banned the sale of dairy products that didnt meet typhoid emergency standards. Health authorities prevented some milk suppliers from shipping their products to Harrisburg. The city also increased its food inspection facilities. The city opened an emergency hospital in a hotel at Fourth and State streets to accommodate the large number of patients as the epidemic spread to upper Dauphin County and the West Shore. City Health Officer John M.J. Raunick said that with 1,800 farms supplying milk to Harrisburg, pinpointing the source of the original tainted supply wasnt possible. For McFarland, the two-month epidemic was embarrassing. "I have boasted in more than three hundred American cities of the abolition of typhoid in Harrisburg, and the present epidemic will, I fear, do more harm to Harrisburg than is generally realized," he told the Harrisburg Telegraph. He later called for a "man-size, fully equipped, working health department" in the city. This was actually Harrisburgs second epidemic that year. In the spring, more than 2,500 measles cases were reported, the Telegraph reported. In all, 402 people were treated for typhoid and 55 died. The disease disproportionately affected African Americans: Two-thirds of those who died were black. In his budget request months later, Raunick sought a contagious-disease hospital, the adoption of milk standards and "rigid inspection" of milk sources. Creating state Department of Health The Pennsylvania Department of Health has provided regular updates in this coronavirus pandemic. The department owes its existence to two typhoid epidemics. Historian James E. Higgins writes in the journal Pennsylvania History that at the turn of the 20th century the Keystone State was the most industrialized in the nation but lagged in the health of its population and its commitment to public health. Pennsylvanias hands-off approach to public health started to change in 1885 when a typhoid epidemic broke out in Plymouth, Luzerne County. A farmer had returned from visiting his brother, who lived in a section of Philadelphia that had undergone a typhoid outbreak. The epidemic sickened more than 1,150 people in Plymouth and killed 114, Higgins writes. That summer, as a result of the epidemic, the state created a Board of Health. But the board had little power. For example, archivist Tyler Stump writes in Pennsylvania Heritage magazine that the board was unable to secure state money for sanitation efforts after the 1889 Johnstown Flood. Things changed in 1903 after the western Pennsylvania town of Butler suffered a typhoid epidemic when the local water company temporarily provided unfiltered water. This time, about 1,350 people became sick and 111 died. Pressure rose to provide better regulations for public health. In 1905, the state created the Department of Health, with the power to regulate, investigate and punish those who violated the law, Higgins writes. It took epidemics and outbreaks to effect substantial changes in public health in Harrisburg and Pennsylvania. As the world continues to reel from COVID-19, we should be prepared for even welcome the health care changes that history shows are likely inevitable. Joe McClure is a news editor for PennLive/The Patriot-News. Follow him on Twitter: @jmcclure59. More from Joe McClure: Movies sparked racial division, immorality concerns in central Pennsylvania a century ago Telling fortunes or acting evil, the nomadic Roma fascinated central Pa. a century ago Uber of a century ago: Harrisburg jitney buses challenged trolley company Racial tensions in Harrisburg turned violent in 1969 Harrisburgs first policewoman was appointed 100 years ago Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Dulce Bakery & Coffee was much more than another java joint for its owners, long-time employees and loyal customers. Almost any morning six days a week before the COVID-19 outbreak forced the recent stacking of tables and chairs, the place would be near full with dine-in and to-go customers. The air was thick with the aroma of sugar-sprinkled blueberry muffins and other tasty treats that lined the glass counter while a crew of bakers kneaded and cut dough for the day ahead. Its kind of a social hub for a lot of people a meeting place, co-owner Kirk Barnett said on Tuesday as he served coffee, muffins and savory pastries for to-go-only customers. People miss that; they dont want to stay home all day, so Im sure they miss that part of it. And they may miss it even more. When Barnett locked the doors at 4 p.m. that day, it may have been for the last time. He and pastry chef Dennis Adkins hope the closure is only temporary, but they say it could be permanent, depending on how things go in the next weeks and months. The health issues that brought the recent lockdown, and forced sit-down restaurants and coffee shops toward a to-go- and curbside pickup-only business model, and economics made Dulces future murky and currently unsustainable. I think the less exposure the people have to other people, the better until we get through this, said Barnett. Adkins himself has some health issues and customers understand why Dulce has to close, Barnett said. Dulce means sweet in Spanish, but there is nothing sweet about revenue being down between 50% and 60% from this time last year, said Barnett. The popular business, which bills itself as a small batch from scratch bakery, has anchored one corner of El Mercado Plaza shopping center off Cordova Road since it opened in September 2010. Everything we do here is made by hand from scratch. We dont use any mixes and we dont buy our croissants from somewhere else and thaw them out, said Barnett. Everyone has been really supportive of us; they come in and stock up on things, and bought a lot of products and tip the baristas really well. Two of those baristas, Kieran Gonzales and Stephen Townsley, know many of the customers by name, and the drinks and goodies they favor. Gonzales, 34, who has been at Dulce since it opened, said he will miss the daily banter with customers. I can count probably a good number of 50 to 100 people that I know on a first-name basis, Gonzales said. He said he will miss that daily interaction. I wonder if so and so is healthy, how is their sister doing, hows the family. I wont be able to hear about any of that. As Barnett, 56, explained the bakerys success, regular customer Peter Komis of Santa Fe came over to offer his regrets from an appropriate social distancing space. Excuse the interruption but I just wanted to give you a big hug, Komis said, approaching the table where Barnett sat. A hug from a distance, Barnett responded. Im so heartbroken. Thank you so much for taking care of us; this is devastating, Komis told Barnett, who thanked Komis for his business. Komis captured the zeitgeist undoubtedly felt by many. Its something I never imagined, he said, of the pandemic. Its like The Andromeda Strain (a 1971 sci-fi movie set in New Mexico with scientists fighting a deadly organism) when I was a kid everything is shutting down, the economies are closing, people arent getting paid. Whats going to happen? Barnett has not yet fully explored any possible financial assistance from the governments recent $2 trillion stimulus deal and is hesitant about seeking a small-business loan. A week ago, he laid off his 14 full- and part-time employees, including three full-time bakers. We hope its temporary, we do plan on re-opening. It depends how long this goes on, said Barnett. The lease is up in September, but he has not yet heard from his landlord. Im not sure how he (the landlord) is going to accommodate all the tenants in the shopping center, he said. Adkins is the man behind the cafes signature blueberry muffins. I definitely didnt want to go out this way, he said, adding that any closure felt empty without some sort of customer appreciation day. We want to come back everything is so uncertain. The irony of the Dulce name, underscored by the current circumstances, is not lost on Barnett. Its bittersweet, he said of the closing. Its bad. Theres a lot of uncertainty, a lot of unknowns. I mean, if I knew that in a month, we could open, I would be fine with that. It is what it is, he said. Regular customer Komis said he frequented Dulce every day of the week and often brought his late mother there. Im definitely going to miss this place, he said. CLOSURES/INFO Other coffee shops that have taken a hit: Chocolate Maven Bakery and Cafe 821 W. San Mateo Rd., online and on-site pickup and delivery only. Ecco Espresso and Gelato 128 E. Marcy Street, closed temporarily on March 28. Iconik Coffee Roasters 314 S. Guadalupe and 1600 Lena St., open for to-go orders. 202 Galisteo St. in Collected Works, closed. Java Joes 2801 Rodeo Road, drive-through only. Siler Road location closed. Ohoris 505 Cerrillios Road and Capitol location on Old Santa Fe Trail closed. St. Francis Drive location on Pen Road, drive-in open. Starbucks 3899 Cerrillos Rd., drive-through only. 2110 S. Pacheco St. in Smiths, open. 3003 South St. Francis Dr. in Albertsons, open. 907 South St. Francis Dr., temporarily closed. 106 W. San Francisco St., temporarily closed. 3550 Zafarano Dr., temporarily closed. 191 Paseo de Peralta in DeVargas Center, temporarily closed. 90-Year-Old Woman Dies From CCP Virus After Deferring Ventilator to Younger Patients The content is not available due to expiration. New Mexico Wild continues to receive questions about whether it is acceptable to enjoy New Mexicos enchanting public lands during this challenging time. It is natural, especially now, when we have more time and are desperate for beauty and distraction. First and foremost, comply with medical and public health guidance. Keep abreast of the governors stay-at-home order and any local orders and abide by them. It is everyones responsibility to be safe and to minimize the spread of COVID-19. Frustratingly, the most patriotic thing to do in this situation is nothing. That said, getting outside is certainly good and necessary for our physical and mental health. During this stay-at-home order, focus on hyperlocal activities in your backyard or walks around the block rather than trekking in the mountains. Be aware that at the time of this writing state parks are closed, as are facilities at our national forests. Instead, we encourage you to share favorite nature photos, memories and books. Now is a great time to start planning your next trip to wilderness areas. You can find a comprehensive list of all of New Mexicos wilderness areas in our updated Wild Guide at nmwild.org. Immediately following the eventual lifting of the stay-at-home order, we do not recommend people travel long distances to get to trailheads. You cant practice appropriate physical distancing if you are carpooling. We dont want to carry the virus to smaller, gateway communities, which often lacked adequate health care infrastructure even before the pandemic. We dont want to put already stressed first responders in a position where they need to conduct search-and-rescue operations. Be modest in your ambitions and err on the side of caution. This is no time to have an adventure. As always, practice leave-no-trace principles, including disposing of all waste properly which is even more important when bathrooms and trash bins arent available. Weve seen hints at natures response to this temporary reduction of human impact. I find hope for the planet in watching the resiliency of the natural world and its response to a few weeks respite from normal levels of human activity. Unfortunately, the federal government continues its aggressive agenda to exploit public lands and weaken existing rules, policies and laws, including those for clean air, clean water and endangered species. The administration is trying to gut conservation and environmental laws and finalize plans that sacrifice special natural and cultural areas even as the nation reels from this pandemic. For example, the BLM is still conducting a public comment period for their Resource Management Plan Amendment, which will guide oil and gas leasing decisions for decades. Its preferred alternative would allow for mineral extraction right up to Chacos doorstep, jeopardizing untold archaeological sites and places still sacred to the Navajo Nation and pueblos. Like everyone else, New Mexico Wild employees and our volunteer board of directors are concerned about their loved ones and the economic hardships that people are facing. We want you to know that, while our methods have necessarily changed during this crisis, we are still hard at work protecting New Mexicos wilderness, waters and wildlife. This time has forced us all to adjust our perspective and perhaps re-evaluate what really matters in life: loved ones, of course, and also leaving a habitable planet for future generations. Now is also a great time to help us advocate for public lands by learning more about what you can do and responding to our action alerts. Were staying vigilant to make sure we have places left to protect when this is over, and we need your help. HASAKAH, Syria Christian Assyrian and Syriac political parties in northeastern Syria canceled celebrations marking the 6770th anniversary of the Assyrian Babylonian New Year and Akito's Day over fears of the spread of the coronavirus. Assyrians, Syriacs and Chaldeans celebrate on April 1 of every year, and the festivities continue for the following 12 days as families wearing folkloric dresses go out in nature and dance. In a March 30 statement on its Facebook page, the Syriac Union Party, based in Qamishli city, called on people not to gather and to abide by the precautionary measures and stay home to curb the spread of the virus. Akito's Day comes this year amid a worldwide crisis as a result of the broad spread of the coronavirus," the statement read. "In order to curb this epidemic, we call on all our people throughout the world to stick to all instructions issued by official authorities. According to unofficial statistics dating back to before the Syrian war in 2011, there were 1.2 million Christians in Syria, most of whom fled the war. Meanwhile, Syriacs constituted about 30,000 of Christians, and most hail from Hasakah province. Nazira Kourea, an official in the Syriac Union Party and co-chairwoman of the Kurdish autonomous administrations (Rojava) executive council, told Al-Monitor, The Assyrian Babylonian New Year and Akito's Days celebrations were canceled for the first time in compliance with the decision of the autonomous administration and given the outbreak of the coronavirus in the world. Syria has recorded nine cases [as of March 29] and only one death so far, although no cases have been yet reported in northeastern Syria. More cases have been confirmed since then, bringing the total infections in Syria to 19 as of April 2. Festivities are canceled as people traditionally go out [during this holiday] in large numbers to celebrate outdoors and it is very important that they remain at home this year given the seriousness of the virus, she added. The autonomous administration imposed a 15-day curfew March 23 on all cities and towns under its control, which could be extended if necessary. Land crossings with the Syrian government areas and the opposition-controlled areas were closed. The only sea crossing that connects the autonomous administration areas to Iraqs Kurdistan was also closed, and arrivals were banned to prevent the spread of the disease. Schools, universities and institutes were suspended, and cafes and restaurants were closed. Moreover, mourning and condolence gatherings and weddings were prohibited. Meanwhile, public and private hospitals and health centers, international organizations, pharmacies, bakeries, food stores, food transport vehicles and fuel tankers were excluded from the lockdown. May Simon, a college student from the city of Hasakah, told Al-Monitor via phone that she and her family decided to celebrate at home. We decided to stay home this year for the celebration of the Assyrian Babylonian New Year due to the lockdown, she said. In an audio recording March 31, Mount Lebanon's Orthodox Archbishop Georges Saliba extended his greetings to the Assyrian and Syriac community and called for prayers during the holy month of April to save humanity from the clutches of this [virus] that is sweeping the worlds countries. Sanharib Barsoum, co-chairman of the Syriac Union Party, told Al-Monitor, The decision of our party to cancel all forms of celebrations due to the coronavirus is part of the preventive measures and precautionary guidelines imposed by the autonomous administration in a bid to protect its citizens. This is especially necessary since the hospitals and medical centers in northeastern Syria lack the necessary medical equipment for the coronavirus patients. Failing to abide by these instructions will lead to a spike in the infected cases. Citizens have to remain in lockdown and every household can celebrate at home. away from any dangerous gatherings, he added. In a statement published on its website March 23, UNICEF warned against the dangers of COVID-19, which threatens the lives of 460,000 people, namely children, in the Hasakah province, especially after Turkey cut water supplies from the wells at the Ras al-Ain station in the countryside of Hasakah. This is not to mention the acute shortage of equipment and medical assistance, according to the statement. As UN aid to the autonomous administration areas was halted, officials feared that the pandemic could reach the 11 camps spread across these areas and inhabited by more than 100,000 displaced people, especially al-Hawl refugee camp, east of Hasakah. The camp is home to Syrian and Iraqi families, as well as Islamic State (IS) families. Hanna Hanna, representative of the Syriac Cultural Authority at the autonomous administration and head of the Syriac Cultural Association in Qamishli, told Al-Monitor, Churches in the cities of Hasakah, Tell Tamr and Qamishli canceled prayers and services and banned worshipers from visiting churches for fear of the virus spread. All religious occasions and festivities have been canceled as the pandemic is raging across the world. On March 25, the Syriac Orthodox Church in Qamishli held service on the occasion of the Feast of the Cross and Annunciation Day, in the absence of worshipers, in implementation of the preventive decisions of the archbishop of al-Jazeera and the Euphrates and the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East. The Syria Orthodox Church also suspended church services, prayers and ceremonies and limited funeral attendance to the families of the deceased and priests. Former chief minister of Jammu and KashmirOmar Abdullah on Sunday showered praise on Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, apparently for the way the latter is handling the COVID-19 situation in his state. "UddhavThackeray has been a revelation," Omar tweeted. The Maharashtra chief minister, the first Thackeray to rule the state, has been lauded on various social media platforms for the way he is handling the COVID-19 situation despite the state having high number of positive cases. Maharashtra has recorded 32 coronavirus deaths so far and 661 cases of the virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Natural News) A handful of government scientists are claiming that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) can spread not just by sneezes and coughs, but also by breathing or even just talking in someones general direction. Speaking to CNN about the subject, Dr. Harvey Fineberg, the current chairman of a committee within the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and former dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, explained how he believes that the virus is transmissible through basically just existing as a normal human being. While the current [coronavirus] specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing, reads a letter penned by Dr. Fineberg to the White House. Im not going to wear a surgical mask, because clinicians need those, he added. But I have a nice western-style bandana I might wear. Or I have a balaclava. I have some pretty nice options. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the White Houses coronavirus task force, agrees. He told CNN that recommending broad use of face masks within the general population is under very active discussion, and that President Trump could make this recommendation very soon. Dr. Finebergs letter is a response to a query put forth by Kelvin Droegemeier from the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. It aims to ratchet up restrictions on Americans even further, potentially requiring them at some point to wear face masks in order to go out in public. This letter responds to your question concerning the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread by conversation, in addition to sneeze/cough-induced droplets, the letter further reads. Currently available research supports the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients exhalation. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses the true value of money when people are having to live as prisoners under mandatory lockdown: Fineberg relying on data from China to make these claims In his letter, Fineberg explained that he came to this conclusion after looking at research out of a hospital in China that claimed the virus was able to suspend itself in the air after doctors and nurses removed their protective gear. It also supposedly lingered even after the floors were clean, or when staff members moved around in a contaminated room. Research out of the University of Nebraska similarly found that genetic material from the virus supposedly travels more than six feet away from infected patients, this also being included in Finebergs letter as evidence of more severe spread than previously believed. At the same time, Fineberg says that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) isnt as infectious as measles or tuberculosis. We also dont know the maximum potential for how long it can last in the air, seeing as how this is dependent upon various factors such as temperature, the amount of air circulating, and how much of the virus is transferred. If you generate an aerosol of the virus with no circulation in a room, its conceivable that if you walk through later, you could inhale the virus, Fineberg contends. But if youre outside, the breeze will likely disperse it. This applies to respiratory droplets up to 1 millimeter across in size, which gravity will naturally bring down to the ground or surfaces within 1-2 meters of travel. And if people touch these surfaces before touching their eyes, mouth, or nose, they could become infected. Our results provide mechanistic evidence that surgical facemasks could prevent transmission of human coronavirus and influenza virus infections if worn by symptomatic individuals, the NSA panel as a whole concluded. More of the latest Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) news is available at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: CNN.com ScienceMag.org NaturalNews.com But little had prepared the captain, who assumed command of the Roosevelt in November, and his crew for what happened in March. The carrier was steaming in the western Pacific, ready to respond to any emergency involving North Korea, an emboldened Chinese Navy in the South China Sea or another emerging crisis. On March 24, two weeks after pulling out of a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam, two sailors aboard the Roosevelt tested positive for the coronavirus and were flown to Guam for treatment. Two days later, fearing the scourge of a fast-spreading virus aboard the aircraft carrier, with its cramped quarters for nearly 5,000 sailors, the ship steamed into a previously scheduled stop in Guam, which has a major Navy base and hospital. Captain Crozier appealed to his superiors for help and Navy officials began responding, but that apparently was not enough. The tipping point was a four-page letter dated March 30, first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday, in which Captain Crozier laid out the dire situation unfolding aboard the warship. He described what he said were the Navys failures to provide him with the proper resources to combat the virus by moving sailors off the vessel. We are not at war, Captain Crozier wrote. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our sailors. Back at the Pentagon was a furious Mr. Modly, who had moved up from the Navys No. 2 job in November after Mr. Esper demanded the resignation of his boss over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL commando whom Mr. Trump had championed. The acting secretary told reporters last week that the Navy was rushing badly needed supplies to the Roosevelt well before the captain sent his letter to several officers in his chain of command over unclassified email. Mr. Modly said the captain had become overwhelmed by the crisis, and said he removed him over a loss of confidence and not retribution for the letter. Navy officials say they do not know who leaked the letter. But in removing from command a captain who complained that the Navy was not doing enough to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the Navy opened itself to criticism that it was insufficiently concerned about the health of its sailors. Even though Mr. Modly stressed that he welcomed blunt assessments from subordinate officers, the removal of Captain Crozier could have a chilling effect, several senior officers said. Apple CEO Tim Cook pose next to an image of the new iPhone 11. Apple is designing and producing face shields for medical workers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a video on Sunday. The company is aiming to produce 1 million face shields per week. "We've launched a company-wide effort, bringing together product designers, engineering, operations and packaging teams, and our suppliers to design, produce, and ship face shields for health workers," Cook said. "Our first shipment was delivered to Kaiser hospital facilities in the Santa Clara Valley this past week and the feedback from doctors was very positive." Cook said that Apple's face shield design can be packed 100 to a box and can be assembled in two minutes. Tweet Doctors across the country have said that a shortage of personal protective equipment, like face shields and masks, puts them at risk during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Cook also said that Apple has donated 20 million N95 masks to organizations that need them. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Apple's corporate employees in California are currently working from home and its retail stores outside of China are closed indefinitely. The problem is: Its like if your neighbors house is burning down, but the fire hasnt gotten to your house yet, its too late to buy insurance. Its helpful to have an emergency fund, but trying to start one now may not be much help. Youve written in the past couple of months that despite the tumult in the stock market, most people should pretty much sit still. Is that still the case? All the best economic science tells us that if and its a big if youre willing to stay invested in stock for decades and decades, if you just sit still more or less, keep putting money in at regular intervals, and sell some stock when stock prices get too high and buy some stock when the prices fall, you will do better and earn more than most professional brokers. Now, thats a science-based answer its not quite a behavioral-science-based answer. I recognize that there are people who have never been psychologically tested in this way before. Thats it for this briefing. See you next time. Melina Thank you To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. P.S. Were listening to The Daily. Our latest episode is a bit of relief: an excerpt from a new Times audio series called Sugar Calling, hosted by the best-selling author Cheryl Strayed, in which she chats with her mentor and friend, the author George Saunders. Heres our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Killer of the Night King on Game of Thrones (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here. Times journalists were honored by the Overseas Press Club with awards in five categories and one citation, leading our honored competitors for a second straight year. EDWARDSVILLE Recently-released unemployment data paints a pleasant picture of plentiful jobs. But local and state officials acknowledge the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic has brought it all crashing down. The data comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Unemployment figures are normally released the following month, and sometimes adjusted as data becomes clearer. IDES officials acknowledged the state faces a far different scenario today with an unprecedented number of unemployment claims. This administration is fully committed to the health and safety of our workforce and ensuring our workers can provide for their families in this challenging time, said Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes. As we navigate this period of economic uncertainty, we will continue to champion policies that will lift up every Illinoisan while making investments that will help to strengthen our economy. The Metro-East area unemployment was 3.2 percent in February, a drop from Januarys 3.8 percent figure. The IDES includes figures from Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties in its St. Louis area totals. Statewide the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, down .5 percent from January. While the IDES did not include county-by-county data, Tony Fuhrmann, director of Madison County Employment and Training, said it was right at 3 percent. I never thought I would see that in Madison County at 3 percent, but its the most irrelevant number ever published, Fuhrmann said. His office in the countys Wood River Facility is closed to the public, but its staff is still trying to help people look for work and prepare resumes. Were still getting lots of calls from people trying to file for unemployment, Fuhrmann said, adding people should go online or call the Illinois Department of Employment Security office in Belleville. He added staff try to help people the best they can by taking information over the phone and passing it on to the IDES office. Fuhrmann said the unemployment rate is expected to skyrocket over the next few months. Anywhere from 15-20 percent is what theyre anticipating before this is over, he said. The longer we go, the higher it will be because more businesses are going to let people go. Fuhrmann said a number of companies are still looking for workers, especially transportation, logistics and warehousing; and grocery and essential retail stores. We have a listing of companies on our website looking for employees, he said. He noted those receiving unemployment should remember it is taxable income. Taxes can be taken out, otherwise people will have a shock when doing taxes next year, he said. The big question for us on the workforce training side: how many people are going to be going back to work? he said. The real effect will be two or three months after. Will people be confident enough to go to a restaurant and sit around people? he asked. We know a lot of people are uncertain about their future. They may be going back to their current positions. But we are available to help them with their resumes, tell them what their options are in training for another field. He said the office was actively working and partnering with state and federal agencies to bring additional workforce training funding to the area. We keep hearing theres another stimulus bill coming, and that its going to have a lot of money for workforce training, Furhmann said. We need to start looking forward. What do we anticipate a month from now, two months from now? But its like throwing darts as a dart board. For information about MCET services visit www.co.madison.il.us or the MCET facebook page at www.facebook.com/MCETD, or call 618-296-4301 or 618-296-4445. In Nigeria, my country of close to 200 million people, the COVID-19 lockdown began on March 30 in Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory. As with nations the world over, we are following the advice of a scientifically-led national action plan to halt and then defeat the spread of the virus by staying at home to save lives. With hindsight, it is clear there is no country anywhere on earth that was as ready as could now be hoped. But fortunately, since the election of 2015 when for the first time in history power changed hands between an incumbent president and challenger at the ballot box our now twice democratically elected administration has spent five years rebuilding governance after decades of political corruption under an effective one party state. When President Muhammadu Buhari was first elected in April of that year, Nigeria and the world were reeling at the news that 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls had been kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The previous administration had done next to nothing to try to find them. The then president had even delayed for weeks before acknowledging they were missing. We soon discovered why: tens of thousands of ghost soldiers on the military payroll. Many of those allegedly fighting at the front simply did not exist. The previous government claimed to be waging war against terrorists but was in truth waging financial fraud against its own people and threatening their security through the corrupt theft of salaries of non-existent soldiers. Today, the majority of the Chibok girls are now returned to their families. Boko Haram is fractured, desperate and in retreat. Our military is rebuilt, and previous partnerships with the British and American militaries that had seen those countries place defence equipment export bans upon previous Nigerian administrations are lifted. In government, President Buhari has waged an effective war on corruption, with some 60 per cent of the general public personally experiencing its rapid decline in testament to the administrations zeal. And earlier this year some USD 300 million in funds looted under a previous regime was finally returned to Nigeria from banks in the US and the UK (Jersey Islands) and all of that money is being channeled into infrastructure financing. In December 2017, the Federal Government signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Switzerland on the return and monitoring of the $322 million Abacha loot. This money is being used to fund the Social Investment Programmes, including the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) that began in December 2016. Under the CCT scheme the President had promised to assist one million poor and most vulnerable Nigerians with a monthly stipend of N5,000 each. These funds are now being distributed directly to individual citizens mostly in need during the coronavirus pandemic and to allow for a three month moratorium on loan repayments by farmers and small businesses granted through government schemes. Repatriated funds can also be used to boost our health spending which was already expanding year-on-year for the last five years for the purchase of test equipment, ventilators, masks and protective clothing. This would simply not have happened under previous administrations because all Nigerians know from our personal experiences of living under them that the levels of corruption, social strife and distrust in governance they created would have made that impossible. The fact that it is today under a President who is a Muslim, his Vice, an evangelical Christian pastor, and their cabinet equally balanced between Christians and Muslims does not go unnoticed in Nigeria. But it is less known externally which is why individuals who supported previous, corrupt governments seek to use the cover of the coronavirus pandemic as their opportunity to wage a fake news war against the country at this time. They insinuate to further their false claims that a President who writes for the Church Times and Christianity Today and enjoys a personal friendship with the Archbishop of Canterbury is anti-Christian, and that the same President who call for stronger trading alliances between Commonwealth nations and signs bilateral trade and military agreements with Britain is somehow anti Britain and the West. They insinuate that Boko Harams terrorist attacks on Christians are somehow the governments doing; that health spending is somehow declining when it is in fact increasing after they pilfered the system for decades; and that it is this government that created corruption when in fact the general public themselves make it clear that it is this twice-democratically elected administration that is finally addressing this stain on our governance and society. To a large degree, many of those Nigerian names writing to conservatives in the UK and the US are just going round making money off the back of lies. There is a difference between opinion and fact. Everyone is entitled to express the former, The latter can, of course, be questioned: but it does not then change that it is still a fact. We can only imagine the untruths that would today be peddled to the Nigerian people and the world beyond our borders during this coronavirus pandemic had previous administrations or those packed with their heirs had been in charge. We can only give thanks to the wisdom of Nigerian voters that they are not. When this worldwide health emergency is defeated, we must look to each other to rebuild the global economy and look to strengthen partnerships that work. Nigeria is ready to take a more forthright role in the Commonwealth and global economic system as a whole. But today we can only do so because the very thing that allows us to fight the virus at all is a better government, which for the first time in Nigerias history is both truly representative of our countrys two great religions and shorn of the limitless corruption of our predecessors. . Shehu is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity. US President Donald Trump has urged media outlets in the country to abstain from spreading false rumours during the nation's critical fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic. "We want to save lives; we want as few lives lost as possible. It is therefore critical that certain media outlets stop spreading false rumours and creating fear and even panic with the public. It's just incredible, Trump told reporters during a press conference at the White House, without taking the names of any media organisation. In the past Trump has identified organisations like The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN as fake media. During his series of daily conference which has continued uninterrupted for about a fortnight now, Trump has quite often slammed the media and has entered into exchange of words with some of the White House correspondents. "I could name them but it's the same ones always the same ones and I guess they are looking for ratings. I don't know what they're looking for. So bad for our country and so bad the people understand it, he said. You look at the levels and approval ratings and they are the lowest they have ever been for media. It is so bad for our country, so bad for the world. Put it together for a little while, get this over with and then go back to your fake news, Trump added. According to Johns Hopkins University, there are at least 300,915 confirmed virus cases in the US and there have been 8,162 deaths so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Social Democrats Co-Leader Roisin Shortall has called on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to set up a forum to make personal protective equipment (PPE) equipment in Ireland. It would bring manufacturers, innovators, scientists, academics and businesses together to provide these products for frontline healthcare staff. Deputy Shortall said we have companies here who could produce personal protective equipment. She said: "I don't see any reason why we cannot produce that [PPW] in this country, ... its materials that cover people, its the kind of visors and gloves and those other pieces of equipment, "We have factories in this country that can manufacture clothing, why is is that we cannot ensure that we have alternative sources of that equipment, "I do not see that is beyond our capability." This week, concerns emerged about the standard of equipment being imported from China. With healthcare workers making up approximately a quarter of all confirmed cases here so far, health staff have widely criticised the standard of the protective equipment brought in from China upon which they are now having to rely. It is unacceptable to expect frontline healthcare staff to work without proper protection, the Irish Medical Organisation said. A veteran Bucks County assistant fire chief has died from the coronavirus. The Tullytown Fire Company announced early Saturday that Rick Johnson, who was also a past fire chief, has died. Rick has been with company for many, many years and has held many positions in the fire company, members said in their announcement. He was truly a great friend to everyone and most of all family to most of us. Johnson, 50, died from complications related to the coronavirus Saturday after he had been hospitalized on March 18, Action News 6 ABC is reporting. He was a firefighter there for 27 years. According to reports, Fire Chief Aaron Cohen got a group of firefighters together to drive their firetrucks to the hospital Friday night in the hopes that he would hear them one last time. Cohen told NBC 10 the support from the community has helped the department cope with the loss, but lockdown and isolation has made it all the more difficult to deal with the tragedy. The worst part is not being able to see somebody, hold somebody or talk to somebody face to face right now, he told the station. He was not sure how Johnson, who had an underlying condition, contracted the coronavirus. Reports indicate the fire company has been taking precautions, including wearing masks. 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. Strap: Headmaster of a remote village school in Dumka has delivered dry ration and cash to 184 students so that no child suffers during lockdown Its around 7am on Saturday. Hemant Kumar Sah, 43, headmaster of upgraded middle school, Majhdiha in Dumkas Ramgarh block, took a cart loaded with packets of dry ration for midday meal and roamed around villages surrounding the school to deliver the ration at students doorsteps so that they do not suffer in phase of lockdown. Sah has taken the initiative as his duty for rural children during the crisis when most of village farmers, daily wagers and migrant labourers are facing the worst time. State human resource department recently issued an order asking schools to ensure that students should not be deprived of benefit of midday meal during the lockdown period. The rice prescribed under the meal manual should be delivered at doorsteps of the students. Defying the orders, many government schools called the students on school campus to take away the ration where violation of social distancing was also found. A section of teachers had raised questions over the government order, terming it a difficult job when lockdown is in place and they are lacking safety gears. But Sah has been distributing the ration along with cash against egg/ fruit and cooking cost to every student for last four days, despite he is having five parateachers in the school, located around 50km away from Dumka township. He leaves his school with the cart around 7am and return to the school by 4pm after delivering the food items at doorstep of every student. The parateachers also help me in the job, he said. There are 259 students enrolled with the school from classes 1 to 8. However, I have received the allotment of meal rice and cash only for 170 students. I was told that the government has sanctioned ration for only 65% students in the school, he said. Sah found it tough to distribute the essentials only among 170 students, while the number of students is 259. I picked the students as per their attendance. Despite this, the number of students rose to 184. Then, I decided to pay the ration for 14 more students from my own pocket so that no student feels injustice, Sah said. He said each student from classes 1 to 5 was given two kilogram rice and 113.6 in cash against egg/fruit and cooking cost of the meal for 20 days 12 days of March and eight days of April. Similarly, students of classes 5 to 7 received three kg rice and 158.2 in cash against egg/fruit and cooking cost. Since class-8 students have taken their final examinations, they were entitled to ration of only 12 days in March. They were given 1.8 kilogram rice and 92.52 in cash at their doorstep, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The military has started deploying 1,100 additional doctors, nurses and medical aides to New York City, and a "few hundred" of them will work in 11 overburdened local hospitals where staffs are exhausted from the battle against coronavirus, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday. The majority of the additional personnel from Navy and Air Force medical units will report to the Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's West Side, but others are going to local facilities where the needs and risks are greatest, Esper said on CNN's "State of the Union." A total of about 600 personnel from Army medical units at Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Hood in Texas have already deployed to New York City, according to the Army. At a White House news conference Saturday, President Donald Trump said 1,000 additional military medical personnel would be going to New York City at his direction. But Esper said the number had been boosted to 1,100 after discussions with city and state officials. "The bulk of them will go to the Javits Center, and then as of late yesterday we agreed to deploy a few hundred of them to 11 New York City hospitals that are also seeing a deficiency when it comes to medical staff," he said. Related: US Troops Will Be Directed to Wear Face Masks, SecDef Says He did not name the hospitals, but some in the city, including Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattan's East Side and Elmhurst General Hospital in Queens, have refrigerator trucks parked outside to deal with the growing number of deaths from coronavirus. In previous news conferences, Trump has pointed to the dire situation at Elmhurst General and noted that he grew up nearby in the Queens section called Jamaica Estates. The huge Javits Center has been converted by the Army Corps of Engineers into a makeshift hospital for 2,900 non-COVID 19 patients. But before any of those patients arrived, the decision was made to convert Javits again to take in coronavirus-positive patients in light of the escalating crisis. Once the conversion is completed, the Javits Center would be ready to take in, possibly as early as this week, up to 2,500 coronavirus positive patients, Esper said. At a news conference Saturday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the Javits Center would be entirely funded and staffed by the federal government. "We will soon be taking over the Javits Center -- a 2,500-bed capacity -- to show you how all in we are," Esper said Sunday. "The United States military will soon be running the largest hospital in the United States." In addition to the Javits Center, the 1,000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort is now docked at Pier 90 on the Hudson River to treat non-coronavirus patients. To date, though, the ship has seen only a trickle of patients thus far, according to Pentagon officials. New York State has been the hardest-hit in the nation by the coronavirus, and the five boroughs of New York City are the epicenter within the state. More than 2,250 deaths from coronavirus had been recorded in New York City as of midday Sunday, compared to a total of more than 9,130 nationwide, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Read More: After 5 Years, the Army and Marine Corps Are Closing In on Dumping Brass-Cased Ammo New Delhi: The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) on Sunday urged the government to provide relief to the tourism industry as it has experienced heavy losses due to the coronavirus pandemic and the survival of the sector is at stake. While IATO said it fully supports the lockdown, the tourism industry has suffered heavy losses amid zero cash flow. This has put the survival of entire industry in question, it said in a statement. "To tide over the crisis, IATO is seeking scrapping of GST in entirety for period of one year for all outbound, inbound and domestic bookings," it said. The tourism industry also wants advances paid to hotels, airlines and to state governments for luxury trains, wildlife safaris and road tax to be entirely refunded, IATO said. The industry is also seeking "financial bailout package to defray the salaries of the employees and operational cost of office based on the turnover of the company in last financial year", it added. A 9-to-12 months deferment (without any interest) on all principle and interest payments on bank loans and doubling overdrafts bringing in liquidity for allowing business continuity is also required, IATO said. Further, a 5-year tax holiday for tour operators who are registered under GST/shop and establishment norms prior to March 15, 2020 and employers and employees contribution towards PF payments and TDS for the next 1 year should be subsidised by the government, it added. IATO President Pronab Sarkar said: "This financial assistance is very much needed because of governments directives both by the Centre and state government, not to lay off staff and to pay full salary to all their employees." Under the present situation of zero business, "we are not certain how long this situation shall continue and when are we going to revive our business," he added. IATO also said when the situation improves, free visa for all tourists for 12 months along with free entry to ASI monuments for one year for all foreign tourists should be allowed. New Delhi, [India] April 5 (ANI): At a time when the entire country has come to a halt due to the coronavirus crisis, a food delivery executive in the capital is using his bicycle to deliver food to the people despite the scare. Wearing masks and head cover for safety, Aakash Jaiswal with his bicycle is covering the length and breadth of Delhi to deliver food to the people, who cannot cook. He told ANI that 80 per cent of his customers are doctors, who are the first line of defence in the country's battle against the coronavirus. Speaking to ANI, Aakash said: "The way doctors and police are working day-night for the people, even we have got the opportunity to work for the nation. People staying in hostels and PGs need food. Mostly, we are delivering food to doctors and nurses, who are staying in hostels. If we are doing ten deliveries in a day, among them eight deliveries are for doctors. I am very happy to deliver food to the needy" In the last few days, many reports have emerged showing doctors being attacked and assaulted amid coronavirus scare. Jaiswal said it is shameful that landlords are misbehaving with doctors and nurses. "I read in the news that landlords are misbehaving with doctors and nurses. This is very shameful. I am delivering food to them on the bicycle. It is very tough but I feel very satisfied and happy," he said. "I face several problems. I am also very much scared of this disease. Sometimes police misbehave but this is our job," he added. Prime Minister Modi has announced a complete lockdown of the entire country for 21 days in an unprecedented measure to try to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In India, 83 people have died of the coronavirus so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The boss of Britain's biggest building society is taking a huge pay cut to show solidarity with staff and customers in the pandemic. Joe Garner, who is chief executive of the Nationwide, is sacrificing around 1.2million in pay, pension and bonus. He is the first boss of a major financial institution to volunteer for a pay cut after the Bank of England wrote to chief executives of all the big banks - including RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds - on Tuesday telling them to axe their dividends and rein in top pay. Nationwide does not pay dividends because it is a mutual building society owned by its 16million members and it is not listed on the stock market. However, Mr Garner has responded rapidly to the letter last week from senior Bank official Sam Woods. The Nationwide supremo volunteered to surrender a fifth of his basic salary and pension for the coming financial year, equating to a reduction of 228,000. The 50-year-old has also told the mortgage lender's pay committee that he does not wish to take any performance-linked bonus for the financial year that has just ended. His most recent award under that scheme was just over 1million. Mr Garner was paid 2.37million in total for 2019, which is lower than other leading bank bosses. Joe Garner (pictured), who is chief executive of the Nationwide, is sacrificing around 1.2million in pay, pension and bonus as a goodwill gesture during the coronavirus crisis Mr Garner is the first boss of a major financial institution to volunteer for a pay cut after the Bank of England (pictured, Governor Andrew Bailey) wrote to chief executives of all the big banks on Tuesday telling them to axe their dividends and rein in top pay Coronavirus crisis 'could push unemployment levels in UK and US beyond record numbers of the 1930s Great Depression' Unemployment caused by the coronavirus crisis could in months be worse than during the 1930s Great Depression, a former Bank of England official has warned. David Blanchflower said unemployment is rising at the fastest rate in living memory as job losses mount around the world and in the UK. He warned that there has never been a 'concentrated business collapse' on the scale seen in recent weeks as the Government forced all non-essential firms to close. In March, 10million people in the US applied for unemployment benefits, while in the UK there were grim warnings of the jobless total hitting 2.75million by June. During the Great Depression, unemployment hit 24.9 percent in the US and 15.4 percent in the UK, over several years. Advertisement His package consisted of a basic salary of 885,000, a pension allowance of 299,000, travel and benefits of 185,000 plus 1.01million of a performance-linked award, some of which is deferred for up to seven years. His decision to forgo a large amount of his potential rewards came after discussions with Mr Woods at the Bank. In a strongly worded letter to the Nationwide chief, Mr Woods made clear he expected the building society to make no cash bonus payments to senior staff, warning he would use his powers to enforce it 'should your group not agree to take such action'. However, Mr Garner was keen to act on his own volition. He is understood to have felt that based on the pressures faced by members and ordinary staff, many of whom are worried about being able to meet their mortgage payments over the next few months, that a cut in his rewards was the right option. He is also understood to have been influenced by the fact Nationwide has had to take tough decisions in response to the virus, including withdrawing mortgages for anyone who cannot put up at least 25 per cent. It is also scrapping plans to offer banking for small businesses. Mr Garner approached the pay committee, led by Sky executive Mai Fyfield, last week and told them he wanted to reduce his package. They committee agreed on Friday. Nationwide is not making compulsory redundancies among the 18,000 staff who work in its 650 branches. It has no plans for voluntary lay-offs. The other leading banks have not yet made clear their plans on executive bonuses. Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds, who did not receive a cash bonus, made 4.7million last year and Jes Staley, his rival at Barclays, made 5.9million. RBS boss Alison Rose was paid 1.4million. The banks have agreed to stop 8billion of dividend payments due to shareholders. After such a generous gesture, the bosses of the other big banks MUST follow suit, writes RUTH SUNDERLAND The bosses of the big banks should follow Joe Garner's example and volunteer without delay to give up some of their lavish pay and bonus packets. The Prudential Regulation Authority has made clear it does not expect banks to pay any cash bonuses to its top executives and traders for this year. The City watchdog also expects them to think very hard before making any other incentive payments or awards in the form of shares. Yet so far, there has been deafening silence - with the honourable exception of Nationwide's Mr Garner - on whether these wealthy men and women are indeed prepared to forgo some of their enormous pay. A person wearing a mask walks past the Bank of England during the coronavirus pandemic Is it fair to expect them to take a hit in the wallet for a crisis that was not, just for once, of their making? Bonuses are unlikely to be enormous this year anyway because balance sheets will be scarred by billions of pounds of bad debts. That, however, is beside the point. At this moment of great national crisis, the leaders of our lending banks need to show solidarity and a sense of community. They need to show sensitivity to the fact that the rest of the country is in agonies and the economy is on the brink of disaster. And they need to show support for the thousands of their own modestly-paid staff who are taking risks by braving the epidemic to keep branches and call centres going. The pandemic is an opportunity for our banks and their chief executives to redeem themselves once and for all for the damage they inflicted on us, their innocent victims, in the financial crisis. Giving up some of their rewards would be a symbolic gesture more than anything else - but gestures and symbols can be very powerful. If ever there was a time for our leading lenders to show us they care, that time is now. Coronavirus-shaped burger and dragon fruit baguettes made by Vietnam were featured and praised in world media outlet. Corona burger (Photo: Pizza Home) Recent articles on CNN and Reuters gave compliments to the Vietnamese chefs for the efforts to cheer up people in the coronavirus pandemic. Corona burger Hoang Tung, a chef and founder at Pizza Home the takeaway shop in Hanoi, created a coronavirus-shaped burger last month. Tung told CNN that he dreamed up the burgers, which feature green-tea stained buns with tiny crowns designed to look like microscopic images of the virus, to take the fear out of the infectious disease. We have this joke that if you are scared of something, you should eat it, he also told Reuters. Thats why the coronavirus isnt scary any more after you eat a burger in the shape of the virus itself. That way of thinking spreads joy to others during this pandemic. Tung told Hanoitimes that the takeaway shop is currently selling more than 50 burgers every day, of which the number of orders from expats in Hanoi increased by 30% compared to the first days of the launch, adding that orders from Vietnamese customers also increased. The baker is making the corona burger. (Photo: Pizza Home) Our orders increase everyday as the demand rises, he said. As such, the number of total orders including pizza increased by 20% by late March inter-monthly. While some eateries have to remain shut in the midst of the pandemic, Pizza Home orders are on the rise, though not as many as on normal days. Dragon fruit baguettes Ho Chi Minh City-based ABC Bakery, founded by Kao Sieu Luc, quickly became popular with dragon fruit baguettes, according to Business Insiders article. Dragon fruit baguettes (Photo: Business Insider) The bakery chain turned more than 66,000 pounds of dragon fruit, unsold because of the coronavirus outbreak, into pink baked goods in just three weeks. After eating the bread, a reporter from Business Insider commented: the bread was legitimately good, with a perfectly crusty outer layer that satisfyingly ripped apart to reveal a flavorful, airy interior, she said. Following the ABC Bakery, KFC in Vietnam also debuted a new chicken sandwich with a pink bun made with dragon fruit, called dragon fruit burger from March 20. As coronavirus spreads, inventions like dragon fruit bread reveal how companies are being forced to adapt in trying times and in some cases, create something new and delicious, according to Business Insider. Hanoitimes Business Insider reporter experiences Vietnamese dragon fruit breads Kate Taylor, a reporter from Business Insider, visited a bakery in Hanoi in mid-February and tried dragon fruit breads. She wrote an article on the newspaper about her cool experience. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 22 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Apr. 5. 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 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 regions. ---- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz While Sunday's weather cooperated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's plan to host hundreds of prospective students on campus for its inaugural Admitted Student Day, the coronavirus pandemic did not. Like so many things in our quarantined lives, the event aimed at generating excitement for future Huskers, exposing them to campus life and providing them a road map for the next steps in their educational journey went forward digitally. "Of course, we would have loved to have been able to host you in person for this event," Chancellor Ronnie Green said in a welcome video to the students, "but we're thrilled you can join us for what is, under the circumstances, the safest and best way possible." More than 13,000 admitted students were invited to Sunday's event and received a link and password to access to dozens of concurrent sessions through Zoom, the teleconferencing software that has become ubiquitous in the time of COVID-19. When the link went live at 10 minutes to noon, hundreds flooded in to a variety of sessions, including a virtual campus tour, a livestreamed peek into an Abel Hall dorm room, and guidance from admissions counselors on what to expect next. Over 300 pilots in the Czech Republic have volunteered their private planes to distribute medical equipment around the country during the coronavirus pandemic. It's a project named "Pilots to the People" and states its goal is to transport materials to any hospital, clinic or anywhere it's needed in two hours. The service is offered free of charge and the pilots even pay for their fuel. The Czech republic has around 200 airports making it possible to efficiently serve the entire country. On Sunday, Dan Stastny, one of the volunteer pilots, flew 20 modified snorkeling masks, which are now used as surgery masks, from Prague to a hospital in Ostrava, in the east of the country. He said it's significantly faster than making the same journey by road. Bogota: 11 people have died in an accidental blast in a coal mine in Kukunuba near Bogota in Colombia, while four others are said to be injured. Due to the global epidemic of coronavirus, the working miners have fallen victim to this accident even after the health emergency is implemented in the country. Following the government's order in Colombia, most people have been asked to remain quarantined, but mining work has been exempted. Capt Alvaro Farfan, chief of the fire department in the Kundinamarsa department, told local media that it was The accident occurred in a legally operated coal mine. However, he did not say what was the reason for the accident. After the accident, the National Mining Agency has banned "underground coal mining activities" in Kukunuba. The agency said that 11 people lost their lives and four others were injured in the accident. Earlier on Friday, six laborers were killed in a similar accident in a coal mine in San Cayetano, Colombia. Also Read: maulana who attended Delhi Tablighi Jamaat program dies of coronavirus Corona could not reach this city of world yet, already made strong arrangements Fear of Corona increasing around world, people are doing strange acts Tragic accident: Explosion in Colombia's coal mine, many people died U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the federal government was placing millions of doses of a malaria drug in the federal stockpile of emergency medical supplies to make it available for coronavirus patients, even though the drug has not been approved for COVID-19 treatment and his top coronavirus advisers have warned that more study is needed to determine its safety and efficacy. Though advisers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have cautioned many times that more data is needed on hydroxychloroquine, Trump, in a White House briefing, went so far as to urge patients to take it. What do you have to lose? Take it, the president said. I really think they should take it. But its their choice. And its their doctors choice or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine. Try it, if youd like. During the briefing, as Fauci and other advisers looked on, the president talked about the potential of other medicines, too. He mentioned azithromycin, often referred to as a Z-Pak, which has been given to some patients along with hydroxychloroquine. The other thing, if you have a heart condition, I understand, probably you stay away from the Z-Pak. But thats an antibiotic. It can clean out the lung. The lungs are a point of attack for this horrible virus. In addition to treating malaria, hydroxychloroquine is also prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and some other autoimmune diseases. Laboratory studies in cultured cells have suggested that it may block the coronavirus from invading cells. And some researchers think its ability to dial back an overactive immune system the reason it is used for autoimmune diseases might help relieve the life-threatening inflammation that develops in some coronavirus patients. Still, there is no definitive proof that it works against the coronavirus, and it does not have Food and Drug Administration approval for that use. Early reports from China and France suggested that it could help, but the studies had flaws that made the findings less than reliable. Many researchers have called for controlled clinical trials to determine once and for all whether hydroxychloroquine has any value for coronavirus patients. A more recent study from China was conducted more carefully than the earlier ones, and found that the drug did help, but the study was small, included only mildly ill patients and its authors said more research was needed. Trump seized on the drug several weeks ago, at one point saying it would be a game changer in the course of the pandemic. Hoarding and a run on the drug followed, leaving patients who rely on the drug for chronic diseases wondering whether they would be able to fill their prescriptions. On Saturday, he continued with that message. If this drug works, it will be not a game changer because thats not a nice enough term. It will be wonderful, he said. It will be so beautiful. It will be a gift from heaven if it works. With no proven treatment for the coronavirus, many hospitals in the United States have simply been giving hydroxychloroquine to patients, reasoning that it might help and probably will not hurt, because it is relatively safe. But it is not considered safe for people with abnormal heart rhythms. At the Saturday briefing, Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency had given special permission for imported hydroxychloroquine to be used in the United States, in part to make sure that there would be enough for patients who need it for chronic diseases like lupus. On Friday, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Americans against assuming the drug would be a silver bullet against the coronavirus, noting that evidence of its effectiveness was scant and more studies were needed. But on Saturday, Trump continued to wax enthusiastic. Were going to be distributing it through the Strategic National Stockpile, he said, adding, We have millions and millions of doses of it; 29 million to be exact. The Department of Health and Human Services directed questions to the Strategic National Reserve, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump said he also had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India about procuring millions more doses of hydroxychloroquine from that country. He also said there was a study indicating that patients with lupus did not contract the coronavirus, implying that perhaps their use of hydroxychloroquine was protecting them. They should look at the lupus thing. I dont know what it says, but theres a rumour out there that because it takes care of lupus very effectively as I understand it, and its a, you know, a drug thats used for lupus. So theres a study out there that says people that have lupus havent been catching this virus. Maybe its true, maybe its not. It is not clear what study he was referring to. Researchers from China did report that they noticed that their lupus patients had not caught the virus, but the observation was anecdotal, not proof. At the briefing Saturday, Fauci said the observation was worth studying. US Moves to Bolster Prisons Holding Captured Islamic State Fighters By Jeff Seldin April 04, 2020 Help is on the way to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, less than a week after a riot at a Syrian prison holding thousands of captured Islamic State fighters allowed some to briefly escape. Coalition officials told VOA Friday that the aid is for the maintenance of more than a dozen prisons and detention camps in Syria, and that recent shipments included face masks, shields and batons for prison guards. "The U.S. military continues to provide support to repair and renovate SDF detention facilities that house ISIS fighters, to help ensure the SDF can continue to detain ISIS fighters securely and humanely," coalition spokesman Col. Myles Caggins said, using an acronym for the terror group. Only officials with the SDF's political wing are skeptical, contending the last time they got assistance for the prisons was last April, when they were holding an estimated 7,000 IS prisoners, not the 10,000 they watch over now. "So far nothing," Sinam Mohamad, the U.S. representative of the Syrian Democratic Council, told VOA. "They promised us to help and renovate the prisons, but unfortunately nothing happened," she said, adding the facility where the captured IS fighters rioted "it is not secure for such dangerous prisoners." Other help has already arrived. Coalition officials say they delivered $1.2 million in medical supplies to help both the SDF and civilian authorities in northeastern Syria battle the potential spread of the coronavirus. The shipment, which arrived last week, contained latex gloves, masks, surgical kits, defibrillators and oximeters for hospitals in Hasakah and Shaddadi. Additional supplies were included for the SDF and for the troops guarding IS prisoners. Still, Mohamad warns even that "is not sufficient." "Still we need for thousands in the [detention] camps," she said. Concerns about the overcrowded prisons and detention camps, which hold tens of thousands of IS family members, while growing in urgency, are not new. U.S. and SDF officials have continuously voiced fears, especially about the prisons, describing them as "makeshift" facilities schools, hospitals and other abandoned buildings that were quickly converted to contain upwards of 10,000 IS fighters captured as the terror group's self-declared caliphate collapsed in February and March of 2019. U.S. officials have also warned repeatedly that while they were "good enough" for the moment, it would be dangerous to consider the prisons a permanent solution, especially for the approximately 2,000 foreign fighters languishing in SDF custody. "The best disposition option for these ISIS detainees is for their home countries to repatriate them," Caggins said Friday. Despite ongoing talks, though, many European countries have refused to take back IS fighters, and proposals by the SDF to hold tribunals to decide the fate of the foreign fighters have yet to garner international support. As a result, with so many IS prisoners in limbo, tensions at the various prison facilities have been rising, boiling over last Sunday at the Goiran prison in Hasakah where detainees broke down doors and destroyed security cameras while briefly taking control of one of the floors. Initial accounts by prison officials also indicated some captured IS fighters appeared to escape, though by Monday, SDF and U.S. military officials said the riot had been put down and that all the detainees were in custody. SDF officials describe the riot in Hasakah as alarming but point out it is just the most recent in a series of disturbances and attempted jailbreaks, all of which have caused them to ask for more help. They say problems have also been growing since last October, when Turkey's incursion into northeast Syria forced the SDF to evacuate prisons in areas that fell under Turkish control. Now, combined with growing fears about the potential spread of the coronavirus, facilities that were already at a breaking point are being strained even more. "This is not sustainable," Chris Maier, director of the Pentagon's Defeat IS Task Force, said last September, prior to the Turkish incursion. "There are not prisons controlled by forces in northeast Syria that can house 10,000 ISIS fighters." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pollution in the sacred river has come down by over 40 per cent and is likely to increase as the lock down continues across the country Every year, a whopping 350 tonnes of partially burnt human flesh and bones, 10,000 tonnes of ash and cremation-related material, dead cows, buffaloes, monkeys, goats and shockingly even human dead bodies (without cremation)-- all are dumped in this holy river. If that is not enough, millions of litres of sewage, heavy metals from industries go into it even as millions of people are heavily dependent on this river for their daily needs. For the first time in history, the holy river Ganga is breathing easy. Courtesy: Coronavirus and the lock down ! The ganga, which flows through five states and is most polluted in Varanasi -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency -- is now regaining all its lost glory, slowly. Pollution in the sacred river has come down by over 40 per cent and is likely to increase as the lock down continues across the country. Though successive governments including the present Modi government spent thousands of crores in cleaning the ganga and still failed miserably, looks like nature always finds its own way of healing. According to experts who have previously carried out extensive research of river Ganga, the river is now breathing easy with 40 per cent less pollution in all forms, something they call as historic. ''About 33,000 dead bodies are burnt every year in Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats in Varanasi. About 45 per cent of them are brought from other districts and states which has stopped now due to the lock down. Toxicants like led, copper and cadmium emanating from the 1200 small scale industries in Varanasi, which used to end up in the river, has stopped now,'' explains Professor BD Tripathi, Chairman of MM Ganga Research Centre at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr Tripathi said that the extraction of water for irrigation purposes has come down drastically which has increased the dilution capacity of the river. Once the lock down comes to an end, the professor is looking forward to conduct a detailed study. Having done several researches on river Ganga and submitted his findings to the Centre over the last five decades, Tripathi says that though there are 30 drains, both big and small in and around Varanasi which discharge 300 million litres of sewage everyday. But luckily, the three sewage treatment plants are still working despite the lock down. In fact, large traces of metals have often been found in fruits and vegetables grown using the water from the river. ''The lock down has come as a blessing in disguise for the river. In all five states from where it flows, the Ganga is cleaner by 40 per cent. Never in the history has this happened,'' adds Tripathi, who in his earlier reports had underlined that Ganga cannot be cleaned now and efforts have to be made to save it now. Another expert RP Mishra feels that though thousands of crores were spent on cleaning of the river by successive governments, no one knows where the money went. ''Close to a lakh people bathe in different ghats of Varanasi everyday and about 450 million people live along the river's 2,500 kms length who are dependent on it for their daily needs. All of this has stopped now though locals continue to burn the dead bodies, but the number is very less and therefore, the load on the river is far less,'' he says. He says that the blasting works in Uttarakhand, which is a seismic zone has stopped now due to the lock down, which is good news for the river. More than 140 people have been fined across Victoria for breaching self-isolation or social distancing laws so far this weekend. Of the 751 spot checks carried out at homes and businesses by police, almost one in five were found to be breaching the recently implemented laws. The fines were handed out across the state in both city and country areas. The incredible number of fines handed out has been slammed by the state's deputy police commissioner who said rule breakers were putting 'lives at risk'. 'While the majority of the Victorian community are doing the right thing, there are people that continue to flout the rules and put people's lives at risk,' Victoria Police deputy commissioner Shane Patton said. Victoria Police have handed out more than 140 fines to people disobeying self-isolation orders so far this weekend Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the state was 'not mucking around' when it came to the strict coronavirus measures. Victoria has experienced a drop in coronavirus cases in past days 'Our message is this - people should not be leaving their own home for any reason other than the four we have described, if they do there is every chance they will receive a significant fine.' Those caught abandoning self-isolation after returning from overseas or gathering in groups of more than two people can be fined $1652 on-the-spot. The high number of people flaunting the rules comes in the wake of another drop in the number of coronavirus cases in Victoria. Just 20 new cases were recorded in the state on Saturday, taking the total to 1,135. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said that despite the positive news, police would not be relenting in dishing out fines. 'Police are not mucking about,' Mr Andrews said. 'We are having some really significant success, but we've got a long way to go. 'If you look at other parts of the world you can see what failure looks like.' During a press conference on Sunday morning, Mr Andrews also announced Victoria would be spending $20 million on hotel rooms for healthcare workers to self-isolate in if they contract coronavirus. Mr Andrews announced a $20 million plan to hire hotel rooms for hospital and medical staff to self-isolate in if they contract COVID-19 It follows the federal government's policy which has seen all returned tourists forced to stay in hotels under police guard to ensure they do not breach quarantine (Pictured is the Swissotel in Sydney's CBD) The announcement follows a similar plan that was unveiled in South Australia during the week. It comes amid concern over an outbreak within the Alfred Hospital one of the state's largest hospitals. 'Front-line healthcare workers, indeed, anyone across the public health system who has a public-facing role who tests positive or has to isolate because they may be positive to COVID-19, we'll put them up in a hotel room - [at] no cost to them,' Mr Andrews said. 'This will be a matter of their choice. Many will choose to avail themselves of that hotel room option because they might live with older people. 'They might live in a share house with a range of other workers. They might have people at home in their household who are vulnerable for one reason or another.' Ethiopia on Sunday announced the first two deaths of patients suffering from COVID-19, as officials ramped up testing to get a clearer picture of the outbreak there. The first victim was a 60-year-old Ethiopian woman who had spent six days in intensive care, a health ministry statement said, with the second a 56-year-old Ethiopian man diagnosed with COVID-19 last Thursday. "It is my deepest regret to announce the first death of a patient from #COVID19 in Ethiopia," Health Minister Lia Tadesse said in announcing the country's first fatality on Twitter. Four hours later, Lia published a second post expressing "great sadness" as another death emerged. Ethiopia, a country of more than 100 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13 and has recorded just 43 in total -- mostly people with a history of recent foreign travel. But testing has been extremely limited. As of Friday, the country had conducted just 1,222 tests, according to the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. South Africa, by comparison, has performed tens of thousands of tests. Ethiopian officials said Saturday they were conducting an additional 647 tests, notably of targeted health workers, transportation sector workers who have "direct contact with passengers" and randomly selected people in Addis Ababa, the capital, and the city of Adama in the Oromia region. An Orthodox Christian prays outside the closed Medhane Alem Cathedral after the government encouraged worshippers to pray at home and after police were deployed to prevent large crowds. By Michael Tewelde (AFP) It was intended to help determine whether there has been undetected community transmission, said Dr Adisu Kebede, director of national laboratory capacity building. "There are also a few cases that we identified that have no travel history and things like that, and from their contacts, you can guess that there is community transmission already," Adisu said. "The WHO recommended 'test, test, test,' so we had to test more people," he added. The country has "around 23,000" testing kits available, the vast majority donated last month by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, Adisu said. It has no rapid testing capacity and can currently process no more than 500 tests per day, Adisu said. The goal is to push that figure to over 1,000 by the end of the month. Abiy resists lockdown Ethiopia has closed land borders and schools, freed thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding, sprayed main streets in the capital with disinfectant and discouraged large gatherings. Although Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has refrained from imposing the kinds of lockdowns seen elsewhere in the region, despite low testing capacity, worshippers could not access the cathedral. By Michael Tewelde (AFP) Orthodox Christian leaders have encouraged worshippers to pray at home, and police were deployed Sunday to prevent large crowds from descending on one of the capital's main cathedrals. Orthodox Christians make up 40 percent of the country's population. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, last year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has refrained from imposing the kinds of lockdown seen elsewhere in the region, including in Uganda, Rwanda and Mauritius. 'We can't impose a lockdown like more developed nations, as there are many citizens who don't have homes," Abiy said Saturday. "Even those who have homes have to make ends meet daily." Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Opening a store called Folklore in Santa Fe, home of the International Folk Art Market, may seem like bringing coals to Newcastle. But proprietor Kelly Dye has a vision that transcended retail. The native Californian wasnt quite sure if her Garcia Street space was going to be a retail or event facility. On Mondays, a day that many restaurants and stores in town are closed, her boyfriend, Theo Burkhardt, taught meditation. Enter coronavirus. Dye, has been forced by the crisis to pivot to a new strategy. Shes building her online presence and offering care packages. Shes not ready to throw in the towel (or the handwoven rug from India) on her dream of having a retail store in Santa Fe. Dye and her boyfriend met in New York City in 2017. They discovered they were both headed to the same spiritual retreat in Rishikesh, India. The store owner had spent 10 years in New York working in fashion and advertising, and was burnt out. Her boyfriends family had a second home in Santa Fe. After returning from India, they decided to move to Santa Fe permanently. Folklore, which opened in December, has been met with a gracious welcome from the Santa Fe arts community, Dye said in an interview Tuesday. Even though the coronavirus has forced her to close down Folklore because of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams emergency orders, Dye is still optimistic about the future of her store. Unlike many business proprietors, she speaks in the present tense about Folklore and sees the shutdown as temporary. She also believes the collective pause the U.S. consumer economy is experiencing could help boost interest in all things handmade. And she doesnt see Folklore as a merely retail emporium. I love the idea of the creating community, Dye said. I also like the idea of Folklore being a destination for wellness, not just things you can buy. In the meantime, shes upping her social media game. Were setting up a Facebook shop that will let us sell on Instagram. Were experimenting with small, scrappy ways to survive, Dye said. What exactly does that mean? According to Dye, it means coronavirus care packages with price points ranging from $50 to $1,000. Theres something for foodies and theres another one for healing, she said. The idea is to bring the Folklore experience online, Dye said. Her website (www.shopfolklore.com) isnt live yet, but her products will be available for local delivery starting this week. Nursing Homes Ireland have said the Government did not prioritise the sector and were "late to the table" in recognising the threat of Covid-19 to the sector. 40 clusters of Covid-19 infections have been identified in the country - mainly in the east of the country. US President Donald Trump on April 4 defended his decision to fire the top US intelligence community watchdog Michael Atkinson from his position adding that the latter did a 'terrible job' in handling the complaint related to his impeachment trial. According to reports, Michael Atkinson on April 3 was served a notice by the Trump administration who asked him to vacate his office within 30 days. Read: Democrats Accuse White House Of Hiding Call Records At Trump's Impeachment Trial In Senate Michael Atkinson was a key figure in the lead up to Trump's impeachment trial as he accepted a complaint from an unnamed whistleblower accusing the President of blatantly abusing his power to influence elections back home. Trump while talking to the press during his daily coronavirus briefings said, "He (Michael Atkinson) took a fake report, and he brought it to Congress." Read: Senate Rejects Motion Calling For New Witnesses In Impeachment Trial, Sets Stage For Trump Acquittal Donald Trump said that after receiving the complaint Atkinson did not come and talk to him at the White House and rather decided to take it to Congress. Trump also took a jibe at the whistleblower, who still remains unidentified, calling him fake and politically biased. As per reports, Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, demanded a better explanation from Trump on Atkinson's firing. Senator Richard Burr while noting that Trump has the authority to fire Atkinson also praised the watchdog for doing his job. Read: US President Donald Trump Set To Deliver State Of The Union Address Amid Impeachment Trial Trump's impeachment trial Donald Trump was accused of abusing the highest seat in the country by pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a gas company in Ukraine, as the President withheld $391 million in military aid that he later released. The US President was also accused of subsequently obstructing a congressional probe into his actions. The impeachment trial that began in the US Senate on January 16, 2020 ended with Trump's acquitted on February 5. Read: Trump Reacts To Impeachment Acquittal With Customary Aplomb, Says He's President '4-eva' (Image Credit: AP) Health experts are warning the national count of Covid-19 deaths in the United States could be underestimated as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. This could be especially true because the reporting data can lag by an average of one to two weeks, according to the latest guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's. Also, deaths due to Covid-19 'may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results, and pneumonia may appear on death certificates as a comorbid condition,' the CDC noted, adding that 'analyses to better understand and quantify reporting delays' for Covid-19 deaths and 'related causes' are underway. In March, the CDC introduced a new code to accurately capture mortality due to Covid-19 on death certificates. With that code, the CDC noted that Covid-19 'should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death.' 'What we are seeing is a tip of an iceberg' When it comes to an accurate count of Covid-19 deaths in the US, 'we really are just seeing the tip of the iceberg and a lot of it has to do with the tests we have available,' Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary and critical care physician on the front lines at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, said Monday morning. The most commonly used Covid-19 test requires a nasal swab, which has led to some false negatives, Galiatsatos said, explaining that he believes a blood test is a more accurate means of detecting the coronavirus. He also said that such blood tests are already performed to diagnose other viral infections such as HIV, cytomegalovirus and hepatitis C. 'A better test would be a blood test to measure any protein particles of the virus in your bloodstream, as well as an antibody response,' Galiatsatos said. 'I do think what we are seeing is a tip of an iceberg, and the numerator and denominator are truly disconnected.' The CDC said Monday it is preparing to use a blood test to survey whether people in the United States have antibodies from the novel coronavirus, according to a statement from CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund. The tests have already been used to monitor immune responses in several coronavirus contact investigations, and they'll be deployed in coming weeks 'to further identify individuals who, due to mild infection, may have not known they were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and to monitor immunity in recovered individuals,' Nordlund said. Last week, The US Food and Drug Administration issued its first emergency use authorization for a coronavirus test that looks for antibodies in the blood. Unlike most coronavirus tests, which generally require a swab and look for signs of the virus itself, antibody tests look instead for the body's response to a virus. That type of test, called a serology test, would be able to identify past coronavirus infections, although it may be less effective at identifying recent ones. The authorized test, from a manufacturer called Cellex Inc., requires blood to be collected through a vein, and the test itself can only be performed in a certified lab. Because antibodies can take time to develop, the FDA has previously warned against using antibody tests to definitively diagnose coronavirus. But in issuing what is known as an Emergency Use Authorization for the new test, the FDA signaled that the benefits of using the new blood test outweighed the risks. 'There will be a lot of death' International leaders have long suspected Covid-19 cases and deaths have been undercounted because so many possible cases remain untested. Globally, 'in countries with poor testing there may be a huge margin between confirmed cases and cases unidentified or not tested. It may be greater by several factors,' Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom, said in a statement distributed by the UK-based Science Media Centre on Friday. Pankhania is referring to the worldwide Covid-19 case count, which now exceeds 1 million. 'The new virus is doing what has been expected of it to do,' Pankhania said in the statement. 'It is highly transmissible, infectious and disease-causing, thus we can expect continued major global disruption lasting for a very long time and it is better to say so now, rather than to say, it will all be over in a few months. There are no indicators which direct us to believe this pandemic is going to be over in a few months.' In the US, President Donald Trump warned over the weekend that 'there will be a lot of deaths' in the coming weeks. 'This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week,' the President said at a White House briefing Saturday. 'And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done,' he said, referring to certain mitigation tactics, such as social distancing and stay-at-home orders. As global activity grinds to a halt due to efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been tracking significant improvements in air quality worldwide, which one researcher says will translate into a reduction in thousands of premature deaths and illnesses caused by continued exposure to dangerous gases. One of the unexpected benefits of doing what we need to do to get the virus under control (is it) has also led to large improvements in air quality, said Marshall Burke, an earth system science professor at Stanford University. These improvements have additional benefits for our health. Satellite imagery has shown how air quality has improved drastically in big cities across China as well as urban centres throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. Burke calculates that will translate into 50,000 fewer premature deaths over time in China alone, because of just two months of shutdown in places such as Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak originated. When you clean up the air, you see a reduction in mortality, said Burke. It highlights the things we may want to change when we dont have an epidemic. Throughout March, New Mexico-based Descartes Labs registered drastically reduced average levels of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant generated when automobiles burn fossil fuels such as gasoline. Its a pretty good indicator of human economic activity, said Krishna Karra, a data engineer at Descartes. The data shows that the differences are quite dramatic (March 2020 compared to March 2019). Images captured by the European Space Agencys Sentinel-5P satellite showed improved conditions last month versus higher levels seen the same time last year. NO2 is part of a group of highly reactive gases called nitrogen oxides or NOx. Short-term exposure can lead to irritated respiratory systems, while prolonged exposure can aggravate respiratory diseases, particularly asthma, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Starting on March 13, scientists at Columbia University monitored the levels of pollutants in Manhattan. They recorded a 10-per-cent drop in carbon dioxide, the gas most often linked to climate change, and methane, and an astounding 50 per cent drop in carbon monoxide, according to an article featured on the universitys Earth Institute website. Scientists cautioned about how data collected through monitoring and satellite imagery is interpreted, because a variety of factors can affect pollutant levels, including weather, wind, humidity and time of day. The World Health Organization estimates both that air pollution kills seven million people worldwide every year, and nine out of 10 people breath air containing high levels of pollutants. What weve seen from studies around the world is that if you improve air quality the most vulnerable seem to benefit the most, Burke said. Scientists say improved air quality should not be viewed as a silver lining during a life-threatening global pandemic. But the incremental improvements do show the kinds of shifts that can happen if we change our habits over time. Burke said the biggest unknown is whether the changes will have any lasting effect. Historical data says not so much. He said the crippling after-effects of an economic downturn usually lead to an upsurge in activity. When government coffers dry up, funding is often cut from environmental initiatives first, he said. Governments may also look to ease environmental regulations to restart GDP growth. Most of the evidence suggests that, while recessions reduce emissions in the short run, they are very bad for climate-change in the long run, he said. They slow down progress in getting broader action on climate change. Miriam Diamond, a professor in the University of Torontos Department of Earth Sciences, calls the slowdown a very minor break. Once things go back to normal, theres an increase in deaths from heart attacks, she said. There are increased incidents of asthma attacks and a whole host of respiratory effects. Shes concerned that, once COVID-19 is under control, the focus will shift to getting the economic gears turning again, which would be a missed opportunity to reset the dial. We have to reset to a low-carbon economy, she said. Now is the time to put the money into investments that are going to help us in the future, rather than kill us. The outbreak is teaching us about the repercussions of delayed responses and why experts matter, she said. The pandemic has taught us to listen to experts. We have the same type of experts with climate change, but they have not been afforded the level of respect. What we can learn from COVID-19 responses is that rapid societal changes, from individual behaviour to governmental interventions, to reduce these detrimental substances, are possible, said Madhur Anand, a professor of global ecological change and sustainability at the Guelph Institute for Environmental Research. I think seeing this change can help us better imagine solutions to the looming, and, perhaps even greater, environmental and human health crises to come. Jason Miller is a breaking news reporter based in Toronto. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic Read more about: - Outspoken Ghanaian politician, Kennedy Agyapong has promised to deal with all his workers who stormed his Tema mansion after hearing of his assassination attempt - Gunmen stormed Kennedy Agyapong's mansion at Tema on April 1, 2020, but met his absence because he has not stayed in that house for close to 9 years - Kennedy Agyapong in a phone interview on his radio station Oman FM said his workers had no business going to his Tema residence which is a crime scene to take photos and post them on social media Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Ghanaian politician and business mogul Kennedy Agyapong has stated that he will sack all his workers who went to his Tema residence to take photos of the crime scene after hearing of his assassination attempt and post them on social media. READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong allegedly escapes assassination as gunmen storm his house Gunmen stormed Kennedy Agyapong's mansion at Tema on April 1, 2020, but met his absence because he has not stayed in that house for close to 9 years. Confirming the incidence on his radio station Oman FM he said his workers had no business going to his Tema residence which is a crime scene to take photos and post them on social media. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Doctors at Korle Bu accident centre threaten to withdraw services He added that the police were investigating the assassination attempt. I dont live in that house, I have moved from that house for over 9 years now. I am too smart for this," he said. READ ALSO: COVID-19 partial lockdown has failed NDC YEN.com.gh earlier reported that a video had popped up online which showed the new way of pounding fufu due to the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. The viral video making rounds on social media shows a woman and a young man pounding fufu in a very funny way as the observed social distancing to avoid catching the deadly COVID-19. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Health Minister 'misspoke' about Bank of Ghana hospital - Oppong Nkrumah In a video sighted by YEN.com.gh, it shows the woman putting cassava in the mortar and running back for the young man to run forward to pound it with the pestle in a repeated sequence. "Vox Pop: Why are you traveling out of Accra?"| #Yencomgh Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Source: YEN.com.gh NEW YORK (AP) - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the Chinese government is facilitating a shipment of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state. The move highlights the extreme measures leaders are taking as they try to independently secure enough of the lifesaving devices. Cuomo says the U.S. government's stockpile of medical supplies will fall short. But President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration is assessing which areas have the most need, and that every decision is meant to save lives. The number of people infected in the U.S. has now exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,400. A five-year-old child, who is thought to be the UKs youngest victim, is among the record 708 daily COVID-19 deaths in the country. Britains health ministry said 4313 people who tested positive for the virus in hospital had died as of 1600 GMT on Friday, while there were 41,903 confirmed cases as of 0800 GMT Saturday, up 3735. The toll has been steadily increasing by more than 500 deaths a day this week and the country is bracing for an expected peak in the next week to 10 days. A member of medical staff carries a tank as a patient is taken from an ambulance into St Thomas' Hospital in north London, on April 1, 2020. Source: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images A total of 637 of the latest deaths were in England, the National Health Service (NHS) said. "Patients were aged between five years and 104 years old. 40 of the 637 patients (aged between 48 and 93 years old) had no known underlying health condition," it said in a statement. The NHS said it would not be giving further information about the five-year-old patient at the request of the family. A 13-year-old boy from London, Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, died last week days after testing positive for COVID-19. His family said he had no underlying illnesses. Senior minister Michael Gove told a daily briefing the teenager's mother and siblings were now showing symptoms. The overall death toll now included seven healthcare professionals, he added. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in self-isolation after developing mild symptoms of the disease, ordered a three-week lockdown of the country on March 23 to try to cut infections. But there has been concern that warmer weather forecast for this weekend could tempt people from their homes to green spaces and public parks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned against any relaxation in social distancing, saying: "If we do, people will die." UK braces for COVID-19 peak Imperial College London epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, who is advising the government, told BBC radio on Saturday a peak was expected around the Easter weekend. "We still think things will plateau but we'll be at quite high levels of infection for weeks and weeks rather than seeing quite a rapid decline as the type seen in China," he said. Story continues But Mr Ferguson said that was dependent on people staying at home. If that happened, it could lead to less stringent measures in place "at least by the end of May", he added. The announcement of another record rise in deaths came after 13 residents at a care home in Glasgow died in one week in a suspected outbreak of coronavirus. The Burlington Court Care Home said those who died had underlying medical conditions and two staff members were being treated for COVID-19. Tests for coronavirus are currently carried out on the most serious cases that require hospital treatment, suggesting the true extent of confirmed cases and deaths is an under-estimate. Air India has asked passengers who travelled in four of its flights in March to follow necessary isolation or quarantine after three passengers on those flights tested positive for coronavirus. Two of these flights were from Goa to Mumbai, one from Mumbai to Delhi and another from Delhi to Patna. In an appeal to passengers who were onboard these flights, the airline said it has got the information that three passengers who travelled with the fights have been found infected with coronavirus. "As informed by Disaster Management Department of Bihar, one passenger who travelled from Mumbai to Delhi by AI-101 of March 22 and from Delhi-to Patna on AI-415 on March 23 has been found COVID-9 positive on March 31," the airline said in a tweet. As appealed by the department, passengers who were on this flight are required to follow necessary isolation/quarantine process. The national carrier also made similar appeals to the passengers of its Mumbai-Goa flights, AI 883 and AI 661, on March 22 and March 19, respectively. "As informed by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Directorate of Health Services, Goa, one passenger who travelled from Mumbai to Panjim in Goa on Air India flight AI 661 on March 19 has been found COVID-9 positive. As appealed by integrated disease surveillance programme, Goa, passengers for this flight are required to follow for necessary isolation quarantine," Air India said in a tweet on Saturday. In another tweet, the carrier said one passenger on its Mumbai-Panaji flight AI-883 of March 22 has also been tested positive for coronavirus. On Sunday, the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the country increased to 3,374 and the death toll to 77, as per Union Health Ministry data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ROYAL OAK, MI -- Beaumont Health now has a process to disinfect used N95 masks amid the nationwide shortage due to the coronavirus outbreak. Bioengineers created a two-step cleansing process that allows health care professionals to use masks a second or third time, the Detroit-area hospital system announced Sunday. Equipment such as N95 masks, gloves and face shields are in short supply across the nation due to the pandemic. Grand Rapids-based Spectrum health also announced plans to reuse masks and goggles this weekend, and Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine is studying decontamination processes for used protective equipment. Spectrum Health to use heat, ultraviolet light to sanitize and reuse masks and goggles University of Michigan, Michigan State University leading efforts to decontaminate N95 masks for reuse This is a major development which will help us continue to protect our staff during this pandemic. Our engineers stepped up, adapting technology to create this process, said Carolyn Wilson, chief operating officer. With the severe national shortage of masks, this will allow us to protect our staff, conserve resources and reduce medical waste. The process uses an ultraviolet light generator with eight walls. Masks are attached to cables on the front side of the walls and the back side of each wall is reflective foil, according to a Beaumont news release. Weve adopted a 2-step process based on work from the University of Nebraska and in collaboration with University of Michigan, said Dr. Sam Flanders, chief quality officer. A powerful ultraviolet light exposes all surfaces of the mask for 8 minutes. UV light has been proven to kill the COVID germ, along with other microorganisms. Next, the masks are heated to 150-160 degrees for one hour. Clarification: the masks are heated using the Fahrenheit scale. Reprocessing N95 masks is safe and effective and has been scientifically studied, Flanders said. The process can disinfect used masks in less than two hours, said Gregory Megahan, Beaumont clinical engineer. The apparatus emits a UV-C light spectrum to N95 masks, said Megahan, a Beaumont clinical engineer. Using the two-step process, the used masks can be disinfected in under 2 hours. After they are exposed to ultraviolet light, they are placed in dry heat warming units to disinfect the masks, according to a news release. Employees who are assigned N95 masks will return used masks at the end of their shifts to be disinfected. Visibly soiled, contaminated or wet masks will be discarded because they are unable to be disinfected by the two-step process. Our Central Processing Department will collect masks from all the sites. Each mask will be labeled and returned back to the staff member who originally used it, said Daniel Zimba, senior director or biomedical and clinical engineering, in a statement. Were engineers, not doctors or nurses on the front lines, but anything we can do to help our caregivers, such as this, makes us feel proud to be able to help during this extraordinary time. We are eager and willing to talk with other health systems to help them adapt this disinfection process at their facilities," Zimba added. Michigan House leaders disagree on returning to session Tuesday Michigan orders quicker reporting of coronavirus deaths by physicians, funeral homes Inside Detroits TCF Center as soldiers, engineers build field hospital for coronavirus patients Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Michigan here COVID-19 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. Sunday, April 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Grand Blanc closes some park facilities to discourage people from gathering Jacks Fruit & Meat Market temporarily closes one store after worker gets coronavirus, limits customers Michigan National Guard expands food bank assistance amid coronavirus crisis 3 nursing home residents test positive for coronavirus in Tuscola County Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Seoul, South Korea Sun, April 5, 2020 08:06 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fbd14e 2 Lifestyle coronavirus,COVID-19,South-Korea,pandemic,tourism,animal,cat-cafe Free A beige feline paces between two Gaudi-style columns at the empty 2 Cats cafe in Seoul, with upturned stools standing on the tables where humans sat to play with them in pre-virus days. Along with coffee, South Korea's animal cafes offer the chance to cuddle companion creatures like dogs or cats for customers who cannot keep one themselves. Business has been devastated by the coronavirus outbreak, with South Koreans staying at home under social distancing guidelines, and tourism disappearing. But unlike other firms, these cafes cannot lay off staff as they have to look after the animals. Many also provide encounters with more exotic species. Meerkats and raccoons are particularly popular -- both have behavior patterns endearing to human eyes -- although the trade in these creatures faces heavy opposition from animal rights groups. A family of wallabies -- their names Alkong and Dalkong translate as "Lovey" and "Dovey" -- looked sheepish when caught stealing bananas at the Eden Meerkat Friends Cafe in the tourist district of Myeongdong. Read also: Coffee and quacks served up at Chengdu duck cafe Staff member Kim Min-ji said customers were down to one or two a day. "Ninety percent of our customers had been foreigners, mostly Chinese, but they stopped coming since the coronavirus outbreak," she said. "Korean customers also don't come much." And Ji Hyo-yeon, owner of the Raccoon Cafe Table A -- which also stocks turtles and lizards as well as meerkats -- said some people avoided his premises after hearing the virus was first contracted from a wild animal. South Korea was among the earliest countries to be hit outside China, where the coronavirus first emerged, and for a time had the world's second-largest outbreak before it was largely brought under control through a widespread testing drive. Customers said the animals helped to put them at ease in the tense times of the pandemic. Hong Chan-wook and his girlfriend were the only visitors at the Eden Meerkat Friends Cafe on a weekday afternoon, and he told AFP: "After spending all my time at home and being bored, I feel healed by meeting these adorable new animals." Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on April 05 Jacinda Ardern's government has quietly introduced a 'bonk ban' more than a week into New Zealand's clampdown designed to stamp out COVID-19. New Zealand authorities issued new lockdown guidance that separates families and lovers who don't live together. With Kiwis not even half-way through an initial four-week lockdown that may be extended, it remains to be seen how long they'll spend apart. Self-isolation principles under the lockdown in New Zealand were previously vague. Before the lockdown, Ms Ardern asked Kiwis to 'apply common sense' and shrink down their social group to 'a small group of individuals who are part of your bubble ... the bubble you must maintain' for a month. That was understood largely to mean households, but the non-specific language allowed families and partners who didn't live to see each other. However a Health Act Order replaced the unspecific order with explicit language - and leaves no room for misinterpretation. Empty Lambton Quay, main shopping precinct, during the lockdown due to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Wellington, New Zealand on April 3 It allows for no fraternising across households with very limited exemptions; for shared custody of children, and when at least one of the partners lives alone. The end result is the criminalisation of most relationships between Kiwis who don't live together. Ms Ardern has justified the decision as necessary to fight COVID-19, on the same day that New Zealand cases climbed to over 1,000. Meanwhile, New Zealand has closed all non-essential businesses - including all restaurants and educational facilities - and provided Kiwis with very few reasons to leave their own homes. Ms Ardern said New Zealand 'had the potential to face as many as 4,000 cases this weekend. We're instead at just over 1,000'. 'Going hard and going early appears to be paying off for us,' she said. Closed shops stand on an empty street during a lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus in Wellington, New Zealand, on Thursday, April 2 In Victoria, the Chief Health Officer intervened to prevent a similar situation, saying last week the state had 'no desire to penalise individuals who are staying with or meeting their partners if they don't usually reside together'. Of the 1,039 Kiwis to have caught the virus, 15 are in hospital, with three requiring support in intensive care units. To date, 156 people have recovered from COVID-19. One Kiwi, an elderly South Islander, has died of coronavirus. Meghan Markle disappointed her fans in 2017 when she shut down her lifestyle website, The Tig, just when she was to become part of the British royal family. Since April 1, the Duchess of Sussex and her husband, Prince Harry, have stepped back from their senior roles within the royal family, and it is now expected that the couple will be taking on new projects without royal protocol stopping them. Royal commentator Charlie Lankston suggested that the former "Suits" actress may consider relaunching her blog to retell her support for causes she once backed before becoming a royal member, as well as to discuss a variety of her interests. Speaking to Access, Lankston said, "Meghan has a very varied set of interests. We know she doesn't focus on just one thing at any one time. She added, "Her website, The Tig, which she shut down shortly after her engagement to Harry, really did allow her to get involved with all those interests." The expert believes that Meghan could talk about everything, from fitness to lifestyle to food, to wine, and several causes that she champions. The people who were once behind the website has reportedly set up a new headquarters as Meghan is grabbing the opportunity to show the world what interests and motivates her. They moved to a different location just days before Prince Harry and Meghan announced that they would step down as members of the royal family. "That very much suggests they have plans in the works for what they are going to do moving forward." While the royal expert believes that Meghan is in no rush to relaunch her website or a sister website soon, the Duchess is maybe just keeping all her options open. "If she decides this is something she has time for, I don't think it would be surprising to see The Tig relaunch in a bigger and better way than ever before." Meghan's former website, The Tig, refers to an American mispronunciation of Tignanello wine. For three years, she provided a hub for the discerning palate, those with a hunger for food, travel, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. In April 2017, she wrote a blog post titled "Farewell, Darling." In her heartfelt goodbye, Meghan wrote, "What began as a passion project (my little engine that could) evolved into an amazing community of inspiration, support, fun, and frivolity. You've made my days brighter and filled this experience with so much joy." Now that she and her husband are no longer representing the Queen of England in all of their endeavors, it was reported that Meghan reportedly has numerous projects in the works. One of them includes writing another cookbook, after the success of her first book, "The Together," which contains fifty kitchen favorites from women. It was launched in 2018 as the Duchess of Sussex's first major solo endeavor as a member of the royal family. Since stepping back from her royal duties, it was revealed on Thursday that she did a voice over for a Disney documentary about elephants. Up until this day, royal watchers are still expecting the couple's announcement of their new non-profit organization and their future plans. READ MORE: Tied to Meghan Markle? Prince Harry 'Dependent' On Wife While in America! By PTI ALLAHABAD: A 28-year-old man was allegedly shot dead on Sunday after a quarrel when he blamed Tablighi Jamaat members for the spread of coronavirus. The altercation took place at a grocery shop in Bakshi Modha village in Kareli police station area when some people were discussing a newspaper report. Lotan Nishad blamed Tablighi Jamaat for spreading coronavirus across the country, police said. Some others objected to his remarks and there was scuffle. ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE Later, he was shot in the head with a countrymade gun and died while being taken to hospital, police said. A senior police officer said Mohammed Sona and another man have been arrested. Eight other have been booked for the crime and police are trying to trace them. A large police force has been deployed in the area to maintain peace. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed strict action against those involved in the murder and announced financial help of Rs 5 lakh for the victim's family. In Lucknow, officials said 278 coronavirus cases have surfaced in the state so far. About half of them are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Easter is next Sunday, April 12. But the country isn't close to being "opened up" by then, as President Trump said he'd like to see during a March 24 press conference, a suggestion that was panned by experts. Instead, the country has gone the opposite direction. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health and coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx are warning that 100,000 Americans or more could die from COVID-19. Hearing those numbers, President Trump endorsed strict stay-at-home measures remain in place for at least another month. It was yet another stunning reversal from Trump, whose messaging at the helm of the government's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic has been like whiplash. Power great local fact-checked coverage today. Your support ensures everyone in your community has paywall-free access to developing coronavirus news and everything LAist has to offer. Donate now. Mixed in with that inconsistency have been a host of claims and suggestions that have been exaggerated, misleading or lacking in full context. Here are five fact checks and stories that set the record straight this week: 1. Should We All Be Wearing Masks In Public? Health Experts Revisit The Question This has become the question a lot of Americans are asking. The government has changed its tune in its recommendations on this, saying first that it wasn't necessary, but now suggests that wearing face coverings might be advisable to slow the spread. "I can tell you that the data and this issue of whether it's going to contribute [to prevention] is being aggressively reviewed as we speak," Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NPR on Monday. President Trump this week encouraged people to wear scarves. So what's the deal? On the one hand, wearing a mask in public may help "tamp down the risk presented by people who may be infected but aren't yet showing symptoms," as NPR's Huo Jingnan, Allison Aubrey and Carmel Wroth reported. But on the other: "There's no definitive evidence from published research that wearing masks in public will protect the person wearing the mask from contracting diseases." What's more, while one expert said home made masks, shawls and scarves "might well be a good idea," the protection is likely minimal and they won't matter much, if at all, if they're made incorrectly or handled wrong. Importantly, N95 medical masks should go to front-line health care workers, and the supply of them overall is extremely limited. 2. Ventilators Are No Panacea For Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients Governors across the country are fighting for resources from the federal government, especially for ventilators. "We do not have enough ventilators. Period," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday. "I am signing an Executive Order allowing the state to take ventilators and redistribute to hospitals in need." But, for as important as ventilators are, NPR's Jon Hamilton reported this week: "Most coronavirus patients who end up on ventilators go on to die, according to several small studies from the U.S., China and Europe. And many of the patients who continue to live can't be taken off the mechanical breathing machines." More: "The largest study so far to look at mortality among coronavirus patients on ventilators was done by the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre in London. It found that among 98 ventilated patients in the U.K., just 33 were discharged alive. "The numbers from a study of Wuhan, China, are even grimmer. Only 3 of 22 ventilated patients survived. And a study of 18 ventilated patients in Washington state found that nine were still alive when the study ended, but only six had recovered enough to breathe on their own." The fact is, as Hamilton reports: "Patients need a ventilator when their lungs can no longer deliver enough oxygen to keep the body going. And it's an extreme measure." That said: "Ventilators have been seen as critical to treating coronavirus patients because the devices are very successful when used to treat common forms of pneumonia." 3. FACT CHECK: Trump Claims U.S. Testing For Coronavirus Most Per Capita -- It's Not The United States has ramped up testing, but it still lags other countries, per capita. That didn't stop President Trump from boasting of the nation's testing. "We're now conducting well over 100,000 coronavirus tests per day," Trump said. "It's over 100,000 tests a day. And these are accurate tests, and they're moving rapidly, which is more than any other country in the world, both in terms of the raw number and also on a per-capita basis, the most." It may be true that the United States is now testing more per day than other countries per capita, although probably not as much as Germany. But it is less relevant than the fact that America got a late start to testing, which left the country vulnerable, and that the United States overall still lags other countries, per capita. The U.S. had tested about 1 in 273 Americans, as of Thursday, lower than South Korea (1 in 119), Italy (1 in 104) and Germany (1 in 90). 4. FACT CHECK: Trump On Not Expanding Insurance, Democrats And Health Care If there's one topic that Democrats have debated in their primaries since 2007 -- and certainly heavily in 2019 and 2020 -- it's health care. Specifically, Democrats have burrowed in on how to make health insurance affordable for those who don't qualify for Medicaid and don't have an employer-based insurance plan. It was almost entirely what the Affordable Care Act was trying to address. Yet, when asked what the federal government planned to do about that gap as some of those people try to get coronavirus treatment, President Trump did not say he would reopen Obamacare exchanges. Instead, he said this: "They're talking about it in the 2020 election too and nobody's gotten to it. Nobody's talked about it at all. I think we're going to get to it. I don't think the other group will get to it. They haven't even spoken about it." 5. FACT CHECK: Premature -- Trump Continues To Claim Drug Can Treat Coronavirus Everyone wants a cure, a treatment to the novel coronavirus. But there is no treatment that's proven to work yet and a vaccine is still a year to a year and a half off. That hasn't stopped President Trump from touting the possibilities of hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat lupus and to prevent malaria that, NPR's Dan Charles reports, medical experts have warned against buying for the purpose of treating COVID-19, because it might exhaust supplies for people who actually need it. "It's looking like it's having some good results," Trump said Friday. "I hope that, that would be a phenomenal thing." Charles reports that lab studies showed hydroxychloroquine "blocked the coronavirus from entering cells," but "there's no solid evidence ... that the drug actually is an effective COVID-19 treatment." And: "Clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine have just recently started, and the scientists in charge of them have not reported any results as yet." That could take weeks. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS: icon DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS Get our daily newsletter for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines. SUBSCRIBE Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Support our free, independent journalism today. Donate now. Surgeon General Jerome Adams offered some of the starkest warnings yet Sunday as he braced Americans for the worsening fallout from the new coronavirus, warning this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans lives, quite frankly. The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,400; more than 3,500 of those deaths are in the state of New York. Much of the country is under orders to stay home, and federal officials said that have seen signs that people are listening to the message about social distancing. But the Trump administration also is also emphasizing that the worst is yet to come for many communities. Among other developments today: The global pandemic muted traditional observances from family grave-cleaning ceremonies in China to Palm Sunday for many Christians. Home testing for the new coronavirus is still too risky, U.S. regulators say. But the Food and Drug Administration is aggressively pushing new options onto the market. Pope Francis is celebrating Palm Sunday Mass without the public, since the traditional ceremony in St. Peter's Square was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo thanks the Chinese government for sending 1,000 donated ventilators to his state, highlighting the extreme measures leaders are taking to secure lifesaving devices during the coronavirus pandemic. The rate of the coronavirus outbreak continues to slow in Spain. The country has the second most infections behind the United States. Spain recorded 6,023 new infections. That is down from an increase of 7,026 infections in the previous 24-hour period. For more summaries and full reports, please select from the articles below. Scroll further for helpful tips, a guide to coping, maps tracking virus spread, and live updates from verified social media accounts. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate fever and cough. It can cause more severe illness including pneumonia for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. This coverage is being provided free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus pandemic. Please support local journalism by subscribing. Hyderabad, April 5 : AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision not to invite him to the video conference with floor leaders of political parties on covid-19 is an insult to the people of Hyderabad and Aurangabad. The Hyderabad MP tweeted that All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) not being invited to the video conference is an insult to the proud people of Aurangabad and Hyderabad. "Are they lesser humans because they chose AIMIM. Please explain why they're not worthy of your kind attention? As MPs it's our job to represent to you the economic & humanitarian misery of our people," said Owaisi who tagged Prime Minister's Office. Owaisi said people of Hyderabad and Aurangabad elected him and Imtiaz Jaleel respectively so that they will raise their issues. "Now, we're being denied an audience with His Highness. Hyderabad has 93 active covid-19 cases, I want to put forth our ideas on how we can fight this pandemic & identify areas where we're lacking," he added. The Hyderabad MP also posted the press release from Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi. According to the release, Modi will be interacting with floor leaders of political parties (who have more than 5 MPs in Parliament combining Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha) through video conference at 11 a.m. on April 8. This video conference pertains to covid-19 related issues, it said. AIMIM has only two members in Lok Sabha and it has no representation in Rajya Sabha. By PTI NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday urged the government to start aggressive testing as lockdown for coronavirus will be effective only if "we test, detect, isolate and then treat". He also welcomed the ICMR's advice to the government for starting antibody tests in hotspots, as it was overdue. ALSO READ | 'Symbolism important, so are serious ideas': Chidambaram hits out at PM Modi's video message "CWC in its resolution pointed out that limited testing was a flawed strategy. Epidemiologists have demanded extensive and aggressive testing. Let government start aggressive testing today. "A lockdown will be effective only if we TEST, TEST, DETECT, ISOLATE and TREAT. "That is the lesson from Japan, South Korea and Singapore," he said on Twitter. On March 30, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, issued a very unusual statement that stressed the absolute need to keep the chain of command in the defense system. This statement almost went unnoticed in these coronavirus days. Still, for those who did notice, it must have raised eyebrows, as they sensed that Kochavi was very angry with his temporary boss, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, and with good reason. Bennett had assembled an impressive task force to prepare the annexation of many areas in the West Bank without involving the chief of staff in these significant efforts. Bennett's plan was presented to the public a few years ago. Its essence stems from the perception of Area C (which includes 60% of the West Bank, and from which Israel intended to withdraw gradually, according to the 1993 Oslo Accord and the 1995 Interim Agreement) as an Israeli hinterland, which should be annexed to Israel in its totality. Over the years, Bennett tried several times, unsuccessfully, to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governments to adopt this plan. In comparison with other diplomatic plans that were published in recent years, President Donald Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East is the closest to the Bennett idea: Only half of area C would be part of the future Palestinian State, which means, by deduction, that the other half could be annexed by Israel. Bennett didn't like the part about a Palestinian state mentioned in the "deal of the century" but saw the plan as a whole as a very important step forward that would allow Israel to expand its borders. Immediately after the plan's official publication, he put open pressure on Netanyahu to annex area C. After the March elections, Bennett was surprised to find himself in the position of Israels defense minister despite his poor showing in the polls. In fact, Netanyahu made Bennett an offer he could not refuse, as Netanyahu was concerned about rumors that Bennett might join forces with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. And thus, Netanyahus nemesis became his defense minister in an interim government, without the need to get Knesset approval. Sitting in the defense ministers seat, Bennett began preparing the annexation of all the Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley. He didn't waste any time, bringing together officers from various departments in the army. These included map drawers, people from the Civil Administration and from the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), legal advisers and other specialists. Together they were tasked with preparing Bennett a set of scenarios for annexing the Jordan Valley only, annexing the settlements only, or both. Bennett believes that having Trump in the White House has provided a unique opportunity for implementing the ideas of the right in Israel, and fears that if Trump is not reelected in November, that opportunity may vanish, never to appear again. Bennetts idea is to create a kind of a fait accompli by preparing all that is needed for annexations by the new government. He wanted to make sure that Gantz would find it too difficult to defer a final decision or to prevent it. He was working on the assumption that Gantz would not even dream of launching such a preparatory project. Bennett also thought that Kochavi would not confront him on such an issue. Bennett is hoping to establish facts on the ground while coalition talks are ongoing as means of forcing his political agenda on the future government. I don't know whether Bennett realizes that a such a precedent exists, but such a scenario has already taken place in Israeli politics. In 1984, neither Labor nor the Likud could form a coalition government. In that tie situation, the two leaders, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir, agreed to form a joint government, with an equal number of ministers on each side, so that after 25 months of Peres as prime minister, Shamir would replace him. During the tough negotiation the two sides encountered several ideological obstacles; one of them being the issue of building new settlements in the occupied territories. While negotiating the outline of the future coalition, the Labor party demanded that the number of settlements that could be established throughout the term of the government be limited; however, the Likud raised a legal argument against that. The Likud leadership argued that a binding decision had been recently adopted on constructing a series of new settlements. But how could a government not yet established have adopted such a decision? As it turned out, after the elections, during the days of the caretaker interim government, ultra-rightist Science Minister Yuval Neeman continued chairing the Ministerial Committee on Settlements. Neeman convened his committee, but was the only minister to attend the meeting. And so, Neeman voted by himself for a long list of new settlements that had been waiting for a governmental green light. According to the government bylaws at the time, any committee decision uncontested for two weeks by Cabinet ministers was automatically adopted as an official resolution. However, Neeman's resolutions were not laws, and formally, the new government was free to take very different decisions. Still, the settlers pressured Likud representatives to stick to the list of the newly confirmed settlements. Eventually a compromise was found, with six settlements approved to be constructed. Gantz gave up on many principles and made several concessions on his way to a unity government under Netanyahu: he reneged on his promise not to serve under an indicted politician; he agreed to help form the biggest government ever and he accepted the nominations of unfit personalities. Nevertheless, judging by his past statements, it seems he wont support any unilateral annexation plan that might hurt or even prevent efforts for peace with the Palestinians. He has said that he would support such a move only if it is backed internationally, which is apparently his way of saying that he wont back such an initiative now. As for Bennett (whom Gantz might replace), the leader of Blue and White must demand that the interim defense minister immediately dissolve his ambitious task force. Gantz must do his best in order to get back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians, without any unneeded obstacles. The Star Tribunes Jeremy Olson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering health care. Trained in investigative and computer-assisted reporting, Olson has covered politics, social services, and family issues. I took a critical look at Olsons first look at the model underlying the current shutdown ordered by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in Coronavirus in one state (3) and in No one here gets out alive. Olson returns today with the 1,300-word page-one story Minnesotas COVID-19 response shows promise in helping to slow virus. Subhead: Walz said he will be looking this week for updated modeling and any signs of the infection ebbing before deciding on extend his stay-at-home order. I have read Olsons story closely several times. I may have read it more closely than he himself has. In his mess of verbiage he fails to note that that the governor predicated his current shutdown order on the assertion that, according to the model relied on by the governor, Minnesota would experience 74,000 deaths by the virus absent his order. Last week, in his earlier page-one story, Olson reported that, with the order, Minnesota would experience 50,000 deaths. I do believe the governor left that out in the announcement of his March 25 order. Olsons story today posits a tentative optimism. He forgets about the projected 50,000 deaths based on the model reported in his last story. As of today, the Minnesota Department of Health attributes 29 deaths to the coronavirus. Olson also omits the arithmetic that would suggest we have 49,971 deaths to go if everything goes as projected! (Projected by the governor, that is.) Olson instead works with the IHME model: Modeling by the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests this is working. Deaths so far havent been increasing in Minnesota at the expected exponential rate, prompting the institute to lower its forecasted COVID-19 deaths in the state from around 2,000 two weeks ago to 932. Were seeing the impact of these measures and how early they are put in place, said Ali Mokdad, chief strategy officer for population health at the University of Washington. I asked my friend Kevin Roche for his reaction to Olsons story today. Kevin is the former general counsel of UnitedHealthGroup and chief executive officer of its Ingenix division. Kevin responded: Olson does not make it clear, and this is the critical point, that when the Governor says his extreme lockdown is working, he means it is working according to the model he based it on. As Olsons story on Friday in the Star Tribune makes clear, that model was predicated on only delaying deaths, except for those allegedly caused by overrunning the health system with cases. Under the model, 50,000 deaths will still occur, just spread out over a longer time. So a more accurate statement would be the Governors extreme shutdown is working to delay deaths. Now I dont believe at all that we are preventing 24,000 deaths. The model appears to be using an erroneous infection rate, an erroneous mortality rate, an erroneous ICU stay length and other factors that led to that worst case projection. And if the model is flawed in its predictions of overwhelming the health system, every one of those deaths that doesnt occur comes off the top of the 74,000 number; it isnt a proportional reduction. So if there is no overwhelming of health resources, 50,000 deaths will occur, it is just a matter of when. This can be clearly seen in the University of Washington IMHE chartThe virus isnt disappearing. [Please see clarifications per the update below.] So one of two things is true, and they are mutually exclusive. Either the numbers in the model are wildly off and were never going to happen so the justification for the extreme lockdown doesnt exist or the model is right, which is what the governor said he believed and is consistent with his actions, in which case we are going to have 50,000 deaths no matter what with no lives were saved. I think if Minnesotans understood that at the start, they would have been outraged at both the deception and at the enormous economic, non-economic and social damage being done to Minnesotans. I urge interested readers to look over my shoulder at Jeremy Olsons long page-one story today to see just how little light a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering health care can shed when he is disinclined, for whatever reason, to question authority. UPDATE: Kevin adds this clarification regarding the IMHE: A couple of very good comments made me realize that maybe my assumptions about the IMHE model and projections werent right and I should go back to poke around on the site. Having been distracted much of the day with other analysis and grandkids, I didnt explain myself well in my original reaction to the Star Tribune article or the comments. Here is what I hope is a better explanation. The main purpose of the IMHE site was supposedly to help states plan for whether or not they might have cases requiring care in excess of the resources hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators available to provide that treatment. It was basically a near-term forecast and I assumed it was what I would call a runout model. In other words, they assumed social distancing (I would actually call the set of measures they were using an economic lockdown) for a set period of time, in this case through May, and they made assumptions about the number of cases you would see through May under those social distancing restrictions. Then you just run out the outcomes of those cases. So in their projection, there are no new cases after the end of May and the cases have had their outcomes by August. This is what the cumulative chart reflects. The day charts I dont regard as particularly useful other than as a check against the reality of what actually happened versus their projections. My poking around verifies that I was correct in my assumptions, but also indicates a far more dire situation that I realized. If you look in the frequently asked questions section here, you will see that they were in fact only forecasting first wave, and that for that first wave they only assumed 3 percent of the population became infected, or as they put it, 97 percent of the population remained susceptible. They note that this likely means there will be a resurgence if restrictions are lifted. So we will face the ongoing choice of keeping the lockdown in place or seeing a bunch of new cases in June and beyond. Commenters and others assume that the approximately 93,500 total US deaths they are forecasting was it. It isnt by a long shot. These are just the deaths from the first wave, that 3 percent of the population. And if you do the math, they are assuming about a 1 percent fatality rate in the infected population. That is a big number if you apply to whatever remaining part of the population you think will be infected. Now personally I think that fatality rate is much too high. But the key point is that forecast is only the first wave. And as they say, that certainly isnt all there will be to the epidemic. And this episode has reminded me again of the need for people to be clear in what they are modeling and the assumptions they are making. You shouldnt have to go to FAQs to figure that out. The graphs should be labeled First Wave Only. I have slightly edited Kevins original message to confine the discussion based on the IMHE projections to this update. Children sue Google for collecting face scans, 'voiceprints' of millions of students Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As numerous schools are using Googles tools to hold online classes amid the COVID-19 outbreak, two Illinois children have filed a lawsuit alleging that the multinational technology company is collecting biometric data, including face scans, of millions of students. Seeking class-action status, the children identified only as H.K. and J.C. filed the lawsuit on Thursday in a federal court in San Jose, California, through their father, Clinton Farwell, according to CNET. In their complaint, the children allege that Google is using its services to create face templates and voiceprints of children through its program that provides Chromebooks and G Suite for Education apps, including student versions of Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs, to school districts across the country. Google has complete control over the data collection, use, and retention practices of the G Suite for Education service, including the biometric data and other personally identifying information collected through the use of the service, and uses this control not only to secretly and unlawfully monitor and profile children but to do so without the knowledge or consent of those children's parents, the lawsuit says, according to Tech Times. Last week, Google announced a partnership with California Gov. Gavin Newsom in providing more than 4,000 Chromebooks to students across the state. According to the complaint, the data collection violates Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which regulates facial recognition, fingerprinting and other biometric technologies in the state. A federal law, the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, also prohibits sites from collecting personal information from users who are under 13 years old without parental consent. The children are asking for damages of over $1,000 for each member of the class for BIPA violations if those violations are due to the companys negligence, or around $5,000 each for each offense committed intentionally or recklessly. As part of a settlement last September, Google and YouTube were asked to pay $136 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $34 million to New York for allegedly violating the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Rule. YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients, FTC Chairman Joe Simons said at the time in a statement. Yet when it came to complying with COPPA, the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. Theres no excuse for YouTubes violations of the law. When assembling an anthology of writings representative of a political persuasion, the challenge is to acknowledge the persuasions varieties without producing a concoction akin to sauerkraut ice cream, a jumble of incompatible ingredients. In American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition, Andrew J Bacevich, a scholarly soldier and writer, compiles a rich menu. So rich, however, that conservatism comes close to being a classification that no longer classifies. The volumes focus is confined to the 20th century, with its earliest selection from ... More than 2 million people are out of a job in Turkey, the countrys main opposition party said Friday, with hundreds of thousands of businesses shuttered across the country due to the coronavirus. They had to start a campaign to keep people home. This current campaign has only led to one thing: unemployment," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), said in an interview Friday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under fire for seemingly prioritizing the economic health of companies and banks over households. Last month, he announced an economic stimulus package of 100 billion liras ($15 billion), mostly aimed at keeping affected businesses afloat. To provide for low-income citizens, Erdogan on Monday launched a national fundraising campaign, which the government said has raised nearly 82.4 million liras as of Thursday. Our citizens who were planning to give alms for [the Islamic holy month of] Ramadan dont have to wait. They can join the campaign and take their place in the race for charity, he said Monday. Kilicdaroglu also called for the authorities to place more stringent limits on freedom of movement amid the sharp rise in unemployment. Turkish authorities have ordered adults 65 and older and those with chronic illnesses to stay home, but have asked the rest of the population to voluntarily quarantine. Erdogan is under increasing pressure to impose a nationwide lockdown, which hes so far resisted for economic reasons. Instead, hes called on people to self-police and stay inside their homes except to shop for groceries or make emergency trips. Turkey is a country where production must continue and the cogs must keep turning under every circumstance and every condition, Erdogan said in a Monday night address. As of Thursday, the death toll in Turkey from the virus had climbed to 356, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Of the 18,135 recorded cases, roughly half are in Istanbul. The country's first physician to contract the coronavirus died early Thursday. The 67-year-old doctor, Cemil Tascioglu, taught at Istanbul University and was the first doctor to diagnose the disease in a Turkish patient. More than 600 health-care professionals are infected across Turkey, the Health Ministry said. Last week, a 33-year-old nurse died after contracting the virus. Judicial member of the Lokpal and former chief justice of the Chhattisgarh high court, Ajay Kumar Tripathi, 62, tested positive for Covid-19 late on Friday night. He was in the isolation facility at the main AIIMS campus and was later moved to Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre, which has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 hospital. He has been admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital and is currently on a ventilator. His condition is critical, and he is on a ventilator, said an official from the hospital, on condition of anonymity. So far, 445 people have contracted the infection and six have died of it in the city. He is the second patient admitted to the 240-bed facility, which opened on Saturday. Around 120 of these beds have ventilator support. All trauma cases have now been diverted to the main AIIMS campus, where they are handled in the emergency ward. Apart from the five hospitals designated by the Delhi government for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, this is the only other stand-alone facility doing so. The hospital also plans to have one of the OTs dedicated for surgeries on Covid-19 patients. On Friday, doctors from gynaecology department of AIIMS used a minor OT for the delivery of a pregnant woman with Covid-19. Lights and anaesthesia table had been brought from other departments to equip the OT for a major procedure. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON KAMPALA Uganda has confirmed four new cases of COVID-19 extending the countrys tally of the novel Coronavirus infections to 52. The new cases were announced by President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday April 05 via his official Facebook page. President Museveni said 300 samples were tested and only four were positive. The president added that all the four confirmed cases were in the institutional quarantine that they are doing well under medical care. Dr. Henry G Mwebesa, the Director General Health Services, Ministry of Health said all the patients didnt show any sign. The patients include a 22 year old Ugandan male, resident of Kakikoro Wakiso, a 66 year old Ugandan female resident of Luzira, 65 Ugandan female resident of Jinja and 26 year old Uganda male resident of Rubaga. All patients arrived from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dr. Mwebesa said that a total of 377 individuals have been discharged from institutional quarantine, 602 are under institutional quarantine while 834 contacts to the confirmed cases are under follow-up. Meanwhile, the President also said that he has received a number of questions and that will address the country on Tuesday April 07. The president is expected to clarify on a number of issues raised on social media. Related Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images From Good Housekeeping Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have now transitioned to their new arrangement, after officially stepping back from their working royal roles on April 1 and they're beginning this new era in sunny Los Angeles, Meghan's hometown. While this is an easy move, legally speaking, for both Meghan and little Archieboth of whom are U.S. citizens it's a little more complicated for Harry. The Prince's financial situation and more could soon change drastically if, that is, he and his family plan to settle in America for the long haul. Here, the tax and immigration hurdles that Prince Harry will have to overcome, should he choose to stay. If Harry lives here for too long, he'll have to pony up for U.S. taxes. Whether or not someone is considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes is dependent on how many days they spend in the country. A (somewhat complicated) formula is used to calculate the requisite number of days: if a person has spent 31 days in the U.S. during the current year, and a total of 183 days during the current year and the two years priorthough the days from those two previous years each count less than a full day (each day in the previous year counts for 1/3 of a day, and each day in the year before that counts for 1/6 of a day)they're considered a resident. An easy shortcut, explains Dianne Mehany, a lawyer specializing in international tax planning, is to make sure not to spend more than 121 days a year in the U.S. But as Henry Bubel, a lawyer who works with wealthy and cross-border families, explains, there is a way to bump up that number. "If he's able to show that he has a closer connection with England, then he could stay more days under the U.S.-UK tax treaty," Bubel says, estimating that the Prince might be able to get up to around 150 days. Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images This argument is made a little more complicated given Harry's well-publicized decision to step back from his role as a senior royala move that could be seen as a "decisive split with the United Kingdom," notes Mehany. Still, he and Meghan have retained a residence in the U.K. (Frogmore Cottage in Windsor), and have repeatedly expressed a desire to support the Queen and the Commonwealth. Story continues Mehany believes that especially in 2020, this could be Harry's out. "Honestly, if he's less than 183 days, I think that is very likely a strong argument," Mehany says, adding, "Someone who has spent very little time in Los Angeles until 2020and was essentially trapped here because of the way the world has shut downyou have a compelling argument that you're not truly a resident of the United States." So, interestingly, the ongoing pandemic could help Harry's case. But it would be hard to use this going forward. "If you try to claim it too many years in a row, at a certain point the IRS is going to say, 'No, you don't have a closer connection to another country, because you're routinely spending 6 months a year in the United States,'" Mehany says. There is also the possibility of Harry pursuing a "tiebreak" position under the U.S.-UK treaty, which would allow someone who accidentally becomes a resident (in other words, oversteps the number of days allotted) to avoid U.S. income taxes. There is also a downside to claiming this: while Harry would avoid paying taxes, he'd still have to file a boatload of paperwork and disclosures. "You still have to file a myriad of information returns, disclosing your worldwide assets, disclosing your trust positions, disclosing your controlled foreign corporations, disclosing your foreign investments," Mehany says. And like claiming a closer connection to another country, the IRS is less likely to permit this each time it's claimed. All this, of course, is still presuming that he spends less than half of the year in the U.S.and it's not clear at the moment if that's the case. Photo credit: Pool - Getty Images Yes, this means the IRS might get a peek at the royals' finances. Even if Harry has no income, if he is required to file in the U.S., he'll have to disclose information about his bank account holdings. "That wouldn't tell you anything else about the rest of the royals' finances except by implication," Bubel says. "However, if he were the beneficiary of trusts, where he received distributions from that trust while he was a resident, there'd be some complicated reporting and some complicated tax analysis that would have to be done." If Harry owns more than 10% of a foreign company, he'd have to file information about that companywhich might shed some light, depending on the company. However, the royals' finances as a whole are opaque, and it's not clear if Prince Harry holds anything in his own name, or is simply the beneficiary of trusts. But Harry's taxes are also dependent on immigration. There are a couple visas that would exempt him from the requirements outlined abovebut they each come with their own challenges. Technically, Harry could go back to school to get around the limits. If he applied for a student visa and attended a qualified program, his days as a student wouldn't count toward that 120-day number. "You'd be surprised, but many people his age group may do that, just sign up and enroll, even in doctoral programs," Bubel says. (Harry never enrolled in university, instead pursuing a career in the military, so he'd be pursuing a bachelor's.) Although it is a neat solution to his tax woes, Harry probably won't become a student anytime soon. Another option? Obtaining a diplomatic visa. Harry has certainly engaged in diplomatic activities in the past, but now that he's stepped back from his senior royal roleand as Buckingham Palace has stated, he and Meghan "can no longer formally represent the Queen,"it seems unlikely that he'd get a diplomatic visa. "That would be really at the discretion of the British government," explains Parisa Karaahmet, a partner at immigration law firm Fragomen. "He would have to be undertaking a role that's consistent with that of being a governmental representative." And really, as Bubel notes, "He's coming as a private citizen, not as a government official." Photo credit: WPA Pool - Getty Images And there are some taxes he'd never be able to avoid. Harry and Meghan have made it clear that they plan to earn their own incomeand if that income is made in the U.S., they'll have to pay taxes on it. For example, even before the Sussexes moved to L.A., it was reported that Harry was paid for a speech in Miami. Unless it was to benefit a charity, that payment "would be considered personal services income and he would owe tax in the United States, regardless of whether he was a resident or a non-resident," Mehany says. "Because it would be termed what we call U.S.-sourced income." Taxes aside, if he wants to stay in the U.S. for awhile, Harry will need a visa. All of the tax scenarios outlined above presume that Harry would want to avoid being classified as a residenteither in order to avoid taxes, or simply because he doesn't plan to spend more than 121 days per year in the U.S. But it's not known what he and Meghan are planning for their future, and it's entirely within the realm of possibility that they're hoping to stay in L.A. for the long haul. If that's the case, Harry will need to deal with immigration. British citizens are able to stay in the U.S. for 90 days at a time under America's visa waiver program. Under that arrangement, "He's not allowed to work. He's not allowed to reside or that sort of thing here. And he can't extend that time, but he can leave the U.S. and then potentially return at a later date for another subsequent 90 day period," Karaahmet says. Still, that's not a long-term solution. "So it might work initially but, eventually, if he's going to spend a lot of time here, he's going to end up by going with one of these visa options or even applying for permanent residence," Karaahmet explains. In terms of visas, in addition to the student and diplomatic options above, Harry could pursue an O-1 visa, for "Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement." Says Karaahmet, "It is quite common for individuals to apply for O-1 classification if they can show that they rise to a very high level of accomplishment in their fields." Being famous alone wouldn't be enough for Harry, but perhaps he could claim extraordinary achievement in philanthropy, or something of the like. He'd also have to be able to show that he was working in that area of expertise while in the U.S.and likely require an employer or organization to sponsor his application. "The drawback of the O-1 is it does have to be renewed periodically and it requires him to continue that relationship with that organization," Karaahmet adds. "So it's a visa that requires employment, really." One organization that might work well? The non-profit Harry and Meghan are planning to launch. Though details on the project are scarce thus far, it could theoretically provide the Prince with the sponsorship he needs to obtain the O-1. "The organization would be such that there's real structure around it and it has payroll and other individuals and maybe an actual office, physical office," Karaahmet adds as a caveat. "So, more than just a shell company type of thing. But yeah, it is possible for an organization that he and his wife establish to sponsor him." Photo credit: Pool/Samir Hussein - Getty Images Harry could also pursue permanent residency. This is where Meghan's American citizenship could really come in handy. As the spouse of a U.S. citizen, Harry's eligible to apply for permanent residencythough that would take awhile. Under normal circumstances, an applicant would be looking at several months; given that the current pandemic has shuttered U.S. consulates around the globe, it'd be even longer. (It's not out of the question that Harry's application might be processed quicker than others', given his status, but there's no guarantee that it would be.) The advantage, however, is that Harry wouldn't have to work to continue living in the U.S., or worry about renewing a visa. Still, Karaahmet thinks it's unlikely he'd pursue this option "for many, many reasons, not the least of which are tax-related." It may be some time before the public learns of Harry and Meghan's long-term plansbut whatever schemes they're formulating now, they're surely taking these legal queries into account. You Might Also Like Megastar Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday unveiled his thoughtful side and said he feels that lockdown days will be a memory of when people had all the time along with the loved ones close. The 54-year-old actor took to Instagram and shared the thought with a selfie which he said "has nothing to do with the message, but he thought that he looked good in it, and so he sneaked it in." The 'Raees' actor, on the photo-sharing platform, shared that he believes, this lockdown situation when people are advised to stay at home, is going to be a memory, and we will remember the time of "when we had all the time on our hands and our loved ones in our arms." Shah Rukh also advised staying safe, distant and healthy amid the coronavirus outbreak. Shah Rukh captioned the post as,"I believe this moment in our lives will finally be a memory of when we had all the time on our hands & our loved ones in our arms. Here's wishing this for every1. Stay Safe. Stay Distant. Stay Healthy. PS: The selfie has nothing to do with the msg, thought I look good, so I sneaked it in." The thoughtful note by Shah Rukh garnered more than 3 Lakh likes within 40 minutes of being posted. Meanwhile, SRK along with his wife Gauri has extended a helping hand to curb the spread of coronavirus as they have offered their personal office space in Mumbai for quarantine purpose for children, elderly and women. Moreover, Shah Rukh Khan and his group companies have pledged to donate to a number of relief funds, including the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) fund and the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund to combat the coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, April 5 : After the massive Tableeghi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin has proved to be a super spreader of coronavirus, the VHP on Sunday demanded that the organisation be banned, and even alleged that it has terror links. It alleged that "after being indoctrinated from its Nizamuddin headquarters, hundreds of thousands of Tableeghis are spreading obscurantism, wickedness and terrorism all over the world. Most of the founders of the world's terrorist organizations have also been associated with the Tableeghi Jamaat." It also demanded that the Nizamuddin Markaz buildings and its bank accounts be sealed forthwith and their financial sources be discovered. That's not all. The VHP asked for departmental proceedings against the "guilty officers concerned" who allowed this congregation to take place. The entire country is "stunned and disgusted with this inhuman behavior of the Tableeghis and the radicals indoctrinated by them", the VHP alleged while adding that the Tabhleeghi Jamat is "using the COVID-19 as a weapon". "The whole of India is in serious crisis today due to the country-wide criminal misdeeds of the Tablighi Jamaat and its Nizamuddin Markaz." VHP's Central Joint General Secretary Dr. Surendra Jain said that the financial sources of the Tablighi Jamaat, that is endangering the lives of all Indians, should be probed and their bank accounts, offices and activities stopped at once. "After the hard work and achievements of the 8-day pan-India lockdown, the whole country was taking a sigh of relief. The growth rate of corona victims was just 2.8 per cent. Just then, on March 30, a terrible corona explosion took place in the Nizamuddin Markaz." He also claimed that Indigenous and foreign corona-infected clerics hiding in mosque and madrasas sparked off the possibilities of community transmission of the fatal virus increased. Jain credited the VHP for stopping another such congregation on March 14-15. The VHP also cited misbehaviour by sections of quarantined Jamaat members. "The doctors, who went to save the lives of the corona clerics, were attacked. The quarantined Tablighis started doing obscene acts before the nurses and spitting on the doctors," he said, adding that army doctors had to be called into the quarantine centre at Narela. "Not only in Nizamuddin, but the clerics across the country delivered speeches to inflame the Muslim community," he alleged. MERCEDES, Texas (AP) Authorities seized animals including a white Bengal tiger, bobcat, kinkajou, porcupines, llamas, emus and deer after finding them at a South Texas residence while executing a search warrant last week. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Sammy Parks said Friday that the search warrant served on March 25 at the home on 5 acres in Mercedes, a city of about 17,000, was related to a narcotics investigation. Queen Elizabeth II attends the wedding of Prince Harry to Ms Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018 in Windsor, England. Britain needed a message of hope Sunday. The queen delivered it. Queen Elizabeth II offered support to a country locked down in the coronavirus pandemic, promising the nation that it would rise to the challenge and overcome the outbreak. In a rare address to the nation, the 93-year-old monarch acknowledged the suffering that many families have experienced because of the COVID-19 crisis, which has infected more than 47,806 people in the U.K. and killed at least 4,934 of them. She drew upon wisdom from her decades as Britain's head of state to urge resolve in a time of crisis. "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different," she said. "This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. "We will succeed and that success will belong to every one of us." The queen gives yearly Christmas messages but has given an address like this on only three previous occasions. She delivered speeches after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, before the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991. But times are unprecedented. She lauded Britain's beloved National Health Service in a broadcast that featured pictures of medical teams suiting up to go battle the virus. She praised other essential services, as images of soldiers loading medical equipment on trucks rolled on the screen. She also praised everyday citizens who are adhering to the terms of the lockdown and staying at home and helping to prevent the spread of the virus. "I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times," the queen said. "I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones. "Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it." The leader who spends much of her time cutting ribbons and visiting charitable organizations, also made the point of mentioning the general public, such as the 750,000 people who volunteered to help the vulnerable. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge," she said. "Those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any." "That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country." The crisis has hit close to home for the queen. Her son and the heir to the throne, 71-year-old Prince Charles, had a mild case of the disease. She herself left London, the epicenter of Britain's outbreak, and took up residence at her home in Windsor with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. Both the monarch and her 98-year-old husband are among those over 70 whom the British government have advised to stay home for 12 weeks. The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people, but for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and lead to death. Many in the U.K. have compared the pandemic to World War II, suggesting the effort needed to overcome COVID-19 would be similar. The queen herself suggested a parallel, and reminded the nation that other crises have served to strain family ties. "It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety," she said. "Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do." The address was recorded in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle. The location was chosen specifically because it allowed enough space between the monarch and the camera person, who wore personal protective equipment. Leadership expert James O'Rourke from the University of Notre Dame said that the monarch's remarks couldn't have come a moment too soon. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson ill with the virus himself, the queen offers a message of continuity to a country in lockdown. Johnson was admitted to the hospital on Sunday as a "precautionary step" after experiencing persistent symptoms of COVID-19. "Britons have not faced such grim circumstances since the darkest days of World War II, with the Blitz and the mass evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940," O'Rourke said. "Now, more than ever, the people of the U.K. must have someone to rely upon, someone whose word they can trust." The queen invoked the words of a World War II-era song "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn that offered hope to many a soldier sent to fight, promising that loved ones would be reunited in the end. The parallel was unmistakable: It can't last forever. "We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return," she said. "We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) President Rodrigo Duterte will be donating one month of his salary to help the government address the COVID-19 crisis, Malacanang said on Sunday. This comes after most of Duterte's Cabinet members volunteered to take 75 percent monthly pay cuts to help boost the country's response against the infectious disease. "Others have volunteered a salary deduction for the whole duration of the state of public health emergency in solidarity with our countrymen and to help in the government efforts to halt the spread of the coronavirus," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement. "The President is likewise donating his one month salary for the cause." Panelo added that the assistant secretaries of the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson have also volunteered to donate at least 10 percent of their April income. They also pledged parts of their salaries in the succeeding months to support groups at the front line of the crisis. Earlier, some 200 lawmakers from the House of Representatives agreed to donate their full salaries for the month of May, in an effort to raise an initial 50 million for the government's disease response. The Philippines has so far reported 3,246 cases of the infectious disease, with 152 deaths and 64 recoveries. Dear Rusty: My daughter had menial jobs part time here in the USA during high school and college but shortly after college moved to South Korea to teach English. After eight years there she will be going to Belgium and getting married. She will be living there and working there. Will she ever have access to any Social Security benefits? Signed: Interested Father Dear Interested Father: It will depend upon how many U.S. quarter-credits your daughter has from her work here in the U.S. The U.S. has bilateral agreements (known as Totalization Agreements) with both South Korea and Belgium (and 24 other countries) and these agreements allow someone who has worked in both the U.S. and another country to aggregate their credits from both to qualify for U.S. benefits (and vice versa). But your daughter will need to have earned at least six U.S. credits from working in the U.S. in order for her credits from either South Korea or Belgium (or both) to be counted under the Totalization Agreement, thus entitling her to U.S. Social Security benefits. The U.S. requires a minimum of 40 total quarter-credits to be eligible for Social Security benefits. If your daughter has at least six U.S. credits now and can get enough additional credits via the Totalization Agreements to achieve minimum 40 required, then she may be eligible for at least a small U.S. Social Security benefit when she is 62. Since you say your daughter had only menial part time jobs here in the U.S., key for her to eventually get benefits will be if she has worked enough in the U.S. to earn at least the six credits which will allow her to take advantage of the Totalization Agreements and meet basic eligibility for Social Security. FYI, Social Security credits are based upon how much is earned each year, and the amount required for a credit varies annually. A maximum of four credits can be earned each year for example, in 2020 a credit is given for each $1,410 earned, up to a maximum of four credits per year ($5,640 in annual earnings). Essentially, if your daughter had at least the minimum earnings for 1 years of U.S. employment to earn six credits, she could eventually use the Totalization Agreements to become eligible for U.S. Social Security benefits. I suggest that your daughter contact Social Security and ask how many quarters of credit she now has under the U.S. Social Security system. If she already has the minimum six needed to eventually qualify under the Totalization Agreements, she may be entitled to a small SS benefit when she becomes age-eligible (62). But remember, even if she qualifies for a U.S. Social Security benefit, it will be based upon her minimal U.S. earnings; her foreign earnings wont be used when computing her U.S. benefits. Be aware also that if she also earns a pension from either South Korea or Belgium (or both), any U.S. Social Security benefit she may eventually get would be affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) which reduces the SS benefit of anyone with a pension from work which did not contribute to U.S. Social Security. Russell Gloor is a certified Social Security advisor with the Association of Mature American Citizens. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend With the exception of Tehran province, low-risk economic services and labor activities in Iran's provinces will begin on April 11, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Trend reports citing IRINN. According to Rouhani, high-risk activities will not be allowed until April 18. Rouhani added that the labor activities will begin on April 18 in Tehran province. "Two-thirds of government employees will work and activities will be gradually resumed," he said. The president said that all activities must be based on protocols announced by the Iranian Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education. "Traffic between the provinces of Iran will start on April 18 and until then, the restriction is in force, the president added. Rouhani said that secondary schools and universities are closed until April 18 in Iran and higher education institutions (master's, doctoral) will open from April 18. According to Rouhani, in some provinces where coronavirus is not widespread, the education sector has been allowed to operate. Iran is one of the countries heavily affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 55,700 people have been infected, 3,452 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 19,700 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. 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 announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. Lucknow, April 5 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday evening interacted with about 376 religious leaders through video conferencing and urged them to ensure that there were no big gatherings of their community. The Chief Minister appealed to the religious leaders to cooperate with the government in ensuring the lockdown and maintaining social distancing. "We need to make the people aware about improving their lifestyle and ignoring immediate benefits. We did not allow people to collect on Ram Navmi and I expect you to do the same on other festivals," he said. He urged Muslim clerics to ask people in the community to celebrate Shab-e-Baraat at home and not to collect in groups. The Chief Minister said that disease does not differentiate on basis of religion or caste. He said that social distancing will be continued even after the lockdown is lifted. The religious leaders in the video conferencing belonged to all religions and represented all districts in the state. Researchers have found strong evidence that the risk for armed conflict is higher after a climate-related disaster, adding that the threat is present exclusively in vulnerable countries. According to the study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, the disasters include storms, floods and droughts -- the frequency and intensity of which will increase in the future, due to climate change. "When it comes to droughts in Nigeria or storms in Pakistan, where you have large marginalised populations and little state presence, the picture may well change," said study lead author Tobias Ide from the University of Melbourne in Australia. The scientists said the study provides evidence for policy makers such as the United Nations Security Council, which has been called on to invest in climate adaptation and risk reduction for the millions of people already suffering from the effects of climate change. "The question 'Will a warming world also be a world with more violent and armed conflicts?' has been a very real one for political leaders and civil societies across the world," Ide said. "Climate change makes tense social and political situations even worse, so climate-change disasters may act like a 'threat multiplier' for violent conflicts," he added. According to Ide, only countries with large populations, the political exclusion of ethnic groups, and relatively low levels of economic development, are susceptible to disaster-conflict links. He said measures to make societies more inclusive and wealthier are options to increase security in a warming world. "We find that almost one third of all conflict onsets in vulnerable countries over the recent decade have been preceded by a climate-related disaster within seven days," said study co-author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner from Climate Analytics, a non-profit climate science and policy institute, based in Germany. "This does, however, not mean that disasters cause conflicts, but rather that occurrence of disasters increase the risks of an outbreak," Schleussner said. The study cautioned with examples in the past how extreme weather events have been followed by armed conflicts in different parts of the world. "If we look at what happened in Mali when a severe drought occurred in June 2009, we can see that the militant Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group exploited the resulting state weakness and desperation of local people to recruit fighter and expand its area of operation," Ide said. "The Philippines were another country where recurrent disasters weakened government structures in contested regions, hence opening a space for rebel groups," he added. In a large majority of cases, the scientists said, opportunity factors drove the onset of armed violence. Rather than aggrieved populations, they said, rebels exploited the temporary weakness of the state after a disaster, to stage attacks. "The most surprising result of our study for me was the prevalence of opportunities for armed violence over those related to grievances in post-disaster situations," said Michael Brzoska, a co-author of the study from the University of Hamburg in Germany. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Excel centre's Abu Dhabi-based owners have backed down on plans to bill the NHS up to 3million-a-month for using their centre as a hospital to treat coronavirus patients. Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, Adnec, said in a statement it would scrap a 'contribution to some fixed costs' that had been demanded from the NHS in an initial agreement. The NEC in Birmingham, owned by American private equity giant Blackstone, and the Manchester Central Complex both said they would not charge the NHS for using their facilities as a Nightingale hospital. The ExCel centre, owned by Ahu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, reversed its decision to charge the NHS up to 3million-a-month to use its facility The centre has been converted into an NHS Nightingale hospital to house 4,000 patients Jeremy Rees (left) is the CEO of London's ExCel centre. The ExCel centre's owner is the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company. Its managing director is Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri (right) The NHS had been 'desperate' to secure a big venue when it signed for the ExCel centre in London as hospitals were being overwhelmed with patients, reports the Sunday Times. 'If you want to do that deal, you haven't got much time to negotiate,' said an individual. A second added: 'This all had to happen so fast and the ExCel had everyone over a barrel. There will be a moral reckoning over this.' But after the deal was reported the ExCel rowed back on its initial agreement. Chief executive of the centre Jeremy Rees, who formerly ran the Earls Court & Olympia Group, said they had decided to 'join the national effort to combat coronavirus immediately and worked in close partnership with the NHS'. 'The ExCel London facility is fully available to the NHS and we are here to support all their needs and requirements during this crisis,' he said. Adnec's board includes the former Conservative defence secretary Lord King of Bridgwater (left) and former Conservative transport minister Steven Norris (right) Birmingham's NEC centre, owned by American private equity giant Blackstone, has been offered to NHS England for free The managing director of Adnec, Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, said that protecting people and saving lives is 'of the utmost importance as we face this unprecedented global pandemic'. 'We are doing all that we can to help the UK through these challenging times,' he said. 'We stand in solidarity with Britain in facing this crisis together, as friends and partners.' The centre's board includes former Conservative defence secretary, Lord King of Bridgwater, and the former Conservative transport minister, Steven Norris, according to filings with Companies House. It made a 31million profit before tax last year, according to its accounts. London's ExCel was opened in 2000 and purchased by Adnec eight years later. It was converted into a Nightingale hospital in nine days to house 4,000 patients within 80 wards, making it one of the largest in the world. Prince Charles officially opened the hospital on April 3 and said he hoped it would bring a message of 'hope for those who will need it most'. The Manchester Central convention centre is pictured above. Its owners said they would not charge the NHS for using it as a Nightingale hospital The NEC in Birmingham has not charged the NHS for using its facility. Its owner's head of European Private Equity, Lionel Assant, said: 'Like the rest of the country, we want to help in any way we can during this crisis. 'This includes putting the entire NEC facility at the disposal of the NHS for as long as it needs it.' The Manchester Central Complex, which will also be used for an NHS Nightingale hospital, said it would not be charging the NHS. Nightingale hospitals are also planned for the University of the West of England in Bristol, and the Harrogate Convention Centre. Mr Rees told the Sunday Times that the ExCel would 'in no way profit from NHS Nightingale'. He told the publication: 'As a responsible business, ExCel London is proud to play its part in the national effort to defeat the coronavirus and respond to the largest national emergency the country has faced in a generation. 'Our focus is solely to give the NHS and its wonderful staff all the support they need to protect people and lives.' The Excel Centre told the publication that the agreement between NHS England and itself is 'confidential' and that it would not comment on rent payments. An NHS England spokesman said the health service is 'pulling out all the stops to save as many lives as possible'. 'We are grateful for all the help we have received including from the public, charities and companies,' they said. 'The NHS has responded to (coronavirus) with unprecedented action: Freeing up 33,000 beds, striking a deal with the independent sector to get 8,000 more and working with the military to build the first Nightingale hospital in a matter of days.' A statement from Mr Rees issued when the ExCel centre was turned into a hospital stated: 'Our country is facing the largest national emergency for a generation and our thoughts and sympathies are with those who are personally affected by this situation. 'It is crucial that everyone plays their part in the national effort, working with the government to combat the spread of the coronavirus and save lives.' Britain recorded its darkest day so far during the pandemic yesterday, registering 708 further deaths, bringing its total to 4,313. A further 3,735 coronavirus cases were also identified, bringing the total to 41,903. Today Britain's death toll surged by 621 to 4,934, and the number of confirmed cases rose by 5,903 to 47,806. The novel coronavirus crisis is creating a tremendous need for ventilators. And Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) is one company that makes those coveted devices. Further, the companys sales for its cardiac and vascular unit, which houses its ventilator business, should climb meaningfully during the crisis. This sales spike should boost Medtronic stock. 10 Buy-and-Hold Stocks to Own Forever Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com The companys ventilators cost between $5,000 and $50,000 each. Given the high price of Medtronics ventilators, theres an excellent chance that the companys profit margin on them is high. And I wasnt able to find any evidence that Medtronic had agreed to lower or cap the price of its ventilators. However, Medtronic did share the design plan for its ventilators. Consequently, during the crisis, the higher demand for ventilators should help the companys bottom line. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Further, Medtronics customer base consists of hospitals and doctors. And hospitals are open for business during the coronavirus crisis. Moreover, the nations hospitals will receive a cumulative $100 billion from the federal government, so they will have plenty of money to buy Medtronics products. Dont Fret About Declining Elective Surgeries As many analysts have noted, medical practices will cancel or postpone some of their patients elective surgeries. This will lower demand for a portion of Medtronics products. But a decline in elective surgeries will not make a significant dent in Medtronics overall demand. For example, its cardiac and vascular unit historically generates nearly 38% of its revenue. Many of the surgeries that fall under this unit are not elective. Moreover, the coronavirus affects the heart and lungs. And diabetes, which accounts for nearly 8% of the companys revenue, can also be life-threatening. The biggest wildcard is the companys restorative therapies unit, which includes devices and implants for spine, musculoskeletal, brain and nerve conditions and generates 27% of Medtronics revenue. Story continues Medtronics minimally invasive therapies unit, which generates nearly 28% of its revenue, is another mixed bag. Thats because the groups products are used for both elective procedures, such as gastrointestinal surgeries, and non-elective ones, such as lung health procedures. However, since the minimally invasive therapies group sells products that are used for lung health and respiratory procedures, as well as patient monitoring, its revenue is unlikely to drop meaningfully during the crisis. Also important to note is that many parts of the country have not yet been seriously impacted by the coronavirus. For example, as of April 2, Nebraska had 246 cases, Montana 227 cases and West Virginia had 217 cases. Why does this matter? In some states that are seeing less of an impact, elective surgeries are carrying on as normal. The Bottom Line on Medtronic Stock Given all of these points, I expect increases in the revenue of the companys cardiac and vascular group to offset and possibly slightly exceed the revenue losses of its other units. As a result, I expect the entire companys revenue in the first and second quarters to be anywhere from 10% below to 10% above its normal levels. Moreover, after the crisis is over, I expect it to benefit from a huge surge in elective surgeries and continued high demand for its ventilators as governments and hospitals around the world look to stockpile them for next fall. Yet, in the last three months, MDT stock has tumbled more than 20%. Its forward price-earnings ratio is now about average for the stock market. As a result, investors should buy shares now. As of this writing, Larry Ramer owned shares of Medtronic stock. Larry Ramer has conducted research and written articles on U.S. stocks for 13 years. He has been employed by The Fly and Israels largest business newspaper, Globes. Larry began writing columns for InvestorPlace in 2015. Among his highly successful, contrarian picks have been GE, solar stocks, and Snap. You can reach him on StockTwits at @larryramer. More From InvestorPlace The post Weakness in Medtronic Stock Is Creating a Major Opportunity appeared first on InvestorPlace. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke to former Presidents, Prime Ministers and leaders of Opposition parties as India continues to witness a spike in coronavirus infections and deaths. PM Modi called former Presidents, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Devegowda, and senior leaders, including Congress's President Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, according to government sources. He also reached out to Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Telangana CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, DMK chief M.K. Stalin, and ally Shiromani Akali Dal's Prakash Singh Badal. Also Read: PM Modi plans for staggered exit from lockdown; asks state govts for help The development comes 11 days after PM Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in the country to contain the spread of the highly contagious virus. The decision for a nationwide lockdown has received mixed reactions from the Opposition and other parties. On Thursday, the Prime Minister held discussion with various chief ministers via video-conferencing, asking them to send suggestions on a joint strategy for a "staggered" exit from the lockdown. He also urged the CMs to focus on COVID-19 containment measures - testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine- in a coordinated manner to ensure minimum loss of life. He told CMs that it was imperative to work on a war footing, identify hotspots, encircle them and ensure that the infection does not spread out. Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: India lights diyas, candles during 9-min blackout to fight COVID-19 Meanwhile, India reported 472 cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which took the tally over 3,300, the Health Ministry said in its daily briefing on Sunday. So far, 77 people have died in the country. The Ministry added that the rise in cases was due to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin. With agencies input Donald Trump tweeted on April 2 that Saudi Arabia and Russia were looking to cut daily oil production by 10 million barrels. He later suggested the cut could be as high as 15 million barrels. If this turns out to be accurate, the price of oil will climb dramatically, providing Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) with a potential lifeline. And boy, could CHK stock use one. Source: Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.com However, before you hop on this unbelievably speculative play, consider the source of the tweet. They dont call Trump the Pinocchio President for nothing. OPEC Meeting As I write this, OPEC is scheduled to hold a video conference on April 6 that will include oil producers outside the 14-country alliance, most notably, Russia. Its also possible that the U.S., UK, and Canada could be invited to the meeting. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips As a result of Trumps tweet and the subsequent OPEC announcement, the price of a barrel of Brent crude has jumped to almost $34 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude is nearing $27 a barrel. Thats great news if you own CHK stock. In the first three months of 2020, oil prices fell by 65% due to the double whammy of increased oil production by Russia and Saudi Arabia and the demand slump caused by the global coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdowns. In my March 25 article about Chesapeake, I mentioned that the cost of a barrel of oil for U.S. producers was between $20.99 (conventional oil) and $23.35 (share oil). By comparison, Saudi Aramcos cost was less than $9. As a result, I argued that in a world full of cheap oil, Chesapeake was going to have significant difficulties selling assets to pay down debt, a necessity if it wants to remain in business. Should OPEC be able to agree on the size of a production cut, not only would Chesapeake be able to profit from the sale of its oil production, but its assets would become far more attractive to potential buyers. Story continues So its not an understatement to say that OPECs Monday meeting is the companys last and best hope of sticking around into 2021. You can be sure CEO Doug Lawler and the rest of his executive team will be doing their best to find out what was said and decided during the meeting. Should You Buy CHK Stock? Ive been skeptical of Chesapeakes chances of survival for some time. In my most recent article, I suggested that unless a miracle happened, Chesapeakes advisers could be meeting with a bankruptcy judge in the not-too-distant future. It appears that the potential cut to oil production could be the miracle CHK shareholders were looking for. That said, by no means does a production cut secure its long-term survival. The company must reduce its level of debt as soon as possible, regardless of the price of oil. InvestorPlace contributor Louis Navellier and the InvestorPlace Research Staff recently highlighted some of the reasons why Chesapeakes stock is ready to be buried. Not surprisingly, they also mentioned debts a major concern. The only factor that might weigh in Chesapeakes favor is the ultra-low cost of carrying debt nowadays. The Federal Reserve has suppressed borrowing costs to their lowest levels in recent memory. But that, of course, doesnt wipe out Chesapeakes massive debt load. At best, it might delay the companys collapse for a little while, Navellier and company stated April 1. Would I recommend buying CHK stock? Not unless you have a deathwish. That said, positive news from OPECs meeting should provide Chesapeake with a lifeline. For anyone whos lost big money on its stock, I hope the company doesnt squander this opportunity. Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where hes appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the time of this writing Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace The post Possible Production Cut Could Save Chesapeake Energy appeared first on InvestorPlace. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye addresses a hearing in San Francisco in 2012. (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press) In a move aimed at reducing the jail population to limit the spread of the coronavirus, California judicial leaders are expected to adopt a statewide emergency order setting bail at zero for misdemeanor and lower-level felony offenses. In a remote meeting Monday, the Judicial Council also is expected to vote to suspend evictions and foreclosures and to allow for the expansion of court hearings held by video or telephone. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye heads the council, the policymaking body for Californias court system. Gov. Gavin Newsom has given her and the council, which is primarily made up of judges, extraordinary temporary powers to suspend laws to deal with the health crisis. For criminal and juvenile proceedings, including arraignments and preliminary examinations, the council will direct courts to prioritize the use of technology to meet legal deadlines and ensure that defendants and children are not held in custody without timely hearings, according to a report prepared for Monday's meeting. In criminal cases, the defendant must agree before a court hearing can be held remotely. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer last week called on judicial leaders to issue a statewide order requiring preliminary hearings be held remotely. Orange County Public Defender Sharon Petrosino countered that clients had a constitutional right to appear in person for preliminary hearings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says, trial courts must protect defendants constitutional rights to have the assistance of counsel and to be personally present with counsel, and at the same time take steps to protect the health of defendants, judicial officers, court staff, counsel, and all those who are required to be present in court. During preliminary hearings, prosecutors must show there is sufficient evidence to believe a crime has been committed. Defense lawyers say defendants must be able to see the witnesses testifying against them and confer with counsel. Story continues Public defenders have complained that a previous emergency court order extending legal deadlines for arraignments and preliminary hearings have forced their clients to stay in potentially virus-infested jails. The Judicial Council also is expected to order courts to give juvenile delinquency cases priority. Every state and territory in the country has now delayed jury trials, the report says. But courts must provide court access for defendants in custody who are entitled to timely pretrial appearances. This is an opinion column. Better late than never. But not by much. After weeks of unexplainable and inexcusable obstinance, the kind of head-in-the-sand stubbornness that continues to make Alabama a national embarrassment, Gov. Kay Ivey finally told all Alabamians Friday what she should have told us long ago: Stay at home. She finally ordered what Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and the Birmingham City Council ordered on March 24and re-upped Friday by extending the citys shelter-at-home ordinance until the end of April: Stay at home. What took so long? What happened in the seven days since Ivey blithely (and erroneously) dismissed the idea of issuing a shelter-in-place order by claiming: Yall, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York State, we are not California? Thats easy. Peoplea lot of people, everywhere, not just in Louisiana, New York, and Californiakept testing positive for COVID-19, the virus at the heart of the global pandemic the likes of which only the centurions still among us have seen. People kept dying. We now live in the nation with more deaths by COVID-19 than any other country. And too many peoplebased on cell-phone tracking data; yes, Auntie is watchingwerent heeding the social distancing guidelines and staying home except for essential needs, like medical attention, food, and exercise. Too many people were (and are still) not taking COVID-19 seriously. Too many people were putting themselvesas well as mama n emat tremendous and unnecessary risk. Folks are just not paying attention, Ivey said Friday. She claims the tipping point came in the 24 hours before her flip-flop. One hundred and sixty new positives yesterday, and likely a greater number today, she said Friday. At least 34 people have died, including some as young as 33 years of age. That certainly may be true, at least partially. Maybe those numbers finally gave sight to the governors clouded eyes; she finally saw what the rest of usincluding all but a handful of equally recalcitrant governorshave seen for a few frightening weeks: That COVID-19 knows no borders, no political alliances, and harbors no preference for rich or poor. That, in defiance of early thoughts that the elderly are most at risk, it showed more and more each day that none of us is immune, no matter our birth year. It showed, too, that Alabama indeed is Louisiana, California, New York and every other place where this virus is spreading with tsunami-like speed and dire consequences. The governor didnt see it. Or didnt want to see it. Because on that first fateful Friday, she might as well have also said: Were not Birmingham. Or Jefferson County. The chasm between the heavily blue city and states most diverse county and most of the very-red rest of Alabama is a tiresome, long-running drama. How long (too long) has home-rule been debated? Why cant Birmingham decide itself what to do with a Confederate monument that stands as an insult to most of the citizens who must stride past it each day? Why cant the city say how much to pay its employees, rather than be bound by a statewide, state-mandated wage? For a time, it was easy for the Republican governor to dismiss the spread of coronavirus in Alabama as Birmingham and Jefferson Countys problem because the number of positive tests in the county far exceeded the number in any other county. A disparity, of course, easily attributed to the number of actual tests conducted in Jefferson County relative to others. Not anymore. Two weeks ago, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sent Birmingham a hand-slap for daring to decide for itself to protect its citizens with a shelter-at-home ordinance. On Friday he stood shoulder-to-shoulder (appropriately social distanced) next to Ivey in support of her better-late-than-ever order. Sadly, it took a deadly virus to do what state leaders for too long stubbornly refused to dohonor and govern Alabama and its citizens as one state, one people. Better late than never. Hopefully, and prayerfully, its not too late. A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj WAYMART A staff member at the Canaan federal penitentiary in Wayne County has tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the first U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) employee in Pennsylvania to do so. Earlier in the week the BOP reported an inmate at Canaan also had tested positive. As of 3 p.m. Saturday, the BOP reported 120 inmates and 54 staff members throughout its system had tested positive but none of the others was in Pennsylvania. U.S. Rep. Fred Keller, who has introduced legislation to prevent the transfer of inmates among federal prisons during the COVID-19 outbreak, issued the following statement: The fact that a staff member at USP Canaan, right in the backyard of Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District, has been diagnosed with COVID-19 is the latest indication of failure on behalf of top officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Those working in our federal prisons do a great job day-in and day-out protecting America from some of the worst criminals in the world. The fact that the Bureau of Prisons cannot keep them safe from this dangerous virus is a failure of leadership. We must continue to work to prevent the further spread of this virus among the prison system nationwide and hope that it does not infiltrate into our local, rural communities that have limited capacity to deal with a major outbreak The Snyder County Republican again called on BOP Director Michael Carvajal to work within the Justice Department to stop all inmate movements immediately. The Canaan prison is not in Kellers 12th District but the lawmaker said many of its staff members live there. The Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary and the Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex are in his district. On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., wrote Attorney General William Barr asking him to explain the Justice Departments preparedness and response plans to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. He pointed out the Bureau of Prisons had not responded to his March 20 letter regarding inmate transfers, a lack of personal protective equipment and social distancing procedures. An outbreak at a BOP facility will impact far more people than simply those inside the facility, he wrote. The first federal prisoner death was reported March 28 at the Oakdale prison in Louisiana. 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. As more states hunker down to combat the spread of novel coronavirus, some houses of worship around the country are still holding services -- either in direct defiance of executive orders, in areas where governors have carved out special religious exemptions, or in states that have yet to crack down on social gatherings. At least 11 states are currently enforcing statewide stay-at-home orders or bans on mass gatherings with some version of a religious exemption. Six of those states are led by Democratic governors, five by Republicans but the motivating principle behind the exemptions is largely the same. MORE: Vice President Mike Pence asks Americans not to attend church services of more than 10 people Religious institutions are widely believed to be protected from such regulations by the concept of separation of church and state protected in the First Amendment. But whether that is actually the case is not clear. "Theres not much precedent to go on here," said Josh Blackman, who teaches constitutional law at South Texas College of Law in Houston. He believes the government is not obligated to exempt houses of worship, but states have the authority to do so if they chose. "The First Amendment doesn't require an exemption for houses of worship. But the First Amendment permits a discretionary exemption for houses of worship," Blackman told ABC News in an interview. PHOTO: George DeCola, of Richmond, talks with someone who drove up for a prayer at a shopping center Thursday April 2, 2020, in Richmond, Va. DeCola, who is a worship leader at a Lutheran Church offers prayers for those wanting spiritual guidance. (Steve Helber/AP) The Supreme Court has ruled that a law cannot "unduly burden" a specific religion unless there is a "compelling interest" in doing so, and that burden must be applied equally to secular institutions. But Blackman notes that, for some religions, the burden of being barred from gathering in-person is greater than for others. Observant Jews and the Amish, for example, restrict the use of electricity, so streaming services online is not an option. There are also sects of Judaism that require a quorum of 10 -- a minyan -- to assemble in order to practice their religion. Story continues "These edicts, without question, substantially burden religion. The only question is whether the government has a compelling enough interest to do it," said Blackman. "Or you might ask, is there any other way for the government to achieve its goals? And the answer is probably, no." With no hard and fast legal standard, a tug-of-war is playing out between some state and local governments over whether religious gatherings should be allowed while the coronavirus outbreak rages on. This week, a pastor in Tampa, Florida, was arrested after violating a county edict restricting gatherings. Two days later, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, issued a statewide "safer at home" order that designated attending religious services as an essential activity, superseding the county order. "Theres no reason why you cant do a church service with people spread 10 feet apart, so we definitely ask them to abide by social distancing guidelines, but I think, in times like this, the service they are providing is very important for people," DeSantis said when pressed by reporters about why he is allowing worship services to continue. The pastor who was charged, Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne, issued a lengthy statement Thursday explaining his decision defy the county order, which he decried as unconstitutional. PHOTO: Rodney Howard-Browne in a police booking photo. (Hernando County Sheriffs Office) "The First Amendment provides express protections to houses of worship and assembly. There is no similar constitutional protection for commercial businesses; yet houses of worship and religious gatherings are signaled out for discrimination," he wrote, adding that extra precautions were taken to ensure the sanctuary was properly sanitized and the congregation adhered to social distancing guidelines. Howard-Browne went on to announce that services this weekend are canceled -- not over concerns of spreading coronavirus, but due to death threats hes received since his arrest became public. A similar series of events played out in Texas this week, where three pastors joined a conservative activist in a lawsuit against Harris County after a local stay-at-home order barred in-person religious services from being held. Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, signed a statewide shelter in place order Tuesday that carved out an exemption for houses of worship. MORE: Hobby Lobby closes its stores after defying coronavirus stay-at-home orders In both Florida and Texas, the governors actions essentially nullified the local orders barring religious gatherings. The nonprofit advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has been outspoken against such religious exemptions. In their view, the First Amendment actually requires religious organization to be held to the same standard as secular ones. "Equal treatment does not violate religious freedom; it ensures religious freedom is not misused to risk peoples lives," said Rachel Laser, the groups president and CEO. But even in states where religious gatherings are now prohibited, there are faith communities that continue hosting them. PHOTO: A view of the sign at Lake Park Baptist Church as all church activities have been suspended due to the coronavirus on March 30, 2020 in Augusta, Ga. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, included houses of worship in his stay-at-home mandate, but the Life Tabernacle Church is still holding services even after its pastor was cited for violating the state order. A church in Sacramento is reportedly still hosting gatherings in congregants homes in defiance of a statewide ban on gatherings of more than 10, and despite the fact that 71 members of the congregation, including three pastors, have tested positive for the COVID-19. The messaging from Washington about whether religious gatherings should continue in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak has been no less murky. 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. President Donald Trump abandoned what he now says was an "aspirational" target of seeing churches packed by Easter, and he said Wednesday that his "biggest disappointment is that churches cant meet in a time of need." The administration since extended its social distancing guidelines through April, but has stopped short of calling on all houses of worship to suspend services. "This is really a great time for churches to be together," the president added. "Yet if you do that, if you do it close you are really giving this invisible enemy a very big advantage. It's the single biggest disappointment." This report was featured in the Monday, April 6, 2020, episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast. "Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts. With constitutional questions murky, some churches continue to defy restrictions on gatherings originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Our country's banks, some rescued by us taxpayers in the 2008 financial crisis, are hardly covering themselves in glory as businesses and households struggle for their very financial survival. Holding distressed businesses to ransom through the imposition of onerous interest charges on emergency loans and costly personal guarantees is despicable. As is leaving customers hanging on the phone for hours while they desperately try to get through for help. A new dawn?: Our country's banks have hardly been covering themselves in glory during the coronavirus crisis Thankfully, the Government and (quite surprisingly) the Financial Conduct Authority have stepped up to the mark. As a result, it now looks as though the banks' wings have been clipped. So, no more requests for personal guarantees to support business loans. Also, a temporary freeze on loan and credit card payments for consumers who are facing financial hardship as a result of the lockdown as well as waiving interest charges on arranged overdrafts of 500. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur on April 5 asked all Tablighi Jamaat members who had attended the group's congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, a COVID-19 hotspot, to come forward for testing by 5 pm, failing which action will be taken against them. Three of the seven persons who tested positive for coronavirus in the state on April 4 were Tablighi Jamaat members, he said. Earlier in the day, Director General of Police, Himachal Pradesh, Sita Ram Mardi had issued a similar warning to district heads of Tablighi Jamaat. He asked them to disclose details of all those who came to the state after attending the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin West area last month. Thakur claimed Tablighi Jamaat members are not cooperating with the authorities. He asked all Tablighi Jamaat members who attended the Delhi congregation to come forward for medical check-up by 5 pm on April 5 and warned of strict action against those who do not comply with the order. The chief minister said the three members of the group who tested positive on April 4 were hiding in a mosque in Solan district's Nalagarh and their samples were collected from there. The three were admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College here at 6.30 am on April 5, Senior Medical Superintendent, IGMC, Dr. Janak Raj said. They are residents of Uttar Pradesh and had come to Himachal Pradesh's Nalagarh area from Nizamuddin on March 18. Their contacts are being traced so that they can be quarantined, he said. With the seven fresh infections, the number of coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh has risen to 14, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said on 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 These include two patients who have recovered and as many deaths. There are 10 active cases in the state, he said. Of these, six are Tablighi Jamaat members, according to officials.The remaining three are being treated at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Kangra district's Tanda, they said. Analysis banner Business Insider The 2019 Tesla Model 3 during the side-impact crash test. IIHS This week, the Trump administration announced a rollback of stricter fuel-economy regulations from 2012 a move President Donald Trump lauded as "making cars substantially safer." Trump has also claimed that fuel-efficient cars are made out of "papier-mache," which is bad for crashes. But cars are already substantially safer than they were in 2012, and became safer under those stricter regulations. Fuel-efficient vehicles have also proven themselves to have the same safety potential as their less fuel-efficient counterparts, with several winning the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's highest award this year. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. This week, the Trump administration finally announced its rollback of Obama-era fuel-economy regulations from 2012, which aimed to require automakers to up the average fuel economy in their fleets to 54.5 mpg within the next few years. It's a push years in the making by the Trump administration, which came to be during a global pandemic and which President Donald Trump lauded as a great move. "My proposal to the politically correct Automobile Companies would lower the average price of a car to consumers by more than $3500, while at the same time making the cars substantially safer," Trump tweeted. "Engines would run smoother. Positive impact on the environment! Foolish executives!" Trump tweeted almost identical text in August 2019 after multiple automakers said they didn't support his rollback, with two changes: The post had $3,000 as its figure, and instead of calling it a "positive impact," Trump said: "Very little impact on the environment!" The US Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the final ruling on the loosened regulations, dubbed the "Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule." The new rules call for stricter emissions standards by 1.5% each year through the 2026 model year, compared to the 2012 requirement that tightened standards by about 5% each year. Story continues Thee 2012 standards were seen as a major step in fighting climate change, even if tightening emissions regulations worldwide have caused some automakers to cheat the system. But Trump's goals to roll back standards have been in the works for years, and early plan iterations proposed freezing standards entirely. California, which has long had the power to set its own standards, has fought the administration's decision to roll back such a major climate-change policy. In February, an analysis of the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule published by the EPA's Science Advisory Board said there were "significant weaknesses in the scientific analysis of the proposed rule." Yet Trump continues to claim that his rollback will be good for car safety and consumers, and for the environment. Here's how those claims compare to reality. CLAIM 1: Making cars "substantially safer" The 2019 Audi e-Tron during the moderate-overlap frontal crash test. The e-Tron, which is electric, got IIHS' top safety award in 2019. IIHS Since the stricter Obama-era standards became final, crash tests have become more difficult and passenger vehicles have improved as a result. Those improvements have been substantial, even as automakers worked to comply with the stricter regulations. When the old efficiency standards came around in 2012, so did a new set of crash standards. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the organization that decides those annual "Top Safety Picks" you hear about introduced a new crash test: the small front overlap on the driver's side. The results weren't good, because automakers hadn't been held accountable for that kind of crash test yet thus, many hadn't been focusing on safety elements related to it. What followed was expected: Automakers updated their safety for the test, as to not have poor safety ratings that are publicly accessible to their potential customers. The Audi A4 in 2012 (left) versus 2017 (right). IIHS That can be seen in IIHS aftermath photos, such as the ones for the Audi A4. The 2012 model shows a dashboard scrunched in on the dummy driver, hitting its legs and moving its arms out of place. By the 2017 model year, after the A4 was completely redesigned, it had a far stronger barrier between the driver and the impact point, leaving the dummy's legs and arms with room to move. Those improvements occurred even amid tightened efficiency regulations. As automakers have generally gotten driver's-side crash safety under control, IIHS introduced the same test on the passenger side a few years ago. Poor results were, again, aplenty as shown by the differences in occupant protection between the driver and passenger sides in the 2015 Toyota RAV4, which had the highest rating on the driver side and the lowest on the passenger side. The 2015 Toyota RAV4 on the driver's side (left), versus on the passenger side (right). IIHS That's now changing, too, even if automakers can often be more reactive than proactive when it comes to new crash and safety tests. Still, those reactions have been able to occur since 2012, because stricter fuel-economy regulations haven't led to a pullback on safety improvements. Neither has the introduction of greener power. CLAIM 2: Fuel-efficient cars are like "papier-mache" in crashes The 2019 Hyundai Nexo after the moderate-overlap frontal test, in which the Nexo got IIHS' top rating. IIHS Last year, CNN reporter Daniel Dale quoted Trump as saying that cars "have so much junk on them now to save a tiny little fraction of gasoline," while calling himself an "environmentalist." Trump went on to say that fuel-efficient cars are made out of "papier-mache," and that heavier is better when it comes to crashes. "When somebody hits me, I want to be in as close to an army tank as possible," Trump said. Size is a factor in crashes, and that's why the IIHS recommends bigger used cars for young drivers. That's how collisions work, and the results of crash tests in the lab are determined by the weight of the vehicle being crashed thus, IIHS said in a 2018 release, those who go for smaller vehicles "are choosing a lower level of protection" even if that car is an award-winner. The 2009 Chevrolet Malibu and 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air after IIHS' 50th-anniversary crash demonstration. IIHS But being a certain weight doesn't guarantee protection in every situation, as shown by the IIHS' famous, decade-old video of a 1959 Chevy Bel Air and a 2009 Chevy Malibu hitting each other head-on. Both weighed in the 3,500-pound range, and the Malibu held up well by 2009 standards, while the Bel Air folded in on itself not because of weight, but because of 50 years of safety improvements. Many smaller cars are award-winners, too. Four models in the IIHS "small cars" category currently have Top Safety Pick Plus badges, while 14 others got its Top Safety Pick award. Scroll down to the "large pickups" category, though, and not a single truck got either award. The same goes for the five minivans on file with the IIHS for the 2020 model year. The 2019 Tesla Model 3 during the driver-side moderate-overlap frontal test. IIHS Fuel-efficient cars also aren't "papier-mache," as shown by the crash tests themselves. Two models that have no gasoline options the hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo and the electric Tesla Model 3 received the IIHS' highest Top Safety Pick Plus honor, which only 23 different models had earned when the IIHS announced winners earlier this year. The Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid made the list as well. The Nexo is considered a midsize luxury SUV by the IIHS, and was one of only six in that category to receive an award five Top Safety Pick Plus winners, and one winner of the slightly lower award Top Safety Pick. There are 19 midsize luxury SUVs on the list, meaning Hyundai's greener offering is in the upper third of its class. CLAIM 3: Lowering the price of cars for the average consumer Pickup trucks are lined up for sale at Betley Chevrolet in Derry, New Hampshire. AP Photo/Charles Krupa Trump has said his proposal to the "politically correct automobile companies" would "lower the average price of a car to consumers by more than $3,500," which the EPA celebrated in its announcement as "making newer, safer, cleaner vehicles more accessible for Americans who are, on average, driving 12-year-old cars." "By making newer, safer, and cleaner vehicles more accessible for American families, more lives will be saved and more jobs will be created," the announcement said. But an IHS Markit study in 2019 found that Americans are driving 12-year-old cars not necessarily because the price of a new one is $3,500 higher than they'd like, but because those more modern vehicles hold up longer than vehicles did in the past. Longer loan periods are also a factor, leading owners to maintain their cars for years and years just to pay them off. And while newer vehicles are, on average, safer than older ones, purchase price isn't the only factor when it comes to car ownership the cost of actually owning the car matters, too. That includes, monthly payments, insurance, maintenance, and fuel, among other things. The Chevrolet Bolt. Hollis Johnson A 2018 University of Michigan study found the average annual cost of driving a new gasoline vehicle in the US to be $1,117, compared to $485 for an EV. There's a cost difference between more versus less efficient gasoline cars, too, but far less so. Lowering the price of a new car doesn't automatically open the doors of late-2010s auto safety for everyone, either the doors are already open by those standards, courtesy of depreciation. The Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid, for example, got the IIHS' top rating in every crashworthiness category for the 2017 model year, including the passenger-side test that many automakers still struggle with. Low-mileage examples of that car can be found in the $14,000 range, compared to a $23,200 starting price for the 2020 model with the same crashworthiness ratings. That's a far bigger difference than $3,500. The 2019 Hyundai Nexo during the side-impact crash test. IIHS That's because affordable safety isn't hard to find if you're looking for it, and choosing efficiency doesn't require forgoing protection. Every vehicle purchase simply calls for a couple of quick searches for safety ratings, which can reveal strengths and weaknesses in all kinds of cars not just the ones spewing fewer fumes. Read the original article on Business Insider Former President John Mahama has thanked all health workers and frontline staff who are at the helm of the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana. Speaking at a brief ceremony at his office in Accra on Saturday, at which he presented some PPE worth GHS300,000 to the National Democratic Congress COVID-19 Response Team for onward distribution to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and Tamale Teaching Hospital with a promise to procure a further GHS90,000 worth of PPE for other health posts, Mr Mahama said: Of course, I say thank you to our health workers across the length and breadth of the country for the role you continue to play toward defending this country and our people against the virus. I am deeply touched by the enthusiasm and the sacrifice of our health workers and I am elated that my governments heavy investments in health infrastructure is paying off today, the flag bearer of the biggest opposition party said. I, John Dramani Mahama, appreciate you all, and Ghanaians appreciate you all, he added. Also, Mr Mahama stressed: As has become my battle cry over the last few weeks, my brothers and sisters, WE ARE NOT IN NORMAL TIMES, AT ALL. So, please and please, if you have nothing essential doing outside of your home, please STAY HOME, observe the protocols of handwashing as frequently as you can. He also urged everyone to disinfect commonly used surfaces as often as we can, while continuing to wash our hands, and using the alcohol-based hand sanitisers. The COVID-19 pandemic and its outbreak in Ghana, Mr Mahama noted, has brought out the very best in all of us, observing: It has been heartwarming to see how political, religious and social differences have evaporated and replaced by a sense of unity and camaraderie in a bid to beat back this disease. We have all with one accord, contributed our widows mite, donated what little we can mobilize and shown care to the needy in our society. We have rallied to a national call in ways that have not been seen in quite a while. Many are having to stay home, shut down their business both big and small despite the economic implications on the family and workforce. Source: class news 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. Featured Video The page youre looking for cannot be found. Check the address and spelling are correct. If youre still encountering problems, please Contact Us. On Saturday, President Trump issued a terse letter stating that he was firing Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IGIC) and the man who was the gateway for the Ukraine hoax. The Democrats, of course, were instantly up in arms claiming that Trump acted in an improper retaliatory manner. As always, Democrats are wrong and, in this case, unethical for propping up a corrupt Deep State actor. No wonder, then, that Trump reamed the Democrats during his Saturday press conference. To refresh your recollection, on July 25, 2019, President Trump spoke to Ukraine's President Zelenksyy, a conversation at which myriad other people were present. A person who was not present nevertheless submitted a so-called whistleblower complaint to Atkinson. At the time the so-called whistleblower acted, a valid complaint could not be based upon hearsay evidence. The reason behind this rule was that (as proved to be true in this case), the claim was false and interfered with government operations. Atkinson changed all that in order to help undermine Trump. Putting aside the hearsay issue, the core of the Ukraine hoax was the July 25th conversation and whether it was appropriate or not. Atkinson, despite making a finding that the hearsay complaint stated a matter of urgent concern, never reviewed the documents memorializing the conversation. His failure to review the underlying facts was not because Trumps office denied the request to see the document. He never asked. Instead, he stated that I decided that access to records of the telephone call was not necessary to make my determination because the whistleblowers complaint appears credible. To him, time was of the essence and any effort to verify the whistleblowers manifestly hearsay claims was time wasted. There were other defalcations on Atkinsons part, including being part of the FISA spying scandal, but this short post is not the place to detail them. Suffice to say that Atkinson is the worst kind of Deep State actor who abused his power in an effort to overthrow the Trump presidency. Adam Schiff, who serves no other purpose than to be the Democrats attack dog against Trump, naturally led the charge against Atkinsons firing: Trumps dead of night decision to fire ICIG Michael Atkinson is another blatant attempt to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing. It puts our country and national security at even greater risk. pic.twitter.com/Pnm7chdIkl Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 4, 2020 President Trump, thankfully, stuck to his guns when reporters attacked him during the press briefing about his decision to fire Atkinson. A Los Angeles Times reporter asked Trump what was ostensibly a question about Atkinsons firing but was, in fact, a long narrative attempting to exculpate Atkinson for his illegal and unethical conduct. Trump did not accept the premise of the question: Instead, Trump stated bluntly, I thought he [Atkinson] did a terrible job, absolutely terrible. Trump then went on to detail the point made above, which is that Atkinson made no effort whatsoever to find out if there was any truth to the hearsay report that landed on his desk. Instead, he rushed over to Congress in the obvious hope that he could trigger precisely what happened: an impeachment. Having wound himself up, Trump suggested that perhaps his nemesis, Adam Schiff, was the informer. After all, the informants identity has been buried and Trump was not shy about calling Schiff a corrupt politician. Really angry, Trump told the assembled reporters, and the American people, Dishonest Democrats impeached a President of the United States, based upon Atkinsons conduct. As far as Trump is concerned, That man is a . . . total disgrace. When another reporter tried to drag the subject back to Atkinsons firing, Trump made it clear that, as president, he's the boss and has the right to fire bad employees. That's my decision. I have the absolute right. Even the fake news last night said he [Trump] has the absolute right to do it. No wonder, then, that Trump ended the subject by saying And frankly, somebody oughta sue his ass off. Trump is correct. Firing is the least that ought to be done to someone like Atkinson, who uses a position of trust in the American government to try to stage a coup. Health workers applaud as people react from their houses in support of the medical staff that are working on the COVID-19 virus outbreak at the Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, April 1, 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/Manu Fernandez) Italy has recorded its lowest daily coronavirus death toll in over two weeks, providing more glimmers of hope for the country. Another 525 deaths have been reported, taking the total to 15,887. That is the lowest 24-hour tally since the middle of last month, while the number of patients in intensive care has also dropped for the second day running. The latest jump in confirmed cases - from 124,632 to 128,984 - is also down on the day before, which has further heightened hopes that the epidemic may have finally plateaued. Italy remains one of the hardest-hit countries in the world and has more coronavirus fatalities than any other nation; however, there have been signs that the lockdown enforced on 9 March may be having an impact. Of those originally infected across the country, 21,815 were declared recovered on Sunday - up more than 1,000. There were 3,977 people in intensive care, a fall of 17 from 3,994 on Friday, when officials reported the first drop in intensive care numbers since COVID-19 first emerged in northern Italy back in February. :: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Spreaker Despite room for some optimism, officials are urging people not to become complacent. The ravaged Lombardy region is now requiring residents to wear a protective mask when they go outside after similar orders were ordered in two other northern regions. Veneto and Alto Adige require protective masks for residents if they go shopping in stores and markets. And while the nationwide lockdown remains in force, Lombardy has also passed particularly tight restrictions on movement and business operations. It comes amid a growing appreciation that the official death toll may be masking the true number dying, with people dying at home without their symptoms being checked and medics unable to visit them before they pass away. In Bergamo province, Sky News recently witnessed horrific scenes in the main hospital and its mayor told chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay he was convinced the death toll was higher than that being reported. Story continues According to a recent study of death records in Bergamo, the true death count there could be more than double the official tally of 2,060, which only tracks hospital fatalities. But purely based on hospital numbers, Sunday brought signs that the pandemic was slowing in Europe's other most badly affected countries. The rate of infections and deaths went down again in Spain, as it prepares to enter its fourth week of lockdown. Fatalities rose to 12,418, the second highest worldwide total after Italy, but the latest increase of 674 people who died during the past 24 hours was down from Saturday's 809 and well below Thursday's daily record of 950. The total number of infections rose to 130,759 from 124,736. Health minster Salvador Illa said: "The data from this week and today confirms the slowing down of infections. "The data confirms that confinement is working." Sky News correspondent Alex Rossi, in Madrid, said there is "muted optimism" as a result of the figures - but the government has no plans to ease its lockdown just yet. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the nation on Saturday "we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel"; however, he said he would ask parliament to extend his lockdown by 15 days until 26 April. France reported a decrease in the number of deaths of coronavirus patients in its hospitals in Sunday. There were 441 new deaths - less than the high of 588 reported on Friday - for a total hospital death tally of 5,532. However, the overall number of deaths was up as the government included more previously unreported deaths from nursing homes across the country - some dating back to the start of March. This added another 2,028 deaths to the national tally for a total death toll of 7,560, an increase of 1,053 on the cumulative figure reported on Friday. To help cope, Europe's biggest food market in Rungis, south of Paris, is being transformed into a morgue. France's high-speed train network has also been transporting critically ill coronavirus patients to hospitals under less strain outside the capital. Nearly 7,000 patients are in intensive care in France, pushing hospitals to their limit and beyond. The coronavirus outbreak and crash of crude price have hit the disinvestment plan of the government that planned to raise about Rs 2.1 lakh crore in 2020-21. The sale of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is in trouble because of the crash of crude price, while it's tough to find a buyer for Air India, especially when the global aviation sector is in doldrums after the outbreak. The sale of Container Corporation of India (Concor) has additional problems as its major valuation comes from the leased land that it took from Indian Railways at subsidised rates. Besides, the stock market crash is not a good news for the government, which wanted to divest its 47 per cent stake in IDBI Bank and 10 per cent stake in Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC). Overall, the government wanted to sell stakes in two dozen central public sector companies in 2020-21. Rating agency Fitch Solutions said that India's fiscal deficit in 2020-21 may skyrocket to 6.2 per cent of the GDP from 3.5 per cent that the government estimated. They expect that the revenue collection will contract in this financial year because of the weak economic activity. Fitch Solutions said the receipts may contract by 1 per cent from a growth of 11.8 per cent previously. Moody's slashed India GDP growth in 2020 to 2.5 per cent, while KPMG estimated below 3 per cent growth. Fitch quoted a 2 per cent GDP growth. Disinvestment is one of the major options to bridge budget deficits in this kind of economic scenario. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Varanasi reports first death; Noida police extends Section 144 till April 30 In the biggest privatisation drive ever, the union cabinet in November had approved sale of government's stake in BPCL, Shipping Corp of India (SCI) and on-land cargo mover Concor. Besides the privatisation, they decided to cut shareholding in select public sector firms to below 51 per cent to boost revenue collections that had been hit by the slowing economy. The government wanted to complete some of the sales in 2019-20 and achieve the disinvestment target of Rs 65,000 crore, which was revised downward following the delays. Finance Ministry had earlier extended the deadline for bids submission in Air India to April 30 from March 17. The government wants to offload 100 per cent of its stake in the beleaguered airline. In BPCL, the interested parties can submit preliminary information memorandum by May 16 instead of April 4 earlier and the expression of interest (EoI) by 13 June instead of May 2. For the 52.98 per cent government stake in the oil refiner, only private companies with a net worth of more than $10 billion are eligible. The market valuation of BPCL has crashed around 35 per cent to Rs 68,750 crore in the last two months. Also read: Coronavirus: Will intellectual property be a hurdle in India's fight against COVID-19? The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has appointed the asset valuer and transaction and legal advisors for the strategic sale of SCI stake. Concor's disinvestment process has hit the roadblock as it operates on the leased land of Indian Railways, valued Rs 16,500 crore. The government wants to sell the railway land to Concor at a subsidised rate, but the private container companies are objecting to the move. "The major worry at this point of time is that no buyer will risk their balance sheets to go for the acquisitions. But the government urgently needs capital for the fiscal stimulus and the planned budget expenditure. If all the revenue sources like tax income and disinvestments go dry, handling the situation will be tough," said an economist with a corporate house. Also read: Coronavirus in India: Over 83% patients below 60 yrs, says govt INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. New York: John Mele is one of roughly 700 inmates who were released from county jails in New Jersey to address the growing novel coronavirus pandemic. But when he was handed two bus tickets and freed, he said he was frightened, not relieved. "I was scared to leave," Mele told CNN. "There ain't too much sh** that I'm scared of. I'm scared of heights and I'm scared of going to something I don't know about." He said he was given five minutes notice last Thursday after he was told he was leaving the jail three months earlier than his sentence for breaking into a fishing store. He had no place to go and no assurances that he was healthy. "No temperature check. Nothing. They gave me two bus tickets," Mele said. He was steered toward a homeless shelter, but said he refused, concerned the virus would be spreading inside the cramped housing complex. "I'm telling you the honest truth, if I had to go to a homeless shelter, I'm going back to jail. I'll do something petty" to get locked up again, he said. Through a re-entry program he obtained a room in a motel near Newark airport. Mele is hoping to be granted an extension and eventually find an apartment. Jails are proving to be a breeding ground for the spread of coronavirus. As of Friday, 239 inmates in NYC jails have tested positive for coronavirus out of a population of about 4,350. The top doctor for the Rikers Island jails called it a "public health disaster." The Legal Aid Society, which represents poor New Yorkers, said there is an infection rate of 5.4% in Rikers Island, compared with 0.53% in New York state, which has the most cases in the US. In New York, where the state system has about 43,000 people incarcerated, 36 have confirmed coronavirus cases and two prisoners have died. In the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, 15 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Bureau of Prisons. The prison facilities house a total of 1,075 inmates, according to the BOP. The prospect of outbreaks has states, cities and counties across the country working on ways to reduce the prison population to lessen the spread of coronavirus. In St. Louis, Michigan, California, New York, and New Jersey officials are releasing certain categories of prisoners, including those who are older, have medical problems, have only a few months left on their sentence, or are held for parole violations. The criteria for release varies by state and county by county. Many are prohibiting the release of inmates with histories of sex offense, domestic violence, and murders, but in some cases those inmates have been released. There is no estimate for how many inmates who may qualify. The federal Bureau of Prisons houses 174,837 inmates nationwide, but that's only a fraction of the millions held in local, county and state facilities around the country. The mass releases, according to government officials, lawyers and social service workers, have tested government safety nets and access to housing for many of these inmates. In normal times, there are hurdles to place inmates back into the community, but now, social service workers and government officials say, there are added factors complicating their re-entry, ranging from overcrowded housing shelters to families and landlords who won't accept prisoners because of concerns about contagion. The rising unemployment rate is also expected to strain their access to shelter and jobs. In Michigan, the Department of Corrections is working case by case to see which inmates qualify for release from state prisons and when the prisoner doesn't have a place to go they have run into roadblocks. "What we're finding is the hardest part right now is finding commercial placements for individuals without family or friends," said Chris Gautz, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. "We're finding a lot of those are closing their doors to prisoners right now. Sometimes it's a county health department putting up a red flag: We don't have cases. We don't want you to parole this person back to the community. We're worried we might get it," he said. The state houses 38,000 prisoners, 5,000 of which are eligible for parole, but only a fraction of them is likely to be released because of Michigan law and the qualifications. Advocates for releasing inmates say governments need to make sure they don't create a public health problem. "Compassionate release is something that we want to do, we want to release as many people in those protected groups as we can, but I think we also have to be sure that the protections are there that those people don't end up in worse circumstances and causing increased and enhanced infections. A lot of those people had no place to go," said Barbara Banaszynski, the senior vice president for Program Operations at Volunteers of America, a social services organization that has helped inmates released in the southern part of New Jersey. "I'm very worried about, not only from a disease perspective, but from perspective of increasing homelessness and disease spread. They may not have Covid-19 when they come out of the facility, but if they're on the street and vulnerable... they're likely to contract and add to the problem," she said. 'When they come out of prison, it's a ghost town.' With some newly released inmates adjusting to a world turned upside down from coronavirus is a shock to their system. "It's been challenging, probably the most challenging in the history of our corporation," said Dwayne Watterman, the facility director for Hudson County at the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, a nonprofit that helps inmates find housing, employment and health care. Normally he says he tries to build a connection with a new client first but now his primary role is to assure everyone they won't be placed in danger. "Everybody's fearful, worried, high anxiety, alert, all the time," Watterman said. "When they come out of prison, it's a ghost town. That's a little shocking to people," he added. His re-entry group has helped about 157 released under the judicial order in New Jersey, including Mele. One of the largest releases has been in New York City, where officials have freed at least 900 inmates from the Riker's Island jail in the past few weeks. Many of them have homes they can return to, but some don't have a place to go. Re-entry programs have helped some obtain housing vouchers or shelter, but they acknowledge it hasn't worked perfectly. On Monday, the top prosecutors for the five boroughs in New York City sent a warning to NYC's Department of Corrections and Mayor Bill de Blasio's office about the need for housing and support for those re-entering society. "We are concerned that the evaluation of eligibility for release appears to give little consideration to the housing, supervision and support-service needs of the individuals who are being returned to their communities: needs that, if not addressed, will only compound the possible health, safety and other risks, both to the communities and to the individuals at issue," they wrote in a joint letter. B. Colby Hamilton, spokesman for the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, said, "For those in our custody who, upon release, advise they have nowhere to go, we are working with the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Homeless Services to help find them immediate safe housing. All others are discharged back to the communities and homes from which they came." In New York City, housing shelters are overcrowded and potentially dangerous. The city reported five deaths from coronavirus in homeless shelters as of Thursday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the release last week of up to 1,100 parole violators. "This significant action is being taken in response to a growing number of Covid-19 cases in local jails over the past few days and weeks. Our top priority remains the public health and safety of New Yorkers during this global public health emergency and this measure will further protect a vulnerable population from contracting and transmitting this infectious disease," the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement. In Monroe County, New York, 51 prisoners were released from the county jail last weekend at the direction of the New York State Division of Parole. Eight of those inmates classified as sex offenders and 12 of them classified as "transient population" and were provided rooms at nearby hotels, according to the county's sheriff's office. Not everyone is on board The release didn't go smoothly. Bill Reilich, town supervisor of Greece, New York, called it the wrong decision and pressed for the removal of the released sex offenders housed in his town. He won. The former inmates were relocated. The five districts attorneys in New York told the mayor's office they learned that some prisoners on the lists of who could be released had histories of domestic violence and sex offenses, something they were assured would not happen. Similar concerns spilled out into the open in St. Louis after the state attorney general accused the circuit prosecutor with releasing people charged with violent felonies, according to local news outlet KSDK. The circuit prosecutor said the attorney general mischaracterized her actions. In New Jersey, last week more than 700 people were released after the chief judge of the State Supreme Court in New Jersey brokered a unique agreement with the state attorney general, county prosecutors association, public defender's office and American Civil Liberties Union's local chapter. The agreement would cover inmates in the county jails who are sentenced to less than a year for charges ranging from drunk driving, drug offenses, shop lifting, or low level assault charges. Before inmates could be released, according to the judge's order, they needed to work with the parties to develop a housing plan. Alexander Shalom, senior supervising attorney and director of Supreme Court Advocacy, for the ACLU NJ, who co-brokered the deal, said even though they have a process "that doesn't mean is working perfectly. We don't want people going to traditional shelters but there are short term housing and hotels. There are options out there, I don't know if there are enough options out there." Still he said cities and states still need to address the health risk in prisons and jails. "It is not hyperbolic to say that prisons, jails and detention centers will be incubators for this virus and people will die if we can't thin out the populations." For John Mele, he was placed in a Howard Johnson hotel not far from Newark airport for six nights. He walks a mile to catch a bus to head downtown where he can find food. He's hoping to be granted an extension to stay at the hotel a little while longer until he can get back on his feet and locate an apartment for him and his girlfriend. But even that has its challenges. "A lot of people that I've called," said Mele, "are not letting people look at apartments no more." Iran said Sunday it will allow "low-risk" economic activities to resume from April 11 as its daily coronavirus infection rates slowed for a fifth straight day. "Restarting these activities does not mean we have abandoned the principle of staying at home," President Hassan Rouhani said at a meeting of Iran's anti-coronavirus task force. The president, whose country has been battered by US economic sanctions, did not specify what qualified as "low risk" activities but said bans would remain on schools and large gatherings. A "gradual" return of "low-risk" economic activity will be permitted from next Saturday in the provinces and from April 18 in Tehran, Rouhani said. The coronavirus pandemic claimed another 151 lives over the past 24 hours, raising Iran's declared death toll to 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianouche Jahanpour said Sunday at his daily press briefing. He also reported 2,483 new cases of COVID-19 infection, the fifth straight day of declining numbers, compared to a record number of 3,111 infections on March 31. Iran, the Middle East country worst affected by the pandemic which originated in China, has declared a total of 58,226 infections, a figure which some foreign experts suspect is an underestimate. After resisting a lockdown or quarantine measures, Iran imposed an intercity travel ban late last month. Saturday should have marked a return to regular activity in Iran after a two-week holiday for the Persian New Year. "There have been a lot of people out on the streets the last two days. It's terrifying," a Tehran housewife, Zohreh, told AFP. Jahanpour at his briefing criticised "those who think that the situation is normal now that the holidays are over, because it is not normal". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seeking to further shore up Americas beleaguered small businesses amid the pandemic, President Donald Trump said Saturday he would consider increasing relief funds if they run out. I will immediately ask Congress for more money to support small businesses under the #PPPloan if the allocated money runs out, Trump said in a tweet, referring to the Paycheck Protection Program that is part of the $2.2 trillion relief bill and put in place to help small firms keep workers and pay bills during the pandemic. It will give businesses low-interest loans of about 2.5 times their average monthly payroll. The loans will be fully or partially forgiven if businesses show that the money was used to retain or rehire employees and pay some overhead expenses through June 30. Nearly $350 billion in loans will be available to small businesses including sole proprietors. These loans are up to 100 percent forgivable as long as employers keep paying their workers, Trump said at an April 2 briefing, a day ahead of the program launch. Got to take care of your workers, Trump added. But the relief scheme got off to a rocky start Friday, as hundreds of thousands tried to apply for desperately needed loans. Many small business owners ran into bureaucratic or technical roadblocks. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who played a pivotal role in shaping the relief package, said in a tweet Friday that over $1.8 billion has already been allocated by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and that big banks, too, were moving ahead with processing funds. Bank of America alone said 75,000 small businesses had applied for $7 billion in loans. Once the bank handles the application, it goes to the SBA, which said Friday afternoon that it had approved more than 12,460 loans valued at $3.9 billion. But it was unclear how much if any money had actually been sent to the businesses. Some businesses found their bank wasnt yet prepared to accept applications, and when they tried another bank, they were told that only established customers were being accepted. We know there will be challenges in the process, said SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza at an April 2 briefing. Our most important objective is to allow small businesses to keep their employees on board, and keep their businesses viable through this unprecedented disruption. Time will tell whether disbursement will take place efficiently enough to help businesses stave off collapse. This administration believes wholeheartedly that if you are a small business, you are a critical part of the economic fabric of this country and your viability is critical to the economic wellbeing of your employees, Carranza said. Other efforts are underway to support Americas small businesses amid the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The Federal Reserve said on March 23 it would soon announce its Main Street Business Lending Program, which it said would complement the SBAs efforts to keep small businesses alive. Details of the Feds program remain unclear, but Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a consultancy focused on middle-market businesses in Chicago, told Inc. that he expects the program will get at least $100 billion in initial funding and could supply up to $1 trillion in new loans for midsize companies. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren told Bloomberg on April 1 the roll-out of the main street lending program may still be another couple of weeks away. Its a complicated facility to appropriately scope, he told the outlet in an interview. Were doing these facilities as fast as we can, and like every organization were dealing with a lot of people that are working remotely from home. In the text of remarks Rosengren delivered at an online event April 1 hosted by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, he said there was more to be done to stem the fallout from the pandemic. We must continue to adapt as the crisis proceeds, with constant attention to the plight of workers who have been or will be laid off, he said. We need to support the workers who keep our organizations and those we rely on (like grocery stores, shipping networks, and of course health care) up and running. And we must tide over workers and businesses that see demand dry up for a while, Rosengren said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. From The Epoch Times JUBA, South Sudan - South Sudan has announced its first case of COVID-19, making it the 51st of Africas 54 countries to report the disease. A U.N. worker who arrived in the country from Netherlands on Feb. 28 is ill with the disease, confirmed First Vice-President Riek Machar and the U.N. mission in South Sudan. The patient, a 29-year-old woman, first showed signs of the disease on April 2 and is recovering, said officials. South Sudan, with 11 million people, currently has four ventilators and wants to increase that number, said Machar, who emphasized that people should stay three to six feet apart from others. The only vaccine is social distancing, said Machar. The patient is under quarantine at U.N. premises and health workers are tracing the people who had been in contact with her, said David Shearer, head of the U.N. operations in South Sudan. He said he hoped the measures would contain the case. To prevent the spread of the virus in South Sudan, President Salva Kiir last week imposed a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for six weeks and closed borders, airports, schools, churches and mosques. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and the vast majority survive. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can be more severe, even causing pneumonia or death. Recovering from a five-year civil war, South Sudan has several camps of thousands of displaced people. Across the border in Uganda is Bidibidi camp with with more than 250,000 refugees from South Sudan. Crowded and with rudimentary facilities, the camps are viewed as high risk areas for the spread of the virus, according to health experts. With the disease in South Sudan, now just three countries in Africa have not reported any cases of COVID-19: the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa, and the island nations of Comoros and Sao Tome and Principe. Ethiopia on Sunday reported its first death from the virus and announced five more cases bringing its total to 43, most of them imported by travellers. Ethiopias Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held discussions Sunday with opposition party leaders on measures to combat the virus. A number of Ethiopias regional states have implemented bans on movement of people and vehicles, but not yet in the capital Addis Ababa. In Kenya, the government extended its travel ban for 30 days. ___ AP journalists Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this story. Are you practicing social distancing? The Johns Hopkins Medicine website describes social distancing as deliberately increasing the physical space between people to avoid spreading illness. For instance, staying at least 6 feet away from other people lessens your chances of catching COVID-19 (coronavirus). Johns Hopkins is rated as the No. 2 medical school for research in the United States by U.S. News. If East Coast academia isnt your thing, how about the chief medical officer at Midland Memorial Hospital? Dr. Larry Wilson offered the following on Thursday about how important social distancing can be to defeating coronavirus. But theres only a singular thing thats going to stop this disease in our community right now, and thats social distancing. Shelter at home the best that you can, recognizing that we all have limitations and the ability to do that, but if you have to move out into the community, do it thoughtfully. Stay separated from others. If you go to a store and you see people arent following that, find another store. The social distancing piece of this is going to protect us more than anything else for the foreseeable future. Think about this one point: If we were able to have 100 percent social distancing -- everybody stayed 10 feet away from anybody else; anybody with the virus was self-isolated until they were symptom-free -- we could kill this virus in a month. Think about that for a second. Coronavirus would be over in a month. What would you do for that certainty? Would you leave the family at home when its time to go to the grocery store? Would you tell your children that playing with the kids down the street isnt an option right now? How restrictive would you be to guarantee a better future for the community? A while back, I asked who are we as Midlanders? I wrote on March 22, From this point forward, how will your reaction to the pandemic and your actions define you? At the time, I was talking about a different type of sacrifice. However, since that day, 18 more Midland County residents have been confirmed cases of coronavirus. Could it be worse? Yes. There have been 89 more cases in Lubbock County. In Harris County the county with the most confirmed cases in the state there have been 847. How do we keep it from getting worse? Social distancing. Dr. Wilson and Mayor Patrick Payton have repeatedly said, pleaded with and begged Midlanders during unified command meeting to practice social distancing. It is the best way to flatten the curve and the quickest way back to a life of normalcy. If you are anything like me, normal is something that fades into your rearview mirror with every day of working at home, watching public meetings on live stream and turning on ESPN to find zero live sporting events. Normal will return eventually, but it will be quicker if we follow the advice of those smarter than us. Stay home, stay safe. A leading Chinese human rights lawyer has been released from prison after almost five years behind bars, his wife said Sunday. Wang Quanzhang, 44, was first detained in 2015 in a sweeping crackdown on more than 200 lawyers and government critics in China as President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on power. But Wang has yet to return home to his family in the Chinese capital and was instead escorted Sunday to a property he owns in eastern Shandong province for 14 days in quarantine as a precaution against the coronavirus, according to wife Li Wenzu. Li told AFP from Beijing, where she lives with the couple's young son, that she feared Wang would be placed under house arrest despite his release from prison, and would be subject to surveillance. "I think (authorities) have been lying to us step by step," Li said. "They used the pretext of the epidemic as an excuse to quarantine him for 14 days when he should have been able to return to his home in Beijing according to the relevant legal guidelines." Calls to the prison went unanswered Sunday and Shandong's justice department did not respond to enquiries from AFP. Wang's initial detention in 2015 came as part of the so-called "709" crackdown, nicknamed as such because it began on July 9 that year. But it was not until January 2019 that he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for "subverting state power" in a closed-door trial. A prominent lawyer who has defended political activists and victims of land seizures, Wang was held incommunicado prior to the trial. "I am really worried they plan on putting him under long-term house arrest and will prevent us from being reunited as a family," said Li, who has tirelessly campaigned for her husband's release. Police had forcibly evicted tenants from Wang's property in the city of Jinan to make way for his return to Shandong, his wife added. Li said she believed his stay there was not out of choice. "His speech is being restricted. He phoned me yesterday saying he would go to Jinan," she said. "Is this what a rational person would do after being separated from their wife and child for almost five years?" Li's first trip to see her husband since his detention in 2015 came in June last year when she was granted a prison visit after repeated denials, she said. "My husband's health has deteriorated during the long incarceration, he has lost so much weight," Li told AFP at the time. Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since Xi took power in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of speech and detaining hundreds of activists and lawyers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iraq Protesters Confront Security Forces as PM-designate Presents Agenda to Parliament By Edward Yeranian April 04, 2020 Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Adnan Zurfi presented his agenda Saturday to Parliament as government security forces clashed with protesters defying a government-imposed curfew. More than a dozen Iraqi police reportedly were wounded when protesters in Nasiriya threw gasoline bombs at police, who were firing tear gas at them. A long cortege of vehicles Saturday drove through the streets of the southern city, honking car horns to defy the curfew. Iraqi state TV had earlier showed security forces stopping vehicles and taking the temperatures of drivers to detect coronavirus cases. Amateur video showed Iraqi security forces shooting at dozens of protesters, who appeared to play cat-and-mouse with them late Friday in the streets of Nasiriya. Protesters appeared to light fires and throw gasoline bombs in response to government fire and volleys of tear gas. Several dozen police and protesters reportedly were injured. A young protester complained in an amateur video posted on social media that he had to wear a face mask to stop choking from the heavy rounds of tear gas being fired by security forces. Meanwhile, Prime Minister-designate Adnan Zurfi presented his government's expected agenda Saturday to Parliament. It is not clear when Parliament will schedule a debate to approve the new government amid the chaos from the coronavirus crisis. Zurfi has until April 16 to form a new government and present it to parliament for approval. Eight pro-Iranian Shi'ite political parties issued a statement Saturday in opposition to Zurfi, claiming he was the "candidate of the CIA." The same eight parties also threatened to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. U.S. coalition forces have handed over a number of bases to the Iraqi military in recent days. Analysts on Arab media pointed out that Zurfi needed 156 votes in Parliament to win approval for his government. Despite opposition from large Shi'ite blocs, including the Fateh Alliance of Hadi al-Ameri and Dowlat al-Qanoun of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Zurfi appears to have scattered support from some Shi'ite members of parliament, and overwhelming support from Sunni and Kurdish parties. Analyst Iyad al-Anbar told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV that "the Shi'ite camp appears to be divided over Zurfi's nomination, despite the negative noises that they are making about him." He says Zurfi's nomination "may scrape through parliament if just 100 Shi'ite lawmakers support him, given the strong support for him by Sunni and Kurdish MPs." Zurfi told Sky News Arabia that "Iraq is facing a catastrophe" due to falling global oil prices, "and that it may not be able to pay all government salaries due to the shortfall." The government is also facing a major financial drain from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Most of the Iraqi budget comes from oil exports, and oil prices have been at historical lows. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Every week our Holiday Hero Neil Simpson takes an in-depth look at a brilliant holiday topic, doing all the legwork so you dont have to. This week, he reveals how to earn air miles without leaving home. The Lure of free flights and easy upgrades explains why so many travellers are obsessed with air miles. Collect 8,000 British Airways miles (called Avios) and you can book a return trip to Berlin or Barcelona for just 35 to cover taxes. Build up a bigger pile of about 35,000 points in Virgin Atlantics Flying Club and you can leap from economy to the luxury Upper Class cabin on a flight to New York or Miami. Better still, play your loyalty cards right and its possible to carry on earning miles throughout this current turmoil. Turbo-charge your shopping Play your cards right: Although aircraft are now idle, passengers can still boost their loyalty accounts Start with 5,000 bonus miles by signing up for BAs American Express card or Virgin Atlantics Mastercard. Neither has an annual fee and both are accepting applications now. Use them like any other card on as many small transactions as you like, and for every 100 spent youll earn 100 Avios points with BA or 75 Flying Miles with Virgin. But for a real boost, go to your airlines e-store before you use your card for larger online purchases. The e-stores link you to offers from hundreds of companies such as Nike, Argos and B&Q, plus smaller names including Pandora and Hotel Chocolat. Click on the provider you want, complete your purchase and youll be credited with the extra miles. The latest John Lewis offer in BAs e-store is for six Avios points for every pound spent, so a 200 purchase will see 1,200 Avios land in your account. Go to shopping.ba.com to see almost 1,000 offers, or click on Shops Away in the Flying Club section at virginatlantic.com for its huge list of retail partners. Try the Tesco boost A little-known trick lets you turn Tescos Clubcard points into a surprisingly large number of air miles. If you spend 500 at Tesco, you earn 500 Clubcard points and that produces a voucher for 5 off your next shop online or in store. However, a 5 Tesco voucher can also be swapped for 1,250 Flying Club miles with Virgin or 1,200 Avios points. Better still, it can all be done automatically. Search for Tesco at either airlines website and follow the steps to auto-convert your points into miles. Get some energy BA hands you 3,000 extra Avios points if you pick a deal on the comparison site Uswitch If you have finally found the time to use a comparison site in search of a better gas, electricity, internet or phone tariff, then dont sign up without checking out your airlines e-shop first. The latest offering with BA hands you 3,000 extra Avios if you pick a Uswitch deal. There are similar offers with Carphone Warehouse and O2. Sign up the family A wrinkle in the rules means that under-18s are not eligible to open accounts to earn Avios, and under-12s cant earn Virgin points unless parents sign youngsters into household accounts. Setting them up takes time as parental consent forms may have to be completed and returned. But once the job is done, everyone can collect miles when they fly. Better still, points can be pooled, so at least one family member may have enough for a free flight on a future holiday. Get the latest offers of all the main air miles schemes at websites such as thepointsguy.co.uk or headforpoints.com. Over 50 doctors and other healthcare workers have tested positive for the coronavirus disease across India, putting the spotlight on their vulnerability and the possibility of hospitals emerging as high-risk places to contract the infection. Across the world, many healthcare workers have been infected; some while treating Covid patients and others through unknown sources. In the epicenter of the disease, China, a paper had warned on as early as February 7 when the country had 34,546 cases that hospitals could become the disease hotspots. The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 41% of the 138 Covid-19 cases examined for it were likely person-to-person hospital-associated transmissions. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic The authors of the paper, doctors at the Zhongnan Hospital in Chinas Wuhan, studied 138 hospitalised patients with confirmed Covid-19 cases at the hospital from January 1 to January 28, 2020. The study said that presumed hospital-related transmission was suspected if a cluster of health professionals or hospitalised patients in the same wards became infected and a possible source of infection could be tracked. A Lancet study on March 21 reported that figures from Chinas National Health Commission show that more than 3,300 healthcare workers had been infected as of early March. Such person-to-person transmissions in hospital clusters were also observed during the 2013 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in Saudi Arabia, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2013 said. The study, Hospital Outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, found that of the 23 cases of MERS-CoV infection reported in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia between April 1 and May 23, 2013, as many as 21 were acquired by person-to-person transmission in hemodialysis units, intensive care units, or in-patient units in three different health care facilities. In Spain, of the 40,000 Covid-19 cases reported till March 24, the countrys health ministry, said that 5,400 nearly 14% -- involved medical professionals. Cases in Spain have more than tripled since, with 130,759 cases on Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, and 12,418 deaths. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst on March 21, doctors from the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo in Italys Lombardy region, which is among the worst-hit regions in Europe, said, Our own hospital is highly contaminated. The paper drew attention to the dire conditions in which the medical staff are working in the country. Most hospitals in the region, the doctors said in the paper, were overcrowded, nearing collapse while medications, ventilators oxygen and PPE [Personal Protection Equipment] are not available. According to Medscape, as many as 61 doctors and healthcare workers have succumbed to the virus in Italy till March 31. Till Sunday, Italy has reported 124,632 confirmed cases and 15,362 deaths. Highlighting that hospitals may be the main carriers of the infection as they are rapidly populated by infected patients, facilitating transmission to uninfected patients, the doctors said ambulances and personnel ferrying patients to the hospitals may also become vectors of the virus. In their paper, the doctors warned that such hospital personnel, who get the infection from patients or contaminated hospital equipment, were probably carrying the contagion back into the community. The most contaminated zones in hospitals were ICUs, (31.9%), obstetric isolation wards specialised for pregnant women with novel coronavirus pneumonia or NCP (28.1%), and isolation wards for NCP (19.6%), according to a yet-to-be peer-reviewed meta-analysis of 32 studies published in MedRxiv, a pre-print server for health sciences. The most contaminated objects, the study said, are self-service printers (20.0%), desktop/keyboard (16.8%), and doorknob (16.0%). Both hand sanitizer dispensers (20.3%) and gloves (15.4%) were the most contaminated PPE. The Italian doctors called for replacing centralised, hospital based and patient-centered care with community-centred, telemedicine, to avoid unnecessary movement and release pressure from hospitals. Of the over 50 doctors and healthcare workers that have tested positive for the disease in India over the last two weeks, many were not involved in treating Covid-19 patients. These included a doctor at the Delhi State Cancer Institute and a resident doctor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, and his nine-month pregnant wife. All three tested positive last week. Indian hospitals have been adequately equipped so far. The doctors and medical staff are well aware which is why they are taking all PPE and hygiene guidelines seriously. But controlling this pandemic needs cooperation of the government and the public, which also includes medical staff. If a patient hides his/her history or symptoms, it will lead to more infections and situations like what happened at Ganga Ram where over 100 doctors have been quarantined. However, we will need more PPE and more equipment in the coming weeks, because if hospitals start becoming spreaders of the contagion like it did in Italy, the situation could get much worse very quickly, said Dr Dhiren Gupta, a senior consultant at New Delhis Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. A Portland couple stumbled across what could have been a scene in a movie Friday night a glass of wine being shared between floors of an apartment building. Kim and Rich Williams live in Sellwood, but during the COVID-19 lockdown, they have been trying to support their favorite restaurants. Thats what they were doing when they placed an order at Arden in the Pearl District and drove downtown. They were a little early so they decided to take a walk. It was eerily quiet walking around but we heard music, Rich Williams said Sunday. That was really what drew us, Kim Williams added, all this music playing. It was 7 p.m. and people were loudly celebrating frontline healthcare workers. All of sudden, Rich Williams said, we see this guy and this girl out their window. He was sharing his wine with her. Rich Williams took out his phone to document the moment. Nicole Hudson said she has been taking part in the now-tradition of making noise to support healthcare workers for awhile. Phil Kirkland, her upstairs neighbor, was also participating. I get too emotional with it, she said, so she has a whistle she uses to make noise. It was loud enough that her upstairs neighbor yelled down to introduce himself. Kirkland said even though hes been living in the 100-unit building for seven months, he doesnt really know any of his neighbors. But on Friday, during what he called a unique unified moment, that changed. She looked up, he said, and we were like, Oh hey, hows it going? The two started chatting, out their windows, a floor apart. He goes, Well here do you want some wine? I have some really good wine, Hudson said. I looked at him kind of quizzically. He told her to go grab a wine glass and hold it out. She did, and as he began to pour, the Williamses walked by. It was actually a pretty decent pour, Hudson said, adding the wine was an Oregon white blend called Big Salt by Ovum. Kirkland posted the video to Twitter. As of Sunday, it has almost 800,000 views. As good as the wine and the moment were, however, Hudson and Kirkland want to emphasize that its really about supporting healthcare workers. This moment wouldnt have been captured without the tradition of yelling out the window and supporting healthcare, Hudson said. Hudson and Kirkland are hoping to drive donations with viral video to Direct Relief, an organization working to get medical supplies and protective equipment to healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19. PSA: Nonprofit @DirectRelief is coordinating with public health authorities, businesses and other organizations in the U.S. to provide hundreds of thousands of personal protective items. PLZ PLZ DONATE TO THEM and comment if you did!https://t.co/hei59YLVPy Phillip Kirkland (@philsince87) April 5, 2020 After filming the impressive display of wine pouring, the Williamses made sure to get Hudsons information. The couple said they told her, We need to be invited to the wedding, in case the wine pouring incident is the meet-cute in a real life coronavirus rom-com. Is it a love connection? I am just happy to have a new quarantine friend and maybe a drinking buddy Hudson demurred. And he has good taste in wine. Shes trying to come up with a way to get a bottle of wine up to him, since her brother and sister-in-law own a winery. We feel a connection from 12 feet away, Kirkland said. Weve been talking nonstop since yesterday." People are invested a lot more than we had intended, he said, adding, Anything is possible. Wouldnt that be cute? Rich Williams said hes glad they shared the video. He hopes it gives people a little lift during these difficult days. Its just amazing to see something like that in these times, he said. It was just a great connection. They werent together in the same place but they were having fun with it. Hudson said she thinks the video has struck a chord because of the happiness of the moment. Its hard to find organic positivity right now, she said. Kirkland agreed, saying it really all comes back to sharing support of frontline workers. Well, that, he said, And I guess my excellent pour. -- Lizzy Acker 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Capt. Brett Crozier (above) has tested positive for the coronavirus days after he was relieved of command of the USS Roosevelt for a letter begging the Navy to evacuate the ship due to a COVID-19 outbreak Captain Brett Crozier, the officer who was relieved of command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt after his letter warning of a coronavirus outbreak on board the ship leaked to the press, has tested positive for COVID-19. Two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier who remain close to the family revealed the diagnosis to The New York Times on Sunday. The classmates told the Times that Crozier began to show symptoms of the disease before he was dismissed by Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Navy told the Times on Sunday that Crozier has been reassigned to the headquarters of the Naval Air Forces Pacific command in San Diego. Before resuming his duties, however, Crozier must complete a quarantine period first. News of Crozier's diagnosis comes on the heels of a report claiming that the top US military commander and the most senior naval officer were opposed to Crozier's dismissal but were overruled by the Trump administration. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, believed that the Navy should have allowed an investigation into the letter written by Crozier to run its course. Defense Secretary Mark Esper initially sided with the officers, according to The Washington Post. But Esper eventually yielded to Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who favored immediately dismissing Crozier because he believed that is what President Trump wanted. General Mark Milley (left), the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Michael Gilday (right), the chief of naval operations, were initially opposed to the decision to fire the captain of the USS Roosevelt after his letter warning of a coronavirus outbreak leaked to the press The Navy arranged for the transfer of sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (docked in Guam and seen above on Friday) to quarantine conditions on the Pacific island after more than 150 tested positive for COVID-19 Crozier was fired four days after he penned a scathing letter to Navy leaders calling for stronger action to address the COVID-19 outbreak he said was threatening his sailors' lives. The captain is believed to have sent the letter to several people knowing that it stood a good chance of being leaked to the press. Modly, who made the decision on Thursday to relieve Crozier of command of the Roosevelt, reportedly told colleagues that Trump wants him fired. The acting secretary was reportedly told by Gilday as well as several current and former colleagues that it would be best to allow the military to handle the situation in-house without interference from the civilian leadership. When Modly said he wanted Crozier dismissed, Esper reportedly told him: Ill do what you want. Esper on Sunday defended Modly's decision to fire Crozier, who has emerged as a sympathetic figure in the eyes of his former sailors as well as a segment of the public who believes he was unjustly punished for looking out for the health of his charges. Esper on the firing of a Navy commander after writing a memo saying that crew needed help after the coronavirus hit his ship: "I think Acting Secretary Modly made a very tough decision ... It's just another example how we hold leaders accountable for their actions" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/k90BvtwFNM CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 5, 2020 Defense Secretary Mark Esper (left) reportedly deferred to the acting secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly (right) Modly is said to have favored firing Crozier because that's what he believed President Trump wanted. Trump is seen above on Wednesday at the White House flanked by, from left to right: National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien; Attorney General Bill Barr; Esper; Milley; and Gilday 'I think acting Secretary Modly made a very tough decision - a decision that I support,' Esper told CNN on Sunday. 'It was based on his view that he had lost faith and confidence in the captain based on his actions. 'It's just another example (of) how we hold leaders accountable for their actions.' Esper was asked if the Trump administration moved too quickly to fire Crozier instead of allowing the military to complete its probe into the matter. The defense secretary replied that it was 'not unheard of' for the Navy to fire a senior officer before an internal investigation is complete. 'All the services at times relieve commanders without the benefit of an investigation up front because they have lost confidence in them,' Esper said. 'It's certainly not unique to the Navy. 'The Navy has a culture of swiftly and decisively removing captains if they lose confidence in them.' During a coronavirus task force press conference Saturday afternoon, Trump said that the four page letter was 'inappropriate' adding that this wasn't a 'class on literature'. It was Navy leaders who made the decision to fire the captain but Trump said he agreed that it was the right thing to do after Crozier's call for help for his sailors became public. 'He wrote a letter. A five-page letter from a captain. And the letter was all over the place. That's not appropriate, I don't think that's appropriate,' Trump said. 'It looked terrible what he did. To write a letter. I mean this isn't a class on literature. This is the captain of a massive ship he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter.' Trump also chided Crozier for allowing sailors to be infected in the first place, claiming that he should not have allowed them to go to land during a stop to Vietnam at the beginning of March. The president said that this was not a smart move when there was a pandemic that could have spread to the ship. At the same time as the stop-off, Trump himself was dismissing the severity of the global outbreak and believed it would not pose a massive threat to Americans. In defending his decision on Friday, Modly said America's enemies might think the aircraft carrier was 'crippled' after Crozier's letter was leaked. Video posted to social media on Thursday shows hundreds of sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt bidding a raucous farewell and saluting their fired commander, Captain Brett Crozier The sailors chanted 'Captain, Crozier! Captain Crozier' and clapped as he left the ship, which was docked in Guam on Thursday Crozier is seen above disembarking the ship in Guam for the last time after he was fired over a letter he wrote asking the Navy high command to evacuate the ship due to an outbreak of the coronavirus on board Modly and others in the Trump administration have been on the defensive in explaining the firing after videos emerged of Crozier being given a rowdy farewell by his crew who were chanting his name as he left the warship. Modly, who served in the US Navy as a helicopter pilot before becoming a managing director at consultants PwC, was publicly backed on Friday by Esper and Milley. Milley said if the Navy secretary had lost trust in Crozier, 'Then that's it. It's target down and we're moving on to the next task'. Admiral Mike Mullen, who served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff from 2007 until 2011, disagreed with the decision. 'I think the firing was a really bad decision, because it undermines the authority of the military commanders who are trying to take care of their troops, and significantly negatively impacts the willingness of commanders to speak truth to power,' he told the Post. The above image is a handout photo from Wednesday showing medical staff on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt taking a swab sample for COVID-19 testing Modly was also backed by Rear Admiral John Menoni, the region's US Navy commander, who disagreed with Crozier's assertion that all but 10 percent of the ship's crew could be removed from the vessel if necessary. The Navy announced on Saturday that 44 per cent of the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt had been tested for the coronavirus, and 155 service members had tested positive. About 1,548 service members had been moved onshore. None had been hospitalized. The mother of a coronavirus-stricken sailor from the USS Theodore Roosevelt says she fears for her daughter's health as thousands of crew from the aircraft carrier are transferred to dry land. Margalis Fjelstad's daughter is one of the 155 crew who have tested positive for COVID-19 on board the ship, which is currently docked at US Navel Base Guam. 'She's feeling exhausted, she sleeps most of the day, and a lot of times she's up and down at night,' Fjelstad told The Washington Post of her daughter's condition Saturday. 'Her temperature is spiking, then coming down and going up again. Tuesday and Wednesday, we weren't able to talk on the phone because she couldn't talk and breathe at the same time'. Fjelstad stated that her daughter was removed from the Roosevelt earlier this week following confirmation that she had contracted COVID-19. She is now quarantined with other female sailors who are also displaying symptoms of the highly contagious virus. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is pictured docked in Guam on Friday where crew are being brought to shore Plans are in place to remove a total of 2,700 sailors from the USS Roosevelt by the weekend as officials scramble to secure enough hotel rooms to house them near US Naval Base Guam. Around 1,000 sailors had been removed as of Friday Some 2,700 sailors are expected to be removed from the Roosevelt by the weekend as officials scrambled to secure enough hotel rooms to house them near US Naval Base Guam. Local islanders, meanwhile, are unhappy about plans to house troops possibly infected with coronavirus in hotels. 'I am disturbed by the reckless double standard of potentially placing potentially exposed military personnel in local hotels,' Senator Sabina Flores Perez wrote in a letter to Guam's governor, Lou Leon Guerrero. 'If sailors are placed in our hotels, we will be exposing lower-wage employees to greater risk, many of whom are older and have limited or no health benefits for themselves and their families.' Captain Daniel Keeler, the ship's executive officer, is now serving as acting commander. Modly became acting secretary in November after Richard Spencer was sacked because wanted to demote and strip shamed Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher of his Trident pin - against President Trump's wishes. When he was at PwC, Modley earned at least $700,000 a year and helped the firm profit from Nato contracts and the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan. Modly said on Friday: One of the first things I learned as a midshipman was this phrase that I think became popular in World War II, which is loose lips sink ships. 'I had wished that I would never have to make a decision like this, but my responsibilities extend beyond just that individual officer. 'And they go to the safety of that crew, our national security objectives, all the other ships that are out there in the Pacific that are now perhaps on higher standard of alert because our adversaries in the region think that one of our warships might be crippled, which its not.' Navy sources told Foreign Policy on Friday that Crozier was given Modly's personal cell phone number on Monday. The sources claim Modly was encouraged to 'call us any time day or night' if he had any concerns. Modly said: 'I just cant have a commanding officer who gets overwhelmed and uses that type of judgment in the middle of a crisis. 'And this is not an indictment of his entire career. Hes had an absolutely incredible career. Im envious of it. Hes done some amazing things. 'But at this particular time, I needed a CO there that could help manage us through this crisis. And I just didnt think based on those actions that I could do that.' Security is put in place to receive between 180 and 500 sailors suspected of having been exposed to coronavirus at several hotels in Guam, including the Sheraton Laguna (pictured above on Friday). Plans are in place to have more sailors from the USS Roosevelt occupy hotel rooms in the coming days Modly said that Crozier put the spotlight on the Navy in a negative light when all the things he was asking for were surging for him. The acting secretary said that it was sort of most disappointing to him that the letter from Crozier leaked to the press after he had set up a direct line to the captain. Crozier shouldve went to Modly directly if he felt anything wasnt going well and he needed help. And he did not do that. But the Navy's claims are being treated with skepticism by at least one parent of a sailor on board the Roosevelt, who told Foreign Policy that hundreds of troops were being quarantined and checked for high temperatures and that the military was not doing enough to keep them safe at the time the letter was sent. 'It felt like a lot of politics to me and not enough action,' the mother of a Roosevelt sailor told Foreign Policy. 'I believe that the Crozier memo expedited the whole thing.' The mother added: 'When I hear the secretary of the Navy say that [the captain] made a bad judgment call I don't necessarily agree. 'This was not a man who made bad judgment calls.' Modly told Hewitt that Crozier should have reported his concerns directly to his immediate superior, Rear Admiral Stuart P. Baker, who last year assumed command of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. He instead of going to that particular admirals cabin and sitting down and talking with him about his concerns and coming up with a strategy with him on how to address them, he decided to send an email and copy that email to a large list of other people who were not in the chain of command, and sent it up also through the chain of command skipping people in the chain of command, Modly said. And that, to me, just represented just extremely poor judgment, because once you do that in this digital era, you know that there is no way that you can control where that informations going to go. Crozier on Thursday was given a rousing salute by his now-former crew as he left the aircraft carrier for the last time after being fired. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier docked in the Pacific island of Guam, where hundreds of sailors suspected of being exposed to the coronavirus will be quarantined in several hotels. Former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat who is seeking to challenge President Donald Trump in the November presidential election, on Sunday called the Trump administration's firing of the commander 'close to criminal.' 'The idea that this man stood up and he said what had to be said, got it out that ... his Navy personnel were in danger ... I think the guy, he should have a commendation rather than be fired,' Biden told ABC News in a separate interview. A group of Democratic senators have also called on the Pentagon's independent Inspector General to investigate the dismissal. A group of Democratic senators asked the office of the Department of Defense Inspector General on Friday to investigate the U.S. Navy's response to the coronavirus outbreak aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt and the firing of its captain. Why it matters: The Pentagon's decision to relieve Capt. Brett Crozier of the nuclear aircraft carrier on Thursday sparked criticism from politicians and others. Later, videos were posted of his crew cheering him on as he was leaving his post. The big picture: The letter indicated that Crozier's firing led lawmakers, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Van Hollen, to question whether the Navy's precautionary measures protect U.S. fleets from the coronavirus. "It is also difficult to understand how CAPT Croziers decision to copy '20 or 30 people' on an email to his chain of command necessarily constitutes a breach warranting relief of command," a reversal from what the acting secretary of the Navy previously said, the letter states. What they're saying: When asked during a White House press briefing if Crozier's firing was punishment for calling attention to the crews lack of resources with COVID-19 cases onboard: I dont agree with that at all. Not even a little bit. a White House press briefing if Crozier's firing was punishment for calling attention to the crews lack of resources with COVID-19 cases onboard: I dont agree with that at all. Not even a little bit. Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted Friday: "Captain Crozier was faithful to his dutyboth to his sailors and his country. Navy leadership sent a chilling message about speaking truth to power. The poor judgment here belongs to the Trump Admin, not a courageous officer trying to protect his sailors." tweeted Friday: "Captain Crozier was faithful to his dutyboth to his sailors and his country. Navy leadership sent a chilling message about speaking truth to power. The poor judgment here belongs to the Trump Admin, not a courageous officer trying to protect his sailors." Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) tweeted Thursday: "I learned on my first day in the Marines that having the courage to speak truth to power is grounds for respect not grounds for relief. This is far from the first time in the last several years that Congress is going to have a lot of questions for Navy leadershipon leadership." The Pentagon did not respond to Axios' request for comment. Read letter: There's one thing you should know before diving into the conversation around masks: The public should not purchase surgical masks or N95 respirators. Health care workers are facing shortages and need those masks to treat coronavirus patients. You should also note: Face covering is recommended but not mandatory Homemade masks are not a substitute for social distancing and staying inside Still, if you want to make a mask, here are simple, step-by-step instructions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to do just that, whether or not you know how to sew. Not sure how to wear or clean the masks? We answer those questions under the mask-making instructions. If you don't want to sew Materials you'll need Bandana, T-shirt or square cotton cloth, about 20' x 20' Coffee filter Rubber bands or hair ties Make your mask 1. Cut the bottom off a folded coffee filter. Keep the top part -- you'll need it for the filter in your mask. 2. Lay a bandana or 20' x 20' T-shirt flat in a rectangle. Fold the bandana or shirt in half lengthwise. 3. Fold the cut filter in the center of the folded bandana or shirt. Then, fold the top of the bandana or shirt down over the filter. Fold the bottom up. 4. Place rubber bands or hair ties around the folded bandana or shirt, about 6 inches apart. 5. Fold the side of the bandana or shirt in toward the middle and tuck. Your mask should look like this: 6. Place the rubber bands or hair ties around your ears, and voila -- you've made a face mask, no sewing required. If you know how to sew Materials you'll need Tightly woven cotton fabric Elastic (or rubber bands, string, cloth strips, hair ties) Needle & thread (or bobby pin or sewing machine) Scissors Make your mask 1. Cut your fabric into two 10' by 6' rectangles. Place them on top of each other. 2. Fold over the long sides -- 1/4 inch -- and hem. 3. Then, fold the double layer of fabric over 1/2 inch along the short sides. Stitch down. 4. Thread a 6-inch-long, 1/8-inch-wide piece of elastic through the wider hem on each side of the mask and knot it -- this is one of your two ear loops. If you don't have elastic, you can do the same with hair ties or rubber bands. If you only have string or fabric, you can make the ties longer and tie the mask behind your head. 5. Pull on the ear loops so the knots are tucked inside the hem. Gather the sides of the mask on the elastic and adjust so the mask fits your face. 6. Then, stitch the elastic (or fabric) in place on the corner of the mask to keep it from slipping -- and voila! You've sewn a mask in six steps. Mask FAQs How do I wear it? Masks are only effective if you wear them properly. The World Health Organization has the how-to: Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water before touching or putting on the mask. Make sure your entire nose and mouth are covered when you put it on. Avoid touching the mask while you're out -- this can contaminate it. Do not take the mask off while you're in public. To take it off once you return, untie it from the back -- don't touch the front of it. You should immediately wash the mask after returning so it doesn't contaminate your belongings. Wash your hands immediately after you've taken it off, and again after you've washed the mask. Are masks even effective? Homemade mask studies have shown that they're significantly less effective than surgical masks -- and they're certainly no replacement for the essential N95 respirators health care workers must wear to treat patients. 'Homemade masks are partially effective,' said Dr. Koushik Kasanagottu, an internal medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Maryland. They offer a physical barrier from viral particles, he said, but they don't have the filters that N95 respirators do. But they're better than nothing, especially for people who only go out in public to make a quick trip to the grocery store or pharmacy, said Anna Davies and Raina MacIntyre, public health researchers and authors of two separate studies on the effectiveness of cloth mask. It's important to note, though, that masks cannot replace social distancing measures. Maintaining at least six feet of distance from others and staying home as much as possible is still the best way to prevent the spread of the virus. How do you clean them? You should launder the masks before and after each use to clean off any germs you might have picked up in public. Hand wash the masks or put them in a mesh wash bag in the washing machine so they don't fall apart, and use a high heat setting. What if I can't make my own? Crafters on Etsy aren't sold out of face masks yet. It's difficult to discern how effective these masks are since you didn't craft them yourself, but you can compare them to our mask tutorial before you buy -- does it cover your nose and mouth? Are there pleats? Will it tightly seal around your face? You likely don't need to buy more than a few masks -- physicians recommend that only one member of each household runs errands in public. It may take longer than usual to ship the masks, so be aware of this when you buy. And be sure to wash the masks before you wear them. If you can't access masks at all, then keep washing your hands, maintaining distance from others and following other social distancing measures. Staying home is the best defense against coronavirus, after all. A reasonable observer would expect a minimum level of professionalism from New York City health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot. One wouldn't expect that someone charged with protecting New York City's public health would instead endanger the well-being of New Yorkers by ignoring the severe health ramifications and the real danger of the coronavirus. However, while most of the Democratic leadership of New York City was busy criticizing President Trump for deciding to impose travel restrictions on those entering the United States and dismissing the incoming threat of the coronavirus in February, this health commissioner was quoted stating the following on numerous TV interviews: "The risk to New Yorkers from coronavirus is low, and ... our preparedness as a city is very high." Barbot said this at a press conference supporting the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Festival. "There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take a bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday [Feb. 9]." The unprofessional behavior of New York City's health commissioner, a Democratic Party appointee, has been labeled by many health officials as possibly criminally negligent. Under different circumstances, she should have been forced to excuse herself and resign immediately pending further legal action. Over the past few weeks, as we have witnessed the snowball effect of the rate of infection of the coronavirus, New York City officials in a Democratic administration should be held accountable for increasing the "risk" for the residents of New York City. They not only egregiously dismissed the coronavirus outbreak and pandemic in its earlier stages, but actually encouraged unrestricted public behavior as if there were no danger of being infected, as if they knew what they were talking about. The Democrats' nonchalant policy has been deadly for New Yorkers. Had this incredible and negligent behavior by the health commissioner been an isolated incident, the risk might have been contained. Unfortunately, Mayor Bill de Blasio also failed to shield the residents of New York City, partly through inaction but largely through indifference. As the coronavirus emerged from China, invaded Europe, and began to spread throughout the world, the Trump administration was formulating national policies to deal with the high mortality rate expected from COVID-19, understanding that the situation was one of life or death. Yet at the same time, Mayor de Blasio was busy criticizing President Trump for imposing restrictions in the United States in an attempt to prevent the import of the coronavirus through the airports and borders. Mayor de Blasio's indifference to the coronavirus threat probably contributed more to New York City becoming a center of infection in the United States than the actions of his criminally negligent health commissioner. New York governor Andrew Cuomo told the media at one of his many and highly effective coronavirus response press conferences that he believed that New York City schools should be closed. Mayor Bill de Blasio had consistently refused until then to shut down schools despite fellow Democrats in the tri-state area demanding that he do so. De Blasio's refusal to cancel school a week and more after most other districts in the tri-state had done so contributed significantly to the acceleration of the outbreak of the coronavirus in New York City. An additional de Blasio decision that contributed to the pace of the outbreak had to do with instituting a significant reduction schedule in public transportation, primarily with the New York City subway system forcing unusual crowding among subway-riders who were largely unprotected. One would expect that at the same time the mayor instituted a significant reduction in the subway schedule, he would authorize the cancelation of alternate side parking or cancel metered parking, encouraging those still working outside their homes to use private cars so as to limit exposure to the potential danger of being infected on public transportation. Instead, his administration encouraged use of public transportation and continued to disincentivize the use of private cars. Alternate side parking was suspended only a few days ago, and metered parking restrictions are still in effect as of this writing. Mayor de Blasio's irresponsible and reckless delays probably cost many deaths that otherwise could have been avoided. The number of infected, hospitalized, and dead is rising, meaning that the worst is yet to come for New York City residents. So far, there are 36,221 cases of coronavirus infection in New York City, including 790 deaths (as of March 29). In recent days, with social distancing and forced stay-at-home "guidelines" issued by the federal and New York State authorities, New Yorkers should hopefully experience a major reduction in infections and deaths over the coming weeks and months. The Democratic leadership of New York City would be wise to examine their policy decisions over the past month so as to avoid making similar decisions that can adversely affect the good people of the City of New York. Ron grew up in the South Bronx of New York City, making Aliyah in 1980. Served for 25 years in the IDF as a mental health field officer in operational units. Prior to retiring was commander of the Central Psychiatric Clinic for Reserve Solders at Tel-Hashomer. Since retiring has been involved in strategic consultancy to NGOs and communities in the Gaza Envelope on resiliency projects to assist first responders and communities. Ron has written numerous articles for outlets in Israel and abroad focusing on Israel and the Jewish world. To contact: medconf@gmail.com. Website: www.ronjager.com. Image: Public Advocate Bill de Blasio via Flickr. More than 206 countries have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and it seems like there is no longer a safe place to stay that is COVID-19 free, except for a hilltop fortress town located in Spain that has cut itself from the rest of the world to prevent the virus from spreading. There has not been a single case among its locals. Zero coronavirus case in this Spanish town The Zahara de la Sierra is located high above the Andalusian countryside in southern Spain. On March 14, the same day Spain announced that it is extending its state of alarm, the town's mayor Santiago Galvan, blocked all but one of the town's five entrances. Spain has recorded more than 126,168 coronavirus cases and more than 11,947 deaths. However, not one single case of COVID-19 has been recorded among Zahara de la Sierra's 1,400 locals, more than two weeks after the town cut itself off from the rest of the world. There is a checkpoint station on the one road into the town that remains open, and a single police officer is patrolling the area. Two men wearing protective gear that is normally used for spraying the olive groves wash every single vehicle that enters with water and bleach. Each car must also drive through a make-shift ditch to clean and disinfect its tires. Also Read: More than 40 Spring Breakers from Texas Test Positive for COVID-19 Galvan added that there is no car that comes through the town's checkpoint that has not been disinfected. The town has managed to give tranquility to their neighbors and they know that no one unknown can come in. There are other sanitation measures introduced in the town and that includes disinfection procedures. How they disinfect According to Galvan, every Monday and Thursday at 5:30 pm around 10 people disinfect the streets, the plazas and the outside homes of the town. One local farmer, Antonio Atienza, drives his tractor through the town and sprays the streets. Another local business pays two women to deliver medical supplies and groceries to residents for almost 11 hours a day. One of the women, Auxi Rascon, told CNN: "They [the residents] are very happy because they don't need to go out, they feel protected and feel confident. They took the right measures at the right moment, and now we are seeing the results." The drastic action done by Mayor Galvan has had the full support of the townspeople, of which almost a quarter are older than 65. The Zaharilla women's association also arranges basic repairs for elderly residents who need help. A Facebook page made for older residents has started a drive to get old pictures online. In order to keep the positivity of the townspeople, Galvan said that two cars have been fitted with lights and music that children can look at from their balconies. The economy of the town is provided by family-run businesses and the self-employed. Galvan said that the town council has used its contingency fund to cover water, electricity and tax costs for local businesses during the national state of emergency. He said that ultimately, the town will need financial support from Madrid or the regional government. The town is just an hour from Seville and a popular tourist destination because it features white houses and narrow streets that cling to the steep hillside, complete with medieval fortifications and rolling olive groves. Mayor Galvan said that they had to turn away German and French tourists who were not aware of the town's measures in the first few days after he ordered to isolate the town. Related Article: China Province Imposes New Coronavirus Lockdown, Fears of Second Wave @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. With ridership down about 60% as the coronavirus continues to spread in the Lehigh Valley, LANTA is getting some federal funding help for now and the future. The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority is splitting $21.9 million earmarked in the CARES Act for public transportation in an area that includes the Lehigh Valley, Montgomery County and part of New Jersey, Executive Director Owen ONeil said. A formula will divide the money between LANTA, NJ Transit and SEPTA, and "typically we get about 90 recent of that, ONeil said. On May 6 the federal government said LANTA will receive $21.6 million of the grant. The money will be used first and foremost so we can meet our current operating expenses, ONeil said, to continue to maintain service levels and meet expenses we know are coming. It will also be used for unanticipated expenses and allow LANTA to maintain some reserves if the outbreak returns later in the year as projected, he said. The funding ensures the financial health of LANTA for the foreseeable future, ONeil said as he thanked Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey and U.S. Rep. Susan Wild for their support of the CARES Act. Bus riders starting skipping trips as the coronavirus spread across the Lehigh Valley. As of Saturday, the states number of positive cases surpassed 10,000 people and there were more than 100 deaths. ONeil said ridership dropped between 40% and 50% before the statewide shutdown order went into effect, then decreased 10% to 15% more once Gov. Tom Wolf ordered the shutdown to start March 16. Currently, the authority is seeing about 30% to 35% of what would be normal ridership, but the numbers have stabilized. Since the shutdown order, it was announced a LANTA bus driver from Bethlehem tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, LANTA has not had any other employees test positive for the virus, ONeil said Friday. Based on routes, ONeil said they are seeing people ride to work, at places like local warehouses, as well as to shopping centers and medical offices. On March 27, LANTA announced it was slashing the cost of its 31-day passes for its fixed bus routes. Originally $60, the passes will now be $10 if purchased at a buss farebox, or $5 if bought online or through the new free Token Transit mobile ticketing app. Door-to-door bus service was hit harder, down about 80%, as most customers have canceled non-essential medical appointments. ONeil said of the door-to-door trips still happening, the vast majority are for dialysis. LANTA has not cut any routes. While ridership is down, its still scattered across the network of routes, he said. Weve been taking the approach, if we can continue to operate our normal schedules, we will, he added. How long the schedule stays that way depends on staffing, and if there are enough drivers available. We just keep saying were taking it day to day, ONeil said. To date, attendance among bus drivers has been normal, which has allowed us to maintain normal schedules, ONeil said. The authority has contingency plans for different scenarios if it has to modify the service levels based on staffing levels. LANTA has hired four new drivers, who are currently in training that lasts about six weeks, he said. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. WELLTON, Ariz. While the coronavirus has upended much of the American economy, farmworkers in Arizona are still out in the fields harvesting vegetables as usual for supermarkets across the country. In a field near the town of Wellton last week, a crew of workers stooped down and cut heads of iceberg lettuce, following a machine that rolled loaded boxes on a conveyor belt to a trailer. The men and women worked side-by-side in groups of two, stripping off excess leaves, wrapping each head of lettuce in plastic and packing box after box. The farms around Yuma produce much of the countrys lettuce and other leafy vegetables from winter until early April, and the harvest system has long involved crews of Mexican and Central American workers laboring shoulder-to-shoulder. Growers say theyre telling employees to abide by federal guidelines and keep safe distances from each other to limit the spread of coronavirus. They say managers of vegetable-packing businesses are working out how to change procedures in the fields so that workers can stay farther apart a considerable challenge for an industry that typically relies on teams harvesting crops together in close quarters. More: Wisconsin farmers forced to dump milk as coronavirus slams a fragile dairy economy More: Trump blasts 3M as company says mask demand far exceeds ability to produce them Cutting this lettuce, wrapping it and putting it in a box, its hard work and its hard to spread everybody out and do it keeping a 6- or 10-foot distance, said grower John Boelts. Weve got some challenges to implement distancing with equipment and everything the way it is. People are going to figure it out and make it work, and well keep the food supply running while being cognizant of worker safety. Together with his wife, Alicia, and business partners, Boelts owns the company Desert Premium Farms and manages about 2,500 acres of farmland. He has about 40 employees and relies on crews hired by packing companies to harvest lettuce. Story continues He stood watching while the workers, wearing gloves and using knives, advanced along the green rows cutting heads of lettuce. Boelts said these Mexican guest workers are in the country temporarily on H-2A visas. He acknowledged that, unlike some other crews, this one hadnt yet shifted to keeping 6 feet between workers. Over the next couple of weeks, everyone is working on implementing that, Boelts said. Were all trying to figure this out. Farmworkers harvest iceberg lettuce on April 2 near Wellton, Arizona. Growers say vegetable-packing companies are working on changing procedures to encourage more social distancing to limit the spread of coronavirus. The workers were in their final few days finishing the lettuce harvest in Yuma. Next, theyll hit the road to cut lettuce in Salinas, Calif. Boelts said he expects the harvest crews will continue shifting to more physical distancing as they move on. The changes will need to involve not only ensuring safe distances during field work, he said, but also having workers more spread out in their housing and on buses. Were making changes on the fly, Boelts said. Were not going to shut down. Were going to have to find ways to make this work for the health and safety of all the employees. The coronavirus pandemic is bringing major challenges for the U.S. agriculture industry. While grappling with how to keep workers safe, farm managers are also worried that efforts to curb the spread of the virus could worsen a longstanding shortage of agricultural laborers. The U.S. government has scaled back operations at consulates in Mexico and has halted processing of new applications for farmworkers to come to the country temporarily through the H-2A program. Were already handicapped in our ability to have enough workers in this country. Were importing too much food into this country. And then you throw a pandemic that impacts the domestic and guest worker population, Boelts said. Over time, this is going to have a creep effect. And were worried about the long term of what it means. Boelts is vice president of the Arizona Farm Bureau. He and other growers have long called for reforms to help ensure more laborers for the agriculture. Through the H-2A program, nearly 8,000 workers came to do farm labor in the Yuma area this year, Boelts said. The program has functioned as a stopgap, he said, but its now in peril. And while the vegetable harvest is winding down, farms will be looking for workers again in May to harvest cantaloupes and other melons. My biggest worry for midsummer is that we wont have the hands to harvest product, Boelts said. We havent seen any impacts yet. But no doubt we will. Its just a matter of time. Yuma County has 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far. But none of the cases have been reported among farmworkers. Eleazar Silva, the supervisor of the harvest crew, said hes been telling workers to keep their distance and wash their hands. Everybodys scared, Silva said. We try to be safe. Many farmworkers live south of the border in San Luis or Mexicali, and they cross over to work in the fields of Yuma and Californias neighboring Imperial Valley. In both areas, Colorado River water flows through canals to fields that produce most of the countrys winter vegetables, plus other crops including alfalfa and cotton. The farms near Yuma grow lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, cilantro, parsley, radicchio, fennel, beets, bok choy, endives, spinach, and other crops. In the Wellton area, manicured rows sprout vegetables in colors from emerald green to deep purple. During the past several weeks, growers have seen large fluctuations in lettuce prices, which have fallen as many restaurants have closed. Demand for fresh produce, the leafy green produce, has really kind of dropped off, said Steve Alameda, a grower who runs the company Top Flavor Farms. We have no idea how long thats going to last, but were anticipating that could be at least two months long. Alameda said his workers were able to come across the border as usual and wrapped up the winter harvest without facing problems due to the virus. As for the coming months, he said, there are many unanswered questions. Were all kind of in limbo here, he said, trying to protect our people and advise them the best we can how to protect themselves from this thing, but still trying to get our work done. Its a challenge. Reach reporter Ian James at ian.james@arizonarepublic.com or follow him on Twitter: @ByIanJames This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Coronavirus forces vegetable farms to adapt to additional risks With air raid sirens wailing and flags at half-staff, China held a three-minute nationwide moment of reflection on Saturday to honor those who have died in the coronavirus outbreak, especially martyrs who fell while fighting what has become a global pandemic. Commemorations took place at 10 a.m. in all major cities, but were particularly poignant in Wuhan, the industrial city where the virus was first detected in December. Wuhan was placed under complete lockdown on Jan. 23 in an effort to stem the spread of the virus and has been lauded as a heroic city by the nations communist leadership for the sacrifices made by its 11 million citizens. The quarantine in the city is to be formally lifted on Wednesday. In Beijing, President Xi Jinping led other top officials, all dressed in black suits with white carnations, as they bowed before a flag at half-staff in the leadership compound of Zhongnanhai. China now has recorded a total of 81,639 cases and 3,326 deaths, although those figures are generally considered to be understated because of a lack of testing and a reluctance to report the scale of the original outbreak. The State Council, Chinas Cabinet, ordered that national flags be flown at half-staff around the country and at Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, and the suspension of all public recreational activities. EGYPT 17 medics infected at major hospital At least 17 medics in Egypts main cancer hospital have been quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus, officials said Saturday, raising fears the pandemic could prey on health facilities in the Arab worlds most populous country. Egypt has reported around 1,000 confirmed cases and 66 fatalities from the global pandemic. Authorities have closed schools and mosques, banned public gatherings and imposed a nighttime curfew to prevent the virus from spreading among the population of 100 million, a fifth of whom live in the densely-populated capital, Cairo. Dr. Hatem Abu el-Kassem, the director of the National Cancer Institute, said all other health workers at the facility, which is affiliated with Cairo University and treats hundreds of cancer patients every day, would be tested. SPAIN Prime minister sees signs of hope Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says that his nation ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sanchez said that if the current slowdown of the outbreak continues then Spain is on course to reduce its cases of the COVID-19. Current numbers show Spain has 124,000 cases of coronavirus and over 11,000 deaths. Sanchez gave a televised address to the nation Saturday and said Spain is close to reducing the spread of the virus. He implored citizens to make more sacrifices during the crisis. Sanchez used the address to announce that the government plans to extend the lockdown the country has been under for three weeks until April 26. THAILAND 3-day ban issued on flight arrivals Aviation authorities in Thailand have banned passenger flights from landing for three days after chaos broke out when more than 100 returning Thai citizens reportedly refused to abide by regulations requiring them to go to state-run quarantine centers. The unrest at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport occurred Friday night. A security official allowed the travelers to proceed home. Thai media reports said the security official was removed from duty Saturday and errant travelers were ordered to report to the authorities. A bureaucratic tangle appeared to contribute to the problem. Regulations for returning Thai nationals that had allowed them to self-isolate were changed Thursday to require them to go to a state quarantine facility. Most, if not all, had completed travel arrangements before the change. GUATEMALA Deportee from U.S. tests positive A second Guatemalan man has tested positive for the new coronavirus after being deported from the United States, Guatemalas Health Ministry said Friday. The 49-year-old had been deported from Arizona. On Thursday, three children who arrived aboard a deportation flight were placed under observation after they were found to be suffering from severe coughs, one of the symptoms of the virus. Guatemala, which currently has 49 confirmed cases and one death, has expressed concern about deported migrants spreading the virus. Chronicle News Services She is one of Australia's most glamorous women known for her age-defying complexion and her effortlessly chic waves. And now, Former Home and Away actress Pia Miller has shared some of her beauty secrets and the products behind her youthful visage and luscious hair. Speaking to Beauty Heaven, the 36-year-old, revealed her skincare routine includes using the SKII Facial Treatment Mask and Liberty Belle Eye Do and she wouldn't live without them. Pia Miller (pictured) has shared some of her best-kept beauty secrets and the products behind her youthful visage and luscious hair She also revealed that she loves the MAC eye pencil in 'Coffee' and the Kevyn Aucoin Eyelash curler. Pia went on to say that she uses Pantene's Pro-V Daily Moisture Renewal shampoo and conditioner for her long beautiful hair. 'It has no nasties [aka zero silicone] and leaves my hair feeling super lightweight. I dont feel grease [after using it], even after day two and three of washing,' she said. Pia said she uses SKII Facial Treatment Mask, Liberty Belle Eye Do and Pantene's Pro-V Daily Moisture Renewal shampoo and conditioner '[It makes my hair feel more] smooth and nourished so I can wear my hair in all types of styles if needed.' The Chilean-born actress explained that it's important to know what ingredients are in your hair products and she avoids parabens, colourants and mineral oils. She also revealed that her go-to hair style is a natural wave and 'after the shower I brush and try to let it air dry and remain as natural as possible with a little wave'. What are the five products Pia can't live without 1. SKII Facial Treatment Mask $165 from Sephora 2. Liberty Belle Eye Do $168 from Liberty Belle 3. MAC Eye Pencil $35 from MAC Cosmetics 4. Pantene's Pro-V Daily Moisture Renewal shampoo and conditioner 900ml is $15.69 each from Chemist Warehouse 5. Kevyn Aucoin Eyelash curler $34 from Mecca Advertisement She has also previously revealed that she wears 'so much makeup while shooting I like to let me skin breathe when I'm not' In the past, Pia has spoken about her beauty tips and makeup routine. She told Husskie, that she wears 'so much makeup while shooting I like to let me skin breathe when I'm not'. Instead, Pia prefers to add just a slick of 'sunscreen' when she's off-duty and looking after her two children, Isaiah and Lennox. 'In the morning, I cleanse, tone and moisturise using witch hazel products, which leaves my skin feeling fresh and clean,' she said. Pia said she adds a slick of 'sunscreen' when she's off-duty and sometimes adds an 'organic balm' such as the Passionate Skin Care Skin Food product After applying Factor 50 sunscreen, she said she will sometimes add an 'organic balm' such as the Passionate Skin Care Skin Food product, which serves as a hydrating serum for her luminous skin. As soon as she has wrapped on set, Pia added that she'll use a deep cleanser such as the Neutrogena Deep Clean cleanser, in order to get rid of every scrap of make up. 'My routine has evolved over time when I was younger I probably wasn't as aware of what I was putting on my skin as much as I am now,' she told the publication. By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. The United States faces a dire shortage of ventilators for treat ing its COVID-19 patients. The coronavirus crisis has elevated the importance of the right to repair, since keeping machines currently in service operating properly is imperative to saving as many lives as possible. U.S. PIRG, a public interest group that sponsors a Right to Repair Campaign, among other activities, delivered a petition Friday to the ventilator manufacturers, including GE Healthcare, Phillips, Siemens, Drager, Hamilton, Medtronic, calling on them to release immediately service manuals, service keys, schematics and service keys. It has become commonplace indeed, in many areas, its a standard operating procedure for many manufacturers to restrict access to repair documentation. Yet even though thats the case surely manufacturers keep and maintain such information someplace. They must release it now. To do so would allow third-party medical repair companies or in-house medical engineers to try and fix things. when they break, as U.S. PIRG notes. It is far from certain that original equipment manufacturers have sufficient healthy personnel at this time to ensure they can maintain their products so that all who need to use them can do so. Wide access to repair information is nothing less than a matter of life and death. U.S. PIRG points out in a Friday press release: Some manufacturers are making socially responsible changes to their repair policies as a result of the pandemic. For example, Medtronic has gone a step beyond releasing its manuals, providing access to certain part design files. However, so many companies have increased their repair restrictions in recent years, that the repair ecosystem is fragile in this time of crisis. Additionally, according to the same source: iFixit, a leading online provider for service information for all kinds of products, is organizing ventilator service information so that technicians can quickly find the information they need. A single hospital might have ventilators made by four different manufacturers and it can be a headache trying to find the right information, so iFixit is trying to help make that easier, said Kyle Wiens, IFixit.com CEO. We want to make sure that a technician doesnt have to hunt for these manuals every second counts right now. 3D Printing: Repair of Ventilators in Italy Its not just U.S. engineers who have stepped up to find creative ways to repair ventilators. Readers might recall a couple of weeks ago an OEM allegedly threatened to sue a start-up that had supplied 3D printed versions of valves that the OEM couldnt produce. After a flurry of bad press, I note that that the OEM denied these initial reports. I dont hope to be able to get to the bottom of this incident in this post and determine whether the OEM did indeed threaten to sue, and then backed down when confronted with a public relations nightmare. Equally plausible, however, is that nothing of that sort occurred. What I do want to highlight instead is the importance of supplying repair information, quickly and widely, in crisis conditions. For those who missed the original story, this Forbes account covers the gist, Meet The Italian Engineers 3D-Printing Respirator Parts For Free To Help Keep Coronavirus Patients Alive: Christian Fracassi, founder and CEO of Isinnova, an Italian engineering startup, heard the call for help last Friday. The hospital in Chiari, in the Brescia area of northern Italy where the coronavirus pandemic has hit hard, urgently needed valves for its respirators in order to keep patients who required oxygen alive. The manufacturer couldnt provide them quickly enough and the hospital was desperate. Fracassi immediately started tinkering with his engineers to reverse-engineer a 3D-printed version of the official part. Called a venturi valve, it connects to a patients face mask to deliver oxygen at a fixed concentration. The valves need to be replaced for each patient. By Saturday evening, Fracassi had a prototype, and, the next day, he brought it to the Chiari hospital for testing. They told us, Its good. It works. We need 100, says Fracassi, who is 36 and holds a Ph.d. in materials science with a focus on polymers. We printed 100 of them on Sunday, and we gave all the pieces to the hospital. They are working very well. Now, I understand the 3D printing kludge should only be regarded as a stopgap solution, suitable only in emergency conditions. There is no doubt a great deal of legitimate engineering concerns in replacing part of a precision medical device with such an alternative, which has not been designed for this use, nor been subject to testing or confirmation that basic quality standards were met. In such an emergency, it was necessary to ignore such considerations. As Forbes notes: Still, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, 3D printing offers a smart stop-gap solution at least. Davide Sher, the 3D printing analyst who wrote the original story about Isinnova for trade publication 3D Printing Media Network, subsequently created an online Emergency AM Forum to help hospitals, 3D printing companies and inventors share ideas in the fight against COVID-19. As he writes there: While there are both copyright issues and medical issues that need to be taken into account when 3D printing any medical product, and a critical one such as a venturi valve, in particular, this case has shown that a life-and-death situation could warrant using a 3D-printable replica. Fracassi says that Isinnova is now working to design other medical products that hospitals need during the coronavirus pandemic. The first is a mask. The startup created a prototype earlier this week, and sent it to the hospital for testing, he says. We are waiting for a response, and if it works, we are ready, Fracassi says. Then every hospital can make their own masks. EU Right to Repair for Electronics To turn away from the COVID-19 crisis and return for a moment to our regular programming on advances in the right to repair front: The European Commission in March announced its intention to introduce legislation that will extend the existing right to repair beyond some household appliances to include electronics devices (see EU Adopts Right to Repair for Household Appliances and Right to Repair: Will the European Commission Have the Guts to Stand Up to Apple et al? Details on Wednesday). According to a March European Commission press release: Today, the European Commission adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europes new agenda for sustainable growth. With measures along the entire life cycle of products, the new Action Plan aims to make our economy fit for a green future, strengthen our competitiveness while protecting the environment and give new rights to consumers. Building on the work done since 2015, the new Plan focuses on the design and production for a circular economy, with the aim to ensure that the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible. The plan and the initiatives therein will be developed with the close involvement of the business and stakeholder community. Whether or not the Commission will pursue this policy as European Union member states seek to rebuild their economies in the aftermath of the current crisis is unclear. That crisis certainly provides the opportunity to commit to sustainable growth and I guess those of us who care about such issues must seek to ensure that opportunity is not wasted. Nonetheless, the press release is the European Commissions latest word on this issue and it commits itself as follows: The transition towards a circular economy is already underway, with frontrunner businesses, consumers and public authorities in Europe embracing this sustainable model. The Commission will make sure that the circular economy transition delivers opportunities for all, leaving no one behind. The Circular Economy Action Plan put forward today as part of the EU Industrial Strategy presents measures to: Make sustainable products the norm in the EU . The Commission will propose legislation on Sustainable Product Policy, to ensure that products placed on the EU market are designed to last longer, are easier to reuse, repair and recycle, and incorporate as much as possible recycled material instead of primary raw material. Single-use will be restricted, premature obsolescence tackled and the destruction of unsold durable goods banned. Empower consumers. Consumers will have access to reliable information on issues such as the reparability and durability of products to help them make environmentally sustainable choices. Consumers will benefit from a true Right to Repair. [Jerri-Lynn here: Emphasis in original.] Further, the Commission says it will launch concrete actions on electronics and ICT, batteries and vehicles, packaging, plastics, textiles, construction and buildings, and food. And the Commission also addresses the issue of waste although I wont discuss that commitment at this time. As The Daily Swig notes in EU signals future right to repair legislation for smartphone users in member states: Part of the EUs green competitive strategy involves placing increased regulation on the manufacturing supply chain and transforming the way certain products are made. For electronics, this means prospective legislation aimed at ecodesign, as well as ensuring consumers have the right to repair their devices both of which have been welcomed by environmental activist groups such as Right to Repair Europe. In the past, pressure from manufacturers has delayed any action on this front at the European Commission level, Chloe Mikolajczak, a spokesperson from Right to Repair Europe, told The Daily Swig. Similarly, industries get to do their influence work in the ecodesign process behind closed doors, which means its often unchallenged and allowed them to considerably water down the first right to repair provisions. The Bottom Line The European Commission commitment on its face looks promising. Whether it will be achieved during these difficult times, and according to what timetable, especially in the far of massive pushback from industries that have in the past aggressively resisted adopting a right to repair, remains to be seen. VALUE life. This was the message of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who officiated the Palm Sunday Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Cebu City on April 5, 2020. The mass was livestreamed because all religious activities in churches with large congregation were suspended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The churchs pews were empty except for the presence of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, her brother Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) and a few members of their staff. In this time of Covid-19, hopefully we should be serious in giving value to our life. Thats why both civil authority and all people of good will remind us to do our outmost best that we preserve this life that the Lord gave us, Palma said in a mix of Cebuano and English. The prelate urged the faithful to contemplate the importance of life, saying many hardheaded individuals continue to defy authorities call for social distancing and violate the rules of the ongoing enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, is the last Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Holy Week and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified, according to catholic.org. In the Philippines, the faithful attend Palm Sunday masses carrying woven palm fronds blessed by the priests. Despite the ECQ that does not allow non-essential travel outside the home, some people still sold palm fronds outside churches, including the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. There were also a handful of faithful who bought palm fronds that they would attach to the front of their doors for the duration of the Holy Week. In his homily, Palma said the faithful should appreciate all frontliners who risk their lives for the safety of everyone. He hoped that all their sacrifices will not be in vain. Lets appreciate the sacrifices of people that we may have safety... we thank God that we are not affected by Covid, he said. The archbishop also thanked leaders who prioritized the good of the community. (JCT) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 12:18:29|Editor: zyl Video Player Close YANGON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed with 48 others injured in traffic accidents on Myanmar's Yangon-Mandalay highway last month, state-run media quoted Highway Police's figures as saying on Sunday. There were a total of 36 road accident cases reported on Myanmar's busiest highway in March alone. The highway accidents were mostly caused by human error -- overspeeding, negligent driving, drowsy driving and others. In 2019, there were a total of 524 road accidents on Yangon-Mandalay highway, killing 108 and injuring 1,019 others. The highway police force is urging people to comply with traffic laws as well as to cooperate with traffic police in carrying out road safety measures. Aiming to enhance better traffic safety along the highway, the highway authorities have increased the number of road safety police stations, providing 24-hour services for travellers since 2012. The 587-km long highway, connecting the country's commercial city Yangon and the second largest city of Mandalay, was opened to lessen the travel time between the two cities in December 2010. Pro-life students sue Georgia Tech over refusal to fund Alveda King event Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A student group has sued the Georgia Institute of Technology, claiming that they discriminated against them when they requested and were denied funding for an event featuring pro-life activist Alveda King. The Students for Life at Georgia Tech filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division. The suit names as defendants various Georgia Tech officials, the schools Student Government Association, and the Regents of the University System of Georgia. At issue was the SGAs refusal last year to provide funding for an event featuring King, with the suit claiming that the funding was denied because of the speakers religious and pro-life views. The suit also argues that speaker requests from other student groups "are routinely 'fast tracked' without any discussion" by SGA members. It is discriminatory and unconstitutional to withhold funding from student activity fees that students have already paid into simply because a group holds a pro-life, conservative, or religious belief, states the complaint. The Supreme Court made it clear twenty years ago that if public universities wish to force students to pay student activity fees, then those universities have an affirmative duty to ensure that the funds are distributed in a viewpoint neutral mannernot by a simple majority vote. The students are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a high-profile conservative law firm that specializes in religious liberty cases. ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said in a statement released Wednesday that he believed Georgia Techs student government engaged in unconstitutional behavior. The student government discriminated against the viewpoints of Students for Life and Ms. King in favor of the views of students the SGA members were afraid to offend, he said. Rather than exemplify this sort of hostility toward the First Amendment, universities should exemplify the importance of those freedoms. When they dont, they communicate to an entire generation that the Constitution doesnt matter. The Christian Post received a statement via email from Georgia Tech regarding the lawsuit, explaining that they just learned of the lawsuit and do not comment on pending litigation. Georgia Tech holds freedom of expression as an essential cornerstone to the advancement of knowledge, it added. The University System of Georgia similarly told CP that they do not give comment on pending litigation, but said they supported freedom of speech on campus. [T]he USG is committed to protecting the free expression rights of our students, faculty, staff, and those on our campuses. The USG is reviewing the complaint along with the Georgia Attorney Generals Office," they stated. New Delhi: Several foreign missions have come out in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call of solidarity by switching off lights and lighting up diyas, candles and torches at 9 pm on Sunday night at mission offices and residences of diplomats. PM Modi had called for switching off of lights for nine minutes and lighting up candles, diyas or torches as a mark of solidarity with each other while the world fights the COVID-19 challenge. In the South Asian region -- Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives missions have confirmed that they participate in the nationwide solidarity call against COVID-19. Afghan Envoy Tahir Qadiry, who has been very busy leading the evacuation of Afghan nations also enthusiastically supported the call. He said, "I will be switching off lights and lighting a candle at 9 pm tonight for 9 minutes to support Prime Minister Narendra Modis call to showcase our solidarity and our concerted efforts in a battle against the coronavirus pandemic." "Lets all pledge to diligently maintain social distancing and take right precautions," he added. Nepal's envoy Nilamber Acharya told WION, "We, Nepal and India, are all in full solidarity in this fight against COVID-19 pandemic." While, Bangladesh envoy Mohammad Imran echoed the same sentiment saying, "We will participate in the nationwide collective resolve to defeat coronavirus." Meanwhile, outside the south Asian region, missions and diplomats from Vietnam, Japan, Australia, Israel, German, Tunisia, Mexico have confirmed participation. British acting high commissioner Jan Thompson also confirmed her participation in PM's solidarity call. Polish envoy Adam Burakowski told WION, "Poland stands united with India and with all the world to fight the coronavirus. I am sure that if we all take preventive measures, the threat will be much lower and that we would recover soon. Long live Polish-Indian friendship!" Polish community in Delhi will also participate in the event, he confirmed. Vietnam's Ambassador to India, Pham Sanh Chau said, "All our 30 diplomatic residences and offices will join in Prime Minister Modis call to show solidarity in the fight against coronavirus by lighting up candles at 9:00 pm tonight." German envoy Walter J. Lindner in response to WIONs question on the mission's participation said, "Will do! Underlining our common effort to get through this together!" In a tweet, Israeli deputy chief of mission Maya Kadosh said," I gathered all my candle holders and placed them out at my windows #9pm9minutes" Earlier in March, PM Modi had called for a 14-hour self imposed isolation, the 'Janta curfew', and had urged everyone to come out at 5 pm and ring bells, the missions and foreign diplomats had participated in that too. Three people have been arrested after police in Liverpool were called to two stabbings and a shooting in the space of 20 minutes. One teenager is in a critical condition after the series of incidents in Toxteth last night, Merseyside Police said. Officers were called at 9.54pm after a 18-year-old man received multiple stab wounds to his head and chest on Carter Street. He was taken to hospital by ambulance where he is in a critical but stable condition. A 17-year-old boy and 20-year-old man from Toxteth were arrested in connection with the stabbing, a police spokesman said. Police also received a report a 20-year-old man had been shot on Gwent Street. He arrived at hospital with a gunshot wound to his hip but was discharged. Police also received a report a 20-year-old man had been shot on Gwent Street (pictured) Twenty minutes later officers were called by paramedics to Hatherley Close where a 17-year-old boy was being treated for a stab wound to the buttocks. The victim, who has been released from hospital, is not co-operating with police. A 29-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of affray following the incident. Det Insp Jenni Beck said: 'We are in the early stages of investigating these incidents and are keeping an open mind, although given the times and locations of the incidents we can't rule out that they may be linked. 'Three young men have been assaulted in a 20-minute period within a short distance of each other, one of those young men is in a critical condition. 'Please if you have information come forward so we can identify those responsible and put them before the courts.' NEW HAVEN A 31-year-old New Haven man was fatally struck on Ella Grasso Boulevard near Adeline Street Saturday night. Capt. Anthony Duff said two motor vehicles were involved in the accident. One vehicle operator remained on scene while a second involved motorist left the scene. New Haven police officers were on scene around 8 p.m. for a motor vehicle accident where the man was hit. The name of the victim has not been released. Ella Grasso Boulevard remained closed for hours after there accident Anyone with information is asked to contact the New Haven Police Department at (203) 946-6304. Callers may remain anonymous. Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The Tunisian security on Friday night arrested one of the biggest alleged drug traffickers involved in 30 cases Theres distancing, and theres distancing. Did my years cleaning dog and cat poop for Darien veterinarians way back in the 1970s help inoculate me from the coronavirus? Doubtful, but more on that later. Lets talk about something a little more close in time, and someone who should be a lot more distant. Its your governor Im worried about. Now heres a guy we know did not sign up for this moment in history, when everything is literally going down in flames around us. The $60 million state budget deficit of a month ago, when the COVID freight train was still off in the future? It seems so quaint now that a new half-billion-dollar deficit, maybe $1.5 billion by July 1, 2021 is even less a concern than the 220,000 unemployment claims over the last two weeks, the shuttered businesses, the untimely deaths in the hundreds and the percentage of the populace justifiably paralyzed by the thought of going outside and inhaling the virus. As Dannel Malloys perseverance and leadership within the tragedy of the Newtown school massacre was the hallmark of his time in the governors office, this moment is Ned Lamonts. But at 66, hes in the coronavirus sweet spot. Youd figure hed follow his own admonitions on social distancing. But what made him electable (Remember when he defeated U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary?) the personable, easy-to-talk-to nice guy is what could land him in the hospital. As a rule, politicians are people persons, and people like to get close to them. Take last week, at Bio-Med Devices, Inc, the manufacturing and assembly plant in Guilford thats making 10 urgently needed hospital ventilators a week for the state. Lamonts hour-long visit was a study in the dangers of people bunched up in one place. Argh, I shouted in my head while leaning tightly against a wall in a 12-by-12 waiting room with two news photographers, Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey, state Sen. Christine Cohen and state Rep. Sean Scanlon. Were all breathing! Cut it out! Finally allowed back into the manufacturing area, there were two dozen workers, part of the seven-day-a-week operation of the company. Their work tables were well-lighted and they were at least six feet apart as they assembled and tested. CEO Dean Bennett told Lamont about the supply chain problems the company experienced with a company from China. Lamont, dressed in a blazer and open collar, asked some questions in a way too-close-for-socially distant group of four company officials standing near one of the workers. A few minutes later, the group began a slow walk through the area for a little one-on-one breakage of social distancing and the governor chatted with individual workers. Only one of the casually dressed employees wore a surgical face mask. By Wednesday at Southern Connecticuts State Universitys Moore Field House, I was fit to be tied. The sun was shining but it was a little cold. News photographers were cheek-by-jowl, as usual, as they set up in a phalanx inside the gym. No way I was going in there with those heavy breathers. Fortunately, the National Guard troops who had just set up the 200-bed field hospital in a few hours, had some sanitary standards, so they kicked everyone out and Lamont, after a brief tour, held his daily news conference outside. As usual, Lamont was the center of a group for which the six-foot social distance effort was someone elses standards, apparently. At least Dr. Steven Choi, chief quality officer for the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale New Haven Health System, had a six-foot force field in his vicinity while explaining that the pop-up medical unit on the gym floor will be available if other hospitals get inundated. Were predicting that the worst weeks are ahead of us in the upcoming month of April, Choi said, stressing that recovering COVID patients would be transferred there to free up acute care hospital beds. Everyone was still too close to the governor, whose daily schedule has had way too many field trips and encounters with people who want to get close. Cut it out! This guy needs to stay well, now that the General Assembly session is all but abandoned and we all hope for a dose of COVID-19 herd immunity. At least Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz has diverted her daily schedule from Lamonts proximity. So Im on the phone with one of my oldest friends, a veterinarian now in upstate New York with whom I scraped many a filthy dog and cat cage back in high school and college. My friend, whose daughter is an infectious disease specialist for the CDC, reads the coronavirus literature and was reminded that there are similar, rare viruses in our favorite pets. He half-joked that perhaps all his contact with animals over the years has somehow inoculated him from COVID-19. Maybe you have some too, for all the poop you scooped back then, he told me. Would that, I replied, mean I developed turd immunity? kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT Although it may have seemed an eternity, Canada has been on a travel lockdown for only two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, and many Canadians didnt see major disruptions to their ordinary lives until mid-March. For Canadians like Shahien Alipour, however, who have family in global epicentres of the pandemic, the coronavirus has been a cause of distress for months. Alipour was born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area, but feels closely connected with his Iranian culture. The York University student speaks fluent Farsi and together with his parents, he would visit Tehran once or sometimes twice a year to take in the historical sites and spend time with extended family. Just today, I got off the phone with my cousin. He told me he got it, he said in an interview with the Star on Wednesday. His cousin, who is 32, is expecting to make a full recovery from COVID-19, but several of their older relatives in Iran werent as lucky. Three of my dads cousins died from coronavirus. I hadnt met them personally, but just wow, Alipour said with a tone of disbelief. He is worried about his surviving relatives, because Iran was already in a precarious state with serious economic and political problems. Now, the country has been devastated by coronavirus, with more than 53,000 confirmed cases and at least 3,294 confirmed deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. While Alipour has been reading the news from Iran and around the world since early February, he felt that many of his friends and acquaintances in Toronto werent taking the highly infectious disease seriously at first. I feel that Canadians do tend to live in a bubble where we assume bad things happen elsewhere, Alipour said. Now that the bubble has burst, weve been re-examining our lives and I hope that leads to a breakdown of barriers between people and nations. As Yue Qian, a Vancouver-based native of Wuhan put it: If we think of coronavirus as a global battle, there were first and second halves. For people with transnational ties, weve had to experience the whole battle. This adds more stress because weve been worrying about the situation since January, she said. Then there was the dynamic where Asians who quickly began to social distance and wear masks at the outset of the pandemic were being mocked for overreacting. Qian is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her current research focuses on a cross-cultural analysis of human experiences of the coronavirus pandemic. The effectiveness of quarantine and social distancing measures seems to differ between countries, she said, speculating that cultural norms might have something to do with it, but there isnt data to prove it. For Laurel Chor, a Canadian-born multimedia journalist from Hong Kong who recently reported on coronavirus in Italy, the relatively relaxed response shes seen from some Westerners has been baffling. Chor lives in Hong Kong, where there has been intensive handwashing, social distancing and a near-universal wearing of masks in public. Despite its proximity to mainland China, there have only been four coronavirus-related deaths in the city. In Milan, I was really shocked. I didnt understand what was going on, she told the Star, adding she was very surprised by how people were reacting. I was there one week after the region had gone into lockdown, and at that point people were getting bored of it and already coming back out and saying the government was taking it too seriously and it was just the flu. I was at a cafe scripting, and on the other side, there was a man coughing uncontrollably at the faces of his three companions, and they didnt care, Chor said. If this happened in Hong Kong, he would be kicked out by an angry mob. I just didnt understand how everyone was being nonchalant. She thinks peer pressure and self-consciousness might have something to do with the different reactions. When people around you arent reacting, you dont want to react. You dont want to be the odd one out. And in Hong Kong, everyone was reacting, so you want to react. Its interesting how the prevailing attitude indicates how everyone acts, because no one wants to be the odd one out. Alipour thinks that differing levels of trust in a society are a factor, too. In Iran, many people have been disillusioned and angered by the government for so long, that even if officials there had responded more quickly, he doesnt think that wouldve galvanized much public action. People in Iran seemed to start taking it seriously mostly after they saw that it was spreading and people were dying, so people started staying home and shutting down businesses out of concern for their communities, Alipour said. I would say to Canadians, dont think this will happen only to other people. It can happen to anyone. But there are ways to protect ourselves, so keep your heads up and have hope. Joanna Chiu is a Vancouver-based reporter covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu Read more about: Robert Schuller has a no-nonsense quote that's resonating with me at this moment: "Tough times never last, but tough people do". Together we have been facing an emergency and lockdown that has been deeply challenging on many levels. I think we have faced it with fortitude, grace and resilience, with lots of us choosing to use our newly acquired time to upskill and learn new things. Beauty/skincare/makeup may seem unimportant in such times, and to a certain extent this is true, but it's also a much needed distraction and also a potential opportunity. We can use this time to perhaps learn how to make our own skincare, deodorant, haircare products, and also learn how to do our own treatments - like waxing and hair colouring - skills that can perhaps help us save on our personal budgets as we face into financially uncertain times. As Einstein said: "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity" To help you learn some new skills, I've listed some YouTube channels that I think you'll like to help you use this time productively - or even just to zone out for a few minutes and relax. Natural soap Expand Close Natural Soap hand wash / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Natural Soap hand wash Irish natural skincare line The Handmade Soap Company began its life at founders Donagh and Gemma Quigley's kitchen table, slap bang in the middle of the last recession in 2010. Armed with little more than two pots, some elbow grease and the most natural ingredients, The Handmade Soap Company was born. Starting out small, they sold their soaps at farmers' markets, to friends and family and from these humble beginnings, their business just grew and grew. Fast-forward to 2020, and they are a best-selling skincare brand winning multiple prestigious international beauty awards! Grapefruit and May Changa Hand Wash, 12.95, thehandmadesoapcompany.com Three budget hand-helpers Family fave Expand Close Cera Ve / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cera Ve This is a moisturising cream cleansing hand wash suitable for all the family (it's dermatologically tested). This is suitable for all skin types, but especially good for dry and sensitive skin. This is a very generous size hand wash that will last aeons. DETAILS: Cera Ve Hydrating Cleanser, 10, from pharmacies nationwide. Soft touch Video of the Day Expand Close Carex / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Carex For a budget beaut that will wash hands without sucking them dry of every last bit of moisture and will suit every wallet, try this Aloe Vera-infused wash. DETAILS: Carex Aloe Vera Hand Wash, 2.95, from pharmacies and grocery retailers nationwide. Gently does it Expand Close Elave sensitive hand wash / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Elave sensitive hand wash Elave is a brilliant, no-nonsense Irish skincare brand that is a brilliant option for all the family - even little hands can use this. If your hands are raw, chapped or even broken in places, this is a super gentle option that won't sting your skin and suck out even more moisture. Zero synthetic chemical nasties in this gem. DETAILS: Elave Sensitive Hand Wash, 8.50, from pharmacies nationwide. Six of the best beauty vloggers Natural Beauty Expand Close Diane Abetweene / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Diane Abetweene Fancy using lockdown to learn new skills? Philadelphia-based natural skincare advocate Ariane has easy-to-follow recipes and guides on how to make and use your own skincare remedies - all delivered in a chilled, relaxing manner. Why not learn how to make your own all-natural deodorant, moisturisers, haircare, and even make your own sugar wax for tackling areas needing a bit of attention since we can't make our usual appointments on lockdown? This site has a tonne of videos and tutorials with recipes on how to make your own skincare - mostly from ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboard or from your local health store. WHERE TO WATCH: youtube.com/user/abetweene The A-list Artist Expand Close Lisa Eldridge / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lisa Eldridge Lisa Aldridge is a makeup artist with decades of experience on magazine cover shoots and A-listers alike. Her channel is brilliant for anyone looking to up their makeup skills and techniques in a grown-up way. This channel (with a handsome 2 million subscribers) focuses on wearable, elegant makeup looks that will suit every age. I think you'll like this channel as it highlights the subtle use of makeup as opposed to a very heavy-handed, uber-glam approach. For a bit of fun, check out her makeover videos and chats with celebs like Keira Knightley, Victoria Beckham and actress Kate Bosworth. WHERE TO WATCH: youtube.com/user/lisaeldridgedotcom Tress is More Expand Close Peter Mark / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Peter Mark Hair salons nationwide may be closed during the lockdown, but Peter Mark has come up with a brilliant solution to help us look after our hair at home. They've launched an online video series featuring their top hair experts providing pro tips. So whether we want to learn how to use our styling tools, find out about the best products for our hair type or have a specific issue such as thinning hair or scalp problems, the team is on hand to answer all our haircare questions. The videos will be posted to the Peter Mark social media channels, and we're encouraged to send in our questions to hairgoals@petermark.ie or on social media using the #HomeHairHelp and they will create a video answering our specific queries. WHERE TO WATCH: instagram.com/petermarkhair Sister Act Expand Close Sam and Nic Chapman / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sam and Nic Chapman The sister act behind best-selling Real Techniques makeup brushes, Sam and Nicola Chapman, have a whopping 2.15 million subscribers to their YouTube channels, where they focus on step-by-step makeup tutorials with very honest product reviews and chats at the same time. Learn how to perfect your cat flick eyeliner, apply lashes, or contour like a pro. With a tonne of content to choose from - from Halloween ghosts to the natural no-make-up look to 1990s supermodel glam - this channel will keep you busy learning every trick of the trade during lockdown. WHERE TO WATCH: youtube.com/user/pixiwoo The Skincare Guru Expand Close Caroline Hirons / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Caroline Hirons This plain-speaking, no-nonsense qualified facialist has become the sweetheart of the skincare world with her down-to-earth attitude and no-jargon skincare advice. Check out her YouTube channel and blog (with over 100 million hits) if you're looking to get (very!) honest product recommendations, direction on what skincare we need and what we don't, advice on how to amp up our skincare routines, tips to understand skincare ingredients and debunk some skincare myths! (Her tutorial on how to use retinol correctly is a particularly good one. WHERE TO WATCH: youtube.com/user/dixierae25 Beauty After 60 Expand Close Melissa55 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Melissa55 The utterly gorgeous 64-year-old Melissa55 uploads beauty, skincare and haircare videos on YouTube with the tagline 'Life and Beauty after 60'. The stunning Tennessee native has seven grandchildren, and is so sweet and funny when she chats about empty-nest syndrome, minding her grandchildren, living with her husband Doug - all while sharing makeup tricks for mature skin, hair hacks for the over-60s and skincare rituals that work. She is divine! WHERE TO WATCH: youtube.com/user/volmel55 LANSING, MI -- Michigans top House leaders dont see eye to eye on whether, or how lawmakers should return to session Tuesday, April 7. House Democratic Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills expressed grave concerns about returning to session without extra precautions to protect the health and safety of members, staff, and the public, she wrote in a Saturday letter to Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering. Grieg previously requested the House follow social distancing guidelines from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with implementing screening protocols for members and staff that would include symptom and temperature checks, according to the letter. Grieg also requested that each lawmaker wear masks or face coverings during session. Next Michigan legislative session will look a lot different amid coronavirus outbreak Lawmakers are expected to gather Tuesday to consider an extension of Michigans state of emergency in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer requested a 70-day extension, but Republican lawmakers have disagreed, including Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who said he favors a shorter extension. Greig in the letter said she was dismayed to read press reports that Chatfield intends to ask the House to consider a concurrent resolution that purports to extend Governor Whitmers declaration of a state of emergency and state of disaster for only 23 days." To be frank, such an extension is grossly inadequate to the all-important task before us, Greig wrote. It is indefensible and unconscionable to expose Members, staff, and the public to the risk of novel coronavirus transmission to take a vote that amounts to little more than political theatre and will certainly require the House to return to approve an actual extension in just three weeksprecisely when public health experts predict the COVID-19 pandemic will be at its peak in Michigan." In response, Chatfield said the House has a plan for symptom and temperature checks that mirrors the guidelines established by the MDHHS and CDC. Every possible measure will be taken to minimize the risk of exposure to legislators and staff as they do what millions of other Michigan residents are doing every day and show up to perform an essential service, Chatfield wrote in his own letter. Of course, any elected official who feels unsafe will need to do what they feel is best, and directions will be sent out shortly informing members who have had either symptoms or contact with possible COVID19-positive residents to stay home. Chatfield added the public deserves to know Michigans plan for bringing people back to work and why the state cant adequately provide them with unemployment benefits. Those questions demand real, tangible answers before we simply sign away their jobs, their freedoms and their way of life until the middle of the summer, Chatfield said. The Michigan House has been asking those questions, and we will continue to raise them until the people of Michigan have peace of mind. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Michigan here COVID-19 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. Michigan orders quicker reporting of coronavirus deaths by physicians, funeral homes Inside the TCF Center as soldiers, engineers build field hospital for coronavirus patients Stabenow, Peters sponsor bill seeking $500 coronavirus payments for older dependents Hash Bash 2020 held online as police make sure Diag stays clear The Rapid increasing bus services to minimize crowding during coronavirus outbreak New coronavirus cases in Michigan take a dip, deaths climb to 540 Matthew Stafford, Detroit sports coaches issue call for doctors, nurses to come to Michigan Emerson, a global automation technology and engineering company, has launched its new software, DataManager v8.2, that will help refiners to better secure health, safety of operations and surrounding communities. The new DataManager software v8.2 helps refiners monitor corrosion of hydrofluoric (HF) acid alkylation units to prevent costly, unplanned shutdowns and maximize profits and productivity. Engineered with a unique new signal processing module, the solution delivers data directly to the engineers desk with wireless, non-intrusive sensors that communicate with an Emerson Wireless Gateway, reducing the frequency of manual inspections, said the statement from Emerson. These sensors are designed to withstand harsh, potentially high-temperature refinery conditions, it stated. DataManager Analysis Software for Rosemount Wireless Permasense corrosion and erosion monitoring systems offers continuous sensor monitoring that provides early detection of corrosion in HF acid alkylation units and mitigates the risk of loss of containment. Alkylation units ensure facilities meet gasoline quality specifications and allow for the production of premium gasoline grades, adding significant economic value to the refinery operation. These units are extremely susceptible to aggressive corrosion. Corrosion can lead to an HF release, which may cause significant production loss and place the health and safety of the refinery staff and local community at risk, said the statement from Emerson. Measuring corrosion damage in HF acid alkylation units using traditional methods is difficult. Iron fluoride can scale and build up on the inside of pipes, confusing normal ultrasonic thickness measurements. Additionally, traditional intrusive probes or frequent manual inspections present safety risks due to the hazardous environment of these units, it stated. Emersons new version of DataManager solves these problems by helping refiners gain a better understanding of the correlation between corrosion rates and upsets or changes in process conditions, the statement added. "Today's refineries require monitoring technology that can safeguard their people and their business," remarked Jake Davies, global corrosion product director at Emerson's Automation Solutions business. "Reducing the risks from HF acid attacks and minimizing the potential for leaks allows facilities to better forecast equipment lifespan while also securing the health and safety of their employees," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Malaysia on Sunday detained 202 suspected Rohingya Muslims who arrived illegally by boat, a top official said, raising fears that people smugglers are back in action despite the coronavirus pandemic. Zulinda Ramly, deputy director with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, told AFP a large fishing boat ferried the suspected Rohingya migrants to the northern resort island of Langkawi. Malaysia is a favoured destination for the migrants from Myanmar as it is a Muslim majority nation with a sizeable Rohingya diaspora. With few opportunities for jobs and education in Myanmar or refugee camps in Bangladesh, thousands have attempted to reach Southeast Asian nations. Zulinda said the migrants were detained by maritime authorities for questioning and will be handed over to immigration officials. "Authorities are investigating complaints by the migrants that three individuals -- a boat captain and two crew members -- were operatives of a human smuggling ring," she said in a statement. The three apparently escaped to sea after bringing the boat into Malaysian waters. Coronavirus is the biggest story of our lives and a billion plus people expect us to be around, watching, reporting, editing, recording this for posterity and blowing the whistle to draw attention to injustices and State failures, notes Shekhar Gupta. IMAGE: A family cross a deserted road in Vijayawada. Photograph: ANI Photo You have to be reckless, even impertinent and a little nutty to steal the headline of your column from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The truth is, we journalists are usually all three of these. If we are also generally forgiven for these flaws and more, it is because people, by and large, know where we are coming from. In so many years, in fact, decades, in journalism, I have never been treated rudely or in an uncivil manner by almost anyone, even those who might have had reason to be angry. In riots, insurgencies, calamities, election campaigns, we journalists find we are generally treated well, and with respect. Even the rough guys, whose cause might need them to kill with passion, would often share their meals with you, escort you to safety. The odd exception apart. There is honour among thieves. Where does this come from? Who taught the billion-plus people of this vast and diverse nation that journalists are important to them? That they are decent folk they can trust the stories of their lives with, even political views. If you travel during election campaigns, you'd be struck by how welcoming and generous people are to journalists they may have never known. It is remarkable how forthcoming even the women in the poorest villages have become. This is a unique social contract between the people of India and their journalists. The bedrock of this is their belief that we do our jobs diligently and bravely. That's why the first call so many aggrieved people across the country make, when the government or the police aren't listening to them, is to a media organisation. All these are exactly the expectations they have from us as we now deal with what could be the biggest story of our lives, the coronavirus threat. We, the kinship of Indian journalism, will be tested as never before. Future generations of Indians will hold us to this. Let's recall that famous World War-I British recruitment poster: Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War? It is that kind of a moment for us. This is a deadly global pandemic. Every country is caught in its own problems, every man for himself. In his address to the nation on Thursday, the prime minister made an important point: That today, no country is in a position to help another. India is alone in this. We have a complex, messy country with lots and lots of people less privileged and resourceful than us. One of the great gifts of India to us journalists is the respect and freedoms we are instinctively given. We must remember where the social contract I mentioned earlier comes from. The freedom of the press is hardly codified by any law or the Constitution. Article 19 applies to each citizen equally and accords no special rights to us journalists. Until Indira Gandhi's Emergency, we took our freedoms for granted. And when she took it all away, there was nowhere to go to. Not even to the courts. It is, then, that the people of India, enormously poorer and less literate than today, realised that among the things she had stolen from them was a free press. That it was a particularly cheap thing for her to do. That it would never want any establishment to be able to do so. That's where this social contract came from. This is the equivalent of the First Amendment for Indian journalism. But, if they so value and protect our freedoms, they will also judge whether we justify them or not. I hear you, fellow journalists, when some of you express fears. No one, at least no one sensible, is ever totally fearless. Fear is good and self-preservation a vital instinct. As old wisdom goes, jaan hai, toh jahaan hai (the world matters to me only if I am alive). No one need be reckless. Experience taught me this wading through troubled and violent places in my years as a danger-junkie. The last thing any decent newsroom leader would want is to expose anyone to undue risk. But we are journalists. As the biggest story of our lives plays out, there are a billion-plus people enormously more fearful and less protected than us. They expect us to be around, watching, reporting, editing, recording this for posterity, and blowing the whistle to draw attention to injustices and state failures. In situations like this wretched coronavirus calamity, we journalists are the first responders of justice -- and history. If we fail to do so, it will be a failure so colossal that we might as well stop calling ourselves journalists. And mind you, just because some of us fail this test, not everyone will. Some honourable people from our professional clan will shine. The future generations will forever have some journalists of this era to admire. Those who miss out won't be forgotten easily. Just that they won't be remembered in the way they'd wish to be. I have always believed that everything ultimately turns out to be "less worse" than it seems to begin with. I've been right always, with one exception: The tsunami. I'd say, all of us will survive this and have stories to tell through the rest of our lives. We journalists are like cockroaches, and this isn't meant to be an insult to the poor insect. It is just that, like them, we shall survive anything. Someone asked me a good question in the newsroom in this stressful week. What if things turned real bad and some of us also died while on the story? The answer is simple: Even in the most unlikely event of such a thing happening, there will be some journalists covering the story. Journalism will do its job. Twice in his speech, the prime minister listed the media among essential services, like doctors, hospital staff, police, and government officers. Frankly, it's a happy change to be described as an essential service. In the decades we were growing up, we were mostly described as a pestilence! We must believe we are important and provide an essential service. Our pride, our self-esteem, our sense of destiny all emanate from that one belief: That we matter. Issues with the establishment, we will always have. But who, in which democracy, doesn't? Watch the insults Donald J Trump routinely hurls at the finest American bylines and the greatest institutions in global media. Or, take inspiration from the BBC when, in the midst of the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher attacked it for not being patriotic enough and treating the two antagonists equally. 'The BBC needs no lesson in patriotism from the present British conservative government,' said Richard Francis, who then headed BBC Radio. 'The widow of Portsmouth is no different from the widow of Buenos Aires.' We will keep questioning and irritating governments. They will retaliate. This game will go on. Just that the intensity or nastiness will vary from one regime to another. But, a crisis like this should make us toss those worries away for now. So, fasten your seat belts. Journalism in the time of corona is a story like no other yet. By special arrangement with The Print COVID-19 UK Lockdown Measures Could be Loosened Within Weeks - Gov't Adviser Sputnik News 10:50 GMT 04.04.2020 Many Brits are looking for a glimmer of hope as the number of recorded deaths in their country from COVID-19 (3,605) surpasses that of even China (3, 326). A senior adviser to the UK government has announced that social distancing measures in the country may be relaxed within a matter of weeks amidst signs that the spread of the Coronavirus may be slowing. Professor Neil Ferguson, a British epidemiologist who has been advising Boris Johnson's government on its response to the Coronavirus epidemic, told BBC Radio 4 that the number of Brits with the disease is expected to plateau in 7-10 days, and then following that, social distancing measures may be loosened. "The critical thing first is to get case numbers down, and then I'm hopeful... in a few weeks' time we will be able to move to a regime which will not be normal life, let me emphasise that, but will be somewhat more relaxed in terms of social distancing and the economy, but relying more on testing," Professor Ferguson told the BBC. However, Mr Ferguson also sounded a note of caution, adding that "we still think things will plateau but we'll be at quite high levels of infection for weeks and weeks rather than seeing quite a rapid decline as the type seen in China." A report was released by Professor Ferguson and his team of researchers last month, which predicted that unless the government acted quick to impose strict lockdown measures, then up to 250,000 people in the UK could perish from COVID-19. On the heels of that publication, Boris Johnson called for Brits to swallow the bitter pill by engaging in strict social distancing and quarantine measures. Professor Ferguson also said during his BBC interview that he was "hopeful" that antibody tests could be ready within days. As a consequence, according to the Professor, some of the more stringent social distancing restrictions could be relaxed as access to testing should allow for contact tracing within the next few weeks. Prof Ferguson added: "We want to move to a situation where at least by the end of May that we're able to substitute some less intensive measures, more based on technology and testing, for the complete lockdown we have now." Yet, Professor Ferguson is not the only scientist advising the government on responses to COVID-19, and not all share his optimistic assessment. Professor Graham Medley, who works on building pandemic response models and also advises Boris Johnson, has warned that the UK has "painted itself into a corner" without an exit strategy from the Coronavirus crisis. In a report by the Times, Professor Medley said that according to his modelling, loosening the social distancing measures by allowing people to return to work and by reopening schools would only facilitate an explosion in virus infection numbers. Moreover, he argued, no way to avoid such an outcome has yet been discovered. Prof Medley told The Times: "This disease is so nasty that we had to suppress it completely. Then we've kind of painted ourselves into a corner, because then the question will be, what do we do now?" "If we carry on with lockdown it buys us more time, we can get more thought put into it, but it doesn't resolve anything, it's a placeholder," he added. Mr Medley went on to warn that the solution may be just as terrifying as the disease itself: that the UK government may have to consider allowing people to catch the Coronavirus to prevent an indefinite shutdown of the country and its economy. He added that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have a "big decision" to make on April 13 when the nationwide lockdown will be reviewed. Many health professionals in the UK argue that mass-testing is vital to stem the spread of Coronavirus. So far, approximately 10,000 tests are being carried out per day. The government's Health Secretary, Matthew Hancock, has committed to carrying out 100,00 per day by the end of April. Yet, doubts remain as to whether such an ambitious goal is possible considering the chronic shortage of supplies. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nations around the world are trying their best to fight against COVID-19. This novel coronavirus has infected over 8 lakh people and claimed the lives of over 40,000. With every passing day, the coronavirus is taking a tighter grasp on the lives of the people, halting the entire world in its way. bccl/representational image However, medical warriors in protective clothing and face masks are doing whatever it takes to save the lives of those who are infected. And every nation today is trying a different approach to cure COVID-19, with respect to the choice of medications. It is no news that there is no direct vaccine or treatment for the novel coronavirus and while many are under development, theyll take quite some time to be readily available in the market -- subject to rigorous testing and regulatory approval, of course. However, until then, doctors are trying combinations of certain medications to ease the symptoms that patients are experiencing. And every country is trying its own set of combos that are working best in their favour. Here's how some countries around the world are offering to treat their patients suffering from COVID-19. China Lets start with the place where it all started. In China, over 82,431 people were infected with the novel coronavirus, and it claimed the lives of around 3,332 people. Doctors in China used a combination of several drugs in the initial stage to stabilise the pneumonia-like symptoms. Reuters But in the end, what worked for them was an anti-malarial drug called Chloroquine. Some doctors also recommended Favipiravir -- an antiviral drug from Japan. Along with this, it provided glucocorticoids to reduce inflammation and help open airways during respiratory disease. Japan Japan is another place where the novel coronavirus infected 2384 people while claiming the lives of 57. In Japan, doctors used Avigan (an antiviral drug) during the initial stages of COVID-19. While the drug has shown success in most cases, the drug hasnt worked effectively in severe cases of COVID-19. India The cases in India have been skyrocketing since the past few days. Today we have a total of 2032 infected cases and 58 deaths in total. The whole country is under lockdown to prevent the spreading of the novel coronavirus. Reuters Doctors in India are relying on Hydroxychloroquine, which is a slightly lighter variant of the Chloroquine that was used in China. Indian Council of Medical Research has recommended using this with azithromycin antibiotic to ease symptoms of patients. Doctors are also recommending oseltamivir (Tamiflu) in some cases. In extreme cases, doctors are also seen to give HIV drugs Lopinavir and Ritonavir, which worked for Italian patient in Jaipur. United States Today, United Staes sits on top in the number of infected cases at 216,786, with over 5148 people dead from the novel coronavirus. Reuters While medical authorities are fighting shortage of ventilators and medical supplies, theyre relying on Remdesivir (recommended by National Institute of Health) an antiviral drug that is known to block RNA-dependent polymerase. Along with this, theyre also using antimalarial drug Hydroxychloroquine. Italy & France The aftermath of COVID-19 infection is unprecedented, infecting over 110,574 and claiming the lives of a staggering 13,155. France, on the other hand, has 57,780 infected cases and 4083 deaths due to the novel coronavirus. Just like the US, both the European countries are relying on Remdesivir and Hydroxychloroquine for curing COVID-19 cases. Reuters South Korea COVID-19 has wreaked havoc in South Korea too, infecting 9,976 and claiming lives of 169. However, COVID-19 cases in South Korea have reduced exponentially. While many are linking this to better civic co-operation with respect to self-quarantine and clarity in travel history, the drug that was used to cure infected patients is equally responsible. The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) approved the use of hzVSF v13 (humanized Virus Suppressing Factor; VSF) developed by Immunemed. Reports have revealed that 2 to 3 doses in patients have eliminated the presence of COVID-19 in just 10 days. A 100-year-old Tuberculosis drug that can fight COVID-19 Apart from these drugs, scientists in Australia are trying to use Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) an immunity shot that usually works against TB, early-stage bladder cancer, and hope that the vaccine would have a similar effect on the Coronavirus. Even the World Health Organisation is encouraging international groups to try out BCG and note its effects. Fake chloroquine seized in Limbe Facebook The Coronavirus outbreak has sparked a new trend in counterfeit medical items. Tons of counterfeit Chloroquine medications were seized at the Bota Wharf in Limbe by elements of Cameroons Navy Wednesday, said Colonel Sone Clement. Two men, of Nigerian origin, who were transporting the fake chloroquine tablets were also arrested in the April 1, 2020 operation and are now helping security officials with investigations. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease has offered an opportunity for fast cash, as criminals take advantage of the high market demand for personal protection and hygiene products. The seizure of more than 128,000 counterfeit chloroquine tablets reveals only the tip of the iceberg regarding this new trend in counterfeiting medical items related to the Coronavirus pandemic. But Colonel Sone says they are working day and night to secure the countrys maritime space especially following the closure of Cameroons territorial borders within measures to contain the novel coronavirus. Gilbert Acha Nkwenti, Divisional Officer for Limbe I Subdivision and Dr. Kinge Thompson Njie, Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital inspected the seized medication. Dr. Kinge told newsmen that just from the packaging one could easily decipher that they were fake chloroquine tablets. US President Donald Trump had claimed the drug used against malaria could be used to treat the new coronavirus. Chloroquine is one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs although it is no longer recommended in much of Africa because of the resistance built up to it by the malaria parasites. Some countries have introduced regulations to curb the use of the drug, but it has remained popular in those with an active private-sector drug market and is sold widely. This is especially true in Nigeria where there have been reports of high demand for chloroquine in pharmacies leading to shortages, in part fuelled by Mr Trump's statement. Dr. Kinge has advised the public that chloroquine cannot treat or prevent anyone from the coronavirus, urging them to only take medication based on prescriptions from a medical doctor. He went on to add that chloroquine has a lot of side effects which can best be handled by a medical professional. The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/4/2020 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Dan Stastny, a pilot of a small sport plane, displays a snorkeling mask, modified to be a protection respirator for medical staff, that he will transport from a small Prague airport to a hospital in Ostrava some 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) east of Prague, Czech Republic, Sunday, April 5, 2020. Over 300 pilots in the Czech Republic have joined forces in a group of volunteers who use their private planes to distribute medical equipment all across the country. The "Pilots to the People" project is meant to help the state authorities fighting the epidemic of the novel coronavirus called COVID-19. 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/Petr David Josek) The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. TOP OF THE HOUR: Surgeon General braces Americans for ``the hardest and the saddest week." Sanchez pens editorial proposing a Marshall Plan for Europe. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte grieves death of bodyguard. Putin to continue working remotely during pandemic. ___ WASHINGTON Surgeon General Jerome Adams is bracing Americans for what he says is going to be ``the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans lives because of the coronavirus pandemic. Adams tells ``Fox News Sunday that ``this is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9-11 moment. He wants to make clear that ``its going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that. Adams also has a message to governors who havent yet imposed shelter-in-place orders in their states. He says the handful of states in that category are states where a large amount of food is produced for the country, and thats been part of the struggle when it comes to stay-at-home restrictions. But Adams has a message for those governors: ``If you cant give us a month, give us what you can. Give us a week. Give us whatever you can to stay at home during this particularly tough time when were going to be hitting our peak over the next seven to 10 days. ___ ISLAMABAD Pakistans state-owned airline has quarantined the crew of a Pakistan International Airlines flight upon its return to the southern Arabian Port city of Karachi from London. The crew is being tested for the new coronavirus. The flight returned empty to Karachi after returning Britons stranded in Pakistan. All flights from Karachi have been temporarily suspended until the test results are returned and the crew is cleared. Pakistan has 2,899 confirmed cases of COVID 19 and 45 deaths. Another 170 patients have recovered. ___ MADRID Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has published an editorial in several European newspapers to press for his proposed new Marshall Plan for Europe to act together in sharing the burden of the coronavirus crisis. Sanchez wrote Sunday that European Union members must do all they can to help their hardest hit partners recover from the financial and economic impacts of the pandemic. If not, he said we will fail as a union. The Spanish Socialist leader said that he approves of the measures already taken, which include an EU jobs plan and the European Central Bank mobilizing lines of credit. But he says that's not enough. Spain, Italy and France have had over 34,000 combined deaths from the virus and other countries want the EU to issue joint European debt to spread the costs. Germany and the Netherlands have rejected that. Europe must build a wartime economy and promote European resistance, reconstruction and recovery, Sanchez wrote. He said the world is at a critical juncture at which even the most fervently pro-European countries and governments need proof of commitment. He wrote: "We need unwavering solidarity. In a separate editorial in Germanys Welt am Sonntag newspaper, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also threw her weight behind the idea of a Marshall Plan for Europe. She wrote the crisis was an opportunity to renew the feeling of community among European nations. The former German defence minister wrote that todays leaders had a responsiblity to make smart and sustainable investments now to ensure the stability for the future. ___ ROME Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte is expressing great sorrow for the death of one of his bodyguards. Conte posted on Facebook that Giorgio Guastamacchia died Saturday. The 51-year-old contracted the new coronavirus last month. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting on the situation of global energy markets via teleconference call at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 3, 2020. Vladimir Putin says he supports cutting oil production by about 10 million barrels a day to shore up falling oil prices. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) The premier recalled the bodyguards professional dedication and his ready smiles. Also paying tribute to Guastamacchia were Italys previous two premiers. Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni also used Guastamacchia among their bodyguards while in office. ___ MOSCOW The spokesman for Vladimir Putin says the Russian president will continue working remotely for at least another week amid the coronavirus pandemic. Dmitry Peskov said on state television Putin and people who work with him are being tested regularly. Russias coronavirus task force says the number of infections in the country was 5,389, which is up almost 700 than the previous day. There have been 45 deaths recorded. ___ ROME Romes main hospital for treating COVID-19 infections says more patients were discharged than admitted for the first time since Italys outbreak began. Spallanzani Hospitals daily bulletin on coronavirus cases was another positive sign that Italys rigid lockdown measures have apparently slowed the contagion. The lockdown has been four weeks now. Health authorities in Lombardy said last week overwhelmed hospitals were starting to feel some relief. The northern region has more than half of Italys 15,000 deaths. Spallanzani had treated the first known COVID-19 cases in Italy, which was a vacationing Chinese couple who fell sick in late January. They were discharged last month. ___ PARIS An Airbus plane has travelled from China to France and returned with a cargo of 4 million face masks. The European multinational said in a statement that the flight landing in France on Sunday morning was its third such mission between China and France. Airbus says it is continuing to purchase and supply millions of face masks from China. It added the large majority of the masks will be donated to governments of the Airbus home countries, which are predominately France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. ___ COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Sri Lankas military troops and police personnel are performing musical programs to boost the mental health of citizens under lockdown during coronavirus pandemic. The programs cater to people living in apartments who can't leave due to the curfew. Music bands go to each of the apartments and perform on a makeshift stage. Sri Lanka has been under a countrywide curfew since March 20. Police are strictly imposing the curfew. There have been 13,716 people arrested for violating curfew and 3,423 vehicles seized. Curfew will be lifted for eight hours in 19 districts on Monday to allow people to buy food and other essentials. The curfew in six other districts which have been identified as high-risk areas will continue indefinitely. Five people have died due to the virus in Sri Lanka and the total number of confirmed cases are at 166. ___ JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN Officials in South Sudan say the country has recorded its first case of COVID-19. It makes it the 51st of Africas 54 countries to have the disease. First Vice-President Riek Machar and the U.N. mission in South Sudan confirmed the positive case of a U.N. worker who arrived in the country from the Netherlands on Feb. 28. Officials say the patient is a 29-year-old woman who is in quarantine and recovering. South Sudan has 11 million people but Machar says the country currently has four ventilators. South Sudan has already imposed a night curfew and closed its borders to combat the spread of the coronavirus. ___ PRAGUE More than 300 pilots in the Czech Republic have joined forces in a group of volunteers who use their private planes to distribute medical equipment all across the country. The Pilots to the People project is meant to help the state authorities fighting the epidemic of the coronavirus to deliver supplies to any place in the country as soon as possible. The service is offered free of charge and the pilots pay for the gas. Theres a network of some 200 airports in the country they can use, making it possible to efficiently serve the entire country. The group says their goal is to transport the material to any hospital, clinic or any other place where its needed in within two hours. Dan Stastny, one of the founders of the project told The Associated Press on Sunday. that besides the speed, they "can land at any sort of airstrip for ultralight planes which is a great advantage. The volunteers mostly include amateurs, sport and small planes pilots. ___ BANGKOK A Muslim separatist group in Thailand has announced it is suspending guerrilla activity to facilitate humanitarian access during the COVID-19 crisis. The Barisan Revolusi Nasional says in a statement posted Sunday on its Facebook page that it was acting in order to create a safer and more suitable environment ... for health care agencies and other organizations tasked with preventing and containing the outbreak of Coronavirus. It says its suspension will remain in effect as long as the group is not attacked by government forces. The group, generally known as the BRN, has been leading a loose alliance fighting for autonomy for Thailands three southernmost provinces, the only ones with Muslim majorities in the predominantly Buddhist nation. About 7,000 people have been killed since the conflict flared up in 2004. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that warring parties in 11 countries had responded positively to his appeal for a global cease-fire to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. ___ ATHENS, Greece Greece has put a migrant facility outside Athens on lockdown for 14 days after a 53-year-old Afghan developed coronavirus symptoms Saturday afternoon. Authorities say the man has been taken to an Athens hospital and is under full medical evaluation. They have not specified the seriousness of his condition. The lockdown began Sunday morning. The facility is called an open one in official parlance, meaning the migrants there could leave and enter as they wished. There are about 2,500 migrants living there, not all of whom are registered, according to Mihalis Hassiotis, a municipal councillor of Oropos, a town north of Athens where the facility is located. The migrants stay in containers in crowded conditions. Hassiotis says the facility was designed initially for 500 and expanded over the years. ___ MADRID The rate of the coronavirus outbreak continues to slow in Spain, the country with the second most infections behind the United States. Spain recorded 6,023 confirmed new infections on Sunday, taking the national tally to 130,759. That is down from an increase of 7,026 infections in the previous 24-hour period, confirming the downward tendency of the past week. Confirmed new deaths also dropped to 674 fatalities, taking the national tally to 12,418. That is the first time new deaths have fallen below 800 new fatalities in the past week. As its outbreak loses steam, Spains government has started to cautiously consider when it can start to reactivate an economy that has been shut down and put hundreds of thousands out of work. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the nation Saturday. But to get there, Sanchez announced that he would ask the Parliament to extend the state of emergency by two more weeks, taking the lockdown on mobility until April 26. He added that a team of experts is also studying how to plan for a gradual loosening of restrictions to reactive the countrys dormant economy and social life. ___ 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 HAGUE, Netherlands A Dutch military transport plane carrying a mobile field hospital made up of six intensive care beds is on its way to the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten to help fight the coronavirus. The Dutch government says the C-17 plane that left a military airbase in Eindhoven early Sunday morning was also carrying equipment to set up a further six IC beds in the semi-autonomous nations hospital, along with protective gear and medicines. Dutch State Secretary for Health Paul Blokhuis says the country is closely co-operating with Sint Maarten and other Caribbean islands that make up part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to rein in the spread of corona as much as possible and at the same time provide the best care possible for corona patients. According to figures released April 2 by the government of Sint Maarten, 23 people have tested positive and two people have died in the outbreak. The half-island nation has a population of some 41,000. ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Televangelist Kenneth Copeland has appeared in a bizarre video where he reveals the cure for the coronavirus is to simply 'blow it away.' The 83-year-old Texas pastor who is estimated to be worth $760million released the short prayer on video. In it he explains how warm winds and heat and 'blowing the virus away' will bring a timely end to the pandemic. 'Wind! Almighty! Strong! South wind! Heat! Burn this thing! In the name of Jesus,' Copeland yells into the camera. 'Satan bow your knees. Fall on your face!' Copland continues. In Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland 'blows wind of God' at coronavirus and claims the pandemic would be 'destroyed' by warm winds in a prayer There is a moment of silence before he resumes, 'COVID-19...' the pastor then blows a raspberry calling it 'the wind of God.' 'I blow the wind of God on you! You are destroyed forever and you will never be back! Thank you! Let it happen! Cause it to happen!' Copeland demands. The televangelist recently claimed that the pandemic would be 'over much sooner you think' because 'Christian people all over this country praying have overwhelmed it.' Last month, the pastor 'executed judgment' on the virus and declared it to be 'finished' while demanding 'a vaccination to come immediately.' Copeland Ministries megachurch had previously claimed that viewers to his show could be healed from the virus by touching their screens. He made a point of urging viewers to continue paying tithes despite many losing their jobs. Although there were no worshippers inside the Texas church at the time of the recording, that hasn't been the case in other part of the country. The pastor made the bizarre prayer in an empty church but was surrounded by his followers The televangelist appears to blow a raspberry at the illness in the belief it will disappear Over in Ohio, one worshiper, who was among dozens seen leaving a church service, says she 'wouldn't be anywhere else' despite state and local limits on public gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 'I'm covered in Jesus' blood,' the woman told a CNN reporter, before explaining that she goes to stores like Walmart and Home Depot 'every day' and implying that she has a chance of being infected by grocery shopping. More than 8,400 Americans have died from the highly contagious coronavirus in recent weeks, prompting officials and medical experts to plead with the public to practice social distancing. But dozens of defiant Christian pastors across the country are preparing to open their church doors to their congregations for Palm Sunday. 'We're defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel,' Louisiana pastor Tony Spell said on Saturday. In Ohio, churchgoers were seen leaving a service on Saturday and one member (pictured) even said she 'wouldn't be anywhere else'. 'I'm covered in Jesus' blood,' the woman said Churchgoers are seen leaving a service Saturday evening. It's unclear how many members were in attendance at the in-person service To laugh or cry or rage. That is the question. pic.twitter.com/PWJ4zrcYRQ Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) April 5, 2020 In Ohio, Monroe Mayor Jason Frentzel sent a letter Thursday to Solid Rock Church asking church officials to halt service. 'While I understand that you have the right to assemble, I also understand the communitys concerns with having such a large gathering coming together in this current environment,' Frentzel wrote. The church, which is known for its large statue of Jesus overlooking a large pond off Interstate 75, has continued to leave its doors open and hold in-person services despite calls from Gov Mike DeWine and advocacy groups to stop. 'We believe that the doors of Solid Rock Church should remain open. It is in these times of crisis that the church should play a critical role as a place of refuge. A place where anyone can come to pray, to worship, and to find healing and hope,' the church said in a statement on its website. Church officials said they are having members of their congregation practice social distancing inside the church and are disinfecting their facilities before and after services. DeWine has not banned churches from holding in-person services but noted this week it is a 'huge mistake' for those large gatherings to occur. 'We're defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel,' Louisiana pastor Tony Spell (pictured) said People walk to a Palm Sunday service at Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, despite statewide stay-at-home orders Congregation members enter the Life Tabernacle Church for a Palm Sunday service in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Local residents leave Sunday service at the Life Tabernacle megachurch challenging state orders against assembling in large groups But some Kentucky churches still plan to hold in-person church services on Palm Sunday. Louisville preacher Jack Roberts said he would rather go to jail and court than pay a fine for violating the March 19 order of Kentucky's health department. He said the prohibition violates First Amendment and state constitutional rights. Roberts said he has encouraged social distancing at his Maryville Baptist Church and asked people at high risk of infection to stay home and watch live-streamed services. 'I'm not interested in trying to defy the government,' Roberts told The Courier Journal. 'I don't want to battle with anybody. What I'd like to do is just preach the Gospel, and that's become more difficult as time's gone on. And it's truthfully what I plan on doing.' Louisville's Our Savior Lutheran is also continuing in-person services, with online registration required beforehand and seating restricted to every other pew. Our Savior Pastor Joshua Cook said in a YouTube video he felt he should keep the church open 'because I believe and confess that this is a spiritual hospital and that there are times when spiritual emergencies require access to God's house'. Some states, including Florida, have made exemptions to allow religious gatherings to proceed during the coronavirus. Kentucky does not have that exemption. Before it became an order, Kentucky Gov Andy Beshear first issued guidance that churches cancel in-person services on March 11. Beshear said Friday that he's aware of 'very few' churches that are still holding normal in-person services. He suggested having a sheriff's deputy or state police car in the parking lot to remind them they are 'spreading the coronavirus beyond their church, beyond any meeting that they're at'. 'Is it worth losing 5 per cent of your church, 10 per cent of your church?' Beshear said. Pastor Alvin Gwynn Sr, of Baltimore's Friendship Baptist Church, said that police tried to halt services at his church last Sunday even though he had limited in-person attendance to 10 people. Church members are seen on Palm Sunday Gwynn held in-person Easter services, citing the First Amendment's protections for freedom of worship and assembly 'When you show back up for Christmas, do you want to look around and see an entire part of the pews that used to be filled that aren't? This isn't a test of faith. This is our time to use the wisdom that God provides us to protect ourselves and one another and watch the virtual service.' But the most high-profile clash over in-person worship - and crowd limits designed to stop the virus' spread - came in Florida, where Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested Monday for violating a county order by hosting a large number of congregants at his Tampa church. Howard-Browne said after his release he would move future worship online, but the county later ended its effort to apply limits on large gatherings to religious services after a statewide order described religious gatherings as essential. People wait in line to get into the Godspeaker Calvary Chapel sanctuary to take communion after watching Palm Sunday in Thousand Oaks, California Palm Sunday marks the beginning one of the most important week for Christians People waited in line to get into the Godspeaker Calvary Chapel sanctuary to take communion Despite state and local public health ordering churches, being deemed non-essential, to close, Newbury Park church opened its doors for a Communion service Tens of people waited to get into church for a Sunday morning service despite restrictions Law enforcement officials in Louisiana and Maryland took separate action this week against pastors who continue to hold in-person services in the face of stay-home orders in most states. But more than a half-dozen of those state orders provide a degree of exemption for religious activity, underscoring the political sensitivity of the decisions being made by states and localities. Vice President Mike Pence said this week that churches should not host groups bigger than 10 people. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be watching Palm Sunday services broadcast from Riverside, California, from a laptop. The most high-profile clash over in-person worship came in Florida, where Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne (pictured) was arrested Monday for violating a county order 'People are watching on computers and laptops,' Trump said. 'It's sad.' Trump said he asked about endorsing the idea of people being able to gather outside for services on Easter Sunday if they practice social distancing, but recalled being told: 'Do we want to take a chance on doing that when we have been doing so well?' The president said that 'my biggest disappointment is that churches can't meet in a time of need'. The application of guidance on the ground has raised questions for some faith leaders. Pastor Alvin Gwynn Sr, of Baltimore's Friendship Baptist Church, said that police tried to halt services at his church last Sunday even though he had limited in-person attendance to 10 people. Gwynn held in-person Easter services, citing the First Amendment's protections for freedom of worship and assembly. Baltimore has 'been through a lot' in recent years, said Gwynn, who leads a local ministers' group that criticized the city's police department leadership in 2015 following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. 'Which is safer, in the church with potential virus, or go out the door and catch a bullet?' Gwynn said. Instructions for church gatherings in Maryland have been issued piecemeal. State guidance dated Monday described houses of worship as non-essential under a stay-home order issued by Maryland GOP Gov Larry Hogan that allowing them only to conduct 'minimal operations'. But follow-up guidance dated Wednesday states that 'in-person services' can be held with 10 or fewer people. In Florida, attorneys at the Christian legal nonprofit representing Howard-Browne tabled their plans to file a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the county order used against him after the county reversed course. Howard-Browne held said after his release he would move future worship online. A large number of congregants gathered at The River Church (file image) last week 'Instead of using a scalpel to address this, they're using a chainsaw,' said Liberty Counsel founder Mathew Staver, who added that executive orders designed to limit gatherings during the pandemic were 'flying off printers and being signed by government officials with no constitutional readiness'. On Wednesday, Florida Republican Gov Ron DeSantis issued a stay-home order describing religious services as essential, followed by a second order that overrides any localities' conflicting guidelines - an edict that could impede local attempts to shut down future large worship services. Elsewhere, Texas GOP Gov Greg Abbott also described religious services as essential in his order to limit gatherings during the pandemic. In Georgia, where some of the state's worst virus outbreaks have been linked to large religious services, GOP Gov Brian Kemp on Thursday issued a stay-home order that states no faith-based gathering can occur with more than 10 people unless they keep a six-foot distance. While some faith leaders who continue to hold in-person services have pointed to their First Amendment rights, including Ohio's Solid Rock megachurch, it's not clear that their activity during the pandemic would be legally protected. Pastor Rob McCoy leads a communion ceremony after an online Palm Sunday Service The church service was broadcast online so that more people could participate in prayers Although the service was broadcast online, people lined up in order to take communion Andrew Goethe and Kathryn Seawant protest outside the Godspeaker Calvary Chapel sanctuary, where Pastor Rob McCoy lead a communion ceremony Andrew Goethe and Kathryn Seawant protest outside Godspeaker Calvary Chapel sanctuary State or local governments would be 'constitutionally justified' in including houses of worship in their closure orders during a public health emergency as long as those orders are 'generally applicable,' said John Inazu, a law professor at Washington University in St Louis who studies the First Amendment. But the burden shifts if a government attempts to stop a church from holding services with less than 10 people while allowing secular businesses to operate under the same conditions, Inazu added: 'There, I think there's a very plausible religious freedom claim.' Before issuing his order, Kemp held two calls with hundreds of clergy from across Georgia, urging houses of worship to stream services online or implement other social distancing measures, like holding drive-up services where people listen from their cars. Most religious services across the country have already moved online. 'We're making the best of a bad situation. Its going to be devastating in the short term,' said Todd Gaddis, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Georgia, referring to the loss of donations from in-person services. 'But Im confident there will be spiritual dividends in the long run.' And the Trump administration's entreaties for churches to stop meeting in person extended beyond the White House. Sam Brownback, the presidents special envoy for religious freedom, said Thursday that 'religious groups should practice social distancing'. Brownback, a Catholic, said that he's skipped Mass for 'several weeks, and it's the longest period I've gone without going to Mass. And I think people should be doing this to stop the spread of the virus'. BLANTYRE (Reuters) - Malawi's president and cabinet will take a 10% salary cut and redirect the money towards the fight against coronavirus, President Peter Mutharika said on Saturday as he announced a stimulus package in an address on state television. Mutharika announced a number of measures aimed at cushioning small- and medium-sized businesses, including tax breaks, a reduction in fuel prices and an increase in risk allowances for health workers. Mutharika also ordered tobacco markets to be opened and allowed to operate without disruption to protect small farmers and bolster foreign currency receipts. Tobacco is Malawi's chief foreign currency earner. "The coronavirus attack has a huge negative impact on the economy and businesses everywhere. There are many business people and industry players who are uncertain about the situation as it is unfolding. I know that everyone is worried," he said. "Therefore, government will take measures to protect jobs and incomes, protect businesses and ensure continuity of the supply chain and the survival of the economy." Amongst other measures, the president directed the Reserve Bank of Malawi to allow banks to offer a three-month moratorium on interest payments on loans to small- and medium-sized businesses. He also ordered the country's Competition and Fair Trading Commission to put in place strict monitoring of price controls and punish anyone found increasing prices at the expense of Malawians. "The government will continue monitoring and review situation as it infolds," Mutharika said. He also ordered all non-essential service providers in both the government and private sector to work from home with immediate effect. On Thursday, Malawi recorded its first three confirmed cases of the coronavirus. On Saturday, the number rose to four. The President also directed the central bank to "cushion the foreign exchange market to ensure availability of forex and stability of the foreign exchange rate," and work on an emergency liquidity assistance framework to support banks in the event of worsening liquidity conditions. Story continues The government will also increase loans under the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund that will help micro, small and medium scale businesses that have been seriously affected by the pandemic to 15 billion Malawi kwacha ($20.69 million) from 12 billion kwacha. ($1 = 725.0000 kwacha) (Reporting by Frank Phiri; Editing by Angus MacSwan, David Clarke and David Gregorio) You know theres something amiss in the ether, a corner piece in realitys puzzle just askew or a wire crossed between daily life and some dream you had once, when, on a Thursday morning in early spring, you find yourself sitting cross-legged on your bed wearing last nights pyjamas, glugging echinacea tea, and talking on the phone with Emmy-nominated actress Rose Byrne about bidets? Im just so glad we bought one, with all the hoarding, I very sincerely disclose to the Australian screen star, who Ive watched my whole adult life in iconic projects from Bridesmaids to Damages to, most recently, Mrs. America, FXs new feminist miniseries in which Byrne portrays a young Gloria Steinem. Because that distinctive Steinem look, the long 70s hair with the middle part and the tucked-in aviators, is so fresh in my memory that for a second my own wires get crossed and it feels like Im telling the legendary activist herself about my COVID-19 derriere maintenance plan. Which would only be mildly less absurd. A bidet! Thats brilliant, Byrne responds with a generous laugh, her Aussie accent bringing me back to the (admittedly surreal) present moment. Its March 12, 2020, a global pandemic is now swarming the U.S., and Rose Byrne and I are on opposite coasts, deciding whether or not to panic. At the precise hour of our call, 40-year-old Byrne is headed out to run an errand in Manhattan, where she lives with her husband, fellow actor Bobby Cannavale, and their two small children. Errands. Remember those? Theyre unthinkable now, even just two weeks later with New York under mandatory lockdown and case counts doubling every three days. Bobby was saying it feels a bit like 9/11. To me, it feels like the calm before a storm. Or are we in the storm? Its hard to tell, Byrne offers, evenly. I bet Rose Byrne is good in a crisis is a thought I never predicted Id have. Though the internet has definitively cancelled 2020, under less cataclysmic circumstances, I might be calling it Byrnes year. Ive been incredibly lucky, the actress confesses, referencing her career in general but also this oddly timed season when so many of her major projects are either coming out or just wrapped. This winter, Byrne and her husband performed in a play together for the first time, starring off-Broadway as a murderous wife and adulterous husband in a modern retelling of the Greek tragedy Medea. It was the highlight of my career, Byrne effuses. Story continues Just a week before Medea opened in January, Byrne attended the premiere for her latest big-budget comedy, Like a Boss (co-starring Tiffany Haddish and Salma Hayek), donning a showstopping flamingo-pink gown by Alexis Mabille and a platinum bob, like Elle Woods gone couture. As Byrne enters her 40s, her style has taken a turn for the eccentric, thanks in part to her new stylist, Beth Fenton, whos brought out the whimsical power-clasher in Byrne. Shes graced recent carpets wearing vibrant suiting, audacious patterns, and unexpected fabrics by New York designers like Veronica Beard and Ulla Johnson. (The other week in New York, she sported head-to-toe orange leather. Shell no doubt be wearing sweats for a while now, but at least she went out with a bang.) The clothes have been really fun, says Byrne. I take myself a lot less seriously as Ive gotten older, and thats been a relief. I take my work seriously, but not myself, which is a very Australian trait. In her next big-screen turn, Byrne will play opposite Steve Carell as an icy Kellyanne Conwayesque character in the political satire Irresistible (slated for a May release, which might happen digitally given the circumstances). Its a character Byrnes other political on-screen alter ego, Gloria Steinem, would certainly hold in contempt. Though, traversing type and genre has always been Byrnes specialty. Looking back, most of her characters probably wouldnt get along. Growing up in a Sydney suburb, Byrne says she was a very shy kid, not an extrovert in any sense. She started performing as a teenager in Australia and over the next six or seven years made the transition to Hollywood. In the two decades since, Byrne has been able to nimbly evade pigeonholing, transitioning from war dramas like Troy to sci-fi thrillers and superhero flicks like 28 Weeks Later and X-Men to raunchy Apatow comedies like Neighbours and Spy. She does so with a curious grace that even the industrys biggest A-listers dont typically pull off. How Did Rose Byrne Become One of Our Best Comedic Actresses? remarked a 2016 Decider.com headline. Byrne credits her creative agility to those early years she spent acting in Australia. Its such a small industry there. You really have to flit between film, TV, and theatre to sustain a career, and I think thats helped, she explains. Most Australian actors have done it all because theres only so much work to go around. With earnest humility, she adds, But Im so lucky. Plenty of actors are just as talented as I am, or much better, who havent been able to have this career. At this point in her filmography, and with two young sons at home, Byrne is enjoying the luxury of choosing her projects more critically than ever. Medea and Mrs. America are evidence of her most recent career pivot: realistic dramas. Gloria Steinem was easily the most intimidating role shes ever played, Byrne tells me, and not only because Steinem is still alive (and thank goodness for that). A historical depiction of the 1970s second-wave feminist movement, Mrs. America follows the eras key political players, including the first black woman elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm; the author of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan; and their opponent, anti-feminist conservative Phyllis Schlafly. These figures are portrayed by a prodigious ensemble: Cate Blanchett, Uzo Aduba, Tracey Ullman, Elizabeth Banks, and Sarah Paulson. It meant so much to me, getting to work with these incredible actresses, and to be a part of this story about how hard women fought to get reproductive rights and healthcare rights, what they achieved and didnt achieve, and how it led to feminism now, Byrne reveals, breathless. Im gushing, but only because its deserved. During shooting in Toronto, the nearly all-female cast bonded closely. Byrne hosted her Oscar- and Emmy-winning co-stars for weekend pizza parties and kid playdates. It was a thrill, she smiles through the phone. I mean, just getting to play Gloria was such an honour. So I hope I didnt screw it up! I reassure Byrne that shes fantastic in the show, my favourite character, actually, and I cant wait until April 15 when it comes out so everyone can have something new to fall in love with as they sit at home in quarantine. I gushed, admittedly, but only because it was deserved. Of course, the second half of 2020 will be up in the air for Byrne, like the rest of us. She and her husband were supposed to team up for another play in Sydney at the end of the year, Arthur Millers A View From the Bridge. And shes attached to a pilot, a dark comedy called Physical about a woman who discovers aerobics in the 1980s. Hopefully we start that in the summer, but I dont know. Everythings been cancelled. Were just like everyone else, waiting to see what our next move is, Byrne says with a sense of calm I find heartening. The world is crazy! Theres not much we can do, obviously, except for look out for ourselves and each other. One more thing to add to Byrnes resume: decidedly good in a crisis. Watch Rose Byrne in FX's Mrs. America on Hulu April 15 and Irresistible in theatres May 29. This piece originally appeared on Who What Wear U.S. This article originally appeared on Who What Wear Read More from Who What Wear All passengers on domestic flights have been required to get tested for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) upon their arrival at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. The screening has been conducted since Saturday, said Nguyen Hong Tam, director of the International Health Quarantine Center of Ho Chi Minh City. Tan Son Nhat now handles an average of 600 passengers traveling from Hanoi and the central city of Da Nang, Tam elaborated. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, all domestic and foreign airlines were asked to stop transporting overseas Vietnamese to Tan Son Nhat airport from March 25. All Vietnamese airlines have suspended their international routes until the end of April. The Vietnamese government has limited the number of flights between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and other localities in the country to curb the spread of the disease. The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 1.2 million people and killed more than 64,700 globally as of Sunday afternoon, according to Ministry of Health statistics. Vietnam has announced 240 COVID-19 patients so far, with 90 having recovered. No fatality related to the disease has been reported in the country to date. Ho Chi Minh City has recorded 53 cases, of whom 22 have recovered. The biggest cluster in the southern metropolis is Buddha Bar & Grill in Thao Dien Ward, District 2 a neighborhood populated by high-end villas and a vibrant community of foreigners. The first detected case related to the venue was a British pilot residing in an apartment in District 2. At least 18 infections have been linked to this bar since. Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City collect 1,700 samples for COVID-19 tests on a daily basis, the International Health Quarantine Center stated, adding that they will utilize rapid-result kits soon. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Names and faces Jackie Mohler has been appointed executive director by the board of directors at Family Outreach. Mohler has been with Family Outreach for 13 years and brings extensive experience to the job. She is a board certified behavior analyst and licensed by the state of Montana. Mohler is recognized as an expert in the treatment of children and adults with developmental delays. The Association of University Centers on Disabilities selected Mohler to receive their Emerging Leader Award for 2020. News and notes MDA seeks recruits for advisory council The Montana Department of Agriculture is currently recruiting for open positions on its Noxious Weed Seed Free Forage Advisory Council. The following council terms are currently vacant: Certified Weed Seed Free Forage Producer (Eastern Region) Certified Weed Seed Free Forage Producer (Any Region) Outfitters or Guides Organization The following council terms expire September 2020: Certified Weed Seed Free Forage Producer (Central Region) Western County Weed District Representative Eastern County Weed District Representative Forage Product Processor Members of the advisory council provide guidance to the Noxious Weed Seed Free Forage Program, which implements a cooperative forage and product certification system with federal, state, local, and private land managers that benefits Montanans and other states by producing and making available forage free of noxious weed seeds. Council meetings take place annually on one day in January or February. Those interested in serving on the Noxious Weed Seed Free Forage Advisory Council can submit a letter of interest and apply to MDA by July 1, 2020. More information and applications are available on the NWSFF Council website. Nominations can be submitted to Montana Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 200201, Helena, MT 59620-0201, or agr@mt.gov. Growth Through Agriculture program offering grants The Montana Department of Agriculture announced mini-grant funding is now available through its Growth Through Agriculture program. All projects will need to demonstrate how they expand Montana agriculture, but given the current public health situation with COVID-19, special attention will be paid to projects that strengthen and expand local food offerings, distribution, and infrastructure. To qualify for consideration, proposals must have practical, near-term relevance involving education, promotion, marketing, travel or other business-related expenses that will stimulate expanded agricultural development, economic activity, and employment growth. The maximum amount for any single application is $5,000 or $2,500 for education, promotion, marketing and travel projects. Eligible applicants include individuals, businesses and industry organizations, public and private agencies, educational institutions and local governments. Applications can be submitted through the Webgrants system. A review panel comprised of MDA staff with expertise in agricultural marketing and business development will begin evaluating applications on April 13, 2020. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until May 22, 2020. For more information on the GTA Mini-Grant Program, eligibility requirements, application procedures and the award process, visit our website at: https://agr.mt.gov/GTA. Emergency relief fund grant application available Last week, two local nonprofit organizations, the Helena Area Community Foundation and the United Way of the Lewis & Clark Area, partnered establishing an online relief fund to provide financial resources to nonprofits responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In conjunction with the fund, the two entities are now seeking grant applications for nonprofits needing those fund relief dollars. Funds from the relief account will be disbursed as grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations who are Providing direct human services support to clients or residents, AND who are responding to an increase in demand due to COVID-19, or who are having trouble meeting usual demand due to decline of revenue related to COVID-19. Eligible organizations include nonprofits that directly serve seniors, children, and/or vulnerable populations in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, and Jefferson counties in the areas of food, housing, transportation, childcare or healthcare access. Grants will be made between $500 and $2,000 per nonprofit organization. For questions, please contact HACF, Executive Director, Emily Flemming at 406-441-4955. HACF and UWLCA will award initial grants based on most urgent needs, and may elect to have multiple rounds of granting as determined by funding levels. To apply for a grant, visit helenaareacommunityfoundation.org/emergency-fund-grant-application/ To make a donation, visit hacf.networkforgood.com/projects/95448-helena-area-emergency-relief-fund, or write a check and mail to: Helena Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 92, Helena MT 59624. Guidelines The IR welcomes reports of hiring, promotions, awards, recognition, learning opportunities and other news from local companies and nonprofits. We accept press releases and photos (digital images at 300 dpi or more are preferred). Email your information to irstaff@helenair.com. There is no charge for items appearing in the Business Briefcase. Items are run on a space-available basis, and we reserve the right to edit and use information as we see fit. The deadline is noon Tuesday to be considered for publication the following Sunday. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 CLEVELAND, Ohio -- While his Commander in Chief Donald Deferment Trump long downplayed the Coronavirus threat, Captain Brett Crozier was quickly removed from his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after sounding the alarm over the pandemics spread among his crew. Two days after a letter Cpt Crozier wrote to Navy brass about the Coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, he was proverbially dumped overboard. President Trump said I didnt make the decision but his spray tan orange fingerprints are all over it. The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place. Thats not appropriate.: I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isnt a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship thats nuclear powered. And he shouldnt be talking that way in a letter, said Defermant Donald, Commander in Chief. At the time Crozier was relieved of his duty, more than 150 of his crew tested positive just for Coronavirus, not Trump bone spurs they could only hit Studio 54 and other nightclubs with like Deferment Donald did. Crozier wrote in his letter: We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly claimed the decision was his alone - to remove Crozier, not flip flop on his letter in less than 24 hours. On the Wednesday after the Crozier letter was leaked, Modly said it "would absolutely not result in any type of retaliation and that writing the letter was what we want our commanding officers to be able to do. Yet the next day there was retaliation when Modly announced the removal of Crozier. I could reach no other conclusion than that Capt. Crozier had allowed the complexity of his challenge with the covid outbreak on his ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally, when acting professionally was what was needed most at the time. It creates a paniac, and it creates the perception that the Navy is not on the job, the governments not on the job, and its just not true, " said Secretary Modly. Captain Crozier was in fact on the job in his response to the Coronavirus outbreak and was removed by a Commander in Chief who wasnt. In 2018, Trump disbanded the National Security Councils pandemic response team and now he has removed a Captain for sounding the alarm about the unchecked outbreak of Coronavirus on the aircraft under his command. Donald Trumps Acting Navy Secretary shot the messenger- a commanding officer who was faithful to both his national security mission and his duty to care for his sailors, and who rightly focused attention on a broader concern about how to maintain military readiness during this pandemic." The poor judgement here belongs to the Trump Administration, not a courageous officer trying to protect his sailors, said former Vice President Joe Biden, who holds the delegate lead for the Democratic Nomination for President. Democrats have requested that Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine investigate Navy Secretary Modlys action to remove Cpt. Crozier. Of course Democrats would like Fine to investigate before Trump fires him like he did Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson this week. Watchdog Atkinson alerted Congress about the Ukraine whistleblower, which ultimately led to Trumps impeachment for soliciting Ukraines interference in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election for his benefit. The crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt made it known loud and clear that they do not agree with Trump and Modlys assessment of Captain Croziers command. They gathered on deck cheering Captain Crozier and chanting his name as exited down the gangplank. On the deck of the great beyond, its likely that also saluting Captain Crozier are Theodore Roosevelt, Captain John McCain, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, and Commodores Oliver Hazard Perry and John Paul Jones among other greats to be remembered. After this cartoon and column were posted, it was reported late Sunday that Captain Crozier had tested positive for the coronavirus. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:11:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close THE HAGUE, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital in the Netherlands as well as the new deaths was decreasing, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) announced on Sunday. The total number of confirmed cases who are or were admitted to hospital grew by 253 in the past 24 hours to 6,875, the lowest daily figure in two weeks. The number of reported daily deaths was 115, bringing the total to 1,766 in the country. The last time this daily number was that low was last Monday, when the death toll was 93. Nationwide, the total number of confirmed cases grew by 1,224 to 17,851 as of Sunday. The Dutch National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) announced that the number of coronavirus patients in the intensive cares also showed a minor growth than in the previous days. From Saturday to Sunday, this number grew by 25, compared to 36 on Saturday, 51 on Friday and 82 on Thursday. "We see stable figures, in line with the previous days and with the figures from the RIVM," LCPS chairman Ernst Kuipers said during a press conference in Rotterdam. "This is because the influx is leveling off and more patients are gradually recovering and leaving the intensive cares." Despite the sunny spring weather, the Dutch government asked people to stay at home as much as possible during the weekend. At several locations people had listened to the call, but in some places not everyone adhered to the advice. The southern municipality of Vaals had to close the access road to the Drielandenpunt, a tripoint between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, because of large influx of people. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global patient engagement solutions market size is expected to reach USD 41.7 billion by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., registering a CAGR of 17.3% over the forecast period. The market is expected to register exponential growth due to the adoption of m-health; increasing prevalence of chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and arthritis; improved healthcare services; enhanced patient education; patient data tracking; and diagnostic treatment. In July 2019, a bipartisan group in Congress in US introduced a new legislation that would allocate a fund of USD 25 million in grants for local, state, and tribal governments to develop Social Determinants Accelerator Plan with the aim to improve tracking and coordinating patient outcomes . These initiatives are anticipated to drive the demand for these services over the forecast period. Moreover, in March 2019, the American Medical Association entered into a collaboration with PatientPoint with the aim to access point of care to help prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. Using PatientPoint technology, approximately 6,500 practicing doctors across US are expected to educate individuals regarding disease prevention. Programs such as these are expected to drive market growth over the forecast period. Some of the major market players are Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Orion Health Ltd., Cerner Corporation, and McKesson Corporation, which collectively account for a substantial market share owing to their extensive product offerings. Moreover, key players are focusing on expanding their portfolio to gain competitive edge over their competitors. For instance, in October 2019, IQVIA launched Orchestrated Patient Engagement, a new cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) solution that narrows the gap between patients and life sciences companies by facilitating insights and interactions. Further key findings from the study suggest : Web-based / cloud-based emerged as the largest delivery type segment in 2019 as it supports hassle-free information flow between patients and healthcare providers. Moreover, bulk data can be stored in these platforms and enable remote access The software segment dominated the market in 2019, owing to continuous development in patient engagement solutions along with its increasing applications in consulting, education, and implementation. Software solutions are easy to install and use, enable quick access to specific drug information, and enable healthcare providers to digitally upload prescriptions Rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and diabetes, which require constant monitoring, is expected to drive the demand for these services in the coming years Chronic diseases dominated the market in 2019 owing to the associated benefits of these solutions in chronic disease management. These solutions help patients connect with their healthcare providers from remote locations, thereby enabling streamlined flow of information, patient feedback, and other health-related data. North America dominated the global patient engagement solutions market in 2019 owing to increased adoption of m-health and electronic health record (EHR) and growing investments in patient engagement software by major companies Companies are adopting various strategies to sustain competition. New product / solution development, partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, strategic collaborations, and geographical penetration are some of the key strategies adopted by market players Request a Sample Copy of the Global Patient Engagement Solutions Market Research Report @ www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/patient-engagement-solutions-market/request/rs1 Grand View Research has segmented the global patient engagement solutions market on the basis of delivery type, component, end use, application, therapeutic area, and region: Patient Engagement Solutions Delivery Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Web-Based / Cloud-based On-premise Patient Engagement Solutions Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Software Stand alone Integrated Services Consulting Implementation Education Others Hardware Patient Engagement Solutions End-Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Payers Providers Individual Users Patient Engagement Solutions Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Social Management Health Management Home Healthcare Management Financial Health Management Patient Engagement Solutions Therapeutic Area Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Chronic diseases Obesity Diabetes Cardiovascular Others Fitness Women's Health Mental Health Others Patient Engagement Solutions Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) North America o U.S. o Canada europe o U.K. o Germany o France o Italy o Spain o Sweden o Netherlands o Russia Asia Pacific o Japan o China o India Latin America o Brazil o Mexico Middle East & Africa o South Africa o Saudi Arabia Access full research report on global patient engagement solutions market: www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/patient-engagement-solutions-market Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 12:25:04|Editor: zyl Video Player Close NEW YORK, April 4 (Xinhua) -- In response to a global threat like COVID-19, consolidated efforts of all nations are essential, a renowned U.S. expert on global health has said. "This is the time to build bridges not walls between people from around the world," Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the Global Health Initiative and ICAP at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, told Xinhua in a recent interview by email. The expert said that nations across the globe should tackle the pandemic with great solidarity rather than finger-pointing or be mired in conspiracy theories. "This virus does not discriminate, we are all vulnerable. It is also important to seek trusted sources of information and to dismiss conspiracy theories which fuel mistrust," said El-Sadr. Assessing the ongoing global efforts against COVID-19, the expert on epidemic prevention said that it is encouraging to see many countries "taking actions to control the spread of the virus." "There is also a huge scientific mobilization which is very important," she said, adding that sharing of information and scientific data across borders "is critical in moving us to control this pandemic." Yet, El-Sadr said there are still challenges that require further concerted efforts. "We need to quickly provide training to public health workers, doctors, nurses and others in how to prevent, diagnose and treat those with COVID-19," she said. "There are also challenges in terms of having sufficient supplies to protect health care workers, who are particularly vulnerable," the expert cautioned. Meanwhile, it is equally important to pay particular attention to those countries with fragile health system as they are faced with this huge challenge, said El-Sadr, expressing her hope that the COVID-19 outbreak is a wake-up call for nations to "work on establishing strong health systems that are resilient." A strong health system is fundamental to dealing with today's problems, while resilience means it is capable of responding to something new, she said. El-Sadr also noted that China's experience in curbing the virus is "particularly important, from which important lessons have been learned." As of Saturday evening, more than 1,197,000 cases were reported across the world with 64,606 deaths, while over 246,000 people have recovered, according to latest data from Johns Hopkins University. Add CoolSocial badge. Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: 387777.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 18 May 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. Add a widget like this on your site: click here The total number of people who shared the 387777 homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the 387777 homepage on Twitter + the total number of 387777 followers (if 387777 has a Twitter account). 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The URL of the found Facebook page. The type of Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Coronavirus Outbreak Updates: 62 new coronavirus positive cases were detected in Telangana on Sunday taking the total to 283. No patients were discharged and no deaths were reported. Auto refresh feeds According to the Ministry's evening update, the total number of people having tested positive for the deadly virus was 3,072 nationwide with 75 deaths. The figures also included 2,784 active cases, 212 cured/discharged and one migrated. According to the ministry, the overall toll on Friday was 62. As India crossed the halfway mark in the 21-day lockdown on Saturday, the country registered a new single-day record of over 600 new cases and 13 deaths while the total confirmed cases officially crossed the 3,000 mark, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on 25 March banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. "I may take it too, will have to talk to my doctors. India makes a lot of it. They need a lot too for their billion-plus people. The hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug will be released through the Strategic National Stockpile for treatment," he said. Trump did not shy away from saying he too will take a tablet of hydroxychloroquine after announcing that he has requested Modi during his telephonic conversation on Saturday to lift a hold on the US order of the medicine. "After call today with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is giving serious consideration to releasing the hold it put on a US order for hydroxychloroquine," US President Trump announced at the White House coronavirus task force briefing that he requested Modi for more Hydroxychloroquine tablets. US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply Hydroxychloroquine tablets that can be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The increased availability of ventilators and other equipment will significant enhance medical facilities in line with India's Make-in-India resolve, particularly in smaller cities and towns where specialised services are less easily accessible. The empowered committee led by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant held a virtual interaction with senior industry leaders on Thursday to amplify the logistics supply chain for ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPEs), gloves, goggles and other such equipment for frontline medical professionals combating the Covid-19 outbreak. In order to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and build the capacity to contain the virus, the government wants. the private sector to ramp up production of ventilators and personal protective equipment, gloves and goggles A 67-year-old woman had died in an Ahmedabad hospital on Saturday. Officials said the woman, who was admitted to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital on 28 March, was on a ventilator. There are 108 COVID-19 patients in the state after 13 more people tested positive in Gujarat on Saturday. The toll due to the coronavirus disease reached 11 in Gujarat on Sunday after a 61-year-old woman, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died in Surat, ANI reported. The Baltimore-based university, which has been keeping a running tally of global coronavirus numbers, said there are at least 300,915 confirmed virus cases in the US and there have been 8,162 deaths. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US has topped 300,000 and there have been more than 8,100 deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. "As many as 507 FIRs have been registered against violators of lockdown and section 144 in Gautam Buddh Nagar and 289 people have been arrested in this regard. So far, Rs 85,200 have been recovered as penalty. Three complaints have been registered under the Essential Commodities Act and three people have been arrested in this regard," Singh said. Stern action is taken in case of any violation and till 3 April, 33,426 vehicles have been screened, while challans have been issued against 4,740 vehicles, even as 373 were seized, Police Commissioner Alok Singh said. Over 500 FIRs have been registered in Gautam Buddh Nagar district so far for violation of lockdown restrictions and more than 300 people arrested, police said on Saturday. The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Noida rose to 58 on Sunday. "The figure includes eight new positive cases," said the District Surveillance Officer, Gautam Budh Nagar. The tally placed Spain first in Europe and second only to the United States worldwide in terms of confirmed cases. Spain's confirmed coronavirus case tally reached 124,736 on Saturday, surpassing Italy's 124,632, according to the latest figures from the two countries. Of the 16, a 50-year-old has been admitted in Banda, while seven people have been admitted at Lucknow's Balrampur hospital. Three are admitted at Lakhimpur hospital while two are in Rae-Bareli and the remaining 3 are being treated at SNMC in Agra. Uttar Pradesh coronavirus confirmed cases are now at 227 after 16 more people tested positive for the virus in Lucknow on Saturday. King George's Medical University, Lucknow, informed that 16 people have been confirmed with COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh out of all those who were tested on Saturday. The chief medical officer of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday said that total number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the district stood at 23. The figure includes three patients who have recovered and since been discharged. "Dear fellow citizens, as we valiantly combat the COVID-19 together, let us not be cowed down by the enormity of the challenge. Let us continue to dispel the gloom and doubts by spreading the light of hope, illumination of knowledge and the bright spirit of working together," said the vice president. Urging everyone to participate in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for candlelight vigil, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu asked to display resolve to fifgt the novel coronavirus by lighting lamps and candles on Sunday at 9 pm for nine minutes. "The medical team and the district administration in Kasaragod are doing a great work tackling the pandemic. But there is a shortage of human resources and other staff under the present circumstances, as more cases are being reported there. I am happy to see that the medical team from Thiruvananthapuram has volunteered to go and help them," KK Shailaja said on Sunday, while wishing the medical team. The team of doctors, nurses and other medical staff from the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College volunteered to help the teams in Kasaragod, Health Minister KK Shailaja said. In order to tackle the shortage of medical staff in Keralas Kasaragod district, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the state, the state government has sent a 26-member medical team from Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, 26 more found coronavirus positive have been reported in Maharashtra, taking the state tally to 661. A 60-year-old woman, who was brought dead at Pune's Sassoon Hospital on 3 April, has been found COVID-19 positive. She had earlier tested negative, Sassoon Hospital officials told ANI. The minister urged them to cooperate with the government by sharing the list of all those who visited Nizamuddin Markaz in March so that they can be identified and put in self-isolation. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that he met with the leaders of Guwahati Lakhtokia Masjid, where the headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat is situated. "A new positive case has been reported from Naugachhia in Bhagalpur district on Saturday, taking the total number to 32. The person, aged about 65 years and hailing from Naugachhia, had come from UK on 18 March," health departments principal secretary Sanjay Kumar said. The number of COVID-19 positive cases in Bihar rose to 32 on Sunday after a 65-year-old man from Bhagalpur district tested positive for COVID-19. He had recently travelled to the United Kingdom. "They were here on a tourist visa but were involved in other activities and a case has been registered for the same. Their involvement with the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi is under investigation," said Ajay Shankar Pandey, DM, Ghaziabad. Among the foreign nationals, five were women. They have been sent to the district hospital for medical examination and have been placed under quarantine. According to the CO Sahibabad, Dr Rakesh Kumar Mishra, a lawsuit has also been filed against foreign nationals under the Foreigners Act. The Shaheed Nagar Police in Ghaziabad has arrested 10 Indonesian nationals, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, for staying put in a madrassa. The last person to test positive before these two fresh cases was a 35-year-old doctor. Sources said all of them have been quarantined and people who could have come in contact with them are being traced. Fresh case of the novel coronavirus was detected in Dharavi near south Mumbai, taking the total number of positive coronavirus cases to Reports of 14 new #coronavirus cases in Dharavi arent true. Only 5 cases so far. Dr Baliga Nagar - 2 ( I dead 1 admitted) Vaibhav Apt -1 ( Dr ) Mukund Nagar 1 New case today -1 (details awaited) @MumbaiMirror #Covid19India @mybmc @mybmcWardGN @DighavkarKiran 05.04.2020 3 PM Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary (Planning), Jammu and Kashmir on Twitter said that 14 new cases have been detected in the Kashmir Division, taking the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir to 106. The number of active cases in Kashmir is 82 and Jammu is18, he said. The ICMR has issued detailed guidelines for conducting rapid tests in clusters, migration centres and has also ask people to sstop consumption of tobacco to arrest spread of the disease, said the health ministry. The health ministry official also attributed the spike in coronavirus cases to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi," COVID-19 cases doubling in 4.1 days presently, had Tablighi Jamaat incident not happened it would have taken 7.4 days," PTI quotes him as saying. Responding to a question about shortage of PPEs, Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal said during the press briefing that India faced a shortage initially but procurement has been stepped up. "PPEs are imported so there was a shortage initially in the country but govt started taking action in this regard from January. Domestic manufacturers have started the production, we have also started procuring PPEs from the countries where it is available," ANI quotes his as saying. he added that PPEs have been dispatched to states on cases load basis. Disitrict Magistrates have been asked to ensure rational usage of PPEs he said. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said that as of 3pm on Sunday, 55 new cases had been reported in the state taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 690. "Till date, 56 people have been cured and discharged from the hospital," he said. Four more patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the total in Uttarakhand to 26, said a statement by the health department. Section 144, which prohibits assembly of five or more people at a time, has been extended in Gautam Buddh Nagar until 30 April, ANI quotes Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dwivedi as saying. The district administration has also ordered all educational institutes to not collect the fee from students during the lockdown. Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said 86 new cases were reported in the state on Sunday of which 85 had participated in the Jamaat congregation which had taken place in New Delhi in mid-March. She also said that of the total 571 cases in the state, 522 were Tablighi attendees. Out of the 7 people found COVID-19 positive on Sunday, two people from Bengaluru had returned from Dubai on 22 March; four from Belagavi and one from Ballari had attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, reports News18. According to data releases by the Karnataka health department, seven new coronavirus cases were reported in the state in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 151. This number includes 4 deaths and 12 discharges it said adding that the number of active cases thus stood at 135. ANI quoted Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as saying, "Six people recovered today. There's a decrease in number of people under surveillance, which now stands at 1,58,617. Out of a total of 10,221 samples, 9300 tested negative." Total number of COVID19 positive cases has risen to 3,577, death tollhas reached to 83, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. There are 3219 active cases and 30 states and Union Territories have been affected as of now. According to ANI, there has been a spike of 505 positive cases in the last 24 hours. Total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rises to 748 after 113 positive cases were reported in the state today. So far, 56 people have been discharged after recovering from the disease, ANI quotes the Maharashtra Health Department as saying. Andhra Pradesh Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy said that a special approach undertaken on an experimental basis in Visakhapatnam city, where the identified red zones (having Corona positive patients) were divided into eight clusters and 20 samples were tested on a random basis from each cluster. Those who returned from abroad and persons in the high- risk age groups (below 10 and above 65 years) were chosen at random and their blood samples were tested. "All these samples turned negative in the tests," the Special CS said. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the authorities to open testing labs in each district and also create isolation wards in all hospitals, reports PTI. He asked the health authorities to immediately complete testing of all those who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation and their primary contacts. In the next step, the secondary contacts of the Jamaat attendees should be tested, he said at a high-level review meeting on COVID-19. Total Number of COVID-19 positive cases in Andhra Pradesh has reached 252 after 26 more cases were found today in Kurnool. 5 patients have completely recovered and discharged, ANI quotes Arja Srikanth, State Nodal Officer, Andhra Pradesh as saying. According to data released by the Maharashtra Public Health Department, there were 13 deaths in the state due to Covid-19; 8 deaths were recorded in Mumbai, three in Pune and one each in Kalyan-Dombivali and Aurangabad. 44 more Coronavirus positive cases have been reported in Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 278, ANI quotes the Directorate of Health Services as saying. "Out of the 278 people who have been found positive in the state, 138 had attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. Three deaths have been reported so far and 21 people have been discharged after recovering from the illness," it further said. The ramp up was very smooth at around 110 GW after the dip in demand during light-out, he said, adding that no incident of any power failure reported. He also lauded power gencos NTPC and NHPC for rising up to the occasion. The power consumption went down from 117GW to 85.30GW within the spin of around four minutes leading up to 9PM. That means this was much more than anticipated fall of 12GW, the minister said. "The power supply ramp down and ramp up - they (officials) handled very smoothly, and I along with my senior officials power secretary, POSCO CMD were personally monitoring the situation from National Monitoring Centre in the ministry. I congratulate all the engineers of NLDC, RLDC and SLDCs for handling the situation very efficiently especially in huge response to the Prime Minister's call". Nine-minute lights-out event went smoothly; no impact on electricity grid functioning, PTI quotes power minister RK Singh as saying. "In the last few days, I have visited various hospitals -- AIIMS (Delhi), LNJP, RML, Safdarjung and now AIIMS, Jhajjar to review the preparedness to tackle COVID-19. It is heartening to see the high morale of our health warriors in these testing times," the minister said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said AIIMS, Jhajjar will function as a dedicated COVID-19 hospital with 300-bed isolation wards, which would ensure a prompt care for the patients in isolation requiring advanced medical support, reports PTI. The minister visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Haryana's Jhajjar to take stock of its preparedness to combat COVID-19. He inspected various facilities in the state-of-the-art building with the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients and visited the Vishram Sadan, the residential quarters for doctors and other health personnel, an official statement said. "Next few days will be very important for all and we need to sustain our containment efforts and utilize all available resources as per the requirement," he said.asked states and UTs to prepare a containment plan keeping in view the situation in their respective regions so that effective measures are taken in time to fight COVID-19.He asked district surveillance and rapid response teams to be fully alert and functional to ensure that every suspect is traced and tested without any loss of time. Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday asked all states and Union Territories to formulate a containment plan as part of their strategy to deal with the spread of coronavirus and its effective implementation on ground to avoid community transmission stage, reports PTI.The lockdown period provides the country a window of opportunities to act positively and be prepared to face any eventuality, Gauba told chief secretaries of all states and UTs through video conference. The death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 525 to 15,887, the lowest daily death toll in more than two weeks, while the number of patients in intensive care fell for the second day running, Reuters quotes the the Civil Protection department as saying. 54 persons, including five evacuees tested positive in Rajasthan, taking the coronavirus cases in the state to 260. 39 of the new cases were detected in Jaisalmer.The total number of 260 includes 2 foreigners and 33 evacuees. According to an update issued by ICMR, 295 people tested psoitive for coronavirus on Sunday taking total to 3,554. BMC has issued orders to declare the below mentioned areas of Kapila Prasad, Jadupur & Begunia as containment zones to contain the spread of #COVID19 . #WeCareForYou pic.twitter.com/g3UVnHtXpE Bhubaneshwar Municipal corporation has issued orders to declare the areas of Kapila Prasad, Jadupur and Begunia as containment zones to restrict the spread of coronavirus. "In the last few days, I have visited various hospitals -- AIIMS (Delhi), LNJP, RML, Safdarjung and now AIIMS, Jhajjar to review the preparedness to tackle COVID-19. It is heartening to see the high morale of our health warriors in these testing times," the minister said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said AIIMS, Jhajjar will function as a dedicated COVID-19 hospital with 300-bed isolation wards, which would ensure a prompt care for the patients in isolation requiring advanced medical support, reports PTI. The minister visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Haryana's Jhajjar to take stock of its preparedness to combat COVID-19. He inspected various facilities in the state-of-the-art building with the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients and visited the Vishram Sadan, the residential quarters for doctors and other health personnel, an official statement said. Delhi Police appeals to people not to come out of their homes on Shab-e-Barat in view of #Covid19 . @CPDelhi @LtGovDelhi @HMOIndia @PMOIndia @DelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/13tIoMxJUZ The Delhi Police on Sunday urged Muslims to stay indoors on the upcoming Shab-e-Barat in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Shab-e-Barat, also known as the night of forgiveness, will be observed on 8 April. Members of the Muslim community visit graveyards to remember their relatives who are no more. 62 new coronavirus positive cases were detected in Telangana on Sunday taking the total to 283. No patients were discharged and no deaths were reported. A 60-year-old woman in Punjab's Phagwara committed suicide by consuming celphos, fearing she had contracted the coronavirus disease, PTI quotes police as saying. Santosh Kaur, a resident of Khurampur village, committed suicide after she complained of a throat problem. She feared that she had contracted the coronavirus disease, her family said. Though doctors told her that she was hale and healthy and only suffered from sore throat, she could not get rid of her fears, they said. Her relatives further said Santosh feared that her children will be afflicted by the disease and consumed celphos in her room. "Next few days will be very important for all and we need to sustain our containment efforts and utilize all available resources as per the requirement," he said.asked states and UTs to prepare a containment plan keeping in view the situation in their respective regions so that effective measures are taken in time to fight COVID-19.He asked district surveillance and rapid response teams to be fully alert and functional to ensure that every suspect is traced and tested without any loss of time. Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday asked all states and Union Territories to formulate a containment plan as part of their strategy to deal with the spread of coronavirus and its effective implementation on ground to avoid community transmission stage, reports PTI.The lockdown period provides the country a window of opportunities to act positively and be prepared to face any eventuality, Gauba told chief secretaries of all states and UTs through video conference. The death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 525 to 15,887, the lowest daily death toll in more than two weeks, while the number of patients in intensive care fell for the second day running, Reuters quotes the the Civil Protection department as saying. 54 persons, including five evacuees tested positive in Rajasthan, taking the coronavirus cases in the state to 260. 39 of the new cases were detected in Jaisalmer.The total number of 260 includes 2 foreigners and 33 evacuees. According to an update issued by ICMR, 295 people tested psoitive for coronavirus on Sunday taking total to 3,554. recording the highest number of 23 new cases in the last 24hours, which took its tally to 40 so far. Of the total 215 cases, 135 are from Indore, the commercial capital of the state. Madhya Pradesh on Sunday reported 36 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the state so far to 215, PTI quotes officials as saying. Simultaneously, the number of deaths caused by coronavirus infection rose to 13 with two persons succumbing to the deadly virus. Among cities, the state capital led the chart by Coronavirus Outbreak Updates: 62 new coronavirus positive cases were detected in Telangana on Sunday taking the total to 283. No patients were discharged and no deaths were reported. The authorities in Kashmir declared six villages in Bandipora district as 'red zones' on Sunday after six people tested positive for coronavirus in these areas.The villages are Konan, Gund Qaiser, Gund-Dachina, Hakbara, Madwan and Pethkote, all in the north Kashmir district, an official spokesperson said. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to switch off lights for 9 minutes and 9 pm, many people across various cities switched off their lights and lit diyas and candles to show collective resolve against the coronavirus. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the authorities to open testing labs in each district and also create isolation wards in all hospitals. He asked the health authorities to immediately complete testing of all those who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation and their primary contacts. Total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rises to 748 after 113 positive cases were reported in the state today. So far, 56 people have been discharged after recovering from the disease. The Union health ministry said that the confirmed cases in the country have crossed 3,500 while the toll has reached 83. According to data releases by the Karnataka health department, seven new coronavirus cases were reported in the state in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 151. This number includes 4 deaths and 12 discharges it said. Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said 86 new cases were reported in the state on Sunday of which 85 had participated in the Jamaat congregation which had taken place in New Delhi in mid-March. She also said that of the total 571 cases in the state, 522 were Tablighi attendees. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said that as of 3pm on Sunday, 55 new cases had been reported in the state taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 690. "Till date, 56 people have been cured and discharged from the hospital," he said. There is no evidence of coronavirus being an airborne infection, said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). "If this was an airborne infection and not droplet infection, every person in a family would be infected, same would apply for other patients in a hospital," he said. 'Total 3, 374 confirmed COVID19 cases reported in India till now; 472 news cases reported since yesterday. Total 79 deaths have been reported; 11 deaths have been reported since yesterday. 267 persons have recovered,' said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secy, Health Ministry The Vashi Police in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai have booked 10 Philippines nationals who had reportedly stayed at a mosque in Navi Mumbai after returning from the Tablighi Jamaat congregeation in Delhi. Two new cases of the novel coronavirus were detected in Dharavi near south Mumbai, taking the total number of positive coronavirus cases to six in the crowded area. The last person to test positive before these two fresh cases was a 35-year-old doctor. Sources said all of them have been quarantined and people who could have come in contact with them are being traced. Ahead of Narendra Modi's 'lights-off' exercise on Sunday at 9 pm, Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy challenged the prime minister to provide a "credible scientific and rational" explanation for opting 5 April to observe the candlelight vigil. Kumaraswamy, in a series of tweets, alleged that Modi has "slyly" asked the nation to observe the candlelight vigil on the eve of BJP's foundation day (6 April). "The government is yet to provide PPEs for doctors and make testing kits affordable for the common man. Without telling the nation what concrete steps are being taken to combat COVID-19 menace, the prime minister is giving meaningless tasks to an already exhausted population," tweeted Kumaraswamy. The 48-hour shut down period in three of Odisha's cities- Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak will end on Sunday at 8 pm. Intensifying its fight against COVID-19, the Odisha government had announced on Friday, a 48-hour total shutdown in the three towns from 8 pm on 3 April. The state government will now focus on containment zone in next seven-ten days. "Investigation of Surya Nagar and Bomikhal positive cases reveals outside state link. So there is no apprehension of community transmission in state," said chief secretary Asit Tripathy on Sunday. A 60-year-old woman, who was brought dead at Pune's Sassoon Hospital on 3 April, has been found COVID-19 positive. She had earlier tested negative, Sassoon Hospital officials told ANI. Meanwhile, 26 more found coronavirus positive have been reported in Maharashtra, taking the state tally to 661. Tamil Nadu reported two more deaths due to the novel coronavirus on Sunday taking the toll to five, PTI reported. A total of 74 new confirmed cases were reported on Saturday, 73 of which were related to the mid-March Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi. This takes the total tally in the state to 485. After an increase of 302 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in last 24 hours the COVID-19 tally in the nation rose to 3,374. The figure includes 3,030 active cases, 267 cured COVID-19 patients and 77 deaths, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Uttar Pradesh coronavirus confirmed cases are now at 227 after 16 more people tested positive for the virus in Lucknow on Saturday. King George's Medical University, Lucknow, informed that 16 people have been confirmed with COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh out of all those who were tested on Saturday. A dozen men from three mosques in Gautam Buddh Nagar have tested for the novel coronavirus and sent to an isolation facility after it emerged that they might have come in contact with a COVID-19 positive man, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March, officials said. The three mosques are in the Dadri area of Greater Noida, where the coronavirus-infected man, who hails from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh, had stayed in the second half of March, and those have been sanitised, police said. As India crossed the halfway mark in the 21-day lockdown on Saturday, the country registered a new single-day record of over 600 new cases and 13 deaths while the total confirmed cases officially crossed the 3,000 mark, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. According to the Ministry's evening update, the total number of people having tested positive for the deadly virus was 3,072 nationwide with 75 deaths. The figures also included 2,784 active cases, 212 cured/discharged and one migrated. According to the ministry, the overall toll on Friday was 62. Earlier, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal had said that at least 58 of the total cases in India were in critical condition in Kerala, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. These figures, however, do not include all the new cases reportedly directly by states. A PTI tally of figures reported by states showed at least 97 deaths across the country while the number of confirmed cases of infection had reached 3,619 as on Saturday late evening. Of them, close to 300 have been cured and discharged, the news agency said. Even as new cases recorded another daily high, the government assured there was no need to panic as the rate of spread was less than in many other countries and just "one place" accounted for 30 percent of detected cases. Simultaneously, the Centre drew up a new strategy to contain the deadly virus that has killed 75 people in the country and over 60,000 globally, into defined geographic areas to minimise the risk presented by clusters emerging in several states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana as also in Delhi and Ladakh. According to the Ministry, 211 districts are now reporting COVID-19 cases, posing a high risk of further spread of the deadly virus unless it is contained. The Health Ministry said the testing capacity has been ramped up significantly to over 10,000 tests per day to detect the deadly coronavirus infection, as it emphasised on continuous compliance to lockdown and social distancing measures, along with personal and environmental hygiene, to win this "daily battle". Globally, more than 11 lakh people have tested positive so far since the outbreak of this deadly virus in December last, which has left over 60,000 dead. The US alone has seen over 2.7 lakh confirmed cases while it recorded nearly 1,500 deaths within 24 hours between Thursday and Friday. Italy has recorded the maximum deaths at nearly 15,000. Over 26,000 home quarantined in MP after 10 test positive Meanwhile, in Madhya Pradesh's Morena city, over 26,000 people were placed under 14-day home quarantine after 10 relatives of a Dubai-returned man tested positive for the virus. The man had oragnised a funeral feast last month which was attended by over 1,500 people. According to reports, the man, identified as Suresh, hid his travel history, and the case came to light only after he and his wife tested positive for the virus on 2 April. Over 1,000 cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat Officials said at least 1,023 confirmed cases of infection have been found to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the national capital last month, but massive efforts by various authorities have led to nearly 22,000 people linked to the religious grouping and their primary contacts getting quarantined. Overall, tens of thousands are quarantined but their overall number could not be ascertained. The Tablighi-linked infections, found across 17 states, including Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, showed that almost 30 percent of them are from "one particular place where we could not sort of understand it and manage it", Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said. One in 25 test positive in India, most patients from 21-40 age group The data shared by Agarwal and other government officials in their daily press briefing on Saturday afternoon showed that an average of one in 25 people tested for the infection have found to be a positive case, while the mortality rate among those testing positive appeared even less at one in 30. Officials said about 75,000 tests have been conducted so far, with the number of daily tests doubling to more than 10,000 from about 5,000 a few days ago. While the number of government labs has increased to over 100, several private labs have also been roped in, Agarwal said. Agarwal said the rate of doubling of cases is still very low in India, compared to many other countries, but it must be kept in mind that the country is dealing with a communicable disease and fighting a daily battle. "We may be successful today, but may not be so tomorrow and to win this battle we need the support of everyone including the public," he said, while emphasising the need for continuously following the lockdown and social distancing measures, and also of personal and environmental hygiene. "We are as strong as the weakest link in this chain and we can win this battle only with support of everyone," he said. Sharing the age-group analysis of COVID-19 patients, Agarwal said the maximum 42 percent are of 21-40 years, 33 percent of 41-60 years, 17 percent are above 60 years and 9 percent are of 0-20 years. The elderly people and those with other medical complications are said to be at higher risk in this pandemic. In Delhi also, five of the six COVID-19 patients who have died were above 60. Cases from states: Maharashtra tops the list According to PTI, within Maharashtra, more than 50 new cases were reported from Mumbai itself, taking the total cases in the country's financial capital to 330. Besides, at least 22 have succumbed to COVID-19 in Mumbai so far. More than nine lakh people have been surveyed and screened for coronavirus infection in the city. Overall, Maharashtra has reported at least 26 deaths so far, the highest in the country, while 11 have lost lives in Telangana and 10 each in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. In terms of confirmed cases also, Maharashtra tops the tally with at least 547 cases, while Tamil Nadu and Delhi have reported over 400 cases and Kerala has more than 300 cases. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana have reported 200 or more cases, while it is more than 100 in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Jammu & Kashmir reported 17 new cases on Saturday, taking its tally to 92. At least two have died in the union territory. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi has risen to 445 but the situation was under control and there was no community transmission. He, however, said around 2,300 people evacuated from Tablighi Jamaat's Nizamuddin centre will be tested for the virus in next 2-3 days when the number of patients may spike. Out of these, 500 patients are in hospitals and 1,800 in quarantine. The national capital's adjoining Noida also reported eight fresh cases of infection, taking the total in Gautam Buddh Nagar district to 58. In the national capital, two patients at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, who were recently admitted to the private hospital due to some critical illness but without any coronavirus symptoms, tested positive for COVID-19 following which 108 medical staffers there have been quarantined, authorities said. Uttar Pradesh reported a significant increase in the number of coronavirus cases to 227, including 94 cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month. Of these, 21 have fully recovered while others are undergoing treatment at hospitals, officials said. Two have died in the state so far. According to the Union Health Ministry's data, state-wise, Maharashtra continues to lead the table with 490 cases and 24 deaths, followed by Delhi (445 cases and six deaths) and Tamil Nadu (411 cases and two deaths). States, airlines, railways consider steps to relax curbs in phases According to sources, all the 17 railway zones and divisions are preparing plans to identity trains for a phased resumption of operations from 15 April, taking into account the availability of rakes. Passenger services were suspended from 25 March for 21 days due to the national lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A Railways official, however, said no final decision has been taken on the restoration of passenger train services. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state government was considering relaxation of the lockdown restrictions in a staggered manner. "Discussions are on about whether the lockdown can be relaxed in phases. Strict rules will have to be followed in the containment zones," Tope said in a live webcast. Earlier in the day, he had said the Maharashtra government may not lift the lockdown from April 15 if people did not observe discipline and the number of COVID-19 cases kept rising. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the lifting of lockdown in the state will depend upon the Lockdown effective, says Centre ahead of PM's call to light candles At the briefing, government officials said the lockdown is being effectively implemented across the country while the supply of essential goods is also going on well, as they expressed confidence we all together will be "successful in breaking the COVID-19 chain". The officials also asked people to refrain from using alcohol-based hand sanitisers while lighting lamps on Sunday night, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made an appeal to show solidarity in the fight against COVID-19. They also said that apprehensions about a possible grid collapse due to collecting switching off of lights at that time was misplaced. On the recent advisory about the use of home-made masks, the Health Ministry officials said it was only for conveying the message of personal hygiene measures. Separately, the government also announced that COVID-19 testing and treatment would be provided free of cost for Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries at private labs and empanelled hospitals. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written to states and Union Territories to ensure that the supply chain of essential items is not obstructed during the lockdown period, Punya Salila Srivastava, a joint secretary in the Union Home Ministry, told reporters. Centre draws a containment plan According to a Union Health ministry document, the government has drawn out a containment plan as clusters posing a high risk of further spread of COVID-19 cases have emerged in several states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana as also Delhi and Ladakh. The cluster containment strategy would "include geographic quarantine, social distancing measures, enhanced active surveillance, testing all suspected cases, isolation of cases, quarantine of contacts and risk communication to create awareness among the public on preventive public health measures", it said. As far as the evidence for implementing geographic quarantine is concerned, the document said the "current geographic distribution of COVID-19 mimics the distribution of H1N1 pandemic influenza". "This suggests that while the spread of COVID-19 in our population could be high, it's unlikely that it will be uniformly affecting all parts of the country," the ministry said, stressing that this calls for differential approach to different regions of the country while mounting a strong containment effort in hot spots. Modi, Trump resolve full strength of India-US partnership against COVID-19 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump held a detailed discussion on the coronavirus crisis on Saturday and resolved to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight the global pandemic. Modi also had separate telephonic conversations with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Perez-Castejon, during which the leaders deliberated upon the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We had a good discussion and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19," Modi wrote on Twitter on his "extensive" telephonic conversation with Trump. "The two leaders agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to resolutely and effectively combat COVID-19," the PMO said. With inputs from PTI Spanish nationals, who were stranded in Goa due to lockdown, left for Madrid by a special flight. They were screened at Goa International Airport before their departure Panaji: Spanish nationals, who were stranded in Goa due to lockdown, left for Madrid by a special flight. They were screened at Goa International Airport before their departure. Earlier on Saturday, Goa Airport Director Gagan Malik had told ANI,"A relief flight carrying 150 Spanish and EU nationals will take off from Goa International Airport to Madrid tonight." He said that the thermal screening of passengers at entry and social distancing will be maintained during check-in at the airport. "Arrangements have been made for passengers to wait with seats, water and fans before entry to a terminal for check-in as they arrive very early due to obvious reasons," Malik added. The Indian government curtailed all international flights to combat the spread of coronavirus. The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its office building in Seoul By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - The coronavirus-driven global shift to working from home is set to have boosted demand for Samsung Electronics'<005930.KS> memory chips from laptop makers and data centres, but first-quarter profits are likely to remain flat as the outbreak weakened consumer electronics sales. The South Korean tech giant is the world's largest memory chip maker, and its Galaxy smartphones are a major rival of Apple Inc's products. Samsung, which also makes home appliances and displays, on Tuesday releases guidance for the January-March quarter profit which is widely expected to be unchanged, and come under pressure in the next few quarters as the impact of coronavirus-related factory and retail stores shutdowns bites. "The visibility for Samsung's earnings is low for the second quarter," said Lee Do-hoon, an analyst at CIMB Research. For the quarter which just ended, Samsung is likely to estimate its operating profit at 6.2 trillion won (4.10 billion), unchanged from the same period a year ago, according to Refinitiv SmartEstimate, weighted towards more consistently accurate analysts. However, the company already warned last month that the pandemic would hurt sales of smartphones and consumer electronics goods this year, and analysts said a prolonged virus outbreak could put higher demand for memory chips at risk. "If COVID-19 continues into 2H20, the memory market outlook could change for the worse," CW Chung, head of research at Nomura in Korea, said in a recent report. When the outbreak first started in China last year, Samsung's strategy of spreading out its production base to countries including Vietnam and India seemed to pay off: rivals such as Apple were hit by supply disruptions as China shut down factories and locked down cities to control the coronavirus. Apple rescinded its profit forecast earlier this year due to production halts and retail store shutdowns in China. Story continues But as the virus spread across the globe, Samsung too has had to close factories and retail stores in Europe, India and the United States, further unnerving investors: Samsung Electronics shares have slumped 15% so far this year, but outperformed the wider market's <.KS11> 22% fall. Prospects for Samsung's flagship Galaxy S20 premium smartphones, launched more than one month ago, look dim. Its 5G-enabled S20 phones are already selling at a third of their launch price of $1,308 in South Korea, an official at a local carrier told Reuters. Brokerage Hanwha Investment & Securities estimates Samsung smartphone sales fell 17% in the first quarter from a year earlier. Last year, a slump in profits at the smartphone and chip businesses more than halved Samsung's full-year earnings. Its display business, which counts Apple and China's Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] as customers, is likely to have swung back to a loss after three consecutive quarterly profit due to sluggish demand from its clients, analysts said. Samsung only provides its estimates for its first-quarter revenue and operating profit on Tuesday, with details likely to be released later this month. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Miral Fahmy) TDT | Manama Bahrains embassies in Jordan and Saudi Arabia yesterday facilitated the safe return of Bahraini citizens as part of ongoing national efforts in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Both embassies worked in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health. The embassy in Jordan provided the Bahraini nationals with all the basic needs and supplies while in Amman, following the outbreak of COVID-19. Bahrain Ambassador to Jordan Ahmed bin Yusuf Al Rowaie affirmed that the embassy continues to support all nationals until their return to the Kingdom. He also expressed thanks and appreciation to the relevant authorities of both countries for their cooperation during the evacuation process. Meanwhile, the embassy in Saudi facilitated the return of a number of Bahrainis stranded in Riyadh through the King Fahad Causeway. Bahrain Ambassador to Saudi Shaikh Hmood bin Abdullah Al Khalifa affirmed the embassys keenness to facilitate the safe return of Bahraini nationals still currently present there. He too expressed his thanks and appreciation to all the authorities in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for their cooperation in the repatriation. A Paramus-based company that specializes in restaurant interiors and jewelry showcases has repurposed its factory to produce protective gear for medical workers battling the coronavirus outbreak. Pac Team Group, a 70-year-old company, has set up its Chicago-based production center to make 5,000 protective face shields per week but can easily expand to 10,000 per week if needed, it said in a press release shared with NJ Advance Media. Pac Team Group President and co-owner Eric Zuckerman described the changes to the Chicago factory as a win-win situation. I am very hopeful. If we can supply 5,000 per week, we can cover our operations cost," Zuckerman said. Everybody on the shop floor can keep working full-time and our country will have another reliable domestic source producing personal protective equipment. Zuckerman said he began to consider implementing changes in the company when a stay-at-home order was issued in Illinois on March 20, hoping to allow both Paramus employees and his colleagues in Chicago to keep working. I started thinking of what machinery we have and how we could help support the medical community facing a PPE shortage, Zuckerman said. "When I saw that face shields were desperately needed, I saw a path and knew we could do that well. The team began researching and engineering face shields the following morning, and within a days time had completed multiple prototypes. Within less than a week, factory workers were receiving bulk materials, applying for testing and certification to produce the shields and beginning to engage with city and state governments to discuss their distribution. "When Eric said Pac Team would be producing face shields, I was so proud to be helping others during this time and also relieved that I could keep working, Juan Baez, a carpenter for Pac Team Group, said. In addition to the Chicago facility, Pac Team Group has been converting its operations in Europe and Asia to secure additional personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, disposable masks, face shields, goggles, gloves and gowns. The company has also begun repurposing its manufacturing facility in China to produce over 30,000 face shields per week, and is actively identifying and investigating FDA-registered manufacturers and coordinating their production and import of essential medical supplies to the United States and Europe. Antonio Schiano Lomoriello, vice president of project development for Pac Teams U.S. operation, expressed his desire for other companies to recognize Pac Team Group as a reliable manufacturer and distributor of personal protective gear. We are fortunate that we have a sizable sourcing and quality control operation there that cannot only find sources but investigate their integrity and physically inspect the product before exporting it, Schiano Lomoriello said. This is what we do, we have been doing it for decades and we do it extremely well. 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. Have a tip? Tell us.nj.com/tips. Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A compilation of local news connected to the coronavirus pandemic: Walmart limits customer access Walmart is limiting people to using just one entrance and restricting the number of customers that can be in the store at one time. Yellow tape could be seen at the Walmart on Route 9 in Queensbury preventing people from coming in the Home and Pharmacy entrance. People were directed to enter the store from the Grocery entrance. In addition, the retailer is limiting the number of customers to no more than five people for each 1,000 square feet of space, which is about 20% of the stores capacity, according to an announcement on the Walmart website. In addition, customers are being required to queue up at single door to be counted. Once the store reaches capacity, people will be admitted on a one-out, one-in basis. Starting next week, there will be one-way movement in its aisles using floor markers and directions from staffers. There will also be signs installed reminding people of the importance of social distancing and keeping at least 6 feet apart from each other. Michael Goot Irving Tissue donates to Tri-County United Way Irving Tissue on Friday donated more than 5,000 rolls of toilet paper, about 16,500 diapers and 5,300 training pants to the Tri-County United Way. These items will be distributed to about 40 food pantries in Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties in the coming week, according to Duane Vaughn, executive director of the Tri-County United Way. It may not last that long, but hopefully its something to get things started, he said. Vaughn worried that local food pantries will see huge increases in use with employees laid off or furloughed. We expect that its going to get much worse for them, he said. The United Way is deeply concerned about all the nonprofits. Were trying to do whatever we can to try and support them. Irving Tissue said in a statement that it is fortunate to be able to donate these products at a time when food banks are experiencing high demand. The Glens Falls YMCA assisted in the effort to transport the donation. Vaughn added that the federal stimulus package has provided a charitable giving incentive. It created a deduction for all filers that contribute up to $300 even if the taxpayer does not itemize deductions. In addition, Vaughn said the agency plans to distribute U.S. Census Bureau fliers when it drops off the items to the food pantries. He wants to make sure the region is accurately counted in the census. Michael Goot North Warren sends video to students The North Warren Central School District has recorded a video to help cheer up and connect with students during the COVID-19 crisis. The video contains encouraging messages including this one from third-grade teacher Stephanie Irish. We miss all of you and all of your beautiful smiles. Keep working hard and we will see you all soon. There are some musical performances by staff members including an educational song called The Preposition Song, which is set to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. And some humor as well. One instructor shows a slide saying Day One: Teaching from Home and lists the three major battles of World War before abruptly cutting off. The next slide Day Two: Teaching from Home shows the teacher singing a song from Frozen next to a life-size cut-outs of Elsa and Anna. School nurse Sue Griffen put together the nearly 12-minute video, which can be found on YouTube. Michael Goot Dunkin Donuts donates to food bank Dunkin Donuts has donated $20,000 to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. The funding will be used to hire additional staff to help meet growing needs in their efforts to collect and distribute food to nearly 1,000 charitable agencies across 23 counties in New York. The donation from the Dunkin Joy in Childhood Foundation was part of $85,000 in grants awarded across upstate New York. One of our most important missions during this health crisis has been to provide assistance to the communities we serve. During these unprecedented times, we want our community partners to know that well always be there for them, said Eric Stensland, Dunkins field marketing manager for the New York Region. Staff report County to meet on ventilators issue The Washington County Board of Supervisors will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to vote on a resolution in opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomos plan to divert ventilators and personal protective equipment from upstate to the downstate area. The governor signed an executive order on Friday giving him the authority to shift the medical equipment from one part of the state to the other. The equipment will be returned once the COVID-19 pandemic is over or the hospitals will be compensated. The meeting will take place at 10 a.m. and be held via teleconference. People interested in joining the meeting online, can visit the following link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/327261269. They can also dial 1-786-535-3211 and type in access code: 327-261-269. Staff report State expands learning resources State education officials announced Friday that they have added online learning resources for educators and parents during this extended school closure. The New York State Museum is offering behind-the scenes tours of exhibits through its Facebook Live Field Trips. Museum scientists, historians and educators are highlighting interesting facts about state history, science and culture. In addition, the state has added more resources on its Continuity of Learning website at www.nysed.gov/edtech/continuity-learning. Educators can turn to our growing list of tools to help prevent learning loss in the weeks ahead, and parents, students and families can enjoy these virtual field trips to the New York State Museum to learn about our states fascinating history and culture from the safety of their homes, said Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa in a news release. Staff report Queensbury board to be on YouTube Queensburys Town Board will be live on YouTube on Monday. The regularly scheduled meeting will be aired live at Town of Queensbury on youtube.com. During privilege of the floor, residents can call 518-761-8225. Only numbers that show a callers identification will be answered. Calls that show the phone number as blocked or hidden will not be answered. Supervisor John Strough said he understands the public health needs for postponing as many public meetings as possible, but the Town Board must conduct essential business. Planning and zoning board meetings have been postponed. Kathleen Moore Fort Edward board to meet The Fort Edward Village Board will meet Monday at 7 p.m. The meeting will take place through the Zoom online meeting platform. If residents wish to attend, they are asked to contact Village Hall at 518-747-4023 for information about how to access the meeting. Staff report Argyle board will not meet The Argyle Village Board will not hold its usual public meeting on Monday to comply with the governors instruction on self-isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, village officials said Friday. If needed, residents can contact the village office at 518-955-2766. Gretta Hochsprung Raising funds for hungry veterans The Veterans and Community Housing Coalition has started a crowd funding campaign to help feed veterans who may be struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The organization, which provides housing and support services to homeless veterans and their families, is looking to raise $20,000 and has raised $2,150 as of Saturday evening. Men and women who have served our country are homeless for many reasons. They are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, mental illness, addiction, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, all stemming from their service to our country, said Cheryl Hage-Perez, executive director of the Veterans and Community Housing Coalition. Our veterans are losing their jobs and experiencing more health issues.We have been able to provide these basic needs to our veterans through the generosity of donations. Our supplies are very low and understandably donations are not coming in. The fundraiser can be found at https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/food-for-our-veterans and 100% of the donation goes directly to food, paper products and supplies for veterans in need. Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/. "Serving in the military changes you. The shades and degrees of change vary for everyone, but no one is ever the same as... The most effective remedy against coronavirus is social distancing, said Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday. "The whole world is searching for medicines against coronavirus. Even researchers in India are engaged in this work. However, the biggest and most effective remedy against the coronavirus at this moment is social distancing. Everyone should follow it to keep themselves safe," Vardhan told ANI. "This lockdown is nothing less than any vaccine. I think people need to understand that and follow the rules," he said. Earlier in the day, Vardhan visited the AIIMS dedicated centre for coronavirus in Jhajjar, Haryana and interacted with the medical staff deployed in care of the patients."There are 162 patients currently here and the condition of all of them is stable. A dedicated facility for COVID-19 patients has been created here in AIIMS, Jhajjar, a total of 310 patients can be treated here," Dr Harsh Vardhan told ANI after his visit."I also held talks with two patients through video calling and was happy to see their enthusiasm and satisfaction with the facilities being provided. Their treatment is being done by a very dedicated team of doctors and medical staff in the most scientific manner," he added. The Health Minister informed that he is satisfied with the services being provided at Delhi's' Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital and Loknayak Hospital. He further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is closely monitoring the situation related to coronavirus in the country and added that he himself is in contact with state health ministers and health officials from around the country. "We have given states assurance of our full support and I am in constant touch with them. We are ready to provide them with any help which they want," he said. He appealed to people to participate in Prime Minister's '9 pm 9 minute' campaign on Sunday to express the solidarity among Indians to fight COVID-19 battle. In a video message on Friday, the Prime Minister asked citizens to turn all lights off in their houses at 9 pm on Sunday (April 5) and to stand at their doors or windows with a candle, diya and torch for nine minutes in a battle against the COVID-19. The highly contagious virus has affected 3,577 people in India, out of which 3,219 are active cases, 274 have been dischaged while 83 people have died. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unemployment insurance and other social safety net IT systems around the country are crumbling under the stress of millions of users seeking to apply for benefits in the wake of unprecedented unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis is getting so bad that New Jersey's governor put out a call for legacy systems programmers in a video address. "Given the legacy systems, we should add a page [to their online call for health professionals] for COBOL computer skills because that's what we're dealing with," Gov. Phil Murphy said April 4. "We have systems that are 40-plus years old. There will be lot of post-mortems, and one of them on our list will be how the heck did we get here when we literally needed COBOL programmers." Florida's unemployment system, the subject of multiple adverse oversight reports that were ignored by Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, the state's former and current governors, has crashed under the weight of hundreds of thousands of applications. The state initially urged applicants to use an out-of-support version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser before switching to paper applications. Similar problems are affecting other states and they're likely to get worse as unemployment continues to spike. The Labor Department reported that a record 9 million unemployment claims were filed in the two-week period ending April 2. U.S. Digital Response is a new effort that has sprung up to connect volunteers with governments struggling to scale their public facing technology systems, supply chains, digital communications and more to meet demand during the COVID-19 crisis. The group is looking to attract volunteers with expertise in legacy systems to help fill the gaps faced by state and local governments. Mark Headd, formerly chief data officer for the City of Philadelphia and currently at the General Services Administration, noted that the age and legacy codebase of government systems don't tell the whole story when it comes to failure and overload. "What if, instead of trying to replace mainframes for the last 30 years -- which has been an unmitigated failure -- governments had instead decided to find ways to work with them more or build on top of them?" Headd said on Twitter. Another issue Headd identified is outsourcing the maintenance and development of these systems. "Governments have mostly followed the strategy of contracting out for technical expertise for the last 30 years as well, rather than building up internal capacity," he said. "That also hasn't worked. At all." Federal problems Legacy tech problems aren't confined to states and their unemployment systems, or even to the public sector. Britain and many European countries trying to transmit state bailout aid to small and medium sized business looking to meet payroll during the crisis are having problems. One notable exception is Switzerland. According to an April 4 article in the Financial Times, disbursements from a $20 billion relief package are being deposited in beneficiary accounts very quickly. "I applied on Friday afternoon and we had the money on Monday morning. It was a one-page form," the head of a family-owned engineering business told the newspaper. This is in stark contrast to the chaos that greeted the opening of U.S. government efforts to supply forgivable, emergency loans to small businesses looking to make payroll and avoid layoffs. The $350 billion program, which was included in the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, is being run largely through commercial lenders. The Small Business Administration released a two-page form designed to collect the information banks will need to process the loans. The program launched last Friday, with details still being hashed out the night before, with SBA and Treasury reportedly at odds over program administration. "The SBA and the Treasury need to quit the power struggle, get aligned, provide REAL guidance (for ALL lenders, business owners, and agents) so that we can get much need capital into the hands of SMBs that are suffering right now!" Brock Blake, the founder and CEO of small business loan marketplace Lendio said on Twitter the night before the program opened. Officials are hoping for improvements in the coming week. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced on Twitter that SBA's clunky loan processing system E-Tran is getting a boost from a new Amazon Web Services contract. "When you launch something this unprecedented & far reaching, just 7 days after it became law, you are going to have some problems," Rubio added. In an April 2 email to FCW, an SBA spokesperson said the agency was working with "technology partners" to provide "a user friendly front-end website on SBA.gov to assist lenders unfamiliar with SBA lending. SBA lenders will process their loans system-to-system via web services." The spokesperson said the agency has added "additional technical resources to assist existing lenders with their web service implementation." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Twitter that $1.8 billion in paycheck protection loans were been processed by financial institutions in the opening day of the program, but there was no word on disbursements to borrower accounts. Rubio noted that financial technology firms such as PayPal and online lenders are looking to pitch in on processing loans applications, but they have to wait for Treasury to release applications to get certified to participate. Rubio said applications for non-bank lenders could be out by early this week. Mark Rockwell contributed reporting to this article CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga Valley National Park is limiting its operations amid the coronavirus outbreak. The park announced that it will offer limited services outside those that support visitor or resource protection beginning Saturday, according to a statement from CVNP. The services below will be suspended until further notice: Brandywine Falls: The boardwalk is closed. Parking will be closed Sunday and will be open on a limited basis. Blue Hen Falls: Parking is closed. Boston Mills: Visitor center is closed. All restrooms are closed, but portable toilets will be at busy locations. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at CVNP is our number one priority, said a statement from CVNP. The National Park Service (NPS) is working service-wide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. We will notify the public of any further closures, and when we resume full operations." Capt. Brett Crozier, the Navy captain removed from command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt after pleading for COVID-19 assistance amid a warship outbreak, tested positive for the coronavirus, sources close to the Crozier family told The Chronicle. Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, was dismissed after a memo he wrote warning of the dire situation on his vessel became public. Top Navy officials said the memo, which was first reported by The Chronicle, was distributed too widely. Going outside the chain of command could undermine national security, they said. Many military experts, however, panned the decision, calling Crozier a hero for risking his career to help his ship. Meanwhile, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly was expected to address the ships crew Monday afternoon in Guam, two sources familiar with the visit told The Chronicle. One source said the crew, many of whom were upset by Modlys decision to terminate Croziers command, was briefed over the ships intercom about the visit and instructed to be respectful during his stopover. The two sources who spoke to The Chronicle about Modlys visit wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Chronicle agreed not to identify the sources in accordance with its policy on anonymous sources. Requests for comment from Modlys office were not immediately returned. By Sunday, 155 people who were aboard the ship had tested positive for the virus, according to the Navy, which is moving sailors ashore in Guam. Those crew members will be using hotels across the island for a 14-day quarantine. The team in Guam has shown enormous spirit and focus getting this ship healthy again, Vice Adm. Bill Merz, commander of U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a statement. Know that every day, regardless of what the challenge may be, my number one priority is to sustain the war-fighting posture of 7th Fleet, and the most important element of this number one priority is the sailors. Croziers diagnosis was first reported by the New York Times, which cited Naval Academy classmates who told the paper that Crozier became symptomatic before he was removed from the ship early Friday. Croziers crew, sailor families, friends and former classmates have lauded him for putting the safety of his ship ahead of his blossoming naval career. On social media, the hashtag #Crozierisahero trended on Twitter and videos of a rousing send-off from the ship were widely shared his crew chanting his name as he walked down the gangway the final time. Mark Blakewood, father of Chris Blakewood, a 24-year-old Roosevelt sailor from Orange Park, Fla., was saddened to learn of Croziers diagnosis Sunday. So very sorry to learn of this, he texted The Chronicle. The younger Blakewood told his parents he has stopped being able to taste and smell in the past few days and suspects he has the coronavirus. He is awaiting his test results. 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. More Information Inside the newsroom Anonymous sources: The Chronicle strives to attribute all information we report to credible, reliable, identifiable sources. Presenting information from an anonymous source occurs extremely rarely, and only when that information is considered crucially important and all other on-the-record options have been exhausted. In such cases, The Chronicle has complete knowledge of the unnamed person's identity and of how that person is in position to know the information. The Chronicle's detailed policy governing the use of such sources, including the use of pseudonyms, is available on SFChronicle.com. See More Collapse Captain Crozier was/is the most courageous and qualified naval officer, Blakewood texted. His courage in writing/requesting immediate help actually united the crew of the USS Teddy Roosevelt and did not create panic on the ship, but provided a sense of hope and that immediate help is on the way. But President Trump harshly criticized Crozier at a White House briefing on Saturday, saying: He shouldnt be talking that way in a letter. I thought it was terrible what he did. Crozier, 50, was inspired to join the Navy by the film Top Gun. He started in the service as a helicopter pilot and made the unusual transition to jet pilot. The Naval Academy graduate worked his way up the ranks and took the helm of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in November. He lives in San Diego with his wife. They have three sons, including one in the Navy. Matthias Gafni, Joe Garofoli and Rusty Simmons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com, jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com, rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni, @joegarofoli, @Rusty_SFChron Albany James Seward, a veteran state senator from the Oneonta area, emerged from a medically induced coma Saturday night and was able to be taken off a ventilator for COVID-19 treatment. They just took him off the ventilator, his wife Cindy said from Milford, Otsego County, where she is in self-quarantine for COVID-19 as well. Seward, who has been battling bladder cancer off and on since 2016, was diagnosed in March with COVID-19, the respiratory illness brought on by the coronavirus. Doctors initially said the outlook was good but he was brought back to the hospital and had been in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator since 5:30 a.m. Thursday. They predicted at the time that he would need about three days on the ventilator which turned out to be correct. Cindy Seward said she spoke to him just before 7 p.m. Saturday over a Facetime cellphone app. I told him he looked good and he told me I looked good, she said. The nurse, who was standing in the background gave the thumbs up sign, she said. Sewards situation had improved from earlier in the day when Cindy Seward wrote on a community Facebook page that the next few days are crucial. Earlier in the week, Sewards chief of staff, Duncan Davie told the Oneonta Star newspaper that rumors of the senators passing were totally untrue. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Seward had undergone surgery for bladder cancer in 2016. In November he said the cancer had returned. Earlier this year he said he planned to retire from the Senate after this term, ending a 34-year career. Cindy Seward in her social media post also said she was dealing with additional health issues atop the COVID-19 diagnosis. I am in self-quarantine with pneumonia and shingles and have no sense of taste. I am the lucky one, she wrote, contrasting her condition to that of her husband. An Otsego County native, Seward, a Republican, 68, served for many years as the chairman of the Senate Insurance committee and is currently its ranking member. His 51st Senate District includes Schoharie, Otsego and Cortland counties as well as part of Herkimer County. It also extends through several other counties toward the Hudson Valley. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU The General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, on Sunday, April 5, 2020, donated some relief items including several bags of rice and undisclosed amount of money to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Greater Accra Region. The items, according to him, were meant for distribution to the underprivileged in the region regardless of their political affiliations to support them cope with the difficulties and hardships occasioned by the partial lockdown of the capital city in order to arrest the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The items were received on behalf of each MMDA by the respective MMDCEs and in some cases, by Members of Parliament and some constituency executives of the party, who, thereupon, thanked the NPP chief scribe for his generosity and promised to use the items for the intended purpose. In his interaction with the people, the NPP General Secretary reiterated the commitment of the NPP and the government of President Akufo-Addo to providing the needed relief to Ghanaians particularly the underprivileged at all times and more so, during this period of lockdown. To this end, he said, the party would continue to distribute various relief items to ameliorate the peoples suffering in these trying times. He also mentioned that the party will, within the week, replicate this gesture in the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and its contiguous districts which are also experiencing a partial lockdown. John Boadu also used the occasion to educate the good people of the region on some safety tips in the order to avoid contracting the deadly COVID-19, which disease has, thus far, been declared as the Worlds greatest threat to the human race, he noted. Consistent with the campaign against the disease, John Boadu admonished the people to regularly wash their hands with soap under running water; use alcohol-based sanitizers to rub their hands; live a healthy lifestyle and also observe the social distancing protocols announced by President Akufo-Addo and health experts. John Boadu was accompanied, on this tour, by some regional executives of the NPP in the Greater Accra Region led by the hardworking Regional Chairman, Divine Otoo Agorhom. 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. Featured Video The Chief Minister's Relief Fund in Meghalaya has received a donation of Rs 1 crore from billionaire Mukesh Ambani for its fight against COVID-19. Taking to Twitter, CM Conrad K Sangma thanked the business tycoon, his wife and Reliance Industries for the generous contribution. "Thank you Mukesh Ambani ji, Nita Ambani ji & #RelianceIndustriesLimited for your generous donation of Rs. 1 Crore towards the Meghalaya Chief Minister's Relief Fund. Donations from responsible corporate citizens will go a long way in championing our fight against #COVID2019, Sangma tweeted on Saturday night. Meghalaya has not reported any COVID-19 case so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 23:38:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel launches a 4 million-U.S.-dollar grant program for 30 urgent coronavirus researches, Israel's Council for Higher Education (CHE) said Sunday. According to CHE's statement, the program focuses on slowing down the coronavirus pandemic and generating a better understanding of the disease. As part of the plan, the CHE will allocate up to 2 million dollars, pending matching from philanthropic foundations, to the competitive grant program that will finance research projects within four weeks. The projects can pertain to a wide variety of fields, including immunology, virology, pharmacology, molecular and cell biology, epidemiology, artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering and the combinations thereof. In the program, coordinated by the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), projects will be selected based on scientific excellence and potential for applicability in six to 12 months. Grant winners will be required to make their research results fully and immediately available to the scientific community in Israel and abroad. Women and senior citizens have started receiving benefits of relief measures announced by the Modi government. Around 40 per cent (around 8 crore) of total 20 crore women beneficiaries of Jan Dhan Schemes have already received payment worth Rs 500 each. The Centre started crediting the first instalment of Rs 500 each to over 4 crore Jan Dhan accounts of poor women on April 3. The Rural Development Ministry has decided to deposit the money in a phased manner in Jan Dhan accounts to reduce crowds at bank branches and ATMs and ensure poeple maintain social distancing. The ministry schedule says Jan Dhan account holders with last digits of their account number as 0 or 1 can withdraw money on April 3; those with 2 or 3 can withdraw on April 4; those with 4 or 5 will receive on April 7; 6 or 7 on April 8; and 8 or 9 on April 9. Apart from Jan Dhan beneficiaries, 8 crore Ujjwala Scheme beneficiaries will get a total Rs 5,000 crore in their bank accounts. The money will help them buy Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders for three months. The government has allocated Rs 16,000 crore under Kisan Samman, under which farmers will get advance payment worth Rs 2,000 in their bank accounts. For rural workers, the daily wage under the MNREGA employment guarantee programme has been increased to Rs 202 from Rs 182. Senior citizens, widows and differently-abled will also receive total funds worth Rs 3,000 each into their accounts. In wake of the coronavirus outbreak and nationwide lockdown, the Centre had first earlier announced fiscal and monetary measures and later gave monetary benefits to poor and low-income groups. The government on March 26 announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore stimulus that included free foodgrain and cooking gas to poor for three months, and cash doles to women and poor senior citizens to ease the economic impact of coronavirus and the 21-day nationwide lockdown. To help businesses cope with coronavirus impact, the government also relaxed timelines for meeting tax and other statutory filing requirements as well as allowed companies to divert philanthropy or CSR funds to support the fight against coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in India are on a steady rise with the cumulative number surpassing 3,300. Currently, there are 3,030 active cases in the country and 75 have died from coronavirus. According to the latest health ministry's data, Delhi has 445 cases, while Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had 490 and 485, respectively. So far, 266 have been cured or discharged in India. Also read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Gujarat reports 11 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday; positive cases climb to 122 Tomah city clerk Jo Cram was aware Friday that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers had called a Saturday special session of the state Legislature to postpone Tuesdays election. I have my polling place all set up, Cram said. It would have been a huge waste of time. It appears her efforts wont be for nothing. Republicans rejected the governors request, paving the way for in-person voting to be held as scheduled Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Setting up a polling place in Tomah took a lot more effort this time. In response to the COVID-19 virus, the clerks office moved the citys polling station from the fire station adjacent to Tomah city hall to Tomah Recreation Park. The move to a larger building is designed to create a larger buffer between voters as they enter and exit the polling place. Voters will have lots of choices Tuesday: MayorIncumbent Mike Murray is being challenged by former mayor Nellie Pater. Tomah City CouncilOnly one of the four seats has more than one candidate. Voters in the Eighth District will choose between incumbent Sue Holme and challenger Dean Peterson. Tomah School BoardNone of the three incumbents are running for re-election. Voters will choose among Kirk Arity, Sue Bloom, Mike Gnewikow, Mitchell Koel, Rick Murray and Spencer Stephens for the at-large seats. The top three vote-getters will win three-year terms. Monroe County Board of SupervisorsFive of the 16 seats are contested and one seat with no candidate on the ballot has a registered write-in. State Supreme CourtIncumbent Daniel Kelly is being challenged by Jill Karofsky. The winner gets a 10-year term. ReferendumsElectors will vote on a state constitutional amendment to expand the rights of crime victims and an advisory county referendum on non-partisan redistricting. Presidential primaryThe only partisan race on the ballot is presidential primaries in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Cram said 1,354 absentee ballots have been issued, which represents nearly half of the April 2016 turnout. While voters will cast ballots on Tuesday, its not clear when the results will be announced. A federal judge extended the absentee ballot deadline to April 13, which opened the scenario of voters still casting ballots after election day. The judge ordered that no results be released until absentee ballots are returned. Tomah Journal editor Steve Rundio can be reached at steve.rundio@lee.net. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Image credit : UNI Washington/UNI: US President Donald Trump says he supports the decision to remove US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt Capt Brett Crozier over the captains inappropriate email regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. "Here we have one of the greatest ships in the world... with thousands and thousands of people and you had about 120 that were infected and I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam and people got off in Vietnam, perhaps you dont do that in the middle of the pandemic," Trump said at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Saturday. According to Trump, the captain wrote a '5-page letter' that was 'all over the place.' "They made their decision, I didnt make the decision, the Secretary of Defense was involved and a lot of people were involved. I thought it was terrible what he did, to write a letter? This isnt a class of literature," Trump told reporters. He stressed that the captain could have called and made certain suggestions but it was inappropriate for him to send a letter and to stop in Vietnam, where sailors got off the ship and then ended up being infected. "I thought it was inappropriate for the captain of a ship I agree with their decision [to remove the captain] 100 percent," Trump said. On Thursday, US Navy Acting Secretary Thomas Modly announced he had made the decision to remove Capt Brett Crozier because he improperly sent an email about his concerns regarding the COVID-19 outbreak on the ship using channels that were not secure to convey confidential information. "The secretary of defense supported the decision of the acting secretary of the Navy to remove the captain of the Roosevelt," Hoffman told a video press conference on Friday. About 114 sailors on US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and more COVID-19 cases are expected, according to Modly. US Congressmen Ted Lieu and Ruben Gallego on Friday wrote a letter to Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine urging him to open an investigation into the removal of Capt Brett Crozier. Midland County on Sunday added another positive coronavirus case, which brings the total to 18 cases, while Bay County added another six cases bringing its total to 30, according to the Sunday afternoon state report. Other nearby counties saw Gladwin add one case for a total of four, Isabella adding two for 12 cases and two deaths, and Saginaw County adding 15 cases for 118 in all. Sunday's report added 1,493 cases and 77 deaths, bringing Michigan's total to 15,718 cases with 617 deaths. Midland County Public Health Director/Health Officer Fred Yanoski has said it is extremely important that people follow the current social distancing recommendations both at home and at work if deemed an essential. He said people should only be associating with immediate family members who they are in contact with at home. The state is reporting, as of 3 p.m. Saturday, a total of 40,581 specimens have been tested, and that includes those that were negative, positive and inconclusive. Counts represent the total specimens tested, not total patients tested, according to mich.gov, the state website where daily updates are reported. A patient can have more than one specimen tested, therefore the number of specimens tested may be more than the number of patients tested. The specimens are tested by commercial, hospital and public health labs, with hospital testings accounting for 29,830 of those tests. Of the 40,581 specimens tested, 30,030 were negative, and 10,435 were positive, the state reports. Counts of specimens tested positive will not equal number of people with COVID-19, the website states. People may have more than one test or may have had their test from an out of state lab. The state has categorized in percentages the ages of people who are testing positive. People age 50 to 59 make up 20% of the cases, with people ages 60-69, 18%; people 40-49, 17%; people 70-79, 13%; people 30 to 39, 13%; people 20 to 29, 9%; people 80-plus, 8%, and people 0-19, 1%. The state has categorized in percentages the ages of people who have died. People age 50 to 59 make up 12% of the cases, with people ages 60-69, 20%; people 40-49, 6%; people 70-79, 25%; people 30 to 39, 2%; people 20 to 29, 1%; people 80-plus, 34%, and people 0-19, 0%. The state lists the majority of races in positive cases as 34% Black/African American; 24% Caucasian and 36% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 40% Black/African American; 29% Caucasian and 26% unknown The positive cases involve male and female equally, with 50% men, 46% women and 4% unknown. State statistics show 61% of coronavirus deaths are male and 39 are female. Those who have died range in age from 20 to 107, with the average age 71.4 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. WASHINGTON United States military officials have outlined a spending request to bolster deterrence against China after the coronavirus pandemic ebbs, a sign of how national security leaders are already studying ways to shore up the countrys standing in the Asia-Pacific region once the outbreak ends. A report from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, delivered to Congress last week, calls for $20.1 billion in additional spending between 2021 and 2026. The funds would be spent on new radar warning systems and cruise missiles, and would also pay for more exercises with allies, deployments of additional forces and new intelligence-sharing centers. The efforts would help improve the U.S. militarys ability to deter the Peoples Liberation Army. The request, which was first reported by Breaking Defense and Defense News, shows that many in the military believe tensions between the United States and China are likely to grow amid the pandemic. President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China cut an uneasy peace in late March, each promising to dial back accusations of who was at fault for the spread of the virus, which is believed to have originated late last year at a market in Wuhan. But U.S. intelligence officials have said they expect tensions to flare again, and China to restart its efforts to deflect blame for the virus and spread disinformation about the United States role in its origin. While Congress commissioned the report from the Indo-Pacific Command before the coronavirus plunged the world economy into chaos and heightened tensions between the United States and China, current and former national security officials said the spending request was more relevant now. Smoking may increase the risk of getting a severe case of coronavirus as it damages the lungs and other body parts, according to World Health Organisation (WHO). The possibility of virus transmission to mouth from fingers increases in smokers, the report added. However, in an earlier report, WHO had said that coronavirus is primarily transmitted via respiratory droplets and close contact and does not appear to stay long in the air. "The act of smoking means that fingers (and possibly contaminated cigarettes) are in contact with lips which increases the possibility of transmission of the virus from hand to mouth. Smokers may also already have lung disease or reduced lung capacity which would greatly increase the risk of serious illness," WHO said in a Q&A section on smoking and COVID-19 on its website. Smoking products such as water pipes often involve the sharing of mouthpieces and hoses, which could facilitate the transmission of COVID-19 in communal and social settings, it added. ALSO READ: Coronavirus India Live Updates: 83 dead, 3,577 infected by COVID-19 Similarly, chewing smokeless tobacco including gutka, pan masala with tobacco, pan and areca nut (supari) increases the production of saliva, followed by a very strong urge to spit which could enhance the spread of COVID-19, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently said. ICMR also made an appeal to the public to abstain from consuming smokeless tobacco products and spitting in public places during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, India is currently under a 21-day lockdown. According to the Health Ministry data, 472 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday appealed to citizens to switch off electric lights at 9 pm on Sunday for nine minutes, and light candles or diyas to dispel the darkness spread by coronavirus pandemic. ALSO READ: Two coronavirus vaccine candidates enter human trials, 60 in pre-clinical stage: WHO Our Commonwealth Parliament in Canberra has stopped sitting and won't properly resume until August. That's a concern. But it's not actually the parliament we should be most worried about. Most of the serious emergency measures and limitations on our civil liberties are administered at the state level. Our state parliament in NSW was quietly adjourned last month and is not scheduled to sit again until September. So who cares, right? With a public health crisis, so many out of work, businesses closing, is parliamentary democracy really an "essential service"? But before dismissing this as mere procedural guff, just pause and consider how we ensure the best public policy response to the health and economic crisis we face. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Credit:AAP The Public Health Order signed by Health Minister Brad Hazzard on March 30 now dictates our basic human rights. It applies extremely tight restrictions on our movement and our right to gather and associate. If we're suspected of breaching these restrictions, it's basically up to the discretion of the police to decide whether or not we're warned, fined, or arrested to face a possible prison sentence. We are living under the heaviest ever peacetime restrictions on our civil liberties by a country mile. And how do we get our information about what these restrictions mean and how long we will be subject to them? We await a daily press conference by NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. Now of course we expect the Police Commissioner and the Premier to act in good faith. We expect them to relinquish the absolute power they've temporarily seized. I guess the question is, is this expectation really the best we can do? P Ramdas By Express News Service KOCHI: Borders remain closed. Airstrips are shut. But merchant vessels continue to traverse the seas with the onerous task of connecting continents and keeping supply chains open. While the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc across the world, seafarers cannot afford to shirk responsibility. In these trying times, however, they find it hard to procure provisions. Over 90 per cent of Indias trade is done across the seas and we are risking our lives to keep the wheels of the economy turning, K Bobby Kuruvilla, chief engineer of the vessel M T Neptune, told TNIE. An Ernakulam native, he has been at sea for the past six months. The times are tough, but the ostracism pains us, he said. Countries deny us permission to step on their soil and they are apprehensive about extending a helping hand. We find it difficult to get provisions, technical support and spares. While all countries need the supplies we deliver, they treat us as aliens. Bobbys ship set off from Galveston in the US on March 26 and is currently at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. George Johny The contracts of many seafarers have expired. But they are stranded at sea due to the restrictions imposed by various countries. There is a communication breakdown which poses challenges to merchant vessels. We hear disturbing news and want to be with our families, Bobby said. But travel and quarantine restrictions keep us confined to the vessel. Sailors often face challenges that are unforeseen. We battle heavy seas, strong winds and even pirates, but the challenge posed by Covid-19 is entirely different. It has brought the world to its knees. I had joined duty on October 26 and am unsure when I can return home. TNIE understands that similar is the case with several other Malayalee shipmen stuck in their vessels battling severe physical and mental stress. LIVES OF SEAFARERS TRAPPED IN VESSELS Bose Prasad G Bose Prasad G, second engineer of Wallem Ship Management, wanted to be with his family by the first week of April as his wife is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. However, the global outbreak has scuttled his plans. I had joined the ship before the outbreak and, like every seafarer, I am worried about my family, Bose said. I had promised my wife that I will be with her for the delivery as she is under stress. My parents are aged and they have limitations in running around. Now I have accepted the reality. Most countries have shut their airspaces and are not permitting repatriation of seafarers. The crew in my ship have resolved to stand together and prepare ourselves to face the challenges. All activities including signing off from the ships have been postponed indefinitely, leaving the sailors depressed. Any seafarer joining duty will be looking forward to the signing off day as life at sea is always stressful. As it gets postponed, a sense of insecurity creeps in, he said. Captain B Muralee Krishnan, in charge of a vessel operated by Master Synergy Maritime, is struggling to keep his crew motivated. Though the ship will dock at Texas in the US within a couple of days, the crew - scheduled to sign off at Texas - will not be able to leave the ship. Capt B Muralee Krishnan No crew member has stepped out of the ship during the past 50 days, he said. Our lives are quarantined inside the ship. A few of my crew members have packed their bags to sign off at Texas. They were crestfallen as the news about the blanket ban on crew changes arrived. I am struggling to cheer them up. We are hopeful that a few countries will allow crew change by mid-April. The situation in the US is a concern and we will have to remain in the ship till the situation improves. The safest place for them now is the ship, said George Johny, the chief officer of a ship currently docked at Istanbul in Turkey. We feel safe at sea than ashore. Reports from various ports are scary. I started sailing in November 2003 and have witnessed outbreaks like swine flu, Ebola and others. But never have I come across such a situation, he said. A gang battle in Mexico has left at least 19 people dead in the northern state of Chihuahua, officials said Saturday. At least five armed clashes have occurred in the Madera community so far this year, local authorities have said. "The state attorney general, in conjunction with the public safety office and Mexican Army, launched an operation to investigate and locate armed groups that staged a confrontation that left 19 people dead yesterday in the town of Madera," authorities said. According to early reports, the bloodshed occurred Friday evening when alleged hitmen of the Gente Nueva group, part of the Sinaloa Cartel, were driving on a dirt road in Madera. There they were ambushed by men from the opposing group La Linea, part of the Juarez Cartel. Responding authorities seized 18 long firearms, one short, two vehicles and two grenades at the site of the clash. The Mexican government has blamed the La Linea cartel for the massacre of nine Mexican-American Mormons last November when they were travelling on a rural road between the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, which borders the United States. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 01:16:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The recent U.S. block of a loan by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Iran to help the country fight COVID-19 outbreak amounts to "crimes against humanity," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said Sunday. The U.S. opposition to "the IMF's granting a loan to Iran to provide the necessary equipment to fight the coronavirus outbreak is a real instance of crimes against humanity," Shamkhani tweeted. He said that sanctioning medical items is "an illegal act, an anti-human rights move, and (U.S. President Donald) Trump's open animosity with Iranian people." On March 12, it was announced here that the Central Bank of Iran had asked the IMF for a 5-billion-U.S.-dollar loan to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. Healthy competition can be a catalyst for innovation and improvement. This is a general notion and is not limited to just one particular industry. As for tech, well, it's safe to say that there has never been a shortage of competition. In fact, there is always so much going on in the tech space that it's very hard to commit to either side in a duel. But as we mentioned before, it always achieves a satisfactory resolution in the form of better products for us as consumers. Here are a few such rivalries that got a little ugly but gave us incredible products to use - Apple vs Microsoft Reuters Steve Jobs and Bill Gates come to our mind when we think of Apple vs Microsoft. A battle that raged between the two since the mid-80s is still going strong - be it PC vs Mac, Windows vs macOS, or the more recent one i.e Surface Pro vs the iPad Pro. We wish Windows Phone was still alive, but sadly Android is going to take that up. Anyway, Apple & Microsoft weren't always at loggerheads. They used to work together during the early 80s. In fact, Microsoft had helped Apple develop the software for Apple II. It all started going south after Jobs accused Gates of ripping off Macintosh OS for GUI OS. Gates' famous reply just took it all downhill. "Well, Steve, I think theres more than one way of looking at it. I think its more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it," he said. And the rest, as they say, is history. Apple Apple Vs Samsung After Microsoft, Samsung is famous or rather infamous for being Apple's archrival. Both of them continued to sue and counter-sue each other in the court for many years over patents. Heck, Apple even managed to get some of the older Samsung devices banned in the process. They finally settled in May 2018, and Samsung had to pay $539 million to Apple for infringing on its competitors' patents. But even today, there's a war going on out there amidst buyers over which company is better at making good phones. Apple Vs Google Google By now you must be wondering what company Apple hasn't had a rivalry with. Well, let's just say that Jobs was very passionate about his work. Back in 2010 when HTC announced an Android phone with many features similar to that of iPhones, Jobs said, "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apples $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong." Apple went on a full-blown war with Google after it acquired Android and started rolling out apps like Google Maps, Google Search Engine and more. Things took a U-turn when Apple decided to replace Google Maps with its own solution on the iPhones. Today, the rivalry is seen more like a complicated relationship and they still take jabs on each other from time to time. Facebook Vs Snapchat Reuters It isn't a well-kept secret, but Snapchat turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. And that marked the beginning of the rivalry between the two. A lot of people thought that Snapchat should have taken the offer, but the company quickly managed to reach a $10 billion valuation. Facebook then tried to get back at Snapchat by launching its own app called Slingshot, however, that didn't really go to plan. There are a lot of other rivalries that come to our mind. Apple Vs IBM, Nvidia vs Intel, Intel vs AMD, Alibaba vs Tencent, and a lot more. They may not have a lot of history to them like the ones discussed above, but let us know which ones you want us to bring to you in detail. Union Agriculture ministry has asked state governments to allow bulk buyers, processors and big retailers to purchase agri-produce directly from farmers by bypassing the established mandi systems for at least three months. The directive is meant to achieve two objectives - to decongest mandis in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and to allow farmers to sell their products at remunerative prices by allowing aggregators to source it directly from them. In a letter, Agriculture Secretary asked the states to temporarily relax the monopoly enjoyed by Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets (mandis) in the agri-produce trade by limiting their regulatory powers under APMC Act to within the physical premises of such notified markets. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Mumbai's Dharavi records one more COVID-19 positive case; tally rises to 5 The big buyers should be allowed to make direct purchases with minimum or without requirement of any licensing or registration process, the letter said. The Centre also wants the state governments to declare all Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) registered warehouses in the states as deemed markets to facilitate electronic-NAM (national agriculture market) transactions. Also read: Coronavirus hits govt's plan to privatise Air India, BPCL, Concor "As the harvest season has started, there is an immediate need to facilitate the process of direct marketing of kinds by farmers or group of farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and cooperatives. This can be facilitated by the states by limiting the regulation under State APMC Act to within physical premises of notified markets", the directive said. On April 2, the central government had exempted the services of direct marketing - directly from farmers, groups of farmers, FPOs and cooperatives from the lockdown restrictions. INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. ALEPPO Syrian religious institutions have been actively engaged in supporting official measures and efforts to counter the coronavirus and prevent its catastrophic spread across Syria in areas controlled by the government, the opposition and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. This comes as fear of a greater outbreak of the pandemic in Syria has been heightened in light of new cases and deaths. On April 2, the Syrian government Ministry of Health announced the isolation of Sayyidah Zainab in the Damascus countryside. The city is home to several Shiite shrines and is frequently visited by Shiite pilgrims from Iran. Minister of Health Nizar Wahba Yazji had revealed a day earlier in a post on the ministrys Facebook page that the concerned authorities were asked to isolate the town of Mneen, also in the Damascus countryside, following the death of a woman from there who became infected with the coronavirus. In another post, Yazji explained that the isolation procedure aims to preserve the health of citizens and was imposed in Mneen given the lack of commitment by the victims family to quarantine. Acting WHO Representative in Syria Nima Saeed Abid warned that coronavirus infections are at the beginning of the curve rise in Syria, according to the official Syrian News Agency. The International Rescue Committee also warned that COVID-19 in Syria could lead to one of the most severe outbreaks in the world. In the opposition areas in northwest Syria, the Idlib city council has closed all popular markets to curb the spread of the coronavirus. That decision, issued by the council on March 31, entered into force on April 1 and will continue to be implemented until April 15. On April 1, Minister of Health in the opposition-led government Maram al-Sheikh announced that test results of suspected coronavirus cases in northwestern Syria were negative. On March 31, the epidemiological laboratory in Idlib confirmed that all tests conducted on suspected coronavirus cases were negative. On April 2, the Syrian government Ministry of Endowments said the suspension of Friday prayers and sermons in Syrian mosques will be extended until April 16. A day before, the ministry placed a number of its affiliated centers at the disposal of the Damascus Health Ministry to be used as quarantine centers. The Ministrys Scientific Council of Scholars had issued March 29 a fatwa on the zakat (Islamic charity) obligation during the coronavirus crisis, aimed to mitigate the epidemics impact on the poor. In video footage posted on his Facebook page on March 30, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, spoke of the epidemic that befell the world. Hassoun attributed the spread of the coronavirus to hatred and arrogance harbored by some nations against others. He lauded the measures taken by the Syrian government in the face of the epidemic. For its part, the Sheikhdom of the Druze issued precautionary instructions on its official Facebook page on March 21. It called for limiting funeral ceremonies to the family of the deceased. It also urged its members to stop shaking hands and kissing. The sheikhdom further decided to ban visits to religious shrines until further notice and recommended fulfilling religious duties at home. It banned all gatherings and urged citizens to follow the instructions of the Ministry of Health. Despite the measures and calls aimed to contain the spread of the virus, some refuse to abide by them. An official at the Syrian governments Ministry of Endowments told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity for security reasons that the Iranian-backed religious institutions that directly manage religious shrines in several Syrian provinces have failed to fully abide by the ministrys decisions. This is the case in Sayyidah Zainab, frequently visited by Shiites and Iranian-backed militia members. Religious ceremonies are still being held there. On March 21, the oppositions Syrian Islamic Council issued a fatwa on the need to avoid gatherings in markets, protests, celebrations and congregational prayers in mosques, especially in densely populated complexes for displaced people. It urged all religious, social and medical figures to constantly raise peoples awareness of these health instructions. For its part, the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East announced March 21 the suspension of all public services and prayers. The patriarchate said in its statement that the decision was issued by the Christian churches in Syria and Lebanon based on an agreement between the heads of the churches. The decision included instructions to hold funerals in cemetery churches exclusively without accepting condolences. It banned all meetings and activities and called on its subjects to avoid all types of gatherings. In a related context, the Office of Religious Affairs of the Kurdish autonomous administration in northeastern Syria also canceled Friday prayers in the administration areas from March 15 until further notice. The office also banned all religious gatherings and social events and suspended all religious lessons in mosques to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, Syriac parties in northeastern Syria canceled the celebrations that usually take place on April 1 to mark the Assyrian New Year and called on citizens to keep away from gatherings. The Syriac Union executive board said in a statement on its Facebook page on March 30 that Akitu Day (the Syriac Assyrian New Year) this year comes as the whole world battles the coronavirus, calling on its community members around the world to abide by all instructions issued by official authorities. In a statement on its Facebook page on March 29, the Assyrian Democratic Organization also canceled all manifestations and forms of celebration of this holiday in an effort to help contain the coronavirus. Michael Gove has dismissed a conspiracy theory that the coronavirus crisis may have been caused by 5G networks as dangerous nonsense. Speaking at a Downing Street briefing on Saturday NHS England Professor Steve Powis also described the theories as utter rubbish after videos showing masts on fire were posted on social media. Mobile UK, the trade body which represents network providers, said key workers had been abused and infrastructure threatened as a result of the claims. On Thursday evening, West Midlands Fire Service said eight firefighters attended an incident involving a 70ft tower on a telecommunications site in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham, although the cause of the fire was not determined. Michael Gove holding a Digital Press Conference at 10 Downing Street on Friday night. (AP) Professor Powis said: Im absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency. It is absolute and utter rubbish. Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove added: Thats just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well. Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice Prof Brendan Wren, professor of microbial pathogenesis, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said a connection between the phone masts and the virus would be both a physical and biological impossibility. Celebrities who are fanning the flames of the conspiracy theories should be ashamed, another scientist said. National Medical Director at NHS England Stephen Powis also condemned the conspiracy theories. (AP) Cheers actor Woody Harrelson and former Dancing on Ice judge Jason Gardiner are among stars who have shared theories. Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: Conspiracy theorists are a public health danger who once read a Facebook page. Here, we also see similar groups of people keen to show their ignorance on a topic where they have no helpful expertise, nor any inclination to post useful public health messages. Story continues The celebrities fanning the flames of these conspiracy theorists should be ashamed. Mobile UK, the trade body which represents network providers, said it is concerning that certain groups are using the Covid-19 pandemic to spread false rumours and theories about the safety of 5G technologies. More worryingly some people are also abusing our key workers and making threats to damage infrastructure under the pretence of claims about 5G, a statement said. This is not acceptable and only impacts on our ability as an industry to maintain the resilience and operational capacity of the networks to support mass home working and critical connectivity to the emergency services, vulnerable consumers and hospitals. It continued: The theories that are being spread about 5G on social media are baseless and are not grounded in accepted scientific theory. Research into the safety of radio signals including 5G, which has been conducted for more than 50 years, has led to the establishment of human exposure standards including safety factors that protect against all established health risks. In a statement on Twitter, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: We are aware of inaccurate information being shared online about 5G. There is absolutely no credible evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus. Coronavirus: what happened today? Click here to sign up to the latest news, advice and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter Pakistan's anti-coronavirus centre chief Asad Umar said on Sunday that the ongoing lockdown has slowed down the spread of the infection, as worst-hit Punjab province reported biggest jump in the COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the country's tally to over 3,100. Umar, who is heading the National Command and Operation Centre to implement national policy to fight the coronavirus outbreak, told the media that more decision will be taken for the targeted lockdown in coming days. "Pace of coronavirus spread is slowing down in the country due to effective lockdown measures, he said. Umar, who is the Minister for Planning, said that the government was developing a mechanism to identify areas with most coronavirus cases to undertake preventive measures. He said the government was trying to ensure the protection of medical staff and expand the capacity of hospitals across the country by giving protective gear, ventilators and other important medical equipment. Ministry of National Health Services on Sunday reported on its website that so far 45 people have died due to the disease while 130 recovered. The national tally has now crossed 3,100 coronavirus infections. The Primary and Secondary Healthcare department of Punjab province, which is emerging as the epicentre of the virus outbreak in Pakistan, on Sunday confirmed 184 new coronavirus cases in the province taking the provincial tally to 1,380. According to a statement from the department, the patients have been divided into four categories: 309 pilgrims, 443 people associated with the Tablighi Jamaat event in Raiwind, 28 prisoners and 600 citizens. Lahore has the highest number of cases at 260. Sindh province reported 881, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 372, Balochistan 192, Gilgit-Baltistan 206, Islamabad 78 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 14 cases. The government was taking measures to curtail the spread of the virus but without much success. The National Coordination Committee headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan meets every day to evolve the response to the threat. The government also set up a National Command and Operation Center to implement the decisions made by the committee. The Pakistan government on Saturday informed the Supreme Court that the number of coronavirus patients in the country could reach up to 50,000 by the last week of this month. "By April 25, the number of the coronavirus cases are feared to reach 50,000," stated the report submitted by the government on its national action plan for combating the coronavirus outbreak in the country. According to the breakdown provided in the report, around 7,000 cases of the total are expected to be critical in nature while around 2,500 could be a cause of concern. The government estimates that a further 41,000 cases could be of a mild nature, the Geo reported. The report noted that confirmed cases are expected to be lower than that of countries in Europe, and assured that the government is trying to maximize its testing capacity. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Airline Pilots' Association has asked pilots not to operate any flights because safety and other standard operating procedures were not satisfactory. "The health and safety of our crew has always been and remains our utmost priority," according to a notification issued by the association. The actions was taken after government announced to partially reopen its air operation to bring back Pakistanis stranded in various countries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Missoula City-County Health Department announced on Saturday that a Missoula resident died from complications due to a COVID-19 infection. Three of the state's deaths have been in Toole County, one was in Lincoln County and one was in Madison County. As of Sunday afternoon, the state lab had processed 6,789 tests. This does not include tests sent to private labs. Late last month, Gov. Steve Bullock said counties could choose to conduct the June 2 primary election primarily by mail. On Sunday, Secretary of State Corey Stapleton sent an email to those who have registered a business with his office, saying that about 14,000 people may not be able to vote in the June primary because of a "disconnect" of information. Stapleton told recipients to check the My Voter Page at sosmt.gov to see if their names and addresses are up to date. Stapletons email also says For the first time in Montana history, the June primary election will eliminate in-person voting locations and be conducted primarily through the U.S. Postal service." However, Bullock's directive requires counties that choose the mail option to allow in-person early voting. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Families in the City of Manila are set to receive 1,000 cash aid each starting Tuesday, said mayor Francisco Isko Moreno Domagoso. Moreno announced Sunday a newly signed ordinance creating the City Amelioration Crisis Assistance Fund of 2020. Under the ordinance, 591 million will be handed out to city residents to relieve them of financial difficulties amid the COVID-19 crisis. The amount shall be coursed through the barangays, the mayor said. Barangay officials will personally visit households to distribute the cash aid starting April 7, he added. Sa tingin ko po by Thursday [April 9], nabigyan na ang lahat ng kani-kanyang barangay, Moreno said. [Translation: I think by Thursday, April 9, every family would have already received the cash aid from their respective barangays.] "Itong solusyon na 'to sana maging sapat kahit papaano na maibsan man lamang ang inyong pinagdaraanan ngayon." [Translation: I hope this solution will, to some extent, suffice in alleviating your burden in these times.] The mayor added that as of April 5, the local government has been able to distribute food assistance to 352 of the 896 barangays in Manila City. He said the lack of suppliescaused by the surge in demand among different LGUshas posed a problem in providing relief assistance. Ang naipamahagi pa lang po natinkahit na kami maghikahos, mag-impake araw-araw, at maghintay nang maghintay ng mga supplies235,072 families [out of 568,000] pa lang po ang nabibigyan natin, Moreno said. [Translation: Despite our daily efforts to pack relief goods and wait for supplies, we were only able to distribute aid to 235,072 families out of 568,000 in Manila.] According to Moreno, the cash aid is still apart from the food packs they are dispensing to families in the city. He assured that food packs will still be given to households which have not yet received them. Secular groups challenge legality of relief loans for churches impacted by COVID-19 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Secularist advocacy groups are pressuring the Small Business Administration to discriminate against churches and religious nonprofits struggling during the coronavirus lockdown when administering protection loans created by the new stimulus package. American Atheists, a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes separation of church and state, teamed up with like-minded groups to send a letter to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza Tuesday. They pushed back against calls for the agency to treat churches and religious charities equally when administering the loan program created by last weeks legislation. Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, about $350 billion in government payroll protection loans are available to organizations to help pay for things like payroll and employee-related expenses. As the agency prepares to issue regulations on the newly passed stimulus bill, the organizations asked the agency not to set aside what their letter called vital constitutional protections for religious freedom. The organizations assert that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment precludes government funding of religious activities. Our historical understanding of religious liberty is built on the idea that government entanglement with religion can be a profound threat to individual rights, too often leading to religious oppression, the groups stated in the joint letter sent March 31. A core principle of religious liberty is that the coercive taxing power of the government cannot be used to force citizens to support a religion that is not their own. American Atheists were joined in the letter by American Humanist Association, Center for Disability Rights, Center for Inquiry, Freedom From Religion Foundation, National Black Justice Coalition, National Center for Transgender Equality and Secular Coalition for America. Even during this emergency, Congress recognized that it is essential to protect our constitutional separation of religion and government by, for example, providing that institutions of higher education receiving funds in the stimulus package may not use such funding for capital outlays associated with facilities related to sectarian instruction, or religious worship," the letter reads. The organizations argue that SBA regulations already provide that businesses principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling or indoctrinating religion or religious beliefs, whether in a religious or secular setting are not eligible for SBA business loans. Moreover, businesses are not eligible for economic disaster loans that are Principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling, or indoctrinating religion or religious beliefs, whether in a religious or secular setting, the letter continues. These provisions would apply to the CARES Act, respectively the Paycheck Protection Program and the Emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which both provide loans to small businesses and nonprofits. On Thursday evening, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri sent a letter urging SBA officials to correct local and regional offices that are telling churches and religious nonprofits that they are not eligible to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program. Hawley further demanded that the SBA must not arbitrarily disqualify churches and other religious nonprofits. He argued that reports of misinformation at SBA local offices underscore the need for swift official guidance and program rules. SBA offices are communicating to churches that they are not eligible for the program before the application process, Hawley wrote. I am alarmed by these erroneous instructions, which directly contradict the text of the statute. You must rectify this issue immediately. Hawley pointed to Section 1102 of the CARES ACT to argue that unaffiliated non-profit entities with under 500 employees that are structured as 501(c)(3) organizations are eligible for assistance. This includes churches and other religious nonprofits, he stressed. As I noted in my previous letter dated April 1, 2020, organizations with a principal religious purpose are not excluded from assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, contended in an op-ed that the SBA loans dont violate the principle of separation of church and state. The loans themselves, whether to a church or to a hardware store, are not from the government at all, but, as always, from banks, Moore pointed out. The governments role is simply to guarantee to the banks these loans, in case of default. That does not privilege or penalize any religion in any way different from any other entity. Moore added that as many church leaders are reluctant to take funding from the government, many are uneasy with the fact that some of these loans may turn out to be forgivable depending on how the borrowed funding is used. Some are concerned that were they to take out SBA-backed loans, especially if they turn out to be forgivable, that this will invite the government in to dictate their ministries or policies, he explained. We have no indication that such would be the case, and, were any future governing authority to seek retroactively to restrict the First Amendment on such grounds, I believe such a move would be successfully repudiated in court. Moore compared SBA loans to a church calling the local fire department when there is a fire. This is not government support of that church, he argued. Its the governments interest in keeping people from being killed in a conflagration. A similar dynamic is at work here. The government would no more be entangled in your churchs ministry as a result of this than your bank is now. In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Missouri could not discriminate against a church daycare facility that applied to a secular funding program to help improve the safety of its playground just because of its inherent religious affiliation. The letter from the secular groups urges the SBA not to apply the Supreme Courts 2017 ruling because it did not address religious uses of funding or other forms of discrimination. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 16:30:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Sunday that his cabinet is taking tough measures regarding returnees to Lebanon from COVID-19-hit countries, LBCI local TV channel reported. "We will deal with this issue step by step by dividing returnees into groups in a bid to guarantee their safety and the safety of residents," Diab was quoted as saying during his visit to the airport prior to the arrival of the first plane coming to Lebanon from affected countries. Diab said that the government will support returnees, especially students, on different levels including prices of their tickets and their residence in hotels during their isolation period. Meanwhile, Health Minister Hamad Hassan explained that medical teams will go directly into the arrived planes to test passengers for COVID-19 with the PCR test. Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections reaches 520 so far with a death toll of 17. Some key news events that were drowned as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate headlines. The global coronavirus outbreak continued to dominate the news coverage this week as the total number of infections passed the million mark, while nearly 65,000 have been killed so far. As media outlets continue to track the chaos and crisis created by the pandemic, there were other newsworthy developments as well that were drowned in the wall-to-wall coverage. We compile five non-COVID-19 stories you might have missed this week: Knife attack in France A man wielding a knife attacked residents of a town in southeastern France while they had ventured out to shop amid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, killing two people and wounding five others in what is being treated as a terrorist attack. Frances counterterrorism prosecutors office said the assailant was arrested near the scene of the attack in the town of Romans-sur-Isere, south of Lyon, as he was kneeling on the sidewalk praying in Arabic. It said one of his acquaintances was detained. Prosecutors did not identify the suspect. They said he had no identification documents but claimed to be a 33-year-old of Sudanese origin. The attack took place on Saturday morning outside a bakery where customers were queueing, and at shops in the town centre, according to Mayor Marie-Helene Thoraval. Migrants killed at Turkey-Greece border Two migrants were shot dead last month as they tried to enter Greece from Turkey after Ankara recklessly encouraged thousands of migrants to cross the border to Europe, Amnesty International said on Friday. A third migrant is missing and presumed dead after Greek soldiers fired shots towards her as she attempted to cross a river into Greece, the rights group said. Asylum seekers waiting to enter Europe leave the border with Greece in Edirne, Turkey [Cihan Demirci/Anadolu Agency] Amnestys Turkey research director Andrew Gardner said it was not confirmed who fired the shots that killed the migrants but they were hit in areas where Greek security personnel were present, and he urged Greek authorities to find those responsible. Amnesty said Greek efforts to repress the migrants movements included the use of live ammunition. Greece dismissed Amnestys account. Israel arrests Palestines Jerusalem minister Israeli police arrested the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs on Friday for allegedly violating an Israeli ban on Palestinian political activities in occupied East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authoritys Jerusalem Affairs Ministry said in a statement that the Israeli police raided Fadi al-Hadamis house in Suwana neighbourhood of Jerusalem and took him into custody. It said the police broke down doors and smashed windows of the ministers house. This was the fourth time Fadi al-Hadami was arrested [ Ahmed Gharabli/AFP] A sum of 10,000 sheqalim (about $2,750) was also seized before the minister was taken away to an interrogation centre. The Israeli police have yet to give any details on the arrest of al-Hadami, who has previously been arrested three times by the Israeli security forces. The PA says such arrests of Palestinian officials in East Jerusalem are related to their activities in the city. Vietnam-China row over boat sinking Vietnam has lodged an official protest with China following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near islands in the disputed South China Sea. 191216010511485 The Vietnamese fishing vessel, with eight fishermen on board, was fishing near the Paracel Islands on Thursday when it was rammed and sunk by the Chinese vessel, Vietnams foreign ministry said in a statement posted on a government website on Saturday. All the fishermen were picked up by the Chinese vessel alive and were transferred to two other Vietnamese fishing vessels operating nearby, the Vietnam Fisheries Society said in a statement posted on its website. Vietnam and China have for years been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of water, called the East Sea by Vietnam. Civilians shot dead in Kashmir Two civilians were shot dead in targeted attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday night, according to police. In both cases, the unknown attackers broke into the houses of the victims and shot them multiple times, a police officer said. A family wearing face masks walks along a street during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus outbreak, in Srinagar on Friday [Tauseef Mustafa/AFP] He identified the victims as Ghulam Hassan Wagay, a retired forest department employee, and Sirajuddin, both residents of the southern Kulgam district. O utdoor exercise could be banned if Brits flout the social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic, the Health Secretary has warned. Matt Hancock said sunbathing in public spaces was against the Government guidance, and told those who dared to disobey that they are putting their own and others lives at risk. As temperatures rose across the country, some parks closed because too many people had ignored the advice to stay at home. Mr Hancock told the BBC: Weve said its OK to go for exercise because both the physical and mental health benefits of getting some exercise are really important. I dont want to have to take away exercise as a reason to leave home if too many people are not following the rules. At the moment the vast majority of people are (following the guidance) but people should not break the rules because that will mean that the virus spreads more and then we might have to take further action. Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures 1 /10 Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS He also confirmed that Boris Johnson continues to have a high temperature but is OK and in good spirits as he remains in self-isolation in Downing Street. His warning came after scores of people were pictures flouting lockdown rules in London parks on Saturday during a mini-heatwave. Brockwell Park was last night forced to close after thousands of people ignored Government advice. Helene Woodhams retired from the Pima County Public Library, where she was literary arts librarian and coordinator of Southwest Books of the Year, the librarys annual literature review. Christine Wald-Hopkins is a former educator and occasional essayist. Wald-Hopkins has long been a book critic for national, regional and local newspapers. If you are a Southern Arizona author and would like your book to be considered for this column, send a copy to: Sara Brown, 4850 S. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85714. Give the price and a contact name. Books must have been published within a year. Vice PresidentM Venkaiah Naidu along with his wife Ushamma lit lamps at the Uparashtrapati Bhawan hereto express solidarity with the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. "Through their overwhelming response to the prime minister's call, the people of India have once again reasserted the country's steely resolve to overcome the crisis caused by the pandemic," an official statement quoted Naidu as saying. While appealing to the people to stay at home during the lockdown period, the Vice President said it was everybody'sduty to stop the transmission of the virus. In a Facebook post, the Vice President expressed concern over the spread of misinformation, especially on social media, and said it is a virus that needs to be checked immediately. Millions of Indians across the country switched off lights at their homes and lit candles, diyas or turned on mobile phone torches on Sunday night, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to show the nation's "collective resolve and solidarity" in its fight against coronavirus. Modi had on Friday urged people to turn off lights at their homes for nine minutes at 9pm to display the country's collective resolve and solidarity to defeat the virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 19:15:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VIENTIANE, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Laos reported one more COVID-19 case, taking the total number of infection to 11 in the country, according to a Lao official on Sunday. The new case is a foreign staff of a mining company in Laos. The patient, a 55-year-old man, came from Papua New Guinea, Lao Deputy Minister of Health Phouthone Meaungpak told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Sunday. The patient traveled from Papua New Guinea and transited trough Singapore on March 22, arrived in Thailand on March 23 and then traveled to Laos and stayed in a hotel in the same day. On March 24, he went to a mining site in Vientiane province by a van with 11 passengers. The patient is treated in designated hospital, Mittaphab Hospital (150 Hospital). As of Sunday, 604 suspected cases were tested, with 11 cases tested positive, including eight cases in Vientiane and three cases in Luang Prabang province. None of the 11 cases is in serious condition and the treatment is going well, said the official. Laos has detected the first two confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 24. The question isnt whether to end the lockdown. Its when and how to do it. Can the Government rise to the challenge? Boris Johnson has taken care to appoint no designated deputy. Dominic Raab is First Secretary of State, but isnt second in the formal pecking order. Rishi Sunak holds that position, but not Raabs title. Michael Gove has the cross-departmental responsibilities associated with a number two, but is junior not only to both in the Cabinet rankings, but also to Priti Patel. As an exercise in divide and rule among those hes apppointed, this division of responsibilities is a Prime Ministerial masterclass. But while it may be well-crafted for a Government that aims to level up Britain over five years, it is being found wanting for dealing with a crisis on the scale of the present one at least when Johnson, who we hope soon returns to rumbustious form in full, is ill, and now in hospital. The Prime Minister has agreed four Cabinet implementation committees to tackle the effects of the Coronavirus: Raab, Sunak, Gove and Matt Hancock chair one each. These are, as it were, committees that plan the war: how to get enough ventilators to hospitals; help people in financial need; return Brits stranded abroad, and so on; above all, how to deliver 100,00 tests a day by the end of this month. They do not, however, plan the peace: in other words, when to get out of lockdown and how to do it. We do not say whether. That debate, which consumes much media space at present, is irrelevant or at least beside the point. Which is that in the trade-off between the short-term needs of the NHS, and the virus victims who need it, and the longer-term requirements of the economy, and the fortunes of everyone, the latter eventually trumps the former. There is a growing assumption at present, fuelled by Neil Fergusons recent evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committee, that this moment will come soon that deaths from the Coronavirus will come in at fewer than the 28,000 or so deaths from flu in 2013-2014. The majority of sources that ConservativeHome speaks to agree, though a minority, some of whom are very well-informed, do not. Hence the growing protests in the newpapers, whose advertising and sales revenues are collapsing, and the Twitter noise about obstreperous policeman and jobsworth councils. Either way, there are means of weighing the benefits of the shutdown against its costs. Sam Bowman set out one assessment recently in The Critic. His conclusion is well worth noting: that so far, the shutdown is worth it, and probably would be worth it for some time more. When might it no longer be? This takes us back to those four Cabinet committees with their tactical remit of entering the Coronavirus battlefield, and the lack of a parallel body, which would have the strategic role of planning an eventual exit. It will be claimed that the C-19 committee into which they feed meets that brief. And there are certainly informal networks of Cabinet Ministers who are talking to each other about ending the lockdown. But everything that this site is told paints a picture of exhausted Ministers and SpAds, some of whom also have the virus themselves, and most of whom talk with each other only remotely, swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight. Events are coming at them with the ferocity of crossfire: ventilator sparsity, test shortages, Universal Credit claims, closing businesses and above all, the pain of the death toll. Plus, now, the absence of Johnson. Government structures are a dull business. But insiders confirm that Ministers cant plan properly for ending the shutdown on the present ad-hoc basis, let alone with the Prime Minister now out of action for longer. A formal plan is required. Thats to say, a committee mechanism that draws on commissioned work from the civil service and others to answer our two questions: thats to say, not whether the lockdown should end, but when and how. The first one is harder to answer, and Ministers have our sympathy in seeking to find a solution. The art will be to time the end of lockdown so that the return of people to post-Coronavirus normality does not trigger a new upsurge of hospital admissions thus collapsing the NHS in the wake, if Ferguson is right, of having just saved it. We take it for granted that the sting can partly be drawn by ending the shutdown not with a big bang but a gradual goodbye. To carry this manoeuvre off, Ministers will be like a man who has to pin the tail on the donkey while its moving and hes blindfolded with a mob screaming contradictory advice at him throughout. The how is scarcely less daunting, though Liam Fox, in an essay on this site today, sets out two routes: first, a public health model, based on testing, and an economy first model, whose bedrock is a greatly expanded NHS emergency capacity. He says of these models that they may overlap, and the same of course applies to our own questions of when and how. Others will offer different big picture options, but what will count most is getting the grinding detail right. If the return to work, cultural events and education is gradual, on what basis should it be staggered, if a testing route is judged to take too long? By occupation? By area? How would such returns be policed? Whats the plan if theres a second wave of the virus? Would the country really accept a second lockdown a third; a fourth; mini-shutdowns, with all the confusions about norms and rules that they would bring? Should gatherings above a certain size be last to return? And should schools be the first institutions to do so, because parents would then be freed up to work? How is the flood of money from the Chancellors statist taps to be turned off? One might have thought that the Downing Street Policy Unit should be tasked with grappling with these questions. But it is in the nature of the unit that it man-marks departments on behalf of Downing Street, a function that sits uneasily with blue sky thinking. Nick Boles has sketched out some of the main issues, drawing on the work of the American Enterprise Institute. There is a role here for the UKs own network of think tanks. Yesterday evening, the countrys mood will first have lightened at the Queens broadcast, and then darkened on hearing the news about the Prime Ministers admission to hospital. This is not the moment to rush into slavering about a stand-in. But the structure that we suggest for planning an exit from the lockdown will need an ultimate decision-maker. That may require further thought. Planning a shutdown exit will need even more. MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio Maple Heights police are searching for a man accused of shooting into an occupied house early Saturday. The shooting happened about 3:40 a.m. Saturday on the 14800 block of Krems Avenue, just west of Dunham Road, according to a news release from Maple Heights police. Officers who responded to the scene found multiple bullet holes from rounds fired into a house on Krems Avenue, as well as gunfire damage to other structures, police said. Although there were people inside the house, no one was injured in the shooting. During their investigation, Maple Heights police learned that a man was spotted driving up to the targeted house in a silver four-door Honda. The man got out of the car and fired several rounds in the direction of the house before getting back into the car and driving away, the press release says. The shooters identity has not been publicly released, and no arrests have been made. Anyone with information that could assist the investigation should contact the Maple Heights police Detective Bureau at 216-587-9624 or via email at detectives@mhpd-ohio.com. More Northeast Ohio crime news: Man shot dead outside Residence Inn during hotel party in downtown Cleveland, police say Two inmates in Ohio state prisons test positive for coronavirus 11 Cuyahoga County Jail officers ordered to quarantine after 6 inmates test positive for coronavirus Twenty-eight institutions, departments and various autonomous bodies under the HRD Ministry have contributed over Rs 38 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM-CARES) Fund to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' had donated his one month salary and Rs one crore from the MPLADS fund. "Twenty-eight different institutions, autonomous organisations and departments of the Ministry of HRD have contributed more than Rs 38.91 crore to PM CARES Fund to fight against COVID-19," the ministry said in an official statement. The teaching and non-teaching staff of Kendriya Vidyalayas have contributed over Rs 10 crore and navodaya schools donated Rs 7.5 crore. According to the Health Ministry, the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 3,374 on Sunday, while the death toll rose to 79. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By PTI BOKARO: A woman, who recently returned from Bangladesh, tested positive for coronavirus in Jharkhand's Bokaro district on Sunday, taking the count in the state to three, an official said. He said that a 22-year-old Malaysian woman and man from Hazaribagh had tested positive for coronavirus on March 31 and April 2 respectively. "Three couples from Chandrapura block in Bokaro district had recently returned to their homes from Bangladesh. They were quarantined and their swab samples sent for tests. The result of the woman has returned positive," Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Kumar said. He added that all persons suspected to have come in contact with the woman are being screened. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said hes thinking about forming a panel to examine how best to restart the countrys economy, which he earlier termed a good idea. Im thinking about it, Trump said Saturday at a White House Press conference. I continue to say, the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. The U.S. economy wasnt meant to be closed as it is to a large extent at the moment, Trump said. Were not going to have separation for the rest of our time on the planet. Trump earlier tweeted an endorsement of a plan offered by Dana Perino, former press secretary to President George W. Bush. Perino, now a political commentator on Fox News, suggested assembling a nonpartisan/bipartisan mix of experts across industry sectors who could advise the president about overcoming the economic difficulties stemming from harsh social districting measures suggested by the federal government. Perino said this group would complement the team led by Vice President Mike Pence, which includes health, national security and emergency preparedness officials. Let 1st task force focus on crisis at the moment, Perino tweeted. The task force led by Pence already includes members of the administration focused on economic matters, including National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The president has spoken repeatedly about his desire to lift restrictions on the country as quickly as possible to limit the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The administration has examined options for loosening restrictions on geographic areas without many coronavirus cases, or for certain demographics seen as less susceptible to serious complications from Covid-19 if infected. But this week Trump abandoned his proposed target of reopening the economy by April 12, Easter Sunday, after a briefing from the health experts on his task force showed dire projections about the likely death toll from coronavirus. Instead, the president extended social distancing guidelines through the end of April. If it were up to the doctors, they may say lets keep it shut down, lets shut down the entire world, Trump told reporters in March. So lets shut down the entire world and when we shut it down, that would be wonderful and lets keep it shut for a couple of years. You know, we cant do that and you cant do that with the country, especially the number one economy anywhere in the world by far. Justin Sink of Bloomberg News wrote this story, with assistance by Benjamin Bain. 2020 Bloomberg News Visit Bloomberg News at www.bloomberg.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Pekanbaru Sun, April 5, 2020 17:48 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd7d3b 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,ambulance,Riau,Pekanbaru,coronavirus-mask-rush,coronavirus,pandemic,mask,theft,medical-equipment Free An ambulance driver has been arrested in Tenayan Raya district, Pekanbaru, Riau, for allegedly selling masks that were meant for the Tenayan Raya community health center (Puskesmas). Police said the driver, identified as N, had picked up a box of 1,000 masks from the Pekanbaru Health Agency on March 17. Instead of delivering them to the Puskesmas, N allegedly took the masks home and sold them online as mask prices soar amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Puskesmas staff said the masks were to be distributed to medical staff and patients. "All the masks were sold for a total of Rp 5 million [US$305], Tenayan Raya Police chief Comr. Hanafi Tanjung told reporters on Sunday. The money gained from the sale, one mobile phone and a motorcycle driven by the suspect to transport the box were collected as evidence. "He was charged under Article 363 of the Criminal Code [on theft] and faces seven years imprisonment," Hanafi said. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a massive strain on Indonesias healthcare system, with reports of inadequate medical supplies and the deaths of hospital workers as patient numbers continue to surge. (trn) New York secured a planeload of ventilators from China on Saturday, and Oregon was sending a shipment of its own to battle the coronavirus pandemic at its US core, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. But the governor's startling plan to force hospitals elsewhere in the state to give spare ventilators to the fight in New York City apparently hadn't yet materialised, a day after he ordered them to surrender 20 per cent of any unused supply to the National Guard for temporary redistribution. The state got 1,000 ventilators after the Chinese government facilitated a donation from billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the co-founders of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Cuomo said. He added that the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 more breathing machines. The influx offered some hope after the governor repeatedly warned that the state's supply of the vital machines would be exhausted in days if the number of critically ill coronavirus patients kept growing at the current rate. It's going to make a significant difference for us, Cuomo said. New York is the pandemic's US epicenter, with over 113,700 confirmed cases as of Saturday morning. More than 3,500 people statewide have died, and about 15,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized. Over 4,100 are in intensive care many, if not all, of them needing ventilators. The outbreak is heavily concentrated in the New York City metropolitan area. Cuomo's announcement came a day after he said he would have the National Guard collect and redeploy ventilators that some hospitals weren't using. He alluded again Saturday to the plan, but details remained unclear. We find what equipment we have, we use it the best we can, the Democrat said Saturday, saying he'd seek 20 per cent of unused and available ventilators, a number he pegged at 500 in all. The idea has alarmed Republican politicians and some hospital leaders upstate. They said it would leave people in their areas vulnerable and pit the state's regions against one another. But two hospital umbrella groups didn't protest. The Greater New York Hospital Association portrayed the idea as ongoing reciprocity among medical centers as the outbreak's hotspots shift, while the Healthcare Association of New York State noted that some hospitals have already, voluntarily sent staff and equipment to harder-hit institutions or accepted patients from them. Both groups, and several upstate hospitals, said Saturday they had gotten no further information on the governor's plan. The state Health Department said no information was available beyond the governor's remarks. Messages were sent to his office seeking details on how the redistribution would work. National Guard spokesman Eric Durr said Saturday that the collection had not yet begun. Governors around the US have been pleading, competing and scouring the global marketplace for needed supplies, especially ventilators, to treat the sick. Cuomo said Saturday that New York at one point made purchase orders for 17,000 of the devices, but only 2,500 came through. You get a call that says, 'We can't fill that order,' he said. Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, said last week that the federal government agreed to send about 2,400 ventilators to the city and another 2,000 to the state. The mayor and governor have repeatedly implored the federal government for more help. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. In upstate New York, state Sen. James Seward, a Republican from Milford, had been on a ventilator since Thursday and in a medically induced coma because of COVID-19, but his condition improved and he was taken off the ventilator Saturday, his spokesman, Jeff Bishop, said in a Twitter posting. Earlier Saturday, Seward's wife, Cynthia, posted in an online community group that he was still in a coma and on a respirator at Albany Medical Center, and she asked for thoughts and prayers for his healing, PBS reported. Cynthia Seward, who also has COVID-19, said in the post that she was self-quarantining, had pneumonia and shingles, and had lost her sense of taste. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 12:03:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A national mourning was held in China on Saturday for martyrs who died fighting the novel coronavirus disease and compatriots who lost their lives in the outbreak. A moment of silence was observed by the public across the country with national flags flew at half-mast. Commemorations are also held in all Chinese embassies and consulates abroad. As he knelt before Prince Charles in the Buckingham Palace ballroom, Keir Starmer's emotions were characteristically difficult to read. Did his heart swell with pride as the knighting sword tapped his shoulder. Or did he feel a little conflicted? After all, reflecting some years earlier, the lawyer said: 'I got made a Queen's Counsel, which is odd since I often used to propose the abolition of the monarchy.' Yet he left his investiture in 2014 as a knight of the realm in recognition of his services to criminal justice and, however much it irked him, with his Establishment credentials firmly consolidated. Some friends found the honour hard to reconcile with the firebrand politics of Starmer's youth, just as they were discomfited when he led the Crown Prosecution Service, having previously been on the 'other side' as a defence barrister. As he knelt before Prince Charles in the Buckingham Palace ballroom, Keir Starmer's emotions were characteristically difficult to read. Did his heart swell with pride as the knighting sword tapped his shoulder. Or did he feel a little conflicted? His knighthood has been ridiculed, too, by members of Labour's hard Left, who say he is an Establishment stooge. Starmer won yesterday's vote because he convinced an outright majority of members that he is best placed to draw together Labour's disparate elements. Calling for an end to factionalism and purges, he appealed to moderate centrists while placating radical Corbynistas. 'I am a socialist,' he told his local paper, the Camden New Journal. 'I'm driven by the very deep inequalities that we've now got across the country of every sort: income, wealth, health, influence it's deeply ingrained.' Pitching to Corbyn supporters, he promised 'a very forward-looking radicalism'. Some critics cried opportunism but, of course, that is the trademark of most modern politicians. The bigger question now is whether the man who focus groups find 'dull, wooden and too lawyerly' can make inroads into the Tories' electoral lead. Perhaps in an attempt to enliven his image, Starmer confided in a New Statesman interview last week that he moisturises every night. Born in 1962, his father, Rod, was a tool designer, his mother, Jo, a nurse who suffered from Still's disease, a rare auto-immune disorder characterised by fevers and rashes. Starmer spent long nights at her side in hospital being inspired by her courage and devotion. Starmer (pictured with his wife Victoria) won yesterday's vote because he convinced an outright majority of members that he is best placed to draw together Labour's disparate elements. Calling for an end to factionalism and purges, he appealed to moderate centrists while placating radical Corbynistas After studying law at Leeds University and then at Oxford, he flirted with radicalism as part of the 'editorial collective' for a fringe magazine that vowed to challenge the 'capitalist order' and turn Labour into 'the united party of the oppressed'. He duly became a barrister at Middle Temple, where he focused on fighting human rights cases, engaging in battles to get rid of the death penalty in the Caribbean and in African countries. His commitment to the underdog was unstinting and he won many plaudits for it. In 2008, despite having never prosecuted a criminal case, Starmer was an unorthodox choice as the new head of the CPS as Director of Public Prosecutions. In a video for his leadership campaign, he claimed to have 'stood up to the powerful' as DPP. But others claim he pursued 'victim-centred' justice at the expense of the rights of defendants. He was criticised for following fashionable liberal causes, and he also had to deal with phone-hacking and the Jimmy Savile scandal. The latter led him to propose altering the tests used to assess complainants' credibility in sexual violence cases, saying: 'We cannot afford another Savile moment.' His reforms culminated in guidance instructing CPS lawyers to focus on the credibility of complaints, rather than that of complainants. Starmer's influence on reforms still triggers anger to this day. One such critic is DJ Paul Gambaccini, who was investigated in 2013 over historic sexual abuse but later won damages from the CPS after the case against him was dropped. Gambaccini accused Starmer of using his position to conduct a 'witch-hunt' against celebrities. 'I have the most negative feelings about Keir Starmer imaginable,' he said earlier this year. 'Countless human beings were tormented because of him and he has never apologised. Keir is not only unsuitable to be leader of the Labour Party, he is unsuitable for any public position down to and including dog-catcher.' I still fear the power of zealots who tolerated antisemitism and thuggery in the Labour Party, says former Home Secretary LORD BLUNKETT The long goodbye is over. Jeremy Corbyn's exit spells the end of the power exercised by the very small clique around him. But it does not spell the end of a much wider group who still control the party's machinery and decision-making processes. Proclamations of unity and outbreaks of sweetness and light are, to say the least, premature. However, at a time of darkness, there is sometimes a small shining light. A dismal chapter has closed in the history of the Labour Party and therefore, too, of this country's functioning democracy. After four-and-a-half years, the zealots of the hard-Left no longer hold the Labour Party. Meanwhile, the bulk of the membership has at last woken from its slumbers to recognise the catastrophe that befell the party in December when we suffered our fourth successive General Election defeat and ended up with fewer MPs than during the Michael Foot debacle of 1983. The long goodbye is over. Jeremy Corbyn's exit spells the end of the power exercised by the very small clique around him. But it does not spell the end of a much wider group who still control the party's machinery and decision-making processes. Pictured: the new Labour leader Keir Starmer leaves his home yesterday morning But this is only a beginning. The control of so many levers remains in the grip of those who tolerated antisemitism, ignored thuggery and bullying, and drove out decent people dedicated to the democratic parliamentary means of improving the lives of others. The brutal truth is that, removing the influence of those who joined Labour only to destroy it, such as the organisers of the far-Left group Momentum, will require more than benign indifference. After a similar hard-Left Militant Tendency attempted takeover in the 1980s, I was spat at as I walked into National Executive Committee meetings to play my part in expelling those who had joined Labour with the sole aim of taking over the party and betraying the people who had traditionally supported us. Sir Keir Starmer's challenge is to recognise that healing has a lot to do with delivering the right medicine, not merely covering up the wounds. Inevitably, there is a temptation to concentrate on being a constructive Opposition. But it will not be enough, in the short-term, to articulate the demands for a dramatic improvement in testing for Covid-19 or to accelerate the distribution of personal protection equipment. Labour must also have a vision of how the nation should come together in the long period of recovery. I supported Lisa Nandy to be leader because she expressed the hopes and fears of so many people who felt forgotten, politically isolated, and in some cases, downright antagonistic to the Labour Party. Her role will be crucial in ensuring those voices are heard. With billions being spent by the Government to support furloughed workers, on grants and loans to businesses, and to pay for new applicants for Universal Credit, there will no longer be any immediate capacity to rebalance the economy. Now is the moment for radical, ambitious and forward-looking policies. Not a comfort zone of indecision or complacency, but rather an understanding that the future belongs to the brave. Pictured: Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn Many jobs will never re-emerge. Many small businesses will never recover. New ways of working, forced by necessity, may result in fewer employees and jobs with entirely different skills. Most likely, the communities that suffered most from deindustrialisation in the 1980s and 1990s will be hit again. The same people worst affected by the global financial meltdown of 2008. There will be lasting political consequences, as always after major traumas such as war. Some think this will bring people together. I am not so sure. Isolation, separation and the impact of substantial job losses, as well as the wiping out of savings and the loss of income for millions, may have the opposite effect. All the more reason that Labour's new leadership breaks from the schoolboy politics of those who surrounded Corbyn and who had no empathy with working people. By necessity in this coronavirus crisis, the Conservatives have abandoned long-held dogma such as their ideological objections to the role of the State. For its part, Labour must set aside its own dogmas. As the fourth Labour leader of the last five to be rooted in North London, it will be vital for Keir to reach out and embrace Britons living way beyond the M25. To those who felt betrayed by Corbyn's Labour, there must be a clear signal of internal change and party direction, as Tony Blair understood when driving through reforms to Labour's constitution and dropping a commitment to State ownership. The people whose votes we lost need to believe that we have really changed, and reverted back to the party that they loyally supported for generations and believed represented their interests. Now is the moment for radical, ambitious and forward-looking policies. Not a comfort zone of indecision or complacency, but rather an understanding that the future belongs to the brave. Hard left bullies spoil coronation for Labour's new leader: Sir Keir Starmer storms to victory only to face immediate threat from activists not to betray Jeremy Corbyn's legacy Sir Keir Starmer stormed to victory in the Labour leadership race yesterday only to face an immediate threat from hard-Left activists not to betray Jeremy Corbyn's legacy. The fervently pro-Corbyn Momentum group reacted to Sir Keir's overwhelming triumph by vowing to hold the new leader to account 'and make sure he keeps his promises'. But the threat sparked fury from many MPs last night, with even one former Corbyn ally saying that such was the scale of the new leader's victory that the hard-Left was now 'just howling at the moon'. In a decisive result, Sir Keir defeated 'Corbyn continuity' candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy by winning more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round. Sir Keir Starmer stormed to victory in the Labour leadership race yesterday only to face an immediate threat from hard-Left activists not to betray Jeremy Corbyn 's legacy He was the top choice of party members, affiliates and registered supporters with 56 per cent of the vote way ahead of Ms Long- Bailey on 28 per cent and Ms Nandy on 16 per cent. As Sir Keir already has the backing of most Labour MPs, party insiders said he was in a far more powerful position than Mr Corbyn ever was and could 'take out' the hard-Left if he wanted to. In a further blow to the Left, schools spokesman Angela Rayner was elected deputy leader with ardent Corbynite Richard Burgon pushed into third place. However, Sir Keir who has promised to keep key Corbyn policies such as nationalising the rail and water industries still left some MPs mystified last night over how different he would be. There is deep concern from Northern, Brexit-supporting Labour MPs over how Sir Keir, who backed Remain and represents a North London constituency, could appeal to the 'Red Wall' of seats lost to the Tories at the Election. And there has also been disappointment for years that while the Tories have had two female leaders, Labour refuses to give a woman the top job. Harriet Harman bemoaned this two years ago, saying: 'It's becoming a bit of a thing.' In an acceptance speech delivered via the internet because of the coronavirus crisis, Sir Keir warned his party had 'a mountain to climb' and that if change was required 'we will change'. The fervently pro-Corbyn Momentum group reacted to Sir Keir's overwhelming triumph by vowing to hold the new leader to account 'and make sure he keeps his promises' But Sir Keir, who during the contest was careful not to antagonise Corbyn supporters, continued that approach yesterday by paying tribute to the former leader 'as a friend as well as a colleague' but vowing on antisemitism to 'tear out the poison by its roots'. The promise failed to quell criticisms that he had failed to speak out strongly enough over the party's handling of the issue while serving as Mr Corbyn's Shadow Brexit Secretary. His spokesman also denied reports that he had already told Mr Corbyn's former chief of staff Karie Murphy, strategy director Seumas Milne and party general secretary Jennie Formby that they would have to leave. Momentum, set up originally to protect Mr Corbyn's leadership, responded with congratulations to Sir Keir but tweeted: 'In this new era, Momentum will play a new role. 'We'll hold Keir to account and make sure he keeps his promises.' Oxford MP Anneliese Dodds is being touted for Shadow Chancellor as Sir Keir today takes the key step of naming his front bench. Moderates are urging him to clear out Corbynista 'dead wood'. Victorian schools are expected to reopen in term two with a skeleton staff to accommodate children of essential workers and vulnerable pupils, while the majority of students continue their studies remotely. Meanwhile, year 12 students could sit final exams early next year to receive an ATAR score, under plans being considered by Premier Daniel Andrews to grapple with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and its disruption to children's education. Kim is an intensive care nurse and says she has no option other than sending her son, Will, to school. Credit:Chris Hopkins School holidays have already been brought forward and the first two days of term two declared pupil-free to allow teachers to finalise their preparations to run classes remotely. While an announcement about detailed plans for next term is not expected until early this week, the Premier has conceded that it will "look a bit different on day one". It was always a matter of when not if a new viral pandemic would make it to America. We are not immune to global outbreaks, evidenced by previous close-calls with SARS, H1N1 and Ebola. Epidemiologists even predicted the outbreak of COVID-19 with eerie accuracy. Yet our government was unprepared for the novel virus now upending peoples lives and livelihoods in the United States and around the world. Our health agencies had the information and the resources, so they should have been planning for this, but they werent. The problem isnt because theyre underfunded, its that they are bloated and mismanaged. The core purpose of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to control and prevent the spread of infectious disease. But a close look at how CDC spends its budget reveals it has strayed from this mission of protecting Americans from communicable diseases, turning more toward influencing peoples lifestyle choices. In 2019 Congress authorized a budget of $7.3 billion for CDC. Roughly $2.5 billion to $3 billion of that was supposed to go toward fighting and treating infectious disease, but most of that was earmarked for existing pathogens known threats. This includes $1.1 billion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other sexually or intravenously transmitted infections and $800 million for an immunization and respiratory disease project aimed at increasing vaccinations against common infections like measles, HPV and season flu. What about $855 million for public health preparedness and response programs? That appears to be mostly a conduit for transferring federal funds ($611 million in 2019) to state agencies during emergencies like natural disasters. Just over $600 million was set aside for emerging and zoonotic (animal-caused/related) infectious diseases. Of that, only $185 million went toward the emerging type like COVID-19 with the rest going to efforts at controlling known diseases, such as Lyme, Prion and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. At best, it seems CDC had a paltry billion or so in its budget that might have been used to prepare for a global outbreak. The far larger sum was dedicated to non-communicable conditions. This includes $1.1 billion for chronic illnesses and behaviors, like obesity, diabetes, smoking and oral health. It also funds projects of dubious value, some already handled and funded by other federal agencies, such as environmental health ($180 million), injury prevention ($270 million), and occupational safety ($330 million.) The CDC is not alone in this; other national and international health agencies have similarly refocused on chronic and non-communicable health issues. This is not to say existing diseases and health concerns are unimportant or unworthy of budget dollars. But its now a dire problem that precious few tax dollars were dedicated to fighting novel infectious diseases. More important is the effort, attention and expertise these dollars represent, resources our health authorities dedicated elsewhere. Indeed, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC and other agencies were busy sounding the alarm about the nonexistent epidemic of youth vaping. Collectively, they spent billions on anti-vaping advertisements, biased research and lobbying, wasted countless hours of congressional hearing time, and squandering public trust. Had they remained focused on infectious disease, might have been prepared to fight real epidemics, like the COVID-19. How can we fix this? What wont work is simply throwing more money at the CDC without adjusting how it is spent. Unfortunately, our leaders arent even talking about that kind of change. At the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina candidates scorned the Trump administration for cutting CDCs funding, blaming this for making the COVID-19 outbreak worse. The claim was untrue (CDCs budget is bigger now than under the previous administration), but it spurred Congress into passing an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill anyway. Novel as COVID-19 is, theres nothing new about exploiting a crisis to expand budgets and score political points. Similar claims of inadequate funding were made during the 2014 outbreak of Ebola, for which various health agencies got an additional $5.4 billion. And what do we have to show for it now? Arguably, emergency funding mitigated the outbreak of Ebola, but it should have been followed by a dispassionate assessment of why agencies werent ready for that outbreak and what needed to be done to prepare for the next one. That didnt happen. The failure is not of any single administration, agency or Congress. The blame rests with all of them. The threat that novel infectious diseases pose, both to individual health and national welfare, was known, but our leaders still didnt make combating pandemics a top priority. As odd as it may sound, we got lucky. COVID-19 is bad, but it could have been a deadlier virus. While we all wash our hands, isolate and hope for the best, officials from the White House and Congress down to state and local governments must work together to adjust our national health priorities. Agencies need to narrow their focus, stop wasting time and money, and start preparing for the next pandemic. If they dont, we may be far more unlucky next time. Michelle Minton is a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. She wrote this for InsideSources.com. Indian Ambassador to Iran Gaddam Dharmendra on Sunday visited coronavirus-hit Qom where he met the provincial governor and interacted with the stranded Indian pilgrims at a quarantine facility in the city. The Ministry of External Affairs last month said that over 250 Indians have been infected with coronavirus in Iran and an elderly person aged over 70 years died. "During the visit, the ambassador paid a courtesy call on Dr Bahram Sarmast, the Governor of Qom, and expressed gratitude to him for the support and cooperation extended to all Indian pilgrims presently in Qom, including arrangements for COVID-19 infected pilgrims," the embassy said. Dharmendra, who was accompanied by senior officials of the embassy during the day-long visit, assured the Governor that all efforts will be made for the early return of the remaining pilgrims to India, the mission said in a brief statement. India is currently under 21-day lockdown till April 14 to curb the spread of coronavirus and consequently, all international and domestic commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period. India earlier evacuated hundreds of pilgrims from Iran. The Indian diplomat later visited a quarantine facility specially set up for Indian pilgrims in Qom, the holy city in Iran where the first coronavirus case emerged in February. "He closely interacted with the pilgrims and enquired about their well being. The pilgrims thanked the government of India and the Embassy for their continued support towards them," the statement added. According to the Iranian officials, 58,226 people have tested positive for the virus and 3,603 people have died in Iran, the worst affected Middle East country by the pandemic which originated in China late last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi: People light 'diyas' and candles in their balconies after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people in a video message to the nation to turn off their lights for nine minutes at 09:00 pm on April 5 and light a candle or a 'diya' or even us Image Source: IANS/PIB New Delhi, April 5 : As people across the country switched off the lights of their homes at 9 p.m. on Sunday on the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, power engineers across the country ensured that the 9 minutes of blackout does not lead to a collapse of the power grid across the country. Staff at power companies including PowerGrid, NTPC, NHPC among others said that they worked overtime to see that the power did not go out of control. According to a Power Ministry official, adequate arrangements and protocol were in place to handle the power demand variation. The All India Power Engineers Federation has congratulated power engineers and its employees for secure and reliable operation of power grid. AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey said that that in Uttar Pradesh, the load-crash was 4,384 MW and at national level, it was about 31,000 MW which is "unprecedented". National level generation before 9 p.m. was 1,17,000 MW which came down to 86,000 MW while in UP, it came down from 13,288 MW to 9,100 MW, he added. Dubey noted that the whole credit goes to system engineers and employees. Further, power producers reduced the generation much ahead of the event and reduced load on the grid that was to reduce power demand drastically. Load despatch centres had informed scheduling of power much ahead to prevent a voltage surge when all of sudden demand falls. All state governments' load despatch centres were kept in the loop so that there was proper management of the grid, said people in the know. Senior power generation companies' officials said that the collective effort and planning ensured that grid frequency was maintained. Initially, there was a scare and it kept power officials busy during the weekend. A BSES statement said: "Following Hon'ble PM's appeal, an estimated 17 million residents in BSES area switched-off their lights for 9 minutes, There was a reduction of 473 MW in BSES areas (Delhi 726 MW). We coordinated the mega event with other stakeholders at both the Central and State levels and successfully managed the event in our license area of 950 square KM in Delhi." It said Delhi's demand reduced by 726 MW from 1,968 MW to 1,242 MW, while BSES' demand reduced from 1305 MW to 832 MW, a reduction of 473 MW, adding that it was "a hugely successful event in BSES areas". In Tamil Nadu the crash was 2,200 MW. It was earlier expected to be 1,200 MW, but the grid is normal, said officials. Union Power Minister R.K. Singh also monitored the power grid operations from the National Power Monitoring Centre here, along with other senior officers. The minister said there was huge response to Prime Minister'a call as power demand went down from 117 GW to 85.3 GW within a span of 4-5 minutes. He noted that this was handled "very very well by engineers across all levels". He congratulated all of them and said that ramp-up was also done "very smoothly" as demand and supply was back to 110 GW. Singh also congratulated engineers at the NLDC, RLDCs, SLDCs for their professional handling, adding that the response to the event was much beyond expectation. Complementing power gencos like NTPC, NHPC, THDC, he said they stood up to the task. Right at 9 p.m., Indians switched off lights and lit candles or flashed mobile torches for nine minutes to express solidarity with "Corona warriors". From metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai to tier two cities like Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior or Karnataka's Mysuru, people rose above their political inclination to respond to PM Modi's call and project a united front against the coronavirus pandemic. Family of the Rev. Joseph Lowery gathered Saturday for a small, private funeral for the civil rights veteran who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and decades later delivered a prayer before 1.8 million at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. A horse-drawn caisson attended by men in black suits and top hats carried Lowery's casket to Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, where about 10 family members attended a graveside service. The procession first made stops at two churches where Lowery had served as pastor, as well as the nonprofit Joseph and Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice and Human rights that he founded in 2001. On Saturday, pallbearers carry the casket of Rev. Joseph E. Lowery to the graveside at the Westview cemetery in Atlanta Civil rights activist Joseph Lowery poses for a photo at the funeral for the Rev. C.K. Steele, Sr. in Tallahassee, Florida Martin Luther King Jr speaks to journalists at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church with Bayard Rustin (center left) and Joseph Lowery (center, behind King) President Barack Obama awards Rev. Joseph E. Lowery with the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the the White House in Washington Lowery, 98, died March 27 in Atlanta from what his family said were natural causes, and not related to the coronavirus pandemic. He was best known for helping King start the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization that Lowery went on to lead for two decades. Lowery's funeral fell on the 52nd anniversary of King's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Cheryl Lowery, daughter of civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery, said that 10 family members would be in attendance for his Saturday funeral service A funeral procession heads into the Westview cemetery in Atlanta to honor the life of Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a civil rights icon who died of natural causes on March 27 On Saturday, horses pull the casket of Joseph Lowery to the graveside at the Westview cemetery in Atlanta Lowery gave the benediction at Obama's first inauguration in 2009. Later that year, Obama awarded Lowery the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor. A public memorial service is planned for Oct. 6, which would have been Lowery's 99th birthday. Lowerys daughter, Cheryl Lowery, had previously said 10 family members would attend the funeral Saturday. Specific details of the service were not made public. Men handle a bouquet of roses at the Westview cemetery in Atlanta meant to honor the life Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who died of natural causes last week In the age of reason and knowledge, the significant concomitant is not superstition but religion-the religion of love and compassion in action. by Ananya S Guha And we are back to it again. Superstition. We are asked to light lamps and candles for nine minutes at 9 pm. What is so propitious about the number nine? Earlier on we were asked to beat drums and sound conch shells to drive the virus away. The danger with superstition is that it plays to the gallery and draws masses thereby generating ignorance. The last time in response to the Prime Ministers call people came out in numbers which is potentially inimical given the contagious nature of the corona virus. So the lockdown on that Sunday could have turned virulent among groups. Wasnt that taken note of? The question is how will lighting lamps help to tackle the fight against the disease? Keeping our homes dark how will that combat the virus? This is baffling embattled as the whole world is in the crisis. This is also obfuscating science with superstition, when doctors and health care workers are battling it out, when scientists are striving to cohere scientifically methods to contain the virus in India and the world over, when the WHO is articulating preventive measures, when again the media is relentlessly propagating such measures for the benefit of the public. In times of such crises in the world dont we also have to think of the economy, the poorest of the poor, the daily wage workers who are starving? Shouldnt our thoughts rivet to such people and money or provisions should go to them immediately? But superstition goes down well with both the literate and the illiterate. Should we not mingle politics with caution? What I am saying is that this is a humanitarian crisis, the poor need cash and food and not the sound of gongs. If this is a symbolism then I am sorry to say, in the given crisis it is misplaced. The need of the hour is to contain the spread of the virus, which we are doing in the country with a oneness; marvellously, and then monitor it minute by minute. And the economic fall out should be measured, antidotes worked out pragmatically. The poor and the suffering should be uppermost in our minds. In the age of reason and knowledge, the significant concomitant is not superstition but religion-the religion of love and compassion-in action. This is not the time to propagate the formal religion of the majority. Some say that the number nine echoes Hinduism, Nav Ratri. Could be correct. Commingling formal religion with scientific attempts to fight the virus only leads to irrationality because superstition comes in , others belonging to different religious groups may not accept this. Also people who believe in a scientific approach to combat diseases or sickness of such proportions. What might be worse is that people might again come together to light lamps. We saw last time how they transgressed rules. India is a vast country there will always be some over enthusiastic misguided people. Superstition can play havoc and have deleterious effects in a time when the whole world is trying to fight with ferocity the community outbreak of this dreaded virus. It is unfathomable why this has been urged upon the citizens of the country, instead health workers must be constantly lauded and pepped for risking their lives for us.Staying twenty one days locked up is a torture but we all realised that this must be done for the common good, in the midst of a veritable war. Rather what the people need is mental succour and encouragement. While the intention of our Prime Minister is good the constant allusion to do something which is superstition does not gel with the science which needs to be invoked to prevent the virus to spread to community proportions. What should be done at this stage is to remind the people of such hazards. We have seen what has happened as a result of the Islamic meet in Delhi. At a time when we were controlling the virus this was discovered and in one day statistics catapulted. The Nizamuddin episode was grossly negligent and uncalled for. It put the clock back at a time when our health and social workers were fighting valiantly.That too was superstition in the guise of formal region when the world and India was wracked by the corona virus. To sum up we need knowledge, a scientific temper with love to fight this malaise. The latter is demonstrated by individuals and NGOs who have come out in numbers to help the needy, the poor and the starving, the street people, the rickshaw pullers and the daily wage earners. Our doctors are constantly reminding us of what we should do and what we shouldnt. The media is facilitating this admirably. But superstition and irrationality may only ignite that dreaded community backlash, the fear of the virus afflicting at the community level and by implication- killing.However in all fairness this has come on a Sunday, a day observed as a holiday by all in our country. This perhaps works as a balancing factor but the play off between science and superstition still remains. Q: How can I get a 90-day supply of my medications in case I am quarantined during the novel coronavirus pandemic? I can only get a 30-day refill. A: Before the pandemic, many health insurance companies had strict rules preventing refills of 30-day prescriptions of routine medication before the supply was nearly gone. Now insurance companies are making it easier to get 60- or 90-day supplies by relaxing early prescription refill limits. Some insurance companies also are offering free home delivery for members who would rather not go to a drugstore. We are seeing our members take advantage of the early refill option as they heed the [Centers for Disease Control and Preventions] advice to have at least a 14-day supply of prescription medications on hand, Kathryn Canaday, Medical Mutuals vice president of pharmacy management, said in an email. Along with milk, bread and toilet paper, prescription drugs are among the things that people worry about running short on, especially if they are asked to observe a 14-day self-quarantine at home due to the coronavirus. Some experts urge patients to get 60- or 90-day supplies. In an interview with NPR, Dr. Peter Jacobson with the University of Michigan School of Public Health recommended having a three-month supply on hand. A Harvard Health Publishing article also urged stocking 90-day refills. Ohio pharmacists are now permitted to issue emergency 30-day refills of some drugs without consulting a doctor or insurance company, in response to Gov. Mike DeWines declaration of a state of emergency in Ohio in March. About 10% of Discount Drug Mart customers have asked for 60- to 90-day refills, said Jason Briscoe, director of pharmacy operations. Others decided they were comfortable with their current supplies after talking to a Discount Drug Mart pharmacist, Briscoe said. But is it necessary to buy large amounts of medications? It is good for patients to be prepared, but they need to work with their pharmacist to determine what the best course of action is, with all big-picture risks and rewards considered, Antonio Ciaccia, director of government and public affairs for the Ohio Pharmacists Association, said in an email. Most normal refill policies allow you to have enough medication on hand to meet the CDCs recommendation of a 14-day supply. Home delivery of prescriptions is an option for people who want to avoid trips to the drugstore following DeWines Stay at Home order. Here are tips for deciding if you need to stock up on your medications during the COVID-19 crisis. Insurance companies are flexible Heres how some major private insurance firms are adjusting their policies on prescriptions during the pandemic. Always call the information number listed on your health insurance member ID card to find out the particulars of your plan. Aetna: The company is waiving early refill limits on 30-day prescriptions for all members with pharmacy benefits through CVS Caremark. Anthem: The company is relaxing early refill limits for 30-day supplies of medications. Members getting 90-day prescriptions can use Anthems mail order program or an approved retail pharmacy. Cigna: It offers free home delivery of up to 90-day supplies of prescription medications to its customers through Express Scripts Pharmacy. CVS Health/Caremark: Caremark has gotten rid of its early refill limits on 30-day prescription maintenance medications. CVS Pharmacy has waived charges for prescription home delivery. Medical Mutual: The company is allowing early refills, and encouraging members to use mail order delivery through Express Script. If you have Medicare: Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to find out if your plan allows for early refills on prescriptions or home delivery. The Ohio Department of Insurance offers a free service, the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program (OSHIIP), with counselors who can help with Medicare and Medicaid questions. Call 800-686-1578 and leave a message; the office staff is working remotely. The private company Eligibility offers an online guide to Medicare benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, including how to get prescriptions while in quarantine. You can find the guide here. Stockpiling may not be best Keeping an emergency 90-day supply of prescription drugs may not be best for some medications and patients, Ciaccia said. Some drugs have a short shelf life, according to an article in the medical journal Infection Disease Special Edition. Storing them in a humid space, such as a bathroom, affects their stability over time. And ordering extra supplies that arent used contributes to medical waste and increased health care costs, the medical journal said. Widespread stockpiling and increased demand could strain supply chains and lead to shortages, Ciaccia said. A huge rush on albuterol, insulin and hydroxychloroquine used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus has already led to shortages in some areas of Ohio, Ciaccia said. President Donald Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19. New York is preparing to test hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic Zithromax (generic name azithromycin) as possible treatments for COVID-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said recently. There is currently no treatment for the illness. Anthem advises its members against stockpiling medication, Jeff Blunt, public relations director for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio, said in an email. Anthem supports policies that allow members to obtain their prescriptions while avoiding unnecessary strain on the pharmaceutical supply chain, Blunt said. If you do buy extra medication, its important to store it in a cool, dry place (not the bathroom medicine cabinet) where children and pets cant access it. Follow instructions to store certain medications in the refrigerator or freezer. In her column, patient advocacy writer Julie Washington answers readers questions about navigating health-care systems. (She will not address individual treatments.) Your comments may be published in a future story or column. Send questions and comments for publication including your name, city and daytime phone number to jwashington@plaind.com. You can also find Julie on Twitter @JulieEWash. Recent Health Matters columns by Julie Washington: Tips for effective hand-washing during coronavirus outbreak, any time: Health Matters Tips for finding a reliable home health aide: Health Matters Common heart tests can tell your doctor a lot: Health Matters What are the best ways to keep reusable bags germ-free? Health Matters Solon patient doesnt understand $614 nasal spray charge: Health Matters Lyme disease vaccine discontinued, but new ways to prevent it are coming: Health Matters Hospitals say leave meds at home; readers say otherwise Where to get help paying your medical bill People across Odisha expressed solidarity with the countrys battle against COVID- 19 by lighting earthen lamps and candles at 9 PM on Sunday in an overwhelming response to the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal was among the host of dignitaries who joined the initiative aimed at enhancing awareness among the people about the deadly coronavirus which has claimed many lives in the country. The governor along with his family members was seen lighting diyas in front of the Raj Bhavan with electric lights in the building switched off. Similarly, state minister Raghunandan Das and Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra also lit lamps and candles outside their houses. "This symbolises our resolve to remove the darkness of corona," Patra said. In the state capital Bhubaneswar, most of the houses put out lights at 9 PM and lit diyas and candles on their balconies and near the main doors. People belonging to different spheres of life including police personnel were also seen switching on the flashlight of their mobile phones for nine minutes from 9 pm. Similar reports were received from other parts of the state including Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Balasore, Puri, Rourkela, Dhenkanal, Angul, Baripada and Bhadrak. No report of any power issue was received from anywhere in the state. The Odisha Government had issued an advisory asking people to maintain the stability of the grid system by keeping electrical appliances such fan, refrigerator, TV, air conditioner, computer and lift on. Earlier in the day, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said lights in essential services such as hospitals, police, municipalities and public utilities should remain switched on. Street lights will also remain switched on. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SOCORRO Damien Ocampo wears the hat of Socorro High School head football coach, so he draws on this analogy to describe the ever-changing, taxing measures employed to fight COVID-19: Its like stopping an opponent on fourth down and inches near the goal line and someone giving your opponent an extra down. I dont think people realize what this is doing to small town America, said Ocampo, who also runs a State Farm insurance agency. Thats especially true in the City of Socorro, residents say, where census figures show nearly a third of the population already lives below the poverty line. Ocampos insurance office is considered essential, in part because it gives financial investment advice. But, these days, it also serves as a window into the community. People are coming in here stressed, he said. Farmers, ranchers, small business owners, they are cashing out their retirements 10 years early just to keep their businesses afloat. A lot of people are losing their jobs. I just hope the (federal) stimulus payments do them some good. Ravi Bhaskers take on what the response to the COVID-19 outbreak has done to the city in central New Mexico: It has turned our world upside down. He is in a unique position when it comes to both the health and the economic threat of the pandemic to the town of fewer than 9,000 people. Bhasker is the citys mayor. He and his wife, Addy, own the Best Western Inn and the Holiday Inn Express, two of the largest hotels in town. And he is a physician whose family medicine practice is on the front lines of the crisis. As a doctor, he believes measures put into place by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus are necessary. His medical practice has been involved in testing people for COVID-19. There have been four positive tests in Socorro County, but none that hes aware of in the town itself. As a business owner and the head of the citys government, though, he has found the measures put into place a difficult pill to swallow. It has been almost two weeks since the governor issued a stay-at-home order, closing all nonessential businesses. A previous order limited hotels to 50% occupancy. As of Thursday, both the 120-room Best Western and the 80-room Holiday Inn Express were closed. Other hotels are open, Bhasker said. But there arent many customers. And that is far from how things normally fly during the first weekend in April, when all hotels in the town are usually full for the open house at Trinity Site, where the first atomic blast took place. Trinity Site is only open two days a year, and its right down the road on White Sands Missile Range. The open house has been called off just like everything else. And far more than hotels are affected. We will also miss out on two big weekends for restaurants in our area, said Deborah Dean, who owns the Bodega Burger Company with her husband. Along with Trinity Site tourists, eateries like hers will also miss out on families coming in for New Mexico Techs graduation in May. So instead of a boost in sales and tax revenue, businesses and local government agencies are beginning to feel the pinch. This is having a rippling affect, said Bhasker, who expects the citys budget to be devastated once the revenue from a surge of buying of supplies at local stores subsides. He said the city was in solid shape financially when the outbreak hit, with a budget surplus of about $340,000 and $1.5 million in reserve. But if the outbreak meets projections in the state, he said the city could end up in a $1.5 million hole. Most of the citys 150 permanent employees are already taking vacation and paid leave to comply with stay-at-home orders. The citys 15 temporary employees have been furloughed. The library has been closed, as has the citys rodeo arena, which brings in tourism dollars. The recreation and transportation departments are on call. Without much needed lodgers taxes, convention center taxes and gross receipt tax revenue, the mayor said the city wont be able pay loans it has out for its planned convention center or rodeo arena. He said it also wont be able to pay the salaries of the arenas employees and will struggle to pay its share of city employee retirement and health insurance. Bhasker said he is appealing to the governor to help the city make up for the GRT losses through the state funds he believes should be reserved for a rainy day. Its raining, he said. Pouring, if you ask business owners. Who saw this coming? said Elias Jacquez, who took over ownership of Desert Diamond restaurant on the southern end of town in February. This stopped all of our momentum Were breaking even, which is about as good as can be expected, right? Im glad I can pay my employees. Our sales are nowhere close to where we need to be, said Dean, who also serves as a city councilor. When the first order came to operate at 50% capacity, our sales decreased by about 50%. Now that were closed for dine-in guests, our takeout sales have increased, but that is still only approximately 20% to 25% of our normal sales at this same time last year. She has talked with other restaurant owners in town. We are all struggling, Dean said, mentioning one restaurant that has already had to take out a loan. Most are having to cut staff now that they are reduced to takeout only. And other businesses are having to lay off employees as well. Bhasker said the Best Western has gone from a staff of 22 to four, and the Holiday Inn Express is down to five employees from a staff of 19. He and Dean voiced a concern that some local businesses may not be able to reopen an outlook others share. The challenge will be starting up again. Being closed is easy. Getting sales when a lot of people have not been working is going to be interesting, said Leon Miler, who with his wife, Joyann, manages Alamo Gallery and Gifts. It was forced to close when the governor issued stay-at-home orders. Nonetheless, Dean, Ocampo and Jacquez are among those who believe the community will bounce back. I think the community realizes were all in this together, Jacquez said. Our regulars are keeping us going. Residents like Julianna Vote and her family are ordering takeout from different restaurants on a rotating basis to help out. And so are the Ocampos. I told my wife I dont remember eating out, ordering takeout, as much as were doing now, Ocampo said. Dean said when restaurants are able to reopen dine-in and other businesses reopen we will celebrate. But it will take some time for things to get back to normal, things will likely not be the same, she said. And it will take some time to create that new normal. We talk about this being a reset button. Some folks have already talked about making changes. Scientists in EMBL Barcelonas Ebisuya group, with collaborators from RIKEN, Kyoto University, and Meijo Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, have studied oscillating patterns of gene expression, coordinated across time and space within a tissue grown in vitro, to explore the molecular causes of a rare human hereditary disease known as spondylocostal dysostosis. Their results are published in Nature. Segmentation clock Our vertebral column is a highly repetitive structure - 33 vertebrae from top to bottom. This arrangement is created in the embryo by the sequential formation of a long row of structures called somites (see image), which later give rise to the vertebrae and ribs. This periodic pattern of somites is created by a group of genes known as the segmentation clock. Molecular interactions within the cell cause the expression of these genes to oscillate, with gene activity rising and falling in a regular pattern over time (see movie below). For each oscillation, another somite is formed. Errors in this segmentation clock can cause hereditary disorders of the vertebrae, such as the rare condition spondylocostal dysostosis (SCD). The dynamics of the human segmentation clock and related diseases cannot be studied directly in human embryos, so EMBL Research Scientist Mitsuhiro Matsuda and collaborators tried to create a system for studying this process in the lab. They created cell lines that each lacked a gene thought to be the causative mutation of SCD - which can be caused by any of several genes - in different patients. They cultured these cells to create simplified versions of an embryo that show many of the same characteristics. While cells lacking a gene called HES7 failed to show oscillations, cells lacking the genes DLL3 and LFNG surprisingly showed intact oscillations. However, despite oscillations occurring in these cell lines at the single-cell level, they did not properly coordinate across the tissue to form synchronized collective oscillations or traveling waves of gene activity. Further tests These experiments demonstrated that the culture system the scientists has created could reveal SCD mutations that had been engineered into otherwise healthy cells. But what about testing patients' cells directly? They established a new cell line from a patient with a mutation in DLL3, and tested it in vitro. As expected, this cell line failed to show traveling waves. To provide the strongest evidence that the DLL3 mutation was the cause, the researchers used the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to correct the patient's mutation. This restored the normal synchronization of the segmentation clock in the in vitro tissue, proving that this specific mutation was responsible. The segmentation clock, the mechanism underlying the periodic structures of the vertebral column, has been recapitulated in vitro. We also succeeded in evaluating two important properties of the segmentation clock separately: oscillation and synchronization. HES7, DLL3, and LFNG were already known as causative genes of SCD. But, for many SCD patients, the causative genes are still unknown. Our next goal is to identify a novel causative gene of SCD by using our newly established in vitro model." Miki Ebisuya, EMBL group leader A doctor explains some of the reasons why men appear to be more likely to die when they catch COVID-19. Is COVID-19 a sexist disease? It appears that it may well be, as more men than women are being reported as victims of the virus. The discrepancy was first noted in China, where the death rates revealed that 2.8 percent of men who caught the virus had died, compared with 1.7 percent of women who contracted it. These findings were replicated in Italy where the death rate is currently 7.2 percent for men and 4.1 percent for women. In South Korea, where extensive testing was carried out, despite showing that the proportion of women who tested positive for the virus was higher than that of men, about 54 percent of the reported deaths were still among men. This is not the first time that a coronavirus has shown gender inequality. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks were also found to affect men more significantly. This trend was replicated in labs with mice studies, where it was found that male mice were more susceptible to SARS. This was assessed by measuring their viral load, as well as inflammatory markers in the lungs which lead to lung damage. The question is, why are men more likely to die from coronavirus than women? While scientists have not been able to give a definitive answer yet, there are several theories. Unhealthy lifestyle One theory is that men are more likely to partake in unhealthy habits, which are associated with developing chronic diseases. From the data collected so far, we are aware that those who have suffered more severely from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions like raised blood pressure, heart disease and lung disease. It may be down to lifestyle choices that these conditions are more common among men, and that COVID-19 is, therefore, more fatal in men. Among these lifestyle choices are alcohol and tobacco consumption. Data gathered in 2015 by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that men drink about five times more alcohol than women. Men are also nearly five times as likely to smoke as women. Smokers are considered at risk of developing complications such as respiratory difficulties and pneumonia if they catch coronavirus because their respiratory health is likely to be poor. They are also at increased risk of having an underlying respiratory condition like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a type of lung disease, which may be exacerbated by the virus. It may even be that smokers are more likely to catch the virus in the first place because of the action of putting your hand to mouth, using unwashed hands to roll cigarettes or even sharing cigarettes. The studies in China did indeed confirm that more men smoked, with 50 percent of men and only 3 percent of women being smokers across the general population, so it is unsurprising that this smoking theory was one of the first to explain the gender discrepancy. However, with more data emerging from other countries, this theory was no longer considered adequate in entirely explaining the difference. This is because in Italy, where the smoking balance is more equal (7 million men versus 4.5 million women are smokers), it could not provide the full reason why more men in Italy were dying from coronavirus. Hand-washing Hand-washing with soap is considered the most cost-effective intervention for the control of disease, and we have been reminded of the need to wash our hands with warm water and soap regularly and thoroughly as one way to reduce our chances of being infected with COVID-19. However, there have been studies to suggest that men may be worse at hand hygiene than women. A 2009 US study showed that only 31 percent of men washed their hands after using a public toilet, for example, compared with 65 percent of women. Women were also more likely to use soap when washing their hands. However, we are aware that the number of women actually contracting the virus is almost equal to that of men, it is just that more men are dying from it. Therefore, hand-washing discrepancies are unlikely to be the cause of increased death rates in men. Men do not seek help Mens health literacy and behaviour are very different from that of women. Men are less likely to pay a visit to their GP and also less likely to acknowledge illness or seek help when they are sick. Studies suggest that the reason for this difference is due to a perceived femininity of health concerns, and that risk-taking behaviours are a masculine trait. It may therefore be that while both men and women are contracting the virus equally, women are seeking medical help earlier, while men are waiting until their symptoms have become severe, thereby reducing their chances of survival. Immune system responses From studies of other viruses, including other coronaviruses, we know that women provoke a greater immune response to a viral attack than men. This means that women are generally quicker to clear a virus, and to reduce its viral load the quantity of the virus in an infected person. The unfortunate payoff for this more efficient immune response is that women are more likely to suffer from autoimmune conditions as a result. In addition to being more efficient at producing antibodies against the pathogen, women may also be producing more self-reactive antibodies those capable of attacking the bodys own tissue, resulting in autoimmune conditions. The slower, less efficient response of the male immune system may be one of the reasons why COVID-19 affects men more significantly overall. Hormones A suggested explanation for the immunological difference between men and women may be due to hormones. Studies have shown that immunity to viruses varies with changes in hormone concentrations, which occur at different stages of the menstrual cycle, and which can be affected by taking contraception, during pregnancy and after the menopause. Therefore, it is feasible that female hormones might be, in part, responsible for the COVID-19 gender imbalance. This theoretical difference was researched in animal studies during the SARS outbreak in 2002 to 2003. When researchers removed the ovaries of mice, which produce the female hormone, oestrogen, or treated the female mice with a chemical that blocked the effects of oestrogen, they found that the mices susceptibility to SARS increased and resulted in an increased rate of death This implies that oestrogen has a protective effect in mice infected with SARS. As the SARS virus and COVID-19 share 79 percent of the same genetic sequencing, it is possible that a similar mechanism may be at play with COVID-19. X chromosome Another reason that womens immune systems may function differently is because of the extra X chromosome that women have. Women have two X chromosomes (XX) while men only have one (XY), and this is considered relevant to immune response because a significant number of genes that regulate our immune response are coded on the X chromosome. This is theoretical. However, it may be that having the second X confers some advantage. While there has been no firm explanation yet for why more men are affected by COVID-19, we are likely to understand more about this as we receive more information from immunology and antibody studies. The differences that underpin the sexes are complex and I suspect that the answer lies in the combination of behavioural, immunological, hormonal and genetic factors. Ringgold Mayor Nick Millwood announced that he is supporting Colton Moore over veteran state Senator Jeff Mullis in the upcoming election. Rep. Moore said earlier he was leaving his House District 1 seat to run for the higher office. Mayor Millwood is in his second term as mayor. He said in his statement that Senator Mullis had funded one of his opponents, Paul Lee, in the election last November. Mayor Millwood said, "I am endorsing Colton Moore over Jeff Mullis for our areas 53rd state Senate seat. He is unafraid to stand up to the current power structure and will continue to fight for what is right. As a state representative, he worked for educators to eliminate the discipline aspect in our states CCRPI scores in order to allow our schools to effectively deal with bad behavior. The fact that he understands what is hurting our morale in the schools is so refreshing, and I hope my fellow teachers take note that he gets to the root of problems to enact change. Rep. Moore also tried to pass constitutional carry for our state and has consistently stood up or our 1st Amendment rights as well. During Coltons term as a state representative, his frustrations at being blocked and talked down to by Jeff Mullis lead him to tackle the problem directly and run for that seat. I admire his tenacity and ability to go right to the source of the problem and launch a public challenge to make a difference. "When I won the mayoral election as an outsider, politics in Ringgold had been poisoned by cronyism and getting things done was about who you knew and how well you fell in line with the power structure. Having a public opinion that spoke directly to the voters was heavily frowned upon and attacked as causing division among elected officials. Specifically, one thing caused a great amount of turmoil on my council. When our charter was changed by Senator Mullis without the council or public being given an opportunity to discuss, it became even more apparent that backroom deals are alive and well within my city. "One of my councilmen absolutely ripped me during an open meeting and argued that I was potentially costing our city millions of dollars. My fellow councilman eloquently spoke about how I was endangering our most favored nation status. What he was saying, without actually saying it, was that our city would be punished because I was speaking out against a piece of legislation at our state capitol slipped in by our current state senator. I also received an intimidating text message from Mullis telling me, I would change direction if I were you and accusing me of dirty politics. He consequently chose to fund Paul Lees candidacy in the city of Ringgold, and some of the dirtiest politics came about as a result of that funding. I encourage you to ask Jeff Mullis what his justification is for supporting Paul Lees attempt to lead your city. "This is the main reason I am endorsing Colton: He checks his ego at the door and focuses on whats right for the voters. Insisting on a public conversation about difficult topics and not demonizing, threatening, or marginalizing opposition should be the order of the day. It is time to start building a positive political environment in our district. "At some point, politicians can become more enamored with themselves, other politicians, Political Action Committees, and big donors as opposed to the people who elect them. Two of the senators recent bills come from this mindset. One was called the Casey Cagle Bill. It was an attempt to limit peoples rights to record their own conversations as they see fit. This session, he introduced a bill nicknamed the liar bill which would limit citizens' rights to address their legislature. If you are deemed as lying to the legislature, it strips your right to address the legislature for the rest of the session. A second offense would result in a lifetime ban. The legislators arent held to that same standard, but its now law that you are. Also, the wild amount of money Senator Mullis brings in from PACs like payday and title lenders and insurance companies also leaves me wondering if he is looking out for the best interest of voters or the insurance companies and loan shark businesses contributing to him. "I am speaking from my own experience, and I can relate to Coltons experience he has had at the state capitol. Having an opinion contrary to one of the areas political higher-ups should be something he listens to and embraces. The feeling in the county is that you cannot publicly disagree with our state senator or he will come after you politically and use the state purse strings or his campaign war chest to punish you. He has systematically worked to fill local elections with candidates who are loyal to him. "I truly believe Colton is not that kind of politician. I have had personal conversations with him, and Im sold on his commitment to do the right thing. It was no easy decision to walk away from his state representative seat in order to continue his fight more effectively, but the best among us run toward the problems. Please mark April 27th on your phone or calendar as the beginning of early voting and bring a breath of fresh air to our local politics by casting your ballot for Colton Moore." A mother has married the same Greek waiter she danced with on her first wedding day and insisted she's been waiting for him 'her entire life'. Natalie Perry, 37, from Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, met waiter Fred Kasa, 36, hours after she tied the knot to her ex-husband following a beach wedding in Crete in 2012, and performed the traditional 'Zorba' dance with him at her reception. She split up with her former husband in 2016 and, one year on, revisited the same restaurant again, where the pair reconnected. And last month, the couple tied the knot and once again they danced together, this time swapping the Zorba for a slow-dance as man and wife. Natalie Perry, 37, from Stonehouse, Gloucestershire split up with her first husband in 2016 following a beach wedding in Crete in 2012 (pictured) She went on to tie the knot with Fred Kasa,36, last month, after the pair met at her first wedding in Crete in 2012 (pictured, with Fred at their wedding in March) On her first wedding night, Fred served drinks and danced with guests at the evening party (pictured) After splitting from her husband in 2016, Natalie went back to Crete on a family holiday - this time without her ex-husband - and returned to the restaurant she had partied at on the night of her wedding. Natalie said: 'We went to the greek taverna again because the kids loved the smashing plates and dancing in the street. 'That night the Greek dancer was watching me - I could feel his eyes. 'I went to the toilet to wash my hands and he came up to me and we started chatting. Last month, the couple tied the knot and once again they danced together - this time swapping the Zorba for a slow-dance as man and wife (pictured, Fred is pictured dancing with Natalie on her first wedding night) The couple said that upon reconnecting their connection was electric (pictured, dancing together on their wedding day) 'I went back to the table I was talking to my mum and said he had asked me out. She went up to him and gave him my name and number.He asked me out for a coffee the next day.' She revealed: 'We just had this connection and we clicked right away.I recognised him immediately from before, I knew it was him. 'When we went out for a coffee Fred remembered my wedding and we started talking about it.' The pair spent the rest of the week together before Natalie flew back to the UK and they became a long-distance couple. The pair are now living as man and wife in Gloucestershire and are planning their honeymoon later in the year - to Crete (They are pictured on their wedding day) They would write letters to one another and took their first holiday together to Athens, before Fred surprised Natalie by turning up on her doorstep with a bunch of flowers. He moved into her parents' house in December 2017 and six months later he asked Natalie to marry him. Natalie was granted a divorce from her ex-husband on Christmas Eve 2019. The pair booked a slot at the registry office as soon as Fred received a letter of permission to marry Natalie from the Home Office, and got married on 8 February 2020. The pair, who were married last month, said they are move in love than ever, and are now planning their honeymoon to Crete The pair are now living as man and wife in Gloucestershire and are planning their honeymoon later in the year - to Crete. Fred said: 'Every time we met and she went home it became even more upsetting because we had become closer. 'I knew she was the one I wanted to marry. The feeling was crazy. I had never been so in love with anyone. Everyday I missed her more. 'She looked beautiful, like a princess and she was going to become my wife. Now she is my wife, I am just so happy and we are so happy together'. The pair booked a slot at the registry office as soon as Fred received a letter of permission to marry Natalie from the Home Office, and got married on 8 February 2020 They would write letters to one another and take their first holiday together to Athens before Fred surprised Natalie by turning up on her doorstep with a bunch of flowers. They are pictured following their wedding last month Natalie added: 'I always thought he was good looking. But we would never go beyond a friendly "hello" and "goodbye". 'That night [after my first wedding] we had live music with smashing plates and dancing in the street. 'To think I danced with him at my first wedding and then we had our dance at our wedding is crazy!' The Sindh provincial government in Pakistan will file a criminal appeal in the Supreme Court against a lower court's verdict overturning the death sentence of the prime accused and acquittal of three others in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002, according to a media report. The Sindh High Court on Thursday overturned the death sentence of the prime accused and top al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to seven years in jail and acquitted the three others - Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil- serving life sentences in the case. However, the provincial government invoked the Maintenance of Public Order to keep Sheikh and his three associates in jail. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday that the government will challenge the verdict in the apex court. A senior official in the Sindh government on Saturday said that they will engage a private counsel to file a criminal appeal against the verdict, a report in The Express Tribune said. However, name of the counsel is yet to be decided, the official said Different federal departments, including the Attorney General for Pakistan's (AGP) office, have advised the Sindh government to engage a private counsel to argue the case in the apex court, the official said. However, it is learnt that an appeal may not be filed till next week as under the Supreme Court rules, an appeal may be filed within 30 days of a judgement, the report said. Pearl, the 38-year-old Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story on the alleged links between the country's powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda. Sheikh, who was the mastermind behind abduction and killing of Pearl, was arrested from Lahore in February 2002 and sentenced to death five months later by an anti-terrorism court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, April 5 : Amid the lockdown, the Delhi government has enhanced its capacity to feed the poor and is now serving two-time cooked meals to over 6.5 lakh people daily. The nationwide lockdown implemented to prevent coronavirus spreading, has affected the poor and homeless the most and as an aid to these people who do not have work, money and shelter, the Delhi government has announced that it will provide lunch and dinner to them. Since April 1, around 6.5 lakh people were served lunch and dinner from hunger relief centres across the city. "On Saturday, the Delhi government gave lunch to 6,48,469 people and dinner to 6,50,667 people at around 1,592 centres. The Delhi government is also getting requests for food from various parts of the city," the government said in an official statement. Also, on Saturday the Delhi government got 1,040 calls or requests for food from different locations of Delhi. "Based on these calls or requests the Delhi government has also ensured food," the data said. Since April 1, the Delhi government has enhanced its food serving capacity to provide food to 10-12 lakh people. Nearly 2,500 schools and 250 night shelters have started distributing two meals to 500 people a day. On Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi that when the lockdown started, he was very concerned that with no food or money, the poor would be badly hit. "We worked very hard to make a plan and execute it to ensure no one sleeps hungry. I am glad that our food relief system is working smoothly for lakhs of Delhiites," he said. Carolyn Levitan is the director of the crisis line at Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, which expects a huge increase in call volume in the coming months during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) The voice on the other end of the line was filled with panic. The woman on the phone had come back from the market with a dry cough; she was worried about having COVID-19, worried that she could infect her husband and her children. For a brief moment, she'd forgotten her fears and embraced her kids. "Now I'm afraid they may have gotten it from me," she said. April Rosas comforted the woman the only way she could over the phone from a small gray cubicle on the third floor of the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center in Century City. Her children "were in need of love," the caller said. "They were not doing OK, so I hugged them." "You did your role as a parent. You were there for them," Rosas said. "Thats not a bad thing. The caller said she had been embarrassed to reach out. But she struggled with anxiety and had no one else to turn to. "This is a safe place," the 28-year-old crisis counselor reassured her. "Many people are reaching out, expressing your kind of concerns." But in an unusual turn of events, the crisis counselors at Didi Hirsch, whose job it is to reassure, need some reassurance of their own because the coronavirus knows no boundaries. Didi Hirsch crisis counselors answered more than 1,800 calls related to COVID-19 in March. (Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services) As cases mount across the country, topping 300,000 on Saturday, so too do fear and anxiety over getting COVID-19, over loved ones who have it, over jobs lost because of it. With each day of uncertainty that passes, mental health services are becoming increasingly vital. And strained. In New York, which has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anywhere else in the U.S., Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stressed that "the mental health impact of this pandemic is very real." More than 6,000 mental health professionals have signed up to provide free online services in the state. At Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, a nonprofit organization, crisis counselors fielded more than 1,800 calls related to COVID-19 in March, versus just 20 in February. Story continues The top concerns? Anxiety and stress, health issues, relationships, loneliness and isolation. One in five COVID-19-related calls included "suicidal desire." Although there has been only a slight uptick in overall call volume, Didi Hirsch is anticipating a huge increase in the coming months. "We know that the longer this goes on, unfortunately, the more losses there will be not just lives but also economic," said Lyn Morris, senior vice president of clinical operations at Didi Hirsch. "And the more hopeless and helpless people become, the more at risk they are for substance use, depression and other mental health issues. For decades, Didi Hirsch crisis counselors have provided comfort to hundreds of thousands of people calling the Disaster Distress Helpline and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They take about 130,000 calls and chats per year and have seen callers through recessions, hurricanes and the death of loved ones. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, crisis counselors are dealing with some of the same fears as callers. (Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services) The agency, which provides free mental health, substance-use disorder and suicide prevention services, has locations throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. In the last month, crisis counselors have experienced a dramatic shift in what callers want to talk about. Rosas has heard from elderly people who haven't left home and feel isolated. "I just feel so lonely," they say. "How do I deal with this loneliness?" She has listened as parents have vented anxieties about their children. After six years working as a crisis counselor, Rosas knows the importance of just being there for callers especially right now. "Some of them do want to hear theyre going to be OK. Unfortunately thats not something that we can really say, because we cant predict whats going to happen next," Rosas said. "But just letting them know, right now youre OK, were taking things one minute at a time, and thats all that we can do." For those already struggling with mental health issues, like the mother who called Rosas, the fear among counselors is that the pandemic could exacerbate their symptoms. So hundreds of staff and volunteers who answer calls, in English, Spanish and Korean, put aside their own worries to help those in need. On March 27, Carolyn Levitan, director of Didi Hirsch's crisis line, took nearly a dozen calls all related to the coronavirus in some way. People were worried about their own safety and well-being, their children, job loss, car and mortgage payments. "I'm worried if my utilities will continue if I can't pay," one caller said. "Will I still get power and water?" Levitan spoke with someone worried about their grandmother. The call made her worry about her own 90-year-old grandmother, locked down in a care home. After her shift, Levitan called her. Another counselor took a call from someone worried about job loss; the counselor understood a family member was in the same situation. "We've never experienced a time where all of our counselors are dealing with some of the same fears and anxieties that our callers and chat visitors are," Levitan said. At the same time, counselors have been dealing with the risk of the coronavirus spreading in the center. Didi Hirsch has been providing telehealth and telepsychiatry services but is still working on moving the entire call system off-site to enable counselors to work remotely. Even with additional precautions, such as taking temperatures, physical distancing among dozens of cubicles and deep cleaning the building multiple times each day, about 40 people had to be placed in quarantine recently after a staff member and a volunteer tested positive for the coronavirus. No one they came in contact with at the center has contracted the virus so far. "These types of situations put our own staff and volunteers in crisis somewhat," Levitan said. And crisis-line directors across the country, she said, are dealing with the same types of concerns and fears. "We're a crisis line of people that can sometimes feel in crisis during this time." Despite that, volunteers and staff are asking to do more. Those who can't come into the office are offering to work remotely, staffing the online Crisis Chat, a service for those who might not want to talk on the phone. Managers are picking up four to six shifts a week. "People feel really helpless in a time like this, and we feel like we don't have any control," Levitan said. Taking calls and being able to help community, she said, "reduces our anxiety as well." :: In early-morning darkness last week, Rosas drove half an hour from Lakewood to the Didi Hirsch center for her regular graveyard shift. When she got in around 12:20 a.m., she used a no-touch thermometer in the building and, after logging her temperature, went upstairs. She headed for her favorite booth, feeling soothed by the presence of the nearby window. After sanitizing the cubicle and her headset with Clorox wipes, she clicked "ready" on her computer and waited for the calls to come in. Volunteers get close to 100 hours of training before they start taking calls. They are taught to listen, ask questions and be emotionally supportive through validation and empathy. They admit they don't have all the answers, but they try to provide whatever resources they can. Counselors don't self-disclose and at times find themselves saying, "I can't imagine how difficult that is for you," even when in reality they can. Over the last weeks, Rosas has found herself comforting front-line workers. There are nurses worried over a lack of protective equipment and co-workers who have tested positive. People whose spouses work in healthcare, prompting fears that the family will contract the virus. Rosas works hard to validate callers' concerns and help them understand they are not alone. Together, they try grounding techniques. "Why don't we take a few deep breaths together," she tells them. She practices the same in her own life, checking in with herself when she starts to feel anxious and reaching out to loved ones. On Tuesday, after working her shift, she learned she might have been exposed to the coronavirus at the center. As she waits to hear if that person tests positive, Rosas has tried to stay upbeat. She won't be making calls at the center until the test results come back, but she can answer chats remotely. "If its not us, then who is it going to be?" Rosas asked. "People still need these services; they still need to be able to have a safe place to reach out to someone. If I can be that for another person, even if its one person a day, then I did my job. I did enough." That, she said, is what keeps her going. The premier of a Canadian province that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks questioned the humanity of US President Donald Trump on Sunday after Trump banned the export of N95 protective masks to Canada. The conservative leader of another province compared it to one family member feasting while letting another one starve. And yet another premier said it reminded him of 1939 and 1940, when Canada was part of the fight against global fascism while the United States sat out the first years. Canadians across the country expressed hurt and disappointment that their neighbour and longstanding ally is blocking shipments of the masks from the United States to ensure they are available in the US during the coronavirus pandemic. Canadian health care workers like those in the US are in dire need of the masks that provide more protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. Newfoundland Premier Dwight Ball said one of the great lessons in humanity is that in times of crisis you don't stop being human. To say that I'm infuriated by the recent actions of President Trump of the United States is an understatement, Ball said. I cannot believe for a second that in a time of crisis that President Trump would even think about banning key medical supplies to Canada. Ball noted that in 2001, more than 6,600 passengers descended on Gander, Newfoundland, a town of 10,000 without warning as more than 200 flights were diverted to Canada following the attacks on the United States. Flight crews filled Gander's hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations, church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Locals gave passengers food, clothes, showers, toys and banks of phones to call home free of charge. Newfoundland and Labrador will never give up on humanity. We will not hesitate for one second if we had to repeat what we did on 9-11. We would do it again, Ball said. This is a time when we need to work together to continue to protect our residents and keep them safe from COVID-19 no mater where they live or what passport they hold. Former Gander Mayor Claude Elliott also said he's disappointed. I understand the United States is going through a very dramatic time, especially in New York, and they need a lot of supplies, but we're fighting an enemy that is just not one state, it's the whole world,? Elliott said. And when we come to those times of tragedy in our life, we need everybody helping each other.? Trump used his authority under the 1950 Defense Production Act to direct the government to acquire the appropriate number of N95 respirators from Minnesota-based 3M and its subsidiaries. He also asked it to stop ( exporting such masks, also known as respirators, though 3M issued a statement saying that could have significant humanitarian implications for healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America. The company said possible retaliation by other nations could actually lead to fewer of the masks being available in the US. Ontario's conservative Premier Doug Ford also expressed disappointment. It's like one of your family members (says), 'OK, you go starve and we'll go feast on the rest of the meal.' I'm just so disappointed right now, Ford said Saturday. ' We have a great relationship with the US and they pull these shenanigans? Unacceptable. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, also a conservative, recalled resentments from the start of World War II: The United States sat out the first two or three years and actually initially refused to even provide supplies to Canada and the United Kingdom that was leading the fight at the time, he said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a more diplomatic approach, saying Sunday he's confident Canada will still be able to import N95 masks from the US despite the export ban and said he will talk to Trump in the coming days. Trudeau noted Canada supplies the US with many supplies, including pulp for surgical-grade N95 masks, test kits and gloves. Canadian nurses also work in the US. Trudeau earlier said Canada won't bring retaliatory or punitive measures against the United States. I'm confident we are going to be able to solve this and I look forward to speaking with the president in the coming days, Trudeau said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wang Quanzhang with his wife, Li Wenzu, and their son. Wang Quanzhang, a human rights lawyer, has been detained in China without trial since August 2015. (Courtesy of Li Wenzu) Chinese Rights Lawyer Released From Prison Not Truly Free, Advocacy Group Says Amnesty International said the recently released Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang may not be truly freed. After serving a 4 1/2 year prison sentence for subverting state power, a euphemism for activities that the Chinese regime disapproves of, Wang was released on April 5. But the organization expressed concern that he could still be monitored by authorities. Concerns There are reasons to fear that Wang Quanzhangs release from prison offers merely the illusion of freedom. The Chinese government has a history of monitoring and controlling human rights defenders even after theyre released from jail, Doriane Lau, Amnestys China researcher, said in a statement on April 5. Wang was arrested by Chinese authorities in July 2015 amid a nationwide crackdown on activists and human rights lawyers. He is known for defending poor villagers and adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is persecuted by the Chinese regime, but is practiced by over 100 million people in more than 100 countries and territories. In January 2019, Wang was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment, including the time he spent in pre-trial detention. Wang was incarcerated at a prison in Linyi, a city in eastern Chinas Shandong province. Wangs family was continually denied visitation rights until June 2019, when his wife and son visited him briefly. The European External Action Service, the European Unions foreign policy arm, also issued a statement following Wangs release. It stated that the European Union expects Mr. Wangs release will be unconditional, with particular regard to his freedom of movement and to establish residence, including the possibility to reunite with his family. It also called for the unconditional release and rehabilitation of all those currently imprisoned or under restriction of movement in China on political grounds. Release Prior to Wangs release, his wife, Li Wenzu, wrote in an April 3 tweet that local police showed up at the workplace of Wangs older sister and claimed that local quarantine policies surrounding the current epidemic would forbid the sister and her husband from picking up Wang on his scheduled release day of April 5. A day later, Li tweeted a video, showing plainclothes police who showed up at Wang Quanxius workplace. They prevented the latter from leaving the building to go pick up her brother. Li said her husband was forced by prison officials to call her, trying to obtain her consent to have him travel on his own to Jinan, where she and their son live. On April 5, Li announced on Twitter that she got a call from her husband at around 9 a.m., telling her that he was released from prison four hours earlier. Quanzhang made the call using a phone from a local community official. So he only said a few things. He told me that he will contact me once he has purchased a phone, Li wrote. At 5:40 p.m., Li said in a tweet that she had ordered food and flowers for her husband, which were delivered to him, but it was unclear whether they were reunited. Amnesty said in its statement that it was not optimistic about Wangs situation. Today may mark the end of Wang Quanzhangs unjust imprisonment, but the politically motivated campaign against him is only likely to enter a new phase. Despite his release, he will be subject to heavy surveillance and unable to return to the home where his wife and young child have been waiting for him for four and a half years, Lau said. She further called on authorities to give Wang full freedom. It is an outrage that he was ever jailed in the first place, but now he has served his sentence the authorities must immediately lift all restrictions on him and allow him to return to his family home, Lau concluded. Kathmandu, April 5 Nepals customs officials have said they have been unable to reopen Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani border points connected to China for trade activities owing to Chinas reluctance. China is reluctant to open the border points as the number of coronavirus infected persons is increasing in Nepal whereas China itself has significantly combatted the crisis, according to them. Earlier around two weeks ago, Nepal had decided to reopen the border points. They were closed when the outbreak was expanding across China. Punya Bikram Khadka, the chief of the Rasuwagadhi Customs Office, says his Chinese counterparts have said they cannot reopen the border as of now as per the Chinese policy. However, any written response has not been received yet, according to him. Baburam Khanal, the Assistant Chief District Officer of Sindhupalchok where Tatopani point lies, also corroborates Khadkas statement. Our preparations have reached the final stage, but we have been informed that the Chinese side is unwilling. President Donald Trump speaks at a press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in Washington, on April 4, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) Trump Warns US Will See A Lot of Death in Coming Weeks From CCP Virus President Donald Trump has asked Americans to brace for a big spike in fatalities from the CCP virus in the coming weeks, as the country faces what he says may be the toughest two weeks of the pandemic. Theres going to be a lot of death, unfortunately, Trump said during a somber start to his briefing with reporters. He urged certain media outlets to stop spreading false rumors and creating fear during the national emergency because it is essential that national leaders be able to cut through the fog of confusion in order to follow the facts and the science in the battle against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Trump said that tight coordination between state and federal government is needed to ensure that all available ventilators in the Federal Emergency Management Agencys (FEMA) strategic national stockpile are in use and not wasted as the country nears its predicted peak caseload of infections. Its very understandable that officials would seek to get the most they can get for their communities, he said of the requests his administration has received for ventilators. But the fears of shortages have led to inflated requests. Governors are asking for more machines than they are using, the president said. We have one state asking for 40,000 Its not possible, he said. Wherever local shortages are reported, were asking states to immediately meet the demand. He added that with faster data-sharing from the states, the White House Coronavirus Task Force would be working to coordinate equipment levels with the hope of staying several days ahead of critical medical needs in each state. Let me be extremely clear about one point, we will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great American citizens, Trump said. President Trump: So, let me be extremely clear about one point, we will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great American citizens. #CCPVirus Emel Akan (@mlakan) April 4, 2020 More than 306,000 people have now tested positive for the CCP virus in the United States and over 8,300 have died, according to a Reuters tally. White House medical experts Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the coronavirus response, have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if social distancing rules are followed. We are coming up to a time that is going to be very horrendous, Trump said at the White House. We probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war, during World War I or II or something. Like a Fire In the grimmest day yet for New York state, which has been hit hardest by the pandemic, coronavirus-related illnesses killed 630 people in the last 24 hours, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday. The disease has now killed 3,565 people in New York and the situation is particularly worrying on Long Island, east of New York City, where the number of cases is like a fire spreading, Cuomo told a news conference. Health experts calculate that New York, home both to bustling Manhattan and hilly farm country stretching to the Canadian border, might be around a week away from the worst point in the now-global health crisis. Were not yet at the apex, were getting closer Our reading of the projections is were somewhere in the seven-day range, Cuomo said. Its only been 30 days since our first case, he said. It feels like an entire lifetime. New York City alone accounted for more than a quarter of the U.S. CCP virus deaths tallied by Johns Hopkins University from official government data. Hospitals and morgues in the city are struggling to treat the desperately ill and bury the dead. Cuomo said that the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 ventilators to New Yorks hot spots that are in need. Following discussions on March 27 between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, and Jack Ma, who along with Tsai founded Chinese multinational e-commerce giant Alibaba, also offered to send 1,000 ventilators to New York that will arrive at JFK airport on Saturday, a source familiar with the discussions said. Meanwhile, the CCP has continued with its global disinformation efforts to deflect blame over the regimes initial mismanagement and coverup of the global pandemic, which started in Wuhan. Reuters contributed to this report. New Delhi: Actress Ankita Lokhandes apartment in Mumbais Malad has reportedly been sealed after a resident tested positive for the novel coronavirus. According to a report published in The Times Of India, the man has a travel history of Spain and had returned to Mumbai recently. The diagnosis was made on March 26 after he developed coronavirus symptoms. He was under self-isolation. Since then, the society has been sealed and cops have been stationed there. The man returned from Spain earlier this month. He tested negative at the airport and was advised to self-quarantine for 15 days. However, on the 12th day, he developed symptoms of coronavirus and was taken to the hospital along with his wife. While he tested positive, his wifes test results are negative. Every person who could have possibly come in contact with the couple was also tested. Fortunately, all those test results are negative, a person on the basis of anonymity told TOI. The society is also home to TV stars such as Ashita Dhawan-Shailesh Gulabani, Natasha Sharma-Aditya Redij and Mishkat Verma. Confirming the development, Ashita, who features in Nazar 2, told TOI, Yes, a resident in my wing tested positive and is currently in a quarantine facility. The deadly coronavirus has brought the world to a standstill. In India, the death toll reached 75 as of Sunday afternoon and the total number of cases crossed 3,000-mark. India is observing a complete lockdown for the past 12 days and it will continue till April 14. Help India! By Shah Nawaz Afaque, A lot of speculations are being made as to what would nation-states look like after the pandemic recedes. Some experts believe that Coronavirus might make the world more interdependent as the pandemic has given all the different nations with their varied political cultures and beliefs a single challenge to face, and nations depend on each other now, for knowledge on the cure and strategies to contain the outbreak, more than ever before. Trade of medical kits is all time high now, and Coronavirus has forced us all to rise above petty socio-political differences and focus on a united goal to overcome the pandemic. Support TwoCircles Others believe that the world after Coronavirus would be a world less open, less prosperous and less free. That is because State authorities in the cover of securing their citizens from the contagious disease have mustered immense control of their lives via surveillance and lockdowns. Also, people have grown more and more skeptical of globalization as Coronavirus in the first place could become a pandemic within a few months span only because of a highly globalized and interconnected world order. These speculations however could prove right or wrong in the context of the political scenario of a Nation right before the pandemic struck. The effect of Coronavirus on a particular nations political landscape might vary from country to country; Iran for instance might feel the urgent need to open up its market to the world, as Irans capacity to fight the pandemic is significantly hindered by US led economic sanctions that have forced Iran to close down its economy. North Koreas status given its indifference to the pandemic and isolated existence might remain unchanged. China after having dealt with the outbreak most effectively might emerge as the next big thing in international politics, while the Western nations struck by the Covid-19 spell collapse one after the other. India on the other side might witness a State that was never before so intrusive and hegemonic, as the events unfolding amidst the Coronavirus crisis suggest. We shall take a look at the events of the past few months to figure out what the post-pandemic India has in plate for us. Anti-CAA/NRC protests: The Government of India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on 11th of December, 2019. On the night of 15th December, Delhi Police under the authority of National Home Ministry ransacked Jamia Millia Islamia and ambushed Jamia students who were agitating against the citizenship act. In response to the police brutality, residents of a nearby locality, Shaheen Bagh, organized a sit-in protest. The Shaheen Bagh protest evolved into a nationwide movement against PM Narendra Modis government, and similar Shaheen Bagh styled protests broke out at several locations in the country. The BJP left no stone unturned in vilifying the Shaheen Bagh protest, making it their central agenda in Delhis Vidhan Sabha Election 2020. Even though Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party had won by a huge margin, polarization had pretty much been normalized by that period. Delhi Riots 2020: Shaheen Bagh agitation had become the central point of contention as the protests gained international limelight. While the anti-CAA protesters demanded that the Centre roll back CAA and make its stand on nationwide NRC clear, its supporters pressed that the national highway that Shaheen Bagh protesters had been occupying must be cleared. As the polarization intensified, a clash between the protesters and far-right groups broke out in the North-east district of Delhi on February 24. The clash soon erupted into a communal riot on the second day with stone pelting from both sides, and then into an organized pogrom against the Muslim community on the third and the last day. The violence claimed 53 lives, two-third of them were Muslims. Entire colonies were plundered and markets were burned down to ashes. The Central Government and Delhi police appeared complicit in the pogrom, and a polarized India became the new normal. Coronavirus hits India: Coronavirus came to India amidst a polarized nation that had witnessed communal riots in the Capital not very long back. The first case of Coronavirus was reported as early as January 30. Government of India didnt take the Covid-19 challenge much seriously till mid-March even though Coronavirus was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the WHO on January 30. Delhi Assembly Elections followed by Delhi riots kept the Indian authorities engaged and no serious planning to secure the country against Covid-19 was on the table till February last. Orders for universal screening at airports were issued only on March 5, and Health Ministry as late as March 13 didnt consider Coronavirus pandemic a health emergency. The Tableeghi Jamaat controversy: Tableeghi Jamaat is an orthodox Islamic organization that has a massive following among subcontinents Muslims. It is the largest Islamic organization aimed at bringing back Muslims to the fold of puritanical Islam. The organization was found in 1926 and has a presence in around 180 countries. The Tableeghi Jamaats Alami Markaz (international headquarter) in Nizamuddin locality of Delhi organised an Ijtima (congregation) in early March that was attended by Tableeghi members from across the country. At the event, Markaz had the presence of foreign Tableeghi members too, from China, France, Saudi Arabia, etc. The Markaz complex is a super contagious place with community bathrooms, dining area, wuzu khana (ablution area) and sleeping space all at the basement conjoined. The ground floor is the masjid area that is jampacked with thousands of worshippers. The first floor is the Mashwara-gaah (consultation centre) where Delhite members of the Jamaat strategize. The second floor is exclusively reserved for foreign members. The remaining floors comprise big community halls where people pray and sleep. The possibility of a single positive Covid-19 case there meant a thousand more could easily get infected. The most dangerous aspect of the complex is a massive presence of foreign nationals throughout the year. On March 30, it came to public notice that many of those members who had attended the ijtima in early March had developed Covid-19 symptoms and few of them had already succumbed to the disease. This sent shivers across the nation as Tableeghi members were found out to be carriers of the infection to their respective states. Some two thousand people who were rescued from the Markaz complex on March 31 were sent to various hospitals in Delhi or to quarantine centers depending on their health status. Many of them were later tested Covid-19 positive. Muslims as National Enemy of Modis Bharat: The discourse that followed the Tableeghi Jamaat incident brought once again to the mainstream the ugly face of a polarized India. The communal tension that was subdued because of the Coronavirus crisis once again lingered back as National Media outlets left no stone unturned in demonizing the Muslim community. News headlines like Corona jihad and Markaz ka corona bomb made the rounds and the Indian Muslim community was made the national enemy overnight. Even professors from Indias most prestigious Delhi University could be heard openly attacking Muslims, let alone the not so educated Hindu sections, who were blatantly calling for genocide on social media platforms. Indian Muslims dilemma explained: Indian Muslims amidst the Tableeghi Jamaat controversy were caught in the dilemma of defending an ultra-orthodox organization against the assault of the far-right Hindus. There was no place for moderate and secular Muslims to voice their opinion as the situation demanded that you chose between the two regressive camps Tableeghi Jamaat or the Hindu right-wing. If you voice your opinion against a regressive organization like Tableeghi Jamaat and hold them accountable for their historic blunder, you are emboldening the Hindu right-wing to attack an entire community for the misdoings of Tableeghi Jamaat. Else if you defend your community, you would find yourself amongst a people who are anxiously defending the medieval-ism of Tableeghi Jamaat and its regressive ideology. The sense of paranoia now runs so deep among the latter, thanks to a hostile government and a right-leaning national media, that incidents of violence against health workers have also been reported in some Muslim localities. As it turns out, the authority of religion is now being represented by the most extreme voices on both the sides, as their chest-thumping followers wait to tear each other apart on the first chance they get. Post-Apocalypse India: Many Indian Muslims feel that the Coronavirus crisis have only fetched them some time against a deadlier calamity, i.e., a wide-scale violence or genocide towards which the country is directed. Muslims find themselves as villain in the Bollywood movies and dramas, sometimes as crafty terrorists in a modern setting and at other times as ruthless barbarians in a medieval setting. Meanwhile, to revive the Hindu pride, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is re-telecasting the Ramayana and the Mahabharata on Doordarshan to engage a wider audience as the entire nation sits back at home due to the lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is interacting with the nation more regularly now, asking them to simultaneously beat utensils and light diyas as symbolizing nations fight against Coronavirus. These practices appear to the supporters of Prime Minister Modi as reviving ancient Hindu wisdom, and many a times pseudo-scientific arguments are given to justify the logic behind these practices. It can be fairly speculated that with an ever more intrusive State on one hand, that holds immense power at its disposal, to control the citizens via surveillance and lockdowns, and a polarized Nation on the other hand, where the Muslim minority is already dubbed a national enemy, the post-Coronavirus India would certainly be a less free society, a less prosperous market and a less open polity. However, if the advocates of Muslim identity politics believe that by defending the regressive aspects of the Muslim society, they are empowering the community, it is not so. On the contrary, such attempts make their alienation far worse when they are provided with platforms to chest-thump their medieval orientation. Efforts should be made to provide them with such conditions that help them connect to the mainstream, so that regressive organizations like Tableeghi Jamaat dont get an appropriate ecosystem to feed on their vulnerable and paranoid psyche. (Shah Nawaz Afaque is a postgraduate in Political Science from Jamia Millia Islamia and an activist) The Queen will make an address to the nation about the coronavirus crisis (Victoria Jones/PA) The Queen will use her address to the nation to recognise the pain felt by many families living through this time of disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak. In her televised message, which will be broadcast on Sunday evening, the head of state will also personally thank frontline NHS staff, care workers and others carrying out essential roles for their efforts. The broadcast will be a deeply personal message reflecting her experience in other difficult times. The Queen will acknowledge the grief some have experienced, the financial difficulties many face and the enormous changes the country is enduring, after almost two weeks of lockdown to tackle the spread of Covid-19. On Sunday 5th April at 8pm (BST) Her Majesty The Queen will address the UK and the Commonwealth in a televised broadcast. As well as on television and radio, The Queens address will be shown on The @RoyalFamilys social media channels. pic.twitter.com/EADh7WNU7b The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 3, 2020 With hundreds of thousands answering the call for NHS volunteers and others supporting vulnerable people in their communities, the monarch will say she hopes in the future everyone will be able to feel pride in how they rose to the situation. And she will add that in years to come, this generation will be judged as strong as any. Commenting on the difficulties facing the nation, the Queen will say: I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. The message has been highly anticipated and comes as the country braces itself each day for the death toll from the virus, which has forced much of normal life to be suspended. Expand Close The Queen normally makes one national broadcast a year her Christmas address to the nation (Steve Parsons/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen normally makes one national broadcast a year her Christmas address to the nation (Steve Parsons/PA) The latest figures from the Department of Health showed the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths stood at 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday, up from 3,605 the day before. The Queen will also say in her address to the country and Commonwealth: I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise this country. With the weekend predicted to be the warmest of the year so far, the Queen will also thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. Expand Close The Queen left Buckingham Palace earlier than normal for her traditional Easter break at Windsor Castle because of the virus outbreak (Aaron Chown/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen left Buckingham Palace earlier than normal for her traditional Easter break at Windsor Castle because of the virus outbreak (Aaron Chown/PA) The televised address will be a rare event, with the head of state only making three previous appearances during troubled times. Speeches were broadcast after the Queen Mothers death in 2002, ahead of Diana, Princess of Waless funeral in 1997 and about the first Gulf War in 1991. It was recorded at Windsor Castle under special circumstances after specific advice from the Medical Household was sought, and followed, to mitigate any risk to the Queen and others. The castles White Drawing Room was specifically chosen so that an appropriate distance could be maintained between the Queen and the other occupant a cameraman wearing personal protective equipment. The broadcast was produced by BBC Studios Events and other staff were in another room connected by speakers. Expand Close The Queen has been conducting some of her duties by phone due to the lockdown and is pictured holding her weekly audience with Prime Minister Boris Johnson (PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen has been conducting some of her duties by phone due to the lockdown and is pictured holding her weekly audience with Prime Minister Boris Johnson (PA) The Queen has been staying at her Berkshire home of Windsor Castle, with the Duke of Edinburgh, after she moved to the royal residence on March 19, earlier than normal for the Easter period, as a precaution. Buckingham Palace announced in March that in consultation with the Medical Household and Government, a number of public events with large numbers of people due to have been attended by the Queen and other members of the royal family in the coming months would be cancelled or postponed. The monarch and her family have been conducting some of their royal duties by telephone or video link, with the Prince of Wales opening the new NHS Nightingale Hospital in east London on Friday remotely from his Scottish home. The Queens address will be broadcast on TV and radio and shown on the royal familys social media at 8pm on Sunday. Bengaluru, April 6 : Lakhs of oil lamps and candles flickered for 9 minutes from 9 p.m., as lights went off in thousands of homes across Karnataka, including India's tech hub on Sunday. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call, lakhs of people switched off their electrical lights and lit lamps or candles outside their home or in balcony across the state. Thousands of people from all walks of life also held high in their hands torchlights or mobile phones with flashlight switched on, standing afar for social distancing, as advised by Modi in a 9-minute audio/video message to the nation. There were, however, many people in the state who did not switch off lights or lit lamps or candles, as they did not believe in Modi's call and termed the exercise futile, as the deadly diseases will not burn by the heat generated by oil lamps or wax candles. Governor Vajubhai Vala, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, his cabinet ministers and hundreds of the ruling BJP's cadres joined the people in lighting the lamps. "Vala lit the lamp at 9pm on the roof terrace of Raj Bhavan," said a communique from the governor's office. "It is again resolved that we are one and will fight against corona together," he said. Janata Dal-Secular supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, also switched off lights, lit lamps and stood for 9 minutes from the balcony of his residence here. "Gowda has promised to cooperate with the government in fighting the virus when Modi spoke to him earlier in the day from Delhi," a party spokesman told IANS here. Ironically, his third son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy slammed Modi for indulging in theatrics and making the people light lamps when they were facing hardship due to the lockdown. Yediyurappa, however, lauded Modi for involving the common man in the fight against the virus and uniting the people in expressing solidarity with the corona warriors across the country. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:43:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Ministry of Defense and Israel's leading airline El Al announced Sunday a joint operation to airlift essential medical equipment from China for the fight against the novel coronavirus. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israel Chemicals company also take part in the operation. As part of the operation, 11 El Al aircraft will bring millions of items from China, including surgical masks, medical staff protective suits, respirators and more. The first plane is expected to land in Israel on Monday morning after being loaded with 900,000 masks, 500,000 protective suits and additional medical equipment in Beijing. El Al will operate two flights a day for about a week until the operation is complete. For this purpose, Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft were temporarily converted to carry cargo. According to El Al and Israel's Ministry of Defense, the operation was launched after two weeks of preparations, which included international procurement, diplomatic effort and logistical preparation. (Bloomberg) -- Spains Covid-19 cases surpassed Italy as Europes two main epicenters continue to struggle to curtail the virus, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announcing plans to extend the countrys lockdown until April 25. Spains confirmed cases increased by 7,026 to 124,736 over the past 24 hours, while deaths rose by 809 to 11,744. Total cases are now higher than Italys 124,632, where the country reported the fewest number of new deaths since March 26. In France, the total number of fatalities rose to 7,560 and the U.K. reported its deadliest day yet with an increase of 708 deaths. The virus has crippled Europe at different times with most countries now in some form of lockdown, even as nations like Sweden and the U.K. were more reluctant to take drastic measures earlier. Governments and policy-makers are scrambling to find ways to mitigate the damage with entire economies headed into deep recession and a common approach still elusive. As attention shifts to Spain, Italy has signaled the situation, while still grave, is improving. Angelo Borrelli, the head of the countrys civil protection agency, said the number of patients in intensive care has dropped by 74, the first fall since the country went into a state of emergency. In Spain, a slower pace of fatalities and new cases is also offering some hope that the outbreak may be moving toward a peak. Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Friday that the goal of slowing the epidemic was within reach. The government in Madrid has imposed some of the most restrictive lockdown measures in Europe, shuttering most businesses and forcing people to stay in their homes except to buy groceries and seek healthcare. Containment measures across the continent have cut off border crossings and limited air travel, while countries have announced trillions of euros in aid to support businesses and individuals. Italys ruling parties and the Treasury reached an agreement to free up an additional 200 billion euros ($216 billion) of liquidity for firms, according to daily newspaper La Stampa. It said the moves, part of a new aid decree, will be approved by Monday and will let companies seek bank loans for as much as 25% of their revenue, most of which will be granted by the state. Story continues In Germany the number of coronavirus deaths and confirmed cases climbed further, a day after Robert Koch Institute President Lothar Wieler warned the country might require further intensive-care space. Germany has boosted capacity by more than 40% since the outbreak began. The death rate in Europes largest economy has been well below the levels seen in Italy and Spain, but government officials and healthcare experts insist its too early to ease social distancing rules and transport restrictions. Swedish Question There are signs in turn that the death rate in Sweden is growing faster than elsewhere in Scandinavia, raising pressure on the government to abandon its controversial hands-off approach -- schools, restaurants and cafes remain open -- in tackling Covid-19. The number of Swedish deaths from the virus rose to 373 on Saturday, up 12% from Friday. That brings the rate per million in Scandinavias biggest economy to 36, compared with 29 in Denmark and 9 in Norway, where much tougher lockdowns are in place. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven warned that Sweden may now be facing thousands of deaths, and said the crisis is likely to drag on for months rather than weeks. When, and How, Does the Coronavirus Pandemic End?: QuickTake Apart from imposing lockdowns, several European leaders have moved to institute other controls which in some cases could also consolidate their own holds on power. In Hungary, political parties will lose half of their state funding this year, Gergely Gulyas, the minister in charge of the Prime Ministers office, said in a video briefing. The move comes after Prime Minister Viktor Orban secured the power to rule by decree this week, drawing criticism from European Union members that he staged a power grab under the cover of the Covid-19 crisis. Equipment Tensions Meanwhile another dispute emerged over emergency medical equipment with Madrid accusing Ankara of retaining a shipment of respirators bought by two regional Spanish governments from a Turkish company. Turkey cited the risk of a shortage at home in holding onto the ventilators, Spains Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Spain would insist on reimbursement if the equipment was not released, it added. There was no immediate comment from the Turkish government. It comes after local officials in France and Germany accused unnamed Americans of using unfair means to obtain protective masks. The U.S. embassy in Paris said any suggestion that the federal government was involved in such practices was completely false. (Updates with context and numbers throughout) 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 Congress party on Sunday posed nine questions to the Centre, demanding compensation to the family of those who died after battling with the coronavirus. Stating that the party stands with the government against COVID-19 battle and will also light up lamps and candles, the Congress party said the questions asked are in the interest of the people of the country, not the criticism of the Centre. Raising the issue of lack of personal protection equipment (PPE) kits or the safety equipment for health workers like doctors, nurses, ambulance workers across the country fighting the corona pandemic, the Congress asked how much time would the government take to supply PPE kits in a required quantity. Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev said that 50 doctors and nurses have been infected with corona so far and pictures of doctors wearing raincoats and helmets are emerging on social media. Therefore, the party has demanded the supply of 62 lakh PPE kits, which are needed across the country. Earlier in the day, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi also spoke about the shortage of PPE kits. "There are reports of shortage of safety kits from many places. Our doctors, nursing staff, technicians, scavengers war in the war against corona. We all owe to keep them and their family safe." In addition to the PPE kit, the Congress has asked a total of nine questions regarding the corona testing kit. The Congress has asked that on February 27, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had said that there is going to be a shortage of PPE kits. However, the Central government did not issue any instructions regarding the PPE till March 24. "Why was it delayed? Apart from this, how many agencies have been set up for testing or approval of PPE kits," asked the Congress. Repeating its demand to conduct more COVID-19 tests, the party asked about the numbers of test conducted so far to see if there was an increase. It asked the Centre to make COVID-19 testing free. "For this, the number of agencies approving corona testing kits should be increased. Also, the rules of testing protocols should be flexible," the party suggested. Highlighting that there are fewer ventilators available in the hospital for COVID-19 patients, the party said: "There are only 40,000 ventilators in the country, half of them do not work properly. Technicians are also needed to operate the ventilator. In view of this, what is the government doing to increase the number of ventilators and technicians amidst the corona epidemic?" The Congress also demanded the Central government to compensate families of those who had lost their lives to the infection. "Today at 9 pm, citizens will light 'diya' but the news which came in the morning that around 100 people have died due to corona what about that? Will the government give compensation to them," Dev said.She also told the Central government not to end the lockdown in "haste" and take future steps with proper "planning."The total number of coronavirus cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of these cases, 3030 are active cases, 267 have been cured or discharged, while 77 deaths have been reported so far in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Palliative-care physicians are being advised to prepare for scenarios they never thought possible, like facing patients denied ventilators because there arent enough to go around. I have a lot of difficult discussions with people all the time, said Dr. James Downar, a palliative-care specialist at The Ottawa Hospital. But I have to say, that would be a new one for me. No one has ever operated in a context where thats the kind of thing you have to disclose to somebody and talk to somebody about. This week, an article co-written by Downar in the Canadian Medical Association Journal warned that a surge in coronavirus cases could make such heart-wrenching situations a reality if hospitals are forced into triage protocols that reserve a short supply of ventilators for those with the best chance of survival. The article notes the risk of death from COVID-19 is higher for older patients with chronic illnesses. Some will already have decided they prefer the comfort measures provided by palliative care. Others might face chilling triage scenarios. Other patients who are intubated and receiving mechanical ventilation but are not improving clinically will be extubated, Downar and his colleagues write, using the terms for inserting or removing a ventilation tube. A third group of patients may be denied ventilation because of resource scarcity. Thus, in a viral pandemic, we expect the need for palliative care to increase substantially. Palliative care involves discussing a patients wishes, managing symptoms and supporting families. The care is provided in hospitals, hospices or in family homes. It usually but not always means care at the end of life, especially in hospices. Downars article is essentially a manual for palliative caregivers during a COVID surge. It recommends they stock up on necessary medication, suggests language to use when explaining triage choices, and describes how care can be adapted for patients isolated due to the contagious virus. Any triage system that does not integrate palliative-care principles is unethical, the article states. Patients who are not expected to survive should not be abandoned, but must receive palliative care as a human right. In a phone interview, Downar stressed he and others remain hopeful hospitals can manage the expected increase in patients without resorting to triage. But Italys example, where a flood of COVID-19 victims forced heartbreaking triage in the countrys north, is everyones worst nightmare. Were hoping for the best, obviously, but were not doing our job if we dont have a plan B, said Downar, also head of the palliative care division at the University of Ottawa. COVID-19 has already forced a change in palliative care. On Wednesday, Hospice Palliative Care Ontario, which represents 53 hospices in the province, advised its members to restrict visits to only one family member and always the same one. When the resident is within hours of dying, the hospices medical director can then decide whether two more people are allowed by the bedside, said Rick Firth, president and CEO of HPCO. The visiting restrictions will make processing grief more difficult for many loved ones, but Firth said COVID-19 has left hospices no choice. Honestly, there was some grief expressed by the staff that have to do that, Firth said, because theyve all gone through their own losses too and they know what its like. But the protection of the residents and the staff really have to override those other considerations. Firth said hospices are not accepting infected patients because they dont have the safety or medical equipment to deal with them. So far, only one patient tested positive for the virus after being admitted for end-of-life care due to cancer. One staff hospice member in the province had no symptoms while on the job but tested positive after self-isolating. If COVID becomes widespread, hospices might change the admission policy and start accepting infected patients if theyre dying from something other than COVID-19, said Firth, who has worked in the hospice sector since the late 1990s. But right now, were doing our best to keep the facilities COVID-free for as long as possible, he added. Ontarios hospice system includes about 8,000 people in residential facilities receiving end-of-life care, Firth said. Theyre generally older, typically stay between 15 and 18 days, and almost all of them die in the hospice. About 80 per cent suffer from cancer. HPCO programs care for another 20,000 people in their homes, mostly with volunteers. All of those services are now provided by phone or social media, Firth said. That includes grief and bereavement support, which is given to about 100,000 family members each year. (More than 270,000 Canadians die each year, 90 per cent from chronic illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.) COVID-19 has also placed hospices, which are charities, under severe financial strain. Provincial government funding covers up to 50 per cent of operating costs, Firth said. The rest comes from fundraising events such as galas and bikeathons all of which have been cancelled due to physical distancing directives. They need those dollars to support their clinical care, Firth said, adding he hopes governments will come through with emergency funding. In the meantime, hospices are getting creative. At St. Josephs Hospice in Sarnia, staff push the beds of residents up to ground-floor windows and patio doors so they can see and speak by phone to family gathered outside the building. Last week, we had six family members outside singing Happy Birthday to their loved one, which was really sweet, said Dr. Glen Maddison, the hospices medical director. Maddison also provides palliative care at the Bluewater Health hospital in Sarnia Lambton, an area with 59 confirmed COVID cases, six of which caused death. The hospital has a 40-bed COVID unit, which is two-thirds full, and a 12-bed palliative-care unit, he added. Maddison is confident Bluewater hospital can avoid triage scenarios. Still, he urges Ontario residents to discuss their health-care wishes with their substitute decision maker the person doctors will turn to for consent if a patient is unable to provide it. (By law, a doctor will in most cases first ask a spouse or partner.) Even without triage, a ventilator may not be the best choice for some COVID patients whose chances of surviving a strong bout of the illness are low, Maddison said. People often dont realize how invasive a ventilator is, he added. It not only involves a tube down your throat but one in your bladder and stomach. If you cough and wake up from sedation you may want to pull out the tube from your throat, which then means youll be physically restrained to the bed, Maddison said. If they recover theyre not going to likely be the same person, he added, referring to some older patients. Theyre still going to have breathing problems, they may actually be more confused we know that somebody who has mild dementia will probably have worse dementia. He recalled a COVID patient in his 90s, brought to Bluewater by his son last week. He was desperately short of breath, very low on oxygen, his X-rays looked like a winter blizzard, Maddison said. The son said his dad had already chosen palliative care in such circumstances. Maddison gave him some oxygen and medicine to ease his pain and symptoms. Amazingly enough, the next day he woke up, Maddison added. The man spent the next 48 hours speaking by phone to his children and grandchildren scattered across the country. His condition then worsened and by the fourth day he was dead. We know he felt more peaceful when he left this world, but so did his family. They actually had that final conversation, Maddison said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 05:23:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Saturday called on the Libyan rival parties to end the ongoing armed conflict in the country. "Today marks one year since the forces of Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar launched their offensive to seize Tripoli, Libya's capital," the UNSMIL said in a statement. "What resulted is a needless conflict that shattered the hopes of many Libyans for a peaceful political transition," it added. Over the past year since April 1, 2019, the UNSMIL has documented at least 356 civilian deaths and 329 injuries. Nearly 150,000 people in and around Tripoli have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of the conflict, and about 345,000 civilians remain in frontline areas with an additional 749,000 people estimated to live in areas affected by the clashes. The UNSMIL also estimates that around 893,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The ongoing armed conflict has destroyed homes, hospitals, schools and detention facilities, the statement said. "The influx of foreign fighters and advanced weapon systems into the country continues unabated, and their use on the battlefield has directly led to an intensification of the conflict," it added. The UNSMIL appeals to "all concerned to activate the humanitarian truce immediately and cease all military operations to allow Libyan authorities to respond to the threat of COVID-19." On April 4, 2019, the eastern-based army launched a military campaign in and around Tripoli, attempting to take over the city and overthrow the rival UN-backed government. Despite recent announcements of both parties of accepting international calls for a humanitarian cease-fire, they have been trading accusations for breaching the truce and targeting civilians in Tripoli. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday appealed to the people to unite in the ongoing battle against coronavirus irrespective of caste, region or religion. Addressing the people of the State, he termed as unfortunate the spread of the virus at a religious congregation in New Delhi in an indirect reference to the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin where hundreds of people from across the country were infected. There is no reason to attribute its spread in the State to any particular community. Some from our State went to the religious congregation in Delhi where people from foreign countries also participated. Some of them were infected and coronavirus has spread from there. This is no reason to blame a particular community. It must be seen as an unfortunate incident that happened, he said. Stating that religious congregations are held by religious and spiritual gurus like the Art of Livings Ravi Shankar, Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation, Mata Amritanandamayi, Paul Dhinakaran or John Wesley who have a large following not only in India but also the globe, the Chief Minister observed that such an unfortunate incident could have happened anywhere in a congregation of any other faith. We should not discriminate people as it happened that way and was not premeditated. "We have to put up a united fight as Indians, he emphasised. The Chief Minister repeatedly stressed that it is unfair to see members of one particular community as culprits. Coronavirus does not have discriminate between rich and poor, he pointed out, adding that what we have to show is compassion, not discrimination. The virus is an invisible enemy and we have to fight setting aside differences, he said and urged the people to join the nation in lighting a lamp at 9 pm on Sunday to drive away darkness. We have to join the nation in lighting a lamp at 9 pm as called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show unity as Indians, he appealed. Referring to the frontline warriors, he said they would get full pay for the month. The frontline staff like medical and health, police and sanitation departments would get their full pay without any deferment, he added. No fish, meat markets in Vizag, Eluru today Keeping in view last Sundays experience at meat and fish markets, local authorities in Vizag and Eluru decided to shut down the markets today. Last Sunday, people threw social distancing norms to the wind and jostled with one another to buy meat and fish at the markets and all efforts of the authorities to bring order proved futile. UK Labour Party Names Keir Starmer as New Leader Sputnik News 09:56 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 11:28 GMT 04.04.2020) Former party leader Jeremy Corbyn announced his resignation on 13 December, the day after his party suffered a resounding defeat in the UK general election. Keir Starmer, MP for Holborn and St Pancras, was elected as the new leader of the UK Labour party, the Guardian reported. He replaces Jeremy Corbyn in the post, after beating Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy. Starmer won the support of 56.2% of party members, with Rebecca Long-Bailey coming second with 27.6%, while Lisa Nandy got 16.2% of the vote. The deputy leadership position was won by Angela Rayner who outpaced two other candidates, Dawn Butler and Ian Murray, to come top in the third round, with 52.6% of the vote. "It's the honour and privilege of my life to be elected as leader of the Labour Party. It comes at a moment like no other in our lifetime", Starmer said in a pre-recorded statement. Starmer previously worked as the director of public prosecutions and has most recently been the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. "Under my leadership we will engage constructively with the government, not opposition for opposition's sake. Not scoring party political points or making impossible demands. But with the courage to support where that's the right thing to do", the new Labour leader said. After his election was announced, Starmer apologised for incidents of anti-Semitism in the party. "On behalf of the Labour Party, I am sorry", Starmer said in a statement. "I will tear out this poison by its roots and judge success by the return of Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us". The news comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he would invite leaders from opposition parties in order to take a joint actions against the coronavirus pandemic. "As party leaders, we have a duty to work together at this time of national emergency", Johnson announced. On 13 December, a day after the Labour Party suffered its heaviest defeat since the 1935 in a snap national poll, Jeremy Corbyn, who had been serving as party leader since 2015, announced that he would step down from his post. "I will not lead the party in any future general-election campaign", Corbyn said at that time. He has been serving as a party leader since in 2015, championing more left-wing socialist policies of nationalisation and clearly expressing his opposition to war. Corbyn officially supported remain during the 2016 Brexit referendum but offered only lukewarm support to the EU cause, disappointing many Labour supporters. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coronavirus updates: The Health Ministry in its daily briefing said on Sunday that the total number of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 472 in last 24 hours. The Ministry added that the rise in cases is due to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin. The ministry added that a total of 79 deaths have been reported so far due to novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that there is not evidence of virus being air-borne yet, and it only spreads through droplets. Cases in India are on a steady rise with the cumulative number surpassing 3,300. Currently there are 3,030 active cases in the country and 75 have died from coronavirus. Meanwhile in Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the number of cases have surpassed 400. According to the health ministry's data as of 6pm on Saturday, Delhi had 445 cases, while Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had 490 and 485 respectively. So far, 266 have been cured or discharged in India. Meanwhile, power companies are working tirelessly to ensure that the 9-minute lights out programme at 9pm tonight does not collapse the grid. The government has also drawn an elaborate plan on how to handle the dramatic change in electricity. The Prime Minister had on Friday morning urged Indians to switch off the lights at their homes and light a candle or diya as a gesture to the needs infected by the coronavirus. The power ministry reiterated that only lights are meant to be switched off and not appliances. Also Read: Coronavirus in India: State-wise COVID-19 cases, trends, list of testing facilities Also read: All flu patients in coronavirus hotspots to undergo COVID-19 rapid tests Also read: Coronavirus aviation lockdown to extend till April 30? Air India's move suggests so Follow the live updates on coronavirus in India in the BusinessToday.In blog here: 9.46 pm: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lights lamps at residence At home, 9 pm: lighting diyas for some moments of mindfulness and thinking of our community, even as we work day and night as one nation: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. #COVID19pic.twitter.com/tDTvbiKlpo ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.46 pm: PM Narendra Modi lights a lamp at his residence after switching off all lights #WATCH Delhi: PM Narendra Modi lights a lamp after turning off all lights at his residence. India switched off all the lights for 9 minutes at 9 PM today & just lit a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus as per his appeal. pic.twitter.com/9PVHDlOARw ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.30 pm: Heeraben, mother of PM Modi, lights an earthen lamp Gujarat: Mother of PM Modi, Heeraben, lights an earthen lamp after turning off all lights at her residence. India switched off all the lights for 9 minutes at 9 PM today & just lit a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus as per PM's appeal. pic.twitter.com/qPQqXAB6Jf ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.28 pm: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad lights candles at his residence Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad lights up candles in his house. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/3gShf3LmUZ ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.21 pm: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lights earthen lamps at his residence Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lights up earthen lamps along with his family. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronaviruspic.twitter.com/EB5nFzu9xO ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.21 pm: Mumbai skyline before and after people turn off lights in their homes Skyline in Mumbai before (pic 1) & after (pic 2) the residents turned off the lights of their houses. PM Modi had appealed to India to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, & just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #COVID19pic.twitter.com/KVmQt1Ngqj ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.19 pm: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla lights diyas along with his family Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla lights up earthern lamps along with family. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronaviruspic.twitter.com/cRSaJBnxxj ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.16 pm: WATCH: People in Karnataka switch off lights in their houses and light diyas and flashlights #WATCH Karnataka: People have turned off the lights of their houses in Bengaluru, following the appeal of PM Modi to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light a candle, 'diya' or mobile's flashlight, to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/L4gWRnYA9m ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.15 pm: Home Minister Amit Shah lights diyas at his reisdence Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah lights earthen lamps after turning off all lights at his residence. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronaviruspic.twitter.com/J8HvaGCfCL ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.12 pm: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu turns off lights at his residence and light earthen lamps Vice President Venkaiah Naidu turns off all the lights of his residence & lights earthen lamps. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, & just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #COVID19pic.twitter.com/6NEO4H683i ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.12 pm: PM Modi's blackout call: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan lights earthen lamps Delhi: Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan lights an earthen lamp, to show support for the call by PM Modi to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light candles, 'diyas' or mobile's flashlight, to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/4QhZVogrq5 ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.11 pm: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar turns off lights at his residence and lights diyas West Bengal: Guv Jagdeep Dhankhar turns off all the lights of his residence & lights earthen lamps. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, & just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #COVID19pic.twitter.com/hoA3aHiKTM ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.10 pm: Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao lights candles during 9-minute blackout Telanagana: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao light up a candle following the call of PM Modi to switch off all the lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or mobile's flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/fPFN20vciF ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.09 pm: IN PICTURES: Visuals of coronavirus blackout from Gujarat Gujarat: People have turned off the lights of their houses&lighted earthen lamps in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Modi had requested everyone to switch off all lights of their houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light candles or 'diyas', to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/XcFcR9Y5Q3 ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.08 pm: People in Tamil Nadu arrange diyas in shape of map of India Tamil Nadu: People form the map of India, by lighting earthen lamps in Chennai, following the call of PM Modi to switch off all the lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or mobile's flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/IK3pUOJ61o ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.06 pm: UP CM Yogi Aadityanath lights diyas at his residence Lucknow: UP CM Yogi Adityanath lights earthen lamps to form an 'Om', at his residence. PM Modi had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/QXrj2oTsVu ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 5, 2020 8.45 pm: People begin preparations in response to PM Modi's lights out call 8.19 pm: Coronavirus lights out: No load shedding, essential services to continue as usual, clarifies Power Ministry Power Ministry has clarified that only lights at homes will have to be voluntarily shut off for 9 minutes starting at 9:00 PM on Sunday, and not all appliances. In a list of FAQs on the lights out, the ministry further added that there are no plans for load shedding. 8.19 pm: Do not switch off main switch, urges KPDCL before April 5 light out Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation (KPDCL) has urged its customers to not switch off electricity from the main switch. Street lights and lights in all essential services such as hospitals, police stations, public utilities, etc will remain on during this period, the power discom stated. 7.51 pm: IN PICTURES: Indian Navy distributes food packets among the needy during coronavirus lockdown Maharashtra: Indian Navy distributed food packets to the needy in Mumbai today, amid #CoronavirusLockdownpic.twitter.com/wQY6qYu5FV ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 7.50 pm: Foreign missions in India show enthusiasm towards April 5 blackout Many foreign missions in India have indicated that they will participate in the lights off call by PM Narendra Modi to express solidarity. They had also participated last time when the Prime Minister had called for people to clap in appreciation of frontline workers on March 23. 7.38 pm: Coronavirus in Delhi: 58 new cases emerge in 24 hours; tally at 503 Number of coronavirus cases has reached 503 today in national capial Delhi. Out of this, 320 cases have been traced back to Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz. In the last 24 hours, 58 new cases have been reported, of which 19 are from the Nizamuddin event. One COVID-19 patient has died in the past 24 hours. 7.33 pm: 'Big Brother watching,' tweets MP Mahua Moitra before April 5 coronavirus blackout Caution- Big Brother Watching! MHRD asks all schools to report by 9am 6/4 if all students lit candles/ Diyas at 9pm on 5/4. Forms been sent by schools to parents to file & report. Teachers will compile info & pass on to MHRD. #ItsAPandemicNotDiwalipic.twitter.com/R6zUTPERr6 Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 5, 2020 7.15 pm: Coronavirus in India: Death toll rises to 83; confirmed cases at 3,577 According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 83 patients have lost their lives to novel coronavirus till 6:00 pm on April 5. The number of confirmed cases is at 3,577, out of which 3,219 are still active, whereas 274 have been cured and discharged, and 1 has migrated 6.36 pm: Coronavirus Updates: 7 new cases in Karnataka; 5 attended Nizamuddin Markaz event Karnataka registered 7 new coronavirus cases between 5PM on April 4 and 5PM on April 5. Out of these, 2 people had returned to Bengaluru from Dubai on March 22, whereas 4 from Belagavi and 1 from Ballari had attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. State has confirmed 151 COVID-19 cases, including 4 deaths and 12 discharges. 6.09 pm: Finance Ministry, PSB employees donate Rs 430.13 crore to PM CARES Fund Officers and staff of Ministry of Finance, including the officials of financial institutions and state-run banks and enterprises under the Ministry, have come forward to donate a day's salary to PM CARES Fund. Some institutions are also contributing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. The total contribution amounts to Rs 430.13 crore. 6.01 pm: Section 144 in Noida not be extended till April 30 Noida administration has revised its earlier order to impose Section 144 in the district. Prohibitory orders will remain in force in Noida till April 14, an order by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dwivedi said. Violaters will be booked under Section 188 of IPC. 5.42 pm: School, colleges to reopen after coronavirus status review on April 14, says HRD Minister Government will decide on reopening educational institutes after reviewing the coronavirus situation on April 14, said Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. He assured that students would see no academic loss if schools and colleges remain closed after April 14. 5.35 pm: Health Ministry to receive rapid anti-body test kits by Wednesday Rapid anti-body test kits will be recieved by Wednesday, informed Joint Health Secretary Lav Agarwal. These kit are to be used used in areas with influenza-like illnesses and severe and acute respiratory illnesses. These patients cluster spread areas will be expeditiously checked for COVID-19 spread, Agarwal added. 5.28 pm: Coronavirus upddate: Only dairy, medicine shops to remain open in Bhopal Amending the Section 144 order imposed on March 30, Bhopal administration has allowed only dairy and medicine shops to open. Food districbution system by the municipal corporation and authorised home delivery services have been allowed to operate. This order will come into effect from midnight today, till further orders. 5.06 pm: Himachal Pradesh coronavirus cases: CM issues helpline numbers to get medicine Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister's Office on Sunday issued helpline numbers to help people get medicines. "People requiring any particular medicine available in other parts of state or even outside the state could register requirement for the medicine on helpline numbers 0177-2626076 & 0177-2626077 or toll-free no. 1070, " said the CM's office. 4.54 pm: Haryana coronavirus news The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) band in Gurugram on Sunday performed a special song to educate citizens about the preventions and risks related to novel coronavirus. Watch vide here. #WATCH Haryana: Central Reserve Police Force band in Gurugram today performed a special song informing citizens about the precautions and risks related to #COVID19. (Source-CRPF) pic.twitter.com/zZ9xXrwCgv - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 4.47 pm: Uttarakhand coronavirus news 128 FIRs registered, 292 persons arrested on Sunday, over charges of violating the nationwide lockdown, says Media Cell of Uttarakhand Police. 4.35 pm: Coronavirus cases in India: Doubling rate of COVID-19 cases would have been slower if not for Tablighi Jamaat cases, says Health Ministry Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary Health Ministry said on Sunday that the doubling rate of novel coronavirus cases is at 4.1 days. But, if the additional cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat event, had not taken place, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days. Doubling rate is how many days the number of novel coronavirus cases gets double. 4.24 pm: Coronavirus news: Railways helping in transport of essentials: Home Ministry 4.23 pm: Coronavirus count in India: India is also importing PPEs, says Health Ministry 4.22 pm: Coronavirus update: No bar on inter-state cargo movement: Home Ministry 4.21 pm: Coronavius in India: Monitoring costs of essentials across India: Home Ministry 4.20 pm: Coronavirus latest news: Rapid tests in hotspots nad susceptible areas, says Health Ministry 4.19 pm: Coronavirus news India: Rapid antibody test kits by Wednesday: ICMR 4.18 pm: Coronavirus update: COVID-19 spreading only through droplets, says ICMR 4.17 pm: Coronavirus in India: No evidence of virus being air-borne yet, says Dr Raan Gangakhedkar, Deputy Director, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 4.16 pm: Coronavirus: 12.50 lakh labourers getting food in shelters, says Home Ministry 4.16 pm: Coronavirus latest news: Over 13 lakh workers getting food and shelter, Home Ministry 4.15 pm: Coronavirus news:28,000 relief camps set up across states: Home Ministry 4.14 pm: Coronavirus in India: Food, medicines and supplies being sent across India, says Punya Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Home Ministry 4.12 pm: Coronavirus in India today: Social distancingand lockdown key COVID-19 medicines, says Health Ministry 4.11 pm: Coronavirus total cases in India: Ensuring smooth harvest for farmers: Health Ministry 4.10 pm: Cases of coronavirus in India: Labs have to report COVID-19 cases to ICMR, says Health Ministry 4.10 pm: Coronavirus news India: Ensuring adequate supply of oxygen cylinders: Health Ministry 4.09 pm: PM Modi took stock of quarantine units, says Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry 4.08 pm: Coronavirus update in India: Telemedicine and survey for most susceptible: Health Ministry 4.07 pm: Coronavirus latest news: 472 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours: Health Ministry 4.05 pm: Coronavirus update: Covid-19 cases doubled due to Markaz event, says Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry 4.06 pm: Coronavirus live update: 79 deaths due to COVID-19, says Health Ministry 4.02 pm: Coronavirus in India: Health Ministry begins daily briefing on COVID-19 outbreak 3.56 pm: Odisha coronavirus news: 2 more COVID-19 positive cases in Bhubaneshwar Two more people were tested positive for novel coronavirus in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha on Sunday. While, one of the patients is a 70-year-old resident of Kapila Prasad Housing Board Colony Phase II who has a travel history to Australia, the other is a 29-year-old man from Bomikhal. 3.43 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news: COVID-19 death toll rises to 3 in Pune on Sunday Three novel coronavirus infected patients died in Pune on Sunday. The dead have been identified as a 60-year-old from Yerwada, a 50-yeear-old from Bhavani Peth and a 69-year old from Gultekdi. 3.35 PM: Delhi coronavirus news Tihar Jail authorities have released 700 undertrial inmates on interim bail (emergency parole) for eight weeks. This is in addition to the 500 prisoners who are already out on furlough. 3:25 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the count of cases in the state has reached 690. He added that 55 new cases have been identified. So far, 56 people have been cured and discharged. 3:20 pm: Evnironment ministry employees donate a day's salary Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said that all personnel at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and its 13 related offices will contribute one day's salary amounting to Rs 1.14 crore to PM-CARES. "All officers & staff of MOEFCC and its 13 Attached/Subordinate/Autonomous office pledged to contribute one day's salary around Rs 1.14 cr to PM CARES Fund launched by PM Narendra Modi to support govt effort to fight COVID-19 pandemic," Prakash Javadekar tweeted. 3:14 pm: Haryana coronavirus news The Haryana government said that so far 76 cases have been confirmed in the state. Out of that, four were from Srilanka and one was from Nepal. There are people from other states also who have been reported positive in Haryana. One death has been reported in Ambala. 3:10 pm: Himachal Pradesh coronavirus news The number of coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh has increased to 13. Out of the affected, six had attended Tablighi Jamat in Delhi. The Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur appealed to the attendees of the Nizamuddin event to disclose their identities by 5pm today. He said that the government will be forced to take action against them if they do not disclose. 2:55 pm: 43,000 Indian Bank employees donate State-owned Indian Bank said 43,000 employees have voluntarily donated their one day's salary, amounting to Rs 8.10 crore, towards the PM-CARES Fund. "The bank's 43,000 employees have shown their commitment to the nation by voluntarily contributing one day's salary totalling to Rs 8.10 crore to the PM-CARES Fund towards control of COVID-19 in the country," according to a statement. 2:50 pm: IRDAI gives another 30 day breather Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has given 30 additional days to pay the life insurance premium. Additional grade period has been provided to the policyholders whose life insurance policies' premiums fall due in March and April 2020. The policyholders who are liable to pay in March now have a total of 60 days. 2:45 pm: Indore coronavirus news The number of coronavirus cases in Indore has reached 122 after 9 more cases were found positive. A 50-year-old man died of COVID-19, leading the death toll to 8, said Indore Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Praveen Jadia. 2:41 pm: Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat takes stock of the situation Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat has visited Delhi government's coronavirus Camp at Narela. He interacted with doctors, military medical team as well as volunteers. He also assured the teams of all assistance 2:38 pm: PM Modi talks to Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil The Prime Minister spoke to two former Presidents -- Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee and discussed the coronavirus situation in the country. He also spoke to Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekar Rao, MK Stalin and Parkash Singh Badal. 2.35 pm: Karnataka coronavirus news Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday took to Twitter appealing to people the state not to come out of their houses unnecessarily and help authorities in breaking the chain of COVID-19 by staying at home. "Let us all show the collective responsibility of preventing spread of #Covid19," he tweeted. APPEAL TO PEOPLE OF KARNATAKA We have seen a sharp rise in the number of #Covid19 positive cases in the last few days all over. The idea behind lockdown was to stay home, stay safe and break the chain. 1/3 - CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) April 5, 2020 2.28 pm: Punjab coronavirus news A 42-year-old resident of Jawaharpur village in Punjab's Mohali district has tested positive for novel coronavirus. The man has been shifted to Sector-32 hospital. 2.23 pm: Assam coronavirus news Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the Goalpara Civil Hospital on Sunday to evaluate the preparedness at the facility. . "The 200-bed Civil Hospital at Goalpara is lifeline for people here," he tweeted. #IndiaFightsCorona The 200-bed Civil Hospital at Goalpara is lifeline for people here. To check preparedness on #Covid19 and also enquire about 3 positive patients, I visited the hospital today. Met doctors / staff to express our gratitude. Requested them to remain vigilant. pic.twitter.com/prmNv2NTa8 - Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) April 5, 2020 2.15 pm: Coronavirus in India: Ghaziabad police arrests 10 Indonesians allegedly hiding in a madrasa Ghaziabad police (Uttar Pradesh) on Sunday arrested 10 Indonesians who were allegedly hiding inside a madrasa. All of these individuals have been sent for medical examination. Further investigation into the matter is underway. 2.09 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news: CM Yogi Adityanath Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that the lockdown to prevent the further spread of novel coronavirus will end on April 15, PTI reported. 1.58 pm: Punjab coronavirus news A 44-year-old woman was tested positive for COVID-19 in Punjab's Barnala on Sunday. The woman has no apparent travel history and is a resident of Sekha Road. She has been shifted to an isolation ward. BREAKING NEWS: 44-year old woman tests positive in Barnala. Shifted to hospital isolation. No apparent travel history. Contact tracing commenced. Reported to be otherwise in good state of health. Resident of Gali. No. 4, Sekha Road, Barnala. Locality being "contained". - KBS Sidhu, IAS, Spl. Chief Secretary, Punjab. (@kbssidhu1961) April 5, 2020 1.47 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh district magistrate on Sunday issued an order instructing educational institutions not to charge any fee from students during the lockdown period. 1.42 pm: Coronavirus in India: Varanasi reports first COVID-19 death Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday reported its first novel coronavirus-related death. The district magistrate in a statement said that the test reports of a patient from Gangapur who passed away recently have come back positive for COVID-19. 1.34 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news: Section 144 extended in Gautam Buddh Nagar till April 30 Authorities extended Section 144 of the CrPC in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar till April 30. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dwivedi issued the order in this regard which restricts organisation of any demonstrations or other assemblies. 1.24 pm: Punjab coronavirus news: State health department sets up 'Flu Corners' in government hospitals The Punjab government's health department has come up with separate 'Flu Corners' in state-run hospitals. These corners are exclusively built for treating patients experiencing cough, cold and fever. #COVID_19 : Health Department, Punjab is treating patients with cough, cold and fever at separate 'Flu Corner' in the Government hospitals. pic.twitter.com/rmtwU6ZJCp - Government of Punjab (@PunjabGovtIndia) April 5, 2020 1.14 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus cases Around 25 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Maharashtra on Sunday. Out of these 25 cases, Pune reported 17 cases, Pimpri-Chindhwad four cases, Ahmednagar three and Aurangabad the remaining two cases. With these, the total number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the state stands at 661. 1.10 pm: Goa coronavirus cases: State govt launches COVID-19 mobile app to track patients in quarantine Following the model of the central government's Aarogya Setu, Mizoram government's Mcovid-19, Punjab government's Cova Punjab and Maharashtra government's Mahakavach, the Goa government on Sunday launched the COVID Locator mobile app. Goa's Health Minister Vishwajit Rane took to Twitter to announce the app. "A GPS based location tracker, that will help in tracking suspected and asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus when they leave their quarantine zone," he tweeted. 1.05 pm: Coronavirus live update: Health workers attacked in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi There are reports of locals in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi attacking the health workers. The incident happened in Kovilpatti when the health workers were surveying houses to check for any novel coronavirus cases. 1.00 pm: Coronavirus in India: 21 policemen asked to self-isolate in Puducherry Over 21 cops in Puducherry have been asked to self-isolate themselves after it was discovered that they are the residents of areas affected by novel coronavirus in the union territory. Presently, Puducherry has four confirmed COVID-19 cases with three in Ariankuppam and one in Thirubhuvanai. 12.50 pm: Coronavirus news: 8 Stopped from boarding flight to Malaysia at IGI airport Around eight people were stopped from boarding a special flight to Malaysia by immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi on Sunday. These individuals are reportedly could be handed over to the health department. 12.40 pm: Tamil Nadu coronavirus news: State health minister inspects general hospitals Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr. C Vijayabaskar on Sunday visited the general hospitals of Ilupur, Annavasal and Viralimalai. #SundayMorning: Visited & checked the preparedness of Ilupur GH & #Annavasal GH,#Viralimalai GH. Interacted with the Drs, nurses, hospital workers and appreciated their valuable services in this difficult times. Ensured all supplies are in place. #TN_Together_AgainstCorona#CVBpic.twitter.com/hTzeAmJukM - Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) April 5, 2020 12.33 pm: Maharashtra Coronavirus news The death toll in Maharashtra's Pune district has climbed to four on Sunday as a 52-year-old COVID-19 patient died at the Sassoon hospital. This is the second death in Pune on Sunday due to the novel coronavirus. A 52-year-old COVID19 patient passes away at Pune's Sassoon Hospital. This is the second death reported in Pune today taking the death toll in Pune district to 4: Pune Health officials. #Maharashtra - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 12.23 pm: Delhi coronavirus news: Police issues Shab-e-Barat advisory; urges people to stay at home The Delhi Police issued an advisory on Sunday appealing to citizens to stay at home even during the sacred night of Shab-e-Barat on April 8 and April 9. Taking to Twitter the police said, "Don't misuse it by coming out on bikes and create chaos on the streets of Delhi." 12.13 pm: Coronavirus live update: PM Modi reminds the nation about "9pm9minute" Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Sunday to remind the citizens about the initiative to switch off the lights of their houses for nine minuts at 9 pm on Sunday. 12.08 pm: Andhra Pradesh coronavirus news Andhra Pradesh on Sunday reported around 34 fresh novel coronavirus cases. The cases emerged between 9 pm on Saturday and 9 am on Sunday morning. Out of these cases, 23 were reported from Kurnool. 12.00 pm: Delhi Coronavirus news: Two nursing officers test COVID-19 positive Two nursing officers at Delhi State Cancer Institute were tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday morning. Earlier, four staffers at the hospital, including a doctor also tested positive for novel coronavirus. 11.56 am: Coronavirus: India COVID-19 tracker India Coronavirus Tracker: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is teh state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. 11.48 am: Maharashtra coronavirus news: Latest updates on COVID-19 cases, death in the state Maharashtra updates on coronavirus:- Total new cases in Maharashtra in last 24 hours: 145 Total deaths in state in last 24 hours: 6 Total deaths due to coronavirus in Maharashtra: 32 Total cases in Maharashtra: 635 Total cases in Mumbai: 377 Total deaths in Mumbai till now: 22 4 deaths in Mumbai in last 24 hours. Nizamuddin connection- Maharashtra got a list of 1,225 people out of which 1,033 people have already been traced. Meanwhile, the hunt is on for others with the help of police and other agencies. Out of the total, 738 people are kept under quarantine. Seven people with the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin have been found COVID-19 positive. Out of these, two are from Pune, two from Pimpri Chinchwad, two from Ahmednagar and one from Hingoli. 11.36 am: Coronavirus global news: US will need 32,000 ventilators by COVID-19 peak in mid-April University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has estimated that the country will need 32,000 ventilators by the peak in mid-April, and the government only has around 10,000 stockpiled, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients are expected to flood hospitals across the country in the coming weeks, with the medical staff grappling for more equipment to keep the patients alive. New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) has said that his state needs 30,000 ventilators alone. 11.25 am: Himachal Pradesh coronavirus news Himachal Pradesh on Saturday recorded nine new COVID-19 cases taking the total toll to 15 in the state. The news cases reported on Saturday also included four Tablighi Jamaatis from Baddi, five others tested positive are Delhi residents who are also staying in Baddi. 11.22 am: Coronavirus: Top WHO official asks countries to include services to end domestic violence as an essential service Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the increasing reports of domestic violence are being reported since the novel coronavirus outbreak began. Taking to Twitter, he urged the countries to include services to end domestic violence as an essential service. "Sadly, there are reports from of an increase in domestic violence since the #COVID19 outbreak began. We call on countries to include services to #EndViolence as an essential service that must continue during the response. There is never any excuse for violence," he tweeted. Sadly, there are reports from of an increase in domestic violence since the #COVID19 outbreak began. We call on countries to include services to #EndViolence as an essential service that must continue during the response. There is never any excuse for violence. pic.twitter.com/Z4MQN0JwRf - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 4, 2020 11.15 am: Punjab coronavirus news The Punjab government has taken the decision to seize the passports of people hiding their travel history as the number of novel coronavirus cases climbed to 66 in the state. Nine new COVID-19 cases each were reported from Amritsar and Mohali and one each from Jalandhar, Faridkot and Patankot on Sunday. 11.10 am: COVID-19 news update Except for the Chief Medical Officer of the CRPF who tested positive for novel coronavirus and is undergoing treatment, none in his contact chain have shown any positive sign, However, CRPF DG AP Maheshwari has advised all concerned officers to restrict their movement and work from home to break the chain, if any. He also took to Twitter on Sunday to announce the same. GreetingsAs a precautionary measure I have completely restricted my movement being part of my responsibility to break the chain,and working from home, till a clarity on health check up of concerned officials emerges. @PMOIndia@HMOIndia - Anand Prakash Maheshwari (@DrAPMaheshwari) April 5, 2020 11.05 am: Gujarat coronavirus cases Gujarat on Sunday reported 11 death cases and 122 confirmed cases due to novel coronavirus. 10 new cases were recorded in Ahmedabad. Following the city wise data: - Ahmedabad: 53 Surat 15 Gandhinagar: 13 Rajkot: 10 Vadodara:10 Bhavnagar: 11 Porbandar: 03 GirSomnath: 02 PanchMahal/Mehsana/Kutch/Patan/Chhota Udepur: 01 10.55 am: Chhattisgarh coronavirus news Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo said on Sunday that three more novel coronavirus patients have been cured and have fully recovered from the virus. With this 7 out of 10 patients have recovered so far, he added. 3 more COVID19 patients have been cured and have fully recovered; 7 out of total 10 patients have recovered so far: Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo (file pic) pic.twitter.com/frhscPEcPT - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 10.49 am: COVID-19 news update: Punjab's chief secretary shares details of Tablighi Jamaat cases Punjab's Special Chief Secretary, KBS Sidhu on Sunday shared latest updates on Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin. Total Tablighi Jamaat: 309 Traced: 241 Being Traced: 68 Of 241 persons traced, samples collected: 180 Positive: 6 (2 Mohali, 3 Mansa, 1 Ludhiana) Negative: 92 Results awaited: 82 Official Perception: Situation is better than originally apprehended 9.41 am: Maharashtra coroanvirus news Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country with 490 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, according the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website. Meanwhile, 42 people have been cured of the virus while the death toll stands at 24 10.32 am: Coronavirus news: Not enough PPE for healthcare workers, testing kits for people, tweets Akhilesh Yadav Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter on Sunday to say that there are not enough testing kits for people and Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workersnot enough meals to feed the poor people. Not enough testing kits for people. Not enough Personal Protective Equipment for health care workers. Not enough meals to feed the poor. These are the real challenges today. - Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) April 5, 2020 10.25 am: J&K coronavirus news: NGO provides free medicines and health check-up NGO Ummeed Welfare Society is providing free medicines and health check-up to labourers in Poonch amid the nationwide lockdown. Jammu & Kashmir: NGO Ummeed Welfare Society provides medicines & health check-up free of cost to labourers in Poonch amid #CoronavirusLockdown. pic.twitter.com/Mtq4xrbCKS - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 10.15 am: Coronavirus: South African Muslim cleric dies after attending Nizamuddin event A South African Muslim cleric who had recently returned from India after attending the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month, died after contracting COVID-19. 10.07 am: Rajasthan coronavirus cases: 1 death, 6 new COVID-19 cases reported A novel coronavirus patient passed away in Rajasthan on Sunday. A total of six new cases have been reported on the same day taking the total tally in the state to 210. 9.57 am: Tamil Nadu coronavirus cases Death toll in Tamil Nadu due to COVID-19 rose to five on Sunday with the death of a 71-year-old man who died on April 2 at Ramnathapuram district after testing positive for novel coronavirus. Another 60-year-old man also positive tested positive for the deadly virus and passed away at Stanley medical college hospital at Chennai. 9:40 am: PM Modi expresses grief at loss of life in Spain PM Modi spoke to Spanish President Pedro Sanchez and expressed grief on the deaths due to coronavirus in the country. Spoke on phone to President of the Government of Spain, H.E. Pedro Sanchez. Conveyed my deepest condolences for the tragic loss of life in Spain. We agreed to collaborate in fighting the pandemic. @sanchezcastejon Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 4, 2020 9:30 am: Coronavirus good news: Quality of Ganga river improves The quality of River Ganga has improved in Kanpur, UP as industries shut shop due to the nationwide lockdown. An improvement of 40-50 per cent has been observed. #WATCH Water quality of River Ganga in Kanpur improves as industries are shut due to #Coronaviruslockdown. As per Dr PK Mishra, Professor at Chemical Engineering&Technology, IIT-BHU,Varanasi, there has been 40-50% improvement in quality of water in Ganga pic.twitter.com/9uYInk01ji ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 5, 2020 9:20 am: Govt seeks india Inc's help to fight COVID-19 Government is roping in industry leaders such as Anand Mahindra and N Chandrasekaran to help in developing a technology platform to fight coronavirus. The leaders will be part of a panel that will also look into ways on improving the Arogya Setu app. They would also look in privacy concerns. Principal Scientific Advisor K VijayRaghavan, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman RS Sharma, Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Sawhney and Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash are also likely to be part of the panel. 9:11 am: Coronavirus in UP: More Tabighi connections emerge In Lucknow, the Cantonment area has been sealed after 12 Tablighi Jamaat returnees in Sadar Bazar area tested positive. The area has been sealed for 48 hours and only Quick Response Teams and medical teams will be allowed. Meanwhile in Ghaziabad, 10 Indonesians including five women, who attended the Nizamuddin even in Delhi have been placed under quarantine. They have also been booked under Section 188, Section 269, Secttion 270 of IPC -- malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life. 9:05 am: Coronavirus in India: Govt turns to self-help groups for help More than 132 lakh face masks have already been produced by members of SHGs under the Ministry of Rural Development's National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), a rural development ministry press release said. Over the last 10 days, members of 14,522 SHGs in 24 states covering 399 districts of the country are actively involved in face mask production, it said. 9:00 am: Coronavirus good news: Karachi applauds Air India Air India was applauded by Karachi for their valiant efforts. The airline has been conduction special flights with relief material and evacuees. As a flight to Frankfurt entered Karachi air space, they were greeted by the Karachi traffic control. "Assalaam Alaikum! This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the senior captain said. Once they affirmed, the Pakistani ATC said, "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" 8:50 am: What are the authorities doing to ensure stable electricity during 9pm lights-out event? Power System Operation Corp Ltd - the agency responsible for managing the grid - has mapped all India lighting load and estimated such demand at 12-13 gigawatts (out of a total consumption of 125-126 GW). This reduction in load would happen in 2-4 minutes and recover nine minutes later, within again, 2-4 minutes. This sharp reduction in load and recovery will need to be handled through hydro and gas generators that require the least amount of time for ramp-up. All regional entities have been advised to maintain their interchange with the grid as per schedule. Distribution companies have been advised to avoid any feeder switching operation from 20:00 to 22:00 hrs. 8:45 am: Light-a-candle event announced by PM Modi tonight PM Modi asked indians to light a candle tonight at 9pm as a show of support for the coronavirus-infected in the lower strata of the society. If you are wondering how the power companies will deal with the fluctuation in electricity that is likely to take place once the country switches off its lights and switches it back on in 9 minutes, here's how it will work: Electrical appliances such as AC, fans, TVs, refrigerators are not supposed to be switched off and only household lights are to be switched off. Lights in all essential services, including hospitals, police stations and manufacturing facilities as well as street lights are not to be switched off. This will ensure sizeable household demand continues irrespective of lights-out. 8:35 am: Coronavirus in India: Tablighi a hotspot Officials said atht 22,000 people linked to the Tablighi Jamat congregation have been quarantined. They added that at least 1,023 confirmed cases have been linked to the Nizamuddin event. The Tablighi-linked infections spread across 17 states and around 30 per cent of them are from "one particular place" where, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Luv Agarwal says that they could not "understand or manage". 8:30 am: Coronavirus in Assam: Police deploys drones Assam Police has deployed drones to monitor the lockdown in the state. The police has arrested 75 people and seized around 2,000 vehicles that were found violating the restrictions. Takashi Kinoshita is one of the five Japanese chefs who offered about 100 meals to frontline hospital workers in the French city of Dijon Asparagus soup, cheesy profiteroles and fluffy chocolate mousse were on the menu Sunday as five Japanese chefs showed culinary gratitude to hospital workers treating coronavirus patients in the French city of Dijon. "It's a way of saying 'arigato', thanks," said Takashi Kinoshita, chef at Chateau de Courban, a Michelin-starred eatery around two hours' drive from Paris. "In Japan, when there is a natural or health-related catastrophe we look to see what we can do. One must always think of others," said Kinoshita, whose establishment closed its doors in mid-March as France went into a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The chef kicked off the movement last week, offering about 100 meals to frontline hospital workers. "But since then, my Japanese chef friends have called me and joined in. Each prepares his own dishes," Kinoshita told AFP. For Sunday's offering, Tomofumi Uchimura from Dijon's Stephane Derbord restaurant prepared asparagus soup and poached egg in pine nut oil. Keiko Kimura, from the Michelin-starred L'Asperule also in Dijon, and Keishi Sugimura, from Beaune's one-starred Benaton, made a dish of Pinot Noir-marinated braised chuck steak. For appetisers there were Kinoshita creations in the form of gougeres a l'epoisses -- profiteroles made from soft, creamy, and famously stinky cow's milk cheese from the Burgundy region -- as well as savoury macaroons with black currant mustard. And for dessert, Kinoshita and Sae Hasegawa, head patissier at Chateau de Courban, prepared a delicate chocolate mousse and pear-and-Philippine lime crumble. The Japanese quintet cooked up their creations entirely with donations from restaurants and producers. "We will continue," Kinosita said. "Next week we will deliver to the Beaune Hospital and then the one in Troyes." Sunday's banquet was served in a parking lot outside the university hospital in Dijon at a safe distance from the main building as "you have to respect the rules" of social distancing during lockdown, Kinoshita noted. The chef said he had received "a number of messages" of gratitude from hospital workers treating people sickened by the virus that has left more than 7,500 people dead in France to date. "They say thanks, and that it gives them strength" to keep going, he said. Russia has paused the evacuation of tens of thousands of its citizens stuck overseas due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused many countries to ban international commercial flights in their battle to contain the spread of the disease. Russia on April 4 canceled all flights to return citizens from abroad to prevent the import of the virus, local media reported. However, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said later that day that the government was only taking a pause to better plan their return. She said the government would create a new timetable of flights for citizens by April 6, but gave no date for when all citizens seeking to return would be flown back. Golikova said the temporary halt of flights was necessary for a clear understanding" of who the citizens are, how many there are, and what their Russian destination is, she said. Russias Foreign Ministry has said that there are more than 30,000 Russian citizens currently abroad while Golikova said about 26,000 are seeking to be evacuated. However, she said the government has not been able to identify half of the citizens seeking to return. Furthermore, she also said the government wants to fly as many people as possible directly to their home city because the nation's international airports don't have enough space to keep so many passengers under observation. All passengers will be asked to quarantine themselves at home for 14 days, she said. About two-thirds of Russian citizens asking to be evacuated are based in Thailand, which recently announced onerous requirements for foreigners to legally extend their stay. Thailand is a popular destination for Russians, many of whom spend winters in the Southeast Asian country. Russians seeking to return home are required to fill out an online form and wait for the government to give them a return flight date. The government has given the Foreign Ministry 500 million rubles ($6.25 million) to help passengers stranded. The ministry will pay a daily allowance for the days citizens are stuck in other countries starting from the day of their originally booked return flight until the day of their evacuation. The ministry will pay adults 2,400 rubles ($30) per day while children under 14 will receive 1,600 ($20). Reporting by RBC, Kommersant, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta Saturday, April 4, 2020 Want a way to cope with The Covid times were in? Heres an idea. Stop expecting so much. Stop trying so hard. I stepped into the only bathtub our family has right now this morning. I soon realized that there was scum on the bottom, my daughters hair on the rim, and a lightning bug perched on the wall. The water was already spraying, and I didnt want to leave the tub. The tub fills with water even during a shower because we have aging, perpetually clogged pipes in this 55-year-old home. Ive been trying to find a way to cope with the covid times were in since January. And failed. I felt a pang of remorse that I didnt get the bathrooms renovated before this virus hit. I knew it had to be done, and instead I traveled to book events. I told myself I had to work, and renovating three bathrooms was another part-time job. Was work truly that important? Standing in that shower, I was regretting every moment not spent cleaning, sanitizing, renovating over the last five years. I looked forward to my kids going off to university, carving out their own lives. My daughter is still a junior in college, doing home study, while her expensive campus apartment lies dormant in Philadelphia, the city of independence, crime, and now, ringing with an empty silence. My son has a job waiting for him in China that he cant get to. He got the contract the week the virus became global news. I reached outside the shower for a tissue to pick up my daughters hair. Id toss it when I got out of the shower. For some reason, I smelled mildew, even though the tubs supposedly been washed. I inspected the bug, a sleeping harmless fire fly. I love them. I thought about getting out of the shower to free him to the outside, a place that has become as dangerous to us humans as this shower stall was to him. Instead, I hurried. I scrubbed my body rapidly, wanting to get the hair, the scum, the bug tended to. I started to dream up ways to use the second shower even though weve caulked it into submission too many times, even though I knew it would leak into the kitchen. A bucket over the drain? No, what a ridiculous idea. I told myself to be grateful for our three toilets and four sinks. I told myself to stop being so spoiled about a dirty shower when other people dont even have a bathroom. We have a big, four-bedroom with master suite second floor. I told myself to stop griping. Instead I envisioned a dream home, with huge bathrooms for each of four of us. Just in case my kids dont get or keep jobs in this bug gig economy. Just in case the rest of my life will be spent in the same house as my adult kids. I started to plan my daughters 21st birthday, which will be without her friends in mid-April, which Im sad about, and without 21 shots, which Im relieved about. I noticed shed left the cap off of a bottle on the sink. Its her designated sink, but it still irked me. The ball of emotion that a mother who no one listens to wrapped around my throat like an anaconda. I have two 20-somethings in the house who only clean up after themselves if asked. Sometimes not even when theyre asked. Its one reason I wanted them out, in their own apartments, living their own lives. Its tough cleaning up after four adults (though my husband does wash the dishes and the laundry) alone in my 60s. I threw my back out mopping this very bathroom floor last weekend. I reached for the shampoo. Its got a wonderful lavender scent. I was looking forward to this part of the shower. It would get me out of my negativity and into gratitude. Thats when I noticed the lightning bug isnt on the wall any more. I looked around on every wall of the tiny bathroom. I didnt have my glasses on, and everything was a blur. I sighed and wondered where it flew, glad it escaped drowning. I massaged the shampoo into my hair, looking down so it wouldnt get in my eyes. There was the lightning bug, down in the tub water scum. The shower spray must have hit it, and it was struggling in the water. I reached down and tried to scoop it out. It was struggling for its life. I was frantic. I scooped. I missed. It struggled. Until it stopped struggling, and the water swallowed it up and it stopped floating on the surface at all. I finished washing the shampoo out of my hair, forgot the conditioner. Tears were already coming. It was just a lightning bug, I tried to console myself. It didnt have long to live anyway. How long do fireflies live? A few days? A week? But its different when you are the one who killed it. I looked the other way for a moment, a second, to take care of my own needs, and it was gone. Thanks to me, my neglect, it wont spread its light any longer. The tears were pouring out of my eyes, and little gasps of agony accentuate them. Theyre the first tears Ive shed all year. Ive been calm during this crisis. I worked for an emergency response organization for two decades. Ive survived two close calls with death that I know of. I visited the E.R. last year and this year, and lived to tell the tale. I am the one Ive been waiting for. My elder family members have all passed. My young family members wont help me clean. How do I, who feels infinitely small in this moment, make them realize the urgency of sanitation? How do I keep us all alive when I couldnt, wouldnt even save a bug? I could see the bug, sitting there, asleep on my wall. I cant see that spikes of the virus that didnt even have a name until 2020. Spikes that pierce the lungs. Spikes that maim or kill us. How can we protect ourselves from something that we cant see? A bug thats invisible. A bug thats not even alive. I cried til the tears ran dry, and still there is more despair in my body. I knew this was about me, not the lightning bug. No, was about me and the lightning bug. I also know that I cared about the firefly, about the bat, about other animals in cages or hunted, about the Earth, our Mother, right then, right now, almost as much as I do my childrens lives, my life, my husbandsin some deep context, that most people wouldnt understand. Might judge me as an old, overly emotional woman not worthy of a respirator, a woman nearer death than birth. When I still see myself as the kid who spent half a day watching a spider spin a web, who felt every ripple on a ponys back as I rode, saddle-less, one with it. I still see myself as a kid. And thats when I realized. Yes, Im grieving. Yes, Im scared out of my wits. Yes, I want my children to want to clean the house. Yes, I want we humans to love the world, and each other, as much as I do. Yet would I give up my respirator for someone I didnt know like some Italian elders? Theres some shame that I want to keep living, that I want to see my kids get jobs, marry, have their own children. Learn to pick up after themselves. I picked up the bug, put it in the tissue with the hair. I thought about throwing it in the trash. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. But instead, I took it outside, in its paper mummy cocoon, and I placed it where I shouldve before I killed it. I said a prayer. For it. For us. For the world. We are all a breath away from death. Not just today. Or tonight. Not just this month. Not just this spring. Every single moment. Because to live we must be able to breathe. I breathe in. I breathe out. I ask God for help. Being 60 doesnt exempt you. Being 20 doesnt either. Bugs and humans, we all die. Yet we breathe. We chop wood. We breathe out. We carry water. Its the only way. But for now Im alive. A rush of gratitude for my breath, for my life, for my family, and for that little bug who sacrificed its life so I would see the lesson in all of this, flooded me from head to toe. I knew it was noon and my daughter was still asleep. I realized my son was worried because he heard me crying, something I try not to do around him because hes an empath like me. I saw my husband through the window trying to finish our taxes. And I was so grateful for it all. I am so grateful for it all. And then I go back in and clean the tub. Even strong moms, even life coaches, even emergency heroes, need someone to comfort them. If you need to talk now or tomorrow, Im here for you. Just drop me a message here, and Ill respond. New Delhi Eight Malaysian nationals were intercepted by immigration authorities and deboarded from a flight to Kuala Lumpur after they were identified as Tablighi Jamaat members, said officials. A Malindo Air Flight from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur via Mumbai was to depart with 30 Malaysians as part of an evacuation exercise at around 12.30pm when the suspects were asked to deboard. The eight men are Helmi Bin Zakaria, Mohammed Lukman Hakim Bin Hasim, Mohammed Zakri Bin Kamluddin, Mohammed Zaki Bin Abdul Malik, Mohammed Rafiq Bin Hussain, Mohammed Syafiq Bin Nordin, Hariz Adam Bin Hussain and Mohammed Syurabil Ehsan. All of them are aged between 25 and 32 years. We had information about them and they were intercepted soon as they headed for immigration clearance. We had lookout notices against several foreigners who are believed to have attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at its Nizamuddin headquarters in March in violation of their visa conditions. They were handed over to the Delhi police for further action, said an officer from the airport, who did not wish to be named. Their travel history showed that all of them had arrived in India in the first week of March, on different dates, to attend the congregation, the officer added. The ministry of health and family welfare was also alerted about the development. Deputy commissioner of police (IGI airport) said that the men were handed over to the crime branch. A police officer who did not wish to be named, said these men underwent basic medical screening at the airport by the APHO (Airport Health Organization) staff. Their detailed medical reports are awaited. They were taken away and will be kept under quarantine. They are yet to be questioned about where had they been hiding since the Nizamuddin Markaz gathering came to light. Their background is also under verification, the officer said. The government has already blacklisted over 900 such foreigners and invoked provisions of the Disaster Management Act and the Foreign Management Act against them. Over 2,000 Tablighi Jamaat activists were evacuated from the Nizamuddin building last week and several hundreds of them spread out to at least 17 states. The health ministry has linked close to one-third of all Covid-19 infections in the country to Jaamat members and their contacts. A home ministry release that announced the blacklisting of 960 foreigners for attending the congregation in violation of the visa rules said most were from Indonesia (379), Bangladesh (110), Kyrgyzstan (77), Myanmar (63) and Thailand (65). Many foreign nationals who attended the religious gathering, among other Indians, have tested positive for Covid-19 and nearly 22,000 Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts have been quarantined across the country so far, a home ministry official said on Saturday. More than 1.2 million cases, including 65,272 deaths, have been reported in 190 countries and territories around the world since the virus first emerged in China in December, according to an AFP tally based on official sources. Italy has the highest official death toll with 15,362 fatalities. Spain follows with 12,418, the United States is on 8,503, France 7,560 and Britain 4,313. Spain saw its third consecutive daily decline in deaths from the virus, recording another 674 fatalities on Sunday. A day earlier, Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care cases drop for the first time -- from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994. New York state, epicentre of the US outbreak, reports 630 new deaths in one day, its largest 24-hour spike. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio issues an emergency plea for volunteers, estimating the city will need 45,000 more medical personnel to fight the pandemic through April and May. President Donald Trump warns Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" number of coronavirus deaths in coming days. Queen Elizabeth II will give a rare address on Sunday aimed at rallying Britain, where the government warns of tougher measures on social distancing to try to curb surging infections. The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates says it has doubled to $70 billion a stimulus package to support the Gulf state's economy. More than 300 Europeans on Saturday leave Bolivia for France on a charter flight. Some 170 people, mostly French but including Swiss, Belgians, Germans and Britons, leave Moscow on Saturday on a repatriation flight organised by the French embassy. Bolivia on Saturday repatriates 480 nationals who had been blocked at the Chilean border. And 740 Algerians stuck in Turkey after their flights were cancelled are repatriated on Saturday. Algeria announces it will extend its night-time curfew -- until now in place only in the capital and 13 of its 48 provinces -- across the whole country. Senegal extends by 30 days its nationwide state of emergency. Pope Francis calls for courage in the face of the pandemic as he delivers Palm Sunday mass by livestream instead of before Saint Peter's Square crowds. Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church will suspend prayers preceding Easter celebrations later this month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) called for a complete ban on the Tablighi Jamaat and its Nizamuddin Markaz on Sunday, after it emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot in the country. The Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz (headquarters) in Delhi's Nizamuddin West emerged as a coronavirus hotspot as hundreds of people, who attended a religious congregation there in the second week of March, tested positive for COVID-19. Several others spread across the country, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat, are suspected to be carriers of the deadly virus. Stating that because of the Tablighi Jamaat and its Markaz, the entire country was facing a COVID-19 crisis, VHP's joint general secretary Surendra Jain said it should be banned and all its bank accounts sealed, while alleging that the organisation was a nursery and nourisher of Islamic radicalism and terror. After the hard work and achievements of the pan-India lockdown, the whole country was taking a sigh of relief, but due to the Tablighi Jamaat, the possibilities of community transmission of the fatal virus had increased, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said in a statement. At least 1,023 COVID-19 cases in the country have been found to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, but massive efforts by various authorities have led to nearly 22,000 people associated with the religious grouping and their primary contacts being quarantined, a Union Health Ministry official said here on Saturday. The government has also launched a nationwide search for participants to the huge religious gathering amid fears that thousands present there could have carried the infection across the length and breadth of the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Home Business Nepal not to rescue foreigners stranded out of Kathmandu now onwards Kathmandu, April 3 The government has clarified that it will not rescue any foreigners who are stranded in any place outside Kathmandu due to the ongoing lockdown imposed to control the coronavirus infection from Friday night onwards. Nepal Tourism Boards Chief Executive Officer Dhananjaya Regmi says the foreign governments, however, will still continue to evacuate their citizens, who had already arrived in Kathmandu, from Nepal. It means the tourists who are in Kathmandu can go back if their governments arrange a chartered flight, but those who are outside Kathmandu have to stay wherever they are till the lockdown ends. In the past 10 days, the board rescued 1,708 tourists stranded outside Kathmandu and brought them to Kathmandu. In the latest case, two buses ferried dozens of tourists from Pokhara to Kathmandu. KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, left; the Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea headquarters in Seoul; and MBK Partners Chairman Kim Byung-ju / Korea Times file By Park Jae-hyuk Prudential Financial and the lead underwriter Goldman Sachs are expected to choose the preferred bidder for the Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea this week at the earliest, according to industry sources and media reports, Friday. The sources said that KB Financial Group, Taiwan's Fubon Financial and three private equity firms (PEFs) MBK Partners, Hahn & Company and IMM Private Equity took part in the main bid in March. Among them, KB Financial Group has been mentioned as the strongest candidate to take over the U.S. insurance giant's Korean unit. Local news outlets reported that the nation's second-largest banking group offered around 2.5 trillion won ($2 billion), while MBK Partners and other bidders offered around 2 trillion won. A spokesman from Prudential Korea declined to confirm the report. As an apparent effort to retake the leading banking group title from Shinhan Financial Group, KB Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo has been desperate to acquire the life insurer, despite the KB Insurance union's criticism of his attempt to do so amid the economic slowdown. "The company we've been interested in is one of the most sound life insurance companies, belonging to the top class," Yoon said at a general shareholders meeting March 20. "There is still high demand for insurance in Korea, so I think it is okay to acquire the business." KB, however, may not be able to acquire Prudential if its board of directors rejects the plan, as the board did previously when the financial group attempted to buy ING Life Insurance Korea in 2012. Back then, the KB board considered the price too high, so MBK was able to take over the insurer and sell it eventually to Shinhan after changing its name to Orange Life Insurance. If KB fails to acquire Prudential, the new owner of the life insurer will likely be MBK as it has experience in managing a life insurer. Although MBK and Shinhan signed an agreement that bans the private equity firm (PEF) from becoming active in the insurance business until September 2020, sources said Shinhan would not oppose MBK's takeover of the life insurer, because it wants its rival KB to lose in the bidding. However, intensifying protests from consumer groups could be unfavorable for the PEF, under the current environment where the financial authorities are making consumer protection their top priority. The Korea Finance Consumer Federation and four other consumer groups have urged the Financial Services Commission to bar PEFs from holding a controlling stake in insurance companies. With COVID-19 cases crossing the 3,000-mark in the country, residents of Ibrahimpur village in north Delhi's Burari are blocking roads and putting barricades to prevent the entry of outsiders into the region in a bid to curb the spread of the disease. There are five entry points of Ibrahimpur village wherein temporary ropes and wooden blockades have been set up to ensure that no outsider gains entry into the area. Vegetable and milk vendors, who are part of the essential services, are allowed to enter the village if they have hand sanitizers. "We noticed that despite the lockdown, many people were passing through our village every day. Also, unknown vehicles were entering the area. In view of this, it was collectively decided by villagers to ban the entry of outsiders," Gaurav Tyagi, a resident of Ibrahimpur, said. He said people deployed at entry points of the village ask for identity cards of the suspicious' entrants to the area. Rajesh Kumar, another resident, said such a step also ensures social distancing and prevents unnecessary movement of people. He said villagers have been asked not to go out of the village, and follow the ongoing lockdown. A senior police officer said in many societies and colonies in Delhi, people have become more cautious and are taking such precautions amid the coronavirus threat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [UPDATED] Two private hospitals have denied they are charging patients for the personal protective equipment used by their doctors and nurses. Read the updated story. *** SEVERAL private hospitals in Cebu have been accused of charging patients for donated personal protective equipment (PPE) that were used during their admission. We learned that private hospitals are charging patients for PPEs used during their admission, even if donated ang PPEs, read a private message on Messenger that SunStar Cebu obtained. Some hospitals also allegedly did not distribute all the donated food packs intended for frontliners who are hard at work trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). However, Chong Hua Hospital (CHH), one of the hospitals mentioned, dismissed the allegations. Chokie Ortiz, patient and customer relations officer of CHH, said they always have PPEs in stock since they order in bulk. We never had a shortage. As a matter of fact, our bulk orders always arrived. The latest was from last week, she said. Ortiz said the hospital procures medical-grade PPEs for their frontliners who attend to Covid-19 patients. The PPEs we used to take care of the patients are the ones which were ordered by the hospital so we really charge them because these are intended for their use, she said. Donated PPEs, she said, are not used by medical frontliners like doctors and nurses. These are used by those considered as support group like the orderly and housekeeping staff. Ortiz said they have more than 100 frontliners in their Cebu City hospital and less than 100 in their Mandaue hospital. These frontliners already include doctors, nurses, utility and housekeeping staff and security guards who work around the clock in their triages. As for food packs, she said the hospital provides regular rations to frontliners aside from donations. SunStar was unable to reach the other hospitals as of press time. Running out of stock PPEs are direly needed to prevent infection from Covid-19, which is highly contagious as it contaminates objects and can be transmitted by live hosts. Story continues The novel coronavirus can survive on contaminated surfaces for several hours or for several days. In the Philippines, some hospitals lack PPEs for their personnel. At the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City, doctors are worried they cannot sustain their PPE stocks, especially since there is a huge demand in the global market. In Baguio City, medical frontliners are looking at homemade protective gear as an option. In a SunStar Baguio report, Doctor Raymond Oribio from Notre Dame Hospital said since we project this problem to be a long fight, donations for the raw materials would be nice. He said volunteers can assemble shields at home to avoid exposure and donate these to local hospitals. Protecting frontliners Several groups like the All-terrain Medical Relief Organization, a nongovernment organization based in Cebu City, are striving to provide an alternative to the commercial PPE, which is expensive and limited in supply. The work is a voluntary community effort by Cebu City medical doctors, students, professionals and private individuals and dressmakers in the cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu and Cordova. Protection from Covid-19 is not the only concern for frontliners. They also need to be protected from harassment. On Thursday, April 2, 2020, the Mandaue City Council approved on first reading the ordinance penalizing any form of discrimination against frontliners during a public health crisis following reports of several frontliners getting attacked or harassed. The ordinance was authored by City Councilor Immaline Cortes-Zafra. We are trying to protect them because they are trying to protect us, she said. According to her proposed measure, frontliners are medical health care workers such as doctors, nurses, medical technologists in public or private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, laboratories and other health-related offices; members of the Philippine Red Cross; care staff from the World Health Organization; medical staff from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation; barangay health workers; and health care volunteers. The ordinance also identifies non-medical personnel as frontliners such as administrative staff; janitors; garbage collectors; security guards from health centers and offices; national and local government officials; employees performing frontline services; members of the Philippine National Police; members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines; law enforcement personnel; Mandaue City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office personnel; and employees of establishments rendering basic and essential services during a public health crisis. Frontliners must have access to goods and basic services. They must also be allowed to board public transportation and enter accommodation establishments. They cannot be evicted from a rented space. Any form of physical, mental, emotional harm, injury or threats against frontliners is also prohibited. Violators will be fined P5,000 or meted imprisonment of one day to 30 days, or both, at the courts discretion. In the case of a juridical person, responsible officers shall be liable without prejudice to the revocation of their business permits by the Mandaue City Business Permit and Licensing Office. Zafra encouraged everyone to respect frontliners. 3,246 Covid-19 cases In Cebu City, the City Government announced that 92 air-conditioned rooms in various establishments are available for free to house medical frontliners who live far from hospitals where they work. Some employees of the CHH, the Cebu City Medical Center and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center have already availed themselves of the program. Those interested in the program can contact the Citys assistance hotline: 0923-937-8599; 0923-937-8596; 0909-943-1037; 0909-940-2158. As of Sunday, April 5, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 152 new Covid-19 cases nationwide, bringing the total to 3,246 cases. The DOH also recorded seven new recoveries for a total of 64. It also recorded eight new mortalities, bringing the total number of deaths to 152. As of Saturday, April 4, the number of Covid-19 cases in Central Visayas remained at 34. (JOB, KFD, PAC, JJL, WBS) The House of Representatives is to consider a fresh Stimulus Bill that will ensure that Nigerians get free electricity supply for two months to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Speaker Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila has said. The Speaker said the proposed Bill is to help in boosting the economy through the informal sector as the country prepares for the aftermath of the coronavirus. The proposed Bill, which will be the second Stimulus Bill by the Green Chamber, is to be considered immediately the House reconvenes from its ongoing break, declared due to the pandemic. It has, however, been agreed by the leadership of the National Assembly that the resumption date, initially slated for April 7, will be extended by one week in compliance with governments 2-week stay-at-home policy. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Now that the coronavirus outbreak is wreaking havoc across the world, the pandemic movie Contagion is circling back into relevance. Contagion portrays a virus that is very similar to coronavirus in many ways. A doctor recently rewatched the movie, and noted how life in 2020 seems to be reflecting 2011s art. However, heterrifyinglybelieves COVID-19 is a more dangerous virus than the fictional disease from Contagion. Doctor argues coronavirus is worse than infectious disease in 2011 movie Contagion A cyclist wears a protective mask while sitting in front of Duomo Square amid coronavirus fears | Valeria Ferraro / Echoes WIre/Barcroft Media via Getty Images Paul Carson is a doctor from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He wrote an editorial for TribeLIVE.com last month. For the article, Dr. Carson rewatched Steven Soderberghs 2011 film Contagion, and in light of the coronavirus pandemic, he called the movie a cautionary tale. The MD pointed out several things in common between the fictional disease in Contagion and coronavirus. Both viruses are highly contagious, transmitted easily through surface contact, Dr. Carson wrote. This happens via public transportation, especially in urban centers. Also, each disease uses common respiratory droplet transmission. He continued: They determined the virus to have a very high R0 value, which is the average number of people who will catch the disease from a single infected person. All of this so far is very consistent with what we know about covid-19. COVID-19 is more dangerous in its differences from the films virus However, Dr. Carson also brought up many features of the COVID-19 outbreak that make it distinct from the Contagion virus. For instance, the movie disease had a higher mortality rate. This appears to make coronavirus less dangerous at first. But Dr. Carson explained in his opinion piece how its actually the opposite. He wrote: in the film, the fictional virus had a very high fatality rate. This made for great onscreen gore, excitement and drama but diverges from what we believe about covid-19. While this may sound good, it is in fact not. He used actress Gwyneth Paltrows character as an example. Dr. Carson recalled of Contagion: Paltrow was dead by the first 10 minutes of the film. This helped halt the spread of the disease. By dying, she stopped her own transmission of the virus to others, the doctor explained. The host died, the virus died with that transmission. Actors Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne and director Steven Soderbergh pose at the Contagion photocall during the 68th Venice Film Festival in 2011 | Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Like Ebola, Dr. Carson went on to describe: the high death rate helped contain the virus. While I am not wishing death on anyone, its actually a built-in containment mechanism, he wrote. That means that coronavirus is much more easily spreadbecause its less deadly. With covid-19 infection, most will walk around for near a week without feeling any symptoms, unknowingly spreading the virus, Dr. Carson shared. He continued: When we do finally feel sick, if you are lucky enough to get a test, then and only then are you asked to quarantine. By then, if you were not already sheltering in place prior to the testing, you probably spread it to a whole bunch of people. Doctor urges readers to spread the information during the pandemic Actress Marion Cotillard at the Contagion premiere in 2011 | Michael Loccisano/Getty Images The physician said he hoped his piece would be shared with the people who are not taking this seriously. Dr. Carson urged his readers: Be smart. Be safe. Share. What you do now will affect the world, your country, your family and loved ones, the doctor warned. Coronavirus, Conflict Threaten Thousands of Refugees, Migrants Detained in Libya By Lisa Schlein April 04, 2020 The U.N. refugee agency warns thousands of refugees and migrants detained in sub-standard facilities in Libya are threatened by COVID-19 and the ongoing conflict in the country, and should be released. The warning comes as a military offensive launched by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar in the Libyan capital Tripoli a year ago continues unabated despite the threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.N. refugee agency reports more than 300 civilians have been killed and 150,000 others displaced by the fighting. In addition to this threat, the UNHCR says Libyan authorities have confirmed 10 cases of COVID-19 and one death. UNHCR spokesman Babar Balloch says the country's weakened health services are unable to adequately respond to this pandemic. "The ongoing conflict has severely impacted the country's health system and medical services, which have limited financial resources and face shortages of basic equipment and medicines. Many hospitals or health facilities, located in the areas close to the conflict, have also been damaged or closed," he said. Balloch said daily life is becoming increasingly difficult for people across conflict-torn Libya. He said they have difficulty accessing basic goods and services, and finding work. He said house rentals, food and fuel prices are soaring, making them unaffordable for many. But he noted those most at risk in this unstable, war-torn society are the thousands of asylum seekers and refugees held in detention. He says the UNHCR and other agencies are calling for their orderly release. "Asylum seekers and refugees, held in detention because they do not have legal documentation, are particularly vulnerable and exposed, given often poor sanitation facilities, limited health services and overcrowded conditions. Many detention centers are also located in areas close to the fighting frontlines," he said. Balloch said the UNHCR continues to provide protection and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, forcibly displaced Libyans and returnees. But he added deteriorating conditions and lack of security in the country are hampering the delivery of aid to those in need. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prince William and Kate Middleton havent always had a perfect relationship, though the two seem extremely happy nowadays. But back before they were married, they hit a few speed bumps throughout their relationship, which resulted in a brief breakup in 2004 and another in 2007. When William broke up with Kate in 2007, Kate didnt handle things well. But it was her younger sister, Pippa, who helped her pick up the pieces and ended up playing a large role in the exes rekindling their relationship. Pippa Middleton holds Kate Middletons dress at the royal wedding in 2011 | Kirsty Wigglesworth/WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince William broke up with Kate Middleton in 2007 After William and Kate graduated college in 2005, most people were assuming that it was only a matter of time until William proposed. However, things actually started to go the other way for the couple. By December 2006, they werent spending as much time together, and William backed out of spending the holidays with Kates family at the last minute. In the spring of 2007, William was stationed several hours away from London, and he and Kate didnt see much of each other. The physical distance turned into emotional distance, and William broke up with Kate in April 2007. Kates sister, Pippa, moved in with Kate as soon as she could When William ended things, Kate didnt take it well. She took a quick trip to Ireland with her other to get her mind off things, but when she returned, she had to find a new normal. Thankfully, Kate had always had a close relationship with her younger sister, Pippa Middleton. Soon after William and Kate split, Pippa moved in with Kate in her flat in Chelsea. This proved to be a huge distraction for Kate, since living alone had likely only made her think about William even more. Pippa prompted Kate to go out more, which sparked jealousy within William According to reports, Kate and Pippa started going out much more once they moved in together. The two were seen all over the place, often wearing more risque outfits than Kate ever did when she was dating the prince. Kate and Pippa Middleton spent many nights out after William broke up with the now-duchess. | Mark Milan/Mu Kei/GC Images Photographers ended up taking plenty of photos of Kate out with her sister, and word got back to William that his ex was living her best life without him. If Pippa had planned all along to get Kate out more so William would see it, it worked William started to regret his decision shortly after. William and Kate were back together after about four months By July 2007, William and Kate were already back together. People werent surprised, since theyd been together for nearly four years before their split. They took things slow, though, and William didnt propose to Kate for almost three more years. The two wed in a massive ceremony in 2011, and millions of people tuned in to watch. Now, nearly two decades after the couple first met, they still seem truly content in their life together. They have a close relationship with their kids and seem to lean on each other greatly to handle the craziness of royal life. Some celebrities have no problem putting it all on public display when theyre in a relationship, but many like to keep things under wraps. With gossipy headlines and constant fan scrutiny putting added pressure on so many relationships, its no wonder that a lot of stars like to keep people guessing when it comes to their current relationship status. One such celebrity is Chris DElia. The popular podcaster and stand-up comedian shocked fans when he announced that he would soon become a father. They had no idea who DElia was even dating! It took a little sleuthing, but fans have figured it out. Heres what we know about this relationship. Chris DElia rarely gets personal on his podcast Chris DElia | Ethan Miller/Getty Images DElia hosts Congratulations with Chris DElia, a podcast that features the comedian talking about whatever happens to be on his mind. He has a plethora of five-star reviews, and commenters are delighted by his honest and random view on the world. Although this podcast is literally him just talking to himself about whatever, it is still utterly hilarious and a great time, one wrote. Another said, Chris is the funniest comedian I know right now. His podcast is just one platform for him to share his hilarious perspective. With a ton of pop culture references and impressions, he keeps things fresh and interesting. He also has several stand up specials and movies on Netflix, which means that DElia has been growing his fanbase steadily. He doesnt really divulge much about his personal life through his comedy, though. Fans may get observational glimpses of his day, but he tends to keep things pretty quiet when it comes to his love life. Fans were shocked to hear Chris DElia is having a baby In a recent episode of his podcast, DElia finally revealed some big news. Hes about to become the father of a baby boy! Fans took to Reddit to share some congratulations of their own for the comedian. This is kinda crazy. He barely ever talks about his personal life and relationships, Ive only heard him talk about his girlfriend a few times, and refers to her as my girl and makes it seem super casual. Ive never seen a picture of them together and he never posts about her, one commenter wrote. Another observed that DElia had talked a few times in the pod about wanting to be a dad and have a family. Fans are excited to see those dreams are coming true for him. However, they still had lingering questions about just who his girl is and how long they have been together. There are no photos of this mystery woman on social media, and his rare mentions of her are vague. Fans figured out who Chris DElia is dating No matter how secretive youd like to keep your life, its tough to maintain such a high level of privacy in the age of the internet. With a little detective work, fans were able to determine that DElias significant other is Kristin Taylor, a stop-motion animator and creator of Hi Big Dog Media. The artistic Taylor says in her profile for the project that she is from North Carolina, has a Bachelors degree from the University of Missouri, and likes hip-hop, holidays, dogs, girls, pop culture, and folktales. While we cant be certain how long Taylor and DElia have been together, a short clip from the Sicario: Day of the Soldado premiere shows DElia being photographed on the red carpet with a woman identified only as his date. This event was in June of 2018, and it turns out that Taylor was his date for the day, so we can assume theyve been together for quite some time. Maybe as the pair settle down into parenthood together well get to hear a little more about their life. After all, becoming a dad has to provide DElia with a lot of new material for his comedy routine! (Natural News) The situation in the South American nation of Ecuador has become nothing short of apocalyptic, authorities said. Ecuador, one of the smallest countries in South America, is dealing with what looks to be one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in the world, with more than 3,100 identified infections as of writing. The epicenter of the outbreak is Guayaquil, a port city with 2.8 million residents, where 2,243, or roughly 70 percent, of the cases nationwide have been registered. Because of the outbreak, patients have since overloaded the citys hospitals, resulting in multiple cases of possibly infected people dying in their homes. Exacerbating the problem, according to residents, is a nationwide curfew, as well as layers of bureaucratic red tape, both of which have caused undertakers to struggle with both the retrieval and disposal of the dead bodies. In addition, many of the citys funeral homes are refusing to take the bodies out of fear of getting infected a fear that residents say stems from the fact that the causes of death for many of the cases are unknown. According to residents, this has since resulted in a grisly situation wherein the bodies of the dead lie untouched for up to several days, wrapped only in bed sheets and plastic as mourning relatives watch over them inside their houses. Outside their homes, the situation is far more disturbing: Several bodies wrapped in plastic have been left on the streets, while plenty of others lay unclaimed in hospitals and clinics already burdened by the surge in infections. At least 400 bodies have been recovered within the past few days, according to authorities. Guayaquil Mayor Cynthia Viteri, who has also tested positive for COVID-19, bemoaned what she said was inaction from the federal government, noting that they should be responsible for collecting the bodies. Theyre leaving them in the villages, they fall in front of hospitals, Viteri said in a separate message addressed to residents last week. No one wants to recover them. According to Viteri, all unclaimed bodies are now in the process of being stored in three refrigerated cargo containers, and the bodies will stay there while authorities pursue plans for a new cemetery. (Related: Expert warns that coronavirus can be spread through talking and even just BREATHING.) Hoy entregamos 1 de los 3 contenedores, al Hospital de Monte Sinai, que coordinamos con ell Ministerio de Salud para refrigerar temporalmente los cuerpos de los fallecidos por #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/GAbgdHmYMW Cynthia Viteri (@CynthiaViteri6) March 31, 2020 As expected, however, public frustration and resentment regarding the piling-up of bodies is growing. People are asking that some authority takes charge of the dead, but the lack of response means they are being left in central streets of Guayaquil, stated Juan Carlos Freire, a lawyer in the city. As a way to make their situation known to the rest of the world, many of Guayaquils citizens voiced their frustration on social media, where they uploaded disturbing images taken from within the citys borders: bodies wrapped in sheets and dumped on the streets, plastic-wrapped caskets containing bodies, as well as troves of people crowding hospitals begging for staff to come to their houses and take the bodies of deceased relatives away. Otro fallecido tirado en la calle en Guayaquil , Padre Solano y Boyaca, pleno centro. Los cadaveres se apilan en la ciudad, cuidado y aparecen otras epidemias porque los cuerpos se descomponen y traen mas problemas, por humanidad recojan a ese hombre. pic.twitter.com/FZrsy7qNBx Stalin Briones (@stalinbriones) March 29, 2020 Atencion @CynthiaViteri6 @PedroPabloDuart @ottosonnenh @Salud_Ec esto sucedio esta manana en centro sur de Guayaquil, Villavicencio y San Martin. Materiales contaminados dejados en via publica luego del levantamiento de un cadaver por #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/ZGVQZxGZWY Miguel Angel Menoscal (@MiguelMenoscal) March 29, 2020 Unfortunately for the citys already embattled residents, the worst is still to come. Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, in a statement, acknowledged that there may be many more deaths than what is being reported officially, noting that the real figures always exceed the number of tests and the speed with which they are carried out. According to Moreno, as many as 3,500 people could die of COVID-19 in and around Guayaquil. Guayaquil political analyst Martha Roldos says one possible explanation for Ecuadors high coronavirus cases in addition to the scaled-back work by state epidemiologists is the high levels of air traffic between the Latin American country and Spain, which, aside from having the worlds third-highest death toll from the disease, is also home to more than 400,000 Ecuadorian migrants. A lot of people were returning to Ecuador to stay on vacation with their families. So there were a lot of people coming from Italy and Spain, Roldos said. Despite the negative developments within her citys borders, Viteri, in a post on Twitter, said that she will continue working as long as she can to protect Guayaquilenos in a moment as difficult as this one. I will be where I am and how I am. Dont leave your houses, protect the elderly and the weakest, and take care of each other, Viteri stated. As of this writing, the dreaded COVID-19 has claimed more than 59,000 lives and has infected over one million more throughout the globe. Sources include: SCMP.com NPR.org DailyMail.co.uk AA.com.tr DECATUR This month marks a year of contract negotiations between the Decatur school district and the union representing teaching assistants, but both sides say their focus now is on supporting students and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The district and union last year began a series of failed negotiations, which later led to rallies and a three-day strike in October. While no formal hold has been placed on negotiations, the union and district are prioritizing efforts to help Decatur students and staff amid changes due to coronavirus. "Our goal right now is to focus on supporting DPS students, staff, families, and our community through this crisis, said Superintendent Paul Fregeau. Jon Nadler, a field service director with the Illinois Federation of Teachers and spokesperson for DFTA, said the pandemic is a far bigger concern than completing negotiations. The union represents about 275 Decatur employees who include hearing interpreters, licensed practical nurses, hearing-vision technicians and teaching assistants. (We) have not even given any thought on what we would need to do to get another date set, he said. The pandemic is (the) first priority. The main sticking points in negotiations continue to be over health insurance and wages. Teaching assistants say they cannot afford the proposed increases in the cost of insurance coverage, while the district says it is offering reasonable plans. Paula Busboom, president of the Decatur Federation of Teaching Assistants, did not return a request for comment for this story. Denise Swarthout, a spokesperson for the district, said board members declined to comment. Face-to-face negotiations will resume whenever the mediator directs a meeting, Swarthout said. In the meantime, continued discussions are possible by phone at any time, as the mediator and parties warrant. Eight meetings since August with a federal mediator were unsuccessful and in October, teaching assistants went on strike for three days. They returned to work after their health insurance was dropped. The benefits were then reinstated. But it is unclear when the two sides will pick up negotiations as there are no future mediation sessions scheduled while students and staff are under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers stay at home order, which has been extended through April 30. Swarthout said staff, including teaching assistants, continue to receive paychecks under the order. Pritzker on March 27 signed an executive order suspending certain rules governing school terms and attendance; it empowered the Illinois State Board of Education to define acceptable outlines of remote learning. Decatur Public Schools began remote learning days last week following their spring break. These are unexpected and unprecedented times, it's certainly not business as usual, but we remain focused on continuing to support our students' education and helping to meet their families' needs, Fregeau said in an email. It's also unclear when supporters of the teaching assistants, who had frequently spoken at board meetings in recent months, will be able to do so in person again. Because of orders to avoid gatherings of 10 or more people, members of the public were not allowed to attend the most recent board meeting on March 24. Residents were able to submit comments ahead of time. Multiple board members also stayed home and dialed in for the meeting. A group of parents and former teachers during a February board meeting called for the board to resign and said they had a petition of no confidence with hundreds of signatures. Kevin Collins-Brown, a co-creator of the document, said the petition as of Thursday had around 900 signatures but their efforts have slowed down due to the pandemic. The districts fiscal year ends on June 30 and Swarthout said they could negotiate before then. The district remains hopeful that a resolution will be reached before the end of the fiscal year, Swarthout said. In the meantime, staff and administrators at Decatur Public Schools have taken several measures to help the community. Staff continue to provide hundreds of to-go meals for students twice a week, giving out three days' worth of meals on Tuesdays and two days' worth on Fridays. The district last month donated over 100 iPads to HSHS St. Marys Hospital so staff could communicate with patients and practice social distancing. These efforts were highlighted by Pritzker during a press conference earlier this week. He specifically mentioned Decatur Public Schools as being one of the districts across the state that have taken it upon themselves to support our healthcare workers citing the iPad donation. Once youre ready, take a look around, Pritzker said Tuesday. If you are looking for a lesson in the fundamental goodness of people and of your community, it is right there in front of you. Contact Analisa Trofimuk at (217) 421-7985. Follow her on Twitter: @AnalisaTro Gardai are investigating an incident of criminal damage to a retail premises on Dublins Grafton Street. Gardai said the incident occurred at around 5.30am this morning. A spokesperson said gardai are investigating an incident of criminal damage and theft of a retail premises in the Grafton Street area. They added: The front of the premises was damaged by a car during the incident. A number of items were also taken from the premises, the quantity of which is currently unknown. Meanwhile, a number of pubs and restaurants in Dublin city centre have boarded up their premises since pandemic restrictions began. Richard Guiney, from business group Dublin Town, says owners are taking extra precautions. A lot of businesses have taken security precautions, said Mr Guiney. That is, unfortunately, a feature of where we are at. The city doesnt look as pretty as you would like it to look but you know, we are in very unusual circumstances. TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli private high-tech companies raised a record $2.74 billion in the first quarter but deals began falling apart in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Israel Venture Capital Research Center and ZAG law firm said on Sunday. The quarterly figure included 139 deals and was up 76% from a year earlier. It was boosted by $400 million raised by ridesharing company Via Transportation. But the fundraising stopped two weeks into March when Israel and many other countries began restricting business and other activities to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. "Most investors at various stages of negotiations simply backed out," said Shmulik Zysman, founding partner of ZAG. "It is already clear that the aggregate amount of transactions in the second quarter of 2020 will be significantly lower than what we have become accustomed to in the past few years. The recovery will not be easy," Zysman said. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Tova Cohen) Unknown gunmen opened fire on the car of a Friday Prayer Imam in the southern city of Mahshahr, in Irans oil-rich Khuzestan province Friday evening. An Iranian news agency says Salman Hashemi is one of the four prayer leaders in the city of petrochemical plants. He represents the religious establishment in the Taleghani part of the city. Mahshar was the scene of a massacre of protesters by security forces last November during widespread anti-regime unrest in the country. Every township and city in Iran has an officially appointed Friday Prayer leader, who in the eyes of the people represent the clergy ruling the country. There have been several incidents of attacks and even killings of Friday Prayer Imams. Reports speak of bullets hitting Hashemis car and his office has confirmed the incident, but in a statement it said the cleric was in his office at the time. The office also denied he was the target of any attack and claimed the individuals who opened fire had a personal dispute and the Imams car happened to be in the area and was hit. In Iran the police treats such incidents as national security matters and rarely reveals details or the true results of its own investigation. NEW YORK Despite state and local limits on public gatherings, some faith leaders have persisted in holding in-person services a matter of religious freedom, they say, as the nation approached its fourth Sunday battling the coronavirus pandemic. The most high-profile clash over in-person worship and crowd limits designed to stop the virus spread came in Florida, where Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested Monday for violating a county order by hosting a large number of congregants at his Tampa church. Howard-Browne said after his release he would move future worship online, but the county later ended its effort to apply limits on large gatherings to religious services after a statewide order described religious gatherings as essential. Law enforcement officials in Louisiana and Maryland took separate action this week against pastors who continue to hold in-person services in the face of stay-home orders in most states. But more than a half-dozen of those state orders provide a degree of exemption for religious activity, underscoring the political sensitivity of the decisions being made by states and localities. Vice President Mike Pence said this week that churches should not host groups bigger than 10 people. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be watching Palm Sunday services broadcast from Riverside, California, from a laptop. People are watching on computers and laptops, Trump said. Its sad. Trump said he asked about endorsing the idea of people being able to gather outside for services on Easter Sunday if they practice social distancing, but recalled being told "Do we want to take a chance on doing that when we have been doing so well?" Trump earlier said that "my biggest disappointment is that churches can't meet in a time of need." The application of guidance on the ground has raised questions for some faith leaders. Pastor Alvin Gwynn Sr., of Baltimore's Friendship Baptist Church, said that police tried to halt services at his church on Sunday even though he had limited in-person attendance to 10 people. Gwynn said in an interview that he still plans to hold in-person Easter services, citing the First Amendment's protections for freedom of worship and assembly. Baltimore has "been through a lot" in recent years, said Gwynn, who leads a local ministers' group that criticized the city's police department leadership in 2015 following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. "Which is safer, in the church with potential virus, or go out the door and catch a bullet?" Gwynn said. Instructions for church gatherings in Maryland have been issued piecemeal. State guidance dated Monday described houses of worship as non-essential under a stay-home order issued by Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan that allowing them only to conduct "minimal operations." But follow-up guidance dated Wednesday states that "in-person services" can be held with 10 or fewer people. In Florida, attorneys at the Christian legal nonprofit representing Howard-Browne tabled their plans to file a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the county order used against him after the county reversed course. "Instead of using a scalpel to address this, they're using a chainsaw," said Liberty Counsel founder Mathew Staver, who added that executive orders designed to limit gatherings during the pandemic were "flying off printers and being signed by government officials with no constitutional readiness." On Wednesday, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a stay-home order describing religious services as essential, followed by a second order that overrides any localities' conflicting guidelines an edict that could impede local attempts to shut down future large worship services. FILE - In this Thursday, March 19, 2020 file photo, the Rev. Alvin J. Gwynn Sr., of Friendship Baptist Church in Baltimore, sits for a portrait in his church. Gwynn said that police tried to halt services at his church on Sunday, March 29, 2020, even though he had limited in-person attendance to 10 people. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)AP Elsewhere, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott also described religious services as essential in his order to limit gatherings during the pandemic. In Georgia, where some of the state's worst virus outbreaks have been linked to large religious services, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday issued a stay-home order that states no faith-based gathering can occur with more than 10 people unless they keep a six-foot distance. While some faith leaders who continue to hold in-person services have pointed to their First Amendment rights, including Ohio's Solid Rock megachurch, it's not clear that their activity during the pandemic would be legally protected. State or local governments would be "constitutionally justified" in including houses of worship in their closure orders during a public health emergency as long as those orders are "generally applicable," said John Inazu, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies the First Amendment. But the burden shifts if a government attempts to stop a church from holding services with less than 10 people while allowing secular businesses to operate under the same conditions, Inazu added: "There, I think there's a very plausible religious freedom claim." Before issuing his order, Kemp held two calls with hundreds of clergy from across Georgia, urging houses of worship to stream services online or implement other social distancing measures, like holding drive-up services where people listen from their cars. Most religious services across the country have already moved online. "We're making the best of a bad situation. It's going to be devastating in the short term," said Todd Gaddis, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Georgia, referring to the loss of donations from in-person services. "But I'm confident there will be spiritual dividends in the long run." And the Trump administration's entreaties for churches to stop meeting in person extended beyond the White House. Sam Brownback, the president's special envoy for religious freedom, said Thursday that "religious groups should practice social distancing." Brownback, a Catholic, said that he's skipped Mass for "several weeks, and it's the longest period I've gone without going to Mass. And I think people should be doing this to stop the spread of the virus." - Elana Schor of The Associated Press wrote this story. AP writers Ben Nadler in Atlanta and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI A fourth Muskegon County resident has died in connection with COVID-19, officials said Saturday. County health officials reported the death of a 57-year-old man with a confirmed case of the disease caused by the new coronavirus Saturday, April 4. The health department did not release additional details about the man. The total number of positive coronavirus tests in Muskegon County remained at 30 Saturday, the same as Friday, according to state data. The countys first coronavirus-related deaths were reported March 27. They were an 83-year-old man and a 78-year-old man, the health department reported. The third person to die of the disease, a 64-year-old woman, was reported by the county on April 3. Michigan had a total of 14,225 cases of COVID-19, with 540 total deaths, as of Saturday. Statewide data released by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Saturday showed the number of new daily cases at 1,481, with 61 deaths. New coronavirus cases in Michigan take a dip, deaths climb to 540 Sorry, but your browser does not support frames. 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. More on MLive: Saturday, April 4: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan First Michigan prison inmate dies with coronavirus Ottawa County hospital triples coronavirus testing capacity with innovative hack In the study, published in 'Alcoholism', 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 the complex cognitive and behavioural 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 behavioural development," added Huffman.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 behavioural development in offspring. It rescues some of the phenotypes associated with FASD," Huffman said.In the first study, male mice consumed alcohol for approximately two-three weeks before mating with alcohol-naive females. Huffman's team found this pre-conceptual 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 behaviour 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 germline specifically can transmit heritable changes through multiple generations after single prenatal alcohol exposure. Clearly, the paternal environment before conception is critical for healthy offspring development," Huffman added.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 pre-conceptual paternal alcohol exposure on the gross anatomical development of the neocortex, including genetic patterning and circuit development, coupled with extensive behavioural 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. Depending on maternal age, up to 18 per cent 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 bodyweight, 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 per cent alcohol, the usual dose for the FASD model, as well as about 640 milligrams per litre of choline chloride supplement throughout the pregnancy. Her team's goal was to test the potential rescue effects of choline supplementation on abnormal neocortical and behavioural 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," added Bottom.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. (ANI) Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery Laid to Rest at Private Family Funeral A private family burial for Dr. Joseph E. Lowery was held earlier today in Atlanta on Saturday, April 4th at the historic Westview Cemetery. The Dean of the Civil Rights Movement was laid to rest beside his beloved wife and partner in the civil rights movement, Dr. Evelyn Gibson Lowery, who preceded him in death in 2013. Rev. Lowerys service today, coincides with the 52nd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s death, his dear friend and colleague in the movement, and on the eve of Palm Sunday, the great procession into the holy city. As a result of the revised guidance provided by Fulton County Public Health Officials and the implementation of a statewide shelter-in-place order for Georgia effective on April 3, the private service was held for 10 family members only. After much thought and consideration of options that would be compliant with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and social distancing, we were unable to hold a service that could accommodate our dear community of support, said Cheryl Lowery, President and CEO, of the Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute, and youngest daughter of the civil rights icons. ADVERTISEMENT Our father always encouraged everyone to act in service for the common good, Lowery continued. In these unprecedented times, the best way for each of us to do that, is to follow guidance from our public health and state officials to prevent community spread of coronavirus. The intimate family service was officiated by Reverend Doctor Keven Murriel, Senior Pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church, the church where Lowery pastored from 1986 until his retirement in 1992. The brief gravesite program concluded with Lowerys three daughters, which he lovingly called the daughters three, singing an a capella tribute to their father. Other tributes to Lowery today include a digital image of the civil rights icon on the Corey tower billboard in the heart of downtown Atlanta and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, illuminating Atlanta City Hall in royal blue to remind the people of Atlanta of the continuance of his work and legacy through the Lowery Institute. A public memorial will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, which would have been Dr. Lowerys 99th birthday, with the hope and prayer that this pandemic will be behind us. This celebration will ensure friends and supporters from near and far can honor Dr. Lowery and his legacy, together as a community, in a manner that he so rightfully deserves. Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo on Sunday said that instead of lighting diyas, governments should be working towards providing some kind of jobs to people who are out of work due to lockdown and have no source of income. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed us to light diyas and candles tonight at 9 pm for 9 minutes. Something like this should not happen at the level. It is not helpful. Instead of this, we should be working towards providing some kind of job to people sitting in their homes. That would be more helpful," Deo told ANI. "Are we moving towards superstitions in this 21st century by doing such things?" he asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on April 3 appealed to people in a televised address to light diyas and candles on April 5 at 9 pm to fight the darkness spread by coronavirus pandemic. Deo said that 7 out of 10 patients of coronavirus in the state have recovered successfully "Three more COVID-19 patients have recovered successfully in Chhattisgarh. With this seven out of total 10 coronavirus patients have recovered in the state so far," he said "If 7 out of 10 people are recovered and they are in the condition of discharge, then it means our management for coronavirus is satisfactory. It boosts the morale of the people engaged in the management," he added Commenting upon the young man of Tablighi Jamaat admitted in AIIMS, he said: "AIIMS director has told me that there is no unusual situation because of the boy. Arrangements are also made for him to offer namaaz at a separate place in the hospital." According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 3,374 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in India till now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) London: The Queen has invoked Britain's wartime spirit to assure the public that a "painful sense of separation from their loved ones" will be temporary and stress that victory over the deadly coronavirus pandemic "will belong to every one of us". Shortly after the national address, it emerged that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is infected with the coronavirus, had been admitted to hospital in what Downing Street described as a precautionary measure. In her rare speech from Windsor Castle, filmed by a lone cameraman dressed in full-body protective equipment, the 93-year-old monarch encouraged the public to "take comfort that while we have more still to endure, better days will return". "We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again," she said, in remarks that echo the lyrics of Dame Vera Lynn's famous World War II rallying anthem We'll Meet Again. Large fines of up to VND20 million are set to be imposed on individuals and organisations that break regulations on social distancing in the capital city of Hanoi in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The capital city of Hanoi has set up checkpoints at entrances to control the movement of people entering and living the city. IN the picture, a policeman stops a car driver for body temperature measuring at one of its gateways. The Hanoi Justice Department that is in charge of issuing fines, states that any individual who fails to don a face mask when in public will face a fine of VND300,000, equivalent to US$13. In addition, those who throw away used face masks onto the road or on sidewalks will face fines of between VND5 million and VND7 million. Furthermore, fines of between VND10 million and VND20 million will be imposed on any individual or organisation that refuses to stop their business activities. Anyone who attempts to conceal the health status of either themselves or others will face a fine of up to VND2 million. Moreover, those who leave quarantine will now be fined up to VND10 million. In the event that they are found to have transmitted the virus to other people, the individual involved could face criminal charges. Anyone caught publishing fake news on social media regarding the COVID-19 will be subject to fines of up to VND15 million, or alternatively they could face criminal charges under the Criminal Code. Individuals who refuse to undergo a medical check-up before leaving or entering any affected areas will be given a fine of VND20 million. These fines come into force following Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently declaring the COVID-19 to be a national epidemic, before unveiling a decree on social distancing that requires all citizens to remain at home as much as possible in an attempt to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 among the wider community. The decree advises people to wear face masks when in public and stay two metres away from other people if they go out for either food, medicine, or in an emergency. Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung stated on April 4 that the capital has sufficient legal grounds in which to implement this crack down on law-breakers, with officials having the ability to implement fines as of April 4. VOV Crowded lake falls silent three days into social distancing policy No local residents could be spotted participating in their morning exercise around Hoan Kiem lake, also known as Sword lake, in Hanoi capital on the morning of April 4, three days after the order on social distancing came into force. It was Friday afternoon when Chilean President Sebastian Pinera decided to do something off the cuff, something that often gets him in trouble. On his way home from his office at the Moneda Palace in Chiles capital, Santiago, he ordered his driver to make an unscheduled stop at Plaza Italia, unofficially renamed Dignity Plaza by millions of Chilean protesters. For nearly five months, this route home had been absolutely off-limits to Pinera. Every day from October 18 and up until a couple of weeks ago, the plaza was ground zero for demonstrations to demand social reforms. Many protesters lost their eyesight from pellet wounds and thousands were injured as riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued scathing reports documenting abuses on the part of authorities. But when a state of emergency was declared on March 18 to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the protests were put on hold. The Plaza and the statue of war hero General Manuel Baquedano that stands in the middle of it was no longer a major battleground, or tourist attraction. This part of Metropolitan Santiago is in fact under total lockdown, with residents obliged to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A combination photo shows demonstrators setting fire to a dummy representing President Sebastian Pinera during a protest against Chiles government at Plaza Italia in Santiago in this December 13, 2019 photo, and (bottom) a view of an almost empty Plaza Italia, now known as Plaza de la Dignidad (Dignity square), following the coronavirus outbreak, March 24, 2020 [File: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters] It was in that context that Chiles embattled president, whose popularity was beginning to rise from a historic low of 6 percent to nearly 12 percent, decided to get out of his car, walk over to the statue, and sit down to have his photograph taken. Perhaps he was thinking of himself as a victorious modern-day version of General Baquedano. Or maybe he had just not calculated that the photo and the video of his escapade would go viral. Like many people, when I first saw the photo of the President sitting in his shirtsleeves, at the base of the statue, with graffiti reading DOWN WITH PINERA clearly visible, I thought it was a prank. Incredible! I thought it was fake news. The president of the republic strolling around Plaza Italia while the government is urging the population to stay indoors. This is an irresponsible and provocative gesture from a head of state, especially when we are under a state of catastrophe and in the middle of a pandemic, said former Foreign Minister and opposition party leader Heraldo Munoz. Just hours earlier, Pineras Health Minister Jaime Manalich had scolded Chileans in the southern city of Temuco for not taking the lockdown decree seriously. With some 4,000 cases, Chile has the second-largest number of confirmed infections of COVID-19 in Latin America. How do you expect people to take it seriously if the leader of the country laughs right in our face and strolls around ground zero, asked housewife Marcela Lopez. But the issue goes well beyond the president breaking his own rules. Millions of Chileans who had called a temporary halt to their social protests to allow Pinera to implement anti-pandemic measures are outraged. What the president did by going to Dignity Plaza to take a photograph of himself is a demonstration of contempt and lack of respect for the citizens of Chile who since October 18 have been demonstrating against all the pain, injustice and inequality in this country. People have died there, said Carolina Marzan of the centre-left wing Party for Democracy (PPD). The popular music group Illapu tweeted that Pineras faux pas will bring more people onto the streets than ever before once the epidemic is over. The Plaza belongs to the people. We will return with more force, and we will be millions. Pineras cabinet ministers were too embarrassed to refer to the incident directly. On Saturday, when Deputy Health Minister Paula Daza was asked to comment on the effect of Pineras actions, she requested the media to refer to the presidents tweet. I stopped for a few minutes to greet a group of policemen and soldiers who were directing traffic at Plaza Baquedano (Italia). I took a photo and continued on my way. I regret if this action could have been misinterpreted, tweeted Pinera by way of apology. With Prime Minister Shinzo Abeas government stuck on the brink of declaring a state of emergency that might lead to a lockdown, Japanas restaurant, bar and chain stores are taking matters into their own hands by voluntarily shuttering hundreds of stores to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Across Tokyo this weekend and into next week, karaoke parlors, amusement centers and izakaya bars will be among the retailers closing, in many cases shutting their entire chains nationwide for more than 10 days. The closures join those of cinemas and department stores that didnat operate last weekend in response to Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koikeas call for people to stay indoors. Japanas strategy for dealing with the virus has so far eschewed full-on lockdowns seen in other rich nations; it has the lowest infection rate of the Group of Seven. The countryas authorities lack the power to enact even if a state of emergency is declared. Instead, the country has focused on encouraging people to avoid an overlap of what it calls aThree Csa a crowded spaces with poor ventilation, crowded conditions with people and conversations in a short distance. That has prompted locations likely to host those conditions to shut their doors following Koikeas call for people not to go out on weeknights after a series of suspected coronavirus cases were found among those either working or participating in Japanas seedier nightlife scene. Tokyo saw 97 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the most yet in a single day. The choice to close isnat an easy one to make, particularly for listed companies which have been punished by the market. Amusement center operator Round One Corp. fell as much as 14 percent after announcing it would close all its stores, with its shares down now down by a half this year. Yakitori restaurant chain Torikizoku Co. fell the most since listing in 2014. The government is offering subsidies for companies forced to close stores, so long as they preserve jobs. Pastor recovering from COVID-19 says I cried out to God Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Virginia pastor who became sick during a ministry trip to North Carolina in mid-March and tested positive for the new coronavirus shared the experience he had with severe and horrific symptoms of the COVID-19 disease and also with God as he cried out to Him for a chance. Pastor Kenny Baldwin of Crossroads Baptist Church in Fairfax County was preaching in North Carolina when he started feeling unwell and went to urgent care, according to WUSA90. He tested negative for the flu and strep but his fever shot up to 105 degrees with chills and aches. Soon, he felt something in his chest and tested positive for pneumonia. He was sent back home with medication and instruction. However, when his condition got worse, he got back to the hospital and was admitted and kept in isolation at Inova Fairfax Hospital, he told ABC13News. The doctor basically said with this disease you're going to get worse fast or you're going to hold on and eventually get better, and we don't know which one it will be, he was quoted as saying. I was begging, God, please just give me a chance. Please get me through this. He said all he had was the Lord. I saw God and experienced Him in a way like never before and He reminded me that His promises are true and that His word stands and that He never leaves or forsakes us. People around the world prayed for him. The pastor was given hydroxychloroquine, which is prescribed to treat and prevent malaria. Its the same medication that President Donald Trump called a miracle drug, although more testing is awaited. I have nothing but praises for that drug, Baldwin said. On March 19, the United States Food & Drug Administration announced that they were investigating the usage of the drug chloroquine to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases. Studies are underway to determine the efficacy in using chloroquine to treat COVID-19, explained the FDA. While there are no FDA-approved therapeutics or drugs to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19, there are several FDA-approved treatments that may help ease the symptoms from a supportive care perspective. Baldwin said he supports the call for everyone to stay at home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The church is not the building, he said, its the people so we are still the church no matter what. He continued, I think the challenge for all of us is to understand that our relationship with God is not contingent on physical gatherings and being in a structure. Our relationship with God is a spiritual relationship and our faith is growing. We are being built through this and need to trust Him, and value life and the people who matter. Baldwin is currently recovering at home and is hoping to be well enough to preach on Easter. As of early Sunday, there were more than 1.2 million confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus around the world and 64,774 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. In the United States, the number of cases stood at 312,146 with 8,499 deaths. A doctor leading the Samaritan's Purse coronavirus response at a field hospital in Central Park warned earlier this week that its serious. This is not something to think this is the end of the world, but it is not something thats also to dismiss, Dr. K. Elliott Tenpenny told The Christian Post at the site of the field hospital. Its serious. Its a serious disease. Its not the end of the world. Were going to make it through this, but it is serious and anyone that says differently I dont believe theyre speaking truthfully. President Donald Trump warned that this week or next week "will probably be the toughest week." "There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this (precautions) wasnt done." Chinese Officials Take to Twitter to Spread CCP Virus Disinformation China has been using tools like social media to spread conspiracy theories amid its aggressive disinformation campaign about its responsibility for the deadly CCP virus, which is threatening populations around the world. The Chinese regime is attempting to deflect a rising tide of worldwide criticism for its coverup of the CCP virus by suggesting the virus may have been the work of the U.S. Army. Chinese agencies have increased their use of Twitter as a medium to spread propaganda, analysts say. In the space of just the last quarter of 2019, the Chinese regime went from having 33 official Twitter accounts to having more than 100, says Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, an investigative journalist who covers Chinas propaganda machine, among other issues. The impetus for this surgeon a social media platform with which the Chinese regime did not initially feel confident, no lesswas the challenge presented by the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, Allen-Ebrahimian said during an April 2 online event sponsored by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington. Hong Kong saw massive pro-democracy demonstrations for most of the last half of 2019. She said there is a profound irony in Chinese officialdoms adoption of Twitter, as the regime bans the app for use by anyone physically present within the borders of mainland China. Exceptions, it seems, are made for Chinese officials who can be trusted to tweet politically correct, CCP-approved messages, and who are presumably not in danger of being corrupted or swayed by the foreign forces who may tweet them back. Allen-Ebrahimian noted that China made a departure from its typical propaganda paradigm when, in the summer of 2019, it waged a Russian-style disinformation campaign that used social media to target Hong Kong citizens and protesters who were successfully bringing the former British colony to a standstill. Russian disinformation campaigns, Allen-Ebrahimian pointed out, typically are designed to destabilize the information environment, and to create confusion and chaos in target countries. Russian methods include propagating multiple conflicting theories and building third-party conspiracy websites to promote theories that the state wants to amplify in the public domain, she said. Ultimately, Twitter suspended up to thousands of accounts believed to be tied to and coordinated by a Chinese regime-backed disinformation campaign directed from within China. Facebook also took down accounts it found suspicious for the same reason. In the past three months, the Chinese regime has been using Twitter with more nuance and precise messaging than in its clumsier attempts during the Hong Kong crisis, Allen-Ebrahimian said. A Timeline of CCP Virus Propaganda The Center for Security Policy (CSP) in Washington has been documenting the disinformation and propaganda methods used by the Chinese regime at the municipal, provincial, and national levels since the first hint that a SARS-type coronavirus was detected in Wuhan. It noted that between Jan. 20 and Feb. 10, a study by the U.S. State Departments Global Engagement Center found a massive wave of 2 million tweets promoting conspiracy theories and disinformation on the virus. Some blame the United States for manufacturing the virus; some are coordinated, which suggests the tweets are part of a planned campaign. By the week of March 2, according to a report in the French newspaper La Croix, the CCP took an extraordinary step. According to a confidential report cited by the newspaper, the CCP issued an edict to its overseas diplomats stating, It is imperative that all Chinese ambassadors abroad spread the following message from their Twitter account, or in foreign media, and that the diplomats must say that the real origin of the virus remains unknown. The diplomats were instructed to say, We are trying to find out exactly where it comes from. The motivation? Everything that links China to the virus must be questioned and disappear from all history books, the edict said. Chinese embassies abroad also were told to begin calling the virus by the name of each host country. Therefore, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo should refer to the Japanese virus, the embassy in Rome should use Italian virus, and so on. Allen-Ebrahimian noted that on March 9, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that Chinas endeavor to combat the epidemic has bought time for international preparedness. Not content to just cast the regime as the savior rather than the villain of the pandemic, by March 12, a senior Chinese official decided to suggest who the actual villain was. Writing on Twitter, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, suggested in a now-infamous tweet that the U.S. Army brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Allen-Ebrahimian commented that Zhao doubled down on that, and others picked it up. It was shocking to me, she said. That was the first time I had heard a [Chinese] official spewing anti-foreign conspiracy theories that relate to public health. Leaders in Beijing are deploying a strategy not seen in any significant way since the Cold War, she said, referring to the 1950s-era accusation that China made alleging that the United States used biological weapons during the Korean War. Papers from a reputable Chinese source who refuted the charge were published in China only in 2013. Allen-Ebrahimian said the change in the Chinese regimes strategy shows how deeply concerned they are about their role and how they are perceived, and their coverup that this deadly, once-in-a-century epidemic came from China. A global economic depression is avoidable. This is not a repeat of 1929 or 2008. Central banks and governments have already taken drastic steps to break the chain reaction and prevent the secondary fallout from COVID-19 causing a credit heart attack. The imminent risk two weeks ago was foot-dragging or complacency would allow recessionary forces to metastasise into something far worse. That has been largely averted - miraculously, given that there is no longer a functioning G20 global system. The jaw-dropping spectacle of 6.6 million "lost" US jobs in a single week certainly tests nerves. It is an order of magnitude worse than the peak hit from demobilisation after the Second World War. The queues outside Centrelink which sprung up overnight highlighted the surge in demand for welfare. Credit:Jason South Bank of America has pencilled in unemployment of 15.4 per cent in the US by late spring. Michael Darda, from MKM, fears it could break 20 per cent and match 1933 records. We thought it could not happen again in a modern developed economy. We think again. Mass lay-offs in Europe are cushioned by "Kurzarbeit" (part-time) schemes and emergency subsidies for salaries. Yet they are scarcely less alarming. A fifth of all private sector workers in France have been temporarily laid off. Italy's business lobby Confindustria says its economy faces a cascade of defaults within weeks that could all too easily tip over into full depression. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The State government has issued directions to all District Collectors/Magistrates and Municipal Commissioners to use drones for sanitising several areas. Earlier, Express had reported that the government was planning to scale up drone operations across Telangana following the novel coronavirus outbreak. Earlier this week, on Tuesday, it instructed collectors and municipal commissioners in the State that they can use drones for disinfecting public places such as roads, bus stations, railways, MMTS stations, streets where there is a high possibility of virus exposure. The IT Department also recommended that these cleaning operations be taken up early in the morning and late at night times for faster and uninterrupted operations. Drones can complete spraying disinfectant operations 50 times faster than manual methods. Citing the example of Marut Drones, which has been spraying anti-larval solutions on water bodies in Hyderabad, the State government said the operations would be relatively simple and inexpensive to operate.Although the IT Department is currently using drones only to spray disinfectants, it has relayed its various other benefits to the District Collector and Municipal Commissioners, indicating that in the future, and if needed it may use drones for other needs. According to information available with Express, the State government has told officials that drones could be used for monitoring public for crowd control and medicine delivery. Recently, in March, the State demonstrated its capabilities in the presence of officials from Ministry of Civil Aviation in delivering medicines through drones. Drones have been used for spraying disinfectants in the Mukurampur area of Karimnagar from where 10 Indonesians and one local had tested positive for Covid-19. All major public places including auto stands and markets were sanitised. FASTER, CHEAPER Drones can complete spraying disinfectant operations 50 times faster than manual methods. The State government feels the operations would be relatively simple and inexpensive to operate 05.04.2020 LISTEN Some 50 individuals have been made to desilt chocked drains in the Central Business District of Kasoa after they were found loitering during the partial lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The 50 were arrested by the joint Military and Police task force in different locations in Kasoa. Since some individuals have decided to abuse the regulatory social distancing policy we have decided that if we get some of the culprits and they do not know what they are doing in town we will give them some communal labour, the Municipal Chief Executive for Awutu Senya East, Michael Essuman Mensah said to Citi News. Mr. Mensah expects this form of punishment to prevent people from loitering around in town. He indicated that women, when caught, will be made to sweep the Kasoa flyover area. I have realised that women are also loitering around indeed this jobs are particularly for men but tomorrow I will bring brooms and shovel so when we see the women loitering around we will give them the brooms to sweep, Mr. Mensah warned. He was optimistic that this form of punishment will prevent people from loitering around. We dont take delight in having people desilt gutters because we have the budget for that but I must also say that when we started this it has brought huge restrictions on people loitering, Michael Essuman Mensah said. Earlier in the week, 14 individuals were also arrested for loitering. They were subsequently arraigned before the Ofaakor Circuit court presided over by Justice Ebenezer Osei Darko who remanded them into Police custody to reappear again April 16, 2020. citinewsroom By Express News Service HYDERABAD: RangaReddy district authorities on Saturday seized a dental hospital at Shadnagar for allegedly treating a Covid-19 patient from Chegur village and not informing officials concerned about it. Srinivasa Dental Hospital will remain shut for the next three months. Health, revenue and police officials conducted the raid. According to a circular by Rangareddy District and Medical Health Officer (DMHO), a woman from Chegur in Nandigama mandal went to a private clinic in the village where she was given basic treatment. She was later referred to Srinivasa Dental Hospital. From here, she was shifted to Gandhi Hospital where she died on the evening of April 3. The woman was declared Covid-19 positive. The hospital did not inform the government about the patient, which is mandatory as per protocol. Speaking to the media after seizing the hospital, Deputy DMHO Dr Chandu Naik said the doctors who treated the woman were sent to quarantine and their samples were sent for tests. Meanwhile, Cyberabad Police booked two RMPs Pratap Reddy and Vital under Sections 188 of the IPC, Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases. The DMHO directed all private healthcare facilities to submit details of patients suffering from Covid-19 symptoms, to the district Medical, revenue or police department. If they fail to comply with the directions, they will be booked under the IPC and Disaster Management Act, and Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, the circular read. The Church of England has begun one of the most important weeks in the Christian calendar with a virtual Palm Sunday service organised to limit social contact during the UKs coronavirus outbreak. Churches across the country are broadcasting services digitally in the lead-up to Easter, with more than 1,000 livestreams taking place on a regular basis, after the country was placed under lockdown in March. The Palm Sunday service, led by the Bishop of Manchester, was the third to be broadcast on national Church of England channels since public worship in church buildings was suspended following government guidance on social distancing. A national service broadcast by the Archbishop of Canterbury last week, which also featured on BBC Radio 4 and local radio stations, attracted about five million listeners and viewers. On Sunday, the Bishop of Manchester marked the start of Holy Week and Easter with a sermon from his home in Salford and spoke of the support and comfort being drawn from campaigns such as the Clap For Carers to thank NHS workers. In this time of social, or more accurately physical, distancing, the ways in which we can come together matter even more, David Walker, the bishop, said. It wasn't only our health workers who took strength from that recent evening when so many emerged from their front doors to offer a round of applause. Each might only have been able to see or hear at most a handful of others, but everyone knew that this was something huge - a mighty crowd. At York Minster, worship and prayers for Holy Week and Easter will be entirely digital for the first time in the cathedral's 800-year history and a new series of audio mini-services will be released to mark important days throughout the week, with readings, prayers and a special video message from the Dean of York. Pope Francis prays as he celebrates Palm Sunday Mass behind closed doors (AP) Palm Sunday is the start of the most solemn week of the Christian calendar, when events leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are commemorated. In Vatican City, Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in the shelter of St Peters Basilica without the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while parish priests in Rome took to church rooftops and bell towers to lead services. Tens of thousands of Romans, tourists and pilgrims normally attend an outdoor Mass led by the pontiff, clutching olive tree branches or palm fronds. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Francisian friars wearing surgical masks and gloves made house calls delivering olive branches to Christians who are self-isolating as a precaution against Covid-19. Today everything is empty and silent and it's very odd, it's very sad, said Acting Latin Patriarch Of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who presided over the Palm Sunday ceremony. Additional reporting by agencies Amidst the global coronavirus outbreak, South Sudan on April 5 announced its first case of coronavirus. According to reports, South Sudan is one of the last countries to report the coronavirus case within its borders. The announcement was made by Riek Machar, the countrys first vice president in a press conference that was given in Juba, the countries capital. Member of UN staff As per reports, the first case is that of a woman who had recently arrived in South Sudan from the Netherlands via Ethiopia. She had arrived on February 28. The nationality of the coronavirus patient has not been disclosed. Later in a statement, the United Nations mission in South Sudan claimed that the woman who had tested positive was a member of its staff. According to reports, the woman tested positive for coronavirus on April 4 after she had presented herself for testing at a UN clinic on April 2. Machar added during the press conference that the Ministry of Health in South Sudan was leading a full investigation with World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in order to identify ad follow up with all the possible contacts that the patient could have made and the next steps to be followed. Read: Africa Gets Emergency Medical Supplies From Chinas Jack Ma Read: Kanika Kapoor's Lucknow Hotel Party Overlapped With Team South Africa's Stay There: Report As per reports, South Sudan is woefully underdeveloped and that makes it one of the worlds poorest countries. South Sudan has been in the midst of several civil wars over the past decades and this has left it ill-equipped to fight the pandemic or provide even basic health care to its citizens. After South Sudan, there are only three countries in Africa that have not reported any cases of COVID-19. These countries are Lesotho in southern Africa and the island nations of Comoros and Sao Tome and Principe. The deadly coronavirus pandemic that began in China last year has infected 1,202,543 people globally and killed 64,732 worldwide. (Image Credit: PTI) Read: Africa Reports Massive Jump In Coronavirus Cases As Government Warns Of A Long Battle Read: South Africa Criminalises Spreading False Information About Coronavirus 05.04.2020 LISTEN Industry players in the Cashew Value Chain have expressed concern the industry is under severe pressure as a result of restrictions brought on globally by the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19). They say the shutdown of export markets like Vietnam and India is having devastating impact on the livelihood of thousands of cashew farmers locally. They observe that early this year, the international market price of cashew was about US$1,500 per tonne but it is now pegged at about US$950, a 63% fall. In an exclusive interview with this reporter on Ghanas agricultural sector, challenges smallholder farmers are facing and how policymakers are responding, the sector players said a lot of them are struggling to breakeven after contracting loans to invest into their productions. General Secretary of Cashew Buyers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Alhaji Justice Mahama Ansomah, said the situation is heartbreaking. When asked if its an opportunity for local exporters to take back the trade, Alhaji Ansomah whispered where are we going to sell it? Our local processors have all shut down their machineries because theyre not getting buyers It is time for farmers and other players within the value chain particularly exporters to tie the knot and fix our indifferences he advised. Member of the Cashew Council of Ghana and President of the Association of Cashew Processors Ghana Mr. Ed-Malvin Nii Ayibonte Smith said its time government turns his attention to local processing and preservation. Government must invest in the building of modern processing machinery whiles financial institutions help with credits; this is our way out from this kind of crisis we have found ourselves in today, he said. Secretary of Ghana National Cashew Farmers Association, Clement Anane clarified that the cashew sector had its own challenges but the coronavirus epidemic has exacerbated matters.100kg bag of Raw Cashew Nuts has reduced from GH700 to between GH350; we are forced to sell the fruit at a profit-less price, he grieved. The Director for the Department of Food and Agricultural for Jaman North District Mr. Emmanuel Kwabena Afful advised Cashew farmers to embrace the enactment of the Tree Crops Development Law, which is in the offing. It would regulate and ensure the production, pricing and marketing of tree crops, including cashew he said. Dr. Anthony Augustus, Mainoo Project Manager for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and also Project Manager for the Bono-Asante Atea (BAAT) Project indicated that there is the need to support one another in these trying moments. Our cashew farmers are in crisis and this is the time they need more of our support; ADRA will soon begin talks with some financial institutions and individual investors and see if we can find a way of buying the raw nuts and storing whiles waiting for the pandemic to normalize across the globe adding that Ghana alone contributes 43.8% Cashew to the global market, he said. The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Agribusiness, Mr. Anthony S.K. Morrison called private sector players in the country to invest more into the cashew value chain at this critical moment. The Chamber as soon as possible will start having conversation with other international players about what we can do to aid our cashew farmers. Under one umbrella we can fight for reforms, he said. A farmer and legislator for the Kintampo North Constituency Kwasi Etu-Bonde revealed that the cashew sector is constrained by weak value chain linkages due to uncoordinated policies. Ghana has a comparative advantage to process more raw cashew nuts to the global market yet the non-existence of key agricultural infrastructure and high utility bills makes it impossible for local processors and exporters, he pointed out. BY Quainoo Reuben The Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, says 25 of the 127 people who returned to the state from Cote dIvoire recently are not indigenes of the state. The governor said this on Sunday as he spoke on the steps the state government is taking to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the state. Mr Oyetola, at a press briefing in Osogbo on Sunday, gave an update on the 127 returnees, 17 of whom have since tested positive for coronavirus. PREMIUM TIMES reported that Osun recorded the first COVID-19 case on March 25. The case is a returnee from the United Kingdom (UK), who voluntarily submitted himself for testing and treatment. Since then, the cases have increased to 20. Mr Oyetola said the reason for the increased incidence of cases is known to you and members of the public. You will recall that last week, we received about 127 returnees from Ivory Coast, who came into the country through Ogun State border, where they were allowed entry and escorted by security officials from Ogun State to Osun. Upon their arrival in the state, as a proactive measure, we immediately quarantined them at an isolation centre in Ejigbo. We later discovered upon profiling that some of these returnees are indigenes and residents of other states such as Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, Imo, Edo, Delta and Abia among others. Mr Oyetola said of the 127 returnees, 17 tested positive for Coronavirus while 110 returned negative. As expected, the arrival of these 127 returnees to the State has generated concerns, insinuations and misinformation in the public sphere, including false stories of escape by some of the returnees and poor state of the isolation centre, despite our efforts to give timely update of the situation to the general public via state-wide broadcast, press releases and other communication channels. As we had earlier indicated in a press release, all the returnees who tested positive are intact at our facility and are undergoing adequate and proper treatment at our care centre and are all stable. We are hopeful that they will soon recover safely from the virus and rejoin their families. The governor said the 109 whose results came back negative have been released to join their families. Among them are: 11 to Oyo State, two are going to Lagos State, one to Ogun State, three each to Edo and Abia states, four to Delta State and one to Imo State, while 85 will remain here in Osun. They have been advised to observe all the prescribed safety and preventive measures and to call our helplines if they start to feel unwell, the governor said. Call for Federal Government Support The current number of index cases that the State of Osun has recorded was a domino effect of governments responsiveness and proactive interception of what would have resulted in a national distress, Mr Oyetola said. The effect of our intervention convinced us that we took the right decision, because if the returnees had been released into their various states, tracing them and their contacts would have been difficult and the implications would have been catastrophic for our state, those other states and indeed the entire nation. Considering our peculiar circumstance, there is the urgent need for the Federal Government to assist us in our efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Our call is predicated on the fact that some of the samples that were tested indicated high level of viral loads, suggesting a strong capability to infect massively if necessary measures are not taken. He said what we have is not a case of community transmission, but of infection within a controlled group; one which we are actively and effectively addressing. As a way of cushioning the hardships accruing from the inevitable lockdown in the state, which we imposed during the course of the progressive surge in the number of confirmed index cases, we have constituted a 21-man Food and Relief committee, comprising eminent sons and daughters of Osun. He said the committee is working out strategy for delivering relief materials to the people. We are determined to ensure that the relief packages get to the people who deserve them the most. We would like our people to know that Coronavirus is our common enemy. It poses a threat to our lives and livelihood. We therefore, appeal to our citizens and the general public to cooperate with us to tame this deadly virus. We put ourselves, our families and livelihood in jeopardy when we pander to ignorance and play politics with a life-snuffing virus. He urged the residents not to panic, but to obey the orders of the government to stay at home and stay safe. The governor thanked health officials, volunteers and security agencies who have been up and doing at personal costs during these trying times. Advertisements India's national airlines, Air India has gone out of its way to rescue Indian as well as foreign nationals and get them back to safety, amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The airlines has operated numerous evacuation flights around the world and several countries have lauded them for the same. The latest to join in the appreciation wagon is Pakistan, who appreciated the airline while an Air India flight was on its way to Frankfurt, Germany. The flight was carrying relief materials, and European nationals who were stranded in India after PM Modi announced a total lock down for the country. AFP According to an NDTV report, a senior Air India officer said, "The flight took off from Mumbai at 1430 hours. We entered Pakistan airspace at 1700 hours. We tried to contact Air Traffic Control but did not get a response. So we changed frequencies and (then) managed to contact ATC." The report further added that the Pakistan ATC said, "As-salamu alaykum (Peace be upon you). This is Karachi Control welcoming Air India for relief flights." Air India officials also said that the Pakistan ATC not only let them fly closer to Karachi which saved them 15 minutes of flight time but also said, "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" AFP That wasn't all, the Pakistan ATC also helped the flight get in touch with Iran Air Traffic Controllers. The report adds, "Here also Pakistan helped us and got in touch with Iran and gave our message to them. Normally in such flights we spend maximum number of hours in Iran airspace but Iran also gave us a shorter route." According to the report, the flight was supposed to reach Frankfurt at 0915 hours but instead managed to reach at 0835 hours, thanks to Pakistan and Iran's help. AFP During a global crisis like the one we're experiencing, countries coming together to help each other out is the only way to get through. A whistleblower has revealed how he watched essential medical equipment being purchased from Australian pharmacies then shipped to China during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Greenland Group, which manages property developments across the globe with the support of the Chinese government, told employees at its Sydney office in January to stop their normal work. Instead, they were tasked with sourcing face masks, hand sanitisers, thermometers and other medical items, storing them at their office and shipping them to China. One of the company's workers told 60 Minutes he felt uncomfortable and suspicious watching board rooms fill up with emergency equipment being repackaged for export. 'I think in a time of crisis, we all have a responsibility to do something, and I felt that I had to do something,' he said. 'It just didn't sit with me that this type of thing could happen. I couldn't just watch it and just stay silent.' Medical experts are desperately worried about a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is already leaving frontline medical staff exposed to coronavirus infection. Australia's supply of face masks had already been depleted by the bushfire crisis when the coronavirus pandemic took off in Wuhan, China. Pallets of medical equipment being shipped to China by property developers Risland Australia, another Beijing-backed firm that repurposed staff to buy up supplies for China Risland sent 90 tonnes of medical supplies bought in Australia back to China in February As the pandemic began to take hold in Australia, bulk supplies of vital medical items were shipped from Sydney to China at the request of Beijing-backed Greenland Group. 'It definitely rose my suspicion think the main concern was if all of these essential medical items leave the country, what's left for us?' the Greenland whistleblower said. 'It is very unsettling that essential equipment can just leave our borders in massive commercial quantities Greenland Group was not the only Chinese-backed company to buy up Australian supplies. Chinese real estate developer Poly Developments and Holdings told staff at the Sydney office in Australia Square to check local pharmacies for N95 surgical face masks or 8210 masks. The heavy-duty waterproof protective equipment that medical workers are using overseas to deal with coronavirus, that Australian health care workers can only dream about The staff replied they were searching the city from Eastwood to Hornsby, Penrith and Mona Vale. In February, another Chinese property developer, Risland Australia, shipped 90 tonnes of medical protection equipment to China. Risland made an online post last month saying '90 tonnes of selective medical supplies' were sent 'air transport direct from Sydney to Wuhan via corporate jet'. Video footage also emerged showed boxes of surgical masks being stacked up at a Perth airport before being sent to Wuhan on February 8 - when there were 15 cases of coronavirus in Australia. China makes most of the world's protective equipment after globalisation shifted manufacturing to the low-cost producer. Workers at a face mask production line on March 30 in Longyan, Fujian Province (pictured). China has seized production at a number of factories China did not just tell its companies in Australia to buy up medical supplies - the Chinese Communist Party's affiliates were buying up supplies around the world. In two months, China amassed an estimated 2.4 billion pieces of protective equipment including more than 2 billion masks, 60 Minutes reported. At the same time it seized production at factories producing protective equipment for export to countries around the world. Chinese property developers Greenland sent staff out to buy the medical supplies (pictured). A whistleblower has revealed how he felt so uncomfortable he just had to take action The whistleblower told 60 Minutes how suspicious he felt watching the boxes of medical supplies being unpacked and repacked in the staff room, board room and lunch room Face mask manufacturer Medicom Group's president of North American operations Guillaume Laverdure said the Chinese Government had requisitioned three factories in China and one in Shanghai. 'So the government sent people to take control of the inventory and the products in our factory,' Mr Laverdure told 60 Minutes. 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 coronavirus crisis has revealed the weakness of a globalised supply chain which has left Australia reliant on imports, stripped of its capacity to make lifesaving equipment in the face of a deadly pandemic. By allowing importers to undercut domestic manufacturers, Australia lost the ability to make its own masks and all the manufacturing capacity moved to low-cost China. World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had sounded the alarm on the global shortage of protective equipment on February 7, even as Chinese companies were stripping Australian pharmacies of masks. 'The world is facing severe disruption in the market for personal protective equipment,' Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus told a televised press conference from Geneva. 'Global stocks of masks and respirators are now insufficient to meet the needs of WHO and our partners.' Dr Tedros's announcement came just two weeks after Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt toured the national medical stockpile, posting pictures on Twitter to reassure the Australian public that with 20 million single-use masks, Australia did not have a shortage. How bulk supplies of Australia's face masks, hand sanitisers and other vital medical items were shipped to CHINA as the coronavirus pandemic took hold Bulk supplies of vital medical items were shipped from Sydney to China at the request of a Beijing-backed property giant as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Australia. Greenland Group, which manages property developments across the globe with the support of the Chinese government, told employees at its Sydney office to stop their normal work in January. Instead, they were tasked with sourcing face masks, hand sanitisers, thermometers and other medical items, storing them at their office and shipping them to China. A whistleblower told The Sydney Morning Herald the exercise was a worldwide effort and continued until the end of February. 'Basically all employees, the majority of whom are Chinese, were asked to source whatever medical supplies they could,' the insider said. 'There were numerous requests from the HR manager and even our direct reporting line [which] prioritised the assisting of the company in gathering these supplies over other work activities.' Greenland Group told Chinese language media in Australia the company collected three million protective masks, 700,000 hazmat suits and 500,000 pairs of medical gloves during the global effort. It is unclear how many of those were sourced in Australia. 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 Greenland Group confirmed the shipments from Sydney to China in a statement to Daily Mail Australia, saying it 'felt compelled' to assist 'in efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus, which had caused a shortage of critical medical supplies in China'. The supplies were 'dispatched to China, which at that time was the epicentre of the outbreak', the statement read. 'As such, Greenland Group initiated a drive for medical supplies, and provided accommodation services for front-line medical staff in China via the company's hotel group. 'Greenland Australia supported Greenland Group's initiative by arranging for medical supplies to be dispatched to China. Again, it should be noted that this proactive response occurred in late January and early February, at a time when the worldwide spread of the virus, and all response efforts, were focused on China.' Photos show pallet-loads of medical items stored in company-stamped boxes at Greenland's Sydney offices and at various airports. Sherwood Lou, Greenland Australia's managing director, shared photos of the supplies on February 13. He wrote at the time: 'The second batch of non-contact forehead thermometers will soon take off to China! Coronavirus situation is serious, Chinese people, local and overseas, are trying their best, fighting together to combat the virus.' Greenland Group told Chinese language media in Australia the company collected three million protective masks, 700,000 hazmat suits and 500,000 pairs of medical gloves during the global effort The company has sold a billion dollars worth of property in Sydney and Melbourne since its 2013 arrival to Australia. Meanwhile, the Federal Government is scrambling to produce enough medical supplies as confirmed local coronavirus cases surge to more than 2,400 - and doubling about every three days. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said a 'war production unit' had been convened at the weekend to prepare Australia. The Federal Government is scrambling to produce enough medical supplies as confirmed local coronavirus cases surge to more than 2,400. Pictured: Two young women in face masks walk along Circular Quay in Sydney on Wednesday 'We have four companies that have indicated that they are willing to make ventilators and will be seeking approvals which have been given at light speed,' he told Nine News on Monday. 'At the same time, we are working on imports and procurements, large volumes of masks have arrived over the course of the weekend, additional volumes of testing kits.' Australia has only one face mask factory in operation, The Med-Con in Shepparton, a regional area of northern Victoria. It is facing an unprecedented demand to make face masks and hospital gowns during the crisis. Advertisement Health Minister Greg Hunt toured a national medical supply warehouse on January 24, saying Australia had 20 million single-use face masks. The WHO announced a global shortage of personal protective equipment on February 7 Pictured: Australian-based Chinese property company Risland shipped 90 tonnes worth of vital medical supplies to Wuhan Risland made an online post last month that declared their support for Wuhan and showed workers inside a warehouse packed with thousands of boxes of protective clothing (pictured) Sydney anaesthetist Robert Hackett risked his job to speak out about the protective equipment shortage now facing frontline medical staff in major Australian hospitals. As 60 Minutes reporter Liz Hayes demonstrated how all the wall-mounted dispensers were empty of hand sanitiser, Dr Hackett told of how staff were having to reuse single-use masks while others had no masks at all. 'The equipment we do have is pretty much not much more than a plastic flimsy gown at times ... we're desperate to get these things on the frontline as soon as possible,' he said. 'Many of my colleagues have purchased hooded gowns and other bits of equipment from Bunnings and have even pleaded for other people to go to Bunnings and buy these bits of equipment - I mean we are desperate, none of us ever signed up for this.' Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said on Wednesday April 1 that the government had banned the export of essential medical supplies such as masks, gloves, gowns, goggles, visors or alcohol wipes, as well as hand sanitiser. Anyone caught exporting the goods may face up to five years' jail under the new amendment to the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations 1958 Act called 'COVID-19 Human Biosecurity Emergency'. A small group of senior aides and allies to Sen. Bernie Sanders are urging him to call it quits and drop out of the presidential contest. Among the people who are urging the Vermont. Senator to rethink his strategy and withdraw from the race are his campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who is a top surrogate for Sanders, according to the Washington Post. Its clear not everyone who is close to the senator feels the same way but Sanders campaign is not explaining what his path to victory would be, notes Politico. Advertisement Although still technically possible, Sanders would have to gather up 60 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination, a highly unlikely scenario considering he was only able to achieve that in Nevada and Vermont this year. As that reality sinks in, it seems Sanders himself is giving more thought to the idea of dropping out of the race. And that may very well become more likely if he loses big in Tuesdays Wisconsin primary as polls currently suggest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There seems to be a clear divide among Sanders allies between those who are closer to the Democratic Party and have been more clear on insisting that he analyze the possibility of dropping out. There is a broad concern among many of these aides and allies of the narrative that could take hold blaming Sanders for a failure to unite Democrats around Biden. Others, however, insist there is a clear reason to continue obtaining as many delegates as possible. Sanders needs at least 1,200 delegates, compared to the 914 he has now, to have negotiating power at the convention. If he drops out before reaching that number, its going to be Bidens people writing the platform, thats it, said Larry Cohen, a top ally who is one of the most vocal advocates of Sanders staying in the race. The latest big name to call on Sanders to drop out is his doppelganger. Larry David, who often plays Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live, said the Vermont senator should end his campaign for the presidency. I feel he should drop out, David told the New York Times in an interview published Saturday. Because hes too far behind. He cant get the nomination. And I think, you know, its no time to fool around here. Everybodys got to support Biden. Spain's prime minister announced Saturday an extension of the country's lockdown to combat the coronavirus, saying the measures are "bearing fruit" as the number of deaths fell for a second day in a row. A nationwide 15-day state of emergency was first announced on March 14 barring people from leaving home except for essential outings such as buying food or seeking medical care. It was to end on April 11 after being extended by two weeks. "The cabinet on Tuesday will again ask for authorisation from parliament to extend for a second time the state of alert until Saturday April 25 at midnight," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised speech. The extra weeks are "the time that our health system needs to recover," he said. Hospitals, in particular the intensive care units, have been overwhelmed by an influx of coronavirus patients. However, Spain on Saturday recorded a second successive daily fall in coronavirus-related deaths with 809 fatalities. The total number of deaths in the country stands at 11,744, second only to Italy. The number of new Spanish cases also slowed to 7,026, taking the total to 124,736. "We know that these three weeks of isolation are bearing fruit," Sanchez said. The confinement has allowed "a containment of the avalanche on the hospitals, the care of the sick and saved lives." But to "ease up now would have a worse result," he said, warning of a "second wave" of infections. "Yes, we are seeing a glimmer of hope," but " we are entering a new phase that will not be easy, the transition phase," said Dr Maria Jose Sierra of the health ministry's emergencies centre. Sanchez said he could not rule out further extentions, but said an easing of the strict regulations could be possible if the situation improves. Spain is still racing against the clock to procure more medical equipment for its overstretched hospitals, notably respirators. About 50 arrived from Germany on Friday, after Spain appealed to its NATO allies. Another shipment was to be sent from Turkey but was eventually requisitioned by Turkish authorities. A staff member of Odyssey House Louisiana, which runs a drive-thru testing site for the CCP virus, waves to passing vehicles to try to alert the community about testing in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 27, 2020. (Kathleen Flynn/Reuters) New Orleans Area CCP Virus Death Rate Is Highest in US, Data Shows The New Orleans area now has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the United States, as of April 3, surpassing hot spots such as New York City. Two Louisiana parishes, which are equivalent in that state to counties, have the most CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus deaths per capita in the country, said Gary Wagner, an economics professor at the University of LouisianaLafayette. Wagner has been tracking the pandemics effects in the state, The Wall Street Journal reported. St. John the Baptist Parish and Orleans Parish have the highest and second-highest death rates from the CCP virus, respectively, he said. Orleans Parish encompasses New Orleans, the largest city in Louisiana. According to a graph provided by Wagner to the Journal, St. John the Baptist Parish has a death rate from the virus of more than 39 per 100,000 residents. Meanwhile, the death rate for New York City was 18.86 per 100,000 people, the New York Post reported. As of April 4, Louisiana had around 12,500 cases and 409 deaths, Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Edwards has said that Louisianas death rate can be partially attributed to the relatively poor health of its residents; the state has high levels of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and heart disease. Emergency medicine physician Thomas Krajewski arrives at work for the start of his shift amid an outbreak of the CCP virus in New Orleans, La., on March 27, 2020. (Kathleen Flynn/Reuters) We have more than our fair share of people who have the comorbidities that make them especially vulnerable, the governor said. On March 23, Edwards implemented a statewide stay-at-home order, while some places in the two parishes have implemented curfews. Edwards warned on April 5 that Louisiana will run out of ventilators by April 9. Were a couple of days behind that on ICU beds, Edwards told CNN. Underlying Health Problems The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported March 31 that individuals with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease have a higher chance of succumbing to the virus or being hospitalized in intensive care units (ICU). Based on preliminary U.S. data, persons with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease, appear to be at higher risk for severe COVID-19-associated disease than persons without these conditions, the agency wrote in a report last week. About 78 percent of patients admitted to ICUs and 71 percent who were hospitalized without ICU treatment had at least one underlying health condition or risk factor, according to the CDC. Former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton has seemingly criticized Jared Kushner's involvement in the efforts to combat COVID-19, saying that even with her experience in public health, she wouldn't be qualified to take on a role in the Coronavirus Task Force. Donald Trump's son-in-law addressed the country during a briefing Thursday alongside Vice President Mike Pence, response coordinator for White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx, Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro. But Chelsea who lived in the White House from 1993 to 2001 appeared to take aim at Kushner, senior advisor to the president, in a series of tweets the following day. '(Keep thinking: I've a Masters in Public Health; wrote my doctoral dissertation on global efforts to tackle AIDS pandemic; co-authored a book on global health governance; teach MPH courses on health systems & global health & I'm not qualified to lead a national #covid19 effort.),' she tweeted. Jared Kushner, advisor and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump, speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Washington, DC, on Thursday (left). Chelsea Clinton tweeted Friday: 'I'm not qualified to lead a national #covid19 effort' The former First Daughter tweeted about how she received her masters in Public Health and wrote a doctoral dissertation on global efforts to tackle AIDS pandemic but wasn't up to leading the pandemic response Kushner's prior experience is in real estate development, investment and newspaper publishing. Since he started his term in office, Trump has been criticized for making his children, Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr., advisers. Chelsea was only a child when her father Bill Clinton led the country. But after one social media user suggested Republicans would not have accepted it if First Lady Hillary won the 2016 election and did the same with Chelsea and her husband Marc Mexvinsky, she appeared to confirm she was referring to Kushner in her previous tweet. 'Imagine Hillary Clinton in the White House putting Chelsea Clinton's husband, Mark, in charge of handling the COVID-19 situation,' the Twitter user wrote. 'And when Mark briefed the country, he always praised her. 'Republicans would go insane, but not if the conflict of interest benefits them.' Chelsea retweeted the message and commented: 'My imagination doesn't stretch that far.' On Friday she appeared to further criticize Trump's decision making following the coronavirus outbreak when she retweeted Sen. Brian Schatz's (D-Hawaii) message that 'we are seeing preventable mass deaths in the United States'. Hillary Clinton celebrates with her husband, former President Bill Clinton (rear), and their daughter Chelsea Clinton (R) at her caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa on February 1, 2016 Left, Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky are pictured September 26, 2019. Right, Senior Advisers to the President, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, listen as Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire on February 10 Asked to imagine if Hillary Clinton had done the same had she won the White House, she replied: 'My imagination doesn't stretch that far' On Friday she appeared to further criticize Trump's decision making following the coronavirus outbreak when she retweeted Sen. Brian Schatz's (D-Hawaii) message that 'we are seeing preventable mass deaths in the United States' Above shows the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US and how they have escalated since January As the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 9,500 Americans since the end of January, Chelsea has criticized Trump's handling of the crisis. On Tuesday she retweeted a reporter who said it was 'breathtaking' how the White House's briefing room slide listed a projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from coronavirus as 'goals of community mitigation'. Chelsea added that there had been 'multiple failures-to test every suspected case, to isolate confirmed cases, to contact trace, to adequately prepare & protect our health workers'. 'President @realDonaldTrump didn't cause #covid19 but people are dying because of his failure in public health, leadership & humanity,' Chelsea continued. A week prior she blasted Trump on Twitter after he said that if states want the federal government to be a good partner to them in fighting coronavirus, 'they have to treat us well'. 'YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Not some states,' she commented on the tweet which contained a video of Trump's utterance. 'Not just of the people who voted for you. Not just of the people who are American citizens (2020 census). THE UNITED STATES. It's never too late to start acting like it.' Tuesday, Chelsea Clinton criticized Trump as she said there had been 'multiple failures - to test every suspected case, to isolate confirmed cases, to contact trace, to adequately prepare & protect our health workers' Last month Chelsea Clinton blasted the president for treating some states more favorably in the fight against COVID-19 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said the lockdown imposed to stem the coronavirus spread will be lifted on April 15 but cautioned that a mechanism should be evolved to avoid crowding or else all efforts will go in vain. In a videoconference with the state's Members of Parliament, the chief minister also sought their suggestions for a smooth movement of people and restoration of services after the lockdown. "The lockdown will be lifted on April 15. We have to ensure that the crowding doesn't take place. Your help and cooperation is needed in this regard. The reason is that after the lockdown is lifted and if crowding takes place, all our efforts will go in vain,"Adityanath told the MPs. "So, I want that we evolve a mechanism, and for this, I would invite your suggestions," he said. He asked MPs and ministers to keep a watch in their respective areas so that people do not face problems during the lockdown. The UP chief minister said suggestions from people's representatives would help our government to formulate proper strategies, the UP government said in a statement issued here. He said it would be decided only after the suggestions of where and how much relaxation should be given in the first phase. Suggestions were also sought on which organisations should be given how much exemptions, the statement said. "Challenges would remain even after the lockdown is lifted. Thus, we need to prepare in advance for the situation to be under control after the lockdown is lifted. Making the public aware about social distancing and following it in public places should be our first priority," he said. The CM appealed to all MPs and ministers to contribute Rs 1 crore from MP/MLA fund as well as one-month salary of MLAs to the Uttar Pradesh COVID Care Fund, the statement said. He said BSP chief Mayawati has also appealed to her legislators to contribute to this fund. Adityanath informed that this fund would help in expanding the capacity of medical colleges and district level hospitals. "Money will be spent on the procurement and arrangement of ventilators, PPEs, isolation wards, testing lab at district level. There is an effort to collect about Rs 1,500 crore in this fund, so that necessary works can be expedited," he said. Apart from this, he also called on the general population to contribute to this fund. The UP chief minister said a decision has been taken to give Rs 1,000 to petty vendors, labourers, e-rickshaw drivers, rickshaw-pullers and daily-wagers across the state. In a statement, the Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said around 2 lakh families in the state will be given an immediate financial assistance of Rs 1,000 each in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The decision has been taken to transfer this amount directly to their accounts," he said. For those not having any ration card or bank account, Adityanath appealed to MPs and ministers to identify such people and get their bank accounts opened and also get Rs 1,000 transferred in their accounts. Apart from this, Adityanath said about 3.50 lakh workers do not have ration cards nor they have bank accounts. Such people should also be identified and it should be ensured that they get ration cards and their bank accounts are opened. All public representatives should cooperate for this work in every district, he said. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey, who attended the video-conference, told PTI, "We spoke to the UP chief minister and he told us about the work done and steps taken by the state government during the lockdown. The video-conference continued for nearly an hour." He said the MPs praised the chief minister for the good work done by the state government. "We are doing all our work, while adhering to the lockdown," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ireland's Prime Minister has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will work one shift a week to help out during the coronavirus crisis, his office said today. Leo Varadkar worked as a doctor for seven years before leaving the profession to become a politician. He was removed from the medical register in 2013. He rejoined the medical register in March, and offered his services to Ireland's Health Service Executive for one session a week in areas within his scope of practice. 'Many of his family and friends are working in the health service. He wanted to help out even in a small way,' a spokesperson for his office added. It comes as Ireland aims to almost double coronavirus testing to 4,500 a day, at the start of what the Health Minister called a 'really crucial week' in the pandemic. Today it was announced that 21 more patients diagnosed with Covid-19 had died in the Republic, bringing the overall virus-linked death toll to 158. Leo Varadkar (pictured) has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will work one shift a week to help out during the coronavirus crisis, his office said today It comes as Ireland aims to almost double coronavirus testing to 4,500 a day (pictured, Gardai stop and question people at a checkpoint on O'Connell Street in Dublin) Today it was announced that 21 more patients diagnosed with Covid-19 had died in the Republic, bringing the overall virus-linked death toll to 158 (pictured, empty St Paul's, Dublin) The WHO said that nearly 1.2million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus 390 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of detections to 4,994. The Irish Times reported that Mr Varadkar is helping out with phone assessments. Anybody who may have been exposed to the virus is initially tested over the phone. Ireland's Taoiseach (Prime Minister) is the son of a doctor and a nurse. His partner, two sisters, and their husbands all work in healthcare. Last month, Health Minister Simon Harris launched a recruitment drive for the country's health service to tackle the viral outbreak. The HSE has spoken to thousands of healthcare professionals who may be eligible to return after it received more than 70,000 responses for its call for help. A woman wearing a protective face mask waits at a bus stop which displays a message of 'Thank you to Ireland's healthcare workers' as the coronavirus spreads Gardai stop and question people at a checkpoint on O'Connell Street in Dublin, April 3 Martin Cosgrove from the Church of the Annunciation Catholic Church in Rathfarnham, Dublin walking through the gate to his church during the Ireland lockdown A man looks at his phone in Dublin as the coronavirus spreads around Ireland, March 31 Health Service Executive chief Paul Reid today cautioned the supply of the chemicals for the testing reagent remain a 'significant worldwide challenge'. He revealed that testing will increase from an average of 2,500 to 4,500 a day because of an increase of laboratory capacity. Mr Reid said that a German lab is now completing 2,000 tests per day for Ireland, but that the HSE is 'still looking at other EU solutions'. Negotiations are also ongoing with firms in Ireland about supplying the reagent chemicals. Mr Reid also gave an update on ventilators to help treat those who become seriously ill, saying there are currently 1,100 ventilators in Ireland. More had been secured and are being tested, with 250 expected to be delivered to hospitals this week, he added. A group of independent TDs, meanwhile, has urged the Government to consider initiatives for cloth face coverings to be worn in public and work areas. They have suggested that simple cloth coverings can slow the spread of coronavirus and help people who may not know they have it from transmitting it. In a statement issued by independent TD Denis Naughten, the group said face coverings could allow some people to get back to work while continuing to observe social distance and hygiene protection measures. Mass in an empty Church of the Annunciation Catholic Church in Rathfarnham, Dublin Isabella Fayeun walks past a sign notifying the public of the closure of a nearby playground 'We would emphasise that these cloth masks are not the respirators or ventilator type that are used to protect healthcare workers and these important mask protectors must be reserved for our frontline healthcare workers and medical first responders who are at most serious risk,' they added. Garda Deputy Commissioner John Twomey urged members of the public to continue social distancing ahead of the expected coronavirus peak. The senior officer, running the National Covid-19 Coordination Centre, said: 'We want to thank people for the high level of compliance with the health guidelines. 'It is vital that continues for the rest of the time they are due to be in place.' Mr Twomey added that people should continue to stay home, exercise within 2km of their home, and carry on social distancing. A tearful nurse is pleading with the country to stay home and support the NHS as the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic leaves staff on their knees. Shirley Watts, an operating theatre nurse at Basildon University Hospital in Essex, fights back tears as she tells the country how stretched staff are as they try and stem the tide of coronavirus patients. Speaking to the camera she says: 'We're desperately short of staff. Things are really difficult and we're all struggling. Pleading for people to stay inside, the Basildon nurse encouraged the public to call out people they know who are ignoring social distancing rules 'If you stay in and you don't spread it and you don't catch it, that takes the pressure off of us because we're all on our knees at the moment.' She continues: 'We're trying to save lives, we're all just doing what we can to save people's loved ones and I want you to see me like this because I want people to realise how serious it is. 'If you know anyone that's going out and they don't need to if you see groups of people, I want you to say something to them. I want you say "you need to stay indoors and you need to stop spreading it, you need to stop catching it".' Shirley had just finished a shift at Basildon University Hospital this afternoon. She will return tonight to carry on helping coronavirus patients Since Britain went into lockdown the public has taken part in two nationwide claps to show its appreciation for the NHS. But this weekend's warm weather has seen the public ignoring social distancing rules. A tearful Shirley adds: 'I know people are appreciating what we're doing, that we're staying away from our families and putting ourselves in danger to try and save other people's loved ones. 'It feels like a losing battle, but it's not because we've all got hope and we're all trying to do what we can.' Shirley was speaking after finishing a six hour shift, she told viewers she was going home to sleep before returning for another shift tonight. ISLAMABADThe Pakistani foreign minister said on Saturday that the government will file an appeal against a court decision acquitting the man accused of the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. It has been decided to file an appeal against the decision in the Supreme Court, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a statement. The U.S. had expressed concerns over the decision, which Qureshi said were natural. It is now up to the court either to dismiss or (uphold) the appeal, he said. Sindh High Court on Thursday overturned the death sentence of Ahmed Omar Sheikh, a British-Pakistani man accused of kidnapping and killing the U.S. journalist. Three of his co-defendants who were handed life sentences in 2002 were also acquitted. The four men were supposed to walk free, but they were rearrested after one day under a law that allows Pakistani authorities to keep people in detention for up to three months without any charge. Pearl, a New Delhi-based South Asia correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and killed in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2002. He was among numerous western journalists who were in Pakistan to cover the aftermath of the fall of the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001. Read more about: A Chinese student has disappeared after calling for the Chinese Communist Party and its leader to step down. Attempted suicide, grief, and uncertainty, a Wuhan caregiver working at a local quarantine center shares what he saw. Wuhan residents line up outside funeral homes to collect the ashes of loved ones who died from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. But are the ashes those of family members? Spain now has the second-highest confirmed cases of the CCP virus in Europe. Today, we take a look into Spains relationship with China. Why did the Czech Republic act decisively in the early stages of the CCP virus outbreak? What lessons did the Czech people learn from being under communist rule? The death toll surpasses 3,600 in the United States. It comes as several American companies look to produce tens of thousands of ventilators by June. Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more first-hand news from China For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter Lynn Bryan didnt show up to his regular card game one Sunday afternoon in early March. He didnt answer the phone when his fellow players called. That worried longtime friend Mitchell Cromier. When Cromier went to check, he found Bryan at home in Southeast Portland, lightheaded and having trouble breathing. Twice Bryan fell to the floor. I told him dont get up, dont move, Cromier said. He called 911. An ambulance arrived and took Bryan away. It was the last time Cromier would see Bryan, who on March 14 became the first person in Oregon to die from a known case of the novel coronavirus. Cromier himself got sick with the virus and so did four other close friends. Three of them were with Bryan and Cromier at a popular bar the night before their Sunday card game. All of them survived. Weeks later, their sense of shared grief remains unresolved, Cromier said. None of us can properly mourn the loss of Lynn, he said. We havent even been able to see each other since. The fatal episode and its aftermath reflect some of the bleak truths to emerge as a global pandemic bears down on Oregon. There is COVID-19s stealth and speed as it spreads, the randomness of who it spares and who it takes. There are also the unanswered questions that each case leaves in its wake. The unknowns for Bryan, Cromier and their friends include how the virus found them. Public health officials wont say if anyone else got sick, nor is it clear that they can even determine the likely source or pattern of transmission. Until now, all the public knew was that Oregons first coronavirus casualty was a 70-year-old man from Multnomah County who died at a veterans hospital in Portland. Lynn Bryan was so much more. A COWBOY AT HEART A lifelong Oregonian, Bryan grew up in Newberg and served in the Army. He worked a number of jobs over the years, including stints as a mapmaker and city engineering technician. But he was a cowboy at heart. Dancing was his lifelong passion. He helped run Rock N Rodeo, an iconic country-western club, when he lived in Eugene. After moving to Portland, he became a choreographer and dance instructor at Dukes Country Bar & Grill before it closed in 2018. While the two-step was Bryans forte on the dance floor, he also dabbled in West Coast Swing and other styles. Women enjoyed partnering with him because of his skill and charm, his peers said. If he had two loves in life they would be dancing and horses, his daughter, Jennifer Bryan, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. He was also a really good father. Lynn Bryan and his daughter Jennifer Bryan. (Courtesy of Jennifer Bryan) Though he didnt smoke or drink, Bryan struggled somewhat with his health. He was a Type 1 diabetic and insulin dependent, his daughter said. In January this year, he had a heart attack. Still, Bryan was determined not to let that stop him from doing what he loved. He didnt really like to stay home, said Robin Robinson, a fellow dance instructor in the Portland area. He just wanted to get out and enjoy life. The night of March 6, two days before he was hospitalized, Bryan attended a monthly dance party at the Oaks Park Pavilion in Southeast Portland held by the group Footloose Friends. More than 100 people showed up for the Friday event, organizers said. At that time, there were only three known coronavirus cases in Oregon, none of them in Multnomah County. Those who saw Bryan said he seemed a little off that evening. He socialized a bit but never took to the dance floor. He left after about 90 minutes. Some recalled he didnt look good, said Gregory Krolicki, who heads Footloose Friends and had DJd the event. But if Lynn had known he had some kind of illness, if he had any idea he was sick, he would have never come out. PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING SHUT DOWN The next night, Bryan met up with Cromier and a group of close friends at Bushwackers Saloon, a popular dance club in Tualatin. He didnt stay long there either that Saturday. I could tell he wasnt feeling well, Cromier said. I figured he had probably over-extended himself on Friday night. A day later on March 8, Bryan collapsed at home. Jennifer Bryan said she learned about her fathers sudden illness only after his phone went straight to voicemail that Sunday and she started calling hospitals in Portland. By evening, she stood behind a glass partition at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and watched her father hooked to a ventilator in a separate room. Jennifer Bryan would never get any closer to her dad as he took a turn for the worse. On March 10, Bryan became the 15th person in the state to test positive for COVID-19 and was placed in a medically induced coma. Four days later, he died. First his kidneys went. Then his lungs, Jennifer Bryan said. In the end, pretty much everything shut down except for his heart. Across town, Cromier would spend a total of 12 days at Providence Portland Medical Center. Cromier, 50, who is on dialysis, experienced coughing fits and body aches, but never had a fever. Eventually, he started to feel better. The four other friends who tested positive for the virus each self-quarantined at home and are better now, Cromier said. They did not speak with The Oregonian/OregonLive for this story. FLOOD OF EMOTIONS According to Cromier and Jennifer Bryan, it remains a mystery as to who among the group of friends first contracted COVID-19 or how. It is also unknown if other coronavirus cases stemmed from the cluster. Health officials in Multnomah and Washington counties said they couldnt comment on specific coronavirus cases. Those who organized and attended the Footloose Friends dance party never heard from local health officials about Bryans illness and death. Krolicki said he and others learned of both as word spread among members of the dance community on social media. Footloose Friends sent out notices to its distribution list of 800 people on March 18, Krolicki said. Kate Willson, a Multnomah County spokeswoman, said health officials emailed the organization this past week after receiving inquiries from The Oregonian/OregonLive. Willson said anyone who attended the dance at Oaks Park and has questions or concerns should contact the county. Krolicki said Footloose Friends has still not received any communication from the county. Wed be happy to talk to them, he said. Wendy Gordon, a Washington County spokeswoman, said county health officials there got in touch with Bushwackers on March 16, two days after Bryans death and more than week after Bryan and his friends were at the bar. Gordon declined to provide any additional information. Jay Johnson, the bars owner, didnt respond to phone calls or emails seeking comment. Jennifer Bryan said shes still grappling with her fathers death, and the flood of emotions its brought. I am lucky and am grateful that I got to see him those last days, she said. A lot of family didnt get to see him. Thoughts of the coronavirus, and the danger it poses, leaves her unsettled. In the 22 days since Lynn Bryans death, nearly 1,000 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 26 of them have died. It doesnt discriminate, Jennifer Bryan said. Anybody is high risk. -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632 Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Russia and Saudi Arabia are "destroying" themselves with an oil price war, adding he will impose tariffs on their imports if necessary to protect the U.S. oil industry. Trump said April 4 during a press conference that the economies of Russia and Saudi Arabia are highly dependent on oil and "it is to their advantage" to find an agreement on an oil production cut. His comments follow reports a day earlier that a meeting of OPEC+, the oil alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, to discuss cuts will not be held on April 6 amid a continued dispute between Moscow and Riyadh. During a meeting of OPEC+ on March 6, Russia refused to agree to a Saudi proposal for deeper production cuts. Riyadh, angered by Moscow's decision, announced it would ramp up production, sparking a price war that has sent Brent crude to as low as $20, a near two-decade low. Trump, who has been seeking to broker an agreement between the two nations, said on April 2 in a tweet that Russia and Saudi Arabia had agreed to a cut of 10 million barrels of oil a day, causing the price of crude to surge as much as 30 percent. Trump was understood to be referring to cuts by the 23-member OPEC+ alliance that the two countries lead. Saudi Arabia announced minutes later that it was calling an extraordinary meeting of OPEC+ members for April 6, which is now under doubt. The U.S. president also said April 4 the low oil price environment is hurting the U.S. oil industry, which has surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the largest in the world by daily production. Trump, who met with energy executives at the White House the day before, said the crisis is going "to hurt a lot of [American] jobs" but that he will take actions to protect it, including imposing tariffs on oil imports. Russia and Saudi Arabia are among the largest exporters of oil to the United States. "I will do whatever I have to do" to protect the U.S. oil industry, Trump said. NPS Photo March 25, 2020 Contact: Charles Lassiter, 361-949-8068 National Park Service Regional Director Mike Reynolds announced today that beginning April 26, 2020, Eric Brunnemann will serve as superintendent of Padre Island National Seashore in Texas. Brunnemann, who has more than 31 years of experience with the National Park Service, will also supervise the superintendent of Palo Alto National Battlefield in his new role. Eric has been serving as the acting superintendent of Padre Island National Seashore and Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park since October 2019 and has shown exemplary leadership and dedication to both parks and their surrounding communities, said Reynolds. Throughout his career, Eric has overseen many successful resource management projects and educational outreach programs that have provided great value to the National Park Service. I have a long family history in Texas that dates back to the 1860s and moving back to south Texas truly feels like coming home, said Brunnemann. Im looking forward to working with the staff, local communities, and many partners to forge lasting relationships that will help preserve our resources and enhance the visitor experience in these south Texas parks. Brunnemann began his National Park Service career as a seasonal museum technician at Fort Davis National Historic Site. He then continued his career as a Southwestern archaeologist at Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico and with the Southeast Utah Group in Moab. Brunnemann also served as superintendent of Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Pinnacles National Monument in California, War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam, American Memorial Park in the Northern Mariana Islands, and most recently served as superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas since 2015. Congratulations, servatyar.ir got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: Servatyar.ir scored 62 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 28 Jun 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the servatyar homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the servatyar homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the servatyar homepage on Twitter + the total number of servatyar followers (if servatyar has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the servatyar homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if servatyar has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the servatyar homepage on Delicious. Basic Information PAGE TITLE DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS The title found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE Persian UTF-8Persian SERVER Microsoft-IIS/7.0 (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 Character set and language of the site. The language of servatyar.ir as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for servatyar.ir by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The URL of the found Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Police have fined dozens of car enthusiasts for 'inexcusably' flouting coronavirus lockdown restrictions by attending on organised rally. Queensland police swarmed the event at Brickworks Place in Rochedale, south of Brisbane, on Saturday night and handed out 58 $1,334 fines for failing to comply with COVID-19 sanctions. There were around 150 cars and a large group of spectators at the venue, with many attempting to flee after police arrived at about 10pm. Queensland police gave out 58 $1,334 fines for failing to comply with COVID-19 sanctions at a car rally in Brickworks Place in Rochedale, south of Brisbane, on Saturday night State disaster coordinator deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the large crowds at the rally were 'inexcusable' Fines were given to drivers, passengers, males and females all aged between 17 and 30. State disaster coordinator deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the large crowds at the rally were 'inexcusable'. 'This is all about safety. About saving lives. About stopping the spread of COVID-19,' he said in a media statement. 'We all, every single one of us, must do our bit. We are in this together. 'It is inexcusable what happened at Rochedale last night and such blatant disregard for the lives of Queenslanders will not be tolerated.' Deputy commissioner Gollschewski said police's role in the pandemic is to improve public safety through compliance with the Chief Health Officers orders. 'Largely Queenslanders have made significant adjustments to their lifestyle in order to comply with these health directives, to help protect their families, friends, neighbours and the broader community, and I thank them for that,' he said. Police are monitoring self-isolation procedures, as well as mass gatherings, borders, non-essential business activity and private residence gatherings. LONDON -When a flu-like virus tore through the world, killing tens of millions and infecting far more, the papers in Europe told readers of "Spanish flu." King Alfonso XIII of Spain was one of many stricken, they reported in 1918. What they didn't say was that their own populations were being decimated, too. It was the largest pandemic in modern history, but due to wartime censorship in many European countries, few citizens would know it at first. Only Spain, a nation neutral in the fight, allowed its press to work largely uncensored, and so it was that stories of the contagion spread too. A century later, coronavirus is again testing the resilience of independent media around the world as governments exploit concerns over coverage of the epidemic to clamp down on press freedoms. From Latin America to Russia, governments have tried to shape coverage so it avoids criticism or information that authorities deem harmful to public order. Questioning of official accounts has drawn fines, police investigations and the expulsion of foreign correspondents. In some countries, the virus has provided a pretext for governments to pass emergency legislation that is likely to curb freedoms long after the contagion has been extinguished. The consequences could amount to life or death, free-press advocates say. "During a public health emergency, there are extremely strong requirements of governments to provide truthful information to the public so that we as individuals and in our communities can make decisions about what we should be doing," said David Kaye, the United Nations' special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. "That depends on a vibrant press that doesn't feel that when it reports that it could be subject to intimidation, threats or even criminal sanction." In the Middle East, governments have detained or otherwise punished reporters who question the state's response to the epidemic. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have announced fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for individuals deemed to be sharing fake news, a fluid term that press advocates have long described as open to abuse by governments seeking to quash scrutiny. As Iraqi doctors work overtime to contain the spread of the virus, authorities in Baghdad said Thursday they were temporarily suspending the Reuters news agency's license to work, after it published a report suggesting there may be thousands more confirmed cases in Iraq than the figure of 772 provided by the Health Ministry. Similarly, Egypt said last month that it was revoking the press credentials of the Guardian's correspondent there, Ruth Michaelson, after she reported on a study by a team of infectious disease specialists, mostly based in Canada, that questioned Egypt's official number of coronavirus cases. She was forced to leave the country days later. In Turkey, where the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the world's leading jailers of journalists, figures are released daily for the number of people who have died or been infected with the virus, as well as the number of tests health officials have conducted. But authorities for weeks kept a tight lid on other information, including the location of cases in Turkey, on the grounds that publicizing the information might lead to an exodus from trouble spots and further the spread of the virus. According to Reporters Without Borders, eight Turkish journalists are now waiting to learn whether they will face charges, after prosecutors interrogated them over their covid-19 reporting. Some of those detentions smacked of panic. A newspaper owner and editor in the northern Turkish city of Bartin were detained in mid-March for publishing a headline saying a local doctor had tested positive for coronavirus, according to Baris Yarkadas, a former opposition member of parliament who tweeted about the arrests. The two were accused of "inciting the public to panic," Yarkadas wrote. He added that the charge was "strange," because the local government confirmed the news about the doctor, about an hour after the journalists were detained. In many former Soviet countries, repression of journalists, activists and opposition figures has long been stifling, and some governments have used the covid-19 crisis as a pretext to further tighten control, using bans on "fake news" and disinformation. Russian media that question official figures or the state's response to the virus run the risk of steep fines or having their licenses stripped. In Armenia, journalists have complained that officials have forced them to change stories or remove them, while Azerbaijani opposition figures have been arrested for posting criticisms on social media of their government's handling of the crisis. In Belarus, Sergey Satsouk, director and editor of the news website Ezhednevnik, was arrested in late March, after critical coverage of the government's handling of coronavirus. Russian state media watchdog Roskomnadzor has warned against publication of false information that could "create a threat of massive disruption of public order and public safety." Several outlets have been ordered to remove reports suggesting that virus cases might be greater than official figures. Individuals convicted of spreading alleged fake news face fines of up to $6,400, and action has been taken against ordinary citizens for social media posts as well. In Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev is using the crisis to crack down on free speech, amending the country's information law so website owners are obliged to prevent the publication of "false information" about a wide-ranging list of topics, from the health system to transport networks. Sir Roger Gale, a rapporteur on Azerbaijan with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, described the government moves as a "shameful exploitation" of the pandemic. "It beggars belief that any head of state would abuse a public health emergency to tighten his grip on power," he said. Echoes of that playbook are being heard around the world. On Saturday, police in the Philippines charged a television station owner and an online reporter under a new law that imposes a punishment of two months in jail or a fine of almost $20,000 for publishing what the government deems false news about the virus. In Hungary, which has seen at least 525 cases and 20 deaths, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has handed parliament an emergency bill that would formalize a years-long slide from democracy into dictatorship. "The emergency bill, more than anything, is about dropping the facade of democracy in Hungary," said Zselyke Csaky, Freedom House's research director for Europe and Eurasia. Submitted last week, it allows the government to declare a state of emergency for as long as Orban sees fit, and punishes those who "distort" or publish "false" information on the outbreak with five years in jail. The move will likely have devastating effects on what remains of the country's already embattled independent press, and at a crucial point in a public health crisis, Csaky said. "Perhaps, if we are hopeful, one silver lining could be that once this is over, people realize how important it is to have access to news that one can trust," she said. In a letter to Marija Pejcinovic Buric, secretary general of the Council of Europe, Orban dismissed the international criticism, urging critics to read the law itself again. "If you are not able to help us in the current crisis, please at least refrain from hindering our defensive efforts," the prime minister wrote. But pro-Orban commentators have publicly joked about critical journalists being arrested and argued that those who criticize the government's proposed restrictions are siding with the coronavirus. Hungary is in a "war situation," the pro-government editor and historian Marton Bekes told viewers on a current affairs show recently. And some opposition outlets, he said, were "openly rooting for the virus." In Latin America, journalists are facing similar pressures. Honduras has also declared a state of emergency, withdrawing the legal guarantees for journalists to work without being subjected to "any kind of persecution." In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro moved to indefinitely extend deadlines for freedom of information requests with a late-night decree that press advocates said would have deprived the public of information at a time when it most needs it. The country's supreme court temporarily stayed his decree. (In India, likewise, that country's supreme court denied a government request that news outlets be ordered to refrain from publishing on the virus without official clearance.) And in Venezuela, authorities arrested journalist Darvinson Rojas and interrogated him about his reporting on the country's coronavirus outbreak, at one point suggesting that he was himself infected. He live-tweeted part of the interrogation. - - - Dixon reported from Moscow and Taylor from Washington. The Washington Post's Kevin Sieff in Mexico City, Terrence McCoy in Rio de Janeiro and Kareem Fahim in Istanbul contributed to this report. Tiger King has been America's grand distraction while Netflix viewers nationwide have been homebound with ample time on their hands, and now casting ideas for the inevitable film adaptation keep coming in. The latest idea for who would best portray characters from the truly unbelieveable Netflix series, a hit 7-episode documentary about the sordid lives of southern big cat owners, comes from Joe Exotic husband #1 himself, John Finlay. Finlay, who appeared in the series as the near-toothless first spouse of megalomaniacal zookeeper Exotic, told People Magazine recently that he has a shortlist of two actors who he'd love to see play him, in order of preference: Channing Tatum and Shia LaBeouf. Casting goals: The latest idea for who would best portray characters from Tiger King, Netflix's hit docuseries about the sordid lives of southern big cat owners, comes from one John Finlay 'Hes always had a special place in my heart,' Finlay said of Tatum in a story published by People on Saturday. The Oklahoman ex-meth addict continued to explain why he has a soft spot for the Magic Mike star, recounting how Tatum 'did a shout-out to my distant cousin; she died of stage-four brain cancer. When he did his shout-out, he did it because it was on her bucket list.' As Finlay explained, his late relative had requested a kiss from the 21 Jump Street actor before she died a wish Channing granted her in a personalized video message. But, John also revealed that he thinks Tatum is 'a really good actor, and a lot of people are putting names out there with him in it.' Not the worst choice: Finlay, who appeared in the series as the near-toothless first spouse of megalomaniacal zookeeper Joe Exotic, has a shortlist of actors who he'd love to see play him, headed up by none other than Channing Tatum; seen here in 2015's Magic Mike XXL Like looking in a mirror: Finlay said he has a soft spot for the Magic Mike star, recounting how Tatum actually granted his cousin's dying wish a few years ago And if anyone has any doubt at all as to whether Tatum would entertain portraying such an outlandish character, they need only to refer to the actor's priceless and crazy cameo in This Is The End from 2013. Still, in case it's a no from Channing, Finlay is undeterred, as he says he thinks LaBeouf would be a great alternative. 'He would probably be a good choice because with a beard he can look like me, and he can relate to me,' Finlay said of the controversy-courting Transformers star. As previously reported, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is set to be made into a Hulu limited series starring Kate McKinnon as Carole Baskin, the somewhat mysterious nemesis of Joe Exotic. Priceless: if anyone has any doubt at all as to whether Tatum would entertain portraying such an outlandish character, they need only to refer to the actor's crazy cameo in This Is The End Second choice: In case it's a no from Channing, Finlay is undeterred, as he says he thinks Honey Boy's Shia LaBeouf would be a great alternative As for Mr. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, he may be languishing in jail but the Tiger King still has big dreams for who might play him. It has emerged that the former zookeeper is hoping that either Brad Pitt or David Spade sign up to play him in a movie adaptation of his life. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmakers behind the Netflix documentary sensation, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, revealed Exotic's movie plans. 'He would like Brad Pitt or David Spade to play him,' said Chaiklin, adding, 'He doesn't refer to David Spade as David Spade he refers to him as "Joe Dirt."' Tiger King's Exotic wants Brad Pitt or David Spade to play him in movie adaptation of his life Aspirational options: Joe has said he would like either Brad Pitt, seen left in 1991, or David Spade, seen in 2013, to play him on the big screen Joe Dirt was Spade's mullet-wearing character in the 2001 American adventure comedy film of the same name. While Pitt has not yet publicly admitted to being a fan of the cultural phenomenon that is Tiger King, there are plenty of celebs who have. Dax Shepard made his feelings clear when he tweeted: 'If I don't get cast as Joe Exotic in the eventual biopic, Hollywood is broken.' But Pitt's Fight Club costar Edward Norton replied: 'Um, step aside, pal. You're way too young and buff and you know it.' Dax, 45, wasn't put off, replying: 'I'll go Machinist for this.' He was referring to Christian Bale's staggering weight loss for that 2004 film. Even Zach Braff tried to get in on the action, jokingly replying: 'I heard a rumor he has a Jewish twin brother that was cut out of the series.' Meanwhile, SportsBetting.ag has asked people to bet on who might play controversial Exotic if a movie were made about the man. So far the favorite is Kevin Bacon. Another name mentioned has been Margot Robbie, an inspired suggestion by Robert Moor, who spent four years covering Exotic and his archenemy Baskin for the Wondery podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King. Meet Joe Dirt: Joe refers to David, seen at the People's Choice Awards in November, by the name of his mullet-wearing 2001 character But whoever lands the role, Joe is sure to be happy with the resultant film. The 57-year-old is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for 17 counts of animal cruelty and for conspiring to murder Florida-based big cat lover Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue. While he has yet to see the seven-part series as he sits out a 14-day coronavirus quarantine in jail, his fourth husband Dillon Passage said he was a fan. 'Joe's the type of person, he loves the attention obviously,' he told Andy Cohen on Friday. 'Any kind of fame or spotlight that he has, it was greatly appreciated.' WASHINGTON New York is my favorite American city. I used to live and work there and have been a frequent visitor since I became Chinas ambassador to the United States. As Covid-19 continues to sweep across the world, it is sad to see the bustling, sleepless metropolis put on hold. What we are experiencing is a challenge of such magnitude that nationality and ethnicity should be irrelevant. China was hit hard by the pandemic not long ago, so its people can empathize with Americans suffering now. We made huge sacrifices to push back the virus; we know how tough the battle is, and will continue to be, here and across the world. We will always remember that in our most difficult days, our friends in so many places many of them Americans, many of them New Yorkers offered us a helping hand. We stand ready now to repay their kindness and help them make it through too. Lets acknowledge there has been unpleasant talk between our nations about this disease. But this is not the time for finger-pointing. This is a time for solidarity, collaboration and mutual support. That is why over 100 Chinese public health experts have traveled abroad to save lives. That is why we are sending test kits, protective masks and medical equipment to overrun hospitals in the United States and many other countries. That is why we are sharing expertise and hard-learned lessons with countries seeking information and answers. In his recent phone call with President Trump, President Xi Jinping of China stressed the importance of solidarity between our two countries, and promised to provide assistance to the best of our capability. Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Sunday urged Home Minister Amit Shah to allocate funds to states from the State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF) in proportion to the number of coronavirus cases they have reported. Patel pointed out that some Union Territories and states like Delhi, Kerala and Punjab have a large number of COVID-19 cases but "they have received very little funds". "I request the Home Minister Amit Shah to include Covid19 as a criterion apart from the Finance Commission criteria for disbursement to states," he said on Twitter. "Central Government must consider number of Covid19 cases and hotspots to decide allocation of State Disaster Risk Management Fund to states," he added. The Union home minister on Friday approved release of ?11,092 crore to all states under the SDRMF for setting up quarantine facilities and arranging other facilities for checking the spread of coronavirus. The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 3,374 on Sunday while the death toll rose to 77, according to Union Health Ministry data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hotels are places normally associated with pleasure, relaxation and luxury weddings, parties, holidays or more mundane activities like business trips and conferences. They are omnipresent and ordinary, but when circumstances are extraordinary, as they are in the middle of the current COVID-19 crisis, hotels have to adapt quickly to new and unexpected realities. As the current crisis gradually closes down the tourist industry in many parts of the world, empty hotels are being redeployed as accommodation for key medical staff, as quarantine centres or as field hospitals. No longer places for leisure, business, enjoyment and indulgence, they have become instead vital components in the infrastructure of crisis management. It is, of course, well documented that in crises, such as wars, hotels can play an important role. They can be militarised (as strategic assets), as some of Beiruts grandest the St Georges, the Phoenicia, the Hilton and the Holiday Inn were during the Battle of the Hotels in Beirut in 1975. During the First Indochina war, the Hotel Continental in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) was a popular meeting point for journalists and politicians. Renamed the Continental Palace during the Vietnam war, it housed the Newsweek and Time bureaux. It features in Graham Greenes novel, The Quiet American [Reuters] They can also be utilised as bases for the media. Hotels such as the Rex Hotel, the Continental Palace and the Caravelle in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), the Commodore in Beirut, the Palestine and Al Rasheed hotels in Baghdad, and the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo where waiting staff continued to serve dinner in their neat jackets and bow-ties, despite the shells falling nearby are among those that have gained near-legendary status as war hotels. Hotels can also be redeployed as prisons or holding facilities, the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton being the most high-profile five-star prison, where Saudi elites accused of corruption were held in November 2017. Conversely, they also serve as temporary places of sanctuary for refugees and internally displaced peoples fleeing military attack or paramilitary violence. Hotels can, after all, still provide a limited form of hospitality during such times. Most are well-built structures that possess an internal micro-structure that includes generators, water tanks, refrigeration, stores of dried food, and, crucially, cellars or basement conference rooms where large numbers can be accommodated. Combo photographs show Sarajevos Holiday Inn hotel and Unis towers on the infamous street nicknamed Snipers Alley damaged by Bosnian Serb shelling in 1992, top, and restored in a photograph made on November 17, 2005 [AP Photo/Hidajet Delic] They also play an equally important role as nodes in the broader infrastructure required to shelter and support people fleeing persecution and war. The ongoing conflicts in Libya and Syria, for example, saw an exodus of refugees attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Consequently, hotels on the Greek coast and Greek islands (such as the Captain Elias Hotel in Kos), as well as numerous hotels in the Balkans, were transformed into large centres for refugees run by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and funded by the European Commission as part of a wider European Union relocation scheme. The City Plaza in Athens, constructed in advance of the Olympics in 2004, was driven into bankruptcy after the 2008 global financial crisis. It lay empty for years before locals took it over and established solidarity networks, with the aim of building new communities of co-existence between refugees and locals. Likewise, the Magdas Hotel in Vienna, formerly a retirement home, became a social enterprise offering work opportunities to refugees. This model was adopted across Europe, the United States and Canada in advance of refugees being more permanently resettled. Larger hotel chains thereafter negotiated contracts with national governments to help them deal with the influx of refugees. The German government, for example, negotiated a deal with Grand City Hotels that allowed for 22 hotels in Berlin to be used to provide shelter for refugees. This not only ensured that the refugees could be safely housed but, for the hotel chains, it ensured that occupancy rates above the industry average were guaranteed. A Blackhawk helicopter flies near the Sheraton and Palestine hotels November 24, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq. On April 8, 2003, two journalists were killed when an American tank fired a shell at the Palestine hotel, where many journalists were staying at the time [Chris Hondros/Getty Images] During the COVID-19 crisis, hotels have again played a crucial role. With occupancy dramatically decreasing, hotel owners and management have either been forced to close or to find ways of re-purposing their facilities and the hospitality industry has responded in a number of ways as quarantine centres, field hospitals or as accommodation for medical staff and other key workers. Of course, there is nothing particularly novel about this. Hotels were frequently commandeered and used as field hospitals during both the first and second world wars and numerous 20th-century conflicts, but we have witnessed nothing in terms of the scale of such a redeployment since. Nevertheless, hotels are well-equipped for such reconfiguration. A hotel used a quarantine centre is essentially one in which each room becomes a self-contained isolation unit, with en suite facilities. Food can be delivered to the doors of those quarantined, and human contact can be kept to a minimum. And with many foreign nationals still unable to travel home, hotels have been offering, for those that have the ability to pay, 14-day self-isolation packages in which interaction between staff and guests is kept to an absolute minimum. For others, the hotel has been used as a space for enforced quarantine. Australians returning from trips abroad are being placed into quarantine in hotels, including Sydneys five-star Hilton Hotel. A man looks out of his hotel room after rockets were fired at the Al Rasheed Hotel in Bahdad on October 26, 2003. The hotel housed senior US military and civilian officials at the time. It had gained fame during the first Gulf War when CNN aired its newscasts from the hotel. After that war, a tile mosaic depicting US President George H.W. Bush was installed on the floor of the lobby so that visitors would have to walk over his face. It was smashed by American soldiers following the US invasion in 2003 and the hotel was converted into a base for the US military [Paula Bronstein/Getty Images] In Spain, as the COVID-19 crisis escalated, guests at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, Spain, were quarantined inside the building, while a temporary field hospital was hastily created in the hotels grounds. This was just the first example of a hotel being used as part of the battle against the virus numerous hotels in Madrid, such as the Las Provincias and the Grand Hotel Colon, have subsequently been used as field hospitals as COVID-19 spread throughout the country. Five people were killed when an IRA bomb exploded inside the Grand Hotel in Brighton on October 12, 1984. Margaret Thatchers ruling Conservative Party was holding its annual conference in the hotel at the time [John Minihan/Express/Getty Images] In the United Kingdom, Brightons Grand Hotel, once the site of a bomb attack on a Conservative Party conference by the Irish Republican Army, closed its doors to ordinary guests and is now providing rooms, free of charge, to staff from the countrys National Health Service (NHS). A number of hotels in Manchester, London, Newcastle and Oxford have done likewise. Similarly, the Best Western Hotel Group have made rooms available for NHS workers and lower-risk patients. Britannia Hotels also offered accommodation for more than 600 patients, to free-up beds for those requiring critical care in hospitals. In New York, the epicentre of the outbreak in the US, the St Regis Hotel, the Plaza Hotel and Yotel have become temporary field hospitals for non-critical patients, while the Four Seasons in Manhattan has provided healthcare workers with free rooms. Hotels in Chicago and Baltimore are following suit. Hotels have also been used in the US and UK to protect the homeless from COVID-19. In mid-March, the UK government and the London Mayors office negotiated a deal with the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), who own the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands, that allows for hundreds of their rooms in London to be used by rough sleepers to self-isolate for a three-month period. Similarly, the French government have made hotel rooms available for those potentially vulnerable to becoming victims of domestic violence, while hotels in Paris are being used to shelter the homeless. The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, New York, has been temporarily converted into a field hospital for non-critical patients [Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP] The hotel industry is adapting to an unsettling, albeit temporary, new reality. Largely associated with wealth and glamour and tangible, sometimes distasteful, symbols of the excesses of capitalism, they are now becoming anything but. They will again become places synonymous with leisure, merely part of the everyday infrastructure of tourism and business. But in the middle of the current crisis, they have adapted to become vital components in the fight against COVID-19, quarantining people who might otherwise transmit the disease, keeping thousands of vulnerable people in relative safety and easing pressure on increasingly embattled health services. In the best and the worst of times, the hotel, and the hospitality it provides, remains an important part of the fabric of our lives perhaps more than we appreciate. There have not been a flood of complaints to police departments about people violating the orders. As of Thursday, Maryland State Police and the states other local departments had fielded 615 calls for violations of the stay-at-home order and other directives from the governor since March 24, the governors office said. The Loudoun County Sheriffs Office has handled 68 calls for overcrowding during the same period. Fairfax County police handled about eight a day related to the stay-at-home order last week. Image Credit: MONUSCO Photos - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Directeur general de l'OMS. License: Some Rights Reserved. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License with conditions https://bit.ly/2Xh8s3p The most influential organization in the world with nominal responsibility for global health and epidemic issues is the United Nations World Health Organization, WHO, based in Geneva. What few know is the actual mechanisms of its political control, the shocking conflicts of interest, corruption and lack of transparency that permeate the agency that is supposed to be the impartial guide for getting through the current COVID-19 pandemic. The following is only part of what has come to public light . Pandemic declaration? On January 30 Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern or PHIEC. This came two days after Tedros met with China President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss the dramatic rise in severe cases of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan and surrounding areas that had reached dramatic proportions. Announcing his emergency PHIEC declaration, Tedros praised the Chinese quarantine measures, measures highly controversial in public health and never before in modern times attempted with entire cities, let alone countries. At the same time Tedros, curiously, criticized other countries who were moving to block flights to China to contain the strange new disease, leading to charges he was unduly defending China. The first three cases in Wuhan were reported, officially, on December 27, 2019, a full month earlier. The cases were all diagnosed with pneumonia from a novel or new form of SARS Coronavirus. Important to note is that the largest movement of people in the year, Chinas Lunar New Year and Spring Festival, during which some 400 million citizens move throughout the land to join families went from January 17 through February 8. On January 23, at 2am two days before start of actual New Year festivities, Wuhan authorities declared an unprecedented lockdown of the entire city of 11 million as of 10am that day. By then, hundreds of thousands if not several million residents had fled in panic to avoid the quarantine. By the time the WHO declared its Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January, precious weeks had been lost to contain the disease. Yet Tedros effusively praised the unprecedented Chinese measures and criticized other countries for placing stigma on Chinese by cutting travel. In reference to the Wuhan COVID-19 spread and why WHO did not call it a pandemic, the WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, stated There is no official category (for a pandemic)WHO does not use the old system of 6 phases that ranged from phase 1 (no reports of animal influenza causing human infections) to phase 6 (a pandemic) that some people may be familiar with from H1N1 in 2009. Then, in an about-face, on March 11, Tedros Adhanom announced for the first time that WHO was calling the novel coronavirus illness, now renamed COVID-19, a global pandemic. At that point WHO said there were more than 118,000 cases of COVID-19 in 114 countries, with 4,291 deaths. 2009 WHO Fake Pandemic Since an earlier WHO fiasco and scandal in 2009 over its declaration of a global pandemic around the swine flu or H1N1 as it was termed, the WHO decided to drop using the term pandemic. The reason is indicative of the corruption endemic to the WHO institution. Just weeks before first reports in 2009 of a young Mexican child being infected with a novel H1N1 swine flu virus in Veracruz, the WHO had quietly changed the traditional definition of pandemic. No longer was it necessary a reported disease be extremely widespread in many countries and extremely deadly or debilitating. It need only be widespread, like seasonal flu, should WHO experts want to declare pandemic. WHO H1N1 symptoms were the same as a bad cold. When then-WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan officially declared a Phase 6 global Pandemic emergency, that triggered national emergency programs including billions of dollars of government purchases of alleged H1N1 vaccines. At the end of the 2009 flu season it turned out the deaths due to H1N1 were tiny relative to the normal seasonal flu. Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician specialising in Pulmonology, was then chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 2009 he called for an inquiry into alleged conflicts of interest surrounding the EU response to the Swine Flu pandemic. The Netherlands Parliament as well discovered that Professor Albert Osterhaus of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the person at the center of the worldwide Swine Flu H1N1 Influenza A 2009 pandemic as the key advisor to WHO on influenza, was intimately positioned to personally profit from the billions of euros in vaccines allegedly aimed at H1N1. Many of the other WHO scientific experts who advised Dr Chan to declare pandemic were receiving money directly or indirectly from Big Pharma including GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and other major vaccine-makers. The WHO Swine Flu Pandemic declaration was a fake. 2009-10 saw the mildest influenza worldwide since medicine began tracking it. The pharma giants took in billions in the process. It was after the 2009 pandemic scandal that the WHO stopped using the 6 phase pandemic declaration and went to the totally vague and confusing Public Health Emergency of International Concern. But now, Tedros and WHO arbitrarily decided to reintroduce the term pandemic, admitting though that they are still in the midst of creating yet a new definition of the term. Pandemic triggers more fear than Public Health Emergency of International Concern. WHOs SAGE Still Conflicted Despite the huge 2009-10 conflict-of-interest scandals linking Big Pharma to WHO, today the WHO under Tedros has done little to clean out corruption and conflicts of interest. The current WHO Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) is riddled with members who receive financially significant funds from either major vaccine makers, or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BGMF) or Wellcome Trust. In the latest posting by WHO of the 15 scientific members of SAGE, no fewer than 8 had declared interest, by law, of potential conflicts. In almost every case the significant financial funder of these 8 SAGE members included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck & Co. (MSD), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (a Gates-funded vaccine group), BMGF Global Health Scientific Advisory Committee, Pfizer, Novovax, GSK, Novartis, Gilead, and other leading pharma vaccine players. So much for independent scientific objectivity at WHO. Gates and WHO The fact that many of the members of WHOs SAGE have financial ties to the Gates Foundation is highly revealing, even if not surprising. Today the WHO is primarily financed not by UN member governments, but by what is called a public-private partnership in which private vaccine companies and the group of Bill Gates-sponsored entities dominate. In the latest available financial report of WHO, for December 31, 2017, slightly more than half of the $2+ billion General Fund Budget of WHO was from private donors or external agencies such as World Bank or EU. Far the largest private or non-government funders of WHO are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation together with Gates-funded GAVI Vaccine Alliance, the Gates-initiated Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). Those three provided more than $474 million to WHO. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone gave a whopping $324,654,317 to WHO. By comparison, the largest state donor to WHO, the US Government, gave $401 million to WHO. Among other private donors we find the worlds leading vaccine and drug makers including Gilead Science (currently pressing to have its drug as treatment for COVID-19), GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Sanofi Pasteur, Merck Sharp and Dohme Chibret and Bayer AG. The drug makers gave tens of millions of dollars to WHO in 2017. This private pro-vaccine industry support for the WHO agenda from the Gates Foundation and Big Pharma is more than a simple conflict of interest. It is a de facto high-jacking of the UN agency responsible for coordinating worldwide responses to epidemics and disease. Further, the Gates Foundation, the worlds largest at some $50 billion, invests its tax-exempt dollars in those same vaccine makers including Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline. Against this background it should come as no surprise that Ethiopian politician, Tedros Adhanom, became head of WHO in 2017. Tedros is the first WHO director not a medical doctor despite his insistence on using Dr. as title. His is a doctor of philosophy in community health for research investigating the effects of dams on the transmission of malaria in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Tedros, who was also Ethiopia Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2016, met Bill Gates when he was Ethiopian Health Minister and became Board Chair of the Gates-linked Global Fund Against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. Under Tedros, the notorious corruption and conflicts of interest at WHO have continued, even grown. According to a recent report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in 2018 and 2019 under Tedros, the WHO Health Emergencies Program, the section responsible for the COVID-19 global response, was cited with the highest risk rating noting the failure to adequately finance the program and emergency operations [risks] inadequate delivery of results at country level. The ABC report further found that there has also been a surge in internal corruption allegations across the whole of the organisation, with the detection of multiple schemes aimed at defrauding large sums of money from the international body. Not very reassuring. In early March Oxford University stopped using WHO data on COVID-19 because of repeated errors and inconsistencies the WHO refused to correct. The WHO test protocols for coronavirus tests have repeatedly been cited by various countries including Finland for flaws and false positives and other defects. This is the WHO which we now trust to guide us through the worst health crisis of the past century. F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook Madhya Pradesh on Sunday reported 36 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the state so far to 215, officials said. Simultaneously, the number of deaths caused by coronavirus infection rose to 13 with two persons succumbing to the deadly virus. Among cities, the state capital led the chart by recording the highest number of 23 new cases in the last 24 hours, which took its tally to 40 so far. Of the total 215 cases, 135 are from Indore, the commercial capital of the state. "The death toll due to coronavirus in the state now stands at 13 with two more persons succumbing to the virus," the state health bulletin said. Meanwhile, some officials of Health department involved in operations to check the spread of the virus tested positive in Bhopal on Sunday, said officials. In the last one week, two IAS officers posted in Health department, including a principal secretary-level officer, have tested positive to coronavirus. As per the health bulletin, the maximum number of 135 COVID-19 cases were reported from Indore, followed by Bhopal (40), Morena (12), Jabalpur (8), Ujjain (7), Khargone (4), Barwani (3) and two each in Chhindwara, Shivpuri and Gwalior taking the total number of affected persons in the state to 215. While the state health bulletin said that COVID-19 positive cases in Bhopal stands at 18, the Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Sudhir Deharia said that number of coronavirus positive cases in the state capital have gone up to 40 with 23 more positive cases on Sunday. As many as 168 patients are stable while three persons are in a serious condition, it said. Meanwhile, four more coronavirus infected persons, including three in Jabalpur and one in Shivpuri, have recovered and discharged from the hospital, officials said. Jabalpur district collector Bharat Yadav said that three such patients being treated at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital have recovered and discharged on Sunday. Now, they are placed under home quarantine for another fourteen days. They were the first three coronavirus positive cases of Madhya Pradesh recorded on March 20. Earlier, two persons, including a journalist and his daughter, were discharged in Bhopal on Friday night. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ten Indonesian nationals, including 5 women, who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin Delhi, have been booked under various section of the Indian Penal Code, sections of Epidemic Diseases Act and Foreigners Act, 1897, informed Ghaziabad Police on Sunday. All of them have been placed under quarantine. The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana. Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday said that there are 3030 active cases of coronavirus in India, 266 have been cured/ discharged/ migrated. A total of 77 people have lost their lives to infection so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Our young family has just spent a few days at the grandparents' after meticulous social distancing to avoid COVID-19. It's been a fortnight since my three children played with any other kids. I pulled them out of school and daycare, we stopped going to parks, I won't take them shopping they have not left the house. My husband has been working from home and I'm shopping as rarely as possible. Sarah Colyer's children enjoy time with their grandparents. So it was with utmost caution that we visited. I brought groceries to help Mum and Dad avoid a trip to the shops, but the visit wasn't about delivering supplies. They're not infirm. They don't need my help and I can get by without theirs. Our four-year-old daughter was elated when she arrived to find Grandad had cut the branches of an overgrown grevillea to create a secret garden for her. My seven-year-old son was able to kick a ball around the acre block something he's missed doing since the authorities closed all the public parks and playing fields. Margaret Firth may not have believed it was a big deal to give back to her community, but the people she helped would have begged to differ. Firth volunteered with numerous organizations but is perhaps best-known as one of the first co-ordinators of Hamilton Out of the Cold, a service that provides meals to the homeless and low-income people at a number of churches. Her son Tyler said her volunteering came from her Anglican faith to help the disadvantaged (It wasnt a big deal) but Firths ways at Out of the Cold earned the mother of four the title Sister Margaret from other volunteers and guests. The volunteers loved her and the guests loved her, said Sister Carole Anne Guay, a member of the Sisters of St. Josephs who co-founded the program with the late Gloria Colizza. The guests just started calling her Sister and, as she believed it gave her some status with the guests, she let them think she was a nun. She recalled Firth telling her of running into a guest at a mall and telling her husband Douglas to step away from her. She never let on, chuckled Sister Carole Anne. Firth who was also involved with the Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation died Feb. 23, a month after turning 86. The Brownie leader was also active in her church and at her kids schools. Sister Carole Anne recalled Firth was reluctant to take on the job of co-ordinator when she approached her in 1997. Firth was one of the first volunteers and had only been with the program for five months when she was asked to oversee the program in the basement of James Street Baptist Church. Firth served as co-ordinator for 18 years until 2015. She would make sure the dining room was clean, the cutlery was out and the food was prepared in time. She would put in a 12-hour day, or more, on the day of the meal. She did a marvellous job, said Sister Carole Anne. Oh my goodness, there was never any worry ... She was a very lovely lady. In a 2014 Spec profile on Out of the Cold, Firth was noted as working the room and talking with guests to see if they were enjoying some homemade soup. By this time, she was running the program at St. Stephen of Hungary Roman Catholic Church on Barton Street East. I tell them not to fill up on the soup or they wont have room for the dinner. They say, Yes, Mom, the then-80-year-old told the Spec. Firth credited her volunteer team with the success of the meal program, but volunteer Margaret Chisholm credited Firth. Without Firth, we would fall apart; we only do it for the boss, Chisholm said. Firth was born Jan. 1, 1934 in Hamilton to Arthur and Sarah Townson. Her father was a carpenter at the Westinghouse plant on Longwood Road and her mother was a homemaker. They were both active in the Anglican Church community and volunteered at Camp Artaban, a church summer camp in the Dundas Valley. Their daughter also volunteered at the camp, which closed in 1967. Firth attended Earl Kitchener and Ryerson public schools and Westdale high school. She went to teachers college and her first job was teaching grades 1 to 4 at a two-room schoolhouse in Jerseyville. She moved to Hillfield school but left there in 1960 to raise a family. Her family said she was an institution in the southwest Hamilton area, not only for her community work, but for teaching baking to neighbourhood children and walking her dogs. When she slowed down in her old age, neighbours stepped forward to help her. When his father was alive, Tyler recalled, If someone did something for them, she would make them a pie. One of the other groups Firth was involved in was West Willow, described by her son as a home for men with brain injuries. Shed have them over for dinner, said Tyler, 58, a family service worker with Brant Family and Children Services. It was always something. She used to dispatch us to West Willow to play euchre. Firth also worked between 1990-95 as a constituency assistant to Hamilton West MPP Richard Allen when he served as a cabinet minister in the NDP government of Bob Rae. Janice Ormond, executive director of the Hamilton Out of the Cold program, had known Firth since 2006. She called her an extraordinary lady who was a friend to everyone. Indeed, her son Tyler and Sister Carole Anne said Firths funeral was packed and people spilled over into the choir pews. Even after she retired, she still came into the office to see if she could do anything, said Ormond, who oversees meal programs in nine churches. She was always thinking of us. She was a real inspiration to people. She was like a mom. She said Firth would come to board meetings with homemade biscuits, scones and other baked goods. When Firth stepped down from the board, board members joked about getting her to stay on to keep the baked goods coming. Firth is survived by her daughter Dayna, sons Tyler, Matthew and Fraser, six grandchildren and sister Patricia. She was predeceased by her husband Douglas, who died in 2012. Advertisement Residents of Sydney's northern beaches have slammed police and the local council for closing Manly Beach after thousands flocked to the sand in spite of strict social distancing policies. Up until Sunday swimmers and surfers were able to take advantage of the ocean to exercise, but the beach was closed for sunbathing and socialising to slow the spread of coronavirus in the community. Police were forced to close a handful of beaches north of the Harbour Bridge on Sunday after beachgoers repeatedly ignored orders to move along after exercising. But some locals believe that in doing so, authorities have stripped them of their 'basic human right' to access the water. 'This is ridiculous,' one person complained to the Northern Beaches Council. Surfers were spotted getting close in the water at Freshwater Beach on Sunday morning, as swimmers were told they weren't able to enter the water because the beach was closed Manly Beach was closed on Sunday after repeated efforts to encourage beachgoers to practice safe social distancing Families gathered at Freshwater beach on Sunday for a day in the sun, but were quickly sent packing when the beach was closed due to too many crowds Crowds making the most of the autumn sunshine in Manly despite strict social distancing rules to slow the spread of the coronavirus The man said his son was studying for his HSC, or final year exams in New South Wales, and occasionally jogged down to Manly Beach for a surf to 'clear his head'. 'Now I am truly worried about his mental well-being,' the father said. 'Thanks Northern Beaches Council. I thought you lot were at least using some common sense and acknowledging surfing as a form of exercise.' Another local agreed that restricting access to the surf would impact the mental and physical well-being of those who rely on it as a form of exercise. 'Fresh air and nature is a human right,' a Welshman living in the seaside suburb said. 'I find it ridiculous if we can't even go in the water. I work 40+ hours a week from my home, live 50 yards from Manly beach and surf for my physical and mental well-being, and train on the grass by the beach.' A spokesman for the Northern Beaches Council responded to dozens of complaints and questions from locals on its Facebook page on Sunday, ensuring the closures would be reassessed on a daily basis. On Saturday, a cafe in Freshwater drew a large crowd of people despite the government introducing policies encouraging people to stay indoors Locals complained that closing the beach was a ridiculous step and restricted their basic human right to exercise The walking track from Curl Curl to Manly has been busy with people milling around despite calls from the government to practice safe social distancing. Authorities were disappointed with the large crowds gathered on Friday (pictured) and Saturday What virus? The rocky shore fronting Cabbage Tree Bay was still a popular bathing and tanning spot on Sunday morning 'Council's position is that beaches are closed only to swimming at this stage,' the spokesman told beachgoers. 'Walking and surfing is permitted within the rules of no gathering or hanging around. Manly is the exception for today, where police took the initiative to close the beach to surfers as well.' By Monday, it is likely surfers and swimmers will be able to return to the water to exercise, but police have the right to ban it again at any point if people continue to ignore social distancing measures. 'It's a shame that people doing the right thing are disadvantaged because others are not following the rules,' a council spokesman told another concerned local. 'We don't want to close the beaches, but we do when people don't follow appropriate social distancing and sunbathe.' Crowds were condemned for flocking to the three-kilometre stretch of sand on both Friday and Saturday. At about 11am on Sunday, police finally had enough and closed the entire beach down. A bikini-clad woman returns from a dip at Manly Beach on Sunday morning - before authorities finally closed the popular tanning spot to the public A group of people stand in water off the rocks on the Shelley Beach to Manly coastal footpath on Sunday morning Manly Beach's entire three-kilometre stretch was finally closed to the public about 11am on Sunday morning Groups on the promenade in Manly are still failing to adhere to strict social distancing rules - including not gathering in groups of more than two and remaining 1.5m apart One beachgoer said about 11am they heard the beach was closing via an announcement on a loudspeaker. Pictured revellers in the water and on the beach in the hours before In the hours before the beach was closed about 11am, hundreds of beachgoers both in the water and on the beach made the most of the pleasant 21C autumn weather. Families and bikini-clad revellers were out in full force on the beach and the rocky shore fronting neighbouring Cabbage Tree Bay. Hundreds more were walking their dogs or enjoying their morning coffee as they walked along the footpath connecting Manly Beach to nearby Shelley Beach - which is still open. By midday though the beach was completely deserted, with one resident sharing a photo of the eerily quiet strip of sand set against an almost cloudless blue sky. Northern Beaches Council said in a statement the decision had been made to close the beach because of the number of people gathering there. 'Our Rangers and Council staff have been posted to a number of hot spots today where large gatherings have occurred,' the council said on its Facebook page. 'We have had to close Warriewood, Manly, North Steyne, Queenscliff, Freshwater and Palm Beach. More beaches will close and reserves too if people don't follow the rules.' Pictured: The promenade and beach at Manly still busy - with hundreds of people making their way around the beach - at 10.21am Families and bikini-clad revellers were out in full force on Manly Beach and the rocky outcrops between the popular spot and nearby Shelley Beach Fun in the sun: Hundreds more could be seen walking their dogs or enjoying their morning coffee as they walked along the footpath joining Manly Beach to nearby Shelley Beach A still busy Manly Beach is pictured on Sunday before authorities made the decision to finally close the famous spot to the public The closure comes more than two weeks after a series of beaches were shut to the public in Sydney's eastern suburbs. From March 22, Waverley Council closed Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte Beach while Randwick Council shut off Maroubra, Coogee and Clovelly Beach. The northern beaches are a known hotspot for coronavirus, having the second-highest number of cases in New South Wales. The state is considered the nation's epicentre for the virus. On Friday, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for all foreign visitors and students to leave the country now amid fury at backpackers for failing to follow social distancing rules. He said that while those with essential skills - such as visiting doctors and nurses - will be encouraged to stay, it was past the time for everyone else to 'make their way home'. The New South Wales Government has implemented further restrictions that only allow residents to leave their homes for one of 16 essential reasons. These reasons include exercise, grocery shopping, seeking medical care and attending school or work. A group of people congregating along the rocky shoreline between Manly Beach and Shelley Beach. The stretch is a popular walk for locals and tourists Police, lifeguards and council rangers (pictured) approaches groups of people to enforce social distancing measures One woman enjoyed the sunshine as she took to Manly Beach dressed in a wetsuit and a bikini with her surfboard 'But let's ignore all that, and blame us solely for the outbreak in Bondi (because apparently it was only backpackers there).' 'You can't have six backpackers in a caravan up out in rural parts of the country,' he added. 'That's not on. Not going to happen.' He reiterated the current visa regulations which state that students who come to Australia must prove they have enough money to support themselves for 12 months. Mr Morrison commented that given students will have known about this rule before arriving, it is 'not unreasonable' to expect them to look after themselves. 'That is a requirement for their visa when they come for the first year,' he explained. 'That is not an unreasonable expectation of the government that students would be able to fulfill the commitment that they gave.' Manly locals decided to sit and chat alongside the beach despite the laws that asked Australians to remain at home Two NSW Police officers patrolled Manly Beach on Saturday morning and asked those not exercising to return home Police screen incoming passengers at the domestic airport in Brisbane on Friday (pictured) In just over a month since the first Covid-19 case was reported in Delhi, at least 24 healthcare workersdoctors, nurses, sanitation staffhave tested positive for the disease in the city. While a couple of them had a history of international travel, some of themlike the doctor couple who worked in two mohalla clinics in north-east Delhi and a resident doctor of respiratory medicine in Safdarjung Hospitalwere infected via their patients. For the otherslike the two doctors and six nurses from Delhi State Cancer Institute and the resident doctor from AIIMSthe source of infection is unclear. Around 108 staff members from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had to be quarantined after coming in contact with two Covid-19 cases unknowingly. Similarly, around 81 people from Maharaja Agrasen Hospital were quarantined after two of the patients admitted to the hospital for almost 20 days tested positive for the disease. One doctor, three nurses, and a member of the housekeeping staff have also tested positive at the hospital. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic All hospitals, including private ones, have been screening every patient for fever, cough and travel history before they are allowed in. So far, Delhi has reported 503 cases of Covid-19, of which 320 are linked to Tablighi Jamaat. So many healthcare workers have taken ill, at a time when the Delhi government is preparing for a surge in the numbers of up to 1,000 cases a day. Why are so many healthcare workers getting infected? Experts believe it is because they are out and about during the lockdown. Currently, most people are at home so they are not being exposed to the infection. However, doctors are out and about. They are also more likely to come in contact with people who have the infection at hospitals and clinics. And, no matter how much screening you do, there is bound to be 20 to 30% of the people who will not have fever or cough yet will be able to transmit the infection to the doctors, said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital. So, what can be done? Virologist Dr Jacob John says universal respiratory protection is what will keep the doctors safe for the upcoming surge. I have been saying this. Everyone needs to wear a mask. Patientseven if they are going to a hospital with a broken toeshould wear a surgical mask. The doctors should all wear N-95 masks. But that is not all, they should also wear goggles that can be sanitised every day to prevent the infection from entering through their eyes. This is for every doctor, even in clinics. As for those in Covid-19 wards, the government has to ensure proper protection. We need all our doctors when the numbers shoot up, he said. For judicious use of the limited personal protective equipment (PPE) stock and to ensure no cross-infection, the Delhi government has dedicated two of its hospitals only for Covid-19 patients. No other patients will be seen in these two hospitals. This is a great step by the government to prevent cross infections. This also ensures that our PPEs are used judiciously, at the same time all our doctors and healthcare workers get adequate protection, said Dr JC Passey, medical director, Lok Nayak Hospital campus, which is one of the two centres to become dedicated Covid-19 hospitals. No doctor from the hospital has got the infection so far, even though it has the highest number of Covid-19 positive and suspected cases. The government has also ensured that after working for 14 days at a time, all the healthcare workers in the Covid-19 wards get to stay in hostels on campus or in luxury hotels so that they do not go home and pass on the infection. Central government hospitals like Safdarjung and Dr RML, which also have isolation wards, have arranged for accommodation for healthcare workers in hostels on campus. The 28-year-old Covid-19-positive senior resident from the physiology department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences had passed on the infection to his wife who was nine months pregnant. She delivered a healthy baby boy at the hospital on Friday. The sanitation worker from AIIMS trauma centre, who tested positive for Covid-19, had passed on the infection to his wife, another sanitation worker in Charak Palika Hospital. The shortage of quality PPEsfull-body suit, goggles, mask, gloves, and shoe coversis another problem that the governments are facing in their Covid-19 fight. Due to the shortage in the market, several small manufacturers have come up and their products are not always quality, but one or two out of five manufacturers can give us decent PPE kits, said an official from Lok Nayak Hospital. The Delhi government has asked the centre for around 200,000 PPE kits and their Central Procurement Agency (CPA), which is responsible for buying all medicines, consumables and equipment for Delhi government-run hospitals, already has a tender in place for 1,20,000 PPE kits with three companies, which are being supplied piecemeal. Most hospitals have just about enough and are working on using them judiciously. We have around 1,800 kits in our store, around 500 are needed in a day. But, there is another shipment scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, said a doctor from Safdarjung Hospital. The doctors are a part of our society and they are susceptible to the infection like everyone else. We need to examine where all of them got the infection from. Plus, we also need to ensure not only the availability of PPE kits but also that they are being used and taken off properly, said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, AIIMS. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anonna Dutt Anonna Dutt is a health reporter at Hindustan Times. She reports on Delhi governments health policies, hospitals in Delhi, and health-related feature stories. ...view detail A 55-year-old man diabetic patient who died in Varanasi on Friday tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday, the districts top official said. District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said on Sunday that the deceased was a trader who had returned to Gangapur town from Kolkata on March 15. On March 17, he caught a cold and consulted a private doctor. After a few days, he consulted another private practitioner who advised him to consult the experts at Sir Sundar Lal (SSL) Hospital in the Benaras Hindu University (BHU). The DM said that he was admitted to the ICU in BHU. Sharma said the mans sample was collected twice by a medical team and was sent to the department of microbiology, Institute of Medical Science, BHU after the first sample was rejected. The test report which came on Saturday said he had tested positive for coronavirus. Until the report came, the hospital kept the body in the mortuary. The DM said that the man was suffering from diabetes for a long time. His blood pressure remained high during the treatment. Sharma said two persons will take the body from BHU for the cremation. There are 10 members in his family in Gangapur town. The neighbourhood where he lived is being sealed, the DM said. There are five other coronavirus patients in Varanasi. A doctor at the hospital who did not wish to be named said that the patient was admitted to the ICU in critical condition. He was given the best possible treatment but suffered multi-organ failure due to which he died. BHU public relations officer Dr Rajesh Singh also said that according to the doctor, the patient died of multi-organ failure. At the last official count, Uttar Pradesh had 234 positive cases. Two had died of the virus earlier. Twenty eight of the states 75 districts have reported infections. Coronavirus updates: The Health Ministry in its daily briefing said on Sunday that the total number of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 472 in last 24 hours. The Ministry added that the rise in cases is due to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin. The ministry added that a total of 79 deaths have been reported so far due to novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that there is not evidence of virus being air-borne yet, and it only spreads through droplets. Cases in India are on a steady rise with the cumulative number surpassing 3,300. Currently there are 3,030 active cases in the country and 75 have died from coronavirus. Meanwhile in Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the number of cases have surpassed 400. According to the health ministry's data as of 6pm on Saturday, Delhi had 445 cases, while Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had 490 and 485 respectively. So far, 266 have been cured or discharged in India. Meanwhile, power companies are working tirelessly to ensure that the 9-minute lights out programme at 9pm tonight does not collapse the grid. The government has also drawn an elaborate plan on how to handle the dramatic change in electricity. The Prime Minister had on Friday morning urged Indians to switch off the lights at their homes and light a candle or diya as a gesture to the needs infected by the coronavirus. The power ministry reiterated that only lights are meant to be switched off and not appliances. Also Read: Coronavirus in India: State-wise COVID-19 cases, trends, list of testing facilities Also read: All flu patients in coronavirus hotspots to undergo COVID-19 rapid tests Also read: Coronavirus aviation lockdown to extend till April 30? Air India's move suggests so Follow the live updates on coronavirus in India in the BusinessToday.In blog here: 9.46 pm: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lights lamps at residence At home, 9 pm: lighting diyas for some moments of mindfulness and thinking of our community, even as we work day and night as one nation: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/tDTvbiKlpo ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.46 pm: PM Narendra Modi lights a lamp at his residence after switching off all lights #WATCH Delhi: PM Narendra Modi lights a lamp after turning off all lights at his residence. India switched off all the lights for 9 minutes at 9 PM today & just lit a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus as per his appeal. pic.twitter.com/9PVHDlOARw ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.30 pm: Heeraben, mother of PM Modi, lights an earthen lamp Gujarat: Mother of PM Modi, Heeraben, lights an earthen lamp after turning off all lights at her residence. India switched off all the lights for 9 minutes at 9 PM today & just lit a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus as per PM's appeal. pic.twitter.com/qPQqXAB6Jf ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.28 pm: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad lights candles at his residence Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad lights up candles in his house. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/3gShf3LmUZ ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.21 pm: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lights earthen lamps at his residence Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lights up earthen lamps along with his family. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/EB5nFzu9xO ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.21 pm: Mumbai skyline before and after people turn off lights in their homes Skyline in Mumbai before (pic 1) & after (pic 2) the residents turned off the lights of their houses. PM Modi had appealed to India to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, & just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/KVmQt1Ngqj ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.19 pm: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla lights diyas along with his family Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla lights up earthern lamps along with family. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/cRSaJBnxxj ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.16 pm: WATCH: People in Karnataka switch off lights in their houses and light diyas and flashlights #WATCH Karnataka: People have turned off the lights of their houses in Bengaluru, following the appeal of PM Modi to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light a candle, 'diya' or mobile's flashlight, to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/L4gWRnYA9m ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.15 pm: Home Minister Amit Shah lights diyas at his reisdence Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah lights earthen lamps after turning off all lights at his residence. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes,& just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/J8HvaGCfCL ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.12 pm: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu turns off lights at his residence and light earthen lamps Vice President Venkaiah Naidu turns off all the lights of his residence & lights earthen lamps. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, & just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/6NEO4H683i ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.12 pm: PM Modi's blackout call: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan lights earthen lamps Delhi: Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan lights an earthen lamp, to show support for the call by PM Modi to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light candles, 'diyas' or mobile's flashlight, to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/4QhZVogrq5 ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.11 pm: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar turns off lights at his residence and lights diyas West Bengal: Guv Jagdeep Dhankhar turns off all the lights of his residence & lights earthen lamps. PM had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, & just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/hoA3aHiKTM ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.10 pm: Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao lights candles during 9-minute blackout Telanagana: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao light up a candle following the call of PM Modi to switch off all the lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or mobile's flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/fPFN20vciF ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.09 pm: IN PICTURES: Visuals of coronavirus blackout from Gujarat Gujarat: People have turned off the lights of their houses&lighted earthen lamps in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Modi had requested everyone to switch off all lights of their houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes&just light candles or 'diyas', to mark the fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/XcFcR9Y5Q3 ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.08 pm: People in Tamil Nadu arrange diyas in shape of map of India Tamil Nadu: People form the map of India, by lighting earthen lamps in Chennai, following the call of PM Modi to switch off all the lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or mobile's flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/IK3pUOJ61o ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 9.06 pm: UP CM Yogi Aadityanath lights diyas at his residence Lucknow: UP CM Yogi Adityanath lights earthen lamps to form an 'Om', at his residence. PM Modi had appealed to the nation to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or flashlight, to mark India's fight against #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/QXrj2oTsVu ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 5, 2020 8.45 pm: People begin preparations in response to PM Modi's lights out call 8.19 pm: Coronavirus lights out: No load shedding, essential services to continue as usual, clarifies Power Ministry Power Ministry has clarified that only lights at homes will have to be voluntarily shut off for 9 minutes starting at 9:00 PM on Sunday, and not all appliances. In a list of FAQs on the lights out, the ministry further added that there are no plans for load shedding. 8.19 pm: Do not switch off main switch, urges KPDCL before April 5 light out Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation (KPDCL) has urged its customers to not switch off electricity from the main switch. Street lights and lights in all essential services such as hospitals, police stations, public utilities, etc will remain on during this period, the power discom stated. 7.51 pm: IN PICTURES: Indian Navy distributes food packets among the needy during coronavirus lockdown Maharashtra: Indian Navy distributed food packets to the needy in Mumbai today, amid #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/wQY6qYu5FV ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 7.50 pm: Foreign missions in India show enthusiasm towards April 5 blackout Many foreign missions in India have indicated that they will participate in the lights off call by PM Narendra Modi to express solidarity. They had also participated last time when the Prime Minister had called for people to clap in appreciation of frontline workers on March 23. 7.38 pm: Coronavirus in Delhi: 58 new cases emerge in 24 hours; tally at 503 Number of coronavirus cases has reached 503 today in national capial Delhi. Out of this, 320 cases have been traced back to Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz. In the last 24 hours, 58 new cases have been reported, of which 19 are from the Nizamuddin event. One COVID-19 patient has died in the past 24 hours. 7.33 pm: 'Big Brother watching,' tweets MP Mahua Moitra before April 5 coronavirus blackout Caution- Big Brother Watching! MHRD asks all schools to report by 9am 6/4 if all students lit candles/ Diyas at 9pm on 5/4. Forms been sent by schools to parents to file & report. Teachers will compile info & pass on to MHRD. #ItsAPandemicNotDiwali pic.twitter.com/R6zUTPERr6 Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 5, 2020 7.15 pm: Coronavirus in India: Death toll rises to 83; confirmed cases at 3,577 According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 83 patients have lost their lives to novel coronavirus till 6:00 pm on April 5. The number of confirmed cases is at 3,577, out of which 3,219 are still active, whereas 274 have been cured and discharged, and 1 has migrated 6.36 pm: Coronavirus Updates: 7 new cases in Karnataka; 5 attended Nizamuddin Markaz event Karnataka registered 7 new coronavirus cases between 5PM on April 4 and 5PM on April 5. Out of these, 2 people had returned to Bengaluru from Dubai on March 22, whereas 4 from Belagavi and 1 from Ballari had attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. State has confirmed 151 COVID-19 cases, including 4 deaths and 12 discharges. 6.09 pm: Finance Ministry, PSB employees donate Rs 430.13 crore to PM CARES Fund Officers and staff of Ministry of Finance, including the officials of financial institutions and state-run banks and enterprises under the Ministry, have come forward to donate a day's salary to PM CARES Fund. Some institutions are also contributing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. The total contribution amounts to Rs 430.13 crore. 6.01 pm: Section 144 in Noida not be extended till April 30 Noida administration has revised its earlier order to impose Section 144 in the district. Prohibitory orders will remain in force in Noida till April 14, an order by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dwivedi said. Violaters will be booked under Section 188 of IPC. 5.42 pm: School, colleges to reopen after coronavirus status review on April 14, says HRD Minister Government will decide on reopening educational institutes after reviewing the coronavirus situation on April 14, said Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. He assured that students would see no academic loss if schools and colleges remain closed after April 14. 5.35 pm: Health Ministry to receive rapid anti-body test kits by Wednesday Rapid anti-body test kits will be recieved by Wednesday, informed Joint Health Secretary Lav Agarwal. These kit are to be used used in areas with influenza-like illnesses and severe and acute respiratory illnesses. These patients cluster spread areas will be expeditiously checked for COVID-19 spread, Agarwal added. 5.28 pm: Coronavirus upddate: Only dairy, medicine shops to remain open in Bhopal Amending the Section 144 order imposed on March 30, Bhopal administration has allowed only dairy and medicine shops to open. Food districbution system by the municipal corporation and authorised home delivery services have been allowed to operate. This order will come into effect from midnight today, till further orders. 5.06 pm: Himachal Pradesh coronavirus cases: CM issues helpline numbers to get medicine Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister's Office on Sunday issued helpline numbers to help people get medicines. "People requiring any particular medicine available in other parts of state or even outside the state could register requirement for the medicine on helpline numbers 0177-2626076 & 0177-2626077 or toll-free no. 1070, " said the CM's office. 4.54 pm: Haryana coronavirus news The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) band in Gurugram on Sunday performed a special song to educate citizens about the preventions and risks related to novel coronavirus. Watch vide here. #WATCH Haryana: Central Reserve Police Force band in Gurugram today performed a special song informing citizens about the precautions and risks related to #COVID19. (Source-CRPF) pic.twitter.com/zZ9xXrwCgv - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 4.47 pm: Uttarakhand coronavirus news 128 FIRs registered, 292 persons arrested on Sunday, over charges of violating the nationwide lockdown, says Media Cell of Uttarakhand Police. 4.35 pm: Coronavirus cases in India: Doubling rate of COVID-19 cases would have been slower if not for Tablighi Jamaat cases, says Health Ministry Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary Health Ministry said on Sunday that the doubling rate of novel coronavirus cases is at 4.1 days. But, if the additional cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat event, had not taken place, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days. Doubling rate is how many days the number of novel coronavirus cases gets double. 4.24 pm: Coronavirus news: Railways helping in transport of essentials: Home Ministry 4.23 pm: Coronavirus count in India: India is also importing PPEs, says Health Ministry 4.22 pm: Coronavirus update: No bar on inter-state cargo movement: Home Ministry 4.21 pm: Coronavius in India: Monitoring costs of essentials across India: Home Ministry 4.20 pm: Coronavirus latest news: Rapid tests in hotspots nad susceptible areas, says Health Ministry 4.19 pm: Coronavirus news India: Rapid antibody test kits by Wednesday: ICMR 4.18 pm: Coronavirus update: COVID-19 spreading only through droplets, says ICMR 4.17 pm: Coronavirus in India: No evidence of virus being air-borne yet, says Dr Raan Gangakhedkar, Deputy Director, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 4.16 pm: Coronavirus: 12.50 lakh labourers getting food in shelters, says Home Ministry 4.16 pm: Coronavirus latest news: Over 13 lakh workers getting food and shelter, Home Ministry 4.15 pm: Coronavirus news: 28,000 relief camps set up across states: Home Ministry 4.14 pm: Coronavirus in India: Food, medicines and supplies being sent across India, says Punya Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Home Ministry 4.12 pm: Coronavirus in India today: Social distancing and lockdown key COVID-19 medicines, says Health Ministry 4.11 pm: Coronavirus total cases in India: Ensuring smooth harvest for farmers: Health Ministry 4.10 pm: Cases of coronavirus in India: Labs have to report COVID-19 cases to ICMR, says Health Ministry 4.10 pm: Coronavirus news India: Ensuring adequate supply of oxygen cylinders: Health Ministry 4.09 pm: PM Modi took stock of quarantine units, says Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry 4.08 pm: Coronavirus update in India: Telemedicine and survey for most susceptible: Health Ministry 4.07 pm: Coronavirus latest news: 472 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours: Health Ministry 4.05 pm: Coronavirus update: Covid-19 cases doubled due to Markaz event, says Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry 4.06 pm: Coronavirus live update: 79 deaths due to COVID-19, says Health Ministry 4.02 pm: Coronavirus in India: Health Ministry begins daily briefing on COVID-19 outbreak 3.56 pm: Odisha coronavirus news: 2 more COVID-19 positive cases in Bhubaneshwar Two more people were tested positive for novel coronavirus in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha on Sunday. While, one of the patients is a 70-year-old resident of Kapila Prasad Housing Board Colony Phase II who has a travel history to Australia, the other is a 29-year-old man from Bomikhal. 3.43 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news: COVID-19 death toll rises to 3 in Pune on Sunday Three novel coronavirus infected patients died in Pune on Sunday. The dead have been identified as a 60-year-old from Yerwada, a 50-yeear-old from Bhavani Peth and a 69-year old from Gultekdi. 3.35 PM: Delhi coronavirus news Tihar Jail authorities have released 700 undertrial inmates on interim bail (emergency parole) for eight weeks. This is in addition to the 500 prisoners who are already out on furlough. 3:25 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the count of cases in the state has reached 690. He added that 55 new cases have been identified. So far, 56 people have been cured and discharged. 3:20 pm: Evnironment ministry employees donate a day's salary Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said that all personnel at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and its 13 related offices will contribute one day's salary amounting to Rs 1.14 crore to PM-CARES. "All officers & staff of MOEFCC and its 13 Attached/Subordinate/Autonomous office pledged to contribute one day's salary around Rs 1.14 cr to PM CARES Fund launched by PM Narendra Modi to support govt effort to fight COVID-19 pandemic," Prakash Javadekar tweeted. 3:14 pm: Haryana coronavirus news The Haryana government said that so far 76 cases have been confirmed in the state. Out of that, four were from Srilanka and one was from Nepal. There are people from other states also who have been reported positive in Haryana. One death has been reported in Ambala. 3:10 pm: Himachal Pradesh coronavirus news The number of coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh has increased to 13. Out of the affected, six had attended Tablighi Jamat in Delhi. The Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur appealed to the attendees of the Nizamuddin event to disclose their identities by 5pm today. He said that the government will be forced to take action against them if they do not disclose. 2:55 pm: 43,000 Indian Bank employees donate State-owned Indian Bank said 43,000 employees have voluntarily donated their one day's salary, amounting to Rs 8.10 crore, towards the PM-CARES Fund. "The bank's 43,000 employees have shown their commitment to the nation by voluntarily contributing one day's salary totalling to Rs 8.10 crore to the PM-CARES Fund towards control of COVID-19 in the country," according to a statement. 2:50 pm: IRDAI gives another 30 day breather Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has given 30 additional days to pay the life insurance premium. Additional grade period has been provided to the policyholders whose life insurance policies' premiums fall due in March and April 2020. The policyholders who are liable to pay in March now have a total of 60 days. 2:45 pm: Indore coronavirus news The number of coronavirus cases in Indore has reached 122 after 9 more cases were found positive. A 50-year-old man died of COVID-19, leading the death toll to 8, said Indore Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Praveen Jadia. 2:41 pm: Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat takes stock of the situation Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat has visited Delhi government's coronavirus Camp at Narela. He interacted with doctors, military medical team as well as volunteers. He also assured the teams of all assistance 2:38 pm: PM Modi talks to Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil The Prime Minister spoke to two former Presidents -- Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee and discussed the coronavirus situation in the country. He also spoke to Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekar Rao, MK Stalin and Parkash Singh Badal. 2.35 pm: Karnataka coronavirus news Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday took to Twitter appealing to people the state not to come out of their houses unnecessarily and help authorities in breaking the chain of COVID-19 by staying at home. "Let us all show the collective responsibility of preventing spread of #Covid19," he tweeted. APPEAL TO PEOPLE OF KARNATAKA We have seen a sharp rise in the number of #Covid19 positive cases in the last few days all over. The idea behind lockdown was to stay home, stay safe and break the chain. 1/3 - CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) April 5, 2020 2.28 pm: Punjab coronavirus news A 42-year-old resident of Jawaharpur village in Punjab's Mohali district has tested positive for novel coronavirus. The man has been shifted to Sector-32 hospital. 2.23 pm: Assam coronavirus news Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the Goalpara Civil Hospital on Sunday to evaluate the preparedness at the facility. . "The 200-bed Civil Hospital at Goalpara is lifeline for people here," he tweeted. #IndiaFightsCorona The 200-bed Civil Hospital at Goalpara is lifeline for people here. To check preparedness on #Covid19 and also enquire about 3 positive patients, I visited the hospital today. Met doctors / staff to express our gratitude. Requested them to remain vigilant. pic.twitter.com/prmNv2NTa8 - Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) April 5, 2020 2.15 pm: Coronavirus in India: Ghaziabad police arrests 10 Indonesians allegedly hiding in a madrasa Ghaziabad police (Uttar Pradesh) on Sunday arrested 10 Indonesians who were allegedly hiding inside a madrasa. All of these individuals have been sent for medical examination. Further investigation into the matter is underway. 2.09 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news: CM Yogi Adityanath Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that the lockdown to prevent the further spread of novel coronavirus will end on April 15, PTI reported. 1.58 pm: Punjab coronavirus news A 44-year-old woman was tested positive for COVID-19 in Punjab's Barnala on Sunday. The woman has no apparent travel history and is a resident of Sekha Road. She has been shifted to an isolation ward. BREAKING NEWS: 44-year old woman tests positive in Barnala. Shifted to hospital isolation. No apparent travel history. Contact tracing commenced. Reported to be otherwise in good state of health. Resident of Gali. No. 4, Sekha Road, Barnala. Locality being "contained". - KBS Sidhu, IAS, Spl. Chief Secretary, Punjab. (@kbssidhu1961) April 5, 2020 1.47 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh district magistrate on Sunday issued an order instructing educational institutions not to charge any fee from students during the lockdown period. 1.42 pm: Coronavirus in India: Varanasi reports first COVID-19 death Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday reported its first novel coronavirus-related death. The district magistrate in a statement said that the test reports of a patient from Gangapur who passed away recently have come back positive for COVID-19. 1.34 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news: Section 144 extended in Gautam Buddh Nagar till April 30 Authorities extended Section 144 of the CrPC in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar till April 30. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dwivedi issued the order in this regard which restricts organisation of any demonstrations or other assemblies. 1.24 pm: Punjab coronavirus news: State health department sets up 'Flu Corners' in government hospitals The Punjab government's health department has come up with separate 'Flu Corners' in state-run hospitals. These corners are exclusively built for treating patients experiencing cough, cold and fever. #COVID_19 : Health Department, Punjab is treating patients with cough, cold and fever at separate 'Flu Corner' in the Government hospitals. pic.twitter.com/rmtwU6ZJCp - Government of Punjab (@PunjabGovtIndia) April 5, 2020 1.14 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus cases Around 25 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Maharashtra on Sunday. Out of these 25 cases, Pune reported 17 cases, Pimpri-Chindhwad four cases, Ahmednagar three and Aurangabad the remaining two cases. With these, the total number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the state stands at 661. 1.10 pm: Goa coronavirus cases: State govt launches COVID-19 mobile app to track patients in quarantine Following the model of the central government's Aarogya Setu, Mizoram government's Mcovid-19, Punjab government's Cova Punjab and Maharashtra government's Mahakavach, the Goa government on Sunday launched the COVID Locator mobile app. Goa's Health Minister Vishwajit Rane took to Twitter to announce the app. "A GPS based location tracker, that will help in tracking suspected and asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus when they leave their quarantine zone," he tweeted. 1.05 pm: Coronavirus live update: Health workers attacked in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi There are reports of locals in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi attacking the health workers. The incident happened in Kovilpatti when the health workers were surveying houses to check for any novel coronavirus cases. 1.00 pm: Coronavirus in India: 21 policemen asked to self-isolate in Puducherry Over 21 cops in Puducherry have been asked to self-isolate themselves after it was discovered that they are the residents of areas affected by novel coronavirus in the union territory. Presently, Puducherry has four confirmed COVID-19 cases with three in Ariankuppam and one in Thirubhuvanai. 12.50 pm: Coronavirus news: 8 Stopped from boarding flight to Malaysia at IGI airport Around eight people were stopped from boarding a special flight to Malaysia by immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi on Sunday. These individuals are reportedly could be handed over to the health department. 12.40 pm: Tamil Nadu coronavirus news: State health minister inspects general hospitals Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr. C Vijayabaskar on Sunday visited the general hospitals of Ilupur, Annavasal and Viralimalai. #SundayMorning: Visited & checked the preparedness of Ilupur GH & #Annavasal GH,#Viralimalai GH. Interacted with the Drs, nurses, hospital workers and appreciated their valuable services in this difficult times. Ensured all supplies are in place. #TN_Together_AgainstCorona #CVB pic.twitter.com/hTzeAmJukM - Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) April 5, 2020 12.33 pm: Maharashtra Coronavirus news The death toll in Maharashtra's Pune district has climbed to four on Sunday as a 52-year-old COVID-19 patient died at the Sassoon hospital. This is the second death in Pune on Sunday due to the novel coronavirus. A 52-year-old COVID19 patient passes away at Pune's Sassoon Hospital. This is the second death reported in Pune today taking the death toll in Pune district to 4: Pune Health officials. #Maharashtra - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 12.23 pm: Delhi coronavirus news: Police issues Shab-e-Barat advisory; urges people to stay at home The Delhi Police issued an advisory on Sunday appealing to citizens to stay at home even during the sacred night of Shab-e-Barat on April 8 and April 9. Taking to Twitter the police said, "Don't misuse it by coming out on bikes and create chaos on the streets of Delhi." 12.13 pm: Coronavirus live update: PM Modi reminds the nation about "9pm9minute" Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Sunday to remind the citizens about the initiative to switch off the lights of their houses for nine minuts at 9 pm on Sunday. 12.08 pm: Andhra Pradesh coronavirus news Andhra Pradesh on Sunday reported around 34 fresh novel coronavirus cases. The cases emerged between 9 pm on Saturday and 9 am on Sunday morning. Out of these cases, 23 were reported from Kurnool. 12.00 pm: Delhi Coronavirus news: Two nursing officers test COVID-19 positive Two nursing officers at Delhi State Cancer Institute were tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday morning. Earlier, four staffers at the hospital, including a doctor also tested positive for novel coronavirus. 11.56 am: Coronavirus: India COVID-19 tracker India Coronavirus Tracker: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is teh state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. 11.48 am: Maharashtra coronavirus news: Latest updates on COVID-19 cases, death in the state Maharashtra updates on coronavirus:- Total new cases in Maharashtra in last 24 hours: 145 Total deaths in state in last 24 hours: 6 Total deaths due to coronavirus in Maharashtra: 32 Total cases in Maharashtra: 635 Total cases in Mumbai: 377 Total deaths in Mumbai till now: 22 4 deaths in Mumbai in last 24 hours. Nizamuddin connection- Maharashtra got a list of 1,225 people out of which 1,033 people have already been traced. Meanwhile, the hunt is on for others with the help of police and other agencies. Out of the total, 738 people are kept under quarantine. Seven people with the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin have been found COVID-19 positive. Out of these, two are from Pune, two from Pimpri Chinchwad, two from Ahmednagar and one from Hingoli. 11.36 am: Coronavirus global news: US will need 32,000 ventilators by COVID-19 peak in mid-April University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has estimated that the country will need 32,000 ventilators by the peak in mid-April, and the government only has around 10,000 stockpiled, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients are expected to flood hospitals across the country in the coming weeks, with the medical staff grappling for more equipment to keep the patients alive. New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) has said that his state needs 30,000 ventilators alone. 11.25 am: Himachal Pradesh coronavirus news Himachal Pradesh on Saturday recorded nine new COVID-19 cases taking the total toll to 15 in the state. The news cases reported on Saturday also included four Tablighi Jamaatis from Baddi, five others tested positive are Delhi residents who are also staying in Baddi. 11.22 am: Coronavirus: Top WHO official asks countries to include services to end domestic violence as an essential service Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the increasing reports of domestic violence are being reported since the novel coronavirus outbreak began. Taking to Twitter, he urged the countries to include services to end domestic violence as an essential service. "Sadly, there are reports from of an increase in domestic violence since the #COVID19 outbreak began. We call on countries to include services to #EndViolence as an essential service that must continue during the response. There is never any excuse for violence," he tweeted. Sadly, there are reports from of an increase in domestic violence since the #COVID19 outbreak began. We call on countries to include services to #EndViolence as an essential service that must continue during the response. There is never any excuse for violence. pic.twitter.com/Z4MQN0JwRf - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 4, 2020 11.15 am: Punjab coronavirus news The Punjab government has taken the decision to seize the passports of people hiding their travel history as the number of novel coronavirus cases climbed to 66 in the state. Nine new COVID-19 cases each were reported from Amritsar and Mohali and one each from Jalandhar, Faridkot and Patankot on Sunday. 11.10 am: COVID-19 news update Except for the Chief Medical Officer of the CRPF who tested positive for novel coronavirus and is undergoing treatment, none in his contact chain have shown any positive sign, However, CRPF DG AP Maheshwari has advised all concerned officers to restrict their movement and work from home to break the chain, if any. He also took to Twitter on Sunday to announce the same. GreetingsAs a precautionary measure I have completely restricted my movement being part of my responsibility to break the chain,and working from home, till a clarity on health check up of concerned officials emerges. @PMOIndia @HMOIndia - Anand Prakash Maheshwari (@DrAPMaheshwari) April 5, 2020 11.05 am: Gujarat coronavirus cases Gujarat on Sunday reported 11 death cases and 122 confirmed cases due to novel coronavirus. 10 new cases were recorded in Ahmedabad. Following the city wise data: - Ahmedabad: 53 Surat 15 Gandhinagar: 13 Rajkot: 10 Vadodara:10 Bhavnagar: 11 Porbandar: 03 GirSomnath: 02 PanchMahal/Mehsana/Kutch/Patan/Chhota Udepur: 01 10.55 am: Chhattisgarh coronavirus news Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo said on Sunday that three more novel coronavirus patients have been cured and have fully recovered from the virus. With this 7 out of 10 patients have recovered so far, he added. 3 more COVID19 patients have been cured and have fully recovered; 7 out of total 10 patients have recovered so far: Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo (file pic) pic.twitter.com/frhscPEcPT - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 10.49 am: COVID-19 news update: Punjab's chief secretary shares details of Tablighi Jamaat cases Punjab's Special Chief Secretary, KBS Sidhu on Sunday shared latest updates on Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin. Total Tablighi Jamaat: 309 Traced: 241 Being Traced: 68 Of 241 persons traced, samples collected: 180 Positive: 6 (2 Mohali, 3 Mansa, 1 Ludhiana) Negative: 92 Results awaited: 82 Official Perception: Situation is better than originally apprehended 9.41 am: Maharashtra coroanvirus news Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country with 490 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, according the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website. Meanwhile, 42 people have been cured of the virus while the death toll stands at 24 10.32 am: Coronavirus news: Not enough PPE for healthcare workers, testing kits for people, tweets Akhilesh Yadav Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter on Sunday to say that there are not enough testing kits for people and Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers not enough meals to feed the poor people. Not enough testing kits for people. Not enough Personal Protective Equipment for health care workers. Not enough meals to feed the poor. These are the real challenges today. - Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) April 5, 2020 10.25 am: J&K coronavirus news: NGO provides free medicines and health check-up NGO Ummeed Welfare Society is providing free medicines and health check-up to labourers in Poonch amid the nationwide lockdown. Jammu & Kashmir: NGO Ummeed Welfare Society provides medicines & health check-up free of cost to labourers in Poonch amid #CoronavirusLockdown. pic.twitter.com/Mtq4xrbCKS - ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 10.15 am: Coronavirus: South African Muslim cleric dies after attending Nizamuddin event A South African Muslim cleric who had recently returned from India after attending the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month, died after contracting COVID-19. 10.07 am: Rajasthan coronavirus cases: 1 death, 6 new COVID-19 cases reported A novel coronavirus patient passed away in Rajasthan on Sunday. A total of six new cases have been reported on the same day taking the total tally in the state to 210. 9.57 am: Tamil Nadu coronavirus cases Death toll in Tamil Nadu due to COVID-19 rose to five on Sunday with the death of a 71-year-old man who died on April 2 at Ramnathapuram district after testing positive for novel coronavirus. Another 60-year-old man also positive tested positive for the deadly virus and passed away at Stanley medical college hospital at Chennai. 9:40 am: PM Modi expresses grief at loss of life in Spain PM Modi spoke to Spanish President Pedro Sanchez and expressed grief on the deaths due to coronavirus in the country. Spoke on phone to President of the Government of Spain, H.E. Pedro Sanchez. Conveyed my deepest condolences for the tragic loss of life in Spain. We agreed to collaborate in fighting the pandemic. @sanchezcastejon Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 4, 2020 9:30 am: Coronavirus good news: Quality of Ganga river improves The quality of River Ganga has improved in Kanpur, UP as industries shut shop due to the nationwide lockdown. An improvement of 40-50 per cent has been observed. #WATCH Water quality of River Ganga in Kanpur improves as industries are shut due to #Coronaviruslockdown. As per Dr PK Mishra, Professor at Chemical Engineering&Technology, IIT-BHU,Varanasi, there has been 40-50% improvement in quality of water in Ganga pic.twitter.com/9uYInk01ji ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 5, 2020 9:20 am: Govt seeks india Inc's help to fight COVID-19 Government is roping in industry leaders such as Anand Mahindra and N Chandrasekaran to help in developing a technology platform to fight coronavirus. The leaders will be part of a panel that will also look into ways on improving the Arogya Setu app. They would also look in privacy concerns. Principal Scientific Advisor K VijayRaghavan, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman RS Sharma, Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Sawhney and Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash are also likely to be part of the panel. 9:11 am: Coronavirus in UP: More Tabighi connections emerge In Lucknow, the Cantonment area has been sealed after 12 Tablighi Jamaat returnees in Sadar Bazar area tested positive. The area has been sealed for 48 hours and only Quick Response Teams and medical teams will be allowed. Meanwhile in Ghaziabad, 10 Indonesians including five women, who attended the Nizamuddin even in Delhi have been placed under quarantine. They have also been booked under Section 188, Section 269, Secttion 270 of IPC -- malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life. 9:05 am: Coronavirus in India: Govt turns to self-help groups for help More than 132 lakh face masks have already been produced by members of SHGs under the Ministry of Rural Development's National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), a rural development ministry press release said. Over the last 10 days, members of 14,522 SHGs in 24 states covering 399 districts of the country are actively involved in face mask production, it said. 9:00 am: Coronavirus good news: Karachi applauds Air India Air India was applauded by Karachi for their valiant efforts. The airline has been conduction special flights with relief material and evacuees. As a flight to Frankfurt entered Karachi air space, they were greeted by the Karachi traffic control. "Assalaam Alaikum! This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the senior captain said. Once they affirmed, the Pakistani ATC said, "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" 8:50 am: What are the authorities doing to ensure stable electricity during 9pm lights-out event? Power System Operation Corp Ltd - the agency responsible for managing the grid - has mapped all India lighting load and estimated such demand at 12-13 gigawatts (out of a total consumption of 125-126 GW). This reduction in load would happen in 2-4 minutes and recover nine minutes later, within again, 2-4 minutes. This sharp reduction in load and recovery will need to be handled through hydro and gas generators that require the least amount of time for ramp-up. All regional entities have been advised to maintain their interchange with the grid as per schedule. Distribution companies have been advised to avoid any feeder switching operation from 20:00 to 22:00 hrs. 8:45 am: Light-a-candle event announced by PM Modi tonight PM Modi asked indians to light a candle tonight at 9pm as a show of support for the coronavirus-infected in the lower strata of the society. If you are wondering how the power companies will deal with the fluctuation in electricity that is likely to take place once the country switches off its lights and switches it back on in 9 minutes, here's how it will work: Electrical appliances such as AC, fans, TVs, refrigerators are not supposed to be switched off and only household lights are to be switched off. Lights in all essential services, including hospitals, police stations and manufacturing facilities as well as street lights are not to be switched off. This will ensure sizeable household demand continues irrespective of lights-out. 8:35 am: Coronavirus in India: Tablighi a hotspot Officials said atht 22,000 people linked to the Tablighi Jamat congregation have been quarantined. They added that at least 1,023 confirmed cases have been linked to the Nizamuddin event. The Tablighi-linked infections spread across 17 states and around 30 per cent of them are from "one particular place" where, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Luv Agarwal says that they could not "understand or manage". 8:30 am: Coronavirus in Assam: Police deploys drones Assam Police has deployed drones to monitor the lockdown in the state. The police has arrested 75 people and seized around 2,000 vehicles that were found violating the restrictions. "I will leave this room within a week after defeating you," the braveheart nurse had vowed after contracting the deadly coronavirus while attending to India's oldest COVID-19 survior, expressing unflinching faith in Kerala's health care system. Last Friday, 32-year old Reshma Mohandas lived up to her promise and walked out holding her head high to her home, where she is now placed under 14-day quarantine, after she and the elderly man and his were discharged from the Medical College Hospital here on being cured of the disease. Soon after 93-year-old Thomas Abraham, whose recovery has been dubbed as a 'miracle cure' by the medical community, and 88-year old Mariyamma left the hospital, Reshma too headed home but with the resolve to come back and serve the patients after the mandatory two weeks quarantine. "I will leave this room within a week after defeating you (coronavirus)", Reshma had posted in a WhatsApp group of her friends and colleagues while undergoing treatment in isolation at the hospital. "I posted that message in the WhatsApp group because I have full faith in Kerala's health system. It is world class," Reshma told PTI from her home. The nurse, who took care Thomas and Mariyamma since March 12, believes she contracted the disease as she was in close contact with and often talked to the couple, who did not wear masks as it made them uncomfortable. She said she loved taking care of all their needs. "I was not tensed at all. I love taking care of elderly people. We used to talk a lot (in the ICU)", she said. Reshma, who was earlier working in the operating theatre of another section, said she used work for four hours in the ICU before she contracted the virus and was admitted to the same wing as a patient. "I had close contact with them in the ICU because I paid attention to address their every needs," she said. The first warning sign came on March 23 morning when she had a throat infection. Reshma immediately alerted the head nurse, who in turn informed the doctors. She was asked to visit the fever clinic at the Medical College and was later referred to the isolation facility where she took care of elderly novel coronavirus patients. Some 20 nurses who had come into contact with her were sent to home quarantine. On March 24, she tested positive. "I did not have any other complications, barring headache and body pain", she said. Reshma said she was ready to serve in the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients after 14 days of mandatory home quarantine. "I am ready to work again in the isolation facility when I return," the feisty nurse, whose husband is an engineer, said. She was all the more happy that proper medical care at the hospital led to recovery of Abraham and Mariyamma. Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja telephoned Reshma to express her happiness over her recovery. The Minister said the about a health professional contracting the coronavirus was a matter of concern for the state. In a statement, she hailed Reshma's dedication as a professional and said she had treated elderly patients like her parents, attending to their every need. The elderly couple, hailing from Ranni village in Pathanamthitta district had contracted the virus from their son, daughter-in-law and grandson who returned from Italy last month, all of whom have also recovered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Heeding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to switch off lights in order to mark the fight against Coronavirus, Indians across the country lit lamps, candles and mobile flashlights as a show of solidarity. (Image: ANI) People turned off the lights of their houses and lit earthen lamps in Ahmedabad. (Image: ANI) The skyline in India's financial capital Mumbai after the lights were turned off. (Image: ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi lit a lamp after turning off all the lights at his residence. (Image: Twitter/@narendramodi) President of India, Ram Nath Kovind and First Lady joined citizens in demonstrating collective solidarity and positivity by lighting candles at 9 PM. (Image: Twitter/@rashtrapatibhvn) Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman lit 'diyas' at her residence. (Twitter/@nsitharaman) Home Minister Amit Shah lighting earthen lamps after turning off all the lights at his residence. (Image: ANI) Vice President Venkaiah Naidu turned off all the lights of his residence and lit earthen lamps. (Image: ANI) Reliance Industries owner Mukesh Ambani's Antilia in Mumbai lights up for PM Modi's 9 PM 9 Minutes Donald Trumps suggestion the United States could ban exports of medical supplies to Canada has infuriated the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. Dwight Ball made a point Sunday of reminding the president how the province helped thousands of stranded airline passengers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2001, our province stepped up in the biggest way possible, Ball told a news conference in St. Johns, N.L. When the United States was in crisis ... Newfoundland and Labrador accepted with open arms thousands of people from around the world. With no questions asked, with no prompting, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians acted fast and did what was necessary. On Friday, American manufacturer 3M one of the largest producers of N95 medical-grade face masks said it had been told by the White House to stop exporting the equipment to Canada and Latin America a charge the White House has denied. The White House later issued a statement that suggested its order was aimed at wartime profiteers who could divert protective equipment away from U.S. hospitals to foreign purchasers willing to pay significant premiums. Media reports suggest Trump had singled out 3M after a Fox News report accused the Minnesota-based companys American distributors of selling its masks to foreign buyers that were outbidding U.S. customers. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Trumps comments landed with an ugly thud, Ball said. To say that Im infuriated with the recent actions of President Trump is an understatement, the Liberal premier said. I cannot believe for a second that in a time of crisis that President Trump would even think about banning key medical supplies to Canada. Ball isnt the only premier to be critical of U.S. actions in recent days. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford also expressed their disappointment on the medical supply situation recently. Despite his anger, Ball said the provinces population renowned for its unqualified hospitality would always be there to help those in need. Newfoundland and Labrador will never give up on humanity, he said. We would not hesitate for one second if we had to repeat what we did in 9/11. We would do it again. Balls harsh words for Trump came as the province reported 14 new cases of COVID-19, which raised the provinces total to 217 confirmed cases. Ten people remain in hospital and there were three in intensive care. The province reported the Atlantic regions first death related to novel coronavirus on March 30. The four provinces have not reported any deaths related to COVID-19 since then. However, three of the provinces reported a total of 83 new cases on the weekend. Prince Edward Island did not record any new cases on either Saturday or Sunday. In Nova Scotia, health officials reported 26 new cases on Sunday. The provinces total now stands at 262 confirmed cases the highest number in the region. With the virus now spreading in communities, Nova Scotia has ramped up testing at the provinces main laboratory, where the processing of results is expected to become a 24-7 operation as of Monday. Premier Stephen McNeil confirmed Sunday that police in Halifax had handed out dozens of tickets on the weekend to people violating emergency health orders aimed at preventing the spread of the virus. He repeated a warning he issued on Friday, which has since become a trending topic on social media. Stay the blazes home! he said, acknowledging that his quaint Maritime turn of phrase is now being printed on T-shirts, coffee cups and all manner of kitschy memorabilia. On Friday, I told all of you to stay the blazes home, he said. You had some fun with it and ... after all, we could all use a bit of humour now. However, the premier doubled down on his original message. People are still walking on beaches and in parks, having garage parties and gathering in large groups, he said. But what the reckless and selfish dont get is that they are putting everyone else at risk ... This virus spreads, and it spreads fast. Just look at whats going on in Ontario and Quebec. In New Brunswick, health officials reported three new cases, bringing the provinces total to 101 confirmed cases. Like Nova Scotia, most of the cases are travel-related, but five were the result of community spread. This is the time to be sensible, to be prudent and, more than anything, to be kind, Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswicks chief medical officer of health, said in a statement. But remember, you would not put someone elses oxygen mask on before your own. I urge you to think about your mental health the same way. Take care of yourselves so you can take care of others. 'Before the crisis, gold was selling for about 1,340 an ounce. It is currently at 1,400 but has peaked at over 1,550 in recent weeks'. (stock picture) A new Dublin-based bullion seller has shifted over 25 kilos of gold - close to its annual target - in its first three weeks of business. Core Bullion founder Nigel Doolin said his timing to open the Francis Street physical gold-selling business "could not have been better." It had seen a rush of nervous investors buying into the precious metal as the global pandemic took hold. "We've exceeded anything that we thought we would do. We're just over 70pc of our yearly target in our first three weeks," said Doolin, who has been dealing in gold for a decade and was previously head of trading with Merrion Gold, a business he headed up from inception seven years ago. He told the Sunday Independent that a wide range of Irish-based investors - from experienced punters looking to make a return as the gold price rises, to multinational expats looking to protect their high earnings - had spent more than 2m on Core's gold bars. Before the crisis, gold was selling for about 1,340 an ounce. It is currently at 1,400 but has peaked at over 1,550 in recent weeks, its highest rate ever, said Doolin. He claimed it was "very important" for gold investors to buy physical gold rather than bonds or shares linked to gold: "If an institution or a government collapses, so does your piece of paper." Rachel and Clay and a gift of life Clay Benson and Rachel Balson Little did Rachel Balson realize, as she checked the box to be an organ donor on her first North Carolina drivers license, how God would use her decision. She never considered being a living donor, but all that changed when her buddy, twelve-year-old Clay Benson, needed a transplant to save his life. At 16, Rachel secured a job at the Hendersonville Chick-Fil-A restaurant owned by Joel and Wendy Benson. Now 30, she is the executive director of the franchise. Over the years she has worked there, the Benson family nestled their way into her heart. I ate meals in their home, babysat their four children and eventually went on vacations with them. In 2009 the Bensons began the process of adopting two children. When they left for China in November 2010, Rachel ran the franchise and house-sat during their three-week absence. On Dec. 10 she transported their children to meet their new brother and sister at the airport. It took 28 hours from the time they left China until the Bensons landed in North Carolina, Rachel recalled. Four-year-old Clay was very happy to get off the plane. He was so adorable. Even though he couldnt speak any English, Clay was full of joy. Ten-year-old Minnie just watched her new brother run circles around everyone. Joel and Wendy asked Rachel to continue living at their home while everyone adjusted to their new normal. She stayed until they began their summer break from home schooling. This was the beginning of a special bond between her and Clay. In April 2019 Clays parents took him to a joint specialist because of his frequent complaints of pain. Shortly after they arrived home, the doctor called to say his creatinine levels were life threateningly high. Fear gripped their hearts as they drove Clay to Mission Hospital where an ambulance waited to transport him to the University of North Carolina hospital in Chapel Hill four hours away. Rachel was shocked and heartbroken when she heard the news. The Bensons were devastated when the UNC doctors told them Clay was in stage four kidney failure. He needed a transplant and the wait for one could take up to two years. He had already endured 10 surgeries for issues with his urinary system. They immediately placed Clay on dialysis three times a day while they ran tests over the next two weeks. When he returned home, a dialysis machine, devised to run overnight, went with them. Life as Clay knew it came to a screeching halt. Vacations and ski competitions were now a thing of the past. In May, Rachel contacted the UNC transplant coordinator and volunteered to be his donor. Clay has always been so special to me, she said. I wanted to know if one of my kidneys could save his life. A relative was the first one on the list, so while Clays aunt went through tests to determine if she could donate, Rachel filled out forms and transplant questionnaires. News came in September that the aunt wouldnt be a good match. Preliminary blood tests were then run on Rachel and she received materials to read about what life as a living donor entailed. In December Rachel found out she was a perfect match but still needed to spend two full days at UNC for blood work, tests, x-rays and scans to determine how well her kidneys functioned and if she was healthy enough to live with just one. I asked the surgeon if I could resume mountain biking and triathlons after the surgery. He assured me I would, but it could take up to a year to get back where I was before. Rachel had only experienced one outpatient orthopedic surgery in high school, so she wasnt sure what to expect. Conversations with other donors put her mind at ease. In early January of this year Rachel was overjoyed when she received the green light to proceed with the transplant. By then I was so ready! she said. My mind and heart were set on this. On Jan. 23, she and Clay checked into a hotel near the UNC campus so they could report for surgery at 6 oclock the next morning. An air of excitement prevailed as they prepped for their procedures. Nurses took Rachel to the operating room a half hour before Clay and she was in post-op within four hours. The surgeon later told me my kidney was the healthiest one hed ever seen, and it started functioning the minute he placed it in Clays body, she said. Over the next few days, Rachel and Clay walked the halls together. I noticed he almost always out-walked me, she said. I then realized hed been sick for so long and now that he had a fully functioning kidney, he was full of energy. He felt elated to be off dialysis and looked forward to getting on skis again. After three days in the hospital and a few days recuperating in a nearby hotel Rachel was released from UNC care when she passed her one-week check-up. Clay stayed in the ICU two days and then in a regular room for three more before he went home. The doctors were amazed at how quickly he recovered. Clay returned to UNC once a week during a two-month period of home quarantine. Clay doesnt dwell on the fact that he now has a suppressed immune system and will be on anti-rejection medications the remainder of his life, his father said. He is just anxious to get back to life as a normal teenager. Rachel experienced some dizziness, brain fog, shortness of breath and extreme fatigue, but she has no regrets. I would do it all over again if I had to! she said. She must return to UNC for a check-up at one month, six months, one year and two years. After that Ill just see a local physician annually, she said. The Bensons are so grateful for Rachels selfless act. She has always been a part of our family, but even more so now, Joel said. We are very proud of her. Rachel smiles when she describes an act of love that changed two lives. I am in awe of how God brought a boy from China to my hometown to orchestrate His miraculous plan to save Clays life, she said. It blows my mind! * * * * * A freelance writer, Kathy Pierson is a long-standing member of the American Christian Writers who has published stories in several periodicals. A worker moves piles of empty meal carts at an in-flight meal production facility operated by Korean Air in Incheon, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul By Jun Ji-hye In-flight meal providers are suffering as air carriers have halted most international flights amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, airline industry officials said Friday. Airline food suppliers have reduced the operations of their production facilities, while their subcontractors have forced some employees to go on unpaid leave or resign amid deepening financial difficulties. An in-flight meal center operated by Korean Air had produced 71,000 meals a day on average last year, but its daily production fell to 3,700 at the end of March. The production is expected to decrease further to about 3,000 soon, according to officials there. Before the COVID-19 outbreak the center, located near Incheon International Airport, supplied in-flight meals to about 200 international flights every day, including those operated by Korean Air. But on Thursday, the meals were supplied to only 14 flights including 12 Korean Air planes. Subcontractors that have dispatched production workers to the center have been hit hard as well, leading them to cut personnel the number of workers working at the center has decreased to 300 from 1,300. "This is an unprecedented crisis. It was unimaginable that daily production could fall to below 30,000 even when the nation was hit by the SARS and MERS viruses," said Kim Se-yong who is in charge of the in-flight meal business at Korean Air. "Without government support, air carriers and in-flight meal suppliers would go out of business in a few months." There are about four in-flight meal providers near Incheon International Airport, including Gate Gourmet Korea that supplies meals to Asiana Airlines. Gate Gourmet Korea operates a two-story production facility that is 25,550 square meters in size. "Gate Gourmet Korea produced 35,000 meals for Asiana Airlines every day before the COVID-19 outbreak, but now, it is producing fewer than 1,000 meals," an Asiana Airlines official said. Industry officials said it will not be easy for airlines and in-flight meal suppliers to overcome their financial troubles for the time being as they need to wait for the COVID-19 situation to come to an end, and for air travel demand to recover. The Korea Civil Aviation Association expects domestic airlines to suffer a loss of 6.45 trillion won ($5.2 billion) from February to June. "The government should come up with more active measures to support the industry, expanding support funds and beneficiaries," an airline industry official said. The military prosecution is seeking an arrest warrant for an Army soldier suspected of involvement in an online sexual exploitation case, military sources said Sunday. According to the sources, the prosecution asked the military court for a pretrial detention warrant for the Army private first class, whose identity is being withheld. The soldier allegedly distributed content of women performing gruesome sex acts under coercion in collaboration with the case's prime suspect, Cho Ju-bin. Police questioned the soldier over these allegations last Friday. The civilian and military police have vowed collaboration on the case. Cho, arrested last month, is accused of luring and threatening victims into producing sexual content and distributing such photos and videos via Telegram chat rooms. Authorities have so far listed the nicknames of about 15,000 paid members of the so-called Baksabang chat rooms on the messenger service and are now tracking down their personal identities. The soldier in question is also suspected of advertising the chat rooms to gather more members. (Yonhap) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 4) - The country may see an increase in daily COVID-19 testing capacity, as a non-profit organization announced the completion of its new testing facility on Saturday. The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) completed its first molecular laboratory with the capacity to process up to 3,000 COVID-19 tests a day. Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon said they acquired two reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines, which are capable of processing 1,500 tests each per day. We have two machines so thats 3,000 tests a day, but I figure there will be growing pains, so lets be humble and say about 700 a day, Gordon said in a virtual briefing on Saturday. Gordon added that five more testing machines are expected to arrive. These are similar to what was used in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus originated. In the meantime, PRC volunteers at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) are undergoing training to learn how to operate the testing machines. Gordon said testing will begin on Wednesday for residents of Quezon City, which currently has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila. Gordon said the Quezon City government has agreed to shoulder testing costs for residents who need it. The PCR-based test kits usually take 24 to 72 hours to process results from the nose and throat swab samples from a patient. Gordon said that individuals who are already showing symptoms will be given priority. READ: Gordon: Those with COVID-19 symptoms are priority in PH Red Cross testing The results will be privately sent to the Department of Health, the lead agency that is in charge of compiling data on COVID-19 in the country. The confirmatory results will be sent to the [Department of Health] right away. It will be confidential, Gordon said. Gordon added that the Good Samaritan system will be set up, where a private citizen may volunteer to shoulder the cost of testing for a patient who needs it but may not afford it. Gordon assured the Philippine Red Cross will expand testing to other areas soon. CNN Philippines' correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report After more than 50 years of failed attempts, the U.S. military may be on the verge of ending its love affair with brass-cased ammunition, something that predates the Spanish-American War. Traditional brass has dominated military small-arms ammunition since U.S. troops stormed up San Juan Hill, Cuba, in 1898. The robust material performs well in the violent, super-heated space of weapon chambers during firing, but its sheer weight has always been a problem for infantrymen and logisticians alike. Advancements in body armor, communications equipment and other tactical gear have weighed down U.S. combat troops in the Army and Marine Corps, pushing individual loads well past 100 pounds and degrading service members' physical performance, U.S. military studies have shown. Both services have launched multiple efforts to lighten the weapons and equipment grunts carried while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but ammunition weight has always been an Achilles' heel for these efforts. Related: Inside the Army's Quest for a Revolutionary New Bullet "We have not gotten lighter in the last 20 years," Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, told House Armed Services Committee members at a March 5 hearing. "We have slowed the rate of weight increase, which is unacceptable." Early attempts at lighter, plastic-cased cartridge designs failed to meet military standards, but recent technical advances by a few bold companies have prompted the Army and Marine Corps to launch new efforts to test polymer-cased ammunition for infantry units. In early January, the Corps announced it plans to invest up to $10 million in polymer-cased .50 caliber ammo to test in the "Ma Deuce" M2 machine gun, a potent weapon used by both Army and Marine mounted combat units. The Army's role in the Joint Lightweight Ammunition Integrated Product Team is to find a lightweight-cased replacement for brass-cased 7.62x51mm, the caliber used in Army and Marine M240 machine guns and some sniper weapons. "The ultimate goal is to replace brass-cased ammunition for all 7.62mm ammunition in the Army," Becky Leonard, spokeswoman for the Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments & Ammunition at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, told Military.com. The Army's Next Generation Squad Weapon Effort The Army is also evaluating lightweight-cased 6.8mm ammunition for its Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) effort, which is designed to replace the M4A1 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon with more potent weapons that significantly lighten ammunition weight. Two of the three firms competing in the final phase of the program -- Textron Systems and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. -- use polymer-cased technology for their lightweight 6.8mm cartridges. The third, Sig Sauer Inc., uses a more traditional brass-case design with a stainless-steel base to save weight in its NGSW prototypes. The Army hopes to select a final design for both weapons from a single company in the first quarter of 2022 and begin fielding them to an infantry brigade combat team in the first quarter of 2023, modernization officials have said. True Velocity Ammunition LLC shows off its line of polymer cased ammunition at SHOT Show 2020. (Military.com/Matthew Cox) But this is not the first time the Army has launched futuristic infantry weapon programs involving lightweight ammunition; previous attempts resulted in failure. In 1951, the service developed the Special Purpose Individual Weapon, which fired plastic-cased 12-gauge rounds filled with multiple flechettes, or darts, in an attempt to increase the probability of hitting enemy targets. The Advanced Combat Rifle program, launched in 1986, pursued a similar goal, with several of the prototypes featuring plastic-cased ammunition. The Army took a renewed interest in lightweight ammunition after 9/11, when combat troops began to struggle under heavy combat loads in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Soldiers on combat patrols in Afghanistan typically carry 92 to 105 pounds of mission-essential equipment ... this overload causes fatigue, heat stress, injury and performance degradation for soldiers," according to a 2005 report by the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal on "Alternative Cartridge Case Material and Design." "Despite years of research and development, the Army's weapons and equipment [are] still too heavy to allow foot soldiers to maneuver safely under fire," it states. "The only way to fully realize lightweight concepts is to look at novel ways of designing the system, such as allowing the use of lightweight polymer composites for cartridge case applications." Perhaps the most successful weapons programs involving polymer-cased ammunition were launched in 2004 under the Army's Lightweight Small Arms Technology (LSAT), which resulted in successful tests of a special case-telescoped (CT) ammunition in lightweight machine gun prototypes chambered for 5.56mm and 7.62mm, and a rifle prototype chambered 6.5mm CT ammo. Textron has incorporated the CT technology developed in LSAT into the 6.8mm cartridge it designed for its Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes. The technology relies completely on a plastic case to hold the propellant and the projectile. The Move to Polymer-Cased Ammo While the commercial ammunition market may stick with brass, Wayne Prender, senior vice president for Applied Technologies & Advanced Programs at Textron, told Military.com that he is convinced that the U.S. military will eventually have to move toward polymer-cased ammo. "Weight is a significant factor for a military application, more so than a commercial application or sporting application," Prender said. "You are carrying significantly more with significantly less support structure. Ounces may not matter if you are going out for a hunt, but ounces matter when ... your life depends on it. "That is why weight is such a significant factor in a military application and why we endeavored on it." True Velocity Ammunition LLC began designing polymer-cased ammunition for the military in 2010 and now makes the 6.8mm cartridge for General Dynamics' NGSW prototype weapons. "It's not a new concept. The U.S. Army has had a lightweight ammunition requirement for going on 40 years now. It's just [that] nobody has been able to bring a viable solution to the table," said Pat Hogan, chief marketing officer for True Velocity. "I think that the technology has arrived. ... we have proven that it is viable." Both Textron and True Velocity maintain that their polymer-cased ammo designs offer about a 30 percent weight savings over brass ammunition, but also bring increased performance. In 2005, polymer-cased technology suffered from too many flaws to perform adequately under harsh combat conditions, according to findings in the ARDEC report. Since then, companies like Textron and True Velocity have learned how to solve the problems highlighted in the report, such as "cracks on the case mouth, neck, body and base" and "insufficient high temperature resistance." "Brass is a conductor of heat, and our composite case is an insulator," Hogan said. "Brass conducts the heat during the ballistic event; the brass superheats and then transfers that heat to the chamber of the weapon, whereas polymer insulates the chamber from that heat." Excessive heat buildup can cause ammo to cook off or explode in the weapon, a problem True Velocity's case technology has licked, he said. "Anecdotally, we have run cook-off tests through some of the belt-fed platforms and, in order to get the gun even hot enough to be in a position where you could even have a cook off, we have to run brass ammo through a gun to get it hot enough where you can really test our ability to withstand cook-offs," Hogan said. The cylindrical design of Textron's case-telescoped ammunition "really allows you to minimize exposure to heat," Prender said, explaining that the weapons system and CT ammo work together to dissipate heat. "We deal with heat a little bit different," he said. "Our chamber [pivots or rotates], which enables us to remove the chamber and ammo from the latent heat that may exist after [each] round fires." Textron Systems 6.8mm polymer case-telescoped ammunition that was designed for the Armys Next Generation Squad Weapon. (Textron Systems) Other companies have shown enough promise in polymer-cased ammo technology to attract the military's interest. The Marines awarded a contract worth up $10 million to MAC LLC for polymer-cased .50 caliber ammunition. Military.com reached out to MAC LLC but did not receive a response by press time. Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) officials say that the contract is not an indication that the Corps plans to select MAC LLC polymer-cased ammo as an alternative to brass ammunition. "The Marine Corps has not selected this polymer ammo as a replacement," Emanuel "Manny" Pacheco, spokesman for MCSC, recently told Military.com. "The current contract will provide ammunition for user evaluation. Future contracts will be informed by the results of this evaluation." But Lt. Col. Bill Lanham, MCSC's deputy program manager for ammunition, sounded confident, in the contract award announcement, that the Corps will one day transition to polymer-cased ammo. "When we go to war, we need more ammo to defeat our adversaries," Lanham said in a Jan. 17 news release. "Polymer ammo gives Marines the opportunity to carry more ammunition or make trades with what gear is important to carry during combat." The Marines plan to test the polymer-cased .50 caliber ammo in an operational validation scheduled for the third quarter of fiscal 2021. Lightweight Designs Meanwhile, the Army's search for polymer-cased 7.62x51mm identified "three lightweight ammunition designs" and is currently conducting a series of pre-validation tests, said Leonard, who did not name the vendors or the lightweight materials used in the designs. "Once the pre-validation test is completed on all three-lightweight ammunition [designs], the Army will downselect a design and award a contract to the selected vendor to deliver rounds for qualification testing," Leonard said. The Army is assessing the production requirements for lightweight 7.62mm ammo that meets the current brass-cased ammunition requirements, she said, adding that the service hopes to obtain a low-rate initial production contract in late fiscal 2023. The advancements in polymer-cased ammo, however, provide more than just weight savings, both Prender and Hogan said, explaining that the polymer cases can be molded to enhance accuracy and ballistic performance. Engineers have learned how to shape the internal geometry of the case to allow the propellant, or powder, to perform more efficiently, Prender said. "Better performance, better performance in range, better performance in velocity, better performance in accuracy," he said. With a brass cartridge case, "you can't do anything to change the interior geometry," Hogan said. "We can change the wall thickness or the interior shoulder angle or the configuration of the bottom of the cartridge case -- a lot of things to manipulate the ballistic event and basically shape the charge," he added. For Prender, it's all about the science. "It really gets into advanced materials and material science, which is really allowing us to push to the next level," he said. "There is a reason why legacy weapon systems have kind of reached a ceiling and their ability to get better is incremental at best, so you need an enabling technology." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: Bullpup or Belt-Fed? Prototypes for Army's Next-Gen Squad Weapons Finally Revealed The hit Netflix show, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, has been trending since its March release date. The seven-part docuseries focuses on an out-there zookeeper and the world of exotic cats. Its a bizarre tale of love, loss, betrayal, and of course tigers. Those whove watched all seven episodes may wonder, what happened after Tiger King? The story is far from over. Heres an update on a few of the shows most talked-about players. Joe Exotic is in prison Joe Exotic | Netflix The end of Tiger King came with more questions than answers. Such is the case as for what became of the main characters of the series. The final episode reveals that Oklahoma zookeeper, Joseph Maldonado-Passage (aka Joe Exotic) received a 22-year prison sentence. His conviction stems from an alleged murder-for-hire plot against Big Cat Rescue owner, Carole Baskin. Maldonado-Passage whos on his fourth marriage to Dillon Passage recently said he is ashamed of his behavior. However, it didnt stop him from seeking a $94 million lawsuit for civil damages and a presidential pardon from the president. Joe Exotic has received online support. Celebrities like Cardi B. offered to start a GoFundMe page on his behalf. Well keep you posted on the results of his case, in which hed decided to represent himself. Carole and Howard Baskin refute all claims about Caroles missing husband While memes run rampant over Carole Baskins alleged involvement with the disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis, Carole and her third husband, Howard, arent too keen on their docuseries portrayal. Carole refuted claims against her innocence on her website blog. When the directors of the Netflix documentary Tiger King came to us five years ago they said they wanted to make the big cat version of Blackfish, that would expose the misery caused by the rampant breeding of big cat cubs for cub petting exploitation and the awful life the cats lead in roadside zoos and back yards if they survive, she wrote. There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the series not only does not do any of that but has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers. She added: As part of that, it has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don in 1997. Howard also took to social media to post his thoughts about Tiger King and his wifes character. In 15 years of living together, we have never had an argument, he said. We have never even had a harsh word where the other had to come back later and say, Im sorry I said that.' The two continue running Big Cat Rescue, where, surely attendance will surge once mandatory stay-at-home laws are lifted. John Finley is a happily married father Despite being Maldonado-Passages second husband along with the late Travis Maldonado in a three-way ceremony Finley later explained he is straight. By the end of the series, viewers learn Finlay left Maldonado-Passage. He then developed a relationship with a zoo employee with whom he had a child and married. Finlay has a new set of teeth, a job as a welder, and he started a Facebook page titled, The Truth About John Finley to clear up any lingering rumors. Bhagavan Doc Antle still operates his facility Like Maldonado-Passage, Doc Antles character has been scrutinized to death over alleged animal abuse revealed in the series. Antle runs The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.), which some have called cult-like due to the way his facility is run and the number of women at Antles side. Antle is not happy with the way the show portrayed him, or the sanctuary. He recently posted to his Instagram page to clarify that Tiger King is, a quasi fictional drama, more focused on shock value and titillation than fact. Despite a 2019 raid and other allegations within the docuseries, Antle also clarified in an interview with Oxygen, that he is not married to any of the women who work for him, and has not been married since the death of his wife over 20 years ago. He still lives at his Myrtle Beach residence and the facility remains open with their website stating they are, not planning to cancel any tours at this time. Rick Kirkham moved to another country Former Inside Edition journalist, Rick Kirkham, may have thought Joe Exotic would be his final success story. Instead, he became Joe Exotics prime suspect in the zoos mysterious arson fire that killed the facilitys reptiles. Kirkham then lost everything including his dog in a Texas housefire after filming finished. Coincidence? These days, Kirkham lives in Norway with his wife and stays out of the spotlight and away from zoos. Jeff and Lauren Lowe run the Greater Wynnewood Zoo Jeff Lowe concedes that Maldonado-Passage gave him the right to pay the bills and dissolve the corporation. He and Lauren took over. They touched on about 10% of the story and, you know, the portrayal of us stealing the zoo from Joe was very unfair because we came here to help him, we got it back on its feet, Jeff said. We left to move away because we didnt want to be in a zoo in Oklahoma, so the notion that we tried to steal the zoo from him is just ridiculous. With the series over, many wonder what became of the G.W. Zoo after Jeff and Lauren Lowe took over. Theyre said to be making plans to re-brand and re-open in summer 2020, despite money issues. The attention that thing has brought will fill the bank account back up for a while, but its always depleted in the downtime. When people dont come to the zoo in the winter and were spending $5,000 or $6,000 a week on food and $2,500 on veterinary care, we struggle, Jeff said on Lights Out with David Spade. However, the couple made it clear that the former owner, Maldonado-Passage, wont be part of the new creation. His name will not be mentioned, Lauren told KOCO News. He will have nothing to do with the new facility. Going to let this place in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, die with him. As for what became of the zoos exploited tigers (whose cubs were taken at birth for alleged pay-to-play schemes), Retro 102.5 said The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado intervened, along with PETA, to rescue 39 tigers and 3 bears. Larry David stars in HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The show's signature ending and music have spawned hundreds of memes. (HBO/Kobal/Shutterstock) Humor me for a moment. Sit down at your computer or open your nearest mobile device and Google these words: Directed by. Whats the first predictive text that comes up? Martin Scorsese? Quentin Tarantino? Ingmar Bergman? Chances are the first name Google suggested was Robert B. Weide. Thats me. Sort of. So why is the most Googled director in the world someone you probably never heard of? As they say on Facebook, its complicated. In 1999, I produced and directed an HBO special called Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which spawned a cable series that recently completed its 10th season. A signature of the series is the final moment of each episode, when every conniving, self-serving move Larry has made over the previous half-hour results in an unexpected comic payback that explodes in his face like a revenge-seeking missile, after which the theme music, Frolic by Luciano Michelini, is boldly reprised. (We called it our Italian circus music.) Then the screen suddenly goes black. Because I directed most of the episodes during the first five seasons, a title card would usually appear reading Directed by Robert B. Weide. To us, this final moment was based on the simple showbiz adage of going out on a laugh. But to many viewers, its come to represent the existential moment in all our lives when we realize that our best-laid plans are subject to complete failure, and were hit with karmic payback in the most spectacular and humiliating ways. At these moments, we are all Larry David. All thats missing is the circus music. A few years ago, an official Facebook fan page was created for me. For the first couple of years, it had a modest following of about 200 people, but last year, that following started growing exponentially. Curious as to why, the page manager posted a message, asking what was bringing people to the page. One followers concise response: Youre part of a new video meme on the internet, basically any short but funny video with your credits rolling at the end. Story continues This response led me to Google Directed by Robert B. Weide and, sure enough, there were hundreds of videos of humiliating interactions, human error, stunts gone wrong, all followed by the Curb music and my directing credit. As my followers and the videos continued to multiply, I pinned a disclaimer on my fan page, clarifying that I had nothing to do with these memes. It did no good. Countless posts were popping up, referring to me as the Meme King. Marriage proposals came my way as did inquiries for employment at my studio. I work from home. Then came the threats from people insisting that I take down the plagiarized videos from the internet in which I had surreptitiously added my name to their work. (Youd better take that video down before I get the proper authorities involved! I filmed it!) Others would send me their videos and ask if I would please add the famous credit. This last demand was eventually met by a website called Curb Your Video, which allows anyone to attach the music and prized credit onto their videos. In the last year, my Facebook fan page has gone from 200 loyalists to 90,000 very misguided meme fans. A tiny cottage industry has even popped up in response to the memes. A few months ago, a friend emailed to simply ask, Do you get a piece of this? The message included a link to a site selling T-shirts emblazoned with Directed by Robert B. Weide. My wife soon ordered two. In the spirit of If you cant beat them, join them, I posted a Facebook photo of me wearing the T-shirt, with the caption, I dont suppose this is going to help matters. It didnt. That photo has been viewed by close to 3 million people. Meanwhile, there are countless Facebook pages and Instagram and Twitter accounts bearing my name and displaying the video memes. One Robert B. Weide Instagram account has 20,000 followers. Im the actual guy, and I have 300. Two popular memes currently making the rounds are related to the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing heightened personal meaning to the phrase viral. The first is a clip from the 2006 film The Host, directed by Parasite creator Bong Joon Ho. An Asian man stands on a street corner where his fellow pedestrians wear protective face masks. He pulls his down to clear his throat and expectorate into water puddled in the gutter, after which a bus races by, hits the puddle and sprays all the screaming pedestrians. Cue music. Directed by Robert B. Weide. The other one is recent news footage in which a California public health official gives a speech warning people not to touch their face, nose or eyes. Before turning a page of her prepared text, she moistens her finger by dabbing it on her tongue. You already know what follows. In recent weeks, both of these videos have been sent to me dozens of times via every form of digital communication. Even friends of mine are saying, Hysterical. Well done! or Thanks for the laugh. After more than a year of offering the full explanation and back story, Ive finally condensed my reply to five words: Thanks! My best work yet. Robert B. Weides latest film, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, is scheduled to be released this year. Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) as an investment opportunity by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. This is done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model. See our latest analysis for Kansas City Southern What's the estimated valuation? We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate: 10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$669.3m US$687.0m US$715.0m US$749.0m US$791.0m US$821.2m US$847.4m US$870.7m US$892.1m US$912.1m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x6 Analyst x5 Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ 3.81% Est @ 3.19% Est @ 2.76% Est @ 2.45% Est @ 2.24% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 7.8% US$621 US$591 US$571 US$555 US$544 US$524 US$501 US$478 US$454 US$431 ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St) Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$5.3b Story continues After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 10-year government bond rate (1.7%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 7.8%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2029 (1 + g) (r g) = US$912m (1 + 1.7%) 7.8% 1.7%) = US$15b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$15b ( 1 + 7.8%)10= US$7.2b The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$13b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of US$123, the company appears about fair value at a 5.5% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent. NYSE:KSU Intrinsic value April 5th 2020 Important assumptions The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Kansas City Southern as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.112. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Next Steps: Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldnt be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Kansas City Southern, There are three important factors you should further examine: Risks: For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Kansas City Southern that you should be aware of before investing here. Future Earnings: How does KSU's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the NYSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search 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. We all need some escapism right now, so thank goodness for this seasons most cheering trend polka dots! The sites of High Street brands and online retailers, such as Farfetch and MatchesFashion, are overflowing with spotty clutch bags, dresses and frilly mules. We saw speckled tulle gowns on the Carolina Herrera Spring/Summer catwalk and jazzy bomber jackets at the Tory Burch show. Even if we cant get away this summer, the Loeffler Randall sandals here cant fail to put a spring in your step get them now in the sale. Looking for the perfect video-call top? Try the cute pink cardigan from M&S. Emily Monckton took inspiration from Zoe Kravitz for embracing this season's trend for spots. Pictured: Zoe Kravitz in Yves Saint Laurent Emily said High Street brands and online retailers are overflowing with spotty prints. Pictured: Erdem catwalk By Online Desk Dia, candles, crackers and flashlights were seen lit-up in houses across states of India at 9 pm for 9 minutes on Sunday night. Millions of Indians participated in the 'lights-off' exercise as per Prime Minister Narendra Modis call to show the countrys 'collective' display in the fight against coronavirus. Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 3577, including 83 deaths according to the Health Ministry. Clearing doubts on COVID-19 being airborne, the Indian Council of Medical Research said that there has been no evidence for it to be an air-borne infection. Tamil Nadu confirmed two coronavirus deaths on Sunday morning taking the death toll in the state to 5. The government assured there was no need to panic as the rate of spread was less than in many other countries and just "one place" accounted for 30 per cent of detected cases. Australian news anchor Emily Angwin has revealed what life is really like living under lockdown in China during the coronavirus pandemic. The former Channel 7 journalist moved from Melbourne to Beijing in October last year to pursue a television career anchoring a global news bulletin. But just months after relocating overseas, Emily faced a new reality of life with unprecedented draconian measures after 50 million people in China's Hubei province were placed under lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19. Now six weeks on, the Australian expat has shared details about what living in total isolation is life - and how things are 'slowly turning to normal' in Beijing. Australian news anchor Emily Angwin has revealed what life is really like living under lockdown in China during the coronavirus pandemic Emily realised the severity of the virus when a taxi driver who picked her up from the airport had taped a plastic sheet around his seat in an attempt to protect himself 'A few people have asked what lockdown was/is like in China... particularly as New South Wales and Victoria close off non-essential services. So here's a little insight... It's tough, it'll get worse before it gets better but it will get better,' Emily said on Instagram. 'Then you get used to the new normal... It was particularly hard for me because of the whole foreign country thing, not speaking the language and having only a few friends.' Earlier this year, Emily returned to Melbourne to attend her best friend's wedding as a bridesmaid - but she was forced into self-isolation for two weeks upon returning so she never made it to the event. She decided to head back to Beijing on February 22 'to finish what I started, or at the very least, figure out what I want'. But just moments after she landed in China, Emily realised the severity of the virus when she noticed the taxi driver - who picked her up at the airport - had taped a plastic sheet around his seat in an attempt to protect himself. On her first day back in her adopted country, she realised things were changing as she documented her daily life on social media. The Australian expat living in China has shared details about what living in total isolation is life 'Day one: Back in Beijing and have opted for a white mask today... It's now mandatory to wear a mask when in public,' she said. 'Most places will also take your temperature before you enter. I really hope I don't come down with the common cold. 'Day two: Good news is the quarantine rules have eased for those returning to China who've been away for more than 14 days. So I get to hang out with my Beijing bestie. Bad news, I'm not allowed in their apartment because I'm not a resident. 'Day six: The people here continue to show such resilience... from the security guard at my apartment, to young families walking down the street... Those hard working delivery guys and the shop keepers making sure we have plenty of fresh food.' On day seven, Emily said she had a few days left in isolation before she was allowed to return to work as a precaution because she had been travelling overseas. 'I never thought I'd actually say this, "I miss working". There's only so much drinking, reading and sudoku one can do before one goes insane. And not necessarily in that order...,' she joked. 'Day 10. There are still so many unknowns... and fear... and by the sounds of it, a weird toilet paper shortage in Australia.' Despite being forced to establish new daily routines, Emily said she started learning to 'appreciate the littlest of things' around her Despite being forced to establish new daily routines, Emily said she started learning to 'appreciate the littlest of things' around her. She believed Australia will get through the coronavirus pandemic after Prime Minister Scott Morrison effectively banned social gatherings of more than two people across the country under tough restrictions. 'Being in Australia, you guys will nail it. There's sunshine, wide open spaces, stunning nature, many people have balconies, back yards or parks nearby,' she said. 'There's plenty of food, although you might not get your favourite cut of meat or your usual Savvy B. Mostly, you have cuddles on the couch, you speak the same language, have unrestricted access to the internet and, you have each other.' She believed Australia will get through the coronavirus pandemic after Prime Minister Scott Morrison effectively banned social gatherings of more than two people across the country under tough restrictions In recent days, restrictions have started to ease across China as the country recorded a drop in the number of new infections - but cases are still occurring in people returning from abroad. 'Things are slowly returning to normal in Beijing, restaurants and bars are mostly open (praise be), many people are back at work, and the sun is shining here too,' Emily said. 'Happy to share some boredom busting ideas... they mainly include sleeping and drinking alcohol, but whatever gets you through. P.S: We are the lucky ones.' There are more than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus now recorded worldwide - including 82,543 in China and 5,666 in Australia. The US currently has more than 311,500 coronavirus cases - the highest number recorded in the world, followed by Spain (126,000) and Italy (124,600). While it will be a shortened trading week with major markets closed Friday in observance of the Good Friday holiday, coronavirus developments will continue to take centerstage for investors. COVID-19 cases are on the rise and have yet to show signs of stabilization in the U.S. As of Sunday morning, there were 1.216 million confirmed cases globally and 65,711 confirmed deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In the U.S., there were more than 312,000 cases and 8,503 deaths. Coronavirus cases are still on the rise. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance) According to RBCs March 2020 Equity Investor Survey, investors said outlook surrounding the coronavirus is critical. RBC surveyed 185 institutional investors between March 25 and March 30, and found 78% believe that a decline in new coronavirus cases in the US is needed for the equity market to stabilize. Additionally, 54% believe that significant progress on new drugs to treat the coronavirus and/or a vaccine is needed for stabilization. With market volatility largely expected to continue for the time being, RBCs survey found that 57% of investors believe the market will bottom in the second quarter of 2020. Only 19% of participants believe the market has already seen its low. Meanwhile, bearish economic outlooks have risen. In total, 43% said their view on the US economy over the next 6-12 months is either bearish or very bearish, the highest since our survey began. The sun sets behind an oil pump outside Saint-Fiacre, near Paris, France March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann Oil in focus Amid the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has placed additional pressure on markets. The ongoing feud has pushed crude oil (CL=F) below $20 a barrel and prices have hovered around those levels before bouncing back on positive developments. Crude oil surged 25% Thursday for its best day ever and rallied another 12% Friday. For the week, oil advanced 32% for its best weekly performance on record. Oil will be tested again this week after a virtual meeting between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia was rescheduled tentatively to Thursday. Story continues The purpose of the meeting was to discuss cutting production by about 10%, or 10 million barrels, President Donald Trump first revealed the news in a tweet April 2. Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020 Global oil demand has been weakening, and thus market participants were hopeful that a meeting to curb supply would soothe markets. With oil at prices unsustainable and unprofitable for the global industry, the president urged both sides to call for an OPEC+ meeting, and hopefully call a truce. Despite lower fuel prices being supportive for the consumer, the current levels are detrimental to US producers and the removal of any uncertainty should help mitigate equity market volatility in the near term, Raymond James Chief Investment Officer Larry Adam said in a note April 3. Economic data The detrimental economic impact of COVID-19 is expected to continue, and data released this week will reflect the damage. The number of Americans filing for unemployment will likely remain in the millions this week, according to economists. Consensus expectations are for 5 million jobless claims for the week ending April 4 following a record-breaking 6.648 million claims filed the week ending March 28. JPMorgan economist Jesse Edgerton predicts 7 million claims were filed last week. [We] see more reasons to expect an increase in claims than a decrease, Edgerton said in a note April 3. Credit Suisses James Sweeney echoed Edgertons sentiment. We expect further waves of layoffs and upcoming claims should remain elevated as the labor market shock broadens out from hospitality and food services. Consumer sentiment will also be closely monitored by market participants this week. The University of Michigans sentiment reading for April is expected to have slowed to 75.0 from 89.1 in March, according to economists polled by Bloomberg. The survey results will include responses collected from March 25 to April 7, which captures the period when the COVID-19 fears escalated drastically. Given the intensification of COVID-19 contagion and shutdown orders across the country, consumer confidence should fall precipitously, Sweeney said. Given the unprecedented surge in unemployment insurance claims and the enormous shock to growth in the second quarter, we would not be surprised if sentiment eventually falls below the lowest point during the great recession (55.3 in November 2008) in the weeks ahead. Finally, the Federal Open Market Committees (FOMC) meeting minutes from its scheduled March meeting and emergency meetings will be released Wednesday afternoon. The minutes of the emergency FOMC meeting in early March, and the mid-March meeting which was held two days earlier than scheduled, may not contain many new insights given how rapidly the economic landscape has been changing over the past couple of weeks, Capital Economics said in a note April 3. While the minutes will unlikely reveal many new insights, it will provide more context, according to Nomura. Given the number of actions taken during March after the 15 March meeting, and the rapidly deteriorating outlook over the month, the minutes may be somewhat stale. However, they may provide more context for how much the Fed is willing to utilize its existing authority or whether any participants suggested seeking an expansion of that authority, the firm said in a note April 3. Economic calendar Monday: N/A Tuesday: JOLTS Job Openings, February (6500 expected, 6963 in January) Wednesday: MBA Mortgage Applications, week ended April 3 (15.3% prior) Thursday: PPI Final Demand month-on-month, March (-0.4% expected, -0.6% in February); PPI excluding food & energy month-on-month, March (0.0% expected, -0.3% in February); PPI Final Demand year-on-year, March (0.5% expected, 1.3% in February); PPI excluding food & energy year-on-year, March (1.2% expected, 1.4% in February); Initial Jobless Claims, week ended April 4 (5 million expected, 6.648 million prior); Continuing Claims, week ended March 28 (3.029 million prior); Bloomberg Consumer Comfort, week ended April 5 (56.3 prior); Wholesale Inventories month-on-month, February final (-0.5% expected, -0.5% prior); University of Michigan Sentiment, April preliminary (75.0 expected, 89.1 prior) Friday: CPI month-on-month, March (-0.3% expected, 0.1% in February); CPI excluding food & energy month-on-month, March (0.1% expected, 0.2% in February); CPI year-on-year, March (1.6% expected, 2.3% in February); CPI excluding food & energy year-on-year, March (2.3% expected, 2.4% in February) Earnings calendar Monday: N/A Tuesday: Levis (LEVI) after market close Wednesday: N/A Thursday: N/A Friday: N/A Heidi Chung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @heidi_chung. More from Heidi: Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and reddit. TDT | Manama The First Supreme Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the punishment of a man who assaulted a policeman while resisting arrest. The appellant was earlier sentenced to three years imprisonment for injuring the victims eye in the parking lots of Muharraq Police Station. The details of the case showed that the man approached the police station to report his missing wallet. In the reception, and after entering the mans data in the police system, it was revealed that the man was wanted by Hidd Police Station for his involvement in two criminal cases. The appellant, who was asked by the police to wait in the mens waiting area inside the station, felt suspicious and tried to escape. A policeman noticed the man and chased him until he was eventually able to catch him in the parking area. There, the appellant resisted arrest and hit the cop in the eye. In the interrogations of the Public Prosecution, the victim told investigators that the defendant hit him in the eye with his elbow. The prosecution charged the man on November 11 of last year for assault on an on-duty public servant who was performing his duties, and for causing the injuries mentioned in a medical report. Even the renowned prime ministerial critic Mike Carlton was moved this week to remind Twitter that "Morrison is shouldering a burden unmatched by any other Prime Minister". We must remember prayer is a non-partisan activity: according to the Pew Research Centre, the same number of Democrats and Republicans pray every day. People who pray are less likely to drink, be depressed, and more likely to be selfless in relationships. There is also some evidence that praying, instead of distracting from the task at hand, focuses it. A 2013 study from Georgia State University found that praying about a problem appeared to liberate cognitive resources that are presumably otherwise consumed by worry and rumination, leaving individuals better able to process other information, and additionally to bias attention to favour detection of problem-relevant information. Some pray, some meditate, others still the mind. Its the time for it. There have been some beautiful prayers circling the internet lately. Like this one from Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan living in Ireland, that went viral for good reason. It reads, in part: So we pray and we remember that: Yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate. Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness. Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness. Yes there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love. Loading My favourite Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bolz Weber tweeted, Morning by morning, new mercies I see. Also, things I need my waxer to deal with eventually. She has also, like so many others, prayed for those who care for the sick, for those who grieve in isolation, for the caregivers, the grocery workers, the grieving, and "for the ability to turn off the fear-mongering and unhelpful commentary and worst-case scenario click bait, strengthen us". Lets not scoff at prayer; millions are reaching to God and the good, hoping we can somehow survive. Lets be gentle with each other. Julia Baird is the author of Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and the things that sustain you when the world goes dark. Lockdown by Brother Richard Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation. Yes there is panic buying. Yes there is sickness. Yes there is even death. But, They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear the birds again. They say that after just a few weeks of quiet The sky is no longer thick with fumes But blue and grey and clear. They say that in the streets of Assisi People are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them. They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound. Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood So that the elders may have someone to call on. Today churches, synagogues, mosques and temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way All over the world people are waking up to a new reality To how big we really are. To how little control we really have. To what really matters. To Love. So we pray and we remember that Yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate. Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness. Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness. Yes there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love. Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now. Today, breathe. Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic The birds are singing again The sky is clearing, Spring is coming, And we are always encompassed by Love. Open the windows of your soul And though you may not be able All this came to mind as we enter this day under orders not to assemble in groups, not even for such traditional, sacred rites. The Diocese of Peoria and the Diocese of Davenport (which encompass Rock Island and Scott counties) suspended public worship through Easter. It was the responsible thing to do, but still stunning and, in my memory, unprecedented. Thats where we are, in this disconcerting time of the coronavirus pandemic. For a nation so confident and self-assured, it is not only humbling, but more than a little scary. Not only do we not know for sure how to cope with this sub-microscopic menace, but we seem unable to organize a coordinated effort to use what knowledge and technology we have to fight it. The quarantine is the oldest method humanity has used to protect itself from such an outbreak. From the Black Death of medieval times to the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu. Through more recent frights (polio, AIDS, Ebola, SARS, and MERS), self-isolation is the one sure method we turn to when nothing else seems to work. Millions of Indians across the country switched off lights at their homes and lit candles and diyas or turned on mobile phone torches on Sunday night, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to show the nation's "collective resolve and solidarity" in its fight against coronavirus with this symbolic gesture. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi lights a lamp as part of his appeal to the country to light 9 diyas for 9 minutes on Sunday. Photograph: @narendramodi/Twitter Much before the designated time of 9 pm, people turned off lights at their homes while lamps and candles lit up the streets as people stood in their balconies and at entrance doors in unison. Fireworks, sounds from beating of thalis, conches, whistles and police sirens were heard. At many places the air resonated with the sounds of devotional songs, mantras and national anthem, in scenes similar to the ones seen across the country on March 22 when Modi had sought to rally Indians by asking them to come out briefly at 5 pm to show gratitude to health and other essential service providers. IMAGE: People light lamps amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Kochi. Photograph: PTI Photo President Ram Nath Kovind along with wife Savita, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu And his wife Ushamma, several Union ministers including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L K Advani and prominent personalities from various fields including Bollywood too lit diyas and candles. Modi, who had had on Friday urged people to turn off lights at their homes for nine minutes at 9pm to display the country's collective resolve and solidarity to defeat the virus, posted on Twitter his own pictures of lighting lamp. People continued to stay outside while maintaining social distancing much beyond the nine minutes. In some pockets, Diwali seemed to have arrived months earlier. IMAGE: President Ram Nath Kovind along with First Lady Savita Kovind along with his family light candles after the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show a gesture of unity during the nationwide fight against COVID-19, at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Photograph: ANI Photo Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan lit a diya along with AIIMS doctors and staff, whom he calls "Corona warriors", at the Delhi campus. "Let the brightness of the lights ignite our energies and ensure the victory of good over evil. My prayers go out for all those million homes across the planet who are suffering because of coronavirus. I call upon them all to be a part of this symbolic war over evil forces," he said. IMAGE: People come out on their balcony and light lamps amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Nagercoil. Photograph: PTI Photo The PM had asked people to clap or beat thalis on March 22 for five minutes at 5pm while observing 'janta curfew' from 7 am to 9 pm to thank those working in essentials services, and had received an unprecedented and overwhelming response. IMAGE: Staff members of a hospital carry candles and oil lamps to show solidarity with people who are affected by the coronavirus disease and with doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers from all over the world during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of the disease, in Kolkata. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters The nine-minute lights-out event on Sunday evening went off well without any disruption in the electricity grid after the government and utilities put in place elaborate plans to deal with the sudden drop and then a quick spurt in demand. SEE: Residents of a society in Chennai Central have turned off lights of their houses Several opposition leaders had expressed concern that the event could result in grid collapse. IMAGE: Family members make a replica of India's map with earthen lamps after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for all to express their solidarity to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic in Surat. Photograph: ANI Photo Jaikishan, 42, a rickshaw puller in Jangpura in Delhi, said he made diyas of wheat flour and lit them hoping the situation will normalise soon and crores of others like him will be able to sail through the crisis. Aparna Goel, a chartered accountant, said besides lighting diyas and candles, people in her locality played songs like "Ae Malik Tere Bande Hum" and "Humko Mann ki Shakti Dena". "Crores of people are doing it at the same time. It has connected all of us in one thread. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder in these times of crisis. we are one. India is one," she said. IMAGE: A view of lamps lit in a housing soceity in New Delhi. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI Photo In Tamil Nadu, people lit up the traditional 'Kamakshi lamps' and 'Kuthuvilakku', besides the earthen lamps. The terraces of several buildings were lined up with endless rows of earthen lamps which was nothing short of a visual treat Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit lit a candle after switching off lights of the Raj Bhavan for nine minutes. Chief Minister K Palaniswami, while maintaining distance , lit an earthen lamp at his residence. Also, Deputy Chief Minister K Pannerselvam, Tamil Nadu ministers including S P Velumani and K Pandiarajan lit lamps in their respective residences. IMAGE: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu along with his wife light the earthen lamps, to show support for the call by PM Modi to switch off all lights of houses today at 9 pm for 9 minutes & just light candles, 'diyas' or mobile's flashlight, to mark the fight against coronavirus, at Uparashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. Photograph: ANI Photo Superstar Rajinikanth was among the celebrities who joined the symbolic event against the contagion and he held a candle in his Poes Garden residence. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan lit lamps in Bhopal. At some places, people also raised slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lit lamps arranged in the shape of 'Om'. IMAGE: BJP president JP Nadda turns off all the lights of his residence and lights earthen lamps. Photograph: ANI Photo The overall death toll in the country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 83 and the cases climbed to 3,577 on Sunday after 505 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry. India has been on a 21-day lockdown from March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 65,000 lives globally and inflicted over 12 lakh people since the pandemic first emerged in China in December. Ten residents of Mumbai, who had come to Tripura after attending the Tablighi Jamat congregation in Delhis Nizamuddin last month, were tested negative for coronavirus, officials said on Sunday. Thousands of people across the country and abroad had attended the religious event between March 13 and 15 after the Delhi government had promulgated orders prohibiting gatherings or more than 200 persons. Many of the attendees later tested positive for COVID-19 and six of them died in Telangana. The 10 residents of Mumbai were staying in a house at Beterban on the outskirts of Agartala since March 18, State Nodal Officer for coronavirus Deep Debbarma said. "Acting on a tip-off, a team of police and health department officials visited the house and put 16 people -- 10 residents of Mumbai and six other occupants of the house -- in quarantine. Their swabs were tested in Agartala Government Medical College and all of them were found to be COVID-19 negative," Debbarma told PTI. Altogether 50 people, who attended the Tablighi Jamat congregation, were tested in Tripura and it was found that none of them was infected by novel coronavirus. Two persons from Tripura were tested positive for COVID-19 at Bikaner in Rajasthan where they had gone travellers. "11-people from Sipahijala district visited Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi on March 5. They went to Bikaner from Delhi. After they were tested there, two of them were found to be coronavirus positive," state Health Secretary Debasish Basu said. A total of 4782 persons are under home quarantine and 128 are in facility quarantine in Tripura. The health department has so far tested 191 samples which came negative. Meanwhile, a cargo plane on Saturday landed at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport here carrying a consignment of 109 packets of essential medical supplies, Terminal Manager S Haokip Jempu told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Czech politicians thank Taiwan for donation ROC Central News Agency 04/04/2020 09:17 PM Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Two prominent political figures in the Czech Republic thanked Taiwan for its donation of medical equipment to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, according to a video message posted by Taiwan's foreign ministry on its Facebook page Saturday. In a 93-second video, Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib and Czech senator Jiri Drahos shared their messages to Taiwan after President Tsai Ing-wen () announced on Monday the donation of 10 million face masks to countries seriously affected by the outbreak, including the Czech Republic. In addition, Taiwan also donated 25 pulmonary ventilators and other equipment such as ventilator filters, medical visors and disinfectant spray to the Central European country. The video showed Czech representative to Taiwan Patrick Rumlar receiving the donations from MOFA officials. "Thank you very much also for the donation of ventilators. They will be used to save lives in our hospitals," Hrib said. "I hope this situation will be over soon, so that we can cooperate more in the future." Hrib also mentioned that Taiwan's success in its fight against coronavirus has been very inspiring for people in Prague. Meanwhile, Drahos thanked the Taiwanese people for their "selfless shipment" of the medical gear and for the "willingness and openness" of Taiwan's government to share its experience and expertise in combating coronavirus. "You have adopted one of the most efficient measures which could serve as an example for other countries...It would be beneficial if your nation could be involved in the World Health Organization," Drahos said. The senator, who chairs the committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions, also said he is glad that Taiwan's Academia Sinica and the Czech Academy of Sciences are currently preparing to jointly develop rapid tests kits for the coronavirus. (By Matt Yu and Emerson Lim) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Australians who breach self-isolation or quarantine orders during the coronavirus pandemic could soon be forced to wear an electronic tracking device under a plan from the opposition. Labor will this week introduce urgent legislation that will allow police to issue the device, with those who continue to flout the law facing a $1000 fine. Anyone who tampers with the device faces a fine of up to $12,000 or up to 12 months in prison. Western Australia has introduced similar laws. South Australians who breach self-isolation or quarantine orders could be forced to wear an electronic tracking device. Pictured are police with a traveller at Adelaide Airport. Source: AAP Image/David Mariuz "It is vitally important that people comply with self-isolation or quarantine orders if they have returned from interstate or overseas, or been in close contact with a confirmed case," Shadow Attorney-General Kyam Maher said on Sunday. "Most people are doing the right thing, but for those who do not, forcing them to wear an electronic device is a sensible measure to help stop the spread." Opposition police spokesman Lee Odenwalder said breaching self-isolation and quarantine orders could be deadly. "We need to give police all the power they need to ensure people comply with the law," he said. 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. The Delhi Police shifted 17 pregnant women to different hospitals in the national capital amid the lockdown imposed to combat the coronavirus threat, officials said on Sunday. "The PCR vehicles of Delhi Police shifted as many as 17 women, who were in labour, to various hospitals in the city," Deputy Commissioner of Police (PCR) Sharat Kumar Sinha said. Four calls about pregnant woman going into labour were received from west Delhi, three from outer-north, three from Dwarka, two from east Delhi, two from outer part of the city, one from northeast, one from northwest and one from south Delhi, the DCP said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Joe Rogan enters the octagon during the UFC 225: Whittaker v Romero 2 event at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on June 9, 2018. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images) Joe Rogan Would Rather Vote for Trump Than Biden After Endorsing Sanders Podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan has said he would rather vote for Donald Trump than Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, should the former vice-president become the Democratic nominee. Speaking on April 3 with guest Eric Weinstein, a mathematician, economist, and managing director of Thiel Capital, Rogan said he could not vote for Biden, adding that the Democratic Party has essentially made us all morons. Rogan was responding to Weinstein, who said, I think that in general, people, when they are given no choice at all express themselves moronically. I want a choice of an actual president thats viable. I dont have one. Now youre going to ask me, Which of the non-viable people do you like best?' The economist added, I cant vote for [Biden]. I cant vote for Trump. I cant vote for [Biden], Rogan said. Id rather vote for Trump than him. I dont think [Biden] can handle anything. Youre relying entirely on his cabinet. If you want to talk about an individual leader who can communicate, he cant do that. And we dont even know what the [expletive] hell be like after a year in office. Rogan, who previously endorsed Bidens primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), went on to speak about Trumps ability to handle the pressure that comes with being president of the United States, noting that the role appeared to take a visible toll on previous Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The pressure of being the president of the United States is something that no one has ever prepared for. The only one who seems to be fine with it is Trump, oddly enough. He doesnt seem to be aging at all, or in any sort of decline. Obama, almost immediately, started looking older. George W, almost immediately, started looking older, Rogan added. Speaking of Biden, Rogan noted that the former vice president can barely talk, and forgets what he is saying halfway in the conversation, adding that he is showing actual real deterioration, he is not bouncing back. Rogan had previously said that he would probably vote for Sanders back in January, noting that the Vermont Senator has been insanely consistent his entire life. I think Ill probably vote for Bernie. Him, as a human being, when I was hanging out with him, I believe in him, I like him, I like him a lot, he told New York Times columnist Bari Weiss in a podcast, which was later retweeted by Sanders. Hes basically been saying the same thing, been for the same thing his whole life. And that in and of itself is a very powerful structure to operate from, Rogan added. As of April 5, Biden is on track to win the nomination, securing 1,217 of the 1,991 delegates needed in the primaries held up to this point. His socialist rival, Sanders, has 914 delegates. According to the Washington Post, aides and allies of Sanders have advised him to step down from the presidential race after losing hope in his campaign. The next primary is Wisconsin on Tuesday, which polls predict Biden will win. At the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, Italy had donated Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to China and now when Italy is in dire need of PPE, China wants to sell them to Italy, according to a report in the Spectator magazine. The China-originated bug, which crossed continents to make Italy its epicentre in Europe, wreaked havoc on its people, especially the frontline warriors- the doctors and nurses. Within days, more than 15,000 people were killed and over a lakh others got affected by the dangerous pathogen. In an attempt to restore its humanitarian image following the crisis, China projected to the that it would donate PPE to Italy. But later it was revealed, it was not a humanitarian gesture but a business- Beijing had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy, several media reports claimed. A senior Trump administration official was quoted by The Spectator as saying that it is much worse than that and China "forced Italy to buy back the PPE supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak." "Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population," the administration official explained. "China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy -- some of it, not even all of it ... and charged them for it," he added. Unfortunately, China's diplomacy in the wake of the pandemic outbreak has been slippery. Much of the supplies and testing kits that China sold to other countries have turned out to be defective. Spain had to return 50,000 quick-testing kits to China after discovering that they were faulty. In some cases, instead of apologizing or fixing the issue, China has blamed its defective equipment on others. It condescendingly told The Netherlands to 'double-check the instructions' on its masks, for example, after The Netherlands complained that half of the masks they were sent did not meet safety standards, the media reported. "It's so disingenuous for Chinese officials now to say we are the ones who are helping the Italians or we are the ones who are helping the developing when, in fact, they are the ones who infected all of us," the senior administration official said. "Of course they should be helping. They have a special responsibility to help because they are the ones who began the spread of the coronavirus and did not give the information required to the rest of the to plan accordingly," he added. The official also said that China's 'disinformation campaign' of lying to the world about the seriousness of its COVID-19 outbreak has further delayed the response by countries. As China downplayed the outbreak within its borders, nearly half a million people traveled to the US potentially carrying the virus, the official said. As the lethal virus paves its way through continents and various territories across the globe, killing people in millions and crippling economies, China has still been underreporting about the accurate figures in the mainland. The country has also claimed no new deaths from the virus, even as thousands of ash urns are shipped to local hospitals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Some private passenger vessels will soon be converted into quarantine facilities for returning overseas workers and seafarers, as the government gears up for the arrival of more Filipino evacuees amid the global COVID-19 crisis. In a statement Sunday, the Department of Transportation said it has partnered with shipping and logistics firm 2GO, with the company already agreeing to turn two of its vessels into "quarantine ships" that can house 1,500 patients. The department added the temporary quarantine centers will be operational by next week. The project will be implemented in close coordination with the Health Department and the Bureau of Quarantine. DOTr noted the move is also expected to ease the burden of hospitals that are now operating at full capacity, due to the disease outbreak. "Most hospitals in Metro Manila have already pleaded for help in attending to COVID-19 patients. Some of them can no longer accept more patients due to overcapacity. And that is what we are trying to address here," DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said in a statement. Thousands of Filipino seafarers from different parts of the world have already arrived home in separate batches as part of the government's COVID-19 repatriation efforts. In the Philippines, there are now 3,246 cases of the infectious disease, including 152 fatalities and 64 recoveries. CNN Philippines Correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report. The Covid-19 outbreak has adversely affected all sectors of the economy, apart from human lives. However, on Friday, the first consignment of Alphonso mangoes has been exported from Maharashtra to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Onam, giving a ray of hope to the cultivators. With the peak season currently ongoing, the lockdown has restricted transport of mangoes, hence, affecting its sale and export. However, farmers are now being provided help to restore the supply chain. The first consignment of four containers of Alphonso mangoes was sent to the UAE and Oman on April 3 and soon the exports will be extended to the European countries. Currently, the situation is not good for exports as we are facing several difficulties in logistics, but we managed to send three containers to the UAE and one container to Oman on April 3. We guided the farmers and exporters and accordingly their containers were sent, making it the first export of mangoes this season. In order to send these containers, they were facing legal difficulties and so, we helped them get all the necessary permissions, as we are only the facilitators, said Bhaskar Patil, deputy general manager at Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board (Konkan Division). Four containers with 105 metric tonnes of Alphonso mangoes from Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra have been exported. It will take six to seven days for the exports to reach their respective destinations. This is just the beginning of the mango export season and it has started with the Middle East countries. If we want to send to the European countries, then, we need to get all necessary permissions. Now that the trade has begun, we will get necessary permissions to transport the agricultural goods to foreign countries, he added. The situation is the same for grapes export, Kailas Bhosale, treasurer of the All India Grapes Export Association, said, Currently, we are exporting grapes in the cold storage and not the new stock. Grapes are been exported to the Middle East and also European countries. But the exports have reduced as compared to the same period last year. This time last year, a total of 7,893 containers were exported with 1,05,600 metric tonnes of grapes, while this year, till now, 6,110 containers with 81,800 metric tonnes of grapes has been exported. Our farmers and traders are facing many difficulties with the major concern being drivers who take the containers to the shipping ports. At least 70 per cent of the drivers have gone back to their hometowns after the Covid-19 outbreak, which has slowed down the entire export system of grapes. OPEC and Russia have postponed a meeting due on Monday to discuss oil output cuts until April 9. It is planned to hold the event in a video conference format. The need for negotiations is due to the fact that a month ago the cartel and its allies failed to agree on the further oil production cuts, but lately, Moscow announced its readiness to reduce oil production. The delay came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilize global oil markets, Reuters writes in the article OPEC+ meeting delayed as Saudi Arabia and Russia row over oil price collapse: sources. Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 due to a slump in demand caused by lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of OPEC and other producers led by Russia to extend a deal on output curbs that expired on March 31. OPEC+ is now working on a deal to cut the production of oil equivalent to about 10% of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort including the United States. Washington, however, has yet to make a commitment to join the effort and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday put the blame for the collapse in prices on Saudi Arabia - prompting a firm response from Riyadh on Saturday. The Russian Minister of Energy was the first to declare to the media that all the participating countries are absolved of their commitments starting from the first of April, leading to the decision that the countries have taken to raise their production, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement reported by state news agency SPA. Putin, speaking on Friday during a video conference with government officials and the heads of major Russian oil producers, said the first reason for the fall in prices was the impact of the coronavirus on demand. The second reason behind the collapse of prices is the withdrawal of our partners from Saudi Arabia from the OPEC+ deal, their production increase and information, which came out at the same time, about the readiness of our partners to even provide a discount for oil, Putin said. OPEC sources, who asked not be identified, said the emergency virtual meeting planned for Monday would likely now be postponed until April 9 to allow more time for negotiations. OPEC sources later downplayed the Saudi-Russia row, saying the atmosphere was still positive, although there was no draft deal yet nor agreement on details such as a reference level from which to make the production cuts. The first problem is that we have to cut from the current production level now, not to go back to the one before the crisis, one of the OPEC sources said. The second issue is the Americans, they have to play a part. Oil rises from lows Oil recovered from the lows of $20 per barrel this week with Brent settling at $34.11 on Friday, still far below the $66 level at the end of 2019. Prices had their biggest one-day gain ever on Thursday when Trump said he expected Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce a major production cut. The United States is not part of OPEC+ and the idea of Washington curbing production has long been seen as impossible, not least because of U.S. antitrust laws. Still, the oil price crash has spurred regulators in Texas, the heart of U.S. oil production, to consider regulating output for the first time in nearly 50 years. But U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, in a call with oil industry leaders on Friday, did not mention the possibility of U.S. production cuts, a source who listened to the call said. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Russian state media he understood that the United States had legal restrictions on output cuts but it should still be flexible. Other oil producers that do not belong to OPEC+ have indicated a willingness to help. Canadas Alberta province, home to the worlds third-largest oil reserves, is open to joining any potential global pact. The International Energy Agency warned on Friday that a cut of 10 million bpd would not be enough to counter the huge fall in oil demand. Even with such a cut, inventories would increase by 15 million bpd in the second quarter. Asked if he was considering tariffs on Saudi oil, Trump said late on Friday: Tariffs are a way of evening the score ... Am I doing it now? No. Am I thinking about imposing it as of this moment? No. But if were not treated fairly its certainly a tool in the toolbox. By Rania El Gamal and Dmitry Zhdannikov DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump says he has brokered a deal with Saudi Arabia and Russia that would see sweeping oil output cuts. Riyadh has called for emergency talks, and Moscow has said it no longer plans to hike production in a battle for market share. But the question remains: even if the world's top three producers reach an unprecedented pact to curb oil output, can any deal remove enough oil when the coronavirus has destroyed a third of global demand for crude? One thing, however, has become clear: as oil prices in the past three months made some of their biggest gyrations in history, taking action will prove a severe, if not impossible, test for OPEC+, the informal grouping that had propped up crude prices for three years until their agreement collapsed in March. An OPEC source briefed on Saudi oil policy said the scale of the fall in demand might require action beyond the scope OPEC+ could take alone. "This is an extraordinary situation that needs extraordinary measures," the source said. Oil demand has dropped by as much as 30 million barrels per day (bpd), roughly equivalent to the combined output of Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States. The fall is also more than the total production of all members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the group that for decades was the most powerful player in the oil market. "The magnitude of the current disruption is far beyond what OPEC can deal with alone," the Saudi state King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center wrote this week. It said "greater international cooperation was needed" and predicted U.S. and other higher cost producers could suffer. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Russia has directly asked the United States - which has become the world's biggest oil producer on the back of the shale revolution helped by OPEC+ support for prices - to join the any output cuts, a move prohibited by U.S. antitrust law. Story continues But, in reality, some degree of U.S. participation would be essential for any deal that hoped to make a difference to market fundamentals. MISCALCULATIONS "If the number of OPEC+ members increase and other countries join, there is a possibility of a joint agreement to balance oil markets," one of Russia's top oil negotiators, Kirill Dmitriev, who heads the nation's wealth fund, told Reuters. Still, how to respond revives the acrimonious debate in early March in Vienna, where Moscow and Riyadh fell out and the OPEC+ deal on supply curbs came to an abrupt end. Saudi Arabia had pushed for deep additional cuts, saying it was no longer ready to shoulder the biggest burden of reductions and wanted others - with a finger pointed firmly at Russia - to take a more equitable share. Moscow's response was that deeper cuts made no sense until the full extent of the fallout from the coronavirus was known, given measures to combat the virus were bringing the world to a standstill, sending demand for jet fuel, gasoline and diesel into a nosedive. Instead of finding a way to overcome their differences. Both sides misread the determination of the other to stick to their guns. Even as the finances of both nations took a pounding, they left the meeting promising to open the taps and grab market share with the inevitable result that oil prices crashed. "Russia had miscalculated the Saudi response," a veteran Russian oil insider said. "Moscow had never thought the Saudis would threaten to raise production so steeply. We thought they would just carry on with existing cuts." Saudi Arabia for its part also misjudged the magnitude of the oil demand collapse that sent oil prices to their lowest in almost two decades. Riyadh quickly found that, in a market awash with crude, even usually reliable buyers don't want more and steep discounts do little to change this. Oil majors and big importing nations alike have spurned the extra cargoes. CLAIMING VICTORY Now both sides may now have a chance to reconsider - and possibly a way to claim they were both right. If a deal is reached, Riyadh can say pumping more crude forced Russia back to the table. If others join in, Moscow can say the virus has had a bigger impact than anything OPEC+ alone could have dealt with. Trump, who has said Moscow and Riyadh "went crazy" by pumping more after their supply deal fell apart, stunned the market on Thursday by saying he had brokered a deal with Saudi Arabia and Russia. "I expect and hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be great for the oil & gas industry!" Trump wrote on Twitter, citing a figure for cuts that would be equivalent to 10% of global supply. Trump was due to meet U.S. company executives on Thursday, but a senior administration official said U.S. domestic producers would not be asked to chip in with their own cuts. However, even if U.S. producers don't voluntarily take part, they may be forced to. With oil at such low prices, they may have to shut down a lot of higher cost oil production -- or they will have ask for state funds to keep them afloat. Any formal agreement to cooperate with OPEC would be complex because of the antitrust laws. But some U.S. shale producers in Texas have requested the energy regulator mandate cuts for the first time in 50 years - and one of the three commissioners at the U.S. energy regulator has said it might make sense to do so. The commissioner, Ryan Sitton, held a call with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo last month. "There is so much oil and in some cases it's probably less valuable than water ... We've never seen anything like it," Trump said after speaking to Putin. U.S. officials have discussed a number of ideas about how the country can help manage global oil markets. But in a nod to Moscow, Washington offered this week to begin lifting Venezuela sanctions if the opposition and members of the government agreed to form an interim government, shifting on a policy Moscow has called unfair. The OPEC source said it was not clear what Washington could propose to Riyadh to alleviate the crisis. It is also far from clear if the producers can act fast enough to make a swift difference in these turbulent times. "You can see every now and then when Trump says he will talk to Putin about energy, the market picks up a bit," said Saad Rahim, chief economist at trader Trafigura. "But ... it's too late." (Editing by Edmund Blair) New Delhi, April 5 : Even as a group of scientists are racing against time to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 so that new infections can be prevented, experts are now pinning a lot of hope on effectiveness of blood-related therapies being investigated in some countries.At the centre of these blood-related therapies are the people who have recovered from the dreaded disease. Worldwide, nearly 250,000 people have recovered from COVID-19, while about 65,000 of about 12 lakh infected people have succumbed to the disease. The US is investigating the effectiveness of two blood related therapies called convalescent plasma and hyperimmune globulin. These are antibody-rich blood products made from blood donated by people who have recovered from the infection caused by the virus. Convalescent plasma is the liquid part of blood that is collected from patients who have recovered from an infection. Antibodies present in it are proteins that might help fight the infection. Hyperimmune globulin is a biological product manufactured from convalescent plasma. The US started these investigations after positive results emerged from China. "Based on prior experience with respiratory viruses and on data that have emerged from China, these products have the potential to lessen the severity or shorten the length of illness caused by COVID-19," the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement on April 3. According to Neha Gupta, Infectious Diseases Consultant at Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram, based on the type of severity of COVID 19 infection, immunity develops. Immunity develops early in asymptomatic or persons with mild symptoms, while it develops later in severe and critically-ill COVID 19 patients, she explained. "Antibodies from the convalescent serum (of patients who have recovered from COVID 19) may offer an option for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 disease," she told IANS, adding that some recent experiments showed lower mortality rate for plasma-treated patients compared to control patients. But much still remains to be known about the effectiveness of these therapies. "Humans make antibodies when they are infected with a virus and it generally provides immunity to reinfection. But SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is a new virus and we don't know that there is going to be immunity for few months or long term," Navin Kumar, Head of Clinical Virology & Infection Prevention, Manipal Hospitals, New Delhi, told IANS. "The plasma from recovered patients (convalescent plasma) have been used for treating many viral infections but not much is known about how effective it is for treating COVID-19. "There are few reports of successful treatment from other countries but no good research studies are there to support its routine use and what is the best time to use during the illness. At this moment it is considered as an experimental treatment," Kumar said. Japan-headquartered global bio-pharmaceutical company Takeda has already initiated development of a plasma-derived therapy to treat high-risk individuals with COVID-19. "As a leader in plasma-derived therapies with more than 75 years of experience in the development of plasma-derived products, Takeda has the expertise to research, develop, and manufacture a potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal H-IG (hyperimmune globulin), which Takeda is referring to as TAK-888," the company said last month. Takeda said it is currently in discussions with multiple national health and regulatory agencies and health care partners in the US, Asia, and Europe to expeditiously move the research into TAK-888 forward. It goes without saying that without a vaccine at their disposal, the world is waiting with bated breath for the success of any therapy to effectively beat the virus behind the pandemic. (Gokul Bhagabati can be contacted at gokul.b@ians.in) The governor of Louisiana said Sunday that he wasn't told to cancel the massive Mardi Gras celebrations at the end of February, even though governors were briefed on the coronavirus threat weeks earlier. 'There was not a single suggestion by anyone a doctor, a scientist, a political figure that we needed to cancel Mardi Gras,' John Bel Edwards told CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning. 'Rather than look back, I am focused on today and going forward,' Edwards continued. Although concerns over coronavirus and its ramifications didn't manifest until March in the U.S., U.S. governors were briefed February 9 at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting by members of Donald Trump's coronavirus task force on the growing threat of the respiratory virus. Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana said Sunday that he wasn't warned that by not canceling Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans it could cause a coronavirus outbreak Louisiana is the fourth-deadliest state as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, likely stemming from the massive Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans on February 25 weeks after Edwards was briefed of the virus' threat Louisiana makes up 370 deaths of the more than 8,500 across the U.S. Despite this, many states did not immediately react and resumed business as normal, including New Orleans going forward with Mardi Gras celebrations and parades. Mardi Gras was celebrated February 25 with the traditional parade down Bourbon Street, which usually takes about 2.5 hours and is attended by thousands of people from all over the country and even many international travelers. The celebrations across the state, and specifically in New Orleans, sparked a major outbreak in Louisiana, leading it to become the fourth deadliest state in the nation with 370 deaths as of Sunday. Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield and the government's top immunologist and infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci revealed the threats of coronavirus to governors in early February. The NGA meeting was hosted by Chairman and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and attended by more than half of the nation's state leaders. Hogan said Redfield and Fauci's statements were alarming to several governors at the time. 'The doctors and the scientists, they were telling us then exactly what they are saying now,' Hogan, a Republican, told The Washington Post in an article published Saturday. New York, New Jersey and Michigan are still more deadly than Louisiana with 3,565, 846 and 479 deaths respectively. Louisiana has 10,297 confirmed cases of the virus out of the more than 312,000 in the U.S. Edwards also told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that the state could run out of ventilators by the end of the week if the number of cases continues to surge like it has in the last few weeks. The claim comes at the same time Trump and experts and doctors on his task force claim the next 11 days will be the most brutal for the U.S. so far, expecting to reach the peak of deaths on April 16, which is next Thursday. Watertown, NY (13601) Today Bitterly cold. Scattered snow flurries and snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low -8F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%.. Tonight Bitterly cold. Scattered snow flurries and snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low -8F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%. Ghanaians, especially those who have to go out of their house have been advised to put on a nose and mouth mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Dr Joseph Donkor, Specialist in charge of the Tema Manhean Clinic, who made the call, said that was a sure way to block the virus from spreading, saying that was what China did and were able to curtail the spread of virus, because as you wear it, it means we dont have anyone spreading it. Dr Donkor gave the advice when Tema Youth for Christ donated sanitary items to the clinic and some assorted items and cash to 20 pregnant adolescents in the Tema Manhean community. He added that the fact was that, the virus was coming from the mouth and the nostril of affected persons therefore if the public was able to block it from getting into the air and on surfaces, as well as preventing people from inhaling the contaminated air, the spread of the virus would reduce. We are believing that now the virus can suspend for even days so assuming somebody comes here and he is able to cough around, all the environment here will be carrying the particles so if you breathe in here, you will be breathing in the virus. He said due to the unavailability of the disposable nose masks, it was recommended that people made use of the cotton ones and wash them thoroughly for reuse while observing the other preventive measures especially proper hand wash and utilization of hand sanitizer. Mr Frank Ebo Mensah, Regional Coordinator for Tema Youth for Christ, presenting the items, said the donation was a compassionate emergency response to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on the beneficiaries who are vulnerable. Mr Mensah, who is also the National Adolescent Reproductive Health Manager for Ghana Youth for Christ, added that the gesture was part of the implementation of an adolescent sexual health project in the Greater Accra Region and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area by his outfit. He explained that under the project, over 10,000 adolescents in basic schools and target communities would be reached with teenage pregnancy prevention and behavior change education indicating that 10 pregnant girls and adolescent girls with little babies would also receive support to be empowered and adequately integrated into school and community structures. He said the YFC aimed at reaching every young person in every community and basic school with the person and teachings of Christ through school worships, discipleship clubs, leadership development, mentoring, promotion of adolescent reproductive health and social services. 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. Featured Video SOUDERTON Plans for new playgrounds in Souderton Community Park have been completed, Borough Manager Mike Coll told Souderton Borough Council at its Jan. 3 meeting. "Where the former softball field was is where we are looking to install two playgrounds a playground for smaller toddlers in an age group up to five and a larger playground structure for... An exterior view of Robert F Wagner Middle School after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City's public school system will be shut down Monday March 16 as the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States on March 15, 2020 in New York City. Cindy Ord | Getty Images On March 6, New York City high school principal Matt Willie was already preparing for the worst. After watching a news report that said the city's Department of Education was preparing to close public schools amid the coronavirus crisis, Willie texted his assistant principal: "Prepare for the apocalypse." Willie said his school, University Neighborhood High School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was about as prepared as he could hope, having started disaster prep about a week before the DOE gave its final judgement. During that time, Willie and his staff took inventory of in-school laptops, surveyed students about whether they had devices and internet connections at home ("just in case") and had already distributed some laptops to students whose parents said they were no longer comfortable sending them to school. But when the DOE finally announced school closures, staff still had to scramble. The decision came down on a Friday, upending the school's plans to ask students to sign out laptops from their third-period teachers. Instead, students who needed laptops came in on Saturday before the closure went into effect. They gave their information to a staff member across a 7-foot-long table to maintain social distancing, Willie said. Then, the staffer would retrieve a laptop and put it on a different table, where the student would pick it up and sign it out. In total, the school distributed 247 laptops, spanning roughly half its student population. Students, administrators, teachers and parents across New York City are dealing with a hasty transition to remote learning as the country's largest school district has simultaneously become the nation's epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, they've had to count laptops, fumble with muting group video calls and rewrite class schedules to fit around a computer screen. Interviews with parents and teachers across the school system revealed how students and staff are coping with the changes and the role technology plays in this new normal. University Neighborhood High School Principal Matt Willie and Assistant Principals Rob Fox and and Kelly Powell served ice cream to teachers at the start of the school year prior to closures due to the coronavirus. Matt Willie A device for every student The first challenge for many schools has been making sure each student has access to an internet-connected device. At Harvest Collegiate High School near Manhattan's Union Square, math teacher Julia Shube said about 50 of 450 students initially said they'd need a computer, but once it became clear the school would move to remote learning, that number doubled. "Even if you have a computer at home, you might have three siblings and you're going to end up vying for that computer at some point," Willie said. When his school surveyed students, 85% said they had a computer at home but almost 70% said they would still like to sign out a computer if given the opportunity. "That really signaled to us that we need to get ready to sign out every single one of our computers," Willie said. To supplement the 175,000 devices schools have already given out, the DOE said it's working with Apple and T-Mobile to provide LTE-enabled iPads to 300,000 public school students without access to devices for their school work. The agency said on its website it's receiving about 50,000 iPads a week from Apple. Its partners at IBM then set them to get them connected to the internet and activate appropriate content filters. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. Getty Images As of the first week of April, some students have still not received their remote learning devices, according to the DOE's timeline. The DOE said its first round of iPad shipments began the week of March 23, first to students living in shelters, then focused on those in foster care and high school. So far, 13,000 devices have been delivered to students in shelters, according to a DOE spokesperson. Beginning Monday, the DOE will also focus on delivering to students who live in public housing, have disabilities or are multilingual learners. The DOE spokesperson said it will continue to deliver tens of thousands of devices a week until all requests are completed. Once students have devices, they need to be able to get online. Charter Communications' Spectrum offered free broadband and Wi-Fi to families with K-12 or college students in NYC for 60 days beginning in mid-March. But Willie found there were still a few students in his school who could not take advantage of the offer because they lived in rented rooms where they couldn't access the landlord's internet. For those students, Willie distributed smartphones the school had stored and instructed them to use them as hotspots. Some schools were even ready to resort to pen and paper. At P.S. 103 in the Bronx, teachers began making hard copies of work students could do on their own, according to pre-K teacher Katherine Myers. For Robert Schachter, a parent of an NYC public high school student and one in college, it was the non-technical tools that proved to be the biggest challenge. "It was running to Walmart and buying two bridge tables," said Schachter, whose family is camped out in Texas with his fiancee and her two kids. They bought a new printer and divided all corners of the house so they wouldn't be distracted by each other's Zoom calls. Robert Schachter, a parent of an NYC public high school student and a college student, bought bridge tables so his kids could have space for remote learning while schools were closed due to the coronavirus. Robert Schachter Teaching over the internet Once teachers and students have a way to connect to the internet, the next challenge is converting the classroom experience to a video conference. Zoom has made its service free for many K-12 schools around the world and removed its 40-minute time limit on basic accounts. That's made it an easy choice for many schools that hadn't been used to video conferencing, though the service has come with its own set of privacy concerns, especially since it was built as an enterprise product, not an educational one. A New York City student listens to daily lesson plan videos from her teacher as schools move to online learning amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Adam Jeffery | CNBC But just because classes can convene over video chat doesn't mean they'll follow the same schedule as they did in the previous world. Four NYC public school teachers interviewed for this article said they find it most important to make sure their students are able to cope with the massive disruption to their lives. At Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, the week is broken up between formal instruction and tutoring. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, teachers have planned to post pre-recorded lessons onto Google Classroom, a free platform where students can find and submit assignments as well as take quizzes. Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for students to conference with teachers. "It's not the student that we're planning for, it's their family," said math teacher Kirk Schneider. "We can't tell them, 'hey you need to be in math class at 10 or computer class at 11' because we don't know who they're babysitting." If the high school had tried to make students show up at designated times, lower-performing students would "get lost in the flood," Schneider said. Instead, he's noticed some struggling students are actually thriving with the flexible schedule. "There's some kids that are struggling in the classroom, and they're killing it. They just needed a quiet place, they needed their own learning styles," Schneider said. "Now I have a way to reach the kids that don't necessarily want me there in front of them teaching." Schneider said he tries to be careful about when he posts work so it doesn't get buried on the page. "We can't give these kids any more road bumps," he said. "I can't imagine how difficult these kids' lives are, I can't make it harder." Shube, the high school math teacher, said some of her students are struggling keeping up with the influx of emails from assignments posted on the site, so she's planning to do a lesson for her advisory students on how to organize their inboxes. It's a whole different ball game for younger students, whose classes typically involve a lot more group interaction. "I Zoom with small groups," said Myers, the pre-K teacher. "They're three and four -- the mute button on Zoom? I mean, come on!" Myers said she uses Zoom calls to let students socialize with each other, grouping together friends and letting them talk freely while checking in on how they're feeling. At the Castle Bridge School in Washington Heights, some parents asked teachers to open a Zoom meeting during lunchtime just so kids could chat with their friends, second and third grade teacher Liz Ciotti said. The instructional portion has been a bit more challenging. Ciotti said her students have struggled to find math and reading assignments because they don't know how to type on a keyboard. "It has been quite ridiculous over the internet trying to tell a kid or a parent who hasn't opened the internet in the past now open a window and a tab," she said. She's also wary of posting YouTube videos to her Google Classroom page, concerned an educational clip could "open up an impossibly dangerous rabbit hole for kids to be clicking into." Myers uses ClassDojo to post videos of herself doing read-alouds, collect pictures of assignments and communicate with parents. She said she took home her classroom set-up and about 75 books when her school said to prepare not to come back. "If I didn't have my books I would have had nothing," she said. Back to school A day after senior Congress leader Gopal Chandra Roy filed a police complaint accusing Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb of spreading fake information about COVID-19 situation, he was booked on Sunday for allegedly using a forged letterhead. However, the complaint against the chief minister was yet to be registered, police said. Roy, who was a former leader of the opposition in the state Assembly, alleged that policemen vandalized Roys house and attempted to 'murder him' on Sunday. He had lodged the complaint against Deb, who also holds the home portfolio, at the New Capital Complex (NCC) police station here on Saturday. Roy claimed that the chief minister on Tuesday told a press conference that 19 coronavirus cases were detected in Manipur and 16 in Karimganj district of Assam. In reality, the Congress leader asserted, Manipur had only two cases and Karimganj one on Tuesday. Roy sought appropriate action against the chief minister for allegedly spreading 'fake information'. On Roy's complaint, Officer-in-charge of NCC Police Station Subimal Barman said, "It requires permission from the magistrate. As today is Sunday, we shall seek permission tomorrow." An advocate, Arabinda Deb, an advocate, on Sunday filed a complaint with the same police station charging Roy with forgery and criminal conspiracy to malign the image of the Chief Minister. "I have noticed that the complaint was made by Sri Gopal Ch. Roy on a forged letterhead in which he has used the State Emblem of India illegally with an intention to harm the reputation of our honourable Chief Minister Shri Biplab Kumar Deb," the advocate said in his complaint. Barman said the complaint against Roy was registered. Roy alleged that police vandalized Roy's house at Ramthakur Para area of Agartala and attempted to murder him. They also allegedly did not allow his advocate and Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Pijush Kanti Biswas to enter Roy's house. Biswas said, "The complaint against Roy is weak. I was shocked to see such a large number of policemen in front of Roys house. I am not only the TPCC president, but also a senior advocate. It is illegal to deny entry of an advocate to the house of his client. A gundaraj is prevailing in the state." BJP spokesperson Dr Ashok Sinha said the law will take its own course. Regarding Roys complaint against Deb, he said, "It could be a slip of the tongue on the part of the chief minister. I think it is silly to raise such complaint against the chief minister at this hour when the entire country is fighting with coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a move condemned as "modern piracy", the US has been accused by German government officials of redirecting 200,000 Germany-bound masks for its own use. The city government in Berlin said that the consignment of US-made masks had been "confiscated" in Bangkok, though he did not say where they were passed into US hands The FFP2 masks, which were ordered by Berlin's police force, did not reach their destination, it said. Andreas Geisel, Berlin's interior minister, said the masks were presumably diverted to the US. Expand Close MIXED MESSAGES: Donald Trump with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force this weekend / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp MIXED MESSAGES: Donald Trump with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force this weekend The American company that makes the masks, 3M, has been prohibited from exporting its medical products to other countries under a Korean-War-era law invoked by Donald Trump. Late on Friday, the US president announced that he was going to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prevent the export of N95 masks, surgical gloves and other medical protective gear. He said exceptions might be made to help Italy and Spain, which have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. Mr Geisel said the diversion of masks from Berlin amounted to an "act of modern piracy", urging the Trump administration to adhere to international trading rules. Read More He said US authorities had taken custody of nearly 200,000 N95 respirators, 130,000 surgical masks and 600,000 gloves. He did not say where they were taken into US hands. "This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners," the minister said. "Even in these times of global crisis, there should be no wild-west methods." Mr Geisel's comments echo the sentiments of other European officials, who have complained about the buying and diversion practices of the US. In France, regional leaders have been reported as currently struggling to secure medical supplies as American buyers outbid them. The leader of the Ile-de-France region, Valerie Pecresse, compared the scramble for masks to a "treasure hunt". "I found a stock of masks that was available and Americans - I'm not talking about the American government, but Americans - outbid us," Ms Pecresse said. "They offered three times the price and they proposed to pay up-front." Elsewher, Turkey was yesterday accused by Madrid of seizing hundreds of ventilators and sanitary equipment destined for Spain. Spanish officials said Ankara was holding the ventilators for "the treatment of their own patients", despite local governments in Spain having already paid millions for them. Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported the ventilators were manufactured in Turkey on behalf of a Spanish firm that bought the components from China. Earlier in the week, however, Spain had praised Turkey for sending medical aid to Spain and Italy. The 3M company which makes the masks which the Trump government seized in Bangkok, argued that blocking exports from the US will raise "significant humanitarian implications" abroad and lead other countries to retaliate by withholding much-needed medical supplies from the US. 3M said it has raised US production of N95 masks from 22m in January to 35m in March, with the entire increase being distributed in the US. 3M said 10m N95 masks that it produced in China will be shipped to the US. The company has traditionally exported about 6m masks a month to Canada and Latin America, where 3M is a primary supplier. 3M objected to stopping those exports. Americans, almost all of them under orders to lockdown except for essential outings such as grocery shopping or seeing a doctor, have heard conflicting guidance in recent days about the need for wearing face masks in public. At the White House last Friday, President Donald Trump seemed to muddy the waters further when he announced that federal health authorities are now recommending individuals wear cloth face coverings to stem transmission of the virus. But he stressed the advisory was purely voluntary, and that he would not be heeding the recommendation himself. Elsewhere in the US - now the world leader in Covid-19 infections - two of the principal virus hot spots reported their biggest jumps in deaths yet. Surging deaths in New York City and New Orleans showed that a wave of lethal coronavirus infections expected to overwhelm hospitals, even in relatively affluent, urban areas with extensive healthcare systems, has begun to crash down on the US. Governors, mayors and physicians have voiced alarm for weeks over crippling scarcities of personal protective gear for first-responders and front-line health- care workers, as well as ventilators and other medical supplies. With Washington's strategic stockpile of such equipment nearly depleted, states have been forced essentially to compete against each other on the open market for vital resources. US cities have also scrambled to expand hospital capacity and recruit healthcare professionals out of retirement to meet looming shortages of beds and staff. In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a Muslim cleric has been arrested for circulating a communal message on social media in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district. Director General of Police Sita Ram Mardi said on Sunday said tension gripped a part of Fatehpur tehsil after the maulavi (cleric) circulated the message containing indecent language. Police personnel equipped with riot control equipment were sent to the area to defuse the tension, he added. The maulavi was arrested after the registration of a case against him, he added. The DGP asked people not to post unwanted messages on social media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amaravati, April 6 : At 9 p.m. on Sunday Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy switched off the lights of his home and stood with the candles for nine minutes to show solidarity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to light lamps, candles or torches as a sign of national unity against COVID-19. Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, DGP Gautam Sawang, and other officials joined him at his residence. People across the state, lighted lamps, candles, torches and mobile flashlights to show that India stands united against the pandemic. Responding to the Chief Minister's appeal in the run up to Sunday, irrespective of religion, region, and caste, people of the state lit lamps, candles and switched on torches and cell phone flashlights, for 9 minutes at 9 p.m. on Sunday. Chief Minister later tweeted a photograph with a message, "Joining the nation in manifesting the power of unity by lighting a spark of hope. Let's stand as one in the battle against #COVID19Pandemic." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Major grocery and retail stores that usually stay open on Easter Sunday have announced plans to close for the day to give employees a break during the coronavirus pandemic. BJs Wholesale Club and Trader Joes have both announced closures on April 12. BJs says the day off will give employees a day to rest and recharge," while Trader Joes has called the day off a much needed day of rest. Both stores have typically remained open on Easter Sunday. Sams Club, Costco, Target, and Aldi have typically closed on Easter Sunday, and will also close this year. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Not all stores have announced their Easter schedules yet, but ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Walmart, Wegmans and Whole Foods typically remain open. Almost all New Jersey grocery stores are operating on limited schedules during the coronavirus pandemic, with some offering special hours for high-risk shoppers. Check local store hours before you head out. Prefer take out for your holiday meal? New Jersey restaurants can remain open for delivery and take-out orders. 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. Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Canada coronavirus deaths jump 20%, Ottawa offers reservists full-time jobs FILE PHOTO: A woman adjusts her mask while she waits in line as the city's public health unit holds a walk-in clinic testing for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Montreal By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - The number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada has jumped by just over 20% to 258 in a day, officials said on Sunday, while Ottawa offered full-time jobs to reservists in the armed forces. By 11:05 eastern time (1505 GMT), the number of those diagnosed with the coronavirus had risen by almost 12% to 14,426, the public health agency said. The respective figures on Saturday were 214 deaths and 12,924 positive diagnoses. The outbreak looks set to tip the economy into recession and the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already announced stimulus measures totaling C$105 billion ($74 billion) in direct spending, or 5% of gross domestic product. Trudeau said officials were contacting reservists to offer them full-time jobs for the coming months. "Bolstering the military's ranks will help offset some of the economic consequences of COVID-19 and ensure our communities are well supported," he told a daily briefing. Canada has around 31,000 reservists, most of whom serve one evening a week and one weekend a month. There are just over 67,000 full-time members of the armed forces. Trudeau said on Friday that members of the Canadian Rangers, a group of reservists based in remote regions, would be deployed to northern Quebec to help provide healthcare to the isolated aboriginal population. Late last month, U.S. President Donald Trump authorized the secretaries of homeland security and defense to call up military and Coast Guard reservists to active duty. Trudeau said he had yet to speak to Trump about his demand that exports of respirator masks to Canada be blocked. Trudeau said on Saturday he would not retaliate, while noting some Canadian health professionals living along the U.S. border work in hospitals south of the border. "We're continuing to engage constructively with the entire American administration to highlight how important it is that goods ... continue to flow both ways," he said. Story continues White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News on Saturday that "some exports" of masks to Canada would continue. Almost half the cases in Canada are in the province of Quebec, where premier Francois Legault said on Sunday he hoped to see new diagnoses peak in a number of weeks. He also told reporters he was extending a shutdown of non-essential businesses for another three weeks to May 4. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Students at Chapin Hall in 1970 listen to a student speaker during protests of the Vietnam War that disrupted the end of the semester and commencement 50 years ago. Courtesy Williams College Archives and Special Collections. PreviousNext Historical Echo, Irony in Williams College Cancellations WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. For the second time in school history, the classrooms at Williams College will be very quiet this spring. In 1970, it was a two-week student strike to fight a war. In 2020, it's a three-month closure ordered by the college to fight a global pandemic. Paul Miller has ties to both stoppages and sees a parallel. "It's always been kind of a source of pride in a weird way that our class was caring enough [to strike]," said Miller, a member of Williams' class of '70. "That's kind of how I see it. We weren't in the ivory tower being totally self-centered and only being worried about grades and grad school. The anti-war thing got tied up with the social injustice movement. It was all woven together. We were doing something for other Americans, doing something for the Vietnamese. "I think we felt it was somewhat altruistic." In Miller's mind, the same can be said for the March 11 decision to send Williams' students home and move to a remote learning model in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. "I think that's totally where the college was in what they decided to do this year," he said. "[Williams President Maud Mandel] said in her letter, you may be young and healthy and able to stay on campus. Everything may be just fine for you, but we can't run the risk of what the contagion will do to others. It was totally altruistic. "In that sense, it's a book end to the two shutdowns." Another connection between the two. The 1970 strike disrupted the final semester for Miller and his classmates at the college. And in 2020, they were scheduled to hold their 50th class reunion in Williamstown the weekend of June 13. As much as Miller was looking forward to celebrating the milestone, he was not surprised by Friday's announcement that neither the reunion weekend nor the college's commencement exercises will be held as planned. "When I wrote the article [about the parallel between the closures] to go in the electronic version of our class book, I wrote it saying that our reunion would be postponed," he said in a telephone interview. "[The article] was precipitated by the school closing and the letter President Mandel sent out on the 11th. "At that point, we were struck by the fact that the school was going to be shut down for, as far as we know, only the second time. And it would be almost exactly 50 years after we did it the first time. I said to some of my classmates there's a metaphysical irony in that." Half a century earlier, most of those classmates were irate about the war in Vietnam, just like students on campuses nationwide. At Williams, a couple of professors helped form the organization Pause for Peace, according to the college archives. "The idea was to have a national one-hour work stoppage to protest the war," Miller said. "A bunch of us who maybe could do things by talking to our family who might be in a position to help create a work stoppage did so. "My father was a director of the Scott Paper company at the time. I went to him and told him what we were doing and asked if he would consider asking the directors if they would be willing to support this effort. He said yes. He was a lifelong Republican, but he was totally against the war at that point." Miller said the Scott Paper board ultimately decided that it could not justify the expense of the massive shutdown to its shareholders, but he gives them credit for having the conversation. Meanwhile, back in Williamstown, the May 4 deaths of four Kent State students at the hands of National Guardsmen galvanized the undergrads 500 miles away. That night, the student body packed Chapin Hall and voted to walk out of their classes. "It was packed to the rafters," Miller said. "I'm sure virtually everyone in the student body, which was then somewhat smaller, was in there along with most of the faculty. It was a capacity crowd and a long and interesting meeting." The students had the backing of the administration, including President John E. Sawyer, and the faculty, which created "a resolution on class work for the remainder of the year and [read] it at another campus meeting," according to a timeline in the college archives. By May 14, the strike protests died down and many of the students returned home, the college's official account reads. Commencement exercises were held as scheduled, but many of the participants wore shirts commemorating the strike, Miller said. American troops were not withdrawn from Vietnam until March 1973, nearly three years after Kent State and the student strike movement. "Bob Katt, a classmate of mine who was one of the leaders of the movement to strike said he felt the strike was a failure," Miller said. "From the standpoint of having a lasting effect on the anti-war movement, I think it was a failure. "In terms of promoting a sense of community on campus, I think it was a success. There were many faculty members who were doing what they could, students doing what they could and the administration, to the extent they could, was supporting what was happening. So it wasn't a complete failure." And it has been a point of pride and a rallying cry for members of the Class of 70 that they were the class that brought the college's operations to a halt -- if only for a couple of weeks. They will not get to celebrate that accomplishment this June, but Miller is not complaining. "I won't take credit for this thought, but another of my classmates, Chris Williamson, said the guys we should feel sorry for are the class of 2020 because they're losing the moment of coming together as a class," Miller said, referring to the commencement exercises and all the activities that precede them. "Who knows what impact that will have. Possibly, they'll discover some form of solidarity based on the idea that they're the guys who got cheated out of graduation. "The thing stays with me from then and today is the sense of community at Williams College." Armed men have killed a police inspector attached to the Abia State Police Command headquarters, Umuahia. They also took away his rifle. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the gunmen waylaid the policeman, identified as Amadi Kingdom, at about 5 a.m. on Saturday while returning from an official assignment. They shot the officer in the stomach and he died instantly after which they took away with his rifle. The Commissioner of Police in Abia State, Ene Okon, confirmed the incident. He explained that the deceased was on his way to the office to return the rifle with which he went for an official duty. READ ALSO: On getting to a place called Ochendo bye-pass junction, unknown to the officer, some gunmen who laid an ambush, shot and killed him and also took away the officers rifle and fled, he said. Mr Okon assured that the command has swung into action and will not leave any stone unturned to apprehend the hoodlums, recover the rifle and prosecute them. Its a big change in how we do things, Gaalaas said. Is there an upside? I think people will realize how much the Eucharist (Holy Communion) means to them, Gaalaas said. And I hope families are going to be encouraged to pray together in their homes a bit more. The Rev. David Wiggs, senior pastor at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, said the crisis has been an accelerant to move the church more quickly into the social media world. In the long run, that might be a good thing, he said. As a result, he said, the church is reaching some people it would not have reached before. The Rev. Wayne Hardy, who will retire this spring as pastor of Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church, said the church will record in advance all of the Holy Week and Easter services and put them online. Its been a real learning curve, he said. The churchs first online service was live, but church leaders decided it was more effective to pre-record it. Preaching before an empty sanctuary is challenging, he said. You cant read peoples expressions. New Delhi, April 5 : In separate incidents, one soldier lost his life and two were injured as the Indian security forces killed nine terrorists, including four from the Hizbul Mujahideen, in the last 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir. "Over the past 24 hours, Indian security forces have eliminated nine terrorists in J&K," a defence source said. Among the nine, four Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed at Batpura area of South Kashmir on Saturday. They were involved in the killing of civilians. The four Hizbul Mujahideen militants, according to the sources, were killed in day-long encounter. "On specific intelligence, a joint operation by the CRPF and the SOG (Special Operations Group) Kulgam was launched in Kulgam. In a day-long encounter four hardcore militants of the HM group have been killed and large cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from them," the defence source said. This group was allegedly involved in the recent incidents of civilian killings. Militants killed in the Kulgam Encounter are identified as Aijaz Ahmed Naiko (Moosa) from Kulgam, active since 2018; Shahid Ahmed Malik (Kulgam) and active since 2019; Waqar Farooq from Kulgam and missing since last month; and M. Ashraf Malik (Sadam) from Anantnag. In another ongoing anti-infiltration operation in the Keran Sector of North Kashmir, troops have so far killed five terrorists attempting to infiltrate from across the Line of Control, taking advantage of the bad weather. "In this operation, one soldier was killed and two more are critically injured. Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," said the source . The operation in north Kashmir is still in progress. Justin Trudeau has warned Donald Trump it is not in either of their countries' interests to engage in a coronavirus trade war after the US banned companies from exporting face masks to Canada amid a shortage. The US President said on Friday he would ban the export of critical N95 masks and other precious medical gear as he blasted a manufacturer who criticized the administration for halting its shipment to Canada. 'We need the masks. We don't want any other people getting it,' Mr Trump said. Speaking the following morning, Trudeau warned Trump that such a ban is 'not in any of our interests' as it could damage trade between the neighbouring countries. It comes amid a 'wild west' market in which the US has outmuscled other countries by allegedly paying vast sums to redirect protective equipment originally going to help other countries. It has led one German official to slam America's 'rabid' behaviour over the sought after masks. Justin Trudeau has warned Donald Trump it is not in either of their countries' interests to engage in a trade war The US President said on Friday he would ban the export of critical N95 masks and other precious medical gear Trudeau said at his press conference: 'We're working with the American administration to ensure that they understand the goods and services that are essential to both our countries flow in both directions across the border, and it is not in any of our interests to actually limit that flow. 'It is in both of our interests to maintain this extraordinary close relationship.' But the Canadian Prime Minister said he would stop short of retaliatory measures against the US. He said: 'We are not looking at retaliatory measures or measures that are punitive. 'We know it is in both our countries interests to cooperate.' Trudeau said Canada shipped medical gloves and testing kits to the US and said materials for the N95 masks originated in Canada. Health workers in Canada rely on the masks, while Canadian nurses also crossed the bridge from Windsor, Ontario, to work in the Detroit medical system every day, he said. Boxes being unloaded from an Antonov 124 aircraft transporting 10 million face masks ordered by France from China at the Paris-Vatry Airport in Bussy-Lettree, eastern France, 30 March Manufacturing giant 3M says there are significant humanitarian implications of ceasing N95 mask supplies to health care workers in Canada and Latin America, where 3M is a critical supplier of respirators. 'They can sell to others, but they should be taking care of our country,' Mr Trump said. '3M has not treated our country well. And if they do, great. And if they don't, they are going to have a hell of a price to pay.' The company has argued blocking exports will raise 'significant humanitarian implications' abroad and lead other countries to retaliate by withholding much-needed medical supplies from the US. Other countries are complaining about a 'Wild West' marketplace in which the US has 'intercepted' supplies originally intended to go elsewhere. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned G20 countries against acting in their own interests after Germany accused the US of 'modern day piracy'. Protective face masks destined for Berlin were allegedly intercepted at a Thailand airport and diverted instead to the US, prompting angry German officials to blast Donald Trump for the move. Mr Johnson alongside Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have warned against 'damaging protectionism' in the face of the global health crisis, with Mr Raab insisting international 'teamwork' is the way forward. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned G20 countries against acting in their own interests amid the Covid-19 pandemic after Germany accused the US of 'modern day piracy' Mr Raab said that he, the Prime Minister and Trade Secretary Liz Truss have been calling on other world leaders to keep international trade routes open. Writing for the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Raab said: 'The Prime Minister, Trade Secretary and I are pressing the G7 and G20 groups of major economies to keep trade routes open and avoid compounding the harm of Covid-19 with damaging protectionism. Teamwork is essential to beating coronavirus. 'The Prime Minister is determined to unite the country behind the national mission at home, and bring countries together abroad.' The shipment of 200,000 FFP2 and FFP3 masks were made by the US company 3M which has a factory in China. They were on their way to healthcare workers in Berlin but the masks never arrived. Instead, German officials allege the protective equipment was intercepted at Bangkok Airport and instead flown to the US. Protective face masks destined for Berlin was allegedly intercepted at a Thailand airport and diverted instead to the US. Pictured: boxes of FFP-2 masks being delivered to the German army The United States has angered Germany and France b allegedly seizing millions of masks which were set to be shipped to the European nations amid the coronavirus crisis. erman officials hit out at America for 'intercepting' 200,000 masks they had ordered from a 3M factory in China. Stock image 'We consider that an act of modern piracy,' Berlin's interior minister Andreas Geisel blasted. 'You don't treat your transatlantic partners like that,' he is further quoted as saying in The Financial Times. Meanwhile one German federal official told The Wall Street Journal that 'America's behavior since the crisis has been positively rabid when it comes to medical supplies.' Geisel called on Germany's government to 'press the US to stick to international rules', while Berlin's mayor accused President Trump of 'lacking solidarity' following the seizure of the shipment. 3M has denied the account, stating it has 'no record of any order of respirators from China for the Berlin police'. A spokesperson for Berlin police has since clarified that the masks were bought at a higher price by a mystery buyer in Thailand - and their whereabouts is unknown. But sources have told German news outlet Der Tagesspiegel that the masks have arrived in the US. Berlin officials called on Germany's government to 'press the US to stick to international rules', and accused President Trump of 'lacking solidarity' following seizure of the shipment The dispute came after the White House condemned 3M for producing face masks for overseas countries instead of focusing solely on the US. Earlier in the week, US buyers paid three times the going rate to secure a shipment of face masks from China that were due to be dispatched to France, two French officials claim. The US has denied the allegation. Paying cash to divert the air cargo to the US, the buyers are said to have commandeered the shipment of masks as they sat on a plane at Shanghai airport ready for take off. The order of several million masks had been due to arrive in part to the Grand Est region in north west France, an area where intensive care facilities are already struggling to cope with the volume of coronavirus patients. Jean Rottner, a doctor and president of the GrandEst regional council, told RTL radio that the US buyers had turned up on the tarmac offering cash. He said: 'On the tarmac, they arrive, get the cash out so we really have to fight.' The leader of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, also accused unidentified Americans of swooping in with cash at the last minute to secure shipments already promised to French buyers. Valerie Pecresse, the chief of France's most populous region, said: 'We lost an order to the Americans who outbid us on a shipment that we had lined up.' Pecresse claimed that while France pays on delivery for such supplies - crucial in the global fight against the pandemic - 'Americans pay cash' without bothering to see the goods. They 'are just looking to do business on the back of the whole world's distress,' she told LCI television. A worker next to cargo unloaded from a different plane carrying 10 million face masks ordered by France from China, at the Paris-Vatry Airport in Bussy-Lettree, eastern France, 30 March France has ordered 1 billion face masks due to be delivered within the next 14 weeks and has deployed an air-bridge flight with China to deliver them amid the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Shipping company Geodis is responsible for the organisation of 16 flights by two chartered cargo planes, reports World Cargo News. A senior US official on Thursday rejected allegations from French politicians that Americans had accroached the French shipment during the coronavirus crisis, calling the stories 'completely false.' In Washington, a senior administration official told AFP 'the United States government has not purchased any masks intended for delivery from China to France.' France has ordered 1 billion face masks and has deployed an air-bridge flight with China to deliver them amid the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic 'Reports to the contrary are completely false,' said the official, asking not to be named President Trump is desperately trying to secure masks and other personal protective equipment for Americans as the nation's emergency stockpile depletes. On Thursday, the Commander-in-chief ordered 3M to manufacture more masks for Americans as the coronavirus infection rate in the US soared above 258,000. More than 6,600 have died. Meanwhile, Germany has clocked 90,964 cases and 1,234 deaths as of Friday afternoon. Flash In a gesture of true friendship, Embassy of Pakistan in Beijing received a donation from Beijing Lianxin Charity Foundation on March, 31 2020. The donation consisted of emergency relief supplies such as disposable gloves, protective face shields etc. General Secretary of the organization Cai Peng said that this donation is a manifestation of an all-weather friendship between Pakistan and China. He termed COVID-19 as a pandemic which is to be fought by the world together. Ambassador of Pakistan Naghmana Hashmi expressed deep gratitude on behalf of the people and the Government of Pakistan for this generous act. She said that China has not only comprehensively controlled the epidemic but is now responding in kind by extending complete support to reinforce Pakistan's preventive measures against COVID-19. Hailing the recent "Solidarity Visit" by the President of Pakistan to China, she said that Pakistan and China have shown to the world that during testing times a united effort is the key to success. By Trend Turkic Council Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev praised the cooperation, resilience and solidarity among the Turkic Council Member States, Trend reports citing Turkic Council. Stressing that the international community should exert coordinated and determined efforts in the fight against COVID-19, he emphasized that the global community must undertake united action against this global crisis. He also noted that the current cooperation mechanism has enabled the Member States to take concerted action. The Secretary General stated that the Turkic Council Member States, namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan as well as the Observer State Hungary have demonstrated their resolve to tackle the challenges due to deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of global spread of the pandemic, Leaders of the Turkic World have been in close communication with each other and instructed relevant ministries and institutions to take necessary measures such as arranging safe evacuation of their citizens, closing borders, halting international flights, sharing experience and information as well as providing medical assistance and supply. As part of these joint efforts and cooperation, Turkey was the first country to send test kits to Azerbaijan and helping this brotherly country to reach the necessary capabilities for diagnosing the first patients suffering from this illness. Moreover Turkey agreed the Kyrgyz-Turkish Friendship Hospital in Bishkek, which was jointly managed by Turkey and Kyrgyz Republic, to be utilized by the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyz Republic in combating COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan, humanitarian aid was sent to neighboring Kyrgyzstan to alleviate the suffering of this brotherly nation. In a similar fashion the Government of Kazakhstan assisted with the airborne evacuation of Kyrgyz citizens from China and India. In this difficult period, the Turkic Council Member States became the first countries extending medical support to Hungary immediately after the initial news pointing to a spread of the epidemic in Europe. Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkey delivered medical supplies including much needed face masks to Hungary. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in his statement on 16 March 2020 conveyed his heartfelt gratitude to the Turkic Council Member States for their prompt response and assistance. He also indicated that these aids serve as another concrete indicator of strong solidarity with the Turkic World. Furthermore, Turkish private sector was also instrumental in terms of extending support to Kazakhstan. Ankara based Turkish company YDA Group has delivered a considerable aid package, containing medical materials, face masks, safety glasses and gloves that were subsequently transferred to various hospitals in Kazakhstan last week. Secretary General B. Amreyev underlined his firm belief in sustained determination and close cooperation among the Member States. He is of firm conviction that the Turkic World will stand in solidarity with the rest of the international community in this global struggle against COVID-19. He said the Turkic Leaders are resolved to maintain this high level consultation regarding this issue and their joint efforts to overcome this period of unprecedented challenges by taking any additional measure that could be required. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The coronavirus outbreak has hit the world hard. Along with the alarming infection rates comes a colossal need for medical supplies. In this dire moment, China has provided assistance to 120 affected countries and four international organizations. Thousands of factories in China urgently resumed production to make desperately-needed test kits, masks and protective gear. To meet global needs, the country is churning out over 100 million masks every day, a five-fold increase from before the outbreak. However, China's goodwill has been maliciously interpreted by some as an exercise in "mask diplomacy." The AFP news agency asserted, "China is trying to paint itself as a Good Samaritan while deflecting criticism over its initial missteps in handling the coronavirus." An article in The Diplomat accused Beijing of projecting soft and sharp power within Europe. It argued that China's aid has enabled it to "strike the strategic bliss point of currying the favors and winning hearts and minds of one-half of a divided Europe." The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell fired a warning shot at China's "politics of generosity," calling on the EU to stand ready for a "struggle for influence" in a "global battle of narratives." "In exercising generosity, you, in a way, project soft power. This is true for China, this is true for the U.S., this is true for Europe. But what counts now is to make sure we all come to each other's help." This is how Arancha Gonzalez Laya, Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs, responded to "mask diplomacy." She added that "Spain came to China's help at the beginning of the coronavirus, because we thought this was not only a good thing to do but the right thing to do. It makes sense to help a friend in need. And then China reciprocated this." Fighting a global pandemic requires solidarity, not political calculation. China understands this and its assistance has been warmly welcomed. "The only ones who can help us in this difficult situation is China," Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said earlier. Italian Coronavirus Emergency Commissioner Angelo Borelli also praised China's assistance: "We are deeply grateful to China for its generous assistance." However, some in the West are deliberately turning a deaf ear. For them, the need to bash China seems to carry more weight than protecting lives. Warm responses by Serbia and Italy have thus been interpreted as evidence of Beijing's "mask diplomacy." In this global anti-epidemic fight, they have demonstrated unparalleled skills in playing the double standard game. Assistance from China is "mask diplomacy." But assistance from the West is "an act of humanitarianism." Strict quarantine measures by China are "violations of human rights," but similar measures by European countries are selfless efforts to contain the virus. Technology use in the epidemic fight is a "breach of privacy" in China, but a right thing to do so in the West. On top of that, these anti-China hawks have made a fuss about the quality of China-made medical products. Admittedly, there have been cases of defective supplies in Chinese exports. However, these products were made by unlicensed firms and have nothing to do with the Chinese government. No matter what good China does, anti-China hawks will just interpret things the other way round. This reflects Western vigilance of a rising China. Some are unwilling to accept the country's rapid rise. They are therefore manipulating every possible means, including the coronavirus, to bash China. To beat a common enemy, the world needs to stand together. But as the virus is killing tens of thousands worldwide, some in the West are still wasting time with their anti-China game. Protective masks for sale are displayed in a store in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn on April 2, 2020 in New York City. Stephanie Keith | Getty Images As the fight against the coronavirus continues, states are emphasizing the shortage of personal protective equipment for their health-care and front-line workers. Companies like Apple, AB Inbev and LVMH have been pivoting their business models to help produce or donate equipment such as masks and hand sanitizer. And on a local level, small business is lending a hand as well. In New York City, that effort includes the work of fashion designers. Shortages of PPE continue to hinder New York's ability to properly care for coronavirus patients. In response, the state set up a resource page so that small businesses and individuals in the state can contribute to the state's lack. On Thursday, during his daily coronavirus update, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reiterated the need for businesses to help with PPE and said the state would pay for the equipment. "I ask businesses to think about the situation we're in and the possible opportunity," Cuomo said. "If you can do it, it's a business opportunity, it's a state need, it's a national need. ... We're not asking for a favor; we'll finance what you need in terms of transitioning, and we'll buy the product, and I will pay a premium, because we need it." Cuomo tweet The federal government is now advising everyone to wear a mask, rather than limiting the advisory to people who are sick. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio suggested that New Yorkers wear face coverings, not of medical grade, while out in public. But with masks already in short supply, many health-care professionals are quick to point out that sturdy N95 masks, already hard to find, are desperately needed by workers on the front lines and shouldn't be allocated to the general public. Designing for Michelle Obama, Kate Middleton and COVID-19 Designer Christian Siriano has started making masks for the city, and other companies have offered to help how they can. Naeem Khan, a New York City-based fashion designer who has designed for the likes of Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton, announced on his fashion house's Instagram page that he would start making masks. "My team is ready to start sewing CDC approved masks from medically approved fabrics from their isolated homes," the post read. "I'm a designer. I know how to construct, how to design, so I decided to design my own mask," Khan told CNBC. "I considered doing it in hemp fabric because it has antibacterial properties." Khan's masks are lined with microfiber and contain a pocket into which a surgical mask can be inserted. While this offers an extra layer of protection, meaning they can be used by medical professionals, Khan noted that these masks are not meant to replace the much needed N95s used by front-line health-care workers. "These are not designed for people in the forefront of the corona fight," he said. Health care workers wearing Naeem Khan's masks. Naeem Khan Khan has posted a video of the fully constructed mask. Khan's stores are all currently closed. With all of his seamstresses at home, Khan saw this opportunity as a way to keep them as a part of the business, even while operations are at a standstill. "They have been allocated this to work from home and are continuing to be paid to help with this project," he said. "That's how I can keep them employed." Khan has teamed up with Muslim American Leadership Alliance to help distribute the masks to hospitals such as Mount Sinai and some in Long Island, as well as to non-professionals who just need masks. He says the ability to get the word out on social media helped the cause immensely. He also started sending masks to families without enough money or who could not find masks. "They would direct-message me, and I would send them masks," Khan said of the Instagram connections made. Social media has proved to be a source for many individuals to find or offer help. One Facebook group, Rosie the Seamstress (a reference to the World War II Rosie the Riveter campaign), was recently created and now has more than a million members, offering a list of resources and a forum to connect creators with those in need of masks. On Thursday President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to require Minnesota manufacturing giant 3M to step up its production of desperately needed respirator masks for front-line health workers, an effort 3M says it already is doing. Khan says that once things return to normal, his business will get back to what it has always done, but he wanted to jump at the chance to help the city in a time of need. "At least, for the moment, I think this would be great service," he said. "We have the technicality and the power to do it, so I would like to help my country." Clothing company Eileen Fisher, based in Irvington, New York, has started making masks from cotton they had on hand. Seamstresses are going in to work while maintaining social distancing sewing machines are kept 6 ft apart and some have volunteered to work from home. The company has offered to pay their employees for this work, and some have donated their time. "This is a big pivot for us," said Elizabeth Richman, deputy general counsel at Eileen Fisher. "We're a women's clothing company, and we manufacture with sustainability as one of our top priorities. Making a switch is something we're excited about, but we're not in a place to be providing medical-grade stuff right away." An Eileen Fisher seamstress sews masks in response to the coronavirus crisis in New York. Eileen Fisher The former European Commission President, Jacques Delors, broke with tradition last week to make a rare intervention and warn that a lack of solidarity posed "a mortal danger to the European Union". As the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to cause untold destruction to the lives and livelihoods of the citizens of Europe, it was a timely intervention which should be heard and acted upon before it is too late. Throughout the past decade, the European Union has faced several travails, from the existential crisis threatened by Eurozone bailouts to the migration crisis to Brexit most recently, yet it survives, although hardly thrives. When this storm is weathered, and there were hopeful signs last week that the pandemic has peaked in Europe, the opportunity will present itself for the EU to regroup and plan a progressive path forward. That opportunity should not be squandered. When the crisis hit Italy first, before spreading in its most deadly form to Spain, the EU was slow to react, a hesitation which allowed China and Russia to send medical supplies at a time when nearest neighbours failed to respond. This provided an opportunity for certain critical voices to highlight the initial 'me-first' response in Europe, which led some countries to decide to impose export bans on vital medical equipment and put up border controls that left other European citizens stranded. Since then Europe has somewhat got its act together. Germany, Austria and Luxembourg have opened hospitals to treat patients from the hardest hit countries. France and Germany also donated many face masks to Italy. Indeed, Covid-19 swabs taken in Ireland last week are being examined in Germany. These and other such measures, while late, are still welcome and reassuring, but the fissures in Europe have become all too apparent all too soon again. The pandemic has reopened the wounds of the Eurozone crisis, resurrecting stereotypes about "profligate" southern Europeans and "hard-hearted" northerners. Questions have been asked in the north why countries in the south did not have the fiscal buffers to deal with the financial shock of the coronavirus, which in turn has given rise to a sharp reaction in the south, as it buries its dead. It is evident that Europe is still entrenched in two camps over how to respond to the economic fallout caused by Covid-19. France, Italy, Spain and at least half a dozen others, including Ireland, want to break with convention by issuing joint Eurozone debt, so-called "corona bonds". Germany, Austria and the Netherlands continue to oppose the idea. At the same time legislation passed by the Hungarian parliament last week enables the country's prime minister, Viktor Orban, to rule by decree without a time-limit. The European Commission put out a statement calling for emergency measures adopted by member states to be proportionate but it has been criticised for not making any reference to Hungary. This prompted Ursula von der Leyen, the new president of the European Commission, to say that she was particularly concerned with the situation in Hungary. In the past, the EU has improvised its way out of the many difficulties it has faced. The time has come, however, for the bloc to act on the front foot. It cannot continue to stumble from crisis to crisis, not least because there are currently other international players, to the east and, regrettably, to the west all too willing to take advantage of an EU evidently ill-equipped to deal with unforeseen crises. France records 357 deaths, lowest daily increase in a week; Italy reports 525 deaths, the lowest in more than two weeks. France and Italy have recorded their lowest death toll from the coronavirus in one and two weeks, respectively. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to a hospital for tests after showing persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus. After President Donald Trump warned the United States is entering what could be its toughest week yet, New York reported 594 new deaths and 8,327 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. Globally, the death toll surpassed 68,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and the number of infections rose above 1.26 million. Here are the latest updates: Sunday, April 5 20:20 GMT British PM Johson admitted to hospital for tests British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital for tests after showing persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus. On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests, Downing Street said in a statement. This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus. Read more here. 19:00 GMT Queen Elizabeth: We will succeed against coronavirus In a rare broadcast to the nation, Queen Elizabeth thanked healthcare workers on the front line and urged a united effort to overcome the crisis, vowing we will succeed. In what was only the fifth televised address of her 68-year reign, the 93-year-old monarch drew on her experience in World War II and called upon Britons to demonstrate they were as strong as past generations. Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it, she said in the address from her Windsor Castle home. Read more here. Queen Elizabeth II records her address to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus epidemic at Windsor Castle [Buckingham Palace/AFP] 18:50 GMT Second Greek migrant camp under lockdown Officials in Greece have placed a second migrant camp near Athens under lockdown after an Afghan resident tested positive for the coronavirus, the migration ministry said. Read more here. 18:30 GMT Ethiopia records first two deaths Ethiopia reported the first two deaths of patients infected with coronavirus, as officials ramped up testing. The first victim was a 60-year-old Ethiopian woman who had spent six days in intensive care, a health ministry statement said. The second victim was a 56-year-old Ethiopian man diagnosed with COVID-19 last Thursday. 18:20 GMT France reports lowest daily death toll in a week France recorded 357 coronavirus deaths in hospitals in 24 hours, the lowest daily increase in a week, bringing the total death toll to 8,078. The tally included 5,889 patients who died in hospitals and 2,189 people in old age homes and other medical facilities, a government statement said. There are now 28,891 people infected with coronavirus in hospitals, an increase of 748 from the day before. 18:10 GMT Qatar reports 279 new cases, total at 1,604 Qatar reported 279 new cases of coronavirus and one more death in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 1,604 cases and four deaths. Latest update on Coronavirus in Qatar#__ #YourSafetyIsMySafety pic.twitter.com/R0SPsixEUm (@MOPHQatar) April 5, 2020 17:05 GMT Turkey records 73 new deaths, raising total to 574 Turkey recorded 73 new deaths, raising the total number of deaths to 574, according to Turkeys Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. Confirmed cases rose by 3,135, bringing the total to 27,069 in the last 24 hours. Koca added that 20,065 tests were conducted in the past day. 16:20 GMT Italy reports lowest daily death toll in two weeks Italy recorded its lowest daily death toll from the coronavirus in more than two weeks, while the number of critical care patients declined for the second day. The 525 fatalities reported by the civil protection service was the lowest number since the 427 deaths recorded on March 19. Customers queue at a fish market in Venice, Italy as new restrictions for open-air markets are implemented to prevent the spread of the coronavirus [Manuel Silvestri/Reuters] 16:15 GMT COVID-19 and the curb-cut effect In nearly every White House news briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic during the first week of March, healthy young people were reassured that if they were infected, they would likely have mild symptoms. Some briefings included additional information on how individuals with underlying health conditions can protect themselves using common-sense precautions. Yet, it is healthy, young people who have enabled the transition of this novel coronavirus from an outbreak to a pandemic. Read about it here. 15:55 GMT New York reports nearly 600 new deaths New York, the hardest-hit US state, reported 594 new deaths in 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 4,159. A total of 8,327 new coronavirus infections were recorded in the US in the past day, raising the total number of cases to 122,031, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo. 15:15 GMT Deaths in Canada jump by 20 percent in a day Coronavirus deaths in Canada jumped by over 20 percent in a day to 258, according to official data by the public health agency. By 15:05 GMT, the total number of cases rose by almost 12 percent to 14,426. On Saturday, there were 12,924 cases and 214 deaths. Travellers cover their faces in Torontos subway as the city copes with the coronavirus pandemic [Cole Burston/Getty Images/AFP] 15:00 GMT Ex-head of Libyas anti-Gaddafi revolt dies Mahmoud Jibril, the former head of the rebel government that overthrew Libyas Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, has died of the coronavirus infection, his party said. Jibril, 68, died in Cairo where he had been admitted to a hospital for two weeks, said Khaled al-Mrimi, secretary of the National Forces Alliance, founded by Jibril in 2012. Read more here. Mahmoud Jibril died in Cairo at the age of 68 [Gianluigi Guercia/AFP] 14:45 GMT Egypt sees growth slowing to 4.5 percent in third quarter Egypt expects economic growth to slow to 4.5 percent in the third quarter and to one percent in the last three months of the 2019-20 fiscal year to June due to the coronavirus, Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed said. The government had been targeting annual growth of 5.6 percent, but is now looking at 4.2 percent, she said. 14:00 GMT Why are more men dying from coronavirus? Is COVID-19 a sexist disease? It appears that it may well be, as more men than women are being reported as victims of the virus. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks were also found to affect men more significantly. Read more about it in our latest Doctors Note by Dr Sara Kayat here. 13:55 GMT UK death figures rise by 621 The United Kingdoms death toll from the coronavirus rose by 621 to 4,934 on April 4, the health ministry said. A total of 195,524 people have been tested of which 47,806 tested positive, the ministry said. ____________________________________________________________________ This is Mersiha Gadzo in Doha taking over the live updates from my colleague Usaid Siddiqui. ____________________________________________________________________ 12:30 GMT Albanias cases surge for third day in row Albania reported 28 new cases of the new coronavirus and said a failure to respect social distancing had led to the highest numbers of infections over the last three days. The COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus has killed 20, infected 361 and caused three to need help breathing, the Public Health Institute said. It added that 104 had recovered. 12:10 GMT UAE to strengthen strategic stockpile The United Arab Emirates cabinet approved strengthening the countrys strategic stockpile in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the vice president and prime minister tweeted after a cabinet meeting, without specifying which goods. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of regional tourism and business hub Dubai, said authorities had also directed factories to support the needs of the countrys health sector. 11:43 GMT Russia reports 658 new cases The novel coronavirus has infected another 658 people in Russia, bringing the total to 5,389 over the past 24 hours, the countrys authorities said. The death toll rose to 45 as the infection claimed two more lives since Saturday, an emergency team said in a statement. More than half of the patients are under the age of 45. 11:33 GMT Man shot dead in Philippines for flouting rules A 63-year-old man was shot dead in the Philippines after threatening village officials and police with a scythe at a coronavirus checkpoint, police said on Saturday. The man is believed to have been drunk when he threatened village officials and police manning the checkpoint in the town of Nasipit in the southern province of Agusan del Norte on Thursday, a police report said. Read more here. 11:30 GMT South Sudan reports its first case South Sudan reported its first coronavirus case, one of the last African nations to confirm the presence of COVID-19 within its borders. South Sudan confirms one case of coronavirus, Riek Machar, the countrys first vice president, told a press conference in the capital, Juba. Machar identified the patient as a 29-year-old woman who arrived in South Sudan from the Netherlands via Ethiopia on February 28. Her nationality was not given. 11:17 GMT Virus halts Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem Palm Sunday was privately marked in Jerusalem after the traditional mass procession was called off amid coronavirus fears. The mass was streamed online from the Latin Patriarchate Co-Cathedral in Jerusalem. Inside the church, the ceremony was led by Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, with the number in attendance limited to 10. In Israel, more than 8,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and 46 have died. 11:10 GMT 300 pilots form help group in Czech Republic More than 300 pilots in the Czech Republic have joined forces to form a group of volunteers using their private planes to distribute medical equipment across the country. The Pilots to the People project is meant to help state authorities fighting the epidemic of the coronavirus to deliver supplies to any place in the country as soon as possible. The service is offered free of charge and the pilots pay for the fuel. They are using a network of some 200 airports across the country. 10:25 GMT Spain sees third daily drop in coronavirus deaths Spain saw its third consecutive daily decline in the number of people dying from COVID-19 as the country recorded another 674 deaths, official figures showed. The health ministry said the number, the lowest in 10 days, brought total deaths to 12,418 since the pandemic hit Spain. The number of infections rose 4.8 percent to 130,759. 10:05 GMT Irans deaths from coronavirus reach 3,603 The coronavirus death toll in Iran has reached 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement broadcast live on state TV. Over the past 24 hours, 150 people died of COVID-19, he said. Iran is the Middle Eastern country worst hit by the epidemic, having recorded a total of 58,226 infections so far, Jahanpur said. Jahanpour said 22,011 people have so far recovered, while 4,057 remain in a critical condition. Read more here. 09:23 GMT Malaysia reports 179 new cases Malaysia has reported four new deaths and 179 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking its total tally to 3,662 infections. 09:05 GMT UK will have to take further action if people flout lockdown rules The United Kingdom will have to further restrict rules allowing outdoor exercise if people flout lockdown rules designed to combat the coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. I dont want to have to take away exercise as a reason to leave home if too many people are not following the rules, he told the BBCs Andrew Marr program. At the moment, the vast majority of people are. But we should not break the rules because that would mean that the virus spreads more and we then might have to take further action, he added. 08:45 GMT UAE doubles stimulus to counter coronavirus impact The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates said it has doubled to $70bn a stimulus package to support the Gulf states economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The aggregate value of all capital and liquidity measures adopted by the CBUAE since 14 March 2020 has reached 256 billion dirhams [$70bn], the central bank said in a statement. Last month, the oil-rich UAE announced stimulus measures worth $35bn that included aid to the banking system, facilities for loans and injecting funds into stock markets. 08:00 GMT Tokyo sees more than 130 new cases, highest jump in one day More than 130 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo, Japans NHK public broadcaster reported, citing officials from the metropolitan government. It was the highest daily jump in confirmed cases so far, bringing the number of positive cases in the capital to more than 1,000, NHK said. Tokyos metropolitan government has strongly urged people to stay home as the city of 13 million has seen an uptick in the number of cases in recent days. 07:42 GMT Astronauts can teach us a lot about coping with lockdowns In a virtual Asteroid Day event held recently, Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu illustrated to his fellow spacefarers the challenge millions of people across the globe now face: the psychological risks of long-duration isolation, in a confined space, away from friends, colleagues, and even family, in a dangerous environment. Read more here. 07:03 GMT Ecuador VP apologises after virus corpses left on streets Ecuadors vice president Otto Sonnenholzner apologized after dozens of bodies were left on the streets of Guayaquil as coronavirus ravages the port city whose residents had published videos on social media showing abandoned bodies in the streets. Authorities collected at least 150 bodies from streets and homes earlier this week but did not confirm how many of the dead were victims of the outbreak. We have seen images that should never have happened, and as your public servant, I apologize, said Sonnenholzer, who is heading the countrys virus response, in a statement broadcast by local media on Saturday. 06:33 GMT Drive-by blessings in virus-hit Philippines Priests delivered blessings from the back of trucks and motorised tricycles in the Philippines, adapting the deeply Catholic nations traditions to the battle against coronavirus. People lined up in front of their homes in a district of Manila, which is entering its fourth week of a lockdown that has brought the frenetic metropolis nearly to a halt. The priests made signs of the cross as they rolled past waving residents marking Palm Sunday, the start of the week that culminates with Easter. A Catholic priest holds Palm Sunday services over an internet livestream in Quezon city, Metro Manila [Ezra Acayan/Getty] 06:18 GMT Confirmed coronavirus cases surge past 1.2 million More than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. Some 64,774 people have died globally, while over 246,000 people have recovered. 05:59 GMT Greece quarantines second camp after coronavirus case confirmed Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility this week after a 53-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus, the migration ministry said. The Afghan man, who was found to be infected, lives with his family at the Malakasa camp along with hundreds of other migrants and asylum seekers. He has been transferred to a hospital in Athens. Tests on his contacts will continue as the public health agency tries to trace the route of the virus. On Thursday, authorities quarantined the Ritsona camp in central Greece after 20 asylum seekers tested positive for coronavirus. It was the first such facility in Greece to be hit since the outbreak of the disease. Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives. 05:40 GMT New Zealand virus cases pass 1,000 New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says tough social distancing measures are working as the number of infections in the Pacific nation rose above 1,000. Only one person has died in New Zealand, despite the country recording 1,039 coronavirus cases. Our case rate and death toll is well below other comparable countries, says Ardern. Yes, we had the benefit of time because our distance and because our early border and mass gathering measures also made a difference there. 05:10 GMT Indonesias health workers brace for COVID-19 onslaught There is a growing concern in Indonesia over the safety of front-line workers amid reports that some medical staff are having to make up for a lack of personal protective equipment with plastic raincoats and bin bags. The Southeast Asian country has one of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world, at approximately 9 percent, slightly lower than Italys. The victims include more than a dozen healthcare staff. Read more here. Municipality workers wearing raincoats as protective gear bury a COVID-19 victim at a cemetery in Jakarta, Indonesia [Willy Kurniawan/ Reuters] 04:16 GMT Sri Lanka releases 2,961 prisoners Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lankas president, says he has released 2,961 inmates in the past two weeks as part of an effort to reduce congestion in prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those released include people who had served a major portion of their sentences or were being held in remand for minor offences and had been unable to pay bail, he said in a post on Twitter. These steps were taken as a result of appeals made by inmates during my visit to the prison in February & will help to reduce congestion in view of #covide19 pandemic Gotabaya Rajapaksa (@GotabayaR) April 4, 2020 04:03 GMT CDC begins antibody tests to track coronavirus spread in US The New York Times and Politico are reporting that the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has begun conducting tests to find out how many Americans have been infected with SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The test detects antibodies the immune system makes to fight the virus, and such testing can help determine how widespread the disease has been and whether there have been significant numbers of people who were infected but did not become ill, according to the NYT. 03:15 GMT MSF urges nations to stop hoarding critical medical supplies Christos Christou, president of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), is calling on European governments to stop hoarding medical supplies, including personal protective gear, and to allow their export to vulnerable countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. We need to scale up the manufacturing capacity of all the essential medicines and all medical material. And while we expand the supply, we have to guard against the nationalistic responses weve seen so far that hoard the medical supplies and limit the exports, he tells Al Jazeera. 02:20 GMT Airbus delivers four million masks from China to Europe Guillaume Faury, chief executive of Airbus, says the company brought four million masks from China to Europe as part of its efforts to support governments in the fight against COVID-19. The delivery is part of Airbuss so-called airbridge mission between China and Europe. Thanks a lot and congratulations to the #TeamAirbus back from China, bringing 4 million masks back to Europe mainly for governments and medical services, as part of our efforts to support them in the fight against #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/rAroDms1cy Guillaume Faury (@GuillaumeFaury) April 4, 2020 02:10 GMT New York gets 1,000 ventilators from China Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, says Chinese billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai have donated 1,000 ventilators to help in the states fight against the coronavirus. Its going to make a significant difference for us, he says, adding that the US state of Oregon is also volunteering to send 140 more breathing machines. 01:00 GMT Guatemala bans domestic travel for Easter Guatemalas President Alejandro Giammattei is banning internal travel as well as spending time at the beach before and during Easter to stem the spread of the coronavirus. In a national broadcast on Saturday, Giammattei said travel will only be allowed for work reasons and said sales of alcohol to the public would also be prohibited. A police officer takes the temperature of a man detained for breaking a curfew imposed as part of measures against COVID-19 in Guatemala City [Luis Echeverria/ Reuters] 00:41 GMT Businesses close in New York City as toll surges With no clear indication as to when they can return to business-as-usual, some bars and restaurants in New York City are boarding up their windows and doors, reports Al Jazeeras Radmilla Suleymanova. Laundromats, coffee shops, and even doctors offices open last week as essential businesses have since closed or cut back hours. The sidewalks are lightly dotted with people waiting for their take-out orders a New York habit even the ugliest of pandemics cannot seem to break. A growing number are clad in pale blue surgical masks and cloth coverings. Those delivering lunches and dinners on bicycles, unloading packages off trucks and hauling boxes into groceries rule the streets. Once relegated to the shadows, they are now centre stage and this citys lifeline. A shopfront in New York City [Radmilla Suleymanova/Al Jazeera] 00:20 GMT China reports 30 new cases on mainland Chinas National Health Commission says it recorded 30 new coronavirus cases in the mainland on Saturday. The figure includes 25 cases imported from abroad and is a rise from the 19 cases reported a day earlier. 00:00 GMT Trump warns of a lot of death ahead Trump warned that the US is facing its toughest week in the battle against the new coronavirus amid a rise in the number of infections and deaths. There will be a lot of death, unfortunately, he said. He added that the US military will soon deploy soldiers and medical personnel to hard-hit states, including about 1,000 to New York state. We are going to be adding a tremendous amount of military to help supplement the states. Thousands of soldiers, thousands of medical workers, professional nurses, doctors. Hello, this is Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives, with Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. You can find all the updates from yesterday, April 4 here. Jennifer Hawkins left fans perplexed last week when she told Marie Claire magazine that her daughter Frankie Violet had learned to say 'mum' at just five months old. And on Saturday, the former Miss Universe, 36, finally cleared up the confusion. Writing on Instagram Stories, Jennifer explained that Frankie's 'talking' was actually just meaningless 'baby babble', and that Marie Clarie had misprinted her claims. 'It was baby babble!' Jennifer Hawkins, 36, has revealed her daughter Frankie is NOT speaking at five-months old... after telling Marie Claire magazine that she heard the infant say 'mum' 'Hey guys, I said in my Marie Claire interview that our daughter Frankie said mmm mmmo mmmmoommm etc in baby babble but it was still the best sound I've ever heard!' she wrote. 'To be clear to the peeps questioning it, Frankie isn't speaking at five months old,' she continued. Jenner explained that, while she and husband Jake Wall 'can't wait' until Frankie says 'mummy or dad in full', they are content with her babbling noises for now. 'No negativity from me, just wanted to clear that up': Writing on Instagram Stories, Jennifer explained that Frankie's 'talking' was actually just meaningless 'baby babble', and that Marie Clarie had misprinted her claims 'A little misprint [smiley face emoji]. No negativity from me, just wanted to clear that up. xx,' she added. It comes after Jennifer told Marie Claire last week: 'The other day I ducked out for an hour and when I came back Frankie was going 'Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum'. It was the best sound I've ever heard in my entire life. I got so teary it was amazing.' She added: 'You can't plan with babies, and every day is different.' 'It was the best sound I've ever heard in my entire life. I got so teary it was amazing': During her interview with Marie Claire, Jennifer said her bundle of joy (pictured at two months) has been saying the word 'mum' to her Although individual children develop at their own rate, generally children aged four-to-six months can only sigh, grunt, gurgle, squeal, laugh and make crying sounds. According to Pregnancybirthbaby.org.au, an Australian government website linked to HealthDirect, a baby's first words are often recorded between nine-and-12 months old. Jennifer met Jake prior to being crowned Miss Universe in 2014. Tough: The former Miss Universe suffered a miscarriage in 2018 and said she 'almost broke' at the thought she may never be able to have children with husband Jake Wall (right) The pair dated for eight years before saying 'I do' in a lavish Bali ceremony in 2013. The couple suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage in 2018, before falling pregnant again with Frankie in 2019. Their pregnancy announcement was made on Instagram at the time with a picture of Jake cradling Jennifer's growing bump. Helping Your Child Succeed Do you have children who can read, but do not enjoy reading, and almost never pick up a book or anything else to read for pleasure? Would your Read more Halfway through the 21-day lockdown due to spread of coronavirus COVID-19, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal claimed that if the shutdown is extended beyond April 14 then the ministry is prepared to ensure that students do not suffer any loss academically. "We are prepared to ensure there is no academic loss to students if schools, colleges remain shut beyond April 14," he told news agency PTI. The minister also said that he is constantly reviewing the plan of action that the educational insitutions have taken during the lockdown. On the extension of the shutdown, Pokhriyal said that the government will take that decision on April 14. "Govt to take decision on April 14 whether to reopen schools, colleges after reviewing COVID-19 situation," he said. He also insisted that the safety of students and teachers is of utmost importance to the government. As per the data by Health Ministry, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 3,374 on Sunday (April 5) the number of deaths rose to 77. Also, the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 3,030, as many as 266 people have recovered, and one had migrated. A winter storm watch is in effect from Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon for the mountains of Southern California. (Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times) A powerful late-season storm is expected to bring significant and unseasonable amounts of precipitation to Southern California from Sunday through the middle of next week, the National Weather Service said. The system will be "similar to a February storm in April," said meteorologist Joe Sirard. A winter storm watch is in effect for the local mountains from late Sunday through Tuesday afternoon. Rain will move into San Luis Obispo County late Saturday night and spread over the rest of Southern California Sunday. A band of heavier precipitation will move from Ventura County on Sunday night into L.A. County on Monday. Rainfall with this storm in many areas could exceed what is normally received for the entire month of April. In downtown Los Angeles, for example, normal rainfall for April is 0.91 of an inch. But rainfall totals through Tuesday could range from 1 to 2 inches in coastal and valley areas, and 1.5 to 3 inches in the foothills and mountains. Some mountain locations could see as much as 4 inches. There is also a slight chance of thunderstorms Sunday night through Tuesday evening. Any thunderstorms that develop could produce gusty winds, small hail and dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning. Rainfall rates of a quarter- to a half-inch per hour are expected, but up to three-quarters of an inch per hour are possible locally. Rates could be higher if there are thunderstorms that produce brief downpours. That means minor debris and mud flows can't be ruled out in recent burn areas. Snow and blowing snow could interfere with travel over the Grapevine Tuesday morning. (Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times) Snow levels will start out Sunday between 6,000 and 6,500 feet, then drop to 5,000 to 5,500 feet on Monday. But by early Tuesday morning, as the cold upper-low approaches, snow levels will dip to 4,000 to 4,500 feet. Snow and wind could cause travel issues on Interstate 5 over the Grapevine. Winds could gust from 45 to 60 mph at higher elevations, and accumulations of 1 to 2 feet of snow or more are possible above 5,500 feet. The storm's expected position on Tuesday. (Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times) After the bone-dry months of January and February, then a disappointing March, early April is behaving more like a winter month as this cold low-pressure system arrives from the Gulf of Alaska. The low was off the Washington coast Saturday afternoon and is expected to move south along the West Coast to a position off the Northern California coast by late Sunday. By Tuesday, the low will settle off Point Conception, where it is expected to become nearly stationary. The low system is expected to draw in a plume of moisture from the north Pacific to produce significant precipitation. The heaviest rainfall, enhanced by low-level southerly flow, is expected on south- and southwest-facing slopes in the mountains and foothills. The low will tap into some subtropical moisture to the south, according to David Gomberg, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Rock falls on canyon roads and urban roadway flooding from downpours will undoubtedly make driving more challenging for those who have to be out and about, but this wintry storm will also provide a strong incentive for those who don't have to travel to cocoon at home and maintain the social distancing recommended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A LIMERICK man who was previously convicted of possessing explosives a number of days before a visit by Prince Charles to Ireland has admitted assaulting a patient at University Hospital Limerick. John Burke, 33, who has an address at Cecil Street in the city centre has pleaded guilty to striking the man with a metal teapot on September 14, 2018. Outlining the facts of the case, Sergeant Sean Murray told Judge Marian OLeary the injured party was waiting to be seen by medical staff in the emergency department when he was struck across the head three or four times. The victim, he said, sustained a number of superficial lacerations and its understood he has since made a full recovery. No motive for the assault was outlined during the brief hearing at Limerick District Court. Mr Burke has a number of previous convictions, including one for possession of an explosive substance for which he received a three year prison sentence in May 2017. That conviction related to the discovery of a plastic shopping bag, containing two pipe bombs, in a car in which Mr Burke was travelling. The discovery was made on May 13, 2015 when gardai stopped a car in Glenfarne, Co Leitrim after receiving reports that the vehicle had been driven away from a filling station in Sligo without paying for petrol. In relation to the assault at UHL, Judge OLeary agreed to adjourn the matter to the end of May to allow gardai to ascertain of the injured party wishes to prepare a victim impact statement for the court. She will also hear submissions from Mr Burkes solicitor before imposing sentence. The defendant was remanded on continuing bail. The UNs World Health Organization now stands exposed as a propaganda arm of the communist dictatorship of China, and a pathetic mouthpiece for the cliches favored by identity politics mavens in the United States. Zachary Evans of National Review write: Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organizations Health Emergencies Program, defended China on Thursday against accusations that the country has underreported cases and deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. I think we need to be very careful also to not to be profiling certain parts of the world as being uncooperative or non-transparent, and we need to look at transparency across the board, Ryan said at a Geneva press conference. We need to be balanced in that, and we need to recognize that systems under pressure find it hard to share everything on a minute-to-minute basis, Ryan continued. Frankly, at times I think we get over-focused on this issue. Ryan claimed that there was a lack of precise information from Italy, whose medical system has been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of coronavirus patients. Are we saying theyre lacking in transparency and not sending WHO all the data every day? No. I must have missed the news that Italy has expelled the last American journalists covering its response to the crisis. Or the news that Italy has disappeared the doctors who have warned against the threat the disease poses. Senator Ted Cruz sees what is going on at WHO: A reevaluation of World Health Organization (WHO) leadership is urgently called for, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wrote on Facebook Friday. By consistently bending to the Chinese Communist Party, from downplaying the severity of the #coronavirus to systematically excluding Taiwan, it has lost the credibility necessary to be effective, he continued. We already know that WHOs head, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been running interference to protect China from responsibility for unleashing the epidemic on an unsuspecting world by covering it up and allowing tens of thousands of its citizens to travel overseas and spread the virus. We also know the senior WHO official Bruce Aylward refused to deal with a journalists question about why it does not recognize Taiwan, in a video interview that has spread around the world and so embarrassed China that its cats paw officials in Hong ng reprimanded the intrepid journalist who asked the questions. There is no reason at all for the US to remain WHOs top funder now that it has become a virtual wholly-owned subsidiary of the Communist Party of China. When this criris has passed, the US must demand the wholesale resignations of WHOs top management, on pain of the end of US funding. EDWARDSVILLE When an email from the Illinois State Dental Society recommended for dental offices in the state to shut down for two weeks starting March 17, Glen Carbon dentist Dr. Briana Ollers thoughts were on her patients at Simply Smiles. I was very scared. I was very nervous for my employees. I was nervous for my patients, who I wasnt going to be able to serve. I was nervous for myself. How was I going to be able to make the bills of my business and the personal bills, Oller said. Those fears became secondary when Oller, 42 with no underlying issues, was diagnosed with coronavirus on March 30 after battling a headache, fever and loss of taste and smell. She was tested on March 26, nine days after a headache started. We dont know where I got this. We have no clue, said Oller, who hasnt traveled outside the country. We now know Ive had my symptoms since March 17. We believe exposure occurred sometime around March 13 somewhere in the community because my mom is also positive for the coronavirus. She has followed a similar timeline but started a day later than me. The last time we were together was March 13. It is in our community and it has been this whole time. Oller has been recovering from her home with her two daughters, who havent shown any symptoms. All of Ollers symptoms have subsided except the fever, which is hovering around 100.5 degrees. The highest it reached was 101.9 degrees. Im getting stronger every day and its no longer up and down like it was. The breathing is so much better. I feel like the worst part is beyond me, Oller said. Late Thursday morning, Oller used a 10-minute Facebook video to share her emotions through the journey. As of Sunday afternoon, it has been viewed approximately 69,500 times and with over 2,800 shares. It actually was very hard for me to post because Im a pretty private person, but I was compelled to tell my story to help spread awareness, Oller said. Besides my vulnerability and raw emotions, I worried about spreading fear. With that being said, I felt people knew me better that because Im an extremely optimistic person. I can find positive in any situation. By posting the video, I could share my journey of emotions, symptoms and educate others. I felt that it might be more real to people by knowing someone who actually has it and they would truly take this seriously. Not one that typically watches the news, Oller said she became more aware of the virus when a supply company alerted her dentist office that it may run low on specialty masks and gloves. Oller started to self-quarantine after seeing her last patient on the morning of March 17. She left the house just once that first week to get essentials for my family. Her daughters havent left the house since March 16 after Oller received the e-mail from the Illinois State Dental Society. Oller said an intense headache started the afternoon of March 17 and continued for several days and was followed by fatigue and a low-grade fever. The fever lasted a day but the headache and fatigue stayed. I blamed it all on stress since I didnt have any other symptoms, Oller said. On March 20, Oller lost all sense of taste and smell. At the time, it wasnt known these were symptoms of coronavirus, Oller said. The fever returned March 25, as the headache, fatigue and loss of taste and smell continued. It was also that day it was confirmed that the loss of taste and smell were symptoms of the virus. Oller went through her primary doctor to set up a test with a private lab on March 26 and she received the results four days later. Its such an evolving situation that testing availability differs between doctors, hospitals and counties based on their access to tests. With that, their policies change daily, Oller said. Though Oller is active by exercising five times per week, she wasnt immune to the virus. Oller said the shortness of breath was the scariest aspect of the virus. Its not a shortness of breath with chest tightness. Its a shortness of breath to where I can sit and still not be able to get in a full breath, Oller said. Theres been times where it has been scary and breathing has been getting out of control. It got to the point where I would have to sit down at the top of the stairs if I climbed the stairs. I either sat on the couch or in my bed to rest all the time. Once Ollers fever subsides, she will have to wait 14 days before she can donate blood to be tested to help for a potential cure. Through all this, Oller said theres been a lot of community support from friends and strangers. I know I am one of the lucky ones and able to recover at home and not in the hospital, Oller said. I will get to the other side of this. With time, I know I will get there and I cant wait to get to the other side of this. Daniel Richardson Bering and Robert Marshall Strain were married April 4 on a walking trail at the Thornton State Beach in Daly City, Calif. Heather Smith, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life Minister for the occasion, officiated. The couple had originally planned to wed at the Hotel Peter and Paul in New Orleans before the Centers for Disease Control recommended that events with 50 or more be postponed. They plan to have a reception there Nov. 22. Mr. Bering (left), 32, is a project manager at Lyra Management, a family office in San Francisco, where he focuses on managing events and home renovations. He graduated from Connecticut College in New London, Conn., and received a postgraduate diploma in history of art from Christies Education in London and the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a son of Marilyn Richardson Bering and Charles C. Bering of Watertown, Mass. Mr. Berings mother is an arts consultant and specialist in the work of the black 19th-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis. His father retired as a senior staff counsel in the law division of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. He also has a private practice in environmental law in Watertown. The groom's paternal great-grandfather, Winthrop W. Aldrich, was a chairman of the Chase Bank and an ambassador to the Court of St. James's under President Eisenhower. Mr. Strain, 33, is the founder of a consulting practice that focuses on helping schools and educators create learning experiences and new innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. While coping with the coronavirus, Rio Rancho families and businesses are creating their own new normal while building hope for a better future. Many especially those facing loss of income in a sinking economy are cutting their budgets to the bone. Likewise the City of Rio Rancho has quickly reacted with cutbacks to minimize the spread of the virus and reduce expenses while delivering more critical services like water supply and public safety. Discussions have now begun on the 2020-21 city budget. It stands to reason that there will be cuts. New Mexico cities must rely heavily on revenue from gross receipts tax (GRT) a state tax on sales of goods and services. A worsening recession, especially in the retail sector, is likely to squeeze city GRT revenue even more. With this crisis as backdrop, the city held a special governing body meeting on March 17, focusing on the cost of city economic development programs, which hold promise for a more prosperous future in Rio Rancho. The single largest cost in that area is a subsidy paid to the Sandoval Economic Alliance, totaling $1.2 million over the last six years with, as one official noted, negligible results. Rio Rancho once had its own private economic development corporation (EDC), subsidized by the city. But that relationship dissolved in 2012 amid concerns that the EDC was not providing a fair return on the citys investment. At the work session, City Economic Development Director Matt Geisel presented a Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats analysis of past and present economic development strategies along with new approaches to growing the citys economy rather than pursuing the SEA-funding status quo, termed the definition of insanity i.e., repeating past behavior and expecting different results. Option 1: Bring Rio Rancho development funding totally in house with the addition of two to three city employees and creating, by ordinance, a Rio Rancho economic development advisory board, accountable, like other city boards, to the mayor and council. City funding to SEA would end entirely. Option 2: Divide the citys annual development budget between in-house, with one or two employees, and SEA. Option 3: Long-term: Form a Grow Rio Rancho public-private umbrella organization that includes chambers of commerce and other potential partners working with one or two full-time city staff members. Geisel laid out a matrix of advantages, disadvantages and strategic considerations for with each option. In addition, his presentation served as a primer on the economic development process. I strongly favor Option 1. Option 2 merely weakens SEA financially, providing an excuse for continued under-performance. Most importantly, I truly trust the expertise and accountability of our city staff. I have always opposed the citys $200,000 annual subsidy to a private regional authority whose focus is county-wide and which is not accountable to Rio Rancho taxpayers. Like most councilors at the work session, I support more focused in-house solutions to the challenge of growing Rio Ranchos economy and with it, our future. In the current crisis mode, Rio Rancho cant afford to subsidize other organizations that dont deliver a positive return on investment. Our taxpayers money should be spent on our city now more than ever. (Cheryl Everett is a Rio Rancho resident and former city councilor.) Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday announced that all personnel at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and its 13 related offices will contribute their one day salary, approximately around Rs 1.14 crore, to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund. "All officers & staff of MOEFCC and its 13 Attached/Subordinate/Autonomous office pledged to contribute one day's salary around Rs 1.14 cr to PM CARES Fund launched by PM Narendra Modi to support govt effort to fight COVID-19 pandemic," Javadekar's tweet on Sunday read. Several ministries, government, and private companies and individuals, including sportspersons and businessmen had contributed to the PM CARES Fund in the wake of the coronavirus situation in the country. On March 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the creation of the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund and appealed to the countrymen to show their support for the cause. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 16:44:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHENYANG, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Huo Chunlei, who runs a hotpot restaurant in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, said he did not lay off any of his staff, although the restaurant is having difficulties for reopening after two months of closure in China's nationwide measures of coronavirus control. A few weeks after Chinese provincial-regions with low risk of the novel coronavirus gradually resumed work and production, shops and eateries have reopened, and roads become bustling again, as hundreds of millions of people confined at home for weeks in compliance with epidemic prevention rules get back to a normal life. Huo's restaurant has been in operation for a week. Only half of the tables are filled at dinnertime. The revenue is barely enough to cover the expenses of the house rent and employee wages, he said. However, he said his business is able to survive because of the government's bailout policies. For example, the approval of deferred payment of social insurance premiums for his employees alone can save him 80,000 yuan (about 11,250 U.S. dollars) a month. "The staff are willing to stay, as we are all confident in tiding over the difficulties together," he said. The local governments at all levels have rolled out a slew of measures to shore up the catering business, including cutting taxes, reducing house rent as well as water and electricity fees. The governments in Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have issued coupons with a value ranging from 10 million yuan to 100 million yuan to encourage people to spend on dining out. Before the production resumption, there were some consumer councils' surveys showing that consumers had suppressed consumption desire for dining out and shopping as well as going to movie theaters, gymnasiums and tourist spots after the epidemic crisis ends. "The so-called retaliatory consumption has not yet appeared in the catering industry, as people are still wary about the infection risk, but there will be a gradual recovery growth," said Chen Heng, executive director of Hainan Hotel and Catering Industry Association in the southernmost Chinese province of Hainan. "Before reopening, we increased the distances between tables, but with reduced tables, there are still many empty tables at dinner time. My restaurant used to have all seats full and even queues," said Huo. Like Huo, Lin Lunheng, founder of the Fuzhou Super Dinner Co. Ltd. in southeast China's Fujian Province, is also worried about business. "Although the chain stores have reopened, revenues have decreased by 70 percent compared with that before the epidemic. This is a big blow to restaurants," said Lin. The Italian style chain restaurant has offered e-coupons to draw customers. As the spring weather is getting more and more pleasant, consumers' desire for dining out and travel is growing. According to a survey report jointly released by the China Travel Academy and Trip.com Group on March 19, Chinese are longing for tours across the country, with Yunnan, Hainan and Shanghai among the top destinations. Updated: The HSE has said it is not recommending people wear face masks to prevent the spread of Covid 19 despite growing attention and debate on the issue. Other countries, like the US, have told people to cover their faces as the number of cases rises. Dr Breda Smyth from the HSE has said, however, that is not the advice here. "What is important for the public is to wash their hands and not to reduce their appetite for washing their hands. This is the best way to break the chain of transmission." Despite the HSE position the The Regional Group of Independents said that on reviewing the evolving medical evidence regarding modes of transmission of coronavirus, it was asking government and the National Public Health Emergency Team to immediately consider initiatives for cloth faced coverings to be worn in public and work areas. In a statement the group said that while it was critical that the public continued to observe two meter social distancing, it felt more proactive and proven measures to prevent cough and sneeze droplet spread were now also required. It read: "Simple cloth face coverings can slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. "The Regional Group of independents believe Cloth face coverings fashioned from common materials as being done in other countries at present can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure and that the present Community Call initiative announced by government could immediately take a leading role here in providing mask templates and designs for people to copy and manufacture at home or in small businesses. "We believe cloth masks may well offer a solution also in coming weeks to allow some numbers of people rejoin work activity while continuing to observe social distance and hygiene protection measures. "We would emphasise that these clothes masks are not the respirators or ventilator type that are used to protect health care workers and these important mask protectors must be reserved for our frontline healthcare workers and medical first responders who are at most serious risk. "We have no doubt that the continuing community participation of the Irish people in observing COVID-19 quarantine measures can be directed to provide significant impetus for community manufacture and delivery of this extra protection measure and we would ask government to approve a supporting initiative as soon as possible to energize and deliver this initiative." The Independent Wexford TD Verona Murphy has joined a Regional technical group of fellow Independents, saying it will allow her the best possibility of getting speaking time in the Dail. 'The Regional Group' is a technical group is made up of Independent Wexford TD Verona Murphy, Waterford Independent TD Matt Shanahan, Galway East TD Sean Canney, Galway West TD Noel Grealish, Roscommon/Galway TD Denis Naughten, Cathal Berry representing Kildare South, Peter Fitzpatrick representing Dundalk, Michael Lowry representing Tipperary and Peader Toibin from Meath West. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats Co-Leader is calling on the government to bring Irish experts together to produce Personal Protective Equipment. Deputy Roisin Shortall believes Ireland has the facilities to make the equipment to protect frontline healthcare workers. She said pharmaceutical companies could also make re-agent, which is used to test for the coronavirus and is in short supply. "Surely with so many pharma companies in this country we should be able to produce it here in Ireland." By Cate Cadell and Lisa Shumaker BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global cases of the new coronavirus have shot past 1 million with more than 53,000 fatalities, a Reuters tally showed on Friday, as death tolls soared in the United States and western Europe while the world economy nosedived. In the space of just 24 hours, 6,095 infected people died - nearly twice the total number of deaths in China, where the virus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, originated. Atop the grim tally of officially reported data are Italy, with 13,915 deaths, and Spain, with 10,935. But the United States is becoming the new epicentre, with 243,635 cases - by far the most of any nation - and 5,887 deaths. In China, where draconian containment measures stabilised the epidemic, coronavirus "martyrs" will be mourned on Saturday with a three-minute silence. Though the official figures are shocking enough, health experts and even some governments acknowledge they do not capture the full spread. The virus mostly goes undetected in people with minor symptoms or none at all. With airlines largely grounded, businesses closed, layoffs mounting and millions of people under lockdown, the economic fallout is set to be worse than the 2008 financial crisis. Rather, comparisons are being drawn with such traumatic periods as World War Two or the 1930s global Depression. ECONOMIES IN FREEFALL Morgan Stanley predicted that the U.S. economy, the world's biggest, would shrink 5.5% this year, the steepest drop since 1946, despite an unprecedented aid package. An eye-watering 38% contraction is predicted for the second quarter. The bank said Britain was heading for a slump that could be worse in the short term than the 1930s. Global stocks slipped, but then recovered as Wall Street headed into positive territory in morning trade. [MKTS/GLOB][.N] Morgues and hospitals in New York City were struggling to treat or even bury victims of the virus, and state governor Andrew Cuomo predicted similar misery for the rest of the country. Story continues Staff at one medical centre in Brooklyn were seen disposing of gowns and caps in a sidewalk trash can after loading bodies into a refrigerated truck. After initially playing down the crisis, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration was set to advise Americans to wear masks if venturing out. Spain and Italy were also counting their daily dead, but prayed they were plateauing as data at least showed a slowdown in daily increases. Some 900,000 Spanish workers have lost their jobs. Double that number have done so in Turkey, the opposition said. Britain, accused by the opposition of being slow to respond to the threat of the virus, unveiled a hospital installed in an exhibition centre in under two weeks to provide thousands of extra beds, and promised a tenfold increase in testing. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson's extended self-isolation, after testing positive, was a reminder of the risk. In a video message from Downing Street, he said he still had fever. In France, the government did something that was shunned even in wartime, cancelling the end-of-high-school "baccalaureat" exam for the first time since its inception in 1808 under Napoleon Bonaparte. DISASTER FOR DEVELOPING WORLD While prosperous nations reel, there are fears of potentially far worse impact in places already struggling with poverty, insecurity and weak health systems. In Iraq, three doctors and two officials said there were thousands of cases, many times more than publicly reported. In India, many poor labourers were desperate, and hungry, after losing jobs in a lockdown ordered at four hours' notice by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I'm very sure that he works only for the big people and not for a man like me," said former Modi supporter Ravi Prasad Gupta, laid off from a pipe plant. Aware that religious gatherings have in some parts aided the virus's spread, both Pakistan and Bangladesh sought to stop people going to mosques for Friday prayers, while Saudi Arabia imposed a curfew in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Though there was little cause for cheer anywhere, one positive offshoot of the crisis has been a massive drop in atmospheric pollution. One expert said carbon dioxide emissions could fall this year by the largest amount since World War Two. New Google data from mobile phones in 131 countries showed huge changes in human behaviour as people are told to stay home and businesses shut. For example, in Italy and Spain, visits to retail and recreation locations including restaurants and cinemas plunged 94% in March. But authorities are still nervous about public criticism in many places, not only authoritarian states. The U.S. Navy relieved the captain of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt of his command on Thursday, punishing him for the leak of a scathing letter to superiors seeking stronger measures to a curb a coronavirus on board. (Reporting by Reuters bureaux worldwide; Writing by Daniel Wallis and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Howard Goller and Kevin Liffey) 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. So should Gibb River Diamonds (ASX:GIB) shareholders 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'. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves. View our latest analysis for Gibb River Diamonds When Might Gibb River Diamonds Run Out Of Money? A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. As at December 2019, Gibb River Diamonds had cash of AU$1.0m and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$315k. Therefore, from December 2019 it had 3.2 years of cash runway. There's no doubt that this is a reassuringly long runway. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years. ASX:GIB Historical Debt April 4th 2020 How Is Gibb River Diamonds's Cash Burn Changing Over Time? Gibb River Diamonds didn't record any revenue over the last year, indicating that it's an early stage company still developing its business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. Notably, its cash burn was actually down by 76% in the last year, which is a real positive in terms of resilience, but uninspiring when it comes to investment for growth. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Gibb River Diamonds 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 Can Gibb River Diamonds Raise More Cash Easily? There's no doubt Gibb River Diamonds's rapidly reducing cash burn brings comfort, but even if it's only hypothetical, it's always worth asking how easily it could raise more money to fund further growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn. Gibb River Diamonds has a market capitalisation of AU$4.3m and burnt through AU$315k last year, which is 7.3% of the company's market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money. Is Gibb River Diamonds's Cash Burn A Worry? It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Gibb River Diamonds is burning through its cash. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. But it's fair to say that its cash burn relative to its market cap was also very reassuring. After taking into account the various metrics mentioned in this report, we're pretty comfortable with how the company is spending its cash. On another note, Gibb River Diamonds has 4 warning signs (and 2 which are a bit concerning) we think you should know about. Of course Gibb River Diamonds 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. 21 Pro Video A man suffering from a gunshot wound told San Antonio police when they responded to his Northwest Side apartment that the shooting occurred at another location, but not much else according to officers at the scene. Police and emergency medical service responded to the apartment complex on the 5900 block of Danny Kaye Drive about 1:30 a.m. Sunday to find a man had been shot in the leg. Morocco seems to have opted for austerity measures instead of a revision of its appropriation bill to offset the rise in public spending to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Morocco expects a spike in spending to counter coronavirus and mitigate its social and economic impact combined with a drop in tax and customs revenues as demand falters and exports drop along with tourism revenue and remittances by Moroccans abroad. Morocco is planning this year an international bond, which, the central bank governor has previously said, would stand at 1 billion dollars or euros but a draft decree to be approved soon shows that the government plans to raise the foreign debt threshold to cover the budget deficit. The draft decree was submitted to the secretariat general of the government to remove the cap of 31 billion dirhams of foreign debt set in the appropriation bill. The decree also suspends commitment, under the appropriation bill, to public enterprises and special treasury accounts except concerning the health department, security and social services. Earlier, the government ordered the first measure to rationalize spending by putting off promotions of employees and hiring new staff in the public administration except in health and security areas. Morocco has imposed a nationwide quarantine and banned travel between cities. Only critical businesses such as shops and supermarkets selling foodstuff, pharmacies and banks and other essential businesses were allowed to operate. Morocco has set up a special national response committee to the coronavirus as well as an economic committee to meet the challenges relating to the pandemic. The King ordered the creation of a special fund to offset the economic and social impact of the virus and upgrade health service. So far, generous donations from the Moroccan public and private sector flowed to the fund, which garnered more than $3 billion, only few days after it was created on March 15. The international cultural event dedicated to fine craftsmanship, which was planned to take place September 10 to October 11 2020 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and was welcoming Japan as a guest of honour, will now return to Venice at a later date in 2021. The exact date will be confirmed in May 2020. This decision is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The founding principle of Homo Faber: Crafting a more human future is to place the human, the man and the maker, at the very centre of the event. This includes protecting not just cherished livelihoods but human beings themselves. Therefore, we choose to put the safety and wellbeing of our master artisans and wider community first, and welcome a new event in 2021, Johann Rupert, co-founder of the Michelangelo Foundation. "During the plague that took place in the 14th century, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron, a timeless masterpiece of literature: a series of artful tales that sought to preserve a sense of beauty, of humanity, and of love. I am sure that in 2021, when the time comes, Homo Faber will contribute, too, to the telling of beautiful and authentic stories, to mark the renaissance of our world: the inspirational stories of master craftspeople. Homo Faber will once again be an opportunity to revel in beauty". Franco Cologni, co-founder of Michelangelo Foundation. Bahrains Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has begun distributing electronic bracelets compatible with the Kingdoms COVID-19 contact tracing app, 'BeAware'. The application complements the efforts of the National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by advancing contact tracing efforts to swiftly identify and keep track of all active cases and their contacts. The iGA chief executive, Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, noted that the application is an example of how Bahrain is leveraging technology to safeguard the well-being of citizen and residents. Al Qaed explained that the bracelet supports the Ministry of Health's mandate to address public health concerns during the global pandemic. Al Qaed said: The decision issued by HE the Minister of Health, Faeqa bint Saed Al Saleh, obliges self-isolating individuals to wear the electronic bracelet that will notify the monitoring station when they are 15 meters away from their phone, in which case a warning will be sent. Violators will face legal penalties as per Public Health Law No. 34 for the year 2018, potentially being sentenced to imprisonment for a period not less than 3 months and a fine between BD1,000 and BD10,000, or either one of the two penalties. Al Qaed added that the Authority will guide users through the app and all of its features, which requires users to ensure their smart devices are charged and that their location services, Bluetooth, GPS and internet connection is on. IPhone users will need to ensure that the Allow Location Access is set at Always. Self-isolating individuals using the application must identify their isolation location, in most cases their home, by selecting Set Home Location upon arrival. Users can correct location information by calling 444. Ministry of Health officials may randomly send picture requests to which self-isolating individuals must respond with a photo that clearly shows their face and bracelet. Attempting to remove or tamper with the bracelet is a violation and officials confirmed the bracelet is waterproof. Self-isolating individuals are also required to schedule a COVID-19 test date 3 days prior to the end of their self-isolation period by calling 444 or visiting the Ministry of Healths website. TradeArabia News Service IPCA, Zydus Cadila major API and formulation makers in India Over 100 formulators in India, but mainly depend on China for active ingredient Zydus to increase capacity from 4 MT to 30 MT by next month. US FDA lifts ban on IPCA labs facilities to source the drug Intas, McW Healthcare, Macleods, Cipla, Lupin, Abbott India, Unichem, Laurus Labs among makers US President Donald Trump on Saturday called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supply of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus infection in American patients. But the reality is that the majority of Indian formulation makers currently are dependent on China for the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to make the drug. Over a hundred Indian companies are making or have the capability to produce finished drugs for malaria, but the APIs have to come from China, say sources. Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates April 7: Country's active COVID-19 cases at 3,851; death toll rise to 111 They said apart from Ipca Laboratories and Zydus Cadila which are the major manufacturers of APIs in India for this drug, other main manufacturers of anti-malarial drugs include companies like Intas Pharmaceuticals, McW Healthcare of Indore, Macleods Pharmaceuticals, Cipla and Lupin from Mumbai. Other API suppliers include Abbott India, Unichem Remedies, Laurus Labs, Vijayasri Organics etc. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: 472 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours, says Health Ministry They said while Zydus and Ipca supplies a portion of their API production to these formulators besides for their own production of anti-malarial formulations, about 80-90 per cent of the requirement of hydroxychloroquine are imported from China. "If the API was available for Indian manufacturers at Rs 80,000 per kilogram before the crisis, now it is not available for even Rs 1,50,000 per kilogram and China has virtually stopped supplies," said a joint managing director of a leading Indian drug company, preferring not to be quoted in the story. "I am not in a position to comment as I am flooded with calls from top government officials and industry from India and abroad. We are assessing the capabilities and supply positions," said Ajit Kumar Jain, Joint Managing Director, IPCA. Also read: Coronavirus hits govt's plan to privatise Air India, BPCL, Concor A Zydus Cadila spokesperson said the company is currently the leading supplier to the US market of hydroxychloroquine and has already ramped up its production capacity by about five times to 20 million tonnes (MT) from about 4 MT. Plans are to ramp up production to 30 MT within a month. The annual report of IPCA for 2018-19 says its API and intermediate sales for the year were Rs 885 crore, of which 77 per cent were exports. If IPCA's total sales in the year were Rs 3,136 crore, anti-malarial drugs as a therapy segment contributed 18 per cent. Also read: Coronavirus: Will intellectual property be a hurdle in India's fight against COVID-19? Ipca has also informed the Indian Stock Exchanges that the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has allowed the import of hydroxychloroquine sulphate and chloroquine phosphate. Its API manufacturing plant at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh and two formulation facilities in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh and Silvassa were under import alert from the US FDA resulting in a ban for over three years. Reportedly, Trump had directed the FDA to "eliminate outdated rules and bureaucracy" to help speed up the pace of testing drugs that could help treat the symptoms of COVID-19. Chloroquine was discovered in 1934 by Hans Andersag and his team at the Bayer laboratories, but was not used for over a decade as researchers feared that it was too toxic for human use. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there were 219 million cases of malaria worldwide, causing 435 thousand deaths, or 1,190 per day, mostly young children. According to some studies, chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on the coronavirus infection and is currently experimented by many countries in coronavirus treatment and trials are going on to prove its efficacy. Also read: Coronavirus: Centre wants retailers to bypass mandis, buy produce straight from farmers INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 18:55:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAKAR, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action reported Sunday morning three new cases of COVID-19 and ten more cured patients, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases and cured to 222 and 82 respectively. Senegalese Health Minister Aboudulaye Diouf Sarr said among 92 tests done, 3 came back positive, including 2 close contacts of earlier confirmed patients and 1 community transmission case. This is the first time that Senegal hasn't detected any imported cases since March 13. The health minister also announced ten more patients has been tested negative with COVID-19, so considered as cured. Among the 222 confirmed cases, 85 are imported ones. Besides two deaths, one was evacuated back to his country, and a total of 82 patients have been declared cured by local health authorities, highest in West Africa. Senegal celebrated Saturday its 60th anniversary of independance from France. A military ceremony was held in presidential palace instead of a traditional military and civil parade due to the severe COVID-19 situation in the country. On Saturday night, Senegalese President Macky Sall extended in a presidential decree the current state of emergency, along with the dusk-to-dawn curfew for 30 days, till May 4. Amaravathi, April 5 : Andhra Pradesh reported 26 new cases on Sunday evening, taking the state's tally of COVID-19 cases to 252. The state government has also placed the residential locations of people testing positive for coronavirus, on a 'red alert' list, to enable greater monitoring and also ensure that such areas are quarantined properly. Of the 252 coronavirus cases identified in the state till Sunday, 11 persons were foreign returnees and 6 persons are their contacts. Another 6 persons got admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms. Meanwhile, the state nodal officer also released information about persons numbering 131-190, who had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. The available information indicates that except for 7 people, all the persons in the list are Delhi-returnees or their contacts.A So far, 5 persons in the state, have recovered from the infection. Earlier in the morning, the COVID-19 tally in Andhra Pradesh had reached 226. In all, 34 samples had tested positive in the 12 hours between 9 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday. In the morning, State Nodal Officer Dr. Srikanth Arja, said that the maximum number of positive cases was 23 from Kurnool, followed by Chittooru with 7 positive cases. Two results each from Ongole and Nellore also came positive during the night. Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam are the only districts to not have reported any COVID-19 cases. The state saw a spurt in COVID-19 cases after March 20, when large numbers of people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi, between March 15-17, began returning to their homes. A number of foreign delegates at the congregation had transmitted the coronavirus to the participants, reulting in the spike in cases in Andhra Pradesh. On Saturday, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had appealed to the people to refrain from blaming any particular community for the spread of COVID-19 in the state. Italy has announced plans for ending its lockdown after the coronavirus-ravaged country last night recorded its lowest daily death toll for more than two weeks. The country recorded another 525 deaths, taking its total to 15,887 - the highest of any country in the world - however, this marked its lowest daily increase since the 427 registered on March 19. Furthermore, the number of people in intensive care (3,977), fell by 17 since Friday, and the number of cases rose to 128,948 from yesterday's 124,632 - up 4,316. However, this represented a lower increase than the day before when the country saw 4,805 new infections. It comes amid growing signs that Spain's strict coronavirus lockdown may be working, as the country records its lowest death toll for a third consecutive day. The country recorded 674 deaths down from 809 the day before. The country recorded another 525 deaths, taking its total to 15,887 - the highest of any country in the world - however, this marked its lowest daily increase since the 427 registered on March 19 The number of new coronavirus cases in Itay was 4,316 - down from 4,805 in the previous 24 hours A patient is rushed away in an ambulance in Milan on Sunday. The death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 525 to 15,887, the lowest number of fatalities reported in a day by the civil protection service since the 427 registered on March 19. Parish priest Don Antonio Lauri blesses a resident's palm branch after celebrating Palm Sunday mass from the rooftop of the San Gabriele dell'Addolorata church in Rome on April 5 And in France, the number of coronavirus deaths slowed for a second day running as the nation recorded 357 fatalities - its lowest daily death rate in a week. Earlier on Sunday Health Minister Roberto Speranza outlined plans for broader testing and boosted health services as part of a package of measures intended to ease Italy's lockdown, imposed since March 9. The government is also grappling with the economic devastation caused by the sudden halt to business across the country. Speranza said he had issued a note outlining five principles around which Rome planned to manage the so-called 'phase two' of the emergency, when lockdown restrictions will start to be lifted but before a full return to normal conditions. He said social distancing would have to remain, with wider use of individual protection devices such as face masks, while local health systems would be strengthened, to allow a faster and more efficient treatment of suspected COVID-19 cases. Testing and 'contact tracing' would be extended, including with the use of smartphone apps and other forms of digital technology while a network of hospitals dedicated solely to treating COVID-19 patients would be set up. 'Until a vaccine is distributed, we cannot rule out a new wave of the virus,' Speranza told La Repubblica. A view of St. Peter's Square and the Basilica is seen during Mass on Palm Sunday in Vatican City, on April 13 2011 An empty view of St. Peter's Square and the Basilica was seen yesterday on Palm Sunday in Vatican City, during the coronavirus outbreak Soldiers patrol in front of the Duomo gothic cathedral in Milan, Italy, on Sunday A woman prays in Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Turin, on Palm Sunday A view of an empty Piazza Navona in Rome with some grass growing between the 'Sampietrini' stones due to the lower number for people walking around 'There are difficult months ahead. Our task is to create the conditions to live with the virus.' The national lockdown, strictly limiting people's movements and freezing on all non-essential economic activity, will officially last until at least April 13 but it is widely expected to be extended. 'If we're not rigorous we risk throwing away all the efforts we've made,' Speranza said in separate comments to the Corriere della Sera daily. Srinagar, Apr 5 (UNI) Five heavily-armed militants were killed as alert troops foiled a major infiltration bid from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in Keran sector in the frontier district of Kupwara in north Kashmir on Sunday. A soldier was also killed and two others were injured during the exchange of fire. With this, nine militants have been killed in two separate operations in Kashmir valley by security forces during the last 24 hours. A defence ministry spokesperson told UNI that troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector noticed a group of militants sneaking into this side from PoK in Keran sector. However, when challenged and asked to surrender, the militants opened indiscriminate firing with automatic weapons, he said, adding that troops also retaliated ensuing in an encounter in the forest area near LoC. He said five militants and a soldier were killed in the encounter. Two other soldiers were injured, he said, adding evacuation of the wounded is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions. Meanwhile, a massive search operation was going on when the reports last came in. Four Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants were on Saturday killed in an encounter which ensuing during a Cordon and Searches Operation (CASO) launched by security forces in south Kashmir district of Kulgam. UNI ABS RHK1109 Shenzhen, a city in southeastern China, has become the first city in the country to ban the consumption of pets, such as cats and dogs, CNN has reported. The law is expected to take from effect May 1. Shenzhen authorities announced this week that from then on, it will be prohibited to eat state-protected wild animals and other terrestrial wild animals, as well as captive-bred and farmed terrestrial wild species, CNN said. Animals that can be consumed will include pig, cattle, sheep, donkey, rabbit, chicken, duck, goose, pigeon, quail, as well as aquatic animals which are not banned by other laws or regulations. If convicted, they will be subjected to a fine of 30 times of the wild animals value, if the animal is above the value of 10,000CNY [$1400], CNN reported, quoting Chinese authorities. There is a suspicion among some scientists that the COVID-19 currently ravaging the world originated from the consumption of wild animals. While it is unclear which animal transferred the virus to humans, bats, snakes and pangolins have all been suggested. Although since the outbreak of COVID-19, a deadly respiratory infection that has continued to harass humanity for months, officials from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said they have successfully isolated the virus in samples taken from a seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan, where the infection was first recorded. It has since taken several samples from the market, the CDC said, about three dozens of which contained the nucleic acid of the coronavirus. Weary about this, Chinese government said it needed to regulate its lucrative wildlife industry to prevent another outbreak. So in late February, it placed a temporary ban on all farming and consumption of terrestrial wildlife of important ecological, scientific and social value. This law is now expected to be fully implemented by May 1. It is believed that ending the trade and consumption of these animals will be a tall order as they have cultural ties with Chinese cuisine, traditional medicine, clothing, ornaments and even pets, analysts say. READ ALSO: In 2003, after there were clues that SARS virus was transferred to humans by civets (carnivorous catlike animals with black bands and spots on the body and tail), the animals were banned and killed in large numbers. A brief ban was similarly placed on the sale of snakes in Guangzhou, a city in southeast China, after the SARS outbreak. However, till date some Chinese cuisines still serve menus containing these animals. In this article: Seth Rogen and James Franco star in The Interview (Sony Pictures) A movie for everyone today as TopFilmTip brings you animated adventures, amorous aliens, trailblazing true tales, axe-wielding action and emotive romcom in the best films on TV for Sunday, 5 April. Escaped infant outsmarts criminals crew in John Hughes unashamedly enjoyable adventure Babys Day Out 2:30pm Film4 Daughter of Luddite cave family follows ideas-guy on apocalypse-escaping, animal-puppeteering prehistoric adventure The Croods 4:05pm BBC1 Elderly home-invaders discover fountain of youth in neighbouring aliens Floridian pool: Ron Howards (s)extra-terrestrial characterful curio Cocoon 4:25pm Film4 John Wayne and drunk dude hold out against a bloodthirsty rancher trying to spring his criminal brother from jail in Howard Hawks classic Rio Bravo 6:10pm ITV 4 Rio Bravo, poster, John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, 1959. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images) Fearing abandonment, monstrous hotelier tries to instil seeds of terror in mixed-species grandson: spooky family fun Hotel Transylvania 2 6:15pm ITV 2 Read more: The best 4K TV deals Honey-potted idiot and ambitious exec face honey-trapping North Korean charm offensive in exquisite assassination farce The Interview 9pm Comedy Central Rogues gallery of bitter badasses slaughter bloodless bad-guys for helpless homesteader in bullet-bathed remake The Magnificent Seven 9pm ITV4 Snowbound hulk and alcoholi-dad stave off ruthless drug dealers cabin assault in Jason Mamoas fiery, axe-wielding, toxophilic exhilarator Braven 9pm Movies4Men 1 Perpetually spooked 20-something hotties flee metaphorical monster in 9/11 allegory: smashing found footage kaiju carried narrative perfection Cloverfield 11:15pm 5Star Breaking under profundity of mothers illness, complex boy is taught to survive by tale-telling ent in powerhouse fantasy A Monster Calls 10:30pm BBC1 After losing all he loves Christian Bale seeks unhinged hillbilly guilty of his brother's murder in abrasive drama Out Of The Furnace 11:10pm Film4 Obsessive anthropologist and his crew recreate 5000 mile Peru-Polynesia raft ride in shark stabbing, inspirational true story Kon-Tiki 11:30pm BBC 2 Story continues Insecure masseuse's perception of new BF is skewed on realising he is her client's ex in delightful James Gandolfini romcom Enough Said 00:10am Channel 4 Betrayed by fem fatal wife and harangued by corrupt cops, cash-hoarding, perpetually-punched parolee plans persevering ploy Tell 1:25am Film4 Two teenage boys befriended by talisman clad fugitive learn of love's cost and fatherly failures in ethereally emotive narrative marvel Mud 1:45am Channel 4 Check everything new on streaming in April: Netflix UK: Aprils new releases Everything coming to Now TV in April Amazon Prime Video UK: The biggest April releases Everything coming to Disney+ in April Follow TopFilmTip on Twitter for daily film recommendations. The coronavirus-stricken Ruby Princess cruise ship has docked at a port south of Sydney after being stranded off the New South Wales coast for three weeks. The cruise, which has up to 200 sick crew members stuck on board, arrived at Port Kembla near Wollongong at around 7.30am on Monday. Eleven passengers from the ship have died from coronavirus and more than 620 have been infected with the disease since it docked in Sydney Harbour last month. A criminal investigation has been launched into how 2,700 passengers were able to disembark without health checks under the cover of darkness at 2.30am on March 19. It's understood Border Force officials and health workers will board the ship and test crew members displaying coronavirus symptoms as well as deliver medical supplies. The ship will remain docked at the port for up to 10 days, with no crew to be let off without permission from NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller. The coronavirus-infected Ruby Princess cruise ship has docked at the port of Port Kembla, 90 kilometres south of Sydney, with 200 sick crew members on board The cruise ship arrived at Port Kembla near Wollongong at around 7.30am on Monday. There are 1,040 crew members from 50 different countries on board the ship The ship will remain docked at the port for up to 10 days, with no crew to be let off without permission from NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller NSW police said the Ruby Princess will dock 'to allow for safer access for medical assessments, treatment, or emergency extractions of her crew'. 'The berthing will be conducted under strict health and biosecurity guidelines and will not pose a risk to employees at the port or the broader community,' a police spokeswoman said. 'She will also be refuelling and restocking provisions, as required for her home journey.' Mr Fuller said NSW Police will work closely with the 1,040 crew members on the ship, who are from 50 different countries. 'Obviously the health and wellbeing of the crew members is essential,' he said. 'Between NSW Health, NSW police and the emergency management team a plan has been developed that will be around isolation on the ship. 'And then from that, from that 10-day period of isolation we can then continue to work with Carnival in relation to repatriation of the individuals on the ship.' Crew on balconies on board the Ruby Princess at Port Kembla, near Wollongong, on Monday morning It's understood Border Force officials and health workers will board the ship and test crew members displaying coronavirus symptoms as well as deliver medical supplies NSW police said the Ruby Princess will dock 'to allow for safer access for medical assessments, treatment, or emergency extractions of her crew'. Pictured at Port Kembla on Monday morning Labor's health spokesman and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra and South Coast Ryan Park accused the NSW government of trying to 'dump' its problems on the Illawarra. 'It is unbelievable that in the cover of darkness the vessel that has been the epicentre of coronavirus in NSW sails into the harbour,' he told reporters at Port Kembla on Monday. 'Everyone wants to see the crew on board this ship get the medical attention they need and deserve, but the majority of health and hospital resources are located just a few kilometres from Sydney Harbour. 'It beggars belief that a government has made a decision to move this ship down to the Illawarra when they have a large number of ICU beds and hospital resources located within close proximity of Sydney Harbour.' Mr Park said he is 'extremely concerned' that an influx of sick crew members needing medical treatment will put a strain on Wollongong Hospital and its intensive care capacity. Labor's health spokesman and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra and South Coast Ryan Park accused the NSW government of trying to 'dump' its problems on the Illawarra Timeline of Ruby Princess fiasco March 18: The Ruby Princess issues an urgent mayday call for an ambulance for two of its passengers presenting with coronavirus-like symptoms 24 hours before the ship is allowed to dock in Sydney. March 19: The Ruby Princess arrives in Sydney Harbour. More than 2,700 guests are allowed to disembark without adequate health checks. March 25: Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram says New South Wales Health is responsible for letting coronavirus patients disembark the ship. March 29: Several crew members are evacuated and taken to hospital after being diagnosed with coronavirus. April 2: A 66-year-old crew member is taken off the Ruby Princess for medical treatment. More than 200 crew members are sick and in self-isolation. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian defends the actions of NSW Health and the Australian Border Force and points the finger at the Ruby Princess. She claims staff onboard may have misled NSW Health about the extent of illnesses in passengers. April 3: Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton alleges Ruby Princess' operators weren't transparent about the health of crew: 'It was 'clear that some of the companies have been lying about the health of passengers and crew on board'. April 4: Leaked emails show NSW Health knew of the coronavirus risk on board the Ruby Princess before allowing its thousands of passengers to disembark. April 5: A criminal investigation is launched into how passengers were able to disembark without health checks Advertisement 'This Government has simply tried to dump its problems on to the people of the Illawarra when we already have a hospital system under strain and a limited availability of resources,' he said. It comes after Mr Fuller announced the criminal investigation involving cruise line operator Carnival Australia on Sunday. The investigation - led by the NSW police homicide squad - aims to identity how passengers were allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess, resulting in several deaths and COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the country. 'The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation,' Mr Fuller said on Sunday. Mr Fuller told reporters transparency regarding patient health on board the cruise ship was a key question for the investigation. 'From my perspective there are many unanswered questions,' he said. 'There seems to be absolute discrepancies between the information provided by Carnival and what I would see is the benchmark for the laws of the federal and state government.' There was 'clear evidence COVID-19 has come off the Ruby Princess' (pictured off coast of Sydney on Sunday) and at least 11 passengers have died in Australia because of it The investigation aims to identity how passengers were allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess in Sydney, resulting in several deaths and COVID-19 outbreaks throughout Australia Pictured: NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller announcing the investigation on Sunday He said there was clear evidence COVID-19 had come off the Ruby Princess and at least 11 passengers had died in Australia because of it. Mr Fuller said it was 'too early to tell' whether a crime was committed, but said there was 'no doubt' coronavirus was brought off the ship. The NSW government is under fire after leaked emails revealed results of on board swab tests from the cruise ship's passengers who were showing signs of influenza would have been available the same day passengers disembarked. The investigation will cover the actions of the port authority, ambulance, police, the NSW Health department and Carnival Australia. Carnival Australia responded to Mr Fuller's announcement on Sunday, offering full cooperation with the investigation. 'In addition to willingly participating in the investigation, Carnival Australia will vigorously respond to any allegations of which there must now be full disclosure and the basis for them,' a statement read on Sunday. Health Minister Brad Hazzard is standing behind his staff who had allowed the Ruby Princess cruise ship to disembark in Sydney on March 19, despite knowing the results would be available within hours. Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday said Mr Fuller would lead an investigation into the fiasco. NSW Labor has called for Mr Hazzard to resign over the scandal, with the opposition labelling it 'one of the greatest health disasters' in NSW history. Detective Chief Inspector Jason Dickinson of the NSW Homicide Squad will lead the investigation from Monday and the coroner will be notified. The Federal Government on March 16 banned cruise ships from docking at Australian ports to stop the spread of coronavirus. Another passenger from the Ruby Princess died of coronavirus on the weekend, bringing Australia's death toll to 35. A criminal investigation has been launched into how 2,700 passengers were able to disembark the Ruby Princess in Sydney (pictured) without health checks on March 19 The 78-year-old man from Queensland died in the Prince Charles Hospital, in Brisbane. A spokesman for Queensland Health on Sunday confirmed the man had underlying health conditions. He takes Queensland's death toll to four since the outbreak began in Australia in late January, excluding a Noosaville woman who died while in Sydney. NSW recorded 87 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the state's total to 2580. The state's death toll reached 16 following the deaths of four more people. Three men who died - aged 76, 80 and 91 - were all passengers on the Ruby Princess. The fourth recorded death was a 61-year-old man at Hornsby Hospital. In total, 11 people have now died from COVID-19 since disembarking the Ruby Princess cruise ship on March 19. With the likes of Lindsay Fox and Lloyd Williams seeking isolation on Melbournes Mornington Peninsula, we couldnt help but wonder where billionaire Gina Rinehart had bunkered down for the coronavirus pandemic. Her floating apartment on the luxury cruise ship known as The World, docked off Fremantle, remains empty. She was last spotted in Brisbane. With West Australian Premier Mark McGowan channelling Kim Jong-un with Western Australias borders, it appears the Hancock Prospecting boss will be stuck in Queensland for months. Although Hancock insiders werent willing to disclose where their boss is, they were prepared to share that she was burning the midnight oil to keep her businesses running during the pandemic. Never one to waste a crisis, Rinehart has reform on her mind. And not the type you might expect in these Keynesian times. Tax cuts rather than loans. Hand up, not a hand out. This is the time business and executives need to let government know, that what is most needed, is not loans, but cutting of taxes, be that state payroll, licence fees, levies, stamp duty, or federal company and personal tax, and cutting of overlapping state and federal tape, plus excessive government tape, she said. Healthcare workers wheel the bodies of deceased people from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 4, 2020. Reuters The global death toll in the coronavirus crisis soared past 60,000 on Saturday as calls grew for citizens to wear face masks to halt the pandemic's devastating spread. New York state, the worst affected in the US, saw a record 630 deaths in a single day. Britain too reported a new daily high in fatalities, including a five-year-old child. There was better news from hard-hit Italy and Spain, where infection and fatality rates were slowing down, offering a glimmer of hope for Europe. More than 1.1 million people have now fallen ill and over 60,000 people have died since the virus emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally. Billions of people are living under some form on lockdown, with roughly half the planet confined to their homes, with schools and businesses closed to help stem the outbreak, at huge cost to the global economy. Europe continues to bear the brunt of the epidemic, accounting for over 45,000 of the worldwide deaths, but the situation is deteriorating rapidly in the United States. Sounding the alarm, New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. "Anyone who's not already in this fight, we need you," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The US has counted more than 7,000 coronavirus deaths and is in urgent need of protective gear for health workers and medical equipment. President Donald Trump's administration on Friday recommended that Americans wear simple masks or scarves to slow the infection rate, the latest Western nation to reverse earlier claims that only carers needed them. A police officer with people in Greenwich Park, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, April 4, 2020. Reuters The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is reshaping societal habits before our eyes. Mitigation measures that would have been thought virtually impossible in the United States have now become the norm, with nonessential business activity grinding to a halt in a number of states, and social distancing guidelines put out by the federal government recommending Americans stay at least 6 feet apart from others through at least the month of April. What might appear like an overreaction on the surface is a real cause for concern. You see, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million worldwide this past Thursday, with nearly one in four cases originating from the United States. For all intents and purposes, we are the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. It's the uncertainty of when the infection rate will flatten out, and therefore when the most stringent mitigation measures will end, that's ravaged the stock market of late. Surprise! Recreational cannabis dispensaries are still, mostly, open for business Amazingly, though, not every industry you'd think has been shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic. We absolutely expect hospitals, emergency response personnel, and grocery stores to remain open, as these workers provide essential services. But you might be surprised to learn that marijuana dispensaries and cannabis supply chains are being considered essential in a number of states. As some of you may already know, 33 states have legalized medical marijuana since 1996. Of those 33 states, at least 28 are currently allowing medical pot patients to fill their prescriptions. Most of these states view medical cannabis as something of a pharmaceutical product, thereby allowing it to fall under the scope of an essential service. What you might find surprising is that eight states are still allowing dispensaries to also sell adult-use cannabis, according to Marijuana Business Daily, even with more and more state governors calling for stay-at-home mandates. These eight states are (listed alphabetically): Alaska California Colorado Illinois Michigan Nevada Oregon Washington You'll note Maine isn't on the list because its recreational industry hasn't launched yet. Meanwhile, Vermont has legalized adult-use pot but has not yet given the go-ahead for retail stores to sell the product. The only state to actually ax recreational sales over the COVID-19 outbreak, thus far, is Massachusetts. Keep in mind that it isn't necessarily business as usual for adult-use dispensaries in these eight states. Whereas some states are allowing a limited number of people inside cannabis stores as long as they maintain social distancing standards, other states, such as Nevada, have gone to home delivery only for the time being. Make no mistake about it: The pot industry will feel a pinch from the coronavirus pandemic However, just because the marijuana industry's doors have mostly remained open during the coronavirus pandemic, it doesn't mean the industry won't see a number of adverse impacts. The most obvious issue (and this goes for Canadian pot stocks, too) is supply chain disruptions. With COVID-19 originating within China's Hubei province, strict lockdowns measures there, and throughout other parts of mainland China, disrupted the manufacture of vape pens and accessories, among other products. It's unclear when supply chains for the cannabis industry will fully normalize. A second problem is that COVID-19 has put an end to conferences and trade shows. These conferences are perfect for unveiling new, high-margin products, and for working out new distribution agreements. Without these trade shows, industrywide collaboration could diminish, and it could be more difficult for pot stocks to launch new products. Another issue is that the coronavirus has virtually halted domestic travel, which is problematic for tourist-reliant destinations, such as Las Vegas, Nevada. It's especially worrisome for Planet 13 Holdings (OTC:PLNH.F). I've heaped plenty of praise on Planet 13 for being a go-to experience for cannabis enthusiasts. Its 112,000-square-foot dispensary located just west of the Las Vegas Strip houses a restaurant, events stage, and a consumer-facing processing center, in addition to retail. But it relies on tourism to drive in new business. With the Las Vegas Strip essentially shut down, Planet 13's very-near-term outlook isn't so hot. Finally, dispensaries are likely going to see smaller tickets per sale given that consumers aren't allowed to browse products in person in many states. Although initial sales of cannabis spiked in mid-March, they've tapered off considerably since then in states like Colorado, California, and Washington, signaling it could be a rough couple of weeks or months for the pot industry. This could be a problem for Cresco Labs (OTC:CRLBF), which has bet big on the California market. Earlier this year, Cresco completed its acquisition of Origin House, a cannabis distribution license holder in California. It's through Origin House that Cresco aims to get its pot products into more than 500 dispensaries throughout the Golden State. But if many of these dispensaries are stuck doing curbside pickup or delivery, sales could be down across the board for operators like Cresco Labs. The entire world has been keeping a pretty close eye on Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex now that Megxit is finalized. The couple has been moving around on a pretty regular basis recently from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor to Canada and now, most recently, to Los Angeles, California. Fans can only imagine that Meghan and Prince Harry are relieved the pressures of royal life are now behind them. They are free to do as they please without having to worry about being judged and Meghan is living is close proximity to her mother, Doria Ragland. And, chances are, she is excited to show Prince Harry around her hometown. The couple just spent some time in the United Kingdom, where they carried out the last of their duties. However, a commentator says that Meghan and Prince Harry failed to charm Queen Elizabeth during their final royal visit. The Sussexes are leaving the worlds most famous family Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex | Chris Jackson/Getty Images Most people would probably think that being a member of Britains royal family is pretty glamorous, but for Meghan and Prince Harry, it was anything but that. From the time they announced their relationship, it seems that they were hounded relentlessly by the news media. Everyone began voicing their opinions and jumping to conclusions about the couple, and it got extremely overwhelming. Meghan, in particular, wasnt used to the massive amounts of attention that she was receiving as the Duchess of Sussex. She and Harry were adamant about having privacy, especially after Archie was born. According to Express, the couple was very unhappy with royal life, and they knew that they wanted to take a step down. Meghan and Prince Harry recently completed their last stint in the United Kingdom Meghan and Prince Harry were recently in the United Kingdom, where they said goodbye to royal life and attended to some final duties. So, what did they do while there? According to Vanity Fair, they hosted a luncheon for their staff at the Goring Hotel in London, where they were able to thank everyone for their hard work and wish them the best. That was not all, however, as the couple kept extremely busy as Meghan attended meetings for two of the organizations that she is a patron of. She also visited students in east London for International Womens Day, and she and Prince Harry attended the Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House in London. It was at the Mountbatten Festival of Music that Harry wore his royal uniform signifying his rank as Captain General of the Royal Marines. And, finally, they carried out their last royal duty when they attended the queens Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey. Did Meghan and Prince Harry impress the queen? Pleasing the queen is extremely important, yet a commentator says that Meghan and Prince Harry didnt exactly do this. Express reports that it actually had to do with Baby Archie, or more specifically, the lack of his presence. Apparently, her majesty and some of the other royals were pretty upset that they didnt get to see him and havent spent much time with the toddler at all. The royal commentator says that the queen would have been delighted to spend some time with her great-grandson before the Sussex family moved so far away, and was left feeling pretty sad that he wasnt there. Since [Prince Philip] is 99 in June it would have been a charming gesture if Harry and Meghan had brought Archie to see him and the Queen, who, after all, is 94 in April, said royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams. Dear Annie: I am 75. Ive been single for more than 20 years. I was resigned to live my life as a single woman. However, a man I dated 57 years ago called me out of the blue last year. He told me hed outlived his wife, Sheryl. They were married 22 years; the ex passed away 10 years ago. He invited me to visit him, and I did, twice. We felt a great connection. He is very kind, caring, and respects me. My problem is that Im jealous of the deceased wife. When he brings up her name it rubs me wrong. I find I compare myself to her, and any other woman he knows, even ones who are only friends. I constantly wonder if I can measure up. I hate this about myself. Can this be remedied? -- Envious of Everyone Dear Envious: First, recognize that his late wife is not an ex. She will forever occupy a huge place in his heart. That doesnt mean theres any less room for you. In time, as your relationship to him deepens, you will feel more trusting of him and naturally less threatened by his female friends. You may even become close with them. You havent dated in decades, so its perfectly natural to have some insecurity and uncertainty about how to conduct yourself in a relationship. Continue depriving this unfounded jealousy of air, and youll gradually snuff it out. And keep in mind that this man reached out to you, 57 years later. You must have made quite an impression. Dear Annie: I wanted to say a few words to Black Sheep, whose mother was keeping him or her from going to the college of their choosing. My mother didnt want me to go to college either. The best things I ever did in life were A) go to college and B) take advantage of the free/low-cost student counseling once I was there. It turns out that our predicament wasnt unique to our families and there are experts who can walk you through the emotions that come with striking out on your own under such stressful circumstances. Do both. Chase your dreams and find a professional to talk to about it. Im 38 now, and Im living a life and thriving in a career I never could have dreamed of, and it was only possible because as the black sheep in my family I found the courage to chase my dreams. Youll never regret it if you do. -- Black Sheep Made Good Dear Black Sheep Made Good: Im glad to print these wise words from a black sheep who has found her flock. Dear Annie: My husband and I could have written a similar letter as Failure to Launch Father. Our son dropped out of school at age 16. He started partying all night and sleeping all day. On his 18th birthday, he was given several options: 1) Go back to school full time; 2) go back to school part time; 3) get a part-time job to help contribute toward the household expenses; or 4) get out. He chose the fourth option. We were never sure where he went, although there were times when I could see him sleeping in the park across from my office (so sad). Long story short, he moved to a nearby city, got a job as a bike messenger and worked as a roadie. He got his GED and went on to college. He graduated at the top of his class. He now works for a top tech company. It was a long road, but tough love does work. -- Been There, Done That Mom Dear Been There: I'm sure this letter will offer some encouragement to "Failure to Launch Father" and any other parents hesitant to dole out some overdue tough love. Thanks for writing. Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie is out now! Annie Lanes debut book -- featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette -- is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. Hyderabad, April 5 : The Holy Week, or the week before Easter, began Sunday but Christians celebrated the occasion with virtual prayers at their homes in view of the ongoing nationwide lockdown to prevent spread of coronavirus. On an appeal by their religious groups and organizations, Christians did not gather at churches to celebrate the Palm Sunday but participated in the mass organized live by some churches. Christians believe Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, when palm branches were placed in his path, before his arrest and crucifixion on Good Friday. The Palm Sunday is celebrated in many churches by processions in which branches of palms are carried. For a second consecutive week, Sunday mass was not held at churches across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. There were no congregations or mass prayers in view of the appeals made by the churches in both the Telugu states. All churches in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, which have sizeable number of Christians, suspended worship service. The worshippers were urged to stay at home and participate in the prayers to be beamed live on various social media platforms. Centenary Methodist English Church, Hyderabad asked the people to download the zoom app on their mobile phones or laptops to participate in Palm Sunday service. They were directed to follow the order of service sent on WhatsApp. However, the participation was limited to 500 members. The Methodist Church in India resident and presiding Bishop M A Daniel has already appealed to all churches to suspend all Sunday worship service till further notice. He asked pastors to follow measures taken by the state and central governments. Federation of Telugu Churches (FTC) said all congregations at churches were put on hold till further orders. FTC officials said some churches telecast live Palm Sunday service on YouTube or other platforms for the benefit of the worshippers. Tony McEntee, the chief executive of McCauley Health and Beauty Pharmacy, has said his company is facing a 40pc decline in business due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The pharmacy chain, which has over 35 stores in Ireland and employs over 500 staff, has also started engaging with landlords regarding leases. McEntee said McCauley Health and Beauty Pharmacy, which Carlyle Cardinal Ireland acquired a majority stake in for around 52m in 2017, was particularly affected. The pandemic has meant it is unable to offer its cosmetic services and electrical products. "It will be a surprise to many that this is not the Klondike Gold Rush for pharmacies. It's anything but," he said. "Outside the medical side, everything else has diminished." McEntee was speaking as the company launched a home-delivery service prioritising vulnerable people across its outlets. Prescriptions can be ordered via an app the company has developed or directly with the store. David Hopper, Freelance / For the Chronicle This weekly article is a way to inform the community about Downtown Conroe. Last week 14 local Downtown Conroe venues were interviewed to tell their story via a video. Downtown Conroe is a community of hardworking entrepreneurs operating small businesses. Some have been there many years, others are just starting their business, but they all have one thing in common they are family and take care of each other. Their stories will show the emotion behind the community that continues to work together to get through this crisis. To the Editor: Doctors Are Writing Their Wills, by Bari Weiss (Sunday Review, March 29), raises the important point that personal wills are so essential. Among other objectives that wills accomplish, and perhaps the most important, is the naming of guardians for our young children: who will do the parenting and safeguarding of assets if parents die prematurely. The fact that physicians are now seeking to name multiple substitute guardians more backups than usual is most telling. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has established an executive order that allows documents to be notarized remotely by video means. Competent estate-planning lawyers are now using this method to accomplish the proper execution of wills without the need for a meeting between lawyer and client. Wills or codicils, which are amendments to existing wills, can now be signed in New York, and hopefully in many other states, without the need for an in-person meeting with a lawyer. This is a very good thing. James K. Riley Pearl River, N.Y. The writer is a lawyer and certified financial planner. To the Editor: Re Its Time to Talk About Death (Sunday Review, March 29): As someone who facilitates discussions and workshops about the end of life, I found Dr. Sunita Puris perspective about death to be accurate. Advertisement Heroic doctors in a Brooklyn hospital have given a harrowing account to the New York Times of how they are desperately battling coronavirus while living in fear for their own lives. The intensive care unit at Brooklyn Hospital Center has more than doubled in size as growing numbers of patients of all ages become critically ill from the killer virus. Medical professionals have been drafted in like 'cavalry' from anywhere that can spare them. Over a third of the heroic staff are now also sick and those still at work are at risk because they have no choice but to wipe down and reuse old protective clothing and masks designed for single use. An exhausted and distraught healthcare worker is seen by the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York this week. Medical professionals have been drafted in like 'cavalry' from all departments to try to tackle the pandemic Nurses putting their names on protective clothing to be worn many times resting outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, NYC New York state recorded its worst day on record during the pandemic Saturday, as another 788 New Yorkers died from the virus taking the death toll to 3,565 Saturday. In total, New York City's 2,254 fatalities account for more than a quarter of all coronavirus deaths across the 50 states. The worst is yet to come for the US' epicenter with state Governor Andrew Cuomo revealing its 'apex' will likely come this week. First responders from The Brooklyn Hospital Center Emergency Medical Services arrived to treat a patient at Greenpark nursing home A medical worker approaches a refrigerator truck being used as a morgue outside of Brooklyn Hospital Center Medical workers load bodies into the makeshift morgue. Those still at work are at risk because they have no choice but to wipe down and reuse old protective clothing and masks designed for single use, the Times reported An NYC healthcare worker empties a trashcan containing contents that includes used PPE as hospitals risk running out of the critical supplies A trash can is full of used masks and gloves outside Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn. Another hospital in Brooklyn said it temporarily ran out of gowns Saturday Cuomo has repeatedly begged for more medical professionals to come to New York and support it in its hours of need. About 85,000 medical workers have answered the cry for help, with 22,000 traveling from out of state to work in the epicenter. Cuomo has already stressed that hospitals in the city have just a few days left before they will run out of ventilators. The city teeters on the brink of collapse with this Sunday, April 5, deemed 'D-Day' for the city when it will reveal whether supplies are going to hold up as the outbreak in the Big Apple reaches its peak. At one stretched facility, the Brooklyn Hospital Center, more than five times the number of patients died from coronavirus this week compared with last week. The toll of patients confirmed with the virus has skyrocketed and the dead are being held for several days in a refrigerated lorry outside the building as the morgue overflows and funeral homes can't keep up with the demand. Critical care doctor Dr. Joshua Rosenberg told the New York Times that healthcare workers are facing emergencies every hour. At Brooklyn Hospital Center, more than five times the number of patients died from coronavirus this week compared with last week The ICU has doubled in size as people of all ages become critically ill at the hospital A patient arrives this week at the hospital. Over a third of the heroic staff are now also sick after risking their lives on the frontline At one particularly concerning point, three 'codes' emergency interventions when someone is on the brink of death happened at the same time during the previous night. The number of patients now needing to be placed in ICU and be hooked up to a ventilator is skyrocketing, he said. The hospital's ICU has more than doubled in size in the last week, turning the chemotherapy infusion unit into a spillover unit in order to take on the growing number of people in a critical condition. People of all ages from their 30s to 80s, with pre-existing conditions and without, pregnant women, homeless people, and nursing home residents are now surviving through ventilators, Rosenberg said. The hospital has 98 ventilators at the moment and medics are learning how to use each ventilator to treat two patients, something touted as a solution to the shortage but a difficult and risky option. 'We're doing this because the alternative is death,' Dr. Gasperino told The Times. Doctors had to perform a cesarean on a pregnant woman in her early 30s with coronavirus after she had to be put on a ventilator the previous night, the Times reported. Concerns are also mounting around the safety of the lifesavers themselves. The hospital temporarily ran out of protective plastic gowns, the main sedative for patients on ventilators and key blood pressure medication, reported the Times. Shortages of gowns and PPE are such a concern, there is no chance of changing in between patients. The Times reported that blue protective gowns - designed for single use - were seen hanging in the ICU drying after they have been wiped down to be reused and new masks were described as 'gold'. Bodies are seen lying in corridors inside the Wyckoff Hospital as the healthcare system is overwhelmed with fatalities New York City hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with the mounting bodies, with shocking images emerging of body bags containing the latest victims of the killer virus spilling out into the corridors at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn New York City alone made up 387 of the state's 788 new deaths, and more than half of the US's daily deaths from coronavirus. The makeshift morgue outside Wyckoff hospital in Brooklyn contains the latest victims of the killer illness Around a third of the hospital staff are also out of work sick after risking their lives on the frontline. Medics have been drafted in from other departments and given fast-track training in the ICU - people Rosenberg called 'the cavlary'. 'You're working completely differently,' said Judy McLaughlin, senior vice president and chief nursing executive. Nurses are caring for a 'crazy' number of five critical patients at a time, compared to the usual two for experienced ICU nurses. The hospital has called for another 100 volunteer doctors and nurses to come and assist them. Rosenberg told The Times 'the biggest threat will be medication shortages.' He said the hospital was left scrambling for lifesaving drugs when it temporarily ran out of a drug to treat life-threatening low blood pressure in ICU patients and a sedative that relieves the distress of being on a ventilator. Doctors have turned to using the 'Covid cocktail' of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, held up by President Trump as a potential cure for the virus. Rosenberg called it a 'maybe-maybe-this-will-work cocktail,' because he said not enough studies have been done to prove its effectiveness. But, he told The Times they had no choice but to try it on some patients as there is no other option to save them. The pandemic is also hitting the doctors and nurses closer to home, with the mothers of at least two medics now in ICU because of the killer virus. WINDSOR, United Kingdom - The Queen addressed Great Britain, the Commonwealth, and the world on Sunday in a rare speech calling for unity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/4/2020 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this image taken from video and made available by Buckingham Palace, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation and the Commonwealth from Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Sunday April 5, 2020. Queen Elizabeth II made a rare address, calling on Britons to rise to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, to exercise self-discipline in an increasingly challenging time. (Buckingham Palace via AP) WINDSOR, United Kingdom - The Queen addressed Great Britain, the Commonwealth, and the world on Sunday in a rare speech calling for unity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Queen also issued a written message directly to Canadians to say her "thoughts and prayers are with the people of Canada at this time." In her broadcast statement, the Queen thanked front-line workers fighting the pandemic and encouraged people to stay home. Although the speech focused on Great Britain, the Queen appealed to anyone watching her. "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour using the greatest advances of science, and our instinctive compassion to heal," she said. "We will succeed. And that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. "We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again." The Queen has addressed the Commonwealth every Christmas Day since she ascended to the throne in 1952, but it's only the fifth time in her 68-year reign that she has spoken specifically to rally Britons. She also addressed Great Britain at the beginning of the first Gulf War in February 1991, on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in September 1997 on the death of the Queen Mother in April 2002, and in June 2012 to celebrate her own Diamond Jubilee. The Queen, 93, noted that her very first public address was made in 1940 when she and her sister, Princess Margaret, spoke to other children displaced by the Second World War. "Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones," she said in the statement that was recorded on Thursday at Windsor Castle, her main residence. "But now, as then, we know deep down that it is the right thing to do." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Unity was the primary theme of the Queen's speech, stressing the importance of restrictions on public gatherings and slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. "Together we are tackling this disease and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it," she said. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge." Her message to Canadians echoed the themes of resilience in her broadcast speech, noting she understands the "profound and rapid changes" caused by COVID-19 make everyone uneasy but believes Canadians will rise to the challenge. "It may be difficult to remain hopeful when faced with loss and uncertainty, but Canadians have many reasons for optimism, even in the most trying times," she said. "Across Canada, countless people continue to care for the most vulnerable and to provide essential services for their fellow citizens. I am thankful for their dedication and for the hope it offers." This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 5, 2020. Forensics at the scene of a shooting in the Etna Drive area of north Belfast on April 4th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) A fourth man has been arrested after the murder of a notorious Dublin hitman in Ardoyne on Saturday morning. Robbie Lawlor was shot multiple times outside a house on Etna Drive. Locals reported hearing up to five shots, with Lawlor dying at the scene. The killers fled in a stolen Vauxhall Corsa which was found on fire in nearby Kingston Court. Read More Three other man arrested on Saturday night remain in police custody. Last night police carried out a number of searches across west Belfast and north Belfast. Police have recovered a vehicle- which was pictured being taken away. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close TSG officers carry out searches at a property in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast as a fourth man is arrested following a murder in the Etna Drive area of north Belfast on April 4th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph TSG officers carry out searches at a property in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast as a fourth man is arrested following a murder in the Etna Drive area of north Belfast on April 4th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Forensics recover a vehicle in the early hours from the St James' area of west Belfast as a fourth man is arrested following a murder in the Etna Drive area of north Belfast on April 4th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp TSG officers carry out searches at a property in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast as a fourth man is arrested following a murder in the Etna Drive area of north Belfast on April 4th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who is leading the murder investigation, described it as a "brutal killing". He said: "I am astounded by the recklessness of the killer or killers. Not only did they carry out this callous murder, leaving a family experiencing their worst nightmare, but they did not care that children and other members of this north Belfast community were placed at risk. "Murder is a heinous crime and killing someone during this global coronavirus pandemic is sickening when people are trying to adjust to living a new way and trying to cope with the pressures this brings." Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 22:33:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHENZHEN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Shenzhen City in south China's Guangdong Province launched 38 projects worth 680 million yuan (about 95.89 million U.S. dollars) to support the development of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. These projects covered education, medical and health infrastructure, tourism and other fields in Xinjiang's Kashgar City and Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County. The city and the county have achieved poverty alleviation by the end of 2019 through the joint work of Shenzhen and these two regions, said Yang Chunsheng, head of the city's department in charge of the supporting work for Xinjiang. Pairing-up assistance plays an important role in China's development. The pairing of developed and underdeveloped, disaster-hit and other areas is almost ubiquitous in the country. Under such a framework, capital, skilled workers and other resources have been channeled to the country's vast western regions, including Tibet and Xinjiang. A solitary pedestrian walks along the the north end of Atlantic City near the Ocean Casino on Wednesday. The spread of the coronavirus has turned the Jersey Shore into one long ghost town. Read more ATLANTIC CITY Out on the beach at Jackson Avenue, where Atlantic City becomes Ventnor, theres always been a seamless, mostly invisible border, but not anymore. Now, theres a fence and a sign turning people away. Ventnor beaches and Boardwalk Closed until further notice. ... Fines will be enforced," reads the sign attached with railroad ties to the dune fencing running up from the high tide line. People had to know that if they were caught, it was something that was going to hit them in the pocket, Ventnor Police Chief Doug Biagi said. Were ready to back it up. So far, Ventnor police havent had to haul away any defiant Boardwalk or beach users. Ventnor has instituted walking beats, ATVs, and the occasional patrol car with flashing lights to get their message across. People have listened, though some want to debate with the officers, Biagi said. It seemed to work Sunday, as a day filled with morning and early-afternoon sunshine saw a steady stream of people, and many masks, heading up Atlantic Avenue for Atlantic Citys Boardwalk and beaches, which remained open to cyclists, pedestrians, anglers and surfers. Ventnors Boardwalk was empty. Dont walk on that side of the Boardwalk, the politicians will get you! advised a masked bike rider coming off the Boardwalk at Jackson, referring to the Ventnor side. A few minutes later, a threesome with Bloody Marys in red Solo cups, celery stalks and all, walked up the ramp and turned toward Atlantic City. Nearby, in Atlantic City, a maintenance crew from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority worked their way down the Boardwalk spraying benches with disinfectant. Which seems to be a routine they might want to keep up whenever these strange coronavirus days mercifully will have faded into just another exceptionally weird chapter in the life of Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore. Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. said he had no current plans to close off his citys beaches or its iconic Boardwalk, which after the first mile or so out of Ventnor widens considerably. He said the city has had no issues regarding large crowds along the Boardwalk, where the only businesses that remain open are a medical marijuana dispensary, the Botanist, at South Carolina Avenue, and a few food and convenience shops. Elsewhere in town, the Little Water Distillery on Baltic Avenue was producing sanitizer along with its gin, rum and whiskey. The city did have to crack down on Taboo, a 24/7 sex shop on Atlantic Avenue offering lingerie, peep shows and adult toys, Small said, after the shop tried to remain open after Gov. Phil Murphy ordered all nonessential retail closed. Taboo was gated closed on Sunday, with a handwritten note in the window apologizing for having to shut down due to the heath crisis. And Small said he would be consulting with other city officials Sunday as to how to respond to Gov. Phil Murphys executive order giving municipalities the right to direct hotels and motels catering to tourists or transient guests to close for the duration of this emergency. Several Shore towns, including Ventnor, have prohibited short-term rentals. Social distancing does not work by relocating to the Shore, Murphy stated. Small said that there had been an influx of out-of-staters into A.C., as elsewhere at the Shore, and that he would be making a decision about the motels in the near future. The citys Convention Center, meanwhile, was being converted into a 250-bed hospital. In North Wildwood, Mayor Patrick Rosenello said there had been no issues with the towns still-open Boardwalk and beaches and there had been zero police action required to crack down on any gatherings or parties. It seems North Wildwood, which definitely knows how to party, also knows how not to. He said officials did have some concerns about Easter, a traditionally busy weekend. But he said in his towns off-season mode, theres some social distancing built in. He expected towns may act regarding limiting motel reservations, but he considered the issue mostly moot, at least for April. As he said, most if not all reservations have been canceled and no ones looking for new ones. Meanwhile, the fallout from local and state officials telling second-home owners they should stay in their primary homes continued to be felt in an increasingly bitter debate. In Ocean City, where beaches and the Boardwalk are also closed, Jay Prettyman, the police chief, posted a personal plea saying I have never experienced anything of this magnitude. I need everyone to listen to the specifics listed in the most recent New Jersey Governors Executive Order and STAY HOME!!! On Facebook and elsewhere, second-home owners expressed deep resentment that they have been made to feel unwelcome in the Shore towns where they have sunk big bucks into houses and tax bases. No ones taking your precious second world resources or stopping your firefighters from having to grab a cat out of a tree! went one typical rant, quoted in an email with a subject line: Margate Civil War 2020. "Relax Margate youll have plenty of coffee left at your Wawa. How about this summer instead of us supporting all of the local businesses ... maybe before we come [to] OUR OWN HOMES well just shop local in our neighborhoods ... I wish you clowns luck this summer [.] Things changed now the moment that stance was taken. Meanwhile, over the Margate Bridge, the New York and Pennsylvania plates continued to roll in. The Germ #3 Ralph (not his real name) during an interview at Maximum Security Prison (MSP), Arouca last October. Family, it is said, are the people you love before you know your own name. Arthur* carries that original love for his brother, Ralph*, a convicted rapist and paedophile, a man distorted by violence and fantasies of more violence. Arthur*, 77, speaks of his brother, 78, with heartbreaking tenderness. One of the biggest pains I experienced was when a relative who loved gossip said to me Your brother is a monster, boy! I felt it was so heartless. He said he hoped they beat him bad in prison and kill him. That was a very painful memory. Because for Arthur, that man in convict whites sitting behind a sheet of glass in the Maximum Security Prison (MSP)s visiting area is not only a sadistic paedophile rapist but also a brother with whom he shares jokes, who is proud of Arthurs achievements in the free world and with whom Arthur reminisces about their youthful escapades in Port of Spain of the 1950s and 1960s. We grew up together, real together. If we fight, we fight each other. If we going to a fight, we going together. We did everything together. Our mother died at childbirth when I was 11 and he was 12 going on 13. I was blessed to be the one who had what you would call the brains. He was a bit slow in that area so that I was the one who ended up going to college and university but I always followed his lifewhen he got married, had children. So when the incident occurred and he had to go to court, I think the only person in court and who visited him, was me, other than those who had to be there, like his wife. Through the years I have been the one who visited him whenever the opportunity presented itself. During these visits, Ralphs attack of his seven-year-old daughter is never discussed. I have never asked him if he did what they said he did. When we meet, we dont discuss that. We have never discussed it. I have never put him in a spot to say what really happened. When you see us together you would marvel at how much funwe laugh almost non-stop. People look across at us, getting on as if we are in a party. Its a very entertaining visit when I go and time always too short. He wants to know everything about me. And this is how we interacted over the years. Arthur doesnt probe the sensitive topic with his brother, not because he does not know Ralphs sociopathy but because we always have spent pleasurable moments together and I want to know that I give him a plus in his life, that we have a relationship that is not about pointing fingers or holding up a placard of his life in front of him. While Arthur says he knew little of Ralphs sexual deviance, he was familiar with his brothers hair-trigger violence. He had a very, very short temper. If you did him something wrong, at that moment he could kill you. His temper was very violent. I remember one time I crossed him and at that moment I decided Doh play with this, boy. Its almost like something takes over him whenever he gets annoyed, vex. And that temper was his undoing in many cases. That underlying temper he has, he got into a lot of scrapes in the early years in prison. That was a source of pain to me. One time I met him and he told me he was in a bad fight in prison and I used to feel his pain, feel it Arthur trails off several times in the interview; each occasion is when he discusses his pain over his brothers life and fate. The historic double life sentence imposed on Ralph by Justice Lennox Deyalsingh 33 years ago in the Port of Spain High Court was hard to absorb. Then Deyalsingh threw in 20 strokes with the cat-o-nine tails. It was as torturous to Arthur as the violation Ralph had inflicted on his little daughter. He received lashes with the cat. He did tell me about that. And I felt that pain. I felt that pain and I remember dreaming that at this time he is being hurt. I would dream and feel I was in prison with him. A lot of times I would get a recurring dream of me being put in prison and them saying, You need to be in there too.It was a strange dream and I used to feel his pain. I used to share the pain with him, see him and experience being with him. I carried that pain for a long time Arthur describes a shared childhood in which sexuality was sinful. No one was to speak of it. Growing up, I just used the term maybe she is pregnant and my grandmother, when she was finished with me! She said dont ever let me hear you use that word in this house again. Sexuality was something you couldnt even hint at in our household. It was taboo to even mention anything sexual. Pull Quote "He had a very, very short temper. If you did him something wrong, at that moment he could kill you." My mother died when I was 11 and my father was so upset. He was a perfect father before that but when she died, he became just a breadwinner and deposited us on my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother was very religious, very strict. My father distanced himself from our upbringing. There was no one to talk to us about coming of age, sexual urges, how to deal with them. What I learnt was from trial and error and some luck along the way. But in me was a sense of right and wrong. I always wanted a good life, a safe life, a life I could be proud of. I tell him his brother, who never had to testify because he pleaded guilty, had confessed to the incest and buggery of his daughter during my interview with him. This is a side of him I never knew and he trails off again. There was always a bad streak in him and my father recognised it from early. We always had to be watching, keeping an eye on him. At school he would get in a lot of fights. So everything you say adds up to me. I had my suspicion he had done it. I didnt need to ask him. I just continued to support him as his brother, the one who grow up with him. At one point my father thought he might have a touch of madness in him With a sigh, heard and unheard over the WhatsApp interview call, Arthur reaches into his age and experience. As dignified as he conducted the entire interview, he said, I had come to the conclusion that the best thing for him is to stay thereIts the safest place for him and the rest of the world. And if he came out from there, either somebody would kill him or he would end up killing somebody. The fact that he had reached very close to getting a pardon but it didnt materialisewe sent letters and all sorts of things, I just accepted that he would spend the rest of his life in there and that he would learn how to handle that way of life. I decided to move on and take my life in a different direction. I will definitely go and see him. Of course! And I would be just as happy with him and wed laugh and joke again. Im sure *Names changed to protect identities of victims The Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey announced it has begun a clinical trial that will examine whether an anti-malaria drug doctors are administering as an off-label use to treat the coronavirus is more effective when taken with an antibiotic. Clinical trials take year to complete. But Rutgers, a nationally recognized comprehensive cancer center, has the in-house expertise to move faster, said Rutgers Cancer Institute Director Steven K. Libutti, who is overseeing the trial. While some practitioners across the state have been offering this type of treatment for some individualized cases, it is imperative that a controlled clinical trial with a large patient population take place in order to ensure the integrity of the results being gathered," said Libutti, also the senior vice president for oncology services for the hospital chain RWJBarnabas Health. New Jersey has the second-highest number of patients in the nation with the disease caused by the coronavirus, COVID-19, with 34,124 and 846 deaths. Doctors are giving some of their COVID-19 patients hydroxychloroquine, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of malaria and autoimmune diseases like lupus. Anecdotally, doctors say patients are recovering. Limited studies one based on 42 patients in France, another with 30 patients in China also shown some promise. But one of the University of Shanghai researchers Jun Chen told The Boston Globes STAT health news website that hydroxychloroquine has never been effective in any viral diseases, and said it is no miracle drug. Azithromycin, FDA-approved for the treatment of infections, including those involving the respiratory tract, has also been prescribed for COVID-19 patients. The Rutgers study will examine whether hydroxychloroquine alone or with Azithromycin is effective. Eligible participants will be assigned randomly into three groups one taking the anti-malaria drug only, one taking both and another provided "supportive care for six days followed by hydroxychloroquine. Treatment will last 10 days, with follow-up visits for six months to see if symptoms return The trial will enroll 160 patients through the Rutgers Cancer Institute, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, and University Hospital in Newark. The need not be cancer patients, Libuttis announcement said. For information on how to take part in this clinical trial, call Rutgers Cancer Institutes Office of Human Research Services at 732-235-7356 or email statewide_research@cinj.rutgers.edu. More information about the outbreak may be found at the state Health Departments website. Correction: An earlier version of this story contained an inaccurate count on the number of fatalities from COVID-19. The total number reported on April 4, was 34,123. 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. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. GBP/CAD Forecast: Where Next for the Pound Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate This Week? Posted by Adam Solomon on 10 Jan, 2022 The Pound to Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate rose throughout the week, beginning the session at CA$1.7194, before peaking on Thursday at CA$1.7308. Sterling has been largely influenced by coronavirus developments in UK, whilst the Loonie has been weighed on by unrest in OPEC+ producing countries. Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Fluctuate amid Rising Coronavirus Cases The Pound (GBP) began strong on Tuesday as rate hike bets gained momentum for Februarys Bank of England (BoE) meeting, priced in with an 82.5%... GBP/CAD Forecast: Where Next for the Pound Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate This Week? Flash To date, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 14,681 lives in locked-down Italy. The number of confirmed infections, fatalities and recoveries totaled 119,827 on Friday, the country's Civil Protection Department managing the national emergency response said on Friday. Meanwhile, a moderate daily decrease in the number of new infections was confirmed by the country's experts. On Friday, the country reported 766 coronavirus-related fatalities, six more than a day earlier. The number of active infections increased to 85,388, with 2,339 new cases registered, against an increase of 2,477 on Thursday. "Among those who tested positive, 4,068 are in intensive care, another 28,741 are hospitalized, and the remaining 52,579 -- or 62 percent -- are isolated at home because they either had no or only light symptoms," Civil Protection Department chief Angelo Borrelli told a press conference. The number of recoveries has increased by 1,480 during the past 24 hours and to 19,758 in total. The previous daily increase was 1,431 new recoveries. Borrelli also said that 619,849 coronavirus tests have been carried out across the country to date, over 80,000 of these in the last two days alone. The official, who serves as extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, explained that 114 patients have been transferred from the Lombardy region to other hospitals -- nine of them on Friday -- to alleviate the healthcare system of the region most affected by the pandemic. Seventy-four of them are COVID-19 patients, and 38 of them, all tested positive, have been transferred to Germany, he specified. "We have not reached the peak yet," Massimo Antonelli, director of intensive care at Policlinico Gemelli in Rome and member of the technical-scientific committee, told the press conference. He stressed that the "falling trend we are witnessing is the result of what has happened in the last three weeks." Meanwhile, fatalities among Italian doctors linked to the coronavirus have increased to 73, the country's Federation of Medical Associations (FNOMCeO) said. Earlier on Friday, Borrelli confirmed that the national lockdown remains in force until April 13, stressing that it is up to the government to order its eventual extension "based on the recommendations of the technical-scientific committee." Daily decrease in new infections In a separate press conference on Friday, experts of Italy's National Health Institute (ISS) and Higher Health Council (CSS) provided fresh insights into the medical and epidemiological aspects of the crisis. They confirmed a moderate daily decrease in the number of new infections. "This nationwide trend is confirmed. We have some areas that show a high circulation of the virus, others show intermediate circulation, and elsewhere the circulation is quite limited," ISS President Silvio Brusaferro said. "Yet, the key message to highlight is that there is no area in our country where the coronavirus does not circulate," he pointed out. The latest Civil Protection data showed that the most affected regions remained northern Lombardy (26,189 positive cases), Emilia Romagna (12,178), Piedmont (9,130) and Veneto (8,861). In central Italy, Tuscany (4,909), Marche (3,631) and Lazio (3,009) are the worst-hit regions. The ISS's epidemiological bulletin has also confirmed that men appeared to be more affected than women in Italy. Among all coronavirus-related deaths tested by the ISS to date, 31.4 percent were women. The ISS is tasked with confirming the positive test of each COVID-19 case registered by the health system at the regional level. Reason for "moderate optimism" ISS epidemiologist Giovanni Rezza addressed the effects of the nationwide lockdown implemented since March 10. "If we had let the virus run quietly across the country -- so as to achieve herd immunity -- we would probably have exhausted the epidemic in six months, but leave many dead and injured on the ground," Rezza explained. "In addition, when reaching the peak, our hospitals would have been overwhelmed." Rezza said that now there is a reason for "moderate optimism" based on the trends observed in the country's southern regions. Rezza warned that "phase 2" of the emergency, once declared, will have to be gradually implemented. "Clearly, there will probably be a gradual or partial restart of production activities sooner or later on the basis of the government's decision," he said. In "phase 2," control measures -- "such as early identification of infections and isolation of those who test positive" -- must be increasingly enforced all over the country, he said. The epidemiologist explained that it would also be required "to develop strategies to minimize transmission even if 'social distancing' is observed, in circumstances in which the virus can continue to circulate, such as within families and among healthcare workers." Alabama Gov. Kay Iveys Office and the Alabama Department of Public Health this morning released the states official answers to the most frequently asked questions by individuals and businesses about the new stay at home order that went into effect 5 p.m. Saturday. The state also released a Spanish version of the order (see below). One document answers the most frequently asked questions by individuals. The other document answers the most frequently asked questions by businesses. State emergency order. Stay-at-home order issued for Alabama: What you can and cant do As of 10 a.m. Sunday, 1,676 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in Alabama, with all but one county (Geneva) reporting a case. There have been 45 reported deaths, of which 31 had been confirmed as being due to COVID-19. But Michele Acito, the director of nursing at Holy Name Medical Center, in the hardest-hit town in New Jerseys hardest-hit county, felt like she was holding up. Then her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law arrived, gasping for air. The disease that has crippled New York City is now enveloping New Jerseys densely packed cities and suburbs. The states governor said on Friday that New Jersey was about a week behind New York, where scenes of panicked doctors have gripped the nation. On Sunday afternoon, state officials announced that the death toll in New Jersey had risen to 917, up from 846 the day before. Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, the second hardest hit state in the country behind neighboring New York, said that an additional 3,000 people tested positive for the virus. LATEST COVID-19 UPDATES IN ONTARIO ON SUNDAY: Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon has reported another death, bringing their total to 23. Hundreds of military members moving to Canadian Armed Forces base in Borden, forming new task force ready to fight COVID-19. Ontario has 4,038 confirmed cases and 146 deaths related to COVID-19, according to CBC tallies. St Clair O'Connor Community Inc. long-term care home in Toronto has reported four patient deaths Canada has had a total of 14,018 cases. Around the world, 1,197,405 cases have been recorded. Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon says 23 people at the home have now died related to COVID-19, as Ontario reports 408 new cases on Sunday. Ontario has 146 deaths related to COVID-19, according to CBC tallies. The provincial case count is now at 4,038. Meanwhile, 230 more people have recovered from the illness, the province says, for a total of 1,448. As Bobcaygeon grapples with another death, Pinecrest administrator Mary Carr says staff are wearing full personal protective equipment at all times. "This includes masks, gloves, gowns, and face shields," Carr said in a statement. "I cannot thank our front-line staff enough for their continued dedication to the care of our residents." COVID-19 outbreak at prison for women Canada's largest prison for women is in partial lockdown as it deals with a COVID-19 outbreak, according to Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. Five inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, while two more tests are still being processed, according to Correctional Service Canada. The union says one prison guard has also tested positive for the virus. Military members across Ontario moving to Borden As case numbers rise, people will see more military troops and vehicles between the GTA and Borden starting Monday, as the Canadian Armed Forces sets up a task force for fighting COVID-19. Hundreds of military members will be moving to the Borden military base from across Ontario, where they will be "kept ready to respond" to future requests for help from the federal government, says the Department of National Defence. Story continues Physical distancing enforcement blitz continues Meanwhile, officers in Toronto and Mississauga continue a physical distancing enforcement blitz this weekend. People standing less than two metres apart could be fined up to $1,000 in certain Toronto public spaces, provided they don't live together. In Mississauga, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said Sunday that they have issued two $750 tickets for failing to comply with Ontario's emergency order. "Both were using a clearly signed skate park and disrespecting physical distancing. They were aware of the closure but used the park anyway," said Crombie on Twitter. "This behaviour won't be tolerated." Cannabis stores, many construction sites now closed More Ontario businesses and construction sites were ordered to shut their doors last night, as the province's COVID-19 death toll rises to 135, according to CBC tallies. Businesses including cannabis stores and many construction sites are no longer permitted to operate as of Sunday, in an expanded effort to slow the virus spread. Evan Mitsui/CBC Online school program starts on Monday Students across Ontario are set to start the province's "teacher-led" learn-at-home program on Monday. Education Minister Stephen Lecce has previously said teachers will be issuing final grades and report cards, meaning work completed at home will be graded. Ontario has said publicly-funded schools will remain closed until May 1 for teachers and May 4 for students. Applications open Monday for Canada Emergency Response Benefit People who have lost work due to COVID-19 can apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit starting at 6 a.m. on Monday. The benefit provides $500 a week for up to 16 weeks. To help manage the applications, the federal government says people born in certain months should apply on certain days, specified here. People who are already eligible for employment insurance can continue to apply through EI and Service Canada. Province spends $40M to support vulnerable groups The province has announced $40 million for organizations that support several vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 crisis. The aid will assist residential services and shelters for children, people with developmental disabilities and women fleeing domestic violence. The government says the aid will cover the cost of staffing and personal protective equipment. Afghan security forces have revealed that Aslam Farooqi, the leader of the Khorasan branch of ISIS involved in deadly attack on Kabul Gurudwara on March 25, on Saturday (April 4) confessed his strong relationship with Pakistani spy agency ISI. "ISKP leader Abdullah Orakzai, a Pakistani national known as Aslam Farooqi was detained in a complex operation by NDS Afghanistan special forces. In initial investigations, he has confessed of strong relationship between Islamic State-Khurasan and regional intelligence agencies".said Javed Faisal, Spokesperson of National Security Council of Afghanistan. Pakistani National Farooq was earlier associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Tehreek-e-Taliban was operating as the commander of Daeshs military wing in Pakistans Peshawar city and was deployed in Abdul Khel valley of Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar. Last year he replaced Mawlawi Zia-ul-Haq aka Abu Omar Khorasani as ISKP chief. Aslam Farooqi has close ties with other terrorist networks, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani Network. As per intelligence officials from Kabul and Delhi, on the instruction of Haqqani Network Lashkar-e-Taiba ISKP used Kasaragod resident Muhsin along with three other terrorists to launch attack on Sikh Shrine in Kabul. Farooqi, the leader of the Khorasan branch of the ISIS terrorist group has arrested along with 19 of her close associates, including Qari Zahed and Saifullah, known as Abu Adullahullah of Pakistan, during a targeted and sophisticated operation by special security forces." said Afghan Forces in statement. Qari Zahed was in charge of ISIL's military in Afghanistan, and Saifullah, known as Abu Abdullah of Pakistan, has been responsible for recruiting individuals in Nangarhar province. . Officials tracking Kerala's ISIS module believe that the terrorist attack on Kabul's Gurudwara was carried out by the Haqqani Network with Lashkar-e-Taiba from Pakistan. Haqqani network has the capability to launch such an attack inside high-security zone of Kabul. It is a deliberate attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the world that ISKP is behind the attack. Earlier, it was found that ISKP claimed the attacks where the Haqqani network was originally involved. Pakistan is reportedly promoting ISKP and other groups as a check on the Taliban. "Taliban will deny so that they are projected as a responsible organisation in line with the US Taliban agreement. ISI will use the name of ISKP or unknown outfits to claim the responsibility," an officer working with a Central Security establishment told Zee News. Investigative agencies suspect that Abu Khalid-al-Hindi joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba a few months before the attack on Kabul. This is part of the ISIs strategy to put forth that Indian Muslims are working against the Indian government. ISI is also brainwashing Indian Muslims under a well-planned conspiracy to attack the Indian security forces or Indian bases to convey the message that Muslims in India are against the Indian government. Afghan security sources speaking to Afghan Media stated that the Haqqani Network, an ISI controlled group that is part of the Taliban, wanted to attack the Indian mission in Kabul but failed due to tight security. Since they were not able to attack the Indian mission, they attacked the Gurudwara instead. This attack was a clear message to India and a signal to curtail Indian influence in Afghanistan in the near future. ISIL has recently carried out several bloody attacks in the country. The group claimed responsibility for a month-long attack on a memorial service for Abdul Ali Mazari in Kabul, in which 32 people were killed. A few days ago, he launched another attack on a Sikh shrine in Kabul. Twenty-five people were killed in the attack. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on April 5 in Wellington A cheesed-off Jacinda Ardern has taken aim at Australia's new ruling on temporary visa holders after acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge effectively told thousands of out-of-work New Zealanders 'it's time to go home'. The Australian government introduced new advice to the 2.17 million people in Australia on temporary visas on Saturday, which includes 672,000 people on the New Zealand-specific 444 visa. Many of those Kiwis will have arrived in Australia prior to 2001, which grants them access to Centrelink benefits. More still will have been in permanent, full-time or part-time work, which grants them access to the Australian government's mammoth JobKeeper scheme. But others in casual, insecure work or without jobs find themselves without support and have been asked to leave by Mr Tudge. Ms Ardern suspects that will be 'a wide number' given the impact of coronavirus on the economy, and has urged her Australian counterparts, once again, to better support New Zealand citizens living in Australia. Immigration Minister Alan Tudge (pictured) effectively told thousands of out-of-work New Zealanders 'it's time to go home' The New Zealand PM - who in February infamously chastised Prime Minister Scott Morrison for deporting criminals to New Zealand who held Kiwi passports but did not hold established links to her country - sounded off at the Australian government again. 'What (Mr Tudge would) do well to remember is that if they wish for Australia to be in a position to gear up in the aftermath of the outbreak, they now need a workforce to do that,' she said from Wellington. 'New Zealanders make up that workforce. 'They, on average, earn more and pay more taxes than others. They are a key part of the Australian economy and I would have thought they wouldn't want to be so quick to lose them.' Ms Ardern tersely pointed out many were employed in the health care system. Australians queue at Centrelink during COVID-19 pandemic. Many Kiwis are eligible for the Centrelink JobKeeper scheme 'New Zealanders make up (a portion of Australia's) health workforce and that there are some, for instance, who won't be being kept on (by employers) because they may have been involved in contractual arrangement and the health workforce and in elective services,' she said. 'That, I would have thought again, would be a workforce that they would wish to keep.' The 203,000 international tourists currently visiting Australia have also been asked to leave 'as quickly as possible'. Mr Tudge said the 118,000 people on a working holiday visa - or backpacker visa - should leave if they did not have confidence to sustain themselves for six months, with exemptions made for critical sectors. Those are health, aged and disability care, agriculture, food processing and childcare. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 21:37:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HANOI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ministry of Health on Sunday evening confirmed a new case of COVID-19 infection, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 241. The new case is a Vietnamese student recently returning from Britain who had been under quarantine after arrival, Vietnam News Agency reported Sunday. Vietnam has 3,154 suspected cases with over 67,000 being monitored and quarantined as of Sunday evening, and 91 cases have recovered with no deaths recorded in the country, according to its health ministry. Kolkata, April 5 : In what can be termed as an ugly turn of politis over '9 baje, 9 minute' event, a member of the West Bengal child's rights body and a known "TMC intellectual" Prasun Bhoumick has taken to Facebook to put a post warning people of Bengal against switching off lights on Sunday at 9PM, as urged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to show solidarity with Corona warriors like doctors, nurses, and police. He warned that those who will not pay heed to it, their residences will be marked by a chalk, leaving the opposition BJP call it intimidation tactic. Bhoumick put out a Facebook post in Bengali that reads as, "Those who will switch off their lights at 9PM on 5.4.20...their homes will be marked with chalk. At least, their addresses will be put in a list". He concluded by saying, 'Hail Bangla, Hail Marjina'." On Friday morning, PM Modi shared a short video clip, as announced by him earlier on Thursday, urging all to light diyas or candles or even flash flights in their balconies or outside their main gate, as a mark of respect to the Corona Warriors - doctors, nurses, sanitation workers and police personnel who are braving it out on the front lines. "I request all of you to switch off all the lights of your house on 5 April at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or mobile's flashlight, to mark our fight against coronavirus," he said. This blatant warning assumes significance, given the power Bhoumick yields. He was a member of the West Bengal Commission of Protection of Child Rights in May 2019 (He continues to be in that post), when the child rights body had "took cognizance of " molestation allegation against the BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour, just days before the constituency went to polls in the general elections. The WBCPCR demanded immediate action against BJP candidate Nilanjan Roy. However, what's interesting is that the TMC candidate from that very seat was CM Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee himself. Back then, calling it a "a conspiracy to malign", BJP leader Mukul Roy had accused the WBCPCR of being part of the conspiracy as the Commission members like Bhoumick and June Maliya have been seen campaigning for the ruling Trinamool Congress. This allegation was reported in May last year by IANS.A When contacted, Bhoumick brushed it aside as him exercising his freedom of expression. "Of course it's a political post," he conceded. He argued that the call for switching off lights by the Prime Minister has given rise to concern among many about grid failure. When pressed on whether it was an intimidation tactic, he explained this to be an analogy drawn from the folktale Alibaba, where houses are marked with chalks. But said, he has a right to express himself. But, BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta calls it "hate speech at its best". He demanded that the police act against Bhoumick for this act. "This is the political culture of West Bengal that lets people like Prasun Bhoumick believe such open threats are mens of legitimate politics. It's an open threat. I think it should be acted upon", Dasgupta told IANS. Will a non-resident stuck in India for over 182 days because of the Covid-19 lockdown be liable to be taxed in India? Will cross-border workers stuck in India for a longer duration impact the tax residency or result in permanent establishment- (PE-) related tax concerns for his overseas employer? These situations should be treated as exceptional and temporary and should not trigger a change in residency or PE status, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its guidance note. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor People wearing facemasks as they walk on Orchard Road on 5 April 2020. (PHOTO: AFP via Getty Images) SINGAPORE The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Sunday (5 April) 120 more coronavirus cases here the highest number of cases in a single day to date bringing the countrys total to 1,309. Of the 120 new cases, four are imported cases, while the remaining 116 are local transmissions. Among the local cases, there were links to existing clusters for 50 cases. Contact tracing is ongoing for the remaining 66 cases. There were three new clusters reported. Three of the new cases (cases 1193, 1226, 1299) are linked to two previous cases (case 1049 and 1140), forming a new cluster at Tampines Dormitory. Two of the earlier confirmed cases (cases 1018 and 1144) are linked to a new cluster at Cochrane Lodge I at Admiralty Road West. Four of the earlier confirmed cases (cases 1049, 1012,1183, 1184) are linked to a new cluster at a construction site at Battery Road. More cases in dormitories Another 22 new cases from the S11 Dormitory @ Punggol at Seletar North Link and 10 new cases from Westlite Toh Guan dormitory at Toh Guan Road East have been reported. This brings the total to 63 cases at S11 Dormitory @ Punggol and 28 cases at Westlite. Three more cases are linked to the cluster at Toh Guan Dormitory at Toh Guan Road East, which has a total of eight confirmed cases (cases 963, 1079, 1106, 1148, 1150, 1195, 1254 and 1273). One more case is linked to the cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge at Old Choa Chu Kang Road, which has a total of four confirmed cases (cases 1054, 1077, 1124 and 1267). Three more cases are linked to the cluster at a construction site at Project Glory at Market Street, which has a total of 15 confirmed cases (cases 956, 967, 1019, 1065, 1078, 1079, 1104, 1120, 1124, 1149, 1162, 1181, 1191, 1226 and 1273). Nine more cases are linked to the cluster at Mustafa Centre, which has a total of 28 confirmed cases. One more case is linked to the cluster at Keppel Shipyard, which has a total of seven cases now (cases 878, 898, 907, 1076, 1158, 1172 and 1270). Story continues In light of the increase in cases within foreign worker dormitories in recent days, the MOH has gazetted two of the dorms, S11 and Westlite, as social isolation areas with almost 20,000 workers comprising 13,000 at S11 and 6,800 at Westlite under quarantine. This means that residents will have to stay in the dorms in existing rooms for the next 14 days. The latest measures were announced at a virtual media conference held by the multi-ministry taskforce on COVID-19 on Sunday. Health Minister and co-chair of the taskforce Gan Kim Yong said the government is looking at preparing the Expo as a possible site for a community care facility to house patients who have recovered but are still infectious. This comes after Concord International Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and the Community Isolation Facility at DResort NTUC were designated to isolate and care for such patients. Details on two of the new cases Case 1237 is a 35 year-old Singaporean woman who is a doctor at the KK Womens and Childrens Hospital but had not gone to work since onset of symptoms. She has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions. On Friday, she reported onset of symptoms, and subsequent test results confirmed her COVID-19 infection on Saturday. She is currently warded in an isolation room at the Singapore General Hospital. Case 1238 is a 27 year-old male Indian national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder. He is employed as a technician at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) and had been at work for less than an hour after onset of symptoms. He has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions. On Friday, he reported onset of symptoms, and subsequent test results confirmed his COVID-19 infection on Saturday afternoon. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NTFGH. To date, a total of 320 cases have recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities including 23 more cases reported on Sunday. Of the 569 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. A total of 25 are in the intensive care unit. In addition, 414 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and cared for at Concord International Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and the Community Isolation Facility at DResort NTUC. As of Sunday, 12pm, MOH has identified 17,345 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 5,995 are currently quarantined, and 11,350 have completed their quarantine. Measures to combat spread of coronavirus in Spore Six have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection in Singapore, with the latest fatality an 88-year-old male Permanent Resident succumbing to it early Saturday morning. Last Friday, Singapore announced an enhanced set of social distancing measures that includes the closure of schools and most workplaces. Only essential services like food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport, and key banking services will remain open from Tuesday (7 April) until 4 May. Meanwhile, Singapore will no longer discourage the public from wearing face masks, as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called these new measures as circuit breakers to pre-empt escalating COVID-19 infection. All Singapore residents and long-term pass holders returning from overseas apart from Hubei province must serve the 14-day stay-home notice, while those returning from Hubei must serve a 14-day quarantine. All short-term visitors are barred from entering or transiting via Singapore. Anyone who flouts the 14-day stay-home notice by leaving the place of accommodation or residence they are serving the notice in will be subjected to steep penalties. Patients who flout their five-day medical leave can face steep penalties such as a fine of up to $10,000, according to the MOHs latest updates to the Infectious Diseases Act. The same penalties also apply to those who intentionally sit on a seat or stand in a queue less than one metre away from another person in public venues, from now till end-April. Those on five-day sick leave or serving a stay-home notice must also wear a mask if they have to leave their place of accommodation to seek emergency medical treatment. The Singapore government would also allocate over $48 billion to combat the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in his Ministerial Statement in Parliament last Thursday. The sum is on top of the $6.4 billion Unity Budget announced by Heng in February that was meant to alleviate the economic impact of the pandemic. Heng will announce further measures to help businesses and households on Monday in Parliament. More than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases globally To date, there are over 1,216,000 COVID-19 cases globally. Over 67,000 have died from the virus, with Italy and Spain accounting for more than 40 per cent of the total. At over 320,000 cases, the US now holds the record of having the largest number of patients globally, followed by Spain at over 130,000 cases, Italy at over 124,000, Germany at over 97,000, and France at over 89,000. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related stories: COVID-19: Two foreign worker dormitories gazetted as social isolation areas COVID-19: Take 'circuit breaker' period seriously, can save lives Lawrence Wong COVID-19: 88-year-old permanent resident is Singapore's 6th coronavirus-related death COVID-19: Most workplaces to close from 7 April; schools to roll out full home-based learning COVID-19: Singapore 'quite a distance' from Dorscon Red Gan Kim Yong COVID-19: Wearing face masks will no longer be discouraged PM Lee The Delhi government provided lunch and dinner to around 6.5 lakh people at 1,500 food distribution centres across the city on Saturday, an official statement said. The government also received 1,040 calls requesting for supply of food, it said. On March 31, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalhad announced that the Delhi government will arrange facilities to feed 10 to 12 lakh people daily from April 1 in view of the coronavirus lockdown. "We are feeding 3.5 lakh-4 lakh people daily until now, and we will start feeding 10-12 lakh people from tomorrow. Upon further deliberations on this, we found out that people were crowding at the food centres. So we decided to create more centres," Kejriwal had said. "The government provided lunch to 6,48,469 people and dinner to 6,50,667 people at around 1,500 centres on April 4," the statement said. Nearly 2,500 schools and 250-night shelters have started distributing food to 500 people a day, bringing the total number of distribution centres to nearly 2,800. To ensure that the free meal scheme is equitably accessible to the needy so that they do not have to walk for miles looking for food, the Delhi government has made the schools and night shelters as key food distribution points. At the time of food distribution, the government is also ensuring social distancing, safety and sanitation for the people, the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-25 21:51:54|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania said on Wednesday it received a consignment of medical materials donated by Chinese business magnate Jack Ma, through his Alibaba Foundation to help the nation in the control and prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, has donated 100,000 face masks, 20,000 testing kits and 1,000 protective suits. "Last night we (Tanzania) received a donation of medical materials that will help in our fight against COVID-19. Our gratitude and appreciation to China's Jack Ma," said an official twitter by the Ministry of Health. The medical materials were ferried to the commercial capital Dar es Salaam's Julius Nyerere International Airport aboard Ethiopian Airlines on Tuesday night. "The supplies represent the Chinese traditional spirit of benevolence. China will provide more in supporting Tanzania's fight against Covid-19," the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania posted on twitter. On Sunday, Tanzanian President John Magufuli announced that the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country rose to 12, appealing for heightened observance of protective guidelines given by health authorities. "People should not panic but they should continue observing protective guidelines given by health authorities," he said in his address to the nation televised live by state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation from the capital Dodoma. "The government is doing all it takes to fight the COVID-19 pandemic," he said, adding that people should not stop working as an excuse for the outbreak of the virus. Magufuli said eight out of the 12 confirmed cases were Tanzanians and the remaining four cases were foreigners, adding that all but one case came from countries affected by the disease. American resolve to combat the coronavirus pandemic is a common theme in this weeks editorial cartoons, led by Michael Ramirezs contemporary take on Rosie the Riveter as a nurse wearing a face mask. In addition to thanking the medical professionals who are risking their lives to save others, cartoonists also comment on the challenges of schooling children at home and self-isolation of quarantines; the effort to switch from auto manufacturing to ventilator manufacturing; and the Centers for Disease Controls new recommendation that Americans wear cloth face masks while in public. Politics is never far away from the coronavirus discussion, with commentary on President Donald Trumps handling of the crisis, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Bidens disappearance from public view during the campaign, and Chinas effort to divert attention from its role in delaying the worlds response to the pandemic. Cartoons were drawn by Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and A.F. Branco, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate. View more editorial cartoon galleries. 941 Shares Share On a sticky summer day four years ago, a class of eager medical students and I harmoniously chimed the Hippocratic oath, binding us to the highest standards and code of medical ethics. As newly accepted and unassuming medical students, how could we understand the sacred nature of this rehearsed and recited covenant? While pledging the words embedded in this sacred vow, we were completely unaware that the culmination of our medical education and the start of our journey as practicing physicians would be cloaked in the uncertainty of a sweeping global pandemic. This seemingly ancient oath has never seemed so vibrant and alive as it is now, as massive efforts to contain and curtail a virus unfold at an almost incomprehensible rate. Little did we know as second-year medical students, how pertinent preventative medicine, epidemiology, and statistics would become. As management guidelines consume the headlines, my peers and I have grown to understand these headlines. The pillars for a foundation of knowledge and guidance is how we will do our part, for the benefit of the sick, to the best of our abilities and judgments. We will do this to keep them from harm and injustice. Little did we know, or appreciate even, as weary third-year medical students, the lessons to be gleaned from a disaster preparedness exercise, just one assignment of many to be checked-off. Knowing that prevention is preferable to curative medicine, we have sworn to prevent disease whenever and wherever we can. The time to prevent has never been as crucial as it is now. Little did we know how impactful and influential the bioethics sessions on the role of a physician would be. Little did we know the importance of those mock scenarios we performed, to finesse our decision making in health care, to allocate finite resources in a system already at capacity. As this pandemic unfolds, we will call upon these sessions to tread carefully in matters of life and death. In order to adequately care for the sick at this time, we will remember that we do not treat a fever chart or a malignant growth, but rather a human being. And yet in the recent wake of a pandemic sweeping the globe and now the United States, this is what my classmates and I do know: we are honored to join this profession, who are bound to uphold the standards of society. We have sworn to respect the hard-won (and hard-earned) scientific gains of the physicians in whose steps we follow, and in several short months, whose steps we will walk in tandem with. With four years of medical education behind us, we feel humbled to join the ranks of those on the front line of this unprecedented virus. In this time, we are beginning to understand the dedication, the commitment, the truth in our obligations to all fellow human beings, of those well and unwell. May my peers and I act to preserve the finest traditions of our calling in a time of unrest, fear, and anxiety. May we long experience the joy of healing those who seek our help. We swear to fulfill, to the best of our abilities and judgments, this very covenant. Mary Beth Gadarowski is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Kabul/IBNS: Exposing a Pakistan link to the Sikh Gurudrawa attack in Afghanistan's Kabul city, arrested so-called emir of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) Mawlawi Abdullah aka Aslam Farooqui has confessed his strong relationship with Pak spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "ISKP leader Abdullah Orakzai, a Pakistani national known as Aslam Farooqi was detained in a complex operation by NDS Afghanistan special forces. In initial investigations, he has confessed of strong relationship between Islamic State-Khurasan and regional intelligence agencies," Javed Faisal, Spokesperson of National Security Council of Afghanistan was quoted as saying by Zee News. I congratulate @NDSAfghanistan & my brother Director Zia Seraj for capturing ISIS-K leader Aslam Faroqi. He is a Pakistani national. Massive victory. I am sure he is already singing & will sing more to the dismay of his patrons in & out. A treasure of intelligence. Make him talk. Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) April 5, 2020 He was arrested by security forces in Afghanistan on charges of orchestrating the attack on the Sikh gurudwara on Mar 25, an incident that was condemned worldwide. Farooqi is a native of Orakzai agency that is located in Pakistan, media reports said. Farooq was operating as the commander of Daeshs military wing in Pakistans Peshawar city and was deployed in Abdul Khel valley of Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar, read a statement issued by National Directorate of Security (NDS) of Afghanistan, as reported by Tolo News. Farooqi was "enjoying close relations" with the other terrorist groups such as "the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, said the statement. According to reports, he had joined LeT in 2004. For months, the Indian security establishment has flagged that the IS-K is now virtually a front of the LeT, reported The Indian Express. "Although India has hinted at this in its statement, the missing piece that some security officials are puzzling over is why the LeT would target the Sikh community at a time when, according to these officials, Pakistan has gone out of its way to woo this Indian minority group, especially since mid-2018, through the Kartarpur Corridor initiative," reported the newspaper. the attack last month in the Kabul city of Afghanistan left 25 people killed. A couple have been arrested on suspicion of killing a hotel worker and chopping off his fingers to access his bank account from his mobile and steal a 60,000 inheritance. The women were held after parts of Diogo Goncalves' dismembered body was discovered in different parts of the Algarve. Portuguese police have confirmed they have arrested two women aged 19 and 23 on suspicion of murdering a 21-year-old man and desecrating his body. Local reports say security worker Maria Malveira, 19, allegedly promised Diogo a lap dance so she could tie him to a chair before strangling him and dismembering and dumping his body over nearly a week with the help of nurse lover Mariana Fonseca. Maria Malveira (left), who reportedly had a secret affair with Diogo before moving in with Mariana Fonseca (right), is accused of dismembering him with her lover between March 20 and March 25 at their home near the Algarve town of Lagos The women were held after parts of Diogo Goncalves' (pictured) dismembered body was discovered in different parts of the Algarve His head was found in Tavira and his torso an hour and a half's drive west in Sagres at the western end of the Algarve. His arms and feet, also thought to have been dumped in Tavira after being cut off with a sword and a meat cleaver, are yet to be found. The victim is said to have received more than 60,000 after his mother was run over in July 2016 in Guia near Albufeira Faro police Antonio Madureira has told local press the gruesome murder was thought to be financially motivated and involved the alleged use of the victim's unique prints on his chopped-off fingers to access his bank details on his phone and transfer money from his bank account. The victim is said to have received more than 60,000 after his mother was run over in July 2016 in Guia near Albufeira. Malveira, who reportedly had a secret affair with Diogo before moving in with Fonseca, is accused of dismembering him with her lover between March 20 and March 25 at their home near the Algarve town of Lagos. His body parts were found two days later. The suspected killers have been remanded in prison after appearing before a judge in a closed-court hearing. A Policia Judiciaria spokesman said in a statement: 'The PJ has identified and arrested two women on suspicion of a crime of murder and profanation of a body. 'The crimes occurred in the Algarve region between March 20 and 25. Mariana Fonseca (left and right) allegedly helped her girlfriend to dispose of the body 'The victim, a Portuguese citizen aged 21 who lived on the Algarve, was dismembered and parts of his body have been found in the areas of Sagres and Tavira. 'The police investigation sparked by the appearance of the body parts in the Tavira area led to the obtention of important evidence and the identification and arrest of the suspects. 'The detainees are aged 19 and 23 and have a clean criminal record.' President Donald Trump has said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in the country after India recently banned the drug for exports. Trump said he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxycholoroquine - an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria - for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on March 25 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the global epicentre of the deadly coronavirus disease to which there has been no cure. Trump said he would appreciate if India releases the amount of Hydroxychloroquine that the US has ordered. "And I said I would appreciate if they (India) would release the amounts that we ordered, he said, without mentioning that quantity of Hydroxychloroquine that has been ordered by US companies from India. Scientists across the world are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine for the successful treatment of coronavirus. Following a quick provisional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration last Saturday, the malaria drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York, the epicentre in the US. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. In the next several weeks, health experts in the US have projected between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, which due to human-to-human transmission is spreading like a wildfire in the country. In anticipation of it being a successful drug in the treatment of coronavirus, the US has already stockpiled some 29 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine. It is in this context Trump requested Modi to help US get millions of doses of Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that can be produced at mass scale in India. Prime Minister Modi on Saturday said he held a detailed discussion on the coronavirus crisis with President Trump and resolved to deploy the full strength of the Indo-US partnership to fight the global pandemic. "We had a good discussion and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19," Modi wrote on Twitter on his "extensive" telephonic conversation with Trump. The prime minister and the US president exchanged views on the pandemic and its impact on the global well-being and economy, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said. Stressing on the special relationship between the two countries, Modi reiterated India's solidarity with the US in overcoming this global crisis together. "The two leaders agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to resolutely and effectively combat COVID-19," the PMO said. Modi and Trump also exchanged notes on the steps taken in their countries for mitigating the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. The two leaders also touched upon the significance of practices such as yoga and ayurveda for ensuring physical and mental well-being in these difficult times, the PMO statement said. They agreed that their officials would remain in close touch as regards the global health crisis, it added. Modi also conveyed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the US and his prayers for an early recovery of those still suffering from the disease. The discussion came at a time when both countries are in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Trump said that people in malaria affected-countries take Hydroxychloroquine and not many people are infected by coronavirus. Trump said that he would take Hydroxychloroquine, if needed. "I think people should if it were me, in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, Ok? I may take it. And, I'll have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it, he said in response to a question. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Americans on Saturday, saying there will be a lot of death in the country as COVID-19 infections keep increasing. This will probably be the toughest week, between this week and next week, Trump said. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States surged past the 300,000-mark Saturday with more than 8,100 killed, of which more than 3,500 are in the state of New York. Advertisement Pres. Trump: This will be, probably, the toughest week, between this week and next week. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. https://t.co/HM0x69nTOJ pic.twitter.com/xKOsxuZ0fy CBS News (@CBSNews) April 4, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president said that the Pentagon will be deploying 1,000 medical personnel to New York as part of an effort to get more assistance to states. We are going to be adding a tremendous amount of military to help supplement the states, Trump said. Thousands of soldiers, thousands of medical workers, professional nurses, doctors. Defense Secretary Mark Esper will be giving more details about the deployments Sunday. Theyre going into war, Trump said. Theyre going into a battle that theyve never really trained for. Advertisement Advertisement Even as Trump warned of the problems ahead for the country and vowed that the government would use every single resource weve got to keep our people healthy, safe, secure and to get this thing over with, he also suggested he wanted a quick end to the social distancing measures. We have to open our country again, Trump said. We have to open our country again. We dont want to be doing this for months and months and months. Health officials continued to urge Americans to take social distancing seriously. I want to actually just plea to the American public, you know, as sobering and as difficult as this is, what we are doing is making a difference, said Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. So we really need to continue to do that. Advertisement Trump once again continued pushing hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the coronavirus and even suggested he could start taking it as a preventive measure. If it were me in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, okay? I may take it, he said. And Ill have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it. Joshua Osih archives Hon. Joshua Osih, 1st Vice National Chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF, Friday, April 3, 2020 granted a press conference in Yaounde during which he recounted the events surrounding the March 22, 2020 parliamentary election reruns in eleven constituencies in the North West and South West Regions. The rerun followed Constitutional Council decision no. 29/SRCER/G/20 of February 25, 2020 to cancel the election of Members of Parliament in the following constituencies: North West Region Menchum North, Bui West, Mezam South, Bui Centre, Bui South, Mezam Centre, Momo East, Menchum South, Momo West and Mezam North and South West Region Lebialem. SDF lawyers and candidates had prayed the Constitutional Council to partially annul the elections on grounds of insecurity, and the creation of polling centres which disenfranchised their voters. Below is Osihs account of the March 22 rerun Speaking Friday, Osih said the legislative reruns of March 22nd 2020 in the eleven constituencies of the North West and South West regions, experienced serious irregularities as well as two casualties as a result of warfare and as if this is not serious enough, the Constitutional Council, to whose decision we abide, yesterday April 2, 2020, ruled against its own jurisprudence. On Friday March 20th, some 48 hours before the ballot, one of the vehicles of the convoy of Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam suffered a blast due to an explosive positioned at one of the twenty-one barricades erected by armed groups between Bamenda and Batibo. This resulted in four soldiers and two civilians seriously injured. On polling day, two voters were shot and killed in a coordinated attack on polling centres in Bamenda. In Santa, our candidate was confined under his bed to avoid crossfire. Subsequently, the armed groups completely blocked the Santa-Bamenda road with explosive devices and barricades. He could later leave his confinement towards the end of the polls only thanks to the passing of the motorcade transporting the Minister of Territorial Administration out of the region in an armoured vehicle with about 5 accompanying bullet-proof mounted pick-ups. A couple of days after the polls, a dozen stakeholders of this unfortunate election were killed, including six councillors of the Oku Council of which two were deputy mayors. All eleven constituencies were subject to serious irregulars. The same elements for which the February 9, 2020 polls had been cancelled by the Constitutional Council were reproduced on March 22, 2020 namely: The transfer and relocation of polling stations to public regrouping centres, once again carried out without the knowledge of the population thus depriving a large part of voters of their fundamental right to vote. The distances for voters to get to these polling centres from their places of residence, often more than 30 to 80km with hostile barricades on all sides. The non-publication of polling stations before the ballot in the constituencies concerned. The absence of local ELECAM representatives in most of the constituencies before polling day as well as the absence of an ELECAM office in these constituencies. Failure to consider the security of voters, while polling stations and ELECAM staff benefited from increased security. The impossibility to campaign, since the security promised by ELECAM and government for the SDF candidates was made available only one day before polls opened. It should also be noted that the instructions from the President of the Republic communicated by the Prime Minister as well as the order of the Minister of Territorial Administration dated March 17 prohibiting the assembly of more than fifty persons completely and rightfully demoralised voters in these constituencies and was consequently violated by the very administration that was meant to enforce these instructions, by organising these elections. Still in connection with the said ballot, the SDF observed with fright that by stubbornly organising these reruns of March 22 at any and every cost, the government threw our compatriots into the coronavirus slaughterhouse. Anglophone lives matter. Not only was it noted that basic preventive devices against this pandemic such as hydro-alcoholic solutions, simple water and soap at the entrance to the polling stations were absent but even worse was the fact that social distancing was not respected for those who dared to vote. The SDF strongly condemns the criminal act of the government which did not deign to respect the least of the thirteen measures taken within the framework of the fight against COVID-19 in the eleven constituencies concerned by the legislative reruns of March 22. The responsibility of the spread of the covid-19 virus within these eleven constituencies will rest entirely on the government. Yesterday, April 2, 2020, the Constitutional Council, in a desperate move in which they themselves violated their own jurisprudence on the exact same election, declared all the constituencies won by the ruling party, thereby confirming the little esteem this government has for the lives and the democratic rights of the people of the North West and South West Regions. We hereby would like to point out that while we do not accept this proclamation, we are bound, by virtue of our constitutional responsibilities, to respect it. Rather than feeling defeated by the abusive use of institutional instruments to attain democratic objectives, these reruns are proof for us that the battle for democracy and the rule of law in Cameroon is still a long one. By obtaining their smokescreen results through the use of violence, armed sponsored groups, the army and institutional instruments, the CPDM has provided to the eyes of the world, enough proof that they are disqualified from providing any lasting solution to the ongoing war in the North West and South West Regions. With this evidence, they have beyond any doubt, established their irrefutable paternity of this war. The SDF was not created for an election, but for the advancement of the wellbeing of the Cameroonians people through the provision of equal opportunities and social justice. We take cognisance for the fact that for two elections in a row, or three considering these reruns, the people of the North West and South West regions have been denied their human, democratic and constitutional right to vote. Now that the CPDM has trained one of the main objectives for which it has been fuelling this war, coupled with the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we call on it to put in place an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in all the wars that it entertains. The SDF herewith would like to sincerely congratulate the SDF candidates, their representatives, the party officials and militants and the few voters who braved the COVId-19, the secessionist fighters and the military to turn up as disenfranchised as they were by ELECAM, to vote. For us, you are the true heroes of this election. You demonstrated through your courage that only through the ballot box can Cameroon become a nation that belongs to all of its children. Thank you! Just like we mentioned in the last communique, we reiterate our call on all militants, sympathisers and Cameroonians at large to take cognisance of the imminent and real dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present situation calls for all Cameroonians to stand together, to put our partisan political inclinations aside, and fight this pandemic as the mother of all battles we have ever faced. These are not times for partisan politics. This pandemic calls on our solidarity and patriotism. We sincerely do hope that those in power also understand these simple predispositions. If someone in your household shows symptoms of COVID-19, which most commonly include fever, a dry cough and shortness of breath, calling your doctor is the the first thing to do. A health care professional will offer tips on how to care for the patient and help you decide whether they need to be seen in person. You will also be given instructions on how to protect others in the household and told to separate the patient as much as possible. 'GASPING FOR AIR': 11 things that helped this Houston woman battle the symptoms of COVID-19 Creating a safe situation in a household with one or multiple infected patients is tricky, so it's helpful to plan ahead and prepare for sickness. Here's what health care professionals advise. Choose a room in your house that can be used to separate sick household members from others "Somebody that has coronavirus needs to be isolated," said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and director of UCSF's Prevention and Public Health Group. "Put them in a room and shut the door. They shouldnt come to meals. They need their own bathroom. There are real consequences to this disease." Rutherford added that if someone is infected in a household with limited space and bathrooms, some members could separate in a hotel room. Trent Rhorer, executive director of S.F.'s Human Service Agency, said the city is working with hotels. "We have hotel rooms for individuals who need to quarantine or isolate due to COVID and who do not have housing suitable for self-quarantine," Rhorer wrote in an email. "We are taking referrals from the health care system." Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor of infectious disease at UC Berkeley, recognized that not everyone living in small homes will be able to afford to separate household members by paying for a hotel room, but if any uninfected individuals are elderly or have underlying health conditions, "they should move out" if at all possible to protect themselves from contracting the virus. BEHIND THE CURVE: Here's why Texas lags behind on releasing timely information on the coronavirus Dr. Anne Liu, a clinical associated professor of infectious diseases at Stanford, said she has some patients who have been able to use friends' empty homes for quarantine. The reality, though, is that many households with infected patients will need to remain in their homes with only one bathroom. In this case, "cleaning is going to be super important," said Liu. After a patient uses the shared bathroom, they need to clean the premises thoroughly; a window can also be opened for ventilation. "Obviously there are some elderly people who have limited availability to do that," Liu said. "You can see that the bulk of families in our society will not adequately be able to protect themselves if someone in the family has COVID-19," Swartzberg concluded, when considering the difficulty in households moving out family members or creating a situation with separate bathrooms or where a shared bathroom is adequately cleaned. Make the infected person eat meals in his or her room Liu advised against the infected patient doing any food preparation or using the kitchen, if possible. Ideally, other members of the household cook meals or order takeout. "They can drop food outside the door of where the other person is spending their time and then leave the food there and walk away before the person comes out and takes it, so there's no contact," Liu said. Liu said some of her patients living in a home with COVID-19 are serving food to the infected person with disposable utensils and plates. "Keep meals simple," she said. "You dont need a tray with a half dozen plates on it." Stock up on the right cleaning products "Bleach is good for cleaning," Liu said. "Anything with over 70 percent alcohol." She added that the Centers for Disease Control has instructions for cleaning; recommended products on its website can be consulted. Create a hand-washing schedule In light of coronavirus, many individuals have quickly picked up on the need to wash hands any time you leave and reenter your household. But if you have an infected person living in your home even in an entirely separate room you need to be constantly washing your hands at home, ideally at least once an hour, or even more. "Have a schedule and have everyone wash their hands at the top of the hour," she said. "Or make it a game." Members of the household should also be trained to not touch their faces. Use masks and gloves in the home "Ideally in a world where we had unlimited PPE [personal protective equipment], everyone should wear a mask," said Liu. "But if the household members are all staying far apart and not coming into one anothers spaces, masks arent as important. If people are sharing space together and sharing some air, its more important that they wear a mask. A surgical mask is probably a good step to reducing transmission and the difference between a surgical mask and N95 mask is a narrow one, we think." Gloves should be used when handling the laundry of someone who is infected. "Wash your hands after removing the gloves," Liu advised. Check in with your doctor about how long to keep household members and these extreme measures in place. Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com. Across the city, health care workers, first responders and local officials are gearing up for a surge of coronavirus patients that could overwhelm area hospitals. Tents and trailers have been placed outside emergency rooms, staffers are being trained and reassigned from their normal duties, and facilities are being overhauled for COVID-19 patients. At Freeman Coliseum, a space normally used for concerts and events, hundreds of cots await possible overflow from hospitals. For local health care systems, preparations for the coronavirus began months ago, when they were faced with the prospect of treating evacuees quarantined at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. But that was nothing compared to what they confront now: a public health disaster unlike any in recent memory. GOOD NEWS: Because we need more of it, submit your story and we may feature it in an upcoming article Hospitals in New York, Louisiana and Washington state have offered grim previews of what health care leaders here are seeking to avoid: too many critically ill patients all at once, and a steep rise in deaths. But for now, San Antonios hospitals are quieter than usual. Elective and nonessential surgeries have been postponed, stay-at-home orders have curbed car crashes and the public has been asked to seek hospital care only if necessary. The number of available beds changes by the day, and hospitals have the ability to quickly convert beds into spaces appropriate for intensive care patients as needed. On ExpressNews.com: Were at war: What to expect as coronavirus continues to spread in San Antonio Projections indicate it could take several more weeks for San Antonios outbreak to reach a crescendo. Dr. William Henrich, president of UT Health San Antonio, said epidemiologists suggest that patient volumes here could surge sometime in May or early June. After that, it could take months for the virus to abate. Still, while the worst is yet to come, no one knows quite how bad things will get, or whether a laundry list of plans will be enough. All will depend on the severity of the surge, and whether hospitals have enough resources. The fact that we have done a lot of interventions that will help us flatten the curve may keep us right at or below the capacity of the health care system, said Eric Epley, executive director of the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, which manages emergency services for Bexar County and 21 nearby counties. Of course, given all the models, we plan for the worst and hope for the best. The timeline While San Antonio did not report its first local cases of coronavirus until mid-March, the burgeoning pandemic reached the city five weeks earlier with the arrival of evacuees from Wuhan, China, followed by passengers from a pair of cruise ships, the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess. The situation taught local officials some valuable lessons. Defense Department policy dictated that anyone who fell ill with COVID-19 would not receive treatment on the base, so local officials and hospital leaders were left to figure out how to handle evacuees who became infected or needed other medical care. Dr. Ian Thompson, president of Christus Santa Rosa Hospital-Medical Center, said his hospital and three others University Hospital, Methodist Hospital | Texsan and Baptist Medical Center were selected to receive evacuees on a rotating basis. Initially, it was estimated that 20 to 40 percent of the cruise ship passengers eventually would test positive, leading to a large influx of patients. That didnt happen. Some of the evacuees ultimately were tested and treated at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, a state-run hospital on the Southeast Side. But the scenario forced local hospitals to confront the reality of the pandemic. It was a mixed blessing to have the folks from the cruise ships and the initial cohort that came to San Antonio because it caused us to begin a lot of planning for this, Thompson said. One thing they learned was the need to segregate COVID-19 patients from the general population, an idea that has carried over into plans for treating widespread coronavirus infections in the city. On ExpressNews.com: There is something wrong: Inside the release of the Diamond Princess evacuees Baptist Health System has designated Northeast Baptist Hospital as an initial hub for treating critically ill COVID-19 patients. That hospital has two adjacent ICUs enclosed on the same floor one surgical, one medical that could be leveraged for the sickest patients. Other beds on the floor could be converted for ICU patients if necessary. The system is also consolidating essential health care services at hospitals that can be kept COVID-free for as long as possible. Maternal services are being centralized at North Central Baptist, a hospital that already delivers the most babies and houses the systems highest level neonatal intensive care unit. Baptist Medical Center downtown will take on the bulk of open heart surgeries. San Antonios other hospital systems also are looking to funnel coronavirus patients to certain facilities. Patients with COVID-19 already are sequestered at Methodist Ambulatory Surgical Hospital and a unit within Methodist Hospital in the Medical Center. Christus has designated its Medical Center flagship hospital for coronavirus patients. There, ICU bed counts have been bolstered by several dozen. It also has set up a small, in-house grocery store for its employees. The role of infection prevention specialists has become even more critical, as they try to guard against the infection spreading among patients and hospital staff. Of course, if enough patients seek medical care all at once, these plans could be largely abandoned. No hospital would be spared. Triage tents, trailers At University Hospital, the focus on coronavirus has to be weighed alongside its many other functions as a Level 1 trauma center, the countys safety net hospital and an academic medical center for UT Health San Antonio. Unlike the citys other health systems, it has no sister hospital where coronavirus patients could be sent. Within the emergency department, patients now are split into two categories: potentially coronavirus, and everyone else. Dr. Ralph Riviello, the hospitals director of emergency medicine, said a row of private rooms within the ER now is a respiratory zone. Certain staffers will be dedicated to the care of only coronavirus patients. Once patient surge begins, emergency room staff will have to figure out who can be treated and sent home, and who is sick enough to have to be admitted. If the surge that we have follows the form of what weve seen in Seattle and New York, a lot of patients will not need to be hospitalized, Henrich said. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio has more than 100 coronavirus cases. The actual number is likely higher. Were the ER at University to become too crowded with patients, that work could be relocated to a large tent outside. There, patients with respiratory issues would be given masks and assessed for vital signs, underlying conditions and severity of symptoms. The mildly ill will be treated and given instructions to monitor their illness at home. Those at high risk of complications or who display red-flag symptoms shortness of breath that prevents the completion of a sentence, low blood oxygen levels, confusion, inability to keep fluids down will be taken into the hospital. Inside, coronavirus patients will be directed to the hospitals Sky Tower, where several floors with 72 beds each could be converted into large ICUs for those patients, said Dr. Bryan Alsip, Universitys chief medical officer. Negative pressure rooms, which have ventilation that filter for airborne pathogens, are scattered throughout. Those rooms will be reserved for the sickest patients, such as those on ventilators. At Methodist, two trailers outside Methodist and Texsan hospitals will be activated if the facilities see double the typical amount of patients, said Dr. Paul Hancock, chief medical officer. In the trailers, patients may be initially assessed using telemedicine to provide a physical buffer for health care workers. All hands on deck At all the hospitals, staffers have been trained for responding to natural disasters and mass casualty events. But the pandemic adds a new dimension to their work: health care workers are at high risk of being felled by the same virus they are treating, and personal protective equipment is in short supply. Local hospitals have been scrambling to gather more gloves, masks, gowns and face shields to protect their workers. Such items already are being conserved and in some cases recycled Methodist has designated a PPE czar at each of its facilities to control access to supplies. Hospital leaders also are prepared to use hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet light to sanitize and reuse equipment. But if enough workers are put out of commission, doctors and nurses from other specialties may be called to the front lines. Former nurses who now are in administrative positions could tap training from earlier in their careers. Staffers who normally handle elective surgeries also have been freed up. On ExpressNews.com: A fever that comes and goes, or almost no symptoms at all: San Antonians troubled by milder forms of COVID-19 That includes anesthesiologists who manage patients on ventilators during those procedures, Hancock said, a skill that could be applied to coronavirus patients. The Methodist system also is looking at pairing less experienced nurses with veteran ICU nurses to manage sicker patients. At UT Health San Antonio, Henrich said the faculty is being cross-trained in preparation for a surge. Internists who normally treat all manner of ailments are receiving refresher courses in critical care and the complexities of ventilators. This year, medical students in their final year at UT Health San Antonio will graduate in April, nearly a month early, so they can head out to their residencies. About 20 percent will remain in San Antonio, Henrich said, and a similar portion will stay in Texas. Worst-case scenario Even with the best-laid plans and dramatic efforts to flatten the curve, the coronavirus will run its course. It already is. In a matter of days, a single San Antonio nursing home, Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, became the source of at least 75 infections and two deaths. Local officials still are tracing the movements of the facilitys employees, trying to determine whether the virus was carried into other places where they worked. The virus could be upward of five times as contagious as the flu, said Matt Stone, CEO of Baptist Health System. That, combined with its ability to live on surfaces for some time and spread from asymptomatic carriers, greatly complicates efforts to contain it, even with so many physical distancing measures in place. Thats where crisis-level planning comes in. On ExpressNews.com: Texas, San Antonio officials launch investigations of nursing home overrun by coronavirus State and federal regulators have issued waivers for hospitals to use nontraditional settings tents, convention centers, hotels for medical treatment. The makeshift hospital at Freeman, where theres already drive-up testing, has 250 cots in an expo hall, a capacity that could be doubled if necessary. Hotels also could be used to accommodate patient overflow, but officials have declined to share further details about those plans. Officials still are determining whether the beds would be used to treat less acutely sick patients or if it would serve as a transitional site for people recently released from the hospital who still need some level of medical care. San Antonios emergency operations center has applied to the state to use nursing companies and BCFS Health and Human Services, a local emergency shelter contractor, to staff Freeman. If things grow dire, and University is inundated with patients, emergency services officials could activate a longstanding plan between the hospital and Brooke Army Medical Center, the citys other Level 1 trauma center, which treats victims of car accidents, shootings, accidental injuries and the like. The two hospitals usually share the treatment of the regions trauma patients. But when the U.S. went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and many of BAMCs surgeons were deployed, all trauma patients were directed to University during certain periods. That could work in reverse during the coronavirus pandemic, Epley said. Its something we would leverage if we needed to in a worst-case scenario, he said. We sign up for this While hospitals are crafting high-level plans for dealing with the pandemic, their health care workers are adjusting to the day-to-day reality of caring for COVID-19 patients. Over the past few months, Stephen Gudowski, a charge nurse at Texsans emergency department who had been part of the hospitals Ebola team, has had to reacquaint himself with the intricate procedures for controlling a highly contagious virus. In February, he helped care for the first known person in the city to be infected with the virus a woman evacuated here from China. While treating her, he went through the cumbersome process of donning and doffing protective equipment. Before entering the patients room, he put on a gown that covered his neck to his knees, a N95 mask, a face shield and long gloves. While exiting, a colleague watched to make sure he removed everything correctly. On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases First, he took off his dirty gloves and washed his hands. Then he fetched a new pair of gloves, removed his face shield, disposed of those gloves and washed his hands. He went through two more pairs of gloves while removing his mask and gown, washing his hands in between. On the way out, he applied hand sanitizer, then washed his hands once more. For two months, Gudowski and his co-workers still were hopeful the U.S. could contain the coronavirus. But now, as the virus has reached across the country, it has become increasingly clear the isolated patient soon would turn into many. As Gudowski has seen more COVID-19 patients, hes made particular effort to provide comfort, holding their hands and providing emotional support. A few days ago, he spent two hours talking with a patient suspected of having the virus to help the person feel better. Even with the added safety precautions, in the end, its just another days work for Gudowski. I truly do believe, as health care personnel and providers, that we sign up for this, he said. We arent allowed to close our doors for anything. 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 Actor Kajol entertained fans with memes of herself amid the three-week lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sharing different pictures of herself, she gave them some advice on how to stay sane during this time. Tips on how to stay sane during this lockdown period! Kajol wrote, sharing a number of pictures on Twitter. Sharing a picture from an old photoshoot with a dog, she wrote, Get pet-friendly, there is no proof of them spreading virus. Believe me they play the stress busters to boredom. Discover new hobbies! Kajol wrote, sharing a picture of her listening to records. She also shared a picture of herself and actor Madhuri Dixit taking a selfie together and wrote, Stay connected with your friends through video calls. Spend some quality time with the fam! Kajol advised, sharing a picture with her husband and actor Ajay Devgn, daughter Nysa and son Yug. Read it increases knowledge!! she wrote, sharing a still of herself from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. She posted a photo from the sets of her short film Devi, in which she was seen napping, and wrote, Catch up on some sleep. Finally, Kajol shared a picture from a photoshoot and wrote, Zip it and dont spread rumours. Fans responded, saying that this advice extends beyond the lockdown as well. While Kajols statement could have been a generic one, it is likely that she was taking a jibe at recent reports about daughter Nysas health. It was reported that she rushed her daughter Nysa to the hospital when she showed symptoms of coronavirus after returning from her boarding school in Singapore last month. Ajay earlier refuted the false speculation about Kajol and Nysas health on Twitter. Thank you for asking. Kajol & Nysa are absolutely fine. The rumour around their health is unfounded, untrue & baseless, he wrote. Also read | Nora Fatehi says she started working at 16: There were a lot of financial issues in my family Currently, Kajol and her family are in self-isolation at their residence in Mumbai. Last month, a day before the janta curfew initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she urged people to stay home in a video featuring her son Yug. We always say, I wish I had the time to enjoy with my children and parents. I wish I had time and there was nothing else for me to do. Now, we have the time, and reason, as well. Guys, please dont go out of your house tomorrow. Like our prime minister said, please remain indoors, for your country, yourself, your parents and your children. Wash your hands as much as you can and use hand sanitiser, she said in the clip. Kajol has also been sharing throwback photos and glimpses from her life in quarantine on her social media accounts. On the work front, Kajol was last seen in a short film titled Devi, alongside Neha Dhupia and Shruti Haasan, among others. While it received rave reviews, it was at the centre of a plagiarism controversy. Follow @htshowbiz for more Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said the lockdown imposed to stem the novel coronavirus spread would be lifted on April 15 but cautioned that a mechanism should be evolved to avoid crowding or else all efforts will go in vain. In a video-conference with the state's Members of Parliament, the chief minister also sought their suggestion for smooth movement of people and restoration of services after the lockdown. "Lockdown will be lifted on April 15. We have to ensure that the crowding doesn't take place. Your help and cooperation is needed in this regard. The reason is that after the lockdown is lifted and if crowding takes place, all our efforts will go in vain," Adityanath told the MPs. "So, I want that we evolve a mechanism, and for this, I would invite your suggestions," he said. He asked MPs and ministers to keep a watch in their respective areas so that the people do not face problems during the lockdown. The UP chief minister said suggestions from people's representatives would help our government to formulate proper strategies, the UP government said in a statement issued here. He said it would be decided only after the suggestions of where and how much relaxation should be given in the first phase. Suggestions were also sought on which organisations should be given how much exemptions, the statement said. "Challenges would remain even after the lockdown is lifted. Thus, we need to prepare in advance for the situation to be under control after the lockdown is lifted. Making the public aware about social distancing and following it in public places should be our first priority," he said. The CM appealed to all MPs and ministers to contribute Rs 1 crore from MP/MLA fund as well as one-month salary of MLAs in Uttar Pradesh Covid Care Fund, the statement said. He said BSP chief Mayawati has also appealed to her legislators to contribute to this fund. Adityanath informed that this fund would help in expanding the capacity of medical colleges and district level hospitals. "Money will be spent on the procurement and arrangement of ventilators, PPEs, isolation wards, testing lab at district level. There is an effort to collect about Rs 1,500 crore in this fund, so that necessary works can be expedited," he said. Apart from this, he also called on the general population to contribute to this fund. The UP chief minister said a decision has been taken to give Rs 1,000 to petty vendors, labourers, e-rickshaw drivers, rickshaw pullers and daily-wagers across the state. The decision has been taken to transfer this amount directly to their accounts." For those not having any ration card or bank account, Adityanath appealed to MPs and ministers to identify such people and get their bank accounts opened and also get Rs 1,000 transferred in their accounts. Apart from this, Adityanath said about 3.50 lakh workers do not have ration cards nor they have bank accounts. Such people should also be identified and it should be ensured that they get ration cards and their bank accounts are opened. All public representatives should cooperate for this work in every district, he said. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey, who attended the video-conference, told PTI, "We spoke to the UP chief minister and he told us about the work done and steps taken by the state government during the lockdown. The video-conference continued for nearly an hour." He said the MPs praised the chief minister for the good work done by the state government. "We are doing all our work, while adhering to the lockdown," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Last week, families emerged from spring break to face a new reality. Similarly, the University of Montana family returned to a new version of the semester. A new way of teaching and learning remotely. A new way of interacting six feet apart. A new way of collaborating virtually. These are, to be sure, challenging times. Tough days lie ahead. We will experience fatigue and stress. We will not return to normal for a while, requiring us to alter practices we took for granted as commonplace. What will not change is our broad Grizzly commitment to adaptability and care for one another. We are putting the health and safety of our university and broader Montana community first. This is the spirit that animates the UM family and Missoula community; it will carry us through. Of that I have absolutely no doubt. The enormous challenges posed by COVID-19 remind us that first among UMs five Priorities for Action is the imperative to place student success at the center of all we do. Our UM family has pulled together to do just that. Faculty have demonstrated tremendous agility in transforming courses to remote delivery. Staff have worked tirelessly to provide essential services for students who remain on campus while developing new ways to advise and support students who are now remote. And our remarkable students have persisted through it all with a deep commitment to learning. We are also reminded our Priorities for Action acknowledge that we must partner with place, reaching across Arthur Avenue and the state of Montana, to foster prosperity for all. The COVID-19 situation has shown just how impactful those partnerships are. Over the past few weeks, our university team has joined twice-daily calls with city and county leadership and public health officials, coordinating efforts to slow the spread of the virus. All of western Montana should be confident in the ways our city, county, nonprofit and business leaders are thoughtfully and decisively sharing information, resources and infrastructure while interacting with national, state and local agencies. UM scientists in our Center for Translational Medicine are answering the call for COVID-19 antibody research, embodying its mission to translate research from bench to bedside. Other UM scientists have re-configured their labs to produce hand sanitizer for area hospitals and first responders, and some of our creative faculty members are developing personal protective equipment for the community. To enhance statewide economic resilience, our Accelerate Montana programs are providing businesses with support to address immediate impacts while also helping businesses plan for a post-COVID-19 landscape. Locally, we are coordinating with the Missoula Economic Partnership, whose vital efforts look out for Missoulas economic health. While we have always embraced the idea that UM is part of the social fabric of Missoula, the current global crisis has only served to strengthen our interdependence. When we return to our new normal, our community will be stronger for our efforts during this time. We are Grizzlies, no matter which side of Arthur Avenue we call home. Seth Bodnar is president of the University of Montana. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Some of Uganda's poorest people used to work here, on the streets of Kampala, as fruit sellers sitting on the pavement or as peddlers of everything from handkerchiefs to roasted peanuts. Now they're gone and no one knows when they will return, victims of a global economic crisis linked to the coronavirus that could wipe out jobs for millions across the African continent, many who live hand-to-mouth with zero savings. "We've been through a lot on the continent. Ebola, yes, African governments took a hit, but we have not seen anything like this before," Ahunna ... Nine rebels and an Indian soldier killed in two separate clashes in the disputed Himalayan region, an official says. Nine rebels and an Indian soldier have been killed in two separate gun battles in the disputed Kashmir region, an Indian army official has said. Indian soldiers killed five suspected fighters along the highly militarised de facto front line in Keran sector on Sunday as an armed group infiltrated from the Pakistani side of Kashmir into the Indian-administered part, said Colonel Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman. Kalia said one soldier was also killed and two others were injured in the fighting. There was no independent confirmation of the incident. Another gun battle broke out in a neighbourhood in southern Kulgam town as police and soldiers scoured the area looking for fighters on Saturday, Kalia said. He said as troops began conducting searches, they came under heavy gunfire, leading to a clash that killed four fighters. The fighting came amid an ongoing lockdown in Kashmir to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmirs independence or merger with neighbouring Pakistan. India has accused Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, which Pakistan denies. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting and the ensuing Indian crackdown. Anti-India sentiment runs deep among the regions mostly Muslim population and most people support the rebels cause against the Indian rule despite a decades-long military crackdown to fight the armed rebellion. The atmosphere in Gaza is always febrile, but Ive rarely witnessed anything like this. Fear has torn through ordinary life here: cafes closed, weddings cancelled, markets shut down. Friends and colleagues speak of little else. While 2 million people wait in dread, those who can are working tirelessly to avert disaster. Weve been watching as Covid-19 has spread around the globe, overwhelming well-equipped healthcare systems. Then, a week ago, we received devastating news: the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in Gaza. Two men, recently returned from Pakistan, tested positive after arriving in Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt. More than 2,000 people are now in quarantine, with 12 cases confirmed. Meanwhile, authorities, NGOs and health workers are in a race against time to contain the spread. We cant do it alone. We need international support to help contain the virus, equip our medical teams and end the human rights violations that have undermined Gazas ability to face this fresh emergency. The Palestinian health sector in which I have worked first as a nurse, then in public health for 25 years teeters on collapse. Hospitals and clinics have borne the brunt of three major military bombardments between 2008 and 2014, and faced massive influxes of casualties, including 8,000 gunshot wounds inflicted by Israel during the Great March of Return protests since 2018. It has weathered the suffocating movement restrictions of Israels illegal 13-year blockade. Beyond the dire state of its healthcare system, Gazan public health is abysmal. With unemployment and poverty rates above 50 per cent, food insecurity is rife. Chronic malnutrition has left one in 10 Gazan children stunted in their growth, and compromised in their immune systems. I fear Covid-19 could be the final blow. We lack the infrastructure, essential equipment, drugs, supplies and human resources needed to treat a widespread outbreak. In the entirety of the Strip, there are just 78 intensive care (ICU) beds; just 63 ventilators. In February, 39 per cent of all essential medicines and 31 per cent of disposables and were at zero stock, meaning less than a months worth on shelves. Last night I barely slept. How can we self-isolate in one of the most densely populated places on Earth? How can we implement essential hygiene when 96 per cent of the Strips water is undrinkable? And should containment fail, how many of Gazas frontline medics will fall sick, with so little personal protective equipment (PPE)? I fear for older people in our society. Gaza households are often large, with young and old under the same roof, increasing their risk of contact and infection. Our elderly are at additional risk from a high prevalence of underlying chronic health conditions such as diabetes, lung disease and heart disease. At Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), where I work, we are striving with our partners to contain the outbreak and prevent a nightmare scenario. We have released hygiene kits to Palestinians placed in quarantine, as well as essential drugs, medical consumables and sterile gowns. We are procuring PPE, disinfectant and essential drugs for large-scale release. Yet we cannot hold back the tide alone. Gaza needs international support for testing, quarantine and essential sanitation supplies. Foreign governments should be supplying medical equipment, foreign doctors medical training. The UN has appealed for $34m (28m) to respond to coronavirus in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and I hope the UK will respond. In Gaza, the artificial nature of this unfolding emergency has been decades in the making. Perpetual military occupation and unrelenting closure have strangled the development of Palestinian institutions, including our health system. Long before coronavirus arrived in Gaza, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the OPT decried Israels profound breach of Palestinians right to health. The international communitys response to Gazas plight should consider the root causes of our ill-preparedness, and seek to address them. It must urge Israel, Egypt and all duty bearers to adhere to their international legal obligations. In particular, Israel must be reminded of its duty as an occupying power to deploy all means to combat the spread of contagious diseases, and lift the blockade. In a pandemic of this magnitude, the world is a single community. Have we ever all been so isolated, but so together? Public displays of admiration for health workers are wonderful, but we need more. Only through solidarity with the worlds most vulnerable will we withstand this unprecedented global challenge. Fikr Shalltoot is director of programmes in Gaza for Medical Aid for Palestinians A man who filmed himself deliberately coughing on shoppers in a supermarket has claimed he was so 'messy' from alcohol he couldn't control his actions. The 38-year-old was arrested in Christchurch on Saturday night and charged with endangering life by criminal nuisance and obstruction of a medical officer of health. He shared footage of the stunt inside a Fresh Choice supermarket in the city on his Facebook page before later removing it. It comes as the country is placed under a state of emergency and 'alert level four' restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic to stop the spread of the disease. The man his since said on social media his coughing spree was inspired by 'many prank pages' and offered his 'sincere apologies' for his behaviour. 'I'm sorry for this prank that was played,' he wrote. 'It never should've happened - the alcohol had really taken effect and I have no sensor when I get this messy. 'There is nothing else I can say but apologise to everybody and assure you all it will not happen again.' In the video, he could be seen coughing in the direction of customers and occasionally smiling as if to apologise for doing so. The incident was reported to police by the grocery store, a Countdown spokesperson said. A man (left and right) who filmed himself smiling and deliberately coughing on shoppers in a supermarket has blamed his actions on alcohol The man had posted the video of him coughing loudly at the Fresh Choice supermarket (pictured) in Christchurch The chain added the man saying the coughing was a drunken prank was 'obviously not funny at all in these challenging times'. 'We take the safety of our team and customers extremely seriously,' the spokesperson said. 'Like all supermarkets, Fresh Choice Barrington has put a number of extra steps in place over and above the norm to ensure the store is clean and safe for people to shop and work in.' New Zealanders have been urged to cough or sneeze into their elbow, or cover their mouth and nose with a tissue as part of the advice issued by the national government to stem the spread of the virus. There are 950 cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand, with that number expected to surpass 1,000 on Sunday. One person in the country has so far died from the illness. New Delhi, April 5 : Demanding compensation for Covid-19 deaths, the Congress, here on Sunday, said the Centre should transfer the fund to states and posed nine questions to the Prime Minister in response to the Sunday 9 p.m. lamp lighting event. "As the Covid-19 toll is rising, the government should pay compensation to the next of kin of coronavirus victims," said Congress Spokesperson Sushmita Dev. On the "lamp lighting" call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said there was no "harm" in lighting the lamp. If the Prime Minister wanted we would do that, but it alone won't help in fighting the pandemic, she said and added, the government should respond to nine questions raised by the Congress. The nine questions included shortage of the personal protection equipment (PPEs) and five-week delay in placing of orders for it. The Congress said the country needed 62 lakh PPEs for health workers and added, more than 50 doctors had tested Covid-19 positive. Pointing to lack of facility to test PPEs, the Congress said why the National Institute of Virology, Pune, was not prepared to test them. In the absence of such facility, India approves the European standards. It also asked how the government would increase the number of ventilators and trained technician to apply it. India had only 40 thousand ventilators, it added. Slamming the government for late convening of meeting of the House floor leaders, Dev said it should have been called "six days ahead of lockdown and not six days before the end of lockdown". On Sunday, the Health Ministry reported Covid-19 toll at 77 and total number of cases at 3,374. The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra increased by 26, taking the total from 635 to 661. It has reached 226 in Andhra Pradesh with 34 samples testing positive in the past 12 hours. In J&K 14 more tested positive for coronavius, taking the total to 106. Two persons are suspected to have died due to Covid-19 in Pune and Thane on Sunday, but the health authorities have declined to confirm or share details. Till Saturday, Maharashtra had recorded 32 Covid-19 deaths, with maximum of 22 deaths in Mumbai. Cleaning staff using disinfectants at subway entrances as people line up to enter the Constitucion transfer center in response to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Buenos Aires By Adam Jourdan BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's government laid out its most in-depth economic road map on Friday, a key step in debt talks after creditors clamored for more detailed information about the country's plans as both sides look to strike a restructuring deal. Economy Minister Martin Guzman said that under realistic fiscal and growth forecasts Argentina could not service its current debt load of over $110 billion in foreign-law bonds and credit facilities from global bodies. "I would characterize the debt situation of the country today as unfinanceable, unaffordable and unsustainable," Guzman said. "If nothing was done, if there wasn't a debt operation, the debt path would be explosive." Argentina President Alberto Fernandez said in a statement later on Friday that his government and the International Monetary Fund had agreed that Argentina would be unable to make payments in foreign currency on its debt for four years. Guzmman said further tightening was not possible given high levels of poverty in the country. "Argentina has already made a massive adjustment of primary fiscal spending. There is no room in the short-term for continuing this dynamic, no room at all," he said. Guzman laid out frameworks for growth of 1.5%-2% in the medium-to-long term, and a primary fiscal surplus over the same time frame of 0.8%-1.2%. He said the country was aiming for gross foreign reserves of $65 billion by 2024. The minister said, however, that the coronavirus pandemic could impact Argentina's economic analysis, especially in the short-term for 2020 and potentially even 2021. "Today it's clear we are living in times of very high uncertainty and that's something that has to be taken into account," he said. "This is something that was true before the coronavirus and it's even more true now." Guzman said the government was discussing steps toward a new program with the IMF, which extended a $57 billion credit facility to Argentina in 2018. The IMF said earlier on Friday that Argentina needed substantial relief from private creditors and that there was "virtually no scope" for its servicing bond payments in the medium term. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Writing by Cassandra Garrison and Dave Sherwood; Editing by Leslie Adler) By IANS AMARAVATI: Avoiding handshake is a key social distancing norm in the wake of global pandemic coronavirus, but top politicians and officials in a town in Andhra Pradesh shook hands with a man as the latter walked out of a hospital after treatment for Covid-19. The incident occurred in Kakinada town on Friday when the 22-year-old was discharged from a government general hospital. The man from Rajahmundry had tested positive for the coronavirus on March 22, four days after he returned from London. As he completed the treatment and subsequently tested negative, he was discharged from the hospital. Those present to welcome him outside the hospital include Member of Parliament from Kakinada, V. Geetha Vishwanath, Kakinada City MLA, D. Chandrasekhar Reddy, East Godavari District Collector, D. Muralidhar Reddy and Superintendent of Police Adnan Nayeem Asmi besides the hospital officials. The MLA, collector and SP were seen shaking hands with the man. He voluntarily went to the hospital due to cold, cough and fever. The doctors sent his samples for the Corona test and the result was positive. "Doctors used to monitor very closely, assessing my body response to the treatment. After one week, they found I had recovered", the youth told media persons. He is one of the five patients to recover in Andhra Pradesh so far. The total number of confirmed coronavirus patients in Rajasthan on Sunday reached 210 with six new cases, including one Tablighi Jamaat returnee, testing positive for the infection, according to the state Health Department. All the newly confirmed cases are males, with two each being reported from Jhunjhunu and Dausa district, while one case each from Bikaner and Jaipur. One of the patients from Jhunjhunu has a confirmed travel history to Dubai, while the second one from the district had attended the Tablighi Jamaat's Delhi gathering. The two confirmed cases Dausa are contacts of Tablighi Jamaat members who have already tested positive for the disease. Similarly, the solitary new case from Bikaner also is the contact of a Jamaat member. The sixth patient, a senior citizen who was admitted at SMS Hospital in Jaipur, passed away on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. With an increase of 302 cases in the last 12 hours, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 3374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of these cases, 3030 are active cases, 267 have been cured/discharged/migrated people while 77 deaths have been reported so far in the country. The number of cases in the country witnessed a sudden surge in the last week as hundreds tested positive after attending a religious gathering held by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Washington, D.C., April 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, on Census Day, Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) announced a round of grants from its Civic Participation Emergency Grant Fund to help ensure Latinos are counted in the upcoming Census as the country responds to the rapidly-changing situation concerning COVID-19. The first round of grants went to eight grassroots, community-based organizations in six southern states. The eight grantees are Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, Farmworker Association of Florida, Latino Community Foundation of Georgia, LatinoJustice PRLDEF for their work in Florida, Mi Familia Vota Educational Fund for their work in Arizona, Western North Carolina Workers Center, Texas-based Jolt Initiative, and Boys and Girls Club of Greater Houston. We are thrilled to be able to support these on-the-ground, innovative community-based partners that have created multi-dimensional outreach plans to better serve their communities during this pandemic, said Ana Marie Argilagos, HIPs President and CEO. It is for this reason that the philanthropic community must continue to support local partners as they make critical decisions to better respond to the needs of their communities and ensure a fair and accurate census count. The Emergency Grant Fund was launched to address the need for a fair and accurate 2020 Census to ensure Latinos are counted. COVID-19 has forced organizations to quickly shift from field operations to virtual outreach efforts. The eight grantees are as follow: Alabama: Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama is a community development and advocacy organization that champions economic equality, civic engagement, and social justice for Latino families in Alabama. Arizona: Mi Familia Vota Education Fund is a national organization that helps to build Latino political power by expanding the electorate, strengthening local infrastructures, and through year-round voter engagement. Florida: Farmworker Association of Florida builds power among farmworkers and rural low-income communities to respond to and gain control over the social, political, economic, workplace, health, and environmental justice issues impacting their lives. Story continues LatinoJustice PRLDEF works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable and accessible justice, by empowering our community and by fostering leadership through advocacy and education. Georgia: Latino Community Foundation of Georgia supports Latino-serving nonprofits and individuals in Georgia with advocacy, program development, technical assistance, and collective investments. North Carolina: Western North Carolina Workers Center builds power among workers of color through organizing, education, and direct action, from an intersectional standpoint, to promote worker justice. Texas: Jolt Initiative is a non-profit organization that increases the civic participation of Latinos in Texas to build a stronger democracy and ensure that everyones voice is heard. Boys and Girls Club of Greater Houston inspire and enable all youth, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens. In 2018, HIP launched the Latino Civic Participation Grant in key southern states to provide funding to grassroots groups and nonprofit organizations that are using diverse strategies to build political power within the Latino community in places with limited financial and electoral influence to advance supportive policy change. HIP deployed $160,000 in grants that leveraged more than $1.25M in contributions and matching funds. HIP works with an extensive network of organizations on these critical civic participation issues. We encourage funders committed to racial equity in civic participation to contribute to HIPs pool and/or match the organizations funding as it is deployed. For more details on the Civic Participation fund click here. If you are interested in partnering or learning more, please contact Justin Scheid at justin@hiponline.org or Sonia Melendez Reyes at sonia@hiponline.org. Sonia Melendez Reyes Hispanics in Philanthropy sonia@hiponline.org - Vice President Leni Robredo admitted she was surprised that President Rodrigo Duterte came to defend her against Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) Commissioner Manuelito Luna - Luna pushed the National Bureau of Investigation to probe Robredo for allegedly competing with or undermining the national governments efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic - Robredo reacted, Nagulat in the sense na for a very long time, hindi natin napapakinggan si Presidente na pinagtatanggol tayo - She said she was pleased with the Presidents move especially in these trying times that everyone should be united PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Vice President Leni Robredo admitted she was surprised that President Rodrigo Duterte came to defend her after Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) Commissioner Manuelito Luna urged an investigation against her efforts amid COVID-19 pandemic. In a surprise late-night public address on April 3, the President said he fired Luna and he understood that Robredo is only doing what's right when she called for support from private sectors to provide aid to frontliners. In an ANC interview on Sunday, April 5, Robredo reacted to the rare move of the nations chief. "I think it was a good move. Sa amin welcome move yon kasi ang panahon ngayon natin, extraordinary. Hindi dapat tino-tolerate yong kahit individual o public official na siya pa yong nag-so-sow ng division within government, she said. Vice President said she was surprised Luna was fired by Duterte. Nagulat in the sense na for a very long time, hindi natin napapakinggan si Presidente na pinagtatanggol tayo. Pero ngayon na pinagtanggol tayo, natuwa tayo. Natuwa dahil tingin ko, kailangan yon sa panahon ngayon. Kailangan sa panahon ngayon na parati yong mensahe magtulong-tulong tayo. According to Rappler, Duterte has repeatedly criticized Robredo in the past and shut her out from Cabinet meetings, prompting Robredo to resign from her cabinet post in 2016. It can be recalled that Luna pushed the National Bureau of Investigation to probe Robredo for allegedly competing with or undermining the national governments efforts to combat the pandemic. The National Bureau of Investigation should investigate Vice-President Leni Robredo for illegal solicitations, actions that compete with, or calculated to undermine, national government efforts in this time of public health emergency or national calamities, such as OVPs free shuttle service and dormitories for health workers, and PPEs for health workers, Luna said. Being a part of the national government, Robredo is barred from competing with the DOH (Department of Health), DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and OCD/NDRRMC (Office of Civil Defense), or undermining their efforts, and from soliciting donations, in cash or in kind, from the taxpaying public, especially since funds have already been appropriated or set aside for relief assistance, disaster mitigation, rehabilitation, etc., he added. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! In a previous report by KAMI, Angelica Panganiban, who recently said she regrets endorsing Duterte during the 2016 elections, aired her low-key reaction on Dutertes move to fire Luna. Leni Robredo is the current and 14th Vice President of the Philippines. She has been popularly known as the widow of late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters! Kapuso star Kris Bernal participated in the new episode of our Tricky Questions feature! Check out all of the exciting videos and celebrity interviews on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: KAMI.com.gh South Africa: Respect rule of law, urges authorities As the country enters the second week of the 21-day lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, law enforcement agencies have called on communities and various organisations to refrain from taking the law into their own hands to enforce the Disaster Management Regulations. The NatJOINTS, which comprises of various government departments, is responsible for the coordination of the COVID-19 operations, including high density policing operations, border control, route security and public health infection containment, among others, said the majority of the nation has been adhering to the lockdown regulations. However, the call for greater adherence to the regulations comes following the continuous non-adherence to these regulations by certain individuals, the NatJOINTS said in a statement. This comes after taxi operators in the Eastern Cape tried to stop motor vehicles transporting essential service workers to work. This practice must cease immediately as no one may take the law into their own hands, said the NatJOINTS. We call upon civilians to adhere to the regulations and not attempt to enforce the lockdown regulations on their own as citizens are required to remain in the confines of their own homes during this period and by not doing so will themselves be breaking the law. The NatJOINTS said essential service workers are risking their lives to ensure all people in South Africa continue to receive essential services as well as to ensure that the COVID-19 is contained. Police are not only involved with enforcement of the Disaster Management Regulations but continue to perform their Constitutional obligations to ensure that all South Africans are and feel safe. Further to this, the security forces are involved in ensuring safe and conducive areas for the thousands of field workers who will conduct screening and testing for the Covid-19 amongst our communities. Police officers are also deployed to assist in securing the identified quarantine and isolation sites, said NatJOINTS spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo. Last week, groups stormed a local supermarket and disrupted services demanding that the store manager furnishes all employees with gloves and masks in Mpumalanga and Gauteng. By the time police arrived on the scene in Mpumalanga, the group had already left. However, one person was arrested for the incident in Gauteng. The South African Police Service will continue to act on all complaints received as no one has a special provision to act in a manner that is contrary to the regulations governing the lockdown period, said Naidoo. The NatJOINTS urged citizens to stay at home and only go out when it is absolutely necessary such as getting essential supplies, seeking medical assistance and collecting social grants. The NatJOINTS calls upon everyone who may have complaints or information relating to non-adherence of the Disaster Management Regulations to get in touch with law enforcement officials by contacting the SAPS Crime Stop number 086 00 10111 or submitting tip-offs anonymously on the MySAPSApp which is available for download on all androids or iPhones, read the statement. - SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hrs33.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 10 Jan 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the hrs33 homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the hrs33 homepage on Delicious. 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Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Former President John Dramani Mahama as part of his advocacy against the dreadful Coronavirus has admonished Ghanaians to reflect and further ensure adherence to precautionary measures this Palm Sunday. In a tweet, the former president who is seeking to be re-elected in the December polls, reiterated the need for Ghanaians, both home and abroad, to pay heed to the available safety measures. Part of John Mahamas post read; As has become the battle cry over the past few weeks, we are not in normal times, at all. So please if you have nothing essential doing outside of your home, please stay home, observe the protocols of hand washing as frequently as you can Lets disinfect commonly used surfaces as often as we can, while continuing to wash out hands, and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers, the post further advised. The former president who has been quite vocal since the outbreak of the coronavirus over the past weeks declared his relentless support to the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government in fighting the disease. On Saturday, April 4, 2020, Mr Mahama together with his team donated essential items worth over GH300,000 to health professionals at the Accidents and Emergency Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and other hospitals in the country. Its Palm Sunday. But these are not normal times. Lets continue to #StayHome and help #StopTheSpread of COVID19. pic.twitter.com/z36BxgSakg John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) April 5, 2020 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. Featured Video At times, listening to the path that Vic Vela has taken can be numbing. Yet, when he speaks about his journey, brutal honesty has to be there. My path to recovery consists of me telling the truth, he says. Thats what connects with people. Vela is the host of the podcast Back From Broken, produced by Colorado Public Radio. The podcast premiered Feb. 21, and has risen up the podcast charts. The podcast is about recovery, and Vela says everyone knows someone who struggles with addiction or mental health issues or a physical ailment that has dramatically changed their life. This show is a place to regularly showcase courage and what it takes to come back, he says. The journey for Vela to get to Back From Broken has been full of the highest of highs and some rock-bottom lows. Six years ago, I was hiding behind dumpsters smoking crack, Vela says. Now, Im sober and Im helping people. Its very strange hearing from people that I helped. Im not too far removed from remembering the places Ive been. Back From Brokens first three episodes have featured Vela hosting with guests such as musician Anders Osborne, MLBs David Mellor and WNBA alum Chamique Holdsclaw. The first season will consist of 10 episodes. The podcast released its latest episode on April 3. This episode is Vela telling his own story. I knew that we could get something interesting out of these interviews, Vela says. It helps to have empathy in having these conversations. I think once they realize that Ive been through the same thing, they open up. That makes for a better conversation and the journey in finding out how to recover. Its a process. Vela has long been a storyteller. During his tenure at Journal North in Santa Fe from 2007 to 2012, Vela covered crime in northern New Mexico. Its a heavy subject, and I wasnt doing well, he says. That was at a time, I was still drinking and using drugs and not dealing with the behavioral issues. I was the poster boy for a functioning addict. After moving back to Colorado, Vela hit rock bottom. As he began recovery, the seed was planted for what has become Back From Broken about a year ago. I had been thinking about the podcast for a while, he says. I was looking to see how could I utilize my experiences as a journalist and someone in recovery. Were so caught up in COVID right now, that I wanted to get back to talking about mental health and addiction. Vela said that while he was planning the podcast, the biggest obstacle was getting people to tell their stories when there really wasnt a definite format. From the production standpoint, the biggest challenge was asking people to be part of a show that didnt exist yet, Vela says. I couldnt point them to a website. It was the first season. Aside from the podcast, Vela spends a lot of his time speaking at health conferences, as well as remaining active on social media where he often tells his story. My recovery has been to be as honest as I possibly can, he says. Its not only to help others, but to keep myself accountable. Could Concho Resources Inc. (NYSE:CXO) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter. Some readers mightn't know much about Concho Resources's 1.7% dividend, as it has only been paying distributions for a year or so. The company also bought back stock during the year, equivalent to approximately 2.8% of the company's market capitalisation at the time. Remember that the recent share price drop will make Concho Resources's yield look higher, even though recent events might have impacted the company's prospects. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Concho Resources for its dividend, and we'll go through these below. Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis NYSE:CXO Historical Dividend Yield April 5th 2020 Payout ratios Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Although it reported a loss over the past 12 months, Concho Resources currently pays a dividend. When a company is loss-making, we next need to check to see if its cash flows can support the dividend. Last year, Concho Resources paid a dividend while reporting negative free cash flow. While there may be an explanation, we think this behaviour is generally not sustainable. Consider getting our latest analysis on Concho Resources's financial position here. 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. This company has been paying a dividend for less than 2 years, which we think is too soon to consider it a reliable dividend stock. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 60% per year over this time. Story continues The dividend has been growing pretty quickly, which could be enough to get us interested even though the dividend history is relatively short. Further research may be warranted. Dividend Growth Potential The other half of the dividend investing equation is evaluating whether earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see Concho Resources has grown its earnings per share at 23% per annum over the past five years. 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. Concho Resources's dividend is not well covered by free cash flow, plus it paid a dividend while being unprofitable. Next, earnings growth has been good, but unfortunately the company has not been paying dividends as long as we'd like. With this information in mind, we think Concho Resources may not be an ideal dividend stock. Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. For example, we've picked out 2 warning signs for Concho Resources that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. 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. A case has been registered against an owner of a fair price shop in Kapurbawdi locality here for alleged misappropriation of food grains meant for distribution under the National Food Security scheme, police said on Sunday. The case was registered on Saturday following a raid conducted at the shop based on a complaint, Thane police spokesperson Sukhada Narkar said. "The ration officials conducted the surprise raid, during which they found that the owner was selling wheat and rice at a higher rate in the black market," she said. The shop owner has been booked under IPC section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and also sections of the Essential Commodities Act as well as the Maharashtra Foodgrains Rationing (Second) order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the world still battling to contain the coronavirus spread, cases of African swine fever has been reported from Yunyang County of China's Chongqing province. According to reports, 298 infected piglets were illegally transferred from other provinces of China to Chongqing. Media reports suggest that 64 piglets from the 298 have died due to the African swine fever. Before coronavirus gripped China, African swine flu killed over 60 percent of its pig population between 2018-2019 and it seems that the fever has resurfaced. Read: Heartbreaking! CRPF Jawans Eat Their Meals Sitting On Footpath Amid COVID-19 Crisis Just recently, China had reported two cases of African swine fever in northwestern Gansu province. According to reports, the virus that was first detected in Kenya in 1909 and spread to Europe and Asia, is harmless to humans, but fatal for pigs. There is no known treatment for the fever yet, but researchers at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute are at work on a vaccine. Read: COVID-19: Tunisia Deploys Robocop To Ensure Citizens Follow Lockdown Rules China just last month was able to flatten the curve of its coronavirus infections. More than 3,300 people have lost their lives in China due to COVID-19, while there are still 1,376 active cases in the country. China faced a lot of criticism from the international community for its poor handling of the outbreak and not providing the world with information related to the disease. Read: Jalandhar Sees Dhauladhar Range For The First Time Ever, Pictures Shared By Parveen Kaswan Coronavirus outbreak The Coronavirus infection has claimed more than 66,500 lives across the world and has infected over 12,25,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last month 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: COVID-19: Indian Family Attends Wedding Happening In US Online; Netizens React (Image Credit: AP) 05.04.2020 LISTEN The global community is doing all it can to slow down and eventually halt the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), a pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives. It is estimated that a total of 50,321 deaths have occurred with countries like the United Kingdom, USA, Italy experiencing marginal increase in death rate. [WHO, situation report published 3rd April 2020]. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease which spreads through saliva or discharges from the nose by means of sneezing, coughing etc. The New England Journal of Medicine has also indicated that the virus can suspend in the air for more than three hours in the absence of most conditions. In Africa, COVID-19 has spread to dozens of countries within weeks and Ghana is no exception, recorded its first case on 12th March 2020, and is still counting. To minimize the impact of the pandemic on Ghana, His Excellency, Nana Akufo-Addo, issued a directive on 22nd March, 2020, for the closure of Ghanas air, land and sea borders and its subsequent two week extension beginning 5th April, 2020. In a press statement delivered to the nation by the President on Friday, 27th March, 2020 indicated that, we know how to bring back the Economy, but we can't bring back Peoples lives. We believe that the directives given by the President and the lockdown of Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi, as well as the Awutu Senya East was issued to prevent and safeguard the lives of the people of Ghana from this invincible, destructive and deadly Coronavirus. You may also recall that the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, in an interview, equivocally indicated that the impending NPP primaries will be held on 25 April 2020, as planned. This came as selfish, surprising and disturbing, to we the Concerned Patriots of the NPP, particularly at this crucial time that the Government is working around the clock to ensure the pandemic is contained and lives of those already affected by the virus are saved. Again, this fatal invincible Coronavirus which is terrorising economies, jeopardising businesses and sweeping the lives of people across the globe cannot be taken for granted, all in the name of Primaries. We believe that the same NPP Constitution that gave powers to the National Executive Council to propose 25th April, 2020 for the primaries equally provide the same power to consider as a matter of urgency, have the primaries postponed for the goodwill and safety of our party supporters, the delegates, as well as secure 4 more for Nana Akufo-Addo. At this moment that the entire global community including Ghana, is working hard to fight this pandemic, we humbly and collectively call on H. E. the President and the National Executive Council of the NPP, to consider the issues raised by the Patriotic Youth Alliance (PYA). For these reasons and not to daunt the hard work of Government and the Party, we call on the President, His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to intervene to have the impending NPP Parliamentary primaries postponed. Once again, we cannot bring the lives of our faithful, committed, dedicated and hard-working party members, delegates, and people back! Thank you +233 (0) 509105121, 0277556122 Spokesperson: Stephen Baah Patrick Nartey Elorm Klutsey Twum Barima Mohammed Alhassan Pink says she recovered from the dreaded coronavirus, which is quite quick, thank goodness, compared to how others have fared (some did not even make it). However, hers is a SERIOUS recovery journey; and she learned a lot from it. She immediately shared what she learned to her followers, since these are crucial revelations. Coronavirus Can Still Strike Even If One Has Been Isolating First, Pink may have recovered quite fast from the coronavirus but she realized that she could not scoff at it. Instead, she realized more than ever now that it is not a virus to make fun of because one can never really know where it comes from. Before testing positive, Pink says she's already been isolating herself. On Friday night, Pink posted that she and unfortunately, her three-year-old son, Jameson as well, showed the harrowing symptoms of the COVID-19. Even though she and her family were already sheltering at home way before then, she has tested positive. This does not mean her isolation or sheltering did not work; it just means it is probably too late because it is still unclear when COVID symptoms are likely to appear after contact. Or she could have come into contact with a silent carrier and did not know about it. At this point, tracing would be impossible, but at least Pink was able to get tested. This leads to her second revelation. Wide Testing is Still the Best Weapon Against the Spread of Coronavirus While staying at home can flatten the curve, if wide testing is not implemented soon, efforts to contain the virus will be for naught. At present, getting tested in the United States is not EASY. Pink said she only got tested because their primary care physician had access to the kits. With the diagnosis, she and her family just continued the isolation for two weeks under the instruction and guidance of their doctor. Thankfully, she recovered. They were tested two days ago and now, thankfully negative. Instead of purely rejoicing on the fact, she said that it is a travesty that the government is not making tests available for the masses. The virus is serious and real and does not choose who it will infect. Only by making the tests widely accessible can children, families, and communities be protected, she says. Coronavirus can Infect Anyone The third revelation she had is that coronavirus can affect anybody. EVERYONE HAS the same risk rate. One is not more prone to get it just because he or she is old, unhealhty, or poor. These are probably factors that can determine if one will make it (but that is still under contention), but everyone has the same risk rate! The young and old can be both affected, even if there is a misconception that it only puts the elderly at risk. The disease can also affect the healthy and the unhealthy, the poor, and the rich, Pink wrote. She warns everyone who would downplay the scary disease that they should think twice. To make her warning louder, she also donated $1 million to healthcare workers because it is going to be one crazy battle. She's not all talk. She donated $500,000 to the Temple University Hospital Emergency Fund in Philadelphia. This is in honor of her mom, Judy Moore, who worked there for 18 years, specifically at the Cardiomyopathy and Heart Transplant Center. Then, she is also donating another %500,000 to the city of Los Angeles Mayor's Emergency COVID-19 Crisis Fund. Read her full post below: READ MORE: Coronavirus Cure: Madonna To Join Search For COVID-19 Drug Pedestrians wear face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus on the streets of Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. AP HEYWORTH On Friday, March 20, 2020, at 10:07 p.m., Donald E. Phillips, 85 years of age, died of natural causes at home near Heyworth, Illinois. By his side were family members including Peggy, his wife of over 63 years. Don is survived by Peggy; their sons, G. Michael Phillips (Marlene) of Pasadena, California, Steven Phillips (Sue) of Greenview, and David Phillips (Kelley) of Heyworth. In addition, Don is survived by several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Born on Aug. 8, 1934, in Kansas City, Kansas, Donald Ernst Phillips, the son of Russell Augustus and Theresa Irene (Ernst) Phillips, he grew up in Du Quoin. He graduated from Du Quoin High School in the class of 1952. Mr. Phillips attended Southern Illinois University-Carbondale where he earned his bachelor's degree in Journalism in 1956. He was a reporter, photojournalist, and editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the Egyptian. His parents preceded him in death. After college, Mr. Phillips worked as a news writer with the Marion Daily Republican in Marion. In 1960, he accepted a position as a writer with the Illinois Agricultural Association (IAA) where he worked for the balance of his career. On June 10, 1974, Mr. Phillips launched FarmWeek, a weekly newspaper he created and developed for IAA which focused on farming and the Illinois agricultural industry. He served as FarmWeek's first editor. Mr. Phillips requested that his remains be cremated. A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Calvert-Belangee-Bruce Funeral Home, Heyworth is in charge of arrangements. To read more about Mr. Phillips, visit www.calvertbelangeebruce.com. Ban Tablighi Jamaat and its Markaz: VHP India pti-PTI New Delhi, Apr 05: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) called for a complete ban on the Tablighi Jamaat and its Nizamuddin Markaz on Sunday, after it emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot in the country. The Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz (headquarters) in Delhi's Nizamuddin West emerged as a coronavirus hotspot as hundreds of people, who attended a religious congregation there in the second week of March, tested positive for COVID-19. Several others spread across the country, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat, are suspected to be carriers of the deadly virus. Stating that because of the Tablighi Jamaat and its Markaz, the entire country was facing a COVID-19 crisis, VHP's joint general secretary Surendra Jain said it should be banned and all its bank accounts sealed, while alleging that the organisation was a nursery and nourisher of Islamic radicalism and terror. After the hard work and achievements of the pan-India lockdown, the whole country was taking a sigh of relief, but due to the Tablighi Jamaat, the possibilities of community transmission of the fatal virus had increased, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said in a statement. At least 1,023 COVID-19 cases in the country have been found to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, but massive efforts by various authorities have led to nearly 22,000 people associated with the religious grouping and their primary contacts being quarantined, a Union Health Ministry official said here on Saturday. The government has also launched a nationwide search for participants to the huge religious gathering amid fears that thousands present there could have carried the infection across the length and breadth of the country. Trump Removes Intel Watchdog Who Revealed Whistleblower Complaint That Led to Impeachment By Fern Robinson April 04, 2020 U.S. President Donald Trump has removed the U.S. intelligence community watchdog from office. Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson informed Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment earlier this year. Trump officially notified the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress on Friday that Atkinson's firing would go into effect in 30 days. He said in a letter that he "no longer" had "the fullest confidence" in Atkinson. Trump said he would name a replacement for Atkinson "at a later date." The move was quickly criticized by top congressional Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described Atkinson's firing as "shameful," calling it "a brazen act against a patriotic public servant who has honorably performed his duty to protect the Constitution and our national security, as required by the law and by his oath." "Michael Atkinson is a man of integrity who has served our nation for almost two decades," said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. "Being fired for having the courage to speak truth to power makes him a patriot." The move was also criticized by the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees. "At a time, when our country is dealing with a national emergency and needs people in the Intelligence Community to speak truth to power, the President's dead of night decision puts our country and national security at even greater risk," House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said in a statement. "President Trump's decision to fire Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson is yet another blatant attempt by the President to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing." Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement, "In the midst of a national emergency, it is unconscionable that the President is once again attempting to undermine the integrity of the intelligence community by firing yet another intelligence official simply for doing his job. ... We should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicize the nation's intelligence agencies." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address April 5, 1968 the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. As a freshman college student in Washington, D.C., I will never forget that Friday. The day before, I had made a date to visit my girlfriend who was a student at a Catholic womens college on the other side of town. Unaware of the civil insurrection aka riots that were already underway in D.C.s black neighborhoods, I took a cab to visit my friend one last time before she flew home for the two-week long Easter recess. We spent an hour or so on the lawn outside of her dorm, but there was tension in the air as we spotted smoke from burning buildings looking to the west of her campus the direction that I would have to travel to return to my own school two and a half miles away. As I said farewell to her and several of her classmates as they headed off to Washington National Airport in one of the last taxicabs running that day, I confronted the question of how I would get back to my dormitory which was on the other side of the part of the city that was erupting into a full-scale riot. With the buses and cabs now no longer running, miraculously a fellow student of my school appeared, driving a VW bug, and offered me a ride. The next half hour, traversing ground zero of the growing riots, was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. We headed off west on the familiar route and soon encountered the heart of the riots. Along 14th Street, which ran North-South for miles through the District, and which we had to traverse, mobs of African Americans, urged on by radical black power activist Stokeley Carmichael among others, were busy burning buildings and looting everything in sight. As two white boys trying to make it through in a tiny vehicle, we were sitting ducks. Photograph looking west showing firefighters spraying water on shops in Washington, D.C. that were burned during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Warren K. Leffler / Library of Congress Public Domain No known restrictions on publication At one point, heading west on Columbia Road, our path on the street was blocked by a fire department engine and its hoses, hopelessly trying to extinguish a fire in a block of burning buildings. My classmate driving the car whom I had never met previously skillfully maneuvered the VW onto the sidewalk in order to keep us moving. The stench of smoke was in the air, as we rushed to evade the angry mobs in the streets, avoiding their stares and taunts and dodging the rocks hurled at us by the gangs of rioters. Finally, back in Northwest D.C., we drove through the gates and onto my universitys hilltop campus, safe and sound except for some damage to the vehicle. I felt like kissing the ground. The fun was not quite over, however. Over the next four days, martial law was declared in the nations capital, with armed troops on the streets. Before MLKs assassination, I had planned to stay on campus during the Easter break, even though the food service would be closed. No problem, I thought, as there were inexpensive dining and takeout options within walking distance. But in the days ahead, that would not be possible. We were informed later on April 5th that if we set foot outside of the campus, we would be liable to be shot on sight. Literally. No joking. During the next days, the few of us students who were sequestered on campus were left to our own devices to scrounge whatever food we could find, mostly, as I recall, from coin-operated vending machines. Eventually, when we were allowed out on the streets the following week, I was struck by the images of military troops, armed with fully automatic weapons, patrolling M. Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. It was a sight that I will never forget. The irony never left me: Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who preached peace and reconciliation based on his deep Christian faith and the response to his death was some of the worst rioting and violence in the nations history. I had encountered Rev. King on November 30, 1964, when he gave a speech in Stamford, Connecticut. As a high school student journalist, I attended the event and was welcomed to cover it. I placed my microphone and tape recorder on the podium from which he addressed the standing room only crowd and sat on the stage a few feet away from him operating my recorder. I shook his hand, took his photograph, and never forgot that night. I have never forgotten that other day either, 3 years later, when the hope that Rev. King represented seemed to be lost and our country began to embark on a half century long unnecessary division between the races. Chennai, April 5 : Immigration officials at Chennai International Airport on Sunday detained 10 Malaysian nationals who had travelled to India under tourist visa and had attended the conference held by Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi last month. They had concealed their participating in the Delhi conference and had come here. The ten are part of 127 Malaysian group that was stranded in the country due to the 21-day lockdown and was ready to fly on a special flight to Kuala Lumpur. The flight was arranged by the Malaysian government. According to officials, the ten Malaysians had gone to Tenkasi and other places in Tamil Nadu by road. They came to Chennai and tried to fly back without subjecting to any medical tests and hid about their participating in the Delhi Islamic conference. The immigration officials found their participation in Tablighi Jamaat conference and detained the 10 Malaysians and allowed the flight to take off with 117 passengers. The detained Malaysians have been handed over to Tamil Nadu police and the state Health Department has been notified. "We will be taking their samples and the results will be obtained fast," a Health Department official told IANS. New Zealand now has a total of 1039 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 cases, but the prime minister says the country could have had four times that number if it was not in lockdown. At this afternoon's media briefing Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said there were 89 new cases on Sunday which included 48 confirmed and 41 probable cases, taking the total to 1039. There were 15 people in hospitals - three in ICU and two were in a critical condition. There have been 156 people recover from the virus now. Ashley says there are now 12 clusters, which are defined as 10 or more infections from the same place, an increase of two from Saturday. The Marist College cluster has 66 cases and is the largest cluster in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the lockdown was making a difference and cites modelling by economist Rodney Jones which forecasted that New Zealand could have had 4000 cases to date if not for the strict isolation measures. She says overall compliance with the Level 4 lockdown has been excellent except for a few people who she says she "would charitably describe as idiots". Jacinda also she expects Health Minister David Clark to continue doing his job after he broke the lockdown rules last week and drove more than 2km from his home to a mountain biking track. He has admitted his mistake and apologised to the Prime Minister. Jacinda says she's very disappointed she had to discuss his activities with him and had asked him to restrict any activity that could put him at risk, saying he "needs to be a role model". If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP - don't show up at a medical centre Solution 'close' for NZers stranded in Peru The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says it is "very close" to a solution to get the remaining New Zealanders who are still stuck in Peru home, but there are no guarantees due to the complex and rapidly changing situation. Some New Zealanders in Peru managed to catch a repatriation flight to the UK and the ministry says getting the remaining 80 or so who are still there out of the country is no easy task, but it's getting "very close". The ministry says it has helped thousands of New Zealanders during the COVID-19 pandemic, its largest and longest-running consular response. The ministry has also secured a route home for 27 New Zealanders on a flight from Kathmandu to Brisbane, for seven people who had been in Uruguay, and a further 98 who had been on a cruise ship off Perth, Australia. The Zaandam and Rotterdam cruise ships were yesterday allowed to dock in the United States and all 15 New Zealanders on board are now also en route home. Liquor retailers given 'almost free reign' health watchdog says An alcohol watchdog says allowing all alcohol retailers to sell online during the lockdown is doing more harm than good. Under a rule change made late on Friday night, all alcohol stores can now sell online, and some retailers have had to temporarily stop delivery because they cannot cope with demand. Alcohol Healthwatch executive director Nicki Jackson says it has now become too easy to buy alcohol, and at a time like this, that is not a step in the right direction. She says drinking can increase anxiety and other mental health issues, as well as lead to more accidents and domestic violence. A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokesperson says alcohol was always included as an allowable product due to the risk of panic buying as the country transitioned from Alert Level 3 to 4. NSW Police launch investigation into cruise ship Covid-19 deaths The New South Wales police have launched a criminal investigation into the operator of the cruise ship Ruby Princess. Ten people who were on its most recent cruise have died from COVID-19 since it docked in Sydney last month, and 600 more have been confirmed as infected. A cluster of cases has also been linked to the ship's visit to Napier three weeks ago. The New South Wales police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says information already received about the case would be handed to the homicide squad today. The ship is operated by Carnival Australia. Trump deploys the military to deal with coronavirus outbreaks Thousands of military personnel will be deployed in US states to help them deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, says President Donald Trump. He says 1000 military personnel were being sent to New York City, including military doctors and nurses. New York State recorded 630 more coronavirus deaths, another daily record that takes its toll to 3565. The US has the world's highest number of known COVID-19 cases - more than 300,000 confirmed - and more than 8000 deaths. -RNZ Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Immediately after being notified that she tested positive for COVID-19 last month, Jennifer Burrill began making a list of everywhere shed been and everyone shed come into contact with since March 3. Thats the date she first began experiencing a sickness, similar to seasonal allergies, that she now worries was actually the virus. The 48-year-old public defender and vice president of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association came up with 74 names, which she provided to the New Mexico Department of Health. But the DOH epidemiologists conducted active contact tracing and monitoring only of people who had a close interaction with her between March 18 and the time she began home isolation after experiencing a vicious coughing fit three days later, according to a letter sent to the boss at the Law Office of the Public Defender. That was hardly anyone, Burrill said. Based on the information obtained from the case investigation, our understanding of COVID-19 epidemiology in New Mexico, and following consultation with a medical epidemiologist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NMDOH believes that the risk of transmission following exposure to the public defender prior to March 18th, 2020, is very low, the letter states. A LOPD spokeswoman said no other public defenders have tested positive for the virus. On her part, Burrill said shes still baffled as to where and when she was infected. I dont know anyone who has tested positive, Burrill said in a phone interview. But I definitely got it from somebody. These days, Burrill said she is still exhausted but is not experiencing any more symptoms and has been cleared to leave the house. When she was sick, she had a constant sharp pain in her chest, was frequently out of breath, had a headache and painful coughing fits unlike anything she has ever experienced. But she did not have a fever, one of the tell-tale signs medical providers were using to determine if a person should be tested for COVID-19. The state has since opened up the testing guidelines so even people who are not showing symptoms can be tested if they know they came into close contact with someone who had the virus. Burrill said her mother was tested and did not get COVID-19 and that she has not been told she infected anyone else. She said when she was working, prior to going into isolation, she was taking precautions to keep herself and the public safe. I was shutting the door to my office and working in my little cube as much as I could. Every time someone came in, I would wipe down the whole office, wipe down the door knobs, Burrill said. I was trying to keep it as safe for me and everyone else as possible. Tokyo residents will be asked to refrain from leaving home but essential services will continue operating should Japan declare a state of emergency due to the novel coronavirus, Gov. Yuriko Koike said. The guidelines, announced Friday in advance to prevent public confusion, said stores selling such essentials as food and medical supplies, as well as services needed to keep society and the economy running, such as banks, will stay in business even during a state of emergency. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will ask facilities and event organizers to limit or cease activities to prevent the often deadly virus from spreading further. It also plans to establish a call center to handle inquiries from citizens and businesses. "I released the draft outline on emergency measures so citizens and businesses can adequately prepare in advance," Koike said at a news conference. The novel coronavirus pandemic, due to its economic impact, has been the major cause of decline seen in the markets. The popular notion of value buying still holds, but it may be a while before that phase starts, Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, at CapitalVia Global Research Limited - Investment Advisor, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand. Edited excerpts of the interview: Q. Another volatile week for Indian Markets with 8,055 as a base. What is causing panic in the markets is institutional selling causing panic in the markets? What are the other factors contributing to this bloodbath on D-Street? A. COVID-19 has been the major cause of the decline seen in the markets due to its economic impact. The current situation has made the market a bottomless pit and thus it is bleeding institutions by diminishing its holding value. As a result, it has become imperative for institutions to loosen the baggage. The popular notion of value buying still holds, but it may be a while before that phase starts. 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 Due to the ongoing lockdown across the country, economic implications have been substantial, which is leading to an economic slowdown and affecting almost all sectors and without any concrete sign of recovery, selling pressure may exist. Q. What are your views on the month of April? Will we be able to see some green on the screen? Earnings will be delayed what are other data points to look for? A. The situation in April may continue to be the same without any development in COVID-19 cases as this will not reduce panic in the country. Any affirmative approach by the government for aiding the economy may be perceived positively on the street. Auto sales figures may help to make informed decisions by investors. Q. Indias M-Cap-to-GDP ratio has slipped below FY09-levels or below 2008 crisis do you think a bottom is near? It is at the lowest since 2006. It will be difficult to say that we are near the bottom but a good multibagger opportunity for the next five years if one invests now. A. In the current crisis, the economic slowdown has taken a toll on Midcap stocks since they are not always cash-rich like bluechip companies, such prolonged shutdown and halted economic activity deeply affects the earnings of the mid-cap. This situation, however, has a silver lining, it gives the opportunity to buy at lower levels for holding on a long term time frame. However, the current situation is not very promising as we can see a continuous rise in COVID cases and it is difficult to say if the bottom is here or not. Once this pandemic issue resolves, economic activity can be seen gaining momentum basically due to increased consumption and therefore a judicious investment can be made for the next five years. Q. What is your take on the auto sales numbers-do you think the pain is likely to continue in the sectors, and it is best to stay away? A. The Supreme Court has ordered the automakers to clear their BS-IV inventory before April 1, but many of the automakers had failed to do so due to the nation-wide lockdown from March 24. Although few automakers are saying that the sales figures for March 2020 should not be compared with March 2019 since the situations have been completely different. The sales of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M), Tata Motors Ltd and Toyota Kirloskar India Pvt. Ltd has seen a decline of more than 40 percent on a YoY basis. The automobile industry which largely depends on the domestic and international supply chain for spare parts has been disrupted due to the lockdown. With day by day increasing cases in India the sales of April might be much worse than March figures. Q. This is one advice which is echoed on D-Street is that one should stay with cash-rich companies. Do you agree with the statement, if yes how will it help in dodging the COVID-19 bullet? A. Before investing in a cash-rich company one has to go through the cash and cash equivalents which are one of the key metrics to identify the companys financial soundness. As an investor, one has to identify the reason behind the excess cash. A company may start investing in research and development or to acquire new business, etc. But, during the economic slowdown, the cash-rich companies are most likely to wait for the right opportunity and invest selectively based on the assessment of a business, future growth, demand and supply of that industry. Q. What is the trading strategy for the coming week? A. With the continuation of the turmoil in Indian benchmarks indexes, one can opt for the Buy Low Sell High strategy. The strategy involves a high level of experience in the market as one has to look at the historic prices of stocks and current market conditions especially during the economic slowdown or unstable conditions. Given the global scenarios on the COVID-19 pandemic, the market still looks downside. For Nifty, 7,800 and 7,500 will act as support levels and 8,700 and 9,000 will be the resistance levels. The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kate Holton (Reuters) London, United Kingdom Sun, April 5, 2020 09:45 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc4224 2 World JeremyCorbyn,socialism,Labour-Party,Keir-Starmer Free Keir Starmer was elected as the leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party on Saturday, pledging to bring an end to years of bitter infighting and to work with the government to contain the raging coronavirus pandemic. Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions who was known for a forensic attention to detail when opposing the country's exit from the European Union, won with 56 percent of the vote. The comprehensive defeat of an ally of the outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the election of Angela Rayner as Starmer's deputy, heralds the end of the party leadership's embrace of a radical socialism that was crushed in the December election. Starmer, who takes over immediately, said he would work constructively with government when it was the right thing to do, while testing Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's arguments and challenging the failures. "Our purpose when we do that is the same as the government's, to save lives," he said in a statement that was pre-recorded due to the pandemic. Starmer added that once the country emerges on the other side, once the hospital wards have emptied and the threat subsided, it would need to build a fairer society, where key workers on the front line receive decent salaries and better chances in life. "In their courage and their sacrifice and their bravery, we can see a better future. This crisis has brought out the resilience and human spirit in all of us," he said. Johnson said on Twitter he had congratulated Starmer and the two agreed on the importance of working together. I have just spoken to @Keir_Starmer & congratulated him on becoming Labour leader. We agreed on the importance of all party leaders continuing to work constructively together through this national emergency. I have invited him and other opposition leaders to a briefing next week. Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) April 4, 2020 The party of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown endured its worst election performance since 1935 in December, when infighting over strategy, a confused policy over Brexit and allegations of unchecked anti-Semitism turned traditional voters away. Starmer pushed for a second Brexit referendum but said the election result had blown away that argument. Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey came second in the party's vote with 28 percent and Lisa Nandy was third with 16 percent. Many centrist Labour politicians celebrated the result as a sign that the government would finally face proper scrutiny. "A fresh Labour leader will challenge the Tories where necessary and give the party the chance to renew itself in time for the next election," Alf Dubs, an opposition Labour lord who fled to Britain as a child to escape the Nazis, told Reuters. Starmer acknowledged the scale of the task ahead. Well ahead in opinion polls, Johnson's Conservatives have also occupied much of traditional Labour territory, with the coronavirus crisis prompting the ruling party to deliver unprecedented state support to workers and businesses. "This is my pledge to the British people. I will do my utmost to guide us through these difficult times, to serve all of our communities and to strive for the good of our country," Starmer said. "I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and with hope." Pakistan is so unprepared for the fight against coronavirus that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) at the 11th hour had to allocate five graveyards in the city for the burial of infection-related deaths. KMC Graveyard Department Director Iqbal Pervez confirmed to SAMAA Digital that four coronavirus affected bodies have been buried in different graveyards so far. He added that Mayor Wasim Akhtar, in a letter addressed to the Pakistan Disaster Management Authority in Islamabad, also urged for the adequate provision of burial kits at least to ensure proper cremation duties. Sources in the department said that it is already short on resources and this emergency situation was taking things from bad to worse. "In case of coronavirus deaths, the grave is dug out deeper than usual as it should be six-feet in-depth, four-feet wide and eight-feet in length. The undertakers are not ready to perform their duties without precautionary measures," the source said, adding that they are not ready to do burials even against a hefty amount of money. The country seems to have accepted defeat. The China-originated lethal bug has been sweeping across continents, perishing millions and crippling economies worldwide. The tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 2,835, with 42 deaths on Sunday after new infections were confirmed in the country. The country is already facing a crisis of protective gear, including gloves, masks, testing kits and necessary arrangements to tackle the outbreak. In addition to this, Prime Minister Imran Khan's improper management of the disease has further lowered the morale of people in the country. Irrespective of surging cases for whom Khan tries to portray a bleeding heart, the establishment has also refused to impose a lockdown in the country order "save" its plunging economy. In order to silence the people from further questioning the government, the premier states that they will focus on other sectors to gauge whether they can be provided relief so that a balance could be struck between the lockdown and regulation of economic activities. "In Pakistan, on the one hand, you have the coronavirus and on the other hand, you have to deal with hunger. A lockdown imposed only in Defence or Gulberg will not be successful," he said. Moreover, it is the duty of every respective government to assure that any crisis in the country will not have a devastating effect on the people. But Imran, as usual, stands alone in the crowd, saying, "We, as a nation, will fight [this disease] but no one can say what will happen in the next two to three weeks." The audacity of the premier's bragging was itself tested when the government did even think of evacuating its citizens from China's Wuhan - the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak when all other countries, including its neighbours, were rushing to secure their people ahead of the impending danger. As of now, even if the Imran Khan-government attempts to take any necessary measure to ward of the COVID-19 scare, the actions will be delayed. The lethal bug has so far infected around 12 lakh people globally while the tally of infection-related deaths has surpassed 65,000, according to the data compiled by US-based John Hopkins University. Is it to see how Pakistan, with least resources and Imran on the hot seat, deals with the worst health crisis in decades. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Buahris daughter who has been on self isolation for 14 days after she returned from the UK has finally united with her family. The first lady shared the goodnews on twitter and wrote; It is a thing of joy & gratitude to Almighty God to reunite with my daughter after she had been in isolation for 14 days immediately she landed in Nigeria. While Im wishing all those infected for a speedy recovery, I pray for the end of this pandemic. See photo below; The city that has been deemed the flower capital of Canada won't be planting as many flowers this year. Instead, Victoria's city council passed a motion Thursday to grow more food plant seedlings in the city's greenhouses, in order to increase food security for residents with low incomes, or who've lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The baby plants would then be delivered to residents in need, who would continue to grow them. Victoria councillors say it's the first time the City has helped with food production since the Second World War. "Parks staff will be growing between 50,000 and 75,000 food plants in the nursery" located in Beacon Hill Park, as part of an expansion to council's existing Growing in the City initiative, Mayor Lisa Helps announced Thursday. "Growing food is a way to build community, it's a way to feed yourselves and your families," she said. Helps added that the project would only require City staff to "repurpose a bit of time to respond to a pressing need that we've heard from the community." More people want to grow their own food during the pandemic Aaren Topley, a member of the Victoria Urban Food Table, the city advisory group that brought the idea to council, said there's been an increase in the number of residents interested in growing their own food since the pandemic started. "It gets [residents] connecting to the land which I think, as humans, we've done for a very long time, and in moments of scarcity, there's something really empowering about that," he explained. Topley said the Urban Food Table conducted a city survey a year ago that found around 300 Victoria households were growing their own food. Based on those numbers, Topley said the group has estimated around 150 to 200 other households might be interested in learning to grow their own food. Adam van der Zwan/CBC The group is currently working with the City, School District 61, and local farmers to devise a strategy to deliver the baby plants to residents in a way that follows the Province's physical distancing recommendations. It will also be looking into the capacity for people who don't have backyards to grow their own food. Topley added that the Food Table is collaborating with local partners, like the Mason Street Farm and the Compost Education Centre, to decide which kinds of food would be appropriate to grow, and also hopes to put together educational materials for residents on how to care for their plants. He said he hopes the City will begin the project in the next few weeks. People across Haryana switched off lights in their homes, lit candles, earthen lamps and flashed mobile phone torch at 9 pm on Sunday, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to show "collective resolve and solidarity" in the fight against coronavirus. There was a tremendous response to Prime Minister's appeal in Haryana where people in villages, small towns and big cities such as Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rohtak, Hisar, Karnal and Panchkula responded to the PM's call. At some places, including Rohtak, policemen who were on duty also lit candles and turned on mobile phone torch. "Across India, we are one, we are behind those who are into this fight against this virus," said Anmol, a Panchkula resident. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his deputy Dushyant Chautala, also lit candles at their official residences here. "Lighting earthen lamps is not just a matter of faith but of sympathy too and paying homage to those who are not amongst us due to coronavirus," Chief Minister Khattar tweeted shortly before 9 pm. Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said it is a small gesture to tell all those who are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 that the entire nation stands behind them in this difficult hour. Haryana's Power Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala also lit candles at his Sirsa residence with his family. However, Congress legislator Varun Mullana felt that this was not an appropriate time to light candles and appear to be in a celebratory mood. "When this thing will end, when we win the fight against coronavirus, definitely I will like to light candles and celebrate. But today is not the right time to do all this, he said. "Today, saving lives and managing problems at hand and finding solutions for the same is more important. Doctors out there want masks, protective gear. What is the fun of beating thalis and lighting candles when we cannot get them critical protective gear, he said. "What kind of gratitude is this that you are not providing them with basic things. It is like sending a soldier to the border without a gun and later tell him you go, we will clap for you," said the Congress leader. This is the second time Modi has sought to rally people amid the ongoing lockdown to combat the pandemic, which has claimed more than 65,600 lives globally and inflicted over 12 lakh people. Prime Minister Modi on Friday had urged people to turn off lights in their homes for nine minutes at 9 pm to display the country's collective resolve and solidarity to defeat the virus. On March 24, Modi had announced a 21-day lockdown across the country from March 25 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting that social distancing was the only way to deal with the deadly virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! Over the past few weeks, it's been revealed that the Exynos 990 Samsung uses on the Galaxy S20 in most parts of the world is, well, a tad deficient when compared to the competition. Those findings have sparked media outcry against the company, culminating in the creation of a petition "Stop selling us inferior Exynos phones!" which currently has 34,000 signatures. Samsung, however, is refuting the whole thing. The company reportedly had this to say: The UK and the US are set to join a list of countries that have been evacuating their stranded nationals from India, with the Boris Johnson government on Sunday announcing the first wave of seven charter flights for some 20,000 Britons in different states. The UK government has said it will provide 75 million for special charter flights, where commercial routes do not exist, to bring home thousands of Britons stranded in various countries. The flights from India will depart from Goa on April 8, 10 and 12, from Mumbai on April 9 and 11, and from New Delhi on April 9 and 11. The flights cost each adult 681 from Goa, 600 from Mumbai and 581 from Delhi, and infants under the age of two will travel free. The UKs acting high commissioner to India, Jan Thompson, said: We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India. I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need. Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge. The UK government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible. Officials said the charter flights are for British travellers who normally reside in the UK and their direct dependants. A number of seats will be reserved for those deemed vulnerable. On Saturday, 113 of the most vulnerable British nationals left Goa on an Irish flight. An estimated 35,000 British nationals are currently in India but only some 20,000 have expressed a desire to return. The US, which flew out some 200 citizens from India on March 31, is set to operate a steady flow of flights from Delhi and Mumbai this week. People familiar with developments said several thousand Americans, most of them stranded tourists and travellers, will be evacuated by these flights. The US embassy announced on Sunday there will be flights from New Delhi to San Francisco (April 6, 7 and 8) and from Mumbai to Atlanta (April 7 and 10). We do not know for how long US government-organised flights returning to the United States will continue after this week. We urge US citizens who want to return to the United States to take advantage of the current opportunities, the embassy said in an alert posted on its website. The embassy said it will also facilitate transportation to Delhi from some cities in northern and eastern India, including flights from Dehradun, Amritsar and Chandigarh, and bus services from Ludhiana and Dharamsala. It will also arrange flights from Chennai and Hyderabad to Mumbai. A total of 22 countries evacuated almost 14,000 people from India till late last week, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Germany has flown out some 3,000 citizens in about 10 flights from different Indian cities, Japan about 2,300 in some 10 flights, Malaysia about 2,100 citizens in 13 flights, Israel about 1,600 citizens in eight flights, and Russia almost 1,100 citizens in four flights. France, which has so far evacuated 400 nationals in one flights, has plans to evacuate almost 1,600 more stranded tourists and travellers. Special arrangements have also been made by the countries to arrange movement permits in view of domestic travel restrictions currently in force across India. These permits call on Indian authorities to allow passage, without delay or detention, to the foreign nationals. The people cited above said there are currently no plans to arrange flights to bring back Indians stranded abroad. The government recently advised stranded Indians to stay put and Indian missions have been tasked to help them. Getty Germany and France have accused the US of taking face masks already ordered by Europe as the coronavirus pandemic continued to cause rising international tensions. Politicians in Berlin and Paris both said America had been using unfair means to undermine their own attempts to secure personal protective equipment. Andreas Geisel, Germanys interior minister, claimed the US had confiscated 200,000 masks ordered from a US producer as they transited through Thailand. We view this as an act of modern piracy, he said on Friday. You cannot act in such a way among transatlantic partners. Such wild west methods cant dominate, even in a time of global crisis. A city leader in Paris, meanwhile, said unidentified Americans had paid excessive prices to secure Chinese-made masks that had already been ordered by France. A load was taken from us by Americans who overbid on a batch that we had identified, Valerie Pecresse, regional president of Paris, said. We pay on delivery because we want to see the masks, while Americans pay cash and without looking. Of course, this is more attractive for those who just seek to turn a profit on the back of the worlds distress. She did not say whether the people involved were government officials, company representatives or private individuals. But the US embassy in Paris said suggestions that the White House may have been involved in were completely false. With hundreds of people now dying every day across the US and Europe, the incidents could be seen to highlight the fundamental distrust growing between the two allies and may hamper efforts to collectively tackle Covid-19. Read more Coronavirus: 7 ways to support local businesses amid outbreak Coronavirus: What is herd immunity and is it a possibility? Coronavirus news from overnight more young people dying, says WHO Lockdown restrictions could be relaxed by May if public obey rules UK warned to follow coronavirus lockdown rules ahead of sunny weekend Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. As the coronavirus changes holiday traditions, one local organization, Macaroni Kid, is working to keep the fun and memories alive in Springfield. Macaroni Kid is an organization that provides free resources and activities for parents and caregivers. Recently, it created and united neighbors for a safe no-contact alternative egg hunt. Since this is typically the peak season for Easter egg hunts, Janel Plunkard, a publisher for Macaroni Kid, says they wanted to create an activity for families to enjoy. Plunkard says although it's different, the goal is to spread happiness and positivity in the community. "The take away that we want families to take from this event is that they're still able to have fun and make memories even though the traditions this year look a little different than in previous years," expressed Plunkard. HOW TO EGG HUNT: The idea of the egg hunt is simple. To participate print out eggs, decorate, and place on your front door or a street-facing window, visible for egg hunters to spot. Families can then go for a neighborhood walk and spot them. Hunters and decorators have the option to add their address to the Neighborhood Egg Hunt Google Map, to help local families locate nearby eggs. You can tally them up, take pictures, or turn it into a friendly competition. It's meant to keep the tradition and smiles alive while still having fun and being safe. Organizers are asking participants to be safe and practice social distancing if you do search for eggs. To print out an egg and participate click There have been plenty of action-adventure films about an anarchist bent on doing evil with a fast-moving plane, bus or submarine. In a plot that appears not to have been well thought out, a train engineer allegedly tried to do harm to the USNS Mercy at the Port of Los Angeles this week with a short line locomotive. To reach the deck of the Navy hospital ship, the 200,000-pound-plus locomotive would have had to rocket off the tracks and go airborne like Steve McQueen's Mustang in "Bullitt" and soar over a channel at least 120 feet wide. The Pacific Harbor Line (PHL) engineer, Eduardo Moreno of San Pedro, California, was arrested immediately after the locomotive derailed Tuesday afternoon at the Port of LA. The federal charge of train wrecking, filed Wednesday, could land him in prison for 20 years. The 1,000-bed USNS Mercy arrived at the port late last week to provide relief to area hospitals overburdened with COVID-19 patients. Over the weekend, the ship's medical staff began treating patients not infected with the coronavirus. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Moreno told LA port police that he believed the Mercy could be part of a government takeover. "In a second interview with FBI agents, Moreno stated that he did it out of the desire to wake people up,'" the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "Moreno stated that he thought that the USNS was suspicious and did not believe the ship is what they say it's for.'" A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer witnessed the derailment and took Moreno into custody. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Moreno told the officer, "You only get this chance once. The world is watching. I had to. People don't know what's going on here. Now they will." Phillip Sanfield, director of media relations for the Port of LA, told American Shipper that Moreno never had a chance of reaching the Mercy with a locomotive. Story continues "First of all, there were no train tracks that went to the Mercy, so there was no way via train track that he would have gotten close," Sanfield said. "If he went off the tracks, he would have had to have gone through a large parking area, a grassy area and then there was a channel of at least 30 to 40 yards before the Mercy. Obviously, that was not going to happen." PHL is a short line railroad that serves marine terminals at the ports of LA and Long Beach. It has about 190 employees. PHL spokesman Stefan Friedman told American Shipper that the company learned early Tuesday afternoon that a "locomotive pulling a single rail car was traveling at a high rate of speed and traveled off the end of a dead-end track in the Port of Los Angeles. The engineer of the train has been arrested and charged and we are fully cooperating with all authorities as they proceed with their investigation. PHL has resumed its normal operations in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach." Friedman said Moreno has been decertified as a locomotive engineer. Engineers are required to be certified as part of Federal Railroad Administration regulations. "Railroads have the authority to revoke the certification for prohibited conduct," Friedman said, adding that without certification, Moreno will be unable to work as an engineer for any U.S. railroad. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, the CHP officer witnessed the locomotive "smash into a concrete barrier at the end of the track, smash into a steel barrier, smash into a chain-link fence, slide through a parking lot, slide across another lot filled with gravel and smash into a second chain-link fence," coming to rest some 250 yards from the Mercy. Sanfield said the Port of LA did not have a cost estimate for repairs but called the damage minimal. "There was very little damage done. He came off the rails and went through a fence essentially," Sanfield said. Photo: U.S. Navy See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. "I've walked away dissatisfied from too many interviews with politicians," says Barrie Cassidy, who stepped down as host of ABC's Insiders last June. "Whether that's my fault or theirs, I'm not sure; I've just never got a great deal of satisfaction from it." This Thursday, Cassidy's first episode of One Plus One the in-depth interview series previously anchored by Jane Hutcheon debuts on ABC. For the veteran journalist, it's a welcome change from grilling media-trained politicians. One Plus One host Barrie Cassidy. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer "I want One Plus One to feel like a relaxed, fireside chat," Cassidy says. "Of course, it takes a lot of effort for an interview to seem 'naturally' conversational and my researchers are terrific. They compile acres of material and by the time we do the interview, there's not much I don't know about the person." Cassidy recorded six episodes of an intended eight-part season, focusing on leadership in modern Australia, before the coronavirus pandemic halted filming. His guests include retired senior public servant Dennis Richardson ("he has respect for his political masters but fearlessly gives them the advice they need"), The Sydney Morning Herald's award-winning investigative reporter Kate McClymont ("she's inspiring because she chose the toughest path") and Charlie Magnuson, captain of the Bawley Point Rural Fire Brigade in south-eastern NSW. For many out-of-work Americans, the first of the month looms larger now than it did just four short weeks ago. Even if your landlord has announced rent cuts or is helping you cover the rent due, you may be wondering just what to do on the first of the month. Youre not alone. Two weeks ago, a record 3.28 million Americans filed unemployment claims, and the figures for last week are expected to be even higher. That number likely understates, by far, the number of people who have lost income as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It's hard to pin down just how many tenants won't be able to make rent in April and May. What's certain is that "we're going to get so many people who aren't used to being in this situation navigating this for the first time," said Edmund Witter, senior managing attorney at the King County (Wash.) Bar Association's Housing Justice Project. "There's going to be a lot of economic uncertainty in a lot of people's lives." Landlords anticipate that in some buildings primarily housing hourly wage-earners, as many as 50% of tenants may be unable to pay some or all of their rent. "They never taught this scenario in any property management classes," said Darren Reynolds, the property management director for Pilot Northwest, which owns and manages properties in the Seattle area. The firm, like many across the state, has asked tenants to reach out if they expected not to be able to meet rent in the coming months. It's offering temporary rent reductions and payment plans to some tenants whose income has been affected by the virus. Landlords are free to decide for themselves how much rent relief to offer tenants or whether to offer it at all. Many are examining tenant requests for rent cuts or payment plans on a case-by-case basis. What youre able to negotiate with them will determine how much back rent piles up before the end of the eviction moratorium. If you can't make your rent, here's how to start talking to your landlord. 1. Dont panic. Some states and municipalities have enacted eviction moratoriums, meaning youre not going to lose your home immediately. Tenants in most public housing cant be evicted until July 25. That includes properties with federally backed mortgages. And because its difficult to find new renters during the coronavirus shutdown, landlords have a really large incentive to work with you, Witter said. 2. Assess your resources and gather your documents. Most tenant advocates agree that if youre able to pay your rent in full, you should rent strikes, while politically popular, will still leave you on the hook for back rent. Look at how much you can reasonably pay now, keeping rent as a top priority, Witter said: Its your shelter. If you have any documentation that specifically ties loss of income to the COVID-19 pandemic say, a letter from your employer, successive pay stubs showing lost hours, or proof of employment in an industry thats been forced to close gather those to present to your landlord. If you know you wont be able to cover rent in full, there are many organizations specializing in rental assistance that can help. Start by calling 2-1-1, which helps direct people to health and human services located in your community. Many rental assistance programs are specific to location and household. 2-1-1 operators can assess which programs you qualify for. 3. Contact your landlord, in writing. Explain the situation. If youre going to be late on rent, tell your landlord when you believe you can have the payment. If youre not sure, propose a payment plan. Include documentation of your loss of income, if you have it. For landlords and property managers, the biggest fear is being taken advantage of, said Jason Kono, a principal at Pilot Northwest. How do you work with people who need it, while not being taken advantage of by people who see this opportunistically? Showing that youre being honest and realistic about what you can pay, Witter said, will help the landlord see youre acting in good faith. 4. Draft a payment plan with your landlord. Dont expect a landlord to agree to a payment plan thats going to last more than a year, said William Justyk, a real estate attorney with landlord clients who also volunteers with the Housing Justice Project. But offering to pay back what you owe in six months is reasonable, he said. As for a short timeline, like three months I would encourage a landlord to accept that. Dont oversell your ability to pay, though. Ask your landlord not to slap on any late fees and go out as far as the landlord will let you, said Mark Chattin, the director of Catholic Community Services of Western Washingtons tenant law center. We still dont know how long this will go on. 5. Stay in touch with your landlord. The federal government Sunday extended lockdown guidelines through the end of April, meaning local dining, hospitality and retail employees, not to mention gig workers, are likely in for at least another month of tenuous employment. We already know that whatever we figure out (with tenants) now is likely to be entirely different in 30 days, Kono said. As your employment situation changes, keep your landlord up to date about your ability to pay. If negotiations sour and you find yourself in need of legal advice, call 2-1-1 to learn about free legal resources for tenants. Above all, make sure you know your rights. Different jurisdictions have enacted a patchwork of eviction moratoriums that expire on different days. Some prevent landlords from charging late fees, others might not. Its important to note that the moratoriums dont prevent all evictions: Landlords can still evict tenants if they believe it is necessary to ensure the health and safety of the tenant or others. And if you live in federally subsidized housing, or if your landlord has a federally backed mortgage or receives a low-income housing tax credit, you cant be evicted until July 25, and your landlord cant charge late fees. MORE CORONAVIRUS ADVICE Youre getting your food to go. How much do you tip? Consumer Confidential: No coronavirus refund but credit for a future cruise? Are you kidding? If you cant get a time slot for grocery delivery, try these alternatives Should we wear masks to the grocery store? What coronavirus experts say Coronavirus aid: How does it work if you skip mortgage payments? Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 4) The Department of Tourism released a tribute music video on Saturday as a way of thanking COVID-19 frontliners, who continue to show their bravery amid the crisis. The agency tapped the song With a Smile, originally composed and sung by Ely Buendia during his Eraserheads days. Bea Lorenzo sings a new rendition in the tribute video. The video features several acts of kindness from COVID-19 frontliners, most especially health workers in the hospitals. Its main goal is to show gratitude to the frontliners and "sort of bring positivity in all of this," Lorenzo said. "It's not always gonna be with a smile on their face but like, you can tell that they're trying to lift people's spirits despite the situation that we're all in," she said. As of today, there are 3,094 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. The death toll is now at 144 and 57 have recovered from the disease. "Filipinos are known for their smiles. Even if we cant see the smiles behind the masks, their warmth can be felt in acts of compassion and kindness, the department said in their Facebook post. Watch the video here: Almost three months have passed since COVID-19 began its spread beyond Chinas borders, and the market remains in free fall. Capping off another volatile week, stocks fell on Friday April 3 in response to disappointing U.S. economic data, offsetting gains posted in the previous session. Based on a new report from the Labor Department, the U.S. economy saw 701,000 jobs erased in March, much more than economists originally expected as the figure doesnt even include the 10 million unemployment filings that occurred after March 14. In addition, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that the state had experienced the biggest jump in COVID-19-related deaths the day before, sending the market plummeting even further. For those investors feeling hopeless right now, theres a bright spot on the horizon. Several companies have stepped up to the plate, developing innovative solutions to fight off the deadly virus. According to some Wall Street pros, these new technologies represent a possible inflection point in the war against COVID-19, and could even help drive the stock markets recovery. Taking all of this into consideration, we used TipRanks database to get more information on three stocks at the frontline of the COVID-19 battle. The investing platform revealed that all of these Buy-rated tickers have been flagged by some analysts for their technologys huge potential. Lets get started. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) In the fight against COVID-19, Abbotts tests to identify the virus have helped healthcare providers make significant headway. Along with its molecular test that is already being used in labs throughout the U.S., the company revealed on April 3 that the FDA granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for a rapid coronavirus testing system. As the product can detect positive results in five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, much faster than any other available COVID-19 tests, Wall Street focus has locked in on ABT. Story continues Weighing in for Barclays, analyst Kristen Stewart believes the test will be performed on the ID NOW platform, an isothermal nucleic acid amplification technology, and thus offers advantages that go beyond its speed. The system is easy to use with minimal training. The tests are CLIA waived, which is an advantage and allows for the placement in physician offices and urgent care offices. We estimate there are at least 15,000 systems in the United States, placed throughout physician offices, urgent care offices, and other healthcare facilities, Stewart explained. As for the total opportunity, Stewart doesnt dispute that Abbotts manufacturing capacity, which she thinks would be the rate limiting factor as there is significant demand for the test, remains unclear. The pricing would likely be under the non-CDC pricing ~$51 level, perhaps in the $35-$45 range. We hope Abbott would supply these details when it announces approval, the analyst noted. That being said, 4 million of its molecular tests can be conducted each month on its m2000 systems, with ABT charging about $30 per test. As a result, Stewart kept an Overweight call and $98 price target on the stock. Should this target be met, a twelve-month gain of 23% could be in the cards. (To watch Stewarts track record, click here) Turning now to other Wall Street analysts, the bulls have it. With 8 Buy ratings and 3 Holds assigned in the last three months, the consensus rating comes in as a Moderate Buy. The $97.89 average price target implies only slightly less upside potential than Stewarts forecast. (See Abbott stock analysis on TipRanks) Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Next up is a consumer goods and healthcare heavyweight, Johnson & Johnson, which is developing a vaccine against COVID-19. After the company identified a lead candidate, one analyst thinks JNJ is one of the names capable of fueling the stock markets turnaround. With a lead experimental vaccine candidate selected, Kristen Stewart, who also covers ABT, points out that at the latest, JNJ can kick off Phase 1 human clinical studies by September 2020. According to management, the first doses of the vaccine could be available under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in early 2021. Adding to the good news, JNJ has significantly expanded its partnership with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), with both entities pledging more than $1 billion to co-fund the vaccines development and clinical testing. If that wasnt enough, Stewart notes BARDA and JNJ have provided additional funding to allow expansion of ongoing work to identify anti-viral treatments against COVID-19. However, while JNJ has ramped up the scaling of manufacturing capacity and has a target of supplying more than 1 billion vaccine doses, there is a risk that the candidate wont eventually receive approval. Having said that, Stewart argues the real goal is to develop an affordable vaccine on a not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use. She added, Thus we would anticipate the cost it would charge for the vaccine would recoup the cost of development, cost of scaling up the manufacturing, and cost of production. Thus, we would not look at the vaccine as being a windfall or major positive from a financial perspective. We believe J&J is doing the right thing and adhering to the companys long-running Credo. Despite the fact that its medical device business could take a hit as elective procedures are delayed, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, balanced portfolio, strong balance sheet and dividend, yielding 2.8% and paying out $3.80 per share annually, reaffirm Stewarts confidence. Bearing this in mind, she maintained a Buy rating and $173 price target. This implies shares could surge 29% in the next year. What does the rest of the Street have to say? Out of 9 recent reviews, 8 were bullish, making the consensus rating a Strong Buy. In addition, the $157.22 average price target brings the upside potential to 17%. (See Johnson & Johnson stock analysis on TipRanks) Gilead Sciences (GILD) Biotech Gilead Sciences has grabbed headlines left and right thanks to its experimental COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir. With the company now stating it will donate 1.5 million doses of the drug, which could treat 140,000 patients, its no wonder some analysts are standing firmly behind GILD. Shares are up 20% year-to-date, but Jeffries Michael Yee believes its growth story is still heating up. Looking at the big picture, he argues, GILD remains a defensive positioning stock particularly in this macro environment. We appreciate short-term trading has been mostly dictated around market volatility risk-on/off and expectations on remdesivir for COVID-19 data starting in April. That being said, theres more to this biotechs improving story. The company has placed a significant focus on expansion, with its recent M&A activity including a $5 billion deal with immuno-oncology company Forty Seven. Additionally, its second quarter Phase 3 filgotinib UC data readout could send shares on an upward trajectory as well as improve sentiment surrounding the drugs differentiation from AbbVie. Yee already thinks that the pbo-adjusted remission rates imply that filgotinib is competitive with other UC drugs. Expounding on this, he stated, While we expect investors to make cross-trial comparisons, we caution comparing directly to other UC datasets is imprecise due to differing baseline characteristics such as proportion of biologic naive/experienced and slightly different endpoints of the Mayo score. However -- recent commentary from GILD suggests positive confidence around results and good activity in both biologic naive and experienced. With an August PDUFA date for filgotinib in RA, Yee does, however, acknowledge that a class label Black Box could be given as a result of uncertainty related to degree of bleeding difference between various JAK drugs. Its also still unclear if filgotinib will be approved at the 200mg dose. Commenting on the second issue, Yee said, In any case, it's reasonable to approve 200mg particularly if the MANTA interim look is OK but FDA is a conservative bunch. Also, even if not, we point out ABBV was only approved at the low dose in RA as well so it would not be a totally critical issue. To this end, Yee reiterated a Buy recommendation and $89 price target, indicating 14% upside potential. (To watch Yees track record, click here) Looking at the consensus breakdown, 10 Buys, 9 Holds and 2 Sells add up to a Moderate Buy consensus rating. At $76.88, the average price target puts the downside potential at 2%. (See Gilead stock analysis 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. SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. It was a panel discussion on a college campus about the importance of rejecting extremism. And one of the supposed experts on tolerance participating was Jeff Schoep, a man who once called the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a glorious day for white solidarity in America. At California State University, San Bernardino, in the fall, Schoep, who led Americas largest neo-Nazi organization for 2 1/2 decades, shared that he had only recently renounced his racist views. The event was his first public appearance in the U.S. since making the announcement, and some members of the audience were skeptical. It makes it unsatisfying to know that eight months to a year ago, you would have hated us, Nicholas Flowers, a 22-year-old biracial student, told Schoep after the talk. Schoep is not the first racist in recent memory to renounce his former ways. Derek Black was a child star in the white power movement until he turned to speaking publicly against it. Joshua Bates posted a video of himself online burning his old neo-Nazi paraphernalia. Caleb Cain disavowed the self-described alt-right movement on YouTube, the same medium that brought him in. And just this month, Matthew Heimbach, who worked alongside Schoep, announced publicly that he was leaving white nationalism conveniently, skeptics say, while both he and Schoep face legal consequences for their roles in violence that broke out during the Charlottesville rally. Schoep, a former commander of the National Socialist Movement, may well have the highest profile among them. His announcement has generated heated discussion about the best way to defeat the resurgence of open bigotry tearing at the countrys social fabric. Some civil rights experts have said reformed neo-Nazis should use their outsize influence to draw others away from white nationalism. That is what Schoep says he wants to do, but what should the process of moving beyond his past look like? Americas Poster Boy for Nazism Schoep (pronounced scoop) and Heimbach are among more than two dozen defendants accused in a lawsuit of planning and carrying out the violence at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 that resulted in the murder of a counterprotester. A ruling against them could lead to significant financial penalties, among other consequences. No matter if you reform after the fact, we live in a country of laws, said Amy Spitalnick, director of Integrity First for America, a nonprofit group underwriting the lawsuit. Those who break those laws, those who violate peoples civil rights must be held accountable for it. The plaintiffs filed a motion last month that raises questions about Schoeps continued ties to the organization he said he has left. In a deposition, Burt Colucci, the new National Socialist Movement leader, said he still exchanged regular text messages with Schoep. In one exchange in October, Schoep warned Colucci that someone making threats against him may have been a federal informant trying to entrap him, according to the motion. Schoep said in an interview that Colucci had asked him if he knew anything about the threats, and he was simply assuring his former comrade that he had nothing to do with them. Critics say Schoep is simply trying escape legal liability, but he contends his new life has nothing to do with the lawsuits, and that he has put himself in danger by renouncing his former ways. Still, when youre Americas poster boy for Nazism for over two decades, that sticks, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Some who have witnessed the racism that Schoep has promoted over the years wonder why he should be shown mercy and forgiveness when they have been made to suffer. Why do black people have to go through so much to redeem themselves? asked Tanesha Hudson, a social justice activist and filmmaker from Charlottesville who was protesting against the rally. And yet, here he is, a white nationalist. Its OK for him to do what he did then say hes a changed man, and were supposed to be OK with that. Schoep, 46, recruited an untold number of people, including teenagers, into his organization. The National Socialist Movement, or NSM, grew to 61 chapters in 35 states under Schoep, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group. He told Flowers, the college student, that he knew for years that what he was doing was wrong. Its a process, he said of his departure. For about three years now, I knew better, but I was going through the motions. Thats what I did. Should I have kept going? No. Heidi Beirich, the former director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said his decision to publicly renounce the NSM was important, even if it is impossible to determine his sincerity. I hope to God its sincere, she said, but it doesnt hurt to have someone of his stature to say, This movement is not for me, its bad. Those who doubt Schoep point to his past stunts. They say he tried to escape legal responsibility in the Charlottesville case by signing over control of the NSM to a black man. The move backfired and upset his members so much that some have said he had little choice but to step down. Mike Schloar, who runs security for the NSM, said he believed that Schoep left because of the Charlottesville lawsuit. He led the largest white nationalist organization in the country and he just turns his back on it and tries to renounce it, Schloar said. To me, thats a traitor. You Have to Tear the House Down At his red brick home just outside of Detroit, Schoep said that he was out of the NSM for good and that his new goal was to persuade those he successfully lured into the white nationalist movement to follow him out. I have that skill set where I brought all these people to the movement, he said. That skill set was put to the wrong use. I feel a sense of responsibility to do something meaningful to fix that. He is also now a member of Parallel Networks, an anti-extremism organization co-founded by Jesse Morton, a former propagandist for al-Qaida. And yet Schoep can be defensive about the extent of his own wrongdoing. Although he says he is a reformed man, symbols of hate surround him. He has an iron cross and an eagle tattooed to his forearms, two recognized hate symbols that he hesitates to acknowledge as such. He is also hesitant to get rid of a trove of old white nationalist albums and apparel that he owns. One part of me wants to say, Lets do a big bonfire, he said, but that would feel like setting money ablaze. Molly Conger, an anti-fascist researcher and citizen journalist, said that Schoep should be working with law enforcement and activists to undermine the organization he helped grow, and not just speaking out against it. You have to name names, you have to share intelligence, you have to disrupt what youve built, said Conger, who lives in Charlottesville. You have to tear the house down behind you on your way out. Trying to Outrun the Past Morton of Parallel Networks says that Schoep needs time. He has a yearslong journey ahead of him that requires transforming his worldview through intense self-examination. Hes on his way to making those realizations, Morton said. Schoep said he joined the National Socialist American Workers Freedom Movement, a neo-Nazi group founded in Minnesota by two former officials of the American Nazi Party, when he was 18 years old. By 21, he became the groups commander and rebranded it as the NSM, its original name. There was no grand epiphany that led him to what he is doing now, Schoep said. Rather, it was small things here and there a black man who helped him fix his car, a Jewish woman who invited him into her home. Imagine waking up every day and being pissed off at the world. Oh, the Jews are holding us down, or the blacks are holding us down, he said. You just become distrusting of everything. Its a really negative way to live. Deeyah Khan, a London-based filmmaker who is Muslim, said Schoeps veneer appeared to be cracking the first time she interviewed him in 2017 for White Right: Meeting the Enemy, her documentary about the rise of white nationalism. Khan ended up going to Charlottesville with Schoep for the rally. To her surprise, she said, he was protective of her and made sure his followers treated her with respect. After spending many hours with him, she said, she came away believing he was utterly misguided but would eventually break with his hateful allies. Christian Picciolini, a former white extremist who has been working to disengage people from the movement for two decades, counseled Schoep before he publicly left the NSM. Schoep appeared on Picciolinis television series Breaking Hate on MSNBC last year. The two have since had a falling out. Picciolini said he believed that Schoep was diving too quickly into intervention work without taking the proper steps to understand his own issues that he needed to see a therapist and go into the communities he targeted, listen to the people he hurt and ask for forgiveness. Ive seen people trying to disengage who havent done the work and try to outrun their past, fall into something else, Picciolini said. I think hes not interested in paying the price for having been in the movement. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Himachal Pradesh police has issued a stern warning to district heads of Tablighi Jamaat to either disclose details of all those who attended the event in Delhi last month by Sunday 5 pm or face action. DGP Sita Ram Mardi has also asked the Jamaat members to contact the administration and isolate themselves. "If we come to know after 5 pm today that they deliberately hid the information, FIRs for the charge of attempt to murder will be registered against them under section 307 of IPC, besides the Disaster Management Act," he warned. The police said the Jamaat district heads will be booked for murder under IPC section 302 if any person is found infected with coronavirus due to their negligence. Seventeen FIRs have already been registered against 85 Jamaat members for deliberately hiding the information and violating curfew in the last five days, the DGP said. Besides, 277 people who returned to the state after attending the Jammat have been identified and quarantined in various districts, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chandigarh, April 5 : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of welfare of Indian students who are facing problems in Australia due to lockdown with his Australian counterpart. In a message to the Australian Prime Minister, Sukhbir said the students who were currently facing problems in Australia had paid fee to colleges there and were contributing to the Australian economy. He said it was unfortunate that at a time when the students needed help due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the Australian PM was asking them to go home. "This is not expected at a time like this. The Australian government should take note of the positive contribution of Indians who arrived in Australia as students and went on to take the country where it is today," Sukhbir said in a statement to the media here. He also appealed to Punjabis to look after the students, many of whom did not have additional funds, as their parents had sold properties to fund their education. He urged all Punjabis as well as gurdwara managements to extend help to the students be it by arranging their stay or by arranging foodstuff for them as and when required. One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 An emergency department physician in San Francisco recalled two deaths that were probably coronavirus but not identified as such. One patient died at home; a relative in the same home later tested positive for the disease. Another patient was an older man who came to the hospital with typical coronavirus symptoms, and who had been in contact with someone recently traveling to China, but arrived at the hospital before testing was available. In New York City, emergency medical workers say that infection and death rates are probably far higher than reported. Given a record number of calls, many ambulance crews have encouraged anyone not critically ill to stay home. The result, medics say, is that many presumed coronavirus patients may never know for sure if they had the virus, so any who later die at home may never be categorized as having had it. Across the country, coroners are going through a process of re-evaluation, reconsidering deaths that occurred before testing was widely available. Coroners and medical examiners generally investigate deaths that are considered unusual, or result from accidents or suicides, or occur at home. Joani Shields, the coroner in Monroe County, Ind., said she wondered about a man diagnosed with pneumonia who died in early March. A coronavirus test was requested at the time, but the local health department denied it, Ms. Shields said, on the ground that the supply of tests was too limited. I wish we could have tested him, she said. In Shelby County, Ala., Lina Evans, the coroner, said she was now suspicious of a surge in deaths in her county earlier this year, many of which involved severe pneumonia: We had a lot of hospice deaths this year, and now it makes me go back and think, wow, did they have Covid? Did that accelerate their death? Ms. Evans, who is also a nurse, is frustrated that she will never know. When we go back to those deaths that occurred earlier this year, people who were negative for flu, now were having the aha! moment, she said. They should have been tested for the coronavirus. As far as underreporting, I would say, definitely. Haryana cabinet minister Anil Vij took a dig at the Congress party's first family on Sunday for opposing PM Modi's 9 pm-9 min appeal on April 5. Taking to Twitter, Anil Vij pointed out that while Italians were uniting to show solidarity via clapping and lighting lamps for the Coronavirus frontliners, the 'son & daughter' of the Congress president were opposing the gesture. Further, the minister said that the Congress was playing petty politics even at the time of an emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic. Italy is perhaps the country that has been worst hit in terms of severity by the Coronavirus outbreak. Numerous countries have followed suit after India had on Janta curfew day come out at 5 pm to thank those fighting Coronavirus at the frontlines. READ | HD Kumaraswamy Wants 'scientific & Rational' Explanation For PM Modi's 9 Pm-9 Min Appeal Anil Vij takes a dig at Congress ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) April 5, 2020 READ | 'Opening Karnataka Borders To Kerala At This Point Will Be Like Embracing Death': Yeddiyurappa Rahul Gandhi slams PM Modi's 'light diyas for 9 minutes' idea Slamming PM Modi's 'light diyas for 9 minutes' idea on April 5, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday stated that the PM's suggestion to clap handles or shine torches won't solve India's problem. Gandhi also reiterated that India is not testing enough among COVID-19 cases, compared to South Korea, Italy, Germany. ICMR has stated that India has currently tested upto 66,000 samples till April 2 using 30% of the country's capacity. India is simply not testing enough to fight the #Covid19 virus. Making people clap & shining torches in the sky isn't going to solve the problem. pic.twitter.com/yMlYbiixxW Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 4, 2020 READ | Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur Sanctions Rs 1 Cr For PPE, N95 Masks For Cops PM Modi's appeal PM Modi, in an address to the nation on Friday, appealed to the citizens to switch off the lights in their homes for nine minutes on April 5 at 9 pm in order to show the nation's unity in the fight against coronavirus pandemic. PM Modi in his third COVID-19 speech said, "On Sunday, April 5, we must challenge Coronavirus & introduce it to the power of light; 1.3 billion people must show their united power, at 9 pm for 9 minutes, by turning off all lights at home, standing at balconies, & lighting diyas, candles, flashlights." In his appeal, PM Modi reiterated people to maintain social distancing and keep off from the streets. Currently, India has reported 3030 COVID-19 cases with 77 deaths till date. READ | COVID-19 Cases Rise To 445 In Delhi, Kejriwal Says No Community Transmission The Pune police booked eight nationals of Tanzania of the Tablighi Jamaat for allegedly carrying out community-related services during the lockdown period. Among the eight, four are women and four are men. They were sent to the Naidu Hospital for a Covid-19 test twice - on Sunday and once on March 24. On both the instances, they were found to have tested negative for Covid-19, according to assistant police inspector PR Shikalgar of Samarth police station who is investigating the case. They were all found at Chand Tara Masjid in Nana peth which is the local head office of Tablighi Jamaat, according to API Shikalgar. They were found by the Wanowrie police station officials once on March 24 and a test was conducted on them. They had tested negative then and were advised to remain in home quarantine. However, since then, they visited multiple other masjids, against the advice. They have tested negative today as well. However, now they are in institutional quarantine at Draupadibai Khedekar Hospital in Bopodi, said API Shikalgar. Their passports were seized and a case under Sections 188, 269, 270 of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 14 of Foreigners Act, 1946; Section 3 and 4 of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and Section 21 of Maharashtra Covid-19 regulations has been registered at the Samarth police station against the eight people. The police have found that the eight arrived in India at the Mumbai airport on March 5 on tourist visa, which is valid. From the Mumbai airport, they travelled to Delhi and roamed in the Nizamuddin area which is also a hub of Tablighi Jamaat. However, they were not present in the organisations meet held in Nizamuddin area of Delhi, according to officials. Scores of people who attended the meet in Delhi have been found to have contracted Covid-19. The Tanzanian nationals then came to the Chand Tara Masjid on March 11 and went to various masjids in the city. After testing negative once, instead of staying quarantined, the eight people have stayed at Masjid-e-Rehmaniya in Kasewadi area of Pune; Rizwani Masjid in Mominpura; Bhagyodaynagar area of Kondhwa; Abu-Bakr Masjid in Kondhwa; Ayesha Masjid in Sayyednagar; Hadapsar; Daulit Masjid in Hadapsar; Madari Chawl in Ghorpadi; and Khadki Madari Masjid in Pune, before arriving back at Chand Tara Masjid on March 29, according to the police. The order prohibiting assembly in Pune under Section 144(1)(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was issued by Ravindra Shisve, joint commissioner of Pune police, on March 22. The order came into force on March 23 and was renewed on March 31 and will be in force till April 14. The information about these eight people was provided to the local police station officials by the officials of the Special Branch of Pune police. An alligator ignored suggestions to stay at home duting the coronavirus pandemic, and was seen walking around outside a shopping center in South Carolina. Although there is no state-wide stay-in-order in place, there were few people around at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach to scare the animal away on Wednesday Clifford Sosis captured video of the alligator walking around the usually-busy shopping area - outside a Christmas ornaments store. 'It appears nature is already beginning to reclaim this little bit of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,' Sosis can be heard saying in the video. 'That is a real-life gator hanging out in the middle of this otherwise busy or usually busy shopping center. I guess he is planning on going to Christmas Mouse. Pretty crazy.' An alligator approaches a promenade at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach on Wedneday The alligator is taking advantage of no stay-at-home order being in place in South Carolina South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has been reluctant to order a shelter-in-place measure for the state, but did direct all non-essential businesses to close last Wednesday. And with many residents staying at home, the animal had free rein of the area. The next day, Folly Beach Public Safety in South Carolina also got reports of an alligator hanging out on a beach. Other states have reported animals roaming around in areas normally inhabited by humans, who are now practicing social distancing to avoid of coronavirus The following day, public safety officials in South Carolina also got reports of another alligator hanging out on a beach Gov McMaster has also encouraged social distancing and closed a limited amount of outdoor public spaces. South Carolina is one of nine states throughout the country with no state-wide stay-at-home order in place. As of April 4, South Carolina has more than 1,900 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 40 deaths, according to the state's health department website. US method of sourcing protective gear baffling world amid coronavirus crisis Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 10:30 AM The Trump administration's method of sourcing protective equipment to tackle the coronovirus pandemic has baffled the world, with France and Germany leveling the harshest criticism at Washington. The United States seized on Friday 200,000 masks set to be shipped to the European countries amid the coronavirus outbreak, with reports emerging that the masks made by a Chinese producer for the US company 3M were initially bound for Germany before being diverted in Thailand and sent to the United States instead. Andreas Geisel, the German interior minister, denounced the diversion as "an act of modern piracy" and appealed to the government in Berlin to demand Washington's conformity to international trading rules. Geisel blasted the seizure as one of those "wild west methods," and said US President Donald Trump was showing "a lack of solidarity" with other countries caught up in the coronavirus pandemic. The US move comes as Trump has been desperately trying to secure masks and other personal protective equipment for Americans as the country's emergency stockpile depletes. Valerie Pecresse, the influential president of the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris, described as a "treasure hunt" the race to obtain masks during the global fight against the pandemic. "I found a stock of masks that was available and Americans I'm not talking about the American government but Americans, outbid us," Pecresse said. "They offered three times the price and they proposed to pay upfront. I can't do that. I'm spending taxpayers' money and I can only pay on delivery having checked the quality," she added. "So we were caught out." Pecresse said she had finally obtained a consignment of 1.5 million masks thanks to the help of Franco-Chinese residents in the Paris area. With the French media calling the rush for medical equipment "mask wars," other French regional heads also said unidentified American buyers outbid on mask shipments. "We really have to fight," Jean Rottner, a doctor and president of the Grand Est regional council, told RTL radio, as his area has been badly hit by the Covid-19 cases. Moreover, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also asked officials to investigate similar instances that masks were being diverted from his country, calling such reports "concerning." The coronavirus pandemic continues to cause mayhem in the US, with the overall death toll exceeding 7,000 and the confirmed cases standing at more than 277,000. The Trump administration has come under fire from medical staff and Democrats for belittling the deadly virus. In New York, the US state hardest hit by the coronavirus in the number of infections and lives lost, the fatalities rose above 2,900 which is on a par with the death toll from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Meanwhile, reports have emerged that Israel, a close US ally, has also been running clandestine operations to sneak the medical supplies ordered by countries fighting the coronavirus outbreak into Israel. A senior official with Israel's Mossad revealed that Tel Aviv had ordered the spy agency to procure up to 130,000 objects related to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in Israel, ranging from protective gear to test kits, medicine, and ventilators. "We are utilizing our special connections to win the race," the official said, adding that the spy agency was seeking to do so by trying to "lay our hands on stocks ordered by others." The report did not disclose in which countries Mossad was running those operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Quick SARS-CoV-2 tests conducted in Hanoi's Cau Giay district (Photo: VNA) The 240th patient is a 29-year-old Vietnamese woman from Luc Nam district in the northern province of Bac Giang who lived and worked in Bangkok, Thailand. On March 19, she joined a party in Thailand with the family of the 166th patient a 25-year-old woman also from Bac Giang province. On March 20, she returned to Hanoi on flight VN618, seat 28B from Bangkok and was sent to a concentrated quarantine camp in Nho Quan district, Ninh Binh province upon arrival. She developed a fever on March 31 and tested positive to SARS-CoV-2 on April 1 at Ninh Binh provinces General Hospital. Her six roommates at the quarantine camp all tested negative for the virus on the same day. On March 30, health officials in the central province of Quang Binh isolated eight people who had been in close contact with the 166th patient when they were in Thailand. As of April 4 afternoon, Vietnam has successfully treated 90 COVID-19 patients. The number of suspected infections was 3,736, down 935 cases compared to April 3. The healthcare sector also urged localities to trace all people who had come in contact with the 237th patient a Swedish man who was confirmed infected with COVID-19 on April 1 after being hospitalised following an accident. Matthew Hardman (pictured), 17, ripped out a 90-year-old woman's heart and drank her blood A teenage paperboy with a vampire obsession, who ripped out a 90-year-old woman's heart and drank her blood, is the latest murderer to feature in Channel 5 series The Kids Who Kill. Matthew Hardman, then 17, broke into Mabel Leyshon's bungalow in Anglesey, North Wales, in December 2001, carrying one of the most gruesome murders in UK legal history in a bid to become immortal. The documentary details how killer Hardman stabbed Ms Leyshon 22 times, cut open her chest to remove her heart, and drank the blood from it before cutting out her heart and laying two pokers in a cross shape by her feet. Ms Leyshon's body was found two days later, shocking officers from North Wales Police to their core. Hardman, who was an art student, had previously attacked a German exchange student after she refused to bite him on the neck to make him immortal, the Sunday Express reports. The violent offender told police that old people were the sort to have their blood drunk by vampires. It transpired that he had been smoking cannabis and had searched the Internet for 'vampires, gothic flesh eating and other macabre things'. Mabel Leyshon (pictured with her dog Bibi) was stabbed 22 times, before Hardman - who had been smoking cannabis - ripped out her heart and drank her blood Det Sgt Iestyn Davies said Hardman had 'this deep-rooted insanity', adding: 'He believed if he murdered this old lady of 90, disembowelled her, ripped her heart out and drank her blood, he would be a vampire for ever.' The officer added: 'Now, to believe that is insane. 'He was one of the most violent evil offenders that I have dealt with.' Hardman was convicted and jailed for life after three hours' deliberations at Mold Crown Court in August 2002. Det Supt Jones said: 'If he had got away with it, if we had not discovered him, he could have gone on and committed further horrendous crimes.' During the sentencing Judge Mr Justice Richards said all the evidence pointed to the fact that Hardman believed he could achieve immortality by killing Mrs Leyshon and drinking her blood. Mr Justice Richards said: 'You have been convicted by the jury on the strength of the most compelling evidence. 'The horrific nature of this murder was plain to all. It was a vicious and sustained attack on a vulnerable old lady in her own home, aggravated by the mutilation of her body after she had been killed. 'It was planned and carefully calculated. 'Why you should have acted in this way is difficult to comprehend but I am drawn to the conclusion that vampirism had indeed become a near obsession with you, that you really did believe that this myth may be true, that you did think that you would achieve immortality by the drinking of another person's blood and you found this an irresistible attraction.' The Kids Who Kill documentary, exploring gruesome crimes, is being shown on Channel 5 Mr Justice Richards continued: 'It may well seem incredible but in my judgment that is where the evidence leads. 'One might hope for a psychological explanation for your behaviour but none is offered. 'I must proceed on the basis that you are of sound mind and I must look for an explanation for your behaviour elsewhere. 'You have specific learning difficulties but this can't account for it. 'I can make an allowance for a degree of confused thinking and immaturity, for some childish fantasising, but the fact remains this was an act of great wickedness and one that you have not faced up to and one for which you have not shown any remorse. 'You hoped for immortality but all you have achieved is the brutal ending of another person's life and the bringing of a life sentence upon yourself.' The Kids Who Kill: Evil Up Close is being shown on Channel 5 and Sky. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) The seafood industry has been upended by the spread of the coronavirus, which has halted sales in restaurants and sent fishermen and dealers scrambling for new markets. Seafood is a global industry that relies on a complex network of fishermen, processors, buyers and distributors, all of which have been affected by the virus. A lack of demand has sent prices tumbling and led some fishermen to tie up their boats until the outbreak subsides. Members of the U.S. seafood industry are calling on the Trump administration and Congress to help them weather the uncertain time. But for now, the market for big-money items such as scallops and lobster is pretty much nonexistent, said Bert Jongerden, general manager of the Portland Fish Exchange, a Maine auction house. The auction house usually moves up to 60,000 pounds (27,215 kilograms) of fish in a week but is down to less than a third of that, Jongerden said. Heard some stories with people coming in with lobsters saying dealers wouldnt take them, Jongerden said. And we dont have a lot of fish. Shelter-in-place rules and closures have kept customers out of restaurants, where seafood typically fetches high prices. The worldwide shipping industry has also slowed considerably, in part because major markets like China, Italy and Spain have been hit especially hard. The result has been plummeting wholesale prices. The wholesale price for live 1.25-pound (570-gram) lobsters in March was 33% under 2018 levels, according to business publisher Urner Barry. A ripple effect has been a slowdown in distribution, processing and the most important piece of the supply chain fishing. The industry could further suffer from economic slowdown, said industry analyst John Sackton, publisher of SeafoodNews.com. Customers worried about a recession might be wary of spending their grocery budgets on seafood, which tends to be more expensive than other proteins, he said. The turmoil has prompted industry associations and companies with a stake in seafood, ranging from commodity giants like Cargill to local businesses, to ask the federal government for assistance. A coalition of organizations, including the National Fisheries Institute and National Aquaculture Association, sent a letter to the Trump administration in late March. Story continues The coalition suggested the federal government appropriate $500 million to purchase surplus commercial seafood that can be shipped overseas or supplied to domestic organizations. Failure to act boldly now to preserve our countrys seafood infrastructure will impose far greater costs on our economy and cause permanent damage to our nations ability to harvest, farm, process, and distribute seafood products, the coalition wrote. An aid package approved March 27 included $300 million to boost the industry. The stimulus package set aside the money for fishermen, fishing communities, processors and others who have suffered economic harm due to the virus. That could include direct payments. Some are turning to the retail market to try to help the industry stay afloat. Customers are still buying seafood at supermarkets, and theres a possibility for growth because more Americans are cooking at home amid shutdowns, Jongerden said. That could help the industry navigate a difficult time, said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermens Association, which represents small-boat fishermen in Maine. If we can get people playing with seafood at home again, its super good for our fishermen, its super good for our economy, he said. April is key to the New England scallop fishing season, and members are hopeful for better prices but its difficult to gauge what the market will look like, he said. In Canada, where much of the worlds lobster is processed, they're watching closely to see when the pandemic might abate, said Jerry Amirault, president of the Lobster Processors Association of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Processors normally get started in early May, but fishermen need to catch lobsters first, and this years harvest is in question. Were all undergoing the same type of realization this is an exceptional time in this pandemic, he said. Hamish Blake is returning to host LEGO Masters for its second season this year. On Sunday, the 38-year-old comedian revealed he 'steals' ideas from the show's contestant when he plays with his five-year-old son Sonny. Speaking to PopSugar, Hamish said: 'I feel like I cheat a little bit when I play with my son because I'm definitely stealing things that I saw someone do on the show and pretending to my son that I've made it. 'I feel like a cheat!' Hamish Blake (left) says he steals ideas from LEGO Masters contestants when he plays with his five-year-old son Sonny (right) 'And then he's going, "Dad, you're the best!" I probably should correct him and tell him that I just stole that technique from someone else, but I'll probably just let him think that I'm great at building LEGO.' For many children, having their father host a LEGO-based competition would be a dream - but Hamish's son does not yet realise how unique his father's job is. 'Any attempts by me to impress him that I'm doing the show doesn't seem to register. I don't think it's clicked that that's a non-traditional career,' Hamish said. Confession: On Sunday, the 38-year-old comedian revealed he 'steals' ideas from the show's contestant when he plays with his five-year-old son Sonny. Hamish shares two children Sonny, five, and daughter Rudy, two with his wife Zoe Foster Blake. The couple are believed to be in lockdown in Melbourne amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, Channel Nine released the first trailer for season two of LEGO Masters, which promises to be just as epic as the first. 'I wish you steady hands!' Hamish Blake (pictured) knocked over a life-size Lego motorcycle in the trailer for LEGO Masters season two One outrageous moment in the clip came when Hamish knocked over a life-size LEGO motorcycle, breaking it into pieces. The trailer also revealed that Ryan 'The Brickman' McNaught will be returning to judge and there will be whole new lineup of contestants, both male and female. LEGO Masters season two will return 'soon' to Channel Nine but a premiere date is yet to be confirmed. Steel PSUs have contributed over Rs 250 crore towards the PM-CARES Fund to combat the coronavirus pandemic. As per official data, miner NMDC has made the highest contribution among steel PSUs at Rs 155 crore. MOIL, another mining company under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, has donated Rs 48 crore. Steel makers Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) have given Rs 30 crore and Rs 6.16 crore respectively to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM-CARES) Fund. Pellet maker KIOCL has deposited an amount of Rs 10.10 crore into the fund. Consultancy firm Mecon has made a contribution of Rs 7.75 crore, while e-commerce firm MSTC and Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd (FSNL) have given Rs 5.54 crore and Rs 5 crore. The total contribution of public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the steel sector amounts to Rs 267.55 crore. Further, as part of efforts to contain spread of the virus, about 50 per cent of the staff of the PSUs have been asked to work from home, and only necessary operations at the units of these companies are on. Those on duty have been provided with proper safety equipment and the companies are sanitising their premises on a regular basis. The companies are also distributing food packets, masks, hand sanitizers and offering other medical assistance to the communities living near their facilities and offices in various states. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NUMBERS * Confirmed cases in Australia: 5,750. * Australian deaths: 37. Eleven were passengers on the Ruby Princess. * 91 people are in intensive care. 33 on ventilators. * It's estimated more than 2,000 people have recovered. * 291,000 people have been tested * The number of global coronavirus cases has passed one and a quarter million. MEASURES * The federal government has committed $320 billion, or 16.4 per cent of gross domestic product, to combat the virus' health and economic effects. * A $130 billion JobKeeper program to subsidise wages at $1500 a fortnight for six million workers, for up to six months. Parliament set to approve on Wednesday. * All registered charities will be able to access the JobKeeper program if they experience a 15 per cent decline in turnover. * Welfare recovery scheme robo-debt has been frozen for six months. * Free child care for people still in paid work in a $1.6 billion package to childcare centres. * All Australians must continue practising social distancing and stay at home unless going out for essentials or exercise. * People aged over 60 with chronic illness are discouraged from leaving their homes unless they need medical care. * NSW will establish a new disaster preparedness and recovery agency called Resilience NSW which will be headed by NSW Rural Fire Services chief, Shane Fitzsimmons. * Victoria to spend $20 million on hotel rooms for health workers who need to self-isolate. * Social distancing rules have been eased to allow churches to organise Easter service broadcasts and webcasts. * Australians returning home from overseas must be quarantined for two weeks in hotels or other accommodation before being allowed home. * Australians, excluding aid workers and compassionate cases, are banned from international travel. * Backpackers travelling to farms for fruit-picking and other jobs will be forced to self-isolate for 14 days to avoid spreading coronavirus. * All states are telling people no one should travel for the Easter holidays. * A new health advisory group will develop a care plan for people with disabilities. * South Australia is fast-tracking the graduation of new paramedics and the recruitment of triple zero operators. * SA Health has produced a book for children to help them understand the pandemic. * The federal government has announced a $5 million package to help keep rural and regional newspapers afloat. * Still open: supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, public transport, some schools, hairdressers, petrol stations, postal and freight services, bottle shops, newsagents, retail shops. Restaurants restricted to take-away/delivery in most states. * Closed: schools in Victoria and ACT, gyms, indoor sports venues, pubs, cinemas, nightclubs, casinos, places of worship, theme parks, auction houses, food courts in shopping centres, beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons, spas and tattoo parlours, galleries, museums, libraries, youth centres, community halls, clubs, RSL clubs, swimming pools, amusement parks, arcades, indoor and outdoor play centres, social sports that involve large groups, outdoor and indoor markets, outdoor playgrounds, outdoor gyms, skate parks. KEY QUOTE * 'I keep hearing messages that young people think this isn't going to affect them ... it can affect young people and it is currently affecting young people.' - NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS * NSW Police have launched a criminal investigation into whether Australian or NSW biosecurity laws were breached when passengers on the Ruby Princess were allowed to disembark. * The Queen has made a televised address to the British people and called on Australians to 'rise to the challenge' of the coronavirus pandemic. * UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital after showing persistent symptoms of coronavirus, ten days after testing positive for the infection. SPORT * The AFL, NRL, A-league soccer, Super Rugby and netball competitions are postponed. ECONOMICS * The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index is tipped to rise after finishing lower on Friday. * Moratorium on renters being evicted for the next six months. To be finalised next week. * Westpac has revised down its forecast for a rise in the unemployment to nine per cent. GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS * Cases: at least 1,267,593 * Deaths: at least 69,299 * Recovered: at least 261,134 *Source: State and federal government updates and Johns Hopkins website at 0730 AEST At least 19 people killed in a gang war in the northern state of Chihuahua, officials say. A shoot-out between rival drug gangs has killed 19 people in the northern Mexico border state of Chihuahua, according to the state prosecutors office. A total of 18 corpses, two grenades, vehicles and guns were found at the scene of the clash in the hamlet of Chuchuichupa in the township of Madera, the office said on Saturday. They are two criminal groups fighting over drug trafficking routes to the United States, Chihuahuas Attorney General Cesar Peniche told the Reuters news agency. Two other men were found armed and wounded on the dirt road where the confrontation took place late on Friday. One died later at a hospital and the other is in custody. Police and soldiers had been sent to secure the area, where groups allied with the Sinaloa cartel have been fighting other gangs, including a remnant of the Beltran Leyva gang and others aligned with the Juarez cartel. The killings occurred about 100km (62 miles) south of where nine US-Mexican dual citizens, members of a Mormon family, were ambushed and slain on November 4 by suspected drug-gang assassins. That incident, which took place on a remote road that connects the Sonora and Chihuahua states, sparked outrage and fears of a possible US invasion after President Donald Trump said he wanted to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist groups. The Mexican government blamed the La Linea cartel for the November 4 massacre. Mexico, which has long been plagued by drug cartel violence, saw more murders in March than any other month since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018. On Friday, Lopez Obrador said violence among criminal groups has persisted despite the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, which has infected more than 1,800 people in Mexico, killing 79. It seemed in late March, when the coronavirus had become more widespread, that we would have a considerable reduction [in violence], Lopez Obrador said. Unfortunately, it didnt turn out that way. Ten Indonesian nationals, including 5 women, who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin Delhi, have been booked by the Ghaziabad Police New Delhi: Ten Indonesian nationals, including 5 women, who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin Delhi, have been booked under various section of the Indian Penal Code, sections of Epidemic Diseases Act and Foreigners Act, 1897, informed Ghaziabad Police on Sunday. All of them have been placed under quarantine. The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana. Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday said that there are 3030 active cases of coronavirus in India, 266 have been cured/ discharged/ migrated. A total of 77 people have lost their lives to infection so far. Family members of a 71-year-old man from Vakola in Mumbai who died of coronavirus infection on Friday have claimed that civic-run Kasturba Hospital had refused to admit him when they failed to provide his travel history. One of the two sons of the deceased said on Sunday that family members came to know about the exact cause of the death only after local police informed them. "We first admitted my father to a civic-run facility after he complained of uneasiness on March 24. But as his health did not improve, we took him to a private doctor in Vakola," he said. He claimed that the family members approached a civic-run facility in Santacruz (east) last Thursday, but authorities there asked them to rush the man to Kasturba Hospital in south Mumbai. "They provided us an ambulance," he said. He said when they reached Kasturba Hospital, the nodal facility for COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, we were asked to provide travel history of the patient. "When we failed to provide travel history, they refused to admit my father," he claimed. I and my brother rushed my father to KEM Hospital on a two-wheeler on Thursday itself. "My father's treatment started on a bench at KEM Hospital. On one occasion he fell from a stretcher. Next day he was declared dead," he said. He claimed that no one from the hospital informed the family members that the man had died of COVID-19. "We came to know only after local police informed us," he claimed. The man was buried in the early hours of Sunday, he said, adding that they had not received any document stating the exact cause of death. Meanwhile, Shoeb Khatib, trustee of Bada Kabrastan in Marine Lines, said, "We were informed by hospital that he is a COVID-19 patient, hence we allowed his family members to bury him with all precautionary measures". Confirming that the deceased was a COVID-19 patient, a KEM Hospital official said that documents will be provided to his kin. A civic body official said that family members of the deceased have been quarantined and contact tracing is on. Kasturba Hospital officials cannot be contacted. Mumbai alone has reported 406 COVID-19 cases so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi: Amid coronavirus lockdown, popular Kannada actress Sharmiela Mandre and her friend K Lokesh Vasanth were injured in a car accident in Bengaluru in the wee hours of Saturday, reports Bangalore Mirror, Deccan Chronicle and other news websites. The incident took place near Vasanth Nagar after the car in which they were travelling rammed into a pillar. The Bangalore Mirror report adds that their car, a Jaguar, has been seized as at the time of registering a Medico Legal Case (MLC) at the hospital, the police was informed that the accident happened at Jayanagar, but the spot actually was Vasanth Nagar. Police suspect the false information was given to buy time and shift the car from the accident spot, the report further added. Sharmiela and her friend Vasanth were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital for medical assistance. They, however, got first aid and left after informing the authorities that they would take further treatment only after approaching their respective families. The 33-year-old actress has sustained injuries on her face while Vasanth has a fracture on his hand. The High Grounds traffic police have taken up a suo moto case after coming to know of the accident from the private hospitals MLC, reports Bangalore Mirror. Meanwhile, when the police began their investigation, a person present at the accident spot claimed that he was driving, but when he was asked to produce his documents, he took a U-turn and changed his version. A case under IPC sections 279 (rash and negligent driving) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of or others) has been reportedly filed. New York, April 5 : Neuron offers clues to why autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is more common in boys than in girls, say researchers. They found that a single amino acid change in the "NLGN4" gene, which has been linked to autism symptoms, may drive this difference in some cases. Researchers led by Katherine Roche from National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, compared two NLGN4 genes, (one on the X chromosome and one on the Y chromosome), which are important for establishing and maintaining synapses, the communication points between neurons. Every cell in our body contains two sex chromosomes. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one X and one Y chromosome. Until now, it was assumed that the NLGN4X and NLGN4Y genes, which encode proteins that are 97 per cent identical, functioned equally well in neurons. But using a variety of advanced technology including biochemistry, molecular biology, and imaging tools, the study, published in the journal Neuron, discovered that the proteins encoded by these genes display different functions. The NLGN4Y protein is less able to move to the cell surface in brain cells and is therefore unable to assemble and maintain synapses, making it difficult for neurons to send signals to one another. When the researchers fixed the error in cells in a dish, they restored much of its correct function. "We really need to look at NLGN4X and NLGN4Y more carefully. Mutations in NLGN4X can lead to widespread and potentially very severe effects in brain function, and the role of NLGNY is still unclear," said study first author Thien A Nguyen. The research team found that the problems with NLGN4Y were due to a single amino acid. They also discovered that the region surrounding that amino acid in NLGN4X is sensitive to mutations in the human population. In females, when one of the NLGN4X genes has a mutation, the other one can often compensate. However, in males, diseases can occur when there is a mutation in NLGN4X because there is no compensation from NLGN4Y, the researcher said. "The knowledge about these proteins will help doctors treating patients with mutations in NLGN4X better understand their symptoms," said Dr Roche. Numerous selfish cyclists from all over the North West in area police reiterate stay home message This article is old - Published: Sunday, Apr 5th, 2020 Police have been asking the people to share a single message, rather than the virus. In a range of updates local policing teams have shared several images of the good, and the bad of the lockdown response. The above emoji censored image appears to have been taken around Glyn Ceiriog, and was shared by police who said: Dear cyclists, Mr Johnson is very keen for us to exercise, but the main thing to remember is to KEEP LOCAL. They stated that officers had spoken to numerous cyclists in the Chirk and Glyn Valley, adding Many had travelled from all over the North West! They reminded people, You are travelling through many isolated areas with a high number of vulnerable people. You are putting these people and their lives at risk. Please stop. Observe the government guidance and save lives. It is a nice weekend to STAY AT HOME. Stop being selfish! More positively a range of images were also shared alongside a message from local police. Police said, Wrexham please can you all share this message, not the virus! Its our job to keep you safe but we need your help now more than ever. Stay home, protect your family, support the emergency services & save lives. Police added, We need to work together as a community as we are all in this together! Emirates Auction, the leading company in the field of management and organisation of public and online auctions in the Middle East, has announced the activation of the remote work system for all branches including the head office. The move comes in response to the governments precautionary measures being taken to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and as part of Emirates Auctions efforts to safeguard the health and safety of its customers and staff. The new work system has been implemented using the latest techniques, applications and systems to help employees accomplish their tasks smoothly, with high quality and efficiency and without any impact on the workflow. 100 per cent online services All Emirates Auction staff have completed extensive technical training programs and were made fully aware of how the new work system functions. They were trained on how to hold meetings and how to run the daily work through available digital means. We have dedicated a technical support team to help them complete their tasks smoothly and deliver services efficiently said Abdulla M. Al Mannaei, chairman and managing director of Emirates Auction. Al Mannaei called on all customers to benefit from Emirates Auctions online services available on its website and smart app. Our digital services are available in both Arabic and English languages, he said. Since day one, Emirates Auction has paid much attention to developing smart systems that offer seamless, safe and customer-friendly services and today; all of the companys auctions and services are managed and delivered online by 100 per cent, which resulted in many local and international achievements, he added. We have been working relentlessly to bring about a smart transformation in our work and this has made the move towards working remotely easier heralding a promising result. Emirates Auction boats more than 10 years of experience in managing online auctions and is now the leading partner to many entities in the UAE Al Mannaei emphasised. User-friendly Emirates Auction offers a wide range of flexible and user-friendly online services through its smart platforms, which allow customers to complete all their transactions easily and remotely. Customers can also pay the security deposit online, and finalise post-sale procedures, including payment of full amounts and sharing deposit receipts received from banks, in addition to requesting vehicle documents and vehicle delivery to the desired location as specified by the customer, as well as vehicle export and direct selling services for plates in Ras Al Khaimah. The online services also include property management, person-to-person transfer and issuing a replacement for lost. Customers can also contact the customer service centre to complete all their purchases via a phone call or instant chat. As part of its precautionary measures, Emirates Auction has recently launched an initiative to deliver vehicles through the companys recovery and necessary documents via a national a carrier to the doorsteps of customers. The company also said it will no longer receive cash at its premises, calling on customers to resort to online banking to make the payments for the safety of everyone. Founded in 2004, the company specialises in automobiles, vehicle license plates, real estate and properties, asset liquidation, VIP mobile numbers, jewelry, time-sensitive items, and heavy machinery, plant and construction equipment. - TradeArabia News Service India will come together to fight the coronavirus pandemic on April 5 by switching off lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal on Friday for a show of solidarity to end the "darkness" of coronavirus. Zee Media urges people to participate in large numbers to fight the coronavirus crisis by lighting Divas, candles, lamps and flash and once again appreciate the selfless work of our corona fighters who are working to make India a safer place to live in. Once again India needs to show its unity in the fight against coronavirus. It's time to remember the corona fighters once again. Join the Prakash Parv on April 5, 9 pm. #UniteAgainstCorona pic.twitter.com/ZiprnmGcch Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) April 4, 2020 Zee Media strongly believes that we can only fight the crisis if all 130 crores Indians come together and pledge to end it. Join the fight against coronavirus. Crores of Indians are once again ready to show the world their will to defeat coronavirus. Get ready for Prakash Parv on April 5, 9 pm. #UniteAgainstCorona pic.twitter.com/K76HKbiolz Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) April 4, 2020 The entire country should follow the guidelines and defeat coronavirus proving that India can fight any battle that comes its way. It is a fight which must be won. 130 crore Indians have pledged to defeat coronavirus. The entire country will show the light to dispel darkness on April 5, 9 pm. Join the Prakash Parv. #UniteAgainstCorona pic.twitter.com/gt1GibMI2N Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) April 4, 2020 In a video message, the prime minister said people should maintain social distancing and not form groups while lighting up lamps. He said the people should stay indoors. He also said that people displayed unprecedented discipline and a sense of service during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown that started on March 24 for a period of 21 days. PM said, "In this darkness spread by the coronavirus pandemic, we must continuously progress towards light and hope. We must continuously strive to take those of us most affected, our poor brothers and sisters, from disappointment to hope. We must end the darkness and uncertainty emanating from the crisis, by progressing towards light and certainty.'' This was PM Modi's second such address to the nation since the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the country. In India, the COVID-19 count has crossed the 3,000-mark with the number of deaths rising to 77 till Sunday morning. On March 24, PM had announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the deadly virus. Zee Media urges Indians to join Prakash Parv on April 5 at 9 pm. Dubai/Moscow: OPEC and Russia have postponed a meeting due to be held on Monday to discuss oil output cuts, OPEC sources say, as a dispute between Moscow and Saudi Arabia over who is to blame for plunging crude prices has intensified. The delay until Thursday came amid pressure from US President Donald Trump for the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilise global oil markets. Oil prices have collapsed amid the dispute between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Credit:AP Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 due to a slump in demand caused by lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of OPEC and other producers led by Russia to extend a deal on output curbs that expired on March 31. OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut the production of oil equivalent by about 10 per cent of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort including the United States. More groups have donated food, relief materials to vulnerable Nigerians in recent times to help curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. Since President Muhammadu Buhari called for support in the fight against the spread of the deadly disease in the country, many Nigerians have responded and contributed to the cause. The Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture and RIVLED Foundation on Friday distributed food and essential materials to the doorsteps of the most vulnerable. The foundations chairman board of trustees who is also the president of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Nabil Saleh, led the foundation, members of PHCCIMA and the organised private sector in Rivers State to distribute the materials. According to a release sent to PREMIUM TIMES, the foundation said it has activated its structure to deliver to all the 319 Wards in the 23 LGAs in Rivers State to ease the pain caused by COVID-19 pandemic. In his remark, Mr. Saleh emphasised the urgent need for the private sector to show corporate social responsibility and compassion, particularly at these uncertain times. He expressed the need to partner with bodies like RIVLED who have the capacity and structure to reach every household in Rivers State. The president of RIVLED, Leloonu Nwibubasa, thanked PHCCIMA and the OPS for the donations that made the outreach possible, calling for more organisations to leverage on the ward-level structure of RIVLED to ensure that supplies get to those who are in dire need. The second deputy president, Chinyere Nwoga, who is the volunteer state coordinator for RIVLED-COVID-19 gave an assurance that efforts will continue to ensure that the vulnerable do not stay hungry. She advised the beneficiaries and all to comply with Government directives to stay at home and follow the guidelines of NCDC which include strict personal hygiene, physical distancing and being our brothers keepers. Ogun State In Ogun State, The Victory Life Bible Church also donated food items and transformer as palliatives for six communities. The beneficiary communities include: Lagbayun, Abule Nla/Palmview, Akinseku,Abatan , Igbosamo and Atoku all located in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the State, and were handed over the gestures on Friday. The general overseer of the church, Lawrence Achudume, accompanied by his wife and other top church officials presented the gestures on Friday, adding that the church authority had also contacted the electricity company for the installation of the transformer. The church also extended the food supply gestures to men and officers of the Kemta and Obantoko police stations in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital. Speaking, the cleric emphasised the need to always put smiles on the faces of the needy, adding that such gestures are part of the social responsibilities of the Victory Live Bible Church(VLBC), and shall be a continuous exercise. He urged philanthropic organisations, religious bodies and well-spirited individuals to lend a helping hand to the less privileged in the society as well as a partner the authorities to cushion the effects of coronavirus. He emphasised the need that downtrodden in the society should not be left to suffer at a time like this and advised politicians not to play politics with the unfortunate development adding that funds released should be judiciously utilised stressing that God will not be happy with anyone who toys with the peoples lives. Speaking on behalf of the six communities, the Baale of Olaotan, Gabriel Akinbi-Obawunmi expressed appreciation to the church for what he described as kind gestures, which will definitely refuse the residents burden. Grassroot Enlightenment In Abia State, the Unubiko Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in the state, said it embarked on series of awareness activities on the impact of the virus in the 12 communities in Abam, Arochukwu Local Government Area of the state. Apart from sponsoring radio enlightenment programme broadcast on the state radio, the Foundation said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday that it also distributed over 12,000 bottles of hand sanitizers to residents of the communities. The communities visited by the NGO included Ozu Abam, Ameke Abam, Idima Abam , Ndi Oji Abam, Amuru Abam, Ndi Agwu Abam , Ndi Ebe Abam , Atan Abam , Ndi Okwara Abam , Ndi Okereke Abam, and Ndi Okorie Adam. The Foundation has created awareness on the pandemic in the communities and churches through radio jingles in Igbo and English Language as well as mobilisation of health officials to enlighten the people on the necessary precautions to be taken to prevent the spread of the virus, the founder, James Ume, said. Mr Ume said the organization considered it necessary to sensitise the rural populace of Abam on the life-threatening Coronavirus as part of his social responsibility and civic duty to his people and society. Advertisements READ ALSO: We provided more than 12,000 bottles of hand sanitizers and also paid for jingles in radio stations in Igbo and English Language to pass the message about COVID-19 situation on the ground to the people, he said. The programme director of the foundation, Benjamin Isani, who is also the resource person, said the sensitization came at the most opportune time as the Coronavirus pandemic, which has so far devastated the world economy, is beginning to ravage some parts of Nigeria. He said the foundation decided to take its campaign to the grassroots not only to support the government but because the rural areas lack proper information about the virus and how to stay safe. Mr Isani said the campaigns, its officials explained in detail how Coronavirus can be contracted and the need for the people to practice social distancing in their relationships, proper hygiene, washing of hands with soap at least 20 minutes intervals, the proper use of hand sanitizers and also the basic signs and symptoms of the virus. In his remarks, a community leader in the area, Ike Emmanuel, expressed happiness that the enlightenment exercise was well received, as the communities came out en mass to listen to the messages. He also commended the leadership of the various churches in Abam communities for their support towards making the exercise successful. NEW YORKThe New York governor said Saturday the Chinese government was facilitating a shipment of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state, highlighting the extreme measures leaders are taking in what has become a cutthroat scramble to independently secure enough life-saving devices during the coronavirus pandemic. In a sign of the disorganized response to the global crisis, Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the Chinese government for its help in securing the shipment of the breathing machines that was scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Airport on Saturday, while acknowledging that the U.S. governments stockpile of medical supplies would fall drastically short. Were all in the same battle here, Cuomo said, noting that the state of Oregon also volunteered to send 140 ventilators to New York. And the battle is stopping the spread of the virus. Leaders like Cuomo have been forced to go outside normal channels and work with authoritarian governments and private companies. The rush to secure supplies has prompted intense squabbling between the states and federal government at a moment the country is facing one of its gravest emergencies. Trump said states are making inflated requests for medical supplies when the need isnt there and suggested he had a hand in the ventilator shipment arriving from China to New York. Trump also said hed like to hear a more resounding thank you from Cuomo for providing medical supplies and helping quickly add hospital capacity. We have given the governor of New York more than anybody has ever been given in a long time, he told a news conference in Washington. While the state of Massachusetts used the New England Patriots team plane to pick up over a million masks from China, Russia has also sent medical equipment to the U.S. Meanwhile, Trump has said hed prevent the export of N95 protective masks to Canada and other countries, prompting a rebuke from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said his country wont bring retaliatory measures as it continues to ship gloves and testing kits to the U.S. The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,100; more than 3,500 of those deaths are in New York state, including more than 1,900 in New York City. In addition to getting ventilators from China and Oregon, Cuomo ordered even private hospitals in the state to redistribute breathing machines to those most in need. I want this all to be over, Cuomo said, noting that while its been roughly 30 days since the states first case, it feels like an entire lifetime. Trump said the federal government is setting up a 2,500-bed field hospital at New Yorks Javits Center, which will be staffed by the military. He said similar hospital projects are being built in Louisiana and Dallas. There will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasnt done, Trump said. He later added that the federal government is a backup ... the greatest backup that ever existed for the states. As the number of people infected has grown to more than 1.1 million worldwide, health-care systems are straining under the surge of patients. In China, air raid sirens sounded across the country Saturday and flags flew at half staff in tribute to victims of the coronavirus pandemic, including the health-care martyrs who have died fighting to save others. With the highest number of infections in Europe and their hospitals overwhelmed, Spain and Italy struggled to protect medical staff on the front lines, while 17 medics in Egypts main cancer hospital tested positive for the virus. Italy and Spain, with combined deaths of more than 25,000 and nearly a quarter-million infections, have reported a high percentage of infections among health-care workers. Carlo Palermo, head of Italys hospital doctors union, fought tears as he told reporters in Rome of the physical risks and psychological trauma the outbreak is causing, noting reports that two nurses had killed themselves. Its a indescribable condition of stress. Unbearable, he said. Overall, new infections continued to slow their once-exponential pace in Italy, with 4,805 new cases registered Saturday that brought the countrys official count to 124,632. The death toll continued to mount, with 681 new victims bringing the worlds highest toll to 15,362. In France, 7,560 people have died of coronavirus-related issues since the start of the outbreak in the country, including at least 2,028 in nursing homes, health director Jerome Salomon said. More than 440 of the overall deaths happened in the past 24 hours. In the U.S., the outbreak is deepening in other areas beyond New York. More than 400 people have died in Louisiana, and state authorities have been sprinting to find ventilators similar to New York. Michigan has more than 14,000 infections and 500 deaths, with Detroit being the states epicentre. In China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, authorities have cautiously lifted restrictions amid dropping numbers of infections. On Saturday, it reported just one new confirmed case in the epicentre of Wuhan and 18 others among people arriving from abroad. There were four new deaths for an official total of 3,326. Spains Health Ministry reported 18,324 infected health workers as of Saturday, representing 15 per cent of the total number of infections in the country. Still, as Spain completes its third week in a state of emergency, there were signs the number of new infections were slowing, but they were still high, with 7,026 new cases reported overnight Saturday and 809 deaths. Worldwide, confirmed infections rose past 1.1 million and deaths exceeded 63,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say both greatly undercount the true number of victims because of lack of testing, mild cases that were missed and governments that are underplaying the crisis. At the same time, more than 233,000 people have recovered from the virus, which causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, who recover within a few weeks. 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. Read more about: Groups of Vietnamese nationals living in Germany have joined hands to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in their host country by sewing face masks for local residents and medical workers. A representative of the Vietnam Cultural Association in Dresden hands over the first batch of face masks to a representative of Vincentius hospital The coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on Germany with more than 91,000 infections and 2,300 deaths confirmed as of April 4. Many health facilities are crying out for medical supplies, especially face masks which are in short supply. In response to the appeal, a group of Vietnamese nationals living in Dresden called on the Vietnamese community to land a helping hand to local residents. The Vietnam Cultural Association in Dresden was the first to take part in the campaign by presenting 2,000 face masks to Vincentius hospital. Vietnamese nationals work hard to sew masks for German residents Vietnamese nationals in Dresden have sewn thousands of face masks for hospitals, nursing homes and other medical centres, as well as residents in the city, said Thien Nga Vo, a campaigner. We encouraged everyone to contribute clothing for mask making just in case the pandemic is spreading on a large scale. In the coastal city of Rostock, the Vietnam Business Association here campaigned for mask sewing by collaborating tailors and philanthropists. On April 2, they handed over the first batch of 2,500 face masks to Klinikum Sudstadt hospital. Meanwhile, Vietnamese nationals in Berlin capital were singled out in Germany for delivering medical supplies to medical facilities in the country. Doctors and nurses at Charite Berlin hospital receive Vietnamese meals The humanitarian campaign attracted many groups of Vietnamese nationals in the capital, including GoldStar Berlin and Dong Xuan Women Association, alongside businesses operating at Dong Xuan Commercial Centre. On March 31, about 1,000 first medical masks and 30 boxes of disinfectants were given to Lichtenberg district. Receiving the gifts, a representative of the Lichtenberg council thanked the Vietnamese people for their heartfelt support and said the gifts would be delivered to hospitals, first-aid workers, firefighters and on-duty policemen. VOV Vietnamese flock home from overseas As more and more countries throughout Asia and Europe start to close borders with the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of abating, thousands of Vietnamese citizens are rushing home. Supermarket shelves are full of toilet paper for the first time in weeks as panic-buyers finally slow down on hoarding. A pleasantly surprised shopper took a photo of three pallets full of Quilton toilet paper at Costco in Marsden Park, in Sydney's north-west, on Saturday. 'Good to see normalcy finally returning. Low crowd and no rush,' the caption read. Other customers also shared their delight that they were able to purchase toilet paper. 'I finally found a Kleenex 24 pack this morning at Woolies, felt like I'd won the lottery. Goodbye one ply!,' one shopper wrote. A pleasantly surprised shopper took a photo of three pallets full of Quilton toilet paper at Costco in Marsden Park, in Sydney's north-west, on Saturday Woolworths in Lane Cove, in Sydney's north, still had around 100 packets of toilet paper at midday on Sunday Another shopper snapped a photo of shelves stocked to the brim with toilet paper at Woolworths in Stud Park Shopping Centre, in Melbourne's south 'I ordered a subscription for toilet paper and now Im seeing toilet paper every time I go to the shop,' wrote another. Another shopper snapped a photo of shelves stocked to the brim with toilet paper at Woolworths in Stud Park Shopping Centre, in Melbourne's south-east. Customers were seen calmly walking down the aisles without rushing to grab a packet. Woolworths in Lane Cove, on Sydney's north shore, still had about 100 packets of toilet paper at midday on Sunday. The coronavirus pandemic has seen supermarkets stripped of essential products including toilet paper, tissues, rice and other pantry items over the last month. On March 23, supermarket giant Coles said panic buying was starting to slow down. Chief operating officer Matt Swindells said most shoppers had taken note of Scott Morrison's warning to Australians to stop hoarding groceries. 'I'm pleased to report that certainly the shopping through our supermarket business has returned somewhere towards normal, and that's allowed the teams with all the hard work they're putting in to get stock back into the system,' Mr Swindells said. The coronavirus pandemic has left supermarkets stripped of essential products including toilet paper, tissues, rice and other pantry items over the last month. Pictured: Woolworths at Town Hall, Sydney on March 13 But Coles and Woolworths still have one-pack buying restrictions on toilet paper to prevent hoarders from clearing out shelves. Some shoppers have even become embroiled in ugly confrontations over the limited stock. Australia's major supermarkets have beefed up social distancing measures ahead of the Easter rush. Woolworths and Coles will limit the number of customers in-store to help combat the spread of coronavirus. It has left shoppers queuing up on Saturday morning to access stores such as the Woolworths Everton Park in Brisbane's north. A worker greeting customers told AAP the store was limiting numbers to 100 at at time, with restrictions being rolled out nationwide. Woolworths Supermarkets Managing Director Claire Peters said the number of customers allowed into each store at any one time will be dependent on its size. He asked customers to consider pre-planning their Easter shopping to avoid the usual Thursday spike in numbers. 'Traditionally, the Thursday in the lead up to Easter is one of our busiest times in-store,' he said. Competitor Coles is also introducing measures to help authorities battle the virus. 'Team members will be at store entrances to provide assistance and let you know when it is OK to come in,' chief executive Steven Cain said. Woolworths also announced they would be switching on their 'Pick-Up' service on Monday for Priority Assistance customers with family members, neighbours or friends able to collect goods on their behalf. There were 5,688 cases of COVID-19 across the country as of Sunday morning, with the death toll rising to 30 after a woman in her 70s died in Victoria, and the death of a man in his 80s at Canberra Hospital. British Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward at Noi Bai International Airport (Photo: Twitter of the ambassador) British Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward advised all UK citizens in Vietnam to regularly update travelling recommendations by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In its recommendations on March 23, the office advised UK citizens not to go abroad if unnecessary. If they reside in the UK and are travelling abroad, include Vietnam, they should return home when commercial flights remain available. The British Embassy in Vietnam is also actively sharing information to UK tourists in Vietnam about available commercial flights. Ambassador Ward was present at Noi Bai International Airport on April 2 to learn about the situation. After learning that there remain available seats on flights to the UK, he wrote on his Twitter page that UK citizens should return home immediately when such flights are still operated. He noted that such recommendations do not target UK citizens residing in Vietnam. On March 31, Ambassador Ward and British Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City Ian Gibbons shared several advices to British citizens living and working in Vietnam amid the pandemic. Accordingly, they said British citizens should respect laws and cultural standards of Vietnam, and join hands to contribute to containing the global epidemic. The diplomats that they are working with their staff in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to support UK citizens, as well as strengthen diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the UK. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 12:24:54|Editor: zyl Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, April 5 (Xinhua) -- One more COVID-19 patient in Cambodia has recovered, bringing the total number of patients cured in the country so far to 50, said a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement released on Sunday. The latest discharged patient is a 62-year-old Malaysian Islamic preacher, who was treated at the Kampong Cham provincial hospital, the statement said. "To date, 50, or 43.85 percent, out of the 114 COVID-19 positive patients in Cambodia have recovered," MoH's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said in the statement. She said the remaining 64 patients have been receiving treatment at various designated hospitals. According to the spokeswoman, no new COVID-19 case was detected in the kingdom on Saturday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) Russia continues oil production cooperation with Venezuela and the two countries maintain close contacts within the framework of OPEC-non-OPEC agreements, Russian Ambassador in Caracas Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov told Sputnik. "As for oil production in Venezuela, we continue our cooperation. However, the problem here is not the volumes of output, but the shameful obstacles posed to the Venezuelan oil export by the United States. And this all [happens] without the slightest consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic! Even in the animal world, an unwritten truce around a watering hole comes in effect during a drought," the ambassador said. "We are in close contact with the leadership of Venezuela on the entire list of issues pertaining to cooperation between our countries and collaboration at various international platforms, including agreements under OPEC+," Melik-Bagdasarov said. On Thursday, US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams said that Washington was in touch with Moscow on Venezuela, including the possibility of establishing a transitional government there, as proposed by the US earlier in March. He also said that the US had no direct dialogue with the incumbent Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro. "Working contacts with the US Department of State is a regular diplomatic practice. Given the US' specific attention to Venezuela, the interest of US diplomats in discussing issues that are of Washington's concern is understandable," Melik-Bagdasarov said. On March 31, the US voiced the proposal to establish an interim government in Venezuela as part of a broader plan to resolve the Venezuelan crisis through what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called a peaceful democratic transition. In particular, the interim government would consist of National Assembly members agreed by both the incumbent Venezuelan government and the opposition. Washington said it would lift sanctions from the Latin American country if the plan was observed, including its part on holding presidential and general elections in 6-12 months. "I do not see the point of commenting on the recently announced 'democratization plan' without a reference to the realities of today. The world today lives through the COVID-19 pandemic. Venezuela's future can only be decided by Venezuela itself. If the US truly wants to participate in this, guided by noble goals, then who prevents it from discussing all their concerns with the legitimate government of Venezuela? President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly declared readiness for dialogue," the Russian ambassador said. The political situation in Venezuela derailed last January after opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president. Several countries, including the US, endorsed him as Venezuela's leader and urged the incumbent president, Nicolas Maduro, to step down. The US then imposed several rounds of sanctions against Venezuelan officials and entities, blocking $7 billion in assets belonging to Venezuela's national oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and its subsidiaries. Maduro, whose presidency was supported by Russia and China, among other states, has denounced the sanctions as an illegal attempt to seize the country's sovereign assets. At the hospital morgue, the attendant unzipped the body bag at the feet to reveal an identity bracelet on the ankle. The undertaker, Patrick Hickey, is used to spending time with bodies, conscious they are the remains of a loved one, considering how best to present them for their families. Dressed in full protective clothing, he is now reduced to quickly checking the name tag and getting out as fast as possible. The owner of McNally's Funeral Directors said they had been preparing to leave the night before when five more bodies came in from the hospital, all of them victims of Covid-19. "The dignity that we would afford to a family and have them looking well and care for the body - that part of the dignity has been stripped away. That is what we take pride in, the presentation of the remains to family members That's gone, we can't do that," said Mr Hickey, from the north Dublin coastal town of Balbriggan. He had never previously had to organise a funeral of a person who had tested positive for Covid-19. That changed last week when three men died, one after the other. "I had three funerals on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and all were Covid-19. They were the first Covid-19 cases that we had. Now it has kicked off," he said. Expand Close Data based on latest HSE data & Health Protection Surveillance Centre confirmed cases up to midnight, 2 April 2020 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Data based on latest HSE data & Health Protection Surveillance Centre confirmed cases up to midnight, 2 April 2020 The virus spreads It was a week when death swept across the country. As of last night, 137 people with Covid-19 had died compared with 54 deaths as of last Monday. Most of the deaths are from the east, thought to be from the greater Dublin region, and most of those who died are older people - the median age being greater than 80. The contagion has spread in clusters, cascading across hospitals, to nursing homes, to community care settings and into people's homes, which has in turn put further scrutiny on why such settings are generating so much contagion. It emerged last night that 1,084 health care workers are now infected with the virus, and the clusters of cases now number 206. Hospitals have been hit with multiple outbreaks of Covid-19. The Master of the Rotunda, Fergal Malone, disclosed last week that 10 pregnant woman and almost 20 staff at the hospital had tested positive for Covid-19. But he insisted that they did not acquire the infection within the hospital. Expand Close Health Minister Simon Harris. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Health Minister Simon Harris. Photo: Steve Humphreys At Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, eight laboratory scientists were infected with the virus - apparently linked to a member of the public who visited their department and later tested positive. The mask debate In a letter to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Professor Bill Tormey, consultant chemical pathologist at Beaumont, Connolly, and Lourdes, Drogheda, wrote that he was "very concerned and disturbed that staff across the hospitals are not obliged to work while masked", noting that "eight blood sciences lab staff" had tested positive and now all lab staff wear masks. "It seems that the scarcity of masks is the reason as given to me, but I may be wrong. I would appreciate if you issue the instruction to wear a mask to protect their colleagues as well as safe distancing, soap and water, etc." The letter was sent almost two weeks ago. This weekend, the World Health Organisation was revisiting face masks and last Friday, the US Centre for Disease Control recommended that all Americans should wear a mask on leaving their homes. The advice is based on unpublished evidence from Hong Kong and widespread concerns in the US about the rate of spread of the virus by people who don't have symptoms of it. But in light of the international shifts, the Irish Government is coming under increasing pressure to declare its position, with the Irish Medical Organisation among the agencies demanding clarity. The Government's National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has followed the World Health Organisation's line that masks should only be worn in the presence of confirmed or suspect cases. Martin Cormican, the HSE's clinical lead, said last week there was no evidence to support the wearing of surgical masks by healthcare workers for close patient encounters and staff meetings, according to new official guidance. But such is the pressure on health workers that St James's Hospital and Tallaght Hospital in Dublin have both instigated policies that all health workers must wear masks. Yesterday, Prof Tormey said it was "astonishing that those leading the health care policies at Nphet have not ordered as a policy the wearing of face masks in all health care institutions, to limit the transmission from the 30pc of people who are known to be asymptomatic carriers". He believes the issue of masks, the testing shortages and the clusters of contagion across the country may well be linked. "The National Public Health Emergency group decided to ask GPs to send their patients for testing and set up testing centres all over the country. However, they reversed that policy within a week because they didn't have the lab capacity to deal with the 'worried well'," he said. "The stark fact is that 25pc of those with the virus are health care workers. There was no plan to check staff systematically for infection, so clusters of infected people appeared in hospitals and in nursing homes almost immediately. The numbers at home isolating for two weeks have spiralled but we don't have numbers on the extent of this manpower wastage." Testing issue The mask debate has been amplified because of the absence of widespread testing here, despite the Taoiseach's insistence that we are following in the path of South Korea, a country that has controlled the surge by a combination of testing, hi-tech contact tracing and social restrictions. Ireland started well. Minister for Health Simon Harris said last month it would reach a target of 15,000 daily tests but only 1,500 tests are being carried out each day and several test centres forced to shut because of lack of supplies. The Government has said that Ireland is fighting for essential supplies, and a patented reagent used in the process, amid intense global demand. In its latest bulletin last Friday, the European Centre for Disease Control reiterated that testing is crucial to controlling the virus. But in acknowledging the market shortages, it was now urging governments to consider rapid testing for the virus instead of the kind of testing that's proving so problematic. The bulletin says access to "reliable rapid diagnostic tests, in particular rapid antigen tests for Covid-19, could alleviate the pressure on laboratories and expand testing capacity to meet the most urgent medical and public health needs". The test detects antibodies that emerge some time after Covid-19 symptoms appear and can reportedly return results within 15 minutes. The National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) is currently sampling the rapid testing kits with a view to rolling them out for wider use. Cillian de Gascun, director of the NVRL, said yesterday: "The rapid tests kits were always part of the plan but they are only coming on the market now. Where we would envisage them is in emergency departments or smaller hospitals. But they won't have enough testing capacity, and they won't capture the scale of the virus in the community as the molecular test does," he said. As to the testing backlog, hopes are that numbers will improve soon. "There are a lot of moving parts but I would envisage that by the start of next week we'll have other laboratories coming on stream and we will increasing our capacity significantly," he added. The consequences of the backlog are serious. Jack Lambert, a consultant in infectious diseases at the Mater hospital in Dublin, said the delays were causing some patients to be treated later in their illness. Some who are Covid positive may be waiting at home for days for test results to confirm it, while their condition worsens. "We have seen numbers go up on last week, we have seen very, very sick patients, and who were obviously presenting late," he said. Surge and peak The Health Service Executive has predicted that the peak of the coronavirus outbreak will occur between April 10 and 14. "There are lots of predictions about the surge, but we don't know. Some good things were done early on, such as cancelling St Patrick's Day. Is that enough? We don't know," he said. "Closing down the country to paralyse the situation, and upscale testing and contact tracing. That is one way of flattening the curve. For the Government to focus on testing and contact tracing would be a start - that is what has flattened the curve in other countries." The battle now is to control how fast coronavirus will spread and the most effective weapon the Government has is social isolation. Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan briefed last week that the coronavirus rate was now growing at a rate of 10pc. Before the restrictions on movement, it had been growing at 33pc. But a growth rate of even 10pc will cause serious strain to our hospitals, he said. Frontline hubs This week will see a further ramping up of the frontline services arraigned to deal with the coronavirus. GPs will take up their posts at 40 community assessment hubs to assess and triage patients with suspected Covid-19. The hubs will be rolled out from next week, operating from 8am to 8pm, with the aim of re-routing suspect cases away from GP practices that put them directly on the frontline, in personal protective equipment, diverting patients along one of three pathways. Those well enough will be sent home to self-isolate and recover or sent to one of many hotels and accommodation centres requisitioned by the Government for this purpose. They include the Green Isle Hotel in Dublin, the City West, which took in its first patients last week. GP involvement is voluntary but practices that release them for service will receive the equivalent of 120 an hour for their time. Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland The hubs - which will be in private clinics and community buildings - are a measure of the demand the Government expects to see over the coming weeks. This is reflected elsewhere, too. University Hospital Limerick installed a giant oxygen tank in its grounds last week. A temporary mortuary at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham has a reported capacity for 480 bodies, stacked three high in berths held in a metal frame. The Government is preparing space for a total of 1,500 bodies in the capital, according to an informed source, with two other temporary mortuaries ready for use if needed, one in north Dublin. A military base has been converted in Limerick, with expected space for more than 500 bodies and Collins Barrack in Cork has also been earmarked. "The plans they are making for a surge is frightening," said the informed source. Eight Malaysian nationals were intercepted by immigration authorities and deboarded from a flight to Kuala Lumpur after they were identified as Tablighi Jamaat members who attended the religious congregation in Nizamuddin, which is linked to one-third of Indias coronavirus infections, said officials. The intervention was made on Sunday afternoon, around 30 minutes past 12, when a Malindo Air Flight from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur via Mumbai was readying to depart with 30 Malaysian nationals in an evacuation trip. Immigration officers informed the police and officials of the ministry of health post the intervention, made in response to a lookout notice against several foreigners, who are believed to have attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at its Nizamuddin headquarters in March in violation of their visa conditions. The government has already blacklisted over 900 such foreigners and invoked provisions of the Disaster Management Act and the Foreign Management Act against them. Over 2,000 Tablighi Jamaat activists were evacuated from the Nizamuddin building last week and several hundreds of them spread out to at least 17 states. The health ministry has linked close to one-third of all Covid-19 infections in the country to Jaamat members and their contacts. A home ministry release that announced the blacklisting of 960 foreigners for attending the congregation in violation of the visa rules said most were from Indonesia (379), Bangladesh (110), Kyrgyzstan (77), Myanmar (63) and Thailand (65). Many foreign nationals who attended the religious gathering, among other Indians, have tested positive for Covid-19 and nearly 22,000 Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts have been quarantined across the country so far, a home ministry official said on Saturday. New Delhi, April 5 : In separate incidents, one soldier lost life and two were injured as the Indian security forces killed nine terrorists in the last 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir. "Over the past 24 hours, Indian Security forces have eliminated nine terrorists in J&K," sources said. Among the nine, four terrorists were killed at Batpura area of South Kashmir on Saturday. They were involved in the killing of civilians. In another ongoing anti-infiltration operation in the Keran Sector of North Kashmir, troops have so far killed five terrorists attempting to infiltrate from across the Line of Control, taking advantage of the bad weather. "In this operation, one soldier has been killed and two more are critically injured. Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," sources said. The operation in north Kashmir is still in progress. Haiti - Justice : Important meeting of the FBH with Minister Letang Following discussions with members of the Superior Council of Judicial Power (CSPJ) last March, a delegation from the new Board of Directors of the Federation of Haitian Bars (FBH) met this week, Jacques Letang, the Minister of Justice. On the agenda of this working meeting, the following points were discussed : The urgent installation of the Administrative Boards of the School of Magistrates (EMA) and the National Council of Legal Assistance (CNAL); The problem of the mode of appointment of the Parquetiers who most of the time does not respect the law; The dysfunction of the judicial system and particularly the insalubrity and the climate of insecurity around the Palace of Justice of Port-au-Prince; Measures to be taken in the face of the Coronavirus epidemic. Thumbnail image : From left to right: Me Anthony Milord, Treasurer of the FBH, Me Jacques Letang, President of the FBH, Me Deus Jean-Francois, Chief of Staff of the Minister, Me Youdeline Cherizard Joseph, Assistant General Secretary of the FBH, Me Lucmane Delille Minister of Justice, Me Robinson Pierre Louis, Secretary General of the FBH and Me Stanley Gaston, former President of the FBH. HL/ HaitiLibre Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 10:45:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Doctors from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University conduct detections at the clinical laboratory of the the Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min) "Political bickering does nothing to contribute to the healthy development of Sino-U.S. relations, nor will it help the people of the world to rationally and accurately understand and cope with the pandemic," read a letter a group of 100 Chinese academics published to U.S. media. BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Across-the-spectrum cooperation, not blame game with ulterior motives, is desperately needed now to prevail over the COVID-19 pandemic that has indiscriminately wreaked havoc throughout the world. Many brilliant minds are fully aware of the importance of global solidarity and international cooperation, especially between the world's two largest economies, in this battle. A group of 100 Chinese academics on Thursday published an open letter to U.S. media, calling on Washington to end the political blame game and work together with Beijing to defeat the virus that has infected over 1 million people worldwide and paralyzed the global economy. A resident wearing mask is seen in a metro station in Washington D.C., the United States, March 31, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) "Political bickering does nothing to contribute to the healthy development of Sino-U.S. relations, nor will it help the people of the world to rationally and accurately understand and cope with the pandemic," the letter said, urging cooperation between "two of the great countries on Earth" in order to bring a more positive outcome for all humankind. The world needs such rational and calm voices to truly rise to the occasion. Prominent policy experts on the other side of the Pacific also acknowledged cooperation between the United States and China is essential to save lives in America and around the world. A total of 93 U.S. bipartisan, former high-ranking government officials and experts released a joint statement Friday, stressing that no effort against the coronavirus will be successful without cooperation between the United States and China. Photo taken on April 1, 2020 shows the Lincoln Memorial during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Unfortunately, they arrogantly stick to the habit of scapegoating and blaming others, ignoring China's great efforts and sacrifice. The experts repeated in their statement unfounded allegations by some U.S. politicians, accusing China of mishandling the health crisis and turning a blind eye to the fact is that China's quick and decisive response to stem the virus' spread bought the world time and drew praise from the international community. Despite having very little knowledge of the novel coronavirus, China perceived the graveness of the viral outbreak and significance of global cooperation to tackle it from the very beginning. Beijing has been sharing information on coronavirus prevention and control with the world in a timely and transparent manner. It has also provided help to other countries where support and medical supplies are in dire need. In an opinion piece published by the Guardian, Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, said: "under immense pressure, as the epidemic exploded around them, they (Chinese scientists) took time to write up their findings in a foreign language and seek publication in a medical journal thousands of miles away. Their rapid and rigorous work was an urgent warning to the world." Pedestrians wearing face masks are seen in a street in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on April 3, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) However, Washington neglected the alarm raised by China, with some politicians busy with evading responsibilities and finger pointing, which only led to a waste of precious time and to a worse scenario. As of Saturday, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States have topped 278,000, with the death toll surpassing 7,100. The blame game serves neither the interests of the United States nor China's. Such a counterproductive trick needs to stop. China and the United States share far more interests than differences in the battle against their common enemy, the coronavirus. The final victory will only be achieved through global solidarity and cooperation. S afari park owner Lord Bath of Longleat has died aged 87 after testing positive for coronavirus. Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, died on Saturday after being admitted to the Royal United Hospital in Bath on March 28. In hospital it was confirmed he had contracted Covid-19. A spokesman for Longleat, the park and home he ran, confirmed the news in a Facebook post on Sunday, expressing their deepest sadness at Lord Baths death. Lord Bath - in pictures 1 /12 Lord Bath - in pictures Lord Bath of Longleat, seen here in 1998 PA Alexander Thynn, then Viscount Weymouth, left, with his brother Lord Christopher Thynne at Longleat in Wiltshire PA Lord Bath with, left to right, Honor Blackman, Vivienne Creegor, Culver, Trude Mostue, Suzanne Dando, Chris Packham, Lord Montagu and Anna Walker during the 50th anniversary celebrations at Longleat PA Longleat is a magnificent building PA Seen here with the Longleat Lion at Longleat House in 2010 PA And with animal warden Joann Hawthorn, who decorated the Longleat Lion PA During a rescue exercise with Avon and Somerset Cliff Rescue Team at Cheddar Gorge in 1997 PA With some members of the Bath rugby team in 2010 PA Lord Bath and his son Viscount Weymouth at Longleat Safari Park in 2011 PA They added: The family would like to express their great appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately for Alexander in these extremely difficult times for everyone. They would politely request a period of privacy to deal with their loss. Lord Bath standing on the 10-metre tall wooden tower in the middle of the maze at the Longleat Estate / PA The flamboyant aristocrat was known for his colourful dress sense and was a regular feature of the Animal Park television show about his estate. Kate Humble presented the show, which ran from 2000-09, and said she was very sad to hear of his death. She tweeted: Everyone will describe him as eccentric and he was, gloriously so but he was also kind & fun and we all need a bit of kindness & fun in our lives. Lord Bath then Viscount Weymouth was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he was president of the famous Bullingdon Club. He married Emma Gael in 1969 and had two children, but in a 2010 Guardian interview he also acknowledged that he had an eight-year-old but I dont see enough of her. Lord Bath died with coronavirus / PA According to several reports, he had decorated walls in his house with erotic murals. Lord Bath was involved in politics, and stood in the very first European parliamentary elections in 1979, representing the Wessex Regionalist Party which he helped to found. Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for tests as his coronavirus symptoms persist, Downing Street has said. Number 10 said the British Prime Minister was taken as a precautionary step on the advice of his doctor. He tested positive for the virus 10 days ago, and has been in self-isolation inside his Downing Street flat since. A Downing Street spokeswoman said: On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests. This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus. The Prime Minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the Governments advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. A Number 10 spokesman insisted Mr Johnson remains in charge of the Government despite his hospital admission, and he has not handed responsibilities to his de facto deputy Dominic Raab. Mr Johnson announced on March 27 that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was self-isolating with mild symptoms including a high temperature and persistent cough. He has shared several video updates from his Number 11 flat since his diagnosis, and stepped outside to join the nationwide clap for NHS staff on Thursday evening. Mr Johnson has not been seen publicly since, but said he spoke to new Labour leader Keir Starmer on Saturday afternoon. Mr Starmer wished the PM a speedy recovery after the announcement. [snippet1]987600[/snippet1] FILE PHOTO: Amazon logo is seen in front of diplayed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Reuters As thousands of businesses across the country close their doors to help slow the spread of the coronavirus across the country, Amazon, deemed an "essential business," is one of a few major multinational corporations that have continued to operate. While the company's operations have largely carried on business as usual, the fear of catching the coronavirus at Amazon warehouses is now palpable, employees told Business Insider. A quiet cough or small sneeze would usually pass without much notice but now they boom across the facility, flaring anxieties and prompting some employees to walk out in the middle of a shift. While some Amazon workers can afford not to go to work, others feel that they are forced to choose between their health and their livelihood. Related Video: How to Stay Safe at Work During the COVID-19 Outbreak Business Insider spoke with eight Amazon workers in Pennsylvania, Texas, Kentucky, Arizona, and California who say they're afraid to go to work and they claim that Amazon is not doing enough to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading within their own facilities and to the larger communities they serve. Kristen Kish, a spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider told that the company is monitoring the situation in its facilities and are taking "proactive measures to protect employees and associates who have been in contact with anyone who has been diagnosed or becomes ill." "Like most global companies, we've had employees affected by this, and we're doing all that we can to protect our employees and take the proper precautions as stated in WHO guidelines," Kish told Business Insider. With hundreds or even thousands of workers packed into a warehouse at a time rendering social distancing measures "impossible" and a scarce supply of hand sanitizers and cleaning products, employees called Amazon facilities a "breeding ground" for coronavirus infection. Story continues And, despite having confirmed COVID-19 cases at several warehouses, they claim that management refused to temporarily close down their locations to clean the entire facility despite employee requests. "It's leaving us to choose our health or our finances," one Amazon worker from Houston who wished to remain anonymous told Business Insider. "Everybody looks scared, but we can't afford not to go to work." "It's leaving us to choose our health or our families." At an Amazon location in Houston, Texas, one warehouse employee who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation told Business Insider that there are at least five employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus where she works. "This disease is killing people on a daily basis," she said. "As people are testing positive for it where I work, they still expect for us to come there." With two kids at home full-time due to school closures, she said she can't risk bringing home the virus to her children. The single mom has been forced to take off work so she can take care of her kids but that also means less money to support the family. "I can't afford to risk my health my health is more important than a paycheck," she said, noting that she is afraid she will come in contact with the virus while at work. "But, I'm also afraid that I'm not going to have the money that I need to take care of my bills when it's all over," she said. After the Houston location confirmed that employees had tested positive for coronavirus, the warehouse associate claimed that the company refused to shut down the facility for deep cleaning and has barely increased their normal cleaning schedules. Employees at an Amazon warehouse in Indiana huddle for a meeting next to signs encouraging employees to stay apart. Amazon worker Although management claimed to be following CDC mandates, she said that hand sanitizer is scarce and cleaning supplies to disinfect their working areas are often in short supply. For warehouse associates, she added that social distancing was "impossible." "There's no way to forcefully make somebody stay six feet from one another, especially with the type of work that we do," she said, pointing to warehouse assembly lines where workers constantly come into close contact with each other. According to Amazon, that "this is simply not true," Kish said, adding that the company "adjusted practices to ensure social distancing within our buildings, including no stand-up meetings, moving chairs and tables in breakdowns and adjusting shift start and end times." However, Business Insider previously reported that an Amazon fulfillment center in Indiana appeared to show a lack of social distancing the facility later confirmed that an employee tested positive for the novel virus. By failing to take enough precautionary measures to protect their workers, she felt that Amazon was forcing its workers to choose between their health and their livelihood. "I choose my life, but in their opinion, it's the bottom dollar." For Amazon employees who are at risk of falling seriously ill if they are infected with the coronavirus, going into work could be a matter of life and death. For an Amazon worker in Lexington, Kentucky, who is immunocompromised, the decision not to go to work she said protects her from contracting the "potentially life-threatening" disease. "I choose my life but, basically, in their opinion, it's the bottom dollar," the employee who works in vendor returns told Business Insider, adding that there are no provisions for the elderly or those who can't prove their underlying health conditions. "I'm not receiving pay during this time and it's creating a dire situation for me." Every three months, the Kentucky employee receives a steroid shot to control her psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The shot suppresses her immune system, which makes her susceptible to getting infected and falling extremely ill. Amazon warehouse Getty She claimed her facility and most Amazon facilities are a "natural breeding ground" for infection with "people packed into tight quarters" while high contact surfaces "aren't regularly cleaned." She claimed many daytime and nighttime workers share equipment like carts or computers, which she claimed are often dusty, dirty, and difficult to keep clean at the Kentucky facility. "There's this revolving door of germs [that's] happening from the day shift, night shift using the same items over and over," she said, adding that her vendor returns department, which is not an essential service, shouldn't still be operating in the first place. Kish disputed the Kentucky employee's claims and told Business Insider that Amazon had "increased the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all sites including regular sanitation of all door handles, stairway handrails, turnstiles, elevator buttons, lockers, and touch screens, to name a few." Due to her condition and Amazon's failure to provide face maks or protective gear, she has not gone into work since early March. Although going to work poses a threat to her health, she said she may be forced to go back to work to make ends meet. "I'm basically stuck where I can't collect unemployment. I don't feel safe going to work," the 50-year-old told Business Insider. "I'm concerned about my income, I might be forced to go back. I don't want to go back anytime soon." "I just want my family to be safeI can't bring poison into their home." After an Amazon worker in Phoenix, Arizona confirmed he had been infected by the coronavirus, many employees simply walked off the site, the Arizona Republic reported. One Phoenix, Arizona associate who wished to keep their identity a secret, said his anxieties over transmitting the coronavirus from his facility to his family has made it almost impossible for him to work. "Every day, I'm walking out within an hour of work," the associate told Business Insider. "So, when I can't take it mentally, I just go home." For the unidentified Phoenix employee, bringing the virus home from work could deal a devastating blow to his family. He told Business Insider that his family was at high risk of falling seriously ill if infected by the coronavirus his brother suffers from extreme asthma while both his parents are over the age of 60. "I just want my family to be safe I can't bring poison into their home," he said. FILE PHOTO: A worker in a face mask walks by trucks parked at an Amazon facility as the global coronavirus outbreak continued in Bethpage on Long Island in New York Reuters In addition to leaving the job early, the employee and several of his colleagues have started to refuse freight coming from the warehouse with positive COVID-19 employees. Although his facility has started to implement social distancing measures more seriously since discovering employees had contracted the virus, he said it's far from enough. "We need a stable and sterile supply chain for the customers and the workers," the 37-year-old said. "[Amazon is] putting a lot of people at risk because these things move at an exponential pace. And that means that it can hurt a lot of people in little to no time." He even began to organize with fellow employees, writing the governor and other public officials to demand that the Amazon warehouses be closed and completely disinfected before resuming work. Until then, he said he will continue to fight until Amazon protects its workers from the virus. "This company is not doing enough and this fight is bigger than our pay," he said. In regards to closing down Amazon facilities with confirmed cases of COVID-19, Kish said Amazon is currently consulting with local and federal health authorities and medical experts on how to handle building closures for deep cleaning. "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," Kish told Business Insider. "Going to work is risky it's a scary calculation I make every day." At the Amazon facilities in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, there are as many as 18 confirmed coronavirus cases and Dominica Mercuri told Business Insider that she may be one of them. The 29-year-old outbound associate who picks, packs and ships customer orders began experiencing symptoms associated with coronavirus including a dry cough, extreme fatigue, and a fever on March 27 the same day her facility announced that an employee had tested positive for COVID-19. According to Andrea Houtsch, another associate at the same Pennsylvania facility, there are now as many as 18 confirmed cases in their buildings. However, due to her age and lack of pre-existing conditions, Mercuri's local hospital refused to administer a test. Without enough proof that she could have the novel virus, she has been forced to take off work without any pay. "No pay is hard to live with," she told Business Insider. "I need to get in that building so I can get paid. They're not paying me to stay home since I don't have a diagnosis." Having already used up most of her paid time off in the week she took to recover, Mercuri said she needs to work just five more days this week to pay her rent and bills. "Going to work is risky," Mercuri said, adding that her mother who lives with her is at risk of falling seriously ill if she contracted Covid-19. "It's a scary calculation I make every day." A worker assembles a box for delivery at the Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore, Maryland, US, April 30, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo After announcing that there were confirmed cases at the Pennsylvania warehouses, she said the facility was "back to business as usual." Although she claims that her facility is making some attempts to improve conditions for workers amid the outbreak in the facilities, she claimed their "half measures aren't good enough." The facility tried to implement social distancing measures and provide sanitary wipes for employees, but she said they were never available when she needed them. Kish, however, claimed that "disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer are already standard across our network, and the procurement teams have worked tirelessly to create new sources of supply to keep these critical items flowing." "Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic," she added, "it is not easy as supplies are limited, but we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable." While Mercuri's Amazon facility has successfully revamped their break rooms so that employees can stay six feet apart, their work stations are still so close people have accidentally coughed and sneezed on her. "When push comes to shove and our stocks are only rising like right now, we need to get those numbers out the door," Mercuri told Business Insider. "Editing our stations enough to keep us safe and actually keep us six feet away would take away from production. So it's not gonna happen unless there's some kind of outside intervention." "I'm worried that I have infected 1000 people in the last three days." Kathy Knight, a driver lead for Amazon, told Business Insider that she wasn't afraid that she could contract the virus she was afraid that she was helping spread it. "I have now visited 190 homes in my community. If that virus is on the box or if I'm carrying the virus and I sneezed or coughed on your package, it's now sitting on your front porch," Knight told Business Insider. "The person that answers the door to pick that package up could get that virus off that box or bag." As a driver for Amazon, in Pennsylvania, Knight told Business Insider that she makes anywhere from 150 to 196 stops each day, delivering as many as 300 packages. Each of those packages had been touched by countless Amazon employees and drivers, some of whom could be carrying the virus. Amazon delivery AP Both she and her 22-year-old son, who also works as an Amazon driver, were both tested for COVID-19 last week after he began showing symptoms associated with the disease. Knight believed that her son may have caught the virus while delivering to Jefferson Hospital where there have been COVID-19 cases. Citing studies that show the novel coronavirus can live on cardboard or plastic anywhere from one to three days, Knight said she stopped working on March 30 out of fear that she was infecting her customers. "I told my boss, 'I just don't know if I can do this. I'm too worried that I have infected 1000 people in the last three days,'" Knight told Business Insider. "If it came back to me that I had made somebody sick or possibly died from me delivering a package I don't know how I would get all the rest of my life with that." Read the original article on Business Insider On the occasion of the ninth anniversary of its admission, Google released its latest doodle featuring the savoury and satisfying Vietnamese street-food sandwich. Notably, the image also appeared in over ten countries, contributing to the promotion of Vietnams delicious food to the world. In addition, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, in collaboration with the Vietnam Cuisine Culture Association and Google, held the I love Banh mi Saigon (I love Saigon bread) programme from March 24-31. With various activities to honour and promote Vietnamese bread to international friends, the programme attracted the participation of numerous travel enterprises, bread brands, entrepreneurs and artists. Miss HHen Nie introduced Saigon bread via her social networking accounts. The municipal Department of Tourism coordinated with musician Nguyen Hai Phong and Brandbeats Music Agency to create a music clip I love Banh mi Sai Gon, which has been promoted on many channels and used as an on-hold tone for all mobile subscribers. These activities were expected to honour the cuisine - an exquisite piece of beauty in Vietnams cultural heritage. There have been more and more Vietnamese dishes praised by international community in recent times. Vietnamese was voted as one of the 10 best food destinations by the US Cable News Network (CNN). Pho (Vietnamese noodle) was the first food honoured by international friends as it ranked first among 40 meals you should eat in your lifetime, as announced by the US-based newspaper Business Insider magazine in 2013. Bun cha (vermicelli with grilled pork), was listed as one of top ten most delicious dishes in the world by the famous Asian television channel National Geographic in 2014. During his visit to Vietnam in 2016, the former US President Barack Obama ate bun cha at a well-known restaurant in Hanoi and the Australian Prime Minister enjoyed Vietnamese bread at a sidewalk restaurant in Da Nang City. It can be said that Vietnamese food is very rich and imbued with the cultural identities of each region. In addition, local people enjoy them in sophisticated manner, contributing to creating the special attraction of Vietnamese culinary culture. However, despite the strong development of Vietnamese tourism, the promotion of the unique values of the countrys cuisine had not traditionally received the greatest level of attention. In 2017, the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) officially launched its Centre for Research, Conservation and Development of Vietnamese Cuisine as well as forming the Vietnam Chef Association and the Vietnam Cuisine Culture Association. There are around 200,000 300,000 restaurants in the country as well as around 15,000 20,000 Vietnamese restaurants in many countries around the world. VITA aimed to discover, maintain and develop Vietnams culinary culture into a national asset by 2030. The managers and experts expect that once it becomes a national brand, the cuisine will have a great impact on the countrys economy, especially on tourism because the food, beverage and services industry accounts for 70% of the tourism sectors revenue. In addition, the processing and consumption of dishes helps farmers in the production of agricultural products, contributing to increasing their living standard. Vietnam was chosen as Asia's Leading Culinary Destination for the first time at the 26th World Travel Awards for Asia and Oceania in 2019. The event confirmed Vietnams imprint on the worlds cuisine map and helped promote the image of Vietnamese tourism. Many organisations and agencies should maintain their efforts as well as take practical measures to spread the values of Vietnamese culinary culture. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 22:30:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close In the field of medical masks, China adopts standards similar to or even more stringent than those of developed countries. Certified Chinese companies are thus qualified to provide high-quality medical products to the world. To ensure the global supply of medical products and help other countries and regions combat the virus, China has tightened quality control over companies seeking to expand production. by Xinhua writers Chu Yi, Lou Chen and Wang Pan GUANGZHOU, April 5 (Xinhua) -- One of Tang Zhi's jobs is to count from 1 to 100 loudly and slowly, a monotonous but critical procedure to test the quality of a surgical mask. Walking into a test room and putting on a hanging N95 mask that is connected to a sampling tube, the quality inspector stands quietly, breathing normally at first, then deeply, before turning his head left and right, and up and down. Finally, Tang counts the numbers out loud and returns to his normal breath. Tang performed the procedures carefully and allowed the computer program enough time to collect data that are used to decide whether a mask meets certain test requirements. An inspector of Guangdong Medical Devices Quality Surveillance and Test Institute tests the quality of a face mask in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Jiale) As an inspector at Guangdong Medical Devices Quality Surveillance and Test Institute, Tang has been testing the quality of surgical face masks for more than two months, which have been in high demand amid the COVID-19 outbreak. "February was the busiest when I needed to test at least four kinds of masks a day. Every day, I worked until 9 p.m.," Tang said. Tang's employer is one of the major test agencies in China. "In the field of medical masks, China adopts standards similar to or even more stringent than those of developed countries. Certified Chinese companies are thus qualified to provide high-quality medical products to the world," said Huang Minju, an official with the institute. To ensure the global supply of medical products and help other countries and regions combat the virus, China has tightened quality control over companies seeking to expand production. People work at a workshop producing face masks in Tangshan, north China's Hebei Province, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao) According to China's Ministry of Commerce, investigations will be carried out into any cases with potential quality issues, and the ministry vowed zero tolerance on such issues. The ministry, together with the General Administration of Customs and the National Medical Products Administration, announced on March 31 that starting from April 1, exported medical supplies must obtain relevant qualifications and meet the quality standards of the importing country or region. Such a move will help better ensure the safety and reliability of exported medical supplies, market analysts said. PRODUCTION EXPANSION UNDER HIGH STANDARDS Zhou Yuehua is the general manager of Guangzhou Fuzelong Hygiene Material Co., Ltd, a company with export qualification and license issued by Chinese regulatory authorities. The company has close to 30 years of experience in producing surgical masks, but Zhou said COVID-19 had created an unprecedented demand for masks. To ensure supply, the company resumed production on Jan. 25, the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar, with the number of its employees increasing from 18 at the beginning to more than 200 now, and its production capacity growing from 100,000 a day to 700,000 daily. Photo taken on April 5, 2020 shows a workshop of Guangzhou Fuzelong Hygiene Material Co., Ltd. in south China's Guangdong Province. (Fuzelong/Handout via Xinhua) Like Zhou's firm, mask manufacturers across China have been working around the clock to expand production since the outbreak of COVID-19. China's daily output of face masks reached 116 million units as of Feb. 29, 12 times the figure reported on Feb. 1, as production expansion moves into top gear, said the National Development and Reform Commission. Rising with the speed of production is the workload of China's quality inspection departments. A majority of medical materials such as masks and protective clothing produced in southern China are sent to laboratories of Guangdong Medical Devices Quality Surveillance and Test Institute, where Huang Minju and her colleagues carefully tested and checked them one by one to make sure they meet national standards. Inspectors of Guangdong Medical Devices Quality Surveillance and Test Institute register face masks for quality test in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Jiale) In China, medical masks are classified into three categories -- medical protective masks, surgical masks and ordinary medical masks -- offering different levels of protection and subject to different standards, Huang said. "Substandard products will be returned," she said. Strict inspection helps guarantee the quality of medical supplies on sale, as only up-to-standard ones can keep doctors and nurses safe. Ramped up production and quality inspection have played an important role in China's rapid control of the pandemic. No one has contracted the virus among the over 40,000 medical workers who were sent to aid Hubei from across China, Ding Xiangyang, deputy secretary-general of the State Council, told a press conference on March 6. "Many of the medical supplies arrived at Hubei only after we tested them, including the masks. Facts have proved that their quality is reliable, and they've protected our doctors and nurses," Huang said. An inspector of Guangdong Medical Devices Quality Surveillance and Test Institute tests the quality of a face mask in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Jiale) CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION While enterprises and institutes are racing to fulfill overseas demand for medical products, industry observers said global cooperation is needed to ensure the quality. Pressured by the need to address the epidemic, many countries have relaxed entry standards for medical supplies, so many non-professional players are taking the chance, which may hurt regular market practices, said Steven Du, managing director of SGS China, a leading inspection company. Exporters need to make sure no substandard products are shipped, and importers also need to do their job to step up supervision, tracking and inspection, observers said. An employee inspects face masks at a workshop of the Naton Medical Group in Beijing, capital of China, March 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) Responding to reports saying some exported masks from China are of low quality, Huang said that specific standards need to be referred to before they can declare certain masks are substandard. The standard system for medical protective products is extremely complex and varies in different countries and regions. It is quite irresponsible to hype up the so-called quality issue of Chinese products before getting facts straight, she said. Photo taken on March 2, 2020 shows the production line of a mask manufacturer in southwest China's Chongqing. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) "In China, a qualified mask has to pass tightness tests of 10 people with different face shapes," Huang added. "However, the face shapes of Asians and Westerners vary. Products that meet Chinese standards may not fit people in the west, but this does not mean that the Chinese-made face masks are substandard." China attaches great importance to export quality control and has rolled out a raft of measures to ensure the quality of its medical supplies exports. But, China should not be alone, as maintaining the order of the global market of medical supplies requires close cooperation from around the world, Huang said. (Ma Xiaocheng and Jing Huaiqiao also contributed to the story) (Video reporter: Li Jiale; Video editor: Lin Lin) Groups representing doctors, hospitals and senior care facilities are asking Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to give them limited legal immunity in their treatment of coronavirus cases and patients who may be affected by the pandemic. The spread of the coronavirus has thrown the states health care system into unprecedented upheaval, delaying hundreds of elective procedures, sparking preparations for a potential surge of patients and rationing of personal protective equipment like masks and gloves. Brown ordered a halt to elective surgeries statewide March 19, aiming to free up hospital bed space and conserve personal protective equipment like respirators, gowns and gloves. Healthcare workers need to focus on caring for Oregonians and should not be worried by the threat of lawsuits they might face for following guidance and protocols required by the state through your executive orders, health care groups told Brown in a Friday letter. The groups, which include the Oregon Medical Association, Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems and Oregon Health Care Association, pointed to executive action taken in New York by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and said theyre looking for the same thing. The groups are asking Brown to issue an executive order limiting their legal immunity during the state of emergency, unless proven that someone was grossly negligent. Providers could still be sued, but the groups want limits to liability stemming from things like the lack of personal protective equipment and coronavirus testing capacity. A spokeswoman for Brown acknowledged receipt of the request but said no decision had yet been made. Rob Davis rdavis@oregonian.com 503.294.7657; @robwdavis Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The Nigerian Army has suspended approvals for voluntary retirement requests from soldiers. In an internal memo, the army said the rate at which applications to quit service were flooding its headquarters lately was disheartening. The directive, which military sources told PREMIUM TIMES went out late March, said all forms 9B (military retirement application document) have been suspended and would no longer be made available to soldiers willing to voluntarily discharge from service. The order did not provide figures that show a spike in recent retirement requests compared with previous times, but it counselled against frivolous voluntary retirement applications that were being allowed to advance through the chain of command when they should have been rejected at the early stages. A spokesperson for the Nigerian Army, Sagir Musa, did not confirm or deny the memo when reached for comments by PREMIUM TIMES. Military sources see the move as a coercive measure by the Nigerian Army to pull the breaks on massive personnel exits in recent months. Our men are giving up on the war for many reasons that are not limited to poor equipment supplies and the lack of empathy they keep seeing from their top commanders, a military source who had seen the memo told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday. The soldiers have been asked over and again to remain in service for the defence of their fatherland, but their hopes have been waning. Although military sources said the memo did not officially cite predominant grounds for voluntary retirement applications, those who have left service or have filed requests to leave have served multiple tours in the northeast as part of the Boko Haram war. Many of them have been trapped in the northeast for years and they just want to return to their families and look for another career path away from the military, the officers said under strict anonymity to avoid being sanctioned for speaking to reporters about internal military decisions. Directive challenged Already, the implementation of the new directive has commenced across divisions, brigades, battalions, and special operation units of the Nigerian Army, military sources said. The 29 Battalion is amongst the units that have implemented the directive, military sources said. The Port Harcourt-based unit has dozens of troops deployed across multiple sectors of the counter-insurgency operations. The unit is part of the Army 6 Division that has suffered some of the biggest personnel losses since the war began nearly 11 years ago. It was unclear how many officers and men have sought voluntary retirement under the division amidst Boko Haram offensive because the Nigerian Army does not publish the data and has ignored requests from the media and non-profits to do so. Already, some troops have protested the decision to block them from seeking voluntary retirement and petitioned the Army Headquarters. A soldier who voluntarily joined the service without any duress is now being compelled to remain in the service even against his wish, according to an open letter to Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai that has been circulating on WhatsApp groups of military personnel. With all due respect sir, this is unacceptable. The April 4 petition was signed by a lance corporal, who argued that the military can only invite a soldier filing for retirement for interview, guidance and counselling or career review, but cannot block it if the soldier insisted on proceeding with the retirement application. It was not immediately clear if Mr Buratai has received the petition and ordered action on it. But the army chief has previously lambasted troops as cowards fleeing from insurgents. He later walked back his comments following public criticism. Moral, legal standpoints Almost no sooner had the campaign begun after the Boko Haram sect declared war on the Nigerian state in July 2009 than the military became dogged by allegations that some of its top brass were feeding fat on monies allocated for equipment procurement. Anti-corruption activists blamed corruption amongst military chiefs for the poor living condition of soldiers and inadequate supply of modern warfare equipment. Last week, the army commander leading the counter-insurgency war was replaced after a video showing him expressing his frustration with the headquarters made social media rounds. But military chiefs themselves have in turn blamed insufficient budgetary allocations for their inability to finish the war after several failed deadlines. Abdul Mahmud, a public-interest lawyer, said both the military establishment and the rank-and-file have legal and moral positions to take, respectively. At the moral standpoint, soldiers have a right to turn in their retirement because of extant operational conditions that are unbearable, Mr Mahmud said on Sunday. This is even as we know that senior generals are feeding fat on the war budget. Advertisements Our brave men and women joined the military to defend their fatherland no matter what, but that does not mean they should be sent to senseless death, he said. Their decision to leave cannot be faulted when they keep coming under more sophisticated firepower from what was supposed to be a ragtag group. Yet, the Armed Forces Act allowed military chiefs to exercise discretion on requests for voluntary retirements. Section 25 of the Armed Forces Act talks about permitted resignation, which means the army or the navy board or air force council has the power to permit or disallow voluntary retirement, Mr Mahmud said. Yet, Mr Mahmud said even though the Nigerian Army might not have acted illegally in preventing soldiers from proceeding on retirement, the order could prove to be counter-productive. You cannot force a horse to the river to drink water, Mr Mahmud said. They are better off allowing those who want to go to go while embarking on a fresh recruitment drive and training for new intakes. Mr Mahmud said President Muhammadu Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, should crackdown on corrupt senior officers and roll back the trend of massive personnel exit from the military. The president should step in now and punish the crooks who are stealing the military blind and making service difficult for soldiers on the frontlines, Mr Mahmed said. Those who feed from the war economy in the northeast are not superior to the Nigerian state, they should be called to order. The Ministry of Health at 6pm, April 5 announced one new case of Covid-19 infection in Vietnam, raising the total number to 241. Samples are tested by Realtime PCR (Photo: VNA) The 20-year-old student boarded Flight VN0050 from London to Vietnam on March 21, and arrived at Can Tho airport in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho one day later. Upon entry, the man showed no symptoms of the COVID-19 disease and was transferred to a concentrated quarantine area in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu. He tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 on March 25. However, on March 31, he displayed symptoms of fever and sore throat. The second test by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City on April 1 turned up positive. The student is being treated at the Bac Lieu General Hospital in Bac Lieu province. On April 5, one patient in the central province of Quang Nam was reported to fully recover, raising the number of cured patients to 91. A 66-year-old British man, the 57th COVID-19 patient recorded in Vietnam, was discharged from a hospital in the central province of Quang Nam on April 5 after 21 days of treatment. Dinh Dao, Director of the Quang Nam Central General Hospital, said that the hospital had followed the Health Ministrys treatment regimen for COVID-19 patients. The 57th patient tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 for the two consecutive times on March 28 and April 1. The British tourist came to Hanoi on Flight VN0054 on March 9. He travelled to Quang Nam provinces Hoi An city and tested positive for the virus and brought to the hospital on March 16. Authorities test Ninh Binh locals who came in contact with positive patient The hotel where the 237th COVID-19 patient stayed in Ninh Binh Province was treated with disinfectant. The authorities in Ninh Binh have tracked and traced more than 20 people who they believe came into close contact with a COVID-19 positive Swedish man who was staying the region. They have all been tested for coronavirus and so far, all their signs are normal. The carrier was patient 237, a 64-year-old man from Sweden who has been in Viet Nam since December. He stayed at Ngoc Anh Hotel at 38 Luong Van Tuy Street in Ninh Binh Province from February 22 to March 21. Director of Ninh Binh Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Le Hoang Nam said the man often went out drinking in local bars and visited a number of tourist sites during his stay. The authority has since identified one particular bar he visited regularly and a liquor store he often shopped at. Before leaving the province on March 21, the man also went to a dental clinic close to where he was staying. The driver and passengers of the vehicle he travelled in have also been located and tested for the virus. Results are being analysed by Ninh Binh General Hospital. On March 26, he was involved in a traffic accident and was sent to Viet Nam France Hospital in an ambulance. He returned to a hotel afterwards. On March 31, he started having a nosebleed and had an examination at uc Giang General Hospital then was transferred to the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion. The patient was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on April 1 and admitted to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. In Ha Noi, 89 health workers who had close contact with the patient were quarantined and tested. The health workers include 18 from uc Giang Hospital, 45 of the Central Institute for Hematology and Blood Transfusion, four of Hospital E and 22 of Viet Nam France Hospital. The hospitals and hotel where he stayed have been disinfected. 89 medical workers quarantined after contacting a COVID-19 patient As many as 101 people, including 89 doctors and nurses of 4 big hospitals, have been placed in quarantine after having close contact with a Swedish patient infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The male patient, 64, suffering from acute leukemia, entered Vietnam in late December 2019 and lived in Hanoi. During his stay, he had travelled to various places of interest in Hanoi, Ninh Binh and Ho Chi Minh City, but shown no clinical and epidemiological symptoms of the coronavirus until he was admitted to the National Institute of Hematology & Blood Transfusion for treatment on April 1. The patient was said to have changed several places of residence in Hanoi and visited other hospitals, including Vietnam-France hospital, in the capital city for medical check-ups. At the institute, he refused to cooperate with doctors and follow health recommendations, including wearing a face mask. Later tests by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed the Swedish citizen had carried the SARD-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. A total of 101 people, including 89 doctors and nurses of four hospitals in Hanoi, have been quarantined and had their samples taken by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing. Health professionals have disinfected all hotels, guesthouses and clinics where the patient had visited to prevent the virus spreading to the community. Business firms donate food for frontline medical force Many business firms in HCM City have donated food to front-line medical force. Photo courtesy of soha.vn Firms in HCM City have prepared nutritious meals for front-line doctors and nurses participating in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. According to a representative of GS25, Truong Thi Tuyet Mai, GS25 has offered meals to the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases since March 23 and District 7 Hospital since April 1. About 115 meals are sent to HCM City Hospital for Tropical Disease at 8pm daily, while 30 are sent to District 7 Hospital at 7.20am. The menu is changed every day to ensure hearty yet delicious meals for the front-line medical force. At this time, doctors and nurses need quality food so that they have enough strength to keep up the hard work and provide the best treatment for all patients. Taking great care of doctors and nurses is not simply an act of empathy but also our responsibility, Mai said. Since many business firms in HCM City are doing the same meaningful action, GS25 is merely contributing a part of providing extra meals at night, according to Mai. The quality and packaging of each meal is carefully thought out to ensure food hygiene and safety, while the delivery process follows strict standards. Beloved doctors and nurses just need to focus on the fight against COVID-19 epidemic. In the background, local businesses will try to take care of as many things as possible, including food and drink," Mai said. To ensure smooth delivery of food, GS25 has increased the number of staff and plans to contact other hospitals for meal donations to the medical force. We believe that we can never do enough to take the best care of front-line doctors and nurses. We can only support a small part to HCM Citys medical force. There are many hard-working doctors and nurses elsewhere that risk being infected with COVID-19, she said. In addition to GS25, ABC Bakery, owned by Kao Sieu Luc, has produced 10,000 loaves of super-nutritious breads. This is the companys second batch after it donated 3,000 special loaves of bread. Kao Huy Minh, Lucs daughter, said that each loaf of bread contained the love of many locals. After seeing that my father started helping the medical force, many suppliers donated milk, yeast, white flout and black wheat. The US Embassy in Viet Nam has even provided us with some types of nuts, she added. Minhs family company is in the process of waiting for hospitals approval to donate bread. Even though the company is willing to help the medical force, Minh admitted that sales revenue of ABC Bakery had dropped by more than 60 per cent. Some suppliers have closed down so we have to find replacement materials. If we cannot find them, we have no choice but to stop making certain types of bread, she said. To keep the business going, Kao Sieu Luc has suspended production of many types of bread and only offered essential, easy-to-eat, delicious and affordable items. Everything must be calculated carefully since we do not want to waste existing resources, Minh said. She emphasised the importance of providing essential food to locals while ensuring employees stable incomes. What makes me happy is seeing a lot of businesses in HCM City trying very hard. Their quiet participation in social activities and food donations is only a simple part of a bigger picture, she added. Central provinces strengthen isolation measures against COVID-19 A donation of hand sanitiser to a check-point in a Nang. The central city of a Nang started isolating all people coming from Ha Noi and HCM City two COVID-19 affected hubs for 14 days at quarantine sites starting Sunday (April 5). The city said citizens from Ha Noi and HCM City, as well as those from a Nang working and living in the two cities, will have to pay for the two-week isolation period. a Nang-based ong A college also handed over 200 bottles of hand sanitiser that were made by local students and lecturers to seven check-points in the city. According to the citys health department, 327 people have been quarantined as of April 5, while 4,637 had completed the 14-day isolation. Samples of 3,248 had tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. Authorities of Hoa Vang District also fined a group of 23 people for camping at a public site and violating social distancing orders on Saturday. Meanwhile, Quang Nam Province warned local residents living and working in HCM City and Ha Noi to not travel home at the moment. It said residents living in the two cities will receive food and logistical support from the province to ease difficulties during the pandemic. All people returning from the two cities will be kept at quarantine sites for 14 days as per a decision released by the province last week. A donation of VN290 million (US$12,600) and two tonnes of rice has been raised to support people from Quang Nam staying in the two cities. The province had isolated 498 people returning from HCM City and Ha Noi between April 1-4. Samples of 846 out of total 1,141 (including 689 foreigners) at quarantine sites and hospitals tested negative for COVID-19. To date, 236 people have finished their isolation. Neighbouring Thua Thien-Hue Province has released 360 people after quarantine. Local donors contributed 800 gifts worth VN160 million ($7,000) and eight tonnes of rice to support poor people suffering the impact of the pandemic. A report from Quang Ngai Province unveiled that 74 samples of people who had close contact with COVID-19 positive cases all tested negative as of April 5. The province is isolating 64 people. No cases of COVID-19 have been found in the province. Vietnam earns highest public trust in gov't response to COVID-19 globally: Survey Covering over 32,000 respondents in 45 countries, spanning all continents, the data shows that almost half of the citizens surveyed want more government action. With 62% of Vietnamese people saying they are happy with the governments response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese government earned the highest national public trust globally, according to a global study by Dalia Research. Taking the second spot is Argentina with 61% of the approval rate, followed by Austria with 58%, and Singapore with 57%. Dalia Research unveils the global public survey on the COVID-19 to understand how the world views the actions taken by national governments. Covering over 32,000 respondents in 45 countries, spanning all continents, the data shows that almost half of the citizens surveyed want more government action. Answering the question of Think about your governments reaction to the COVID-19 right now. Do you believe measures taken are too much or too little?, almost half the world (43%) say the governments are doing too little in response to the outbreak. However, citizens in eight out 45 countries surveyed believe on average that their governments are overreacting and doing too much in response. Meanwhile, two fifths of the global population (40%) believe their governments are doing the right amount to combat the pandemic. China and Italy fared well, where citizens rank their governments efforts above average to be the right amount (56% and 49% respectively). As the US overtakes China with most confirmed cases, 19% of the US population believe the government is doing too much in response. France and Spain are above the global average for considering their government response to be too little (64% and 66% respectively). Governments with the highest rate of too little in response are Thailand with 79%, Chile (76%), Spain (66%), France (64%) and Japan (64%). On the contrary, governments with the highest rate of too much in response are Saudi Arabia (34%), Malaysia (26%), Egypt (25%), Morocco (25%) and the US (19%). On the continent-level, both Europe and North America are above average as respondents here considered their governments to be doing too little to address the COVID-19 pandemic. North Americas opinion is largely driven by Mexico (with 60% of its population saying too little). Asia, the Middle East and Africa are all below average, sharing this opinion of government under-reaction. Community chips in to tackle COVID-19 Checking peoples temperatures at a supervision station in Hai Phong City. Organisations and individuals across the country have been working together to do their parts in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Hai Phong was the first locality in the country to set up six 24-hour medical supervision stations at all the citys gateways on March 25. In the past week, staff at these stations have been working day and night, whatever the weather. Station No 1 has been set up at the Highway No 5 toll booth in An Duong District. Thousands of containers pass the highway every day from Hai Phong City to different provinces and cities across the country, so work at the station is intensive. Police and transport inspectors give guidance to vehicles while medical workers and soldiers check peoples temperatures and their medical declarations. They have no time for a break during their shifts, which last six hours. As well as the hard work, staff need to deal with a variety of problems as they arise. Nguyen Thi Anh, a medical worker at Station No 1, said she had two children, one in ninth grade and the other in second grade. She and her husband are both on duty, so their children have to look after themselves. If any person with a high temperature passes through the station, Anh must go into quarantine to protect her family and the community. And there are more problems. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Quang Hong, head of Station No 1, often has to spend a lot of time explaining to people why they have to stop their vehicles for checks. They use a number of excuses to avoid stopping and save time, such as saying they are on a charity trip. Hong always keeps calm, explaining the situation to people until they agree to follow the regulations. So far Hai Phong has had no positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 thanks to instructions from municipal leaders and the thousands of people who take turns at the supervision stations as well as in villages, wards and districts. Donation The Binh Minh Commune Peoples Committee in Khoai Chau District, the northern province of Hung Yen on April 2 launched a donation campaign for COVID-19 prevention and control. Nguyen Thi Bau, 87, from a Hoa Village, was praised for donating all of her allowance to the fund. Bau donated VN10 million (US$430) saying that she was that old but not healthy enough to directly join in the fight with the pandemic, so she contributed the money as her part to help eliminate the disease. Baus husband passed away 10 days ago. All of her seven children live far away. She had been saving that money for many years. Together with Bau, nine other residents in the commune contributed VN57 million ($2,400) and 1,000 face masks. In the northern province of Hai Duong, the Hai Duong City Fatherland Front Committee on April 3 only received more than VN250 million ($10,800) from organisations and individuals for pandemic control work. Pham Nguyen Mai An, a third grader at Vo Thi Sau Primary School, donated VN400,000 ($17) from her savings. Venerable Thich Thanh Cuong, head of the Cuong Xa Pagoda, said that the pagoda donated VN200 million ($8,600), face masks and sterilising solution. Nguyen Quang Phuc, chairman of the Hai Duong Province Fatherland Front, said the province had received more than VN1.5 billion ($65,200) in donations from local organisations and individuals. The committee pledged to use the funds effectively to prevent and control COVID-19, he said. COVID-19: Vietnam faces high risk of community infection Epidemiologists have warned that the country is at high risk of suffering from community infection from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) after they were unable to trace the source of the outbreak at Bach Mai hospital, the countrys largest COVID-19 hotspot. There have been a total of 233 confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide as of 06.00am on April 3, with 43 of them being closely linked with the ongoing outbreak at Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi. The hospital notes that the infections were detected at its canteen, the Neurology Department, the Center for Tropical Diseases, and the National Heart Institute. However, it remains unclear how groups of patients were exposed to the epidemic in the first place, though the Ministry of Health assumes that the sources of infection originate from logistics service providers, in addition to the relatives and caregivers of patients. With the exception of two nurses who became the first individuals from the site to be confirmed to have contracted the disease, all of the hospitals medical workers have since tested negative for the virus. Most notably, the epidemiologists failed to find clues regarding the two female nurses source of infection, with none of the patients who came into close contact with the pair testing positive for the virus. Experts warn that losing track of the COVID-19s chain of transmission means the risk of infection spreading within the community is very high. Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, Head of the Infection - Neurology Department of the Children's Hospital No1 in Ho Chi Minh City, believes that the country is now entering stage three of the epidemic with COVID-19 cases now being among the wider community. It is therefore highly likely that many citizens will be exposed to virus infection, with many coming into close and direct with infected cases, he said. Following the confirmation of the first positive COIVD-19 case at the site, Bach Mai hospital discharged approximately 5,000 patients and their relatives to local hospitals throughout northern and central provinces. In an effort to halt the infection spreading among the public, localities have been scrambling to trace and quarantine patients and relatives from the hospital, along with those who they came into direct contact with. The need to stop the potential spread of the COVID-19 has prompted the government to impose a 15-day social distancing measure which began on April 1, with all people requested to remain indoors as much as possible. One of the partial aims of the policy is to prevent healthy people from coming into direct contact with unknown COVID-19 cases. Doctors believe that the following two to four weeks will be crucial in deciding if the nation is able to prevent and bring the epidemic under control. If the implemented social distancing measures are followed and people strictly go along with health recommendations such as wearing face masks and frequently washing hands with soap, then there will be no possibility of the virus being transmitted from one person to another, Dr Khanh notes. SOS village kids help in COVID-19 fight Hue SOS village kids show their hand-made face protectors which will be donated to COVID-19 checkpoints in Thua Thien-Hue Province. Photo courtesy SOS Village Hue Children from the Hue SOS Village have donated 200 hand-made face masks to checkpoints in the province. Representatives of the village said on Sunday that its a part of the contribution from 70 children living in the village in sharing hardships with staff at checkpoints in the fight against COVID-19. Its a quick and easy-design face protector that can be made from recycled isinglass, Polyethylene foam pieces and elastic. It can be reused after cleaning by alcohol, steam and ultraviolet (UV) sterilisation. Kids in the village also joined a mass painting project to promote efforts made by the community in dealing with COVID-19 in the province. According to the provincial Peoples Committee, all people from other provinces visiting Hue City from Monday (April 6) have to report their travel itinerary, undergo medical checks and provide health declarations at checkpoints. At least 14,000 people from provinces and cities nationwide had been isolated in the province since early March. Up to 4,000 have completed quarantine. Medical staff from a Nang Trauma and Orthopaedics Hospital and private Family Hospital also produced hand-made face protectors from recycled materials at a cost of VN5,000 (US$0.2) each only five per cent in comparison to the same product sold on the market (VN100,000). Colleges and universities in a Nang also started production of automatic hand-cleaners at supermarkets and public sites. COVID-19: Students in Australia get updated on local governments new policies The Vietnamese Embassy in Australia has provided updated information about the Australian governments adjustment of its policies for foreigners amid the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Right after receiving information about Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisons April 3 recommendation that international tourists and students who are not financially secure should leave Australia, the embassy actively contacted with local authorised offices to clarify the leaders statement. Accordingly, in the context of complicated developments of the pandemic, the Australian government encourages foreign backpackers to return home if they can not support themselves. For nearly 600,000 foreign students, the government encourages them to rely on family support, part-time work where available and their own savings to sustain themselves. Those who have lived in Australia for more than one year are advised to withdraw up to 10,000 AUD (6,000 USD) of their Australian superannuation this financial year to help them through the crisis. The Vietnamese embassy has popularised these policies to the Vietnamese students association in Australia, and coordinated with the overseas Vietnamese association in the country to encourage Vietnamese people there to help them feel secure. On April 1, Vietnamese Ambassador Ngo Huong Nam and ambassadors of other ASEAN members states sent a letter expressing wish that Australia would offer appropriate physical and material support to international students from ASEAN nations, amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter was sent to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Australia-ASEAN Joint Cooperation Committee, and the ministers for education, skills and employment of six states and two territories of Australia. Opening the letter, the ambassadors expressed their solidarity with Australia and believed that working together, all will weather the existing difficulties. They hoped that the Australian government, ministries and agencies concerned will consider several flexible regulations to not only meet important demands but also offer suitable measures to international students coming from the ASEAN countries after the crisis. The ambassadors pledged to work closely with authorities, federal officials and administrations of Australian states, as well as directly contacted universities to readily provide necessary information if requested. Binh Duong company suspended as RoK expert infected with COVID-19 A flatware and cutlery manufacturer from the Republic of Korea (RoK) based in Binh Duong province has suspended all operations after one of its Korean experts contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Health authorities are tracing the source of COVID-19 infection of the RoK expert at a company in Binh Duong Health professionals working in Binh Duong province stated on April 4 that they have quarantined a total of 35 people who had previously come into close contact with Lee Kyu Nam, an expert working for Sung Gwang Vina Co. Ltd. in Tan Uyen town. Lee had originally been sent to Vietnam to work as part of the molding section of Sung Gwang Vina from January to March. However, upon returning to the RoK on April 1, it was discovered that he had been infected with the COVID-19. According to local health officials, during his stay in the country Lee came into contact with a total of 46 people, including seven Korean nationals, an interpreter, a car driver, two chefs, and 35 other people who were part of his team. Following the discovery, Ho Chi Minh City and a number of other southern provinces including Binh Thuan, Vinh Long, Ca Mau, Dong Nai, and Binh Phuoc have been urged to monitor 11 people, including four Koreans, that Lee came into contact with. In addition, Binh Duong province has quarantined the remaining 35 people and has taken each of their samples for testing whilst the companys premises has been isolated for chemical disinfection in line with regulations. With the enterprise closing on April 2, the firms 760 workers will be remaining at home, with no one currently clear on when they will return to work. Happy At Home campaign sees online concerts go viral "Happy At Home campaign sees online concerts go viral. A large number of Vietnamese artists have participated in a series of online concerts that last the entire day as a way of encouraging citizens to stay indoors in an attempt to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The online concerts are part of the "Happy At Home campaign launched by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Vietnam Fatherland Fronts Central Committee and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). The campaign delivers a positive message aimed at persuading Vietnamese people to stay at home, reminding citizens to limit the amount that they partake in social activities whilst also not gathering in crowds as a means of curbing the spread of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. Since the launch of the campaign, an array of Vietnamese artists have responded by joining some of the various online concerts and sending a clear message to all viewers to please to stay indoors and enjoy the music. In addition, the campaign also allowed a group of artists to organise an online concert specifically for doctors working at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi on April 1. The show lasted for a total of two hours and involved the playing of soothing melodies and gave performers the chance to deliver words of encouragement to medical professionals. Four more COVID-19 patients discharged from HCM City hospital The four patients pose for a photo with doctors before leaving the hospital Four more COVID-19 patients were released from hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on April 4 after making a full recovery, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the country so far to 90. The four patients, treated at HCM Citys Cu Chi field hospital, had three times tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, according to Nguyen Thanh Dung, director of the hospital. They will be placed in quarantine at home for another 14 days after being released, Dr Dung said. One of the patient is a US citizen living in HCM Citys Binh Thanh district. She had travelled to Thailand and Turkey before landing in Vietnam on March 15 and testing positive for the virus. The three remaining patients had travelled to coronavirus-hit countries such as the UK and France before returning to Vietnam. Located in Cu Chi district, the field hospital has been set up to receive COVID-19 patients in HCM City and neighbouring provinces. The facility, capable of accommodating 300 patients, has so far cured 14 patients. Vietnam has to date reported 239 COVID-19 cases, of whom 90 have been discharged from hospital. Vietnamese communities abroad join hands in COVID-19 fight Businessman Johnathan Hanh Nguyen donates VND25 billion to the fight against COVID-19 Vietnamese communities abroad have actively joined hands in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the homeland by contributing financial assistance, and medical supplies and equipment, according to Vice Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs Luong Thanh Nghi. Accordingly, Vietnamese people living, studying and working in Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia donated nearly 80,000 face masks, hundreds of bottles of antiseptic, protective gears and medical gloves to help the northern province of Vinh Phucs Son Loi commune and hospitals in Hanoi to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, businessman Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, an overseas Vietnamese (OV) in the Philippines, donated VND25 billion. Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Minh Hong from German presented equipment to install two negative pressure rooms for a COVID-19 treatment hospital in HCM Citys Cu Chi district. She is expected to donate equipment for 10 more similar rooms to health facilities in other localities nationwide. Tran Ngoc Phuc, Chairman of the Vietnamese Association in Japan, Director of Metran Co. Ltd, transferred technology and helped Vietnamese partners produce ventilators at low prices. Chairman of the Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Association in the UK Pham Minh Nam and Truong Thi Thu Huong, an OV in China, also donated VND1 billion each to the effort. Nghi said that many Vietnamese intellectuals living abroad have proposed initiatives and technological solutions to the prevention work, adding that Vietnamese associations and individuals in France the US, and other countries have also organised fundraising activities to help people in the homeland. While highlighting the importance of the contributions, Nghi affirmed that OVs have served as bridges to promote the friendship between Vietnam and other countries in the world, and Vietnam's extensive international integration. Prices of medical supplies in Cambodia skyrocket Since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, many pharmacies in Cambodia have run out of medical equipment and supplies, local newspaper reported. According to the Khmer Times, prices of such products like masks, gloves, hand sanitisers and drugs skyrocket due to novel coronavirus fears. The Health Ministry cited earlier this week the Law on the Management of Pharmaceuticals as saying that medicine and health equipment must bear ministry registration numbers and sellers are required to have permits. It also said medical products must be sold in pharmacies, not on online stores. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this week also said he will not let citizens lack hygiene products. He said local factories must produce face masks and alcohol-based sanitisers for doctors and the public. Meanwhile, Cambodia has waived overstay fines for tourists stranded in the country due to the ongoing disruption to flights caused by the COVID-19, according to the foreign ministry's diplomatic note released on April 4. In the note sent to all diplomatic and consular missions accredited to Cambodia, the ministry said due to the COVID-19 outbreak, some foreign tourists who arrived in Cambodia after January 1 have not been able to return to their countries as there is no availability of flights. "The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided, effective from April 3 2020, to grant automatic extension of tourist visa (Visa T) to those foreign citizens and to exempt their visa overstay fines until they will be able to depart Cambodia," the note said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 08:17 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fbe07c 1 City COVID-19-Jakarta,social-assistance-funds,poverty,Jakarta-administration,social-affairs-ministry,COVID-19 Free The Jakarta administrations sluggish delivery of crucial social assistance funds in response to the COVID-19 outbreak is putting the citys underprivileged citizens at a higher risk of slipping into destitution the longer the crisis stretches on. On March 20, five days after the city started closing down schools and tourist destinations to curb the spread of the disease, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that the administration would be disbursing social assistance to 1.1 million registered beneficiaries. At the time, Jakarta officials were still formulating the amount and method of disbursement. Fast forward to Thursday, at a teleconference meeting with Vice President Maruf Amin, Anies announced that the number of beneficiaries had jumped to 3.7 million people due to a greater share of the population, comprising poor and vulnerable groups, dropping deeper into poverty. They [people in the vulnerable bracket] still earn a living, but once the economy contracts, they will have lost all of their income, he said, pointing to street vendors and ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers as prime examples of this group. Read also: 70 million informal workers most vulnerable during pandemic The governor has revealed that beneficiaries would be receiving Rp 1 million (US$60.45) in subsidies per household per month for April and May. The Social Affairs Ministry, which is set to allocate Rp. 4.57 trillion to the social assistance program, would be footing a larger chunk of each subsidy of Rp 880,000, while the remainder will be taken out of the citys budget. But with an additional 2.6 million recipients added to the tally, Anies said the administration would require approximately 10 days to complete their credentials another massive undertaking. Not all of them have a Jakarta identity card. Some are not even registered as beneficiaries of the social assistance program, he said, adding that the administration would use data it had been collecting through the One Jakarta program, which employs the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) to collect household data. Meanwhile, the Social Affairs Ministrys director general for social empowerment, Pepen Nazarudin, said the ministry was still waiting on the details of the beneficiaries. The Jakarta administration is to inform us about the data before we will review it. Well convey the data to the President as soon as possible, Pepen told The Jakarta Post. The disbursement mechanism remains unclear but Pepen insisted it would abide by the physical distancing rules mandated by the government, hopeful of avoiding the rush and the long lines that often come with the distribution of staple food packages. Flora Aninditya, a researcher at the University of Indonesia Economics and Business Schools Demographics Institute, emphasized that while speeding up the collection of data was important, the safety of the officers should be of utmost importance during an outbreak. There should be a protocol to ensure the safety of data collectors who go out into the field, while operational incentives like covered transportation costs or phone credits should also be provided, she told the Post on Friday. Read also: Indonesias strategy to combat COVID-19: What we know so far Separately, Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) chairwoman Asfinawati deplored the Jakarta governments late decision to set up a social safety net one month after the first COVID-19 infection was confirmed in the capital. She claimed that many people had lost income and could potentially fall deeper into poverty due to the governments failure to identify risks and prepare mitigation strategies before measures to curb the spread of the virus were put in place. The risks should have been identified well in advance, she said. Jakarta RT/RW Forum chairman Muhammad Irsyad said he was worried that low-income groups would no longer heed the governments call to stay indoors as uncertainty over their basic needs are thrown into doubt. Though Ive seen residents obey the call [for physical distancing] for the past two weeks, they will eventually want to go out to find ways [to make money], he said. But residents may feel more at ease if they know it [social assistance] is available. The severity of the COVID-19 outbreak in the capital has triggered an outpouring of solidarity from individuals, community organizations, companies and government agencies that have gathered donations for the poor and provided protective gear for medical workers on the frontline. Meanwhile, communities in Jakartas slums have reportedly begun producing their own antiseptic liquid for local use. These are truly very good initiatives to have as a nation, but they could also be seen as a corrective measure to make up for the failure of the state, Asfinawati said. Wahyudi Djafar, deputy director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), said that collective efforts to handle the outbreak should always be led by the government. The government should have been able to produce a map for people to track, for instance, where there is a shortage of protective equipment, so donations and other resources can be equally distributed, he said. Jakarta, currently the countrys epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, had reported 958 confirmed cases and 96 deaths as of Friday afternoon. Top image by Marisse Caine. It kills, it causes cancer, it makes your teeth yellow, it makes you age faster. And the list goes on. We know smoking is bad, but people around us continue to do itand our culture is just as responsible as our policies and education. Despite efforts by the Singapore government to lower smoking rates among citizens, the numbers remain consistently high. In 2019, 10.6% of the population between the ages of 18 and 69 smoked tobacco every day. Back in 2004, the figure was 12%, meaning we havent moved much in the past 16 yearsand these figures do not consider those who smoke occasionally, and the friends and family who inhale second hand smoke. One night out with my friends is all it takes for me to realise how smoking addiction still thrives around us, enabling smokers to continue their habits, and pulling non-smokers in to participate in smoker activities. From following our friends for cigarette breaks to letting them choose bars with smoking areas, it silently controls the decisions of non-smokers as well. I am guilty of it. I am not a smoker per se, but on most given nights out ill gladly follow my friends to the smoking area as an excuse to socialise. In doing so, I am still enabling, contributing, and participating in the normalisation of smoking in society and even propagating the idea that the smoking area is the place to be. So living in a nation that is actively trying to reduce the number of people smoking, we need to ask ourselves why we are failing to do so. And theres no single answer to that, but one thing is for sure: smoking culture still thrives all around us. And if we want to bring the numbers down, we will need to look at the issue from a new lens. And this includes looking at less harmful alternatives. Because Smoking Has Been Entrenched in Our Culture For Generations To start with, we cant look at societys relationship with smoking without touching on the roots of the issue that dates back generations. Leslie Goh, a communications manager at addiction centre WeCare, said that when he was growing up, smoking was normal and happened in almost every place he went to. Story continues My father was always smoking, he tells me, and most of my aunties, uncles and other adults smoked too. When Leslie was about 30, he lost his father to lung cancer. When I was young, I didnt know that smoking was bad. No one even used the word addiction, especially not for cigarettes, he said. Smoking was everywhereyou could do it on airplanes, trains, offices, and most other public places. There were even advertisements for the cigarette brands preferred by doctorsor ads saying some cigarettes were less harmful than others. If youve ever seen Mad Men, youll know what Im talking about. It was no different in Singapore. Medically, our understanding of what smoking does to us has advanced rapidly. Many changes have been made in society too. Smoking is restricted to specific outdoor areas, prices of cigarettes have gone up, advertising has been banned, awareness has grown, and age restrictions are on the rise. But culturally, we still have a long way to go. You still see it all the time, Leslie said. You see it on Mad Men, on Euphoria. Its in books. In music videos. Its still made to look cool. This has exceptionally worrying implications for young people. Being exposed to the romanticisation of smoking in the media makes young people more susceptible to picking up a cigarette themselves. Because Its Hard To Stop When We Are Constantly Triggered People start smoking for various reasons. Most tend to start in their teen years, for reasons spanning from peer pressure, being exposed to smoking from a young age, the impacts of popular culture, wanting to rebel against their parents, self-medicating for mental health struggles, and so on. But cigarette addiction impacts adults, senior citizens and people from all walks of life. And whatever the reason for starting, smoking is extremely addictive, and those who start struggle to stopno matter who they are. Even in small doses, nicotine creates pleasurable feelings and makes your brain release dopamine, playing into our mental reward circuit. This reaction physically changes your brain, making it increasingly hard to stop. On top of that, cigarette smoking can temporarily relieve anxiety, make you more focused, relieve tension and provide a ritual to socially bond overreleasing more feel good hormones. Once the brain gets hooked onto this process, people struggle to perform different daily activities without cigarettes. There are professionals who smoke at work to socialise and as a way to take a break,there are people who smoke with their morning coffee to kick-start the day, people who enjoy a smoke with their wine at night to unwind, people who smoke in social situations as an ice-beaker, and the list goes on. For all the activities mentioned above, your brain becomes wired to need nicotine, and therefore making it extremely hard to stop. Which brings us back to popular culture and our urban environmentseven when smokers try to stop, there are too many triggers around them that pull them back into doing it. When you see it, you want to do it. The award centre in the brain takes over the part that makes executive decisions, Leslie explains. Its not an issue of willpower, moral fibre or characterif youre an addict you cant say no, Leslie said. One of the biggest misconceptions in society is that addiction is a condition. Its actually a mental health issue because of how it changes the brain. For smoking not to be normalised around us, we need less smokers around. But if they struggle to quit because they are continually triggered by popular culture, or from seeing people in smoking areas, this will be increasingly hard to do. So on one hand, targeting these triggers means addressing the external influences. But thats only one part of the discussion, because that doesnt account for the physical and mental addiction to nicotine. If people can stop, that is obviously ideal, but we have to be realistic and realise that many cant in a short amount of timeor ever. In that case, do we just let them continue smoking as they normally do? Or should we look at ways to reduce the harms of smoking? More on that later Because We Normalise Other Addictions As Well In our day to day activities like work and school, smoking seems to be slightly less widespread. Maybe, this is because there are stricter rules about where smoking areas are allowed in these spaces. But if you go out at night, suddenly the number of people smoking seems to multiplyespecially where alcohol is served. And this is not to say that smokers are necessarily drinkers too, but there does seem to be a correlation in some cases. And this may apply to you, and surely does to me too. You know the feelingyoure sitting around having a few drinks, youre getting a little tipsy and suddenly, you find yourself craving a cigarette. So you take one, you get that slight head rush, you feel chilled out, and before you know it youre asking your friends for another one. There is an explanation for this. Firstly, nicotine counters the depressant effect of alcohol. So the more we drink, the more we crave the high of smoking to bring us back up. Second, drinking makes us lose some of our inhibitions, and therefore we allow ourselves to go for more cigarettes than we normally would. In other words, we know smoking is bad, but the alcohol helps us forget about that and chase the physical pleasure. From drinking and smoking, I get a constant flood of mood changes that relieve the negative feelings and reinforce the positive ones. Gambling can be yet another addictive mood changer. Gambling, smoking and drinking make a perfect combination which can hijack my brain for hours or even days, said Andrew, chairman of WeCare. Gambling, smoking and drinking make a perfect combination which can hijack my brain for hours or even days. Smoking, gambling and binge drinking are all relatively normalised in society. Whether its after work drinks, happy hours, family festivities or a birthday at the casinothe environments that facilitate this trio of addictive actions are endless. So if we want to target smoking, we also have to talk about alcohol consumption and gambling, and how they have become normal aspects of many peoples social life. With this normalisation, it is hard to perceive the said action as an addiction. Partly, Leslie says this has to do with the way the word addiction is used in society today. On one hand of the spectrum, people use it very loosely, saying things like Im addicted to Starbucks. On the other hand, the word is loaded with shame and guilt, which stops people from wanting to attach it to situations, and therefore understanding the nuances behind it. But if we could address smoking as an addiction, and in the entirety of the word, smokers, non-smokers and healthcare practitioners would understand the mental health implications behind the action, and would allow us to better address the situation as a society. To simply put it, quitting smoking is not as simple as it sounds. Because If We Cant Stop Entirely, Should We Find A Less Harmful Replacement? As I briefly mentioned earlier, quitting is a huge struggle, and realistically, may not happen for many people. I personally have seen friends and family members struggle to do it, and its not fun for them. That may be why many people turn to smoking alternatives as a stepping stone to quitting entirely. And while some people like to compare the people who say vaping is less dangerous to the 20th century advertisements that said luckies are less irritating, there are actual studies that suggest vapes and e-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes, but also help people quit smoking entirely. A study by the UK government found that vaping products are comparable to licensed medication in helping people stop smoking. Another study found that vaping was more successful than nicotine gum in helping people out of the addiction. In the UK, vapes and e-cigarettes are completely legalized, and are provided as legitimate alternatives to help people stop cigarette smoking. The US is also in the process of finding the right regulation for these alternatives. Vaping is over 95% less risky than conventional cigarettes, Andrew said. The FDA has not denounced vaping as it is still a central pillar in its harm reduction strategy for adult smoking. As are heat-not-burn products line iCOS, which have received FDA approval for sale in the US. So if we know smoking is so difficult to stop, and we can mitigate the negative side effects of it with alternative products, why not? Because of the children!! some may shout out. This comes from the concern that flavoured vapes and e-cigarettes may be attractive to children, and get them to try smoking at a young age. However, the same UK government study mentioned above found that current vaping is mainly concentrated in young people who have experience of smoking. Less than 1% of young people who have never smoked are current vapers. This comes to show that vapes dont necessarily attract kids on their own per se, and instead draw in people who already dabbled in the activity. And for the small number of young people who are attracted by the flavourings, regulators can address the issue by banning the advertisement or sale of vape flavourings, or by raising the age limit to buy such products. Vaping nicotine or using heat-not-burn products are simply less harmful delivery technologies. We dont necessarily have to choose between our children and those addicted to smoking. We can at least try to find regulations that work in favour of both. And while we continually try to protect children from vaping, shouldnt we also continue to help those who cant quit smoking to try arguably healthier alternatives? In Singapore, vapes and e-cigarettes are banned, but hundreds if not thousands continue to use them. And without regulation, Singapores government cant ensure their citizens are getting vapes and e-cigarettes that dont contain dangerous compoundslike some of the flavourings used in the liquids for these products. If people still need nicotine, or time to lay off from the addiction, then options that are not as harmful should be given to them. It is not the nicotine that is dangerous, it is the other 600 toxins in conventional cigarettes, Andrew says. Vaping nicotine or using heat-not-burn products are simply less harmful delivery technologies. Do you smoke, or contribute to the normalisation of smoking in society? This is a no judgement zone: tell us at community@ricemedia.co. The post Why Smoking Continues To Be One Of The Most Normalised Addictions In Society appeared first on RICE. Family members in Canada who have criticized Iran's government after losing their loved ones in the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 say they're being targeted with threats and intimidation and they blame Tehran. Global Affairs is aware of "reports" of victims' families "being approached in Canada in situations which have caused them concern," according to an email the department sent to families that was obtained by CBC News. A government task force has warned families to immediately call police if they feel unsafe. Iran has admitted its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 'mistakenly' shot down Flight 752, killing all on board, including 55 Canadian citizens. Canada is among the nations pressing for compensation for families of the victims. The email doesn't say whether authorities suspect anyone in particular is approaching family members but multiple families tell CBC News they fear it's people close to the Iranian regime. Canada's new special adviser to the federal government on the aftermath of Flight 752, Ralph Goodale, said it's "critically important" that families report threats or acts of intimidation to police. "Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Canada should not have reason to fear for their safety or the integrity of their very existence in this country," said Goodale, who was appointed by the prime minister earlier this week. 'You are a traitor' Hamed Esmaeilion of Richmond Hill, Ont., has already gone to the RCMP. His wife and daughter were killed when Flight 752 was shot down on Jan. 8 shortly after it took off in Tehran. After the disaster, he said, he received a stream of hateful messages from a man whose Facebook account said he was located in Toronto. "He's asking me why I'm acting against the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]. He said, 'You are a traitor to your homeland,'" said Esmaelion. "He was very insistent. He was doing that every day." After talking to other victims' families and learning he wasn't his unnamed persecutor's only target, Esmaelion contacted police. Story continues The RCMP says it can't comment on individual cases, but said it's "aware of allegations of intimidation of the grieving families of the PS752 and deplore any such actions." Supplied Across the country in Edmonton, the parents, younger brother and aunt of Amir Hossein Saeedina allege they were forced to flee Iran first to Turkey, then to Canada in February because of threats from Iranian authorities after they spoke out about his death on Flight 752. Intimidation from a distance The aunt claims agents of the Iranian regime detained her, abused her and warned her to keep her family silent. "The worst things that could happen to a person in those 24 hours ... they did to me," Fatemeh Latifi told CBC News through a translator on March 5. But even in Canada, where they're filing for refugee status, they claim Tehran hasn't forgotten about them. Reza Akbari of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton said government officials visited Saeedina's grandparents in Iran and asked them why their family was betraying their country. "And threatening them if they continue talking and speaking out ... they will detain all of their personal belongings," said Akbari. "That threat exists." Edmonton PhD student Javad Soleimani, who lost his wife in the disaster. said he got an hour-long phone call from someone claiming to be a high ranking official with the Iranian regime after he criticized the government online. 'I don't want to stop' When he refused to take down an Instagram post criticizing Iran for keeping its commercial airspace open the night Flight 752 was destroyed, the regime contacted his family in Iran and put pressure on them, he said. "When someone from the government calls you and then two days after that puts pressure on my family, this is a threat," he said. "I don't want to stop. I'm allowed to seek justice. I'm alive to actually talk about this catastrophe, to criticize the government. This is the motivation for the rest of my life. Nobody can scare me or stop me." Esmaeilion said he feels the same way. He's living in an empty house without his wife and daughter. Every day feels like the day he found out they were dead, he said. "I myself am not scared of anything," he said. "I have nothing to lose." Watch: Ralph Goodale talks about the search for answers on Flight 752 When the new coronavirus started spreading through the nation, Southwest Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler said her immediate reaction was fear for herself and her family, which includes an infant and another child who has had a transplant. As a mother, I was thinking through what does that mean? How do I protect my family? Herrera Beutler told The Daily News Thursday. But after spending time thinking, praying and speaking with physicians, Herrera Beutler said she recognized that she has a role to play as a representative. Its not just my family but the entire district thats in need right now, she said. I dont want my response to be fear-based. Yes, there are real things to be cautious about and real problems we have to address. But its about shedding the fear response and saying How can I be creative here? Herrera Beutler, a Battle Ground Republican, has been back in Washington State for a few weeks and is coordinating her response to the pandemic while working from home. During a brief phone interview, Herrera Beutler was politely interrupted a couple times by one of her kids, who was practicing reading. So far, Herrera Beutler has supported three relief packages passed by Congress, including an unprecedented $2 trillion allocated to keep businesses and individuals afloat amid shutdowns. Next, she wants to get personal protective equipment to places that need it and get testing approved for labs that are ready to go. However, shes run into roadblocks with state and federal agencies not communicating with each other, she said, and so she said she worked to break the logjam. The shutdown orders in Washington seem to be working to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases, she said. She stopped short of supporting a nationwide shutdown, but said shed recommend the measures to officials in other states, even those that havent yet been hit hard. The fact that our local hospitals are not being overrun and not running out of capacity for ICU beds, thats just a win because thats whats happening in New York, she said. Yes, (the shutdowns) will have an economic impact and that is very real, but I cannot imagine running out of ventilators and bed space and having sick people come in and not having a place to put them. The Trump administration this week indicated it would not open a special health insurance enrollment period for people who had lost their jobs and are without coverage. When asked about it, Herrera Beutler said shes not trying to make a decision for the administration. The State of Washington opened a special enrollment period until May 8 for its state insurance program. My number-one concern is, do people in my district have the opportunity if they are not already enrolled to enroll? And they do, she said. Democrats have criticized Herrera Beutler for saying she wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. However, she bucked a 2018 GOP attempt to repeal the ACA because she considered a substitute GOP plan inadequate. When asked if the federal government could have handled the outbreak better early on, Herrera Beutler said, Theres no question that we will look back and say we could have done this better. She added, however, that it would have been difficult to predict some of the effects of the outbreak. I have zero interest in picking snipey fights over political preference, she said. I dont think it gets the people in my region further ahead. Herrera Beutler is in the middle of a re-election campaign against Democrat Carolyn Long, who gave her a fierce battle in 2018. But Herrera Beutler said the campaign isnt her primary focus right now. What people send me to D.C. for is for times like this, she said. They expect me to be spending my time and energy breaking down barriers and getting doors open for them. At some point that will ease up. Love 4 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 9 Photo credit: HENK KRUGER - Getty Images From Women's Health In one month, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's son Archie will turn one year old. And after living in England and Canada with his parents, he's now settling in Los Angeles with Meghan and Harry. People got a little update on how Archie is doing these days. A friend told the outlet that Archie is a "cute" and content baby. Now, like everyone, they are adjusting to [social distancing], being cautious and safe, the source said. Their son is teething and is a happy baby. Im sure he is happy to be in the California sunshine. Meghan said last month that Archie was on the cusp of a major milestone while doing her final series of events as a working royal in England. She said that Archie started trying to walk" and revealed her son's impact on her: "Having Archie changed my life." The Duchess of Sussex also told Endeavour Fund Awards attendee Claire Spencer that Archie "is into everything" these days. Meghan and Harry haven't shared much more about their son. Their last photo of him was posted on New Year's Eve: a shot of Archie and his dad Harry on Vancouver Island. Today, April 1, marks the first day of Meghan and Harry's formal transition out of their senior royal family roles. The couple's Buckingham Palace office is closed, and they plan to announce their new non-profit in the future. The couple shared a wrap-up message on their Instagram earlier this week. 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 realize 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 communityfor 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 Story continues You Might Also Like Burke County positive cases of COVID-19 continues to grow. Burke County Health Director Rebecca McLeod was notified Sunday of five additional positive cases of COVID-19, which brings the total cases to 23 in the county. The cases consist of both traveling and community spread, according to information from Burke County. Public Health staff continues to investigate the cases and will be locating those close contacts to help contain the spread of the infection. Of the 23 cases, 12 are associated with a long-term care facility and all those positives are isolated, according to county information. Neighboring counties also have seen an increase in positive cases of COVID-19. Catawba County reported two new positive cases of the virus on Sunday, bringing its total of cases to 24, according to Catawba County Public Health. McDowell County reported an additional case on Sunday, bring its total to 10 positive cases of the virus, according to McDowell County Emergency Management. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} And in Iredell County, 44 positive cases were reported on Sunday, according to the Statesville Record & Landmark. A Muslim separatist group in Thailand has announced it is suspending guerrilla activity to facilitate humanitarian access during the COVID-19 crisis. The Barisan Revolusi Nasional says in a statement posted Sunday on its Facebook page that it was acting in order to create a safer and more suitable environment ... for health care agencies and other organizations tasked with preventing and containing the outbreak of Coronavirus. It says its suspension will remain in effect as long as the group is not attacked by government forces. The group, generally known as the BRN, has been leading a loose alliance fighting for autonomy for Thailand's three southernmost provinces, the only ones with Muslim majorities in the predominantly Buddhist nation. About 7,000 people have been killed since the conflict flared up in 2004. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that warring parties in 11 countries had responded positively to his appeal for a global cease-fire to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It is difficult to think of anyone more irresponsible at this time of coronavirus crisis than those people who returned from a skiing trip to Colorado with COVID-19 a couple of weeks ago and then wandered around and about, leading to the infection of dozens of people. Yet Prime Minister Scott Morrison has decided that he is not ready to adopt a technology based on mobile phone apps widely used in other countries such as Taiwan and Singapore which could have kept track of people who are in isolation but who refuse to do the right thing. Tracking apps are being used abroad to monitor infected people and enforce home quarantine. Credit:Bloomberg After the council of chief medical officers suggested using the technology, Mr Morrison said last week that using mobile phone data to track and contain the disease was not consistent with what Australian society understands and accepts. The Prime Minister is right that using mobile phone data involves serious privacy risks and, if badly managed, might reduce community support for other important measures such as lockdowns. In Montana, a father and son running a small oil business are cutting their salaries in half. In New Mexico, an oil truck driver who supports his family just went a week without pay. And in Alaska, lawmakers have had to dip into the state's savings as oil revenue dries up. The global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the oil industry in the U.S., which pumps more crude than any other country. In the first quarter, the price of U.S. crude fell harder than at any point in history, plunging 66% to around $20 a barrel. A generation ago, a drop in oil prices would have largely been celebrated in the U.S., translating into It's just a nightmare down here, said Lee Levinson, owner of LPD Energy, an oil and gas producer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Should these low oil prices last for any substantial period of time, it's going to be hard for anyone to survive." Crude prices recovered some ground, trading at around $28 a barrel Friday, after a week in which President Donald Trump tweeted that he expects Saudi Arabia and Russia will end On Friday, he met with oil executives but there were no announcements, and prices remain well below what most U.S. producers need to stay afloat. Among the latest casualties is Whiting Petroleum, an oil producer in the Bakken shale formation with about 500 employees that filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday. Schlumberger, one of the largest oilfield services companies, slashed its capital spending by 30% and is expecting to cut staff and pay in North America. And Halliburton, another major oilfield services provider, furloughed 3,500 of its Houston employees, ordering workers into a one-week-on, one-week-off schedule. You will see a tremendous loss of jobs in this industry, said Patrick Montalban, owner of Montalban Oil and Gas, based in Montana, who along with his son is slashing his salary in half and plans to cut the his remaining employees salaries by 25% and end their health insurance benefits. The impact is far-reaching. In Alaska, lawmakers recently passed a budget that sharply draws down a savings account that had been built up over the years when oil prices were higher. In New Mexico, where a third of the state's revenue comes from petroleum, the governor slashed infrastructure spending and will likely cut more in a special legislative session. In Texas, which produces about 40% of the country's oil and employs more than 361,000 people, the picture is especially bleak. Three weeks ago, Bobby Whitacre, vice president of Impala Transport in Plano, Texas, was looking to hire a well site supervisor for $200 a day with paid time off. Now hes had to lay off many of his workers. Its dead. Its dead as can be, he said. While many industries paralyzed by the coronavirus pandemic received help from a Some smaller producers would welcome financial relief. If the federal government is going to do something to help small businesses nationwide because of the problem with the coronavirus, we certainly dont want to be excluded from that, said Dewey Bartlett, Jr., president of Keener Oil & Gas and former Republican mayor of Tulsa. Many oil producers big and small stopped the costly process of drilling new wells when prices plummeted, leaving all kinds of workers vulnerable to layoffs: drillers, attorneys, truckers who deliver sand or water for fracking and skilled tradesmen who make equipment for rigs, to name a few. It was only two weeks ago when Sergio Chavira, a 33-year-old truck driver in New Mexico, was advertising on Craigslist for other drivers to help him haul crude oil, writing that there was plenty of work. Not anymore. The husband and father of an 8 year old and a 5 year old hasnt driven his truck for a week and is bracing for a drop in pay for what work is left. Now everything is slowing down, Chavira said. They give us less loads to haul every day. Checkers Inc., which administers drug and alcohol tests for oil industry employees in the heart of North Dakotas oil patch, has seen its monthly screenings fall by more than half, said owner Janette McCollum, who reduced her full-time employees' hours to part-time in response. Along with the slowdown in clients, companies are not wanting to pay their bills, she said. The oil industry was already logging hundreds of bankruptcies before the coronavirus hit, as producers struggled with weak global oil demand and high debt loads. Then the pandemic shut down travel as country after country started restricting flights in an attempt to bring the contagion under control. World oil demand fell 7% in the first quarter, and is expected to fall 14% in the second quarter, according to IHS Markit. If that wasn't enough, OPEC and Russia couldn't agree on production cuts to prop up prices, so Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. The kingdom slashed oil prices last month and vowed to ramp up production to more than 12 million barrels a day. Many American shale producers feel targeted by Saudi Arabia, which they suspect of trying to put them out of business. And it could be working. Were just burning through money down here," said Levinson, LPD Energys owner. "And how long we can last is anyones guess. (image credit: AP) Students at Lamar Institute of Technology will continue to operate from a distance with alternative learning methods until the end of the semester, and the school is hiring two new officials to help oversee the format. With over 8,100 students annually, LIT has a social responsibility to help protect the health, safety and vitality of this community amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, LIT President Lonnie Howard said in a letter to students. Since the college is considered a state agency, it does not fall under the City of Beaumont or Jefferson Countys stay-at-home orders, Howard said. But they still plan working to help prevent the spread of the virus. In accordance with the mayor and judges requests, starting (Tuesday) until the county ends its order on April 10, we will scale back the time the college is physically opened Monday through Friday, he said. The new hours will be 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m. to noon Fridays. Support services will be moved online, with essential staff returning April 13. In a letter to parents and students, Howard explained his decision not to shutter the college completely, noting the importance of operations to the community. We are balancing every decision against the reality that thousands of our students are on federal financial aid, in labs such as welding that are not online-friendly, must meet regional accreditation standards, need to graduate this semester and have to get jobs, Howard said, adding that the area is dependent on graduates to help sustain the economic vitality of Southeast Texas. Simply stated, the college by definition is essential, he said. Howard said labs and offices are continuously cleaned, students and staff are practicing social distancing and no one will gather in groups of ten or more. The school is in the process of on-boarding a faculty lead and an associate dean to help lead online efforts, school spokesperson Chris Elliot told The Enterprise. With a 46% increase in credit enrollment over the last three years, our faculty have been working extremely hard to meet this demand. But with the introduction of the COVID-19 virus it is even more important that we empower our faculty with new and innovative leadership opportunities so that they can become champions for our students, and better assist our faculty to work remotely using alternative learning strategies, he said. David Mosley, vice president for strategic initiatives, told The Enterprise in October that the 2017 creation of an Associate of Arts program that allows students to complete general students and transfer to four-year institutions resulted in a 34% enrollment jump to 308 students. It is now the second-largest program at the school. Mosley said other top programs such as petrochemical instrumentation training, radiologic technology and dental hygiene have continued to grow due to local workforce demands. In particular, the petrochemical community focused on what it is calling the great crew change as baby boomers retire, Mosley said. As those more experienced workers leave the industry, we are trying to increase the pool of skilled workers by offering hands-on programs and by creating multiple pipelines for students to get connected to employers. While the popularity of career programs like process operations at petrochemical plants has remained popular at LIT, a tuition reduction and shift in labor trends has meant the program is seeing a variety of students. As for the continued distance learning, Howard said he is very appreciative for Provost Kerry Mix for developing this unique system to take LITs customer service and work environment to an even higher level. The associate dean position will be responsible for ramping up our endeavors in virtual advising and remote TSIA testing. According to the Texas Education Agency, The Texas Success Initiative Assessment is part of the Texas Success Initiative enacted by the Texas State Legislature and designed to determine a students readiness for college-level coursework in the general areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. This is someone who has a wealth of knowledge, and who will greatly benefit the students as well as faculty when it comes to professional development, Elliot said. While details on who would be hired for the positions were not available Friday, an announcement is expected in the coming days. Jacob Dick contributed to this report. isaac.windes@hearstnp.com twitter.com/isaacdwindes Coronavirus originated from Chinas Wuhan last year. As it began to step away from mainland China, the deadly contagion left behind over 80,000 patients and killed more than 3,000 people in the country. As of today, nearly 1.2 million people are affected by the virus and a whopping 60,000 have been killed. The virus is estimated to account for a record number of patients and deaths in the United States. European nations like Italy, Spain, France and Germany are already reeling. Global bodies like the World Health Organization hailed South Korea for its strategy to contain the virus spread. Another administration which has done laudable work in mitigating the crisis within its territory is Taiwan. Taiwan, although so close to mainland China (just 81 miles off coast), has managed to keep the ugly head of Covid-19 from rising within its territory. We activated the @Taiwan_CDCs Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) back in January, and I visited them today to thank our unsung heroes for their non-stop, #AllHandsOnDeck efforts to contain the #COVID19 outbreak & keep the people of #Taiwan safe. pic.twitter.com/3uGUTxt7LF Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) April 2, 2020 According to a report, as the news of coronavirus emergence surfaced in Wuhan last year, officials at Taiwans National Health Command Center (NHCC) acted quickly. Stanford expert Jason Wang, who is an associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, says the outcome is a result of Taiwan using new technology and a robust pandemic prevention plan put into place at the 2003 SARS outbreak. Taiwans National Health Command Center (NHCC) was set up after the SARS pandemic and became part of its mechanism to tackle large outbreaks. Today I announced three major areas where #Taiwan will contribute to the global fight against #COVID19: 1: Donating 10 million face masks to countries in need. 2: Increasing production of quinine. 3: Sharing our use of technology to trace & investigate outbreaks. pic.twitter.com/F5yxyuF0Fc Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) April 1, 2020 While world economies were mulling over what actions to take and when, Taiwan was already responding with a Covid-19 strategy in place. Owing to its proximity to mainland China, it was supposed to be one of the worst-hit regions by coronavirus. Taiwan quickly moved to put travel curbs in place, checking its ports and introducing stringent punishments for violators of quarantine orders. Aggressive testing also helped Taiwan deal with the pandemic efficiently. Taiwanese authorities came into action as soon as the WHO was notified of a pneumonia of unknown cause in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. In the first week of January itself, Taiwanese authorities issued a notification for individuals who had travelled to or from Wuhan in the past 14 days and reported fever or symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection. Those displaying symptoms were quarantined, tested for over 20 viruses. Taiwan leveraged its national health insurance database and integrated it with its immigration and customs database to begin the creation of big data for analytics; it generated real-time alerts during a clinical visit based on travel history and clinical symptoms to aid case identification. It also used new technology, including QR code scanning and online reporting of travel history and health symptoms to classify travelers infectious risks based on flight origin and travel history in the past 14 days, Wang says in a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The administration prepared a list of 124 action items to devise a strategy against coronavirus. After nearly three months into the Covid-19 crisis, Taiwan has reported less than 400 coronavirus cases and witnessed 5 deaths as per the data by Johns Hopkins University. The lessons that world economies can learn from Taiwans Covid-19 plan are enormous. Taiwans strategy finds its foundation in early recognition of the crisis. With daily briefings to the public, and simple health messaging, the government was able to reassure the public by delivering timely, accurate, and transparent information regarding the evolving epidemic, Wang writes in her paper. FILE PHOTO: The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is seen while entering into the port in Da Nang, Vietnam WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of prominent Democratic senators formally requested on Friday that the Pentagon's independent Inspector General investigate the Navy's firing of the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who called for stronger measures to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board. Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command on Thursday after his scathing letter was leaked to the media. "Given the extraordinary circumstances under which these events took place, we believe a closer examination by a neutral third party is warranted," the senators wrote, according to a copy of the text seen by Reuters. Reuters is first to report such a congressional request to the Inspector General's office. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland led the push and were joined by 15 other U.S. senators, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris. Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told Reuters earlier on Friday that Crozier shared the letter too widely and questioned the commander's judgment. Critics have accused Modly of firing Crozier because the letter embarrassed the Navy. The backlash to Modly's decision to fire Crozier has been intense. In videos posted online, sailors on the Theodore Roosevelt applauded Crozier and hailed him as a hero, out to defend his crew - even at great personal cost to his career. More than 100 personnel from the carrier have tested positive for the novel coronavirus so far, and that number is likely to increase given the close quarters under which they live and operate. The senators, in their letter to the Inspector General's office, noted "the remarkable show of support for CAPT Crozier by members of his crew," and voiced concerns about whether his firing would impact morale and readiness in the Navy. They also asked the Inspector General to investigate how the Navy responded to reports of the outbreak of the COVID-19 illness caused by the coronavirus aboard carrier. "We are especially concerned about Navy readiness to support current and future deployments without all necessary precautionary measures and resources, such as for the USS Ronald Reagan and upcoming deployment of the USS Nimitz," they wrote. (Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot) Le ministre de la Sante a Olembe capture d'ecran Cameroon recorded 46 new cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday taking the number of known cases to 555, authorities have said. Out of this number, nine deaths have been recorded while 17 persons have recovered. Government has now ramped up efforts to track down those who travelled to the country from Europe and escaped quarantine. In fact, the Minister of Public Health, Manaouda Malachie, on March 30, in Yaounde, admitted that some of 261passengers who arrived Douala from some COVID-19 infested countries in Europe, by Air France and SN Brussels on March 17, escaped from hotels where they were to be quarantined for 14 days. The Public Health Minister promised that an operation to track down the quarantine-escapees, believed to be hiding among family members will effectively commence on April 2, alongside a mass testing exercise. In a communique April 3, 2020, the Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai drew the attention of the population that some individuals who recently arrived from abroad are living with their families and loved ones, without respecting the 14-day quarantine as prescribed by the Government in a bid to stop the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in the country. The Governor called on patriotic citizens and persons of goodwill to alert the competent authorities for adequate measures to be taken against the authors of such acts, in order to prevent the propagation of COVID-19. When passengers from Europe arrived the Douala International Airport by Air France and SN Brussels on Tuesday, March 17, they were met by a team of local administrative, health and security officials led by the Governor of the Littoral Region, Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, who had that afternoon, received instructions from the Government that all the passengers be quarantined in hotels. The passengers were furious that they were not being allowed to freely go their different ways. They claimed that they did not have COVID-19, simply because none of them yet had any symptoms of the virus. The next day, March 18, there were reports that workers in some of the hotels where the passengers were supposedly quarantined, had, in violation of norms, allowed family members and friends of some of the passengers to visit them. Some of the passengers even went out to town to visit family members or friends. Some of the men allegedly went out of their hotels in the night to look for prostitutes. The next morning, March 19, it was alleged that some of the 261 passengers that were supposedly quarantined in some hotels in town, had sneaked away in the night. The individuals reportedly bribed workers of the hotels as well as security men that were assigned to the different hotels to prevent any of the supposedly quarantined individuals from leaving the hotels. The hotels reserved for the travellers by government are those considered in Douala as small hotels. Generally, workers these hotels are not only poorly paid, but the salary is often irregular, and thus many of the workers were easily bribed by the money-wielding bush-fallers. Local administrative authorities resorted to lying to reporters that the escapees had simply gone elsewhere for quarantine. Speaking March 30 in Yaounde, the Minister of Public Health, Manoauda Malachie, referred to the individuals who escaped from hotels as persons who disrupted the process of quarantine. He regretted that they have since not responded to calls to come out from wherever they are hiding, to be tested for COVID-19. He expressed the worry that some of them, who happened to be infected by the COVID-19, would certainly be spreading the virus in the communities, as they have certainly already infected some of their family members, friends or persons that they have been in physical contact with. But, so far, information the number of the escapees has not been provided. Meanwhile, according to the Minister of Public Health, of 92 passengers who arrived the Yaounde-Nsiamalen International Airport form Europe on that March 17, and were placed on a 14-day quarantine, 51 tested positive, 19 doubtful (to be retested) and 24 negatives. The figures are a pointer that several of the 291 passengers who arrived Douala from the same countries in Europe on that March 17, and were quarantined in hotels, were probably infected with COVID-19 too. Minister Manoauda also announced on, March 30, that an operation will take place in Douala from April 2-7, in which the Ministry is to mobilise over 1,400 community health workers, to accompany the Ministry to carry out a mass sensitisation and testing of the population for COVID-19. The Minister said the community health workers who will work in small groups, will be mobilised in all the five municipalities of Douala, and that their modus operandi will be door-to-door, to meet households. Minister Manaouda also disclosed that the operation that starts in Douala will move to other Regions. The Minister disclosed that, one of the missions of the operation in Douala from April 2 7, will be to fish out those passengers that escaped from quarantine. As to why the Government cannot just publish the names of the persons concerned, so as to alert the population about the particular individuals, the Minister said international norms prohibit the publication of such names. He, however, warned that if the persons concerned continue to hide, than come forward to be tested for COVID-19 , he will be left with the no choice than to publish names. Observers in Douala think that the Ministry of Public Health and the local administration in Douala are wrong to assume that, because, those passengers that escaped from quarantine in hotels got to the country through the Douala International Airport, they should all be in the town. While some are in Douala, it is certain that some of them have travelled to towns and villages in other Regions which were their original destinations. It is even likely that some of those who have been in Douala may even sneak out of the town, when they learn about the operation to fish them out. The Ministry and local administrative authorities are relying on the information which the passengers gave in the forms they were given to fill, when they arrived the Douala Airport in the evening of March 17. The said information include among others, telephone numbers and local contact addresses of the passengers. A man who tried to walk from France to Spain to buy cheap cigarettes was rescued in the Pyrenees mountains - only to be fined for flouting anti-coronavirus regulations. The man had initially set out by car Saturday from Perpignan in southern France to La Jonquera in Spain, but was stopped at a checkpoint, and decided to make his way on foot across the mountain range that separates the two countries. "He fell into a stream, in brambles, got lost and ended up contacting" the emergency services, a mountain unit of the gendarmerie police force in the Pyrenees-Orientales region said on Twitter on Sunday. A helicopter was sent to rescue the man, "exhausted, shivering with cold and lost," it added. After being brought safely back, the man was given the 135-euro ($146) fine for breaking the confinement rules under which French residents can leave their homes only for essential reasons, and then with a self-certified note stating their business. "We remind you once more. STAY AT HOME," concluded the gendarmerie's Tweet. Many people in southern France cross the border to buy cigarettes, alcohol, some foodstuffs and fuel, which are cheaper in Spain. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The disclosure by state health officials that three positive cases identified on Sunday are asymptomatic has prompted fears that the coronavirus outbreak is entering a new phase. Patient 145 and Patient 146 had flown into KIA from Dubai on March 22. The couple, aged 68 and 62 respectively, had been quarantined at the Akash Institute of Medical Sciences near the KIA. The third case, Patient 151, is a 41-year-old man in Ballari who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation from March 13 to 18. The Department of Health and Family Welfare has described him as asymptomatic to date. The first two cases were found to be positive at the end of their quarantine cycles, shortly before they were due for discharge from the institute, said Dr Kailash N, the Medical Superintendent at the institute. Jawaid Akhtar, the Principal Secretary, Health, said that samples of the Akash institute cases had been sent for detailed analysis and that the results were expected on April 12. Only then, will we know about the details of these cases, he said. Akhtar added that there was one previous such asymptomatic, but positive, case in Bengaluru. These four cases present the possibility that undiagnosed, asymptomatic individuals could further spread the disease. Akhtar said that the government is trying to scale up its testing targets. We are taking swabs from all primary contacts of the positive patients and we are also testing those afflicted with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness in all hospitals and this is due to the discovery of one case. This was a man who had been admitted for a lung-related illness at a hospital and when his samples were sent for tests, the result turned out to be positive, he said. Health Commissioner Pankaj Pandey said virologists had informed the government of the danger of undiagnosed asymptomatic people and how they could spread the infection further. It is because of this that we ask people to come forward and report any symptoms. We, like the state of Kerala, are also adopting a policy to conduct rapid testing in order to catch these cases, he said. Bagalkot case The development follows closely in the wake of another case in Bagalkot on April 3, a 75-year-old man who was apparently asymptomatic, but tested positive. However, Akhtar said this case could not be clubbed with these recent asymptomatic cases, because the man had other co-morbidity issues. That case is being investigated and contact tracing is underway, he said. By Pete Mecca Born and raised in Cajun country, Alan Gravel received a degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana Tech before obtaining a Masters Degree in Environmental Health Engineering at the University of Texas.February of 1969 launched 23 year old Gravel into officer training on the Medina Campus at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. He recalled, I wanted to fly, so the Air Force sent me to Laughlin, AFB in Del Rio, Texas to see if I could qualify. The first aircraft a trainee had to master was the T-41 Mescalero, a military version of the Cessna 172. Once qualified on the Mescalero, Gravel sat behind the controls of the T-37 Tweet jet trainer before moving up to the supersonic T-38 Talon. The training took a year, he said. Then I was sent to Abilene, Texas for training on the DeHavilland Canada C-7 Caribou. The Caribou was a STOL aircraft, Short Takeoff and Landing. I attended survival school in Spokane, advanced survival school in the Philippines, and flew into Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnamin September of 1970. Deemed an orphan child of aviation, the Caribou has not received the recognition it truly earned in Vietnam. First purchased by the U.S.Army, the U.S. Air Force took over the Caribous in 1967 whilst transferring most of their choppers to the Army. The Air Force had been using Caribous for two years by the time Gravel set foot in Vietnam. He recalled, I joined the 536thSquadron. I flew copilot before earning the pilots seat. Wed fly into Bien Hoa for a seven day stage, meaning wed fly out of there for three days, get one day off, two more days of flying, then back to Cam Ranh. We flew a three day stage mission out of Can Tho but no days off. The Caribou served 75 airfields where no other fixed-winged cargo airplane could go. Recalling his C-7 training in Abilene, Gravel said, Our instructors told us, Youll be shot at, land on awful airfields, deal regularly with tough situations like finding a live hand grenade on your aircraft, but it is the weather that will kill you. Well, they werent lying. To do our job in Vietnam we had to do things on the dangerous side, like flying too low, through dense clouds or thick fog, and if on instruments there was the danger of smacking into the side of a mountain. Then you factor in the airfields. A Caribou needs about 1200 of runway, and thats short, but one Special Forces airfield was 900 feet long and 40 feet wide. If youre going in with a full load, thats pretty tight. Gravels aerodrome directory described the crude Dak Pek airfield thusly: A Caribous wing will clear the hill as long as your wheels are centered on the asphalt. Gravel said, That meant stay in the center or else! The airfield at Dak Seang was nicknamed the ski slope. Gravel explained, The airstrip resembled a hunchback snake; it had a size able dip in the middle, like a small valley. You couldnt see down in the valley from either end of the airfield. Some runways had roads running across the middle, and some roads were used for runways. Advised to fly at 3,000 feet to avoid ground fire, Gravel said, I believe thats the only thing we did by the book. We were taught that if youre coming in to land and things dont look right, then go back around to try again. Not in Vietnam. To go back around you had to add power, which meant you make a lot of noise which attracts a lot of attention. You would be basically telling the bad guys, Okay, were going to give you guys enough time to set up your mortars. No way. I had flown with a real cocky, but skillful, pilot who taught me a terrific tactical approach. You come over the runway as slow as possible,put down your landing gear then spiral down from 3,000 feet. You roll out at 1,000 feet, run up the engines enough to set propeller RPMs for a go around if ever necessary, then back to idle with flaps down. With enough experience we didnt even have to touch the throttle, basically landing with a dead stick. Wed receive small arms fire, but didnt realize it until we landed and even then someone had to tell us. The tough little Caribou conquered crude airfields at Song Be, Du Dop, Thein Ngon, Katum, Loc Ninh, and Djamap. Gravel recalled, One pilot landed in the wrong place and didnt have the room to get back out. A Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane was called in to lift him out. Well, they hooked up the Caribou, got airborne then dropped it. The Caribou was a total loss. Caribous were used for maintenance alerts at Cam Ranh Bay. We had a Caribou loaded and ready to go, Gravel said. When a Caribou broke down out in the boonies, the maintenance Caribou would fly to them, swap planes so the original crew could complete their mission while the maintenance team and crew waited for the downed Caribou to be repaired. On one maintenance mission to Ban Don, we found a Green Beret advisor who had been waiting 3 days for extraction back to Nha Trang. We repaired the Caribou then gave the poor guy a hop back to his base. The incident reminded me why I didnt join the Army! Caribou to Santabou: On Christmas Day each squadron painted a Santa Clause face on a Caribou. The radome, a round radar apparatus on the nose of a Caribou, was a perfect Santas nose when painted red. Gravel recalled, I remember Christmas Day, 1970. We were flying to Djamap when I heard a Santabou pilot calling ground control, Djamap, this is Santabou 420inbound for landing. Well, that totally bewildered the Army guy on the ground. He finally replied, Uh, yeah.okay, then the radio fell silent. Hed never heard of a Santabou. I radioed in minutes later, Djamap, this is Iris 416, inbound for landing. The Army guy came back instantly, Right, Iris 416! Uh, Iris 416, did you just hear something or someone else on this frequency a few minutes ago? I couldnt lie to the poor guy, so I suggested that he and his buddies get ready to have a good time because a Caribou Santabou was inbound with pretty Donut Dollies, cookies, cakes, eggnog.well, talk about an excited Army man! We touched down after the Santabou and noticed that the good times had already started. We never, ever shut down at Djamap, but we did that day! Surviving his one year tour, Gravels next port-of-call was Castle AFB in California for flight training on the KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft. By May of 72, he was back in the Philippines at Clark AFB and back to war. Gravel: Wed fly from Clark and set up a 60 mile refueling track called Purple Anchor, just north of Da Nang and along the coast of North Vietnam. We mostly refueled the fast movers (fighters), like the F-4 Phantoms, sometimes individually, sometimes in a flight of four. A tanker pilot I flew with was an ex-fighter pilot and he wasnt real happy flying tankers, but he sure proved his worth. One incident: A Phantom F-4 fighter, shot up and losing fuel, called in a Mayday Gravel recalled: He was in bad shape and losing fuel so fast we knew he couldnt make it back to Da Nang. We were his only hope, so went after him,we went inland, something we were ordered never to do. We painted him on our radar screen heading directly toward us so we did a 180 and waited for him.He pulled up to fuel but the boom operator couldnt connect with his fighter; the latch mechanisms on the Phantoms receptacle wouldnt open. We attempted a procedure that is dangerous but doable, applying pressure on him as he puts pressure on us, meaning hes nudging his aircraft towards us as we nudge ours towards his, with only the refueling boom keeping us apart. I normally used two of the six pumps to refuel; in this case I turned on all six. With that amount of fuel rushing out we were able to blow a portion of fuel past the damaged receptacle to at least replace what he was burning to stay airborne.If the boom had snapped from the pressure we would not have had the time to respond. Both aircraft would have collided in midair. Luckily, he was a great pilot and we had a great boom operator. We flew right over Da Nang and dropped him off. He used up every bit of his fuel landing. We dont have a clue to his name, his unit, where he was based, nothing. Its called teamwork, getting the job done. Note: There is at least one other known incident during the Vietnam War when a refueling tanker broke the rules of engagement to assist and/or save another aircraft in distress. Breaking rules of engagement can result in a court-martial, but in both cases mentioned, the incident was simply forgotten. Gravel continued, On slow days the tankers on Purple Anchor would stack up. Active refueling at 16,000 feet,tankers on standby at 20,000 and 24,000 and sometime seven 28,000 feet. Chicks (fighters) would come up to refuel until the bottom tanker hit bingo fuel and was force to head home. Then wed rack down 4,000 feet to the next level; those missions could easily turn into 16 hour ordeals. Sadly, one KC-135 was lost out of Okinawa during Gravels second tour. It simply disappeared, with the formal declaration stating: The cause unknown; lost over the Pacific. The copilot was a graduate of North Georgia. His duty done, Gravel left the military and moved to Atlanta so he and his wife could be near family. Using his engineering talents, Gravel eventually started his own business, Willow Construction, completing such projects as the reservoirs for Clayton County and Peachtree City, dam building and repair, and water and sewage facilities. Sadly, the Gravels lost a son to Leukemia in 1980. In conclusion, Gravel stated, I know it was war, and it may be difficult for people to understand, but I enjoyed my missions, in the Caribous or the tankers. The soldiers in the rice paddies or jungle and the chicks in the air depended on us to do our jobs correctly so they could continue to do theirs. In my opinion, its those guys who deserve the recognition and the respect. Pete Mecca is a Vietnam veteran. For story consideration visit his website at VETERANSARTICLE.COM and click on contact us. A 29-year-old bar owner was arrested and charged after he was caught operating his business on the Southern Main Road, California, on Friday night. Acting on information received at the Police Operations Command Centre, a party of police officers proceeded to the location and found the bar open and sales being conducted. The United Kingdom government has urged citizens to stay home this weekend in a bid to protect the National Health Service (NHS). While speaking at a daily news briefing, Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said that it was vital that people played their part to help contain the spread of deadly coronavirus. Gove informed that almost seven healthcare workers have already lost their lives due to COVID-19. Gove said, We offer our heartfelt condolences. You must stay at home. Take pride in keeping your own families safe. I know life under lockdown can be challenging and some will be tempted on a sunny weekend to venture out. But if we relax our adherence to the rules we increase the risk for others - that's why it is so important to stay at home. READ: Iran Warns Of Coronavirus Resurgence As Residents Ignore Stay-at-home Advisory He further said, "We need to reduce social contact, stop transmission and reduce the spread. Please don't go outside to visit the lakes, the beaches, the countryside. The more we restrict contact, the more we slow the spread of the infection, the more time we have to build capacity in the NHS to treat those in need. Gove also assured that the authorities were doing every bit to improve its response and to make sure that the hospitals had the equipment hey needed to deal with the pandemic. He revealed that hundreds of ventilators were also being brought in from countries like Germany and Switzerland. Furthermore, he said that the first batch of British-made ventilators would be ready in the coming days. READ: Coronavirus Outbreak: China Reports 30 New Cases And Three Casualties 4,000-bed temporary hospital Currently, UK has more than 41,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deal virus has claimed more than 4,300 lives in the country. Meanwhile, Prince Charles opened a new 4,000-bed temporary hospital in a conference centre in east London. The temporary hospital marks the first of several being built in Britain to deal with the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The new hospital is named after that trailblazing 19th-century nurse Florence Nightingale and has been built in just nine days. According to the official NHS website, the hospital is built in Bristol and Harrogate to provide beds if local services need them during the peak of coronavirus. While paying tribute to everyone involved in the project, Prince Charles said that it is incredible to have transformed the giant ExCeL centre into a critical care facility in such a short space of time. READ: 5-year-old Boy Becomes Youngest Coronavirus Victim In UK READ: Dubai Imposes Strict Lockdown To Curb The Spread Of Coronavirus Pandemic The first cycle starts with 1, then 2, then 4, 8, etc, until the infected population jumps to 16,384 at the 14th cycle, explains Devangshu Dutta. Photograph: PTI Photo When a pandemic like COVID-19 hits, policymakers must find the most efficient ways to allocate key resources like test kits, medicines, hospital beds, ventilators, etc. They also have to make guesses about the likely speed of propagation of the disease. This leads to decisions such as ordering shutdowns and possible emergency fiscal and monetary measures. Obviously, data is crucial and one of the problems is that governments routinely lie, even to themselves, when it comes to the magnitude of the bad news. However, even though official data understates levels of infection and the mortality rate, epidemiologists use an array of mathematical techniques to model epidemics. Most epidemics are routinely described as 'exponential'. That is, after a certain base level of infections is hit, the number will grow at great speed until the epidemic is brought under control. The mathematical understanding can be obscured by the casual use of the term, 'exponential'. The number of infections can grow at speed without being exponential and the number of infections may be governed by other mathematical functions. An exponential curve is created when a base number is multiplied many times by itself. For example, let's say one infected person returned to Delhi from Wuhan. Then that person infected two persons who, in turn, infected two more persons each and so on. In each infection cycle, the number of infected increases by two raised to the power of the infection cycle itself. The first cycle starts with 1, then 2, then 4, 8, etc, until the infected population jumps to 16,384 at the 14th cycle. The first phase of an epidemic seems to go like this. Once an epidemic comes under control, this curve ceases to be exponential and the number levels off. 'Flattening the curve', as the popular phrase goes, involves cutting growth rates one way or another. Image: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 novel coronavirus is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, US, on January 29, 2020. Photograph: Reuters An important mathematical technique involves examining social networks when testing for an infectious disease. First of course, there's the contact tracing and testing of anybody known to have been in touch with an infected person. This is targeted and designed to pick up people in constant contact with any individual such as family, work colleagues, domestic help, neighbours, friends, etc. But testing should also involve the random sampling of the population at large, as is done during an opinion poll. Public health officials need to pick random individuals, as representative of the population, and test them to see if there's community spread. For example, one patient may have sat on a bus or a plane, or gone to a religious event, and infected a stranger. Contact tracing will not pick up such examples of community spread. Random sampling on a large scale as in South Korea and China may be necessary to find such patients and to isolate them as soon as possible. Importantly, most people belong to 'small world' networks. That is, we tend to have a cluster of friends, family and professional colleagues, etc, who know each other too. Any Facebook user will understand what it means when you discover you and some FB friend have '55 mutual friends'. You are both part of the same 'small world' network. Characteristically, you will also have peripheral acquaintances who belong to other small world networks. For example, your best friend's second cousin who you've met once at your friend's wedding has just one mutual friend in common with you. Hence, she has just one link to your small world network. But she has an entire separate small world network of her own. Small world networks therefore, have multiple internal connections and much fewer links to other small world networks. This means the chances of catching an infection from somebody outside of your own small world is much lower than the chances of catching it from someone in the same network. If your friend's cousin is infected, she had just one shot at directly infecting you. This has an important mathematical implication. If one person is infected, exponential growth is likely, until everybody within that person's small world network gets infected (or proves immune). But if there are no linkages to other small world networks, the infection also levels off quickly. Shutdowns of public transport services, flights, malls, movies, religious gatherings, etc, are designed to cut linkages between different small world networks. There are huge implications to shutdowns, so this is not something any government should undertake lightly. Some non-peer reviewed papers do suggest the small world hypothesis is working with COVID-19. The data is insufficient to prove this yet, one way or another. In India's case, the lack of random testing means we simply don't know about extent of community spread. But shutdowns could bring the pandemic under control quicker, even if there's a massive economic cost. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is providing Vietnam with hand sanitiser as support for the country in the fight against COVID-19. Samples are tested at a quick COVID-19 testing site in Yen Hoa ward of Hanoi's Cau Giay district on April 3 In the first phase, the UNFPA will supply 7,000 bottles of hand sanitiser which are set to be distributed to the frontline hospitals in Hanoi. UNFPA Representative in Vietnam Naomi Kitahara said it is necessary to support the Ministry of Health and medical workers, especially those working in the frontline, since they have to risk their health to protect other peoples health and prevent the disease from spreading. Protecting medical workers from getting infected must be the top priority throughout the process of response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. Kitahara noted the UNFPA wants to show its solidarity with all Vietnamese people, adding that together with UN organisations, the UNFPA always stands ready to assist Vietnam with everything possible to help the country fight against this pandemic. Special attention should also be paid to vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, Kitahara said. Appreciating the UNFPAs assistance to Vietnam, a leader of the Health Ministry stressed that protecting all people health in the COVID-19 pandemic is the top priority of the Government, which has also given special focus to vulnerable groups and frontline medical workers. Like other emergency situations, the COVID-19 pandemic could hamper peoples access to essential reproductive health services and reduce authorities capacity of responding to gender violence in the time women and girls are in need of those services. The UNFPA has called on partners to jointly help Vietnam in the COVID-19 combat by providing essential products for the disease prevention and control, especially for high-risk groups like pregnant women and those susceptible to gender violence./.VNA JICA offers emergency assistance to combat coronavirus in Vietnam As a countermeasure against the new coronavirus in Vietnam, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) plans to provide testing reagents worth 14 million yen, which ensures the rapid detection of the virus. Will always be with you to fight injustice: Rahul Gandhi to media Rahul Gandhi gives adjournment notice on giving unhindered access to pasture lands in Ladakh 'Do you work for govt?' Rahul Gandhi asks reporter; BJP calls him entitled brat Word 'lynching' practically unheard of before 2014, 'Thank You Modi-Ji': Rahul Gandhi Hindu and Hindutva are not different things: Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi Fact check: Did Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi break curfew to visit friends, amid coronavirus lockdown? India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 05: Amid the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the deadly coronavirus, a 90-second video of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi's car being stopped by a policeman at security check has gone viral. In the video, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi can be spotted sitting in the rear seat. The police can be heard saying that Section 144 is implemented in the area. According to social media claims, "Rahul Gandhi & Priyanka Gandhi Vadra defying the law of the land during the lockdown and Section 144 imposed in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Several Facebook and Twitter users have shared the viral video. This is Rahul Gandhi & Priyanka Gandhi breaking Lock-down Regulations saying they need to visit friends pic.twitter.com/ac6nVpe0AV Deepak Sharma : (@dee_sha1) April 4, 2020 However, the viral video was shot in December 2019 during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act when Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were stopped from entering Meerut. The viral video has no connection with coronavirus lockdown and is old. Bigg Boss 13 Contestants Mahira Sharma And Paras Chhabra Confirm Coming Together For A Punjabi Film PARIS/BERLIN -- From Europe to South America, U.S. allies are complaining about the superpowers Wild West tactics in outbidding or blocking shipments to buyers who have already signed deals for vital medical supplies. In France and Germany, senior officials said the United States was paying far above the market price for medical-grade masks from No. 1 producer China, on occasion winning contracts through higher bids even after European buyers believed a deal was done, and Brazils health minister reported a similar incident. Money is irrelevant. They pay any price because they are desperate, one high-level official in German Chancellor Angela Merkels ruling CDU/CSU group told Reuters. A German government source said: Americans are on the move, carrying a lot of money. Since the virus was first recorded in China late last year, the pandemic has spread around the world. Governments in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere are desperately trying to build up supplies for medics, nursing home staff and the public. Now, with global cases surpassing one million and the outbreak exploding in the United States, the competition for precious stocks is intensifying further. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. government is now recommending Americans wear cloth face coverings on a voluntary basis to stem the spread of the virus, but the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend wearing medical-grade masks. He also said he was signing a directive to stop the export of N95 respirator masks, which provide essential protection for healthcare workers, and other U.S. medical equipment. U.S.-listed multinational 3M Co said Friday that the White House had ordered it to stop all shipments to Canada and Latin America of respirators that it manufactures in the United States, despite what 3M called significant humanitarian implications. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the blocking the flow of equipment across the border would be a mistake that could backfire, noting that the countrys healthcare professionals go to work in Detroit every day. In another case, an order of 200,000 masks bound for Germany from a 3M factory in China were confiscated in Bangkok, Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel, said in a statement, calling it an act of modern piracy. Even in times of global crisis you shouldnt use Wild West methods, he said. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters this week that U.S. companies and the government have been paying above market price for much of the gear purchased overseas. The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, said the United States would not stop buying until we have way too much and could still be searching out protective gear abroad through August. Weve gotten our hands on every bit of it that we can, the official said. Lea Crager, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency coordinating the search for medical supplies abroad, said disasters often lead to price increases for certain goods. If it causes some sort of a supply chain disruption, youre going to see costs rise for an essential commodity, Crager said. It just happens. In Brazil, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said this week that China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the U.S. government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products. Our purchases, which we expected to complete in order to be able to supply, many were dropped, said the minister in an interview on Wednesday. On Thursday, Mandetta said Brazil had finally succeeded in placing a 1.2 billion reais ($228 million) order for equipment, although it will only be delivered in 30 days. Cash in hand A second German source employed by a company now helping Merkels government to order masks said the last weekend of March had been a turning point, and drew a link with the United States increased presence in the market. Contracts no longer guaranteed delivery, the source said, adding: Demand is much, much bigger than supply. In France, three regional leaders painted a similar picture. Jean Rottner said it was a constant fight to ensure mask orders arrived in his Grand Est region, where the outbreak first took hold before spreading west towards Paris. He said consignments were changing hands at the last minute. On the (airport) tarmac, the Americans get out their cash and pay three or four times what we have offered, Rottner told radio RTL France on Wednesday. Rottners counterpart in the greater Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, said she had been beaten to an order by a country with deep pockets, although she did not name the United States. We found supplies a few days ago but failed to buy them after others outbid us, Pecresse told Franceinfo radio on Friday. They were prepared to pay three times the market price. The French Foreign Ministry said it was verifying the reports. But one official doubted that action would be taken. It boils down to market forces, the official said. The one who pays the most gets the prize. Buhari The Federal Government projects to spend N500 billion in fighting the spread of Coronavirus in the country and ensuring that the economy does not collapse under the weight of the scourge, The Nation reports. It is currently lobbying the leadership of the National Assembly on a proposed executive bill to set up a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund. Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister Zainab Ahmed met with some principal officers of the two chambers yesterday to set the ball rolling. For its part, the House of Representatives wants to pass a bill to grant electricity consumers a two month waiver as a palliative measure following the economic hardship induced by the pandemic. Nigeria recorded five new cases yesterday to bring the tally to 214. This is as experts in the health sector described the move by the federal government to convert the over 300 GeneXpert machines, hitherto, used for the diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, for coronavirus (COVID-19) testing, as a game-changer. Mrs Ahmed met with Senate President Ahmad Lawan, House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege, House of Reps Deputy Speaker Idris Wase among other principal officers of the NASS. It was a follow up to the one held penultimate Wednesday between the National Assembly leadership and members of the Presidential Committee which was set up to manage the COVID-19 crisis. What we are proposing is an establishment of a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund, the minister said at yesterdays meeting. This Fund that we are proposing, that should be created, will involve mopping up resources from various special accounts that the government as well as the Federation have, to be able to pull this N500 billion. Mrs. Ahmed said that in addition to the identified special accounts from where the money will be drawn as loans, the proposed intervention fund would also be sourced from grants being expected and loans from multilateral Institutions. She said: Our general view is that this crisis intervention fund is to be utilised to upgrade healthcare facilities as earlier identified. The Federal Government also needs to be in a position to improve health care facilities not only in the states but to provide intervention to the states. The proposed fund is expected also to take care of special Public Work Programmes being undertaken by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). We know that there will be a need for the parliament to agree and approve the taking of loans from these special accounts and we will be coming back with a proposed bill in that regard that will define what the fund will be used for, the minister said. The Senate President said at the meeting that it was in fulfilment of an earlier promise to provide support as the need arises during this time of crisis. Governance requires that we work together, so we want to listen to those things that you have on your side and how we can also play our constitutional role in ensuring that Nigerians continue to benefit from governance and how we are able to weather the storm created by COVID-19. Going forward, we need to interact more because very fundamental decisions will need be taken, and these decisions can only be said to be constitutionally legal if the legislature gives its stamp of authority for the executive to implement and execute. I think coming to us for those loans is critical because we are in an emergency and time is of essence. So, we must work as expeditiously as possible to ensure that we place the request before the National Assembly. I think time has come for us to redefine the implementation of the Social Intervention Programme, probably going out to communities to give them N20,000 per person might not be the best way to go. It is still an effort, but I think we need a better approach that will be more efficient. Reps coming with bill on free electricity for two months House of Reps Speaker Gbajabiamila said the chamber was working on a stimulus bill that will grant Nigerians waiver for electricity bill payment for two months. But he said Nigeria must prepare for the effects of COVID-19 on the economy. He said the waiver bill was to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigerians and to help in boosting the economy through the informal sector. Of the bill, he said: It is one thing that will touch every household. As I said earlier, when we engaged, I discussed with the electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) that packaged whatever they would require, if the government can give them, for us to allow for two months free electricity for Nigerians, they would be able to guarantee it. We have the figures. I think we should look very seriously into that as part of our package for economic stimulus, because stimulus means something that will stimulate the economy. When you are stimulating the economy, most of it will come from the informal sector. When you are saving people their electricity and the fact that they now have stable electricity for two months, you are also saving the monies that would go into the payment of those bills at least for two months. President Donald Trump rigorously sanitizes his hands but still occasionally extends his hand before remembering: Handshakes are now verboten. His family, on the other hand, seems to have social distancing down pat and Trump seems to be noticing. Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter and a senior White House adviser, has her own social media campaign championing how the country can be #TogetherApart. Ivankas half-sister, Tiffany Trump, joined in with her own impassioned #TogetherApart plea on Instagram: Social distancing saves lives! she wrote, prompting a Thank you my girl for sharing from her mother, Marla Maples. First lady Melania Trump, who often goes weeks without making public statements, has appeared in public service announcements. On Saturday, Donald Trump showed that he was catching on, retweeting three of Ivanka Trumps appeals to stay separated, including an altered image of the Beatles Abbey Road album cover in which the band members are dispersed down the road. The trend is a reflection of the social media savvy of Trumps younger family members much of their advocacy has been targeted at a digital audience. Its also a product of the heightened attention that falls on first families in moments of crisis, as the country looks for guidance from those with proximity to power. And the advocacy could have a real effect as health experts worry that not enough Americans are staying apart as cases of the novel coronavirus surge across the country. Yet it has also revealed a contrast between the patriarchs back-and-forth signals and most of his relatives' consistency. While the president embraced social-distancing guidelines in mid-March, he has repeatedly teased an early return to normalcy and declined to reprimand states that have not fully implemented stay-at-home orders. I think theres a way for the Trumps to show that were all in this together, and while I think Ivanka is trying to do that, it hasnt been successful because of the mixed messages coming from the Oval Office, said Kate Andersen Brower, who has written three books about the White House, including one focused on first ladies and another on first families. Story continues Ivanka Trump was an early adopter of social-distancing measures after she was exposed to the virus during a meeting with an infected Australian official in March. She soon began displaying her social-distancing measures. While working from her multimillion-dollar home in a ritzy enclave of Washington, Ivanka Trump launched the #TogetherApart campaign to consistently encourage social distancing while maintaining a sense of togetherness online, according to a White House official. The hashtag can be used to share all types of content like educational, musical, fitness or family activity ideas to entertain our children and each other during social distancing. The mother of three posted her tips for dealing with the kids at home on Instagram Plan a living room camp out! and even her more introspective thoughts on what this weird moment means a unique chance for reflection, self-improvement and family connectivity. Shes even found time to expand [her] own mind. So I've got a Coursera free course going in Greek and Roman mythology so I'm rereading The Odyssey, and Ive started to learn to play the guitar and Im really working on it, she told Yahoo Finance. Ivanka Trumps suggestions at times have sounded tone deaf to the millions of families struggling to make ends meet while trying to home school their own children. Let Them Eat Cake, responded one person on Twitter. But she has remained consistent in her advice. The signals have not been as consistent from the president himself. Some governors, like Florida's Ron DeSantis, a close Trump ally, were initially reluctant to issue strict stay-at-home orders, and the president has been hesitant to chastise them. DeSantis at one point said an explicit directive from Trump would carry significant weight. Indeed DeSantis eventually ordered residents to stay home after a phone call from Trump. The example demonstrates the important role the president and those around him have in convincing at-times skeptical conservatives that, yes, staying home can stymie the spread of the virus. Ivanka, along with the rest of the Trump family, has followed the CDC guidelines to keep their family and colleagues safe and will continue to do her part to slow the spread, a White House official said. First ladies and first families are scrutinized because of their unique relationship to the presidency. And throughout history, they have been called on to lead by example, said Andersen Brower, who authored an upcoming book on former presidents, Team Of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump. She noted that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, rationed food during World War II, while the first lady planted a "victory garden" on the White House lawn. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, kept the White House a chilly 65 degrees during the energy crisis, she said. The scope of this pandemic is different, of course, so its difficult to compare it to crises of the past in modern history. We havent seen anything like this in our lifetimes, she added. I think Ivanka Trump is using her social media platform and her young family to try to humanize her father. But I think its fair to say that theres been a muddled response from the White House. Melania Trump has also done her part, participating in a series of public service announcements promoting the issue on Twitter. Yet like her husband, Melania Trump got off to a slow start. She first tweeted about the issue on March 11, asking the public to follow government guidelines around distancing. Five days later, the president announced a 15 Days to Slow the Spread social-distancing initiative. Since then, the first lady has appeared in public service announcements and even did some of her own diplomatic outreach, calling Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, to discuss the virus. In a rare read out of a call between first ladies, the White House said, Mrs. Trump expressed her condolences for those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus in France. She also reaffirmed that the United States stands with the French people and expressed optimism that we would get through this difficult period together." The two agreed to stay in touch about the pandemic, according to the White House. The first lady on Thursday also spoke with the Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has tested positive for coronavirus. As the weekend approaches I ask that everyone take social distancing & wearing a mask/face covering seriously, she tweeted Friday. Lara Trump, left, watches as her husband Eric Trump speaks during a campaign rally for his father, President Donald Trump, at the Houston Toyota Center, Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, in Houston. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Other Trump family members, including Donald Jr. and Eric and his wife, Lara, have embraced social distancing, too. Last week Lara Trump, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, hosted a livestream event from her living room. There were some rocky moments with technical difficulties, as is often the case with video chats, but she shared tips for keeping sane working at home. Obviously all of our lives have been impacted by the coronavirus, she said before launching into praise of the presidents efforts. Still, public health leaders are warning that some people arent doing enough to follow the White House guidelines. New Yorkers recently flocked to Central Park, irritating officials pleading with people to stay separated. Packs of Floridians flocked to the beaches in March, bucking recommendations. Trump, who has said he wants to be a cheerleader for the country during the crisis, continues to preach confidence. We make a recommendation. And I think they've done a good job, and maybe they started a little later, but maybe they're also more difficult states, Trump said. But we've done, I think, on average, really phenomenally as a country. I think we've done phenomenally." Karen Patching said it's been an adjustment bringing her 93-year-old mother into her home, but she felt it was a necessity worried about leaving her mom in the care of a seniors' home, based on her mom's experience at that home while she was sick with the flu last year. "If she got sick, she would die alone, she wouldn't get the care and the treatment she deserves and I wouldn't be able to help her, I couldn't live with that," said Patching, 68. Patching moved her mom out of AgeCare Columbia, a retirement and supportive living facility in Lethbridge, Alta., on March 17. AgeCare Columbia has no confirmed cases of COVID-19, and as of publication there were six reported cases of COVID-19 in Lethbridge, and no deaths. But Patching said she is confident she made the right decision after watching staff and residents at the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre in Calgary battle an outbreak of COVID-19. There, some family members of residents said they don't feel the facility is taking proper precautions. "I thought, 'oh my God', that is exactly, that is exactly our scenario, that's exactly what's happened here, ill prepared, not heeding the instructions that the rest of us were all given in a timely manner," said Patching. In a statement, a spokesperson for AgeCare Columbia said the company is following the guidelines set out by Alberta Health Services and said it can not comment on Patching's mother's specific situation. The home also sent a copy of an inspection report done by Alberta Health Services on Thursday, which said it had no concerns related to AgeCare's COVID-19 preparedness. Patching said she moved her mom, Isabella, into AgeCare Columbia nearly five years ago after interviewing several places. At the time, in July 2015, the facility was called Columbia Assisted Living. Patching said that when her mom moved in, they were told in-house staff checked in on residents regularly and provided some help as needed. Patching said for the first couple of years the care was excellent she said her mom got the occasional hug, afternoon door knocks with juice and cookies, and staff notified Patching if her mom was feeling lonely. Story continues But a couple of years ago management changed and residents were split up those who are more independent were moved to one part of the building, and those who need more care to another. Patching said her mom stayed where she was, which was the redesignated, independent side. "She's absolutely amazing, she's bright and positive, she has some mobility issues and some minor cognitive issues," said Patching. Staff stopped doing health checks, daughter says Patching said she hadn't realized that as these changes were happening staff had stopped doing health checks, until her mom came down with a severe case of influenza A last December while Patching was out of town. When Patching returned home she said she discovered her mom had been suffering in her room for three days, dehydrated and hungry, too sick to go down for meals. She said when she complained, she was told that management and the head of staff weren't aware of her mom's situation. But Patching said staff were coming in to give her mom blood pressure medication twice a day, a service she paid for, so she said she knew staff were aware, but she said no one bothered to bring her mother meals, or notify Patching. "When I brought it up with the management there, they said 'well that's not our responsibility anymore,'" said Patching. "It was an absolute shock to me." After Patching's mom got the flu, she said she started calling home care services to check on her mother when she goes out of town. The company said it cannot comment on this specific situation, but told CBC News that if a resident doesn't notify staff they are not coming to the meal, a member of the team goes and checks in. AgeCare noted that in the past there was confusion about the level of care provided on the independent side because some of the supportive living residents were mixed in. But the company said that confusion been rectified and now only those on the supportive living side receive care from AgeCare staff. The company also said staff were never directed to check in on Patching's mother and other independent residents. It said it's not marketed in its materials nor part of its residential agreements. Resident asks for checks to resume CBC News also spoke to a current resident of the Lethbridge care centre, Ruth Richardson, a former neighbour of Isabella's. The 84-year-old said she believes the facility has made changes with safety in mind, moving dining tables apart and instituting new routines for residents. She said only two people are seated at a table at dinner, and otherwise she stays in her home except for when she goes for her dialysis treatments. "They're trying the best as they can," she said. Richardson said the facility has a staffed front desk from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., has instituted a no visitors policy, and is checking everyone who comes and goes. "We can't have any visitors and when we come in you have to sanitize your hands. They don't take our temperature or anything," she said, "They just keep telling us to sanitize, sanitize." 'It is tough, really tough' Richardson added that she has not been provided with any wipes or sanitizer for her room but that it has been available in the building's common areas. "I mean they're trying," she said. "It is tough, really tough." Richardson said no one checks on her if she misses a meal as AgeCare suggested. And she, too, said when she first moved in, about three-and-a-half years ago, staff used to drop by and ask if she was coming to lunch or to just see how she was doing. "And it was just stopped all of a sudden and we were never notified," said Richardson. Since then she said she's been asking if staff could resume checking in on the independent residents. She said she worries about falling and not receiving help in a timely manner. "They said, 'oh, well you could get to the phone,' but I couldn't get to the phone because I've had knee surgery and I couldn't even crawl on my knees," said Richardson. In a statement, a spokesperson for the company said all care staff on site are designated for provincially funded, supportive living residents, not retirement living residents because it is meant for independent seniors. It said retirement living includes meals, activities, and housekeeping. And that retirement residents can receive home care through AHS but it is not provided by AgeCare. When the coronavirus pandemic hit Calgary, Patching said she worried about what would happen to her mother if she contracted the virus. Patching said she asked at a resident's meeting on March 11 about the level of care her mother would receive if she fell ill. In response, she said she was told that those on the independent side would have to get the supplies they needed, to self isolate, and to call for help, using a call button, if they felt sick and needed help. "They were deemed to be 'sufficiently aware people' that they could do this on their own," said Patching. AgeCare said it couldn't confirm what was said to Patching at that meeting. CBC Ruth Adria, co-founder Elder Advocates of Alberta Society, said if people are sick, they may not be able to reach out for help. "It tells you the disregard that is shown to these people, it is not reasonable," said Adria. "They need care and that's why they are there and the reality is in all levels of care it's not happening." Worry about lack of preparedness for COVID-19 Patching said she also worried about what she believed to be a lack of preparedness that she observed before her mom moved out on March 17. Patching said sometime after an all-residents meeting on March 11 she called head office and was told that staff in the Lethbridge facility didn't have essential supplies such as hand sanitizer or a digital thermometer. In response to CBC News' inquiries, AgeCare said it has enough supplies and distributes them as per AHS protocols. AgeCare also said enough personal protective equipment for staff and residents and it is following AHS' direction on appropriate use. It said if residents contract the virus, staff will deliver meals to their door. Patching was also concerned about the number of external home care workers coming and going because of the risk they bring to residents and staff. She also said residents were still eating all together in the dining room despite concerns already being raised about the potential risk of spreading the coronavirus among large gatherings. AgeCare said effective March 26, or a few days earlier, residents sit two to a table, and there are two sitting times per meal. Patching said she didn't feel staff were doing enough to monitor visitors, and said no one asked her directly about whether she had symptoms, took her temperature or asked about travel. But she did have to fill out a questionnaire. AgeCare said it followed visitor screening protocols from AHS when it received them. It said initial visitor screening was added to its visitor sign-in logs on March 11. Additional visitor restrictions and measures were put into place two days later, banning anyone from visiting if they'd travelled out of the country or had flu-like symptoms. On its website, the company said further restrictions were enacted March 20. It said only one visitor, who is attending to a resident who is dying, is allowed into its AgeCare communities. Patching believes these more stringent steps should have been implemented earlier. "They are trying to do things now but they are doing everything late that's blown up in the face of seniors' homes all over Canada doing things late and it shouldn't be happening," said Patching. Home is best, daughter says Patching said it's taken two weeks to get her mom settled in at her own home, but said she seems to be in good spirits. It's really not an ideal situation. Patching had plans to travel and her mom wanted to live independently. But Patching said her mom will stay in her home for the time being. "I can't see putting my mother back in a situation that exists right now," Patching said. "My mother deserves dignity and respect and a safe place to live." Patching hopes care homes will make changes to improve safety for future outbreaks. And with respect to AgeCare Columbia specifically, Patching would like to see better communication between staff and residents' families. She said she's sent a letter to Alberta Health Services and the health minister about her concerns related to her mother's former care home. Naomi Campbell has revealed she has lost someone she knows every day this week due to coronavirus and expects the next two weeks to be even harder. The model, 49, took to Instagram and shared a heartbreaking post about the impact the ongoing pandemic has had on those close to her. Sharing a selfie, she wrote: 'Going into week 4, these next 2 weeks are going to be toughest yet, every day this week we lost someone I know, there is no time to mourn or being able to be there for their loved ones.' Tragedy: Naomi Campbell, 49, has revealed she has lost someone she knows every day this week due to coronavirus and expects the next two weeks to be even harder Naomi encouraged her followers to stay strong during these turbulent times and asked them to try and remain positive. She wrote: 'PLEASE KEEP THE FAITH STRONG!! Breathe, rest and reset. Keep your spirits high and your attitude positive! Sending love.' As of Sunday April 5, 47,806 cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed in the UK while there had been 4,934 deaths. Naomi was one of several stars who held up thank you placards to NHS workers for risking their lives everyday amid the pandemic in a heartwarming clip. Naomi wrote: 'Every day this week we lost someone I know, there is no time to mourn or being able to be there for their loved ones' The supermodel was joined by the likes of Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Elton John, Phoebe Waller Bridge and Keira Knightley who all held up cards reading: '#ThankYouNHS #OurNHSPeople'. It comes after Naomi insisted the world 'must not come out the same way' after the pandemic ends. Speaking to Access Hollywood, she said: 'We can use this time to soul-search and reflect. We can't come out the same way. We must not come out the same way.' Strong: Naomi encouraged her followers to stay strong during these turbulent times and asked them to try and remain positive Naomi described COVID-19 as a 'beast' and said it is something we continue to learn more about each day. She added: 'We are in fear, of course we're in fear. We have something that we're not clear of it. 'We're learning what this beast is and we have to learn about it like we learn about anything else and right now, it's at the forefront of all our minds. 'We're learning everyday and we have to be grateful to God for the doctors and the nurses and the hotel workers and the delivery people, God bless them.' Health: Naomi has shared her strict adherence to hygiene on social media and has previously posted photos of herself wearing face masks and gloves while travelling Naomi has shared her strict adherence to hygiene on social media and has previously posted photos of herself wearing face masks and gloves while travelling. The London native explained she picked up the practice from working in Japan as a model. She said: 'The way I live my life, wearing a mask, which is what I've been doing for over 17 years, that's just what I've done. I got that from working in Japan, I would say. 'We can't live in regret of, "we should have done this, we should done that", we are where we are now. We have to do our best to save lives.' Dialysis patients at Ha Noi-based Bach Mai Hospital have seen their difficulties increase in recent days, because not only do they have to self-quarantine but also follow medical treatment and take measures to avoid the SARS-CoV2 virus. A woman cooks her meal in 'dialysis patient alley'in Le Thanh Nghi Street, Ha Noi. However, they are not alone. The Government, local administration and relevant agencies have put in place a lot of support for the patients, following the Governments slogan no one left behind in the fight against the pandemic. Mai Anh Tuan, 43, of Ba Vi District, Ha Noi, who currently temporarily resides in alley No 121, Le Thanh Nghi Street, Hai Ba Trung Districts ong Tam Ward, said he was very busy lately. Tuan, head of dialysis patient alley, said he was assigned to monitor the daily movements of the dialysis patients during their period of quarantine and report to the authorised agencies. The quarantine started on March 30. He also had to notify the dialysis patients so they could receive free rice, oil, fish sauce, milk and face masks from the ward authorities, he said. The alley is called dialysis patient alley because there are 87 people renting rooms close to the hospital for dialysis treatment, the Ha Noi Moi (New Ha Noi) online newspaper reported. Pham Xuan Truong, 67, of the northern province of Nam inh, said this year was the sixth year he has undergone dialysis at the hospital. Queuing in line to receive rice on Wednesday afternoon, Truong said he felt touched when he and his neighbours received a lot of care from the local authorities. oan Thi Luc, 53, from the northern province of Bac Giang, said at first, when hearing information about the quarantine, she was very worried. The first thing she did was go to the market and buy more rice, she said. She was worried about having nothing to eat. Now, she felt relieved after the local authorities sent a lot of rice, she added. My husband and children in my hometown were very worried for me, but I said dont worry, the local authorities are giving us a lot of support, she added. browser not support iframe. Picked up in army vehicles The dialysis patients are believed to have low resistance to diseases. Thus, the wards medical sector has co-operated with the districts military force to arrange army vehicles to take the dialysis patients to the hospital every day. Bich Quyen, a medical worker of the ward, who was in charge of taking the dialysis patients to the hospital, said there were 4-5 military vehicles to take them depending on the schedule. Each vehicle could carry about 20 patients. The patients were given a special card to go in and out of the hospital, she said. After the patients were dropped at the hospitals gate on Giai Phong Street, the security guards would measure their temperature and sterilise them. The patients then use a separate entrance to the hospitals Department of Nephrology. The walkway is open between 6am and 10pm every day. Tran Thi Hue, a dialysis patient living in the alley, said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital and the local authorities had taken prompt measures to protect the patients, especially those undergoing dialysis. I feel safe to continue receiving medical treatment here, she said. Vu Thi Ngat, 63, Truongs wife, said her husband had been taken to the hospital by the army vehicle for dialysis every day. It keeps him safe and we are thankful for that, she added. Le Khanh Giang, chairman of the Peoples Committee of the ward, said they had made a list of food that the patients in the alley needed and sent it to a supermarket. The food was sent to the patients every day for free. Firstly, we sent them rice, oil, fish sauce, milk and masks. We would send them some dried food so that they would have more options for their meals in the coming days, Giang said. The Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee has provided one tonne of rice; the district administration has donated VN1 million (US$42) for each patient; and the ward administration has donated VN200,000 ($8.4) for each patient to support them during the 14-day self-quarantine. VNS Residents around Bach Mai Hospital's COVID-19 cluster to be given quick tests Hanoi Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) has established three task forces to implement rapid COVID-19 tests in the area around Bach Mai Hospital, fast emerging as a complicated hot spot of the country. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that he was directing the use of face masks by the military worldwide to combat the spread of coronavirus. "We're going to move toward face coverings" across the force, Esper said on ABC-TV's "This Week." He gave no immediate details, but said a directive would be issued later Sunday on when, where and how face masks, and what types, should be used to guard against coronavirus. Esper's announcement followed recommendations Friday from the White House coronavirus task force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all Americans should consider the voluntary use of face coverings when in public. "We want to take every measure to protect our troops," Esper said. But he again cautioned that the military can't always follow the medical guidelines on social distancing and other measures in the close quarters of ships, submarines, bombers and tanks. Esper has previously left it up to individual commanders to decide on how best to implement the guidelines in their areas of responsibility. The upcoming directive on face masks in the military could also be expected to apply to dependents, civilian DoD personnel and contractors. As of Saturday, the Defense Department reported more than 1,600 cases of coronavirus among service members, civilians, dependents and contractors and six deaths: one service member, two civilians, one dependent and two contractors. The vast majority of the positive cases in DoD were considered moderate or mild, but 74 had been hospitalized as of Saturday, DoD said. Esper's action comes as the number of coronavirus-positive cases and deaths in the U.S. and worldwide continued to surge. In the U.S. there were more than 312,000 cases and 8,500 deaths as of Sunday morning, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported. Worldwide, there were more than 1,225,000 cases and 66,500 deaths, Johns Hopkins said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend As many as 2,483 people have infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) over the past day in Iran, said Kiyanush Jahanpur, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry. According to Jahanpur, more than 151 people died from coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Jahanpur said that currently, 4,057 people are in critical condition. Iran is one of the countries heavily affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 58,200 people have been infected, 3,603 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 22,000 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. 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 announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. At his coronavirus press conference on March 24, Gov. Pete Ricketts brusquely dismissed the thought of releasing people from state prisons to ease the looming harm of a coronavirus epidemic inside. Why can he not declare a prison emergency now, instead of waiting for July when it is mandated? Young short-termers with nonviolent crimes are mostly served well by present programs. Lets parole elders serving long sentences, those who have aged out of violence and have demonstrated years of good, pro-social behavior. This is a population that is particularly susceptible to severe illness from COVID-19 and particularly unlikely to reoffend when they are released. Those who have families and homes to go back to are even less likely to hurt the community. But if they become ill in prison, they will pass their illness on to others, in prison and out, and eventually take up community hospital resources the rest of us need, too. I even call on the Pardons Board to commute some life sentences to find good candidates for release. The latest: Trump: 'We see light at the end of the tunnel' President Donald Trump showed optimism during a press briefing Sunday evening about the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. "We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening, things are happening. We are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully in the not too-distant future, well be very proud of the job we all did," Trump said. In an interview Sunday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said the government is struggling to get the coronavirus under control. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized with coronavirus British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to a hospital with the coronavirus. Johnsons office says he is being admitted for tests because he still has symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus. Downing St. said Sunday the hospitalization is a precautionary step and he remains in charge of the government. Johnson, 55, has been quarantined in his Downing St. residence since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26. Queen Elizabeth calls for unity during the coronavirus pandemic Queen Elizabeth II addressed the coronavirus pandemic and offered reassurance in a rare televised speech Sunday. "Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it," the Queen said. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge." New York Times: Ex-Navy commander who sounded alarm over coronavirus tests positive for virus The Navy captain removed from command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt last week after warning that action was needed to save the lives of his crew from a coronavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus, according to The New York Times on Sunday. Capt. Brett Crozier began exhibiting symptoms before he was removed from the warship on Thursday, the Times reported, citing two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier's who are close to him and his family. A Navy spokesman declined to comment to the Times on Crozier's status. Ford is making a face shield every 10 seconds, spokesman says More than one million face shields were made over the past week at the Ford subsidiary Troy Design and Manufacturings facility in Plymouth, Michigan, Ford spokesman Dan Barbossa told told CNN. Ford is now making a face shield every 10 seconds at its facility outside Detroit, Barbossa added. Over 120,000 face shields have been delivered to New York and the tri-state area already, and the millionth face shield produced is being delivered today to the New York City Procurement Center, Barbossa said. There are 120 workers helping at the facility. These face shields have been delivered to hospitals and first responders in over 16 states, Barbossa said. A 'Pearl Harbor' and '9/11' moment The U.S. surgeon general said Sunday that this week is going to be the "hardest and the saddest" for "most Americans' lives," describing the upcoming grim period of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States as a "Pearl Harbor moment" and a "9/11 moment." "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized, it's going to be happening all over the country and I want America to understand that," Vice Admiral Jerome Adams said on "Fox News Sunday." Adams continued: "I want Americans to understand that as hard as this week is going to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel." Officials are warning the next two weeks will be crucial in the fight to stop the spread of the virus. On Sunday, Adams said his message to the governors who have not yet issued stay-at-home orders would be to consider even just a temporary shutdown. "If you can't give us a month, give us a week ... give us what you can," Adams said. US reaches grim milestone The U.S. reached a grim milestone with the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths reported in one day, and officials are warning the next two weeks will be crucial in the fight to stop the spread. With 1,344 new deaths reported Saturday, the U.S. had the most fatalities recorded in one day. The big test will come in the next couple weeks, said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. "The next two weeks are extraordinarily important," Birx said. "This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing your hands." Social distancing measures already appear to be paying off in Washington state, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, calling the measure "our most important tool." Lack of testing still a key issue A struggle many states are facing in the effort to understand and combat the virus is inaccessible testing. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said his state doesn't even have enough tests to get a clear idea of the scale of the outbreak. "Everything about the tests are very difficult to come by, and there's no federal plan for this, so every state is on their own," Pritzker said. "As I've said, it's the Wild West out here." California, one of the hotspots of the outbreak, has been working to increase the number of its residents that have been tested, which stands now at more than 126,000, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. "That testing number may sound high to some. It is low to many others and certainly to me," Newsom said in a news conference on Saturday. The state formed a new task force led by leaders of the public and private sector to handle coronavirus testing as well as a partnership between University of California Davis and University of California San Diego to create at least five to seven testing hubs to increase capacity. States see the impact not even halfway through Several states have reported jumps in cases, including Louisiana, where there were nearly 12,500 cases a 21% increase and more than 400 deaths Saturday, according to the state health department. "Look at the magnitude of this. We are still very much in this," Dr. Joseph Kanter, assistant state health officer for the department, said in a news conference. "In fact, we haven't even hit halfway." New Orleans' coroner's office and mortuaries have reached their limit, said Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and she's asked the federal government for additional refrigeration. New Jersey had its second day in a row of more than 4,000 positive cases reported. The state has lost nearly 100 more of its residents to coronavirus than it did in 9/11, according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. "This pandemic is writing one of the greatest tragedies in our state's history," Murphy said. With more than 10,000 new cases reported on Friday alone, New York state has seen a "new high," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday. At least 3,565 people have died in the state, with more than 114,000 cases reported. The state has yet to reach the peak of its curve, Cuomo told reporters, saying projections forecast the apex is between four and eight days away. At that point, New York's health care system will face its "ultimate challenge," Cuomo said. "But there's part of me that says it's good we're not at the apex because we're not yet ready for the apex either," he said. "We're not yet ready for the high point. We're still working on the capacity of the system. The more time we have to improve the capacity of the system, the better." A battle to stop the spread Growing cases continue to put pressure on facilities, staff and resources. But officials are finding ways to address those needs. Cuomo said he will sign an executive order to allow medical students who have yet to graduate to begin practicing. In all, the state has 85,000 medical volunteers, he said, including 22,000 from out of state. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan has become an emergency hospital facility that will provide 2,500 beds and be staffed by the federal government, Cuomo said. In New Orleans, officials are also responding to the influx by converting a convention center into an emergency hospital. And other states and even another nation has rallied to remedy dwindling supplies in New York. New York state, which has been desperately searching for ventilators, will receive 140 ventilators from Oregon, Cuomo said Saturday in a news conference. "This was unsolicited, but the 140 ventilators will make a difference," Cuomo said, adding the gesture was both "kind" and "smart." Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has called on residents to donate equipment they may have. China is donating another 1,000 ventilators, Cuomo said. "We're all in the same battle here," the governor said. "And the battle is stopping the spread of the virus." W2lmcmFtZSBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vZDJjbXZicTdzeHgzM2ouY2xvdWRmcm9udC5uZXQvZW1haWwvcHJvZF9jb3JvbmF2aXJ1c19pZnJhbWVfYXJ0aWNsZS5odG1sIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjQxNCIgc3R5bGU9IndpZHRoOjEwMCU7Ym9yZGVyOm5vbmU7b3ZlcmZsb3c6aGlkZGVuIiBzY3JvbGxpbmc9Im5vIiBmcmFtZWJvcmRlcj0iMCIgYWxsb3dUcmFuc3BhcmVuY3k9InRydWUiXVsvaWZyYW1lXQ== The United States wasted time. A lot of it. And as a result, lost the ability to take control of the coronavirus crisis in time. That is the clear conclusion of two in-depth reports, one published by the Associated Press and another by the Washington Post that reviewed how the Trump administration failed to get ready for the pandemic that has now engulfed the country. The AP reviewed federal purchasing contracts and reports that federal agencies waited until mid-March to place bulk orders for N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators, and other essential equipment for health care workers. When that happened, hospitals were already straining to deal with a surge in patients amid a shortage of equipment. We basically wasted two months, Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during President Barack Obamas administration, told AP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even though officials knew since mid-January that hospitals in China were being overwhelmed by patients who required ventilators, getting the attention of the president and other top officials proved difficult. Instead, the federal government left much of the responsibility to acquire supplies to the states, creating a messy patchwork that saw governors outbid each other for desperately needed equipment. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump seemed to spend more time dismissing talk of the virus as exaggerated and some of his top health officials downplayed the risk to Americans. The delay in purchases means a huge order for N95 masks from 3M, for example, will not be delivered until the end of April, which is after the projected peak for the pandemic. The administration also ordered 10,000 ventilators in late March, which is not only a far smaller number than what health experts and governors have been saying are needed but they also wont arrive until the summer or fall. Its actually kind of a joke, an administration official tells the Washington Post. Advertisement Advertisement The Post story makes clear that part of the problem can be traced back to China and its failure to alert the world about the seriousness of COVID-19. Plus in the early days of the outbreak China was refusing to share viral samples that could help the United States develop its own tests. But as many health officials grew increasingly concerned there was seemingly no effort by the White House to take control of the situation to pressure Beijing and come up with alternate plans. Beyond the number of infections that could have been prevented if the administration had taken leadership of the situation in time, the failure to act has also changed Americas standing in the world. This has been a real blow to the sense that America was competent, Gregory F. Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, tells the Washington Post. That was part of our global role. Traditional friends and allies looked to us because they thought we could be competently called upon to work with them in a crisis. This has been the opposite of that. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 6 2020 Thin barrier: A drugstore salesperson stands behind a plastic curtain while handing over medicines to a customer in the Pancoran area of Glodok, West Jakarta, on Sunday. Several stores have put up plastic shields to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission between customers and employees. (JP/P.J. Leo) The Jakarta administrations sluggish delivery of crucial social assistance funds in response to the COVID-19 outbreak is putting the citys underprivileged citizens at a higher risk of slipping into destitution the longer the crisis stretches on. On March 20, five days after the city started closing down schools and tourist destinations to curb the spread of the disease, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said the administration would be disbursing social assistance to 1.1 million registered beneficiaries. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login The Exynos 990 has come in for a lot of criticism internationally. As we have discussed in our reviews of the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Exynos 990 is a bit of a stinker. Samsung even dropped its in-house chipset from the Galaxy S20 series in South Korea, apparently leading to feelings of humiliation for the company's Exynos team. Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here Despite Samsung refuting claims of performance differences between the Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865, the company still chose to release Snapdragon versions of the Galaxy S20 series in its home market. While Samsung states that both chipsets offer comparable performance, our experiences with the Exynos 990 versions of the Galaxy S20 series suggest otherwise. Samsung has been releasing Snapdragon versions of its flagship smartphones for years in China and the US, but the Galaxy S20 series marks the first time that the company has done so in South Korea. Not only have we found the Snapdragon 865 to be more efficient than the Exynos 990, but it has better processor performance too. The Snapdragon 865 may offer better battery life than its Exynos 990 counterpart, too Unsurprisingly, people have been slamming the Exynos 990 online. However, the decision to release Snapdragon 865 versions of the Galaxy S20 series in South Korea has left the Exynos team feeling humiliated, as reported by SamMobile. Exynos chipsets do not have as broad a reach as Snapdragon ones do either, with few other Android OEMs choosing Exynos over Snapdragon or MediaTek. Recent Exynos flagship chipsets cannot match the performance of Huawei's Kirin or Apple's Bionic chipsets, either. At least eight people were killed and two others were critically injured in an airstrike in Uruzgan of Afghanistan, a source in the regional government told Sputnik on Saturday. The source said that it was unclear if the attack was carried out by the government forces or the US-led international troops "Eight civilians were killed and two others were critically injured in the attack," the source told Sputnik. They said the injured civilians had been taken to the Mirwais hospital in the southern city of Kandahar. At the same time, the Uruzgan governor's spokesman, Zargai Abadi, denied there were civilian casualties in the attack. Speaking to local media, he said that the airstrike had been carried out by the Afghan government forces, adding that six militants were killed in the ambush. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for tests, 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus, Downing Street said. Johnson, 55, "continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus", a spokesperson said on Sunday. His hospitalisation was described as a "precautionary step" taken on the advice of his doctor. Johnson had extended self-isolation as he gave an update on his health via social media on Friday, which should have marked the end of the stipulated seven-day self-isolation period after his COVID-19 diagnosis last week. He said he still has a temperature, one of the symptoms associated with coronavirus, and would therefore have to stay in isolation for longer. "Although I'm feeling better and I've done my seven days of isolation, alas I still have one of the symptoms, a minor symptom, Johnson said in a new video message. "I still have a temperature and so, in accordance with government advice, I must continue my self-isolation until that symptom itself goes," he said. Johnson was last seen, still looking quite poorly, when he made a brief appearance at Downing Street on Thursday night to join the national clap for carers applause in appreciation of the hardwork of National Health Service (NHS) workers on the frontline of the fight against the outbreak. "Remember that incredible clapping again last night for our fantastic NHS. We're doing it to protect them and to save lives. Let's focus on doing everything we can. Stay at home folks, protect our NHS, save lives," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- With over 1,300 cases of coronavirus already among the NYPD, the department has made partnerships to get testing to their cops more effectively. Officers will have access to free coronavirus testing thanks to a new partnership with three health care groups, the New York Post reported. The partnerships include NorthWell Health, ProHealth, and Montefiore Health Systems. At specific sites, the co-pays for the test are being waived for cops. Testing is going to be available for members of the NYPD that are showing symptoms of coronavirus. Officers can visit one of the 74 locations around New York City, according to an email from Police Commissioner Dermot Shea that the Post obtained. At some of the sites, cops can walk in themselves. Otherwise, access to other sites is based on referrals from the NYPD medical division. This comes at a crucial moment, as testing for the presence of coronavirus is integral in our ongoing mission to protect the city we serve, Shea wrote in the department-wide email. Previously, the only options available for NYPD were going to one of the states drive-thru sites. One of these first responder-only sites was set up in Queens in March and notably was running out of tests rapidly, the Post reported. According to the Post, Shea hopes to boost up that capacity with the partnership and new site availabilities. Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE: At least 5,000 coronavirus patients will be in citys ICU beds, mayor says, as NYC waits for supplies, military personnel from DC EMTs to stop taking patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals if resuscitation isnt successful Crime down, except for burglaries, across NYC amid coronavirus shutdown Staten Island healthcare facilities to receive funding to battle coronavirus Data analysis: Three weeks in, how the coronavirus has spread in our borough Data shows which Staten Island zip codes have the most coronavirus cases In San Francisco where more than 500 people have tested positive and eight have died from COVID-19 public health officials have released little more than basic statistics on the spread of the coronavirus for months, despite calls for more information on how the pandemic is affecting local communities and hospitals. As of Saturday afternoon, no information was prominently posted on the ages or genders of people who had died of the respiratory virus, or whether they had underlying medical conditions. If a cluster of cases had broken out in a neighborhoocod, or a hospital was seeing a surge in critically ill patients, it was impossible to know from looking at the citys website. San Francisco isnt the only county in California that has tightly restricted certain information about coronavirus cases. Some local health departments have released few details as they weigh patient-privacy concerns with the need for transparency amid the pandemic. But researchers and politicians say these restrictions go too far, impeding the publics ability to understand the scope of the unprecedented health crisis and adequately respond. It is a complete mess, said Dr. John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine, epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, who has written about the danger of making decisions during the pandemic without more reliable information. We are blind and scattered in our data right now. And we need to have eyes on the epidemic because if you dont have eyes, you dont know what to do next. As pressure has mounted, the California Department of Public Health and a number of counties began sharing more information with the public last week. The state health department unveiled a website offering county-by-county statistics on how the coronavirus has begun to strain hospitals, including numbers of critically ill patients who have been admitted to intensive care units. Santa Clara, Sacramento, Contra Costa and Yolo counties, among others, also released new details in online dashboards. John Blanchard On Friday, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin said county public health officials told him they would soon post more detailed information online. He has asked the health department to publish daily reports that would include information on hospital admissions, available hospital beds, tests performed by age group and test results. The department did not immediately respond to questions from The Chronicle. The public has a right to know this information, Peskin said. This isnt classified information, and it doesnt violate patient confidentiality, so it seems to me that this is information that an open, democractic society shouldnt be afraid of. In general, information that would personally identify a living or deceased patient can be barred from being released, according to medical privacy laws. But other information pertaining to testing turnarounds and results, demographics, geography or hospital capacity and caseloads is not legally restricted from being published, according to health experts. Florida provides basic demographic information for every patient infected with the respiratory virus and displays data by ZIP code. New York City reports positive cases and deaths by borough and includes whether people who died had underlying medical conditions, in addition to information about their age and sex. But in California, the approach has been more restrictive. Although the state has been a national leader in some respects during the pandemic instituting the first state-level shelter-in-place policy it has faced criticism by frontline medical professionals, epidemiologists and the public for refusing to release important information about coronavirus testing, cases and hospitalizations. The state publishes a general breakdown of COVID-19 deaths by age and gender, but there is little consistency statewide in the release of coronavirus information. A Chronicle review of local health websites last week found that only about 15 counties provided easy-to-access details on COVID-19 cases at the city level, meaning it was impossible to determine beyond the county level where the virus had been detected in much of California. Data on how many tests are outstanding, or have come back negative, is sparse. And very limited demographic details, if any, are reported on the people who are becoming seriously ill or dying, significantly diminishing the ability to understand how the virus is moving through communities and hospitals and who its impacting the most. Tracking such information is difficult for stretched health agencies that are operating on budgets stripped down after the 2008 recession. We have a radically decentralized, underfunded public health infrastructure, and this is the consequence of that, said Dr. Steven Goodman, a professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University. The data released by the California Department of Public Health last week was the first step toward creating a central repository for COVID-19 cases. It provides the daily count of positive tests and deaths by county, as well as the number of people who have been hospitalized or placed in the intensive care unit by the virus. Because testing remains inconsistent, hospitalizations are a reliable way to measure the severity of the virus impact on people and medical facilities, which gives the public a better understanding of where resources, such as staff and equipment, should be directed. In an effort to be transparent, we are continually assessing what information can and should be made public, a California Public Health Department representative said in a statement, noting that the state might provide more demographic and geographic information on cases in the future. Even these efforts, however, fall short of what some health experts said would be a thorough report on the evolving spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Specific geographic data could become important as the outbreak eventually begins to wind down, so people can avoid hot spots as they move about. The states new county-level data on hospitalizations also doesnt show daily admissions over time, which are crucial to understand the progression of the virus and how well the shelter-in-place policies are working, Goodman said. We shouldnt have to wait for the governor to make announcements about trends, he said. Researchers and public health officials should be able to look at the curve for the past week or past month and see those trends for deaths or hospitalizations. Along with the state, several counties have also increased how much they tell the public about COVID-19. Over the past few weeks, Sacramento, Contra Costa and Orange counties joined others that post city-by-city data. 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. Yolo County began publishing city-level information Wednesday, after initially choosing not to disclose it. Local health officials waited until they had enough confirmed cases spread out across the region to protect peoples privacy, said spokeswoman Jenny Tan. We wanted to protect not only their identity but also their emotional and mental state, Tan said. Its a big thing to say Im a confirmed case of COVID-19 in such a small community. Santa Clara County unveiled a comprehensive data portal last week that shows not just case and hospitalization tallies, but also how many ICU beds and ventilators are available and the status of tests. The county plans to update the site daily to show how prepared the health care system is for a potential surge in COVID-19 cases. Reports at the city level, however, are not available, making it impossible to know how cases are spread across dozens of communities stretching from Palo Alto to Gilroy. Health officials throughout the Bay Area have said that posting city-level information could increase discrimination and ostracize communities. Some epidemiologists also believe the data could mislead people and create a false sense of security because it may actually show where people have access to tests, not where theyre getting sick. In Los Angeles, the neighborhoods with some of the highest rates of confirmed COVID-19 cases are wealthy enclaves like the Hollywood Hills and Bel-Air where people are more likely to be able to get commercial tests, according to an analysis by Crosstown at the University of Southern California. The truth is, so few people are being tested, that if I told you theres one case in your city, there could be 100 cases in your city, said Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano Countys public health officer. If I told you theres zero, there could still be 100 cases and we would never know. Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese has asked local health officials to provide information on confirmed cases in each census tract a level of detail that some fear could press up against a patients privacy. Cortese said the information would be particularly useful to people who continue to work in the community. One homeless person has died of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County, for example, and knowing where he or she lived would help outreach workers stay safe, he said. People could do a better job of protecting themselves and protecting others if they knew just basic information about where the hot spots are, he said. If some corner in Milpitas had an infection cluster, wouldnt it behoove all of us to let people know to social distance from that area? Solano Countys online coronavirus statistics dashboard includes hospitalization and age data. The county does not post city-level data, but plans to if the number of cases reaches a certain threshold. Matyas, the county public health officer, said the information may help alleviate anxiety among the public, but the data theyre collecting are scattered everywhere, making it difficult or impossible to paint a comprehensive picture. I dont fault anyone for wanting more information, this is really scary, and knowledge can help diminish that fear, Matyas said. Were not averse to providing information as transparently as possible, were just (always) having to weigh the risks and benefits of doing it. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Trisha Thadani contributed this report. Joaquin Palomino and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jpalomino@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoaquinPaolomino, @cdizikes PM Phuc informed the RoK President about Vietnams drastic measures against the COVID-19 and positive results achieved with no deaths so far. The Vietnamese Government is continuing its efforts amid the complicated developments of the pandemic around the world, while striving to promote economic development, address social issues, and protect safety and health of Vietnamese people and foreign citizens in the country, he said. The Vietnamese Government leader spoke highly of the RoK Government's disease control measures and suggested the two governments coordinate closely, share experience and support each other in the prevention and control of the epidemic, as well as provide assistance for the Vietnamese community in the RoK to help them stabilise their lives and have full necessary conditions to prevent and fight the disease. President Moon Jae-in said that his country had overcome many difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As now is not a safe time yet, the RoK Government continues to implement a number of measures such as social distancing, he said. Noting Vietnam's good control of the epidemic are praised by the international community, he affirmed that the RoK Government is willing to exchange experience and coordinate with Vietnam in disease prevention and control, and citizen protection. He thanked the Government of Vietnam for supporting RoK citizens and enterprises doing business in Vietnam. The two leaders agreed on the need of strengthening international cooperation to prevent and control the pandemic. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed Vietnam's international cooperation efforts, affirming that as the ASEAN 2020 Chair, Vietnam has been hosting discussions on strengthening COVID-19 prevention and control coordination among ASEAN countries and between ASEAN and its partner countries, including those in the ASEAN+3 mechanism (China, Japan and the RoK). President Moon Jae-in said he supports Vietnam's efforts and initiatives and affirmed that as the coordinator of the ASEAN+3 mechanism, the RoK will work closely with Vietnam to successfully promote ASEAN's dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, including ASEAN-Korea and ASEAN+3. The two sides exchanged views on bilateral cooperation and expressed satisfaction about the effective cooperation between the two countries. They agreed to deepen the bilateral relations in the coming time, including maintaining the exchange of high-level delegations and boosting cooperation in economy and other fields immediately after the end of the COVID-19. The Queen has said the UK will succeed in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic but acknowledged there may be more to endure before normality can return to the country. In a rare televised address to the nation, the UKs head of state delivered a message of hope, saying if people remain united and resolute in the face of the outbreak we will overcome it. She thanked frontline NHS staff, care workers and others for selflessly carrying out their essential roles during the crisis and echoed the words of Dame Vera Lynn when she told the British public: We will meet again. The Queen spoke as the country approached its third week in lockdown as part of efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19, which has already led to the deaths of nearly 5,000 people. We will succeed and that success will belong to every one of us, she said in her address from Windsor Castle, which was pre-recorded before this weekend. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again. But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all. Dame Vera helped rally the nation during wartime with her songs, most notably Well Meet Again, which became a significant tune for servicemen fighting abroad and those at home separated from loved ones. The Queen, who is from the wartime generation, recalled her experience in 1940 when she gave her first radio broadcast to evacuated children. The then 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth had been sent to Windsor Castle for safety with her sister Princess Margaret and recorded a message calling on evacuated young people to have courage, telling them she and her sister knew what it felt like to be separated from those they loved. On Sunday night, she said: Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do. While the Queen broadcasts a recorded message each year on Christmas Day, this special broadcast was only the fifth of its kind she has given in her 68-year reign. Previous speeches were televised to mark her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the Queen Mothers death in 2002, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and the First Gulf War in 1991. The monarchs address was widely praised for its sentiment. The new Labour leader Keir Starmer said: The Queen speaks for the whole country and our determination to defeat the coronavirus. Princess Eugenie said her grandmothers words bring us together and unite us in our effort to overcome. You can read the full address here: Read the Queens coronavirus address to nation in full A 37-year-old suspected Covid-19 patient tried to kill himself by jumping off the third floor of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital building in central Delhi late on Saturday, police said. The man suffered a fracture in his legs and is undergoing treatment in the hospital, they said. They added that the man, a shopkeeper, does not have any foreign travel history. Prima facie, it appears that he was depressed and feared to be infected by the Covid-19, said a police officer. Police said the man is not from the Nizamuddin Markaz area, from where more than 2300 people, including foreigners, were evacuated by authorities after many from across the country who had attended a religious congregation there were found Covid-19 positive. Sanjay Bhatia, the deputy commissioner of police (central), said the man, who lives with his family in a residential area not too far from the hospital, had walked into the hospital on March 31, complaining about a runny nose and cough. Also read: New plan holds clues to unlocking country After initial medical tests, the doctors said he was suffering from normal flu and had no symptoms of Covid-19. They discharged him but he returned the same day and insisted on being admitted so that his tests should be done again. The man was admitted, said Bhatia, adding that the result of the mans test for Covid-19 test was awaited. On Saturday at around 11.30pm, DCP Bhatia said, the man jumped down from the third floor of the hospital. He first fell on the metal roof below and then landed on the ground, because of which he survived but fractured his legs. Doctors have told us that his condition is stable, said Bhatia. An official from Lok Nayak Hospital, which has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 hospital, also confirmed that the suspected patient jumped from the building. We do not know the reason yet. His is alive and his injuries are currently being evaluated and treatment is being done, the official said. There are 466 Covid-19 patients, including 15 discharged and six fatalities, in Delhi. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An 64-year-old Cypress man was killed outside his home Saturday when a garbage truck backed over him and then fled, authorities said. The driver of the three-person crew is cooperating with law enforcement, according to Deputy Thomas Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The case is being investigated by the homicide unit. A witness reported about 4:30 p.m. that the man and had been carrying a bag of palm leaves to the curb when the truck passed by without stopping. The man called out to the driver to stop. The driver stopped the truck and backed up over the man, whose body was found in the middle of the two-lane street. The driver then fled, according to Gilliland. Police were planning to review surveillance footage from the area near the corner of White Oak Point Court and White Oak Glen Court to determine whether the driver intentionally hit him, the sheriff's spokesman said. Investigators were conducting interviews with the crew members and contacted headquarters of the private waste management company, which routinely services the subdivision. "What were still trying to figure out is what happened, as far as the male not moving out of the way," Gilliland said. Its too early we cant tell if it was intentional or very tragic at this point. Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com. Im trying to restrain my anger and speak measuredly, but its damn hard to do so. (Nancy Pelosis latest trial balloon -- an investigation into the Presidents handling of the Wuhan virus, was so preposterous it drove me into something I never do -- binge watching old TV serials, in this case The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.) The Wuhan virus spread throughout the world due to the Chinese governments lies, and the acts of the head of the WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysesus who came to that position from the violent Ethiopian Communist party and covered up for China as did the mainstream U.S. media. Conrad Black writes at American Greatness: The same press outlets have been engaged in a scandalous attempt to represent the Chinese response to the crisis as brilliant and to accept Beijings claim to have eliminated the virus within its own borders, in embarrassing contrast (they suppose) to Trumpian floundering about. In reality, the Chinese were inexcusably dishonest in withholding the proportions of the coronavirus outbreak, have not uttered a truthful word about it up to and including this week -- as they claim to have had almost no further fatalities and none at all in the past few days; and were extremely negligent in not moving promptly to restrict outward travel and warn the world. The same American press which has acclaimed the official Chinese performance with an adulatory hallelujah chorus have railed against President Trump for following the normal practice of identifying the coronavirus geographically. The subordination of the World Health Organization as a cheerleader for Chinas odium and criminality will require that the entire leadership of the WHO to be sacked and replaced by people in whom it is possible to have some confidence. By the time this horrible virus has ravaged the underdeveloped world -- which is completely unprepared to deal with it and where the danger of horrific human devastation is the fear that dare not speak its name -- the complacent support of the corrupt leadership of the United Nations and its agencies by African and Asian states may have abated. Their actions should not be ignored. But the actions of some elected Democratic officials doubtless contributed greatly to the spread of the disease, and as we show, seem to have had a disproportionate effect on the poor -- especially African Americans in these states and cities, the very blocs of voters who voted them into office. The people most at risk from the virus are the elderly and the immune-suppressed. Diabetics, pre-diabetics, those with high blood pressure, and the grossly overweight are immune-suppressed and seem hardest hit. At least in NY, these conditions are found disproportionately in the black community. The contagion also seems concentrated in denser urban areas and among the poor, who must rely on public transportation, live in closer quarters, and whose lack of storage space mean they must risk shopping more often for food and essential supplies. This picture seems clear in NYC. In Southern California the picture may be more closely related to travel from China and crowded conditions in areas with lots of illegal immigrants -- post-virus analysis may clarify that. New York City's and Californias loony politicos are hooked on identity politics and see racism everywhere, ignoring objective science. The consequences of ignoring reality: overwhelmed medical facilities, lack of proper medical equipment, and soaring death rates. Daniel Greenfield, writing at Frontpage Magazine, dissects in depth the role of identity politics in New York City, a case history in the consequences of stupid politics and utter mismanagement. In brief, Mayor de Blasios City Health Commissioner, Oxiris Barbot, is a radical who previously served as Health Commissioner of Baltimore where she had given the citys race rioters space to destroy. Space which continues after her move to New York to result in a soaring murder rate. She boasted of seeing health policy through a racial equity lens, a lens so fogged that she concentrated on discouraging those arriving from Wuhan from going into self-quarantine and encouraging New Yorkers to attend the Lunar New Year celebrations in the city. "As we gear up to celebrate the #LunarNewYear in NYC, I want to assure New Yorkers that there is no reason for anyone to change their holiday plans, avoid the subway, or certain parts of the city because of #coronavirus," she insisted. By then there had already been over 17,000 cases of the Wuhan Virus in China with nearly 3,000 new cases in one day. For the first time, someone outside Mainland China had died of the disease. Manhattans Chinatown, where Barbot had appeared, is one of the densest parts of the city. The old core community where the Lunar New Year celebration is based is a maze of cramped tenements, narrow streets, tiny stores whose counters extend far into the street, and other unsafe conditions Barbot went on urging people to participate in the parade while spreading misinformation about the risk. You wont get it merely from riding the subways -- you get it from secretions, she even claimed. To her, the enemy was racial prejudice, not a rapidly transmissible, often deadly virus with a spread we can only hope to reduce by practicing social distance and good hygiene. New Yorks health authorities ignored objective research and placed the citys residents at great risk, and the outbreak exploded. So blinded by identity politics was the mayor that he never even ordered protective equipment until mid-March. A staggering 6,582 additional people tested positive for the deadly bug since Thursday evening, bringing the citys total confirmed cases to 56,289. Another 305 New Yorkers died from the virus, pushing the death toll up to 1,867. More than 1,100 more coronavirus patients were hospitalized in the past day. Since the outbreak 11,739 people have been hospitalized. The citys ICU capacity is at 88 percent with just 370 beds left unfilled. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday, just before the new statistics were released, that the coming days will be even darker. In fact, de Blasios rejection of science and utter mismanagement is matched only by his ignorance of the law. This week, the dictatorial nitwit decided we should draft doctors and nurses to help his people out of the mess for which he bears no small degree of responsibility. Tom Maguire reports: The greatest city in the world is teetering on the brink so its Mayor seizes the opportunity to remind us he is a useless buffoon: COVID-19: De Blasio urges US enlistment program for doctors and nurses Mayor calls for medics to be moved to places in greatest need New York City prepares for surge in coronavirus cases "Enlistment program"?!? WHAT did he say? New York Citys mayor, Bill de Blasio, has called for a national enlistment program for doctors and nurses, to handle an expected surge in coronavirus cases in New York and across the US. If were fighting a war, lets act like were fighting a war, he told reporters on Friday. "...unless the military is fully mobilized and we create something weve never had before, which is some kind of national enlistment of medical personnel moved to the most urgent needs in the country constantly if we dont have that were going to see hospitals simply unable to handle so many people who could be saved. OK, that won't be happening. As a minor point, there is no time for Congress to pass the relevant legislation. As a major point, this is still America, we abandoned the draft decades ago, and we don't force people to work at gunpoint. And how would it work? NY hospitals are short of Protective Personal Equipment. So the Feds are going to threaten to arrest some doctor in Vermont unless he gets down to NY and imperils himself by treating coronavirus patients? And if the good people of the great state of Vermont need health care down the road, NY promises to send their doctor back, unless he's sick or dead or super busy saving New Yorkers in which case, well, that's a problem for another day? [snip] As a further illustration that desperate times require desperate short-sightedness, this order by Gov. Cuomo is outrageous: Cuomo said he would sign an executive order that allows the national guard to take ventilators and personal protective equipment from institutions that dont need them right now and redistribute them to those that do. He said those institutions would either have their ventilators returned to them or get reimbursements. Cuomo said there may be several hundred ventilators available because of the order. Right now, the state is fielding a daily need for about 300 additional ventilators, he said. Those ventilators, officials have repeatedly explained, make the difference between life and death. Am I willing to deploy the national guard and inconvenience people for several hundred lives? Youre damn right I am, Cuomo said I guess Gov. Cuomo's message is "tough luck". Nancy Pelosi The first reference I can find of a mysterious virus in Wuhan was one in Mandarin dated December 31, 2019, three weeks before the Pelosi-promoted California congressman Adam Schiffs impeachment trial, which began on January 21. One day after the ill-fated impeachment trial began, the CDC reported the first domestic virus case and the New York Times reported that the Chinese government was quarantining Wuhan. Eight days after the first case was reported in the U.S., the president formed the coronavirus task force. That same day WHO declared the virus a Global Health emergency. The next day (January 31), the President declared a public health emergency, quarantined U.S. citizens returning from Chinas Hubei Province and restricted entry into the U.S. from China. (The Democrats charged him with racism for doing so though this step has proven critical to slowing the spread of the virus here.) Two days later, on February 2, he suspended entry of others who posed a risk of transmitting the virus (and thereafter, added to suspension of entry people from other countries where the virus was appearing). On February 4 in his State of the Union address, he warned of the virus. Nancy Pelosi in a public temper tantrum and show of contempt ripped up her copy of the State of the Union address. On February 24, twenty days after the President issued his warning about the virus and almost one month after he restricted entry from China, Nancy Pelosi publicly stated that people should pay no attention to the coronavirus fears and joined crowds in San Franciscos Chinese lunar new years' celebrations, We think its very safe, she said. On March 11, The President suspended travel from Europe, and the WHO officially declared the virus a pandemic. The following day, NYC declared a state of emergency and issued a statewide ban on all large gatherings. I can only imagine what the death toll will be in California. San Francisco has immune-suppressed HIV-AIDs affected citizens (about 12,985 people living with HIV in San Francisco) and thousands of homeless people living on the streets. So far, the homeless do not seem particularly affected, but if (or once) it makes an appearance there, I suspect it will take a substantial toll. I suppose many of these people are already quite unhealthy, live cheek by jowl outdoors on feces-heaped streets, and lack access to means to practice proper hygiene. California also has a large number of immigrants -- in recent years, largely from Asia: The majority of recent arrivals are from Asia. The vast majority of Californias immigrants were born in Latin America (50%) or Asia (40%). California has sizable populations of immigrants from dozens of countries; the leading countries of origin are Mexico (4.1 million), China (969,000), the Philippines (857,000), Vietnam (524,000), and India (507,000). However, most (56%) of those arriving between 2010 and 2017 came from Asia; only 29% came from Latin America. At the moment the virus is racing faster through Southern California than Northern California, with Los Angeles County hardest hit. Santa Clara County with a high percentage of Asian population (37%) was hard hit as well though at the moment Los Angeles is hardest of the California counties hit. I have for reasons for space and time limited the discussion largely to di Blasio and Pelosi, but they are certainly not the only Democratic politicians whose foolishness proves they are never to be trusted at the times we need sound political leadership most. If you vote for people like these, you bet your life (and mine). Miley Cyrus is wildly popular in part due to her color outside the lines personality and individualistic style. She has a unique sound to her music, and fans love her ability to be different from other mainstream artists. But, like most celebrity starlets, Miley Cyrus earns a hefty paycheck, and with her funds, she collects a few high-dollar accessories. Her car collection alone is impressive, with one of her most expensive rides costing well over $100,000. Miley Cyrus | Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images A few cars in her collection Miley Cyrus owns a few sweet rides, including her Mercedes SL500, that came with a six-figure price tag. This model falls into the classic grand touring category, epitomizing luxury. Cyrus clearly appreciates a smooth ride and plenty of get-ups, and also owns a Porsche Cayenne in which shes often pictured driving around town. Cyrus also joins an elite club of McLaren MP4 12C owners, including Lady Gaga, David Beckham, and Ludacris. The futuristic-looking McLaren can sometimes seem like a rite of passage among Hollywood elites. This car is one of the most expensive in Miley Cyrus collection One of Miley Cyrus favorite cars in her collection is the Maserati Quattroporte. Its also one of the most expensive cars in her garage. This classic Italian car is known for its incredible power under the hood, as well as its stylish luxury. This sedan comes in three available trim levels, and based on the Q4, GranSport, and GTS specifications can cost up to $140,000 to buy. Cyrus cars all have lofty price tags, but the Maserati Quattroporte may be the most expensive model she owns. Miley Cyrus collects only those things she loves Miley Cyrus, like many celebrities, collects a few things that make her happy. Fans recognize her affinity for sunglasses, for example. Shes often wearing a pair when shes out and about, and theres nothing discount about her preferred frames. She has been seen wearing Gianfranco Ferre, a brand that costs almost $1,000. Chanel is another brand Cyrus considers one of her favorites, and fans see her routinely with handbags, some of which run upwards of $2,000. Shes toted Chanel fragrances as well. One perfume bottle was identified as a $15,000 buy. Miley Cyrus doesnt just collect accessories and luxury extras. Shes an avid dog lover and pet lover in general. One or two canine pals arent enough, though. In fact, Cyrus has 17 dogs, a pig, and four varying breeds of cats. She and friend, Selena Gomez, both recently adopted rescue puppies. Cyrus introduced her shepherd mix pup on her Instagram live stream and has lovingly named him Bo, in an honor to her father, Billy Ray Cyrus. Charitable contributions Celebrities often spend their riches on collectibles, fancy jewels, and vacation houses. Miley Cyrus doesnt shy away from the finer things in life, including extra vacation homes and shiny bling. But she is also passionate about causes and charities and routinely donates robust amounts. A few organizations dear to her heart include the Make a Wish Foundation, Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, and the Lily Ross Foundation. Shes even founded her own non-profit organization called the Happy Hippies. The mission of this group is to rally young people to fight injustices that often affect vulnerable populations, including LGBTQ and homeless youth. Lately, Miley Cyrus has been live streaming on her Instagram and interviewing fellow celebs in a more down to earth and fun light. She continues to be an artist, passionate about her causes, who authentically connects with her fans. But, it doesnt mean she forgoes collecting a few of her favorite things, including high-dollar cars. And, we certainly dont blame her for that. Her Excellency, Clara Margarita Escandell, Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, in this interview with Premium Times, spoke on the ravaging coronavirus disease, her countrys bold strides in biomedical sciences, the wonder drug Interferon Alpha 2B that was used to acclaim in China, currently in Italy and has been on hot orders globally. She also spoke on the preparedness of Cuba to help Nigeria where the footprints of the disease are showing a disturbing spike, and signals an openness to collaboration with willing Nigerian biomedical laboratories. Ambassador Escandell was born in January 1960, had a degree in International Relations at the Raul Roa Higher Institute of International Relations, Havana and a double master, one in African Studies from the University of Ghana, Legon (1992), and another in History from Historical Sciences, University of Havana. She has participated in several academic events in Cuba and elsewhere and has published books and articles on political sociology in Africa. In a diplomatic career that started in 1982, Ms Escandell has held positions in Ghana, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Algeria prior to her Nigerian posting. PT: What specific role did Cuban doctors play in China and to what extent did the Interferon Alpha 2B play in the treatment process? Ambassador: In China, a small team of Cuban doctors worked passionately since the beginning of the coronavirus disease helping in treatment and care processes. Cuba has experience in these two areas, particularly to control and cut disease transmission. Due to the known mechanism of the diseases action, it is common to deploy the use of interferon against viral infections without available specific therapies. Interferon Alfa-2b is one of the drugs (in total more than 20) used as experimental biotherapy for patients affected by COVID-19. Its use is based and justified by the antiviral properties of the interferon molecule, a member of the first line of antiviral defense with activation of the innate immune response against the virus and the mechanism of inhibition of viral replication, mediated by the inducer genes of Interferon. Different types of Coronavirus (as SARS-CoV, associated with the 2002 epidemic, and MERS-CoV, associated with the 2012 epidemic) have been reported to reduce Interferon expression and prevent interferon-inducing STAT1 and MyD88 genes from activating, as well as antiviral defense mechanisms detect the presence of the virus. Due to the urgency of COVID-19 pandemic, not only interferon, but various drugs are being used as therapeutic tools, even though their efficacy has not been demonstrated for the treatment, previous evidence and studies suggest the possible usefulness of interferon as a preventive measure in vulnerable populations and in early stages of infection, in addition to the fact that its use continues to be published in the current pandemic and appears recommended in patient treatment protocols by different countries and organizations. Interferon has also proved effective in other illness (as VIH-AIDS) and is very useful to help the immunity capacity of individuals. PT: Now that 50 Cuban doctors are in Italy, what roles are they expected to play? Ambassador: Cuban medical doctors working in Italy are members of the Cuban Medical Brigade Henry Reeve. This Brigade has vast experience in disaster, natural and epidemiological crises. They fought against Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea; also went to countries like Haiti and Pakistan when they were shaken by earthquakes. Brigade members are prepared to work in difficult conditions and contribute to solving complex health situations. Cuban health personnel traveled to Italy at the request of the Lombardy province government. They work in a field hospital and help to cut transmission in these difficult conditions. This cooperation always starts through a request from the affected country which could benefit from such aid, and is implemented and carried out by mutual agreement according to agreed conditions. PT: In how many countries are Cuban doctors currently deployed and what roles are they playing in all these countries? Ambassador: About 30 thousand Cuban medical personnel now work in 61 countries, 31 in Africa. They work primarily in national health systems through government or private agreements. READ ALSO: They can work in general and specialized hospitals, frequently in national programmes such as mother and child care. Most of them work in rural areas as long as their living conditions and protection are guaranteed. They are also involved in teaching. PT: How did Cuba come to its current leadership position in the management of the coronavirus disease? Ambassador: Cuba relies on its well-structured health system to deal with the coronavirus. This system has two essential pillars: prevention and work at the community level. Through the press, government structures, political and social organizations, the country has set out to prevent contagion. For this, family doctors and nurses, accompanied by volunteer social workers, visit the population in their homes to detect any suspicious case and contribute to health education. All possible means of dissemination of information are used: the press, social networks; relevant artists have recorded spots and songs, also sportsmen and other popular figures came to help. The President of the Republic and other leaders carry out radio and television interventions to give personally instructions to the population. The maximum effort is put into education on how the disease is transmitted. So far, almost all cases are imported; a very tiny minority has been by local contagion and always from a person arriving from abroad. All confirmed 67 cases are on medical admission, as well as 1603 persons that have symptoms even if they have not tested positive. This is an extra measure to protect their health and to avoid contagious. Advertisements PT: If countries like Nigeria were to seek the help of Cuba in this stage of its management of the crisis, what protocols need be activated? Ambassador: Cuba and Nigeria have a historical relationship. Through the veins of many Cubans flows blood from the peoples that make up this great country. There is an enormous cultural and idiosyncratic influence from Nigeria in many aspects of our social life, like music. Cuba has very special ties to the African continent, the land of our ancestors. When a government is interested in receiving aid from Cuba, it must make an official request. Next, we analyze the overall issue and agree on what conduct can be followed. PT: Do you envisage that Cuba could soon be overwhelmed by foreign requests and scale back in its internationalist considerations? Ambassador: So far, regarding COVID-19, Cuba is supporting with medical personnel, mainly in advisory and prevention work, 7 countries, 6 of them in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as in Italy. Like any country, Cuba has limited resources, but also an important aid capacity and vast experience in managing human resources. Years ago, then President Fidel Castro designed a policy of training doctors for Cuba and for the world. It has been fully fulfilled. Part of this training of medical professionals, are thousands of young people from more than hundred countries, including Nigeria, that have been educated in Cuba. PT: Is the Cuban biomedical industry adequately commercialized to help countries like Nigeria take advantage of its malaria and cancer drugs? Ambassador: The Cuban biomedical industry has commercial experience. In the past there have been various efforts to introduce Cuban products to the Nigerian market. Some are imported in limited numbers. Cuba is always open to expand its commercial relations with friendly countries and we have the necessary know-how for this. In the case of malaria, the Cuban experience is not only related to drugs production. There is the criterion that more important than curing the disease is to prevent it, eradicating its causes. Cuba managed to eradicate malaria transmission since the 60s. In the case of cancer, Cuban biotechnology has developed a wide range of products that are marketed in various countries of the world, even in some we carry out joint productions using Cuban technology. PT: Has the Nigerian government so far approached Cuba for help in any aspect of its health needs? Ambassador: Not at the moment, but Cuba is always attentive to the requests of friendly countries. PT: Is it possible for Cuba to collaborate with Nigerian pharmaceutical companies in research and development of its malaria, cancer and now COVID-19 drugs? Ambassador: Cuban scientific institutions are fully prepared to work alongside Nigerian ones. These issues have been discussed in the past and it is a permanently open door and opportunity. The most important thing is to go deeper among the interested and concerned institutions on what we can do together. Cuban institutions such as LABIOFAM, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Immunoassay Center and others, in the past and today, have been in conversation with Nigerian institutions and authorities. The Cuban disposition is total to deepen those ties for the benefit of both countries in a win-win relationship. The Upper East Regional Health Directorate has disclosed that the patient who tested positive of COVID-19 at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital was discharged on Thursday, April 3 upon a request by the husband before her diagnosis. Even though samples were sent to Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research for investigations, the patient left the hospital for her house on Thursday, April 3, 2020, a day before her sample tested positive. The 33-year-old pregnant woman presented herself on March 28, 2020, at the hospital after week travel to Tarkwa in the Western Region with suspected symptoms of COVID-19. Speaking at a press conference in Bolgatanga, Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Winfred Ofosu, denied allegations of the patient forcefully leaving the facility over lack of care by health personnel. The allegations that the husband of the patient forcefully took her home from the hospital is untrue. The patient was in the ward, she had recovered, her symptoms had remitted and there was no active treatment ongoing so, they requested to be discharged. The slip was that they were not properly informed that the patient was been investigated for COVID-19 but they were asked to self isolate the patient, so that was how they went home. Dr. Ofosu indicated that the COVID-19 patient is a mild case that can be managed at home but the patient has been brought to the hospital due to a lack of proper caregivers to cater for the patient at home. We should have trained the caregiver at home and the rapid response team should have been properly aware and designate someone to monitor the patient at home while she is on self-isolation. Dr. Ofosu added that 11 of the patients close contacts have been identified for investigations. He hinted that the maternity block of the hospital that rendered service to the COVID-19 patient will be disinfected on Monday, April 6, 2020, and resume operations on Tuesday, April 7. Dr. Ofosu stated that the region has no ventilator to manage severe COVID-19 case but could arrange for one from Accra if the need arises. He, however, declined to answer how samples taken from the region are sent to Kumasi for testing upon allegations that they were given to O.A transport service to be taken to Kumasi. So far, the region has recorded 28 suspected cases, out of which 27 tested negative and one positive. citinewsroom Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Groups of campus journalists on Sunday slammed the "forced" public apology order reportedly issued against the editor of a student newspaper over a social media post critical of President Rodrigo Duterte's administration. Joshua Molo, editor-in-chief of the Dawn, the official student newspaper of the University of the East, was forced to publicly apologize after getting into an argument with his former high school teachers, the student publication said in a statement. It said Molo was brought to the Barangay Hall of San Fernando Sur in Nueva Ecija, after his former teacher reported him to authorities. The barangay officials supposedly threatened to file a libel case against him unless a public apology was issued. "Inaamin ko po na ako ay nagkamali, at hindi na muling mauulit ang pangyayari," Molo said in a video which later on circulated online. [Translation: I admit it was a mistake, and I assure this will never happen again.] The UE Dawn labeled the move as an "act of oppression", adding that citizens have the right to free speech as well as to criticize the government. The College Editors Guild of the Philippines echoed the sentiment, saying officials should instead "work on improving a coordinated and sustained public information campaign." "At a time when our country needs checks and balances, especially when Congress just granted Duterte additional powers despite the lack of concrete plans to solve COVID-19, we need a free flow of democracy," CEGP said. At least 430,000 people have traveled from China to the United States on direct flights since the COVID-19 disease surfaced last year - with nearly 40,000 arriving in the two months after President Trump imposed travel restrictions. Additionally, there were more than 1,300 direct passenger flights and 381,000 travelers arriving to the United States from China in January. Around a quarter were Americans. The New York Times reports that thousands of these passengers flew directly from China as US health officials were just beginning to gauge the severity of the outbreak. The first reported cases of coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of last year. The majority of the passengers arrived in January at major airports in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle and Newark. At least 430,000 people have traveled from China to the United States on direct flights since the COVID-19 disease began in Wuhan last year In February, about 60 percent of people traveling on direct flights from China were not American citizens Over the past week, flights leaving Beijing continued to land in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, mainly Americans and some others who were exempt from the restriction placed on February 2. Since then, 279 flights from China have come to the United States and interviews suggest that coronavirus screenings have been inconsistent. Trump previously said his travel measures 'kept China out of here' and applauded his administration for implementing the guidelines 'very early.' However, data collected by The Times suggested the travel ban may have come too late, amid reports from public health officials that believe COVID-19 entered the United States unannounced as asymptomatic. Although US officials identified the first confirmed case on January 20 in Washington State, no one knows when coronavirus first arrived as asymptomatic cases could have been spreading for weeks beforehand. As health officials uncovered the severity of COVID-19, President Trump (pictured) issued travel restrictions to Wuhan No travelers from China experienced health screening during the first half of January -when China was downplaying the number of infection cases - but they began midway through the month. By then, health screenings only applied to travelers from Wuhan, the COVID-19 epicenter, and at airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. But around 4,000 people had already flown into the United States from Wuhan, according to data from VariFlight. The screening protocol would include all passenger from China two weeks later. Those who have undergone screenings describe how surprisingly inattentive and permissive the were. 'I was surprised at how lax the whole process was,' Andrew Wu, 31, who landed at Los Angeles International Airport from Beijing this month, told The Times. 'The guy I spoke to read down a list of questions, and he didnt seem interested in checking out anything.' Sabrina Fitch, 23, said she and 40 other passenger had their temperatures taken twice and were told to complete forms about their travels and health. 'Besides looking at our passports, they didnt question us like we normally are questioned,' said Fitch, who flew from China to Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 23. 'So it was kind of weird, because everyone expected the opposite, where you get a lot of questions. But once we filled out the little health form, no one really cared.' 19 flights departed from Wuhan to New York or San Francisco in January - and they were mostly filled. On January 17, the government began screening travelers from Wuhan, but only 400 additional passengers arrived on direct flights before Chinese airports were shut down. In addition to the 1,300 direct passenger flights and 381,000 travelers who arrived to the United States, an unknown amount arrived from China on specific itineraries that stopped in another country beforehand. Sofia Boza-Holman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said those travelers account for a quarter of travelers from China. She claimed Trump's travel restrictions reduced all passengers from China by approximately 99 percent. In February, about 60 percent of people traveling on direct flights from China were not American citizens. The majority of those flights were operated by Chinese airlines US airlines stopped flying. Pictured: A US Army National Guard Soldier helps a traveler register her arrival at TF Green International Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island on March 30, 2020, during the novel coronavirus outbreak Fitch: 'So it was kind of weird, because everyone expected the opposite, where you get a lot of questions. But once we filled out the little health form, no one really cared' Pictured: Body of deceased patient in orange bag moved from hospital to refrigerator truck serving as temporary morgue outside of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn Of the screenings, health officials revealed the process would expand beyond arrivals from Wuhan. According to Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the CDC, passengers would be screened for significant risk, as well as any evidence of symptoms. If there was no cause for additional screening, 'they would be allowed to complete their travel back to their home, where they then will be monitored by the local health departments in a self-monitoring situation in their home.' In a statement Thursday, the CDC said screenings were 'part of a layered approach' that may 'slow and reduce the spread of disease' when compounded with additional public health guidelines. Wu, who has had not fallen ill or shown symptoms, described the follow-up from health officials after his health screening as dismal. Although he was instructed to quarantine for 14 days, Wu only received two message reminders by text message and email. Chandler Jurinka, a traveler who flew from Beijing to Seattle with stops in Tokyo and Vancouver, said his experience with health screenings were even more careless. At the Seattle-Tacoma airport, Jurinka said an immigration officer examined his documents and proceeded to ask questions unrelated to coronavirus about his life in China. No designated staff ever asked to take his temperature. 'He hands me my passport and forms and says, "Oh, by the way, you havent been to Wuhan, have you?"' said Jurinka. 'And then he says, "You dont have a fever, right?"' Jurinka was told to quarantine and to expect a follow-up call, but no call ever came. The United States has since become the country with the largest number of coronavirus cases. There are 311,632 recored cases and 8,503 deaths. At just 16 years old, Millie Bobby Brown is known around the world. From her adorable English accent to her obsession with Amy Winehouse to her skincare brand, florence by mills, fans are obsessed with everything about the young actress. But, the main thing that people love about Brown is her acting skills. Brown has been acting for majority of her life, but her breakout role on Stranger Things as Eleven made her a household name. Millie Bobby Brown | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic During the first season of Stranger Things, Brown had very few lines but an enormous impact. Now, after three seasons, Browns character is becoming a fully developed teenager. These days, she does much more talking and is able to express her opinions about love, friendship, etc. When fans watch Brown in interviews, many of them are shocked to find out that shes actually British. As her American accent is so good, most assume that she is grew up in the States. Millie Bobby Brown hid her true accent when auditioning Part of the reason Browns American accent is so good is because shes spent years practicing and perfecting it. Prior to being cast on Stranger Things, Brown was just like any other struggling actor. She was constantly being rejected for roles, but noticed a trend of being rejected simply because of her English accent. In a clever move, she decided to use her fake American accent every time she auditioned. Only when shed landed the part and signed the contract did she revert to her natural accent. I was always prepared (laughs), but they rejected me because I was English. For this reason, at a certain point, I decided that I would pretend to be an American: as soon as I got the role, I started talking again with my British accent. They looked at me in amazement and Id be like: Too late, the contract is signed! Brown shared in an interview with Vanity Fair Italy. The Stranger Things star got her American accent from Hannah Montana But, practicing her American accent in auditions wasnt the only way that Brown learned how to speak in a different dialect. In a recent interview on Miley Cyruss talk show, Bright Minded: Live With Miley, Brown revealed that she learned her American accent from watching episodes of Hannah Montana. I just have to say. Like the only way I got my American accent is by watching Hannah Montana, the 16-year-old confessed. How Brown discovered her love of acting But Brown wasnt just obsessed with Hannah Montana because she was trying to perfect her accent. The Stranger Things star admitted that she was simply loved the show. Brown recently found a video on her camera roll where she was dancing along to the Hoedown Throwdown (the featured dance in Hannah Montana: The Movie) and she knew every step. In fact, Brown recalls watching the popular show and wanting to be Hannah Montana. The influence of Hannah Montana Once Brown realized that she could be an entertainer like Hannah Montana, the rest was history. Its funny to think that Browns accent and her interest in acting both stemmed from the popular Disney Channel show. But, given that Old Town Road would have never happened without Hannah Montana either, it seems that the show had a bigger impact than we originally thought. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 04:19:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIRANA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Albanian government urged compliance with anti-virus measures Saturday, as the country saw 29 new infections in the past 24 hours, the biggest single-day uptick so far. Ogerta Manastirliu, Minister of Health and Social Protection, appealed to all citizens Saturday via a video message to keep social distancing, respect the measures taken by the government, and the advice of health experts. "We are in the middle of a war that has not stopped," Manastirliu said. Prime Minister Edi Rama, on the same day, announced that starting from next week, the government will take new measures against people who defy social distancing, especially in vegetable and fruit markets. Rama warned that those who break the rules risk imprisonment. "The army and local police will urgently set up sanitary cordons in marketplaces. State Police will crack down on offenders with new measures," Rama said. As of Saturday, health authorities confirmed 333 coronavirus cases, including 18 fatalities and 99 recoveries. Enditem Lindsay Lohan astonishingly claimed on Instagram Live this weekend that her late dog Gucci lived to be 27. The showbiz legend appeared to be a bit confused as 27 is an extremely rare age for a dog to live - and her mother Dina has said the dog died at 15. While appearing on Instagram Live the 33-year-old actress shared: 'I got my first dog when I got my first pair of Gucci boots and she ate them and I named her Gucci.' Whoops: Lindsay Lohan astonishingly claimed on Instagram Live this weekend that her late dog Gucci lived to be 27 The Mean Girls lead: 'And she lived till 27 years old. She was a strong little micro-mini Maltese, and yeah, that happened, God bless her.' Lindsay, who has repeatedly been rumored to be converting to Islam, crossed herself on Instagram Live while discussing her late pooch. She may have been confused because she herself was just three months shy of her own 27th birthday when Gucci died in April 2, 2013. That day Dina tweeted: 'Sad Day Gucci our family Dog passed away ! She was 15 and brought so much love to us ......she will forever be missed xo'. Throwback: Lindsay has also had a dog called Chloe, another Maltese; she is pictured carrying one of her pooches in New York in 2008 Gucci died shortly before Lindsay was scheduled to begin a 90-day sentence of court-ordered rehab in a plea bargain resulting from a car crash. During her latest Instagram Live Lindsay also remembered that she once had a dog called Chloe, but said she has no pooches now. Chloe was also reportedly a Maltese, a breed of toy dog that has an average life expectancy of between 12 and 15 years. Comeback kid: Lindsay made her return to music after 15 years this Friday, dropping a new single called Back To Me in which she nods to her past Lindsay made her return to music after 15 years this Friday, dropping a new single called Back To Me in which she nods to her past. ''I used to blame me when s*** got crazy - I can't think too much 'bout what they say,' she sings in her new comeback single. 'And now these Sundays got me feeling like Mondays. I know I drink too much, but it's okay,' said the returning pop act. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Tuesday extended his orders closing public K-12 schools and some businesses where people congregate until at least April 10, in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Montana. Bullock issued his school closure order March 15, initially set to expire two weeks later, which would have been this Friday. On March 20 he issued another order shuttering bars, gyms, theaters and other businesses where people gather, and banned restaurants and breweries from dine-in scenarios while allowing delivery and to-go orders. He tied that order to the end date for the school closures, but acknowledged at the time it was likely that both would be extended. "The obligation to control this spread is on each and every one of us, each and every day," Bullock said on a call with reporters Tuesday. " We do continue to see an increase in cases each day, and that is expected." Montana added seven additional known cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, bringing the state's total number of cases to 52. Gallatin County, which on Sunday said it had evidence of community spread of the coronavirus, now has 19 cases, more than double anywhere else in the state. Community spread means people who contracted the virus had no known contact with other sick people or close contacts with sick people. Yellowstone County has eight cases, Missoula has six, Flathead four, Butte-Silver Bow, Cascade and Lewis and Clark each have three, Madison has two, and Jefferson, Ravalli, Broadwater and Roosevelt each have one. On a call with reporters Tuesday, Bullock said even the April 10 timeline for the closure orders to lift could be shortened or lengthened, depending on how the virus continues to spread in Montana. Public health officials nationwide have been urging people to take severe and swift action to limit the transmission of COVID-19, using dire language to describe potential outcomes if social distancing guidelines are not followed. While President Donald Trump, in conflict with those warnings, said Tuesday he would love to have the country opened up, and just raring to go, by Easter, it's fallen to governors and local governments to implement closure orders. By Tuesday, cities, counties and governors in an estimated 17 states have urged residents to stay at home or implemented large-scale shutdowns of nonessential businesses, which affects about 167 million people nationwide, according to a tally by the New York Times. A model built by data scientists, engineers and designers working with epidemiologists, public health officials and political leaders to help understand how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect their region shows that Montana could reach a point of no return to prevent hospital overload sometime between April 14-19. Bullock also issued a directive Tuesday prohibiting nonessential social and recreational gatherings of individuals outside a home or place of residence of greater than 10 people with a distance of at least 6 feet between individuals. This is a bit more restrictive (than his previous direction on gatherings) and were asking Montanans to comply, Bullock said. Violations of that and the closure orders can be enforced by county attorneys. Day cares are still open, Bullock said, because they serve a critical role in caring for the children of essential workers like health care providers, emergency responders and more. As some businesses have closed and restaurants have reduced operations, many Montanans are finding themselves out of work. While Bullock eliminated the weeklong wait period for people to receive unemployment benefits, the state system to access them has been overwhelmed. Bullock said that since March 16, more than 15,000 people had filed claims. While the chief justice of the state Supreme Court asked that nonviolent inmates be released from county jails, Bullock said Tuesday he has not made a determination about any changes at the state prison in Deer Lodge or other facilities like the prison in Shelby run by a contractor. Montana has a primary election June 2, and several candidates have called for a vote-by-mail election. Bullock said Tuesday he would have a decision on any possible changes to that election soon, made under the power he has in the emergency declaration he issued March 12. Bullock said the state is aggressively seeking to increase its critical inventory of supplies and that he got an additional 50,000 N-95 masks through a mutual aid agreement with North Dakota. Those will be distributed all across the state soon. He also issued orders Monday that should open up options for hospitals to increase their capacity in the event of a surge of patients. Were doing everything we can in our capacity to prepare to take care of critically ill patients if we end up getting numerous COVID-19 patients in our hospitals and ensure theres hospital space and supplies to respond, Bullock said. The state public health laboratory is also getting an additional 4,000 swabs for testing. Bullock said a week ago the state tried to order from a private supplier and that order was canceled because of overwhelming demand. The reality of the situation, Bullock said, is that supply capacity depends on access to private supplies and if those hit a bottleneck the state must rely on the federal government honoring its requests for additional supplies. Montana's federal delegation and attorney general also reported Trump announced the state will get an extension for when people will need REAL ID-compliant drivers licenses to be able to board airplanes or access federal facilities such as federal agency office buildings, federal courthouses, military bases and nuclear power plants. The deadline had been Oct. 1, and the new deadline will be announced in the future. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also announced Monday that the state's 14 community health centers will receive $810,430 to address screening and testing needs, get medical supplies and increase tele-medicine capacity. Last week both the state and federal government, as well as private insurance companies, took actions to increase access to tele-medicine options to ease access to care for people while keeping people who may spread the virus out of health care facilities. A list of funding by facility is attached to this story online. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A new study from China reveals the likelihood of catching the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, from someone whos asymptomatic. It comes as asymptomatic cases continue to rise. A Wuhan resident whose mother died from the CCP virus is furious about the Chinas cover-up and has asked the regime to take responsibility. Chinese student is risking his own life calling for the Chinese ruling party and leader to step down. He tells NTD News his motivations for doing so. The worlds largest hospital ship arrives in New York City to ease the strain on local hospitals fighting the CCP virus. For many, its a symbol of hope. And the Netherlands has recalled 600,000 medical masks sent by the Chinese regime for failing to meet quality standards. Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more first-hand news from China For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, Ecuadors government has begun storing the bodies of coronavirus victims in giant refrigerated containers. According to reports, due to hundreds of deaths in the city of Guayaquil, which is the epicentre of the outbreak in Ecuador, all the morgues and hospitals are already at capacity and cannot store any more. Bodies were piling up on the streets As per reports, the government has installed three containers, with the largest among them being 12 meters long. These containers have been installed in public hospitals to preserve bodies until graves were prepared. On April 3, Ecuadors government announced that it would establish a digital system through which families could find out where their relatives were buried. According to reports, before the containers were installed, dead bodies of the COVID-19 patients were scattered and were piling up on the streets of Guayaquil, across hospitals, and in homes, as the public service reaches a point of collapse. The city, located in Ecuador, accounts for over 70 per cent of the 3,163 total cases registered in the country, according to local reports. At least 2,243 fatalities have been recorded there so far. Many have been reportedly dying at homes, without being tested, due to overburdened healthcare facilities. Read: Coronavirus Reaches Galapagos Islands, Infects Four On Ecuador's Heritage Isle Read: Ecuador: Giant Tortoise Credited To Save Entire Species Returns To Galapagos Islands The mayor of Guayaquil, Cynthia Viteri, said in the press briefing that the Ecuadorian government appealed to the municipality to lead the removal of the dead bodies. She said that overwhelming deaths have occurred across the city due to the COVID-19 disease or other circumstances. The situation was alarming, she added. According to local media reports, the local task force has been collecting at least 100 bodies from the streets each day. Several families have been reported to have retained the bodies of the loved ones for over four days, and are still waiting for the forensics to collect it. As of March 30, Guayaquil City Councilor, Andres Guschmer took to Twitter describing that more than 400 bodies had been removed from homes. The local media reported that over 450 bodies were registered in a single day on the waiting list to be removed from the local residences. Fernando Espana, a resident, was reported by an agency as saying in a video that he was tired of calling the 911 service, and the only thing he listened was wait, meanwhile showing the black plastic-wrapped body. The morgues, cemeteries and funeral homes across the city have been strained, as per reports. President Lenin Moreno acknowledged to a local daily that there were way more deaths than recorded because people were dying at a rate so fast, that the count could not be upheld. Besides, a large number of patients remained untested for the disease. (With inputs from agencies) Read: Remains Of Infants Wearing Helmets Made Of Skulls Of Other Children Discovered In Ecuador Read: Ecuador Oil Minister Carlos Perez Resigns Weeks After Scrapped Fuel Price Hike Police disperse KCK elementary school social distancing parade because it violated 'stay-at-home' order by: Travis Meier Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Police intervened and broke up a driving parade of elementary school teachers and administrators on April 4. A police spokesperson said the celebration was nonessential and against state orders. John Fiske Elementary School workers gathered at 11 a.m. No fun during the pandemic enforced for the benefit of public health. Read more: Flash The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Saturday called on the Libyan rival parties to end the ongoing armed conflict in the country. "Today marks one year since the forces of Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar launched their offensive to seize Tripoli, Libya's capital," the UNSMIL said in a statement. "What resulted is a needless conflict that shattered the hopes of many Libyans for a peaceful political transition," it added. Over the past year since April 1, 2019, the UNSMIL has documented at least 356 civilian deaths and 329 injuries. Nearly 150,000 people in and around Tripoli have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of the conflict, and about 345,000 civilians remain in frontline areas with an additional 749,000 people estimated to live in areas affected by the clashes. The UNSMIL also estimates that around 893,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The ongoing armed conflict has destroyed homes, hospitals, schools and detention facilities, the statement said. "The influx of foreign fighters and advanced weapon systems into the country continues unabated, and their use on the battlefield has directly led to an intensification of the conflict," it added. The UNSMIL appeals to "all concerned to activate the humanitarian truce immediately and cease all military operations to allow Libyan authorities to respond to the threat of COVID-19." On April 4, 2019, the eastern-based army launched a military campaign in and around Tripoli, attempting to take over the city and overthrow the rival UN-backed government. Despite recent announcements of both parties of accepting international calls for a humanitarian cease-fire, they have been trading accusations for breaching the truce and targeting civilians in Tripoli. Kimberley Process The Kimberley Process is an international organization that regulates the global circulation of rough diamonds. The main goal of the process is the fight against the so-called bloody diamonds. The bloody diamonds were mined illegally and the money from their sale were used to finance armed terrorist groups in the world, as well as the corrupt regimes in the African countries. The organization was named after the South African city of Kimberley where a meeting was held in 2000 at the initiative of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to find a solution to the bloody diamond problem. At present, over 80 countries are the members of the Kimberley Process. Russia joined the organization in 2000, a few months after its establishing. In 2005, Russia chaired the Kimberley Process. In 2019, the chairmanship was held by India. In 2020, Russia chaired the Kimberley Process. The key idea of the Russia's chairmanship in the KP will be the fight against the inflow of synthetic stones in the global diamond market, as well as the providing of equal conditions for all the participants in this market. The organizations main document is the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) adopted in 2002. It was accepted in order to prevent illegal diamonds from entering the market. According to the Kimberley Process terms, since 2004, full statistics on the member countries have been published annually. At the end of July 2019, the annual report for 2018 was released. The figures on the diamond imports and exports by the main diamond trading countries is given below for 2015-2018, according to the Kimberley Process data. Diamond trade in 2015-2018 If we consider the diamond export-import operations in the countries of the world according to the Kimberley Process data, we can distinguish 8 top countries participating in the diamond trade with virtually no diamond mining in these countries (Table 1). Table 1 Top diamond importers and exporters, 2015-2018 Approximately two-thirds of the world exports by volume and by value usually go through the eight leading diamond trading countries. Given that the jewellery industry is also developed in these countries, it can be argued that rough diamonds are cut there into polished ones that are inserted into jewellery and then sold around the world as the diamond jewellery to provide the final value of the diamond products. The volume of world diamond imports and exports in 2018 was 2.6-2.9 times higher than the world diamond production by volume, and 3.3-3.4 times by value. This suggests that rough diamonds, before they are cut to become polished diamonds, go at least two more times through intermediaries who receive the additional profit from their resale. Among the intermediary countries, the United Arab Emirates should be mentioned that were able to become the world's leading diamond trading hub in a decade thanks to their advantageous geographical position. In monetary terms, the diamond trade surplus in 2018 in the UAE amounted to $2,123.8 mn. The results of 2019 and future prospects of the diamond market Based on the indicators of five top diamond mining companies - De Beers, ALROSA, Rio Tinto, Dominion Diamond Mines, and Petra Diamonds that produce approximately 75% of the worlds diamonds by volume and 80% by value - we can calculate that in 2019, 141.3 mn carats of diamonds worth $13,058.2 mn were mined in the world. Compared with 2018, in 2019, diamonds were mined by 4.8% less in carats and almost by 9.7% by their sales value. Consequently, the diamond imports and exports will be lower. In 2020, the pressure from the lab-grown diamonds will increase, and it can be argued that the decline in natural diamond production will continue in 2020. Yury Danilov, Ph. D., independent expert and analyst The Board of Airline Representatives in Germany (BARIG), the joint representation of interests of more than 100 German, European and global airlines, welcomed the decision made by the so-called "Corona-Cabinet" of the German Federal Government for a temporary suspension of the reimbursement obligation for flights cancelled due to a pandemic. "Germany is choosing a fair, reasonable and future-securing path for all parties involved," emphasised BARIG secretary general Michael Hoppe. "This measure can contribute significantly to preventing a European collapse of the aviation and travel industry, which seemed inconceivable until recently. Therefore, we count on the leading role of the EU to implement this fair regulation quickly and unbureaucratically for all of Europe in the interest of citizens, the economy and the affected companies." The Corona-crisis poses an unprecedented threat to the entire aviation and travel industry. Airlines are compelled to cancel their flights virtually altogether. If the airlines had to reimburse these crisis-related cancellations in full, most of them would go out of business. Instead, the regulation advocated by the Federal Government for this highly exceptional situation provides, in the interest of all, that direct repayments be made only in cases of hardship. In all other cases, customers shall receive vouchers valid until December 31, 2021. Customers not redeeming the voucher by that date shall then receive a refund. Michael Hoppe: "This regulation will benefit customers, the travel industry and the aviation industry. The drastic repercussions of the Corona-crisis for aviation have already been felt and would continue to have dramatic consequences for jobs, economic power, mobility, trade and the transport of goods far into the future. The entire economic cycle would be severely impaired for months, perhaps even years. Elementary steps to set the course for a recovery of the system following the end of the Corona-crisis must, therefore, now be taken through the right decision at EU-level. - TradeArabia News Service Vietravel Airlines would be based at Phu Bai International Airport in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. Photo by VnExpress/Tri Duc. The government has approved tour operator Vietravel's proposal to set up an airline, making it another potential entrant in the country's fast-growing aviation market. Vietravel Airlines would operate both domestic and international flights using Airbus or Boeing aircraft, starting with a fleet of three and gradually expanding to eight aircraft by the fifth year. It would be based at Phu Bai International Airport in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, and have a charter capital of VND700 billion ($30 million). It would be allowed to fly 10 months after receiving the approval, meaning its first flight would be in early 2021 at the earliest. The government has tasked Thua Thien-Hue authorities with appraising the project and inspect and oversee Vietravel's implementation and capital mobilization. The Ministry of Transport has been instructed to gather other ministries and sectors' opinions on the licensing and Vietravel Airlines ability to meet capital requirements. The green light came after the Ministry of Planning and Investment confirmed that Vietravel had transferred the entire charter capital of VND700 billion to the carrier. Vietravel, one of the largest tour companies in the country, organizes charter flights, and with the new airline it aims to use 55 percent of its seats to transport its own customers and offer the remaining 45 percent to other travel companies as charter flights. Vietravel Airlines will enter a fiercely competitive aviation market which already has six players: Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO), Bamboo Airways, and newly-licensed Vietstar Airlines, a military-run company. But the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit all of them hard by forcing them to cancel all international flights and most domestic ones. - An American newspaper, Wall Street Journal named Health CS Mutahi Kagwe as Kenya's unlikely hero during the coronavirus pandemic - The paper said Kagwe had projected calmness despite the epidemic and also used evidence and facts to manage the calamity - Kagwe is barely two months old in the health docket but his composure and daily candid briefings have made him stand out as a leader In times of crisis, you would expect the vocal politicians who carry the day in the political realm to be in the forefront in mitigation of the disaster. However, this pandemic, in particular, has proved that sometimes the little appreciated Kenyan leaders can become the unsung heroes in times of crisis. READ ALSO: I'm sorry: French doctor apologises for suggesting COVID-19 vaccine be tested in Africa CS Mutahi Kagwe was recognised as a great hero during the coronavirus epidemic. Photo: Ministry of Health. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Woman, 58, only passenger in plane going to see dying mother Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe is one such unlikely hero who has been in the frontline, leading Kenya during the global pandemic that is seemingly gaining a foothold in the country. Kagwe's leadership prowess earned him international recognition in an American newspaper, Wall Street Journal for projecting calmness in the midst of the outbreak. "Kenya's unlikely coronavirus hero is Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe. He was seen as a technocrat; too ordinary and emotionally distant in politics but these traits have become traits in coronavirus briefings," the paper reported. READ ALSO: Makachero wa DCI wamnasa mama jambazi ambaye amekuwa mwiba Nairobi It further said the CS always emphasized evidence and urged Kenyans to face facts which were both very resourceful tactics in managing the global crisis. The former Nyeri senator is barely two months old in the health docket but he has won the hearts of many with his candid updates on the disease. The paper said Kagwe had projected calm during his coronavirus updates. Photo: Ministry of Health. Source: Facebook A couple of weeks ago, Kenyans also heaped praises on the CS and said he had breathed life to the Ministry of Health since he took his oath of office on Friday, February 28. "Kenyans have done well in taking measures in mitigation. CS Health Mutahi Kagwe is doing an excellent job with information flow, and responses," wrote Lawyer Steve Ogolla. "Health CS Mutahi Kagwe got the job at the right time. He is a man made for this day. He inspires confidence in the nation. He listens and acts accordingly. He is also firm and he puts his foot down when he feels that he has to do so," tweeted Nahashon Kimemia. 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 Lockdown: Stranded, broke and desperate to get home to his wife and children | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie, Arya Dipa and Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 6 2020 Command center: West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil (second right) examines the COVID-19 information system at the COVID-19 Information and Coordination Center in Bandung, West Java, on March 10. The center provides two hotlines for people who want to report cases or ask for health information. (JP/Arya Dipa) The governors of Jakarta and West Java, the two regions of the country hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak, have suggested that the numbers of people infected and killed by the disease in the country are significantly higher than the central governments official count. They have said the Health Ministry has not been swift enough in testing potential COVID-19 patients. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Lagoudas said that if there are more than five extraordinary teams, they could be entered to the Engineering Project Showcase as well. Anyone with ideas that can potentially help the community will be connected with experts in the health industry who may be able put the project into action, Lagoudas said. Graduate student organizer Josh VanCura thought of the idea for the virtual competition. He said he, and likely other students, felt helpless for a while as he saw the problems caused by COVID-19. VanCura said he hopes the competition can help ease some of the challenges caused by the pandemic. This event shows that there are a lot of students who want to help. ... I think it gave them an opportunity to do that, VanCura said. The competition is for current students, but Lagoudas said community members are welcome to serve as team mentors to help develop projects. Participants will be judged based on the quality of their problem definition, methodology to developing a solution, the proposed solution and video quality. VanCura said the competition plans and details came together within the past couple weeks, and hes happy to see how many people want to get involved so quickly. SIOUX CITY -- Face-to-face campaigning in the closely watched Iowa 4th District race has completely stopped. The longstanding dynamic of shaking hands and slapping backs while lining up votes -- and money -- has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. To comply with federal and state guidelines to practice social distancing and limit public gatherings to no more than 10 people, Rep. Steve King and his four Republican challengers have temporarily stopped holding town halls and other in-person events. Still, the candidates are working the phones and using social media to reach voters in the sprawling district, which covers 39 counties in Northwest and North Central Iowa. "We are respecting the advice the governor and health officials have issued, which means that we have canceled current events, including recently a (planned) third fundraiser in Dickinson County," said candidate Jeremy Taylor, a former state legislator who lives in Sioux City. "The last thing I would want to do is make the pandemic worse," said GOP candidate Bret Richards, of Irwin. "I take the governor's recommendations very seriously. She has all but said we should shelter in place. Today, I am out putting up barn signs and making calls." The uncertainty over traditional campaigning makes for a cloudy forecast for the outcome of the June 2 primary, which also includes state Sen. Randy Feenstra, of Hull, and Steve Reeder of Spirit Lake. Bradley Best, a political science professor at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, said King and Feenstra appear to have the inside track. Feenstra has dwarfed the fundraising of the nine-term incumbent and the other challengers. The cash haul allowed Feenstra to begin a TV campaign the week of March 13 that his campaign says will continue through the primary. "Feenstras ability to use paid media to reach the primary electorate is a decided advantage," Best said. "Is it enough to tip the overall primary race in his favor? This is really the most basic and important question we can ask about this primary contest." At the same time, Best said "suspending in-person campaigning will prove especially difficult for Kings challengers, (since) communicating a political brand and mobilizing turnout requires lots of on-the-ground and face-to-face work." He added that King, for years, has relied on interpersonal contact "to maintain and, in many cases, rehabilitate relationships with his base." Best said history has shown "turnout is these intraparty races is usually very low and, in all but the rarest cases, the incumbent wins." How much Iowans are paying attention to the Iowa 4th race is another question, with voters consumed with the coronavirus's threat to their health and daily lives. In many cases, residents have lost jobs and revenue as a result of pandemic-related closures. "Amidst a pandemic that is disrupting all of the ordinary rhythms of American life," Best said people will likely not pay attention to the primary until right before the June 2 vote. Jeff King, who chairs his father's campaign committee, said the congressman is itching to return to the campaign trail, but knows that isn't the right thing to do. "We would much rather be out and about meeting with voters, but understand the potential severity of this virus, especially if we were to ignore the presidents and the governors direction. Setting a target date would be irresponsible. We need to take this day-by-day and return to business as usual when the threat is gone," Jeff King said. Feenstra was among candidates this week saying they liked the inroads made prior to the virus upending the 2020 campaign dynamic. "Our campaign had already built a large grassroots and digital infrastructure well in advance of the coronavirus. With hundreds of grassroots supporters and thousands of social media followers, we were able to quickly and effectively transition our voter contact efforts to those platforms, like Facebook and direct voter contact through our team of volunteers throughout the 4th District," Feenstra said. Feenstra said that given his "commanding fundraising lead," the TV ads will continue as scheduled, making him the only candidate reaching voters in that way. "We plan to run a robust media and grassroots campaign in the Sioux City market," Feenstra said. Reeder said, as Iowans emerge in future days from the challenging pandemic, they will want a congressman who furthers "rural revitalization and other matters that grow and support our communities." Reeder said he would be poised as a congressman to help with that as people resume full-time work and former ways of living. Richards cited traveling 70,000 miles in a van to attend 250 events over 14 months, while Taylor said he "spoke to thousands of conservative activists," in what he termed the critical race to land "the maximum number of actual Republican primary voters, which number approximately 45,000 in 39 disparate counties." "People in Iowa have always expected to meet candidates face-to-face. I think the work we put in early is paying off now as we have 320 actively involved volunteers," Richards said. "It is always preferable to campaign in person," Taylor said. Taylor, a former Woodbury County supervisor, is focusing his campaign on his home county, the most populous county in the 4th District. Twenty percent of primary votes potentially could be cast in the county, said Taylor, who insists his phone calls show he is running neck-and-neck with King. Taylor said his campaign is poised to have a slow rise to a win, much like Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum did in late 2011 prior to the January 2012 Iowa caucuses. He said the campaign dynamic is set to change, as the beginning of early voting comes by April 23. Jeff King said the team is "hitting the phones and will be doing online video meetings." "Iowans understand hes the true, consistent conservative who has never let them down. Voters know Steve King and have stuck by him in overwhelming numbers throughout this campaign," Jeff King said. Best also noted no one is likely "looking on with more curiosity than J.D. Scholten, the sole Democratic candidate in the field, who lost to King by only 3 percent in 2018. "The (outcome) of June 2 will determine which of two very different playbooks hell be reading from this fall," Best said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) The Health Department reported Sunday eight new deaths from COVID-19 and 152 new cases of the viral disease. This brings the death toll to 152 and the total number of cases to 3,246. Meanwhile, seven more COVID-19 patients recovered, bringing the total number of those who have survived the disease to 64. The Health Department did not immediately disclose any further information about the patients. This brings the death toll to 152 and the total number of cases to 3,246. Meanwhile, seven more COVID-19 patients recovered, bringing the total number of those who have survived the disease to 64. The Health Department did not immediately disclose any further information about the patients. This story is breaking and will be updated. Officials warn tens of thousands of Palestinian workers returning from Israel for holidays to isolate themselves or risk disaster. Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers in Israel are returning home before the Jewish Passover holiday. But with increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections in Israel, the Palestinian government is warning of a disaster if those workers do not isolate themselves when they arrive. Al Jazeeras Nida Ibrahim has more from the occupied West Bank. Anil S By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 26-year old Manoj (name changed), a Kochi-based IT professional, was paralysed waist-down in an accident last year. He has been undergoing physiotherapy at a major hospital in Tamil Nadu. A couple of days into the lockdown, the hospital was converted into a COVID treatment zone. On the same day, accompanied by his mother, Manoj was being brought back to Kerala. Though it was difficult, they were able to pass through various checkposts and police pickets set up in Tamil Nadu, as they had been issued a travel permit online and an SUV was on standby on the Kerala side of the border since morning, waiting to take them back home. At Tirupur, they were however stopped by a Collector-led delegation. Inter-state travel was an unthinkable option, given his medical condition and the mother-son duo was asked to return. Meanwhile, his father, a top government official, was getting desperate on the other side of the border. That's when the matter came to the attention of a ministerial staff member (of another department), who in turn alerted the Chief Minister's Office. "I was asked to send a detailed mail. Within 12 minutes, the system started moving like a well-oiled machine. A senior official got in touch with his TN counterpart. It was first turned down, citing the emergency medical protocol in place. Soon the CM intervened. A call was made to the Tirupur Collector from the Chief Secretary's office. In no time, on condition that both of them would be in quarantine, they were allowed to cross the border," says the official who alerted the CMO. A call to 0471-2517225, the Kerala war-room, is all it takes to bring various issues to the notice of the state government. In its fight against COVID, Kerala has been ensuring smooth functioning of various services and sorting out grievances through a round-the-clock war room at the Secretariat. It handles around 250 requests everyday, including around 120 calls, WhatsApp messages and requests directly routed to the CMO, cabinet ministers and senior officials. The war-room, which acts more like a mini-government with around 20 staff operating in shifts, including some eight IAS officers on a rotation basis, handles a slew of issues including logistics, transport, problems related to migrant labourers, medicine supply, stranded Keralites, shortage of essential commodities, foreigners' issues and travel woes. A visit to the war-room shows how meticulously planning is being carried out in all aspects. "Mostly inter-state and inter-district issues are routed to the war-room. We used to get around 120 calls from migrants, which has now dropped to around 50. Now these issues are directly dealt with by the state Labour department. There's also a Doctor among the staff. Health-related concerns are mostly directed to the Disha Helpline. A slew of officials from General Administration, Health, Police, Revenue, Labour, MVD, Food & Civil Supplies are on standby 24x7," said a senior official. A large chunk of issues to be resolved are the woes faced by migrant workers. Several bunches of excel-sheets are being churned out, consisting the worker's name and contact number, his actual state of domicile, current location, total number of such workers in a given area, grievances raised (deal mostly with food and ration), the officer contacted and the remedy extended to them - all these are mentioned in detail. At times, depending on the nature of the grievance, it could be transferred to another department or another government agency. In case of issues related to food supply, the workers are linked up with community kitchens. Similarly, shortage of provisions is being addressed through distribution of food kits. Till Saturday, 542 grievances related to 9730 workers which include 4013 from West Bengal, 460 from Assam, 1305 from Jharkhand, 1379 from Orissa, 512 from Bihar, 391 from Uttar Pradesh, 207 from Madhya Pradesh and 1663 from other states were routed through the state war room that is in place to deal with all such exigencies arising during the lockdown period. A number of Whatsapp groups linking officials from across the country are operated where CMOs of various states, especially those in South India, are kept in the loop. The war-room also gets regular calls from stranded people - both Keralites and foreigners. It was a month ago that Vanaja Anand, a US-based writer, came to the state. Following fever, she was taken to the Kollam district hospital where she tested negative for COVID. Yet a month's quarantine was mandatory. Her sole contact in the state - Aji Krishnan of HRDS, an NGO in Attappady - offered to host her. She was sent there with a certificate from the DMO. At Mukkali near Attappady, the ambulance was stopped and was not permitted to move ahead, since Attappady is a sensitive area. After an hour's stand-off, the war-room was alerted. In no time, both the Palakkad Collector and the Ottappalam Sub Collector intervened in the matter. She was then shifted to a KTDC facility. "Updates were sent to all parties concerned on a real-time basis," said an official with the CMO. Hindrance to the movement of essentials at check-posts and issues faced by truck drivers too are being dealt with regularly. The war-room also ensures daily inflow, current stock position, movement at sourcing points and redressal of medicine shortage. "Truckers being stopped at check-posts in various states has been a regular affair. Most drivers have smartphones and they send us their contact details with GPS location, which are then passed on to the nearest official who then swings into action. And we are kept abreast of the progress made with real-time updates," pointed out a senior official coordinating the war-room. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Days before the state recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Marshall Baca Jr., Artesia General Hospitals emergency department director, issued a warning to residents of the small town in southeast New Mexico. Artesia has a population of approximately 13,000 people. As soon as ONE person tests positive for COVID-19, we can estimate that potentially 1,300 members of our community will also be infected in a short amount of time assuming an infective rate of 10% (infective rates vary significantly), Baca wrote in an open letter published in the Artesia Daily Press on March 20. Three days later, a 78-year-old Artesia man died at Bacas hospital from a COVID-19 infection after presenting himself at the hospitals emergency room the night before. Baca, at a news conference, said the man had previously refused to be tested for the coronavirus. How the man acquired the virus in a city at least 40 miles from the nearest big population center and who else he might have unintentionally exposed are questions under investigation by a state Department of Health team that is in a daily race to find the public health answers to this case and hundreds of others. The effort, called contact tracing, serves as an early notice to those who might get sick and need to self-isolate or quarantine. At the same time, the state is relying on contract tracing as a preventative tool to try to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease within New Mexico. We take every single case. We consider all of them important. We, of course, have the unfortunate situation of having a death here and so we do tread lightly with the family understanding that theyre in the grieving process, deputy state epidemiologist Dr. Chad Smelser said in an interview. But we also understand its important for them to get answers and for us to do a rigorous investigation. On Friday, a DOH spokeswoman told the Journal the Artesia man had no known exposure. At this time, we dont know where he got it from and this is still under investigation. DOH contact tracing yielded only a few contacts. Some of those people were tested. Wake-up call The 78-year-olds death was in the words of one Artesia native a wake-up call to a rural New Mexico county that hadnt recorded a positive test result for the virus to that point. Since then, three people have tested positive for the virus in Artesia, one reported at the hospital just days after the man died. Artesia Mayor Raye Miller told the Journal last week that the three people may have been related to the victim. In total, Eddy County, which also includes Carlsbad, had recorded four cases as of Saturday. Even before the death, Miller said, his community was taking the virus seriously. It certainly heightened our awareness, but I think most everyone had already adopted all the measures folks were recommending, he said. Miller described the victim and his family as excellent folks. Theres some speculation that he may have received it from another person and that persons not even in our community, he added. Hunt for a source Smelser said about 60 DOH staff are performing the trace work and more may be added if needed. We generally conduct the investigation by phone and we can get most of it done in the first couple of hours after we get a positive test result, he added. In this case, since unfortunately this is a decedent, we ask their closest contacts. So family members, where was this person? What were they doing and we track down their activities before. The tracing team, led by a DOH epidemiologist, then notifies people who came into contact with the person and urges them to self-quarantine or isolate themselves if they are at risk or have had close contact. People have the right to refuse COVID-19 testing under the New Mexicos Public Health Emergency Response Act, but the Secretary of the state DOH does have the ability to isolate and quarantine someone who refuses testing, said Jodi McGinnis-Porter of the state Human Services Department. To be clear, she stated in an email, the DOH is not all that interested in taking involuntary actions against people. With an increase in testing capacity announced last week, the state permits testing of asymptomatic people who are close contacts or household members of New Mexico residents who have already tested positive for the coronavirus. People who dont show symptoms of the virus, such as fever or shortness of breath, could still have COVID-19 and become carriers who infect others. Dr. Bacas plea on March 20 told Artesia newspaper readers, Please understand that it is your societal and moral responsibility to protect the community and those who are most vulnerable, including infants, the elderly, and those who are immuno-compromised. These individuals could be any one of your family members or friends and have the highest risk of dying from COVID-19. It is estimated that four out of five people who tested positive for COVID-19 contracted the virus from someone who did not know they had it. Even if you do not have any symptoms, you could still be infected, and you can still pass the virus on to others who may be at risk of serious illness or even death. Early cases Among New Mexicos early coronavirus cases, state officials say some contracted the infection while traveling in Egypt or on a trip to New York City. When DOH workers, through their investigations, cannot find a known explanation for the infected persons illness, that becomes more troubling. That usually falls into the category of community spread and which McGuinnes-Porter said is defined as having at least two patients with the virus in one county where the source of the infection is unknown. The goal of contact tracing is containment of the virus, said Dr. Tracie Collins, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Dean of the College of Population Health. Community spread can increase rapidly. So in order to contain, she added, Time is of the essence. To date, community spread had been detected in five of the states 33 counties: Bernalillo, Santa Fe, San Juan, Sandoval and Dona Ana. The majority of the 30-plus cases were in Bernalillo County. A week after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham added San Juan County in northwest New Mexico to the list, top state officials warned that a surge of cases would begin to hit the northwest part of the state soon, very soon. In San Juan and McKinley counties, the total number of reported COVID-19 cases late last month soared from five to 48 in a span of 10 days. Contact tracing may become more challenging as the number of cases spikes. Once we are at a point where we understand this disease a bit more and are flattening the curve (of new virus cases), then we would scale back on the contact tracing, but right now were not anywhere near that so it has a lot of value, Dr. Collins said. Large gatherings troublesome South Korea, which some countries view as a model for slowing virus spread, used contact tracing to learn early on that a church congregation was the primary source of the outbreak in that country, according to the New York Times. In Westport, Connecticut, health officials traced a rash of cases to a birthday party. The Los Angeles Times reported on a Skagit County, Washington, choir group that decided to go ahead with a rehearsal, and three weeks later 45 of the 60 who attended had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and that two had died. McGinnis-Porter said investigators havent linked any New Mexico cases to large gatherings. But they have found multiple health care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19. The investigation into health care workers includes tracking contact with patients and other health care workers to assure patient safety and to exclude exposed health care workers from patient care for 14 days, said McGinnis Porter. For those who test positive, Smelser told the Journal that DOH investigators speak with the infected persons close contacts as well as their health care providers and anybody else, if we unearth or identify anybody else that needs further questioning and investigation. Those who are deemed to have been exposed are contacted, interviewed, home quarantined and monitored for symptoms for 14 days from the last exposure. We do follow-up calls to make sure were not missing anything,Smelser added. He said the vast majority of people (contacted) have been incredibly cooperative in heeding the DOH recommendations. They do understand the gravity. Unanswered questions As for the Artesia mans death, health department officials have said very little. McGinnis-Porter, who is on loan to the DOH as top officials release information about the crisis, said the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (commonly known as HIPAA) prevents us from providing any identifying information on patients. His name hasnt been released. However, in contact tracing, DOH obviously in their investigations will communicate with family members and provide guidance. Dr. Baca declined to be interviewed by the Journal last week. As reported by the Artesia Daily Press, he gave this preliminary timeline on the mans case during a conference call with the news media on March 25. On March 12, the patient is believed to have visited an outpatient clinic in Roswell, where he was seen by a nurse practitioner. Baca said health investigators were looking at that clinic as a possible source of the infection. And one Roswell clinic, while not addressing the death, told the Journal last week that a clinician there tested positive for the coronavirus and remains on home quarantine. Because of federal HIPAA constraints, it wasnt divulged whether the Artesia man had been treated at that clinic or by that medical provider. On March 18, the patient was seen at Memorial Family Practice in Artesia for a cough and respiratory symptoms. Baca said the patient was identified as a possible candidate for screening upon check-in. He was offered testing for flu and strep as well as COVID-19 at that time, particularly due to his age and underlying conditions. The patient refused. Baca stressed that the patient was still instructed to engage in home quarantine, as were family members. Baca said he didnt know whether those recommendations were followed. On March 22, the man arrived at the emergency room of the 49-bed Artesia hospital complaining of weakness. He denied having experienced any fever, cough or shortness of breath in the last 14 days. As a result, staff at registration as well as members of the nursing team who made first contact with the man initially were wearing only the simple masks the hospital has required of all staff since preparations for the pandemic first began. After nursing staff quickly realized the patient was in respiratory distress, Baca said protocols, including the donning of more stringent personal protective equipment (PPE), were initiated to protect staff, and a mask was placed on the patient. On March 23, the man died at the hospital. By March 25, his test for COVID-19 after he was hospitalized came back positive, triggering the DOH contact tracing. Meanwhile, Miller said his community is practicing social distancing and quarantine measures if warranted. Fortunately, most of our folks do well. He said the governors office has been very kind to call and alert us if our county has new cases. But he added, We dread each day to get a call. Journal staff writer Jessica Dyer contributed to this report. Construction continued on the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan, on April 4, as the venue was converted into a temporary alternate care facility for COVID-19 patients in Michigan. Local media reported that the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus had risen to 15,718 in Michigan by April 5, including 617 deaths due to the disease. On April 4 the White House said Metro Detroit could hit its peak in six or seven days. Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District via Storyful Instead, said David James, the president of the Louisville Metro Council, it was a flagrant attempt to con panicked citizens into handing over their money, along with social security numbers and credit card information that could be used for identity theft. It was ridiculous, Mr. James said. He estimated that more than 100 people were deceived before the leaders of the apparently fake testers threw their supplies into the back of a truck and fled north up the highway. Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities are reporting an explosion of such scams as fraudsters move to capitalize on public panic over the fast-moving pandemic and the flood of federal money making its way to most Americans to help address the economic fallout. We are seeing fraud across the board, everything from low-tech to very sophisticated schemes, said G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The pandemic has affected so many people in so many different ways, he said, that it just allows the fraudsters to have their buffet, as it were, to prey upon vulnerable people. Seeking to stay ahead of the curve, the Justice Department has set up a task force to investigate price-gouging and prosecutors have been instructed to prioritize fraud cases. With more than $2 trillion in federal assistance pouring into the economy, the authorities are girding for both lone wolf operations and more complicated schemes akin to those that arose during the 2008 federal program to bail out financial institutions. An infectious disease expert argues coronavirus lockdowns are too strict and unsustainable - while others say Australia's current restrictions don't go far enough. Australian National University Medical School Professor Peter Collignon said the lockdowns were unnecessarily tight. 'Sitting on a park bench in the sun - how is that dangerous if nobody is near you?' he told Daily Mail Australia on Sunday. A 21-year-old man was arrested at Bondi Beach on Sunday for walking on the sand when the beach was closed. Professor Peter Collignon said the lockdown is too strict 'Outside is safer than inside because you're in the fresh air and sunshine.' Sitting on a park bench is not specifically proscribed in NSW however NSW Police Commissioner Michael Fuller said on Thursday people must stay at home unless they have a reasonable excuse for leaving. 'Shopping for food, travel to work or school, medical treatment or exercise are all reasonable excuses,' he said. ANU Professor Peter Collignon Both NSW and Victoria have banned social visits, even for people living alone. Professor Collignon said it was unreasonable to tell people they have to stay in their homes without having any visitors, and can't go outside unless they're exercising. 'This will cause major psychological, economic and social problems,' he said. Lockdown measures that are proportionate include closing the pubs, clubs and restaurants, and limiting groups of people outside to two, he said. 'Three's a crowd is a good idea,' he said. Four tools to control coronavirus now 1) Identifying every case rapidly with extensive testing, and isolating cases 2) Tracking and quarantine of contacts 3) Travel restrictions 4) Social distancing (including lockdown) to reduce physical contact between people * Strict lockdown would last four to six weeks only - not six to 12 months * If a sharp lockdown is not done, Australia may spread the epidemic silently through mild cases * The slow-trickle approach, especially if schools stay open, may cause epidemic growth, health system failure, and a longer road to recovery Source: Paper by Professor Raina MacIntyre and three contributing scientists, UNSW Advertisement Quarantining returned visitors and contacts of known confirmed cases was also needed, he said. 'All those have been very successful in dropping our (infection) rates,' he said. 'We need to continue this to at least September.' But Professor Collignon said the strict lockdowns seen in NSW - where a man was arrested for walking alone on the sand at Bondi on Sunday - may no longer be needed as there had been a continuing reduction in new coronavirus infections each day for the eleven days since March 25. 'It's at low levels because of what we've been doing. Adding extra hardships won't make much difference (to transmission rates) - but it will cause disproportionate economic and social hardships,' he said. Professor Collignon said Australia would need to wait another week or two to be confident that the infection rate curve was continuing to decline as there is a time lag of five to 10 days before the effects of coronavirus interventions can be seen. He said that most people in Australia were following the social distancing rules but if they were too strict then people would not follow them long-term. 'They don't appear sensible and I don't think it's sustainable long-term,' he said. 'What's the endgame of the tight lockdown? If it's no disease in Australia well - we're going to be doing that for two years then.' Coogee Beach was deserted Sunday as all the beaches were closed after people were caught disobeying coronavirus physical distancing rules. Professor Peter Collignon said it is healthier for people to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine Some of the scientific community in Australia and abroad have the opposite opinion. Respected scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) recently published a paper saying Australia's lockdown has not been strict enough. Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of Biosecurity at the University of New South Wales's Kirby Institute, wrote a paper together with three other scientists outlining the benefits of a short, sharp lockdown for Australia. Peter Collignon said on Sunday that he thinks the lack of community spread means the lockdown no longer needs to be so strict In an edited version published on Thursday, the scientists said Australia's gradual approach to locking down the country, adding new restrictions on a rolling basis, was not enough. 'A silent epidemic may be growing, driven by mild or asymptomatic infections of people who did not meet our testing criteria,' the scientists wrote. Travel bans had been the most successful element of Australia's approach, but the gradual increase of social distancing and the failure to shut schools meant it was not enough. 'It will leave us dealing with COVID-19 for much longer, with a slow trickle of new infections that keep feeding the epidemic,' they wrote on the UNSW website. NSW Police patrol Bondi Beach on horseback, enforcing the beach closure on Sunday 'Whats needed is a short, sharp lockdown for two to three incubation periods (four to six weeks), combined with scaled up testing capacity and expanded testing criteria.' 'This strategy, similar to South Koreas approach, would reduce the size of the epidemic substantially, spare the health system and give us a more manageable baseline from which to best protect Australia until a vaccine is available.' The scientists said there was no time to waste as the virus was spreading exponentially, increasing from 25 cases on March 1 to 5688 cases on Sunday. 'While some of these are travel-imported cases, there is likely an as-yet undetected silent epidemic,' they wrote. 'In other words, there could be widespread community transmission of infections which restrictive testing and test kit shortages are preventing us from detecting.' 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 are concerned about the possibility of Australia losing control of the epidemic. We may well exceed health system capacity, increase the number of cases, experience health and economic losses, and a longer time to societal recovery.' The scientists said while the transmission curve had flattened since March 24, it was too early to tell. They also said the measures do not have to last six months to 12 months - but only four to six weeks. 'China has demonstrated the feasibility of a short lockdown followed by phased lifting of restrictions,' they said. A short, sharp lockdown of four to six weeks would enable Australia to control the epidemic quickly and get the numbers to a controllable baseline. After that, the economic recovery can begin with the gradual lifting of restrictions. 'The slow trickle approach, especially if schools remain open, may result in continued epidemic growth, potential failure of the health system, and a far longer road to recovery,' they wrote. The highly infective respiratory virus - which can be spread by those who do not show any symptoms - has killed 65,559 people worldwide as of Sunday since it broke out of Wuhan, China, in January, BNO News reported. There were 1.2 million confirmed cases globally on Sunday of which 249,708 had recovered and 894,622 were still sick with the lingering illness, which can last for weeks and leave survivors with scarring on the lungs. In Wuhan, China, where the spread of the virus was brought under control rapidly, the lockdown was so strict that roads were bulldozed and people were welded into their apartments, and sometimes dragged off to quarantine. Drones ordered people to return home if they ventured out without a facemask. The difference a more liberal approach to lockdowns makes can be seen playing out in real time in the Nordic countries where in Sweden it appears to have encouraged the spread of the virus and raised the mortality rate. Sweden has left bars, restaurants and schools open while its culturally and geographically similar neighbours Denmark, Norway and Finland have been locked down with schools shut and movement severely restricted. As a result, new research by Imperial College London has estimated the virus will spread the most rapidly in Sweden and infect the highest percentage of the population. Genetic epidemiology professor Paul Franks, of Lund University, Sweden, said as of March 28, the reproductive rate of the coronavirus in Sweden - how many people each infected person can pass the virus to - was estimated at 2.45, more than double the 0.97 estimated for Norway. 'Although it is probably too soon to see a clear effect of interventions on mortality rates, by April 1, COVID-19 deaths in Sweden accounted for 24 per million citizens, whereas in Norway it was only eight deaths per million. Finland was lower still with just three per million,' Professor Franks wrote in The Conversation on Saturday. The United States is now the country with the most coronavirus cases worldwide, with 311,178 cases as of Sunday and 8802 deaths, according to BNO News which has tracked the outbreak since early January. The United States Centre for Disease Control has issued an urgent recommendation to all citizens to wear a non-surgical cloth face mask to reduce the spread of the virus, in addition to maintaining a physical distance from others of six feet. The US Surgeon General has made a video (above) showing people how to make their own face mask which can help slow the virus transmission. They're being held in isolation for 14 days after returning home from overseas Others compared the quarantine conditions to 'torture' and begged for 'fresh air' Some returning travellers said conditions are 'worse than refugees or prisoners' On-the-spot $1000 fines will be issued if guests are caught leaving their rooms Four quarantined guests shared beers with each other in the hotel hallway Thousands of Australians are being quarantined under police guard in hotels Australians quarantined in hotels have filmed themselves risking $1000 on-the-spot fines to share beers with each other outside their rooms. Thousands of Australians who have returned from overseas since last Sunday are being quarantined under police guard in hotels around the country in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19. But four guests at a Sydney quarantine hotel breached the rules and left their rooms to exchange beers in the hallway. A Sydney woman filmed herself and three other quarantined guests sitting outside their rooms rolling bottles of beer towards each other. The video, which was posted on Thursday night, had the caption 'ISO trades'. Australians quarantined in hotels have filmed themselves making a mockery of social distancing while sharing beers outside their rooms She then filmed herself puffing on a Juul vape with her door wide open, while a guest staying in a room across the hallway sat smoking a vape in a chair at her door. A man, who appeared to be a hotel worker, then poured the two women a glass of red wine each at the entrance to their rooms. She later captured footage of a soldier from the Australian Army walking down the hallway with a hotel employee. Border force guards are understood to be watching each floor, with those in isolation warned they will be handed $1000 fines if they're caught leaving their hotel room. The government is using some of the country's most luxurious hotels to isolate new arrivals, with about two-thirds of the nation's COVID-19 cases traced to people who had travelled overseas. Australians isolating in the five-star hotels have spent the past week complaining of the conditions of their accommodation, with some claiming it's worse than prison. Those who returned to Sydney were sent to the InterContinental, Hilton, Swissotel and the Novotel on Darling Harbour- all with starting prices of over $200 a night for standard rooms. The Australian government is paying for all the expenses including transport, accommodation and food. Braiden Farrer is one of 400 Australians in forced self-isolation at the Hilton Sydney after he missed the Federal Government's deadline to avoid the mandatory two weeks in hotel quarantine by six hours. Mr Farrer is stuck in what he calls his 'luxurious jail cell' 24-7 for another seven days and says he 'can't even leave to get fresh air'. The only human contact he has each day is when he opens his door to collect meals left outside. Mr Farrer filmed footage of one of his rare daily interactions, where fellow guests wave to each other from their doors and make small talk as they retrieve their meals. 'We can't leave our room. We're stuck in these four walls. I can't even walk out to get fresh air. Police pace the corridors 24/7,' Mr Farrer told Nine News. 'We are not permitted to use any of the available facilities at the hotel, we cannot leave our room, no visitors allowed, and there are food drop-offs three times a day. All communication is via letters that are left at the door.' A woman staying at the InterContinental in Sydney described the quarantine conditions as 'shocking'. 'It very much feels like we are prisoners and the only thing getting me through is hoping that it will get better,' she said. There were 5,550 cases of COVID-19 across the country as of Sunday morning, with the death toll rising to 30 after a woman in her 70s died in Victoria, and the death of a man in his 80s at Canberra Hospital. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said the daily rate of case increases is less than they were a week ago, and reflect measures taken to stop the spread of the virus. But he urged against thinking Australia was through the crisis, insisting we were 'definitely' not. The government is using some of the country's most luxurious hotels to isolate new arrivals, with about two-thirds of the nation's COVID-19 cases traced to people who had travelled overseas It comes as Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government is providing $220 million to upgrade a CSIRO biosecurity research facility in Geelong to assist testing for a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Meanwhile, the NSW government is under fire over its handling of the Ruby Princess cruise liner, which allowed more than 2000 travellers to disembark in Sydney, many of whom are thought to have assisted the spread of COVID-19. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard defended the government's actions, saying the experts who made the decision are the 'best in the world'. In Queensland, five men have been charged for non-essential travel to a remote community in the north of the 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 It comes as some Victorians continue to flout coronavirus restrictions, with police slapping 25 more people with fines. Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned against using dodgy, imported home COVID-19 test kits, saying they pose to a risk to public health. A number of these kits from China and Hong Kong have been intercepted by Australian Border Force officers in the past few weeks. He warned using these kits would undermine the vital, lifesaving work of health professionals. 'Inaccurate results could prevent people from seeking the medical help they need, or alternatively, discourage people who should be self-isolating from doing so,' Mr Dutton said. The number of deaths from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) across the country touched 100 on Sunday as the total infections crossed 4,000 748 of them in Maharashtra with the Central government pegging the doubling rate of the pathogens spread at 4.1 days, a figure it said would have stood at 7.4 in the absence of the Nizamuddin cluster. Maharashtra recorded 13 more deaths the highest 24-hour jump on Sunday, taking the toll to 45, even as the state reported 113 fresh cases of the infection, revealed figures released by the state health department. Sixteen deaths and 514 new infections were reported on the 12th day of a national lockdown that has been put in place to break the chain of infections. Our focus is that we chase the virus, rather than the virus chasing us, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said during a news briefing. The Union health ministry said that 505 new Covid-19 cases and 15 deaths were reported since Saturday and the total Covid-19 cases were 3,577, with the death toll being 83. However, a tally by Covid19india.org that was cross-checked by HT, showed that the number of cases stood at 4,198, with 114 deaths. There is a lag in the Union health ministrys data when compared to that of states. Officials say this is because of procedural delays in state-wise cataloguing of cases. The recent spike in infections has largely been propelled by the detection of hundreds of patients who attended the congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group, in New Delhis Nizamuddin Basti last month in a violation of several restrictions. Cases linked to the meet have been reported across 17 states and Union Territories so far. Of Maharashtras 13 deaths, eight were in Mumbai, taking the citys toll to 30, the highest in the country. Three deaths were in Pune and one each in Kalyan-Dombivli and Aurangabad. Four of them died in Kasturba Hospital, Mumbai; two in KEM, Mumbai; two in separate hospitals in Chembur; two in Sassoon Hospital, Pune; one at a district hospital in Pune, while one died in a government hospital in Aurangabad. Most of them had no travel history and barring four, all others were above 60 years of age. Of the 113 people who tested positive for the infection (Sars-Cov-2) in Maharashtra on Sunday, 81 are from Mumbai, 18 from Pune, six from Navi Mumbai, four from Aurangabad, three from Ahmednagar and one from Osmanabad. A 55-year-old taxi driver, who died in a Chembur hospital, used to ferry passengers from the Mumbai international airport, the state health department report stated. Most of the people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat programe in Nizamuddin on March 18 have been traced and are being either kept in isolation or quarantine, the health department has stated. The local administrations are tracing the people who came in contact with them and are still unidentified. Of the Tablighi attendees, seven have tested positive for coronavirus. Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ahmednagar had two patients each, while one is from Hingoli. Five others found positive are the relatives of these attendees, health department official said. With a sudden spike in cases in Mumbai and the state, the state administration has been asked to be on their toes with stricter monitoring of containment zones. District collectors and municipal commissioners have been directed to concentrate on the zones, treating them as hotspots. The administration believes that the monitoring of the zones will help the government contain the rise in patients. In Mumbai, the administration has identified around 300 such zones, which are being monitored minutely to restrict the spread. According to our estimates, we expect the cases to go up for ten more days in Mumbai and other cities, where infected people have been found in large numbers. We expect the figures to reach a plateau by April 15, and then the number of cases will stabilise. But bringing back the situation to normal will take a week after that. We firmly believe that by concentrating on hotspots, we will be able to contain the spread, said an official from Mantralaya. State health minister Rajesh Tope said 3,078 teams of health workers have so far tracked more than 10 lakh people and they are being monitored for further procedures. Mumbai and Navi Mumbai have 519 and 196 teams, respectively, working to implement the cluster containment action plan. Pune and Nagpur municipal corporations have engaged 439 and 210 such teams respectively. The state government has tested 16,008 samples for coronavirus infections. Of them, 14,837 tested negative. 56 patients have been discharged from various hospitals after their post-isolation tests came negative. 3,122 people are in institutional quarantine, while 46,586 are under home quarantine. The administration has also been directed to concentrate on districts where the cases are zero. There are around ten districts with no cases so far. As they continue to be unaffected, we can ensure that administrative machinery in those districts can be utilised in other areas if need be, an official from the public health department said. The state government has asserted that Maharashtra has not reached the third stage of Covid-19 transmission, the stage in which the infection through social transmission is rapid. It has, however, taken measures to ensure that the machinery is prepared even if social transmission began. Every collector and municipal commissioner in the state has identified/acquired schools, colleges, lodges and marriage halls in their respective areas as measure of preparedness. Doctors from all streams have been given training, while students from National Cadet Crop (NCC) and other social services activities at school and college levels, too, are being trained, said an official from the state government. The videos of training modules are being circulated among health workers and 1.25 lakh more doctors are being trained as preparatory measure, said Rajesh Tope, state health minister. Meanwhile, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray lent a helping hand to people stranded in Delhi by announcing that they can be put up at Maharashtra Sadan. He spoke to one such Mulund resident, Elizabeth Pingle, on Sunday. Pingale, who was in 14-day quarantine, was left stranded as the hotel she was staying in shut for business and she could not find a place to stay. Thackeray spoke to Pingle and assured her with the arrangements for stay at Maharashtra Sadan. More than 15 such people with negative test reports are staying at the Maharashtra Sadan, chief minister office said. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the city recorded 103 coronavirus cases and eight deaths in Mumbai, the highest in a day so far. Of the new cases, 55 are from private laboratories between March 31 and April 1. After reconfirming pending reports, BMC added the figure on Sunday. This takes the total number of Covid-19 cases in the city to 433. Of the citys eight deaths, three cases were recorded between March 31 and April 3, which were pending cross-checking with BMC. A 67-year-old woman from Dombivli died at Kasturba Hospital last evening. She didnt have international travel history. She had diabetes and hypertension. Similarly, another 64-year-old man died at Kasturba Hospital on Saturday. One 62-year-old man died on April 1 at Nair Hospital with respiratory problems and was found Covid-19 positive on April 2. A 52-year-old male died on April 3 at Kasturba Hospital with a known case of hypertension and diabetes. A 70-year-old woman died at KEM hospital Mumbai last night. She was a patient of diabetes and hypertension. Owing to her chronic kidney disease, she was on dialysis. A 77-year-old man died on Saturday morning at Kasturba hospital, who had hypertension and diabetes. An 80-year-old man died on Sunday morning at a private hospital in Chembur. He was a patient of diabetes, hypertension and suffered from epilepsy. Meanwhile, Thane city recorded five new cases on Sunday, taking the citys coronavirus count to 21. Apart from the three, one each in Kalwa, Mumbra and Kajuvadi, out of the remaining two cases, one is a doctor from Naupada, who had examined the Palghar man who died, and another is a resident of Vrundavan society. An official of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is not airborne. If it was an airborne infection, then in a family whoever has a contact they all should come positive because they are living in same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in hospital, other patients would have got exposure (if it was airborne) but that is not the case, said Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR. ICMR has issued an advisory that said spitting in public places could enhance the spread of Covid-19. On the question of rapid antibody tests, Gangakhedkar said test kits should be available by Wednesday. The countrys apex biomedical research organisation on Saturday released an advisory on how and where to use the rapid test, which can determine the immunity of an individual and help people get back into the workforce. The advisory includes people in high-risk areas (containment zones), large migration gatherings and evacuation centres. A task force constituted to review the testing guidelines did not open up rapid testing to the private sector. At the briefing, Agarwal said cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting with district magistrates, superintendents of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries, district health secretaries and chief secretaries to review the situation. District officials shared strategies on how they delineated containment and buffer zone, how they carried out door-to-door survey through special teams and how through telemedicine and call centres people who came from foreign countries were monitored. Covid-19 cases have been reported in 274 districts (till Sunday afternoon) and the cabinet secretary requested all DMs to maintain uniformity in their response and establish a crisis management plan, he said. The government said all states were asked to put in place a district-specific containment strategy in place based on the detailed large outbreak control plan issued by the health ministry on Saturday. Surveillance and contact tracing has been our main focus, and we will continue to put emphasis on that, said Agarwal. (with inputs from Rupsa Chakraborty) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON CCP Virus: US Hospitalizations Way Below Projections News Analysis While tens of thousands are hospitalized across the United States due to COVID-19, the numbers are a fraction of what experts predicted just a few days ago. The main reason appears to be that the projections were already off the day they were released. The model in question was published by the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). It was repeatedly referenced by Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, during President Donald Trumps daily press briefings on the pandemic. On March 30, the models authors released a paper that warned that the country will need about 8,000 to 250,000 extra hospital beds to cope with the pandemic (pdf). Even with social distancing measures enacted and sustained, the peak demand for hospital services due to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely going to exceed capacity substantially, they said. Alongside the implementation and enforcement of social distancing measures, there is an urgent need to develop and implement plans to reduce non-COVID-19 demand for and temporarily increase capacity of health facilities. The CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, broke out in Wuhan, China, around November and was allowed to spread around the world due to the coverup and mismanagement by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In the United States, more than 320,000 have tested positive for the virus and more than 9,000 have died, as of April 5. Way Off The interactive projections model on IHMEs website was last updated on April 1. But the numbers were already off. It said New York would need 41,000 to 58,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients on April 1. But even by April 3, the state had less than 16,000 hospitalized. The model was supposed to be updated later on April 5, a spokesman for the institute, Dean Owen, told The Epoch Times. However, it was not updated by press time. He didnt explain why the predictions were off. Sorry, wish I had more to offer you right now, he said via email. The lead author of the model, health metrics sciences professor Christopher Murray, didnt respond to a request for comment. The model on IHMEs website wasnt updated by press deadline. How Many Are Currently Hospitalized? The model also was off about states other than New York, but exactly how far off is often hard to determine because many states dont make their daily CCP virus hospitalization data easily available. Only 13 states list the day-by-day hospitalization count in a readily accessible form, such as on the virus information web page of their health department. Another 28 states only provide the cumulative hospitalization count, which includes patients who have already been released, and the deceased. For these, the current hospitalization numbers can be estimated by subtracting the number of deceased from the cumulative hospitalization counts, assuming every deceased patient was first hospitalized. That doesnt account for hospitalized patients who have recovered. For the nine remaining states and the District of Columbia, no hospitalization numbers were available by the time of publication. Given that states with available data had a current hospitalization rate around 6 to 20 percent, if each of the no-data states had a rate of 20 percent, the hospitalizations for the whole country would add up to some 47,000 as of April 3 to 4. The IHME model expected about 114,000 to 181,000 hospital beds would be needed nationwide on April 3, and roughly 120,000 to 430,000 on April 16. State by State Among states with available data, the model was only accurate for oneMissouri. It predicted the need for 282 to 431 hospital beds on April 4. Missouri had 413 hospitalized that day. The model was the least accurate for Minnesota, which had 95 hospitalized, as of April 4. Thats about 9 to 12 percent of the projected need of 790 to 1,117. For the other 11 states, the data breaks down as follows: Arkansas had 72 CCP virus patients hospitalized as of April 4. Thats about 13 to 19 percent of the projected need of 378 to 571 hospital beds for that day. California had 2,300 hospitalized as of April 3about 33 to 57 percent of the projected 4,015 to 6,897. Delaware had 95 hospitalized as of April 4about 13 to 28 percent of the projected 334 to 757. Iowa had 85 hospitalized as of April 4about 14 to 18 percent of the projected 480 to 598. Louisiana had 1,726 hospitalized as of April 4about 18 to 56 percent of the projected 3,073 to 9,580. North Carolina had 271 hospitalized as of April 4about 21 to 29 percent of the projected 950 to 1,304. New Mexico had 41 hospitalized as of April 4about 9 to 19 percent of the projected 214 to 444. New York had 15,905 hospitalized as of April 3about 22 to 34 percent of the projected 46,211 to 71,568. Rhode Island had 93 hospitalized as of April 4about 22 to 43 percent of the projected 218 to 423. Vermont had 29 hospitalized as of April 4about 14 to 26 percent of the projected 110 to 202. At least in some other regards, the IHME model appears accurate. For instance, it predicted 1,133 to 1,555 COVID-19 deaths for April 4. There were around 1,350 deaths reported that day. Update: The article has been updated with the name of the IHME spokesman. The Sharpeville massacre, the name given to the murder of 69 unarmed civilians by armed South African police, took place on 21 March 1960. That date now marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and without the Sharpeville massacre, we may not have the international system of human rights that we have today. In 1960, states had no binding international human rights obligations and there were no oversight mechanisms. All that changed following the worlds moral outrage at the killings. Early on that March morning, demonstrations against the pass laws, which restricted the rights of apartheid South Africas majority black population, had begun in Sharpeville, a township in Transvaal. By lunchtime, the crowd outside the police station had grown to an estimated 20,000 people. All the evidence points to the gathering being peaceful and good humoured. Just after 1pm, there was an altercation between the police officer in charge and the leaders of the demonstration. Amid confusion, two shots were fired into the air by somebody in the crowd. In response, a police officer shouted in Afrikaans skiet or nskiet (exactly which is not clear), which translates either as shot or shoot. Another officer interpreted this as an order and opened fire, triggering a lethal fusillade as 168 police constables followed his example. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. The power of an event In my own research, I have looked to complexity theory a theory developed in the natural sciences to make sense of the ways that patterns of behaviour emerge and change to understand the way that international human rights law developed and evolved. One of the insights has been that international law does not change unless there is some trigger for countries to change their behaviour. A child demonstrates in front of Johannesburgs city hall after the Sharpeville massacre (AFP/Getty) (AFP via Getty) Significant reshaping of international law is often the result of momentous occurrences, most notably the two world wars. But change can also be prompted by seemingly minor events in global affairs, such as the Sharpeville massacre the so-called butterfly effect. The world should remember the contingency and fragility of the international human rights law system that we so easily take for granted today The term human rights was first used in the UN Charter in 1945. In 1946, the UN established the Commission on Human Rights, whose first job was to draft a declaration on human rights. The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. But attempts to transform this non-binding moral declaration into a binding legal code were immediately bogged down in Cold War disputes. The logjam was only broken after the Sharpeville massacre, as the UN decided to deal with the problem of apartheid South Africa. Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181107.bin Museum of London / Henry Grant Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181108.bin Museum of London / Henry Grant Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181141.bin Henry Grant Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181118.bin A United Nations photograph by Kay Muldoon Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181111.bin Courtesy of the News Line Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181112.bin Courtesy of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181113.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181114.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181115.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181116.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181119.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181120.bin FORWARD TO FREEDOM Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181121.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181122.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181123.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181124.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181126.bin SATIS (Southern Africa - the Imprisoned Society) Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181128.bin Apartheid before the UN The subject of racial discrimination in South Africa was raised at the UN General Assembly in its first session, in 1946, in the form of a complaint by India concerning the treatment of Indians in the country. But it was not until after Sharpeville that the UN made clear that the countrys system of racial segregation would no longer be tolerated. As part of its response, the General Assembly tasked the UN Commission on Human Rights to prepare the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the first global human rights treaty. It was adopted on 21 December 1965. The argument against apartheid was now framed as a specific manifestation of a wider battle for human rights, and it was the only political system mentioned in the convention: Nazism and antisemitism were not included. The aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre (Universal History Archive/Rex) The adoption of the convention was quickly followed by two international covenants on economic, social and cultural rights and on civil and political rights in 1966, introduced to give effect to the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Gross and systematic violations As well as the introduction of the race convention, Sharpeville also spurred other moves at the UN that changed the way it could act against countries that breached an individuals human rights. At its inaugural session in 1947, the UN Commission on Human Rights had decided that it had no power to take any action in regard to any complaints concerning human rights. For the next two and a half decades, the commission held to this position on the basis that the UN Charter only required states to promote, rather than protect, human rights. The British Anti-Apartheid Movement marks the tenth anniversary of the massacre with a re-enactment in Trafalgar Square (Getty) But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, the UN adopted a more interventionist stance towards the apartheid state. As the number of UN members from Africa increased, the commission reversed its no power to act position and turned its attention to the human rights situation in South Africa. The key developments were the adoption of Resolution 1235 in 1967, which allowed for the examination of complaints of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as exemplified by the policy of apartheid, and Resolution 1503 in 1970, which allowed the UN to examine complaints of a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights. These resolutions established two important principles: that the human rights provisions in the UN Charter created binding obligations for member states, and that the UN could intervene directly in situations involving serious violations of human rights. A family member stands next to a memorial to one of the victims of the Sharpeville massacre ahead of Human Rights Day in 2016 (AFP/Getty) (AFP via Getty) This set the UN on the path towards the recognition of all human rights for all and, eventually, the establishment of the Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review of the human rights performance of all states. On the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, the world should remember the contingency and fragility of the international human rights law system that we so easily take for granted today. Stephen Wheatley is a professor of international law at Lancaster University. This article first appeared on The Conversation As tough as the past month and a half has been for all investors, anyone who's invested in oil and gas stocks has experienced an absolutely brutal ride. The writing was on the wall in early February, when the International Energy Agency said it was expecting to see global oil demand fall in the first quarter. Since then, everything has gotten worse. The coronavirus that was hitting China so hard at the time -- the reason the IEA said global demand would fall -- is ravaging the world. Global commerce and travel has been ground to a halt. Many countries have issued stay-at-home orders, and millions of businesses are closed as a result. It could be many months before the global economy opens back up for business, and global oil demand could fall by as much as Russia and Saudi Arabia's entire daily production over that period. Pouring more oil on the fire After talks to cut output fell apart in early March, Saudi Arabia and Russia both say they plan to move ahead with production increases in April and May. Saudi Arabia plans to increase its oil exports more than 40% in April, and add even more in May. In this environment, I've already cautioned investors to step lightly -- if at all -- in the oil patch. A spate of bankruptcies in the sector is expected, with the first casualty Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL), which filed Chapter 11 after reaching a deal with debt holders. Chesapeake Energy (OTC:CHKA.Q), which recently hired a law firm with restructuring expertise, is not expected to be able to avoid bankruptcy either. Both companies have long track records of massive cash consumption, and have destroyed nearly $20 billion in investor capital over the past half-decade: They're unlikely to prove the only losers, either. Dozens more are in similar financial condition and on the cusp of insolvency. A potential winner There will be survivors, and when we look out a few years, we will realize that today's prices were an incredible buying opportunity for the best companies. Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), looks to be one of the likeliest winners, and so far, it's the only oil stock I have bought during the crash. What sets Phillips 66 apart as worthy of buying in the midst of such uncertainty? It has a powerful combination of balance sheet strength, management that's proven they can navigate downturns, and the right kinds of operations to avoid the worst of the downturn, and find ways to profit. Here's how Phillips 66 is different The worst business to be in right now is oil production. These companies are the most-exposed to the current environment, particularly American shale producers, most of which can't make money with oil below $40 per barrel, and many that can't even keep the lights on below $35. Joining the producers in the lineup of "trouble's a-comin'" oil stocks are the pure-play companies that drill oil wells, supply supply frac sand or steel pipe. As cash flows collapse at the producer level, these companies will see their cash flows get cut off. The spate of spending cuts by producers is already affecting this group. That's why, as a group, these companies have taken it harder than the majors or even the oil producers. Here's how the sectors have done this year, as measured by the SPDR Oil & Gas Equipment & Svcs ETF (NYSEMKT:XES), SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSEMKT:XOP), and Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT:XLE): The biggest and strongest, companies in the oil and gas industry, like ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A)(NYSE:RDS.B), and Phillips 66 have an advantage over their pure-play peers. They have diverse operations that are better able to handle severe shocks to the oil market, and also tend to have much stronger balance sheets and better access to capital. Phillips 66 is different than even its big-oil peers in one important way: It doesn't produce oil. While ExxonMobil and Shell have diverse operations similar in some ways to Phillips 66, they have massive exploration and production segments. In good times they count on those downstream operations to generate massive cash flows; but the downside is when oil prices collapse, their earnings suffer greatly. Why that's a massive advantage Phillips 66 won't have to deal with the burning dumpster fire that is paying $30 to $40 to pump oil you can only sell for $25 in the current environment. Managing these downside risks are far more important than looking to capture potential upside from an oil price recovery. Billions of dollars of wealth will be destroyed in the weeks and months to come because too many investors tried to buy oil stocks based on what they could be worth when oil prices recover, and didn't realize many of those companies won't survive to see the recovery. Built to survive now and thrive later As the oil war and ongoing recession play out, I will identify other oil stocks to buy. But until there's more clarity on Saudi Arabia's plans to drown out the competition, and signs of an economic recovery, I'll avoid the pure-plays tied to oil production and tread lightly everywhere else. We haven't, I don't think, seen the worst of the 2020 oil market. Even Phillips 66 will feel a pinch. Demand for refined products is falling sharply, and even its top-tier refineries will struggle to generate positive cash flows. But a very strong balance sheet with $900 million in cash, almost $6 billion in available low-cost liquidity, along with a profitable petrochemicals business and a midstream sector that's more exposed to natural gas than oil, it's in better shape than even the biggest of the integrated majors. I've already bought shares, and it's at the top of my list to buy more of if the price falls further. But I'm in no hurry to take action anywhere else in the oil patch. This downturn could persist much longer than anticipated, and Phillips 66 should prove one of the best-built to survive if that happens. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Three doctors in Cebu have tested positive for the coronavirus infection, health authorities have confirmed. Jaime Bernadas, director of the Department of Health in the Central Visayas, said two of the doctors have died, while one has recovered. The regional director clarified in a statement Sunday that the doctors did not contract the disease from COVID-19 infected patients. He said there was "no clear evidence" that they got the infection from the hospitals. He, however, did not disclose the names of the three health workers. The two doctors who had succumbed to COVID-19 were senior citizens and already had other prior illnesses, Bernadas disclosed. He said they had previous contact with a family member, who arrived from Manila and had possible exposure to a COVID-19 infected individual. "The couple [was] not anymore actively practicing at the hospitals for COVID patients," Bernadas added. Meanwhile, the other doctor, who recovered from COVID-19, had history of travel to "a place where there [was] already a community transmission" of the viral disease. The regional director said the health worker has already been discharged from the hospital. Cebu now has 29 confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection, including 4 deaths and 8 recoveries. The entire province is currently under enhanced community quarantine. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has reached 3,094, with 144 deaths and 57 recoveries. CNN Philippines' Stringer Dale Israel contributed to this report. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will no longer tolerate rude Instagram comments or any type of comments for the matter. They disabled comments on their Instagram account, @sussexroyal. Not that they will be posting any new stuff for people to comment on in the first place. Disabling the comments section is just an added precaution because even though they will no longer use this Instagram page to update anything about them anymore, they do not plan to erase it either. The account remains for "archive purposes." In a statement released on Tuesday by Meghan and Harry's spokesperson, this move is explained. It is not sudden, nor it is supposed to be surprising. "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer use the name Sussex Royal for their charitable organization, Instagram or website," the spokesperson said. "Following today's post, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer post on Instagram under the @sussexroyal handle and will also no longer update SussexRoyal.com website," he added. How long the accounts will stay up is unclear. The spokesperson said that both Instagram and the website would remain up for the foreseeable future only, but it will be inactive from now on. The two did not just vanish from Instagram that they have been quite active on since it was created. The two posted one final update to their Instagram, which is a graphic containing an expression of gratitude to their fans for the support, inspiration, and shared commitment towards the good in the world. Apart from this text graphic, they added a quite lengthy caption about what they feel in these uncertain times. According to them, the world is seemingly fragile these days, but they are confident that each and every person has the opportunity to make a difference and lift each other up. They also said that what is more important right now is the health and well-being of everyone all over the world and for the many issues that have emerged as a result of the pandemic to be resolved. They signed the post with just Harry and Meghan, which means they are completely embracing their lives without senior roles at the palace. It also remains to be seen if they will be creating new social media accounts fitting for their new lives. Meghan Markle is likely to return to Hollywood soon, and most artists are followed by their fans in their social media accounts. Reports have it that Meghan Markle is beyond determined to get back to her acting career. Despite all the offers at the table, Markle is said to be picky and taking her tie, choosing one. What she wants is to work with A-list directors who can offer her a breakout role. She reportedly finds present offers to be too cheesy. Prince Harry, on the other hand, has made it clear that whatever he and Markle will be working on next, will not be shaming the palace or do anything to increase the bad blood between them and the rest of the royal family. READ MORE: Prince Harry Still Loyal to the Queen, Forbids Meghan Markle To Do Anything Shameful To Grandma! New video footage shows when a Venezuelan naval vessel and German cruise ship collide, which causes the warship to sink because the liner had a hull that was reinforced for crashing through ice. A seaman aboard the patrol boat Naiguata is seen at the beginning of the footage firing an AK-47 at the RGCS Resolute from Germany last Monday The heavily edited footage released by the Venezuelan Navy shows the warship at one point facing the cruise ship head on. New video footage shows when a Venezuelan naval vessel and German cruise ship collide, which causes the warship to sink because the liner had a hull that was reinforced for crashing through ice. A Venezuelan seaman is pictured at the start of the footage The seaman in the footage is on board the Venezuelan patrol boat Naiguata holding an AK-47 as the the RGCS Resolute from Germany is seen in the background The seaman is then seen firing upon the Resolute The heavily edited footage released by the Venezuelan Navy shows the warship at one point facing the cruise ship head on The footage moments later then shows the Resolute hit the Naiguata from the side. The impact causes severe damage to the warship as it begins to take on water. Chaos ensues and people are heard scrambling to get to safety. The liners owner, Colombia Cruise Services, has alleged the Venezuelans were the aggressor in the accident, accusing them of making an ill-fated attempt to illegally seize the liner in international waters. The same footage moments later shows the Resolute impacting the Naiguata from the side The impact seen in the footage causes severe damage to the warship The Resolute appearing undamaged is seen pulling away from the Naiguata All 44 crew members aboard the patrol vessel were rescued after the ship sunk, the cruise line says. Venezuela's defense ministry has argued the cruise ship was to blame, despite widespread reports to the contrary. Venezuela's autocratic leader Nicolas Maduro has already raged about 'piracy and terrorism' after the disputed collision on Monday, Spanish-speaking media says. 'It is as if a 100-kilo boxer grabbed a boy apprentice boxer and beat him,' Maduro said, claiming that the cruise ship had been the aggressor. The Venezuelan military patrol boat Naiguata (pictured) allegedly sank after a disastrous attempt to ram a cruise ship in international waters The crew of the RCGS Resolute (file photo) say they were shot at and rammed by the Venezuelan patrol boat in the Caribbean Sea The Resolute sails under the Portuguese flag but is managed by the German-based company Columbia Cruise Services. The ship's strengthened hull, for ice expeditions, suffered only minor damage in the collision. Some reports have linked the collision to a recent diplomatic row between Venezuela and Portugal. A statement from Columbia said the cruise ship was 'subject to an act of aggression by the Venezuelan navy in international waters'. The cruise ship, which was carrying 32 crew and no passengers, was idling during maintenance on its way to the Dutch-owned island of Curacao, Columbia says. Shortly after midnight, the ship was approached by the Naiguata which allegedly ordered it to sail to a Venezuelan island, Isla de Margarita. Then, 'gun shots were fired and, shortly thereafter, the navy vessel approached the starboard side at speed and purposely collided with the RCGS Resolute', Columbia says. 'The navy vessel continued to ram the starboard bow in an apparent attempt to turn the ship's head towards Venezuelan territorial waters,' it is alleged. The RCGS Resolute, which is equipped with a strengthened hull for ice expeditions, suffered only minor damage in the collision (pictured) 'While the Resolute sustained minor damages, not affecting vessel's seaworthiness, it occurs that the navy vessel suffered severe damages while making contact with the ice-strengthened bulbous bow of the ice-class expedition cruise vessel Resolute and started to take water,' Columbia says. 'Ready to support anytime, the Resolute remained for over one hour in vicinity of the scene and reached out to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre [in] Curacao. 'This is an international body which oversees any maritime emergencies. All attempts to contact those on board the navy ship have been left unanswered. 'Only after receiving the order to resume passage full ahead by the MRCC and that further assistance is not required, the Resolute, currently safely moored in the port of Willemstad, continued sailing towards her destination at Curacao. 'A full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident will now be carried out.' Venezuela's defense ministry disputes this account, alleging that the cruise ship had caused the collision. Officials in Caracas say the crew of the patrol boat were rescued, acknowledging that the Naiguata suffered 'damage of great magnitude' without saying that it sank. Italy and Spain, the two countries hardest hit by the new coronavirus, on Sunday reported encouraging signs in their fight against the deadly pandemic sweeping the globe as the United States braced for a tough week ahead. Italy reported its lowest daily death toll in two weeks, in a possible sign the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II. "This is good news but we should not let our guard down," civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli told reporters. In Spain, officials said the number of fatalities had fallen for the third straight day. Across the Atlantic, US President Donald Trump has warned Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" number of deaths in the coming days, as the number of confirmed cases there surged past 300,000 -- the highest in the world. In New York state alone, the US epicentre, the death toll jumped over the past 24 hours to over 4,100. The rapid march of the virus has claimed over 65,000 lives in just three months and left about half the planet confined to their homes, drastically altering life for billions of people and plunging the global economy into recession. Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday mass behind closed doors. By Alberto PIZZOLI (POOL/AFP) With over 1.2 million people confirmed to be infected, the virus is also putting massive pressure on healthcare services, with both rich and poor nations struggling to find enough staff and equipment. Pope Francis, head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, appealed for people to show courage in the face of the pandemic. The elderly pontiff, who himself has been tested twice for the virus, delivered his Palm Sunday mass by livestream. Saint Peter's Square was deserted of the usual crowds and the basilica was almost empty. And as Christians prepare for Easter -- the holiest event on their religious calendar, churches are closed and masses are being transmitted on television and on social networks. 'Great dose of humanity' Queen Elizabeth II was also set to give a rare address on Sunday aimed at rallying Britain. The government there is warning of tougher measures on social distancing to try to curb surging infections. In Italy, officials reported 525 new deaths over the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 19, although the country's overall death toll remains the highest in the world at 15,887. The easiest way to make your own face mask. By Alain BOMMENEL (AFP) Officials also reported the first decline in the number of non-critical COVID-19 patients receiving hospital care in Italy, which has been under a strict lockdown for almost a month. There were signs of hope too for Spain, which registered 674 deaths on Sunday, its third straight day of declining numbers. The government has nevertheless announced it is extending a near-total lockdown until April 25. At a field hospital in Madrid set up at a conference centre, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged. Builder Eduardo Lopez, 59, gave a "10/10" rating to the staff who cared for him "with tenderness and a great dose of humanity". 'We need you' In the United States, Trump warned Saturday that the country was entering "a time that's going to be very horrendous". "This will probably be the toughest week," he said. "There will be a lot of death." But he insisted that the world's largest economy cannot remain shut down forever, saying: "I've said it from the beginning -- the cure cannot be worse than the problem." Christians in Pakistan stand in circles marked on the ground to maintain social distancing as they celebrate Palm Sunday. By Aamir QURESHI (AFP) New York state, the US epicentre, saw 594 deaths in a single day on Sunday, slightly down from the previous day, but Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was too early to tell whether it was a "blip". "We won't know for the next few days, does it go up, does it go down." Cuomo had warned Saturday that the worst was yet to come and that already strained hospitals were not prepared, while New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. "Anyone who's not already in this fight, we need you," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Trump said 1,000 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, would be deployed to help in the city, which he described as "the hottest of all the hot spots". 'Better to die from virus than starve' Several Western countries including the US have encouraged the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces -- a U-turn that has angered and confused some citizens. Residents light candles and turn on their mobile phone lights to observe a nine-minute vigil in India. By Punit PARANJPE (AFP) The advice came after some studies suggested the new coronavirus can be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing. The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give "a false sense of security," leading people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing. Governments have rolled out massive, unprecedented stimulus programmes to ease the pain caused by the virus lockdowns, but economists have warned that the crisis could worsen poverty levels with millions of jobs lost. Iran, whose economy has suffered the double blow of the virus and punishing US sanctions, said it would allow "low-risk" economic activity to resume as daily infection rates fell for a fifth straight day. Some people in poor countries are chafing against the curfews that are destroying their livelihoods. Shortages of key personnel and equipment needed to fight the coronavirus.. By Alain BOMMENEL (AFP) "How can anyone stay home without anything to eat?" asked Garcia Landu, a motorcycle taxi driver in the bustling Angolan seaside capital of Luanda. It's "better to die of this disease or a gunshot than to starve to death," he said as he ventured out to try to earn a living in defiance of government-ordered restrictions. Elsewhere in Africa, Ethiopia reported its first death as officials ramped up testing to get a clearer picture of the outbreak there. The latest high profile figure to succumb to the disease was Mahmud Jibril, the former head of the Libyan government that overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. In Britain, the government warned it may ban outside exercise if people flout stringent guidelines aimed at curbing virus transmission. Warmer weather has stoked fears people could congregate in parks and open spaces. One of those rapped over the knuckles was Scotland's chief medical officer, who was forced to apologise for ignoring her own advice about non-essential travel. burs-txw/jj What happened The largest U.S. mall owner, Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG), saw its stock price fall an astonishing 55% in March, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Malls were already suffering as shopping behaviors shifted away from malls in recent years, but when the coronavirus hit, malls experienced a new low. On March 18, Simon Property Group announced the closure of all properties. Reopening dates have not yet been set as the health crisis deepens across the country. On March 31, Simon announced the furlough of 30% of its workforce and the permanent layoff of other employees. Salaries of upper-level managers are cut by up to 30% during the pandemic, and CEO David Simon will not receive a salary. So what Landlords everywhere are concerned about rents in April. Mall owners, with many tenants possibly already on the financial edge, wonder how they will ever recover. National restaurant chain Cheesecake Factory, with locations in 29 Simon Property malls, informed landlords it would not be paying rent in April. Other mall tenants are watching developments closely to determine whether rent deferrals or restructured agreements are possible with Simon or other individual mall owners. Simon Property Group has long been exploring other uses for its real estate that's more in tune with what consumers want, such as high-end health clubs and work-sharing spaces. If some of the retail and restaurant tenants don't survive, the company may have the opportunity to implement these ideas sooner than expected. Now what The company was on firm financial ground before the crisis, but market capitalization has dropped $31 billion since the beginning of 2020. On March 16, Simon Property Group said it secured additional liquidity by amending and extending its $6 billion revolving credit facility and term loan. Insider stock purchases in March showed strong belief in the future of Simon Property Group. CEO David Simon bought $9.1 million in company stock, and Simon Property Group co-founder Herb Simon, the owner of the Indiana Pacers, bought $9.9 million. Six directors bought shares as well. Altogether, insiders purchased 372,358 shares for $20.8 million. It's tempting to jump on board and invest along with the insiders, but I think investors should wait until a bottom is truly in before committing hard-earned money to this stock. There's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding recovery after the health crisis. Keeping Simon on a watch list is the prudent thing to do at this point. Published on 2020/04/05 | Source Hyundai's premium brand Genesis launched its new G80 luxury sedan on Monday. Advertisement Completely revamped for the first time in seven years, the new sedan is equipped with cutting-edge features that enhance convenience and safety in driving. The G80's chassis is 35 mm wider and 15 mm lower than its predecessor. The car boasts a dynamic look with the brand's signature pentagonal grille and quad lamps. Its interior and exterior earned rave reviews when it was unveiled in the U.S. earlier this month. It comes with price tags ranging between W52.47 million and W59.07 million (US$1=W1,225). Covid-19 isn't just closing businesses and canceling events, for a boy in Fanning Springs it canceled his birthday. We'll show you how a simple call-out on social media by his mother turned into quite the parade, all for Gabriel. TV20's Landon Harrar reported, "this road is normally pretty quiet, but a mothers request to have just a few local trucks drive past her house to help make 10-year-old boys canceled birthday special blossomed into what I'd say was easily more than 250 vehicles in a parade bringing this road to a life it's never seen before." Gabriel's tenth birthday is a special one because when he was born, doctors didn't give him long to live. His grandmother Paula McDonald explained, "he just turned 10, he wasn't supposed to be a year old. He has a 6th chromosome deletion which stops his growth so he's a little guy and we're just excited he made it to 10 years." Because Gabriel is immunocompromised his mother came up with an idea to indulge his love of trucks, and once it hit facebook it quickly went viral. John Desilet has been a truck driver for 3 years and explains how he found out about the parade. "I saw the post on Facebook, I got shared in it and tagged in it and it inspired me. I shared it and figured if I could get 4 or 5 trucks to drive by this little boy's house it would be something he'd remember for the rest of his life." McDonald added, "We expected about maybe 15 or 20 trucks and it ended up being over 200. It was overwhelming, it was amazing we love our town and how the community came together for this little boy." People came from all over to get the chance to give Gabriel a little honk, a wave, and even a few burnouts. Desilet said, "I haul cows, and I unloaded cows in North Texas on Thursday afternoon and made it back in time for this." Russ Sweem who has been a truck driver for 38 years says this is the first time he's ever been a part of something like this. "This little boy needs it, it makes his day and it makes mine." So many vehicles of almost every variety showed up they actually started the parade early because, at the gathering area, there was no more room to park. McDonald said, "I just wish I could personally get to each and every single one of them and thank them for what they did today it was amazing." And even though Gabriel was a little overwhelmed by the noise of the parade, that didn't stop him waving back to every vehicle in the line which took nearly an hour to reach the end. Italy reported the lowest single-day coronavirus deaths in two and a half weeks, even as the northern Lombardy region around Milan announced tougher containment measures for the weeks ahead. Fatalities fell on Sunday to 525, the lowest since March 19, bringing the total since the beginning of the outbreak in Italy to 15,887. New confirmed cases totalled 4,316, compared with 4,805 the day before. Italy now has 128,948 cases, slightly fewer than Spain. Spain on Sunday saw a third straight decline in new deaths from the virus, raising hopes the worst of its outbreak may be over. U.K. virus death figures also showed a decline, even as the government warned it may consider tighter measures. Hard-hit Lombardy over the weekend moved to require that citizens leaving their homes shield their mouths and noses with masks or other coverings and insisted residents remain inside for all but essential activities, after seeing a spike in people venturing outside in defiance of the quarantine. The Tuscany region followed suit with similar rules. Police have fined over 175,000 people since March 11 for violations of the lockdown, according to the Interior Ministry. As the country prepares for a fifth week of lockdown measures, opposition leader Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League called on the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to open churches for the coming Easter holiday. Measures to keep the country shut down have been extended through at least April 13, and Conte is expected to announce revised rules and time lines by the end of next week, daily Il Messaggero reported. Conte said on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday that he cant yet say when Italys lockdown will end. Some industries may restart operations in mid-April while people will be told to stay indoors at least until May 4, Italian media outlets have reported. Contes government is expected to meet by Monday as Italy finalizes new measures to provide liquidity to companies hit by the outbreak, Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Saturday on Rai state television. The government will guarantee loans up to 800,000 euros at 100 per cent, and boost guarantees to 90 per cent on another 200 billion euros ($307.8 billion), while companies will be able to seek bank loans up to 25 per cent of their revenue, Gualtieri said. Another package later this month will include emergency income for people trapped in the so-called underground economy. Ghana has confirmed nine (9) more COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases to 214. According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), six (6) from Greater Accra and three (3) from the Ashanti region. Six cases in Greater Accra Among the cases from Greater Accra, one is a 37-year-old woman with no history of travel nor contact with a confirmed case. One is a repeat test of a traveller under quarantine who was initially negative but converted to positive on a repeat test. Four are contacts of confirmed cases with no symptoms and were detected during the enhanced contact tracing and testing. Ashanti Region Of the three (3) cases from Ashanti region, two (2) are Ghanaians who travelled to Ghana from France within the past 14 days and the third one is a Ghanaian who has no history of travel out of the country nor contact with any confirmed case. As at 4th April 2020, Ghana has recorded a total of 214 cases of COVID-19 with five (5) deaths. Currently, the number of regions reporting cases are as follows: Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Upper West Eastern and Upper East Region. The Greater Accra Region has most cases (189) followed by the Ashanti Region (12), Northern Region (10), Upper West Region (1), Eastern Region (1) and Upper East Region (1). Most of the cases are reported from routine / enhanced surveillance activities. Cases from travellers under mandatory quarantine are 90. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana/Ghana Health Service 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. Featured Video By Daniel Trotta and Alexandra Alper (Reuters) - The United States is entering what a senior official warned on Sunday would be the "hardest" week of the coronavirus crisis as the death toll mounted, but some saw glimmers of hope from a slight slowing of fatalities in hard-hit New York. New York, the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, reported on Sunday that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before. But there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases in the state. Louisiana has become a hot spot for the virus, reporting a jump in deaths to nearly 500 and more than 13,000 cases. The governor predicted the state would run out of ventilators by Thursday. Places such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C., are also starting to see rising deaths. "This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on Fox News on Sunday. "It's going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that new hospitalizations had fallen by 50% over the previous 24 hours. He cautioned that it was not yet clear whether the crisis was reaching a plateau in the state, which has a total of 4,159 deaths and more than 122,000 cases, by far the most of any U.S. state. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T) Nationally, cases the respiratory disease topped 336,000, while the death toll stood at 9,573, according to a Reuters tally. Cuomo said that once the peak of the epidemic passed, a mass rollout of rapid testing would be critical to help the nation "return to normalcy." President Donald Trump said the country faced a "great hour of grief," but expressed hope that deaths could be leveling off in New York. Story continues "We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening," he told reporters. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of Trump's coronavirus task force, said it took weeks for efforts like social distancing and stay-at-home orders to slow the virus' spread. "What you're hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, are going to look really bad," Fauci told reporters. STAY-AT-HOME HOLDOUTS Most states have ordered residents to stay home except for essential trips to slow the spread of the virus in the United States But eight states, all of them with Republican governors, have yet to order residents to stay home: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Georgia, which has recorded 6,600 cases and more than 200 deaths, ordered residents to stay home but then allowed some beaches to reopen. Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson defended his refusal to order statewide restrictions, saying the situation was being watched closely and that his more "targeted approach" was still slowing the spread of the virus. Adams, the surgeon general, said governors who had not issued month-long stay-at-home orders should at least consider one for the upcoming week. White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed. A few churches held large gatherings on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week in Christian churches. Pastor Tony Spell, who was arrested last week for holding services, summoned his faithful again, three weeks after Louisiana banned gatherings of 10 people or more. Oregon, which has reported around 1,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, said it was sending New York 140 ventilators, machines that help people breathe after the virus attacks their lungs. Washington is returning over 400 of the machines to the Strategic National Stockpile for hard-hit states like New York. New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said the city had enough ventilators to get through Tuesday or Wednesday, and he was seeking between 1,000 and 1,500 more from federal and state stockpiles, which he estimated had 10,000 and 2,800, respectively. (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Amanda Becker, Alexandra Alper, Matt Spetalnick, Jan Wolfe and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta in New York, and Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England; Writing by Lisa Shumaker and Andrew Hay; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney) New Delhi, April 5 : Promoter of Avenue Supermarts, Radhakishan Damani has contributed Rs 100 crore to the PM-CARES Fund for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. He also contributed Rs 55 crore to several state relief funds. Damani has made the contribution through his group company Bright Star Investments. "We are fully supportive of the swift actions taken by the central, state and local government bodies of India to protect the general public. Each of us also needs to do our best to protect our communities and fellow countrymen," a statement by Avenue Supermarts said. "In this regard, our promoter, Radhakishan Damani through his group company Bright Star Investments Private Limited, has contributed Rs 100 crore towards the PM CARES Fund and a further Rs 55 crore to various state relief funds," it said. Donations to states include, Rs 10 crore each to Maharashtra and Gujarat, Rs 5 crore each to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Punjab and Rs 2.5 crore each to Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Damani's Avenue Supermarts Ltd owns and operates the one-stop supermarket chain DMart. Damani is also known for his investments in the Indian equity market. President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his decision to fire the top watchdog of the U.S. Intelligence Community, saying Michael Atkinson did 'a terrible job' in handling the whistleblower complaint that triggered an impeachment probe of Trump last year. 'He took a fake report, and he brought it to Congress,' Trump said during a briefing on the novel coronavirus pandemic. Late on Friday, the White House told Atkinson, the Intelligence Community's inspector general, that he would be terminated from his position in 30 days. He was a key figure in the run-up to impeachment, having found credible a complaint from a still-unnamed whistleblower within the administration that Trump abused his office in attempting to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 U.S. election for his political benefit. The president complained that after receiving the complaint, Atkinson did not come and speak to him about it at the White House. 'He's a total disgrace,' Trump said. Michael Atkinson handled the whistleblower complaint that triggered an impeachment probe of Trump last year Trump inveighed against the whistleblower as well, calling him 'fake' and politically biased. 'Frankly, somebody ought to sue his ass off,' he said. Atkinson's firing prompted concerns among some Congressional Republicans and criticism from Democrats. U.S. Senator Richard Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised Atkinson, while noting Trump has the authority to fire him. 'Like any political appointee, the inspector general serves at the behest of the Executive,' Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, said in a statement on Saturday. 'However, in order to be effective, the IG must be allowed to conduct his or her work independent of internal or external pressure.' U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, demanded a better explanation for Atkinson's firing. 'Congress has been crystal clear that written reasons must be given when IGs are removed for a lack of confidence,' he said. 'More details are needed from the administration.' Trump is trying to scare the watchdog community, Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee told MSNBC Saturday morning. 'He's decapitating the leadership of the intelligence community in the middle of a national crisis,' he said. 'Its unconscionable, and of course it sends a message throughout the federal government and particular to other inspectors general.' Republican House Representative Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump supporter, mocked Schiff's concern about Atkinson's firing. 'He was Schiff's key impeachment enabler,' Jordan wrote on Twitter. Atkinson's firing comes as U.S. inspectors general, who are charged with independent oversight of federal agencies, were recently tasked with broad surveillance of the government's response to the coronavirus, including the historic $2.3 trillion fiscal package to mitigate its economic impact. President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House Democrats have expressed concerns about how the fiscal package will be doled out through the U.S. Treasury, headed by Steven Mnuchin. Michael Horowitz, chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an independent agency in the executive branch and the inspector general at the Department of Justice, defended Atkinson and vowed on Saturday to continue to conduct 'aggressive' independent oversight of government programs. 'This includes CIGIE's Pandemic Response Accountability Committee and its efforts on behalf of American taxpayers, families, businesses, patients, and health care providers to ensure that over $2 trillion dollars in emergency federal spending is being used consistently with the law's mandate,' Horowitz said in a statement. In bringing the whistleblower complaint to Congress, Atkinson expressed concerns that Trump potentially exposed himself to 'serious national security and counter-intelligence risks' when he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a July 25 phone call to investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, according to a Justice Department legal opinion. After contentious, partisan hearings, the Democratic-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him of the charges in early February. Indian doctors have warned that the country must prepare to face an 'onslaught' of cases that could cripple the health system after it suffered its first death. A 56-year-old man died due to Covid-19-related illness in Dharavi slum, in Mumbai on Wednesday. The Dharavi slum is home to roughly one million people and its population density is 60 times greater than London - about 280,000 people per square kilometre. A 56-year-old man died due to Covid-19-related illness in Dharavi slum, in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pictured are repatriated Indian citizens after leaving quarantine at a hospital in Bangalore Indian doctors have warned that the country must prepare to face an 'onslaught' of cases that could cripple the health system after it suffered its first death. Pictured are citizens of Rohini village in India In Thailand, newborn babies are being protected with miniature face visors while they are in hospital Dr. Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director of the Medanta-the Medicity hospital in Gurugram, near New Delhi, told CNN: 'Once we know that one slum has got it, and we lock it down, and we feed everybody and we keep them isolated for the next two weeks, we keep them well fed, it will work its way out. 'We will know the critical ones, and the ones who are mild, they can be quarantined at home, and the population at large can be monitored.' Coronavirus cases in India nearly doubled in just four days, and its current total is 2,547. Some 62 people have died from the disease. Doctors say they hope the lockdown will delay the peak of infections so hospitals have a fighting chance to treat incoming caseloads. Coronavirus cases in India nearly doubled in just four days, and its current total is 2,547. Some 62 people have died from the disease Dr Om Shrivastav, director of Infectious Diseases at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai, said his worst fear is that India only starts preparing for the crisis 'after it's on our hands.' India has been under lockdown for four weeks now and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for citizens to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to 'challenge the darkness' of the coronavirus. In Russia, a doctor has been arrested after challenging coronavirus figures being released by the state. Anastasia Vasilieva, head of the Alliance of Doctors - an independent doctors' union, is an outspoken critic of the Kremlin. India has been under lockdown for four weeks now and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for citizens to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to 'challenge the darkness' of the coronavirus. Pictured is a worker on a train carriage that has been converted into an isolation ward She dismissed their official number of coronavirus deaths and infections as lies. The Kremlin claim that 45 people have died from coronavirus in Russia, while 5,389 are infected. Before her arrest, Dr Vasilieva said she had been called in for questioning over her comments, declaring that 'You can send whomever you want to get me the Federal Security Service, the fire service but the truth will not change.' The real number of coronavirus cases, she said, 'is much higher than the authorities say.' She provided no evidence of any cover-up. Her detention also increased skepticism about the readiness of Russia's health care system to cope with the pandemic. In Russia, a doctor has been arrested after challenging coronavirus figures being released by the state. Pictured are medical workers in Moscow The virus has also slowed Russia's economy, posing another problem for the Kremlin less than a month after it pushed through constitutional changes to allow Mr. Putin to dispense with term limits and stay in power until 2036. The Kremlin said that Vladamir Putin has been tested regularly and that 'everything is OK.' On Friday, Russia suspended the last remaining flights into the country, halting even special flights bringing Russians home from abroad, the Interfax news agency reported. All land borders have already been closed. Moscow, St Petersburg and many Russian regions this week ordered residents not to leave their homes except to buy food and medicine or walk their dogs. The Kremlin claim that 45 people have died from coronavirus in Russia, while 5,389 are infected. Pictured are workers at the construction site of a new coronavirus hospital in Moscow Dr Vasilieva appeared in court on Friday charged with disobeying police orders and violating quarantine restrictions but was released later that day after paying a small fine. The Prime Minister of Denmark has announced that the country will slowly begin to lift its lockdown measures. Mette Frederiksen shut the country down three weeks ago. He said: 'When we open our society again, we have to do it gradually and we have to make it staggered.' More than 4,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Denmark. Some 161 have died, 1,283 recovered and 507 are in hospital, including 142 in intensive care. On Friday, Russia suspended the last remaining flights into the country, halting even special flights bringing Russians home from abroad. Pictured is a food delivery driver on a swing in Moscow during lockdown In Thailand, newborn babies are being protected with miniature face visors while they are in hospital. More than 1.2million cases, including 65,272 deaths, have been reported in 190 countries and territories around the world since the virus first emerged in China in December, according to an AFP tally. Italy has the highest official death toll with 15,362 fatalities. Spain follows with 12,418, the United States is on 8,503, France 7,560 and Britain 4,313. Spain saw its third consecutive daily decline in deaths from the virus, recording another 674 fatalities on Sunday. A day earlier, Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care cases drop for the first time - from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994. At the newborn nursery of the hospital in Samutprakarn province, central Thailand, babies are being provided with tiny face shields New York state, epicentre of the US outbreak, reports 630 new deaths in one day, its largest 24-hour spike. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio issues an emergency plea for volunteers, estimating the city will need 45,000 more medical personnel to fight the pandemic through April and May. President Donald Trump warns Americans to brace for a 'very horrendous' number of coronavirus deaths in coming days. The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates says it has doubled to $70billion a stimulus package to support the Gulf state's economy. More than 300 Europeans on Saturday leave Bolivia for France on a charter flight. Some 170 people, mostly French but including Swiss, Belgians, Germans and Britons, leave Moscow on Saturday on a repatriation flight organised by the French embassy. Bolivia on Saturday repatriates 480 nationals who had been blocked at the Chilean border. And 740 Algerians stuck in Turkey after their flights were cancelled are repatriated on Saturday. Algeria has announced it will extend its night-time curfew - until now in place only in the capital and 13 of its 48 provinces - across the whole country. No matter which part of the world it is or what section of the society you belong to, getting to know that someone in the neighbourhood has tested positive for COVID-19 is going to trigger some panic - be it in a posh residential colony or a slum. ' But the panic over COVID-19 took a nasty turn in West Bengal, on Saturday, after violence broke out over setting up of a coronavirus quarantine camp in West Bengal's Birbhum district, leaving one man dead. BCCL The incident occurred in Talibpur village after a clash broke out between two groups of villagers. The administration decided to set up a quarantine centre for suspected COVID-19 cases at a school in the village; that did not go down well with a section of villagers, while others were in favour of it. An altercation on the issue between members of the two groups led to a clash and a middle-aged was killed. Just a few days ago, there was an incident in Bihars Sitamarhi district where a youth was beaten for informing authorities about two villagers who had returned from Mumbai who were not following home isolation. A village youth, Bablu Kumar Mahto, informed the local medical authorities that they could be infected following which they were taken for the test. This, however, did not go down well with the duo who later attacked and killed the youth. BCCL Bihar has been particularly affected by the mass reverse migration which was triggered by the 21-day nationwide lockdown announced by PM Narendra Modi. Despite the government asking them to remain in home isolation for two weeks, the authorities have failed to implement it and many have not even reported their return to the local health authorities. There have also been incidents where government officials and health workers who had gone to villages to collect the data, came under attack. REUTERS Such incidents have been reported from across several parts of the country. The most infamous being the stone-pelting on health workers at Indore, Madhya Pradesh. A five-member team from the health department had gone to Taatpatti Bakhal on Wednesday, to quarantine relatives and acquaintances of a COVID-19 patient, when an unruly mob attacked them with stones, injuring two female doctors. Taking note of the attack, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, warned that anti-social elements involved will not be spared at any cost. The police have arrested seven men, between the ages of 21 to 50 years, three of whom have a criminal record. - The Kenya National Union of Teachers has rejected the postponement of national examinations - The union's secretary general urged the government to consider alternative places as isolation centres - Wilson Sossion said using boarding school facilities in treating victims of COVID-19 will lead to post-corona stigma - He argued that it will affect the management of schools The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has rejected a proposal by the Government to use boarding secondary schools as isolation centres in the fight against coronavirus. The union's Secretary-General Wilson Sossion also opposed the postponement of national examinations while urging the government to consider alternative places. READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Museveni confirms only 45 out of 1785 samples are positive in Uganda The union's Secretary-General Wilson Sossion also opposed the postponement of national examinations. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kisumu: 19-year-old man arrested for raiding police post, stealing KSh 230k In a statement released on Thursday, April 2, Sossion said teachers and other government workers should be exempted from paying rent for three months to cushion them from COVID-19 effects. We plead with the government to drop the option of using boarding school facilities in treating victims of COVID-19 due to post-corona stigma that will affect the management of schools, said Sossion. The statement came a day after Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) proposed that poor Kenyans be given food rations and cash transfers to cushion them too. READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Kind Nairobi landlady waives rent for her 65 tenants KUPPET Secretary-General Akello Misori argued that school closures and limitation of individual freedoms have created pressure on poor families. The central government had instructed the Ministry of Education, working with county governments to identify 20 boarding schools per county. According to the government, the learning institutions would host coronavirus cases in heightened preparations for the worst-case scenarios. READ ALSO: University of Nairobi scientists seek grants to join search for COVID-19 vaccine, cure Misori said open spaces in schools may be used, but not dormitories and boarding facilities. The Government should not entertain such a proposal but work towards an early resumption of normalcy to business in all learning institutions, said Sossion. 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 In a major breakthrough, a joint study led by researchers from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) in Melbourne, Australia and Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), has shown that an anti-parasitic drug which is already availablein the market can be used to kill within 48 hours. Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute's Dr. Kylie Wagstaff, who led the study, told Medican Express that the drug, Ivermectin, was capable of stopping the COVID-19 coronavirus growing in cell culture within 48 hours. "We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it," Dr. Wagstaff said. It is to be noted that Ivermectin is an FDA-approved drug that is also effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses including HIV, Dengue, Influenza and Zika virus. Dr. Wagstaff, however, stressed that the tests conducted in the study were in vitro and trials should be done on people too. "Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effectivethat's the next step," Dr. Wagstaff said. "In times when we're having a global pandemic and there isn't an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner. Realistically it's going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available," added Dr Wagstaff. Dr Wagstaff also said that the mechanism by which Ivermectin works on the virus is still unknown but it seems that the action of this drug is based on its action in other viruses, that it works to stop the virus 'dampening down' the ability of the host cell clear it, Dr. Wagstaff said. Royal Melbourne Hospital's Dr. Leon Caly, a Senior Medical Scientist at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) at the Doherty Institute where the experiments with live coronavirus were conducted, is the first author of the study. "As the virologist who was part of the team who were first to isolate and share SARS-COV2 outside of China in January 2020, I am excited about the prospect of Ivermectin being used as a potential drug against COVID-19," Dr. Caly said. The findings of the study were published in Antiviral Research. Taking the evolutionary plunge into water and abandoning land for good, as some crocodilian ancestors did nearly 200 million years ago, is often framed as choosing freedom: from gravity, from territorial boundaries, from dietary constraints. Water might inflict more pressure in the pounds-per-square-inch sense, the thinking went, but it also probably relieved some -- especially the sort that kept crocs from going up a size or 10. If they wanted to enjoy the considerable spoils of considerable size, water seemed the easy way. A recent study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Will Gearty, who compiled a database of 264 species stretching back to the Triassic Period, says that freedom was actually compulsion in disguise. After analyzing the database of crocodyliforms -- a lineage of crocodile-like species that share a common ancestor -- Gearty found that the average weights of aquatic crocodyliforms did easily surpass their semi-aquatic and landlocked counterparts, sometimes by a factor of 100. But the study suggests that this disparity represented a response to, not a release from, the pressures of natural selection. Rather than expanding the range of crocodyliform body sizes, as some longstanding theories would predict, taking to the water instead seemed to compress that range by raising the minimum size threshold needed to survive its depths. The maximum size of those aquatic species, by contrast, barely budged over time. And when Gearty derived a set of equations to estimate the largest feasible body sizes under aquatic, semi-aquatic and terrestrial conditions? advertisement "All three habitats had roughly the same upper limit (on size)," he said. "So even though it seems like you're released from this pressure, you're actually squeezed into an even smaller box than before." Two major factors -- lung capacity and body heat -- seem to have helped initiate the squeeze play. Prior research had proposed that aquatic crocodyliforms got big in part because they needed to dive deeply for food, including the choice prey that would sustain a larger size. Upon digging into the literature, though, Gearty learned that lung volume increases more or less in lockstep with body size. "So you actually don't have much excess lung volume to spare," said Gearty, a postdoctoral researcher in biological sciences. "When you get bigger, (lung capacity) is just basically scaling up with your body size to accommodate that extra size. The amount of time you could stay underwater increases a little bit, but not that much." At larger sizes, the evolutionary tradeoff between the benefits of longer, deeper dives and the energy demands of finding more food probably also reached a stalemate, he said, that helped cement the aquatic ceiling on size. As for the higher floor? That's where the thermal conductivity of water cranked up the evolutionary heat, Gearty said. Unfortunately for the aquatic crocs, water steals heat far faster than air does. The issue was likely compounded by the fact that temperatures in the waters they occupied were lower than the air temperatures enjoyed by their land-dwelling counterparts. advertisement That would have left smaller aquatic crocodyliforms with only bad options: limit the duration and depth of their dives so that they could regularly return to the surface and warm themselves in the sun, or risk freezing to death during deeper hunts for food. Whether by starvation or hypothermia, either would eventually spell doom. "The easiest way to counteract that is to get bigger," Gearty said. Getting bigger was especially appealing because the volume of body tissue, which generates heat, increases faster than the surface area of the skin that surrenders it. But the unforgiving consequences of heat loss still limited the pool of ancestors from which aquatic crocodyliforms could evolve. "They actually needed to start at a larger size," Gearty said. "So it's not like a marine crocodile could have just evolved from anywhere. It had to be evolving from some non-marine crocodile that was already a little larger than normal." The fossil records of the crocodyliforms allowed Gearty and Jonathan Payne, his former doctoral adviser at Stanford University, to pinpoint the minimum weight threshold for aquatic survival: 10 kilograms, or about 22 pounds. And when they plotted the relationships of heat loss and lung capacity to body mass, they discovered that the two slopes crossed at almost exactly the same value: 10 kilograms. "We were able to explain, with these physiological equations, exactly why there were no marine crocodiles below a certain size," Gearty said. "This indicates that these very fundamental physiological constraints and controls ... actually may be some of the strongest forces for pushing animals to different body sizes through time. Not whether there's an asteroid hitting the world, not whether you're being (hunted) by some other animal -- that just these physical and chemical properties of the world we live in are what drive this. And if you want to enter a new habitat, you need to conform to that new set of properties." The findings mostly reinforce a 2018 Gearty-led study that found similar trends among nearly 7,000 living and extinct mammal species. An elementary difference between mammals and reptiles, though, initially left the verdict in doubt. "The whole (premise) of the marine mammal project was that these things are warm-blooded, and they have to keep their temperature up," Gearty said. "They have to really worry about this heat loss. So the idea was, 'Well, would the same constraint occur in cold-blooded organisms that are also living in the ocean?' "There have been a couple papers suggesting that some of these marine crocodiles may have been somewhat warm-blooded, and so they may have been able to kind of reheat their own bodies. But even if that's the case, they were still going to be losing heat like these marine mammals would. They were still constrained by these thermoregulatory controls." GREYHOUNDS AND DOLPHINS With the help of an undergraduate student at Stanford and funding from the National Science Foundation, Gearty spent most of the summer of 2017 tracking down the fossil records that informed the new study. "But that was to find the stuff that's readily available online," he said. "Then you've got, you know, undocumented books that you need to find, and they have to get shipped from Europe or somewhere. So there were a lot of these one-offs. I was still measuring specimen photos and getting records up until I submitted the paper in the middle of last year." Gearty said he was mostly spared the time and expense of traveling to museums and physically measuring fossil dimensions, as some of his colleagues have in the name of their own research. But the haphazardness of some older classifications and documentation still had him following false leads and trying to make sense of the nonsensible. "A lot of the crocodiles that people have described in papers have never actually been documented the way they're supposed to be," he said. "Someone might say, 'Here's the Nebraska crocodile.' It's just a colloquial name. And you'll be like, 'I guess I've got to go find the Nebraska crocodile.' You look this up, and you see that there's this crocodile from Nebraska, and this one, and this one. You don't know which one is the 'Nebraska crocodile.' "You need to follow this trail of breadcrumbs, sometimes, to find these papers that may or may not have ever been published on these crocodiles that may or may not have ever been found. Fortunately, I was able to get most of the specimens just from the literature. But it did take a lot of digging to find the last probably 10% of the crocodiles." Many of the terrestrial fossils, in particular, trace body shapes that barely resemble the low-slung profile of the modern crocodile. "The example I like to give is: Imagine a greyhound, and then put a crocodile skull on it," Gearty said. "There were things like that running around on land probably 200 million years ago." Though their maximum size remained almost constant, marine species did evolve two to three times faster than the semi-aquatic and terrestrial groups, Gearty found. Along with increasing the size of smaller aquatic species, natural selection molded body forms to surmount the challenges presented by water. Scales, plates and other drag-increasing skin deposits disappeared. Heads and tails flattened. Snouts narrowed. "All of these were probably more dolphin-like than modern crocodiles, with even longer, thinner tails," he said. "And some of them had very paddle-like feet, almost like flippers." Despite the fact that virtually all modern crocodile species are semi-aquatic, Gearty said those adaptations served the aquatic crocodyliforms well -- more than 100 million years before mammals ventured into the deep. "No one has talked about it much, but really, these things were quite successful," he said. "And some of them weren't even fazed by some of the big, (cataclysmic) events. When the asteroid hit that killed all the dinosaurs, one of the marine groups just kind of kept going like nothing happened. A lot of the terrestrial species went extinct, but this group just kept ticking along for a long time." NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio OVI: Virginia Avenue A police officer at 11:23 p.m. March 29 responded to Virginia Avenue regarding a vehicle on the street that appeared to have been involved in an accident. Police discovered a black Chevrolet Cobalt at the end of the street with heavy rear- and front-end damage. The vehicle matched the description of a car that, only minutes earlier, had crashed into a median on Interstate 480 westbound near the Clague Road exit in Fairview Park. Fairview police were looking for the vehicle. A North Olmsted police officer noticed that the car parked on Virginia Avenue had heavy rear- and front-end damage and that the drivers airbag had been deployed. The driver smelled of an alcoholic beverage, according to a police report. The driver said he was fine and did not need an ambulance. He went on to tell the officer that he had been driving on I-480 and had crashed into a wall. He said he had fallen asleep while driving on the highway. The man did not explain why he left the crash scene and drove to Virginia Avenue. The man said he had had about three drinks at a friends house and was on his way home to Middleburg Heights. The driver, when asked if he had anything on him police should know about, handed over a small bag of marijuana. The officer began administering a field sobriety test, but partway through it, the driver said he was unable to perform the tests. The officer then arrested the suspect for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. The man refused to provide a urine sample for testing. North Olmsted police charged the man with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Fairview Park police charged the man with failure to control. Police decided not to file charges for the small quantity of marijuana, according to a police report. OVI: Lorain Road An officer at 12:51 a.m. March 23 spotted a Jeep stopped at the intersection of Lorain and Dover Center roads without its lights on. The officer followed the vehicle and saw it traveling west on Lorain while straddling both westbound lanes. The officer stopped the Jeep after it pulled into the curb lane and scraped the tires against the curb. The officer said the driver slurred his speech and seemed to be incoherent. He wasnt wearing a seatbelt. The man said he was coming from Giant Eagle for some breakfast food, even though the store had closed at 10 p.m., according to a police report. The man stumbled while trying to get out of the vehicle for field sobriety tests. The man denied drinking, but said he had taken some sleep medications earlier in the evening. Unable to sleep, he ventured out in search of food, the man told police. The man submitted a urine test for analysis. Police charged the man with OVI, not wearing a seatbelt, driving without lights and not driving within marked lanes. Read more from the Sun Post Herald. South Australians who breach self-isolation or quarantine orders during the coronavirus pandemic could soon be forced to wear an electronic tracking device. Labor will this week introduce urgent legislation to empower police to fit electronic tracking devices on those who fail to self-isolate within the first 14 days of returning home from overseas or interstate. Anyone who tampers with the device faces a fine of up to $12,000 or up to 12 months in prison. If the radical proposal is passed, South Australia will become the second state to adopt the strict new measure introduced by Western Australia last week. South Australian Police (pictured this week at Adelaide Airport) could be granted new powers to fit electronic tracking devices on returned travellers who flout the rules Anyone who tampers with the tracking device faces a fine of up to $12,000 or up to 12 months in jail. South Australia has had 405 confirmed cases since the virus hit Australia's shores two months ago. The state is yet to record its first fatality from the virus as the national death toll climbed to 34 on Sunday. 'We need to do everything we can to stop the spread of COVID-19,' SA opposition police spokesman Lee Odenwalder posted on Facebook on Sunday. 'Next week Labor will introduce urgent legislation to allow police to require people to wear an electronic tracking device if they breach self-isolation or quarantine orders.' Already introduced in Western Australia, anyone who tampers with the electronic tracking device (pictured) faces a fine of up to $12,000 or up to 12 months behind bars Shadow Attorney-General Kyam Maher added: 'It is vitally important that people comply with self-isolation or quarantine orders if they have returned from interstate or overseas, or been in close contact with a confirmed case.' 'Most people are doing the right thing, but for those who do not, forcing them to wear an electronic device is a sensible measure to help stop the spread.' The proposal has already attracted a divided reaction from South Australians. All travellers returning to South Australia from overseas or interstate must self-isolate in a hotel or at home for 14 days. Pictured are police at Adelaide Airport 'As long as these new laws and powers have a sunset clause, are revoked upon this being over, not used as precedent for other things including discrimination and are policed properly, including the decision to enforce it and why,' one man posted. 'I appreciate our safety but there is great potential for abuse of power and control, and all evidence shows that is exactly what happens. South Australia Police have been conducting periodic checks on people who have returned from overseas or interstate to ensure they are complying with the mandatory 14 days of self-quarantine since March 22. Anyone who does not comply faces a fine of up to $20,000 for individuals and up to $75,000 for companies. Western Australia, which will close its borders from midnight Sunday, ramped up its efforts to stop people breaking self-isolation and social distancing rules, which include electronic tracking devices. The national death toll from coronavirus rose to 34 on Sunday as the number of cases grow The Western Australian government has also made it an offence to anyone who knowingly has coronavirus, or claims to, to threaten or harm an emergency service worker. 'People who deliberately show disregard by putting our frontline workers at grave risk or fail to self-isolate as required and putting others in the community at risk, will not be tolerated and will face the full force of the law and harsh penalties,' Premier Mark McGowan said last week. 'We are in extraordinary times, and we need to take extraordinary measures.' There's no word yet on whether other states and territories are considering the tracking device proposal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi complimented Priyanka Chopra for her contribution to PM cares fund. To which Priyanka Chopra said that all can fight the disease if all will stay together. Amid coronavirus, many celebrities, diligent and others are have donated to PM Cares fund to stand against coronavirus. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to go donate to PM care funds and to join the fight against coronavirus. Priyanka Chopra Jonas who stays out of the controversies and always remains in headlines for her work, passion and dedication also took a pledge to contribute to PM Cares fund. Priyanka Chopra has changed the lifestyle of many and has become an idol to a lot of people. Girls have transformed themselves to an extent like her, everyone admires the charm in her. Priyanka has done a number of films in Bollywood and now in Hollywood as well but her presences are still sober. With husband Nick Jonas she has taken a pledge to contribute in PM Cares fun, to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated her contribution and said that every individual, businessman, and everyone who has contributed for the sake of the nation is important. Priyanka Chopra also expressed her gratitude and said that everyone has to be together to fight against coronavirus. The couple has also donated to other organizations who are working hard taking the world out of the disease including Unicef, Feeding America, Goonj and others. Priyanka Chopra has last seen in The Sky Is Pink, the film was her come back after 3 years. The film received positive feedback from the critic but it does not perform as per the expectation on theatres. However, PC is at the peak of her career and her personal life. She with her husband Nick Jonas spends enough time post interesting photos and videos together having fun. For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App U.S. President Donald Trump standing next to Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, during a group picture at the start of the Group of 20 summit on 28 June 2019. Donald Trump has called himself a "war-time" president, referring to his campaign as commander-in-chief against coronavirus. In past days, he has taken on a new role as negotiator-in-chief trying to end the oil-price war that is endangering U.S. shale producers and hundreds of thousands of jobs. This week's result is an emergency, virtual meeting of OPEC leaders with Russia, Canada and Mexico. It was delayed from Monday until Thursday due to an ongoing Saudi-Moscow dispute about how to address the biggest collapse in global demand and prices since the discovery of the world's first viable oil well in the mid-19th century. What's decided at that meeting will say much about the limits to the leverage President Trump wields as the world's leading oil and gas producer and with two authoritarian leaders in whom he's invested so much Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It was the bitter Riyadh-Moscow battle for market share since early March that had prompted a record two-thirds decline in oil prices to $19.27 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate, the lowest point since 2002. Yet Trump's intervention with both men last week, as described to CNBC's Joe Kiernan, had seemed to pay off. Trump said that he expected OPEC and the Russians to announce cuts of as much as 15 million barrels off the global total of 100 million. Markets rallied on Thursday and Friday to their biggest one-week gains ever of nearly 37% only for investors to wake up this weekend to continued Saudi-Russian sniping and the possibility of a renewed price plunge this week. What markets are missing in these radical swings is that a greater power than these three alpha males Trump, Putin and MBS is at work. They face the inescapable force of COVID-19, which for weeks and perhaps months to come will depress the global economy. April demand is thought to have dropped by more than 20 million barrels and perhaps by as much as 30 million a far greater sum than any cuts producers may announce this week. Never has the world experienced such a double whammy of demand shock and supply surge. In the end, it could be limits to global storage more than Trumpian intervention that shuts off the spigots. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and energy expert Daniel Yergin calculates that "virtually every available gallon of storage space in the world will be full by late April or early May. When that happens, two things will result: prices will plummet and producers will shut down wells because they cannot dispose of the oil." However this remarkable chapter in energy history ends, it's revealing to study what was behind President Trump's dramatic course reversal on how to approach the record decline of oil prices, which he on March 31st called "the greatest tax cut ever given" the American consumer. Some factors behind this U-turn were the persistent influence of 2020 electoral politics, the little-known role of former Energy Secretary Rick Perry and a threat to a Saudi-owned Texas refinery, and the lobbying power of the American energy industry (and some 2.5 million jobs it's estimated to create). President Trump began to reverse course when confronted by aggressive lobbying by American oil companies and shale producers that he should apply more pressure on his Russian and Saudi friends to cut their production. His concerns grew further when confronted by the potential impact of energy company bankruptcies on U.S. employment and his own November electoral chances, particularly in Texas. Most intriguing, as the Financial Times reported Friday, a key individual behind the president's apparent turn was former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who was Trump's energy secretary until the end of last year. Though Perry had established good relations with his Saudi partners, he advocated that the U.S. block Saudi crude from reaching North America's biggest refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, which is fully owned by the Saudis. Speaking to Fox News on March 31st , Perry said he would advise Trump to tell U.S.-based refineries to use only American-produced crude for the next two to three months. That would send a "clear message that we're just not going to let foreign oil flow in here," Perry said. Shale producers had been lobbying the White House at the same time to suspend U.S. military aid to Saudi Arabia and impose further sanctions on Russian energy until the new countries cut their production. They also argued that the president should consider lifting some existing Russian sanctions should Putin play ball and back off his campaign to put them out of business. However, it appears to have been the threat to the Saudi refinery and to its overall relations with the United States which got Riyadh's attention. When confronted by the possibility that Putin and the Saudi crown prince might not deliver on their production cuts this weekend, Trump upped the ante on Saturday and said he would impose tariffs on oil imports to "protect" U.S. energy workers from an oil price crash. This would be a win for the smaller and mid-sized producers versus United States' oil majors, who have opposed punitive tariffs. At the same time, President Trump may need to determine how he can deliver on Saudi demands for U.S. production cuts, lacking any direct ability to influence American producers. The two likeliest options would be a voluntary decision of the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, or a shutdown of Gulf of Mexico platforms and their 1.8 million barrels daily, using the threat of coronavirus to their workers as the reasoning. The uncomfortable fact for President Trump is that despite his long-standing criticism of OPEC and his support for free energy markets, he needs the cartel's market intervention to keep shale producers afloat. President Trump doesn't have good options. He lacks easy leverage over the players, domestic and international, and he's got even less control over the COVID economic hit. In the end, it is more likely that a US government bailout will save the industry, rather than a global market intervention. Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, prize-winning journalist and president & CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States' most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked at The Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant managing editor and as the longest-serving editor of the paper's European edition. His latest book "Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth" was a New York Times best-seller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his look each Saturday at the past week's top stories and trends. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. Read The Stars live coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic here. This story is no longer updating. 9:12 p.m.: Ontarios reported the largest single day rise in COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic on Sunday, according to the Stars count of public tallies and press releases posted by the provinces 34 regional health units. As of 9 p.m., with several health units still to post their daily updates, Sunday had seen more than 450 new confirmed or probable cases reported, representing a day-over-day rise of 11.3 per cent. The regional units have reported a total of 144 deaths among 4,538 cases. 8:52 p.m.: Public health officials say six COVID-19 patients at a long-term care home in Oshawa have died. Glendene Collins of the Durham Region Health Department says 21 others at Hillsdale Terraces Long-Term Care home are confirmed to have the novel coronavirus. Durham Region has seen 15 deaths in COVID-19 patients thus far, and seven have been in long-term care facilities. 7:39 p.m.: Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced that starting Monday all commercial marine vessels with the capacity of 12 or more passengers will stop non-essential activities, such as tourism or recreation. Ferries and essential passenger vessel operators are to immediately reduce the maximum number of passengers carried on board by half in an effort to comply with physical distancing rules. Transport Canada says the measures will be in place until at least June 30. In an effort to protect the North, the department is also preventing any Canadian cruise ship from mooring, navigating or transitioning in Canadian Arctic waters and any foreign passenger vessels would have to give 60-days notice just to enter the waters. 5:23 p.m.: Ontarios local public health units are reporting 4,722 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 143 deaths, according to the Stars latest count of the public tallies and press releases issued by Ontarios 34 regional health units. As of 5 p.m., with several health units still to report, Sunday had already seen nearly 450 new cases reported in Ontarios largest single-day rise since the start of the pandemic. Many of those came after Toronto announced its largest one-day increase of 206 new cases. The city has so far reported 1,438 confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases, including 27 deaths, with 140 people hospitalized, 58 in intensive care. As of Sunday morning, the province reports that a total of 1,449 patients have recovered after being infected. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths 119 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system. The local health units post new information to their websites throughout the day. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms or contacts that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. 5 p.m.: The Saskatchewan government is warning anyone who has COVID-19 to avoid contact with animals, just as they should avoid contact with people. A news release from the province says that while there is no evidence domestic livestock and pets can be infected with or transmit COVID-19, it says the possibility has not been ruled out. It says if there is already an animal in the household, that animal should remain in isolation along with the patient. According to the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association website, some animals have become infected with through close contact with infected humans, but there is no evidence to suggest that animals infected by humans are playing a role in the spread of COVID-19. 4:28 p.m.: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to a hospital with the coronavirus. Johnsons office says he is being admitted for tests because he still has symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus. Downing St. said Sunday the hospitalization is a precautionary step and he remains in charge of the government. Johnson, 55, has been quarantined in his Downing St. residence since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26. 4:07 p.m.: There are 15,443 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada. Quebec: 7,944 confirmed (including 94 deaths, 464 resolved) Ontario: 4,038 confirmed (including 119 deaths, 1,449 resolved) British Columbia: 1,203 confirmed (including 38 deaths, 673 resolved) Alberta: 1,126 confirmed (including 20 deaths, 196 resolved), 55 presumptive Nova Scotia: 262 confirmed (including 53 resolved) Saskatchewan: 249 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 67 resolved) Newfoundland and Labrador: 217 confirmed (including 1 death, 28 resolved) Manitoba: 187 confirmed (including 2 deaths, 17 resolved), 16 presumptive New Brunswick: 101 confirmed (including 28 resolved) Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including 6 resolved) Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed Yukon: 6 confirmed Northwest Territories: 4 confirmed (including 1 resolved) Nunavut: No confirmed cases Total: 15,443 (71 presumptive, 15,372 confirmed including 277 deaths, 2,982 resolved) 3:05 p.m.: Toronto Public Health reported Sunday afternoon that there are now 1,232 cases of COVID-19 in Toronto, an increase of 113 cases from yesterday. Of the reported cases, 1,026 cases are confirmed and 206 are probable, 69 cases have recovered, 140 are in hospital with 58 in ICU. (25 deaths in Toronto have been reported.) TPH stated that the data was extracted from the Integrated Public Health Information System at 12:30 p.m., cautioning that the numbers may differ from other sources as data are extracted at different times. While the city said the public was generally complying with rules to combat COVID-19, problem areas were noted, including 141 complaints received Saturday about gatherings and unsafe behaviour at parks. In just the first day of the enforcement blitz, 800 vehicles were turned away at Bluffers Park and 140 vehicles were deterred from parking at High Park. Police also issued 19 parking tickets. 2:56 p.m.: In a rare address to the nation, Queen Elizabeth plans to exhort Britons to rise to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, drawing on wisdom from her decades as Britains head of state to urge discipline and resolve in a time of crisis. The 93-year-old monarch is expected to acknowledge the suffering that many families have experienced because of the COVID-19 crisis, which has infected killed at least 4,313 Britons. I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time, she said, according to excerpts released ahead of remarks that were being broadcast Sunday night. A time of disruption in the life of our country; a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, she said. Those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country. The Queen gives yearly Christmas messages but has given an address like this on only three previous occasions after the Queen Mothers death in 2002, before the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991. 2:28 p.m.: U.S. health officials said Americans should prepare for the worst days ahead, with coronavirus infections in hard-hit New York, Detroit and New Orleans expected to peak this week. The worlds newly reported cases of coronavirus jumped by more than 100,000 in a day for the first time, reaching 1.2 million infected people globally. The U.S. added more than 33,000 cases, pushing the total number of reported infections above 321,000 as of Sunday afternoon, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The next week will be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans lives, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on Fox News Sunday. He compared the expected suffering to the devastation from Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 2:10 p.m.: Canada is increasing its international aid to help stop COVID-19 by more than $100 million. International Development Minister Karina Gould said Sunday another $109.5 million will be allocated, on top of $50 million the government announced earlier in March. She said $30 million will respond to requests for help from specific countries, $40 million will go to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations co-oridinating the worlds efforts to find a vaccine for COVID-19, and $84.5 million will be split between a number of international groups including the World Health Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. 12:00 p.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced details of a cash payment for Canadians out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit will be accepted starting tomorrow, offering Canadians who have lost their jobs because of the crisis $2,000 a month. Trudeau says it will take three to five days for the money to arrive by direct deposit or 10 days by mail. Only those born in January, February and March can apply tomorrow. The rest of the months will go in order in groups of three on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before it opens to everyone on Friday. Trudeau says the government is doing everything it can to prevent the system from crashing, The Canadian Press reports. 12:00 p.m.: Police in Sherbrooke, Que., say a Walmart security guard is fighting for his life after being struck and dragged by a driver who was allegedly enraged by the stores social distancing policies. A man reportedly tried to enter the Walmart about 5 p.m. Saturday with his partner, but was told only one person per vehicle was allowed inside. Police say the suspect then struck the 35-year-old guard with his vehicle, dragging him several metres, The Canadian Press reports. The 35-year-old guard suffered a serious head injury and remained in critical condition on Sunday morning. The couple left the scene but were later arrested at a nearby residence. The 25-year-old suspect was expected to appear in court on Sunday, where he could face charges of armed assault with a vehicle, aggravated assault and hit-and-run. 11:35 a.m.: Another resident of Pinecrest Nursing Home has died, bringing the number of COVID-19 related deaths in the Bobcaygeon, Ont., seniors residence to 23. A wife of a resident at the nursing home has also died. It is one of the worst outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in the country. At least 24 staff members at the facility have also tested positive for COVID-19, The Canadian Press reports. 11:15 a.m.: As of 11 a.m. Sunday morning, Ontarios local public health units are reporting 4,178 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 138 deaths. Thats according to the Stars latest count of the public tallies and press releases issued by Ontarios 34 regional health units. In 24 hours, the units reported an increase of 376 COVID-19 cases, and 25 deaths, including two reported early Sunday in York region, which has now seen a total of 16 people die in the epidemic. As of Sunday morning, the province reports that 523 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19, including 200 in intensive care units. So far, a total of 1,449 patients have recovered after being infected. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths 119 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system. The local health units post new information to their websites throughout the day. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms or contacts that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. 9:20 a.m.: About 40 inmates of the Grand Valley Institution womens prison in Kitchener, Ont., are locked down due to an outbreak of COVID-19. The union representing guards says at least four inmates of Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont., are infected. It also says one correctional officer has the coronavirus. Correctional staff say they are working to restrict inmate movement to try to stop the spread of the virus, The Canadian Press reports. 8:40 a.m.: The Canadian military is advising people in the Toronto area to expect a large number of personnel and vehicles on the roads starting Monday as members of the Joint Task Force Central head from units across Ontario to Canadian Forces Base Borden. The movement is part of the federal governments fight against COVID-19, The Canadian Press reports. The Department of National Defence says the aim is to form a task force at Borden with troops ready to respond to requests to help deal with COVID-19 or potential spring flooding. 5 a.m.: Trudeau announced $40 million for Women and Gender Equality Canada Saturday, with up to $30 million to address immediate needs of shelters and sexual assault centres. Another $10 million will go to Indigenous Services Canadas network of 46 emergency shelters and $157.5 million will go toward addressing the needs of Canadians experiencing homelessness. 4:07 a.m.: Trudeau plans to speak with Donald Trump in the coming days in hopes of persuading the U.S. president to rescind a White House-ordered ban on exports of key COVID-19 medical supplies to Canada and abroad. 4:07 a.m.: Canadians aboard another COVID-19 stricken cruise ship are expected to start coming home today. The Coral Princess arrived in Miami Saturday with 97 Canadian passengers and two Canadian crew members aboard, and Princess Cruises said disembarkation of guests who are fit to fly would begin Sunday. The company has said that a dozen people on board have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, while others are experiencing flu-like symptoms. 4 a.m.: The federal and provincial governments are facing a potential disaster if more protections and social-distancing guidelines arent extended to migrant agricultural workers, advocates say. The warning comes days after 14 migrant workers at a Kelowna, B.C., nursery tested positive for COVID-19. The workers all live in on-site housing, and the Interior Health said there was enough space for each resident to safely self-isolate. Bylands Nursery, which employs the workers, said in a statement posted on its website that it has been recognized as one of the best employers of temporary foreign workers in B.C. 1:30 p.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 1:26 p.m. on April 5, 2020, according to The Canadian Press. In Ontario, the Star has been keeping a tally of reports from regional public health units: There are 15,413 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada. _ Quebec: 7,944 confirmed (including 94 deaths, 306 resolved) _ Ontario: 4,038 confirmed (including 119 deaths, 1,449 resolved) _ British Columbia: 1,203 confirmed (including 38 deaths, 673 resolved) _ Alberta: 1,126 confirmed (including 20 deaths, 196 resolved), 55 presumptive _ Nova Scotia: 262 confirmed (including 53 resolved) _ Saskatchewan: 231 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 55 resolved) _ Newfoundland and Labrador: 217 confirmed (including 1 death, 28 resolved) _ Manitoba: 172 confirmed (including 2 deaths, 17 resolved), 22 presumptive _ New Brunswick: 98 confirmed (including 28 resolved) _ Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including 6 resolved) _ Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed _ Yukon: 6 confirmed _ Northwest Territories: 4 confirmed (including 1 resolved) _ Nunavut: No confirmed cases _ Total: 15,413 (77 presumptive, 15,336 confirmed including 277 deaths, 2,812 resolved) 9:35 p.m.: President Donald Trump warned the United States could be headed into its toughest weeks yet as the coronavirus toll mounts, but at the same time expressed growing impatience with social distancing guidelines. The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,100 more than 3,500 in the State of New York. There will be a lot of death, unfortunately, Trump said in a sombre start to his daily briefing on the pandemic. 8:50 p.m.: New York secured a planeload of 1,000 ventilators from China on Saturday, and Oregon was sending 140 of its own to battle the coronavirus pandemic at its U.S. core, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Read more about: First-time gestational surrogate Shandi Phelps realized her life was about to take a bizarre turn when President Donald Trump announced in January that the U.S. would restrict travel between China and the United States due to the coronavirus outbreak. Phelps, of Grants Pass, is two weeks away from delivering a Chinese couples first child, and the soon-to-be parents are now stuck more than 6,000 miles away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. You think of all the things that could go wrong, Phelps said, but never in my wildest dreams would I expect a pandemic happening just weeks before having this baby. Phelps and her husband, Geoff Phelps, who had prepared themselves and their two children for a swift handoff after the birth, now face the reality they may be holding onto this baby indefinitely. Phelps story is not unique, as Oregon is a popular international destination for gestational surrogacy, an industry banned in many states and countries. Tabitha Koh, legal director for Northwest Surrogacy Center in Portland, which is not involved in Phelps surrogacy, said she and staff have worked overtime since January helping dozens of families get into the U.S. before their babies births. Some families are arriving two months early. Many had to travel through other countries and complete quarantine. Two missed their babies births due to premature deliveries. The situation has been evolving so quickly, Koh said. Its been difficult to manage everyone with all the details. Koh, managing partner and attorney for law firm Bouneff, Chally & Koh, is encouraging Northwest Surrogacys overseas families to contact U.S. embassies to explain their situation. In France, she said, some parents trying to get to the U.S. are being asked to show the babys birth certificate. Under normal circumstances, Koh said, Surrogacy Center and other agencies shes worked with have seen occasional cases of parents being held up by visa problems or family emergencies. But circumstances where you have a baby thats ready to discharge from the hospital, which is usually one to two days after birth in Oregon, and the parents are not there to take responsibility, is really unusual, she said. In Phelps case, the babys parents can no longer fly from China to Southern Oregon for the birth of their son. The husband scrambled to use his Canadian visa to get overseas, but Canada has restricted entry to non-residents who dont have family in Canada. They are very disappointed, Shandi Phelps said. They were looking forward to being here, and not only for the birth, but to have this really big, incredible moment. Now, they wont be able to be here for who knows how long? The parents declined comment. Their agency is offering to place the newborn with a nanny in Southern California until the parents can arrive from China, Shandi Phelps said, but she and her husband decided keeping the baby is the least they can do for the heartbroken parents. In my mind, it will be like having a foster baby, said Geoff Phelps. Im sure we will get attached, and it will be hard to say goodbye, but its worth it for us to go through that knowing the baby will be taken care of. Shandi Phelps is offering to pump breast milk for the baby, since she considers breastfeeding a little too bonding. She and her husband are also offering to extend the babys care without additional compensation on top of what shes already receiving as a gestational surrogate, except for any lost wages if she needs to take additional time off from her full-time job as a family support supervisor for a Southern Oregon nonprofit organization. For me, this isnt a business transaction, she said, adding later, I want a lifelong relationship with this family. I want pictures and to watch this little guy grow up. It is important to me, and they were on the same page with that. Phelps said she had wanted to become a gestational surrogate for years, but it took a long time to convince her husband. The idea of never experiencing pregnancy again was very sad to me, so if I could just be pregnant and not actually keep the baby, that would be perfect. Geoff Phelps said he was hesitant mostly due to concerns about putting his wifes health at risk. Becoming more educated on the process and seeing how informed, confident and passionate she was about this, made me more comfortable. When the surrogacy agency notified Shandi Phelps that shed been matched with the couple in China, she and her husband made a point to check in with their own children, 12-year-old Addie and 5-year-old Wyatt. The Phelps family of Grants Pass: (from left) Geoff, Shandi, son Wyatt and daughter Addie.Courtesy of Geoff and Shandi Phelps Weve had a lot of conversations about Mommy carrying this baby for someone else, and that hes not ours, and we dont get to keep him, she said. I thought it was cool and interesting, Addie said by email. I didnt know someone could do that. I thought if people couldnt have a baby they had to adopt. I thought my mom was brave and cool because she wants to help other people. The future parents selected one of their frozen embryos, a male, to be implanted in Shandi Phelps uterus. She took hormone supplements and daily shots to prepare her body for a pregnancy. In August, the embryo transfer took on the first try. Syringes surround an ultrasound image of the baby Shandi Phelps is carrying as a gestational surrogate.Courtesy of Geoff and Shandi Phelps Shandi Phelps said shes sad that her vision of the delivery wont come to pass: Having the baby, the couple holding him for the first time, that magical moment of watching them become parents which is really the whole goal of this thing. The Phelpses are in constant communication with the babys relatives, reassuring them theyre doing everything possible to protect the baby and themselves from COVID-19. As a sign of their bond, the future parents invited the Phelpses to select the babys English name for the birth certificate. Its their tradition to have both a Chinese and American name, Shandi Phelps said. We came up with four or five choices, but I wanted the parents to be involved. Plus, its not easy to pick a name! When asked if shell ever volunteer to be a surrogate again, she slowly mulled over the idea of sticking with the same family or finding a couple closer to home. How about we just get through this one, first? Libby Dowsett: twitter.com/libbydowsett To the annoyance of some shareholders, Peet (ASX:PPC) shares are down a considerable 32% in the last month. The recent drop has obliterated the annual return, with the share price now down 16% over that longer period. Assuming nothing else has changed, a lower share price makes a stock more attractive to potential buyers. In the long term, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, but in the short term prices bounce around in response to short term factors (which are not always obvious). The implication here is that long term investors have an opportunity when expectations of a company are too low. Perhaps the simplest way to get a read on investors' expectations of a business is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios. Check out our latest analysis for Peet How Does Peet's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers? Peet's P/E of 13.52 indicates some degree of optimism towards the stock. You can see in the image below that the average P/E (12.4) for companies in the real estate industry is lower than Peet's P/E. ASX:PPC Price Estimation Relative to Market April 4th 2020 Peet's P/E tells us that market participants think the company will perform better than its industry peers, going forward. The market is optimistic about the future, but that doesn't guarantee future growth. So investors should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling. How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios When earnings fall, the 'E' decreases, over time. That means unless the share price falls, the P/E will increase in a few years. Then, a higher P/E might scare off shareholders, pushing the share price down. Peet saw earnings per share decrease by 41% last year. And over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have decreased 4.7% annually. This could justify a pessimistic P/E. A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank Story continues It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. How Does Peet's Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio? Peet has net debt worth 65% of its market capitalization. If you want to compare its P/E ratio to other companies, you should absolutely keep in mind it has significant borrowings. The Verdict On Peet's P/E Ratio Peet has a P/E of 13.5. That's around the same as the average in the AU market, which is 13.0. With relatively high debt, and no earnings per share growth over twelve months, the P/E suggests that many have an expectation that company will find some growth. Given Peet's P/E ratio has declined from 20.0 to 13.5 in the last month, we know for sure that the market is significantly less confident about the business today, than it was back then. For those who don't like to trade against momentum, that could be a warning sign, but a contrarian investor might want to take a closer look. When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock. You might be able to find a better buy than Peet. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings). 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 the midst of our COVID-19 quarantine, the vernal equinox brought us spring and the hope that always surrounds the queen of seasons. Today, Christians around the world commemorate Palm Sunday and Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is an event mentioned in all four of the canonical Gospels. This day also marks the beginning of Holy Week, a time of deep observation and reflection for the Christian community. This year it will be very different. Churches, along with other houses of worship, businesses, schools and cultural centers are shuttered. Were all hunkered down, doing our best to flatten the curve of the Wuhan flu pandemic. People are looking for the signs of hope that ordinarily accompany this time of year. They are here. All around us are countless stories of private and public heroism in the face of this crisis. Neighbors helping neighbors, businesses retooling to help, corporate executives giving up their paychecks to help thousands who arent receding them, first responders doing what they always do. America and its people always win when we put the full energy and muscle of the nation behind a common goal. We will win this fight as we have all the others. Politics has been placed on the far back burner for the time being. The reality that we are all in this together has set aside some of the political sniping that marked the earlier days of this battle against the invisible enemy. Some Democrats early on believed that the response to the coronavirus pandemic would be President Trumps Waterloo. Its not looking that way now. Recent polls, including Gallup and Monmouth, show Trumps approval ratings at all time highs. He dominates the daily news cycle with his regular briefings, presiding over an A-Team of experts led by Vice President Pence and including Drs. Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx and Stephen Hahn. My firm spends much of its time working with individuals, companies and schools on crisis management and communications. We study the daily briefings carefully because we know that body language translates more than the spoken word. Were aware that every gesture, awkward glance, and slight facial expression is instantly perceived by the audience of both casual viewers and the intense scrutiny of the media. For all that has been said and seen thus far, theres a memory bank of largely positive images and sounds from the Administration. Joe Biden has, through no fault of his own, been pushed off the front pages, likely for some time to come. Thats not necessarily a political disadvantage for him. Hes essentially got the Democrat nomination locked up at this point and can retool and reset his effort for the abbreviated campaign that lies ahead. It is for problem for Bernie Sanders. Hes left with few options. Unable to campaign in traditional ways, hes got to try to salvage what was already a campaign in dire straits. Whether or not he can continue even before the reset button is hit is a mystery. It doesnt appear that he can. Primaries across the nation have been postponed or put on hold. Theres even talk now that the two major party conventions may not be held-at least not in the time and manner than was expected. That would truly be unfortunate. Although they are panned by the media as irrelevant, the conventions are nevertheless staples of American political tradition and valuable not only to the Democrat and Republican parties, but to the body politic as well. Once we are through the worst of this there will be a reset to the presidential campaign. Much of the political sophistry before then will be lost in the shuffle of history. A new focus will be born. Labor Day may actually emerge as once again the unofficial start of the presidential campaign. That campaign will center on what kind of leadership America wants to rebuild the worlds largest economy, get our people back to work, stabilize our society and take us into uncharted waters. For now, well stay put, wash our hands, keep social distance, and take care of our loved ones and neighbors. Well find new fulfillment in sharing meals, walks in the sunshine, casual phone calls and the joys of family and friends. Well lay aside differences and find common ground as we fight this battle together. Well let hope spring eternal in each of us. CHARLIE GEROW is a Republican media strategist and CEO of Quantum Communications. He and Democrat Mark Singel write weekly for PennLive and appear each Sunday morning at 8:30 on CBS-21s Face the State. The semi-organised to unorganised fisheries sector, particularly the small scale fishers are worst-hit in any national or global crisis. The small scale fisheries sector, also known as artisanal or traditional fisheries, are practiced by fishermen who use unique methods of fishing based on natural tidal patterns and seasons, small boats, go fishing for limited periods, make few trips and use relatively less fossil fuels in the overall fishing activity. The sector is prominent for Indias coastal development programmes as it is a major contributor of employment, food security and export earnings. Small scale fisheries contribute to a significant amount of catch in the coastal communities of India. The ICSF (International Collective in Support of Fishworkers) estimates that about half of all small scale fish workers accounted for are fisherwomen. Small scale fishing methods are important and essential in ensuring sustainability in fishing, marine wildlife habitats and ensuring cultural and traditional knowledge is protected. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) estimated that 90 percent of all people directly involved in fisheries work, are small scale fishers. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in 2019 released a press report which said that the fisheries sector is a major contributor to the overall agricultural sector and estimated it contributed to about 1 percent of Indias annual GDP. However, the lack of policy protection, political representation and poor documentation has resulted in low representation, loss of fishing grounds to infrastructure development and marginalisation of the community to address urgent issues that it faces, especially in a period of national and global health or disaster crisis. Lockdown and fisheries impact A lockdown was announced by the Indian government on 24 March, 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic which has since brought to a halt production, trade and sale of goods. Besides, it also restricts the movement of people. The lockdown was essential in order to reduce the spread of the pandemic, given that India is the second-most populous country in the world. The escalation from the lowest to the highest stage of the pandemic would progress faster and farther if necessary social distancing and quarantine measures are not taken. However, for the unorganised and semi-organised workforce, which accounts for about 80 percent of Indias workforce, this meant reverse migration, food shortages and loss of a sustainable livelihood. Impact on small scale fisheries The semi-organised to unorganised fisheries sector, particularly the small scale fishers are the worst-hit in any national or global crisis. The characteristics of small scale fishingplace of fishing, methods, sale and storage mechanisms being diverse and unique to various communities, raises the following issues with respect to the lockdown: Small scale fishers sustain on a daily catch. The fish workers usually go fishing for short periods of time in the intertidal or subtidal region and their catch depends on the daily accessibility to the coast. The lockdown that mandates social distancing has essentially stopped access of the small scale fishers to the coast for their daily catch. Most small scale fishers operate in low numbers from one to five. They sustain on the daily catch for home, community consumption and local sale. Fisherwomen account for half of all small scale fishers. The sale of the catch is dominantly carried out by this demographic and the lockdown means no catch; thus no sale. Fish and fish commodities were not included in the list of essential commodities initially, with several state governments imposing complete lockdowns on markets. Due to this, we have seen several media reports of commercial fishers discarding their entire catch of fresh fish back into the sea as there is no option for sale and storage. Daily sale provides livelihood sustenance for fisherwomen and their families. The spring catch for small scale fishers is an important phase of monetary sustenance. The catch is more diverse than other seasons and this monetary spring sale ensures sustenance for the community during the monsoon ban period. The monsoon ban period is also the period of repair and maintenance of nets and boats and without the spring catch and sale, this would add up to economic pressure on the community as they would require loans to carry out maintenance costs to be able to resume fishing post-monsoon and ban periods. Measures taken so far The measures taken up by the Centre involves providing immediate relief through monetary compensation to the affected community. The amount to each community or boat owner/labourer/fish vendor, etc is ambiguous and unclear. The Centre also implied it would compile the number of affected fish workers, fish farmers and fish vendors to provide this financial aid. However, for an unorganised and fairly undefined sector like the small scale fishers, this would warrant a mild chance for them to avail any relief through these monetary packages. Another component to consider is that the relief package will not contribute to a percent of the monetary spring sale that they would require to sustain the monsoons and ban period. Immediate measures required to be taken The immediate measures for relief for small scale fishers across the country during the lockdown would be: Immediate relief by allowing access to the coast by issuing advisories and guidelines on the number of trips permitted per week. The maximum number of fish workers in these trips can also be limited and personal protection equipment (PPE) provided to eliminate health risks. Include sale of fish, especially local catch from small scale fishers and the community, into the village and town horticulture shops that are currently selling vegetables and essentials to the villages and cities across the country. This would eliminate the risk exposure of fisherwomen and fish vendors for sale as the catch, like horticulture produce, would directly be brought by the government for sale in these ration shops. Additional hygiene advisories can be issued for sale of fish during the lockdown. This also ensures the catch is sold as per the market price and wont lead to unfair, low pricing or vice-versa. If periodic markets are allowed, like in some parts of the country which are open only for a few hours, fish vendors and fisherwomen must be included into these markets and personal protection equipment (PPE) provided to such vendors with social distancing measures. Some fishing societies are already practicing these health guidelines in the sale of fish in their communities. Monetary compensation must be allocated to registered societies than to individual accounts. The individual accounts scheme is eligible currently to only Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, which several fish workers in the commercial or small scale sector do not possess or have access to currently. This also raises ambiguity in the proper dispersal of this monetary relief to the most affected during this period of lockdown (The author is a coastal policy researcher and marine wildlife conservationist) File photo A policeman in Akwa Ibom State has been demoted for assaulting a medical doctor while enforcing the stay-at-home order of the state government, SaharaReporters reports. Dr Daniel Edet, a surgeon with the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, was assaulted by Edidiong Alexander, a police sergeant, while on his way to work on Friday evening. Threat of a strike action by the Nigerian Medical Association over the incident, which left Edets hand fractured, forced police to investigate the matter. Edidiong was demoted from the rank of a sergeant to corporal after investigations found him guilty of the offence. Commissioner of Police in the state, Imohimi Edgal, met with Edet and Chairman of NMA in the state to apologise over the incident. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) The country's hosting of the 17th Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) and the International Fleet Review (IFR) has been postponed indefinitely amid the continuing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. "The rapid increase of cases worldwide, which also affects 21 member countries and 8 observer states compelled the PN (Philippine Navy) to defer the historic convergence of navy chiefs and warships," the Philippine Navy stated in a press release Sunday. The Philippine Navy will instead focus on helping frontliners contain the spread of the viral disease, as well as maximizing its capabilities to "mitigate the devastating effects of COVID-19." The highly awaited events were set to happen mid next month, which would have coincided with the founding anniversary of the Philippine Navy on May 20. The naval symposium is a biennial meeting of navies bordering the Western Pacific region. The Philippines now has 3,246 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 152 deaths and 64 recoveries. Vietnam needed to develop policies to encourage investments in waste-to-energy, also called bioenergy, which would significantly contribute to protecting the environment, experts have said. A waste-to-energy plant in Soc Son District, Ha Noi. Viet Nam needed to develop policies to encourage investments in waste-to-energy. Tran Viet Ngai, President of the Viet Nam Energy Association, said the huge volume of waste produced each day was a burden. If the trash that would otherwise go to a landfill was burned to churn out electricity, it would bring a number of benefits. Generating energy from waste was another source of clean energy at a reasonable cost and would contribute to protecting the environment, Ngai said. A huge volume of waste is dumped every day in Viet Nam but energy-from-waste had not caught on across the country. The latest Ministry of Industry and Trade report showed that about 70,000 tonnes of daily waste is dumped into the environment every day, 10 per cent of which came from Ha Noi and HCM City. About 85 per cent of waste in Viet Nam is simply dumped into landfill sites, which created the risks of causing pollution while it was also a waste not to burn it to create energy. According to the Viet Nam Energy Association, waste-to-energy technology is widely used in many countries. Recently, Viet Nam has seen the development of several waste-to-energy projects such as the Soc Son, Phu Tho, VIETSTAR, Thanh Hoa, Thai Binh and Hai Phong bioenergy plants. Hoang Manh Ha from Power Engineering Consulting Joint Stock Company 1 (PECC1) said there were around 1,000 waste-to-power plants in the world, with 38 per cent in Europe, 24 per cent in Japan, 19 per cent in the US and 15 per cent in east Asia. Ha said that many investors were showing a growing interest in developing bioenergy in Viet Nam, especially in major cities where huge volumes of waste were dumped daily. Chen Wei, general director of EB Environment Energy Company Limited which operates the Can Tho waste-to-energy plant, told Viet Nam News Agency that one year in operation, the plant treated about 1,750,000 tonnes of waste to create 53.2 million kWh in total. Everyday, it treated 400 tonnes ofwaste on average, or 70 per cent of the citys trash. Under the renewable energy development strategy by 2030 with a vision to 2050, VIet Nam targets to increase the percentage of urban solid waste used for energy to 30 per cent in 2020 and nearly 70 per cent in 2030. By 2050, all urban solid waste would be used to generate electricity. Experts said waste-to-energy plants required huge investment capital, which together with low electricity generation capacity to the national power grid made the payback period amount to up to 20 years. According to Pham Nguyen Hung, PECC1s general director, there was a lack of detailed instructions about adding waste-to-energy projects to the countrys power development planning, which made it difficult to invest in bioenergy. Viet Nam needed to issue detailed policies to encourage investments in bioenergy, including policies about power buying prices and details about waste treatment standards to attract investors. VNS HCM City builds second waste-to-energy plant worth $215mil. Work on a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, worth US$215 million, began in the outlying district of Cu Chi on October 16 as the second of its kind in HCMC, allowing the city to address both the waste problem and the demand for energy simultaneously. Suddenly, a scuffle can be heard inside the home, followed by a string of expletives and a male resident clad in shorts and a T-shirt chasing one of the suspects out of the residence, before wrestling him to the ground in front of the house. The Coral Princess cruise ship arrives at PortMiami during the CCP virus outbreak, in Miami, on April 4, 2020. (Lynne Sladky/AP) Another Cruise Ship With CCP Virus Victims Docks in Florida ST. PETERSBURG, FloridaAnother cruise ship with CCP virus victims on board, including two fatalities, has docked in Florida. Princess Cruises spokeswoman Negin Kamali said in an email Saturday the Coral Princess ship has docked in Miami. The ship with 1,020 passengers and 878 crew members has been in limbo for days awaiting permission to dock. As of Thursday, Kamali said seven passengers and five crew members had tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Anyone in need of hospitalization will disembark first, the cruise line said, although it wasnt immediately clear when that would happen. Those who are fit to fly will begin leaving on Sunday, while others who have symptoms of respiratory illness will remain on board until cleared by ship doctors. People look out from the Coral Princess cruise ship as it is docked at PortMiami during the CCP virus outbreak, in Miami, on April 4, 2020. (Lynne Sladky/AP) A day earlier, the cruise ships Zaandam and Rotterdam were permitted to dock at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, with 14 critically ill people taken immediately to hospitals. The remaining passengers were slowly being allowed to board flights for home. The Coral Princess had been on a South American cruise that was due to end March 19 in Buenos Aires. Since then, the ship has encountered obstacles to docking because of various port closures and cancellation of airline flights, the cruise line said. Passengers have self-isolated in their staterooms and meals have been delivered by room service. Crew members also have remained in their quarters when they are not working. The Coral Princess cruise ship arrives at PortMiami during the CCP virus outbreak, in Miami, on April 4, 2020. (Lynne Sladky/AP) The Coast Guard said in a news release Saturday it has been involved with processing about 120 vessels carrying some 250,000 passengers over the past three weeks because of the pandemic. The Coast Guard statement said as of Saturday there are 114 cruise ships, carrying 93,000 crew members, either in or near U.S. ports and waters. That includes 73 cruise ships, with 52,000 crew members, moored or anchored in U.S. ports and anchorages. Another 41 cruise ships, with 41,000 crew members, are underway and close to the U.S. The cruise line industry announced a voluntarily suspension of most ship operations from U.S. ports on March 13. The next day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a no sail order to all cruise ships that had not suspended operations. We commend the decision by the cruise industry to cease operations. However, pausing a global tourist industry does not happen instantaneously or easily, said Vice Admiral Dan Abel, Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Operations. The federal, state, local and industry cooperation to achieve this feat truly represents the whole-of-nation approach directed by the president and is essential to fighting the spread of this virus and working to minimize the loss of life. Princess Cruises is a brand of Miami-based Carnival Corp., the worlds largest cruise company. By Curt Anderson Epoch Times staff contributed to this report Over 600 Nigerian Americans showed up at the Muritala international Airport in Lagos, wanting to be evacuated to United States Of America, according to serial investor, Bamikole Banks In a Twitter post. Over 600 Nigerian Americans showed up at the Muritala international Airport in Lagos, wanting to be evacuated to United States Of America. pic.twitter.com/74YYgLNvLQ Bamikole Banks (@MrBanksOmishore) April 4, 2020 Recall that the United States Mission in Nigeria had announced the commencement of evacuation of its citizens from Nigeria. This is happening after Germany, Israel, and France evacuated their nationals following the rising cases of coronavirus disease in the country. The Embassy confirmed the development via its official Twitter handle, @US Mission Nigeria. It said multiple emergency flights departing from Lagos and Abuja had been confirmed for this week. The mission asked Americans booked for the flight not to come to the airport until they had been contacted by officials. The Twitter post read, The US Consulate in Lagos has confirmed multiple emergency flights for this week departing from Lagos and Abuja. Please do not come to the airport until we have contacted you directly. Please shelter in place and await further information. The U.S. Consulate in Lagos has confirmed multiple emergency flights for this week departing from Lagos and Abuja. Please do not come to the airport until we have contacted you directly. Please shelter in place and await further information. #STEP pic.twitter.com/gABq6j6pgX U.S. Mission Nigeria (@USEmbassyAbuja) March 30, 2020 By Trend As part of the special quarantine regime in Azerbaijan, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to apply restrictions on movement in the country from April 5, 2020, State Migration Service told Trend on April 4. These restrictions will also be applied to foreigners, stateless persons, and those residing or who are in the country. According to the information, in order to get permission to go out, a foreigner has to send an SMS to 8103. It is necessary to indicate corresponding index, series and ID number in the message. Below indicated the necessary information for foreigners: - temporary or permanent residents of Azerbaijan should send via SMS the series and number of the permit certificate for temporary or permanent residence in Azerbaijan (MYI (DYI) 1111111); - foreigners and stateless persons whose term of temporary stay in Azerbaijan has been extended should send the series and number of the decision on extending the period of temporary stay (MOM1111111); - foreigners registered at the place of residence should send notification (registration) number on registration at the place of residence. Foreigners registered at the place of residence, as well as in respect of whom a decision to extend the period of temporary stay was made, can use the electronic service tracking applications on the State Migration Services official website (https://eservice.migration.gov.az/public/application-track). In this case, you must enter your passport number, date of birth, and information about citizenship. For persons who have been given a permit for temporary or permanent residence, but have not received a certificate, a series and number of relevant documents will be sent by e-mail after payment of the state duty stipulated by law. For more information, you can contact the round-the-clock call center 919 of the State Migration Service, as well as ask your questions on the services Facebook page. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Sunday pardoned more than 5,600 prisoners and ordered their release in stages to avoid contagion in the country's overcrowded jails. The justice ministry said the 5,654 detainees that would be freed were selected based in their age, health, good conduct and length of detention. They would be released in stages due to "exceptional circumstances linked to the emergency health situation and necessary precautions" against the virus, it said in a statement. The decision came as the COVID-19 illness has officially killed 66 people and infected 960 in the North African country. The king also ordered authorities to take "all the necessary measures to reinforce the protection of detainees in prisons" which are widely known to be overcrowded. Morocco, home to 35 million people, has an estimated 232 detainees per 100,000 inhabitants. With the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, rights groups have urged authorities to release all political prisoners, including those held in preventive detention or nearing the end of the terms. But it was not immediately clear if detainees linked to the "Hirak" protest movement that rocked northern Morocco in 2016 and 2017 would be among those pardoned by the king. Morocco's prison authorities have meanwhile taken measures to protect staff and reduced visits. The UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet last month said countries should consider releasing older detainees and low-risk offenders. Several other countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia, have moved to release thousands of prisoners to lower the risk of a major outbreak of the virus in prisons. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi: Lockdown is in force throughout the country to deal with the crisis of Corona epidemic. After the lockdown, there was also a migration of poor-working class people from the national capital Delhi. Private bus owners of Delhi say that the Delhi government had ordered to run the bus for the escape. Private bus owners have made serious allegations against Delhi's Kejriwal government on the exodus caused by the lockdown in Delhi. Corona continues rising in Pakistan, 41 died and many infected They say that on March 29, a written order was given by the Delhi government that the workers migrating from Delhi should be released to their village through buses. In the copy of those orders of the Delhi government, orders were given to the migrants to be released to Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Etawah, Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. After this, about 350 buses were launched by the contract bus service owners on the streets of Delhi, through which the migrating people were transported to their villages and towns. Britain now becomes corona victim after Italy, virus infected institution Delhi Contract Bus Association General Secretary Harish Sabarwal has said that this order was given to him by the Transport Department of Delhi Government on 29 March. After that, they took their buses to the streets. However, by late night, Delhi Police started confiscating all these buses and many buses were also taken into their custody by Delhi Police. Corona causes uproar in America, Trump demands help from Modi Edinburgh: Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood resigned on Sunday after she broke her own advice to stay at home to help slow the spread of the coronavirus by twice visiting her second home. Calderwood said that during discussions with Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday evening they agreed her actions risked distracting from the "hugely important job that government and the medical profession has to do in getting the country through this coronavirus pandemic". Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood at a briefing last week. Credit:Getty Images "It is with a heavy heart that I resign as Chief Medical Officer," she said. Police had earlier issued a warning to Calderwood about her behaviour and Sturgeon had removed her as the public face of the campaign to tackle the coronavirus. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday congratulated his newly appointed Afghan counterpart, Mohammad Haneef Atmar, and said that he looks forward to working closely with him to bolster India-Afghanistan relationship. "Heartiest congratulations to my friend @MHaneefAtmar on his appointment as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Look forward to working closely with him to further strengthen strategic partnership between India and Afghanistan," the minister said on Twitter. Prior to taking over this position, Haneef served as the security adviser to the Ashraf Ghani government and resigned from his post in August 2018. He was also a candidate in last year's presidential election but withdrew his candidacy before starting the campaign last summer, Tolo News reported. He also served as minister of rural development and rehabilitation, minister of education and minister of interior affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was previously run by Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri, the deputy minister of foreign affairs for policy. Haneef's appointment comes as Ghani reshuffled his Cabinet and appointed new ministers from all ethnic groups in Afghanistan, including men and women. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Jessica Jones MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday he would ask parliament to extend lockdown measures by 15 days until April 26, as the rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths slowed again in one of the world's worst-hit countries. In a televised address to the nation, Sanchez said the current lockdown was beginning to show results, but he warned that Saturday's extension of the country's state of emergency would not be the last. By Jessica Jones MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday he would ask parliament to extend lockdown measures by 15 days until April 26, as the rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths slowed again in one of the world's worst-hit countries. In a televised address to the nation, Sanchez said the current lockdown was beginning to show results, but he warned that Saturday's extension of the country's state of emergency would not be the last. "We are at the start of the decrease in the epidemic. We are stronger than we think but we have to endure. With sacrifice, resistance and the spirit of victory," he said, adding that some economic restrictions would be lifted after Easter. "We are not going to extend the standstill of economic activity," he said. Shops, bars and restaurants will, however, remain closed. Sanchez also reiterated his support for the launch of jointly issued debt by euro zone members as a way to counter the coronavirus economic impact, an idea championed by Spain and Italy but rejected by Germany and other northern EU members. "Nobody should be mistaken, the Spanish government is going to work for and defend and will never renounce eurobonds because this is solidarity, this is Europe. The determination of the government is total and absolute," he said. Spain's coronavirus death toll rose to 11,744 on Saturday - the world's second-highest after Italy. However, the toll of 809 people who died during the past 24 hours was below Friday's 932 deaths and also down from Thursday's daily record of 950, the Health Ministry said. That represented a 7% increase in total deaths, compared with the roughly 20% increase registered a week ago. Meanwhile, the total number of registered infections rose to 124,736 on Saturday from 117,710 on Friday, when Spain overtook Italy in the total number of infections for the first time. 'DOWNWARD TREND' The figures "confirm the downward trend we have seen in the last few days," said Maria Jose Sierra, the deputy head of Spain's health emergency. Still, she acknowledged that "there are many more light cases of coronavirus which are not included in our figures because we are concentrating on the most serious cases". Spain, which is struggling to provide enough equipment for its overwhelmed hospitals, said on Friday that Turkey had requisitioned ventilators ordered by Madrid for its own use. "In recent days, the Turkish government has placed a series of restrictions on the export of a broad spectrum of health products, mainly motivated by its concern to be able to supply its own health system," Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez told a news conference. Turkey is currently ninth globally in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases with nearly 21,000 registered infections. A Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters that Turkey and Spain "are working on the issue and it is being resolved". Some of Madrid's most famous tourist sites, such as the Royal Palace and Las Ventas bullring, stood eerily quiet on Saturday, as Spaniards readied themselves for a fourth week living under one of Europe's strictest lockdowns. Only employees in essential sectors such as health are free to travel to and from work. Restaurants, bars and shops are shuttered, and social gatherings are banned. (Reporting by Graham Keeley and Michael Gore and Elena Rodriguez Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Writing by Jessica Jones; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Angus MacSwan and Helen Popper) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. To the Editor, I am the campaign leader for our local 40 Days for Life in Granite City and I am writing in response to John Dunphys article that was critical of our pro-life efforts. 40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access Gods power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion. There have been over 61 million abortions since 1973 as reported by the Guttmacher Institute. There were 1.3 million people killed in all of the wars in US history added together, according to Wikipedia. Yes, that is 61 vs 1.3 million. The abortion numbers are staggering! A large, comprehensive study of the mental health risks associated with abortion, was published on September 1, 2011, in the British Journal of Psychiatry. The study found that women with a history of abortion have higher rates of anxiety (34% higher), depression (37%), alcohol use/misuse (110%), marijuana use (230%), and suicidal behavior (155%) compared to those who have not had abortions. From my own experience praying peacefully on the sidewalks at the Hope abortion facility in Granite City, I can tell you that most of the women I see going in are not happy to be there. They walk in scared and come out sad, dazed and sometimes throwing up. Saturday, they took a woman out in an ambulance. Abortion hurts women go to Abortionchangesyou.com. Mr. Dunphy said that he believes that a woman should have the right to reproductive freedom of choice. Women deserve better choices. 40 Days for Life does not judge or condemn those that have had an abortion. We offer compassion and support by referring people to www.supportafterabortion.com. God answers prayer through people who listen and respond to his call to action the volunteers who pray in a 40 Days for Life campaign. While we pray and wait for an end to the demand for abortion, we serve God by serving his people. We share with woman alternatives that support both the woman and her child. We love them both. Locally they can make an appointment at ThriVe Metro East by calling 618-466-1690. Joan Kane Godfrey (Newser) The US surgeon general offered some of the starkest warnings yet Sunday as he braced Americans for the worsening fallout from the new coronavirus, warning "this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly." The public was advised separately by the nation's infectious disease chief to "just buckle down" and that the virus probably won't be wiped out entirely this year, the AP reports. The number of people infected in the US has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,400; more than 3,500 of those deaths are in the state of New York. Much of the country is under orders to stay home, and federal officials said they have seen signs that people are listening to the message about social distancing. story continues below "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized," Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on Fox News Sunday, adding that "it's going to be happening all over the country." Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CBS' Face the Nation that the coming week is "going to be shocking to some," but "that's what is going to happen before it turns around, so just buckle down." He said the rate of new cases will determine whether America is putting the worst behind it: "Weve seen that in Italy." Indeed, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says deaths and ICU admissions are down slightly in his state but cautions that it's "too early to tell" what that means, per AP. (Read more coronavirus stories.) This story originally appeared on KCRA. LODI, Calif. A Lodi church said it will continue to have Sunday services after the San Joaquin County public health officer ordered the facility to close amid coronavirus concerns. Cross Culture Christian Center said it has a right to be open and gather for worship. The church, which has been open to parishioners during the coronavirus pandemic, said it hired a lawyer to defend its First Amendment rights. Earlier in the week, police said the church continuing to stay open is a violation of the California health and safety code and California penal code, and posted a notice of public nuisance on the door. On Friday, San Joaquin County Public Health Officer Maggie Park issued an order prohibiting public assembly for Bethel Open Bible Church, the organization that leases space to Cross Culture Christian Center. More for you Pentecostal church in Sacramento linked to six dozen cases On March 29, 2020, the City of Lodi reported to the County Public Health Officer that your tenant, Cross Culture Community Church was continuing to use your facility for public assembly, and that Cross Culture Community Church was aware of the County Order and intended to continue to meet in violation of the Order. As a facility for public assembly neither the building or the parking lot is part of the essential critical infrastructure as defined by State and Federal agencies, the statement read in part. The order says continued operation of church services will hinder the countys ability to slow the spread of the virus and increase risk to the public. On Saturday, the churchs lawyer released a statement in response: The church intends on continuing to safely gather for worship during Christianitys most holy week, exercising unalienable and fundamental rights protected by the First Amendments right to peaceably assemble, freedom of speech, and the free exercise of religion, while simultaneously observing CDC recommended COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. The U.S. Constitution is not suspended by a virus. Although the church intends to meet, the order states that any person who does not comply is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by fine and/or imprisonment. The child-care facility at the Bethel Open Bible Church is not affected by the order. It was a difficult week for residents and staff at St. Clair OConnor Community in East York, as COVID-19 continues to take a heavy toll on seniors in long-term health-care facilities and the people working in them. Four residents, ranging in age from 85 to 91, died this past week from the coronavirus. The residents that did pass were able to connect with their families prior using FaceTime, Zoom and Skype, said Mary Hoare, chief executive officer of the facility. It was really very painful, but it was very satisfying for those families. In addition, 14 residents in the 25-bed facility are showing signs of the illness, as are seven staff members. The grim story is similar across the province with nearly 50 deaths in long-term-care facilities, and close to 80 of the provinces roughly 750 retirement homes reporting cases of COVID-19. Pinecrest in Bobcaygeon has been the hardest hit with 22 deaths. Eight residents have died at Seven Oaks in Scarborough, the most in the GTA. Facilities such as St. Clair OConnor Community are fighting the pandemic short-handed. Many staff members are at home in self-isolation and will only be allowed to return to work after passing two COVID-19 tests within a 24-hour period. Public health is following them, said Hoare. Staffing has been difficult because of the staff that are away (due to sickness). We have been managing. They all have protective equipment on. Help is on the way. On Friday, the province issued a temporary order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act that will help retirement homes address emergency staffing needs, giving them more flexibility to recruit and reassign workers. The order breaks down the wall between job titles, allowing nurses, personal support workers and others inside the facility to do work beyond their strict roles. We need them to be able to respond in the moment, said Donna Duncan, CEO of the Ontario Long Term Care Association. Its a challenging time for everybody. We had a critical labour shortage before the pandemic, so this special order is fundamentally important for us. Duncan says her organization and others like it might need as many as 30,000 temporary workers over the next six months, drawn from a labour pool that could include: dental hygienists qualified in health care; laid-off cleaners from the hotel industry; and certified food handlers from the restaurant industry. We know theres a workforce out there not working right now who could provide temporary support, said Duncan. The issues at seniors homes are broad. Hoare said her facility has had difficult conversations with families of residents about what would happen if their loved one got COVID and what decisions they would have to make in terms of their care. We were lucky enough to have obtained direction from all families with what to do. Weve got that well covered. And we make sure the families of the residents are called every single day, because they cant come in to visit. Lawyer and seniors advocate Laura Tamblyn Watts says some families wonder if leaving their loved ones in these facilities is the right thing to do during a pandemic. She has come up with a checklist to help them decide. The situation is dire in long-term care, but people need a practical tool to help them think through whether theyre making things worse by bringing their loved one home, said Tamblyn Watts. Its a really serious consideration. There may be an emotional desire to do that, but theres a practical challenge to it. In order to get into long-term care, you have to have such a degree of frailty and need that most people cant take care of them at home, so thats why theyre there to begin with. Some of the questions on the list are more practical: bathroom accessibility, whether bed rails are needed. Others are medical: proximity to a doctor, physiotherapy, safety for someone with dementia. Tamblyn Watts says the number of COVID-19 deaths and cases is likely much higher than reported because seniors are a low priority for testing. They will test up to three people and thats it. After that, everyone is assumed to have it. We have no actual data this real number for how many deaths there are in long-term care, said Tamblyn Watts. With the limited number of testing kits, long-term care is at the bottom of peoples priority list and the top of their hearts and minds. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images The twist of fate that has cast Jared Kushner as a would-be savior in the greatest public health crisis to confront the United States in a century is a dramatic one. The moment of national peril has been compared to September 11. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said coronavirus was her countrys greatest challenge since the second world war. As the leader of the federal government effort to distribute emergency equipment to the states, Kushner, the presidents son-in-law, has mostly shied from the public stage, but he now is working in historys spotlight. His vast responsibilities include weighing requests from governors for aid and coordinating with private companies to obtain medical equipment, work he carries out from a special post created for him inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where his team is called the Slim Suit crowd for their distinctive tailoring, the New York Times has reported. Kushners team was credited with coordinating a planeload of medical supplies that arrived in the US from China last week. Kushner has terrible judgment, and I dont remember a decision hes been involved with that hasnt just been bad David Pepper But some of those familiar with Kushners record at the White House and in his prior professional life question why the governments response to the coronavirus threat is being run by the presidents 39-year-old son-in-law. It scares the hell out of me, said David Pepper, the chair of the Ohio Democratic party, who offered bipartisan words of praise for the crisis response of his states Republican governor, Mike DeWine. Kushner has terrible judgment, and I dont remember a decision hes been involved with that hasnt just been bad theyve been horrible. And the idea that everything has to go through the very flawed judgment of Jared Kushner is downright scary, and I believe at this point is costing American lives. Doctors test hospital staff for coronavirus outside the emergency department at St Barnabas hospital in New York City. The US has conducted 1.3m tests so far. Photograph: Misha Friedman/Getty Images Early this year, Kushner reportedly advised Donald Trump that the coronavirus was not that dangerous more a threat to public confidence, and the markets, than to public health. Trump stuck with that message for six tragic weeks, between the confirmation of the first US case and a belated federal decision to speed the development of test kits. Story continues And it was Kushner who helped write a disastrous Trump Oval Office speech on 12 March announcing a European travel ban that sent markets into a tailspin and travelers crowding into airports. It was Kushner who solicited help from the father of the fashion model Karlie Kloss, his sister-in-law, to ask a Facebook group of doctors what should be done about the virus. Pepper expressed concern that when a governor calls the White House, she has to talk to Kushner, who then decides, apparently unilaterally, what the state really needs. He runs a shadow taskforce In a rare appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday, Kushner said some governors did not have precise knowledge of their states inventory of ventilators and delivered a lecture on the art of management. The way the federal government is trying to allocate is, theyre trying to make sure you have your data right, Kushner said. Dont ask us for things when you dont know what you have in your own state, just because youre scared. What a lot of the voters are seeing now is that when you elect somebody to be a mayor or governor or president, youre trying to think about who will be a competent manager during the time of crisis, he continued. This is a time of crisis and youre seeing certain people are better managers than others. Walter Shaub, a former director of the Office of Government Ethics under Barack Obama, reacted strongly on Twitter, calling Kushner a feckless nepotist who presumes to criticize governors striving to fill the void left by this previously unimaginable federal failure! Trump has placed top experts in public health and disaster response on his coronavirus taskforce, including Dr Anthony Fauci, the countrys foremost infectious disease expert, and Dr Deborah Birx, the former head of global health at the state department. But the adviser with the most influence over what Trump says and does appears to be Kushner, the son of a billionaire New Jersey developer, who just two months ago asserted his expertise on the Middle East conflict by saying: Ive read 25 books on it. The precise dimensions of Kushners emergency response role are difficult to pin down because his authority, which stems from his marriage, exists outside the mapped structure of government agencies. He seems to be inventing his role on the fly, and to have the power to do so. Jared Kushner attends a meeting at Fema headquarters in Washington with Donald Trump. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters Asked on Thursday to reply to reports that he runs a shadow taskforce on the coronavirus, Kushner smiled and said Mike Pence had asked him to help out. I can assure that you Im speaking with Dr Birx, Dr Fauci, the vice-president and the president multiple times a day, to make sure that Im accomplishing and focusing on the objectives that the vice-president deems a priority, he said. Kushner urged Trump to open America up by Easter Kushner, who before his White House stint ran a newspaper into the ground and a real estate company into the red, has already made mistakes in the coronavirus crisis that cannot be recovered, his critics say. It was Kushner who reportedly spread the word that Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, was being alarmist when Cuomo asked the federal government for 30,000 emergency ventilators for the state. I have all this data about ICU capacity, Kushner was quoted as telling Trump by a White House source speaking to Vanity Fair. Im doing my own projections, and Ive gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesnt need all the ventilators. Its a case study for the problem with nepotism David Pepper Its not clear why Kushner thinks that. Cuomo announced on Friday that the national guard would deploy across the state to seize ventilators from hospitals that do not currently need them to deliver to New York City and other areas in need. And it was Kushner who urged Trump to overrule the health experts on staff and declare that America would be open for business on Easter with packed churches all over our country, in Trumps words. Easter is one week away. The White House has since pushed the date back. The White House did not reply to a request for comment for this story. Kushner on Thursday asserted that the administration was turning in a strong performance. Weve done things that the government has never done before, quicker than theyve ever done it before, he said, without specifying what, exactly. A month ago, Trump said the country would perform 4m tests a week. As of Thursday, the total tests conducted in the United States so far was 1.3m, Birx said. He surrounds himself with yes men Elizabeth Spiers, one of a carousel of editors Kushner appointed during his ill-fated tenure as publisher of the New York Observer newspaper, recently described her horror at the prospect of her former boss as coronavirus czar. The short version is that Jared Kushner is incurious, not inclined to defer to experts, and surrounds himself with yes men, so he is unaccustomed to being told that his decision-making is bad, Spiers wrote. He believes his capabilities far exceed what they are, and his assessment is reinforced by the people around him who are paid to tell him that. In this sense, he is not unlike his father-in-law. Kushner grew up in New Jersey and matriculated at Harvard after his father, Charles Kushner, gave the school $2.5m. He took over the familys real estate business when his father went to prison for tax evasion and witness tampering. He married Ivanka Trump in 2009. Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. The presidents son-in-law has mostly shied from the public stage, but he now is working in historys spotlight. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP He has an infamously broad portfolio in the White House. In addition to being in charge of bringing peace to the Middle East, Kushner is or was in charge of Trumps impeachment strategy; the Trump 2020 campaign budget; diplomacy with Saudi Arabia and Beijing, which both have targeted him as an asset, according to US intelligence assessments; solving the opioid crisis; developing internet infrastructure; running an Office of American Innovation building a border wall, and more. Related: Jared Kushner's coronavirus overreach puts more American lives on the line | Lloyd Green Hopefully my results speak for themselves, Kushner told Time magazine for a January profile. I think that Ive accomplished a lot. I think the president trusts me, and he knows Ive had his back, and he knows that Ive been able to execute for him on a lot of different objectives. Kushner has occasionally delivered for the administration, steering a criminal justice reform bill into law in late 2018. The problem with Kushner is ultimately a problem with Trump, Pepper said. Its a case study for the problem with nepotism, he said. When [Ohio governor] DeWine is standing up there, even though his own kids are involved in politics theyre not the ones standing next to him. Whos leading the Ohio response? Amy Acton, the state health director, who has studied and taught this her whole life. The biggest difference between DeWine and Trump is, one is relying on experts who have prepared for this for years. And the other is relying on Jared Kushner. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After reading a story about how Luke Adams -- a 35-year-old nurse from Bloomsburg, Pa. -- was sleeping in his car while caring for Staten Island coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, a Huguenot family opened their home to him. My husband saw the story pop up on his phone [in a SILive push alert]. He came home and we discussed it, she said. I have a rare lung disease, so the apartment has its own entrance for him. The family -- who wishes to remain anonymous except to say their children attend Monsignor Farrell and St. Joseph By-The-Sea high schools -- said they were touched by his story and immediately wanted to help. We are so grateful for what he is doing for our city. We want to give back, and thats the least we can do," added the homeowner. In addition to the Huguenot family, the Advance received a flood of emails from people who wanted to do everything from pay for a night in a hotel to give him a room in their home. And Adams is more than touched by the outpouring of support. This will be a place to rest my head after work, he said. Its only through the kindness of others that were going to get through this, added Adams, who said he hopes other medical professionals who come from out-of-town will benefit from Staten Islanders generosity. We are not looking for a free ride, but we just want to have a place to stay when we are here helping out, he said. Once he heard about the rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York, the critical care nurse left his wife and young children, rented a Nissan Rouge that would fit a small mattress in the back, and headed for Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), Ocean Breeze. Luke Adams, his wife, Abbi, Son, Jack, 8, and his daughter, Remy, 9-months. (Courtesy of Luke Adams) After arriving on Staten Island, he worked 12-hour shifts, eight days straight; all the time, sleeping in the back of his rented SUV. An SIUH spokesperson confirmed Northwell Health is reaching out to staffing agencies for per diem nurses, like Adams, and other healthcare professionals. She also confirmed that the hospital can arrange for hotel accommodations for anyone who needs it. BIG ON SERVICE Adams is no stranger to offering his nursing skills in times of need. Im big on service. ...I volunteer a lot. Ive worked in third world countries, he said. This was something that is brand new and something healthcare has never faced before. ... We are learning so much every day about what works and what doesnt work because its a brand new situation; theres no manual for it. And while supplies and equipment, like ventilators, are greatly needed, so are healthcare professionals, he said. Im planning to stay through June. No one really knows what the course of this is going to be, said Adams. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK*** Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE Amazon workers protest working conditions amid coronavirus outbreak Staten Island Amazon worker who planned protest amid coronavirus is fired Amazon workers plan walkout at Staten Island facility Monday due to coronavirus S.I. Amazon worker with coronavirus quarantined: What protocols are in place? Coronavirus: Macys to furlough almost 125,000 employees Lawmakers urged to pass bill canceling rent for 90 days These companies are hiring in wake of coronavirus Coronavirus and the workplace: How Staten Islands largest employers are coping Cuomo: New York pause extended until at least April 15 Coronavirus: NY officially on pause; all non-essential businesses shuttered Coronavirus: Temporary hospital sites chosen; none on Staten Island Turning 50 in wake of coronavirus: A surprise drive-by bash Coronavirus: DMV shuts down all offices, auto bureaus Relief for homeowners: 90-day mortgage extension and more Rapidly shifting real estate market: Canceled open houses, virtual tours Coronavirus: Senate passes paid-leave bill for all New Yorkers Staten Island sees 120% jump in confirmed coronavirus cases, with 165, as testing capacity expands Small business owner: Coronavirus is going to crush us Governor: 75% of non-essential employees must work at home Coronavirus: NYC travel industry in triage mode FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER KYODO NEWS - Apr 5, 2020 - 23:10 | All, Japan, Coronavirus Japan will earmark 1 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) for a reserve fund to fight the new coronavirus pandemic, according to a draft of an emergency economic package being compiled by the government. With the fund, the government will provide an additional 10,000 yen per child for families that receive child allowances, says the draft made available on Sunday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet is expected to approve the fund, together with a supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, in a meeting on Tuesday. With the number of infections in Japan topping 4,500 and the domestic death toll exceeding 100, the government says the pandemic has caused "the biggest economic crisis since World War II," according to the draft. As a key pillar of the emergency package, the government will provide 300,000 yen to households whose income has fallen by more than half from the previous year, it says. Households whose income has reduced to a level that would exempt them from paying the resident tax will also be eligible for the cash handout program. Applicants will be required to file for support at their respective municipal government offices. The additional child-rearing assistance will be distributed to households that receive 10,000 to 15,000 yen a month for children up to ninth grade, usually 15 years old, according to the draft. The additional 10,000 yen per child will be provided one time only. In a meeting of Liberal Democratic Party executives on Sunday, the government also reported a plan to extend 2 million yen for small and medium-sized businesses whose income has fallen by more than half, as well as 1 million yen for the self-employed such as freelance workers. (Stores are closed in Tokyo's Asakusa district on April 5, 2020.) Interest-free loans of up to 30 million yen will be provided through private financial institutions for small and midsized companies whose sales have fallen by 20 percent or more in the past month. The loans will be available for three years. In an effort to help companies -- regardless of their size -- bring production facilities back to Japan, the government will subsidize half of their relocation costs. For major companies, the government will expand the size of crisis response loans through the Development Bank of Japan and other lenders to 5 trillion yen from the current 200 billion yen. Related coverage: Tokyo confirms record 143 new coronavirus infections Police in Australia launch criminal probe into coronavirus-stricken ship Japan eyes tripling Avigan drug stockpile to fight coronavirus Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Miguel Medina (Agence France-Presse) Varese, Italy Sun, April 5, 2020 17:06 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd5918 2 Health coronavirus,COVID-19,Italy,pandemic,robot,doctor,technology Free The shiny new robots gently check the pulses of highly infectious patients on life support in the Italian epicenter of COVID-19. The doctors and nurses love them because they also help save their own lives. Italians have seen the world around them turn unrecognizable from the various lockdowns and social distancing measures used to fight the new coronavirus outbreak. But little appears to have pained them as much as seeing dozens of doctors and nurses die while trying to save the tens of thousands of patients who have suddenly ended up in hospitals across Italy's pandemic-hit north. The country's medical association said Friday that at least 70 medics have died from various causes since Italy recorded the first official COVID-19 death on February 21. The fear is that an overwhelmingly majority of the 70 would still be alive today had they been better protected against the coronavirus. This helps explain why the doctors are nurses in a hospital near Italy's mountainous border with Switzerland are laughing behind their facemasks while posing for photos with their new robot friends. The Varese hospital has received six of the sleek and slightly human looking machines on wheels. Some are white and have screens and various sensors in place of a human head. Read also: Thai hospitals deploy 'ninja robots' to aid virus battle Others are simpler and look a little like a black broomstick on wheels. The doctors say the robots bring smiles from the younger patients. But their real purpose is to help save doctors from both catching and spreading the disease. "Robots are tireless assistants that can't get infected, that can't get sick," said the Circolo Hospital's intensive care unit director Francesco Dentali. "Doctors and nurses have been hit hard by this virus. The fact that the robots can't get infected is a great achievement." The readings from the machines allows medics to stay out of the intensive care units and monitor patients' vital signs on computer screens in separate rooms. Italy's death toll, the worst globally, has reached 14,681 and is on course to top 15,000 this weekend. Doctors doubt the official figures and think the real number of dead may be twice as high in Varese's Lombardy region. Italy is expected to remain under a general lockdown at least through the end month. Simona Boneva, left, and roommate Gayle Curry stand outside their East Hollywood apartment. (Allen Schaben/Los Angeles Times) Simona Boneva knew she wasnt going to be able to pay her rent this month. Her shift as an office manager at a media company was cut in half, and her bartending job went away entirely because of the citywide shutdown over the coronavirus outbreak. When she went to talk to her landlord, the company responded with a letter outlining terms for it to agree to temporary relief and a repayment plan among them that she turn over any money from a federal stimulus check or from a charity within five days. I cant believe that they would legally be able to do that, said Boneva, 27, who rents a two-bedroom apartment in East Hollywood with a roommate. Theyre not entitled to the money for your rent above all else. Boneva didnt sign the agreement. The landlord, Rom Residential, says the letter was a draft that never should have been sent to tenants suddenly struggling to pay rent. But the letter is just one example of how many landlords in Los Angeles have been pushing their tenants to agree to repayment plans that are far more onerous than whats required under state and city laws passed to prevent evictions during the pandemic. Some have informed tenants that they must produce pay stubs and bank statements, showing how the coronavirus has hurt their incomes. Still others have told tenants that all back rent is due when the government-declared states of emergency end. Neither is true. Under the citys anti-eviction rules, Angelenos simply have to notify their landlord within seven days that theyre unable to pay because of economic or health circumstances caused by the virus, and they have up to a year after the emergency declaration expires to pay past-due rent. Pressure from landlords to sign repayment plans before the full effects of the coronavirus are known may lead renters already unsettled by job losses and government stay-at-home orders to sign away their rights and ultimately facilitate their own evictions, tenant advocates say. Story continues It may lock them into an agreement they may not be able to fulfill, and then they might end up getting evicted anyway, said Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, which advocates for tenants. It puts them in a horrible situation, and they dont know otherwise." Elena Popp, an attorney and director of the Eviction Defense Network, said that since April 1, nearly two dozen tenants in L.A. have sent her letters from their landlords, asking for financial statements or repayment obligations that go beyond what the city says is required. Confusion over the anti-eviction rules stems in part from the haphazard patchwork of federal, state and local tenant protections that has emerged in the last few weeks. As part of the federal stimulus package approved last month, there is a nationwide eviction moratorium for nonpayment of rent, but only for renters whose landlords have mortgages backed by the federal government something most tenants don't know and would have a difficult time figuring out. Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed to delay eviction proceedings for renters affected by the virus, but only through May. And dozens of mayors and city councils across the state have come up with their own rules like the ones enacted in L.A. Landlords are struggling to understand which rules they have to follow, said Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles. At the same time, many are also navigating a similarly haphazard patchwork of government protections for late mortgage payments. Its really unfair whats being done, Yukelson said. We did not go in the business to be lenders to tenants. And thats what were being asked to do. Leeor Maciborski, a partner at Rom Residential, said he was sorry the company had asked tenants to turn over their stimulus checks. The company, he said, was trying to figure out what it was allowed to require and sent the letters prematurely. Staffers at Rom Residential, which manages about 1,500 apartments, have been speaking with tenants individually to try to understand their circumstances and develop alternatives, such as providing a discount if theyre able to pay on time, Maciborski said. Were working really hard to get everyone what they need, he said. Its been a flood. Rom Residential is sending out a new letter that eliminates some requests but still tells tenants to turn over documents proving theyve been affected by the coronavirus. The city of L.A.'s eviction protections don't require tenants to do this; instead, they ask tenants to keep such records as a defense against a potential eviction in court. Noah, who declined to give his last name, participates in a demonstration with members of the Los Angeles Tenants Union and their supporters at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights recently. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times) Everything is so uncertain, said Margaret Lebron, a tenant at a different Rom Residential building in Los Feliz. I dont know if Im going to lose my job. My boyfriend doesnt know when hes going to get back to work. He doesnt know when hes going to get his unemployment. We dont know if were going to get sick. It just seems reckless to plunder our savings to pay something that were not legally obligated to pay right now. Lebron said she and her boyfriend debated whether to pay their April rent, even though they were aware of the eviction protections, because they feared their landlord might retaliate against them by withholding their security deposit or being slow to make repairs. Ultimately, they decided to pay half. Simone Pascal, a 72-year-old actress and artist who lives in East Hollywood, made a different decision. She decided to pay her full rent for April. Also forced out of work by the pandemic, Pascal said she received a letter from her property management company, Crescent Canyon Management, saying tenants who couldn't pay their rent needed to submit a bank statement and pay stub within a week. The company also insisted that all back rent would be due once the city's emergency declaration has ended. Most of my money is going toward the rent, Pascal said of her new financial vulnerability. Im getting [services from] Meals on Wheels, and thats helping. Crescent Canyon has since revised what it is telling tenants. Any confusion related to prior notices was unintentional, and we are working to correct it as quickly as possible, the company said in a statement. Both Rom Residential and Crescent Canyon received letters from L.A. City Councilman David Ryu after he became aware of what they were telling their tenants. Ryu, whose district stretches from the Miracle Mile through the Hollywood Hills to Sherman Oaks, said he planned to continue sending letters to landlords that violate the citys anti-eviction rules. But he said the entire situation shows that the City Council should have enacted a blanket moratorium on evictions across L.A., rather than the more limited version that's in place now and may require tenants to go to court to prove that the virus affected them. A Ryu-supported motion that would have implemented a blanket ban failed by one vote at last weeks council meeting. Meanwhile, the city's Housing and Community Investment Department is developing a template for landlords and tenants to use when they work out a plan for paying back rent, said Rushmore Cervantes, the department's general manager. The city is encouraging both landlords and renters to call the housing department for help. I really think April 1 is a precursor, Ryu said. If we cant figure this out for April 1, on May 1 were going to be in even more of a world of hurt. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Cairo, Egypt Sun, April 5, 2020 09:26 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc3fb2 2 World Egypt,Coptic-Christians,COVID-19,easter Free Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church has decided to suspend prayers preceding Easter celebrations later this month as part of efforts to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The church, which last month ordered the closure of churches and suspension of services nationwide, said the decision was taken on Thursday during a meeting chaired by Pope Tawadros II. "Prayers, including Holy Week services, which are considered the most important rituals in the Coptic Orthodox church, will be suspended" until the pandemic is contained, a statement posted on Facebook said. Holy Week prayers precede Easter Sunday, which this year will be celebrated on April 19 by the Orthodox community, one week later than the Catholic Easter. Church spokesman Boulos Halim said these were "unprecedented and historic" measures implemented to stem the crisis. On March 21, the church ordered the closure of all churches and suspended ritual services, masses and other religious activities for two weeks to combat the spread of the virus. With Thursday's decision, these measures will continue until further notice. It was not yet clear if Pope Tawadros II, who heads the Coptic church, would go ahead with a pared-down midnight mass ahead of Easter. Coptic Christians are the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the Middle East and account for 10-15 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population of 100 million. Also in March, Egypt's Catholic church said it was suspending masses until further notice. Egypt so far has recorded 71 deaths out of 1,070 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. Authorities have imposed tough measures to limit social interaction in the Arab world's most populous country, including a night-time curfew that went into effect last week. Those violating the measures could face fines of up to 4,000 Egyptian pounds ($250) and jail sentences. Authorities have also closed schools and universities, while air traffic has been halted until April 15. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 11:55:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Changan Ford Automobile Co. will recall 48,933 sedans from the Chinese market over safety concerns, according to the country's top quality watchdog. The recall, set to begin on April 7, will involve Taurus sedans produced between Feb. 12, 2015 and March 14, 2017, according to a statement on the website of the State Administration for Market Regulation. The affected vehicles were supposed to be installed with undurable brake hoses, which may develop cracks and cause leaks in extreme cases due to fatigue. This will also likely lengthen the distance needed to stop the vehicles, posing safety concerns. The automaker promised to replace the defective parts of the recalled vehicles free of charge, according to the statement. Colleges nationwide are closing their doors and moving to online-only learning amid the coronavirus pandemic. If youre left in the lurch, the federal stimulus provides some student loan relief, but youll want to turn to your college for answers, too. All students with federal loans qualify to delay payments, interest-free, through September. Some private lenders are offering forbearance as well. Here is additional financial help that may be available to college students. Independent students can get a stimulus check Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, most undergraduate college students will not receive a stimulus check. Thats because your parents might have claimed you as a dependent on their tax return, and dependents dont qualify. Most students under age 24 are considered dependents. But students who are independent like many graduate students and undergraduates older than 24 will get the full $1,200 one-time amount if they have an income of $75,000 or less. Students who are married with no children will receive a total $2,400 if their combined income is $150,000 or less. Those with children can receive an additional $500 per child. The amount phases out for those earning $99,000 as a single person, $136,500 for heads of household (usually single parents) or $198,000 for married couples. You might qualify for unemployment benefits If you worked part-time or full-time while enrolled, and you were laid off or if youre a gig worker whose work is affected by the pandemic you may be eligible for unemployment benefits. On top of that, you could receive an additional $600 of Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation per week. The benefits will last up to 39 weeks. Compensation will vary by state. Contact your states unemployment office to apply for benefits, usually online or over the phone. You can still receive federal work-study If your school or employer closes and you lose your federal work-study job, you may be eligible to receive multiple payments or a one-time grant for the remaining period you were set to work. The amount you receive will be based on your award amount rather than hours worked. Contact your college to find out how they are carrying out this policy. You may get reimbursed if your campus closes housing If you had to leave campus and are now learning remotely, you may be able to get some of your money back. Most schools are reimbursing students for some of their non-tuition costs, such as housing, meals and facility fees. Dont count on a tuition discount if your college switches to online learning. But ask about potential refunds for classes that cant be held remotely, such as physical fitness or hands-on lab courses. Getting a reimbursement will be similar to returning a purchase youre either going to get a credit to use for a future payment to the school or a direct refund, and it all depends on the schools policy. Any amount you receive back into your account or as a future credit will be prorated, meaning youll receive a portion of the overall costs you paid according to how much time is left in the semester. You can keep refunds from unused loans, but its still borrowed money you have to repay. Consider returning those funds to your lender, especially if you have an unsubsidized federal loan, PLUS loan or a private loan, which all accrue interest while youre in school. Few colleges have canceled classes entirely without moving to remote learning. Berea College, a nontraditional working school in Kentucky, closed its doors and will offer prorated refunds to students. If it happens to your school, youre likely to be reimbursed for all costs for the rest of the semester, including tuition. Not every school will provide a refund. For example, Georgetown College, also in Kentucky, has stated it cannot offer a refund for room, board or parking passes. Check with your schools financial aid office if you have questions. You could still stay on campus if you have nowhere to go If your dorm is your primary residence, contact your college housing and financial aid offices to find out your options for remaining on campus. Colleges are making concessions for students with extenuating circumstances, such as those who are low-income, homeless or are international students from countries with travel restrictions. Northeastern University in Boston, for example, is not requiring students to move out. Neither is Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. At Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, students who have nowhere else to go can apply to continue receiving room and board. Your school may keep a certain portion of housing open, but contact your schools housing office to find out if meal services will continue and about your options for food. Emergency aid may be available Colleges may have emergency funds already available, and the CARES Act provides $7 billion in funds to colleges specifically designated for emergency financial aid. The CARES Act also mandates that schools can use Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant funds to provide emergency aid to students experiencing a qualifying emergency due to COVID-19. This could include emergency grants, loans, scholarships or vouchers to cover expenses related to schooling and housing. Some colleges, like Columbia University in New York City, are offering an emergency fund for students who need help with travel or storage expenses in order to leave campus. Loan and Pell Grant limits are waived For those who dont complete college this semester, the CARES Act calls for colleges to waive lifetime limits on certain aid, including Pell Grants. That means any federal direct loan or Pell Grant money you used for school this semester wont count toward your lifetime limit for either aid type. You can request more financial aid. Even if you have already filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, you can appeal your award. This is useful if your familys finances have changed due to events like job loss or medical expenses. To update the FAFSA, sign in to fasfa.ed.gov and click on Make FAFSA Correction. Enter your FSA ID, make changes and submit. You can make changes up until the FAFSA deadline June 30 after the school year you need aid. So if you need more aid to help out with expenses this school year, you have until June 30, 2020, to do it. To update your FAFSA for 2020-21 you have until June 30, 2021. You can also contact your schools financial aid office with your request for more aid via email or phone. Include a request for a specific additional sum youll need and supporting documents. More From NerdWallet Anna Helhoski is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: anna@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @AnnaHelhoski. President Donald Trump attends a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Washington. Associated Press/Patrick Semansky President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday he agreed "100%" with the Navy's decision to fire the commander who sent a letter pleading for help with the coronavirus outbreak on his ship. "I thought it was terrible what he did, to write a letter? I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear-powered," Trump said. Navy officials said they fired Capt. Brett Crozier because he bypassed the chain of command by sending the letter, and wasn't careful with who the information was sent to. Crozier has been hailed in the wake of his firing, with his sailors giving him a raucous send-off and chanting his name as he left the ship in Guam. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Related Video: How the Navy's Largest Hospital Ship Can Help With the Pandemic President Donald Trump on Saturday bashed Capt. Brett Crozier, the fired Navy commander who wrote a letter demanding assistance with the coronavirus outbreak on his ship that sickened dozens of sailors. Trump said he agreed "100%" with the Navy's decision to fire the commander, though he acknowledged he didn't "know much about it." Navy officials removed Crozier from command on Thursday, several days after he sent a four-page letter to senior military officials pleading for help from the Pentagon as the virus spread throughout the ship. The letter was then leaked to the media. The acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told media the dismissal was because Crozier circumvented the chain of command when he sent the letter, and wasn't careful with "who that information went to." "He wrote a letter. The letter was a five-page letter from a captain. And the letter was all over the place," Trump told reporters at his Saturday press briefing, inaccurately stating the number of pages. "That's not appropriate. I don't think that's appropriate." Story continues In the letter, Crozier had described the impossible feat of implementing quarantines and social-distancing guidelines, noting that the warship had major space limitations. Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, at an all-hands call on the ships flight deck, December 15, 2019 US Navy/MCS Seaman Alexander Williams He urged the military officials to remove most of the 4,800 service members aboard the ship and provide space to quarantine on shore in Guam, saying he knew it was an "extraordinary measure," but that it was a "necessary risk." "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors." In his Saturday press briefing, Trump said he thought the letter "looked terrible." "I thought it was terrible what he did, to write a letter? I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear-powered," Trump said. "And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter. He could call and ask, and suggest." After Crozier was fired, several videos went viral showing the send-off the sailors gave him. Crozier walked off the ship in Guam to raucous cheers and applause, with sailors chanting Crozier's name. The Navy announced Saturday that 155 people aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt had tested positive for COVID-19, none were hospitalized, and 44% of the ship's crew had been tested. So far, 1,548 sailors have been moved ashore, and the ship will keep enough sailors aboard "to sustain essential services and sanitize the ship in port," the Navy said. Read the original article on Business Insider Shelley Davies waits for her delivery at Plants and Friends./Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases as of Sunday at Laguna Honda Hospital stands at 14, San Francisco officials announced. The total includes 11 staff members and three residents. Of the staff members, eight have had patient care duties. All 14 cases are described as in good condition. The count a week ago was two patients and seven staff members. "We expect more cases of COVID-19 in the Laguna Honda community, among staff and residents, because the virus is now spreading throughout the Bay Area," the city's Department of Emergency Management said in an announcement. "This is a very challenging time, and (Laguna Honda) has expanded behavioral health resources for staff and residents." In response to a request from the city, the California Department of Public Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sent skilled personnel to Laguna Honda, including infection control nurses, infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists. "These experts have insights from around the country and across the world to help us do better in our response," city officials said. The hospital is under a protective quarantine order issued by the city on March 25. As of 9 a.m. on Sunday the total number of COVID-19 cases in San Francisco was 568, with eight deaths recorded. 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. US President has said that he has requested Prime Minister to release the amount of ordered by the United States, a medicine in short supply that could help with facing the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump said he called Modi on Saturday morning and told him: "I'd appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered and they are giving it serious consideration." He held out hope of the ban being released because "they make large amounts of hydroxychloroquine, very large amounts, frankly." About India's ban on its export, Trump said, "They hold (the medicine) because they have 1.5 billion people." On March 25, India banned the export of hydroxychloroquine, which is used primarily to treat and lupus.India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on March 25 banned the export of but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. Trump, who has been promoting the use of as a preventive and a therapeutic drug for Covid-19, said that he might try it himself. "I may take it, and I may have to ask my doctors about that," he said. There has been a run on the medicine in the US because of the reports of its efficacy against Responding to the shortages, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, anAIndian American, has ordered its sale restricted to only those with a diagnosis and a patient record. "Stockpiling and hoarding drugs, and inappropriate prescribing for friends and family, is unacceptable." he said. When Trump spoke at the daily briefing of the White House Task Force in Washington, the number of those in the US affected by the virus had reached 311,357, an increase of 34,196 since Friday, according to Worldometers.com. The total number of deaths from the virus was 8,452. Trump's recommendation for the use hydroxychloroquine has faced opposition from the media, some of which have labelled it "dangerous." Trump pointed out that it has been used widely to treat and lupus but also said that the therapy should not be used by those with heart problems. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of hydroxychloroquine on a limited basis to treat Following a quick provisional approval from the US Federal Drug Administration last Saturday, the drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. Despite the political opposition, a Democratic Party leader, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, was the first to ask for it and has started a pilot programme to test hydroxychloroquine with about 1,000 people. The state is the epicentre of the pandemic in the US with 114,775 cases, anAincrease of 11,299 since Friday, and a total toll of 3,565 deaths, according to Worldometer. Now Trump wants to widen its use to others who want to try it, even as a preventive while a vaccine is being developed against Covid-19, a process that can take more than a year. He said that according to a study people who had lupus andA were taking the medicine haven't been catching the virus. "May be it's true, may be it's not, by don't you investigate that," he challenged the skeptic reporters. Trump said, "There are also other studies with the malaria, that the malaria (high incidence) countries have very little (cases because of) people that take this drug for malaria, which is very effective for malaria that those countries have very little of this virus." The chief scientist on the Coronavirus Task Force, Anthony Fauci, has taken a hands off approach pointing out that there have been no clinical trial results as yet to prove its efficacy on a scientific basis while saying that doctors could prescribe it in consultation with their patients. A randomised study of 62 patients who received either a placebo or hydroxychloroquine at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University showed that those getting the medication recovered faster. A study in France found that a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin had reduced theAvirus in Covid-19 patients. Scientists across the world in particular in the US are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Texas based worship leader Whitlee Casey has released his new single 'Praise the Name of Jesus' following on from the release earlier this year of the single 'Keep The Fire Burning'. As a child, music has always been a big part of Whitlee Casey's family history. Whitlee picked up music through his dad who played a lot after high school and began learning guitar by playing music with his dad at a young age and listening to music that inspired him, such as Garth Brooks, Steven Curtis Chapman, and David Crowder. While Whitlee continues to record and write songs, He is currently leading worship and serving as a full time worship ministry associate at Temple Bible Church in Temple, TX. He has been traveling, performing his music and leading worship across the country for over 10 years now. Whitlee found Christ at the age of 13 after hearing Romans 8:39 for the first time one night at a youth service that was close to his home. It reminded him that no matter what decision we face in our lives nothing can separate us from Jesus and His love! Since his solo career started, Whitlee has had the honor to share the stage with some of Today's best Christian Talent such as For KING & COUNTRY, Crowder, Hollyn, Citizen Way, and many more. "Christian music has impacted my lifestyle beginning when I was a teenager. When I accepted Christ I began surrounding myself with people who would keep me accountable with my faith in Christ. There's not a doubt in my mind that God has called me to write songs for Him and minister through performing these Contemporary Christian songs all around the world." Tags : Whitlee Casey 'Keep The Fire Burning' Whitlee Casey Whitlee Casey news Whitlee Casey new single President Donald Trump told Americans to brace for a big spike in coronavirus fatalities in the coming days, as the country faces what he called the toughest two weeks of the pandemic. "There's going to be a lot of death," Trump said at a briefing with reporters. He pushed back on criticism that the federal government has not done enough to get ventilators that many critically ill coronavirus patients need to survive to the states, saying some governors are asking for more machines than they will need. "Fears of shortages have led to inflated requests," Trump said of submissions his administration has received to dole out equipment from the strategic national stockpile. The United States has the world's highest number of known cases of COVID-19, the flu-like respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. More than 306,000 people have tested positive in the United States and over 8,300 have died, according to a Reuters tally. White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed. Read More "We are coming up to a time that is going to be very horrendous," Trump said at the White House. "We probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war, during a World War One or Two or something." In the grimmest day yet for the U.S. state hit hardest by the pandemic, coronavirus-related illnesses killed 630 people in the last 24 hours in New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday. The disease has now killed 3,565 people in New York and the situation is particularly worrying on Long Island, east of New York City, where the number of cases "is like a fire spreading," Cuomo told a news conference. Health experts calculate that New York, home both to bustling Manhattan and hilly farm country stretching to the Canadian border, might be around a week away from the worst point in the health crisis which has killed about 60,000 people worldwide. "We're not yet at the apex, we're getting closer ... Our reading of the projections is we're somewhere in the seven-day range," Cuomo said. "It's only been 30 days since our first case," he said. "It feels like an entire lifetime." New York City alone accounted for more than a quarter of the U.S. coronavirus deaths tallied by Johns Hopkins University. Hospitals and morgues in the city are struggling to treat the desperately ill and bury the dead. Because of the risk of infection, many people with critically ill relatives in New York City are unable to see their loved ones in their final hours. A resident at New York-Presbyterian hospital said he and his colleagues have made several death notification phone calls every shift this week. "There's something sort of unquantifiably painful about telling a family their loved one died without letting them see them," he said. The emergency stockpile of medical equipment maintained by the U.S. government has nearly run out of protective garb for doctors and nurses. Cuomo announced that the Chinese government facilitated a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will arrive at JFK airport on Saturday. "This is a big deal and it's going to make a significant difference for us," Cuomo said. The dispatch of the ventilators was a result of a conversation on March 27 between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a source familiar with the discussions said. Almost all Americans are under orders from state and local officials to stay home except for essential outings such as grocery shopping or seeing a doctor. Areas of the country such as Florida and Texas that had been slow to lock down have started practicing social distancing and sheltering at home. "We see what's going on in New York now, we see that people are dying," Rick Scott, a U.S. senator from Florida, told Fox News Channel. "People are beginning to understand that the best way that we can slow the spread and actually avoid death is by this stay-at-home standard, going out only for essential services," Texas governor Greg Abbott told the channel. He was among the last governors to issue a statewide order telling residents to avoid leaving their home. There were still some hold-outs elsewhere, though. Louisiana pastor Tony Spell said he plans to hold three services at his 1,000-member Life Tabernacle megachurch in a suburb of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Palm Sunday this weekend, defying state orders against assembling in large groups. "We're defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel," he told Reuters. Louisiana has become a U.S. hot spot for the virus, on Saturday reporting a jump in deaths to 409. Emergency authorities in Ukraine say there are no signs of any fire still burning in the uninhabited exclusion zone around the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant after firefighters mobilized to put out a blaze. The country's State Emergency Service said early on April 5 that background radiation levels were "within normal limits." More than 130 firefighters, three aircraft, and 21 vehicles were deployed on April 4 to battle the fire, which was said to have burned around 20 hectares (50 acres) in the long-vacated area near where an explosion at a Soviet nuclear plant in 1986 sent a plume of radioactive fallout high into the air and across swaths of Europe. Fire and safety crews were said to be inspecting the area overnight on April 4-5 to eliminate any threat from sites where there was still smoldering. The blaze required seven airdrops of water, officials said. The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said that "as of April 5, 7:00 a.m., there was no open fire, only some isolated cells smoldering." It said firefighters hadn't seen any flames since around 8:00 p.m. on April 4. Officials had earlier shared images taken from an aircraft of white smoke blanketing the area, where it said firefighting was complicated by "an increased radiation background in individual areas of combustion." There was no threat to settlements, the State Emergency Service said. A number of regions of Ukraine this week have reported brushfires amid unseasonably dry conditions. WATCH: The Chernobyl Disaster: How It Happened Fires are a routine threat in the forested region around the exclusion zone where an explosion 33 years ago ripped a roof off the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat. The 1986 explosion sent a cloud of radioactive material high into the air above then-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, as well as across Europe as Soviet officials denied there had been any accidents. Dozens of people in Ukraine died in the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, and thousands more have since died from its effects, mainly exposure to radiation. A second massive protective shelter over the contaminated reactor was completed in 2016 in hopes of preventing further radiation leaks and setting the stage for the eventual dismantling of the structure. With additional reporting by Interfax A 19-year-old York County woman went out for a drive just to get out of the house for awhile on Sunday evening and was circling her way back home when she was stopped by two state police cars. They cited her for violating Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home order that took effect in York County two days before. Anita Shaffer is now faced with what appears to be a ticket of at least $202.25 for breaking the states Disease Control and Prevention Act of 1955. She pleaded not guilty and intends to take up the matter before a magisterial district judge. The citation fails to mention a fine amount but Trooper Brent Miller said it is a summary offense and the fine would be $25, which would bring the total cost of the ticket up to $227.25. Shaffer said she saw the police cars parked in Yoe. After passing them, the police started following her until they pulled her over in Red Lion. One of the troopers said they stopped her because her taillight was out, she said. The trooper also mentioned that her window tinting was too dark, she said. She said the troopers also asked her if she was under the influence or on drugs. She told them she wasnt but she said she was still told to step out of her car and troopers shined a flashlight in her eyes. Then the trooper told her to return to her car. He asked me if I was aware of the stay-at-home act, she said. She responded: I am aware of it but I didnt know it pertained to just driving. The trooper told her he wasnt going to fine her for the window tint or taillight "but you should be at home during this act thats in place right now and just get the taillight fixed, Shaffer said. Once she got home, she and her father Neil Shaffer said they discovered the taillight was working fine. Shaffer said she was alone in her car and had no intention of getting out of it. On the citation, it states she failed to abide by the order of the governor and secretary of health issued to control the spread of a communicable disease, requiring the closure of all non-life-sustaining businesses as of 20:00 hours on March 19, 2020. To wit, defendant states that she was going for a drive after this violation was in effect. While the governors stay-at-home order is mandatory, state police spokesman Ryan Tarkowski said voluntary compliance is preferred and is what the state police are focusing on. Troopers have been encouraged to use contacts with the public as opportunities to reinforce the necessity to abide by stay-at-home orders, he said. However, Tarkowski added, Troopers maintain discretion to warn or issue citations and the decision is specific to the facts and circumstances of a particular encounter. Like companies that can be cited for failing to suspend in-person operations of a business that isnt life sustaining, he said individuals may be cited for failing to abide by the stay at home order. Tarkowski said Shaffers citation is the only one issued for violating the stay-at-home order. Since the governors stay-at-home order took effect statewide at 8 p.m. on April 1, two warnings have been issued, one in the northwestern counties and one in the southwestern counties. Shaffer said she felt she was within her rights to operate her car. Her father agreed. I think this is a little bit over the top," Neil Shaffer said. Theres a fine line here but at the same time, we still have some freedom, some rights and liberties and were allowed to operate our cars. Were allowed to go for a walk. Were allowed to go to the park and were even able to go to work if you work at a life-sustaining business or government agency, he said. Most everybody is trying their best but that was ridiculous in my opinion, he said. Neil Shaffer further said his daughters experience should serve as a warning to all Pennsylvanians. The public should be a little bit careful and I think our people in office ought to understand what some of the repercussions are," he said. "Some of the things border on harassment that could start to take place here if we have a police force that could be looking at things in the wrong light and maybe taking things too far. On Wednesday, the governor expanded the stay-at-home order across all of Pennsylvania. Its in effect until April 30. Earlier this week, Wolf responded to a question about whether his stay-at-home orders were being enforced on individuals. At this point were focusing the state polices efforts on business closures," Wolf said. Interestingly, the Pennsylvania State Police reported on Thursday that no citations have been issued to non-life-sustaining businesses operating in violation of the governors business closure order. Only warnings have been handed out. The laws that grant them the citation powers include a 1955 law, which is the same one Dr. Rachel Levine, the states health secretary, has cited for withholding details about COVID-19 cases, and a provision in the 1929 administrative code that gives law enforcement the power to charge someone who defies health department orders. Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York County, whose district includes Red Lion where Shaffer was stopped, said the mixed messages the administration has sent as part of its coronavirus mitigation efforts are confounding. The governor needs to mean what he says and say what he means during these unprecedented times," she said. "If you are telling the public they will not be ticketed for violating the stay-at-home order, and yet we are seeing evidence of that occurring, we have more confusion and a lack of trust. These are uncertain times. Clarity is needed now more than ever. Letter LEO Community by PennLive on Scribd * This story has been updated to reflect the most recent number of warnings issued for stay-at-home order violations since that order took effect statewide as well as to note that Anita Shaffers citation was the first one to be issued by state police in Pennsylvania. Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy. 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. More from PennLive UPMC doctors in Pa. say theyve developed a coronavirus vaccine Pa. coronavirus cases top 7,000, with more than 1,200 new cases; 90 have died Air India recently found a rather unexpected praise from an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of Pakistan. Air India was operating special flights from India to Frankfurt with relief materials and evacuated European nationals, who were stranded in India as coronavirus swept across continents, perishing millions and crippling the system of passenger planes criss-crossing the world. "It was a very proud moment for me as well as the entire Air India crew when we heard from Pakistan ATC praising our special flight operations to Europe," one of the senior captains of the special flight told ANI. "As we entered in the Pakistan's Flight Information Region (FIR) and the Pakistan Air Traffic Controller (ATC) greeted us 'Assalaam Alaikum!' This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the senior captain quoted the Pakistan ATC as saying. "Confirm are you operating relief flights for Frankfurt," the Pak ATC further said. "AFFIRM," said the Air India captain in Pakistan's airspace. "You are cleared direct to exit point Kebud request estimate crossing Kebud (Exit)," came response from the ATC. Air India captain replied, saying 'Cleared direct Kebud, Thank you'. At this, the Pakistan ATC showered praise on Air India. "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" "Thank you so much," responded the captain of India's national carrier. Furthermore, when the AI captain, who commanded the special flights, asked the Pakistan ATC that he is not getting next radar for the Iran airspace, Pakistan conveyed the Indian jet's position to the Tehran airspace and provided details of the two AI special flights. Many crew members of AI's Boeing-777 and Boeing 787 were deployed for the special evacuation flights for European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai and Delhi. Before taking off from Mumbai airport, the ATC there, besides giving permission praised the national carrier's efforts amidst crisis, saying 'we are proud of you'. The Captain also replied back stating that they were also proud of working with the ATC and all other services as a sign of mutual respect. After Pakistan airspace, the special AI flight entered Iran. As the captain told ANI, it had never happened before in his entire pilot career that the Middle East country had given a direct route of over 1,000 miles. "First time in my entire career as pilot, Iran gave a direct routing for about 1,000 miles a privilege guess enjoyed as special flights, in all especially in the recent tense situation in the Iranian airspace," he said. Iran has rarely given direct route to any of airlines because direct route of Iran airspace is strictly kept reserve for their defence purposes only. "Before leaving Iran airspace, the ATC there also wished us 'all the best'," the AI captain told ANI. After Iran, the AI special flights entered into the Turkey airspace and then Germany's. "All ATCs from Bombay to Frankfurt welcomed the special flights of Air India and wished us very proudly," the Captain said. The two special Air India flight flew out stranded European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai. All crew members including the pilots wore the mandatory COVID-19 coveralls for over 20 hours at a stretch (to/from and ground time at Frankfurt). They will now remain in self-quarantine for 14 days. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, India has announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown and many foreign nationals are still stranded in several parts of India. New Delhi, April 5 : Amid the lockdown, the Delhi government has extended till June 30 the terms of the empanelled private hospitals and centres for providing medical facilities. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has issued an order on the same, an official told IANS on Sunday. "The DGHS has empanelled private hospitals and centres for providing the medical facilities to beneficiaries of Delhi Government Employee Health Scheme. The present term of empanelment of already empanelled private hospitals and centres which were valid up to March 31 has been extended further up to June 30," the official said quoting the order. A countrywide lockdown has been imposed till April 14 due to coronavirus. The step, the official said, was to ensure that the patients do not face any issue amid the lockdown. Also, last week, the DGHS asked all its hospitals to issue medicines for chronic diseases to Delhi Government Employees Health Scheme (DGEHS) beneficiaries for three months. In the order issued on April 1, the DGHS says that since lockdown is imposed and people are advised to stay indoors, "the routine procedure where the beneficiary visits the empanelled hospitals for continuation of prescription for chronic diseases is not practicable". It directed the hospitals to not insist on fresh prescription from specialists and may consider continuation of medicines prescribed by specialists on the last visit, by another three months, if the patient is stabilized on the same medicine and there are no fresh complaints. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) At least six female inmates have died and a further 15 women have been injured in the Yemeni city of Taizz after Houthi rebels shelled a prison, the al-Khabar al-Yemeni news agency reports on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The agency reported that Houthi rebels opened fire on the female block of Taizz's central prison. At least six women were killed and 15 suffered injuries, the agency cited sources as saying. The city of Taizz is one of the current flashpoints in the long-running conflict between the Houthi rebels and government forces. A Saudi-led coalition has conducted operations in Yemen against the rebels since 2015 and at least 100,000 people have lost their lives during the still-ongoing conflict. The Washington region's battle with the novel coronavirus intensified Sunday as the number of confirmed cases soared to more than 7,000 and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued an emergency order requiring nursing-home staffers to wear protective gear and segregate infected patients to halt the spread of the disease following outbreaks in the state's long-term care facilities. Meanwhile, the administration of District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the Wharf Fish Market shut down Sunday after customers crowded its open-air marketplace Saturday, defying social-distancing orders. The closure will last through at least April 24, according to a spokeswoman for Bowser, and may be extended. One month to the day of the first known coronavirus case in the metropolitan area, the region's death toll hit 140, with 7,252 confirmed infections. As of Sunday morning, D.C. had 1,002 confirmed cases and 22 deaths; Maryland had 3,610 cases and 67 deaths; and Virginia had 2,640 cases and 51 deaths. Maryland, meanwhile, continued its struggle to contain outbreaks that have so far struck 81 nursing homes and long-term care facilities. At Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy, the site of the state's largest outbreak, at least 99 residents and staff members had tested positive and 10 residents had died. Hogan's emergency order, issued Sunday, requires nursing homes and similar elderly care facilities to create isolation areas for residents infected with or suspected of having the virus; designate teams of workers to tend to the patients; and send coronavirus test kits to a state lab for expedited testing. "As we have been saying for several weeks, older Marylanders and those with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable and at a significantly higher risk of contracting, getting more severely ill and dying from this disease," said Hogan, who, as chair of the National Governors Association, has represented states' top elected officials and has also been one of the few Republicans to question President Donald Trump's statements about the pandemic. "We will use every tool at our disposal to protect the most vulnerable among us," said Hogan. Hogan's order, elements of which were mentioned by the state's deputy health secretary at a Friday news conference, requires all staff in close contact with residents to wear face masks, gloves and gowns. The facilities can request additional equipment from the state. It also mandates that the facilities send coronavirus tests to the Maryland Public Health Laboratory, which prioritizes evaluations for symptomatic residents of such facilities. New data indicates that the virus is not slowing its march across the region. On Sunday, Maryland announced its highest single-day increase in confirmed cases at 484. Prince George's and Baltimore counties saw their largest increases to date, with 132 and 99 new confirmed infections, respectively. In Virginia, Arlington County experienced its largest single-day increase, with 31 new cases, bringing its total to 181. As the number of confirmed cases increased, the region reported 15 new fatalities Sunday, short of the 21 deaths reported Saturday, which marked the largest single-day increase in deaths. D.C. reported 96 new cases and the death of a 76-year-old woman. Virginia added 230 cases and two fatalities overnight but lowered its overall death toll from 52 to 51 while three previously reported deaths are re-examined for a link to covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. In Maryland, authorities reported 14 new covid-19 deaths Sunday. Virginia is also grappling with outbreaks in nursing homes. As of Friday, 17 residents at the Canterbury Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Henrico County had died of the disease. Five died in a 24-hour period. Officials at the 190-bed facility said it had tested all residents and most of the staff and found that 108 residents and 25 employees have been infected. Danny Avula, director of the Richmond and Henrico health districts, said at a Thursday news conference that Canterbury continues to suffer from a lack of personal protective equipment. Experts and public health authorities caution that the official tallies of coronavirus cases do not provide a complete picture of the virus's toll. New test results may reflect week-old samples, and people carrying the virus now may take as long as 14 days to develop symptoms. Additionally, many guidelines limit coronavirus tests to people exhibiting symptoms, meaning that more people are infected than labs can confirm. On the same day that the White House virus task force coordinator proclaimed that D.C. could be a new hot spot, the city experienced an online uproar after social media posts Saturday showed crowds at the Wharf Fish Market, defying the mandate that people practice social distancing and stay at least six feet apart. In the aftermath, city regulators on Sunday ordered the popular open-air market, restaurant and nightlife spot shuttered through at least April 24. In the interim, Bowser and city officials are encouraging the market's vendors to develop a strategy for serving customers - while enforcing social-distancing rules - and present it to the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. "If the plan allows for safe operations, the venue will be allowed to reopen," Bowser communications director LaToya Foster said in a statement. "DCRA and D.C. Health would continue to monitor compliance." The volume of customers at the market - where, in some cases, people stood within inches of one another - was all the more outrageous to D.C. residents given Bowser's projection Friday that about 1 in every 7 D.C. residents could contract the coronavirus. Bowser also said that the city probably would hit its largest number of hospitalizations in early summer. As of Sunday, however, a projection from a University of Washington health research center said D.C. could reach peak "hospital resource use" as soon as April 15 and hit as many as nine deaths per day starting April 13. One reason D.C. officials are predicting a later and higher peak in needed hospital beds is that they suspect residents will not adhere to social-distancing rules as faithfully as the University of Washington researchers anticipate. Bowser recently joined Maryland and Virginia in instituting a stay-home order, requiring residents to remain indoors except for essential activities, such as grocery shopping. Activities such as dog-walking, running and hiking are allowed but should be pursued only with family members. Bowser has also banned gatherings of more than 10 people and has instructed those who do venture outdoors to remain at least six feet apart. Violators could be subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and three months in jail, though the mayor said criminal penalties would be a last resort. The ranks of the city's law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel also continue to be hit by the virus. Four more members of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said Sunday, bringing to 32 the number of firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians who have fallen ill. An assistant fire chief is included in that tally. Fire officials said seven members have recovered and have been cleared for work. The fire department said 173 of its members are in quarantine, and 165 members who had been quarantined have returned to work. The department has more than 2,000 members. A total of 17 members of the D.C. Police Department have tested positive for the coronavirus, and an additional 195 are in quarantined. Another 194 members who had been in quarantine have returned to work. The D.C. police department, which has more than 3,800 sworn members, has said one officer is in critical condition. - - - The Washington Post's Peter Hermann, Ovetta Wiggins and Laura Vozzella contributed to this report. Crisis management Company, LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited has continued with the disinfection of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) as part of its contribution towards fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturdays exercise is a continuation of what the company started last weekend during which several Ministries including the Ministry of Transport, Roads, and Highways, Gender, Children and Social Protection, Energy, Environment, Science and Technology as well as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly among others were disinfected. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Finance, Communications, the Public Services Commission, Council of State, State Protocol Department, Office of the President Annex, Ministry of Health and the Department of Urban Roads were covered on Saturday, April 4, 2020. The rest are the Department of Feeder Roads, Registrar Generals Department, Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development. The Chief Executive Officer of LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited, Mr. Kareem Abu reiterated the commitment of the company to aid government in any way possible to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the company as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), has undertaken to disinfect the various MDAs to create a fear-free atmosphere for public sector workers to go about their duties without let or hindrance. We have a plan to expand this initiative and that is to move to some of the regions outside the capital to disinfect government Departments and Agencies out there. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, we have embarked on some CSR activities in the Eastern and Greater Accra Regions during which we disinfected selected Senior High Schools and Market centers. Were with the Ghanaian people each step of the way and we believe this is the time they need us most. We will not let them down. Mr. Abu said during an interaction with the media. The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie who joined the disinfection team during the exercise, lauded LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited for offering to disinfect the MDAs free of charge in this crucial time. He noted that Ghanas official figure as far as the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned stands at 205 and that it was imperative all well-meaning individuals and organizations put their shoulders to the wheel to ensure the fight is won. He explained it was for some reason such as the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus that LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited was contracted by the government to disinfect all imports and exports at the countrys ports to ensure the prevention of infectious diseases. Dr. Badu Sarkodie admonished all Ghanaians to adhere to the precautionary measures as outlined by the President and government and endeavor to stay safe by staying 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. Featured Video Some area churches have decided to hold their Easter services at the Big Sky Drive-in Theater. Mid-Cities Community Church and Redeemer Church will take over the drive-in movie theater to hold church services for people in their cars. Daniel Stephens, head pastor of Mid-Cities Community Church, said they are abiding by the standards set forth by city leaders. We were trying to creatively think of a way that we can engage our people and people of the community, he said. In a way that would be unique for Easter but that would be in line with the guidelines set before us for meeting. He said he wanted people to be able to gather but in a safe way. Stephens said they contacted Big Sky Drive-In Theater and found out the venue was available. We thought it would be a great opportunity for people to be able to have some semblance of togetherness, even though they cant get out of their cars, he said. They have to stay in their cars but there would be a sense of togetherness even in the drive-in. Mid-Cities Community Church service will be pre-recorded, he said. The presentations on Saturday and April 12 will include various videos, stories, testimonies, worship and a message on the big screen; the audio will come through vehicles radio just as it would for a movie at the drive-in. Whoever would like to come, the gates open at 8 p.m. and the service will begin at 8:45 p.m., Stephens said. Well have all three screens available Saturday and Sunday night. He said there were some caveats the concession stand and restrooms wont be open, so people will need to use the restroom before they come. The service is about one hour long, he said. And they have to stay in their car. They cant get out and visit with other people. They can wave at them. They can wear whatever they want -- if they want to wear pajamas or their Easter best. It wont matter because they will stay in their cars. Stephens said they have been communicating with the congregation through Facebook live posts and various social media platforms. Our people have been used to worshiping online, he said. I think in our community right now, medically, this is a serious concern that people need to adhere to the leadership and guidelines, but theres also a reality with isolation comes very real spiritual ramifications along with the economic and medical ramifications. He said their main concern is peoples spiritual growth, their families and their relationships with God. We want to create any environment we can in a safe way that is in line with leadership in our community, to help people get through this, to give them hope, Stephens said. He said they have had an extremely positive reaction to the drive-in Easter service. We have had very little pushback, if any, on that because I think we have communicated, and people understand that we are not going to be pulling out lawn chairs and letting kids run around and play or use the restroom, he said. Were asking people to stay in their cars, and if they cant, then we have many other services online as well. He said two other churches will be hosting Easter services at the drive-in: Redeemer Church and First United Methodist Church. Im excited to see that the church as a whole, the big community of the churches, is figuring out creative ways to continue to spread the Gospel and bring hope to people, Stephens said. Cameron Brown, executive pastor of Redeemer Church, said they wanted to find an opportunity to get their congregation together and still comply with social distancing. Weve been flooded with comments and excitement, Brown said. I think people are really starved for, at the very least, just getting to see other peoples faces and theyre very excited. Redeemer Church will hold a live service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the drive-in. The gates will open at 10 a.m., and people are required to stay in their cars. There will be clear directions on where to go once you get there, and people to help you park once youre there, but everybody needs to stay in their car during the service and it will be transmitted through their radios, he said. Brown said the worship team will be conducting the service from a platform set up in front of Screen 2. We talked about incorporating some things on the screen, he said. However, you cant see anything on the screen during the day at the time; well be doing it so the whole thing will be live. He said the worship pastor will lead people in worship and then people will hear a message from the lead pastor, Jason Hatch. Brown said that David Furlow, Big Sky Drive-in Theater general manager, has been awesome to work with. He clearly has a heart for the community, and using his space, even during a difficult time like now, so weve been extremely thankful for him. Before Mid-Cities Community Church service starts, people will have a chance to give back to the community. Stephens said they are encouraging people to bring items for Mission Agape, which is helping feed multiple schools in Midland. We are having receptacles where people can on their way in drop those off, so they wont be handing them to people, he said. That would be an option for people to give. People can go to midcities.org or missionagapewtx.org/mission-agape-donate/ for the list of donatable items. In a crisis like this, obviously, theres kids and elderly that need food, he said. The West Texas Food Bank, we support them and theyre mainly receiving monetary donations right now, which we are engaged in. With Mission Agape, they are receiving donations if its on the list they provide. We are just encouraging people if they come to bring something from that list and drop it off. Stephens said that as Christians in this moment our job isnt to hoard or to consume, but to give. New York, 5 April 2020 (SPS) - The diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat (ID), has offered its deepest sympathy and condolences to the Sahrawi people, the Frente POLISARIO and Emhamed Khadads family, on his passing. ID described Emhamed Khadad as a tireless defender of the rights and liberty of the Sahrawi people. The following is the ID condolence message: In Memoriam: Emhamed Khadad (1954-2020) Emhamed Khadada tireless defender of the rights and liberty of the Sahrawi people passed away earlier this week. Ambassador Khadad was a cherished partner of Independent Diplomat and a towering figure within the leadership of the Frente POLISARIO. He led his peoples struggle for self-determination while serving as the Frente POLISARIOs coordinator with MINURSO, its Chairman of external relations, and a member of its negotiations team during UN-led peace talks. Ambassador Khadad was beloved by all who knew him. An expert in diplomacy and international strategy, he will be remembered for his tenacity, moral courage and unflagging commitment to justice. As Independent Diplomats longest-standing partner, we were privileged to learn from him; we were honored to work with him. We will miss him greatly. It is a grave injustice that Ambassador Khadad will not get to see the referendum on independence promised to the Sahrawi people almost 30 years ago. But Sahrawis commitment to righting this longstanding injustice will no doubt continue undiminished. The staff of Independent Diplomat offers our deepest sympathy and condolences to the people of Western Sahara, the Frente POLISARIO and Ambassador Khadads family. (SPS) 062/SPS Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 05:04:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli start-up company has developed a system for accurate remote monitoring of the respiratory status of COVID-19 patients in the hospital and at home, the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA) said Sunday. The system was developed by Resmetrix Medical company in view of the increasing need for monitoring and detection of respiratory exacerbation of coronavirus patients. The system is based on innovative technology to accurately measure patterns and volume of breath using a wearable sensor, a dedicated smartphone application, and a cloud infrastructure to deliver information and alerts to the medical team in real time. The smartphone app features a unique algorithm for early detection of respiratory aggravation. According to the IIA, which supports the project, the system will streamline treatments by detecting breathing deterioration of patients in mild condition at home. It will also enable monitoring of patients in moderate condition in hospitals' quarantined wards to identify early exacerbation. The system also provides first-of-its-kind clinical information on coronavirus patients' respiratory patterns during exacerbation, enabling the scientific community to examine possible treatments to prevent exacerbation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 14:43:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Personnel of law enforcing agencies have arrested Abdullah Orakzai alias Aslam Farooqi, the so-called leader of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in Afghanistan along with 19 of his fighters, said a statement of National Directorate of Security or the country's spy agency. Without providing more information, the statement added that details on how Farooqi was arrested would be shared with the people of Afghanistan in the coming days. The hardliner IS group, which is active in parts of the militancy-plagued Afghanistan and claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the temple of Sikh community in Kabul recently, has not made comments yet. A Birr man and his girlfriend have made it safely to Ireland after they feared they would be stranded in Melbourne after their flights were cancelled twice. Last week, Colm Cahill (25), from Birr and his girlfriend Andrea Treacy, from Rathdowney, were left stranded in a hostel in Melbourne, having spent nearly 5500 on flights home only to have them cancelled. The pair were working and travelling in Australia since last October and had been monitoring the Covid-19 situation in recent weeks. By St Patricks Day, the pair realised it was time to make a move home when friends messaged from all over the world to say their cities were in lockdown. Colm contacted the Tribune last week to say the situation for Irish visa holders had gotten extreme. Flights were being cancelled by the hour. In the past week, myself and my partner spent close to 5000 on two separate flights that were cancelled with no sign of a refund in the foreseeable future. The pair were stranded in the hostel, having both lost their jobs, and had been in touch with the Irish Embassy and passed on their details. Colm then set up a Facebook group Get us home from Australia (Ireland), creating polls and helping people to source information. The first airline they booked with a cost of 800 each and they relaxed, believing they would be home this week. However, within hours, the airline cancelled the flight and said they would instead provide a travel voucher when it was feasible. Colm then said a lot of panic set in and some people paid large sums for flights. With his girlfriend, Andrea, he decided to wait a little while and looked at the option of renting a house. They then went to view houses but this was not an option because everybody was looking for a six-month lease, deposit and rent upfront and that was too expensive for the pair. They then booked another flight at a cost of 1,600 each. However, this flight was subsequently cancelled. Colm then set up the Facebook group while also writing to the Irish Embassy, saying with the current global situation I understand everybody is vulnerable and in need. The situation for Irish visa holders in Australia has gotten extreme. Thankfully, Colm told the Tribune on Tuesday last the pair were lucky enough to have gotten a seat on a Qatar flight from Melbourne after the Irish Embassy block-booked seats for Irish citizens. According to Colm, the flights were 1740, bringing their total spend on flights to just under 8500. However, the pair were hopeful that some of the flights would be refunded at a later day. However, Colm was absolutely delighted to be home. The main thing, though is that we got back, he enthused. The pair are now doing their 14 days of isolation but Colm remains active on the Facebook group. There are still plenty of Irish in desperate situations reaching out daily for help as the situation in Australia gradually worsens with no sign of relief for visa holders. Theres unfortunately a boat load of misleading information stating otherwise. This is one of the core reasons we are still putting so much time into the maintenance of the page daily, he said. China donated 1,000 ventilators to New York, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, as the authorities grappled with an insufficient supply of the life saving equipment amid a surge in the number of coronavirus cases that has crossed 1,00,000 in the state. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday said New York had ordered 17,000 ventilators from the federal government, which had a stockpile of about 10,000 ventilators for the nation. He said demand for the life-saving medical equipment surges across the US, which now has more than 3,12,100 COVID-19 cases. China is remarkably the repository for all of these orders. Ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China. Long term, we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don't have the manufacturing capacity in this country. "I understand supply chain issues, I understand the cost of manufacturing, but there's a public health reason, as we've all learned the hard way, why we need the capacity in this country to do this, Cuomo said. In order to meet this demand for ventilators, New York has been shopping in China, he said. The Governor said he asked the White House to help the state navigate China and he spoke to the Chinese ambassador and we got really good today. The Chinese government is going to facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that came in to John F Kennedy Airport. Cuomo thanked the Chinese government, Alibaba head Jack Ma, the Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai and China's Consul General Huang Ping. That's going to be very helpful this is a big deal. It's going to make a significant difference for us, he said. The state of Oregon is also sending 140 ventilators to New York, an assistance Cuomo called just astonishing and unexpected. It's also smart from the point of view of Oregon. Why? Because we're all in the same battle and the battle is stopping the spread of the virus, right? Look at what they did in China. It was in the Wuhan province. First order of business was contain the virus in Wuhan. Why? Because you want to contain the enemy. That's always the first step, he said. Cuomo has signed an executive order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment from hospitals, private sector companies and institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator. The state had recorded the highest increase in the number of deaths from COVID19 in a single day between April 2 and 3 when 562 people died of the disease. In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to 630, all-time increase up to a total of 3,565, an increase from 2,935 on Friday morning, Cuomo said. The daily death toll in New York continues to grow at record numbers as the state remains the most impacted in the US from coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in New York State now stand at 1,13,704, out of the country's total of 3,12,146. New Jersey, the second most affected state in the US, has about 30,000 COVID-19 cases. New York City alone has 63,306 coronavirus patients, up from 57,169 in the last 24 hours, and 2,624 deaths. Cuomo said the apex in the state, the point where the number of infections on a daily basis hits the high point, is still about 4-8 days away. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Supermac's, the Irish fast-food chain founded by Pat McDonagh in Galway, has largely succeeded in blocking a London bar called Supermax from registering its name in the UK. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) ruled that "Supermax" appears similar and sounds identical to the existing Supermac's mark and could confuse consumers. The office made the ruling as both would involve the service of food and drink, and custom is likely to depend on promotional materials and street signage. Its decision was made on March 19 but was only made public last week. However, the UKIPO decision on Supermax won't be final until the trademark dispute between McDonald's and Supermac's has concluded. The long-running conflict between the two firms is partially related to the "Mc" prefix on products. Last year, Supermac's convinced the European Union Intellectual Property Office to cancel McDonald's Big Mac trademark. It followed the US fast-food giant trying to block the European Union trademark of Supermac's as it plotted expansion in the UK. McDonald's has appealed to EU courts, and Supermac's EU registration remains pending. According to Bloomberg Law, in the Supermax dispute, both Supermax and Supermac's claim their marks for a class that covers services for providing food and drinks. The Supermax services list included additional descriptions for services such as "bar services" and "booking of restaurant seats". The UKIPO decided that the majority of its functions were close enough for conflict. It also deemed the argument of R7 Restaurants - which operates Supermax - that it operated the bar in a different location to the burger chain, to be irrelevant. Speaking to the Sunday Independent, McDonagh was happy with the result. He added that the company had "bigger fish to fry" at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen Supermac's temporarily shut down outlets. "This is unprecedented," he said. "No one could have prepared for this, and it will take time to recover." Ryan Thomas has detailed the struggles of raising his newborn son Roman without his family amid the coronavirus lockdown. In a candid post shared over the weekend, the soap star, 35, admitted he's 'full of fear and loneliness' as he self-isolates with fiancee Lucy Mecklenburgh. The actor, who shared his message alongside a sweet picture of Ryan kissing his three-week-old, also offered to provide new parents with baby supplies during the global crisis. 'I'm full of fear and loneliness': Ryan Thomas has detailed the struggles of raising his three-week-old son Roman without his family amid the coronavirus lockdown on Saturday The former Coronation Street star has taken isolation extremely seriously ever since UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson plunged the nation into lockdown last month. The drastic measure, which has also been implemented in countries such as Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, has kept Ryan apart from his loved ones, even causing his eldest daughter Scarlett, 11, to meet her baby brother via FaceTime. Admitting quarantine has taken a toll on his mental health, Ryan said: 'Isolation. Ive been thinking a lot about parents who are soon to bring a baby or just had a baby like ourselves into this crazy world we live in right now. 'Everyday is a struggle': In a candid post, the soap star, 35, admitted he's 'full of fear and loneliness' as he self-isolates with fiancee Lucy Mecklenburgh (pictured last month) 'Stay strong and positive': The actor also offered to provide new parents with baby supplies during the global crisis. 'something none of us imagined. what is suppose to be one of the most special times in your life is full fear and loneliness.' [sic] Crediting his partner Lucy, 28, for lifting his spirits amid the pandemic, the father-of-two explained: 'Everyday is a new challenge with a new born, luckily me & lucy have each other & work hard as a team to look after our baby in our little bubble. 'It is unsettling not having support and reassurance from loved ones and the knowledge of normal medical care available if needed and it makes you feel very vulnerable. Apart: Boris Johnson's drastic lockdown measure has kept Ryan apart from his loved ones, even causing his eldest daughter Scarlett, 11, to meet her baby brother via FaceTime (pictured) 'To all parents out there you need to know you are doing such an amazing job.' [sic] The thespian also lent a helping hand by offering to send out baby products to those struggling to adjust to parenthood. Caring Ryan ended his post: 'its only small gesture but if you need anything nappies, baby grows, formula things maybe I can send in the post that we have or I can order for you online. 'Luckily we have each other': The father-of-two has credited his partner Lucy, 28, for lifting his spirits amid the pandemic 'please dm me your address & what you need and Ill try and do as much I can to help as know it must be a difficult time right now. Stay strong & positive ' [sic] Ryan - who shares his eldest child with Tina O'Brien, 36 - and former TOWIE star Lucy welcomed baby boy Roman Ravello last month, following a three-year romance. The fitness guru announced her pregnancy last August, after the hunk proposed during a trip to Italy's Amalfi Coast in June. The couple met on Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls in early 2017. KAMPALA, April 4 (Xinhua) Uganda on Saturday started relief food distribution to about 1.5 million urban poor who are affected by the lockdown as a measure to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda flagged off the door-to-door food distribution which started in Bwaise, a suburb in the capital Kampala. We have today flagged off a government relief food distribution program to vulnerable individuals who have been affected by lockdown measures, said Rugunda. The focus will be making sure the elderly, sick and pregnant women are taken into account. To ensure social distance, the relief food is going to be distributed house to house, door to door. There will be no lining and no semblance of crowding, he said. According the ministry of relief and disaster preparedness, the beneficiaries include the elderly, sickly, lactating mothers and commuter taxi drivers in Kampala and neighboring central district of Wakiso. The package will include 6 kg of maize flour per person, 3 kg of beans per person, and salt. The lactating mothers and the sick will receive 2 kgs of powdered milk and 2kgs of sugar. The country is under lockdown as a measure to contain the spread of the disease. Currently the country has 48 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Related - Professor Fred McBagonluri, a Ghanaian, has taken on the project to produce low-cost ventilators - Ghana has a limited number of ventilators which are highly needed to help COVID-19 patients in critical condition - The cost of ventilators has increased due to their high demand around the globe Ghanaian professor Fred McBagonluri has taken on the project to produce low-cost ventilators for sick coronavirus patients in the country to help with their quick recovery. The professor made details of the project known on his Facebook handle among a series of related publications. READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Landlord owning 18 apartments cancels April rent for his tenants Ghanaian professor Fred McBagonluri has taken on the project to produce low-cost ventilators for sick coronavirus patients.Photo: Fred McBagonluri Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kenyan preacher in London Irungu Wiseman under investigation for selling coronavirus protection oil Fred McBagonluri is a Ghanaian engineer, inventor, novelist, educator and thought leader, who is currently Provost and President at Academic City College. He was previously the founding Dean at the Faculty of Engineering at Ashesi University College. Before the coronavirus pandemic, a single ventilator in the West African country used to cost between $20,000 and $22,000 (KSh 2.1m to KSh 2.3m) READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Good samaritan uses KSh 90k savings to buy fuel for nurses fighting pandemic Because of the high demands by governments all over the world, a ventilator now costs between $50,000 and $55,000 (KSh 5.3m to KSh 5.8m ) more than double its original price. According to the country's Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Ghana has 67 ventilators in total in the public domain ready for use. Although not easy, the minister indicated that the country was compiling more from private medical facilities in the country which would be used to help patients in critical condition. 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 Islamabad, April 5 : The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan might be over 50,000 by the end of April - 2,392 critical patients needing intensive care, 7,024 serious patients and 41,482 others who would have mild symptoms and just require isolation at their homes, the Supreme Court was informed. In a report submitted to the apex court on Saturday, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC), however, explained that these figures were mere projections based on assumptions made from trends of the outbreak in other countries, reports Dawn news. The report said that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus after 35 days of its outbreak in Pakistan remained low as compared to reported cases in European countries and Iran. The NHSRC in its report explained that 13,000 health facilities across the country have been entrusted with collecting surveillance data besides developing public awareness messages for dissemination to all modes of media. Moreover, the Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, activated at the National Institute of Health (NIH) has been assigned to conduct surveillance, prepare daily situation report, risk assessment, date analysis and to follow up suspected patients. The NHSRC said that more than 1.4 million travellers were restricted for strict screening at major points of entry in the country - 1.1 million passengers at seven airports and more than 300,000 passengers at three land crossings, adding that 222 suspected patients were identified and quarantined, Dawn news reported. The Ministry's report comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan has increased to 2,800, with 44 deaths. An Algerian court on Sunday sentenced to eight months in jail a journalist who had provided images of months-long anti-government protests to foreign media, a prisoners' support group and a non-government organisation said. Sofiane Merakchi, a correspondent for Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen, was accused of "concealment of equipment and providing images to foreign media without authorisation", the Article 19 NGO said. He was also accused of providing images of weekly Friday protests to Al-Jazeera and other foreign media organisations, the group added. Merakchi was arrested in September 2019 and initially the state prosecutor had demanded he be sentenced to two years in jail. But a court in Algiers handed him an eight-month sentence and the CNLD prisoners' support group said Merakchi was now expected to be freed on May 26. According to the CNLD he was the first Algerian journalist arrested after the protest movement first erupted in February against ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in office. In April last year, Bouteflika, debilitated by a 2013 stroke, resigned in the face of massive streets protests and after loosing the support of powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah. Merakchi's case received little media attention for months following his arrest but there was more coverage after Algerian authorities detained more journalists, some of whom remain behind bars. Among them is Khaled Drareni, correspondent of French channel TV5 Monde and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has been in pre-trial detention since March on a charge of inciting an unarmed gathering and endangering national unity. Earlier this week RSF, in a statement co-signed with Algerian non-government organisations, called for the release of Drareni, Merakchi and fellow journalist Belkacem Djir. The watchdog accused Algeria's government of taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to "settle scores" with independent journalists. The reasons for Djir's imprisonment are unknown. In early March, justice minister Belkacem Zeghmati said Djir and Merakchi were both being prosecuted for "common law acts", without giving details. Illinois now has recorded over 10,000 cases that have tested positive for coronavirus, a milestone in the pandemic that Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Saturday while estimating the spread of the disease will peak later this month. The governor and Chicagos health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, also called for people heading out of their homes to wear face masks as officials focus on slowing the virus. If youve been to the grocery store lately at any time other than three in the morning, youre running into a fair number of people, Pritzker said at his daily briefing on the outbreak. Theres no need to take any risks. And by wearing a mask when you go to the grocery store, for example, youre really protecting all the other people that are there, as much as youre protecting yourself. In fact, more so. During her daily online Q-and-A session, Arwady said the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions recommendation that people cover their faces while out in public is just one additional piece to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus. With or without a mask, I do not want you out, Arwady said. Arwady reminded residents that the CDC has asked people to use cloth face coverings, such as a scarf. With more than 1,400 new confirmations across the state, Illinois has now surpassed 10,000 known cases of COVID-19, the states public health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Saturday. Illinois reported 1,453 new cases and 33 deaths on Saturday, Ezike said Saturday. The new additions bring the total number of known coronavirus cases to 10,357 in 68 of Illinois 102 counties, Ezike said. There now have been 243 deaths attributed to the coronavirus, Ezike said. There were 23 deaths in Cook County, three in Kane, two each in DuPage and Will, and one each in Jackson, Kankakee and Lake Counties, the state health department reported. The age of those who died ranged for a Cook County man in his 20s to a DuPage County woman who was more than 100 years old, the department said. The number is sobering and reminds us that its critical that we all do our part, Ezike said. The more cases means the more hospitalizations. The more hospitalizations means more deaths. Responding to a question about the COVID-19 deaths of two Walmart workers in Evergreen Park, Pritzker said he is encouraging the essential workforce and the essential businesses that are open to all take care of themselves. The businesses themselves, they know that their workers are vital, he said. Many of the businesses in fact have increased pay for people coming to work because they know how vital these folks are and want to give them an additional incentive. Pritzker said he didnt want to try to put too fine a point on when the spread of the virus in Illinois might hit its peak, because theyre all put together by experts at modeling and statistics, and so they can be a little off. But certainly I would say that most of the models I have seen, and there are a number out there, say that we will peak somewhere between the middle and the end of April, he said. The governor cautioned against getting too invested in hitting the peak, saying its important mostly to help plan how to deal with the health care needs of those who are sick. And as we move toward it, youve seen the numbers that we report every day. You know, on one day you feel a little hopeful. On another day, it feels like were going backward, he said. And so its very hard to tell, you know, whats actually happening unless you look at it over a time series. And unfortunately over a time series, as you see were climbing the number of people who have it, the number of people who are passing away. And so I dont want to predict on a certain day that were going to hit a peak, but I will say that its very important for us to track this. And the reason its important to track it is, obviously it helps us determine what to do with patients who are in certain conditions," he said. Pritzker noted that tracking the numbers helps in deciding when to transfer patients to beds at McCormick Place and when medical providers may need to begin creating overflow intensive care beds, for example. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday toured McCormick Place, where the first 500 of an eventual 3,000 beds have been set up at the sprawling lakefront convention center in anticipation of a possible crush of COVID-19 cases that could overwhelm Chicago-area hospitals. The McCormick Place alternate care facility is planned to hold patients who mostly have mild symptoms and dont require intensive care. The governor said the total number of such off-site beds should exceed 4,000 statewide in the next two weeks, with around a thousand in Cook County and about 250 in various Downstate locations, in addition to those at McCormick Place. The Illinois National Guard has identified space for thousands of potential beds for coronavirus patients in field hospitals throughout the state, according to a spokesman and a member of the team tasked with assessing mostly vacant hospitals for alternate locations. Not all of those potential sites are actually feasible in other ways, Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton said, adding renovations, fiscal and legal questions can limit the actual number of beds ultimately readied. Its not like you go into the space, turn the lights on and you have the beds. Also Saturday, Pritzker noted the problems that are created locally when other states -- including neighboring Iowa -- dont have orders in place barring residents from leaving their homes for nonessential functions. Im frustrated for the people in those states. I mean, Im frustrated for us too, he said. If you look at our border states who just went to stay at home, or havent even gone to stay at home yet, its obvious this has an effect on Illinois. As he has for days, though, the governor reserved his strongest words for the federal government, saying it has abdicated its role in leadership in addressing this virus. Let me be clear, while we can talk about those individual states, this should have been the job of the federal government to give guidance to set orders for the country, he said. We know how this virus travels. Gardner Business Media Inc. has named Derek Korn editor-in-chief of the Production Machining brand, following Editor-in-Chief Chris Felixs retirement on March 31. Lori Beckman, former managing editor of Production Machining, has been promoted to senior editor. Derek will lead the brands editorial mission by building its content and presence throughout the precision machined parts market. Derek and Lori will work together to cover the industry by visiting readers machine shops and attending industry events to report on the latest technology and trends. Derek began his career with Gardner Business Media more than 16 years ago, with Modern Machine Shop, Gardners flagship media brand covering the metalworking industry. He was its executive editor and for 10 years has been the technical director of the brands Top Shops Benchmarking program. Visiting machine shops to write about how they leverage new technology and processes to their advantage has been, and will continue to be, the most enjoyable part of my job as editor in this company, Derek says. I will enjoy focusing on the more niche machine shops in this particular industry, many of which perform precision turning work in high part volumes. Lori has been with Production Machining since 2003. During her time with the brand, she has spearheaded the Emerging Leaders program and is the editor of the Parts Cleaning section that appears in both Production Machining and Products Finishing magazines/websites. She is also the co-chair of this years Parts Cleaning Conference at the International Manufacturing Technology Show. I look forward to getting out in the industry more and meeting the people who can help sharpen my knowledge of machine tools and their applications, Lori says. Im also excited to start working on some new initiatives with Derek for the brand. Production Machining Publisher Joe Campise says, I am excited to start a new chapter of Production Machining with a longtime colleague in Derek. Working with him over the past 15 years on the Modern Machine Shop side has been fantastic and now I get a chance to truly work alongside him to bring the best stories, ideas and technology advancements to the Production Machining audience. I also have had the pleasure of working with Lori over that same 15 year span, and seeing her take on more responsibility and have passion for the industry will serve her well in this new role. Production Machining is a business-to-business media brand that produces a monthly print magazine, digital media, industry research and live events for the high volume precision machined parts market. Production Machinings editorial team and contributors produce information on new product technology, operational best practices, market intelligence and industry news. Gardner Business Media is the media outlet for the heart of manufacturing in North America providing unique, one-of-a-kind, relevant information of interest to the people who power plants, shops and factories. All of our brands strive to use media be it print publications, websites, electronic devices, newsletters, webinars, research or in-person events to show best practices and practical, how-to information to explain technology and help our customers be competitive in todays challenging environment. Coronavirus lockdown day 12: Health Ministry confirms a total of 3,374 cases with 3030 active cases, 267 people cured with 77 deaths. On Sunday, people stand with corona fighters and light lamps, diyas, candles to salute them. Coronavirus lockdown day 12: This wont be wrong to say that the spread of coronavirus has created a panic and fearful situation in the entire country. The first positive case in India was reported from Kerala on January 30 and since then the outbreak has spread all over the country infecting a total of 3,374 people. As per the latest data shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 3,030 active cases have been reported with 267 people cured of the virus and 77 deaths. Though, the government is trying hard to control the situation by isolating, tracking, sending infected to hospitals, gradually the rise in the number of cases has become worrisome. Further, the Tablighi Jammat at the 100-year-old mosque in Delhi has also been declared as the main hotspot of coronavirus as 22,000 people were either the part of the event or came in contact with the members of the event. Further, one-third of the coronavirus cases are directly linked to Tablighi Jamaat. Further, Maharastra is the worst-hit state with 490 cases with 24 deaths followed by 445 positive cases in Delhi with 6 deaths and Tamil Nadu with 485 cases with 3 deaths, Uttar Pradesh has total 227 cases with 2 deaths, Kerala with 306 cases. Also Read: Coronavirus: Hyderabad police starts COVID-19 volunteer cell with techies help Increase of 302 #COVID19 cases in the last 12 hours; Total number of #COVID19 positive cases rise to 3374 in India (including 3030 active cases, 267 cured/discharged/migrated people and 77 deaths): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pic.twitter.com/lpRhHeYEFb ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 Further, there are reports that Railways is bracing itself to resume services from April 15 but with a special plan approved by Railway board. Though, there is no official confirmation, a concrete action plan will be first sent to the zones and will be executed after getting approved. Further, Police is now using cellphone data and GPS location of all those who attended the religious gathering in Delhi. Moradabad: People purchase earthen lamps to light them at 9 PM today as urged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a gesture to win over darkness in this time of despair due to #CoronavirusPandemic. pic.twitter.com/so7IcSPU5B ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 5, 2020 Moreover, people in Moradabad are gearing up to participate in Modis given idea of lighting lamps and candles today at 9 pm for 9 minutes by purchasing earthen lamps to win over darkness during this outbreak. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Paris, April 5 : French authorities have launched a terror probe into a knife attack that left two dead and several others injured in the country's southeastern region. "The initial investigations show a determined, murderous rampage that sought to disrupt public order through intimidation and terror," the national counter-terrorism prosecutor's office said on Saturday.. A search of the assailant's home turned up writings "of a religious connotation in which the author complains, above all, of living in a country of infidels", Efe news quoted the office as saying. Though a number of witnesses reported hearing the attacker shout "Allahu akbar" (Arabic for "God is great"), the counter-terrorism police and prosecutors decided to wait for more evidence before classifying the stabbings as a terrorist incident Police identified the perpetrator as a 33-year-old Sudanese man who had resided in France as a refugee since 2017. The attack began at 10.45 a.m. on Saturday and unfolded at several different spots in the center of Romans-sur-Isere, a town of some 33,000 people 25 km from Valence. When police caught up with the attacker, about 15 minutes later, they found him on his knees praying in Arabic. The assailant's roommate is also in custody, authorities said. "My thoughts go out to the victims of the attack in Romans-sur-Isere, the injured and their families," French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter after being informed of the incident. "We will fully investigate this odious act that has added more grief to our country that has already suffered so much over the last few weeks," he added, referring to the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 6,500 lives in France. To slow the spread of COVID-19, the French government has ordered people to remain in their homes as much as possible, only venturing out to buy necessities, seek medical attention or exercise. Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner, planned to travel to Romans-sur-Isere to make a first-hand appraisal of the situation. Companies began sending in products to restock Amazons warehouses. But with attendance down and more items coming in, workers could not replenish the supplies fast enough. Trucks backed up, waiting days to be unloaded. The company offered shift after extra shift, raised wages $2 an hour and paid double the hourly rate for overtime. It eventually announced that it would hire 100,000 new workers. In mid-March, Amazon stopped accepting new shipments into its warehouses that were not for priority products, like health care and baby supplies. On March 16, Jeysson Manrique, an employee of a delivery company that contracts with Amazon, woke up with a fever. His body ached. He called his supervisor to say he was sick. Mr. Manrique, 29, was asked to text a picture of his temperature on a thermometer. He couldnt find one, so he went in for his shift at an Amazon facility in Queens. Amazon said it was investigating the situation with the contracting company because its policy requires employees stay home if they feel sick. Two days later, Mr. Manriques father-in-law they live together in a house with other members of the family was sorting packages at the same facility when his doctor called to tell him that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. His father-in-law shared his test results with his supervisors and went home. When the warehouse closed for cleaning, he was the first publicly known case inside Amazons vast warehouse operations in the United States. Mr. Manrique joined his father-in-law and other members of the household in quarantine without venturing out for a test. On March 23, rumors circulated at the Queens facility that another employee had tested positive. Hours later, there were whispers of a third. The building was shut down March 24 and March 25 for deep cleaning. The company had also begun instructing warehouses to keep employees apart, staggering when they arrive and canceling group meetings at the start of shifts. Some workers said they were still handling products that were helpful but hardly critical. One warehouse employee posted a picture on social media of moving large boxes, including a Power Wheels Jeep that a child can ride, with the hashtags #SoManyPingPongTables and #TreadmillsAreEssentialProductsApparently. Teams of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) scientists and Delhi Police Crime Branch visited the Markaz Nizamuddin here on Sunday to carry out an investigation in connection with a congregation held here in which thousands of people took part between March 13 and March 15. An FIR was earlier filed against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act. Around 2300 people were brought out from the Markaz on April 1. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that of the 2300 brought out from the Markaz, 500 showed the symptoms of COVID-19 and were admitted to hospitals, whereas the remaining 1800 were sent under quarantine. The Tablighi Jamaat event has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases across India were linked to the gathering, including deaths in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One student fantasized about buying a $30,000 seat on a private jet. One mother, frustrated with her inability to bring her daughter home, sent masks instead. One group of desperate parents made an unusually public appeal to the Chinese government for help. The coronavirus outbreak has stranded more than one million Chinese students in empty dormitories and fearful towns and cities around the world. Many of those overseas students want to flee back to China, where official numbers suggest that the authorities have made progress in containing the pandemic. Fear, politics and the competing priorities of the Chinese government stand in the way. Virtually all flights to and from China have been canceled as Beijing tries to keep infected travelers from reigniting the contagion there. Remaining seats are breathtakingly expensive. For students trapped in the United States, their families worry that tense relations between Beijing and Washington will hinder Chinese-run evacuation efforts. The fears led one group of parents to publicly petition the Chinese government, a risky move in a country that increasingly tries to keep a lid on dissent. In an open letter posted online and addressed to the Chinese ambassador to the United States, the parents of 200 students in the New York area carefully praised the Chinese governments support for its citizens overseas. Then it cited the Wolf Warrior series of films, huge hits in China, in which patriotic soldiers from the Peoples Liberation Army protect Chinese people from overseas threats. The coronavirus outbreak, stay-at-home orders and the rules of social distancing are dramatically altering the way families and communities mourn the passing of loved ones. Lexington: No one stands in line to embrace the widow and share memories of her husband of 50 years. No rows of family and friends file toward the flag-draped coffin to pay their last respects. No symphony of sniffles is heard across the room as the minister gives a final prayer. Instead, a handful of people are scattered across one chapel row as if they're strangers, not blood. White roses are pinned to empty chairs, representing those who couldn't be there. An iPad on a tripod livestreams the service for people stuck at home across state lines. This is going to be a different experience for all of us, the minister tells the half-dozen people gathered at a South Carolina funeral home to celebrate the life of J Robert Coleman, an army veteran, husband to Gloria, father to three sons and grandfather to three children. "But one thing that will be common is that as we conduct this service today, we're going to open with a prayer. Unspoken was the reason this funeral, and untold others across the world, is different: The coronavirus outbreak, stay-at-home orders and the rules of social distancing are dramatically altering the way families and communities mourn the passing of loved ones. It's hard enough to lose a loved one, but then to have the traditions that usually bring comfort at a time like this seemingly not available just kind of compounds the grief that families feel, said Justin Baxley, of Woodridge Memorial Park & Funeral Home. Like most funeral homes, Woodridge is limiting the number of people allowed for services. Many families find it hard to choose which loved ones will be invited to the in-person gathering and which will be relegated to watch via livestream, if at all. But Coleman's family said in their case, travel restrictions due to the virus and the nature of their small, close-knit family made following the fewer-than-10-people mandate simple. John Coleman said those who mattered most to his dad were there: his wife, Gloria, and his sons. The only one missing was his beloved dog, Bandit. That's the most important," Coleman said. "We weren't brought up to care if we were around a big group. Robert Coleman died suddenly last week. One of his sons found him at home in Columbia. The family said he went peacefully, possibly of a heart attack, but because the 69-year-old had complained of chest pain the day before, he was tested for COVID-19. Days later, the test came back negative. But regardless of the cause of death, funerals still must abide by rules aimed at preventing any possible exposure to the virus. At Woodridge Memorial Park, a bottle of hand sanitizer and a sign asking guests to kindly refrain from handshaking now sit beside the guestbook. Chairs are spaced apart. Much of the funeral planning among family and staff is done via video chat. And the demand for livestreaming services has skyrocketed. At Coleman's funeral, most of his family chose to sit in the front row, but a sister-in-law, citing social distance, made her way alone to the back. During the service, Gloria Coleman cried and pulled down her sunglasses, hiding her eyes. With the chairs separated, her sons couldn't reach out to comfort her. Your husband, your father, a model of faithfulness for you," Pastor Brett DeYoung said in his brief remarks. "Now it's time for you to continue that legacy by modeling that integrity and faithfulness to your family and friends. The family followed the casket outside, where two uniformed soldiers waited to honor Coleman's service to his country a ritual usually held inside, but moved to follow guidelines. A bugler played taps, and Gloria Coleman accepted a folded American flag. John Coleman's wife and kids didn't make the trip from their Florida home. They were able to watch the livestream to say goodbye. Coleman said the family had to plan the funeral while watching headlines about the novel coronavirus, and he doesn't want to live in fear: that's why he invited The Associated Press to document their grieving. He'll send the recording of the service to his dad's buddies from working for decades in the aerospace industry. And he'll head back home to his family. We'll say a prayer with them, and it will be what it is for the moment. KAMPALA The World Bank has given $15M (about Shs 57bn to boost Ugandas fight against the spread of coronavirus. The donation was announced by Mr Antony Thompson, the World Bank Uganda Country director on Friday, who said it will be re-allocated from the Reproductive Maternal and Child Health Services Improvement Project. The money will be put back from the Fast-Track Facility which is funding the coronavirus responses in different countries. Uganda missed on the first funding by the World Bank towards emergence health support. It is not clear what the money will do, but Minister of Health Jane Aceng said this week that they are looking at hiring over 200 health workers to help with this pandemic. Also health workers in upcountry health units have been reported running away from suspected patients because they dont have protective gear. The spread of COVID-19 has strained resources with poor countries like Uganda having to budget for supplementary budgets to tackle the pandemic. The country has approved for Shs 304 bn supplementary budget for the pandemic fight. Related White House hopeful Joe Biden said Sunday he would wear a mask in public amid the coronavirus pandemic and that the Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention might need to be "virtual" to avoid spreading disease. The former vice president told ABC that the Democratic National Convention, already delayed by five weeks, is a requirement to formally nominate the candidate who challenges Trump in November's election. But he conceded the affair, featuring thousands of party grandees, may need to be held online should coronavirus remain a threat to public health into mid-August, the new convention date. "We're going to have to do a convention. We may have to do a virtual convention," Biden said on the ABC talk show "This Week." "We may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place" if the coronavirus outbreaks have not been tamped down, he said. "Let's see where it is -- and what we do between now and then is going to dictate a lot of that as well." Biden, 77, is the party's all-but-certain nominee, and the convention, originally scheduled for mid-July, was delayed shortly after he publicly suggested it. His remaining nomination rival Bernie Sanders has declined to concede, and the two square off in the Wisconsin primary that remains scheduled for Tuesday despite legal challenges and warnings about public health. Both candidates are hunkered down in their homes and broadcasting from makeshift studios rather than conducting what would typically be intense on-the-ground campaigning. Biden, when asked, said he would heed the advice of US health officials and wear a mask if he went out in public amid the pandemic. "Yes. Look, I think it's important to follow the science, listen to the experts, do what they tell you," Biden said. Trump has said he will not wear facial protection, defying his own administration's advice. "He may not like how he looks in a mask," Biden added, "but the truth of the matter is, follow the science." Trump has dominated the airwaves as he holds televised daily briefings in the White House, while Biden struggles to compete for attention. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Kartik Aaryan, like nearly all of Indian film and television celebs, is living in voluntary isolation. On Saturday, the actor posted a picture of himself, from a previous photo shoot, on a boat, out in the sea. He is shirtless and is looking away from the camera, but what is striking is his hair. Sharing the picture, Kartik wrote: Udein jab jab Zulfein meri, You can Lockdown a Man, You cant Lockdown his Hair. The image got a response from celebrity photographer Dabboo Ratnani , who left a red-heart emoji. Kartik has an avid fan following, which is evident from the comments fans left on the post. One user said I love this guy, who have body... while another wrote Uffooo.. Garmi. A third person said Yaar why so hot. Not all comments were all about admiration. One person joked: Stay at home not on the boat. Like many in Bollywood, Kartik too has donated for coronavirus relief. He contributed Rs 1 crore to Prime Minister Narendra Modis PM-Cares fund. Also read: Saif Ali Khan says mom Sharmila Tagores lockdown attitude scares him: She is suddenly saying she has had full life, no regrets It is the absolute need of the hour to rise together as a nation. Whatever I am, whatever money I have 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, the actor wrote on Instagram on March 30. Kartik, meanwhile, is having fun at home. Earlier this month, he celebrated his sister Kritika Tiwaris birthday by baking a cake. On April 1, he took to Instagram, to share pictures of biscuit cake he baked for his sister amid Covid-19 lockdown. Lockdown ka fayda - Celebrating Kittus bday together after 7 years.... Chota Cake Banane gaya, Bada Biscuit ban gaya...(Went to make a small cake instead made a big biscuit cake) Happy Birthday Doctor KiKi ..Pride of the family, he captioned the image. (With IANS inputs) Follow @htshowbiz for more Maeve Kennedy McKean greets Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., during a rally on the East Front lawn of the Capitol to condemn the separation and detention of families at the border of the U.S. and Mexico on June 21, 2018. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call Authorities called off the search for two members of the Kennedy family who disappeared from a family gathering in the Chesapeake Bay. The search for Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her son Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean, 8, turned "from rescue to recovery" just over a day after they took a canoe to recover a ball kicked into the water. McKean is the granddaughter of former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and daughter of former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who said in a reported statement that her daughter "devoted her life to helping society's most vulnerable." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. The search for two members of the Kennedy family who disappeared from a family gathering in the Chesapeake Bay was called off Friday night as relatives started to publicly mourn the missing mother and son. Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her eight-year-old son Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean went missing near a Maryland family home on Thursday evening after children playing at the house kicked a ball into nearby water and his wife and son "popped into a canoe to chase it down," McKean's husband David told The Washington Post. "They just got farther out than they could handle, and couldn't get back in," he told the Post. The pair were reported missing around 4:49 p.m. Thursday near Annapolis, according to CBS Baltimore. Authorities fielded reports that two people were seen struggling "to return to shore in a canoe and weren't seen again," the outlet reported. Around 7:00 p.m. Friday night, a canoe matching the description of the missing one was recovered. Coast Guard authorities said in a statement on Friday that they had decided to suspend the "difficult case." "This was a difficult case, and even more difficult to make the decision to suspend the search," said Commander Matthew Fine, according to CBS Baltimore. "Our crews and partners did everything they could to find them. We've kept the family informed at every step during the search, and our thoughts are with them tonight." Story continues McKean is the daughter of former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and the granddaughter of former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. She is the executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative. McKean and her husband David have three other children. Kennedy Townsend, whose home from which the two disappeared, said in a reported statement that by Friday night, the search had turned "from rescue to recovery." The call came just over 24 hours after The statement also noted that her daughter "devoted her life to helping society's most vulnerable" through her work in the Peace Corps, public health, and human rights. "We love you Maeve. We love you Gideon," Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts, wrote on Twitter. "Our family has lost two of the brightest lights. Grateful for the prayers. Hold your loved ones tight." Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Friday that he had spoken to Kennedy Townsend, to whom he "expressed our heartfelt sympathies." "On behalf of the people of Maryland I expressed our heartfelt sympathies and prayers during this difficult time," Hogan said, according to the Associated Press. Read the original article on Insider Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News Send us home, lockdown may kill, says father of 3-year old Kashmiri discharged from AIIMS. Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, April 5 : A Kashmiri father of a three-year-old child, who was discharged after two heart surgeries at AIIMS Delhi in a span of eight days last month, is left with only prayers as his son has developed breathing problems and because of the prolonged lockdown, the family is unable to get the required medical care for the child. "We have been staying in a rented accommodation in Delhi. I am running short of money," says Nisar Ahmad Magray, a 38-year-old labourer from Abhama village in Pulwama district in Kashmir. The distraught father says last month when the surgeries of his son, Magray Taha, were conducted successfully, the family was overjoyed. Nisar now wants to go back to his village, but is stuck in Delhi's Adarsh Nagar (near Majlis Park, north-west Delhi) at a rented accommodation of Rs 13,500 per month with his son, wife and nephew Manzoor. He tried to go to Pulwama by an ambulance, but was asked to pay Rs 60,000 for the facility, with no guarantee -- in view of the nationwide lockdown -- that he would be dropped at his village. "I somehow managed to pay the rent this month even though the Delhi government has told landlords not to ask for the monthly rent". The biggest problem Nisar is facing is the survival of his son as he is facing breathing problems in the basement accommodation. "I came here on November 18 last year after my son was referred to the AIIMS by Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS). The arteries of my son's heart were blocked. I have spent lakhs of rupees for his treatment and borrowed money from relatives and friends. Now that the surgeries are over, I am not able to provide him with proper care," Nisar told IANS. "My son must survive," he said. "Taha's first open-heart surgery took place on March 1 and second came eight days later. It was the happiest moment of my life when he was discharged from AIIMS on March 26," said Nisar. "But, now we are stuck here due to lockdown." He says he has contacted everybody to help him in reaching his home. "I am now left with little money. I tried to take help from an ambulance but the driver asked me to pay Rs 60,000 from one-way trip to Kashmir, but he gave us no assurance of dropping me in Pulwama. I cannot afford that, nor can I afford to pay for food and medicines. I appeal for immediate help." "I recently paid Rs 1,600 to an ambulance for a visit to AIIMS for a follow-up checkup," said Nisar. "My son needs a lot of care and hygiene. I want to take him back home, but don't know what to do. I am not getting any information such as whether the government has any plans to allow movement of patients stuck in Delhi. I have knocked every door, but have not got any response. Please help us," Magray said. Hundreds of Kashmiris like Nisar and others belonging to different states are stuck in Delhi and other places across the country due to lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 declared a 21-day nationwide lockdown to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19 disease which has claimed over 70 lives across the country. (Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in) Srinagar: In Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, on Sunday, security forces have foiled five terrorists, failing a major plot to infiltrate Pakistani terrorists. These terrorists infiltrating from Pakistan side in the Keeran sector of Kupwara have been killed in the areas near the LoC. A soldier of the Indian Army has also been martyred in this action. Big decision of Indian Railways, now senior citizens will not get discount on fares According to the information, an army soldier has been martyred in an encounter with militants in Kupwara, North Kashmir and two are seriously injured. The army has also killed 5 terrorists. These were infiltrated from the LoC. In the last 24 hours, the army has killed 9 terrorists in Kashmir. Four people have been killed in Kulgam on Saturday. Owaisi furious over Bharatpur case, says, 'Hatred of Muslims at peak' Today was the fifth day of the encounter in Kupwara. On Wednesday, the terrorists crossed the LoC and entered the Indian border. These terrorists managed to infiltrate the LoC by taking advantage of bad weather and fog. Army terrorists surrounded these terrorists on Wednesday afternoon itself. An encounter also took place, but the terrorists escaped by breaking the siege, taking advantage of the mist and rain. After this, the army again laid siege on Saturday and killed the terrorists. Kumaraswamy's big slams Prime Minister, says 'Selected April 5 due to party agenda' Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 23:45:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Sixty-five Hong Kong residents stranded in Peru by the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon thanks to a government-arranged chartered flight. A spokesperson of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said the government arranged the flight to take those passengers from Lima, capital of Peru, to London on Friday. After arrival in London, they took a connecting flight with secured bookings back to Hong Kong. After passing virus tests, they will be put under home quarantine for 14 days. The HKSAR government received a total of 98 assistance requests from Hong Kong residents stranded in Peru, among whom 13 have left there already through other arrangements. Some residents have stayed in Peru for personal reasons or isolation. The HKSAR government said it will continue to work with the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR and the Chinese Embassy in Peru to provide practicable and appropriate assistance to those still in Peru. Editors note: This post includes updates related to COVID-19 and its effects on Albuquerque and the rest of the state. PICTURES UPDATES 4:14 p.m. 81 new COVID-19 cases in NM, 1 more death The number of coronavirus cases in New Mexico jumped to 624, as state health officials announced 81 new positive tests on Sunday. The death toll has climbed to 12 after a man in his 40s from McKinley County died on Sunday. The new numbers released by the Department of Health include three additional cases out of La Vida Llena, a long term care facility in Albuquerque. Two more workers and one more resident have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases there to 38. Read more >> Katy Barnitz 2:57 p.m. Which contacts of COVID-19 patients are being traced? Immediately after being notified that she tested positive for COVID-19 last month, Jennifer Burrill began making a list of everywhere shed been and everyone shed come into contact with since March 3. Thats the date she first began experiencing a sickness, similar to seasonal allergies, that she now worries was actually the virus. The 48-year-old public defender and vice president of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association came up with 74 names, which she provided to the New Mexico Department of Health. But the DOH epidemiologists conducted active contact tracing and monitoring only of people who had a close interaction with her between March 18 and the time she began home isolation after experiencing a vicious coughing fit three days later, according to a letter sent to the boss at the Law Office of the Public Defender. That was hardly anyone, Burrill said. Read more >> Elise Kaplan 2:35 p.m. Lovelace Health System and Presbyterian Healthcare Services authorize masking Both the Lovelace Health System and Presbyterian Healthcare Services are authorizing all hospital and clinic employees to wear a mask, according to a joint news release. We feel that masking all of our hospital staff will help protect not only our employees, but also our patients and their family members from infection, Ron Stern, Lovelace Health System CEO, said. According to the release, the Centers for Disease Control has not instructed mandatory masking for healthcare workers. The mandate is for all employees of the two companies, not just for employees in direct contact with patients. Pilar Martinez 2:23 p.m. It is scary we need to hunker down GALLUP Tammy Arnold lives in a home with eight others about an hour northwest of Gallup near the small community of Yah-ta-hey, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. The 29-year-old, who brought her relatives into town to buy groceries Friday morning, said shes trying to take every precaution to protect herself against the COVID-19 pandemic thats sweeping through the reservation and the rest of the country. In the evenings, when she returns home, she changes her clothes and washes her hands before embracing her young niece or touching anything. On Friday, she waited outside the store in the parking lot trying to avoid the stream of people doing their shopping after getting paid the first week of the month. The whole outbreak that happened on the Navajo Nation now, its a large number, Arnold told the Journal. Im really worried even bringing my cousin and aunt here. Read more >> Elise Kaplan and Theresa Davis 1:45 p.m. Virus raises specter of gravest attacks in modern US times WASHINGTON Americas surgeon general raised the specter of the gravest attacks against the nation in modern times to steel an anxious country Sunday for the impending and immeasurable sorrow he said would touch untold numbers of families in the age of the coronavirus. The governments top infectious disease expert urged vigilant preparation for a virus that is unlikely to be wiped out entirely in the short term and may emerge again in a new season. The blunt assessments show just how much has changed in the weeks since President Donald Trumps predictions that the virus would soon pass, and his suggestions that much of the economy could be up and running by Easter, April 12. But they also point to the suffering and sacrifice ahead until the pandemic begins to abate. The nations top doctor, Surgeon General Jerome Allen, said Americans should brace for levels of tragedy reminiscent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Read more >> Will Weissert and Kevin Freking/ Associated Press 10:42 a.m. Picture: Closed, indefinitely Eddie Moore 6:05 a.m. State health investigators hunt for virus sources Days before the state recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Marshall Baca Jr., Artesia General Hospitals emergency department director, issued a warning to residents of the small town in southeast New Mexico. Artesia has a population of approximately 13,000 people. As soon as ONE person tests positive for COVID-19, we can estimate that potentially 1,300 members of our community will also be infected in a short amount of time assuming an infective rate of 10% (infective rates vary significantly), Baca wrote in an open letter published in the Artesia Daily Press on March 20. Three days later, a 78-year-old Artesia man died at Bacas hospital from a COVID-19 infection after presenting himself at the hospitals emergency room the night before. Baca, at a news conference, said the man had previously refused to be tested for the coronavirus. How the man acquired the virus in a city at least 40 miles from the nearest big population center and who else he might have unintentionally exposed are questions under investigation by a state Department of Health team that is in a daily race to find the public health answers to this case and hundreds of others. Read more >> Colleen Heild 12:05 a.m. Who saw this coming? SOCORRO Damien Ocampo wears the hat of Socorro High School head football coach, so he draws on this analogy to describe the ever-changing, taxing measures employed to fight COVID-19: Its like stopping an opponent on fourth down and inches near the goal line and someone giving your opponent an extra down. I dont think people realize what this is doing to small town America, said Ocampo, who also runs a State Farm insurance agency. Thats especially true in the City of Socorro, residents say, where census figures show nearly a third of the population already lives below the poverty line. Ocampos insurance office is considered essential, in part because it gives financial investment advice. But, these days, it also serves as a window into the community. People are coming in here stressed, he said. Farmers, ranchers, small business owners, they are cashing out their retirements 10 years early just to keep their businesses afloat. A lot of people are losing their jobs. I just hope the (federal) stimulus payments do them some good. Read more >> Scott Turner Computing power around the globe is being poured into the search for a vaccine and treatment for the coronavirus that has spread across the world. Many of those computers are being powered by natural gas that would otherwise be flared. Mesa Natural Gas Solutions, which has several field offices in the Permian Basin, has donated natural gas generators to power computer modules being used in the search for a cure for COVID-19. The computer modules are owned and managed by Crusoe Energy Inc. Those modules currently are located in the Bakken play in North Dakota and Montana, but both Mesa and Crusoe are looking to expand into other basins, including the Permian, Max Renton, marketing manager with Mesa, told the Reporter-Telegram by email. He said Mesa is in talks with several companies to bring modules to the region. It is a great way to not only mitigate flaring but to add value back to low commodity prices, he said. The computing modules provide resources to the Folding@Home Consortium, a distributed computing system for life-science research launched out of Stanford University. The consortium allows researchers to remotely utilize Crusoes computational resources for the vaccine search and discovery process. They have recently launched a new protein-folding simulation project specifically targeting vaccines and therapeutic antibodies for COVID-19. The protein folding- project simulates antibody proteins and how they might prevent COVID-19 viral infection. However, the simulation process is computationally intensive, and therefore requires large amounts of electricity. Mesas contribution of donated power generation resources allows Crusoe to double the scale of its existing protein-folding program, and Mesas generators will soon begin powering 16 of Crusoes graphic processing units that will support the consortiums work toward therapy and cure research for COVID-19. If we can provide a power solution, then that is one less thing our customers have to worry about, said Renton. He referred to a statement from Scott Gromer, Mesa president and chief executive officer: We jumped at the opportunity to fully support this effort to research this terrible virus that has paralyzed our country and the world. 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. Our generators are the perfect tool to ensure this research will be done effectively and without interruptions to the power source, while utilizing this resource that may otherwise be wasted. Renton credited the military and military veteran culture at Mesa. This is a joint effort with Crusoe Energy Systems. Because of the military and military veteran culture at Mesa, it is second nature for our management and employees to want to react and help out. We didnt want to just sit around and talk about the problem; we wanted to help out and be part of the solution. We are in a great position today to give back to the companies that built us. Mesa generators are able to provide the large amounts of required energy by converting associated natural gas from oil production sites into electricity. The associated gas at these sites is often flared because it cannot be captured or transported to storage facilities. Worldwide estimates are that about 4.9 trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas is flared each year. Renton said the company is educating its customers about what can be done with its natural gas generators, doing so in other producing basins. The Permian is coming on quickly, he said. Heavy rain, tornadoes sweep through Houston area Most of the damage was in Harris, Montgomery and Liberty counties. Man arrested for DWI with lit BBQ pit in truck, TX constable says The 'driver was traveling with a lit BBQ pit in the bed of his truck creating a large fire.' Amaravati, April 5 : The COVID-19 tally in Andhra Pradesh has risen to 226, by 9 a.m. on Sunday. In all, 34 samples tested positive in the 12 hours between 9 p.m on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday. State nodal officer Dr. Srikanth Arja said that the maximum number of positive cases was 23 from Kurnool, followed by Chittooru with 7 positive cases. 2 results each from Ongole and Nellore also came positive during the night. Currently, the maximum number of positive cases in the state are from Nellore district where 34 samples have tested COVID-19 positive. Krishna district has 28 cases, followed by Kadapa and Prakasam districts with 23 cases each. Chittooru has 17 cases while Visakhapatnama and West Godavari have reported 15 cases each so far. East Godavari has 11 cases and Ananthapur district has 3 positive cases. Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam are the only districts to not have reported any COVID-19 cases till date. The state saw a spurt in COVID-19 cases after March 20, when large numbers of people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi, between March 15-17, began returning to their homes. A number of foreign delegates at the congregation had transmitted the coronavirus to the participants, reulting in the spike in cases in Andhra Pradesh. On Saturday, Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy had appealed to the people to refrain from blaming any particular community for the spread of COVID-19 in the state. He also urged people of the state to switch off lights in their homes and light up candles, earthen lamps or cell phone flashlights for 9 minutes at 9 p.m on Sunday, in solidarity with the Prime Minister's call. Meanwhile tests of samples taken from the Delhi-returnees is continuing and the results will be released as they are obtained by the authorities. In one-on-one phone calls with Trump, Giuliani said, he has been touting the use of an anti-malarial drug combination that has shown some early promise in treating covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes, but whose effectiveness has not yet been proved. He said he now spends his days on the phone with doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives promoting the treatment, which Trump has also publicly lauded. New Delhi, April 5 : Three Pakistan Army soldiers, including a JCO, have suffered casualties after the Indian Army retaliated to ceasefire violation carried out by Pakistan at Poonch sector in Jammu & Kashmir on Sunday, defence sources said. The Indian Army is effectively responding to Pakistan firing, sources added. Earlier in the day, five Pakistani terrorists were killed when they tried to enter Jammu and Kashmir. LA PAZ, March 25 (Reuters) - Bolivia declared a national health emergency and extended its border lockdown on Wednesday, as the government seeks to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Interim President Jeanine Anez said in a public address that the border closure was extended to April 15 from March 31 previously. Anez said no one will be able to enter or exit Bolivia during that time. Bolivia, which was already under a 14-day national quarantine, also tightened restrictions on movement, permitting only one person per household to go out between the hours of 7 am and noon on weekdays. "In recent days, non-compliance with the quarantine has increased the risk of contagion," Anez said, adding that the armed forces and national police would become more involved in enforcing the quarantine. Bolivia has 38 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to government data. (Reporting by Daniel Ramos; writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) In less than two weeks, life in New Mexico for many has undergone drastic changes. As we all work together to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, daily life will continue to require adjustments. Where this is an especially stressful time for most people, it is catastrophic for families that were already experiencing hardships. This is a reality that we at the Children, Youth, and Families Department are prepared to address with assistance and coordination. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has made an additional $750,000 available to CYFD during the public health emergency to help support families. It is a mission we take very seriously. Our priority is to ensure we continue to deliver services and supports that help our most vulnerable families. We are doing so while implementing the best practice protocols for health and hygiene that are being provided by our governor and the N.M. Department of Health. And we are continually reassessing this work in very close collaboration with them. Here is some of what were doing: On March 11, when the governor ordered nonessential workers home, CYFD knew our definition of nonessential would be different than most agencies. We identified those employees who could complete their essential job functions from home and implemented that immediately. A priority was ensuring that those employees who deliver direct services could maintain social distancing at the office when they are there. Our Statewide Central Intake (#SAFE) has remained open 24/7 to take reports of suspected abuse or neglect. CYFDs front line employees case workers and investigators have remained at work, taking extra precautions to keep children, youth, families and their fellow employees safe. We understand there is a lot of mixed information online, and our leadership team is working to communicate changes through official channels as the need arises. The department has worked closely with our law enforcement and judicial partners to ensure we continue to communicate and stay on the same page when it comes to serving the community. New Mexico courts have limited who can be in courtrooms and are not permitting most children to participate except by phone or video conference. As the pandemic has grown, we have ramped up efforts to keep both foster and biological families safe. Legally required visits are now taking place either via video chat or outdoors in open areas. In the rare instance a visit must be held in one of our visitation rooms, those rooms are being sanitized in between visits following DOH guidance. The Governors Office and other departments including CYFD are working diligently to make sure New Mexicos 23 tribes, pueblos and nations are staying connected as much as possible. At CYFD one of the ways we are realizing this is working with the courts to make sure no major decisions are made regarding Native children in care without the tribes input. Courts are meeting this need for flexibility as each tribe enacts the best health and safety measures for their individual community. The states Early Childhood Education and Care Department is working closely with child care centers, providing guidance to keep essential care open for our first responders and health care workers. The state will pay for medical costs incurred for any early childhood educator who contracts COVID-19. The state is also supporting working families who do not have the luxury of working from home. Early childhood educators are just as vital to the states response to the coronavirus as health care workers, fearlessly continuing to provide care. CYFD has undergone many reforms in the last year. We have worked to make our system more flexible and adaptable to our families needs, and this is helping us respond to the crisis. Our leadership team is working around the clock to make necessary adjustments and changes to prioritize keeping families and employees safe. As the governor has said repeatedly, all options are on the table when it comes to stopping the COVID-19 outbreak in New Mexico, and we will continue to make necessary changes to meet this need. Caregiver help Resources for any caregiver helping kids cope with COVID-19 are available at CYFD.org. Steve Harfst, chief executive and president of Eastern Airlines, stands outside of the company's office in Wayne. trying to return home during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Read more Before he could get to Dubuque, Brandon Kacere had to get to Guayaquil. Two weeks ago the 40-year-old Iowa financial adviser and his wife were marooned by the coronavirus outbreak inside a rented condo in an Ecuadoran resort town. The airport was two hours away in Guayaquil, which the virus had locked down. Blockades stretched across the citys perimeter. There was a curfew in effect and anyone trying to enter without a government-issued pass risked arrest and a $350 fine. And even if the vacationing couple managed to penetrate that urban shield, they then had to find a way back to Iowa. There were no scheduled flights from Ecuadors largest city to the United States for at least another month. Thats when the U.S. Embassy suggested Kacere check with Eastern Airlines, a little-known, Wayne-based company with an old name and old jets that over the last few weeks has rescued thousands of stranded Americans in Central and South America. Eastern saved us, said Kacere, who got back to Iowa on March 23. This worldwide pandemic has thrust tiny Eastern into the aviation headlines. The firm was founded in 2010 in North Carolina, but filed for bankruptcy seven years later. After Chapter 11 restructuring, the airline emerged from bankruptcy in 2018, and last June the 148-employee airline moved its headquarters to offices on Swedesford Road in Wayne. Until the pandemic exploded in early March, Eastern not affiliated with the onetime giant airline that dissolved in 1991 was operating a single route, two flights weekly between JFK in New York and Guayaquil. But the company was close to adding a few more to secondary markets in Central and South America. We thought there was a pretty big opportunity to serve niche international markets that are underserved or have no service to the U.S., said Steve Harfst, Easterns president and CEO. That was our business plan up until about two weeks ago. Then the world turned upside down. FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered As the COVID-19 pandemic spread and one legacy airline after another canceled flights, Eastern saw an opportunity. We did a series of repatriation charters in early March, carrying a whole bunch of students from Grenada to Miami, said Harfst. Then the phone really started ringing and we started talking to a couple embassies. They said, `Weve got all these American citizens who need to get home and all the airlines have pulled out. So, coordinating with the embassies and the State Departments repatriation task force, we started implementing direct-sale charters to these countries. As of Friday, the little airline with eight Boeing 767s had made 41 of those repatriation flights and brought 8,100 Americans home from places like Ecuador, Grenada, Guyana, Argentina, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, and elsewhere. By Tuesday, it will have flown three more rescue misssions. READ MORE: Philly-area Peace Corps volunteers are forced to evacuate due to coronavirus: I wasnt ready to leave It hasnt been effortless. For a small company in the midst of a huge crisis, the logistical challenges were enormous. Permissions had to be sought from nations and airports. Ticketing, check-in, baggage, and mechanical services had to be established and staffed within days. Some of these places required cash and asked us if we could do Venmo [the digital-wallet service], said Harfst. But somehow we havent had many issues. Easterns unexpected business bump came without any advertising. Passengers were directed to their website by the State Department. Some flights have carried as few as 80 passengers, others as many as 240. Ticket prices vary, but, Harfst said, they tend to be in the $1,000 range. Were just trying to cover our costs and get these people home, he said. READ MORE: As borders close around the world, frantic ordeals to get home to Philadelphia Kaceres adventure was probably typical. His wife, Paola, is Ecuadoran. She was in Guayaquil visiting relatives when he arrived on March 10 for a two-week vacation that included a nephews high school graduation. Two days later, everything shut down, Kacere, 40, said. It was scary. They said no going out, no gatherings. When they canceled my nephews graduation, we drove to an Airbnb on the coast, in Salinas. It got worse. They were already checking peoples temperatures and everyone was required to wear gloves and masks to go into grocery stores. By March 15, authorities ordered Ecuadorans to stay inside. Those whod been issued passes could go out, but only every other day, based on their license-plate numbers. All incoming flights stopped. Spirit Airlines contacted Kacere to tell him that his, on March 24, was canceled. There wouldnt be another until April 21. We were like, `Well, we cant be here that long. I dont have that much vacation or time off at work. Meanwhile, the disease was spreading fast. There were 10 deaths within a few days. His angst growing, Kacere contacted the U.S. Embassy in Guayaquil. No one was getting in or out of the city without a pass, officials told him, and they couldnt get him one. They did, however, provide a letter of passage. They told me no guarantees but maybe it would help, Kacere said. He bought tickets for an Eastern flight on March 23. Those and the letter finally got the Kaceres into Guayaquil. They stayed with relatives for two days, found a brother-in-law whose license plate allowed him to drive that day, and on Monday reached the airport. READ MORE: State Department says 13,500 Americans stranded abroad have asked for help You had to have a ticket to get inside, Kacere said. There was only one other airline going out and everybody was a little nervous. But once we got on the plane, things went smoothly. It was mostly Americans, a lot of seniors, and it was full. We were in the last row. The mood was good. Everybody was happy to be able to get home. The Eastern people did a great job keeping us calm. They were all wearing masks and gloves, so we were surprised when we got to Miami and saw that none of those protocols had been instituted there. Harfst said hes been busier than ever these last few weeks, but nothing like his airlines crews. Our pilots, flight attendants, and line mechanics havent been home, Harfst said. Theyre out there doing some pretty amazing stuff. Eastern has about 100 of those employees. The rest of its workforce, thanks to Harfts insistence, is in Wayne. I came to Philly in 2008 as president and CEO of USA 3000 Airlines, which was based in Newtown Square, said Harfst. When Eastern offered me the job, I said Id take it if they moved up here. Now that the airline has flown in and out of these secondary markets and established at least temporary infrastructures there, Harfst said, establishing a normal presence in normal times should be easier. Weve been like ducks, he said. Things look smooth on the surface. But theres a lot of underwater logistics going on. 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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:05:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian official said Sunday that Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye received a rare phone call from head of the political bureau of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh a few days ago amid the COVID-19 outbreak. During the call, Haniyeh stressed the necessity of following up on the situation in the Gaza Strip amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and extended his greetings to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to Ibrahim Milhem, Palestinian government's spokesperson. "Ishtaye affirmed to Haniyeh his commitment to providing all needs to people in the Gaza Strip, and affirmed the government's readiness with all its ministries, especially the Ministry of Health, to provide the needed medical supplies," he added. Haniyeh praised the current government and its role in fighting this pandemic, said Milhem. Several attempts to reach intra-Palestinian reconciliation have failed to achieve a breakthrough since the internal Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah in 2007, when Hamas forcibly took over the Gaza Strip. 'Writing things down allows us to assimilate the information far more productively than just thinking about it' (stock photo) After a few short weeks of this pandemic, it's hard to imagine life will return to normal. For many that is scary. It is hard to grasp. Our mental wellbeing depends largely on the 'status quo', none of us do 'change' well. Despite a life spent dealing with panic attacks and catastrophe anxiety, I am in a better position to deal with enforced isolation than most. I have built up coping mechanisms to survive, a set of tools to get me over periods that have been psychologically difficult. How people feel in lockdown will depend on their physiological make-up. For some, it is a welcome respite from the daily grind. Others, especially those already suffering from anxiety, are now experiencing a heightened sense of worry. There are also the 'worried well' glued to Dr Google, convincing themselves they have what they have been most worried about. We have all heard of the 'fight-or-flight' response to danger. For many, that can be a positive response if used effectively - a little anxiety can keep us alert and prepare us for action. Most of us experience anxiety because we perceive our lives to be out of our control, and the coronavirus has that effect. For me, it is about controlling the anxiety, the loneliness, the boredom of isolation. Stage one: I structure my day and that always means writing it down. Writing things down allows us to assimilate the information far more productively than just thinking about it. Start with achievements, small daily goals you can accomplish. For me, it's getting up at the usual time, showering, making a healthy breakfast and then writing my list of projects (painting the house); for others, it may be taking a brisk walk around their 2km restriction zone, or going online to get into the downward dog yoga position. Set small achievable goals for your day, and leave the life-changing decisions until after this isolation ends. You will have time for those, but now they only add stress. Grasping control also means doing all you can by keeping safe, and following guidelines around care, hygiene and social distancing. Achievement, even in small doses, is a boost for positive mindfulness. I score my little achievements out of 10 on a card, and maybe that's something you could do with your children. How did it make them feel to sit quietly at the dining room table engrossed in a new painting or a book or to help dad paint the fence? Stage 2: Connect. Right now we all crave human connection with friends, neighbours, family or community. Social media is great in that regard. Stage 3: Enjoy yourself. Take time to enjoy meditation or wellbeing exercises, play the piano, or enjoy a movie or vinyl. The mind cannot concentrate on different thoughts at the same time, despite you thinking it can. So when I'm in a movie I'm in it. Lastly before I go to bed, a good night's sleep is also crucial, I write down three or four things I am grateful for in my life, and even when I'm down and it's a struggle to find them, I always do: gratitude in life, kindness, nature, love, family, community or country. There are always things to be grateful for around you every minute of every day, it's just about noticing them - try smelling the roses rather than touching the thorns. For so many years, I was ashamed that I couldn't always fix myself by myself, that it was a weakness as a man to open up. But it's OK not to feel OK sometimes and it's OK to ask for help. At times like these, find someone you trust to confide in. I have finally realised that being able to ask for help or to open up may just be my greatest strength. Rugby pundit Brent Pope is a leading mental health advocate and has qualifications in psychotherapy and counselling Shilpi Madan By Forget liveried butlers swishing up gourmet gospels while pouring in the Bollinger. Move aside dramatic fumes engulfing your amuse-bouche. Molecular gastronomy, eclectic platters, food perches, and zany coloured preparations with edible flowers are passe. 2020 wings in fun laced with drama into your dining experience for that ultimate pizzazz. A riveting animated 3D dining adventure makes your heart do a double flip. The Le Petit Chef experience brought to the Indian turf at The Grand Hyatt Mumbai Hotel & Residences receives resounding applause. Communal dining at a secluded space at Celini offers an edgy meal. The tiniest chef in the world, Le Petit Chef, comes complete in a size measuring 58 mm. He forages skilfully and prepares your six-course gourmet meal in front of your eyes, coursing through the legendary Silk Route and beyond. The idea was to combine fun, cinema and drama on the plate, says Balraj Pannu, CEO Elements KL, that brings this experiential dining with 3D projection on your plate. The food doesnt disappoint either. Your mini khansamah talks to you, greeting as he pops out of a tent and exclaiming as he is snapped up by an oyster. He pulls out fresh catchlobster, fish and octopusto prep them on your plate, with the entire table awash in a sea. edible jewellery Acoustics flow in the swish of waves, the cry of the rooster, the tabla and sitar. Heirloom tomatoes get yanked out from a farm setting and a flourish of saffron adds a theatrical touch to your dessert as the fiery dragon disappears in your face. What glides in to replace the final rendition is a gorgeous replica of the dish from the expert kitchens of the hotel. There are other eye-poppers like the quirky mozzarella balloon salad. Food is more than what meets the eye, says Saurabh Raturi, Executive Chef at The BlueBop Cafe in Mumbai. He dips the mozzarella cheese cube in warm water to soften it and brings it to a soda siphon nozzle, gently wraps it around and releases gas from siphon to inflate the balloon. All of us love balloons and its amazing to be able to eat one, he says. The stretchability of the cheese lends it the versatility of shape as the inflated balloon is finally placed on top of arugula leaves, topped with a spray of tomato water and salt, balsamic reduction and basil oil as a piece de resistance. Shaping stunning chocolate jewellery studded with crystals, pirouettes in at JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar, where pastry chef Santosh Rawat, showcases some of the best edible accessories. In artistic collaboration with Swarovski, Santosh has brought forth stunning necklaces, bracelets, earrings and cufflinks wrought in chocolate and adorned with zirconia. The crucial part lies in planning, identifying and creating the moulds and consistently maintaining the optimum temperature. The chocolate needs to be malleable enough like clay, yet not set, he shares. So when you dine out for the composite sensorial experience after the coronavirus pandemic subsides, the plate is your palette this year. Kim Myong-hi's "Drinking Tea" (2004) / Courtesy of artist and Art Projects International, New York By Kwon Mee-yoo Artist Kim Myong-hi lives a modern nomadic life, but in an extreme way. She divides her time between an abandoned school-turned-house in the remote countryside in Gangwon Province and fancy loft in SoHo, New York. Such an experience has led her to explore contemporary themes of territorial division, rural exodus, migration and displacement in her signature oil pastels on chalkboard. "Myong Hi Kim: Portraits," an exhibition at Art Projects International in New York, revisits her oeuvre centering on figure paintings. "I am showing earlier works this time. Figure was my major subject when I started to work on chalkboards from 1993. The protagonist in the story I tell in my paintings are myself. Imagining myself as a girl who missed a school excursion or wondering what the future will bring ("The Girl") or fashioning as a spiritual being ("Dongja with Peach"). And the women ironing and serving tea is an actual self-portrait," Kim said at an e-mail interview with The Korea Times. Dislocation has been the theme of her works continuously and, for the artist, dislocation can mean physical separation, but it can also mean the loss of self. "They may appear as realistic portraits, but the vision that I present is that of apparition rather than appearance. Anyone who has witnessed the metamorphosis of an everyday object into a metaphysical entity on the canvas cannot but be spellbound by its magic. What I am working on is the interspace where reality is renegotiated and new consciousness is embodied." "I keep record of people I meet for future reference and take time to go through the process of writing an epic poem for each of my works, gaining experience, drawing on my imagination, setting up characters and their narratives and choosing a mode of expression. After this process I am able to execute them visually," the artist said. Kim Myong-hi in front of her school house studio in a tiny mountain village in Gangwon Province in 1995 / Courtesy of Art Projects International, New York Kim, a graduate of Seoul National University, headed to the Pratt Institute, New York in 1975 to study further as it was difficult for married women to pursue a career in Korea back then. Kim married Kim Tchah-sup, an artist she met in Seoul, in New York. Kim Tchah-sup, best known for his stone field paintings, began to gain a presence in the late 70s and she decided to support him first until their lives became stable, running a select fashion store in New York. "It is well known that making a living is not easy for artist couples. Although I was struggling to make a living I always considered myself an artist. The drawings I made at the time caught the eye of Mrs. Kim Whan-ki who introduced me to a prestigious gallery in Seoul in 1987 and the exhibition became a sold out show," Kim said. Her use of oil pastel and chalkboard was inspired by her move to the school studio back in 1990 after spending 15 years in the Big Apple. The couple did not move to a convenient metropolis similar to New York but to a remote, mountainous region in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. "My husband was not well at the time so we needed to change our environment. And while we were traveling in Europe we saw a show at Tate Modern in London of German artist Anselm Kiefer's works done in an abandoned school building in a remote countryside area of Germany. It gave me a revelation that Korea must be going through a similar social change. Because of industrialization the rural population was reduced drastically in many parts of the world," she said. Kim said that the difference is between city life and rural life, not between the United States and Korea. "My main residence is New York at the moment, but when I need serene nature, I head to Naepyeong-ri, where I have my school studio. To sharpen my perceptions, I like to travel through China and Siberia and New Mexico, 'zooming in and zooming out,' so to speak." "Perhaps this mobility has had the effect of my grappling with the issues of dislocation, both in my work and my life. As a child of a diplomat, I moved from country to country as I was growing up, and I find myself still dominated by a sense of rootlessness," Kim said. Kim Myong-hi's "Girl" (2006) / Courtesy of artist and Art Projects International, New York Kim captures light delicately against the darkness of the chalkboard with oil pastel which resembles the texture of chalk and retains its brilliance of color on chalkboard. "During the period of intense questioning, I began to draw children on a chalkboard, which I had been using as a barrier against bitter cold winter draft in my school studio. As I drew the boys, it was as if I could feel them coming to life. The feeling was so intense it took me by surprise. 'The power of image.' The children are no longer in the school. Because I am drawing from imagination, I'm depicting something that does not exist. And yet, I'm willing something into existence by an act of imagination an act that helps me overcome my sense of loss and absence." "On the other hand, I have discovered that people have a strong nostalgia for the chalkboard. They tend to look at images on a chalkboard differently than they would the same images on a canvas. This is probably due to the symbolic nature of the chalkboard itself. In people's minds, the chalkboard has come to symbolize continuity and preservation of culture and at the same time the fact that it is constantly being written and erased symbolizes temporariness of our memory and life," she said. In her 2004 work "Drinking Tea," a video is attached to the painting, showing the "image of the mind" of the tea server. "As for the use of video images, the dialogue that takes place in the dual presence of the moving and stationary images on the same surface has the power to pull the viewer into the present. A picture within a picture. "Namjune Paik used to live right across the street in SoHo where my studio is. We visited each other's studio frequently. This is when I realized the vocabulary of video images could be incorporated to add another dimension to my work. I might add that I have had a fascinating experience as I tried to harmonize the colors on the monitor and the colors of paint. For me, the so-called 'the end of the painting' has yielded an unexpected opportunity to expand its boundary," Kim said. Installation view of "Myong Hi Kim: Portraits" at Art Projects International, New York / Courtesy of Art Projects International, New York China to Supply Russia With Further 1Mln COVID-19 Protective Suits, 80Mln Masks Official Sputnik News 18:33 GMT 04.04.2020 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow and Beijing have agreed on a new deal that will see China supply Russia with 1.05 million protective suits and 80 million medical masks to combat COVID-19, Alexey Gruzdev, Russia's deputy minister of industry and trade, said on Saturday. "A few days ago, Russia reached a new agreement for the supply of 1.05 million Tyvek protective suits and 80 million medical masks from China," Gruzdev said. On 2 April, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that China had sent a 26-ton shipment of humanitarian aid to Russia, consisting of infrared thermometers, respirators, protective suits, and other personal protective equipment. Similar humanitarian aid was provided by Russia to China when the latter was the epicentre of the world's COVID-19 outbreak in February. A shipment of two million medical masks was sent to China, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on February 11. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A fortnight ago, before strict rules on social distancing came into force, radio newsreader Michelle Stephenson had three friends over to her eastern suburbs home for a quiet afternoon catch-up. She had been "obsessively" covering the coronavirus story for weeks and knew the protocols inside out. The group had hand sanitiser, kept their distance and left the door open to circulate fresh air. "I felt violated in a way I've never felt before": Radio presenter Michelle Stephenson. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer But one of Ms Stephenson's neighbours - a man she describes as being in his late 20s or early 30s - objected to the gathering and began filming on his phone. "He lost it on me in a way that I've never been spoken to by a man," Stephenson says. "He said he was going to call the police. He wouldn't stop taking photos and filming. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Hanga Roa, Chile Sun, April 5, 2020 20:09 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fdc855 2 News Easter-Island,tradition,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,health,Chile Free Inhabitants of Easter Island are leaning on a traditional form of ancestral discipline to overcome a coronavirus-imposed lockdown that threatens the Pacific island's vital tourism sector, and consequently their livelihoods. Situated 3,500 kilometers off the coast of Chile, the island of 7,750 people is renowned for its giant humanoid monoliths called moais that were sculpted from basalt more than 1,000 years ago. So far, there have been just two confirmed coronavirus cases on Easter Island, with two or three more under observation. But the local population can ill afford the outbreak to spread with just one hospital and three ventilators on the island. Faced with this crisis, the locals have turned to the Tapu, an ancient tradition based on taking care of oneself that has been passed down through generations of the native Rapa Nui people. "To accompany this self-care concept, we're applying the Rapa Nui tradition, an ancestral rule based on sustainability and respect," said the island's mayor Pedro Edmunds. "It's called Tapu. You can hear about this concept in all the Polynesian islands." Tapu is a complex concept related to secrecy, rules and prohibitions from which the English word "taboo" derives. "If you say the word Tapu to a Polynesian, they will immediately tell you why we have to do Tapu. That's precisely because they know and understand what it signifies," said Edmunds. It means that the island's lockdown has been diligently respected, leading to the virus being prevented from spreading far and wide. "We've applied the Tapu concept for all Rapa Nui and the acceptance has been incredible," said Edmunds. "The virus is contained in two families in the same area, so we know where they are, who they are, and they've been respecting the (isolation) protocols since the beginning," Edmunds told AFP. Read also: Tunisia herbalists cash in on coronavirus fear Tourism impact But now, there are greater worries about the pandemic's impact on tourism. On average, 100,000 people visit the volcanic Polynesian island each year, mostly attracted by the mysterious moais. The local government was quick to react to the spreading pandemic in Latin America, closing the island's borders on March 11 -- a week before Chile's government in Santiago did likewise -- with the apparition of its first positive case. Throughout Chile, there have now been more than 3,000 cases with 16 deaths. A week ago, Easter Island was put under total lockdown with a nighttime curfew from 2:00 pm to 5:00 am. On Tuesday, these were extended for a further two weeks. Plan B planting With streets, beaches and parks deserted, the indigenous inhabitants have turned to the knowledge passed down through generations to deal with the crisis. Some indigenous Rapa Nui inhabitants have already adapted to their new circumstances and started to cultivate their land, like their ancestors did, said Sabrina Tuki, who has worked in tourism for 20 years. "Our family and many families are already applying a Plan B and we've already started planting," said Tuki, whose regular work has completely ground to a halt. Everyone is worried about the coming months. Edmunds says the island's inhabitants can last for a month with the borders closed. But at the end of April, 3,000 people "will be seen begging in the streets for food from some local or national authority, because they won't be able to eat," said Edmunds. It won't be the Rapa Nui, though, according to Edmunds, because the community has begun to rally together behind its concept of Tapu. But the island's other inhabitants, who make up around half the population and mostly work in the service industry, will be in trouble. Read also: Easter Islanders seek outside help for iconic statues 'leprosy' Taken by surprise The mayor doesn't expect the recovery to come until August, when tourists would return to the islands. When it does restart, he's expecting a reduced capacity compared to the two flights a week the island was welcoming until three weeks ago. Only one airline, Latam, operated the five-hour flights from the continent, but like many airlines its business has been hard hit by the virus. "We're all affected; the whole chain, from the biggest agency to the craftsman," said Samuel Atan, a hiking guide who says the crisis caught everyone unawares. The pandemic has highlighted the fragility of such a remote location. Without state subsidies, many could not survive, Edmunds says. The challenge for the future will be to improve infrastructure and "re-enchant people to come back," said Tuki. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections announced more than 28,000 face masks are headed to its facilities Saturday. The masks, donated by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, are part of the ODOCs efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among inmates, corrections officers and employees. Director Scott Crow said Saturdays mask deliveries should give peace of mind to everyone involved. Our facility staff are on the frontlines of this pandemic, Crow said in a news release. They dont have the option to work from home because their jobs are critical to public safety. I hope todays shipments will give them, their families and our inmates families and loved ones much-needed encouragement during this uncertain time. Saturdays shipment comes two days after it was announced a DOC employee at a facility in Lexington tested positive for COVID-19. A DOC spokeswoman said at the time other staff would not need to quarantine. Australian Senator Calls for Reckoning With Chinese Dictatorship Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said there needs to be a reckoning with the Chinese communist dictatorship and its leadership must be held to account for its culpability in the spread of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. The decency of the Chinese people is not the issue. The Communist dictatorships decency under which the Chinese people suffer, however, does need to be questioned, he told The Epoch Times. Abetz listed a number of reasons why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should be held to account. Firstly, the unacceptable wet markets (the likely source) have not been closed although previous warnings and concerns were delivered after similar type outbreaks, e.g. SARS. He noted that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also called for the markets to be shut down. Secondly, the fate of the doctor [Li Wenliang] who first alerted the Chinese communist dictatorship of the virus needs to be fully explained, he said. After Dr. Li posted about the virus to a WeChat group of his medical school colleagues, Li was called in by police and reprimanded for spreading rumors online and severely disrupting social order. Li ultimately contracted COVID-19 and subsequently died. A vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang in Hong Kong on Feb. 7, 2020. (Kin Cheung/AP Photo) Thirdly, the seriousness of the virus was known to the regime, which is why they got their operatives in Australia to purchase all the personal protective equipment they could and ship it to China. A particularly reprehensible activity, Abetz said. We are paying the heavy price of a communist regimes failure to live up to its moral and ethical duty in initially informing, and advising, and then in helping other countries deal with the epidemic, he said. Abetz said an international probe into any cover-up about the CCP virus is warranted but only after the pandemic has passed. The focus at this time must be to fight this insidious virus, he said. Regarding the long-term impact of the pandemic on Australia, Abetz said, The pandemic will refocus national policy on the wisdom of our forefathers commitment to the timeless virtues of being prepared, self-reliance, not putting all ones eggs in one basket, putting aside for a rainy day, and government cannot fix everything. There will be a substantial recalibration of priorities as the repayment burden hits, he said. The Epoch Times reporter Rachel Qu contributed to this report. Researchers have found that an anti-parasitic drug already available around the world can kill the novel coronavirus grown in cell cultures within 48 hours, an advance that may lead to the development and trial of a new clinical therapy for COVID-19. According to the study, published in the journal Antiviral Research, the drug, Ivermectin, stopped the virus, SARS-CoV-2, from growing in cell culture within 48 hours. We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it, said study co-author Kylie Wagstaff from Monash University in Australia. The scientists said Ivermectin is an approved anti-parasitic drug that has also been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses including HIV, Dengue, Influenza and Zika virus. However, Wagstaff cautioned that the tests conducted in the study were in vitro and that trials needed to be carried out in people. Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective - thats the next step, Wagstaff said. In times when were having a global pandemic and there isnt an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner, she said. Although the mechanism by which Ivermectin works on the virus is not known, the scientists said it is likely, based on its action in other viruses, that it works to stop the virus dampening down the host cells ability to clear it. As the virologist who was part of the team who were first to isolate and share SARS-COV2 outside of China in January 2020, I am excited about the prospect of Ivermectin being used as a potential drug against COVID-19, said Leon Caly, study co-author from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. The scientists further cautioned that the use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 would depend on the results of future pre-clinical testing and ultimately clinical trials. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Nora Fatehi revealed that her family was not very well-off and she had no option but to contribute to the family income from a very young age. On Komal Nahtas chat show Starry Nights Gen Y, she said that she has been working since she was in high school. My first-ever job was as a retail sales associate in a mall which was right next to my high school so I would finish my classes and go there. I was 16. I had to work for many reasons. There were a lot of financial issues in my family and I was supposed to be the one that would step up and be the breadwinner, she said. From working at a clothing store to being a waitress to even selling lottery tickets, Nora has done it all. I was working in a mens clothing store so I was selling suits, putting outfits together and all that. After that, I did numerous things. I worked as a waitress in restaurants, bars and shawarma places. I worked in a telemarketing office, cold calling people and selling lottery tickets. Hi, maam, do you want to buy this ticket? and 90 per cent of the time, they were like (imitates sound of phone hanging up). I worked on commission, I worked in McDonalds once. I did everything, she said. Also see: Kalki Koechlin shares pic with daughter Sappho, calls it love at first smile. See it here Nora came in the spotlight when she came as a wild card entry on popular reality show Bigg Boss 9 in 2015. She became a household name after she showed off her killer dance moves in the reprised version of Dilbar Dilbar from Satyameva Jayate. Nora has done supporting roles in films like Bharat and Batla House. She was last seen on the big screen in Remo DSouzas Street Dancer 3D, alongside Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor. Follow @htshowbiz for more By PTI SHILMA: A total of 257 attendees of the religious congregation held in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month have been traced in Himachal Pradesh so far and placed under quarantine, Director General of Police Sitaram Mardi said on Saturday. They were identified and quarantined in seven police districts, SP (Law and Order) Khushal Sharma said. The number stood at 204 on Friday. On Saturday, 30 attendees were traced in Kangra district and 23 in Sirmaur, Mardi said. The highest number of people were quarantined in Baddi (73), followed by Sirmaur (58), Una (39), Shimla (23), Chamba (20), Kangra (40) and Mandi (4), he added. The Nizamuddin Markaz is being seen as a hotspot of coronavirus in the country as thousands of people, including hundreds of foreigners, many of whom were suspected to be COVID-19 positive, took part in the congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat. CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES "The 257 people who returned to the state after attending the gathering in Nizamuddin have been traced and quarantined," the DGP said. Three Himachal Pradesh residents, who had participated in the Nizamuddin event, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. They were staying in Una but are natives of Mandi district. They have been admitted to Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMS) in Kangra district, officials said. According to some reports, the Union home ministry, a few days ago, sent a list of more than 700 people from Himachal Pradesh who attended the congregation in the national capital. The list has reportedly been prepared after tracking the mobile phone location data of those who were present at the Markaz. However, despite repeated queries by the media, no one from the state police confirmed or denied the reports. After Myanmar declared the rebel Arakan Army as a terrorist organisation, a Mandalay court has now reportedly charged a journalist under counter-terrorism law for interviewing a top representative of the group in the aftermath of the decision. Nay Myo Lin, editor-in-chief of Voice of Myanmar, published the interview which led to his detention and could face a life-term in prison after being charged under the sections of Terrorism Act. Myanmar has also blocked the news website along with other outlets that cover the conflict in the Rakhine State. Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, called the decision outrageous and unacceptable violation of media freedom in Myanmar. He called upon the government to drop the ridiculous charges on Nay Myo Lin and urged to allow journalists to do their jobs in Rakhine without interference. Read: Myanmar MPs Reject Bid To Allow Suu Kyi To Become President 'Utterly disproportionate' Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which publishes the World Press Freedom Index every year, has called for the immediate withdrawal of the utterly disproportionate terrorism charges against the editor for publishing the interview of the spokesperson of the rebel group. In June 2019, RSF published a report on the surge in judicial harassment of journalists by military and police in Myanmar. Myanmar is currently ranked 138 out of 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. Read: Myanmar Soldiers Seize Drugs Worth $27 Million From Illicit Labs The Arakan Army, currently led by Commander in chief Twan Myat Naing, was established in 2009 by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists with an objective to seek greater autonomy from the central government. The rebel group wants self-determination for multi-ethnic Arakanese population and claims that it has no links with Rohingya rebel group. Recently, an official from State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyis ruling party died two weeks after being detained by rebels in Myanmars Rakhine region. The Arakan Army, in a statement, said that some detainees, including NLD chairman from Buthidaung, died while some got injured in the explosion, allegedly executed by Myanmars army. Read: ISIS Terrorists May Target Police Personnel Maintaining COVID-19 Lockdown: Delhi Top Cop Read: 'India And Afghanistan Have Been Victims Of Cross-border Terrorism By Pakistan': Experts (Image credit: AP) US President Donald Trump has said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the amount of Hydroxychloroquine ordered by the United States after India last month banned the drugs for exports. Trump said that he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxycholoroquine for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily news conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on March 25 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the worst sufferers of the deadly coronavirus diseases to which there has been no cure. Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: IAF personnel from Nizamuddin quarantined in Delhi Also Read: All flu patients in coronavirus hotspots to undergo COVID-19 rapid tests The Arizona Daily Star wants to be your connection point to helping others and getting help. Many of our local charities have campaigns through Arizona Gives Day on Tuesday, April 7. Boys to Men, for example, has a donation match on that day. Here are the latest requests: Casa de los Ninos 1120 N. Fifth Ave., Tucson AZ 85705 520-624-5600 casadelosninos.org Casa de los Ninos promotes child well-being and family stability. Need 1: Hygiene supplies shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant for males/females, toothbrushes, toothpaste. Need 2: Diapers, all sizes. Need 3: Baby wipes. Boys to Men Tucson 5925 E. Broadway, No. 125, Tucson AZ 85711 520-344-3624 btmtucson.com Need 1: Men who are willing to step up to mentor teenage boys who are struggling and isolated right now. We have transitioned our weekly group mentorship program to an online Zoom format. While boys and men are already at increased risk for bottling up emotions and isolating from others, these current conditions really elevate that risk. We are also increasing our services for men and mentors through online Zoom circles. Need 2: Donations. We have had to cancel all of our spring fundraising events, which has jeopardized our ability to continue to facilitate our programming in the long term. We are hoping to survive through Arizona tax credits and other donations. We also have a campaign running for Arizona Gives through April 7 with a dollar-for-dollar donor match, so anyone who donates can double their impact: azgives.org/healthymasculinityandboyhood Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) - As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, so has discrimination against those who come in close contact with the infectious disease. The Health Department urged the public to stop discrimination against those with COVID-19 symptoms and healthcare workers, as this may discourage people from seeking treatment. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they continue to receive reports of COVID-19 patients and exposed health workers experiencing discrimination and stigma. "Hindi dapat ito makapekto sa pakitungo sa ibang tao o gawing dahilan upang manakit ng iba," Vergeire said in a briefing on Sunday. [Translation: It should not affect the way people treat others or become a reason to hurt others.] Vergeire reminded the public that no one is immune from the disease, and that discrimination will only encourage fear. "Mapanganib ang diskriminasyon dulot ng sakit na ito. Maari itong maging dahilan upang itago ng mga tao ang kanilang mga sakit at sintomas at piliing hindi na lamang sila pumunta sa ospital para hindi sila magpagamot," she said. [Translation: Discrimination caused by this disease is dangerous. It can cause people to hide their illnesses and symptoms and choose not to go to the hospital for treatment.] The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) also denounced in the strongest terms" the discrimination against healthcare workers, suspected carriers of coronavirus disease and COVID-19 patients and overseas Filipino workers. IATF spokesperson Karlo Nograles said the task force will not hesitate to deal with them criminally, civilly and or administratively once it is proven perpetrators treated these said people unjustly. READ: Task force cracks down on all forms of discrimination related to COVID-19 During the Health briefing on Sunday, Vergeire told the public to stay at home, observe proper hygiene and practice physical distancing, especially if there are senior citizens and sickly individuals in the house. michael barbaro Jiayang, do you remember the first time that you started thinking about the backlash in this country against Asian-Americans in response to the coronavirus? jiayang fan Yeah, I mean, around, I guess, this is the beginning of March. I had seen on Instagram a friend and a fellow writer documenting an incident in Manhattan, where I think he is Korean-American, and he was told by a stranger to get away. But I remember reading about that incident and thinking, yeah, I mean, thats really terrible that this has happened, but wondering, is this a singular incident, or is there a trend? As a journalist and perhaps by my own personal temperament, Im pretty cautious. I dont like to make sensational generalizations that go well on a headline. I feel like I need very convincing proof that something is happening before I call it. And especially as a Chinese-American, I wanted to make sure that I was not crying racism before I had the full evidence. I wonder if its because if I dont make too big a deal out of it, it wont be fully real. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. woman I get to the gate at LAX. man Home Depot. woman In an Uber Pool. man A grocery store, Wegmans. child We were walking from the gym to get in our classrooms. man I got some milk, a little pasta. Most everythings gone. woman And at that moment, there was this guy, looked like a regular guy. He was staring at me. michael barbaro As the death toll from the coronavirus rises in the U.S., so do reports of verbal and physical attacks against Asian-Americans woman And a couple of seats away from me, a man was seated. And presumably his wife comes back to sit down and says out loud man You people you, brought it. Youre sick. woman Fuck China. child China is stupid. man I ought to kill you. I ought to shoot you. woman This girl looks Chinese. She must have the virus. I cant sit next to her. michael barbaro Who say that they are being blamed for the pandemic. archived recording (journalist) A person at the White House used the term kung-flu. My question is, do you think thats wrong? archived recording (donald trump) Kung-flu? archived recording (journalist) Kung-flu. And do you think using the term Chinese virus, that puts Asian-Americans at risk, that people might target them? archived recording (donald trump) No, not at all. No, not at all. I think they probably would agree with it 100%. It comes from China. Theres nothing not to agree with. Ill have the last question. michael barbaro Today man When the president asked, I dont think they would mind it being called the Chinese virus, I mind! child It did make me feel different, and didnt really want to be Chinese because of the coronavirus. michael barbaro Jiayang Fan, a writer for The New Yorker magazine, shares her story. Its Friday, April 10th. Jiayang, can you tell me a little bit about your childhood? Where did you grow up? jiayang fan I was born in 1984 in Chongqing, China. My mom was a doctor. My dad was a researcher. And he was one of the first batch of scholars sent to the U.S. to bring Western knowledge and technology back to China. So he leaves when Im about two, so I have very little memory of him. But for my mom and I, life in China feels very serene and comfortable. [speaking chinese] Whatever sense I have of the outside world, the world beyond China, is very, very vague and incredibly hazy, like Im not quite sure it exists. But I think if one place were to stand out, it would be the United States. I remember my mom and her friends talking about the show Dynasty, which did telegraph the glamor of the U.S. archived recording I like that one. Its a rather expensive fur. I like the mink. That is mink? jiayang fan The sense that this is what an everyday Joe would inhabit. michael barbaro And this of course, is a soap opera about an incredibly wealthy oil family living in a crazy gorgeous home, and driving along oil fields. So its actually quite exceptional. archived recording My name happens to be Mrs. Steven Carrington. Im not used to haggling over what suits me, or what it costs. jiayang fan Well, it was the show, and it was also at the time in China what was very popular were these calendars of American families, where every member had golden hair, sparkling blue eyes and perfect bone structure, and they were always smiling with their perfect white teeth. They always were sitting by a perfect colonial house, or just out in nature, but in front of a park that they looked like they owned. [laughter] And I remember the food that really encapsulated America to me were Cheerios. michael barbaro Cheerios? archived recording Its the big yellow box that everyone knows. jiayang fan Yes, Cheerios. I had no idea what they tasted like, but the company did fantastic branding in China. archived recording Cheerios number one. We love it! Toasty oat goodness. jiayang fan I remember the picture of the perfect baby on these ads for Cheerios. You know, the round cheeks, the blue eyes. That baby got to have this superior breakfast food that I, in all likelihood, would never get to taste. archived recording Cheerios number one! jiayang fan So theres me, drinking my Chinese porridge, and eating my pickled vegetables, and having fantasies about Cheerios, which I learned years later to not be very tasty at all there. Theyre actually tasteless. michael barbaro To be like the definition of blandness, but in your mind, they are this superior food for this blond haired, perfect group of people. jiayang fan Yeah, for superior people, to put it bluntly. I mean, I still remember actually the first time I heard English. I think it might have been my fifth or sixth birthday, and my mom might have come back pretty recently from English language training sessions. And she just said the words happy birthday. That was astounding to me. It was like my mom was superwoman, that she knew how to say this language that did not sound like a language to me. Happy birthday. I still remember the way the syllables came out of her mouth, and the image, which was of a tsunami. There was this tidal wave of one syllable consuming the next one that, to me, was very incomprehensible. And I remember at the time thinking, I will never learn this language. I have no hopes of ever learning this language. Which is probably OK, because I only need one language, right? And its Chinese. michael barbaro Oh. [speaking chinese] jiayang fan But essentially something happens in the June of 89 that changes my fathers fate as well as that of my mom and I forever. archived recording (journalist) The noise of gunfire rose from all over the center of Peking. jiayang fan The Tiananmen massacre. archived recording (journalist) Theres a mood of terror in the center of the city and quiet jiayang fan So the U.S. government immediately makes provisions for Chinese scholars, who might need to flee from China. archived recording (journalist) The demonstrators in Tiananmen Square jiayang fan And that was when my mother and I joined my father in the U.S. [speaking chinese] michael barbaro What do you remember about first arriving in the U.S.? jiayang fan We land in J.F.K., and my father is living at the time in New Haven, Connecticut. And that drive from J.F.K. to New Haven, it is gray and drab, like tones that are not at all what I had imagined. So I keep waiting for the real America to reveal itself to me. So it is a rude awakening when my dad leads us to his second floor studio. Theres just a mattress on the floor, and I think it takes me a good minute to realize that this is my new home. And the loss of a language is pretty traumatic for me. michael barbaro How so? jiayang fan School started a few months later, and I could not understand my teachers, my classmates. And repeatedly my new American teachers ask me, why arent you talking more? Why arent you engaging? And those expectations, I think, are hard for me to fully understand. And I feel like Im walking blind into a game, where I dont know the rules. michael barbaro Mm-hm. jiayang fan I mean, not only do I not speak the language, Im bringing pickled fish and rice, and thats not sitting well with the other kids at a lunch table. All I feel is defeat. michael barbaro Hm. It sounds very lonely. jiayang fan Yeah, retrospectively, I think what made me feel most lonely was that I couldnt share those feelings with my mother. And I think for my mother, who worked very low paying menial labor jobs in the U.S., a drastic step down from her position as a doctor in China, she must have felt as marginalized and as embarrassed by her immigrant status as I do, but in an adult way, but similarly lacking in an emotional vocabulary to express those feelings. michael barbaro What do you mean? jiayang fan Like, I remember going to the mall for the first time with my mother. And my moms favorite pastime was window shopping, just looking at things that she couldnt afford. And I remember one time someone trying to hand her maybe a flyer for some store, and she said, no, thanks. But she couldnt pronounce it correctly, so this young man said No sex? Did you say no sex? No sex? And I think I was like 11 or 12 at the time. I remember that my mother actually just in this embarrassed way laughed, like out of anxiety, like she wanted it to be OK. She wanted to respond in a way to indicate that she was not offended. But I remember the way that my cheek just felt hot and red, they grew, and how I felt so humiliated on my mothers behalf. And that experience feels seared into my brain, not just because of the insult, but because my mother had to swallow her own humiliation. michael barbaro Did you understand, given your age, that this was racism? I mean, how did you process it in that moment? jiayang fan I think I turned over the incident in my mind for a long time after that. I dont think I would have coded it as racism. I think I almost only understood racism as something that white people inflicted on black people. I had no idea or I had very little idea of how Asians fit into the landscape of race in the U.S. And I didnt know how to understand incidents in which you were not called a very specific racial slur. Like that no thanks, no sex? Like michael barbaro What was that? jiayang fan What was that? Exactly. I think as an 11-year-old, in my head, I didnt want to be different. I didnt want to be the one lashing out at others for being racist because inevitably that would make me seem even more different. And I think my mother, my mother was the closest person in my life. But if she had a religion, it would be survival. I learned from my mother not to rock the boat, not to shake the existing system, to basically understand how the existing system works, and then to ascend it in some way, to climb the ladder. As long as you fit in better, you will live a more comfortable life here. And that should be the goal. michael barbaro And did things start to get a little bit better, eventually? jiayang fan I start speaking better English. I start really enjoying and then falling in love with the English language, something that I thought would never happen. Thats really important for me, I have to admit. When that language, English, came to feel like a part of my body, I have to say that felt like a homecoming to me. michael barbaro Hm. And how old are you at this point, where youre starting to fall in love with the language? jiayang fan I think around maybe 12 or 13. michael barbaro Mm-hm. jiayang fan And Ill never forget the first time in sixth grade, when I said the phrase come on. Like, this sounds silly, but it was only sixth grade when I could comfortably say come on to a schoolmate, and I felt very triumphant. michael barbaro As if to say, enough of that, come on. jiayang fan Exactly. When I could say that, I was so aware of myself saying it, and I was saying it the way that a normal American speaker would say it. And Ill never forget the sense of pride that coursed through me. And there was no one I could celebrate it with, right? Because imagine if then I turned to the classmate who I said come on with and said, did you hear me? I just said come on! [laughter] That would have totally defeated its purpose, but I remember it, because it felt like a real Americanism. And it just rolled off my tongue. michael barbaro So in that moment, you finally feel like you belong. jiayang fan Exactly. But I still see myself predominantly as a visitor, and that my existence is pretty probational on good behavior. And if I behave well, I will be able to minimize the number of times that I stick out as someone who doesnt belong. But then I started to realize, thats not exactly how it works. michael barbaro Well be right back. So, Jiayang, I wonder if you can tell me about what happened to you recently. jiayang fan So this was in mid-March, when there were rumors that New York City would be put under lockdown because of coronavirus. And I wanted to make sure I had enough food in the house, if I had to stay in for an indefinite period of time. michael barbaro Mm-hm. jiayang fan And I was also really worried about my mother, who has a neurodegenerative disease and lives in a nursing home close by. I knew that I wouldnt be able to see her for a while, and I had several errands lined up. One was to take out the trash. One was to mail my rent check. And one was to go a few blocks away to my neighbors house, to pick up a sack of rice. It was around evening time, and I had just left my apartment building, and I was on the phone, talking to my mothers health aide in Chinese. And as I was turning around after putting the trash in the trash bin this is right in front of my apartment. I heard Chinese, Chinese, Chinese bitch. Fucking Chinese. But it all I dont think I fully believed what I was hearing. And when I made eye contact with him, he kept speaking. Youre fucking Chinese. And I realized that that I was comprehending that what he was saying did not stop him. michael barbaro Mm-hm. jiayang fan That was when in my ear, my moms aide paused and said, Are you OK? Is something happening? And I couldnt really speak. I found myself walking down the street. I think I was still really set on, I need to get rice, but then I found it really hard to continue walking, because my legs just felt leaden. Like, I really, really wanted to continue walking. It would have only been a 10 minute walk away for me to fetch that rice, but I found myself coming to a halt. And even, I thought, if I just kept talking on the phone with my aide, but then I thought, Im talking in Chinese. Who else am I going to offend? And then I just got off the phone. And once I got off the phone, I felt even more scared, because I was so aware of being alone. michael barbaro So this is not embarrassment or even shame in this moment. This is just terror. jiayang fan This is a very real sense of fright that Im not going to make it to my friends house to get my sack of rice. michael barbaro Jiayang, we started this conversation with you saying that your instinct, and maybe its because youre a journalist, maybe its as an Asian-American, maybe its both, is to minimize these incidents, and to be slow to see them as part of a larger phenomenon. But it sounds like this was different for you. Am I right to think that? jiayang fan Yeah, I mean, this is not the first time Ive been called a Chinese bitch. But what was different about this incident was that this man seemed to really mean it. And I wondered. I mean, in retrospect, right, I wondered at the relationship between the sense of conviction in the mans voice, his certainty that he was in the right to point out my Chineseness and to call me a Chinese bitch. michael barbaro Mm-hm. jiayang fan And I think about the things that were going on in his day, like did he lose his job earlier in the day because of this virus? I mean, does he work in the service industry? Does he have a loved one who has also become a prisoner in a nursing home or hospital? And I think about the way that all those anxieties, and rage and sadness, might have hardened into something like an instrument, almost a weapon. michael barbaro Hm. jiayang fan And I think about me being a surface onto which he could use that weapon and lash out. michael barbaro Hm. jiayang fan And I think about the probational nature of my Chinese-American existence, in a sense that, in better times, in normal times, there are certain stereotypes that are cast upon me when I walk down the street. But in a moment of crisis, when it seems plausible that the country where I was born could be responsible for an unprecedented pandemic, that I become a person of suspicion, and I become someone who is quite easy perhaps to target all your ire and anxieties, and that maybe it gave him temporary relief to be able to identify someone or something as the cause for his hurt and for his anxieties. michael barbaro So what do you do? jiayang fan So I go home, double lock my door, pull out my phone and get on Twitter. [tutting] OK, yes. I describe what happened, and I tweet. I wasnt offended. I was afraid. I was worried he knew where I lived. For the longest time, Ive been telling friends in China that although racism against Chinese exists in this country, thats not what I feel in a pandemic. Ive never felt like this in my 27 years in this country. Ive never felt afraid to leave my home to take out the trash because of my face. I want to believe what happened is anomalous, and that were living in extraordinary times, and fear can deform us. I wonder now if I should have taken his picture. michael barbaro I wonder what your mother would make of this incident. And I wonder what she would think of the fact that you decided to share what happened to you so publicly. jiayang fan I think if I were to tell her about the experience, she might not fully understand the import of it. She would say, Well, were you hurt? And I would say, No. And she would say, Well, did you lose anything? And I would say, No. And she would say, Do you feel like this man is going to cut you down and kill you now? And I would say, Probably not, no. And she would say, Well, why are you even telling me this? What is the big deal here? michael barbaro Hm. jiayang fan Or if I were to tell her that I was having this conversation with you, she would say Why make something out of nothing? Right? She would say, Why are you crying victim here? Why are you making this into a bigger deal than it really is? Do you want this to be how youre remembered, for being that woman who was the victim of a non-incident? michael barbaro And what would you say in this imaginary conversation with your mother? jiayang fan I think I would try in English, because I think it would be hard for me to find the words in Chinese to explain the significance of it, not on my physical well-being. michael barbaro Help me understand what you mean. jiayang fan Because for the longest I mean, I think my mom and I both lived with this fiction that if we could be perfect versions of ourselves, for example, if my mother could pronounce thanks the way that its supposed to be pronounced, and for me, if I could say come on naturally, that had always been the goal of our American existence, was to somehow bend ourselves to a shape that America could accept. I never dared to believe that I could actually help to make America better. That was something I never dared to think was possible. But in experiencing this, it made me rethink my role as an American and how even me, even someone who is probationary, that I was in some very, very small way contributing to this country by pointing out the ways that its failing itself, making clear the way in which this country still makes me feel ashamed, is possibly one way in which I can make it better. michael barbaro Hm. jiayang fan And also, thats the best version of America. Like in all the conceptions of America that exist in my head, I actually think this ability to call out the worst parts of America to itself, my freedom to do so, this feels to me the most miraculous part of America. But I think all of that would be, frankly, a bit too abstract to my mother. I think her quest for survival has been so concrete and lived, Ill never be able to repay her for the way that her very concrete existence has paved the way for my more luxuriantly abstract one, but that maybe thats a boundary between us that Ive been able to cross, and that no matter how many ways I try to explain it in what language, if shell fully understand. But I really needed to make sure that, for my own sake, I could know that this did happen, that this was not a figment of my imagination, or that in an hours time, or in 12 hours time, I would try to minimize it in my own mind. michael barbaro Thank you very much for your time. We really appreciate it, Jiayang. jiayang fan Thank you so much for having me. michael barbaro Im so sorry that you had the experience you had. jiayang fan I am, too. But Im sure it will be a small experience in what is hopefully a very long and a much bigger one of living in America and being American. [speaking chinese] michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. man Majority leader. archived recording (mitch mcconnell) Our nation continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic. More than 400,000 Americans have tested positive. Nearly 15,000 have lost their lives. And important public health measures are creating an economic catastrophe. michael barbaro On Thursday, the Labor Department said that another 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the past week. archived recording (mitch mcconnell) That means. Mr. President, more than 16 million Americans have lost their jobs in only the last three weeks, a tragedy that is hard to even comprehend. michael barbaro Economists now believe that the U.S. unemployment rate is the worst since the Great Depression. The latest figures put even deeper pressure on Congress to adopt a new round of economic relief for workers. But on Thursday, that legislation hit a roadblock in the Senate. Democrats want to double the size of the bill by adding hundreds of billions of dollars for hospitals and local governments, which are facing major financial shortfalls. archived recording (mitch mcconnell) We dont have to divide along the usual lines so soon after we came together for the country. To my Democratic colleagues, please, please do not block emergency aid you do not even oppose just because you want something more. michael barbaro But Republicans, led by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, say that money can wait. archived recording (mitch mcconnell) Lets continue to work together with speed and bipartisanship. We will get through this crisis together. michael barbaro Haiti - FLASH : Covid-19, First death in Haiti The Ministry of Health and Population (MSPP) informs the population that a person died of Coronavirus (Covid-19) on Sunday April 5, 2020. The MSPP specifies that it is a 55-year-old man who previously suffered from diabetes and tension, which complicated the case. This citizen is one of 21 cases that have already been confirmed in the country to date. The MSPP recommends to: - Stay home - Always wash your hands - Avoid putting your hands in your mouth, nose and eyes - Always keep a distance of 5 steps from other people if you have to travel for an emergency. HL/ HaitiLibre Questions? Concerns? You bet. In an effort to help local residents better understand the coronavirus pandemic, and raise awareness on resources available, a virtual town hall is scheduled for Monday morning with Lehigh Valley local, state and federal officials. The public session to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the Lehigh Valley is being organized by Lehigh County and is scheduled from 10 to 11 a.m. through Zoom. Participants must register in advance at lehighcounty.zoom.us. All questions must be submitted in advance. Space on the call is limited and will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Subject to change, the list of expected participants includes Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong, U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, state Reps. Peter Schweyer and Mike Schlossberg, Allentown Mayor Ray OConnell, Allentown Health Director Vicky Kistler, and Tony Iannelli, CEO and president of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. Residents who are not comfortable displaying video or audio during the meeting can choose not to do so, organizers say. An active chatroom during the meeting will be used to pull questions from the audience, as well as select individuals who wish to speak. Pennsylvanias number of positive COVID-19 cases has surpassed 10,000 people statewide, with Lehigh County adding more than 200 new cases since Friday, state health officials said Saturday in announcing 34 more deaths and 1,597 new confirmed cases in Pennsylvania. Three of the latest deaths were in the Lehigh Valley. State Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said the statewide total of positive cases is now at 10,017 in 64 of the states 67 counties, with 136 deaths. The number of dead from the viral disease in New Jersey surpassed on Saturday the number of New Jerseyans killed on 9/11. Officials there on Saturday reported 4,331 new cases and 200 new deaths of the virus in New Jersey, bringing the total to 34,124 know cases and 846 deaths. There is no evidence the virus is slowing down, Levine said Saturday. As the crisis worsens, residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey are among Americans ordered to stay home except for life-sustaining trips. Non-essential businesses are shut down. Employees at businesses that are open are concerned about becoming infected. The public is advised to wear masks, but not medical-grade ones, because there are so few of those that donations are sought after. Health care facilities are being strained, and there are concerns about disruptions in the food supply chain. Doctors at a Pennsylvania university say they developed a vaccine, but testing is required, and officials maintain the timeline is 12 to 18 months for having a preventative measure available. Researchers have yet to find a cure. Among the glimmers of hope rising up from the situation are the ability to still support some local businesses through food takeout and delivery, state and federal efforts to speed loans and other assistance to those facing catastrophic losses and shows of solidarity among those on the front lines of this ongoing war. Those out of work are in line for some direct assistance from the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. But in a gut-punch reality check, a regularly updated projection of how bad the COVID-19 crisis will get shows Pennsylvanias death toll projected to peak at about 80 per day around April 20, with 2,023 COVID-19 deaths projected over the next four months. Those numbers indicate the situation is more dire than previous projections from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation indicated just a few days ago. New Jerseys death toll is projected to peak this coming week at more than 100 per day, with 2,117 COVID-19 deaths projected in all, according to the institute. Health officials continue to stress the need to stay home and maintain social distancing at all times, and to continue good hygiene like washing hands and disinfecting frequently-touched surfaces regularly. For more information on the coronavirus, including what you can do, 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. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A Keralite couple settled in the US are waiting eagerly for easing of COVID-19 lockdown curbs on travel to rush home and hold and cuddle their baby girl born out of surrogacy in a hospital in the southern state. The couple, hailing from Pathanamthitta district and settled in the US, have been waiting for nearly 12 years to have a child and had planned to arrive in Kerala early last month in time for the delivery on March 19, but the coronavirus spread the world over has played spoilsport. "The parents of the child are in US. They were supposed to come and receive the baby, but unfortunately due to the sudden lockdown, they are still having to wait," Dr Parasuram Gopinath, Consultant and Scientific Director of CIMAR, a fertility centre in Kochi, where the baby was born, said. They had a first look at their baby through video chat. The couple have been trying for having a child since the past 10-12 years. They have had multiple treatment failures. Ultimately, through surrogacy they have got a child of their own, Parasuram told. The parents, who underwent treatment at the Centre for Infertility, Management and Assisted Reproduction (CIMAR), had returned to the US and were hoping to be back in Kerala by March 9 but could not make it. The baby, born on Mar 19, is perfectly fine, he said adding she was well taken care of in the neo-natal ICU of the hospital for 12 days. Asked how the parents reacted on first seeing their bundle of joy, the doctor said they were "overjoyed and extremely happy". "The parents were waiting for so long to have a child. But thanks to technology we could show them the child through video. Everyday, the NICU staff would send them the baby's pictures also", he said the neo-natal ICU doctors and nurses took good care of the baby. The hospital authorities also spoke to some of the relatives of the couple in Kochi as there is uncertainty on when the lockdown was likely to be lifted. The hospital authorities took a legal opinion and on the advice of an advocate decided to draw up an affidavit signed by both the parents and a voice mail of the couple was also prepared before handing over the baby to their close relative on April 3, Dr Parasuram said. The relatives also were told the step by step process of how to feed the baby, wrap and hold her, he said. CIMAR, which began its operations from Edappal in 1996, is said to be the first in vitro fertilisation centre (IVF) and fertility clinic in northern Kerala. It is also the first fertility hospital in the country to be graded in the Health Care Organisation cateogry by the National Accreditation Board for hospitals and health care providers, hospital officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Many Tablighi Jamaat returnees from southern states continued to test positive for coronavirus on Sunday, with Tamil Nadu reporting the bulk of the numbers with 85 such infected persons. Ten Malaysian Jamaat meet attendees were offloaded from a special flight bound for the Asian country here, while a Telangana ophthalmologist was quarantined after he attended a preparatory meeting of the congregation in Nizamuddin West in South Delhi last month. Kerala reported eight fresh cases of COVID-19, four of them with a history of attendance in the religious meet. In Karnataka, seven new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Sunday, with five of them being Tablighi Jamaat congregation attendees. Nizamuddin West in Delhi has emerged as the epicentre for the spread of coronavirus to different parts of the country after thousands of people took part in an Islamic congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat from March 1-15 and returned to their states. In Tamil Nadu, as many as 85 of the 86 cases reported on Sunday were returnees of the Delhi event, taking the total number of cases in the state to 571, trailing behind Maharashtra which tops the list with a total of 690 patients. The 85 men were attendees of the religious conference, Tamil Nadu Health SecretaryBeela Rajesh said. Of these 571 cases, 522 had attended the Delhi meet, according to government data as of Sunday. Further, 10 Malaysian attendees ofthe congregation were on Sunday offloaded from a special chartered flight to Malaysia from here, officials said. Of the 167 Malaysian Tamils who boarded the flight, 10 persons were offloaded after it was ascertained they had participated in the recent meeting at the national capital, they said. After participating in the meeting, they had visited Tenkasi district in southern Tamil Nadu and had stayed there before arriving in Chennai to leave for Malaysia in the special flight today. It is, however, not immediately known if the Jamaat participants will be quarantined by health authorities or not. Kerala also reported fresh COVID-19 cases, with four of the total eight having attended the Tablighi event in Delhi. "As of date, 10 people who had returned from Nizammuddin in Delhi have been tested positive," Health Minister K K Shailaja said in a release. In Karnataka, seven new coronavirus cases were reported on Sunday, including five who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet. Further, a Telangana government ophthalmologist has been placed under hospital quarantine after he attended a preparatory meeting for the Jamaat congregation, officials said. The COVID-19 test report of the eye specialist, working at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences at Adilabad, was awaited, they said. The man, also a Jamat functionary and reportedly an organising committee member, had visited Delhi on March 8 and returned to Adilabad two days later, a senior official said. While he did not disclose his Delhi visit, he attended to patients from March 12 to April 1. However, he was not part of the religious congregation, he said. The ophthalmologist's name cropped up when officials were verifying a list of persons vis-a-vis the congregation, following which health authorities were alerted. On their advice, he has been placed in isolation since April 1 and tests were conducted, official sources said. Incidentally, Telangana has seen the most fatalities in the south, with nine of the deceased having had a history of attending the religious meeting at Nizamuddin. "It would be a safety net for everybody, especially now with people losing jobs. Some nurses could be the breadwinner of their family at the moment," she said. "If they get sick, then, they will really need that support system to fall back on. Loading "Nurses that I work with including me, we are very highly stressed because of the high risk. Nurses in the wards are also exposed because not everyone is being tested for COVID. Community nurses are also exposed when they go visiting patients. "Not everyone is symptomatic with COVID - they could be incubating and they are already infectious." NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes said as the disease spreads in the community, it will become more difficult for nurses to prove the source of their infection. He said one of his members had to insist that she be self-isolated because she was in contact with another staff member who had tested positive to COVID-19. "A very large number of nurses have responsibilities to care for their elderly or children or both and there is a significant level of anxiety that exposure to this and taking it home with them having contracted it is top of mind for nurses and other health workers," he said. Mr Holmes said nurses were already doing it tough because some members of the public had accused them of spreading the virus while wearing their uniforms in the community. Australian Paramedics Association (NSW) President Chris Kastelan said the proposed amendment to the workers compensation Act would bring some peace of mind to frontline workers during the COVID-19 crisis. He said paramedics and other essential workers in the health, education, retail and hospitality sectors needed the state government "to step up and protect us and our loved ones if we contract COVID-19". Now, more than ever, paramedics need certainty that if we get seriously ill due to contact with patients, we wont have to fight with our insurer for workers' compensation, he said. We know that if we get COVID-19, it was almost certainly from a patient or another health worker. As frontline health workers, who experience a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, we shouldnt have to prove that we didnt get it at the shops in order to access workers' compensation," he said. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge has introduced a proposed bill to the NSW Parliament that would exempt frontline workers from having to prove they contracted COVID-19 at work when making a workers' compensation claim. The proposed law change would cover frontline workers in essential services including health, education, retail or hospitality and deem that the a COVID-19 infection was contracted at work. They could then claim for lost wages and medical expenses. Dependents could also claim any death benefits. We have an obligation to protect every one of those workers who are placing their health at risk by continuing to provide for the needs of the community during the pandemic," he said. We are already seeing claims being denied, with 11 of the 111 claims made to date refused. It is little wonder this is happening because how do you prove you caught the disease at work rather than at the supermarket or on the bus?" Mr Dominello said no claims for NSW public servants with a confirmed case of COVID-19 have been denied. "This is a fast-moving situation that the NSW government and the independent regulator are assessing and closely monitoring," Mr Dominello said. A state government spokesman said seven of the compensation claims were from people who did not work in the public sector and who had reported testing positive for the virus. Provisional liability had been accepted for five of those claims and one has been rejected. April 3, 2020 DENVER National Park Service Regional Director Mike Reynolds announced the selection of Deanna Greco as superintendent of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado. The position also supervises the Superintendent of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Greco has more than 25 years of experience working for federal land management agencies and most recently served as the Chief of Planning and Resource Stewardship at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. She will assume her new role April 7, 2020. Deanna has shown great leadership and dedication to these parks during her acting role as superintendent, said Reynolds. Her professionalism, collaborative style, and extensive background in land management make her a great asset to the team. Im extremely passionate about this area and Im thrilled to be returning to Colorado, said Greco. I look forward to working with our park staff, partners, and the surrounding communities on the many opportunities and challenges ahead. Greco has been serving as the acting superintendent of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado since December 2019. Prior to this, she served as the acting superintendent at Chattahoochee River and Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Georgia and as the Physical Science Program Manager at Grand Canyon National Park. She has extensive experience serving as a geologist at the National Park Service Geological Resources Division in Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon, and as a Park Ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in California. Greco is an avid cyclist and skier and is looking forward to living in Colorado with her husband John and their dog Shakey. For more information about Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area, visit nps.gov/blca and nps.gov/cure. A doctor wears a mask as he walks outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan during the outbreak of the CCP virus in New York City, New York on April 1, 2020. (Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters) New York Hospital Discharges Outpace New Admissions for 4th Straight Day Hospitals in New York state have discharged more COVID-19 patients than they have added for four days in a row, according to the latest data from the state hit hardest by the CCP virus pandemic. Hospitals in the state discharged 1,709 COVID-19 patients on April 4, while admitting 574 patients. The number of daily discharges had also surpassed the daily admissions on the three prior days, state data shows. Discharge rate is way up and thats great news, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on April 5. New York has been the U.S. epicenter for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. While New York City has borne the brunt of the outbreak, there has been an increasing shift to Long Island, which now accounts for 22 percent of the states COVID-19 hospitalizations. The number of daily deaths in New York state from COVID-19 dropped for the first time on April 4, when 594 people died, down from 630 deaths the day before, with a total of 4,159 people dying from the disease statewide. What is the significance of that? Its too early to tell, Cuomo said. The governor ordered the states non-essential workers to stay home until at least April 15. Guidance is also in place from the White House, which has asked non-essential workers to stay at home until April 30. New York state has reported more deaths from the CCP virus than the next nine hardest-hit states combined. Cuomo has repeatedly cited projections that estimate the state has fewer hospital beds than will be needed when the outbreak reaches its apex. The coronavirus is truly vicious and effective at what the virus does. Its an effective killer, Cuomo said. The federal government, at the direction of the White House coronavirus task force, has rushed personnel, equipment, and supplies as officials brace for the possibility that the states health care system becomes overwhelmed. The government is sending 1,000 doctors, nurses, and respiratory technicians on April 5, Cuomo said. The White House has also deployed a 1,000-bed hospital ship and directed the retrofitting of the Javits Convention Center into a temporary COVID-19 hospital. President Donald Trump on April 4 told Americans to prepare for the deadliest two weeks of the CCP virus outbreak. Models used by the White House estimate that 100,000 to 240,000 people may die from the pandemic by the time it is extinguished. The White House, also on April 4, urged Americans to be extra vigilant about following federal and local social distancing guidelines and orders in the coming week, including, if possible, limiting essential chores, such as trips to the supermarkets and pharmacies. The next two weeks are extraordinarily important, White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx said. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe. Bill Burr, who went by Billy Burr in his early days, is a stand-up comedian and actor with a variety of projects under his belt. Hes the creator of the Netflix animated series F is for Family and hosts his own comedy podcast Monday Morning Podcast. He has a style of comedy that relies heavily on making people around him uncomfortable, as is evidenced in his interviews and stand-up material. He balks at the idea of censoring himself and has no intention of doing so. Despite joking that his latest comedy special was going to be his last show ever, Burr is still pumping out material thats just as button-pushing as ever. When and where did Bill Burr start his comedy career? BILL BURR, JIMMY KIMMEL | Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images Burr was born and raised in Canton, Massachusetts, just south of Boston. Believe it or not, he was shy and introverted all through his younger years. It wasnt until he started taking public speaking classes at Emerson College that he started to come out of his shell. He told The Georgetown Voice: The more I did [public speaking], the better I felt about myself. That was the biggest thing as far as shaping me as a comedian was that I learned how to not be afraid of being in front of an audience. He also participated in a comedy contest and began to get into the stand-up scene in Boston. He learned from the older bitter comics that what he didnt want to become, and from the hopeful comics what he wanted to emulate. Despite coming off as bitter about the world around him at times, and even going through times of self-professed conspiracy theory obsessions, Burr never gets bitter toward comedy. Comedy is his escape from the worries of the world, and he wanted to be a part of that. Burr attributes a great deal of his success to working hard and keeping his expenses low in the early days of his comedy career. He worked a day job and began to make money from his stand-up and used that to pay off his student loans and any other debts he had. He eventually saved up enough to move to New York. Bill Burrs loves retiring jokes after comedy specials Its a common opinion among comics that the digital age is making their jobs harder. In the days before smartphones, comedians could feasibly use the same set, or portions of it for years on tour. Now, every comedian is one viral video away from needing to retire brand new material. Chris Rock famously does no phone shows, and other comedians are joining in. Comedy specials have a similar downside: once the jokes are out there, fans dont want to see them again live. Though the comedian is choosing what jokes will be retired, its still a double-edged sword. Burr, however, thrives on it. My favorite thing is the day after I shoot a special and it all goes away and I get to start over again. Its my favorite thing, Burr told Howard Stern in a 2017 interview. Burr currently has six comedy specials, five of which are available on Netflix. The latest of these, Paper Tigers was released just last year. He also has recorded albums, such as his Carnegie Hall performance, Live at Andrews House, which is available on vinyl. Bill Burrs pursuits and talents span beyond stand up In addition to his years of stand-up comedy success, Burr has an impressive resume of acting credits under his belt. He was a regular on Chappelles Show in 2004, an opportunity to which he credits a lot of his success. Burr has also been seen in comedy films such as Date Night, The Heat, and Walk of Shame. When it comes to dramatic roles, Burr appeared in Breaking Bad as Saul Goodmans henchman, Kuby. Hes also had the opportunity to be part of the Star Wars canon, appearing in an episode of The Mandalorian. His animated series, F is for Family, in which he voices gruff 1970s dad, Frank Murphy, is renewed for a fourth season, set to be released sometime this year. Stranded workers are seen on a boat anchored along River Ganga near a shipyard during the nationwide lockdown, imposed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Kolkata. PTI Photo Every year, a whopping 350 tonnes of partially burnt human flesh and bones, 10,000 tonnes of ash and cremation-related material, dead cows, buffaloes, monkeys, goats and shockingly even human dead bodies (without cremation)-- all are dumped in this holy river. If that is not enough, millions of litres of sewage, heavy metals from industries go into it even as millions of people are heavily dependent on this river for their daily needs. For the first time in history, the holy river Ganga is breathing easy. Courtesy: Coronavirus and the lock down ! The ganga, which flows through five states and is most polluted in Varanasi -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency -- is now regaining all its lost glory, slowly. Pollution in the sacred river has come down by over 40 per cent and is likely to increase as the lock down continues across the country. Though successive governments including the present Modi government spent thousands of crores in cleaning the ganga and still failed miserably, looks like nature always finds its own way of healing. According to experts who have previously carried out extensive research of river Ganga, the river is now breathing easy with 40 per cent less pollution in all forms, something they call as historic. ''About 33,000 dead bodies are burnt every year in Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats in Varanasi. About 45 per cent of them are brought from other districts and states which has stopped now due to the lock down. Toxicants like led, copper and cadmium emanating from the 1200 small scale industries in Varanasi, which used to end up in the river, has stopped now,'' explains Professor BD Tripathi, Chairman of MM Ganga Research Centre at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr Tripathi said that the extraction of water for irrigation purposes has come down drastically which has increased the dilution capacity of the river. Once the lock down comes to an end, the professor is looking forward to conduct a detailed study. Having done several researches on river Ganga and submitted his findings to the Centre over the last five decades, Tripathi says that though there are 30 drains, both big and small in and around Varanasi which discharge 300 million litres of sewage everyday. But luckily, the three sewage treatment plants are still working despite the lock down. In fact, large traces of metals have often been found in fruits and vegetables grown using the water from the river. ''The lock down has come as a blessing in disguise for the river. In all five states from where it flows, the Ganga is cleaner by 40 per cent. Never in the history has this happened,'' adds Tripathi, who in his earlier reports had underlined that Ganga cannot be cleaned now and efforts have to be made to save it now. Another expert RP Mishra feels that though thousands of crores were spent on cleaning of the river by successive governments, no one knows where the money went. ''Close to a lakh people bathe in different ghats of Varanasi everyday and about 450 million people live along the river's 2,500 kms length who are dependent on it for their daily needs. All of this has stopped now though locals continue to burn the dead bodies, but the number is very less and therefore, the load on the river is far less,'' he says. He says that the blasting works in Uttarakhand, which is a seismic zone has stopped now due to the lock down, which is good news for the river. ISLAMABAD - The Taliban said their peace deal with the United States was nearing a breaking point, accusing Washington of violations that included drone attacks on civilians, while also chastising the Afghan government for delaying the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners promised in the agreement. The Taliban said they had restricted attacks against Afghan security forces to rural outposts, had not attacked international forces and had not attacked Afghan forces in cities or military installations. The Taliban said these limits on their attacks had not been specifically laid out in the agreement with the U.S. signed in February. The Talibans statement issued Sunday warned of more violence if the U.S. and the Afghan government continue alleged violations of the deal. U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett in a tweet overnight denied the Taliban allegation, saying the U.S. forces in Afghanistan has upheld and continues to uphold the military terms of the U.S.-TB (Taliban) agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless. In his tweet, Leggett called for Taliban to reduce violence and said the U.S. military will continue to come to the aid of Afghanistans security forces if attacked, in line with the agreement. Meanwhile, the militants said they had reduced their attacks compared to last year, but said continued violations would create an atmosphere of mistrust that will not only damage the agreements, but also force mujaheddin to a similar response and will increase the level of fighting. The Taliban have accused the Afghan government of using indefensible arguments to explain the repeated delays in releasing a promised 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government personnel. The Afghan governments foot-dragging has also left Washington frustrated. Meanwhile, in the Afghan capital, President Ashraf Ghani announced his new Cabinet even as he squabbles with his main political challenger over last years election results. Ghanis move came even as Afghan mediators including former President Hamid Karzai shuttled between the president and his opponent, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who has also declared himself Afghanistans president. The countrys Independent Election Commission has declared Ghani a winner, but Abdullah and the Elections Complaint Commission have charged widespread irregularities. Attempts to negotiate an end to the political turmoil roiling Kabul have made little progress, frustrating the U.S. and potentially derailing the next stage in the Afghan peace process. Washington has threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid this year if Ghani and Abdullah cant reach a compromise. The Trump administration wants a quick start to intra-Afghan negotiations, the next step in the peace deal it signed on Feb. 29. It looked promising when Ghani announced his negotiating team last week, but Abdullahs response to it has been lukewarm and the Taliban have rejected it as one-sided. The U.S. and NATO have already begun to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The full withdrawal is expected to be completed in 14 months and is tied to Taliban commitments to fight terrorist groups and help in the battle against the Islamic State group. The withdrawal is not tied to the success of intra-Afghan negotiations, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had travelled to Afghanistan last month to try to break the impasse between Ghani and Abdullah. Pompeo left without a solution; however, last week he welcomed that the Afghan government had put together a negotiating team and made progress toward the prisoner releases. Those releases have stumbled even as the Taliban sent a three member team to Kabul last week. European Union governments have pushed the blocs stringent data privacy rules to their limits by tapping the biggest telecom and tech companies for data to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Wireless companies such as Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom have shared mobile phone location data to show users movements and gauge the effectiveness of lockdowns in certain areas. Google is looking at how to assist with the data from users who allow location sharing, and on Thursday published over 100 country-specific reports showing how mass movements have changed in the last month. All this is happening against the backdrop of the blocs General Data Protection Regulation, which is among the strictest of such laws in the world. Overstepping it can cost companies as much as 4% of their global annual revenue. The wireless companies stress that data is being aggregated and anonymized. Processing of personal data is also justifiable under GDPR to protect lives for humanitarian purposes, including for monitoring epidemics. Countries like South Korea have managed to stymie the outbreak in a way Europe cant copy, with contact-tracing to map contagion at a person-to-person level. To do this in Europe, governments would have to push controversial new or emergency laws or get users to voluntarily share more about themselves at a massive scale. Attempts at the latter include a piece of software dubbed Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing, designed to use a smartphones Bluetooth radio to scan and log the location of nearby people, or, more specifically, the phones theyre carrying. Its developers say they hope EU states can use it as the engine inside future contact-tracing apps. Users must rally to one app en masse for such technology to work, but there are several other disparate attempts. Heres how different European countries are attempting to balance the need for data with personal privacy laws. U.K. Former state monopoly BT is using mass population data in measures backed by the Information Commissioners Office, the nations privacy watchdog. Officials and carriers are also in talks about how roaming data used carefully could help repatriate Brits stranded abroad, according to people familiar with the matter. Palantir is also working with data for Britains National Health Service. Health Secretary Matt Hancock signaled that citizens must consider making a trade-off with privacy on March 18, when he tweeted we are all having to give up some of our liberties; rights under GDPR have always been balanced against other public interests. Germany Although its the European nation most concerned with privacy, its biggest carrier Deutsche Telekom has shared anonymized mass data with the Robert Koch Institute to map mass movements and predict Covid-19s spread, based on procedures approved by the countrys data regulator in 2015. Meanwhile, German startups are working on an application to help the government track infected people, and the state data protection authority for Rhineland-Palatinate has said that approach may be the best option, provided it remains voluntary and the data is later deleted. General location data is not sufficient to understand infection chains, said the watchdog. Taking the route of a voluntary mobile phone app seems more feasible here. France Stephane Richard, CEO of the biggest French telecommunications company Orange and also chairman of the mobile industry lobby group GSMA, has been pushing for the use of voluntary tracing apps on radio and in newspaper Le Monde. Hes advocated something like the app used to trace citizens in Singapore, TraceTogether. It would trigger fresh privacy debates, but Richard said its less of a destroyer of freedom than the techniques seen in places like China. Austria The countrys biggest network operator, Telekom Austria, is sending anonymized data to authorities, based on technology originally developed by south Austrias Invenium Data Insights to analyze travel patterns. Italy The hardest-hit European country was one of the first to test how data can be used. Officials have used anonymized data from Vodafone and data mapping earlier in the month showed millions in the epicentric Lombardy region were still moving beyond their homes. However, after a month of enduring and enforcing a national quarantine, and more than 13,000 deaths, there are early signs the diseases spread in Italy is starting to plateau. Its neighbours and the EU will need to decide soon whether the monitoring regime there was enough, or more aggressive methods are needed. The Hyundai Venue has surpassed the monthly sales of Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza in March. Maruti Suzuki which sold 5,513 units of the Vitara Brezza, was pushed down to the second place by Hyundai, which sold 6,127 models of Venue in March. At its launch, the Hyundai Venue sent ripples across the rapidly growing compact SUV segment, posing as the first connected car to enter the Indian automotive landscape. The Venue features Hyundais first-ever 1.0-litre Kappa turbocharged GDI Petrol engine mated to an in-house developed 7-speed DCT transmission, which is alongside an option of 6-speed and 5-speed manual transmission. The Venue is Hyundais first model in India to feature the Blue Link connectivity solution, with 33 connected features. It also gets live car tracking, geo-fencing and speed alerts that can all be checked via an app that connects to the SUV. Also Watch: The Venue is available in a total of 13 variants including five diesel and eight petrol variants across four trim levels E, S, SX, and SX(0). It will come with three engine options -- a 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol unit, 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol unit and a 1.4-litre diesel engine. The tray of safety features in the Venue comes with 6 airbags, speed sensing auto door unlock, ESC/ESP & (Vehicle Stability Management), HAC (Hill Assist Control), BAS (Brake Assist System) and ISOFIX mounts. Onto one of the most exciting parts of the Hyundai Venue the Blue Link connected car technology. Hyundai says that Blue Link will allow owners to remotely start the Venue or open the doors, control the climate, sound the horn and control the light as well. It will also provide real-time traffic information, detect vehicle theft, track and immobilize the Venue remotely. Laguna Woods Village retirement community residents protest outside a nearby Ayres Hotel on Saturday over a plan to hold some homeless COVID-19 patients there. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles County on Sunday announced 15 additional deaths related to the coronavirus and 663 new cases, bringing the county's totals to 132 deaths and 5,950 cases. This weekend has seen a particularly deadly toll in the county, with 28 deaths reported Saturday, the largest one-day increase yet. We have some very difficult days ahead and now is the time for all of us to redouble our physical distancing efforts and look after our neighbors, friends, and families who may be at the highest risk for serious illness from COVID-19, Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said in a statement. Of the fatalities reported Sunday, 10 were patients older than 65, and 11 had underlying health conditions, officials said. One person was younger than 40. Two of the deaths already had been reported by the city of Pasadena, which has its own health department. There have now been nearly 1,400 coronavirus infections recorded in L.A. County over the last 48 hours as the number of people tested has risen to 31,000. Officials in Long Beach, which also has its own health department, reported 15 new cases Sunday, for a total of 213. Riverside County announced Sunday that another person had died of the coronavirus and 134 more had tested positive, bringing the county's death toll to 19 and its total number of cases to 799. They include 30 patients of the Extended Care Hospital of Riverside, a skilled nursing facility. Some staff members also had tested positive, and officials were awaiting results from other patients and workers at the 90-plus-bed facility, public health officials said Sunday. The facility was closed to new admissions, sick patients were isolated, and staff members were not permitted to work elsewhere. This is a very serious situation and shows why we must all take serious steps to change our behavior, because these steps are intended to protect our most vulnerable," Riverside County Supervisor Karen Spiegel said in a statement. Story continues Concerned about the rise of coronavirus infections, the county has taken the unprecedented step of ordering all residents to cover their faces when leaving home, marking an escalation by county officials in their attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Despite previous pleas from county officials for residents to practice social distancing, cover their faces and stay home, more and more residents are getting infected with the virus, and not everyones getting the message, said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, Riverside County health officer, in issuing the order Saturday. We change from saying that you should to saying that you must, Kaiser said in a prepared statement published by the county. Los Angeles and counties in the Bay Area have urged residents to cover their mouths and noses, and San Diego County on Saturday ordered all essential workers to do the same, part of a broader effort among local governments and the state to flatten the curve of the pandemic before hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. But Riverside Countys new mandate is far more strict, requiring anyone who leaves the house to cover up. The order also bans all gatherings of people except for family members residing in the same home, according to the countys news release. The sharply worded release said police officers had the power to enforce the orders as they deem necessary. We have already lost two of our deputies to this virus. I am asking all of you to honor them by staying at home, said Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Sunday also urged Americans to follow social distancing guidelines and to wear face coverings in public to help slow the spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week called on Americans to wear masks when venturing out, but President Trump said Friday, I dont see it for myself. The president is making a choice that is appropriate for him, said the surgeon general on Fox News Sunday. Adams has released a video showing how to make a simple homemade face covering with fabric and rubber bands. Wearing a mask, he cautioned, is not a substitute for physical distancing. Adams also deflected questions about the need for a nationwide stay-at-home order. Trump has said he prefers to leave the decision to governors, nine of whom have not issued such a directive in their states. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, said Sunday that states that did not take such measures harmed the overall effort to stem the outbreak. It isnt that theyre putting the rest of the country at risk as much as theyre putting themselves at risk, he said in an interview on CBS Face the Nation. Every time I get to that podium in the White House briefing room, I plead with people to take a look at those very simple guidelines of physical separation. Fauci said last week he did not understand why there was not a nationwide stay-at-home order in place. Adams said in the Fox interview that the federal governments guidelines, which are voluntary, were essentially a national order. Over 90% of the country is staying home, he said. Both officials warned of difficult times ahead. Adams said the coming week was going to be the hardest and saddest of most Americans lives, likening the projected toll of COVID-19 to our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment. More than 335,000 cases of the coronavirus have been reported nationwide, and the death toll is nearing 10,000. There are preliminary signs that stay-at-home directives and social distancing have been effective, Fauci said, but were still not at that apex. Within a week, eight, nine days or so, were hopefully going to see that turning around, he said. Coronavirus-related deaths across California have soared past 300, reaching 344 by Sunday afternoon. Orange County reported 49 additional coronavirus cases Sunday, for a total of 834 cases, including 14 deaths. Of those diagnosed, 137 were hospitalized and 56 were in intensive care units, officials said. The cases include two Orange County sheriff's deputies who tested positive for the virus last week, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Carrie Braun said Sunday. One works at the Theo Lacy jail in Orange and the other at the Mens Central Jail in Santa Ana, where at least one inmate also has tested positive. Both deputies were resting at home, Braun said. In a move aimed at reducing the jail population to limit the spread of the coronavirus, California judicial leaders are set to meet remotely Monday, when they're expected to adopt a statewide emergency order setting bail at zero for misdemeanor and lower-level felony offenses. The Judicial Council, the policymaking body for Californias court system, also is expected to vote to suspend evictions and foreclosures and to allow for the expansion of court hearings held by video or telephone. Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye heads the council, which is primarily made up of judges. Gov. Gavin Newsom has given her and the council extraordinary temporary powers to suspend laws to deal with the health crisis. California has recorded more than 14,000 cases overall, and officials believe that number will sharply rise as testing continues to expand. In a Saturday news conference, Newsom said California would significantly increase coronavirus testing capabilities, adding that he was responsible for testing lapses in the state that had made it difficult to track the virus. Newsom announced a task force that he said would work toward a fivefold increase in daily testing in the state by identifying supply shortages and adding testing locations. We are now in a position where I can confidently say its a new day, he said. The announcement comes as California continues to see dramatic increases in people hospitalized with the virus, with 2,398 patients in the state. An additional 3,187 people hospitalized are suspected of having COVID-19 but are awaiting test results. From Friday to Saturday, the number of coronavirus patients in Californias ICU beds rose nearly 11% to 1,008 people. By Sunday, that number had inched up to 1,040. In all, state officials said Sunday that 131,500 people had been tested in California, a state of about 40 million people. Of those who have been tested, 15,000 are awaiting results. The testing space has been a challenging one for us, and I own that, Newsom said Saturday. And I have a responsibility as your governor to do better and do more testing in the state. Public health experts have said widespread testing is crucial to the states efforts to accurately assess how many people are infected and where the virus is spreading. Newsom said he was confident the newly announced task force, made up of private and public leaders, would deal with testing challenges in the state. He said the state was partnering with universities, hospitals, labs and testing companies to increase testing locations across the state, reduce backlogs and ensure there were more accurate and timely data on the number of COVID-19 cases. The task force will be led by Paul Markovich, president and chief executive of Blue Shield of California, and Dr. Charity Dean, assistant director of the California Department of Public Health. State officials have been working to add more hospital and ICU beds to handle the expected surge in coronavirus patients. The states modeling suggests California will need 50,000 new hospital beds by mid-May. To meet that demand, the state is asking for recently retired medical providers, those with licenses from other states and medical school students to join the newly created California Health Corps. Newsom said that a staggering number of individuals some 79,000 people had signed up through the states Health Corps website. Meanwhile, a crackdown on coronavirus-order scofflaws has escalated in recent days, with nonessential businesses that refuse to shut down, as well as people who defy orders to stay out of the water, finding themselves in the crosshairs. Los Angeles prosecutors on Friday filed criminal charges against two smoke shops, a shoe store and a discount electronics retailer, accusing them of refusing to shut down despite orders. It marked the first time the city had filed charges for violations of the Safer at Home order, which requires businesses deemed nonessential to close their doors to slow the spread of the coronavirus. City Atty. Mike Feuer on Friday said the four stores were deemed nonessential businesses under Mayor Eric Garcettis executive order. Garcetti said the stores were putting lives at risk. At one store, police officers were told, Forget you probably not in as nice words Were not going to do it, the mayor said. That comes as workers at some businesses deemed essential are calling for their employers to grant them more protections against the virus. Cooks and cashiers protested from their cars outside a McDonalds on Crenshaw Boulevard on Sunday after a co-worker tested positive for the virus, they said, prompting the store to close for a day. The employees were then asked to come back the following day, they said. The workers said they were going on strike until the company agreed to provide a two-week paid quarantine and to cover healthcare costs of any worker or immediate family member who becomes ill with COVID-19. The owner-operator of the McDonald's franchise, Nicole Enearu, said Sunday in a statement that the restaurant was closed and sanitized as soon as managers were notified that an employee had tested positive, and that all other staff who had been in close contact with the employee had been asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. "We are committed to paying both the infected employee and the other employees who need to quarantine," she said. But as of Sunday evening, none of the employees who were involved in the protest had received calls from their managers advising them to quarantine or saying they would be paid for such time off, the workers said. "We have no way of determining how McDonalds is making the decision on who to send home and whos allowed to work," Fight for $15 and a Union, which helped organize the protest, said in a statement. "And were not comfortable taking the company's word for it." In Orange County, a plan to house homeless people with the coronavirus in a hotel near a gated retirement community has sparked outrage among some of its neighbors. Orange County officials recently entered into an agreement to use two boutique Ayres hotels as temporary housing for those without shelter amid the pandemic. One hotel is just outside Laguna Woods Village, a community with thousands of residents older than 55. County officials say they have few options as they try to quickly move people indoors amid fears that an outbreak among the homeless population could further strain health systems. They say the facility will be locked down, with patients unable to have visitors or leave freely. Residents of the retirement community, where the average age is about 78, say they fear having homeless patients or the staff who care for the sick nearby because residents are at high risk of death from the virus. On Saturday afternoon, dozens of residents gathered outside the hotel, at times shouting, Dont kill us, while others circled nearby in their cars, honking their horns. Laguna Woods city officials have said they are deeply concerned by the countys decision and are exploring legal action. Wigglesworth and Elmahrek reported from Los Angeles, Gutierrez reported from Sacramento, King reported from Washington and Dolan reported from San Francisco. Times staff writer Paloma Esquivel contributed to this report. The officials of the Ghaziabad health department Saturday said they have 10 new cases of Covid-19 since Friday evening. The officials said the sudden spurt is attributed to people who attended various religious congregations, including the one in Delhis Nizamuddin. Officials said they had a list of 13 positive cases till Friday evening and the number rose to 23 by Saturday evening. The 10 new additions include a 25-year-old woman from Vasundhara whose sister is an employee of Noida-based company Ceasefire. The nine other Covid-19 patients are those who attended various religious congregations. The positive patients are from across Ghaziabad, from areas such as Masuri, Loni, Muradnagar etc. Of the 23, we now have 13 Covid-19 patients who have surfaced in past few days after health officials and police launched a search. All these people were picked up after the spurt in cases reported from Nizamuddin in Delhi, Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, said. The 29-year-old sister of the 25-year-old woman has also tested positive. The patients sister used to share her car with another 30-year-old employee of Ceasefire and he is also positive for Covid-19, health officials said. Of the 23 patients so far, the father-son duo from Raj Nagar Extension has already been discharged from the hospital after treatment, as well as another patient, a doctor from Kaushambi who returned from France, the CMO said. On Friday night, the health department officials also sealed a three-kilometre area in Masuri after several patients were found positive there after returning from attending various religious congregations. The officials also sent their family members to different isolation and quarantine facilities. Overall, in Uttar Pradesh, there has been a sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 cases and UP officials said that this is largely due to members of Tablighi Jamaat who have returned from Nizamuddin after attending a congregation there in March. On Saturday evening, the Sahibabad police also picked up 10 Indonesian nationals who had arrived in Ghaziabad for attending religious congregations and were living in a mosque, a madarsa and the house of a resident in Shaheed Nagar locality. Five of the 10 are women. They also have their passports with them while some have deposited their passports at the Jamaats office in Delhi. All 10 have been sent to a quarantine facility. A case will soon be registered against them and also the caretakers of the mosque, madarsa and the private individual who provided them shelter and did not disclose their information, Rakesh Mishra, circle officer (Sahibabad), said. The Uttar Pradesh government officials have already said the passports of such persons will be seized as they are in India on tourist visas and not allowed to attend religious events or take part in missionary work. Till Saturday evening, 306 such foreigners were identified across Uttar Pradesh and passports of 228 were seized besides 36 FIRs being lodged against them under the Foreigners Act, Epidemic Act and Disaster Management Act, the officials of the Uttar Pradesh government said. Dr Gupta also said that there was information about a Covid-19 positive patient from Shipra Sun City, Indirapuram. When our teams went there, he was found to be admitted to a private hospital in Delhi and his family could not produce any confirmatory report. So we have not included him in the list of positive cases, which came to light on Saturday. However, containment exercise has been taken up at Shipra Sun City, he said. People who are yet to make self-disclosures about their travel to foreign countries, other states and to religious congregations, should do so by 5pm on April 5. If they fail to do so and are traced by the health department or police, FIRs will be lodged against them, Dr Gupta said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The plans for Rice University's ApolloBVM, an open-source emergency ventilator design that could help patients in treatment for COVID-19, are now online and freely available to everyone in the world. The project first developed by students as a senior design project in 2019 has been brought up to medical grade by Rice engineers and one student, with the help of Texas Medical Center doctors. The device costs less than $300 in parts and can squeeze a common bag valve mask for hours on end. Visitors to the ApolloBVM website will be asked to register before they can download the do-it-yourself plans so they can be kept up to date as the project progresses. With the novel coronavirus gaining steam and a shortage of ventilators not only in the United States but around the world, ApolloBVM could help COVID-19 patients who are less-critically ill while they await availability of a standard hospital ventilator. This is going to make a difference in hospitals that run out of ventilators. Those that have relationships with a production facility that can quickly produce them should seek FDA emergency use authorization. We're working locally to get that done. I want to emphasize that this is for use only when there is no ventilator available," he said. "We don't intend for this to be the primary device. We are still working towards the exact clinical use scenario as the situation demands it, nationally and globally." Dr. Rohith Malya, adviser to the Rice engineering team Malya is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, an adjunct assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice and associate of the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health. Rice announced the team's completion of a new prototype on March 27, and interest from clinicians, engineers, manufacturers and do-it-yourselfers was immediate. More than 500 people from more than 50 countries have requested information about the project through the ApolloBVM website. At the same time, more than a quarter-million people have now viewed the original "Take A Breather" and the current ApolloBVM videos on YouTube. In lab tests with an artificial lung this week, the latest prototype delivered nonstop air for 24 hours, until the device was turned off. "We have been working long hours, but if we are able to make at least one COVID-19 patient more comfortable, it will be all worth it," said Amy Kavalewitz, executive director of Rice' Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, where prototypes are being built using the facility's 3D printers and laser cutters. The next steps are testing with human patients and manufacturing. Tests with a Texas Medical Center partner are imminent, according to the team. Rice is also working with manufacturers seeking to ramp up production of a hospital-grade device as soon as possible to address current needs. Brussels, 05 April 2020 (SPS) - In a letter addressed to Human Rights Watchs Brussels office, the Frente POLISARIO Representation to the EU expresses its deep concern about the appalling situation afflicting the Sahrawi political prisoners held illegally in Morocco jails amidst the growing COVID-19 pandemic. These are trying times for all of us, but none more so than those languishing in arbitrary detention. As you are aware, dozens of innocent Sahrawi civilians are currently being held illegally in Moroccan jails. Victims of ill treatment, torture and intentional medical neglect, these prisoners are not only at high risk for falling gravely ill due to COVID-19, they are also easy targets for the Moroccan regime. It is therefore imperative that Morocco allow immediate access to these prisoners by independent human rights monitors. The letter reads. The statement outlined the urgent call of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on 25 March 2020 on all governments to take urgent action to protect the health and safety of people in detention and other closed facilities, as part of overall efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The High Commissioner stressed that Now, more than ever, governments should release every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting view. Under international human rights law, States have an obligation to take steps to prevent foreseeable threats to public health and have a duty to ensure that all who need vital medical care can receive it. The Frente POLISARIO Representations letter calls upon HRW to urge the European Council and the Commission to intervene immediately to guarantee the safety of all Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails. Beyond their immediate release, these prisoners need urgent protection from the COVID-19 virus. Referring to the responsibilities of the EU towards the long-standing conflict in Western Sahara The EU for too long has played a second-tier role in finding a political solution to the Western Sahara conflict. But this is a context that can change given the levers the EU has at its disposal, including the opportunity of a fresh start with the new leadership at the Commission. While the challenge in securing a just political settlement remains difficult, there are steps that can be taken now to deter retribution against those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Moroccan authorities should be sent a clear and strong message that they cannot use the current health emergency to retaliate against political detainees and further curtail the rights and dignity of the Sahrawi people. Concludes the letter. Its against this backdrop in particular that on 22nd last month, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, the Saharawi President and Frente POLISARIO Secretary General Mr. Brahim Ghali sent a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General outlining the appalling situation afflicting the Sahrawi political prisoners held illegally in Morocco jails. He warned that the outbreak of this dangerous virus and the urgent measures required, in particular relating to avoiding large gatherings and overcrowding, totally contradicts the situation in which these civilian prisoners are held in overpopulated Moroccan prisons. (SPS) 062/SPS Capt. Brett E. Crozier, the Navy captain who was removed from command of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to two Naval Academy classmates of Croziers who are close to him and his family. A Navy spokesman declined to comment on Croziers Covid status. The commander began exhibiting symptoms before he was removed from the warship on Thursday, two of his classmates said. Crozier was fired following a leak to The San Francisco Chronicle of a letter he had emailed to Navy leaders that detailed the failures on the services part to provide the necessary resources to swiftly move sailors off the carrier and disinfect areas on board as the virus spread through the ship. Thomas B. Modly, the acting secretary of the Navy, said he had lost confidence in Croziers ability to command the ship effectively as it dealt with the evolving crisis after Crozier sent the letter on an unclassified email system to 20 to 30 people. Sending such a letter, Modly said, caused unnecessary alarm about the operational readiness of the ship and undermined the chain of command. In sending it out pretty broadly, he did not take care to ensure that it couldnt be leaked, Modly said. And thats part of his responsibility. In a briefing Saturday, President Trump offered support for Modlys decision. He shouldnt be talking that way in a letter, the president said of Crozier. I thought it was terrible what he did. Wuhan Survivors, Caught Between Grief and Surveillance, Want Accountability By Xiao Yu April 04, 2020 Editor's note: All names in this report are pseudonyms chosen by the interviewees who are concerned for their safety. The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is here and Zhang Jun has not yet collected his father's cremated ashes from the Wuchang Funeral Parlor. There is a Chinese saying, "Burial brings peace to the deceased" and the thought of his 76-year-old father in that cold funeral home, still wandering like a lonely ghost, made tears roll down his face. Zhang's father died Feb. 1 from COVID-19. After the death, Zhang had trouble sleeping. In the middle of the night, he thought he heard someone calling: "Son, why don't you come and pick up your dad? You don't want him anymore?" Every single day, Zhang wants to bring his father's ashes home. He has a lot to say to him. In early March, he called the funeral home, one of the eight in Wuhan where the virus emerged late last year. He was told that he had to wait for a notice from the city's Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center. He called again in mid-March. The response was the same--wait for the government's notice. Finally, at the end of March, Zhang was told he could collect the ashes. But he didn't want to go. According to regulations issued by the local authorities, representatives of the deceased's work unit must accompany family members of those who died of COVID-19 when they go to the funeral house. If the deceased didn't have a work unit, representatives from the community must accompany the family. As Zhang explained the new rules for VOA Mandarin he emphasized that "accompany" meant picking up the ashes, then making sure the remains were buried immediately. "My father passed away, this is my family's affair. I go to collect the ashes, this is also my family's affair," he said. "Arranging someone from the work unit to accompany me, it feels like I'm being monitored. I'm disgusted by this."& VOA reached out to the listed spokesperson for the Wuhan Civil Affairs Bureau, Section Chief Dai, multiple times to verify this with the assistance of a bureau operator. The calls ended with recorded music. "We have only one spokesperson," the operator said. "Try calling later." COVID-19 Since the pneumonia-like symptoms that were later recognized as COVID-19 were detected in late 2019, the Chinese government has publicly reported about 82,000 confirmed cases and 3,322 deaths, with Wuhan enduring about 2,500 of those deaths. But many, including the U.S. intelligence community have suggested that Beijing is covering up the real toll. Last week, photos of long lines and stacks of urns at Wuhan's Hankou Funeral House circulated online just long enough to raise more questions about the official count before Chinese authorities removed them. A Chinese reporter who managed to get into the Hankou Funeral House described the scene to VOA. Security was very tight, with more staff, police, security guards, community social workers and volunteers than family members, the reporter said. Inside the funeral home, he recognized several plainclothes police officers and saw them approaching mourners who attempted to take photos of the scene with their cellphones or tried to strike up a conversation with others. In much the same way it is attempting to quash questions about its response to the epidemic by cracking down on critics, Beijing is attempting to maintain control over funerals, moving them along quickly to keep numbness from becoming anger. When PL finally received the urn holding his father's ashes from the Hankou Funeral House after queuing for an hour and a half on March 27, he cried. He last saw his 78-year-old father two months ago. PL, 43, spends most of his time occupied with business in Hong Kong and Malaysia and rarely returns to his hometown Wuhan. He believes his father was infected with COVID-19 during a routine physical examination at Wuhan Union Medical College Hospital in mid-January. PL buried his father's ashes at the government-run Biandanshan Cemetery, the cemetery closest to the city. His father's name on the tomb was scrawled in black marker. So many people have died within such a short time that names won't be carved in stone for another few months. PL had selected the tomb two days before from the three available price ranges: 20,000 RMB ($2,823), 50,000 RMB ($7,057) and nearly 100,000 RMB ($14,115). These are the special 30% off prices for families of those who died of COVID-19. They also receive one-time condolence cash payments of 3000 RMB ($423 USD). "To be honest, the 3,000 yuan from the government doesn't help at all. These tombs are so expensive, they are making a fortune from the dead," PL told VOA. He added, "Many people are saying they can't afford to die. When the pillars of the family are gone, it's hard to make a living for those who got left behind. How can they afford a tomb?" That day, PL was "accompanied" by people from his father's work unit. They took pictures of PL placing his father's urn in the tomb. Before PL left the cemetery, the work unit representatives asked him to sign a form that stated the burial process was complete. It included so much detailed information about PL and his father, PL thought the authorities had undertaken a thorough investigation of him. 'No dignity' "Is this a burial? This is nothing more than monitoring. They are performing a political task -- a task of maintaining stability," he told VOA. "Throughout this whole process -- from checking-in at the hospital, getting treated, to passing away and burial -- we feel confused and there is no dignity," he said. Many families who lost loved ones in the epidemic have had similar experiences: phone calls and home visits from the community social workers and work units. The authorities seem to have more interest in seeing the deceased buried than in the survivors weathering grief. "Why do we have to go through you? Why can't we bury them by ourselves?" World Peace asked. "You don't show any sympathy toward our loss." World Peace lost her mother to the coronavirus. The 66-year-old fell ill on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Jan. 26. Weeks into the outbreak, hospital beds were extremely limited. She was forced to stay at home until after four days her hands began to shake. She was rushed to the hospital where the doctor said it was too late, her lungs were all white. In COVID-19 patients, radiologists can see cloudy areas form on the outside edge of the lungs. As the infection worsens, the clouds form clusters and slowly turn white as breathing becomes difficult for the patient. After a few days of palliative treatment, she passed away. Two months after her mother's death, 40-year-old World Peace wails like a child from time to time. She says she is crying for her mother, and for Wuhan. "China has the best people and the worst government." She joined a WeChat group formed by people who had also lost loved ones in the epidemic. Zhang was among them. While many people are saddened by their loss, they are angry too, Zhang told VOA they want the government to offer explanations. "My father's death was not a normal death. He died of a man-made disaster," Zhang said. "We demand that the names of those who deceived us, who covered it up, those so-called officials and experts to be published. Otherwise, we are not able to explain it to our dead relatives." WeChat group The authorities viewed the WeChat group as a thorn in the eye. Many group members told VOA they have received threatening phone calls from the police. On the last day of March, two police officers knocked on the door of the man who established the group. They took away his cellphone and forcibly disbanded the group. For the past week or so, cherry blossoms have been casting white-pink clouds throughout the city. The Wuhan University campus, a favored viewing site, is empty. Chinese media have reported Beijing's plan to remember the COVID-19 dead on Tomb-Sweeping Day. People have been requested to be silent for three minutes starting at 10 a.m. as horns and alarms sound throughout the county. "It's a show they put on for the world to watch. If we as family members of the dead are not allowed to participate, what kind of mourning is that?" Zhang wants to leave Wuhan and head south. The city broke his heart, he said. One day he will returnon the day he can collect his father's ashes and bury him without being watched by strangers. Zhang said this was his plan as a son trying to defend the final dignity of his father. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Britains lockdown measures have gone too far in attempts to contain the spread of coronavirus, says the scientist leading Swedens response to the global pandemic. Under the strategy developed by state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, Sweden currently stands alone in its efforts to tackle Covid-19. Schools and offices remain open, as do restaurants (although only for table service to avoid gatherings at the bar), while public gatherings of up to 50 people are still permitted. The elderly and vulnerable have been asked to protect themselves by staying at home but, as a whole, the Swedish population has been trusted to behave like adults in limiting the transmission of coronavirus, as prime minister Stefan Lovren said last month. It is an approach that was initially adopted by the British government, before a report from the Imperial College London claimed that the UKs mitigation strategy would result in 250,000 deaths from coronavirus. Amid pressure from the public and scientific community, prime minister Boris Johnson reversed the national approach and placed the entire country into lockdown a U-turn that Dr Tegnell has now questioned. I am very sceptical of lockdowns altogether but if you ever do them, you should do them at an early stage, he told the Mail on Sunday. At certain times I suppose they can be useful, if you are unprepared and need more intensive care facilities, for example. Dr Tegnell added that he believes his method of fighting the virus, while different to other countries, is producing results. He added: So far, what we are doing is working. In a sense we are beating it, and I am confident we are doing the best we can in the circumstances. We cant kill all our services. And unemployed people are a great threat to public health. Its a factor you need to think about. Regarding Imperial College Londons much-cited report, Dr Tegnell has previously admitted he was a bit surprised that its had such an impact. He added: Its not a peer-reviewed paper. Dr Tegnells strategy appears to have drawn support within Sweden. According to one poll, about three-quarters of the Swedish public is at least quite confident that the country is taking the necessary precautions to deal with coronavirus. In line with a study publish by Harvard University, which shows that enacting harsh social distancing measures could lead to a resurgence of infections in the autumn, Dr Tegnell has said that having a very abrupt stop of the spread now would actually move the problem ahead of us. However, others within Sweden have raised concern that the countrys current approach is dismissing scientific data and risking thousands of lives in the process. A petition signed by more than 2,000 doctors, scientists, and professors has called on the government to tighten restrictions and enforce strict containment measures. Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said: I am a scientist. I dont trust authorities, I trust data. I dont see transparency of data that makes me calm and believe the right strategy has been chosen. Were not testing enough, were not tracking, were not isolating enough weve let the virus loose. It is unclear how many people in Sweden have already contracted coronavirus. Tom Britton, a maths professor at Stockholm University who has been modelling the spread of the virus, predicts 10 per cent of the population is already infected. If I guess correctly about half the population could be infected by the end of April, he told The Times. Although Mr Tegnell has avoided describing his strategy as herd immunity, he has spoken of the inevitability of the disease passing through a large proportion of the population. He has said his goal is to slow the spread of infection to a manageable pace which would avoid straining the countrys healthcare system, and believes a strict lockdown is not necessary to achieve that. We put in a lot of effort trying to stop the disease from entering Sweden, said Dr Tegnell. We also did a lot of testing and contact tracing. This bought us time for the health service to prepare. Although Swedens figures lag behind the UKs to date, 6,433 cases and 373 deaths have been reported by health officials the country is believed to be a number of weeks behind on the virus curve. Swedens closest neighbours have all enforced draconian measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Norway and Denmark have so far recorded 5,645 and 4,369 cases respectively, along with 62 and 179 deaths. Coles has followed in Woolworths' footsteps to create an $80 'community box' to be delivered to the elderly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The box of essentials contains grocery and household items for vulnerable Australians who can't make it to the shops while the deadly virus spreads. 'The health of all Australians is important to Coles, so the box contains nutritious items for breakfast, lunch and dinner,' the supermarket said on its website. The Coles Community Box will be delivered to customers in two packages by Australia Post, and has enough supplies to last seven days. The boxes come with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and household essentials such as toilet paper and cleaning products. The Coles Community Boxes boxes come with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and household essentials such as toilet paper and cleaning products What's in the Coles Community Box Breakfast: Long-life Milk 2L Fruit Juice 2L Oats or Cereal (e.g. Weet-Bix) min. 375g Spread (e.g. jam, Vegemite) min. 375g Cereal bars (or dried fruits) x4 (min. 100g each) Household essentials: Toilet Paper min. 4-pack Soap (or similar hygiene product) min. 1 bar/unit Cleaning Spray (min 250ml) or Cleaning Wipes (min. 25 units) Lunch and dinner: Pasta or Rice 1kg Canned Vegetables (e.g. beans, legumes, pulses) x 6 (approx. 400g each) Canned soup and meals x 4 (approx. 400g each) Canned Fish or Meat x2 (approx. 200g each) Canned Fruit (approx. 400g) Baked Beans (or similar) x2 (min. 420g each) Tortilla Wraps x1 (8 units) Snacks: Tea (min. 50 bags) or Instant Coffee (min. 100g) Biscuits (e.g. wafers, snacks) min. 175g Advertisement Breakfast includes milk, fruit juice, cereal and dried fruits, while lunch and dinner comes with pasta or rice, canned vegetables, soup, fruit, baked beans and tortilla wraps. The Coles Community Box will be available to all eligible Coles Online Priority Service customers. 'Our priority right now is helping our most vulnerable customers and giving them access to grocery items and everyday essentials,' the supermarket giant said. In the coming days, eligible shoppers will be able to register their interest in ordering a box. When the Community Box delivery service is ready, customers will receive a text message link to purchase the box and have it delivered to their door. Last week Woolworths rolled out an $80 box of basic groceries and will use Australia Post and other distribution channels to get orders to isolated people faster. Woolworths is stepping up efforts to get food to elderly and other vulnerable people who are stuck at home as coronavirus spreads Similar to Coles, the box also includes meals, snacks and a few essential items, and can't be customised. It can be ordered online in the ACT, NSW and Victoria. Orders should arrive in two-to-five working days and phone support will be available for people who are not comfortable ordering online. Other states will be added in coming weeks. The government has urged Australians over the age of 70 to stay at home for their own protection as the nation's coronavirus tally reaches more than 4000 cases, with 16 deaths. The $80 price includes contactless doorstep delivery by Australia Post and Woolworths has said it won't be making an profit from the service. The list of exact products and brands in each box will vary. Woolworths says people who can shop for families or friends who are isolated should do so, to limit demand on the online service. 'There will be some in our community who don't have that option, and we need your help to put the most vulnerable first,' Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said in a statement on Monday. Woolworths will also use DHL Supply Chain and delivery companies Sherpa and Drive Yello to get keep its online orders flowing. The retailer has been offering priority assistance home deliveries since March 13, to help the elderly, those with disabilities, and those in mandatory isolation. Australia Post said it will provide a contactless doorstep delivery, in line with Covid-19 measures, within an estimated time of 2-5 business days, Australia wide. Woolworths launched the new initiative to help elderly and vulnerable Australians Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Australia Post, Christine Holgate, was proud to form the partnership with Woolworths. 'We are working tirelessly to look at how we can use our unrivalled national network to deliver some comfort to those in need, while we all go through this challenging time,' Ms Holgate said. 'We know so many people are really struggling to get their essential needs during this time, particularly the vulnerable and elderly who may not be able to visit their local supermarket. 'Making delivery to peoples home is critical at this time.' Anup Bordoloi reached Mumbai on February 25 for his 64-year-old fathers cancer treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital. After being tested, Jogen Bordoloi was diagnosed with food pipe cancer and was referred to a private hospital in Mumbai on March 17. Belonging to Mangaldai, a town 75 kilometres north of Guwahati, this family with limited resources was relying on the Atal Amrit Abhiyan a cashless healthcare scheme. But it was denied by the hospital, which is not among 30-odd private sector healthcare institutes outside the state empanelled with the Assam government. Left with no option, the father and son decided to move back to Guwahati, but fate had some other plans. The Bordolois are now among scores of other cancer patients from Assam who are stranded in Mumbai due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Also read: Assams lone non-Markaz patient baffles officials, shows symptoms month after travel They have been staying at Assam Bhavan, which has been converted into a shelter for cancer patients and tourists from the state. We are providing free lodging and food to 200 people, most of whom are cancer patients, Devasish Sarma, joint resident commissioner of Mumbais Assam Bhavan, says. We are also providing free food to around 7000 migrant labourers from Assam, who have been rendered jobless. A helpline number (022-27810888) has also been activated, Sarma says. Dilip Kumar, 37, who had come for bone marrow transplantation in Mumbai is another stranded patient. I was told to arrange Rs 15 lakh for treatment. For this, I have to travel back to my hometown Mangaldai to seek financial assistance, but I can no more travel amid the lockdown, he says. Same is the case with Nasim Khan, 44, of Titabor, a town located 300 kilometres east of Guwahati. He is in Mumbai along with his wife for her urinary tract cancer treatment. Uttam Kumar Roy, 52, who went to Mumbai to get his brother treated for mouth cancer at Tata Memorial Hospital, says his brothers case has been referred back to Guwahati, but now they are unable to make their way back. Meanwhile, Kabita Dey, 36, from Guwahati is facing a problem of a different kind. She was undergoing treatment for breast cancer at Christian Medical College, Vellore, but decided to shift to Tata Memorial Hospital because of the high costs involved. Here in Mumbai, doctors wanted my biopsy slides prepared at Vellore, but due to the lockdown, they havent reached yet, and I am stranded here with no treatment, she says. Why they move out The number of cancer patients stranded in Mumbai is too high, but the Assam Bhavan is doing a great job in supporting them, M Angamuthu, commissioner of Assams general administration department, says. Even Assam has good cancer care facilities, but these came up a bit late. While some people are not aware of them, others dont want to rely on local institutes and make a beeline for prominent hospitals in Mumbai and other metropolitans. Echoing a similar sentiment, Bibhuti Borthaur, superintendent of B Barooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati, says most of the times, cancer patients well-wishers suggest them to go to metropolitan cities, such as Mumbai and Chennai, to get better medical attention. As public and private cancer care institutes in Assam have long waiting lists, they are unable to provide prompt treatment, he says. Since Tata Memorial Hospital is the most preferred cancer hospital in India, many patients end up going to Mumbai, he says. Also read: People between 21-40 worst hit by virus, shows ministry data However, many of them, like Jogen Bordoloi, are later referred to other private hospitals, where the cost of treatment is much higher. Cancer patients undergoing treatment are more susceptible to any kind of viral infection, says Borthaur. We encourage patients to opt for hospitals at or close to their hometowns, as cancer treatment takes time. Generally, the cost of treatment is less than the cost of travel, stay and food. After a point, it gets difficult to bear the financial strain and people give up, he says. However, Anup Bordoloi is not giving up just yet and is waiting for the lockdown to end so that he can bring his father back to Assam to resume his cancer treatment in Guwahati. I am hopeful, he says. We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Belgravia Hartford Capital Inc. (CSE:BLGV), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling. What Is Insider Buying? Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required. We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year. Check out our latest analysis for Belgravia Hartford Capital The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Belgravia Hartford Capital While there weren't any large insider transactions in the last twelve months, it's still worth looking at the trading. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! CNSX:BLGV Recent Insider Trading April 5th 2020 There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Does Belgravia Hartford Capital Boast High Insider Ownership? For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Our data suggests Belgravia Hartford Capital insiders own 4.6% of the company, worth about CA$186k. We consider this fairly low insider ownership. Story continues So What Do The Belgravia Hartford Capital Insider Transactions Indicate? The fact that there have been no Belgravia Hartford Capital insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. The transactions are fine but it'd be more encouraging if Belgravia Hartford Capital insiders bought more shares in the company. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. To that end, you should learn about the 5 warning signs we've spotted with Belgravia Hartford Capital (including 2 which are a bit unpleasant). Of course Belgravia Hartford Capital may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. 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. US President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 4) said that he has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release US order of hydroxychloroquine stockpile that can be used to treat COVID-19 coronavirus patients. "After call today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is giving serious consideration to releasing the hold it put on a US order for hydroxychloroquine," President Trump told the media. The US president also said that he too will take a tablet of hydroxychloroquine after talking to his doctors. "I may take it too, will have to talk to my doctors," he added. "India makes a lot of it. They need a lot too for their billion-plus people. The hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug will be released through the Strategic National Stockpile for treatment. I said I would appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered of hydroxychloroquine," noted President Trump. Notably, the Indian government has banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and its formulations since the outbreak of coronavirus in India. President Trump on Saturday (April 4) said that US the could see a lot of deaths in the next couple of weeks due to the deadly virus. Talking about the spread of the coronavirus in the US in the United States in the next two weeks, President Trump said, "There will be a lot of death." President Trump, however, asserted that the number of deaths can remain low if certain mitigation steps are taken. "This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn`t done but there will be death," Trump said during Coronavirus Taskforce Briefing. Notably, the US has recorded over 3 lakh coronavirus cases and the current death toll in the country due to deadly virus stands at 8,291. On Saturday, PM Modi and President Trump agreed to deploy full strength of the partnership between the two countries to fight the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The two leaders held an extensive telephonic conversation and discussed the crisis that the world is currently facing. Taking micro-blogging site, Twitter, PM Modi said, "Had an extensive telephone conversation with President Donald Trump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19." Thiruvananthapuram: Reeja Vishnu, a nurse, was given an option of opting out of serving at high-pressure coronavirus (Covid-19) ward of Kalamassery Medical College Hospital in Keralas Ernakulam since she has a two-year-old daughter to take care of. But she declined the offer saying she would not do so when her services are needed the most. Many frontline health workers like her are volunteering to combat the pandemic that apart from carrying the risk for them of contracting the disease also involves following detailed protocols, wearing heavy personal protection equipment (PPE) and living restricted lives. I have stopped breast-feeding my 2-year-old daughter. Initially, I had some problems but once I wear my PPE, I forget all my worries, said Vishnu, 28. We have many diligent workers like her and they all rise to the occasion. At Ernakulam Medical College Hospital, we have 24 patients in isolation wards, said district medical officer Dr N K Kuttappan. Reshma Mohandas, a nurse at the Kottayam Medical College Hospital, who contracted the disease while looking after Thomas Abraham, 93, and his wife, Mariyamma, 84, has sought permission to return to work after the end of her 14-day mandatory quarantine at home. She was discharged after recovering along with the elderly couple on Friday. Dr T K Jayakumar, the hospital superintendent, called Mohandas, a committed worker. People like her nursed back the aged couple. It is a big achievement for the country. We will take a call on her request at an appropriate time. Mohandas recalled that the aged couple, which contracted the disease after some of their family members returned from Italy last month, were like small kids and were treated like that. At times, they were stubborn and cranky. We had to pat and prod them quite often. Since one of them had some hearing problems, I had to go very close. It was my duty, she said. Mohandas, (30), was isolated when she developed fever four days after the couple was admitted to the hospital. I took it [infection] in my stride, she said. Taking care of Covid-19 patients is a challenging job for frontline health workers like Vishnu and Mohandas. They say a person in PPE cannot work more than four hours, which often feels like 40. Wearing and removing PPE alone takes more than one hour. Another hour is usually spent on following the post-duty protocols. We need another persons help. First, we wear shoes and put on the PPE overalls. Then we cover our heads and wear masks and goggles. At times, we have to wear two or three layers of masks and then put on gloves; one large and another small over it. Since we cannot go to washrooms after putting on PPE, we usually avoid water, a nurse said on condition of anonymity. She said after putting on PPE, there is a 10-minute check to find out whether a person is comfortable and can move around quickly. Post-duty protocols are more cumbersome. We have to spray disinfectants on our clothes before removing them. Each apparel has different bins. During baths, we have to wash all our personal clothes and disinfect them again. We are not allowed to wear those clothes at least for a month. Then we move to our hostels and dormitories. We are not allowed to interact with others. We have to inform our superiors about our health twice a day, she said. Many hospitals in Kerala, which is among the worst-hit states with 306 cases and reported the first Covid-19 case in the country in January, have arranged accommodations for their staffers treating Covid-19 patients. Nurses in Kerala say Lini Puthussery, a 28-year-old nurse who died fighting the Nipah virus outbreak in north Kerala in 2018, is their inspiration. A movie based on her life, Virus, was a big hit. After fighting the Nipah virus, which was more dangerous, our health workers are stronger now. It is time to stand with them, said Linis widower, Sajeesh. Lini left behind two children, then aged six and two. Sajeesh, who worked in West Asia, was later offered a job in the health department in Kerala. Nurses from Kerala are most sought around the country and the world. Around 20,000 nurses of them work abroad. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An elderly couple from Bengaluru with a travel history to Dubai joined the list of coronavirus patients in the state, taking the total number of cases to 146, the health department said on Sunday. The list includes four deaths and 11 discharges. The 68-year old man and his 62-year old wife, hailing from Madiwala in the city, had returned from Dubai on March 22. They were quarantined at a private hospital and have been asymptomatic. Meanwhile, the government appealed to people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat Congregation in New Delhi to contact 080-29711171 Arogya Sahayavani, the medical helpline number. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi: Around 8 suspects have been stopped by the Immigration Department at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, the country's capital, on Sunday. All these suspicious people were trying to fly to Malaysia by special flight. In relation to these, it has been learned that all people were living in different parts of Delhi. It is also learned about them that all the people had joined Nizamuddin's path. The suspects who have been stopped are all from Malaysia. The police is questioning them. According to the report, all these people can be handed over to Delhi Police and Health Department. It is noteworthy that as a relief flight, a flight from Melindo Airways was going from Delhi to Malaysia. All these suspected passengers were going to be on this flight. In Delhi, 500 people who have joined the Markaz of Tabligi Jamaat are still in the hospital. There are 1,800 in Quarantine. All are being investigated. In this case, Corona cases can increase in Delhi. Only after the report of the test will be known where the scope of corona infection has reached due to mercury in Delhi. Let us tell you that, in its investigation, Delhi Police has found that among the people who reached Markaz, there were foreigners. People here have traveled wherever and due to which the infection of Corona has increased. People of foreign origin also tried to hide in many parts of the country, who were quarantined after being taken out with the help of police. Also Read: This state is using modern methods to beat Corona Kumaraswamy's big slams Prime Minister, says 'Selected April 5 due to party agenda' Corona could not reach this city of world yet, already made strong arrangements Fear of Corona increasing around world, people are doing strange acts Two members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Sunday denounced the Republican-led legislature for moving forward with the state's primary this Tuesday, warning that the move will put the lives of Wisconsin residents at risk amid the spiraling coronavirus pandemic. The two commissioners - Ann Jacobs and Mark Thomsen, both Democratic appointees - voiced their concerns in a letter to state House Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, and state Senate Republican leader Scott Fitzgerald. "Your failure to address these profound issues and the safety of all of Wisconsin's residents during yesterday's special session is unconscionable and is an abdication of your constitutional responsibilities as our leaders," Jacobs and Thomsen wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Washington Post. News of the letter was first reported by Milwaukee-based TV station CBS 58. "In the face of a deepening and escalating COVID-19 crisis, forcing an in-person election on Tuesday not only threatens the voters, the clerks, and election staff, it threatens everyone those people subsequently come into contact with at home and elsewhere," they added, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The letter was sent by Jacobs and Thomsen individually rather than by the entire six-member elections commission, which includes three Democratic and three Republican appointees. As other states have canceled their nominating contests in the face of the pandemic, Wisconsin has chosen to go it alone - even though more than 100 municipalities will not have enough poll workers to open a single voting location, some voters may not receive their mail-in ballots in time, and those who do vote in person will be doing so at a time when public health officials have warned all Americans to stay home. Amid public uproar over the issue, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, called for delaying the contest and abruptly convened a special legislative session Saturday. But at the session, the state legislature refused to take up a proposal to cancel in-person voting in Tuesday's elections. Republicans on Saturday also filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block a deadline extension for mail-in ballots to be received, throwing further uncertainty into the primary. In their letter, Jacobs and Thomsen said that more than 1.2 million absentee ballots had been requested but that a little more than 703,000 had been returned as of Sunday morning. "It is clear that people want to safely participate in their democracy!" they wrote. "It is equally clear that doing so remains challenging to many." They also criticized the move to send members of the Wisconsin National Guard to work at polls as "a short-sighted and unnecessary use of a valuable human resource." "Rather than having the Guard work to prepare for the surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths that we sadly know are coming, we are instead sending them around the state to be poll workers," the two commissioners wrote. "They are risking their health, thereby reducing the Guard's availability to act when most needed." Neither Vos' nor Fitzgerald's offices immediately responded to a request for comment on the letter. - - - The Washington Post's Amy Gardner and Rachel Siegel contributed to this report. While New Mexicans are being asked to take extraordinary precautions to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration and its contractors continue to build the border wall, wasting federal resources and putting the lives of New Mexicans at risk. At dozens of job sites along the border from California to Texas, workers from around the country still converge every day to work together in close quarters building the wall. They stay at local hotels and patronize local businesses, potentially infecting local residents and putting a strain on border communities whose focus now is on survival. The fact that border wall construction hasnt slowed in the face of an unprecedented national health crisis might seem irresponsible, but its not surprising. There is a lot of money at stake for a handful of well-connected companies racing to complete lucrative contracts that might be cancelled if a Democrat becomes president. For example, Houston-based SLSCO is currently building 46 miles of new border wall in New Mexicos Luna and Dona Ana counties under a $789 million contract, part of more than $1.5 billion total it has received in border wall contracts to date, according to the Washington Post. Barnard Co. and its affiliate BFBC, both out of Bozeman, Montana, have landed contracts worth more than $1 billion to build new walls in Arizona and New Mexico. But it is Albuquerques own Southwest Valley Constructorsa Kiewit Company subsidiary that didnt exist before 2017that has won the biggest prize so far, raking in nearly $1.8 billion to build the border wall in its short but profitable existence. Last month, its workers were filmed dynamiting Native American burial sites to build the border wall in Arizona. At the moment, they are engaged in erecting new walls on private land in Texas seized by eminent domain, as well as installing new walls in southeast Arizona that will close off some of the last remaining trans-border corridors for jaguars and Mexican wolves, slicing through the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge. Behind all of this frenzy of wall building is President Trumps obsession to finish 500 miles of new border wall by 2021. To date, his administration has amassed more than $18 billion to build the wall, most of it diverted from the military. If all goes as planned, when the last dollar is spent and the last contract completed, the entirety of California and New Mexico, most of Arizona and a good chunk of Texas will be sealed off with new 30-foot steel bollard walls. Its bad enough the Trump administration continues to recklessly spend obscene amounts of money to fulfill the presidents campaign promise that could be used instead to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The money currently being spent on building the border wall in New Mexico, for example, would have paid for more than 15,000 advanced ventilators at $50,000 each. But its worse when you consider that every mile of border wall installed under the Trump administration has been accomplished using an obscure legal authority that has allowed the president to ignore the Endangered Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and dozens of other laws to expedite construction of the wall, causing irreparable harm to border wildlife, the environment and communities. In normal times, the border wall is a costly undertaking, and as most Americans believe, according to polls unnecessary. But these are far from normal times. The danger posed by COVID-19 to our communities, our families and our lives cannot be ignored. Its time to pull the plug on building the border wall. The Houston Chronicle has lifted the paywall on this developing coverage to provide critical information to our community. To support our journalists work, consider a digital subscription. 10:43 p.m. Federal authorities are expected to slash 25 percent of Houston's funding to administer the citys coronavirus testing sites and relocate six site workers, reports the Chronicle's Gwendolyn Wu and Jenny Deam. Turner acknowledged Sunday he was disappointed by the abrupt removal of six federal health care workers from city testing sites. But he remained resolute. One question still unresolved is if any resources pulled from the city will return if Houston experiences the kind of surge many health care workers fear is coming but has not yet arrived. Read more. 8:47 p.m. A handful of local churches resumed live services on Sunday, the first major Christian holiday to occur amid the outbreak of Covid-19, reports the Chronicle's Robert Downen. It was amazing, said John Greiner, pastor of Houstons Glorious Way Church. Its about being in the same room and being with each other. He said roughly 100 of his 250-person congregation attended Palm Sunday service, and that they practiced social-distancing rules. One photo from the event, however, shows Greiner and three others standing almost shoulder to shoulder. Read more. 7:58 p.m. Rice University will open two residence halls as temporary housing for front-line medical workers at nearby Texas Medical Center institutions, reports the Chronicle's Jenny Deam. Enabling hospital staff to live nearby will give them a greater opportunity for rest and to work needed hours, David Leebron said in a letter to the university students, faculty and staff. Two undergraduate halls, Wiess and Hanszen, will be available to medical workers after April 12 for those medical workers who want alternative housing. About 50 students and resident associates currently living in those halls will be moved, Leebron said. Read more. 7:21 p.m. Since noon, the statewide total went from 6,762 to 7,209. Thats an increase of 447 cases, or 6.6 percent. Thirteen new deaths makes a total of 137 statewide. The Houston region's count is 2,234, up 378 from yesterday. Harris County added 111 new cases today. There have been 31 deaths in the Houston region, up from 26 yesterday. 6:34 p.m. The Houston Independent School District will reopen food distribution sites throughout the district starting tomorrow with increased safety measures, officials said. Each site will distribute 500 boxes per day. As families arrive at the sites, staff members will fill out an Emergency Food Assistance Program Form for them and place boxes in car trunks, minimizing personal contact. Participants who walk up to the sites must also adhere to social distancing requirements. Find exact locations and times on the district website. 5:52 p.m. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced new COVID-19 cases in 14 offenders and five staff members. In total, 25 employees or contractors have tested positive at the agency. Another 18 offenders tested positive in the following units: Beto- 6 Goree- 2 Jordan- 1 Lychner State Jail- 1 Murray- 4 Stringfellow- 2 Woodman State Jail- 2 There are approximately 3,700 asymptomatic offenders in medical restriction and 51 offenders in medical isolation with positive or pending COVID-19 tests, the agency said on Facebook. Additionally, the agency said it will be distributing self-manufactured masks to all staff. An initial distribution of 50,000 masks, produced in TDCJ garment factories, are currently in use. Ten prison unit factories are working seven days a week to produce up to 20,000 additional masks a day, the agency said. 5:41 p.m. The Galveston County Health District announced 18 positive COVID-19 cases. This brings the countys case total to 240. To date, 2,600 Galveston County residents have been tested. The cases announced today include eight linked to community spread, seven linked to contact with a known positive COVID-19 case and three linked to travel. 5:34 p.m. Alternate delivery methods like curbside pickup and drive-thrus have taken off during the public health crisis, reports the Chronicle's Gwendolyn Wu. Its how city officials are testing possible COVID-19 patients at the citys massive stadiums and how do-gooders are administering mask giveaways and food drives. Palm Sunday services went online, as hundreds of worshipers watched sermons on church livestreams and pre-recorded videos. But some Catholic churches opted to still do some face-to-face interactions, albeit through the glass of a vehicle window. Read more. 5:01 p.m. Harris County Public Health on Sunday afternoon reported 652 positive COVID-19 cases, including 152 patients who have recovered. Meanwhile, Fort Bend County reported an additional 12 COVID-19 cases and one new death. 4:31 p.m. Two more Harris Count Sheriffs Office employees tested positive for COVID-19. There are now 18 staff members with the disease, the sheriff's office said. The two most recent cases were both assigned to work with inmates in the Harris County Jail. One was a female detention sergeant in her late 40s, assigned to the 1200 Baker Street jail facility. The other was a female courts division deputy in her early 30s. There are currently 187 Harris County Sheriffs Office deputies, detention officers and support staff on quarantine for possible COVID-19 exposure. One of these employees is currently in the hospital. Fifty-five previously quarantined employees have now been cleared to return to duty. 4:09 p.m. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said 19 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. One officer is hospitalized and remains on a ventilator. Two officers have returned to work after testing positive, he said. In all, 134 employees are in quarantine, including 107 sworn members and 27 civilians. Among the 115 employees who have been tested, 19 were positive, 45 were negative and 51 are still pending. 3:47 p.m. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to a hospital more than a week after he tested positive for COVID-19, the Associated Press reports. Johnsons office told the AP that he still has symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus. They said it was a precautionary step and he remains in charge of the government. Johnson has been quarantined in his home since being diagnosed March 26. 3:21 p.m. Mayor Sylvester Turner reported 53 new cases in Houston, including one new death. The city now has 743 positive cases with 10 total deaths. The most recent death involved a man in his 60s with underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized at the time, Turner said. Seventy-two Houston residents have recovered. 3:07 p.m. Montgomery County reported seven new cases of COVID-19, making 149 total in the county. "Recent studies show the virus can spread by people who do not show symptoms," according to a tweet from the county. (The CDC) updated its guidance for the general public to include wearing a cloth face mask." 2:35 p.m.: The Texas-Louisiana border is getting checkpoints, a week after the Department of Public Safety said it would not impose stops to screen vehicles at the border, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Sunday. Previously, travelers coming into the state from Louisiana were asked to self-quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay, whichever was shorter. 2:20 p.m.: Federal authorities are "relocating personnel" and funds from Houston, according to U.S. Rep. Al Green and Mayor Sylvester Turner. An estimated 25 percent of the funding may be reallocated and three health care workers are being relocated per testing site, officials said. The mayor is still assessing the possible cost for the city. "I don't know where they will go, I can only say that I'm asking FEMA to extend the timeline for making this a reality," Green said. "It's important for us to give Houston a chance." The changes are expected to go into effect this week. 2:15 p.m.: Congressman Al Green, D-Houston, criticized Gov. Greg Abbott's stay-at-home policy for its leniency on places of worship. Green on Sunday asked Abbott to revise the policy to reconsider the executive order to restrict in-person attendance at religious institutions. "Allowing people to worship is still possible and I pray the governor amends his executive order," Green said. Last week, Abbott issued an order re-opening churches with limitations, although many congregations said they would keep their services online. 1:00 p.m.: Liberty County residents could get some relief for electric and water bills this month, David Taylor reports. Customers having trouble paying their bills should contact the city for help, said Tom Warner, city manager for the city of Liberty. Other cities in the area are waiving late fees and cutoffs for customers in good standing. 11:55 a.m.: Jacinto City will soon get its first mobile COVID-19 testing site for seniors and first responders, according to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. The congresswoman's office said Sunday the testing site would be at the Jacinto City Community Building. "Our senior citizens and first responders are extremely vulnerable to this devastating virus and we must take extra measures to protect them," Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said in a statement. Testing will begin at 10 a.m, and a news conference is scheduled for that time. 10:58 a.m.: Faith leaders joined Mayor Sylvester Turner to urge people to stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. "We're all on the same team," Turner said in an address at Fountain of Praise in southwest Houston. City park personnel have taken down public basketball hoops and will remove volleyball nets. Pastors Remus and Mia Wright asked worshippers to stay home and limit social gatherings during the address. The church has switched to online service. Donning masks, the mayor and faith leaders also told the public to wear face coverings, following CDC guidance in an attempt to slow transmission. "The month of April is a critical, critical month in the city of Houston," Turner said. The number of people diagnosed with the virus is expected to rise as the city does more testing. More than 4,000 people in the city have been tested for the virus, he said. 10:30 a.m.: It's Palm Sunday, and some Catholic churches around Houston are opting to distribute blessed palms via drive-thrus. At Assumption Catholic Church in north Houston and St. Jerome Catholic Church in the northwest part of the city, church staff have asked parishioners to stay in their cars as volunteers distribute palms to each vehicle. 9:10 a.m.: Seniors, immuno-compromised people and health care workers can grab a few free masks from a drive-thru at Sharpstown Park, according to State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston. Surgical masks will be available from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the park, Wu said. "We have many people in my district who can not afford masks, don't know where to find masks or simply do not have access in such a short amount of time," Wu said. Volunteers wearing masks and gloves will hand out two masks per person. 8:40 a.m.: Think modern-day Brady Bunch with two dozen squares organized on a computer screen. That's what University of Houston athletes and coaches look like as they turn their on-the-field huddles into virtual team meetings, the Chronicle's Joseph Duarte writes. Going online allows UH coaching staffs the opportunity to check on the well-being of hundreds of athletes, answer questions about the COVID-19 crisis, track academic progress and provide a chance for social interaction that is a big part of team sports. I understand the purpose it serves and right now those are the best options available to make sure everybody stays heathy and home, softball coach Kristin Vesely said. My kids know I love to give high- fives, hugs and mess around with them in person. Its kind of difficult not to have any camaraderie and youre just staring at a screen and they are staring at a screen. 7:50 a.m.: As the number of COVID-19 cases soar in the Houston area, one Houston hospital continues to test blood transfusions from people who have recovered from the new coronavirus into critically ill patients, the Chronicle's Todd Ackerman reports. The transfusions, a process known as convalesent serum therapy, is an experimental process. Plasma that contains antibodies made by the immune system to attack the virus is taken from someone who has recovered. Houston Methodist, the hospital administering the therapy, has transfused blood into four COVID-19 patients so far. Ten patients who have recovered from COVID-19 have volunteered to donate blood, the hospital said. In Texas, 6,762 people have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, and 124 have died, according to local, state and federal data. In the Houston region, 2,084 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and 26 people have died. The Houston Chronicle is tracking the rise in cases and testing here. For up-to-date tracking of the spread of the novel coronavirus in Texas, visit houstonchronicle.com/coronavirus. She has been working to provide supplies and aid around the country during the coronavirus pandemic. But Bethenny Frankel appeared to be enjoying some downtime over the weekend while spending time with her daughter in the Hamptons. The former Real Housewives of New York star was spotted Sunday morning grabbing coffee for two in her pajamas. Quick trip: Bethenny Frankel was spotted on Sunday morning on a coffee run for two in her pajamas while staying in the Hamptons She bundled up in a grey print pajama set, with a furry black coat on top, as she headed home from the coffee shop. The 49-year-old paired her pajamas with a pair of black boots and kept her hands free with a black crossbody bag. With two coffees in her hands, she took a sip from one cup with a book tucked under her arm. her look: She bundled up in a grey print pajama set, with a furry black coat on top, and a pair of black boots as she headed home from the coffee shop The star went fresh faced for the outing and had her brunette hair pulled back into a white scrunchie. Apart from her coffee run she documented her morning to her 2.2 million Instagram followers through Stories. She was cuddled up in bed with her nine-year-old daughter Bryn and two dogs. Seeming to enjoy the sweet moment she simply captioned it 'I mean.' Fresh: The star went fresh faced for the outing and had her brunette hair pulled back into a white scrunchie Bethenny went on to document her breakfast showing a vegan cheese, tomato and kale omelet. The easy morning comes as she is working with multiple organizations to provide aid during the novel coronavirus crisis. She appeared Wednesday on Good Morning America, where she revealed how she's contributing to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic through her BStrong initiative, all while quarantined with her family at home in New York City. Bethenny told Robin Roberts: 'Before lockdown, it was all about corona kits for me, which was prevention... And then most people were locked down, and it pivoted to hearing about the healthcare workers. Morning cuddles: Apart from her coffee run she documented her morning to her 2.2 million Instagram followers through Stories. She was cuddled up in bed with her nine-year-old daughter Bryn and two dogs Love: Seeming to enjoy the sweet moment she simply captioned it 'I mean' 'Pretty early, I heard from just a few people and started hunting down the PPE, what they call protective gear for these people that are risking their lives for ours. She continued: 'And this has been so intense, just finding relief all over the world and in massive quantities. It's millions and millions of units, it's tens of millions of dollars.' The Bethenny & Fredrik star also discussed how this relief effort has differed from previous efforts, which includes the Australian bushfires from earlier this year. Homemade brunch: Bethenny went on to document her breakfast showing a vegan cheese, tomato and kale omelet Protective gear: The easy weekend comes as the star is working with organizations to provide aid amid the novel coronavirus crisis Millions and millions: She said: 'And this has been so intense, just finding relief all over the world and in massive quantities. It's millions and millions of units, it's tens of millions of dollars' She said: 'It's amazing because we worked with the Australia fires, and that was a really big disaster, and in the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. 'But you could acquire relief from other places, it wasn't that the whole world was on fire. I've never seen anything like this.' Frankel revealed that she gave a million hazmat suits to hospitals in New York as just part of her relief efforts through BStrong, which she launched in 2017. Islamabad, April 5 : A case has been registered against Pakistani cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and six others for disobeying a government order imposed against prayer congregations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, it was reported on Sunday. According to the police, Aziz gathered people at Islamabad's famous Lal Masjid for Friday prayers despite a ban on prayer congregations imposed by the Pakistan government, reports Dawn news, adding that he provoked the sentiments of people. The police said that officials deployed around the mosque informed the cleric of the ban on prayer congregations and the misuse of loudspeakers, but he ignored. Around 400 people gathered at the mosque. A police officer told Dawn news that no arrests have been made in the case so far. The capital administration has asked the police to compile data on mosques, the person who delivers the sermon during Friday prayers and imams who violated the ban. So far, a total of 121 cases disobeying the administration's order have been registered in the capital since the lockdown was announced, police said. Some 424 people have been booked and arrested for violating the ban on various activities imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Pakistan has so far reported 2,879 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 44 deaths. The Manhattan skyline provides a backdrop to a pedestrian in Brooklyn, N.Y. Hospitals in New York City have been hit hard by the coronavirus. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) As the U.S. coronavirus death toll neared 10,000 on Sunday, Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams said the coming week would be the hardest and saddest of most Americans lives, likening the projected loss of life to our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment. Joining in that somber assessment was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, who predicted that the dimensions of the outbreak would be shocking to some over the next eight or nine days. Things are going to get bad, and we need to be prepared for that, Fauci, perhaps the best-known member of the White House coronavirus task force, said on CBS Face the Nation. He called on the country to just buckle down, continue to mitigate, continue to do the physical separation, because weve got to get through this week that's coming up. President Trump, however, largely eschewed talk of dire coming days, instead expressing hopes for a leveling-off in the hottest spots of infection. Brushing aside criticism of his administrations performance, he said in an early-evening briefing that he was making use of the full power of the American government. Were orchestrating a massive federal response, unlike anything our country has ever done, he said, later adding: Were starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. Earlier Sunday, officials offered hope that in some areas hit hard and early, the coronavirus wave may be cresting. New York City is the national epicenter of the outbreak, its medical system staggering under a critical caseload, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the states daily death toll had dropped slightly. Even so, Cuomo, who has been praised for steady leadership amid the crisis, said at a briefing in his states capital, Albany, that it was too soon to know if the slight easing marked a downward trend or was merely a blip. Flare-ups of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, were in evidence elsewhere in the country in New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, and in Louisiana, whose governor warned that ventilator capacity would soon be exhausted. Story continues In Europe, the picture was mixed. Deaths were still climbing in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose COVID-19 diagnosis was announced March 26, was hospitalized Sunday. Trump expressed hopes for his recovery, saying Johnson was "strong." But Italy the European epicenter said Sunday that its daily toll was at a two-week low, with officials crediting strict lockdowns for seemingly slowing the progress of new infections. Hard-hit Spain, too, reported signs of a leveling-off. U.S. officials pleaded for public cooperation in hopes of replicating that pattern. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams speaks about the coronavirus pandemic. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) We can look like that, said Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force coordinator. Referring to strict isolation measures in Spain and Italy, she said: The promise is, if we do this, we could potentially be better. Adams, appearing on Fox News Sunday, urged Americans to follow physical distancing guidelines and to wear face coverings in public when it would be difficult to remain six feet apart. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week called on Americans to wear masks in crowded public places. Trump said Friday of that precaution: I dont see it for myself. The surgeon general, like many in the presidents orbit, was at pains to avoid publicly contradicting or criticizing him. The president is making a choice that is appropriate for him regarding masks, said Adams, who last week released a video showing how to make a simple homemade face covering with fabric and rubber bands. Adams also deflected questions about the need for a nationwide stay-at-home order. Trump has said he prefers to leave the decision to governors, nine of whom have not issued such a directive in their states. Governors, for their part, renewed their pleas for more federal help in procuring necessary medical supplies and equipment. In appearances on news talk shows, some sharply contested Trumps casting of blame on states for a lack of readiness. Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, appearing on NBCs Meet the Press, cited good communication with Vice President Mike Pence and the CDC, but said the overall lack of national coordination in fighting the outbreak had been ludicrous. Without mentioning Trump by name, he blasted the presidents contention that the federal government was meant to serve as a backup for states efforts to obtain needed supplies. I mean, the surgeon general alluded to Pearl Harbor, said Inslee, a Democrat. Can you imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, Ill be right behind you, Connecticut. Good luck building those battleships. Look, we need a national mobilization of the manufacturing base of the United States. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another Democrat who has, like Inslee, been the target of heated personal attacks by Trump, said Sunday that more robust testing efforts were needed to help public health experts tamp down scattered outbreaks before they become major conflagrations. My job is to do everything I can to protect the 10 million people of Michigan, she said on Fox News Sunday, noting a worrying rate of COVID-19 cases in Detroit, the states largest city. Michigan is a hot spot; we need assistance, and Im grateful for any partnership at the federal level. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said his state was running out of ventilators and hospital beds, as New Orleans weathers one of the nations worst outbreaks. We now think it's probably around the 9th of April before we exceed our ventilator capacity, based on the current number on hand, he said on CNNs State of the Union. Edwards also said the state was a couple days behind that on [intensive care unit] bed capacity being exceeded. Some GOP governors who have avoided criticizing Trump or the federal response nonetheless cited worsening situations in their states. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson pointed to the challenges of procuring personal protective equipment for medical personnel. Its difficult, he said on NBCs Meet the Press, saying Arkansas had sometimes been outbid by another state after weve had the order confirmed. He added: It literally is a global jungle that were competing in now. While upending daily lives and livelihoods across the country, the pandemic has also disrupted the 2020 election cycle. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who appears likely to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, on Sunday floated the idea of a virtual convention rather than a traditional one. The party had already pushed back the date for anointing its nominee to mid-August from mid-July over pandemic fears. Speaking on ABCs This Week, Biden suggested that the event might need to be moved online. "I think we should be thinking about that right now, he said. We may not be able to put 10[ thousand], 20[ thousand], 30,000 people in one place." The former vice president also said he intends to follow CDC guidelines and cover his face in public, for as long as that recommendation remains in place. Of Trumps balking at that, he said: "He may not like how he looks in a mask." Projecting the course of the outbreak is difficult to do, experts said, because much depends on the measures being taken now and in days and weeks ahead. Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in his CBS interview that it would be false to say the outbreak is under control, even if there are glimmers of hope on the horizon. We are struggling to get it under control, and that's the issue that's at hand right now, he said. During Trump's rambling 90-minute briefing, he repeatedly touted an unproven drug treatment, hydroxychloroquine, and cut off a journalist's attempt to ask Fauci about it. Fauci has previously expressed more skepticism about the treatment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Markus Makur (The Jakarta Post) East Manggari Sun, April 5, 2020 19:04 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fda222 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,church,Palm-Sunday,easter,East-Nusa-Tenggara,Christian,Catholic,Catholic-church Free Christians in East Nusa Tenggara celebrated Palm Sunday in their own homes following the government's instructions to avoid social gatherings in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. In Borong, three priests from St. Gregorius Church went around the city to bless parishioners holding palm leaves in front of their homes. Sofia Linung was among those who stood outside to receive a blessing with her husband and three children. "The Palm Sunday celebration this year was pretty sad as we couldn't gather with other parishioners at the church," Sofia told The Jakarta Post. "We just prayed at home, as did other churchgoers. We don't know when it will be over. Maria Daflora Echo from Kota Komba of East Manggarai regency also felt dejected as she could not celebrate Palm Sunday with her husband and children at church. "We are praying at home for our nation, nurses and doctors as we struggle with the COVID-19 outbreak," she told the Post on Sunday. The Archdiocese of Ruteng previously advised 82 parish priests in the archdiocese to encourage parishioners to worship from home, warning against celebrating Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter Sunday at church. (trn) Detroit Pistons scout Maury Hanks is off a ventilator, speaking in full sentences, set to begin physical therapy and might be allowed to go home soon, according to Jeff Goodman of The Stadium. Hanks, 57, was fighting for his life one week ago but is now winning his battle with the coronavirus, which caused him to be hospitalized in Tennessee on March 23 and placed on a ventilator. Goodman reported that Hanks began to make progress earlier in the week when he was able to breathe on his own. He spoke a few words on the phone with wife Susan on Wednesday. On Friday, Hanks phoned Goodman. Doctors are hopeful Hanks, who has worked as a college scout for the Pistons since 2015, can go home in the coming days, possibly this weekend. There will always be another game, always be another practice to see, Hanks told Goodman. I wont take things for granted anymore. Anyone who tells you differently hasnt been through something like this. Long-time NBA scout Maury Hanks called me this morning, and is optimistic about heading home in the next few days after a week on a ventilator battling Coronavirus. Story on Hanks and his recovery: https://t.co/A7OdodL7I4 Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 3, 2020 More: Pistons Dwane Casey among Detroit coaches issuing call for doctors, nurses to come to Michigan Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 21:54:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi discussed on Sunday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron ways to cooperate to confront the coronavirus pandemic. The discussions came during a phone call between the two leaders, said Bassam Rady, spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency, in a statement. They also discussed ways to cooperate in combating the virus at the regional level of Africa, the spokesman said. Sisi and Macron also touched upon bilateral cooperation in several fields and exchanged views towards some regional issues of common interest, including the recent developments in Libya. Egypt, a country with a population of 100 million people, has confirmed 1,070 COVID-19 cases, including 71 deaths. A 32-year-old woman in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district lost her baby after doctors at a government hospital allegedly turned her away on learning that she was a Muslim. The woman's husband, Irfan Khan, alleged that his wife had to deliver their child in an ambulance after the doctors refused to treat her. Meanwhile, a probe has been ordered into the incident by Rajasthan Health Minister and Bharatpur MLA Subhash Garg. Khan told reporters that he took her wife to a healthcare centre in Sikri area on Friday night due to intense labor pain from where they were referred to RBM Zenana Hospital citing that the case was complicated. I reached the district hospital on Saturday morning where a lady doctor asked me about my details. She said that you are a Muslim and you cannot be treated here. She asked another doctor to refer us to Jaipur, he said. I moved out of the hospital with my wife. My wife delivered in an ambulance and my baby died due to negligence of doctors, Khan said. He also alleged that he was being pressured to deny the discrimination charges to the panel probing the incident. Health Minister Subhash Garg said the matter is being investigated by a team of the district administration. I have asked the district collector to get the matter inquired. Action will be taken against whosoever is guilty. It is a painful incident, he said. Without divulging much information about the case, Bharatpur's principal medical officer Navdeep Singh Saini said the matter is being investigated by a panel. Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh in a series of tweets blamed his own Congress government for suppressing the truth. It is clear from the videos that the government is trying to suppress the truth. I am cabinet minister and do not speak without proof. Please do not cover up, he said in a tweet tagging former state-cadre IAS officer Arvind Mayaram. In another tweet, Singh said, The Jamaat was/is a national disaster and hazard. But innocent muslims suffering like this is painful. It does not mean that citizens of Islamic faith are treated the way a pregnant lady was handled by doctors in Bharatpur. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Messenger: Pressure of coronavirus pandemic pushes Missouri governor into a corner UPDATED at 6:25 p.m.: An earlier version of the online version of this column said a veteran at the Missouri Veterans Home in North County had died from COVID-19. His test came back negative. About an hour before Gov. Maybe they're right to do it . . . COVID-19 cases exploded in Missouri and the "Stay-At-Home" order isn't effective statewide until Monday.The KC newspaper is pushing this point as well but here's a much better writer making the case without the paywall . . . Read more: Cleaver offers information on COVID-19 and Cares Act (From Fifth District Congressman Emanuel Cleaver) I am writing to update you on the latest in the fight to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and to provide you some resources and information that will be helpful. Aside from culture war garbage . . . More informed constituents typically judge elected officials on their ability to "bring home the bacon" and in this respect there is no denying the ability of Rep. Cleaver in his skill at securing local resources and funds. Here's one example out of many: BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend An armed incident occurred yesterday night, between an armed group and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at the border checkpoint of Saravan county in Sistan and Baluchestan province located southwestern Iran, Trend reports citing IRGC's portal. According to the report, an armed group trying to cross into Iranian territory came under fire from the Iranian military. An Iranian serviceman was killed in a shootout. The militants used the darkness of night to flee to neighboring Pakistan. April 1, 2020 Hopkins, SC Congaree National Park is announcing additional modifications to operations in response to guidance from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and the Governor of South Carolina. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective 8:00 AM on Thursday, April 2, 2020 Congaree National Park will be closed to all park visitors until further notice. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website www.nps.gov/cong and social media channels. The NPS encourages people to take advantage of the many digital tools already available to explore Congaree National Park, including: Live and pre-recorded Ranger Programs, interactive activities for children and adults, and special virtual events via the parks social media channels; Rangers are available seven days a week to answer questions about the park (email: cong_information@nps.gov). Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus. FOREST HILL, MD A Forest Hill distillery that is usually giving tours and tastings on weekends is instead bottling hand sanitizing spray to help battle the new coronavirus. It started with a request from a state agency. The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) left a voicemail for White Tiger Distillery asking if the business could provide a sanitizing spray for the organization to use on its equipment, White Tiger Distillery owner Itsara Ounnarath said. "The MTA called us and said they're in need of hand sanitizer because they still have to clean the train cars and buses," Ounnarath said. "They're very low. Everyone's low," he added. "Due to the overwhelming demand for hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 health emergency, MDOT MTA proactively reached out to potential secondary suppliers for this scarce resource," the MTA said in a statement. "Last week, MDOT MTA contacted White Tiger Distillery to inquire about its hand sanitizer product," the MTA confirmed in an April 1 statement to Patch. "While we are working hard to ensure we have adequate safety supplies such as hand sanitizer, MDOT MTA is exploring ways to assist small businesses and protect our employees at the same time during this unprecedented crisis." Ounnarath said his business decided to begin producing hand sanitizer according to a formula outlined by the World Health Organization. The ingredients are alcohol, glycerin and hydrogen peroxide. He said the latter was difficult to find, and his staff, some of whom live out of state, had to scour stores in Maryland and Pennsylvania to get enough. At first, some of the distillery's inventory went toward making the hand sanitizer. "We had stuff aged in the barrel rye, rice whiskey," Ounnarath said. "I think there was tears coming out my eyes," he said, using liquor he had aged for a long time. Photo by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. The next batch did not require White Tiger to dig into its own inventory. Story continues Harford Vineyard donated 900 gallons of wine to the hand sanitizing effort. The Forest Hill vineyard was planning to start making brandy but since it didn't have its own still, contracted out the aging, blending and bottling process to White Tiger, Kevin Mooney, co-owner of Harford Vineyard and Winery, told Patch. "Well, then the coronavirus came and the need for hand sanitizer," Mooney said. "But the problem locally [was] no one had base product on hand to distill." Since White Tiger already had Harford Vineyard's base for the pumice brandy on hand, Mooney said the winery donated it. Harford Vineyard donated 900 gallons of wine for hand sanitizer. Photo by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. "We just wanted to be part of the solution," Mooney said, "and to do everything possible to get the coronavirus behind us and get businesses back to work again." From Alcohol Distillery To Hand Sanitizer Production White Tiger said the alcohol concentration recommended by the Food and Drug Administration is 80 percent ethanol, according to guidelines issued March 27. "The hard part for us right now is distilling the alcohol," Ounnarath said. "It takes 24 hours to 48 hours to get the high proof that we need." For the first distillation, the temperature is 140 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Photo by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. The second yields "the good stuff the ethanol," he said, from 170 to 190 degrees, and 190 degrees is "the golden spot." After 190 degrees, impurities come out. "This was red wine at one point, and then we distilled the alcohol out of it," he said. "The more runs you do, the cleaner it gets and the higher the proof." Photo by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. The first and second runs happen in the big pot and then the liquid goes into the third pot, he said, because the temperature can be controlled; the machine has a hydrometer. Photo by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. "Then it becomes hand sanitizer," he said of the liquid. He and his staff add the glycerin and hydrogen peroxide and bottle the substance. Photos by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. Ounnarath, who works as a lab tech at Patient First, approached the company about the product. Three people on the White Tiger staff of 10 work at Patient First. "Patient First is our biggest customer right now," he said. Last week when Patch visited, White Tiger was preparing to deliver a 50-gallon shipment of hand sanitizer that he said would supply Patient First's more than 70 centers across the East Coast. "They can't restock their hand sanitizer. It's all gone," he said. Photo by Elizabeth Janney/Patch. Of Patient First, he said: "We're selling to them. But first responders, we're donating to them." White Tiger Distillery donated to the Bel Air Police Department last week. The Fallston Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Company and the Maryland Transit Administration Police also received donations of hand sanitizer from White Tiger Distillery. Donations are planned for the Aberdeen Fire Department and Aberdeen Police Department as well as city of Havre de Grace. In addition to helping fire departments, police departments and governments, the distillery is giving back to others in the industry. It donated a 1,000-gallon stainless steel tank to Twin Valley Distillers so the Rockville-based business could also manufacture hand sanitizer. "It was an undertaking, getting that out there," Ounnarath said, but since they're not doing any fermentation at the moment, he figured they could do without it. Where It Began: MTA Initially, Ounarrath said: "We thought, we've got to help the MTA. We might as well help the local community." But as of Sunday, the MTA has not even placed an order. "Information from White Tiger Distillery is being reviewed by MDOT MTA Safety for compliance to specifications," the MTA said in a statement to Patch. "We have not placed an order at this time, and any potential order would follow MDOT procurement procedures." Bottles of hand sanitizer are available for the public to purchase. The distillery is selling individual 2-ounce bottles for $3.71 apiece, including tax. White Tiger is limiting each customer to 20 bottles while supplies last. Customers can pay at the distillery with cash or card or reserve bottles using PayPal, using the name that will be used for pickup. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Sunday. White Tiger Distillery is at 1658 Robin Circle in Forest Hill. This article originally appeared on the Bel Air Patch A Rajkot based firm, Jyoti CNC, held a successful trial of ventilator 'Dhaman 1' manufactured by them, on Saturday. The firm will give 1000 ventilators free of cost to the Gujarat government. The cost of one ventilator is around Rs 1 lakh. While speaking to ANI the Chairman and MD of the company, Parakramsinh Jadeja said, "We are not experts in producing ventilators but looking at the current demand in the country, we planned and designed this equipment. Around 150 engineers worked on this design." "When the country is under lockdown, the State government and Central government helped us to get imported spare parts for this equipment. We imported spare parts from 26 companies located across India. We will be making 100 ventilators per day and try to increase our capacity after a week." The ventilator is named as Dhaman 1. The trail of the equipment was set for 10 hours and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also witnessed its functioning. Till now, Gujarat has 105 positive cases of COVID-19 out if which 81 people are stable, 14 people have been discharged after treatment and 10 people have died due to the disease. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi [India], April 5 (ANI): Setting a novel example for others, a group of five nurses has voluntarily come forward to provide their services at the newly setup COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the backdrop of coronavirus crisis. These nurses will be helping the medical teams in treating the COVID-19 infected patients at the ICU ward as well as motivate them. Kanish Yadav (33), a nursing officer narrates, "I am working in AIIMS ICU department since last eight years. In January, I was assigned special duty for blood donation camp which was scheduled to continue till March 31. However, our duty was cut short and we were relieved from duty due to COVID-19 outbreak." Yadav continued, "After being relieved from duty, I started introspecting. On March 30, I decided to write to the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) seeking permission to provide service at the COVID ward. To my surprise, the letter was immediately accepted as there was already a shortage of manpower." His letter to CNO interestingly states that he can motivate not only his team but all COVID-19 positive patients who at times slip into depression. When asked what made him chose the COVID-19 ward even after knowing that it remains prone to infection, Yadav asserts, "I just want to stick to my job profile of serving the patients. It makes me satisfied and happy to see patients smiling." AIIMS Trauma Center has been remodeled into the COVID-19 ward. The ICU has 18 beds and currently two positive patients are admitted here. Another nurse Mukesh Kumar (40), earlier working with the Child Oncology Department also come forward to serve at the COVID ICU ward. He unfolds, "I have not learnt to turn away from my responsibility. With doctor's treatment and our care if we can cure COVID-19 positive patients, then our society, as well as our country, would be Corona-free soon, however, staying at home is also equally important now." Reports of health workers being attacked by locals are surfacing from several places such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar. Patients under quarantine are also misbehaving with the medical team and police. In a measure to contain the spread of the easily communicable disease, COVID-19, India is undergoing a lockdown for a period of 21 days. Other than essential services all the routine works stand closed. At present, nationwide a total of 3072 (including 2784 active cases, 212 cured/discharged and 75 deaths) have been registered by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group calling itself the Northern Development Forum (NDF) has among other things, asked government to conduct a mandatory test for the novel coronavirus on all persons who returned from Accra to the regions up north last minute to the partial lockdown. President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the commencement of a partial lockdown of Accra and Kumasi, the epicentres of the disease from Monday, March 31 in order to check the spread of the virus. The order also affected Tema and Kasoa. Before and after this announcement, some people who hailed from the northern part of the country fled Accra to their hometowns, a large number of them being head porters also known as Kayayei. Those who were able to make it before Monday did so successfully, while some who tried to do so after Monday failed and were sent back to Accra. Naming particular communities in which the head porters who made it could reside in the north, the NDF, in a statement said the government must trace these people to test them for the virus as they might have imported it into the regions. We have noted that in anticipation of the lockdown of Accra and Kumasi, the mass exodus of female head-porters called Kayayei, would occur. We know the dominant communities which these Kayayei returned. These include Tolon, Savelugu, Nasia, Wale Wale and Nyankpala. In this regard, we are calling for comprehensive testing of these targeted communities that have received mass influx of Kayayei. This, we believe, will also improve the Government's surveillance tracking for cases, the statement read. The group also lamented the porous nature of the borders and urged the government to strengthen security there as many people sneak into the regions in the north from the neighbouring countries. The group in the statement stated that, All the five Regions in Northern Ghana have rather porous borders and the officials are few and ill-equipped with resources. We, therefore, appeal for increased border vigilance, including the deployment of the military to augment the efforts of the Immigration Officials and the provision of adequate logistics. Background A day before the partial lockdown of Accra, Kasoa, Tema and Kumasi began, a number of people, mostly Kayayei left the capital to Bimbilla in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern region. On Sunday, March 29, 2020, about six VIP buses carrying over 200 passengers were seen entering Bimbilla. A COVID-19 taskforce formed by the Nanumba North Municipality directed all the buses to the Bimbilla Senior High School where their temperatures were taken and sensitized on COVID-19 preventive measures. Even before then, operators of the Neoplan station in Accra said they had recorded a spike in travel from Accra to Northern Region in the wake of the novel coronavirus detection in Ghana. According to them, a significant number of travellers have been Kayayei. Read the full statement below: NDF STATEMENT ON COVID-19 AND KAYAYEI The Northern Development Forum (NDF) would like to commend President Akufo-Addo for his decisive and timely response to the global COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. We see that the measures adopted are very necessary to safeguard citizens from this deadly attack. COVID-19 has taken the world by storm. In military parlance, it is like the enemy launching a tactical attack that completely paralyzed the entire military response arsenal of the defence side of the belligerent forces. Comparatively, the COVID-19 attack or invasion of Africa and for that matter, Ghana, is just beginning. The NDF has observed thus far, that this pandemic has, once again, exposed the fragility and vulnerability of Ghanaians and in particular Northern Ghana. The most horrendous reports of human suffering as a result of the lockdown has been about the movement of KAYAYEI back home to their communities in the Northern part of the country. Even children were involved in this situation of misery. While we appreciate Government's effort to mitigate the plight of the KAYAYEI, we wish to make the following observations and proposals: 1. All the five Regions in Northern Ghana have rather porous borders and the officials are few and ill-equipped with resources. We, therefore, appeal for increased border vigilance, including the deployment of the military to augment the efforts of the Immigration Officials and the provision of adequate logistics. 2. It is quite worrying that there is no single approved centre for COVID-19 testing in the whole of Northern Ghana. We are aware of the two Research Centers in Navrongo and Kintampo and other Regional hospitals and wonder if these could not easily be upgraded to undertake testing for COVID-19. This would ease the national burden currently centred in Accra and Kumasi research centres and would enhance our effectiveness and efficiency in the national fight against the virus. 3. We call for fair and equitable distribution of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to Northern Ghana and other deprived Regions. 4. We have observed that socio-cultural practices and behaviours have a great potential to nullify the national effort at fighting the COVID-19. We call for a targeted support mechanism for Religious and Traditional Leaders in Northern Ghana to engage in systematic efforts at Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) on COVID-19 and public health in general to stem the devastating impact of the pandemic. 5. We have noted that in anticipation of the lockdown of Accra and Kumasi, the mass exodus of female head-porters called KAYAYEI, would occur. We know the dominant communities which these KAYAYEI returned. These include Tolon, Savelugu, Nasia, Wale Wale and Nyankpala. In this regard, we are calling for comprehensive testing of these targeted communities that have received mass influx of KAYAYEI. This, we believe, will also improve the Government's surveillance tracking for cases. 6. The NDF also note with particular appreciation the efforts that were made to restrain the mass movement of some of the KAYAYEI back to Northern Ghana. We know that this is a very difficult decision to make in balancing individual fundamental rights with the promotion of the common good; especially that the fastest way of spreading this deadly disease is through human movement and contact. 7. We cannot talk about vulnerabilities without remembering some of the communities in Northern Ghana that were devastated by rainstorms, recently. We commiserate with the victims for the losses and harm that they have experienced. We assure the President and Government of Ghana of our fullest cooperation and support in the common battle to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Major Albert Don Chebe (Rtd) CHAIRMAN, NDF. Delhi: Teams of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) scientists and Delhi Police Crime Branch visited the Markaz Nizamuddin in the national capital on Sunday (April 5) to carry out an investigation in connection with a congregation held here in which thousands of people, including citizens of 41 nationalities, took part between March 13-15. So far, more than 400 COVID-19 positive cases and about 15 deaths in the country have been found to have links with the Nizamuddin Markaz. Earlier, the Delhi Police registered an FIR against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act. Around 2,300 people, including 250 foreigners, were found to be living at its headquarters located at Delhi's Nizamuddin last week despite the 21-day lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus. All the activists were brought out from the Markaz on April 1. According to a report, at least 9,000 people had participated at the congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in March after which many have travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works. A report said that 379 Indonesians, 110 Bangladeshi, 77 Kyrgyzstan, 75 Malaysian, 65 Thai, 63 Myanmarese and 33 Sri Lankan citizens besides others. The Home Ministry had also asked Delhi Police and police chiefs of other states, where these foreigners are currently living, to take legal action under the Foreigners Act and the Disaster Management Act. After the incident came to light, the government blacklisted 960 foreigners and cancelled their visa for violating visa conditions. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that of the 2,300 brought out from the Markaz, 500 showed the symptoms of COVID-19 and were admitted to hospitals, whereas the remaining 1800 were sent under quarantine. The Home Ministry had said about 2,100 foreigners have come to India since January 1 and indulged in Tablighi activities in different parts of the country. The Tablighi Jamaat event has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases across India were linked to the gathering, including deaths in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. Some criminal justice organisations are not implementing recommendations, a Stormont watchdog said. They should focus on achieving the required change rather than trying to influence her reports intonation, the new chief criminal justice inspector Jacqui Durkin said. She declined to name and shame particular parts of the system. It is disheartening for inspectors to repeat recommendations and see limited evidence of implementation when revisiting organisations. This is not an effective use of resources for Criminal Justice Inspection or the organisations inspected. More importantly, it does not actively demonstrate real commitment to continuous improvement and a better justice system for all. The inspectorate has helped spark root and branch reform of a Maghaberry jail which fellow inspectors in 2015 branded the most dangerous they had ever visited. It has made a series of recommendations on issues like the protection of inmates from harm. The report on Maghaberry Prison @NIPrisons by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate NI (CJINI) demonstrates the huge progress which has been made at Maghaberry Prison since the previous report in 2015. Governor David Kennedy comments on how these improvements have been possible pic.twitter.com/TdEdVt9ukz Justice NI (@Justice_NI) November 27, 2018 Senior officials from within the prison establishment including Maghaberry governor David Kennedy have said efforts to transform the estate have borne fruit and expressed deep commitment to reform. Ms Durkin was recently appointed chief inspector of criminal justice following the retirement of Brendan McGuigan. She recently told Stormonts justice committee: I am not going to name an organisation, because, if anything, it is much too soon to be doing that, even if I were minded to do so. What I can say is that it is not about catching out organisations. It is about creating a culture in which organisations are visibly and tangibly committed to continuous improvement. Really, they should not need an inspectorate coming in to shine a light on some of the issues that they may know about themselves but have not had the space, strategic thinking or resources to do something about. She said you can fiercely guard and protect your independence without that meaning that you are not accountable. Some organisations perhaps adopt an approach through our factual accuracy check regime and process where they will spend much too long on a lot of micro-detail and try to influence a reports intonation or how something is said. Rather than wasting energy on that, they should be focusing on the higher-level recommendations and on the outcome and recommendation that we are trying to achieve. As I said, it is a bit early to name and shame, and I am not entirely sure that I will ever be minded to do that, but, because of the level of change that we have all been through, we are fortunate that we have the justice system that we have, and that is down to the organisations involved and the leadership shown in those organisations. Yes, there are plenty of opportunities and plenty of inspectorate activity that needs to be done, but there is a real sense of a lot of people wanting the system to be better than it is. Some 12 cases have been confirmed in Gaza, as well as hundreds in the occupied West Bank and thousands in Israel. Gaza City, Gaza The Unipal garment factory in the besieged Gaza Strip has not operated at full speed for more than a decade, but on a recent morning hundreds of workers hunched over rows of sewing machines here, making medical masks and surgical gowns. As the rapid global spread of the coronavirus pandemic triggered a surge in demand for these items last month, the factory located in an industrial zone east of Gaza City changed its business from producing clothing to sought-after medical items. The Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal enclave surrounded by Israel and Egypt, has been under a crippling blockade by the two countries since 2007. However, 12 infections have been reported here, most of which were among a group of people who recently returned to Gaza and had been placed in quarantine, along with several guards at the facility. The health ministry said those who were infected were quarantined as soon as they arrived from Egypt and that the virus has not spread inside Gaza. Experts have warned that an outbreak could be catastrophic in Gaza, where there is a chronic shortage of medical supplies and insufficient hospital capacity. Orders from Gaza, Israel, West Bank While Unipal shuttered shortly after the blockade was imposed in 2007, it partially reopened in 2015 when Israel eased a ban on clothing exports from Gaza. Factory owner Bashir al-Bawab said orders had been limited and unsteady since then, with less than 100 people employed at the factory. In mid-March, it shifted its usual production from clothing to medical-grade protective gear and hired an additional 400 people to work 12-hour shifts. {articleGUID} Al-Bawab said the company has since supplied pharmacies and private healthcare facilities in Gaza, but the vast majority of its orders have come from Israel and the occupied West Bank, where the highly contagious disease has spread more. Israel had confirmed 8,018 cases and 46 deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, while the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday confirmed a total of 228 infections, including the 12 cases in Gaza, and one death. After we provided the medical staff in Gaza with their needs, we started to export quantities of the masks and hospital gowns to the West Bank and Israel, al-Bawab told Al Jazeera. For now, Israel has not placed restrictions on the import of raw materials for this or the exports. He said the company can make 10,000 masks a day and has so far produced a total of 150,000 masks and 5,000 gowns. Market uncertainty Unipal produces two types of masks: simple disposable masks that cover the face and chin and can be used for a few hours, and high-quality masks which help protect the wearer from infection and last longer. Al-Bawab said these items were a copy of the industry-grade N95 mask and have three filters, which block 95 percent of saliva, mucus and airborne particles and droplets. In addition to masks, Unipal produces disposable gowns and PPE. The masks are sold for about $1 while the gowns start at $3. The factory receives raw materials from suppliers in Israel, but al-Bawab said he was not sure whether providers would still send essential materials and fabrics to Gaza because of potential global shortages. For now, he has contracts to make 1 million masks and 50,000 isolation suits by the end of April. The work could stop at any moment due to instability in the market, he said. {articleGUID} On the factory floor, sewing machines are spaced two metres apart, and the workers wear the very garments they are producing, in line with safety measures issued by the health ministry. The physical distancing guidelines led the company to search for more space, and it is now preparing to reopen disused workspaces to absorb the additional machines and employees. The factory also has to contend with frequent power outages that are commonplace in Gaza and last for eight hours a day, a result of the blockade and tensions between Hamas and the PA in the occupied West Bank. Spread will be dangerous Gaza has a 30 percent shortage of disposable medical supplies and protective gear as a result of the Israeli blockade and the coronavirus crisis will worsen the situation, said Munir al-Bursh, director of pharmacy at the Ministry of Health. In Gaza, we have a problem with funding, so we cannot make agreements with importers to provide us with these needs, he told Al Jazeera. The health ministry has said there is a shortage of ventilators, testing kits and protective gear and has accused the Ramallah-based PA of failing to provide adequate equipment. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said last week that the PA had only sent two testing kits to Gaza, enough to carry out about 200 tests. We needed 3,000 masks per month, but now we use 1,000 masks every day. Consumption is very large. What we have is enough for weeks only in the normal situation, but if the epidemic spreads, it will be more dangerous, al-Bursh added. If tens of thousands of migrant workers suddenly clogged multiple inter-state borders across the country after the lockdown, putting their own lives in grave danger and confounding the policymakers, there is a sound reason-very poor understanding of the state of the informal economy and informal labour (inter-state migrants being one of them). For one, it is well-known that the informal sector contributes significantly to the economy in both output and employment but not exactly how much. The last official document which flagged off this dichotomy was a National Statistical Commission (NSC) report of 2012. While asserting that the informal economy contributed "about 50 per cent of the national product" without revealing how it arrived at this number, it said, "it is increasingly realised that lack of reliable statistics on the size, distribution and economic contribution of the sector...has been a major constraint in providing a realistic understanding of the significance of the Indian economy, leading to its neglect in development planning". Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown II: How serious could the impact be on Indian economy and GDP The same is true of the size of the informal labour too. The Economic Survey of 2018-19 said, "almost 93%" of the total workforce is "informal" but did not disclose its source of information which is highly unusual. Another problem has surfaced in recent times, politically inconvenient information is dismissed, leading to a complete blackout from the public, political and policy discourses. Here are two such critical instances that would have scandalised any society or economy. Rising suicide by the unemployed: NCRB In January 2020, after a long gap of two years during which the farmers' agitation was at its peak, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released data related to suicides. It was then discovered that the number of unemployed people committing suicide had not only shot up, but it also surpassed that of the farmers in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, their number was 12,936 or 9.6% of the total suicides in the country. In 2017, it was 12,241 or 9.4% of the total suicides (in the country). The graph below maps the numbers since 2015. Not that the rising unemployment was unknown, in January 2019, the leaked Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18 showed the unemployment rate rising to a 45-year high at 6.1%. The official response was an unprecedented decision, at first not to release it and then discredit and dismiss it by questioning the quality of data. The protest resignations by the then chairman of the NSC, PC Mohanan and another member made no difference. It was released in the last week of May 2019 well after the government had secured a second term for itself in the 2019 general elections. Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown III: Is India's public healthcare system prepared to fight the COVID-19 menace? Poverty is rising: Niti Aayog and NSC reports There was another first in the living memory. On December 27, 2019, the government think tank Niti Aayog released 'SDG India: Index & Dashboard 2019-20' report showing that poverty, hunger and income inequality had gone up in 22 to 25 States/UTs, out of 28 it mapped. (The think tank set a baseline for this purpose in 2018 and mapped progress in 2019). It found little space in media, public, political or policy discourse either. A month earlier, another leaked report, Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2017-18, too had established that poverty was rising. It said 'real' per capita household expenditure had fallen for the first time in more than 40 years from Rs 1,501 in 2011-12 to Rs 1,446 in 2017-18. Its data quality was immediately called into question, false claims were made that an expert committee had asked for withholding it and then junked. It has not been released yet. Collecting relevant data on informal establishments and workers It bears repetition that a good understanding leads to fixing a problem. That is what is lacking about the informal economy and hence the need to collect comprehensive and reliable data first. Particularly so because the twin shocks of demonetisation and GST must have brought about significant structural changes, the contours of which are not known at all. The government refused to make any assessment even in the face of mounting evidence of severe hardship people and businesses underwent. Now that a third and far more severe shock has been given due to the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown, Mohanan says the informal workers, more so the migrant workers, can't be targeted for help anytime soon simply because of lack of comprehensive data. What this means is that the informal workers would not benefit from the direct cash transfers contemplated for some in the Rs 1.7 lakh relief package announced recently. They would surely benefit from a higher PDS allocation but that would be available only in their places of permanent residence. Mohanan says that precisely is another reason for them to rush back. Business Today estimated that about 308 million informal sector workers would be vulnerable, both in rural and urban areas, and looking for help. This number was arrived at by using the Economic Survey's claim that "almost 93%" workers are "informal" and the PLFS 2017-18 data (unit level) which had to be processed by the Azim Premji University to arrive at the total number of workers in 2017-18 (465.1 million). The number of vulnerable workers (308 million) was derived by identifying those who had little institutional support. One way of collecting comprehensive data is the Economic Census which maps all establishments, including the unorganised or informal ones. The last such exercise (6th) was carried out during January 2013-April 2014 and the report was released in March 2016. The status of the next one (7th) is not known. Mohanan says a quicker and better way could be to strengthen the unorganised sector surveys (manufacturing, trade and services), which were earlier carried out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). The last such exercises were carried out in 2015-16. Holding stakeholders' consultations for policy interventions The next step in finding solutions is consultation with all stakeholders, informal establishments, informal workers in both formal and informal sectors, trade unions, labour economists, political parties etc. The wider and more comprehensive it is, the better. Three critical areas of attention are, (a) social security and unemployment allowances to informal workers in both formal and informal economy (b) raising national minimum wage benchmark to more reasonable level (c) strengthening MGNREGS in rural areas and expanding it to urban areas the need for which is evident in the exodus of migrant workers. Social security and unemployment allowance for informal workers One of the most credible voices in labour economics, Prof KR Shyam Sundar of Jamshedpur's XLRI, succinctly maps the existing gaps in the social security cover and suggests possible solutions to consider. On the first, he says: "The only legislative cover for the informal workers is the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act of 2008, which is inadequate. It provides very limited social security, only in terms of disability, health and maternity benefits etc. but not for unemployment contingencies." "The implementation of the 2008 Act has been very poor too; so much so that a universal registry of unorganised workers which was supposed to be prepared is still not in place. The Code of Social Security 2019, which is now pending with a parliamentary panel, dropped unemployment allowance contemplated in an earlier draft," he adds. On the second (what needs to be done going forward), Prof Sundar propose three measures, (i) bring back unemployment allowance into the Code on Social Security 2019 (ii) cover all forms of labour market insecurities for informal workers in both formal and informal sectors and (iii) rationalise all welfare schemes (such as Aayushman Bharat, contributory Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PMSYM) pension scheme of 2019 etc.) covering the entire universe of informal workers, both those below poverty line and above." Raising national benchmark of minimum wages The government has been reluctant to set a reasonable benchmark for the national minimum wages. The Code on Wages 2019, which was passed by the Parliament last year, envisages a mechanism to fix a national benchmark but the rules have not been framed yet, and hence, no progress on that front. That the government was not even serious was clear when the union cabinet pre-empted such a move by declaring a hike of just Rs 2, from Rs 176 to Rs 178 a day before the legislation was passed. Earlier in 2019, the government had junked an expert panel's recommendation of fixing the national minimum wages at Rs 375 per day or Rs 9,750 per month. This panel was set up for this specific purpose. It also ignored the plea of the Economic Survey of 2018-19 which called for a higher benchmark, arguing that a study had established the "presence of a lighthouse effect, i.e., the minimum wage acts as a benchmark that pulls up wages in the low-paid and informal sector by enhancing the bargaining power of vulnerable workers". Strengthening MGNREGS in rural areas and expanding it to urban areas In spite of it being dismissed as the "living monument of UPA's failure", the rural employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) remains the only reliable livelihood security for the rural landless labourers (which constitute 55% of the total agriculture workforce) and small and marginal farmers falling on bad times. The relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh announced recently proposed a hike of Rs 20 in the MNREGA wages from Rs 182 to Rs 202. Since no MGNREGS work can be carried out now for the next several months anywhere in the country, it brings no relief during the current crisis. Besides, this wage is far too less than the agricultural wages fixed by the state governments. A comparative analysis of 2019 by a group of NGOs under the banner of 'NREGA Sangharsh Samiti' showed that in 34 of 35 states and UTs, the MGNREGS wages were well below the agricultural wages in 2019-20. Nagaland was the only exception. After the current hike of Rs 20, it would still remain lower in 28 states/UTs, assuming that these states have not hiked their agricultural wages after March 2019. Several economists, including Prof Sundar, have been strongly advocating for a MGNREGS-like programme for the urban poor. The exodus from urban centres is the evidence, if any was required, that job-losses and joblessness are very common in urban areas. Reimagining MSMEs Reeling under the twin economic shocks of demonetisation and GST, MSMEs are likely to have received a knockout punch this time. The mass exodus of migrant workers from the industrial belt of Patparganj in Delhi is a clear indication. But like other aspects of the informal economy, very little is known about these either. A 2019 expert panel of the RBI, which looked at long-term solutions after the sector went through the twin shocks of demonetisation and GST, said MSMEs constitute 45% to manufacturing, more than 40% of export, more than 28% of the GDP and 24% of total employment. These estimates are based on 2015-16 calculations, as the report itself says. The numbers about this sector's contribution to manufacturing output and export (45% and 40%, respectively) go back several years, even a 2013 report of an inter-ministerial group says the same. A fresh assessment should then be the first step here too. What needs to be done to revive the MSMEs is all too well-known. Several committees and groups have submitted their reports in the past two decades. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown: WHO says domestic violence on rise, asks nations to take measures The top priority on the list of RBI's 2019 report is "the MSMED Act of 2006 (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006) which may be reimagined as a comprehensive and holistic MSME Code". This law was brought in a decade-and-half ago "to provide for facilitating the promotion and development and enhancing the competitiveness" of MSMEs. Reimagining it has been recommended ad nauseam since then with little gain. So are the other key recommendations, redefining MSMEs, ensuring credit facilities, increasing public procurement from them, ensuring their better engagement with state governments and SIDBI etc. What has not happened in all these years is, collection of comprehensive data, plan to fix MSMEs' problems and time-bound goals and devising strategies to achieve those goals. The same goes for the informal economy as a whole. If it is not fixed this time around, far bigger human and economic tragedies are not far off. Vineet Upadhyay By Express News Service UTTARAKHAND: I have never missed a single off day to visit and teach differently-abled kids in this school. I am just happy to be here among them. They dont expect much from me, giggles Kavita Bisht, 28. Behind that quicksilver laugh, however, Kavita bleeds. She readily admits to have swung between life and death, hope and despair. I have been called names and been told that I am helpless. That I am not, she asserts. Kavita can never forget that fateful day of 2008 in Haldwani. I was 16 and walking with neighbourhood girls to school when two men on motorcycles started buzzing us. We paid no heed. Suddenly, I felt as if my face and chest was on fire. It was stinging, burning. I felt I had been choked. It was total confusion. I wanted to think, cry out loud. I could not; I fell, unconscious. Hope lost in seconds Kavita had turned an acid attack victim in seconds. She would not feel the hue and cry around her as she was carried to the hospital, treated for months and told after a year, that she would see no more. Her eyes had been burnt out; her sight lost forever. That day, when darkness seemed to have settled in my life, I vowed I will not sit back. And here I am, Kavita says, laughing away the pain. Ask the neighbourhood about the bubbly, beautiful girl, to whom anyone could take to so easily and people recount the pain which she lived through to remove the pain around. Kavita is today a brand ambassador for Uttarakhand for empowering women and a volunteer who counsels acid attack survivors as well as differently- abled children at a school in Ramnagar of Nainital district of Uttarakhand. Working also with the Nirbhaya cell of the district, she is known to be quite forceful, logical and one who will hold no punches. Women are violated, beaten, burnt with acid and face innumerable atrocities. The law needs to change, she says. Not victim but survivor We are not victims, but survivors. We are normal breathing, thinking human beings like anyone else. We should be treated the same, says the recipient of 18 awards at the state and national level, adds. Bisht has been part of many creative projects, among them, helping to write a book and a Bollywood project based on true stories of acid attack survivors across the country. Always up for helping and volunteering to raise lifes bar for others who cannot help themselves, Kavita spends time with women and children at the Uday Singh Rawat Indu Samiti for which she raises `60,000-`70,000 each month to meet their food supplies. Sandeep Rawat, who runs the school, says: She travels from Haldwani to be with them and motivate them to catch up with life, apart from teaching basic alphabets and arithmetic. The children love her. Many a time we came to know that she had nothing to eat, yet she never missed coming down a single day. Lifes problems pass Kavita has not received her petty salary of `7,500 per month from the Nirbhaya cell since December, informed a neighbour. Yet she never complains. When her father, Diwan Singh Bisht, a driver with state transport, died in 2016, she had no money to cremate him. It was the people who crowdfunded the cremation. It was later found that Uttarakhand government, which had appointed her brand ambassador had not been paying her the `13,500 per month she was entitled to for the past two and a half years. Kavita has two wishes, though to clear her board exams, which she could not complete in 2008, and to meet Baba Ramdev to secure packaging work so that the differently- abled at her school can survive. Innovative with a dream There is no semblance of victimhood in her, but that of a fighter. Robbed of her eyesight, Kavita learnt to use software applications to operate her android phone, a laptop and computers all to enable her to stay connected. She fondly remembers IAS officers Nidhi Mani Tripathi and Radha Raturi, who she says, helped me in my most critical moments and told me Ishould never give up, as also her mother and brother, who are the two pillars I rest on. Help India! By Nazish Hussain, TwoCircles.net No one gave much thought about the health workers that we too are at a great risk, said a female doctor from Gandhi Medical College in Secunderabad, on condition of anonymity. Intern at the Casualty Ward, the medic said she was forced to halt her internship midway on March 23 due to poor availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) exposing health workers to heightened chances of the risk of infection. Such is the case in Gandhi Medical College, the nodal COVID19 center in the state of Telangana. Support TwoCircles COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in mid March when India recorded a major spike in Corona positive cases, leading the Indian government to suspend all visas to India. As the government made urgent calls for social distancing to prevent community spread, people went on a panic buying spree triggering scarcity of sanitizers, masks, and essentials in the markets. Private companies were asked to shutdown and interstate transport services were also ordered to stop. While so much was done for preventive measures, little was highlighted about the medical services to battle the deadly pandemic. Lack of hazmat dresses, masks, ventilator, and isolation wards received less or no attention despite Indian health workers on the frontline continuously complaining of severe unavailability of adequate protective gears to keep them safe against the infection. There was a great influx of patients, in such situation whether you will look after yourself or the patients, the female doctor recalled, outlining that the interns who joined early in March were provided with no prior training while they dealt with 200-300 patients having cold, cough and fever daily. The number of patients for screening was many and it was hectic for the doctors, she said, so they managed with normal masks meant for general public, due to the unavailability N95 masks. According to WHO, health workers at the front line of COVID-19 outbreak response are exposed to various hazards including pathogen exposure, long working hours, psychological distress, fatigue, occupational burnout, stigma, and physical and psychological violence. As the total number of Corona positive cases in India has reached 2301 with death toll at 56, according to the information updated by Health Ministry on April 4, health workers face a dangerous time ahead. Duty and Risk to Health Workers We thought of it as normal Flu, said the doctor from Gandhi Medical College, explaining that initially when her batch joined the medical workforce on March 13, they were not even fully aware of the situation. There were only three interns to manage the patients, who were not even used to wearing gloves and gowns due to lack of equipments at the government hospital. WHO mandates guidelines for health workers, their employers and managers, citing health workers rights in these words: assume overall responsibility to ensure that all necessary preventive and protective measures are taken to minimize occupational safety and health risks and provide information, instruction and training on occupational safety and health, including training on infection prevention and control. It is a war, and as a responsible citizen it is our duty to fight against it, said Dr. Madhan Pranesh from Coimbatore. Currently a backup, Pranesh has volunteered with Tamil Nadu health services in the fight against Corona. He explained that many doctors in India are above the age of 50 years, among whom are those with co-morbid conditions like hypertension, diabetes and more and all of this just makes them more prone to infections. He added that the disease can become contagious for health workers in close contact with COVID19 patient, and those getting exposed to COVID19 patients in absence of protective gear also become susceptible for its spread. He said that in many cases, internationally, this has led to deaths. The Health Ministry in its latest update has stressed that community spread of virus is not there, and India is still in local transmission and limited community transmission phase but facts state that if the pandemic grows, Indias health workforce will be more at strain with the doctor patient ratio being less than the WHO prescribed 1:1000. When Dr Pranesh was asked about the unavailability of PPE and scarce number of doctors in Coimbatore, he said he had no idea about the situation as he hadnt been in contact with anyone but had spoken to colleagues from other medical colleges who affirmed the lack of PPE. According to Ministry of Textiles, the Health Ministry would require more than 700000 protective coveralls, 6 million N95 masks and 10 million 3-ply masks until the end of May. Despite Central governments announcement on March 24 for allocating 15,000 crore to strengthen the health infrastructure, it remains a dream to see more isolation wards, testing kits and even training of professionals to combat the disease. However in Kerala, where Nipah outbreak was successfully contained within a month by the state government in May 2018, things are different. Everyone is worried because it is highly infectious disease but for health workers it is a different case, said Muhammad Aslam, a nursing staff in Government Medical College and Hospital (MCH), Kozhikode, Kerala. Aslam says it is their duty and responsibility as health care workers to fight fearlessly. Kerala reported its first positive case soon after three students arrived from Wuhan. But the state government immediately started gearing up to face possible cases of Corona and arranged services for care givers. The government is currently organizing a scheduled daily training class for employees, staff nurses, grade two employees and attendants other than medical interns. Aslam is one of the staff who has been attending the training programme, getting lessons on the aspects covering what is Corona virus, how it spread, how to use PPE kit, how to put on the kit how to put off the kit and much more, from live demonstrations by an expert. Stigma around Health Workers People at masjids were scared of me, they thought I would contaminate them, recalls Aslam, who was working at MCH during Nipah virus outbreak in 2018. He shared that it was Ramadan in May 2018 when he was working in the Nipah outbreak and some people even asked him not to come to masjid for prayers, fearing he would be dangerous to everyone. Aslam has been a practicing nurse for 12 years now and remains a solid evidence of health workers facing social stigma. Asked about reactions during the Corona outbreak, Aslam says that although he himself has not faced any similar situation but this time it was one of his friends, who was standing at a queue in a bank when a person to his left moved away from the spot after learning about his profession. According to several news reports, doctors across the country had to go through distressing experiences owing to their job during pandemic. Residents Doctors Association at AIIMS, New Delhi wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting to take appropriate actions against eviction of health care professionals from their homes and provision of transport facility during COVID-19. Similar other cases of eviction of health workers have been reported from Hyderabad and Kolkata. 200 house surgeons were evicted from a hostel on 24 March, fearing infection from them. Fear of contaminating family Since I am working without enough protective gears, what if something happens to my six months daughter or aged mother because of me! said the female doctor from Gandhi Medical College. She discussed that the reason she left her internship midway was because she feared being a potential carrier of the disease to her infant and mother, who are highly susceptible to infections. Being a health worker in times of a pandemic is also emotionally straining. Other than job strain, health workers are constantly worried of being a potential carrier of disease to their families. Many of them have young infants or aged parents. My parents are very much anxious, they keep saying I must not work in Corona isolation ward, says Aslam. He has an infant at home and is maintaining safe physical distance from him due to his profession. Although he does not touch his baby boy before a shower, changing dress and cleaning up well, he admits it is taxing to perform a duty while being a potential threat to ones own family. Aslam informed he is about to begin isolation ward duty along with his wife from April 4. I expected this since I joined nursing field says Aslam, expressing the constant struggle between his professional and personal life as a health care worker. Message from Health workers Dr. Pranesh who is awaiting his turn to join the health workforce in fight against Corona, believes in primordial prevention and community health care. To dispel the prevalent myths related to COVID-19, he is making informative videos targeted at general population. Through his videos, Dr Pranesh wants to bring our attention not only to hygiene but also towards the lower socio-economic strata of our society who he feels need to be educated. If they get affected, it will reach us ultimately, says Dr Pranesh adding that it is our responsibility to educate people about preventive measures and to provide them with protective gears as there is a looming threat of community spread. At such a difficult hour, it is these doctors, nurses and care givers grappling both with the shortage of personal protective equipment and facing stigma and stress and it becomes imperative to listen to their experiences and suggestions as they are battling the deadly viral infection in closed doors, often away from their homes for weeks. Aslam, who is on ground witnessing isolation ward patients, fears that if COVID-19 keeps multiplying it would become difficult to manage it with the existing health care infrastructure. As a responsible care giver, he explains, they are ready to work even without leave so that they can effectively treat patients but it would really help if the spreading rate is low. So help us reduce the cases by staying at home, Aslam adds. Key maps and charts explaining how the respiratory virus has spread around the world and how it is being dealt with. There are now more than 1.2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in 181 countries and more than 64,000 people have died. The United States has more confirmed cases than any other single country and more than half of all the cases have been in Europe, with Italy and Spain worst affected. This series of maps and charts tracks the spread of the virus since it emerged in China in December last year. How many deaths and recoveries have there been? The virus is spreading rapidly in many countries and the death toll is still climbing - but the majority of people are recovering from the infection. The country with the highest number of cases is the US, according to figures collated by Johns Hopkins University. With more than 310,000 confirmed cases, it has more than three times the official number recorded in China. Around 3,300 people have died in China - but the US, UK, Italy, Spain, Iran and France now have higher death tolls. Coronavirus global cases, 5 April 2020 This information is regularly updated but may not reflect the latest totals for each country. Cases Deaths USA 311,654 8,480 Spain 130,759 12,418 Italy 124,632 15,362 Germany 96,108 1,446 France 89,953 7,560 China 82,602 3,333 Iran 58,226 3,603 UK 47,806 4,932 Turkey 23,934 501 Switzerland 21,100 680 Belgium 19,691 1,447 Netherlands 17,853 1,766 Canada 14,018 234 Austria 11,897 204 Portugal 11,278 295 Brazil 10,360 445 South Korea 10,237 183 Israel 8,018 46 Sweden 6,830 401 Australia 5,687 35 Norway 5,645 66 Russia 5,389 45 Ireland 4,604 137 Czech Republic 4,475 62 Denmark 4,369 179 Chile 4,161 27 Romania 3,864 148 Poland 3,834 84 Malaysia 3,662 61 India 3,588 99 Ecuador 3,465 172 Philippines 3,246 152 Japan 3,139 77 Pakistan 2,897 45 Luxembourg 2,729 31 Saudi Arabia 2,370 29 Indonesia 2,273 198 Thailand 2,169 23 Finland 1,927 28 Mexico 1,890 79 Panama 1,801 46 Peru 1,746 73 Greece 1,673 70 Serbia 1,624 44 South Africa 1,585 9 Dominican Republic 1,578 77 United Arab Emirates 1,505 10 Argentina 1,451 43 Iceland 1,417 4 Colombia 1,406 32 Qatar 1,325 3 Singapore 1,309 6 Ukraine 1,251 32 Algeria 1,251 130 Croatia 1,182 16 Estonia 1,097 15 Egypt 1,070 71 New Zealand 1,039 1 Slovenia 997 28 Morocco 961 69 Iraq 878 56 Armenia 822 7 Lithuania 811 11 Moldova 752 14 Hungary 733 34 Diamond Princess cruise ship 712 11 Bahrain 698 4 Bosnia and Herzegovina 641 21 Azerbaijan 584 5 Kazakhstan 569 6 Belarus 562 8 Kuwait 556 1 Cameroon 555 9 North Macedonia 555 18 Tunisia 553 19 Latvia 533 1 Lebanon 527 18 Bulgaria 522 18 Andorra 501 18 Slovakia 485 1 Puerto Rico 452 18 Costa Rica 435 2 Cyprus 426 9 Uruguay 400 5 Taiwan 363 5 Albania 361 20 Afghanistan 337 7 Reunion 334 Jordan 323 5 Burkina Faso 318 16 Uzbekistan 298 2 Oman 298 2 Cuba 288 6 Honduras 268 22 San Marino 266 32 Ivory Coast 245 1 Vietnam 241 Malta 227 Mauritius 227 7 Palestinian Territories 226 1 Nigeria 224 5 Senegal 222 2 Ghana 214 5 Montenegro 203 2 Faroe Islands 181 Sri Lanka 171 5 Georgia 170 2 Bolivia 157 10 Venezuela 155 7 DR Congo 154 18 Kyrgyzstan 147 1 Martinique 145 3 Niger 144 8 Kosovo 140 1 Guernsey 136 2 Brunei 135 1 Guadeloupe 134 7 Mayotte 134 2 Isle of Man 127 1 Kenya 126 4 Jersey 123 3 Cambodia 114 Guinea 111 Paraguay 104 3 Trinidad and Tobago 103 6 Rwanda 102 Gibraltar 98 Guam 93 4 Bangladesh 88 9 Liechtenstein 77 1 Madagascar 70 Monaco 66 1 Aruba 64 El Salvador 62 3 Guatemala 61 2 French Guiana 61 Jamaica 55 3 Barbados 52 Djibouti 50 Uganda 48 Congo 45 5 Ethiopia 43 1 United States Virgin Islands 42 Togo 41 3 Mali 41 3 French Polynesia 40 Zambia 39 1 Bermuda 37 Cayman Islands 35 1 Eritrea 29 Saint Martin 29 2 Bahamas 28 4 Sint Maarten 25 4 Guyana 24 4 Haiti 21 Myanmar 21 1 Gabon 21 1 Tanzania 20 1 Syria 19 2 Maldives 19 Guinea-Bissau 18 Libya 18 1 New Caledonia 17 Equatorial Guinea 16 Namibia 16 Benin 16 Antigua and Barbuda 15 Saint Lucia 14 Dominica 14 Mongolia 14 Grenada 12 Fiji 12 Laos 11 Greenland 11 Curacao 11 1 Mozambique 10 Liberia 10 1 Suriname 10 1 Angola 10 2 Seychelles 10 Sudan 10 2 Saint Kitts and Nevis 9 Chad 9 Eswatini 9 Nepal 9 Zimbabwe 9 1 MS Zaandam cruise ship 9 2 Northern Mariana Islands 8 1 Central African Republic 8 Cape Verde 7 1 Somalia 7 St Vincent and the Grenadines 7 Vatican 7 Saint Barthelemy 6 Sierra Leone 6 Mauritania 6 1 Montserrat 6 Bhutan 5 Turks and Caicos Islands 5 Nicaragua 5 1 Gambia 4 1 Belize 4 Malawi 4 Botswana 4 1 Western Sahara 4 Burundi 3 British Virgin Islands 3 Anguilla 3 Timor-Leste 1 Falkland Islands 1 Papua New Guinea 1 South Sudan 1 Source: Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies Last updated on 5 April 2020, 14:00 BST. The outbreak was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March. This is when an infectious disease is passing easily from person to person in many parts of the world at the same time. The WHO said it took more than three months to reach the first 100,000 confirmed cases worldwide, but it took less than a week for the number to double from 500,000 to a million. The true figure for the number of people with coronavirus is thought to be much higher as many of those with milder symptoms have not been tested and counted. China says it has now all but stopped the spread of the disease and the authorities have started to allow some access to Wuhan, the city in Hubei province where the outbreak began. South Korea, where a major outbreak began in February, has also seen its number of cases fall in the last couple of weeks. But badly affected countries like Italy, Spain and the US are still ramping up measures to try to slow down the spread of the virus. Governments across the world have halted flights, locked down towns and cities and urged people to stay at home. Europe struggling to slow the spread European countries have seen steep rises in infections and deaths. Italy has the highest toll of any single country in the world, with more than 15,000 deaths so far. Spain has reported more than 12,400 deaths - the second highest of any country. There are now more than 130,700 confirmed cases in Spain, but data shows the rate of new cases is falling. Spain saw 674 people die in the 24 hours up to 11:00 BST on Sunday, the lowest daily death toll in over a week, and a fall of 135 from the previous day's toll of 809. The Spanish government, which declared a state of emergency on 14 March, has further tightened its lockdown telling non-essential workers to stay at home for two weeks. In Italy, there are cautious hopes that the country may have started to turn a corner, with data in recent days suggesting that the infection rate is slowing. The majority of deaths have occurred in the northern Lombardy region, which contains the city of Milan. Hospitals there are reportedly at breaking point and retired doctors and nurses have been asked to return to work. In Germany, where there have been over 96,000 cases and 1,400 deaths, a leading health scientist has suggested that "immunity certificates" could be given to people who have recovered. In the UK, there have been more than 38,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,600 deaths. The country's first emergency field hospital, built in London's ExCel Centre, was opened on Friday. The NHS Nightingale hospital, as it has been called, has space for 4,000 intensive care beds. Others are planned across the UK. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a clampdown on 23 March, urging people to stay at home to avoid unnecessary transmission of the disease. Mr Johnson himself is self-isolating after testing positive for the virus on 27 March. In Spain and the UK, deaths grew rapidly at first, doubling faster than every two days. That rate of increase has now slowed to doubling between every second and third day. Italy's death rate has also slowed, while that of the US is continuing in roughly a straight line, doubling about every three days at present. Cases rising quickly in the US With more than 310,000 cases - more than 110,000 in New York state alone - the US has more confirmed infections than any other country. The number of deaths in the US has now passed 8,400, more than double China's official figure of around 3,320. Nearly all Americans are now living under some form of lockdown as states increase efforts to curb the outbreak. There are only five states with no restrictions in effect, and every state has now reported more than 100 confirmed cases. President Donald Trump has said federal coronavirus guidelines, such as social distancing, will be extended across the country until at least 30 April. He had previously said they could be relaxed in mid-April. Nationwide measures mean people must continue to avoid non-essential travel, going to work, and eating at restaurants or bars. Gatherings are limited to groups of under 10 people. Stricter restrictions apply to millions in some of the worst-hit states. The outbreak is having a major economic impact, with figures showing the number of people without jobs surging to a record high of nearly 6.6 million in the week ending 28 March. That is nearly double the week earlier, which was also a new record. The previous record was set in 1982, when unemployment claims hit 695,000. American Airlines, one of the world's richest carriers, has said it will apply for $12bn (9.7bn) in government aid. Millions are living under restrictions India is one of the latest countries to enforce a lockdown, meaning its 1.3 billion residents are now forbidden from leaving their homes for a few weeks at least. That means at least a quarter of the 7.8 billion people in the world are now living under some form of restrictions on their movement and social contact due to the coronavirus. People in major cities like London, Barcelona and New York are now moving around far less than they were a few weeks ago, according to data from the travel app Citymapper. The data also shows that while Milan in northern Italy has been locked down for several weeks now, many other cities have only been restricting movement in recent days. While movement is also down in the South Korean capital Seoul, the city hasn't ground to a halt like European capitals despite facing huge numbers of coronavirus cases - a sign of the country's decision to focus on widespread testing and contact tracing rather than social distancing. In Russia, the Kremlin had insisted that there was "de facto no epidemic" in the country but earlier this week President Putin urged people to stay at home, which explains the significant drop in movement in Moscow. BBC Army Major Matthew Zilinski didnt know what to expect when he arrived home in New Jersey. Following an 11-month deployment in Kosovo, Zilinski landed at McGuire Air Force Base on Saturday, ready to return to his wife and three children in Middletown following his first tour of duty overseas. Except due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, Zilinski did not receive a typical welcoming ceremony. Battalions that returned before his got that usual treatment, but social distancing guidelines prohibited anything similar. Zilinski would typically run into the arms of his waiting family at the base. Instead, he was greeted by a Howell Township police car and two motorcycles Zilinski is a full-time officer with the department to escort him home. Saturday, April 4, 2020 - A police motorcade escorts Army Major Matthew Zilinski down I-195 to the Middletown Township Municipal Building where he would be received home with a caravan of firetrucks, police, and family and friends after an 11-month deployment overseas. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage The convoy drove through Howell, where Zilinski was greeted by the lights and sirens of more of his fellow officers. Upon arriving in Middletown, he saw messages posted by residents, welcoming the Army Major home, thanks to an effort organized by his wife, Brienne. It was just amazing, Zilinski said. The community came together and I guess answered my wifes social media request to have people make signs, and they went above and beyond that. Zilinskis return was meant to be a surprise for his children, though some of the sirens, signs and parked cars in their neighborhood tipped them off as he arrived. But as Zilinski returned to his normal home life, he was also greeted by the drastic changes made as a result of the coronavirus. Prior to flying to McGuire Air Force Base on Saturday, Zilinski spent two weeks in quarantine at Fort Bliss in Texas, ensuring his health before joining his family. He kept up with some of the news on the internet, but it didnt fully prepare him for what awaited. Saturday, April 4, 2020 - Army Major Matthew Zilinski is welcomed home with a caravan of firetrucks, police, and family and friends after an 11-month deployment overseas. Children hold signs along the parade route.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com As he flew over New Jersey, he noticed the lack of cars usually seen on the states highways. His drive through Monmouth County reenforced how many people were confined to their homes. Amid all the changes and uncertainty in his home state, Zilinski was floored by how people took time to honor his return. You can see the community come together and its something, for me to come home to. I had tears in my eyes coming down the road to see how many people came out for it," Zilinski said. "But just to see people and them smiling and waving and having American flags. It just shows like how strong community can be. Saturday, April 4, 2020 - Army Major Matthew Zilinski is welcomed home after an 11-month deployment overseas. In photo from left, Zilinski's wife Brienne, holding their daughter, Piper, 3. daughter Quinn,5, , Matthew Zilinski, and daughter Elliette, 7.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com FaceTime helped Zilinski talk to his family every day while stationed overseas. Since he was six hours ahead, he called each day when his children were eating breakfast and getting ready for school. He connected with them again each night. But all those calls couldnt stack up to seeing his wife and children in person again. Just to be able to hug them again and see how much theyve grown," Zilinski said. "And just hear them call me daddy in person, its heartbreaking to be able to have that experience again. 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. Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. - Solenn Heussaff just posted an update on her social media account with a funny video of Nico Bolzico - The video immediately went viral since baby Thylane's face was seen on the video - Earlier, the couple has decided not to post a photo or video of their daughter's face in the public yet - The viral video garnered countless comments and more than 1 million views already PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Solenn Heussaff stirred buzz in the online community after posting a video of their daughter baby Thylane. KAMI learned that Nico Bolzico was trying to prank her in the said video. Nico was calling Solenn when she emerged from the stairs while carrying baby Thylane. Meanwhile, viewers are in for a treat because baby Thylane's face was shown in the video. As of this writing, the viral video has already garnered more than 1.3 million views. It also elicited various comments and reactions not just from netizens but celebrities as well. The blooming mom wrote on Instagram, "Only Nico. What will happen in 2 weeks or more from now? Stay home guys and make sure to drink a lot of water and stay healthy. Dont become like @nicobolzico lol. @naturespring_official sorry for this haha." Here are some of the reactions from netizens after watching the video: "Wow nakita ko na din finally si baby." "Thylaaaane @solenn you both beautiful." "I saw Thylanes face. Beautiful baby" "Ang ganda ng baby nyooo" "Your baby is soooo Beautiful" Watch the video below: PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! As reported earlier by KAMI, Nico Bolzico shared a heartwarming video of his wife cradling their little angel, Baby Thylane. The song that they were listening to was Michael Jackson's "Heal the World". In the middle of the song, an emotional Solenn bursts into tears, and immediately wiped her tears with one hand. Nico tried to comfort his wife with an encouraging message, saying that everything will be alright. Solenn Heusaff is a Filipina-French actress, model, TV host, painter, fashion designer, and a professional make-up artist. She first gained her popularity when she joined the GMA survival reality show Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Showdown. POPULAR: Read more news about Solenn Heussaff Please like and share our Facebook posts to support KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinion about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts! What goes up but never ever comes down? Can our guest celebrity Kris Bernal answer these tricky questions? Let us find out. And what about you? Can you answer these questions? Check out all of the exciting videos and celebrity interviews on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: KAMI.com.gh The grandson and adult daughter of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend are presumed dead after the pair's canoe apparently capsized in the Chesapeake Bay, Townsend said Friday. In a statement issued Friday night, Townsend said the search for her daughter, 40-year-old Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, and 8-year-old grandson, Gideon, was now a recovery effort. With profound sadness, I share the news that the search for my beloved daughter Maeve and grandson Gideon has turned from rescue to recovery," Townsend said in the statement. "Maeve was vivid. You always knew when she was in a room," Townsend added. "Her laughter was loud, unabashed and infectious. She did everything with her full self and her whole heart." Gideon, the son of Maeve Kennedy McKean, as he watched Stephen Curry and Dr. Fauci on March 26, 2020. (Maeve Kennedy McKean / via Twitter) The pair went missing late Thursday afternoon in waters near the pair's Shady Side, Maryland home, about 25 miles south of Annapolis, officials said. Gov. Larry Hogan said that he had been in touch with Townsend "and on behalf of the people of Maryland I expressed our most heartfelt sympathies and prayers to her and to her entire family during this difficult time." A Maryland Department of Natural Resources statement said a preliminary investigation "revealed that the pair may have been paddling the canoe from a residence in Shady Side, MD out into the bay to retrieve a ball and were unable to paddle back to shore." An overturned canoe, approximately matching the description the pair were in, was later found, the department said. Arlington National Cemetery Hosts Remembrance Honoring the Life & Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy (Leigh Vogel / Getty Images for RFK Human Rights) Kennedy Townsend comes from one of the most famous political clans in U.S. history. Shes the oldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and niece of former President John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy. She served two terms of lieutenant governor of Maryland. Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean is executive director of Georgetown University's Global Health Initiative. McKean got into a very public spat last year with her uncle Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his son's skepticism of vaccines. She, her mother and former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II penned a tough editorial taking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to task. "He helped to spread dangerous misinformation and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines," they wrote. "We love Bobby. However, on vaccines he is wrong." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Chris Lefkow (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Sun, April 5, 2020 11:09 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc7cc0 2 World COVID-19,death,trump,Italy,Spain Free US President Donald Trump has warned Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" number of coronavirus deaths in the coming days as the total number of global fatalities from the pandemic soared past 60,000. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States on Saturday surpassed 300,000, but Europe continued to bear the brunt of the pandemic which has left roughly half the planet confined at home at a huge cost to the global economy. Over 45,000 of global deaths have been in Europe, with Britain reporting a new daily high in fatalities, taking the overall toll to 4,300 out of nearly 42,000 cases. Queen Elizabeth II is to make a rare, "deeply personal" speech on Sunday to urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus, and personally thank frontline healthcare workers. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge," she will say, according to extracts released Saturday. There are now more than 1.2 million confirmed cases across the globe, and around 65,000 people have died since the virus first emerged in China late last year, according to a John Hopkins University tally. U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for the coronavirus task force daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) Trump said the United States was entering "a time that's going to be very horrendous" with "some really bad numbers." "This will probably be the toughest week," he said at the White House. "There will be a lot of death." At the same time, the president stressed the US cannot remain shut down forever. "Mitigation does work but again, we're not going to destroy our country," he said. "I've said it from the beginning -- the cure cannot be worse than the problem." The threat from mass gatherings was highlighted again this weekend, this time in Pakistan where authorities are trying to track down and quarantine tens of thousands of worshippers who attended a massive Islamic event last month. More than 150 people who attended have tested positive for the coronavirus so far, with two deaths. Foreigners from several countries also went to the event, which was held despite government requests to cancel it over virus fears. Tide turning in Italy? There was some encouraging news from Europe over the weekend. Worst-hit Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care virus cases drop for the first time -- from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994 on Saturday. Tents being constructed to form a field hospital, run by non-governmental organisation Samaritans Purse, stand in a parking lot in Cremona, Italy, on Friday, March 20, 2020. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government is set to reinforce and extend the near-total lockdown on Italy as it struggles to contain the coronavirus, after overtaking China as the country with the highest recorded number of deaths. (Bloomberg/Francesca Volpi) Even some of the most cautious Italian health officials seized on the figures as evidence that the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II. "This is a very important data point," said civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli, adding that it "allows our hospitals to breathe." The daily rise in new infections across Italy has also slowed. It reported 681 new deaths on Saturday, down from a peak of almost 1,000 just over a week ago. Spain, which is under a near-total lockdown, saw a second successive daily fall in coronavirus-related deaths with 809 fatalities. The total number of deaths in Spain now stands at 11,947, second only to Italy. Although the number of new cases also slowed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extension of the country's lockdown until April 25. At a field hospital in Madrid set up at a conference center, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged. One of them was 59-year-old builder Eduardo Lopez who gave a "10/10" rating to the staff who cared for him "with tenderness and a great dose of humanity." 'We need you' New York state, the US epicenter, saw a record 630 deaths in a single day and Governor Andrew Cuomo warned the worst was yet to come. The state has recorded a total of 3,565 deaths. Cuomo also cautioned that already strained hospitals were not prepared. New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. "Anyone who's not already in this fight, we need you," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. People wear face masks on April 03, 2020 in New York. - In New York, the epicenter of the US outbreak, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to cover their faces when outside and Vice President Mike Pence said there would be a recommendation on the use of masks by the general public in the next few days. (AFP/Angela Weiss ) Trump said 1,000 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, would be deployed to help in the city, which he described as "the hottest of all the hot spots." Trump also said he had asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite shipments of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug which the US leader has been touting as a coronavirus treatment although clinical trials are still ongoing. "I may take it," Trump said. "I'll have to ask my doctors about that." U-turn on masks Several Western countries including the US, Germany and France have in recent days encouraged the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces. The U-turn has angered and confused some citizens, and spurred a flurry of online tutorials for DIY masks. The advice came after some studies suggested the new coronavirus can be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing. US authorities said wearing a simple homemade mask or scarf could help stem rocketing infection rates. The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give "a false sense of security," leading people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing. UK police were deployed on Saturday to ensure the public were following social distancing measures during the warm temperatures. Visitors to Brighton beach were told by police officers not to rest outside and asked to move on. Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne of Sussex Police said officers didn't want to enforce the restrictions and urged the public to "please be sensible". Under the government's current coronavirus guidelines, people are told to stay at home and only leave for limited purposes such as shopping for basic necessities like food and medicine. One form of exercise outdoors is allowed daily, alone or with members of one's household. The United Kingdom currently has 42,441 confirmed cases of the virus, and 4,320 deaths, according to the John Hopkins University at 1700 GMT. 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 could lead to death. The vast majority of people recover. The wife of movie voice dialect coach and Star Wars actor Andrew Jack, 76, who died of COVID-19 wants others to know about his symptoms in the hope it could save lives. Gabrielle Rogers, who was born in Kalgoorlie but grew up in Sydney and is also a dialect coach, was on the Gold Coast when Jack's health rapidly deteriorated last Sunday. Gabrielle Rogers in the garden of her Tamborine Mountain home shared with husband Andrew Jack. Credit:Isabella Porras "He had been in London working on The Batman film a month ago when he contracted coronavirus and believed he was doing the right thing by staying at home and self-isolated on his boat on the Thames. "He was experiencing very specific symptoms which all pointed towards coronavirus that he didn't pick up on and I want people to know them. Coronavirus Shatters Iranian Death Rituals, Robbing Many Of Last Farewell With Loved Ones By Golnaz Esfandiari April 04, 2020 Kambiz says the day he buried his 96-year-old grandmother, who died after contracting the coronavirus, was the "saddest and loneliest" day of his life. He was the only member of her large family who attended the burial at Tehran's Behesht Zahra cemetery. The family did not hold a traditional postburial gathering in order not to endanger others and also in line with government guidelines aimed at slowing the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran. Grieving relatives and friends who were not allowed to visit his grandmother at the hospital could only call to express their condolences or send messages via social media. But in a society that puts a big emphasis on strong family ties and where people touch and embrace to express affection, Kambiz (not his real name) tells RFE/RL he felt especially lonely and the experience was traumatic for him. "Everyone is very sad because we can't hold a ceremony and mourn together, which is comforting for the survivors," he says. "We've been robbed of [the experience]." To contain the deadly outbreak of coronavirus, the Iranian government has banned funeral ceremonies while urging Iranians to strictly respect hygienic routines and social-distancing rules. The pandemic has officially killed more than 3,200 Iranians and infected more than 50,000, as of April 4, though many Iranians and international observers believe the number of dead and overall cases is far higher. Authorities have said those who die from COVID-19 are buried based on protocols issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). The dead are reportedly placed in body bags in graves covered in lime by trained cemetery workers in protective suits. Relatives have in some cases been allowed to pray before the actual burial while respecting the spacing rules and not hugging or kissing. The directives have led to highly unusual burial scenes described by many as "surreal." For most Iranians, grieving alone has added to the distress of losing their loved ones. The mourning ceremonies held right after burials as well as one week later and 40 days after deaths are an opportunity for families and friends to come together and comfort each other. But now people are forced to grieve in the isolation of their homes. Unlike Kambiz, who could say a last farewell to his grandmother, Siavash did not get to see his brother, who died of cancer two weeks ago in the northern city of Rasht. Siavash had visited him in June but the coronavirus outbreak prevented him from traveling to city on the Caspian Sea again to see his brother one last time and attend his funeral. He says he also recently lost a close friend in Tehran to COVID-19 without being able to say goodbye. Siavash says many are denied closure as the result of the deadly pandemic. "When you don't mourn a loved one, you don't think he's dead," he tells RFE/RL. 'Unexpressed Grief' The situation has led to concerns about the trauma facing the country's many grieving families at a time when traditional death rituals have been shattered. Many COVD-19 patients have reportedly died alone in hospital isolation. "If in your family, among friends and acquaintances, you know someone who has lost a loved one to coronavirus, don't forget to [share] their grief," Hadi Yazadani, a doctor and pro-reform political activist, tweeted on March 27. "Since you can't mourn with them [in person], pick up the phone and call them," he wrote. Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said this week that many Iranians were likely to face "unexpressed sorrow," while adding that religious teachings and communication tools could help deal with the grief. He also called on psychologists and psychiatrists to share coping mechanisms. Amid calls for Iranians to avoid gathering and not hold mourning ceremonies for their loved ones, a large funeral procession with hundreds of people was held last week near Tehran for a former commander with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), where social-distancing rules were obscenely violated by mourners. The potential health risks from the procession led to outrage on social media and protests by Kianpur, who said on Twitter, "You just have to cry" in reaction to images showing mourners standing next to each other while touching the casket of the IRGC official. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/coronavirus -shatters-iranian-death- rituals-robbing-many-of-last-farewell -with-loved-ones/30530099.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New Delhi, April 5 : As the total tally of novel coronavirus crosses 3000 mark the government has scaled up the cluster containment strategy of COVID-19 in the country. The ministry of Health and Family Welfare has chalked out an aggressive containment plan that will only be scaled down if no secondary laboratory confirmed COVID-19 case is reported from the geographic quarantine zone for at least four weeks after the last confirmed test has been isolated and all his contacts have been followed up for 28 days. "The containment operation shall be deemed to be over 28 days from the discharge of the last confirmed case (following negative tests as per discharge policy) from the designated health facility i.e. when the follow up of hospital contacts will be complete," said a 20 page strategy document. According to the Health Ministry, 211 districts are now reporting COVID-19 cases and the risk of further spread remains very high, said the document. India would be following a scenario based approach according to which containment for large outbreaks will be done through geographic quarantine strategy. The objective of this plan is to stop the chain of transmission thus reducing the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19. The Cluster Containment Strategy would be to contain the disease within a defined geographical area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas. Geographic quarantine shall be applicable to such areas reporting large outbreak or multiple clusters of COVID-19 spread over multiple blocks of one or more districts that are contiguous. This strategy calls for near absolute interruption of movement of people to and from a relatively large defined geographic area where there is single large outbreak. However, if the containment plan is not able to contain the outbreak and large numbers of cases start appearing, then a decision will need to be taken by the State administration to abandon the containment plan and start on mitigation activities. In India, clusters have appeared in multiple states, particularly Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana and Union Territory of Ladakh. The document also gave the evidence for implementing geographic quarantine. "In 2009, during the H1N1 Influenza pandemic it was observed that well connected big cities with substantive population movement were reporting large number of cases, whereas rural areas and smaller towns with low population densities and relatively poor road, rail and airway connectivity were reporting only few cases. The current geographic distribution of COVID-19 mimics the distribution of H1N1 Pandemic Influenza," said the document. The government has therefore suggested that it is unlikely the spread of COVID-19 will be uniformly affecting all parts of the country. This calls for differential approach to different regions of the country, while mounting a strong containment effort in hotspots. US President Donald Trump has said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the amount of Hydroxychloroquine ordered by the United States after India last month banned the drugs for exports. Trump said that he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxycholoroquine for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on March 25 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the worst sufferers of the deadly coronavirus diseases to which there has been no cure. Scientists across the world in particular in the US are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine, a decades old malaria drug, for the successful treatment of coronavirus. Following a quick provisional approval from the US Federal Drug Administration last Saturday, the malaria drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. In the next several weeks, health experts in the US has projected between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to coronavirus, which due to human-to-human transmission is spreading like a wildfire in the US. In anticipation of it being a successful drug in the treatment of coronavirus, the US has already stockpiled some 29 million doses. It is in this context Trump requested Modi to help US get millions of doses of Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that can be produced at mass scale in India. Trump said he would appreciate if India releases the amount of Hydroxychloroquine that the US has ordered. "And I said I would appreciate if they (India) would release the amounts that we ordered, he said, without mentioning that quantity of Hydroxychloroquine that has been ordered by US companies from India. The Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Trump said that people in malaria affected-countries take Hydroxychloroquine and not many people are infected by coronavirus. Trump said that he would take Hydroxychloroquine, if needed. "I think people should if it were me, in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, Ok? I may take it. And, I'll have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it, he said in response to a question. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment. A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers. By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile. That federal cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency. Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks. We basically wasted two months, Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP. As early as mid-January, U.S. officials could see that hospitals in China's Hubei province were overwhelmed with infected patients, with many left dependent on ventilator machines to breath. Italy soon followed, with hospitals scrambling for doctors, beds and equipment. HHS did not respond to questions about why federal officials waited to order medical supplies until stocks were running critically low. But President Donald Trump has asserted that the federal government should take a back seat to states when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort. The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use. Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements, saying the federal government must take the lead in ensuring medical supplies are available and distributed where they are needed most. States do not have the purchasing power of the federal government. They do not have the ability to run a deficit like the federal government. They do not have the logistical power of the federal government, said Sebelius, who served as governor of Kansas before running the nation's health care system. Because of the fractured federal response to COVID-19, state governors say they're now bidding against federal agencies and each other for scarce supplies, driving up prices. You now literally will have a company call you up and say, 'Well, California just outbid you,' Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. It's like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator. For nearly a month, Trump rebuffed calls from Cuomo and others to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to order companies to increase production of ventilators and personal protective equipment. He suggested the private sector was acting sufficiently on its own. More than three months after China revealed the first COVID-19 cases, Trump finally relented last week, saying he will order companies to ramp up production of critical supplies. By then, confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the United States had surged to the highest in the world, with more than 300,000 people infected, and deaths have topped 8,400. Trump spent January and February playing down the threat from the new virus. He derided warnings of pandemic reaching the U.S. as a hoax perpetrated by Democrats and the media. As the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on Jan 30, Trump assured the American people that the virus was very well under control and he predicted a very good ending." His administration was so confident that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Feb 7 that the government had airlifted nearly 18 tons of respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns and other medical supplies to China. On Feb 24, the White House sent Congress an initial USD 2.5 billion funding request to address the coronavirus outbreak. The next day, federal health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the virus was spreading quickly in the U.S. and predicted that disruptions to daily life could be severe, including school and business closures. Unfazed, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers on Feb. 27 that the immediate risk to the American public remains low. During those crucial early weeks when the U.S. could have been tracking the spread of the disease and containing it, hardly anyone was being tested after a series of federal blunders led to a shortage of tests and testing capacity, as AP reported last month. Without data showing how widespread the disease was, federal and state governments failed to prepare. By the middle of March, hospitals in New York, Seattle and New Orleans were reporting a surge in sick patients. Doctors and nurses took to social media to express their alarm at dwindling supplies of such basic equipment as masks and gowns. Trump accused some Democratic governors of exaggerating the need and derided those that criticized the federal response as complainers and snakes. I want them to be appreciative, Trump said on March 27. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Queen Elizabeth II will make an extremely rare address to the nation at 8pm this evening over coronavirus Advertisement Donald Trump has praised the Queen as a 'great & wonderful woman' ahead of her rare address to the nation tonight over the coronavirus pandemic. Seeing the news of the monarch's extremely rare broadcast, the President took to Twitter to share his admiration for the 93-year-old, who will speak to the country in only her fifth-ever televised message, except for at Christmas. 'A great & wonderful woman!' Trump posted online a few hours ahead of the programming. Last month, the President used his second ever Oval Office address to outline new restrictions on travel and trade to the United States in the fight against Covid-19. Mr Trump has long been an advocate of the Queen, and has previously said he had an 'automatic chemistry' with her and has 'really got to know' her during their private meetings at international events. The Queen will tonight deliver a rallying cry to the nation in which she expresses hope that the quiet, good-humoured resolve of the British people will help to overcome the coronavirus crisis. Invoking the spirit of the Second World War, the 93-year-old monarch will tell tens of millions of TV viewers: I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. Donald Trump has praised the Queen as a 'great & wonderful woman' ahead of her rare address to the nation tonight over the coronavirus pandemic On Sunday, President Trump tweeted that Queen Elizabeth was 'A great & wonderful woman!' He shared his feelings for the British monarch on social media ahead of her speech about the coronavirus pandemic. They are pictured at Buckingham Palace in London on June 3, 2019 In the televised broadcast, recorded in extraordinary circumstances at Windsor Castle with a sole cameraman dressed in protective clothing, the Queen will confront the scale of the task facing the country. I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time, she will say. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. In only the fifth such address of her 68-year reign, the Queen will also thank NHS staff and other key workers. Royal addresses by the Queen are exceedingly rare, with tonight's message from Windsor Castle being only her fourth in 68 years. Her last address came in 2012 to mark the celebrations around her Diamond Jubilee His latest post about the 93-year-old came shortly before one of her extremely rare royal addresses, with the exception of her annual Christmas message. They come in times of war, such as the Gulf conflict in 1991, and at times of great sorrow. There was a broadcast after the shocking death of Princess Diana in 1997 and another on the eve of the Queen Mothers funeral in 2002. On just one occasion, for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Her Majesty took the opportunity to mark a joyful celebration. Never before, however, has there been a Royal address in quite such extraordinary circumstances as these. When, on Thursday, the Queen took her seat in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle to record the broadcast that will be screened tonight, it must have seemed one of the strangest and most troubling duties of her 68-year reign. Trump recently tweeted his admiration for the Queen despite the fact she does not operate on social media on a personal level Britain's Prince Charles the Prince of Wales (left) is suffering from coronavirus. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, US President Donald J. Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump are pictured attending the commemorations for the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Southsea Common, Portsmouth, Britain, June 5, 2019 Several yards distant, stood a solitary cameraman in latex gloves and a surgical mask. Such arrangements are in keeping with the bizarre new way of living that has swept up the Palace just like the rest of Britain. And the Royal Household, too, has been profoundly disrupted. As the pandemic established its hold on the country, the Queen kept on top of the situation with regular briefings from officials at a safe distance. And from the moment it was understood just how serious the coronavirus would be, it was likely that she would have a vital role to play. Initially, there had been talk among aides of organizing an Easter Day address, a good time for the monarch to offer a message of hope. But as the situation worsened by the day, a more rapid response was needed from an institution not usually known for its dynamic pace. One source said there was also a Diana factor the memory among courtiers of the troubling time when the Queen was criticiZed for waiting nearly a week before addressing the nation following the sudden death of the Princess of Wales. They come in times of war, such as when the land offensive was due to begin at the start of the first Gulf War in 1991. The Queen called on people to unite and pray that the offensive would be 'as swift as it is certain' No such mistakes would be made this time. Never in her reign has there been so much at stake, as the nation struggles with lockdown, the economy reels and the death toll mounts. A Palace source said the message, written by the Queen and her aides, was deeply personal to Her Majesty and reflected her experience in other difficult times. And for just over four minutes, the Queen looks into the camera and, speaking about the challenge facing the nation, acknowledges the sacrifice people are making. To do so, she mentions those sacrifices Britain and her allies made during the Second World War, making the point that we have come through bad times together before thanks to our strength of character and spirit of unity. In this way, she evokes the spirit of the speech her father King George VI made at the start of the Second World War when he said there would be dark times ahead but offered hope that the British spirit would see the country through. In 1997, the Queen broadcast live from Buckingham Palace on the eve of Princess Diana's funeral, where she spoke as 'your Queen' and 'a grandmother' of Princes William and Harry. The 93-year-old previously gave an address from Windsor Castle, where she is currently isolating, on the eve of the Queen Mother's funeral in 2002 There will also be gratitude in the message tonight, however, as the Queen rallies the strength of the British people. A source said: The message will include a thank-you to those on the NHS front line, care workers and those carrying out essential roles. It will also recognize the pain already felt by many families who have lost loved ones and thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. The monarch, who turns 94 this month, has been self-isolating at Windsor Castle, the residence where she feels most at home. The 98-year-old Duke of Edinburgh is there with her. For days leading up to the filming of tonights broadcast, conversations had been taking place between Palace aides and Government advisers, with input and advice from the Queens personal physicians, known as the Medical Household. The question that kept cropping up was: How can we do this safely to mitigate the risk to the Queen and others? And in order to comply with the Governments social distancing regulations, unusual measures were put in place. Chosen for practical reasons, the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle was considered by staff as the best location as it allowed for sufficient distance between the Queen and the camera operator. Pictured: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert relaxing in the White Drawing Room at Windsor castle (1848) Windsor Castle was turned blue in a salute to local heroes during Thursday's nationwide Clap for Carers NHS initiative to applaud NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic The Queen would record the poignant message to the nation with just one other person present. It had never been done like this before. For the recording, a microphone had been set up in advance and a team of sound engineers and other technical staff were watching and listening via screens and speakers in the neighboring Green Drawing Room. While the format of tonights address will be familiar to viewers of the Queens Christmas message, the framed family photographs that typically accompany Her Majesty during happier broadcasts are absent. Gone too from the recording session were the behind-the-scenes staff the six to nine Palace aides who normally watch over proceedings to ensure all goes smoothly. The monarch, 93, will evoke the spirit of the speech her father King George VI (pictured in 1939) made at the start of the Second World War when he said there would be dark times ahead but offered hope that the British spirit would see the country through The Queen is known by Palace staff past and present for her skill at being able to execute her broadcasts in just one take which any television host will tell you is no mean feat. But Her Majesty was required on this occasion to repeat the message several times so that the sole cameraman could reshoot from different angles. A royal source said: A decision was taken to just use a skeleton crew which reflected the time and the seriousness of the subject. Chosen for practical reasons, the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle was considered by staff as the best location as it allowed for sufficient distance between the Queen and the camera operator. The White Drawing Room itself, in which this historic address was recorded under extraordinary circumstances, could have been destroyed in the blaze, which more than 200 firefighters battled to contain. Pictured: The Queen in the room in 1981 With portraits of royal ancestors on the walls, an ornate circular carpet and carved gilded wooden panels, the room is usually the setting for happier occasions. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, who will mark their 15th anniversary later this week, posed for photographs in the room on their wedding day. Less than two years ago, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank also used the room as a backdrop for their wedding photographs. A clearly delighted Queen could be seen beaming widely for the camera alongside her granddaughter. On Thursday, however, the atmosphere was notably somber. Throughout her reign, the Queen has seen and endured a great deal. Who could forget her annus horribilis Christmas message of 1992 the year a fire tore through Windsor Castle and the marriages of three of her four children fell apart? The White Drawing Room itself, in which this historic address was recorded under extraordinary circumstances, could have been destroyed in the blaze, which more than 200 firefighters battled to contain. Fortunately, however, the magnificent state room and the 62 carved, gilded wooden panels in the three drawing rooms of the most damaged wing of the castle survived. It took four years and a 37million ($45,399) project to restore the rooms to their former glory. Yet restored they were. Palace aides say the choice of Windsors White Drawing Room for tonights broadcast was driven by pragmatic considerations. But it could hardly have been a more fitting backdrop to provide the country with a much-needed message of hope and renewal. The Women and Child Development Ministry is regularly holding online interactive sessions with anganwadi workers to ensure safety of pregnant women and lactating mothers after the 21-day lockdown ends, sources said. The ministry has reached out to more than two lakh anganwadi workers through these interactive sessions, the sources said. "The Women and Child Development Ministry has initiated a series of interactive awareness sessions with them using digital platforms to ensure frontline anganwadi workers have first-hand information regarding measures to safeguard themselves from COVID-19 (even after the lockdown ends)," a source said. The government is also in touch with health experts on the matter, the sources said. "Special focus is also being given to ensure nutritional requirements of pregnant women and lactating mothers are met even after April 15," another source said. On Sunday, digital interactive sessions on COVID-19 involving introduction and preventive management and psychosocial impact of coronavirus on women and children were conducted by the WCD Ministry, the sources said. "Several measures and suggestions were discussed for maintaining physical and mental well-being of women and children amid the pandemic," an official said. In a bid to help domestic violence victims, the National Commission for Women has decided to form a task force of over 15 NGOs to help the women in need, sources in the commission said. The move comes a few days after the NCW said that it has received 69 complaints of domestic violence since the country-wide lockdown was imposed. Since March 24, a total of 257 complaints related to various offences against women were received, out of which 69 were of domestic violence, NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma had said. India is under a three-week lockdown since March 24 with its 1.3 billion people instructed to stay at home in view of the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed over 70 lives and infected over 3,000 people in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Drazen Jorgic MEXICO CITY, April 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Sunday will outline measures to alleviate the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak with a focus on shielding the poor, but is likely to resist calls to borrow heavily for a giant stimulus package. Governments across the globe have unleashed unprecedented spending pledges to minimise the damage to their economies from the fallout from the coronavirus, including a $2 trillion package by Mexico's biggest trading partner, the United States. Lopez Obrador, a leftist, has shown little appetite to follow in the footsteps of Mexico's northern neighbour and has pledged to put forward an "unorthodox" plan. On Saturday, he said he would try to do "all that is possible" to prevent Mexico from piling on debt. The socialist leader has made it clear that he would focus any economic measures on shielding the poor rather than on big businesses from a coming recession, with some analysts forecasting the economy could contract by as much as 10%. Lopez Obrador, known by his initials "AMLO", plans to tap around $10 billion from various rainy day funds and this week the finance ministry said the "buffers" for the economy include some $6.6 billion available as of the end of 2019 in the Budget Revenue Stabilization Fund. "AMLO is not understanding the profoundness of the economic crisis that this may cause for a country like Mexico," said Viri Rios, a Mexican political analyst. "The mechanisms that AMLO is thinking about are going to be completely insufficient to deal with this type of recession." Ahead of his address to the nation on Sunday, Lopez Obrador has faced growing criticism from opposition for not moving fast enough with relief measures amid widening calls for a hike in spending. Mexico's opposition PRI party has criticised Lopez Obrador for planning to tap $10 billion from various funds and trusts, saying it "endangers" pension funds that have workers' resources as well as money that provides stability to national finances. Lopez Obrador's former finance minister, Carlos Urzua, earlier this week called for Mexico to run a bigger deficit, saying it was "obvious" national governments should significantly increase public deficits during this crisis. Story continues On Friday a group of respected economists, veteran policy makers and politicians penned an open letter to Lopez Obrador calling for his government to act quickly, warning that without unprecedented measures there could be "an economic depression and a deepening of poverty not seen in Mexico in many decades." Mexican government's latest economic forecast projects the economy could contract by as much as 3.9% in 2020, though analysts say this figure underplays the severity of the coming recession. The government expects to run a fiscal deficit of 0.4%. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; editing by Diane Craft) The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan rose to 2,880, on Sunday, officials said. According to the Ministry of National Health Services, 45 people have died so far due to the viral infection in the country and 130 have recovered. While Punjab recorded 1,163 cases, Sindh reported 864, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 372, Balochistan 185, Gilgit-Baltistan 206, Islamabad 78 and 12 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The ministry made slight adjustment in the data from the KP province. Yesterday the ministry had said that there were 383 coronavirus cases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, it revised the number to 372 in the latest update. The Pakistan government has taken several measures to curtail the spread of the viral infection, but without much success, officials said. The National Coordination Committee headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan meets every day to evolve the response to the COVID-19 treat. The government has also set up a National Command and Operation Centre to implement the decisions made by the committee. Khan has said that the national policy aimed at slowing down the spread of the disease and opening the economy so that people should have jobs. The Pakistan government on Saturday informed the Supreme Court that the number of coronavirus patients in the country could reach up to 50,000 by the last week of this month. "By April 25, the number of the coronavirus cases are feared to reach 50,000," stated the report submitted by the government on its national action plan for combating the coronavirus outbreak in the country. According to the breakdown provided in the report, around 7,000 cases of the total are expected to be critical in nature while around 2,500 could be a cause of concern. The government estimates that a further 41,000 cases could be of a mild nature, the Geo had reported. The report noted that confirmed cases are expected to be lower than that of countries in Europe, and assured that the government is trying to maximize its testing capacity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mike Sojo, 43, of South Philadelphia, who is homeless, talks about living in a construction pipe near the Walt Whitman Bridge. Read more As dusk closed in, Scott Miller prepared for another night in the acres of industrial yards and overgrown thickets near the Walt Whitman Bridge inside the massive, rusted pipe he had made his home. Stacked like logs and large enough to stand up and stretch in, the pipes, left over from some forgotten construction project, now house a small community. The homeless men and women who live inside them call them the Tubes. In his tube, Miller kept his bike and clothes. Around his neck, he wore a plastic crucifix. He prays to God on the coldest nights. I ask him to send an angel down here to keep me warm, to help me out, gimme shelter, he said. The camp has its longtimers. Theres Miller, 49, who grew up on nearby Marshall Street and has lived in the camp for two years. Theres Mike Sojo, 43, who lived on Bigler Street before becoming homeless six years ago. He keeps his tube meticulously outfitted with a couch and leather chairs, a well-made bed, and a commode with a candle and a small shrine to St. Anthony, the patron of lost things. But more and more these days, new faces are coming through the Tubes. Like the tattooed South Philadelphian in his 30s who recently moved into the pipe above Miller. He is battling heroin addiction and had until recently been sleeping on his parents porch. A lot of nights, he said, I sit up there [in the pipe] and cry myself to sleep. The newest arrivals The camps newest arrivals represent the shifting landscape of Philadelphia homelessness. In the last year, officials say, the number of people living on the streets of South Philadelphia has jumped from 15 to 45. That number might seem small. But it means that South Philadelphias homeless population has tripled in a year a rate unmatched by any other section of the city except for Center City East. And outreach workers say they believe closer to 70 people are sleeping outside in the neighborhood one without walk-in shelters or respite centers. Part of the increase is due to the way homeless people can be pushed out of neighborhoods in Philadelphia. READ MORE: Its heartbreaking: Coronavirus puts Philly homeless services in survival mode In recent years, the citys encampment resolution program built on concerted outreach and prioritized services has shown some success in clearing homeless camps in Kensington and Center City. In Kensington, almost all the residents of four major camps entered at least short-term treatment or housing, one study found. Advocates have criticized the efforts, including last months clearing of an encampment outside the Convention Center. The sweep violates recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and advocates argue it would leave people in the camp more at risk of contracting the coronavirus, either in the citys crowded shelter system or isolated, far from help, on the street. One result of the clearings is that they have led some people with serious addictions or mental illness who arent yet ready to come inside or who prefer life on the streets to the stretched-thin resources on offer here to seek places to hide. While visible encampments have bubbled up around transportation hubs in South Philadelphia, outreach workers say more vulnerable people are making shelter in hard-to-spot pockets of the neighborhood: In tents buried in the brush along the Delaware River. In campsites tucked along the railroad tracks, or under I-95. In the Tubes. READ MORE: How Philly plans to combat the nations worst big-city opioid crisis in 2020 But theres a second force driving the increase in homelessness in South Philly exemplified in the stream of new calls coming into the nonprofit Project HOMEs Homeless Outreach Hotline, about people sleeping on stoops and in alleyways along the neighborhoods residential blocks. Many of them are addicted to opioids, and newly homeless in the neighborhoods where they were raised, a wide swath of the city between Washington Avenue and the stadiums whose size belies the tight-knit nature of the dozens of small communities that compose it everyone from old-school residents to emerging immigrant communities and a growing number of young professionals. South Philly is famous for taking care of its own. But in this case, the neighborhood cant. Outreach workers and advocates say the area doesnt have the resources needed to meet the emerging problem. State Rep. Liz Fielder, whose district includes most of South Philadelphia east of Broad Street, says her constituents want to help. They see something beyond a growing homeless population: They see people they know. The concerns the neighbors and community leaders brought to me was that they know these folks who are living in the parking lot or on the park bench, Fielder said. Its someone who their child went to high school with or someone they went to high school with former neighbors. In recent weeks, Fielder has brought together community members and city officials to discuss whats needed. READ MORE: In South Philly, a long-hidden heroin crisis cant be ignored anymore Whether thats providing mental health services, beds, recovery, focusing on housing problems, working with other people to identify gaps [in services], she said. We need to be doing more or something different. Liz Hersh, the citys director of homeless services, said that while the citys new homeless numbers will not be finalized until April, they show that homelessness in Philadelphia is decreasing. Still, the small influx of people in South Philadelphia poses a challenge because theres little infrastructure in place there to support homeless people. Its far from an impossible task though one thats been recently overshadowed, like so many other things in the world, by the coronavirus outbreak. Still, city officials said this week, efforts continue to reach people in South Philly and across the city, and outreach workers are even using the crisis to connect with people who may have otherwise avoided help. We are starting to understand that there is a trend happening in South Philly and sending outreach teams to address the problem, Hersh said. It just takes us a while to be able to have a system response. It is like trying to turn a really big ship. Wanting to feel safe A good part of Jonathan Jucketts job has become knowing where to look. Where to find the tents in the winding brush off the Delaware River trails, or in the backwoods of FDR Park. How to spot the newcomer sleeping rough on some side street. READ MORE: Pa. eases take-home restrictions on meds for people in opioid recovery to reduce clinic crowds The other part of his job is getting to know the people inside those tents and sleeping bags. Soft-spoken with a bushy red beard, Juckett coordinates outreach efforts for Project HOME. He knows some of those now living in South Philly from earlier outreach efforts in Center City or Kensington people who headed south when the city closed camps there. This comes from a place of wanting to be somewhere they wont be bothered someplace where theyll feel safe, he said, on a recent night-shift ride through South Philly. There are new faces from the suburban counties, some who sleep in the tents along the river. They panhandle along the interchanges and travel back and forth to Kensington or to drug markets in South Philly. And they camp deep in the brush, sometimes with only their tent tops poking out. So well-hidden, Juckett said, that he believes some were likely missed during the most recent homeless count. But many are just from the neighborhood, he said. They are newly homeless, sleeping on porches of houses they once rented or owned or living in tents and cardboard boxes under I-95, in plain sight of family and neighbors. Many are reluctant to leave the neighborhood they know, even for shelter or services, he said. Most are battling opioid addiction, with families who have kicked them out, but whom they stay close to, still. Because their families may let them in when its really cold but not otherwise, Juckett said. READ MORE: Whats missing from Philadelphias approach to opioid crisis? Experts from outside the city weigh in | Opinion Like Michael Daly, 25, who stands outside the Walmart most days and holds a cardboard sign that reads: Homeless. Hungry. Anything helps. He said he grew up on Two Street and had been living on the streets after becoming estranged from his family. He hadnt gone far from home. He sleeps in a tent behind the Acme, only heading to the downtown shelters when the temperatures dip below freezing. Its safer behind the Acme, he feels. Im from the neighborhood. Some people help me out because they know me, he said. Its kind of really embarrassing. To see people, and they look down on you and they dont understand. They dont look at you like a person. And there is Gina Webb, 29, who was living in a tent in a patch of woods near the entrance of the Walt Whitman Bridge. She said she grew up near Seventh and Wolf and had for a long time slept in the streets of her childhood neighborhood. She still goes back to the neighborhood daily, she said, knocking on the doors of her old neighbors, asking for help. If it wasnt for my last name, Id be dead, she said on a recent day. Because everyone knows me, and they know I come from a good family. They help me, they give me a dollar here or there. They know what Ive been through and they know what I can be. Addiction, to opioids, mostly, is the common thread between both those from outside South Philly and the people who grew up in the neighborhood and now sleep on its streets, Juckett said. READ MORE: At Penn, people in recovery are helping more patients with addiction enter treatment It takes time to make forward progress in so many of these cases, he said. So, you try to build up peoples trust. Not only to trust in you, but to want more for themselves. People need something to hold on to and remember who they are. Most days, Juckett coordinates about 28 outreach workers through the city Department of Behavioral Health with only two workers on the overnight shift all tasked with canvassing the city, and responding to hotline calls from all over. As we as a community push homeless people out into the neighborhoods, it makes it harder for us to do our jobs, he said. It makes it harder for us to find where people are staying and build up relationships. And it causes situations where people move into tents. In Center City, people are more likely to go into a shelter than someone who lives in a tent in South Philly. Homeless encampments form because people on the street crave community and companionship, just like anyone else, said Carol Thomas, the director of homeless services at Project HOME. But amid the opioid crisis where using drugs alone can mean a fatal overdose being in community with others is a matter of life and death. Nothing to be ashamed of In a community that has long preferred to keep its problems private and where stigma and shame over addiction and mental health issues can cut deep, Dave Holloman, chief of staff for the city office of homeless services, said more outreach is needed to let South Philadelphians know how to take advantage of existing city services for treatment and housing. To make them aware that its nothing to be [ashamed] of every family has some form of substance abuse or behavioral health challenge, he said. If you dont provide educational and awareness tools, people start to build their own narrative. READ MORE: Where are they now? After their profiles ran in the Inquirer, Philadelphians in recovery share their stories. And those narratives as the eruption of protests last month over a proposed supervised injection site in the neighborhood showed can quickly turn poisonous. But so far the conversations with the community over rising homelessness have been far from that, Holloman said. Instead, theyve focused on how can we get help and be a help. The most important thing to me is myth-busting, he said. There are so many stereotypes associated with shelters and other kinds of resources that arent true. For her part, Hersh said its too early to say exactly what resources, like a shelter or meal sites, would be the right fit for a community as big and diverse as South Philly. They call it South Philly, but its not monolithic, she said. Its a variety of neighborhoods, old and new, figuring out how to get a foothold. The conversations with Fielder and the neighborhood groups will be key in figuring out a way forward, she said. Its better when the neighborhood takes a lead in these conversations, she said. READ MORE: Could Philly City Council block supervised injection sites? Legislation advances out of committee. In the meantime, she said, the department will deploy additional social workers and other staffers dedicated solely to the small encampments in South Philadelphia. Outreach, outreach, outreach, thats our front line finding out whos out there, what do they need, and how can we get them in, she said. On a rainy day early this month, outreach worker Edward Dover made his rounds through South Philly. They take longer and longer these days. At Front and Reed, he talked with Christopher Buccieri, 38, who lives under the I-95 underpass with his twin brother. They grew up at Seventh and Oregon. Buccieri says these days, there are so many new faces on the streets that panhandling has become difficult. Then Dover made his way to the Tubes, to check in on the community living in the pipes. He met with Scott Miller, still wearing his plastic crucifix. Dover had recently secured him an apartment, but Miller was still returning to the Tubes every day. READ MORE: The Hub of Hopes laundry services help homeless people feel 'normal again Dover was getting to know the tattooed man, the 30-something from the neighborhood, and another new face, a man who said he preferred the Tubes to city shelters. Mike Sojo, the camps longest tenant, helped introduce the new faces. He knew, from all the young people he had met in the streets, that there would be more to come. And Ill be here to greet them, he said. The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the citys push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org. S cotlands chief medical officer has been given a police warning for defying lockdown rules to visit her familys second home in Fife during the coronavirus pandemic. Dr Catherine Calderwood was visited by police and given a warning about her future conduct after going against her own advice that all Scotts should stay at home. Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said officers spoke to her about her action, reiterated crucial advice and issued a warning about her future conduct. It comes as Scottish First Minister, responding to calls for Dr Calderwood to resign, said that chief medical officer had offered to do what is in the best interest of the country. She acknowledged Dr Calderwood made a mistake, but added: In my view, that would not be her resignation. Pictures of her and her family near a coastal retreat in Earlsferry were published in the Scottish Sun on Saturday, prompting Dr Calderwood to apologise. Just days earlier, the 51-year-old shared a picture of her family at their primary residence in Edinburgh as they clapped for the NHS staff on the front line of the fight against Covid-19. In a statement, Dr Calderwood admitted her reasons for taking the hour drive to her second home were not legitimate, adding that she is truly sorry for not following advice she gave to others. Despite facing calls from politicians to stand down, she said she has spoken to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and will continue to focus entirely on her job of advising ministers over the outbreak. In a statement, Mr Livingstone said: Earlier today, local officers visited Dr Catherine Calderwood and spoke to her about her actions, reiterated crucial advice and issued a warning about her future conduct, all of which she accepted. The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone. Social distancing is the key intervention to curtail the spread of coronavirus and it is essential that the instructions are followed to protect each other, take strain from the NHS and save lives. Individuals must not make personal exemptions bespoke to their own circumstances. Earlier, Dr Calderwood said in a statement: I wish to apologise unreservedly for the issue reported in the media today. While there are reasons for what I did, they do not justify it and they were not legitimate reasons to be out of my home. While I and my family followed the guidance on social distancing at all times, I understand that I did not follow the advice I am giving to others, and I am truly sorry for that. I know how important this advice is and I do not want my mistake to distract from that. I have a job to do as chief medical officer to provide advice to ministers on the path of this virus and to support the medical profession as they work night and day to save lives, and having spoken with the First Minister this morning I will continue to focus entirely on that job. The Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Labour have called for Dr Calderwood to resign. In a joint statement, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie and Wendy Chamberlain, the MSP and MP respectively for the area where Dr Calderwood has her second home, said: If we are going to get through this pandemic we need medical leaders who everyone can follow. It is with great regret that we say that the chief medical officer will need to go. Scottish Labours health spokeswoman Monica Lennon also called for Dr Calderwood to stand down, while Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said her position is untenable and the Scottish Greens said she can no longer credibly front the public health campaign. Scotlands Constitution Secretary Mike Russell said there was no doubt Dr Calderwoods visit which the Scottish Government confirmed was an overnight stay to check on a family home was ill-advised. He said she would be answerable for her decision when she appears at the daily coronavirus briefing with Ms Sturgeon later. Mr Russell added: Im saying to everybody do not go out except in the very exceptional circumstances that are listed, think about these things and remember by breaking them you are risking lives. Last month, the Scottish Government issued a travel warning criticising the irresponsible behaviour of people with second homes and campervans travelling to the Highlands in a bid to isolate. Bengaluru: Opening of Karnataka's borders to Kerala at this point in time will be like "embracing death," chief minister B S Yediyurappa said on Saturday making clear his government's stand not opening the state border. The chief minister repeatedly said that for his government interest of the people of the state was supreme. Yediyurappa made his stand clear in a letter to former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda. Gowda had recently written to the chief minister on March 31 seeking relaxation of the border restrictions on "humanitarian" grounds. He had also written to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressing his anguish against Karnataka authorities for imposing restriction and promising to raise the matter with prime minister Narendra Modi. Stating the decision to close the border was not sudden, Yediyurappa said, it was a conscious decision after analysing the health situation in the area following the spread of COVID-19. The chief minister cited the Indian Medical Association, Mangaluru branch data regarding the spread of Covid-19 in Kasargod of Kerala and surrounding areas which was alarming. Noting that the region has nearly 106 positive coronaviruscases, he said, "this is the region with most number of infections in the country." If this restriction is removed, it puts the health of the people of Karnataka in to risk and create a situation of "embracing death", so we will not be able to open the border, Yediyurappa said. He also clarified that there was no prejudice behind his government's decision, and the interest of the people of the state was of utmost importance. "...There is also no political maliciousness. We want to have good and brotherly relationship with neighbouring states," he said, adding that opening the border will open a pandora's box that will be disastrous for the state. Yediyurappa also thanked opposition parties for their support to his government in its fight against COVID-19. The COVID-19 humanitarian crisis is compounded in its severity by an economic crisis that, like the virus, is worsening exponentially. Nowhere is this more pronounced than Alberta where, this week, the price of Western Canadian Select oil plummeted below $5 a barrel equivalent to the price of a pint of beer. We are facing the prospect of a depression that will leave no Canadian untouched. Every industry is experiencing the sharpest downturn in living memory as the economy has gone into deep freeze. But in a country where the energy sector accounts for more than a tenth of GDP, and a region where hundreds of thousands rely on that industry for their livelihood, the wholly politically engineered disaster of dirt-cheap oil is tragedy upon tragedy, akin to kicking someone already down. In early March, when talks stalled between Russia and OPEC, the price of crude oil plunged by a third, thanks to deliberate decisions to flood supply in the market made by Moscow and Riyadh. Whats worse, the repercussions of the OPEC price war have been compounded by massive declines in demand as the worlds two largest oil consumers China and the United States moved toward total lockdown in response to the pandemic. Just as Alberta and Canadas economy were bolting down for the impact of COVID-19, the OPEC issue has brought challenges for the energy sector in general to the fore. While the impact may look different for conventional versus renewable energy companies, the reality is that both are united in their reliance on access to capital. Across the entire economy, that capital will now be much more difficult to attain than it has been for a long time. The result? A crisis of unprecedented magnitude. The falling price of oil means not only is the energy sector hurting but Albertans are seriously hurting right now as well. And thats bad news for every Canadian. For all the talk of economic recovery in Canada, we need to face the reality that we wont have a recovery in this country without the energy sector. It plays a central role in our economy. It is critical for the effective functioning of almost every other industry as well. And importantly the energy sector goes well beyond Alberta, too. One need look no further than the dire state of affairs in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the combined impact of COVID-19 and the oil crash has left the province in financial ruin. It may be that the Trudeau Liberals are reluctant to take action to benefit the oilpatch while other sectors, the ones whose impact is more personal to many Canadians, are still reeling. But as our government moves forward with bailout plans for strategic sectors and looks at options to quickly restart the economy, it would be unconscionable foolhardy to boot to leave the energy sector behind. Whether it is conventional or renewable, energy is one industry that can have a direct and immediate impact on jobs, stimulate investment and create benefits for communities small and large, including Indigenous communities. That said, no matter how well calibrated the response, the impact will be devastating. There will be significant consolidation in the sector. In the long run, though, this will provide a pivotal opportunity for innovators to come out on top and, in doing so, transform Canadian energy. It is a movie we have seen before: some of the current oilpatch leaders were born out of a previous downturn. Newer companies will be doing things better, with more efficient and sustainable methods. The key to a successful government response will be not to shy away from traditional oil and gas producers but rather, partly out of economic necessity, to embrace them. And, at the same time, embrace the kind of technology and solutions needed to help the industry achieve a lower carbon footprint. That is where the opportunity lies. Ottawa cannot afford to miss out on it. Canadians certainly cant. Especially now that, just when we were facing the greatest challenge of our lifetimes, Saudi Arabia, Russia and others were content to effectively destroy our own energy industry. Perhaps now, we will all listen more intently to Premier Jason Kenneys long-standing pleas for North American energy independence. Jaime Watt is the executive chairman of Navigator Ltd. and a Conservative strategist. He is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: is the executive chairman of Navigator Ltd. and a Conservative strategist. He is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @jaimewatt Read more about: Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of stories featuring the five candidates running for Butte-Silver Bow chief executive this year. Brendan McDonough loves a lot of things about Butte, Montana, but one thing actually about 35,000 of them stands out. Its the people. I absolutely love the people who live here, says McDonough, 44, who has lived here all his life. I love the history that Butte provides. Butte has a story that no other city in the world has. The people of Butte our history and our culture we just have a never-die-or-quit mentality. Were always a city that everyone expects will turn off the lights and leave but that is never going to happen. McDonough has been a Butte-Silver Bow commissioner for eight years and is now one of five people running for chief executive, the countys top political post. It includes oversight of city-county operations, a budget exceeding $130 million and more than 450 employees. The current chief executive, Dave Palmer, is seeking a second term this year and the other candidates are Parks Director J.P. Gallagher, Butte businessman and restaurateur Tom Cronnelly, and Ted Deshner, who owns the Party Palace and three other bars and eateries. McDonough has served on several boards, including those overseeing the countys industrial park tax district, Bert Mooney Airport and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the latter as a key organizer of the annual An Ri Ra Irish festival in August. Given that and his eight years on the Council of Commissioners representing District 8, which covers a large swath of north-central Butte, he says hes well-prepared to be chief executive. Its a broad experience of government, he said. I understand where we can do things better. Butte, government roots McDonough grew up with a brother and a sister, the children of Bob and Alice McDonough, on Argyle Street across from Clark Park. He graduated from Butte Central High School in 1994 and earned a bachelors degree in business information systems from Montana Tech in 1998. He received a master's in technical communications from Tech in 2017. In recent years he was an adjunct professor at Montana Techs Highlands College and helped oversee its learning center, which offered computer and tutoring services to students, but the position was eliminated during restructuring in late 2018. He has since done some work for his parents' real estate business and some contract work, including some for Town Pump, while also juggling his council and board duties. Hes been instrumental in organizing the An Ri Ra festival the past 17 years and says the summer festivals, which used to include Evel Knievel Days and still include the Montana Folk Festival, have been great for Butte. I think theyve all been an economic boost and they have done a lot to boost the morale of the community, McDonough said. When they started, there were a lot more vacant buildings in the Uptown area than there are now. Nobody, he added, throws a party like Butte. He won his District 8 seat in 2012, getting 54 percent of the vote against Ristene Hall, and won re-election in 2016 with 56 percent of votes against Walter Parrett. He has worked on numerous issues, including economic development, environmental clean-up and historic preservation, and says often that his constituents are free to call him about any matter. He has served on several council committees and is currently chairman of two them Judiciary, which considers and helps write new ordinances, and Finance and Budget, which provides oversight of all the county's money matters. Big issues The biggest concern in Butte and everywhere else in America, of course, is the coronavirus. Nobody knows when the pandemic will subside, if or when things get back to normal, and what the economic landscape will look like when it does. Currently, everybody is just trying to hang on and survive, McDonough said. Besides that, McDonough says, the most pressing issue before Butte-Silver Bow government now is environmental cleanup tied to Superfund and now the consent decree. The legal document spells out work needed to address mine pollution in Uptown, Walkerville, parts of Blacktail and Silver Bow creeks and other areas. It includes some work that needs to be done forever. The plan took years of negotiation between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state of Montana, Atlantic Richfield Co. and Butte-Silver Bow. It must be approved by all parties, and the countys OK is currently pending with commissioners. Theres an obvious need for environmental cleanup so we need to get all of that work completed, McDonough said. I think the stigma of Superfund has held us back for decades and its time that we move on and move forward and get our town cleaned up. By doing that, he said, Butte can start redefining its perception around the state and the nation and that alone should open up new avenues for economic development. The county is doing good things on that front now, McDonough said, including its tax-increment financing (TIF) districts Uptown and the one surrounding the Montana Connections Business Development Park just west of town. Infrastructure has been greatly expanded in the industrial park, home to numerous businesses including REC Silicon, SeaCast and the new Montana Craft Malt plant. All are located here in whole or in part because of Butte natives who brought their business successes back to town. McDonough says Butte needs to reach out to more of its alumni. Some of them are moving back but a lot of them are investing back into the community, he said. We need to build that pipeline even further. The county also needs to strengthen its ties to Montana Tech, he said, and look for opportunities to spin industries from it. Its very effective in Missoula and Bozeman with their universities and hopefully we can find more avenues to develop that partnership, he said. Other issues Here are McDonoughs thoughts on other key issues: Taxes: I think we have done a really good job of trying to hold the line (on taxes) and trying to manage the budget as effectively and efficiently as possible, he said. But the county faces some likely belt-tightening because of the COVID-19 fallout. Butte has a lot of seniors who live on fixed incomes and McDonough says he would be sensitive to them and all taxpayers. Costs go up for everything, including government services, he said, but the best answer to that is growing the tax base. Roads: McDonough, like most commissioners, favored a move that increased overall road fees but spread them out to all property owners in the county. That is funding more street maintenance costs while freeing up other pots of money for actual road construction, he says. McDonough was on a committee that explored road fees for more than two years, and although ways to make it more equitable should be pursued, it was a sensible move, he said. I think roads are going to improve greatly over the next few years, he said. Government structure: McDonough opposes a proposal to reduce the number of commissioners from 12 in districts to five at-large members and have a hired city manager, instead of an elected chief executive, oversee day-to-day operations. Among other reasons, he said, having 12 commissioners in districts means they are more accessible to their constituents. Parks: McDonough says parks, including Ridge Waters and the greatly enhanced Stodden Park, are among Buttes biggest assets and the county does a good job of taking care of them within the budget. Added comments McDonough declined to fault Palmer for anything. Im not in this to criticize, Im just running on my strengths, he said. Topping that list, he said, was his experience on council and the boards he has served on. I understand how government works and how it can be effective at the local level, he said. We have a lot of great employees and department heads and people on the ground who do an excellent job and it all starts at the top. Love 7 Funny 7 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 5 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County rose again on Sunday, the county issued guidance that residents should wear face masks while traveling outside. The number of positive COVID-19 cases on Sunday rose to 149, an increase of seven from the previous day, the county reported in a news release. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Get the latest on the regions coronavirus impact County officials are following recent recommendations from the national Centers for Disease Control recommending face masks. According to the CDC, recent studies show the virus can spread by people who do not show symptoms, the release stated. You could spread COVID-19 to others even if you do not feel sick. People are encouraged to use a cloth covering over their face instead of using masks meant for the medical community, due to the shortage of masks across the country. Cloth masks should not be used for children under the age of 2 years old, or for people who already have respiratory problems. The masks are meant to help protect others in case you are already infected but are not showing symptoms. Previous recommendations should still be followed: stay at least 6 feet away from others, maintain social isolation except for necessities, wash hands regularly for 20 seconds at a time, and clean frequently used surfaces in your home. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Help Our Heroes PPE donation effort planned Of the seven new cases, two are hospitalized and the rest are recovering at home. The Woodlands continues to report the highest number of cases with 33, including one of the seven reported today. Spring follows closely with 32 cases. The county now has 125 active cases of COVID-19, with 23 hospitalized cases. So far, 21 people in the county have recovered. The county is reporting three deaths related to COVID-19, all residents of The Conservatory at Alden Bridge, a senior living facility in The Woodlands. Montgomery County has been under a Stay At Home order since March 27 but since March 12 the county government has limited capacity of local events and gatherings to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Currently, restaurants and bars are closed to table service, but food can be served through pickup or delivery options. Many businesses considered non-essential are closed and even essential businesses like grocery stores are limiting their hours of operation. For a complete list of all confirmed new coronavirus cases in Montgomery County, visit mcphd-tx.org/coronavirus-covid-19/confirmed-cases/. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com Dubai Customs has boosted its centres preparedness to provide all services to companies and complete transactions online in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Companies can enjoy smart services of Dubai Customs to benefit from the excellent facilitations available, including booking an inspection date, which will be done fast and with minimal contact, said a Wam news agency report. Using Dubai Customs smart channels, clients can access all the services and clear their shipments without any need for a physical visit to the Jebel Ali Center. This is part of Dubai customs' precautionary measures against the outbreak of Covid-19 in line with the UAE government regulations and directives. Inspection officers at Jebel Ali Centers were provided with all the equipment needed to protect themselves from the virus. Inspectors are working in hard circumstances and the higher management team highly applauded and appreciated them for the big role they play in facilitating legitimate trade and protecting society from any health or security hazards. "We work hard to meet the clients expectations and needs at this hard time," said Yousef Al Hashimi, Director of Jebel Ali Customs Centers Management. "To ensure best help and access is provided to all our clients, we are using the latest technologies following strict precautionary measures. Trade activity is performing fantastic and there is no delay in shipments. With this, we support the national economy and maintain Dubais position as a leading hub and connection between the world continents and countries, even at this hard time which sees the outbreak of coronavirus worldwide." Dubai Customs has issued a customs statement in which it endorsed economic stimulus initiatives following the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The initiatives were launched by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council. They included an initiative to refund 20 percent of the customs tariff, which is paid to imported goods that are sold locally. Customs will refund 1 percent to all goods sold locally and imported between March 15 and June 30, which are subject to 5% customs duties. All bank and cash collaterals on customs clearance (Dh50,000) will be cancelled, and clearance companies who have already paid the amount will be refunded, the report said. Paris A man wielding a knife attacked residents of a French town while they ventured out to shop amid a coronavirus lockdown Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight others, authorities said. Police later arrested the assailant nearby, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, thanking shopkeepers for their help. Castaner said authorities were studying whether to qualify the attack in the town of Romans-sur-Isere as an act of terrorism. While more investigating is needed, "it seems that all the risks have been neutralized" because of quick police intervention, Castaner told reporters at the scene. Two people were killed and eight injured, he said. French media reported that three were in critical condition. France's anti-terrorism prosecutor's office told The Associated Press the attack took place at 11 a.m. on a commercial street. Prosecutors did not identify the suspect. They said he had no identifying documents but claimed to be Sudanese and to have been born in 1987. The prosecutor's office did not confirm reports that the man had shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is great) as he carried out the attack. The office said it was evaluating whether the attack was motivated by terrorism, but that it has not launched any formal proceedings to treat it as such. Some 100 police and 45 firefighters were involved in the operation and securing the area, Castaner said. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Like the rest of France, the town's residents are on coronavirus-linked lockdown. The victims were carrying out their weekend food shopping on the street that has bakeries and grocers, the office said. Two-meter distancing is being encouraged as in the rest of the country. Media reported that the knifeman first attacked a Romanian resident who had just left his home for his daily walk slitting his throat in front of his girlfriend and son. Following that, they reported, the assailant entered a tobacco shop, stabbed the tobacconist and two customers, and then went into the local butcher's shop. He grabbed another knife and attacked a client with the blunt end before entering a supermarket. Some shoppers took refuge in a nearby bakery. There have been a number of knife attacks in France in recent months. Sikh communities across Australia have sprung into the action once again to help those in a time of need. Hundreds of volunteers gather in kitchens each day to spend hours cooking and delivering meals for Australians unable to leave home or struggling to put food on the table for the families during the coronavirus pandemic. In Melbourne, Sikh Volunteers Australia began a free home delivery service last month to home-cooked dinners to locals in self-isolation in the local government areas of Casey, Dandenong and Frankston in the city's south-east. Sikh Volunteers Australia'a latest haul of donations will go towards its popular free home delivery service to those stuck at home during the pandemic crisis Sikh Volunteers Australia volunteers have rallied around those in need during the coronavirus pandemic, just like they did during the devastating bushfire crisis earlier this year Word spread and volunteers were soon delivering up to 1,000 vegetarian meals per day to recipients ranging from international students who had to self-isolate after returning from overseas to the elderly, who are advised to not leave the house. The service was originally scheduled to run for two weeks but due to overwhelming demand, was recently extended to continue until April 20. The distribution area was also expanded to include more Melbourne suburbs. The free service wouldn't the possible without the countless bags and boxes of donated food Sikh Volunteers Australia receives. 'Thank you for your generous donation. Your support helps us to take further steps to reach vulnerable people of our community,' the group captioned photos of its latest haul of donations on Sunday. Sikh Volunteers Australia volunteers deliver up to 1,000 free dinners each night to Melburnians who place an order before noon that day. The service continues until April 20 Most people taking advantage of the free service are Australian, according to Sikh Volunteers Australia vice president Manpreet Singh. '(Its mostly) vulnerable people who are worried about the virus or people having trouble getting food at the supermarket, and disabled, homeless and single parents who are looking after their kids and cant go out,' he recently told Daily Mail Australia. Sikh Volunteers Australia are already renowned for the tireless work, where they fed hundreds of evacuees forced to flee their homes during the devastating bushfires in the Gippsland region. Turbans 4 Australia volunteers are also gathering in kitchens to cook and deliver delicious meals for those unable to leave their homes due to the coronavirus lockdown Elsewhere across Australia, Turbans 4 Australia delivers hot meals, hampers and groceries for people in need in Sydney, Canberra Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Almost 250 meals were delivered across Sydney on Sunday from as far as Campbelltown in the south-west through to the North Shore. The Sikh charity has also spent thousands on groceries which are donated to Australians struggling during the pandemic. Many volunteers who give up their time to cook meals, pack hampers and make deliveries are non-Sikh Australians. 'We're giving preference to the elderly, disabled and people in self isolation but if someone rings us, we'll help within our means,' volunteer Amar Singh said. The group also contributed to the bushfire effort when the New South Wales south coast was ravaged by horrific fires at the start of the year. The government has refused to include more casual workers in the $130billion JobKeeper scheme. The Labor Party and unions have been calling for casuals employed for less than a year to receive the $1,500-a-fortnight payments. But the government has insisted that only workers who have been with one business for 12 months are eligible. The government has refused to include more casual workers in the $130 billion JobKeeper scheme. Pictured: Attorney general Christian Porter Including 1.1million casuals who have not been employed by one company for a year would have cost around an extra $5 billion over six months. Casual workers who do no qualify for the scheme will be able to access Centrelink's enhanced JobSeeker wage of $1,100 a fortnight. They can also still earn $104 per week without losing the JobSeeker handout. In a press conference on Sunday, Attorney general Christian Porter hinted that more casuals could be included in JobKeeper, saying 'we're working on that, we are listening.' But on Monday morning Mr Porter revealed the decision had been made not to expand the scheme. He said in a press conference: 'Even with expenditure of this extraordinary size there has to be some definitions and some lines drawn. 'We think this is a fair and reasonable line.' ACTU leader Sally McManus said anyone who works shifts should get the JobKeeper payment - but Mr Porter said this was too broad. 'I looked it and I can't accept it because it is too broad in my observation and the observation of the government,' he said. Labor's Industrial Relations spokesman Tony Burke slammed the government for not including more casuals. He said: 'Up to 1.1 million casual workers will miss out on a wage subsidy and potentially be forced into the unemployment queue because of the Morrison Governments refusal to compromise.' Parliament will meet with dramatically reduced numbers on Wednesday to pass the JobKeeper payment into law. Labor has said it will not try to stop the legislation from passing. Mr Porter said the scheme was Australia's 'Dunkirk moment.' 'I've described it as a $130 billion worth of life boats going out. This is parliament's Dunkirk moment. We get the life boats out, and we save jobs,' he said. Several school systems are offering grab-and-go lunches: Caroline: Weekdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at middle and elementary schools, and from 811 a.m. at Second Mount Zion Baptist Church, Port Royal Town Hall and Upper Caroline Fire Department. King George: Weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the high school, all elementary schools and Fairview Beach near the Shore Store. Fredericksburg: Lunches will be distributed daily at various locations. Visit cityschools.com/mobile-feeding-program-schedule. Spotsylvania: Breakfast and lunch will be distributed at 18 school sites on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon. Students will get two days of food on Mondays and Wednesdays and three days of food on Fridays. Visit spotsylvania.k12.va.us/Page/5001. Stafford: Roundup of airport escapees begins THAILAND: The government vows to take legal action against those who fled quarantine after returning on a flight to Thailand on Friday night (April 3) and failed to report themselves by deadline last night (April 4). CoronavirusCOVID-19health By Bangkok Post Sunday 5 April 2020, 10:46AM Bamrung Muang Road, in Phra Nakhon district of Bangkok, which is famous for being lined with shops selling statues of Buddha, is deserted after 10pm last night (April 4). Prime Minister Prayut Cha-o-cha earlier announced a 10pm-4am nationwide curfew to combat the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. Photo:Pattarapong Chatpattarasill It has demanded the 158 people who arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport enter 14-day state quarantine, in line with the Emergency Decree issued on April 2. Many passengers defied the order, triggering public outrage amid concerns about the spread of COVID-19 from imported cases. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said 152 people who defied the quarantine order had until 6pm yesterday to report to authorities or face legal action under the Emergency Decree. By mid-evening last night, 134 returnees had reported nationwide. As for the rest, local police have been ordered to arrest them. Violators of the announcement under the Emergency Decree can be imprisoned for two years, fined up to B20,000, or both. Violation of the Communicable Disease Act can result in one year imprisonment, a fine of up to B100,000, or both. He said the government has asked Thai citizens abroad to delay travel home from April 2-15 and imposed state quarantine for all returnees to prevent imported cases. Dr Taweesilp said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha voiced concerns about the commotion on Friday night and stressed it should not happen again. The arrival of Thai and foreign nationals in the past two weeks has contributed to an increase of cases because some dont self-isolate. Thats why the prime minister has asked them to delay travel, he said. He said the government has information about the returnees and could track them down, but they are advised to contact the Emergency Operation Centre at Suvarnabhumi airport or the Damrongdhama Centre in their provinces and bring their families along if contact has been made. It is reported that out of the 158 returnees, 103 had arrived from Japan, 11 from Qatar and 44 from Singapore. Six of them agreed to be sent for quarantine at a hotel in Bangkok. We dont want to take actions or punish anyone. We are concerned and we want them to report themselves, he said. The public health and security authorities are working not for themselves but for the entire nation, he added. The CCSA spokesman said several groups of Thais who already have permission to return will have to comply with quarantine upon arrival. These groups include the Thai AFS students returning gradually from the US and those who attended religious functions in Indonesia. Flights banned Following the Suvarnabhumi airport incident, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has banned all passenger flights from landing in the country for three days, from yesterday until tomorrow. According to the announcement, those arriving on flights that took off before the order came into effect will have to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. But the ban has some exceptions, including state or military aircraft, emergency landings, humanitarian aid and cargo flights. The Defence Ministry has also launched an inquiry into the conduct of Maj Gen Kosol Chujai, a specialist attached to the Office of the Defence Permanent Secretary, who reportedly allowed the 152 returnees to leave the airport after an intense stand-off with the protesting passengers, who claimed they had not been notified in advance of the requirements. Cherdkiat Atthakor, the Foreign Ministrys spokesman, on Saturday denied accusations the ministry had defied the governments directive asking all Thais abroad to delay their travel until after April 15 to stop imported cases. He said Thai embassies and consular offices have suspended registration and issuance of certificates for Thai citizens seeking to return home during the April 2-15 period, and had asked those who had obtained documents before the announcement to secure fit to fly certificates issued not more than 72 hours before the journey. Mr Cherdkiat said based on available reports, the passengers who landed at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday had already received the necessary certificates before the announcement was made. While the airport commotion incited a strong public response, another group of Thais who returned on Friday complied with the state quarantine measure. Vice Adm Prachachat Sirisawat, the navy spokesman, said a group of 291 returnees was transported to a navy-run facility in Chon Buris Sattahip district for the 14-day quarantine. One of them was sent to Sirikit Hospital with a fever. But 23 of them refused to stay at the facility despite pleas from officials, prompting their return to Suvarnabhumi airport, he said. DETROITIt 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 centre 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 43. He had attended a neighbourhood pancake breakfast on March 6 where several police officers apparently were exposed. Everybody is starting to understand that this virus is looking for more hosts, Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit said in an interview Sunday. Even if youre young and healthy. By Monday afternoon, with more than 6,500 cases, Michigan was fourth in known cases among the states, behind New York, New Jersey and California. Across the state, at least 197 residents have died, placing Michigan fourth across the nation in deaths from the virus, behind New York, Washington and New Jersey. No one is sure why the Detroit region is seeing a flood of cases in the weeks since officials announced the states first known case March 10. Duggan said he suspected that the regions international airport, with a significant number of flights from overseas, may have contributed to the spread. Since then, the virus has spread to employees in the Detroit police and fire departments and other city services that have been slowly rebuilt over the last several years. The city itself is underequipped, said Howard Markel, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan. Its a perfect storm of poverty and very rudimentary public health conditions. Lately, Detroit has been emerging from a fiscal and economic crisis that was decades in the making, and the spectre of a new crisis is dizzying. In 2013, Detroit became the largest city in the United States ever to seek bankruptcy protection, leaving its future utterly uncertain as it struggled under a mound of debt as well as tens of thousands of abandoned buildings, vacant lots and unlit streets. The bankruptcy had followed years of population decline and sliding tax revenues: The citys role as the early heart of the American automotive industry and home to 1.8 million people in 1950 gave way to fewer than 700,000 residents now. But there have been many signs of recovery of late, including a rush of new construction and some bustling neighbourhoods amid the citys vast, 139 square miles. Some in the city pointed to its size as one possible reason for the quick spread of the virus; people travel long distances, often on the public bus system, to get to jobs. Unfortunately, the shift that Ive seen happen is grief because people are dying now, said Khalilah Gaston, a consultant to non-profit organizations in Detroit. Were looking at the numbers everyday. Its a lot to process. One nurse practitioner who works at several hospitals in the Detroit area described dire scenes unfolding. Hospitals in the Detroit Medical Center network are putting two patients at a time into intensive care unit rooms that are made for one patient, she said. Because of a shortage of equipment, some patients are hooked to portable monitors that cannot be monitored in a single, central system. Every day I drive home, I start crying, said the nurse, who asked that her name not be used for fear of losing her job. Ive been in health care for 20 years and Ive never seen anything like this. Brian Taylor, a spokesman for the Detroit Medical Center, declined to address specific questions about how ICU rooms were being divided or monitors were being used. But he said in an email that the demand to care for the ever-increasing number of patients is putting a strain on our resources and staff. We are using all available space in our hospitals to care for patients, he added, including converting operating rooms, outpatient areas and recovery rooms into patient treatment areas to handle the surge. Also emerging as a concern in a moment when handwashing has become essential is water service in Detroit homes where it had been shut off for nonpayment. City officials promised to restore water service in those homes, and hundreds of people had had it restored by the weekend, city officials said. The number was expected to continue to grow in the coming days, city officials promised But activists questioned whether city leaders even know all the homes where water is needed and called on officials to move more rapidly to solve the problem. Put aside all of the policies and politicians and you come back to this: One of the main defences for public hygiene is handwashing, said Monica Lewis-Patrick, a leader of We the People of Detroit, which has advocated for access to safe water for all residents. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat, issued a stay-at-home order for all residents last week, but not everyone in Detroit was heeding the calls for social distancing. Cherish Browning, 28, said she was at a house party last weekend with about 100 people. Everybodys really not taking it seriously, she said. Still, she said, many people at the party were wearing masks and gloves. Dale Rich, a veteran photographer who lives on Detroits northeast side, said he believed that generational poverty had, in some pockets of the city, limited the level of alarm over the possibility of infection from the virus. If you see prosperity when you go downtown, but every other house of your street is abandoned or falling down, youre maybe not going to break your neck looking for hand sanitizer, he said. This virus is odourless, colourless, tasteless, and that renders it almost unreal. So, if were hungry, or trying to find rent, its going on the back burner. In some realms, though, distancing rules have taken hold. And for social services groups, that has complicated efforts. Lisa Johanon, the executive director of Central Detroit Christian, said her organization had suspended education programs for young people and home repairs for residents, as well as job training, housing counselling and preschool services. The father of a child the organization works with died from the virus, Johanon said, adding, For me and for our staff, its like weve been in shock. And now its like, OK, this is our new reality. Areas just outside Detroit have also reported large upticks in cases, with more than 3,500 additional cases and more than 100 additional deaths reported in suburban Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. More than 80 per cent of the cases identified in Michigan have been in the Detroit area. In Genesee County, which includes Flint, at least 150 people are infected and seven people have died. In Washtenaw County, which includes Ann Arbor, more than 260 people are known to have the coronavirus and six have died. Still, more than 1,800 of the states cases have come in Detroit. I dont mean to sound too 30,000-foot about it, but Detroit has always been the canary in the coal mine, said Dream Hampton, a Detroit filmmaker and writer. Weve been on the front lines of the truth of American hypercapitalism for decades. So, yes, she added, poor people in the hourly wage and gig economy who lack health insurance have higher rates of the kinds of underlying conditions immunologists are saying put people at risk. On the flip side, Hampton, whose mother is working 12-hour shifts at a hospital in the region, suggested that Detroit which has experienced a level of economic and fiscal strife unlike almost any other American city might actually be better prepared to contend with crisis than other places. We know what its like to come together for one another, Hampton said. We never measured our citys comeback by how many people moved here from Brooklyn, or how many downtown buildings a single Republican billionaire could buy. We focus on our ability to come together as a community. NEW YORK Downstate New York could be at or very near the apex of its new coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his Sunday news briefing. "The apex could be a plateau and we could be on the plateau right now," he said. "The next few days will tell." Evidence that the outbreak may have peaked: the number of people released from the hospital has been rising, and in particular the total number of new hospitalizations is much lower. ICU admissions are also down. But it will take more than a couple of days of numbers to accurately depict a trend, he said. The number of new hospitalizations for new coronavirus has dropped for two days.New York Governor's Office With more than 300,000 people tested in New York as of Sunday morning, 122,031 had tested positive. Locally, there were 14,398 cases in Nassau County, 13,723 in Westchester; 12,405 in Suffolk; 5,326 in Rockland; 3,102 in Orange and 1,077 in Dutchess. There were 67,551 cases confirmed in New York City. New York Governor's Office The number of deaths rose to 4,159 as of Sunday morning. The number of new deaths has not climbed sharply in the past three days. New York Governor's Office As a percentage, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland counties have the most hospitalizations for what's officially known as COVID-19 after New York City. The coronavirus outbreak on Long Island is accounting for a growing percentage of hospitalizations. New York Governor's Office On Saturday, Cuomo said the state could reach the height of its outbreak in four to eight days. On Sunday, while he is less worried about hospital beds with the temporary federal hospital at the Javits Center becoming available, he said shortages of staff and equipment are big problems. "The system is over-capacity all across the board," he said. Trying to manage that with the same or fewer resources puts everyone and everything under a tremendous stress, "but life is options and we don't have any." The federal government is deploying 1,000 doctors, nurses and respiratory technicians, he said. The first 325 coming in Sunday will be sent to New York City's public hospitals, which are the most stressed. The "surge-flex" process allows public health officials to swiftly deploy resources to the hardest-hit parts of New York's health care system, he said, likening it to firefighters concentrating first on one hot spot and then moving to the next. Story continues "We will come to a point where that wave will run right through the state, and we're going to have to do it for Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, the North Country," he said. "I guarantee the people of this state we won't lose a life if we can prevent it. We're not going to lose a life because we didn't share resources among ourselves." When cases climb in western New York, resources will be shifted there, he said. "If I have to get in the truck and drive it from Montauk Point to Buffalo it'll be there ... that was our mentality post 9/11 ... and that's how we'll be going forward." Cuomo said he talks to hospital administrators across the state every day about how to share equipment when they're all worried about having enough. "I know I'm asking them to do really difficult things," he said. "All I can say is thank you ... thank you to the front line workers. These people are true heroes." SEE ALSO: NY Coronavirus: 'Upstate Lives Matter' Campaign Started This article originally appeared on the New Rochelle Patch Amid coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked people to light candles, Dias, and flashlights to give a thank and salute to the corona warriors. Bollywood celebs, politicians and almost everyone light the lamp. Prime Minister narendra Modi, Amit Shah, President ram Nath Kovind, JP Nadda, Piyush Goyal and other leaders light Diyas and tribute to health officials. Prime Minister Narendra Modis mother also light lamp at her house to stand in the fight againstg the coronavirus. Also, Akshay Kumar, Kangana Ranaut, Rangoli Chandel, Aliya Bhatt, Kartik Aryan, Hritik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Lata Mangeshkar, Arjun Rampal and other light Dias, candles, and flashlights to give honor to the people who are volunteering to save people and trying to make their lockdown easy. Since the coronavirus outbreak hail India, Doctors, Cleaners, Police officials, NGO workers and others have been working to make our life easier. Doctors are putting their lives in danger to protect ours. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday released a recorded video on Twitter. The PM urged people to light Dias, Flashlights and candles in honor of the task forces at 9 pm for 9 minutes on Sunday. Many people have followed the PMs instruction and light Dias at their homes. The street lights in many places were also closed, people enjoyed the activity as a festival. On PMs appeal to the nation, Indian Army lit candles&diyas at forward locations on Line of Control. Army stands united with 130 crore Indians who are united through a common resolve to fight against #COVID19: PRO Udhampur, Directorate of Public Relations, Ministry of Defence pic.twitter.com/pKZCMzwOZO ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 Ended 9 Minutes of Silence with #99 with a prayer to the Cosmos to forgive us and heal humanity. Thanku @PMOIndia for uniting a Billion for the universe. pic.twitter.com/W5UjIfngxr Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) April 5, 2020 Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Janta Curfew on March 22, 2020. That day PM asked people to clap and bang Thalis from the house. Political leaders and other have shown their support to the task forces. Varun Dhawan, Hritik Roshan, Akshay Kumar and other celebrities also did the activity will full of hopes and shared their gratitude to the health care workers. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App As a Quebec-native, actor Theodore Pellerin knows a thing or two about the culinary riches of Canada. When we spoke with the 22-year-old about his new film Never Sometimes Rarely Always, we explored how he found himself in the midst of a career glow-up and the quintessential Canadian foods that hes missed while filming stateside. Pellerin, who not only stars in the haunting critically-acclaimed Eliza Hittman-directed drama but also Kristen Dunsts Showtime series How to Become a God in Central Florida, was drawn to acting at a young age. I went to a school that specializes in theatreI think it was being there that made me fall in love with acting and actors, more so than cinema or theaters. It was actors that I was really impressed by. I just wanted to learn and learn, Pellerin told PureWow. Although he cant remember his first theatre role, he recalled the first TV role he snagged, which was a series called 30 Vies. It was very dramatic and very intense, he remembered. This early experience in drama has served him well. Since then, hes starred in Boy Erased, The OA and will even play opposite Emma star Anya Taylor-Joy in the upcoming Francesca Lia Block adaptation, Weetzie Bat. But in Never Sometimes Rarely Always, Pellerins character is oblivious to the plight of the films main character, Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), who has fled to New York with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) to seek options due to an unplanned pregnancy. Still, the plots emotional resonance wasnt lost on him when the script came his way. He explained, Reading the script, it felt like I was reading a piece of literature. It felt so complete. I felt like we didnt even need to have images supporting the story because already in the script, the silence through it was so poignant. There was something so tangibleIt was intimidating but also invigorating to be a part of something that was so important. Story continues The experience working on the film, which premiered at Sundance, allowed him to be there and have empathy for the story. It also meant he got to film his first project in New York alongside newcomer, Flanigan, and soon-to-be West Side Story star, Ryder. I loved working with them. Theyre both funny and incredibly talented and present, he said of both actresses. And while he loved the experience of filming in New York, he did admit its missing just a few key Canadian cornerstones. Its so cliche but I actually love maple syrup. I really do. Its good. Its great, he shared. A lesser-known Quebec-specific treasure he also loves? The apple juice. We have great apple juice in Quebec. Its not yellow, its brown and very heavy. Its like eating an apple. I definitely recommend it, he said. Well keep our eyes peeled for someafter streaming Never Sometimes Rarely Always on-demand from the comfort of our home, of course. RELATED: Never Rarely Sometimes Always Star Sidney Flanigan Got Her Leading Role Thanks to a Juggalo Wedding (Yes, Really) Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said that all personnel at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and its 13 related offices will contribute one day's salary amounting to Rs 1.14 crore to PM-CARES Fund. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 28 had announced the launch of the PM-CARES Fund to fight the COVID-19 outbreak and provide relief measures to the affected. "All officers & staff of MOEFCC and its 13 Attached/Subordinate/Autonomous office pledged to contribute one day's salary around Rs 1.14 cr to PM CARES Fund launched by PM Narendra Modi to support govt effort to fight COVID-19 pandemic," Prakash Javadekar tweeted. Earlier, the employees of SBI also donated Rs 100 crore to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Reliance (Rs 500 crore), ONGC and IOC over Rs 1,000 crore, BPCL Rs 175 crore, HPCL Rs 120 crore, among others are some of the other major corporate houses to contribute towards the PM Cares Fund. Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), has been nominated by the government for the collection of funds, which will be used to support the community during the Coronavirus outbreak. The funds will be assigned to PM-Cares Fund, Meanwhile, the deadly coronavirus has claimed over 50,000 lives across the globe, the maximum number of which has been reported in Italy, Spain, China, and the US. The total number of infected people has crossed over 10 lakh. The world economy will go into recession this year with a predicted loss of trillions of dollars of global income, spelling serious trouble for developing countries, according to the latest UN trade report. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged people via video message to keep spirits high amid the lockdown. Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Maharashtra worst-affected state with 490 COVID-19 cases; death tally at 24 Also Read: 9pm lights-out: How power system will be managed during light-a-candle event China conning Pakistan by sending 'underwear-made' masks to fight the Coronavirus outbreak created a furor on the internet. On Saturday, Pakistan media house reported that the country received a bunch of masks made out of 'underwear' instead of the top-quality N-95 masks that was initially promised. Pakistani channel said, "China ne chuna laga diya" (China conned us) and further notified that the Sindh provincial government sent the masks to hospitals without checking. Here is how netizens reacted to the incident: As much as this is funny this shows the absolute treacherous nature of the chinese Blackpilled rn (@blackpilled_rn) April 4, 2020 READ| Pakistan reporter hands out 'anti-bacterial handwash' to fight Coronavirus; expects thanks Chaddi Buddy aya hai Raja (@ayahaiRaja1) April 4, 2020 Struggling to cope up with the ever-soaring cases of Coronavirus in the country, Pakistan's provincial governments have begun allocating lands designated for graveyards, to bury COVID-19 patients. Islamabad High Court permitted to turn three and four-star hotels into quarantine centres to keep the Coronavirus patients. Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday warned Pakistanis that they are not immune to the threat posed by the coronavirus, but exuded confidence that Pakistan would emerge stronger from the challenge, as the number of cases in the country rose to 2,708. In the thick of a global outbreak. Imran Khan rejected a total lockdown in the country, citing the economic impact it would have. He further justified his decision by saying that the situation of the country was not as bad as Italy or China due to Coronavirus. Declaring 'Jihad' against Coronavirus, Imran Khan also urged the youth of the country to join the Corona Tiger Force, which aims to combat the virus along with the Pakistani government at Qamar Bajwa-led Army. READ| Pakistan Opposition netas walk out of Coronavirus meet after Imran Khan walks out on them China sought opening of border with Pak China had asked Pakistan to open the border between the two countries for one day on Friday so that medical supplies to fight coronavirus pandemic could be transported into the country, according to a media report. The Chinese embassy in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the governor of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China would like to donate a batch of medical materials to Gilgit-Baltistan, the Dawn reported. According to the letter, the governor had donated 200,000 ordinary face masks, 2,000 N-95 face masks, five ventilators, 2,000 testing kits and 2,000 medical protective clothes mainly used by doctors and paramedics to fight with the virus, which originated in China late last year. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the order in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, a deadly disease. As of Sunday, there were more than 11,000 confirmed cases in Illinois and 274 deaths. Officials say the actual number of cases is likely much higher because testing has been limited. People are expected to stay at home to limit contact with others unless they are in a job deemed essential, such as health care or grocery services. The current stay-at-home order continues through April 30, though it can be extended. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 08:59:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Across-the-spectrum cooperation, not blame game with ulterior motives, is desperately needed now to prevail over the COVID-19 pandemic that has indiscriminately wreaked havoc throughout the world. Many brilliant minds are fully aware of the importance of global solidarity and international cooperation, especially between the world's two largest economies, in this battle. A group of 100 Chinese academics on Thursday published an open letter to U.S. media, calling on Washington to end the political blame game and work together with Beijing to defeat the virus that has infected over 1 million people worldwide and paralyzed the global economy. "Political bickering does nothing to contribute to the healthy development of Sino-U.S. relations, nor will it help the people of the world to rationally and accurately understand and cope with the pandemic," the letter said, urging cooperation between "two of the great countries on Earth" in order to bring a more positive outcome for all humankind. The world needs such rational and calm voices to truly rise to the occasion. Prominent policy experts on the other side of the Pacific also acknowledged cooperation between the United States and China is essential to save lives in America and around the world. A total of 93 U.S. bipartisan, former high-ranking government officials and experts released a joint statement Friday, stressing that no effort against the coronavirus will be successful without cooperation between the United States and China. Unfortunately, they arrogantly stick to the habit of scapegoating and blaming others, ignoring China's great efforts and sacrifice. The experts repeated in their statement unfounded allegations by some U.S. politicians, accusing China of mishandling the health crisis and turning a blind eye to the fact is that China's quick and decisive response to stem the virus' spread bought the world time and drew praise from the international community. Despite having very little knowledge of the novel coronavirus, China perceived the graveness of the viral outbreak and significance of global cooperation to tackle it from the very beginning. Beijing has been sharing information on coronavirus prevention and control with the world in a timely and transparent manner. It has also provided help to other countries where support and medical supplies are in dire need. In an opinion piece published by the Guardian, Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, said: "under immense pressure, as the epidemic exploded around them, they (Chinese scientists) took time to write up their findings in a foreign language and seek publication in a medical journal thousands of miles away. Their rapid and rigorous work was an urgent warning to the world." However, Washington neglected the alarm raised by China, with some politicians busy with evading responsibilities and finger pointing, which only led to a waste of precious time and to a worse scenario. As of Saturday, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States have topped 278,000, with the death toll surpassing 7,100. The blame game serves neither the interests of the United States nor China's. Such a counterproductive trick needs to stop. China and the United States share far more interests than differences in the battle against their common enemy, the coronavirus. The final victory will only be achieved through global solidarity and cooperation. Over the past week, several unusual partnerships among start-ups, traditional businesses and hospitals have been announced, and several more are likely to materialise soon. The trend could see increased importance of gig workers, who are taking considerable risk to deliver goods to people in the time of a pandemic. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com. As the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus progresses, companies, especially those employing gig workers, are looking at innovative partnerships to keep their businesses going. They also letting gig staff be employed meaningfully this time. Over the past week, several unusual partnerships among start-ups, traditional businesses and hospitals have been announced, and several more are likely to materialise soon. Gig workers have no social security and government advisories about keeping employees safe from layoffs dont cover them. Companies are now thinking in terms of how to continue giving livelihood to these people, said Amit Vadera, assistant vice-president at staffing firm TeamLease Services. For example, Uber last week announced two new business-to business partnerships -- UberMedic -- a 24x7 service that will work with healthcare authorities. It will arrange transport for front-line healthcare providers to and from their homes and medical facilities. The other one is with BigBasket where driver partners will help with last-mile delivery of everyday essential items in four cities. Its Bengaluru-based rival Ola Cabs has agreed to give 500 vehicles to the Karnataka government for transporting doctors and for other Covid-related activities. Flipkart is also exploring collaboration ideas. It is currently having talks with cab aggregators and the Indian Railways to ensure smooth and hassle-free movement of essential products from vendors to customers. To achieve the objective of moving grocery and essential supplies across the country from our seller partners to customers, we have been ramping up onground support. We are hiring in addition to offering incentives to supply chain and delivery executives, said a Flipkart spokesperson. TeamLeases Vadera expects more such partnerships to continue. Gig employees are mostly migrants in the urban sector. Several wanted to, and have gone back to their hometowns following the nationwide lockdown. Organisations are not sure about how much reverse mobilisation they will see once the lockdown is lifted, he added. The trend could see increased importance of gig workers, who are taking considerable risk to deliver goods to people in the time of a pandemic. The gig economy and people working from home are going to pretty much become as important as the mainstream, said software services industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscoms) president Debjani Ghosh. In the last few years, the gig economy or people who work in jobs enabled by a tech platform where workers are not bound to the organisation and can choose to work as long as they want in a stint, have continued to evolve and increase. Even traditional sectors are now tapping into unique ways to ensure supply of essentials to their customers. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) major ITC has partnered Jubilant FoodWorks, the master franchisee of the Dominos brand in India. Mumbai-based Marico has partnered Swiggy and Zomato to introduce Saffola Store on the food-tech platforms. At ITC, we have redoubled our efforts to ensure that consumers are not inconvenienced during this pandemic and our frontline warriors are battling all odds to reach essential products to consumers, said an ITC spokesperson. A marked difference in these new partnerships is the focus on safety of gig workers. Vadera said some of the gig employers are sending staff for certification courses run by the likes of Apollo Hospitals, which teaches them safety and well-being. It also teaches them how to keep safe while delivering goods and services to customers. The Abia state government says it has started production of certified, quality standard protective medical kits and masks to cater to ... The Abia state government says it has started production of certified, quality standard protective medical kits and masks to cater to the needs of Nigerians and make up for the scarcity of imported ones. Sam Hart, director-general of the Abia State Marketing and Quality Management Agency, told NAN that Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of the state, initiated the project to ensure Abia people are not exploited during this period. The governor does not want Abia people to be exploited and that was part of the reason he gave this challenge to Aba tailors to start producing these kits, Hart said. Apart from meeting national demand, he is also interested in meeting local demand so that the people of Abia can have these masks and kits available. That is why he provided support for the tailors, held a meeting with them, and released initial funds for them to start production even before orders started coming. That is the foresight that moved us to where we are today that everybody is now coming to pick them up; we have more than enough and they are available everywhere. The DG said his agency was handling the distribution of the products on a wholesale basis by buying up available products from the producers to ensure they get money to continue production. The state is reported to source raw materials locally and abroad and relies on medical practitioners for specifications for production. To deal with the effects of Covid-19 lockdown on higher educational institutions, the HRD ministry on Saturday decided to form a panel headed by UGC chief DP Singh to chart out the academic calendar of universities. In a statement, the ministry said HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank took the decision to form the panel. In addition, the ministry also decided to form another panel that would look into aspects related to online learning and online exams. The decision to form an academic calendar committee under the leadership of UGC Chairman was taken by the minister. The committee will suggest measures to deal with the issue of delay in the academic session, the ministry said in the statement. It added that HRD minister held a meeting with vice chancellors to motivate their faculty and students to use SWAYAM and SWAYAM PRABHA educational platforms in mission mode and also through other online digital mediums. To promote online education and give suggestions regarding online examination a committee under the chairmanship of IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor Nageshwar Rao has been constituted, the statement said. Among other issues discussed in the meeting were measures to be taken regarding health of students residing in hostels and academic and non-academic staff of the university, adherence to social distancing and isolation instructions and provision for testing of suspected cases of Covid-19 in the university. Aspects like role of the management in dealing with mental health challenges of students, salary related problems of all employees (permanent, temporary and daily wage earners) and research on Covid-19 were also discussed. Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Aligarh Muslim university (AMU) informed that they have created facility of 40-bed isolation rooms. Most of the universities continue to run courses digitally so that academic session is not delayed. By Saeed Azhar DUBAI (Reuters) - UAE's top banks including Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank on Sunday disclosed hundreds of millions of dollars of exposure to hospital group NMC Health , which a lender has asked a British court to put into administration. NMC - which recently revised its debt position to $6.6 billion, well above earlier estimates - has seen its stock more than halve in value since December after short-seller Muddy Waters questioned its financial statements. Dubai Islamic Bank said on Sunday it has a $425 million exposure to NMC Heath, while its subsidiary Noor Bank has a further $116 million. The aggregate exposure to NMC constitutes approximately 0.7% of DIB's total assets as of March 31, the bank said. Shares in DIB were down 4.8% in afternoon trade after the disclosure, underperforming the Dubai stock index <.DFMGI>, which was down about 2.2%. Emirates NBD, Dubai's biggest bank, said it had an exposure of 747.3 million dirhams ($203.5 million), including 676.5 million linked to its unit Emirates Islamic Bank . The latest revelations came after Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank , which has a $981 million exposure to NMC Health, said on Saturday it had asked a court in Britain to put the company into administration to safeguard its future. That process would give the healthcare group, whose London-listed shares were suspended in February, protection from creditors, and avert a more disruptive liquidation. NMC Health's new executive chairman on the same day called on the company's creditors to suspend debt repayments and said he would work with authorities in Britain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to recover misused funds. Shares of ADCB were trading 3.1% lower in afternoon trade. Other banks also made disclosures at the request of bourse operators in the UAE. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said it had extended $291.4 million in financing to NMC Healthcare LLC UAE, guaranteed by NMC Health, and that it had an additional $31 million exposure to Islamic bonds issued by NMC. Story continues National Bank of Fujairah pegged its exposure to NMC at 289.1 million dirhams, while Sharjah-based United Arab Bank said its exposure was 135.3 million dirhams. ADIB shares were down 4.9% on Sunday. Marie Salem, head of institutions at Daman Securities, said banks will have the opportunity to assess their exposure to NMC Health by June and take any action, such as writedowns, if necessary. DIB said it was now in discussions with NMC and its advisors to ascertain the group's financial position and identify potential measures to address its governance and financial issues. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jan Harvey) Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state will soon be out of coronavirus-imposed isolation after he tested negative for the virus. He was the first Nigerian state governor to test positive for the bug on 24 March. He was also the first governor to go into self-isolation, in accordance with precautionary protocols. Mohammed went into isolation because he had contact with Mohammed Atiku Abubakar, son of former vice president Atiku Abubakar. Mohammed Abubakar had tested positive. Bala subsequently tested positive. Two close contacts of his also tested positive. On 1 April, Bala disclosed that he was still asymptomatic from the virus. He also disclosed that his health condition was stable. By nature of this isolation, after I tested positive to coronavirus, by the grace of Allah, up till this moment, I have no symptoms of the virus, he said in a message to the people. I have remained very stable at the moment. I think I am very very well. But I will continue to be in isolation to comply with regulations of the physicians. He also promised to hold a big thanksgiving once he gets a clean bill of health. Eight cruise ships are still currently at sea with positive infections on board. It is feared that more and more people will get the virus as they continue sailing. Last Thursday, one of the Princess cruises ship, the Coral Princess has 12 passengers who are positive for the COVID-19 disease. Meanwhile, the Zaandam, owned by Holland America Line has dozens of passengers who are experiencing flu-like signs. Unfortunately, four passengers already died on the cruise, which are possibly COVID-19 cases. The Coral Princess is on its way to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they might be permitted to dock and leave the cruise ship on April 4, 2020, reported by CNN. It is not the only ship docked in that port, nearby are Zaandam and the Rotterdam, which docked in Florida in April 2. Another concern for Princess Cruises is that one of its cruise ships is still at sail, the Pacific Princess. Last March 21, it was located at an Australian port. Some of the passengers were allowed to disembark and go home via flights from Australia. Some were too sick to go home. Because flying home was prohibited due to medical reasons, they need to stay on the ship. The ship is docking in Los Angeles on April 24. Stat report indicates there are 155 passenger who are not afflicted with COVID-19. Pacific Princess is expected to arrive without any hitches. Also read: Coronavirus: Can It Be Transmitted via Air-Conditioning Outlets and Ducts? Those aren't just the only suspected among the eight coronavirus cruise ships, there are six more! One of them is the Costa Deliziosa, owned by the Italian Costa Crociere cruise line, but this ship is still at sea looking for a port to go to. Bad luck beset this ship when it left Italy on January 5 with a return slated on April 26. But coronavirus surge in Italy and the lockdown will need to wait for a port of call. "The itinerary of the Costa Deliziosa on her world cruise was modified given the pandemic alert issued by the World Health Organization which brought local authorities to apply restrictions for the disembarkation of our guests compromising their cruise experience onboard," Costa Crociere spokesperson said, according to Newsweek. "Despite all the efforts made to readjust the program, the only viable itinerary for Costa Deliziosa at present, which is capable to preserve the health of all guests and crew and secure the environment onboard - currently still immune, is to perform only technical calls for fuel bunkering and provisions," the statement added. Two cruise ships that are still out at sea are the Columbus and Astor which is owned by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. On the other hand,Queen Mary 2 and the Arcadia will be docking in Southampton, England in the coming weeks. The ship Arcadia will be seeing port on April 12, letting go of 1,375 guests and 836 crew members. These eight cruise ships with or without the coronavirus are soon going to port. Related article: Coronavirus Cruise Ship in Japan Deemed a Novel Experiment in Disease Control Under Scrutiny @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Centre said on Sunday that the national response to Prime Minister Narendra Modis call to switch off lights for nine minutes at 9pm was huge and power demand dropped by 32 GW, more than double of what officials had anticipated. The Union power ministry said the sharp dip in demand was handled well by engineers deployed across the country. The ramping up of demand and supply went back to 110 GW smoothly, the ministry said. Concerns had been expressed that a dramatic drop in supply followed by a quick surge may trip or damage the power grid. Huge response to Honble Prime Ministers call to switch off lights and light a lamp as a show of national solidarity in the fight against. The demand went down from 117300 Megawatts at 2049 hrs to 85300 Megawatts till 2109 hrs; that is a reduction of 32000 Megawatts, power minister RK Singh said. Officials aware of the development said power generation was lowered to keep the grid frequency in check and directions were issued to avoid load shedding. Generation will be kept slightly lower than load so that when load is thrown off at 9pm, the frequency would not be on the higher side, a senior government official said. According to national load dispatcher POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation), the total domestic lighting load reduction had been pegged at 12-13 GW. Singh and senior officials from the power ministry were monitoring the health of the grid from the National Power Monitoring Centre in Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi. In a clarification issued earlier in the day, the ministry had said the PMs directive aimed at building solidarity against Covid-19 and encouraging frontline workers and the poor -- was only to switch off domestic home lights between 9.00pm and 9.09pm. Indian Electricity Grid is well designed to handle such kind of load variation with several in- built levels of control and safety mechanisms to absorb any kind of frequency changes. all adequate arrangements and standard operating protocols are in place to maintain grid stability. all States/UTs/ Local bodies have been advised to keep the street lights on for public safety, the ministry said. The power grid has seen a 30% reduction in demand due to the absence of commercial activity in the wake of the lockdown. The essence of grid management is load balancing over time (in this case, 15-minute intervals), and a drop in demand could have resulted in a sudden change in grid frequency, leading to a potential power blackout. According to power ministry data available for April 2, peak demand stood at 125.8 GW, which is 25% lower than 168.3 GW for the same day last year. A 100-year-old man has died in a quarantine centre in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir but his COVID-19 test report has come negative, a senior government official said on Sunday. The man and his brother were shifted to a quarantine facility a few days ago as a precautionary measure after it came to light that they had come in contact with a person in Magheni village who had tested positive for coronavirus, District Development Commissioner of Udhampur Piyush Singla said. "He breathed his last on Saturday night and his body was subsequently shifted to the district hospital according to protocol since his test report was awaited. The report was received on Sunday morning and it came negative," he told PTI. Jammu and Kashmir has so far recorded two coronavirus deaths, while 90 people -- 69 in Kashmir and 21 in Jammu -- have tested positive. Three patients have recovered and discharged from hospital. "The man was asymptomatic and was shifted to one of the best available quarantine facilities given his age and close contact with the positive case. He did not have any major health problem except old-age related issues," Singla said. Three persons from Narsoo village in Udhampur tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. Following this, the district magistrate declared Narsoo and Chunti villages as red zones and their surrounding villages as buffer zones. "There shall be no inward or outward movement of any person from these villages and people shall stay at their homes. There shall be complete lockdown. That there shall be no vehicular movement on internal lanes or roads connecting these villages," Singla said in an order and warned of stern action against violators. He also directed the officers concerned to ensure supply of essential commodities to the villages in accordance to the protocols. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Paul Danan has claimed he dated Kelly Brook for six months and that he ended up being the one to end the relationship. The ex-Hollyoaks actor, now 41, told Dapper Laughs on his Chatting B******s podcast that he and Kelly became an item when they were at drama school together. 'I went to Italia Conti, and Kelly Brook was there. So I went out with her for about six months, probably longer,' he recounted. 'I used to bring her back to my house after college. Spilling the tea? Paul Danan has claimed he dated Kelly Brook for six months and that he ended up being the one to end the relationship 'She met my grandpa. She was amazing. My grandad walked in on us once. The bra was out!' Gushing about Kelly, now 40, he explained why they split. 'She was the young Cindy Crawford and everyone loved her, I felt so lucky. But we were on completely different wavelengths. I was a bit of a stoner, and she was into S Club 7. And I ended up finishing with her. So gutted.' Kelly - who now hosts a Heart radio show among other endeavors - is now in a five-year relationship with model boyfriend Jeremy Parisi. But she also dated Hollywood star Jason Statham years ago - who Paul claimed 'grilled' him about her once while the pair had a night out together. Blast from the past: 'I went to Italia Conti, and Kelly Brook was there. So I went out with her for about six months, probably longer,' he recounted. 'I used to bring her back to my house after college' He said: 'She met my grandpa. She was amazing. My grandad walked in on us once. The bra was out!' 'Years later she was going out with Jason. I was living in LA at the time and me and him had a bit of a night out. 'So we're having a laugh and chatting away then after about an hour he goes, "So you were with Kelly yeah?" Swear to God. No security just me and him! 'I'm like, yeah but it was years ago, Jay. She told him, she must have. He must have grilled her when he was paranoid.' Kelly and Jason, now 52, dated for six years, splitting in 2004. Gushing: 'She was the young Cindy Crawford and everyone loved her, I felt so lucky. But we were on completely different wavelengths. I was a bit of a stoner, and she was into S Club 7. And I ended up finishing with her. So gutted,' he said Flashback: Kelly and Paul's paths would cross again in 2005, when she hosted the original version of Love Island which featured celebrities In love: Kelly - who now hosts a Heart radio show among other endeavors - is now in a five-year relationship with model boyfriend Jeremy Parisi. Ex: But she also dated Hollywood star Jason Statham years ago - who Paul claimed 'grilled' him about her once while the pair had a night out together The Meg star has now settled down with model and actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Kelly and Paul's paths would cross again in 2005, when she hosted the original version of Love Island which featured celebrities. Although Paul didn't win, he was one of the stand-out stars of the series and cropped up again in the second season in 2006. Kelly was no longer the presenter though, thought to be due to a reported feud between her and co-host Patrick Kielty which is said to have stemmed from him revealing to viewers that Kelly and Paul had dated in their past. In its attempt to fight against fake related to COVID-19, the Assam government on Sunday published contact details of 50 senior officials in leading newspapers for people to check the veracity of any coronavirus-related Releasing the names and designations of the officials through large-display advertisement in all leading newspapers of the state, the government urged the people to contact the authorities concerned in case of doubt over any related to the novel coronavirus. Making a district and sub-division-wise list of the officials, the advertisement published by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations also mentioned its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the same purpose apart from giving out its email 'diprassamcovid@gmail.com'. Till Sunday, the police has arrested seven persons and registered 12 cases for spreading rumours and provocative content related to the outbreak of the deadly virus. At times, miscreants are trying to spread fake news and rumours to create panic among people. Such persons are enemies of the society and country, and strict legal action will be taken against them, the advertisement mentioned. Assam Excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya on Sunday directed wine shop authorities to lodge a complaint of cyber crime against the people spreading fake news on Facebook that home delivery of liquor in Guwahati will be done by a particular outlet. "There are no such delivery services present and attempt of such delivery is a criminal offence under the provisions of the present law. I have asked the Excise department officials to look into the matter, he said on his Facebook account. The Assam Police said, stringent action is being taken against those found spreading provocative content, rumours and fake news about COVID-19. As on Sunday, 80 people were counselled and over 100 social media posts have been pulled down, the Assam Police said on its official Twitter account. "We request Citizens NOT to Forward or Share unverified or provocative content on Social Media under any circumstances, not even to point it out to others, this only gives it an audience," it said in a separate tweet. "Report it to us immediately through our Facebook Inbox, Twitter DM or on our WhatsApp Helpline: 9132699735," the force added. The state government has already formed a five-member committee for monitoring and checking of fake news in all forms of media as per instructions of the Union Home Ministry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Trend The Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has issued a statement on the so-called "elections" in Azerbaijans occupied territories on April 4, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend. NAM, which is the second biggest political platform after the UN and uniting 120 countries, emphasized the unacceptability of the seizure of territories by force, and stated that the situation that arose as a result of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories would not be legally recognized by any country. In this regard, the NAM member-states stated that they do not recognize the so-called "elections" held in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on March 31, 2020, and consider them illegal. In conclusion, the NAM Coordinating Bureau, referring to the 662nd paragraph of the Final Outcome Document of the Baku Summit, reiterated its support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders and the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the UN Security Councils resolutions. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By PTI CHENNAI: Police and civic authorities on Sunday stepped up ongoing efforts to prevent coronavirus and enforce lockdown more strictly across Tamil Nadu by taking action against people violating norms and shops breaching rules including those on social distancing. Greater Chennai Corporation authorities said they have today sealed a string of shops here for selling meat without the 'Corporation slaughter house seal' and some for non- maintenance of social distancing norms. The civic officials said they were maintaining a close watch over meat stalls to see if meat sold was butchered in slaughter houses as per rules to ensure hygiene. "The sealed shops will not be allowed to open for three months," the civic body said. They said that the lockdown norms like social distancing are applicable to groceries and vegetable markets as well and action was being taken against those responsible for violations. In other parts of the State including in Dindigul, local authorities sealed meat stalls for violations. In Salem district, a supermarket was sealed for selling items like sanitisers and dhal at exorbitant rates. While Tamil Nadu police said across the State, there have so far been78,837 instances of violations of lockdown order for which 71,204 First Information Reports have been filed and 59,868 vehicles seized. The total fine amount stood at Rs 21.26 lakh, police said in a release adding there have however, been no incidents disturbing the law and order situation. Lockdown in Tamil Nadu is on from 6 pm on March 24. Police authorities also joined hands with other government departments and local bodies in ensuring social distancing norms in market places and avoid people milling around. Chennai Corporation has closed 52 meat shops today for not maintaining social distancing & some shops, for not having the Corporations Slaughter House seal in the meat sold. @xpresstn @NewIndianXpress Omjasvin M D (@omjasvinMD) April 5, 2020 In 'containment' areas, where people who tested positive for coronavirus resided, government field personnel continue surveillance work to identify and treat those with fever like symptoms. Meanwhile, a few places in Virudhunagar district like Sattur witnessed showers on Sunday for some time bringing respite whichalsomade more people to stay indoors. Countrys first reported case of police shooting a civilian for refusing to follow restrictions to curb coronavirus. A 63-year-old man was shot dead in the Philippines after threatening village officials and police with a scythe at a coronavirus checkpoint, police said on Saturday. The man is believed to have been drunk when he threatened village officials and police manning the checkpoint in the town of Nasipit in the southern province of Agusan del Norte on Thursday, a police report said. The suspect was cautioned by a village health worker for not wearing a face mask, the report said. But the suspect got angry, uttering provoking words and eventually attacked the personnel using a scythe. The suspect was shot dead by a police officer who was trying to pacify him. The incident is the first reported case of police shooting a civilian for refusing to follow restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Dutertes warning President Rodrigo Duterte had warned on Wednesday he would order the police and the military to shoot anyone who created trouble. Follow the government at this time because it is critical that we have order, he said in a late-night televised national address. And do not harm the health workers, the doctors because that is a serious crime. My orders to the police and the military, if anyone creates trouble, and their lives are in danger: shoot them dead. The Philippiness main island of Luzon has been under a month-long lockdown since March 16, prohibiting people from leaving their homes except for essential trips to the grocery or the pharmacy, or if they are front-line workers. Many provinces outside of Luzon have also imposed their own restrictions in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading. The department of health reported 76 new confirmed cases of infection in the Philippines, bringing to 3,094 the total tally in the country. Eight additional deaths were also recorded, pushing the death toll to 144, while 57 patients have recovered. Duterte defended his warning against troublemakers in another late-night televised address on Friday, saying the public needed to realise the gravity of the situation because anyone can get sick of the disease. Without these restrictions, this will not end, he said. So if you dont want to follow, then I will finish you to protect the lives of the innocent who dont want to die. Attacking freedoms Amnesty International lamented the fact that strongmen leaders around the world like Duterte have been using the COVID-19 pandemic to further stifle criticism and dissent. This is an unprecedented health crisis, but President Duterte is focusing on attacking freedoms of speech and assembly, said Butch Olano, a director for Amnesty International in the Philippines. He is downplaying the nations plea for better services when the priority should be to fulfil the governments obligation to provide healthcare and vital relief to all persons without discrimination, he added. The government has begun to distribute cash assistance to poor families and workers affected by the lockdown under a 200 billion peso ($4bn) amelioration package. But there have been persistent complaints of delays in the delivery of assistance, especially food packs. On Wednesday, a commotion broke out in a Manila suburb when a group of slum residents gathered outside their shanty homes after hearing rumours that donations would be distributed. Village security officers and police urged the residents to go back to their homes, but they refused. Twenty-one of the residents were arrested and various criminal charges have been filed against them. Afghan Spy Agency Captures Regional IS Chief By Ayaz Gul April 04, 2020 Afghanistan's spy agency announced Saturday that it had arrested Islamic State's regional leader, along with 19 key operatives of the terrorist group. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) identified the militant chief as Abdullah Orakzai, a Pakistani national also known as Aslam Farooqi. He was detained along with others in a "complex operation" by Afghan special forces, it added. The NDS also released a video of the captured militants. But the statement did not say when or where the operation was conducted against Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the regional affiliate of the Middle Eastern terrorist group. It operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the vicinity. The NDS noted without elaborating that Farooqi in a "preliminary confession" had disclosed his group's close contacts with a "region intelligence agency." Suicide attack The arrests came nearly two weeks after ISKP claimed credited for plotting a deadly suicide attack against a minority Sikh worship place in the Afghan capital, Kabul, which killed at least 25 worshippers. U.S. counterterrorism forces, with the help of Afghan partners, have killed several ISKP chiefs and hundreds of terrorists linked to the group since 2015, when the central Islamic State leadership formally announced its expansion into Afghanistan. The terrorist outfit has demonstrated resilience, however, and has plotted major terrorist attacks in the country despite getting hit hard by U.S.-backed Afghan counterterrorism forces and the rival Taliban Islamist insurgency. The terrorist outfit began its regional operations in eastern Nangarhar province and neighboring Kunar province five years ago before expanding its footprint to several other Afghan provinces. Both the Afghan government and the Taliban repeatedly claimed in recent months that their forces had uprooted ISKP bases in the country. U.S. military commanders say that initially, ISKP's ranks consisted mostly of Pakistani militants who fled counterterrorism offensives in neighboring Pakistan. In subsequent years, analysts say, disgruntled Afghan Taliban members and militants from neighboring Central Asian states pledged their allegiance to the group. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday said that initially there was a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits in the country but the government started taking action in this regard from January and its domestic production and procurement from other countries have begun. "PPEs are imported. So there was a shortage initially in the country but the Central government started taking action in this regard from January. Domestic manufacturers have started production. We have also started procuring PPE kits from other countries," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Ministry, during a press conference. He said that many organisations are making efforts to support us in enhancing supplies. "We have dispatched available materials to States in the last two days. The production of additional material has started. PPE kits are available today but must be utilised rationally. We told this to the District Magistrates today," he said. Aggarwal said: "We have discussed this with all Health Secretaries, Chief Secretaries and District Magistrates as this is one of the major issues. We've explained to them that PPE kits are available with us, and have been already dispatched to the States based on a case-load basis." "Need to understand that allotment done by us is based on cases reported from States and we're parallelly making an effort to see that how should its procurement be increased. It has started easing out. In coming weeks we'll be able to manage these issues to a large extent," he added. Bihar Principal Secretary, Health Department, Sanjay Kumar on Sunday said there is a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and N95 masks in the state. "There is a shortage of PPEs and N(95) masks. We are in touch with the Centre. Bihar Medical Service Infrastructure Corporation Limited is in contact with those private agencies which can supply," he said. "Today, we are getting 15,000 PPE kits. So as soon as we get it, we will make it available to medical colleges and districts. We had requested Centre for 5 lakh PPE kits. We have received 4000 so far," added Kumar. He said that they have requested ICMR to open testing centres in Bhagalpur and Gaya. With 472 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 3,374, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistans foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Saturday that the apprehensions expressed by the US goverment over acquittal of four people convicted in killing of Amerian journalist Daniel Pearl were natural. He added that the decision will be challenged in the countrys Supreme Court. Pakistan has made many sacrifices in the fight against terrorism, the FM stressed, adding, The entire nation fought a long war against terrorism and defeated this menace with collective efforts. Qureshi further said that the accused had right to appeal and the Sindh High Court, while acknowledging this right, suspended the life sentence given to three accused - Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil - and commuted prime accused Sheikh Omars capital punishment to seven-year imprisonment. However, hours after the verdict, the Sindh Home department issued orders to detain the four before they were released from prison, citing sufficient reason to believe that these men may act against the interest of the country. Yesterday, the Sindh government had ordered the detention of the four suspects for 90 days under the Public Safety Act, Qureshi said. The US State Department had earlier condemned the overturning of the convictions and terming the decision an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere. Those responsible for Daniels heinous kidnapping and murder must face the full measure of justice, senior US diplomat Alice Wells wrote on Twitter on Thursday. On Friday, Pakistans Ministry of Interior had said that the government of Sindh will file an appeal next week against the judgment in the Supreme Court. The government of Pakistan has asked the Sindh government to dedicate its best resources in the pursuance of appeal before the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan, it said, adding that the provincial government was advised to consult Attorney General for Pakistan in the matter. Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story on the alleged links between the countrys powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda. Sheikh, who was the mastermind behind abduction and killing of Pearl, was arrested from Lahore in February 2002 and sentenced to death five months later by an anti-terrorism court. Visiting California was on Amritas mind since she got her first job in mid-2019. She saved and planned a Vegas trip. But with the coronavirus pandemic forcing India to cancel international flights, the Rs 42,500 she spent on the tickets, booked in December for travel in April, is stuck. Etihad Airlines has refused to provide her a refund and has given her a voucher of equivalent amount that can be used till July 31 next year. But with the virus spread becoming severe in the US, Amrita is unsure of any international travel in the near future. She now spends 10 minutes daily ... With slaughterhouses shut in some states and supply of red meat scarce, a direct fallout of the pan-India lockdown for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) , some zoos in India have made their own arrangements, including setting up in-house abattoirs and feeding lions and tigers chicken instead of buffalo meat. But the lockdown has had another effect on the zoo inmates. With no visitors over the past few days and the ambience tranquil, some animals are behaving in a stress-free manner, zookeepers have noticed. Some are even mating, a sign that the animals are feeling relaxed, zoo directors said. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic While the National Zoological Park in Delhi has got special permission from the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) the slaughterhouses come under its jurisdiction to slaughter buffalo calves inside the zoo premises, the lions and tigers at the animal safari of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Mumbai are being fed chicken. The Ghazipur slaughterhouse has been shut. We have got special permission to slaughter buffaloes inside the zoo premises to feed the lions and tigers. On an average, each animal needs around 7-8 kilos of meat every day. Smaller carnivores such as foxes and wolves are being given chicken, said Suneesh Buxy, director of Delhi Zoo. There are at least 160 recognised zoos in India; Karnataka has the maximum number with 15. More than 56,800 animals, including exotic species, and endangered Indian ones, are kept in these zoos across the country. Following the closure of the Deonar abattoir in Mumbai, SGNP authorities have been feeding chicken to the lions and tigers of the animal safari since March 26. From Thursday, the abattoir has agreed to supply frozen beef {buffalo meat} to SGNP, which was meant for export purposes. From March 22 to 26, we had reserve stock of beef so there was no issue but thereafter animals were being provided only chicken as there was no other option, said Sunil Limaye, additional principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife west), Maharashtra. On March 23, the Central Zoo Authority of India (CZAI), the apex body for all zoos in India, sent a letter to the states acknowledging that some zoos were facing severe hardships in getting supply of food, drinking water and health care of wild animals in captivity due to restrictions imposed for the containment of Covid-19. CZAI requested all states that such activities be specified as essential services and they be exempted from any restrictions. The Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai, the largest zoo in India, has its own fodder farm where para grass, cowpea, calopo and sorghum, among other items, are grown for herbivores. Meetings were held with suppliers to ensure that there is no shortage of meat during the lockdown. We have enough medicines in stores, said Sudha Ramen, deputy director of Anna Arignar Zoological Park. The Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, the oldest of them all, is running smoothly and hasnt faced any problem. Dry food like grams, rice and dal to prepare khichdi for monkeys had already been stored while suppliers have ensured that there will be no shortage of meat, fish, milk and fruits. With hardly any disturbance and noise as no visitors are allowed, animal keepers and zoo staff in various zoos said that the animals seemed to be in playful mood, more relaxed, and behaving in a stress-free manner. The bear has become extremely curious and is moving around in search of insects. It is digging and jumping from one end to another. At the avian enclosure, there is a significant increase in nesting seen. Overall animals are less stressed and displaying their natural behaviour, said Sanjay Tripathi, director of Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan or Byculla Zoo. In the National Zoological Park, the zoos biological assistant has also observed certain behavioural changes Some animals have started mating, which they usually dont. The fox, which was hardly seen during the day, has started coming out. The animals are more relaxed, the zookeepers reported, said Buxy. Police are seeking a suspect after an Asian woman was injured in a hate crime attack on a city bus late last month. The 51-year-old woman was on a city bus in the Bronx on March 28 when an unidentified woman and three teenage girls began making anti-Asian comments to her, police said. The woman then attacked her, hitting her on the head with an umbrella, before fleeing the bus, police said. Image: Anti-Asian bus attack (New York Police Department) The woman was taken to a hospital nearby, where she received stitches. Three 15-year-old girls were charged with hate crime assaults, menacing and harassment shortly after the incident. The police department's Hate Crime Task Force is seeking the woman. Asians around the world have reported an increase in xenophobic incidents during the coronavirus pandemic. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus sent a letter on Feb. 26 urging colleagues to "help prevent hysteria, ignorant attacks and racist assaults" against Asian Americans resulting from misinformation about the coronavirus. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Authorities around the globe have spoken out against anti-Asian sentiments in recent weeks, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. "Right now, we've seen particularly troubling instances of discrimination directed at Asian communities, particularly in the Chinese community," de Blasio said last month. "This is unacceptable." Iran Accuses US Diplomats of Staging Coups, Arming Terrorists Amid Spat Over Slain Journalist Sputnik News 18:56 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 19:10 GMT 04.04.2020) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of using "agents of terror" disguised as diplomats to carry out assassinations and engage in bomb plots across Europe on Thursday amid reports citing US intelligence that an Iranian hit squad was behind the death of a dissident Iranian journalist in Turkey late last year. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has shot back at Secretary of State Pompeo over his claim that Iran's diplomats are really "agents of terror" in disguise. "Undisputed fact: US 'diplomats' have long been in the business of coups, arming terrorists, fueling sectarian violence, supporting narcotics cartels, bullying governments and companies, spying on even US allies, flirting with dictators, butchers and terrorists, etc.," Mousavi tweeted Saturday, accompanying the tweet with a screenshot of Secretary Pompeo's claims. "But Secretary Pompeo (Mr. CIA aka Secretary of Hate) and his masters have taken the 'job' to a whole new level: Medical terrorism," the spokesman added, referring to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's recent characterization of Pompeo after he accused Iran of "mishandling" the COVID-19 pandemic and said that the US was ready to offer Iranians aid. Mousavi's comments are the latest shot across the bow following a Reuters report earlier this week alleged, citing an unnamed 'senior administration official', that the US believed that Iranian intelligence was responsible for the suspected assassination of Iranian journalist, dissident and IT expert Masoud Molavi Vardanjani in Istanbul, Turkey in November 2019. Vardanjani worked in cybersecurity at Iran's defence ministry in the mid-to-late 2000s before leaving the country and becoming a fierce critic of the government, with some Turkish media reporting that he may have served as a cyber-spy, collecting intelligence for the United States. Iran has denied any involvement in Vardanjani's death, accusing Washington of "spreading disinformation" against Iranian diplomats, and suggesting that "no one is fooled" by US lies. Iranian officials have repeatedly blasted the US for ramping up its sanctions pressure amid the Islamic Republic's efforts to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Iran was one of the first countries to be severely affected by the outbreak, which hit members of the country's political elite as well as the general population. Iran has reported 55,000+ cases of COVID-19 to date, with over 3,400 people said to have died of virus-related complications. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address RNLI volunteers were forced to launch a rescue boat after two people became grounded in their catamaran while out for a sail, despite lockdown rules in force across the country. Police were seen giving the pair a stern talking to after the incident, which happened despite repeated warnings that people should stay at home. They had taken the boat out in Exmouth, Devon, on Saturday afternoon, but soon ran into trouble as the craft became caught on the ocean floor. Two people had to be rescued by RNLI volunteers after going sailing, despite UK lockdown The catamaran came into trouble while out sailing on Saturday afternoon in Exmouth, Devon A local RNLI crew then had to launch a boat to go out and rescue them. Video footage shot by a resident shows the crew remonstrating with the pair as they returned to dry land. Police were seen speaking to them afterwards, although it is unclear whether their actions led to further action. Local RNLI volunteers are seen launching their boat to go out and rescue the catamaran The resident said: 'I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 'Not only had the crew risked their lives to save them, they risked them again with the chance of catching coronavirus. On their return to the harbour, police officers were waiting to speak to the two men It is unclear whether the police took any further action after the pair had to be rescued 'It beggars belief anyone would think this weekend was a good one to go for a sail.' He added that Exmouth seafront had been absolutely deserted on Saturday with the vast majority of people following government adivce and staying home. 'There wasn't a single person out when they were rescued,' he went on. 'People with families weren't even out for walks - it was just them on their boat. 'They were actually arguing with the crew when they returned and claiming they hadn't done anything wrong.' The RNLI volunteers were seen speaking to police officers after they returned to the harbour Exeter City Council issued stern advice to pleasure craft users of local rivers and canals on 27 March. In a statement, Grahame Forshaw, harbour master for Exeter Port Authority, said: 'As far as recreational use of the river or canal is concerned, such as use of leisure vessels, kite surfing, paddle boarding etc, it is not essential and those who break the new laws could be fined for doing so. The pair went out sailing despite warnings not to use waterways for recreational purposes 'Use of the river and canal at this time for recreational purposes could put port staff and emergency services at unnecessary risk. 'Exercise should be done from home.' It went on: 'Exeter Port Authority manage the Exe estuary and the position from the Harbour Master is clear. 'There should be no activity on the water except for commercial or safety related instances.' Both the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Devon and Cornwall Police have been contacted for comment. The PSNI has released one of three men arrested after two ATMs were stolen in Dundalk in the early hours of yesterday morning. The cash machines were taken from two separate banks in the town. The raiders also set two cars on fire outside Dundalk Garda Station to stop officers responding. They were later arrested by the PSNI after a Garda chase in which they fled over the border. PSNI arrest three men in Crossmaglen area Three men have been arrested by police in the North after two ATMs were stolen from banks in Dundalk, Co. Louth. The PSNI arrested the three men and the two ATMs have been recovered. The cash machines were taken from Ulster Bank and AIB branches in the main street area in the early hours of this morning. The Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan commended the actions of the Gardai and the PSNI in responding to the robbery of two ATMs in Dundalk. He said: I am glad to see both police services working so closely together across the border to investigate this robbery and want to commend them for their swift response and close cooperation. Both services are working flat out in difficult circumstances to help protect and support the public at this challenging time and, as always, they deserve our support and cooperation. I would ask any member of the public with information to contact the Gardai at Dundalk. The three men are aged 24, 29, 57 and were arrested by the PSNI in the Crossmaglen area on suspicion of handling stolen property. Two ATMs were also recovered in the back of a discarded trailer in the Mullabawn area, although it is unclear at this stage if both are intact. In a statement, the Gardai said a Volkswagen Amorak SUV and a 2014 registered Mercedes red saloon car left Dundalk with the two ATMs in a trailer. The Garda Air Support helicopter and Garda Armed Support Unit attended the scene and coordinated with PSNI units in a cross border pursuit. Two Garda vehicles sustained minor damage but no injuries were reported. The scenes are currently preserved in the Dundalk area and investigations are ongoing. Gardai are appealing for anyone with information in relation to this investigation to contact them at Dundalk Garda Station on 042 2938 8400 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. Earlier: Two ATMS targeted in early morning Co Louth raid ATM raiders have targetted two cash machines at around 3.20am this morning in Dundalk, Co.Louth. It is not clear yet it if they managed to steal cash from either of the ATMs at Ulster Bank and AIB. The machines are both close to Dundalk Courthouse. The thieves set cars on fire at both entrances to Dundalk Garda Station to prevent Gardai from responding to the incident. The raiders were intercepted by members of the Garda Armed Support Unit and following a pursuit crossed the border into Northern Ireland. Gardai say the operation is ongoing with their colleagues in the PSNI. Popular for playing the role of Archana in Pavitra Rishta, actress Ankita Lokhande's housing complex has been reportedly sealed after a man living there was tested positive for COVID-19. Not just the Baaghi 3 and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi actress but several other celebrities including Ashita Dhawan-Shailesh Gulabani, Natasha Sharma-Aditya Redij and Mishkat Verma also live in the same complex. It is said that the man had returned from Spain last month. He was kept in self-quarantine for 14 days, as per the norms. On the 12th day, he developed symptoms. Thereafter, he was tested positive. Twitter Everyone who was in contact with the man has also been tested. Everyone including his wife have been tested negative, it is said. Actor Ashita also confirmed the news. Yes, a resident in my wing tested positive and is currently in a quarantine facility." "I am all praise for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mumbai Police. The BMC officials have been extremely helpful. Earlier today, my mother-in-law exhausted her medicines and the medical stores close by didnt have the stock. So, one BMC official collected a list of medicines from every flat and bought them for us. They have been keeping a close watch on everyone to ensure that we are safe. Of course, these are tough times for all of us, but we will do whatever it takes to ensure everyones safety. We have been asked to maintain no contact with outsiders. We are also following the WHO guidelines to keep the deadly virus at bay, she was quoted as saying by TOI. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India have crossed the 3000 mark. The newly-elected Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has savaged Boris Johnson's handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing the Prime Minister of making 'serious mistakes'. Sir Keir yesterday formally replaced Jeremy Corbyn at the top of the party in a landslide leadership contest victory and he has wasted no time in attacking Mr Johnson. Sir Keir said he is willing to engage 'constructively' with the government during the outbreak of the deadly disease but blasted ministers for being too slow at explaining why the UK is 'so far behind' other countries when it comes to testing. Labour's new premier is widely expected to announce his shadow cabinet later today, with a raft of so-called 'soft left' MPs who served under Mr Corbyn tipped to be installed in key positions. But in a clear hint that Sir Keir will try to reunite the divided party, he suggested during an appearance on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show this morning that Blairite MPs could now return to the frontbench. He said the shadow cabinet will be 'balanced across the party' and it will be 'balanced across the country'. Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour leader pictured arriving at the BBC in London today, has accused Boris Johnson of making 'serious mistakes' during the coronavirus outbreak Sir Keir was yesterday elected as Jeremy Corbyn's replacement as he won a landslide victory in the party's lengthy leadership contest Sir Keir Starmer hints at tax rises for the rich under Labour to pay for coronavirus crisis Sir Keir Starmer today warned the wealthy and big companies there will be a 'reckoning' after the coronavirus crisis as he suggested Labour would raise taxes on the affluent to pay for the ongoing bailout. The government has pledged billions of pounds to prop up the UK economy during the outbreak. But the new Labour leader said there will have to be a discussion about how that money is repaid and by who. He told the BBC: 'It is going to be a completely different future and what we can't do is go back to business as usual. 'We now know who the key workers really are and they very often have been overlooked, underpaid and there has got to be a change. They were last and now they have got to be first.' Sir Keir said the UK will have to 'reimagine' the way the economy works in the future in order to 'rebalance' it. Asked if he agreed with comments made by shadow chancellor John McDonnell that the rich and large companies will have to pay for the coronavirus bailout, he replied: 'I think it is inevitable that we have to ask those that have more to pay more. 'The truth is at the moment we don't yet know how big this challenge is going to be until we are through this crisis. 'But when we are through there is going to have to be a reckoning.' Advertisement Mr Johnson yesterday wrote to the leaders of the UK's opposition parties to invite them to work with him to defeat coronavirus. The PM has invited the leaders to a briefing this week to share with them closely guarded details of the government's response. Sir Keir said he will attend the briefing but risked souring relations with the PM before they meet in person as he launched an outspoken attack on his rival. Appearing on the BBC, Sir Keir said Labour 'won't demand the impossible' from the government but that Mr Johnson can expect a grilling on key issues like testing and protective equipment for NHS staff. Sir Keir said: I do think getting the balance right is important here. We have got to be constructive, we have got to pull together, support the government where it is right to do so but asking those difficult questions matters. You can see that when the difficult questions were asked on testing things began to move, same thing with equipment on the frontline. Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Keir had said: 'There will be many times when, and there are many issues upon which, I will fundamentally disagree with the Prime Minister. 'However, there will also be times when Labour can - and must - engage constructively with the government. 'Now is such a time. Coronavirus is a national emergency. It is also a global emergency. Everyone is anxious about what the next few months will bring, but we know we must be resolute in our determination to see this virus defeated, as it will be. Labour heavyweight Alan Johnson takes aim at 'awful, dreadful' Jeremy Corbyn Labour former home secretary Alan Johnson has slammed Jeremy Corbyn as an 'awful' and 'dreadful' leader as he called for the party to move away from the 'cult' of Sir Keir Starmer's predecessor. Mr Johnson responded to Sir Keir replacing Mr Corbyn as leader by taking aim at the latter's record and claiming he had almost brought about the end of the party. 'Awful, dreadful, hes incapable of leadership,' Mr Johnson said when asked by Sophy Ridge on Sky News how history would judge Mr Corbyn. He continued: 'This whole concept of leadership is a problem for the far-left - they believe everything should be from the grassroots, which means a few activists pulling the strings. 'Everything is ideologically motivated and well hear a big litany of why everything Corbyn did was right, well hear all that. 'We were almost wiped out and if the wrong person had won that leadership election it would have been the end of the Labour Party. 'Now weve got a chance but its a chance and it depends an awful lot on Keir Starmers leadership.' Mr Johnson said it was now time to 'get away from this cult that has taken us over' and that the election of Sir Keir was 'absolutely the right first step'. Advertisement 'I want to see the Government succeed in this: to save lives and protect livelihoods. This is a national effort and all of us should be asking what more we can do.' He said Labour would 'do our bit to offer solutions' but would also 'speak for those who have been ignored', and expose mistakes where they are found 'to ensure that they are rectified as soon as possible'. Sir Keir wrote: 'And let's be honest, serious mistakes have been made. 'The public is placing an enormous trust in the Government at the moment: it is vital that that trust is met with openness and transparency about those mistakes and the decisions that have been made.' As well as his calls on testing and PPE, Sir Keir said the UK should build vaccination centres in towns and cities across the country so 'the minute a vaccine becomes available, we can begin to protect the entire population'. He also said ministers should publish their exit strategy for guiding the UK out of the current state of lockdown. 'We should know what that exit strategy is, when the restrictions might be lifted and what the plan is for economic recovery to protect those who have been hardest hit,' he said. 'There will be many more difficult days ahead. Great sacrifices must be made because of a crisis that was unimaginable only a few months ago. But Britain is a great country and we will get through this.' Sir Keir also today appeared to criticise Mr Corbyn who had recently claimed the coronavirus crisis had proved his public service spending plans were 'absolutely right' after they were categorically rejected at the ballot box in December last year. Asked if he agreed with Mr Corbyn's assessment that he had been vindicated, Sir Keir said: 'I don't think that this is about vindicating Labour Party policies. The country wants to see politicians, political parties, pulling together to face coronavirus, not claiming victory over our arguments or otherwise.' Sir Keir takes over the Labour leadership at a uniquely challenging time due to the spread of coronavirus. He is likely today to set out who is in his shadow cabinet - a key moment because the appointments he makes will set the tone for the start of his time in the top job. Sir Keir was asked during his first broadcast interview since winning the leadership if his shadow cabinet will look like Mr Corbyn's or if it will contain elements from across the Labour Party. He replied: I am not going to go into individual names but it will be balanced across the party, it will be balanced across the country and of course it will be balanced in terms of diversity. Asked directly if he will be inviting Blairite MPs who were effectively banished during Mr Corbyn's time as leader back into the fold, Sir Keir hinted they were part of his plans. He said: I will have in my shadow cabinet those who want to serve towards the future aim of winning that next general election. It will be a talented, balanced shadow cabinet. But what I felt yesterday very strongly was our party coming together and focusing on the future and I think that is what matters. We are not looking back, we are not badging people by the past, we are going forwards to the future, focusing on how we win the 2024 general election. Anneliese Dodds, a shadow treasury minister under Mr Corbyn, is one of the favourites to replace John McDonnell as shadow chancellor. Jo Steven, who quit as shadow Welsh secretary in 2017 over the party's Brexit policy, has been tipped to take over from Emily Thornberry as shadow foreign secretary. Nick Thomas-Symonds, a shadow home office minister, has won plaudits for his performances in the House of Commons and is believed to be in the mix for shadow home secretary. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump has directly urged Americans worried about Covid-19 to take a little-studied anti-malaria drug for the disease, despite potentially serious side effects and a lack of data on safety and efficacy in treatment of the pandemic virus. Related: How science finally caught up with Trump's playbook with millions of lives at stake At a lengthy, rambling and combative briefing on Saturday afternoon, the president also sought to discredit media reports of his administrations failures and called some outlets in the White House press corps fake news. Media reports about shortages of ventilators and personal protective equipment, he claimed, relied on state governors asking for more supplies than they needed. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, by Saturday evening more than 305,000 cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed in the US, resulting in more than 8,000 deaths. New York is by far the state worst hit. Scientists around the world are looking for potential treatments but so far have not found a success. The drug repeatedly pushed by Trump, hydroxychloroquine, has only shown anecdotal promise. The drug is used to treat malaria, arthritis and lupus. Reports of its potential have driven up sales and made it difficult for Americans who rely on the drug to fill prescriptions. What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose? Trump said from the White House podium. Take it. He also said he may take it himself, though he would have to ask my doctors about that. The presidents own public health advisers, who stood with him in the briefing room on Saturday, have warned against taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. On 24 March, for example, Dr Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director, answered a reporters question about whether the drug was considered a treatment for Covid-19. The answer is no, Fauci said, and the evidence that youre talking about is anecdotal evidence. Story continues On Saturday the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Dr Steven Hahn, said physicians could prescribe hydroxychloroquine under emergency use authorization. We dont want to provide false hope but we definitely want to provide hope, he said. Trumps urging came moments after another senior health adviser, Dr Deborah Birx, told Americans the coming weeks would be the moment to do everything you can to keep your families and friends safe by following federal physical distancing guidelines. The White Houses own projections show 100,000 Americans could be killed by the virus. On Saturday, Trump said: There will be a lot of death. Its therefore critical certain media outlets stop spreading false information, he said. I could name them, but its the same ones, always the same ones. Earlier, the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced his state had looked to China for ventilator supplies. Were not yet at the apex, said Cuomo, who described the crescendo of cases to come as the number one point of engagement of the enemy. Cuomo said he had obtained 1,000 ventilators from the Chinese government with the help of billionaires Joseph and Clara Tsai and the Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Oregon had loaned New York another 140, he said. Doctors test hospital staff for coronavirus outside the St Barnabas hospital in New York. White House projections show 100,000 Americans could be killed by the virus. Photograph: Misha Friedman/Getty Images The Trump administration has sought to redefine the national strategic stockpile as a back up for states, and avoid coordinating a response to the pandemic. On Saturday, Trump tried to claim credit for the 1,000 ventilators sent to New York by China and said, two very good friends of mine brought him those ventilators. In his morning press conference, Cuomo said New York had 113,704 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and a death toll of 3,565. Most deaths were in New York City, with nearly 1,000 in other parts of the state. Current projections put the peak of the pandemic in New York between four and 14 days away. Officials hope physical distancing will slow the spread of the disease and forestall the possibility of running out of ventilators and hospital beds. Cuomo admitted he hoped to see the apex soon, so the experience would soon end. The pandemic, stresses this country, this state, in a way nothing else has frankly in my lifetime, he said. Cuomos briefing from the New York state capital, Albany, offered another contrast in leadership with the president in Washington. While Cuomos briefings convey alarming statistics, his frank descriptions of shortages and personal struggles have been praised. On Saturday, Cuomo said the state had a signed contract for 17,000 ventilators, a deal he was later told could not be done because many had already been bought by China. As Cuomo spoke, Trump retweeted articles about hydroxychloroquine, from rightwing sources. Related: Unloved by progressives, New York's Andrew Cuomo has the spotlight now The US federal governments response to the outbreak has been defined by bungled testing, poor coordination, low stockpiles and planning failures. Federal failure to intervene in supply chains has led to bidding wars for masks and other personal protective equipment, governors have said. The White House has repeatedly claimed it has 10,000 ventilators in the national stockpile. However, states have reported some of those ventilators are unusable, after the administration failed to ensure the stockpile was properly maintained. Trump has repeatedly caused confusion, often during hours-long press conferences. On Saturday, he also attacked his probable challenger in November, Joe Biden, and the intelligence official he fired on Friday night; insisted the US economy would soon have to reopen despite expert predictions of a lengthy shutdown to deal with the virus; and defended Republican governors who have not ordered social distancing measures. Such states, he said, had big land, few people and theyre in very good shape. Trumps performance came less than 24 hours after he announced new advice from his own health department, that Americans should wear masks in public, then, even as his wife Melania tweeted out the news, said: This is voluntary. I dont think Im going to be doing it. The Navy captain who was removed from command of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Capt. Brett E. Crozier, fired from his post last week, had tested positive, citing two Naval Academy classmates of Croziers who are close to him and his family. A Navy spokesman declined to comment on Croziers health status. The commander began exhibiting symptoms before he was removed from the warship on Thursday, two of his classmates told the newspaper. The San Diego-based Roosevelt is in port in Guam fighting an outbreak of COVID-19 among its crew. Last Sunday, Crozier sent a letter to the commander of the Pacific Fleet asking that the Navy evacuate 90 percent of its crew, writing We are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single Sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily. The letter became public Tuesday when it was first published by the San Francisco Chronicle. On Wednesday, Thomas Modly, the acting Navy secretary, said the Navy was moving to do much of what Crozier asked in the letter, including a plan to move almost 3,000 sailors off the ship within days. On Thursday, Modly announced he removed Crozier from command, saying that the wide dissemination of the letter via 20 to 30 people on an email was a reflection of the captains extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis. Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union that there were 155 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among sailors aboard the aircraft carrier, and that more than half of the ship had been tested. So far there have been no hospitalizations. -- Karen Kucher, The San Diego Union-Tribune With the Chief Medical Officer of the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) testing positive for coronavirus, DG CRPF AP Maheshwari, who came into indirect contact with him through an official, has given his sample for COVID-19 testing. While 20 senior officers of the security force have been placed under home quarantine. Apart from the DG, several senior CRPF officials have also given their samples for testing, sources in CRPF said. Almost 20 CRPF officers are under home quarantine since the last couple of days as a precautionary measure. "We are already working with skeleton-staff but since a CMO has tested positive for COVID-19, we have been asked by the top brass to be on home quarantine. 20 officers are on home quarantine and DG along with other officers have given samples for testing," a senior CRPF official told ANI "Except for the CMO of CRPF who tested positive and is undergoing treatment, none in the chain ahead have shown any signs of the disease so far. However, the DG, as a precautionary measure has advised all officials concerned to restrict their movements and strictly work from home to break the chain, if any exists. The DG has also set an example by following the same protocols himself," CRPF said in a statement. CRPF DG Maheshwari had on Sunday tweeted and said, "Greetings, As a precautionary measure I have completely restricted my movement being part of my responsibility to break the chain, and working from home, till clarity on health check-up of concerned officials emerges." Sources also said that a security official, who was in touch with the CMO, who tested positive, had gone to Chhattisgarh along with DG recently. Later, all officials including MHA advisor Vijay Kumar also went for home quarantine. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday morning there are 3,374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, including 266 people who have been cured and discharged and 77 deaths. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When several Sri Lankan returnees from Italy tried to escape quarantine, the government and the media very correctly refrained from mentioning either their race or religion. But this correct practice was cast into the four winds last week by the head of the presidential taskforce against covid-19, army commander Shavendra Silva. by Tisaranee Gunasekara ...by tomorrow, everything will already look different; by tomorrow, everything will already feel different. Viktor Klemperer (The Language of the Third Reich) It was October 1348. Bubonic plague, known to posterity as the Black Death, was sweeping across Europe. In Geneva, a man by the name of Agimet was arrested and made to sign a confession (he was twice put to torture a little, according to official documents). In his torture-propelled confession, Agimet says he poisoned wells to spread plague among gentiles, at the urging of a rabbi. For Agimet was Jewish. And the witch-hunt against him was an early step in the scapegoating of Jews for the emerging pestilence. The threat of the plague was a common one, then as now. Instead of facing it together, a terrified Christian majority was driven by ignorance and fear to turn on a religious minority. As historian Norman Cantor points out in his In the Wake of the Plague, Jewish communities in Europe were labelled plague carriers and accused of deliberately sowing the seeds of plague among Christians. The fake news and hate mongering gave rise to a wave of pogroms against Jews. Long after Black Death became a distant memory, anti-Semitism continued to plague Europe. The reverberations of that history can be felt today as a new pandemic sweeps across the world. In India, the mainstream media has incorporated the Covid story into its 24/7 toxic anti-Muslim campaign, writes Arundathi Roy in her essay, The Pandemic is a Portal. The overall tone suggests that Muslim invented the virus and have deliberately spread it as a form of Jihad (Financial Times 3.4.2020). A similar campaign of anti-Muslim hysteria is gathering pace here in Sri Lanka. Online commentators accuse Muslims of birthing the virus and call Muslim patients suicide bombers, while the government looks the other way. When several Sri Lankan returnees from Italy tried to escape quarantine, the government and the media very correctly refrained from mentioning either their race or religion. But this correct practice was cast into the four winds last week by the head of the presidential taskforce against covid-19, army commander Shavendra Silva. Appearing on Hiru TV in mufti, the general said, Yesterday a patient was discovered from Akurana... Then we discovered another person from Puttlam. He has also associated with a lot of people. He is a Muslim. In both places they are Muslims ( Watch Here ). That gratuitous mention of the religion of two patients signalled a policy of open sesame on racism. In the now infamous Derana video clip, Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage follows in the boot-steps of the army commander, saying. ...today 20 patients were identified. Of these, 19 were of Muslim faith. 19! The two opposition members on the panel, representing the JVP and Sajith Premadasas breakaway group, Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) say nothing to counter the ministers hate speech. Since then, a few oppositional politicians notably Mangala Samaraweera and Karu Jayasuriya have condemned the hate campaign against Muslims. The UNP too has issued a statement against ongoing attempts to instigate racial and religious divisions. But the government remains unapologetic and unrepentant. A student and a doctor have been arrested, according to media reports, for claiming that a special ward has been set aside in a military hospital for VIP patients. But those who try to ignite communal unrest in the midst of a deadly pandemic remain above the law. The few countries which have managed to contain the virus, notably Taiwan, South Korea, and Iceland, have done so by using aggressive and widespread testing. Test 0 Trace Test has been their operating principle. According to the GMOA, though Sri Lanka has the capacity to test 750 to 1000 people a day, less than 250 are being tested (Lanka News Web 5.4.2020). All Ceylon Medical Officials Association (ACOMA) has questioned the quality of the protective clothing provided to those at the frontline of the battle, doctors and other medical workers. The government is cracking down on critics. It is allowing racism a free rein. But it seems to be failing in the cardinal task of making tests as widespread and as frequent as possible. Connect the dots, and what emerges is a ruling cabal that is prioritising its narrow political agenda even in a time of national and global disaster. The unpardonable pardon and the impunity virus On the sixth day of the curfew, the president set free a convicted killer. Army sergeant Sunil Rathnayake was found guilty of murdering eight people; thats three more deaths than the virus has caused so far. All the eight deceased persons had sustained the identical fatal injury, a cut on the neck inflicted from behind, as disclosed by the medical evidence, wrote Justice Buvaneka Aluvihare in the Supreme Court judgment that confirmed Sunil Rathnayakes murder conviction. Amongst those whose throats were slit from behind was a five year old child. The toddler had accompanied his father, two brothers (aged 13 and 15) and other adults (all of them war-displaced civilians) in their fatal journey to their original village of Mirusuvil. As they were about to leave, writes Justice Aluvihare, the toddler saw a guava tree full of ripe fruits. He begged for some fruits. The group stopped to pluck the fruits. That was when the killers arrived ( Read More What kind of leader would pardon such a killer? What kind of a future can the country expect from such a leader? What adds to the shame and exacerbates the shock of this pardon is its timing. The pandemic should have put a stop to politics as usual. Instead, the president is using the pandemic to advance his own political agenda. When the pardoned killer emerged from the prison, his welcoming party was headed by none other than retired major general and defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne. That presence was as symbolic as the pardon itself because it gave to the pardon the final ideological imprimatur. This was no isolated act, it said, but an integral component of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa political project. No crime is a crime in my service, the pardon says. Loyalty sanctifies every action, turning even the most heinous murder into an act of heroism. Impunity is your inalienable right if you are a true believer, the pardon says. If you remain true to me, the pardon says, I will save you from the consequences of your action, be they official or unofficial. Barbarism is heroism, the pardon says, and blood lust is patriotism. When the sole survivor of the massacre made his complaint, the military did not try to suppress it. On the contrary, the witness was taken seriously, given protection, and the investigation conducted with no loss of time, initially by the military police under the direction of Major Sydney Soyza. If the crime symbolised the dark side of the military, the effort to uncover it and hold the guilty to account indicated that there was another side too, one of honour and decency, of a basic sense of justice, and of compassion. With this pardon, the president has placed his stamp of approval not on those within the military who saw the cold blooded murder of eight civilians as a crime but on those who committed, approved or excused that crime. The pardon will rebound even on those Sinhalese who are indifferent to it or are elated by it because it also paves the way to two, three, many Rathupaswalas. The Mirusuvil case was prosecuted by the AGs Department. Sgt. Rathnayake was convicted after a trial at bar. The conviction in its most critical parts was upheld by a five judge bend of the Supreme Court, unanimously. With the pardon, the judicial system is told that the rule of law is dead, and the law of the ruler predominates. The judiciary can do its best, but the executive will turn all that work into nothing. The shameful and shaming silence on the part of Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa and the JVP about this heinous pardon demonstrates that in the oppositional space, cowardice and opportunism prevail. The virus of impunity took a great leap forward with the unpardonable pardoning of convicted murderer Army Sgt. Sunil Ratnayake. The pandemic it will birth will flourish long after the horrors of Covid-19 have become nothing but a memory. Flouting the law; disembowelling the constitution Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act, No. 13 of 2005 mandates the setting up of a National Council for Disaster Management, a non-partisan entity to deal with national emergencies. According to the Act, the members of this council should include the president, the prime minister, leader of opposition, 25 subject ministers and five members of the opposition nominated by the Speaker ( Read More ). Had the parliament not been dissolved, the president would have been bound by law to appoint such a council to handle the pandemic threat. In the absence of a sitting parliament, the president has been able to deal with the pandemic unilaterally. And the result of this unilateralism, of one-man leadership, has not been positive. First the president ignored the possibility of the pandemic grabbing us by the throat, and dissolved the parliament, even though the parliament could have continued till August. Then he refused to listen to voices of reason, especially from the medical community, and adopted a politics as usual attitude. The task force he appointed to deal with the virus held televised meetings where members practiced the opposite of social distancing, sitting shoulder to shoulder. The president told the SAARC leaders that he will go ahead with the election and said that 28 Covid-19 patients is no reason to close down the country. Once the nomination was complete, he took a great leap in the opposite direction and imposed a country wide curfew. By maintaining and lifting the curfew in an arbitrary manner, he worsened public fears to the point of mindless panic. Now he is paving the way for a constitutional crisis by refusing to rescind the gazette and re-summon the parliament. In the early days, when the taskforce meetings acted as if it was some sort of daily show, a participant suggested handing the country over to the military for the duration of the pandemic. The president gave his signature laugh and said Id like to. A few days later he appointed another retired military man as the governor of the Western Province. Now some of his supporters are claiming that he can postpone the election at will, with no mandate from the judiciary, until the crisis is over. If the president follows this advice, Lankan democracy will be the most tragic victim of the pandemic. The managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, has warned that the pandemic has created an economic crisis like no other. One of the deadliest outcomes of the pandemic in Sri Lanka would be the creation of a class of new poor as the loss of livelihood and income forces a segment of the lower middle class to slip into poverty. Despair and anger are likely to be the dominant features in the mindset of this class. The recent actions of the government cannot but give rise to the fear that the rulers intend to use minorities as scapegoats, to divert and pacify the Sinhala members of this new poor. A Brazilian billionaire flew about in his private jet, meeting people, socialising with them, after he was tested positive for the virus. His crime does not belong to his community. It is his alone. The crime of a Sinhalese is not a Sinhala crime. The crime of a Tamil is not a Tamil crime. The crime of a Muslim is not a Muslim crime. The narrative of this or that minority furthering the pandemic might help the government in its power project, but it will condemn Sri Lanka to a future of endless societal violence. Pandemics have always given birth to change. The world after a pandemic was never the world that prevailed before. If the signals emanating from the government are anything to go by, our post-pandemic future is likely to be one of racial violence and tyranny. Understanding that danger and confronting it is as important as doing everything possible to defeat the pandemic. Mani Prabhu By Even before coronavirus forced everyone indoors, it was clear that the single biggest game-changer in the Tamil industry, over the last couple of years, has been the prompt delivery of theatrical films on OTT platforms. Digital platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hotstar, Zee5, Sun NXT have gone regional and the Tamil film industry continues to be one of their biggest targets. A paradigm shift seems to be taking place in the movie business, with producers starting to take OTT revenue into consideration, even before planning the release date, as its proving to give guaranteed returns compared to theatricals. The biggest hits of the last 18 months, including star-vehicles like Petta, Viswasam, Bigil, Nerkonda Paarvai, and Darbar, have all been made available for streaming within weeks of release, with rights flying off the shelves at humongous prices. In this business atmosphere, the release window between the theatrical and OTT platforms has recently emerged as a serious bone of contention. Over the past few months, the release window has effectively shrunk from three months to one month. Exhibitors were left fuming when Karthis hugely-successful Diwali release, Kaithi, was released on an OTT platform, exactly 30 days after its theatrical release. As many theatre chains are against films being simultaneously available in theatres and OTT platforms, all the shows of Kaithi were stopped immediately after the films streaming debut. Similarly, Rajinikanth-starrer Darbar came on an OTT platform before the 50th day of its theatrical release and Pattas, starring Dhanush in the lead, started streaming on its 31st day. Distributors and theatre proprietors are unhappy with this new trend of rushed OTT release, as they feel it could have a long-term effect on the movie-watching habits of the audience, in addition to the immediate effect on theatre footfalls. The representatives of the Chennai Kanchipuram Tiruvallur District Film Distributors Association recently took this issue up in their board meeting and passed a resolution that all Tamil films should be made available on OTT platforms and TV channels only after eight weeks and 100 days after their theatrical releases. T Mannan, the secretary of the association, explaining the decision, says that they intend to put down this eight week OTT window clause in the legal agreement pertaining to the distribution, for both small and big-ticket films. The producer of Kaithi, SR Prabhu, who started the trend of releasing his films a few weeks after the theatrical release on OTT platforms with Kaithi, however, remained unperturbed. In the current business model, the producer almost gets nothing in terms of revenue from cinemas that are running it for the third or fourth week. So why should I not make my film available on OTT platforms on the 31st day? he says. Tiruppur Subramaniam, the president of the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association, however, welcomes the decision and agrees that adding the clause to the legal agreements is the way to go. The eight-week window has been followed by Bollywood. It also happens to be a global standard for many industries. If the biggest film industry in our country can follow it, why cant we? he says. Prabhu, on the other hand, negates this argument saying that the business model is completely different in Bollywood. In Hindi cinema, they have different policies regarding the third week, fourth week, and subsequent week shares for the producer. If the four-week window has to become eight weeks, then producers share percentages have to be reconsidered. If you cant stop the piracy problem and cant give me a better revenue share, you shouldnt be stopping me from monetising my product, he says. With producers and distributors still divided, a niche curated streaming service, MUBI, has opted for a unique promotional strategy. Subscribers to the streamer are getting a free ticket to watch a hand-picked film in one of the leading multiplexes chains every week. Is this sort of coexistence the way to go? Only time will tell. Vincit Oyj (HEL:VINCIT), which is in the software business, and is based in Finland, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the HLSE over the last few months, increasing to 5.50 at one point, and dropping to the lows of 3.01. 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 Vincit Oyj's current trading price of 3.22 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 Vincit Oyjs outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. See our latest analysis for Vincit Oyj What's the opportunity in Vincit Oyj? Great news for investors Vincit Oyj is still trading at a fairly cheap price according to my price multiple model, where I compare the company's price-to-earnings ratio to the industry average. In this instance, Ive used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stocks cash flows. I find that Vincit Oyjs ratio of 40.25x is below its peer average of 46.89x, which indicates the stock is trading at a lower price compared to the Software industry. Whats more interesting is that, Vincit Oyjs 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 Vincit Oyj look like? HLSE:VINCIT Past and Future Earnings April 5th 2020 Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. With revenues expected to grow by a double-digit 14% over the next couple of years, the outlook is positive for Vincit Oyj. If the level of expenses is able to be maintained, it looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? Since VINCIT is currently trading below the industry PE ratio, it may be a great time to accumulate more of your holdings in the stock. With an optimistic 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 price multiple. Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on VINCIT for a while, now might be the time to enter the stock. Its buoyant future outlook isnt fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means its not too late to buy VINCIT. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the track record of its management team, in order to make a well-informed assessment. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters the fundamentals before you make a decision on Vincit Oyj. You can find everything you need to know about Vincit Oyj in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Vincit Oyj, 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. Cuba releases Christian homeschool mother jailed for not enrolling kids in gov't school Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian homeschool mother who was arrested in Cuba for refusing to send her children to government-run schools has been released after over 11 months in prison. Her husband remains imprisoned. Pastor Adya Exposito Leyva confirmed that she was released from a womens prison in Guantanamo last weekend. Exposito Leyva was jailed along with her husband, Pastor Ramon Rigal, last April for homeschooling their children. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the couple homeschooled to avoid sending their kids to the government schools that promote socialism and atheism. They were sentenced for crimes such as acts against the normal development of a minor. USCIRF reports that Rigal remains in prison to serve a two-year sentence and is slated to be released in 2021. Journalist Robert Jesus Quinones Haces is also imprisoned for allegedly trying to cover the couples legal trial. According to USCRIF, Haces was sentenced for disobedience. While we welcome the release of Exposito and are particularly relieved that she can be reunited with her children, we believe that she should never have been imprisoned in the first place, USCIRF Commissioner and civil rights lawyer Anurima Bhargava said in a statement. The charges brought against her and her husband are part of the Cuban governments harassment, discrimination, and arbitrary detention of individuals simply seeking to practice their religion." Rigal and Exposito Leyva serve as representatives of Abundant Faith Ministry International headquartered in Nicaragua. Marvyn Thomas, chief executive of the United Kingdom-based watchdog group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, welcomed the pastors release and also called on authorities to allow her to enjoy her freedom without harassment. According to CSW, the bullying of children in school because of their religious beliefs is relatively common in Cuba. CSW said it received a number of cases involving pastors kids being denied educational opportunities or singled out because their parents hold counter-revolutionary ideas. Two Jewish boys were barred from entering their school while wearing kippahs, CSW reported last December. Authorities threatened to open up legal proceedings against their parents. The Cuban authorities targeting of children on account of their religious beliefs or those of their parents is a deplorable violation of fundamental human rights, Thomas said in a statement. We call on the Cuban authorities to ensure that there is no religious discrimination in schools and that parents are afforded the right to place their children in an education system of their choosing. This week, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro called on Cuba to release thousands of political prisoners to combat the spread of the coronavirus in Cubas prisons. According to USCRIF, Cuban prisons are overcrowded and lack adequate sanitary conditions. More than ever during this global pandemic, the Cuban government must release Pastor Rigal and Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces, along with others held in Cuba for their beliefs or advocacy of religious freedom, USCIRF Commissioner Gary Bauer, a longtime social conservative activist, said in a statement. With the coronavirus spreading on the island, the conditions in Cuban prisons are a ticking time bomb. We implore the Cuban government not to further punish individuals for their most deeply held convictions by keeping them behind bars despite the present danger. In Cuba, there are at least 269 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and six related deaths as of Friday afternoon. Last December, the U.S. State Department added Cuba to its special watch list of countries that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom. There have been hundreds of religious freedom violations in Cuba over the last several years, CSW reports. Last July, Cuba barred evangelical leaders from traveling to the U.S. to participate in the State Department's historic Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. One of the leaders wrote on Facebook at the time that she was banned from traveling because the regime considered the ministerial to be a counter-revolutionary event. 05.04.2020 LISTEN Three months into a new decade, no one could have foretold that wed be in the midst of a crisis and such unprecedented times. An unknown virus that has created a macro-shock to the global environment, disrupting all industries to their core, creating fear and panic, a world-wide economic downturn and its associated social impact with a sense of uncertainty on the African continent and across the world. The higher education sector has been one of the sectors most visibly impacted by the domino effect of this crisis; with schools and universities closures and cancellations of major examinations, it leaves a huge question of progression of students to the next level, especially those in a final year looking to attend university in the next academic year. It is in this state of uncertainty that a number of universities in Ghana, including Academic City made a strategic decision to transition our core business of teaching and learning online. In times like these, the resolve and agility of educational institutions are pushed to the boundaries in recognising the new ecosystem presented to us and how the related challenges are supported. The action of innovation, creativity and nimbleness quickly become key to business as usual. The art of leadership which requires one to motivate, influence and maximize the efforts of others to achieve a common goal, as defined by Forbes, comes out to the test. Additionally, the notion of employees make the organisation becomes reality. Flexible organisations with responsive and engaging teams are the ones most likely to adapt quickly to limit the disruption in order to survive. At Academic City, the nebulous situation we found ourselves in during the second week of March 2020 required the right attitude from all faculty, staff, students and parents. The attitude to be cooperative, to collaborate and to trust. This mindset is what supported the transition of operations from the physical classroom to the online classroom in just 7 seven days after the closure of the university, and took the team through a rigorous process of researching, shortlisting, testing, selecting and procuring the relevant online tools to deploy. All stakeholders received immediate training on the online tools deployed, putting into consideration creative ways of delivering a subject to make it relevant. A seemingly linear process but in reality an organized chaotic period. Access to much-needed equipment and online connectivity was addressed by providing stakeholders with what was required. After a week of complete shut-down, Academic City was fully operational online with students attending classes according to their timetables, notwithstanding a few glitches which were resolved. The future rise in popularity of online learning platforms cannot be overemphasized, as this experience has led educational institutions to reconsider what the future in the sector could look like. Thus, it is worth examining lessons learned from this crisis and ensuring that we translate these experiences to co-create value that catapults our future operations. We should be able to cross-pollinate to our advantage - cultural expectations; new collaborations and partnerships; smarter working environment and value for time; become and remain agile; communicate effectively with stakeholders; document processes better; consider logistics and access solutions; recruit the right people with the right mindset, and cultivate and nurture clear institutional values. No doubt the impact of COVID-19 is devastating, but in the long-term, there is hope for higher education institutions who position themselves for longevity and sustainability to ultimately present a positive social impact on communities. Whilst we navigate the current challenges to limit the immediate damage of this crisis, a post-COVID-19 recession could potentially be a growth opportunity for the higher education sector in Ghana and on the African continent, in terms of giving our youth the platform to be future-proof with relevant skills for careers during a time of underemployment and unemployment which is inevitably ahead of us. Are we ready? - THE government, through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, is exploring the possibility of introducing courses on mining extraction and processing in various colleges in Geita Region. Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Joyce Ndalichako told the parliament that her office had received a request from the Geita District Council to give Magogo Entrepreneurship College to VETA. She said the government had granted the request, adding that the government was continuing with the procedure to place the college under VETA. She said the government was aware that Geita was rich in minerals and that there was a need for the introduction of mining courses in its colleges so that more people could be trained in the sphere. We understand that Geita Region is rich in minerals and these colleges are surrounded by mining sites; Therefore, we are looking for the possibility of introducing courses in these colleges so that more people can study in this important field, she remarked. The minister was responding to Special Seats MP, Josephine Chagulla (CCM) who wanted to know when the government would introduce more colleges in the region especially for health and mining sectors. She said the region had only one public college and that there was a need for increasing the number so that more people could get training in various areas of expertise. The minister said it was true there was only one public college in Geita Region currently- Geita School of Nursing. However, she said the government was currently constructing two VETA colleges and that in the near future, the number of colleges was expected to rise. She added that there was also a branch of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) in Geita Region. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 17:59:17|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Low-income people hit hard by COVID-19 outbreak wait for collecting relief materials amid a shutdown in Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 5, 2020. The number of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh abruptly spiked Sunday, rising by 18 and bringing the total to 88. Bangladesh Saturday extended the ongoing shutdown of public transport to April 11 to manage the spread of the virus. (Str/Xinhua) DHAKA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh abruptly spiked Sunday, rising by 18 and bringing the total to 88. The death toll rose to nine as the country confirmed one more fatality Sunday, Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque told journalists in an online press briefing. Samples from 367 persons were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh, the minister said. So far 55 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the country, he said. New York State Reports Record 10,841 New COVID-19 Cases, 630 New Deaths Governor Sputnik News 16:31 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 16:49 GMT 04.04.2020) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The US state of New York has recorded its largest daily increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases as 10,841 positive tests were reported on Saturday, with the death toll also rising by 630, State Governor Andrew Cuomo said. During a televised press briefing, Cuomo confirmed that 10,841 new cases of the disease have been registered, raising the total number of cases reported in the state since the start of the outbreak to 113,704. The COVID-19 death toll in the state of New York now stands at 3,565, Cuomo said. The state governor added that 15,905 people are currently receiving treatment for the disease in hospital, and 4,126 of those are currently in intensive care units. New York has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, which itself has reported more than double the amount of cases than any other state. The mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio has warned that the city does not have sufficient medical supplies to cope with the expected surge in the number of critically ill patients in the coming weeks and months. A Russian military cargo plane landed in the US on Thursday loaded with medical supplies to combat the disease. US President Donald Trump said that the supplies were of "very high quality." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Olivia Newton-John has encouraged fans to get creative by 'making their own' face masks to help flatten the global coronavirus curve. On Sunday, the legendary Australian actress encouraged the D.I.Y task as PPE (personal protective equipment) shortages have been reported around the world. Sharing a selfie wearing a leopard print mask in a bid to keep protected, the 71-year-old cancer-stricken star urged her followers to do the same. 'Let's be creative!' Olivia Newton-John (pictured) encouraged her fans to 'make their own' face masks on Sunday in an attempt to flatten the curve during the COVID-19 pandemic 'We don't need masks, because health workers need them desperately and there aren't enough for the general public too!' she wrote. The Grease star then urged her followers: 'Please pass this video on - let's be creative and make our own, like the Czech Republic.' The Australian star concluded the post, thanking local startup group Masks 4 All for sharing their important message to the world. Creative! 'We don't need masks, because health workers need them desperately' Sharing a selfie of her wearing a leopard print mask in a bid to keep protected, the 71-year-old Cancer-stricken star urged her followers to do the same Last month, Olivia, who is battling breast cancer for the third time, shared a photo of medical staff from the ONJ Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne. In the photo, staff posed with a cardboard cut-out of Olivia and held signs that read: 'We stay here for you, please stay home for us. Take care.' 'So proud and indebted to the amazing staff at the ONJ Cancer Centre and all hospitals and care facilities around the world for their commitment to helping us get through this crisis,' Olivia captioned the post. Can you spot Olivia? In the photo, staff posed with a cardboard cut-out of Olivia (pictured) and held signs that read: 'We stay here for you, please stay home for us. Take care.' 'Please be conscious of what they are asking and help them maintain their health whilst caring for our loved ones. 'Stay home, wash your hands, prevent the spread. It's a short period of time to have to stay home and could make such a huge difference in the long term. 'We are all in this together - I believe this too will pass.' A good cause: Olivia has battled with cancer three times over the course of her life from 1994 to 2017. She helped build the ONJ Cancer Centre (pictured) in 2008 Olivia also thanked the ONJ Cancer Centre's Ward 7 South team, who looked after her when she had cancer. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994 and has also battled the disease in 2013 and 2017. She helped build the ONJ Cancer Centre in 2008 and has supported it ever since. The '70s film icon later shared a poem by Father Richard Hendricks to Instagram. 'I also believe that good things are coming out of this difficult time - which too will pass,' she captioned the post. New York State, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, continued to record the highest count of daily deaths from COVID-19 as a staggering number of 630 people died in a 24-hour period and Governor Andrew Cuomo said the outbreak in the state could peak in about seven days. The state had recorded the highest single increase in the number of deaths from novel coronavirus in a single day between April 2 and 3 when 562 people had died, one person dying from the viral infection almost every two-and-a-half minutes. In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to 630, "all-time increase" up to a total of 3,565, up from 2,935 on Friday morning, Cuomo said. The daily death toll in New York continues to grow at record numbers as the state remains the most impacted in the US from coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in New York State now stand at 113,704, out of the country's total number of 312,146. New Jersey, the second most impacted state in the US, has about 30,000 COVID-19 cases. New York City alone has 63,306 coronavirus patients, up from 57,169 the previous 24 hours, and 2,624 deaths. Cuomo said the apex in the state, the point where the number of infections on a daily basis hits the high point, is still about 4-8 days away. "We have been talking about hitting that apex, the high point of the curve. I call it the battle of the mountaintop. That's going to be the number one point of engagement of the enemy," he said. "But our reading of the projections is we're somewhere in the seven-day range, four, five, six seven, eight day range. Nobody can give you a specific number, which makes it very frustrating to plan when they can't give you a specific number or a specific date, but we're in that range," Cuomo said. "We are not yet at the apex. Part of me would like to be at the apex and just let's do it. But there's part of me that says it's good that we're not at the apex because we're not yet ready for the apex either, still working on the capacity of the (healthcare) system," the governor said. Cuomo has expressed anger over the short supply of essential medical equipment for healthcare professionals to help them deal with the surge in coronavirus cases across the state and the country. He said personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gowns and face shields are in short supply in New York as they are across the country and there is need for companies to make these materials. "It is unbelievable to me that in the New York State, in the United States of America, we can't make these materials and that we are all shopping China to try to get these materials and we're all competing against each other," he had said earlier. Cuomo said on Saturday that the state has 85,000 volunteers, including 22,000 from outside the state, and he will also be signing an executive order to allow medical students who were slated to graduate to begin practising, supplementing the state's healthcare professional capacity. On ventilators, he said the state had ordered 17,000 but there was not enough supply in the federal stockpile to meet this growing demand across the state. "China is remarkably the repository for all of these orders - ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China, which long term we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don't have the manufacturing capacity in this country," he said, adding, "New York has been shopping in China." The Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will arrive at the JFK Airport in the city, he said, as he thanked the Chinese government, Alibaba head Jack Ma, the Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba co-founder co-founder Joe Tsai and China's Consul General Huang Ping. In addition, the state of Oregon would deliver 140 ventilators to New York. Cuomo has signed an executive order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment from hospitals, private sector companies and institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator. The 2,500-bed facility at the Javits Convention Centre, which was supposed to be used for non-COVID patients, will now be used as COVID-positive facility. "The federal government will staff that and the federal government with equip that. That is a big deal because that 2,500-bed facility will relieve a lot of pressure on the downstate system as a significant number of beds and that facility has to make that transition quickly and that's what we're focused on," Cuomo said. Cuomo emphasised that he wants the pandemic to end as soon as possible as it is taking an unprecedented strain on life. "I want this to be all over. It's only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime. I think we all feel the same. This stresses this country, this state, in a way that nothing else has frankly, in my lifetime. It stresses us on every level. The economy is stressed, the social fabric is stressed, the social systems are stressed, transportation is stressed," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tom Woods, a candidate for the Montana Public Service Commission, recently wrote another opinion piece vilifying NorthWestern Energy. His writing is inaccurate when it comes to just about everything NorthWestern has ever done, and his rhetoric is not factual and suggests actions that are outside of the law in Montana. I invite him, again, to get to know our core company values, these are best demonstrated by our commitment to our customers. Many Montanans know NorthWestern employees personally because we are your neighbors. We live and work in the communities we serve. We focus on keeping our customer rates as low as possible: our electric rates are currently 16.4% below the national average and our natural gas rates are 28.1% below the national average. We give our personal time and volunteer to strengthen our communities. We contribute to charities and nonprofits. With our investment in Montanas hydro systems, over 61% of the energy we generate in Montana is carbon free. Weeks ago, we announced that we were not going to disconnect service for non-payment due to COVID-19 and the horrible economic dislocation that was about to take place across the state; we were among the first energy companies in the nation to make this decision. We are providing $300,000 in aid now for small businesses devastated by this crisis and to nonprofits to assist the most vulnerable in our communities being impacted today. This aid is available immediately. This $300,000 donation, like all other charitable donations by NorthWestern Energy, is never included in customers bills. In addition, our employees donations to Montana Energy Share during this crisis are also being matched by NorthWestern Energy. We are prepared during this pandemic to continue to deliver safe and reliable energy to our customers around the clock, essential to powering our homes and hospitals. These are part of NorthWestern Energys core values. We invite Mr. Woods to learn the facts about NorthWestern Energy, Montana law governing regulated energy companies in this state, and the responsibility and authority of the office he is running for, the Montana Public Service Commission. Heather Grahame is NorthWestern Energy's general counsel and vice president of regulatory and federal government affairs. Love 3 Funny 6 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 With close to nine lakh active coronavirus cases across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is not showing significant signs of slowing down any time soon. The virus is slowly spreading to new territories and adding more and more casualties to its list. At a time like this, when its become imperative to bring the death toll down, mankinds only hope to get out of this alive lies in the creation of effective cures and vaccines that can neutralise the fatal coronavirus, and save millions of lives. BCCL As the world continues to fight this invisible enemy, numerous organisations, researchers and scientists have been working tirelessly to come up with potential vaccines that can help the human race win this battle. Check out these 5 possible vaccine researches that are a silver lining for the human race right now. 1. Bill Gates Funds Setting Up Of 7 Potential Vaccine Factories Known for their expertise in dealing with infectious diseases, The Gates Foundation is said to have invested huge amounts of money in setting up factories which will work to develop vaccines for coronavirus. The news came to light when The Daily Show host Trevor Noah recently released the preview clip of his upcoming episode featuring Bill Gates where the Microsoft co-founder can be heard saying, "We did fund some things to be more prepared like a vaccine effort, our early money can accelerate things. BCCL Gates also shared that the Foundation has picked top seven vaccine candidates and is helping them with the manufacturing. He also said, "Even though we'll end up picking at most two of them, we're going to fund factories for all seven just so we don't waste time in serially saying 'okay which vaccine works' and then building the factory. Reportedly, Gates approved of simultaneously testing and building manufacturing units because thats the fastest way of developing a vaccine at this stage. 2. The Pittsburgh Coronavirus Vaccine Researchers and scientists at the University of Pittsburgh recently conducted a study and tested a potential coronavirus vaccine on mice which showed a positive immune response to COVID-19. The response quantity is said to be enough to neutralize the coronavirus. The study has been published in the EBioMedicine journal which called the vaccine the PittCoVacc. BCCL Reportedly, the fingertip-sized, sugar and protein-based 400 microneedle vaccine patch was able to create a surge of coronavirus-fighting antibodies within two weeks of delivering it. Speaking about how the vaccines core component was chosen, senior co-author Andrea Gambotto said, "We had previous experience on SARS-CoV in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2014. These two viruses, which are closely related to SARS-CoV-2, teach us that a particular protein, called a spike protein, is important for inducing immunity against the virus." 3. Adenovirus Type 5 Candidate Vaccine BCCL Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) shared that two candidate vaccines for COVID-19 have progressed into phase one of human clinical trials. Reportedly, the vaccine candidate is being jointly developed by CanSino Biological Inc and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. It also needs to be noted that CanSino had earlier developed an Ebola vaccine in 2017 in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Science's Bioengineering Institute. Apparently, this vaccine uses a Adenovirus Type 5 candidate composed of adenoviruses which cause pneumonia and deliver potential antigens to stimulate the production of antibodies that work against the disease. 4. Oxford University & Inovio Pharmaceutical Vaccine BCCL As per reports, it is being said that scientists in Australia have started testing two potential coronavirus vaccines in its lab trials. The vaccines are being jointly developed by Oxford University and Inovio Pharmaceutical, and the the WHO has cleared them for animal testing. Reportedly, Australia's national science agency will decide if the vaccines work, and can be used as human vaccinations. 5. TB Vaccine As Potential COVID-19 Vaccine BCCL Recently it was announced that scientists in Melbourne, Australia have been trying to utilise the 100-year-old tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) to test if it is effective against the coronavirus infection. The decision was made based on the observation that the BCG is effective in preventing fatalities in infants from a number of causes, and highly reduces the occurrence of respiratory infections. According to experts, the vaccine basically trains our immune system to recognize and respond to various bacterial, viral and parasitic infections. So clinical trials are being undertaken to ascertain if it will work against the coronavirus. Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for tests as his coronavirus symptoms persist, Downing Street has said. The Prime Minister will stay for as long as needed in the London NHS hospital where he was taken as a precautionary step on the advice of his doctor rather than as an emergency. He tested positive for the virus 10 days ago, and has been in self-isolation inside his Downing Street flat since. A Number 10 spokeswoman said: On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests. This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus. The Prime Minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the Governments advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. He remains in charge of the Government despite his hospital admission, a spokesman said, but his de facto deputy Dominic Raab is expected to chair the daily Covid-19 meeting on Monday morning for ministers and officials. Number 10 said the PM remains in contact with ministerial colleagues and officials. Mr Johnsons persistent symptoms are understood to include a high temperature, and it was considered sensible for doctors to see the PM in person. The Prime Minister revealed on March 27 that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was self-isolating with mild symptoms including a high temperature and persistent cough. He has shared several video updates from his Number 11 flat since the diagnosis, and stepped outside to join the nationwide clap for NHS staff on Thursday evening. Mr Johnson has not been seen publicly since, but spoke to new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday afternoon. Expand Close The PM has been updating the nation on his condition via social media (Boris Johnson/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The PM has been updating the nation on his condition via social media (Boris Johnson/PA) Sir Keir wished the PM a speedy recovery after the announcement. Shortly after the news broke, Scotlands chief medical officer, Dr Catherine Calderwood, resigned following criticism for visiting her second home and not adhering to social distancing advice. Earlier on Sunday evening, the Queen made a rare address to the nation, in which she said if we remain united and resolute in the face of the outbreak we will overcome it. The head of state warned the country may have more still to endure, but echoed the words of Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynne as she said: We will meet again. Meanwhile, Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow confirmed Lynsay Coventry, 54, who died on Thursday, was the first serving midwife to die after testing positive for the virus. The Department of Health said the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths stood at 4,934 patients as of 5pm on Saturday, up by 621 from 4,313 the day before. Mr Johnsons pregnant fiancee said on Saturday that she was on the mend after also suffering coronavirus symptoms. The 32-year-old, who is expecting the couples baby in early summer, has been self-isolating in Camberwell, south London, with the couples dog Dilyn. She said on Saturday: Ive spent the past week in bed with the main symptoms of Coronavirus. I havent needed to be tested and, after seven days of rest, I feel stronger and Im on the mend. While nurses and doctors treat patients on the front lines, epidemiologists and virologists who have spent careers in lecture halls and laboratories have become the most trusted sources of information in an era of deep uncertainty, diverging policy and raging disinformation. After a long period of popular backlash against experts and expertise, which underpinned a sweep of political change and set off culture wars in much of the developed world, societies besieged by coronavirus isolation and desperate for facts are turning to these experts for answers. During a crisis, heroes come to the forefront because many of our basic human needs are threatened, including our need for certainty, meaning and purpose, self-esteem, and sense of belonging with others, said Elaine Kinsella, a psychology professor at the University of Limerick in Ireland who has researched the role of heroes in society. Heroes help to fulfill, at least in part, some of these basic human needs, she added. The scientist-heroes emerging from the coronavirus crisis rarely have the obvious charisma of political leaders, but they show deep expertise and, sometimes, compassion. In Italy, one of the hardest-hit nations in the world, Dr. Massimo Galli, the director the infectious diseases department at Luigi Sacco University Hospital in Milan, swapped his lab coat for a suit and accepted that he would be overexposed in the media in order to set things straight, he told one talk show. In Greece, which has so far been spared a major outbreak, a wide audience tunes in when Prof. Sotirios Tsiodras addresses the nation every day at 6 p.m. His delivery is flat, and he relies heavily on his notes as he updates the country on the latest figures of those confirmed sick, hospitalized or deceased. Occasionally, he offers practical advice, like a solution of four teaspoons of bleach per liter of water can be sprayed on surfaces for disinfection. Nadia, a Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. (Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society via AP) Bronx Zoo Tiger Tests Positive for CCP Virus: Officials A tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for the CCP virus, which believed to be the first infection of a zoo animal anywhere in the world and the first case of human-to-animal transmission in the United States. The 4-year-old tiger and six other tigers and lions have developed symptoms. The tiger is believed to have been exposed to the virus by an asymptomatic zoo worker, zoo officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said. Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo, has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party ) virus, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society on Sunday. Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers, and three African lions all developed a dry cough, the group said. They are all expected to recover, authorities said. Its not clear if the other big cats contracted the virus, but the USDA suggested it was probable. The USDA confirmed the tigers positive COVID-19 test, saying in a release that public health officials believe these large cats became sick after being exposed to a zoo employee who was actively shedding virus. The zoo has been closed to the public since mid-March, and the first tiger began showing signs of sickness on March 27. All of these large cats are expected to recover, according to the USDA. There is no evidence that other animals in other areas of the zoo are showing symptoms. An entrance to the Bronx Zoo in New York on Sept. 21, 2012. (Jim Fitzgerlad/AP Photo) The agency said it and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are both monitoring the situation, saying that anyone who is sick should restrict their access to animals, including pets. Although there have not been reports of pets becoming sick with COVID-19 in the United States, it is still recommended that people sick with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus, the USDA said. The development is sure to raise questions about the transmission of the CCP virus from humans to animals. We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution and are attempting to contribute to the worlds continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoos chief veterinarian, reported The Associated Press. Several pets, including dogs and cats, have tested positive for the virus amid the pandemic. On March 28, reports said a cat in Belgium tested positive for the virus, while two dogs have tested positive elsewhere. Though they have experienced some decrease in appetite, the cats at the Bronx Zoo are otherwise doing well under veterinary care and are bright, alert, and interactive with their keepers, the Bronx Zoo said, reported News12. It is not known how this disease will develop in big cats since different species can react differently to novel infections, but we will continue to monitor them closely and anticipate full recoveries, the zoo said. Benchmark indices nosedived for the seventh consecutive week which ended on April 3 amid concerns over the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus pandemic and rating downgrades on fear of NPA pressure in banking and financials sector due to lockdown. Subdued auto sales data for March and rally in oil prices also hit the sentiments. The BSE Sensex tanked 7.46 percent to 27,590.95 and the Nifty50 fell 6.66 percent to 8,083.80 for the week, taking total seven-week loss to 33 percent each. On the other hand, Bank Nifty was down 13.62 percent for the week and 44 percent over the last six weeks recording the biggest six-week fall ever. However, pharma (up 8 percent), FMCG (3 percent) and energy (2.5 percent) were the only outperformers. The broader markets relatively outperformed frontliners with the BSE Midcap index falling 3 percent and Smallcap index down nearly 1 percent. Even the market breadth was in favour of bulls for the last three straight sessions during the passing week, which experts feel indicated suppressed valuations in quality stocks attracted buying interest at lower levels hoping that the worst might have discounted by the market. According to experts, consolidation is expected to continue and bears are unlikely to handover the charge of Street to the bulls easily in the coming truncated week given the uncertainty over the ongoing lockdown, according to experts. "Market would continue to be highly volatile and would track global markets along with the trend in coronavirus cases globally and locally," Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services told Moneycontrol. "While it is very difficult to predict the bottom of the market, it always rewards investors in the long term who take the benefit of such sharp fall. Thus we suggest accumulating on a gradual basis," he said. Indian equity markets will remain shut on April 6 (Monday) for Mahavir Jayanti and on April 10 (Friday) for Good Friday. Here are 10 key factors that will keep traders busy in this truncated week: Novel coronavirus pandemic tightens grip The main factor to watch out for this weeks would be the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, which has been spreading rapidly in the United States and some European nations. In fact, the most worrying part is that the number of confirmed cases are significantly higher in these nations as compared to China, where the outbreak reportedly started in late 2019. As per the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, there have been around 11.9 lakh infected cases globally. Over 58,000 deaths have been reported so far across the world due to COVID-19. United States, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, have more reported cases than China, and which has not seen any significant increase in the number of cases in the last couple of weeks. The confirmed cases in India increased to 3,072 on April 4. This includes 213 patients who have already recovered and 75 deaths recorded so far. April 5 is the 12th day of the 21-day nationwide lockdown. Hence, the behaviour of global markets (especially US and Europe) with respect to the novel coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy and the people will be closely watched by the Street in coming weeks. Lockdown to end on April 14? Another economic package? We are halfway through the 21-day lockdown started on March 25. Hence, this week will be crucial to watch out for whether that lockdown will be ending on April 14 as scheduled, or not. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been increasing. The Centre and state governments have been urging citizens to co-operate and follow social distancing and other guidelines to help control the spread of the virus. Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates on the novel coronavirus pandemic and its impact A Reuters report, citing officials, had suggested that the lockdown could be extended depending on the assessment of the situation in each state. "If people don't obey the rules seriously and cases continue to rise, then there may be no option but to extend the lockdown, Maharashtra's Health Minister Rajesh Tope had told Reuters. It could be extended in Mumbai and urban areas of Maharashtra by two weeks." Further, there are expectations of an economic relief package for industries and corporates, among others, from the government before the lockdown ends, especially given the weak March auto sales numbers. "It can reasonably be expected that the government will announce a second round of economic relief package before the lock down is lifted by mid-April. Also there is hope for a scrappage policy that may be around the corner when the government announces an economic package," Jimeet Modi, Founder & CEO at SAMCO Securities & StockNote said. Crude oil price move Oil prices jumped 50 percent in April so far after hitting nearly two-decade low on March 31, amid hope of production cuts after report suggested that the US is trying to get the world to cut output by 10 million barrels per day to prop up prices and is also pressing Saudi Arabia to dial back its plan of cutting oil price after the market-share war with Russia. The fall in oil price below the production cost worried drillers in the United States and other oil producers around the globe. International benchmark Brent crude futures jumped to $34.11 a barrel on April 3, against $22.74 a barrel on March 31. Currently global oil markets are highly oversupplied with about 20 million barrels a day, whereas the demand has hit very badly due to virus-led lockdown in major part of world which brought oil prices down by 65 percent from January's high. Experts expect the negative sentiment to be seen in the oil market despite production cut efforts, as demand is very less globally due to lockdown and the same is unlikely to revive in short term. Indian Rupee and FII selling The recovery in Indian Rupee after welfare and liquidity stimulus seemed to be short lived as the currency weakened sharply to breach 76 against the US dollar during the gone by. The rising coronavirus cases, rebound in oil prices, FII selling, strength in dollar and weak equity markets dented sentiment and drive the rupee lower by 124 paise to close at 76.13 WoW. "As of now the overall trend remains skewed on the downside, amid the uncertainty as to how long this pandemic will last and a convincing breach of the crucial level of 76.25 would further accentuate the fall in rupee towards 77.50 mark," Sugandha Sachdeva, VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research at Religare Broking told Moneycontrol. FIIs net sold nearly Rs 10,500 crore worth of shares during last week, higher than previous week (over Rs 7,100 crore). Hence, unless and until FIIs turn net buyers for several sessions, the stability in the market is unlikely, experts suggest. Technical view The Nifty50, after losing 6.66 percent for the week, formed bearish candle on weekly scale and witnessed Bearish Belt Hold kind of formation on daily charts. Technical charts indicate that the weakness is likely to continue given the selling seen on every rally and 8,000 could play a major role in coming weeks, experts suggest. "RSI oscillator is moving southward on weekly and monthly chart and yet not showing any sign of reversal. At current juncture, weekly set up of Nifty is negative and small bounces are also getting sold-off quickly as it is making lower highs from last seven consecutive weeks. Thus, traders should refrain taking long positions," Chandan Taparia, Derivative & Technical Analyst at Motilal Oswal Financial Services told Moneycontrol. Going forward, resistance for Nifty is placed at 8,350 and 8,555 levels while support is now placed at 7,700 and 7,500 levels, he said. F&O cues and VIX The Options data indicated that the Nifty could trade in the broad range of 7,500-8,500 in coming days and the cooling off volatility from 86 levels to 53 indicated some sort of stability but supply seems likely at higher levels, experts feel. On monthly options front, maximum Call open interest was seen at 9,000 and then 10,000 strike while maximum Put open interest was at 8,000 then 7,500 strike. We have not seen any noticeable activity in Call and Put Options. "In the futures segment, no major open interest addition is visible in the first week of the series while Nifty open interest remains low near 10 million shares, which is a decade low suggesting low leverage," Amit Gupta of ICICI Direct said. Despite the market remaining under pressure, the decline in India VIX suggests some consolidation is expected around 8,000 levels, he added. Macro Data Markit Services PMI data for March will be released on April 6, while foreign exchange reserves for the week ended April 3 will be announced April 10. Country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $5.65 billion to $475.56 billion in the week ended March 27, after falling by $17.32 billion in previous two consecutive weeks. On April 10, deposit and bank loan growth data for the fortnight ended March 27 will also be released. Industrial output data for February will be released on April 9. Corporate action Here are key corporate actions taking place in the coming week: Global cues Here are key global data points to watch out for in coming week: A group of defiant Pink Floyd fans held an impromptu outdoor concert in New Jersey Saturday and shouted profanities at police when they arrived to enforce the state's restrictions against such gatherings because of the coronavirus. The Rumson Police said on their Facebook page that they are following up with an investigation of the outdoor 'greatest hits' performance, which officers found taking place at Blackpoint Road and Wood Lane Saturday night. Two guitarists on a lawn started up the show, which assembled about 30 aging fans of the classic British rock band in the middle of the street. A group of defiant Pink Floyd fans held an impromptu outdoor concert in New Jersey Saturday and told off police when they arrived to enforce the state's restrictions against such gatherings because of the coronavirus. Members of the band are pictured in 1968 The Rumson Police said on their Facebook page that they are following up with an investigation of the outdoor 'greatest hits' performance, which officers found taking place at Blackpoint Road and Wood Lane Saturday night 'Some even brought lawn chairs,' the department said. When police were called to enforce Governor Phil Murphy's prohibition against holding 'corona parties,' the party-goers came back at the cops with obscenities. 'F-the police' and 'Welcome to Nazi Germany'' the group of ''40-50 year old ADULTS,'' members of the group said, police reported. 'As the old saying goes, in the midst of all this chaos, the band still played on, that is until they were advised in the middle of the 1975 classic 'Wish you were here', that they must stop the show,' wrote the department in a light-hearted account of the incident that was posted on Facebook. There have been more than 337,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for more than 9,600 deaths. New Jersey has had more than 34,000 confirmed cases and close to 850 deaths. There have been more than 312,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for more than 9,144 deaths A day-by-day look at the number of new coronavirus infections in the US A day-to-day look at the number of deaths in the U.S. which have been blamed on the virus Pink Floyd in 2005 at the Live 8 charity concert. It was the band's last performance Pink Floyd reunited for the Live 8 charity concert (pictured) after years of being idle and before that a bitter split between bassist and songwriter Roger Waters (right) and the rest of the band, which continued under the leadership of lead guitarist David Gilmour (left) Pink Floyd, a progressive, pioneering rock band best known for the classic albums 'Dark Side of the Moon,' 'Wish You Were Here,' and 'The Wall,' last performed together during the Live 8 charity concert in 2005. The group had reunited after years of being idle and before that a bitter split between bassist and songwriter Roger Waters and the rest of the band, which continued under the leadership of lead guitarist David Gilmour. 'The Floyd', as many refer to the group, still commands a fierce loyalty among its fans. In that spirit, the Rumson police wrote, sure we all 'wish we could be here,' in response to the impromptu event, and clarified, that the department 'takes no enjoyment in ruining anyone's fun!' The department had even included the iconic cover of the bank's 'Darkside of the Moon,' album in its initial social media report. The department had even included the iconic cover (pictured) of the bank's 'Darkside of the Moon,' album in its initial social media report The Rumson Police Department's statement on their response to the impromptu concert The police's mention of an investigation came in a subsequent Facebook post. 'On behalf of Chief Scott Paterson, the Rumson Police Department has received some inquiries regarding the status of charging the people involved,' says the department in the post. 'The matter is presently under investigation by the Rumson Police Department and charges are pending. A post will be made once the subject(s) have been served with a criminal complaint. -Lt. Christopher J. York.' In this screengrab taken from a Senate Television webcast, House manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) speaks during impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 3, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images) Schiffs Dereliction of Duty Regarding Communist China Commentary If ever there were a textbook case in Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), it is Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Since the start of Donald Trumps presidency, Schiff has been at the forefront of investigating the administration and the president with an avidity that approaches, even surpassesif that is possiblemonomania. In doing so, he has been a font of disinformation that might make the KGB blush. First was the bogus Russia probe and the lies surrounding the FISA court, then came the endless impeachment over an ambiguous phone call and, as of last week, his proposal for a 9/11-style commission to study the U.S. response to the virus, no doubt with the president in the crosshairs. But, as usual, Schiff is barking up the wrong TDS tree, this time to the extent of dereliction of his duty as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The investigation by his committee that should be undertaken is the role of Chinaspecifically the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because this pandemic wasnt the work or fault of the Chinese peoplein deliberately deceiving the world about the provenance and extent of the novel coronavirus. If thats not the mission of the HPSCI, what is? Full hearings would obviously be tabled in the present, socially distant environment, but the groundwork, with an announcement, should be laid now. And evidence abounds, much of it hiding in plain sight, of the CCPs culpability, such as the recent revelation that China, while the worlds greatest manufacturer of medical masks, imported more than two billion masks in January and February before alerting the world to the extent of the problem, helping to create the shortage under which we currently live. That behaviors implications for global preparation for the pandemic are manifest in the mortality figures in many countries, including and especially the United States, but are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. (The CCP has now been exporting much smaller numbers of the masks for obvious propaganda purposes.) Many other often extreme examples of CCP malfeasance, including evidence of the drastic underreporting of cases and deaths and the withholding of crucial data regarding the virus are available here at The Epoch Times. What interests me, however, is why Schiff and his colleagues in the Democratic Party and the media choose to focus their attention away from this monumental threat and, as if sublimating in the traditional Freudian sense, onto Trump. I have written earlier that we suffer from two pandemicsthe obvious Medical Pandemic and a Politics Pandemic. The two reinforce each other. In this instance, the Politics Pandemic is pushing attention away from the primary problem, in the service of a partisan blame game. Yes, mistakes have been made in response to the virushow could it be otherwise in such a cataclysmbut the source of the disaster must be isolated and (hopefully) forced to mend its ways, in order to prevent similar and possibly more threatening cataclysms to come. Another recent report suggests the source of the virus wasnt the presumed animal market but may have been caused by an accident at a Wuhan research lab that was covered up by the CCP. Even under current circumstances, shouldnt the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence be looking into that? But Schiff and his partner in impeachment crime, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), prefer to direct attention domestically to Trump. Beyond the reflexive hyper-partisanship that has been with us for some time, this is a deflection motivated by self-defense, fear that the illegitimate, possibly even criminal, instigation of the impeachment enterprise is about to be revealed. (Added to this, of course, are potential revelations from U.S. Attorney John Durham that implicate the Democratic Party in the fabricated Russia probe.) According to Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), testimony before the HPSCI in December by the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson exposes lies by the whistlebloweryou know, the guy whose identity everybody knows but isnt supposed to sayand Schiff that would render the entire impeachment a fraud is being blocked from publication by Schiff. That Atkinson has just been fired by Trump (to the consternation of the usual suspects) enhances curiosity about the content of his testimony. If that testimony is truly a smoking gun or even something closeand who could doubt it, the way that travesty of justice transpiredno wonder Schiff behaves the way he does. Ignoring the CCPs lethal activities is the least of it when your own survival is at stake. Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times senior political columnist. He is also a prize-winning author and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. His most recent novel is The GOAT, possibly a diverting entertainment while self-isolating. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Juniper Communities, a national owner-operator of seniors housing communities announced it will begin full testing of consenting residents and associates in its communities as a proactive measure to further protect chronically ill older adults from the effects of COVID-19. Testing has begun as of April 2, 2020 and will be completed across most Juniper communities as quickly as possible. We care for the most frail and susceptible population. Senior living communities are the first line of defense for 3 million citizens most at risk for complications and even death from this virus. They and their families rely on senior living to keep them healthy and safe, said Lynne Katzmann, Junipers CEO and founder. Staff wellbeing is also a primary concern. Our associates come to work every day dedicated to providing care to the residents, and we want to minimize the risk to them and those they care for. The CDC released information yesterday indicating that the virus has graver impact on older adults with the chronic conditions typically found in seniors housing residents. The data suggest 8 out of 10 deaths reported in the U.S. have been in adults 65 and older. More concerning to senior living, 31-70% of COVID-19-positive patients aged 85+ require hospitalization, while people ages 65-84 are also at risk of needing hospital care (31-59% of this age group). Senior living communities focus primarily on these at-risk ages. Katzmann stated, Hospitals are clearly reaching their capacity. We hope to do our part with this initiative to flatten the curve and prevent new infections with full testing across our communities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Katzmann said the companys testing initiative is based on the need to have actionable data to build a comprehensive and proactive plan. She noted Juniper has procured the tests through private/commercial vendors using CDC-qualified reagents and operating under the FDAs Emergency Use Authorization. We are not taking needed tests away from state health organizations, medical providers, or hospitals, Katzmann continued. The opening of the pipeline by the FDA is making greater testing available to everyone. Test results will be used to confirm symptomatic individuals for isolation, identify asymptomatic individuals for segregation, and change staffing patterns to further limit cross-contamination. For the time being we need to dramatically reduce the number of individuals who interface daily while maintaining our high levels of care. Testing data is absolutely critical for us to put additional precautions in placeones which appear to have had success in other countries, Katzmann commented. The true rate of infection within senior living communities is unknown across staff members and residents, so Juniper has made the decision to test residents and staff at their communities. Juniper believes this critical missing data point is the tool that will enable them to make decisions as to how to better manage the disease in their communities. Juniper has been following guidelines and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) and the public health regulatory agencies for each state in which they operate. The precautions include but are not limited to: limiting access to communities to essential visitors only, screening and temperature monitoring of staff and essential visitors, enhanced infection control and cleaning procedures, social distancing and self-isolation, and in-room dining service only. Juniper monitors guidelines daily and updates practices as new information becomes available. Juniper Communities has long been recognized as an innovator, finding solutions from outside the industry to tackle problems such as energy efficiency, purpose in life, and reducing social isolation and loneliness in elders. Weve successfully cared for residents through natural disasters such as Hurricane Irma without loss of life. This is the greatest challenge we have ever faced. Full testing is clearly the correct next step. said Katzmann. Nasal swab tests were ordered in sufficient number to test community membersresidents and associates. Working in conjunction with communitys primary care providers, appropriate prescriptions were received prior to ordering of tests. Juniper recognizes this approach has limitations. While the test is not 100% accurate, even a 70 to 80% accuracy rate should improve outcomes. There will be need for ongoing testing and surveillance, particularly with staff who go out into the wider community after their shifts. According to Katzmann, While we cannot predict the outcome of this pandemic, it is our hope that by extending our precautions beyond what is required we can limit exposure in our communities and continue to care for everyone at the high standard we have always maintained. About Juniper Communities, LLC Juniper Communities, a leader in quality, value and innovation in long-term care, operates communities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado that emphasize residents well-being, interaction and security. Our communities and approach to housing and care offers residents the opportunity to live a full life, regardless of age or health. Junipers innovative Connect4Life program has been proven to improve residents care by decreasing hospitalizations, re-hospitalizations and urgent care visits, while offering potential cost savings to public programs such as Medicare. To learn more about the many ways Juniper Communities innovates in support of our residents, please contact us at: http://www.junipercommunities.com or 973.661.8300. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday directed officials to ensure expeditious availability of safety gears for medical personnel. Presiding over the joint meeting of the 11 empowered groups, Modi asked the officials to ensure availability of ventilators in sufficient numbers for use in critical care.The empowered groups briefed the Prime Minister about the outcome of the consultations held with stakeholders in the past few days. The Prime Minister asked for sufficient production of masks, gloves and ventilators. With the government advising the use of masks by people in public places and BJP chief J P Nadda calling upon party workers to make the use of facial protection a mass movement, the Prime Minister is learnt to be keen that every possible source of manufacture of basic protective gears be made available in a short span of time. Also, with the 21-day lockdown concluding on April 14, the government is keen that masks and gloves are available at affordable prices for the people, who will gradually start coming out of their homes. The empowered groups are learnt to have underlined the overwhelming response of start ups, self-help groups, private enterprises and industrialists who are working making available low cost ventilators, test kits, mask and gloves in a short span of time. The Prime Minister also took stock of the availability of space for quarantine facilities as corona cases shoot up. With hotel owners coming forward to provide space to doctors and nurses, the empowered groups also informed the Prime Minister about the expansion of hospital facilities. On Wednesday, Modi will interact with floor leaders of political parties which have more than five MPs. The attempt is to make them aware of the steps being taken by the government to deal with the situation arising out of the pandemic. As China appears to emerge from the worst of its coronavirus outbreak, government officials are encouraging the use of traditional medicine for treatment and prevention a practice experts warned could give the public a false sense of security amid the pandemic. Chinas National Health Commission reported last month that of the more than 80,000 people infected with COVID-19 since the outbreak began in December, 90 percent took some form of traditional Chinese medicine to treat their symptoms. According to Yu Yanhong, secretary of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, speaking at a March 23 press conference in Wuhan, traditional remedies have alleviated symptoms, reduced the severity of the virus, improved recovery rates and reduced mortality rate. But herbal remedies which China is exporting as part of its efforts to combat the coronavirus around the world pose both direct and indirect risks to patients, Dr. Edzard Ernst, a professor emeritus of complementary medicine at the United Kingdoms University of Exeter, said in an email. "TCM mixtures can be toxic, contaminated or adulterated with prescription drugs; they can also interact with prescription drugs," Ernst said. It can also give patients a false sense of security, leading them to neglect proven medications or therapies. Traditional Chinese medicine has been around for more than 3,000 years and includes a variety of diagnostic approaches, such as the physical examination of a patients pulse and tongue, and a range of treatments, including ingesting herbs such as ginseng, and acupuncture. It accounts for up to half of all medicines consumed in China, according to the World Health Organization. More than 7,000 herbal drugs available through pharmacies are regulated by the National Medical Products Administration. "It is a legal health system in China which is parallel with Western medicine, and of course, there is also integration between traditional medicine and Western medicine," Dr. Jianping Liu, professor of clinical epidemiology at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, told NBC News. Story continues "It's a holistic approach." The main herbal formulas recommended for treatment of COVID-19 are jinhua qinggan capsules, lianhua qingwen capsules and shufeng jiedu capsules, according to Liu. These remedies consist of a combination of dozens of herbs and a clear breakdown isnt widely available, Liu said. The lack of detail about the remedies contributes to doubts over their efficacy, Dan Larhammar, a molecular cell biologist and president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said in a phone interview. We need to know which specific product is claimed to work and what is the evidence, he said, before going on to cite the importance of understanding different variations of penicillin. Image: Various ingredients on offer at a traditional Chinese herbal medicine shop in New Taipei City (Hsu Tsun-Hsu / AFP via Getty Images file) Recent reports in the Japanese journal BioScience Trends and the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine support the various COVID-19 traditional treatments, but Larhammar said these studies and others like them lack scientific rigor not having adequate sample sizes, using vague terms and nonpharmacological concepts or testing too many combinations of herbs to parse out their specific effects. They are like parodies. Nobody can take this seriously, he said in an email. Yet, traditional Chinese medicine is being championed not only in China, but also overseas. Since the rate of cases and deaths in Hubei province began to plateau, the Chinese government has offered aid to other countries overwhelmed by the spread help that according to the state media ranges from test kits to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and products. The country sent 100,000 boxes of a remedy called lianhuaqingwen to Italy this month, according to the Chinese broadcaster CGTN. A 12-member team of physicians also sent to support the outbreak in Milan included two traditional Chinese medicine specialists, the Global Times state newspaper reported. In the United Kingdom, growing numbers of patients of traditional Chinese medicine have been asking for remedies to prevent and treat COVID-19 since the outbreak began in December, said Qikan Yin, general manager of the Institute of Chinese Medicine in London. Although closed due to the ongoing U.K. lockdown, Yin said practitioners were still doing remote consultations and prescribing appropriate remedies to patients, including one London-based couple in their 50s who were confirmed to have the virus. Addressing doubts surrounding the treatments, Yin said, The argument is always there, not only for this disease. Clinical trials are very difficult to show the actual benefit of traditional herbs, not just Chinese but also traditional Western herbs, he said. News It would be fine if the method reduced the symptoms a little bit, and more the better, of course, but if that makes the person take more risks, then we are in deep trouble, Larhammar of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. People with the virus may prematurely resume interacting with others thinking theyre no longer infectious by taking traditional Chinese medicine, he explained. Others may take it thinking it prevents them from getting the disease, putting themselves and others at risk. Until there is more evidence to suggest any effectiveness of such traditional Chinese medicine, it should be treated as a nonissue, Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the SOAS University of London, said. Its causing distraction from questions that could be embarrassing for the Chinese government, he explained of the political posturing. Chinas alleged mishandling of the first few cases of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus should be the focus of attention, he said, whether that involves asking whether China could have shared its data earlier, and the quantity and quality of supplies it's now exporting to other countries hit by the disease. Instead, against the backdrop of President Donald Trumps comments referring to COVID-19 as a Chinese virus, the Chinese Communist Party can champion traditional medicine while dismissing its critics as being racist and play favorably to peoples emotions, Tsang said. You love the party because the party is the one that defends your traditional medicine, your national honor, your heritage, he said. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the event (Photo: VNA) During a meeting of permanent government members in Hanoi on April 3, PM Phuc stressed that Decree No.16 must be implemented more seriously in the near future with the aim of preventing the spread of the virus in the community. It is time to mobilise all means to fight the epidemic in the next 15 days, he said, adding that administrations at all levels, sectors and localities need to work closely and flexibly together, and take quick and sound actions in the effort. Hailing the media for highlighting good examples to cheer up the power of Vietnam in the fight against COVID-19, PM Phuc said the Government has outlined a resolution on social welfare which will be soon issued to support workers, the poor and vulnerable groups hit by the pandemic. The PM lauded the health sector for treating infected patients with more recovery cases. In case there are any deaths, he said, it could be attributed to their old age or existing serious illnesses. Vietnams food exports are under well control and the country never lacks food despite the epidemic and uncertain weather conditions, he affirmed. About the country's economic performance in the first quarter, the PM said though the economy only grew by 3.82 percent during the period, Vietnam still posted the highest growth in the Southeast Asian region, thanks to the utmost efforts by authorities at all levels, sectors and the entire people. He emphasised the Governments policy of sacrificing economic benefits in the short term to protect health and lives of people, which he said, is the ultimate goal of the Government under the Party leadership at present. Amid the complicated developments of the pandemic in many countries worldwide, the PM highlighted the need to take more stronger and drastic measures for the synchronous implementation of directions by the Politburo, the Party Central Committees Secretariat, the Government, and the Prime Minister at administrations at all levels and sectors. Further attention should be paid to the poor to meet their demand for electricity, water, rice, vegetables and medicines, he said, adding that behaviours regarding speculation of fake and sub-standard goods must be strictly punished, as well as launching criminal proceeding against violations in epidemic prevention and control as warnings to others. The PM reiterated the need to strictly implement social distancing, prepare for complicated cases, and step up preparations for medical equipment, especially ventilators. The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control was also asked to actively build full scenarios in response to the possible widespread of the pandemic. The Government leader also requested devising a plan to build field hospitals and use hotels and schools as quarantine areas if necessary at the earliest. He requested administrations at all levels and sectors to change working methods, develop digital economy and e-commerce, saying that it is time to accelerate administrative reforms in providing public services. The PM ordered ensuring security and order in rural areas, preventing robbery and murder, strictly dealing with those that dishonestly fill in health declarations, including foreigners, as well as enhancing prevention and control at nursing homes, rehabilitation centres and prisons across the country. The Hanoi municipal authorities reported that over 21,900 people related to Bach Mai Hospital were tracked down as of 12pm on April 2, including 1,980 in-patients who were discharged from March 10 28. According to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the country now has 5,245 ventilators. As many as 1,458 others will be bought in the near future. Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. So far coronavirus has taken the lives of 4,313 people in the UK and a whopping 41,903 are infected with the disease. Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19 The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. Pictured is a huge crowd of Londoners trying to cram on to a bus on March 23 - the day the UK went under lockdown Meanwhile, trade union Unite said the deaths were a 'terrible tragedy'. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' Boris Johnson placed the UK under lockdown on March 23, meaning that people are only allowed to leave their house if they are key workers, shopping for essentials, helping vulnerable people or going out for exercise once a day. However, Khan has come under fire for axing many train and bus services and effectively forcing commuters to cram in together. During a press briefing last week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'When it comes to the Tube, the first and the best answer is that Transport for London should have the Tube running in full so that people travelling are spaced out and can be further apart, obeying the two-metre rule wherever possible. 'And there is no good reason in the information that I've seen that the current levels of Tube provision should be as low as they are. We should have more Tube trains running.' One bus driver has claimed that workers for his company, Metroline, aren't being provided with face masks or hand sanitiser, despite the risks of interacting closely with the public. The father-of-three said that his best friend from work died last night from the fatal disease. He believes that the friend must have been infected while at work because he did not leave his house other than to walk to work. He added that the garage he works in installed hand sanitiser pumps in February but they still haven't been filled. The worker also revealed that he was still seeing passengers travelling in groups who he believed weren't travelling for essential reasons. He said: 'Passengers aren't giving us drivers enough space to stick to social distancing rules.' A Metroline spokesperson said: 'It is with immense sadness that we can confirm that three of our colleagues have passed away after contracting coronavirus. We are devastated by this loss and we offer our support and condolences to the families at this incredibly difficult time. 'The safety of our employees has always been our priority and we continue to do everything we can to make sure our workforce is as protected and as safe as possible during this unprecedented time. 'We were one of the first bus companies to arrange the personal issue of hand sanitisers to all employees and we arranged sanitiser dispensers to be installed throughout our garages. 'Both of these measures were not designed to replace hand washing, a message that has been repeatedly communicated to our staff. We have also made wipes available to all to complement the enhanced cleaning regime that has been introduced as a response to the virus. 'We continue to follow the guidance by the Department for Transport and Public Health England. The Department for Transport and Public Health England do not recommend the use of face masks for transport staff. 'We will support the families of our colleagues and we remain resolute in our commitment to protecting our workforce that is working hard to keep services running for those who need it during these difficult times.' Nicola Smith, who carries out ultrasound scans at a central London hospital, posted a picture of her journey to work online last week, showing Tube passengers squeezed together. 'This is my Tube this morning. I live in zone 4 and work in a zone 1 hospital. I love my job, but now I'm risking my health just on the journey in?!' she wrote on Twitter. Last week, commuters packed in like sardines hit back at the Mayor, with one victim claiming it was about saving money, tweeting: 'Using the pandemic to save a few pennies. Nice work helping the people you claim to represent'. Another Londoner wrote: 'Utter disgrace. We need professional leadership at this time'. Nicola Smith, who carries out ultrasound scans at a central London hospital, posted a picture of her journey to work online last week, showing Tube passengers squeezed together. Earlier that day, commuters packed in like sardines hit back at the Mayor, with one victim claiming it was about saving money 'This is my Tube this morning. I live in zone 4 and work in a zone 1 hospital. I love my job, but now I'm risking my health just on the journey in?!' she wrote on Twitter. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also told Mr Khan to get more trains running and Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said he had requested measures to ensure the safety of those who need to use the London Underground. A packed London Underground tube train on March 24 as commuters still use public transport despite Boris Johnson's message to stay at home regarding the coronavirus outbreak Transport union TSSA has called for police to be deployed at major train stations in London - including London Underground, London Overground and mainline railway stations - to ensure only passengers who are 'providing vital services' are travelling. Aslef union organiser Finn Brennan wrote: 'Getting lots of reports of early trains being full on the Underground. If the Government doesn't shut construction sites and pay self employment, people will die'. Unite regional secretary Peter Kavanagh said: 'Unite will assist the families of our members in every possible way during this terrible time. Khan tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential 'Unite has been working continuously with Transport for London (TfL) and the operators to ensure the safety of drivers and others in the industry who are performing a heroic job in getting NHS and care workers to their places of work. 'These measures include deep cleaning of buses, additional cleaning of touch points, the sealing of screens around the driver, the provision of hand sanitiser for all and placing the passenger seating closest to the driver out of bounds. 'I have been in direct contact with the Mayor of London who shares our view that bus drivers must be fully protected. 'My officers are holding daily meetings with TfL, exploring further safety improvements and we are absolutely committed to doing everything in our power to make the driving of buses safe during this unprecedented crisis. Meanwhile, trade union Unite said the deaths were a 'terrible tragedy' Mr Khan said: 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable' 'We are also calling on the Government to make provisions for transport workers in terms of personal protective equipment.' Gareth Powell, TfL's managing director for surface transport, said: 'We have been extremely saddened to hear of the recent passing of our colleagues in the bus industry. Our thoughts are with their families and friends and we have been offering the bus companies for whom they worked every support possible. 'The safety of our staff and customers is our absolute priority and we have been working closely with the bus companies, the mayor and Unite to implement a range of changes and improvements to keep the bus network and garages safe for those operating and using it, in accordance with Public Health England advice. 'Our clear message to Londoners is simple the transport network is only for critical workers who need to make absolutely essential journeys. Please, everyone else, stay at home, don't travel and save lives.' Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of TSSA, the travel and transport union, criticised ministers for insisting London Underground should run a normal schedule. He said: 'The idea that the Tube can run with a normal service level is utter nonsense. Thirty per cent of Underground staff are either off sick as a result of Covid-19, or in self-isolation.' Mr Khan's office hit back at Mr Hancock's claim there was 'no good reason' not to have more frequent services on the Underground tonight. A spokeswoman for the Mayor said: 'This is simply not true. 'The Mayor has told ministers countless times over recent days that TfL simply cannot safely run a full service because of the levels of staff sickness and self-isolation. 'Nearly a third of staff are already absent - there aren't enough drivers and control staff to do it. 'The Government must act urgently to get more people staying at home rather than going to work unnecessarily - that means taking the difficult decisions they are refusing to take to ban non-essential construction work and provide proper financial support to freelancers, the self-employed and those on zero-hours contracts to stay at home.' Advertisement Britain's death toll from the coronavirus could overtake both Italy and France, a worrying new graphic has revealed. The number of deaths in the UK rose by 621 to 4,934 today, including 29 patients who did not have any underlying health conditions. Now, the UK is just behind where Italy and France were 20 days after registering 50 deaths from the outbreak. However, both those countries' started to see their death rates decrease after this point, while the UK is expected to not peak for another week to 10 days. This means Britain's deaths could dwarf both countries, though this isn't guaranteed. The people who died of the illness today were aged between 33 and 103, with 29 of them, aged between 35 and 95, having no known underlying health conditions. The level of infections has risen sharply by almost 60 per cent, from 5,903 to 47,806, dashing hopes the rate of people getting the disease was starting to level out. New graphs released by the Government today showed that the UK is just behind France and Italy's death rate at this point. However both countries saw deaths start to decrease, while the UK is still expected not to peak for 7 to 10 days, suggesting Britain could have more deaths Just days ago, Stephen Powis, the medical director of England, said there had been a 'bit of a plateau' in the number of people testing positive. The Department of Health also said that, as of 9am on Sunday, a total of 195,524 people have been tested, up from 183,190 the previous day - pushing the amount of tests done daily to more than 12,000. It comes amid concerns a huge backlog of potential patients awaiting their results could mean infections are far higher than is being reported. If the backlog for processing the tests is too great, the rate of infections will remain at roughly the same level, with the services already pushed to the brink and only able to carry out a certain number of tests per day. Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, told MailOnline: 'The UK numbers are masked by the inability of the laboratories.' NHS England gave the breakdown by region of the 555 deaths of patients in England: - East of England 40 - London 174 - Midlands 74 - North East & Yorkshire 103 - North West 47 - South East 81 - South West 36. Public Health England reported an extra 555 deaths in England, Public Health Wales recorded 12, and there have been 7 in Northern Ireland. In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said authorities there had recorded an additional two extra deaths in Scotland, up to 220, but said the number was based on a new way of counting deaths and is 'likely to be artificially low'. It came as Matt Hancock this afternoon backtracked on a threat to ban outdoor exercise if people do not comply with the coronavirus lockdown. The Health Secretary this morning blasted sunbathers for flouting the rules and warned the government would ban 'all forms' of public exercise if a 'small minority' refuse to stay at home. However he later updated his comments while speaking at the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference and said he did not want anyone to believe that a further crackdown was in the works. Mr Hancock said the end of lockdown will be determined by 'how much people follow the rules on social distancing' and 'the more people follow the rules then the faster we will all be through it'. He then issued a direct plea to people who are 'breaking the rules or are pushing the boundaries', telling them: 'You are risking your own life and the lives of others and you are making it harder for us all.' He concluded: 'We have included exercise as one of the things that you can leave your house to do because exercise is good for our physical and our mental health but please do not bend or break this rule. 'We can't rule out further steps but I don't want anyone to think that any changes to the social distancing rules are imminent because the vast majority are following the rules.' Meanwhile, Boris Johnson repeated the importance of staying at home this morning as he tweeted he knows it is 'tough' but it will mean 'saving lives'. Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson's comments came after a south London park was shut indefinitely yesterday after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' not to as green spaces and beaches across the UK filled up. Mr Hancock previously told Sky News: 'It is quite unbelievable frankly to see that there are some people who are not following the advice.' He added: 'Of course I understand how difficult this is but the problem is that when you go out it is not only that you might directly interact with somebody closer than two metres, it is also that you can spread the virus through touching something which somebody else then touches. You could pick it up that way. 'We are crystal clear in the guidance on what people should and shouldn't do. That guidance is backed up in law. It is not a request, it is a requirement in law and people need to follow it.' Mr Hancock admitted this morning that hitting his promise of 100,000 coronavirus tests by the end of April will be 'hard' and that people involved in the efforts will have to 'put their shoulders to the wheel' to hit the target. He also insisted Mr Johnson is 'okay' despite still being in coronavirus self-isolation, with the Health Secretary saying the PM 'has very much got his hand on the tiller' of the crisis. Mr Hancock's comments came as: Health experts said the UK is now seven to 10 days away from the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Sadiq Khan hit out at commuters for failing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for coronavirus. Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson's pregnant fiancee, said she had spent the last week in bed suffering coronavirus symptoms, but is 'on the mend'. Health chiefs fear more than 50 doctors could die 'if the PPE dries up and we have no choice but to treat our patients without the right equipment'. The Ministry of Justice said hundreds of risk-assessed prisoners within two months of their release date are to be temporarily released. The UK death toll from the virus rose by 708 - bringing the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths to 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday. Matt Hancock today backtracked on a threat to ban all public exercise after people continued to break the coronavirus lockdown rules Prime MinisterBoris Johnson today urged people to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown Sadiq Khan hits out at commuters who refuse to stay at home after 'devastating' deaths of five bus workers Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. Meanwhile, trade union Unite said the deaths were a 'terrible tragedy'. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' So far coronavirus has taken the lives of 4,313 people in the UK, with 41,903 cases of the disease. Advertisement In other developments Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' The nation will tonight hear from the Queen as the monarch delivers an address in which she will urge Britain to prove that this generation is 'as strong as any'. There are fears the current warm weather could tempt people to disobey social distancing measures and the government will be hoping the Queen's address will persuade people to stick to the rules, especially as the sun shines. Lambeth Council tweeted yesterday to say that Brockwell Park had been shut because of the 'unacceptable' behaviour of some people. Mr Hancock today said ending lockdown measures 'depends on how people behave' as he urged everyone to stay at home but failed to set out a timeline for life to go back to normal. He told Sky News: 'Every single person watching this programme can do their bit to get us out of this faster and they do their bit by following the social distancing rules.' Labour's new leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party will back the government if it decides to ban public exercise. He told the BBC: 'Yes, we would. We do have to take whatever steps are necessary and social distancing, staying indoors is really difficult for people but we have got to get through this and every time people break the guidance from the government they put other people at risk.' It came as it emerged that Mr Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are locked in a battle over when to lift the economically devastating lockdown. Mr Sunak has made 'robust' representations to the Health Secretary, arguing that unless a path is mapped now for a swift return to normal economic activity it could cause lasting damage to the country. Government critics of Mr Hancock argue his 'careerist' fear of being personally blamed for a collapse in the NHS is blinding him to the dangers of a protracted lockdown. But allies of Mr Hancock hit back last night, saying: 'He is just doing his job, which is to protect the NHS.' Police pour water over couple's barbecue Police in Sussex were forced to pour a helmet full of water over a couple's barbecue after they refused to follow the government's lockdown rules. The pair started a barbecue on Hove beach yesterday. Police confirmed a 31-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman, both from Hove, are set to be summoned to court for breaching Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. On social media Sussex Police said they were disappointed that the couple showed 'disregard for public safety'. A message on the Sussex Police Facebook page read: 'We can only express disappointment in the two people who showed disregard for public safety and started a BBQ on Hove beach today. 'The severity of this public health emergency means they will be summonsed to court for breaching the Coronavirus Act 2020. 'Sunday is set to be another pleasant day and we again appeal to everyone to continue show their support for our NHS and stay at home.' Advertisement A formal decision about the extension of the strict social distancing rules cannot be made until Good Friday the earliest point at which its effects would register on the infection figures. However, with more than 700 extra deaths recorded yesterday, an extension for at least another three weeks after Easter is seen as a formality. Mr Hancock today dismissed the claims regarding his relationship with Mr Sunak as he said: 'We are working very closely together and what matters is that we can get out of this as fast as possible and to do that we have to make sure that as many people as possible follow the rules so that we can slow the spread.' The Queen will tonight deliver a televised message in which she will recognise the pain felt by many families living through this 'time of disruption'. She will personally thank front-line NHS staff, care workers and others carrying out essential roles for their efforts, in what is expected to be a deeply personal message reflecting her experience in other difficult times. The UK death toll yesterday rose by 708 - bringing the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths to 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday, up from 3,605 the day before. A five-year-old child was among the victims. The Queen will say in her address to the country and Commonwealth: 'I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. 'And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. 'That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise this country.' In another graph published today, figures showed that the number of new UK cases had spiked to 5,903 by April 5 from March 16. The slide states that cases are reported when lab tests are completed and explains that a greater number of observed cases are being recorded as testing capacity increases Meanwhile, hospitals in London have seen a large increase in the number of coronavirus admissions while hospitalisations in the North West went up by 25 per cent Brockwell Park in south London is now shut after thousands of people flocked there yesterday. The gates to the park are pictured today as people observe social distancing rules as they pass by There were plenty of people out in Greenwich Park today. The government has said people can leave their homes for exercise Green spaces across the UK were full of people yesterday. Pictured is Regent's Park in central London People flock to Greenwich Park in London amid the Government lockdown currently in place across the country Cyclists ride through London's Regents Park today as temperatures continue to rise across the country amid the Government lockdown She will acknowledge the 'grief' some have experienced, the 'financial difficulties' many face, and the 'enormous changes' the country is enduring, after almost two weeks of lockdown to tackle the spread of Covid-19. With hundreds of thousands answering the call for NHS volunteers and others supporting vulnerable people in their communities, the monarch will say she hopes in the future everyone will be able to feel 'pride' in how they rose to the challenge. Commenting on the difficulties facing the nation, the Queen, 93, will say: 'I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. 'A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.' In reference to the warm weather, the Queen will thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. The televised address will be a rare event, with the head of state only making three previous appearances during troubled times. Speeches were broadcast after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, ahead of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral in 1997, and about the first Gulf War in 1991. One in five doctors are off work because of coronavirus reveals shocking new survey as thousands of NHS staff wait to be tested despite pledge to check 100,000 people a day by the end of the month One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work, despite Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying on Thursday that there is a 5.7 per cent absence rate among doctors. The figures come just a day after Britain's death toll from the virus jumped to 708 in 24 hours, with a five-year-old child being among the 4,313 known to have died, out of 41,903 confirmed cases. The poll, conducted by The Sunday Times and the Royal College of Physicians, found that the worst-hit areas for absences are central London and the northeast, where 30 per cent of doctors are off work. One in three - 34 per cent - have been absent at some point during the coronavirus crisis. The shocking figures will pile pressure on ministers to ensure that NHS staff are told whether or not they have the virus, with thousands still waiting to be tested despite a pledge to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed Professor Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which represents 3,500 critical care medics, told The Sunday Times: 'I know there are departments where up to 50 per cent of their medical staff are unable to work because of this.' An A&E doctor at a London hospital said staff were 'dropping like flies', while as many as 27 nurses from Southend Hospital's A&E department in Essex are said to have become ill. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This is despite claims from ministers that they have distributed millions of items. At least eight NHS staff have already been killed by the virus, including three nurses, two of whom were mothers in their thirties. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work and it comes just a day after Britain's death toll jumped to 708 in 24 hours. Pictured: An NHS worker puts their completed test into a container at a testing site near The 02 in Greenwich on Saturday His mother, Gina Gustilo, 50, told The Mail on Sunday her son had not been wearing the right protective clothing at work. He returned home on Friday following a night shift, after complaining of suffering a headache and high temperature throughout the night. Ms Gustilo said her son's colleagues told her he was not wearing 'proper' protective clothing, adding: 'They wear PPE, but not totally protective of the mouth. They wear the normal masks.' Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said between 20 and 30 per cent of ambulance staff were off work either with Covid-19 symptoms or self-isolating. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. He is believed to have died after falling ill with coronavirus Yesterday, Michael Gove said at a Downing Street press conference that just under 11,000 people were tested for the virus on Friday. This is far short of the 100,000 figure which Health Secretary Matt Hancock had promised by the end of the month. Britain's biotech scientists also broke their silence on Saturday to warn that they do not have enough equipment to fulfil Mr Hancock's pledge. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) The 'frustrated' Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), which represents around 17,000 NHS lab scientists and staff, warned that Mr Hancock's plan would not work if things stay as they are. The body said there is a lack of chemical reagents, test tubes and swabs, forcing its president Allan Wilson to warn that the Government's strategy is a 'bit of a muddle'. It has forced Boris Johnson to compete with prime ministers and presidents around the world by personally calling major companies making test kits to try to secure more supply for the UK. The IBMS said it could only increase testing capacity 'if we are given what we need' and that their current supply of materials was being 'tested to the limit'. Lord Bath of Weymouth dies from coronavirus, aged 87: Eccentric owner of Longleat Safari Park known for his string of 'wifelets' and frescos of the Kama Sutra at his stately home passes away after a week in hospital by Lara Keay for MailOnline The eccentric owner of Longleat Safari Park Lord Bath has died aged 87 after testing positive for coronavirus. Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath yesterday after being admitted on March 28. He was the owner of Longleat Safari Park in Warminster, but was best known for his flamboyant dress sense and affairs with as many as 70 women, which he referred to as his 'wifelets'. Viscount Weymouth gave many of his mistresses homes to live in within the grounds of his sprawling Wiltshire estate. Lord Bath of Longleat is pictured outside Longleat House in Wiltshire, where Longleat Safari Park is situated. He has died aged 87 Lord Bath is pictured feeding giraffes at Longleat in Wiltshire in 1993 They caused upset when his son, Ceawllin Thynn, took over day-to-day management of Longleat in 2010 and eventually ended with him boycotting his son's wedding to Strictly Come Dancing star Emma Weymouth. She paid tribute to him with an Instagram post earlier today, which read: 'It is with the deepest sadness that I share the news that my father in law, Lord Bath, has died of the age of 87.' Viscount Weymouth was married to Anna Gael, with whom he had two children, but had affairs with 70 'wifelets' who he tried to put up around the Longleat estates. He was a prolific amateur painter and studied art in Paris in the 1950s, where he is believed to have picked up his colourful taste in clothes. The eccentric aristocrat also had frescoes done of the Kama Sutra so he could decorate his lavish home with erotic images. In 2009 he was ranked 359th in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated net worth of 157million. Lord Bath is pictured being touched by a chimpanzee called 'Teddy' at Longleat Safari Park in April 1996 Lord Bath is pictured with his son Viscount Weymouth at Longleat Safari Park Lord Bath - then Viscount Weymouth - was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he was president of the famous Bullingdon Club. He was involved in politics, and stood in the very first European parliamentary elections in 1979, representing the Wessex Regionalist Party which he helped to found. After inheriting the Marquess seat in 1992, he then sat as a Liberal Democrat in the House of Lords but lost his seat when Labour reforms excluded most hereditary peers. The flamboyant aristocrat was also a regular feature of the Animal Park television show about his estate. TV presenter Ben Fogle paid tribute to Lord Bath on Twitter, posting a picture of him and his colleague Kate Humble with the safari park owner. He wrote: 'Devastated to hear the sad passing of Lord Bath. We spent nearly two decades with the eccentric and colourful Lord at Longleat filming Animal Park. Ceawlin Thynn, Lord Bath's son, is married to model and socialite Emma McQuiston, now known as Emma Weymouth 'He will be missed. Sending my love and condolences to the family @Emmaweymouth1 and everyone at @Longleat.' Kate Humble added: 'Very sad to hear about Lord Bath of @Longleat. 'Everyone will describe him as eccentric - & he was, gloriously so - but he was also king & fun - & we all need a bit of kindness & fun in our lives.' Piers Morgan also paid tribute to him, describing him as 'one of Britain's most colourful characters'. Longleat Safari Park said in a statement: 'It is with the deepest sadness we have to announce Lord Bath has died at the age of 87. 'The family would like to express their greatest appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately for Alexander in these extremely difficult times for everyone.' Britons continue to flock to the country's outdoor spaces amid the Government's social distancing guidelines Britons descending upon the nation's sun-soaked outdoor spaces today as the UK's coronavirus cases continue to rise. Hundreds were seen flouting the social distancing guidelines set out by the Government to enjoy the warm weather sweeping the nation. Despite the lockdown currently in place, people were seen taking to the country's many parks and beaches to enjoy the rising temperatures which are set to hit 20C. Today revellers flocked to London's Battersea Park and Greenwich park to embrace the warm weather and defy the lockdown in place. A group of cyclists ride their bikes through London's Battersea Park despite the social distancing rules currently in place A police officer speaks to people sunbathing in Greenwich Park, London, today and hundreds of people continue to flock to the capital's outdoor spaces Revellers took to Battersea Park in west London today despite the Government's coronavirus lockdown currently in place Sunbathers took a stroll through the capital's Battersea Park today despite the social distancing measures currently in place Meanwhile in the capital's Regent's Park, officers were stopping those who had chosen to leave their homes and flout Government rules. The scenes come just hours after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock took fire at sunbathers for breaching the coronavirus lockdown rules and said it was 'quite unbelievable' a 'small minority' of people were refusing to stay at home. Earlier today Mr Hancock told Sky News: 'This point about holding our resolve is so important. The vast majority of people are following the public health advice which is absolutely critical and staying at home. 'But there are a small minority of people who are still not doing that. It is quite unbelievable frankly to see that there are some people who are not following the advice.' Mr Hancock said staying at home is 'the best way to control the spread of this virus and the fastest way to get us out of this' as he said the guidance is 'absolutely clear' that people should not be out sunbathing in public. He added: 'Of course I understand how difficult this is but the problem is that when you go out it is not only that you might directly interact with somebody closer than two metres, it is also that you can spread the virus through touching something which somebody else then touches. You could pick it up that way. Meanwhile in Burgess Park, South London, revellers in their masses continued to flout government guidelines by leaving their homes for the public space A police officer speaks to people in Greenwich Park in London as people continue to flock to the nation's crowded parks Police officer speak to people in Greenwich Park, London, as hundreds of revellers continue to ignore the coronavirus social distancing rules A group of cyclists were seen riding around Regent's Park in London today despite the Government's pleas to stay at home Police officers on their horses speak to people out and about in Greenwich Park, London, as hundreds flock to the capital's outdoor spaces Officers speak to a person laying on the grass at Greenwich park in London today as the government urges people to stay indoors 'We are crystal clear in the guidance on what people should and shouldn't do. That guidance is backed up in law. It is not a request, it is a requirement in law and people need to follow it.' Yesterday, thousands were seen descending upon a beach in Hove and London's Regent's Park to enjoy the sunny weather despite the social distancing guidelines in place. South London's Brockwell park was shut indefinitely after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' as green spaces and beaches filled up across the UK in defiance of Boris Johnson's plea for Brits to stay indoors. People walk through Greenwich Park on a sunny day in London today despite the Health Secretary Matt Hancock urging people to stay indoors Earlier today a group of cyclists sat down in Regents Park, London, as the country continues to remain in lockdown Police patrolling St James' Park in London speak to people who have left their homes as the number of coronavirus cases in the country continues to rise A police officer on horseback speaks to people in Greenwich Park on a sunny day in London today as the country remains in lockdown A police officer speak to a person sat in Greenwich Park, London, as hundreds of people across the UK continue to flout Government rules People in London cross a bridge in St James' Park, London, today as the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise Police officers patrolling St James' Park in London stop to talk to a sunbather as the country continues to tackle the surge in coronavirus cases A police officer talks to a cyclist in Battersea Park in London as hundreds of people continue to flout the Government's lockdown rules In London, some people decided to flout the Government lockdown rules in place by descending upon Greenwich Par India told to 'prepare for an onslaught' as one of Asia's biggest slums suffers first coronavirus death as Russian doctor is detained for challenging Kremlin's figures and newborn babies are protected with face shields in Thailand By Isabella Nikolic For MailOnline Indian doctors have warned that the country must prepare to face an 'onslaught' of cases that could cripple the health system after it suffered its first death. A 56-year-old man died due to Covid-19-related illness in Dharavi slum, in Mumbai on Wednesday. The Dharavi slum is home to roughly one million people and its population density is 60 times greater than London - about 280,000 people per square kilometre. A 56-year-old man died due to Covid-19-related illness in Dharavi slum, in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pictured are repatriated Indian citizens after leaving quarantine at a hospital in Bangalore Indian doctors have warned that the country must prepare to face an 'onslaught' of cases that could cripple the health system after it suffered its first death. Pictured are citizens of Rohini village in India In Thailand, newborn babies are being protected with miniature face visors while they are in hospital Dr. Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director of the Medanta-the Medicity hospital in Gurugram, near New Delhi, told CNN: 'Once we know that one slum has got it, and we lock it down, and we feed everybody and we keep them isolated for the next two weeks, we keep them well fed, it will work its way out. 'We will know the critical ones, and the ones who are mild, they can be quarantined at home, and the population at large can be monitored.' Coronavirus cases in India nearly doubled in just four days, and its current total is 2,547. Some 62 people have died from the disease. Doctors say they hope the lockdown will delay the peak of infections so hospitals have a fighting chance to treat incoming caseloads. Coronavirus cases in India nearly doubled in just four days, and its current total is 2,547. Some 62 people have died from the disease Dr Om Shrivastav, director of Infectious Diseases at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai, said his worst fear is that India only starts preparing for the crisis 'after it's on our hands.' India has been under lockdown for four weeks now and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for citizens to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to 'challenge the darkness' of the coronavirus In Russia, a doctor has been arrested after challenging coronavirus figures being released by the state. Anastasia Vasilieva, head of the Alliance of Doctors - an independent doctors' union, is an outspoken critic of the Kremlin. India has been under lockdown for four weeks now and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for citizens to switch off lights on Sunday evening for nine minutes and instead use candles to 'challenge the darkness' of the coronavirus. Pictured is a worker on a train carriage that has been converted into an isolation ward She dismissed their official number of coronavirus deaths and infections as lies. The Kremlin claim that 45 people have died from coronavirus in Russia, while 5,389 are infected. Before her arrest, Dr Vasilieva said she had been called in for questioning over her comments, declaring that 'You can send whomever you want to get me the Federal Security Service, the fire service but the truth will not change.' The real number of coronavirus cases, she said, 'is much higher than the authorities say.' She provided no evidence of any cover-up. Her detention also increased skepticism about the readiness of Russia's health care system to cope with the pandemic. In Russia, a doctor has been arrested after challenging coronavirus figures being released by the state. Pictured are medical workers in Moscow The virus has also slowed Russia's economy, posing another problem for the Kremlin less than a month after it pushed through constitutional changes to allow Mr. Putin to dispense with term limits and stay in power until 2036. The Kremlin said that Vladamir Putin has been tested regularly and that 'everything is OK.' On Friday, Russia suspended the last remaining flights into the country, halting even special flights bringing Russians home from abroad, the Interfax news agency reported. All land borders have already been closed. Moscow, St Petersburg and many Russian regions this week ordered residents not to leave their homes except to buy food and medicine or walk their dogs. The Kremlin claim that 45 people have died from coronavirus in Russia, while 5,389 are infected. Pictured are workers at the construction site of a new coronavirus hospital in Moscow Dr Vasilieva appeared in court on Friday charged with disobeying police orders and violating quarantine restrictions but was released later that day after paying a small fine. The Prime Minister of Denmark has announced that the country will slowly begin to lift its lockdown measures. Mette Frederiksen shut the country down three weeks ago. He said: 'When we open our society again, we have to do it gradually and we have to make it staggered.' More than 4,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Denmark. Some 161 have died, 1,283 recovered and 507 are in hospital, including 142 in intensive care. On Friday, Russia suspended the last remaining flights into the country, halting even special flights bringing Russians home from abroad. Pictured is a food delivery driver on a swing in Moscow during lockdown In Thailand, newborn babies are being protected with miniature face visors while they are in hospital. More than 1.2million cases, including 65,272 deaths, have been reported in 190 countries and territories around the world since the virus first emerged in China in December, according to an AFP tally. Italy has the highest official death toll with 15,362 fatalities. Spain follows with 12,418, the United States is on 8,503, France 7,560 and Britain 4,313. Spain saw its third consecutive daily decline in deaths from the virus, recording another 674 fatalities on Sunday. A day earlier, Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care cases drop for the first time - from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994. New York state, epicentre of the US outbreak, reports 630 new deaths in one day, its largest 24-hour spike. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio issues an emergency plea for volunteers, estimating the city will need 45,000 more medical personnel to fight the pandemic through April and May. President Donald Trump warns Americans to brace for a 'very horrendous' number of coronavirus deaths in coming days. The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates says it has doubled to $70billion a stimulus package to support the Gulf state's economy. More than 300 Europeans on Saturday leave Bolivia for France on a charter flight. Some 170 people, mostly French but including Swiss, Belgians, Germans and Britons, leave Moscow on Saturday on a repatriation flight organised by the French embassy. Bolivia on Saturday repatriates 480 nationals who had been blocked at the Chilean border. And 740 Algerians stuck in Turkey after their flights were cancelled are repatriated on Saturday. Algeria has announced it will extend its night-time curfew - until now in place only in the capital and 13 of its 48 provinces - across the whole country. Marion County, the home of Indianapolis, had 126 of the 408 new coronavirus cases reported Friday. Indianapolis and the seven counties surrounding it account for 44% of Indianas COVID-19 deaths and more than 60% of its confirmed cases. Marion County alone has had 33 COVID-19 deaths, or 32% of Indianas total, and 1,429 confirmed cases that account for 42% of the states total. I have received hundreds of questions about one particular thing who gets the JobSeeker payment and who gets the newly launched JobKeeper payment? Indeed, JobKeeper is the top trending query on Google searches this week. Do you qualify for the JobKeeper payment or do you need to apply to Centrelink for JobSeeker? Credit:Illustration John Shakespeare Ideally, you want JobKeeper. This is, firstly, because the whole point of the payment is to actually keep your job even if it is in a dormant, lower-paid capacity. However, the second probably more pressing reason is that it is more money. Cory Deburghgraeve, a 33-year-old Chicago physician, on his job amid the coronavirus pandemic, as told to Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow: - - - I could be the last person some of these patients ever see, or the last voice they hear. A lot of people will never come off the ventilator. That's the reality of this virus. I force myself to think about that for a few seconds each time I walk into the ICU to do an intubation. This is my entire job now. Airways. Coronavirus airways. I'm working 14 hours a night and six nights a week. When patients aren't getting enough oxygen, I place a tube down their airway so we can put them on a vent. It buys their body time to fight the virus. It's also probably the most dangerous procedure a doctor can do when it comes to personal exposure. I'm getting within a few inches of the patient's face. I'm leaning in toward the mouth, placing my fingers on the gums, opening up the airway. All it takes is a cough. A gag. If anything goes badly, you can have a room full of virus. So, there's a possibility I get sick. Maybe a probability. I don't know. I have my own underlying condition when it comes to this virus, but I try not to dwell on that. Up until a few weeks ago, I was the anesthesiologist people would see when they were having babies. I'd do five to seven deliveries a day, mostly C-sections and epidurals. We're a large state hospital at University of Illinois-Chicago, and we end up doing a bunch of high-risk deliveries. You're trained to be the calmest person in the room. They teach us: "Don't just rely on medication to calm a person. Use your voice, your eye contact, your whole demeanor." We give people positive ideas and positive expectations. It sounds corny, but it works. Our team had a meeting on March 16 to figure out a staffing plan, once it was clear where this was going. Chicago's becoming a hot spot now. Our ICU is almost full with covid patients. The pediatric ICU has been cleared out to handle overflow. The wave is just starting, and we need to limit our exposure or we're going to run out of staff. Everyone basically agreed we should dedicate one person to covid intubations during the day and another at night, and I started thinking: I'm 33 years old. I don't have any kids at home. I don't live with older relatives. About an hour after the meeting, I emailed my supervisor. "I'm happy to do this. It should be me." Now my pager goes off throughout the night. Nine o'clock, midnight, 2, then again at 3:30. Most of the time, I do several airways in a shift. By next week or the week after that, they're saying it could be 10. It's a common procedure. Intubations are routine for us, at least most of the time. You can be in and out of the airway in 10 or 15 seconds if everything goes right. But when you're dealing with a patient who isn't getting enough oxygen - which is everyone at this point - every second becomes crucial. As soon as I get the page in my call room, I grab my backpack of medications and my duffle bag of protective gear and run for the stairs. There isn't time to wait for the elevator. I go two floors up to ICU and get into my protective gear outside the room: mask, face shield, hood, secondary hood, personal air filter, gown, two sets of sanitized gloves. I tape everything together, because a few times the gown has risen up and exposed my wrists. There are so many opportunities to contaminate yourself. I monitor my heart rate, and it goes from like 58 to 130 by the time I get into the ICU. I'm stressed and rushed and hot inside the protective gear. I'm trying not to show it. I've been shocked sometimes when I walk in and see the patients. Most of the ones I've intubated are young - 30s, 40s, 50s. These are people who walked into the ER because they were coughing a day or two ago, or sometimes hours ago. By the time I come into the room, they are in severe respiratory distress. Their oxygen level might be 70 or 80% instead of 100, which is alarming. They are taking 40 breaths a minute when they should be taking 12 or 14. They have no oxygen reserves. They are pale and exhausted. It puts them in a mental fog, and sometimes they don't hear me when I introduce myself. Some are panicky and gasping. Others are mumbling or incoherent. Last week, one patient was crying and asking to use my phone so they could call family and say goodbye, but their oxygen levels were dropping, and we didn't have time, and I couldn't risk bringing my phone in and contaminating it with virus, and the whole thing was impossible. I kept apologizing. I just -. I don't know. I have to find a way to hold it together in order to do this job. I tear up sometimes, and if I do, it can fog up my face shield. The first thing I do is pull up a stool and get right down to their level at the bed. Most of the time, the look in their eyes is fear. But sometimes, honestly, it is relief, like, "Thank God. I can't do this anymore." They don't have the energy to be hysterical. I put an oxygen mask on the patient and give 100% oxygen for a few minutes. You want to tank them up, because they won't be able to breathe on their own. Next I give medication to put them to sleep. We're trained to touch the eyelashes a bit to make sure they're down. Then I give a muscle relaxer and take a look down the airway for the vocal cords. With this virus, I see significant upper airway swelling, tongue swelling, lots of secretion. When I start to put the tube in, that gives an opportunity for the virus to release into the air. The patient's airway is wide open at that point - no mask or anything. People can cough when the tube goes in toward the trachea, a deep, forceful cough. My mask and hood can get covered in fluid. Usually it's tiny droplets. Aerosolized virus can float around. You're basically right next to the nuclear reactor. I go in confident and fast, because if you miss on the first try, you have to do it again, and then you're bringing out a ton more virus. Once I'm done, sometimes I'll go back to the call room and do squats or lunges. I try to keep my lungs strong. It's hard not to think about, because I've had bad asthma since I was a kid. I use an inhaler twice a day. I'm very in tune with my breathing, and whenever I'm getting sick, the first symptom is I start wheezing. My whole family was like, "Why are you volunteering for this? What are you doing?" My dad and brother got a bunch of tools and built a Plexiglas intubation box based on a model out of Taiwan. It sits above the patient's face, like a shield to reduce your exposure. I haven't been able to use it yet, but they're worried. They're trying to protect me. Last week, I called to tell them about my end-of-life wishes. Then I emailed them, just in case. I said, "If I have to be intubated, I'm fine with that. But if I'm going through liver and kidney failure, and if I'm cognitively impaired at that point, and if you can tell my body is failing and I'm not going to get back to being who I am . . . " Well. It was a hard conversation. But I know how this virus can go. Each night, I try to do rounds with the doctors in the ICU to check on the patients I've intubated. They're not allowed to have family or visitors. I'm not a religious person, but I do like to stand there for a minute outside the room and think about them and what they're going through. I try to think about something positive - a positive expectation. Mostly they're unconscious on the vent, but each day for an hour or two, they get what we call a sedation holiday, which means we bring down their medications so we can check on their baseline level of consciousness and see how they're doing on their own. In other words, for a little while, they might wake up. They can't talk with the tube in, but I have seen a few patients before write messages on a piece of paper. "Vent?" Or: "Surgery?" Or: "How much longer?" Usually, before this, patients would be on a vent for three to five days. Now we're seeing 14 to 21. Most of these people have acute respiratory distress syndrome. There's inflammation, scar tissue, and fluid building up in the lungs, so oxygen can't diffuse easily. No matter how much oxygen you give them, it can't get through. It's never enough. Organs are very sensitive to low oxygen. First comes kidney failure, then liver failure, and then brain tissue becomes compromised. Immune systems stop working. There's a look most people get, called mottling, where the skin turns red and patchy when you only have a few hours left. We have a few at that point. Some have been converted to "do not resuscitate." In between intubations, I'll sit in my call room and watch the monitors. I can see all of the patients' vitals and check on how they're doing. We've had some successes. A younger patient came off the vent earlier this week and just got sent home. The staff at this hospital is amazing. Even so, it usually goes the other way. I'm looking at the monitor right now, and there's one patient who isn't going to make it through the night. Three others are tipping toward the edge. It's a powerless feeling, watching someone die. The oxygen level drops, the heart rate drops, the blood pressure drops. These patients are dying on the ventilator, and sometimes when they take away the body, the tube is still in the airway. Moto G8 Power Lite launched with Android Pie OS, Phone features 5,000mAh battery New Delhi, Sun, 05 Apr 2020 Deepak Kumar Motorola launched Moto G8 Lite with Android Pie operating system at a cost of $185, making it an affordable smartphone with decent specification. The Moto G8 Lite comes with huge 5,000mAh battery power which is good for running the smartphone for longer period. The Moto G8 Power Lite is an affordable phone with 6.5-inches HD+ display and 64GB of internal storage. Phone comes with a whooping 5,000mAh battery, triple camera setup, MediaTek Helio P35 chipset, 84GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The Company release just after the release of Moto G8 Power, which was release back in mid-February 2020. The price of this smartphone is $185 and come with the Android Pie Operating System. In India the price of Moto G8 Power Lite is around Rs. 13,990 and this phone is expected to be available in Indian market by June 11. But the availability will depend on the Coronavirus outbreak status in the country. The Moto G8 Power Lite is cheap device which will come with whopping 5,000mAh battery, triple camera setup, plus other features. This phone comes with the modest specifications and at a reasonably impressive price affordable to low income customers. Moto G8 Power Lite Specification: Display: 6.5 inches Phone comes with 6.5 inches HD+ screen Processor: MediaTek Helio P35 chipset Front Camera: 8-megapixel Front camera is of 8 megapixels Rear Camera: 16MP + 2MP + 2MP Triple setup rear camera with primary camera of 16MP. RAM: 4GB of internal RAM is installed on this device Battery Capacity: 5,000mAh, battery capacity is huge to run phone for longer duration Operating System: Android 9 Screen Resolution: 720x1600 pixels The Moto G8 Power Lite comes with 64GB of internal storage and an extension for microSD card which can support upto 256GB. Phone comes with a powerful battery with 5,000mAh capacity and it can be charged 10 times faster with the microUSB port that comes with this mobile phone. The rear camera comes with the setup that consists of a 16-megapixel main sensor, 2-megapixel macro lens, and 2-megapixel depth sensor. The triple camera setup is designed to take high quality photo. There is a rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader for biometric unlocks of the phone. The front camera comes with 8MP sensor and it is hidden within a display notch. The Moto G8 Power Lite comes in in two colors turquoise and blue. As per the company word, the Moto G8 Power Lite will be available in selected markets including Latin America, Europe, Asian, and Oceania over the coming weeks. Divya Bhartis rise to stardom and her untimely death April 5,1993 continues to intrigue fans, 27 years after her death. Was is an accident or was there more to it? As per police files, Divyas death remains an accident. The young actor was in an inebriated state when she walked on ledge of her 5th floor homes balcony in Mumbai, slipped and fell. She was reportedly still breathing when she was rushed to the hospital but died on arrival. She was declared dead on arrival. Divya died of fatal head injuries. However, her fans refuse to believe that a star so promising and an actor so young could have gone away. Conspiracy theories abound -- a random search on the internet will throw up a number of web sites, claiming many things. Some claimed it was a murder while others believed it was case of suicide. An old Hindustan Times report from 2011 said how initially rumours were afloat that it was the handiwork of the underworld. Roshmila Bhattacharya wrote: I remember the dayApril 6, 1993. Id just stepped into the office when I was informed that Divya Bharti had been shot. Who took the pictures? Gautam Rajadhyaksha or Rakesh Shrestha? I enquired. My colleague responded by saying he wasnt talking photographs. Shes been gunned down, Im told the underworld is involved, he whispered. I dismissed it as just a rumour, but within minutes, the news was confirmed that Divya was dead. At the hospital we learnt that Divya had apparently slipped from the ledge on which shed been perched. There were whispers of suicide, even murder, but eventually, her death was ruled as an accident and the file closed. The article recounts how the final moments before she breathed her last. She was rushed to Cooper hospital, still breathing, holding tightly to the doctors shirt sleeve even as he assured her that shed be fine. Then, just as they swept in through the hospitals gates, she reportedly tugged on Dr Lullas sleeve one last time, before her grip slackened. She was declared dead on arrival, it added. Whats more her family firmly believed it was an accident. Speaking to India Today, Divyas father Om Prakash Bharti had said, There was no question of suicide or murder. Yes, she did drink a bit but how much can you drink in half an hour? And she was not depressed. She was the kind to give you depression! It was an accident. She sat on the ledge, lost her balance and fell. Sadly, all flats had grills except hers. Cars would always be parked below but that night there was not a single one. She fell directly on the ground. I was shocked and lost my senses. But eventually you have to face the truth. Divya Bhartis short but eventful life was a stuff of legends, in some ways. Decades before nepotism would become a word that an outsider would cling to, she was a Bollywood outsider who made it big not only in Bollywood but in Telugu films too. She has no film lineage--her father was insurance officer and mother, a housewife. Yet, what a staggering rise hers was. Starting out when still in her teenage, her first film itself Bobbili Raju (1990), opposite Venkatesh (Rana Daggubatis uncle) was a massive hit. In fact, it is still recalled as one of the biggest Telugu hits of the 90s. The teenaged actor would then go on to form winning combination with top Telugu actors Chiranjeevi, Mohan Babu and Nandamuri Balakrishna. Subsequently, she gave more hits like Rowdy Alludu and Assembly Rowdy. Also read: On Shammi Kapoors 88th birth anniversary, best songs of Indias most entertaining star Having established her toehold in Telugu films, it was time to try her luck in Hindi films. In fact, before her Telugu films came out, she had been considered for two prominent projects in Mumbai -- Radha Ka Sangam (with Govinda, a role which eventually went to Juhi Chawla) and Gunahon Ka Devta (1988 with Mithun Chakraborty) -- both got stalled. However, after her super stardom in Telugu films, there was no stopping Divya. From her debut film Vishwatma (1991) to Kshatriya (her last release during her lifetime), she worked in one successful film after another, most noteworthy being David Dhawans Govinda starrer Shola Aur Shabnum and Shah Rukh Khan and Rishi Kapoor starrer Deewana. Looking at the films that she had either partially shot for and were later filled in my other actors or had signed on to work in, would give a sense of how excited the industry was with the prospect of this new and young star -- Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandons Laadla (her role was reportedly later re-shot by Sridevi), she was replaced in Akshay Kumars Mohra, Ajay Devgns Vijaypath and Dilwale (all films went on to become hits). She has projects lined up with actors Akshay Kumar (Parinaam), Salman Khan (Do Kadam), Rishi Kapoor (Kanyadaan), Sunny Deol (Bajrang) and Jackie Shroff (Chal Pe Chal). Does it get any bigger in Bollywood of the 90s? Divya is best remembered for like sprightly personality, her beauty, her acting versatility and vivacity. Tune in to any retro music channels of today and chances are you will still hear Saat Samundar from Vishwatma playing. Author tweets @mniveditatweets Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Montgomery County novel coronavirus cases increased by 12 Saturday, bringing the total to 142 cases and 20 full recoveries. Among the 12 new cases reported by the Montgomery County Public Health District, includes two senior citizens from The Woodlands who have been hospitalized. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Montgomery County inmate tests positive after delivering baby It is unclear at this time whether the man and woman, who are in their 90s, are residents of The Conservatory at Alden Bridge. The number cases at the independent senior living community in The Woodlands rose to 15 cases on Friday, including three deaths. There have been no other deaths reported in Montgomery County as of Saturday afternoon. The senior community remains under a shelter-in-place order issued Monday by Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough. According to the order, residents must shelter-in-place for the duration of the order. Those who leave the facility cannot return to the property until the order expires at April 13. The first case of COVID-19 has been reported at the Montgomery County jail. The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office said a jail inmate, who is in her 20s and has been booked on felony charges since October, tested positive after giving birth at a local hospital. At least six jail employees who were in contact with the inmate have been sent home to self-quarantine. New safety protocols, including mask requirements have been implemented, and screenings will continue. The sheriffs office and the sheriff directly have been monitoring and preparing for this type of situation to occur, Jason Millsaps, executive director of the countys Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said. It is something you prepare for the worst and they already had plans in place. It was very easy to implement the quarantine of other inmates and individuals associated with this inmate because they already had those protocols in place and were ready to act on them. With increased testing capabilities at hospitals and private facilities, Millsaps said an increase in cases has been anticipated, but the numbers are lower than expected. Montgomery County remains under a stay-at-home order through April 30. The health district urges residents to stay focused on preventing cases by staying home, limiting contact, washing hands, disinfecting surfaces in and around the home and cars. According to our forecast model we are just below what weve anticipated in the exponential growth of cases thus far, which is good news, Millsaps said. We are now seven complete days into the stay-at-home order and we are expecting more good news as more and more folks continue to stay home and participate in social distancing. We can start to see that curve bend. According to the data from the Montgomery County Public Health District on Saturday, 119 cases are active, 21 remained hospitalized and 98 are in self-isolation. The case counts per ZIP code for Montgomery County are: The Woodlands, 30; Spring, 25; Montgomery, 21; Conroe, 28; Oak Ridge North, 8; Porter, 12; Shenandoah, 4; Magnolia, 3; Willis, 4; Hockley, one; Pinehurst, one; New Caney, two; Kingwood, one; and Splendora, two. For a complete list of all confirmed new coronavirus cases in Montgomery County, visit mcphd-tx.org/coronavirus-covid-19/confirmed-cases. mellsworth@hcnonline.com A group of senior bureaucrats has held six meetings with international organisations, over 40 NGOs and several industry bodies in just six days since its formation, highlighting the sense of urgency in the Narendra Modi government to tackle the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The empowered group on Coordinating with Private Sector, NGOs, and International Organisations for COVID-19-related Response Activities, is chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. It is one of the 11 panels constituted by the Centre on March 29 to monitor all aspects of the pandemic. According to an official release, the primary objective of Kants team (Empowered Group Number 6, or EG6) has been to seek support and technology-based solutions in specific areas, clear hurdles for private players and also coordinate with other groups as well as state governments. The group met industry associations, international organisations, and civil society organisations about their contribution to Covid-19 response, their plans for the coming weeks, the issues they are facing, and their expectations from the government, the release said. While all three groups of stakeholders pointed out the areas where they need support, Kant assured them of the governments help, and also put them in touch with other empowered groups for faster and more effective response and coordination. Apart from Kant, the group comprises principal scientific officer K Vijayaraghavan; Kamal Kishore (member, National Disaster Management Authority); Sandeep Bhatnagar (member, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs); Anil Malik of the home ministry; Vikram Doraiswami and P Harish of the foreign office; Gopal Baglay and Aishvarya Singh from the Prime Ministers Office; and Tina Soni from the cabinet secretariat. The work of the group is serviced by Sanyukta Samaddar, adviser, Sustainable Development Goals, NITI Aayog. The group has met the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator for India, and the country heads of the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Women, UN-Habitat, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. The discussions focused on providing technical support in monitoring and surveillance systems, strengthening health and nutritional services, capacity building, financial resources and critical equipment support. Following the meetings, the UN in India has built a Joint Programme Response Plan defining their clear activities and deliverables in different sectors and States, where they are partnering with Union Ministries and State Governments. The plan has been submitted to the Niti Aayog. Kants team has held detailed deliberations with over 40 prominent civil society bodies and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisation) till April 3, apart from writing to 92,000 such bodies registered with the Niti Aayog. Kant has also appealed to these bodies to assist the government in identifying hot spots of the disease, and deputing volunteers and caregivers to deliver services to the elderly, persons with disabilities, children, transgender persons, and other vulnerable groups. The government has reached out to these groups to create awareness about prevention, social distancing, isolation, and combating stigma and to provide shelter to the homeless, daily wage workers and urban poor families. and to set up community kitchens for migrants, the release said . Further, Kant wrote to all states, asking them to utilise the physical and human resources made available by these NGOs and civil society groups. The committee also met private sector players and start-ups for collaboration among them to produce health equipment and PPE (personal protective equipment). As many as 8 Start-Ups working in innovative health care solutions, 12 top industry leaders from CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), 6 CEOs from FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) partners, 14 CEOs of top tech-based companies from NASSCOM (a not-for-profit industry association) participated in the discussions. The talks focused on issues including the estimation of PPE, ventilators and medical equipment requirement, retrofitting domestic production lines to meet demand, supply chain management issues, innovative technology-led solutions, issues of certification, GST, import duties on components, issues of procurement, training, and post-lockdown operating procedures. The start-ups, namely, AgVa, Biodesign Innovation Lab, Kaeaenaat, Qure AIDrona Maps, mFine, MicroGo, Staqu, working on innovative ventilator design, testing tools, and tracking solutions have been contacted separately to understand their scale and possible contributions, said the release. While industries appraised the group about their philanthropic and CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities related to Covid-19, they also took up several challenges on critical issues of health care intervention, pertaining to ramping up production and procurement of ventilators, among others. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON PRESCOTT, Ariz. - A housekeeping employee at a Prescott hospital has been fired after being arrested on suspicion of stealing personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies in recent weeks as the coronavirus outbreak unfolded, police said Saturday. Keith Brown, 49, of Prescott was arrested Friday at Yavapai Regional Medical Center on suspicion of one count each of theft and fraud after police found numerous items valued at $1,700 in Browns vehicle and residence, police Lt. Jon Brambila said. The items recovered included gloves, hand sanitizer, surgical scrubs, wash clothes, paper towels, masks, bleach cleaner, toilet paper and an automatic hand sanitizer, Brambila said. Online court records didnt list an attorney for Brown who could comment on the allegations. The police investigation began after hospital officials called abut a possible theft, Brambila said. Police were trying to arrange to have the items returned to the hospital as soon as possible if theyre deemed safe to use, Brambila said. Brambila did not immediately respond to a question on what Brown allegedly intended to do with the items. Prescott is the seat of largely rural Yavapai County in northcentral Arizona. The county as of Saturday had 43 coronavirus cases, according to the state Department of Health Services. : Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that governs the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala near here, has decided to offer Rs 19 crore to the Andhra Pradesh's government relief coronavirus fund, a top TTD official said on Sunday. TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singal said that TTD had already given a Rs eight crore to the government officials of Chittoor district and the remaining Rs 11 crore would soon be handed over to them to fight killer virus. He said there was no lapse in the conduct of daily rituals at the Lord Venkateswara temple on the Tirumala hills, since the complete lockdown of the nation was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With lakhs of city residents lighting a 'diya' each on Sunday in their balconies on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to express their solidarity in the nation's fight against the coronavirus spread, Deppawali seemed to have arrived months earlier in the city. In some cities of the state like Bahraich, some people started lighting lamps and candles before 9.00 pm itself. Some people in the state capital blew conch shells and exploded firecrackers on this occasion to express their solidarity. The explosion of firecrackers continued at least till 9.15 pm. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the speaker of UP Legislative Assembly too lit lamps at their official residences in Lucknow. Adityanath lit lamps arranged in the shape of 'Om'. People from different walks of life lit lamps, candles and also turned on torches and flashlight of their mobile phones to express their collective resolve to defeat coronavirus. Despite apprehensions, there was no disruption to the power grid. There were no immediate reports of disruption of power supply. Prime Minister Modi on Friday had urged people to light candles on April 5 and display India's collective resolve to defeat coronavirus. Modi urged people to turn off lights at their homes and light candles, lamps or turn on mobile phone torches at 9.00 pm on Sunday for nine minutes to "end the darkness" of coronavirus". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 3 1 of 3 21 Pro Video Show More Show Less 2 of 3 21 Pro Video Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Nineteen-year-old Lance Tello has been charged in the shooting of his month-old daughter, his mother, 49, and his sister, 14, in what San Antonio Police Chief William McManus called a mental-health related incident on the far West Side. Officers responded to a call of a shooting about 2:15 a.m. to the 9600 block of Forks Drive where they discovered the three shooting victims, McManus said. Tello was in a bedroom with his daughter and another person when according to that witness, he picked up a gun and shot his daughter, according to a police report. Weather Alert SUB-ZERO WIND CHILLS LATE TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY MORNING Wind chills of near 0 to 10 below zero are likely late tonight into Tuesday morning. This will be from temperatures around 5 to 10 degrees across the interior areas combined with northwest winds of around 10 to 15 mph. For coastal areas, this will be from temperatures around 10 degrees combined with northwest winds of around 15 to 20 mph. If you need to be outside, be prepared for the wind and cold, and dress in layers and wear a hat, heavy coat, as well as gloves or mittens. Frostbite can occur in a short amount of time, so dress in layers and make sure all exposed skin is protected. Both times Ive left home in the past two and a half weeks, Ive had a printed form in my pocket with my place of birth, Tullamore, written on it - in case the police stop me. France went into strict lockdown on March 16. Since then, any time anyone leaves the house they have to print out a form which specifies their name, address, the time they left home, and an explanation for why they are out. It also requires you to put down the name of the town where you were born. Why? Im not really sure what the point is I just know that they love that kind of stuff over here. Filling out forms, and folders to put the forms in. To be honest, Im surprised I dont have to divulge my mothers maiden name or produce an original copy of my long-form birth cert whenever I want to go to the shop. Whatever about the merits of French bureaucracy, I havent seen a policeman on either of my trips to the local supermarket. Neither has my wife on the handful of occasions shes been out. But if they are not bothering with our small town, they are out there in the cities in the first 10 days of lockdown, some 260,000 people across France were fined for flouting the rules. If you get caught without the proper form, you face a fine of 135 this includes an incomplete or incorrect form. A second infraction within 15 days will set you back another 200, rising to 450 if its not paid on time. Four breaches in a 30-day period will result in a fine of 3,750, not to mention possibly six months in prison. When people here find out Im from Tullamore, they often reply with: Ah, Tullamore Dew? Something tells me thats not a conversation Ill be having with the stressed-out gendarmes if they stop me over the next few weeks. Ireland is settling into the first week of lockdown, whereas in France were a little further down the road. Our experience was that, during the first week, a sort of harmony descended on our house as everyone made an extra effort to be patient and kind to each other we were all in it together. By the second weekend, this felt like a distant memory, as a collective crankiness took hold. Its a very stressful time for everyone, and for different reasons older people are worried about their own health, middle-aged people are worried about their parents and their jobs, and the kids are worried about what kind of disease-infested dying planet theyll inherit, and how it might affect the release of the new season of Fortnite. FULL STORY IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION OF THE TULLAMORE TRIBUNE UPDATE: The British Pound to Euro exchange rate fell on the news that UK prime minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital for tests after his tenth day showing persistent symptoms of coronavirus. 1 has since recovered, currently trading 0.31pct higher on the daily open, quoted at around 1.134103 "[Pound] Sterling, meanwhile, is trading a little below its Friday close levels following reports of UK PM Johnson being hospitalised" say analysts at Lloyds on Monday, April 6. The British Pound edged higher against the Euro at the start of last week after Germanys council of advisors warned that the coronavirus pandemic has made a recession in the blocs largest economy inevitable. Meanwhile, Sterling remained under pressure as traders focused on the Covid-19 outbreak and global measures tightened. Traders began to flock back to the safety of the US Dollar (USD) as the United States emerged as the new epicentre of the virus. GBP also suffered a slight blow after ratings agency, Fitch slashed the UKs sovereign debt rating. Tuesday saw GBP/EUR continue to rise despite data showing that both UK business and consumer confidence slumped due to the pandemic. The data had been collected before the British government announced a lockdown. Added to this, global risk sentiment edged higher after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the outbreak in Europe was likely to stabilise very soon. The single currency continued to suffer after German unemployment data revealed the countrys labour market had begun to lose traction before Covid-19 hit the country. The pairing continued to rise on Wednesday as many feared markets were headed towards the worst economic slump in decades as the world attempted to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Germanys manufacturing PMI slumped by the greatest extent in 11-years, falling from Februarys 13-month high of 48 to 45.4 in March, sending the single currency lower. Meanwhile, Sterling was able to edge higher despite British manufacturing PMI data showing both new orders and manufacturing output plummeted at the fastest rates since mid-2012. GBP/EUR continued to rally on Thursday as the single currency remained under pressure as traders continued to flock to the safety of the US Dollar. Risk sentiment declined as the global coronavirus death toll continued to rise, leaving investors on edge. Data revealed Spains unemployment rate jumped to the highest level since April 2017 as Spain tightened coronavirus lockdown measures. Pound Sterling was able to rise despite Nationwides data revealing that the recovery in the British housing market was cut short after rising at the strongest pace in over two years. The pairing continued to rally at the end of the week after the release of further weak German data. Germanys services PMI slumped to a record low, as new business, employment and activity all fell. Meanwhile, Sterling was able to make gains despite PMI data showing a record fall in the countrys services and manufacturing firms. Risk sentiment was also dealt a further blow after the US economys 113 month expansion of the jobs market was abruptly cut short. Pound Euro (GBP EUR) Exchange Rate Outlook: Will GBP Give up Last Weeks Gains? Looking ahead to Monday, the Euro (EUR) could suffer losses against the Pound (GBP) following the release of Germanys factory orders data. If orders plummet further than expected in February, reflecting the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the single currency will slide. Meanwhile, a disappointing British construction PMI survey could limit any of Sterlings gains at the start of the week. Tuesday could see the pairing remain under pressure following the release of Februarys German industrial production data. If production slumps, so will the single currency. Thursday could leave the Pound under pressure following a slew of economic data from February. If data reveals that British industrial production and manufacturing production have slumped further than expected, GBP will remain under pressure. Added to this, if Februarys GDP stagnates, it is likely Sterling will suffer some losses, and the Pound Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate could end the week lower. Pensioners in a Co Down village have been tucking into free sausages and burgers thanks to a big-hearted councillor. DUP councillor Billy Walker has dipped into his own pocket and given every pensioner over the age of 70 in his home village of Killyleagh a free meat parcel to help them through the coronavirus crisis. He spent three days handing out vouchers for a meat parcel to 200 pensioners on both sides of the community in the villages of Killyleagh and Shrigley at a cost of more than 1,000. I was in despair at the elderly people who cannot get out and are having to isolate at home, said Mr Walker. I thought it would be nice if, as a councillor, I could give them something. It is my way of recognising the pensioners in my home village who are going through hard times. The Newry, Mourne and Down councillor enlisted the help of award-winning Killyleagh butcher Alfie Murray to exchange the vouchers for a meat parcel which the butcher delivered if the pensioner had no one to collect it. The Department of Justice sent out a memo last week with this arresting detail: Prosecutors around the country should consider coronavirus as a biological agent, and therefore charge certain acts related to COVID-19 as federal crimes of terrorism. As a former U.S. prosecutor, I have no quarrel with the departments being able to make a federal crime of the worst conduct that we may see with the virus. Among other things, it gives the country a hook to bring federal resources to bear on cases that for whatever reason may be difficult for states to bring. But the general idea of viewing the coronavirus as a biological agent akin to anthrax or botulism, and its possession or transmission as a crime of terrorism, is as novel as the virus and it carries its own exponential dangers. Until now, the core concept of a biological agent in terrorism law is an engineered or synthesized toxin, like anthrax. Shifting that definition to a naturally occurring virus we all can catch and carry, and one we so far know so little about, is not just inapt, its overkill. We should confine terrorism crimes to offenses involving violence and intimidation against a large body of civilians in pursuit of political aims. The Army is so desperate to fill its ranks that it is signing up recruits with a reading age as young as five. Normally, its rules bar hiring anyone with a reading age below 'entry level two' equivalent to that of a child aged seven to nine. This is considered the minimum soldiers need to be able to read instructions for using firearms and explosives. PICTURED: British soldiers on a routine patrol in some fields (Stock Image) But amid difficulties in attracting youngsters, it has emerged that between 2016 and 2019 the Army took on 50 recruits at 'entry level one', with a reading age of between five and seven. According to the National Literacy Trust, anyone on 'entry level one' would struggle to read the instructions on a medicine bottle label let alone for an assault rifle or a computer-operated drone. Last year, the Army was roundly mocked for recruitment advertisements stating 'Your country needs you' to 'snowflakes, phone zombies, binge gamers, selfie addicts, and me, me, millennials'. Now it appears that some potential recruits would not even have been able to under stand the adverts even as warfare become increasingly computerised. Newly unearthed figures show that in the three years to 2019, 4,240 recruits had a reading age of nine to eleven, with 50 in the five to seven range. A source told The Sun On Sunday newspaper: 'This shows how desperate the Army has become. A joint patrol with the British army and the Iraq police force in Basra 'Recruits need some degree of education to communicate, grasp ideas and understand operational briefings. 'A lot of equipment is also quite complex and they will need a decent grasp of English to understand instruction.' A spokesman for the Army justified hiring soldiers with the reading age of children at infant school, saying: 'In certain instances candidates have been permitted to join at 'level one' on the understanding they attend college to bring them up to the minimum standard before commencing basic training.' The Army is struggling to recruit soldiers, even though it has reduced in size over the decades. At the start of 2019, it had 78,360 full-time soldiers, compared with almost 85,000 in 2016. However, some 15,000 leave the service annually, meaning replacements are needed constantly. Issues with literacy in the Army are nothing new, dating back almost 200 years. Legend has it that in the Duke of Wellington's final soldiering days, he approved a new Army pay book, which for the first time demanded soldiers' names and details. The Duke is said to have chosen the name Thomas Atkins as an example to show the men how to fill in the documentation. But because so many were illiterate, they did not know how to write their own names, and hundreds put themselves down as Thomas Atkins leading to British soldiers' nickname of 'Tommies'. Ed Reiskin, who had a bumpy exit as director of San Franciscos Municipal Transportation Agency, has been tagged by Mayor Libby Schaaf to be Oaklands new city administrator. Reiskin had been working as one of Oaklands two assistant city administrators since leaving Muni in August. Ed brings depth of experience, sharp insights and a steady leadership style to the job in these unprecedented times, Schaaf said in a release Friday. Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo said going in-house with Reiskin made sense. Its better than bringing in an outsider. Ed knows where Fruitvale Avenue is, Gallo said, referring to one of East Oaklands main streets. But not everyone is happy with how the selection came about. Councilman Larry Reid is still steaming because Maraskeshia Smith, the citys other assistant city administrator, wasnt offered the job when former Administrator Sabrina Landreth left. She was the natural person for the job. She was already doing the job, Reid said. She was overseeing the homeless program, public works and a host of city departments. Schaaf said Smith was an excellent candidate, but such an important position called for a strong search and interview process. Reiskins nomination by a selection committee followed a national search that yielded six finalists, including him and Smith. But she opted out before being interviewed by the committee and instead took the job of assistant city manager in Stockton. This is Reiskins second tour of duty in Oakland. Prior to working in San Francisco, he served as an assistant city administrator under former Mayor Jerry Brown. 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. Reiskin was appointed to head Muni in 2011 by former Mayor Ed Lee. Reiskins laid-back style fit well with Lee but never clicked with his successor, the more aggressive Mayor London Breed. Tensions between Reiskin and Breed hit a boiling point last April when a Muni Metro overhead line failed, crippling the citys subway for 10 hours. Reiskin announced his exit shortly thereafter. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) The Department of Health (DOH) says the Chinese experts arriving Sunday will be visiting local facilities to see how the country is managing the spread of COVID-19. Speaking to CNN Philippines, DOH Spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the 12 experts would be sharing their medical treatment experiences. "These medical experts will be helping us, they will be providing recommendations based on their experience in their country. They would be looking at our facilities during their stay here," she said. Among the facilities to be visited, said Vergeire, are the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila and the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, both of which are COVID-19 referral hospitals. She added that the experts would also discuss their experiences on laboratories and community quarantine facilities. Vergeire did not say how long the experts would be staying in the country, only it would be for a number of days. "When they arrive here today, I think the itinerary would be that they would do the visits to the facilities," she said. Vergeire also explained how the DOH would process mass testing for COVID-19. "When we say mass-testing we already are actually doing this. We began when the cases started rising. We are now prioritizing of course the vulnerable population as well as those who are severley ill and of course, now including our health care workers," explained Vergeire. She added this process was going to be progressive and they would be testing more as their supplies increase. Vergeire also warns against those with no symptoms but want to be tested. She said there were protocols in place when it came to testing to identify those who are afflicted and prevent further infections. "If ordinary people or persons who have no symptoms at all go to our facilities and be mixed with those who already have symptoms, there is a higher chance they may be infected," she said. She's been busily promoting her forthcoming documentary The Justice Project. But between promotional posts and ads for her SKIMS clothing line, Kim Kardashian, 39, made sure to post some pictures of her both her eldest and youngest children on Saturday. The reality TV star shared an older photo of six-year-old daughter North and revealed that during the family's coronavirus quarantine, 'one thing I am doing during this time is practicing hair styles on my girls'. Family: Between promotional posts and ads for her SKIMS clothing line, Kim Kardashian, 39, made sure to post some pictures of her both her eldest and youngest children on Saturday. Pictured: North West In the image, the eldest daughter of Kim and husband Kanye West held a frog in her hands. The caption went on to say, 'Something we are doing tonight is getting flash lights and frog watching. There are so many in our backyard at night!' 'I will try to post pics if we spot any on my stories!' Also on the socialite's Instagram Stories were three heart-melting pics of her ten-month-old baby boy Psalm in a ball pit. Aww: Also on the socialite's Instagram Stories were three heart-melting pics of her ten-month-old baby boy Psalm in a ball pit All my children: Kim seen here with kids [L-R] Saint, Psalm, Chicago and North. Having a ball: Kim's baby boy appeared to sink deeper into the ball pit with each adorable photo Meanwhile, Kim's new documentary The Justice Project premieres on Oxygen this Sunday. And reality star turned aspiring lawyer was hard at work plugging the film on her Instagram page the day before the big debut. The TV personality posted an album in which she reflected on dropping into a Zoom Georgetown class where speakers included recently released prisoners. Busy: Kardashian reflected on Instagram about going to D.C.'s Correctional Treatment Facility 'to discuss the Georgetown Prison Scholars program with Dr. @marcmhoward' 'Back in July, I visited the Correctional Treatment Facility in Washington D.C. to discuss the Georgetown Prison Scholars program with Dr. @marcmhoward,' shared Kim, whose documentary features Marc M. Howard. 'Recently, I spoke to Dr. Marc as he teaches his course at Georgetown University. I seen a few familiar faces that were recently released from prison,' she wrote. 'They all spent over two decades in prison and they were also on the chat speaking to students as Dr. Marc teaches his course. Their names are Momolu Stewart, Halim Flowers & Roy Middleton.' Guest star: The 39-year-old TV personality posted an album in which she reflected on dropping into a Zoom Georgetown class where speakers included recently released prisoners Kim added: 'This makes me so happy to see them recently released from prison doing such great things.' She concluded: 'I cant wait for you guys to watch my documentary, to get a better understanding of the justice system and see what its like for someone like these men to get a second chance at life after prison. Tune-in' to my 2-Hour documentary #KKWTheJusticeProject this Sunday, April 5th at 7/6c on @oxygen.' The first review of the documentary was a bristling response from Variety that branded Kim's effort an 'unpleasant spectacle', as well as 'garish and gross'. Virtual reunion: She shared that during her guest appearance in the Zoom chat 'I seen a few familiar faces that were recently released from prison' Wisdom from experience: 'They all spent over two decades in prison and they were also on the chat speaking to students as Dr. Marc teaches his course,' explained Kim Free: 'Their names are Momolu Stewart, Halim Flowers & Roy Middleton,' Kim wrote Earlier this week she told Gayle King in a CBS interview: 'Well, honestly, this is the most important work that I've ever done.' Kim's work in this area first gained attention with the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother who spent more than two decades in jail on nonviolent drug charges. The reality TV diva paid a visit to the White House and appealed to President Donald Trump in a successful bid to gain clemency for Alice. Former Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis has had a number of cosmetic procedures, including breast implants, a nose job, lip fillers and skin tightening. But on Sunday, the 31-year-old influencer said she was taking a break from Botox amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Martha said she was prioritising working out over cosmetic surgery procedures. 'I'm embracing hairy legs! Married At First Sight's Martha Kalifatidis (pictured) says she's taking a break from Botox and going all natural while in lockdown 'I've had surgeries and I'm inclined to Botox... but I'm embracing hairy legs right now and I'm more concerned about gaining weight,' she told the publication. To maintain her figure, Martha has been working out with her personal trainer boyfriend Michael Brunelli, 28, who she met on last year's season of MAFS. On Thursday, Martha and Michael were spotted working up a sweat during a couples' workout session at Sydney's Bondi Beach. 'I've had surgeries and I'm inclined to Botox... but I'm embracing hairy legs right now and I'm more concerned about gaining weight,' Martha said The lovebirds were joined by Martha's younger sister, Sophie, who was also on hand to endure the intense bodyweight circuit set by Michael. The vigorous workout consisted of the girls doing sets of eight different exercises which included intervals of 30-second squat jumps, rows and push-ups. Martha and Sophie then had to complete a set of bicep curls, a number of glute bridges and tricep dips, followed by a 60-second sprint. Couples that work out together, stay together! To maintain her figure, Martha has been working out with her personal trainer boyfriend Michael Brunelli (left), 28, who she met on last year's season of MAFS Going in! On Thursday Martha and Michael were spotted working up a sweat at Bondi Beach amid the COVID-19 pandemic In the footage, posted to his Instagram stories, Michael passed a police van in which he then pretended to start doing elastic band exercises. 'Making sure they know I'm outside ''exercising,'" he wrote underneath the video. The MAFS stars weren't believed to be breaking any of the government's new regulations which state that groups of more than two people should not be gathered together in public, as Michael and Martha live in the same household. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate in Australia. As of Sunday, there have been 5,686 confirmed cases, which have resulted in 34 deaths. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh urged people to stay at home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. while he issued a set of stricter guidelines for the city. The public health advisory does not apply to essential workers. The mayor also asked everyone, including essential workers, to wear masks while outside. The stay-at-home advisory was enhanced to a recommended curfew during a press conference Sunday. Walsh said the curfew begins Monday. The recommendation everyone wear a mask outside also begins Monday. Both recommendations will remain in place until May 4. The city saw an increase of 259 COVID-19 cases between Saturday and Sunday putting Bostons total at 1,877. Boston has 15 people who died from coronavirus-related illnesses. In the last 48 hours, weve had an increase of 511 new cases," Walsh said. "Thats 27 percent of our overall cases of coronavirus since this began. Thats what a surge looks like. Earlier Sunday, Walsh told NBC10 Boston the strict guidelines were coming as city officials still saw people congregating at playgrounds and playing sports. This has to stop, Walsh told the television station in an interview. Health experts continue to push social distancing to curb the spread of the virus. Walsh asked anyone leaving their homes to wear a mask whether it be while people are taking a walk or going shopping. The request was made based on CDC recommendations, the mayor said. We can all help slow the spread by covering our faces, Walsh said. While discussing the recommended curfew, Walsh said city officials are seeing social distancing problems and people taking too many unnecessary trips in the evening. Boston City Hall will now only be open to the public on Tuesdays and Fridays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. City hall will be open on April 6 but will be closed on Good Friday. Everyone entering Boston City Hall, including employees, will be screened and should be prepared to have their temperatures checked. Basketball, tennis and street hockey courts were also closed by the mayor. Walsh reminded the public that police can order people to disperse and issue violations. On Sunday, there are 231 coronavirus-related deaths in Massachusetts and 12,500 positive cases. Sign up for free text messages about important updates on coronavirus in Massachusetts Related Content: RTHK: Irish PM resumes medical career to fight virus Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has rejoined the medical register to help the health service during the coronavirus crisis, a government spokesman said on Sunday. Varadkar "has offered his services to the Health Service Executive for one session a week in areas that are within his scope of practice", a government spokesman said in a statement. The Irish Times reported Varadkar who graduated with a medical degree from Dublin's Trinity University in 2003 is to work assessing patients over the phone. The son of a doctor and nurse, Varadkar's partner and his two sisters are also practicing health workers. "Many of his family and friends are working in the health service," the spokesman explained. "He wanted to help out even in a small way." As Covid-19 took hold in Ireland last month the HSE made a call for qualified healthcare workers not currently working in the sector to return. Over 60,000 responded to the recruitment drive, which included a request for medically skilled and general volunteers to aid the health service. According to the most recent department of health figures released Sunday there have been 158 coronavirus-related deaths in Ireland. There have been a total of 4,994 confirmed cases across the Republic, the department said. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. https://www.aish.com/jw/id/Before-Lockdown-A-Race-to-Build-Shul-Furniture.html In bleak times for synagogues, kibbutz carpenters have been busy building the future. There will be a spate of new synagogues opening the moment coronavirus restrictions end, thanks to the shul furniture team at Kibbutz Lavi in the Galilee, which worked daily from 4 AM. In the hours before Israel went in to almost-complete lockdown, a team of kibbutz workers entered overdrive mode for the sake of Jewish communities around the world. They sawed and chiseled; hammered in nails and straightened hinges. Synagogue life in much of the world has stopped, and were determined to ensure that when it restarts, its stronger than ever, explains Aner Amiram. He is vice president at Lavi Furniture Industries, the worlds biggest manufacturer of synagogue furniture. Every year, he is inundated with orders from new communities that want to open their doors at Passover but this year, health restrictions mean that all synagogue dedications are on hold. As soon as the coronavirus crisis started, we said to ourselves that well ensure no community waits a single day longer than necessary once this is over to open, he said. And to do that, we had a race on our hands. As Israels restrictions started in mid-March, it became clear the rules would be intensified and the factory would lose most of its staff for an unspecified period. So Lavis 85 workers pulled out all of the stops to get every single order finished. They completed shipments for France, Switzerland, America, Israel and elsewhere. It got harder as restrictions became tighter. In the final few days when the factory was fully functioning, there were strict limits on how many workers could be in the factory at a time. We normally begin work at 7am, but we started opening the factory at 4 AM instead, so that we could get staff to do different shifts, said Amiram. I have never seen people work so fast we got more finished than I ever thought possible. He added: We all feel that Jewish communities have taken a hard enough blow by having to stop services due to coronavirus. We wanted to show them we care by getting their furniture shipped and having it in place so as soon so they can meet again, well see new communities opening their doors. Well actually see the end of this crisis bring a spate of synagogue openings, with will be a remarkable way for the Jewish world to move forward. Last week, when Israel confined most citizens to 100 meters from their homes, the factory fell almost silent. The only workers who can still report for duty are the 12 who live on Kibbutz Lavi, and they are engaged in a special task building mobile arks, Israeli synagogues have been shuttered, but some communities are holding outdoor prayers, limited to 10 worshipers with two meters between each person. For these communities, and for rabbis holding services on videoconference, the remaining workers are making mobile arks that can house a Torah scroll. We see a special sense of mission in this too, said Amiram. After all, its said that Jewish people dont go for three days without reading from the Torah, but today, many Torah scrolls are shut in closed synagogues, unread. It made us really happy to produce special arks so that people could take some of them home and use them within the limitations of coronavirus rules. Evyatar Dor, Lavis international sales manager, said: We believe, as Jews, that the good times will come and were determined that when they do, noting at all will hold back communities. : Keralites joined people across the country and switched off the lights in their homes and lit candles, diyas, torchlights and mobile phones in support of the unity call by by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to fight COVID-19 pandemic. Lights were switched off at Clff House, the official residence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here tonight for nine minutes from 9 PM. Various ministers also took part by switching of the lights of their official residences. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan along with his wife lit lamps at the Raj Bhavan to express people's unity in fighting COVID-19. Actor and BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi lit diyas, While DGP Loknath Behera lit candles on the terrace of his official residence in the state capital. Policemen in their uniforms held diyas in front of their police station at Tripunithura in Kochi. Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) sources said they were prepared to face the change in power variation that may be triggered when the lights were turned off at 9 pm. It was estimated that there would be a shortfall of about 350-400 MW by 9 PM and then a sudden increase in power demand after 9 minutes. The various generating stations of KSEB and the State Load Dispatch Center at Kalamassery took steps to mitigate the impact of the shortage. "There will not be any load shedding for this purpose. Also the southern part of the state has received heavy rains and wind. Many parts are now facing power outage due to the rains. Power restoration works are going on," the sources told PTI. "We will not engage in power cuts as there are many hospitals and other essential utilities, up and running in the state in the wake of coronavirus scare," the sources added. Well known Malayalam actors, Mohanlal and Mammootty had also appealed to the people to participate in the nine minute vigil of Prime Minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It has been 15 years since geriatrician Dr. Camilla Wong spent any significant amount of time working in an intensive care unit. Back in 2005, when she was still a resident, she did a rotation in critical care, receiving about two months of training. Despite all the time that has elapsed and her very limited experience in critical care, Wong and legions of other non-ICU health-care workers across Canada can expect to soon find themselves on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, caring for the sickest of patients. I will do whatever I can to help, but Im quite nervous obviously. Its a skill set I dont necessarily have, said the specialist from a Toronto hospital. So she was grateful last week when she discovered on Twitter a website created specifically for health professionals such as herself. Titled Quick ICU Training for COVID-19, the website is essentially a how-to guide for health-care professionals whose regular jobs dont involve treating patients in life-threatening condition from a highly contagious and potentially deadly infectious disease. Wong shared it with her followers on Twitter, many of whom are also health-care workers. Loving this, she wrote, describing it as a critical care 101 course. The website was created in only one week by a group of clinicians and researchers from the University of Toronto and local academic hospitals. Known as the Critical Care Education Pandemic Preparedness team (CCEPP), its members mobilized quickly, recognizing that there was a knowledge gap that urgently needed to be filled. Its part of the work being done in the province in the mad scramble to prepare for a surge of COVID-19 patients. Building up critical care capacity in an already overstretched health system is about more than increasing the number of hospitals beds and ventilators. Its also about finding health-care professionals to staff those beds. Under an emergency order issued by the province a week ago hospitals now have the authority to redeploy staff from their regular jobs into such areas as intensive care, which will very soon be stressed by the looming wave of critically sick patients. Hospitals are currently in the process of making redeployment plans. The Quick ICU Training guide was created in response to requests for educational resources from physicians, trainee doctors, nurses, respirologists and other health professionals who work in units of hospitals other than intensive care, explained Dr. Jenna Spring, a clinical associate in critical care medicine at U of T and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a CCEPP team member. They are stepping up in this desperate time of need, coming from such areas as oncology, the operating room, internal medicine and geriatrics. Colleagues are realizing they are going to be on the front lines taking care of very sick patients and they want to try to prepare, she said. The opening of the guide explains that health-care systems around the world are becoming stretched and sometimes failing because of the huge increase in critically ill patients. Ontarios hospitals are responding like those in other jurisdictions by reinforcing the ranks in critical care. Ideally, (reinforcements) will be under the direct supervision of a critical-care physician or nurse, but foreseeing situations where direct supervision may not be available, having guidance for making decisions about management, care, and triage outside of ones normal professional and entrusted activities is advised, the guide reads. Ontarios health-care regulatory colleges have relaxed their rules during the pandemic so that health-care professionals can work outside of their scopes of practice or specialties. The scopes of practice dictate the kind of work that health-care professionals can do, based largely upon years of specialized education and training. Regulatory colleges are known to take severe action against health professionals who dare practise outside them. That such regulations have been temporarily suspended speaks to the drastic measures required to combat the rapidly advancing virus. It also explains why a doctor who has devoted her career to providing health care to older patients could suddenly find herself working in intensive care. But Wong says shes up to the challenge, daunting as it is. I cant imagine any front-line worker not being worried, she said in reference to the many health-care professionals who have become seriously ill or even perished after contracting the virus, mostly due to a shortage of protective equipment such as masks. Focus on what you can control, she continued, sharing her approach to dealing with the fear. Its with that attitude that she has embraced the Quick ICU Training guide. She has already familiarized herself with the content. Being able to remember everything is a bit unrealistic, but if I need to access the information I know it exists, she said. We have it in our back pockets. We know which pocket it is in and we can reach for it if we need it. In fact, the guide actually does contain pocket cards, essentially cheat sheets that clinicians can print out and carry with them, post on a wall or access easily on a cellphone. Broad topics covered include: airway, breathing, circulation, disability/sedation, environment and PPE (personal protective equipment), and general ICU care. There are short lectures and narrated slide presentations on subjects such as basic airway management, how to assist during intubation and managing acute respiratory distress syndrome. There are videos on procedures such as inserting a chest tube or intubating a patient while protecting yourself from infectious respiratory droplets. And there are links to resources such as clinical guidelines and medical literature. The guide has been circulating online for less than a week and the response has been really overwhelmingly positive, said another of its developers, Stella Ng, director of research and Arrell Family Chair in Health Professions Teaching at U of Ts Centre for Faculty Development, based at St. Michael's Hospital. While it was created with Ontarios health-care system in mind, it has been discovered by clinicians around the world, including in Australia, the United Kingdom, South America, Central America and even Tibet. Ryan Brydges, another core member of the CCEPP team, said some local non-ICU physicians have taken to pulling out old medical school textbooks to refresh their memories and brush up on rusty skills. This website has a lot of information for them so they dont have to worry about going out and finding it, said Brydges, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at U of T. Its a confidence and comfort tool. The website is a work-in-progress, said CCEPP team member Dr. Brian Cuthbertson. A critical care physician himself, Cuthbertson said he leaned on peers at hospitals throughout the city to participate in its creation. He asked them to narrate online lectures and share slide presentations and videos. There has been such a high degree of altruism. So many people have come forward to help out, even after spending busy days working in intensive care, he said. When a reporter remarked that it must feel good to be making such an important contribution, Cuthbertson bristled. There is no hero in this. None of us is interested in credit here, he said. This is just a lot of people trying to do something that will hopefully help and maybe even save lives in a tragic situation. When Wong forwarded the guide to her followers on social media, it landed in the Twitter feed of fellow geriatrician Dr. Eric Wong (no relation). The last time he cared for critically ill patients in the ICU was four years ago when he was a resident on rotation. Although I sometimes consult on patients in the ICU, I havent spent a lot of time there for a few years. So this is a very helpful resource to me, he said. This is going to help us be ready for whatever comes our way. A total of 2,612 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Luxembourg as of this Saturday. The death toll still stands at 31. A total of 230 patients are hospitalised. 35 of them are in intensive care. 190 patients have already been released from the hospital. Friday's figures were confirmed in a live stream by Xavier Bettel and Paulette Lenert, here. During the conference, Bettel acknowledged that the crisis is taking a heavy toll, especially psychologically, and encouraged all of Luxembourg to remain motivated, to stay positive and to keep their heads up. Thursday saw 168 new confirmed infections and one death in Luxembourg, and 141 new infections and 6 deaths were recorded on Wednesday. Tuesday's update had seen 190 cases confirmed following a significant drop in new cases on Monday, with just 38 new confirmed cases. You can see how many cases have been confirmed each day since the outbreak in the second graph below, which we update immediately as new information comes in. Dr Philippe Wilmes of Robert Schuman hospitals told RTL that the peak in hospital admissions could be reached within the next two weeks. For the latest updates on the coronavirus both in Luxembourg and abroad, see our live ticker. Development since start of outbreak New cases per day Sophomore Fredy Rubio, 16, and his mother, Carolyn Chavez, pick up a laptop at Linda Esperanza Marquez High School in Huntington Park. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) A senior at John C. Fremont High School in South L.A., Emilio Hernandez has a class load that is about as rigorous as it gets: AP calculus, physics, design, English, engineering and government. He loves talking to his peers in English class, who make all the readings thought-provoking. He often turns to his math teacher, who has a way of drawing the graphs and walking him through derivatives and complex formulas. Now, with a borrowed laptop from school and family crowded in the living room, hes struggling to make school feel like, well, school. He has trouble falling asleep and finds himself going to bed later and later sometimes as late as 3 a.m. Assignments that would normally take me two hours or 30 minutes are now taking me days to complete. I just cant focus, he said. I dont have anyone giving me direction. Its just me reading and having to give myself the incentive to do the work. Its been three weeks since school districts across the state have closed their campuses as the novel coronavirus continues to sweep its way across California sending more than 6 million students home to navigate online, or distance, learning. What started as an emergency scramble to provide laptops and meals for a few weeks has dramatically shifted to a longer-haul transformation of public education. The kids are not going back to their classrooms this academic year, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who acknowledged the burden on households with the entire state under his stay-at-home order. For those who look to school for learning and social structure, the new reality is sinking in: There will be no school as we know it after spring break. No prom. No year-end field trips. No projects to present inside a familiar classroom. Navigating the three months left in the school year, leaders said, calls for patience and dedication from educators, self-motivation from already stressed-out students and swift actions from school districts typically mired in bureaucratic obstacles. Story continues "These arent normal circumstances. Its the most uncharted territory that weve been in," said State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. "We're stronger together and we can help all of our kids as we work together." Many are already rising to the challenge. Yet each step forward means moving past bureaucratic hurdles and cost constraints and taking on persistent problems of student poverty and stubborn achievement gaps. Every day, hundreds of thousands of grab-and-go meals are distributed across the region for students who might not otherwise have steady access to food. Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the nation, has already authorized the purchase of up to 200,000 computers for students to use at home and contracted with Verizon to connect households to the internet for free. In addition, a state partnership with Google is providing free Wi-Fi to 100,000 households. At the Robert F. Kennedy K-8 campus in Compton, Principal Cecilia Madrid has personally driven to homes to drop off computers when a student or parent said they were unable to pick one up themselves. She and her staff have so far handed out laptops to about 86% of the schools 727 students. Theyve gone to great lengths to make sure families get whatever help they need to connect to the internet. For those who still cant get online, the school has prepared and distributed hundreds of learning packets. We are really making sure that our students come first and we have everything here for our students to learn, she said. Theres no excuses. You dont have a device? OK, well get you one. You dont have Wi-Fi? OK, we have a packet. Shes proud of the work her teachers and staff are doing, but recognizes that there is now a heavy burden on parents and caregivers to ensure that children keep up. She worries that videos and online lessons can't make up for the one-on-one interactions that nurture students each day in a classroom. I can only wish and hope, she said, that everything is going to be OK. Following strict safe distance guidelines, students and their family members pick up laptops placed in the parking lot of Chaffey College in Chino on March 25. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Debra Duardo, superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said she is unsure whether every student will receive equal access to rigorous instruction over the next 10 weeks. We always have kids that are behind. Weve had a huge achievement gap that were trying to address," said Duardo, whose office has an advisory and oversight role, but no direct control over local school districts. "Will this make it even worse? Probably, in some situations. The L.A. County Office of Education hosts a daily call with the countys 80 superintendents, she said. Three weeks in, schools are still in Phase 1 teaching students virtually and through paper packets, training teachers to create effective online classrooms and getting families hooked up with devices and internet access. State funding has been provided for internet hot spots but with so many sold out and out of stock, she said, some families may still have to wait weeks to get online. Across the region, teachers and administrators have struggled with other barriers to access long wait times for installation, parents without legal status who fear sharing their information, and families that cant get permission from their landlords to install the necessary equipment. Skyrocketing unemployment is also bearing down on families, making home schooling even more worrisome for many parents and students. Overwhelmed. Unmotivated. Stressed. Stressed. Stressed. These were the words that popped up over and over again on social media and in conversations among students across Los Angeles during a recent virtual town hall with a Times reporter and Heart of Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization in MacArthur Park that provides free after-school programming for underserved youth. About two dozen students shared just how complicated distance learning can be. Many said that their homes were crowded enough already, and that school and after-school programs were their sanctuaries a place to escape. Others worried not only about their grades but about the well-being of their families. Some students have been using their own savings to get food for themselves and younger siblings to avoid stressing out family members. Screenshot of a word cloud exercise made by high school students in L.A. amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Sonali Kohli / Los Angeles Times) Closing these divides for students weighed on educators long before COVID-19 but in some ways, the crisis has accelerated efforts to help students on all fronts. At Los Angeles Unified, Supt. Austin Beutner is attempting an unprecedented leap for the massive district: ensuring that every student has a computer and high-speed internet access at home. Using emergency powers, he authorized spending of about $100 million for technology. School officials started last week with sobering statistics: about 15,000 high school students were missing from online sign-ins about 12.5%. By the end of the week, teachers and counselors had tracked down more than 6,500 of them, according to a senior district official. Principal Rafael Balderas stands outside Bell High School, which was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) At Bell High School, the initial distance-learning protocol was too demanding and cumbersome, said Principal Rafael Balderas. Students were supposed to log in and complete assignments for every subject, every day. A regular school day had never been that constricted, so the faculty regrouped and developed a new plan: Individual course assignments would be spaced out across two days. And students would have more flexibility on when to turn in work, with Fridays left as flexible as possible. Meanwhile, counselors and other support staff started the painstaking process of tracking down students who werent online to begin with. They combed through maps and searched for neighbors who lived near the most recent address on record. Unable to walk through neighborhoods and knock on doors, they followed what leads they had and worked the phones. Seniors were at the top of the list, Balderas said, because they might need to complete courses to graduate on time or remain eligible for college in the fall. As for the younger students, the district is starting to size up the challenges ahead, said Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, L.A. Unifieds chief academic officer. As we get younger and younger, theres more students that havent logged on, she said during an update to the Bond Oversight Committee. It wasnt part of their previous practice. Many of these students have been working with paper packets sent home with students or picked up later by parents. These stay-at-home adjustments have strained even the regions more well-resourced schools. At John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica, many students already have computers and internet access at home and the district is working to support those who dont. Teachers had started using Google classrooms in January, so students were familiar with interacting with teachers online. But many students confided to their teachers that they do not have a quiet place at home to work and have been struggling to focus. Others said they were distraught about not having a teacher to help them or just to talk to. Margie Mathews, who teaches English, worries about her students emotional well-being and the meaningful learning experiences that might now fall through the cracks. Where will it show up that this two months or four months caused them to miss something that they really needed to learn? she said. It could be detrimental to some of them and its heartbreaking to think about that. She recently turned the shutdown into a lesson asking some of her students to write an autobiography that starts with a reflection on their lives now. She and her colleagues have also figured out ways to streamline and teach the essentials without making things more stressful. Shes managed to engage almost all 147 of her students by now, but a handful are still missing. Im going to find them this week, she said, one way or another. After complaints about a lack of transparency regarding outbreaks of the coronavirus in long-term care facilities in New jersey, the state Department of Health is issuing a clear directive on how facilities must notify staff, residents and their families about COVID-19 cases. State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli made the announcement Saturday after NJ Advance Media reported families have been unable to get timely, accurate information from nursing homes caring for their loved ones. Some staff members also alleged they were kept in the dark about who had the virus even as they tried desperately to stop the spread. Persichilli said she is instructing nursing homes to notify all residents and staff members in person and in writing within 24 hours. Facilities must notify families or whoever is designated responsible for the resident via telephone, email or another form of communication within 24 hours, and must follow it up in writing within three days, she said. This should happen when a resident or staff member is a confirmed case or a person under investigation for coronavirus. At the states daily coronavirus press briefing, Persichilli said she will release the information to the public herself if the nursing homes dont comply. This morning I spoke with the CEO of the long-term care association to inform him that if we are not notified by close of business on Monday that every nursing home and assisted living facility has contacted family members and staff, we will release the names of the long-term care facilities with at least one COVID-19 case, she said. Jonathan Dolan, president & CEO of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, said he spoke with Perischilli and Gov. Phil Murphy Saturday and is pleased that they are sending a clear message about what is expected. They called, they asked us to help, and they are helping by their directive, Dolan said. He said he believes most nursing homes have been quickly notifying of COVID-19 cases. But we know some folks have not done it right and were going to make sure they do. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage As of Saturday, 148 long-term care facilities 39% of those in the state had at least one coronavirus case. The state has not said how many coronavirus cases are in long-term care facilities, but Dolan estimates it is around 350. At least six have had significant outbreaks, but Dolan said the state has assisted in testing and containing those outbreaks. Nine percent of the states 846 deaths have been connected to long-term care facilities. Dolan said hes seen some facilities do an exemplary job of keeping families informed, with daily updates and detailed explanations of all the isolation, cleaning and screening efforts underway. Those are examples of what right looks like. Due to the strain of hospitals and nursing homes, weve also seen examples that may not be the best, he said. He also noted that issues that can complicate or delay proper notification include patients with co-morbidities (two diseases affecting a patient at once), testing delays and many patients being taken off-site into hospitals. Mary Kyryakos, seen here in an old photo with seven of her 11 grandchildren, died March 31, 2020 at a Paramus nursing home.Provided Among those who contacted NJ Advance Media about communication problems with nursing homes was Rita Poggi, who only learned after her mothers death Tuesday that another resident had been taken to the hospital 10 days earlier and later died of the coronavirus. She suspects her mother died of the coronavirus given her symptoms, but said she was not tested and thus is not included in the states count. Laurie Brewer, New Jerseys Long-Term Care Ombudsman, said nearly every call her office has received in the past month has been coronavirus-related and largely about communication problems. Previously, the only state rules regarding notification of infectious disease outbreaks was a law passed after an adenovirus outbreak at a Wanaque nursing home killed 11 children. It went into effect in February and requires nursing homes to have as part of their outbreak response plans clear policies regarding notifying residents, staff and families about an outbreak. The directive Persichilli announced Saturday lays out specifics of what those notifications should look like. New Jersey has at least 34,124 cases of COVID-19 amid its 9 million population, including at least 846 deaths, officials announced Saturday. The death toll now is more than the 704 New Jersey residents who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 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. Staff writer Avalon Zoppo contributed to this report. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Research led by a team of Australian scientists at Monash University in Melbourne recently discovered that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug could kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus when applied to an infected cell culture within 48 hours and could stop it from developing in cell cultures. Ivermectin is an anti-parasite drug used to treat infections in the body that are caused by parasites. The researchers first tested the antiviral activity of the drug against SARS-CoV-2 by infecting cells with the virus and administering the Ivermectin. One of the lead researchers, Dr. Kylie Wagstaff of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, said that when they used the drug on coronavirus-infected cells on a dish in the laboratory, a single dose was able to stop the virus from replicating within 48 hours. There was also a significant reduction in the replication of the coronavirus within the first 24 hours, according to Wagstaff. It was around a 5,000-fold decrease in the coronavirus RNA, which indicates that the Ivermectin treatment led to the loss of substantially all viral material. There was no further reduction observed in the viral RNA at 72 hours. Scientists also did not identify any toxicity of the drug at the time points tested in their samples as well as in drug alone samples they parallelly tested. It is still unclear how Ivermectin works on the virus, but Wagstaff believes that the drug most likely stops the virus by dampening down the ability of the host cells to clear it. Ivermectin is an inhibitor of the COVID-19 causative virus as reported in the study, and its action towards SARS-CoV-2 is similar to its effect on other viruses, including HIV, dengue, Zika virus, and Influenza in vitro. Wagstaff stressed that the drug is safe for humans because of how it is widely used all around the globe to treat parasitic indications such as worms and lice. However, the next step is to figure out if the dosages identified as safe for humans can be used effectively on infected people as the study has only been conducted in vitro. The team of researchers perceives that the confirmation of the drug's mechanism against SARS-CoV-2 and the identification of the specific SARS-CoV-2 or host components impacted will be a focus future work in the team's laboratory. The researchers reported that once an effective antiviral for SARS-CoV-2 is developed, giving patients an antiviral in the early stages of their infection could significantly help limit the viral load. Early treatment of the virus could also prevent the severe progression of the disease and limit its transmission among people. The study also proposed that benchmarking testing of Ivermectin as soon as it is feasible against other potential antiviral medications for SARS-CoV-2 with different mechanisms of action is crucial. It is also critical that further evaluation and examination of multiple addition dosing regimens that replicates current approved usage of the drug in humans be conducted for possible benefit in COVID-19 patients. With the team's report on Ivermectin's effect and safety profile, they have concluded that the drug is worthy of further consideration and funding for pre-clinical and clinical trials. The volume of people applying to switch their mortgage for a better deal will increase by 20% or more over the next 4-6 weeks, according to a pfrediction by the Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors. The AIMA said that while thousands of would-be home buyers all over the country are desperately calling mortgage brokers and banks, wondering as to the status of their mortgage application or home purchase, a separate cohort of existing homeowners are making similar calls, to see if they can make some savings on their mortgage repayments by switching rates and/or lenders. Trevor Grant, Chairperson of AIMA, which represents mortgage brokers throughout the country, spoke of the opportunity this time presents for some mortgage holders, Every household in the country is now pretty much confined to their homes. People are using this as an opportunity to get their financial affairs in order. A mortgage is most peoples largest monthly outgoing so the savings that can be made by switching are generally larger than the combined benefit of switching utilities, mobile providers and health insurance providers. "Mortgage rates have reduced considerably in the last 6 months, with lowest market rate now standing at 2.2% and most lenders will cover any costs associated with switching. Our members are finding enquiries on switching are up now that people have more time. AIMA also said their broker members have also been inundated with calls over the last few weeks from purchasers concerned as to whether or not their house purchase will now close, or their mortgage will be approved, as a result of the COVID-19 national emergency. The mortgage advisory experts say that brokers and lenders are working to the best of their ability to ensure pending house sales get over the line, though they are likely to take longer. It also highlighted reports of how innovative ways of viewing homes online from estate agents and digital application submissions from lenders are helping matters. Mr. Grant said that despite the crisis many people are still hoping to continue with their plans for buying a new home. Home buyers are understandably worried about how the crisis is going to impact the purchase of their dream home. Many people were on the cusp of buying their first home, they need these deals to go through, and we are assuring them that everything is being done to ensure this happens as soon as possible. "Of course, there are now obstacles in our paths in so many ways, and when it comes to mortgages, we are endeavouring to help clients navigate these. So, by deploying employees to their homes to work remotely, and maintaining contact with banks and clients via email or phone, our members can continue to help their clients just as before. AIMA are also advising would-be homebuyers who had planned to submit mortgage applications for house purchase to continue to do so. They said that although delays mean approvals might take a little longer, they hope that by the time the mortgages applications are processed, homebuyers will be able to go view the properties they are looking to buy. Mr. Grant concluded: We appreciate that the financial situation of so many people has changed so suddenly, and we are united in the hope that they will change for the better just as quick, as soon as the crisis has passed. "But for others, the COVID 19 emergency might not have had a direct impact on their finances, and it is to these people we are saying, push ahead with your mortgage application plans, it is absolutely worth your while to do so to mitigate the effect of any delays that may ensue. "When it comes to those looking to switch, we appreciate it can be a little overwhelming with so many lenders claiming to offer the best deal. For this reason, a market-based mortgage broker can be a very useful resource they can act as an impartial option to find out which mortgage is best for each individuals circumstances and to help switchers through the process. The number of coronavirus cases in India has surged past 3500 with 505 new cases in the last 24 hours from across the country. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the country has gone up to 3,577 as on Sunday. So far, 83 people have died of the coronavirus. Among States, the tally in Maharashtra stood at 690. According to Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, till now Mumbai has reported 29 positive cases, Pune 17, PCMC 4, Ahmednagar 3, Aurangabad 2 among others. Here are the top developments of the day related to the pandemic. 1) Four new COVID-19 positive cases reported in Uttarakhand today, taking the total number of positive cases in the State to 26. Four persons have been treated and discharged till date, according to the Directorate of Health Services, Uttarakhand. 2) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called up two former Presidents -- Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil and had a discussion on COVID-19 related issues. He also called up two former Prime Ministers -- Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda -- to discuss COVID-19 situation. 3) The Prime Minister also called up leaders of various political parties like Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekar Rao, MK Stalin, Parkash Singh Badal and Mayawati. 4) Total coronavirus positive cases rose to 68 in Punjab after three more cases were reported today --- one each in Ludhiana, SAS Nagar and Barnala. The person found positive in Ludhiana had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. 5) No evidence of COVID-19 being airborne yet, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). 7) With 14 new cases in Kashmir division, the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir now at 106. Active cases in Kashmir -- 82 and Jammu -- 18, said Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Planning, UT of Jammu and Kashmir. 8) "There is an insufficiency of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and N95 masks. We are in touch with the Centre and other agencies for supply. Receiving 15,000 PPE kits today. Requested Centre for 5 lakh PPE kits received 4,000 only," said Bihar's Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar. 9) The total number of positive cases in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, till now is 122 after 9 more positive cases were found today, according to Indore Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Praveen Jadia. 10) Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan visits AIIMS dedicated centre for COVID19 in Jhajjar, Haryana. He said: "All 162 patients admitted here are in stable condition." 11) 86 COVID-19 positive cases reported in Tamil Nadu today out of which 85 had attended the Tableeghi Jamaat event at Markaz Nizamuddin, Delhi, according to Beela Rajesh Tamil Nadu Health Secretary. There are 571 COVID positive cases in Tamil Nadu out of which 522 cases are from the people who had attended the religious function in Delhi, she said. 12) The Congress party on Sunday posed nine questions to the Centre, demanding compensation to the family of those, who died after battling with the coronavirus. 13) 47 new coronavirus positive cases reported in Rajasthan today, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 253. 14) 8 new COVID-19 cases reported in Kerala, which include 6 imports and 2 contact cases, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. 15) "PPE kits are imported. So there was a shortage initially in the country but the government started taking action in this regard from January. Domestic manufacturers have started production. We have also started procuring PPE kits from other countries," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secy, Health Ministry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Express News Service CHENNAI: All houses under the Chennai Corporation limits will be inspected for persons with COVID-19 symptoms continuously for the next 90 days. For the exercise, which would begin on Sunday (April 5), the city would be divided into units comprising 75-100 houses. The decision was taken at a meeting attended by Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani to review measures to combat COVID-19 infection across the State, at the Ripon Building on Saturday. Around 16,000 corporation staff will be deployed to check the 10 lakh-odd homes in the city to identify infected persons, a press release said. For regular cough and cold, the corporation staff themselves may provide treatment advise, but persons with severe symptoms will be referred to government hospitals, the release added.The staff will be provided a salary of Rs 15,000 in addition to essential safety gear. Orders to procure 11.5 masks have already been issued. Massive drive Over the next 90 days, all houses under the Chennai Corporation limits will be inspected The city would be divided into units comprising 75-100 houses Around 16,000 corporation staff will be deployed WATCH | Coronavirus: Chennai corporation staff risks their lives to keep you safe Amid massive nationwide tracing efforts of those who attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event organised by Tablighi Jamaat, sources on Sunday said that 8 members from Malaysia were intercepted by Delhis Indira Gandhi International (IGI) immigration department. Sources said that they tried to board Malindo Air relief flight bound for Malaysia. They will be handed over to the Police, immigration sources added. READ | Explained: Here's how power system will be managed during lights-out on Sunday Tablighi Jamaat had in mid-March organised the Markaz event in Delhi's Nizamuddin mosque and hosted over 2000 people, from India and abroad, amid Coronavirus outbreak. After attending the meeting, which took place prior to the nationwide lockdown, many of the attendees returned to other parts of the country. READ | Nizamuddin Markaz: Delhi Police files FIR against Maulana Saad, others of Tablighi Jamaat The Nizamuddin West area emerged as a hotspot of COVID 19 spread, days 24 people who attended the congregation tested positive, leading to a nationwide tracing of the attendees. Earlier, issuing a statement on behalf of Nizamuddin Markaz Tablighi Jamaat's chief Maulana Saad, his lawyer said that he has not gone underground and urged the attendees to help the administration. As per updates by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday, there are 3030 active coronavirus cases in India, while 213 are cured/discharged/migrated people and 77 deaths have been reported. Maharashtra has maximum number of cases - 490, followed by Tamil Nadu at 485 cases and Delhi at 445. READ | 30% of India's total COVID-19 cases are linked to Tablighi Jamaat: Health Ministry 30% rise of COVID cases rise due to Jamaat attendees There has been a spike in number of cases in the country after the attendees of the Markaaz went across and came in contact with several others. As per health ministry, at least 1,023 confirmed cases of infection have been found to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, but massive efforts by various authorities have led to nearly 22,000 people linked to the religious grouping and their primary contacts getting quarantined. Overall, tens of thousands are quarantined but their overall number could not be ascertained. The Tablighi-linked infections, found across 17 states, including Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, showed that almost 30% of them are from "one particular place where we could not sort of understand it and manage it", Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said on Saturday. READ | Nizamuddin Markaz chief Maulana Saad issues statement: 'Not underground, framing response' A departure gate at the Incheon International Airport is vacant on March 9, as the number of passenger declines amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul The number of air passengers in South Korea fell to a record low last month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, data showed Sunday, as countries around the globe impose lockdowns and restrict travel and people shun travel. The number of air passengers stood at 1.74 million in March, according to industry data, marking the first time that the figure has fallen below 2 million since the country started to record such statistics from 1997. The passenger number was 10.62 million in January but was halved to 5.5 million in February when the country reported the wide spread of the novel coronavirus. South Korea reported its first COVID-19 patient on Jan. 20. In the fourth week of March, the number of international air passengers stood at some 78,500, compared with 1.73 million a year earlier. The number of passengers using Incheon International Airport, the country's gateway, fell to below the 10,000 level for the first time since its operation in 2001. Local airlines are estimated to have suffered at least 6.45 trillion won (US$5.22 billion) in losses due to the drop in passengers and flight reductions in the first quarter of the year. In the face of higher fixed costs in the segment, local airlines may run out cash and cash equivalents. Last week, South Korean airlines urged the government to take immediate action to help the financially troubled airline industry stay afloat amid the growing coronavirus impact. The Korea Civil Aviation Association (KCA) asked the government to offer massive low-rate loans, payment guarantees for airlines' corporate bonds and steep tax cuts to airlines as the airlines' self-rescue measures won't be of a big help in the unprecedented crisis. "The airline industry is collapsing, with 840,000 jobs in airlines, tourism and other related businesses at risk," the association said in a letter sent to the transport ministry, finance ministry and the financial authorities. The association warned that the airlines could go bankrupt if the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs, though many airline employees are taking turns staying home without pay or at reduced pay, with executives returning some of their wages. South Korea's nine airlines have suspended most of their flights on international routes as more than 180 countries and territories imposed entry restrictions against passengers from South Korea. They are two full-service carriers Korean Air Lines Co., Asiana Airlines Inc. and seven low-cost carriers Jeju Air Co., Jin Air Co., Air Busan Co., Air Seoul Inc., Eastar Jet, T'way Air Co. and Fly Gangwon. The association said a whopping 900 billion won worth of fixed costs are piling up on a daily basis for airlines, and they face 5.3 trillion won worth of debts maturing by December. Last month, the government unveiled an emergency relief package worth 100 trillion won to help smaller companies hit hard by the virus and stabilize financial markets. The Financial Services Commission said Friday it is closely monitoring the airline industry and is in consultations with the transport ministry over necessary steps. (Yonhap) The health and economic impact of the deadly and fast-spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has received significant public attention. In the midst of the pandemic, a number of personal and public health precautionary measures have been suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other public health experts to reduce person-to-person spread and ultimately, contain the virus. One of such protocols is social or physical distancing. Social distancing, according to WHO, describes a set of non-pharmaceutical measures that are taken to prevent the spread of an infectious disease by maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other. Similarly, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains social distancing to mean remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining physical distance of approximately 6 feet or 2 meters from others, when possible, to forestall the spread of communicable diseases such as COVID-19. In a bid to enforce a strict compliance of the social distancing protocol and limit the spread of the virus, many governments around the globe have imposed lockdowns, stay-at-home, shelter-in-place and curfews on its citizens. Fundamentally, the call is for all of us to remain apart from one another physically, and to act as if you have the virus and approach other people as if they have it too. It is a call for us to actively and purposefully maintain a strict personal space around ourselves to the extent that we should feel uncomfortable and threatened when others intrude. Though the call for social distancing is a good one and promises to be one of the most effective non-pharmaceutical ways to contain the spread of the virus, there are many psychosocial injuries that the social distancing compliance is likely to cause to the people of Africa and their communal norms of life. The focus of this article is to highlight some of the psychosocial pains of social distancing enforcement in Africa. I will particularly discuss how, in the face of African communal norms, the strict observance of social distancing may affect peoples sense of being/personhood and spirituality. The concept social conjures much broader and deeper meaning in Africa than its everyday use in psychological research, particularly in western societies. In western scholarship, the term social is generally used to refer to more atomistic individuals acting together, while society or community is used to mean the aggregated sum of atomistic individuals comprising it. In contrast, the African view of social and society or community refers to a thoroughly fused collective. Thus, social conveys the African communal sense of interdependence and belonging. While many westerners are likely to have much less psychosocial problems complying with the social distancing measures, because of their daily practice of personal space, many Africans are likely to find social distancing compliance a huge challenge because of the near absence of personal space in their everyday communal life. For example, while westerners are more likely to congregate in public settings such as shopping centers, movie theaters, stadiums and religious temples and yet maintain significant personal space and avoid hand-shaking, particularly with strangers or less intimate persons, Africans are more likely not only to congregate in these public places and maintain close contact with others, but also, they are likely to shake many hands, hug people tightly, including friends, relatives and sometimes even strangers, and maintain small to no personal space. This is because connectedness of people in Africa to others and the community is not a value belief about how things ought to be, but instead, it is an ontological experience about how things are. Communal life is a matter of culture and survival in Africa. Thus, given the African communitarian living and embedded interdependence in public spaces, an imposition of a lockdown and social distancing protocol is likely to be resisted, downplayed and/or easily forgotten by people when they have the chance to interact in public spaces such as market places and on public transport/buses (trotro). A strictly enforced social distancing protocol may thus engender psychosocial pain among the citizenry the pain of not being allowed to freely do in public, the things that bring psychological and communal satisfaction to the individual. One such area of communal life that social distancing compliance is likely to affect in Africa is peoples spirituality. Research suggests that people in Africa do not live interdependently and derive belonging, warmth, respect, value, meaning and purpose, but they also desire to experience a sense of transcendence by maintaining harmony and unity with an ultimate being. Consciousness in Africa operates in three overlapping areas people in Africa are self-conscious, socially-conscious and cosmically-conscious. In all aspects of their lives, Africans feel at home within their lives, in their relationship with others and with cosmic dimension of being. Thus, connectedness serves as the glue that holds the self, others, nature and God in a cosmological balance. As long as this balance is maintained, in the worldview of the African, there is wellness and mental health. This means that a strict enforcement of social distancing measures is likely to have impactful psychosocial consequences for peoples religious and spiritual life. Though spirituality is supposed to be an individuals private belief system, in Africa, spirituality is a public activity. For example, it is not uncommon to find religious people in the parks, classrooms, bus terminals, mountain tops and other public spaces publicly and loudly proclaiming their faith and spirituality in the form of preaching and praying. Social distancing means such people will not be able to do this for some time. The pain of not being able to appear in public spaces to proclaim ones belief, and to experience a sense of transcendence by maintaining harmony and unity with an ultimate being, may have psychosocial and mental health consequences such as perceived lack of control over ones life, anxiety, decreased sense of spirituality, loneliness and depression. This may account for the reason for which some religious leaders and their congregants in Ghana are reported to have defied the imposition of restrictions order to congregate in public spaces for worship. Such reactionary behaviours may represent some of the ways individuals adopt to regain control over their lives. Another area that the social distancing measures may disrupt in Africa is peoples sense of being (personhood) as well as their sense of community and belonging. Psychological and philosophical scholarship in Africa have noted the important conceptual distinction between a human beinga biological entityand a persona social, moral and metaphysical entity. In the African worldview, a person is defined with reference to his/her community. One of Africas prolific scholars, Professor John Samuel Mbiti, aptly sums up the person-community relationship in Africa in a statement: I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am. In Southern Africa, the concept of Ubuntu is traditionally employed to describe the person-community relationship and express the African philosophy of I am because we are. Ubuntu describes the relational nature of personhood and humanity towards others knowing ones fellow human beings and taking a keen interest in their well-being. There is a pervasive psychological awareness in Africa that a person is a person because of his/her inextricable and dialogical connection with others in the community. This implies that there is a social and moral component of African sense of personhood. In the African worldview, an individual can be a human being without being (becoming) a person or attaining personhood. As Professor Kwame Gyekye persuasively argues, there are certain fundamental norms and ideals to which the conduct of a human being, if he is a person, ought to conform in Africa. One of such essential norms and ideals is the African sense of belonging and communal life. The African sense of personhood and belonging to the community is so ubiquitous and significant that the primary unit of African consciousness can be said to revolve around communal relations and interdependence. Thus, the imposition of restrictions on everyday communal activities such as hand-shake, close contact interactions, social and public congregations, interpersonal face-to-face conversations, religious activities and family visitations may significantly negatively impact Africans sense of belonging and community, as well as their psychological well-being and mental health. Communal life in Africa is more than a culture; it is also a matter of survival. People need to take public transport and mingle with other passengers in often packed buses to work, and move in crowded cities and market places. The highly contagious nature and ravaging effects of COVID-19 makes social distancing an inevitable part of the African life. However, the communal culture of African people makes it incumbent on African governments to move beyond the imposition of legal restrictions and social distancing orders to concentrate its effort on intensive and far-reaching psychological education that teaches people alternative (positive) ways of life in this crisis moment. These may include advising people to check up on friends and family regularly so they can keep social contact, speak with them on the phone, send text via SMS and social media messaging platforms throughout the day and make video calls, if they can, to ensure that they are not getting too isolated The media should also avoid sensational journalism, infodemic and misinformation, and rather focus its attention on educating the masses not only on the need to observe social distancing, but also and most importantly, the temporariness of the social distancing protocol and the collective health benefits it offers to the African community. Learning a new normal has never been easy, but with time and right information, things will get better. When people are well informed and/or have the right information regarding why they should act in a particular way, they are more likely to make sacrifices and adjust their daily lives with less or no psychological consequences. Let us all do our part to contain the spread of COVID-19 while reducing the associated psychosocial pain of social distancing. Stephen Baffour Adjei, Ph.D. Social and Human Development Psychologist Lecturer, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty of Education and Communication Sciences University of Education, Kumasi Campus Email: [email protected] South Africa: COVID-19 cases rise to 1 655, 11 deaths Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced that as of Sunday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 1 655, with 11 confirmed deaths. The Minister said this is an increase of 70 cases from the previous update issued on Saturday. Gauteng remains the province with the highest number of cases with 704, followed by the Western Cape with 454 cases and KwaZulu-Natal with 246 confirmed cases. The Free State has 87, Eastern Cape 31, Limpopo 19, Mpumalanga 18, North West 11, Northern Cape 8 and there are 77 unallocated cases. The Minister said the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted to date is 56 873, an increase of 2 936 from those reported on Saturday. Mkhize conveyed his and governments condolences to the families of the deceased. It was is with sadness that we report yet another two deaths related to COVID-19. This takes the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in South Africa to 11, he said. The first deceased patient is an 82-year-old female who was admitted to ICU on the 29th of March 2020. She had presented with fever, short breath, body pains, dry cough and sore throat. She also had comorbidities that included hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol. The second deceased patient is an 86-year-old male who was admitted to hospital on the 26th of March 2020, with a diagnosis of bronchopneumonia and respiratory distress. He had an underlying condition of chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD). The Minister thanked the healthcare workers who were treating the deceased patients. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. As Bollywood celebrities are staying at home in view of the 21-day-long government-imposed lockdown, actor Vicky Kaushal on Sunday tried a hand at cooking and managed to perfectly flip an omelette. The 31-year-old actor took to Instagram on Sunday and shared a video showcasing his close-to-perfect omelette flipping skills. In the video, Vicky is seen cooking an omelette in a frying pan, which he flips with the spatula without letting it fall apart. The 'Uri: The Surgical Strike' actor captioned the post as, "Make way for the latest entrant in the elite club of #TheOmletteFlippers! #chotikhushiyaan." Lately, the 'Raazi' actor has been updating his fans on how he has been beating the boredom during lockdown by doing household chores. On Friday, the actor shared a video cleaning a fan with the cloth. Vicky has also announced that he will donate a sum of Rs 1 crore to help the government deal with the crisis situation. "While I'm blessed enough to be seated with my loved ones in the comforts of my home, there are many who are not as fortunate. In this time of crisis, I humbly pledge to contribute an amount of Rs 1 crore to PM-CARES Fund and the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund. We are in this together and we'll win this together. Let us all do our bit for a healthier and stronger future. Jai Hind. #IndiaFightsCorona," he had shared on Instagram. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump warned Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" number of coronavirus deaths in the coming days, ahead of a rare speech by Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday aimed at rallying hard-hit Britain. Global deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic have soared past 60,000, with Europe continuing to bear the brunt of the virus which has left roughly half the planet confined at home. There are now more than 1.2 million confirmed cases across the globe, and around 65,000 people have died since the virus first emerged in China late last year, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Trump said the United States was entering "a time that's going to be very horrendous" with "some really bad numbers." "This will probably be the toughest week," he said at the White House. "There will be a lot of death." At the same time, the president stressed the US -- where infections have surpassed 300,000 -- cannot remain shut down forever. "Mitigation does work but again, we're not going to destroy our country," he said. "I've said it from the beginning -- the cure cannot be worse than the problem." Over 45,000 global deaths have been in Europe, with Britain reporting a new daily high in fatalities, taking the overall toll to 4,300 out of nearly 42,000 cases. Queen Elizabeth II is to make a rare, "deeply personal" speech on Sunday to urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus, and personally thank frontline healthcare workers. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge," she will say, according to extracts released Saturday. The pandemic has hammered the global economy, with businesses hit hard as people are forced to stay indoors to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Governments have rolled out massive, unprecedented stimulus programs to ease the pain, but economists have warned that the crisis could worsen poverty levels with millions of jobs lost. Poor economies, such as Iraq, are struggling, with charities and volunteers rallying to provide food to the needy. "This is more dangerous than Daesh," said Iraqi volunteer Mustafa Issa, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group that swept through a third of the country in 2014. - Tide turning in Italy? - At the Vatican, Pope Francis is expected to livestream his Palm Sunday Mass. St. Peter's Square is usually packed by Catholic faithful for the occasion, but this year, it will be empty because of coronavirus containment measures. There was, however, some encouraging news from Europe over the weekend. Worst-hit Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care virus cases drop for the first time -- from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994 on Saturday. Even some of the most cautious Italian health officials seized on the figures as evidence that the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II. "This is a very important data point," said civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli, adding that it "allows our hospitals to breathe." The daily rise in new infections across Italy has also slowed. It reported 681 new deaths on Saturday, down from a peak of almost 1,000 just over a week ago. Spain, which is under a near-total lockdown, saw a second successive daily fall in coronavirus-related deaths with 809 fatalities. The total number of deaths in Spain now stands at 11,947, second only to Italy. Although the number of new cases also slowed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extension of the country's lockdown until April 25. At a field hospital in Madrid set up at a conference centre, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged. One of them was 59-year-old builder Eduardo Lopez who gave a "10/10" rating to the staff who cared for him "with tenderness and a great dose of humanity." - 'We need you' - New York state, the US epicenter, saw a record 630 deaths in a single day and Governor Andrew Cuomo warned the worst was yet to come. The state has recorded a total of 3,565 deaths. Cuomo also cautioned that already strained hospitals were not prepared. New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. "Anyone who's not already in this fight, we need you," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Trump said 1,000 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, would be deployed to help in the city, which he described as "the hottest of all the hot spots." - U-turn on masks - Several Western countries including the US, Germany and France have in recent days encouraged the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces. The U-turn has angered and confused some citizens, and spurred a flurry of online tutorials for DIY masks. The advice came after some studies suggested the new coronavirus can be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing. US authorities said wearing a simple homemade mask or scarf could help stem rocketing infection rates. The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give "a false sense of security," leading people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing. burs-qan/fox Europe has suffered the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 45,000 deaths so far US President Donald Trump warned Americans to expect a "tough week" ahead Worst-hit Italy saw intensive care virus patients drop for the first time this weekend A delivery man leaves a restaurant with food for health workers in Barcelona France has been transferring patients by helicopter and high-speed train to relieve overwhelmed regions President Donald Trump has described New York City as the 'hottest of all the hot spots' in the coronavirus outbreak New York City has appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services BENZIE COUNTY Everything changed for area restaurants on March 16, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an order limiting restaurants to carry-out and delivery orders only and temporarily closing all bars and brewpubs to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Shortly after, Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order on March 23, closing all "non essential businesses" and requesting people stay put unless they absolutely have to leave the house for work, groceries or medical appointments. While many area restaurants tried to offer take out, for some, it wasn't a sustainable effort. Dinghy's Resturant and Bar was one of those restaurants that tried take out, but eventually, owner Steve Christian said he had to make the decision to close the restaurant entirely for several reasons. "It was a tough decision to make, but I think it was the right decision," Christian said. "Our issue is we are not structured to do a high volume of takeout. One person answers the phone, takes the order and enters it into the point of sales system. While they're doing that, somebody else calls. They can't answer the phone and take another order while entering the previous one into the POS. People could't get through." Christian said handling take out would require additional staffing, and finding staff to work in the current situation was already difficult. "With the threat of COVID-19, staff were reluctant to come into work," he said. "They were concerned about catching the virus. A lot of our good, loyal customers were coming up from down state, and we were getting a lot of visitor customers over the weekend. Some are getting ready to move up here. We love them dearly, and were glad to see them, but during the stay at home order, there was some concern among the staff. " Christian said the executive orders and the COVID-19 pandemic has essentially killed the business for now. "There is no revenue, but we still have to pay the heat bill and the electricity bill," Christian said. "Fortunately the staff can make a claim for unemployment benefits. I'm going to try to raise some money on GoFundMe to help them out. Many live on tip income. They have bills too." Christian said he opened the coolers and freezers to his staff to let them take what they could use at home. "When we open again, we're starting from scratch," Christian said. "I am concerned about the employees and vendors and customers. It is a tough time. We just sit here and wait. It will take a long time to settle out. Machines are off, heat is down, we're doing everything we can." Rick Schmidt, co-owner of Stormcloud Brewing Company, also made the decision to shut down take out orders for now. "It all boiled down to the way takeout food was initially being handled and the restrictions from the state were such that you could still have people in the building, five at a time. People could come in and take food to go," he said. "That changed over the next two weeks. The right thing to do was close and re-evaluate and re-tool the process for offering take out in the future by changing the way we do business." Schmidt said having to ask staff to work when they're being told not to leave their homes was a hard thing to do, even though the staff members working didn't mind coming to work. "They wanted the hours, but still, is this the right message to send to employees and customers that it is OK for us to do business, but the government and the rest of world is telling everybody to stay at home?" he said. Schmidt also said there was some concern as people were coming into the county from elsewhere. Schmidt said depending on the governor's guidance, Stormcloud may re-open for take out. "At least for us in norther Michigan, the economic impact, while monumental, comes at a time when revenue is lower than the rest of year. However, if this continues through summer, at the same or structured reduction, the conversation is going to get a lot harder the longer it lasts through the summer," said Schmidt. "I feel bad for staff. State and federal governments have provided some level of unemployment compensation, but it doesn't cover it all. I wish we could pay our employees." In the meantime, the production facility is still making beer for retail sales, but with reduced staffing and a slower pace. In Beulah, Oliver Roberts, co-owner of Five Shores Brewing, said they're still offering take out. The newly opened brewery is offering curb-side pick up. "Our whole reason, the whole reason for staying open is so there is a business to come back to when things eventually normalize," Roberts said. "Everyone is probably experiencing a decline, and we're happy with the support we have continued to see from the community." Roberts said Five Shores' employees have been laid off, and it is just he and the general manager making take out. There is also some beer production, including some small batches. "We're doing a lot of precautions to protect customers and ourselves,"' Roberts said. "There's a drive up table we put the orders on when people drive up. We're doing our part to prevent the spread (of COVID-19) and still provide something people seem to want still." Other restaurants, those that already did a fair amount of take out, are faring better. "Historically, this is a really slow time of year, but we're doing just fine," said Andrew Miller, owner of Papanos Pizza, in Beulah. "Our numbers are up from last year. Our business is up a little over last year." Miller said it is because the business is already designed for take out. "We'll take things out to people's car," he said. "We're already prepared for this. We're just increasing our rounds of cleaning. If somebody hands us cash, we clean everything. We're cleaning the whole time. We're wearing more gloves and cleaning more stuff. It works out pretty well." Jason Kolehmainen, co-owner of the Frankfort A&W, said he was surprised at the number of people coming to his restaurant for take out. "We're a lot slower than we normally would be, but with the take out business, I feel like we can keep our employees employed. I don't want to give that up," he said. He also said people have been appreciative of the ability to pick up food. "Normally, businesses are open to make money, but now it feels like more than that," Kolehmainen said. "We're keeping people employed and giving people food. However, Kolehmainen said it was tough having to decide between staying open and keeping people coming to work, or closing down. "In the end, there are a few reasons we feel we should stay open," he said. "The governor is encouraging us to stay open and be able to provide food for people, and we feel everything is safe. Also, as long as our customers are expressing gratitude, we feel we're doing the right thing." POWELL In the gravel parking lot of Powells American Dream Drive-In, Elsie Wagler waited patiently in the passenger seat of a white Chevy pickup, ready to hear the word of God. It was a beautiful day in the farming community two dozen miles south of the Montana border with temperatures in the 50s, clear blue skies and the morning sun glistening off the frosted tips of the Absaroka Range. The trip out was a new routine for Wagler, who had long ago grown accustomed to spending her Sundays among the pews of Trinity Lutheran Church in nearby Cody. Then last month, Wagler and religious people across the country were told their churches would no longer allow them to visit as part of the global effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. It was a necessary decision the most active attendees at church, according to Pew research, are often older and therefore more susceptible to the virus. But it was a devastating one nonetheless for people who visit places of worship not only for religion, but community. I thought that was the main thing they shouldnt have taken away, Wagler said. But I knew we had to do it. We just missed seeing all of our Christian brothers and sisters. So did the leaders of her church. Shortly after announcing she would be closing the church in mid-March, Kay Wittman, the pastor of Trinity Lutheran, began to wonder whether alternatives were available to bring her flock back together. So Wittman looked to a Powell drive-in movie theater that, since opening in 1949, has served a similar role in the community, hosting everything from church groups to prom nights. Right now, people want to be together, pray together, sing together, hear a good word, Wittman told the Cody Enterprise at the time. And come together they did. Last Sunday morning, Wittman stood on the bed of that Chevrolet, a congregation of dozens of vehicles before her with engines idling in the bright Wyoming sun. Word had spread quickly of her socially-isolated services. Among the regulars, several new faces could be seen peering out from behind their tinted windshields, the windows cracked open only enough to feel the breeze while the scripture crackled through the vintage, monotone speakers spaced a car lengths apart up and down the aisles of the open-air church. The change in venue may be inventive and unorthodox. But for the parishioners themselves, Wittmans service could be seen as a welcome respite following weeks of uncertainty: a return to some normalcy amid an unprecedented public health crisis. We dont need to be inside a church building or sanctuary to be at church, Wittmans fellow pastor, Donna Putney the pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Powell said in her sermon Sunday. Hopefully, the majority of what our churches do has nothing to do with being within the walls of the building. Hopefully you see church everywhere you go and in everything you do. The need for normalcy For Rock Springs Catholic David Fedrizzi, the weekly trip to mass had been one of the few certainties in a lifetime of tumult. As a young boy growing up in Wyoming, Fedrizzi, now 83, lived through the rationing policies and uncertainty of a world war. He recalled his family being unable to purchase a car until 1948, the gas rationing, and a day when he, like dozens of his classmates, rushed down to the schoolyard like a herd of animals for a chance to get one chocolate bar from a case of 24. I think theres been probably two generations now that has no idea what that was like, he said. There was no guns and butter during World War II, is what Im saying. There was only guns. Later, he lived through the draft and the chaos of a country fighting to redefine itself he being one of many people seeking certainty and normalcy at a time where normalcy was hard to find. But throughout it all, and for all the uncertainty, Fedrizzi at least had church, something stable to return to in times of doubt and of crisis. Every Sunday like clockwork, he and the nearly 200 members of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Rock Springs would come forth to worship in the same tranquil setting they always had, little mind to whatever chaos raged in the world beyond the churchyard. Beyond going to the church and going to the movie theater, going to school classes that was your social life, Fedrizzi said. The draft required so much attention and people leaving all the time by the dozen, you know that you didnt think too much about doing anything else. For millennia, religion has served as a way for people to cope with fear and uncertainty in times of crisis, whether through war, fiscal hardship or even pandemics. Researchers who have studied the connections between pandemics and religion throughout history have found that, consistently, faiths can often be shaped and defined by their role in galvanizing a community against shared hardships. One of the strongest examples was exhibited in a recent study of how Christians in the East African nation of Malawi coped with the fallout from the AIDS epidemic, in part due to a differing perception of the disease among its members and the religions heritage of healing. The nature of the COVID-19 outbreak, however, has fundamentally altered how worshipers like Fedrizzi can interact with their church, physically barring them from connecting with their faith community. Many have turned to social media, using platforms such as Facebook to not only broadcast services, but to allow individuals to visit with one another virtually. Others have had to find other creative ways to keep their members engaged. In addition to posting video of his services online, Dan Odell, the pastor at Caspers Christ United Methodist Church, has weighed the possibilities of implementing something like a drive-through communion, and said that he has actually been typing out and mailing copies of his sermon to some of his older parishoners who lack access to a computer, a way of reclaiming old technologies to bridge the needs of one generation to anothers. Its been a challenge, you know, just staying in contact with folks, he said. But weve been sort of looking to the past as well as looking to the future as to how we can meet this challenge. So far, Fedrizzi hasnt allowed coronavirus to separate him from his faith. While Sunday masses have long been televised, on Tuesday mornings Fedrizzi and his brother Fred who lives with him come together to say a novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. On Sunday afternoons, the pair say a patriotic rosary for members of government state, local and federal officials included as they work to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. We dont feel as if our religion has abandoned us, nor have we abandoned our religion, he said. Staying connected Faith can provide understanding and wisdom to make sense of difficult situations. But it is often the people in those communities that offer the strength and support needed to weather the storm. The spread of COVID-19, however, has forced leaders of all faiths to be physically distant from their congregations. Not just because the state has told them to, but out of a genuine concern for their members safety. Saving a life takes priority over all other religious commandments and obligations, Larry Moldo, the rabbi of Cheyennes Mount Sinai Synagogue, wrote in an email to the Star-Tribune. If cancelling all group activities including services can save lives, then staying at home is a religious act. Relying on doctors and other medical professionals to help in the healing process is also a religious obligation. As disruptive as minimizing the spread of Covid-19 is to the regular way the Synagogue operates, every aspect of it is not only medically sound, it is also a religious requirement, he added. In the time of coronavirus, tangible support networks still exist. Food banks, charities and other programs run by the states churches, temples and synagogues havent ceased to exist just because times have gotten tougher. People still need to eat, after all, and people still need to be clothed, no matter how difficult the logistics become. If faith is persist, the people practicing that faith must as well something that has been a key focus of religious leaders as they guide their members through the crisis. Catholics do ritual, Bill Hill, a Catholic priest in Rock Springs, said in an interview. Helping people to engage the ritual is a way to help them to pray. Thats why weve switched over to providing Sunday masses on Facebook Live because to help people to pray in that liturgy is a very profound way that people interact with God. Were just inviting people to stay with some of the rhythms of the life of the church, he added. Its Lent right now, preparation for Easter. And so just trying to hold on to some of those things that do root us, even if we cant gather and engage the liturgy in a church building. A deeper appreciation of life But facing down what could potentially become months of separation, faith leaders across Wyoming are now contemplating how to maintain a long-term sense of community in a time when they can no longer be together. In a recent survey of its membership, the Wyoming Interfaith Network which represents practitioners of all faiths across the Equality State asked religious leaders what religious concepts or spiritual practices gave them the strength to cope with the crisis, and what within their faith communities was keeping members grounded in compassion, love, hope or duty. Despite the differences in each religion, the answers had much in common. Laramie resident Katrina Bradley, of the Bahai faith, said that the crisis has made her acutely aware of the oneness of mankind, and how we all need to rely on each other and put others first. Others shared passages from leaders within their own faiths, offering their own universal messages of hope. Our hope with this is to inspire and give hope to each other in this time of fear and suffering, Jordan Bishop, executive director of the Wyoming Interfaith Network, wrote in an email. Weve been posting these on social media and through our email chain. Weve received responses from Christians, Jews and Bahaisall offering beautiful notes on hope that they are gathering from their religious traditions. For many, that hope, and the desire to return to a sense of normalcy, is what matters most. As the cars and trucks began leaving the American Dream Drive-In after the March 29 service, Wittman and Putney stood together in the sun, discussing the preparations needed to be made for the next weeks mass. It was Palm Sunday, and both were wondering how to act out some of the rituals of the day: namely, the parade of palms representing the arrival of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem. The solution was simple: they would distribute the palms and allow people to drive around in their cars with their palms aloft. It was another means of adopting to the new normal created by the virus. As the virus spreads, faith leaders are looking to maintain some sense of ritual in daily life. Whether its a service broadcast over social media, a drive-through communion or the honk of a car horn when its time to wish peace to ones neighbor, people are often looking for the same thing. They want something unshakable in a time of uncertainty. Theres a great author, I cant think of his name right now, but he wrote a book as a family who is struggling with cancer, Wittman said after service. But they said, in times like this, that what you long for is normal. Usually, normal is the thing were so bored with, and were so ready to do anything to stir up and change normal. But right now, you know, thats what we long for to not have to think about going to the grocery store, to rile ourselves up every time we go outside. I think well all come out of this with a deeper appreciation for a life that is more simple, just because were not always trying to get away from that feeling of normal. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Nikki Bella showed off her baby belly as she got into her old WWE uniform and danced up a storm for Instagram this weekend. The 36-year-old, who is due in June, happens to be pregnant at the same time as her identical twin sister and fellow WWE fighter Brie Bella. In her latest Instagram video Nikki did a dance the Bella sisters' old WWE theme song You Can Look But You Can't Touch sung by Kim Sozzi. Looking fab: Nikki Bella showed off her baby belly as she got into her old WWE uniform and danced up a storm for Instagram this weekend She uploaded the dance video in honor of WrestleMania which is airing Saturday and Sunday night after being filmed in late March. 'Stay Fearless!' she wrote in a caption in a nod to her catchphrase, which is so popular Nikki has 'Fearless' written on her uniform top. Her latest update comes less than two months after it emerged that Nikki and Brie are both being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame. Hoofing it: The 36-year-old, who is due in June, happens to be pregnant at the same time as her identical twin sister and fellow WWE fighter Brie Bella Fancy free: In her latest Instagram video Nikki did a dance the Bella sisters' old WWE theme song You Can Look But You Can't Touch sung by Kim Sozzi On brand: She uploaded the dance video in honor of WrestleMania which is airing Saturday and Sunday night after being filmed in late March Both of the Bella twins, who hail from San Diego, California, announced last March that they would be retiring from professional wrestling. Nikki is expecting a baby with her Dancing With The Stars beau Artem Chigvintsev, while Brie is pregnant by her husband Daniel Bryan. Brie and Daniel, who is still wrestling with the WWE, are already the proud parents of a two-year-old daughter called Birdie. Terrific: 'Stay Fearless!' she wrote in a caption in a nod to her catchphrase, which is so popular Nikki has 'Fearless' written on her uniform top Garlanded: Her latest update comes less than two months after it emerged that Nikki and Brie are both being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame Details: Nikki is expecting a baby with her Dancing With The Stars beau Artem Chigvintsev, while Brie is pregnant by her husband Daniel Bryan The two couples and Birdie have all gone into lockdown together as the family rides out the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Artem revealed on a recent episode of the twins' Bellas Podcast that he would prefer that Nikki had a girl and would be 'more nervous' raising a son. The Soviet-born hoofer explained that he has 'danced all my life with girls' with the result 'I know how to take care of that and I know how to be with the girl.' 1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard One of the running lines from President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers throughout the entire coronavirus ordeal has been that Democrats are focused on politics or scoring political wins against him, using the crisis as a means to do so. Trump himself has questioned Democrats motives from the beginning remember him calling COVID-19 the partys new hoax against him? but has done so recently as well. In a tweet he issued on April 2, Trump said of Democratic governors that they had insatiable appetites & are never satisfied due to the fact that they continued to ask for more medical supplies and life-saving devices. Politics? Trump added in parenthesis after making this observation. Requests for the means to save citizens lives doesnt seem political, in my view. Indeed, in my home state of Wisconsin, its Republicans who appear to care more about politics, refusing to work with the states governor, Tony Evers, a Democrat, in order to find a solution for this weeks spring elections in the wake of a crisis. The elections feature two statewide races the presidential primary race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, and a state Supreme Court election. Beyond that, however, there are more than 6,000 down-ballot races for positions like mayor, school board, city council, and more, across the entire Badger State. Gov. Evers was, perhaps, late in recognizing a delay in the election was needed to protect peoples health, but he called for an emergency special session on Friday afternoon, to take place this weekend. The session, had it been successful, would have delayed the election until mid-May. It also would have mailed ballots to every single voter in the state, to prevent the possibility of voters getting sick simply by voting, and to protect poll workers, many of whom have said they will not work this coming Tuesday due to fears of coronavirus. Folks, today Im announcing that I signed an Executive Order calling the Legislature to meet in Special Session tomorrow, Saturday, April 4th at 4:00 p.m. to take up changes to the upcoming spring election. https://t.co/8m5HpvsRDz Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) April 3, 2020 The poll worker shortages are so severe that in Milwaukee alone, a city of nearly 600,000 residents, there will be less than a dozen polling places open on Tuesday. Ordinarily, there are 180 that are open. Its not just happening in big cities, though: In my hometown of Monona, a suburban community of the states capital city of Madison, we typically have two polling places that are open. But now, its down to one place to vote for nearly 8,000 residents, the citys small community center, where long lines and waits are expected to occur, according to the citys website. Closures like these and other health concerns of the citizenry are reason enough to call off this election and reschedule it until May. But perhaps because the Wisconsin Republican Party actually likes to disenfranchise voters passing laws that typically make it harder for people of color to vote, for example seeing problems such as these, particularly in Milwaukee, may actually make their mouths salivate. So predictably, Republicans, who control the state legislature, refused to pass Evers special session proposals. Heck, most lawmakers in the GOP caucus didnt even bother to show up. Their rationale for refusing to take up Evers plans was that he was playing politics. Its this type of feckless leadership Wisconsin has come to expect of the governor in the face of this crisis, Republicans Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a joint statement. Instead of remaining strong to ensure our representative democracy continues, he caves under political pressures from national liberal special interest groups. "If you are concerned about voter turnout becoming a nationwide problem in Novembers general election and you should be pay attention to what happens in Wisconsins benighted primary. Republicans hope it will be a harbinger of our future. " https://t.co/mdF34nTpO8 Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) April 4, 2020 What exactly are those liberal special interest groups? Is it people who want to ensure voters can voice their opinions and stay healthy, versus people who want voters to have to choose between those two options? Because it appears to me that Republicans are part of the latter camp of individuals. It should be noted that Evers has extremely high marks from Wisconsinites in terms of how hes handled the crisis within the state. Overall, he has a 65-point approval rating, according to the Marquette University Law School poll released this past week (even before this event happened, he had majority support in the state, according to previous polling). And with the coronavirus crisis on its own, Evers approval rating is 76 percent. That on its own, of course, is not enough to convince someone to back his plan. But his ideas made sense as well, providing a means for people to vote without fear of infection or spread of the disease to others. Republicans dont appear willing to do the same. Rather, noting that the largest city in the state and notably, one of the biggest Democratic Party voting areas, too is set to have huge voting difficulties, and likely low turnout as a result, theyve decided to sit on their hands and let people across the entire state risk their health, and perhaps their lives, to ensure the vote goes on this Tuesday. Now you tell me whos playing politics. TASHKENT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) The government of Uzbekistan has ordered that the self-isolation regime becomes mandatory throughout the country starting Monday due to the spread of the COVID-19, a coronavirus response center under the country's cabinet said on Sunday. Uzbekistan registered its first case of the novel coronavirus on March 15, when a woman tested positive upon returning from France. As of Sunday morning, the number of registered COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 266, two patients have died, 25 recovered. The government introduced the self-isolation regime in Tashkent and the regions on April 1, while citizens over 65 are not allowed to leave their homes. A ban on the use of personal cars and motorcycles was introduced on March 30 for three weeks. "Starting from April 6, in Tashkent, Nukus, as well as regional centers, the self-isolation regime introduced on April 1 will become mandatory," the center said in a statement on the Telegram channel. It added that from 6.00 a.m. local time (01:00 GMT) on April 6, the use of scooters and bicycles would also be temporarily limited in Tashkent, Nukus, the capital of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, and all other regions. "Large dehkan markets and shopping centers (supermarkets, hypermarkets and others) will be equipped with pyrometers and antiseptic agents within two days," the statement read. The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 1,196,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 64,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University. Surgical masks may help prevent infected people from making others sick with seasonal viruses, including coronaviruses, according to new research that could help settle a fierce debate spanning clinical and cultural norms. In laboratory experiments, the masks significantly reduced the amounts of various airborne viruses coming from infected patients, measured using the breath-capturing "Gesundheit II machine" developed by Dr. Don Milton, a professor of applied environmental health in the University of Maryland School of Public Health and a senior author of the study published April 3 in the journal Nature Medicine. Milton has already conferred with federal and White House health officials on the findings, which closely follow statements this week from the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying the agency was reconsidering oft-stated advice that surgical masks aren't a useful precaution outside of medical settings. (The debate takes place at a time when clinicians themselves face dangerously inadequate supplies of masks--a shortfall other UMD researchers are scrambling to help solve.) The question of masks has roiled society as well, with some retailers refusing to let employees wear them for fear of sending negative signals to customers, and cases of slurs and even physical attacks in the United States and elsewhere against Asians or Asian Americans who were wearing masks, a measure some consider a necessity during a disease outbreak. The study, conducted prior to the current pandemic with a student of Milton's colleagues on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, does not address the question of whether surgical masks protect wearers from infection. It does suggest that masks may limit how much the infected--who in the case of the novel coronavirus often don't have symptoms--spread diseases including influenza, rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Milton, who runs the Public Health Aerobiology, Virology, and Exhaled Biomarker Laboratory in the School of Public Health, demonstrated in a 2013 study that surgical masks could help limit flu transmission. However, he cautions that the effect may not be as great outside of controlled settings. Nevertheless, he said, the chance they could help justifies taking a new look at whether all people should be encouraged to wear them when they venture out of their houses to stores or other populated locations during the current COVID-19 lockdown. In normal times we'd say that if it wasn't shown statistically significant or the effective in real-world studies, we don't recommend it. But in the middle of a pandemic, we're desperate. The thinking is that even if it cuts down transmission a little bit, it's worth trying." Dr. Don Milton, professor of applied environmental health in the University of Maryland School of Public Health and a senior author of the study Previous studies have shown that coronavirus and other respiratory infections are mostly spread during close contact, which has been interpreted by some infectious disease specialists to mean that the disease could spread only through contact and large droplets, such as from a cough or sneeze--a message that has often been shared with the public. "What they don't understand is that is merely a hypothesis," Milton said. The current study (along with earlier ones) shows, by contrast, that tiny, aerosolized droplets can indeed diffuse through the air. That means it may be possible to contract COVID-19 not only by being coughed on, but by simply inhaling the breath of someone nearby who has it, whether they have symptoms or not. Surgical masks, however, catch a lot of the aerosolized virus as it's exhaled, he said. The study was conducted at the University of Hong Kong as part of the dissertation research of the lead author, Dr. Nancy Leung, who, under the supervision of the co-senior authors Drs. Cowling and Milton, recruited 246 people with suspected respiratory viral infections. Milton's Gesundheit machine compared how much virus they exhaled with and without a surgical mask. "In 111 people infected by either coronavirus, influenza virus or rhinovirus, masks reduced detectable virus in respiratory droplets and aerosols for seasonal coronaviruses, and in respiratory droplets for influenza virus," Leung said. "In contrast, masks did not reduce the emission of rhinoviruses." Although the experiment took place before the current pandemic, COVID-19 and seasonal coronaviruses are closely related and may be of similar particle size. The report's other senior author, Professor Benjamin Cowling, division head of epidemiology and biostatistics, School of Public Health, HKUMed, and co-director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, said, "The ability of surgical masks to reduce seasonal coronavirus in respiratory droplets and aerosols implies that such masks can contribute to slowing the spread of (COVID-19) when worn by infected people." Milton pointed to other measures his research has found is even more effective than masks, such as improving ventilation in public places like grocery stores, or installing UV-C lights near the ceiling that works in conjunction with ceiling fans to pull air upwards and destroy viruses and bacteria. "Personal protective equipment like N95 masks are not our first line of defense," Milton said. "They are our last desperate thing that we do." Hong Kong University contributed to this report. Korea can help other countries fight coronavirus South Korea is still struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Confirmed cases totaled 10,237 Sunday with the death toll rising to 183. The Moon Jae-in administration has decided to extend its social distancing campaign, which was introduced March 22, for another two weeks until April 19. If there is a silver lining in the pandemic cloud, it is the worldwide recognition of South Korea as a model case in coping with COVID-19. Many foreign media have praised the country's fight against the virus. Korea's strength lies in its information transparency, well-placed quarantine and healthcare system, effective testing kits and medical equipment, and civic engagement. Yet it is too early to tell if the country will soon win the battle with the highly contagious virus. There are still fears about the growing number of "imported" cases from overseas and sporadic occurrences of infection clusters. People are especially concerned about the further spread of the virus after the number of infections passed 10,000. Some critics have accused the government and the ruling party of engaging in self-praise in a bid to use the viral outbreak to their advantage in the run-up to the April 15 general election. But there is no need to denigrate the nation's efforts against COVID-19. Opposition politicians, particularly conservative ones, are better off giving credence to the authorities for how they have responded to the pandemic. This is not to say that the Moon administration has done its job perfectly. The government and health authorities have made some mistakes in dealing with the health emergency. They, in fact, took a hit for a lack of early action against the members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive Protestant sect, who spread the virus rapidly in the southeastern city of Daegu. Korea once suffered the stigma of being the country with the most cases outside China, where the new coronavirus originated last December. In addition, there has been the controversy over the Moon government's refusal to impose an entry ban on foreign travelers, especially from severely affected countries. But Korea has managed the crisis relatively well without the ban and other draconian steps, including lockdowns. Of course, the country could not have fared well without medical workers' dedication and the people's active engagement. That is why Korea has improved its global reputation and stature in responding to COVID-19. This enables President Moon to engage in telephone diplomacy over the coronavirus. Since talking with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Feb. 20, Moon has had phone conservations with 17 world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders want to share Korea's experience and acquire its testing kits and other medical equipment. Moon stressed the importance of global solidarity at the G20 videoconference summit March 26. Now he is pressing ahead with a teleconference of the ASEAN plus Three forum, which consists of 10 Southeast Asian nations, South Korea, China and Japan. If the event is held, Moon can pitch the Korean model and step up collaboration to defeat the virus and minimize its economic damage. Despite the fact that Disney loves copyrighting characters (hell, they'd probably copyright you if it were even vaguely legal) Mulan is an ancient legend and immune from Mickey's thirst for intellectual property. This also means that there are tons of live-action Mulan movies for you to enjoy, mostly made in China. The first one was a silent film back in 1927, but if you're into talkies, there's 1939's Mulan Joins the Army -- which also didn't enjoy a smooth theatrical release. One early screening was interrupted by political protestors who set fire to the film reels which led to a full-blown riot. In 1964, The Shaw Brothers Studio released Hua Mulan, an epic, operatic version of the story, which you can watch on the decidedly non-epic format of YouTube. Continue Reading Below Advertisement More recently there was the action-filled live-action Mulan: Rise of a Warrior in 2009, which looks not dissimilar from the action-filled live-action Mulan Disney was set to release. It's even a tad grittier, with adult themes and even blood. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) A further 83 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Iraq, raising the total since the start of the outbreak to above 950, the country's Health Ministry confirmed on Sunday. The overall number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease in Iraq now stands at 961, the ministry announced in a Facebook post. A total of 279 people have recovered after contracting the disease and 61 people have died. The government has imposed a curfew to limit the population's movement as part of efforts to curb the spread of the disease. The curfew is set to expire on April 11, and the country's state institutions, schools and universities have been closed. CINCINNATI, Ohio My sisters flight landed in Fort Myers at noon, and by 12:30 p.m., she was behind the wheel of my moms car, headed back to Ohio. This was the not the trip to Florida she had planned. Then again, what about the past few weeks was anything like what any of us had planned? Indeed, this wasnt the travel story I had planned to write in early April. But its a tale of the times, of travel and trying to stay safe, of stress and family and making the best decisions that we can with the information we have. Like many retired Ohioans, my mom, 79, splits her time between Ohio and Florida. She usually returns to her Lakeside, Ohio, home in mid-May. This year, shell arrive a little earlier than usual. My brother sounded the alarm a few weeks ago. Florida, with the highest percentage of senior citizens in the U.S., is not the place you want to be during a global pandemic that targets older citizens. I think we should consider getting mom home soon, he wrote in an email to me and my sister. He argued that our mom, who has some underlying health issues, would be better off in Ohio if she got sick. The health care system here appears to be better equipped to handle the growing crisis, plus shed be closer to family. He even put together a spreadsheet of available alternatives (did I mention hes an engineer?) Among the options: Keep her in Florida, in her senior living community in Fort Myers. The community basically shut down all services in recent weeks -- my mom was without her book club, her bridge games and dinners out. She was essentially stuck in her condo and was starting to feel isolated and lonely. Fly her home to Ohio, where she could stay with me or my sister, or driven directly to Lakeside. One of us could go down to Florida and get her, either flying or driving. At the time, I wasnt convinced that bringing her back to Ohio was necessary or wise -- its not like Ohio has been spared the effects of the pandemic. But in recent weeks, Floridas COVID-19 cases have increased much faster than Ohios -- at last check (early Thursday), Florida had more than 7,700 positive cases, while Ohio had fewer than 2,600. Just last week, after resisting for weeks, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally relented and issued a statewide stay-at-home order, which went into effect Thursday. Numerous counties in the state had already issued their own stay-at-home orders, although the county where my mom lives, Lee County, had not. Before making a final decision, I reached out to her doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, who agreed that bringing her back to Ohio made sense. But he conceded: These are tough times with decisions being made with little information. And we dont know that we made a wrong decision unless there is an adverse outcome (and then we feel really guilty!) Finally, we came to a decision my sister and sister-in-law would fly to Florida and drive mom back to Ohio. The logistics werent easy: My sisters first flight, on Frontier Airlines, was canceled a day before her March 27 departure. Her second flight, on Delta, took off as scheduled, with approximately a dozen passengers on board. A day before my sister arrived, my moms retirement community completely closed to visitors so my sister and sister-in-law couldnt stop by to help her pack the car, or take a quick rest before the long drive north. Mom packed up her own car, picked up her escorts at the airport, and they all hopped on I-75. I was tasked with finding them a place to stay in Georgia that was near the highway, but far from Atlanta, where the virus has been spreading fast. I suggested a Fairfield Inn and Suites in Cordele, where they enjoyed takeout pizza and beer and 8 hours of sleep. They were sent on their way in the morning with a bagged breakfast of banana, muffin and granola bar. Twelve hours later, they pulled into my sisters driveway in Cincinnati. My sister and mom were pushing for a quick detour to Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky, where my family spent many summers camping, but my sister-in-law vetoed that idea. In recent days, the Ohio Department of Health has asked that all returning snowbirds self-quarantine for 14 days, upon arrival back in Ohio. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week issued a travel advisory for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, urging residents to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for the next two weeks. Every day, it seems, there are new and unprecedented travel restrictions in place governing who can go where and when, which made me grateful mom got out of Florida when she did. Eventually, my sister will help our mom relocate to Lakeside, where Ill meet up with her. Until then, Im relieved that shes safe and healthy and hanging out in Cincinnati. Its not the travel adventure anyone wanted. But its the one we got for now, but not forever. Read more travel coverage: Canceling a trip in the era of coronavirus: Susan Glaser Empty Ohio hotels offer up space to hospitals, homeless shelters, health care workers during coronavirus pandemic 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 Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) A P Maheshwari said on Sunday that he has gone into quarantine as part of his responsibility to break the coronavirus transmission chain after a doctor of his force tested positive for COVID-19. Maheshwari (59), the chief of the country's largest paramilitary force with a strength of about 3.25 lakh personnel, his predecessor and senior security advisor in the Union Home Ministry K Vijay Kumar (67), and about two dozen officials in this chain have gone into self-quarantine after the doctor was found infected on April 2. Both Maheshwari and Kumar has last week travelled to Chhattisgarh on a special BSF aircraft to review anti-Naxal operations in the state. "As a precautionary measure I have completely restricted my movement being part of my responsibility to break the chain, and working from home, till a clarity on health check up of officials concerned emerges," the CRPF chief said on personal Twitter account on Sunday. Maheshwari, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, had a contact with an officer who was in touch with the doctor found COVID-19 positive, now isolated at the the AIIMS in Haryana's Jhajjar. Kumar, a 1975-batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, headed CRPF between October, 2010 to September, 2012. He has also served as the advisor to the governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. "A CRPF officer had tested positive for COVID-19. All personnel in contact with the officer have been quarantined. The DG (Maheshwari) had an indirect contact with the officer and according to protocol, he is observing quarantine," CRPF spokesperson DIG Moses Dhinakaran had said on Saturday. Except the chief medical officer of the CRPF who tested positive and undergoing treatment, DIG Dhinakaran had said, none in the chain ahead have shown any positive sign so far. "However, the DG, as a precautionary measure, has advised all concerned to restrict their movements and strictly work from home to break the chain, if any." "The DG has also set an example by following the same protocols," he said on Sunday. The CRPF has directed its units across the country to help the distressed and needy amid the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown and has launched a helpline through its Kashmir-based platform 'Madadgaar' to aid those affected by the virus and related issues. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By PTI AMARAVATHI: As the number of coronavirus cases has been escalating at a rapid pace across the state due to transmission from Tablighi Jamaat attendees, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday directed the authorities to open testing labs in each district and also create isolation wards in all hospitals. Of the total 220 active coronavirus cases in the state as on Sunday, close to 90 per cent relate to the Jamaat participants and their close contacts. The Chief Minister asked the health authorities to immediately complete testing of all those who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation and their primary contacts. In the next step, the secondary contacts of the Jamaat attendees should be tested, he said at a high-level review meeting on COVID-19. Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy informed the Chief Minister that seven labs were working in the state with a capacity to test over 900 blood samples per day. He said steps were being taken to increase the testing capacity of the labs in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Jawahar Reddy explained about the special approach undertaken on an experimental basis in Visakhapatnam city, where the identified red zones (having Corona positive patients) were divided into eight clusters and 20 samples were tested on a random basis from each cluster. Those who returned from abroad and persons in the high- risk age groups (below 10 and above 65 years) were chosen at random and their blood samples were tested. "All these samples turned negative in the tests," the Special CS said. The Chief Minister then asked the Special CS to set up a lab in every district as the number of cases was mounting. Jagan directed the officials to ensure the lockdown guidelines were scrupulously followed, particularly in the identified red zones and hotspots. He also asked them to be prepared to implement any fresh guidelines from the Centre after the lockdown period ends on April 14. Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Director General of Police D G Sawang, Principal Secretary Praveen Prakash and other senior officials attended. With the Victorious cast recently reuniting to celebrate the shows 10th anniversary, its got everyone all over social media feeling nostalgic. The nostalgia went to new levels this weekend with fans of Zoey 101 and iCarly came out swinging against each other, discussing on Twitter which shows was the best. (L-R) The casts of Zoey 101 and iCarly | E. Charbonneau/WireImage for Sony Pictures-Los Angeles, Jason Merritt/Film Magic Zoey 101 and iCarly were on during a golden age of Nick Both Zoey 101 and iCarly aired during a time period of classic Nickelodeon television shows that linked kids that grew up during multiple years of the 1990s. The two shows were from Dan Schneider, who has created and/or executive produced other Nickelodeon shows over the years such as All That, The Amanda Show and Kenan & Kel. Zoey 101, headlined by Jamie Lynn Spears, revolved around students at a fictional boarding school in southern California, Pacific Coast Academy. The students dealt with school, first loves, growing up, and the typical ins and outs of being a teenager. The series also starred Paul Butcher, Sean Flynn, Kristin Herrera, Christopher Massey, Alexa Nikolas, Erin Sanders, Matthew Underwood, Victoria Justice, and Austin Butler. The show aired for four seasons from January 2005 to May 2008. iCarly, starring Drake & Josh alumna Miranda Cosgrove, chronicled the story of a teenager who started a web show with her best friends in the attic of her and her older brothers loft. The show also starred Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Kress, Jerry Trainor, and Noah Munck. It is regarded as one of the most popular Nickelodeon series of all-time both commercially and critically. A 2010 episode of the show is the most-viewed episode in Nickelodeon history. Both shows were nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Childrens Program. Zoey 101 was nominated once and iCarly was nominated five times. Fans debate which show was better For some reason, both shows began sharing on Twitter Saturday morning and fans got into heated discussions about which Nickelodeon show they preferred. Though the shows are inherently different, with Zoey 101 being primarily a teen drama with comedic elements and iCarly being a situational comedy, fans decided that they could go head-to-head. Yall really out here comparing Zoey 101 & iCarly like Zoey wasnt living her best life in EIGHTH GRADE!! She had a Jet X & Sushi Rox. iCarly had a crazy ass brother & a blog #Zoey101 pic.twitter.com/XNTS2lXYIn #BeGreat (@KayB610) April 4, 2020 Someone who liked Zoey 101 said, No way yall saying icarly was better than zoey101 lol. Another fan of the show said, Zoey 101 was way deeper than iCarly. The storylines were waaaay better. ICarly was just for laughs. I dont know why this is trending right now, but iCarly was much better than Zoey 101. Its not even a contest, said a fan of iCarly. Some of the actors from the shows even got in on the debate and gave their thoughts on Twitter. Butcher tweeted, So theres a big Zoey 101/ iCarly debate trending right now.. Love them both, but I think we know where I stand. With all of this talk about the shows, maybe one of them or both could drop on a streaming service soon. With the coronavirus pandemic, people surely have more time on their hands! TDT | Manama The Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) yesterday began the distribution of electronic bracelets compatible with Bahrains COVID-19 contact tracing app BeAware. The move is in line with the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, to deploy emerging technologies to help mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The distribution began with the support of the Minister of Interior General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa. The BeAware app complements the efforts of the National Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 by advancing contact tracing efforts to swiftly identify and keep track all active cases and their contacts. iGA Chief Executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed noted that the app is an example of how Bahrain is leveraging technology to safeguard the well-being of citizens and residents. He explained that the bracelet supports the Ministry of Healths mandate to address public health concerns amidst the global pandemic. The decision issued by the Minister of Health, Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh, obliges self-isolating individuals to wear the electronic bracelet that will notify the monitoring station whenever they are 15 meters away from their phone, in which case a warning will be sent, explained Al Qaed. Violators will face legal penalties, potentially be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of not less than three months and pay a fine between BD1,000 and BD10,000, or either one of the two penalties. Al Qaed added that the iGA will guide users through the app and all of its features, which requires them to ensure their smart devices are charged and that their location services, Bluetooth, GPS and internet connection are on. iPhone users will need to ensure that the Allow Location Access is set at Always. Self-isolating individuals using the app must identify their isolation location, in most cases their home, by selecting Set Home Location upon arrival. Users can correct location information by calling 444. Ministry of Health officials may randomly send picture requests to which self-isolating individuals must respond with a photo that clearly shows their face and bracelet. Attempting to remove or tamper with the bracelet is a violation and officials confirmed the bracelet is waterproof. Self-isolating individuals are also required to schedule a COVID-19 test date three days prior to the end of their self-isolation period by calling 444 or visiting the Ministry of Healths website. On Saturday evening (April 4) members of Prince Edward Island's harness racing industry hosted another episode of Virtual Tack Room, a web series aimed to help shed some light during a dark time in the harness racing industry. Tonight co-creator and Red Shores hosts Lee Drake and Peter MacPhee along with race historian Jerry McCabe interviewed Corey MacPherson, Wally Hennessey and Dr. Ian Moore. First to take a trip down memory lane was trainer/driver Corey MacPherson. The island native reminisced upon memories of the second richest Maritime-bred horse in history, Waiting On A Woman. The son of Northern Bailey initiated his career under the care of trainer Mitchell Tierney with MacPherson at the controls during his two and three-year-old seasons. Waiting On A Woman was also named as the Maritimes Trotter Of The Decade. I broke the horse at Ronnie Gass and it was very early when I turned him the right way and let him trot along. I actually called Mitchell and told him I dont know how fast we went but this horse is something special. Hes a car. This would have been in about March of his two-year-old year. He showed me so much potential early on, he was smart and he did everything so easy. He was a big long horse and he stretched every inch out of every stride, the push that he had was unbelievable. The day he set the track record at Summerside I remember discussing with Mitchell that we were fairly certain he could win the race and Mitchell said to me Do you think if you let him roll along that he could break the track record and I told him there was only one way to find out. So that's what we did. MacPherson and Waiting On A Woman succeeded in breaking the track record that day, setting a new record of 1:59.3. The Maritime legend Wally Hennessey was next to take a trip down memory lane. With an illustrious career one might concur it may be difficult for Hennessey to choose just a few memorable moments. Perhaps one of the most defining moments in his career would be the role he played in the career of Moni Maker. Moni Maker was sired by two world champions, I dont think there was ever any doubt that she wasn't meant to be an amazing horse. I actually made the mistake a couple times of choosing another horse over her early in her career and I almost lost her as a drive. But, the people who drove her instead of me made mistakes too so I was lucky to get her back. She was an amazing horse. What Moni Maker did for a five or six year period was truly something that will never be seen again in the harness racing industry. She actually ruined me because no matter what horse I drive, they will never compare to her. Hennessey also reflected on the influence his father had on him. I never wanted compliments from my father, I wanted him to be hard on me. It made me who I am today." Another Maritimer now residing in Florida during the cold winter months, Dr. Ian Moore was the final guest on the episode of Virtual Tack Room. While Moore has won several major stake races throughout his successful career, the horse whom he accomplished the majority of those stakes wins with would be Shadow Play. When Shadow Play won the Little Brown Jug, he showed me more courage and more heart and more desire to win than any other horse I have ever been associated with. He came up lame after the first elimination, at that time it was hard to tell if it was an abscess that had developed or a separation. In the meantime, Dave Miller [driver of Shadow Play] had just set a track record with Lonestar Legend, and when they were interviewing him, they asked him which horse he was going to drive in the final and he said he came there to drive Shadow Play and thats who he was going to drive. I had the blacksmith put a pair of leather pads, something he had never worn before in his life. Everything ended up in our favour that day - we were lucky we were in the first elimination so we had about an hour and a half in between. Dave came to the horse, I handed him the lines, and said if he takes one lame step just bring him back. He never came back and the rest was history. The episode of Virtual Tack Room is available below and was produced by Universum Media. Fans are still waiting for the Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, but the cast has been involved in enough drama to keep viewers entertained. Nene Leakess ongoing feuds with Eva Marcille and Kenya Moore continue to make headlines as the three battle it out over social media and through interviews. Nene Leakes and Kenya Moore via Twitter Season 12 is still underway, with more episodes to air at least for the next month. A preview clip for the April 5 episode shows Leakes explaining the fall out of the cast trip to Greece and explains what her breaking point was with Moore. Leakes says her frustration with Moore derives from feeling that Moore is a hypocrite for getting offended that the cast speaks on her marital trouble, when Moore herself has a history of doing the same to her co-stars. Nene Leakes says Kenya Moore is hypocritical Moore admitted to Leakes that she harbors resentment over feeling that Leakes compared her daughter to a buffalo during her pregnancy. Leakes explained to her husband Gregg that the comment was directed to Moores size and not to her unborn child. She took issue with Moore getting offended at her for speaking about her family. Source: YouTube Have you forgot youve talked about everybodys marriage, youve talked about peoples children, youve been involved in peoples relationship, Leakes said. But when its done to you, its like oh its off-limits. Leakes was not remorseful, especially because during the current season, Leakes feels that Moores behavior was consistent with what shes done in the past. Moore faced backlash for revealing that Tanya Sams fiance allegedly flirted with another woman. Moore even arranged an ambush meeting between Sam and the woman in question. RHOA showed flashbacks of Kenya Moore speaking negatively of her co-stars marriages During Leakess conversation with her husband, several flashbacks of Moore speaking about her co-stars marital flaws were shown. Moore has had the most issues with Porsha Williams, and former RHOA star Phaedra Parks. Source: YouTube Moore accused Williamss marriage to Kordell Stewart of being a sham, with Williams playing the role of his trophy wife. Moore also alleged that Stewart was part of the LGBT+ community and used Williams as his beard. While Williams and Moore started off on the wrong foot, Moore and Parks were initially friends. Their friendship soured when they had a falling out over a business deal. Moore famously flirted with Parkss husband, Apollo Nida, while on a cast trip in Anguilla which left Parks unsettled. Moore even joked that she wanted to be intimate with Nida. Source: YouTube Over the next few years, Moore and Parks hurled insults at one another. Parks accused Moore of trying to have an affair with Nida, which he later admitted was a lie. Moore taunted Parks that her marriage with Nida was wrecked with infidelity, with Nida wanting to stray with her. When Nida was arrested and charged with fraud, Moore considered it karma. Source: YouTube While she acknowledges that she has made comments about her co-stars relationship, she says its part of being a housewife and they all throw shade toward one another. 05.04.2020 LISTEN The NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Tain Constituency, Mr. Ramzy Adams has donated worth thousands of Ghana cedis to fight coronavirus pandemic in his constituency and Ghana at large. The items included hand Sanitizers, buckets with fitted tap valves for quick hand washing outside before entry (Veronica Buckets), personal protective equipment and Carbolic Soaps which has rapid reactions on germs, bacterias as well as viruses. The beneficiaries of the items were Nsawkaw Police Station, Tain District NHIS Office, GPRTU-Nsawkaw, Badu, Seikwa and Brohani Branches, Tain District Education Directorate, Tain District Hospital and all other Health Facilities across the Constituency". Speaking to the media he said "as part of my contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, my campaign team donates hand sanitizers, assorted personal hygiene and Protective equipment to help protect the frontline workers fighting the spread of the coronavirus in his constituency. He added that "In as much as I wish I could donate to all the major towns in the Constituency", the beneficiaries also expressed their joy and gratitude for the items supplied, particularly the sanitizers since it's become difficult to find even if you have money to buy. At Brohani Health Centre, it could be recalled that the In-Charge, Miss Mariam, was overwhelmed by the kind donation from Mr. Ramzy. She said, "in fact, this donation has beefed up our measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic especially the Hand Sanitizers. Ever since we started this fight against the pandemic, our facility has not seen a single bottle of hand sanitizer, we only rely on methylated spirit and carbolic soaps in disinfecting our hands and that of our clients and visitors". Mr. Ramzy, therefore, urged all citizens in the constituency to follow lockdown rules and safety measures been put in place by the government and the ministry of health (MOH). --ThepressRadio.com/Anokye Elvis After announcing 75 million to bring home thousands of Britons stranded in various countries, the Boris Johnson government on Sunday announced the first wave of charter flights for those in India, who number over 20,000 in various states. The flights will depart for London from Goa on April 8, 10 and 12, from Mumbai on April 9 and 11 and from New Delhi on April 9 and 11. The flights cost each adult 681 from Goa, 600 from Mumbai and 581 from Delhi; infants under the age of 2 will travel free. Jan Thompson, acting high commissioner to India, said: We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India. I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need. Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge. The UK Government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible. Officials said the charter flights are for UK travellers who normally reside in the UK and their direct dependants. A number of seats will be reserved for those deemed vulnerable. On Saturday, 113 of the most vulnerable British nationals left Goa on an Irish flight. Foreign Office minister Tariq Ahmad said: In the absence of commercial flights, these first charter flights from India should provide relief to some of our British travellers who are desperate to return home, especially for the most vulnerable and those in greatest need. In view of the restrictions on movement in India, Britons travelling to airports from where the charter flights will depart are asked to carry a letter called the British movement letter in English (also translated in 9 languages) to show to Indian authorities. It says: All Indian authorities are hereby requested to provide holders of British passport or resident permits with safe passage, without delay or detention, to their port of departure in India. For this purpose all Indian authorities are further requested to exempt holders of British passports or resident permits from any restrictions on public movement or crossing of State or District boundaries currently imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials said there are an estimated 35,000 Britons currently in India, of whom over 20,000 are keen to return home. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams issued a stark warning to Americans Sunday, calling on everyone in the country to get ready for what he characterized as a national catastrophe. This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans lives, quite frankly, Adams said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only its not going to be localized. Its going to be happening all over the country. Advertisement ON NEXT: Dr. Jerome Adams, U.S. Surgeon General, on where the U.S. is heading in the fight against coronavirus. Will this week be the peak? Check you local listings. #FNS #FoxNews #BeatCOVID_19 #TogetherAtHome pic.twitter.com/rdP9tAyt8c FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) April 5, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adams followed the lead of President Donald Trump, who had warned Americans Saturday that there will be a lot of death in the upcoming week. But Adams did also offer some words of encouragement that the situation will eventually get better and called on all Americans to do their part to keep infections as low as possible, saying everyone has the power to change the trajectory of this epidemic. Ultimately, as hard as this week is going to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel if everyone does their part for the next 30 days, Adams said. Advertisement Advertisement WATCH: Vice Admiral Jerome Adams says "we want everyone to act as if they have COVID-19 right now." #MTP #IfItsSunday@Surgeon_General: "Protect your neighbor, protect your loved ones." pic.twitter.com/RgBoh6X85y Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 5, 2020 Advertisement The surgeon general also went on NBCs Meet the Press and called on governors who have yet to issue stay-at-home orders to at least put temporary restrictions in place to try to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. Just eight governors, all of whom are Republican, have so far not issued statewide stay-at-home orders for residents. Ninety percent of Americans are doing their part, even in the states where they havent had a shelter-in-place, he said. But If you cant give us 30 days, governors, give us a week, give us what you can so that we dont overwhelm our health care systems over this next week, and then lets reassess. But Adams did not call for a national lockdown order as at least 8,400 died in the United States from COVID-19, which has infected some 310,000 people across the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roses are red Violets are blue Risk is low for #coronarvirus But high for the #flu So get your #FLUSHOT! pic.twitter.com/Jr4lQFla4c Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) February 1, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement The dire warnings and predictions mark a dramatic change in tone for Adams who a few weeks ago was suggesting to Americans that they should be more concerned about the flu than the coronavirus. And on Sunday, he still seemed to try to play it down a bit when Foxs Chris Wallace confronted him about why he would not support a nationwide stay-at-home order. More people will die even in the worst projections from cigarette smoking in this country than are going to die from coronavirus this year, Adams said. Wallace pushed back on the comparison, noting that opioids and cigarettes are something that people decide to user or not to use. Advertisement Advertisement TODAY: Dr. Jerome Adams on how the U.S. can most effectively combat the coronavirus. #FNS #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/Iv6nS9ZaVb FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) April 5, 2020 For more on the impact of the coronavirus, listen to Mondays episode of What Next. About 99 percent of Americans have no idea who Judge Justin Walker is, and for that they can be totally forgiven. After all, most folks are a little busy these days, what with calling their state unemployment office 143 times trying to get through, or sick with worry about a parent or a grandparent in a nursing home, or just trying to get the damn microphone to work on their fourth Zoom conference of the day. And this is exactly what President Trump and his utterly soulless enforcer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are going for. But let me help you out here, since they wont: Justin Walker is a Trump-appointed federal judge who is not qualified for his job and thats not me, a liberal hack journalist, talking, but the good people at the American Bar Association. The ABA futilely urged McConnells GOP-led Senate last year to reject Walker, noting that the then-37-year-old from McConnells home state of Kentucky had zero trial experience, normally considered a prerequisite. The lawyers group didnt even delve into Walkers extreme right-wing views on issues like health care or executive power, honed in the conservative judicial pipeline, the Federalist Society. On Friday, when most citizens who arent on the front lines of a global pandemic were watching with alarm as the coronavirus death toll on their TV screen churned toward 10,000, Trump and McConnell did the kind of thing that Republicans tend to do with an unqualified 38-year-old judge whos only been on the bench for less than a year: They offered him a promotion. In the coming weeks, with as least 10 million and probably many more Americans dazed by sudden joblessness, McConnell plans to probably not deal much with that but instead wield his Senate power to ram through Walker for a lifetime (40 years or more, given U.S. life expectancy) gig on Americas second most powerful court, The D.C. Court of Appeals, which tends to handle key cases on federal powers. Its not clear whether the (and one cannot use this word enough) unqualified Walkers nomination is another reward for the yeomans work he performed in 2018 to cast doubt in more than 70 media interviews! on the credible #MeToo allegations of Dr. Christine Blazey Ford against the now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who once employed Walker as clerk. Or, instead, maybe its just McConnells forward-looking dream of making sure that our children and grandchildren are crushed by the same pro-corporate, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-democracy kleptocratic rulebook that Americans suffer under today. Either way, the idea that McConnell, Trump, and their Republican enablers are so focused on judges now when so many Americans are sick or dying and when so many more arent sure where their next meal is coming from, let alone how theyll pay Aprils rent, is a moral outrage that and yes, this is hard to believe surpasses the other political abuses of common decency weve grown so used to in recent years. And yet its arguably not even the most unconscionable move from our government carried out under the cover of mass death. Lets call this what it is: a dictatorship of distraction. In Washington, Republicans who control two branches of government and half of the third are now using Americans preoccupations with staying alive or staying afloat economically to force down our throats actions that a) have absolutely nothing to do with the coronavirus and b) are opposed by a majority of a populace thats too beaten down or too isolated to fight back. Its hardly a new observation that a catastrophe like a global pandemic tends to be bad news for democracy, and in this current horrific moment were seeing some of the worlds worst leaders most notably Hungarys Viktor Orban, who has seized absolute dictatorial powers use the crisis to find their inner Joseph Stalin. Here in The Worlds Greatest Democracy thats not how we roll, but the COVID-19 Moment has allowed for the most-extreme-ever case of The Shock Doctrine how the brilliant writer Naomi Klein described disaster capitalism that jumps on any tragedy to further oppress the marginalized classes. READ MORE: The Will Bunch Newsletter Consider a few of the things weve seen albeit, barely if at all covered by the news media in the days that the coronavirus crisis worsened: In the dead of night, Trump went ahead this weekend with the Friday Night Massacre firing of the intelligence communitys inspector general Michael Atkinson. Even though IGs are supposed to only be canned for wrongdoing, there wasnt even an effort to spin Atkinsons ouster as anything but pure, Goodfellas-style revenge for reporting a whistle-blowers complaint about the presidents impeachable conduct in the Ukraine matter. Trumps latest high crime or misdemeanor was essentially a two-fer the kind of abuse of power that McConnells Senate essentially greenlighted with Februarys acquittal, and also the kind of outrage that the White House probably feels a virus can help them get away with even more easily. With not nearly enough fanfare, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that days before the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, no less it was going to essentially stop protecting the environment, which was kind of the point of having an EPA. In announcing a suspension of all routine enforcement actions How could you possibly worry about some dirty air or water at a time like this?! the feds are ignoring the fact that undermanned petrochemical plants, for example, are probably more prone to toxic releases, or that those with respiratory problems caused by pollution are most susceptible to COVID-19. In reality, the EPA is using the death of nearly 9,000 Americans to justify every corporate lobbyists lifelong fever dream. READ MORE: Will a coronavirus mirage of clean air, water inspire climate action or make things worse? | Will Bunch Down at Americas Southern border, which had already been the site of the Trump administrations worst human rights abuses during its 39 months in office, the government has also used the coronavirus crisis to invoke emergency powers (sounds a little Orban-esque, no?) that involve suspending our existing laws intending to protect minors or asylum seekers who cross into the United States without documents. While its true that a deadly pandemic requires some changes, and that reactions to this one are mixed (you probably dont want to detain more people while the virus is spreading), who has any faith that Americas authoritarian-wannabe-in-chief is going to relinquish these emergency powers any time in the near future? Given Team Trumps underlying hostility to the normal functioning of government, its hard to know how many of these moves halting Title IX sexual-assault probes, for example are really to keep people safe in a pandemic and how much that it simply never wanted to do those things in the first place. Id also note that the GOP doesnt have a total monopoly on bad governance in a time of coronavirus, as neither New Yorks status as the worlds epicenter nor Gov. Andrew Cuomos resurgent reputation prevented Democrat Cuomo from signing a horrible budget that cuts health care and locks up more innocent people, right when neither is called for. But right now the coronavirus is a national problem for which the national solutions have so far fallen way short. Congressional Democrats can always do better, but its largely McConnell, Trump, and their GOP allies who falsely spin the most worker-friendly solutions to the looming Great Depression II as liberal social engineering and not the bare minimum to keep good, decent Americans from starving to death. Meanwhile, Republicans are the ones doing the absolute worst kind of social engineering disaster capitalism to ram right-wing judges onto the bench to save corporations for the next half-century while regular folks are rummaging for pitchforks. McConnell and the other 534 members of Congress thats both parties and both houses need to end their spring recess ASAP and get back to work on a much larger stimulus package that guarantees that every American will have enough money to live on until this economic catastrophe is over. And there should be a moratorium on anything else including filling judicial vacancies with unqualified hacks until that legislation happens. Voters, meanwhile, should not forget the ghouls who didnt want to put this deadly crisis to waste when we go to the polls in November assuming that Trump and McConnell dont try the ultimate Shock Doctrine maneuver of canceling the election. This may be a low moment for democracy but at least democracy is not totally dead not yet. Some professional news: Im launching a newsletter, debuting later this month! People who sign up will not only get a weekly email from me with an advance peek at a column, but all kinds of other doodads including some recommendations, a new reader mailbag, and some other cool stuff that goes beyond the regular column format. The best is that its ridiculously easy to sign up you can do it at the link below! And stay tuned. READ MORE: The Will Bunch Newsletter Suddenly Sridevi looked at me and said in a soft voice, I have seen your Khel Khel Mein four times. I was flustered for a moment and replied, Thank you. You dance very well. That was the only conversation I had with her during Nagina. The lines above are from the book, Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess, by Satyarth Nayak. In this excerpt, Rishi Kapoor is describing his interaction with Sridevi during the making of the blockbuster hit, Nagina, showing us how shy and reserved Indias first female superstar actually was in real life. Sridevi was called the Female Bachchan. She had refused films opposite Amitabh Bachchan unless she had an equally solid role. Amitabh had to woo her by sending a truckload of flowers to get her to act opposite him in Khuda Gawah. Sridevi in Khuda Gawah. (Youtube) Amitabh Bachchan in Khuda Gawah. The only heroine to make a triumphant comeback, thus shattering Bollywood rules, Sridevi had also challenged industry patriarchy throughout her career. Which is why its quite surprising that till last year, there wasnt any book chronicling her life story. In December 2019, Satyarth Nayak wrote Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess, published by Penguin Random House India. In a conversation with us, Nayak tells us about the book, who all he spoke to from Bollywood and more. What prompted you to write the book? I have been an ardent admirer of Sridevi and I had always been appalled by the fact that there was no elaborate book celebrating her prolific career. Shes the only truly pan-Indian phenomenon who was no.1 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu cinema. Sridevi became the hero of her films and raised the status of the Indian film heroine. Today we talk about misogyny, sexism, wage parity and toxic masculinity and Sridevi had battled it all in the industry and emerged victoriously. She was respectfully addressed as Mai in Bollywood since she had become way more powerful than her male co-stars and was even paid more than them. She not only empowered her audiences but also became a messiah for the LGBT community worldwide. Her legacy spans fifty years and yet there was no book chronicling these legendary achievements of her. I guess Sridevis massive body of work was intimidating for most writers and I glad my book got to celebrate the megastar. Did you ever meet Sridevi? Yes, I was fortunate to meet Sridevi in 2012 when she had come to Delhi to promote English Vinglish. Thats my only meeting with her and I shall always cherish it. I remember lauding her for her incredible performance in the film and she smiled softly and spoke a few words. We clicked a picture together and it was Sri who directed us to the right spot with good lighting. This was one of the lesser-known facts about her that she was technically astute about things like how to judge the correct lighting for a shot. Gauri Shinde took that picture which makes it even more special. Author Satyarth Nayak. What was the research process like for this book? Who all did you meet and why? My research for this book was two-pronged. I have done over 70 interviews for the Sridevi book. Very few people are aware of her iconic body of work down south and the first few chapters of the book are solely devoted to that. I have interviewed some of the biggest southern superstars who worked opposite her like Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh. In Mumbai, I interviewed her co-actors like Jeetendra, Anil Kapoor, Sunny Deol and Rishi Kapoor and directors like Subhash Ghai, Mahesh Bhatt, Pankaj Parashar, Gauri Shinde and R. Balki. Besides veterans like Lata Mangeshkar, Waheeda Rehman and Javed Akhtar, the younger generation like Karan Johar, Kajol, Vidya Balan, Manish Malhotra and Neeta Lulla etc have all shared rare anecdotes and memories of Sri. The way they spoke about her, reflected her legendary equity in Bollywood. Even voices from Canada, Pakistan and Dubai have shared their love proving once again how Sridevis iconic status transcended borders. Besides these interviews, my other big resource was a stack of film magazines from the 80s and 90s that form a part of my personal collection. They are filled with interviews of Sridevi through various stages of her career. In her absence, those quotes have become her voice in my book. When you will read those, you will get glimpses of both the person and the performer that she was. Those were my main research components and my narrative becomes the glue that holds it all together. What was the biggest challenge while working on this book? One big challenge was what to keep out of the book given that Sridevis career is so prolific. This was a book about an actress whose career spanned 50 years, 5 languages and 300 films. Indian cinema is 100 years old and Sridevi owns half of that. Condensing this gargantuan journey in a book was quite daunting but that was also the fun part. Today when the book has become a bestseller, I am glad that all that effort has been so beautifully worthwhile. Did you speak to any of her contemporaries or rivals from the 80s or 90s? I was keen to speak to actresses like Rekha and Madhuri Dixit. While I was told that Rekha was unavailable, Madhuris manager never responded back after our initial conversation. I and Penguin also tried our best to interview Amitabh but it could not happen. What are some questions you would have asked Sridevi if you would have interviewed her? There are so many questions I would have loved to ask. Like what was the rationale behind her famous switch-on-switch-off technique. What were some of her most indelible memories as a child actor? How did it feel playing a leading lady at the age of twelve and what were her experiences of being a teenage star. How was it dealing with her fathers sudden death and her mothers botched-up surgery? I would have tried to probe deeper into that mask of the actor. The psyche of the loner that she was. For a woman who spent most of her life, playing others on screen, I would have examined deeper if the real Sridevi lived somewhere in her own fantasy. The author tweets at @shadowwarior and can be reached at kabir.bhandari@htdigital.in and Instagram.com/kabirsinghbhandari Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON By Tracy Rucinski and David Shepardson CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major U.S. airlines applied on Friday for payroll grants from the U.S. Treasury meant to keep workers employed during a sharp downturn from the coronavirus, though the terms of any aid were still unclear and some warned that funds would not be enough to help them through their toughest crisis ever. By Tracy Rucinski and David Shepardson CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major U.S. airlines applied on Friday for payroll grants from the U.S. Treasury meant to keep workers employed during a sharp downturn from the coronavirus, though the terms of any aid were still unclear and some warned that funds would not be enough to help them through their toughest crisis ever. American Airlines Group Inc , United Airlines Holdings Inc , Delta Air Lines Inc , Southwest Airlines Co and JetBlue Airways Corp each said they had submitted grant applications but did not disclose details or terms. Treasury had asked companies to propose financial instruments such as warrants or equity options as possible taxpayer compensation for up to $32 billion in payroll grants for airlines, cargo carriers and airport contractors under the CARES Act passed by Congress last week. Treasury set a 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) Friday deadline to expedite the grants. There is a second final deadline on April 27. The airline industry has pushed back on the possibility of the government taking an equity stake in exchange for the grants, which the companies and unions argue are strictly to protect workers. Southwest made clear on Friday that government support is just one possible source of capital it is evaluating, with talks over the terms of any government agreement expected over the next several days. In memos to employees, Delta and JetBlue executives warned that government funds would not be enough to help them weather an unprecedented crisis in which they are spending more cash every day than they are bringing in. Companies were allowed to ask Treasury for the amount they paid in salaries and benefits in the second and third quarters of 2019, and must agree to keep their workforce until Sept. 30 and maintain a certain level of air service. American Airlines, with the largest number of full-time employees among U.S. airlines at 133,700 in 2019, had said it would seek up to $6 billion in grants and $6 billion in government loans under a separate $32 billion funding option for the sector. American stock hit a record low on Friday, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc , which is among the largest shareholders of the top U.S. airlines, said it sold about 18% of its Delta stake and 4% of its Southwest holding. Among cargo carriers, FedEx Corp said it could benefit from certain government relief options after outlining other steps it is taking to save cash and boost liquidity, including slashing its chief executive officer's pay and drawing down $1.5 billion from a credit facility. Cargo carriers are suffering from disruption to global supply chains and high-margin business-to-business demand, even as ground-package delivery services increase. Airlines have also raised debt and taken a series of cost-cutting measures as they ground an unprecedented number of planes and implement new policies on ticket refunds and exchanges in an effort to encourage passengers to book flights. Passenger airlines are eligible for $25 billion in cash grants, cargo carriers $4 billion and airport contractors like caterers and airplane cleaners $3 billion, and an equal amount in loans. Other airlines across the world are also seeking government aid as they brace for a prolonged downturn, with Air France-KLM in talks with banks to receive up to 6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) in loans guaranteed by the French and Dutch governments, sources told Reuters. Planemakers are also preparing for a slump in demand, with Reuters reporting on Friday that Airbus SE is studying a sharp cut in output of its top-selling A320 jet series. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio, Matthew Lewis, Nick Zieminski and Cynthia Osterman) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Almost 500,000 people could have died from coronavirus if the UK had adopted a 'do-nothing' approach associated with earlier 'herd immunity' plans, a study has suggested. As the virus began to take a stranglehold on the UK last month, the Government mooted the concept of beating back the disease by allowing 80 per cent of the country to become infected. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chief experts, England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, then dramatically changed tactics, introducing a nationwide lockdown. And a new study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has illustrated the potentially disastrous effect of a 'do-nothing' strategy. The researchers estimated there would have been at least 24million cases, meaning that 85 per cent of the population would have been infected, with as many as 470,000 deaths. In the nightmare scenario, the number of intensive care beds needed could have been as many as 360,000 80 times higher than UK capacity, which the experts said is 4,562 beds. Almost 500,000 people could have died from coronavirus if the UK had adopted a 'do-nothing' approach associated with earlier 'herd immunity' plans, a study has suggested Herd immunity is when enough people become resistant to a disease - through vaccination or previous exposure - that it can no longer significantly spread among the rest of the population. The concept first entered the UK's phraseology when the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance mentioned it in a broadcast interview. Sir Patrick told the BBC on March 13: 'Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission.' But two days later, Health Secretary Matt Hancock clarified that herd immunity was not a government policy. Nearly two weeks ago, Mr Johnson then introduced a nationwide lockdown, forcing all non-essential businesses to close, shutting schools and ordering people to stay at home. The latest study examined the impact of different measures including those such as social distancing and school closures, as well as a full lockdown on the projected coronavirus death toll. As the virus began to take a stranglehold on the UK last month, Government scientist Sir Patrick Vallance (pictured) mooted the concept of beating back the disease by allowing 80 per cent of the country to become infected The authors warned that 'extreme measures' are likely to be needed to 'bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially in ICUs'. In a scenario where officials did nothing to tackle the epidemic, there would have been a projected 370,000 deaths, with an upwards estimate of 470,000. The experts said this figure did not account for the numbers of people who would have died from other ailments because overwhelmed hospitals would not have been able to treat them. In a scenario where 'intensive interventions' including social distancing, school closures and shielding of the elderly - were introduced in combination but a lockdown was still avoided, there still could have been up to 270,000 deaths, the experts said. Britain's ICU capacity could have been breached by five-fold or more for several weeks despite the measures. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chief experts, England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, then dramatically changed tactics, introducing a nationwide lockdown The team also looked at scenarios where a lockdown was introduced at different stages of the epidemic. If a lockdown had been introduced when 1,000 beds were occupied, up to 170,000 people could have died, while if one was introduced after 2,000 beds were in use, there could have been up to 200,000 deaths. And if a lockdown was left until after the point where Britain's ICU capacity was breached with 5,000 beds occupied there could have been as many as 240,000 deaths. The study authors also cautioned that the current lockdown measures being imposed on the UK may need to be in place 'for a large proportion of the current year' if the demand for medical services is not to go beyond Britain's availability. The team warned: 'The characteristics of [the new coronavirus] mean that extreme measures are likely [to be] required to bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially in ICUs. 'In a scenario where 'lockdown'-type interventions were put in place to reduce transmission, these interventions would need to be in place for a large proportion of the coming year in order to prevent healthcare demand exceeding availability.' The study comes despite a senior Downing Street scientific adviser warning yesterday that Britain's coronavirus lockdown has pinned Britain 'into a corner' with no obvious exit strategy. Professor Graham Medley, the government's chief pandemic modeller, said the only viable path through the health emergency would be to let people become infected so they are no longer vulnerable. A new study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has illustrated the potentially disastrous effect of a 'do-nothing' strategy. Pictured: Police on horseback speak to people in Greenwich Park in London on Sunday He warned the current restrictions would not steer the country out of the pandemic - only prevent a short-term spread - but would bring the economy to its knees. Mounting unemployment, domestic violence and burgeoning mental health issues could be widespread if the normal functioning of society remains paralysed, Prof Medley forecast. Describing a trade-off between harming the lives of the young versus safeguarding the wellbeing of the elderly, the scientist said the Prime Minister had a 'big decision' to make on April 13 when the lockdown will be reviewed. Yet noises from Number 10 suggests the current curbs to everyday life will not be lifted, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday urging the public to 'keep their discipline'. He begged Britons to stay indoors ahead of a warm weekend as the UK announced 684 more Covid-19 fatalities, hiking the death toll to 3,605 - surpassing that reported by China - and more than 38,000 cases. Professor Neil Ferguson, who is also advising the government, said that he hopes the current restrictions could be eased by the end of May, but it would certainly not be 'a return to normal life'. The researchers estimated there would have been at least 24million cases, meaning that 85 per cent of the population would have been infected, with as many as 470,000 deaths. Pictured: Deserted Oxford Street last month after Boris Johnson introduced a nationwide lockdown This morning, he told the BBC's Today programme: 'I don't think anyone wants to lift measures at the current time and risk the epidemic getting worse. 'But if we see a rapid decline in cases, then of course the government will consider if they can relax those measures and modify certain measures in a way which is safe and still ensures the epidemic goes down.' In March, Health Secretary Matt Hancock clarified that herd immunity was not a Government policy. 'Herd immunity is not a part of it. That is a scientific concept, not a goal or a strategy,' he wrote in a newspaper article. But Prof Medley warned that the controversial method may be the only solution as under his modelling, simply allowing people suddenly back to work or school would cause a resurgence in cases of the virus. He said an antibody test, which shows whether a person has had the virus and could therefore be immune, could help, but that one had never before been used in the management of such an outbreak. A professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, he told the Times: 'This disease is so nasty that we had to suppress it completely. 'Then we've kind of painted ourselves into a corner, because then the question will be what do we do now?' NORRISTOWN Montgomery County officials Saturday reported 110 additional individuals who tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the countywide total to 888 cases, including three more deaths. We are sorry to report three deaths from COVID-19: two on April 1, a 70-year-old male and an 89-year-old male, both from Springfield Township, and one on April 3, a 74-year-old female from Horsham Township, said county Commissioners Chairwoman Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh in a written statement. These positive individuals are from 35 municipalities, bringing the total in Montgomery County to 56 municipalities affected by the spread of the coronavirus. A breakdown of new cases included an age range of 5 to 94 years, with 55 females and 55 males. Thirteen patients are known to be hospitalized. Montgomery Countys drive-through COVID-19 testing location at Temple Universitys Ambler Campus in Upper Dublin Township will reopen today, on Sunday, April 5, by appointment only for individuals that meet the required criteria and as testing supplies allow. No treatment will be given on-site. For more information and to register for an appointment, visit www.montcopa.org/COVID-19 or call 610.631.3000 starting at 8 a.m. Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Saturday the number of coronavirus cases in the commonwealth topped 10,000 with another 34 deaths reported, bringing the statewide total to 136. The department reported Saturday another 1,597 additional positive cases, bringing the statewide total to 10,017 across all but three of the commonwealths 67 counties. Officials say most patients hospitalized and most deaths have occurred in patients aged 65 or older. There have been no pediatric deaths to date, officials said. For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death. MEDICAL PERSONNEL-COLLEGE DORMS Some now-empty eastern Pennsylvania college dorms may be used to house medical professionals who need to self-quarantine or dont feel comfortable going home to their families after working with patients amid the coronavirus epidemic. The (Allentown) Morning Call reports that St. Lukes University Health Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network have approached Cedar Crest College, DeSales University, Moravian College, Muhlenberg College and Lehigh University about space for medical professionals. Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesman Brian Downs said the discussions were being held purely as contingency planning for caregivers. Muhlenberg said it will also be using one of its houses for first responders in Lehigh County who have been exposed to positive cases and need to be isolated from their families. Moravian President Bryon Grigsby noted that Gen. George Washington asked the school, the nations sixth-oldest college, to convert the Brethrens House into a hospital to treat soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Students across the nation have been sent home to do online classes for the rest of the semester amid the outbreak. GROCERY STORE MANAGER-SPITTING Authorities are trying to identify a man accused of having spat on a grocery store manager during an altercation in western Pennsylvania. Allegheny County police say Edgewood police were called to the Giant Eagle on Wednesday after a verbal altercation between a customer and a store manager. Police allege that during the altercation, the customer spat on the side of the managers face before leaving the store. Allegheny police say the man paid $50 for a money order but then demanded that he receive $100 for the order. Detectives have posted a photo of the suspect and are asking anyone who recognizes him to contact investigators. The COVID-19 outbreak continues to be a rapidly evolving situation. To get the latest information and updates regarding COVID-19, please visit the Montco COVID-19 Data Hub at www.montcopa.org/covid-19. Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council has accused the United States of crime against humanity for what he says is Washingtons role in blocking Tehrans request for an emergency IMF loan. Revolutionary Guard general Ali Shamkhani tweeted April 5 that Americas opposition to the granting of a loan by International Monetary Fund to Iran for securing needed supplies to fight the coronavirus is a real example of crime against humanity. Iran had applied for a $5 billion loan from the IMF in March for the first time since 1962. The country is the worst hit by the pandemic in the Middle East with thousands dead and tens of thousands infected. However, there is little international confidence in the Islamic Republics transparency and financial responsibility in using such funds. In the end of his tweet Shamkhani added a hashtag saying, Trump is more dangerous than corona. Iran has also launched a diplomatic campaign to force Washington to suspend its tough economic sanctions that were imposed in 2018 to force Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear and missile programs, as well as its regional policies. The IMF announced the first tranche of an emergency loan package to developing countries to help them overcome the economic consequences of the global pandemic. The biggest recipient was India with one billion dollars, while Irans neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan also received smaller amounts. Iran, which is accused of supporting militant groups and Bashar Assads regime in Syria, has also refused to ratify economic legislation mandated by the international community to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism. The European Union had promised to support Irans application for the IMF loan, but it is not clear if the United States has directly blocked the request or the IMF has not made a decision yet. The first set of tests in mice of a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19 has shown it can spur the animals' immune systems to produce antibodies against the coronavirus.The vaccine is delivered via a fingertip-sized, Band-Aid-like patch made of 400 tiny needles that scratch the skin. The researchers who are developing the vaccine say the immune system reacts more readily to irritations of the skin, which means doing so could trigger it to target the coronavirus.When tested on mice, they developed antibodies to fight the coronavirus within two weeks.The researchers said in a study published in the medical journal EBioMedicine that they had already been at work on vaccines to fight the two other deadlier coronavirus strains: SARS, which broke out in China in 2003, and MERS, which hit Middle Eastern countries and South Korea in 2014.co-senior author Andrea Gambotto, M.D., associate professor of surgery at the Pitt School of Medicine, said in a statement.the statement said.said co-senior author Louis Falo, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of dermatology at Pitt's School of Medicine and UPMC.The newly tested mice have not been tracked long term yet, but the researchers point outthey said.But final release of a vaccine is still a while away.Falo said.Yet the researchers are optimistic that new testing techniques mean developing vaccines for any type of emerging virus can be done more quickly.they wrote. Doctors in European countries including Spain and France are reportedly turning to euthanasia to ease the burden of coronavirus on already-overwhelmed health services. In both Spain and France, deaths from coronavirus have ballooned above the official number of dead in China, where the outbreak first began. In Spain, there have been 130,759 reported cases, with 4,591 deaths, while in France, 89,953 people have had or have the virus, with 7,560 succumbing to it so far. And despite the use of euthanasia being illegal in both countries, doctors have said there is a 'temptation' for it to be used. Spanish doctors are also reportedly being told not to use ventilators on patients older than 80. Doctors in European countries including Spain and France are reportedly turning to euthanasia to ease the burden of coronavirus on already-overwhelmed health services. Pictured: A French doctor wears a mask as he speaks on the phone in Tours, western France In Spain, a former member of Catalonia's parliament claimed some elderly patients and those with pre-existing conditions are being given morphine to avoid the 'futility of health care'. Alfons Lopez Tena wrote in a tweet: 'Catalonia's govt decides to let die coronavirus patients who have "less years to live", [and recommends] no "admissions in hospital of patients with little benefit". 'Elders and those with pre-existing conditions will be given morphine to avoid "futility of health care",' he added. North-east Spain's Catalonia region has nearly 24,000 cases of COVID-19 and admissions to intensive care units have tripled in recent weeks. Yahoo news reported that according to regional newspaper LaVanguardia, the document cited by Mr Tena also recommends that medics do not use ventilators for patients older than 80. In both Spain and France, deaths from coronavirus have ballooned above the official number of dead in China, where the outbreak first began. Pictured: Mortuary workers wear face masks and gloves as they carry a coffin in Madrid yesterday It reportedly adds that patients who are extremely ill should be allowed to die at home rather than being taken to hospital. And in France, Dr Bernard Devalois, a palliative care doctor in Bordeaux, warned that with reports of shortages of morphine and the drug midazolam - which when used together help soothe the end of life - there would be a 'temptation of euthanasia' in care homes where staff are faced with the terrible suffering of asphyxia. Shortages are reportedly meaning that extremely ill coronavirus sufferers are faced with an agonising death. Professor Olivier Guerin, who heads the French Gerontology and Geriatrics Society (SFGG), said medics are faced with choosing who to resuscitate. 'Making the choice of who should be resuscitated is what intensive care teams do all the time,' he said. And Dr Thibaud Soumagne, a lung specialist who works in an intensive care unit in Besancon near the Swiss border, explained that resuscitation is sometimes 'not beneficial in the long run' for patients with extreme breathing problems. 'We would be making them suffer for nothing,' he added. Professor Regis Aubry, a former head of the French Palliative Care Society (SFAP), who is working in a special COVID-19 unit in another hospital in eastern France, said with victims dying without the comfort of friends and family - for fear of infection - they had to make their end of life as comfortable as possible. 'Just because we are in an emergency situation, we should not forget about being humane,' he told AFP. SFAP has set up a hotline to advise staff in old people's homes, where more than 2,000 have died in France since the epidemic began. The society said the homes should be given greater medical support for palliative care as others have called for the lifting of restrictions on the use of certain drugs outside hospitals. In Spain, Alfons Lopez Tena, a former member of Catalonia's parliament claimed some elderly patients and those with pre-existing conditions are being given morphine to avoid the 'futility of health care' Mobile palliative care units are also being set up in some parts of the country. Dr Devalois said the breathing difficulties that come with severe COVID-19 caused great anguish, and patients may need to be treated with anti-anxiety drugs like alprazolam (Xanax) and prazepam (Lysanxia) when they can still take them orally. But when they are suffering from asphyxia they need to be profoundly sedated quickly, he added. Dr Devalois argued that the authorities must ask hospital pharmacies to send sufficient supplies of drugs like midazolam to old people's homes, that normally don't have access to them. He said carers' mission must be to ensure that victims do not have horrible deaths. With up to a third of the deaths from the virus in France happening in old people's homes, Professor Claude Jeandel, head of the national group of geriatric practitioners, said care assistants should be given access to drugs recommended by the SFAP. He said they were need to soften the distress of 'asphyxia for the very many residents who will not be hospitalised and who will die in the homes.' Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has pledged monthly ration to support 1,00,000 households of daily wage workers belonging to the All India Film Employees Confederation amid the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative will be supported by Sony Pictures Networks India and Kalyan Jewellers. "Given the unprecedented nature of the situation we are in, an initiative undertaken by Mr Bachchan, WE ARE ONE' has been supported by Sony Pictures Networks India and Kalyan Jewellers, through which the monthly ration of 1,00,000 households across the country will be funded," a statement released by Sony Pictures Networks on Sunday read. "Through a commercial tie-up with a leading chain of hypermarkets and grocery stores in India, digitally barcoded coupons have been distributed to a verified list of workers from the All India Film Employees Confederation. Furthermore, monetary help has also been extended to those in need," it added. However, there was no information till when these daily wage workers will receive monthly ration from the donators. NP Singh, managing director and CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India, said as part of its CSR outreach, SPN took the initiative of working alongside Bachchan to support the households of daily wage earners of the Indian film and television industry. Bachchan, 77, has been hosting the reality game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" for Sony since 2010. "SPN's support will ensure that at least 50,000 workers and their families have their home supplies for a month," he added. Along with this, Bachchan will also feature in a short film "Family", which has been conceptualised and virtually directed by Prasoon Pandey. "Family", which talks about the importance of staying at home, maintaining hygiene and social distancing, also features Rajinikanth, Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Alia Bhatt, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Mammootty, Sonali Kulkarni, Shiv Raj Kumar, Prosenjit Chatterjee, and Diljit Dosanjh. The short film will telecast across Sony Network on April 6. "Family" aims to capture the resilience of human spirit amid tough times, Singh added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) THE government has directed the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to take all the necessary and appropriate measures in implementing President John Magufulis directives to ensure free, fair and transparent elections. The Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled), Jenista Mhagama told the commission to observe and adhere to all fundamental principles outlined in the State's electoral laws in order to achieve the goal. Ms Mhagama said yesterday that the government was providing the commission with all the necessary support in the preparations for the October general elections. "Our role as the government is to ensure that you receive all support for preparations ahead of the elections," she said, noting that it had provided money to the commission to facilitate the updating of the voters register, the first of whose process ended last month and second phase of which was set to start this month. The minister made the remarks while handing over 12 out of 20 purchased vehicles to facilitate the commission in the preparations for the awaited elections. She said the government was highly committed to ensure the commission didnt fail in the course of implementing the electoral law requirements. "The National Election Act and the State's constitution outline the central roles of the commission, including overseeing the by elections and general elections in the country," she said, stressing the need for the commission to ensure that the coming elections are held in a transparent manner and in accordance with the law. She reminded the commission that the electoral laws also barred politicians, political parties and public leaders from interfering with the electoral process, reiterating the need for the commission to keenly stick to electoral laws to achieve credible elections. According to Ms Mhagama, the government would not interfere, but rather monitor all the processes and providing all the necessary support needed by the commission to undertake their roles. As the government, we are observing and monitoring without interfering, she said, adding that the commission had since involved various stakeholders, including political parties, in the preparations of the electoral processes. On other hand, the minister said that the commission had been doing credible work that had even attracted other countries, such as Malawi, since the introduction of multi-party elections in the country. Since the introduction of the multiparty system in 1992 then came the establishment of the commission in 1993; we have been experiencing credible elections through the commission and our hope is to see the commission maintain the trend. She pointed out that reports by international election observers and others indicated that the commission conducted the election in accordance with the electoral laws. Commenting on the 12 vehicles she handed over to the commission, Ms Mhagama said President Magufuli was committed to ensure free, fair and transparent general elections by ensuring NEC received all the facilities required, including vehicles, to facilitate the implementation of the electoral process. She said the government had set aside funds and had since provided 100 per cent of the funds to the commission to carry out electoral activities, including updating of the voter registration and purchase of other required facilities in the first phase. NEC Director Dr Wilson Mahera said the commission had completed various preparations of the electoral process, including the first phase of voter registration that kicked off in July last year. The second phase is scheduled for this month. Dr Mahera said that the commission had 144bn/- in 2019/2020 financial year meant to facilitate preparations of the process. We are in the process of purchasing various facilities required, including vehicles that will facilitate our movements during the second phase of voter registration update, he said, adding that commission has purchased 20 vehicles worth 4.7bn/-. When addressing diplomats at a party to welcome the 2020 New Year at the State House in the Dar es Salaam, President Magufuli assured the diplomats of peaceful, free and fair general elections come October 2020. President Magufuli said international observers will be welcomed to witness how Tanzania was maturing democratically. As you are all aware, our country will hold general elections later this year. I want to assure you that the government is well prepared to ensure that the elections will be free and fair, said President Magufuli. Eight Malaysian citizens, who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin here, were caught by immigration authorities at the IGI Airport while trying to flee the country through a special flight arranged for the stranded travellers of that nation, officials said on Sunday. The eight Malaysian Tablighi activists were hiding in the Delhi-NCR region and they tried to take the advantage of a special flight arranged by the Malaysian High Commission for their citizens stranded in India due to the corona-triggered 21-day lockdown. The eight, however, were caught by the immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here before boarding the special flight, a government official said. The eight Malaysians were debarred from boarding the flight as the central government has directed all state police forces to take action against those foreigners who had come to India on tourist visa and participated the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. The government has already blacklisted 960 foreigners and cancelled their visa for violating visa conditions. The eight Malaysians have been handed over to the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police by the immigration authorities. All eight will be put in quarantine, officials said. So far, more than 400 COVID-19 positive cases and about 15 deaths in the country were found to have links with the Nizamuddin Markaz. Action against the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members were taken after over 2,300 activists, including 250 foreigners, were found to be living at its headquarters located at Delhi's Nizamuddin last week despite the 21-day lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus. At least 9,000 people had participated at the congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz last month after which many have travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works. The participants include citizens of 41 nationalities. They are 379 Indonesians, 110 Bangladeshi,77 Kyrgyzstan, 75 Malaysian, 65 Thai, 63 Myanmarese and 33 Sri Lankan citizens besides others. The Home Ministry had also asked Delhi Police and police chiefs of other states, where these foreigners are currently living, to take legal action under the Foreigners Act and the Disaster Management Act. The Home Ministry had said about 2,100 foreigners have come to India since January 1 and indulged in Tablighi activities in different parts of the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KAMPALA Education Minister Mrs. Janet Museveni has said that her Ministry has secured free learning airtime on radio to engage students that may not have access to online platforms during the coronavirus lockdown. President Museveni on March 18 ordered the closure of schools across the country in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In a televised address on Saturday, April 04, Mrs. Museveni urged teachers to prepare material for the next terms and remedial work based on lessons that will be carried on local radio stations. She said that the government will also inform stakeholders about the opening date for schools but, if all goes according to plan, Term one will open on April 27, 2020, to June 12, 2020 The Education Minister said term two would open on June 22 to September 4, while term three will begin on 21 September and close on December 19. University will resume on May 02, 2020. All holidays for pre-primary, primary secondary and Universities are to be shortened Mrs. Museveni also clarified that additional fees should not be charged when Term one resumes and that the end of term exams are suspended. When schools reopen it will be a continuation of term one so no extra fees. No tests at the end of term one. That time should be used for studying. Candidates will do one mock examination. External mocks are banned, the Minister said. All online examinations are suspended until we are out of this crisis. Holidays will be shorter to cover for lost time. Should the lockdown be prolonged, Mrs. Museveni said the ministry will also communicate and find ways of engaging the learners. Related Continue Reading First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on April 8, 1895 SPECIAL CABLES. FROM THE HERALD'S LONDON CORRESPONDENTS. THE LONDON SCANDAL. OSCAR WILDE v. THE MARQUIS OF QUEENSBERRY. DETENTION OF WITNESSES BY POLICE. ARREST OF OSCAR WILDE. LONDON, April 5. Oscar Wilde hurriedly left the court while counsel for the Marquis of Queens-berry was explaining that the prosecutor's literature and letters justified the plea that Wilde posed as an immoral person. Wilde withdrew in order to avoid the appalling evidence that he feared would be brought against him by the witnesses for the defence. Oscar Wilde in an undated photograph The verdict of Not guilty was received in court with loud cheers. Christine Pascua & Steve Povey Christine and Steve met at a South Philadelphia happy hour in 2015. The two strangers laughed when they ordered the same drink, toasted each other with their shots of Patron, and in the moments before returning to their separate groups of friends, made plans to meet again three days later she would treat him to Moshulu for his birthday. He was far too interested in this cute and funny woman to admit he hates fish. Before long, Steve, who grew up in Norwood, Delaware County, introduced Christine to his parents and sister. Then came dinners with the Poveys and weekend shopping or spa trips with Steves mom and sister, all of which made Christine very happy. Since moving from Pine Bush, N.Y., to oversee the cardiac ultrasound department at CHOP, she was only able to see her family every other month. She missed her three sisters, her parents, and the weekly trips with her dad to his favorite store, H Mart. Christines dad had taught her to cook Filipino classics: pancit, the glass noodle dish that is his specialty; adobo, a tangy stew with fish sauce; an oxtail dish called kare kare. Now that she was home only every other month, she stayed connected with the Pascuas via FaceTime and group chats, and the cooking she did in her own kitchen. READ MORE: Can I get married during the coronavirus? Christine prides herself on cooking to her audiences preferences, and her wooing of Steve was very cheesy. Lasagna, baked ziti, she would make trays of them for me, he remembers. Once she fell in love with him, she taught Steve to cook with her. Christine has taught him many things, Steve says. From where I was before we met to where I am now, Im just much better off as a person, he said. He had been selling Toyotas, making good money, but working 60-plus-hour weeks. She told me, You can change that. She helped me find a direction, and helped me get a college degree. Steve, who is now 32, is in charge of loading and unloading aircraft for UPS at Philadelphia International Airport a job he loves, even when it rains. Christine, who is now 35, earned a degree while Steve earned his at the same time both worked. The support is mutual, she said. Whatever day Im having, hell do his best to make it better, she said. His goal in life is to make me laugh, and he balances out some parts of me if Im too worried about something, he will show me another way to look at it. In 2016, they got their first place together, in Chestnut Hill. On their annual romantic Jamaican vacation that year, Christine was, as usual, bugging photo-shy Steve to get in her selfie. Why dont you take it with this on? he asked, offering an engagement ring. Almost immediately, Christine began to plan, fretting and re-fretting over every detail. Steve, who makes decisions more easily and never second-guesses any of them, gave her space to do her thing. We generally agree on most things. Shell second-guess a little bit, but we almost always end up in the same place, he said. In this case, that place would be Terrain at Styers in Glen Mills. On May 29, 2020, they hoped about 100 guests would witness their vows and eat truly amazing cake. Just three flavors in, Steve tried the lemon cake with strawberry frosting and proclaimed it the one. Christine needed to try them all before they narrowed the other two layers to coconut with key lime curd and butter cream key lime is Steves dads favorite flavor of everything and white cake with pistachio butter cream. READ MORE: Love in the time of corona: A wedding engaging the Mutter Museum family, full of warmth from a social distance In February, Christine suggested Steve start packing for their Jamaican honeymoon. By March, planning for anything even routine things like a day at work or a trip to the grocery store become increasingly difficult. COVID-19 had arrived in Philadelphia. Businesses and schools were closed. Large gatherings were no longer allowed. Everyone was supposed to stay home. Steve and Christine, who now live in Prospect Park, decided they needed to postpone the wedding. But then Christine began second-guessing: What if the virus were more contained by then and restrictions lifted? What if they invited fewer guests and seated them 6 feet apart? What if they found masks for everyone? But also, what if one of them got sick and they had to cancel last-minute? Or, worst of all, what if they or a guest had no idea they were sick, and then one of their parents or Steves wonderful great-aunt got really sick? Christine could not stop going over the facts and possibilities again and again and again. But the what-ifs ended and the un-planning began when her father said: Im kind of afraid to come to your wedding. They pushed the wedding to 2021 to allow more time for the virus to be brought under control, and so that all the carefully chosen vendors would be available. Every vendor agreed to let them postpone with no penalty, and in turn, Christine and Steve offered all of them another chunk of their payments to help them get through this lean time. READ MORE: Philadelphia florists give away 2,000 flowers from events canceled due to coronavirus The spread of the virus in the weeks since their decision has made surreal a time when there was even a question. Even if we flatten the curve by then and people are able to travel, its just not the right time for a wedding, Steve said. God forbid, if even one person were sick , Christine said. Her brother-in-law now does most of her parents shopping, but recently, Christine mailed her dad a box of extravagant meats pork chops, venison, chicken, and a whole duck. I knew sending this would give him some escape he would not be reading the news while he cooked, so he would not worry, she said. When her mom texted that her dad was on the computer hunting for duck recipes, Christine knew she had succeeded. The couple now has a new wedding date: Memorial Day 2021. Same month, same place, next year, as Christine puts it. Next month, on what would have been their wedding day, Steve and Christine will share a little sadness and a lot of cake. Operative IQs Inventory and Asset management solutions help first responders manage critical medical supply inventory and equipment efficiently in real-time amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic. First Responders must regularly perform vehicle checks, inventory counts, expiration date audits, restock orders and verify equipment location and condition. Operative IQ is aiding agency readiness by standardizing processes and capturing information to assist in decision making that will ensure the availability of needed supplies and equipment. Using an integrated Operative IQ check sheet, front-line providers capture availability and usage data which is used to calculate ideal stocking quantity for each item in any given supply room. The Manage Inventory Levels tool in Operative IQ analyzes average weekly usage along with demand variability for each item to calculate suggested stocking parameters. With increased national supply demand and longer order lead times, this tool enables providers to accurately forecast supply needs to stay ahead of the ordering curve. With ideal stock levels and on-hand inventory counts established, Operative IQ assists agencies in ordering needed supplies by generating a draft purchase requisition for review. Orders can be submitted to suppliers in a variety of ways, but electronic processing of approved POs through Operative IQs integrated suppliers saves time, improves accountability and reduces errors. Integrated suppliers include Bound Tree Medical, Life-Assist, Moore Medical, McKesson Medical, Medline, Grainger and Office Depot. Status Boards and reports provide first responders quick access to real-time supply levels, orders and status updates. EMS managers analyze detailed views of available inventory, expiration dates, supply usage and trends through Operative IQ to make sound decisions. Streaming access to this live, critical data allows agencies to proactively manage scarce resources in this rapidly evolving public health situation. From Florida to Washington State, departments are currently taking advantage of Operative IQs RFID Automation Technology to quickly and accurately reconcile supply room on-hand inventory counts. Automation of this manual process saves time and improves inventory accuracy while freeing up field staff to provide medical care. RFID handheld and fixed readers capture live inventory counts and expiration dates within minutes allowing logistics to restock needed supplies at outlying stations keeping them service ready. Operative IQ is also helping providers account for critical assets and life-saving equipment in the field. Crew can account for assets using an electronic check sheet on any device and Operative IQs RFID handheld reader takes it a step further by automating the verification of assigned assets on each unit within minutes through a quick scan of the truck. In this public health crisis, Operative IQ is being used by thousands of public safety professionals on the front line and behind the scenes to ensure our first responders remain ready to serve. EMS Technology Solutions offers cutting edge, affordable operations management software and products designed with First Responders in mind. Operative IQ Operations Management Software offers modules that include: Inventory Management & Asset Management, Integrated Purchasing, Fleet Maintenance, Service Desk Ticketing System and RFID Tracking. EMS Technology Solutions has won four consecutive EMS World Top Innovation Awards for its operations management software. Nora Fatehi recently appeared on film critic and trade analyst Komal Nahtas chat show, Starry Nights Gen Y. The Street Dancer 3D actress spoke at length about her journey and struggles in life and Bollywood. She also revealed that her family had financial woes and as a result, she started working since she was in high school. Nora said, My first-ever job was as a retail sales associate in a mall which was right next to my high school so I would finish my classes and go there. I was 16. I had to work for many reasons. There were a lot of financial issues in my family and I was supposed to be the one that would step up and be the breadwinner She went on to add, I was working in a mens clothing store so I was selling suits, putting outfits together and all that. After that, I did numerous things. I worked as a waitress in restaurants, bars and shawarma places. I worked in a telemarketing office, cold calling people and selling lottery tickets. 'Hi, maam, do you want to buy this ticket? and 90 percent of the time, they were like (imitates the sound of phone hanging up). I worked on commission, I worked in McDonald's once. I did everything. Meanwhile, the actress will next be seen as a spy in Bhuj: The Pride of India, set against the backdrop of the 1971 Indo-Pak war. She began shooting for the film in January and learned Mixed Martial Arts as a part of her prep for her role in the Ajay Devgn fronted multi-starrer. ALSO READ: Nora Fatehi On Her Role In Bhuj: The Pride Of India: 'It's A Great Elevation In My Career' ALSO READ: Varun Dhawan's New Rap About 21 Days Lockdown Also Features PM Narendra Modi ExxonMobil saw its credit rating downgraded by Moodys on Thursday from Aaa to Aa1, with a Negative outlook. Two weeks ago, S&P cut Exxons credit rating. The oil majors struggles are growing, but they predate the pandemic and the collapse of oil prices. It seems like years ago, but Exxon gave a bullish presentation to investors in early March as part of its annual Investor Day. In that presentation, CEO Darren Woods said that Exxon would was leaning into this market when others have pulled back, by which he meant that the company was spending aggressively even as oil prices remained soft. A day later, the OPEC+ talks fell apart and oil careened downwards. The global pandemic was already beginning to ravage Western Europe and would soon spread across the United States. The dual crises exploded the logic of Exxons growth strategy. A raft of spending cuts from the oil majors quickly followed. Exxon itself has said it would rethink its plans and would likely announce spending cuts, but it has waited quite a bit longer than its competitors to ax its 2020 budget. Exxon's cash flow trajectory was already relatively weak entering 2020, as very high growth capital investment combined with muted oil and gas prices and low [earnings in its downstream and chemicals segments] resulted in substantial negative free cash flow and rising debt in 2019, Moodys analysts wrote. Now, the large drop in oil prices and continued weakness in downstream and chemicals performance leaves the company poised to incur sizable negative free cash flow funded with debt. The credit ratings agency does not see Exxon able to regain its higher credit rating in the medium term, according to S&P Global Platts. Even Exxons campaign to sell assets has not gone as planned, as it has struggled to line up buyers. In 2019, the oil major aimed to sell off $5 billion in assets, but only succeeded in generating $3.7 billion in sales. This is no small detail since Exxon has routinely used asset sales to paper over its cash flow gap, a necessary source of cash in order to finance its dividend, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Over the past decade, the company has covered one-third of its total cash distributions to shareholders through sources other than free cash flow, IEEFA wrote in an analysis of Exxons situation. Asset sales have provided key cash infusions to make up that shortfall. For instance, in 2019, Exxon paid $15.3 billion to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends, but only generated $5.4 billion in free cash flow. The remaining $9.9 billion had to be made up somehow, and Exxon did that through selling assets and taking on debt. Related: U.S. Shale Ready To Fire Back In The Oil Price War But the climate for selling oil assets has deteriorated, to say the least. Lining up buyers will be challenging, and the price of the assets Exxon is trying to get rid of will be notably lower than the company had hoped. Lower-than-expected cash flow from asset sales might mean that Exxon needs to take on more debt, especially since it steadfastly refuses to touch its dividend. The dividend yield recently topped 10 percent and is widely seen as unsustainable. However, more borrowing only piles on more debt, which would put additional pressure on its credit rating. In mid-March alone, Exxon borrowed another $8.5 billion. Moodys said that even if Exxon were to somehow keep pace with its planned asset sales, the company would still take on more debt through 2021. Ultimately, however, Exxon feels it can weather this storm, and it can certainly outlast its weaker shale competitors. The Trump administration hosted several oil executives at the White House on Friday. The oil industry is looking for a handout, and various ideas tariffs on imported oil, filling up the SPR, loans, deregulation, and a global production cut deal are on the table, even if they will prove to be inadequate at dealing with the market surplus. Exxon has pushed back against too much government help or intervention, betting that a lot of shale companies will go out of business. Indeed, according to Rystad Energy, a record number of companies will file for bankruptcy this year. The firm says that more than 70 companies could go under in 2020. And if $30 oil persists into next year, the number of Chapter 11 filings could balloon to between 150 to 200 companies. In our view we will need WTI prices of $40 to $45 per barrel to eliminate the upcoming explosion in the number of financially distressed US E&Ps, while the most efficient and least leveraged players will still be able to survive with oil prices below $20 per barrel WTI, Rystad Energys Head of Shale Research Artem Abramov said in a statement. ExxonMobil wont be one of those companies, but that does not mean that it isnt feeling intense financial pressure. Exxons share price has fallen by half in the past year and is down by a third since February. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: There are photos on social media of dairy farmers dumping milk down the drain because processors have no market for it. At the same time, photos are appearing of grocery stores signs saying customers must limit their milk purchases. That doesnt make sense. Whats the deal? Its complicated, but basically the industry got turned on end when the COVID-19 crisis hit the U.S. People in the industry are working to right the ship, but its been a challenge to pivot quickly enough. At first, people stocked up on dairy products, especially fluid milk, like never before. That left empty shelves in the dairy section. Grocery stores responded by setting quantity limits on milk purchases so they didnt run out again. Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation president, said on a media call April 3 that he personally reached out to Walmart asking them about their milk purchasing limits. Its gotten to the point that the American Dairy Association Mideast is asking people to report stores in Ohio and West Virginia that are putting quantity limits on milk purchases. If you see a store limiting milk purchases, take a picture, note the location, date and time and send it to Erin.Brown@Drink-Milk.com. Whats going on at grocery stores is an issue of incredibly high demand, not low supply. The U.S. does NOT have an issue with milk supply. If you like drinking milk, thats the good news. Theres lots to go around. Thats also the bad news. Many dairy processors lost markets for their milk and other products as schools and restaurants were forced to close. Food service, schools and universities are big customers for many processors. On top of that, milk production in cows naturally rises in the spring. Its called the spring flush. Hence, the surplus of milk. Milk, being a highly perishable commodity, cant just sit around in a silo until the market recovers and schools reopen. While milk can be diverted over to be put in half gallons and gallons which seem to be in demand with lots of families stuck at home making that switch takes time. Some processors cant take on anymore, so theyre asking farmers to dump some of their milk. Dairy plants are also dealing with the same issues other businesses are with keeping the workforce healthy. Employees are calling off sick or due to lack of childcare issues (since the schools are out, remember). Some plants are doing modified runs to allow for social distancing and taking more downtime to ensure proper sanitization to protect employees. That also doesnt help processors with products that were already packaged for schools and food service customers, like milk in half pint cartons or shredded cheese in bulk. One question thats popped up is why cant milk be donated to a food bank instead of being dumped? Well, because it still has to be processed first. Thats an issue if processors are having trouble keeping up as is. Milk and other dairy products are being donated when and where its possible, but thats not a solution for every dairy. In response to these issues, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would relax some rules within the Federal Milk Marketing Order program if requested, including allowing milk to be dumped and still priced and pooled on the order to limit financial impacts on producers. That doesnt guarantee farmers will be paid for dumped milk, but its the first step in the process. The Ohio Department of Agriculture issued guidance to farmers on how to properly dispose of excess milk. That guidance can be found here. The Veterans Administration system of hospitals and clinics, created to care for those who have served in our nations military, has an additional role probably not familiar to most Americans. Since 1982, federal law designates the VA system as the official backup system for our countrys private health care community in the face of national emergencies. The VA system, including in the Midlands, has particular strengths and specializations that can help in the fight against COVID-19. The VAs 172 hospitals have extensive expertise, in terms of training and facilities, in helping older patients as well as those with special needs such as breathing disorders qualities of particular value in confronting the COVID-19 threat. The VA has been ordering extra supplies since early this year. The VA system has far more negative pressure rooms, which isolate those with an illness such as COVID-19, than does the private hospital community. Many VA hospitals currently have surplus beds. Preparations have been well underway in Omaha at the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System. The campus has gone through huge change in what were used to, director B. Don Burman says. Nigeria has now recorded five deaths from coronavirus infection after Lagos State recorded another death on Saturday. Akin Abayomi, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, gave the update of the second death in the state on Sunday. We lost a COVID19 patient; a 36 year old Nigerian male who died in a private facility on 4th April, 2020. Total number of COVID19 patients who have died are now 2, he wrote on Twitter. The second death was recorded one day after the state recorded its first death. Lagos State, which had a perfect record of successful treatment of coronavirus patients, from admission to recovery and discharge, recorded the two deaths within two days. The first death was a 55-year-old patient who died at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) on Friday, while being treated for renal infection, unknown to the doctors that he had COVID-19 infection. The patient had a travel history to the Netherlands, but this was not disclosed to the doctors, Mr Abayomi had said. The deceased was 55 year old Nigerian; male who lived in Holland but returned to Lagos 2 weeks ago. He had a kidney transplant 7yrs ago and also diabetic. He was on strong immune suppression drugs for the kidney transplant. He was admitted on the night of April 2nd, 2020 on presumption of complications from the kidney transplant. He did not provide full account of his travel history or medical circumstances to the attending doctors in keeping with global trend and to enable guided treatment for #COVID19 related vulnerability due to severe underlying ill health. He however demonstrated some signs of an upper respiratory chest infection. He later tested positive for #COVID19 but died early hours of April 3rd, 2020 from a cardiac arrest. May his soul rest in peace, the commissioner explained. On Sunday, he did not provide such elaborate details about the second death. As of Sunday, the total death from coronavirus in Nigeria is five, with the first death being that of Suleiman Achimugu, the former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), who died on March 22. Meanwhile, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos State Governor and COVID-19 Incident Commander, while giving an update on Sunday, said it is sad that the state has recorded another death, bringing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in Lagos State to two. READ ALSO: Although, there is a strong indication that the state is winning the battle against the disease, which is ravaging several countries across the world, but we need to remain steadfast and aggressive to curtail the spread, he said in a statement his office sent to PREMIUM TIMES. We will do our best to make sure that other patients at the facility receive the best of care and attention so that they can return home to join their families and the community soonest, he said. He enjoined Lagosians to keep safe social distance, avoid large gatherings and keep a good hygiene to help the state combat the spread of the virus. As of Sunday evening, there were 224 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Nigeria, with 27 patients discharged and five deaths. Curfew passes of three government employees in Doda district have been cancelled for alleged misuse amid the lockdown period. The officials are also likely to face suspension soon, Deputy Commissioner Dr Sagar D Doifode informed the media. "Curfew passes of three government employees were cancelled for misusing the passes during lockdown in Doda, Jammu and Kashmir yesterday. We are going to suspend the officials," he said. On March 24, the Centre had announced a complete lockdown in the country for 21 days to fight COVID-19. Essential services like medical shops, petrol pumps, grocery stores, milk booths and online shopping were exempted from the lockdown. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday said that there are 3030 active cases of coronavirus in India, out which 266 have been cured/ discharged/ migrated. A total of 77 people have lost their lives to the infection so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Spitting in public or chewing tobacco products could help spread coronavirus infection, government officials said on Sunday while ruling out the possibility of the disease spreading through the air. In view of the increasing dangers from the Covid pandemic, ICMR has issued an advisory requesting people to avoid smoking, spitting in public places and consumption of tobacco products in this period, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, the health ministry. Uttar Pradesh was among the first states to slap a ban on selling of tobacco products and spitting in public among measures to contain the spread of the disease. In another related announcement, the government officials confirmed that the rapid diagnostic tests will only be limited to particular areas. Rapid diagnostic test to be done in hotspots, evacuation centres and places of large gatherings to test for influenza-like illnesses, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, ministry of health. ICMR has issued detailed guidelines for antibody testing, also referred to as rapid antibody-based tests, in the last two days while adopting a new strategy to deal with Covid-19 clusters (containment zone), in large migration gatherings and in centers were evacuees are kept in quarantine, where a large number of Covid-19 cases are arising. In another important announcement, ICMR said that the deadly Covid-19 virus doesnt spread through the air as suggested recently by the experts in the United States. Dr R Gangakhedkar of ICMR said that while it was routine for different expert opinions to exist on matters such as this, there was not enough scientific evidence available to suggest Covid-19 was an airborne disease. A balanced evidence-based approach must be taken. Had it been an air-borne infection then all the members of a family with a positive case amidst them should test positive as they all breathe the same air, Gangakhedkar reasoned. He also cited the example of a hospital environment which could have lent itself to a more regular spread of the infection to all the patients present at the facility. Airborne diseases spread by viruses and bacteria are considered to be highly contagious and a high-level scientific panel in the United States had suggested that coronavirus could spread by just talking and breathing in contrast with earlier findings and analysis. The scientists said the virus could stay in the air in the form of an ultrafine mist that is produced when people exhale. While the current specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolisation of virus from normal breathing, said a letter written by Dr Harvey Fineberg, chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicines standing committee of experts. India has officially reported little under 4000 positive cases so far and the government says the dangerous phase of community transmissions has not been observed yet. Digital services that were introduced to bolster government institutions over the last few years are proving to be effective as Saudi Arabia locks down parts of the country. From an app that allows people to book hospital appointments from their homes, to an e-learning portal, the country is now slowly bearing the fruits of a digital push that began with the announcement of the Vision 2030 program in 2016. Technology is being relied on heavily by the government to provide digital services, manage healthcare operations and identify those infected with COVID-19, said Carrington Malin, an entrepreneur and technology writer. The Central Appointment System (Mawid) is an example of a successful digital service. The mobile app, which was launched by the Saudi Ministry of Health last year, is being used to streamline individual applications for COVID-19 tests and has become central to the Kingdoms coronavirus response. The app recently started offering a symptoms self-assessment feature as the number of confirmed cases spiked. To use the Mawid app, a user must have an account with the Saudi Ministry of Interiors Absher platform, which gives residents of the country access to government services and also allows individuals and businesses to make financial transactions. Services are also offered via a web portal. Saudi Arabia is utilising existing investments The use of thermal imaging for screening is another example of how government departments are leveraging existing investments. The country has been long been using thermal-imaging cameras at airports to help screen for infectious diseases such as Ebola and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), in particular during the annual Hajj season. These cameras are now being used to screen for the novel Coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. However, one of the biggest measures introduced by Saudi Arabia in recent weeks is the closure of thousands of schools across the Kingdom and implementation of e-learning. Again, Saudis previous investments seem to be paying dividends here, said Malin. The Ministry of Education has spent the last five years developing the National Education Portal, known as iEN. The portal, which is already being used by many schools to support traditional teaching methods, now supports millions of Saudi students studying at home. The digitization of services is not restricted to health and education alone. Justice Ministry offers services via portal The Saudi Ministry of Justices Nagis portal offers electronic judicial services for matters related to court services, agencies, real estate, and even marriage contracts. By using the Ministry of Interiors website, residents can now avail a wide range of services from their homes, including renewal of passport and extension of visit visa. Saudi Arabia has done a remarkable job in utilizing technology as one of the main tools in their efforts to contain the situation, said Bilal Sununu, the CEO of Business to IT Services (B2ITS), a Saudi Arabia-based consulting and infrastructure solutions provider. Like its neighbors in the Gulf including the UAE and Oman, the country has removed restrictions on remote working tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Saudi Arabia has also been promoting e-channels and e-payments by helping service providers set up the needed platforms to facilitate stay-at-home needs, Sununu said, adding that the government was officially recognizing delivery service applications and promoting Whatsapp-based ordering. This move to digital comes amid growing internet penetration in the country. According to Statista, nearly 75 percent of the Saudi population used the internet in 2018. This share is projected to grow to more than 96 percent in 2023 matching levels observed in Europe and North America. Using emerging tech to fight coronavirus In some instances, Saudi Arabia has used emerging technologies to halt the spread of the virus. It is using drones in the central Qassim region to read the body temperature of people in open areas. If a person is found to have an abnormal temperature, preventive measures are taken, state media reported. This is part of the precautionary measures implemented by the Municipality of Al-Qassim to prevent corona virus, the Saudi Press Agency reported. In neighboring UAE, drones are being used to carry loudspeakers to broadcast messages and take photographs. The expansion of digital services is part of the Kingdoms Vision 2030 program a comprehensive plan aimed at transforming Saudi Arabias economic landscape, while reducing its reliance on crude oil exports. According to the official document, the country will expand the scope of current online services further to include areas such as geographic information, health care and education. Quality will be improved by streamlining processes, and diversifying communication channels. It goes on to say that the government will support the wider use of online applications in government agencies, such as cloud applications, data sharing platforms and HR management systems. Saudi Arabias quick ascendance on the technology ladder is also supported by strong government spending. Overall spending on information and communication technology (ICT) in the country is set to reach US$37 billion this year, up 2.4 percent from 2019, according to an IDC report last month. Countries that are able to quickly apply new technologies and offer new digital services to solve todays problems, will be well positioned to reap rewards from these technologies in the future, Malin said. OPEC OPEC and Russia have postponed a Monday meeting to discuss oil output cuts until April 9, OPEC sources said on Saturday, as a dispute between Moscow and Saudi Arabia over who is to blame for plunging crude prices intensified. The delay came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilise global oil markets. Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 due to a slump in demand caused by lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of OPEC and other producers led by Russia to extend a deal on output curbs that expired on March 31. OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut the production of oil equivalent by about 10% of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort including the United States. Washington, however, has yet to make a commitment to join the effort and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday put the blame for the collapse in prices on Saudi Arabia - prompting a firm response from Riyadh on Saturday. "The Russian Minister of Energy was the first to declare to the media that all the participating countries are absolved of their commitments starting from the first of April, leading to the decision that the countries have taken to raise their production," Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement reported by state news agency SPA. Putin, speaking on Friday during a video conference with government officials and the heads of major Russian oil producers, said the first reason for the fall in prices was the impact of the coronavirus on demand. "The second reason behind the collapse of prices is the withdrawal of our partners from Saudi Arabia from the OPEC+ deal, their production increase and information, which came out at the same time, about the readiness of our partners to even provide a discount for oil," Putin said. The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud disputed Putin's claims, saying Russia had withdrawn and that statements about the kingdom's withdrawal from the OPEC+ deal was devoid of truth, state agency (SPA) reported on Saturday. OPEC sources, who asked not be identified, said the emergency virtual meeting planned for Monday would likely now be postponed until April 9 to allow more time for negotiations. OPEC sources later downplayed the Saudi-Russia row, saying the atmosphere was still positive, although there was no draft deal yet nor agreement on details such as a reference level from which to make the production cuts. "The first problem is that we have to cut from the current production level now, not to go back to the one before the crisis," one of the OPEC sources said. "The second issue is the Americans, they have to play a part." OIL RISES FROM LOWS Oil recovered from this week's lows of USD 20 per barrel with Brent settling at USD 34.11 on Friday, still far below the USD 66 level at the end of 2019. Prices had their biggest one-day gain ever on Thursday when Trump said he expected Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce a major production cut. The United States is not part of OPEC+ and the idea of Washington curbing production has long been seen as impossible, not least because of U.S. antitrust laws. Still, the oil price crash has spurred regulators in Texas, the heart of U.S. oil production, to consider regulating output for the first time in nearly 50 years. But U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, in a call with oil industry leaders on Friday, did not mention the possibility of U.S. production cuts, a source who listened to the call said. On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump focused instead on tariffs as a response to the oil price crash. "If I have to do tariffs on oil coming from outside or if I have to do something to protect our ... tens of thousands of energy workers and our great companies that produce all these jobs, I'll do whatever I have to do," Trump told reporters in a briefing about the coronavirus outbreak. "The President has now told us what Plan B is: tariffs," said Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Russian state media he understood that the United States had legal restrictions on output cuts but it should still be flexible. Other oil producers that do not belong to OPEC+ have indicated a willingness to help. Canada's Alberta province, home to the world's third-largest oil reserves, is open to joining any potential global pact. Norway, Western Europe's largest oil and gas producer, said on Saturday it would consider cuts to its oil output if a wide global deal is agreed. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday called on Russia and Saudi Arabia to reach a deal soon to end their price war. The International Energy Agency warned on Friday that a cut of 10 million bpd would not be enough to counter the huge fall in oil demand. Even with such a cut, inventories would increase by 15 million bpd in the second quarter. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has written to state and territory governments urging them to exempt telcos, postal services and media organisations from restrictions on movement during the COVID-19 shutdown. Amid the escalating nationwide crackdown on leaving the home and travel across state borders, communications companies are pushing to secure their status as essential services and Mr Fletcher has intervened to say their operations are "critical to the ongoing functioning of the Australian economy and society" during the crisis. Communications companies want their operations carved out of restrictions. In the letter sent last week to relevant state and territory ministers seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Mr Fletcher said telcos, news organisations, Australia Post and other logistics services had requested their activities "be carved out of any declarations that restrict the movement of people". Mr Fletcher asked the states and territories to exempt communications companies from any existing and new COVID-19 restrictions and said he had advised the companies to work closely with the governments on accessing key areas and maintaining their services. HSE CEO Paul Reid said today that the number of daily tests completed will double as 50 test centres and a "network of laboratories" have been set up across Ireland. Having been restricted to 1,500 tests a day by the end of last week, from tomorrow, 4,500 tests can be completed a day. Mr Reid said that this is largely down to increased number of testing laboratories and the procurement of testing reagents on a global shortage. "We have now 50 centres in place across the country," he said. "In terms of laboratories, that has constrained our level of our testing, over the past week in particular. "We want to develop a number of labs that we have to meet the testing demands and appropriate quality of the systems in place. "I'm very pleased to say that we will now be in a place, from next week, to now test 4,500 per day in our laboratories - we have been averaging between 2000 and 2500 a day, and very late last week it had been constrained to about 1500. "So from this week, 4500, per day. That has involved, bringing on ordering laboratories across our hospital system throughout the last period so we now have the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVR), plus another 18 hospitals." Read More One of the biggest problems facing countries globally in testing for Covid-19 has been a shortage of the reagent needed for the tests. Mr Reid said that the HSE has secured a contract with a provider of this reagent, to ensure more test can continue to be carried out in Ireland. "We've also concluded supply from a major European provider base in Germany," he said. "So while we are going through problems at the moment in terms of delivery of reagents. We've had capacity from European organization based in Germany. They have been on board since last Friday. "And they are now producing 2,000 per day completed tests for us. The first of which we received back on Friday. "We are still looking at other potential European solutions, as we continue to source the reagent supply. Also new labs in Ireland are coming on board. The Department of Agriculture's laboratory will provide us with significant capacity from the back end of next week." Mr Red said that, despite securing the deal with the German supplier, he remains anxious because of the "volatile market". He said that the HSE will continue to explore all possible avenues for the procurement of more reagent. "We are on continuing negotiations here and in Europe, specifically in relation to the reagents supply matter. This is a very significant worldwide challenge, and competition for the supply of these reagents, and it will continue to be a week on week challenge. "So, while we have got the capacity now to scale up to 4500 next week, it will all be continued to be dependent on supply of these reagents, but having a significant capacity or European supplier for the test does help us to that period, "We're in ongoing negotiations with firms in Ireland, in terms of the supply of these reagents - making some progress with some and not so much progress with others - and those discussions will continue. We have sourced some reagent supply in other international markets that have been secured, they will go through a risk assessment and quality testing - we will only be confident when we go through that risk assessment and quality testing. "I just want to restate again this is an extremely volatile market. And it's going to remain so for a long period of time. And the CEO to HSE I remain anxious, every single day." Read More Mr Reid also confirmed that a large chunk of the personal protective equipment (PPE) that arrived on a delivery from China this week is not fit for purpose. Some of the products, which arrived from China earlier in the week, could provide complete coverage and therefore were unfit for purpose. In the first delivery of the producets ordered, which accounted for about 10pc of the overall order, Mr Reid said that only 65pc of the delivery met HSE requirements. "The first category is identified as being suitable for use and it meets and exceeds the specification that we would have set for our supplier - that will cover some of the white coveralls, gowns gloves, goggles facials and so on - that is 65pc of the volume that we have received from our first batch delivery. "The second category which is acceptable for healthcare workers use, if the preferred product is not available - so if we can't identify a preferred product and supplier. These element of products which largely are for overall gallons. They make up about 15% of the batch delivery," he said. "And then there is a third category, from the order that we have ordered from China's Resource Pharmaceuticals. It doesn't really meet the requirements of our general for general healthcare use both in this batch. A specific issue here relates to the masks that don't meet our requirements for a specific respirator mask and that represents about 20pc of the order. "We have been in discussions with the supplier. We don't want any further delivery of this cash in the next orders. We want the required specification that we have set out, and we have had discussions with them this week, and we are expecting to see some samples with the revised specifications sent to us, the back end of next week, "The supplier has been cooperating with us this week since we've identified this particular issue." Schools and colleges are switching to long-distance learning, restaurants are serving only takeout meals and all other businesses deemed nonessential by Gov. Henry McMaster have been forced to shut their doors as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But private preschools and child care facilities are not included in McMasters coronavirus-related mandates, leaving it up to the owners to make difficult decisions, such as whether they should close, on their own. Gail Cunningham, director of Young World Day Care in Clinton, grappled with these decisions firsthand last week after two teachers at her family-owned day care facility were tested for the COVID-19 virus. The business opted to not inform parents that the two employees were being tested, under the advisement of DHEC, Cunningham said in a video message posted on the centers Facebook page Friday. I did what DHEC advised us to do and told her to finish out her quarantine ... and not to cause a panic, she said. It was only after one of those teachers tested positive did Cunningham and her staff decide to close the facility, effective March 31. (DHEC) told us that we did not have to close. They told us that we did not have to tell everyone. They told us that we would just communicate with the parents of the children in that specific classroom, Cunningham said. A state emergency response team spokeswoman did not initially answer questions about whether Young World Day Care was instructed, either directly or indirectly through previous statements, to not warn parents ahead of an employee's results, but said it is "not generally recommended to quarantine contacts of those being tested until results come back." "There is currently no recommendation that notifications be made when a staff member is being tested," said DHEC spokeswoman Cassandra Harris in an email Sunday, noting that there is a delay between the time that someone is exposed to the virus and the time they become contagious and show symptoms. If a day care employee does test positive for the virus, all parents who have kids at the center might not find out about it. The decision to notify parents "is made on a case-by-case basis depending on the timing of symptoms, who may have been exposed, etc.," Harris said. If an employee tests positive for the virus and was inside a childcare facility while potentially contagious, "beginning 48 hours prior to the onset of symptoms until criteria to stop isolation are met," then it is recommended that the center temporarily close for two to five days "for thorough cleaning and disinfection, while communicating with staff, students, and parents," Harris said. "DHEC works with childcare facilities to follow CDC guidance, which is extensive and evolving," Harris said. Cunningham and other staff ultimately decided to reach out to all of the day cares parents individually to inform them of the news, she said. Later that day, her father was admitted to a hospital with COVID-19-like symptoms. He was confirmed positive for the virus the following morning. The center is tentatively scheduled to reopen on April 15, according to a Facebook post. As of March 24, 45 percent of the states 2,419 licensed child care providers have closed their doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them are all small businesses, theyre not mega-type businesses where they have a huge source of income to stay afloat without children actually being physically present, said Fedrick Cohens, president of S.C. Early Childhood Association. Day cares and preschools are in a strange position right now, Cohens said. They provide vital services to parents who work as first-responders, medical professionals, grocery store clerks and other jobs that still require them to report to work amid the pandemic, but they also provide an ideal setting where the virus could quickly spread among students. Most of the day cares are not open because of their fear of COVID-19, he said. For those day cares or preschools that have elected to remain open, many of them are operating with limited services and low enrollment, Cohens said. As a result, many child care and private preschool employees have been laid off. Some 745 employees working in child day care services filed for unemployment the week of March 22, according to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce. More than 650 elementary and secondary school workers across the state also filed for these benefits. Lee Stevens was one of them. Stevens is the director of The Acorn School of Charleston, a small, pre-kindergarten learning facility. As a private facility, it was up to them to decide whether to close, he said. Much like theyve done in the past for inclement weather, the school chose to follow the actions of the Charleston County School District and close its doors at least through the end of April. The last day the facility was open was March 13. Since then, all tuition payments have been suspended and all staff members laid off. We dont have vast financial resources to cover payroll unless there is money coming in, Stevens said. Now, he and his staff have been forced to join the other thousands of workers attempting to navigate the states unemployment system. I waited eight hours for a return call the other day, he said. On a practical level, thats been a challenge. But what he misses the most is being able to see the school's students every day. Filling a need More than 115 day care operations have closed in Charleston County alone, according to the S.C. Department of Social Services. To help medical workers with backup child care, Charleston County School District has partnered with Roper St. Francis to implement a two-week pilot day care program for kindergarten through fifth-grade students at Memminger Elementary. Its a big impact for (employees) in their daily lives, said Melanie Stith, vice president of human resources at Roper. I have one single mother who basically said this program was going to be a godsend because she had been working with piecemeal child care backup options." The child care operation has implemented different protocol and screening techniques to hopefully ensure parents, staff and the students themselves are not jeopardizing each other by spreading the virus. I mean with coronavirus, we can't guarantee anything, and you know all we're doing is kind of the best we can do under the circumstances, Stith said. All students and staff will have their temperature checked daily before entering the building, and groups will be limited to six students per classroom. Staff members and children will practice social distancing throughout the day, food will be served with gloves, and playground equipment and other frequently touched surfaces will be cleaned throughout the day, according to CCSD Chief Operating Officer Jeff Borowy. The building will be sanitized and deep-cleaned each night. In Berkeley County, parents at Daniel Island Academy were informed on March 21 that a student who attended the preschool had tested positive for the virus, and anyone who entered the facility after March 9 could have potentially been exposed. Two days later, parents were informed that the childs case was actually a false positive. They only needed to pursue testing if they began experiencing symptoms, such as fever, cough or shortness of breath. Erica Fox decided to pull her child out of the preschool when she found out schools were closed. She said Daniel Island Academy stayed open for a few more days before eventually closing. Fox wasnt scared after she saw the first message alerting her that her son had potentially been exposed I honestly think that everybodys going to get it but she was confused about how a student was issued a false positive result. Somebody obviously doesnt know what theyre doing in terms of the testing and how accurate theyre testing, she said, emphasizing that she did not fault the school in any way for the confusion. Daniel Island Academy did not respond to requests for comment. Tuition troubles Many day cares and preschools have also been forced to grapple with whether they should charge parents during the crisis. Stevens said the Acorn School suspended all tuition payments once the school was closed. "It was pretty obvious that that was what we had to do, once we realized that parents were out of work and this is an unprecedented crisis," he said. When the school reopens, "the payments for those services will be expected," he said. Fox said she's paying 50 percent discounted tuition for her 4-year-old at Daniel Island Academy even though the school is temporarily closed. "I think thats fair. I do know some parents who are very unhappy about it, but the teachers still have to get paid," she said, and teachers are still posting online activities to keep students entertained. Some day cares have extensive waiting lists. Requiring parents to pay tuition even when a facilities' services are not being used, such as when a family goes on vacation, is a way to reserve students' spots, Cohens said. "I would hope that, because of the situation that we're in, that they have been a little bit more empathetic," he said, "But I cant even imagine the amount of people that are probably still paying for that slot. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 17:45:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ACCRA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Ghana recorded nine new cases late Saturday to take its confirmed COVID-19 cases to 214, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said. Of the nine confirmed cases, six were recorded in Accra and three in the second largest city Kumasi. "Four of the cases in Accra were contacts of existing cases, with no symptoms, but detected during the enhanced contact tracing and testing," the GHS said. One of the travelers under mandatory quarantine in the capital, who had tested negative earlier, converted to positive upon repeat testing. Besides, a 37-year-old Ghanaian woman with no travel history and no contact with a confirmed case also tested positive. Two cases recorded in Kumasi were Ghanaians who had traveled back from France within the past 14 days. The third one is a Ghanaian with no travel history nor contact with any confirmed case, added the statement. The West African country recorded its first two cases on March 12. Ghana has extended closure of entry points to prevent any further importation of the infection into the country. Sydney, April 5 : Australian authorities on Sunday launched a criminal probe into how passengers of a cruise ship were allowed to disembark in Sydney despite some exhibiting flu-like symptoms. More than 600 people on board the Ruby Princess later tested positive for coronavirus and 10 have since died. The ship remains off the coast with nearly 200 sick crew members on board, the BBC said in a report. At a news conference here on sunday, New South Wales (NSW) Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said there were "many unanswered questions" about the incident. He said that, by law, vessels were only allowed to dock and disembark passengers if the captain could assure the local authorities that their ship was free from contagious disease. Fuller said there were "discrepancies" involving the information provided by the ship's owners, Carnival Australia, and the requirements of the law. "The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation," the BBC report quoted Fuller as saying. He said that the day before passengers disembarked in Sydney, a worker made an emergency call about two people who needed medical assistance. He said police were assured by the operating company that the coronavirus was not an issue on the ship. "From that perspective, there are many unanswered questions," he added. The Ruby Princess with about 2,700 people on board arrived in Sydney last month after an 11-day cruise. Australia has so far reported 5,548 coronavirus cases and 30 deaths. Those who fell ill on cruise ships account for nearly a tenth of all cases in Australia. THE corona virus pandemic has raised new challenges for families and communities in general, and especially women and young girls who are currently at home after the recent closure of schools. A statement released yesterday by the Tanzania Gender Network Programme (TGNP), Executive Director, Lilian Liundi said that girls are at risk of early pregnancy and other forms of sexual violence at this time when they are out of school. Children (girls and boys) remain at home, and their parents go to work. In this case sexual abuse can develop and lead to early pregnancy, Lilian said. The TGNP report indicates that approximately 60 percent of sexual violence occurs at home, and those who commit such acts are either close relatives or neighbors. Overall, sexual violence is particularly prevalent during tragedies like corona, not only for girls but for women at large, Lilian said. The TGNP statement shows that many women in the country work in the informal sector, doing various activities such as house work, vending in markets and hawking, which compel them to leave their homes and go out to meet people, sometimes crowded in environments. Lilian said that such a situation puts women at risk of getting the corona virus, adding that it is now very important to put in place effective prevention strategies, and get them the right services. In terms of maternal and child health, a pregnant womans immune system is very unstable especially during breastfeeding. For hospitals with female nurses under one year experience, we recommend that they should not attend corona patients, said Lilian. She added that in antenatal care for children, where there are often crowded people, it is important to emphasize preventive measures, including hand washing, and observing a one metre distance safeguard. It is important to ensure that hospital services remain the same by ensuring that maternal and child health services continue to be prioritised to reduce maternal and child mortality, Lilian said. She called upon all parents to make sure that they protect themselves well when undertaking their obligations, conscious that an infected parent can infect children, thereby rendering the task of protecting children futile. According to statistics from the International Labor Organisation (ILO) released in 2006, more than 80 percent of women work in the informal sector where they are at higher risk of contracting diseases. According to UNESCOs 2019 report, the level of adult education is 77.82 percent, of which men are 83.2 percent, and the rest are women. These figures are clear evidence that women have been left behind in various issues, said Lilian. This diversity of women in the background will also be seen in the field of timely access to accurate information, such as newspapers, radio, television and social networks. This is largely due to the societys lack of equal distribution of responsibilities, she added. Women are largely burdened with the responsibilities of raising families and providing careers that lead to a complete lack of economic, political, and even timely information Lilian said. During this period of the COVID-19 epidemic, access to accurate information is a right for every citizen, so it is important that the methods used should take into account the right to information. The former leader of America's largest neo-Nazi group says he's turned over a new leaf, but not everyone is convinced. Jeff Schoep, 46, led the white supremacy group the National Socialist Movement for over two decades until he stepped down from his role and revealed in the fall that he is now speaking out publicly on the dangers of extremism. Schoep played a part in the Charlottesville rally in 2017 and is now a defendant in a lawsuit involving the white nationalist rally that left one counterprotestor dead. But while Schoep believes he's had a revelation to now do good, critics believe that his new lifestyle is just a ruse to avoid being found legally liable in the case. Jeff Schoep, 46, was the leader of America's largest neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement for over two decades He stepped down from his role as 'commander' and in the fall he announced that he is no longer a white supremacist and would speak out against extremism Schoep is among more than two dozen defendants accused of planning and carrying out violence at the 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist rally. Skeptics believe that his new lifestyle is just a way to avoid being found legally liable in the case And Schoep isn't the only defendant denouncing his claim to the racist movement. Matthew Heimbach, who worked alongside Schoep, announced that he was leaving white nationalism. Skeptics say that the men are doing so to avoid legal consequences for their role in in the rally. 'No matter if you reform after the fact, we live in a country of laws,' Amy Spitalnick, the director of Integrity First for America, told the New York Times. 'Those who break those laws, those who violate people's civil rights must be held accountable for it.' Last month plaintiffs filed a motion that questioned Schoep's ties to the organization since he allegedly left. Burt Colucci, the new National Socialist Movement leader, said in a deposition that he still regularly texts Schoep. According to the motion, Schoep told Colucci in October that someone making threats against him could be a federal informant trying to catch him. But Schoep insists that his new way of life has nothing to do with the lawsuits. Schoep played a part in the Charlottesville rally in 2017 and is now a defendant in a lawsuit involving the rally that left one counterprotestor dead 'This is the start of something. Now the Right is united,' said Schoep after the rally. 'I think a white ethno-state would be a good thing' Immediately after the 2017 rally, Schoep, said that despite what he called a 'car accident', the disruptive event had empowered white nationalist groups across America. 'This is the start of something. Now the Right is united,' said Schoep. 'I think a white ethno-state would be a good thing. 'It was like when you had Martin Luther King marching for the rights of blacks. We were basically peaceful but if we are attacked we are going to fight,' he said. 'Next time we will bring in bats.' Schoep even tweeted: 'Self defence is beautiful. I knocked out an antifa [anti-fascist] scumbag who attacked us in Charlottesville. Laid him out in the street :)' Few would agree the hardcore agitators went to Charlottesville with peaceful intent after the city decided to remove the statue of a Confederate general in a park. They sought to inflame national debate over historic artefacts and the legacy of slavery. It was the boldest show of force by violent white supremacists in generations with chilling scenes of flaming torches, KKK insignia, swastikas, anti-Semitic slogans and menacing gun-toting militia. Many protesters wore protective gear and carried shields, staves and pepper spray. Last month plaintiffs filed a motion that questioned Schoep's ties to the organization since he allegedly left Few would agree the hardcore agitators went to Charlottesville with peaceful intent after the city decided to remove the statue of a Confederate general in a park Schoep appeared at an event at California State University, San Bernardino, in the fall where he shared that he no longer had racist views. But one biracial student, Nicholas Flowers, 22, told Schoep after the talk: 'It makes it unsatisfying to know that eight months to a year ago, you would have hated us.' Schoep told Flowers: 'It's a process. For about three years now, I knew better, but I was going through the motions. That's what I did. Should I have kept going? No.' However, social justice activist and filmmaker Tanesh Hudson thinks he should be shown no mercy. 'Why do black people have to go through so much to redeem themselves?,' she told the New York Times. 'And yet, here he is, a white nationalist. It's OK for him to do what he did then say he's a changed man, and we're supposed to be OK with that.' NJ church holding drive-thru Palm Sunday worship, offering branches to homebound members Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A church in New Jersey is offering Palm Sunday branches and cards with Psalms written on them to drivers and is also delivering these spiritual items to homebound members. We hope that the Palms and Psalms will provide the comfort and strength that the Cross and Word of God offers in the present crisis situation, the Rev. Joseph Hein, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Middletown, told The Christian Post. The One Hour Drive-through Palms & Psalms event is being held after its 10:00 a.m. online Palm Sunday service. Volunteers wearing Personal Protection Equipment will also deliver palm crosses in packets that have been sanitized to some of their homebound elderly members. Hein said that the event was born of Westminsters strong evangelical faith and emphasis on local mission work. By placing the Cross and The Word of God in our members and neighbors hands, we seek to comfort and strengthen. The cross and resurrection is a reminder that God has defeated death on the Cross and that love and life lives at the center of the universe. For the event, local residents and church members alike are welcomed to drive slowly through the churchs U-shaped driveway and receive a palm cross and a card with a Psalm written on it, while remaining in their vehicles. Volunteers wearing PPE will also visit a nearby hospital in order to distribute the sanitized palm crosses and Psalm card packets, as a way of encouraging healthcare workers and their patients. Hein told CP that he considered the Palm Sunday events as part of his congregations history of giving comfort to the neighborhood during times of crisis. As an example, he spoke about how volunteers helped the community after Hurricane Sandy, also called Superstorm Sandy, hit the region in 2012. Seventy-five Westminster volunteers entered local neighborhoods the morning that the storm ended, praying with our neighbors and providing hot coffee and soup from the back of our SUVs, explained Hein. Our disaster-relief response continued as a congregation for 18 months, strategically visiting the most affected local neighborhoods to set up tables where we prayed with residents and distributed literally tons of relief supplies generously provided by the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Agency. The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has urged the public to avoid stigmatizing families and persons suspected to be living with the COVID-19. It said stigmatization was a serious damaging social phenomenon that had negative effects on health outcomes including non- optimal medication adherence, lower visit adherence, higher depression, and lower quality of life. Mr Paul Tetteh, the Assin Central Municipal Director of the Commission who gave the advice at a public sensitization programme reiterated that stigmatizing suspected people and patients was not good as everyone was at risk. It was a huge hindrance to government's unflinching commitment to go all out to contain and prevent the spread of the deadly virus. Mr Tetteh explained that COVID-19 spread from person to person in close proximity, similar to other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu. He said one could contract the virus when droplets of bodily fluids such as saliva or mucus from an infected person dispersed in the air or land on surfaces through coughing or sneezing and got into direct contact with other people who may touch infected surfaces and then their faces. Mr Tetteh also stressed the need for the public to desist from the penchant of spreading false information about the virus saying "the pace of misinformation in the prime media and social media were fueling more fear and panic." The media was an indispensable stakeholder in democratic governance and for that matter, it had a critical role to play in the national quest to contain the virus. He commended government for the mandatory quarantine policy saying it was yielding results and cautioned Ghanaians against playing politics and propounding conspiracy theories over the COVID-19 situation in Ghana. Let's stop the Ghanaian habit of engaging in unnecessary debates and arguments in commercial vehicles. Commercial drivers should put hand sanitizers in the vehicles for short distance journeys to protect themselves and the passengers while long-distance drivers should provide soap and water for passengers to wash their hands. Ghana's COVID-19 case increased to 214 as of Sunday, April 05. 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. Featured Video The next two weeks will be crucial in the United States' fight against the coronavirus, warn health officials, who are urging Americans to continue practicing social-distancing measures. Vice Admiral Jerome Adams, the US surgeon general, likened the coming week to a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 moment, saying on "Fox News Sunday" it would be the "hardest and the saddest week in most Americans' lives." The number of cases nationwide Sunday climbed to at least 335,524, with at least 9,562 dead, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Of those deaths, 1,344 were reported Saturday -- the most fatalities recorded in the US in a single day. Despite the rising numbers and grim warnings from health officials, President Donald Trump said in a White House briefing Sunday evening, "We are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel." His comments were echoed by Vice President Mike Pence, who said, "We are beginning to see the glimmers of progress." Asked about the apparent dissonance in messages from administration officials, Trump said, "I think we all know we have to reach a certain point, and that point is going to be a horrific point in terms of death, but it's also a point at which things are going to start changing." "We're getting very close to that level right now," the President said, "and the next week and a half, two weeks, I think they're going to be very difficult." Earlier in the day, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases conceded it "would be a false statement" to say the US has the pandemic under control. "We are struggling to get it under control," Fauci said. But Fauci told reporters at the White House briefing that a lag in the disease explained the apparent contradiction between a positive long-term outlook and the expectation of a bad week ahead. "So, right now we're seeing -- as we all said correctly -- that this is probably going to be a really bad week. That is a reflection of what happened two and a half weeks ago. So if we start seeing now a flattening or stabilization of cases -- what you're hearing about, potential light at the end of the tunnel -- doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, is going to look really bad." Fauci continued to stress the importance of social distancing measures. On Saturday he pointed to Washington state, where such measures appear to be paying off. The Boston Department of Health issued a public health advisory Sunday recommending residents -- except for those deemed essential workers -- stay home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., beginning Monday, Mayor Marty Walsh said. Additionally, everyone is encouraged to wear a face covering when in public, a step that aligns with the White House's recommendation Friday that Americans wear face masks -- though Trump said the recommendation was voluntary. "If you don't agree with me or you don't believe me or the governor or someone else, just turn the TV on," Walsh said. "Watch the number of lives that are being lost every day to this virus." Still, modeling cited by White House officials this week project that, even with stringent mitigation efforts, between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans will die from coronavirus. And President Trump has refrained from a nationwide stay-at-home order, preferring to leave it to states to decide. You asked, we're answering: Your top coronavirus questions A battle to stop the spread New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered a bit of good news in a news conference in Albany on Sunday, saying the number of deaths in his state has been dropping over the past few days for the first time. The significance of that, he said, is "too early to tell." The number of new hospitalizations is also down, while the hospital discharge rate is up, Cuomo said. Based on the data, Cuomo said the state is either near the apex of its curve, "or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau right now." "We won't know until we see the next few days," he said. With 122,031 cases and at least 4,159 deaths, Cuomo warned the state's hospital systems are running on just a few days' supply of medical equipment. Other states are coming to New York's aid, offering what supplies they can afford to give. New York state will receive 140 ventilators from Oregon, Cuomo said Saturday in a news conference, adding the gesture was both "kind" and "smart." China is donating another 1,000 ventilators, Cuomo said. "Help New York today," Cuomo said Sunday. "And then nationally, we shift the resources to the next place that is most impacted." Additional help is on the way from Washington state, which was the initial epicenter of the outbreak in the United States. Because of mitigation efforts and the cooperation of residents, the state has seen fewer infections than it anticipated, Dr. Raquel Bono, director of the state's Covid-19 Health System Response Management, said in a news release. As a result, Washington state will return more than 400 ventilators it received from the national stockpile to help other communities in need, Gov. Jay Inslee said. "These ventilators are going to New York and other states hardest hit by this virus," Inslee said. "I've said many times over the last few weeks, we are in this together. This should guide all of our actions at an individual and state level in the coming days and weeks." Washingtonians should still stay home, wash their hands and practice social distancing, the news release added. "People have been so beautiful to us," Gov. Cuomo said. "And it is the New York way -- we're going to codify everything we've learned, and we get past this curve, whatever part of the country goes next, we will be there with equipment and personnel and however we can help." Holy Week in the time of coronavirus Social distancing measures were complicated by the fact that Sunday marked the beginning of Holy Week in the Christian faith, which leads up to Easter. Churches around the country held Palm Sunday services, many of which were streamed online. But some held services in defiance of state bans. "We don't get our rights to worship freely from the government. We get those from God," said the Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he said more than 1,200 people gathered Sunday. "We'd rather obey God than man." Spell was charged last week for violating the state's ban. Meantime, the Rev. Alvin Gwynn Sr. of Friendship Baptist Church in Baltimore said he had a steady stream of people walking through the church, processional style. He said he was careful not to have more than eight or nine in the building at a time. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters Sunday churches there were allowed to stay open, noting most churches are making services available online. "Churches by and large do the right thing. They want to protect their parishioners," Hutchinson said. "There are a few that have a very small attendance and they socially distance. We don't recommend that but if it's within the guidelines then that's understandable." Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Sunday thanked religious leaders who held services online, calling it the "safest way to keep us all connected." "Let's help us all stay safer at home during these religious holy days," Gimenez said. Other religious holidays are soon to follow, with the beginnings of the Jewish holiday of Passover on Wednesday evening and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan later this month. States are under siege Several states have reported big jumps in cases, including Pennsylvania, which saw an increase of 1,494 cases, the governor's office said Sunday, bringing the statewide total to 11,510. New Jersey reported another 3,482 cases on Sunday for a total of 37,505. At least 917 have died, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's office said. After "multiple" conversations with the White House, Murphy on Sunday said the state had secured an additional 500 ventilators. He called them the state's No. 1 need. "We're deeply grateful," Murphy told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Sunday evening, before adding, "It won't be enough." "We're going to have, I think, not just a tough week ahead, but I think a tough several weeks ahead," Murphy said. "Whether it's ventilators, personal protective equipment, beds, health care workers -- those will all be constraints as we go through the next few weeks." Louisiana reported a 21% increase in cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 12,500 cases, according to the state health department. "We are still very much in this," Dr. Joseph Kanter, assistant state health officer, said in a news conference. "In fact we haven't even hit halfway." New Orleans' coroner's office and mortuaries have reached their limit, said Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and she's asked the federal government for additional refrigeration. Officials are responding to the influx by converting a convention center into an emergency hospital. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday his state could run out of ventilators by the end of the week if cases continue to surge. "We now think it's probably around the 9th of April before we exceed our ventilator capacity based on the current number on hand, and ... we're a couple of days behind that on ICU bed capacity being exceeded," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." "Untact" marketing is on the rise in Korea amid COVID-19 crisis, and securities companies are no exception in employing them in their businesses. / Gettyimagesbank By Anna J. Park One of the high-trending buzzwords in Korea these days is "untact" a new term coined by combining English language elements; prefix "un," which expresses the opposite state of an adjective that it precedes and "tact" borrowed from the word "contact." This neologistic Konglish refers to situations which avoid face-to-face direct contact between people. So-called "untact marketing," "untact tech" or "untact industry" have begun to appear in response to marketing strategies, technologies or industries that require no personal contact to execute. The non-face-to-face trend has been gaining foothold in Korea in recent years, but more so now as social distancing has become a new norm in the nation to prevent further spread of COVID-19. The untact trend is especially well observed in everyday activities. More and more people are encouraged to work from home, and they also prefer online shopping and food deliveries, while refraining from visiting where a large number of masses gather, whether it be shopping malls or restaurants. Shareholders meetings are conducted online, and artists perform via online platforms. Against this backdrop, it is a natural consequence that Korea's securities companies, which traditionally require face-to-face meetings between clients and brokerage employees, are turning themselves more to the new trend that erases the necessity of making actual human contacts in their businesses. From opening a securities account to receiving direct investment consultation through an online platform, there are various modes of untact businesses that many brokerage houses in Korea are currently undertaking to further reach out to clients, without meeting them in person. Recruiting new clients through online platforms One of the most prevalent untact business strategies conducted by securities firms is recruiting new clients through online platforms. A local outlet has recently reported that more than a dozen securities firms in Korea saw a rapid increase rate in the number of new clients who opened their accounts online. On average, the monthly increase rate of these kind of account registrations during the first quarter of this year stood at 32.9 percent, up from 20.52 percent logged at the last quarter of 2019. Specifically, the number of new clients who opened accounts online at NH Investment & Securities this year has increased by five times from the end of last year. This past month alone, more than 225,000 clients chose to open accounts themselves through the online platform, without visiting a local branch. Samsung Securities also saw more than 100,000 new clients flocked through online platforms during the past four weeks. Contrary to general perception that people aged in their 20s or 30s would comprise the majority, an official from Samsung Securities said that those who newly opened their accounts online has shown various age groups evenly spread, from 20s to 50s. Analyst Seo Jung-hoon shares investment information with clients through a video message. / Courtesy of Samsung Securities Digital wealth management counseling Providing investment counseling online is another key rising trend among securities firms in Korea. Continuing to speak of the case of Samsung Securities, the brokerage house currently sends out regular video messages to its 50,000 prime clients. The mobile video messages include various areas of information, from analysts' detailed explanations about the market outlooks amid the current pandemic fear, live broadcasting sessions answering clients' direct questions, to specific instructions on investment products. "Even when giving out the same informational content, clients sent us more favorable reviews regarding video messages, rather than a full text version, as they are easier to watch and understand," Kim Sang-hoon, retail strategist at the firm, told The Korea Times. "Our firm's ample experiences of creating various video contents serve as the firm's new competitiveness area that other IT-based techfin securities houses cannot easily catch up with," he stressed. Analysts at Kiwoom Securities record a podcast on investment information for clients. / Courtesy of Kiwoom Securities Kiwoom Securities is another brokerage house in Korea that boasts a strength in providing various types of broadcast programs, aiming to give clients the latest advice on investment counseling and information about the market. Since its launch back in 2000, the securities firm is largely run as internet-based without local branches, except its headquarters at Yeouido. Thus it not only has particular expertise in recruiting new clients through online platforms, but also in providing up-to-date investment advice through various programs using online platforms. Clients can check Kiwoom news that's updated eight times a day on their Home Trading Service (HTS), daily market wrap-ups that are live broadcast every day, diversified YouTube videos for investment novices, and podcast programs, among others. Based on the wide variety of the content it provides, the firm currently has the biggest number of YouTube subscribers among Korean securities companies, which stood at about 59,000 as of March 25, with a total of 9.52 million accumulative views. Its podcast also has thousands of subscribers with over 4.84 million views so far. "Due to COVID-19, the stock market's volatility has grown and individual investors are having difficulty in appropriately responding to the fluctuating market," an official from Kiwoom Securities' investment content department told The Korea Times. "The firm aims to strengthen our communication with clients by giving out effective investment information," he added. AI-based chatbot as real-time advisor Captured image of real-time communication with Daishin Securities' AI-based Chatbot Benjamin / Courtesy of Daishin Securities Real-time chatbot services that can meet urgent needs and questions by clients at any time of a day is another untact strategy that securities firms can turn to. Last April, Daishin Securities introduced its AI-based chatbot named "Benjamin" as the first company in the securities industry in Korea to adopt the chatbot service for clients. The chatbot is available for 24-hour consultations with any clients who send out questions on its Mobile Trading System (MTS) platform. The chatbot was launched after a year-long preparation based on a massive amount of data accumulated through its Voice of Consumer (VOC) system. The chatbot service has been very successful, and the firm announced at the end of last month that chatbot Benjamin has answered more than a million questions from clients since its launch. "AI-based Benjamin is developing every day through machine learning technology. We will continue to provide better service through the AI chatbot with which clients can satisfy," an official from Daishin Securities said. Smartphone apps providing comprehensive financial services Mirae Asset Daewoo has strengthened its mobile apps to include a variety of financial services available for clients at their fingertips. / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Daewoo By Express News Service BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday said it is important for Karnataka to shut its border with Kerala for the safety of people in the state. Responding to former PM HD Deve Gowdas request to open the Karnataka-Kerala border as many people from Kerala are looking towards Karnataka for treatment, Yediyurappa stated that the government was responsible for every individual in Karnataka. The CM stated that closing the Karnataka-Kerala border was not done all of a sudden, and that it was done based on a study that coronavirus cases had spread in Karnataka from Kasaragod and other parts of Kerala. We have official information on these cases in Kerala. The data given by Indian Medical Association, Mangaluru branch, is scary. There are 106 people affected with COVID-19 in Kasaragod. Therefore, experts advised that the border be closed. If we open the border, it will have an adverse impact on the state. It is our stand not to open the Karnataka-Kerala border, the chief minister said. Yediyurappa said that Gowda had cited humanitarian grounds to open the border. How can we differentiate between COVID and non-COVID patients? I am concerned about people residing in Kerala, but right now, we cannot open the border. Since PM Modi announced the 21-day lockdown, Karnataka has taken all measures, but if we open this border, it will affect us, he said. It is more important as CM to take care of Karnatakas people at this juncture. One need not add a political twist to this. Karnataka and Kerala are like brothers. We are committed to maintaining this relationship, he stated. A defiant man risked a $1,652 fine to work out at a banned outdoor gym in Melbourne, ignoring strict coronavirus social distancing measures. The man was photographed using equipment at Ormond foreshore in Melbourne's south on Sunday, despite the gym being cordoned off with red flags and tape. Victorians who refuse or fail to comply with the new directives face on-the-spot police fines of $1,652, or a maximum penalty of $20,000 if prosecuted in court. It comes after Scott Morrison brought in stringent new measures last week, closing playgrounds, skate parks, and outdoor gyms. Boot camps have been reduced to one-on-one outdoor personal training sessions. A man was photographed using equipment at Ormond foreshore in Melbourne's south on Sunday, despite the gym being cordoned off with red flags and tape It comes after Scott Morrison brought in stringent new measures last week, closing playgrounds, skate parks, and outdoor gyms The gym junkie's brazen public workout comes after more than 140 people were fined across Victoria for breaching self-isolation or social distancing laws over the weekend. Of the 751 spot checks carried out at homes and businesses by police, almost one in five were found to be breaching the recently implemented laws. The fines were handed out across the state in both city and country areas. The incredible number of fines handed out has been slammed by the state's deputy police commissioner who said rule breakers were putting 'lives at risk'. 'While the majority of the Victorian community are doing the right thing, there are people that continue to flout the rules and put people's lives at risk,' Victoria Police deputy commissioner Shane Patton said. Victoria Police have handed out more than 140 fines to people disobeying self-isolation orders so far this weekend 'Our message is this - people should not be leaving their own home for any reason other than the four we have described, if they do there is every chance they will receive a significant fine.' The high number of people flaunting the rules comes in the wake of another drop in the number of coronavirus cases in Victoria. Just 20 new cases were recorded in the state on Saturday, taking the total to 1,135. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said that despite the positive news, police would not be relenting in dishing out fines. 'Police are not mucking about. We are having some really significant success, but we've got a long way to go,' Mr Andrews said. 'If you look at other parts of the world you can see what failure looks like.' In New South Wales two people who left their homes were fined for ignoring the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine period after recently arriving back in Australia. A 28-year-old man was fined in Gundagai, in the state's central west, on April 1, after police went to his home to ensure he was isolating after arriving from New Zealand on March 20. He was not at his home when police arrived and he was later found driving down the road. Meanwhile, four more people have died from coronavirus in the state, including three passengers of the Ruby Princess. Four more people have died from coronavirus in NSW, including three passengers of the Ruby Princess The deaths were all men, aged 61, 76, 80, and 91, NSW Health protection executive director Dr Jeremy McAnulty confirmed on Sunday. Dr McAnulty said it was likely three of the cases were acquired on board the Ruby Princess, confirming they had been passengers on board the cruise ship. A total of 622 passengers onboard have tested positive for COVID-19 including 342 NSW residents. Despite the four deaths, NSW recorded a drop in the number of confirmed cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday. Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters on Sunday that NSW recorded 87 new cases, bringing the state's total to 2580. This is lower than the 104 cases confirmed on Saturday. As of April 4, data from Johns Hopkins University says the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the United States and several other countries have surpassed Chinas. That has made for dramatic headlines, but often, some much needed context about the regime and its under-reporting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus is left out by several media outlets. This week, for example, Chinas National Health Commission essentially admitted to hiding its total number of positive cases, when it said it would begin disclosing the number of asymptomatic cases. If were just looking at official numbers that we dont often know if were going to get the truth from, I think that were really doing a disservice to the people because its important to understand the broader picture of the story, said media professor Andrew Selepak from University of Florida. Too often, its just easy to report some numbers that come out of a source that we generally trust without really going into depth and detail, and then giving a broader scope of what this really means, Selepak said. President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have publicly expressed doubt over Chinas figures. Sen. Marco Rubio also condemned the media for reporting that the United States has surpassed China in its number of positive cases, calling it bad journalism. He said that in reality, the world has no idea how many cases China really has. 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 Besides hiding its number of asymptomatic cases, official Chinese documents obtained by The Epoch Times show gross under-reporting of positive cases. Selepak said people need that extra depth. Otherwise, they may not take the virus as seriously as they should, because the numbers are likely much worse than what is shown. I think a lot of the reason why theres been some people who have not taken the coronavirus here in the United states as serious as it should be is because some of the under-reporting of numbers, he said. Because theres this sort of assumption that it might not be that dangerous. State-owned Indian Bank on Sunday said its 43,000 employees have voluntarily donated their one day's salary, amounting to Rs 8.10 crore, towards the PM-CARES Fund to fight the COVID-19 crisis. "The bank's 43,000 employees have shown their commitment to the nation by voluntarily contributing one day's salary totalling to Rs 8.10 crore to the PM-CARES Fund towards control of COVID-19 in the country," according to a statement. Separately, LIC-owned IDBI Bank said it has donated Rs 3.9 crore towards the fund. "IDBI Bank cares about the health and wellbeing of our fellow citizens, and through this contribution, we support the efforts of the government in fighting the coronavirus pandemic," the bank's Managing Director and CEO Rakesh Sharma said in a release. The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund)was set up on March 28 to raise money for combating the coronavirus crisis and to provide relief to the affected. Political leaders, corporates, defence personnel, employees of public sector undertakings such as railways, and Bollywood personalities are among a cross-section of organisations and people who have announced their contribution to the PM-CARES Fund. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Coronavirus case data shows that African Americans may be disproportionately affected, prompting Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris to urge the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand testing throughout communities. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not broken down coronavirus infections by race, local data from Milwaukee, Illinois and Wisconsin backs the senators' call for the CDC to address the 'existing racial disparities in health care access' for coronavirus patients. In Illinois, black people make up 30 percent of the state's 10,360 cases, with 3,120 infections, while white people make up 29 percent of cases. However, the state's population is about 60 percent white and 14 percent black. As of Sunday in Michigan, African Americans made up 34 percent of cases and 40 percent of deaths. However, only 14 percent of the population is black. Milwaukee's coronavirus sick have mainly been African American men. The Wisconsin city went from having one COVID-19 case to nearly 40 in the space of a week. The figure leapt to 350 by the following week. In Milwaukee County, a graphic shows that 521 of the 1,122 total cases, or 46 percent, are black people. Yet the county's total population is only 26 percent black. Meanwhile, white people make up 24 percent of cases. In Illinois, black people make up 3,120 of the 10,360 total cases, or 30 percent, although the state's population is only 14 percent black. White people, who make up 60 percent of the population, are 29 percent of cases, with 2,965 total As of Sunday in Michigan, African Americans made up 34 percent of cases and 40 percent of deaths. However only 14 percent of the population is black. White people constituted 24 percent of cases and 29 percent of deaths while making up 79 percent of the total population On March 27, five congressional Democrats wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, stating 'how persistent inequities may exacerbate these disparities in the weeks and months to come as our nation responds to this global health pandemic'. 'The CDC is currently failing to collect and publicly report on the racial and ethnic demographic information of patients tested for and affected by COVID-19,' the letter continues. 'Our concerns echo those from some physicians: that decisions to test individuals for the novel coronavirus may be 'more vulnerable to the implicit biases that every patient and medical professional carry around with them,' potentially causing 'black communities and other underserved groups [to] disproportionately mis[s] out on getting tested for COVID-19. 'Although COVID-19 does not discriminate along racial or ethnic lines, existing racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and health care access may mean that the nation's response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community.' Healthcare experts believe socio-economic factors, such as job type, make black people more likely to be exposed to the virus and others such as lack of access to and a distrust of healthcare, make African Americans more likely to die. History has shown African Americans disproportionately suffer from asthma, diabetes and maternal death. The CDC recognizes respiratory illnesses, diabetes and pregnancy as underlying health factors that increase risks in the coronavirus pandemic. A ProPublica report noted that Detroit, which has a majority black population, has emerged as a hotspot. Louisiana has also been classified as a hotspot by President Trump. In Orleans Parish, where 40 percent of the state's COVID-19 deaths have occurred, the majority of the residents are African American. In this March 30, 2020, file photo, a worker leaves the the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building in Milwaukee. The Wisconsin city is one of a few to track ethnicity in the coronavirus cases Experts say the black population is less likely to be able to stick to social distancing guidelines due to socio-economic factors such as lower income and 'essential jobs'. A man covers his face with a mask while shopping at Pick 'N Save near 60th and Capitol, last Saturday 'COVID is just unmasking the deep disinvestment in our communities, the historical injustices and the impact of residential segregation,' Dr. Camara Jones, a family physician, epidemiologist and visiting fellow at Harvard University, told ProPublica. Jones spent 13 years at the CDC, identifying, measuring and addressing racial bias within the medical system. The CDC declined to comment when asked by ProPublica if they were keeping a record during the pandemic. 'This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The overrepresentation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not just a happenstance. It's because we're not valued. WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS? The virus, called COVID-19, is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing. Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. Advertisement As of Sunday, statistics showed Milwaukee county as having 1,122 cases and 34 people had died. A total of 272 were white, 16 'other' and 12 Asian. Of the city's entire population, 39 percent of residents are black. The county is 26 percent black. Eleven of the people who died had diabetes, eight had hypertension and 15 chronic health conditions such as heart and lung disease. 'It will be unimaginable pretty soon,' infectious disease physician and associate dean at Howard University College of Medicine, Dr. Celia J. Maxwell, told PropPublica. 'And anything that comes around is going to be worse in our patients. Period. Many of our patients have so many problems, but this is kind of like the nail in the coffin.' In Milwaukee, the average life expectancy for a black person is 14 years shorter than a white person. Coronavirus cases across the country and around the world have mainly focused on the age of victims but in Milwaukee a variety of ages have been struck down with the virus, and approximately half of the victims are African American. One of the reasons Milwaukee has been publishing race as a factor in the coronavirus pandemic is because the city has 'declared racism as a public health issue'. 'It frames not only how we do our work but how transparent we are about how things are going. It impacts how we manage an outbreak,' Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik told ProPublica. 'What black folks are accustomed to in Milwaukee and anywhere in the country, really, is pain not being acknowledged and constant inequities that happen in health care delivery.' The ProPublica report uses an example of a 25-year-old woman who ended up leaving hospital because she couldn't get immediate treatment for chest pains. She died soon afterward. Head of the Milwaukee NAACP, Fred Royal, said he knew three people who had died from coronavirus and one was his 38-year-old cousin who was told to self-medicate. He said it was 'alarming' that people were being told to self-medicate or sent home pending test results amid the pandemic, only to die. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren (left), Cory Booker (center), Kamala Harris (right) urged the Department of Health and Human Services to expanding testing in communities Joined by Congress Members Robin L. Kelly and Ayanna Pressley, they wrote: 'People of color and immigrants are also less likely to be insured, and many communities of color have shortages of quality health care providers, making it difficult to access appropriate and timely care' A 2019 study from the American Journal of Emergency Medicine found that black people were 40 percent less likely than white people to receive medication for acute pain because they were perceived as having a higher pain threshold. As well as being less likely to have the adequate healthcare insurance coverage, it's believed African Americans may be more likely to be exposed to coronavirus due to other factors that can compromise social distancing. 'Who are we getting these complaints from?' Kowalik told ProPublica. 'Many people of color.' Black people were deemed more likely to work in an 'essential' job role such as food supply, health care, transportation and government, that don't allow for remote work amid lockdowns. The population in Milwaukee County earns 50 percent less than white counterparts. African Americans were more likely to still be rising the New York subway, despite the city being the worst suffering in the world amid the pandemic, ProPublica reported. The congressional letter continued that low-income people are more likely to have many of the chronic health conditions that experts have identified as risk factors for complications from COVID-19. Ivy Moore, of Glendale, uses balaclava made for fishing to fill in for a medical mask and to keep warm on the Milwaukee River in Keltzsch Park in Glendale met a with some success fishing for steelhead or rainbow trout last Sunday North Carolina is also recording recording cases by race amid the coronavirus pandemic 'For example, Black and Hispanic adults are more likely to suffer from obesity and diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults. Asthma is also more prevalent among Black and Hispanic adults and children. People of color and immigrants are also less likely to be insured, and many communities of color have shortages of quality health care providers, making it difficult to access appropriate and timely care,' the congress people wrote. 'Furthermore, a history of discrimination and marginalization has left some people of color distrustful of the medical system, making them less likely to seek out timely care.' It adds that people of color have 'fewer financial resources to draw on in the event of health problems or economic disruption'. The letter also warns of the devastating effects the CDC's 'subjective criteria' testing could have. A community health researcher at Boston University's School of Social Work, agreed that testing areas need a closer look. 'When COVID-19 passes and we see the losses it will be deeply tied to the story of post-World War II policies that left communities marginalized,' Linda Sprague Martinez told ProPublica. 'Its impact is going to be tied to our history and legacy of racial inequities. It's going to be tied to the fact that we live in two very different worlds.' 'This is a matter of taking a look at how our history kept people from actually being fully included,' for Government Alliance on Race and Equity, said Gordon Francis Goodwin, added to ProPublica. In the UK about 90 per cent of diabetic adults have Type 2 diabetes Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high. There are two main types of diabetes: - Type 1, where the body's immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin. - Type 2, where the body does not produce enough insulin, or the body's cells do not react to insulin. Type 2 diabetes is far more common than Type 1. In the UK, around 90% of all adults with diabetes have Type 2. Reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes can be achieved through healthy eating, regular exercise and achieving a healthy body weight. The main symptoms of diabetes include: feeling very thirsty, urinating more frequently (particularly at night), feeling very tired, weight loss, and loss of muscle bulk. Source: NHS Advertisement San Francisco, April 5 : Elon Musk has responded to critics who said that Tesla and SpaceX CEO sent non-invasive breathing aids to New York City Hospitals which could not be used to treat severe COVID-19 cases. New York City Hospitals recently shared an image on Twitter thanking Musk and Tesla for delivering 40 ventilators to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. The photo showed ResMed-made Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) machines needed to treat patients with life-threatening respiratory problems. Musk critics on Twitter piled on against him over BiPAP machines. "Wait a minute. That's a CPAP machine, not a ventilator. More than a little misleading right," a user tweeted. "Do we know the origin of these ventilations, as we know they were not in fact produced by Tesla? Additionally, what was the purpose of slapping the Tesla logo on the boxes? Seems a little misleading," said another user. Musk replied late Saturday, saying it was "weird that so many troll/bot accounts were activated to attack on this fake issue." "Exactly. Moreover, all hospitals were given exact specifications of Resmed & Philips ventilators before delivery & all confirmed they would be critical," he added. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed that BiPAP machines could be converted into the ventilators required to treat COVID-19 patients. Musk announced last week that he was working to provide hospitals around the world with ventilators to treat patients with the virus. He has also donated 50,000 N95 surgical masks and various protective items to a hospital in the US. The federal government is poised to pump $100 billion in coronavirus relief funding into the nations hospitals in the coming weeks, all intended to help bolster the bottom lines of facilities tested to their limits by the global pandemic. Sen. John Barrasso wants to be sure a fair share of those funds go to rural hospitals. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar last week co-signed by more than 120 members of Congress, Barrasso and Colorados Sen. Michael Bennet urged the director to commit a significant share of that $100 billion to funding relief payments for rural hospitals across the country, many of whom particularly in Wyoming are seeing significant hits to their bottom lines. The letter attracted a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers looking to inject much-needed funding into hospitals that serve a critical role in rural communities. Rural hospitals have always been under additional financial stress, Barrasso said in an interview with the Star-Tribune. Over the last 10 years, about 120 hospitals in the country have closed and theyve all been rural hospitals. And once the rural community loses its hospital, it makes it that much harder to attract doctors, nurses, teachers, small businesses, all of the things that are vital to a small community. So we, this bipartisan group is very focused on rural hospitals, because we know what it means for our rural communities. Growing demand, declining revenue The COVID-19 pandemic has put a tremendous strain on the nations health care system. That strain is felt acutely in rural health care, which already faces obstacles treating small, relatively isolated populations. Many Wyomingites rely on small hospitals for medical care. But it is these smallest of hospitals that are typically most at risk from a financial standpoint. As the virus has shut down businesses, so too has it dimmed rural hospitals opportunities to provide the elective procedures that have long helped to buoy their balance sheets. And as the number of those procedures have been reduced, rural hospitals have taken a financial hit, a vulnerability that has always existed but rarely been tested to this extent. As the traditional revenue structures falter, hospitals now find themselves in a uniquely precarious position as uncertainty about the coronavirus as well as their own bottom lines have only increased. Some hospitals across the state, according to Wyoming Hospital Association President Eric Boley, have seen revenues decline by as much as 60 percent while their costs have remained stable. With already thin margins making it nearly impossible for those hospitals to build up enough savings to help weather the storm, a new infusion of funding in a crisis has become a critical need for their ability to remain open. Its tough right now for all hospitals, Boley said in an interview. But the smaller ones are really struggling. A lot of them, theyve curtailed all the practices that actually make them money, you know, elective procedures. Volumes are way down in both the hospitals and in the clinics that they operate and run. And so theyre struggling just to be able to meet payroll in some situations while, at the same time, theyre trying to prepare for a potential surge and being able to care for all the people in their communities. More funding coming? The congressional letter was the latest effort from Barrasso to gain funding for rural hospitals, adding onto legislation he had cosponsored with Bennet several weeks ago that aimed to set aside additional funding in Congress next emergency aid package specifically for medical care in rural communities. Many of the provisions in that bill, Barrasso said, will be more than likely included in the fourth round of emergency funding to come from Congress which, as of last week, was still a work in progress. The important components of [the bill], we have been assured will be dealt with, Barrasso said. Thats why were working with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to say, Hey, you have an opportunity and a responsibility to focus and never forget the rural hospitals. However, as a pandemic lays bare the vulnerabilities of rural hospitals, Barrasso stopped short of saying anything should fundamentally change in the way health care is delivered in rural communities, arguing that the nature of rural hospitals having to provide a broad variety of services for a very limited number of clients is already set up to lose money. While those conversations could happen someday, Boley said, now is probably not the time, even as the states medical system weathers a perfect storm of lost revenues and a global pandemic. [Barrassos] been proactive and looking at alternative reimbursement models and trying to come up with something thats more sustainable going into the future, Boley said. Weve actually been kind of working on that together but its going to take a backseat to this right now. But, you know, once we emerge from the pandemic and converge on the other side, and once the dust settles, first of all, I am truly concerned about the financial health of the hospitals around the state. And I would say not just the little ones; this applies to even the larger ones who are probably going to be the places that are taking care of the most seriously ill. Theyre seeing massive, massive loss of revenue. What this looks like coming out of this, only time will tell, he concluded. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of Television Broadcasts Limited (HKG:511) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model. Check out our latest analysis for Television Broadcasts The method As Television Broadcasts operates in the media sector, we need to calculate the intrinsic value slightly differently. Instead of using free cash flows, which are hard to estimate and often not reported by analysts in this industry, dividends per share (DPS) payments are used. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. The 'Gordon Growth Model' is used, which simply assumes that dividend payments will continue to increase at a sustainable growth rate forever. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 10-year government bond rate (1.6%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 7.8%. Relative to the current share price of HK$9.2, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate) = HK$1.0 / (7.8% 1.6%) = HK$10.7 SEHK:511 Intrinsic value April 5th 2020 Important assumptions Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Television Broadcasts as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.023. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Story continues Next Steps: Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldnt be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Television Broadcasts, We've compiled three relevant factors you should further examine: Risks: Case in point, we've spotted 2 warning signs for Television Broadcasts you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does 511's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every HK stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search 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. As coronavirus spreads rapidly across Brazil, the lower house of Congress reportedly approved the amendment for a war budget. As per reports, the budget will help separate the coronavirus-related spending from the governments main budget and it will also protect the economy of the country. Currently, Brazil has more than 10,300 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed more than 440 lives in the country. According to an international media outlet, the amendment creates an extraordinary regime to prevent expenses related to a state of emergency decree triggered by the pandemic from being mixed with the federal budget over the same period. The bill will also grant the Brazilian central bank emergency bond-being powers to stabilise the financial markets. However, the bill is yet to get the Senates approval by three-fifths of the votes which is expected to take place next week. READ: Spain Says EU Has To Rise To Coronavirus Challenge Or Countries Will fail As Union Brazils central bank president, Roberto Campos, reportedly said that the authorities must ensure that the money reaches key sectors. He said that the officials will have to start discussing what the country needs and what kind of intervention they want to make. Furthermore, he said that authorities need to move quickly to boost market liquidity as they still have an arsenal of measure to adopt. He also informed that the financial system currently sold enough and actions altogether have the potential to inject up to $224.32 billion in liquidity. READ: Communicable Period For Coronavirus May Continue After Patients Recover: Book Brazil seeks help from India Brazil is one of the countries struggling to get medical supplies from China. Earlier this week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also asked India to support the continuity of the supply of pharmaceutical inputs for the production of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that some say can be used to treat critical COVID-19 cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bolsonaro reportedly discussed how they can join forces to deal with the deadly coronavirus crisis. Bolsonaro, in a tweet said, In contact with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, I requested support in the continuity of the supply of pharmaceutical inputs for the production of hydroxychloroquine. We will spare no effort to save lives. (with inputs from agencies) (Image source: AP) READ: Irish Citizens Throw Bingo Party Amid Coronavirus Lockdown; Watch READ: Burberry To Manufacture Hospital Gowns, Masks To Help Battle Coronavirus Crisis The Trudeau government is looking to the relationships it established during NAFTA negotiations to resolve the urgent dispute over personal protective equipment with the United States. According to senior sources with direct knowledge of the situation, Canadian politicians at different levels, and of different political stripes, will and have been reaching out to contacts in the U.S. to make Canada's case to keep the flow of essential goods moving. At the core of this push, sources say, is the prime minister's chief of staff, Katie Telford, who is trying to leverage her relationship with the president's son-in-law and special advisor Jared Kushner. The overtures come after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to force Minnesota-based 3M to prioritize orders from the U.S. government for N95 respirators, at the expense of foreign orders. The protective masks are used by front-line health care workers battling the novel coronavirus. When Canadian officials reach out to their American counterparts or contacts, they will highlight the fact that the Canada-U.S. medical supply chain is highly integrated, one source said. For example, the pulp used in gowns and masks made by several U.S. firms comes from Nanaimo, B.C. Also, there are 1,200 medical workers who travel from Windsor, Ont., to Detroit, Mich., nearly every day. And Canada supplies a significant amount of medical isotopes to the United States. Kushner connection could benefit Ottawa This is a similar approach to what happened during NAFTA negotiations, when Canadian politicians at all levels reached out to Americans, to remind their contacts of just how integrated the supply chain is between both countries. During NAFTA negotiations, Telford developed a close working relationship with Kushner, to the point that they often exchange text messages. The Canadians see the Kushner connection as one that can be used to Ottawa's advantage, one source told CBC News. Story continues Kushner played a key role in finalizing NAFTA negotiations with both Mexico and Canada, as he is reported to have influence with Trump in ways that other members of the administration do not. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Other influential members of Trump's inner circle who may be sympathetic to Canada's plight include Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the source said. Meadows is new to the role, but during his previous stint as a member of Congress, it was well known he was close to the president. Canada's former ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, often spoke with Meadows about Canadian priorities during NAFTA talks, as he had Trump's ear. A second source says this is about the health and safety of Canadians, so all key relationships that have been developed over the years to resolve this are being utilized. That second source says Canada's new ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, is a main point of contact right now with the Trump administration, as is Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Ontario Premier Doug Ford reached out to Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, to express his frustration with the White House over its request that medical equipment manufactured in the U.S. not be exported to Canada. Ford played a similar role during NAFTA negotiations, developing relationships with key members of the Trump administration, including former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft. Kushner under fire at home In Washington, Kushner has been criticized after he was assigned key responsibilities within the White House coronavirus task force. The White House is standing by Kushner, after he questioned how some U.S. governors and mayors are handling the crisis, and claimed that the national stockpile of emergency medical equipment is not for use by states. During Thursday's coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, Kushner said "the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile." "It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use." However, a U.S. federal government website clearly stated that in fact, the equipment is meant to supplement supplies for individual states. Within 24 hours, the language on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website was changed to reflect what Kushner had said. The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, has informed Parliament that he has taken the COVID-19 test and the result was negative. I wish to inform you that I took the Coronavirus test three days ago and my test result came negative. Praise the Lord. In an address on Saturday night before he suspended the House indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Speaker requested all members and staff who wished to do voluntary testing to contact Dr Prince Pambo, the Medical Officer in charge of Parliament House Clinic. He gave the assurance that the usual Rising Allowance termed Special Suspension Allowance would be paid to all relevant persons and that other payments would be made to members accordingly. On the indefinite suspension due to the COVID-19, Speaker Oquaye said: Honourable Members, we are suspending sitting on this day, and this Honourable House will stand suspended until the Speaker, in consultation with the leadership of the House, deem it fit to ask the House to resume sitting. The decision means the Speaker can recall legislators on any day he chooses to, without the required 14-day notice. This action is unprecedented but indeed we are living in unprecedented times and the whole Ghana State is in a state of National Emergency, he said. 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. Featured Video What happens to a community as the bodies of missing children turn up mutilated in area parks? And how do victims families cope with their loss while the murders remain unsolved? It may sound like the plot of a fictional serial-killer show, but sadly its not. The African-American community of Atlanta area grappled with these real-life horrors a case involving over 30 murders in the late 70s and early 80s. And a new HBO series executive produced by John Legend examines the heavy toll on the city. Atlantas Missing and Murdered, a five-part documentary series premiering April 5 at 8 p.m. on HBO, draws viewers into the excruciating case in the way it unfolded while continually returning to the present. Since Atlanta police reopened the case in 2019, theres been official acknowledgment that investigators may have shut it down too soon. For decades, some of the victims families have refused to believe the man convicted for some of the killings murdered their sons. HBO series zeroes in on the Atlanta Child Murders Dozens of children disappeared and turned up mutilated and dead in the Atlanta area. | Georgia State University/AP/HBO Unless you went through it, its impossible to imagine how a community found a way to cope with children disappearing and turning up dead on a regular basis. Atlantas Missing and Murdered, co-produced by Show of Force, John Legends Get Lifted Film Co., and Shawn Carters Roc Nation, attempts to take viewers there. The series mixes in exclusive archival footage and interviews with police reports, FBI records, details on the reopened case, and a look inside the lives of victims who are still coping with their dead family members to this day. For viewers who are unfamiliar with the murders, getting into the story can be overwhelming. It seems impossible that so many dead children turned up dead over a 21-month period. And you may find law enforcements reaction hard to fathom. But the filmmakers are telling the story for those very reasons. As the African-American community began demanding answers, the temperature of a wounded population began to rise. The series examines victims pain and a hastily closed investigation Decades later, families of the victims still search for closure. | Georgia State University/AP/HBO While the pain and suffering from 1979 on could warrant its own documentary, Atlantas Missing and Murdered has larger aims. Another part of the story begins in 1982, following the murder conviction of Wayne Williams for the alleged killings of two of the victims. After Williams conviction, law enforcement considered the case including the 28 or so other murders closed. Yet those murders remained unsolved and Williams, sentenced to jail for multiple life sentences, maintained his innocence. Multiple family members of the victims dont believe Williams did it, either. After all these years, they continue to look for answers (and thus closure) on this front. Atlantas Missing and Murdered takes you inside their lives. The hook for many viewers will come down to this abrupt closing of the murder cases. As investigators memories conflict with contemporary reports, you see why people doubted the reasoning behind closing the cases and why this docuseries needed to get made. Also see: Spy Wars With Damian Lewis Series Arrives on the Smithsonian Channel Highlights Kolkata Police shared a video about coronavirus awareness They twisted lyrics of a popular number from the film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne People love the video Kolkata Police recently garnered a big round of applause from people after giving a twist to iconic Bengali song Bela Bose to spread awareness about COVID-19. They are at it again and this time theyve selected a track from Satyajit Rays iconic movie Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. Goopy-Bagha in fight against Corona! Kolkata Police tweeted along with the video. Yet another musical effort by KP personnel at Rabindra Sarobar PS area to enliven another stressful day of fellow citizens with a deftly modified song from the iconic Satyajit Ray movie Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, they added. In the video, a policeman from Rabindra Sarobar Police Station sings, O re Halla Rajar sena with a twist in the lyrics. A few seconds into the video, his colleagues join him in singing the chorus. Goopy-Bagha' in fight against Corona! Yet another musical effort by KP personnel at Rabindra Sarobar PS area to enliven another stressful day of fellow citizens with a deftly modified song from the iconic Satyajit Ray movie Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne pic.twitter.com/BGq2EEhMMV Kolkata Police (@KolkataPolice) April 4, 2020 Since being shared a day ago, the video has garnered over 22,000 views and still counting. It has also gathered over 1,500 likes. People applauded the departments efforts and their comments show how. Sonar Bangla at its best!! Proud of you Guys!! wrote a Twitter user. Huge salute to you! Words of appreciation will fall short in front of the work done by u in these hard times! commented another. Wow, great job. We respect your effort, expressed a third. Very tough times. You guys are amazing!! wrote a fourth. Heres how others reacted: Country will remember your stupendous contribution during this tough period, take a bow all of you. Avik Mukherjee (@AvikMuk50280067) April 4, 2020 U Guys are doing great job Hats off to You all ... K (@rishikapoor5) April 4, 2020 Love you sir, another very good effort to cheer up bengalis, Thank You so much Troll Duniya (@trollduniya) April 4, 2020 Very nice initiative by KP, hats off for your service to mankind. Suhrita Chaudhuri (@SuhritaChaudhu1) April 4, 2020 Using lyrics of another song from the same movie, a few tweeple replied, Kolkata Police tomare saalam [Kolkata Police, we salute you]. What do you think of the initiative? The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the world hard and Nigeria is not spared from the scourge. In a week, the number of cases recorded in Nigeria doubled, a review of official data showed. COVID-19 is a viral respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. As of Saturday, March 28, the tally of confirmed cases was 97 with a death recorded and three patients discharged after they fully recovered from the disease. However, a week later, by the end of Saturday, April 4, confirmed cases had risen to 214. Also, four deaths have been recorded while 25 persons recovered and have been discharged. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Lagos State still tops the chart with the highest number of cases in the country. A breakdown of states where cases have been confirmed indicates that Lagos now has 109 cases, followed by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) 43, Osun 20, Oyo 9, Akwa Ibom 5, Ogun 4, Edo 7, Kaduna 4, Bauchi 6, Enugu 2, and Ekiti 2. Ondo, Rivers and Benue have one case each. PREMIUM TIMES analysis revealed that the 117 new cases represent a 120 per cent increase in the figures when compared to what was obtained last week. Meanwhile, the figures are not unprecedented as experts have predicted an exponential rise with contact tracing and conduct of more tests. Following the clamour for the conduct of more tests, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, had announced that Nigeria would be able to test up to 1000 suspected cases of coronavirus daily by the end of last week. Also, the NCDC chief said there are plans to add more molecular laboratories to the existing ones. 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, Chikwe Ihekweazu, the NCDC boss, stated. READ ALSO: In this article, PREMIUM TIMES reviews the cases recorded last week and how the figure rose from 97 to 214. Timeline On Sunday, March 29, 14 new cases of the infection were reported nine in Lagos and five in FCT. That made the total number of confirmed cases 111. On Monday, March 30, 20 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Nigeria: 13 in Lagos, four in FCT, two in Kaduna and one in Oyo State. The case in Oyo was that of the state governor, Seyi Makinde, who announced his status. Also, another death was recorded, making 131 confirmed cases reported with 2 deaths. On Tuesday, March 31, four new cases of the pandemic were reported three in Osun and one in Ogun. That put the number of confirmed cases at 135 with two deaths. The increase in the Osun cases was as a result of the influx of some Ivory Coast returnees who arrived the state via Ogun State. On the same day, four other cases were reported three in the FCT and one in Lagos, making a total of 139. At the wake of Wednesday, the first day in April, 12 new cases of the disease were reported in Nigeria. There were nine in Osun, two in Edo and one in Ekiti State. While the total reached 151, NCDC announced that nine patients have recovered from the disease. On the same Wednesday, 23 new cases were recorded nine in Lagos, seven in the FCT, five in Akwa Ibom, one in Kaduna and one in Bauchi State. The record of 35 on Wednesday is the highest reported in a day, since the first index case was discovered in February. As of 08:00 p.m. on April 1, there were 174 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Nigeria. Ten new cases were reported on Thursday including seven from Lagos and three in the FCT. Advertisements The agency also disclosed that out of the 184 confirmed cases so far, 20 have been discharged. However, on Friday, 25 new cases of the disease were reported. These include Lagos 11, Osun 6, FCT 3, Edo 3, Ondo 1 and Oyo 1. The patients in Osun were part of the Ivory Coast returnees while the index case in Ondo is a soldier who recently returned from India. The NCDC also announced two new deaths and five more people discharged. As of 10:30 p.m. on April 3, there were 209 confirmed cases. On Saturday evening, five new cases from Bauchi and FCT were reported, making a total of 214 confirmed cases, 25 discharged and four deaths. Lockdown Nonetheless, the Nigerian government took its preventive measures a step further by declaring a total lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and the FCT. President Muhammadu Buhari last Sunday said the cessation of movement, which began on Monday in Lagos and Abuja, will span for 14 days and can be reviewed upward. The presidency said Mr Buhari relied on the Quarantine Act to make the announcement. In exercise of the powers conferred on him by Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Quarantine Act (CAP Q2 LFN 2004), and all other powers enabling him in that behalf, President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday, signed the Covid-19 Regulations, 2020, which declared Covid-19 a dangerous infectious disease, a statement from the presidency noted. Defying the order However, PREMIUM TIMES reported how some individuals and religious organisations have flouted the lockdown order in Lagos and in Abuja. Also cases of harassment of citizens by security operatives were reported. Rights activists have also condemned the deployment of soldiers to enforce a lock down. A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, called on the president to withdraw the troops. Global figures According to worldometer, an independent digital platform with the goal of making world statistics available, over one million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed globally with over 64,000 deaths while over 240,000 people have recovered from the disease. The United States of America has over 300,000 cases, which makes it the highest recorded in a country so far. Italy, however, has the highest number of deaths at over 15,000. Daniel Hamilton: China, the WHO and why its time to stand up for Taiwan Daniel Hamilton works in international business consultancy and was a Conservative candidate at the 2017 general election. The global public health crisis sparked by coronavirus is unprecedented in its scale and voracity. If there are any lessons that must be learned, even in this early stage of fighting the pandemic, it is the critical importance of countries, large and small, working together to share data, trends and best practice in R&D and clinical excellence. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has long been the subject of many criticisms as to its day-to-day management and efficacy and yet, when it comes to playing global role in fighting coronavirus, it remains the only game in town. For this reason, the repeated exclusion of Taiwan from the WHOs deliberations as a result of pressure from the Peoples Republic of China has ceased to be just another chapter in a fratricidal war between two groups with a differing view of Chinese statehood and has now become a risk to international public health. Since its first detection in the country in January, quick actions on the part of Taiwanese authorities have resulted in only three recorded deaths a fact that healthcare experts put down to its robust cross-referencing of overseas travel and health records and robust quarantining of carriers. Whilst China played down the scale of the outbreak in order to preserve its reputation with disastrous consequences for every nation on the planet Taiwan adopted a far more effective approach that prioritised the life of its citizens. It is incumbent on international organisations such as the WHO to listen to nations that have tackled the outbreak well. Since 2016, direct intervention from Beijing has prevented Taiwan from attending the WHOs World Health Assembly, blocking political representatives and technical and scientific experts from Taiwan from directly participating in or even submitting evidence and opinions to the body. This diplomatic blockade has resulted in Taiwan being absent from discussions on pandemic influenza and rheumatic fever preparedness, antimicrobial resistance and the adoption of a global vaccine action plan for chronic diseases such as liver and cervical cancer. Prior experience ought to have taught China and the international community that excluding Taiwan and its 24 million citizens from the body was foolish in the extreme. Indeed, the 2003 SARS outbreak left Taipei shut out of global public health discussions until the rising death toll saw Beijing temporarily drop its objections to Taiwanese observer status. Sadly, this has not happened in respect of coronavirus a far more insidious public health threat. On a bilateral level, the authorities in Taipei have already donated 10 million high-quality protective face masks to Europe and the United States, with further such assistance promised in the coming days. The WHOs own response to this impasse has been, in want of a better description, utterly ludicrous. In response to questions from a Hong Kong-based journalist about Taiwans potential admittance to the body, Bruce Aylward, the WHOs Assistant Director General, first pretended not to hear the journalists question before abruptly logging off the Skype call as not to further prolong the discussion. Faced with a global public health crisis, this isnt leadership from the WHO; its a downright abrogation of responsibility, sponsored by threats from Beijing. In recent days, President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan has been forced to again complain about being denied access to critical information about the coronavirus pandemic, just as cases again spike in China. There is a degree of realpolitik to the United Kingdoms relations with the Peoples Republic of China that must be respected. The UK has rightfully joined the chorus of international protests against the countrys internment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang re-education camps and has voiced criticism of the heavy-handed response to pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong. But it is clearly not desirable for Britain to have an antagonistic relationship with the government in Beijing with whom we enjoy a constructive relationship on issues as diverse as higher education ties, the completion of the Belt and Road global development strategy and numerous world-leading research and development programmes. In the spirit of mutual respect, this must continue. On the issue of Taiwan, however, the time has now come for both the United Kingdom and broader international community to adopt a more assertive approach in favour of Taipeis constructive involvement in international bodies whether that be the World Health Organisation, the International Civil Aviation Organisation or World Trade Organisation. Taiwan has long demonstrated a commitment to the values that we as British citizens hold dear. Quite apart from its economic prowess and cutting-edge industry, Taiwan is a liberal democracy in which judicial independence, freedom of speech and good governance standards are deeply respected. On those metrics alone, Taiwan deserves significant recognition. It is regrettable that an issue such as coronavirus should provide the impetus for a change in diplomatic policy, yet it is high time the international community called an end to Taiwans harmful and unnecessary isolation. TAMIR KALIFA, STR / NYT The number of operating U.S. oil and gas rigs plummeted by 64 this week, according to the Baker Hughes rig count. The count is seen as a leading indicator of oil and gas production activity in the U.S. The number of operating rigs in the U.S. is now 664. The losses come after an already steep drop off in activity in 2019. Last year, the rig count dropped by more than 25 percent. A year ago this week, there were more than 1,000 operating oil and gas rigs in the U.S. Washington President Donald Trump is firing the intelligence community inspector general whose insistence on telling lawmakers about a whistleblower complaint about the president's dealings with Ukraine triggered impeachment proceedings last fall, the president told lawmakers in a letter late Friday. The move came as Trump announced his intent to name a White House aide as the independent watchdog for $500 billion in corporate pandemic aid and notified Congress of other nominees to inspector general positions, including one that would effectively oust the newly named chairman of a panel to oversee how the government spends $2 trillion in coronavirus relief. The slew of late-night announcements raised the specter of a White House power play over the community of inspectors general independent officials whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the government. Trump is ousting the intelligence community inspector general, Michael Atkinson, because he lost confidence in him, the president wrote in a letter to leaders of the two congressional intelligence committees. He gave no further explanation. "As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as president, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general," Trump wrote. "That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general." Trump has long discussed his desire to fire several inspectors general, and he has been talking to aides about his desire to oust Atkinson since last fall, tarring the inspector general as disloyal because he sought to share information with Congress about the president's efforts to pressure Ukraine into delivering him personal political benefits. Atkinson's fate was sealed after the trial on impeachment charges ended, said one administration official, who was granted anonymity. Under the law that created the position of the inspector general for the intelligence community, the president can only remove that person a month after notifying the intelligence communities of his intentions and rationale. But rather than being permitted to serve for another month, the White House told Atkinson late Friday that he is being placed on administrative leave, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The move effectively circumvents the 30-day safeguard by sidelining him immediately. The official described the move as part of a broader shake-up of the intelligence community that the president has set in motion in the past several weeks. He recently installed Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany known for his combative conservatism, as acting director of national intelligence, a position where presidents typically look to install career officials or apolitical appointees. And Trump has nominated one of his top allies in Congress, Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas, to take over the post permanently. The ouster of Atkinson came as the White House announced five nominees for inspector general positions. They included Brian D. Miller, an aide to Trump in the White House Counsel's Office, who was tapped to be the newly created special inspector general for pandemic recovery. Miller served as an inspector general for the General Services Administration, but in more recent years he has performed a more political role. Among other things, he helped respond to oversight requests for White House documents during Trump's impeachment trial. His nomination requires Senate confirmation. Trump also nominated a senior Customs and Border Protection policy official, Jason Abend, to be the Department of Defense inspector general. That position is vacant and is held on an acting basis by Glenn Fine, the deputy inspector general at the Pentagon and a longtime Justice Department inspector general with a reputation for independence. Earlier this week, a group of fellow inspectors general named Fine to be chairman of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, with control of an $80 million budget to police how the government carries out the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. If Abend is confirmed, Fine would lose his acting role and could no longer lead the committee. Trump also nominated three current and former Justice Department officials to be the new inspectors general at the CIA, the Department of Education and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Trump has been focused for weeks on rooting out administration officials perceived as disloyal. Before his role in bringing to light Trump's actions toward Ukraine that led to his impeachment, Atkinson had been nominated to the position by Trump and confirmed unanimously by the Senate. The two top Democrats on the intelligence oversight committees expressed objections on Friday, portraying Trump's move as political and retribution. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee who was the lead impeachment manager, called the "dead of night" firing in the midst of a national emergency "yet another blatant attempt by the president to gut the independence of the intelligence community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing." And Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "The work of the intelligence community has never been about loyalty to a single individual; it's about keeping us all safe from those who wish to do our country harm. We should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicize the nation's intelligence agencies." The top Republicans on both committees, including Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, chair of the Senate panel, did not immediately comment on Atkinson's dismissal. Trump told lawmakers in his letter Friday that he will later submit a nominee to replace Atkinson who "has my full confidence and who meets the appropriate qualifications." An intelligence official said Thomas A. Monheim, general counsel of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, would serve as acting inspector general. A member of Irans parliament has said the government took 18 trillion rials from the National Development Fund on the eve of the Iranian New Year in March because it was out of money to pay salaries and New Year bonuses to its employees. The National Development Fund (NDF) is savings from oil exports meant to help long term projects benefitting future generations. The amount mentioned by the lawmaker is around $420 million based on the official exchange rate. Mohammad Hosseini who is one of parliaments supervisors of government operations told Fars news agency April 5 that the governments action was illegal and if the parliament is smart it can force President Hassan Rouhanis administration to return the money. However, no government authority can withdraw money from NDF without the permission of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This means no one, including the parliament, can challenge the decision of withdrawing money to pay New Year salaries and bonuses. President Rouhani in March asked the Supreme Leader for permission to take one billion dollars from NDF but there has been no news about Khameneis response. Pressed by U.S. sanctions which have cut off crude oil exports, Iran has repeatedly withdrawn money from the NDF in the past two years. The amount in the fund is kept secret, but estimates range from $35-70 billion. With the coronavirus crisis the economic situation and government finances have worsened. Rouhani on April 2 said the country has enough foreign currency reserves this year, in what might be a reference to the National Development Fund. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 17:53:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of people arrested in Cambodia for allegedly involving in illicit drugs increased by 14 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, according to the country's anti-drug department report on Sunday. The authorities had nabbed 5,056 drug-related suspects in 2,521 cases during the January-March period this year, up 14 percent and 23 percent, respectively compared to the same period last year, the report said. Among the suspects in the Q1 of this year, some 2,871 were involved in drug trafficking and 2,185 were related to drug use, it said, adding that 55 of them are foreigners in six nationalities. "A total of 78.7 kilograms of illicit drugs and 54.7 kilograms of dry marijuana as well as 16,499 marijuana plants had been seized from those suspects," the report said. It added that three pistols, four rifles, 19 cars, 436 motorbikes, 1,242 telephones, and 79 scales had also been confiscated during the raids. Cambodia has no death sentence for drug traffickers. Under its law, anyone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drugs could be jailed for life. The British spy behind a notorious 'dirty dossier' on Donald Trump's links to Russia is being sued by three oligarchs in the High Court. Former MI6 man Christopher Steele's report on the newly elected US President in 2017 alleged he was in Vladimir Putin's pocket and claimed he threw an orgy with prostitutes on a Moscow trip. Mr Trump called it 'fake news' and blasted Mr Steele as a 'failed spy'. Now the 55-year-old is being sued in London by three Russians named in the file and has been asked to back up the accuracy of his dossier. They want him to pay damages and tell the world his report was inaccurate. The trio - banker Peter Aven, billionaire financier Mikhail Fridman and oil tycoon German Khan - deny his claims that they did Putin's bidding. Before a hearing last month, father of three Mr Steele suggested he would barely answer any questions, claiming it would identify his sources. He argued his dossier was reporting what he was told and was not definitive truth. Christopher Steele (pictured, who wrote a notorious 'dirty dossier' on Donald Trump's alleged links to Russia, is being sued by three oligarchs in the High Court President Trump called Steele's report 'fake news' and branded the MI6 veteran a 'failed spy' (pictured meeting with Vladimir Putin during a press briefing in July 2018) But the judge, Mr Justice Warby, warned he expected Mr Steele to give answers and failure to do so could count against him. The dossier was unveiled in January 2017 as Mr Trump prepared to enter the White House and was commissioned by a Washington consultancy. The contract to investigate Mr Trump's links to Russia was handed to Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd - co-founded by Mr Steele, a Russian expert for MI6 for 22 years. Six months later, it was leaked to US Democrat politicians and the media, containing claims Mr Putin spent years compiling an embarrassing 'kompromat' file on the President. Mr Steele said Russian spies claimed they filmed an orgy Mr Trump staged in a hotel room there on a business trip. And the dossier said that not only had Mr Putin's men given Mr Trump information useful in his election campaign in 2016, but that his allies had in return handed over information on Russians in America. Steele is being sued in London by three Russians including German Khan (left) and Mikhail Fridman (right) named in the file and has been asked to back up the accuracy of his dossier Peter Aven (left) and Mikhail Fridman (right) deny Steele's claims that they did Putin's bidding Mr Aven - who has owned a home in Wentworth, Surrey - Mr Fridman, and Mr Khan are disputing some of its veracity. They claim references to them are inaccurate and damaging. The case has been held up because the claimants argue Mr Steele should be forced to answer questions and prove his claims are true, or pay up. The ex-spy's lawyers said some allegations were already in the public domain. And Mr Steele insisted he would not discuss his sources, claiming it could endanger them. Mr Justice Warby said: 'I may be called on to rule whether he should be compelled to answer a question.' And the judge warned he was not convinced Mr Steele would be able to insist his dossier accurately reported what he had heard - suggesting he would have to prove it was not inaccurate. A Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh has supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to the people to switch off the lights at 9 pm on Sunday to display the country's "collective resolve" to defeat coronavirus. Congress MLA from Gwalior (South) Praveen Pathak, in a video message uploaded on social media on Sunday, urged people to light up lamps for nine minutes by rising above party and in honour of the prime minister. When asked about it, Pathak told PTI that it is a matter of country's unity and not everything should be looked from a political angle. "I only supported the appeal made by the PM, who is the head of the country, and it should not be misunderstood. I support whenever someone talks about the nation...whichever political party that person might belong to," he said. Modi had on Friday urged people to switch off the lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5 to display the country's "collective resolve" to defeat coronavirus. Last month, 22 Congress MLAs had resigned as legislators leading to the collapse of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thiruvananthapuram, April 5 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday held a video conference with top diaspora leaders and heard about the difficulties faced by Keralites in various countries in the wake of Covid-19. According to studies, currently there are 2.5 million Keralites who are migrants, out of which 90 per cent work in the Middle East, while there are another two million Keralites who hold passports of other countries. Vijayan requested the leaders to see that whatever they do whatever they can to ease the difficulties faced by Keralites in the countries they are now residing. One issue the representatives pointed out was that in the Middle East, there are numerous schools run by Keralites and Indians and it would be good if Vijayan will take up the case for a fee waiver as all educational institutions there are presently closed. The Chief Minister assured them that he will do his best and also involve the Centre in it. Another grievance that came up was, post Covid-19, there could be a total shake up in the job sector in the Middle East and Vijayan said if it happens, he will see to ease difficulties by appropriate rehabilitation schemes. He said that he has already taken up with the Centre about the difficulties faced by the diaspora. Vijayan also asked the diaspora leaders to set up a task force in each countries and also requested them to see on how best they will be able to help, especially the student community, through parttime jobs. Among the diaspora representatives who took part were M.A.Yusf Ali, Ravi Pillai, T. Haridas Murali Thummarkudy, to name a few. Weekly poll: the Nokia 8.3 5G marks many firsts for HMD, but is the price too ambitious? HMD decided there's no time to wait for the new Bond film and revealed its first ever 5G phone - the Nokia 8.3 5G. This one also has one of the largest screens of any Nokia (even the Lumia 1520 was smaller), plus it's the first Nokia with a 64MP camera. And as you can tell by the ZEISS badge in the middle of the quad camera setup, this phone will aim to please cameraphone enthusiasts. Besides the 64MP sensor, the phone also packs a 12MP ultrawide cam (13mm), a 2MP macro cam and a 2MP depth sensor. Even though it isn't explicitly branded, the 24MP selfie camera also enjoys ZEISS optics. And while Nokia phones may no longer have exclusivity on ZEISS, the only other option is the pricey Sony Xperia 1 II that isn't even out yet. The Nokia 8.3 isn't out either, the expected release is in Q2 when the phone will start at 600 for the 6/64GB model (there's an 8/128GB version too, plus a dedicated microSD slot). Is that too pricey? The Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite also packs 5G connectivity and will be 350 when it launches in May. It may not have the Nokia's brand-name lens, but it does use the same chipset - Snapdragon 765G. The Nokia 8-series no longer has flagship status, there isn't even an in-display fingerprint reader (partially because of the LCD screen). To be fair to HMD, the company has done good work to maintain the Nokia name and is unrivaled when it comes to Android upgrade for its phones (save for Google's Pixels). Also, it has always been conservative with its choice of chipsets, but that hasn't stopped fans from loving its phones (HMD even turned a profit for the first time in Q4 of last year). Does the Nokia 8.3 5G justify its price tag or does HMD need to reevaluate its strategy? In the months before the coronavirus infiltrated the U.S., a 49-year-old inmate began drafting a letter inside the walls of a federal prison in Louisiana. The man, Patrick Jones, had been locked up for nearly 13 years on a nonviolent drug charge. He hadn't seen his youngest son, then 16, since the boy was a toddler. "I feel that my conviction and sentence was also a punishment that my child has had to endure also and there are no words for how remorseful I am," Jones wrote to U.S. District Judge Alan Albright in a letter dated Oct. 15. "Years of 'I am sorry' don't seem to justify the absence of a father or the chance of having purpose in life by raising my child." Image: Patrick Jones (Courtesy of the Jones Family) Jones was arrested in 2007 after cops found 19 grams of crack and 21 grams of powder cocaine inside the apartment he shared with his wife in Temple, Texas. His wife testified against him and was spared a prison sentence. Jones wasn't so fortunate. He was ultimately ordered to spend 27 years behind bars, in part because he lived within 1,000 feet of a junior college and already had a long rap sheet, mostly burglaries that he committed when he was a teenager living on the streets. He was now writing the judge in the hope of receiving a sentence reduction through the newly signed First Step Act, which offered relief to some inmates convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. "My child having his own experience of raising his own child would validate my life experience and give meaning to my existence in this world, because 83582-180 has no meaning," he wrote, referring to his federal inmate number. "It is just a number to be forgotten in time. But Mr. Patrick Estell Jones is a very good person. Caring, hard working, free and clean of drugs and a lot smarter now, with a balanced outlook on life." Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak The judge denied the request on Feb. 26. Twenty-two days later, Patrick Estell Jones was dead, the first federal inmate to die of the coronavirus disease. Story continues He had contracted COVID-19 at the low-security prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, a penitentiary now dealing with the deadliest outbreak of any of the 122 federal facilities. "He spent the last 12 years contesting a sentence that ultimately killed him," said Alison Looman, a New York-based lawyer who had represented Jones in an earlier bid for clemency. "Ironically, it seems it is his death that might finally bring his case some attention." The U.S. has seen a movement in the past several years to reduce the sentences of nonviolent drug offenders, but criminal justice reform advocates say Jones' case illustrates the limits of the effort. "You see everything that is wrong with our sentencing system in this case," said Kevin Ring, president of the criminal justice advocacy group FAMM, which stands for Families Against Mandatory Minimums. Ring ticked off the series of factors that led to Jones' lengthy prison term: a questionable accounting of the amount of drugs he was selling, his apartment's proximity to a junior college, his decision to go to trial rather than take a plea and a criminal record that was made up largely of teenage offenses. "He was no choirboy, but his life had meaning," Ring said. "I feel like his life was taken from him when he was sentenced, and then he was killed in prison, and both of those things should trouble us." Jones' death also focused attention on the beleaguered prison in southern Louisiana. Five Oakdale prisoners have died from COVID-19, officials said, and so many have come down with presumed cases that officials had temporarily stopped testing them for it. At least 18 inmates and four staff members have tested positive, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons, but prison union leaders say the real numbers are significantly higher. "You're just afraid all the time," said an Oakdale corrections officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to the media. "You're afraid of catching it and bringing it home to your family. You're afraid of spreading it in the community." The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on jails and prisons across the country. Last week, the Bureau of Prisons announced that it was locking down all inmates in their cells or quarters, with limited exceptions, for 14 days, but new cases keep popping up. "There's a feeling of terror not knowing when this is going to end," the Oakdale staffer said. Jones arrived at the prison in April 2017. It would be the last stop in a hardscrabble life that began in Temple, Texas. His childhood was marked by tumult. Jones was initially raised by a great grandmother, but he spent much of his preteen years at a group home for children and shuffling among relatives and friends, according to his clemency petition and a government court filing quoting an interview with him. He was on and off the streets during his teenage years, the clemency petition says. His first run-in with the law came when he was 17, court filings say. Jones was arrested twice in two months on theft and burglary charges. He was charged as an adult and ultimately spent two years in prison. Jones was released in August 1991, but he didn't stay out of trouble. He was arrested in May 1992 after he sold cocaine to an undercover officer, according to court records. Jones pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released on parole in 2000 and eventually settled in an apartment in Temple, a few blocks from the local community college. Temple police officers showed up at his home in January 2007 looking for a woman on an outstanding warrant, court records say. After discovering crack and powder cocaine inside the residence, they arrested Jones and his wife of two months, Sharon, court documents say. The woman targeted by police wasn't at the apartment, but she was later taken into custody. The woman, Frances Whitlock, told police that she sold crack cocaine for the Joneses, averaging about five to 10 deliveries a day and sometimes as many as 30, court documents say. Sharon Jones agreed to testify against her husband. At his trial, she testified that they had been selling the drugs for about two months. She said they would sell a half-ounce of crack every other day, earning about $1,000 every day, court documents say. The jury found Patrick Jones guilty of possession with intent to distribute at least 5 grams of crack cocaine. His wife received a term of three years' probation after the government recommended a reduced sentence, citing her cooperation, court filings say. Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak At his sentencing, Jones was held accountable for 425 grams of crack 22 times the amount that was in his apartment based on the testimony from his wife that they sold a half-ounce every other day from Thanksgiving 2006 until they were arrested in January 2007. The government also used several other factors to enhance Jones' sentencing guidelines: his apartment's proximity to Temple College, his role as an "organizer" of criminal activity for enlisting Whitlock to deliver the drugs, his decision to fight the charges at trial and his offenses when he was 17 and 21. In the case of his previous arrests, the government treated each charge as a separate sentence, which had the effect of further driving up his sentencing guidelines. Jones was sentenced to the minimum term under the guidelines, but it was still 30 years. His sentence was later reduced to 27 years after the U.S. Sentencing Commission amended the crack guidelines to reduce the disparity between treatment of powder and crack cocaine. Jones' younger sister, Debra Canady, recalled being stunned by the severity of his sentence. "My brother made some bad decisions in life, but that doesn't make him a bad person," she told NBC News. In the years after his sentencing, she remained in close touch with her brother, who wrote frequently, she said, asking for updates on the youngest of his three sons, Kyrell. Jones filed a bid for clemency in October 2016, pointing to court rulings and changes in sentencing guidelines that would have directly affected his case. Jones' lawyers argued that had he been sentenced then, he likely would have gotten a term at least 10 years shorter. "With good time credit," the petition said, "Mr. Jones would have already served his entire sentence." The petition noted that he had no history of violence or ties to gangs, had spent his childhood "with no permanent home" and was a model inmate who worked his way up to head baker "a profession he hopes to pursue upon his release." In January 2017, his lawyers received word from the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney: The petition was denied. Looman recalled that when she delivered the news to Jones, he immediately expressed concern about her and wondered aloud whether she might lose her job as a result. "It is a telling example of what a kind and compassionate person Patrick is," Looman later wrote to his judge. The First Step Act, signed by President Donald Trump in December 2018, offered Jones a glimmer of hope. In his motion for a sentence reduction under the law, Jones' lawyers said shaving years off his prison term would "support the mandate from Congress and President Trump to reduce unnecessarily lengthy sentences for defendants like Mr. Jones." Prosecutors took a starkly different position, emphasizing his previous convictions and his "leadership role" in his "'crack' distribution enterprise." "Jones was not a small time crack dealer whose sentence far outweighed the scope of his criminal activity," prosecutors said in court papers. The judge, in a ruling filed in February, sided with the government. "Jones is a career offender with multiple prior offenses and a history of recidivating each time he is placed on parole," Albright said in his order. "Though the bulk of Jones's offenses were committed at age 17, Jones displayed his continuing criminal tendencies by committing offenses each time he was released from custody." Albright couldn't be reached for comment. Looman didn't handle Jones' effort to get relief through the First Step Act, but she kept in touch with him via the federal prison email system. "Happy New Year to you and may this year bring great things your way," Jones wrote to her on New Year's Eve. On Feb. 27, the day after the judge's ruling, Jones sent her a message that made it clear that he had yet to get the news. "I've just been awaiting to hear something good for a change as far as legal issues go," Jones wrote, adding: "But I have not got anymore info to what may be coming forth It's been a lot of movement around here lately I hope I'm in the making for that kind of release also." The following month, Jones and Looman exchanged messages that referred to the coronavirus. The deadly illness was sweeping across the U.S., and there were escalating concerns of outbreaks inside detention facilities. "I am doing well as fare [sic] as coronavirus goes and staying safe and healthy," Jones wrote March 14, five days before he would complain to Oakdale staffers about a persistent cough, according to federal prison officials. He went on to say in his message to Looman that he had found out the judge ruled against him, which was news even to Looman, and he revealed why it had taken him so long to get word: His lawyer had left the public defender's office two months earlier. "I talked to the head person and he said it was on him that I was not contacted and that he was going to get his people on top of the appeal," Jones wrote. "Anyway, enough about my problems. Are you likening [sic] the work from home thing?" Looman replied a few days later. She never heard back. Newsfrom Japan Tokyo, April 5 (Jiji Press)--The situation over the coronavirus outbreak in Japan is becoming "very tense," economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Sunday, referring to the possibility of the government declaring a state of emergency over the virus crisis. The key to a decision on a state of emergency declaration is whether the outbreak is spreading almost across the country, he said in a television program. Japan's revised special law on the fight against new influenza was enacted last month to cover the novel coronavirus, believed to have originated in China, allowing the government to declare a state of emergency over the ongoing virus crisis. Once a declaration is made, prefectural governors will be authorized to take strong measures that could limit private rights. A state of emergency, if declared, "will be a a big message to young people," Nishimura said, urging them not to travel to the countryside from large cities, such as Tokyo and Osaka, western Japan, where infections are spreading. If young people go to regional areas from Tokyo or Osaka, they could spread the virus in the countryside, possibly leading to a dire situation, he said. "I want (young people) to make a level-headed decision," Nishimura added. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] A five year old child has become the youngest victim of coronavirus in the UK. The child who had an underlying heath condition was among 708 people reported to have died in the last 24 hours.It brings total deaths in UK hospitals to 4,313 . However there are some signs that the rate of infection may be slowing. In Italy there are hopes that the death rate is now falling. Meanwhile Buckingham Palace has released details of Sunday's special broadcast by the Queen.In what's expected to be a deeply personal broadcast she will speak of the challenging time the country is facing and will thank those on the front line including NHS workers. Kate Silverton presents BBC News reports by Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh, Europe Correspondent Jean Mackenzie and Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell. Advertisement Shocking photos have been released that capture the true horror of the rising death toll at what is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Bright orange body bags are seen lining the hallways of a hospital in Brooklyn as New York City tackles the pandemic head-on. The disturbing images taken inside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick show several deceased patients in body bags on stretchers. New York Citys death toll from coronavirus stands at just over 2,400 with just over 64,500 people across the five boroughs coming down with the infection. Wyckoff Heights along with and other city hospitals are becoming overwhelmed, as coronavirus patients fill up intensive care wards. Bodies are seen lying in corridors inside the Wyckoff Hospital as the healthcare system is overwhelmed with fatalities After patients pass away, they are left outside in the hospital corridor before they can be taken to a temporary morgue outside New York City hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with the mounting bodies, with shocking images emerging of body bags containing the latest victims of the killer virus spilling out into the corridors at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn Medical personnel at the hospital can be seen in full personal protective gear as they roll the bodies from the hospital to a special refrigerator truck outside acting as a temporary morgue. The refrigerated trailers can be seen near hospitals all over the city and have become a grim reminder of the stark reality with hospital morgues already at capacity. Inside the truck, dozens of body bags could be seen loaded on top of one other in the makeshift morgue. There were 4,159 coronavirus deaths in the wider New York State as of Sunday morning - up 594 from the day before. A record 630 deaths were reported Saturday. The numbers Sunday reflect the first time fatalities have dropped over 24 hours in a number of days. A healthcare worker wheels the body of a deceased person from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center Bodies are loaded into a makeshift morgue outside the Wyckoff Hospital amid the outbreak of the coronavirus New York City alone made up 757 of the state's 788 new deaths, and more than half of the US's daily deaths from coronavirus. The makeshift morgue outside Wyckoff hospital in Brooklyn contains the latest victims from the killer illness An exhausted and distraught healthcare worker is seen by the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York this week. Medical professionals have been drafted in like 'cavalry' from all departments to try to tackle the pandemic Healthcare workers wheel a person outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on Sunday Governor Cuomo hesitated to say the worst was definitely over for the Empire state but added: 'The apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau now. We wont know until you see the next few days, does it go up, does it go down. Cuomo also announced the number of people discharged from hospitals has also gone 'way up', adding: 'That's great news.' There were 574 new hospitalizations Sunday Cuomo said - down from 1,095 on Saturday and 1,427 on Friday. March 22 marked the last time less than 600 new hospitalizations were recorded, with 586. Confirmed coronavirus cases were up in the state around 8,000 to 122,031. An exhausted healthcare worker takes a break outside the hospital. The pressure is being felt with thousands calling out sick Nurses putting their names on protective clothing to be worn many times resting outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn The body of deceased patient in orange body bag is moved from the hospital to a refrigerator truck serving as temporary morgue outside of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn Space inside the hospital is at a premium which means when somebody dies, their body has to be removed as quickly as possibly to allow for the arrival of new patients Hundreds of people are dying in New York City alone every day. Their bodies are lined up and waiting to go inside the mogue A procession of the dead emerges from the backdoor of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. Hospital workers push the gurneys carrying the recently deceased to a temporary morgue inside refrigerated container trucks Medical workers load bodies into the makeshift morgue. Those still at work are at risk because they have no choice but to wipe down and reuse old protective clothing and masks designed for single use A medical worker approaches a refrigerator truck being used as a morgue outside of Brooklyn Hospital Center A sinister campaign was launched by two Islamic organizations in 2019 in the USA which led to hearings and resolutions on Kashmir in the US Congress. After the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Helping Hands for Relief and Development (HHRD) launched a campaign in the US to discredit India around the world. ICNA and HHRD are affiliated to Jammu and Kashmir unit of Jamaate-Islami which was banned by Indian government in 2019 on the grounds that it had relations with terror group Hizbul Mujahideen which has killed thousands of innocent civilians in past. Document accessed by Zee News clearly establishes a major plot to discredit India at international level on Kashmir issue. Both ICNA and HHRD along with other Islamic groups ran an anti-India campaign under the banner Stand with Kashmir and organized a protest in front of consulate General of India in New York and Los Angeles. These groups also campaigned to replace their social media profile with pictures of red dots to show solidarity on Kashmir. On August 16th, the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a lobbying umbrella group of islamist organizations, held a D.C. rally for Kashmir in front of the Indian embassy. The rally was cosponsored by ICNA and MAS, along with the extremist mosque Dar al-Hijrah and the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC). WikiLeaks emails revealed that TASC coordinates closely with regime figures from the authoritarian Turkish government. Said Oren Litwin is his article 'Islamists are Exploiting The Conflict in Kashmir' published at The Daily Wire. Islamist originations mainly funded by Pakistan have become very powerful in the US in recent months. Last year in the month of October-November hearing by US Congress reflected the strong presence of these groups in the US, A convention of more than 25,000 Muslims from the United States and Canada was held in Chicago in December 2019 under the banner of ICNA ,which debated a session on Bangladesh & Kashmir: Democracy, Human Rights and Religious Freedom. ''ICNA is openly affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami.The Jamaat-e-Islami is a South Asian Sunni revivalist movement that has provided an ideological platform and recruiting base for the US designated U.S. terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), which has perpetrated several terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. ICNA, based in Queens, N.Y., strongly advocates for Kashmiri self-determination, and its conventions feature high-profile U.S.-based Kashmiri separatist leaders and activists. The conventions excoriates India for "state-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir." Said Abha Shankar in his article American Islamists Double Standards on Kashmir. As per some reports, President of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) Sardar Masood Khan soon after, urged Muslim across the world to stand united and relieve Muslim Ummah of agonies and asked ICNA and United States Coalition of Muslim Organisations (USCMO) to engage lawmakers in encouraging hearings on Kashmir in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and initiate debates on Kashmir in the Congress. The Jammu and Kashmir unit of Jamaat-e-Islami is the main organization responsible for propagation of separatist and radical ideology in Kashmir valley. A sizeable section of cadres of the group overtly worked for terrorist orgazations especially Hizbul. Its cadres are actively involved in subversive activities of HM by providing hideouts ,ferrying arms. An Indian Home Ministry note accessed by Zee News suggest JeI is responsible for formation of Hizbul, the biggest terrorist organization active in Jammu and Kashmir. The roup under its pro secessionist and pro-Pakistan agenda has been providing ideological and logistical support to separatist and terrorist elements in Kashmir for anti-national activities. JeI was founded by Maulana Maududi in 1941. Surprisingly,American Islamist group remained silent on Pakistan's involvement in several terror attacks in Kashmir. SEATTLE: Amid all the fears, quarantines and stockpiling of food, it has been easy to ignore the fact that more than 60,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus spreading around the globe. The disease can cause varying degrees of illness and is especially troublesome for older adults and people with existing health problems, who are at risk of severe effects, including pneumonia. But for most of those affected, coronavirus creates only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, with the vast majority recovering from the virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe ailments may take three to six weeks to rebound. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed, but more than 58,000 already have recovered. ALSO READ | China coronavirus cases fall, but more imported from abroad Because the difference in impact can be so great, global health authorities have the difficult task of alerting the public to the virus' dangers without creating panic. Already, the widespread consequences of the virus have been staggering, sending shock waves through the world's financial markets. Global oil prices sustained their worst percentage losses since the Gulf War in 1991, and new restrictions were imposed in Italy and in Israel as the Holy Week approached. But even some of the most vulnerable patients can fight their way through the disease. Charlie Campbells father, 89-year-old Eugene Campbell, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and is hospitalized in Edmonds, Washington. Charlie Campbell said his father's doctor is cautiously optimistic, adding, Under normal circumstances, he would discharge my dad, but these arent normal circumstances. Coronavirus LIVE UPDATES | Markets in India nosedive, notices in Rajya Sabha for discussion on epidemic Eugene Campbell came to the hospital from Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland that has been linked to nineteen of Washington states 23 coronavirus deaths. We went and saw him yesterday and he looked pretty good, Campbell said, noting that his father is breathing normally and his vital signs and heart rate are good. He may be the oldest person to recover from coronavirus. For some whove been quarantined, anxiety and dread that they will become stigmatized by friends, neighbours and co-workers have made them reluctant to acknowledge even the most modest health impact. A few patients with the virus who were interviewed by The Associated Press all of the passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that ended up quarantined off Japan described symptoms that were no stronger than a regular cold or flu. ALSO READ | 'Wasn't afraid after getting symptoms': How India's first coronavirus patient was cured Its been a 2 on a scale of 10, said Carl Goldman, hospitalized in Omaha, Nebraska, since Feb. 17, after developing a 103-degree fever on a chartered flight from Japan to the U.S. Goldman is staying hydrated with Gatorade. He said he continued coughing more than two weeks after he first got sick, but would probably only have missed one day of work if he had been diagnosed with the cold or flu. He stays active by pacing in his room, trying to match his pre-sickness routine of 10,000 daily steps on the pedometer. I totally get this is where I need to be and I need to be cleared of this before Im released, he said. Greg Yerex, who was diagnosed along with his wife, Rose Yerex, on the Diamond Princess, said he had no symptoms and felt as healthy as he did on any other normal day. If I was home, I would be out doing everything I normally do, he said in an interview conducted via Facebook calls when the couple were still hospitalized in Nagoya, Japan. Rose Yerex tested negative when she got to the hospital. For Greg Yerex, it was the couple's mental health that faced the biggest threat as they they spent days in quarantine, isolated from friends and family and deprived of any direct human contact. Its like being a prisoner," he said. You pace, you worry, you fret, you imagine all sorts of things. You have no control. Greg Yerez said that he and hsi wife, who have since been released from the hospital, plan to go to counseling to work through the mental stress they experienced. Fellow cruise passenger Rebecca Frasure knows how they feel. I dont get to speak with anyone," she said in a Facebook call while still hospitalized in Nagoya. "I have a little window in my room, but cannot leave. The only contact I have is through Facebook messenger. I would never wish this on anyone. Frasure said one of the things she found most frustrating was waiting for her test results to come back. Patients who have been diagnosed with the virus must have two consecutive negative tests before they can be released. Frasure is now out of the hospital, but is worried about being stigmatized by her home community. Are they going to be afraid?" she wondered. Are they going to criticize me for being home, thinking I brought virus back with me?" WASHINGTON As John Hickenlooper, the former Colorado governor and current Democratic candidate for Senate, began another campaign event via Facebook Live last week, he stated the obvious to his virtual audience. The nature of campaigns has changed, Mr. Hickenlooper said as he beamed his message out to the political world from his family room in a joint appearance with Kathleen Sebelius, the former Obama administration health and human services secretary who was back home in Kansas, to talk about coping with the novel coronavirus. These times really are different, and we are going to be doing things differently on this campaign. Mr. Hickenlooper, who is hoping to oust Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican, is not the only one adjusting to a radically changed campaign reality. The sudden onslaught of coronavirus has upended the nations congressional races as many were just getting started, altering the political landscape in unpredictable ways and forcing candidates in the battle for the Senate and House to adapt to unique circumstances. Campaign officials and strategists are trying to carefully game out the new reality. The crisis could prove to be a boost for incumbents who have a built-in advantage in providing services to constituents at a time when voters are on edge and in need. But it is also shining a potentially unflattering spotlight on Washingtons response to the pandemic, which could hurt lawmakers who were already facing an uphill climb to re-election. The wife of a former New Jersey mayor has taken her own life after shooting herself in the chest, officials have said. June Huhn, 73, who was the wife of former Long Branch mayor Philip Huhn, died from a single gunshot at the couple's home on Friday morning. Police said her husband was at home when law enforcement arrived but no further details were given. June Huhn, 73, the wife of former Long Branch mayor Philip Huhn, died from a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest Monmouth County prosecutor, Christopher Gramiccioni, said Huhn died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, citing a post-mortem report. Although June and Philip did not have children together, they shared four children between them from previous marriages according to Asbury Park Press. Philip Huhn, 75, was mayor of Long Branch, situated on the Jersey Shore, from 1982 to 1990. Her body was found on Friday morning while her husband was at their home, pictured 'I'm very sad for the Huhn family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them,' said current Long Branch Mayor John Pallone to the New York Post. Pallone said that he knew both Huhn's and would regularly see the pair walking along the town's boardwalk. The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office and Long Branch police are conducting the investigation into Huhn's death. LANSING, MI -- A new emergency order issued by the states top health official Saturday night requires physicians and funeral homes to report deaths related to the novel coronavirus more quickly. The order, which takes effect immediately, was issued by Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), is intended to improve the flow of information on COVID-19 deaths to public health officials and provide a better understanding of the impacts of the illness., the state said in a news release. MDHHS is committed to protecting the public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why I am issuing this emergency order, Gordon said in the news release. To inform sound decision-making and protect Michiganders, public health officials need accurate information about COVID-19 deaths as quickly as possible. I appreciate the work of our funeral home directors and physicians right now, and I am grateful to partner with them in taking quick action during this pandemic. Physicians who know or suspect a patients death resulted from the new virus are required to promptly notify the funeral director, the order mandates. The funeral director is then required to initiate the death record and submit to the attending physician within 24 hours of becoming aware that the death resulted or is suspected to have resulted from COVID-19, the state announced. The funeral director must then file the death record with the local registrar of the district where the death occurred within 48 hours of becoming aware the death resulted or was suspected to have resulted from COVID-19. Funeral directors are required to report all deaths using the states Electronic Death Records System. Physicians who receive a death record for medical certification where the death resulted or is suspected to have resulted from COVID-19 must attempt to certify the death record within 24 hours of receipt," the state announced. Michigan has had a total of 14,225 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Saturday, April 4, with 540 deaths in connection with the disease. New coronavirus cases in Michigan take a dip, deaths climb to 540 Full Michigan coronavirus coverage here Sorry, but your browser does not support frames. Sorry, but your browser does not support frames. Sorry, but your browser does not support frames. 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. More on MLive: Inside the TCF Center as soldiers, engineers build field hospital for coronavirus patients Stabenow, Peters sponsor bill seeking $500 coronavirus payments for older dependents Hash Bash 2020 held online as police make sure Diag stays clear Report: Pistons scout Maury Hanks winning battle with COVID-19 Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (Adnic), one of the leading regional multi-line insurance providers for corporates and individuals, has contributed Dh3 million ($816,682) to Maan Abu Dhabi towards the Together We Are Good programme to support the UAE community in addressing the impact of Covid-19. Adnic commends the UAE authorities for taking fast and decisive action to fight against the spread of Covid-19 and extends its gratitude to the brave and dedicated work being done by medical professionals and front-line personnel. "Their collective efforts to protect the safety and well-being of people has been exceptional and is a testament to the values of the UAE," the company said in a statement Adnic has taken a number of steps to support its customers during the outbreak. In support of the national efforts to address the impact of Covid-19 and in line with the preventative measures taken by local authorities, Adnic has become one of the first insurance companies in the UAE to arrange for teleconsultation facilities for insured members with various medical providers. With the current situation making it difficult for people to visit a doctor, Adnic is offering customers reassurance with easy access to consultations in this time of need. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Saif Al-Nahyan, chairman of Adnic, said: Adnic is proud to support the UAE Government and community in navigating the different challenges created by the Covid-19 outbreak. In challenging times, it is essential that the business community utilises its resources to help those who need it most. - TradeArabia News Service She is nearing the end of her pregnancy with her first child and has been keeping fans updated on Instagram. And Millie Mackintosh, 30, looked sensational when she slipped into a pink gingham bikini to lounge around her London home on Sunday. The former Made In Chelsea star looked radiant in a mirror selfie that she shared to her Story. Radiant: Millie Mackintosh, 30, looked sensational when she slipped into a pink gingham bikini to lounge around her London home on Sunday Over the top she penned: 'First hot day of the year and the best solution is to just wear a bikini around the house' The star looked naturally gorgeous in the snap with her auburn tinted tresses left loose and swept to one side. She posed in her immaculate white bedroom of the home she moved into recently with husband Hugo Taylor, 33. Gorgeous: She is nearing the end of her pregnancy with her first child alongside husband Hugo Taylor, 33, and has been keeping fans updated on Instagram Earlier in the day, Millie shared a photo of a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and admitted she had 'finally given in' to her 'cravings.' While in the afternoon she posted a snap of her meaty lunch enjoyed with Hugo. Millie is due to give birth to her first child in May, and has sadly been forced to cancel her baby shower due to the coronavirus pandemic. Yummy: Earlier in the day, Millie shared a photo of her bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and admitted she had 'finally given in' to her 'cravings' Delicious: In the afternoon she shared a snap of her meaty lunch enjoyed with Hugo She is now planning on having it later on in the summer, due to the social distancing terms currently in place. However rather than wallowing over the cancelled event, the mother-to-be threw a mini pink-themed shower with her husband Hugo last weekend. Millie got dressed into her frilly pink baby shower dress, which was complemented by Hugo's smart pale pink shirt and cream chino shorts. She also received a delivery of flowers and a balloon arrangement, which would have been the decoration for her baby shower. New York State, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, continued to record the highest count of daily deaths from COVID-19 as a staggering number of 630 people died in a 24-hour period and Governor Andrew Cuomo said the outbreak in the state could peak in about seven days. IMAGE: Healthcare workers load a person into an ambulance outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters The state had recorded the highest single increase in the number of deaths from novel coronavirus in a single day between April 2 and 3 when 562 people had died, one person dying from the viral infection almost every two-and-a-half minutes. In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to 630, "all-time increase" up to a total of 3,565, up from 2,935 on Friday morning, Cuomo said. The daily death toll in New York continues to grow at record numbers as the state remains the most impacted in the US from coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in New York State now stand at 1,13,704, out of the country's total number of 312,146. New Jersey, the second most impacted state in the US, has about 30,000 COVID-19 cases. New York City alone has 63,306 coronavirus patients, up from 57,169 the previous 24 hours, and 2,624 deaths. Cuomo said the apex in the state, the point where the number of infections on a daily basis hits the high point, is still about 4-8 days away. "We have been talking about hitting that apex, the high point of the curve. I call it the battle of the mountaintop. That's going to be the number one point of engagement of the enemy," he said. "But our reading of the projections is we're somewhere in the seven-day range, four, five, six seven, eight day range. Nobody can give you a specific number, which makes it very frustrating to plan when they can't give you a specific number or a specific date, but we're in that range," Cuomo said. "We are not yet at the apex. Part of me would like to be at the apex and just let's do it. But there's part of me that says it's good that we're not at the apex because we're not yet ready for the apex either, still working on the capacity of the (healthcare) system," the governor said. Cuomo has expressed anger over the short supply of essential medical equipment for healthcare professionals to help them deal with the surge in coronavirus cases across the state and the country. He said personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns and face shields are in short supply in New York as they are across the country and there is need for companies to make these materials. "It is unbelievable to me that in the New York State, in the United States of America, we can't make these materials and that we are all shopping China to try to get these materials and we're all competing against each other," he had said earlier. Cuomo said on Saturday that the state has 85,000 volunteers, including 22,000 from outside the state, and he will also be signing an executive order to allow medical students who were slated to graduate to begin practising, supplementing the state's healthcare professional capacity. On ventilators, he said the state had ordered 17,000 but there was not enough supply in the federal stockpile to meet this growing demand across the state. "China is remarkably the repository for all of these orders - ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China, which long term we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don't have the manufacturing capacity in this country," he said, adding, "New York has been shopping in China." The Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will arrive at the JFK Airport in the city, he said, as he thanked the Chinese government, Alibaba head Jack Ma, the Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba co-founder co-founder Joe Tsai and China's Consul General Huang Ping. In addition, the state of Oregon would deliver 140 ventilators to New York. Cuomo has signed an executive order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment from hospitals, private sector companies and institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator. The 2,500-bed facility at the Javits Convention Centre, which was supposed to be used for non-COVID patients, will now be used as COVID-positive facility. "The federal government will staff that and the federal government with equip that. That is a big deal because that 2,500-bed facility will relieve a lot of pressure on the downstate system as a significant number of beds and that facility has to make that transition quickly and that's what we're focused on," Cuomo said. Cuomo emphasised that he wants the pandemic to end as soon as possible as it is taking an unprecedented strain on life. "I want this to be all over. It's only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime. I think we all feel the same. This stresses this country, this state, in a way that nothing else has frankly, in my lifetime. It stresses us on every level. The economy is stressed, the social fabric is stressed, the social systems are stressed, transportation is stressed," he said. The revoking of capital punishment awarded to international terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, of British origin, for the beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl, has put Pakistans justice delivery system under glare. Look no further than the multiple escape routes Pakistans courts offered 26/11 Mumbai terror mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Jaish chief Masood Azhar and Jamaat-ud-Dawa boss Hafiz Saeed to figure out how its judiciary leans towards the deep state. The bigger blame rests on Pakistans law enforcement, which doesnt do enough legwork in terror cases, perhaps intentionally, making the job easy for the judiciary to quash cases or offer lenient sentences. But what else can one expect from a country that uses terror as an instrument of state policy? Just a couple of years ago, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had indicated that Pakistans government of the day was very much involved in the 26/11 attack. It is only in high-profile cases like Pearls that they fail to escape global scrutiny. The case drew further attention because a Briton was named the mastermind of Pearls abduction and murder. While there is no ambiguity over Omar Saeeds hand in the 2002 kidnaphe is said to have lured Pearl by offering access to wannabe shoe bomber Richard Reidthere are others like 9/11 accused Khalid Sheikh, now in Guantanamo Bay, who claimed it was he (Sheikh) who had masterminded the Wall Street Journal reporters execution. That put the convictions of Saeed and three others sentenced to life under a cloud, throwing the case wide open. Be that as it may, Saeed is a ranking extremist specialising in kidnap and terror financing. He was first arrested in India for the abduction of Western tourists in 1994, but had to be traded along with a few others in 1999 to save the lives of hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC814s passengers stuck in Kandahar. That his freedom was sought by the hijackers indicates his value to the terror industry. He cannot be let loose and has since been rearrested. How Pakistan holds him to account will be keenly watched. The NSW Government has asked the states police commissioner to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Ruby Princess docking, which has been linked to a number of COVID-19 deaths. Addressing reporters on Sunday, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said Premier Gladys Berejiklian asked him to head up the investigation into the cruise ship, which disembarked passengers in Sydney on March 19. Over the past 48 hours I've reviewed several 000 calls to ambulance, numerous radio transmissions, emails, various forms relating to biosecurity act and external health review, he said. The Ruby Princess cruise ship is seen from Kurnell National Park in Sydney on Thursday. The vessel will be subject to a criminal investigation. Source: AAP Comm Fuller added there were strong state and national laws relating to docking cruise ships in NSW. In addition to these laws, New South Wales Health adopted new national protocols in early March for cruise ships relating to COVID-19, he said. The news comes hours after the NSW Health minister confirmed four new COVID-19 deaths overnight, with the departments Dr Jeremy McAnulty confirming three of the patients were on board the Ruby Princess. The three new deaths takes the death toll linked to the cruise ship to 10. The key question that remains unanswered and a criminal or coronial investigation will need to be conducted, was the Carnival crew transparent in contextualising the true patient and crew health conditions relevant to COVID-19? Comm Fuller said. Triple-0 call from Ruby Princess Comm Fuller said there was a 17-minute long triple-0 call from a crew member on board the vessel to NSW Ambulance on March 18, a day before passengers were allowed to disembark. The call was reportedly concerning two passengers who required medical assistance. After that call an ambulance supervisor concerned in terms of the terminology around the infectious nature of some of these passengers... escalated the matter, Comm Fuller said. He did an outstanding job. The ambulance supervisor then contacted police. A criminal investigation will be conducted to determine if the cruise company Carnival Australia breached national biosecurity laws in the Ruby Princess fiasco. Source: AAP There were a number of phone calls between Ambulance, New South Wales Police and the New South Wales Port Authority, Comm Fuller said, praising the port authority for their exceptional job trying to get the facts. Story continues They made contact with the ship on numerous occasions. They actually stopped the ship from coming into Sydney Harbour without further medical information, Comm Fuller said of the port authority. They made contact with operations manager from Carnival. And on each case they were informed that COVID-19 wasn't an issue on the ship. Comm Fuller said there were many unanswered questions. He said records among the captain, the captains doctor and thousands of witnesses on board the cruise ship will provide crucial information to aid the investigation. Cruise ship passengers disembark from the Princess Cruises-owned Ruby Princess at Circular Quay in Sydney on March 19. Source: AAP When asked if he believed a crime had been committed, Comm Fuller said it was too early to tell, but there was clear evidence COVID-19 had been brought off that ship. There's clear evidence now when it stopped in New Zealand COVID-19 has come off that ship and at least 10 people have died in Australia from COVID-19, he said. The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation. 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. With the country in a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, 30-year-old Arif had only way to meet his ailing father: cycle 2,100 km from Mumbai to Jammu's Rajouri district, where the 60-year-old lives in a remote village along the Line of Control. Arif, a watchman, set out on the daunting journey hoping some miracle would happen and he would be able to see his father, who had suffered a massive stroke and was in critical condition. And miracle did happen, when the Central Reserve Police Force came to his help. The paramilitary force gave him and his father 'wings', quite literally. Arif's father Wazir Hussain was on Sunday airlifted from the Panjgrain village on a special chopper after the CRPF's Kashmir-based 'madadgaar' helpline came into action. On April 1, a week after the 21-day lockdown began, Arif came to know that his father had suffered the "massive stroke". The man, who is employed as a watchman in the financial capital of the country, found that there was no mode of transport that could take him to his village along the India-Pakistan LoC. The next day, he decided to cover the huge distance on his bicycle. "The madadgaar was informed by a media outlet about Arif's journey. The helpline immediately got into action, called up Arif and got logistics arranged through CRPF establishments spread across five states. On Sunday, he was provided with lunch, Rs 2,000 cash, sanitiser, masks and some dry fruits at Vadodara in Gujarat." "We asked him to stay out at our base due to the lockdown restrictions with an assurance that we will take care of his father," said CRPF Special Director General (JK zone) Zulfiquar Hasan. Arif, however, insisted he wanted to meet his father. "So, we then arranged him to travel in a truck, with the help of the Gujarat Police, carrying essential items," Hasan said. "The truck will drop him near Jodhpur in Rajasthan by Monday noon and we will further arrange his travel," he said. In the meantime, the IPS officer said, a special chopper was sent to Rajouri from where his father was airlifted and admitted to a government medical college in Jammu. The 'madagaar, another official said, had initially got Arif's father admitted to the Rajouri district hospital with the help of its troops posted about 15 km from his village, but as he required better medical care, it was decided to shift him quickly to Jammu. "The madadgaar will do whatever it takes to help more such Arif's in the future too," Hasan said. The helpline also posted the endeavour on its official Twitter handle saying "for any assistance 24X7 call @CRPFmadadgaar on 14411." For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (verses 8-9, ESV). This passage of Scripture assures us that God knows what Hes doing, His thinking is different than ours when it comes to what is best for us and His ways and everything He allows are so much higher and better than ours. Yes, the economy is tanking, but is our hope in the condition of our economy? Yes, people are staying home from work, but what an opportunity to be with family. Yes, theres less stores open and less to do and you may be going stir crazy at home, but what a way to take a heavenly pause and refocus on what really matters. God allows pauses and rest stops for us to regroup and reprioritize, and this just might be one of them. 2. Deuteronomy 31:8: A reminder that God goes before us In Deuteronomy 31:8, we read: It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Moses spoke these words to Joshua as he commissioned him to take the Israelites into the Promised Land. But we can glean from these words the hope and confidence today that God goes before us, He walks alongside us, and Hes got our backs. He will not leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and He is well aware of all that is happening, all that has happened, and all that will happen according to His wisdom, His love, and His plan. Photo Credit: @dingzeyuli Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 21:35:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions. The following are the updates on the contagious disease. - - - - WASHINGTON -- Global daily new COVID-19 cases surpassed 100,000 for the first time on Saturday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). As of 7:20 a.m. Eastern Time (1120 GMT), there have been 101,500 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours globally, bringing the total to 1,213,927, with 65,652 deaths, while more than 252,390 people have recovered from the disease, an interactive map maintained by the CSSE showed. - - - - JUBA -- South Sudan on Sunday confirmed the first person to test positive for COVID-19. Riek Machar, South Sudan's First Vice President and deputy chairman of the high-level task-force on COVID-19, said the patient is a 29-year-old female who arrived in the country from the Netherlands through Addis Ababa on February 28. - - - - MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is donating a month of his salary to the national fund to combat the coronavirus disease and provide assistance to those millions of poor Filipinos affected by the month-long community quarantine imposed on March 12. An estimated 18 million low-income households are affected by the lockdown which has brought the economy at a standstill since March 12. The government has bankrolled 200 billion pesos (roughly 3.9 billion U.S. dollars) emergency aid to Filipinos who have lost their sources of income due to the pandemic. - - - - RABAT -- Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Sunday granted pardon for 5,654 prisoners, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement. Orders were given to strengthen the protection of the detainees in prisons, particularly against the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, it added. - - - - MADRID -- The number of new COVID-19 cases continued to fall on Sunday in Spain and the number of deaths in a 24 hour period fell for the third consecutive day, according to the Spanish Ministry for Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Services. The number of confirmed cases increased by 6,023 on Sunday, bringing the total to 130,759, which is fewer than an increase of 7,026 cases in the previous 24 hours. - - - - DHAKA -- Bangladesh has announced a stimulus package of 727.50 billion taka (about 8.57 billion U.S. dollars) to help cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the announcement of the support package in a televised speech in capital Dhaka on Sunday. - - - - BEIRUT -- Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Sunday that his cabinet is taking tough measures regarding returnees to Lebanon from COVID-19-hit countries, LBCI local TV channel reported. "We will deal with this issue step by step by dividing returnees into groups in a bid to guarantee their safety and the safety of residents," Diab was quoted as saying during his visit to the airport prior to the arrival of the first plane coming to Lebanon from affected countries. - - - - LOS ANGELES -- California Governor Gavin Newsom said Saturday that the state has launched an official website to deal with the shortage of medical supplies and help combat rampant fraud amid the spread of COVID-19. The website would allow individuals and companies to donate, sell and offer to manufacture essential medical supplies including N95 masks and testing materials, which are badly needed by local hospitals, Newsom said at a daily briefing. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 18:48:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Facing the COVID-19 outbreak, European countries are stepping up efforts to contain the virus, save lives, and address the profound social and economic impacts of the pandemic. BRUSSELS, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Although infections of COVID-19 are still surging in Europe, with a total of 583,141 confirmed cases and 42,334 deaths reported as of Saturday morning, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said the region could see a potential stabilization of the outbreak. Suppressing virus transmissions, saving lives, addressing the profound social and economic consequences of COVID-19 ... Europe, the epicenter of the pandemic, has been escalating an arduous anti-virus battle since mid-March amid "a second window of opportunity." "While the virus has hit us hard, the people of Europe have hit back just as hard," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at an extraordinary session of the European Parliament. Piled tables and chairs are seen outside a closed restaurant in Erfurt, central Germany, on April 1, 2020. (Photo by Kevin Voigt/Xinhua) UNPRECEDENTED LOCKDOWN Gonzalo Resa Heras, a 21-year-old Spaniard, has been facing many changes in his life ever since Spain imposed a national lockdown on March 14 which, after an extension, will be in force until April 25. For example, he does not need to wake up early every day to take a train from his hometown in the municipality of Torrejon de Ardoz to his university in the city of Alcala de Henares, as Madrid has suspended classes in schools indefinitely from March 11. Apart from Spain, many other European countries have also extended their lockdown periods, tightened social restrictions and upgraded social distancing measures to slow down the spread of the virus. Italy, which has reported over 120,000 confirmed cases with over 15,000 deaths, will extend its nationwide lockdown until April 13, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, stressing the country is not in a condition to relax its restrictive measures yet. A sanitation worker wearing a protective suit and a face mask cleans the ground at Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Italy, on March 31, 2020.(Photo by Daniele Mascolo/Xinhua) "We are beginning to see the positive effects" of the lockdown and relaxing it now would mean that the sacrifices made so far would have been in vain, said Conte. Noting that the lockdown measures seem to be working, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the country will extend the restrictions till April 28. German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked citizens to refrain from private trips and visits from relatives during the Easter holidays, as the country has extended its restrictions on social gatherings to April 19 at the earliest. The Greek Supreme Court has reminded the country's prosecutors of the need to strictly impose measures introduced by Greek health authorities, citing profiteering and illegal gatherings as examples of crimes on which prosecutors need to be especially tough. Five municipalities in northern Greece facing a critical epidemic situation have imposed night curfews, and so has Cyprus for the first time during peacetime. Policemen check drivers for special permissions that are needed to be outdoors in Athens, Greece, March 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) Calling the massive scale of unprecedented lockdown measures "a second window of opportunity," the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged countries to use this critical window to suppress and stop the transmission of COVID-19. Thanks to social distancing measures, European countries, particularly the most affected ones like Italy and Spain, could see the curve of cases potentially stabilizing, said Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program. ENHANCED MEDICAL RESPONSE Flattening the curve now requires redoubling public health efforts to find, test, isolate and treat every case, and trace every contact, said Ryan. Taking the WHO's advice, Britain has pledged to expand its testing capacity from over 10,000 tests per day to 25,000. The British government is taking "unprecedented actions" to increase the National Health Service capacity by ramping up the number of beds and staff, said the country's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Staff carry equipment at a drive-through COVID-19 test station set up in the parking lot of an IKEA store in Wembley, northwest London, Britain, March 31, 2020. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua) French hospitals are now offering 10,000 beds for coronavirus patients, double the capacity in January. The government said it aims to provide 14,500 beds in April. To address the shortage of frontline medical staff, Italian health care officials have called recently-retired doctors and nurses back to work, and pushed as many as 10,000 medical students into the field weeks before they were set to graduate. Medical personnel work in the ICU of Istituto Clinico Casalpalocco in Rome, Italy, March 25, 2020. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua) European countries have also been seeking support within and beyond the continent. According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, the country has received a significant number of respiratory ventilators from China as a donation. With China's help, Serbia also managed to open a temporary hospital with around 3,000 beds, and decided to start massive testing among its population. Serbian soldiers and staff members prepare beds for possible COVID-19 patients in the hall of the Belgrade Fair, in Belgrade, Serbia, March 24, 2020. (Serbian Defense Ministry/Handout via Xinhua) By importing a great number of test kits from South Korea, Romania has increased testing capacity significantly to 2,000 tests on average per day. Showing solidarity within the European Union (EU), France has donated one million masks to Italy, while Germany has delivered seven tons of medical equipment to the southern European country. According to French Director General of Health Jerome Salomon, over 400 patients in serious condition have been transported from strained hospitals in and around Paris and in Grand Est near the German border to less-saturated hospitals in France and neighboring countries. The European Commission has launched an accelerated joint procurement procedure and encouraged industries to raise production capacities, so as to facilitate the supply of protective and medical equipment across the continent. Moreover, the EU has decided to support 18 research projects on COVID-19 with 48.5 million euros (52.4 million U.S. dollars). Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (L) greets members of the Chinese medical team via elbow contact in Belgrade, Serbia, March 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Shi Zhongyu) EXTENSIVE ECONOMIC BAILOUT "We're now in recession. It is way worse than the global financial crisis," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned, stressing that saving lives and protecting livelihoods ought to go hand in hand. Facing the economic consequences of COVID-19, the German government has approved the "largest aid package" in the country's history to combat the coronavirus, which Merkel called Germany's biggest challenge since World War II. The government will seek to borrow around 156 billion euros (about 169 billion dollars) to finance a "protective shield" for families, employees, self-employed people and companies, and another 2 billion euros (2.16 billion dollars) to support start-ups. "We will do everything in our power to prevent this crisis from questioning either the health care of our citizens or the economic processes of this country," said German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at a press conference about providing necessary support to mitigate the economic and financial impact from the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Greece recently presented an additional package of fiscal aid, including an expansion of emergency support of 800 euros (about 865 dollars) apiece in April to 1.7 million employees, or 81 percent of the total workforce, in the private sector. Besides, the Greek government has covered all social insurance contributions for 45 days, along with a four-month suspension of all tax payments. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L) speaks at a press conference on EU's response to COVID-19 at the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre in Brussels, Belgium, March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) Noting a possible recession in the euro area, European Central Bank (ECB) Vice-President Luis de Guindos said if the lockdown period in Europe lasts a long time, "each month will see a fall of approximately two percentage points in GDP (gross domestic product)." Vowing to provide massive liquidity to the financial sector as well as the real economy, the ECB has announced an additional temporary bond-buying program of 870 billion euros (940 billion dollars), which will last until the end of 2020, as well as additional longer-term repo operations known as LTROs. "There are no limits to our commitment to the euro. We are determined to use the full potential of our tools, within our mandate," ECB President Christine Lagarde said, sending a strong signal to underpin the economy of the euro area in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. The European Commission has relaxed its fiscal rules and adopted the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, which provides 37 billion euros (40 billion dollars) to strengthen healthcare systems and support small and medium-sized enterprises, short-term employment schemes and community-based services. "We stand ready to do more as the situation evolves. We will do whatever is necessary to support the Europeans and the European economy," said von der Leyen. (Video reporters: Liang Xizhi, Zhao Yuchao, Han Chong, Wang Pingping, Ji Li, Du Yang, Zhang Yuan, Lin Jing, Yu Shuaishuai, Tang Ji, Wu Tong, Magda, Jose Alberto Peinado Cruz; Video editor: Wei Yin) Some of the restrictions set out by the legislation, like a temporary halt on companies using their own money to buy back stock, appear to apply to all company loans. But a commitment by companies to maintain hiring at or close to recent levels is not required across the board. It would apply to the aid for airlines and companies deemed important to national security, but only through the end of September. On Friday, United management told staff that the federal aid would prevent any substantial reductions in staff or pay through September, but suggested that layoffs may come if the recovery was as slow as the company expected. By PTI LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said the lockdown imposed to stem the coronavirus spread will be lifted on April 15 but cautioned that a mechanism should be evolved to avoid crowding or else all efforts will go in vain. In a video-conference with the state's Members of Parliament, the chief minister also sought their suggestions for a smooth movement of people and restoration of services after the lockdown. "The lockdown will be lifted on April 15. We have to ensure that the crowding doesn't take place. Your help and cooperation is needed in this regard. The reason is that after the lockdown is lifted and if crowding takes place, all our efforts will go in vain," Adityanath told the MPs. "So, I want that we evolve a mechanism, and for this, I would invite your suggestions," he said. He asked MPs and ministers to keep a watch in their respective areas so that people do not face problems during the lockdown. The UP chief minister said suggestions from people's representatives would help our government to formulate proper strategies, the UP government said in a statement issued here. ALSO READ| Uttar Pradesh government transfers lump sum pension into accounts of over 86 lakh beneficiaries He said it would be decided only after the suggestions of where and how much relaxation should be given in the first phase. Suggestions were also sought on which organisations should be given how much exemptions, the statement said. "Challenges would remain even after the lockdown is lifted. Thus, we need to prepare in advance for the situation to be under control after the lockdown is lifted. Making the public aware about social distancing and following it in public places should be our first priority," he said. The CM appealed to all MPs and ministers to contribute Rs 1 crore each from MP/MLA funds as well as one-month salary of MLAs to the Uttar Pradesh COVID Care Fund, the statement said. Meanwhile, another statement issued in the evening said Adityanath has donated one month's salary and Rs 1 crore from his MLA fund to the UP Covid Care Fund. The chief minister said BSP chief Mayawati has also appealed to her legislators to contribute to this fund. Adityanath informed that this fund would help in expanding the capacity of medical colleges and district level hospitals. ALSO READ| Uttar Pradesh's Banda records first COVID-19 case as Nizamuddin Markaz returnee turns to be positive "Money will be spent on the procurement and arrangement of ventilators, PPEs, isolation wards, testing lab at district level. There is an effort to collect about Rs 1,500 crore in this fund, so that necessary works can be expedited," he said. Apart from this, he also called on the general population to contribute to this fund. The UP chief minister said a decision has been taken to give Rs 1,000 to petty vendors, labourers, e-rickshaw drivers, rickshaw-pullers and daily-wagers across the state. In a statement, the Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said around 2 lakh families in the state will be given an immediate financial assistance of Rs 1,000 each in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. "The decision has been taken to transfer this amount directly to their accounts," he said. For those not having any ration card or bank account, Adityanath appealed to MPs and ministers to identify such people and get their bank accounts opened and also get Rs 1,000 transferred in their accounts. Apart from this, Adityanath said about 3.50 lakh workers do not have ration cards nor they have bank accounts. Such people should also be identified and it should be ensured that they get ration cards and their bank accounts are opened. All public representatives should cooperate for this work in every district, he said. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey, who attended the video-conference, told PTI, "We spoke to the UP chief minister and he told us about the work done and steps taken by the state government during the lockdown. The video-conference continued for nearly an hour." "We are doing all our work, while adhering to the lockdown," he said. Pandemics are part of human history. The Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great, ruling from Constantinople, might have reunited the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches but for the plague in 541-542, which greatly weakened his ability to project power in Italy. The pandemic of 1918-1920 killed as many civilians as soldiers died fighting in World War I. Known as the Spanish Flu, it might have contributed to the Allied victory, as mortality rates were meaningfully higher in Germany and Austria than in France and England. Today, given the severe impact of the coronavirus in Italy (its virus deaths exceed China's), the pandemic of 1348, the so-called Black Death, and its consequences on the Italian Renaissance come to mind. By mid-14th century, the Renaissance had a strong presence in Tuscany. Dante's (c.1265-1321) Divine Comedy was nothing less than a secular miracle in its use of a local dialect (rather than Latin), its structure and philosophic content. Petrarch (1304-1374) had written much of his lyrical love poetry and imaginative sonnets. And Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) had produced a mix of precious prose and poems. These three giant geniuses brought humanism to literature. In sculpture, Nicola Pisano (c.1220-c.1284) almost single-handedly brought Tuscany out of the Gothic into modernity. His pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery depicts Hercules, beautiful and proud, the first male nude since the collapse of the Roman Empire some 800 years earlier. The great Giotto (c.1266-1337) brought naturalism and humanism to painting in the Scrovegni Chapel (1305-1308) in Padua. Now, a blue sky replaced the gold backgrounds of medieval painting. Real human bodies with spacious volumes, bulk and weight, standing on the ground replaced flat, two-dimensional floating figures. And then in 1348 came the Black Death pandemic. In Tuscany, best estimates are that some 50 percent of the population died within days, weeks, no more than a few months. As a percentage of world population, the global loss of life is probably the largest calamity in human history. Society collapsed and so too its art. Artists rejected naturalism and humanism, instead returning to the medieval mysticism of the 12th century. There was a reaction against a central tenet of the Renaissance - that joy in this world replaced the fixation on life after life. Religious tenderness was replaced by austerity and severity. Fast forward just 50 years to about 1400, when a big bang in humanistic art and aesthetics unexpectedly erupted. First came the sculptors. Donatello in 1409 carved David the Goliath-slayer, the first life-sized figure, reflecting human glory, in a thousand years. Nanni di Banco in 1408 started work on no less than four life-sized figures standing in semi-circle (eventually placed in an outside niche of the Florence grain market) representing four Christian sculptors who refused to carve a pagan statue for Roman Emperor Diocletian. Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1425 began 27 years of work creating doors for the Florence Baptistery, which Michelangelo later called the Gates of Paradise. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Then came the pantheon of painters. Fra Angelico in 1437-1440 painted Jesus Christ being removed from the cross, a face of ideal inspiration. Domenico Veneziano (c.1386-1466), Piero della Francesca (1416-1492), Andrea del Castagno (1423-1457), and so many more all painted real people in real nature with real emotions. Alongside came great architects. Brunelleschi (1377-1446), thank heaven, figured out how to dome the Florence Duomo. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) remains a walking companion to Florence's tourists today exhilarated by so much of his work, including the upper facade of the church Santa Maria Novella. Moral of the history lesson? Our species, boasting whatever other characteristics, is resilient, possessing a strong instinct for survival and renewal. Coronavirus face masks REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi Australia's deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly told Australians that they shouldn't wear face masks. That's partially due to the short supply of face masks in the health care system. Kelly pointed out that it's also because face masks aren't very effective in protecting an individual from infection. He said the country has made gains in face mask supplies and in its effort to make its own face masks. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Australia's deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly told Australians that it's not a good idea to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic in a press conference on Friday, citing constraints on face mask supplies for the Australian healthcare system. Kelly also pointed to their poor effectiveness in protecting someone from the virus as another reason why most Australians shouldn't wear face masks when they're going about their daily business. Face masks "can be useful to stop the spread from a person with the disease to other people, if the mask is used correctly," Kelly said. But for people who aren't infected with coronavirus, masks are said to provide little protection. So far in Australia, Kelly reported that 5,544 individuals have contracted the novel coronavirus, and a total of 30 have died due to complications caused by the virus. "Daily increases are definitely less than they were a week or so ago," Kelly said, "that really talks to the effectiveness of some of the ways we have tried to deal with the virus in the last few weeks." In Australia, Kelly said that the country has made some gains from supplies from overseas and in its efforts to produce its own masks. Meanwhile, in light of a face mask shortage for the healthcare system in the US, the CDC recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks or face coverings when they go outside to prevent coronavirus spread. The recommendation to wear cloth or fabric face masks was announced by President Donald Trump on Friday and came as emerging evidence suggests people can transmit the coronavirus to others before they even know they've been infected. Read the original article on Business Insider Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday asked all Tablighi Jamaat members who had attended the group's congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, a COVID-19 hotspot, to come forward for testing by 5 pm, failing which action will be taken against them. Three of the seven persons who tested positive for coronavirus in the state on Saturday were Tablighi Jamaat members, he said. Earlier in the day, Director General of Police, Himachal Pradesh, Sita Ram Mardi had issued a similar warning to district heads of Tablighi Jamaat. He asked them to disclose details of all those who came to the state after attending the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin West area last month. Thakur claimed Tablighi Jamaat members are not cooperating with the authorities. He asked all Tablighi Jamaat members who attended the Delhi congregation to come forward for medical check-up by 5 pm on Sunday and warned of strict action against those who do not comply with the order. The chief minister said the three members of the group who tested positive on Saturday were hiding in a mosque in Solan district's Nalagarh and their samples were collected from there. The three were admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College here at 6.30 am on Sunday, Senior Medical Superintendent, IGMC, Dr. Janak Raj said. They are residents of Uttar Pradesh and had come to Himachal Pradesh's Nalagarh area from Nizamuddin on March 18. Their contacts are being traced so that they can be quarantined, he said. With the seven fresh infections, the number of coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh has risen to 14, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said on Saturday. These include two patients who have recovered and as many deaths. There are 10 active cases in the state, he said. Of these, six are Tablighi Jamaat members, according to officials. The remaining three are being treated at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Kangra district's Tanda, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ghanas much-praised Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah turns 38 today, and social media is already inundated with messages wishing him well on this special occasion of his. Mr Oppong Nkrumah is one of the young shining stars in the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He is widely held in high regard even from some political opponents for his eloquence and commitment to duty. Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who is the Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi in the Eastern Region, was appointed Deputy Information Minister in 2017 when the governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) assumed the reins of power and subsequently appointed Minister of Information in a reshuffle in 2018. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Oppong Nkrumah has been generally acknowledged for his competence in handling and disseminating information on this global challenge. Brief Biography Kojo Oppong Nkrumah was born on 5th April 1982 in Koforidua in the Eastern Region. He holds several degrees notably a BA in Commerce from the University of Cape Coast and an LLB from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration(GIMPA) Law Faculty. A practising lawyer, Mr Oppong Nkrumah won the Ofoase-Ayirebi Constituency seat under the ticket of the NPP in 2016. He also serves as Cabinet Spokesperson on the Economy. He is married with a son and daughter. 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. Featured Video (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) People in Guatemala will now have to obey new domestic travel restrictions as the government tries to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has announced. Starting from Sunday, Guatemalan citizens will not be allowed to leave the department where they live, Giammattei said on Saturday, at a press conference broadcast on Twitter. According to the Guatemalan president, personal trips to any part of the republic are being restricted, but business trips are not subject to the new restrictions, which will last from April 5-12. In the same period alcohol sales will be restricted and alcohol consumption will not be allowed in public places. According to the latest update from the Guatemalan Health Ministry, over 60 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country; two deaths from COVID-19 have been registered in Guatemala. According to the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center, there are over 1 million coronavirus cases confirmed globally and over 64,600 deaths from COVID-19. In March, Guatemala and Chile banned the entry of foreigners in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Covid-19 has impacted the global hospitality industry significantly with occupancies of various hotel chains being affected drastically. In this unprecedented and difficult period, Ritesh Agarwal, the founder and group CEO, Oyo Hotels & Homes, has decided to forego 100 per cent of his salary for the rest of the year. The companys entire executive leadership team has taken a voluntary pay cut starting at 25 per cent, with many opting for an additional uncapped amount, and some going up to 50 per cent to enable building the runway for the company. This would be effective from April and the entire company is standing together to tide over these times. Commenting on the development, Agarwal said: The current situation the world over is deeply concerning to each and every one of us. Oyo is doing everything to support the world with its limited resources in this pandemic from making isolation centres to finding a safe place for first responders. Given the current business situation, which is unprecedented for our industry globally, I am foregoing 100 per cent of my salary for the rest of the year. I am grateful to my leadership team, that have also taken pay cuts and support the company during these tough times. We at Oyo stand committed towards the fight against Covid-19 and will try to do everything in our control to reach out and help people while also ensuring long term success of the company, and our ability to continue delivering on our mission to bring better living spaces for all, at the right prices, globally. Oyo has taken a series of measures to accommodate frontline medical staff, aircrew, corporates, tourists, as well as foreign nationals stranded in the nationwide lockdown in India and several other countries across the globe. The company is focusing on a two-pronged strategy to minimise the possibility of infection and maximise social distancing and hygiene. Certain hotels are being identified to partner with hospitals for setting up safe, pay per use quarantine facilities. Certain others are focused on providing safe shelter to local and foreign tourists and travellers who are stranded in cities owing to the lockdown. Oyo is in touch with various state governments as well as authorities to understand how some of its properties can be of assistance during this crucial period. Recently, Oyo also partnered with Apollo Hospitals to offer sanitized beds and facilities in certain Covid-19 exclusive hotels it identified within its network in the proximity of Apollo Hospitals. The partnership will be activated in six cities namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata for the purposes of self-quarantine and isolation for suspected Covid-19 patients that require medical observation and supervision. Additionally, the company has also reached out to corporates and is keen to support the lodging requirements of individuals who are at the frontline of Indias fight against Coronavirus through a combination of Oyo Hotels or Oyo Life offerings. - TradeArabia News Service Johnson & Johnson's chief scientist Paul Stoffels says Australia's near neighbours, such as Indonesia, face huge risks from the fast-spreading coronavirus because of poor healthcare infrastructure. Dr Stoffels, a medical doctor with experience working in Africa, also outlined during an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the company's ambitious plans to create the manufacturing capacity to make more than one billion vaccines to combat the virus. Johnson & Johnson's chief scientific officer Dr Paul Stoffels. J&J has a manufacturing line in Leiden, Holland that will be able to make the vaccine when it is ready. It has struck a $US1 billion deal with the Trump administration to make a second production line in the US state of Pennsylvania and it's currently scouring locations across the world for potentially two more sites. (The following is pure fiction and the chances of it actually happening are slim to none, but it does make for compelling thought, especially on April 1st, so let's have some fun with it) I have just written a script. It's not your everyday script. It is futuristic...well, not too far in the future. Some of the names are made up and some are real. Yes, the script is fiction, but that's not to say it can't happen. You never know. Scene 1 opens in an office of the New York Racing Association. NYRA president Donald O'Reilly is conferring with several of the other officers. O'Reilly: So fellas, I see where Churchill Downs is running the Kentucky Derby on September 5th. Now, where does that leave us in regard to the Travers? Do we move our premier event at our premier meet all the way up to early August to accommodate them? You know that's what they're expecting. If we do, that means we would have an entire month of Saratoga with our biggest race already having been run. That would take a lot of the drama away from it and make it nothing more than a prep for the Kentucky Derby. What do you think we should do? Do we dare go up against the Derby or relegate our biggest, most historic race to a mere prep? Official No. 1: That is quite a dilemma. This is your call, Donnie. We want to hear what you want to do. O'Reilly: Well, whatever we do it's not going to benefit us much and we have to think of the history and prestige of the Travers. I tell you what I'm thinking. Because we're going to be at a big disadvantage no matter what we do, maybe we should be steadfast and stick to tradition, and just keep the Travers where it is and where it's always been. Let's go by the assumption that Tiz the Law is gonna be the big horse even five months from now, and maybe, just maybe, we can lure him away from the Derby. Official No. 1: That's quite an ambitious task. But go ahead, we're listening. O'Reilly: What if I call up Barclay Tagg and Jack Knowlton and ask them if they have a choice between the real-time, historic, and prestigious Travers, run as it's always been run, or a makeshift Kentucky Derby, which one would they choose. I know the Travers would lose a lot of good horses, but it would still be a big event if we could get the best 3-year-old in the country and perhaps a few more diehard New Yorkers. Maybe other New York horsemen would feel the same way. Remember when Chad Brown and Bob LaPenta both said they were New Yorkers and would rather win the Travers than any other race? Let me get Barclay and Jack on a conference call just to feel them out. O'Reilly calls up Steve Byk to get the phone numbers of Tagg and Knowlton and calls them. O'Reilly: Hello guys, how are you? Tagg: Fine Knowlton: I'm good. What's up? O'Reilly: I know this is a long way off, but if we decided to keep the Travers where it is, would you be more inclined to run at your home track and home state instead of a September Kentucky Derby? Knowlton: Well, let's see we have a New York-bred, and we've already won the Kentucky Derby with a New York-bred, and the Derby isn't quite the same this year. But to win the Travers in our home state on its normal date would really add to our legacy. Imagine how ecstatic everyone would be to win the Travers and with a New York-bred no less. That's something we would have to consider. If. you guys moved the Travers it means we would have to run back-to-back mile and a quarter races in four weeks. That's asking a lot of a 3-year-old. O'Reilly: I was thinking the same thing. I'm just afraid there would be a lot of trainers who would be more inclined to run in the Haskell, assuming they move that back to the Fourth of July. That would give them a more traditional mile and an eighth prep for the Derby, even though they would be two months apart. They might be afraid that having a hard race at a mile and a quarter four weeks out might jeopardize their chances of winning the Derby. And there is also the Ohio Derby, Indiana Derby, and West Virginia Derby we'd have to compete with. Tagg: I understand where you're coming from. I've already won the Kentucky Derby with a New York-bred and I sure would love to win the Travers, considering I've been training in New York for so many years and we had to miss the Travers with Funny Cide. It's too bad we have to choose between the two. My question is, would the Travers still have the same prestige with most of the top horses running in the Derby? O'Reilly: Well, we have Pletcher and Mott with top 3-year-olds. And Pletcher has won the Derby twice. And Mott has won the Derby. And Team Valor, who has Gouverneur Morris with Pletcher, has won the Derby. I know Todd has won the Travers, but that was 15 years ago and you know he's going to have several top 3-year-olds and could run horses in both races. So, let's say we could get Modernist and Gouverneur Morris. That alone would make it a competitive race. Asmussen should have several good ones to split up. He has plenty of top-class 3-year-olds. Wouldn't he love to win the Hopeful and Travers, which together have been run for 273 years, with Basin? That hasn't been done since Chief's Crown 35 years ago. What if Baffert has Authentic, Nadal, Charlatan, Thousand Words, and Azul Coast all in top form. Do you think he would run all five in the Derby, especially with the three best ones all frontrunners? I think the Travers could still have enough top horses to keep it a prestigious race and one an owner and trainer would take great pride in winning. And just think of all the love Tiz the Law will receive from an enthusiastic Saratoga crowd. They'll go nuts over him. Knowlton: That's all very interesting. Let me discuss it with Barclay and my fellow Sackatogians. But what you say makes a lot of sense. Personally, I sure would love to win the Travers, and I don't want to speak for Barclay, but I don't think we would be very comfortable having tough back-to-back mile and a quarter races a month apart. Of course I would love to win the Kentucky Derby again, but if push comes to shove, there is a possibility we could stay in New York. Tagg: Sounds OK to me, but Jack is the boss. I agree that the Travers could take a lot out of him, and then we would have another tough mile and a quarter race in possibly a 20-horse field four weeks later. O'Reilly: Well, I can tell you now, we are not prepared to shorten the Travers to a mile and an eighth. We can bend, but we're not going to break. Tradition has to stand for something. We also have to figure out what to do with the Jim Dandy. When the heck would we run that? In fact, let me call Monmouth Park and see if they're crazy about moving the Haskell all the way back to the Fourth of July. Thanks for your time guys. It's something to think about. Camera fades. The End. Stay tuned for Part Two coming this summer. 69 Tablighi Jamaat members yet to be traced India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Kolkata, Apr 05: West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh claimed 69 foreigners, who came to the state after attending the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, remain untraced. He urged the state government to find their whereabouts and place them under quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Of the 109 foreign nationals who came to West Bengal from the congregation, only 40 have been tracked down by the government and quarantined at a centre in Rajarhat, Ghosh said, addressing a press meet at his residence here. "We have information that 69 others still remain untraced, posing a serious threat... It can be assumed that many of them could be infected with the dreaded virus, but our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seems to have washed her hands off this," he alleged. Massive efforts continue as 22,000 Tablighi members, contacts are quarantined He claimed that many of the 160 Indians, who returned to West Bengal from the congregation, are untraced as well. The BJP leader also accused Banerjee of trying to suppress the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the state. Reacting to Ghosh's allegations, Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said, "It is unfortunate that the BJP is interested in cheap politics when the country and the state are going through such a massive crisis." For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 8:28 [IST] Some guy at Stop and Shop in Kingston was coughing and spitting on the produce, he didnt last long. He fought an employee and good customers took him down until the cops arrived. Posted by Kyle Mann on Saturday, April 4, 2020 A 65-year-old man from Duxbury is accused of coughing and spitting on food products in a Stop & Shop in Kingston on Saturday and was allegedly confrontational with staff and customers at the store. The incident escalated into a physical confrontation that was caught on camera. Two people are seen pinning the man to the ground. At this time, we have no reason to believe the individual has COVID-19, the Kingston Police Department said in a statement. Out of extreme caution, the individual was transported to the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Plymouth to be evaluated. The Kingston Police Department is pursuing criminal charges that include, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery and destruction of property. A video was taken by Kyle Mann an 18-year-old from Pembroke showing customers at the store pinning the 65-year-old man on the ground while they awaited the police. Some guy at Stop and Shop in Kingston was coughing and spitting on the produce, he didnt last long," said Mann. "He fought an employee and good customers took him down until the cops arrived. The Kingston Stop & Shop has banned the Duxbury male from its store. Healthcare workers and GP clinics are unable to get vital flu shots amid a surge in demand for the vaccine, with one doctor describing the situation as unacceptable in the middle of a pandemic. Frontline staff are increasingly worried about even the slightest delay in accessing flu vaccines this year, when it is feared the coronavirus pandemic will overwhelm the health system in the next two months. Some GP clinics are unable to place orders for more flu vaccines in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit:AP Almost all of the 15 MyClinic GP practices across Melbourne are yet to receive their vaccine since the first 100 doses were delivered a fortnight ago, MyClinic western district manager Samantha Furniss said. One doctor who works across three Melbourne hospitals said staff were still waiting for their workplace vaccinations to arrive. NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says a criminal investigation will be necessary to determine whether the operators of the Ruby Princess were "transparent" about ill passengers on board. Mr Fuller said there were "many unanswered questions" regarding the cruise ship despite his early investigations over the past 48 hours. But early indications were that police, ambulance and NSW Ports had done their job appropriately. He said detective chief inspector Jason Dickinson from the state's homocide squad would lead the investigation. Asked specifically if there would be a criminal investigation, Mr Fuller responded: "yes". A a coronial investigation may also be launched, he said A spokesman from Carnival Australia confirmed it would help police with their investigation. March 31, 2020 Dawn Davis , 843-297-6051 Ninety Six, SC In response to guidance from South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the State of South Carolina, Ninety Six National Historic Site (NHS) is announcing additional modifications to operations to support federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As of March 31, 2020, Ninety Six NHS will offer very limited services outside those that support visitor or resource protection. At NinetySix NHS, the following services and operations will be suspended in order to comply with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the State of South Carolina health guidance: No boating or fishing at Star Fort Pond Fishing Pier (closed) Boat ramp (closed) Parking lot at Star Fort Pond(closed) Restrooms (closed) Visitor Center (closed) Special Events and all programs cancelled The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at Ninety Six National Historic Site is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. Outdoor spaces, at Ninety Six National Historic Site remain accessible to the public in accordance with the latest federal, state, and local health guidance, in addition to entry fees being waived for visitors. The grounds, and Visitor Center parking lot are currently accessible If contemplating a visit to a national park during this pandemic, the NPS asks visitors to adhere to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local public health authorities to protect visitors and employees. As services are limited, the NPS urges visitors to continue to practice Leave No Trace principles , including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces safer and healthier. Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus . Please check the park website www.nps.gov/nisi and social media at www.facebook.com/ninetysixNPS for specific details about park operations. The NZ Blood Service is encouraging fit and healthy members of the community to give blood at Whangaparaoa Hall tomorrow. Maintaining a good supply of blood is particularly important now, the service says, as an outbreak of Covid-19 could reduce the number of eligible donors. The service has put in place strict measures to ensure its donor centres are safe. A collection last week in Orewa went well, with more than 200 people donating blood over two days. Clinicians taking the blood will be fully equipped with hand sanitiser and personal protective equipment. Physical distancing of at least 2m between donors will be maintained at every step of the process. Potential donors are asked to register before coming to the hall to give blood. This can be done on the NZ Blood website, www.nzblood.co.nz or by phoning 0800 448 325. Everyone will be asked a range of questions regarding their health and recent travel, or contact with others to make sure they are eligible to donate. It is always the case that donors must be healthy and not suffering from things like cold, flu or an upset stomach when giving blood. On the NZ Blood website, its chief executive Sam Cliffe says there is no evidence that Covid-19 is transmissible by blood transfusion, and the services strict screening process means that people who are unwell cannot donate blood. Even though New Zealand has gone into lockdown the need for whole blood, plasma and platelet donations doesnt stop, Sam says. The NZ Blood service will be at Whangaparaoa Hall, 719 Whangaparaoa Road, on Tuesday April 7 from 10am-4pm. OPPO is one with the Filipinos in actively combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with this, OPPO is offering a warranty extension program for all OPPO users and dealers affected by the COVID-19 quarantine period. The extended terms and service warranty cover provisions on repair services and device and accessories replacement policies. OPPO values the health and safety of all its employees and customers, and this remains the top priority of the brand in order to serve everyone better. Since the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine period, OPPO has temporarily ceased operations of the OPPO service centers and concept stores in the affected areas in the Philippines. We understand the difficulties that the Filipinos are going through at this period. As a way of helping, weve made adjustments in our business by offering a warranty extension to all OPPO users affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. We hope that this will somehow aid our consumers during this trying time, said Kent Zhang, Head of Aftersales of OPPO Philippines. Repair Service Warranty Devices with warranty expiry dated March 9, 2020 until the last day of the quarantine period will be granted an extension of two months that will immediately take effect after the last day of the quarantine period. The repair covers services such as screen repairs, hardware and software tune ups, and other parts malfunctions. This extension applies to both OPPO devices and accessories repairs. Device Replacement Warranty Devices purchased between March 1 - 20, 2020 will be granted an extended replacement term of 7 days effective after the quarantine period. However, the customer shall provide required documents and proofs for the claims on factory defects for the consideration of the extension. Inspected and approved device replacements handled by an OPPO service center representative with an official issuance of Inspection Order starting February 20 until March 20 are also covered by the extension. Dealers affected will be able to return the devices to OPPO by May 20, 2020. Scotland's chief medical officer has resigned after she admitted to ignoring her own advice on social distancing by visiting her second home. Dr Catherine Calderwood had earlier apologised live on TV after being given a police warning for twice visiting her family's coastal retreat in Earlsferry, Fife, more than 40 miles from her main home. In a press conference beside Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today, Dr Calderwood said her actions were 'a mistake and human error' and that were 'no excuses'. Dr Calderwood issued an apology and was initially backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to remain in the role. However after further conversations with Ms Sturgeon, Dr Calderwood said on Sunday night that she had resigned 'with a heavy heart', agreeing the 'justifiable focus on my behaviour risks becoming a distraction from the hugely important job'. Last week Dr Calderwood, 51, tweeted a photo of her family from their main residence in Edinburgh as they clapped for the front-line NHS staff working to stop the spread of Covid-19 Earlsferry, Fife, is 44 miles away from Edinburgh - a drive of around an hour In a statement, she added: 'The most important thing to me now and over the next few very difficult months is that people across Scotland know what they need to do to reduce the spread of this virus, and that means they must have complete trust in those who give them advice.' Dr Calderwood will now work 'over the next few days to ensure a smooth transition' to her successor. Ms Sturgeon said she did not know about Dr Calderwood's visits to the home, a drive of more than an hour from Edinburgh, until Saturday night. The First Minister again backed the doctor's advice, saying: 'Dr Calderwood's advice to me, to the government and to people across Scotland over the past few weeks has been the right advice. 'People should continue to stay at home to protect the NHS and to save lives. 'It is however clear that the mistake she made - even though she has apologised sincerely and honourably for it - risks distracting from and undermining confidence in the government's public health message at this crucial time. 'That is not a risk either of us is willing to take.' The First Minister paid tribute to Dr Calderwood, saying she was a 'transformational' chief medical officer (CMO). Scotlands Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood (left) today issued a statement on live TV apologising for her behaviour The images, published yesterday in the Scottish Sun, emerged amid continuing advice from the Scottish government to stay at home in order to save lives and protect the NHS 'Catherine has been a transformational CMO, bringing changes to the way medicine is delivered in Scotland and in particular using her experience to bring an overdue focus to women's health. 'While she has made a very serious mistake in her actions, that should not detract from the fact that as CMO she has made a highly valuable contribution to the medical profession and to health in Scotland, and I have no doubt she will continue to do so in future. 'She leaves office with my thanks and admiration.' It comes after photographs, published in The Scottish Sun on Saturday, showed Dr Calderwood and her family near their coastal retreat in Earlsferry, Fife, over the weekend. In the press conference, Dr Calderwood also admitted to visiting the cottage with her husband the previous weekend. Dr Calderwood's main home is just two-and-a-half miles from the Scottish Government building in Edinburgh, where she delivers daily briefings on the virus with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Earlsferry is 44 miles away from Edinburgh - a drive of around an hour. A source for the Scottish Sun accused the doctor of 'dangerous double standards', while users of social media site, Twitter, have branded her actions as 'ridiculous' and embarrassing'. Doctor Catherine Calderwood's initial apology in full Here is the statement issued by Doctor Catherine Calderwood earlier today: 'I wish to apologise unreservedly for the issue reported in the media today. 'While there are reasons for what I did, they do not justify it and they were not legitimate reasons to be out of my home. 'While I and my family followed the guidance on social distancing at all times, I understand that I did not follow the advice I am giving to others, and I am truly sorry for that. 'I know how important this advice is and I do not want my mistake to distract from that. 'I have a job to do as chief medical officer to provide advice to ministers on the path of this virus and to support the medical profession as they work night and day to save lives, and having spoken with the First Minister this morning I will continue to focus entirely on that job.' Advertisement The photographs prompted Police Scotland's Chief Constable, Iain Livingston, to issue a statement today, in which he said that Dr Calderwood had been visited by officers and warned about her future conduct. In a statement, Dr Calderwood described her actions as a 'mistake' and apologised 'unreservedly'. But this afternoon she took part in a press conference in which she read out a statement. Speaking at the press conference, she said: 'I have already issued a statement today apologising unreservedly for travelling away from my home while restrictions were in place. 'As well as this weekend, it is important to be clear that was also there last weekend with my husband. 'I did not follow advice I am giving to others. I am truly sorry for that.' 'What I did was wrong. I am very sorry. It will not happen again. 'I realise how important the advice is that I have issued, I do not want my mistake to distract from that.' The images emerged amid continuing advice from the Scottish government, the chief medical officer herself, and other leading medical professionals to stay at home in order to save lives and protect the NHS. It also comes just days after the 51-year-old tweeted a photo of her family from their main residence in Edinburgh as they clapped for the front-line NHS staff working to stop the spread of Covid-19. Last month, the Scottish Government issued a travel warning criticising the 'irresponsible behaviour' of people with second homes and campervans travelling to the Highlands in a bid to isolate. On Friday, the First Minister said the upcoming Easter break would be 'a holiday period unlike any we've had in our lifetimes'. Dr Calderwood, a trained consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, stressed people should adhere to the restrictions, and said it was looking less likely summer holidays will take place this year as they have done previously. The incident has sparked criticism from Scottish Conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw MSP, who described Dr Calderwood's position as 'untenable'. In a statement, posted on Twitter, he said: 'Dr Calderwood's position is very difficult, untenable even, given the damage this has caused public trust. 'The vast majority of Scots are complying with official advice to stay at home and protect the NHS. 'There cannot be one rule for the bosses and another for everyone else.' But Ms Sturgeon resisted the calls initially, instead saying it was important that the government was 'able to count on the continued expertise of the chief medical officer at this critical time'. Speaking at the press conference, Ms Sturgeon said: 'The chief medical officer made a mistake in travelling away from her home. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, pictured at the press conference, initially backed Dr Calderwood, but the medical officer resigned this evening 'Whatever her reasons for doing so, she was wrong and she knows that. 'It was not in line with the advice we are asking everyone to follow. 'She has apologised unreservedly to me and to the public and she's right to have done so. She added: 'What I also know is that over these past few weeks as we have been dealing with this crisis her advice and expertise has been invaluable to me and it continues to be so. 'If I am to do what I need to do to steer the country through this crisis to the very best of my ability I need her to be able to focus on the job that she is doing a job that, not withstanding her mistake on this, she is doing extremely well.' Today the Scottish Government announced the latest Covid-19 figures, which show a total of 3,706 confirmed cases, up from 3,345 the previous day. A total of 220 people have died from coronavirus in Scotland. As of today, there have been 47,806 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the UK. A total of 4,934 people are known to have died from the virus. A Scottish Government spokesman said on Saturday: 'Since this start of this epidemic, the CMO has been working seven days a week preparing Scotland's response. 'She took the opportunity this weekend to check on a family home in Fife as she knows she will not be back again until the crisis is over. 'She stayed overnight before returning to Edinburgh. 'In line with guidance, she stayed within her own household group and observed social distancing with anyone she was in passing in the village.' This afternoon, Police Scotland issued a statement from its Chief Constable, Iain Livingston. In the statement, he said: 'Local officers have visited Dr Calderwood and spoke about her actions, reiterated crucial advice and issued a warning about her future conduct, all of which she accepted. 'The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone. Police Scotland has issued a statement from its Chief Constable Iain Livingstone on Twitter today. In the statement, Mr Livingston said Dr Calderwood had been warned by officers 'Social distancing is the key intervention to curtail the spread of coronavirus and it is essential the instructions are followed to protect each other, support key workers, take strain from the NHS, and save lives. 'Individuals must not make personal exemptions bespoke to their own circumstances. It is vital that everyone adheres to these requirements. 'Police officers and staff are putting themselves in harm's way day and night to explain these instructions to our communities, encourage co-operation and, where necessary, enforce them. 'I want to thank the overwhelming majority of people across the country who are doing their duty during this public health emergency. 'Our fellow citizens are observing the guidance and making significant sacrifices and changes to their lifestyles and daily routines. 'I am grateful for their continued support and co-operation during this critical period.' The British government on Sunday warned that outside exercise could be banned if people flout stringent guidelines to cut the spread of coronavirus infections. The UK government on March 23 ordered a three-week shutdown of non-essential shops and services to cut close-contact transmission of the virus. But warmer weekend weather has stoked fears that people could congregate in parks and open spaces, potentially threatening any gains made in cutting transmission rates.ark was closed on Sunday after concern about high numbers of sunbathers on Saturday. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who himself tested positive for COVID-19, told Sky television that sunbathing was "against the rules" and anyone doing so put lives at risk. He told the BBC most people were following guidance only to leave their homes to shop for essential supplies and medicine, and to exercise once a day. But he said it was "quite unbelievable" that a minority were not. "The truth is the more people go out from home, the more the virus spreads," he added. "I don't want to have to take away exercise as a reason to leave home because people are not following the rules... "If the result of that is that too many people go out and flout the rules I'm afraid we'll have to take action." Hancock later told a daily government briefing changes to social distancing rules were "not imminent". Meanwhile in Scotland, the country's chief medical officer apologised for ignoring her own advice about non-essential travel. Police said they warned Catherine Calderwood for twice visiting her family's second home more than an hour from Edinburgh after photographs were published in a newspaper. Chief constable Iain Livingstone of Police Scotland said officers "spoke to her about her action, reiterated crucial advice and issued a warning about her future conduct". Calderwood, who fronts a public advertising campaign urging Scots to stay at home, told a conference: "What I did was wrong. I'm very sorry. It will not happen again." She added: "This was a mistake. Human error. And there's no excuses. I should not have done what I did."Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said people's criticism and anger was justified, and she was right to apologise. But she backed her to remain rather than resign. "She should not have got this wrong... But I need to have the best possible expertise... if we are to steer the best course through this," she added. The developments came as Britain reported 621 more deaths as of 1600 GMT on Saturday, taking the total toll to 4,934. Sunday saw Queen Elizabeth II made a rare televised national address to thank healthcare workers on the frontline of the fight against the virus, promising that a united effort would help defeat the disease. The queen warned the situation could persist but said the outbreak would be defeated through a collective effort in a "common endeavour", including through scientific cooperation. The British toll -- down from a record day-on-day high of 708 as of Friday, after a week of steady increases -- includes a five-year-old child and seven healthcare workers. There were 47,806 confirmed hospital cases as of 0800 GMT on Sunday, up 5,903 on the previous 24 hours. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and heir to the throne Prince Charles have both tested positive for mild symptoms of the disease. The state-run National Health Service (NHS) later announced the death of a 54-year-old midwife who contracted the virus. Lynsay Coventry died on Thursday in Essex, southeast England, and is the first serving NHS midwife whose death has been publicly confirmed, it said in a statement. Health officials on Friday said two other nurses had died. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hyderabad: It takes almost a full day for a person tested for Covid-19 to get their result in hand at state-run facilities. Hence, private hospitals which have got permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) but not from the state government are appealing that they must be allowed to test to reduce the time. Vijaya Diagnostics and a private laboratory have been granted permission by ICMR and the state government to conduct the Covid-19 test. However, the high load of patients has been delaying the tests. A molecular laboratory is required to test the samples. Two private hospitals in the state with the facilities have been seeking permission to test but are not being allowed due to the fear of data being leaked. However, despite assurances that data will not be leaked, the state government is not willing to give permission. A senior doctor said, We have to make patients wait and they do not know why. The results take at least 24 hours and that leads to a delay in treatment. If we test in private hospitals, the time period will range from 3-6 hours. This will help in early intervention in cases with co-morbid conditions of diabetes, cancer and auto-immune disorders. The state government is also worried that there will be unwanted testing carried out if private hospitals are given approval. A government health official said that the tests could be carried out in private hospitals on those who have no symptoms but want to check whether they have the virus or not. Testing asymptomatic cases is not required. We need to test only those who have symptoms. Presently, all health officials are busy with Covid-19 contacts, quarantine and suspected cases. Who will monitor what the private hospitals are doing? Till the government hospitals can manage the numbers it is important for them to handle tests, the government official said. NCC Indigenous communities in Labrador are already planning on what to do with recently allocated federal funds for COVID-19 relief. Ottawa has earmarked $305 million to be shared among First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities around Canada. The money will be split up into four different sections: $215 million will be given to each First Nation community and will be distributed based on population, remoteness, and community well-being; $45 million will be given to the four different Inuit organizations, the funds will be distributed by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and regional Inuit land claims organizations; $30 million for Metis Nation communities; $15 million for regional and urban Indigenous organizations supporting their members who are living away from their respective communities. The money is still trickling down to Indigenous communities in Labrador, but governments are already planning on how to use the money. NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC) is one of three Indigenous governments in Labrador and the president, Todd Russell says he's concerned about how much money they'll be able to access. "We were not part of the $45 million that went to other Inuit in Canada and we are now finding ourselves having to compete in a much smaller envelope of funding $15 million, Canada-wide," Russell told CBC's Labrador Morning. Tyler Mugford/CBC Despite having a smaller pot of money to pull from and even though the government never received any money, Russell adds that efforts are already being put in place to meet the needs of NCC members, starting with the community of Black Tickle. "Airlifts of food, and water to make sure they're well provisioned we also have three contracts where we have individuals hauling fuel wood and gas into Black Tickle," he said. "We can't have a community so isolated going through a health crisis without fuel, without heat, without gas." Community protection key, Sheshatshiu chief says Story continues The Innu Nation has also been been developing plans for the new funding. Sheshatshiu chief Eugene Hart is focused on keeping the community safe during the pandemic, and says the money will be a great help. John Gaudi/CBC "We're looking to get financial support for the security that we put in place to protect the community from COVID-19," Hart said. "We are also looking for funding for supplying community members with enough cleaning supplies and food during our containment procedures." Hart added that they don't know how much money will be provided, but community has a common focus. "Most members of the community have embraced the concern and want to keep themselves protected." In the northern Innu community of Natuashish, chief John Nui has been busy deciding what to do with the money, including some land-based projects. "At the same time we submitted a proposal for a crisis team for a hotline for our youth to call in," Nui said. The Inuit government of Nunatsiavut has also been busy in finding ways to help its residents cope with the impacts of the virus. Financial support will be provided to community food banks and freezer programs, and cleaning supplies have been provided to families. Various support packages with puzzles and games will be provided to promote mental wellness during self-isolation. A program is being developed to ensure wood and fuel is provided to those in need. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador US President Donald Trump has warned the Americans of the toughest next two weeks as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases crossed three lakhs mark and the death toll stood over 8,000. "Next two weeks are going to be very, very deadly. Unfortunately, but we are going to make it so that we lose as few lives as possible and I think we are going to be successful, Trump told reporters during a press conference at the White House that was also attended by Vice President Mike Pence. "We are really coming up into a time that's going to be very horrendous. Probably a time like we haven't seen in this country. I mean, I don't think we've seen a time like this in the country," Trump said. Pence said there would be an increased number of testings. "It's going to be a difficult week for the American people. You will see testing increased around the country and so cases are going to continue to rise across America," he said. Members of the White House task force on coronavirus have projected deaths between 100,000 to 200,000 people in the US in the next two months. Officials are hoping against hope to avoid such a scary scenario that could be avoided with strict enforcement of social mitigation measures, including stay-at-home and social distancing. As of Saturday, nearly 90 per cent of America's 330 million were under stay-at-home order and major disaster declaration was notified for more than 40 of the 50 States. New York City and its adjoining metropolitan area in the states of New Jersey and Connecticut has emerged as the epicenter of coronavirus in the US where several hundreds of deaths are being reported every day. The peak in New York is likely to hit in next six-seven days, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters in New York after which the curve would start sliding down. "We are getting to that point where it's going to really be some very bad numbers. We want to keep those numbers a lot lower than they would've been and we will do that. But unfortunately, we're getting to that time when the numbers are going to peek at it's not going to be a good-looking situation, Trump said. I really believe we probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war during a world war, a World War I or II or something, but this is a war all unto itself and it's a terrible thing, he said in response to a question. Pence urged people not to be discouraged by the surge in numbers. "Even though we see the losses rising in the days ahead do not be discouraged. Because there is evidence across the country that Americans have been putting the social distancing and mitigation into practice and it is making a difference. We are seeing it in the new cases that are being reported, he said. According to Johns Hopkins University, there are at least 300,915 confirmed virus cases in the US and there have been 8,162 deaths so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Authorities arrested a pastor on Sunday after presiding over a church service with around 500 attendees in Cagayan de Oro City despite a city-wide quarantine. Pastor Alfred Caslam of The Word of God Spirit and Life Ministries Inc. was nabbed for ignoring social distancing measures enforced by city hall to help combat the spread of COVID-19. Mayor Oscar Moreno placed the city under community quarantine on March 19. Caslam faces charges for violation of Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code for resistance and disobedience to persons in authority; and Section 9 of R.A. 11332, for non-cooperation related to health events of public concern. Penalties of arresto mayor or imprisonment of one month and a day to six months and a fine not exceeding 500 are meted to those who violate Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code. Violators of Section 9 of R.A. 11332, meanwhile, face a fine ranging from 20,000 to 50,000, or imprisonment of one to six months, or both. The city government also ordered the closure of the church. CNN Philippines stringer Alwen Saliring contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Lawmakers are expecting to see a clearer picture on how the government will distribute the cash aid to indigent families in President Rodrigo Dutertes second report to Congress on his special powers to address the COVID-19 crisis. The President wanted to inform us that they will straighten out the confusion brought about by the database of the Department of Social Welfare and Development that does not tally with the local government unit database, Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III said, citing Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III. Senator Christopher Bong Go is also urging the executive department to iron out the system of distributing cash aid soon. I urge all concerned agencies to perfect the distribution system on this first month of [the] enhanced community quarantine since we still do not know how long this crisis will last, Go said. Sotto added that he also expects Duterte to heed the senators suggestion to broaden the coverage of the cash subsidy. Among the key provisions of the Bayanihan to Heal as One law, which gave Duterte special powers, is the provision of a 5,000 to 8,000 monthly allowance for two months to indigent families. The DSWD said that all 3.6 million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries with cash cards have received their emergency subsidies on Sunday, which the agency said totalled to more than 16.3 billion. The emergency subsidies for 4Ps beneficiaries who do not have cash cards have been remitted to DSWD regional offices. The department is working on the distribution arrangements with the local government units together with the city or municipal links who will coordinate with the beneficiaries for the scheduled release of their emergency cash subsidy, the DSWD said. The DSWD has also distributed 78,651 food packs to local governments in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Western Visayas and Zamboanga Peninsula on top of other financial and non-food aid, according to Dutertes first report to Congress. 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. The government can use at least 882.19-billion to fund its fight against COVID-19 from dividends, unreleased appropriations, excess and unauthorized balances, cash, and cash equivalents, according to Dutertes first report to Congress. The country now has 3,246 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with the death toll climbing to 152, while the total number of recoveries is now at 64. With COVID-19, our world is experiencing a health crisis unlike any other. Here in New Mexico, more than 25,000 health care professionals have drilled and prepared for this moment. But we also hoped it would never come. Now, Presbyterian, UNM Health and Lovelace, in collaboration with state officials, are pulling together to address this crisis. It is only through unified, thoughtful, precise action that we can make the most of our limited resources and ensure New Mexicans stay safe Presbyterian, UNM Health and Lovelace have each engaged in extensive planning as we anticipate a surge in patients needing access to critical services. Our commitment to the community is to use every resource possible to meet the care needs of our fellow New Mexicans. What does collaboration look like? Daily phone calls, frequent Zoom meetings with state officials and coordinated capacity planning efforts with health care leaders across the state. Every day we are looking at how to add as many ICU beds as possible while preserving quality care. We are buying and renting additional ventilators. We are flexing clinical positions to expand our critical-care workforce. We are reaching out to supply vendors to stockpile respirators, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for our teams. We have plans in place to repurpose procedure recovery areas and operating suites. We also have outdoor triage tents available if they become necessary. We are doing everything we can, across our systems, to prepare to serve our community at its most vulnerable time. But we cannot do this alone. We need your help. Simply put: please stay home. Yes, please practice proper hand hygiene and social distancing as well. But, without our entire states commitment to staying home, we put our loved ones at risk. Our health systems can make plans to add staff, beds, equipment and supplies but without the communitys cooperation, we will not be able to serve every patient that needs help overcoming COVID-19. We thank you for supporting the changes we have already made. Each of our systems no longer allows visitors to hospital campuses except under extenuating circumstances. This doesnt make it easy for patients or their loved ones, but it protects our workforce and patients. We have canceled elective procedures and are asking patients to visit with their provider via telephone or webcam visits where appropriate instead of face-to-face. We know these changes can cause anxiety in the midst of an already stressful time, and we encourage the community to find help when needed whether through a text therapy app, a call to the crisis line or a video visit with a mental health provider. At this time of uncertainty and fear about the health of our loved ones, many people are seeking information to help understand the complexities of this virus. We encourage our community to seek information from reputable sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New Mexico Department of Health. Remember numbers do not tell the whole story. As we make plans for how we can shoulder this burden together, ICU beds or respirator counts at one facility may be less important than what we can do together. It is the strength of our communities that make our state a great one one that can be a standard-bearer for meeting the challenge of COVID-19. Weve experienced it in countless donations of masks and respirators from local businesses, the creative and touching cards we receive from children and the outpouring of support via social media, yard signs and Christmas lights reminding our frontline teams the community is doing its part to keep them safe. We are #alltogetherNM, and we will fight with you to overcome this crisis. Get healthy info New Mexico Department of Health: cv.nmhealth.org/ CDC: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html UNM Health Sciences: http://hscnews.unm.edu/ Presbyterian Healthcare Services: www.phs.org Lovelace: www.lovelace.com WILMINGTON, Del. - Federal officials are working to finalize a name for the outdoor centerpiece of Delawares First State Historic National Park. The park was federally designated in 2014 and is made up of seven locations places like the Old Swedes Historic Site in Wilmington and the Court House in Old New Castle but there is a question over what to officially name the 1,100 acres of rolling hills and forests along Brandywine Creek three miles north of Wilmington. The land is the largest single piece of the national park and is representative of life along Brandywine during Colonial times The park runs along the eastern bank of the Brandywine River. It stretches for 220 acres into Pennsylvania and meets with Brandywine Creek State Park to the south. The 18 miles of trails on the property have been traversed by residents for decades. Brandywine Creek and smaller bodies of water have welcomed anglers and boaters for years. But all that time, the land has been called different things. When it was included with the historical park, some founding documents refer to the property using the name Woodlawn after the longstanding land trust that owned the land for decades before it was sold and eventually transferred to the park service. Other federal documents use the name Beaver Valley for a small waterway that runs along the lands north side, a name that predates Woodlawns 1919 founding. In the interim, the park service has referred to it as Woodlawn-Beaver Valley, according to park service documents. It gets confusing when multiple names are used, said Cinda Waldbuesser, who took over as superintendent of the park in January. Waldbuesser said the park service has been gathering input toward finalizing a consistent name, which will be used on signs directing visitors and teaching people about the areas history. One day, Delawares park will be marked with the National Park Services iconic brown signs, though that is years out, Waldbuesser said. Some bristled at the thought of Woodlawn being part of the moniker. Jason Hoover, executive director of local conservation organization Save The Valley, said the issue came to their attention late last year. Some were concerned that the park service was going to rename the area to honour Woodlawn. The trust was founded by William Poole Bancroft, heir to Wilmingtons Bancroft Mills fortune, with the goal of creating affordable housing and preserving open space. He began compiling open space north of Wilmington, including what would become the parkland, around the turn of the 20th century. Attempts to contact representatives of the trust organization were unanswered. The organization sold the land for $20 million before it became earmarked for the park in 2012. In the interim, Hoovers organization fought proposed housing developments of other Woodlawn properties just across the border in Pennsylvania, one of them adjoining the park. Hoover said his organization opposes references to Woodlawn because the lands history bears an older moniker. The view of Woodlawn as a developer doesnt help either, he said. It would be weird and insensitive, he said. A name referencing Beaver Valley or the encompassing Brandywine Valley is his pick. Brandywine Creek State Park borders the land. Waldbuesser said her office is not set on or advocating for the use of Woodlawn in the name and that she appreciates the historical use of Beaver Valley in reference to the land. The goal is to land on a name that his historically accurate and important and that the community feels comfortable with, she said. The park service scheduled a public meeting to gather input but it had to be cancelled because of coronavirus. The superintendent and her staff will review comments received in emails from the public and settle on a name in the coming weeks, Waldbuesser said. They hope to have interpretive signs about the history bearing the name installed following that. In the meantime, and despite the cononavirus pandemic, the yet to be officially named parkland remains open. Its the only piece of the park currently open. Waldbuesser said trash service is not taking place so visitors are encourage to carry out whatever they bring in and social distance. As of now, the park service is planning on moving forward with an expanded roster of summer camp offerings in Delaware. For more information visit https://www.nps.gov/frst/index.htm. Help India! TCN News Indian Minorities Economic Development Association (IMEDA),a not for profit organization based in Delhi that connects youth for business opportunities has released a press statement condemning criminalization of Tableeghi Jamaat in the wake of the Nizamuddin controversy. Support TwoCircles IMEDA opines that singling out of the Tablighi Jamaat ignores other large gatherings that took place around the same time and even later, often attended by politicians. Some of these events were not just religious, but social and political gatherings the swearing-in ceremony of MPs new CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan on March 23, Karnatakas CM was reported to have attended a wedding on the March 15, while UP CM, on March 20, announced that the Chaitra Ram Navami celebrations would be held as planned. UP CM Adityanath, along with senior bureaucrats, had also attended the ceremony conducted to shift the idol of Ram Lalla to a temporary shelter in Ayodhya on March 25. All these gatherings are in addition to the large daily gatherings in other religious sites like Tirupati (around 50,000 people a day) and more. PM Modis Janata curfew itself pulled people outside their homes in large numbers to bang utensils as a mark of honoring health workers working on the frontline in the Corona battle. IMEDA, in mentioning the above, strongly voiced that the fact that other religious gatherings occurred without eliciting a similar response, the move by the Delhi police to file an FIR against members of the Jamaat is unacceptable.The statement resonates that much like all other events, this should have been immediately cancelled but criminalizing the organizers and participants of the Jamaat is nothing short of finding a scapegoat within the Muslim minority community in India. In its conclusion, IMEDA has also blamed the mainstream media in fanning anti-Muslim rhetoric, where Muslims are being called corona bombs, and enemies of the nation on TV channels, and anchors are mouthing phrases like corona jihad. One channel even ran a banner with the Islamophobic catchphrase Corona aaya, maulana laaya, the statement said. In its end note, IMEDA has appealed the Central government to to provide adequate access to testing, carry out contact tracing of people in this and similar gatherings, as well as community testing and refrain from criminalizing any community of people, calling it the need of the hour. OPINION: We left the mighty shores of New Zealand on December 8th, 2019. A few short weeks later the virus stories started hitting the media. Most Westerners in Vietnam, including us, brushed it off. We were too busy enjoying the food, architecture and roaring around on scooters in Hoi An to worry about a little ole virus. The months of December and January flew by as we went basket boating, visited galleries, old ruins and made friends with a gorgeous water buffalo close to the markets we visited every day, along with thousands of other people. It was so much fun, but we soon realised it was time to start making money again. Employment beckoned in one of the many jewels of Vietnam, Ha Long Bay. We packed up and arrived in mid-February. We started to hear more about the virus from every media outlet in the world. I became concerned and wrote my family back home asking if they thought New Zealand would close their borders? My family replied in typical fashion oh dont worry, we will come get you. Bless them. Not one of us knew how serious things were about to get. Later that month security guards started temperature checking us anytime we arrived or left our apartment, and we had to wear masks to the supermarket. At the time I felt quite annoyed, like my rights were being violated. How stupid was I? In early March we needed to get our visas renewed which meant leaving Vietnam, and then returning, so we researched the countries, and their virus rates. We picked Chiang Mai, Thailand as their rate of cases was only about 60. Chiang Mai was interesting in that there were no precautions from authorities whatsoever. No masks, no temperature checks. The only telling sign was that our hotel was quiet. The night market, however, was crawling with people. Europeans. Thousands of Europeans. As I bartered to buy a beautiful painting from a lovely local woman, I heard the most awful hacking cough Ive ever heard in my life. My blood ran cold. The lady and I locked eyes. I stopped bartering, gave her what she wanted and hurried back to our hotel immediately. We left Thailand and within two weeks their cases of the virus had skyrocketed. As numbers of the dastardly virus around the world started to explode more countries started closing their borders. Rightly so! Transiting in countries became a big problem and the cost of remaining airlines exorbitant. The number of emails between my family and I ramped up and most were urging us to come home. My partner and I had so many discussions about it. Vietnam had kept the numbers down since January to 150. Its now over 200. They have been stringent, and schools have been closed for over 9 weeks and counting. We still had employment here and would likely continue to do so for the entire time this virus nightmare lasts. If we went home, we would be jobless. We would also be homeless, as I was not about to kick out our renter, who is a Doctor, and whose services to New Zealand will be invaluable at this time. We would simply be a drain on resources at a time you need it most. We decided to stay. I think we would have had an extremely high chance of catching the virus if we had chosen to fly to god-knows-where in order to get home. We are here for the duration as I dont see countries opening their borders or transit lounges for a year or more. I go in and out of sadness about that. I realised I had to get it all out in order to move on and accept my situation. I wrote a song, walked into guitar shop called Guitar Quang Ninh, met a man who didnt speak English. Google translate kindly explained what I wanted to do, and we did it. There and then. He was a beautiful human. We are all in this together No matter where we are. No matter who we are. Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh has called his wife Deepika Padukone lovely and revealed that she is spiling him rotten, feeding him yummy food. Ranveer went live from his Instagram account late Saturday where he spoke about Deepika. My wife has been spoiling me rotten, feeding me all this yummy food. Cakes, ice creams, just amazing stuff. So I have to come here and wash it all off. Today, shes in the mood to cook again, theres a lovely Italian meal coming up, which Im really looking forward to. Shes lovely, Ranveer said in the video which he seems to have shot in his gym. Loud music is playing in the background as he speaks in the video. @RanveerOfficial on his live about @deepikapadukone:My wife has been spoiling me rotten,feeding me all this yummy food,just amazing stuff. Today, shes in the mood to cook again, theres a lovely Italian meal coming up, which Im really looking forward to. Shes lovely#deepveer pic.twitter.com/s7nx9dxe7k #Deepveerwale (@welovedeepveer) April 4, 2020 He signs off with a kiss for his fans and says, Hope you all are well, stay home, stay safe. Lots of love. Later, he shared pictures of all the delicious Italian dishes Deepika had cooked for dinner on Instagram Stories. The meal was quite a spread with pasta, garlic bread and gratin dauphinois, among several other things. The actor couple enjoyed an early breakfast on Sunday and Ranveer also shared a picture of the same. Also read: Sanjai Mishra is taking lockdown tuition from daughter, calls her strict teacher Shakespeare, watch video Ranveer and Deepika have been very active on social media as they spend time together in complete lockdown in wake of Covid-19 pandemic.They have also announced their donation for the PM-Cares Fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak in India. Ranveer wrote on Twitter: In times like these, every bit counts. We humbly pledge to contribute to the PM- CARES Fund and hope that you will too. Were all in this together, and we shall overcome. Jai Hind. However, the 34-year-old actor did not reveal the amount of the donation. Follow @htshowbiz for more 2020 was about to be a very big year for gaming as a ton of new things were lined up for launch. While we're still very much excited about everything that's set to come, the gaming community has shifted focus to a more pressing matter - fighting the deadly virus. The gaming community has truly come together to help the world fight this pandemic. From large developers to online streamers, we're seeing a lot of donations towards different relief efforts, which is absolutely fantastic. Here's a quick look at some of the noteworthy ways in which the community is fighting the pandemic. Rockstar Games Pledges 5% Revenue Rocking Games Rockstar Games, arguably one of the biggest game developers in the industry, has announced that a portion of their revenue from April and May will be sent to businesses and communities affected. It looks like they're donating 5% of the revenue generated from GTA Online and Red Dead Online during this period. In case you're wondering, this is indeed a huge contribution because these are extremely popular titles pulling in millions in revenue every month. Humble Bundle's Special COVID-19 Bundle Humble Bundle Humble Bundle is extremely popular among gamers who're always on the lookout for games at discounted prices. Well, they have come up with a new bundle called "Humble Conquer COVID-19 Bundle". It includes games and DRM-free e-books. The best part is that 100% proceeds from this will go to charities that support coronavirus relief. You can get the bundle right here to support a good cause and score some games in the process. Nvidia Puts Its Graphics Power To Use Nvidia has called upon PC gamers to download the Folding@home application to help fight the virus from home. It's a very interesting project and you can learn more about it right here. Millions Of Dollars From Developers CD Projekt Red, best known for Witcher series and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 title, has donated almost $1 million to Polish healthcare. And Riot Games, a very popular developer behind titles like League Of Legends, has also donated $1.5 million for coronavirus relief in Los Angeles, United States. Streamers Are Doing Their Part Too A lot of video game streamers are doing their part to raise funds for coronavirus relief. Twitch's community as a whole came together as a part of "Stream Aid 2020", in which popular gamers and celebrities like Joe Jonas, Diplo, John Legend showed up to perform in front of the camera for the world to watch and donate. Thank you to everyone who helped #TwitchStreamAid raise $2,766,857.12 and counting for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO powered by the United Nations Foundation. If you havent added your support yet, theres still time to donate: https://t.co/AjSupCmx7K pic.twitter.com/rdHo0SBDH0 Twitch (@Twitch) March 29, 2020 In India, popular YouTube creator Ajay Nagar aka Carryminati also hosted a live stream on his gaming channel to raise funds for PM-CARES funds. We're yet to see other gamers/ streamers in the country host a charity stream, but we hope that changes soon. It's time we all come together as a community and do something for a greater cause. Doing a charity stream right now. Every little support counts https://t.co/0H3gm1wi2C Ajey Nagar (@CarryMinati) March 28, 2020 A lot of streamers and companies are chipping in, in their own ways to help the world fight this virus. You can also help by doing your part. If you can't donate, then simply staying indoors and isolating yourself from the crowd will also help a lot. Looking ahead to what the MCU does over the coming decade is one huge question mark. Considering many of the original Avengers likely will not be coming back to the fray anytime soon, introducing new characters for a sense of familiarity is MCUs next big mountain to climb. Kevin Feige is already up for it by introducing The Eternals, plus others. One character fans want to see was already seen in the Marvel streaming universe. Fans of Daredevil want to see him return, albeit on the big screen. Many want to see Marvel retain various TV characters, and rumors are out there a few might. What would happen if Daredevil shows up in the movies after three seasons on Netflix? The longer time goes, chances for a continuation are less likely. Fan opinions differ on what the future of the MCU looks like The famous superhero may be joining the MCU https://t.co/aGFSXW75Fq HotNewHipHop (@HotNewHipHop) March 23, 2020 As always, Reddit offers one of the best barometers of how people feel about film franchises like the MCU. Daredevil was mentioned first, though so was X-Men possibly going to war with the Avengers. Other options include bringing back The Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, and even Red Hulk. All of those might be in the cards anyway far down the line. What are the real chances of Daredevil ever coming back, though? When the series Daredevil began on Netflix in 2015, it was already connected to the MCU. Then again, most of the Marvel shows were, other than a very few ever having crossovers with big-screen characters. Not that it wasnt popular sticking with the comic book code of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) being a blind lawyer by day. Thanks to being blind, he had secret abilities enabling him to become a superhero by night. The character went through some extreme challenges, however, before Netflix cut off the series at the end of its third season. Daredevil being torn between his legal job and being a superhero Charlie Cox at the premiere of Marvels Daredevil | Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images When Daredevil ended its run, it was right after Murdock came out of hiding after going missing following the events of another streaming Marvel series, The Defenders. It was also after Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent DOnofrio) became free from prison. During this moment, Murdock had turned into a broken man, facing a major battle about whether he should stay on as Daredevil or devote his life to being a lawyer. Such a dilemma is not one usually seen often with superheroes. It could have turned into something interesting in the fourth season. If there is any chance of a Daredevil franchise in the MCU down the line, this very plot point would become the perfect place to start. The Netflix show was already a little gritty, offering a similar place for the big-screen. One interesting thing about Daredevil in comic books is the relationship he had with a particular key Avenger. Plus, he faced a situation not unlike the one Spider-Man/Peter Parker will go through in Spider-Man 3. Daredevils relationship with Natasha Romanoff, plus being revealed natasha romanoff | black widow daredevil v1 #97 pic.twitter.com/QEU5CrfvMn best of widows (@bestofwidows) December 29, 2019 When going back to examine the comic book stories of Murdock/Daredevil, a lot of interesting developments were seen there. Those who avoid reading Marvel comics may not know Daredevil had a relationship with Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) at one point. In that story, they linked up in San Francisco where Murdock was working as a lawyer. They did not stay together romantically, yet remained friends. Murdock then had relationships with many other women, if ultimately facing an identity crisis. Eventually, Murdocks identity was threatened due to a New York tabloid outing him as Daredevil. If this sounds familiar, it is a similar twist at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home and likely plot of Spider-Man 3. A future Daredevil movie would maybe avoid this because of the similarity to Spider-Man. Then again, perhaps they would since outing superhero identities can have different stories in how they handle the situation. In the comic book Daredevil, he was ultimately able to go back to being the superhero when the publics memory of the event was hypnotically reversed. New York: In the days after China made the disclosure about its coronavirus outbreak, nearly 430,000 people arrived in the US on direct flights from the country, including thousands who travelled directly from Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, a report in The New York Times said.Over 1,300 direct flights from China to 17 US cities brought back hundreds of thousands of people before President Donald Trump imposed travel restrictions. "Since Chinese officials disclosed the outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness to international health officials on New Year's eve, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the United States on direct flights from China, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after President Trump imposed restrictions on such travel, according to an analysis of data collected in both countries, the report said. It added that testing at the airports and follow-ups with travellers coming from China was not stringent enough. During the first half of January, when Chinese officials were underplaying the severity of the outbreak, no travellers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus. Health screening began in mid-January, but only for a number of travellers who had been in Wuhan and only at the airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, it said. By that time, about 4,000 people had already entered the US directly from Wuhan, the report quoted VariFlight, an aviation data company based in China. The bulk of the 430,000 passengers, who were of multiple nationalities, arrived in January at airports spread across the length and breadth of the US-Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark and Detroit. Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, as American public health officials were only beginning to assess the risks to the US, the report said. According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 1.2 million coronavirus cases across the world, the highest being in the US (311,544) as of April 4. More than 64,000 people have died globally with 8,400 in the US. Even as severe restrictions on travel and movement of people were eventually put in place, flights continued this past week, with passengers travelling from Beijing to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, under rules that exempt Americans and some others from the clampdown that took effect on February 2. In all, 279 flights from China have arrived in the US since then, and screening procedures have been uneven, the report said. While President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that his travel measures impeded the virus' spread in the US and we're the ones that kept China out of here, the NYT report said analysis of the flight and other data shows the travel measures, however effective, may have come too late to have kept China out. Given that health officials now believe that as many as 25 per cent of people infected with the virus may never show symptoms, infectious-disease experts suspect that the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks after the first American case was confirmed in Washington State on January 20. In fact, no one knows when the virus first arrived in the US, it said. In January, before the broad screening was in place, there were over 1,300 direct passenger flights from China to the United States, according to VariFlight and two American firms, MyRadar and FlightAware. About 381,000 travellers flew directly from China to the United States that month, about a quarter of whom were American, according to data from the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. Several passengers arrived from China after transiting through other countries. While actual passenger counts for indirect fliers were not available, Sofia Boza-Holman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said they represented about a quarter of travellers from China. The report also added that about 60 per cent of travellers on direct flights from China in February were not American citizens, according to the most recently available government data. Most of the flights were operated by Chinese airlines after American carriers halted theirs The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Sunday appealed to the people to not get carried away by the "motivated and misinformation" campaign by the opposition against the new domicile law, saying it will neither change the demography nor deny jobs to the local youth. The party said the "anger and opposition of the campaigners" has nothing to do with the interest of the local youth but to build a narrative for restoration of Articles 370 and 35A. BJP spokesperson Brig (retd) Anil Gupta said not sooner than the ink had dried on the two latest promulgations of the Ministry of Home Affairs with relation to the amendment of the J&K Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment Act- (Act No XVI of 2010), the Kashmir-centric political leadership led by former chief minister Omar Abdullah launched a "vilification campaign" against the government accusing it of intending to change the demography of the union territory. "Who will benefit from the new rule? It would be the wards of West Pakistan refugees, Balmikis, Gorkhas , Punjabis and migrant labour. All except the migrant labour are the inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir for periods much longer than 15 years and had been unjustifiably denied the basic facilities including jobs under the garb of (Article) 35A for the reasons well known to Kashmiri leaders," he said. Gupta said the new rule would neither change the demography nor snatch the jobs of the local youth as they are very much part of the existing eco-system. "As far as migrant labour is concerned, their number eligible for jobs may not be even a few hundred when the total jobs at stake are 50,000 while the total jobs amount to 4.5 lakh. The objection to including the wards of All India Services and other central government departments is also not justified as the Act states that they shall have served for 10 years," he said. "I appeal to the people to not get carried away by this motivated, misinformation campaign. Their anger and opposition has nothing to do with the interest of the local youth but to build a narrative for restoration of 370 and 35A in a different avatar," Gupta said. Defending the promulgation amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus, he said the same very leadership was accusing the government of not starting the process to fill 50,000 government jobs as was promised after abrogation of Article 370 last year. "The government with the good intention of rolling out these jobs for the unemployed youth had also earmarked Rs 2,000 crore in the UT's budget for current financial year," he said, adding the government worked over time to promulgate the notification without which the process could not have begun. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dr. Emily Thomas may be gone from The Incredible Dr. Pol, but shes not forgotten. The hardworking veterinarian showed what she was made of on the reality show, putting in long hours even while far along in one of her pregnancies. Dr. Jan Pol of The Incredible Dr. Pol | Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images If youre wondering how many kids the Georgia native has, heres what we know. Dr. Pol replaced Dr. Emily with two new veterinarians It was hard to see Dr. Emily leave the Nat Geo Wild program. She had been a fan favorite since 2015, repositioning cows stomachs, palpating them, removing grubs from nasty infections it was all in a days work for Dr. Emily. After she left The Incredible Dr. Pol, she was replaced by two new veterinarians, Dr. Ray Harp and Dr. Lisa Jones. A big fan of Dr. Pols, Dr. Harp as a young man watched the reality show and was inspired to become an animal doctor seeing the tireless Dr. Pol working his rounds on various farms and at his practice. In 2010, the 37-year-old Dr. Harp was managing a day care for dogs in Philadelphia and made the decision to return to school to become a vet technician. It was while he was working at an animal clinic in Kansas City that he began to get the itch to become a veterinarian and gave serious thought to medical school. Encouraged by his wife, he enrolled at Kansas City University and earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 2019. He and his family ended up in Michigan, although he admits hes more of a fan of sunnier climates. Its really beautiful, he said of Michigan. Im just worried that its going to be really snowy soon. Dr. Emilys husband, Tony, works with her Dr. Emily, while she was working at Dr. Pols clinic, had her husband, Tony, working alongside her in the clinic, helping out all the veterinarians, guests, and their clients. Tony and I are going to do a Q&A #vlog soon. If you have any questions, post them and we'll try to answer as many as possible! #vetlife #realitytv #parenting pic.twitter.com/dNdpSrm1NS Dr. Emily (@DrEmilyThomas) February 19, 2020 Currently, at the practice Dr. Emily is now working with in Virginia, her husband is working with her there as well. Tony, writing on Dr. Emilys personal blog, said of their move, . . . when it was time to leave Michigan, we had an idea of what we wanted. Virginia became an obvious place for us. Within Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley was appealing. The Shenandoah National Park is basically in our front yard, and there is a nice river for canoeing and kayaking. Dr. Emily and her husband have three children Dr. Emily and Tony have three children: India born in 2013, Oscar born in 2015, and Calvin born in 2018. Nothing to do but sit around and wait for the new computer because mommy killed the last one by plugging it up to a vacuum cleaner charger. No #youtube videos until it gets here #sadface #computerdied #sticktoyourdayjob we're also looking for new phones (we have #iPhone 5) pic.twitter.com/wmeK1ZjjTI Dr. Emily (@DrEmilyThomas) March 8, 2020 Based on her blog, its safe to say that part of the reason so many viewers were drawn to her was for her sometimes shocking honesty. But its nothing any other mother hasnt thought at least once. She said recently on Twitter, ALL night I was unable to sleep despite meds just imagining all of my children dying from the #Covid_19. Then, groggy early morning, I hear that all three kids are downstairs. My very first thought Ugh! I guess I better get up and go take care of those monsters. Read more: The Incredible Dr. Pol: The Real Reason Dr. Emily Left Despite being an ocean away, Josiah Carter from Below Deck shared that he is grieving after learning that friend, Deputy Shannon Bennett from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida died from COVID-19 (coronavirus). The Broward Sheriff tweeted, Deputy Shannon Bennett was a 12 year veteran of the Broward Sheriffs Office; an out and proud gay law enforcement deputy; a school resource officer who protected and mentored the young students at Deerfield Beach Elementary; a man in love to be wedded later this year. Josiah Carter| Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Carter expressed his own thoughts about Bennett. He shared on Instagram that the two instantly became friends. He also considered Bennett to be like a big brother and said he will never forget their friendship. Shocked and sad Carter spent time in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida when he worked in yachting. It was during that time when he met and connected with Bennett. He expressed his condolences to his friends and family. But he too is grieving. Feeling sad and shocked to hear that this terrible virus has taken one of my young healthy friends, Carter wrote along with several photos with Bennett. Words really cannot describe how I feel about this news. I met Shannon only 4 years ago and we instantly became friends. Carter shared how he met Bennett. He was one of the first people I met when I moved to Fort Lauderdale for work, he continued with his post. Personally I was in a very strange place in my life, not liking who I was and not liking the fact I was gay. He was like a big brother to me, with no agenda just kindness and thoughtfulness, he guided me and reassured me that everything would be okay. Shannon always seemed to look out for others and cared for everyone, such a selfless person, he added. My heart goes out to all his friends and family back in Fort Lauderdale and especially his fiance Jonathan. I will never forget you or our friendship Shannon rest in peace you sweet man @sb099. Carter added, This is more serious than you think, everyone stay inside! The Below Deck community responds Both Anastasia Surmava and Hannah Ferrier from Below Deck Mediterranean expressed their condolences on Carters post. This is so sad. I am so sorry for your loss Rest In Peace Shannon , Surmava wrote. Ferrier added, . Carters mother wrote, So sad to hear about Shannon xxx. The 39-year-old deputy, who worked at the Broward Sheriffs Office for almost 13 years, died late Friday night, April 3, according to a statement from the Broward Sheriffs office. Deputy Bennett left work early on March 23, because he was not feeling well. The next day, he went to the hospital and was tested for COVID-19. On March 27, his test came back positive. Deputy Bennetts passing is the first COVID-19 death for BSO and believed to be the first line-of-duty COVID-19 death in Florida. Deputy Bennett is survived by his fiance, Jonathan Frey; his mother, Barbara Bennett and his brother, Darren Bennett, who worked for ten years in BSOs Department of Detention before leaving BSO in 2013 to work in the ministry at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. Darren is currently a campus pastor for Calvary Chapel North Miami, according to the statement. LOUISVILLE Jesse Zweep has helped hundreds of Louisville students with his alphabetic knowledge of subjects ranging from automotive technology to zinc-based alloys. Those thoughtful teaching talents helped him earn one of the top honors in the Nebraska career and technical education (CTE) profession this past week. The Nebraska Department of Education honored Zweep with the Richard Katt Outstanding Career Educator Award for skilled and technical sciences. The NDE recognizes one teacher from each of the states six career fields with the award each year. Nebraska teachers can earn the honor in the fields of agriculture, food and natural resources; business, marketing and management; communication and information systems; human sciences and education; health sciences and skilled and technical sciences. It is one of the most prestigious awards an educator can receive in their careers. Zweep said he was grateful for the opportunity to work at Louisville. He said he was simply standing on the shoulders of many others in the district who had provided their time and talents to the CTE program. I am very thankful to be working in such a supportive, fun and innovative district which allows me to be creative in my classroom and also one that is so supportive in the projects that I want to complete with my students, Zweep said. This award is a combination of the school administrators, parents and especially the students who are always so supportive and work so hard to create a fun and an enriching learning environment. I am also very thankful to be working in a CTE program that has a lot of pride and tradition built by previous educators like Don Tietjen and Tom Petersen, who both spent more than 30 years with the district building such a great vocational CTE program in Louisville. Louisville graduate Natalie Bauermeister said Zweep played a key role in the success of many students. Bauermeister served as state president of the SkillsUSA Nebraska organization in 2016-17 and earned many SkillsUSA Nebraska honors. She said that was possible because of Zweeps knowledge and positive demeanor in the classroom. Mr. Zweep is a great teacher because no matter what youre learning about, he takes every opportunity to make it fun, Bauermeister said. He put humor and excitement into every task. Zweep went to high school in Sioux Falls and earned a bachelors degree in skilled and technical sciences education from Wayne State College in 2005. He collected a masters degree from Wayne State in curriculum and instruction of skilled and technical sciences in 2009, and he secured a second masters degree in curriculum and instruction of education from Peru State College in 2016. Zweep teaches a variety of subjects to middle and high school students at Louisville. These include automotive technology, woodworking, drafting, principles of small engines, welding and beginning and advanced courses in metals and manufacturing. He also leads an eighth-grade problem-solving class that teaches teamwork and time management skills. Zweep also leads Louisvilles chapter of the SkillsUSA Nebraska program. He has helped the Lions bring home a wide variety of honors at regional, state and national competitions. Many students have also held seats at state leadership tables. Bauermeister and current LHS senior Max Yarnell have highlighted this successful legacy by serving as SkillsUSA Nebraska state president. Zweep said he has been impressed with the integrity and ingenuity he has seen from Louisville teenagers. Louisville has a lot of bright students who really do care about their education, Zweep said. Students are active both in and out of the classroom, and that makes for a lot of great learning opportunities for students. I have found that the students in Louisville will push me to stay ahead of them. Students are always asking in-depth questions, coming up with creative projects for the metal shop and have always been willing to put in the extra time outside of school as well. I have taken students on many field trips and participated in many technical competitions. Louisville students have always been commended on their professionalism, respect for others as well as their politeness, which makes my job easy and is obvious in many of the successes students have had at Louisville. Zweeps work ethic and teaching skills at Louisville began to garner attention across the state within his first decade in the profession. Colleagues honored him with the SkillsUSA Nebraska Advisor of the Year Award in 2013, and he later became the state officer team advisor for SkillsUSA Nebraska. Judges considered several criteria when choosing winners of the Richard Katt Outstanding Career Educator Award. They judged nominees based on service to both students and the teaching profession, innovative classroom practices, their philosophy of teaching in career and technical education fields, personal and professional growth during their careers and letters of recommendation. Zweep and fellow winners in other CTE fields will be recognized at the Nebraska Career Education Conference. The event is scheduled to take place June 8-11 in Kearney. Bauermeister said one of the most important things she learned from Zweep was perseverance. Those lessons have paid off for her this semester in an uncertain learning environment. She and her classmates at the University of Nebraska-Omaha have had to alter their schedules this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of being panicked about the situation, Bauermeister said she has relied on Zweeps award-winning lineup of life skills to feel confident about the future. Mr. Zweeps class taught me that no matter how difficult something can be, as long as you put in hard work youll find the results you want, Bauermeister said. I think the best example of this right now is all of my college classes being moved to an online format and having to adjust. Although it is difficult and will take some time, teachers like Mr. Zweep taught me that adversity just makes for a sweeter success. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The trailer of the highly anticipated Top Gun: Maverick movie took everyone by surprise and made fans nostalgic watching Tom Cruise fly a fighter jet again. Tom Cruise acted in the first Top Gun movie which released 34 years ago and it was the first time the actor flew sorties in a fighter jet for the first time. While Tom Cruise piloted the Lockheed Martins F-14 fighter jet in the previous movie, this time around, he will be flying in the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet. Unlike most of the actors who use stunt doubles and CGI to perform stunts, Tom Cruise is notorious for performing the toughest of stunts himself, be it hanging from the Burj Khalifa or be it hanging on a transport airplane. Not only this, Tom Cruise is a trained pilot too and often flies helicopters and planes in movies. For Top Gun: Maverick, Tom wanted to fly himself the Boeing F/A-18 fighter jet. However, if the producer of the movie Jerry Bruckheimer is t be believed, U.S. Navy denied his request and all he could do it flew sorties in the back seat of the fighter jet. He, however, flew P51 planes and then CGI was used to make them look real. In an interview given to Empire, a UK based movie magazine, Bruckheimer said, "The Navy wouldn't let [Tom] fly an F-18, but he flies a P-51 in the movie, and he flies helicopters. He can do just about anything in an airplane." Bruckheimer said Cruise was too particular about the whole movie being as real as possible with no or little CGI and hence, wanted to fly the $71 million jet which he can be seen flying in the movie. Bruckheimer also revealed some challenges they faced making the original 1986 movie. "We put the actors in the F-14s, and we couldn't use one frame of it, except some stuff on Tom, because they all threw up," producer said. "It's hysterical to see their eyes roll back in their heads. So everything was done on a gimbal. But in this movie, Tom wanted to make sure the actors could actually be in the F-18s." Source: Military.com Australians are being urged to stop trying to import COVID-19 home testing kits. At least three large consignments have been intercepted in the last two weeks by the Australian Border Force (ABF) Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned "inaccurate results could prevent people from seeking the medical help they need". Visit Business Insider Australia's homepage for more stories. Australians desperate to test themselves for COVID-19 are resorting to suspect home testing kits. The Australian Border Force (ABF) confirmed on Sunday that it has stopped a number of tests that from entering the country, with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warning the results were unreliable and could undermine national containment efforts. "Inaccurate results could prevent people from seeking the medical help they need, or alternatively, discourage people who should be self-isolating from doing so," Dutton said in a statement issued to media. "Our ABF officers at the border are on alert for any unauthorised or homemade COVID-19 products and they will continue working day and night to ensure these dangerous goods dont make it into Australian households and communities." The ABF revealed that a single shipment of 200 such kits, transported from China via Singapore, had been intercepted in Perth two weeks ago. Since then two other consignments from Hong Kong have been confiscated in Melbourne and Perth. Home-testing kits have not been approved by the national regulator, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is responsible for officiating over the reliability and safety of health products and medicines. Dutton emphasised the only approved diagnostic tools remain laboratory tests and those issued by doctors and frontline healthcare staff in health clinics and hospitals. According to government statistics, nearly 300,000 official tests have been conducted Australia-wide, with just 5,635 cases confirmed as of Sunday. In 2018, after waves revealed the wreckage again, Mr. Claesson took wood samples from the hull plank and ship frame. The samples were tested at the Cornell University Tree-Ring Laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y., to determine their age. The analysis suggested that the trees that were felled had a ring date of about 1753. Of interest in this particular study was that three different species were used, two that are not commonly used in shipbuilding, that grow right here in New England and northeastern North America, Carol B. Griggs, a senior research associate at the Tree-Ring Laboratory, said on Sunday. Whether the ship is the Defiance or another vessel, it was built in 1753 or soon after, and most likely somewhere along the New England coast, she said. After combing through historical and notary records, including a firsthand account he found at the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum in Rowley, Mass., Mr. Claesson learned that there was a sloop called the Defiance that had been wrecked in York in 1769. He also found that a sloop with the same name was coincidentally built in 1754 in Massachusetts, which fits well with our tree-ring dates of circa 1753, he said. Mr. Claesson said his research found that the Defiance was traveling from Salem and headed for Portland when it encountered a storm. They took anchor, but in heavy seas the crew was forced to cut the anchor cables, and were pushed ashore onto York Beach, Mr. Claesson said. The ship was a total loss, but the crew survived. Johnson's government was slower than those in some European countries to impose restrictions on daily life in response to the pandemic, leading his critics to accuse him of complacency. He imposed an effective nationwide lockdown March 23, but his government remains under huge pressure to boost the country's number of hospital beds and ventilators and to expand testing for the virus. A Killoe model has told of her experience on RTEs First Dates Ireland by saying despite not finding romance she would absolutely 100 per cent go on the show a second time if given the opportunity. Lynsey Bennett appeared on last weeks episode with Ballynacargy native Liam Glynn. The pair struck up a friendly rapport from the outset, so much so they agreed to meet up for a cuppa at the Longford Arms Hotel and enjoyed a couple of get togethers at the weekly parkruns in the county town. But that was as far as any likely romance went with the pair agreeing to remain friends. I was quite nervous about it (last weeks show) because it is a two hour date and obviously they are not going to show everything, she said. It was a really nice date and we met for a cuppa in the Longford Arms and did some of the parkruns together and we are friends. Lynsey, who has successfully fought off cancer twice in the last three years also referred to the recent stringent measures imposed by government bosses in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Everyone is going on about lockdown but I was in lockdown in a hospital for three years, so it really doesnt faze me, she added. As for her own experience of the show and her advice to others perhaps contemplating doing likewise, Lynsey said she had been left in little doubt as to her own stance on things. Absolutely, 100 per cent I would, she said. I really enjoyed it and the production team, they are so easy to work with. They make you feel so comfortable and it also takes place in a really safe environment. You are also matched up with someone who has the same interests as you and they make sure the person is safe and at ease. Applications for the next series of First Dates Ireland are now open. If you are single, 18 and over and interested, you can apply at www.cococontent.ie/firstdates STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York City education officials are not permitting the use of video conferencing tool Zoom for remote learning due to concerns about security and privacy on the platform, according to a memo sent to school principals and obtained by the Advance/SILive.com. The memo stated that the city Department of Education (DOE) received requests from faculty, students, and service providers to use Zoom during remote learning while schools are closed until at least April 20, with the possibility of extended closures until the end of the school year. In the course of its credentialing process, the DOE has received various reports documenting issues that impact the security and privacy of the Zoom platform. Based on the DOEs review of these documented concerns, the DOE will no longer permit the use of Zoom at this time," reads the memo. According to the memo, staff should immediately stop using Zoom and migrate to Microsoft Teams instead as it sufficiently supports the diverse virtual conferencing needs, while also providing the necessary privacy protections for our staff and students. Google Classroom -- a platform many teachers are using -- continues to be permitted for use. However, Googles video or audio conferencing tools are not permitted at this time, as the DOE is a working on security credentials for video conferencing platforms like Google Meets. A Staten Island teacher named Debra, who would only be referred to by first name, said she doesnt use Zoom for remote teaching, but that many of her colleagues have been using it. She said she uses Google Meets. It [Google Meets] is now being looked into and we are waiting to see if it will be allowed to be used going forward. Every day is something new with the DOE, she said. They gave us no guidance with unclear expectations and basically threw us to the wolves. We had to learn everything on our own and now we finally figured it all out, its not good. The DOE is not permitting the use of Zoom at this time after a review of documented concerns. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Boston bureau shared a warning last week about using Zoom for teleconferencing or remote learning due to reports of VTC hijacking, also known as Zoombombing. That means that people can hijack remote learning Zoom classrooms or other teleconferencing without permission. The FBIs Boston bureau recommended exercising due diligence and caution while using the video platform, such as making meetings or classrooms private, not sharing the link to a teleconference publicly on social media, manage screen sharing options, and have the updated version of Zoom with proper security updates. The DOE is instead reinforcing the migration to Microsoft Teams, which allows for video calls, pre-recorded meetings, the ability to share a desktop computer, create discussion threads and other tools. Before remote learning began, the DOE said it set up Microsoft accounts for all students, which will allow students to sign in with their DOE student account credentials, and staff to use their DOE credentials. The DOE said it has been training schools on Microsoft Teams for several weeks and will hold another training session on Monday. Its just extremely discouraging that the mayor and chancellor are putting so many demands on us, not taking into account us needing to care for our own family, as well as teaching remotely, said Debra. According to the DOE, the agency doesnt have a central contract with Zoom. The DOEs decision to stop the use of Zoom was made in partnership with NYC Cyber Command. The DOE said it will continue to review and monitor developments with Zoom and will update the DOE community with any changes. During a press conference Sunday, Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza said the city is concerned about all students getting the support they need, but not at the risk of privacy. Does anybody really think that we want students personal information out there for anybody to see, for anybody to access? That is absolutely unacceptable," he said. Zoom, and weve been working with Zoom, is unwilling and unable to meet the security needs of our students. We will not put our students information out in cyberspace for anybody to access. That is unacceptable. So the notion that we would let that happen is just not, its not reality. Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said the agency was supporting staff and students in transitioning to different platforms, like Microsoft Teams that "have the same capabilities with appropriate security measures in place. Providing a safe and secure remote learning experience for our students is essential, and upon further review of security concerns, schools should move away from using Zoom as soon as possible," said Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the DOE. There are many new components to remote learning, and we are making real-time decisions in the best interest of our staff and student. Zoom didnt respond to a request for comment at the time of publication. REMOTE LEARNING It was a learning curve for many New York City teachers when remote learning began on Monday. In addition to educating their students, preparing lessons, uploading videos, and grading assignments, they also needed to be able to help their own children navigate the new distance learning model. Staten Island parents are saying that while the new normal of remote learning was a bit overwhelming at first, both teachers and students are living up to the task. It was a little overwhelming at first, said Kerryann Hassan, the parent of both a fifth-grader at PS 50, Oakwood, and a freshman at New Dorp High School. Im fortunate enough to work from home; they wouldnt have done anything. They cant copy and paste; they cant open this so it was a bit of a struggleBut we got through it. Jennifer Kain, a parent of a seventh-grader and eighth-grader, both at Barnes Intermediate School (I.S. 24) in Great Kills, said the first day of remote learning went well. The support they are receiving from their teachers and their administrative staff is amazing, she said. "The teachers have checked in on them at least one to two times a day. They are answering all their questions and calming them down if they get upset about not being able to access a document. Before remote learning began, some Staten Island parents were trying to secure electronic devices last week to allow their kids to participate in online learning. The city is still working to distribute necessary technology to the estimated 300,000 students who currently lack an internet-connected device. Those who are in need of technology should fill out an online form to sign up for a remote learning device via the Department of Education (DOE). For students who lack an internet-connected device, the DOE has provided supplemental learning materials to keep them engaged during the transition to remote learning. Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has asked parents to sign up for the NYC Schools account, which will be critically important as the DOE pushes information out and resources for remote learning needs. You can go to www.myschools.nyc for more information. 42 NYC on pause: A month into the battle against deadly coronavirus Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE: CUNY shortens spring recess at all schools, including CSI St. Johns University cancels commencement exercises Uplifting video shows teachers dancing for their students Remote learning a juggling act for those teachers with kids at home Staten Island school principal tests positive for coronavirus New York Public Library: Free virtual tutoring, read-alouds and more College of Staten Island vacates dorms; may be used as medical facilities DoorDash will deliver meals to medically fragile NYC kids Will first responder child care centers offer special ed services? Staten Island parents on remote learning: Teacher, school support amazing' First responder child care centers open with a lot of precautions Mayor: NYC schools may be closed for rest of 2019-2020 academic year FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Main opposition United Future Party (UFP) Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn speaks during an election campaign rally in Seoul's Jongno District, Saturday. Hwang has faced criticism for a series of inconsiderate remarks which supporters said were 'slips of the tongue.' Yonhap By Jung Da-min Main opposition United Future Party (UFP) Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn has come under fire for a series of remarks he made on sexual exploitation and physically challenged people. His continuous series of inconsiderate statements are being criticized even among party members, who say he is not being helpful but is damaging the party's image ahead of the April 15 general election. Hwang took part in an open forum in Seoul last Wednesday and discussed punitive measures for those involved in cyber sexual exploitation and abuse on SNS platforms, which has recently become a hot topic following the so-called "Nth room" case on Telegram. Hwang said, "Punishment could be different for those who entered the Nth room out of curiosity and later stopped using the service thinking it inappropriate." The comment came as public anger remains high about the operators of the Telegram group chat rooms that subjected women, including dozens of minors, to sexual exploitation and abuse. People have called for stern punishment for not only the operators but also all users of the service who they say abetted in the crimes. People lashed out at him for "lacking gender sensitivity" and not understanding the case as users needed to go through a series of steps and know a certain link to enter the Nth room and pay up to 2 million won ($1,617) for "premium services" meaning it was impossible to "enter the room out of curiosity." Noting Hwang was a judge, many also said such a lenient stance toward perpetrators by judges has allowed sex crimes to flourish here. Members of the minor opposition Minjung Party hold a press conference in Seoul, Thursday, to condemn the main opposition United Future Party Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn's remarks implying the need to give lenient punishment for those who used the "Nth room" group chat rooms on Telegram, where sexual exploitation and abuse of minors took place. Yonhap As the controversy mounted, Hwang backtracked later the same day, saying that he meant the legal assessment of a case required multiple layers of consideration with regard to sentencing as a general principle. "But all of those involved in the Nth room case should not be subject to the general principle because they committed an atrocious crime which cannot and should not be forgiven," he added. Hwang's "mistakes," however, continued the same day as he petted the guide dog of a blind candidate for proportional representation from the UFP's satellite party, the Future Korea Party. Hwang's behavior brought public criticism as it is a breach of etiquette to touch or distract guide dogs for the safety of the people who rely on them. The following day, he made another "inappropriate" comment during a campaign rally in Seoul's Jongno District, the constituency in which he is competing against Lee Nak-yon, head of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) election campaign committee. Talking about the lengthened ballot paper due to the 35 parties seeking proportional representation seats, Hwang said, "A short person will not even be able to hold the ballot paper on their own." This remark was denounced for degrading short people. "Does Hwang mean short people cannot even hold a ballot paper and thus should give up their right to vote?" Rep. Kang Hoon-sik of the DPK said in a statement. Such inappropriate remarks come as the UFP with its two-tier leadership of Hwang and Kim Chong-in, a veteran economist and politician who is head of the party's election committee, is making all-out efforts to beat the DPK. The two had dinner Thursday and Kim later told reporters that he had told Hwang to focus on his race in Jongno apparently being mindful that Hwang's slips of tongue could cost the party. But it seems Hwang is not finished. "They are busy finding fault with me over every minor thing," Hwang wrote on Facebook, Friday. "That's enough." Rome [Italy], April 5 (ANI): In line with Imran Khan's way of thinking, "coronavirus is just a bit more than a flu and kills only old people", Pakistan is taking proper and adequate measures to fight the modern version of the plague. The Kaptaan, in fact, besides starting the umpteenth fundraising to help the government in the fight against the virus, has a secret weapon: the Corona Relief Tiger Force. Armed with cute t-shirts, the best youth of the country, what we in Italy would call 'la meglio gioventu' will go in the streets running not-yet-disclosed errands without anybody protection, armed only with the strength of their faith in the national leader. Who, being close enough to his seventieth birthday and hence one of the 'old people' very likely to die of COVID19, will give direction from home. Meanwhile, the country has been well equipped for the fight. The coronavirus patients, mostly the ones belonging to the lower classes for whom Imran's heart is bleeding day and night so much he does not want to impose lockdown to protect them, have been promptly quarantined. Into concentration camps, sorry, 'quarantine' camps, set in Kashmir, in Gilgit-Baltistan, and in Balochistan. Taftan camp, from the images we get, is a model facility for any other country: people are piled up into the camp's tents like beasts, there are no medical facilities, not even simple soap leave alone masks and gloves, and most of the times no food. Balochs maintain that Pakistan is using the Chinese virus as a biological weapon against them. Practically, Taftan will finish faster and better the job relentlessly carried on by the Frontier Corps and by Shafiq Mengal and his likes: the genocide of Baloch. The rest of the country is not in better shape. Imran, the Heart of Gold, is launching appeals to the international community to fill the empty bank accounts of the State. They need medical supplies, they need ventilators, they need medicines. In February, the chloroquine produced in the country had been sent to China through the local Bayer branch and pharmacies in Lahore and Karachi had no more tablets. But the Kaptaan is not only Handsome but also a 'Heart of Gold' too: so, even if they're asking for help, they are donating with great fanfare medicines to Italy. And money too, collected by the Pakistani community in the small textile hub of Carpi. They did not send the money home to help their people in need, but they went on Twitter saying they were helping Italians. They might never be heard that charity starts at home, I guess. Or, maybe, they are just thanking Italy for being one of the main suppliers of weapons and for not shutting down completely the network of illegal funds to terrorism in the north of the country. After all, according to a clip circulated on Twitter, Italians are chanting the Pakistani anthem and thanking Imran and Bajwa for their help. Sounds familiar? Yes, it was more or less the same clip circulating with the Chinese anthem in the background. Bells sounding? Yes. More than bells, a whole orchestra. And the orchestra is playing a Chinese tune, that matches with the Chinese virus. Because, far from blaming China for spreading the virus everywhere, starting from Pakistan where Chinese practically own the country, Islamabad proves once more his friendship 'sweet as honey' for Beijing and his totalitarian regime. Samri, South Asia Media Research Institute tweeted a clip from a Pakistani Tv channel, Public TV, with the text: "Pakistani scientist Dr. Atta ur-Rehman: It is quite probable, though not proven, that #Coronavirus was made in UK or US as a bioweapon. Ex-ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon also explained that #COVID2019 outbreak is a Western conspiracy to undermine China". Again, sounds familiar? Coming straight from the Chinese propaganda spread all over the by Global Times and other publications and social media run by Beijing? Well, it is. And although Pakistan has little or no credibility at an international level, it is enough to keep the domestic audience, at least the mass, asleep. So they can go on blindly following the State and Army narrative, believing there's a global conspiracy against Pakistan, buying Imran's and Xi Jinping theories aimed to discharge China from the accusations of having unleashed the virus on the with their criminal silence. At the end of the day, for totalitarian regimes, people's lives don't really matter. The Corona Tigers, and the Dragons, will save the . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This is the day of the week on which many in the Christian world regularly gather not only for worship, but for fellowship; to encourage and minister to each other. The stay-at-home order from the state government guidelines issued by Gov. Roy Coopers office clearly say that even though churches (and mosques and temples) can be open and people can travel to them, gatherings should have no more than 10 people no doubt causes some distress. Nevertheless, the order is important and should be heeded by responsible church members. Social distancing is the most effective method we have at the moment for containing coronavirus. Some members of more strident sects (in other places, were sure) have reacted to such orders with anger and defiance. Why is it the churches are being closed but liquor stores and abortion clinics are still open? they ask. But thats the wrong question. Restricting church meetings isnt a punishment; its a precaution. Its a protection. The Indian macroeconomic situation is bleak and all set to get worse if local or national lockdowns continue for some more time, renowned economist Jean Dreze said on Sunday. Dreze further said that due to the country-wide lockdown, social unrest in many parts of India has already started. The country is under a 21-day lockdown as part of larger efforts to curb spreading of coronavirus infections. "The situation is bleak and all set to get worse, if local or national lockdowns of varying intensity continue for some time, as is likely to happen. "Even otherwise, ... Since the first responsibility of the state is to protect its citizens, it is understandable why, faced with a pandemic on a scale not seen since 1918, drastic measures have been taken to try to keep loss of life to a minimum. However, some of the emergency policies launched to respond to the coronavirus pandemic could remain in place and that will more deeply entrench government across the economy and civil society. Police have extraordinary new powers to enforce social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Cole Bennetts Political leaders face two challenges: first, to judge carefully when restrictions can be lifted and to strike a balance between the damage caused by the virus and that caused by economic ruin; second, to ensure those restrictions do not leave a legacy in liberal societies, but are removed so society can proceed as before. This wont be popular to read in certain circles, but the enthusiasm with which some governments at home and abroad have decided to print money and increase police powers has been disturbing. New Delhi: At least three soldiers of Indian Army were martyred while five terrorists were gunned down on Sunday (April 5) during an anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district. The gunbattle between security forces and terrorists, which started on April 3, entered its third day today and is still underway. The Army had earlier said in the day that alert troops braving inclement weather and hostile terrain had neutralisd five terrorists in the operation in Keran sector. The security forces have killed nine terrorists in Kashmir during the last 24 hours. Four terrorists belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit were killed yesterday in an encounter with the security forces in Kulgam district. "Over the past 24 hours, Indian security forces have eliminated nine terrorists in J&K," a defence source told IANS earlier in the day. Among the nine, four Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed at Batpura area of South Kashmir on April 4. They were involved in the killing of civilians. The four Hizbul Mujahideen militants, according to the sources, were killed in day-long encounter. "On specific intelligence, a joint operation by the CRPF and the SOG (Special Operations Group) Kulgam was launched in Kulgam. In a day-long encounter four hardcore militants of the HM group have been killed and large cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from them," the defence source said. This group was allegedly involved in the recent incidents of civilian killings. Militants killed in the Kulgam Encounter are identified as Aijaz Ahmed Naiko (Moosa) from Kulgam, active since 2018; Shahid Ahmed Malik (Kulgam) and active since 2019; Waqar Farooq from Kulgam and missing since last month; and M. Ashraf Malik (Sadam) from Anantnag. Captain Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, addresses the crew during an all-hands call on the ship's flight deck in the eastern Pacific Ocean December 19, 2019. Capt. Brett Crozier, the now-fired Navy captain who wrote a letter asking for help dealing with a coronavirus outbreak on his ship, has tested positive for COVID-19, The New York Times reported Sunday. The Times' report cited two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier who have a relationship with the officer and his family. Crozier had been in command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt until this week, when he was relieved of his duty after he wrote a letter to military leadership to request assistance in responding to a COVID-19 outbreak on the vessel. The letter, which leaked to the media, was sent outside the chain of command and via nonsecure unclassified email. Crozier began to show symptoms of COVID-19 before he was removed from the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday, The Times reported. He is being quarantined on Naval Base Guam, The Times reported. In announcing the decision to remove Crozier from his command, Thomas Modly, acting Secretary of the Navy, said the letter "raised alarm bells unnecessarily." "The captain's actions made his sailors, their families, and many in the public believe that his letter was the only reason help from our larger Navy family was forthcoming, which was hardly the case," Modly said Thursday at the Pentagon. President Donald Trump said Saturday he thought Crozier's actions were "terrible." "The letter was all over the place. That's not appropriate. I don't think that's appropriate," Trump said. There were more than 100 people infected with COVID-19 on the USS Theodore Roosevelt at the time of Crozier's letter, which was dated March 30 and first reported on by The San Francisco Chronicle. There more than 4,000 crew members on board on the ship. "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors," Crozier wrote in the letter. "The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating." Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that 155 sailors have now tested positive for COVID-19. "Those are all mild and moderate. There have been no hospitalizations whatsoever," said Esper. "There is an investigation ongoing" into Crozier's actions, Esper said. "But at this point in time, Secretary Modly did not have faith and confidence" that Crozier could continue serving as captain. Crozier received applause from sailors on the Roosevelt as he left the ship, a videos posted online showed. TWEET Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday criticized the response to Crozier's letter. "I think it's close to criminal the way they're dealing with this guy," Biden told ABC's This Week. "I think he should have a commendation rather than be fired." - CNBC's Spencer Kimball and Amanda Macias contributed to this report. The first step after someone tests positive is to map out all the people the person might have been in contact with. Such is the case of the man who tested positive on March 26 in Ankita Lokhandes apartment complex in Malad. The resident was said to have returned from Spain and had tested negative at the airport. But after a strict quarantine for two weeks, he starts showing symptoms on the twelfth day and was taken in for medical treatment. His wife, on the other hand has tested negative but the medics are keeping a close check on her and anyone the man might have come in tough with. Till further notice, the complex has been sealed off and all the residents are advised to stay in and practice social-distancing even more strictly than before. To help out the residents till they are free to move out, BMC officials are lending support to deliver emergency supplies like medicines for those who need them. US President Donald Trump considered then abandoned ordering a quarantine for the coronavirus hotspots of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Mr Trump announced in a tweet that the quarantine, which it was unclear if he had the power to order, would not go ahead and a travel advisory would be issued instead. The advisory urged residents of the three states to avoid all but essential travel for two weeks. New York governor Andrew Cuomo had said earlier that roping off states would amount to a federal declaration of war. Meanwhile, Mr Cuomo postponed his states presidential primary from April to June as nurses made anguished pleas for more protective equipment and rebuffed officials claims that supplies are adequate. The governors of Florida, Maryland, South Carolina and Texas have ordered people arriving from the New York area to self-quarantine for at least 14 days upon arrival. In a more dramatic step, Rhode Island police have begun pulling over drivers with New York plates so that the National Guard can collect contact information and inform them of a mandatory, 14-day quarantine. The US leads the world in reported cases with more than 115,000. There were roughly 1,900 deaths recorded by Saturday. All 50 states have reported some cases of the virus but New York has the most, with over 52,000 positive tests for the illness and more than 700 deaths. Governor Andrew Cuomo criticised Mr Trumps suggestion (Darren McGee/Office of Governor Andrew M Cuomo/AP) About 7,300 people were in New York hospitals on Saturday night, including about 1,800 in intensive care. Meanwhile, a gun rights group has welcomed the Trump administrations designation of the firearms industry, including retailers, as part of the nations critical infrastructure during the coronavirus emergency. The designation by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is advisory. The agency notes that the designation does not override determinations by individual jurisdictions of what they consider critical infrastructure sectors. Story continues The firearms industry was not part of the federal agencys original list of critical infrastructure issued just over a week ago. The designation came in an update following a brewing legal battle between gun rights groups and California officials. The group Gun Owners of America said in a statement that it is encouraged that the Trump administration is not ignoring what it calls the ability to protect yourself during the emergency stemming from the pandemic. Gun rights groups initiated a lawsuit last week after the Los Angeles County sheriff closed gun shops in the wake of California governor Gavin Newsom saying that each of the states 58 counties could decide for themselves whether to list firearms dealers as non-essential businesses that should be subject to closure while the state seeks to limit the spread of the virus. The lawsuit claims that the designation violates the second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, but officials said it was a public health issue. President Donald Trump is a frequent critic of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But Trumps reelection campaign doesnt have a problem using some of the tactics used by the Obama campaign in the bid for four more years in the White House. Post 2012, we looked at what we (Republicans) did wrong and what the Obama campaign did right, said Samantha Zager, regional communications director for the Trump campaign. That led us to look at a more local, centric ground game, which is based on the book Groundbreakers, which looked at the Obama ground game in the reelect. We decided that parachuting people in wasnt the way to do it, using out of state to run these programs. The Trump campaign revved up early in New Mexico with events last year that included the president holding a rally in Rio Rancho and Vice President Mike Pence visiting Artesia. We really focused on making it local, neighbors talking to neighbors, Zager said. They also focused on data gathering, and sharing that with state and local Republican campaigns. And theyve been holding training sessions with volunteers. But the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown campaigns, Republican and Democratic alike, a curveball. With the coronavirus, that changes the way that everyones campaigning, Zager said. We had to take a look at what we were doing and how we can change that to make it all virtual, all digital and make that work for us. We were able to do that in about 24 hours even Joe Biden took four days to set up a camera in his basement. Miranda van Dijk, communications director for the Democratic Party of New Mexico, also said her organization was able to make changes quickly. We got on it pretty early, she said. Volunteer meetings that were being held in communities are now being held on social media platforms such as Zoom or Google Hangouts. Instead of knocking on doors, volunteers from both parties are contacting their neighbors by phone. Our volunteers are phone banking and updating voter registration lists, van Dijk said. Weve still got to get delegates selected. Your output kind of changes in what youre looking to accomplish, canvassing numbers and everything like that, how many doors you knocked, Zager said. Youre looking at how many signups you had online and social media impressions and things like that. Both parties have places for virtual volunteering online. The state Democratic Party site has links about delegate selection workshops, virtual town halls, virtual volunteer meetings, phone banking and social media training basics. The Trump campaign also has a place on its website that helps volunteers with taking the campaign virtual. It recently held both a national week of training and a national day of action, on March 21. On that day, we made 1.4 million voter contacts, including 25,000 in New Mexico, Zager said. Everything was 100% virtual. Everything was inside the workers home. It brought our voter contacts to 9 million in the cycle to date. The Democratic Party is also doing similar activities, Democratic National Committee spokesperson John Weber said. He said the DNC is hosting online Digital Organizing 101 trainings to share best practices with state parties and other groups on organizing supporters and volunteers online. Scott Turner: sturner@abqjournal.com MONDAY: Making choices no doctor should have to make I have minor symptoms but not severe enough to get tested or to stop working. If I insisted on a test, I would need to get to a drive-through centre on the other side of London. I don't have a car so I don't bother. Thankfully, the Tube carriage is much emptier than it was last week. On arrival, I discover that several of my patients on the normal wards have died since Saturday. These people all came in walking and talking. A nurse wearing protective mask and gear comforts another as they change shifts on March 13, 2020 at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan, Lombardy They should have been treated and walked out again. But they caught Covid-19 in here and that, as they say, was that. Unfortunately for their loved ones, visitors were officially banned over the weekend. It feels gut-wrenchingly inhumane. I call the husband of a lady in her mid-70s who is not responding to a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. These are used as the final treatment before a patient is so bad that they need to be fully intubated put on a ventilator which breathes for them. Taken by surprise, he responds: 'We've got our golden wedding anniversary in September.' It breaks his heart, and mine, when I explain he can't say goodbye. There are now far too many patients. It is just not safe. A nurse might normally have one or two patients to deal with. Now it is a minimum of eight. These are some of the sickest patients in the hospital. Many are so confused that it is a battle just to get them to keep their masks on. In the afternoon, an email comes through from the Royal College of Physicians to say one out of four doctors is off sick. To be honest, I'm surprised this proportion isn't higher. There is a shortage of ventilators and CPAP machines. If a patient does not improve quickly, then their treatment is halted. There are no official guidelines on this from the Government so we are using a frailty score form and a tick-box questionnaire called a Treatment Escalation Plan. This flimsy piece of red paper demands the answers to a series of simple clinical questions. The more 'yes' answers a patient gets, the more chance they have of continued treatment. A woman with an unknown condition is helped from an ambulance at the St Thomas' Hospital on March 30, 2020 in London, England. Hospitals across London are facing a surge in demand Those who fall below the threshold are left to die. It's not an exact science but you have to draw the line somewhere. We are practising medicine by numbers not care. It's brutal and absurd that such grave decisions are made on the flick of a biro but the volume of patients leaves us with no choice. I get out at 9pm and fall asleep on the Tube. TUESDAY: Grieving loved ones can't say goodbye It's another beautiful sunny morning but at the high dependency unit, I discover it has been a horrendous night and several patients have either died or gone to intensive care. The majority are men and one is in his early 30s. Yesterday he was ticking along nicely with oxygen. In the early hours, however, he was found unresponsive. Doctors aren't sure what happened, a common Covid-19 refrain. People would like to wish Covid19 away as some sort of flu. But young, fit, healthy men don't just stop breathing from influenza. I speak to his partner on the phone. There is a sense of disbelief. I don't blame her. I would be the same. Her questions are scattergun: 'He's going to be all right, right?' 'How did this happen?' It isn't fair. God knows what they had planned for the rest of their lives together now it's all ebbing away. I'd love to say we'll fix him but we simply don't know what will happen. Patients like him are going to be in intensive care for weeks in induced comas, machines giving their lungs a chance to recover. One of the hardest things is having these conversations over the phone. We are trained to pick up on non-verbal cues and body language to break bad news in the kindest way possible. That's all gone to pot now. In the afternoon, a woman becomes hysterical when I call to say that we are to stop treating her husband, who is in his 70s. 'You can't give up on him! He's a strong man. He's fit. You can't do this. This is cruel. We can't even visit him.' Her tearful son comes on the line to plead too but it's clear that there isn't much hope. Have you seen a coronavirus X-ray? It's impact on the lungs isn't pretty. I call the family back. It's one of the worst calls I've ever had. Tears well up in my eyes. I should have been doing this in person and she and their son should have been able to say goodbye. She starts sobbing. She's got every right to her husband is a comparatively fit man, only recently retired, active and independent. Now he has been condemned to his death. It is a national emergency, though. We don't have the luxury of choice. WEDNESDAY: Patients are getting younger Rumours are swirling of staff fatalities, fuelled by news that a doctor elsewhere has died. The mood is further darkened by the death of a 13-year-old boy at another hospital. Will we have a victim as young here? Who knows. Those being admitted are becoming noticeably younger in their 40s and 50s. In the afternoon, a man in his early 40s who isn't responding to CPAP refuses to be transferred to intensive care for intubation on a ventilator. He has no medical history besides being overweight, but he is effectively signing his death warrant. His fears are not unfounded. The idea of being put to sleep and kept alive by a machine is nightmarish. 'If you don't go to intensive care, you will not leave this hospital,' I plead with him, to no avail. I call his dad on speakerphone. The scene is absurd. There are several of us in full personal protective equipment huddled over him, having a muffled conversation on an iPhone through our masks. It might be sleep-deprivation, but it feels like I'm in some sort of dream sequence. Finally, the patient agrees after listening to his dad. Later, we break hospital rules by allowing the children of a man in his 70s to say goodbye. Because of their ages, they are low-risk. I get them PPE (an increasingly tricky task). Of course, it isn't good to flout rules but I'm finding the notion of people dying alone too much to bear. Unfortunately, they want to FaceTime their elderly mother so she can say goodbye too. The feeling among staff is that patient confidentiality means we don't know if he would consent so we refuse. I can almost hear my dad, who hates any authority, muttering 'Jobsworth' in my ear. But this man is totally conked out and can't consent. And anyway, what good will it do? Throughout the afternoon there is a stream of ambulances bringing people struggling to breathe. An alarm sounds before each arrival it doesn't stop. Hour after hour after hour. Late evening, I walk into the clear night. For the first time all day I can breathe. THURSDAY: It takes all the might in the wolrd not to cry I don't recognise myself in the mirror. Dark bags beneath my eyes, blotchy skin. People don't realise how heavy and hot the personal protection clothing is; you're left drenched in sweat. It's a good job I will not be seeing my boyfriend for a while. I feel guilty even thinking about my appearance when there's so much misery around. There's some good news: a woman in her late 70s, who caught the virus on a cruise and was admitted weeks ago, has recovered and can leave. A great result. By the afternoon, however, black clouds return. A lady in her late 60s, a frequent visitor in recent months with various problems, dies from Covid-19 which she caught in the hospital. When she came in last week, she tested negative but was found to be positive when we re-swabbed her on Monday. Coronavirus particles seem to be taunting us, merrily dancing into every corner of this place. You develop relationships with such patients. 'Me again, honey,' she would joke. I had to tick the 'do not resuscitate' box on her form, unthinkable only weeks ago. I told her husband what I had done and he was incredibly understanding. When she was feeling good, she would be up and around the ward on her Zimmer frame, a glint in her eyes. 'You're a pretty doctor, why aren't you married?' she would sometimes tease. And if her sons were visiting, she would remind them of my unmarried status to embarrass them and me. Now, as I sit holding the phone preparing to tell her husband she has gone, I need to compose myself. Genuine salt-of-theearth people, they deserved so much longer together. When he answers, it takes all the might in the world not to cry. Towards the end of the conversation, my voice wavers slightly. 'It's OK,' he says reassuringly. 'Thank you for taking good care of her.' But we didn't. She caught it here. We failed her. When I leave, I have an overwhelming urge to hear a human voice. I call my mum and try to sugar-coat everything. There's no point causing her any unnecessary anxiety. I know she's worried sick about me as it is. FRIDAY: 'How did this happen? You've killed my dad!' The Government announced mass testing last night I'll believe it when I see it. The absurd guidelines to get tested as medics haven't changed. It's jarring how many colleagues including myself can't smell, one of the alleged Covid-19 symptoms. A young doctor tells me she moved out of her family home for fear of infecting her elderly parents. This morning, three patients who have been here for more than three weeks are being discharged. At times, battling this virus has felt like playing a rigged Whac-A-Mole arcade game, so this feels like a huge achievement. By early afternoon, alarms sound in every ward to warn us the oxygen supply is low. If we run out, it'll be catastrophic. There is a shortage of space in the mortuary bodies are being kept in side rooms. Mid-afternoon, a man in his early 80s is found unresponsive. I had amended his red form, like so many others, to 'Do not resuscitate' when he tested positive for coronavirus, after being admitted for something else. His daughter screeches at me on the phone. 'How has this happened? How? Tell me how! He came in last week without it and now you've killed him!' It's a grief reaction but it's still unbearable. She has every right to be in shock this morning she was told her dad was fine. Now he's dead. As a medic with minor symptoms, did I kill him? Another member of staff? God knows, there are enough of us with symptoms having to work through this. On the Tube home, there's not a soul in sight, just old adverts for holidays, plays and concerts. I feel like I'm living in an apocalyptic horror film. I dread to think what awaits next week. CENTCOM confirms deploying new Patriot missiles to Iraq Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 5:55 AM US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed the deployment of new Patriot missile systems to Iraq amid calls for the withdrawal of American troops from the Arab country. In a statement on Thursday, Bill Urban, spokesman for CENTCOM confirmed the deployment, saying the US military would not provide further status updates on its ongoing movement of Patriot missile systems into Iraq for security reasons. "The US military continues to coordinate the effort with its Iraqi partners," he said, adding, "The Iraqi Government is well aware of our collective need for air defense protection of service members within Iraq". Also, Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said Thursday that "for operational security reasons, we are not providing status updates as those systems come online." The deployment comes as Iraq has called for an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country. Karim Alawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee, has strongly condemned the deployment of Patriot missile systems at the bases hosting US troops in Iraq as a breach of the Arab country's sovereignty, urging senior government officials to detail any agreement pertaining to the US move. He noted, "According to the available information, the US-built Patriot missile was installed in three military bases where American forces are stationed. This runs counter to the sovereignty of Iraq." The US deployed Patriot missile systems to Iraq last week, apparently as a precaution against possible rocket attacks. However, Iraqi resistance groups are on high alert for any possible false-flag operation by the US forces, which are supposed to leave the Arab country. Meanwhile, the US-led military has started pulling out of several bases in Iraq, redeploying its forces to other positions in the Arab country. The coalition has already said that the transfer of US-led military forces had nothing to do with the missile attacks against Iraqi bases hosting the coalition forces, or the outbreak of COVID-19 the disease caused by the highly contagious new coronavirus, in Iraq. Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Hashd al-Sha'abi, and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier. Later on January 9, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraqi prime minister, called on the United States to dispatch a delegation to Baghdad tasked with formulating a mechanism for the move. The 78-year-old politician said Iraq rejects any violation of its sovereignty, particularly the US military's violation of Iraqi airspace in the assassination airstrike. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ann O'Rourke died alone in a nursing home, social distancing restrictions a cruel and necessary burden on her and her family. Days later, her son Ciaran poured his grief across the airwaves. The 69-year-old was loved by her son, her family and neighbours yet, in her final moments, none of them could come near her. "I just hope people stay in and listen, take the proper procedures," Ciaran appealed, his voice breaking as he told RTE Liveline listeners about Ann's death in a nursing home after contracting Covid-19. "It is very hard for someone to lose someone like that over this disease. You can't even see your mother, hug her. Just please take proper precautions. My mother would have liked me to say that so I can help someone else." People living in nursing homes are cocooned and unlikely to pick up Covid-19 unless it is introduced by someone who has been outside the facility mixing with others. Nobody does this intentionally but more than 150 nursing home residents across the country have tested positive for the killer virus. At least 40 nursing homes are infected and under siege. Private, voluntary and public nursing homes house 30,000 people. An internal HSE memo circulated last week says outbreaks are having significant implications for residents and potential transfers to acute hospitals. It said Dublin nursing homes have been worst hit but officials "identified the early emergence of outbreaks across the country". "These outbreaks put significant strain on the healthcare workers within these facilities, severely compromising their ability to provide safe levels of care in some instances." Crisis support teams have been dispatched to residential settings to assist carers, an attempt to stem the flow of residents into acute hospitals. "Residents are not going to get this disease unless someone brings it in to them from outside," one nursing home owner told the Sunday Independent. He is reluctant to be named because he does not want to alarm residents. Some nursing homes erected decontamination tents, ensuring safe entry and exit procedures for staff. Most have procedures in place preventing outsiders from entering. However, they say a one-size-fits-all approach has been lacking. "Much of the official advice is open to interpretation," the nursing home owner said. "I would like it to be more matter-of-fact. "You would wonder if it goes far enough. We looked at getting a [decontamination] tent up but there was no advice to do it so we didn't." Another nursing home owner said his facility has not had trouble interpreting memos and advice issued from public health officials but he still has questions. "We are unsure what to do if we get a positive test. We know to isolate the person, use PPE, but we have had to seek guidance on how to treat the person. We don't know should we give them oxygen or not. Some of our people may not be able to tolerate that." Last week, Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI), the representative body for private homes, issued advice to members telling them to check the temperatures of staff and residents twice per day. Similar measures were announced by Health Minister Simon Harris yesterday. NHI also steered members to public health measures for managing the disease. Members were told to decontaminate oxygen bottles and were directed to an academic paper highlighting "the critical importance of vitamin D in enhancing resistance to respiratory infections including Covid-19". Home carers are to be deployed to nursing homes and State funding is being provided to deal with cost issues. The HSE says "residents of long stay residential settings are prioritised for testing through a pathway involving the National Ambulance Service (NAS)". Someone from the NAS visits the home, takes swabs and brings the sample for analysis. Nursing homes say they are waiting up to 10 days for results but feel they have staff capable of carrying out the test and delivering it to a lab to speed up the process. Executive director of Sage Advocacy, a group representing elderly and vulnerable people, Mervyn Taylor, has called for further oversight of nursing homes. He says health watchdog Hiqa must provide guidelines on the level of nursing staff and medical care required in the sector. "Care in congregated settings such as nursing homes has been privatised to a degree which is now worrying," he told the Sunday Independent. "The closer oversight of the nursing home sector which is called for in the current public health emergency must be accompanied by a genuine willingness by the HSE to step in when the public interest and the health of individuals demands." NHI chief executive Tadhg Daly said private nursing homes are "heavily regulated health and social care settings", but his focus at this time is on staff and residents. "The care provided by the men and women within these homes is vital to the lives of our most vulnerable, providing them with comfort and reassurance during a worrying time. Staff in our nursing homes fulfil an essential role in Irish society." Geriatrician Prof Des O'Neill described the privatisation of nursing homes as problematic. He wants a re-evaluation of elderly care. Public-funded nursing homes are also an issue, he said. Hiqa has regularly expressed concern about these, criticising hygiene standards and the layout at some homes where residents frequently share rooms. This raises questions about how they would cope with a Covid-19 outbreak. "The chickens are coming home to roost here," Prof O'Neill said. "There may be an imperative to look at alternative accommodation." Hiqa has enabled the registration of 320 new nursing home beds through inspections since this crisis erupted. The watchdog was asked by the Sunday Independent if it was satisfied with infection control standards at nursing homes where residents tested positive for Covid-19. A spokeswoman said it has "written to the providers of all nursing homes, disability centres and special care units requesting that they review their contingency plans". This week Hiqa will open an infection control hub to provide assistance and advice on managing a Covid-19 outbreak. For some, such as Ciaran's mother Ann, the ramping up of efforts to address this crisis has come too late. A HSE memo says outbreaks in nursing homes have a mortality risk "approaching 35pc". Ocean City, a Jersey Shore resort town in Cape May County, is receiving $169,196 in community development block grant funds, thanks to the $2 trillion stimulus law passed last month in response to the coronavirus crisis. But Phillipsburg in Warren County, a blue-collar town that has 3,000 more people than Ocean City, isnt getting any funding under this program out of Washington. The towns are classified differently by the U.S. Census Bureau, and that determines whether theyre eligible for certain federal grants, like the $82 million quickly awarded to N.J. under the stimulus law. Only metropolitan cities of at least 50,000 people, urban counties with at least 200,000 people or principal cities named by the U.S. Census Bureau in designated metropolitan statistical areas, were eligible to receive the money in this round of grants. Ocean City received funding because the Census Bureau designates it a principal city in its MSA. Phillipsburg is in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton MSA and is not the principal city in that grouping. Allentown and Bethlehem have that designation. The census designations also explain why Salem County was excluded. Salem County is part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA. There, the principal cities are Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington, Delaware. So Salem, with less than 63,000 people, isnt getting any money directly either. The recent allocations, though, account for only 1 percent of the estimated $5.8 billion in federal funding that the state will eventually see from the coronavirus stimulus bill. Its a tiny part of the relief package that goes for a very specific purpose, said Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist., whose district includes Phillipsburg. This is not the money helping small businesses in Phillipsburg, or the fire department in Clinton or the hospital in Flemington. This is a very specialized program that represents only a tiny part of the overall relief package, he added. For now, municipalities and counties not included must depend on the largesse of the state government. Out of the $82 million awarded to the state, counties and towns, N.J. itself received $15.7 million in the latest bill, and can send some of that money to counties and towns that didnt receive direct grants. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., has asked Gov. Phil Murphy to do just that. The coronavirus is spreading to more rural counties such as Sussex and Warren, which have spent their own money to fight the virus and could use help from the state, he said. Given that this virus knows no borders and doesnt see communities by the size they are or principle city or not, then we should ensure that all communities affected receive funding, Gottheimer said. Murphy aides did not respond to requests for comment. Both Gottheimer and Malinowski have asked that future stimulus bills lower the federal thresholds so that in the future more towns and counties can get direct federal funding. These smaller counties, cities, and towns have faced enormous costs while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic," according to a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signed by more than 100 members of Congress, including both Gottheimer and Malinowski. We fear that, without targeted stabilization funding, smaller localities will be unable to continue providing these critical services to our constituents at the rate they are currently, the letter added. There are the counties and municipalities receiving aid in the first allocation, according to U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, D-N.J.: The allocations, by state, county and municipality, are: NEW JERSEY State funds, $15,718,227 Department of Health, $144,507 ATLANTIC COUNTY County funds, $704,535 Atlantic City. $786,810 BERGEN COUNTY County funds, $8,310,445 BURLINGTON COUNTY County funds, $876,226 CAMDEN COUNTY County funds, $2,186,348 Camden: $2,377,511 Cherry Hill: $273,538 Gloucester Township: $180,120 CAPE MAY COUNTY Ocean City, $169,196 CUMBERLAND COUNTY Bridgeton, $197,626 Millville, $156,171 Vineland, $292,725 ESSEX COUNTY County funds, $4,792,503 Bloomfield, $615,251 East Orange, $866,434 Irvington, $687,820 Newark, $7,315,357 GLOUCESTER COUNTY County funds, $804,857 HUDSON COUNTY County funds, $1,874,303 Bayonne, $925,177 Hoboken, $641,319 Jersey City, $5,468,570 North Bergen, $418,593 Union City, $622,932 MIDDLESEX COUNTY County funds, $1,739,905 Edison, $349,440 New Brunswick, $510,036 Old Bridge, $159,664 Perth Amboy, $388,023 Sayreville, $130,288 Woodbridge, $402,895 MERCER COUNTY Ewing Township, $143,248 Hamilton, $398,638 Princeton, $142,940 Trenton, $2,573,266 MONMOUTH COUNTY County funds, $2,348,328 Asbury Park, $243,463 Long Branch $295,390 Middletown, $156,171 MORRIS COUNTY County funds, $2,182,700 Parsippany-Troy Hills, $127,137 OCEAN COUNTY County funds, $820,810 Brick Township, $177,866 Lakewood, $835,784 Toms River, $238,318 PASSAIC COUNTY County funds, $537,434 Clifton, $673,595 Passaic, $801,051 Paterson, $2,447,386 Wayne, $115,614 SOMERSET COUNTY County funds, $646,398 Franklin Township, $160,933 UNION COUNTY County funds, $4,139,331 Elizabeth, $938,750 Union Township, $382,323 If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. (Newser) Another cruise ship with coronavirus victims on board, including two fatalities, docked in Florida on Saturday. Princess Cruises spokeswoman Negin Kamali said that the Coral Princess ship was docking in Miami. The ship with 1,020 passengers and 878 crew had been in limbo for days awaiting permission to dock. As of Thursday, Kamali said seven passengers and five crew members had tested positive for the coronavirus. Anyone in need of hospitalization would disembark first, the cruise line said, although it wasn't immediately clear when that would happen. Those who are fit to fly will begin leaving Sunday, while others who have symptoms will remain on board until cleared by ship doctors. A day earlier, the cruise ships Zaandam and Rotterdam were permitted to dock in Fort Lauderdale, with 14 critically ill people taken to hospitals. The remaining passengers were slowly being allowed to board flights for home. story continues below The Coral Princess had been on a South American cruise that was due to end March 19 in Buenos Aires, reports the AP. Since then, the ship has encountered obstacles to docking because of various port closures and cancellation of airline flights. Passengers have self-isolated in their staterooms and meals have been delivered by room service. The Coast Guard said Saturday it has been involved with processing about 120 vessels carrying some 250,000 passengers over the past three weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Coast Guard said as of Saturday there are 114 cruise ships, carrying 93,000 crew members, either in or near US ports and waters. That includes 73 cruise ships, with 52,000 crew members, moored or anchored in US ports and anchorages. Another 41 cruise ships, with 41,000 crew members, are underway and close to the US. (Read more coronavirus stories.) Gov. Ned Lamont announced 24 new deaths associated with the coronavirus on Sunday, raising the states death toll to 189 and surpassing the number killed by the worst flu season on record. The state saw 399 more people test positive for COVID-19, increasing the total number of cases to 5,675 as of Sunday afternoon. The death toll surpasses the 2017-18 flu season, when there were 184 Connecticut flu-related deaths. On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported daily deaths in his state decreased, though he tempered optimism by saying it was too early to tell if the state had reached its peak. New York has seen nearly 4,200 people die since the outbreak began, according to the Associated Press. The news comes as states are preparing this week for what is expected to be the peak of the virus strain on resources, according to projections by the researchers at the University of Washington. On Sunday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the week could be the hardest and saddest in Americans lives, likening it to both the 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks in an interview on Fox News Sunday. As of Saturday, 109 additional people were hospitalized in Connecticut, bringing the total up to 1,142, according to the governors office. An additional 1,241 people have been tested for the virus, for a total of 23,270. Connecticut is still lagging behind neighboring states, including New York, that have tested higher percentages of their populations. Fairfield County continued to see the largest number of COVID-19 cases, with a total of 3,050 as of Sunday. New Haven County trailed with 1,162 cases, followed by Hartford County with 751. The virus has struck hard in Fairfield County cities, with 652 cases alone reported in Stamford, but smaller towns have also been affected. In Ridgefield, there were two more deaths, raising the town death toll to 12. Of those, 10 were residents of an assisted living facility near the Danbury border. Only 14 municipalities in the state have had zero confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to the governors office. In an executive order, Lamont provided protection against lawsuits for health care workers, including nursing homes and field hospitals, for acts or omissions undertaken in good faith in support of the states COVID-19 response. The governors office noted similar protections exist for first responders, including police, fire and EMS personnel. The order also prevents health insurance companies from charging their clients more for out-of-network emergency services, and prevents hospitals from charging uninsured patients more than Medicare would for their COVID-19 treatment. The governors office said more than 3,500 additional people have signed up for health insurance through Access Health Connecticut, the states health insurance portal created under the Affordable Care Act. The state created a special enrollment period that runs through April 17 for uninsured residents to sign up for health insurance. More than 15,000 Connecticut residents have signed up for HUSKY benefits during the same time period, the governors office said. The death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent has reached 360 as confirmed positive cases reached 8,536, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) revealed on Sunday, Trend reports citing Xinhua. The Africa CDC, a specialized agency of the 55-member African Union (AU), in its latest situation update issued on Sunday said the cases were spread across 50 African countries. The continental disease control and prevention agency also disclosed that the highly COVID-19 affected countries include South Africa with 1,585 confirmed cases, Algeria with 1,171 confirmed cases as well as Egypt with 1,170 confirmed cases. The Africa CDC also disclosed that some 710 people who have been infected with the COVID-19 have recovered across the continent as of the stated period. Amid the rapid spread of the virus across the African continent, figures from the Africa CDC also show that more than 795 new confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported across the continent since the center's recent report on Saturday, in which the confirmed cases have increased from 7,741 on Saturday to 8,536 on Sunday. The death toll increased from 313 to 360 as of the stated period, according to the Africa CDC. The African Union, through Africa CDC, has already activated its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System (IMS) for the COVID-19 outbreak on January 27. The Africa CDC had also developed its third Incident Action Plan that covers the period from March 16 to April 15. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 22:17:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Sunday that he is "absolutely devastated" after five London bus workers died from COVID-19, calling upon London residents to follow government rules to stay at home to save lives amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Khan tweeted that "lives really do depend on us following the rules and staying at home." The message came as London residents were pictured flouting lockdown rules during this weekend, with a major London park forced to close after thousands ignored government advice. "I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff -- on the buses, tubes, trams and trains -- are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS (National Health Service) staff to save more lives," the mayor said. "But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network," he said. "Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable," he added. A total of 47,806 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Britain as of Sunday morning, an increase of 5,903 in the past 24 hours, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. As of Saturday afternoon, of those hospitalised in Britain who tested positive for coronavirus, 4,932 have died, marking a daily rise of 621, according to the department. Earlier Sunday, trade union "Unite" confirmed the deaths of the five bus workers, saying that their members had been doing "a heroic job in getting NHS and care workers to their places of work" and described the loss as a "tragedy". Unite's Regional Secretary Peter Kavanagh said the union would be assisting families of its members "in every possible way". Meanwhile, Transport for London (TfL), a local government body responsible for the transport system in Greater London, said it was "extremely saddened" by the deaths. "The safety of our staff and customers is our absolute priority and we have been working closely with the bus companies, the mayor and Unite to implement a range of changes and improvements to keep the bus network and garages safe for those operating and using it, in accordance with Public Health England advice," the TfL said. "Our clear message to Londoners is simple -- the transport network is only for critical workers who need to make absolutely essential journeys. Please, everyone else, stay at home, don't travel and save lives," it added. Despite the city lockdown, bus and subway operations continue in the British capital for critical workers who need to make absolutely essential journeys. Other people are urged to stay at home and save lives. Scores of Londoners have been pictured in parks basking in the weekend sunshine despite government orders to stay at home to curb the spread of coronavirus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeatedly urged the country not to give in to the "fine weather" to help save lives during the pandemic. However, photos of several major London parks, including Hampstead Heath, Battersea and Greenwich, showed people laying down in the sunshine, even though sunbathing is not listed among "essential" activities. Brockwell Park in south London, one of London's most popular parks, is closed from Sunday after thousands of sun worshippers breached government lockdown rules Saturday. Also on Saturday, police slammed an east London family for holding an 18th birthday celebration during the lockdown. The police force said they had been called to the house on Central Park road, where they found some 25 guests inside. A photo was shared online to show a home in East Ham covered in balloons and party decorations. Here are todays leading news stories: Society -- Vietnams Ministry of Health confirmed only one new case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday evening and did not announce any case on Sunday morning. The countrys COVID-19 tally stands at 240, of whom 90 have recovered. -- A total of 89 health workers at four hospitals in Hanoi who had contact with Vietnams COVID-19 patient No. 237, a Swedish man, had tested negative for the virus by Saturday evening. -- Starting from Sunday, people who come from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnams two COVID-19 epicenters, to the central city of Da Nang will be quarantined for 14 days and have to pay for all the expenses during the isolation period, the Da Nang administration stated. -- According to the Hanoi Department of Justice, people will be fined up to VND20 million (US$849) for violating regulations on COVID-19 prevention in the capital. -- Police in the northern city of Hai Phong have initiated legal proceedings against a 43-year-old woman for refusing to have her body temperature measured and slapping a police officer on Friday. -- A cold spell is expected to bring rain, thunderstorms, and occasional hailstorms to multiple provinces in northern and north-central Vietnam, the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting reported. -- Police in the southern province of Dong Nai on Saturday arrested a 35-year-old man for spreading tire-puncturing nails along National Highway 51 so that the victims would come to his repair shop and have their tires patched or replaced. Business -- Vietnam exported 7.5 million metric tons of cement and clinker valued at $291 million in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of 40 percent in quantity and 20 percent in value year-on-year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated. World News -- The novel coronavirus has infected nearly 1.2 million people and killed more than 64,600 around the world as of Sunday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics. More than 246,100 patients have recovered. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Washington Peter T. Gaynor, the federal government's top emergency manager, was about to go on television last week to announce that he would use wartime production powers to ensure the manufacture of 60,000 desperately needed coronavirus test kits. With minutes until the camera went live, though, he still had to let the White House know. The person he hurriedly called: Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, who endorsed an announcement that surprised many officials. Among those unaware that Kushner had agreed to the use of the special powers? President Donald Trump. 'GASPING FOR AIR': 11 things that helped this Houston woman battle the symptoms of COVID-19 At one of the most perilous moments in modern American history, Kushner is trying in a disjointed White House to marshal the forces of government for the war his father-in-law says he is waging. A real estate developer with none of the medical expertise of a public health official nor the mobilization experience of a general, Kushner has nonetheless become a key player in the response to the pandemic. Because of his unique status, he has made himself the point of contact for many agency officials who know that he can force action and issue decisions without going to the president. But while Kushner and his allies say that he has brought more order to the process, the government's response remains fragmented and behind the curve. Some officials said Kushner had mainly added another layer of confusion to that response, while taking credit for changes already in progress and failing to deliver on promised improvements. He promoted a nationwide screening website and a widespread network of drive-through testing sites. Neither materialized. He claimed to have helped narrow the rift between his father-in-law and General Motors in a presidential blowup over ventilator production, one administration official said, but the White House is still struggling to procure enough ventilators and other medical equipment. CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES: Texas reaches 100 deaths Perhaps most critically, neither Kushner nor anyone else can control a president who offers the public radically different messages depending on the day or even the hour, complicating the White House's effort to get ahead of the crisis. One moment Trump is talking about reopening the country by Easter, the next he is warning of more than 100,000 deaths. In the afternoon, he threatens to quarantine tens of millions of people in the Northeast, then in the evening he backs down. In an interview, Kushner would not discuss the president's actions but said he views himself as an enabler of government agencies to overcome obstacles. "From the White House, you can move a lot faster," he said. "I've put members of my team into a lot of components. What we've been able to do is get people very quick answers." But to some in the agencies, his team's arrival has only exacerbated an already dysfunctional situation. In recent days, administration officials said, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which traditionally coordinates the government's responses to disasters, has received surprise directives from the White House including to dispatch deliveries of medical equipment to states that had not even submitted formal requests based on which governor got Trump on the telephone. After the governors of Illinois and New Jersey called Trump last month, Kushner's team told FEMA to immediately deliver medical equipment to both states even though the career officials were concerned that would redirect valuable medical necessities away from where they were most needed, such as the coronavirus hot spot of Washington state. Agency officials had to call the states' emergency managers to ask them to submit formal requests for supplies the White House had already promised. "There is some kind of communications failure between FEMA and the White House," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. "FEMA was brought into the response to provide logistics support and the White House should let them do their work. There is no reason for Jared or any other inexperienced person to be getting in the way of that." Administration officials anticipate that Kushner's role is likely to be a focus of the new select committee House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday to investigate the administration's response to the coronavirus. Since jumping into the crisis in mid-March, Kushner has focused on coordinating a scattershot government effort first to improve testing, where progress has been made, and then to obtain more medical equipment, which remains a major problem for hospitals. His team organized an airlift of 22 scheduled flights of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from China, the first touching down in New York on Sunday. Kushner has embedded dozens of political appointees and recruits from the private sector in critical spots like FEMA. His "impact team," as he calls it, has been nicknamed the "Slim Suit Crowd" for its sartorial preferences by khaki-wearing FEMA veterans. Kushner's allies said he has made progress in improving coordination and it is hardly surprising that agency bureaucrats bristle at outsiders arriving to push them to speed up or bypass their usual processes. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has sought to work with Trump and sharply criticized his administration, praised Kushner last week. "He's been extraordinarily helpful on all of these situations," Cuomo said at a news briefing. While senior FEMA officials, including Gaynor, the agency administrator, complain Kushner's team is disrupting their operations, they describe Kushner himself as helpful. He arrived at planning meetings prepared with data sets that FEMA officials did not think to ask for, including models for expanding the emergency response. Some expressed relief that Kushner's arrival meant someone at the White House was finally in charge of operational activity. Last week, according to two officials involved in the situation, Kushner was told that FEMA was finding medical equipment to buy overseas but could not get quick payment authority. Kushner, they said, canceled his meetings and went to FEMA headquarters, where he asked to have the official involved brought to him to explain the holdup. Kushner then enlisted Russell T. Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and told Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel, not to return to the White House until he figured it out, setting a noon deadline. By 11:30 a.m., according to the officials, Kushner was told it was resolved. Kushner early on agreed with his father-in-law that the news media was hyping the coronavirus to attack the president, according to several officials. Although people close to him deny that he failed to take the virus seriously at first, Kushner shares the president's view that governors are driving their residents into a panic by airing worst-case projections of medical needs. In conversations with advisers to the president, many of whom were stunned by the remark, Kushner has stressed what he sees as his own abilities, saying that he's figured out how to make the government effective. Despite the views of staff members who see Kushner as a novice at government, Kushner still views himself as a person who can fix things. "I learned very early on that when you try to work around an existing government structure, it rarely works," Kushner said in the interview. "You have to take the machinery that exists and empower it rather than recreate it." To go or not to go? As the Bard would probably not say, that is the question. It looms over our travel wishes and plans, as events beyond our control bring uncertainty. These concerns pale compared to the heartache, tragedy, food insecurity and financial losses suffered by millions of others globally, and we hope and pray for the well-being of our fellow humans. Stories from friends and strangers remind us we are far from alone; and bring back memories of our own trips, including one to Spain cut short after 9/11. Our own travel hopes are currently around four trips. My first one involves a one-week road trip with my brother in the Southwest in May. He plans to take Amtrak from the East Coast to Albuquerque, and I will fly on United to meet him there. Amtrak and the airlines have both drastically reduced schedules so this trip falls deeply into the maybe category, if were lucky. From Albuquerque, we would continue to southern Arizona and on through Sedona, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We would end up in Las Vegas to each fly home. The last time we traveled together was a 56-hour dash across country to get him and his beater car from the Bay Area to Fort Knox, Kentucky for his Army posting in the early 70s. This time, we hope to be more gently paced, with better food and more showers. Well see. The first big family trip is for my wife Jean to take our grandson to Italy and Austria in June for two weeks to celebrate his 12th birthday. He asked for Italy because his class has been studying the ancient Romans this year. We have had great times in these places, and Jean really wants to share all of them with him. Plane tickets, excursions and tour guides are booked, as well as lodgings in Rome and Venice, but the Colosseum and Forum and Piazza San Marco may have to wait, while our hearts go out to all the suffering people in Italy. If Jean does get to go to Europe in June, I will travel during the same time to visit family on the East Coast. Normally an easy nonstop flight each direction, I would be bunking down with family and catching up, possibly with sailing on Chesapeake Bay. But then again Our trip together we hope will be to Portugal and Spain in September and October for a total of three weeks. The current situation in Spain is as tragic as that in Italy and other countries, so this could also be delayed. A further complication of this trip is that it involves traveling on a small ship with more than 100 other folks around the Iberian Peninsula, with stops in Morocco and Gibraltar. A return to Spain has been high on our wish list since our visit of 2001. We were scheduled to depart SFO for Madrid on Sept. 12. We actually departed on Sept. 16 on one of the first flights out of SFO. We crept forward in epic lines there at 4 a.m. until someone saw an unattended bag and everyone was chased out to the curb in front of the terminal. About a half hour later, the all-clear was given and everyone got back in line, in exactly their same positions with nobody cutting in or trying to take advantage of the confusion. We were connecting at JFK, and our plane flew an approach in a large arc over the Atlantic to avoid the no- fly zone over Manhattan. The airport interior was grim and chaotic. After receiving incorrect directions to get to the gate for our connecting Iberia flight, we eventually managed to find our way just in time before the gate closed. Our usual carry-on bags were taken to be loaded in the cargo hold and we were allowed only toiletries and a book. As the full 747 pushed back from the gate a few hours late, the mostly Spanish passengers clapped and cheered as they were finally allowed to start home after being stranded for several days. The shortened trip removed Madrid and Toledo from our plans, and we just connected for a short flight to Sevilla in time to resume our itinerary schedule. Spanish hotel staff were gracious and sympathetic and cancelled reservations without penalties. On our return date from Madrid about 10 days later, airport security was tight, with an abundance of machine gun-carrying soldiers in the terminal. Our plane was parked as far away from the terminal as possible and passengers rode buses to it. On arrival at JFK for our connecting flight home we felt a bit of normalization; and a similar feeling was in the air at SFO. Last month, our friends Mark and Valerie were on a trip in South America, beginning in the Amazon rain forest of Ecuador, followed by seven days aboard a boat in the Galapagos Islands. The boat segment had ended and they were looking forward to a final segment in the Andes. After a days drive from Quito, word reached their group that Ecuador was going to close its airports. The tour company scrambled to get them on a flight to Panama, then Los Angeles and finally home, where they were told to quarantine for 14 days. Their story is much happier than that of thousands of travelers currently stranded in foreign lands. Here in Napa, an older friend made a much shorter trip, from her apartment to the Emergency Room at Queen of the Valley Medical Center. She had been mostly immobilized while suffering severe arthritis pain and finally made an emergency call. Fire department paramedics and an ambulance crew promptly arrived and carefully tended her. After she left in the ambulance, the outstanding Napa firefighters stayed to clean her apartment and take out her garbage. How cool is that? She is steadily improving and looking forward to returning to her freshly cleaned home. So, for the present, Jean continues her online Italian lessons and I much less rigorously work on my feeble Spanish, which never seems to get much better. Like so many others, we are now armchair travelers, with fond memories. Two travel magazines just arrived in the mail, so lets hear it for the postal service. Meanwhile, we try to remember to be good to ourselves and kind to others. It might be a bit of comfort to remember the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Hang in there. New York, April 5 : The US has started airlifting American nationals from India who were stranded because of the coronavirus clampdown. The first of a series of flights was to have started on Saturday, according to an email sent by the State Department to Americans in India that was seen by IANS. The chartered planes will fly from New Delhi to San Francisco and from Mumbai to Atlanta. Last month, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ian Brownle said that about 1,500 Americans in the New Delhi area, between 600 and 700 in the Mumbai area and 300 to 400 elsewhere had expressed interest in returning home. The State Department issued a "Level 4" alert last month advising its citizens not to travel internationally and asking those abroad to return home. The email warned: "We do not know for how long these flights will continue," and added that they "may be their best option for returning to the United States in the near term". However, it also said that "we encourage all US citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents who wish to return to the US to evaluate their options and risks". The email indicated that greencard-holders and visa-holders could also be included in the flights. It said that the flights on chartered planes Mumbai was to start this weekend and go to Atlanta. The flights from Mumbai are for Americans in southern and western parts of India and ground transportation to Mumbai from Goa, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Valsad and Pune. US consulates in Chennai and Hyderabad were working to arrange domestic charter flights for Americans to get to Mumbai. The email said that the New Delhi flights are for those in northern and eastern states and the US was planning flights from Kolkata, Dehradun, Amritsar, and Chandigarh to connect to San Francisco charter. It added that it was planning to run buses from Jaipur, Ludhiana and Dharamshala to New Delhi. The State Department has launched a world-wide programme to bring citizens home. It began running chartered flights from Bangladesh last week and had earlier evacuated a person who was sick from Bhutan. (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) The protocol regarding the use and effectiveness of using face masks has differed between countries, and thus advice from various officials is conflicted, especially in the past 24 hours. (Photo : Pixabay) The protocol regarding the use and effectiveness of face masks differs between countries, and advice from various officials is conflicted, especially in the past 24 hours. The latest place to advise citizens to use masks is New York City. Meanwhile, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the US coronavirus task force, is concerned that masks will give people a false sense of security and protection. In Scotland, people still do wear masks and other face coverings in public. However, no official advice has been given for them to do so. Scotland's National Clinical Director said that no evidence exists to warrant the public to do such a thing. Professor Jason Leitch stated that masks must be used by health care workers and those who have the virus. He added, however, that since COVID-19 is transmitted through droplets instead of being airborne, it is more effective for everyone to observe social distancing and handwashing. Leitch reiterated that the evidence worldwide shows that masks for the general population do not work. In a talk with BBC Good Morning Scotland, he said that people do not correctly wear masks; he added that such covers masks are hard and uncomfortable. They are not "fun". Leith stressed that the virus is spread via droplets that spray into the air as infected people cough, sneeze, or talk. These droplets can infect someone whose eyes, mouth and nose get in contact with said droplets. The virus could also be transmitted indirectly through contact with contaminated objects. If people positive of the coronavirus wear masks, then these droplets can be contained and be prevented from infecting others. The CDC or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even states that cloth masks are useful, as these can help reduce transmission. President Trump, meanwhile, suggested the use of scarves. Leitch also stated how face masks could be helpful for healthcare workers who are in close contact with infected patients. Nonetheless, he does not advise the Scottish government to recommend masks to the general population. He added that in Asia, it is a cultural tradition due to their previous experience with airborne viruses. Leitch recommended social distancing and handwashing. The goal, he says, is to keep droplets away from other persons. Leitch adds that if the virus is airborne, then the recommendations will be different. Since it is not, he thinks masks will not be helpful. In other countries, the use of face masks has become more common, particularly in Asia, after the 2002 SARS outbreak. Chinese officials are now enforcing the use of masks, especially in dense populations such as Beijing and Wuhan. Other countries like Slovakia and the Czech Republic require the use of masks. In the US, people usually did not use them, but last Thursday, New York residents have been told to wear masks to help prevent the spread of the virus. Los Angeles also issued similar advice. The federal government has yet to make such a recommendation for the whole country. As for the recommendations of WHO or the World Health Organization, only two kinds of persons should use masks - the infected ones who have symptoms and the ones caring for people suspected to carry the virus. Theres some encouraging news from the medical profession on the coronavirus treatment front. A doctor in California claims a plasma treatment is helping a patient, who was in critical condition only two days ago, recover from the coronavirus. St. Joseph Hospital Director Dr. Timothy Byun, who appeared on Fox & Friends Friday, told the viewers of the encouraging news after not having promising results with some of the other drugs used to battle the disease. So, I mean, we really had very little options to consider. We happened to find a plasma from a recovered person who was willing to donate, the doctor said. So, thats how it all started. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** The patient has improved since the plasma treatment on Wednesday, but Byun warned its still too early in game. He has gotten a little bit healthier in terms of his oxygenation setting. He was able to get off the vasopressor medication to increase the blood pressure. He was able to stop that, said Byun. But, its really too early to tell whether this treatment has been working. Byun said he got the idea from how some patients were treated during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, but said he did not know if it would work with COVID-19. We are measuring his clinical parameters which would include blood pressure, his organ functions, hydrology, his ventilator settings, he said. We are also following laboratory parameters such as inflammatory biomarkers to see inflammation in his body is subsiding. Byun said treatments like this were used in China the last month with some success. Most recently, hospitals in Houston and New York have experimented with the treatment but they have yet to report their findings. Through Saturday afternoon, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than 64,000 people worldwide, according to worldometer. More than 246,000 people have recovered from the pneumonia-like disease. Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE: At least 5,000 coronavirus patients will be in citys ICU beds, mayor says, as NYC waits for supplies, military personnel from DC EMTs to stop taking patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals if resuscitation isnt successful Cuomo: New York could see 16,000 deaths resulting from coronavirus Navy hospital ship Comfort docks in Manhattan at front line of coronavirus pandemic : A 33-year old remand prisoner escaped from a government hospital where he was admitted for some health ailment after assaulting a head constable and fleeing with his service weapon, police said on Sunday. The remand prisoner was arrested in connection with three cases pertaining to theft and house burglary and was remanded in judicial custody and lodged in a jail in Nizamabad district since January 20 this year, they said. According to a senior police official, the prisoner had on Saturday morning complained of ill health to the jail authorities and was referred to the the Nizamabad District government hospital where he was undergoing treatment. "Two policemen--a head constable and a constable from the reserve force were deputed for guarding him and at around 10 pm on Saturday when the constable went out for dinner, the remand prisoner taking advantage of the alleged negligence of the head constable pounced on him and snatched his weapon and escaped from the government hospital," the official told over phone. Before fleeing, the remand prisoner hit the head constable on his left hand with butt of the pistol resulting in minor injuries to him, the official said adding teams were on the hunt to catch him from his different hideouts. Based on preliminary investigation it was revealed that the remand prisoner consumed some unknown tablets in the jail itself resulting in ill-health, the official said. A case on relevant charges of jumping from judicial custody, assaulting the policeman and illegal possession of the firearm has been registered against the remand prisoner, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior officer in the Gardai has thanked the public for continuing to comply with current health guidelines issued just over a week ago. Only people in essential jobs can travel to work while social distancing and other restrictions also remain in place. Deputy Commissioner, Policing and Security, John Twomey said; "We want to thank people for the high level of compliance with the health guidelines. "It is vital that continues today and for the rest of the time they are due to be in place. By working together and keeping to the HSE advice, we can flatten the curve and save lives, he said Deputy Commissioner Twomey said that people should continue to stay home, exercise within 2km of their home, and practice social distancing. "The HSE guidelines are designed to ensure that we stop the spread of COVID-19 and we reduce the risk to our friends and families. It is in all our interests that they are adhered to, said Deputy Commissioner Twomey. Deputy Commissioner Twomey, also says current advice is that Gardai do not have to wear masks when carrying out checkpoints. He also says anyone who needs help can contact their nearest Garda station or local policing unit. Deputy Commissioner Twomey chairs An Garda Siochanas National COVID-19 Co-Ordination Centre which manages the Gardai's strategic response to COVID-19. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 23:42:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The UN has vowed to work closely with South Sudan and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the prevention and preparedness on coronavirus following the confirmation of the first case on Sunday. The UN in South Sudan which also confirmed a case of COVID-19 among its staff said the world body will make every effort to continue its activities to protect civilians, provide humanitarian assistance, build peace and support development. "The UN's priority is to protect the people of South Sudan and UN staff who are here to serve. The UN will also continue to support national-led COVID-19 prevention and preparedness efforts," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement issued in Juba. It said the health ministry and WHO are leading the investigation by epidemiologists to test people recently in contact with the 29-year-old female patient who arrived in Juba from Netherlands via Ethiopia on Feb. 28. OCHA said the patient has been resident in South Sudan for five weeks. She started working from home immediately after the onset of the symptoms and voluntarily requested to be tested to check her status with regard to COVID-19. "The patient is recovering well," it said, noting that a full list of people who came into contact with the patient is being compiled, and quarantine and follow-up has begun immediately together with the Ministry of Health. "The individuals will be followed up for the mandatory 14 days, checked for symptoms and those who develop symptoms will be tested for COVID-19," said the UN. OCHA said the UN is supporting efforts to raise awareness about prevention measures, including frequent handwashing, social distancing, self-quarantine requirements and the avoidance of large gatherings to reduce the risk of transmission. The UN has previously imposed a travel freeze on all staff traveling into the country, ensured staff who arrived prior to the ban are self-quarantined for 14 days, introduced work-from-home measures to reduce numbers of people in offices, and enforced social distancing rules and frequent hand washing by all personnel. South Sudan has since urged the public to remain calm and observe the public health measures such as social distancing and washing hands with soap. High school students aiming for university could sit shorter exams this year, at a later date with less content to remember, as the state government considers options to accommodate Year 12s during this "extraordinary" time. Education Minister Sue Ellery in Parliament last week detailed several options the government was looking at to ensure no student would be disadvantaged. WA students could sit shorter university entrance exams due to these unprecedented times. Credit:Wolter Peeters In response to questions put forward by the opposition on Tuesday, Ms Ellery said Year 12s were the group of students the government was under the most pressure to provide an immediate sense of certainty for. Options include changes to the way that the ATAR may be calculated and presented and how student assessments may be undertaken, she said. A medic at the Elmhurst Hospital Centre in Queens, New York, reacts after stepping outside the emergency room on Saturday. Health workers worldwide have come under intense pressure through the coronavirus outbreak (Mary Altaffer/AP) Keep informed of these unprecedented times with the latest coronavirus updates on Independent.ie's live blog. 15:15 05/04/2020 UK death toll from Covid-10 almost at 5,000 A total of 4,934 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Saturday, the Department of Health said, up by 621 from 4,313 the day before. 15:10 05/04/2020 'Public system is a basket case' - Consultant slams decision to close off private hospitals for Covid-19 patients A private hospital consultant has slammed the Government's decision for private hospitals to be used exclusively for Covid-19 patients. Michael O'Keefe, a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, said that his patients should still be allowed to see him in the private hospital. Many patients, he said, paid for private healthcare because the public system is a "basket case" and they should not have to go back into that system for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. "From Monday on all of these doctors were told, 'you can no longer see your private patients in private hospitals'. They'll now have to be all put into the public waiting list - a public system that is, in my view, totally collapsed in time, it's been a basket case for ages," he said. 14:40 05/04/2020 Expand Close Farewell: Funeral director Robert Maguire at Mount Jerome, Dublin, where Covid-19 victim John Gallagher was laid to rest on Thursday. Photo: David Conachy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Farewell: Funeral director Robert Maguire at Mount Jerome, Dublin, where Covid-19 victim John Gallagher was laid to rest on Thursday. Photo: David Conachy Seven further deaths and 91 more Covid-19 cases confirmed in Northern Ireland A further seven patients have died after contracting the coronavirus, it has been confirmed. It brings the total number of deaths in associated with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland to 63. The Public Health Agency said that 91 more cases of the virus have been confirmed in Northern Ireland, taking the total number of cases to 1,089. A total of 8,486 people have been tested for the virus. Expand Close Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire 13:50 05/04/2020 Lord Bath of Longleat dies after testing positive for Covid-19 Lord Bath of Longleat has died aged 87 after testing positive for coronavirus. The gloriously eccentric Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, died on Saturday after being admitted to the Royal United Hospital in Bath on March 28. Expand Close Lord Bath of Longleat had a colourful dress sense (PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lord Bath of Longleat had a colourful dress sense (PA) 12:50 05/04/2020 Hygiene and Exercise top priorities post lockdown, as well as booking holidays and a return to the local pub The main concern facing Irish people during the current COVID-19 lockdown is the state of their short term finances, whilst they also intend to become more hygienic and exercise more post pandemic, according the latest national survey taken during the current lockdown. Meanwhile a holiday and a trip to the trusty local pub are the most popular fun things Irish people intend to do when a semblance of normality returns, with TikTok dance challenges and knitting the big self-isolation turn offs at home at this time, according to a nationwide poll of 500 Irish adults carried for online lottery company Lottoland. Over a third of Irish people intend to self improve through online education and learn a new language. hen asked what would be the first fun thing they would plan to do when normal life resumes, booking a holiday came out on top (21%), followed by a much needed trip to their local pub (18pc), with heading out for a slap up meal in third place (15pc), whilst arranging a date (7%) and going on a shopping spree (6pc) came in fourth and fifth respectively. Perhaps stereotypically, Irish men showed a greater desire to choose the pub visit over booking a holiday, with the latter being the first preference of Irish women, whilst Munster and Ulster were the only regions who chose to put their trip to the pub in top position. Expand Close Stock Image / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Stock Image 12:30 05/04/2020 Only 65pc of PPE equipment delivery from China meets HSE standars, CEO Paul Reid said A large chunk of the personal protective equipment (PPE) that arrive on a delivery from China this week is not fit for purpose, HSE CEO Paul Reid confirmed today. Some of the products, which arrived from China earlier in the week, could provide complete coverage and therefore were unfit for purpose. In the first delivery of the producets ordered, which accounted for about 10pc of the overall order, Mr Reid said that only 65pc of the delivery met HSE requirements. Read More 11:45 05/04/2020 Number of daily coronavirus tests to reach 4,500 this week - but HSE warns testing capacity depends on reagent supply HSE CEO Paul Reid said today that the number of daily tests completed will double as 50 test centres and a "network of laboratories" have been set up across Ireland. Having been restricted to 1,500 tests a day by the end of last week, from tomorrow, 4,500 tests can be completed a day. Mr Reid said that this is largely down to increased number of testing laboratories and the procurement of testing reagents on a global shortage. Read More 10:00 05/04/2020 Scotlands chief medical officer pictured visiting second home Scotlands chief medical officer (CMO) has been photographed visiting her familys second home in Fife during the coronavirus pandemic, despite herself issuing advice to stay at home. Photos of Dr Catherine Calderwood and her family near a coastal retreat in Earlsferry were published in The Scottish Sun late on Saturday. Just days earlier, the 51-year-old tweeted a photo of her family from their main residence in Edinburgh as they clapped for the front-line NHS staff working to stop the spread of Covid-19. Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland The paper says the home in the capital is just two-and-a-half miles from the Scottish Government building where Dr Calderwood delivers daily briefings on the virus with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Earlsferry is a drive of more than an hour from Edinburgh. 08:20 05/04/2020 Garda Deputy Commissioner urges people to continue to comply with Public Health guidelines Deputy Commissioner, Policing and Security, John Twomey said: "We want to thank people for the high level of compliance with the health guidelines. It is vital that continues today and for the rest of the time they are due to be in place. By working together and keeping to the HSE advice, we can flatten the curve and save lives. Deputy Twomey added that people should continue to stay home, exercise within 2km of their home, and practice social distancing. "The HSE guidelines are designed to ensure that we stop the spread of COVID-19 and we reduce the risk to our friends and families. It is in all our interests that they are adhered to, said Deputy Twomey. Deputy Commissioner Twomey chairs An Garda Siochanas National COVID-19 Co-Ordination Centre. The Centre, which is based at Garda Headquarters, co-ordinates the organisations strategic response to COVID-19. 07:35 05/04/2020 Coronavirus: US states scramble for equipment as death toll mounts New York governor Andrew Cuomo says China is facilitating a shipment of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state, in another example of the extreme measures being taken in what is now a scramble to source lifesaving devices in the coronavirus pandemic. In a sign of the disorganised response in the US to the global crisis, Mr Cuomo praised the Chinese government for its help in securing the breathing machines, which were scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Airport on Saturday. Noting the state of Oregon had also volunteered to send 140 ventilators to New York, Mr Cuomo also acknowledged the US governments stockpile of medical supplies would fall drastically short of requirements. Were all in the same battle here, Mr Cuomo said. And the battle is stopping the spread of the virus. Read More 07:20 05/04/2020 Coronavirus: 'Modern piracy' - US accused of redirecting 200,000 Germany-bound masks for own use in a move condemned as "modern piracy", the US has been accused by German government officials of redirecting 200,000 Germany-bound masks for its own use. The city government in Berlin said that the consignment of US-made masks had been "confiscated" in Bangkok, though he did not say where they were passed into US hands The FFP2 masks, which were ordered by Berlin's police force, did not reach their destination, it said. Andreas Geisel, Berlin's interior minister, said the masks were presumably diverted to the US. Read More 07:10 05/04/2020 New measures on way as Holohan urges public to flatten coronavirus curve more The health authorities are set to unveil a range of new measures to tackle the Covid-19 crisis as latest figures revealed another significant rise in the numbers who have contracted the coronavirus and lost their lives. At the end of a tense week during which the death toll began to mount in double-digit numbers, a further 17 people died yesterday and there were 331 confirmed new cases, bringing the total to 137 deaths and 4,604 cases. But with the authorities warning that the crisis has not peaked and may not do so for another two weeks, there is also a growing awareness this weekend that Ireland is undergoing a fundamental change, such has been the profound impact of the crisis. Pregnant women are entitled to a spouse or another person of their choosing with them in the delivery room during the coronavirus outbreak, the state Health Department said, calling these support people essential to patient care. Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli issued the order to hospitals last Sunday, an action that should eliminate the frightening prospect of women delivering their babies alone and without a spouse, partner or another family member present. Hospitals have ended visits in most cases to stop the spread of COVID-19, the potentially deadly respiratory disease the virus causes. The Department of Health considers one support person essential to patient care throughout labor, delivery and the immediate postpartum period. Therefore hospitals are required to allow one designated support person to be with the expectant mother during these times," according to Persichillis letter. The support person may be a spouse, partner, sibling, doula or another person chosen by the mother, but it must be the same person throughout the hospital stay. The person must not have a fever, cough or other COVID-19 symptoms, the letter said. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Ashley and Mark Scardigno of Palisades Park told NJ Advance Media last month they faced the prospect of Mark being absent from the delivery room at Englewood Hospital. Fortunately, the hospital reversed its policy and Mark was there when their second child, a boy they named Sam, arrived in a hurry on March 25, Ashley Scardigno said Sunday. My labor started off slow but then progressed more rapidly than expected. I wasnt even in the stirrups yet. One push and he was delivered by the nurse because my doctor was still en route and even the on-call doctor didnt make it on time, she said. All was fine with my baby. However it moved so fast and was a bit scary with nurses rushing in, Ashley Scardigno said. If my husband wasnt there holding my hand, I would have been so much more panicked. If I didnt know there was a pandemic, I never wouldnt have gotten the sense anything was going on, she added. They made me feel so at ease and comfortable. Sam Scardigno of Palisades Park was born March 25 at Englewood Hospital. His parents, Mark and Ashley, feared Mark would not be allowed in the delivery room but the hospital changed its policy. Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, D-Hudson, a first-time father of a 1-year-old boy, said he was already in the process of writing legislation that would protect a mothers right to have someone in the delivery room when Persichilli issued the letter. Mukhkerji said on Saturday he intends to introduce the bill anyway when the state Assembly holds a virtual caucus session on Thursday. The health departments letter provides guidance which could be temporary in nature but it does not have the force of regulation, let alone law, Mukherji said. The New York State Department of Health issued similar guidance but hospitals there ignored it until Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order, the assemblyman said. I respect the intentions of our hospital administrators forced to make difficult decisions in this unprecedented pandemic, but no woman should be forced to deliver alone, he said. The health department gives hospitals the right to deny a visitor in the delivery room "should a shortage of personal protective equipment require use of the resources by direct caregivers, which is a widespread problem throughout hospitals in central and northern New Jersey. Mukherji said the legislation he has drafted does not include this exception. Research shows women with social support during childbirth tend to have shorter duration of labor, control their pain better, and have a reduced need for medical intervention," Mukherji said in a statement announcing the legislation. "In addition to providing physician and emotional comfort during labor and postpartum, support persons also reduce maternal mortality rates and alleviate the burden on hospitals by alerting staff when the patient is unable to do so. Before Persichillis letter, the state left it up to hospitals to individually determine their visitor and support person policies. The New Jersey Hospital Associations spokeswoman Kerry McKean Kelly said the organization supports Persichillis directive. On March 13, the association recommended hospitals curtail visitors with some exceptions, including one person to accompany mothers giving birth. Hospitals in New Jersey delivery about 100,000 babies every year. 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. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Like most people around the world, Emma Roberts has been cooped up at home during the coronavirus quarantines. But on Saturday, the American Horror Story actress took a break from her self-sequester and headed out for some supplies. She was nearly unrecognizable when she walked up to the entrance of the grocery store in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles wearing a black protective mask and dark sunglasses. Scroll down to video Incognito: Emma Roberts was nearly unrecognizable when she went to pick up some groceries wearing a protective mask and dark sunglasses in Los Angeles on Saturday In keeping with the casual mode nearly everyone seems to be in in recent weeks, Roberts stepped out in light blue denim jeans and a dark sweatshirt. She also donned brown furry slippers without socks as she carried a white bag over her right shoulder. On this afternoon, the Scream Queens star, 29, pulled her blonde tresses back off of her face and into a ponytail. The American Horror Story actress, 29, wore a protective mask and dark sunglasses when she arrived at a grocery store in the Los Feliz neighborhood of LA It turns out Roberts had just a few coveted items in mind for purchase before she headed out. After browsing for a short time, the niece of screen legend Julia Roberts reappeared pushing a cart full of paper towels and toilet paper. She also bought a few choice other smaller items that were in a bag secured in the cart. For the walk to her car, Roberts opted to not wear her sunglasses. Coveted items: Roberts reappeared with a cart full of paper towels and toilet paper Most recently Roberts played the role of Brooke Thompson in the latest in America Horror Story anthology series, dubbed 1984. She also starred in the horror-thriller film, The Hunt, that had its September 2019 premiere date delayed due to the mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso. It eventually made its theatrical release in March but that was cut short due to the coronavirus outbreak that resulted in theaters closing. The release of her upcoming romantic comedy film, The Holidate, is also now in limbo due to the pandemic. Day job: Most recently Roberts starred as Brooke Thompson in the latest in America Horror Story anthology series, dubbed 1984 Anthrax is deadly, but not to these old buzzards! God equipped them with a digestive system that kills the killer. Just like anthrax, hog cholera, is a livestock disease which also gets gobbled up (turkey talk there) with those unique buzzard digestive juices. Like other vultures, turkey vultures play a valuable role in our ecosystem in the breeding grounds for deadly disease. Thats why they are such a precious gift to pastures where they compete with wily coyotes to dine on the remains of dead cattle and the like, all the while helping deter the spread of these viruses. They have no sharp-toed talons nor razor beaks. They are critters-of-prey that are super grateful to the motor vehicle industry for its contribution to providing fast-food road-kill. And, because they are so slow to get airborne, these buzzards feasting on road-kill often become road-kill themselves, ugly sight! Simply, they are perfectly suited for their assignment during their long 15-30 year lifespan. The buzzards are back! The government may consider allowing flight operations in a staggered manner after the 21-day nationwide lockdown ends on April 14, officials said on Sunday. Except Air India, all other airlines have been taking bookings for commercial passenger services from April 15. Officials said the government may consider allowing operations of passenger flights from April 15 in a staggered manner, at the same time suggesting that flights may not be allowed to operate on all sectors. Reacting to reports on likely resumption of flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri called them "mere speculation". He referred to a tweet by him on April 2 stating that a decision on resumption of flights after the end of the lockdown period remains to be taken. India suspended domestic and international commercial passenger flight operations from midnight on March 24 for 21 days in sync with the nation-wide lockdown. However, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights, offshore helicopter operations and flights permitted on special ground by the aviation regulator DGCA were allowed to operate during the period. " about resumption of passenger flights in a staggered manner from 15 April is mere speculation. The correct position is spelt out in my tweet of 2nd April 2020," Puri tweeted on Sunday. On April 2, he had tweeted: "The current lockdown on both domestic and international passenger flights is till April 15. A decision to restart the flights after this period remains to be taken. If required, we will have to assess the situation on a case by case basis." Asked at a press conference on April 2 about resumption of international flights, Puri had said: "Air India had first cancelled the flights to China, then the other carriers stopped flying. " "So far as the lockdown is concerned, the lockdown is till April 15. And, we can start considering the resumption of flights on a case-by-case basis depending on where they are coming from after that," he said. When asked about resumption of passenger flight services, Civil Aviation Secretary P S Kharola's statement at the briefing indicated that the government direction is very clear that the lockdown is up to April 14. "As far as post that (April 14) is concerned, it is all up to airlines. Airlines have to judge the situation and they can take the bookings," he had said on April 2. "In case the lockdown gets extended, then the same process (of cancellation) has to be followed, and if the lockdown is not extended, then the bookings will be honoured," said the secretary. Like many other countries, civil aviation sector has been hit hard in India too following restrictions of flight operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, Air Deccan became the latest casualty of the crisis as it announced indefinite suspension of flight operations and asked all employees to go on sabbatical without pay. As revenues have fallen significantly due to the coronavirus crisis, IndiGo has announced a pay cut of up to 25 per cent for its senior employees. Another airline, Vistara, too has announced a compulsory leave without pay of up to three days for its senior employees. SpiceJet has stated that its employees' salaries would be reduced between 10 to 30 per cent while the Air India has announced a 10 per cent cut in allowances for every employee, except cabin crew, for the coming three months. GoAir has cut salaries of its employees, laid off its expat pilots and introduced leave without pay for employees on a rotational basis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Ohio is much better positioned than otherwise thanks to former Gov. John Kasich, a suburban Columbus Republican. Kasich rubs lots of people the wrong way. But Kasichs bullheadedness is partly why he had the strength to say no when that was the right answer at the Statehouse, and yes when that was the right answer. Example: But for Kasichs stewardship, Ohio wouldnt have a $2.7 billion rainy day fund to help balance Ohios budget amid the damage the pandemics doing to Ohios economy. Yet in 2018, his critics, from both parties, demanded that he spend that money. Kasich said no. And Kasich decided to expand Medicaid coverage in Ohio, despite the whines and yelps of some other Republicans, who claimed expansion would be an endorsement of Barack Obamas Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As of February, the Medicaid expansion covered an estimated 604,564 Ohioans. Expanding Medicaid in 2013 is why Ohio has hospital beds it might not otherwise have in 2020 beds desperately needed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. When Kasich took office in 2011, succeeding Democrat Ted Strickland, Ohios Rainy Day Fund totaled 89 cents. (That is not a typographical error.) The rainy day fund, formally the Budget Stabilization Fund, is a backstop for Ohios budget when the economy goes south. In fairness to Strickland, as PolitiFact, the Poynter Institutes fact-checking program reported, Stricklands defenders say the recession that hit the United States and Ohio required Strickland and state officials to drain the $1 billion fund." And they note the fund started to be replenished at the tail end of his final budget, even though Strickland had left office. In plain English, George W. Bushs recession dealt Ted Strickland and most other Ohioans a bad hand. In mid-2018, Kasich deposited more than $657 million in the rainy day fund, bringing its total to nearly $2.7 billion. Bystanders from both parties had demanded that Kasich spend that money, in part as aid to local governments, rather than stash it in Ohios cashbox. Kasich told the critics to take a walk. And because of that, Gov. Mike DeWine and the legislature have a financial backstop they otherwise wouldnt have to help address the pandemic. So far, 36 states (including every state bordering Ohio) and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, though, Ohios General Assembly, then as now GOP-led, refused to OK Medicaid expansion. Re-reading that years Statehouse news stories suggests that while some legislative Republicans may have privately favored expansion, they feared primary election challenges from the GOPs Hate Obama First crowd. Rather than ask the legislature to OK Medicaid expansion, Kasich and his allies, in a crafty move, asked the state Controlling Board (six legislators and an executive branch representative) to. And in a 5-2 vote, the Controlling Board expanded Medicaid in October 2013. The two then-members of the board who voted no on Medicaid expansion were Sen. William (Bill) Coley, a suburban Middletown Republican now running for an Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals judgeship the eight-county court includes Butler, Warren and Madison counties and then-Rep. Jeff McClain, an Upper Sandusky Republican now in DeWines Cabinet as tax commissioner. (McClains son, Rep. Riordan McClain, now holds the elder McClains former Ohio House seat.) The journal Health Affairs reported early in 2018 that Medicaid expansion was associated with ... substantially lower likelihoods of [hospital] closure, especially in rural markets and counties with large numbers of uninsured adults. Closed hospitals mean fewer beds. True, two small-town hospitals did close last year, Bellaires Belmont Community, owned by Wheeling Hospital, and Martins Ferrys East Ohio Regional, owned by California-based Alecto Healthcare Services LLC. (The hospitals were less than ten miles apart, and across the Ohio from Wheeling.) Mike DeWine and the General Assemblys leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, have justly earned praise for how theyre managing Ohios response to the pandemic. The contrast between taking-care-of-business in Columbus and both parties Washington theatrics couldnt be sharper. And Ohios government, in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, has a couple weapons it likely wouldnt have but for decisions that John Kasich made as Ohios governor. Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens. To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-408-9474 Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com. California State Prison in Lancaster, where eight inmates are ill with COVID-19. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations) A federal court panel has denied an emergency motion to force California prison officials to move thousands of inmates out of harm's way even as the number of prison workers and inmates testing positive for COVID-19 rises. "We are living in unprecedented times. The spread of COVID-19 is a global crisis, a crisis that is heightened in the most vulnerable groups among us," the 13-page ruling begins. But in the end, the deciding judges wrote, the decision on whether to require mass prison releases and other measures is not theirs to make. The number of prison infections grew in the two days since the judges held a hearing on the emergency motion. By Saturday, 60 people in the prisons, including 47 workers and 13 inmates, were diagnosed with COVID-19. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said eight inmates are ill at the state prison in Lancaster, four prisoners are infected at the California Institution for Men in Chino, and one at North Kern State Prison. The request by prisoners' attorneys for mass releases is "understandable," and inmates have an Eighth Amendment right to be protected from disease, the ruling states. But the three judges on the special panel ruled that dealing with a pandemic is beyond its authority. The three-judge court was created in 2007 to address chronic prison overcrowding, and its powers in 2009 were affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The judges Saturday said the question of protecting prisoners from COVID-19 belongs before a single court, such as one overseeing inmate medical care. "We take no satisfaction in turning away Plaintiffs motion without reaching the important question of whether Defendants have implemented constitutionally adequate measures to protect the inmates of Californias prisons from the serious threat posed by this unparalleled pandemic," the ruling stated. Inmate lawyers said they plan to refile the motion before a single court. "Yes, definitely," said Don Specter, executive director of the Prison Law Office in Berkeley. Story continues The decision by the three-judge court also laid out expectations that the state prison system needs to do more. "It is likely that only through significant effort will Californias prisons be able to minimize the spread of COVID-19," judges wrote. Prisoner's lawyers took that language as a partial victory. "It's a clear message to the state," said Michael Bien, one of the lead attorneys for inmates in the federal civil rights case. California has shut off visitation and volunteer programs, halted the admission of an expected 3,000 new inmates waiting in county jails, and began screening workers as they enter prisons. The state has already begun to process some 3,500 inmates to be released early in the next two months. One prison inmate at Chino told family members a parole agent came by Saturday, with news that he would be released by April 13. State lawyers argued that going beyond those releases would hamper programs to help the homeless and burden community hospitals. California has other options beside mass prison releases, Bien said. "There's power to transfer prisoners, there are other places where prisoners can be," Bien said, including empty state facilities and properties that can be rented or commandeered. The ruling was not entirely unanimous. U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento concurred with the final ruling, but disagreed on whether the panel had the authority to reconsider crowding limits during the pandemic. "The current circumstances appear to expose, in stark terms, the potential need to revisit the current population cap," Mueller wrote. Even so, she said, an order for prison releases is a "last resort" and inmates need first to press their case before a single judge. Mueller already is presiding over the impact COVID-19 is having on mental health care in the state prison system, including a contested state decision to halt inmate transfers to state psychiatric hospitals. Some 46,000 inmates live in open dorms with bunks two feet apart. The prison medical system reports that 45,000 of the state's 120,000 inmates 37% have at least one health risk to COVID-19 infection, including 14,700 inmates with asthma. California plans to move some 500 inmates out of those dorms to alternative housing that includes beds set up in gymnasiums, a return to a practice California used at the height of crowding. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 02:24:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on March 21, 2020 shows the field hospital set up at the IFEMA Exhibition center in Madrid, Spain. SPAIN OUT. LATIN AMERICA OUT. (EFE/Handout via Xinhua) Three weeks of lockdown in Spain to date "have slowed the spread of the virus," said the Spanish Prime Minister, adding that Spain needed "to maintain the same discipline and the same tenacity." Spain's Health Ministry figures show that the number of new cases is falling on a daily basis, while the number of deaths in a 24-hour period has also dropped for the past two days. MADRID, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed on Saturday that he would ask for the State of Alarm to be extended till "24 hours on April 25" to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Sanchez explained the "hard" decision in a televised press conference after meeting with the government's Technical Committee for the coronavirus and after the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare confirmed the number of cases of the coronavirus had reached 124,736 while the death toll climbed to 11,744. The Health Ministry figures also show that the number of new cases is falling on a daily basis, while the number of deaths in a 24-hour period has also dropped for the past two days. The State of Alarm over COVID-19 first came into effect in the country on March 15. Beds are seen in one of the seven new Intensive Care Units (ICU) in Vall d'Hebron Hospital, in Barcelona, Spain, March 26, 2020. (Vall d'Hebron Hospital via Xinhua) The prime minister said the data proved that "weeks of isolation and collective sacrifice" were working but Spain needed "to maintain the same discipline and the same tenacity." "Following the recommendations of the experts and also the scientists who advise the government of Spain, I am announcing that the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday will once again ask for the permission of Congress to extend the State of Alarm for a second time from April 12th until 24 hours on Saturday April 25th," he confirmed. He said the three weeks of lockdown in Spain to date "have slowed the spread of the virus; they have slowed the number of people going to hospital and they have allowed the number of people leaving hospital to increase." "They have saved thousands and thousands of lives," Sanchez noted. Nonetheless, he warned "if the rise in new cases was steep, the decline is not going to be easy." He also advised that when the State of Alarm ends, the government would continue with restrictions on movement. "It will last for a time afterwards; it will be the shortest time possible depending on the efficiency of the measures we have imposed and on how much the Spanish people respect them," the prime minister noted. Sanchez made an appeal to the European Union for solidarity, saying it "could not fail this time" in approving measures for economic reconstruction after the crisis ends. Sanchez's cabinet will meet on Tuesday to approve the extension of the State of Alarm before a special session of Parliament gives its go-ahead. A State of Alarm is the first of three emergency levels a Spanish government can apply under exceptional circumstances, with the others being a 'A State of Exception' and 'Martial Law' (Estado de Sitio). A State of Alarm grants the government special powers to limit the movement of citizens, to control the means of production and use private assets if needed and also to use the military to carry out essential logistical and supply jobs. CAIRO (Reuters) - The Saudi energy minister on Saturday rejected Russia's remarks that the kingdom withdrew last month from a deal to cut output. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman was responding to comments made by his Russian counterpart on Friday, according to a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA CAIRO (Reuters) - The Saudi energy minister on Saturday rejected Russia's remarks that the kingdom withdrew last month from a deal to cut output. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman was responding to comments made by his Russian counterpart on Friday, according to a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA. "The Russian Minister of Energy was the first to declare to the media that all the participating countries are absolved of their commitments starting from the first of April, leading to the decision that the countries have taken to raise their production to offset the lower prices and compensate for their loss of returns," Prince Abdulaziz said in a statement. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Sandra Maler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Meghan Markle faced subtle racism and was cast as an invader by the British press and public, according to a documentary which charts her time as a senior royal. Airing on March 31st, the final day Prince Harry and Meghan worked for the Crown, the programme explored how the duchess had to deal with being stereotyped and criticised throughout her time as a royal. A new documentary has claimed Meghan Markle's exit from the royal family was the British public's fault. Photo: Getty Images At one point, the British public is blamed for the duchesss final exit from the royal family. The Vice TV documentary brought together experts and activists and featured interviews with palace insiders and experts including William and Harrys former butler, the US wives of the British aristocracy, and royal correspondents. Professor Kehinde Andrews, who lectures in black studies at the University of Birmingham, told Vice Meghan was portrayed as aggressive and diva-ish saying: The angry black woman is a clear stereotype we see. His views were echoed by US comedian Kemah Bob, who lives in the UK and said: The idea that just because people are not hanging nooses to a tree here, [racism] is not happening is wrong. Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, an equal rights activist, said: If you can get away with that to a biracial member of the royal family, imagine what the rest of us are experiencing. Canadian columnist Stephen Marche lay the blame at the feet of Britons, saying: The British public feels totally entitled to annihilate these people. The experts explored the comparative press coverage between Meghan and her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, including headlines reporting on each of their pregnancies. The documentary charted the duchesss rise from childhood activism, to using her voice as a successful actor to champion causes close to her heart. It also tackled the struggles she faced inside the royal family, having to shut down her social media pages and blog, and change the way she spoke about issues she was passionate about. Meghan during one of her last engagements in the UK. Photo: Getty Images Grant Harrold, former butler to Meghans husband Harry, said: To be a member of the royal family you have got to change everything, your lifestyle, to a degree your personality. Story continues Your life is pre-planned she cannot just turn to a friend and say to go for lunch tomorrow, as a royal that is gone. Omid Scobie, royal editor at Harpers Bazaar, added: I remember speaking to her friends who said we dont really hear her voice anymore. He later adds of other royal family members: They should have been defending her, that silence spoke volumes. Meghan, Harry and Archie are now living in LA. Photo: Getty Images The documentary was filmed before the Sussexes chose Los Angeles as their new home, making a last minute dash over the border from Canada before it closed to tourists to prevent the spread of coronavirus. They shared their final post on their Sussex Royal Instagram on Monday evening, ahead of their last day, urging their followers to look out for one another, as they explained they would be going quiet on social media for a while. Words by Rebecca Taylor Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com. Amid the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has arranged transport facility for a couple, whose two-year-old child is suffering from eye cancer to a hospital in Hyderabad for a chemotherapy session. The family of child Anvita, who lives in Alappuzha left for Hyderbad this morning in a special ambulance arranged by the Kerala government. The State Health Minister intervened after the child's parents sought help from the government to arrange transport for them amid the lockdown as Anvita has to undergo the second intra-arterial chemotherapy. Speaking about the Anvita and her family, Shailaja said: "The child and her parents are heading to Hyderabad this morning for treatment of eye cancer. With the support of the government of Kerala, the parents and the child are travelling to Hyderabad by ambulance. All efforts are made to provide the best treatment for Anvita." Anvita underwent her first chemotherapy at a hospital in Hyderabad in March this year. In his address to the nation on March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 21-day lockdown in the country to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As New York City erupts in coronavirus infections and deaths, Kaedrea Jackson has noticed something peculiar during her shifts inside the emergency department at Mount Sinai Morningside hospital. "It seems there are more men coming in with really severe illness," said Jackson, an emergency physician. "In general, I've seen more male patients. And when they do come in, they are at a sicker state." She and her colleagues on the front line of the pandemic have had little time to ponder why covid-19 seems deadlier for men than women - a phenomenon she could not recall happening with other diseases, such as the flu. "I don't think there's anything that's very clear that shows me the ideology of why it's been more males," she said. Coronavirus data reported by more than a dozen states and the nation's largest city support Jackson's experience. In most states, slightly more women are getting infected than men. But of more than 3,600 deaths in 13 states and New York City that report fatalities by gender, the majority of victims are men. The disproportionate toll of the virus appears to have deep biological roots. An emerging body of research has revealed that women's bodies are better at fighting off infection, thanks to the hormones in their systems and the genes on their two X chromosomes. Scientists say these differences may partly explain why men have been hit hardest by the covid-19 pandemic. And they may provide a vital clue in the search for a cure. More for you Trump administration changes description of the national stockpile to jibe with Jared Kushner's controversial claim The Washington Post identified 37 states that provide a breakdown of how many men, and how many women, have tested positive for covid-19. In 30 of those states, including the large outbreaks in Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington, women had a higher number of reported cases, though not always by a large margin. In several large states including California and Florida, and in the vast outbreak in New York City, the data swing the other way toward male cases, leaving an ambiguous picture overall. Fewer states provide an analysis of the differing numbers of deaths among men and women. But at least 13 with substantial death numbers reported that data. (The Post did not analyze some states, like Alaska, where the death numbers remain small.) In every one of those states, men died more frequently, and that was the case even if they had fewer total cases of the disease to begin with. That's also true in the city with the country's biggest outbreak. As of Friday, men made up 59 percent of overall hospitalizations in New York City and were 62 percent of more than 1,800 fatalities. "I've seen more males that need immediate respiratory support - to be intubated or supplemental oxygen," Jackson said. "That's been the major difference. They come in sicker." Men in New York are dying at a disproportionately high rate, even when accounting for the fact that male cases are more numerous to begin with. Men are 55 percent of cases but make up 62 percent of deaths. - - - Often, the virus doesn't start out feeling deadly, said Katrina Hawkins, an intensive care doctor at George Washington University Hospital in the District of Columbia. Many patients experience mild symptoms for about a week, then recover. But in a small fraction of cases, the disease takes a sudden, dramatic turn. A dry cough and shortness of breath will give way to acute respiratory issues and dangerously low blood-oxygen levels. The body's immune system unleashes a storm of protective cells and other molecules that can overwhelm vital organs, sometimes causing more damage than the virus itself. This progression suggests that the worst form of the disease is triggered in part by the patient's own immune system, Hawkins said. "There's probably something written in their DNA that we just don't know or understand yet," she said. To Robyn Klein, director of the Center for Neuroimmunology and Neuroinfectious Diseases at Washington University in St. Louis, the combination of lopsided statistics and divergent immune responses is an indicator that sex differences may be at play. For almost all infectious diseases, women are able to mount a stronger immune response then men, she said. Women with acute HIV infections have 40 percent less viral genetic material in their blood than men. They are less susceptible to the viruses that cause hepatitis B and C. Men infected with coxsackie viruses - which in severe cases can cause inflammation of heart tissue - are twice as likely to die of the disease. That holds true even in other animals. Female birds show higher antibody responses to infection than males, especially during mating season. The immune cells that eat up microbes and cellular debris are less active in male lizards than in their female counterparts. "With regard to viral infection, it's been very well established that females have much stronger immune responses than males," Klein said. "Not just as a result of exposures or behavior. But there are actual differences in the ways that immune cells respond." Some 60 genes involved in immune function are located on the X chromosome, said Sabra Klein, a microbiologist at Johns Hopkins University, who is no relation to Robyn Klein. Genetic females have two of these molecules - one from their mother, one from their father - whereas people who are genetically male have only one. When there are two copies of this genetic molecule, the gene on one copy is typically turned off. But as many as a quarter of X-linked genes can escape this inactivation, giving people with two copies of the chromosome a "double dosage" of the genetic instructions needed to fight disease. One such gene codes for a protein called "toll-like receptor 7," which gets its name from a German word for "great." These receptors recognize strands of viral RNA and will alert the body to the presence of an invader. "What we've seen in my lab is you get greater expression of this gene in immune cells in females," Sabra Klein said, "which means you're going to get all kinds of downstream effects." Generally, female immune cells respond faster and more powerfully to viral attacks, producing higher amounts of interferons - proteins that stop viruses from replicating - as well as antibodies that neutralize the invaders. Sex hormones also play a role in the body's response to infection. Testosterone, which is produced in abundance by male testes, has been shown to tamp down inflammation. Estrogen, meanwhile, can bind to immune cells and activate the production of disease-fighting molecules. "It does seem like everything is designed so that females are going to have a more robust immune response," Robyn Klein said. Yet this forceful immune response can be a double-edged sword. It accounts for why women have autoimmune diseases at a higher rate than men. It also may explain why women are more likely to die of the common flu. Studies of influenza viruses in mice have shown that females have a "hyper-responsive" immune reaction to the pathogen - their lungs fill up with chemicals that damage tissue as well as fight germs. The best immune system is one that is well-regulated, Sabra Klein said; disease-fighting cells must be kept in check, lest they become marauding armies. Women's bodies tend to give their immune systems a bit more freedom, while male systems are more frequently held back. Those tendencies can be harmful or hurtful, depending on the disease in question. In the face covid-19, it is increasingly apparent that the male system fares worse. - - - The 50 states, and the District, have very different practices for reporting on the outbreaks within their borders. Some provide downloadable spreadsheets of all fatalities with ages and genders listed. Some give a daily update containing the same information. Others merely provide a percentage figure for the distribution of cases by gender, but not for fatalities. The Post searched each state's coronavirus website or page for gender-based information, but it's possible that journalists did not identify everything that is available. In the United States, women make up a slightly larger percentage of the population to begin with, which may help explain why in many states, they're contracting somewhat more cases of the disease. But men consistently die more often. That's true in Michigan, where men represent 61 percent of the state's 479 deaths so far. Of the 284 people killed by the coronavirus in Washington state, 57 percent are men. In Florida, men made up more than 61 percent of the 163 fatal cases as of Friday. There, 53 percent of cases are in men. This trend holds in at least 10 other states (and New York City) that report gender-identified mortality data. And it matches a pattern now recognized by epidemiologists around the globe. From China to South Korea to Italy to France, men are dying more frequently than women. Efforts to explain the disparity initially focused on social differences, such as the higher rate of risky behaviors among men. In China, where the mortality rate for men was almost twice as high as that for women, nearly half of men over 15 smoke, compared with just 2 percent of women. Recent polling by Reuters found that men are more likely to downplay the risk from the coronavirus, which may lead them to behave in ways that expose them to the virus. And at least one study of more than 3,000 people found that half of men don't wash their hands with soap after using the bathroom. "Women generally are more likely to seek care than men are," added Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University in Ohio. "So this could just be a bias in that aspect: as a gender, we're just more likely to go see a doctor when we're sick, so we're more likely to have a test done in the first place." Men are also more likely to have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable. According to the World Health Organization, American men live on average five years fewer than their female counterparts and have a higher probability of dying of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory illnesses. Behavioral factors are important, said Sabra Klein. But she noted that men and women are falling ill in roughly equal numbers in most countries the coronavirus has hit. It's only once the disease takes a turn for the worse, triggering severe respiratory problems, that sex differences emerge. "That it seems to be occurring to a significantly greater degree in men than women, it does speak to biology," Sabra Klein said. The disease is so new, and scientists still have so little data about it, that no one can pinpoint the source of these biological differences. But the differences are important to consider. Robyn Klein pointed out that fast-working female immune systems may be more effective at clearing the virus from the body in the first week after infection, making women less likely to reach the later stage of precipitous decline. "How the inflammatory response develops in the presence of this virus should be studied in the different sexes," she said. "Because the more you understand how a process may differ, the more you can develop treatments that are going to be effective." Sabra Klein also speculated that the disease may repress testosterone in men, exacerbating their intense inflammatory response. Testosterone levels decline as men age, she noted, which could explain why older men are most vulnerable to the disease. These are just theories, the scientists noted. Until governments give detailed, gender-identified reports on illnesses and deaths, and until researchers are able to probe potential sex differences in the lab, no one will know for sure whether the disparity in deaths is biological, or why. At the moment, the majority of states do not appear to break down fatalities by sex, nor, it seems, does the Centers for Disease Control. And many researchers still don't analyze their results by sex or even perform experiments on both male and female models, Sabra Klein said. The fact that women have lower survival rates from heart attacks and more adverse drug reactions than men has been blamed on this disparity. "We really are in our infancy" in the study of sex differences, she said. "Maybe the coronavirus is going to be that call to really take this very seriously." Scotlands chief medical officer has resigned from the government after breaking coronavirus lockdown rules by visiting her second home. Dr Catherine Calderwood agreed to step down just hours after unreservedly apologising for the trip to Fife and withdrawing from giving public briefings. She said that she took the decision following a discussion with first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said that the issue risks undermining confidence in the governments advice. I am deeply sorry for my actions and the mistakes I have made, Dr Calderwood said in a statement. The first minister and I have had a further conversation this evening and we have agreed that the justifiable focus on my behaviour risks becoming a distraction from the hugely important job that government and the medical profession has to do in getting the country through this coronavirus pandemic. Having worked so hard on the governments response, that is the last thing I want. The most important thing to me now and over the next few very difficult months is that people across Scotland know what they need to do to reduce the spread of this virus and that means they must have complete trust in those who give them advice. It is with a heavy heart that I resign as Chief Medical Officer. I will work with my team over the next few days to ensure a smooth transition to my successor. It came after The Scottish Sun published photos of Dr Calderwood and her family near a coastal retreat in Earlsferry, more than an hour away from Edinburgh, late on Saturday. Dr Calderwood was visited by local police in Earlsferry and issued a warning about her future conduct, said Police Scotland. Ms Sturgeon, who had been criticised for defending the indefensible, accepted the resignation over the very serious mistake but praised Dr Calderwoods highly valuable contribution to health in Scotland. She said: It is however clear that the mistake she made even though she has apologised sincerely and honourably for it risks distracting from and undermining confidence in the governments public health message at this crucial time. That is not a risk either of us is willing to take. Catherine has been a transformational CMO, bringing changes to the way medicine is delivered in Scotland and in particular using her experience to bring an overdue focus to womens health. Also, as I said earlier, her advice to me on coronavirus will be missed which is why she will work to ensure a smooth transition in the days ahead. While she has made a very serious mistake in her actions, that should not detract from the fact that as CMO she has made a highly valuable contribution to the medical profession and to health in Scotland, and I have no doubt she will continue to do so in future. She leaves office with my thanks and admiration. The doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship was set to be stopped from entering Sydney Harbour until a last minute backflip by port authorities, leaked phone calls reveal. A total of 2,700 passengers - ten of who have since died from coronavirus - were able to disembark without health checks under the cover of darkness at 2.30am on March 19. More than 620 of the ship's passengers have since been confirmed to have the virus. But explosive phone calls between Ruby Princess officials, NSW Port Authorities and NSW Ambulance officers, who were called to help ill passengers, reveal the debacle could have easily been avoided. In fact the NSW Port Authority initially told the ship's captain not to dock as planned because of concerns passengers had COVID-19, before a midnight phone call that changed everything, The Sunday Telegraph reports. Scroll down for video The doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship was set to be stopped from entering Sydney Harbour (pictured) until a last minute backflip by port authorities, leaked phone calls have revealed Phone calls from the night of March 18 reveal cruise ship officials had concerns that some of its 2,700 passengers may have had coronavirus and needed to be take off the ship by paramedics (pictured) Logs from that night by NSW Port Authority officials - who oversee the entrance of all ships to Sydney Harbour - reveal they refused the Ruby Princess entry about 11.30pm on March 18. That decision was made after emails between the ship's doctor and NSW Health that outlined concerns over 110 sick passengers onboard. Among the sick were 17 with 'temperatures over 38C' and six who had 'muscle aches and diarrhoea, severe vomiting or headaches' - all common coronavirus symptoms. In a conversation between a Ruby Princess official and a NSW Ambulance officer just before 9pm that night, it is clear there were concerns that some passengers may be suffering from the virus. The cruise official requested two ambulances upon docking. Carnival cruises representative: 'The doctor has told me they have been tested for corona so precautions need to be taken, so (they) possibly (require an ambulance).' NSW Ambulance Officer: 'And (for the next patient), the same as before, has she been tested for coronavirus?' Carnival cruises representative: 'Yeah, she has been swabbed for coronavirus... (but the) influenza test negative.' At about 11.30pm on March 18, the harbour master told the Ruby Princess they would not be allowed to dock in Sydney. Confusion appeared to reign during discussions between cruise ship officials, port authorities and ambulance officers on the night of March 18 - just hours before the Ruby Princess docked The Ruby Princess accounts for most of NSW's positive coronavirus cases with more than 340 testing positive and seven deaths There are more than 5,550 confirmed coronavirus cases across Australia, with 30 deaths so far It came two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a 30-day ban on all cruise ships arriving in Australia. But the harbour master reversed the decision just an hour later. Despite being expected to dock at 6am the next morning, the ship arrived at port at 2.30am. It led to confusion among two ambulance officers who were called to tend to the ill Ruby Princess passengers. In another explosive phone call the two officers debated the competing advice they had received from Ruby Princess officials as to whether passengers were suspected of having the virus and whether tests had come back negative. 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 Officer 1: '(The Ruby Princess has) booked two ambulances for non-COVID related (patients). Officer 2: '(No, I believe they are) COVID-related. Anyone who has any respiratory issues or breathing problems we ask them all the questions about corona.' Officer 1: 'They're saying that it's not but we still can't raise the Ruby Princess yet. 'I'll just let you know the cruise had gone to New Zealand before coming back here. During that time five people have been suspected of having coronavirus. They've all been tested and they've all come back negative.' Officer 2: 'The information that we got was that these two patients have been tested but the results haven't come back.' When the Ruby Princess left Sydney Harbour for a trip to New Zealand it was seen to be a medium risk of having coronavirus passengers. By the time it was halfway through the trip, that ranking had somehow been reduced to low risk - a decision that was defended by NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant. NSW Police have since launched an investigation into the handling of Ruby Princess' arrival in Sydney, while also attempting to usher remaining cruise ships off the coast out of Australian waters. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and Health Minister Brad Hazzard have defended the decisions to allow the cruise ship to dock, saying the level of influenza on board was 'low risk' NSW Police have ordered other cruise ships remaining in NSW waters to leave in the largest peacetime marine operation in Australia's history Spectrum of the Seas (pictured on Saturday morning) has now left Australia to go home, after an unprecedented maritime operation Operation Nemesis is the largest maritime operation in Australian peacetime history. The first of five ships were led out of NSW waters on Friday afternoon, after receiving medical and food supplies for the 1,100 crew that remain stranded onboard. From 4.30pm on Friday, it saw NSW Police officers board cruise ships sitting in and around Sydney Harbour and order them to leave the waters. Only the Ruby Princess remains in the area, sitting off the coast at Stanwell Tops - an hour south of Sydney. It comes after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she didn't want to point fingers at a time of crisis and would leave NSW Police Commission Mick Fuller to investigate. 'I'll let the police commissioner get to the bottom of it. I don't think it helps anybody to point fingers and play the blame game,' she told reporters on Friday. 'Let [Mr Fuller] do his investigations and let him tell us who is responsible.' An additional 21 people have died of covid-19 in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, officials announced on Saturday, marking the region's largest one-day jump in fatalities since the novel coronavirus pandemic began. The figure brings the region's cumulative death toll to 126, double the number of victims just four days ago. Total reported case numbers swelled to 6,442, with 911 new infections identified. As in the rest of the United States, cases reported by the three jurisdictions are probably gross underestimates of actual infections because of the limited number of tests being conducted. The record death count came a day after District Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, delivered a sobering forecast of the pandemic's path through the nation's capital, warning that 93,000 people - one in seven District residents - might contract the virus. It capped a week in which Maryland, Virginia and the District all ordered residents to stay in and around their homes except for necessary errands. In neighboring Montgomery County, meanwhile, officials said Saturday they were witnessing early signs of strain to their medical resources. Twice in recent days, ventilators have been transported between hospitals or from the county's emergency management service to a hospital to cope with a surge of patients with severe respiratory problems, according to Earl Stoddard, director of the county's Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. "We haven't tipped the scale yet," Stoddard said. "But we're seeing enough action to register that the surge is coming." County officials estimate that they will need 600 more hospital beds than they now have to treat the patients who could flood hospitals as the virus spreads. They toured the recently closed Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park with the Army Corps of Engineers and hope to reopen the 178-bed facility. County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, said recently that the federal government's failure to make tests for the virus widely available meant that local hospitals probably would confront a wave of sick patients before the true extent of infections was known. "The [tests] are going to come," Elrich said in a virtual town hall, "but we're going to hit a surge here before they come." Spiking infections and deaths in the Washington region mirror trends across the country. Officials announced at least 1,088 new deaths nationwide from covid-19 on Saturday, bringing the U.S. death toll to 8,175. More than 300,000 infected patients have been identified across the country. Officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia are using different models to project the harm done by covid-19 - the disease caused by the novel coronavirus - in the coming months. All say the worst is yet to come. District officials anticipate that hospitalized patients will peak in late June or early July. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, has said infections in the commonwealth would peak between late April and late May, but he has not released specific predictions about fatalities or hospitalizations. Maryland officials say they are still examining models of the disease's course and have not released projections. Schools are shuttered in all three jurisdictions, but only in Virginia has the closure been formally extended through the end of the academic year. In a potential sign of longer-lasting closures elsewhere, however, the private Sidwell Friends School on Saturday announced that it would not reopen this academic year. The school has campuses in Northwest Washington and Bethesda. "The situation is difficult for everyone, but today I am feeling especially sad for our students, who are deeply missed by all of us," Bryan Garman, Sidwell's head of school, wrote in a letter to families. Garman wrote that the school's board made the decision Friday after consulting with public health experts, and that a committee would determine how to celebrate the graduating senior class. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, called for a statewide moment of prayer and reflection at noon on Palm Sunday to show respect for the sick, the dead and for health-care workers and others whose jobs expose them to the threat of infection. "Regardless of your own faith or beliefs, each and every one of us is now being asked to make sacrifices that may very well help us save the lives of others," Hogan said. In the District, officials on Saturday raised more secular considerations, releasing a guide to safe sex amid the pandemic. "Consider not kissing anyone you do not know or who you are not sure has been isolated for 14 days," the primer recommends, among other tips. Businesses across the region have been hit hard by the pandemic. Those not deemed essential for day-to-day needs have been forced to close. But in Washington, one business that falls into the essential category - Calvert Woodley Fine Wines & Spirits - has opted to shut its doors voluntarily. Owner Michael Sands said business has boomed since the arrival of the novel coronavirus: In mid-March, shortly before the large liquor store switched to curbside pickup and delivery only, Sands estimated that his sales were up more than 60 percent. On St. Patrick's Day, there were about 800 customers in the store, compared to the usual 500, he said. But on Saturday at 5 p.m., Sands planned to close temporarily. For now, he said, he will continue paying his 48 employees. "Everyone has been told to stay home and keep distance, and our employees are all here," he said. "We don't have customers in the store. . . . So I thought: If everyone is home, and we can protect our employees, why not?" Sands said he had been thinking for a while about how to close, but he was concerned about putting people out of work even as the business - unlike so many - was still making money. He was waiting to find out whether the store qualified for coronavirus-related federal loans, and he thinks the new paycheck-protection program will cover his payroll while the store is closed. "If I had unlimited funds, I would have closed a few weeks ago, but that's not reality and I didn't want to put 48 employees - including some that have been here longer than me - on the unemployment line," he said. - - - The Washington Post's Perry Stein, Ovetta Wiggins and Lori Aratani contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, April 5, 2020 19:30 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fdc680 1 World COVID-19,Australia,Indonesian-students,Indonesian-Embassy Free As countries around world face the COVID-19 pandemic, some Indonesian students said that they felt safer staying in Australia, despite Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisons statement that international students make their way home. On Friday, Morrison advised holiday visa holders and foreign students who are unable to support themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic to return to their home countries as the country looks to reserve economic aid for its own citizens. "As much as it's lovely to have visitors to Australia in good times, at times like this, if you are a visitor in this country, it is time [] to make your way home, Morrison after a Cabinet meeting on Friday, as quoted by Australian public broadcaster ABC. Despite the prime ministers statement, Dian Dini Primadani, the vice president Indonesian Student Association (PPIA) in South Australia, said that around 160 students in the state chose to stay put as they felt safer. She added that some students that have gone back to Indonesia before the pandemic cannot go back to Australia now, forcing them to postpone their studies. Several Indonesian students said they chose to stay because they felt that Australia has better healthcare capabilities. Because if I go home in Indonesia the conditions are the same, or maybe even worse right? Nadiah Ghina Shabrina, a 22-year old Indonesian studying for a masters degree at the University of Technology Sydney told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. Nadiah felt that the hospitals in Australia were more capable, adding that going home might risk contracting the disease during travel and endangering her family back in Indonesia. I feel safer here, she said. As of Sunday, Indonesia has announced 2,273 confirmed cases, with 191 deaths, while Australia has recorded 5,687 cases, but only 35 deaths. Marissa Devi, a 27-year old student pursuing her masters degree at the University of South Australia in Adelaide echoed Dians sentiments. I personally feel safer here, specifically South Australia. A few days ago, it was reported that the state was the best for COVID-19 testing worldwide, she said. My parents have asked me to go home, but I feel that, in Jakarta, the risk of contracting the disease is even greater, not to mention the limited capacity for testing. Indonesia has only tested 7,986 people as of Saturday, while Australia has tested more than 260,000 people. The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, however, advised Indonesian citizens with travelers and working holiday visas to immediately arrange a return trip to Indonesia following the Prime Ministers statement. Embassy spokesperson Billy Wibisono said that the embassy and consulates would keep track of Indonesian nationals holding working holiday visas that needed help while continuing to aid ones that have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Australia. The Scottsbluff Police Department has seen an increase in permits, even with shorter hours and staff, Chief Kevin Spencer said. This week, the department changed its processes for accepting permits. In the second week of March, he said, the department had nine applications and saw that triple to 27 applications last week. To date, he said, numbers are showing an increase compared to the same time last year. As of March 25, the department had processed 77 applications since the beginning of the year. In all of 2019, the department issued a total of 237 gun permits. This week, the department did change its operations, with offices closed to the public and people asked to make an appointment, Information about obtaining a permit is available at http://www.scottsbluff.org/departments/public_safety/departments/police.php on the City of Scottsbluff Website. . Gering Police Department From the beginning of March 1 through March 26, the Gering Police Department processed 36 permits. Holthus said that permit applications are steadily increasing, with 70 permits already processed through March 25, compared to 45 permits at the same time last year. By PTI NEW DELHI: Exporters body for carpet sector CEPC has sought a special incentive package from the government as the labour intensive sector is facing huge problem due to the lockdown and coronavirus pandemic. Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) Chairman Siddh Nath Singh said all the carpet units are completely closed in India, including the major areas like Agra, Mirzapur, Varanasi and Bhadohi, and there is no movement of transport. "We may loose Rs 2,000 crore in our exports due to this lockdown. Our consingments are ready in units but we can take that to ports for shipments. The sector is also facing issues related to cancellation of orders in the US and Europe," he said. The US and Europe accounts for about 90 per cent of carpet exports and both the regions are severely affected by this deadly virus, Singh said, adding due to the current crisis "our exports may reach only Rs 10,000 crore by end of this fiscal. Last year, we had exported worth Rs 12,500 crore". "We urge the government to announce a special package for handlooms, handicrafts and carpets as all these sectors are inter-mingled and are facing issues due to the lockdown. Together they employ lakhs of people. Buyers have also stopped payments," Singh added. On allowing units to operate with limited workforce to help the sector, he said labours and unit owners are "very scared" of the virus and they will not come to factories in such a scenario. Banks should be given clear instructions to deal with the sector softly as problems of NPAs may arise after the return of normalcy, he added. Actor Mark Wahlberg is the latest celebrity to sing H-E-B's praises during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a video shared to Facebook, Wahlberg thanked the Texas grocery giant for helping customers through the difficult times brought on by the virus. READ MORE: The latest news and features about coronavirus in San Antonio "Hey everybody at H-E-B, I want to say thank you for manning the frontlines for us and doing a great job at keeping us all stocked with all of the things we need to survive," he said in the video. H-E-B was not immediately available to comment on the video and how it came about. Though Wahlberg is not a Texas resident or native, he has ties to the Lone Star State through the restaurant he shares with his brothers Donnie and Paul Wahlberg. The family opened Wahlburgers, a burger joint, in Frisco last October. The actor recognized the hard work employees have been tasked with since news of the virus created a rush on supplies. Grocery stores have experienced a surge of customers while working to maintain social distancing and keeping shelves stocked. RELATED: Arnold Schwarzenegger says H-E-B's coronavirus emergency readiness is a 'masterclass' in what to do "You're so amazing," Wahlberg told H-E-B workers. The Facebook video, posted by user Sara S Hernandez on Thursday, has generated responses by the thousands. More appreciation for the store flooded the comments section on the post. The shout-out comes on the heels of praise from action film-star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who called H-E-B's readiness a "masterclass" in how to prepare after he learned from a Texas Monthly article that the company started planning in mid-January. Madalyn Mendoza is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @MaddySkye MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: : The Andhra Pradesh Medi-Tech Zone (AMTZ) is getting active, after a long spell of lull, to produce ventilators and Covid-19 testing kits that are critical in fighting the pandemic. The Centre has already placed an order for 3,500 ventilators and the assembling of the units will start from April 15, according to the Andhra Special Chief Secretary (Industries and Commerce) Rajat Bhargava. "The AMTZ will start with a capacity of making 3,000 ventilators during April and scale it up to 6,000 per month from May," Bhargava told. Hindustan Lifecare Limited (HLL) would assist in the assembly of the ventilators. Besides, 10,000 Covid-19 testing kits would be manufactured every week from Monday and the capacity would be increased to 25,000 kits a week by May. "The required plant and machinery is being moved into Visakhapatnam for this and this could increase based on demand," the Special Chief Secretary added. Medical equipment manufacturing is a critical area that requires about 700 to 2,000 parts, most of which have to be imported from different international sources. For ventilators, turbines, blenders, humidifiers, compressors are some of the critical components that have to be sourced from various allied sectors. "Medical equipment manufacturing requires technology integration, assembly, quality control, testing and validation. TUV Rheiland of Germany is taking care of the testing part," Bhargava said. The Indian Council of Medical Research has approved the kits to be manufactured at the AMTZ while the Drug Controller General of India granted exemption from all manufacturing approvals for ventilators in view of the current crisis. "With the support of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, we have selected six companies in the phase-1. The Centre is trying for more financial support for the project to accommodate larger number of partners," the Special Chief Secretary added. The state government, on its part, released Rs 30 crore and the Centre Rs 8 crore towards equipment and other infrastructure building in the AMTZ. The Principal Scientific Advisor has written to AP Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seeking to make the AMTZ the National Implementing Agency for medical equipment and the latter consented to create all required facilities for it. "The Asian Development Bank has come forward to extend a Rs 300 crore assistance for the expansion of AMTZ. Accordingly, we will soon take up the phase-2 of the project in 200 acres and about 177 companies will set up their units to manufacture various critical medical equipment that will make India self-reliant," Bhargava said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mammootty, the megastar of Malayalam cinema, is totally busy in his acting career with some highly promising projects lining up. The senior actor, who has always been extremely encouraging towards the new-age filmmakers, is reportedly joining hands with Omar Lulu, the Oru Adaar Love fame director, for his next outing. The latest reports, from believable sources, suggest that Mammootty has already given a green signal to Omar Lulu. As per the updates, the untitled project, which is scripted by the senior filmmaker Dennis Joseph, is a complete mass entertainer. Dennis Joseph is the writer of some of the biggest hits of the megastar's career, including New Delhi and Nair Saab. Initially, when the speculations regarding Mammootty's association with Omar Lulu started doing the rounds, it was rumoured that the project will be an adult comedy in the director's signature style. But the latest reports suggest that the Mammootty-Omar Lulu project will be a clean entertainer. Mammootty is currently all set to release his upcoming political thriller One this summer. The movie, which was originally slated to be released by the second week of April 2020 as a Vishu release, was postponed due to the all India lockdown. The megastar appears as the Kerala Chief Minister in the movie, which is directed by Santhosh Viswanath. The senior actor is expected to complete the filming of the upcoming mystery thriller The Priest, which is directed by newcomer Jofin T Chacko. The movie, which features Mammootty in the role of a priest, features lady superstar Manju Warrier and young actress Nikhila Vimal as the female leads. After completing The Priest, Mammootty will kickstart the shooting of the highly anticipated Amal Neerad directorial, Bilal. The movie, which is a sequel to the popular action thriller Big B, will have the megastar reprising the highly-celebrated character, Bilal John Kurissinkal. Five militants and three soldiers were killed as the Army foiled an infiltration bid by terrorists along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, a defence spokesperson said on Sunday. "In an ongoing anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of north Kashmir, alert troops braving inclement weather and hostile terrain have so far eliminated five terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the LoC," Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. During the operation, a soldier died while two were critically injured, he said. Despite inclement weather, the two injured were evacuated, but they succumbed to their injuries, the spokesperson said. "Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," he said, adding the operation was still in progress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scientists know that coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV-19 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, can remain infectious for days -- or even longer -- in sewage and drinking water. Two researchers, Haizhou Liu, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of California, Riverside; and Professor Vincenzo Naddeo, director of the Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division at the University of Salerno, have called for more testing to determine whether water treatment methods are effective in killing SARS-CoV-19 and coronaviruses in general. The virus can be transported in microscopic water droplets, or aerosols, which enter the air through evaporation or spray, the researchers wrote in an editorial for Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, a leading environmental journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgent need for a careful evaluation of the fate and control of this contagious virus in the environment. Environmental engineers like us are well positioned to apply our expertise to address these needs with international collaborations to protect public health." Haizhou Liu, associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of California, Riverside During a 2003 SARS outbreak in Hong Kong, a sewage leak caused a cluster of cases through aerosolization. Though no known cases of COVID-19 have been caused by sewage leaks, the novel coronavirus is closely related to the one that causes SARS, and infection via this route could be possible. The novel coronavirus could also colonize biofilms that line drinking water systems, making showerheads a possible source of aerosolized transmission. This transmission pathway is thought to be a major source of exposure to the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease, for example. Fortunately, most water treatment routines are thought to kill or remove coronaviruses effectively in both drinking and wastewater. Oxidation with hypochlorous acid or peracetic acid, and inactivation by ultraviolet irradiation, as well as chlorine, are thought to kill coronaviruses. In wastewater treatment plants that use membrane bioreactors, the synergistic effects of beneficial microorganisms and the physical separation of suspended solids filter out viruses concentrated in the sewage sludge. Liu and Naddeo caution, however, that most of these methods have not been studied for effectiveness specifically on SARS-CoV-19 and other coronaviruses, and they have called for additional research. They also suggest upgrading existing water and wastewater treatment infrastructure in outbreak hot spots, which possibly receive coronavirus from places such as hospitals, community clinics, and nursing homes. For example, energy-efficient, light-emitting, diode-based, ultraviolet point-of-use systems could disinfect water before it enters the public treatment system. Potable water-reuse systems, which purify wastewater back into tap water, also need thorough investigation for coronavirus removal, and possibly new regulatory standards for disinfection, the researchers wrote. The extent to which viruses can colonize biofilms is also not yet known. Biofilms are thin, slimy bacterial growths that line the pipes of many aging drinking water systems. Better monitoring of coronaviruses in biofilms might be necessary to prevent outbreaks. The surge in household use of bactericides, virucides and disinfectants will probably cause an increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. Treated wastewater discharged into natural waterways demands careful monitoring through the entire water cycle. Liu and Naddeo call on chemists, environmental engineers, microbiologists, and public health specialists to develop multidisciplinary and practical solutions for safe drinking water and healthy aquatic environments. Lastly, developing countries and some regions within highly developed nations, such as rural and impoverished communities, which lack the basic infrastructure to remove other common contaminants might not be able to remove SARS-CoV-19 either. These places might experience frequent COVID-19 outbreaks that spread easily through globalized trade and travel. Liu and Naddeo suggest governments of developed countries must support and finance water and sanitation systems wherever they are needed. "It is now clear to all that globalization also introduces new health risks. Where water and sanitation systems are not adequate, the risk of finding novel viruses is very high," Naddeo said. "In a responsible and ideal scenario, the governments of developed countries must support and finance water and sanitation systems in developing countries, in order to also protect the citizens of their own countries." Hong Kong: Gov't explains group gathering ban The Secretary for Food & Health has prohibited group gatherings of more than four people in public places from March 29 to April 11 in accordance with the Prevention & Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation. The Government made the statement today in response to media enquiries concerning a gathering involving a Legislative Councillor and some 40 people in a bar on the night of April 2. It was alleged the bar, with its gate halfway closed, was not in business during the time of the gathering and that participants had maintained social distancing. According to the Prevention & Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation, a public place is one that members of the public or some members of the public can access or are permitted access from time to time. Even for private properties, if members of the public or some members of the public are allowed access from time to time, such as food premises, bars and cinemas, such private premises fall under the definition of a public place and the requirements of prohibiting group gatherings would be applicable. Whether the group gathering in the bar concerned was conducted in a public place therefore depends on the actual situation. If the situation at that time allowed members of the public to enter the bar premises, it might fulfil the definition of a public place and the requirements of prohibiting group gatherings under the regulation could be applicable. As stipulated in the regulation, anybody who participates in or organises a prohibited group gathering or owns, controls or operates the place of the gathering, and knowingly allows the gathering to take place, is committing an offence. Offenders are liable to a fine of $25,000 and six months imprisonment. There are 12 exempted group gatherings to the regulation. One exemption applies to group gatherings for performing any duty of a statutory body or an advisory body of the Government. A group gathering necessary for the proceedings in the Legislative Council or a District Council is another exempted group. However, it must be pointed out that LegCo is not a statutory body or an advisory body of the Government. Legislative Councillors participating in or organising group gatherings at occasions outside the council, whether or not as a function of the LegCo, are not exempted by the regulation. Premises such as bars are high-risk venues in spreading the virus, the Government said, noting that among the 573 confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded between March 19 and April 1, 132 were local infections. Of these local infections, 69 involved bars and similar premises, including 28 cases in which patients had visited different bars in Central. In addition, there had been cluster outbreaks involving customers and performing bands of bars in Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui. In light of these cases, the Secretary for Food & Health required on April 2 that premises including bars and pubs be closed for a specified period in accordance with the Prevention & Control of Disease (Requirements & Directions) (Business & Premises) Regulation. The Government said the legislative intent in prohibiting group gatherings is to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, noting that crowd gatherings are activities that pose risks to the lives and health of the participants and other people. Organisers of these gatherings are liable to relevant legal responsibilities, including criminal liability, it added. This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Water woes and a lack of funding are among the many problems said to be affecting residents Every day at 11.30am, the Spanish Health Ministry gives an update on how the coronavirus outbreak is developing in Spain. But its report on the latest figures of deaths, cases and hospitalizations is far from a complete picture of the crisis. The number of cases does not reflect the true amount of infections in the country, which is unknown, nor all the fatalities caused by the coronavirus. It is not even clear what is meant by the figure of intensive care admissions. Fernando Rodriguez Artalejo, professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, says that the best figure to go by is the number of hospital admissions, and that this is what guides specialists when it comes time to make decisions. But is it possible to slow the pandemic without knowing how many people are infected nor how? There are measures that we know work beyond these limitations, such as social distancing, respiratory etiquette and hygiene. But it is important to have more precise figures to know how to modify the measures that have been taken, explains Artalejo. According to Pedro Gullon, the spokesperson for the Spanish Epidemiology Association, the more accurate the figures, the easier it is to create suitable action plans. Each figure that is published daily is a partial photo. If there was some contradiction, we would have to question whether they were correct. But as they are all heading in the same direction, together they give us a picture that more or less reflects the trend, he explains. Cases This is perhaps the most unrealistic number reported. Even if it were to be accurate, it would be, by its very nature, out of date: more than a week can go by between a person contracting the disease, beginning to present symptoms, asking for a test and receiving the results. Whats more, since the local transmission of the coronavirus began to increase, the ability to test suspected cases has reduced, meaning that only serious cases are tested. Thats why experts believe the number of confirmed cases could be 10 times higher than what has been reported. A study from Imperial College London estimates that up to seven million people in Spain could be infected, although national experts doubt the figure is that high. Intensive care admissions The number of intensive care admissions is doubly skewed. On the one hand, the strain on intensive care units (ICUs) has meant that these wards have become increasingly restrictive about which patients are admitted. Medical guidelines recommend that doctors prioritize patients with the greatest chance of survival. Coronavirus patients who are admitted into ICUs require artificial respiration, an invasive and aggressive process that is not recommended for fragile cases. But ICUs have become so overwhelmed that in some instances they have not admitted patients who would have been under other circumstances. On the other hand, each region in Spain has its own way of reporting the number of ICU admissions. While some count the number of patients admitted since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, others provide a daily view of how many are in the ICU at a given moment. The final figure reported by the Health Ministry in its daily report is a mix of these two methods. Deaths Although the number of coronavirus deaths should be the most accurate, the figure does not reflect all fatalities caused by the disease. Those who have died in their homes or in senior residences without being tested for Covid-10 are not included in the official coronavirus death toll. Indeed, there are still no official figures on how many seniors have died in care homes a number that could be in the thousands. A report published by the Health Institute of the Carlos III University also found an increase in overall deaths during the coronavirus crisis. This could be for various reasons: an overwhelmed healthcare system that does not have the resources to help other patients, or sick people deciding not to go to hospital and dying as a result. Testing The Spanish government insists that it is testing between 15,000 and 20,000 people a day. But it is not clear when this began or how many people in total have been tested. Nor does Spain report how many people have tested positive and negative for Covid-19, figures that other countries do provide. On March 22, the Health Ministry announced that it had completed 350,000 tests. That same week, Health Minister Salvador Illa repeated the number: We have done at least 350,000 tests. Adding to the confusion is the issue of fast tests. For two weeks, the Health Ministry has been announcing the imminent release of fast testing, but it is unclear whether they have been rolled out on a large scale. In other words, the public has no idea how many tests have been done in Spain. Health workers The number of health workers who are in isolation because they have contracted the coronavirus or are a suspected case is also unknown. Every so often, the Health Ministry reports how many health workers have tested positive since the beginning of the outbreak. On Tuesday the number was nearly 12,300. But the number of health workers who are awaiting tests or test results has never been reported. Nor how many have returned to work after recovering from the disease. English version by Melissa Kitson. By Mark Peterson The fifth point on my top 10 list of evidence for calling Korean history peaceful and stable is the nature of the border with China. The Amnok River (perhaps better known by the Chinese term, Yalu River) has been the border with China for over 1,000 years. I am indebted to Prof. David Kang at USC for this insight. He, as I, have been advocating for an interpretation of Korean culture that emphasizes the peaceful aspects of Korean history. In one of Kang's YouTube videos he presented the idea that the Amnok River is one of the oldest, unchanged borders in world history. Now, this statement requires a little qualification. The lower reaches of the Amnok became the border between the Korean state of Goryeo (918-1392) and the states of Song (9601279) and Yuan (12711368) of China. We can't really claim that the border was recognized from the beginning of the Goryeo period, because things were somewhat unsettled. The Silla northern border was not as far north as the Amnok River, rather, it was in the Pyongyang area. But Goryeo was built of a combination of Silla, with elements of the northern state of Balhae (Parhae), which was a remnant of the old state of Goguryeo. At its outset, Goryeo was called "Hugoguryeo", or the "Later Goguryeo" kingdom. With growing Chinese influence, the "Altaic" polysyllabic nature of language was considered less-cultured than mono-syllabic and duo-syllabic terms, typical of Chinese proper nouns. So, it is said, they dropped the "hu" and they dropped the "gu" and Goryeo was what was left. More importantly, for our purpose today, the northern reach of Goryeo gave them access to the Amnok River. The border did not follow the Amnok all the way to the northeast to its source in Baekdusan, the famous mountain that is the headwaters the Amnok and Tuman rivers. The mountain is also, in a spiritual sense, the headwaters of Korean civilization. Several birth myths, including that of North Korea's Kim Jong-il, as well as ancient figures claim to have been born on Mount Paektu. The border between China and North Korea is somewhat in contention, with the Chinese claiming more of the border than the Koreans agree to. And the Chinese have their own name for the mountain Jangbaishan ("long white mountain"). The Korean Paektusan is "white head mountain." The lower stretch of the Amnok River, at least, has been the border since some point in the mid-10th century. By the end of the Goryeo period, by the late 14th century, the border became the full length of the river. Also at that point, the northeastern border became the Tuman River, making it also one of the oldest borders in the world. With over 600 years as a border, it, too, is on the list of oldest borders. I'm not an expert in world history and I haven't done research on other borders, so I admit my knowledge is all "secondary." But in looking at other long-held borders the other end of China, it has one the border between China and Vietnam. That border, the Red River, has been in place since the 11th century. European borders have moved frequently, many within the last century. The border between Portugal and Spain has been in place since the 13th century. Look at the really entertaining websites that show how Europe has changed year-by-year. I'm not prepared to rank the ages of all the borders of the world. Someone else can do that. But I am prepared to say that because of the exceptional antiquity of the Amnok River as a border, certainly one of the oldest, if not the oldest, we have another piece of evidence of Korea having a stable and peaceful history. Yes, there were conflicts across the border. The Mongols came across in the 13th century. The Manchus came across in the 17th century. There were skirmishes (I use that word advisedly to imply that the fighting was relatively minor) between the Goryeo court and the Jurchens and the Khitans. But basically the border held, meaning the lower stretch of the Amnok, but the upper stretches were unsettled. They were really what Prof. Kang likes to distinguish as a "frontier" rather than a "border." He makes an interesting argument about the differences between an ambiguous "frontier" and an established political entity that separates states, a border. The point of this writing is to show that Korean history has been remarkably peaceful, contrary to popular views of Korea as a war-torn land. This is another brick in the wall, another piece of evidence in my "Top Ten Evidences of Peaceful Stable Korea." This is No.5. More to follow. Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah. As the COVID-19 challenge is getting bigger with each passing day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday widened the ambit of political discussions three days before he is slated to interact with floor leaders of political parties in Parliament. Besides Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi, who had written to the Prime Minister on the COVID-19 challenge, Modi called two former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil and two former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda to discuss the menace. Follow live updates on coronavirus In the backdrop of COVID-19 having spread its tentacles now across India, the Prime Minister also spoke to a number of leaders of different political parties from states in North and South. They include at least three former Chief Ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab), three Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) K Chandrasekhar Rao (Telangana) and DMK leader M K Stalin. There has been criticism that the government has not taken the Opposition parties into confidence in drafting the strategy to counter COVID-19 disease. On Saturday, when the government announced that the Prime Minister will interact with floor leaders of political parties having at least five MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha combined, Trinamool Congress raised the red flag saying that its demands to discuss the issue in Parliament was not accepted and hence, it will not participate in the interaction. Modi's move to rope in senior leaders of political parties is expected to smoothen the rough edges and help evolve a political consensus on fighting COVID-19. The main Opposition party, Congress has in the last few weeks repeatedly trained guns on Modi dispensation over the spread COVID-19 and the government's strategy to counter it and particularly, its handling of migrants on move after the announcement of 21-day lockdown to check the disease spread. The lockdown came into effect from the midnight of March 24. Just three months after announcing their intent to resign from their roles within the British royal family, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry have completed Megxit. The duo has left the U.K. for a permanent home in Los Angeles, California where they will forge a new life for themselves in Hollywood. When the Sussexes were first engaged in November 2017, they seemed eager and able to take on royal life with a modern twist. Unfortunately, due to the duchess outspoken, feminism, American nationality, and mixed-race heritage, she came up against tons of pushback. No matter what she and the prince did, the British press and public refused to embrace her. Though Megxit was shocking to some, its almost no surprise that the Sussexes found royal life intolerable. Now, a documentary claims the pair should look to Princess Anne for a model on approaching royal life. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle agonized over leaving the British royal family Though the news of Megixt came out of nowhere for us, the Sussexes did not make the decision on a whim. The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly, Prince Harry said during a speech at a dinner for his charity, Sentebale. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I havent always got it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option. In the end, the pair could not live a happy life while being scrutinized and bullied at every turn. Theres lots of layers to it and lots of pieces to the puzzle, the prince reportedly said. But sometimes the right decision isnt always the easy one. And this decision certainly wasnt the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son. Meghan: Its not enough just to survive something, right? Thats not the point of life. She says shes tried to adopt the British stuff upper lip but what that does internally is probably really damaging #HarryandMeghan pic.twitter.com/GLGB8qzguF Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) October 20, 2019 Meghan Markle tried to adopt a stiff upper lip Since Queen Elizabeth IIs reign began in 1952, it has been royal policy to ignore rumors and drama and to adopt a stiff upper lip. The queen has certainly mastered this, as have Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and the Cambridges. However, for the Duchess of Sussex who was wholly new to royal life, this became too challenging. The pair sued several tabloids for spreading malicious lies about the duchess and for publishing her personal correspondence with her father. Its not enough just to survive something, right? Thats not the point of life, Meghan explained in the revealing documentary, Harry and Meghan: An African Journey. The duchess also explained that she tried to adopt the British stiff upper lip but what that does internally is probably really damaging Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could have used Princess Annes approach to royal life One royal expert is claiming that Megixt didnt need to happened had the Sussexes modeled Princess Annes approach to royal life. Unlike many others in the family, [Princess Annes] never gone in for image-building with the media, so theres been no facade to crumble away, the narrator says in the Channel 4 documentary, The Real Princess Anne. Its one area in which shes perhaps content to be outclassed by her rivals. [Annes] had her share of indiscretions, but shes handled them discreetly and with dignity. For much of her life, shes been eclipsed by her older brother, but the more daunting the burden on the House of Windsor, the more the black sheep of the family has come into her own. This is all well and good, but the princess came-of-age in a different time, and as the Duchess of Sussex explained, not everyone is built to tune out the media. A tour of the city is never complete without a visit to the iconic Victoria Memorial and this includes a ride around the majestic structure in Maidan area on a gleaming horse carriage. But the area is deserted now due to the lockdown as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, except for many horses, turned pale due to lack of care, loitering around. More than 100 horses, which in normal circumstances draw beautifully bedecked carriages for tourists and city-dwellers on a day out, or carry children on their backs during joyrides around the famous Victoria Memorial here, are now an abandoned lot, said Ajay Daga, a senior member of People For Animals (PFA). The NGO has come forward to feed these animals till the situation normalises, Daga said on Sunday. "I got a phone call from Mrs Maneka Gandhi on Friday enquiring about the condition of the horses," Daga said. The former Union minister, known to be an avid animal lover, has assured assistance to PFA in taking care of these animals whenever required, he said. "At present, PFA is feeding horses with the help of public donations," Daga told PTI. While some of the owners of the horses have gone back to their native states in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by abandoning the animals since the lockdown began, some have stayed back, of whom, only a few are taking care of their horses. "Even when the lockdown is lifted, who will be there to ride our carriages since there will be no tourist for sometime thereafter," Salim, one of the owners said. Daga said the PFA has funds to feed horses only for the next seven days. The cost of feeding the horses is around Rs 15,000 per day. "We have decided to feed the stray horses till the situation normalises after the lockdown is lifted," he said. Daga said that city-headquartered Emami Group's joint-chairman, R S Goenka, who is a trustee of the PFA, chips in whenever there is any requirement. Local councillor Susmita Bhattacharya said the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is filling the troughs, near the Victoria Memorial, built to store drinking water for the animals. "As a local councillor, I got information that more than 100 horses have been abandoned by their owners and were loitering in the maidan area, following which I had contacted the NGO for feeding the animals," she said. She said that a sack of fodder, which normally costs Rs 800 to Rs 850, is now costing Rs 1,150. "I got a call from a senior official at the West Bengal State Secretariat 'Nabanna' inquiring about the condition of the horses and he has assured that the government will do the needful to ensure that the animals are taken care of," Bhattacharya said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Special Adviser to the Governor of Nasarawa State on Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development Mr. John Waje Mamman, has been kidnapped. Mamman was kidnapped around 8pm on Saturday in his house at Dari, in Kokona Local Government Area of the state. It was gathered that Mamman, along side his associates in the community were relaxing in his compound as a result of unfriendly weather, when kidnappers invaded his house and whisked him away. It was learnt the kidnappers surrounded his house and started shooting sporadically, making his friends scampared for safety. But Mamman was not lucky as they seized him. No communication has been established with his relations. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates March 7, 1919: As of the previous day, more than 100 cases of Spanish flu were reported in North Platte and 35 houses were under quarantine (Tribune). March 11, 1919: Betty Beckman died March 7 of Brights disease aggravated by influenza (Telegraph). March 25, 1919: Mr. and Mrs. Herman Thoelecke both succumbed to the flu, with Mrs. Thoelecke dying March 12 and her husband March 19. Five children were orphaned (Tribune). March 27, 1919: The Telegraph reports that Gothenburg had imposed a strict quarantine citywide, again closing schools, churches, "picture shows and all public gatherings." April 8, 1919: The third and final wave finally is subsiding, with the Tribune reporting: "There are yet a few cases of the flu in town, but physicians no longer report them and no attempt is made to quarantine them. The disease caused a greater toll in North Platte than any disease we have ever had." The summation May 24, 1919: The Telegraph says 201 people died of influenza and 52 from pneumonia in 1918 in Lincoln County, putting the pandemics likely 1918 death toll at 200 to 250. The 1920 U.S. census would list Lincoln Countys population at 25,627, indicating the pandemic killed nearly 1% of the population in 1918. A pregnant woman was denied admission into Janana Hospital here allegedly citing her religion as the ground. Following which the woman delivered the baby in the ambulance but the infant died. Her husband Irfan Khan said, "My wife complained of pain, I rushed to Sikri from where she was referred to Janana hospital. I reached there around 8 am but for hours I kept looking for a doctor, there was no one. When finally the doctor came she asked as to what is my name, village and etc." "Later, one madam came and asked my name, on hearing my name she said, 'it implies you are a Muslim, you will not be treated here,' and asked some other doctor to refer us to Jaipur. We hadn't even crossed Bharatpur when my wife delivered the child in the ambulance and my baby died," he added. He has also alleged that when he went back to the hospital after the delivery, the hospital staff misbehaved with him and said that he should go back to Jaipur. Irfan Khan has demanded action against the hospital administration. Dr Rupendra Jha, Principal, Janana Hospital, Bharatpur said, "I will able to say something once the investigation is done. We should be able to get a clear picture in a day." Vishvendra Singh, Rajasthan tourism minister said, "I got to know that some doctor at Janana Hospital Bharatpur, denied admission to the woman in hospital as she was Muslim. Nothing can be shameful than this. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, said there are probably some people dying with covid-19 who are not dying of covid-19. Such misattribution is a problem for any cause of death, he said, but it is a minor issue that is swamped by the opposite problem: deaths that are caused by covid but never attributed, so the death count is underestimated. President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday some sort of accommodation be made for churches so that they could reopen in some fashion for Easter, despite widespread efforts at social distancing and sheltering in place to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. He has reason to think that Pentecostals, some of his core supporters, might be willing to brook - and might even want to defy - medical experts' recommendations and reopen their churches. Most Americans have been social distancing to help limit the growing scourge of covid-19. But some Pentecostal churches and schools continue to stay open and hold services anyway. On Monday, police arrested Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of a Pentecostal megachurch in Florida, for unlawfully holding services last Sunday. Yet, Republican governors in Texas and Florida have more recently given orders exempting churches from stay-at-home bans by categorizing them as essential operations. They did this despite evidence that churches have helped to spread the virus, a sign that distancing measures are becoming another contentious division in our ongoing culture wars. While these choices may imperil congregations, a long history of competition with science predisposes some American Pentecostals (as many as one-fourth of the population) to ignore experts' recommendations for prolonged social distancing. For Pentecostals, who covet authority in public life, their continued importance to the Republican electoral coalition and Trump's presidency offer real opportunities to challenge the scientific community's authority and assert their own. Pentecostals' preoccupation with cultural authority has roots in the revolutionary era. During the 18th century, many American Christians (like most colonists in general) rejected monarchical claims to divine authority and those of the clergy, too, since clergy had proven to be generally supportive of the Crown's authority. During this period, evangelicalism developed a potent populist strain that placed God on the side of the people and their war of independence from the monarchy. During the 19th century, America's radical evangelicals guarded the populist character of the nation as sacred, perceiving unbelief and elitism to be dangerous to the nation's welfare. By the turn of the 20th century, however, the nation was transforming. Older traditions of broad anti-elitism were making way for a burgeoning professional class. The Progressive Era saw engineers, doctors and even clergy becoming increasingly professionalized and oriented around an emerging middle class. Rising urban centers put new professional hierarchies at a physical and cultural distance from the rural, small-town life most Americans of the period were still leading. The resulting religious landscape concentrated denominational power in cities, where preaching newly reflected seminary training, including a denial of miracles, like Jesus' virgin birth. By the 1890s, even ordained Methodist leaders - the faith tradition that best represented the anticlerical, emotion-centered and populist strain of Christianity - were beginning to demand that their congregants desist from public displays of revivalistic emotion and adopt, instead, the controlled manners of the rising middle-class. Radical evangelicals, however, revolted. They saw the rise of a clergy class with centralized leadership as too close to tyranny. Populist evangelicals decried the urbanization of U.S. politics, while they also flooded into campgrounds to stir up the kinds of revivals that the new class of professional clergy were attempting to stamp out. There, rough-hewed preachers, men and women decried the rise of liturgical, clergy-led religion. It was into this context of competition between lower-class and rising middle-class Americans that Pentecostalism embraced new worship styles that challenged authority figures. Speaking in unknown tongues became the movement's calling card, but early Pentecostals also innovated a Holy Spirit who knocked elites off their high horses. True, anyone might find themselves knocked down to the floor by the Spirit's power in early Pentecostal revivals, but it was particularly enjoyable when well-dressed preachers ended up, as one account put it, crying on the floor like little children. Even more importantly, Pentecostals' Holy Spirit gave them spiritual powers over and against some of their most feared elite competitors: doctors. Pentecostals touted the superiority of divine healing over and against medical methods. In a time when bloodletting was still commonly prescribed by professional doctors, Pentecostals not only (understandably) critiqued the efficacy of doctors' cures and the prices they charged for them, they also sharply questioned the authority that doctors purported to wield over the human body. Influential preacher Charles Parham chided patients willing to lay themselves on physicians' "altars" to be (as he put it) "doped, blistered, bled and dissected." Deeming the operating table an altar suggests that early Pentecostals intuited a symmetry between priestly authority and medical authority. They saw miraculous healings as a way to resist the encroaching authority of science. A 1908 edition of the influential "Apostolic Faith" reasoned that medicine was for unbelievers. When they reported healings, early Pentecostals typically first asserted the powerlessness of doctors to help them and then credited their healings to the superior powers of the Great Physician. Pentecostals have extended their opposition to the authority of science in numerous other areas over the past century. In 1924, the Pentecostal circular "The Latter Rain Evangel" featured an article by populist politician William Jennings Bryan that opposed the teaching of evolution because it challenged the all-important authority of the Bible in public life. Jennings Bryan argued belief in God was fundamental to civilization and the greatest political issue facing readers of the time. Over time, Pentecostals' beliefs have remained steady; In response to covid-19, some Pentecostals today are leading the charge to pray for divine healing for those affected over the phone. But evangelicals (of whom they are a part) have lost the battle for cultural authority in American society; science and medicine wield much greater authority, including mandatory vaccines for schoolchildren (with exceptions granted precisely for religious reasons). Enter Trump. He embodies Pentecostals' quest to prioritize religion over science; he defunds scientific expertise in government agencies while promoting prayer in schools, downplays the importance of climate change and has instituted a division of Conscience and Religious Freedom in the Department of Health and Human Services, designed to protect health care providers' right to refuse services in accordance with their consciences. As The Washington Post's Sarah Pulliam Bailey writes, believers welcomed Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, in part, because they interpret climate advocates as trying to push Christianity out of the public square. With his rhetoric about D.C.'s swamp and his embrace of Christian values and policy priorities, Trump has expertly tapped into Pentecostals' long history of populist anti-elitism, skepticism toward expertise and resistance of scientific norms. Pentecostals who believe science should be subordinated to religious commitments in public affairs are gratified by the supportive tenor of Trump's presidency. Covid-19 applies these dynamics to a situation with terrifyingly higher stakes. Responding efficiently to the threats posed by the virus presents an area where there is little room for error; we must all practice social distancing according to the guidance of public health officials and epidemiologists. But the pandemic also presents temptation for believers who desire to assert their power in the ongoing culture wars. To wit, while compliant Pentecostal megachurches counted millions of online viewers on March 30, fringe Pentecostal group Cup & Cross Ministries International argued that distancing requirements infringe on their constitutional rights. And in Louisiana, Pentecostal Pastor Tony Spell has doubled-down on meeting in groups, arguing the virus is politically motivated and that his congregation will assemble no matter what civil authorities say. Alabama's former chief justice and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore will represent Pastor Spell in court, a clear signal of the fusion of religious and political interests in defying public health directives. Moore has reasoned that efforts to ban church gatherings are a form of tyranny that must be resisted. In a time when we must rally around scientific expertise to save lives, the historical anti-elitism of some of Trump's most earnest supporters may predispose Pentecostal believers to assert their freedom instead, dangling a political benefit in front of the self-interested, politically-attuned president to ignore threats to public health. This would be dangerous, and though Trump has backed away from his attempt to reopen the country by Easter, we can't rule out him offering a green light to those pastors still considering in-person Easter services - which could have potentially catastrophic consequences. - - - Ramirez is Director of Applied Research at Auburn Seminary, whose "Faithful Distance" campaign aims to keep churches online during the spread of coronavirus. UK citizens have criticised the governments 75m repatriation programme as too little, too late and too expensive. British tourists seeking to fly home from the Philippines must pay 1,000 for a repatriation flight four times more than travellers flown home from Peru. In normal times, connecting flights via Istanbul cost around 350 one way. The Foreign Office has organised two charter flights from the Filipino capital, Manila, to London Heathrow, to bring back holidaymakers stranded when the country banned international flights in response to the coronavirus crisis. They will use Philippine Airlines rather than any of the UK carriers that have agreed to repatriate British citizens. One aircraft is scheduled to depart at noon on Tuesday 7 April, with a second an hour later. Connecting flights will operate from Cebu, Bohol, Puerto Princesa and Siargao for British travellers in this locations. But some UK citizens say the price is too high. Paul Swords tweeted: Cannot afford it, thank you and good night. Dan Gadsden wrote on Twitter: Russia repat flights 100, Germany 200, France 250. All direct from Cebu. Recommended Peru rescue missions could still leave some UK travellers stranded Follow the precedent set here and subsidise, people cannot afford 1,000. Before the 75m airline was announced, travellers from Peru were offered connecting flights from Cusco and Arequipa to Lima, together with nonstop flights on British Airways to Heathrow. They were not required to pay in advance and instead signed an agreement to repay 250 on arrival in the UK. The rate per mile from Lima to London was 4p. In contrast, travellers from Manila must pay 15p per mile. Novem Abellana tweeted: How about me, an NHS Nurse? I departed Manchester on 9 March and arrived in Cebu on 10 March, the date it was declared pandemic. I had booked two flights for 28 March, but all were cancelled, still waiting refund. Please include me if there are any repatriation, and make it free/cheap. Passengers from India from where seven rescue flights will be operating in the next week are being asked to pay up to 681 one way, a rate of 14p per mile. The Independent has asked the Foreign Office for a response. NASA is set to send its Perseverance rover to Mars later this year. Accompanying this will be a helicopter that is gunning for the title of being the first aircraft to fly on a planet other than Earth. It turns out, the helicopter is the brainchild of an Indian Institute of Technology alumnus named Bob Balaram. Currently at the Kennedy Space Center, having successfully undergone its last round of testing, the helicopter will be taking its next flight in the Martian skies. If and when successful, the flight will mark a new era for human beings, a victory over the skies of other planets with drastically different atmospheric conditions than Earths. A render of the NASA Mars Helicopter (L), Bob Balram (R) It is understandable that the task at hand is not an easy challenge. But the story behind the piece of machine that will attempt the seemingly impossible is no less of an inspiration either. To have an idea of it, know that Balram has been pursuing the idea for more than two decades. The Story Balram first came across the idea of such a helicopter during a professional conference. During the conference, Stanford professor Ilan Kroo, a veteran in robotics technology, spoke about a miniature airborne vehicle for Earth applications called "mesicopter." That is when Balram thought of using the same on a place like Mars. Following on the idea, Balram came up with a joint proposal with Stanford for a NASA Research Announcement submission. He even recruited a small company in Simi Valley, California, called AeroVironment for the same. At the time, the idea only resulted in a blade-rotor test under Mars conditions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA. No further engagement was carried out on it for the next 15 years. Years later, Charles Elachi, former director of JPL, stumbled upon the idea of using a drone on Mars. He was then introduced to Balram post which, creating a concept for Balrams helicopter became a point of focus for NASA for its 2020 mission to Mars. Note that the concept was only meant for technology development and risk reduction at the time. Creating The Helicopter Mimi Aung became the manager of the Mars Helicopter project and got the team working on its risk reduction. Once that was cracked, NASA funded the helicopter for flight as a technology demonstration. Post the funding, the helicopter was planned, developed and built by the team with Balram working as the expert on it. As Aung mentions in a recent report, Bob is the inventor of our Mars Helicopter. He innovated the design and followed up on that vision to its fruition as chief engineer through all phases of design, development and test." She further complements the genius of the IIT alumnus, "Whenever we encountered a technical roadblock -- and we encountered many roadblocks -- we always turned to Bob, who always carries an inexhaustible set of potential solutions to be considered. Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen Bob feeling stuck at any point!" NASA Mars Helicopter (Image: NASA) The Challenge The helicopter is ready for take off on the Martian atmosphere now but it has not been an easy journey for Balram. He recalls the challenges faced during its development, the biggest one being able to create a helicopter that flies in an atmosphere with 1% density as that of earth. He described the construction of the chopper as a perfectly blank canvas, but with restrictions. To envision the task, he compares the Martian conditions to flying on Earth at a 100,000-foot (30,500-meter) altitude. In addition to this, another major challenge was the limited weight that the copter could carry, which also included the weight of its own batteries and radio for communications. Taking all this into account, Balram decided to create a completely new aircraft from scratch, one that behaves like a spacecraft. By the end, he was able to come up with a 1.8-kilogram helicopter with two pairs of light counter-rotating blades spanning across 1.2 meters in diameter. One pair was placed higher than the other and together, the two pairs would be able to lift the helicopter in the air on Mars. The challenge did not end there, as the team now had to come up with a way to test it. That was seemingly impossible on Earth given the gigantic difference in atmospheric density than that on Mars. To overcome this, the team decided to test the helicopter in a vacuum chamber and the 25-foot Space Simulation Chamber at JPL. Surface of Mars (Image: NASA) The Risk Even though the helicopter has completed its testing successfully, it is not a 100% guarantee that it will work just as planned. As per Balram, there will be a risk at every flight that the helicopter takes on the Red planet. The Potential Just as the risks, the rewards are enormous too. If the helicopter operates successfully on Mars, it will be "kind of a Wright Brothers moment on another planet" as per Balram. It will be a first for humans in the history of mankind and a pretty big one at that! In fact, this might pave the way for humans to create aircrafts for any planet other than Earth. So as the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket takes off for Mars later this year, many across the world will have their fingers crossed for a successful mission. After all, this will undoubtedly mark a huge step for mankind in its pursuit to spread to other planets in the galaxy. (With inputs from ANI) Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has suggested to the government to call people with proven expertise and capabilities, including from opposition parties, to deal with perhaps the greatest emergency being faced by the country since Independence following the coronavirus outbreak. He also cautioned that driving everything from the Prime Minister's Office, with the same overworked people, may not be of much help. "There is much to do. The government should call on people with proven expertise and capabilities, of whom there are so many in India, to help it manage its response. It may even want to reach across the political aisle to draw in members of the opposition who have had experience in previous times of great stress like the global financial crisis. "If, however, the government insists on driving everything from the Prime Minister's Office, with the same overworked people, it will do too little, too late," Rajan said in a blog titled "Perhaps India's Greatest Challenge in Recent Times". He said economically, India is probably facing its greatest emergency since Independence. "The global financial crisis in 2008-09 was a massive demand shock, but our workers could still go to work, our firms were coming off years of strong growth, our financial system was largely sound, and our government finances were healthy. "None of this is true today as we fight the coronavirus pandemic," Rajan, who completed his three-year term at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2016, noted. He, however, asserted that with the right resolve and priorities, and drawing on India's many sources of strength, it can beat this virus back, and even set the stage for a much more hopeful tomorrow. Laying out steps the country could take to recover from the economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, Rajan said the immediate priority is to suppress the spread of the pandemic through widespread testing, rigorous quarantines and social distancing. "The 21-day lockdown is a first step, which buys India time to improve its preparedness. The government is drawing on our courageous medical personnel and looking to all possible resources -- public, private, defence, retired -- for the fight, but it has to ramp up the pace manifold," he said, adding that the country will have to significantly increase the number of COVID-19 tests to reduce the fog of uncertainty as regards where the hotspots are. Rajan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, suggested that India should now plan for what happens after the lockdown, if the virus is not defeated. "It will be hard to lock down the country entirely for much longer periods, so we should also be thinking of how we can restart certain activities in certain low-infection regions with adequate precautions," he said. Healthy youngsters, lodged with appropriate distancing in hostels near the workplace, may be the ideal workers for restarting such activities, Rajan pointed out. Noting that in the meantime, India obviously needs to ensure that the poor and non-salaried lower-middle class, who are prevented from working for longer periods, can survive, he said, "Direct transfers to households may reach most but not all, as a number of commentators have pointed out, and the quantum of transfers seems inadequate to see a household through a month." The country is under a 21-day lockdown as part of larger efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Several international agencies have cut in their growth estimates for India in recent days on concerns about the fallout of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to Fitch Ratings, India may post a two-per cent GDP growth in 2020-21, the slowest since the economy was liberalised 30 years ago. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) sees India's economic growth slipping to four per cent in the current fiscal (April, 2020 to March, 2021), while S&P Global Ratings last week further slashed its GDP growth forecast for the country to 3.5 per cent from a previous downgrade of 5.2 per cent. Moody's Investors Service has also slashed its estimate of India's GDP growth during the 2020 calendar year to 2.5 per cent from an earlier estimate of 5.3 per cent and said the coronavirus pandemic will cause an unprecedented shock to the global economy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Gearing up to battle the coronavirus outbreak that's beginning to take hold in the Palestinian territories, the Islamic University of Gaza has opened a hospital that had stood unused since it was completed three years ago. The 180-bed Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital began operating this week after Turkey's parliament approved March 25 an operating budget for the facility. The hospital's construction was completed on the school's Gaza City campus in 2017 with funding from the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), but due to political differences between the West Bank and Gaza, the hospital never operated until now. The private university is close to Hamas, but Turkey and Ramallah had signed a protocol in 2017 that said, Turkish support to the Palestinians will be implemented only through official Palestinian institutions, and through Turkish institutions operating in Palestine in cooperation with official institutions. "Official" means the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah not Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A source at the Ministry of Health in Gaza told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the ministry prefers not to speak to the media about this issue due to its sensitivity. Asked why the hospital had not operated before, he said Turkey officially handed over the hospital in accordance with an agreement signed between it and the PA years ago, but the PA used the hospital as a tool of political blackmail. Saeed al-Namrouti, the university's public relations director, preferred not to talk about the political differences that had prevented the hospital from operating, and stressed that the university is not a party to such differences. In terms of budget and operations, the hospital is completely subject to the Turkish government, represented by TIKA, as it is the one that determines with whom to sign the employment agreement, he said. Opening it at this stage is an achievement for the university and the Palestinian people. I hope that it will remain operational even after the end of the state of emergency. Under the agreement, he said, the Gaza Health Ministry will operate the hospital in coordination with the Palestinian Ministry of Health during the emergency. According to Namrouti, there is no dispute between the health ministries in Ramallah and Gaza over this agreement, as everyone wants to help the Palestinian people avoid the risks and potential consequences of the outbreak of the virus that causes COVID-19. Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a Turkey-based political analyst close to Hamas, told Al-Monitor the PAs attitude is what delayed the hospital's operation in the first place. And now, the hospital's operation by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip will undoubtedly annoy the PA, but the need to unite to fight the coronavirus might help mediate the problem. There is no doubt that the coronavirus crisis helped facilitate and expedite the opening of this hospital, he added. On March 31, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health announced that two more cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed, bringing the total of people infected in the besieged Gaza Strip to 12. In the Palestinian territories, at least 205 cases had been recorded as of April 4. With almost 2 million residents, the 140-square-mile Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and its people suffer under dire living conditions and rampant poverty, leaving them especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al-Monitor, Hamas has reached out to a number of parties led by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Nations to help confront the coronavirus pandemic. He said Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been in direct contact to discuss ways to support Gazans during the crisis. He pointed out that during the last contact between the two on March 20, Erdogan promised Haniyeh that Turkey would help operate the hospital. Of note, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced Dec. 9 that the Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital would open in response to the establishment of a US field hospital in the Gaza Strip. Hamas agreed to that hospital as part of truce understandings with Israel concluded through Egyptian and international mediation, and the plan angered PA President Mahmoud Abbas. From one end of Lagos to the other, funeral home operators, casket makers and mortuary attendants have the same story: COVID-19 has locked us out of business, As public and private cemeteries in Lagos suspend burial activities in compliance with the restriction of movement imposed by the Federal Government, there are reports that the number of corpses in mortuaries is gradually piling up. Punch HealthWise visited Atan Cemetery, Yaba; Apena Cemetery, Ebute Metta; Okesuna Cemetery, Adeniji Adele; BMC Private Cemetery, Yaba and Ikoyi Cemetery, Obalende. All the graveyards visited by their correspondent are devoid of the usual fanfare that attends burial activities. At Atan, probably the oldest cemetery in Nigeria having been built in 1868, has been contending with congestion for a while, workers said. They said it currently has little spaces available for interment, and that the tombs were clustered too close to one another owing to the inadequacy of spaces. Over the years, a larger portion of the graveyard has been secured and run by BMC and Ebony Casket Ventures as private vaults for the elite. Speaking with Punch correspondent, the custodian of Atan graveyard who identified himself simply as Alhaji Sanni attributed the lack of activities at the graveyard to the ongoing COVID-19-induced curfew. We have stopped allowing people to bring corpses for burial here. This will continue until the lockdown imposed by the Federal Government is over. Sanni said those who plan to bury loved ones would have to endure a bit by depositing their bodies at the morgue until the lockdown is over. The closest mortuaries to us here are both in Mainland Hospital in Yaba and General Hospital in Lagos Island. There is also the other option of cremation, even though most Nigerians frown at it, Sanni said. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates WASHINGTON A top health official warned Saturday that the U.S. could see a dramatic increase in coronavirus deaths during the next week in hard-hit areas such as New York, Detroit and Louisiana. Data show that several hundred people per day could die in New York alone in the next six or seven days, said Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo estimated as many as 700 a day when the peak hits, she said. Speaking of New York, Detroit and Louisiana, Birx said, They are predicting in those three hotspots, all of them hitting together in the next six to seven days." Its going to be a very deadly period, unfortunately, President Donald Trump said at a White House news conference. Birx said places like Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C., also are a concern because they are "starting to go on that upside" of the coronavirus mortality curve. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, she said. Military assistance: President Trump says US to deploy 1,000 military personnel to New York City to battle coronavirus Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, warns that the U.S. could see a jump in coronavirus deaths in hard-hit areas such as New York, Detroit and Louisiana in the coming week. The grim predictions by Birx and other health officials came as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus marched to another record-setting pace early Saturday, with nearly 1,200 deaths in 24 hours as federal emergency workers tried to answer desperate pleas for respirators from dozens of states. The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has now topped 297,600, and 8,000 deaths have been reported. Worldwide, more than 1.7 million cases have been confirmed and 63,000 deaths reported. New York has more deaths than any other area in the U.S., with 1,905 reported on Saturday. Taking precautions: How to make your own face mask to help stop the spread of the coronavirus Yet officials warned that the numbers in the U.S. are about to get worse over the next few days. Story continues Birx said that while the number of deaths are expected to increase, the number of cases could actually drop in hard-hit areas. "What we're seeing today is the people who were infected two to three weeks ago," she said. If social distancing and other mitigation efforts worked in New York, "and we believe it is working, the cases are going to start to go down, but the mortality will be a lag behind that," Birx said. Stimulus checks: IRS's antiquated technology could delay delivery of $1,200 coronavirus stimulus checks, experts warn This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump, Pence, Birx warn of jump in deaths in coming week Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 06:31:50|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BRUSSELS, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Coronavirus-stricken Europe breathed a sigh of relief Sunday, as Italy reported its lowest single-day deaths in nearly three weeks and Spain saw continued fall in new cases and deaths. POSITIVE TREND Between Saturday and Sunday, the coronavirus death toll in Italy was 525, the lowest one-day total since March 19, when COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, claimed 427 lives. The country registered its one-day high of 969 fatalities on March 27. The death toll has decreased in five of nine days since then. Still, the pandemic has now resulted in 15,887 deaths, more than in any other country. "We cannot let our guard down, but the trend" is positive, Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Department, said Sunday. The number of active cases in the country climbed to 91,246 on Sunday, up from 88,274 a day earlier. All told, Italy has registered 128,948 cases since the start of the outbreak, up from 124,632 registered Saturday. In Spain, which overtook Italy Saturday in confirmed cases, the number of new cases and deaths continued to fall. A total of 6,023 new infections were registered between Saturday and Sunday, fewer than the 7,026 new cases in the previous 24 hours and 7,472 between Thursday and Friday, bringing the country's total infection cases to 130,759. Meanwhile, the number of deaths in Spain rose by 674 to 12,418 on Saturday, 135 fewer than 809 deaths seen in the previous 24 hours. It means the country has seen the new daily deaths fall for three consecutive days. Belgium, where confirmed cases neared 20,000, also saw a sign of change in trend. For the first time since the start of the pandemic in the country, the daily number of people cured overtook that of people hospitalized. The public health institute Sciensano, in charge of monitoring and analyzing the COVID-19 data, reported that in the past 24 hours, 499 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized while 504 people have left the hospital. NO LETUP IN ANTI-VIRUS EFFORTS Borrelli, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Department, has put the measurable results down to the nationwide quarantine. But he warned against complacency. "It is still essential for residents to continue to stay at home and to leave only for the proven needs allowed" under quarantine rules, he said. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the country's first national coronavirus quarantine, the first in Europe, earlier last month. Officially, it is set to expire on April 13, though Borrelli and other ranking officials have speculated it will be further extended far beyond that date. In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, at a televised press conference on Saturday, said he would ask the parliament to extend the State of Alarm, which was imposed on March 14 and due to expire on April 12, until "24 hours on April 25." Sanchez said the continued fall in the number of new cases showed that the lockdown imposed on Spain and other measures were "giving their reward but that Spain needed "to maintain the same discipline and the same tenacity." In the Netherlands, where the total number of confirmed cases grew by 1,224 to 17,851 as of Sunday, the government urged people to stay home as much as possible during the weekend despite the sunny spring weather. Aldentepro.ru scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 3 Sep 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 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Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND COLUMBIA Jaime Harrison settled into a chair in his basement, transformed into a makeshift studio complete with campaign signs plastered behind him and stand-up lights flanking the desk, and turned on his laptop. "So as you all know, we are heeding the public warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," said Harrison, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in South Carolina, to a few dozen supporters as he began a virtual town hall on Zoom. "We're trying to communicate so that we are practicing the social distancing that needs to take place so that we can all be safe," he went on. "So what we will be doing over the course of the next few days and weeks is, we will be hosting these types of events digitally." Like so many other aspects of American life at least those that have not stopped entirely campaigns in South Carolina have gone fully virtual in recent weeks as candidates try to continue building support without the ability to go out and greet voters in person. Speeches at county political events and meet-and-greets at local businesses have been traded out for a steady stream of Facebook Live videos and email blasts. While Harrison hosts online forums, his opponent, Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, has maintained a steady presence on cable news and radio talk shows. The emergency has spurred a flood of business for firms that specialize in digital outreach. Wesley Donehue, a Republican strategist and the co-founder of Charleston-based Push Digital, said many candidates are increasingly willing to spend their campaign funds on digital now, months before they typically would, because they can get more out of it while everyone is at home. "They have a captive audience because people right now are playing on their phones, playing on their computers and watching TV all day long," Donehue said. "So both from a grassroots and from a communication standpoint, everything is being run through digital at the moment." The transition has gone more smoothly for some than others. Candidates who had already built extensive email lists and followings on social media entered this unprecedented period with an advantage, able to easily tap into those pre-prepared resources. Others, especially newcomers running for office for the first time or those with little to no campaign budget, have had to start fresh. That's made even more difficult as fundraising efforts yield fewer results due to the suddenly volatile economy. "Nobody's going to give a politician their money in this kind of environment," Donehue said. "Everybody's worried about their retirement, the markets, their jobs and their families." The content of campaign messaging has shifted, too, along with their delivery methods. Cognizant of the weariness many voters may feel towards partisan bickering during a national emergency, most candidates have refrained from launching attacks at their opponents, instead focusing their efforts on either introducing themselves or providing constituent service-like messages about handling the virus. The challenges have presented particular difficulty for candidates who, unlike Harrison, have competitive primaries coming up as soon as June. Election officials have begun to consider the possibility of postponing the June 9 primaries, but no decision has been reached on that front yet, leaving campaigns hanging in an air of uncertainty about when they will even be on the ballot. State Rep. Nancy Mace, one of four Republicans vying for the nomination to challenge Charleston's Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, has been juggling her virtual campaign with homeschooling her daughter and keeping up with her legislative responsibilities. Mace set up a page on her campaign website exclusively to provide coronavirus-related resources for residents and she, like many other candidates, has taken to social media to respond to concerns from supporters. "It's very critical that I illustrate what type of representative I will be, which means I'm accessible, I'm transparent and I will literally answer every question," Mace said. But the limitations of virtual campaigning continue to surface, particularly when it comes to reaching older voters who may not be as familiar with the technology candidates are using to communicate. One viewer on a recent Facebook Live that Mace hosted from her living room, which featured her pet cat occasionally walking in and out of the frame, commented that he was having trouble seeing and hearing the video. "Sorry," he wrote. "May have to give up." The campaign of one of Mace's GOP primary opponents, Mount Pleasant town Councilwoman Kathy Landing, recently reached out to supporters asking them to help by writing postcards or making phone calls to voters in the district. The candidates most affected of all by the virus are the few who have a direct role to play in the response. Ed Sutton, a small business owner from Charleston and Democrat running for the S.C. House, has been called up for active duty from the Air Force Reserves to fly medical supplies to American personnel in other countries around the world. But even under those circumstances, Sutton said he has no plans to slow down his campaign at least as soon as he gets out of his military uniform each day. Sutton's opponent, state Rep. Lin Bennett, R-Charleston, is a regular Facebook user who has kept her campaign page updated with the information on the virus. "Thankfully, nowadays with modern technology being able to get a Wi-Fi signal basically anywhere in the world, whether I'm talking to somebody sitting in Germany or Jordan is just the same as sitting in my home in Charleston," Sutton said. "Obviously I won't have quite as much free time, but we'll still keep pushing things out." Despite the hurdles, Sutton, Mace and Harrison were at least among the fortunate candidates who started their campaigns months before the pandemic began to spread. Sutton said he knew of other potential candidates who had considered running but ultimately decided not to file last month because they thought it would be too difficult to launch a campaign in the middle of the pandemic. The crisis has also neutralized one of the few advantages challengers typically have over incumbents: time. "The way a challenger can beat an incumbent is to get out there and outwork him because, typically, an incumbent has a hard time during the primary because they're in session," Donehue said. "But they can't do that right now because everyone is at home and none of them can go knock on doors to get their name out there." With no end to the stay-at-home recommendations expected any time soon, campaigns have had time to work out the kinks in their digital-first approach. By the time Harrison hosted a second virtual town hall, he had embedded a live digital interface into his normal website, allowing him to set up the stream right next to a button where viewers could donate to the campaign. DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Iranian health official said the greater Tehran area may face a coronavirus resurgence after many residents flouted advisories to stay home, crowding streets and causing traffic jams across the city as the country's New Year holidays ended on Saturday. Iran - the Middle East country worst-hit by the epidemic -said earlier on Saturday that 158 more coronavirus patients had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 3,452. DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Iranian health official said the greater Tehran area may face a coronavirus resurgence after many residents flouted advisories to stay home, crowding streets and causing traffic jams across the city as the country's New Year holidays ended on Saturday. Iran - the Middle East country worst-hit by the epidemic -said earlier on Saturday that 158 more coronavirus patients had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 3,452. The total number of cases reached 55,743. "We are still concerned about the virus, for example with the level of traffic in Tehran today and queues of cars stuck on freeways, because these people can take the virus to their homes or workplaces," Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said on state TV. "Even a medium level of virus here can spread to nearby cities with the high level of job-related traffic between nearby cities and Tehran," said Harirchi, who has himself been ill with COVID-19. "Dr Harirchi cautioned about a probable return of coronavirus in case of negligence and said social distancing measures were absolutely necessary," said the TV. The television showed stores that had re-opened despite a closure order on non-essential services and businesses. Only enterprises involved in production have been allowed to re-open while following anti-coronavirus precautions. Officials have repeatedly complained that many Iranians ignored appeals to stay at home and cancel travel plans for the New Year holidays that began on March 20. Iranians traditionally travel to home provinces and popular vacation spots and organise family gatherings during the New Year holidays. Officials initially urged people to cancel such plans due to the coronavirus outbreak, and then imposed inter-city travel bans on March 25. Earlier the judiciary said most of some 70 inmates who escaped from a prison in western Iran last month are now back in jail. About 100,000 prisoners have been granted temporary release due to the coronavirus epidemic. Iranian media have reported unrest in several prisons. CRITICISM OF U.S. SANCTIONS In a rare comment in Britain's Guardian newspaper, Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi said U.S. sanctions were crippling Iran's fight against the coronavirus. "As a result (of sanctions), the ability of my colleagues and I to provide the health, logistical and other essential infrastructure necessary to combat the disease has been drastically reduced. We experience this loss every day, and it can be counted in people that would not have died," Hanachi said. Separately, the foreign ministry accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of "medical-terrorism" through the sanctions, which have hit vital sectors such as oil and banking. "Undisputed fact: US 'diplomats' have long been in the business of coups, arming terrorists," ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Twitter on Saturday. "But @SecPompeo ... and his masters have taken the 'job' to a whole new level: #Medical_terrorism." Pompeo and other U.S. officials have stressed that humanitarian supplies are exempt from sanctions Washington reimposed on Tehran after President Donald Trump abandoned Irans 2015 multilateral deal to limit its nuclear programme. However, broader U.S. sanctions deter many U.S. and global firms from humanitarian trade with Iran. Meanwhile state media quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying that state support for businesses hit by the coronavirus outbreak would be restricted to enterprises that give assurances not to lay off workers. (Reporting by Dubai Newsroom,; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Toronto: The premier of a Canadian province that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks questioned the humanity of US President Donald Trump on Sunday after Trump banned the export of N95 protective masks to Canada. The conservative leader of another province compared it to one family member feasting while letting another one starve. And yet another premier said it reminded him of 1939 and 1940, when Canada was part of the fight against global fascism while the United States sat out the first years. Under the decision the masks can no longer be exported to Canada from the US. Credit:AP Canadians across the country expressed hurt and disappointment that their neighbour and longstanding ally is blocking shipments of the masks from the United States to ensure they are available in the US during the coronavirus pandemic. Canadian health care workers - like those in the US - are in dire need of the masks that provide more protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. Newfoundland Premier Dwight Ball said one of the great lessons in humanity is that in times of crisis you don't stop being human. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 06:46:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BRUSSELS, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Spain's confirmed coronavirus case tally reached 124,736 on Saturday, surpassing Italy's 124,632, according to the latest figures from the two countries. The tally placed Spain first in Europe and second only to the United States worldwide in terms of confirmed cases. According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, the United States has confirmed more than 300,000 infections by Saturday afternoon. Spain plus Italy have formed the bulk of the coronavirus cases on the European continent, being the two hardest-hit European countries. A GLIMMER OF HOPE Despite the saddened figures, a glimmer of hope seems to appear in Europeans' battle against the virus, with some positive changes occurring. Spain reported 809 new deaths between Friday and Saturday, 123 fewer than the 932 deaths registered between Thursday and Friday. The single-day increase of 7,026 new cases on Saturday was also down from the 7,472 recorded on Friday. Italy also reported its first decline in the number of patients in intensive care units. "The number of patients in intensive care has decreased by 74 individuals," Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli said on Saturday. "It is the first negative number since we began managing the emergency," he added. Saturday's death toll of 681 also continued the declining trend these days. "The number of daily fatalities has constantly been decreasing" from a high of 969 deaths on March 27, Borrelli pointed out. France, despite a spike in death toll because of the inclusion of the deaths linked to COVID-19 in nursing homes, started to see a slowdown of growth in the number of patients requiring life support. It dropped to 2.6 percent on Saturday from 4 percent on Friday. "This permanent need to find beds in intensive care units increases less quickly," said Director General of Health Jerome Salomon. "The number of cured people is also increasing very quickly." COVID-19 cases in Portugal on Saturday passed the 10,000 mark, reaching 10,524. But the number of infected people appears to be decreasing in recent days, according to the country's public health experts. Similar positive changes are also being observed in other European countries. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the Netherlands is growing at a slower pace. "We have seen the number of admissions increases less rapidly in recent days than last week," said Ernst Kuipers, chairman of the Dutch National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution on Saturday. "The social distancing seems to work. It is therefore very important to continue this," Kuipers stated. ANTI-VIRUS MEASURES TO STAY More and more European nations have realized the effects of social distancing and decided to extend related measures. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed Saturday that he would ask for an extension of the State of Alarm to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The three weeks of lockdown in Spain to date "have slowed the spread of the virus; they have slowed the number of people going to hospitals, and they have allowed the number of people leaving hospitals to increase," he said. Greece joined a slew of European countries, which have extended their COVID-19 measures, to announce on Saturday that it is extending its nationwide lockdown to April 27. With a single-day increase of 975, Switzerland's total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surged to 20,278 as of Saturday morning, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported on its website. Noting a constant growth of confirmed cases, roughly 1,000 per day, Daniel Koch, a top official from FOPH, said Switzerland has definitely not reached a peak where easing lockdown measures could be taken into account. In Italy, which has extended the nationwide lockdown till April 13, Health Minister Roberto Speranza reiterated the importance of respecting social distancing. "Right now, the path of social distancing is the true weapon we have at our disposal," Speranza said in an interview with RAI News 24. He was echoed by Extraordinary Commissioner for the Coronavirus Emergency Domenico Arcuri, who warned citizens in a press conference "to abstain from thinking that the time has already come to ... go back to normal behavior." "For now, nothing has changed," he emphasized. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Saturday gave additional N10 billion support on behalf of the petroleum industry in support of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria. The additional support brings to about N21 billion the total contribution from the petroleum industry in support of the fight. The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, announced the additional support in a statement on Saturday. Also, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipreye Sylva, handed over five ambulances to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha. Mr Mustapha is the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce for the control of COVID-19. Aiteo Exploration and Production Company Limited, an NNPC joint venture partner, donated the ambulances as its contribution to industry effort. Handing over the ambulances to Mr Mustapha, Mr Sylva said these are abnormal times, which call for collective efforts to find the way forward. The minister said the support against COVID-19 was an ongoing one, noting that anything received afterwards would be delivered to the committee. He said the oil and gas industry, under the leadership of NNPC, came together to contribute their quota to the effort to stemming the pandemic. Mr Mustapha applauded the NNPC and the oil and gas industry for the maximum support extended to the federal government in the campaign against the pandemic. Conducting the SGF and the minister round the 190-bed medical facility donated by the petroleum industry, the NNPC chief said the Thisday Dome, Abuja, that would house the bed-spaces was donated by another NNPC partner, Sahara Group. READ ALSO: He said other NNPC partners, local and international, have continued to implement various projects in support of the national effort against the pandemic, describing the feat as the hallmark of Good Corporate Citizenship. Aside from consignments of medical consumables and logistics facilities, the industry is embarking on construction of at least two permanent hospitals and world class diagnostics centres in each of the geopolitical zones in the country. All these are over and above our regular social investments through various CSR initiatives, Mr Kyari stated. He said the donations were in collaboration with the private sector and a Chinese company, CCECC, to fight COVID-19 pandemic. He said the 190-bed facility would be ready for use in two weeks time. At an NNPC property in Utako District of Abuja, Mr Kyari announced the corporation had set aside another 60-bed capacity facility of the property to support the fight against the pandemic. He said the facility would be ready in the next two weeks. He explained that the Utako facility would be equipped with oxygen generating plants, ventilators and other medical logistics. He said the facility has 10 Intensive Care Units that would serve as back up to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital isolation unit in Gwagwalada. In the midst of a global emergency, Australia's historical institutions are already thinking decades ahead as they plot ways for us to remember the past. While the coronavirus pandemic is far from over, museums and libraries around the country are busy planning and collecting to ensure people in 100 years' time can look back and understand how we coped. National Museum director Mathew Trinca is plotting a way to remember this crisis in future. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The National Museum of Australia has launched a social media project asking people to share and record their experiences during this life-altering moment in history, while state libraries are asking citizens to collect leaflets and posters for posterity. Through a new Facebook group called "Bridging the Distance", the museum is encouraging people to share their stories, photos and videos for display during a future exhibition once things calm down a bit. The Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Michael Creed, has repeated a strong warning to farmers that they must not burn land at this time of year and doing so may have serious consequences for farm payments. The Minister stressed, Although most on-farm visits are currently suspended due to the Covid-19 crisis, my Department is continuing to carefully monitor satellite imagery in order to identify any parcels of land that are burnt illegally. Follow-up ground inspections will take place where necessary. It would be an act of gross disregard for your community if you set illegal fires that could stretch the resources of our emergency services when they are already prioritising care for the vulnerable in our society at this particular time. As well as endangering lives and property and doing untold damage to the environment, illegal burning of your land will put your own payments at risk and can also adversely affect your neighbours payments at this time of crisis: If you burn land between March 1 and August 31, you risk prosecution, fines and potential imprisonment Burnt land is not eligible for payment under the Basic Payment Scheme and other area-based schemes; Inclusion of illegally burnt land in the 2020 Basic Payment Scheme application may result in reduced payment and penalties under this scheme and the other area-based schemes, e.g. Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme; Illegal burning can also render the land of your neighbours ineligible for payment; Where it is identified that lands were burned during the closed season this may result in on-farm inspection of such land in due course. The Minister stated, This is an unprecedented time in Ireland and I know that we can depend on the farming community to once again come to the assistance of the whole country in maintaining food supply. This makes it all the more important that a small number do not act in a reckless and thoughtless way by illegally burning land." Fears are growing that the government is poorly equipped to deal with confirmed coronavirus cases, following shocking revelations by a 52-year-old Ruwa resident who tested positive after a trip to the Middle East. The new coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, was in January confirmed to have spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan. It has spread fast throughout the world, killing more than 60 000 people in a short space of time, with Italy, the United States and Spain being among the most affected, while China seems to be already containing the pandemic. Saul Sakudya, who tested positive to Covid-19 after travelling to Dubai last month, spoke out to The Standard, which worked in collaboration with Information for Development Trust to track down affected people, and revealed how officials bungled his case and almost cost his and the familys lives. His testimony exposed governments poorly coordinated testing system and its neglect of confirmed cases. Sakudya, who trades in electrical accessories, told The Standard that he travelled to Dubai on March 15 to buy stock for his small business, returning three days later. He said he opted to be quarantined at his home after having a nightmarish experience from the day he decided to go for Covid-19 testing at Wilkins Hospital, the only such centre serving the capital. A day after his arrival, on a Thursday, he developed a cough and, feeling tired, decided to spend the day at home. On Friday, my situation became worse, and at midnight, I started having a terribly dry cough, feeling dizzy, severe headache, loss of appetite, throat irritation and a severe backache, but I wasnt sneezing, he said. After another day at home, he finally decided to consult a doctor, who prescribed antibiotics and advised him to go and rest, but his situation subsequently deteriorated. Monday morning, I decided to go for Covid-19 testing at Wilkins Hospital. My 21-year-old son drove me to the infectious diseases hospital. It was around 2pm. I was there when Zororo Makamba died, added Sakudya. Zororo, a 30-year-old television personality and son of James Makamba, a prominent Zanu PF politician-cum-businessman, succumbed to the disease on March 23, a few days after his return from the US. His death provided the first glimpse into the Zimbabwean health systems ill-preparedness to manage positive coronavirus cases. The Makamba family complained immediately after Zororos death that they struggled to secure a ventilator and, even after it was accessed from a private practitioner, Wilkins Hospital did not have suitable plugs. The family also complained that it was asked to pay US$120 000 for the hire of a ventilator and felt that Zororos death could have been avoided had the health system been functioning well. Zororo was the second confirmed corona case, followed by Sakudya. The third patient from Zimre Park in Ruwa, a suburb to the south-east of Harare, said he waited for a period far longer than the promised time to receive results after his Wilkins test. I was told that my results would come out in five hours and if they didnt, it would mean that I had tested negative, said Sakudya. I went back home to wait for my results. Five hours passed and no results came. As the wait took too long, he at one time visited his office in the city, driven by his 21-year-old son, the first born with his 40-year old wife, while his eldest son aged 24, is from a past relationship. That day, three days after, was when he received a call from a Ministry of Health official confirming his case. He returned home from the office to meet the ministry official who announced that he was taking him away for quarantine. Imagine, [they availed the results] after 72 hours. What if I had interacted with many people thinking that I was negative? said a worried Sakudya. It was also at that stage, he added, that they took samples from his 40-year-old wife, his son who had been driving him, and his 10-year-old daughter. I was asked to go to Wilkins for isolation. My son was still driving me. We went to Wilkins and were told the hospital was closing down for renovations. We were referred to the Beatrice Road Infectious Disease Hospital. At Beatrice, we were told to go back to Wilkins. They said they were not ready to handle a coronavirus case. We went back to Wilkins, but they refused to take us, this time referring us to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, said Sakudya. Out of frustration, he called Prosper Chonzi, the head of health services at the Harare City Council, which runs Wilkins Hospital, to complain that he was being tossed around despite his condition. Chonzi reportedly advised him to go home so that an ambulance would ferry him to an isolation centre the next day. As promised by Chonzi, an ambulance was despatched to pick him up. They took me to Beatrice Hospital, Sakudya said. There was chaos at the hospital with panicky nurses fleeing the hospital, complaining that they had no protective clothing to handle a Covid-19 patient. He was forced to remain in the ambulance for more than three hours and the nurses returned only when he was moved to a secluded spot at the hospital. I was finally admitted and doctors immediately came. I was injected and given antibiotics. The following day [Friday], I told them I wanted to be isolated at home because I needed warm water continuously, he said, and that is how he returned to Zimre Park where he has been since then. Health ministry officials subsequently brought his wifes and 21-year-old sons results out of the samples collected two days before. His wife and son tested positive, while their 10-year old daughter tested negative. Two maids and another relative were tested that day and their results came out negative two days later. Government publicised the negative results without first advising Sakudya and his family. It was saddening that results came after announcements were made and were already circulating on social media. That is not good, fumed Sakudya. His worries are not over, though. Since he and his family went into isolation, no one from the Health ministry or the social welfare department has bothered to check on them, despite the fact Zimbabwe, so far, has a manageable nine confirmed cases. Only Chonzi and two other officials named as Duri and Mudariki have been checking on him since self-isolation started on March 24. Sakudya, his wife and the two sons the elder who is 24 are self-isolating in a cottage at their Zimre home, while the family members who tested negative are now confined to the main house. We are using one bathroom, he revealed. We have devised a way that those who tested negative will bathe first, and those that are positive later, but we have to make sure we clean the bathroom thoroughly. Sakudya said his two sons had not developed any symptoms and his wife only complained of chest pains, and he said he was out of pain. Government has not been supportive. It is not walking the talk. I was quarantined on March 24 and up to now, no one from the Ministry of Health or any government department has been here to see me, or provide food, he said. It is now about 14 days to go for the national lockdown to be complete, I am not supposed to go out, but my government is not worried about how I am surviving. What is the social welfare department doing if it cant help the vulnerable? said Sakudya. Zimbabwe is now into its seventh day of a national lockdown decreed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to manage Covid-19. Well-wishers bring food and other essential items to Sakudyas gate, phone to notify him of the deliveries and leave. For Sakudya, who said he feared a death sentence had been passed on him the day he was diagnosed positive, life or routine during the isolation period has not been easy. I jog in my yard, listen to music and watch films. Sometimes I sleep for two hours. I am taking antibiotics and hot water with lemons. Sometimes I sleep for about two hours during the day. Those negative of the coronavirus will have their own world in the main house. He said Covid-19 patients need moral support, not disdain and discrimination. I felt my world was crumbling, like I was in a restriction cell where no lullaby could soothe the seething mass of despair, but am glad I am a new narrative of hope, he added. Thomas Muwodzeri, a former councillor in the ward under which Zimre Park falls, has also been offering the Sakudya family moral support. This is a national disaster and the government should take an active role, he said. As residents, we need information to bail out our friends and brothers. Health ministry permanent secretary Agnes Mahomva confirmed to The Standard that Covid-19 test results must be availed within five or seven hours. I think there was a communication problem, Mahomva said. I dont think it is possible that he was told that if results didnt come out after five hours it meant that he was negative. On government support, Mahomva referred questions to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, whose minister Paul Mavima was not picking calls. However, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Simon Masanga, said his department had not been alerted of Sakudyas ordeal. I am hearing about it from you only now. Its a health issue and the ministry of Health is responsible, Masanga said. If it is a case that the person needs food aid, it is our ministry and as soon as we have records, we will assist. Standard Hedge funds are continuing to short sell UK-listed companies amid the coronavirus-driven stock market collapse, despite a suggestion from the new Bank of England governor that they should stop. Over the first three months of 2020, the FTSE 100 plunged by 25 per cent, the share indexs worst quarterly performance since 1987, as many investors rushed to dump companies stock. The speed of the sell-off and the role of short-sellers in the market mayhem has concerned the Banks governor, Andrew Bailey, who told the BBC on 18 March: Anybody who says, I can make a load of money by shorting which might not be frankly in the interest of the economy, the interest of the people, just stop and think what youre doing. Short selling is the entirely legal practice where hedge funds and other financial speculators borrow shares in listed companies from pension funds and sell them in the expectation that they will fall in price. Some argue that short-selling in a crash exacerbates stock market slumps though this is disputed. Since 2012, hedge funds have been required to disclose their short positions (their gambles) in UK-listed firms (when they account for more than 0.5 per cent of a companys shares) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulator. Analysis of those declared short positions by The Independent shows the number being taken remains well above the level seen a month ago. Some hedge funds have even increased the size of their bets against UK-listed firms including the Royal Mail and supermarket chain Morrisons. The number of new short position declarations hit a peak of 550 in the week to 23 March, five days after Mr Bailey made his plea. The number fell to 306 in the final week of March. But this remains well above the 197 new declarations made in the final week of February and the volume of activity suggests many hedge funds have effectively ignored the call by the governor to rethink their bets that the share price of UK-listed firms will decline. GLG Partners, a discretionary hedge fund manager based in the City of London and part of the Man Group, was shorting 0.57 per cent of the issued share capital of the Royal Mail on 20 March. By 27 March it had increased that short position to 0.72 per cent of the company. Citadel Advisors, part of the Chicago-based Citadel hedge fund run by multi-billionaire Ken Griffin, had a short position worth 0.7 per cent of the share value of Morrison Supermarkets on 18 March. It has since increased that to 1.18 per cent. Marshall Wace, a hedge fund founded by Sir Paul Marshall, a Brexit-supporting financier with an estimated net worth of 590m, has also increased its short position in some stocks. On 20 March it was shorting 0.64 per cent of the share capital of the engineering company Weir. By 30 March it had increased that to 0.73 per cent. All three hedge funds were approached by The Independent but declined to comment on the record. Another hedge fund manager, Crispin Odey, told The Mail On Sunday in an interview published on 21 March that his fund had made 115m from shorting UK stocks in March. Since 17 March, Odey Asset Management has increased its short position in Fevertree, the drinks maker, from 0.55 per cent of its share capital to 0.9 per cent. Some in industry and regulatory circles argue that short selling is economically and socially damaging at a time of a general market panic, forcing the share prices of perfectly viable companies down further for no good underlying reason. Others, however, insist that short selling is vital for the effective functioning of markets, even in a mass sell-off, and point to academic studies suggesting that short-selling bans tend to make markets more volatile, not less. A hedge fund industry source told The Independent that the personal financial incentive for managers to short companies was too great. What are you more scared of? Losing your job or the Bank of England? the source said. If you offered any hedge fund manager right now an option to short a company in severe distress, of course they are going to take it. Youd be insane not to. Market regulators in countries including Italy, Spain, France and South Korea moved last month to temporarily ban the short selling of companies listed in their jurisdictions. The UKs regulator banned the short-selling of UK financial stocks during the global financial crisis 12 years ago. But it has indicated that, in the current circumstances, it is not minded to act to prevent the practice. In a statement on 23 March, the FCA said: There is no evidence that short selling has been the driver of recent market falls. UK regulators have also stressed that short selling can, in some circumstances, help stabilise markets by, for instance, allowing large pension funds to hedge their exposure to certain companies. But Simon French of the stockbroker Panmure Gordon said that if stock markets became disorderly, the UK regulatory position could change. Regulators the world over need to remain vigilant, he told The Independent. Whilst short selling is an important part of share price adjustment, if this process becomes disorderly it can have damaging impacts on the real economy, jobs and the ability of good companies to get through this period. There is also a stability case for considering temporary bans on redemptions [from savings funds] at times like this as selling into a depressed market is unlikely to be in savers, or companies, best interests. It is not only through short selling shares that hedge funds can make profits in falling markets. US hedge fund boss Bill Ackman revealed in a letter to shareholders last month that his Pershing Square Capital fund recently made $2.75bn from credit default swaps derivative contracts that rise in value when firms traded debt falls in value because of rising market fears of bankruptcy. Most analysts are sceptical of whether a short selling ban on shares would actually make much difference in stabilising markets. Russ Mould of stockbroker AJ Bell said: If a share price is going to go down it will do so, whether fund managers can short it or not. The collapse in banking and insurance stocks in 2008 was clear evidence of that. Others pointed out that some hedge funds well known for shorting stocks also have a long position in many others, meaning they are betting those prices will rise. Jack Inglis, the head of the Alternative Investment Management Association, which represents the hedge fund industry, said: Banning short selling would further undermine todays fragile markets. Yes, several European countries have imposed such bans, but this must not become a global knee-jerk reaction. The Bank of England does not regulate equity markets directly and does not have the power to ban short selling that responsibility lies with the FCA. However, the bank is required to take a broad overview of UK financial stability. And before he was installed as governor last month, Mr Bailey was the chief executive of the FCA. The Bank of England declined to comment on recent moves in short selling activity. Almost nine out of ten appeals against bus lane fines are successful in parts of Britain, figures show. Motoring organisations said the numbers are staggering and called on councils to issue warning letters rather than fines for first-time offenders. Sandwell in the West Midlands had the highest proportion of successful appeals at 86 per cent. Drivers receiving bus lane fines typically 130 in London and 70 outside the capital are incentivised to pay up rather than appeal because penalties are halved if settled promptly [File photo] In July 2017, 173 of 201 appeals were successful, figures obtained from Freedom of Information requests to local authorities showed. Second highest was Doncaster in South Yorkshire, where 526 of 658 motorists were let off after querying fines in December 2018 some 80 per cent. In Oxfordshire 59 per cent of appeals in one month were approved, while 57 per cent of drivers won challenges in Sheffield. The figures, obtained by rental agency Northgate Vehicle Hire, were not broken down into appeals dealt with by councils or second-stage appeals handled by an independent adjudicator. Almost nine out of ten appeals against bus lane fines are successful in parts of Britain, figures show. Motoring organisations said the numbers are staggering and called on councils to issue warning letters rather than fines for first-time offenders [File photo] Places where motorists were least likely to win appeals include Coventry, where just 12 per cent of challenges were successful, and Bromley and Bexley, south-east London, and Nottinghamshire, where the figure was 15 per cent. Drivers receiving bus lane fines typically 130 in London and 70 outside the capital are incentivised to pay up rather than appeal because penalties are halved if settled promptly. The AA said that while acceptance of the fine was seen as an admission of guilt, many drivers paid because of time pressures or fear of paying more. Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said: The level of successful appeals made against bus lane infringements is staggering. Those who enter a bus lane often do so by mistake, so a warning letter for first time offenders should be issued. The AA claimed some councils leave bus lanes which catch large numbers of drivers as money-making traps rather than improve signage, markings or layout. It added: Only when an adjudicator visits the bus lane because there have been so many complaints does something get done. In one example, 23,000 drivers were caught in a bus lane in Preston in two months in 2017 before an adjudicator ruled signage was inadequate. First-time offenders were refunded. Places where motorists were least likely to win appeals include Coventry, where just 12 per cent of challenges were successful, and Bromley and Bexley, south-east London, and Nottinghamshire, where the figure was 15 per cent [File photo] Northgate Van Hires director Neil McCrossan called on drivers who feel they have been fined unfairly to always challenge. He said: Those who feel they have been wrongly fined should appeal to their local council clearly stating their reason and attaching sufficient evidence. The Local Government Association, which represents councils across England, said less than 1 per cent of bus lane fines are appealed. English councils made a record 92.5million from bus lane fines in 2018/19, up from 39million the previous year and earning them 59.2million after costs. The Department for Transport says councils must use surplus revenue from these fines for transport and environmental projects. A woman from Bokaro with a travel history to Bangladesh has tested positive for coronavirus. The total number of positive cases in Jharkhand now stands at three, informed state Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. Three couples had visited Bangladesh recently and all of them have been put under quarantine, Kulkarni informed. Meanwhile, India's tally of coronavirus positive cases rose to 3,374, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday morning. Out of the total cases, 3,030 are active cases, 266 have been cured or discharged, one has migrated, while there are 77 deaths. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ive read descriptions of life in wartime that have a remarkable consistency regardless of what era they come from. Civilians and combatants alike talk about life contracting into a limited bubble your immediate environment, the tasks that must be accomplished in the next few hours or days. The big picture is unavailable and therefore unimportant. Far away people and places become abstractions or fade from your thoughts. Ive read about this effect, but never experienced it. At least until now. I was listening to the radio the other day and the announcer gave the typical Bay Area weather forecast: conditions in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Napa, the seaside villages of the coast, and San Jose. The risks and joys of working at home Editor Sean Scully reflects on the ups and downs of working remotely. Ive heard exactly this kind of forecast uncounted times, but this one sounded strange to my ears. I wondered briefly why we were even talking about San Jose. Somehow San Jose seemed so very far away. I dont know why I fixated on San Jose. Until last month, it was a city that I might visit on rare occasions, to check out some new brewery or catch an unusual museum. Its not a place that looms large in my mental geography, but it exists somewhere on the edge of my consciousness. But suddenly, listening to that weather forecast, it seems exotic and remote. Details about weather conditions in San Jose seemed as useless to me as a forecast for Denver, or London, or Beijing. Silicon Valley is now as remote and inaccessible as any place on earth. Reporting the story while we're living it We're trying to keep you informed in a time of crisis even while doing our part to halt the coronavirus, editor Sean Scully says. Just as surely as if we were facing a war, our lives have contracted into our tiny bubble in the time of virus. This will probably sound familiar from your own household. My family and I have barely left the house for two weeks. The closest weve come to other people is waving from a polite distance. Were lucky to have jobs that can be done at home, but we cant help but worry about how long this goes on. What does it mean for our jobs, our neighbors, our vibrant little communities? Its hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, everything was normal, that it was possible to visit a grocery store every day, to meet friends in a restaurant, or walk downtown for coffee. That old world seems as remote and unreachable today as those far away cities that we can no longer visit. A little planning goes a long way Register Editor Sean Scully reflects on how we cover the disasters that seem to come around with increasing regularity. But another lesson from those historical accounts of war is that this too will end. It is impossible to know exactly what the world will look like when it does, but at some point in the next weeks or months, it will be safe to come out and meet each other again. So Ill see you then. In the meantime, thanks for reading and allowing the Register to keep you informed during this crisis. If youre not a subscriber but you find what were doing to be meaningful in your life, please consider joining us as a member and helping support the important work of local journalism. napavalleyregister.com/members/join/. You can reach Sean Scully at 256-2246 or sscully@napanews.com. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Bhubaneswar, April 6 : Odisha joined the nation to express solidarity with people in battle against COVID-19 by lighting earthen lamps and candles at 9 p.m. on Sunday. Thousands of people switched off non-essential lights and lit diyas (earthen lamps) and candles in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call as a mark of solidarity in the fight against COVID-19. People were also seen bursting crackers in Bhubaneswar. Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal and his family were among the host of dignitaries lit diyas. "Hon'ble Governor along with first lady of #Odisha lighting Deepa in #Rajbhaban today at 9 PM for 9 minutes as a mark of solidarity in united fight of India against #COVID19Pandemic," tweeted the Governor's office. Besides, people belonging to different sections of society including leaders of different political parties lit diyas as the clock struck 9 pm on Sunday. Earlier, the Odisha government had issued an advisory requesting people to maintain the stability of the grid system by keeping electrical appliances on. Amid the rising COVID-19 coronavirus cases in the US, President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 4) said that US the could see a lot of deaths in the next couple of weeks due to the deadly virus. Talking about the spread of the coronavirus in the US in the United States in the next two weeks, President Trump said, "There will be a lot of death." President Trump, however, asserted that the number of deaths can remain low if certain mitigation steps are taken. "This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn`t done but there will be death," Trump said during Coronavirus Taskforce Briefing. Notably, the US has recorded over 3 lakh coronavirus cases and the current death toll in the country due to deadly virus stands at 8,291. Referring to the Defence Production Act (DPA) on the production of medical equipment, President noted that the DPA was in retaliation to the companies who failed to follow the government order and did not supply what the government wanted. "You could call it retaliation because that`s what it is. It`s retaliation. If people don`t -- if people don`t give us what we need for our people, we`re going to be very tough, and we`ve been very tough," Trump added. Dr. Mary E. Birch, member of the Coronavirus Task Force also admitted that the next two weeks are very critical. "The next two weeks are extraordinarily important. This is the moment to do everything that you can on the presidential guidelines." At least 8,175 people have died in the US from coronavirus so far, according to Johns Hopkins University`s tally. The US has recorded a sharp increase in the number of cases in the last 24 hours. The total number of positive cases across 181 nations on Saturday (April 4) stood at 1,159,515 and death toll reached 63,832, according to the data released Johns Hopkins University`s Coronavirus Resource Centre. The US remained at the top with the maximum number of positive cases at 290,606, followed by Spain with 124,736 infected cases, Italy with 124,632 cases, Germany with 92,150 cases and France at the fifth spot with 83,031 cases. On Saturday, Spain surpassed Italy on the number of positive cases. A Bronx Zoo tiger has tested positive for COVID-19. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday confirmed that a tiger in a New York zoo tested positive for the deadly new coronavirus, which has infected more than 300,000 and killed more than 8,500 people across the country. According to a statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the animal was a 4-year-old female tiger in the Bronx Zoo named Nadia, who was expected to recover. The USDAs National Veterinary Service Laboratories said in a statement that it was the first known case of a tiger being infected with COVID-19. Public health officials believe these large cats became sick after being exposed to a zoo employee who was actively shedding virus, USDA said. The zoo has been closed to the public since mid-March, and the first tiger began showing signs of sickness on March 27. All of these large cats are expected to recover. There is no evidence that other animals in other areas of the zoo are showing symptoms. The WCS, which runs the Bronx Zoo, said Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions had developed a dry cough and other symptoms but all are expected to recover. We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about COVID-19 will contribute to the worlds continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus, WCS said. USDA said along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the situation was being monitored alongside state and local health departments and state animal health officials, who will take the lead in making determinations about whether animals, either at this zoo or in other areas, should be tested. USDA also notified the World Organization for Animal Health of the finding. None of the zoos snow leopards, cheetahs, clouded leopard, Amur leopard, puma or serval are showing any signs of illness, WCS said. Our cats were infected by a person caring for them who was asymptomatically infected with the virus or before that person developed symptoms. Appropriate preventive measures are now in place for all staff who are caring for them, and the other cats in our four WCS zoos, to prevent further exposure of any other of our zoo cats. As federal and state governments have issued tight travel restrictions and advised social distancing to keep humans at least six feet apart to prevent spreading the disease, the USDA advised anyone whos contracted COVID-19 to restrict contact with animals, including pets, during their illness. If a sick person must care for a pet or be around animals, they should wash their hands before and after the interaction, USDA said. Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook page Related Content: Americans have been cautioned that they are heading into what could be their "toughest" few weeks, with "a lot of death" expected. President Trump made the warning as the number of Covid-19 cases in the US stands at more than 300,000. The US death toll is currently 8,100, including 3,500 in the state of New York. Mr.Trump says help is being prioritised for states that need it most. He said: "We are working to ensure that the supplies are delivered, where and when they are needed. The US President said that State Governors were denied medical equipment in certain cases as his administration does not believe certain states urgently need the supplies. He said: "Pretty much so far we've been right about that, we'll continue to do it....this will probably be the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately." Yesterday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said China is facilitating a shipment of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state, in another example of the extreme measures being taken in what is now a scramble to source lifesaving devices in the coronavirus pandemic. In a sign of the disorganised response in the US to the global crisis, Mr Cuomo praised the Chinese government for its help in securing the breathing machines, which were scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Airport on Saturday. With the country halfway into the 21-day lockdown, the state government is working towards creating a strategy to restore operations of various sectors across Haryana after April 14. In this regard, high priority has been accorded to the industrial sector to ensure supply of essentials is not hit across states. The district labour department has sought the opinion of industry owners to suggest if industries should be allowed to restore operations in phases or fully after April 14. The industry owners have been asked to submit their replies by Monday. The industries have been closed since March 21, a day before the voluntary Janata Curfew was observed. For industries, mainly for small and medium scale industries, the complete shutdown of operations has been damaging in many ways. The officials of district labour department spoke to various industrial associations on telephone on Saturday. The government wants feedback from every stakeholder on whether lockdown should continue after April 14 or not. The government wants to know directly from the industry owners about what they feel would be effective ways to restore operations. We have asked the industry owners to submit their replies on Monday. We have asked them to share their views on what are the difficulties they are currently facing and the problems they anticipate after the lockdown is lifted or if it is continued. We will send industry owners suggestions to the Union government, said Ramesh Ahuja, deputy labour commissioner, Gurugram. Industry owners HT spoke with had a mixed response. While some of them wanted lockdown to continue to till the pandemic is under control, some said prolonged lockdown would be damaging for small and medium industries, and another section backed restoring operations of industries involved in manufacturing of essential goods and raw materials. Industry owners also pointed out that many workers left in the migrant exodus in the initial days of the lockdown and those still around might not return to work in fear of the coronavirus disease, which is highly infectious. Many industry owners live in Delhi, Noida, Faridabad and nearby cities and we do not know if the lockdown will be lifted at once or state-wise. Delhi or Noida, for instance, are under lockdown, how will the owners reach their factories? Similarly, factories are interdependent on goods supply within the states and nation and many clients are foreign based and most of nations are under lockdown. So we are not in a position to say anything, said Ashok Kohli, president of Chamber of Industry Udyog Vihar. For small- and medium-scale industries continuation of the lockdown could end of operations altogether. We are small-scale industry owners with fewer than 100 workers, who are dependent on us. We cannot distribute salaries as our clients are affected. We are very much indecisive and confused. We want the government to help us with a relief package as we will be overburdened with GST, income tax, electricity bill surcharge, bank loan interest and many other expenses. We will submit our reply on Monday, said Deepak Maini, chairman Industrial Welfare Association of Sector-37. Some like Pawan Yadav, the president of IMT Industrial Association Manesar, said, Lockdown should continue, as our priority is the nation. Cases of coronavirus are increasing and the government should not take a risk. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard has defended his team's handling of the Ruby Princess cruise ship fiasco - as politicians call for his resignation over what's been described the 'worst public health disasters in recent history'. Mr Hazzard's staff - including four of the state's leading medical professionals - allowed 2,700 passengers to disembark the cruise liner in Sydney Harbour on March 19 without testing them for coronavirus. In the days and weeks to follow, at least 612 people linked to the ship have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 11 passengers are dead. The death toll from the ship makes up almost a third of the nation's 35 fatalities. While the saga has been labelled one of the biggest health bungles in NSW history, Mr Hazzard on Sunday defended the decision to allow the ship to dock. The Health Minister told Sky News his office did the best they could with the information they had at the time. Mr Fuller said there was clear evidence COVID-19 has come off the Ruby Princess (pictured off coast of Sydney on Sunday) and at least 10 passengers have died in Australia because of it Some 5,688 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 across Australia. Almost half of the nation's total are from NSW, making it the nation's epicentre for the virus These ships have sadly become crucibles of this disease Brad Hazzard, NSW Health Minister 'The community should be satisfied that we had the best of the best making the decision,' Mr Hazzard said. A team of four medical professionals - including a consultant for the World Health Organisation - reportedly gave the green light for the ship to dock, despite port authorities initially disallowing it due to concerns over COVID-19. But Mr Hazzard said about 40 passengers were swabbed for influenza - not coronavirus - before disembarking. He said his team followed federal government protocols in allowing passengers to leave the ship, and utilized all information they had access to at the time. 'They made the decision on the basis of what they considered appropriate and if you've got the best of the best making decisions it's a bit hard for us all to be challenging that decision,' he said. Mr Hazzard did, however, note 'these cruise ships have sadly become crucibles of disease, of this disease.' He said there was no question of incompetence among his team, but said he 'would've preferred it not happen'. The testing process for coronavirus includes a swab of each nostril and the back of the throat A patient from the Ruby Princess cruise liner is transported by a team of medical professionals in full protective equipment following the ship's return to Sydney on March 19 The state's Labor party officials have called for Mr Hazzard's resignation in response to the crisis. One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham appeared on Sky News following the interview, and agreed that ordinarily a bungle of this scale would result in enough pressure for a resignation. 'In normal circumstances the health minister would have been forced to resign by now,' he said, before describing Mr Hazzard as a 'weak minister defending the indefensible.' 'He is ultimately responsible for what is the worst public health disaster in recent history.' Globally, more than 1.2million people have been infected with coronavirus and 66,000 people have died. There are currently 5,688 known cases of the virus in Australia, including 35 deaths. The Ruby Princess currently sits off the coast of Sydney after 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark. Pictured: A shirtless man getting a photo of himself taken with the ship in the background Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young agreed, describing the entire situation as a 'fiasco'. [Brad Hazzard] is ultimately responsible for the worst public health disaster in recent history NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham 'A quarter of cases all the way across in South Australia came from the ship... From the very dangerous, deadly stuff up in NSW,' she said. 'There is a lot of the blame game going on... It is an absolute debacle and it is costing people's lives.' Ms Hanson-Young said Peter Dutton should have been responsible for the borders but had gone 'MIA'. 'He's taken no responsibility for this... If this was another type of boat and if these boats had other types of people on them, Mr Dutton would've been out there every day. This is one boat I would've liked him to stop, and he failed,' she said. Hospital staff wear protective gear while testing patients with symptoms of coronavirus in northeast Adelaide Ruby Princess is pictured docked at Circular Quay as passengers disembarked in Sydney on March 19 The Ruby Princess remains at sea, but NSW police confirmed the cruise liner would arrive at Port Kembla on Monday 'to allow for safer access for medical assessments, treatment, or emergency extractions of her crew'. A police spokeswoman said the vessel will likely remain docked for up to 10 days, but no crew will disembark unless in an emergency and approved by the state's police commissioner, Mick Fuller. Poll SHOULD PASSENGERS HAVE BEEN ALLOWED OFF THE RUBY PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP? YES NO SHOULD PASSENGERS HAVE BEEN ALLOWED OFF THE RUBY PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP? YES 39 votes NO 563 votes Now share your opinion 'The berthing will be conducted under strict health and biosecurity guidelines and will not pose a risk to employees at the port or the broader community,' the spokeswoman said in a statement. 'She will also be refuelling and restocking provisions, as required for her home journey.' Mr Fuller held a press conference on Sunday where he confirmed a criminal investigation will look into the handling of the fiasco. The commissioner said it was 'too early to tell' whether a crime was committed, but said there was 'no doubt' coronavirus was brought off the ship. The investigation - led by the NSW police homicide squad - aims to identity how passengers were allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess in Sydney, resulting in several deaths and COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the country. 'The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation,' Mr Fuller said. He told reporters transparency regarding patient health on board the cruise ship was a key question for the investigation. Police officer wearing protective gear looks on as Australian passengers from Italian cruise liners arrive at the Duxton Hotel in Perth A patient waiting to be tested for coronavirus receives hand sanitiser from a nurse in full protective gear at a pop up testing clinic in Bondi 'From my perspective there are many unanswered questions,' he said. 'There seems to be absolute discrepancies between the information provided by Carnival and what I would see is the benchmark for the laws of the federal and state government.' Mr Fuller believes there is clear evidence COVID-19 came off the Ruby Princess, leading to the deaths of at least 11 passengers so far. The investigation will cover the actions of the port authority, ambulance, police, the NSW Health department and Carnival Australia. Carnival Australia responded to Mr Fuller's announcement on Sunday, offering full cooperation with the investigation. 'In addition to willingly participating in the investigation, Carnival Australia will vigorously respond to any allegations of which there must now be full disclosure and the basis for them,' a statement regarding the investigation read. Australians could be cooped up in isolation until long after CHRISTMAS - with strict social distancing measures for up to two years Australians have been warned they could be cooped up in their homes until well after Christmas, while social distancing measures could last as long as two years. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned on Friday Australians could expect six months of stringent social distancing measures as the national infection rate dropped to under 10 per cent. But infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon said COVID-19's seasonal nature meant the number of cases may not reduce significantly until the spring. 'You know what the bad news is? We're going to have to do a lot of this social distancing for another 18 months to two years,' Professor Collignon, from the Australian National University, told news.com.au. 'This virus is not going to go anywhere soon. We'll have a reprieve next spring because there's less transmission of viruses in summer.' He added the initial positive impact of the government's social distancing measures - including closing pubs, cafes and restaurants - meant they would need to stay in place for as long as two years. Authorities in some states have put a more conservative date for the end of their lockdowns. Doctor Brett Sutton, Victoria's chief health officer, said the strict restrictions in his state will last until May or June, or possibly longer. 'It keeps changing. In a sense, how well we do with that physical distancing, how well we comply with stay-at-home directions will change that time,' he said. New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has said the level three restrictions in NSW will last at least 90 days. Advertisement The NSW Port Authority initially told the ship's captain not to dock as planned because of concerns passengers had COVID-19, before a midnight phone call that changed everything, The Sunday Telegraph reports. Logs from that night by NSW Port Authority officials - who oversee the entrance of all ships to Sydney Harbour - reveal they refused the Ruby Princess entry about 11.30pm on March 18. That decision was made after emails between the ship's doctor and NSW Health that outlined concerns over 110 sick passengers onboard. Among the sick were 17 with 'temperatures over 38C' and six who had 'muscle aches and diarrhoea, severe vomiting or headaches' - all common coronavirus symptoms. In a conversation between a Ruby Princess official and a NSW Ambulance officer just before 9pm that night, there were concerns that some passengers may be suffering from the virus. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard (pictured) believes people should be satisfied with how his department handled the cruise ship fiasco Pictured: A woman waiting at a tram stop while wearing a protective face mask due to the spread of COVID-19 in the community Scott Morrison mounts extraordinary comeback in the polls amid the coronavirus pandemic - after bushfire crisis and THAT trip to Hawaii saw his popularity plummet Australians have thrown their support behind Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his handling of the coronavirus crisis - three months after his popularity plummeted following a series of blunders during the bushfire crisis. The latest Newspoll figures show Mr Morrison's response to the health pandemic has been well received by voters. The Liberal leader recorded the highest approval rating for a prime minister in more than a decade, since Kevin Rudd during the 2009 global financial crisis. Mr Morrison leads Anthony Albanese by 53 to 29 as preferred prime minister and his party leads Labor in the two-party preferred split at 51-49. Just three months ago, the polls told a staggeringly different tale. Mr Morrison's popularity in the polls plunged after he returned from a family vacation to Hawaii during the bushfire crisis. Pictured: Mr Morrison during a trip to the Pacific Islands Mr Morrison had just returned from a family getaway to Hawaii as the nation he was chosen to lead sizzled through the worst bushfire crisis on record. More than 30 people died during the fires and swathes of land across the entire country were destroyed. Mr Morrison's office denied he was on vacation and his popularity plummeted as a result, earning him the title of the eighth most disliked prime minister since the poll was first established in 1985, behind both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. At his lowest, Mr Morrison had a dismal 37 per cent approval rate, while opposition leader Anthony Albanese held a comfortable lead at 43 per cent. The PM waded his way through a series of potentially catastrophic public relations blunders following his return from Hawaii, including appearing to forget about two locals who died in a bushfire and having his handshake rejected by an exhausted firefighter. But the latest polls show he was able to reverse public opinions - and reveal just 29 per cent of Australians still hope for Mr Albanese to lead the nation. Mr Morrison's increased public support comes as he injected a total of $320 billion - or 16.4 per cent of GDP - back into the economy to support Australians during the coronavirus crisis. The money will be rolled out across multiple different stimulus packages, designed to keep money in the pockets of hardworking Australians who have been impacted due to the pandemic. Mr Morrison's popularity has increased even within the last month as the Australian public responds to his handling of the coronavirus crisis Advertisement The cruise official requested two ambulances upon docking. It came two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a 30-day ban on all cruise ships arriving in Australia. But the harbour master reversed the decision just an hour later. Despite an expected arrival time of 6am the following morning, the ship arrived at port at 2.30am. It led to confusion among two ambulance officers who were called to tend to the ill Ruby Princess passengers. In another explosive phone call the two officers debated the competing advice they had received from Ruby Princess officials as to whether passengers were suspected of having the virus and whether tests had come back negative. The Odisha government has warned people in Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak and Cuttack against venturing out into the streets in large numbers after the 48- hour 'total shutdown' imposed on the three cities amid the rise in COVID-19 cases - is lifted on Sunday evening. Addressing a press meet here, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said sanitisation and surveillance were being conducted from time to time to ensure safety of people. Dispelling fears of community spread, Tripathy also said that the shutdown was primarily imposed to investigate the COVID-19-positive cases in Surya Nagar and Bomikhal areas of the state capital. "The Surya Nagar case can be traced back to Kolkata, while patients in Bomikhal locality had links with Bhopal. Therefore, as per our investigation, community transmission of COVID-19 can be ruled out to a large extent," he said. The chief secretary, however, asserted that all restrictions imposed by the Centre and the state government would continue to remain in force. Strict action will be taken against those found flouting the social distancing norms, he stated. "District collectors and police personnel have been asked to enforce social distancing in market places. People should not step out of homes in large numbers and create chaos (once the shutdown is lifted). "The government will have no option but to implement tougher measures, in such circumstances, he said. Tripathy further said that local authorities have been empowered to seal COVID-19 hotspots, if and when necessary, and carry out surveillance and trace contacts. Maintaining that the state government has adopted best practices, in keeping with the guidelines issued by WHO, he said that the 48-hour shutdown, which ends at 8 pm on Sunday, was a complete success, and that similar steps might be taken in the days to come, if people were found violating rules. Noting that around 80 per cent of COVID 19-positive patients did not exhibit symptoms initially, he said social distancing, if not maintained, could invite trouble. The chief secretary urged community leaders and opinion makers to raise awareness on coronavirus among people. He also appealed to Tabligh Jamaat event attendees to come forward and register themselves with authorities, who would then arrange for their medical tests. Three persons, including a religious leader, who had attended the event in Delhi's Nizamuddin have tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha. Meanwhile, the administrations in Jajpur and Puri have imposed a shutdown in several pockets of the two districts on Saturday. The shutdown would remain in force till 8pm on April 6 in Jajpur, while district officials in Puri said the restrictions will be in place till April 14. "Public movement has been banned in Puri's containment zones and entry and exit points have been sealed, after a person tested postitive for the disease in Pipili block. Local residents were being supplied essentials by the administration at their door steps," Sub-Collector B T Sahu said. In Jajpur, officials are trying to trace those that came in contact with the religious leader, who had attended the Delhi congregation, Collector Ranjan Kumar Das said. Odisha has reported 23 COVID-19 cases so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Spanish nationals who were stranded in Goa due to lockdown, left for Madrid by a special flight. They were screened at Goa International Airport before their departure. Earlier on Saturday, Goa Airport Director Gagan Malik had told ANI,"A relief flight carrying 150 Spanish and EU nationals will take off from Goa International Airport to Madrid tonight," He said that the thermal screening of passengers at entry and social distancing will be maintained during check-in at the airport. "Arrangments have been made for passengers to wait with seats, water and fans before entry to a terminal for check-in as they arrive very early due to obvious reasons," Malik added. The Indian government curtailed all international flights to combat the spread of coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Youve been social distancing in your home which youre calling your bunker for weeks now. For the third time in an hour, you stare vacantly into the pantry. The last time you went to the store, you panic-grabbed some Great Northern beans and a bag of Uncle Bens rice from the picked-over shelves. You also bought some bouillon cubes because there wasnt any chicken broth and you had a vague memory of your grandmother using them. Despite your dwindling supplies, youre not sure youre ready to go back out into the world any time soon. But inspiration is wearing thin, a few sad stalks of celery are browning in the crisper, and youre not sure you even like white beans. What do you do? For stay-at-home cooks, every day has become an episode of Chopped, in which we must wrack our brains or the internet to make a weird set of ingredients coalesce into an edible meal. Meanwhile, Santa Fes chefs are rising to the challenge at work and at home, devising creative and adventurous meal solutions during this pandemic: Louis Moskow, 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar: When 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar chef-owner Louis Moskow put himself under a 14-day quarantine after returning from an early March visit to Vail, he came up with a new business plan alone in his kitchen. He had been cooking meals to freeze for himself a short-rib bison and bean stew, fresh pasta and sauce when he decided to take potstickers to the next level, as he puts it. Now, 315 is offering a variety of frozen gourmet dumplings, potstickers and sauces to order on their website (315restaurantsantafe.com) for contact-free curbside pickup. Fillings include five-spice pork and scallion, black truffle scallop and parsnip, shrimp and ginger, and duck with foie gras and dried cherry. Moskow, who worries about keeping the lights on at 315 during the governors mandated closing of restaurants, says, As this whole situation unfolded, it was the obvious thing to do. Hes also branched out to frozen empanadas (beef short rib and Irish cheddar with horseradish creme fraiche) and ravioli (lamb merguez with harissa sauce). Of his pared-down kitchen staff, he says, Everyones in really good spirits, happy to be working. Katharine Kagel, Cafe Pasquals: That hard-won culinary joy is evident in Cafe Pasquals executive chef-owner Katharine Kagels voice, too. Home alone more than a week after closing the restaurants takeout operation, she was ecstatic to discover a forgotten packet of Trader Joes pancetta in her freezer. She advises home cooks to find their own bliss by using a tablespoon of chopped bacon or pancetta to saute proteins or vegetables. When the pancetta hit the pan, I went, Oh my God. The smell of it was just unbelievable. And then just to put in asparagus and peas and leafy greens was just such a joy, she said. Vegetables are going to keep us together, I think, Kagel advises. Shes been using up the contents of Pasquals walk-in freezer, which she divided among staff members on closing day. In fact, she says, this is the day I have to steam all of my dinosaur kale, take the mushrooms and get them into freezer bags after being cooked with some scallions, shallots and garlic. I can have little bitty packets of those. I think that our freezers are going to get us through this. If Kagel were heading out to shop any time soon, shed be on the hunt for seasonal veggies, such as fresh asparagus. It gives us spring. And dark green leafy vegetables, she says. Try cooking lettuce lettuce soup. The English have been eating lettuce soup forever. Also on Kagels shopping list are onions and ginger; tofu, with its long shelf life; and chili oil, toasted sesame oil and olive oil. Keep a good supply, because you can always do your eggs in olive oil and its better for you than butter, anyway, she says. Save your butter just to make everything pop as a rare treat. She urges cooks to improvise, describing the light protein she uses to top lunchtime salads. Maybe its just a couple of tablespoons of shredded chicken that Ive mixed with some peanut butter, chili oil, chile flakes and some chopped scallion. And maybe some kind of seeds for more energy, like pepitas or walnuts. Enrique Guerrero, Bang Bite Filling Station: Chef Enrique Guerrero is also no stranger to wilder culinary combos. The menu at his Bang Bite Filling Station food truck, now parked at the Santa Fe Brewing Companys Brakeroom (510 Galisteo St.) for to-go orders, is full of creative sandwiches. (The You Are My Boy Burger features bacon, Amish blue cheese, maple-bacon jam and garlic aioli.) Over the phone, Guerrero describes a favorite simple go-to meal of ground turkey and black bean chili, made with onions, garlic, Chimayo red chile, cumin and oregano. He layers the chili over a bag of Fritos and tops it with sliced radishes for a healthier Frito pie. I believe that we are very dangerous creatures, especially when we are hungry, Guerrero says. If we keep ourselves well fed, I believe that we are far less dangerous. If we are hungry, we create big drama trying to do the impossible. So we want to keep it very simple. That means being unafraid to mix everything in the fridge together. He recommends fried rice, a standard chefs solution for leftover proteins, vegetables and grains. Fry eggs on top. Put some sriracha sauce, and thats it, he says. Getting experimental in the kitchen, for Guerrero, makes for more exciting results. The other day, I made some posole. I did it with smoked chicken that I had left over from the trailer. Then I put a matzo ball on it. And it was really good. The matzo ball soaked up the broth, he said. He also likes pho-sole, another soup he devised with Vietnamese rice noodles and hominy. Guerrero fondly recalls his grandmothers saying when he would invite friends to dinner at her house, Ay mijo, we need to put more water to the beans. Most importantly, Guerrero urges cooks sheltering in place: Enjoy what youre doing and dont freak out. If I burn the bread, Ill just make some croutons. If you dont have enough beans, just put more water in, he says. He signs off with a chefs refrain that is all the rage during the time of coronavirus. And, for Gods sake, wash your hands! A teenage boy with Angelman Syndrome who is awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test has no understanding of the outbreak despite the best efforts of his mother to explain that there is a "virus in the sky." Sheila Devlin Mulligan and her husband Colin of Cobh, Co Cork are parents to two boys Conor (14) and Shane (22) who have the rare neurodevelopmental disorder Angelman syndrome. The syndrome is characterised by severe intellectual and developmental disability. Conor (14) has been tube fed since he was nine. The boys are also in nappies with the household going through an average of fifty diapers a week. Nearly a fortnight ago Conor was seen by a doctor amid a bout of vomiting and diarrhoea. A test for Covid-19 was arranged as a necessary precautionary measure and the boys have been cooped up in the house since. Even if the test comes back with a negative result the brothers are facing into weeks if not months at home. Sheila says understandably they have lost their home support and respite until the test results come through. She says that everyone is doing their best under the circumstances. However, the situation is taking its toll on her vulnerable sons. "My older boy Shane is getting depressed. He is gone very quiet and is crying all the time. They don't understand why they can't go out. It is like a punishment for them because they don't understand why they are locked in the house. "I think they feel they are being punished for something they didn't do. They have a lot of anxiety. They have absolutely no understanding of what is going on. They just think they are being kept in. I keep saying "there is a virus in the sky and we can't go out" but they can't see why we can't go out. They can't make sense of it. Individuals like Shane and Conor thrive on routine. Prior to the crisis, they attended Cope Foundation facilities from Monday to Friday. Home support workers brought them to Cork city centre or Fota Wildlife Park on Saturdays and the boys went out with their parents on Sundays. Sheila says that the Covid-19 virus and the resultant near lockdown is particularly heartbreaking when your children do not even understand why they are being kept in. "Shane has been sleeping right through the day because he is so depressed. There is no day or night. He is crying and crying but he can't express why he is crying. The woman who comes into the boys every day is great but she just can't come in until we get the results. "I don't think Conor has Covid-19 but he had the test because he has underlying issues. On the day the doctor saw him he was vomiting and had diarrhoea. He was very sick so they didn't want to take any chances. "We had a two-hour wait for the test in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. The girl who was doing it was very patient with him. She was gentle and did it in his time not her time. He didn't know why he was there. It is an invasive test. But they (the HSE) are doing the best they can. Everyone is. Sheila is grateful for the Home Support package she receives for the boys and for the vital respite they obtain once a month. She is resigned to facing into months of isolation with her husband and two sons. "We are going to be quite isolated. Even if we get a negative result it doesn't mean you are not going to catch it "I know isolation. We have great support but you still feel isolated (bringing up boys with additional needs). When the home supports are gone and you are there on your own 24/7. It is a different form of isolation. It is social isolation. [snippet1]987600[/snippet1] "Luckily Shane likes puzzles and glueing stuff and things but its a real torment for Conor because he likes to be on the go. He is a very active boy. The situation is particularly hard on the family as her boys are normally very upbeat. Angleman syndrome is characterised by sleep disturbance, seizures and jerky movements. However, persons with the condition generally engage in frequent laughter or smiling, and have a happy demeanour. Sheila had Shane when she was 20-years-old. He failed to reach the developmental milestones yet doctors repeatedly told her it was just late development. Sheila said she instinctively knew that there was something more serious coming down the line. Shane wasnt meeting the milestones. He never slept as a baby. His feeding was horrendous. He just wasnt a typical little baby. We were going to doctors for seven years before Shane was diagnosed with Angelmans. "I was told the chances of this happening again were 50-50. The advice was not to have another child. I went on to have another child and I was told before Conor was born that he had Anglemans. Sheila says whilst both boys have Angelmans Conor was a completely different baby to his older brother. Conor had dozens of seizures a day and his parents quickly realised that he was going to have more issues than his older brother. Sheila says sleep is an issue in every family with Angelmans. "Conor could get up at 2am and thats it. If he is up I am up. If Conor wakes Shane he is up as well. A typical night is very little sleep. I adore respite because I get into my bed and stay in it for eight hours uninterrupted sleep." The Mulligan boys will never live independently. Sheila and Colin are concerned for their future and know residential care will have to come in to play when they become too old to mind their sons. The boys, Sheila stresses, are a bundle of joy despite the myriad of challenges they face. They are my life. They are really happy kids. Happiness comes with the syndrome. They dont cry tears unless they are really in a bad way. They do this fake crying like babies do. One lady said to me one day I can see the world through his smile. Conor catches peoples eyes and he just smiles at them and he is able to draw people to him. Even when we are in a shop I will be standing in a queue and people will comment on how happy he is. Sheila is keen to dispel the notion that what she does for the boys is anything other than the ordinary. She particularly hates this notion of God giving special kids to special people. Or people say things like God gives a cross for people to carry. I look at normal families and I dont know how they do it. I dont have worries that other people have. I dont have teenagers out getting drunk or drugs. "I dont have the stress of Leaving Certs or Junior Certs. I see a typical child and then I look at mine and I think how lucky am I? I have two beautiful kids with big smiles. First confirmed case of COVID-19 on the occupied Malvinas Islands Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 3:43 PM After days of speculation the first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, has been confirmed on the occupied Malvinas Islands (which the British call Falkland Islands). According to Sky News' foreign affairs editor, the first confirmed case is a "British service person" based at Mount Pleasant, the sprawling tri-service military complex situated in Isla Soledad (which the British call East Falkland). An outbreak of coronavirus amongst troops, contractors and their families on Mount Pleasant runs the very real risk of compromising the UK's offensive military posture on the archipelago. Situated in the South Atlantic Ocean (just over 480 km from the Argentine coast), the Malvinas Islands is claimed by Argentina on the grounds that the UK has illegally occupied the archipelago since 1833. Beyond the 1,300-strong garrison in Mount Pleasant, the population of occupied Malvinas Islands which numbers around 3,400 is believed to be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, primarily due to the prevalence of old people in poor health. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Greek authorities have placed a second refugee camp near Athens into lockdown after a resident tested positive for coronavirus, officials announced on Sunday. The countrys migration ministry said a 53-year-old Afghan man had been transferred from the Malakasa camp, which has a population of 1,270 people, to a hospital in the Greek capital. His family and those he has come into contact with are in the process of being tested as the public health agency tries to trace the route of the virus. On Thursday, the Ritsona camp was quarantined after 20 people tested positive for Covid-19. It was the first such facility in Greece to be hit since the outbreak of the disease. Greece was the main gateway into the European Union for more than a million people fleeing conflict throughout 2015 and 2016. More than 110,000 people currently live in migrant facilities across the country 40,000 of them in overcrowded camps on five islands. The number (of migrants and refugees) is very large, therefore it is a given, mathematically, that there will be confirmed cases, migration minister Notis Mitarachi told Skai TV. We have an emergency plan in place ... But it is more difficult to implement it on the islands. No cases have been recorded in camps on Greek islands so far. The European Commission has said that Greece will be able to manage an outbreak among the countys refugee population. I think they can manage, Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for home affairs, told MEPs on Thursday. Gianluca Rocco, who heads the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Greece, said: This development confirms the fact that this fast-moving virus does not discriminate and can affect both migrant and local communities. Calls have been made among aid groups to evacuate Greeces refugee camps, where conditions are cramped and unhygienic, with hundreds of residents forced to share toilets, showers and water taps. Martin Baldwin-Edwards, the director of the Mediterranean Migration Observatory, told The Independent: There needs to be political pressure to release people from these camps and remove those situations and conditions where the virus is allowed to spread among migrant communities. It has the potential to turn into a catastrophe. Mie Terkelsen, a nurse who runs a clinic for pregnant women and victims of sexual in the Moria refugee camp, one of Greeces largest migrant settlements, said that is not possible for residents to follow the necessary advice in limiting the spread of Covid-19. What we are telling people all around the world at the moment to keep distance, to wash hands, to self-isolate if they have symptoms none of these things are possible when you live in a refugee camp, she told The Independent. In some parts of the camp there are 1,300 people per water tap. To be able to wash their hands with those measures is not very easy. They live in extremely cramped places. Often multiple families share a small tent, so being able to self isolate or anything like this is very difficult. IAt the moment, more than ever, we are calling for an immediate evacuation of the most vulnerable in the camp. Those with chronic diseases and the children are extremely vulnerable if an outbreak hits. However, Greek authorities have pushed back on proposals to relocate the countrys migrants and refugees at a time of nationwide lockdown. Recommended Inside the Lebanon refugee camps bracing for coronavirus Notis Mitarachi, Greeces minister of migration and asylum, said: We do not have rooms in the mainland. The conservative government wants to replace all existing camps on islands with enclosed detention centres, but its plans have been met with resistance from local authorities and residents who want all facilities shut. Greece recorded its first case of the new coronavirus at the end of February. Since then, it has confirmed 1,673 cases of Covid-19 and 68 deaths. It has imposed a nationwide lockdown and banned arrivals from non-EU countries, as well as Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain. Dakar Senegal (PANA) - King Mohamed VI of Morocco Sunday granted exceptional pardon to thousands of prisoners and ordered the prison authorities to take the needed measures to strengthen the protection of detainees against the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Officials of Union Environment Ministry and its offices will be contributing their one-day salary to the PM-CARES fund for combating the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Sunday. The amount being contributed by the officials of the ministry and its 13 offices amounts to Rs 1.14 crore. "All officers and staff of @moefcc and its 13 Attached/Subordinate/Autonomous office pledged to contribute one day's salary around Rs1.14 cr to #PMCARESFund launched by PM @narendramodi to support govt effort to fight #COVID19 pandemic," Javadekar tweeted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on March 28 had announced the launch of the PM-CARES fund to fight the deadly COVID-19 and provide relief measures to the affected. Javadekar had earlier donated Rs 2 crore from the MPLADS fund, each for PM-CARES and the Pune administration to fight the pandemic. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) LONDON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Britain reached 41,903 as of Saturday morning, an increase of 3,735 in the past 24 hours, according to the lastest figure from the Department of Health and Social Care. As of Friday afternoon, of those hospitalized in Britain who tested positive for coronavirus, 4,313 have died, marking a record daily rise of 708, the figure from the department showed. The department also confirmed that a five-year-old child, who had an underlying health condition, is the youngest in Britain to die from COVID-19. At the government's daily coronavirus press briefing, Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove said hundreds of new ventilators are being manufactured daily in Britain and 300 arrived from China on Saturday. "More are coming into production in the coming weeks, subject to safety and regulatory approvals, as part of the Prime Minister's call to manufacturers to scale up production," he said. Gove said the increasing death toll from COVID-19 shows "more than ever" that Britons must stick to the government's lockdown measures. "I know that life under lockdown can be challenging, and some will be tempted on this sunny weekend to venture out and about...If we relax our adherence to the rules, we increase the risk for others." Gove also urged people "to think of those on the front line and the sacrifices they're making for us", noting that seven healthcare professions have died from the virus. Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Saturday launched a new Coronavirus Status Checker that will help the National Health Service (NHS) coordinate its response and build up additional data on the COVID-19 outbreak. "Technology and data is playing a vital role in battling coronavirus and supporting our heroic NHS frontline workers to save lives, protect the vulnerable, and relive pressure on the NHS," Hancock said. "We must learn as much as possible about this virus, and we are asking the whole nation to join this effort," he added. People with potential coronavirus symptoms are now being asked to complete the status checker and answer a short series of questions which will tell the NHS about their experience. It is open to anyone in Britain to use on the NHS website and in its initial phase the NHS is particularly keen for anyone who thinks they may be displaying potential coronavirus symptoms, no matter how mild, to complete it, the health department said in a statement. The Miinistry of Sanitation and Water Resources, in conjunction with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and ESPA have embarked on a three-day deep clean-up exercise of Accra metropolis. The exercise - which is simultaneously being done in Accra and the Kumasi metropolis - is aimed at ensuring that lorry stations, market centres, streets among other public places of the central business districts of these two major cities are clean and hygienic. It's also to utilize the lockdown period to ensure effective cleaning and cleansing of the cities in support of the fight against the spread of the covid-19 disease. Earlier before the beginning of the exercise, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, in a brief address explained that the exercise formed part of the central government's plan to keep the two cities clean. She urged Ghanaians to take personal hygiene serious in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We must equally weed and clean our surroundings to ensure that we stay healthy all the time", she advised. Again, Mrs Dapaah urged Ghanaians to refrain from the practice of littering into gutters, warning that the "full rigours of the will be hard on offenders". She seized the opportunity to thank Zoomlion Ghana Limied, Uniliver Ghana Limited and Ghana Water Company Limited, who made various donations to the exercise. She thanked the various security agencies--Army, Prisons, Fire Service and Navy who have deployed personnel to help in the three-day exercise. For his part, the Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, said the clean-up exercise will involve desilting of gutters, collection of refuse and disposing them of, and emptying all litter bins on the streets of Accra. However, he averred that the city authority will enforce its sanitation bye-laws to ensure that Accra is always clean. The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, called on Ghanaians to be united to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He assured that his ministry was also leaving nothing to chance to ensure that funds are readily available to fight the pandemic. Waste management giant, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, is providing massive support for the support. The company has deployed some of its mechanical street sweepers, excavators among other heavy duty waste management vehicles to support the cleaning of Accra. What is more, the the company has also made available 115 of its staff members, loads of wheel burrows, shovels and brooms all to assist in the exercise. Earlier, it donated 10,000 pieces of hand sanitizers and 5,000 nose masks which gesture was highly applauded by the sanitation minister. There also donations from Uniliver and Ghana Water Company Limited. 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. Featured Video Five million Egyptian daily workers are struggling to make ends meet amid the repercussions of the Covid-19 crisis With social distancing and staying at home the most used precautionary measures to face up to the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, millions of families are being threatened with poverty as their sources of income vanish and workplaces close. Daily workers and the families of those who do not have fixed jobs often suffer the most, including in Egypt. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt has 5.2 million daily workers, representing 20 per cent of the total labour force in the country. Almost all of them do not have social or medical insurance, making them dependent on what they can earn day to day. The government is working on solutions to support those affected by the crisis, however, and the Social Solidarity Ministry has said it will add 80,000 to 100,000 families to the Takaful and Karama social programmes at a cost of LE800 million. The Ministry of Manpower has also announced support for casual workers with a onetime LE500 allowance. Over 1.2 million informal workers applied for the grant in less than a week after the government announced the call, according to Minister of Manpower Mohammed Safaan. Beit Al-Zakat, one of the biggest social solidarity organisations in Egypt and under the direction of Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb, is making the monthly allowance it provides for families in need substantially higher over the next two months. However, NGOs have so far played a more important role in mitigating the effects of staying at home on the families of daily workers. The Abwab Al-Kheir Foundation, an NGO, has been covering the expenses of 50 families of daily workers in the Al-Ayyat neighbourhood of Cairo and will continue to do so for the next three months. It is currently collecting donations for another 50 families. While many of us joke about getting fat because of staying at home in quarantine and during curfew hours, for others staying at home means hunger and suffering, Haitham Al-Tabie, the founder of Abwab Al-Kheir, told Al-Ahram Weekly Al-Tabie said the foundation supported each family with LE1,000 a month, which is approximately the amount of money they would get from working for two weeks, he added. The foundation, which has been implementing social-support projects in 19 governorates for over two years, believes that supporting families by paying them almost half their monthly income can help them to maintain a decent standard of living and prevent them from having to beg on the streets. Al-Tabie highlighted the fact that most of the families the Foundation supports rely on daily labourers working in the informal sector of the sector of the economy who spend what they earn on food. Most of the workers work on construction sites or in factories, earning from LE50 to LE70 per day. But due to the Covid-19 crisis, most factory production lines have stopped, and construction projects have been suspended, so they have ended up jobless, he said. However, with the support of social-media platforms, peoples support for those suffering economically from the crisis has been huge. We received over LE150,000 within only 36 hours of announcing our appeal, and people are still donating. Current conditions have brought people closer, making them feel more for others, Al-Tabie said. The leading NGO Resala has also launched an online campaign called Donate the Good, challenging celebrities to financially support as many families as they can for a month during the Covid-19 crisis. The initiative has been widely taken up among public figures, who have appeared in videos stating their willingness to cover the expenses of a number of families whose breadwinners are casual workers that have lost their sources of income due to the coronavirus pandemic and calling on others to do the same. According to Resalas Facebook page, the celebrity campaign has managed to fully sponsor the monthly incomes of over 10,000 families. The Egyptian Food Bank, another NGO, has announced plans to help the families of casual workers with food and asking people for donations as part of the 500,000 food boxes it is planning to distribute to the workers families. Forty-five per cent of Egypts underprivileged people consists of casual workers, according to Heba Al-Leithy, a professor at the Faculty of Economic and Political Science at Cairo University. Al-Leithy, who has made extensive studies on poverty in Egypt, told the Weekly that this percentage was on the rise as thousands of those who has used to have low-ranking jobs in the private sector were now joining the group. Most of them are already poor, and now we are facing a real challenge in reaching them and supporting them so that they do not fall beneath the poverty line, Al-Leithy said. Having an NGO provide these families with a monthly income is better than a government grant, she added. We understand that the government cant provide more due to the huge financial pressures resulting from the coronavirus, but it can make the NGOs jobs easier, she said, saying that it could shorten the period to connect in-need families with donating bodies through providing lists of families living on the poverty line, for example. The support of charities and individuals was one way of mitigating the economic effects of the crisis, Al-Leithy said, adding that the different initiatives to help the poor did not only need money, as they were also in need of volunteers to deliver food and money to those in need. *A version of this article appears in print in the 2 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jan Peter Balkenende, Ban Ki-moon, Kjell Magne Bondevik, Helen Clark, Benjamin Mkapa, Ricardo Lagos, Kevin Rudd, Aminata Toure, and Danilo Turk (The Jakarta Post) Madrid Sun, April 5, 2020 16:46 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd5176 3 Opinion G20,G20-coronavirus-pledge,COVID-19,coronavirus,world-leaders,pandemic Free The scale, speed and threat of the global COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented, as is the financial response now required. According to experts, this pandemic is unlikely to be quickly contained. It may ebb and flow over time, across seasons and between regions, underscoring the importance of a coordinated global response. As former presidents and prime ministers, we have variously led our democracies in response to governance transitions, financial crises, civil unrest and violent conflict, and to epidemics as serious as SARS, H1N1, MERS and Ebola. Given the startling velocity with which COVID-19 has spread globally, this pandemic must be addressed urgently in real time. That will require a leadership approach based on values of solidarity, equity and cooperation which transcend a sole focus on national interests that alone would prove insufficient to stop a global pandemic. We welcomed the convening of the first virtual Leaders Summit of the G20 on March 26. The message sent from the Club of Madrid beforehand aimed to encourage the G20 to establish global solidarity in the fight against the pandemic. We fully agree with the call made by the Director General of the World Health Organization to fight, unite, ignite against the virus that threatens to tear the world apart. Read also: G20 nations pledge 'united front' on coronavirus crisis We call on the G20 to provide the leadership and support needed for a globally coordinated response. The G20s engagement is particularly important. As we saw a decade ago during the financial crisis, its convening of countries from every region of the world representing more than 90 percent of the global economy and two-thirds of its population can be critical. The G20 must develop and deliver a comprehensive response to both the unfolding public health emergency and, increasingly, the global economic and social emergency in a way that provides confidence to people and markets. This response must go beyond platitudes and principles. It must result in concrete decisions, such as to eliminate barriers to the free movement of medical personnel and equipment, to coordinate efforts around vaccine development and testing, and to support low income countries which have poor public health infrastructure and capacity. To date, world leaders have largely focused on the outbreaks in their own countries. The priority given by leaders to solving the problems of their own citizens is understandable. No country is safe, however, from a pandemic like COVID 19. Stand-alone national strategies will not only prove ineffective in stopping the virus, but they would also mean that the international response will be weaker than needed to prove effective. The World Health Organization has worked admirably within its capacity to coordinate a global response. Yet one multilateral agency left to act alone cannot perform miracles. The multilateral system as a whole must step up to provide the response required. The UN Security Council should resolve to address the global pandemic as a threat to global peace and security. The UN system as a whole is only as strong as its members. The COVID-19 response requires leadership at the global level, to tackle not only the outbreak, but also to coordinate efforts to stave off the next great economic depression. Governments should not develop stimulus packages in isolation. We know from history this will only create fiscal imbalances that will make the recovery harder. And governments must also align their efforts with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement to ensure we are better placed to tackle other global challenges like climate change as we emerge from this crisis. We are especially concerned regarding the rapid spread of COVID-19 to countries in the Global South. Public health infrastructure and capacities have already been sorely stretched in China, South Korea, Europe and the United States. United Nations Secretary General (and Club of Madrid member), Antonio Guterres, has rightly called on wealthier countries to focus beyond their national challenges and work towards a comprehensive response which supports poorer countries. The proposal of the government of Norway to the G20 to establish an international fund to help the countries of the Global South is a step in the right direction. A global response fund which envisions public-private cooperation across borders, at the disposal of international public health experts, is critical for leaving no one behind both between and within countries. Read also: Indonesian manufacturers step up as G20 nations coordinate global medical supply In many places, identifiable groups have not enjoyed full access to goods, opportunities and services. Public health responses must take into account the need to focus on and include those historically or otherwise marginalized from healthcare, including ethnic and religious groups, indigenous peoples, minorities, migrants, women and youth. If their exclusion is replicated in the response to the pandemic, not only will they be potentially decimated by illness but, they may also become continued transmitters of the virus even as it begins to recede among other populations. Technology is a part of the solution, but it also needs to be applied equitably between and within nations. We know that digital transformation has not been inclusive and equitable across societies, particularly as it affects women and minorities. We must be sure that the technological responses we develop like testing, medical care and, in time, vaccines are distributed equitably. In South Korea for example, access to continuous and rigorous testing procedures made accessible to the public through user-friendly drive-through and even walk-through sites, has maintained civil order and allowed public health managers to achieve a high recovery rate. Efforts to support the global economy must also focus on the most marginalized and excluded populations. This means building economic recovery strategies around employment, poverty reduction and sustainable business models. Without an effective global strategy and action, COVID-19 will continue to spread, taking a heavy toll on human health and well-being and severely damaging economies and societies. As former presidents and prime ministers, we call on the G20 and world leaders to finance and empower a reinvigorated and coordinated international response which leaves no one behind and aims to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. --- Jan Peter Balkenende was prime minister of the Netherlands (2002-2010); Ban Ki-moon was secretary general of the United Nations (2007-2016); Kjell Magne Bondevik was prime minister of Norway (1997-2000; 2001-2005); Helen Clark was prime minister of New Zealand (1999-2008); Benjamin Mkapa was president of Tanzania (1995-2005); Ricardo Lagos was president of Chile (2000-2006); Kevin Rudd was prime minister of Australia (2007-2010, 2013); Aminata Toure was prime minister of Senegal (2013-2014); and Danilo Turk was president of Slovenia (2007-2012). They are Members of the Club of Madrid, an association of democratic former presidents and prime ministers. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. By Laila Kearney (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has directed his cabinet to find ways to ease a cash crunch in the drilling industry after oil company executives told him in a Friday meeting it was among their top concerns, according to three sources briefed on the matter. Trump hosted the White House meeting with executives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, Continental Resources and others as his government seeks to contain the fallout from an historic slump in oil prices that has threatened the industry with bankruptcies and layoffs By Laila Kearney (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has directed his cabinet to find ways to ease a cash crunch in the drilling industry after oil company executives told him in a Friday meeting it was among their top concerns, according to three sources briefed on the matter. Trump hosted the White House meeting with executives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, Continental Resources and others as his government seeks to contain the fallout from an historic slump in oil prices that has threatened the industry with bankruptcies and layoffs. Oil prices have dropped by about two-thirds this year as the coronavirus outbreak crushes fuel demand and major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engage in a price war. U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told a broad industry conference call following Trump's meeting with the oil executives that Trump had directed him to work with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to look for ways to immediately fix the energy industry's "liquidity shock", according to sources who listened in on the call. The measures could include easing banking regulations to expand the oil industry's access to credit, which has shrunk rapidly alongside the decline in oil prices, Brouillette said, according to the sources. Brouillette also pointed out that the administration was helping the industry cope with a rapidly worsening storage glut in the United States by leasing out space in the nation's emergency oil reserve, the sources said. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who was also on the call, said he was making federal lands available to drillers and considering a series of other options to help oil companies, but provided no details. The briefing quashed rumors that the Trump administration was planning to announce measures to restrict U.S. crude oil production to help lift global prices, as it pushes Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major oil producers to do so. Trump has highlighted his efforts to push Moscow and Riyadh to end their price war and tighten their taps, and Brouillette said on the call that the administration was not negotiating with those countries, only encouraging them to make a deal amongst themselves. The energy industry had also expected the administration to offer some additional ways to help the industry weather the crisis, including waiving royalty payments from drillers for oil produced on federal lands, imposing an import tariff on foreign crude oil or easing shipping regulations. One of the sources called the outcome "a waste of time". After the meeting, Trump said his administration planned to make sure the U.S. oil industry stays in "good shape". Asked if he is considering tariffs on Saudi oil, Trump said: "Tariffs are a way of evening the score ... Am I doing it now? No. Am I thinking about imposing it as of this moment? No. But if we're not treated fairly it's certainly a tool in the toolbox." He added that he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to "settle their dispute very quickly." Trump had said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia and Russia had agreed to cut output by an unprecedented 10 million to 15 million barrels per day (bpd), representing 10% to 15% of global supply, after he discussed the issue with their leaders. The countries did not confirm the plan, but said they would discuss ways to stabilize the market with other major world oil producers. The United States in recent years has become the world's biggest oil producer, at times putting its exports in competition with Russia and countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the U.S. oil and gas industry, had asked Trump for regulatory relief to ensure steady supplies during the pandemic. The administration has since announced a temporary easing of environmental enforcement. The API, many of whose members operate globally, has opposed the idea of an oil import tariff, which could hurt domestic refiners and complicate projects and business relationships across borders. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Diane Bartz in Washington; Jessica Resnick-Ault, Stephanie Kelly, and Jarrett Renshaw in New York; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Richard Chang, Dan Grebler, Daniel Wallis and David Gregorio) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. On the day after rural Bibb County got its first confirmed coronavirus case, nurses and staff at a small testing clinic in Centreville gathered at a few outdoor wooden picnic tables for a socially-distanced lunch break in the fresh air. Its the only part of the workday they get to take off the face masks and gowns and bulky plastic face shields that are now their daily uniform. You have to work at keeping your mind in the right place, said Amanda Wiggins, 40, a licensed practical nurse and Bibb County native. Her mother is a resident at a nearby nursing home, and she worries about her. Shes glad schools and other businesses closed to prevent the spread of the virus, even though it meant her daughter, a high school senior, wouldnt get to attend prom or graduation. She tries not to worry much about herself. Nursing is a calling, she said. This is what were supposed to do. Were the front lines. Wiggins and the others work at Cahaba Medical Cares Respiratory Evaluation Clinic, located inside a tiny converted community center surrounded by fields. The 35-bed Bibb Medical Center is a five-minute walk in one direction and the highway a five-minute walk in the other. Since March 16, Cahaba consolidated its COVID-19 testing to three clinics: one in Birminghams West End neighborhood, and one each in rural Bibb and Perry Counties. That was done by design, to conserve precious protective gear and testing supplies. We thought this would be the way to maximize the number of patients were serving, said Dr. John Waits, without blowing through PPE (personal protective equipment) for every provider and nurse we have, on every patient. Waits is CEO for Cahaba Medical Care, a community health center that operates 16 clinics in Bibb, Perry, Chilton, Dallas, Autauga and Jefferson Counties. The clinics serve patients regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. Staff at Cahaba Medical Care in Centreville, Ala. opened a Respiratory Evaluation Clinic in March to screen and test for COVID-19 in rural Bibb County. And because Cahaba already has sliding fees for patients based on what theyre able to pay, its a place where uninsured and underinsured people can be screened and tested without having to go to local emergency rooms. Recently, Waits, said, hes been fielding calls from hospital administrators asking if he could open another testing site. The clinics have opened temporary drive-thru sites on certain days, particularly in Jefferson County. When (coronavirus) first hit, it seemed like everybody was trying to have their own testing sites, said Waits. But now that people are getting sick and ending up in hospitals, the hospitals are trying to preserve their tests for their in-patients. The last place we want someone who may not have COVID is to be in the hospitals that are starting to get the sickest COVID patients. Nurse practitioner Andria Knighten, left, and licensed practical nurse Amanda Wiggins don protective gear before an afternoon shift at the clinic. Staff at Cahaba Medical Care in Centreville, Ala. opened a Respiratory Evaluation Clinic in March to screen and test for COVID-19 in rural Bibb County. Bibb County Wiggins shares the picnic table with Andria Knighten, a nurse practitioner. Until three weeks ago, the pair worked in Bibb County Schools as part of Cahabas school-based clinic program. When the schools shut down, they were reenlisted to work at the evaluation clinic in Centreville, screening and testing patients for COVID away from Cahabas main clinic down the road. The clinic tests 20-40 patients per day for COVID-19. Theyve had at least one test positive so far. The spectre of an overwhelmed hospital and healthcare system looms large, particularly in a rural setting. Waits said local hospital and clinic leaders have been meeting to map out contingency plans if COVID-19 slams their community and their hospital. He and Cahaba Chief Operations Officer Dr. Lacy Smith have held several virtual town hall meetings with their staff to keep them updated on whats happening and what they could expect. Knighten said she felt reassured when Waits and Smith told the staff, weeks ago, that Bibb County would certainly have a positive case and that theyd soon see infection numbers rise around the state. Instead of freaking out when it happened, she said, we knew about it beforehand and it wasnt as much of a shock. Medical assistant Kenya Abner, right, checks the temperature of everyone who enters. Staff at Cahaba Medical Care's West End neighborhood of Birmingham opened a Respiratory Evaluation Clinic to screen and test for coronavirus. The clinic sees patients regardless of their ability to pay. West End, Birmingham Kenya Abner waits outside the front door of Cahabas West End Clinic in Birmingham with a thermometer, checking the temperature of everyone who enters. Its a busy morning, the parking lot at least half-full. The front doors of the clinic are propped open to the breezy, 70-degree day, welcoming a steady stream of patients. Some wear masks. If a patient is there for a regular appointment, Abner sends them into the main waiting room. But if theyve got an appointment for a COVID-19 test, she hands them a blue hospital mask and directs them to a separate waiting room to the right. Theyll wait, masked, for their turn to be screened and tested. Birmingham is the epicenter of Alabamas COVID-19 outbreak, with hundreds of confirmed cases as of Sunday morning and at least four related deaths. It feels like here, were stuck on the tracks and theres this slow-moving train coming in our direction, said Dr. Jeremy Crider, who works at the clinic. In the past three weeks, the West End clinic has evaluated 454 people and tested 157. Four were positive for COVID-19. Were all waiting for things to get bad, he said. It can be nerve-wracking. Staff at Cahaba Medical Care's West End neighborhood of Birmingham opened a Respiratory Evaluation Clinic to screen and test for coronavirus. The clinic sees patients regardless of their ability to pay. On the testing side of the clinic, staff wear head-to-toe protective garb. Once theyre suited up, theyll stay that way until lunch, and then again until the office closes. The more you take (the protective gear) off and on, the more chances you have to contaminate, said Veronica McDonald, office manager and registered nurse. Who needs to use the restroom these days? she joked. So overrated. An older woman approaches the front door, saying she heard on the news that the clinic offered coronavirus tests. She didnt have an appointment, but she was fearful about symptoms shed been having. Abner took her aside, talked with her about her symptoms and made her an appointment. McDonald, watching the exchange, said the most important thing the doctors and nurses at Cahaba West End can do is to keep the clinic open. Cahaba offers telemedicine visits and is working to educate patients on how to do that. But some low-income families still face barriers to internet access and in some cases dont have reliable phones. We have a lot of people who are not going to hop on a smartphone or computer and do a telemedicine visit, said McDonald. They go to the library for internet and the librarys closed, so they have no internet access. We have to be open to provide any measure of healthcare. Its not easy. Cahaba has seen a 40% decrease in regular patient visits as coronavirus has taken hold in Alabama. That kind of financial hit poses a real threat to clinics working to remain open. And it means patients arent coming in for treatment of chronic issues that threaten their health. McDonald said shes worked with patients to ease their fears about COVID-19 and help them sort through what theyve heard or read about in the news. Dr. Jeremy Crider, left, and office manager Veronica McDonald stand outside of Cahaba Medical Care's clinic in the West End neighborhood of Birmingham. They opened a Respiratory Evaluation Clinic to screen and test for coronavirus. The clinic sees patients regardless of their ability to pay. Many of Cahabas patients are using social services now more than ever, McDonald said. Were still helping with things like transportation, making sure they have a gas card if they need it, or bus tokens, and the food pantry is open, she said. Weve definitely seen a spike in people accessing the food pantry. At the end of the day, McDonald and the other staff go home and shed their clothes in their garages, scrub down in showers, anything to avoid bringing the virus home. Prayers always been a part of it, but weve been praying more, said McDonald. And really just trying to be smart. Back in Bibb The first patients of the afternoon begin arriving as the lunch break winds down. Wiggins, Knighten and the other staff head back inside and help each other suit up, tying the strings on their gowns and adjusting head coverings. Staff at Cahaba Medical Care in Centreville, Ala. opened a Respiratory Evaluation Clinic in March to screen and test for COVID-19 in rural Bibb County. Wiggins worries about what might happen if the clinic runs out of protective equipment just as Alabamas COVID cases begin skyrocketing. Waits and Smith have tried to be creative about finding more gowns and masks, but its been difficult. Its on our minds every day, Wiggins said. We do what we can to conserve. Her main focus, she said, is trying to help patients feel comfortable. Peace of mind doesnt just come through a test. Sometimes its as simple as having someone you trust answer the questions behind your worries. Cahaba staff recently created videos for patients, to answer their questions about COVID-19 and to explain how to access telemedicine visits. Wiggins said it helps patients to see a familiar face explaining whats going on. They dont know people at the CDC so they dont trust them, she said. To hear somebody whos been working in the community go out there and talk about it and give them updates, it makes a big difference. Resources: Follow AL.coms live updates of coronavirus in Alabama. Find all of our coronavirus stories.Heres a continuously updated vital information post. A free text-messaging service so you can receive the most urgent coronavirus updates on your cellphone. And ask questions. To sign up, subscribe to Alabama Coronavirus Urgent Alerts. A new weekday newsletter is available. You can subscribe here. Also, download the AL.com mobile app where you can receive on-the-go notifications. Sumi Sukanya Dutta By PTI NEW DELHI: The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days presently but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said there had been 472 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths since Saturday. The total coronavirus cases stand at 3,374 and the death toll now stands at 79. He said 267 people have recovered. However, a PTI tally of figures reported by states directly showed at least 106 deaths, while the number of confirmed cases had reached 3,624. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE COVERAGE OF COVID-19 Of the total, 284 have been cured and discharged. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the numbers announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. Asserting that there was no evidence that COVID-19 was airborne, an ICMR official said, "We need to understand that in science whoever does experiments some will have a 'for opinion and some against' but we need to take a balanced, evidence-based approach. "For example, if it was an air-borne infection then in a family whoever has a contact they all should come positive because they are living in the same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in the hospital, other patients would have got exposure (if it was airborne) but that is not the case, the official said. Talking about the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, Agarwal said, "If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling "that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently, it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days." ALSO READ| Decision on reopening schools, colleges on April 14 after reviewing COVID-19 situation: Centre Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday held a meeting on COVID-19 with district magistrates, superintendent of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries and district health secretaries and chief secretaries, Agarwal said. District officials shared the strategies adopted by them to combat the pandemic like how they delineated containment and buffer zone, how they carried out a door-to-door survey through special teams, how through telemedicine and call centres the passengers who had come were monitored. The districts from where many cases were reported like Agra, Bhilwada, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Pathan Mitha, East Delhi also shared their experiences and strategies adopted by them. The main points that came from the experience shared by districts were proactive and ruthless containment implementation at field level and second is preparedness to the extent of being over prepared so that cases can be handled at any stage, Agarwal said. All DMs were instructed pharma units making devices and medicines must run seamlessly, he said. Kolkata Port Trust has carried out a major sanitisation drive in all berths at Haldia dock system to bring its operations to the normal level which slumped to 50 per cent after a dock employee was tested positive to coronavirus on Saturday. However, even as activities were low, work on essential cargo was intact, an official said on Sunday. "The affected person was engaged only at berth no 13. But we have carried out sanitisation in the entire Haldia dock system including general facilities as a precautionary measure and to allay the fear of infection among the workers," KoPT chairman Vinit Kumar told PTI. There are 14 dry dock berths and three liquid berths in the Haldia dock system. "Contractual workers were absent since yesterday and we have urged them to join work from April 6. Unions are also supporting our efforts to start normal functioning," Kumar said. The Stevedore had returned from the Tablighi Jamaat convention in Nizamuddin on March 30 and reported back to work at the port. He was tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday morning, triggering panic at the port. Port officials who came in contact with him over the week have been home quarantined. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At 2 am on Friday, Ruby Kataria,25, a Sangam Vihar resident, nine months into her pregnancy, started having labour pain. With most public transport off the road because of the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, her elder sister, Komal, began calling hospitals for an ambulance. But each call was met only with radio silence. For some reason, no hospital took my call. It was an emergency. My sister was in pain. We do not own a car. At that moment, something struck me and I called the police control room. I told them my sister was about the deliver a baby, and no conveyance was available. Within six minutes, a police van was at our door and took us to the hospital. They saved her life, Komal said. On Saturday afternoon, Ruby, a homemaker, gave birth to a boy. They havent named him yet Komal said Ruby will she would take her child along with her to meet the head police constable who saved her life, once she leaves the hospital. Since the 21-day nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, the citys police control room (PCR) vans are doubling up as ambulances. PCR vans are the first responders whenever a crime is reported to the control room. Between Friday evening and Saturday evening alone, PCR vans shifted at least 43 women who experienced labour pains to hospitals across the city. Since March 25, the police have rushed 139 women to hospitals, after getting calls on the police control room helpline. Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Sharat Sinha, said, As private and public vehicles have been banned due to the, and ambulances are mostly being used for transporting suspected or confirmed Covid-19 patients, we are getting the police vans to be used as alternate emergency vehicles to shift pregnant women or people injured in various accidents to hospitals. A senior official in the health department however said the government has enough ambulances to transport non-Covid patients. We have ample ambulances dedicated for Covid-19 patients. We also have 102 ambulances, which are dedicated only to transport pregnant women and sick infants. In some cases, police officers, unused to the task now presented to them, are going the extra mile to make sure women in their vans feel safe and comforted. A police constable, who had rushed a pregnant woman to Safdarjung hospital on April 3, said, I have asked my wife to guide me on the things that one must say when a woman is in labour pain so that I can to comfort her psychologically. We are learning on the job. We have to learn so many things as a police officer. Sinha said that for many residents who do not own vehicles, getting hold of transport in emergency situations is proving to be a severe challenge. Keeping these problems in mind, we instructed all personnel in the PCR vans to prioritise calls from women in labour. Fortunately, there has been no mishap in any of the cases, and our officers were able to rush women to hospital, Sinha said. The police have narrowed their focus on such medical emergencies, he said, as crime-related calls are few and far between now. According to Delhi Police data, the number of heinous crimes, like robbery, snatching, dacoity, has come down in the last 15 days. Road Accidents on the citys streets have reduced as well. Between March 15 and 31 last year, there were 48 fatal road accidents in the city. In the same period this year, that number dropped to 19. The low volume of vehicular traffic has led to improvements in our response time. Our vehicles are reaching spots within two or three minutes, and are shifting women to hospitals in as much time, he added. Each PCR van has a stretcher to carry people who are unable to walk. First-aid kits are also available in the vehicle but they are mostly used to give preliminary medical attention to people injured in accidents. To avoid police personnel getting infected by the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, they are provided sanitary masks, hand gloves, sanitisers, water and soap, which are kept in the vehicles. We keep reminding our staff about their personal hygiene and safety. Being the first responders to any emergencies, we regularly encourage them to continue the services they provide to society during these times, the DCP said. In many of the cases, the police vans had to transport women in labour as far as 14km from their homes to a multi-speciality hospital. On Friday evening, when HT spoke to the constable, he said he was going to a spot in his PCR van. There was a distress call. Just that this time, he had less of a pressing matter on his hands he was on his way to settle a quarrel between two neighbours. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country by the coronavirus disease, recorded 26 more cases of Covid-19 on Sunday morning, taking the tally of the infected people to 661. Out of these 17 cases were reported from Pune, four from Pimpri-Chinchwad, three from Ahmednagar and two from Aurangabad. Officials, however, refused to share details about the travel history of the new patients. The state had recorded 145 cases of the coronavirus disease, which was the highest rise in a single day, on Saturday. In Mumbai, the coronavirus cases increased to 377 and fatalities to 22 as of Saturday. Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage Five people from Dharavi, Indias largest slum, have tested positive so far and none of them has travelled outside. Experts have said the increasing number of cases in Dharavi among people with no travel history is alarming considering its dense population spread across 600 acres. The spike in cases, which has been largely attributed to the Tablighi Jamaats international congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi between March 13 and 15, has forced the state government to ramp up its preventive measures. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had said during his Facebook address on Saturday that the state has been taking appropriate measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Yes, coronavirus cases are increasing because we are testing more people. We are further increasing testing capacity in Mumbai as the city recorded maximum cases, Thackeray said. Also read: New plan holds clues to unlocking country He had also said that the state government has traced all those who attended the Tablighi Jamaats international congregation in Delhis Nizamuddin and put them in isolation facilities. As per protocol, every day the central government sends a list of people who attended the congregation to the state. Till today, from the names received, we have traced 100% of them, and all have been kept in the isolation wards, he said. He appealed to others who had attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation to come forward and contact civic authorities so that appropriate treatment could be provided to them if they have any coronavirus symptoms. Amid coronavirus outbreak in the state, Thackeray had warned about fake news and viral messages being spread on social media platforms. He said strong action would be taken against spreading communal messages. Like coronavirus, there is another virus that is trying to divide our society. I am warning people to refrain from it. Coronavirus has no religion. I am warning all of you. No one can save you from the action, he had said. State health minister Rajesh Tope has assured the state government has adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and has initiated discussion with the central government on their supply. There is no need to worry over PPE equipment. As of now, we have 25,000 PPE kits, more than 25,00,000 N95 masks, and more than 25,00,000 triple-layer masks and 3000 ventilators in government hospitals. The central government has assured that they will acquire equipment for the state and provide us, the minister said. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in its efforts to crack down on the spread of coronavirus, has identified 241 containment zones in Mumbai city. These containment zones have a large number of people who have to be quarantined because of their possible contact with Covid-19 patients. They are also being monitored by civic authorities by using the close circuit television (CCTV) cameras. MILAN Fiat Chrysler has begun producing ventilator parts to help Italy's Siare Engineering boost its output of the medical equipment needed to treat patients during the coronavirus crisis, the carmaker said on Friday. Carmakers around the world are ramping up production of critical healthcare products and machines to respond to the enormous demand during the pandemic. Italy, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Europe, had asked Siare to triple its normal monthly production as a part of government efforts to increase the number of intensive care beds. FCA said that with the support of luxury group Ferrari and holding company Exor, which controls both carmakers, it had produced the first electrovalves, a key part in ventilators, at its plant in Cento, in northern Italy. The Cento plant is usually used to produces high-performance car engines for the global market. It had been closed because of the coronavirus but has partially reopened for this project. "With the additional supply of electrovalves from Cento, Siare estimates that it will be able to reduce total production time for ventilators by as much as 30-50%", the statement said. In addition to the production of the electrovalves, a team of specialists from FCA is also working alongside Siare staff at their production facility near the city of Bologna. "The objective is to help increase Siare's total production, with a gradual scaling up of daily output beginning from the first week of April", FCA said. The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) has described as helpful and resolute the show of leadership by President Akufo-Addo in the fight against the growing threat of the COVID-19 in the country. The commendation was done when a delegation from the Academy paid a courtesy call on the President on Friday, 3rd April 2020, at Jubilee House in Accra. The purpose of the meeting was to present a report on the findings, recommendations and assessment of activities undertaken, thus far, by respective government institutions and interested parties in helping to mitigate the pandemic. Addressing Akufo-Addo, the Vice President of the Academy, Prof. Samuel K. Sefa-Dedeh stated that, we recognize the resolute policies that you, the President of Ghana, and the government has put in place to contain the epidemic. This has made a huge difference in the number of cases that have recorded. He stated further that some of the highlights that your government has undertaken, as we have said, have been critical in controlling the pandemic; widespread testing for the virus, quarantine of cases, contact tracing, isolation of contacts and physical distancing, community engagement and education of the community so they understand the severity of this illness and its impact that it will have. The Academy appealed to the government to ensure that healthcare workers battling the disease are adequately protected, and urged the government to have modelling of the epidemic using raw data from the Ghana Health Service Disease Surveillance Unit and hope that this can be put in place so that we have daily data. Touching on testing, Prof. Sefa Dedeh lauded Government on the premium placed on enhancing the ability of the Noguchi Memorial Institute and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research to test for the virus, and also in accelerating the establishment of more testing centres. I think that Ghana has a unique window, in two or three weeks, in which to implement what government has put in place to ameliorate this epidemic; in enhancing the education of the public on social distancing, lockdown, and self-containment. They are critical few weeks in which the measures you and your government have put in place will bear results, he added. ---citinewsroom Desperately low on medical supplies, state governors in the United States have been clamouring for equipment held in the federal stockpile. In response, Jared Kushner the President's son-in-law, whose portfolio includes Middle East peace negotiations, criminal justice reform and a shadow pandemic taskforce made a startling claim: "The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use." President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing at the White House on Saturday in Washington. Credit:AP This is, of course, nonsense. But it's illuminating nonsense. President Donald Trump has in recent days turned the war against COVID-19 into a war against the states, in a desperate effort to shirk responsibility for his pandemic denialism. In doing so, he has abandoned the core responsibility of the presidency, exacerbating political fractures that not only bode ill for the health of Americans but the health of the country as a whole. Loading Two weeks ago, Trump was asked about the disastrous federal response to the pandemic. His answer: "I don't take responsibility at all." It was a spot-on summary of his governing philosophy. Still, it took another week or so for him to land on who, exactly, should be held responsible. After easing off his attacks on China, he focused instead on Democratic governors in Washington, New York and Michigan, all of whom were fighting deadly outbreaks in their largest cities. Bighorn River at Afterbay Dam NPS, Kelly Peacock March 31, 2020 Contact: Christy Fleming, 307-548-5406 Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Is Modifying Operations Again To Implement Local Health Guidance Lovell, WY Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area continues working with neighbors and partners, evaluating the facilities and park operations on a daily basis in support of federal, state, and local mandates to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Bighorn Canyon is announcing modifications to operations in the North District at Fort Smith, Montana, at the request of public health officers from Big Horn County, Montana, the Bureau of Reclamation, and from the Crow Tribal Government. As of March 31, 2020, Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area, North District near Fort Smith, MT, is closed to all public entry and suspending all services. This closure includes but is not limited to the following: All NPS administered property All Restroom facilities Afterbay and Grapevine Creek Campgrounds. Boat ramps at Ok-A-Beh, Afterbay Lake, Afterbay River, and Three Mile River Access The Headgate Trail, Beaver Pond Trail, and 3 Mile Trail. Yellowtail Dam Visitor Center On the South District of Bighorn Canyon near Lovell, Wyoming, the Bighorn Canyon Visitor Center is closed. The Barrys Landing and Kane boat ramps remain open. The Horseshoe Bend ramp is closed due to low launch levels. Trail Creek and Horseshoe Bend Campground and all trails remain open to provide healthy outdoor options for the public. These areas continue to be monitored daily and could be subject to closure. We continue to closely monitor visitation on the South District of the park and will be basing operation decisions on adherence to the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health authorities to protect visitors and employees. As services are limited, the NPS urges visitors to continue to practice Leave No Trace principles, including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces safe and healthy. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working service wide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website at www.nps.gov/bica and social media platforms. Facebook: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bighorncanynps/ Twitter: Updates about NPS operations will be posted on . Please check Bighorn Canyon social media sites and the website at www.nps.gov/bica for specific details about Bighorn Canyon operations. www.nps.gov About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on , Instagram, , and YouTube. Married At First Sight's Cathy Evans and Vanessa Romito have revealed why they were edited out of Sunday night's season finale. In a tell-all Instagram post, Vanessa, 31, claimed she had argued with producers behind the scenes and had to take Valium before seeing her ex Chris Nicholls again. Meanwhile, Cathy, 26, said in her own post that she had refused to discuss her relationship with Josh Pihlak, which is likely why she had limited airtime. Blink and you'll miss them! Married At First Sight's Cathy Evans and Vanessa Romito have revealed why they were edited out of Sunday's finale. Pictured: the MAFS cast Vanessa claimed that producers had initially said she wouldn't have to sit next to Chris during filming after their bitter break-up, but they later changed their minds. 'I was told I didn't have to be anywhere near him, and at the last minute they showed me a seating chart and said, "You have no option, this will make us look bad,"' she said. 'I went outside and took two Valium to get me in that room with him.' Valium, or Diazepam, is a medicine that typically produces a calming effect. It's often used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms or muscle spasms. Drama queen! In a tell-all Instagram post, Vanessa (left) claimed she'd argued with producers behind the scenes and had to take Valium before seeing her ex Chris Nicholls (right) again Vanessa failed to appear at the reunion dinner party, which aired last week, and later revealed she did not want to be involved in any of the arguments or drama. Last week, Chris claimed they had been kept away from the cameras at the finale because producers feared Vanessa would make defamatory and false claims about him. 'I was advised that I was being protected by not giving Vanessa a platform,' he told NW magazine. 'I was being protected': Last week, Chris said they were kept away from the cameras at the finale because producers feared Vanessa would make defamatory and false claims about him In her own post, Cathy took a swipe at Josh and explained that she wouldn't be speaking about her ex-'husband' ever again. 'If you follow me in the hopes that I would want to mend a s**tfight "relationship" with that man baby. You can unfollow me right now. Never ever,' she wrote. 'I would rather hold on tightly to an electric fence than be in the same room as him.' Over it: In her own Instagram post, Cathy took a swipe at Josh Pihlak and explained that she wouldn't be speaking about her ex-'husband' ever again. Pictured at the finale with Mishel Karen, Tash Herz and Amanda Micallef 'I would rather hold on to an electric fence than be in the same room as him': Cathy did not hold back in her Instagram post on Sunday, making it clear why she and Josh were edited out During Sunday's season finale, only six of the 12 couples sat down with the relationship experts to reflect on their journey on the show. A source told Daily Mail Australia there were two reasons why some couples weren't shown: they were either too controversial, or too boring. The exes that barely appeared on screen were: Josh and Cathy, Chris and Vanessa, Poppy Jennings and Luke Eglin, Natasha Spencer and Mikey Pembroke, and Drew Brauer and KC Osborne, and Amanda Micallef and Tash Herz Tashkent can provide a platform for inter-Afghan negotiations, which will be attended by representatives of President Ashraf Ghani, his political rival Abdullah Abdullah, as well as the Taliban movement (banned in Russia). The main condition is the exchange of prisoners. On April 7, the first 100 prisoners will leave Kabul prison. The Taliban, in turn, will hand over 20 captured Afghan soldiers. Uzbekistan already has experience of political consultations in the Afghan settlement and received sanction to become mediator from two major players - the United States and China. However, due to the threat of the spread of coronavirus infection, the date of negotiations hasn't been determined yet. At the end of last week the Afghan Ministry of Peace Affairs announced completion of the formation of the Kabul delegation, which should attend inter-Afghan negotiations with the Taliban. This became possible after the first meeting between representatives of the Afghan government and delegation of the Taliban movement in Kabul, during which they discussed the issue of exchange of prisoners of war. At the end of February in Qatar, the United States and the Taliban signed first peace agreement in over 18 years of war, which envisages withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 14 months and the beginning of the inter-Afghan dialogue. One of the clauses of this agreement was the release of prisoners. By March 10, up to 5 thousand Taliban militants and up to thousand prisoners from the other side were supposed to be released. However, on March 1, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced that his government has been excluded from the deal and had not made any promises to release 5,000 Taliban members. Nevertheless, on March 11, Gani signed a decree to pardon and release the Taliban prisoners, specifying that the process will be gradual. After pressure from the United States and calls from other countries to support the peace process, the parties organized meetings to begin the exchange. Right now the very possibility of negotiations is regarded as a progress, because before all parties - both the Afghan government and the Taliban - refused to engage at all. Both meeting itself and the agreement reached at it are just historical, they're practically a miracle. True, in order to achieve this, the Taliban captured a county in Badakhshan a week ago to show everyone in Afghanistan that there will be no negotiations with official Kabul without the exchange of prisoners. Of course, this step could be called terrible blackmail and pressure, since after that there were also attacks in the Tokhar province, but you can also call it forceful dialogue, natural for Afghanistan, because the further you dig, the more obvious it becomes hat the official Kabul doesn't seek peaceful dialogue and does everything possible to disrupt it, for which it has quite good reasons, Igor Pankratenko, deputy director of the Center for Strategic Assessments and Forecasts, told Vestnik Kavkaza. The main reason, according to the expert, is a one-billion-dollar reduction in US aid to Kabul: It's a huge blow for the central government. But it also brings huge results. The exchange schedule and the list of people involved in the exchanged were agreed on over the week. It's assumed that the exchange will be carried out according to formula 100 for 20 people every day. On April 7, the first batch should leave the Kabul prison." After the exchange of prisoners process is completed, general inter-Afghan negotiations should begin. But not everything is going smoothly. The Taliban doesn't approve the list of delegation that will negotiate on behalf of Kabul. Mohammad Masum Stanikzai, former head of the National Security Directorate, was chosen as the head of the delegation, and other participants include people close to Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah Abdullah and other political leaders. Delegation also includes five women, including Khabib Sorabi, who serves as deputy chairman of the Supreme Peace Council. Kabul called this list "inclusive." Nevertheless, former Prime Minister Abdullah Abdullah made it clear that his approval shouldn't be taken as a sign of resolving the political crisis that arose after the announcement of the presidential election results. Ex-Prime Minister also noted that change in the composition of delegation is possible. "There's fair criticism regarding composition of this delegation, but the beginning of negotiations is very important for us," afghanistan.ru quoted Abdullah as saying. While previous inter-Afghan meetings took place with participation of heavyweight politicians, this time their representatives will have to conduct dialogue with the Taliban. This gives delegation function of a "postman". This approach makes it impossible to sign agreements immediately at the negotiation table. That's why the Taliban say that there's no one to negotiate with, and they are conducting separate negotiations with Abdullah Abdullah, hoping to join forces with him against Ghani. Nevertheless, Tashkent welcomed the agreement of leaders of Afghanistan on the formation of an "inclusive" negotiation team and sees this as a decisive step on the way towards peaceful resolution of the domestic political crisis in the country, press service of the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan said. Supporting its words, Uzbekistan sent the first batch of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to combat the spread of coronavirus infection. The cargo sent by the train via the Angren-Tashkent-Termez-Mazari-Sharif route includes special clothing for medical workers, medical masks, pyrometers, food, soap and clothes for children. People are home more now. They have time. They have motivation. They have opportunity. Some may think, "Hey, this is the perfect time to adopt a shelter dog." Perhaps. First, theyll have to convince dog fostering folks such as Flagstaffs Nicole Jones, who volunteers for High Country Humane, that they are worthy. Adopting a pet, even during these homebound days when people have more time to spend training and nurturing, is a decision not entered into lightly, so Jones and other foster moms judge the suitability of prospective adopters with a discerning eye. In fact, Jones suggests that those interested foster a dog first before making a permanent commitment, rather than adopting a pet at first sight from organizations such as HCH and Coconino Humane Association. Thats an option more people are choosing during this coronavirus lockdown, taking in pets for trial runs, helping to ease the burden on shelters. Its a really good time now to get the dogs out of the shelters and get them a different life, said Jones, a dog lover who co-owns a boutique dog food business, Woof 66 Treats, with Amy Langord. Fostering is a great way to get to know the dogs personality and if its the right fit for your family. The experience of fostering a dog can be rewarding and bittersweet, in equal measure, those who do it say. Rewarding, in that the fosterer helps find forever homes for shelter pooches; bittersweet because, often, a bond grows between rescue dog and temporary rescuer. Jones journey with her latest foster dog, a nearly 2-year-old Australian cattledog mix named Blossom, illustrates the virtues of fostering. By weeks end, after a screening process Jones ran that almost resembled a canine version of The Bachelorette in its wooing, Blossom looked to be on her way to a happy ending, and Jones on her way to missing the mutt but looking forward to fostering yet another shelter dog. The saga of Blossom, as with many dogs in this type of situation, is both sad and hopeful. She was found a few months ago as a stray, still wearing a broken leash. That led Jones, who volunteers taking shelter dogs on hikes, to speculate that Blossom was one of those unfortunates who spent most of their time tied up in a yard. Im thinking she was an outdoor dog, then a shelter dog, and now this is probably her first really loving home experience Blossoms had, Jones said. It wasnt easy at first, fostering Blossom. The pup was initially timid and withdrawn, especially around men. So Jones husband tread lightly around Blossom at first, as did Jones 10-year-old son. But, with time and through patience, Blossom, well, blossomed into a happy, well-adjusted companion that also got along well with the familys permanent dog, Mac, a blue heeler. You have to go a little slow, Jones said. They can have different behaviors toward different people. Shes really come out of her shell. (Mac) has really helped Blossom, too, just in learning how to be a dog, you know. A lot of dogs that come into the shelter havent had a lot of socialization. Mac as mentor makes sense, because, he, too, was shelter dog fostered by Jones. But Mac turned out to be what Jones bluntly called a foster failure, meaning she could not place him in a permanent home. So, as Jones and family grew to love Mac, they made their bond permanent. Courting a canine That most likely wont be the fate that awaits Blossom. Theres been a lot of interest, Jones said. Lots of meets-and-greets with prospective human companions. But Jones and other foster volunteers dont just hand over the leash to anyone showing an interest. I am very particular, Jones said. Not so much that Ill say no quickly, but I just want to be sure. I ask a lot of questions, like, What do you plan on doing with the dog? Hiking? Being active?' If I cant go see (the prospective owners) house, I like to ask about their living situation. Is there a yard fenced in? How long do you plan on leaving the dog outside? Are they OK with an indoor dog? For instance, Blossom loves to sleep on the bed. Shes gotten used to that. For me to put her in a house where its, like, No, absolutely no furniture, no bed, well, thats not a good fit. There have been several wooers of Blossom, who has a gorgeous short white coat speckled with black and brown, ears that fetchingly curl over like waterfalls, and an expressive face with just a hint of mischief detectable. Mostly, though, the big selling point of Blossom is her sweet, gentle nature and positive energy. Ive seen so much progression with her in the last couple weeks, Jones said. Last week, a couple came to have a play date with Blossom and brought their dog, also a young heeler, to see if the two would hit it off. It did not go well. They said right away, 'I think our dog may be too much for Blossom,' Jones recalled. Just as well, because a day later, another interested family contacted Jones about Blossom. An assignation was planned, and it went well -- by all accounts. We walked around the neighborhood, and I ended up letting the wife walk Blossom, and she treated Blossom, Jones said. (The woman) made chicken. She was really sweet. So we walked around neighborhood a couple times, then played ball. It looks really promising. Life as a foster mom to shelter dogs almost always means eventually having to say goodbye. Will Jones miss Blossom? Oh yes, she said. Ive honestly gone back and forth with this. I guess thats one of the hardest things is like, when you start to bond and see how happy the dog is with you, you think, Well, should I just keep her. But then I have to remember and look at the bigger picture because Id like to help more dogs. There are thousands of dogs out there like Blossom. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Embattled NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane has warned the obsolete scum of white Australia has re-emerged, attacked Australias mainstream media as anti-Chinese and praised Beijings leadership during the coronavirus crisis in a February essay that mirrors Chinese state propaganda. NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane has been heavily criticised for praising China's President Xi Jinping's handling of the coronavirus crisis. Credit:James Alcock The revelation of Mr Moselmanes February 5 opinion piece for the East China Normal University comes with the upper house MP already facing intense criticism - including from his own party- for separate comments he made praising Chinese President Xi Jinping. In his February opinion piece, Mr Moselmane endorses the much-maligned praise by the World Health Organisation of measures adopted by China... to stop the virus from spreading. At the same time, the Australian government was hesitant, lacked direction, and responded slowly and confusingly," he wrote. A nurse at the Hudson County jail in Kearny has died, county officials said in an email obtained by The Jersey Journal. Daisy Doronila, who has worked at the jail for more than 20 years, was hospitalized at Mountainside Medical Center. County officials said Doronila had been out of work since March 14. In a Facebook post, her daughter said that she was initially diagnosed by her private doctor with strep throat on March 16 and was not approved for a coronavirus test. By March 24 Doronila was on a ventilator fighting for her life, her daughter said. County officials could not be immediately reached for comment. On March 20, the jail suspended contact visits with prisoners. On March 23 and 24, the jail released low-risk inmates Tuesday to halt the spread of coronavirus. Indian-origin Lisa Nandy, who lost in the Labour leadership contest to Keir Starmer, was on Sunday appointed shadow foreign secretary as the new party leader put together his shadow cabinet to monitor the work of the Boris Johnson government. Nandy, 40, is MP from Wigan. She replaces Emily Thornberry, who was in the role in former leader Jeremy Corbyns shadow cabinet. The composition of Starmers team is seen as reflecting a purge of Corbyns followers. Starmer said the shadow cabinet will respond to developments related to the coronavirus pandemic. The members of the so-called C-19 Committee are: Starmer, leader of the opposition; Angela Rayner, deputy leader; Anneliese Dodds, shadow chancellor; Nandy, shadow foreign secretary; Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow home secretary; Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; and Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary. Starmer said: We are living through a national emergency. Under my leadership, the Labour Party will always act in the countrys interest to save lives and protect livelihoods. That will be the number one priority of my shadow cabinet. We will be a responsible opposition that supports the Government where we believe they are right and challenge them when we believe mistakes are being made. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prasun Sonwalkar Prasun Sonwalkar was Editor (UK & Europe), Hindustan Times. During more than three decades, he held senior positions on the Desk, besides reporting from Indias north-east and other states, including a decade covering politics from New Delhi. He has been reporting from UK and Europe since 1999. ...view detail FILE PHOTO: An employee holds a sample of crude oil at the Irkutsk Oil Co-owned Yarakta field in the Irkutsk region By Rania El Gamal DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is taking unprecedented action in delaying the release of its international crude selling prices by five days, a senior Saudi source familiar with the matter said on Sunday, as the kingdom and other major producers seek to halt the free-fall in worldwide crude prices. But oil prices fell anew at the open of Asian trading as the weekend did not bring major producers Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States any closer to resolving a growing supply glut that is overwhelming markets. A month-long price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, has cut the price of crude to $34 a barrel from $65. Members of OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, have stepped up efforts to resolve the dispute in recent days, but they have called on other big producers - including the United States - to be involved. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to meet Thursday - delayed from Monday - to discuss cutting production to alleviate a supply glut as fuel demand is expected to fall by about a third worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 but have since rebounded somewhat. On Friday, Brent crude futures settled at $34.11 a barrel; in early Asia trading, prices fell to $32 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell to $26.15 a barrel on Sunday from a $28.34 close on Friday. [O/R] Major producers from members of OPEC, to Russia, the United States, and Canada, have all expressed hope that a production-cut deal would be worked out. However, the weekend was marked by ongoing sniping between Russia and Saudi Arabia over the demise of the previous OPEC agreement. President Donald Trump last week touted the possibility of a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut output by as much as 10 to 15 million barrels per day, but that would likely need the cooperation of nations that are not part of OPEC, where national governments do not exert control over private-company output. Story continues Trump, for the second day in a row, threatened on Sunday to impose tariffs on crude imports in an effort to force Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major producers to agree to production cuts. He said he would do "very substantial tariffs" if the oil price stays the way it is, but added that he did not think he would need to do so. "I don't think I'm going to have to because Russia doesn't benefit by having this, and Saudi Arabia doesn't benefit," Trump told a White House briefing on the coronavirus crisis. Iraq's oil minister said on Sunday that any new deal needs support from key producers from outside the OPEC+ alliance, such as the United States, Canada and Norway. The White House has not suggested it would try to persuade producers to reduce output. National oil company Saudi Aramco <2222.SE> typically issues its Official Selling Prices (OSPs) by the 5th of each month, setting the trend for Iranian, Kuwaiti and Iraqi prices and affecting more than 12 million barrels of oil per day bound for Asia. "That's a pretty clear sign that they are open to cutting in May," said Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group in Bethesda, Maryland. The OPEC+ meeting was initially due to take place on Monday, but was postponed to April 9 "to allow for more time to reach out to all producers, including OPEC+ and others", the Saudi source said. "It is an unprecedented measure that has not been taken by Aramco before. May OSPs will depend on how the OPEC+ meeting concludes. We are doing what we can to make it (the meeting) successful, including taking this extraordinary step to delay the OSPs," the Saudi source said. The Saudi source said that Riyadh wants to avoid a repeat of the outcome of a March meeting where oil talks collapsed due to Russia's refusal to cut output. The kingdom's aggressive price cuts in early March shocked the oil industry, kicking off a downward spiral in the oil market that accelerated with the worsening of the coronavirus pandemic. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the crash in prices on Saudi Arabia on Friday, prompting a firm response from Riyadh the following day disputing Putin's claims. On Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia wants constructive talks on the situation in the oil market and sees no alternative to dialogue, Interfax news agency reported. "Russia was not in favour of terminating the OPEC+ deal. President Putin and Russia are committed to a constructive negotiation process, which does not have an alternative for stabilising the international energy market," Peskov said. Coordinated cuts between OPEC+ members expired on March 31, having helped support crude prices since they began in January 2017. Trump has made no commitment to take the extraordinary step of persuading U.S. companies to cut output. The idea of Washington curbing production has long been seen as impossible, not least because of U.S. antitrust laws. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal, additional reporrting by Daphne Psaledakis and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Additional reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Ahmed Rasheed and Jessica Resnick-Ault; Editing by David Gaffen, Jason Neely, Jan Harvey and Daniel Wallis) Naas-based IT firm Novi has designed and implemented a customised infrastructure for Irish Funds the representative body for the international investment funds community in Ireland and which is responsible for supporting, developing and promoting the funds industry globally. It represents more than 145 member companies. The new infrastructure includes multiple layers of security to help protect Irish Funds systems and data from potential cyber-attacks. Novis made-to-order design will deliver increased security, performance and reliability. The remote working capabilities of the new infrastructure grant employees secure and seamless access to real-time information, enabling them to offer support to its member and stakeholder base, regardless of their location in the world. Multiple layers of cybersecurity help to protect Irish Funds from the risk of a cyber-breach, including an advanced firewall, email protection and a company system which automatically implements patches to keep all systems up-to-date and secure against malware and associated threats. Novi, is based at Millennium Park. The company monitors for hidden threats on the network and provides user-friendly analytics. It also reports on the health and the security of its systems to Irish Funds.. 12 MORE WEEKS, the Star headline screamed Thursday. It read like a death sentence, following a guilty plea. Except this verdict of self-incarceration is the antidote to the killer within. In this COVID-19 court, the perpetrators are also the prey. We are, at once, stalker and game, villain and victim. Am I a danger to my grandson? Or is his father a danger to me? I may be 60 years old, but I dont have pre-existing conditions rendering me vulnerable. I may even be immune to this coronavirus thing. Im good. Freedom is immunity until it meets up with a fellow-traveller whose immune system is compromised. From the onset, this message has endured: Its the old who are most vulnerable; they should shelter in place. So the vibrant and young adopted the stance: let me be. Im free to play in the park. Chill, everybody. A few old people die and everyone is caught up in hysteria. Its a free country, said the young man, out enjoying a sunny spring day; healthy, confident, secure in the promise of youth, oblivious to his elders fear of the killer germ he dispenses intemperately. Freedom can be like that loose and free; unrestrained. Its bred into us this freedom; some, more than others, true. Its in the air we breathe, the privilege of our speech, our nascent expectations nourished at our mothers breast and fertilized by opportunity and institutional guardrails. It seems so inviolable stout and impregnable. Always there, one easily forgets the tilling of the ground the blood, sweat and tears of that same old generation that watered freedoms bloom. And now, the parade of government and health officials seems ready to just sweep our freedoms away for tens of people who were on their deathbed, anyway. Thats the sentiment in some quarters, these past two weeks. They watched the less mindful, carefree youths speak and act carelessly. And seethed. Now, the youths are pushing back. Why are we being hounded and derided for the silly actions of a few of us? Why the mass blaming of young people? Its such a frail and resilient thing this freedom. In the same Thursday Star, editorial cartoonist Theo Moudakis captured the duelling realities out there. In one cartoon panel you see soldiers disembarking to war, with the caption, We went overseas. In panel two, a man wisely, hes not young or old says, Im staying home. I can do this. Yes we can. There was no preparation for this. Only yesterday the price of gasoline dropped to $1.09 a litre and I rushed out to fill up. The price is dropping towards 60 cents a litre in some places now and the $1.09 gas still brims my gas tank. Ive been staying home except for essentials. The opposite of freedom is not always bondage. Restraint and limits are often liberating and necessary for survival against natural storms and unnatural predators. Thats where we are, here, there and around the globe. The pandemic reinforces our commonality and interdependence. To limit the spread of the virus in New York is to reduce the possibility of contagion across the border. And vice versa. Clipping our freedom wings and burying ourselves in tight restrictions so we dont act as willing host to a killer germ intent on hitch-hiking across the globe is emancipating, even if counter-intuitive. We are getting used to that. To be free to travel safely and thwart terrorist attacks, we endure invasive security checks at the airport. To present a confident common front to a beleaguered citizenry, our political leaders bury their partisan differences, and offer hope and assurance. The message from federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu invites us to embrace restrictions, if only for a while: If we all just stopped moving for two weeks, and nobody talked to anybody for two weeks, and we all stayed put, in fact we would see this virus die. Two weeks. Twelve weeks. So all our freedoms can sprout again. So, youve spotted a neighbour throwing a backyard party or a group of ding-a-lings having a picnic in the park. Maybe a shopper has nudged up a little too close for comfort behind you at the grocery checkout line. In this age of physical distancing, what do you do? Despite repeated admonitions from government officials for people to stay two metres apart and not gather in large groups during the COVID-19 pandemic, some Canadians continue to flout the rules. We all know this is a matter of life and death. How do you get the point across firmly and clearly without getting into blows? The Star spoke to Elizabeth Burnett, founder and president of Elizabeth Etiquette in Vancouver, and Julie Blais Comeau, chief etiquette officer at Etiquette Julie in Ottawa about how best to handle these and other scenarios. Both generally recommended avoiding approaching groups of strangers. We dont know what is going on in peoples lives, Burnett said. Were living in a time when everyones anxiety levels are at an all-time high. Emotions are volatile. Plus, if you call out scofflaws in person, you run the risk that they could approach you. Best to contact an authority figure and let them deal with it, she said. Depending on the situation, that could be community police, bylaw enforcement, an apartment manager or a store manager. Blais Comeau agrees. If theres a chance youre going to be perceived as a foe, its best not to take matters into your own hands. Even when it comes to people you know, sometimes its best to call in an outside party, Burnett says. This pandemic wont, we all hope, last forever, and you may well want to maintain those relationships, be they with friends or family. If you do choose to approach people you know, Blais Comeau recommends taking a gradual approach and giving the other side the benefit of the doubt. She uses the example of snowbird parents who are returning from vacation and not taking self-isolation seriously. Give them an opportunity to have their say on the matter, she says. When its your turn, stay away from accusatory language. She suggests using gentle phrases, such as: What I have to say is difficult and I care about you. I care about all of us. If that still doesnt work, she recommends invoking the idea that social distancing is a civic duty one that has been repeatedly recommended by the prime minister and top health officials. Blais Comeau says she actually had to employ some of this language with her father and stepmom, who were vacationing in California recently. Theyre very proud and independent, she said. I dont think they realized the severity. After a phone conversation didnt yield a commitment from them to self-isolate upon their return to Canada, she followed up with an email mentioning their civic duty as the good Canadians that you are. The messaging seemed to work. They went straight home and stayed put. Blais Comeau suggests the same delicate approach when dealing with a neighbour you know well who happens to be throwing an outdoor gathering. A glance over your patio and a Hi, how are you? might just do the trick of stopping the offending behaviour. They realize theyve been seen. If they persist, you could follow up by saying something like: Im concerned about you. Physical distancing is for everyone. Im asking you to think about this. When it comes to a more intimate setting, such as a grocery checkout line, and a shopper is encroaching in your space, the experts suggest a couple of different approaches. Burnett says this actually happened to her recently. She opted for a non-verbal response. She turned around, looked at the offending shopper and then looked down at the marker on the floor where that person shouldve been standing. When the shopper didnt move, she walked to the back of the line to avoid risking getting any closer. My message here is to be the role model instead, she said. I do believe I got the message across. Sometimes actions speak louder than words. Blais Comeau suggests a slightly different approach. She might turn, make eye contact with the offender, smile and make a remark about how its easy to forget social distancing rules, while backing away from the person. Asked what advice shed give to someone who is in a tight elevator and another person wants to step in, Burnett suggested saying: Excuse me, Im complying with the rules and practising the two-metre rule. If the other person still chooses to walk in, she would walk out while making it clear that she is healthy and just being cautious. I would probably add, Keep healthy! Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alice Ritchie and Phil Hazlewood (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom Sun, April 5, 2020 09:05 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc34d7 2 World UK,Labour-Party,leadership,JeremyCorbyn Free Pro-European centrist Keir Starmer was on Saturday unveiled as new Labour party leader, heralding a shift in Britain's main opposition party after a crushing election defeat under veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn and years of ideological infighting. The 57-year-old former chief state prosecutor defeated Corbyn loyalist Rebecca Long-Bailey and backbencher Lisa Nandy in a lengthy campaign sparked by Corbyn's resignation after December's loss at the polls to Boris Johnson's Conservatives. Angela Rayner becomes the new deputy leader, Labour announced on Twitter, after it was forced to cancel a special conference because of the coronavirus outbreak. Starmer, who was Labour's Brexit spokesman, called his election "the honour and privilege" of his life and vowed to "engage constructively" with Johnson's Conservative government. Johnson immediately offered his congratulations and the pair spoke, with Starmer accepting an invitation to a government briefing on COVID-19 next week. "Keir offered to work constructively with the government on how best to respond to the coronavirus outbreak," his spokesman said. Starmer himself vowed to reunite Labour, after deep rifts between supporters of socialist Corbyn's hard-left ideals and centrists, and wrangling over its Brexit strategy. He immediately addressed the issue of anti-Semitism that Corbyn was accused of failing to tackle, which tarnished the party's reputation and caused Jewish members to leave in droves. "Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party. I have seen the grief that it's brought to so many Jewish communities," Starmer said. "On behalf of the Labour Party, I am sorry. "And I will tear out this poison by its roots and judge success by the return of Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us." Starmer, who won a resounding 56.2 percent of the vote of Labour members, acknowledged the party had "a mountain to climb", after four straight general election defeats -- two under Corbyn. But he vowed: "We will climb it." He added: "I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and with hope. "So that when the time comes, we can serve our country again in government." Morocco has devoted a huge budget to address the COVID-19 health crisis, becoming part of the top five countries worldwide that have devoted huge budgets to outweigh the economic impact of Covid-19. According to data compiled by the American Goldman Sachs bank, Morocco is the fourth country in the world to earmark the largest amounts to fight the pandemic and its economic and social impacts, reported La Vie Economique magazine on its website. Goldman Sachs bank said the Kingdom holds the fourth spot on the world ranking as it mobilized nearly 2.7% of its GDP to face the harmful impacts of the lockdown on the economic activity in general and on the purchasing power of citizens in particular. Morocco is only surpassed by three countries on the world podium: Sweden (6% of GDP), Chile (4.7% of GDP) and New Zealand (4% of GDP), states the American bank, noting that the euro area mobilized 1% of GDP to the fight against the pandemic. A recent study on the impact of the Coronavirus on the Moroccan economy, conducted by the trade section of the European Unions economic delegation in Rabat, also hailed the quick response of Morocco to the pandemic. The study, dated March 26, noted that Morocco was among the first countries to declare a state of health emergency and to impose confinement at an early stage of the spread of the pandemic. The EU section recalled that King Mohammed VI ordered on March 15 the creation of a special fund for the management of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Fund, which was endowed with an initial budget of $1 billion from the General Budget and which has collected more than $3 billion supplied by private and corporate donations, aims to offset the economic and social impact of the pandemic, as recommended by the economic monitoring committee. The fund is also meant to finance the upgrade of health equipment and services (purchase of equipment, upgrading of infrastructure and emergency treatment). La Vie Economique recalled that the economic monitoring committee, which held its first meeting on March 16, set out the procedures for helping the poorest strata of society and employees who were forced to stop work. The income of some 11 million people is at stake due to the effects of the pandemic, according to official data processed by the magazine. The Minister of Employment and Professional Integration, Mohamed Amekraza, on his part indicated that 113,000 companies have declared a temporary work suspension since March 15, due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, noting that all employees will return to work and companies will resume their activities at the end of the health emergency. To alleviate the social impact of the lockdown, Morocco decided to give Monthly payments to workers affiliated with the pension fund CNSS as well as to informal sector workers. The first phase, targeting beneficiaries of the free health coverage program (RAMED), will start disbursing the allowances as of Monday April 6. Workers affiliated with the pension fund CNSS will start receiving compensation for work suspension as of Wednesday April 8, 2020. Other workers of the informal sector whose revenue was halted due to the restrictive measures to contain the virus will also receive compensations in a second phase. The payments to the workers of the informal sector will be offered by the special fund. In this context, a monthly payment of 800 dirhams will be offered to households of two or less, 1000 DH to households of three to four people and 1200 DH to families of more than four people. CLEVELAND -- Over the past few weeks, the people of Northeast Ohio have once again displayed our strength, selflessness and courage in responding to the threat posed by the novel coronavirus. Those attributes have been most profoundly displayed and remarkably so by our regions health care professionals, public servants, supply chain workers and public safety officials. At a time when we should be singularly focused on celebrating and supporting these heroes, unfortunately, we must also draw attention to certain villains who are also in our midst. The simple fact is that while we have seen tremendous sacrifices by the vast majority of our community, we also witnessed those who are seeking to exploit the fears and vulnerabilities of our neighbors, friends and families through price-gouging and fraud. Last month, the Office of the Ohio Attorney General received more than 400 complaints of COVID-19-related price-gouging and fraud, much of which involved medical supplies, hand sanitizer, personal hygiene products, food, water, medicine, automobile parts, and, yes, even baby formula. Additionally, our office and the FBI have received reports of scammers using robocalls, phishing scams, and malicious websites to steal your money and personal identifying information or both. Justin Herdman is the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Other reports have drawn our collective attention to those hawking phony medical cures or seeking donations to fraudulent charitable organizations. It is easy to say that our society should be better than this, but for those working in law enforcement, we know only too well that there are people craving to take advantage of the most vulnerable amongst us and those people often reveal themselves during the most challenging times. On March 24, I announced, in coordination with the Ohio Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, that we are actively investigating allegations that physicians in Ohio are abusing their professional licenses to prescribe themselves and their associates chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. These medications have been identified as potential treatments for those suffering from COVID-19, but they may also be used to treat conditions like lupus. Our announcement was not directed at well-meaning physicians, who are lawfully prescribing those medications to those who need them, either to treat diseases like COVID-19 or other chronic disorders. What we are seeking to prevent is the hoarding of potentially life-saving drugs by health care professionals who have access to prescription pads and have allowed anxiety or greed to govern what should be rational, fact-based treatment decisions for their patients. To be clear, anyone who seeks to exploit the system, their position, or others during this pandemic will see their conduct reviewed for civil and criminal enforcement actions. In response to these types of disgraceful behaviors, U.S. Attorney General William Barr has directed all 93 U.S. attorneys to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of COVID-19-related fraud. Our office has appointed a Coronavirus Fraud Coordinator to serve as the legal counsel for these matters. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners on a local, state and federal level to identify these schemes and make arrests when necessary but we need help. We need the publics help to report instances of scams and other fraudulent conduct that is related to COVID-19. You can do this by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 1-866-720-5721 or email tips to our office at USAOHN.COVID19@usdoj.gov We will investigate every report and take the legal action necessary to serve justice. There are also steps everyone can take to protect themselves. Ignore unsolicited offers for coronavirus cures, vaccines, pills, or treatment. Be wary of unsolicited calls, emails, or ads that request personal information for any purpose. If someone is requesting payments or donations in cash, wire transfer, or gift cards, be wary. Finally, understand that stimulus checks will be issued based on your last year tax return; the government will not call you asking for your Social Security or bank account number. If you get such a call, report the contact to the NCDF or law enforcement. Our aim is clear. While Northeast Ohio residents are taking every effort to protect themselves from an unseen enemy, we remain busy at work in order to protect the public from dishonest business practices, criminal behavior and other types of fraud. To those individuals who would seek to take advantage of public misconceptions or fear during these trying times, know this: we will find you and we will prosecute you. Please take care of each other and be safe. Justin Herdman is the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions, comments or corrections regarding this opinion article to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com. We're in this together. Getty Images Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. Small businesses everywhere are wondering what will happen next. In the next hour, the next day and the next week. They hope the federal stimulus will help. And my colleagues at Inc have prepared an extremely thorough guide to how it all works for small businesses. Small businesses also hope that those in their wider business ecosystem might lend a hand, especially if their businesses are strong. After all, it's not as if any one business works in isolation. It may have employees, customers and suppliers. Those suppliers, in turn, may have their own employees, customers and suppliers. What can each of them do to help another company in their ecosystem survive? One or two businesses prepared for the coronavirus with extreme foresight. San Antonio-based regional supermarket chain H-E-B, for example, began its first discussions about the coronavirus with Chinese retailers in January. It contacted retailers in Italy and Spain who were already going through extremely painful circumstances. It had been preparing a pandemic emergency plan since 2005. After all, H-E-B had experience dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes that plague the south, so it had some familiarity with disasters. As the Texas Monthly explained, H-E-B began to limit customer purchases at the beginning of March. It extended sick leave and raised pay early for its employees. You'd think, perhaps, the chain would spend all its time focusing on itself, its employees and its customers. Yet, just a few days ago, H-E-B's management had an idea that didn't just serve as a caring thank you to employees, but as a helpful boost to the decimated restaurant industry. So many of America's restaurants have had to close because of the virus. Many will likely never reopen. Some are trying to offer takeout and delivery, if only to pay a couple of salaries. H-E-B has 90 stores in the Houston area. So, to help boost the local restaurant industry, it ordered takeout for all the employees in those 90 stores from various Houston restaurants. The Houston Chronicle reported that Scott McClelland, the chain's president, announced the bulk buy like this: We are using our platform to create awareness for the needs of local restaurants at a time when community support is invaluable. We invite Houstonians to make a difference in any way they can whether it's placing a delivery order or donating. H-E-B understands that it's part of a greater ecosystem, one that revolves around food and community. Its management knows their own business is doing very well, as long as employees and customers continue to commit their support. Yet, in spending more than $100,000 to support small restaurants in desperate need, H-E-B shows that when you're in a stronger position, you do everything you can to help the weaker. Indeed, H-E-B even took things a step further. It's now stocking some local restaurants' specialties. For free. KHOU 11 reported that one of the Houston restaurants involved, Cherry Block, was approached by H-E-B and simply said yes. Cherry Block's chef/partner, Jess DeSham Timmons, described the effect of this support: Now I am going to be able to provide for other people's families as well. Which is really really important. That's been the toughest thing for me. A city with no restaurants would be a sickeningly lonely place. H-E-B's individual stores will, therefore, continue to order from local restaurants to feed their employees and, seemingly find new ways to keep restaurants going. If one successful supermarket chain can help save at least a few jobs in the restaurant industry, it will be something. And, right now, many small businesses are looking for every ray and gesture of hope they can. When the virus passes, H-E-B will stand for more than just its prescience and organization. The city has one isolation bed per 5,246 residents that is 3,500 beds for a population of 1.84 crore as per the 2011 census. While the civic body plans to double this figure, health experts expressed scepticism over its adequacy, given the rising number of Covid cases and density of the city. Documents accessed by HT show that Mumbai currently has 2,107 isolation beds across different hospitals. By the end of next week, this number is set to increase to 3,507 after Seven Hills Hospital, Marol converts the entire hospital into the biggest isolation facility in India with a capacity of 1,500 beds. At present, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started 100 isolation beds and will add 20 intensive care units (ICU) at the hospital. The current capacity, although less for a city like Mumbai, seems adequate for now. But it will not be enough to isolate patients if community transmission starts, said Dr Abhijit More, activist, Jan Swasth Abhiyan. In addition to beds, the BMC should also request retired doctors and medical staffers to join the force to attend to patients. A backup plan should be prepared. As per the data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Japan and Korea have more than 10 isolation beds per 1,000 citizens. Countries such as Russia, Germany, Poland and France have over five isolation beds per 1,000 people. Dr Manohar Kamath, general secretary of Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI), said while the number of isolation beds is less, it wont be reasonable to expect a sudden rise. The number of Covid cases will rise as we are in the borderline of contact and community transmission. The government will, however, require time to set up isolation beds, as we didnt have the inbuilt infrastructure, which didnt exist even in the US, said Kamath. It is a gradual process, which the government is working on. A back-up plan is ready if the novel coronavirus spreads further, said civic officials, with an additional 3,000 isolation beds on stand-by mode across various civic-run hospitals. Hundreds of isolation beds are lying unused, as non-emergency services at all civic-run hospitals have stopped, which has led to a decrease in the number of patients. If we add those in emergency, the figure will be double, said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, health, BMC. Kakani said the BMC has divided beds under the category of peripheral and speciality hospitals into two phases. Phase one includes Kasturba Hospital with 125 beds, Rajawadi Hospital (100), KB Bhabha Hospital in Kurla (100), HBT Trauma Hospital (100) and KB Bhabha Hospital in Bandra (50). According to data provided by the BMC, 176 of 475 beds were occupied till Tuesday. In the second phase, the BMC has enlisted another 13 hospitals, including Eye Hospital, Surya Maternity Hospital, Bhagwati Hospital, Maa Hospital, etc. with a total of 555 isolation bed facilities. We have kept the second phase as an extension of the first phase. If we run out of beds in the first five civic-hospitals, we will focus on isolating patients in the latter, added Kakani. In addition to civic-run hospitals, there are 685 isolation beds with 50 Intensive Care Units (ICU) at the government-run Sir JJ Group of hospitals. Two railway hospitals central railway hospital have kept 30 beds for isolation and Jagjeevan Ram Hospital under western railway has 10 beds. The Mumbai Port Trust has created a facility for 50 isolation beds. In March, the BMC released a list of 10 private hospitals (89 beds), which agreed to treat patients in their isolation wards. That number has risen to 22, including trust-run and private hospitals, taking the total number of isolation beds to 197. This new list includes Saboo Siddiqui (6), Saifee Hospital (1), Bhatia (10), Wockhardt Hospital (9), Global (10), BJ Wadia (20), Shushrusha (10), Holy Family (1), SRV (15), Hindu Sabha (9), LH Hiranandani (4) and Nanavati (4). Health officials said at present almost 80% beds are lying vacant which highlights that the outbreak of coronavirus hasnt yet flared up in Mumbai. From January 1, 2020, 2,523 suspected patients with risk factors have been admitted in hospitals and 330 have been identified with COVID-19 in the city till April 4. We are also hunting for abandoned hospitals and places to start isolation facilities, said Kakani. Anant Bhant, global health researcher, said China, with more population than India, has reserved 4.3 beds per 1,000 humans; India has only 0.5 beds for 1,000 people and the US is struggling to find isolation beds. Isolation is a process to keep the patients separated, and therefore any place can been converted into an isolation ward. More than isolation beds, we need to be prepared with essential medicinal material like oxygen cylinders, protective kits to treat patients in isolation, said Bhant. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 05:06:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close FRANKFURT, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Germany climbed to 91,714 as of 0:00 local time on Sunday, with a death toll of 1,342, according to data from Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country's disease control authority. The confirmed cases were 5,936 more than the previous day. Meanwhile, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) on Sunday called on the federal government to introduce a second aid package to support the economy, according to the German Press Agency (DPA). On March 25, German parliament approved a historic 750-billion-euro (810 billion U.S. dollars) aid package to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy. DPA quoted DIHK President Eric Schweitzer as saying that the economy is suffering more from the pandemic than it was in mid-March and that "the chain reactions are increasing across the economy." According to Schweitzer, a DIHK survey showed that almost one in five businesses were threatened with bankruptcy, including previously healthy medium-sized businesses. In several German cities, police have moved to enforce the social distancing rules as people went to enjoy the spring outdoors over the weekend. German media Focus Online reported that security officers and police in Dusseldorf dissolved a crowd of around 200 people on the Rhine on Sunday in order to maintain the prescribed distance between people. Also on Sunday, the online version of Frankfurter Allgemeine quoted Holger Hackstein, head of the department for transfusion medicine at University Hospital Erlangen, as saying that the hospital has received regulatory approval for the production of therapeutic plasma to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients. The university clinic had already called on former COVID-19 patients to donate blood plasma over the past few days, according to the report. Palawan, Philippines was once a hot tourist spot known for its beautiful beaches. They were once packed with many people but now deserted because of the COVID-19 pandemic allowing nature to flourish along its coastlines. Thousands of pink jellyfish that have been absent for many years because of human activity are now rising to the surface because they no longer feel threatened in their natural habitat. According to the Daily Mail, experts believe that these creatures stayed closer to the bottom of the sea because of the presence of the tourists. Sea Tomato Dr Sheldon Rey Boco, the co-founder of the Philippine Jellyfish Stings Project, told Manila Bulletin that these 'sea tomato' are probably present in late January or February. Still, due to the wind, current and tidal conditions, the pink jellyfish only seem to appear on March in Palawan. The factors that may influence the occurrence of medusa and their blooms are the atmosphere, water velocity, current, tide and even geological feature of the coast or any body of water, according to Boco. He also added that the blooms or populations of jellyfish are not always constant. There are some years that the jellyfish population are high and also years when there are only a few or even almost absent. Alimar Amor 23 March 2020 Jellyfish certainly are not affected by #COVID19 restrictions. Here is a bloom of #jellyfish medusae of the tomato jelly, Crambione cf. mastigophora in El Nido, S. PhilippinesAlimar Amor 23 March 2020 pic.twitter.com/5avr1ptJdy Sheldon Rey Boco (@SheldonRey) March 28, 2020 Read: Illuminating Find: Decoding the Humboldt Squid's Secret Language Amid the COVID-19 Lockdown The Philippines Department of Natural Resources (DENR) undersecretary, Benny Antiporda said that although El Nido is teeming with jellies right now, blooms were not exceptional. He told the media outlet, Business Mirror that the presence of pink jellyfish is a yearly occurrence/ He explained that these pink jellyfish that the ocean current brought usually end up in Corong-Corong bay. Furthermore, he also said that because of the quarantine enforced to the island, locals are prevented from harvesting these creatures, which in turn allowed these jellyfish communities to flourish. But some experts are not convinced that the COVID-19 lockdown is responsible for these blooms. Dr Ryan Baring, a lecturer in Marine Biology at Flinders University, said that the quarantine or lockdown is unlikely to be a sole reason for the bloom. However, it is still difficult to say without further experimental research. He believes that the absence of tourists in the area has contributed to the more noticeable presence of the current bloom. It's because tourists are not there to disturb them, and so the sea tomatoes rise to the surface of the water. On regular business days, the Corong-Corong bay of El Nido, Palawan is densely packed with tourists doing recreational fishing and boating by the local fishermen to catch fish and invertebrates, says Boco. Furthermore, these activities alter water circulation and the distribution of zooplankton food for the jellyfish. This means that it potentially change the distribution of jellyfish medusa. The need for further investigation and study There is a need to investigate further whether the presence of tourists and fishers in the area affect the presence of the jellyfish. The absence of field data and formal scientific reports on the animal's behavior and distribution makes it difficult to create conclusions, Boco said. While blooms look spectacular, they may become a problem for local fishers and other communities. Sometimes, fishing nets get clogged by the jellyfish. In 1999, 50 truckloads of jellyfish were removed at a power plant in Manila after causing a power cut. The problem is there is only limited data regarding the ecology of jellyfish, especially in Southeast Asia where different species are abundant. Also Read: Awaiting the Evidence of Coral Bleaching to the Great Barrier Reef Question: I have enclosed a photo of an antique porcelain pitcher. It is decorated with a scene of a young woman holding a basket. She is wearing a long dress and a head scarf. Above her is a country scene against a blue band. The pitcher is about 6 inches tall and is in excellent condition. On the bottom of the pitcher are the words "Royal Bayreuth, Bavaria." Any information regarding the age, maker and origin will be appreciated. A: Your pitcher was made at the Tettau Porcelain Factory. They have been located in the small village of Tettau in the beautiful Bavarian ski country since 1794. Porcelain that was marked "Royal Bayreuth, Bavaria" was made from 1870 to 1919. It is believed that porcelain pieces marked "Royal Bayreuth" were intended for export to the United States. Your pitcher is decorated in the style of their Brittany Girls series that was inspired by the Britain's rural countryside. The transfer print scenes decorated novelty pieces that include pitchers, candlestick holders, dresser sets, teapots, small dishes and salt and pepper shakers. Your pitcher was made around 1900. Similar pieces can be seen selling on the internet in the range of $45 to $65. Q: Enclosed is the mark on an antique porcelain plate. It is about 13 inches in diameter and is in perfect condition with a scalloped edge and pastel flowers against a white background. There are seven shallow depressions, with one in the center. We can't figure out what it is used for and hope you can tell us. A: You have an antique oyster plate. Each depression, or well, was used for serving an oyster, and lemon or vinaigrette was served in the center. Oyster plates were extremely popular in the Victorian Era. Yours was made by Remy Delinieres in Limoges, France. He started his whiteware factory around 1879. He did not decorate his porcelain until 1881 when he established his decorating workshop. China painting was all the rage with ladies of leisure in the United States. Some of his whiteware was exported to the United States to be used by enthusiastic amateur artists. In 1900, the factory was acquired by L. Bernardaud and Co. Oyster plates were also produced in Germany and the United States. Yours was made between 1891 and 1900. Values cover a wide range, from $50 to $125. Some prices can go as high as several hundred dollars. Address your questions to Anne McCollam, P. O. Box 247, Notre Dame, IN 46556. Items of a general interest will be answered in this column. Due to the volume of inquiries, she cannot answer individual letters. COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The people of India are all set to join the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to switch off the lights of their houses and light lamps and candles to show solidarity in fight against coronavirus disease Covid-19. The government has clarified that common area places, hospitals and other essential services do not have to switch off their lights. Only domestic home lights in the houses have to be put off as appealed by the PM, the Union power ministry said on Sunday evening. It also clarified that the exercise is voluntary. There is no call to switch off appliances like computers, TVs, fans, refrigerators and ACs in the homes, the ministry further said. PM Modi had urged all countrymen to switch off their lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm on Sunday and asked them to light diyas, candles or use the flashlight of their mobile phones as a sign of solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister made the appeal in a video address on Friday - his third in two weeks. On April 5, on Sunday, I want 9 minutes from all you, at 9 pm. Listen carefully, on April 5, at 9 pm, turn off all the lights in your homes, stand at your doors or in your balconies, and light candles or diyas, torches or mobile flashlights for 9 minutes. I repeat, light candles or diyas, torches or mobile flashlights, for 9 minutes at 9pm on the April 5, PM Modi had said on April 3. The Prime Minister said that the exercise will help people experience the superpower of light clearly illuminating the common purpose we are all fighting for. PM Modi had earlier called on people to go on a self-imposed Janta Curfew and stay inside their homes and avoid going outside between 7 am to 9 pm on March 22. He had also asked people to come to their doorways, balconies and windows to clap or ring bells at 5 pm to thank those working toward essential services. Hundreds of thousands across the country had responded to the Prime Ministers appeal to cheer doctors, nurses, police officials and others who are working to fight the coronavirus pandemic. CNN Host Victor Blackwell on Sunday grilled a Louisiana pastor over his decision to host massive in-person church services during the coronavirus pandemic, despite guidance from public health officials and a stay-at-home order from the governor. Tony Spell the pastor of the evangelical Life Tabernacle Church in Central, outside of Baton Rouge, which is one of the cities hardest hit by the virus was charged last week with refusing to abide by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards order that temporarily limits gatherings to 10 people. Roughly 1,800 people attended last weeks services, Spell said during a Sunday appearance on CNNs New Day Weekend. Following his interview, hundreds of worshippers gathered at the church once again, Reuters reported. We believe the science of this, Spell told Blackwell. However, we do have a command from God and there are no governing bodies that can tell us we cannot gather and worship freely. Blackwell asked Spell whether he believes the science that shows people who gather in large groups are at greater risk of contracting the virus. Yes, we believe the science, Spell said, noting that many people who contract the virus dont even know they have it and often recover from it. People have been locked up in their homes for 22 days now. ... And the hope is the last stronghold in those peoples lives. Blackwell continued to press him. If you believe the science and I assume you are pro-life, is that correct? Blackwell asked Spell, using the term adopted by many people who oppose reproductive rights. Spell confirmed that he is. How is this a pro-life stance to put people in jeopardy of contracting a disease, getting a virus that has no treatment, no cure, often has no symptoms and has killed more than [8,500 people in the U.S.] in five weeks? Blackwell continued. Spell responded that peoples hope is in the House of God. If they do contract the... Continue reading on HuffPost Miseka Diggs, an inmate at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, first started feeling sick on March 21. She said she had been up all night with a dry cough and when she went to the prisons hospital that day, Diggs said her temperature registered around 100 degrees. The health staff gave her cough drops, Mucinex and Zyrtec, and sent her back to her wing, where she lives with seven other inmates. Two days later, she said her temperature rose to over 102 degrees and her body began to ache and become weak, symptoms often affiliated with coronavirus. So they admitted her to the infirmary at the prison, where she was held without running water for three days, Diggs said. Then, she was transferred to a unit in South Hall and locked inside a prison cell for days before being sent back to the general population without ever being tested for the virus that has so far killed more than 900 people in the state. She described the experience of being held in isolation as torture. Her ordeal began, she said, after seeking medical care for coronavirus-like symptoms she was experiencing, the 43-year-old mother told NJ Advance Media in a phone interview from inside the prison late last week. I have been through a lot of things and some very traumatizing things in my life. This was something different," said Diggs, who was admitted to the prison on gun and drug charges in 2018. "This was a different type of violation that I know is going to stick with me the rest of my life. Diggs, and two other women, described a difficult experience to NJ Advance Media about what it is like to get sick at the states only all-women prison amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Health officials have warned that correctional facilities are ripe for a coronavirus outbreak because of the inability for inmates to practice social distancing. Sick inmates, including those sent back after days in isolation, continuing to live in the prisons general population could have devastating consequences on inmates and the prisons staff, they say. So far, the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) has said no current inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at Edna Mahan, though one woman who was recently held there has tested positive for the disease. (Everyone who was in contact with her is being quarantined in units set up for asymptomatic inmates, the DOC said.). Because social distancing is nearly impossible in correctional facilities, the Hunterdon County prison has set up isolation and quarantine units for those who are experiencing symptoms or have been in contact with any staff member who has tested positive to prevent an outbreak, said Liz Velez, a corrections spokeswoman. Our team is being hyper-vigilant in monitoring people for symptoms," Velez said in a statement. However, we also know that addressing COVID will take a community-wide effort and that everyone must do their part. Few, however, are being tested. Earlier this week, the agency said only 10 inmates throughout their entire agency of around 18,000 incarcerated people had been tested for COVID-19. What is even more alarming is that some inmates at Edna Mahan say they are declining to seek medical care out of fear of being held in the isolation units in South Hall, according to the three women and multiple families who are in daily contact with inmates at the prison. But Velez said the numbers dont bear that out. The NJDOC has not experienced a decline in medical requests because of perceptions of quarantine or medical isolation conditions, she said You didnt test me so you dont know what I got," Diggs said. You are playing Russian Roulette with a lot of peoples lives. It took something from my soul Diggs, who will be eligible for parole in 2024, said she first started feeling sick on March 21, but wasnt admitted to the infirmary until two days later. She said the room she was put in at the infirmary unit had no running water. She was unable to brush her teeth or bathe for three days while in there, Diggs said. She said she didnt have any of her belongings. They left me there, she said. Basically for dead. After three days, she was moved to South Hall where isolation units had been set up to house "individuals who need to be kept separate from others for medical reasons, Velez said. Diggs said the cell she was in was a disaster and it was traumatizing, as it had only hot water, was ant-infested and was uncomfortably hot. (I was) locked in a room and thrown away as if you are nothing, Diggs said. Velez, the DOC spokesperson, said individuals in quarantine and isolation still have access to the essentials, including phone, showers, and meals, though Diggs and two other women dispute that. Velez also said those in quarantine and isolation are under the watchful eye of our medical team trained in infectious disease control. She said medical isolation is not solitary confinement. Diggs said correctional officers and nurses would come through the unit three times a day with food and a cup of ice cubes that she would drink from once they melted. The nurses would take her temperature and provide more Tylenol, but would not administer a COVID-19 test, she alleges. Between the infirmary and the South Hall unit, Diggs said she was held out of the general population for six days. Even though she was still feeling some of the symptoms, she was released back to her regular unit late last week, Diggs said. Not knowing what the hell was going on with me, they put me back in population around everyone not knowing if I have it or dont have it, said Diggs, who said she still does not feel 100 percent. The other two women, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation, described similar experiences, including having no access to showers, a change of clothes and minimal attention from correctional officers or medical staff. My experience was horrible, one woman, who said she was isolated in South Hall from March 27 until April 2, told NJ Advance Media. I felt like I was being punished for being sick. The other woman said she was held in South Hall from March 26 to March 31 after she developed a fever, cold sweats, was coughing uncontrollably, and lost her senses of taste and smell. The woman, who said she has epilepsy and battles mental health illnesses, said she was having major panic attacks while in that room, and did not receive proper medical care. She feared she would stop breathing and only be found the next time correctional officers came by to drop off a meal, the woman said. Something about being in that room and left like that and not receiving the proper care was very unnerving and sad, the woman told NJ Advance Media. It took something from my soul. Lydia Thornton, one of the states leading voices against solitary confinement, knows the ins and outs of the Edna Mahan prison. She was incarcerated there for four-and-a-half years. During her time at the prison, she was often tasked with cleaning South Hall. It would get so hot the walls literally sweat, she said. Over the last two weeks, Thornton said she has heard from inmates and their families voicing concerns of how the prison is handling the coronavirus outbreak. For a person who is doing their time to all of a sudden be told you are going to solitary, even though you have done nothing wrong, Thornton said Thursday. That is a punishment. It is not just social distancing you are doing. It is literal full isolation. To talk to someone in the next cell, you have to scream." It can break people, she said. Staff writers Blake Nelson and S.P. Sullivan contributed to this report. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. VIENNA (Reuters) - The number of new coronavirus infections in Austria rose on Sunday to 11,897, but the Alpine country reported more newly recovered than newly diagnosed patients and a declining number of people in intensive care. On Sunday morning the number of new cases had risen by 270 since Saturday morning, while the number of recoveries rose by 491, according to the health ministry. It said the daily rate of new COVID-19 infections has fallen significantly in recent days. "These are some hopeful figures, but now...we must remain consistent and not give up...Hence my appeal: No private Easter celebrations and Easter holidays," said Health Minister Rudolf Anschober. Some 204 people have died of the global pandemic in Austria. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has indicated he will present a rough road map on Monday regarding when, in which order and under what conditions the restrictions on public life that have been in place since March 16 could be eased. "If we all remain disciplined during Easter week, I am confident that we will be able to gradually and cautiously return to normality after Easter," Kurz told the daily Kleine Zeitung in an interview published late on Saturday. Austria has closed nearly all shops, its schools, universities, theatres and museums and has urged people to work from home and only go out if necessary. Starting Monday, the use of face masks in grocery stores will be obligatory. Kurz has already said he wants masks to also be worn in public and to broaden testing for infections. He has urged people to use a tracking app developed by the Red Cross that helps to trace people who had contact with infected persons. (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Following Prime Minister Narendra Modis call to light candles at 9 pm on Sunday for nine minutes, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) asked the thousands of schools affiliated to it to spread awareness about the event among their students. The HRD ministry also wrote a letter to states asking them to spread awareness about the event. The CBSE letter informed schools that an Aarogya Setu app had been developed by the Ayush ministry to fight Covid 19 and added that it can prove useful. It also informed that protocol for immunity boosting had also been developed. The letter by Joseph Emmanuel, CBSEs director, academics, advised schools to inform their teachers by 5 PM about the prime ministers call. Significantly, a similar letter was also sent by the HRD ministry Joint Secretary Maneesh Garg to states which also suggested that an action taken status be conveyed to the ministry. State coordinators of Samagra Shiksha will coordinate, the letter said. However, as questions were raised about the need to submit feedback, HRD officials clarified that it was a voluntary exercise. An MHRD spokesperson said that Mr. Gargs email was only meant to inform the students to voluntarily download the app and participate in the diya lighting. There is no coercion on anyone to do the same. As schools are closed there is no question of monitoring of attendance. The action taken report asked from state education officers is to ensure that they have further disseminated the information, said the spokesperson. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal to people to light candles or flash mobile lights on Sunday for nine minutes, the HRD ministry suggested that students should take up the initiative. The ministry however said they should not assembly in colonies. The ministry also suggested students build immunity by taking up suggestions by AYUSH ministry. In the material attached to the letter by HRD secretary Amit Khare to educational institutions, the AYUSH ministry has suggested measures like taking Chyawanprash, drinking herbal tea or Milk with turmeric powder to promote immunity. It also suggested drinking warm water, practising Yogasanas among other things. US Army Awards $139 Million in Contracts to Build Care Centres Sputnik News 01:25 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 01:34 GMT 04.04.2020) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Four construction companies have received nearly $140 million in contracts to convert existing facilities into emergency hospitals from the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), the Department of Defence said in a press release. "AECOM Technical Services of Los Angeles, California, was awarded a $58,250,000 modification ...contract to retrofit the State University of New York Old Westbury campus into an alternate care facility", the release said Friday. Turner Construction Company won a $50,500,000 modification contract for work on an alternate care facility at Stony Brook in New York State, while New York Convention Centre Operating Corporation won $15,250,000 to retrofit space in the Jacob Javits Convention Centre into an alternate care facility by 9 April in a third ACE contract, the release continued. And Haughland Energy Group of Plainview, New York, won a $15 million ACE modification contract for work on a similar care facility in White Plains, New York, it added. New York officials earlier said they need to use the convention centre and build other facilities to handle patients amid the surge of coronavirus cases. As of Friday, the total number of COVID-19 cases across the United States neared 240,000 and the number of deaths exceeded 5,400, the US Cenres for Dsease Control and Prevention data shows. According to Johns Hopkins University dashboard, over 277,000 people have been infected with the virus, while almost 7,100 patients have died. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Doctors and medical personnel are being reassigned, furloughed and given pay cuts amid the coronavirus outbreak as America's business-oriented health care system tries to stay afloat. The United State's battle against COVID-19 - which has infected 337,915 and killed 9,662 - has been dealt another blow as needed healthcare workers are taken off the front lines. The job cuts are an emerging problem for hospitals that must earn income amid a national health crisis. Several hospitals, at the request of government officials, have cut many elective services as they focus resources on the coronavirus - meaning revenues have dropped. Meanwhile, overwhelmed medical centers and exasperated health care workers are begging for help. Doctors and health care workers are being reassigned, furloughed and given pay cuts amid the coronavirus outbreak. Pictured: Dr. Kelly Locke sits in the "contaminated" side of the respiratory tent outside Aspen Valley Hospital in Colorado 'Im 46. Ive never been on unemployment in my life,' Casey Cox, who lost his jobs as a technician at St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea Hospital in Michigan and conducting sleep research at University of Michigan, told The New York Times. Last month, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams implored hospitals across the country to halt elective procedures. 'Elective procedures are those that are often scheduled days to weeks in advance and often could be postponed without causing great harm,' said Dr. Adams in a USA Today article. Similarly, Governors in several states have imposed executive orders or guidelines instructing hospitals to stop non-urgent surgeries and procedures. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams (pictured) last month implored hospitals across the country to cut selective services - like dental work - to focus resources on COVID-19 Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City has since pleaded with doctors and other health care workers from around the United States to help curb the coronavirus outbreak in the country's epicenter. As of Sunday, New York state recorded 122,031 confirmed cases and 4,159 deaths. The Big Apple had a staggering 64,955 infections and a death toll of 2,472. Dr. Jerome Adams plea to delay non-urgent procedures According to Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams, there are four reasons for hospitals to temporarily shift away from elective procedures: 'Nonessential planned procedures consume personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and gowns. At a time when health providers in the hardest-hit areas are concerned about having enough PPE to take care of COVID-19 patients, it is imprudent to pull PPE from regional and national pools to do procedures that could be postponed. ' 'A person rarely comes in alone for a medical procedure. Each additional person, whether a loved one or caregiver, might have an undiagnosed case of COVID-19 that could be transmitted to the medical staff and facility.' 'As we are in the midst of a whole-of-government effort to fight COVID-19, we need all our health care workforce and more to meet the demands of this challenge. Every non-urgent case takes precious staff time and energy, straining a workforce already going above and beyond in this fight.' Elective cases occasionally require prolonged hospital stays, ventilators and other resources that might soon be necessary to respond to community spread of COVID-19. Source: USA Today Advertisement 'Unless there is a national effort to enlist doctors, nurses, hospital workers of all kinds and get them where they are needed most in the country in time, I dont see, honestly, how were going to have the professionals we need to get through this crisis,' de Blasio said on MSNBC. The Department of Veterans Affairs is rushing to hire medical personnel for its federal-run hospitals, especially in cities like Detroit and New Orleans, where many staff members are sick. The department hopes to hire retired medical workers to boost staffing numbers. But as some hospitals are struggling under the pressure from an influx of patients, others fear the exact opposite. 'Were in trouble,' said Gene Morreale, the chief executive of New York's Oneida Health Hospital, which has not experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases. Next week, Oneida Health Hospital will reveal that it's putting up to 30 percent of its staffers on involuntary furlough. They will have access to health care insurance through until August. Senior employees and physicians will see a 20 percent pay cut. Morreale said: 'Weve been here 121 years, and Im hoping were still there on the other side of this.' Appalachian Regional Healthcare, a 13-hospital system in parts of Kentucky and West Virginia, recorded a 30 percent decrease in business due to less patients and pandemic-related services. The healthcare system announced about eight percent - or around 500 employees - would be furloughed. Across the United States, hospital executives are trying to repurpose employees for other jobs while administering pay cuts. At Intermountain Healthcare, which operates 215 medical centers in Nevada, Idaho and Utah, around 600 of the 2,600 physicians and nurses who were paid based on volume will see a pay drop around 15 percent, spokesman Daron Cowley told The Times. Pictured: A patient is given a COVID-19 test by a medical worker outside Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn Those pay cuts were caused by a decrease in procedures. Intermountain Healthcare is working to save employment by deploying 3,000 workers to new positions. 'You have an endoscopy tech right now that may be deployed to be at hospital entrances [where they would take arriving patient's temperature],' Cowley said. But reassigned roles is not always possibility, according to Janet Conway, a spokeswoman for Cape Fear Valley Health System in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Conway said much of the company's operating room nurses who've been trained in specialized procedure have been furloughed. Their training doesn't apply to other roles. 'Those OR nurses, many have never worked as a floor nurses,' Conway said. She added that almost 300 furloughed employees have the option to use paid time off, but the furlough would be unpaid. Scott Weavil, a California lawyer who counsels medical workers on employment contracts, said he heard of doctors being asked by hospital administrators and private physician groups to take pay cuts up to 70 percent. Many of the contracts do not specify when pay cuts will end, and are mostly affecting health care workers who don't treat coronavirus patients, like gynecologists and obstetricians. Scott Weavil described some doctors being asked to take salary pay cuts up to 70 percent. Pictured: Healthcare workers help a patient who was fainted as she walked out of the Brooklyn Hospital Center Those doctors are still being asked to work, but often in a decreased capacity and at the risk of their own health. Weavil said: 'Its just not sitting well. If you fight this pay cut, administration could write your name down and remember that forever.' Some physicians have taken opportunities in adjacent fields like telemedicine appointments, but pay cuts are still present. Dr. Pam Cutler, the president of Western Montana Clinic in Missoula, said: 'Physicians are only paid in our clinic based on their productivity in the work they do. 'So theyre automatically taking a very significant usually greater than 50% or 25% pay cut just because they dont have any work.' The Times reports layoffs have left some health care workers fearful that they won't be able to find new roles or transfer their skills. Cox was briefly reassigned to help screen and process patient at his hospital in Michigan, but the number of people opting for reassignments outgrew the available roles. He's also worried about how the coronavirus pandemic will change the health care industry as workers prepare for a potentially lengthy unemployment period. Cox said: 'Im just concerned that the job I got laid off from may not be there when this is over. The longer youre away, the more you worry, Am I going to be able to come back? So theres a lot of anxiety about it.' Although larger hospitals networks are navigating financial uncertainty during the pandemic, smaller clinics and practices face a more immediate peril. By the end of April, almost 20,000 family physicians could be underemployed, reassigned or out of a job altogether, according to a statistical model by HealthLandscape and the American Academy of Family Physicians Dr. Gary Price, the president of the Physicians Foundation, said: 'Many of these smaller practices were living on a financial edge to start with, so theyre not entering into this in a good position at all. 'Their margins are narrower, their patients dont want to come in, and many of them shouldnt anyway, so their cash flow has been severely impacted and their overhead really hasnt.' Last week, 6.6million Americans sought unemployment benefit claims as the economy faltered and businesses shut down. WASHINGTON The U.S. surgeon general says that Americans should brace for levels of tragedy reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, while the nations infectious disease chief warned that the new coronavirus may never be completely eradicated from the globe. Those were some of the most grim assessments yet for the immediate future and beyond. But hours later, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tried to strike more optimistic tones, suggesting that hard weeks ahead could mean beginning to turn a corner. Were starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, Trump said at a Sunday evening White House briefing. Pence added, We are beginning to see glimmers of progress. The president also insisted that both assessments from his administration they came within 12 hours of each other didnt represent an about-face or were even that different. I think we all know that we have to reach a certain point and that point is going to be a horrific point in terms of death but its also a point at which things are going to start changing, Trump said. Were getting very close to that level right now. The president added that he thought the next two weeks are going to be very difficult. At the same time, we understand what they represent and what that time represents and, hopefully, we can get this over with. Still, Trumps own briefing also struck a somber tone at times. The president offered some of his most extensive comments to date to the families of those killed by the virus, urging the nation to pray for them and ask God to comfort them in their hour of grief. With the faith of our families and the spirit of our people and the grace of our God we will endure, the president said. We will overcome. Earlier Sunday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CNN, This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only its not going to be localized, said Adams, the nations top doctor. Its going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that. The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 337,000, with the death toll climbing past 9,600. More than 4,100 of those deaths are in the state of New York, but a glimmer of hope there came on Sunday when Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state registered a small dip in new fatalities over a 24-hour period. Still, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said his state may run out of ventilators by weeks end. Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested his partys presidential nominating convention, already pushed from July into August because of the outbreak, may have to move fully online to avoid packing thousands of people into an arena in Milwaukee. Biden has all but clinched his partys presidential nomination and held an online town hall from his home in Delaware at the same time Trump was addressing reporters. His tone was far less confrontational than Trump, who clashed with reporters and criticized Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker as being demanding and complaining while having not performed well. Biden sought to be uplifting and almost grandfatherly, taking questions from children with his wife. But he also said the president has been awful slow to use the powers of his office to compel private companies to make protective equipment for doctors and nurses, adding that we should be much more aggressive. Trump angrily deflected questions regarding the slow pace of the federal governments response to the pandemic, praising federal officials he has elevated in recent weeks to coordinate the distribution of hard-to-find supplies. The people that youre looking at, FEMA, the military, what theyve done is a miracle, Trump told reporters. What theyve done is a miracle in getting all of this stuff. What they have done for states is incredible. 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, and death. Also Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the toll in the coming week is going to be shocking to some, but thats what is going to happen before it turns around, so just buckle down. Fauci said the virus probably wont be wiped out entirely this year, and that unless the world gets it under control, it will assume a seasonal nature. We need to be prepared that, since it unlikely will be completely eradicated from the planet, that as we get into next season, we may see the beginning of a resurgence, Fauci said. Thats the reason why were pushing so hard in getting our preparedness much better than it was. The Defense Department released new requirements that all individuals on its property will wear cloth face coverings when they cannot maintain six feet of social distance in public areas or work centers. That is in compliance with new federal guidelines that Americans use face coverings when venturing out. Trump had said previously that hes choosing not to wear a face mask and scoffed at the idea of using one while answering questions as he held news briefings like Sunday nights. I would wear one, he said, but only if I thought it was important. ___ Associated Press writer Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report. First I swabbed the back of my throat then with the same stick both nostrils, before placing the sample into a small glass tube. This was submitted to a device the size and shape of a domestic coffee machine. Just 90 minutes later the result: a tab showing a single horizontal grey line. In this fashion rather like a pregnancy test I found out I was not carrying Covid-19. Ninety minutes: that is how fast a game-changing British-designed and manufactured procedure can deliver screening results for evidence of coronavirus infection. Richard Pendlebury is pictured above with Doctor Helen Lee, with the devices seen on the table. The device is made by Diagnostics for the Real World, a spin-off company from Cambridge University, and is part-owned by the medical charity Wellcome Trust. It was originally developed for screening for HIV/Aids in Africa As the number of deaths continue to soar and the Government comes under increasing pressure to test millions of Britons to determine the spread of the virus, more than 150 of these Samba II devices were still sitting idle in a laboratory on a Cambridgeshire science park when I visited this weekend. They were awaiting orders so that they can be deployed. Its not for lack of demand from hospital trusts and other coronavirus-stricken organisations that they are not already in service. Dr Lee emphasises its ease of use, as I discovered first-hand. A one-line result is a negative. Two lines indicate the presence of Covid-19. Richard Pendlebury is pictured above with his negative test I saw and heard for myself how frenetic that demand was. The question is how quickly the finance can be arranged and what might be termed the peacetime NHS bureaucracy overcome. Last week Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised, controversially, to deliver testing for 100,000 people a day by the end of this month. At the moment there is capacity for 10,000 tests a day and many are sceptical he will deliver. Not only that, individual results for mass screening are taking at least 24 hours to come through. Each Samba II machine can carry out around 15 tests a day, so its not the answer to high-volume screening of the general population. But it does represent a vital tactical weapon in the frontline fight against the pandemic. Its best use is for immediate point of care screening in hospitals of patients and medical staff, where a quick result can lead to meaningful action, including triage decisions. And it couldnt come soon enough as at least ten NHS workers, including nurses, doctors and healthcare assistants, have now died during the outbreak in the UK. Thousands of other clinical workers have had to self-isolate for up to 14 days because they or others in their household were displaying symptoms which might indicate infection. Yet they could be back in the wards within 90 minutes once tested and cleared by the Samba II machine. Carriers with few or no symptoms could also be identified and sent home. The device is made by Diagnostics for the Real World, a spin-off company from Cambridge University, and is part-owned by the medical charity Wellcome Trust. It was originally developed for screening for HIV/Aids in Africa. But work began on February 3 to adapt the device to test for Covid-19 as the epidemic in China began to unfold. The companys CEO and leader of the development team is Dr Helen Lee, formerly of the universitys Department of Haematology. Tests carried out by the machines on 102 patient samples were recently validated by Public Health England. They were shown to have 98.7 per cent sensitivity (ability to correctly identify positive cases) and 100 per cent specificity (the ability to correctly identify negative cases). On Saturday the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency gave its approval for the Samba II to be marketed in the UK, said Dr Lee. While she sympathises with the Health Secretary who is under pressure because of the testing fiasco in Britain, she says she found his promise of 100,000 tests a day extremely challenging. This is a global tsunami and we cannot make enough life jackets quickly enough. Politicians are under enormous pressure from the public and media. But there is a technical reality. I have been in diagnostics for 30 years and have never seen anything like this. The scale of tests needed is beyond our current capacity and there is a necessary delay in meeting the demand. It cannot be willed by promises or money overnight. We are already running as fast as we can but everything is limited. Hospitals are competing with hospitals, countries with countries for supplies. Our reagent [the substance used for Covid-19 sample analysis] contains 189 different ingredients. If one of those runs out, we cannot produce the test. The firms manufacturing capacity is around 200 machines a week, but that could rise significantly with Government help or big business partnership. Each machine costs around 20,000. Dr Lee emphasises its ease of use, as I discovered first-hand. A one-line result is a negative. Two lines indicate the presence of Covid-19. Three suggest a high viral load which is important to know as it is believed to be the reason why so many clinical staff have died worldwide despite having no underlying health issues. The white knight in this story is Sir Chris Hohn, the British billionaire hedge fund boss whose charitable foundation donated 15million towards the initial development of the Samba machine a decade ago. And Sir Chris stepped in again last week, Dr Lee tells me. We spoke on Sunday and Chris said, Im going to personally give you 2.4million. And within two days we had it. The donation will pay for 100 Samba II machines. They will be given to Covid-19 hotspot hospitals. Addenbrookes, the world famous teaching hospital in Cambridge, is to take ten of these gifted machines and the local NHS trust will purchase ten more. Other hospital trusts in central London and Croydon will receive the machines from today as gifts or for trialling. And since news broke of these machines last week, Dr Lee has been approached by a number of other organisations including the Prison Service which this weekend reported its first two staff deaths, at Pentonville jail in London and a large care home company in Scotland which has lost 75 per cent of its staff due to self-isolation. Sir Chris told me: There is an amazing machine here and it is not yet being deployed. Meanwhile, front-line doctors and nurses are dying. The ordering procedure has to be speeded up. This is a small company but it is here in Britain and is producing the machines that we need to fight this virus. They are not trying to price gouge. Their motivations are to help the world. If the Government cant provide the funds to get this moving, I will approach the rich people I know to do it instead. Homicide detectives will lead a criminal investigation into the troubled Ruby Princess, as the passenger death toll climbed to 11 and authorities prepare to board the cruise ship when it docks south of Sydney on Monday. NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says a criminal investigation was crucial to answering questions surrounding the Ruby Princess. Credit:Kate Geraghty NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said a criminal investigation was critical to determine whether the operators of the ship, Carnival Australia, were "transparent" about ill passengers. Mr Fuller said there were "many unanswered questions" regarding the cruise ship despite his early investigations over the past two days and a coronial investigation may also be needed. "The key question that remains unanswered, and a criminal or coronial investigation will need to be conducted, was if Carnival or crew were transparent in conceptualising the true patient [and] crew health conditions relevant to COVID-19," Mr Fuller said. One of the biggest oil traders in the world, Mercuria Energy Group, sees U.S. shale as very resilient and refusing to shut production despite low crude prices. In the United States, we are buying at levels close to zero but because of various pipeline, bank commitments they continue to sell. They keep on going because they hope when demand is back, they can come back to life. So shale is very resilient, Mercurias chief executive officer Marco Dunand told Reuters in an interview published on Friday. Last months historic oil price collapse forced many U.S. drillers, including the supermajors Exxon and Chevron, to announce significant reductions in projected spending and drilling operations, as no one in the U.S. shale patch can profitably drill a new well at $20 WTI Crude. Since the oil price crash in early March, 22 U.S. independents have cut expenditure for 2020 by a total of US$20 billion, an average of 35 percent, and three have slashed capex by 50 percent or more, Simon Flowers, Chairman and Chief Analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said on Tuesday. Related: What Really Caused Oil To Rally By 25%? This week, U.S. shale producer Whiting Petroleum Corporation, once one of the top producers in the Bakken, said it had filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the first major victim of the oil price war and the coronavirus pandemic that sent oil prices to $20. While oil futures hit an 18-year-low on Monday, the prices of physical barrels from Europe to North America slumped to record discounts to benchmarks and trade in the teens and single digits, with traders scrambling to place physical crude barrels amid an unprecedented demand loss and growing global glut. Refinery runs around the world are down by 15 million bpd, according to the conservative estimate of Mercurias Dunand. Demand is already down by 20 million bpd or even more, the executive told Reuters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The officers and staff of the Finance Ministry including the officials of Financial Institutions and Public Sector Banks/Enterprises (PSB) have contributed Rs 430 crore towards PM-CARES Fund to combat the coronavirus pandemic. "The officers and staff of Ministry of Finance including the officials of financial institutions and Public Sector Banks/Enterprises under the Ministry have come forward to donate a day's salary including under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with an amount of Rs 430.13 crore to PM-CARES Fund for providing assistance to those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic," a Finance Ministry release said. The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was created on March 28 following the outbreak of COVID-19 in India. The fund has been set up with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation as posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 1Way back in 1972 this company used a technology it had actually developed for making stiffer gift ribbons years ago and instead went on to develop the worlds first ___. Name the company and the product which is in great demand now. 2About 59 to 60 lakh tonnes of this item is produced globally and a process called killing the Green used by the industry while producing it. Name the item and also explain what this process does. 3During WWII, diversion of this particular commodity for war efforts forced many women in Europe and North America got their legs painted ... Attachments are not a good thing in Money Heist (La Casa de Papel). Its the reason the Professor gave everyone cities as their code names. It was part of the rules, but if youve been watching the series from the beginning, you know that the attachment rule was broken. Fans havent adhered to the rule either, choosing which thief they like the most and rooting against their least favorite. Tokyo is strong but irritating, Helsinki and Nairobi are loved, Denvers protective nature won him fans, and the Professor is the brains, the mastermind. The others have their charming and/or terrible qualities as well, and fans have become attached to some. But theres one character who makes people straddle the fence, and thats Berlin. Did you know he was a red flag for the series writers before the show even got off the ground? [Spoilers ahead: This article contains some spoilers for Money Heist/La Casa de Papel] Money Heist | Netflix Berlin was considered one of the leaders Viewers first met Pedro Alonsos Berlin in part 1 of Money Heist. He was the arrogant de facto leader of the bunch when the robbers commenced their first heist at the Royal Mint. Although Professor is the boss, in the field, Berlin was in command. During his time with the crew, he threatened to kill a pregnant hostage, tossed Tokyo (perhaps deservedly) out to the police, and seduced one of the hostages only to toy with her later at gunpoint. As the Professors half-brother, he would sometimes make executive decisions during the heist without consulting him. Berlin was known for being mean and apathetic, but by the end of part 2, he gave his life so the others could escape. Fans have a love-hate relationship with him Given his behavior and attitude, Berlin didnt make it easy for viewers or the Money Heist robbers to like him. Though the character was killed off in part 2, his backstory and role in both heists has been explored through flashbacks in every other season, including the now-streaming part 4. Berlin was ill with a terminal disease which made some fans empathetic toward him, and for some, his no-nonsense, sarcastic, brash behavior made and make him likeable. As seen in the current seasons, he loved but he was also cruel (he stabbed a man in the crotch with a fork). Theres a camp of fans who despise Berlin for his treatment of women, his bullying, and his narcissistic personality. While they recognize his intelligence and contribution to the mission, they do not like him at all. But it is proof that the character is well-written. Ti amo, Berlin. pic.twitter.com/xv4HMKGF45 La Casa de Papel (@lacasadepapel) April 4, 2020 The team behind La Casa de Papel had their own feelings about Berlin One of the things we learned from Money Heist creator Alex Pina is that Berlin was somewhat controversial. When discussing the character in the documentary, Money Heist: The Phenomenon, Pina said its unbelievable Berlin is always in the top three favorites, even though he has a derogatory nature. Alonso himself joked that he tells people to look out for him because hes sure this is not the kind of character youd want your daughter to marry. Pina shared that he was told that the way Berlin was written could be a problem for todays society and that he shouldnt be in the show at all. Described by Pina and Alonso as deplorable, misogynistic, racist, and a sometimes-psychopath, he served a purpose in the narrative. Pina chose to include him in the story to allow the audience to decide for themselves. He said it is up to viewers what to do with the character. As writer Esther Martinez Lobato put it, Berlin started out very hostile, but he also adds mystery to the show. No matter which side of the Berlin argument you stand, you have to admit he brings something to the series. The Palwal district administration on Saturday declared nine villages as containment zones and 27 as buffer zones banning the entry and exit of people in these villages after 16 Tablighi Jamaat attendees tested Covid-19 positive in Palwal. Naresh Narwal, deputy commissioner, said that the 16 Covid-19 positive patients had frequently moved around in the nine villages. Therefore, for the safety of people in and around these villages, their boundaries have been sealed and door-to-door screening and scanning of people initiated. In a statement released by the administration, nine villages Kot, Ghurawali, Lakhnaka, Babupur Hathin, Jalalpur, Guraksar, Paharpur, and Uttawar were named in the containment zone. At least 27 villages share boundaries with these nine villages. As many as 274 people were in contact with the Covid-19 patients who are currently in home quarantine. Dr Brahmdeep Sandhu, chief medical officer, said in his statement that of the 16 positive patients, 13 are from states like Telangana, Chennai, Bihar, Karnataka, West Bengal and from abroad, Bangladesh. He said that 56 samples of Jamaat attendees had been collected for testing. One patient from Palwal has been discharged. According to CMO, at least 99 people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat were traced inside a mosque in Hathin villages and are currently admitted in the isolation ward of the government hospital in Nalhar. He said, Situation is very critical in the district and the citizens should stay at home. A 45-member team of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHAs) and Nurse Midwife (ANMs) has been constituted to conduct screening in every house. Police is tracking the travel history of these men and are taking help from informers to identify people who attended the Jamaat or come in contact with people who attended the congregation. Talking to HT, Deepak Gahlawat, superintendent of police, Palwal said, At least 2,000 policemen have been deployed across these villages to prevent people from moving to other villages and to adjoining districts. This is to ensure the safety of people and to preventing transmission of the virus. The boundaries of the villages hav ebeen barricaded. We are also requesting people to share their travel history and inform us about anyone found with symptoms of Covid-19. According to the police, till Saturday 536 people in the district were under surveillance, out of which 71 people completed their 14 days of quarantine and 465 were under home quarantine. To maintain law and order in these villages, seven senior government officials have been appointed as duty magistrate. Narwal on Saturday issued an order that said that all the villages are to be sanitised completely. Palwal, on Saturday, recorded the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases in a day in the state. As per the state health bulletin, eight new positive cases have been reported from Faridabad, of which are five were at the Jamaat congregation. The Haryana Police has traced at least 524 people, including foreign nationals, who attended the congregation in Delhis Nizamuddin area, which has emerged as a Covid-19 hotspot. North Korea's Self-Isolation, Weapons Program Thwart Virus Aid By Ahn So-young, Ji Da-gyum, Lee Jo-eun, Oh Taek-sung April 04, 2020 North Korea's decision to protect itself from the coronavirus by sealing its borders and evicting foreigners, coupled with prioritizing its nuclear and missile tests over citizens' health, may be self-defeating as humanitarian groups find anti-virus aid efforts thwarted. A Swiss aid agency has decided to temporarily suspend the shipment of much-needed medical supplies in the coronavirus fight because of the absence of the staff in Pyongyang monitoring the use of assistance. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland's federal aid agency under its Department of Foreign Affairs, temporarily closed its office in Pyongyang on March 9 due to restrictive containment measures imposed by the North that hampered its activities in the country. It had provided humanitarian assistance to North Korea since 1995. "In these circumstances, the monitoring of the delivery and the use of assistance cannot be fully assured," said a Swiss Foreign Ministry official in an email statement sent to VOA's Korean Service on Tuesday. "The delivery of the material is therefore suspended until adequate presence and monitoring arrangements can be reestablished." Although Pyongyang has not reported any confirmed cases of COVID-19, speculation persists that the virus has established itself in North Korea because of the long porous border it shares with China where the coronavirus emerged late last year. The Swiss agency had planned to deliver 2,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help North Korea fight the coronavirus. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it will resume humanitarian work "as soon as conditions in the DPRK return [to] normal." The DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Self-defeating isolation In an effort to fight the coronavirus, the regime sealed its borders in February barring foreigners from entering the country and forced foreign diplomats and aid workers to leave after placing them under strict quarantine orders along with thousands of its own citizens. North Korea also ordered strict measures to inspect and quarantine goods coming through its ports and borders in February. It is uncertain whether the quarantine placed on goods has been relaxed, but the entry ban on foreigners appears to continue. North Korea has not reported a single confirmed case of COVID-19 since the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. But the regime has been taking aggressive measures since early February to shield itself from a possible outbreak in the country. The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper, said Tuesday that "punishment will follow if state guidelines are violated." North Korea is vulnerable to the fast-moving virus, which can be fatal, because it shares a porous border with China. As of Thursday, there were more than 1 million confirmed cases worldwide and more than 50,000 fatalities. The Swiss Foreign Ministry official said North Korea asked for help soon after the outbreak of the virus in China, requesting chlorite production devices manufactured in Switzerland as well as generators and protective gear needed for disinfection. More missile tests While seeking international help with the virus, North Korea has conducted four missile tests in March, raising doubts over how much of its resources the regime is directing to diagnosing and treating people who may be infected. In a phone interview with VOA's Korean Service, Ted Yoho, the Republican congressman from the state of Florida in the U.S., said, "They've got resources to spend on military equipment, but they are not using [resources] appropriately for the coronavirus." U.S. President Donald Trump has sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offering U.S. help for North Korea to fight the virus. Last week North Korea said Kim had received the letter but it is not known when it was sent. Yoho said, "We know what President Trump has offered are masks, ventilators, medicines" and personal protective equipment. But North Korea has not given a concrete reply to Trump's offer of help. Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader's sister, rather than the leader himself, only welcomed the letter as "a good judgment and proper action." "In the letter, he also explained his plan to propel the relations between the two countries of the DPRK and the U.S. and expressed his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work, saying that he was impressed by the efforts made by the Chairman to defend his people from the serious threat of the epidemic." She also said it is not good to make a "hasty conclusion" that a close relationship between Trump and Kim could lead to improved relations between the two countries. Relations between Washington and Pyongyang have been at a standstill since nuclear negotiations stalled in October at working-level talks in Stockholm. Impact on TB patients An additional concern in North Korea is that its efforts to further isolate itself to fend off the coronavirus puts its citizens with tuberculosis at great risk. There are about 131,000 cases of tuberculosis in North Korea, according to a 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) report. The border and ports closings coupled with the forced departures of aid workers could mean medical supplies and treatments needed by TB patients are delayed, or never delivered. "This already worrisome situation will become even more grave if diagnosis and treatment for TB is interrupted," said an official with Doctors Without Borders. The coronavirus poses a particular threat to TB patients. Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund that provide financial support to fight tuberculosis in North Korea, said, "While we are still learning about COVID-19, evidence suggests that people with TB will be among the most vulnerable." Some aid delivered Some aid groups, however, have been able to send anti-virus supplies to North Korea. Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), told VOA Korean on Monday that a shipment of supplies arrived in the Chinese border town of Dandong en route to Pyongyang. "The full cargo of medical supplies donated by MSF including masks, gloves, goggles, hand hygiene products and antibiotics have not arrived in DPRK," said an official for MSF. "MSF was advised by the DPRK authorities that the cargo left Dandong to Pyongyang on the morning of the 28th of March." The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) also said aid supplies arrived in North Korea. "The supplies of PPE, plus gloves, masks (both surgical and N95) and infra-red thermometers are in [DPRK] and will be sent to the Ministry of Public Health in Pyongyang," Shima Islam, regional communication specialist for UNICEF in East Asia and the Pacific, said Monday. According to data from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) posted Wednesday, the World Health Organization allocated $900,000 to support North Korea's fight against the coronavirus. The money will be made available through the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund. Lack of transparency Even as aid is delivered, however, it is uncertain how the supplies will help North Korea fend off the virus if foreigners are kept away and international aid workers and medical professionals in the country are denied full access. Allowing aid workers to diagnose and treat potential cases throughout the country is vital because COVID-19 spreads so quickly. It is also unclear how fast aid that reaches North Korea will be dispensed outside Pyongyang, the capital that is home to the nation's elite. Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), is calling on Pyongyang to become transparent about its coronavirus reporting so that the international community can provide the help North Korea needs. In a statement released Wednesday, RSF said "As North Korea still reports 'zero' coronavirus cases despite evidence suggesting cases in the thousands, RSF exhorts the regime to allow international media to investigate on the topic." Christy Lee contributed to this story. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at 5 PM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. 8 Malaysians linked to Tablighi Jamaat deboarded from rescue flight Eight Malaysian nationals were intercepted by immigration authorities and deboarded from a flight to Kuala Lumpur after they were identified as Tablighi Jamaat members who attended the religious congregation in Nizamuddin, which is linked to one-third of Indias coronavirus infections, said officials. Read more Amid lockdown, Chhattisgarh Police re-calibrate anti-Maoist ops in Bastar The lockdown to fight coronavirus has forced Chhattisgrah Police to re-calibrate and scale down anti-Maoist operations for security reasons and apprehension of likely shortage of essential items for the troopers, top officials said Sunday. Read more 50 mn jobs in tourism sector at stake, need relief packages to combat Covid-19: Industry bodies to govt Fifty million people will lose their jobs in the tourism sector if the government does not issue a relief package, industry bodies told the Centre during a virtual conference on Saturday. Read more Spain witnesses drop in coronavirus deaths for third day The rate of the coronavirus outbreak continues to slow in Spain, the country with the second most infections behind the United States. Spain recorded 6,023 confirmed new infections on Sunday, taking the national tally to 130,759. Read more Ramayana: From Arun Govil to Deepika Chikhalia, what actors of hit mythological serial are doing now The coronavirus lockdown has been an unexpected boom for Doordarshan. The national broadcaster is back to being the most happening place with mega mythological serials from the golden era of Doordarshan back on screen -- Ramanand Saagars Ramayana and BR Chopras Mahabharat are currently on air. Read more Sridevi, the Eternal Screen Goddess and Female Bachchan who fought for equality in Bollywood The lines above are from the book, Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess, by Satyarth Nayak. In this excerpt, Rishi Kapoor is describing his interaction with Sridevi during the making of the blockbuster hit, Nagina, showing us how shy and reserved Indias first female superstar actually was in real life. Read more Decision on reopening schools, colleges to be taken on April 14: HRD minister The HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Sunday said that the government will decide whether to reopen schools, colleges on April 14 after reviewing the coronavirus situation. Read more Covid-19 lockdown: Tech accessories, products professionals need to work from home Working from home is what most of the employees and professionals are doing these days due to the 21-day coronavirus lockdown imposed by the government. And because we are not used to this routine and environment, working with full focus can be difficult at times. Read more Did that guy just walk in on himself during a Zoom meeting? Watch Who said work from home couldnt be fun? Video producer and very-serious-professional Dan Crowd is here to remind us to have a little laugh and not take ourselves too seriously. Read more To the annoyance of some shareholders, Sydney Airport (ASX:SYD) shares are down a considerable 31% in the last month. The recent drop has obliterated the annual return, with the share price now down 29% over that longer period. Assuming nothing else has changed, a lower share price makes a stock more attractive to potential buyers. In the long term, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, but in the short term prices bounce around in response to short term factors (which are not always obvious). So, on certain occasions, long term focussed investors try to take advantage of pessimistic expectations to buy shares at a better price. One way to gauge market expectations of a stock is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). A high P/E ratio means that investors have a high expectation about future growth, while a low P/E ratio means they have low expectations about future growth. Check out our latest analysis for Sydney Airport Does Sydney Airport Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry? Sydney Airport's P/E of 28.84 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. If you look at the image below, you can see Sydney Airport has a lower P/E than the average (31.6) in the infrastructure industry classification. ASX:SYD Price Estimation Relative to Market April 4th 2020 Sydney Airport's P/E tells us that market participants think it will not fare as well as its peers in the same industry. While current expectations are low, the stock could be undervalued if the situation is better than the market assumes. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling. How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios Generally speaking the rate of earnings growth has a profound impact on a company's P/E multiple. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up. Story continues Sydney Airport saw earnings per share improve by 8.3% last year. And its annual EPS growth rate over 5 years is 46%. A Limitation: P/E Ratios Ignore Debt and Cash In The Bank One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. While growth expenditure doesn't always pay off, the point is that it is a good option to have; but one that the P/E ratio ignores. Is Debt Impacting Sydney Airport's P/E? Sydney Airport's net debt is 87% of its market cap. This is a reasonably significant level of debt -- all else being equal you'd expect a much lower P/E than if it had net cash. The Verdict On Sydney Airport's P/E Ratio Sydney Airport trades on a P/E ratio of 28.8, which is above its market average of 13.0. With significant debt and fairly modest EPS growth last year, shareholders are betting on sustained improvement. Given Sydney Airport's P/E ratio has declined from 41.6 to 28.8 in the last month, we know for sure that the market is significantly less confident about the business today, than it was back then. For those who prefer to invest with the flow of momentum, that might be a bad sign, but for a contrarian, it may signal opportunity. Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. So this free visual report on analyst forecasts could hold the key to an excellent investment decision. Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Sydney Airport. 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. Several religious leaders across Pennsylvania said they support Gov. Tom Wolfs directive to find alternative ways to worship throughout upcoming religious holidays. As of Saturday afternoon, there are more than 10,000 reported positive cases of people having coronavirus in the commonwealth. And, 136 people have died from contracting COVID-19 since it was first reported in Pennsylvania on March 6. "As a person of faith, I understand how important it is to worship, and that congregating, whether for a service or seder dinner, can be at the very core of ones faith, Wolf said in a statement. "But I also understand how important it is to help neighbors, and the best way to help our neighbors right now is not by congregating. Its by staying at home. Earlier this week, he issued a stay-at-home order for all of Pennsylvanias 67 counties. The order also requests that religious leaders take the order seriously. "Individuals should not gather in religious buildings or homes for services or celebrations until the stay-at-home order is lifted, according to the order. And, while many leaders from different faith denominations support this step, supportive of using technology to worship, others arent as inclined to follow the rules. A Pittsburgh-area pastor earlier this week said he will hold an outdoor 'like Woodstock Easter service to protest coronavirus social-distancing guidelines. The Pastors comments received a strong rebuke from many, including Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who responded on Twitter by saying, Yinz stay in thy haus, Jagoff. The influence of Schnitzer whose name is on the Oregon Symphonys hall on the Portland and Pacific Northwest arts scene can hardly be overstated. Schnitzer was a towering cultural figure in Portland and the Pacific Northwest, giving many millions of dollars over several decades to the Portland Art Museum, other cultural organizations, health and medical organizations including Oregon Health and Science University, and Jewish causes. With her husband, fellow philanthropist Harold Schnitzer, who died in 2011, she helped shape Portlands cultural scene: Between 1993 and Harolds death they donated more than $80 million to various causes. Their naming gift helped transform downtown Portlands run-down Paramount Theatre into what became the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, home of the Oregon Symphony, much of the White Bird dance series, and other performances. Oregon ArtsWatch CEDAR FALLS A resolution will be considered Monday by the City Council urging Gov. Kim Reynolds to implement stricter guidelines on peoples movements in the face of the coronavirus threat. The council meets at 7 p.m. Monday in City Hall via video conference. A statewide safe at home order is proposed with Cedar Falls joining officials from Black Hawk County and other area cities in asking for it. The resolution suggests people should stay home to avoid contributing to the spread of COVID-19 except for when conducting essential activities. It says the definition of essential should be based on guidance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control. Mayor Rob Green and Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart talked about the need they see for the order during a Thursday briefing by local officials on the coronavirus pandemic. In other business, the council will: Hold a public hearing on the proposal to vacate and dedicate a storm sewer easement on the northeast corner of 312 W. First St. as part of a project to build a new facility by Community Bank & Trust. Approve permeable alleyway and street construction project contracts for which low bids were received last month. Bentons Sand & Gravel bid $208,145 for the alley work. Peterson Contractors Inc. bid $3.39 million for the street construction. Consider purchasing a $230,832 water tank/pump truck from Toyne Inc. for the Public Safety Department. General obligation bonds of $200,000 have been allocated for the purchase. The remaining $30,832 would be paid for through the public safety operating budget. Consider approving a lease with artist Abigail Hedley at the Red House Studios in a city-owned house next to the Hearst Center for the Arts. The recent University of Northern Iowa graduate will join three other artists with her $3,000 in rent paid for by the UNI department of art and UNI Foundation. The meeting can be viewed on Cedar Falls cable channel 15 or through a livestream on the Channel 15 YouTube website. People can also view the meeting or participate in it through the video conference. Information can be found at cedarfalls.com on how to join the meeting by phone, smartphone or computer. Coronavirus update Northeast Iowa Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 6 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. US Envoy to NATO Floats Idlib Aid 'Package' to Turkey in Exchange for Dropping Russia's S-400s Sputnik News 08:56 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 15:28 GMT 04.04.2020) Ankara is expected to activate the S-400s in the coming weeks, but Washington has not given up on its plans to get the much-feared weapons out of Turkey. Stick has not worked, apparently, so now is the time to offer some carrot. The United States may come to Turkey's aid in Idlib in exchange for dropping plans to deploy Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. United States ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison floated the idea of providing an unspecified assistance "package" during a press briefing on Wednesday. "We hope that Turkey will also not put the Russian missile defence system in their country; that is deterring some of the capabilities that we would be able to give them to fight against the Syrian aggression," she said, without elaborating on what that package might comprise. "We do want the area in Idlib, where the civilians are really trapped, to be protected, and I think the Turkish soldiers agree with that; they're trying to do it," Hutchison added. "So we hope that the Turks, because they're being the victims of Russian-Syrian aggression, will take out the missile defence system that is in the middle of Ankara and let us have the freedom to help them completely to protect those innocent civilians in Syria." Russia's advanced S-400 surface-to-air weapons systems have long been a thorn in the side of US and NATO military strategists. Turkey signed up for the delivery of four S-400 batteries in December 2017 as part of a $2.5-billion deal. Both the US and NATO have actively opposed the deal, claiming the systems are incompatible with the alliance's own systems and could allow Moscow to obtain intelligence on US-made F-35 fighter jets an argument Ankara disputes. Several bills have been introduced in Congress in the US to punish Turkey for buying S-400s, and Turkey has been removed from Lockheed Martin's F-35 programme. Despite the pressure, the weapons have been shipped to Turkey, which is expected to deploy the anti-aircraft shield later this month. The US has recently renewed its efforts to see the S-400s out of Turkey in the wake of an armed confrontation in Idlib. Aside from Kurdish-controlled areas which have reached a tentative agreement with Damascus, Idlib is the largest Syrian territory outside of Syrian government control; it is mostly run by the extremist group HTS and Turkish-backed rebels. Since mid-December, the Syrian army has been conducting an offensive in the region to drive out extremist groups and militias. Turkey has pushed back, and the fighting that ensued has resulted in dozens of casualties on both sides. The escalation was halted in early March due to a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal. It established a security corridor along the crucial M4 highway, which runs parallel to the Turkish border in northeast Syria connecting Aleppo with Latakia, and joint Russian-Turkish patrols along the highway. Ankara requested a rare emergency NATO meeting in late February, after a Syrian army air strike killed 33 Turkish soldiers. NATO publicly condemned the Syrian air strikes, but stopped short of providing military assistance to Turkey, a member of the alliance, or triggering the collective defence mechanism. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action reported Sunday morning three new cases of COVID-19 and ten more cured patients, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases and cured to 222 and 82 respectively, Trend reports citing Xinhua. Senegalese Health Minister Aboudulaye Diouf Sarr said among 92 tests done, 3 came back positive, including 2 close contacts of earlier confirmed patients and 1 community transmission case. This is the first time that Senegal hasn't detected any imported cases since March 13. The health minister also announced ten more patients has been tested negative with COVID-19, so considered as cured. Among the 222 confirmed cases, 85 are imported ones. Besides two deaths, one was evacuated back to his country, and a total of 82 patients have been declared cured by local health authorities, highest in West Africa. Senegal celebrated Saturday its 60th anniversary of independance from France. A military ceremony was held in presidential palace instead of a traditional military and civil parade due to the severe COVID-19 situation in the country. On Saturday night, Senegalese President Macky Sall extended in a presidential decree the current state of emergency, along with the dusk-to-dawn curfew for 30 days, till May 4. Sall on Friday announced measures to deal with the economic impact caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, as he predicted the country's economic growth would drop from 6.8 percent to less than 3 percent. "Sectors such as tourism, hotels, catering, transport, trade, culture, and public works, among others are badly affected. Our sustained economic growth over several years is brutally slowed and will drop from 6.8 percent to less than 3 percent," he said. Facing the coronavirus emergency, Sall said he had set up an Economic and Social Resilience Program to strengthen the health system and support households, businesses and their employees. The program will provide the health sector with 64.4 billion Francs CFA (about 10 million U.S. dollars) to cover all expenses related to the response to COVID-19. Australians have been warned they could be cooped up in their homes until well after Christmas, while social distancing measures could last as long as two years. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned on Friday Australians could expect six months of stringent social distancing measures as the national infection rate dropped to under 10 per cent. But infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon said COVID-19's seasonal nature meant the number of cases may not reduce significantly until the spring. Scroll down for video Two women walk in front of a 'beach closed' sign at Bondi Beach on Saturday. Australians have been warned coronavirus social distancing measures may last until after Christmas 'You know what the bad news is? We're going to have to do a lot of this social distancing for another 18 months to two years,' Professor Collignon, from the Australian National University, told news.com.au. 'This virus is not going to go anywhere soon. We'll have a reprieve next spring because there's less transmission of viruses in summer.' He added the virus would continue to have an effect in Australia until a cure is found. About 35 companies and institutions worldwide are racing to develop a vaccine for the virus but it is still unclear when it will be ready for use. 'Until we get a vaccine that is safe and works or until we find the evidence is wrong or unless something radical changes with the data there's no way in my view we're going to get rid of all the virus from Australia,' Professor Collignon said. He added the initial positive impact of the government's social distancing measures - including closing pubs, cafes and restaurants - meant they would need to stay in place for as long as two years. Police on horses enforce social distancing regulations to slow the spread of the coronavirus at Bondi Beach on Saturday Pictured: couple holding hands at Sydney International Airport on March 27. The initial positive effect of the social distancing measures on the virus' spread could mean they stay in place for longer Authorities in some states have put a more conservative date for the end of their lockdowns. Doctor Brett Sutton, Victoria's chief health officer, said the strict restrictions in his state will last until May or June, or possibly longer. 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 'It keeps changing. In a sense, how well we do with that physical distancing, how well we comply with stay-at-home directions will change that time,' he said. New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has said the level three restrictions in NSW will last at least 90 days. University of NSW associate professor James Wood told Daily Mail Australia meanwhile the reduced growth rate could lead to the federal government easing restrictions in weeks. Dr Wood said on Wednesday the next two weeks were critical in determining whether Australia was really flattening the curve and if and when life might get easier. Denmark is already planning to roll back its own restrictions this month as its infection rates and hospital admissions fall faster than expected. Professor Raina Macintyre from the Kirby Institute at the UNSW - a global body dedicated to preventing infectious diseases - suggested it would still be many months before life is returned to normal. 'It's going to get worse before it gets better,' she said in a video for the Australian Academy of Science on Tuesday. 'Get into a mental space where you can actually accept that you have to change the way that you live because this epidemic will be taking off in the next few weeks. 'There's going to be more transmissions around in a very short time period and everything that you can do to reduce your contact with other people [will help].' Professor Macintyre also warned a potential 'second wave' could bring a swarm of new infections. Modelling has also emerged indicating the peak in infection rates may come in October - with Australians fighting the virus for a long period of time despite the measures. Experts like Professor Raina Macintyre (pictured) from the Kirby Institute at the UNSW suggested it would still be many months before life is returned to normal Hospital admissions by that point in spring though will be at a much reduced level because of social distancing, the data suggests. The number of hospitalised cases will reach 180 hospitalised cases in every 100,000 people, less than half the 450 cases which would occur with no social distancing. The data seen by intensive care consultants also proposes the virus will have reduced in community spread rate by a third - from 2.4 to 1.6. Denmark plans to begin lifting lockdown restrictions in April By Ryan Fahey for MailOnline Denmark could begin lifting lockdown restrictions in April after declaring the contact limits it implemented on March 11 have 'succeeded'. The Nordic country, which has reported 77 coronavirus-related deaths, last week extended until after Easter a two-week lockdown to limit physical contact between its citizens that began on March 11. 'We do see signs that we have succeeded in delaying the transmission of corona in Denmark. The transmission is spreading slower than feared,' Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. 'Over the past week the number of hospital admissions has risen slightly slower than the week before and without the explosion in the numbers that we have seen in other countries.' Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks during a news conference on COVID-19 coronavirus disease at her office in Copenhagen, Denmark yesterday The Social Democrat leader, whose response to the crisis has been praised by the public, offered a glimmer of hope for Danes cooped up under lockdown. 'If we over the next two weeks across Easter keep standing together by staying apart, and if the numbers remain stable for the next two weeks, then the government will begin a gradual, quiet and controlled opening of our society again, at the other side of Easter,' she said. However, Frederiksen warned that if numbers began to rise once lockdown is over 'perhaps we would have to tighten up even more instead'. Denmark has imposed less strict limits on daily life than in Italy or France where people are only free to leave their homes to buy groceries, go to work if essential or seek medical care. Danish authorities have restricted public assembly to 10 or fewer people, ordered the closure of schools, universities, day cares, restaurants, cafes, libraries, gyms and hair salons, and shut all borders to most foreigners. A reopening would probably include people attending schools and work in shifts to avoid rush-hour traffic and too many people gathering in public at the same time, Frederiksen said. Advertisement It comes as Australia's coronavirus toll rises to 34 after four men - three who were on the Ruby Princess cruise - died in NSW on Saturday. Police have been out in full force issuing warnings and on the spot fines of $1,000 for anybody who is outside for non-essential reasons. People are only allowed to leave their homes for food, essential work, exercise and medical appointments. There is no way to describe Royal Caribbean Cruisess (NYSE:RCL) year without including the words devastatingly poor. The coronavirus has brought RCL stock to its knees. In the first quarter of this year, the shares delivered a total return of -75%, more than double the loss of the U.S. stock markets as a whole. Things May Get Bad, but RCL Stock Still Has a Way Forward Source: Laszlo Halasi / Shutterstock.com InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Looking back at the cruise lines financial situation before and after the Great Recession will give investors some perspective on what to do during the current crisis. A detached look at the past shows that Royal Caribbean can overcome the current obstacles it faces. It might provide you with the information you need to determine if its shares are a good value play or a value trap. Where to Begin? Royal Caribbeans stock hit a low of $5.40 on Mar. 3, 2009. On Mar. 9, the S&P 500 bottomed, starting the longest bull market in U.S. history. A year later, Royal Caribbean was trading at almost $25. A year after that it had almost doubled. In two short years, Royal Caribbeans stock had increased by 789%. Im not suggesting trying to time the bottom of RCL stock. Im merely pointing out that the financial firestorm that was the financial crisis didnt put the company in the ground. It battled back. While it seems impossible to think that Americans will return to cruise ships after what many have been through in various ports around the world, people are creatures of habit. They like what they like. The cruise sector might not return to normal for 12 months or even 24 months, but it will eventually bounce back. InvestorPlace columnist Brad Moon recently pointed out that few people remember the 2014 norovirus outbreak on Royal Caribbeans Explorer of the Seas. The virus made 700 of the ships passengers sick. Story continues The words this time is different come to mind. This phrase was first uttered by legendary investor John Templeton way back in 1933, describing the tendency of investors to conveniently forget that history repeats itself. Sure, every situation brings new wrinkles to the table, but generally, weve pretty much seen this story before. Those with the courage to go against the grain will profit greatly. I just dont see people giving up cruising. Maybe Ill be proven dead wrong, but I doubt it. Royal Caribbeans Financial Situation Then and Now Interestingly, while Royal Caribbeans stock cratered during the Great Recession, its business didnt. In the years 2010, 2009, and 2008, it had annual revenue of $6.75 billion, $5.89 billion, and $6.5 billion, respectively. Considering the economy had fallen into the toilet during those three years, the cruise sector barely lost a step. In an October 2008 interview, CEO Richard Fain was exceptionally optimistic about the future. They [customers] look at the value of a cruise versus a land holiday, and the more they look, the better off we are, Fain stated at the time. Discounting will affect our business, but we have the ability to do more and offer more to our guests and that will serve us well in the long term. While Im not a fan of cruises despite getting married on one I can see the allure. Multi-generational families can take a trip together without having to worry about the logistics of visiting three or four different places on the trip. And even though cruises have gotten more expensive as ships have become more amenity-filled, they are still a great way for large groups to enjoy a trip together. On Mar.. 23, Royal Caribbean announced that it had obtained a $2.2 billion, 364-day secured term loan facility that can be extended by an additional year, if needed. It has drawn down the entire amount to handle the downturn in its business. Between the cash on its balance sheet and its existing revolving credit facility, it has $3.6 billion of liquidity to help it cope with the downturn. This is a period of unprecedented disruption for the cruise industry, said Jason T. Liberty, the companys executive vice president and CFO. We continue to take decisive actions to protect the companys financial and liquidity positions as they enable us to keep focused on our guests, our crew and our long-term plans. Royal Caribbean currently pays out a 78-cent quarterly dividend that is yielding 10.7%. In 2019, it paid out $602.7 million of dividends and made $100 million of share repurchases. I think its safe to assume that if travel bans and at-home restrictions remain in place past the end of April (which is very likely), the company wont return any money to shareholders for the remainder of 2020 and possibly into 2021. Investors absolutely cant count on the dividend at this point. Cruise ships cannot be maintained on a shoestring budget, but all the major cruise operators have enough access to loans to get them through the current crisis. There is meaningful cash burn as the ships are idle. But I do think these companies all have strong support from their banking groups, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Woronka told Barrons recently. You would prefer to have some operation during the peak summer period, but its unknown exactly what thats going to look like. Youre going to scale back into profitability. Its not a switch where you go from zero to normal. Its going to be a process to build back to profitability, but it starts with getting some sailings going again. If you go back to 2009, when the company had its lowest net income in the past decade, it still made $162 million on $5.89 billion of revenue. A decade later, Royal Caribbean had $1.9 billion of net income from $11 billion in sales. Its net margin went from 2.8% in 2009 to 17.3% in 2019. Lets assume that Royal Caribbeans revenues will drop by 40% and its net margins will fall back to 2009 levels. That would mean $6.6 billion of sales and net income of just $185 million. While its free cash flow would go from positive to negative, the company would still be making money. The Bottom Line on RCL Stock Richard Fain has been the CEO of Royal Caribbean for 32 years. Back in 1988, when he took the helm, the company had annual revenue of just $520 million. In 2019, its profits were almost four timesits 1988 sales. Hes seen the company through the Great Recession, 9/11, the Dot.com bubble, and many other more minor incidents. I believe if anyone can get Royal Caribbean through the crisis, its Richard Fain. Thats why I called Royal Caribbean one of seven stocks to buy on coronavirus weakness. This year is not going to be pretty for Royal Caribbeans shareholders. But history shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where hes appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the time of this writing Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace The post The Great Recession Provides the Owners of Royal Caribbean Stock With Perspective appeared first on InvestorPlace. At a time when people are concerned about contracting COVID-19, the well-being of their loved ones and how to maintain a sense of normalcy, it can be hard to think about helping others. But its a good way to stay positive during the pandemic. And there are many people in need. There is one way you can contribute to a safer, healthier and more resilient Canada, simply by helping to stop the spread: Practise social distancing and stay home unless you absolutely have to go outside for essential items. But these guidelines present much more challenging circumstances for seniors, the disabled and people experiencing homelessness. Many homeless shelters and social service agencies are in dire need of supplies. Food is always welcome, but some of the things you might not think to donate are razors and feminine hygiene products. Right now, with many people experiencing homelessness and attempting to self isolate, tents and sleeping bags are especially needed, said a spokesperson for Boyle Street Community Services in Edmonton. Chris Hatch, CEO of Food Banks Canada, said theyve seen an average 20 per cent increase in demand at branches across the country. Were expecting it to go higher, he said. Non-perishable foods are typically the items people think of donating first. But there are other supplies that can make a huge difference in peoples lives. For example, laundry detergent. The top one would be laundry detergent, Hatch said. Ive seen people trade off food for laundry detergent. Other hygienic supplies are in high demand, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving cream, deodorant and tampons and pads. Household supplies, such as toilet paper, sponges and dish detergent are also needed. Hatch said its a good idea to simply donate money, as then the food bank can buy the specific food and items their clients need. One of the groups facing the greatest challenge with self isolation is seniors. Many already had limited social contact and support before the pandemic, but now find themselves unable to get groceries, make medical appointments or even care for their pets. The Calgary Seniors Resource Center is creating a list of volunteers to help with drops offs, pet assistance and what they call practical kindness. That would be things like, maybe a senior has a critical light bulb in a place they need, like their kitchen, said Annastasia Stevens, seniors social supports manager with Calgary Seniors. Lets say thats putting them in danger, we would have a volunteer who would take the appropriate measures to protect themselves and the senior and then go and change the light bulb. Its a good idea to reach out to your local senior care centre or advocacy group to see if theres a way you can help out. Sometimes, seniors are just looking for human contact and you may not even need to leave your home to provide it. We also have social phone supports. We have tons of volunteers mobilized to provide phone calls to seniors who are anxious, lonely, all of those different things, Stevens said. Its just as important to reach out to your senior neighbours and friends to see if theres anything you can do to help. Reach out by telephone. It may be even going to the door and taking appropriate precaution, asking is there anything I can help with, can I pick up groceries? One item both Food Banks Canada and Calgary Seniors said can make a huge difference in peoples lives is pet food. Both Hatch and Stevens have observed people going hungry to feed their pets. Seniors are incredibly passionate about their animals because often, theyre their whole reason for being, Stevens said. Stevens was happy to turn that situation around for a client recently. When we supplied her with the pet food, which we had a volunteer drop off, she as a human started eating again. Matt Hancock speaking during Friday's media briefing in Downing Street. (PA Video/PA Images via Getty Images) In recent days, the government has come under increasing fire for not answering difficult questions about the coronavirus crisis. As the number of UK deaths continues to accelerate, health secretary Matt Hancock led the governments press briefing in Downing Street on Friday evening. Here are three questions he did not answer. 1. Hancock was asked if the governments antibody tests are ever going to materialise Antibody tests detect whether someone has had the virus. The government said it has ordered 17.5 million, but they are still being checked to see if they work. If they do work, the antibody tests would form part of Hancocks target of carrying out 100,000 tests a day by the end of April. However, Hancock couldnt guarantee they will be used. Here is his response: As Ive been clear all along, we will only use them if they work. Its clear that no G7 country has yet found a home antibody test that works but we continue to search for one. This is an area where the science is constantly developing and there is a huge amount of global effort going into finding one of these tests that does work. Ive also been clear that weve put the orders in place so that should they work, we can get them here in the UK. 2. Hancock was asked if the UKs relative lack of testing has cost lives South Korea was raised as an example of a country which has carried out effective testing: 443,273 as of Friday. Its death toll is just 174, despite being the second worst affected country (behind China) at the beginning of the outbreak. On Friday, the UKs death toll increased to 3,605, with 173,784 tests carried out. Hancock did not say if its perceived weakness in testing has caused the death toll to rise. 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 Here is his response: The truth is, weve had a clear ramp up in testing as part of the strategy from the start. We had just under 2,000 tests a day a month ago and I set the goal of reaching 10,000 a day. We have reached that and hit that on target at the end of March. Story continues Now we have got the clear goal of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April. There are countries that have tested more than us, like Germany, but theres others like France that havent tested as much as us. The question of the correlations is a very complicated one with lots of factors in it. Read Yahoo News UKs analysis of South Koreas coronavirus approach HERE. 3. Hancock was asked what help patients are being given for their mental wellbeing when they are on their own in hospital Hancock only said the government had given 5 million to the MIND mental health charity for its work during the pandemic, without addressing the question about patients who are on their own. Here is his response: I really worry about the impact of coronavirus on the mental health of those who are badly affected, and I really feel for those who have seen their loved ones die and not been able to be with them at the end. This is a really difficult issue. We have to make sure we support people with compassion and understanding for what theyre going through. This is going to be an issue of increasing importance as the crisis goes on. Coronavirus: what happened today Scientists urge people who lose sense of taste and smell to self-isolate Lucknow, April 5 : The cantonment area in Lucknow has been sealed off and civilian movement in the area has been completely banned. Army personnel in essential services will be allowed movement in the cantonment area while others have been asked to remain off roads till further orders. The decision has been taken in view of the close proximity of the Cantonment area to Sadar Bazaar where 12 members of the Tablighi Jamaat were found staying in a mosque on Friday. The Jamaatis were taken into quarantine and the entire area was sealed off and sanitized. According to sources, the army will sanitize the cantonment in view of the Corona scare and ensure that its personnel do not come into contact with Corona suspect. Private persons living in the area have been asked to adhere to the orders. Sonia Morales, of South Philadelphia, wears a protective bandana and gloves while waiting at the bus stop in South Philadelphia. Read more As Pennsylvania sees daily upticks in new coronavirus cases, Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday urged all residents to wear a cloth mask when they must leave home, a recommendation in line with new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But on a day that the state reported 1,404 new confirmed cases, he stressed that doing so should not provide a false sense of safety. Masks help prevent people from sharing illnesses, Wolf said. They dont do a great job at preventing people from getting sick, and theyre not foolproof, so its critical that our first act is to ask ourselves whether we really need to leave our house. Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine said laypeople should not wear paper surgical masks or N95 masks, as these types of protective equipment should be reserved for essential workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Instead, they urged people to make their own masks or find individuals or businesses in their area who are making them. Wearing a mask or even a bandanna could be an extra layer of protection, Levine said. Remember, a mask isnt a pass to go back to work or visit friends or socialize. Masks will help reduce community spread, Wolf said, and protect essential workers. He said they prevent the mask-wearer from inadvertently infecting innocent bystanders ... like the grocery store cashier, or the pharmacist or someone stocking shelves. Masks arent necessary for isolated outdoor exercise, Levine said, but she reminded people that they may encounter others when on hikes, runs, or walks in public areas. The CDC now recommends all Americans wear non-medical cloth masks or facial coverings in public settings, President Donald Trump said Friday. He said wearing a covering is voluntary. READ MORE: How to make a face mask, and what you need to know about homemade masks Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the cloth face coverings should be used in public settings where social distancing measures are tough to maintain, like grocery stores and pharmacies, but emphasized maintaining six feet of distancing is key to preventing the virus spread. Earlier in the day, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the city would follow the CDC guidance, and echoed other officials continued calls for social distancing as a first line of defense. People should not leave their homes more often if they are wearing a mask, he said. "By wearing a face mask, you protect the people around you, he said. My mask protects you, your mask protects me. Staff writers Ellie Rushing and Laura McCrystal contributed to this article. The Nest Sunday, BBC1 Rating: London Kills Monday-Friday, BBC1 Rating: Friday Night Dinner Friday, Channel 4 Rating: Location, location, location. Its as important to any TV drama now as characters and plot. Greenery, a cliff (if youre lucky and need characters to get pushed off/contemplate jumping) but, most importantly, water. Yes, there must be water. During the opening scenes you need the audience to be hitting Google Maps, checking property prices and wondering if its time they gave up their semi in suburbia for a detached hideaway on the coast. Then they see how many millions a shed would cost in St Ives, decide that nothing short of selling their children on Amazon is going to help them afford it and settle down dejectedly to watch the rest of the show. I was all set to move to Loch Long, where The Nest is filmed, but unless I could live in Cape Cove, home to Dan (Martin Compston) and Emily (Sophie Rundle), Ill stay put (its a luxury rental, should you be interested, and, no, you cant afford to buy it). With floor-to-ceiling windows and its own jetty, you can only wonder why the couple would want to mess it up by having a baby. One dirty nappy in that kitchen would be like hanging a dishcloth from the Sistine Chapel; it just doesnt bear thinking about. Sophie Rundle as Emily and Mirren Mack as Kaya in The Nest. Glasgow, where much of the action takes place, has never looked so good But after several unsuccessful attempts at conceiving and Dans sister Hilary (Fiona Bell) miscarrying following an attempt at surrogacy, there is only one embryo left. A chance meeting with the teenage Kaya (Mirren Mack), who offers to be a surrogate, might be the answer at least to Emily. Dan is less sure and enlists the help of colleague/friend Souter (David Hayman) to discover more about Kayas background. Was the accident in which Emily ran down Kaya really just that (its a criminal offence not to report an accident, by the way, Emily. You might have a lovely house but youre very shaky on the law)? This week, after discovering the big secret in Kayas past (no spoilers for those waiting to view on iPlayer), Dan took decisive action, but complications arose when Kaya started dating Hilarys son Jack (Samuel Small). Jack ticks all the BBC diversity boxes essential to any BBC drama. Hes black (tick), a young male who is not a drug-user/serial killer (tick) and hes very woke. Admiring Kayas decision to carry the couples baby, he tells her: Im a feminist. I think what youre doing is awesome (big tick but accompanied by a big Ugh, puh-lease). Its one of the less believable lines in what is otherwise a tight script in a compelling show that builds the thriller elements with a perfect balance of suspense and pace. Glasgow, where much of the action takes place, has never looked so good and has clearly come a long way over the past couple of decades think Taggart Lite. And Cape Cove is from 2,135 per week, by the way. Dodgy teenage girls not included. One dirty nappy in that kitchen? It would be like hanging an old dishcloth from the Sistine Chapel With most of us living in self isolation, its a great time to have something decent to watch in the daytime, and London Kills delivered five afternoons of extraordinary drama that could easily settle in primetime. If you could get past the distraction of DS Vivienne Coles beehive (although I think a topiarist would have his/her work cut out), the daily dose of murder was a welcome distraction. With Cole (Sharon Small) and DC Rob Brady (Bailey Patrick) suspicious of their boss, DI David Bradford (Hugo Speer), the sub-plot continued to revolve around whether or not he had killed his wife. Speer is never anything less than brilliant and he carried the did he/didnt he? storyline with a believability that kept you guessing to the end. Again, no spoilers, except to say theres a very funny moment when a body is found in a freezer, put there by someone who explained his actions as having been like they do on the telly. Weve all been there. Patrick and Tori Allen-Martin in London Kills. The daily dose of murder was a welcome distraction Should the title not be sufficient reminder that the show is set in London, you can play Ooh, look, theres another red bus! and Ooh, look, theres the Gherkin again!, which will keep you well occupied over all five hours. Having only just caught up with Friday Night Dinner, I had high hopes, not least because it stars the always formidable Tamsin Greig. I hoped that, not having laughed once during episode one, that two would deliver, but again it left me cold. The premise a Jewish family who have dinner together every Friday night sounds promising, but apart from a challah loaf on the table there is none of the humour that normally characterises such events. This weeks story, in which Martin (Paul Ritter) obsessed about a plastic bag in a tree was potentially funny (and probably would have been with the cast of The Big Bang Theory), but it was about as witty as... well, a plastic bag in a tree. Theres a lot of silly slapstick hitting and, with the exception of Mark Heaps faultless, quirky Jim, the show lacks energy. If only theyd set it on Loch Long. Deborah Ross is away A former U.S. ambassador to Japan has criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for its coverup of the CCP virus in the early stages of the deadly outbreak, calling the regimes mishandling of the virus the crime of the century. Bill Hagerty, who is now a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, told The Jeff Poor Show on Friday that he believes the Chinese regimes efforts to suppress information and conceal the virus before it became a pandemic makes it the greatest cover-up in human history. Ive worked with China and seen how they operate for years. And I can tell you, what theyre trying to do right now with this Wuhan virus is the crime of the century in my view, Hagerty told the radio host, Jeff Poor. When they tried to act like it didnt from come therethey even said the United States, our military somehow put it there. Its just unbelievable, he added. Between mid-December and mid-January, the Chinese regime displayed a pattern of behavior of withholding information and making misrepresentations about the severity of the disease. There was evidence that the CCP had failed to expeditiously provide the World Health Organization (WHO) with important information about the virus such as the transmissibility of the virus, details of the viruss genome, and infection of healthcare workers. Experts have found that this lack of transparency and candor hindered the international response to the virus. One study, currently in preprint from researchers at the University of Southhampton in the UK, found that if Chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier, the number of cases could have been reduced by 95 percent. The Chinese regime was also not responsive to international requests to learn about the virus and the outbreak. U.S. Health and Human Sevices Secretary Alex Azar previously said the United States had been trying to send a group of experts to understand the outbreaks transmission and severity since Jan. 6. However, the United States repeated offers were left unanswered for a month. The Chinese regime eventually agreed to allow the WHO to send a group of international experts to study the virus in late January. This came after the WHOs director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus returned from a visit from China full of praise for its leader Xi Jinping and the regimes response efforts. Moreover, when multiple Wuhan doctors attempted to warn their colleagues and the public about a pneumonia with an unknown cause, later known to be the CCP virus, authorities attempted to silence them and reprimanded them for rumor-mongering. The most notable of them was Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist who ultimately succumbed to the disease after contracting it from a patient he was treating. We know it was their efforts to try to hide it, to not disclose it to the rest of the world. It cost Chinese lives. Now it has gotten out, Hagerty said. It cost lives, and it has cost economic damage all around the world. The Chinese are playing what I believe is a public relations game, and what they should have been playing is working hard on public health. Hagerty argued in an op-ed published on Breitbart in March that the Chinese regime should be held accountable for the CCP virus. [T]he Wuhan coronavirus is underscoring the real threat posed by the communist leadership in China thatrather than working to save the lives of its own peopleprefers to silence opposition from within as it works to spread anti-American propaganda, he wrote. Some legal experts have shared a view that the Chinese regime could be held accountable for failing to meet its legal duty under international law. James Kraska, chair and Charles H. Stockton Professor of international maritime law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College, previously told The Epoch Times he believes the Chinese regime could have violated the International Health Regulations (IHR) by failing to be forthright about the virus in the early stages and share information about it to WHO. The IHR (pdf), an agreement between 196 countries, requires state parties to notify the World Health Organization (WHO) of all events which may constitute a public health emergency of international concern within its territory. This is a legal duty that states freely have entered into, and China like all states that are a party have agreed to do that, Kraska said. But it appears in this case, China did not fulfill its duty. U.S. lawmakers have also voiced their concerns about Beijings mishandling of the virus in the early stages. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced a bipartisan House resolution, HR 907, in March to condemn the CCP for intentionally downplaying the outbreak through censorship and disinformation. Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) are also calling for an international investigation into how CCPs initial handling of the virus may have endangered the United States and the rest of the world. From The Epoch Times Democrats and liberal groups on Sunday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand an extended absentee voting period for Wisconsins primary on Tuesday, an election unfolding amid public health fears due to the coronavirus. The groups argue that a federal judges order last week extending absentee voting from Tuesday to April 13 is critical for a fair election and to protect public health. They said the crush of absentee ballot requests more than 1.1 million, far more than any previous election has made it impossible for clerks to get them out to voters and get them back in time to beat what had been an 8 p.m. election night deadline. Separately, a group of Wisconsin mayors on Sunday urged acting Health Secretary Andrea Palm to step up and stop the State of Wisconsin from putting hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk through in-person voting. The letter was signed by the mayors of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and other cities. Wisconsin is scheduled to conduct in-person voting Tuesday despite concerns about the health risks to voters and poll workers. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican leaders initially were united in sticking to the election date, but last week Evers reversed course and called for shifting to mail-only and extending absentee voting into May. A federal judge subsequently declined to postpone the election, but handed Democrats a partial victory by extending the absentee voting period. Republicans appealed to the Supreme Court after the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse the lower court order. NEW YORK Dip in death count provides hope A slight dip in new coronavirus deaths in New York over a 24-hour period may be a glimmer of hope that the spread is slowing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday as overall fatalities in the state climbed to nearly 4,200. Cuomo said it was too soon to determine whether the pandemic had reached its apex. We could either be very near the apex, or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on the plateau right now, Cuomo said. You cant do this day to day. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern. The state reported 594 new coronavirus deaths Sunday a small decrease compared to the 630 new fatalities announced the day before. ICU admissions and intubations were also down, the governor said, while the discharge rate from hospitals was rising. Cuomo sounded cautiously optimistic even as he urged New Yorkers to remain vigilant and continue adhering to the strict social distancing policies in place. LOUISIANA Convention center to house patients Medical officials are preparing for Mondays opening of the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, which is being converted into a medical support facility to help local hospitals care for patients infected with the new coronavirus. The plan is for the most critical patients to remain in hospitals and give those with less severe symptoms but in need of medical care a place to go. Joe Kanter, assistant state health officer with the Louisiana Department of Health, told media the next three weeks are incredibly critical. Louisiana officials reported 68 coronavirus-related deaths Sunday, marking the states biggest jump in reported deaths since the outbreak began. The number of infections reported to the state also increased by more than 500 cases from 12,496 to 13,010. NEW YORK Bronx Zoo tiger tests positive A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S., officials said Sunday. The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia is believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasnt yet showing symptoms. The finding raises new questions about transmission of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock. ARIZONA Hospital worker charged with theft A housekeeping employee at a hospital in Prescott has been fired after being arrested on suspicion of stealing personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies in recent weeks. Keith Brown, 49, was arrested after police found items in his vehicle and residence, police Lt. Jon Brambila said. The items recovered included gloves, surgical scrubs, and masks, Brambila said. Chronicle News Services Jayanth P By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: It was around 3 pm on Thursday when a notification popped up on the computer screen of a member of the integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) team, which is monitoring Covid-19 pandemic in the state. The notification was about the test results of a few Covid-19 suspects with a travel history to New Delhi. Immediately, the IDSP passed on the information to the officials at one of the 15 tables arranged on the fifth floor of the R and B Building on MG Road, Vijayawada. From there, the information was forwarded to the authorities in East Godavari, who in turn ensured the data flow to field functionariesvillage volunteers and ASHA workersfor verification and necessary action. All this was done in minutes. Welcome to the state command control centre, the war room from where Andhra Pradesh is putting up a concerted fight against the novel coronavirus. All the surveillance and contact tracing happens from here. The IDSP team is the heart of the command control centre. It is the point of contact for all inter-state and inter-district communication related to Covid-19. The four-member IDSP team gets all the data related to the state from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), apart from the test results from laboratories, O Anand, the special officer in-charge of the control room, told TNIE. There are a total of 16 teams working to flatten the covid-19 curve: one each for 13 districts, the IDSP team, a management information system (MIS) and an inter-departmental team. The district teams coordinate with the respective administrations to take and feed necessary statistics as and when required. The inter-departmental team consists of officials from the Railways, APSRTC, Transport and Telecom departments to assist the district teams in ascertaining the travel history of the suspected patients; the MIS team does the data crunching. Around 120 officials, most of whom are from the Health department, have been working round-the-clock for the last three weeks. We dont even get to go home sometimes. We feel homesick, but this is an emergency and the state comes before everything else. That was the commitment we made when we took this job, an official of the East Godavari team said. While data analysis is in itself tough, especially when it involves information related to over one lakh people (30,000 foreign returnees, and over 1,000 Delhi returnees and their primary contacts), officials, however, said contact tracing was the most challenging part of the job. Primary and secondary contact tracing has to be done as soon as possible. Sometimes, the suspects dont reveal their entire travel history. That is when it gets difficult, Anand explained. On an average, it takes at least a day or two to collect and verify the travel history of the suspects and positive cases. In cases where the officials are suspicious about the details given by a suspect, they use the mobile data (signal reception) to crosscheck the information they were provided. It is not surveillance, but only a precautionary measure. As challenging as it is for us to get the data, it is the efforts of our field functionaries and district administrations as it is they who do most of the legwork, the special officer observed. Once the control room and the district administration are on the same page regarding the details of the suspects/positive cases, they immediately pass it on to the state nodal officer, sitting one floor below the command control room. After compiling the information, we release the data for the government, media and the public, said state nodal officer Dr Arja Srikanth. Besides giving statistics related to the number of patients and suspects, the control room was also conducting awareness programmes, he added. The most important thing to do is to create awareness and dispel misinformation. Misleading information can do more damage than a disease. How the control room operates WRIGHT: Well, 50 was a made man before I met him. So that alone you walk into a room, and theres an immediate respect. But based on my background, theres also a need to look a man in the eye and size him up face to face. And so sitting in the room with him and sizing him up, I knew when that conversation with him was over that I had a friend for life. And when I say this, Im not even contemplating how 50 feels. If 50 hated my freaking guts, hes going to be my friend! And I knew that with respect to what he wanted to do with this story, I could roll the dice and he was going to make it happen. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 07:01:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHICAGO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures fell for the trading week ending April 3, with weaker ethanol demand due to stay-at-home orders amid the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak pushing down corn prices. Ethanol production for the week was the lowest since 2013, as margins remained negative amid record large ethanol stocks. Storage capacity tied to the glut of supply will be an issue by mid-April, according to AgResource, a Chicago-based agricultural research firm. May corn ended the week 15 cents lower on the sharp drop in ethanol demand and collapsing feed margins. With AgResource predicting that a global recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak remains six to eight weeks off, wheat futures ended 21 cents per bushel lower as U.S. bakeries began to operate at reduced capacity amid the collapse in restaurant traffic. July wheat is expected to test 5.80 dollars per bushel if weather in Europe's Black Sea region remains dry, but could fall to 4.75 dollars per bushel if wet conditions emerge in the next 30 days. Soybean futures were 25 cents per bushel lower for the week with spot futures hitting 8.50 dollars per bushel. Soybean exports remain seasonally slow. February exports were at 101 million bushels, or 67 million bushels less than a year ago. The March soybean data is expected to reflect a similar decline, and exports are expected to remain slow in the months ahead. AgResource said soybeans expected for export in U.S. ports on Monday should total just 11 million bushels, with no exports to China. Re: European Mfin/MiM profile evaluation [ #permalink I am not doing fear mongering but UK schools like Imperial,LSE,LBS are very particular about academic scores. The give too much importance to GPA. Posted from my mobile device The coronavirus pandemic has thrown open a volley of questions, including a rather important one - will it change the way we interact and socialise, for the foreseeable future? Will we, forever see another person with a suspicion of carrying a contagion? Will we ever be social animals as theorized by Aristotle? All of these are looming questions that the lockdown lifestyle has posed for us all. The world over, healthcare professionals are putting their lives in the line to save those suffering from the terrifying disease. How long will they, and others like them who deal in essentials, have to be on high alert and do their jobs while considering the possibility of their life being in danger? In the strange new world of the COVID-19 crisis, everything is unbelievable and overwhelming - almost like a dream or an apocalyptic movie. Life has come to screeching halt in literally every corner of the world. From the summer Olympics in Tokyo, major trade conventions, to big-budget film shootings, you name it and everything has been put to a complete stop. While its still too early to assess the impact it will have on the global economy in the long run, one thing is for sure - it will gravely alter the way in which we consume, learn, work, and how we socialize and communicate. Here are some of the major points to consider when we think about life after the coronavirus lockdown in India: 1. The world of touchless greetings Twitter The first casualty in the war against the spread of the virus was the handshake, the convention both in the east and the west. But theres one thing that stood the out, the Indian Namaste, the time-honoured ancient convention of greeting, which is being considered the best way to greet someone amid the pandemic. Since the handshake posed such a grave threat to ones life, there is a huge possibility for this socially-accepted habit fades into oblivion. To be honest, even after the lockdown ends and the number of cases (hopefully) plunge, the paranoia attached to the virus is going to linger on for a while. 2. Changing education Twitter In a matter of weeks, coronavirus (COVID-19) changed how students were being educated around the world. Online classes on apps like Zoom became a go-to for many. Educators around the world have taken swift and decisive actions to mitigate the problem of schooling. In India too, many schools are using the same approach; however, things are slightly different in terms of access to broadband connections and laptops. In our country the online schooling culture has brought about a sense of social equity, wherein children in urban areas are already catching up with their daily lessons, while those who are lesser privileged are lagging behind. Perhaps, necessity will push administration and leaders to take steps to alleviate this gap so that education is equally accessible to all students, even in difficult times like this. 3. Spitting in public TOI Theres a possibility that the coronavirus fear could forever end the spitting festival in India. For years now, weve seen government buildings, railway stations, public toilets and roads without pan stains and the like. Its something Indians just didnt seem to care. Take for instance South Korea and Singapore, they successfully mitigated the spitting problem by imposing a hefty fine and banned it by law. But none of it seemed to work in India - time and again, fines have been imposed posters have been put up to no avail. Perhaps the mask-wearing habit might stop the babus from spitting, and the general sense of hygiene sparked by the pandemic might finally kill this age-old gross habit. 4. Washing hands Reuters This is another lesson that the pandemic has taught us all - it has laid extreme importance on personal hygiene. Never, in our wildest dreams would we have imagined that in 2020, the theme of some of the most viral songs or favourite PSAs would be something as simple as the right way to wash hands. Heck! People were even drawing inspiration from an orangutans hand wash technique. This emphasis on personal hygiene is going to stick on for a long time to come. 5. Racism with regard to people from the northeast PTI A pandemic has always had a tendency to inflame xenophobia and racial scapegoating. During the 1853 yellow-fever epidemic in the United States, European immigrants, were the primary targets of stigmatization. When the Ebola outbreak emerged in 2014, Africans were targeted. During the SARS outbreak, which originated in China, much like the current Coronavirus outbreak, Asians have been at the receiving end of xenophobia and hate crime. In India, people from the Northeast are increasingly facing racism and discrimination in the rest of the country since the outbreak of the coronavirus. According to the Deccan Herald report, a research paper named 'Coronavirus Pandemic: Indias Mongoloid Looking People Face Upsurge Of Racism' cited at least 22 cases of racial discrimination or hate crimes. The incidents had taken place across the length and breadth of the country in places such as Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, West Bengal and Maharashtra, showing that prejudice, acts of racism and racial discrimination are not confined to particular places. 6. The way lockdown improved air quality PTI As humans retreated into their homes as more and more countries go under coronavirus lockdown, wild animals are slipping cover to explore the empty streets, and pollution levels hit a new low in years, in many cities. From Malabar civets to Indian bison, videos of a lot of animals roaming around, have gone viral. This just shows the amount of disruption we as a species have caused in nature. Life beforelockdown gave offered no space for nature to breath and this is something that will put a whole lot of things into perspective for human beings across the world. 7. Sense of gratitude and appreciation The coronavirus pandemic has shown what it means to be unprepared for such a large scale disaster. Movies and video games might have given us an exaggerated sense of a post-apocalyptic world, but none of them made us think that this could be a real-world situation, a scenario in which the dynamics are entirely different. The coronavirus pandemic is one such instance of not taking things seriously; measures were so inadequate in the initial stages of the outbreak that it led on to becoming one of the worst pandemics humanity has ever faced. Perhaps, these will serve as a lesson to our future generations - to be prepared and more importantly appreciative of the present and compassionate towards one another. Hyderabad: Forty-three COVID-19 cases were reported in Telangana on Saturday, taking the total number of active cases in the state to 228, the government said. No death occurred on Saturday and the number of people who died due to the virus continued to remain at 11, according to a media bulletin issued by the state government. One person was discharged from hospital on Saturday. With this, the number of people discharged after recovery (cumulatively) rose to 33, it said. Stating that there was no community transmission of COVID-19 in Telangana, health minister E Rajender said in a release that all the positive cases being reported were either those who returned after participating in the Delhi religious congregation or those who mingled with them. He said 1,090 people have returned to the state after participating in the Delhi religious congregation and that tests are being conducted for all of them. He said doctors have also been appointed at all quarantine centres, as well as nurses and paramedical personnel. N-95 masks and PPE kits are adequately available in all centres, Rajender said. The government is geared up to provide treatment to any number of positive cases, he said. He said five lakh N-95 masks, five lakh PPE kits, five lakh viral transmission kits, 500 ventilators, four lakh coronavirus testing kits, 20 lakh surgical masks and 25 lakh hand gloves have been purchased. Press Release April 5, 2020 Villanueva: MSME, big employment generator, needs lifeline to weather COVID-19 crisis For the upcoming Report to Congress on the Bayanihan law, Senator Joel Villanueva is hoping to see the implementation of the economic assistance the government committed to provide micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), one of the badly-suffering sectors facing the brunt of the crisis brought about by COVID-19. In a statement, Villanueva expressed concern on the ability of the sector to maintain jobs during this pandemic. "Just as we immediately implemented emergency employment programs for our affected workers both in the formal and informal economy, we should likewise act with dispatch to provide relief to MSMEs. We must throw them a lifeline immediately, so they in turn can sustain their workers too. The assistance that we will provide to them should be conditional on them keeping their workers now and until the economy recovers,"explained Villanueva, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment, and Human Resource Development. "Matinding hamon ang hinaharap ng ating mga MSME. Kabuhayan ng milyung-milyong manggagawa ang nakataya kung hindi agad makakarating ang tulong ng pamahalaan sa mga MSME," he added. MSMEs employed some 5.7 million workers in 2018, according to data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), representing about 13 percent of the total number of employed workers. Industries severely affected by the community quarantine enforced in Luzon and other local governments are in the wholesale and retail trade, and food and accommodation sectors which comprise at least 50 percent of the employment generated by MSMEs, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed. The Bayanihan Law of 2020, which Congress passed two weeks ago, mandated the DTI to provide relief for "productive sectors of the economy." The agency is preparing for the implementation of its Pondo Sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) Enterprise Rehabilitation Financing worth P1 billion, which is expected to roll out once the quarantine restrictions are lifted. The trade department has issued a moratorium on payment of loans of about 127,000 micro enterprises under the P3 program, as well as 15,000 MSME who have existing loans under the government-owned Small Business Corp. Other government lending institutions have existing loan programs such as the Development Bank of the Philippines' Small Business Puhunan Loan Program and Rehabilitation Support Program. Land Bank of the Philippines offers loans under its Calamity Rehabilitation Support Program. MSMEs can also seek assistance from the Department of Science and Technology through its Small and Medium Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program. The familiar sight of weekend shoppers brushing shoulders at farmers markets across the U.S. is under threat from the coronavirus and fears of its spread. Farmers markets face obstacles as people are warned against gathering in groups and told to practice social distancing. Such uncertainty is likely to hurt so-called beginning farmers typically smaller-scale, start-up operations. As an expert in diversified farming systems, I can see vulnerable farmers closing down as a result of this crisis, and this could have a knock-on effect on the long-term food supply chain. Vibrant community Nearly 30% of U.S. farms are run by farmers who have been in the business for fewer than 10 years. In comparison to the general farming population, beginning farmers are more likely to be women, people of color and military veterans. They also have an average age of 46 more than 10 years lower than the general farmer populations average age of 57.5. Beginning farmers form a vibrant and diverse part of the U.S. farming community. However, they are also among the most economically vulnerable of farmers. Since they are just starting out, they are often still formulating business plans, balancing farm finances, creating new marketing opportunities and establishing their farms viability. They are also less likely to farm commodity products crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat. Instead, they tend to focus on diversified fruits and vegetable crops, such as heirloom tomatoes, green beans and blueberries, depending upon the climate and soil conditions. Farm to table Beginner farmers also tend to find it harder to access capital investments or federal loan opportunities that would provide support during inclement weather or a pandemic lockdown. Clearly this makes the more than 900,000 beginning farmers in the U.S. at risk from potential closures of farmers markets and farm-to-table restaurants due to coronavirus restrictions. Beginning farmers typically farm on small acres of land, with a diverse array of crops, and sell to nontraditional supply chains, instead of large grocery stores. Many small-scale beginning farmers have found success in the past decade due to the publics increased interest in consuming local food. That has made farmers markets and community-supported agriculture important supply outlets. The value of sales of local food and products direct to consumers has more than doubled between 2012 and 2017. These niche markets have increased engagement between farmers and consumers. The supply chain is based on local farmers modifying what they farm based on local consumer needs. This increased interaction has benefited both parties, but it has also left the system vulnerable to the realities of dealing with the current pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic puts these smaller businesses at great risk amid uncertainty about whether farmers markets will remain open. The added challenge for farmers also pertains to their business model. Farms incur nearly all of their costs at the beginning of the growing season when farmers are purchasing seeds, growing seedlings and preparing the land. Without a market in place for these farmers, they will be more at risk of losing their business. It is also much harder for small-scale farmers to get contracts to sell into large grocery stores, so they will be disproportionately affected by any lengthy shutdown of restaurants or farmers markets. Growing hope A hopeful sign is that some places, such as California, have deemed farmers markets essential places where people can go to purchase food. Farmers markets can be safe places for people to go to pick up local products at a minimum risk if protocols are put in place to increase social distance and reduced handling of products, such as ordering online and then prepackaging the products into one box or bag per customer. Most small-scale beginning farmers will have few options for marketing without the direct sales of their products to consumers. Without them, farming businesses will decrease, impacting the capability of growers in the U.S. of providing enough food, fiber, and flowers in the future. There are some glimmers of hope for beginning farmers. By their very nature, they may have had to be creative in identifying new opportunities and innovative in their marketing approach qualities that might make them innately prepared to adapt to the new conditions, such as moving their business model to online sales. What they need now is for society to ensure that some type of supply chain is in place for them to be able to capture the current demand. Tamara J. Benjamin is assistant program leader at Diversified Farming and Food Systems at Purdue University. She wrote this for theconversation.com Global epidemic caused by the coronavirus will inform major changes in international relations, and even internal political relations in majority of countries in the world. Some analysts have started to speak about recession and collapse of economies of numerous countries and organizations, such as the European Union (EU), Organization of Economic Cooperation and development (OECD), Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), etc., and the significant rise of China and, to a smaller extent, some other countries as well. All of a sudden political event disappeared from the media titles and primetime news. Political analysts and analyses have become second to mass appearances of doctors and medical experts in the print and electronic media. Naturally, this is understandable if we take into account the information that so far 1.5 billion or one fifth of the global population has been in self-isolation. Furthermore, for the first time we see groundbreaking changes in the medical industry. End of print media and introduction of talk shows from home? Everything changes at the time of the Covid-19 virus, even the media, the method of reporting and editing. In their programs, TV anchors no longer have guests in their studios, because their guests actively participate in the program via Skype. The guests are not willing to leave their home or city to go to a TV studio. This is the model that has utilized by some global programs, such as Clever media, which is on the Top 10 list of the Youtube platform with several billion viewers and has been ahead of traditional media since 2007. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, has millions of viewers around the world. As of last week, Noah does not go to the studio as his talk-show is now produced from his home. This is another form of work-from-home, that is from a sofa, which is also known as sofa talk shows. Social networks and blogs have devastated the print media in the past decade, and at the time of Covid-19 publishing many print media outlets have suspended publishing of the print editions and converted to electronic and PDF formats. Bearing in mind the fact that the coronavirus can survive 24 hours on paper, the people avoid buying newspapers. Furthermore, at the time of (self)quarantine and police curfew it is not possible to physically distribute the newspapers to their retailers. Regardless of the prevailing opinion in this phase, one should not prejudge or dramatize the situation or make any foregone conclusions. However, in the past decade, the media world has experienced major changes and a shift to electronic media, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Post-corona phase to bring changes in the field of media In the midst of the virus crisis, specific media started to deal with intelligence issues. Namely, their analysts no longer deal with classic reports and analyses of the situation at the political, social and economic level. A part of the media has engaged in a media-propaganda warfare against specific persons/organizations/states by publicizing misinformation about the coronavirus and in such a way causing general panic among the population of the respective country. Therefore, such analyses do not have much to do with the epidemic or medicine, but are a typical case of intelligence work and war. Some were perplexed by the emergence of selective information in the media, which indicated that some intelligence services had crossed the line of the crisis of global epidemic. As the public perception is that there are major differences and incongruities between the intelligence activities, medical profession and epidemiology, the question is raised about the interest of intelligence services at the time of a global epidemic? How to use information obtained on epidemic in the political spectrum and international relations? Changes in intelligence operations The possible change in intelligence operations at the time of epidemic, which has gripped the world, could have been expected because intelligence services deal with collection, classification and analysis of data related to others (subjects) in the area of security, politics, science, economy, etc. Information obtained with respect to these aspects can be used for definition of guidelines for foreign, security, defense, economic, development and other policies, which are of relevance for national security of any country. In normal circumstances, security-intelligence services can launch operations aimed to track epidemics or contagious diseases in the region and wider international area, in order to provide necessary protection to its citizens/states. Namely, they would monitor the effects it has on the states affected by the epidemics at the political, economic and security level, as well as with respect to available resources, in order to prevent, that is eliminate, the threat to health. Intelligence services implement such activities in accordance with instructions received from the political level and with the aim of identification of the scope of economic damage that the respective country has sustained. The consequences of the epidemic on the economy, budget, standard of living of citizens, positioning in regional and international relations, as well as the assessment of the level of success or failure in the fight against the epidemic are also analyzed. As the epidemic reflects on the political power of a state and the number of people who died or were infected, the data is also used to analyze and make projections of future demographic development of the respective country. All this information is obtained from the intelligence apparatus and used for development of an elaborate data base with facts on the basis of which politicians formulate their strategies of relations towards various countries that are affected by the epidemic. However, such information can also be (ab)used for various forms of pressures, such as political and economic, as well as putting military pressure on a specific country. Withholding of information by states Bearing in mind the importance that such intelligence activities have for national security, specific countries are well prepared for them and are strive to establish a blockade of information in an attempt to cover up the epidemic, hoping that they will manage to stop or restrain its proliferation. If the epidemic escapes control, the state applies methods for reducing that is underreporting the number of infected persons and casualties in official statements/records. The most prominent examples of such a conduct include the approach taken by Iranian authorities at the beginning of the proliferation of the current epidemic. The authorities provided to the World Health Organization (WHO) their data on the epidemic, which presented only 20% of the true number of the infected and casualties. Namely, due to their military and political conflict with Washington, the Iranian authorities withheld information because they wanted to conceal the true figures on their casualties and treated such information as a top secret. Namely, they hoped that in such a way they would not give an additional opportunity to their adversary to use the consequences of the epidemic against Iran by calling on the Iranian people to rise against the Iranian authorities because of their inability to address the epidemic. Another reason behind such an approach is that the Iranian authorities do not want to seek assistance from the international community because they are afraid that in such a way American and western intelligence services would get an opportunity to infiltrate and enter the state as medical and humanitarian workers or members of organizations, which would undermine their national security. The same scenario took place in China in 2002, after the emergence of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which affected the city of Foshan in November 2002. That was the first global epidemic in the third millennium. Authorities in Beijing withheld the truth and treated the data on the epidemic as a top secret. However, the German intelligence service (BND) had its secret sources of information within China and was able to develop a plan for monitoring the epidemic by spying on important telephone communications and verification of information obtained from multiple sources within China. This was a major success of the German intelligence service, which developed an important data base on the epidemic and its nature, as well as the scope of human and economic losses sustained by China. Furthermore, it also exposed the strategy of China to cover-up the epidemic. At the same time, the data was also very important for establishment of efficient measures in the fight against the epidemic, and delaying/preventing its arrival to Germany. Maybe such intelligence activities, in combination with the early alarming and preparations for arrival of the coronavirus, were crucial for Germany, which currently ranks fourth in the world in terms of the number of infected persons according to the classification of the World Health Organization, and its number of lethal casualties is still relatively low in comparison to other European countries. Attention of intelligence agencies focused on China and Iran Currently, the leading intelligence agencies are speedily allocating their human and technological resources with the aim of exposing what is happening in China at the time of the current epidemic. The Central Investigating Agency (CIA) has started to collect real data on the epidemic in this country and the ways in which this country has addressed the epidemic and constrained its proliferation, to such an extent that even the US satellites are set to monitor the developments on the ground. The experts have indicated that significant funds had been appropriated to US intelligence services for the purposes of collection of information on the new coronavirus. This means that the search for and analysis of relevant information is not limited only to monitoring of official reports, media or social networks, but that all other intelligence resources such as satellites, agents and informants, as well as communication surveillance, is also being used. As agents are obligated to abide by professional secrecy, there is no doubt that the US will increasingly employ its intelligence agencies, particularly in China and Iran, in relation to the effects of Covid-19 in these countries. It is interesting that these operations are in no way within the purview of the CIA. The US is one of the few countries that has a medical/health intelligence agency -which is known as the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) and is a component of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The main purpose of these intelligence operations is not preservation of human lives, but assessment of the scope of damage inflicted on the Chinese economy, which has become a threat to the economies of western countries. A summary of medical treatment measures used by China provides an important base of information on the scientific situation in the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry, as well as the level of development that this country has achieved. Intelligence services will try to steal chemical formulas of the vaccines and therapies before they get registered or to lure pharmaceutical companies involved in the production of new medicaments to move from their home country to their respective country in exchange for exorbitant financial amounts, so that they can have a monopoly over production and trade of such medicaments and used it for economic and political purposes. In this context, we witness a spat between the United States and Germany, when the US tried to lure the Germany-based CureVac Company, which is conducting advanced research in the area of development of a vaccine against the coronavirus, to move to the US, where it has a branch in Boston, and to manufacture the vaccine exclusively for the US. They extended an invitation to CureVac Chief Executive Officer Daniel Menichella to visit the US and meet with US Vice President Mike Pence at the White House, after what additional pressure would be put on him. As a result, the Steering Board of the company immediately removed Daniel Menichella from the position of the first man of the company. While espionage operations and intelligence services cannot cure coronavirus or stop its proliferation, they can provide more detailed information/data to the makers of political decisions and help them make timely and educated decisions that can prevent repetition of the Italian example regarding the coronavirus. By conducting thoroughly planned steps, a state avoids or reduces the collapse in the healthcare system and the anxiety among the population, as well as makes assessments and establishes political and economic consequences. All this is also related to the misinformation campaigns and strong mutual accusations for the global epidemic, which are currently being made between the US and China. At the time of the coronavirus crisis, the intelligence services do their usual job, i.e. obtain information to which others do not have access. This is particularly related to countries such as China and Iran, whose official data/records nobody trusts. The closing of borders, the lockdowns, the police curfew and quarantines that are currently in force in Europe and America, prompted closing down of well-established official channels of exchange of information/data and communication. Under such circumstances, only intelligence services can function well. Over the previous days, we witnessed a collapse of global financial markets, drops in the prices of oil resulting from the oil-war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the non-functionality of the bureaucratic system of the European Union to the extent that each country heals its own wounds without solidarity within the EU. All these are serious threats that have emerged because of the epidemic, which is why intelligence services are very actively covering the epidemic, which has become a threat to national security of majority of the countries in the world, but also to the mankind. Analysts warn about the changes in a catalogue of areas and emphasize that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the level of revenues to the churches and religious communities, whose revenues according to the current assessments will drop to 15-20% of those that they have had so far, will seriously jeopardize the functioning of churches and religious communities, which in the long run could bring about development of ecumenism, as the people will have to jointly seek solutions to their existential problems. Infection of security-intelligence system the ANB case In the functioning of secret services there is a practice of use of intelligence in the form of a virus aimed to infect security-intelligence system so that they serve the interests of those who had produced the intelligence virus. In the Balkan region, infection of the intelligence system can be best illustrated using the example of the Agency for National Security (ANB) of Montenegro, which has been intensively working on infecting the security-intelligence system of NATO. The ANB intensified its respective activities with the beginning of organization of mass litanies and prayers by the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serb Orthodox Church (SPC) in response to the adoption of the Law on freedom of religion or beliefs and legal status of religious communities in Montenegro on 27 December 2019. In January 2020, the ANB started to intensively create and send untrustworthy and often false information/data on individuals and organizations that undermine and work against the state and statehood of Montenegro and the NATO organization. Experts believe these sheer imputations and untruths are forwarded to NATO security/intelligence system, but also partner security-intelligence agencies, with the intent to inflict damage on specific individuals and organizations, as well as protect the regime of the Montenegrin President Milo ukanovic (DPS). For those knowledgeable about the situation in Montenegro, it is clear that these are sheer lies and imputations fabricated by the ANB, because Milo ukanovics regime is well aware that all these mass gatherings and the alleged undermining of the state of Montenegro and NATO would stop with the withdrawal of the disputed Law on freedom of religion, which ukanovic is now abusing for his parochial interest to remain in power. Therefore, NATO will have to pay bigger attention to verification and classification of all intelligence coming from Montenegro and warn the regime not to abuse its membership in NATO, because nobody is attacking or threatening Montenegro and NATO. Milo ukanovics regime, which has been in power for 31 years already, is scared by the protests of citizens at which 1/3 of all citizens from various ethnic communities gather. Furthermore, certain security-intelligence agencies from the region and some of their members are involved in Milo ukanovics corruptive-criminal network and unlawfully work in ukanovics interest. This calls for a stronger oversight over their work and their sanctioning in respective home countries. At the beginning of the pandemic crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus, Montenegro withheld information on the number of the sick/infected in the country. For a period of time Montenegro presented itself as one of the few countries with no Covid-19 cases, which did not actually reflect the real situation in the country. Later it transpired that according to official data Montenegro has the same number of cases as Kosovo (around 150), which has almost four times bigger population and a much more numerous diaspora, a significant part of which lives in Italy. In order to create a false impression that it had not been affected by the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus, Montenegro even engineered fake counterintelligence that the Republic of Serbia had misappropriated/confiscated three Montenegrin respirators. The aim was to once again divert the attention away from the pandemic and the consequences caused by the Covid-19 virus, because it has transpired that the healthcare system in Montenegro is not ready to face the Covid-19 pandemic and is trying to use it for political purposes. Analysts believe that it is necessary to assist Montenegro in facing the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus, because its inappropriate response to the high intensity of the pandemic can cause a large number of human casualties. However, the strongest virus with which Montenegro has been infected for three decades already is the crime and corruption virus, which has penetrated and infected all the segments of the society, and its carrier is the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and its leader Milo ukanovic. There are many other examples of similar intelligence activities by the ANB, such as the subversive activities of Montenegro related to the initiative for establishment of the so-called Mini-Schengen, aimed against Serbia and its President Aleksandar Vucic (SNS), as well as an example from a couple of days ago when the regime of Montenegrin President Milo ukanovic and the regime of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (PS), in conjunction with Kosovo President Hashim Thaci (PDK), participated in the toppling down of the Government of Kosovo headed by Prime Minister Albin Kurti (LVV). Furthermore, ukanovics regime has also started to publicize the names of persons who are at risk for contracting the Covid-19 virus, which not only stigmatizes and criminalizes the people in (self) quarantine but also constitutes a violation of their basic rights guaranteed by the constitution. Analysts believe that the Agency for National Security (ANB) of Montenegro is a typical example of what a modern security-intelligence agency should not be like. In fact, ANB is the buttress of the DPS multi-decade regime and politico-criminal structures. It is also a seminary and hotbed of loyal personnel that will ensure preservation of ukanovics regime. A testimony of that is the fact that the current President of the Government of Montenegro Dusko Markovic (DPS) is a former director of the Agency for National Security (ANB). Furthermore, it is a matter of concern that the ANB continuously creates and inserts into the security-intelligence system of NATO fabricated information about the alleged threats, while institutions of the state of Montenegro conduct diplomatic-intelligence activities against specific individuals and organizations. The key goal of such ANB activities is to ensure survival of Milo ukanovics regime in power. ukanovic still cultivates good relations with Russia, regardless of the publicly made verbal accusations against Russia. Analysts believe that if Milo ukanovic is a symbol of NATO values in the region, then the results of the published polls conducted in the West Balkan countries, which show that the trust in and the image of NATO are undoubtedly constantly declining, should be of no surprise and NATO should express concern over this issue. Analysts also believe that the severity of the epidemic situation in Montenegro is also confirmed by the official data. Specifically, on 26 March 2020, Montenegro officially approached NATO/EADRCC with a request for international assistance (Montenegro requests international assistance in their response to COVID-19) in which it requested, inter alia, a mobile hospital with 1.000 beds, 5,688,353 surgical masks, etc. (Links: Montenegro requests international assistance in their response to COVID-19 https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_174576.htm , https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/3/pdf/200327-eadrcc-montenegro-covid19-request.pdf and https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/3/pdf/200326-eadrcc-montenegro-covid19-request.pdf . Experts reminded that the St George's Hospital in London, which was founded in 1733 and is the largest hospital in Great Britain has around 1,300 beds, while the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine with 565 beds has daily fluctuation of 8,000 patients and is the second largest hospital in China, and sixth largest hospital in the world. In the region, the largest hospital is the Clinic Center of Serbia in Belgrade, which, size-wise, is among the 10 largest hospitals in the world. Analysts believe that the key focus for all security-intelligence agencies in this period is to search for, verify and/or protect information not just on activities related to discovery of a vaccine, but also on how the Covid-19 virus was created and how will it evolve in the future. Specifically, to clarify various qualifications and whether the virus is artificially produced or has a natural origin. Ljubljana, 2 April 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reached out to top leaders from across the political spectrum, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, to discuss the situation arising out of the spread of coronavirus. He also spoke with former presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, and former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda, sources said. The discussions with the top leaders were part of consultations the prime minister is holding with various stakeholders on the way ahead, they said. He also called up leaders of various political parties, including Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Odisha CM and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, Telangana chief minister and TRS leader K Chandrashekhar Rao, DMK leader M K Stalin and SAD leader Parkash Singh Badal. Amid a countrywide lockdown due to COVID-19, Prime Minister Modi will interact with floor leaders of various political parties via a video link on April 8. The Trinamool Congress has said it will not attend the virtual meet. The prime minister has interacted with chief ministers, top bureaucrats, doctors, paramedics, nurses, Indian diplomats and journalists on the issue of dealing with the health crisis of this magnitude. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Italy has engaged in a war of words with Russia over allegations Moscow hid spies among doctors it had sent to the country's coronavirus epicentre near Milan. The team is part of a large-scale Russian operation to assist Italy in its fight against Covid-19. EU critics say Moscow has a hidden agenda. Russia strongly denies the charges. Planeloads filled with Russian aid arrived last week in northern Italy - the area that the virus hit hardest in the world - to help fighting the country's Covid-19 crisis. According to the website of the Kremlin, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti requested Russias help during a telephone conversation on March 21st with Russian president Vladimir Putin. According to the Russian embassy in London, the Russian defence ministry delivered 15 planeloads to Italy with 60 tons of cargo each, 122 experts, including 66 servicemen "of the radiological, chemical and biological defence troops," eight teams of doctors, and one full laboratory. But some observers in Italy are skeptical. Probably the assistance is useful to some extent, says Sergio Germani, director of the Gino Germani Institute for Social Sciences and Strategic Studies (GGISS), a Rome-based think tank. Intelligence activities But there are (a lot) of Russian military officers. The concern is that they would include Russian military intelligence representatives that could take advantage of this opportunity to undertake intelligence activities. Its also a propaganda operation that is aimed at Italian public opinion and reinforces the idea that Italy did not get any help from the EU or from Nato allies and that only countries like China and Russia are really helping, he says. After the arrival of the Russian military in Italy, Italy's La Stampa newspaper on April 2 quoted former Nato chemical weapons expert Hamish De Bretton-Gordon, saying that "without a doubt, there are GRU officers among them". The objective of Moscow, and possibly of the Chinese is the weakening, and possibly the collapse, of the European Union, says Germani, whose institute, the GGISS, studies the influence of Russian propaganda and pro-Moscow media on the internet. Story continues 'Kill elderly Italians' The Russian aid operation, he says, went accompanied by a surge of pro-Russian articles, videos and tweets. According to EU vs Disinfo, a European Commission watchdog against fake news, pro-Kremlin media outlets like Sputnik news agency and internet troll-factories are responsible for spreading unsubstantiated rumors. In an article dated March 31st, the Latvian version of Sputnik published a story suggesting that the coronavirus was created in EU-member state Latvia designed to kill elderly Italians. These are the messages they are pushing, says Germani - that the EU is incapable, that it is crumbling and that the EU does not exist anymore, They are messages that discredit liberal democracy as a form of government that is incapable of dealing with this kind of crisis, he says. Russia was quick to hit back at the criticism. Attacking the British press, that also reported on the article in La Stampa, the Russian embassy in London deplored that journalists are seeking to find discrepancies and a hidden agenda in Russian humanitarian assistance rendered to ... Italy in order to help them combat the coronavirus pandemic, stressing that this help is free of charge and humanitarian by nature. It is a sign of our solidarity with the Italian people, not linked to any political agenda. Europe steps up coordination On March 31st, EU leaders announced a concerted Roadmap" and an "Action Plan" to deal with the crisis. "The only way forward is a common strategy in a spirit of solidarity," said EU Council President Charles Michel. The EU is beginning to respond positively to this major challenge," says Germani. "They are moving in the right direction, because they are now aware of the fact that the Kremlin is trying to exploit the emergency," he says. Officials in Greece on Sunday placed a second migrant camp near Athens under lockdown after an Afghan resident tested positive for the coronavirus, the migration ministry said. Officials said the camp in Malakasa, some 38 kilometres (24 miles) northeast of Athens, had been placed under "full sanitary lockdown" for 14 days, with no one allowed to enter or leave. The ministry said the 53-year-old Afghan man, who has a prior ailment, had personally sought help with virus symptoms at the in-camp medical facility. He was subsequently taken to an Athens hospital where he tested positive, and his family was quarantined. A full screening of the camp is in process, the ministry said. Among Greek migrant camps, where tens of thousands of asylum-seekers live in dire conditions, there is already an outbreak at a facility in Ritsona near Athens where 23 people have so far tested positive. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons were arrested in Kashmir for allegedly circulating fake on social media aimed at creating law and order disturbance, police said on Sunday. The Cyber Police Station here received information through reliable sources that some miscreants with criminal intention and to create panic among public have circulated fake information and videos having bearing on law and order on social media platforms, a police spokesman said. He said it was also learnt that the miscreants were circulating photographs of militants of proscribed militant organizations on the social media and networking sites in order to provoke the masses and cause disaffection against the country. The said actions have been undertaken by these miscreants in order to mislead the public in general and the youth in particular, the spokesman said. He said a case was registered in the Cyber Police Station, Kashmir Zone, Srinagar, and investigation set into motion. "Two miscreants have been arrested in the case," the spokesman said, adding their names have been withheld. The spokesman appealed to the general public not to circulate unauthentic and fake information through the social media platforms and warned of strict action under law if any person was found indulging in such activities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Though Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry have officially left the inner circle of the British royal family, things arent exactly going to plan for the Sussexes. Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the pair fled Vancouver Island in Canada for their new home in Los Angeles, California. They are currently self-quarantining and social distancing in a compound close to Hollywood. The pair had been working on their exit strategy for months, since announcing Megxit at the top of January 2020, the pandemic sweeping the globe has shifted everything for the Sussexes. Though there have been rumors about what the pair will do next. All of that has been put on hold. Now that the pair have hired a US PR firm to represent them, theyve decided that it would be in better taste to announce their next steps in the summer or fall. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have to work a ton to support their lifestyle The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are used to a lavish lifestyle with armed guards, extensive wardrobes, and healthy living. Though they are worth $30 million together, its going to cost a lot more than that to purchase the $18 million Malibu mansion that they reportedly have their eye on. The Obamas are a great model for how to make money and keep it classy. They could find projects that are moving and sometimes Meghan could be in them, said veteran Hollywood public relations strategist Howard Bragman. Though the pair hope to be completely financially independent in the near future, for now, they are relying on Prince Charles. Prince Charles will still continue to offer private financial support to Meghan, Harry, and Archie, BAZAAR.coms Royal Editor At Large, Omid Scobie, reported on Twitter. Inside Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys plans for the future Following their last day as working royals, many people hoped the Sussexes would make a massive announcement about this new phase in their lives. There have been rumors about the duchess relaunching her lifestyle brand, The Tig, a possible cookbook, and other collabs. Instead, the public got a fairly generic comment on the Sussexes next steps. 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 organization, the couples team said in Mondays statement. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will announce their rebrand in the summer of fall All of the Sussexes plans are being put on hold amid the coronavirus crisis, but that doesnt mean they will be gone forever. Meghan and Harry are trying to rebrand themselves and want to make a big media splash but are stymied by the coronavirus situation, the source said. They are losing out on potential paid opportunities by having to keep a low profile. Though the pair are being low-key now, the Sussexes will return in a big way. They did the move to L.A. to be closer to the deal makers and are setting up calls and virtual meetings with agents, studio heads, the source explained. Meghan and Harry are plotting for a summer or fall splash. There was a piece in the main section of the Sunday Independent recently by the legendary Tom McCaughren, author of many successful children's books and former RTE News correspondent. He finds himself here in 50 Ways due to his recollection of the drinking habits of the former president of Ireland, Sean T O'Kelly. McCaughren recalled a press conference called by the then president in Aras an Uachtarain: "It was well known that he was fond of a drop of whiskey, something she [his wife Phyllis] was said to disapprove of. It was also said that he kept draught barrels of Guinness on tap in the Aras. Whether or not that is true, de Valera is reported to have been worried about his drinking, and my visit to the Aras seems to confirm that Phyllis also disapproved of it... to our surprise, the first thing Sean T did was to ask us to help him move a large table over against the door. Then, when he was sure he wouldn't be disturbed, he took out a bottle of whiskey and asked us to join him" You gotta say that life was easier back then for the public figure with a bit of a drink problem - can we say that O'Kelly had a bit of a drink problem? Yes, we can; indeed, it was felt by some that he had a lot of a drink problem, but then the fact that one of these people was Eamon de Valera might cast a shadow of doubt on the true extent of it - Dev was a man of austere disposition, so his opinion on issues of addiction may have been somewhat unforgiving. Personally, I would call it like this: in today's culture, any public figure who would place a table up against a door to hide his drinking from his wife, an action that he was willing to perform in the presence of members of the media, would qualify easily as a functioning alcoholic. And even in the culture of yesteryear, I think it would be fair to say that O'Kelly was someone who was operating at the higher end of the drinking game. It was well known that he 'liked a drop', but that it allegedly didn't interfere with the performance of his duties... Apart, perhaps, from the time he went to visit Pope Pius XII and inadvertently revealed the Pontiff's thinking on communism when he spoke too freely of their encounter? Would that, perhaps, have been an exception to his avoidance of scandal? Yes, I do enjoy looking back at the weird acceptance of the culture of drink which prevailed in the Ireland of that time; how a man could get a reputation for drinking too much, and how he could cause friction between the Vatican and the Kremlin, but nobody wondered if perchance there might be a connection between these things? Moreover O'Kelly was a fervent Catholic, suspected of keeping the Knights of Columbanus informed of the doings of Cabinet. For many fervent Catholic alcoholics back then, it was felt that 'confessing' your sins to the priest was intrinsically better than seeking the help of foreign bodies such as Alcoholics Anonymous. But Tom McCaughren recalls another distinctive aspect of O'Kelly's public persona, the fact that the aforementioned Phyllis was much taller than he was. Perhaps we can see a kind of strategic thinking here, what a modern media manipulator would call 'distraction'. In this case, it involved the calculation that in old Ireland, a man walking around with a very tall wife would hope to divert attention from the fact that, in his own quiet way, he was drunk. Simpler times? Thinking again of that scene with the table shoved up against the door, and all the rest of it, maybe not so simple after all. She's been isolating at home ever since TOWIE filming was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic. And Amber Turner made the most of her free time as she enjoyed an energetic swim on Sunday. The TOWIE star, 26, put on a very busty display in a plunging black swimsuit as she showcased her curves on Instagram. Time to swim! Amber Turner put on a very busty display in a plunging black swimsuit as she showcased her curves on Instagram on Sunday Amber looked incredible in the mirror selfie, as she put her ample chest and slender legs on display in the chic belted one-piece. The beauty's blonde locks flowed down her back while she opted to go make-up free for her exercise session. Amber then shared a clip of herself doing laps in the pool as she enjoyed some hearty exercise at the weekend. It comes days after Amber showcased her surgically-enhanced assets in a grey plunging Calvin Klein bra in a sultry Instagram selfie. Looking good: Amber looked incredible in the mirror selfie, as she put her ample chest and slender legs on display in the chic belted one-piece as she enjoyed a swim at the weekend Amber teased a glimpse of her toned abs as she teamed the item of lingerie with a pair of matching pants. Amber styled her blonde locks into a curly blow-dried hairdo and added a slick of glamorous make-up. The reality star revealed in her caption that she did her hair and make-up to make herself 'feel better', she later shared the snap to he Stories where she added a GIF which said 'this is what social distancing looks like'. Making a splash: Amber then shared a clip of herself doing laps in the pool as she enjoyed some hearty exercise at the weekend Amber also enjoyed a workout, which she shared to her Instagram, where she displayed her toned figure in a blue crop top and matching leggings. Last month, The Only Way Is Essex filming was cancelled in Tenerife amid coronavirus fears. The ITVBe series has been following travelling advice from the government, with cast members avoiding putting themselves in danger by staying at home. A source told The Sun: 'Everyone's talking about it - the cast members who were due to go have been told it's not happening now and they're rethinking plans. Sultry: It comes days after Amber showcased her surgically-enhanced assets in a grey plunging Calvin Klein bra in a sultry Instagram selfie 'The last thing anyone would want is for them to be in danger and they're following travel advice when filming.' A TOWIE spokesperson told MailOnline: 'No decisions have been made on filming locations for the next series.' TOWIE films in a special location each year for a special abroad series, this has included the likes of Thailand and Marbella. Coronavirus was classed a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March, leading countries such as Italy, Spain and the UK to implement nationwide lockdowns. As the world battles coronavirus, interest in understanding pandemics is on an upswing. The Covid-19 disease has seen the death of thousands across nations and lakhs infected by it. It has forced, either voluntarily or involuntarily, millions of people to stay at home in order to flatten the curve. Scientists and researchers across nations are racing against time to fight a cure and a vaccine for the deadly virus. In all this, people have taken to streaming services to understand the disease better. 2011 American thriller film Contagion has been watched far more in the last two months as compared to the time it was released. Netflixs documentary Pandemic: How To Prevent An Outbreak has also seen a steep climb in viewership. There have been a number of films and a few documentaries that have dealt with such pandemics, either directly or dramatizing it with other sub plots. So heres a list of documentaries and films to binge-watch while in self-isolation. Pandemic: How To Prevent An Outbreak Pandemic How To Prevent an Outbreak is a Netflix show. This Netflix docu series takes us to the frontlines of the battle against influenza and shows us the heroes who are quietly fighting it and preparing to stop the next outbreak. It also delves into research that is being done to build a universal vaccine, movements against vaccination in the US and the outbreak of deadly Ebola virus in Africa. Influenza 1918 Between January 1918 to December 1920, the Spanish flu killed many in the US and the UK. The docu series is based on the influenza pandemic that swept across United States, United Kingdom and other nations between January 1918 to December 1920, killing an estimated 50 millions in the process. Also called the Spanish flu, the documentary brings to life a long-forgotten pandemic. Hero With A Thousand Faces Another documentary of public health workers, it pays homage to those who risk their everything to serve humanity. The Final Inch The HBO series is dedicated to India and Pakistans fight against the potentially crippling polio disease. It focuses on the vast number of public health workers who have a clear target to visit some of the poorest neighbourhoods and vaccinate every child, a tough challenge still, even after 50 years of the vaccine being developed in the United States. Other than docu series, there have been a number Hollywood thrillers that talk of pandemics as works of fiction. Contagion Steven Soderbergh film is a star-studded vehicle. The Steven Soderbergh film from 2011 is packed with stars and tells a killer virus consumes everything it touches on its way. The clock is ticking as death toll rises and a cure is nowhere in sight. The circumstances through which the virus comes in contact with humans are eerily similar to the current coronavirus pandemic. Outbreak Outbreak stars Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman in prominent roles. The 1995 film shows US Army doctors struggling to find a cure for a virus spreading throughout a California town. It comes to America via an African monkey. The film features Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman in important roles. 28 Days Later The Danny Boyle directed film is a waiting game - four weeks after an incurable virus spreads across the United Kingdom, few survivors try to find sanctuary. The film stars Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris. Theres a zombie angle to it as well. Cargo Cargo is an Australian film. Starring Martin Freeman in the lead role, the film is about a father who must find someone who is willing to protect his daughter after an epidemic spreads across Australia. I Am Legend I Am Legend stars Will Smith. The Will Smith starrer unfolds in a post apocalypse world where a plague has wiped out most of humanity and transformed the rest into monsters. In the midst of death and danger, a lone survivor in New York City must find a cure. Also read: Saif Ali Khan says mom Sharmila Tagores lockdown attitude scares him: She is suddenly saying she has had full life, no regrets Deranged The South Korean film is about a parasite that is making people of a town jump to their death into rivers. When the films hero finds that his family too is showing similar symptoms, he must race against time to find a cure. Infection In a dark and isolated hospital a doctors mistake leads to dire consequences for the patient. In no time, a strange illness starts afflicting medical staff and soon matters go out of hand. The Japanese film is outlandish with its depiction of deaths but talks of a global epidemic outbreak. Follow @htshowbiz for more Singh Deo, 67, believes he should have been chief minister when the Congress secured a massive win in the Assembly polls in December 2018. With the Lok Sabha elections impending and the Congress keen to reach out to the OBCs (other backward classes) in the state, Baghel was given the job. Some in the party say an agreement was reached that Baghel would be chief minister for two and a half years and Singh Deo ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor The first Darien resident has died of the coronavirus, according to an announcement from First Selectman Jayme Stevenson Sunday evening via Facebook live. Watch here. Stevenson said she addressed the community in person on Sunday night to share the sad news. She said she could not add any further information due to privacy. She added that it hits home for me because this individual was about my age and the age of my husband, so the virus isnt sparing anyone at this point. Currently, 100 people in Darien have been diagnosed with the coronavirus as of April 4, up 4 from Friday. The split is 50/50 between males and females. Stevenson said the most impacted have been the ages of 40 to 69. Gov. Ned Lamont announced 24 new deaths associated with coronavirus Sunday, raising the states death toll to 189 and surpassing the number killed by the worst flu season on record. The state saw 399 more people test positive for COVID-19, raising the total number of cases to 5,675 as of Sunday afternoon. Sundays death toll rises above the 2017-18 flu season, the worst on record in the state, which saw 184 flu-related deaths. On the same day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported daily deaths in his state decreased, though he tempered optimism by saying it was too early to tell if the state had reached its peak. Coronavirus in Connecticut: Live updates, hour-by-hour Coronavirus: A list of resources we compiled to help you As of Saturday, 109 additional people were hospitalized in Connecticut, bringing the total up to 1,142, according to the governors office. An additional 1,241 people have been tested for the virus, for a total of 23,270 tests. Stevenson also said that the surgeon general has suggested that everyone should wear masks outdoors, especially in areas that social distancing is more challenging like the grocery store and pharmacy. She encouraged Darien residents to make their own from a handkerchief or a cloth napkin, and asked that residents leave the medical N95 masks for medical professionals and first responders. Stevenson also said she was working on obtaining masks for everyone in town and would be sharing more information on that soon. The testing that is currently set for Mondays at Darien High School from 1 to 4 has been increased to include Friday mornings from 9 to 12, starting this Friday, April 10. Stevenson said that those who want a test do not need a doctors prescription, they can visit coronatestct.com. Stevenson continued the Facebook live by advising Darien residents to adhere to the social distancing and staying home. Read more on DarienTimes.com for the latest updates. 'Not surprisingly, the call for lighting diyas, candles and other sources of illumination to demonstrate a nation's resolve to fight coronavirus has elicited astrological, numerological and even medical explanations,' notes Amulya Ganguli. The roots of superstition lay in mankind's fear of the unknown in the pre-historic age. But, once the diyas of science began slowly to unravel the mysteries of the life around humanity, there was a gradual fading away of the belief in the occult. Even then, the conviction that science does not answer all the questions has persisted because 'there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy', as the Prince of Denmark told his friend Horatio in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. Hence, the prevalence of pseudo-sciences like astrology, numerology, et al. If these have seemingly thrived in India more than elsewhere in the world, it is because of the generally widely held belief that our ancient rishis were the repositories of all wisdom with their gift of divya-drishti or farsight. This faith in the sagacity of the gurus has received a boost in recent times from those currently in power at the Centre whose followers have insisted that Vedic India had everything ranging from computers to aeroplanes which are now considered to be the inventions of the modern age. For the intelligentsia, such ideas can seem amusing and derisory. As Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has said the expression of such views by those claiming to be scientists turned the Indian Science Congress into circuses. But it is in times such as the present when an unknown menace stalks mankind that belief in the supernatural can receive a boost. WATCH: Prime Minister Modi's 11 minute video posted on April 3, 2020. Not surprisingly, the call for lighting diyas, candles and other sources of illumination to demonstrate a nation's resolve to fight coronavirus has elicited astrological, numerological and even medical explanations. There have been references by modern-day sages to Rahu, the 'planet' which exists in astrology, but not in astronomy, and to the magic of the number 9. Lights are to be switched off at 9 pm for 9 minutes while the appeal for doing so was made at 9 am on the ninth day of the lockdown. There is even a medical explanation for the efficacy of such mumbo-jumbo by a former president of the Indian Medical Association bout how the collective consciousness of 1.3 billion people can work wonders as enunciated by Guru Vashisht of ancient times. The exhortation is reminiscent of a godman portrayed in Satyajit Ray's film Nayak, who asks an advertisement executive to spread the message of his organisation WWW (Worldwide Will Workers) which believes that nothing is impossible if all the people of the world come together to express their will power. India used to be known as the land of the rope trick and snake-charmers. Then, sundry godmen and godwomen appeared on the scene with their large retinues of followers, including politicians. It is to extricate India from them that the country's first and agnostic prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, spoke about the need for cultivating a scientific temper. But the wheels are turning in a contrary direction. Amulya Ganguli is a writer on current affairs. One person died when a fire tore through workers' tents at the construction site of a new hospital for coronavirus patients outside Moscow, officials said on Sunday. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known but it reportedly broke out in a tent containing a stove. An emergencies ministry spokesman told AFP the fire, which covered 90 square metres (970 square feet), broke out in workers' accommodation at the site. "Three tents have caught fire," the spokesman said. "Unfortunately, one person died," he said, declining to give other details. The construction site is located between the villages of Babenki and Golokhvastovo just outside Moscow. Moscow city authorities have been rushing to construct a medical facility for coronavirus patients styled on a hospital built in China in record time. More than 3,000 builders are involved in the Russian project, and some of them live on the construction site. The 500-bed hospital extending over 43 hectares (106 acres) was inspired by the "experience of Chinese partners," city officials have said. In February, China built a prefabricated hospital with 1,000 beds over 10 days in the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of its coronavirus epidemic. Russia on Sunday reported 5,389 cases of the coronavirus and 45 fatalities but the real number of infections is believed to be higher. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The self-response rate of the United States 2020 census is lower than during the same time period in 2010 in every Staten Island neighborhood, according to data from Hester Street a non-profit focused on tracking Census data. For the first time, residents can fill out the census via phone, mail or online. The U.S. Census Bureau began mailing postcards to every household in the country in March with information, including a unique Census I.D., for residents to use to fill out their census online, Julie Menin, director of the New York City Census, previously announced. However, multiple Staten Island neighborhoods are considered hard-to-count indicating that they had a low response rate to the traditional measures of the 2010 census. In hard-to-count neighborhoods, census workers would normally undertake door-knocking activities to ensure as much of the population was counted as possible. While these measures would normally be enacted, Mayor Bill de Blasio previously asked in a letter to U.S. Census Bureau Director Dr. Steven Dillingham that census activities that involve door-knocking which will involve tens of thousands of enumerators interacting with potentially millions of New Yorkers in person at their homes be postponed to summertime or later due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). A screenshot of data from April 3 by SI Counts, comparing the current response to the census to the same time period in 2010, shows neighborhoods, such as Mariners Harbor, Elm Park, West Brighton and other hard-to-count neighborhoods lagging far behind the previous census. Even neighborhoods not considered hard-to-count, such as Westerleigh and New Dorp, are also well-behind their 2010 census comparisons. As of April 4, New York is also behind the national self-response rate of 44.5%, tallying in at only 38.9%, according to Census data, underscoring the potential widespread effect of the coronavirus. April 1, otherwise known as census day, normally serves as a key reference date for the Census count and brings attention to the census and its importance. However, the aforementioned data, coupled with the limited measures census takers can now use, shows the 2020 census is likely to be greatly affected by the coronavirus. The Census Bureau has extended its postponement of field operations until at least April 15, the agency announced. While the public can respond to the 2020 census online, by mail or phone, the bureau previously said that staffing adjustments driven by guidance from federal, state and local health authorities has caused, in limited instances, an increase in call wait times, affecting different languages at different times. We are actively working to reduce these wait times as we continue to offer phone support in English and 12 additional languages. Every census response is important and the Census Bureau appreciates your patience as we respond to incoming requests, the bureau said. The deadline for the census, which was previously July 31, has been extended to Aug. 14. All households are reminded that they can respond online anytime at 2020census.gov in the following languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Polish, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese and Japanese. The Census Bureau also offers webpages and 2020 Census guides in 59 languages, including American Sign Language, in addition to guides in Braille and large print. President Donald Trump said he is deploying 1,000 medical personnel to New York City to help battle the coronavirus, USA Today reports. Personnel to be deployed will include doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists and others, Trump announced at a White House news briefing on Saturday. We've been doing it, but now we're doing it on a larger basis, Trump said. Trump did not say from which branches of the services the officials will be deployed. But he said they will be sent Sunday and Monday to New York, where theyre needed most. Trump said Defense Secretary Mark Esper would provide more details about the deployments on Sunday. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo supported calls for an extended lockdown in the Luzon region, saying that this will help "flatten the curve" for COVID-19. "Nakikita kasi natin yung projections, mas makakabuti para maflatten yung curve, kung mahabaan pa," Robredo said in her weekly radio show on Sunday. [Translation: We see in the projections, it will help flatten the curve if there will be an extension.] But for the Vice President, the lockdown will only be good if those who are severely affected, particularly the low income families, will be given immediate assistance. "Pero sana kasabay ng pag-extend yung lahat ng pagtulong lalo na sa mga maliliit. Halimbawa, yung ipapamigay sa mahihirap na tulong sana maibigay na. Kasi lalong tumatagal lalong nagiging restless yung tao," Robredo said. [Translation: I hope that together with the extension , the government will also be able to provide aid to the poor. Because the longer it takes, the more that the people will become restless.] Consider the frontliners, too She also advised that aside from the poor, frontline workers should also be given food, lodging, and transportation assistance in order for them to fully perform their duties as the country continues to grapple with the rising COVID-19 cases. "Kung hahabaan, siguraduhin na hindi lang merong pagkain ang lahat pero 'yung mga pangangailangan nung pumapasok pa din maasikaso. Halimbawa yung mga frontliners dapat siguraduhin na hindi sila naglalakad ng napakahaba para merong mapuntahan sa trabaho," Robredo said. [Translation: If they will extend, they should not just ensure that everyone has food, but the needs of those who still go to work as well. For example, they should ensure that our frontliners do not have to walk all the way to their place of work.] Meanwhile, opposition lawmaker Edcel Lagman noted that the government should also use the extension to urgently conduct mass testing not only in Luzon, but all for rest of the country. "The remaining days before the expiration of the lockdown in the National Capital Region and Luzon will not be suficient to adequately conduct mass testing even for selected cases of persons under investigation and persons under monitoring," Lagman said, noting that mass testing will help segregate persons who are infected from those who are free from infection. COVID-19 Response Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez told CNN Philippines that the remaining period is critical while the government has yet to finalize its decision. "Yes, there is a possibility that it may be extended because the threshold has not been achieved. We will consider all salient factors when deciding on extending the quarantine," he said. The Office of the Vice President has been providing free shuttle service for health workers since March 17 following the shutdown of mass transportation in Luzon, but noted that rides will still be available should the lockdown be extended. It also opened at least five dormitories in some areas of Metro Manila to accommodate medical practitioners, security guards, and other frontliners who need lodging. Robredo is also spearheading efforts to provide reusable protective equipment for health workers and frontliners nationwide. 'A time for unity' Meanwhile, the Vice President herself thanked Duterte for recognizing her COVID-19 initiatives, after an official of an anti-corruption body accused her of competing with the national government's response to the outbreak. "Mabuti naman na iyong mensahe ng ating Pangulo, yung mensahe niya magkaisa. Kasi hindi ito panahon na naghahanap pa ng diperensya. HIndi ito panahon na ang pagtingin sa pagtulong ay kompetisyon. Panahon nga ito, kailangan naeehance yung cooperation ng lahat," said Robredo, a known critic of the administration, especially of its bloody campaign against illegal drugs. [Translation: It's good to know that the President is calling for unity of all. Because this is not the time to look for differences. This is not the time to view initiatives as competition. This is, in fact, a time to enhance the cooperation of all.] President Rodrigo Duterte recently fired Presidential Anti-Corruption Commisioner Manuelito Luna for recommending an investigation of Robredo over her programs which supposedly "undermined" the administration's measures on the outbreak. The Philippines has 3,094 total COVID-19 cases to date with 144 deaths and 57 recoveries. As many as 120 foreigners have expressed their grateful thanks for Vietnamese assistance and support when they were allowed to leave for home from a concentrated quarantine camp in Ho Chi Minh City on April 4. Texting friends before leaving the camp They were among 930 people who had completed a mandatory 14-day quarantine period at Ho Chi Minh City-based National University. They had several times tested negative for the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. All of them entered Vietnam from coronavirus-hit countries such as France, the UK, Russia, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia. They were brought to the concentrated quarantine camp as soon as they landed in Vietnam more than two weeks ago, in an attempt to prevent the possible spread of the virus to the community. Living in the quarantine camp is an unforgettable experience for foreigners coming to Vietnam for the first time. It was a bit scary at first, especially for foreigners, said a female foreigner who joined her friends leaving the camp. Everything here was very strange, from the living environment to different language, but I enjoyed the life here. The government took care of everyone, they have done a great job, I am grateful. Expressing his heartfelt gratitude to the Vietnamese government for its considerable assistance, a male foreigner called on everyone to join hands to combat the disease. I would like to thank you for what you have done to minimize the impact of the disease. I enjoyed the time here, an interesting experience I have never had. Thank you very much Vietnam. Lets get rid of over the problem. After receiving the negative test results, they were all allowed to leave the camp for places of residence with assistance from the military. In the context of the complex nature of the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam, the Government has directed relevant ministries and agencies to take special care of foreigners in Vietnam to ensure they enjoy a normal, safe life, and have instant access to medical services in case of emergency. What Vietnam has done has received great international support and acclaim. VOV Nearly 600 people finish quarantine time in Hanoi 580 overseas Vietnamese students, overseas Vietnamese and workers returning to Vietnam late March completed their 14-day quarantine period at a housing area for students in Hoang Mai district, Hanoi on April 4. New Delhi: At least eight Tablighi Jamaat members were on Sunday (April 05) intercepted at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport by the immigration department when they tried to board Malindo air relief flight for Malaysia. According to ANI, the process to hand over the eight Tablighi Jamaat members, all hailing from Malaysia, to Delhi Police is currently underway. As per the rules, all the Jamaat members will go through quarantine in India. According to reports, the eight Malasyian nationals were hiding in different parts of the national capital and were caught at the IGI airport. The authorities have said that they will be handed to Delhi Police and the Health department for further investigation. The Tablighi Jamaat event, that was organised at the Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi between March 12-15, became the centre of the coronavirus spread in the country after 1,023 COVID-19 patients were found linked to the event. A day ago, on April 4, the Health Ministry said that around 30 percent of the total positive cases in India are related to the Tablighi Jamaat event. "Till now we have found cases related to Tableeghi Jamaat from 17 states, 1023 COVID-19 positive cases have been found to be linked to this event. Out of the total cases in the country, around 30 per cent are linked to one particular place," Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said during a press briefing yesterday. Since its detection in Wuhan in early December, coronavirus has already taken the lives of 100 doctors and nurses all over the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, front liners make a massive sacrifice by laying their lives on the line just to fight this dreaded virus. Overwhelming stress on medical front liners Some of these medical staff have lost their lives in service while fighting COVID-19. In most countries, the ovewhelming number of patients plus the shortage of personal protective equipment play a major factor in the death of doctors and nurses. Even first-world countries like United States, United Kingdom, France, and Spain, which boasts excellent health care system and state-of-the-art hospitals, crumbled down due to the surge of COVID-19 patients. The death toll is expected to rise in other countries which are unprepared for the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic that started in Wuhan City, Hubei province has already spread in almost all countries all over the globe. To date, COVID-19 has caused 59,140 deaths and 1,131,713 cases according to the Johns Hopkins University count. In an interview, chief executive officer of the International Council of Nurses Howard Catton said, "We have been concerned for some weeks now about how many nurses and other healthcare staff have become infected with the coronavirus. Nurses around the globe are working under extreme pressure for long hours without breaks and days off, and it is taking its toll." Places like Italy and Spain, whose infection rates amongst its healthcare providers are 9 and 14%, were raising concers. Due to these extraordinary times when they are burdened with the pressure and expectation, there have been cases when some medical staff took their own lives. According to Catton, one cause for the rate of infection is the shortage of personal protective equipment. There is a global shortage that is threatening the lives of nurses and doctors, especially since they are in direct contact with the patients which puts them in high risk. Also read: Wuhan Whistleblower Who Regrets Not Revealing Coronavirus Info Early, Disappears Death count of doctors and nurses who died in service As of April 4, here are all the doctors and nurses who lost their lives while treating COVID-19 patients. Most cases were reported in Italy, with more than 66 medical staff dead. Earlier on March, COVID-19 left thousands of casualties in Italy during its wake. In Wuhan city, where the virus originated, 13 doctors and nurses died after contracting the highly-communicable virus. In the UK, France, and Spain, there have been five reported fatalities so far. Meanwhile in the middle east, 3 medical staff have died in Iran. US, Greece, Poland, Pakistan, and Philippines also suffered their tragic losses. In the US, Dr. Frank Gabrin, 60, an emergency room doctor, died on Tuesday after catching the virus. He passed away during quarantine and he did not have a new mask due to a PPE shortage. He worked at the American College of Emergency Physicians. Original whistleblower in China perished due to COVID-19 Dr Li Wenliang , the 34-year old doctor who was the first to reveal the magnitude of COVID-19, was threatened by the Chinese government to withdrew his claims. He died of February 7 after catching the virus. His death also served as a powerful message for the people. Even before the outbreak turned into an epidemic, Dr Wenliang warned his colleagues about the virus that is taking over Wuhan. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, more efforts will be needed to ensure that our medical front liners will get all of the support they require. Related article: Two Nurses in Italy and UK, Who Fend Coronavirus Patients, Commit Suicide @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. My father asks whether you can take us to the Greek side, the eight-year-old girl said, translating from Arabic to Turkish. Her wishful smile hid her familys misery, along with that of countless others camped at Doyran in Turkey, next to the border with Greece. Next to her stood a clean-cut young man, and beside her, on the dirt, sat a tiny woman, knees curled up around her overcoat, tightly holding a toddler. She avoided eye contact. Her 11-year-old son followed the conversation in Turkish. There was a wave of excitement when Turkey announced on 28 February that its borders would be unsealed to nearly 4 million displaced Syrians and other refugees, should they wish to cross into Europe. Georgia as an example for larger countries to fight COVID-19 - GeorgianJournal remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Rallying all parties to fight the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19), PM Modi, on Sunday, called various party chiefs like Sonia Gandhi (Congress), Mulayam & Akhilesh Singh Yadav (SP), Naveen Patnaik (BJD), KCR (TRS), M K Stalin (DMK) and Parkash Singh Badal (Akali Dal). This development comes after Union Minister Prahlad Joshi informed that PM Modi will hold an all-party meeting over the novel Coronavirus outbreak on April 8 via video conferencing. The Opposition had accused the Modi government of not engaging political parties even though the PM has interacted with notable members of civil society like sportspersons and senior journalists. Sonia Gandhi criticises govt for 'unplanned' lockdown, calls for proactive steps PM dials Opposition leaders He also called up leaders of various political parties like Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekar Rao, MK Stalin and Parkash Singh Badal. #Coronavirus https://t.co/V7hL8FIh5F ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020 Congress Working Committee discusses Coronavirus situation: Read Sonia Gandhi's statement Congress slams Modi govt on COVID-19 measures While Rahul Gandhi has time and again criticised the government's 'lack of testing', Congress interim-chief Sonia Gandhi criticised the government for "unplanned" implementation of the countrywide lockdown that had caused "chaos and pain" to millions of migrant workers, in the CWC meeting on Thursday. Addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) through video conferencing, Gandhi said the country was in the midst of unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis which can be overcome only if everyone acts in solidarity. She also called upon the Centre to publish and make available details of designated hospitals, number of beds, quarantine and testing facilities, as well as information regarding the availability of medical supplies to the general public. BJP has hit out at Gandhi's criticism calling it 'petty politics'. With COVID-19 on agenda, PM Modi dials political leaders and former PMs & Presidents Coronavirus crisis in India As of date, 3374 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 266 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 690. 77 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. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'. PM Modi to hold all-party meet via video-conference on April 8 By PTI MUMBAI: Air India has asked passengers who travelled in four of its flights in March to follow necessary isolation or quarantine after three passengers on those flights tested positive for coronavirus. The flights were from Mumbai to Goa, Delhi to Goa, Mumbai to Delhi and Delhi to Patna. In an appeal to passengers who were onboard these flights, the airline said it has got the information that three passengers who travelled with the fights have been found infected with coronavirus. "As informed by Disaster Management Department of Bihar, one passenger who travelled from Mumbai to Delhi by AI-101 of March 22 and from Delhi-to Patna on AI-415 on March 23 has been found COVID-9 positive on March 31," the airline said in a tweet. #FlyAI : For Kind attention of passengers travelled by AI883(Mumbai to Goa) of 22nd March 2020. #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/l3TC0eHL9U Air India (@airindiain) April 4, 2020 As appealed by the department, passengers who were on this flight are required to follow necessary isolation/quarantine process. The national carrier also made similar appeals to the passengers of its Delhi-Goa flight, AI 883, on March 22, and Mumbai-Goa flight, AI661, on March 19. ALSO READ| Centre likely to allow flight operations in staggered manner post COVID-19 lockdown "As informed by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Directorate of Health Services, Goa, one passenger who travelled from Mumbai to Panjim in Goa on Air India flight AI 661 on March 19 has been found COVID-19 positive. As appealed by integrated disease surveillance programme, Goa, passengers for this flight are required to follow for necessary isolation quarantine," Air India said in a tweet on Saturday. In another tweet, the carrier said one passenger on its Delhi-Goa flight AI-883 of March 22 has also been tested positive for coronavirus. On Sunday, the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the country increased to 3,374 and the death toll to 77, as per Union Health Ministry data. CDC advises wearing masks as U.S. COVID-19 cases top 270,000 People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 21:25, April 04, 2020 U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that Americans wear cloth face coverings to protect against COVID-19. "The CDC is advising the use of non-medical cloth face covering as a voluntary health measure," Trump told a White House briefing. "It is voluntary. They suggested for a period of time." More than 277,000 COVID-19 cases were tallied in the United States, with a death toll exceeding 7,100, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University. Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua asymptomatic cases are not counted in COVID-19 confirmed cases in the United States since they are not diagnosed. This also makes mitigation strategies harder. "At this point, however, we do not know whether these asymptomatic patients transmit virus to a great extent. Widespread testing is the only way to deal with this issue," he said. The CDC said in a release the recommendations were based on recent studies that significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms, and that even those who eventually develop symptoms can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms. "In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission," said the release. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure, said the CDC. Trump said the CDC is not recommending the use of medical grade or surgical grade masks, noting those supplies such as the N95 respirators need to be saved for medical professionals. The president, however, said that he would not wear a mask. He stressed that Americans should still follow the administration's social distancing guidelines, which requires people to maintain at least 6-feet (1.8-meter) apart with each other. In New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak with over 57,000 cases and 1,500 plus fatalities, more people are seen wearing masks after the mayor advised New Yorkers to wear a face covering when outside and near others. "It can be a scarf, a bandana or one you make at home. But please: save medical masks for our health care workers and first responders who truly need them," said Bill de Blasio on Thursday. He said covering one's face is an added precaution to protect others in case one has contracted COVID-19 but doesn't demonstrate symptoms, which echoes the CDC's explanation. New York state had its deadliest day yet since the coronavirus outbreak, with the death toll rising from 2,373 to 2,935 in 24 hours by Friday morning, said Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press briefing. Over 102,000 cases were tallied in the state as of Friday evening local time, more than the total cases recorded in Germany. Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 have died of the coronavirus, according Johns Hopkins University's data. The Empire State is in urgent need of ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and health care workers as a surge of COVID-19 patients is expected in the coming days. Cuomo said that he would issue an executive order that allows the state to take ventilators and PPE from institutions that don't currently need them, and the National Guard will be mobilized to move the equipment to where they are needed the most. The state is trying to buy medical material and equipment from China. "We are working with Alibaba, which has been very helpful to us," said the governor. "I spoke to Jack Ma and Mike Evans, who is the president. And they have been personally gracious and very, very helpful in trying to get us to source material from China." The governor made a plea to the federal government, asking for a national effort to redeploy medical personnel and equipment from states that are currently not hit hard by the pandemic to places like New York, where a peak is coming. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly looking to purchase a mansion in Malibu now that their exit from the royal family is official. The pair recently flew to Los Angeles after spending months in Canada and it appears as though California has always been their ideal landing spot. With the Duke and Duchess of Sussex starting the next chapter in their lives, here is why one royal expert believes they picked Malibu. Prince Harry whispers to Meghan Markle | Ben Birchall WPA Pool / Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle move to Malibu After spending months in a rental home on Vancouver Island, Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, recently moved to LA to set up a second home base. As part of their exit plan, the Sussexes are going to split their time between North America and the UK. Prince Harry and Meghan have not commented on their housing plans, but sources claim that they are now staying in a Malibu mansion worth $20 million. Meghan Markle and her husband Harry officially stop being active members of the royal family today. They stepped back after media harassment and want a "progressive" new role: "The work continues. Please take good care of yourselves, and of one another." pic.twitter.com/mOgnkl2A5G AJ+ (@ajplus) March 31, 2020 According to Express, royal expert Charlie Lankston revealed that the couple picked Malibu because they did not want to be in the center of Los Angeles. Instead, they wanted to have access to everything in the area without being in the thick of Hollywood. Sources have told us that Meghan and Harry are staying in a $20 million mansion in Malibu, Lankston shared. Now, this is interesting for a number of reasons. Malibu is nicely out of the way, its not right in the middle of LA, theyre not going to get that Hollywood, over the top lifestyle which Im sure the two of them are not looking forward to getting involved into whatsoever. While living in luxurious Malibu seems like an ideal landing spot for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, there is another reason why the city is close to Harrys heart. The Sussexes pay tribute to Princess Diana Princess Diana was dating a man named Dodi al-Fayed when a tragic accident took her and al-Fayeds life in the summer of 1997. Two months before the accident, al-Fayed bought a home in Malibu with the intention of living with Diana. As Lankston pointed out, this would have put Diana in a home close to where Harry and Meghan are currently house hunting. We know that Dodi had purchased property in the very same area and sources told us Princess Diana was very much planning to move in with him had their life not ended so tragically and so early, Lankston noted. Prince Harry and Meghan could live out Diana's California dream in $20million Malibu mansion https://t.co/i2RMi9TfQy Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) April 1, 2020 We do not know if Diana had anything to do with Prince Harry and Meghans decision to move to Malibu, but it would certainly be a sweet tribute to his late mother. Prior to their move to California, the Sussexes spent several months in Canada. Although they enjoyed their time on Vancouver Island, Lankston does not believe they ever planned on settling there permanently. Instead, the royal expert says that Harry and Meghan were always eying LA for their second home. And there are several reasons why Hollywood was their top choice. Meghan Markle has ties to LA One reason Prince Harry and Meghan picked Malibu was so the former Suits star could be closer to her mother, Doria Ragland. It is also where Meghan grew up and where she got her start in Hollywood. Meghans family is from LA, her mother, who she is very close to, lives just outside the main Los Angeles City area, Lankston explained. Being close to her beloved mum is understood to have been a key factor in their decision to relocate from Canada https://t.co/KLpFfdmDrf SDE.CO.KE (@SDEKenya) April 5, 2020 LA also offers the Sussexes more opportunities to build their brand and earn a living for themselves. As part of their plan to become financially independent from the crown, the two will need to find a way to fund their various ventures. This includes paying for security while they live in America. Experts believe this could cost the couple millions every year, so finding suitable careers is very important for Harry and Meghan in the coming months. Whats next for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry? While we wait to see what Harry and Meghan do next, the royal family will re-examine the details of their exit in 12 months. This means that some of the stipulations in the exit plan could change, opening the door for some important adjustments. With their departure now official, Prince Harry and Meghan can no longer use their royal titles in public. This has put an end to their main charitable foundation, Sussex Royal, as well as the name of their popular Instagram account. I want to be baby Archie in my next life. https://t.co/pcY4Q88vTY Women's Health (@WomensHealthMag) April 4, 2020 Depending on how the royals feel next year, there is a chance that Harry and Meghan will regain the use of some of their titles. This is especially true regarding Harrys military titles, which were suspended in light of Megxit. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not commented on the reports surrounding their decision to leave the royal family. The Sussexes are currently in self-isolation in California as the world continues to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown to fight coronavirus has forced Chhattisgrah Police to re-calibrate and scale down anti-Maoist operations for security reasons and apprehension of likely shortage of essential items for the troopers, top officials said Sunday. The officials said the approach is to have fewer dedicated offensive against the Left-wing extremists based on specific intelligence inputs. Chhattisgarhs Director General of Police, DM Awasthi, said only four anti-Maoist operations have been conducted since the lockdown came into force on March 24. Earlier, we used to have 15 to 20 such operations in 10 days, the DGP said. Awasthi said anti-Maoist operations have been scaled down and the police have changed the operational approach. There are many reasons behind planning fewer operations, he said. He said for big operations, the police need huge back-up like helicopters and medical teams which may be difficult to arrange due to the lockdown. I have given instructions to officials that operations will only be planned when there is pinpoint intelligence of Maoist movements and big movement of security forces should be avoided, said Awasthi. More than 65,000 police personnel including 48 battalions of central forces are deployed in the Maoist stronghold of Bastar region which is spread over 39,117 sq km across seven districts and forms a crucial corridor linking Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. According to police estimates, about 5,500 Maoist cadres (from its political and military wings) live in the jungles of Bastar and more three lakh people including women and children in Bastar are Sangham Sadasya (foot-soldiers) of the banned CPI (Maoist). The anti-Maoist operations have reduced by 50 % in my district. Only dedicated operations are still going on by the Special Forces and it is very difficult now to push other forces in the jungle for big operations, said a Superintendent of Police posted in one of the districts of Bastar, requesting anonymity. The SP said in the absence of traffic during the lockdown, vehicles of security forces would become easier targets for Maoists. Even inside the jungles there is no movement of people, thereby making the entry of security forces more difficult, he added. The silence of roads and jungle can be dangerous for security forces. All tribal villages have imposed lockdown and there is barely any movement in jungles. Venturing out could be dangerous, the SP said. On the ground, the security forces are also facing other problems. Another senior police officer, who was also not willing to be named, said the security forces are facing shortages of essential items and getting supplies quickly is becoming difficult because of the Maoist threat. It has created some resentment among the lower rung personnel, a third police officer said. The officers also said that the killing of 17 jawans in Sukma in an ambush by Moaists, a day after the lockdown was enforced on March 24, has also taken a toll on the security personnel. Many are also worried about their families. Many of the jawans are from rural areas in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha and are worried about their family members back home. Some of them have also applied for leave as they want to visit families. We have cancelled all leaves due to lockdown which has created some resentment, the official said. All the three police officers quoted above said in such times, mobilising security personnel for operations could have an adverse physiological impact. The jawans are being counselled by their seniors, said one of the police officers. Experts, however, said intelligence based operations are important and should continue in Bastar in order to dominate the Maoists. This is a valid argument that police forces are more exposed on roads during this lockdown because no other vehicles are allowed but SPs should continue intelligence based operations and area domination of the jungle. Police should also take care of the mental health of their personnel, said Prakash Singh, former DGP of the Border Security Force (BSF). SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) confirmed a case of COVID-19 that was recorded in an apartment at the Corporations estate in the Garki Area of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The corporation in a statement released April 4, dismissed insinuation of mass outbreak of Coronavirus infection in the facility. The corporation explained that the said case, involving a non-member of staff of the corporation, had to do with an individual who had just returned from the United Kingdom and developed symptoms of the decease. His case was said to have been confirmed positive by the NCDC after undergoing a laboratory test and in line with NCDC approved protocol, all residents of the affected apartment were moved out and placed in Isolation, while officials of NCDC undertook a disinfection of the flat and adjoining areas to eliminate the chances of community infection the statement read NNPC said it had long embarked on public awareness campaigns within NNPC and beyond her borders including sharing with the residents of the Estate guidelines on successful self-supervised isolation to ensure strict adherence to all NCDC prescribed safety measures designed to tackle the COVID-19 Global pandemic. 207 Shares Share As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the country and leave lasting impacts on our economy, many of us are trying our best to cope with the changes. While this can take a huge toll on our mental health and leave us unsure of our next move, theres one thing we need to do in the midst of the chaos: Buy long-term disability insurance. Here are six things you need to know about disability insurance during this COVID-19 crisis: 1. Disability insurance helps to protect your income. The purpose of long-term disability insurance is to protect your income in case you become disabled or unable to work due to a physical or mental illness. This means if you get sick (i.e., with coronavirus, depression from the virus, or some other ailment) and are unable to work at your full capacity or generate your normal revenue, disability insurance will kick-in and help supplement your income until you recover and get back on your feet. 2. Many doctors are rushing to get it. As health care workers, we take care of patients who may have the virus and have come into contact with many others who have been exposed. With the nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment, we may be even more vulnerable to contracting the virus, or being an asymptomatic carrier of the virus than we realize. Due to our increased risk of exposure, many doctors, especially those who work in the emergency department or the intensive care unit (ICU), have been rushing to get disability insurance. They want to make sure that their income is protected in the unfortunate possibility that they contract the virus or acquire a mental health disorder from treating others with the virus that could impact their income. 3. Pricing hasnt changed, and there are discounts available. Despite the risk of coronavirus infection, the price of disability insurance hasnt increased. In fact, many insurance companies are still offering a 10 to 20 percent discount to newer doctors who are still in residency training programs or fellowships. Plus, female attending physicians and a few resident physicians can still get unisex policies that will prevent them from paying more for disability insurance than their male counterparts. Although these unique features may only be available in certain areas from a select group of carriers, they can save so much money that they are worth seeking out. Remember, the cost of disability insurance varies by state as companies have realized that your risk of becoming disabled is increased or decreased if you live in certain areas. A policy in Georgia is much cheaper than a policy in California. 4. Companies are still accepting new applications. I called my insurance agent to follow up on some paperwork for my own on disability insurance policy. During our conversation, he mentioned something I found surprising: although more doctors were trying to secure disability insurance, the application process had not changed. There was no hold on claims or freeze on new applications, even with coronavirus spreading. The process itself is similar, if not easier than before. To get started, you just reach out to an insurance agent who can help you determine your desired policy amount and any added protections (or riders) you may need, such as extra payments to cover student loans, partial disability coverage, and a cost-of-living adjuster, etc. 5. The process of approval is easier than before. Despite the chaos, its easier to get approved now than it used to be. Once you figure out the payout and features of your desired policy, the insurance company will then assess your risk of getting disabled, so they can determine the specific price to charge you for the policy. One way they assess your risk is by inquiring about your medical history. Many companies used to require a detailed medical exam for any policy with a payout greater than $6,000 a month. Nowadays, things are much easier. Most people can skip the detailed medical exam and get approved by filling out an online or telephone medical questionnaire for any policy that pays you up to $120,000 a year. While the process could change in the future, as of March 30, 2020, the process is the same as before, if not easier. 6. You can still get coverage, so get it now! The coronavirus pandemic has been a sobering reminder that our health is not guaranteed. Although we may feel fine today, all workers need some form of long-term disability insurance to supplement their income in case they fall ill for an extended period of time and arent able to work at the capacity they used to. Companies are still accepting applications, many agents are offering discounts, and the process is easier than before. If youre unsure of where to look, you can browse the list of trusted agents on the White Coat Investor page. Bonus: You may want to consider term life insurance as well. As a single person with no children or family members who rely on my income, I dont yet have an individual term life insurance policy. However, I recognize that Im in the minority. Many doctors have children and spouses whose yearly expenses and savings goals are largely dependent on their doctor income. If this is the case for you, consider term life insurance as well. Just like disability insurance, you can seek help from an insurance agent who will give you some price quotes. Plus, many policies with a payout under $5 million no longer require a detailed medical exam. The only change in the life insurance process is that insurance companies are taking a little longer before they confirm your policy. As of March 30, 2020, insurance companies may be hesitant to approve your policy if you have traveled internationally within the last 60 days and may require a 30-day waiting period if you have recently been exposed to the virus. Although there are a few more hold-ups with term life insurance than there are with long-term disability insurance, they are both worth looking into. In the midst of this crisis, be sure youre protecting yourself and your (future) income. Altelisha Taylor is a family medicine resident and can be reached at Career Money Moves. Image credit: Shutterstock.com California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted he 'owns' the state's lapse in COVID-19 testing and announced a new task force will work to increase testing sites. Newsom, 52, shared the revelations with residents in a video released to social media on Saturday. He said: 'The testing space has been a challenging one for us and I own that. And I have a responsibility as your governor to do better and do more testing in the state of California.' 'I own that, you deserve better and more,' he added. Newsom added that only 126,700 of the nearly 40million Californians have been tested for coronavirus. Of those who have undergone testing, 13,000 are awaiting results. As of Saturday, the Golden State has 13,647 confirmed cases and 319 deaths. Los Angeles has at least 4,500 infections and 91 residents have died. Public health officials have called for widespread coronavirus testing in an effort to stop the spread, but the United States has continuously lagged. California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the state's downfalls in coronavirus testing and admit he 'owns' the lapse This is compounded by backlogged laboratories where results have been delayed. But Newsom unveiled a potential bright spot amid the pandemic with the announcement of a task force. 'We are now in a position where I can confidently say its a new day,' he said. 'We turning the page on our old approach to how we coordinate, how we collaborate and how we distribute to you in the public around the issue of testing.' The task force, Newson said, is in partnership with universities like UC David and UC San Diego, laboratories, hospitals and testing companies to create more testing sites. He added that Stanford, which is also involved in the task force, was just 'hours' away from getting FDA approval of a new blood test for coronavirus. A new task force has been created in California to help introduce more COVID-19 testing sites and ensure more availability. Pictured: A Los Angeles Fire Department official wearing protective gear deliver testing kits to a waiting motorist at a COVID-19 drive-up testing site in Los Angeles The test differs from others because it only detects antibodies, unlike testing that relies on RNA from the respiratory system. 'The approach is a comprehensive one, geographically considered,' Newson said. Five to seven new testing locations are expected, but confirming testing numbers could take 'a few weeks.' It will be spearheaded by Dr. Charity Dean, assistant director of the state Department of Public Health, and Paul Markovich, president and CEO of Blue Shield of California. Private and public leaders are among task force members, and Newson said he is confident the task force will help overcome testing challenges. At the moment, state officials are scrambling to find enough hospital and ICU beds to house the estimated surge in infected patients. Modeling suggests 50,000 new beds will be needed in California by mid-May, the Los Angeles Times reports. As the influx of cases swarm California, the state has asked retired medical workers, medical students and those with licenses from other states to joint California Health Corps. Newson said around 79,000 people have signed up. Newsom (pictured): 'We turning the page on our old approach to how we coordinate, how we collaborate and how we distribute to you in the public around the issue of testing' Pictured: The first day of drive-through testing for the coronavirus opens in the parking lot of the South Bay Galleria shopping center Modeling suggests that California, who're working to increase testing sites (pictured), will need 50,000 new ICU and hospital beds by mid-May While California struggled with coronavirus testing, Newson said it excelled in its stay-at-home order that is expected to continue. Officials have encouraged authorities to enforce social distancing mandates with 'social pressure' instead of punishment, but Newson said there is enforcement happening in some areas. He said: 'The state is always prepared to do more and I just want to encourage people, dont force our hand in that respect. ' Four nonessential businesses accused of remaining open received criminal charges from Los Angeles prosecutors Friday. Newsom acknowledged the new coronavirus protocols upended people's lives, but championed social distancing. 'We cannot allow cabin fever to come in, we cannot allow people to congregate again in pews, on our beaches and in our parks. Lets hold the line,' he said. California has set up a website, covid19supplies.ca.gov, for individuals and companies to sell, donate or offer to manufacture needed medical supplies amid nationwide shortages. Newsom's press conference came amid President Trump's admission that Americans should brace for 'lot of deaths' in the upcoming weeks and that it will be a 'very horrendous' time for the US. 'But there will be death,' he admitted before continuing to tout the use of the malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, as a treatment. 'This will probably be the toughest week - between this week and next week,' Trump told reporters. 'There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done,' he added of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus. The United States currently has 311,632 confirmed cases and a death toll of 8,503. North Wales council leaders urge tourists to stay away over Easter holidays This article is old - Published: Sunday, Apr 5th, 2020 The leaders of north Wales six local authorities have come together to urge tourists to stay away from the region over the Easter holidays. On what would have been the start of the two-week school holiday, visitors would have been expected to flock to the usual hotspots ahead of next weeks bank holiday weekend. But, hoping to avoid a repeat of much-maligned scenes as cars streamed into Snowdonia just a day after the Prime Minister announced a partial shutdown, the leaders of north Wales six councils have sent out a public decree urging visitors to stay away until the threat of covid-19 is deemed to have reduced. Describing coronavirus as presenting unprecedented challenges for the health board, social services, councils, emergency services and every level of society, the joint statement was clear in its message, which was also endorsed by the Snowdonia National Park. Our attractions are closed and residents are doing an excellent job in observing the social distancing and stay at home messages and we encourage potential visitors to follow this advice too, it read, noting that all six councils backed the call to only make essential journeys. Well still be here when all this is over and our tourist and cultural sites and national park will be more than happy to give you all a fantastic Welsh welcome when everything returns to normal. Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn, the leader of Gwynedd Council and chair of the North Wales Economic Ambition Board, added: Our advice to anyone who is even considering visiting north Wales over Easter is not to do so. The regulations from our Governments are clear that we should only leave home for essential shopping, medical needs and exercise and that only essential travel should be undertaken. Visiting a second home is not essential travel. In a separate message, Angleseys MP urged second home owners to stay at their main residences, acknowledging there had been tensions with reports of some locals pleading directly with holiday owners to leave the island. Local supermarkets and pharmacies are also experiencing supply issues, and we have a duty to ensure those who dont have the ability to go elsewhere, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, can get access to the vital supplies they require, said Virginia Crosbie MP. Local health resources are effectively planned by health trusts based on those who reside there permanently and they just cannot cope with large numbers of additional patients should they become ill. Superintendent Richie Green, of North Wales Police, added that teams would continue to patrol the region and border areas to establish the purpose of peoples journeys. Teams are out and about and our officers will continue to engage with people, establish their individual circumstances and will continue to explain the risks and warn of the consequences of failing to comply with the guidance, he said. We continue to ask people to consider whether their journey is essential. We all have a shared responsibility to protect the NHS, please use your common sense and help us together to save lives. Acknowledging that asking people not to visit the region was unbelievable, the chair of the North Wales Tourism Forum stressed the need to comply with regulations. We are living in a period of national emergency, said Michael Bewick. Im sure that I can speak on behalf of the whole sector when I thank people for staying away, for staying at their main home and by saying that we look forward to welcoming you back to North Wales in the future. By Gareth Williams BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme) 05.04.2020 LISTEN Some 17 Burkinabes have been arrested by security personnel at the Babile inland checkpoint in the Upper West Region for attempting to sneak into Ghana. Their arrest was effected around 1830GMT on Saturday [April 4, 2020]. The 17 persons were on board a bus with registration number AAS 5603-C en route to Wa when the security officials took action to arrest them. The Burkinabes subsequently moved to hide in a nearby bush but there were arrested by the officers. According to the Lawra Municipal Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service, ASI Kingsford Agyakumhene, steps are being taken to repatriate them back to Burkina Faso on Sunday. Those arrested include six women and 11 men. They are aged between 20 and 40 years. Ghana has closed its land, sea and air borders and is not allowing the movement of public buses except it is transporting goods and cargo. The move is part of efforts to stop the spread of Coronavirus in the country. The two-week border closure took effect on 22nd March, 2020 and was to expire on 5th April, 2020 but President Nana Akufo-Addo has by an executive instrument extended it by an additional two weeks effective 5th April. ---citinewsroom With lakhs of people lighting lamps in their balconies and roofs on Sunday night to honour Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to express their solidarity in the nation's fight against coronavirus, Diwali seemed to have arrived months earlier in the city. In some cities of the state like Bahraich, some people started lighting lamps and candles before the clock even struck 9. Some people in the state capital blew conch shells and burst firecrackers on this occasion. The bursting of firecrackers continued at least till 9.15 pm. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Speaker of UP Legislative Assembly Hriday Narayan Dixit lit lamps at their official residences. Adityanath lit lamps arranged in the shape of 'Om'. UP Governor Anandiben Patel also lit lamps at the Raj Bhavan here. Both the Deputy Chief Ministers of UP, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, lit lamps along with their family members. UP Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi too lit an earthen lamp at his official residence in Lucknow. In his message on this occasion, Adityanath said, "People from every section of the society have extended their support to the nationwide lockdown. This act also shows India's unity and its power in the world. I am of the view that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country has shown unity, and this will bring good results. Corona will be defeated, India will win and the entire world will experience the collective strength of 130 crore population." The UP chief minister thanked the people of the state for lighting lamps, candles, turning on torches and flashlights of their mobile phones. "I urge that till lockdown exists, people must observe social distancing, extend their co-operation, then we will be able to take the war against corona to a new height of success," Adityanath said. People from different walks of life answered the prime minister's call to express solidarity in the nation's fight against coronavirus. Lamps were lit in Varanasi, Allahabad, Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar and in other cities as well. Muslim cleric Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali also turned on the flashlight of his mobile phone at Lucknow's Eidgaah. Despite apprehensions, there were no immediate reports of any disruption in the power supply. The All India Power Engineers Federation has congratulated power engineers and employees for secure and reliable operation of the power grid, Shailendra Dubey, chairman of AIPEF, said in a statement here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged people to light candles on April 5 and display India's collective resolve to defeat coronavirus. Modi urged people to turn off lights at their homes and light candles, lamps or turn on mobile phone torches at 9.00 pm on Sunday for nine minutes to "end the darkness" of coronavirus". Some, however, decided to ignore the appeal. Social activist and Aam Aadmi Party member Nutan Thakur said, "I did not light a lamp. The reason is that I feel the move not logical, but a political one. But my husband did it since he is a government servant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government has begun an exercise to send home persons who tested negative for the novel coronavirus whilst in mandatory quarantine for the past 14 days. When Citi News visited one of the hotels were some persons were in quarantine, some of them expressed relief at the opportunity to finally go home after their periods of isolation. It is all joy. we give glory to God we were just trying to do the best we could, a man who had come to pick up his wife who was on quarantine said to Citi News. Another woman said the end of the quarantine period was a big relief and spoke warmly of their treatment during the period. It has been quite good because we need to save a lot of people form this disease. The way they quarantined us was a good experience.. we were protected. We were safe. One other woman had mixed feelings about the whole process. I was happy. I was lucky that finally, I can go back home, she said in response to testing negative for the virus over the quarantine period. But as someone who will be travelling to Tamale, she expressed frustrations as she was stranded after her released from quarantine. She noted that the authorities said they were now making arrangements to ger bus for those travelling outside the region. When I went [to make more enquiries] I was told that we should wait because they dont know if we will be able to go today or not right now we are here, I dont know if we are going home today. I dont know if we are going home tomorrow. You dont wait till the end of the process and yo tell me that we dont know how we are going to go home, she complained further. According to the Information Minister, the national security secretariat and the military are coordinating the exit and transport to of the formerly quarantined persons to their homes. Of the over 1,000 persons in mandatory quarantine, 80 of them tested positive for the virus. citinewsroom Los Angeles, April 5 : Netflix will be releasing an extra episode of "Tiger King" next week, according to the zoo owner Jeff Lowe, who appeared on the hit docu-series. He revealed the details about a new episode in a video posted on Twitter by Justin Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, reports variety.com. "Netflix is adding one more episode. It will be on next week. They're filming here tomorrow," Lowe said in the video. It is unclear whether the new episode will be a follow-up to the show's seven-episode run or more of a reunion. Netflix recently released a reunion episode for "Love Is Blind" and did a post-show interview hosted by Oprah Winfrey with the "When They See Us" cast last year. "Tiger King", which premiered on Netflix on March 20, follows the bizarre exploits of private zoo owner Joe Exotic, who runs a zoo full of hundreds of tigers and other rare animals. At the end of the series, he ends up in jail serving a 22-year sentence for animal abuse and plotting to carry out a murder-for-hire plot against his fellow big cat owner rival, Carole Baskin. Many celebrities have also come out as "Tiger King" fans. Cardi B floated the idea of starting a GoFundMe to help release Joe Exotic, and actors like Dax Shepard have thrown their names out on Twitter to play the character if the story were adapted to a movie. Union Minister VK Singh on Sunday asked Ghaziabad District Magistrate (DM) Ajay Shankar Pandey to waive off fees of educational institutions for the COVID-19 affected period, using the Uttar Pradesh Disaster Management Act. "Have asked DM Ghaziabad (Ajay Shankar Pandey) to exercise his powers under the Uttar Pradesh Disaster Management Act to waive off fees of educational institutions for the COVID-19 affected period," said Singh. This comes in the backdrop of 21-day lockdown imposed by the Central government to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. However, the essential services are still operating. The total number of cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of these cases, 3030 are active cases, 266 have been cured or discharged, while 77 deaths have been reported so far in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 00:10:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government on Sunday extended the ban on international flights for 30 more days effective Monday to help prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country. James Macharia, cabinet secretary for ministry of transport, said that the suspension will not affect cargo flights and evacuation flights. "This suspension will however not apply to those flights that are coming in to evacuate foreign nationals from the country. It also exempts the cargo flights that are coming into the country to deliver goods. They must not have passengers on board," Macharia told journalists in Nairobi. "Those evacuating their citizens will have to give us a 72-hour notice," Macharia added after the ministry of health confirmed 16 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of those infected so far to 142. Macharia appealed to those in the transport industry to adhere to the directives issued by the ministry of health, with regard to maintaining hygiene standards in the transport sector. "We have observed that the set directives are not being strictly followed, for example, most matatus (minibusses) are still overloading, hence not observing social distancing. They are also not observing standards of hygiene as per the set guidelines," said Macharia. He warned that any minibusses commonly known as matatus found not observing the set directives, will have their Sacco licenses suspended. "This directive applies to all public transport vehicles. The offenders will also be charged in a court of law, in line with the Public Health Act, for deliberately spreading the virus," he added. The official said motorcycle taxi riders, who continue to flout the directives already issued, will have their motorcycles impounded and will face the law. The government has also directed that visits to prisons shall remain suspended for another 30 days. Managua (Nicaragua), 4 April 2020 (SPS)- President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, has received a message from his counterpart, H.E. Daniel Ortega, President of the Republic of Nicaragua, expressing deep condolences and solidarity to the Saharawi people. It is with deep regret that we learned of the unfortunate passing of Comrade and Brother Mhamad Khadad, member of the Polisario Front National Secretariat and Sahrawi Coordinator with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, said President Daniel Ortega. From Nicaragua, on behalf of the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, we express our deep condolences and solidarity to your people and in particular to the Family of the revolutionary brother Mhamad Jadad. Comrade Mhamad Khadad, an untiring and indefatigable defender of the Sahrawi cause, left a strong legacy of commitment to his people and to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, its sovereignty and self-determination, he added. (SPS) 062/SPS/T Gov. Tony Evers recently requested more than $1 billion, a blank check for the state Department of Health Services, and virtually limitless taxpayer-funded employees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I know we all want to help our friends and neighbors during this crisis, but as the Assembly chair of the Joint Committee on Finance that oversees the state budget, I wanted to make sure you understand the fiscal state of Wisconsin and the economic impact the outbreak will have on the state budget. Like the countless small businesses around the state struggling to make payroll and keep the lights on, the state also runs on a fixed budget. We cannot, and should not, spend more than we take in, and we are required by law to have a balanced budget. Making matters more difficult, state revenue collections will undoubtedly be lower than we previously thought due to the COVID-19 health emergency. From 2008 to 2009 during the last recession, the reduction in state tax collections was over 7%, which was a loss of nearly $1 billion in one year. It took nearly 3 years for collections to rise back to the 2008 level. While no one disagrees we need to do all we can to win this battle, we should do so in a targeted way. By using a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer, we can invest in our priorities in the most effective way. This is exactly how we approached the current state budget, which invested $1.6 billion in Wisconsins health care system. Estimates show Wisconsin is in line to receive more than $3 billion in federal funding to combat this pandemic, and we should utilize these resources before dipping into state funds. We should not pay twice for the same thing. Its not only unlimited spending that Gov. Evers has asked for. He has also proposed doing away with voter ID and taking away legislative oversight of appropriations and position authorization. As nurses and doctors around the state perform lifesaving duties, possibly without proper personal protection equipment, now is not the time to strip our states voter ID law right before an election or replace the Legislature with unelected bureaucrats, such as Gov. Evers is thinking about. While we have been blessed over the last few years with a strong economy, we cannot assume steady waters forever. Republicans have worked hard to put Wisconsin in a strong financial shape, and we should not completely reverse course as Gov. Evers has irresponsibly proposed. Over the last few budgets, we have prepared for this moment by investing heavily in our states rainy-day fund, which now has a balance of over $650 million. Republicans have also significantly cut state debt. In contrast, Gov. Evers budget proposal would have left a $2 billion deficit leading into the next budget. The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund has $1.9 billion and is in much better shape now than it was before the last recession. Additionally, we know your money is best left with you, not bureaucrats in Madison. Thanks to Republican tax cuts, Wisconsins tax burden is the lowest it has been in 50 years. As families across the state tighten up their budgets, they can do so with a little more money in their pockets. Our goals should be the same. We need to take care of those who are hurting, support those who are on the front lines, and assure sufficient testing and care is being delivered to our most vulnerable. Together we can and will get through this. Thank you to the thousands of Wisconsinites who continue to put their community first. Nygren, R-Marinette, represents the 89th Assembly District. 04.04.2020 LISTEN May the souls of all the departed (whether through coronavirus or whatever means), rest in perfect peace! The President of the Republic, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo stated that, his administration has the expertise to resurrect the economy after being crippled by the coronavirus, however, his administration unfortunately cannot bring the dead back to life. I wholeheartedly agree with the statement of President Nana Akufo-Addo captured above; that human life is paramount. The clarion call by the President is to protect lives first, because if we survive this coronavirus pandemic, we can then strategize to revive our economy. Perfect! However, reports from friends and family members in Accra, Tema and Kumasi, paints a very dark picture with regards to access to food and other basic necessities, such as medicine. Fact is, since these people are unable to work and earn an income, it is virtually impossible to buy food, due to unemployment caused by the lockdown. It should be noted that, it is not everyone who is able to put some of their earnings away as savings at the end of the day, week or month. A majority of Ghanaians survive on a daily basis, therefore, ones inability to work even a day, is enough grounds to cause starvation. In addition to the above, Ghana has not been able to achieve the level of development as seen in some advanced countries like the United Kingdom (UK), where the government can deliver food and other basic necessities to almost every household, should the need arise. How does one deliver food to every household in a place like Nima or James Town? In some of these settlements, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine exactly the boundaries of the houses. Such a fruitless undertaking (distributing food) would only lead to some greedy bastards enriching themselves unjustly at the expense of the poor and needy in society. Furthermore, it appears the prevalence of malaria in some parts of Africa and Asia, has contributed largely to the low deaths caused by coronavirus in countries like Ghana. Even though I have no expertise in the medical field, however, from what has been gleaned in the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) statements on the coronavirus, it is apparent that the symptoms of coronavirus are similar to malaria. This may explain why hydroxychloroquine, has proven to be an effective cure for coronavirus in some parts of the world. Chloroquine is the main weapon in the fight against malaria. Therefore, with most Ghanaians in particular and Africans in general, being constantly harassed by the malaria parasite, which has undoubtedly led to most Ghanaians living with the malaria parasite indefinitely, there is no gain-saying that, such people have developed some kind of natural resistance to malaria. Fact is, when such malaria resistant people are medically tested for malaria, the outcome would be positive, but the malaria can NEVER kill them, Insha Allah! The above submission, mutatis mutandis (making the necessary alterations while not affecting the main point at issue), is applicable to coronavirus, with particular reference to Ghana, and other malaria infested countries. The resistance level of anyone who has ever had malaria in their life, especially in the last few years, is capable of withstanding the onslaught of coronavirus. Such a person, it is submitted, is likely to test positive for coronavirus, and might display some of the symptoms, but is highly unlikely to die from the coronavirus, due to the already existing defenses in such persons bodies (silent coronavirus carriers) against the malaria parasite. It is widely acknowledged that, a person who has not had malaria for quite a long time, stands a good chance of dying from malaria if infected. In the past, the Ivorian international, Didier Drogba, while playing for Chelsea in the UK, visited his home country (Ivory Coast), and unfortunately contracted malaria. Upon his return to the UK, his condition worsened, and had to be hospitalized. This was primarily due to the fact that, he had not had the malaria parasite in his body for sometime, so the natural defenses against malaria present in the bodies of most Africans, had deserted him, thereby leaving his immune system, vulnerable to the slightest malaria attack! The argument here is not to submit that coronavirus is selective in its approach to killing, but rather, to kickstart a kind of debate in the minds of scientists to conduct further research in the killing pattern of coronavirus. Without doubt, if all Ghanaians were to be tested today for coronavirus, it is possible that over 50% of the population, would test positive (silent carriers), but they will not die, why? The answer lies in the pre-existing malaria parasite in such bodies, which has now turned their bodies into natural bunkers against coronavirus. From the above analysis, which is purely the reasonable mans point of view and not scientific-based, it is evident that there is a hidden reason why many Ghanaians and Africans in general are not dying from the coronavirus, and this requires further probing to establish the true basis. The partial lockdown is therefore unnecessary. To a greater extent, copying other's decision to lockdown their countries and applying same in Ghana amounts to plagiarism. Our circumstances are unique, therefore, partial or total lockdown, is definitely not the solution. The most feasible solution in containing the spread of the coronavirus, lies primarily with Ghanaians themselves. For example, how does a soldier or policeman enforce social distancing or hand washing? How many of my brothers and sisters up North, have the means to buy sanitizers, which they have now been priced out of? A one-size solution does not fit all, so lets fashion out measures to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, based on our economic, cultural and social settings. Those arguing for a total or complete lockdown, are at liberty to lock themselves up in their lofty mansions or palaces, till the coronavirus leaves this world. In fact, it may be advisable for them to opt to be buried alive since even the air in their rooms or wherever they maybe confined to, is highly likely to be contaminated with coronavirus. BY Alhassan Salifu Bawah (son of an upright peasant farmer) As the coronavirus began to spread in Algeria, activists from the popular movement, known as Hirak, debated whether to keep marching or whether to pivot the Hirak campaign to focus on the issue of the pandemic, the protection of the Algerian people and online campaigning. But the Hirak movement now finds itself fighting a media war with the state. With 1,320 diagnosed cases and 152 deaths as of April 5, it seems that Algeria is in the acceleration phase of the outbreak, but the government has only been rolling out confinement region by region. For activists in the Hirak movement the popular movement that has mobilized people to march for change in the Algerian political system since February 2019 and pushed long-term President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down on April 3, 2019 COVID-19 has presented a serious dilemma: to continue or stop marching. It raised concerns that the movement could die with the rise of the viral pandemic. Algerias first COVID-19 case was diagnosed on Feb. 25, and just 16 days later, the first Algerian patient died, on March 12. Sarah Elam, a 25-year-old graduate student in the city of Constantine in northeastern Algeria and Hirak activist, told Al-Monitor, Since the coronavirus arrived in Algeria we heard that the marches could be in danger. Many activists hesitated at the beginning because they had made so much ground and there were so many of us so it was hard to give up marching. One protester in Algiers told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that he found himself embroiled in bitter and angry online exchanges with fellow activists who want to continue marching despite the risks posed by COVID-19. Yassa Ameur, an artist who has marched with the Hirak since the start, told Al-Monitor that the marches had stopped on March 17 in Mostaganem, to the west of the northwestern city of Oran. The students decided to stop at the last minute, but the older activitsts decided to continue marching on Friday [March 20] and also Saturday [March 21]. Since their start in February of last year, students marched every Tuesday, and everyone marched on Fridays every week and often Saturdays, Ameur said. She noted, [The arrival of COVID-19] in our country didn't seem real. Our media is not good at raising awareness [or] spreading public information, so we shared information about [the virus] and reached out to people online. Ameur said that once activists began to understand the seriousness of the situation, there was a shift in focus from fighting the political system to fighting the spread of the disease. Elam noted that at first the media did not pay much attention to the pandemic. The public wasnt really aware of what was happening at first; people thought it was a joke and were not taking it seriously, she added. March 17 was the last day that the students of the protest movement in Constantine met on the streets, this time not to march but to raise awareness about the virus. Elam said, [That day] we wore protection and gathered in downtown [Constantine] to give out bottles of bleach and information. We [also] cleaned and disinfected public places like buses and bus stations. We tried to educate people to wash their hands and tell them to wear gloves and masks. Since March 20, the Hirak movement has gone digital with activists running campaigns online and on social media. Elam said that instead of carrying signs at a march, activists take selfies holding cards with messages to spread awareness about the need to cooperate with the confinement. My card said, Because we love Algeria, we decided not to go out; others said, Stay at home to protect Algeria, she added. Souha Boumezba, a journalist and member of the protest movement from Constantine, said that encouraging people to stay home goes against local habits. She told Al-Monitor, Algerians dont like to stay at home; for men it is not in their culture to stay at home. She said homes are overcrowded and domestic life can be stressful. We are five people me, my parents, brother and sister, but other families are more numerous but still obliged to stay home, she noted. Also fighting the information war is Wersh Derna, an Algerian expression that means, What are we gonna do/what have we done? Wersh Derna consists of an independent online media platform founded in 2017 by young pharmacist Riadh Touat. Originally, Wersh Dernas goal was to challenge stereotypes about Algerias youth by showcasing talented artists, entrepreneurs and civil society. But since Feb. 22, 2019, Touat has focused on documenting and streaming programs about the Hirak movement. Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, Wersh Derna has been creating information videos about the virus and citizen-generated initiatives. Touat told Al-Monitor, We set up two campaigns. The first in collaboration with artists and journalists about the suspension of protests and to tell people to stay at home. The second campaign was with young doctors to promote a phone-based medical consultation service to reduce hospital visits and exposure to the virus. With 163,000 followers and 121,000 likes on Facebook, Touat said the second video has had 116,000 views. Touat added, There are many citizen-led initiatives like this happening now. The governments attempts at promoting good news such as President Abdelmadjid Tebbounes April 1 statement that Algerias health service has enough capacity to fight COVID-19, Chinas offer to build a hospital for some 9,000 COVID-19 victims in Algeria or even the opening of a new resuscitation center in Blida (the epicenter of the Algerian outbreak) has done little to assuage activists fears about the states ability to cope with the enormity of the crisis. Touat said, Frankly I think the government is doing its best to manage the crisis, but I do not know if the system has all the skills or the right vision. In their communication, the government message is literally, Keep calm, everything is under control. Boumezba said, Doctors dont have masks or gloves. There is no protection and there is a lack of ventilators. [On March 16] there was a strike by medical staff at Boufarik Hospital in Blida. Boumezba, who shared photographs from the strike on her Facebook page, added, They were striking about the terrible working conditions, but police [dispersed] the protesters. Despite the apparent positivity, fear of the state runs deep, as many activists declined to talk to Al-Monitor for fear of their safety. Boumezba said that on March 26, Student activists were summoned by police to be interrogated about their activities before the outbreak. These stories do not get reported in the press, they just circulate on social media. Omar Chabbi, editor of Atlas Times, an independent online daily based in Constantine, told Al-Monitor that there is now a media war being waged between the state and the Hirak. He said, The main danger for the public movement is that the coronavirus pandemic is used by the authorities to put an end to the Hirak. Campaigns to discredit the Hirak continue in the Algerian press. Chabbi said that one of the weaknesses in the Hirak movement has been trying to convince the general public of its goals and an absence of leadership. He added, This lack of leadership often used to say that the Hirak is driven by foreign agents to destabilize Algerian institutions. However, Elam sees the coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity for the Hirak movement. This crisis has unveiled the problems in the system and particularly the problems in health care, so the crisis is benefiting the movement. We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Syntonic Limited (ASX:SYT). What Is Insider Selling? It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year. See our latest analysis for Syntonic Syntonic Insider Transactions Over The Last Year Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by insider Gavin Dunhill for AU$790k worth of shares, at about AU$0.0079 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of AU$0.001. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when an insider has purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Gavin Dunhill was the only individual insider to buy over the year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below! ASX:SYT Recent Insider Trading April 4th 2020 There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Story continues Does Syntonic Boast High Insider Ownership? Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 25% of Syntonic shares, worth about AU$1.7m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders. So What Does This Data Suggest About Syntonic Insiders? There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. Insiders own shares in Syntonic and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Our analysis shows 4 warning signs for Syntonic (2 make us uncomfortable!) and we strongly recommend you look at these before investing. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. 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. A barrage of Saudi airstrikes hit Houthi-held territories in Yemen March 29 and 30 as the war has entered its sixth year. Saudi warplanes bombed various locations in Sanaa, including the military academy. Reports have put the Sanaa strikes on March 30 alone at 25. Other air raids pounded multiple locations in Hodeidah as well as Amran and Saada governorates. The escalation means continued war and suffering in Yemen. While the Saudi-led Arab coalition justifies the extensive aerial bombing to fend off what it calls the imminent Houthi threat, the Houthis say have been acting to defend themselves and the areas under their control. The Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles over Riyadh on March 28. Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Hammadi, media spokesperson for the Civil Defense in the Riyadh region, said the missiles exploded in the air and two civilians were injured when the wreckage landed. The attack on Riyadh provoked a brutal response including a flood of Saudi airstrikes on Yemen. Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, stated March 30 that the purpose of the airstrikes is to neutralize and destroy Houthis military targets. Specifically, he pointed out that the strikes were intended to destroy the Houthis' military capabilities and Iranian operatives as well as the storage, assembly and installation sites of ballistic missiles and weapons depots. The Saudi-led coalition has conducted over 250,000 airstrikes since 2015, when Saudi Arabia launched Operation Decisive Storm to fight the Houthis and restore the government of Yemen. Recently, the pace of aerial bombardment has intensified, reminding civilians in Yemen of the war's deadly first year. Sanaa resident Amar Amri told Al-Monitor that a string of air raids hit Sanaa on March 29 and 30, shattering civilians hope for peace or at least de-escalation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We [civilians] and vital infrastructure are the major victims of these airstrikes. The Houthis fire some missiles on Saudi territories but Saudis retaliate with dozens of devastating airstrikes. We are worried this cycle of bombardment exchange will continue, Amri said. Six of the latest airstrikes hit the military academy in Sanaa. The warplanes targeted horse stables, leaving enormous destruction. Horse breeder Mahdi Al-Rimi was killed, two other civilians were wounded and 70 purebred Arabian horses died in the strikes. They just want to bomb anything. They have targeted buildings, humans and animals, Amri said. He asked, What wrong have the horse breeder and the horses committed? And will killing these horses bring victory to the coalition? Sanaa-based writer Mohammed al-Hojily called the latest air raids on Sanaa indescribable. He tweeted, There are no words can describe this scene. There is no reason can justify this crime. There is nothing can erase this tragedy from our memories. Saudi jets targeted almost 70 Arabian horses. Even animals didn't survive the US-Saudi war in Yemen. In late March, Saudi Arabia and Yemens Houthis expressed willingness to halt military escalation and shift their focus to combating the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, the recent tit-for-tat attacks have dealt a severe blow to the UN plea for a cease-fire. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis began direct talks last September following the Houthi drone attack on the Saudi Abqaiq oil facilities, impacting crude production. With this fresh escalation, Houthi attacks and Saudi airstrikes are likely to intensify as diplomatic efforts have made no headway. Mohammed al-Jaber, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, told the Wall Street Journal March 31 that proposals for peace talks with the Houthis are still on the table. Jaber said, We are committed to our de-escalation. We are ready to have a cease-fire in all Yemeni territory if they accept it. However, the Houthis expressed doubt about the Saudi call for peace. In response to the Saudi ambassadors call for talks, Abdulmalik Alejri, a member of the Houthi negotiating team, said that warlords can never be sponsors of reconciliation. The Houthi-run Saba News Agency quoted Alejri as saying, Logically and politically speaking, it cannot be right that Saudi Arabia sponsors the war and the reconciliation at the same time. Such two opposites can never meet. Khalil Alomary, a Belgium-based Yemeni strategy researcher and journalist, said the Houthi-Saudi talks are doomed to failure. The Houthis signed many agreements with the Yemeni government since 2004, but all agreements totally failed. I think the Houthi-Saudi peace talks will not succeed, Alomary told Al-Monitor. Alomary is critical of the United Nations' role in Yemen, saying, The UN-led peace efforts in Yemen have been futile since 2014. Yemenis see the UN as a tool of the superpowers and their allies in the region. He explained, The Saudi-led coalition does not have a clear war strategy in Yemen. Most of Yemenis believe that the coalition is not fighting for Yemenis' interests as it declared on March 26, 2015, to restore the legitimate government, end the Houthi coup and protect Yemen's national security. Alomary added, The Saudi-led coalition has a hidden agenda in Yemen as well as the Emirates. The dynamics of war showed that the Saudi intervention aims to divide Yemen into three small [states:] north, south and east. The diversity of foreign and internal actors has complicated the conflict in Yemen. The tide of violence keeps rising and resolving the quagmire is unlikely to happen anytime soon as the threat of the pandemic looms over the already desperate humanitarian situation. Like many working parents, Bethany Hendrickson OConnell found a bit of novelty in the first week of sheltering in place. She took long walks with her 4-year-old son, Charlie, worked in five-hour stints for her nonprofit job, and joined Charlies preschool class for letter share day on Zoom. Then came the grenade in her inbox: an email from Charlies school in Berkeley, asking parents to pay Aprils tuition bill or at least make a donation for a service they couldnt use. This week, the majority of Bay Area counties ordered preschools and child care facilities to close their doors to everyone except children of essential workers, though most had already shut down anyway. Its unclear when they will open again. But the closed programs still pay teachers, cover their rent and insurance, purchase supplies and clean their classrooms. So many are turning to parents as their lifelines. OConnell and her husband gritted their teeth and paid $4,300 for child care services they cant use in April: $2,300 for Charlies full-time preschool and the $2,000 monthly payment to retain a nanny share for their 1-year-old daughter, Remy. I had a lot of thoughts about it, she said, sighing. In the end, we considered that neither the preschool teachers nor the school are at fault. And the risk of not paying teachers in April is that they look for other jobs. And they might decide that its more financially stable to stay at home with their own kids, which means they dont come back in May. For those reasons, we felt like we wanted to keep paying. Yet its hard for OConnell to see that far ahead in a world that seems to be collapsing under the coronavirus pandemic. Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Were just thinking, we can pay for April, she said. But if were asked to pay for May and then June without services? All over the Bay Area, parents of young children got the April bills for preschool and child care services they cannot use, leaving many in a stark predicament. For those juggling full-time work with full-time parenting, the request can be maddening. For those who have been laid off or seen their salaries and hours cut, it can be an untenable hardship. Most people are having to work from home and trying to be productive while also taking care of young children who require a lot of attention and thats exacerbated by the uncertainty of the moment, said Clarissa Doutherd, executive director of the child care advocacy group Parent Voices Oakland. The group campaigns for affordable child care. The coronavirus, however, thrust it into a second role as a social service provider. Families now call every day asking for help paying for groceries, Doutherd said. Some of these families cannot afford child care at all, so theyve relied on the makeshift strategies that middle-class families now have no choice but to adopt: odd work hours, an informal network of babysitters, setting kids in front of a computer or television. I think this moment highlights how critical it is to have assistance for child care, said Stella Omosowho, a single mother raising her 6-year-old daughter, Divine, in West Oakland. Omosowho wanted to take night classes and pursue a masters degree in human development, but had no one to look after her daughter at night. So she applied for a child care subsidy from Alameda County a year and a half ago. Since then, shes lingered on a wait list of 7,000 people. Deprived of their preschools and day care, families across the economic spectrum are experiencing stress that Omosowho feels all the time. If the pandemic is hard on working parents, its crushing for child care centers and preschools. Many no longer have any children enrolled, even with the essential worker exception. Will a lot of them come back? Well, we dont know, said Michele Rutherford, project director of early care and education for First 5 Alameda County, a public agency that funds child care and preschool programs. Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle Amie Latterman, the chief advancement officer of Childrens Council a nonprofit that connects San Francisco families to preschool and child care fears the pandemic will have the same ruinous effect as the recession of 2009, when the Bay Area lost between 10% and 40% of its child care businesses. The crisis could ripple out nationally. Congress recent federal stimulus package included $3.5 billion for child care, far less than the $50 billion that advocates had pushed for. California will likely see about 10% of that money, Latterman said. So when the economy starts running again, and people go back to work, who is going to care for their kids? she asked. Shilpa Gupta Panech, a mother of three who owns a preschool and after-school program in San Ramon, chose to keep her two centers running for a few children whose parents are essential workers. The programs normally hold 100 children, but now have 10. Panech still pays for rent, supplies, janitors and staffers, so shes asked parents to contribute a holding fee of $100 a week, much less than the $1,300 average monthly tuition. 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. Most were happy to do it. Some cited financial hardships. This is really hard for us, Panech said, referring to herself and the other preschool educators she knows. All of them feel attached to the families they serve, and stung by some of the comments they see on social media. Im seeing comments from people who say, Well, this isnt part of our (preschool) contract. If were not receiving a service, then why should we pay? Gupta said. Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle While some parents flinch when their schools or child care providers come pleading for money, many also get a steady stream of emails with recipe tips, art projects or activity suggestions. Teachers have tried to maintain connections by holding weekly show-and-tells or reading storybooks on Zoom. Preschools do social-distance circle times via conference calls. Still, its not the real thing. Parents whose preschools serve as an extended family are now grappling with separation anxiety and the fear of what might happen if schools shutter permanently. Its heartbreaking, said Pascale Small, a Concord mother of three. When coronavirus cases began popping up in the Bay Area, Small made the anguished decision to pull her oldest daughter, Kamila, from their neighborhood Episcopalian preschool. She now cares for 4-year-old Kamila, 2-year-old Kyrie and 5-month-old Kamari while working remotely for a nonprofit in Oakland. Her husband works graveyard shifts at a food packaging plant. Though the school remains open for essential workers, Small still volunteered to pay the tuition $395 a month for two half-days a week as long as she can afford it. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 23:42:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Medical supplies from China are unloaded from an airplane at Humberto Delgado Airport to help the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in Lisbon, Portugal, April 5, 2020. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua) LISBON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A charter flight carrying the medical supplies donated by Portuguese electric utilities company EDP and its main shareholder China Three Gorges (CTG) arrived in Lisbon on Sunday. The EDP said on its website that the medical supplies, including 50 ventilators, 200 monitors and other medical support material, worth 4 million euros, were acquired by EDP and CTG and handed over to the Portuguese Embassy in China. CTG also confirmed the donation on its website, saying the company valued the support the EDP gave to China during its rough time against the epidemic. And CTG ought to extend a helping hand to Portugal, which is now in its hard time against the virus. Portugal registered on Sunday 754 new cases of infection and 29 deaths associated with COVID-19, bringing the total to 11,278 confirmed cases and 295 deaths, according to the daily bulletin by the Directorate-General for Health. The fast-spreading novel coronavirus is almost certainly killing Americans who are not included in the nation's growing death toll, according to public health experts and government officials involved in the tally. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test. "We know that it is an underestimation," agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said. A widespread lack of access to testing in the early weeks of the U.S. outbreak means people with respiratory illnesses died without being counted, epidemiologists say. Even now, some people who die at home or in overburdened nursing homes are not being tested, according to funeral directors, medical examiners and nursing home representatives. Postmortem testing by medical examiners varies widely across the country, and some officials say testing the dead is a misuse of scarce resources that could be used on the living. In addition, some people who have the virus test negative, experts say. As a result, public health officials and government leaders lack a complete view of the pandemic's death toll as they assess its course and scramble to respond. Scientists who analyze mortality statistics from influenza and other respiratory illnesses say it is too early to estimate how many fatalities have gone unrecorded. For a disease with common symptoms such as covid-19, they said, deaths with positive results almost certainly represent only a fraction of the total caused by the disease. "You can't rely on just the laboratory-confirmed cases," said Marc-Alain Widdowson, an epidemiologist who left the CDC last year and now serves as director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp in Belgium. "You're never going to apply the test on everybody who is ill and everybody who dies. So without doubt - it's a truism - the number of deaths are underestimated globally because you don't apply the test." Clay Marsh, West Virginia's "coronavirus czar," acknowledged that the state's count is presumably incomplete. West Virginia was the last state to report a case of the virus and had recorded only two deaths as of Saturday. "Based on the best recent information about limited testing and sizable false negative rates of testing, we are likely underestimating the number of deaths," said Marsh, vice president and executive dean for health sciences at West Virginia University. The count is also low in West Virginia, Marsh said, because the state has a small, rural population and had closed schools and nonessential businesses early. The CDC has launched an effort to use national data on illnesses, hospitalizations and death certificates to estimate covid-19 infections and deaths. The agency already publishes such estimates weekly for flu, where laboratory-confirmed cases and deaths similarly represent only a fraction of the total attributable to the disease. "We're probably getting more information on covid-19 because there's a greater awareness in the community of what it is," Nordlund said. The CDC's official death count, which is based on reports submitted by states, stood at 6,593 as of Saturday. Because of a lag in reporting, the number was significantly lower than the more frequently updated counts by media organizations and university researchers. The Washington Post's own count of fatalities surpassed 8,000 on Saturday. The federal government's death count is broadcast around the world daily as an indicator of how quickly the virus is spreading and how profoundly the nation is struggling. It has clear political implications for President Donald Trump, whose approval ratings rose in late March despite his having downplayed the virus's dangers for weeks. On Wednesday, the White House estimated that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans may be killed by covid-19, far exceeding the nearly 60,000 combat troops killed in the Vietnam War. Scientists said they did not know how the White House had arrived at its projection, and the White House has declined to provide details. The death toll has become a heavily politicized benchmark. Trump's defenders claim the official number is inflated because it includes all deceased people who tested positive for covid-19, even if there was another cause of death, such as a heart attack or an accident. Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, said there are probably some people dying with covid-19 who are not dying of covid-19. Such misattribution is a problem for any cause of death, he said, but it is a minor issue that is "swamped by the opposite problem: deaths that are caused by covid but never attributed, so the death count is underestimated." Around the globe, public officials are questioning whether the number of deaths officially attributed to the virus are deceptively low. In northern Italy, the town of Nembro recorded 31 deaths from the virus from January to March. But Mayor Claudio Cancelli recently said the total number of deceased in that time period - 158 - was four times higher than the average for that time of year. "The difference is enormous and cannot be a simple statistical deviation," he wrote in a newspaper article co-authored with a medical executive. The number of deaths in France attributed to the virus soared last week after officials began including previously unreported deaths in nursing homes, boosting the count by more than 2,000. Observers inside and outside China, where the virus first appeared late last year, have accused the ruling Communist Party of reporting artificially low infection and death rates. Media outlets, including The Post, have reported that a count of cremation urns ordered to Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province, indicates that far more people died of covid-19 than the official death toll of about 2,500. Trump said Wednesday that China's "numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side, and I'm being nice when I say that." Chinese officials denied the accusation, saying U.S. officials were trying to deflect responsibility for the American body count. Studies of influenza have found that, in the middle of a pandemic, real-time fatality counts are often misleading. Widdowson, the former CDC scientist, was part of a team that estimated global deaths from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The World Health Organization recorded only 18,631 people with laboratory-confirmed diagnoses dying of that disease. But the pandemic probably caused 15 times as many deaths, the CDC team concluded in 2012. A 2013 study by government and academic researchers suggested that lab-confirmed H1N1 deaths in the United States represented only 1 in 7 fatalities attributable to the disease. In the United States, federal and state public health officials for weeks refused to test people unless they met strict eligibility criteria. Testing is more broadly available today, but some experts say the tests may not detect everyone with the virus. Precisely how common false negatives are is unclear. Postmortem tests for covid-19 are happening unevenly across the country, experts said. Medical examiners, coroners and health-care providers should "use their judgment" to decide whether such testing is appropriate, according to CDC guidelines. In addition to the 6,593 lab-confirmed deaths, CDC on Friday reported that death certificate data shows 1,150 people have died of covid-19. The numbers differ in part because of a lag in reporting, and because the code for recording covid-19 as a cause of death was not announced until March 24, weeks after the first known case of an American dying of the disease caused by the coronavirus. Death certificate data will be part of the CDC's new effort to estimate total covid-19 fatalities. To estimate the total fatalities from a disease, scientists often look at "excess deaths" - the number of deaths over and above the average number during a particular period. The most robust estimates require national statistics that in the United States can take two or three years to compile, according to Cecile Viboud, a National Institutes of Health scientist who co-authored the study estimating the U.S. undercount during the H1N1 flu. The number of initially uncounted flu deaths typically includes people with pneumonia and other respiratory symptoms who were never tested for influenza, as well as a larger number of people who contract the flu and are left more susceptible to dying from such conditions as cardiac arrest, stroke and diabetes. Those people may not be reported as dying of the flu, but the flu still contributed to their death. Scientists do not yet know whether or how often covid-19 is killing people with these kinds of secondary problems. But it is clear that covid-19 can cause non-respiratory symptoms, scientists say. Last week, a group of Italian scientists published a study of a 53-year-old otherwise healthy woman who had arrived at a hospital complaining of extreme fatigue. She was suffering from acute heart problems, including inflammation of the heart muscle. She tested positive for the coronavirus. In Albany, Georgia, home to one of the nation's most explosive outbreaks, funeral director Jeffery F. Wakefield Sr. said he treats every body as if it is infected with the virus. Wakefield recently handled the body of a young man, around 40 years old, who died at home alone and was not found for several days. The man's death was attributed to cardiac arrest. He was never tested for coronavirus. "We'll never really have true, true numbers," Wakefield said. "We'll get almost close, but we'll never have the true numbers of who died from this." Epidemiologists say that patients who need medical treatment for conditions other than covid-19 may also suffer and die in places where the health-care system becomes overwhelmed by the virus. Even as testing has become much more widely available, it remains limited in such places as prisons and nursing homes where the disease is spreading quickly. The CDC says hospitalized patients and health-care workers should be at the front of the line for testing. People in long-term care facilities should come next, the agency says. In New York, the nation's largest hot spot, Suffolk County Medical Examiner Michael Caplan said in a memo to funeral directors on Wednesday that nursing homes and hospitals are responsible for collecting samples for postmortem testing. That is unrealistic, said Michael A. L. Balboni, executive director of the Greater New York Health Care Facilities Association, which represents long-term care residences. "The last thing that a nursing home is going to do is try to determine if someone who has passed away is covid or no covid," he said in an interview. "They have their hands full trying to dispose of their remains appropriately. ... Why waste the swabs on decedents?" A Suffolk County nursing home operator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the company's reputation, said some residents are sick with respiratory symptoms, and some have died, but virtually no one is being tested, dead or alive. The exception is when residents are taken to hospitals, the operator said. "We're assuming that everyone is positive," the operator said. "To utilize a test on the deceased, it's not going to be very helpful. Because at the end of the day, there's a shortage of tests to begin with. We don't have tests. We don't have swabs." The Federal Bureau of Prisons is no longer testing at a Louisiana prison where a dozen inmates have already tested positive and at least one has died. Sue Allison, a bureau spokeswoman, said that because the virus is spreading inside the facility, any inmate exhibiting symptoms is presumed infected. Allison said the decision on whether to posthumously test inmates who died of suspected covid-19 would be made with health officials on a case-by-case basis, depending on the availability of tests and other factors. In most states, people who die at home or have not been under medical care are reported to a patchwork system of medical examiners, lay and sheriff coroners, justices of the peace and other local authorities. Sally Aiken, the president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, wrote in a news release that "the public, in general, does not understand that there is not a uniform death investigation system in the United States. ... So, a uniform response to COVID-19 by Medical Examiners will not occur." Medical examiners typically investigate accidental deaths, homicides and suicides, and are not going to get involved in a "natural death" such as that caused by covid-19, said Amy Schaefer, an investigator supervisor for the medical examiner's office in Summit County, Ohio, near Akron. "You certainly are going to have numbers that aren't being counted because deceased people aren't being tested," she said. "We need to test people who are still alive." But in Wyoming - the only state that had not reported a covid-19 death as of Saturday - Laramie County Coroner Rebecca Reid said she is ready to test anyone with symptoms who dies at home. "We need an accurate cause of death to give the family some closure and make sure they have been safe," she said. "It's also very important that the public knows the truth." She has supplies to test five people, she said. - - - The Washington Post's Jacqueline Dupree, Abigail Hauslohner, Dalton Bennett and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report. Fighting a pandemic is a bit like fighting a war. There are different fronts where battles need to be waged. For ordinary people, the battle plan is clear (I hope) and composed of three key things. Firstly, self-isolation for 14 days for anyone who gets respiratory symptoms - cough, sore throat, fever, shortness of breath. They need to stay home with or without access to testing in order to prevent them spreading Covid-19. Rigorous social distancing for those occasional times we need to leave the house for essential reasons such as to get groceries, medicines, access healthcare or take a small amount of local exercise. Remain more than six feet from other people at all times. Wash your hands before you go out and after you come home. Use hand-sanitiser where possible. And if you inadvertently cough or sneeze, do it into your elbow and don't touch your face. And lastly, cocooning for those most at risk of becoming very unwell with Covid-19 - the over-70s and those with underlying health issues that compromise their immune or respiratory systems. Those people shouldn't leave their homes until this storm passes. Food and other necessities should be dropped to their doors and they should communicate with friends and family via digital means. These three things are all that people can do and to be honest they will make an enormous difference to the rate of the spread here which is vital in order for our health service to be able to cope as the case numbers climb. What the Government needs to do is different. It must instigate the best public health strategies to tackle Covid-19. The World Health Organisation recommends testing as many people as rapidly as possible and tracking down contacts of positive or presumed positive cases as the main ways to stop the virus. And we're doing that to the best of our abilities, shortages of reagent and resources notwithstanding. But there are other things we need to do as well and in my opinion these are the areas we are getting wrong. It is public health medicine that is informing much of Government strategy and, to keep the war analogy going by paraphrasing a speech, "Never has so much been asked of those few on behalf of so many." In many instances, they've moved far too slowly. Returnees from Northern Italy - a clear epicentre - should have been told to self-isolate. Ditto for those coming home from Cheltenham. Contact tracing at the beginning of this was done from day one of symptoms - it only changed to 48 hours before onset of symptoms earlier this week, when even a humble GP like me could see that was stupid. If we can't link one case to another, test and trace will not stop this virus. And they're now moving too slowly on masks as well. Places in Asia with flatter case curves than ours all wear them. The CDC in the US has advised wearing them. And even the World Health Organisation appears to be shifting on this too. You wear a mask to stop your own droplet spread - not to avoid other people's. So my mask protects you and your mask protects me. It's the same idea as coughing into a tissue. That we have a global shortage of personal protective equipment is not a reason to not give that clear advice. Because ordinary people don't need to wear hospital style masks - they can wear cotton ones. What we should have now is clear advice on masks for all, and people should start making and selling cotton ones that are washable and reusable. Pandemics move too quickly for us to wait on evidence in the normal way - we need incisiveness, speed and common sense now in the absence of that. But there is another important conversation that needs to be had. The Government needs to do its utmost to ensure the cure is not worse than the disease. When GDP falls below a certain level, the poverty that ensues will result in death and suffering for huge numbers as well. We need to resuscitate the economy as fast as we can - in tandem with protecting people from the virus. One study in Iceland where they tested 10,000 citizens for Covid-19 antibodies showed 5,000 had had the virus already - many had no idea they'd had it. It's not impossible we already have herd immunity of 30, 40 or even 50pc. Antibody testing needs to be rolled out as quickly as coronavirus testing so we can see who is immune and let them back out to restart our economy. They did this in China - those recovered from the virus had a special green pass that allowed them to move freely. And in Germany they're starting a mass study now to see how many people are already immune, so they can be issued with ''immunity passports''. I'm being told we're months away from this here but it is urgent. Hundreds of thousands of us have just lost our jobs. Many more of us have taken swingeing pay cuts. The measures that have been - rightly - rolled out by the Government will impoverish us a people for a decade. We've only just come out of a recession: going back into one will see longer hospital waiting lists, an absence of social housing and all the things we have been railing against get worse. The world is facing a global depression that will mirror that of the 1920s if we're not careful. The UK may have guntered the point and the process of trying to establish herd immunity, but if we can allow the immune and very possibly the under-30s back out while continuing to cocoon the vulnerable, we will continue to save lives while maintaining a world for people to come back to when coronavirus is finally treatable or preventable. That all of us are in lockdown - even those who have no reason to be - will make this situation worse than it has to be. I've signed up, like 70,000 other people, to be ''On call for Ireland'' as I believe that an immune doctor in the time of a pandemic is a very useful thing and I want to help if I can. But so is an immune bus driver. An immune nurse. An immune secretary or an immune shop assistant. We don't know yet what the true cost of the pandemic will be in terms of lives yet. But if there is a second wave coming, those of us who can keep the lights on, the wheels turning and the hospitals open need to be allowed back out to do so. This isn't a secondary issue. It's vital. We are getting lots right but there is more to do and we need to move very rapidly in this direction. @ciarakellydoc Some inmates at Alabama state prison facilities asking for help amid the novel coronavirus pandemic highlighted what they described as broader threats inside the U.S. prison system. "Its fixin to be a mass grave site," one prisoner said in exclusive footage obtained by ABC News. The video, aired on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, showed inmates who say they lack access to adequate handwashing and displayed a level of overcrowding that precluded their ability to practice social distancing. "My thing for the outside world is, help. Help. Help for the overcrowding, help for sanitary purposes, help for a release mechanism. We need to release some of these people, we need help," an Alabama prisoner said. ABC News reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections -- they acknowledged that current conditions mean they can't enforce social distancing -- adding that the department is working "to do everything in our power to mitigate the spread of the virus." As of Friday, no inmate in Alabama had tested positive for COVID-19, and "only two ADOC staff members have been confirmed positive." 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. The conditions in prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic are not just threatening those incarcerated, but also presenting a broader public health crisis, according to experts. "This is going to drive the entire epidemic curve for this nation up, just when were trying to flatten it," Dr. Homer Venters, an epidemiologist and former chief medical officer of the NYC Correctional Health Services told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. MORE: George W. Bush in 2005: 'If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare' The virus is spreading rapidly throughout the nations prisons. Story continues In the New York City correctional system, there is an emerging trend where the number of positive cases among city corrections staff has outpaced the number of infected inmates. As of Friday, there were 273 staff members who tested positive for COVID-19 compared to 239 inmates, according to the New York City Department of Correction. And those numbers do not include individuals who may have contracted the coronavirus while in custody, but have since been released. PHOTO: The Metropolitan Detention Center stands in the New York, Jan. 8, 2017. (Kathy Willens/AP, FILE) At the Cook County Jail in Chicago, one of the largest single-site jails in the country, the number of cases continue to spike. Its first two detainees tested positive on March 23 and by April 3, 210 detainees tested positive, according to the sheriffs office. "There is no such thing as social distancing inside prisons," said Topeka K. Sam, a prison reform activist advocating for the release of elderly, nonviolent prisoners due to the pandemic. After serving three years in federal prison for a nonviolent drug offense, Sam now serves as a senior adviser for New Yorkers United for Justice, a statewide campaign she helped co-found to advocate for criminal justice reform. Sam says the conditions are no different from what she experienced when she was incarcerated in both federal prison and county jails. MORE: Despite COVID-19 losses, quarantines, Detroit police soldier on "Theres no way to properly be 6 feet apart, there is no way to properly wash your hands," Sam told Stephanopoulos. "Theres not enough soap. They cant use hand sanitizer because alcohol products that are in them and they are considered contraband." Sams perspective is a stark departure from the position of some sheriffs, like Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hogdson, who believes prisoners are safer behind bars. "I cant think of anything that would be more distancing than have the prisoners in the jails, protecting the people on the outside from adding more carriers and more exposure," the sheriff from Massachusetts said on "This Week." "Its all about the control you have in your prisons," Hogdson said Sunday. "We have the protocols in place, we have no COVID-19 people." On Wednesday, a health care worker who treated inmates and detainees in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and Womens Center run by the Bristol County Sheriff tested positive for COVID-19, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. When she confirmed she had developed a fever on March 24, she put on a mask, left the facility and contacted her physician, according to the sheriff's office. She has not returned. Even if prisoners remain incarcerated, Venters said the way prisons operate the staffs could still send the coronavirus into the communities. "The danger here is that were not only really going to see the explosion of cases among people who are detained," Venters said. "These places are almost perfectly designed and run in a way to promote the spread of this virus throughout these institutions." There are nearly 2.3 million people incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons, jails and other correctional facilities across the country, according to a report from the Prison Policy Initiative. Additionally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently detaining about 38,000 immigrant detainees -- some of whom are seeking asylum -- at many of these institutions. Sheriffs nationwide have attempted to mitigate the risks in a variety of ways, including instituting visitor restrictions, enhanced precautions for staff and attempts to enforce social distancing. And, while criteria vary by state, there are currently no nationwide guidelines governing which inmates are eligible for early release or home confinement. Some state institutions and federal prisons have started releasing certain prisoners in vulnerable populations in an effort to contain the pandemic as the disease spreads through the system. MORE: No COVID-19 tests available for prisoners at center of New York outbreak, court documents show At a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Thursday, President Donald Trump expressed concern about these releases, saying that some prisoners "are getting out that are very serious criminals, in some states." PHOTO: President Donald Trump addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the press briefing room at the White House, in Washington, April 4, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Late Friday, Attorney General William Barr called to accelerate the release of vulnerable and at-risk inmates at particularly hard-hit facilities in Ohio, Connecticut and Louisiana, pushing for "transfers to home confinement of all appropriate inmates ... where COVID-19 is materially affecting operations," in a memo to the director of the Bureau of Prisons. Among the prisons Barr prioritized was the Federal Correctional Institution's Oakdale, Louisiana, facility, where five inmates have died of the coronavirus. Barr was clear his recommendations on expanding prisoner release would not come without restrictions. "The last thing our massively over-burdened police forces need right now is the indiscriminate release of thousands of prisoners onto the streets without any verification that those prisoners will follow the laws when they are released," Barr said in the memo. ABC News Luke Barr and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report. 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 US and Worldwide: coronavirus map 'We need help': Inmates describe prison system unprepared for coronavirus originally appeared on abcnews.go.com POLICE have been accused of aiding the spread of the deadly COVID-19 by patrolling streets without protective clothing and bundling those defaulting on the 21-day lockdown in crammed trucks where social distancing is not observed. President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday last week declared a national 21-day lockdown to slow the spread of the virulent coronavirus that has so far killed over 55 000 people globally, infecting over one million people in 204 countries. Mnangagwa ordered the police to enforce the lockdown that most observers feared would not succeed in the absence of social grants from government to support citizens in a fragile street-based economy. Since Monday when the lockdown became effective, police have been patrolling streets across the country forcing citizens to stay at home. Videos have gone viral from Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo, Kwekwe and other places of police officers without protective clothing beating up people, bundling them in crammed vehicles where social distancing is not being practised. Gweru Urban MP Brian Dube (MDC Alliance) said the police risk spreading the lethal virus, instead of curbing its spread by coming into contact with lockdown defaulters without wearing protective clothing. In an interview yesterday, Dube said the police might end up achieving the opposite of what they have been deployed to do. The purpose of a lockdown is to restrict movement and continued spread of the virus and not rhetoric, he said. When enforcing the lockdown, our security services must be well protected, with respiratory masks, gloves, sanitiser, and also keeping a distance. What is currently happening is scary and unsafe as the service people are being recklessly exposed. Police have been enforcing the order without the requisite respiratory face masks, hand sanitisers and gloves, despite getting into contact with scores of residents breaking the shutdown order. The State security agents have also not been observing the World Health Organisation recommended social distancing with civilians and even among themselves. NewsDay Weekender has observed police details packed in a truck, exposing each other to the virus. Dube, who is also a seasoned lawyer and MDC Alliances deputy legal secretary, implored government to look into the safety of State security agents to avoid a situation where they become a conduit of spreading the pandemic. My view is that government must be serious on this issue and protect everyone. The virus does not respect a gun or uniform and must be responded to with safety protection for all our people, he said. Also our hospital personnel must be properly protected with adequate safety mechanisms, to avoid putting them in death traps. Security forces enforcing the lockdown and medical personnel in the frontline of fighting the pandemic have been victims of the virus in many countries since it was discovered in Wuhan, China last year. Italy alone, the epicentre of the virus in Europe where close to 12 000 lives have been lost, over 60 doctors have died after attending to patients without protective clothing. Describing the situation, National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists president Filippo Anelli said: Our doctors have been sent to war unarmed. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Yulia Savitri (The Jakarta Post) Lahat, South Sumatra Sun, April 5, 2020 08:55 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc198f 1 National South-Sumatra,land-conflicts,agrarian-conflicts,farmers,killed,security-guard,suspect,villagers,oil-palm-plantations,palm-oil Free Years of conflict between residents of Pagar Batu village and oil palm plantation company PT Artha Prigel in Lahat regency, South Sumatra, reached a climax recently as company security guards allegedly killed two farmers from the village. Lahat Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Irwansyah said a security guard, identified as 38-year-old UB, had been named a suspect for allegedly stabbing the two farmers: Putra, 32, and Sumarlin, 38. We are still investigating the case and questioning other witnesses. It is possible that we will name new suspects later, Irwansyah said. The conflict has been ongoing since 1993, when the company forced Pagar Batu residents to give up their land in exchange for what they considered paltry compensation. According to the villages youth forum, the total area of the disputed land is about 180 hectares. Were still defending our land because it is the source of our livelihoods. Theres no more farm land in the village. Where else would we make our livings, a resident named Andriansyah told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, adding that the villagers had produced coffee, durian and rubber on the land for generations. Read also: Conflicts in South Sumatra triggered by overlapping land PT Artha Prigel is a subsidiary of PT Bukit Barisan Indah Permai of the Sawit Mas Group. The government granted the company an additional 35-year permit to cultivate the 2000 ha of land in 2006. After the New Order regime collapsed in 1998, the villagers made an effort to reclaim their land, urging the company to return it 20 years later, in 2018. Several efforts to bring the two parties to terms have been made but to no avail. Lahat Regent Cik Ujang arranged a proposal for the company to give up 20 percent of its plantation area to villagers under the plasma smallholders scheme, in which the villagers would sell the produce to the company. The offer was rejected, and villagers kept working the land without an agreement. On the morning of March 21, the plantation company moved to evict the villagers from the land. A number of company security guards, accompanied by police officers carrying rifles, arrived to enforce the eviction. Villagers resisted, and violence broke out between the two groups. In addition to the two farmers who died during the clash, two others were injured. They were taken to the Lahat General Hospital. The clash ended after the police fired warning shots and company security personnel withdrew from the land. The dead farmers have been buried. Their graves are a symbol of our fight. The injured farmers are recovering, said Andriansyah. Read also: Land disputes still common, putting farmers' future in jeopardy Civil society organizations, including the South Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Palembang Legal Aid Institute, lambasted what they considered the companys aggression. They wrote an open letter to President Joko Jokowi Widodo. We urge the President to evaluate palm oil plantation permits that have been leading to land conflicts, South Sumatra Walhi executive director Hairul Sobri said. He said the police should uncover the truth instead of defending one party in the conflict. He said facts had been manipulated regarding the naming of suspects. The National Police should also investigate the regional police for providing security assistance to the company during the conflict. Pagar Batu villagers have demanded that the government investigate the case thoroughly and work to settle the ongoing land dispute. PT Artha Prigel spokesperson Yulius Rafli did not respond The Jakarta Posts request for comment. (aly) Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO at Tesla, shared a tweet asking for country who are in immediate need of ventilators to contact him, on the ground that the ventilators are for immediate use and not to be stored in warehouse. We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device & shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse. Please me or @Tesla know. , Elon tweeted. The verified Twitter account of Nigerias Ministry of Finance replied to the tweet, writing: Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria. Nigerians have reacted to this action by the Ministry of finance in dis pleasure. Read the tweets and reactions below; Photo: Courtesy of Netflix Your favorite docuseries train wreck about zoos, murders, mullets, big cats, swingers, and leopard prints just might be adding a caboose. A trashy caboose, but a caboose nonetheless. Tiger King, a seven-episode hot-mess express that debuted on Netflix last month, will reportedly be releasing a new episode to tie up all those divisive loose ends. The intel comes from Tiger King star Jeff Lowe, a zoo owner and noted swinger (not to be confused with Joe Exotic, zoo owner and convicted felon), who shared an update via a Cameo video sent to a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Netflix is adding one more episode. It will be on next week, Lowe, a man who will undoubtedly be played by Michael Madsen in a television adaptation, explained. Theyre filming here tomorrow. The bonus episodes format has not been clarified, although, given Netflixs recent history, its reasonable to speculate a quasi-reunion. So our friend @christie_dish listened to the podcast, @HoldingKourt and after last weeks episode decided to send us this!!! BREAKING NEWS FOLKS There will be 1 more episode of #TigerKing on@Netflix pic.twitter.com/YeRSIlDKTJ Justin Turner (@redturn2) April 4, 2020 If your self-isolation era has yet to include a Tiger King binge were very proud of your restraint if so the docuseries primarily revolves around nationwide clusters of big cat conservationists and the zoo parks they built for their animals. These figures include the aforementioned Joe Exotic, a flamboyant Oklahoma man whos now in prison, and Carole Baskin, a Florida woman who may or may not have fed one of her husbands to her tigers. An exotic-animal provider to the stars also shows up, just for kicks. S Trimurthulu By Express News Service KAKINADA: Three days after returning home to Rajamahendravaram from London on March 17, a 22-year-old management student felt sick and feared he had COVID-19. Suspecting that he contracted the infection from his friends who tested positive, he got himself admitted at the Kakinada Government General Hospital, where he was put in the isolation ward. On March 20, his test results returned positive. But within 14 days, he recovered and was reunited with his family. Sharing his experience with TNIE, the youngster advised those who have COVID-19 to stay mentally strong and not lose hope. People who test positive can successfully recover and I am an example, he said. When he first suspected he was infected, the youngster feared the worst. I was afraid I would die, and didnt want to spread the virus. However, I didnt lose hope, and was confident of beating the virus with medical treatment, he said. I had to stay in an isolation ward, and felt like the whole world had come crumbling down.... For the first week, being alone and away from home was very difficult. I cried at times. However, I consoled myself saying that with the help of doctors, I would recover and see my family again, he recounted. Heaping praise on the doctors, the student pointed out how they treated him day and night at the risk of getting infected themselves. They would visit every day and check my health. From time to time they would collect samples to gauge my recovery. They took it is a challenge and succeeded, he said. Being alone is hard, but stay strong and dont give up Recounting his time in the hospital, the student said, Being alone is tough, but the isolation ward will be no different from any other place. You have to be mentally strong and believe in the doctors. In the isolation ward, he did not call his family until the doctors told him he had recovered. He was treated at KGGH, and recovered within a week. In the subsequent days, his samples repeatedly tested negative and he recovered completely Garda Deputy Commissioner John Twomey has urged the public to continue social distancing (PA) Members of the public have been urged to continue social distancing ahead of the expected coronavirus peak. Garda Deputy Commissioner John Twomey thanked people for high levels of compliance with the new rules so far and urged efforts to continue. We want to thank people for the high level of compliance with the health guidelines, said the senior officer who heads up the Gardas National Covid-19 Co-ordination Centre. Garda Deputy Commissioner Twomey Garda Deputy Commissioner Twomey reminds the public to follow the essential travel and social distancing guidelines as set out by the HSE. #PhysicalDistancing #WashYourHands #StayAtHome Posted by An Garda Siochana on Thursday, April 2, 2020 It is vital that continues today and for the rest of the time they are due to be in place. By working together and keeping to the HSE advice, we can flatten the curve and save lives. Mr Twomey added that people should continue to stay home, exercise within 2km of their home, and carry on social distancing. The HSE guidelines are designed to ensure that we stop the spread of Covid-19 and we reduce the risk to our friends and families. It is in all our interests that they are adhered to, he added. On Saturday it was announced that 17 more patients diagnosed with Covid-19 had died in Ireland, bringing the overall death toll to 137. And 331 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of detections to 4,604. At least, five militants and three soldiers were killed and three more injured in a fierce gunfight raging in a snowbound area close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmirs north-western Kupwara district since Sunday morning. The Army officials in Srinagar said that the fighting broke out after the Indian troops deployed along the de facto border in Keran sector noticed movement of a large number of infiltrators. They were challenged and asked to surrender which they refused. In the ensuing gunfight five of them have been killed and three of our jawans also laid down their lives, an Army official said. Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said, So far, our alert troops have while braving inclement weather and hostile terrain eliminated five terrorists who were attempting to infiltrate into our side of the LoC after taking advantage of bad weather. He said that one Army jawan was killed while fighting the militants and two of those critically injured in the clash succumbed soon thereafter. In a WhatsApp message to this newspaper, he said In this operation, one soldier has been martyred and two more are critically injured. Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions. In a subsequent message, the defence spokesman said, Despite prevailing inclement weather conditions, casualties have been evacuated. Unfortunately, two more soldiers succumbed to their injuries. Others are presently undergoing treatment. The spokesman added that the operation was underway as reports last came in. The police sources said that the Army had launched a search operation in the area three days ago and that helicopters were also used for surveillance and tracking down the movement of militants. On Saturday, four Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants were killed in a 12-hour-long gunfight with security forces in J&Ks southern Kulgam district. Two Army soldiers were injured in the clash which also left, at least, three residential houses razed to ground or extensively damaged in fire set off by the fierce fighting. With these killing the number of those killed in such and similar incidents in J&K, so far, this year has risen to 71. The slain include 54 militants, 9 security personnel and 8 civilians. Meanwhile, an Army jawan identified as Sepoy Satendra Kumar Tomar committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle in J&Ks northern Bandipore district on Sunday. The police said that the soldier, a resident of Madhya Pradesh and deployed with 14 Rashtriya Rifles, shot himself dead at 3. 45 am while on duty in Bandipores Pannar area. On hearing the gunshot, his colleagues rushed to the spot but found him dead already. The Army said that the reason for the soldiers taking this extreme step was not known immediately. Andrew Cuomo has been holding televised press conferences on the coronavirus pandemic at about the same rate as President Trump. The New York governor has acquitted himself quite well. This had a lot of my Democratic friends hoping that somehow the Democrats could substitute him for Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. Theres plenty of time for that. Thanks to the pandemic, the start date for the partys Milwaukee convention has been moved from mid-July to mid-August. That gives the Democrats time to ponder a switch that would make a lot of sense for them. Cuomos a smooth-talking, pragmatist who has lots of experience running a major state. At 62, hes at the top of his game. But its not going to happen. Thats what Cuomo said when his brother, TV talker Chris Cuomo, last week asked him With all of this adulation you're getting for doing your job, are you thinking about running for president?" No, said the governor, followed by no and no again to several variations on the question. Thats a loss for the Democratic Party, said one of the partys elder statesmen here in New Jersey. Everybody loves Cuomo, said former state senator Ray Lesniak of Elizabeth, Everybody waits every day for his daily briefings. He has seized the moment. The moment, yes. The Democratic presidential nomination, no. That would require convincing Biden to step down gracefully. Thats not going to happen, said Lesniak. Only Biden can do that and Bidens not gonna get out, he said. Thats a big break for Trump. Cuomos just-the-facts style is a good counter to Trumps histrionics. As for Biden, his temper tantrums could only help Trump. Lesniak, who knows Biden well from his experience as state party chairman in past campaigns, said Bidens getting bad political advice. He looks programmed, said Lesniak. Hes not being himself. That never comes across. (And when he does he embarrasses himself.) Perhaps. But the himself hes not being is a 77-year-old career politician who has nothing new to offer the voters. The Democrats seem to be forgetting their own history. Going back to John F. Kennedy, theyve performed best when theyve nominated relatively young candidates who can claim to be introducing new ideas to Washington. The sole exception was Lyndon Johnson. But he won in 1964 based on Kennedys legacy. He then dithered it away in 1968 with his mismanagement of the Vietnam War. Another elder statesman of the New Jersey Democrats recalls meeting Johnson that year at a private home outside of Washington. Mike Murphy, the former Morris prosecutor who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1997, was a college freshman when he met the president in February of 1968. The meeting came about because his father, Richard Hughes, was the New Jersey governor at the time. Murphy recalls LBJ speaking of how the war was negating his domestic agenda. The following month LBJ announced he would not seek another term. Theres a lesson in that for Biden, he said. Under normal circumstances theres no way you could deprive Joe Biden of the nomination, Murphy said. But these are not normal times. This is a crisis of proportions never seen before and you have to put the country first and your political aspirations second. Murphy suggested that the partys leaders, including Barack Obama, might want to sit down with Biden and urge him to yield to a stronger candidate such as Cuomo. The polls back him up. At this point on the last cycle, Hillary Clinton was holding a 10-point lead over Trump in the polls. But she went on to lose in the Electoral College. As for Biden, hes got a slight lead in most polls, but barely over the margin of error. Bidens real weakness is in the area of voter enthusiasm. The ABC News/Washington Post poll stated, that strong enthusiasm for Biden among his supporters at just 24 percent is the lowest on record for a Democratic presidential candidate in 20 years of ABC/Post polls. More than twice as many of Trumps supporters are highly enthusiastic about supporting him, 53 percent. Those voters would be a lot more enthusiastic if the candidates last name was Cuomo, said Lesniak, who knew the current governors father Mario well. He was a powerful speaker, Lesniak said of the former New York governor who was also touted for president but never made a run. Mario spoke from his heart and his soul and Andrew speaks from his brain. That brain wont do the Democrats much good if they stick with Biden. Theyve got 104 days to think about that. But dont tell them I said so. Lindsey Smith was skeptical in early March when her friend in Spain warned her about coronavirus. Parts of the European country were on lockdown and there were talks of a nationwide order. Smith, a preschool teacher who lives and works in Southeast Portland, couldnt imagine something like that happening in Portland. She was telling me a few weeks ahead of time, This is gonna get bad and you need to be ready, said Smith, 26. And I said, Its not going to happen here. Its not like were going to shut down everything and Im going to lose my job. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered schools statewide to close by March 16. Smith was laid off from her teaching job the next day. That same day Multnomah County and Portland officials announced a temporary suspension on landlords evicting tenants who couldnt afford rent because they were impacted by COVID-19. When rent was due April 1, Smith was one of those people. She rents a studio apartment in a three-story complex for around $1,000 a month, has student loan payments and other expenses. After taxes, she said she makes about $20,000 a year and supplements it with summer teaching work. She said shes applied for unemployment benefits. Smith was able to defer her rent payment for April by providing her building manager with a letter from her employer explaining she was laid off due to the coronavirus outbreak. The building manager sent her notices telling her to lay out a payment plan and guarantee shell honor it. Shes weighing if she should do it, but leaning toward not agreeing to anything. I dont know when Im going to be able to pay my rent again, Smith said. I couldnt afford to pay double my rent even when I was working. To be in a situation now where Im missing out on paychecks, rent fees are piling up and Im expected to just find the money from somewhere, Im very scared and Im angry. [Are you a renter? Are you a landlord? The Oregonian/OregonLive would like to hear from you. Click here to fill out this form.] Renters like Smith as well as landlords across Oregon are worried how theyll make rent and mortgage payments as the coronavirus pandemic has rocked the state. Over the past two weeks alone, more than 168,000 Oregonians have filed unemployment claims. Renters are concerned that eviction moratoriums that local and state officials touted as measures to keep them in their homes will lead to them ultimately being forced out anyway if they cant afford their deferred rental payments. Landlords, particularly those with few properties, are concerned about how theyll make their living expenses or mortgage payments with up to six months of lost revenue and no moratoriums in sight to aid them. If the tenant doesnt pay, we could be in trouble, said Pak Ng, 80, of Beaverton. We cant go a month without the money. Ng and his wife have rented out a two-story house they own in Beaverton to a family for two years. He said he makes around $500 a month in social security, a portion of which goes to Medicare insurance. He gets $1,600 from rent and said about half of that goes to property tax and insurance payments. The couple bought the house about three years ago for around $150,000, Ng said. He said hes thankful they dont have a mortgage to pay. Its another worry for us, Ng said. Were afraid to go out except for a walk around the neighborhood because of the virus and we dont know what tomorrow brings. Its unclear how many households have sought rent deferments in April and a clearer picture likely wont emerge until after April 5, when the grace period for most rental payments end, said Monica Foucher, a spokesperson for Home Forward, the housing authority of Multnomah County and the states largest provider of low-income housing. The agency operates more than 6,000 apartments, about a third of which are public housing units, and offers nearly 9,400 Section 8 rent assistance vouchers. Home Forward has instituted its own suspension of evicting COVID-19 impacted renters until at least May 31 and offering repayment plans of up to a year for accrued unpaid rent. Foucher said the occupancy rate of their units is typically in the upper 90% range and they average three people per household. The agency is working with the Portland Housing Bureau to provide as much as $500 to around 2,000 low-income families and Foucher said Home Forward hopes they receive enough in local, state and federal relief funding to lengthen the period of time they could go without requiring rent payments. A lot of housing authorities and government agencies have all talked about how we dont want people to have looming debts from this crisis and what we can do toward that is waiving rent, Foucher said. We just dont know if we can yet. Local officials have also called for temporarily erasing rent obligations. The Portland City Council on Wednesday sent a letter to state and federal lawmakers calling on them to forgive all rent and mortgage payments for renters and businesses whose income or expenses have been heavily hit by coronavirus. While local and statewide moratoriums on residential and commercial evictions were a vital step to stabilize renters, we need further action at the state and federal levels to stem the tide of evictions, foreclosures and bankruptcies that will occur without further intervention, the letter signed by Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioners Chloe Eudaly, Amanda Fritz and Jo Ann Hardesty. Half of Portland residents are renters and the average low-income household spends more than a third of their income on rent, they said. In response, Gov. Kate Browns office said its still analyzing the possible impacts of the CARES Act, the federal coronavirus relief bill, while also mulling what other actions can be taken to help Oregon families and businesses. Governor Brown appreciates local officials bringing their perspectives to the table, and welcomes their input on how their ideas can be implemented, said Charles Boyle, Browns press secretary. Meanwhile, Multifamily NW, a rental industry group whose members include landlords and property managers, urged state and federal lawmakers to ignore Portland officials, referring to the citys demands as misguided, uninformed and dangerous. Deborah Imse, the organizations executive director, wrote in a letter Thursday that the citys call to waive rent and mortgage payments wasnt a practical solution and reveals a deep misunderstanding of how our housing and financial systems work. If enacted, Imse wrote, the consequences would be dire. Imse laid out a scenario where the policy would force housing providers statewide to institute layoffs to cut expenses, including of leasing and resident services, security and maintenance workers. They wouldnt be able to pay property taxes and utility bills, or maintain partnerships with social service agencies and nonprofits. She wrote that navigation services for members of immigrant and homeless communities as well as supports for domestic violence victims could go away. Housing would be more apt to falling into disrepair and new units would stop being offered for rent, she wrote. Most large multifamily developments are not financed through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, Imse wrote. Rather, they are financed through a range of sources including investment banks, private individuals, private equity firms and public pension systems like PERS. Oregon government has neither the authority nor financial wherewithal to restructure or back these investments in the way that the city is proposing. Imse instead suggested the state temporarily expand its rental assistance vouchers program to the tune of around $350 million a month through the funds allocated through the CARES Act. Mark Madden, chief executive officer of EkoLiving Apartments, a property management company with more than 600 Portland-area units, said he thought a rent forgiveness plan was problematic. It doesnt really provide an economic outcome that would be beneficial to lenders or owners, he said. His company announced March 17 that it would be dropping April and May rent prices by 25% for tenants impacted by coronavirus. He said they wont be expected to pay back what was discounted. He said at least 100 residents are paying discounted rates. Madden said about 95% of EkoLivings tenants have paid rent as of Thursday. He said he hoped other landlords would decrease rent costs to help their residents, but he wasnt sure of how many actually have. People dont want to not pay rent, Madden said. They dont want to go in debt or have credit issues, so being able to give tenants help has been beneficial for everyone. He said the majority of his employees are working from home and they havent had to institute layoffs. He said theyll make an evaluation near the end of May of whether they can continue to provide decreased rent costs if the statewide stay-at-home order persists and people continue to be out of work. Kevin Mehrens, a Portland-based tenant attorney, said he believes the current climate will more heavily impact landlords who own one or a few rentals rather than large property management companies. He said hes seen a few cases of landlords whove allowed tenants to pay discounted rent or offered written agreements for payment plans. None of them mentioned that tenants may be allowed to defer payments for up to six months through local eviction moratoriums end like in Multnomah County, Gresham and Beaverton, Mehrens said. He said he believed the agreements were enforceable if tenants sign them and that he didnt believe there was anything in the eviction moratoriums mandating that landlords and property owners inform their tenants they exist the moratoriums exist. Tenants may also not be entitled to the deferment if they dont properly notify their landlords by April 1, Mehrens said. That could mean tenants could be charged late fees in addition to accrued rent and could be taken to court for not paying rent after the eviction moratorium lifts. Robert Brown, who rents a unit in a low-income housing complex in East Portland, said April 1 meant he likely had to choose between paying rent and buying food. He was furloughed from his job at Burgerville at the end of March where he earned about $1,000 a month. He applied for unemployment benefits after he lost his job, but after two weeks, still hasnt heard any updates on whether hell receive any benefits. Brown said he and his fellow tenants are sharing food to make sure those who are most at risk of contracting coronavirus can remain at home. He said he and about a quarter of his 40 neighbors decided against the deferment and instead are boycotting paying rent in April in the hopes that it will eventually be waived. Im not going to give my landlord the little bit I have in savings with no income and no way of knowing how itll affect me next week or months from now, said Brown, 25. At this point, things are going to get worse before they get better. -- 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. New York, April 3, 2020 -- Authorities in Togo should lift the suspensions of the Liberte, LAlternative, and Fraternite newspapers and ensure all media are free to cover politics and all other newsworthy topics, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Togos media regulator, the Broadcast and Communications High Authority, ordered the privately owned daily Liberte and biweekly LAlternative to suspend publication on March 23, and ordered weekly Fraternite suspended on March 30, according to copies of the suspension orders reviewed by CPJ. The orders require Liberte to suspend print and web operations for 15 days, and LAlternative and Fraternite for two months each. The orders suspending Liberte and LAlternative referenced a March 6 complaint filed by the French ambassador to Togo, Marc Vizy. The complaint, a copy of which CPJ reviewed, was published on embassy letterhead and alleged that the papers had published serious, unfounded, and calamitous accusations against the French government. In its order suspending Fraternite, the regulator cited a March 25 report in the paper criticizing the suspensions of the other two newspapers, and alleged that the report was discourteous, insulting and defamatory. Togolese authorities suspension of Fraternite, Liberte and LAlternative over their coverage critical of French and Togolese authorities is grossly irresponsible given the public health crisis the country is facing, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator. The French ambassador to Togo, Marc Vizy, should withdraw his complaint about the two newspapers and work to encourage support for press freedom, not opposition to it. The three newspapers are known for their critical reporting on the government of Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 and won a disputed re-election in February, according to news reports . All three outlets had recently been reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, according to LAlternative editor-in-chief Isidore Kouwonou and Liberte director Medart Ametepe, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and reporting published on Fraternites website. Vizys complaint, printed on French embassy letterhead, referenced an article published by Liberte on March 3 titled "Marc Vizy, the other enemy of democracy in Togo, which alleged that Vizy had sided with Togos government against its people. The complaint claimed that Liberte had made unfounded accusations against Vizy, and therefore, through him, against the country he represents in Togo. The complaint also referenced an article published in LAlternative on February 28 titled Francafrique and support for dictators: Franck Paris, the intriguing, alleging that Paris, the French presidents adviser for Africa, supported autocratic regimes on the continent. Vizy claimed LAlternative had made unfounded accusations against Paris and therefore, through him, against the president [of France] himself. On March 16, the Broadcast and Communications High Authority summoned the papers leaderships to discuss the complaint and said that the reports contained insufficient veracity or supporting evidence, according to the suspension orders. Kouwonou told CPJ that he told the regulator that his paper was willing to include Vizys reply to the article in question. However, Vizy wrote in his complaint, I do not request the right of reply, and called on the regulator to sanction both papers. Kouwonou said that the regulator asked him to print a correction to the article, but he refused. When CPJ called the French embassy in Togo, an embassy representative declined to comment. CPJ called the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and was transferred to the office of the ministry spokesperson Agnes von der Muhll, but the line rang unanswered. CPJs follow-up calls also went unanswered. CPJ reached Badibassa Babaka, a member of Togos Broadcast and Communications High Authority, by phone on March 31, but he said that Willybrond Telou Pitalounani, the regulators president, was the representative able to comment on Liberte and LAlternatives suspensions. Reached by phone on April 1, Pitalounani asked for CPJ to submit questions by email through the High Authoritys website, which CPJ did the same day. CPJ did not receive a response to those queries. India on Saturday lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans recent intemperate remarks on the new domicile law in J&K issued recently by the Indian Government, advising Islamabad to end cross-border terrorism and desist from its campaign of violence and false propaganda. MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, We have seen the intemperate remarks by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on India. With regard to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, it is very clear that Pakistan has no locus standi whatsoever on any aspect pertaining to it. Repeated attempts to interfere in Indias internal affairs will not make its untenable claims any more acceptable. If Pakistan really wants to contribute to the welfare of the people of J&K, it could do so best by ending cross-border terrorism and desisting from its campaign of violence and false propaganda." Spewing venom, the Pakistan PM had recently said, We strongly condemn the ... Modi Government's continuing attempts to illegally alter the demography of J&K in violation of all international laws & treaties. The new Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Order 2020 is a clear violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. Timing of this latest illegal action is particularly reprehensible because it seeks to exploit the international focus on COVID19 pandemic to push forward BJP's Hindutva Supremacist agenda. The UN and international community must stop India's continuing violations of UNSC Resolutions & International law. He had added, We stand with the Kashmiris in rejecting this latest Indian attempt to alter the demography of J&K. Pakistan will continue to expose ... denial of the Kashmiris right to self determination. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Moscow, Russia Sun, April 5, 2020 15:30 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd2955 2 World police,investigation,ShootingIncidents,Moscow Free A man in central Russia shot and killed five people for talking noisily at night under his windows, investigators said Sunday. The shootings took place in the Ryazan region during stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. A 32-year-old man from the small town of Yelatma opened fire on a group of four young men and a woman who "were talking loudly in the street under his windows" at around 10 pm on Saturday, investigators said. Yelatma is located near the city of Ryazan, which is situated some 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of the capital Moscow. The man went to his balcony to complain to the group and a dispute erupted before he reached for his single-barrel hunting rifle, the Investigative Committee said. "They all died of their injuries on the spot," it said in a statement. The suspect whose name was not released has been arrested. His apartment has been searched and the weapon seized. Deputy Ryazan region governor Igor Grekov travelled to the scene of the shootings on Sunday. Topics : police investigation ShootingIncidents Moscow State of Beer, a downtown bottle and draft shop, only takes online orders due to COVID-19 pandemic | Photo: Rachel Vachon North Carolina will have to ramp up its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic before thinking about restarting its economy, a roadmap by Scott Gottlieb warns.Gottlieb, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under President Trump. Gottlieb suggests a longer wait before Americans get back to work and social distancing measures end.Whether the state can actually satisfy Gottlieb's proposals remains unclear, and businesses say they won't survive if the state adopts those measures fully and shuts down the economy for weeks or months.Under Gottlieb's plan, social distancing would remain until new cases declined steadily for two weeks - and until all residents with COVID-19 symptoms could be tested and hospitals had the capacity to care for all patients. That would require a national capacity of at least 750,000 tests per week and a doubling of the nation's supply of critical-care beds and ventilators.Even then, some physical distancing measures would continue, as would limits on gatherings. Schools and businesses would reopen in phases, but older adults and other at-risk people would take extra precautions. Restrictions wouldn't completely disappear until effective treatments or a vaccine was available.Such measures would hurt the state even more. Businesses are already furloughing and firing workers, and many say they won't survive if restrictions continue for weeks or months.Gov. Roy Cooper declared a 30-day statewide stay-at-home starting March 30, closing "nonessential" businesses that can't practice social distancing. He had already shuttered restaurants March 17, except for takeout and delivery. He closed schools a day before.More than 300,000 people filed for unemployment in the two weeks since the outbreak began to affect the state's economy. That dwarfs the Great Recession, when 25,000 people filed claims in a month. Cooper said the agency is buried under a "mountain of claims," and it remains unclear how soon checks will go out.Congress's coronavirus relief bill aims to soften the economic blow, but businesses question whether the measures will roll out in time - and whether they'll be enough if lockdowns drag on.said Jordan Roberts, John Locke Foundation health care policy analyst.A thicket of regulations has left North Carolina less prepared for the pandemic, and the state has a bigger lift than most to meet Gottlieb's suggestions and get its residents back to work.North Carolina had 2.1 hospital beds per 1,000 residents - putting the state behind the national average of 2.8 hospital beds in 2016, and below both Spain and Italy, which have been pummeled by COVID-19 and are rationing care.Gottlieb wants hospital capacity to soar before people return to work. Ideally, areas would have five to seven critical care beds and ventilators per 10,000 adults. That's an ambitious lift for North Carolina, which lags behind the nation in its supply of medical care. North Carolina had three intensive care unit beds per 10,000 people, but less than one empty ICU bed per 10,000 people, according to the state's most recent data.North Carolina has temporarily lifted state caps on hospital beds, waiving Certificate of Need laws that restricted the supply of medical care to keep costs low. Hospitals are now free to add beds, but staffing those beds remains a concern.said Joe Coletti, JLF policy analyst.Automakers are racing to make ventilators after Trump invoked the Defense Production Act. General Motors plans to make 10,000 critical care ventilators a month, beginning with a few thousand in April. Ford promised 50,000 ventilators by early July. Private companies are manufacturing masks and other equipment.The nation is closer to hitting Gottlieb's target testing capacity, but North Carolina still grapples with shortages.More than a million people have been tested in the U.S., which is now conducting 100,000 tests a day. North Carolina completed 23,106 tests as of Wednesday, April 1. The state is struggling with testing shortages and backlogs, and it has pivoted away from testing in tracking COVID-19.Gottlieb tweeted But if social distancing continues for weeks or months, North Carolina businesses fear for their future.Many restaurants have shut down entirely, and less than a quarter of hotels remain partly open. Even the restaurants doing takeout are operating with a "skeleton staff," and many are losing money. Some are forgoing payments and firing workers, but still finding themselves cash-strapped, said Lynn Minges, N.C, Restaurant & Lodging Association president.Minges said.Many would not survive if restrictions continued for months, Minges said.Even real estate agencies, declared essential businesses, are seeing business slow to a crawl. Realtors are helping elderly residents sell their homes after their retirement savings disappeared in the stock market crash, said Maren Brisson-Kuester, N.C. Realtors president.Brisson-Kuester said.Every $100 million of lost economic activity results in an anticipated death, says Kip Viscusi, an economist at Vanderbilt University who developed a statistical model estimating the value of an individual life.Viscusi said.But social distancing policies will prevent bigger economic losses, based on the statistical value of people who survive, Viscusi says.Viscusi said. CIL subsidiaries have distributed more than 3.3 lakh face masks to the people in and around coal mines as the country battles the coronavirus crisis, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Friday. "As #IndiaFightsCorona, coal companies are contributing immensely to the battle against #COVID19. So far, @CoalIndiaHQ with support from subsidiary companies, has distributed more than 3.3 lakh face masks to the populace in and around coal mines," the minister said in a tweet. Of the 3.3 lakh face masks, Coal India Ltd (CIL) arm ECL has distributed the maximum 76,367 masks followed by NCL- 66,847, SECL- 64,536, WCL- 52,613, among others. CIL had earlier pledged Rs 220 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES)Fund to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output. The PSU has taken various initiatives to continue the dry fuel supply to various sectors, including power, even during the lockdown period. The measures include extending the time for coal lifting and making payments and relaxing penalty against defaulters, the minister said. In his memoir Apropos of Nothing, released last week after a staff protest necessitated a rapid change of publisher, Woody Allen makes a quip about his low opinion of humanity. "Being a misanthropist," he writes, "has its saving grace - people can never disappoint you." Ah, but they can, Woody, they can. Up until four or five years ago, Allen was the eminence grise of American comedy, a man with a shady personal past, no question, but also one of the truly great screenwriters, a former stand-up with a fine line in relationship comedies who, as he turned 80, was still pumping out a film a year, some of them, like Blue Jasmine (2013), of Oscar-winning quality. Now, his late purple patch is well and truly over. He's a pariah, struggling to get backers for his films, pilloried online by the #MeToo movement, but does he deserve it? It depends who you ask. In his book, he mounts a vigorous, jokey and sometimes passive-aggressive defence of his reputation. He recalls, affectionately and otherwise, his parents Nettie and Martin Konigsberg, who "disagreed on every issue except Hitler and my report cards" and "stayed married for 70 years - out of spite, I suspect". Expand Close Woody Allen forgives the anger of Mia Farrow over his affair / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Woody Allen forgives the anger of Mia Farrow over his affair He pinpoints the origins of his existential despair. "My own speculation centres around the fact that at five or so, I became aware of mortality and figured, uh-oh, this is not what I signed on for. I had never agreed to be finite." He talks about friends, people he worked with, about his young life in Brooklyn. And of course he talks about the elephant in the room: the break-up of his relationship with Mia Farrow as a consequence of his relationship with his adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, and Farrow's subsequent assertions that he had molested another adopted daughter, Dylan. His description of Mia Farrow is carefully constructed, and damning. It was her "drop-dead punim" (a yiddish word for face) that first attracted him. She was "bright, beautiful, she could write, could draw". She also had seven children, but Allen asserts that while all this boho chaos seemed charming at first, it and Farrow's beauty blinded him to the fact that she was, according to him, mentally unstable. He talks about problems in Farrow's background, a sibling suicide, another brother convicted of child abuse. All of this dysfunction, Allen reckons, Mia visited on her ever-expanding brood. "Mia enjoyed adopting," he writes, "loved the excitement, like one buys a new toy. She liked the saintly reputation, the admiring publicity, but she didn't like raising the kids and she didn't really look after them." He cites some pretty damning parental neglect. Sportingly, he forgives her anger over the discovery that he was sleeping with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. At the time, Allen was 55, Soon-Yi 21. "I understand her shock, her dismay, her rage, everything," he says. "It was the correct reaction." Big of him. But it was Farrow's rage, he then asserts, that led her to accuse him of molesting seven-year-old Dylan. Video of the Day In Apropos of Nothing he asserts, as he always has, his innocence: "I certainly didn't do anything improper to her". He had, he claims, a strong parental bond with Dylan, and was very upset that he was subsequently not allowed to see her. But he is philosophical: "Why is it when attacked I rarely spoke out or seemed overly upset? Well, given the malignant chaos of a purposeless universe, what's one little false allegation in the scheme of things?" That allegation was twice investigated by New York State, and twice dismissed for lack of evidence, but its cordite whiff has never quite dissipated, resurfacing epically to dovetail with #MeToo courtesy of a two-pronged attack by Dylan Farrow and Allen's exceedingly estranged son Ronan Farrow. All of that is old ground, but even if you put the Dylan allegation to one side, along with the Soon-Yi affair, Allen's general attitude to women in his book is unsettling. He seems incapable of mentioning a female without rating her appearance. As a young man, he recalled chasing "delectable bohemian little kumquats" around Manhattan. While filming Casino Royale in 1960s London, "one could stroll on the King's Road and pick up the most adorable birds in their miniskirts". Christina Ricci is "plenty desirable", Rachel McAdams "looks like a million bucks from any angle". And recalling working with the 19-year-old Scarlett Johansson, he says "before you meet her you have to fight your way through the pheromones... she was sexually radioactive." At this stage, even dyed-in-the-wool misogynists have become adept at covering their tracks, but Allen seems completely tone-deaf in this regard. Allen might not come out of his own autobiography too well, but that doesn't make him a bad artist. Only a child or a dim-witted zealot judges art on the basis of its creator's personality. Take Balthus for example, the Polish-French painter whose obsession with pre-pubescent females has raised many hackles: he might have been a creep; he was also a genius. Cancelling Woody Allen's entire back catalogue in revenge for his moral failures would be to spite ourselves. His early comedies, like Love and Death and Sleepers, are at times sublime; the mid-period comic dramas like Annie Hall and Hannah and her Sisters are hugely accomplished. And perhaps paradoxically, he's written lots of great roles for women. There's one film of his, though, I might find hard to watch again. Manhattan is often cited as one of his very best films, a brilliantly written relationship comedy set in 1970s New York and following the romantic fortunes of Issac Davis, a Jewish writer and Woody proxy. He's middle-aged, neurotic, and spends most of the film loving and leaving a 17-year-old high school girl called Tracy. "Hey, the little girl is fine!" he insists at one point to Diane Keaton, who plays a confident older woman who is Issac's equal in every regard. But she will never seem as attractive as the pliant, compliant teenager, to whom our 'hero' ultimately returns. I used to watch that film and admire it. Now I can't help remembering that the scenario was based on a real relationship Allen had with a young actress called Stacey Nelkin whom he met on the set of Annie Hall. He was 42, she was 17. Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen is available on Kindle now and will be published later in the year Error 404 Sorry, we cant find what you were looking for. Ventilators from Tesla. Hand sanitizer from Anheuser Busch and fellow distillers. Face masks from General Motors. It sounds like something out of a science fictionor possibly parodynovel, but it is, in fact, our new reality: the reality where businesses change to survive and help fight the pandemic that shook the world. And oil and gas players are joining the effort. Call it what you will -- an attempt to regain credibility in the public eye, a way to take advantage of a bad situation, or simply doing the only reasonable thing to do in the circumstances, but oil and gas majors are indeed trying to help. Shell, for example, said last month that it was diverting resources to the increased production of isopropyl alcohol, which is the primary ingredient in hand sanitizers. It also said it would make 2.5 million liters of the ingredient freely available to the healthcare sector in the Netherlands. The supermajor is also offering free food and drink to healthcare professionals at 15,000 retail outlets globally as well as to truck drivers and delivery personnel "who are vital to maintaining supplies." Total, for its part, has pledged gasoline vouchers worth $54.2 million (50 million euro) to French hospitals for their workers' travel to fight the virus, as well as donations to the Pasteur Institute and other research facilities. "In this period of crisis, Total's teams remain mobilized to enable French people to make all their necessary travel arrangements. With its nationwide network, Total is working alongside those who are fighting the epidemic everywhere. Which is why the Group has decided to make this practical gesture of support for our hospital staff, who are working to ensure the health of patients," CEO Patrick Pouyanne said. BP is also offering free gasoline to UK and Spanish emergency services vehicles as well as free delivery of food and convenience goods from its fuel stations. The supermajor also offers free fuel and fuel cards in Germany, Poland, and Turkey's capital, Istanbul. The company also said it had donated $2 million to the WHO's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Related: OPEC+ Discuss 10 Million Bpd Cut Involving Other Producers Exxon has teamed up with a research organizationthe Global Center for Medical Innovationto develop safer reusable personal protection equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, such as face shields and masks. The company said the FDA is currently reviewing the prototypes, and as soon as it gives them the green light, Exxon will begin production. Such equipment is very much in demand right now, with shortages of N29 protective face masks in short supply in many disease hotspots. Eni has set up a hospital in Rome to treat the many victims of Covid-19 in Europe's hardest-hit country. The supermajor is also collaborating with other hospitals in Italy to expand patient capacity and emergency response capacity. The company is donating a total of $33 million for various Covid-19-related efforts. Others are donating. Chevron said it had distributed more than $7 million to food banks, educational, and healthcare services. Refiner Valero has donated $1.8 million to front-line organizations. Naturally, there is space for criticism. Handing out sandwiches as Shell is doing may be a nice thing to do, but is it enough, given the company's resources? BP's free fuel will also no doubt be criticised as will the size of its donation to the WHO's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. A company making billions donating just a couple of measly million to fight the modern plague? They could have kept it. The thing is, however, if these companies were doing none of those things, they would still have been the target of criticism. Right now, Big Oil is in the position of Big Banking back in 2008-2009, for certain groups. Related: Why A 15 Million Barrel Per Day Cut Will Never Happen Whatever they do, they would never get it right. It is, however, worth mentioning those that have joined the anti-virus effort, because most oil and gas businesses have their hands full with just surviving. First, they slashed their spending plans. Then they shelved share buybacks. The next step will be the start of layoffs unless the oil price situation improves sharply and quickly. "A sustained drop in oil prices would cost the sector 50,000-75,000 jobs if employment returned to its low from a few years ago," Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income, told CNBC a couple of weeks ago. The chances of that happening are, unfortunately, quite big. In fact, with everyone calling the current crisis unprecedented and the worst in history, job loss in the oil industry could end up being even greater than during 2014-2016. Whatever their motivation, it's good that Big Oil is helping fight the pandemic now while they can still focus on anything else besides survival. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Bengaluru, April 5 : A couple, who returned to the city from Dubai in the UAE two weeks ago, tested positive for coronavirus, taking the number of such cases to 146 in Karnataka, an official said on Sunday. "The couple -- husband, 68, and wife, 62 -- with a travel history returned from Dubai on March 22, and tested positive for the virus," said the official in a statement here. The duo was quarantined in Akash hospital at Devanahalli on the city's northern outskirts and near the international airport on landing. "The couple was kept in isolation at the hospital, it remained asymptomatic till Saturday but displayed the Covid-19 symptoms on Sunday", added the official. Alice B. McGinty (alicebmcginty.com) is the award-winning author of almost 50 books for children. She just launched a new website, NewsFromTheHappySide.com. Pakistan has quarantined 20,000 worshippers and is still searching for tens of thousands more who attended an Islamic gathering in Lahore last month despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic, officials said Sunday. Authorities said they want to test or quarantine those who congregated at the event held by the Tablighi Jamaat -- an Islamic missionary movement -- between March 10-12 over fears they are now spreading COVID-19 across Pakistan and overseas. More than 100,000 people went to the meeting, organisers said, undeterred by government requests for it to be cancelled as the virus hit the country. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have so far quarantined 5,300 Tablighis or Islamic preachers who attended the Lahore meeting. "Health officials are conducting tests for coronavirus and some of them have tested positive," Ajmal Wazir, a spokesperson for the region, told AFP on Sunday. Wazir said thousands of Tablighis from his province were stranded in other regions because of the closure of major highways across the country. About 7,000 have been quarantined in the central Punjab city Lahore, while in southern Sindh province up to 8,000 Tablighis have been quarantined, government officials said. Dozens more have been forced to self-isolate in southwestern Balochistan province. The Tablighi mosques and the movement's other places of worship were shut down or marked as quarantine centres at the end of March. At least 154 worshippers who went to last month's Jamaat had tested positive for coronavirus, with two fatalities, authorities told AFP. Coronavirus has killed at least 45 people in Pakistan but with only limited testing available, observers worry the number is far higher. Tablighi Jamaat is considered one of the world's largest faith-based movements, with millions of followers, particularly in South Asia, and sends preachers to countries to spread Islam's ideas. Numerous foreign nationals attended this year from countries including China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Afghanistan, organisers said. About 1,500 foreigners are now quarantined in Pakistan, but others left the country without being tested. Gaza's health ministry confirmed last month its first two cases of coronavirus were Palestinians who had attended the gathering. Pakistan's science minister Fawad Chaudhry earlier expressed exasperation that the event had gone ahead, blaming the "stubbornness of the clergy". Organisers said they cut the gathering short following advice from the authorities, however at the time they said it was due to rainy weather. Similar Tablighi Jamaat congregations held in Malaysia and India during the coronavirus pandemic have been blamed for spreading the virus to other nations. ak-kf-la-mak/sjd/ecl/rbu/it Islamic worshippers leave on March 13, 2020 after attending the three-day Tablighi Jamaat on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan -- organizers said more than 100,000 people attended the event, undeterred by government requests for it to be cancelled A Pakistani policeman at a checkpoint in Lahore, where the Islamic missionary movement gathered Iran has registered 151 new coronavirus-related deaths in the preceding 24 hours, raising the overall death toll in the country since the start of the outbreak to 3,603, the Health Ministry's spokesman said on Saturday. "Unfortunately, 151 people have died over the past 24 hours in hospitals and medical facilities. The total number of deaths as a result of the coronavirus disease is 3,603," Kianush Jahanpur told the IRINN TV channel. The Health Ministry spokesman also confirmed that more than 2,400 new cases of the disease were reported in the previous 24 hours. "Over the past 24 hours, we have confirmed 2,483 new cases of the coronavirus infection. Based on this data, the number of infected people has risen to 58,226," he said. Jahanpur also announced that 22,011 people have recovered after contracting the disease. Earlier in the day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran intends to reinstate travel between provinces as of April 18. Businesses will also be allowed to resume their activities from this date, the president said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Daniel Trotta and Alexandra Alper (Reuters) - The United States is entering what a senior official warned on Sunday would be the "hardest" week of the coronavirus crisis as the death toll mounted, but some saw glimmers of hope from a slight slowing of fatalities in hard-hit New York. New York, the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, reported on Sunday that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before. But there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases in the state. Louisiana has become a hot spot for the virus, reporting a jump in deaths to nearly 500 and more than 13,000 cases. The governor predicted the state would run out of ventilators by Thursday. Places such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C., are also starting to see rising deaths. "This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on Fox News on Sunday. "It's going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that new hospitalizations had fallen by 50% over the previous 24 hours. He cautioned that it was not yet clear whether the crisis was reaching a plateau in the state, which has a total of 4,159 deaths and more than 122,000 cases, by far the most of any U.S. state. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T) Nationally, cases the respiratory disease topped 336,000, while the death toll stood at 9,573, according to a Reuters tally. Cuomo said that once the peak of the epidemic passed, a mass rollout of rapid testing would be critical to help the nation "return to normalcy." President Donald Trump said the country faced a "great hour of grief," but expressed hope that deaths could be leveling off in New York. Story continues "We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening," he told reporters. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of Trump's coronavirus task force, said it took weeks for efforts like social distancing and stay-at-home orders to slow the virus' spread. "What you're hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, are going to look really bad," Fauci told reporters. (Graphic: U.S. coronavirus, https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html) STAY-AT-HOME HOLDOUTS Most states have ordered residents to stay home except for essential trips to slow the spread of the virus in the United States But eight states, all of them with Republican governors, have yet to order residents to stay home: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Georgia, which has recorded 6,600 cases and more than 200 deaths, ordered residents to stay home but then allowed some beaches to reopen. Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson defended his refusal to order statewide restrictions, saying the situation was being watched closely and that his more "targeted approach" was still slowing the spread of the virus. Adams, the surgeon general, said governors who had not issued month-long stay-at-home orders should at least consider one for the upcoming week. White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed. A few churches held large gatherings on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week in Christian churches. Pastor Tony Spell, who was arrested last week for holding services, summoned his faithful again, three weeks after Louisiana banned gatherings of 10 people or more. Oregon, which has reported around 1,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, said it was sending New York 140 ventilators, machines that help people breathe after the virus attacks their lungs. Washington is returning over 400 of the machines to the Strategic National Stockpile for hard-hit states like New York. New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said the city had enough ventilators to get through Tuesday or Wednesday, and he was seeking between 1,000 and 1,500 more from federal and state stockpiles, which he estimated had 10,000 and 2,800, respectively. (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Amanda Becker, Alexandra Alper, Matt Spetalnick, Jan Wolfe and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta in New York, and Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England; Writing by Lisa Shumaker and Andrew Hay; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney) No fresh coronavirus positive case was reported on Sunday in Gautam Buddh Nagar, even as the number of COVID-19 tests saw a sharp spike to cross the 1,000-mark, officials said on Sunday. Gautam Buddh Nagar adjoining Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh has so far 58 positive cases of COVID-19, the highest for any district in the state, according to official figures. "A total 1,020 samples have been sent for COVID-19 test from Gautam Buddh Nagar so far, of which 58 have tested positive, 632 negative and result for 336 was awaited," the Health Department here stated in its daily statement. Eight people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far while the active cases stand at 52, it said. Currently, 1,129 people are under surveillance across Noida and Greater Noida, while another 363 quarantined -- 90 of them at a Gautam Buddh University hostel and the rest in special isolation facilities at hospitals in Noida and Greater Noida, it added. Previous daily statements from the department had put the test samples figure at 804 on Saturday, 699 on Thursday, 696 on Wednesday, 626 on Tuesday and 531 on Monday, showing a steady upward rise. Data was not available for Friday. District Magistrate Suhas L Y on Sunday reiterated his appeal to the people to stay indoors and practice all measures against the pandemic like social distancing and hand sanitation. He also warned of action against people spreading any false rumours related to the novel coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When it comes to quantum computers, we tend to think of companies like Google and IBM as the big players in the field, but there could soon be more competition in the space. Honeywell says sometime in the next three months it will unveil a quantum computer that is at least twice as powerful as any current device. Breaking down that claim requires some context. As Protocol points out, most companies talk about qubits when they speak to the capabilities of their machines. For instance, Sycamore, the computer Google claimed last year achieved quantum supremacy, had 53 qubits. Honeywell is instead using a metric called quantum volume to talk up the capabilities of its machine. IBM coined the term, and here's how it defines it: "Quantum Volume takes into account the number of qubits, connectivity, and gate and measurement errors. Material improvements to underlying physical hardware, such as increases in coherence times, reduction of device crosstalk, and software circuit compiler efficiency, can point to measurable progress in Quantum Volume, as long as all improvements happen at a similar pace." The point here is that quantum volume attempts to measure the performance of a computer by taking a holistic view of its different parts. Raw qubits are important in the calculation, but so is how they interact with one another. For instance, the lower the error rate those qubits generate, the better the score. Ultimately, however, the larger the quantum volume value, the more complex problems the computer can solve. Honeywell claims its upcoming computer will have a quantum volume of at least 64. To put that number in perspective, IBM recently announced a 28-qubit computer it built had a quantum volume of 32. The company was able to achieve this feat in part to thanks to a breakthrough it made in 2015 when it developed a technology that uses lasers to trap electrically charged atoms in a superpositioned state. As exciting as Honeywell's achievement is, it's probably best not to get too excited until the company properly details the computer. Last year, Google generated conflicting amounts of hype and controversy when it announced that it had achieved quantum supremacy. IBM, in particular, called the company's claims "indefensible" based on the fact Google built Sycamore to solve one specific equation. That said, it appears most other companies are at least optimistic about what Honeywell has managed to do. For instance, IBM's Research arm told Protocol, "Honeywell's paper shows exciting new progress in programmable trapped-ion quantum systems." The company has also gained the Microsoft seal of approval, with the two announcing a partnership that will give Azure clients access to Honeywell's quantum computer. KCMO Audit Plan Revealed KCMO.gov - City of Kansas City, MO FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2020 CONTACT: Douglas Jones, City Auditor, (816) 513-3300 The City Auditor's Office's annual audit plan focuses on audits that will provide information and recommendations to improve city services, ensure careful use of tax dollars, and provide transparency. Our goal is to issue seven performance audits in Fiscal Year 2021. KCK Pandemic Good Deeds Giving Hope hosts grocery pick-up in KCK KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A local organization is helping the community during the coronavirus pandemic. On Saturday, Giving Hope passed out more than 250 bags of food and necessities. The items were provided by Harvesters and Convoy of Hope. Cure For Boredom Whilst Fighting Coronavirus At Home Tired of staring at the same four walls? Here are some of the newest paint trends By Kathy Feist So you're stuck inside. Look around you. Does your home need a little upgrade? Maybe you still have the pink walls from the 90s. Or the "everything tan" from the Tuscany period. If so, it's a good time (what else is there to do?) to transform your surroundings. EPIC Kansas City Chiefs Practice Kick Celebrated Chiefs kicker drills 77-yard field goal during lonely offseason workout and he has video to prove it If the Kansas City Chiefs need to free up some salary cap space, they might want to think about just cutting their punter, because based on how Harrison Butker's offseason is going, the Chiefs might not ever have to punt again. Redeeming Angels Calls Upon Former Glory Of Hotties Victoria's Secret's New Era Already Looks Like a Time Capsule Last month, Victoria's Secret attempted to put its past year and a half of turmoil in the rearview mirror by cutting ties with L Brands, its longtime parent company. Dire Prez Trump Prediction Trump Warns "There Will Be a Lot of Death" in "Toughest Week" for Coronavirus Crisis The Roberts Court Has Made the Looming Coronavirus Election Crisis So Much Worse Coronavirus Supply Czar Jared Kushner Demonstrates He Has No Grasp on Coronavirus Supply Situation After 9/11, America Rallied Behind New York. Not This Time. Money Talk From AOC AOC offers advice for young people to get around stimulus check exclusion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez railed against a provision in the coronavirus cash assistance program that penalizes young people and offered advice on how to potentially get around that during a virtual town hall this week. Coronavirus Briefing Debate Trump team picks fight with Twitter, TV networks over political speech 's reelection campaign is aggressively pressuring Twitter and broadcast outlets to sanction or pull misleading political attacks from Democrats, accusing the social media giant and the news media of using a double-standard when it comes to policing political speech. Veep Talks Virtual Democracy Biden says 2020 convention may be 'virtual,' will wear mask in public amid COVID-19 outbreak The convention was delayed to August. Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" the recently delayed Democratic Convention will have to happen, but conceded that it may need to be held virtually if the novel coronavirus continues to pose a public health threat by mid-August. Chiefs Game Plan Examined Kansas City Chiefs' Approach Is Perfect For Coronavirus-Affected Offseason, According To NFL Analyst The Kansas City Chiefs have a plan in place for how they want to approach the offseason. After the restructuring of wide receiver Sammy Watkins' contract, it's clear the plan is to bring back as many pieces from last season as possible. Local Cooking Advice Looking for recipes while stuck at home? Try some of these local chef recipes While stuck at home, you may as well make something delicious. A few renowned Kansas City chefs have shared their recipes for you and your family to try out during your coronavirus self-quarantine. You just may find your new go-to. Plowboys Burnt End Chili Photo provided This smoky, slightly spicy chili by Todd Johns, Plowboys Barbeque owner and award-winning Chief... Kansas City Forecast For Now 60s Sunday, much warmer Mon. through Wed. OF THE WEEK, TEMPERATURES WILL BE PLUMMETING. RIGHT NOW WE A AT 35, BUT WE WILL BE WARMER THIS AFTERNOON WHEN WE WERE YESTERDAY. WE CLIMBED TO 72 DEGREES TOMORRO, 80 DEGREES ON TUESDAY, UPPER 70'S ON WEDNESDAY. THEN HERE IS THE DOWNHILL SIDE, THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, O TEMPERATURES DIVE DOWN. Once again, inspired by, we take a peek at pop culture, community news and info form across the nation. Checkit:is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now . . . As the world grapples with the Coronavirus health crisis, Iran has leveled unprecedented allegations against Israel's spy agency, Mossad. Iran's state media claimed that Mossad has been running 'clandestine operations' and 'nabbing' medical supplies. Israel recorded 7,851 positive Coronavirus cases and 44 deaths until Sunday morning. "Israel's spy agency Mossad has been running clandestine operations to sneak medical supplies in Israel. In early March, Mossad nabbed 100,000 virus test kits. It became clear later that the kits were faulty," Iran's Press TV said. Israeli spy agency hunts for Covid-19 medical supplies worldwide #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/3ijIhSfX0u Press TV (@PressTV) April 4, 2020 READ| Iran Minister coughs, wipes sweat amid Coronavirus briefing, hours prior to his diagnosis The Jerusalem Post had reported that Mossad had "obtained" 100,000 testing kits overnight on March 19 to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. The report further warned of 'additional Mossad operations' which could bring up to 4 million testing kits to the Middle Eastern country. However, despite securing Coronavirus tests, Israeli officials later reported that the kits were wrong. Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu sought Mossad's help, asking them to find medical supplies through their web of intelligence networks. It was then reported by local media outlets, and experts that the Israeli intelligence agency approached Muslim, Arab countries with whom Israel does not share diplomatic ties, for medical supplies. The head of Israel's shadowy Shin Bet internal security service said on Tuesday that his agency received Cabinet approval overnight to start deploying its counter-terrorism tech measures to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Israel. Netanyahu acknowledged that technology had never been used before on civilians and would involve a certain degree of violation of privacy. But he said the unprecedented health threat posed by the virus justified its use. Coronavirus in Israel Israeli Health Ministry on Friday announced that only those with travel histories will be tested for the novel Coronavirus, despite the symptoms. Citing a shortage of medical equipment to test, the country in the Middle East narrowed the scope of testing. Israel's Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing all top leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, and National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, to go into quarantine, officials said on Thursday. Prime Minister Netanyahu had earlier gone into seven-day self-isolation after a close aide was found to have contracted the deadly virus, but he has so far tested negative. His quarantine had ended Wednesday night. READ| Bernie Sanders, other US lawmakers write to Trump to lift Iran sanctions amid COVID-19 READ| Iran says virus contagion slows for fourth day (With AP inputs) U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on April 4 that the inspector-general of the intelligence community he fired the previous day had taken "a fake report and took it to Congress with an emergency," lending weight to accusations that the dismissal was retaliation connected to Trump's congressional impeachment over pressure he put on Ukraine. Trump informed the Senate Intelligence Committee late on April 3 that he had fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence official who handled the 2019 whistle-blower complaint that described the presidents pressure in a July 2019 phone call with Ukraine's president to investigate Trump political rival Joe Biden and his son. "I thought he did a terrible job, absolutely terrible." Trump told reporters on April 4. "He took a fake report and he took it to Congress with an emergency, OK? Not a big Trump fan, that I can tell you." The whistle-blower complaint, written by an anonymous intelligence official, described accounts of the phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump asked for "a favor" and urged investigation of Biden and his son. Atkinson reportedly determined the complaint was urgent and credible and therefore was required to be disclosed to Congress. But Atkinson was overruled for several weeks by the acting director of national intelligence before public reports of the complaint prompted its publication with redactions. An inquiry in Congress led to the Democratically controlled House of Representatives passing two articles of impeachment against Trump in December. The Republican-controlled upper house, which tries impeachment cases, acquitted Trump in February. Never came in to see me, never requested to see me, Trump said of Atkinson in his remarks on April 4, adding: "That man is a disgrace to IGs [inspectors-general]." He repeated his earlier description of the phone call with Zelenskiy as "perfect" and said it had been wrongly described in the whistle-blower's account. The partial transcript released by the White House appeared to largely corroborate the whistle-blower's account, although Zelenskiy later said that he had never felt "pressured" by Trump. Michael Horowitz, chairman of an independent federal watchdog within the executive branch called the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), vowed after Atkinson's firing that the U.S. inspector-general community "will continue to conduct aggressive, independent oversight of the agencies" it oversees. Horowitz, who also has been the inspector-general of the U.S. Department of Justice since 2012, said on April 4 that Atkinson was known for his "integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law and independent oversight." Horowitz said the committee would work "on behalf of U.S. taxpayers, families, businesses, patients, and health-care providers to ensure that more than $2 trillion in emergency federal spending is being used consistently with the law's mandate." Democrats have expressed concerns about how the recently approved fiscal package to combat the social and economic devastation of the current COVID-19 pandemic will be disbursed by the U.S. Treasury, whose secretary answers to the president. Atkinson's firing elicited questions from Democrats but also from some prominent Republicans. Senator Chuck Grassley (Iowa-Republican), who heads the Finance Committee in the upper house, said Congress was "crystal clear" that written reasons were required when inspectors-general are removed for cause. More details are needed from the administration," Grassley said. Another Republican, Senator Susan Collins (Maine), who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested Trump's rationale for firing Atkinson outlined in his April 3 letter might be insufficient. The dismissal, she said, "was not warranted." Another Republican, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (North Carolina), said an inspector-general "must be allowed to conduct his or her work independent of internal or external pressure. Trump's letter was addressed to Representative Adam Schiff (Democrat-California), the head of the House Intelligence Committee, and Devin Nunes (Republican-California), the top Republican on the committee. Schiff called the firing a "blatant attempt to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing." "It puts our country and national security at even greater risk," Schiff tweeted. Trump wrote that he plans to nominate an individual who has my full confidence to replace Atkinson at a later date. The senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, Senator Mark Warner (Virginia), said that "we should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicize the nations intelligence agencies." With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa Doctors and nurses are being forced to share masks or hold their breath while treating coronavirus patients due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), a leading doctor has claimed. Dr Rinesh Parmar, of the Doctors Association, told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that despite government promises to equip all NHS staff with the necessary PPE, health workers were still being left exposed within hospitals. He said that a survey conducted by his organisation has found that almost half of doctors say they have no eye protection at all. In some hospitals, staff were having to reuse eye masks, Dr Parmar said, adding that nurses doing high-risk procedures are having to hold their breath. Given the severe lack of PPE getting through, we are all very concerned about potentially losing more colleagues, he said. Dr Parmar said it was sad to hear of those who had already been lost in the line of duty, adding none of us want to hear further stories of frontline staff losing their lives. To combat PPE shortages, doctors are also being forced to accept donations from local schools science labs, he said. Dr Parmar also raised concerns about the countrys testing capacity, saying: We have heard in the last few weeks that testing is going to be ramped up. It would be welcome to see that in practice. He claimed that there have been reports of doctors going to testing centres, only to be turned away. Saffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, told Sky News that, over time, increasing testing may be doable. She said that testing is important because the more staff we test, the more staff we can get back to work. Asked if there are concerns that some regions of the country are better prepared for the pandemic than others, Ms Cordery said that the stock of ventilators is being managed nationally. She added: I think that the nature of this pandemic is that it is spreading from region to region. London is probably best prepared because London has seen the surge in demand hitting first. It is important that every part of the country is supported. Earlier on the programme, health secretary Matt Hancock warned that people sunbathing in public spaces amid the recent warm weather were breaching the coronavirus social distancing rules. The vast majority of people are following the public health advice, which is absolutely critical, and staying at home, he said. But there are a small minority of people who are still not doing that its quite unbelievable frankly to see that there are some people who are not following the advice. Asked whether sunbathing in public spaces was against the law, he said: Sunbathing is against the rules that have been set out for important public health reasons. He warned those who are flouting the guidance: You are putting others lives at risk and you are putting yourself in harms way. A doctor working in New York City is applauding the efforts of health officials on P.E.I. for the measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. "It's been very interesting to see that almost in lock-step as measures were rolling out in New York City, P.E.I. was rolling out very similar measures even with very few cases," says Dr. Kyle MacDonald. He said that so far all the causes on the Island have been linked to travel and people are self-quarantining. "Whereas in New York the kind of lockdown or shelter-in-place measures we weren't doing that until we were seeing deaths and there was already well-known community transmission," he said. MacDonald grew up in Charlottetown and now works for the New York Department of Public Health. He, like many doctors, has a battle on his hands but it isn't with coronavirus. MacDonald is part of a $1 million project for the Centre for Disease Control battling deaths from opioid addiction. However, as a public health doctor he knows how viruses work and what needs to be done to stop them and he said P.E.I. is doing things right. Rapid increase in cases MacDonald said he watched as the number of COVID-19 cases went from one in early March to causing thousands of deaths in New York State. "We went from having one case to two weeks later entire parts of the city being shut down including offices. Broadway is closed, which never happens," he said. When MacDonald looks out his window he sees the Empire State Building, the United Nations Building, the Chrysler Building but it isn't the busy New York City people are accustomed to. "You see, kind of, one car go by, two cars, maybe one person on the sidewalk," he said. "It's very stark how quiet it is here." MacDonald said on March 13 it was announced 10 per cent of city staff would start working from home and in three days, on March 16, it was announced all city staff would be working from home. Story continues "I've been working from home two weeks so far," he said. Not quick enough MacDonald said New York didn't act as quickly as P.E.I. when the first cases were reported. "A lot of the measures have come quite late and because of that the disease had already been spreading very rapidly. So even though the city has been on essentially a lockdown for two weeks we are still seeing a tremendous increase in cases and death." He said that is a reflection of how widespread COVID-19 was before measures were brought in. What about addicts? MacDonald works with those struggling through addiction and said that is a particular group he is worried about during the pandemic especially in the United States. "The U.S. has some particularities that make it a bit more difficult for folks unfortunately to access treatment than in Canada and there is a lot more restrictions around addiction treatment," MacDonald said, although some of those regulations have been relaxed because of COVID-19. "Here in the U.S. if someone is on methadone, which is a common treatment for substance abuse disorder, you have to go every day to get your treatment from a methadone clinic." MacDonald said everyone has to line up and wait to receive their treatment. "Whenever you have a viral illness you are trying to have people six feet apart it doesn't make sense to have everyone all lined up in the same place every day to get their treatment," he said. In Canada methadone treatment is done at some pharmacies and some clients can take a supply home to sustain themselves for a short duration that doesn't happen often in the U.S., MacDonald said. "Now some of the rules have been relaxed to try and make sure that we're not having our most vulnerable people be repeatedly exposed." He said things like writing prescriptions over the phone are being considered, so clients don't have to see a doctor in person and use up their limited supply of personal protective equipment to do that. It's tough to be away from family during the pandemic, MacDonald said, but he has been keeping connected with family through social media and video messaging. "It's interesting to kind of see how people adapt in different ways." COVID-19: What you need to know What are the symptoms of COVID-19? Common symptoms include: Fever. Cough. Tiredness. But more serious symptoms can develop, including difficulty breathing and pneumonia, which can lead to death. Health Canada has built a self-assessment tool. What should I do if I feel sick? Isolate yourself and call 811. Do not visit an emergency room or urgent care centre to get tested. A health professional at 811 will give you advice and instructions. How can I protect myself? Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Clean regularly touched surfaces regularly. More detailed information on the outbreak is available on the federal government's website. More COVID-19 stories from CBC P.E.I. WASHINGTON : US President Donald Trump has said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the amount of Hydroxychloroquine ordered by the United States after India last month banned the drugs for exports. Trump said that he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxycholoroquine for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily news conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on March 25 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine but said that certain shipments on humanitarian grounds may be allowed on a case-by-case basis. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the worst sufferers of the deadly coronavirus diseases to which there has been no cure. Scientists across the world in particular in the US are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine, a decades old malaria drug, for the successful treatment of coronavirus. Following a quick provisional approval from the US Federal Drug Administration last Saturday, the malaria drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. In the next several weeks, health experts in the US has projected between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to coronavirus, which due to human-to-human transmission is spreading like a wildfire in the US. In anticipation of it being a successful drug in the treatment of coronavirus, the US has already stockpiled some 29 million doses. It is in this context Trump requested Modi to help US get millions of doses of Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that can be produced at mass scale in India. Trump said he would appreciate if India releases the amount of Hydroxychloroquine that the US has ordered. "And I said I would appreciate if they (India) would release the amounts that we ordered," he said, without mentioning that quantity of Hydroxychloroquine that has been ordered by US companies from India. The Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Trump said that people in malaria affected-countries take Hydroxychloroquine and not many people are infected by coronavirus. Trump said that he would take Hydroxychloroquine, if needed. "I think people should if it were me, in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, Ok? I may take it. And, I'll have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it," he said in response to a question. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics The stillness which had become so much a part of the tricity over the last two weeks was shattered by exploding firecrackers on Monday night as people in their enthusiasm to follow Prime Minister Narendra Modis solemn call for a candlelight vigil to unite to fight the coronavirus epidemic exceeded their brief to keep things low-key. Even as residents, following PM Modis Friday call to show solidarity and battle the pandemic, switched on their mobile phone lights and lit candles and diyas on Sunday at 9 pm, the sound of crackers sounded a jarring note. This is the height of insanity and insensitivity to celebrate death and disease with so much pomp, show and bursting of crackers. This is a real wake of call for people who love India and the Indian ethos of compassion and humanism above all, said, Pramod Sharma, who heads Yuvsatta, an NGO. It was very peaceful initially. People had lit candles in their balconies, many were playing bhajans on their music systems, when suddenly crackers started popping. This was a solemn occasion, not something to celebrate, said Nayna, a resident of Sector 43. Dr Ravindra Khaiwal , additional professor, environment health, The School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, said, The purpose (of lighting diyas) was for showing solidarity with the citizens who are at the forefront of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, but a few people resorted to bursting of crackers. Thats an undesired step, he said. We are in the midst of a pandemic and people are celebrating as if its Diwali, quipped Mohali mayor Kulwant Singh. Former railways minister and Congressman Pawan Kumar Bansal felt this showed the over enthusiasm and hype built up over the PMs announcement. What was supposed to be voluntary action has now become a must-do thing. Crackers were burst in most parts of the tricity. In some localities, enthusiastic Bharatiya Janata Party workers resorted to sloganeering in favour of their party and PM Modi. It appears that people, by bursting crackers, did not understand the sensitivity involved in the issue. The call was not for this, said Dr Pramod Kumar, director, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh. Sir Keir Starmer stormed to victory in the Labour leadership race yesterday only to face an immediate threat from hard-Left activists not to betray Jeremy Corbyn's legacy. The fervently pro-Corbyn Momentum group reacted to Sir Keir's overwhelming triumph by vowing to hold the new leader to account 'and make sure he keeps his promises'. But the threat sparked fury from many MPs last night, with even one former Corbyn ally saying that such was the scale of the new leader's victory that the hard-Left was now 'just howling at the moon'. In a decisive result, Sir Keir defeated 'Corbyn continuity' candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy by winning more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round. Sir Keir Starmer stormed to victory in the Labour leadership race yesterday only to face an immediate threat from hard-Left activists not to betray Jeremy Corbyn 's legacy He was the top choice of party members, affiliates and registered supporters with 56 per cent of the vote way ahead of Ms Long- Bailey on 28 per cent and Ms Nandy on 16 per cent. As Sir Keir already has the backing of most Labour MPs, party insiders said he was in a far more powerful position than Mr Corbyn ever was and could 'take out' the hard-Left if he wanted to. In a further blow to the Left, schools spokesman Angela Rayner was elected deputy leader with ardent Corbynite Richard Burgon pushed into third place. However, Sir Keir who has promised to keep key Corbyn policies such as nationalising the rail and water industries still left some MPs mystified last night over how different he would be. There is deep concern from Northern, Brexit-supporting Labour MPs over how Sir Keir, who backed Remain and represents a North London constituency, could appeal to the 'Red Wall' of seats lost to the Tories at the Election. And there has also been disappointment for years that while the Tories have had two female leaders, Labour refuses to give a woman the top job. Harriet Harman bemoaned this two years ago, saying: 'It's becoming a bit of a thing.' In an acceptance speech delivered via the internet because of the coronavirus crisis, Sir Keir warned his party had 'a mountain to climb' and that if change was required 'we will change'. The fervently pro-Corbyn Momentum group reacted to Sir Keir's overwhelming triumph by vowing to hold the new leader to account 'and make sure he keeps his promises' But Sir Keir, who during the contest was careful not to antagonise Corbyn supporters, continued that approach yesterday by paying tribute to the former leader 'as a friend as well as a colleague' but vowing on antisemitism to 'tear out the poison by its roots'. The promise failed to quell criticisms that he had failed to speak out strongly enough over the party's handling of the issue while serving as Mr Corbyn's Shadow Brexit Secretary. His spokesman also denied reports that he had already told Mr Corbyn's former chief of staff Karie Murphy, strategy director Seumas Milne and party general secretary Jennie Formby that they would have to leave. Momentum, set up originally to protect Mr Corbyn's leadership, responded with congratulations to Sir Keir but tweeted: 'In this new era, Momentum will play a new role. 'We'll hold Keir to account and make sure he keeps his promises.' Oxford MP Anneliese Dodds is being touted for Shadow Chancellor as Sir Keir today takes the key step of naming his front bench. Moderates are urging him to clear out Corbynista 'dead wood'. Clooney chum's journey from an anti-royal Trot to knight of the realm: Can Sir Keir Starmer, who focus groups find 'dull, wooden and too lawyerly', really make inroads into the Tories' electoral lead? As he knelt before Prince Charles in the Buckingham Palace ballroom, Keir Starmer's emotions were characteristically difficult to read. Did his heart swell with pride as the knighting sword tapped his shoulder. Or did he feel a little conflicted? After all, reflecting some years earlier, the lawyer said: 'I got made a Queen's Counsel, which is odd since I often used to propose the abolition of the monarchy.' Yet he left his investiture in 2014 as a knight of the realm in recognition of his services to criminal justice and, however much it irked him, with his Establishment credentials firmly consolidated. Some friends found the honour hard to reconcile with the firebrand politics of Starmer's youth, just as they were discomfited when he led the Crown Prosecution Service, having previously been on the 'other side' as a defence barrister. As he knelt before Prince Charles in the Buckingham Palace ballroom, Keir Starmer's emotions were characteristically difficult to read. Did his heart swell with pride as the knighting sword tapped his shoulder. Or did he feel a little conflicted? His knighthood has been ridiculed, too, by members of Labour's hard Left, who say he is an Establishment stooge. Starmer won yesterday's vote because he convinced an outright majority of members that he is best placed to draw together Labour's disparate elements. Calling for an end to factionalism and purges, he appealed to moderate centrists while placating radical Corbynistas. 'I am a socialist,' he told his local paper, the Camden New Journal. 'I'm driven by the very deep inequalities that we've now got across the country of every sort: income, wealth, health, influence it's deeply ingrained.' Pitching to Corbyn supporters, he promised 'a very forward-looking radicalism'. Some critics cried opportunism but, of course, that is the trademark of most modern politicians. The bigger question now is whether the man who focus groups find 'dull, wooden and too lawyerly' can make inroads into the Tories' electoral lead. Perhaps in an attempt to enliven his image, Starmer confided in a New Statesman interview last week that he moisturises every night. Born in 1962, his father, Rod, was a tool designer, his mother, Jo, a nurse who suffered from Still's disease, a rare auto-immune disorder characterised by fevers and rashes. Starmer spent long nights at her side in hospital being inspired by her courage and devotion. Starmer (pictured with his wife Victoria) won yesterday's vote because he convinced an outright majority of members that he is best placed to draw together Labour's disparate elements. Calling for an end to factionalism and purges, he appealed to moderate centrists while placating radical Corbynistas After studying law at Leeds University and then at Oxford, he flirted with radicalism as part of the 'editorial collective' for a fringe magazine that vowed to challenge the 'capitalist order' and turn Labour into 'the united party of the oppressed'. He duly became a barrister at Middle Temple, where he focused on fighting human rights cases, engaging in battles to get rid of the death penalty in the Caribbean and in African countries. His commitment to the underdog was unstinting and he won many plaudits for it. In 2008, despite having never prosecuted a criminal case, Starmer was an unorthodox choice as the new head of the CPS as Director of Public Prosecutions. In a video for his leadership campaign, he claimed to have 'stood up to the powerful' as DPP. But others claim he pursued 'victim-centred' justice at the expense of the rights of defendants. He was criticised for following fashionable liberal causes, and he also had to deal with phone-hacking and the Jimmy Savile scandal. The latter led him to propose altering the tests used to assess complainants' credibility in sexual violence cases, saying: 'We cannot afford another Savile moment.' His reforms culminated in guidance instructing CPS lawyers to focus on the credibility of complaints, rather than that of complainants. Starmer's influence on reforms still triggers anger to this day. One such critic is DJ Paul Gambaccini, who was investigated in 2013 over historic sexual abuse but later won damages from the CPS after the case against him was dropped. Gambaccini accused Starmer of using his position to conduct a 'witch-hunt' against celebrities. 'I have the most negative feelings about Keir Starmer imaginable,' he said earlier this year. 'Countless human beings were tormented because of him and he has never apologised. Keir is not only unsuitable to be leader of the Labour Party, he is unsuitable for any public position down to and including dog-catcher.' I still fear the power of zealots who tolerated antisemitism and thuggery in the Labour Party, says former Home Secretary LORD BLUNKETT The long goodbye is over. Jeremy Corbyn's exit spells the end of the power exercised by the very small clique around him. But it does not spell the end of a much wider group who still control the party's machinery and decision-making processes. Proclamations of unity and outbreaks of sweetness and light are, to say the least, premature. However, at a time of darkness, there is sometimes a small shining light. A dismal chapter has closed in the history of the Labour Party and therefore, too, of this country's functioning democracy. After four-and-a-half years, the zealots of the hard-Left no longer hold the Labour Party. Meanwhile, the bulk of the membership has at last woken from its slumbers to recognise the catastrophe that befell the party in December when we suffered our fourth successive General Election defeat and ended up with fewer MPs than during the Michael Foot debacle of 1983. The long goodbye is over. Jeremy Corbyn's exit spells the end of the power exercised by the very small clique around him. But it does not spell the end of a much wider group who still control the party's machinery and decision-making processes. Pictured: the new Labour leader Keir Starmer leaves his home yesterday morning But this is only a beginning. The control of so many levers remains in the grip of those who tolerated antisemitism, ignored thuggery and bullying, and drove out decent people dedicated to the democratic parliamentary means of improving the lives of others. The brutal truth is that, removing the influence of those who joined Labour only to destroy it, such as the organisers of the far-Left group Momentum, will require more than benign indifference. After a similar hard-Left Militant Tendency attempted takeover in the 1980s, I was spat at as I walked into National Executive Committee meetings to play my part in expelling those who had joined Labour with the sole aim of taking over the party and betraying the people who had traditionally supported us. Sir Keir Starmer's challenge is to recognise that healing has a lot to do with delivering the right medicine, not merely covering up the wounds. Inevitably, there is a temptation to concentrate on being a constructive Opposition. But it will not be enough, in the short-term, to articulate the demands for a dramatic improvement in testing for Covid-19 or to accelerate the distribution of personal protection equipment. Labour must also have a vision of how the nation should come together in the long period of recovery. I supported Lisa Nandy to be leader because she expressed the hopes and fears of so many people who felt forgotten, politically isolated, and in some cases, downright antagonistic to the Labour Party. Her role will be crucial in ensuring those voices are heard. With billions being spent by the Government to support furloughed workers, on grants and loans to businesses, and to pay for new applicants for Universal Credit, there will no longer be any immediate capacity to rebalance the economy. Now is the moment for radical, ambitious and forward-looking policies. Not a comfort zone of indecision or complacency, but rather an understanding that the future belongs to the brave. Pictured: Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn Many jobs will never re-emerge. Many small businesses will never recover. New ways of working, forced by necessity, may result in fewer employees and jobs with entirely different skills. Most likely, the communities that suffered most from deindustrialisation in the 1980s and 1990s will be hit again. The same people worst affected by the global financial meltdown of 2008. There will be lasting political consequences, as always after major traumas such as war. Some think this will bring people together. I am not so sure. Isolation, separation and the impact of substantial job losses, as well as the wiping out of savings and the loss of income for millions, may have the opposite effect. All the more reason that Labour's new leadership breaks from the schoolboy politics of those who surrounded Corbyn and who had no empathy with working people. By necessity in this coronavirus crisis, the Conservatives have abandoned long-held dogma such as their ideological objections to the role of the State. For its part, Labour must set aside its own dogmas. As the fourth Labour leader of the last five to be rooted in North London, it will be vital for Keir to reach out and embrace Britons living way beyond the M25. To those who felt betrayed by Corbyn's Labour, there must be a clear signal of internal change and party direction, as Tony Blair understood when driving through reforms to Labour's constitution and dropping a commitment to State ownership. The people whose votes we lost need to believe that we have really changed, and reverted back to the party that they loyally supported for generations and believed represented their interests. Now is the moment for radical, ambitious and forward-looking policies. Not a comfort zone of indecision or complacency, but rather an understanding that the future belongs to the brave. A New York hospital where some staffers said they could not get coronavirus tests even after a nurse died of the disease it causes has told workers that starting Tuesday it will provide tests to all employees who have developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19, according to an email obtained by NBC News. "Starting on Tuesday, April 7, if you develop symptoms consistent with COVID-19, we would like to test you for this viral infection using the PCR test with a nasopharyngeal swab within a few days of the onset of your symptoms," said the email Saturday from Senior Vice President Vicki R. LoPachin to all staffers of the New York City area's Mount Sinai hospital network. "This will provide guidance to you and to Employee Health Services regarding your clinical status and return to work." "If you were symptomatic prior to April 7, we would like to test you for COVID-19 infection using the serum antibody test. This will provide guidance to you on whether you did have COVID-19 infection as well as whether you are a candidate to provide a plasma donation to help others." Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak The email came after queries to the network from NBC News on whether it planned to make tests available to staffers at Mount Sinai West, a hospital on Manhattan's West Side, and a protest Friday by staffers from various Mount Sinai hospitals that included demands for testing. The email said staffers would receive more information Monday. A spokesperson for the Mount Sinai hospitals did not respond to requests for comment about the network's testing policy for employees and its decision to make tests available starting Tuesday. IMAGE: Kious Kelly (Marya Sherron / via AP) Kious Kelly, an assistant nurse manager on a cardiac observation unit at Mount Sinai West, died of the coronavirus disease on March 24. At least two Mount Sinai West employees who worked in his unit, known as 10B, and a nurse who did not have tested positive for infection, according to interviews with two of the sick employees and the daughter of the third. Story continues According to interviews with staff members, group texts and a list provided by a nurse, other workers in the unit have also tested positive, but NBC News was not able to confirm those illnesses. Some employees in Kelly's unit, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity, said last week that even in the wake of his death, nurses and other staff members in the unit and across Mount Sinai West had not been able to access testing at their own hospital. They also said that, despite improvements, they were still not being supplied with the personal protective equipment, or PPE, they deem adequate to keep them safe from exposure. "The way management has been managing this crisis showed us that infectious disease protocol or staffing safety is not their concern," said a nurse on the unit. Health Echoing the concerns of nurses and physicians across the country, many in unit 10B and across the hospital had told NBC News that they have been forced to seek testing offsite, including at urgent care clinics. Diana Torres, a registered nurse who works in the rehabilitation unit at Mount Sinai West, said that knowing who on staff is positive allows health care workers to "take the necessary precautions to avoid exposing more people or exposing our loved ones." Mount Sinai Health Systems would not confirm how many of its employees at New York-area hospitals, including staff members from Mount Sinai West's unit 10B, have tested positive for COVID-19. On Friday morning, more than a dozen staff members gathered in front of the Mount Sinai hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side to protest what they said were continued shortages of protective equipment and to demand standardized infection control and isolation protocols, along with free testing for exposed or symptomatic health care workers. "Keeping our staff and patients safe is our absolute number one mission right now and, in addition to the resources provided by the City, State and federal government, we are continuing to move heaven and earth to ensure our healthcare staff have access to proper PPE," Jason Kaplan, a spokesman for Mount Sinai, said in a statement about the protest sent to NBC News on Friday. "We understand the fear and concerns and we will continue to do everything possible to protect our heroes on the frontlines. We will not stop until this crisis is over." Kelly helped manage the team on 10B, and he was there on March 10 when the team received its first COVID-19 patient. The unit typically takes patients who make it out of the intensive care unit but still need to be closely monitored. News One nurse, who agreed to speak anonymously, began to experience symptoms a few days after having treated the patient. On March 13, the nurse called Mount Sinai's employee health hotline and described the symptoms: shortness of breath, fever and an unrelenting dry cough. "They told me to just manage the symptoms at home because I cannot be tested," the nurse said. The nurse's primary care physician referred the nurse to the state COVID-19 hotline. The nurse said there was a two-hour wait to speak to someone, only to be told that no testing site could be located. Luckily, the nurse was able to get tested that evening, thanks to a friend who worked in the emergency department at Mount Sinai's flagship hospital. "If I did not make my own move to call my primary care provider and go to the emergency room, I don't know what would happen to me," the nurse said. After the nurse managed symptoms at home and did not improve, a primary care doctor prescribed new medication: hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc. "I think that really pulled me through to be back again to becoming better, because without it I would still be huffing and puffing," the nurse said. Other health care workers on unit 10B and beyond said that experience was common. Many said they had not been able to get testing at the hospital despite having developed symptoms or having been directly exposed to the virus. Many also say they were told that testing remained limited at the hospital and that it was being reserved for patients experiencing acute respiratory syndrome. Torres said she sought testing after having been exposed to a COVID 19-positive patient from unit 10B. She said she was told that she did not qualify. She has had no symptoms, but she has been worried about exposing her family to the virus. Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak The lack of early and widespread testing of patients for coronavirus has affected health care workers around the country, like those in unit 10B, who were exposed to potential carriers without adequate protective equipment. On March 14, a patient who had been discharged came back to unit 10B with a fever and other symptoms associated with COVID-19. As more than 30 nurses and techs cared for and were exposed to the patient, Mount Sinai's medical director of infectious disease emailed nursing managers with updated protective equipment recommendations. To facilitate conservation of N95 masks, the email said, they were now "only to be worn for aerosol-generating procedures." When Kelly delivered the message to unit 10B during a meeting March 15, said a nurse who attended the meeting, a few nurses started to cry. Others were angry. "We know how poorly prepared we are," the nurse said. "We know this is a suicide mission." That day was the last time Kelly was seen at work. He was admitted to intensive care two days later. Left, a face shield, a mask and a gown were the protective equipment supplied to a nurse at Mount Sinai West on March 26. Right, health care workers at Mount Sinai West hung gowns in the hallway between uses. (Provided to NBC News) As the days wore on, staffers said, nurses were told to reuse gowns, ration N95 masks and wear surgical masks, which do not offer the same level of protection against the virus, to work in rooms housing COVID 19-positive patients. Protective gear shortages continued, according to staffers. On the evening shift of March 21, nurses in unit 10B were unable to find any blue gowns and texted colleagues a photo of themselves wearing trash bags. The photo went viral. Kelly, who died March 24, suffered from severe asthma, said Marya Sherron, his sister. She has questioned whether his death could have been prevented if he were given adequate equipment. Since then, health care workers say, supplies or protective equipment have been shored up. Staff members have not had to reuse gowns, and N95 masks are in greater supply. But workers say they still do not have access to full protective equipment, including full hazmat or "bunny" suits. "I want to look like I'm going to Mars. It's that simple," Torres said. "If I don't look like that, then I'm not protected." A spokesperson for the Mount Sinai hospitals did not respond to a request for comment about the March 14 email or the availability of protective equipment to employees. In what can be termed as an ugly turn of politics over '9 baje, 9 minute' event, a member of the West Bengal child's rights body and a ruling party sympathizer Prasun Bhoumick has taken to Facebook to put a post warning people of Bengal against switching off lights on Sunday at 9PM, as urged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to show solidarity with corona warriors like doctors, nurses and police. He warned that those who will not pay heed to it, their residences will be marked by a chalk, leaving the opposition BJP to call it an intimidation tactic. Bhoumick put out a Facebook post in Bengali that reads as, "Those who will switch off their lights at 9PM on 5.4.20...their homes will be marked with chalk. At least, their addresses will be put in a list". He concluded by saying, 'Hail Bangla, Hail Marjina'." On Friday morning, PM Modi shared a short video clip, as announced by him earlier on Thursday, urging all to light diyas or candles or even flash flights in their balconies or outside their main gate, as a mark of respect to the Corona Warriors - doctors, nurses, sanitation workers and police personnel who are braving it out on the front lines. "I request all of you to switch off all the lights of your house on 5 April at 9 PM for 9 minutes, and just light a candle, 'diya', or mobile's flashlight, to mark our fight against coronavirus," he said. This blatant warning assumes significance, given the power Bhoumick yields. He was a member of the West Bengal Commission of Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) in May 2019 (He continues to be in that post), when the child rights body had taken cognizance of a molestation allegation against the BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour Nilanjan Roy, just days before the constituency went to polls in the general elections. Back then, calling it a "a conspiracy to malign", BJP leader Mukul Roy had accused the WBCPCR of being part of the conspiracy as the Commission members like Bhoumick and actress June Maliya had been seen campaigning for the ruling Trinamool Congress. When contacted, Bhoumick brushed the issue aside, calling it as freedom of expression. "Of course it's a political post," he conceded. He argued that the call for switching off lights by the Prime Minister has given rise to concern among many about grid failure. When pressed on whether it was an intimidation tactic, he explained this to be an analogy drawn from the folktale Alibaba, where houses are marked with chalks. BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta called it "hate speech at its best". "This is the political culture of West Bengal that lets people like Prasun Bhoumick believe such open threats are mens of legitimate politics. It's an open threat. I think it should be acted upon", Dasgupta said. Claire Danes has responded to claims that Homeland is racist and Islamophobic, as the political thriller reaches the end of its eighth and final series. Homeland has had a mixed reception since it launched in 2011. While its first series was a critical triumph, gained fans including Barack Obama and won many Emmy awards, the show has also been accused of being bigoted. Writer and filmmaker Laura Durkay wrote in the Washington Post in 2014: Since its first episode, Homeland has churned out Islamophobic stereotypes as if its writers were getting paid by the cliche. The following year, Arab graffiti artists who had been hired by producers to make a Syrian refugee camp look more authentic, secretly wrote: Homeland is racist. No one noticed until the episode was broadcast. In a rare interview with The Guardian, Danes said: That was a good stunt. All of our hats were off to them. On the broader issue of racism in the show, she added: I get it. I think its tricky and kind of inherently problematic, right? There are a lot of brown people in our story who are doing really bad things, and there arent enough opportunities to create a more balanced portrait of that demographic. That was always going to be a point of vulnerability for us, but I also think that our heroes are really problematic and really flawed. Were wrestling with some pretty challenging questions and ideas and those two sides of various arguments were personified by our characters. She continued: In most cases I think both characters were right. Our writers were fairly responsible about that, creating a real debate. In the first episode of this season we have the Palestinian politician whos really challenging Saul and making credible, cogent points about the ways that America has failed. I was happy about that at least. The first episode of Homeland season eight was given three stars by The Independents critic Ed Cumming, who said all its life comes from Danes and her performance as CIA operative Carrie Mathison. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up He wrote: Mathisons troubled mind has always been a metaphor for government intelligence: brilliant but unreliable, vital but dangerous. Danes performance animates not only the scenes she is in but the ones she is not in, too, and every time shes out of shot you crave her return. (CNN) -- The US has surpassed 7,000 deaths and some state leaders say there's still a lot they're missing in the battle against the coronavirus. As cases rise, testing has become crucial in tracking how many Americans have been infected, but states like Illinois say they still don't have enough. "Everything about the tests are very difficult to come by, and there's no federal plan for this so every state is on their own -- as I've said it's the wild West out here," Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker said. According to Johns Hopkins University's tally of US coronavirus cases, there have been at least 277,953 Americans infected. In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday the government should ramp up its efforts to push for more personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, saying the state had received some, but not all of the PPE they had asked for. "We're grateful for these supplies. But to be clear, we've gotten just 33% of what we've asked for and they've told us not to expect more anytime soon," he said. "This pandemic is a war. And we need the armor to fight it," Cooper said. President Donald Trump said earlier this week the US Strategic National Stockpile is nearly depleted. "Governments at all levels, hospitals, law enforcement and others are competing against each other for a scarce amount of personal protective equipment," Cooper said. In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said the state had increased its efforts in upping hospital bed capacity and buying personal protective equipment. "We try to buy (PPE). It's really hard. The federal government buys most all of it." Beshear called on residents to donate any equipment they have available, saying the state was in great need of gloves. "We believe this is the next area where there's going to be another big run in the United States," the governor said in a statement. Government announced new face cloth guidelines In its latest efforts to prevent further spread of the virus, the White House announced Friday the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending people wear cloth face coverings when in public. "It's really going to be a voluntary thing," Trump said. "I'm not choosing to do it." The president's announcement came days after a panel of experts advised the White House on new research that suggests coronavirus could be spread by talking and possibly even just breathing. But public health experts at the CDC said they felt "pressured" by the White House to draft recommendations and were under "intense pressure" to draft the new guidelines on face coverings quickly, a senior federal health official involved in discussions said. "The CDC would not have gone this direction if not for the White House," the official told CNN. "We would have tried more to understand about asymptomatic transmission. We would have done more studies if we had more time." Here's what else happened this week: Now all but eight states across the US have issued stay at home orders. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top health expert, has said he doesn't understand why all states haven't issued an order by now. But Trump has previously said he will not issue a nationwide order, saying Friday he will continue to leave that decision to governors. The President also said the next two weeks would be "very, very rough" for the US. White House experts cited a model this week that showed more than 2,000 Americans could die each day by mid-April. Earlier this week, White House experts predicted at least 100,000 Americans could die from the virus -- and that's if residents strictly abide by federal social distancing guidelines, which were extended for another month. Without those measures in place, deaths could be as many as 2.2 million, White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Deborah Birx said. New evidence also suggested about a quarter of US coronavirus carriers have no symptoms, according to the CDC. In some areas, officials say they believe social distancing measures have begun to pay off. Health officials in Washington state's King County -- the country's first epicenter -- said they were beginning a "positive impact" from less people coming into contact with each other. NY nurse: Patients appear sicker than last week Kelley Bradshaw, a New York hospital intensive care unit nurse says the patients they are treating this week appear sicker compared to last week. She says it's not just the lungs. They are seeing patients whose heart and kidneys are being affected as well. "The pathophysiology of this thing is it starts out with the lungs and then a patient may start to have some respiratory insufficiency, meaning they need some oxygen supplementation and then that might not be enough so they need different modalities, i.e. they need a breathing tube and then after that happens, then sometimes different organ systems start to get affected like the kidneys," she said. "There's just a lot of unpredictability with these patients and it just feels like the longer someone battles this virus and the more critically ill they become, the harder our job gets," she said. She told CNN they've expanded their ICU unit to handle more patients, and while they still have all the protective equipment they need, they're careful not to exhaust it in case they still have a lot of coronavirus patients three weeks from now. "They do have to keep it very -- it is very regulated, meaning that we can't just blow through it, because we don't know what's coming next," she said. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will sign an executive order that will allow the state to take ventilators and medical supplies from institutions that aren't using them in order to relieve downstate medical facilities. Cuomo is asking upstate hospitals to loan up to 20% of their unused ventilators. "Moreover, when the pandemic wave hits upstate New York, the governor will ask downstate hospitals for similar help," Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, said in a statement. "We are not upstate or downstate we are one state and we act that way." This story was first published on CNN.com, "US coronavirus deaths surpassed 7,000. States say they're still missing what they need to combat the virus" President Donald Trump has asked Americans to brace for a big spike in fatalities from the CCP virus in the coming weeks, as the country faces what he says may be the toughest two weeks of the pandemic. Theres going to be a lot of death, unfortunately, Trump said during a somber start to his briefing with reporters. He urged certain media outlets to stop spreading false rumors and creating fear during the national emergency because it is essential that national leaders be able to cut through the fog of confusion in order to follow the facts and the science in the battle against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Trump said that tight coordination between state and federal government is needed to ensure that all available ventilators in the Federal Emergency Management Agencys (FEMA) strategic national stockpile are in use and not wasted as the country nears its predicted peak caseload of infections. Its very understandable that officials would seek to get the most they can get for their communities, he said of the requests his administration has received for ventilators. But the fears of shortages have led to inflated requests. Governors are asking for more machines than they are using, the president said. We have one state asking for 40,000 Its not possible, he said. Wherever local shortages are reported, were asking states to immediately meet the demand. He added that with faster data-sharing from the states, the White House Coronavirus Task Force would be working to coordinate equipment levels with the hope of staying several days ahead of critical medical needs in each state. Let me be extremely clear about one point, we will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great American citizens, Trump said. President Trump: So, let me be extremely clear about one point, we will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great American citizens. #CCPVirus Emel Akan (@mlakan) April 4, 2020 More than 306,000 people have now tested positive for the CCP virus in the United States and over 8,300 have died, according to a Reuters tally. White House medical experts Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the coronavirus response, have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if social distancing rules are followed. We are coming up to a time that is going to be very horrendous, Trump said at the White House. We probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war, during World War I or II or something. Like a Fire In the grimmest day yet for New York state, which has been hit hardest by the pandemic, coronavirus-related illnesses killed 630 people in the last 24 hours, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday. The disease has now killed 3,565 people in New York and the situation is particularly worrying on Long Island, east of New York City, where the number of cases is like a fire spreading, Cuomo told a news conference. Health experts calculate that New York, home both to bustling Manhattan and hilly farm country stretching to the Canadian border, might be around a week away from the worst point in the now-global health crisis. Were not yet at the apex, were getting closer Our reading of the projections is were somewhere in the seven-day range, Cuomo said. Its only been 30 days since our first case, he said. It feels like an entire lifetime. New York City alone accounted for more than a quarter of the U.S. CCP virus deaths tallied by Johns Hopkins University from official government data. Hospitals and morgues in the city are struggling to treat the desperately ill and bury the dead. Cuomo said that the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 ventilators to New Yorks hot spots that are in need. Following discussions on March 27 between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, and Jack Ma, who along with Tsai founded Chinese multinational e-commerce giant Alibaba, also offered to send 1,000 ventilators to New York that will arrive at JFK airport on Saturday, a source familiar with the discussions said. Meanwhile, the CCP has continued with its global disinformation efforts to deflect blame over the regimes initial mismanagement and coverup of the global pandemic, which started in Wuhan. Reuters contributed to this report. From The Epoch Times LANSING, KS. (KCTV) --- The Kansas Department of Corrections said Saturday evening that a fourth prison employee and an inmate at the Lansing Correctional Facility have tested positive for the coronavirus. The staff member is a male over the age of 20 and the inmate is a male over 50 years old, the state said. Healthcare workers looked on from inside Jamaica Hospital in Queens on April 3 as New York City firefighters applauded their work treating coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. This video was taken by a healthcare worker inside the hospital on Friday evening, when similar shows of support were recorded elsewhere in the city. Queens has been the borough worst hit by the citys COVID-19 outbreak. As of the morning of April 4, over 59,000 confirmed positive cases had been recorded in New York City, including at least 1,905 deaths tied to the virus. Of those cases, a third were recorded in Queens, while at least 590 deaths have occurred in the borough the most of any county in the State. Credit: @haiethcapisanan via Storyful "It's something you can control, whereas they felt that their lives were totally out of control as far as the economy went," Williams said. "It's also a challenge over which you can prevail." Williams said it's not uncommon for Americans to turn to jigsaw puzzles during times of economic uncertainty. In February 1933, manufacturers were producing 10 million puzzles a week, Williams said, and people could rent puzzles for a nickel a night. The surge in demand is familiar for Anne Williams, a puzzle historian and professor emerita of economics at Bates College. She said it's comparable to demand during the Great Depression. "Puzzles are not a necessity, of course, but the consumer is clearly telling us that there's a large need that we can help fill at these times," Francke said. Francke said the company hasn't seen anything like this before in its 136-year history. In 2019, the company sold a total of 21 million puzzles globally, and recorded an average rate of seven puzzles a minute sold in North America. Factoring in the recent surge, the company is averaging closer to 20 puzzles sold per minute in North America for 2020. Gamemaker Ravensburger has seen U.S. puzzle sales soar 370% year over year in the past two weeks, according to the company's North America CEO Filip Francke. The majority of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home instructions, and businesses across the country are sending employees home. In the face of what health officials warn could be months of widespread closures, consumers are snapping up the time-tested indoor games, depleting inventories and driving up prices. As coronavirus sweeps the country and sends millions sheltering in place, Americans are increasingly spending their time, and money, on jigsaw puzzles. Companies across the country are scrambling to meet rising demand for jigsaw puzzles. Online retailer Puzzle Warehouse hired 30 people to deal with a 10-fold order increase and associated shipping delays, according to CEO Brian Way. The company's sales have already exceeded those typically seen during Christmas. Springbok, another major puzzle manufacturer, is shipping around the clock, according to the company. And like most industries, puzzle makers are facing staffing headwinds. Liberty Puzzles, a wooden puzzle manufacturer based in Boulder, Colorado, has seen a huge uptick in orders, but had to send its 70 employees home after the state issued a stay-at-home order and closed nonessential businesses. Now, owners Chris Wirth and Jeff Eldridge are struggling to fulfill 750 puzzle orders themselves in an empty factory. "Even if we can open with like five people in here ... we could be cranking out puzzles for everyone who wants them out there," Wirth said. Liberty Puzzles will be paying the full salaries of its 70 employees at least through May, Wirth said. Despite increased demand, the company is still keeping its puzzles at the same prices, even though some of its used puzzles are being resold on eBay for twice their retail value, according to Wirth. Ravensburger has kept open its three U.S. warehouses in New Hampshire, Washington state and Pennsylvania operating under increased safety precautions that include staggered shifts and social distancing among workers. But there's no way to keep up with the spike in demand, according to Francke. "It's really hard to get a hold of a puzzle right now," he said. The company is mainly relying on mom and pop toy stores that offer curbside pickup or delivery options, or large retailers like Barnes & Noble and Target to sell puzzles. Amazon has shifted priority to carrying and shipping essential goods, Francke said, so brick-and-mortar retailers have proved a better option for Ravensburger. Puzzle enthusiast Lisa Cohen, whose finished sets decorate the walls of her Rockville, Maryland home, said she's seen puzzle prices shoot up online. "If you go on Amazon, they're gouging you," she said. "Puzzles that are $16.99 are on there for $60." Cohen, a crisis hotline volunteer and former teacher, said she's resorted to leaving extra puzzles out on her front porch for people to take and enjoy. Despite demand, Cohen said people have been taking one or two freebies at a time. "They're hard to get and they can be expensive for people, but it makes me feel good to be able to put them out there for people to enjoy them," she said. Cohen said she's used to doing puzzles on her own, but during isolation, the activity has become a family affair. "I have four kids and they were never involved," Cohen said. "Now, they're doing it too." Ravensburger has seen a jump in sales of family and children's puzzles amidst the pandemic, Francke said, as more children learn from home. Difficult sets with higher piece counts are in demand, too. Ravensburger's Krypt line, which offers advanced puzzles of one color in varying shades, has seen a particular boost in popularity during the outbreak. The company has also seen a jump in demand for puzzle sets with comforting themes such as a picture of mac and cheese or a cozy indoor scene, as well as those that depict an exotic location. "Now that people can't travel, that trend is extra strong," Francke said. The company is expecting interest in puzzles to continue to rise, as lockdowns drag on, and has already put in place high-volume delivery plans for the next two months. "It's really hard to tell where the demand stops at this point," Francke said. "We will just do our best and try to reach retailers that are still open to get to consumers." Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Ravensburger sold 21 million puzzles globally in 2019. A previous version mischaracterized the sales. If you've been watching the television in recent weeks, you will have heard politicians talk about Nphet, pronounced 'en-fet'. It's not a futuristic police force from a dystopian reality in a science-fiction movie - but it's not far off. The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) is the government-appointed taskforce responsible for the State's war on the coronavirus pandemic. The group, consisting of doctors, scientists and senior civil servants, has been making decisions on a daily basis which impact on the lives of every citizen in this country. There is no more powerful agency on this island. It is more powerful than the acting government, the Department of the Taoiseach and An Garda Siochana combined. When the team, led by Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan, makes a recommendation, it is enacted. Their decisions are not sent to the Dail for debate or examined by a cabinet sub-committee working group. They are actioned - and generally actioned within hours of them being recommended. They are our new rulers since this country has become a near-barren and disease-ravaged JG Ballard-imagined hell-scape. Nphet was not borne of this crisis. The Minister for Health has the power to assemble a crack team of specialists or officials when faced by a major public health crisis. The current incarnation was established by Simon Harris in January in the wake of the coronavirus emerging in China. Holohan is the designated chair as Chief Medical Officer. He is supported by his three deputy chief medical officers. The HSE's top brass are also key members, including Chief Clinical Officer Colm Henry; National Director of Acute Operations Liam Woods; National Director of Community Operations David Walsh; and Deputy National Director of Communications David Leach. The Department of Health is represented by senior officials central to the fight against the virus. There are also representatives from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), and Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA). Then there is a raft of medical experts, from hospital consultants to epidemiologists. Additional specialists and experts are brought in as they are needed. An expert group led by virologist Cillian de Gascun also feeds into the team. When it was set up in January, it was allocated a medium-sized room in the Department of Health to hold meetings. As the virus took hold, the meetings were moved to a bigger room. Now, the team meets daily by video conference using the online application Zoom. The strict social-distancing rules which have left most of the population confined to their homes are being decided on by officials and experts sitting in their front rooms or back bedrooms. Meetings generally begin with an epidemiology report on how the disease is spreading and who it is impacting most. Holohan then goes around 'the room' and allows the public health doctors to give their views. "They're like stags rutting in the Phoenix Park," a regular at the meetings said. However, it is always collegial and everyone is focused on the end goal. "It's consensus-orientated but they do thrash it out," the source added. At the end of each meeting, two letters are drafted, one for the Taoiseach and the other for the Minister for Health. The group is fully aware it is answerable to the Government but the caretaker administration's lack of authority has not gone unnoticed. "If it was an elected government, I don't think we would have made any different decisions but it is a factor and there is less room for government to face us down," an Nphet member said. Whether by design or by default, the Government has put their entire trust in Holohan. "He has our complete trust and confidence because he tells you things bluntly," a cabinet minister said. Before each meeting of the team, Holohan calls Health Minister Simon Harris to outline the agenda for the meeting and ask if there are any issues the Government wants the group to examine. There is not much Harris does these days without Holohan signing off on it first. The two men talk before most of the minister's many media appearances. Holohan even proof-read Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's historic St Patrick's Day address on the Covid-19 crisis. However, Nphet is medically focused and does not see around every corner - especially those with political ramifications. Since the group's inception, it has been asked to make significant public health decisions which the Government either did not want to make or did not feel it had the authority or expertise to make. The first big one was the cancellation of the Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and Italy in early March. The minister approached the group and asked it to make the call. Harris got some flak for the decision at the time, but, in hindsight, most would accept it was the correct one to take. The minister also asked Nphet to make the decision on closing pubs ahead of St Patrick's Day and on the closure of playgrounds and parks. The group has faced criticism - or at least the Government has on its behalf - for some of the measures. Take last weekend, when the Taoiseach ordered everyone indoors and banned all non-essential work, without providing a list of the jobs or workers who were being asked to down tools. The Department of the Taoiseach was charged with drafting the list of non-essential jobs but had not signed off on it before the planned press conference late on a Friday evening. Despite the obvious risk of confusion, Nphet insisted the announcement should be made. The consensus view of the team is that it is better to move fast and get things wrong than move slowly and get it all correct. The group has carefully studied the example of Italy, where, on one occasion, an internal flight ban from Lombardy was announced 48 hours before it was implemented. This resulted in thousands fleeing the northern Italian region and in doing so spread the virus throughout the country. "What you didn't want was people from Dublin, where the outbreak is at its worst, going down the country when you announced the travel ban," a Nphet source said. There have also been complaints about the team not issuing guidelines quickly enough. But they believe that if they move too early people will not stick to the social-distancing rules. There is a continual fear within Nphet that the public will suddenly grow weary of their self-imposed captivity and begin ignoring the rules. The consequences of this would be devastating. Holohan's team knows it is all-powerful during these unprecedented times but accepts it is also learning on the job. It knows there will be unintended consequences. "It's not always pretty but it works, and, if we're honest with people, I think they'll trust us," a Nphet source said. '"Who ever heard of 180 million masks?",' Trump asked of the urgent face mask requests by FEMA and HHS. "There will be death," said impeached President Donald Trump today, weeks after having called the coronavirus pandemic at various times a 'hoax' or 'the flu.' The Saturday, April 4 White House coronavirus briefing included Trump, and Doctors Birx and Fauci. "Busy time, busy time," Trump began. This week and next are likely to be the toughest, he predicted, in terms of Americans dying of COVID-19. "There will be death," he slurred. He also said that it is critical that certain media outlets stop spreading false rumors, fear and panic, presumably referring to Fox News and OAN, his favorites. Then, he promised to ramp up military involvement in the domestic pandemic response. Fears of shortages "have led to inflated requests" from some states, Trump lied. "We're the greatest backup that ever existed for the states," he added. The President also announced the deployment of 1,000 military personnel to New York to assist in dealing with the crisis. There is a lot of noticeable slurring today. Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) April 4, 2020 "We're working very hard to get additional things to New York as quickly as possible," says @POTUS, noting he spoke with @NYGovCuomo. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 Critical that certain media outlets stop spreading false rumors, fear and panic, declares @POTUS says he could name them but won't. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 "We're going to be adding a tremendous amount of military to help supplement the states," says @POTUS. "They're going into war. They're going into a battle that they've never really trained for." Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 "It looks like New York is going to be hit really hard," says @POTUS. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 "We're the greatest backup that ever existed for the states," adds @POTUS. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 "Let me be extremely clear about one point we will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great citizens," says @POTUS. "We have to get back to workWe have to open our country again." pic.twitter.com/wjfvbfVeaL Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 Trump says we have to "stop playing this game" where he gives governors more ventilators than they even asked for but then the governor criticizes him anyway to the media. He adds, "We can't play that game." Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 4, 2020 "Who ever heard of 180 million masks?" asks @POTUS of the production order @fema and @HHSGov has made. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 "Who ever heard of 180 million masks?" asks @POTUS of the production order @fema and @HHSGov has made. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 Some states have more ventilators than they need and aren't admitting it, according to @POTUS. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 Trump calls New York "the hottest of all the hotspots." Of New Jersey's virus challenges, he muses that "I don't know if that's overflowit's a crowded state also. Where you have people on top of people, it's always tough." Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 4, 2020 Some ventilators being moved into NYC and #NewYork state, according to @POTUS. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 4, 2020 Pres Trump says one state is asking for 40K ventilators & they don't need that many. (NY was asking for that.) He says: "Think of it. 40K. It's not possible. They won't need that many & they're admitting they won't need that many. But we are getting as many as we can to them." Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 4, 2020 .@realDonaldTrump now repeating @jaredkushner's claim that many governors asked for more than they actually needed (in administration's judgement). Says New York will be getting 140 ventilators from stockpile he just said held 10,000. AndrewFeinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) April 4, 2020 President Trump says 1,000 additional military personnel are deploying to New York to help as that state nears what experts and the governor say will be the peak of the outbreak there. It is the hardest hit state so far. Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 4, 2020 Trump claims that some areas of the country are "playing politics" and have more ventilators than they need. He adds: "They'll admit it when this thing is over." Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 4, 2020 He keeps departing from his prepared remarks about how "we're all in it together" to accuse democratic governors of malfeasance and not praising him enough. Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) April 4, 2020 Trump now promoting Johnson and Johnson, which is owned by a major GOP donor (and current ambassador to UK) AndrewFeinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) April 4, 2020 T he number of people who have died after contracting coronavirus in the UK has jumped by 621 in 24 hours. It brings the total number of people who have died in hospital with Covid-19 to 4,934 as of 5pm on Saturday As of 9am on Sunday, a total of 195,524 people have been tested of which 47,806 tested positive. The figures announced by the Department of Health marked a smaller increase than the past few days, with a jump of 708 being announced on Saturday. It comes as Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said two more people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Scotland, bringing the total deaths there to 220. Loading.... The new figures show the number of new people tested daily in the UK for coronavirus is back above 10,000. A total of 12,334 new people were reported as being tested in the 24 hours to 9am April 5. The equivalent figure for yesterday had slipped below 10,000, having previously been above 10,000 for two days in a row. Loading.... Loading.... The total number of people in the UK tested since the outbreak began 195,524 is the equivalent of around 293 people in every 100,000, or 0.3% of the population. (Natural News) As some companies work to increase employee pay amid the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Alteon Health, a major medical staffing organization, is reportedly slashing salaries, reducing time off, and trimming retirement benefits for its doctors and nurses because it says revenues are down. According to the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, Alteon, which is backed by private-equity firms Frazier Healthcare Partners and New Mountain Capital, says it isnt bringing in enough cash anymore now that elective procedures are being postponed and non-coronavirus patients arent visiting emergency rooms. Health insurance companies are also processing claims much slower now that their workforces are largely working at home. Even though hospital workers contracted by Alteon are now having to work long hours in dire conditions, the company isnt willing to, or cant, keep compensating them at the same rates because of the upheaval in other areas being caused by COVID-19. Despite the risks our providers are facing, and the great work being done by our teams, the economic challenges brought forth by COVID-19 have not spared our industry, stated Steve Holtzclaw, Alteons CEO, in a memo recently sent out to company employees. In addition to reducing hours for clinicians, Alteon is also cutting pay for its administrative employees by 20 percent, as well as suspending 401(k) matches. Bonuses and paid time off are also getting the axe, though Holtzclaw says this is all temporary. At the same time, Holtzclaw couldnt say how long these temporary changes might last, which means theyre indefinite at best. Salaried physicians have now been demoted to an hourly rate, which combined with reduced hours means they wont be making nearly as much as they were before the pandemic even though hospitals are soon to be completely overrun with Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reveals the secret to defeating the virus by April: Reducing employee pay, especially during a time like this, is demoralizing Alteon employees who arent thrilled with the new setup are being given the option to contact the companys human resources department within five days to discuss alternatives. What these alternatives entail, however, hasnt been publicly disclosed. Meanwhile, some Alteon employees are coming forward, at least anonymously, to air their grievances about the changes. One told ProPublica that the changes are completely demoralizing, adding that at this time, of all times, were putting ourselves at risk but also putting our families at risk. To protect their families, some Alteon medical staff have taken it upon themselves to live separately in isolation, which means added costs and living expenses. And now with these cuts taking place, theyll be even more financially put out, possibly to a breaking point. A lot of sacrifices are being made on the front line that the administration is not seeing because theyre not stepping foot in a hospital, this same Alteon employee told ProPublica. Ive completely lost trust with this company. At the same time that Alteon is upending its company operations in this way, competitor TeamHealth is reportedly keeping everything the same, which really calls into question the legitimacy of Alteons claim that it has to cut everyones pay and benefits in order to remain afloat. We are not instituting any reduction in pay or benefits, TeamHealth told ProPublica. This is despite incurring significant cost for staffing in anticipation of surging volumes, costs related to quarantined and sick physicians, and costs for PPE as we work hard to protect our clinicians from the virus. When a request was made for comments on the situation, neither Frazier Healthcare Partners nor New Mountain Capital immediately responded to ProPublica with any explanation. To keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), be sure to check out Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: ProPublica.org NaturalNews.com Kuwait Commerce and Industry Ministry announced on Sunday that the country will resume imports of foodstuff from Iran which have been stopped due to spread of coronavirus, Trend reports citing IRNA. Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Al-Afasi said the country's decision to reimport food from Iran to Kuwait is part of the efforts to provide goods and food needed by people in Kuwait's central markets. Over the past days, Kuwait's markets seem a shortage of some goods and foodstuff as well as surge in prices. Earlier and after spread of the novel coronavirus, Kuwait had banned import of any agricultural products from Iran. During the emergency meeting of trade and industry ministers of Persian Gulf Cooperation member states held through a video conference last Thursday, Kuwait proposed establishment of foodstuff security network to ensure food security of the Persian Gulf states. Bored Australians stuck at home are getting dressed up in costumes to make the mundane task of taking the bins out entertaining during coronavirus isolation. Besides adhering to the social distancing and quarantine rules, taking the garbage out to the curb in style has become an exciting weekly 'outing' for many. The heartwarming trend began as a joke after Danielle Askew from Queensland dared another friend to put the bins out while dressed up. 'A friend posted on Facebook that she was excited because it was bin day and that it is an outing,' Ms Askew told the ABC. 'I said, "I dare you to get dressed up" and she said, "I will".' From there, she launched a Facebook group called Bin Isolation Outing on March 28 - and has since attracted more than 220,000 followers. Sharron (pictured) is among tens of thousands of Australians taking the garbage out in style Many have started doing the same and have posted images wearing stunning gowns and costumes to the Bin Isolation Outing Facebook group The page's description says: 'So basically the bin goes out more than us so let's dress up for the occasion! Fancy dress, makeup, tutu... be creative! After all laughter is the best medicine.' Ms Askew decided to take up the challenge as well, wearing a blue dress and a crown to dress up as Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen she also placed a tutu around the bin itself. While dressing up and putting the bins out may sound like a simple, fun task, Ms Agnew said she felt extremely nervous and anxious. 'I must admit I did have anxiety, but I got through it and I waved to people,' she said. Danielle Askew (pictured) started dressing up and taking the bins out to the curb after daring her friend to do the same The unique trend has provided comic relief for those in quarantine, neighbours, people walking by, garbage collectors and social media users during this difficult time Her uplifting trend has since gone viral 'in a good way', with thousands of people around the world quickly followed suit. 'It's gone all over the world; Texas, Canada, [and] all around Australia,' she said. Others shared images wearing stunning gowns and head to toe costumes dressed as Iron Man, mermaids, kings and queens and fairies. One woman from Western Australia dressed up as the grim reaper and joked she was the 'bin reaper'. 'It's gone all over the world; Texas, Canada, [and] all around Australia,' Ms Askew said Others shared images wearing stunning gowns and head to toe costumes dressed as Iron Man, mermaids, kings and queens and fairies Though the online fad may be simple and trivial, it has provided comic relief for those in quarantine, neighbours, people walking by, garbage collectors and social media users during this difficult time. 'I have had a lot of people private message me, and also on the page, to say thank you so much,' Ms Askew said. 'They were quite down and this has made them smile and laugh'. BUCKS COUNTY >> Police in Northampton, Lower Southampton and Upper Makefield townships report the following incidents and arrests: Lower Southampton THEFT >> In the early morning hours on Monday, Jan. 10 two individuals made off with the entire change machine from the Feasterville Laundromat along Bustleton Pike. The male appears to be "cracking himself up" while he hatches his scheme... Fifty million people will lose their jobs in the tourism sector if the government does not issue a relief package, industry bodies told the Centre during a virtual conference on Saturday. Saturdays meeting follows the industry bodies earlier talks with the tourism ministry as well as a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, asking for financial interventions. Presidents of 10 associations of the tourism and hospitality industry, under the banner of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), held the virtual meeting with Yogendra Tripathi, the secretary of the tourism ministry, over the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) grid system. Tripathi said the Indian tourism industry will be one of the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic across all the sectors, as per one of the attendees. The industry bodies reiterated their earlier demands in the face of a grinding halt of the domestic as well as the international tourism industry due to the coronavirus pandemic. This time, they presented a 20-point agenda. Among the demands and their respective statuses that were discussed were a complete Goods and Services Tax (GST) and income tax holiday for tourism, travel and hospitality industry for a year, a moratorium on repayment of EMIs of principal and interest for term loans for 12 months, the enhancement of working capital limits at interest-free rates, and a support fund for salaries and establishment costs. The associations also demanded that provident fund (PF) contributions and Employees State Insurance (ESI) be waived off for a year and that GST liability, advance tax, custom duties, excise duties, VAT, and TDS be deferred for a year. Another demand was that cancellations and advances of travel agents and tour operators from airlines be refunded and that the national tourism disaster management task force works on a standard tourism survival package across states. A rollback of the tax collected at source (TCS) introduced in the 2020-21 budget, reduction of interstate tax, reduction in credit card charges, no fixed costs on power tariffs, water or other utilities, deferment of property tax were some of their other demands. The industry has also suggested that Indians be given a tax benefit on the lines of Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) to boost the sector. Subhash Goyal of FAITH said among the relief measures that were given to the industry till now are the three-month moratorium on EMIs and the directive by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that working capital limits be reevaluated by banks. In addition to that, the finance and labour ministries have waived off PF contributions for three months for organisations with less than 100 employees where 90% of the workforce earns below Rs 15,000 per month and is contributed for by the government. Apart from that, the announcement by the finance ministry that filing of income tax returns will be deferred for three months for companies earning up to Rs 5 crore. In the case of VAT and other taxes, some states have given partial reliefs. India needs to give a relief package like the United States and the United Kingdom. The tourism ministry is the first to be affected and the last to recover, FAITHs Goyal said. THESE days Tullamore native, Michael Farrell probably spends as much time in the air as he does on the ground. Working for Aer Lingus, as a member of their senior cabin crew, he has just come back from Toronto in Canada. We caught up with him while he was on a well earned rest in Naas where he now lives. Michael is the son of Carmel and the late Mick Farrell of Tinnycross. He describes his childhood as idyllic.It was great, I had the open countryside of Tinnycross with great neighbours and friends. Then I got the bus into school where I had more friends in the town. Having received his early education at St Josephs NS and Scoil Bhride in Kilcruttin his secondary education was at the Vocational School now known as Tullamore College. On leaving school he trained as a chef at Athlone Regional College. I worked at that for a while. I was in Limerick and then the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise. Then I went into the restaurant end of the business and I was in the Phoenix Arms Hotel in Tullamore. It was hard work, but it was great fun. We had great craic. We were like a family, but the hours were very tough. I ended up going into retail then and worked mainly in menswear and fashion. I started off with Smart Brothers in Dublin, I worked there for a year, then I came down and worked with Kevin Moriarity Menswear on Patrick Street, Tullamore, for nearly 7 years. From there I went to Texas, then to Galvins and I ended up managing McGorisks for Men in Athlone. Venturing out on his own, Michael decided to open his own business and moved to Naas where he operated Little Piggies - a childrens shoe shop. I opened in 2006 and closed in 2012 due to the downturn in the economy. At that time in Naas, Superquinn, Penneys and Marks and Spencer closed and the town went into decline. Michael was now unemployed probably for the first time in his life. Because I was self-employed I wasnt entitled to social welfare so I went to work with a guy who owned a dry cleaners next door to me, called Sunny Dry Cleaners and I stayed there for five years. But I always had aviation or cabin crew in the back of my mind so I gave it a shot and I ended up working with Aer Lingus, says Michael. I have been there now for three years. This will be my fourth summer. Its great. Its a fantastic opportunity to see the world. Its hard work and its very tiring, but it is very rewarding and you meet all sorts of lovely people. One of the most demanding aspects of the job for Michael is that every time he flies, there is a completely different cabin crew.Its good in one way because you dont get complacent with anybody but you dont get to know everybody as well as you would like. It has its challenges as well when flights are delayed, its not like a 9 to 5 job where you know you are going to be in work at 9am and finish at 5pm. Michaels days normally begin at around 4am. He likes early flights because then he can get home early in the evening. The crew can bid to go on early flights. I bid for earlies, because its easy for me going up and down the M50. But I could check in at any time between 5 and 7 in the morning, then Im normally home about 3 or 4 pm. Its roughly a 5-day week, one week you might do six days the next week you might do only 3 so it varies. During the last three years, Michael has been to many countries including most of Europe and the UK. Places he has flown to in the US include New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, Washington and San Francisco. On the long haul flights, you fly over on a Monday and you fly back on Tuesday through the night and you land back Wednesday morning. After a transatlantic flight you have to have two days off. If you do a westcoast flight like San Francisco or LA you have three days off. Michael can go out sightseeing depending on the landing and pick up time. Usually on any of the city flights you have good opportunities to tour around and see some of the sights. We get a two-nighter during the winter because the flights dont go as frequently, so in places like LA, Chicago and Toronto, Miami and Orlando, you would have two nights in those. My favourite cities have been Boston and Chicago, but I like Toronto too. When you arrive everything is looked after. You are collected from the airport by bus and brought to the hotel. We are looked after very well. During his many flights Michael has met some quite famous celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick who were travelling to Ireland for Christmas where they have a home in Donegal. He has also met actors Brendan Gleeson, Julie Walters and Eilish OCarroll better known as Winnie McGoogan from Mrs Browns Boys. Michael says the coronavirus has posed serious challenges for passengers and staff. Its quite tense and surreal, the airports are all very quiet and the flights themselves are very quiet. We are working at the moment to repatriate people home to their families. We take all the precautions to keep the passengers and the crew safe. People are afraid. We try not to be nervous, I suppose you are performing every day and trying to put on an act that everything is fantastic when deep down you are scared, especially if someone on the flight starts to cough, you wonder is that just a cough or something else. You cant exactly open the door and tell them they have to go out. It is challenging and its tough on the airline business. Obviously all the Italian and Spanish flights have been cancelled. And his tips for jet lag? Drink lots of water about three days before you travel, it does help a little bit. If you try to set your time to the destination, dont go straight to bed try to stay going until you would normally go to bed, the next day you will be better adjusted. If you dont you wake up at 4 oclock in the morning and you are wrecked the next day. Michael was recently promoted to senior cabin crew, which is not bad going after just three years in the job he loves and hopes to remain in until he retires. In his spare time Michael is a member of Naas and Newbridge Musical Societies, though his early morning starts means he gets to spend very little time with them. He has also graced the stage with the Tullamore Musical Society and the Tullamore Drama group. In his early years he was a member of the Tullamore town band. Speaking about his parents, his dad Mick died 10 years ago this year, while his mother Carmel is still going strong and will be 85 in August. Mick Farrell was well known for his involvement in the town band, and the multiple sclerosis and Irish Cancer Societys. He lived in Tinnycross all his life. His mother Carmel is originally from Killeigh, but is now part of the fabric of Tinnycross where Michael says there is a great little community and a network of neighbours and friends. Michael is not sure where he will be flying to next, but he has some holidays coming up and he plans on enjoying them even though he cant go away anywhere. No doubt it will include catching up on some much needed sleep Coronavirus test. Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP Police say Patrick Jesernik shot his wife Cheryl Jesernik, then himself, on Thursday. He'd reportedly told family members that he was afraid he and his wife had contracted the novel coronavirus. Experts predicted the stresses of the pandemic and lockdown could lead to an uptick in domestic violence. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A man in Chicago suburb Lockport Township killed his wife and then himself this week, police say. On Thursday evening, police responded to a wellbeing check at the couple's home, where they found Patrick Jesernik, 54, and Cheryl Schriefer, 59, dead, NBC Chicago reported. An autopsy found that each died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The couple's family told police that Jesernik was afraid that they both had COVID-19, the coronavirus disease. Schriefer was reportedly tested for the virus two days earlier after having trouble breathing but hadn't yet gotten results. When they arrived, police found Jesernik and Schriefer in separate rooms, with a loaded revolver near Jesernik's body. Jesernik's death was ruled a suicide, and Schrieffer's death had been ruled a homicide. Authorities have said that both tested negative for COVID-19. Illinois has more than 10,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 243 deaths as of reporting. Domestic violence surges The Sheriff's office in Will County, where the incident took place, told NBC that the majority of 911 calls during the outbreak so far have been over domestic disputes. As the coronavirus spreads across the US and more people are under lockdown orders, experts predicted a surge in domestic violence. One executive from the National Domestic Abuse Hotline told The New York Times that she expects to see intensity and frequency of domestic violence increase with the pandemic as the organization works to manage an increased caseload and new challenges. This pattern reflects other disasters, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, which also saw upticks in abuse. Experts connect the stresses and loss of control of disasters like 9/11 or the coronavirus with increases in abusive behavior. Nine large metropolitan police departments, including Portland and Boston, have already seen more than a 20% increase in domestic violence calls. National Domestic Violence Hotline Call 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 22522 Read the original article on Business Insider National carrier Air India recently received an unexpected praise for its relief operations - from Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of Pakistan. As the world grapples to contain rising cases of coronavirus, Air India was evacuating stranded European and Canadian citizens in its special flights operating from India to Frankfurt. On April 2, Air India operated two special flights from Mumbai for the relief operation. As one of these flights entered Pakistan's Flight Information Region, the Pakistan ATC applauded the senior captain for the humanitarian effort in times of global pandemic, which has grounded a majority of airlines across the world. "It was a very proud moment for me as well as the entire Air India crew when we heard from Pakistan ATC praising our special flight operations to Europe," an ANI report quoted one of the senior captains of the flight as saying. "As we entered in the Pakistan's Flight Information Region (FIR) and the Pakistan Air Traffic Controller (ATC) greeted us 'Assalaam Alaikum!' This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the Pakistan ATC told the senior captain. Once the pilot of Air India flight confirmed, the Pakistan ATC showered praise on Air India. "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" After the heartwarming conversation, when the Air India captain informed the Pakistan ATC that he was not receiving next radar for the Iran airspace, Pakistan communicated the Indian plane's position to the Tehran airspace and gave details of the two special Air India flights. As part of the relief operations, AI's Boeing-777 and Boring 787 carried out special evacuation flights for European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai and Delhi. After crossing Pakistan airspace, the special flight entered Iran. Coronavirus in India Live Updates: 3030 active COVID-19cases, 77 deaths as India prepares for 9-min lights-out The captain said for the first time in his career, he had seen Iran giving a direct route of over 1,000 miles to aircraft of another country. Direct route of Iran airspace is strictly reserved for their defence purposes only and is rarely accessible by airlines of other countries. The Air India captain said Iran ATC also wished them 'all the best'. After Iran, the AI special flights went through Turkey and then Germany's airspace. "All ATCs from Bombay to Frankfurt welcomed the special flights of Air India and wished us very proudly," the Captain said. All crew members and pilots onboard wore the mandatory COVID-19 masks for 20 hours to/from and ground time at Frankfurt. The airline staff will now remain in self-quarantine for 14 days. 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I saw a report on TV where they interviewed a nurse in New York that said she didnt have time to get a bite to eat, or even take a bathroom break and it broke my heart," said Jim Gano, the owner of Signs by Crown a division of Crown Trophy of Flemington. We have to take care of those who take care of us, and hopefully this program can help do that. Gano started the initiative to thank medical professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and show the publics appreciation. Gano produces lawn signs with the top half thanking the individuals or departments in the hospital and the bottom half featuring the a name of a individual sponsor or business. Each sign is $20. Gano hopes to place the signs along the driveway of the hospital so staff can see them before their next shift. For every sign purchased, he is donating $5 to the Hunterdon Medical Center Foundation. Gano is looking for local businesses to join and partner with him on the project, which he hopes can expand to other towns and hospitals around the state. I think a lot of people are at home wishing there was some way they could help," said Gano. This is one small way we can all step up and pitch in. To order a sign, you can the shop by email at jim@crowntrophy152.com or phone by calling (908) 782-1476. Anyone interested in matching or making a separate to feed the staff at Hunterdon Medical Center can also contact Gano directly. Sign up for text message alerts from NJ.com on coronavirus in New Jersey: 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. Have a tip? Tell us.nj.com/tips. Brandon Gould covers Hunterdon County news for NJ.com and may be reached at bgould@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonGouldHS. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Most of the country is sheltering in place and air traffic has slowed dramatically but there are still people who must fly. With most rest stops, fast-food dining rooms, and other normal travel accommodations closed or limited, flying may seem like a better option for those trying to get home or traveling due to an emergency. The number of people traveling by plane has hit a 10-year low as the aviation industry reels from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration. But the main question on everyone's mind: Is it safe to take to the skies? Changes that have been made on board Many airlines have been taking precautions to keep passengers safe since social distancing started. Almost all major airlines are holding or limiting their in-flight refreshments to cut down on contact. Customers are encouraged to bring their own food and beverages on board. Delta Air Lines is serving refreshments depending on the length of the flight and beverages on all flights are limited to bottled water. Other major airlines are also limiting what refreshments are served. Some airlines take in-flight social distancing to a new level by limiting where you can sit on the airplane. American Airlines and United Airlines are creating distance where available by not seating customers in middle seats and allowing seat changes once everyone is on the plane if someone feels like they are uncomfortable. Alaska Airlines takes it one step further by offering the chance to cancel or reschedule a flight if they cannot put you in a seat within a proper social distance from other customers. All airlines have been practicing increased sanitation and onboard cleaning. Many encourage customers to bring their own cleaning products as well to make them feel more comfortable and at ease. So if this calms your fears if you must fly, what about before you even step on the plane? Changes made in the airports US airports are encouraging travelers to follow the safety guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including practicing social distancing when it comes to security and other lines. Official travel tips include wearing a face mask, washing your hands for at least 20 seconds frequently, and staying home if you are feeling ill. If you are worried about hand sanitizer, all major airports are offering stations around their terminals for free and the Transportation Security Administration has made an exception to the liquids rule and is now allowing one 12-ounce bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer per passenger. The latest US travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic can be found on the Department of Homeland Security's website. Many airports have shut down most of their security checkpoints, so make sure you check to see which ones are available. Both Delta and American have closed their sky lounges, so if you were planning to social distance there before a flight, you will need to sit in the main terminal area. Most airport restaurants are closed or running on a limited schedule. Many major airports like Dallas-Fort Worth Airport have provided a list of the open establishments and at what times they are available to customers on their websites. Nashville's airport is closing bathrooms every two hours for cleaning while Los Angeles International Airport says it is cleaning public areas and restrooms at least once per hour. The CDC cautions against traveling at all during this time, but if it's needed, be safe by following guidelines and looking up all needed information before you go. South Africa: Water tanks delivered in Gauteng A total of 1 482 water tanks have been delivered to various parts of Gauteng to ameliorate protracted water shortages in communities and avert their susceptibility to the spread of Coronavirus. The department implemented the measures following a call by Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, to make water accessible to communities that continue to face water shortages. Sisulus call is in line with measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa aimed at ensuring that poor communities are not severely impacted by the virus. In cushioning the vulnerable communities, the department has to date deployed water tanks to some of the densely populated areas in the different municipalities across the province. So far, the department has made 410 water tanks available to the City of Joburg, 190 to the City of Tshwane and 166 to the City of Ekurhuleni. The Sedibeng District and West Rand District Municipalities have received 254 and 462, respectively. DWS Gauteng Provincial Head Sibusiso Mthembu said the department is making significant strides aimed at ensuring that the vulnerable were not disproportionately affected the spread of the Coronavirus. Mthembu said communities that lacked access to water were particularly at risk during this time, adding that the intervention of the department would go a long way to ensure that the guidelines of public health received resonance with needy communities. He said the department is also partnering with other stakeholders to provide not only water but soap and sanitisers to communities to enable them to practice proper hygiene. Mthembu said it was important that government and various stakeholders did not let the guard down but continued to heighten the message of washing hands regularly while ensuring that water wastages was avoided at all costs. He called on water users in the province to report incidents of burst pipes and leaking time as these were contributing negatively to water availability. While we appeal to communities to use water to wash their hands regularly, we also want to urge them to use water sparingly. Water is one of the utmost important resources that we must use with care, said Mthembu. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The latest addition has brought Doctor Anywheres total capital base to exceed $40 million, the company said in a statement. Doctor Anywhere connects doctors and users through video calls. After that, medication is delivered to users within three hours. Photo courtesy of the company Doctor Anywhere, a regional tech-led healthcare company, has secured US$27 million in funding from the Australian venture capital fund Square Peg, Singaporean Government investment arm EDBI and IHH Healthcare to tackle COVID-19 and the gloomy global economy. The latest funding has brought Doctor Anywheres total capital base to over $40 million, the company said in a statement. The capital from investors affirms societys trust in Doctor Anywheres vision to provide affordable and accessible healthcare platform for the vast majority of people. This will be the motivation for us to continue optimising, bringing the best healthcare models to serve the needs of Vietnamese people," said Nguyen Thanh Phan, CEO of Doctor Anywhere Vietnam. "Doctor Anywhere always strives to meet the healthcare needs of everyone. Thus, we have opened new specialists, providing free teleconsultancy and medicine shipping fees during the epidemic, customising healthcare packages, he said. Founded in Singapore in 2015, Doctor Anywhere entered Viet Nam late last year. The application connects doctors and users through video calls. After that, medication is delivered to users within three hours. In Viet Nam, Doctor Anywhere operates in Ha Noi and HCM City, connecting more than 100 doctors from major hospitals. In Viet Nam, more than 350 consultations are made per day. As COVID-19 is developing complicatedly, Doctor Anywhere is providing free health advice through its platform to reduce stress on upper level hospitals, reduce cross contamination and ensure that everyone with health problems is taken care of. VNS The Karnataka government on Sunday discussed protocol for allocation of human resources in the event of a larger COVID-19 outbreak. The Department of Health and Family Welfare convened a meeting of its top officers. It was led by P C Jaffer, Secretary to Government, Finance Department (Expenditure) and Nodal Officer, Capacity Building, under the guidance of Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Commissioner, Department of Health and Family Welfare. During the meeting, the roles and responsibilities of personnel required for the smooth functioning of health facilities ranging from fever clinics to intensive care units at designated hospitals was outlined. The team also mapped a detailed set of activities to ensure uninterrupted care for patients, from reception at the health facilities, to different stages of testing and referral to tertiary facilities. "Even as the government has been fairly successful in containing unprecedented spread of COVID-19 in the state, we are not taking things lightly, and as such are preparing for any kind of eventuality so that the people of the State are not put to any kind of inconvenience," Pandey said. The government visualised hospital conditions under different stages of a pandemic and broke down essential activities, including non-clinical activities such as crowd management, food management, mobility and data entry into different buckets, he said. "This allows us to assign specific roles to medical and non-medical staff for better efficiency. The government also plans to enlist volunteers to support facility functions in the event of a large number of cases, and develop training modules to enable them to carry out these functions," he added. The protocols also make provisions for tying up with community management teams to handle follow-ups, it was stated. The Department, Pandey said, is in the process of identifying various roles that can be entrusted to the volunteers with minimum training or intense specialised trainings, adding, this will bring about clarity in their roles without any overlap in a real-world hospital scenario. The protocols, once finalised, will be forwarded to the districts, allowing the heads of the institutions the flexibility to allot human resources according to their requirements and case load, officials noted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The British man waves his hands before leaving the General Hospital in the central province of Quang Nam after 21 days of treatment, April 5, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Dac Thanh. The Quang Nam General Hospital in central Vietnam on Sunday discharged Covid-19 Patient 57, a 66-year-old British man after 21 days of treatment. The patient tested negative two times in a row on March 28 and April 1. As regulated by the Health Ministry, he will be placed under medical monitoring for a further 14 days to prevent any possible transmission of the virus. His wife, who had tested negative, finished her 14-day quarantine and left the hospital Sunday. The couple will be placed under medical monitoring for 14 days at a hotel in central Hoi An Town. Before leaving the hospital, the British man thanked doctors for the way they treated him over the past three weeks. "All the doctors and medical staff of the hospital not only treated us, but they were also very friendly and behaved like friends," he said. He and his wife had flown in to Vietnam on March 9, landing in Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines flight VN54 from London. The flight also carried "Patient 46," a flight attendant. On March 11, they flew to Da Nang and visited some places in Hoi An. On March 15, he tested Covid-19 positive. With the latest release, 91 of Vietnams 241 Covid-19 cases have been discharged. Many of the 150 active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from abroad, mostly Europe and the U.S., and more than 60 people are related to two of the nations Covid-19 hotspots the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi and the Buddha Bar & Grill in Ho Chi Minh City. London: The UK government on Sunday announced the first seven chartered flights next week to bring home British nationals stranded in India amidst the international travel lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic. An estimated 35,000 British nationals are currently in India, out of whom over 20,000 have contacted the British High Commission to say they wish to return to the UK as soon as possible. A set of 113 of the "most vulnerable" Britons were flown out of Goa on an Irish flight on Saturday. The special flights to London include three scheduled from Goa for next Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and two each from Mumbai and Delhi on Thursday and Saturday, with further flights planned later. The British High Commission told its citizens to check the government travel advisory and visit the booking portal for respective cities to reserve seats. "We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India. I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need," said Jan Thompson, Acting High Commissioner to India. "Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge. The UK government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible," she said. The High Commission in New Delhi had earlier issued authority letters for Britons to be able to produce as proof for the local authorities in India to allow them access to the rescue flights from different parts of India. "The UK is working around the clock to support the large numbers of British travellers who wish to return to the UK from India and around the world," said Lord Tariq Ahmad, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) minister. "In the absence of commercial flights, these first charter flights from India should provide relief to some of our British travellers who are desperate to return home, especially for the most vulnerable and those in greatest need," he said. The first set of chartered flights are for the UK travellers who normally reside in the UK and their direct dependents. A number of seats will be reserved for those deemed vulnerable, with individuals in this group to be contacted directly. Details regarding luggage allowance, flight costs and carriers will be available on the booking portal. The UK government has said that information on further flights from other cities locations in India will follow shortly. The FCO said that it is ramping up efforts to bring home thousands of travellers stranded overseas by coronavirus with a new package of extra flights and 10 additional airlines joining its scheme to keep commercial routes open and get British people back to the UK in line with its 75-million pounds rescue plan announced earlier. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "Travellers are facing an unprecedented challenge on a global scale, and I know people are understandably desperate to get back to their homes and loved ones. "We are committed to supporting Britons getting home either through commercial routes we have helped keep open or through specially chartered flights. With more airlines signing up it should mean more flights available but also a fairer deal for travellers by providing more flexibility over tickets and costs". Besides India, flights have been laid on from countries including Peru, Ghana, Tunisia and Algeria this week, with thousands more due to fly back from Ecuador, Bolivia, Ghana and the Philippines over the coming days. The Newton County Sheriffs Office said a body found in a creek Saturday could be that of a man who was reported missing out of Louisiana March 30. Hog hunters found the body approximately half a mile from where the sheriffs office found an abandoned vehicle March 27, according to a news release from the sheriffs office. A 30-year-old man has been arrested for impersonating a government official to pass through barricades put up in east Delhi due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown, police said on Sunday. Accused Suraj Singh Bisht, a resident of Delhi's Kalyan Vas, is a driver by profession, they said. On Friday, a picket team deployed near the railway flyover in Anand Vihar stopped a Swift Dzire car near the barricading around 6.40 pm, the police said. When a policeman asked the driver to furnish his curfew pass, he produced an identity card apparently issued by the government wherein his designation was mentioned as Assistant Commissioner with the Customs Department, a senior police official said. The card was a scanned copy and looked suspicious and hence, the driver was asked to show some other identity card, he said. On comparing the identity card he initially furnished with his driving licence, a disparity was noticed in the date of birth, the officer added. On questioning, the driver confessed that the identity card was forged and he had it prepared by scanning an original card belonging to someone else, he said. He also disclosed that he got the forged card prepared to cross toll plazas and was using it to go around during the lockdown, the officer added. A case was registered at the Patparganj Industrial Area police station, officials said. A uniform, the fake ID and the car were seized, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 14:06:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A member of a volunteer group named "Mask Panda Action Team" hands out masks to local people in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 29, 2020.(Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi) -- Japan reports 367 new cases, 3,506 in total; -- South Korea reports 81 new cases, 10,237 in total; -- India's COVID-19 death toll rises to 77, 3,374 in total; -- Afghanistan's COVID-19 positive cases soar to 337; -- New Zealand reports 89 new cases, 1,039 in total. HONG KONG, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia-Pacific countries. TOKYO -- Japan's health ministry and local governments said Sunday the number of COVID-19 infections nationwide had risen to 3,506 cases as of 10:30 a.m. local time here, an increase of 367 cases from a day earlier. The death toll in Japan from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at a total of 96 people, 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. Local residents enjoy the scenery of cherry blossoms in Daegu, South Korea, April 2, 2020.(NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua) SEOUL -- South Korea reported 81 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Sunday local time, raising the total number of infections to 10,237. Six more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 183. The total fatality rate came in at 1.79 percent. A total of 138 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 6,463. Indian police participate in an awareness campaign by drawing large graffiti of coronavirus at all traffic junctions, urging people to cooperate with the Indian government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bangalore, India, April 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Stringer) NEW DELHI -- India's federal health ministry Sunday morning said the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 77 and the total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 3,374. "As on 9:00 a.m local time today, 77 deaths related to novel coronavirus have been recorded in the country," reads the information released by the ministry. This is a jump of two deaths and an increase of 302 cases since Saturday evening. A health worker checks the body temperature of a prisoner at a provincial jail in Dushi district of northern Baghlan province, Afghanistan, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Elaha Sahel) KABUL -- The number of cases tested positive for COVID-19 has reached 337 in Afghanistan, spokesman for Public Health Ministry Wahidullah Mayar said Sunday. According to Mayar, 38 new positive cases including 10 in Kabul affected with COVID-19 have been confirmed in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the number to 337. People wearing masks are seen on a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Mao Pengfei) PHNOM PENH -- One more COVID-19 patient in Cambodia has recovered, bringing the total number of patients cured in the country so far to 50, said a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement released on Sunday. The latest discharged patient is a 62-year-old Malaysian Islamic preacher, who was treated at the Kampong Cham provincial hospital, the statement said. Medical workers take part in training for treating COVID-19 patients at a comprehensive hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, April 3, 2020. (New Zealand Ministry of Health/Handout via Xinhua) WELLINGTON -- New Zealand government believed that the country can put COIVD-19 under control, as the country reported 89 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, making the total number of COVID-19 cases to 1,039 in the country. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged New Zealanders for the sacrifice they have made during the lockdown period. She is confidence that the country can put COVID-19 under control. Actress Simone Buchanan will return to Neighbours as Samantha Fitzgerald after a 10-year hiatus from the soap. On Sunday, the 52-year-old star said she had previously been hesitant to return to the spotlight due to some negative experiences in the industry. The former Hey Dad! star began acting when was eight, but has not had a single role since she left Neighbours in 2010. 'I will always come back for Sam!' Simone Buchanan will return to Neighbours as Samantha Fitzgerald after 10 years away from the show despite acting being 'tainted' for her. She is pictured with her sons Zane and Remy 'There are aspects of the industry that have changed, not necessarily for the better,' Simone told Sunday Confidential. 'I've seen the not-so-great aspects of this industry and when you go through something like that, it taints the whole experience for you.' Despite her negative experiences, Simone decided to return to acting for her iconic Neighbours character. 'I love the character of Samantha. She is one of the most favourite characters I have ever played, so I will always come back for Sam,' she said. Simone's character: Lawyer Samantha 'Sam' Fitzgerald (pictured) initially appeared on Neighbours in 2008, during which time she married Daniel Fitzgerald and suffered a bipolar disorder triggered by a miscarriage Lawyer Samantha 'Sam' Fitzgerald initially appeared on Neighbours in 2008, during which time she married Daniel Fitzgerald and suffered a bipolar disorder triggered by a miscarriage. She left the show at the end of the year but returned in 2010 as the lead prosecutor in Stephanie Scully's culpable driving trial. Since leaving the show, Simone has had a son Remy, eight, who she shares with husband Brett Smith. She also has another son Tane, 20, from a previous relationship. All together now: Simone is a mother to two sons, Tane, 20, from a previous relationship, and Remy, eight (centre) who she shares with her husband Brett Smith (right) In January, Simone revealed how she missed out on her big break in Hollywood. 'I got a phone call from a really big producer over there who was casting for a big film,' she told The Daily Telegraph. 'He had just watched Shame and offered me the lead role in a big Hollywood film. But they wouldn't let me out of my contract for Hey Dad! so I didn't end up going.' Although she never landed that big break and stayed home, Simone says she 'never really felt the urge to chase it and then I had a family'. The Enugu State commissioner for health, Anthony Ugochukwu, has died. A statement from the family on Saturday said the professor of medicine died on Friday from kidney failure. A statement signed on behalf of the family by a younger brother of the deceased commissioner, Kingsley Ugochukwu, stated that he died after a prolonged but valiant battle with chronic kidney disease. According to the statement, late Mr Ugochukwu was until his death a Consultant Surgeon, Professor of Medicine, serving Commissioner for Health, Enugu State and immediate past Provost of ESUT College of Medicine, Enugu State. Enugu govt condoles with late Health Commissioners family The Enugu State Government has expressed its deepest condolences to the family of Mr Ugochukwu. In a statement by the Commissioner for Information, Nnanyelugo Aroh, the state government also condoled with the entire medical community and the people of Oji River Local Government Area. Mr Aroh stated that the state government was deeply saddened by the demise of Mr Ugochukwu who passed away on Friday, 3rd April, 2020, after a long battle with chronic kidney disease as already announced by his family. The Enugu State Government is very proud of the various contributions made by Prof. Anthony Ugochukwu, in the different capacities he had served the state, particularly as Commissioner for Health, until December 2019 when he was kept out of duty due to this health challenge. The state government therefore beseeched God to grant his soul eternal rest and also grant us all the fortitude to bear this great loss. Some of prisoners in Tamil Nadu prisons might have masked their face during their illegal action to protect identity, but now, jail birds in the state prisons are making masks for the police department and also for public as a protective gear against Coronavirus infection. According to officials, the tailoring units in the state jails make about 23,000 pieces per day. As policemen faced shortage of face masks the tailoring units in the jails were asked to make masks. Each mask costs about Rs 10 and is for captive use while there have been enquiries from hospitals and others for supply. Meanwhile, the prisons department has earmarked 37 sub-jails - one in each district - to house new prisoners as a measure to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in jails. The sub-jails will house people remanded in judicial custody. The newcomers will be screened and those with virus infection symptoms will be referred to the nearest government hospital. The prisoners housed in jails reserved for newcomers have been shifted to other jails. "Science alone is not enough: the Good Lord is also needed." Italy's churches should be opened for Easter Masses, while respecting social distancing measures and limiting numbers, says Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right Lega party. Salvini says that allowing Italians to go to Mass at Easter during the Coronavirus lockdown would represent a "moment of hope", adding: "Science alone is not enough: the Good Lord is also needed." The Lega leader pointed out that people can still go to the tobacconist for cigarettes, or go grocery shopping in limited numbers during the nationwide quarantine, saying that: "we also need the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary." Milan mayor Beppe Sala, of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), attacked Salvini's proposal with a withering response in a Facebook video. "If you really want to get the churches reopened as you say, and if you say it not just to make a headline in a newspaper then you have to do one thing very clearly: ask Lombardy or Veneto [regions which your Lega party governs] to sign an order in this regard. Otherwise we are as usual [talking about] words and not facts." Disagreeing with Salvini's proposal, Sala said: "In these moments I believe that faith can and must be a personal and private matter." Caro #Salvini, oggi le chiese sono chiuse, perche noi preti rispettiamo la legge del nostro paese. Obbediamo ai nostri vescovi e non a te. Non usiamo il nostro popolo, ma lo amiamo. Non ci sta a cuore il consenso ma il bene comune. #domenicadellepalme don Dino Pirri (@dDinoPirri) April 5, 2020 Don Dino Pirri, a high-profile priest from Le Marche, tweeted on 5 April: "Dear Salvini, today the churches are closed because we priests respect the law of our country. We obey our bishops and not you. We do not use our people, but we love them. We care not about consensus but about the common good. Palm Sunday." PHILIPSBURG: --- Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs has declared State of Emergency for the Southern side of the island. The national decree was signed off by Governor Eugene Holiday and the Prime Minster Silveria Jacobs. The lockdown goes into effect tonight at 0.00 hours Sunday, April 5th, 2020( midnight tonight.) The Prime Minister said that the country has no choice but to declare a state of emergency and institute a 24-hour curfew for a period of two weeks. Jacobs said that persons that are exempted from the curfew must have a Disaster Pass or a letter from the Chief of Police Carl John. Details on obtaining the exemption will be announced on Sunday, April 5th, 2020 at a joint press conference where Prefet Sylvie Feucher will participate. Persons that are exempted are elected or appointed government officials, their drivers and other security, Governor Holiday and his chauffeur and security, medical personnel, pharmacies that have to be opened based on the regulation outlined for opening on Sundays and holidays, security companies, garbage collectors, freight services, shipping, and cargo services including FEDEX and DHL, media personnel. Two gas stations will be opened to service emergency vehicles, cooking gas companies can open only for delivery to emergency businesses and domestic purposes, while some clinics such as dental services can open for emergency services. Bakeries, groceries will also be opened to deliver goods, to social affairs, a decision will be taken shortly on allowing persons who do not have the means to stock for the entire period. Jacobs said the government is working on allowing residents to be able to shop at their neighborhood supermarkets, that she said depends on the behavior of the people during this mandatory lockdown. Construction is totally halted. Persons that have elderly family members on the Dutch side and would need to take daily meals to their elderly relatives would need to obtain a special pass from the Chief of Police Carl John. While government has been advising the community to prepare for lockdown and to prepare for at least two weeks. Jacobs said that those persons that could not or did not have the means to stock up should contact Social Affairs as they began distributing food boxes as of Saturday. Jacobs urged persons that were unable to stock up to contact government as they are doing everything to properly accommodate the vulnerable. Employers that are forcing their employees to work will be sanctioned as there is an email address and phone number available to report the employers, that information can be obtained on government website and Facebook page. Chief Commissioner of Police Carl John said the military arrived on St. Maarten to assist with the controls and to ensure the lockdown ( 24-hour curfew) is respected. He said that those that opted to break these restrictions risk being arrested and the police now have the power through the national decree to seized properties. John called on the members of the community to respect the law and to stay at home as this necessary to combat the COVID-19. Churches are not allowed to hold services or gathering, residents are also not allowed to loiter on roadsides, or to hold social gathering. The decree on the State of Emergency can be found in the National Gazette and will also be on Governments Facebook page. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said that locking down the country is absolutely necessary in order to flatten the curve on the COVID-19 pandemic, she said the numbers are rising daily while St. Maarten already recorded four COVID-19 related deaths with the youngest being 47 years old and the oldest 69 years old. Surbhi Chandna: Ishqbaaaz actor Surbhi Chandna is utilising quarantine in the best way, as earlier today she posted a Spanish drama poster, La casa de Papel with a twist of her editing skills, here's what it was! Surbhi Chandna Instagram: As the nation has been under a 21-day lockdown, Bollywood celebs are exploring their other talentssome are honing their painting skills while others are displaying their chef skills. Meanwhile, Surbhi Chandna is step ahead in entertaining her fans. Surbhi edited a Spanish drama poster, Money Heist season 4. Heres the creative twist in it, she photoshopped herself in it! Yes, you read it right, her fans were also amazed by her editing skills. In the photo, she wore a red hood holding a mask and completed her look with dramatic eye makeup. Just after she posted the Indian version of La casa de Papel, her fans went gaga and lauded her fab editing skills. A user wrote: Mam editing on point, wish we could watch you in such shows. While another user wrote: Hope she is safe, and congrats for 2.6 million followers. Talking about how she utilising her self quarantineby going through her profile, the stunner is binge-watching movies, focusing on health and yes helping her mother in household work. Check the post here: Amid novel coronavirus outbreak, shooting has been suspended for a while, so, actors are entertaining their fans by sharing quirky videos and by going live on Instagram. On the professional front, the diva is doing quite well as she is associated with Sanjivani serial, in the show she is playing a titular role as Dr. Ishani Arora. In 2019, she bagged an Indian Telly Awards and gold awards in the best actor category. For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App I'll preface this article by saying that Gannett (NYSE:GCI), now the largest publisher of newspapers in America, is a risky play. The newspaper business is a brutal industry with ad revenue and subscriptions falling significantly in recent years, and many newspapers dropping like flies. The U.S. has lost almost 1,800 papers since 2004, including more than 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies, according to the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina. But with big risk comes big reward. Last November, Gannett merged with New Media Investment Group, the owner of Gatehouse Media, to create America's largest publisher, which now includes newspaper brands such as USA Today, Detroit Free Press, and The Columbus Dispatch. The deal kept Gannett's name, while New Media CEO Michael Reed became the head of the combined company. Investors' displeasure with the deal, combined with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, has sent the company's stock tumbling to just $0.82 per share as of this writing. To make matters worse, Gannett recently announced it will be eliminating its upcoming quarterly dividend and looking to reduce expenses by an additional $100 million to $125 million through job cuts, furloughs, and pay reductions for senior management. Obviously, things are not going well, but the stock has a year-to-date high point of $7 per share and was trading at almost $19 in mid-2018. If the company can survive, there's significant upside. The issues Gannett is not profitable. At the end of 2019, the combined company had an operating loss of roughly $147 million, according to its annual report. Most of that is from the merger, but even before that, New Media's annual income was a far cry from what it used to be. At the end of 2015, the company had more than $103 million in operating profit. In subsequent years, the highest profitability New Media reached was roughly $61 million in 2016. Gannett has followed a similar trend. Another issue is debt. To purchase Gannett, New Media took out a five-year term loan of $1.8 billion with 11.5% interest. Debt obligations at the company at the end of 2019 were roughly $2.8 billion, while total assets of the company are $4.0 billion. Not an ideal situation, and that's likely the reason why the company had to take such drastic measures with its dividend and expense reduction. The management team is hard to trust, too. Let's not forget, when he was CEO of Gatehouse Media in 2012, Reed took an $800,000 bonus at the same time the company was making major layoffs at its 300 newspapers across the country. Investors have also expressed skepticism over recent revenue projections Reed made post-merger. Following the Gannett-New Media deal, Reed said the company projected revenue to decline at a rate of 3% or 4% percent annually for about three years after the merger. But Gannett's revenue has been declining at around 9% in recent quarters, while New Media's revenue was declining at about 7%. Looking up As risky as the stock may be, billionaire investor Leon Cooperman's hedge fund Omega Advisors now owns almost 7% of outstanding shares. While he has acknowledged in the past that he does not buy into management's projections, he also said the company's attractive dividend makes any risk that does exist easier to stomach. While the dividend for this quarter is now out of the picture, the company had initially planned to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.19 per share. Before the recent announcement, Gannett had been trading around $3 per share for much of the month, which would have resulted in a dividend yield of approximately 25%. Despite issues with management over the years, Reed is an experienced media CEO who is no stranger to tough times. In 2012, when he took that bonus amid layoffs, Gatehouse was trading at $0.05 cents per share. Additionally, as part of the $100 million to $125 million of expense reductions, the company said it would make "significant pay reductions for senior management." The merger Though the market was bearish on the deal, I actually think the move makes sense if the company can pay off its debt and get through this difficult time. Before Gannett, New Media was a company composed of small weekly and daily newspapers that didn't have much brand recognition other than in the local communities they served. New Media was also a company still trying to figure out how to make the transition to digital. At the end of 2018, digital advertising and marketing revenue only made up about 12% of the top line. With the acquisition of Gannett, which reported 38% digital revenue in its third-quarter 2019 report, that number increased, and Gannett also brings a number of top brands to the company. Before the merger, New Media likely realized how important big news brands were to the survival of the company. In recent years, New Media has purchased larger regional newspapers including The Providence Journal and The Austin American-Statesman. But Gannett brings even more attractive names like USA Today, which has a daily circulation of almost 1.4 million, and the Detroit Free Press, which has a Sunday circulation of roughly 925,000. Perhaps the new company can use these larger, more respected brands to leverage more subscriptions at its smaller newspapers. If you really look at the industry, the few successful newspapers in the country are those with huge brand recognition such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. While Gannett may not reach those levels, this company can survive thanks to its important position in the future of news. The company recently disclosed that in the past 45 days, USA Today "has had more than 400 million views of its coronavirus stories, videos, graphics and photo galleries." Plus, the combined company says it can achieve $300 million in annual post-merger cost synergies by the end of 2021 through manufacturing and distribution, back office rationalization, regionalization of sales and content management, and technology systems integration. Big risk, big reward Investing in Gannett is undoubtedly a risky move. The company has a ton of debt; revenue has been declining; and the company needs to show it can generate more digital subscriptions. Still, becoming the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. with reputable news brands gives Gannett a certain amount of positive momentum. It may not be what's best for journalism, but from a business standpoint, adding scale makes sense. Don't dedicate a large chunk of your portfolio to this stock, but it's definitely worth a small position at these beaten down prices. With their virtual pitchforks waving in the air, the digital lynch mob has been baying for blood in the COVID-19 era, and in some cases with good reason. Enter stage right Lara Worthington, but more on her later. Lara and Sam Worthington. Credit:Lisa Maree Williams Exactly what is it that makes social media transgressions worthy of the sort of Twitter/Instagram/Facebook pile-ons that have accompanied this hideous global pandemic? As celebrity foodie Lyndey Milan admitted, after she dared to complain about the carb-heavy diet she had to eat while under forced quarantine at the Sydney Hilton, which resulted in a deluge of criticism, "I guess I have to toughen up, it was the first time I had ever been trolled". Locals in Kesharpur, Cuttack, pelted stones at police on Sunday during the complete shutdown imposed in the city. "Some people pelted stones at police while police personnel were patrolling the area during complete shutdown imposed in Cuttack till 8 pm today. The case has been registered and attempts are being made to arrest those who indulged in this," said Cuttack DCP Akhileshvar Singh. According to the information available, upon receiving input about gathering of people from a community near a mosque in Kesharpur, a Police team reached there. However, people soon began to pelt stones as soon as the team reached there. To bring the situation under control, Police had to resort to lathi-charge. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By PTI NEW DELHI: MG Motor India is in talks with three medical device makers, including GE, to produce ventilators at its Halol facility to help meet demand during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a top company official. The company, which has also launched a hunt for a low-cost ventilator design through a challenge, is also developing its own ventilator and hopes to be ready with a prototype within a week as part of its three-pronged approach to get into ventilator manufacturing considering the shortage during this health crisis. "We are talking to medical equipment companies like GE and some other companies, which already have established and approved designs. If they can tell us, then we can start manufacturing based on their design in our plant," MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba told PTI. He further said all three companies have responded positively and that can be the fastest solution if there is a design approved by the medical body already and everything is in place. Besides, he said, "In the last 10 days, our engineering team is busy making a prototype. I'm happy to say that we have already made drawings and everything. We have talked to the medical experts, our prototype should be ready in the next one week. If that prototype is approved, then our own designed ventilator can be manufactured by MG in India." However, this approach will take some more time as it needs regulatory approvals, he added. The company has also announced a Rs 10 lakh grant through its "challenge to youngsters and young engineers that if they want to make a low-cost design, we are going to help them", Chaba said. On the manufacturing of ventilators, he said MG Motor India will create infrastructure at its Halol facility and would even carve out a separate unit if need be. "If the car demand is not too much in future then my existing manpower can work on this project. We may have to have some new capex for this kind of a thing, although I don't know exactly how does that look like. But then we will look at putting the right Capex into this project to make the ventilators," he said. On the other hand, Chaba said if the demand for the company's vehicles continues and have waiting period as it is now and "if our people get busy making the cars, I feel we would carve out a separate unit for ventilators." "If we have to recruit more people, we will do it to have more people into this project because this virus is not going to go away in the next three years or so," he said, stressing that even if vaccines are developed for the coronavirus it is going to take long to make them available at a mass scale. He further said in India at the moment there is a huge gap between demand and supply for ventilators. "We don't want to make this as a profit-making venture. If we can keep it low cost and operate at breakeven and supply to the community, to the government, it will be a great service," Chaba said. US President Donald Trump warned Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" number of coronavirus deaths in the coming days, ahead of a rare speech by Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday aimed at rallying hard-hit Britain. Global deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic have soared past 60,000, with Europe continuing to bear the brunt of the virus which has left roughly half the planet confined at home. There are now more than 1.2 million confirmed cases across the globe, and around 65,000 people have died since the virus first emerged in China late last year, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Trump said the United States was entering "a time that's going to be very horrendous" with "some really bad numbers." "This will probably be the toughest week," he said at the White House. "There will be a lot of death." US President Donald Trump warned Americans to expect a "tough week" ahead. By JIM WATSON (AFP) At the same time, the president stressed the US -- where infections have surpassed 300,000 -- cannot remain shut down forever. "Mitigation does work but again, we're not going to destroy our country," he said. "I've said it from the beginning -- the cure cannot be worse than the problem." Over 45,000 global deaths have been in Europe, with Britain reporting a new daily high in fatalities, taking the overall toll to 4,300 out of nearly 42,000 cases. Worst-hit Italy saw intensive care virus patients drop for the first time this weekend. By Miguel MEDINA (AFP) Queen Elizabeth II is to make a rare, "deeply personal" speech on Sunday to urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus, and personally thank frontline healthcare workers. "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge," she will say, according to extracts released Saturday. The pandemic has hammered the global economy, with businesses hit hard as people are forced to stay indoors to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Governments have rolled out massive, unprecedented stimulus programs to ease the pain, but economists have warned that the crisis could worsen poverty levels with millions of jobs lost. Poor economies, such as Iraq, are struggling, with charities and volunteers rallying to provide food to the needy. "This is more dangerous than Daesh," said Iraqi volunteer Mustafa Issa, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group that swept through a third of the country in 2014. Tide turning in Italy? At the Vatican, Pope Francis is expected to livestream his Palm Sunday Mass. St. Peter's Square is usually packed by Catholic faithful for the occasion, but this year, it will be empty because of coronavirus containment measures. A delivery man leaves a restaurant with food for health workers in Barcelona. By Josep LAGO (AFP) There was, however, some encouraging news from Europe over the weekend. Worst-hit Italy cheered after seeing its number of intensive care virus cases drop for the first time -- from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994 on Saturday. Even some of the most cautious Italian health officials seized on the figures as evidence that the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II. France has been transferring patients by helicopter and high-speed train to relieve overwhelmed regions. By Pascal GUYOT (AFP) "This is a very important data point," said civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli, adding that it "allows our hospitals to breathe." The daily rise in new infections across Italy has also slowed. It reported 681 new deaths on Saturday, down from a peak of almost 1,000 just over a week ago. Spain, which is under a near-total lockdown, saw a second successive daily fall in coronavirus-related deaths with 809 fatalities. The total number of deaths in Spain now stands at 11,947, second only to Italy. President Donald Trump has described New York City as the 'hottest of all the hot spots' in the coronavirus outbreak. By Bryan R. Smith (AFP) Although the number of new cases also slowed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extension of the country's lockdown until April 25. At a field hospital in Madrid set up at a conference centre, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged. One of them was 59-year-old builder Eduardo Lopez who gave a "10/10" rating to the staff who cared for him "with tenderness and a great dose of humanity." 'We need you' New York state, the US epicenter, saw a record 630 deaths in a single day and Governor Andrew Cuomo warned the worst was yet to come. The state has recorded a total of 3,565 deaths. New York City has appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. By Bryan R. Smith (AFP) Cuomo also cautioned that already strained hospitals were not prepared. New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services. "Anyone who's not already in this fight, we need you," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Trump said 1,000 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, would be deployed to help in the city, which he described as "the hottest of all the hot spots." U-turn on masks Several Western countries including the US, Germany and France have in recent days encouraged the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces. The U-turn has angered and confused some citizens, and spurred a flurry of online tutorials for DIY masks. The advice came after some studies suggested the new coronavirus can be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing. US authorities said wearing a simple homemade mask or scarf could help stem rocketing infection rates. The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give "a false sense of security," leading people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing. burs-qan/fox Delegates attend the opening of the UN Human Rights Council's main annual session on February 24, 2020 in Geneva. -(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images) Chinas Appointment to UN Human Rights Council Panel Draws Heavy Criticism The Chinese communist regime has been appointed to a panel on the U.N. Human Rights Council that helps select the bodys rights investigators, despite the regimes long track record of severe rights abuses against religious groups, dissidents, and ethnic minorities. Jiang Duan, minister at Chinas mission to the U.N. in Geneva, was appointed on April 1 to be the Asia-Pacific representative of the five-member Consultative Group of the Council. The group vets candidates for the role of independent experts who investigate and report on human rights situations in specific countries or on issues such as religious freedom or freedom of speech. The appointment was decried by U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based human rights advocacy group, as absurd and immoral. Allowing Chinas oppressive and inhumane regime to choose the world investigators on freedom of speech, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief, Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, said in an April 2 statement. BREAKING: #China joins U.N. Human Rights Council panel, where it will help select next world monitors on freedom of speech, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentionand on health. @hillelneuer: Its like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief.https://t.co/E2vYfYcNcD pic.twitter.com/1UkF5T4MHU UN Watch (@UNWatch) April 3, 2020 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is routinely called out by the United States and rights bodies as one of the worlds top abusers of human rights and religious freedoms. Along with persecuting faith groups such as Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims, it also suppresses those who are critical of the Party or speak out on issues deemed sensitive by the socialist regime. During the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Chinese authorities silenced doctors who tried to sound the alarm about the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, and reprimanded them for spreading rumors. As the world is suffering from the deadly coronavirus pandemic that spread like wildfire in Wuhan while China silenced doctors, journalists and other citizens who tried to sound the alarm, by what logic can the Beijing regime be involved in choosing the UNs next global monitor on the right to health? Neuer said. Membership to the 47-nation Human Rights Council has attracted scrutiny over the years. The United States withdrew from the body in 2018, with then-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley calling it a protector of human rights abuses, and a cesspool of political bias. The Human Rights Council has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy, with many of the worlds worst human rights abuses going ignored and some of the worlds most serious offenders sitting on the council itself, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time. He identified China, Cuba, and Venezuela as some of the worst human rights abusers that sit on the council. Dr. John Heroldt, a clinical and forensic psychologist, said his Merrillville-based practice also is taking precautions with the clients he sees in his office and those he sees at the county jails, including inmates with whom he does evaluations in Lake and LaPorte counties. So far there have been no confirmed cases among inmates or those working in the jails. In LaPorte County, Heroldt said he does not have contact with inmates but in Lake County, it's a different case. "In Lake County, the evaluation is done in an evaluation room, and the inmates are cuffed to a wall, and I'm on the other side," Heroldt said. In all situations, Heroldt does his best to keep his distance while still doing his job. "I keep my distance the best I can, and if the inmate is sick or coughing, I'll opt for a video evaluation," he said. In his own clinical practice, Heroldt said most clients are evaluated on a one-on-one basis, but he does take numerous safety precautions, including using lots of hand sanitizer and practicing social distancing. "I'm still giving the opportunity to come into the office," Heroldt said. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos government will pay maternity bills and the cost of treating emergency patients at all 27 ... at all 27 General Hospitals in the state . Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos government will pay maternity bills and the cost of treating emergency patients He made this known on Saturday at Lagos House, Marina, while giving newsmen an update on the COVID-19 lockdown in the state. Sanwo-Olu said that the state government would bankroll the medicare costs to cushion the effects of the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic. As additional ameliorating measure to complement the welfare packages previously announced, the Lagos State Government will, for the duration of the restriction on movement, take full responsibility for the medical bills of all patients at all Lagos State-owned secondary healthcare facilities. The patients to benefit are those that fall in the following category of Emergency/Casualty cases, including registration, laboratory tests, surgeries, and drugs. The patients that fall in the category of Maternity Cases, include normal delivery and Caesarean Sections (CS). What this means is that, at this time, patients with the above-listed conditions will not need to make any payments to access treatment and care at all our 27 General Hospitals across the state, he said. The governor commended law-abiding residents of the state and urged them to keep being responsible by obeying all the directives issued by the health experts. He said that these directives included practicing social distancing, shunning large gatherings, covering the mouths when coughing or sneezing, self-isolation and contacting a doctor if feeling unwell. Sanwo-Olu reprimanded those who insisted on flouting the safety directives and guidelines. To those who seek to take undue advantage of their fellow Lagosians at this time, and all those whose aim is to undermine the efforts of the various health authorities responsible for keeping us safe, let this strong warning go out. The strong arms of the law will catch up with you sooner than later, and you will be brought to justice swiftly and comprehensively, he said. Sanwo-Olu said that the government would not hesitate to prosecute anyone flouting the directives of the lockdown. He said the authorities had already impounded over 400 commercial buses for flouting the order. Congress lawmakers request investigation of Navy's firing of captain Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 1:20 AM Democratic lawmakers have formally protested to the Navy's dismissal of the commander of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, who requested urgent aid to stop a coronavirus outbreak on board his ship. Lawmakers from both chambers of Congress formally requested on Friday that the Pentagon's independent Inspector General immediately investigate the firing of Captain Brett Crozier. Crozier was relieved of his command on Thursday after his request for help to contain the coronavirus outbreak on his ship was leaked to the media. "Given the extraordinary circumstances under which these events took place, we believe a closer examination by a neutral third party is warranted," Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Chris Van Hollen (Md.) wrote a letter co-signed by 15 of their colleagues to Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine requesting an investigation into the events leading to the dismissal of Crozier, who was highly regarded by his ship's crew for risking his career for the sake of their the health and safety. "It is essential that your office conduct a comprehensive investigation to avoid any potential conflicts of interest within the Navy chain of command, and we encourage you to evaluate all relevant matters associated with the dismissal and the outbreak on the ship," the Senators wrote in their letter. Separately, House Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.) and Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) wrote to Fine, also on Friday, demanding "an investigation into this matter as soon as possible." "As veterans, we were taught that protecting the health and safety of troops was one of the highest priorities of any commander," they wrote. The House Representatives added that they were "disturbed" by the abrupt dismissal of Crozier by the Navy. On Thursday evening, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly announced he had dismissed Crozier from command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Crozier had warned in a letter prior to his dismissal that a number of the sailors serving on board the ship had tested positive to the novel coronavirus. In the letter, he had warned that if most of the crew on board the Roosevelt weren't evacuated and treated quickly they might all perish due to the uncontrollable spreading of the virus on board the vessel. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our sailors," Crozier wrote. As of Friday, 137 sailors out of the estimated 5,000 crew on board the nuclear US war ship had been infected despite all measures to prevent the spreading of the virus on board the ship. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is currently docked in the strategic Guam Naval Base in the Pacific Ocean. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Aramco today announced that Mark Weinberger has been appointed as an independent member to its board of directors, to replace Andrew Gould. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of Aramcos Board of Directors, welcomed Weinberger and expressed his appreciation to Gould for his dedication and invaluable contributions to the board. I would like to extend my warm thanks and best wishes to my fellow board members, with whom I have been privileged to serve for over six years. I am honoured to have been a part of Aramco during a truly transformational period in its history and I look forward with confidence to the companys continued success, said Gould. Weinberger was the global chairman and CEO of EY (previously known as Ernst & Young) from 2013 to 2019. He was active in the World Economic Forum, as a member of its International Business Council and as a Global Steward for Economic Progress. He has also held several high level posts in the US Government, including as Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Treasury (Tax Policy) under President George W Bush and member of the Social Security Advisory Board, under President Clinton. He served on presidential advisary councils to President Trump and President Obama. I am honoured to be joining the board of Aramco at this important time in the companys history and world events. I look forward to helping the board continue to make the most of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead and deliver value for all of Aramco's shareholders, Weinberger said. Weinberger currently serves as a director on the boards of Johnson & Johnson and Metlife as well as being a member on several boards of trustees, including the US Council for International Business (USCIB). He is a senior advisor to Stone Canyon Industries Holdings, JUST Capital, G100 and many organizations focusing on corporate governance and long term value creation. Weinberger has a BA degree from Emory University (Economics) in 1983, an MBA and JD from Case Western Reserve University in 1987 and an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. - TradeArabia News Service WASHINGTONHome testing for the new coronavirus may sound like a good idea, but U.S. regulators say its still too risky. Theyve stopped companies that quickly launched home-testing kits until they can show their products can accurately detect the virus. For now, the only way Americans can get tested is at hospitals, clinics or drive-thru sites, with a doctors order. After a botched rollout, testing in the U.S. has ramped up thanks to high-volume testing machines and new rapid tests. Last week, federal officials said total tests topped 1.4 million, and labs are processing nearly 100,000 tests daily. Thats the threshold many experts say is needed to track the virus. Still, testing continues to be constrained by shortages of medical supplies like gloves, masks and swabs. And the widespread drive-thru testing proposed for parking lots at chains like Walmart, Walgreens and Target has barely gotten off the ground. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is aggressively pushing new options onto the market. Faster results Genetic tests are the gold standard for detecting COVID-19 infections. New, quicker ones are replacing the original laboratory tests that have to be manually mixed and developed. The idea behind both tests is the same: chemical solutions are used to isolate the virus from the patient sample, grab its genetic material and then reproduce it millions of times until its detectable with a computer. New rapid tests such as the one by Abbott Laboratories automate the process, cutting the time from four to six hours to about 15 minutes. Essentially all of the reactions are squeezed into a little cartridge, so its a very nice, self-contained system. said Dr. Bobbi Pritt, lab director at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota The cartridges from Abbott and other companies run on small, portable electronic machines found in thousands of U.S. hospitals, clinics and doctors offices. Thats expected to increase testing beyond large universities, government and commercial labs. Abbott said it plans to begin shipping 50,000 tests per day this month. U.S. officials said theyd go first to remote areas with less access to labs. For now, only a health care professional can order a coronavirus test. Under current guidelines, priority is given to people with COVID-19 symptoms who fall into several high-risk groups, including hospitalized patients, health care workers and the elderly. If youre not sick, you dont need to be tested, has been the mantra for weeks Dont try this at home Accurately testing involves several steps, including carefully swabbing the nose or throat to collect a sample, placing it in a sterile tube, storing it below 46 degrees Fahrenheit and shipping it to a lab within three days. Health officials warn a number of things could go wrong if consumers try to swab, store and ship their own samples, potentially resulting in testing errors and undetected infections. The FDA is talking to companies working on at-home kits, but theyll be required to show that their results are comparable to those of people under professional care, agency spokesman Jeremy Kahn said in a statement. Many of the proposed at-home tests arent like home pregnancy tests they wont provide instant results. The samples still need to go to a lab. After several companies began shipping test kits last month, the FDA quickly intervened. No home tests have been approved and the products sent to U.S. consumers were frauds, regulators said. Several companies were caught off guard including San Francisco startup Nurx, which initially built its business around prescribing birth control drugs via brief online consultations. On March 20, the company announced plans to ship 10,000 testing kits to customers for $181 each. Within 24 hours, the FDA warning went out and Nurxs plan was off. Upcoming options Simpler, cheaper blood tests could also have a role in tracking the virus and possibly expanding testing to the home. The FDA is permitting companies to launch certain types of finger-prick tests that can detect whether people may have recently been infected. Instead of detecting the virus itself, these tests detect proteins called antibodies that the immune system generates to fight COVID-19. Public health experts hope that mass screening with antibody tests could eventually help track how the virus spreads and who might have built up immunity. We have this massive epidemic on our hands and if we really want to control it through testing we need to have it more readily available and on a repeated basis potentially every week to know who is truly positive and negative, said Harvard Universitys Dr. Michael Mina. Because the blood test is easy and can be developed in 15 minutes without laboratory equipment some companies think it could become a viable home-testing option. Scanwell Health is seeking approval for a home test using one developed by Chinese manufacturer Innovita and deployed by the Chinese government. People who meet criteria through an online questionnaire would receive a test kit in the mail, take a blood sample and scan the test with a smartphone app. Next is an online consultation with a health professional who will deliver and interpret the results. The entire testing process happens within the home nothing needs to be shipped back, said Scanwell executive Dr. Jack Jeng. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has retweeted a post by Fever FM in support of his appeal to light diyas, candles, lamps or torches while putting out the electric lights for nine-minutes at 9 pm on Sunday and added that the country stood united in the fight against coronavirus. Fever FM had posted a minute-long recording of responses from its listeners from different walks of lives and regions as they pledged their support to the campaign initiated by the prime minister while encouraging others to do the same. Fever FM had broadcast PMs message delivered on Friday which said India needed to spread light to fight the darkness spread by coronavirus pandemic. He also said that we needed to resolve in the light spread out by our collective effort that we were not alone at this moment. The clip posted by Fever FM carried messages from a female teacher from Delhi, a police constable from Haryana, a farmer from Bihar, and an engineer from Mumbai. All the callers pledged to light a candle to support the PMs initiative. We are in this together. India united at #9pm9minute. https://t.co/au0tfBzE70 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 5, 2020 In a tweet on Saturday, Fever FM had asked its listeners to participate in the call given by the prime minister. As Honorable PM @narendramodi ji calls on us, on the 5th of April at 9 PM lets switch off to connect with the nation to carry on the fight against Corona with renewed courage and hope. Lets switch off and light up, its tweet said. Prime minister has responded individually to several messages of support from common citizens and celebrities on Sunday. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 22:16:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government on Sunday reported one newly confirmed imported COVID-19 case, taking the tally of all confirmed cases to 44. The 44th case is a 52-year-old male Macao resident returning from Britain. He flew from London with his wife and son to Hong Kong on March 26 and arrived in Macao the next day. The family had a 14-day medical observation at a hotel after entering Macao and both of his wife and son tested positive on March 31. The father tested positive on Sunday. A total of 34 patients currently in Macao have COVID-19 infection and have been kept in quarantine for treatment at local medical facilities. The first ten cases were all discharged from hospital after recovery. In the days after China made the disclosure about its coronavirus outbreak, nearly 430,000 people arrived in the US on direct flights from the country, including thousands who travelled directly from Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, a report in The New York Times said. Over 1,300 direct flights from China to 17 US cities brought back hundreds of thousands of people before President Donald Trump imposed travel restrictions. "Since Chinese officials disclosed the outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness to international health officials on New Year's eve, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the United States on direct flights from China, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after President Trump imposed restrictions on such travel, according to an analysis of data collected in both countries, the report said. It added that testing at the airports and follow-ups with travellers coming from China was not stringent enough. During the first half of January, when Chinese officials were underplaying the severity of the outbreak, no travellers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus. Health screening began in mid-January, but only for a number of travellers who had been in Wuhan and only at the airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, it said. By that time, about 4,000 people had already entered the US directly from Wuhan, the report quoted VariFlight, an aviation data company based in China. The bulk of the 430,000 passengers, who were of multiple nationalities, arrived in January at airports spread across the length and breadth of the US-Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark and Detroit. Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, as American public health officials were only beginning to assess the risks to the US, the report said. According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 1.2 million coronavirus cases across the world, the highest being in the US (311,544) as of April 4. More than 64,000 people have died globally with 8,400 in the US. Even as severe restrictions on travel and movement of people were eventually put in place, flights continued this past week, with passengers travelling from Beijing to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, under rules that exempt Americans and some others from the clampdown that took effect on February 2. In all, 279 flights from China have arrived in the US since then, and screening procedures have been uneven, the report said. While President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that his travel measures impeded the virus' spread in the US and we're the ones that kept China out of here, the NYT report said analysis of the flight and other data shows the travel measures, however effective, may have come too late to have kept China out. Given that health officials now believe that as many as 25 per cent of people infected with the virus may never show symptoms, infectious-disease experts suspect that the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks after the first American case was confirmed in Washington State on January 20. In fact, no one knows when the virus first arrived in the US, it said. In January, before the broad screening was in place, there were over 1,300 direct passenger flights from China to the United States, according to VariFlight and two American firms, MyRadar and FlightAware. About 381,000 travellers flew directly from China to the United States that month, about a quarter of whom were American, according to data from the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. Several passengers arrived from China after transiting through other countries. While actual passenger counts for indirect fliers were not available, Sofia Boza-Holman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said they represented about a quarter of travellers from China. The report also added that about 60 per cent of travellers on direct flights from China in February were not American citizens, according to the most recently available government data. Most of the flights were operated by Chinese airlines after American carriers halted theirs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) WHO opens door to broader use of masks to limit spread of coronavirus Saudi Press Agency Saturday 1441/8/11 - 2020/04/04 Geneva, Apr 3, 2020, SPA -- The World Health Organization today said that medical masks should be prioritised for health workers, but it opened the door to greater public use of homemade masks or other mouth coverings as a way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. A senior WHO official told reporters there was some possibility of airborne transmission of the virus that has now infected over 1 million people and killed 50,000 people worldwide since emerging in China last December. But the main driver of the pandemic was still believed to be sick people with symptoms who were coughing and sneezing and contaminating surfaces or other people. "We must preserve medical surgical respirator masks for our frontline workers. But the idea of using respiratory coverings or mouth coverings to prevent coughing or sneezing projecting disease into the environment and towards others ... that in itself is not a bad idea," Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergencies expert, told a news conference. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease who is top U.S. infectious disease official, said on Friday that Americans should cover their face if they have to go in public, but they should still stay isolated as much as possible. Ryan acknowledged a "very important and healthy debate" on the wearing of masks. He said that if used, they should be part of a comprehensive strategy and would not negate the need for handwashing and social distancing. "So we can certainly see circumstances in which the use of masks, both homemade or cloth masks, at community level may help in an overall comprehensive response to this disease," he said. Ryan, citing data from Italy, said that there did not appear to be a link between people taking drugs against hypertension known as ace inhibitors and getting the disease or developing severe disease. --SPA 00:13 LOCAL TIME 21:13 GMT 0021 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A community has been left reeling following the death of a young man in freak scrambler motorbike accident close to his home in Cork. Steven OCallaghan, 24, from Riverview Estate in Blarney, suffered fatal injuries on Saturday night when the motorbike he was riding struck a tree on a forest track which runs parallel to the Blarney-Tower road. The young man was thrown into the river Martin, which runs alongside the woodland trail. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The relatively straight woodland trail, which runs from Pauds Cross and behind the Riverview housing estate, follows the route of the old Muskerry railway line and is used regularly by locals for dog walking, and by fishermen. But it has also been used by those involved in motocross as a scrambler trail for years. Neighbours said they heard the sounds of motorbikes driving up and down the trail for most of Saturday afternoon. Mr OCallaghan was with a brother and some friends when the accident happened at around 8pm. While garda investigations are ongoing, it appears as if he lost control of the bike on a narrow section of the trail before the bike struck a tree, flinging him off his bike and into the river alongside. His friends raised the alarm and emergency services including gardai, a HSE ambulance and a rapid response doctor, raced to the scene. But despite their best efforts, Mr OCallaghan was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was removed to Cork University Hospital (CUH) where a post mortem is expected to be carried out. Gardai are treating the incident at this stage as a tragic accident and sealed off the scene for a full technical examination by road traffic collision investigators. The bike has also been recovered for a garda inspection. The findings, as well as statements from those who were with Mr OCallaghan at the time of the incident, will be included in the garda file which will be prepared for the coroners court in due course. Local Fine Gael Cllr Damian Boylan said the community has been left reeling by the tragedy - particularly given the restrictions on funerals which have been imposed as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. "Your heart would break for any family that has to go through a tragedy like this but especially at this time, with the restrictions in place, and when you cant have a normal burial," he said. "Ireland does funerals and burials well. We have a great process that helps people along. "Thats all gone from us now. Our hearts break for this family and for his friends but people will rally to help them when this is over." In recent weeks, as schools, businesses, support groups and millions of individuals have adopted Zoom as a meeting platform in an increasingly remote world, reports of Zoombombing or Zoom raiding by uninvited participants have become frequent. While those incidents may have initially been regarded as pranks or trolling, they have since risen to the level of hate speech and harassment, and even commanded the attention of the FBI. The weaponization of Zoom a videoconferencing app that has become a de facto social platform for the coronavirus era is the latest development in the story of online abuse, the kind playing out on social networks and darker, unmoderated corners of the internet. An analysis by The New York Times found 153 Instagram accounts, dozens of Twitter accounts and private chats, and several active message boards on Reddit and 4Chan where thousands of people had gathered to organize Zoom harassment campaigns, sharing meeting passwords and plans for sowing chaos in public and private meetings. (Since this articles publication, Reddit has shut down the message boards where Zoom raids were discussed.) Zoom raiders often employ shocking imagery, racial epithets and profanity to derail video conferences. Although a meeting organizer can remove a participant at any time, the perpetrators of these attacks can be hard to identify; there may be several on a single call, and they can appear to jump from one alias to another. On March 29, Zahed Amanullah was in the middle of a call he had organized with the Concordia Forum, a global network of Muslim leaders, about maintaining spirituality and wellness during the coronavirus crisis, when suddenly a cursor began to draw a racial slur across one of the slides. What is that? How did that happen? one of the meetings presenters said as it was appearing. Did somebody just see what I saw? The infiltrator then began to screen-share a pornographic video while repeating the racial epithet verbally. We were all caught off guard, said Amanullah, a resident senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London. We had no clue where it was coming from. Harassers have begun to leverage every feature of Zooms platform for abuse. They have used the apps custom background feature to project a GIF of a person drinking to participants in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and its annotation feature to write racist messages in a meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Paris. When you see this kind of rampant abuse, it isnt just a one-off thing, said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor at Syracuse University who teaches digital ethics. Clearly, this is systemic. Zoom has exploded in popularity as the global population has become increasingly homebound in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus. According to the app data firm SensorTower, first-time installs of the videoconferencing companys mobile app rose by 1,126% in March to more than 76 million, up from just 6.2 million in February. But the company was not prepared for the rapid growth of its user base. Zoom has offered guidance on making conferences more secure by changing call settings and offering tutorials, but many users have been unsatisfied with the companys response to specific incidents of harassment. Zooms response was like, Were sorry, as if this only happened to me, said Dennis Johnson, a doctoral candidate who complained to Zoom after his dissertation defense was disrupted by pornography and a racial slur. They treated me like an isolated incident thats my biggest issue. The company gave an email statement Thursday. Zoom strongly condemns harassment of this kind and we have been reporting instances of this to various social platforms in order for them to take appropriate action, said Nate Johnson, a Zoom spokesman. The frequency and reach of the incidents on Zoom prompted the FBI to issue a warning Tuesday, singling out the app and stating that it had received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic or hate images and threatening language nationwide. On dozens of Twitter accounts and online forums, people are drawn into private group chats on Discord, an app that has been popular in far-right circles. There, people share Zoom codes, raid video conferences simultaneously and designate point values for certain types of harassment in order to drive competition. The Times discovered 14 active Discord chats with dozens of messages sent a minute, with the most popular chat hosting more than 2,000 people. This behavior violates Discords terms of service, and we strongly condemn it, a spokesperson from Discord said in an email statement. Once we identify those servers engaging in this sort of activity, we quickly investigate and take action, including removing content, banning users and shutting down those servers. On Instagram, a network of accounts with names like Zoomraid and Zoomattack began to appear over the weekend and saw a spike in followers nearly 30,000 as of Thursday. The owners of these accounts post Zoom meeting codes so that others can coordinate raids of password-protected videoconferences. We dont want Instagram used this way. We will block hashtags used to coordinate zoombombing and remove accounts created solely for the purpose of zoombombing when we see them, a Facebook company spokesperson said via email. As classrooms across the country have largely shifted to online-only education in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many students feel ill-equipped to perform in this new learning environment. Several teenagers who ran Zoom raid accounts spoke about their frustrations with online schooling and how, for them, Zoom-raiding classes provided an outlet. It was the only way they felt they could escape their crushing academic workload. Most of the accounts run by teenagers are operating with the goal of derailing middle and high school classes with disruptive but largely inoffensive jokes. Part of the reason we do it is, a lot of teachers give us a lot of work right now, said James, 16, who runs a Zoom raid account. Its stressing us out. We just got home for quarantine, and on top of all that we have all this schoolwork to do. We still have tests to do. I have more work to do sometimes now than before because every teacher will assign stuff every week, and sometimes classes get in the way of each other. Its really stressful to keep up. Some Instagram meme accounts, which typically share funny videos from TikTok, have also begun posting Zoom meeting information in order to boost engagement. We go on our Story and post the info for the Zoom class, said Aaliyah, 17, an administrator for several Instagram meme accounts. We say, if you join, do something funny, we will follow you back. But for each frustrated teenager trying to escape class, there are many others with bad intentions. The more nefarious organizing tends to happen on Discord. In one Discord chat, a middle schools class schedule, including Zoom links for each class, was shared with hundreds of members who stated their intent to harass the students and their teachers. Another group discussed disrupting a singles mixer organized by a Baptist church in Virginia. As soon as it starts theres gonna be rape, one member said. Im putting gore on straight away, another added. Alcoholics Anonymous, which has largely transitioned to open online meetings using Zoom, has become a frequent target. Have fun with these AA codes, one Discord user wrote in a post that linked to nearly 600 AA meetings in California. Another uploaded a 28-page document with links to support groups for trans and nonbinary youth. Jeff, a 39-year-old AA member in Los Angeles, said that in the last three weeks he has attended 30 meetings using Zoom. Every single one, he said, had been interrupted by an online troll. When he enters a virtual AA meeting now, Jeff said, his heart starts racing. Its a sense of fear and panic but also a sadness around the loss of this place to be vulnerable, he said. Videos and livestreams of Zoom harassment have begun to appear on YouTube and Twitch, the Amazon-owned video gaming site. A popular YouTuber streamed himself for more than six hours harassing dozens of AA meetings hosted on Zoom. Another video posted March 30 about crashing college classes racked up more than 4.2 million views and inspired a slew of copycats. One video posted by a YouTuber with 1.7 million subscribers that purported to show raids of online classes instead displayed a woman facing harassment in an AA meeting. We have strict policies that prohibit content containing harassment, hate speech or unwanted sexualization, and we quickly remove content when flagged by our users, said Alex Joseph, a YouTube spokesman. Phillips, of Syracuse University, said that without more aggressive moderation, Zoom risks normalizing such behavior on its platform. Developers of platforms either dont take the risks of abuse seriously or dont anticipate those risks, which amounts to the same problem, she said. Amanullah said he was disappointed that his meeting was turned into a platform for hate speech. He said that the group promoted it on social media to draw a wider audience. Certain people are weaponizing Zoom to sow division in society or spread hate, Amanullah said. Those of us who are of particular backgrounds and who are targets of hate bear the brunt of it. c.2020 The New York Times Company With the number of coronavirus cases in India now doubling in just over four days as the pandemic continues to spread the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said Sunday that there was no evidence of the virus being airborne. There is no evidence of coronavirus being airborne, Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, Head Scientist, (ICMR) said at the governments daily briefing. Coronavirus spreads primarily through droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose. Follow coronavirus live updates here. Last month, the World Health Organization had said that there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne, except in a handful of medical contexts, such as when intubating an infected patient. On Sunday, the number of coronavirus cases in India climbed to 3,374 and seventy nine people have lost their lives so far while 267 people have recovered, Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary, health ministry said at the briefing. Aggarwal also said the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month contributed largely to the rapid rise in infections recently. Covid-19 cases doubled in 4.1 days presently.... had Tablighi Jamaat incident not happened it would have taken 7.4 days, he said. When Doctor Strange hit theaters in 2016, the film was the first to explicitly bring the mystic arts into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released early on in Phase 3, some criticized director Scott Derricksons film which introduced the titular sorcerer (Benedict Cumberbatch) as a magical Iron Man. But Stranges introduction has already had much greater implications. Bringing mysticism into the MCU has already proved to be a game-changer. Doctor Stranges encounters with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in Avengers: Infinity War ultimately shaped how Earths Mightiest Heroes defeated Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. Yet, Strange is just getting started. Benedict Cumberbatch at a Doctor Strange fan screening | Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney The Marvel Cinematic Universe is meticulously laid out As most fans know, the MCU is planned out many years in advance. Seeds are often planted in one film long before they have the chance to make a significant impact later on. Over the years, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and his creative team have found a better balance between giving filmmakers freedom and adhering to the larger story at hand. But make no mistake, every MCU release feeds right into the next. Characters, places, and story beats unfold in a very strategic way. Take the first 23 films in the MCU, for instance. Collectively known now as the Infinity Saga, every single one is in some way indispensable by the time Avengers: Endgame comes around. And given Marvels astronomical success since the MCU started in 2008, thats unlikely to change anytime soon. The announced Phase 4 slate might not make its macro story readily apparent. Yet, neither did Phase 1. After all, audiences only first meet Thanos in the mid-credits scene of The Avengers, the last film in the Phase 1 line-up. Phase 4 is getting a later start due to the coronavirus pandemic As excited as fans are to see what Phase 4 has in store, real-life concerns naturally come first. So, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Black Widow has been pushed from May 2020 to November 2020. This change is, of course, necessary, considering the national shutdown of most movie theaters. But it also leaves fans with the longest break in MCU history since Iron Man 2. In addition to coronavirus, the reason behind this makes a certain amount of sense. After all, Avengers: Endgame elevated the stakes literally to universal levels. And audiences need some time to readjust to the series new normal. Even Spider-Man: Far from Home the only post-Endgame MCU film released so far deals heavily with the aftermath of that film. Doctor Strange just so happens to be in a particularly tricky position. The film which will see Spider-Mans Sam Raimi direct falls squarely in the middle of the Phase 4 slate. In most cases, this wouldnt change much, but given the unprecedented circumstances affecting Hollywood now, Doctor Strange is at the center of an unfortunate MCU record. The Doctor Strange sequel comes five years after the first film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters on Nov. 5, 2021. When it does, it will mark almost exactly five years since its predecessors release. Normally, Marvel Studios only takes two or three years between sequels. So with the Doctor Strange sequel nearly doubling that, fans might be wondering what the hold-up has been. In part, this is caused by the ambitious 11-film Phase 3 slate. Beyond that, the delay on Doctor Strange within Phase 4 is likely due to its effect on what comes next. Feige has confirmed the sequel will officially usher in the concept of multiverses to the MCU. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will also connect directly to Disney+ shows WandaVision and Loki. So, much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Infinity War changed things midway through Phases 2 and 3, the Doctor Strange sequel will irrevocably alter the MCU landscape. If Phase 4 will set the stakes and introduce the major players for the next Thanos-level threat, expect Doctor Strange 2 to greatly impact how it all plays out. Thoroughbred racing is facing a crisis unlike anything it has faced before, and it is something those in high positions cannot see or fathom. The country is in a desperate, bordering on panicky, state right now and it has every right to be, because we are dealing with a faceless enemy whose life span is unknown, as is its power of destruction. But in our cloistered world of Thoroughbred racing we must be resilient and forge ahead, even at great risk, in order to protect the one thing that sustains us: the horse. Every person who loves horses and makes their living from horses has been touched by this noble creature and has had their lives affected by them in some way. The discovery of horses and horse racing changed my life. No, it gave me my life. I see the result of that change every time I look at my wife and my daughter, and now my 2-year-old grandson, none of which I would have if it weren't for horses and racing. I have shared so much with my family over the past four decades, and now as I ponder the future of racing, and of the world, I can only think back to some of those precious moments and how they came to be. So I look at a photo album and relive a moment in time that best serves the purpose of this column at this time. I can still see the images now, as I saw them then and it puts the impact of horses on our lives in proper perspective As I look at the photos I can hear the strains of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" blaring over the public address system, as jockey Carlos Mendez, aboard Gran Premio Jose Pedro Ramirez winner Rock Ascot, stands up in the saddle, flinging his arms up in victory, and tossing rose petals from the victory blanket in the air. The massive crowd at Maronas Racetrack lets out a mighty roar to salute the victors. With the music still resounding throughout the track, the winning connections-owner, breeder, trainer, and jockey and their friends and families-are driven in antique automobiles to the makeshift winner's podium on the track in front of the grandstand. Alongside the podium is a mounted military band in decorative uniforms and cascos (headgear) playing drums, bugles, tubas, and other instruments. With the fans still applauding and taking pictures, the winners are presented their trophies. Standing along the rail, my wife Joan and daughter Mandy and I are engulfed by the cheers, the music, and the on-track festivities. It was at this point that my daughter says, "All that's missing are fireworks." Sure enough, seconds later, an explosion of fireworks from behind the podium light up the darkening blue sky that has already become illuminated by the lights of the racetrack. It is a moment that is both spectacular and surreal-a fitting conclusion to a magical day that saw skydivers rain down on the racetrack carrying banners and flags. The surrealism is due in part to the fact that we were in Uruguay. Our trip, at the invitation of the Uruguayan Breeders' Association, included visits to the Riviera-like resort of Punta del Este, where the rich and famous congregate each summer; the amazing Casapueblo, where nature and art meet to form a kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, and images nestled along Uruguay's tranquil coastline; and the historic, charming town of Colonia, where you can see spectacular sunsets and the lights from Buenos Aires across the Rio del la Plata that separates Uruguay and Argentina. Our home base, the capital city of Montevideo, has miles and miles of beaches that come alive each day with people jogging, walking, riding bicycles, and strolling with their dogs along the palm tree-lined Rambla. It was at some point during the trip that it hit me. Everything I was experiencing was due to one horse. It was through my articles on Invasor and the contacts I had made in Uruguay that all of this was made possible. I gave a 90-minute talk on Invasor to the media and racing officials at Maronas that was shown later on the evening news, presented the trophy for one of the big stakes on Ramirez day, was interviewed by ESPN South America, had every want and need catered to, and, simply put, was treated like a rock star-all because of a horse. It was reassuring to know that the passion people around the world have for racing and for the horse still was as strong as ever; even 6,000 miles away in a small country most Americans would have trouble finding on a map. During Invasor's career in the United States, I bonded with him as I've never bonded with any horse. But I never could have imagined how far that bond would take me. This was a horse who was found by accident in a paddock in Argentina and sold to three Uruguayans who had traveled to Argentina with the intention of flying to a farm to look at horses. But when their flight was canceled due to engine trouble they were driven to a smaller farm and fell in love with a bay colt they wound up buying for $20,000. That horse would become a national hero in Uruguay, sweeping the Triple Crown, each race by huge margins, while remaining undefeated. People flocked to the racetrack to see him, touch him, take pictures with him, and attempt to get locks of his hair. Realizing he would never gain the international fame he deserved, they reluctantly sold him to Sheikh Hamdan for $1.5 million, which was an enormous amount of money in Uruguay. The day he left, part owner Pablo Hernandez said, "It was like saying goodbye to a son you were never going to see again. Although the plane left very early in the morning, a lot of people showed up at the airport to say their goodbyes to Invasor." But Hernandez was not prepared to bid farewell to his horse and he traveled around the world from Dubai to Churchill Downs to watch him run. I had corresponded with Pablo for months, and when we finally met in the winner's circle following Invasor's victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic, it was like a reunion of old friends as we hugged each other and posed for photos with his friends, holding up a large flag of Uruguay. It was a scene of pure delirium. After coming to America, Invasor won six consecutive grade 1 stakes, including the Breeders' Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup, and was inducted into the racing Hall of Fame in 2013. I visited him at trainer Kiaran McLaughlin's barn every time I went to Belmont, feeding him carrots and observing an intelligence you rarely see in a Thoroughbred. Because of this remarkable animal I met many people in a faraway land that I still consider close friends. I discovered a new culture, new food, and a new vibrant world of Thoroughbred racing that re-kindled the feelings I had for the sport back in the late 1960s, when all seemed so pure and innocent. But most of all I discovered myself. Cloistered away in my home/office every day, I was reluctant to embark on such an adventure, and it was only after my wife's constant urging and the excitement of my daughter at the thought of such a trip that I finally capitulated. So, my self-discovery was due in great part to them. Now here I am in my office immersed again in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), which this year will not be run until September. It is during crises like this that we tend to think of better times. I think of Uruguay and of Invasor and all the memorable moments we shared as a family far from home and all the new friends we met, and I cannot remove that one thought from my head: it was all because of a horse. Perhaps those are words everyone should remember, including those who jeopardize these magnificent creatures. Horses are what we are, what we have always been, and what we strive to be. For many in the industry they are our lives. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 07:42:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: Xinhua reporter Wei Ying briefs you on the urgent need of New York state for ventilators and medical personnel. (Xinhua/Zhang Mocheng) "It is unbelievable to me that in New York State, in the United States of America, we can't make these materials and that we are all shopping from China to try to get these materials and we're all competing against each other. These are not complex materials and will work with New York manufacturers," said Cuomo. NEW YORK, April 4 (Xinhua) -- With a surge of COVID-19 patients expected in the coming days, the U.S. state of New York is in urgent need of ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and health care workers, officials said Friday. Governor Andrew Cuomo told a press briefing on Friday morning that he would issue an executive order that allows the state to take ventilators and PPE from institutions that do not currently need them, and the National Guard will be mobilized to move the equipment to where they are needed the most. Those institutions will either get their ventilators back or they will be reimbursed for the equipment in the future. "It is unbelievable to me that in New York State, in the United States of America, we can't make these materials and that we are all shopping from China to try to get these materials and we're all competing against each other. These are not complex materials and will work with New York manufacturers," said Cuomo. The state is also trying to buy ventilators from China. "We are working with Alibaba, which has been very helpful to us," said the governor. "I spoke to Jack Ma and Mike Evans, who is the president. And they have been personally gracious and very, very helpful in trying to get us to source material from China." Cuomo noted that New York state had its deadliest day yet since the coronavirus outbreak, with the death toll rising from 2,373 to 2,935 in 24 hours by Friday morning. People shop for face masks, gloves and hand sanitizers on Atlantic Avenue in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on April 3, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) Over 102,000 cases were tallied in the state as of Friday evening local time. Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 have died of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University. New York City has contributed to over half of the state's total cases and fatalities, which stood at 57,159 and 1,584, respectively. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city also needs 15,000 extra ventilators and 65,000 more hospital beds, including 20,000 intensive care unit (ICU) beds. He also said that if any private organization, company or individual has lifesaving supplies or equipment and refuses to share them, "I'm authorizing the NYPD (New York Police Department) to ensure these items are turned over and brought to where the need is greatest," he tweeted, adding that it's following the governor's order. A total of 45,000 additional medical personnel are in need in the city, as some doctors and nurses are unable to carry on working due to infection of COVID-19 themselves or excessive fatigue. "We're bringing on 3,600 contracted health workers and nearly 1,000 volunteers-they'll just be the first wave," said the mayor on Twitter. A medical worker looks out of a window of the Brooklyn Hospital Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) Some 21,000 out-of-state individuals have volunteered to work in New York state's healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cuomo on Thursday's briefing. More people wearing masks are seen on the street in New York City as the mayor advised New Yorkers to wear a face covering when outside and near others. "It can be a scarf, a bandana or one you make at home. But please: save medical masks for our health care workers & first responders who truly need them," said de Blasio on Thursday. He said covering one's face is an added precaution to protect others in case one has contracted COVID-19 but doesn't demonstrate symptoms. Starting on Friday, all New Yorkers can get three free meals at hundreds of sites across the city amid the economic fallout caused by the pandemic. "Anyone who needs food, anyone who's hungry, can come to these 435 sites. You can get all three meals for yourself and your family for free," said de Blasio on Thursday. "There's no charge, and no one will be turned away." People wearing face masks wait in line outside a grocery store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on April 3, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) New York City's Health Department Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said Friday that the city is not conducting "contact tracing," which was recommended by the World Health Organization in order to find more COVID-19 positive patients. She said the city is now in the phase of mitigation instead of containment, and contact tracing is "not a good use of our resources" as hundreds, if not thousands of new cases, are reported every day. "(In) the mitigation phase when there is no proven treatments, when there is no vaccination, the most effective way to slow the spread of an outbreak is through social distancing," she added. (Article by Xinhua Reporter Chang Yuan) [Analysis: Peaks, testing and lockdowns: How coronavirus vocabulary causes confusion.] On the advice of his doctor, the prime minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests, a spokesman said Sunday. This is a precautionary step, as the prime minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus. The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, is expected to lead the daily cabinet meeting on the pandemic on Monday. Under the governments succession plan, Mr. Raab would take up Mr. Johnsons duties if he is incapacitated. Mr. Johnsons hospitalization is a stark illustration of how deeply the virus has struck governments around the world, sickening officials from Britain to Brazil, killing a senior aide to the supreme leader of Iran, and sending the leaders of Germany and Canada into isolation. The queens speech was among only a handful of times in her 68-year reign in which she has addressed the British people, apart from her annual Christmas greeting and it carried a distinct echo of the celebrated radio address her father, George VI, delivered in September 1939, as Britain stood on the brink of war with Germany. Like the king eight decades ago, the queen appealed to the quintessential British traits of stoicism and solidarity, and explicitly linked the pandemic to the war as a defining moment for modern Britain. This time, she said, the country needs to come together to vanquish an enemy that brings death not in the terrifying bombing raids of the Blitz but in the ordinary encounters of people transmitting a dangerous pathogen. I hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, the queen said, and those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humored resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterize this country. Hong Kong: Police virus situation explained The Centre for Health Protection today said that the toilet and common facilities in a police station might have been possible routes of COVID-19 virus transmission. The centres Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan made the statement at a press briefing this afternoon. On April 4, a police officer who worked in the same station as another officer, who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19, was confirmed to be infected with the virus. Dr Chuang said: At the present moment, because we can't identify any other risk factors concerning the linkage between the two police officers, that's why we postulate that the toilet and the common facilities on the floor may be the possible routes of transmission. That's why we will quarantine the staff working on the same floor who used those kinds of facilities. She also noted that the officers wore masks and did not have very close contact with other people when they were working. That's why we have not classified other members of the general public as close contacts. This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Ministers are said to be furious at 'megalomaniac' NHS bosses and Public Health England's failure to get to grips with testing and protective equipment shortages - as a new survey shows their staff have no faith in their leaders. There have been increasing concerns about the level of diagnostic testing for the deadly pandemic, with Matt Hancock last week admitting the UK had struggled to scale up to the mass testing of other countries such as Germany. The failure over testing, lack of success in bringing in sufficient PPE equipment to protect NHS staff, and hesitancy to embrace the private sector, is causing a rift between the government and health officials, as reported by The Sunday Times. Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, was labelled 'a megalomaniac, micromanaging control freak' by one senior figure, the newspaper has said. Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, was labelled 'a megalomaniac, micromanaging control freak' by one senior figure He has been blamed by No10 for not taking control of the PPE issue, and for previously refusing to let private labs take on testing work - a decision which was reversed late last week. After coming out of self-isolation due to having symptoms of coronavirus, Mr Hancock pledged 100,000 tests a day and pledged to work with businesses to ramp up the UK's testing. The plan includes tests to ascertain if a person is infected by the virus, and also separate anti-body tests to see if someone has already acquired immunity from the disease. As part of his five-pillar plan to accelerate testing over the next four weeks, Mr Hancock said he wanted to embrace the private sector and develop a 'huge diagnostic industry'. This morning he admitted that hitting his promise of 100,000 coronavirus tests by the end of April will be 'hard' and that people involved in the efforts will have to 'put their shoulders to the wheel' to hit the target. Health Secretary Matt Hancock arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London to appear on the Andrew Marr show today A health department source told the Sunday Times: 'NHS England and Public Health England were reluctant to relinquish their power to private labs. 'Stevens has this absolutely illogical fear of anyone else getting any say over what happens in the NHS.' A study by the free-market Adam Smith Institute was also critical of NHS quangos for not embracing help from the private sector earlier, and being slow to react. The report said: 'The UK's COVID-19 testing has been dangerously slow, excessively bureaucratic and hostile to outsiders and innovation. 'There appears to be an innate distrust of outsiders. PHE has actively discouraged use of private sector testing. 'Even within the system, the process for testing and validation is very centralised.' The paper highlighted that the UK has fallen to the bottom quarter of OECD countries for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, on a per capita basis. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has demanded answers on the lack of scaling up of testing South Korea has tested four times as many people as the UK, Germany almost three times and the United States now almost twice as many, per capita. The institute's plan - which involves using the UK's private laboratories for mass testing - has been back by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt. He said: 'A mass community testing plan is challenging, but not impossible if we mobilise in the way we have to produce ventilators,' he said. 'That means tapping into every laboratory, every pharmaceutical company and every university in the country without delay.' It comes after confidence in Public Health England was lacking from its own staff members, as reported by The Sunday Telegraph. An official survey found that 49 per cent of its employees who took part said they did not have any confience in senior managers' decisions. Labour Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has demanded answers on the lack of scaling up of testing: '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.' An NHS England spokesman disagreed with the claims. 'First, NHS hospital labs are doing exactly the testing they've been asked to, concentrating first on patient testing and now staff testing. 'By contrast it has always been clear that mass testing would also need to involve private sector partners - which the Department of Health leads on and has been working to introduce. 'Second, NHS England has itself rapidly engaged with the private sector in areas for which it has responsibility, as evidenced by a deal to redeploy almost all independent hospitals across England to help with the expected surge of coronavirus patients. 'This means another 20,000 staff, 8,000 more beds and an extra 1,000 ventilators can all be used in this battle. 'Third, the NHS in partnership with the military has acted in record time to establish new Nightingale hospitals in London and now in four other regions across the country. 'Everyone across the NHS is completely focused on coming together to respond to the biggest global health emergency in a century.' Chinese firms race to supply life-saving ventilators as global demand surges People's Daily Online By He Leijing, Cheng Lu, Zhu Xiao and Qin Huajiang (Xinhua) 09:56, April 04, 2020 Analytics firm GlobalData predicted that about 880,000 more ventilators are in demand globally amid the pandemic. Ventilator manufacturers across the world are running full-steam to meet the surging demand. China, one of the largest ventilator producers, has joined the global fight against COVID-19. Chinese ventilator makers are working around the clock to bolster supplies of the life-saving machine as global demand skyrockets due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals around the world have faced a surge of patients with breathing difficulties from the coronavirus, which is sparking a global hunt for ventilators, a kind of medical devices that pump oxygen into the lungs and are essential to save the lives of the sickest. Analytics firm GlobalData predicted that about 880,000 more ventilators are in demand globally amid the pandemic, with the United States reporting a gap of 75,000 ventilators, while France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain are collectively short of 74,000. Ventilator manufacturers across the world are running full-steam to meet the surging demand. China, one of the largest ventilator producers, has joined the global fight against COVID-19 by ramping up its production of the life-saving machines. China has 21 invasive ventilator makers and eight of them have obtained the European Union's compulsory CE marking, according to Xu Kemin, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). "Chinese manufacturers have received orders for about 20,000 ventilators from other countries and have swung into full gear to meet the surging demand in foreign market," Xu said at a press conference on Monday. IN FULL SWING In a factory in Yanjiao, a town near Beijing inside the border of north China's Hebei Province, workers are busy testing, assembling and packing ventilators to catch up to the backlogs, making sure the devices can be delivered overseas as soon as possible. "From production to shipment, we dare not to waste any minute. More than 500 workers have returned to their jobs and are toiling day and night," said Li Kai, assistant to the chairman of Beijing Aeonmed Co., Ltd., an anesthesia and respiratory medical equipment enterprise. The company, which previously could produce thousands of ventilators a year, has recently seen overseas orders surge. It has received orders for over 1,000 ventilators from international organizations and foreign countries including Italy, Britain and Russia, and is ramping up efforts to lift the output. "We have not taken even one day off since late January, and have already manufactured and delivered hundreds of ventilators to overseas markets, with thousands of products scheduled to be produced," Li said. As the coronavirus outbreak is under better control in China, the country has sped up work resumption of businesses. The ventilator makers are increasing manpower to meet the growing global demand. At Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd., a medical device manufacturer based in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, employees from the headquarters are turning into frontline workers to help tighten screws, label and assemble components of ventilators. The number of workers at Mindray's Guangming Manufacturing Center in Shenzhen has thus increased to more than 3,800 from 2,000 and the company also turns to automation. "Now we can triple capacity and produce around 3,000 ventilators per month, and we hope to increase it to 4,000 by June," said Jing Jungang, general manager of Mindray's Manufacturing Department. In ten days since March 19, Chinese companies have provided more than 1,700 invasive ventilators to other countries, Xu said on Monday. STRICT QUALITY CONTROL The official with MIIT said the ministry will take more steps to elevate production capacity, and it has urged firms to tighten supervision over quality and enhance production safety. Starting Wednesday, exporters of medical products including COVID-19 testing kits, medical face masks, medical protective suits, ventilators and infrared thermometers need to provide extra documentation when they go through customs clearance, according to the commerce ministry. The document, in either print or digital form, should contain a declaration that the products have been officially registered in China and meet the quality-control standards of respective export destinations, the ministry said in a notice on its website. Jiangsu Yuyue Medical Equipment & Supply Co., Ltd., a major Chinese ventilator maker, announced Wednesday that certain types of ventilators made by its subsidiary obtained an Emergency Use Authorization in the United States. "We have delivered 7,000 non-invasive ventilators to domestic market since the outbreak. Recently, the company has received orders for medical supplies from 58 countries, and the demand for ventilators has surpassed 20,000," said Yuan Zhen, deputy general manager of the company. Yuan said all the exported ventilators are easy to operate with English manuals and installation instruction videos. "But manufacturing a ventilator is no easy task, it requires strict quality control," he said, noting their research and development is based on clinical needs. "Products will first go through testing processes in the specialized test center, and then get tested again by third-party institutions and hospitals." CONCERTED EFFORT Each ventilator has more than 1,000 components, and some major suppliers of these parts are located in foreign countries. It requires the coordination of all sides. "Some of our components including the solenoid valve are imported from overseas, and the suppliers are also working day and night, but there are many uncertainties due to the pandemic," said Li with the Beijing-based company. A supplier of ventilator components told Xinhua that the solenoid valve is a precision electronic part, and the demand of a domestic ventilator company is about thousands of sets per year, but the figure rose up to 80,000 in a short period since late January. WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo called for global solutions to address the challenge caused by the pandemic. "Trade allows for the efficient production and supply of basic goods and services, medical supplies and equipment...Keeping trade and investment flowing will be critical to keep shelves plentiful and prices affordable," he said in a video on the organization's website. To speed up deliveries of ventilators desperately needed worldwide, the Chinese government has also lent a hand. Local authorities give customs clearance priority to key components, promote work resumption of suppliers, and offer financial support for medical supplies enterprises. For instance, starting March 19, Beijing Medical Products Administration cut handling time from seven days to one day for export certificate related to medical equipment. "As we breathe the same air and share the same future, we will go to great lengths to contribute our own efforts into global fight against the coronavirus," Li said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Oregons Jackson County has tested more people per capita for coronavirus than every state except New York, Washington and Louisiana -- three viral hotspots with thousands of patients, according to an analysis of state and national data by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The county, which ranks sixth in population in Oregon about 217,500 people, is testing at more than twice the rate of the state overall, the newspapers analysis found. Jackson County public health officials and representatives of the regions medical systems, which carry out testing, said they dont really know why the countys testing rates are so high. They suggested it was their preparation, the countys relatively small size and possibly the quick response. All said theyre following the states narrow testing guidelines for the sickest people. As of Friday, the southern Oregon county tested 2,028 people for coronavirus, a rate of 9.375 per thousand. The states testing rate is 3.8. New York, Washington and Louisiana have testing rates of 9.8 per thousand or above, according to the COVID Tracking Project, which tracks testing rates nationally. With 27 confirmed cases of the disease, Jackson County isnt a coronavirus hotspot in Oregon. Washington, Marion and Multnomah counties have seen 535 cases combined. Testing capacity has been an issue in Oregon and nationally. The state-run Oregon State Public Health Laboratory was initially the only option for testing after Oregons outbreak began Feb. 28, but private labs and hospital systems have since come on line and increased capacity statewide. Thats critical because the true number of infections in Oregon and elsewhere has been dramatically undercounted as many people have struggled to qualify for testing unless they have severe symptoms. That lack of testing also means people who are infected but dont have symptoms, or who have only mild symptoms, can unknowingly spread the virus to others. County officials said private health providers, Providence Medford Medical Center and Asante, which operates more than two dozen clinics and two hospitals in the county, have led testing efforts in the county. A spokeswoman for Providence, Julie Denney, couldnt explain the higher rate, saying only that Providence providers are following the public health criteria for testing. A spokeswoman for Asante, southern Oregons largest medical provider, attributed the testing rates to early planning for the pandemic. Lauren Van Sickle, a public information officer for Asante, said the system moved early and quickly to set up mobile clinics for testing, video and telephone consultations with people calling with possible cases of the disease. She said mobile testing clinics were up and running by March 13. The system didnt get more test kits than anyone else in Oregon, Van Sickle said. We had the same access as everybody with the swabs that we used to collect the specimens, she said Friday. Those specimens went to the state lab and later to commercial labs that began processing coronavirus tests, she said. Asante operates a hospital in Medford, where the company is based, and Ashland. It also operates a hospital in Grants Pass in neighboring Josephine County. She speculated that the regional companys relatively small size allowed it to respond more nimbly to the health crisis. Maybe we got started sooner than most? Van Sickle said. We got out of the gate quicker perhaps? Dr. Jim Shames, the county health officer, said Saturday that hes mystified by the countys stand-out status. He speculated that planning and what he characterized as the efficient approach to testing by the regions private medical systems are behind the numbers. He said the county encouraged those providers to follow the guidelines in identifying who gets tested. He said county officials recognized that the state was struggling with limited testing capacity and it made sense to prioritize the sickest people for testing. Basically, we followed the Oregon Health Authority protocols for testing, he said Saturday. I cant guarantee everybody did that, but from a public health perspective we wanted people to test appropriately and do it in a way that that decreased any risk in the primary care setting and utilized (personal protective equipment) the most efficiently. -- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci both said Sunday that they wear masks if they go out in public in accordance with new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. 'I would and do,' Fauci, 79, told CBS's Face the Nation Sunday morning when asked if he wears a mask in public. 'If you go to a situation where you don't have control over the six-foot distance, that you wear a mask,' the government's top immunologist insisted. Joe Biden also asserted during an interview with ABC's This Week on Sunday morning that he will wear a face mask if he leaves his home. 'Yes. Look, I think it's important to follow the science. Listen to the experts. Do what they tell you,' Biden told George Stephenopoulos Sunday when asked if he would be wearing a mask in public places. Biden and Fauci's claims comes after Donald Trump said Friday that he would not comply with the suggestion from the CDC. 'He may not like how he looks in a mask. But the truth of the matter is that follow the science,' the former vice president continued in his interview, referencing Trump's insistence that he won't wear a mask. The 77-year-old Democratic presidential candidate, however, said he has not gone to public or commercial places lately, so he hasn't had a need to wear a mask. Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that he will be wearing a mask whenever he goes out in public to comply with new CDC recommendations to stop the spread and contraction of coronavirus Anthony Fauci made the same claim on Face the Nation Sunday, saying he will and does already wear a face mask when he can't maintain a six-foot distance between others in public Biden also insisted that Donald Trump should wear a mask, even if he thinks he looks foolish in one Trump said during a press briefing Friday that the suggestion from the CDC was not a mandate, and said he would not be participating. 'This is voluntary. I don't think I'm going to be doing it,' he told the press By Sunday evening, the death toll in the U.S. surpassed 9,500 Fauci told CBS that wearing a mask or some sort of mouth and nose covering is an additional way for Americans to protect themselves from spreading or contracting the virus. 'I would recommend doing what the CDC, as I appropriately and correctly said, it's an adjunct,' Fauci continued. 'It's an additional way to help protect you and to have you help protect others.' Biden also said the Democratic National Convention this summer might have to be held virtually as the coronavirus outbreak continues to affect Americans' day-to-day life. Trump announced during his Friday press briefing that the CDC is now recommending Americans wear non-medical cloth masks, making clear it is not a mandate. 'So it's voluntary, you don't have to be doing it,' Trump said from the White House briefing room podium. 'This is voluntary.' 'I don't think I'm going to be doing it,' he said. Trump suggested wearing a mask might make him look foolish as he worked from the White House and spoke with world leaders. 'I'm feeling good,' Trump said when asked why he wouldn't sport a mask. 'Somehow sitting in the Oval Office, sitting behind that beautiful Resolute Desk, the great Resolute Desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know, I just don't see it for myself.' First lady Melania Trump asserted just minutes later that Americans should take the CDC recommendation seriously. 'As the weekend approaches I ask that everyone take social distancing & wearing a mask/face covering seriously,' she tweeted Friday. As of Sunday more than 9,500 people have died of coronavirus in the U.S. and the number of confirmed cases has reached 337,000. Members of Trump's coronavirus task force have said for days that they were debating whether or not to put out a mask recommendation as they learn more about the fast-spreading respiratory disease. Biden, the presumed 2020 Democratic candidate, also told ABC's George Stephenopoulos Sunday that he believes the DNC Convention could be moved to a digital platform as coronavirus concerns continue to rock the nation. 'Well we're going to have to do a convention may have to do a virtual convention,' Biden conceded. 'I think we should be thinking about that right now.' 'The idea of holding a convention is going to be necessary, but we may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place,' the candidate continued. 'And that's very possible. Again, let's see where it is. What we do between now and then is going to dictate a lot of that, as well.' Biden's suggestion of a non-in-person convention comes after the DNC announced this week that it is moving the convention dates from July 13-16 to August 17-20 the days just before the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Democratic National Committee made it official on Thursday, the morning after Biden said it would likely be delayed a month due to the coronavirus outbreak. The convention will remain in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biden also said the Democratic Convention may need to be held virtually even after the DNC delayed the nominating convention a month. Biden is the presumed Democratic nominee, but Bernie Sanders has not yet dropped out of the race The CEO of the DNCC Joe Solmonese suggested convention plans are still up in the air. 'In our current climate of uncertainty, we believe the smartest approach is to take additional time to monitor how this situation unfolds so we can best position our party for a safe and successful convention,' he said in a statement Thursday. He was optimistic that Democrats would hold some sort of convention this summer in Milwaukee. 'I have always believed that American innovation and ingenuity shine brightest during our darkest days, and for that reason, I'm confident our convention planning team and our partners will find a way to deliver a convention in Milwaukee this summer that places our Democratic nominee on the path to victory in November,' Solmonese continued in the statement. Trump predicted Saturday that the Republican National Convention will go on as scheduled in Charlotte on August 24. 'We have no contingency plan,' Trump said Saturday of the convention that will renominate him. By PTI AHMEDABAD: As the world is facing shortage of medical equipment to fight the coronavirus, a Rajkot-based company has developed low cost ventilators in just 10 days and will deliver 1,000 of these machines to the Gujarat government-run hospitals in next few days. The ventilator, developed by a private company, was tested at a medical lab of the Ahmedabad civil hospital and given an approval on Friday night, an official said. The locally developed ventilator is being used for patients from Saturday, he said, adding that the machine is working fine. CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES The entire world is fighting the silent enemy coronavirus and is facing shortage of equipment like ventilators, N95 masks and PPE suits for doctors, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on Saturday. "When we have skills and big industries here, the Gujarat government decided to use it. Rajkot is considered as an engineering hub. Small scale industries of Rajkot supply engineering parts to NASA, ISRO, Railways and for defence production, Rupani said. "I am happy to announce that an industrialist from Rajkot has been successful in manufacturing ventilators in just 10 days. They designed it, made a prototype, procured parts and successfully built ventilators. Their testing has been done and certification has been completed. It is being used on patients from Saturday," he told reporters. ALSO READ | 61-year-old COVID-19 patient dies in Gujarat's Surat; death toll in state rise to 11 Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who is also Gujarat's health minister, said the company, Jyoti CNC Automation Limited, has not only passed engineering requirements for the machine but also successfully cleared medical requirements at the testing lab. "Chief Minister Rupani took special interest and invited industries to come forward and help to fight this global threat. "He did regular follow-ups with the industry and assured and provided all help so that ventilators can be indigenously manufactured," Patel said. Jyoti CNC has decided to donate first 1,000 ventilators to the Gujarat government, he said. The company's owner Prakaramsinh Jadeja said they were given the task which was difficult to achieve in this period of lockdown. "A team of nearly 150 people has been working day and night for last 10 days to develop a 'Made in India' ventilator. Due to the lockdown and ban on international travel and goods movement, we cannot procure any parts from abroad. So we procured the ventilator parts from 26 different companies in India," Jadeja said. The ventilator developed by the company has been named as 'Dhaman 1', which is the base model and fulfils the requirement of COVID-19 patients, he said, adding that later more advanced models will be developed. Jadeja said the market cost of a single ventilator is Rs 6.5 lakh, but they have been able to manufacture it at a cost below Rs one lakh. "We will donate 1,000 ventilators to the Gujarat government. We have got the capacity of manufacturing 100 ventilators per day and after three days, we will ramp up the capacity as per the demand," he said. "Many state governments are in touch with us and after providing ventilators to Gujarat, we will supply it to other states," he added. Vietnam has lodged an official protest with China following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near islands in the disputed South China Sea. The Vietnamese fishing vessel, with eight fishermen onboard, was fishing near the Paracel Islands on Thursday when it was rammed and sunk by the Chinese vessel, Vietnam's foreign ministry said in a statement posted on a government website on Saturday. All the fishermen were picked up by the Chinese vessel alive and were transferred to two other Vietnamese fishing vessels operating nearby, the Vietnam Fisheries Society said in a statement posted to its website. "The Chinese vessel committed an act that violated Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago and threatened the lives and damaged the property and legitimate interests of Vietnamese fishermen," the foreign ministry said in its statement, referring to the Paracel Islands by its Vietnamese name. Vietnam and China have for years been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of water, called the East Sea by Vietnam. The Vietnamese boat illegally entered the area to fish and refused to leave, the Chinese coast guard said late on Friday. After making some dangerous maneuvers, the boat collided with a Chinese patrol vessel and sank, the Chinese coast guard said in a statement on its social media account. The Chinese coast guard also said it had made solemn representations with the Vietnamese side. The incident marks the second time in less than a year a Vietnamese fishing vessel has been reportedly sunk by a Chinese vessel near the China-controlled Paracels. A Chinese oil survey vessel conducted operations in Vietnamese-controlled waters for more than three months last year, causing a tense standoff between vessels from the two countries. Officials in South Sudan say the country has its first case of COVID-19, making it the 51st of Africas 54 countries to have the disease. First Vice President Riek Machar and the U.N. mission in South Sudan confirmed the positive case of a U.N. worker who arrived in the country from Netherlands on Feb. 28. The officials say the patient, a 29-year-old woman, is recovering. South Sudan, with 11 million people, currently has four ventilators and wants to increase that number, said Machar, who emphasized that people should stay three to six feet apart from others. The only vaccine is social distancing, said Machar. The patient is under quarantine at U.N. premises and health workers are tracing the people who had been in contact with her, said David Shearer, head of the U.N. operations in South Sudan. He said he hoped the measures would contain the case. To prevent the spread of the virus in South Sudan, President Salva Kiir last week imposed a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for six weeks and closed borders, airports, schools, churches and mosques. Lorna with the two kids and McKenzie on the sofa in the living room. The architectural prints are from Etsy and their frames are from Ikea. The dining table is by Neptune and came from Global Village while the chairs are from Marks and Spencer The canopy and playnest are from Josh and Jenna. "It's a lovely Irish company, and more than anything I like to support small Irish companies with great ideas". Photo: David Conachy The kitchen in Lorna Pringle's house is by Kestral Interiors in Longford. The units are painted quarter silver by Zoffany. The walls are a shade darker Teacher and Instagrammar Lorna Pringle with Emilia and Harry in the playroom. She pimped up the plain shelving with beading, cornicing and skirting and she also upcycled the play kitchen. Photo: David Conachy Since the arrival of Ikea in this country, it's probably fair to say that the vast majority of home owners have bought at least one item in a branch of the massive home-store, and many under the age of 40 have successfully furnished their entire houses with the Swedish giant's offering. The only problem is, it's all a bit uniform. However, there are clever people, like mother-of-two Lorna Pringle, who take a mass-market product and just can't resist making it their own - the bookshelves in her three-year-old daughter Emilia's playroom at their home in Straffan are a perfect example. "I took three sets of white bookshelves and attached them together. I added cornicing across the top, some beading, and skirting at the bottom, and suddenly they look like customised built-in shelving," Lorna enthuses. She even customised Emilia's play kitchen - by painting it, adding a splashback and spraying the taps and handles a different colour. "If I can't find what I want, I try and do it myself," says Lorna. Expand Close The kitchen in Lorna Pringle's house is by Kestral Interiors in Longford. The units are painted quarter silver by Zoffany. The walls are a shade darker / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The kitchen in Lorna Pringle's house is by Kestral Interiors in Longford. The units are painted quarter silver by Zoffany. The walls are a shade darker The same rule applies if something is too expensive. Lorna found a height ruler online to record Emilia's growth, but it cost several hundred euro, so Lorna's solution was to make one herself. "I bought a plank in Woodie's and the stickers on Etsy. It cost me a fraction of the online version, and looks just as nice," the resourceful 30-something notes. She adds: "Several of my followers have asked me to make height rulers for them, so I have been really spurred on to start a small business and sell some of the DIY projects from around my home." It's not a fanciful notion; Lorna has a ready-made market for her products with the many followers of her Instagram account, @for.the.love.of.greige. Fashion and beauty Instagrammers have gained huge followings over the last 10 years and many, such as Suzanne Jackson and Pippa O'Connor Ormond, have become celebrities, but interiors Instagrammers haven't been as high profile. Yet very gradually, over the course of only two years, Lorna has built up a sizeable following of almost 40,000 people. It all began, she says, when she started chatting to her neighbour in her last house - in Celbridge - about the interiors of their respective homes. The neighbour showed her the Instagram accounts of British interiors Instagrammers, and Lorna started following them. "They were so relatable; they weren't interior designers, just women who had a passion for their homes," she explains, adding that her interest was piqued because their content was full of interesting ideas, some of which were very artistic. Expand Close Lorna with the two kids and McKenzie on the sofa in the living room. The architectural prints are from Etsy and their frames are from Ikea. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lorna with the two kids and McKenzie on the sofa in the living room. The architectural prints are from Etsy and their frames are from Ikea. Growing up in Celbridge, Lorna, the younger of two children, was herself creative. She had always loved art at school but had been persuaded to abandon it after the Junior Cert. "My mother felt doing a portfolio for Leaving Cert art would take up too much of my study time, so I gave it up," she says. It's not something Lorna regrets as she loves her career as a teacher - her dad was also a teacher. After the Leaving, she did a degree in geography and anthropology at Maynooth, and then did a post-grad in national teacher training at Hibernia College. She now works in a local primary school. "It's challenging dealing with small kids, but I love it," Lorna says. "Some children might be difficult for their parents, but they behave differently for the teacher and for each other, and are more likely to behave. Even stuff Emilia wouldn't do for me, she'll do for her playschool teacher." A part-time job in Marks and Spencer during her post-grad studies led to her meeting Alan, who is now her husband. "His surname is Pringle, like the crisp and Pringle like the Scottish knitwear," Lorna says with a smile. "Alan is from Edinburgh, and his family have always been in textiles, too. His grandad had a woollen mills called James Pringle Weavers. These days, his dad has a retail shop in a woollen mills. When Alan finished his degree, he decided he wanted to get experience somewhere other than Edinburgh. It was very lucky for me he chose Dublin," she explains fondly. In 2007, Alan came to Ireland to Marks and Spencer on a graduate programme. "He was in the food hall, I was in womenswear; we'd meet doing cash collection. One night, we got talking... We kept it quiet for a while, then the other staff started noticing that on special occasions like Mother's Day, my till was the one that was the best stocked with things like chocolate gifts. Alan would use stocking it as an excuse to come and talk to me," Lorna explains with a laugh. The couple got married in Scotland in 2015 - it was a typically Scottish wedding with kilts and bagpipes. "The Scots go all-out, and we had a fantastic day. A piper pipes you into the hall; there is a tradition of a toast with a sharing cup, and you literally tie a knot with some ribbon. We had highland games on the lawn and I brought a hurl and sliotar to keep the Irish side up," she laughs. Even though Edinburgh is beautiful, the couple decided to settle in Kildare - Edinburgh is a more expensive city and getting a teaching job for Lorna might have proved difficult, while Alan had plenty of work opportunities in Ireland. Over the years, he's gained experience in Homebase and Avoca, and is now store manager of TK Maxx in Newbridge. Expand Close The animal heads in Harry's room are by an American lady called Beverly White from Heartfelt Creations on Etsy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The animal heads in Harry's room are by an American lady called Beverly White from Heartfelt Creations on Etsy Also, both of Lorna's parents are in Celbridge, while Alan's mother travelled a lot for her job. "Alan's dad lives in Newcastle and his mum is a judge of highland dancing and she travels to places like Australia, judging competitions. She's retiring soon and thinking of coming to live here, to be near us. She gets on great with my parents so she'd have a ready-made little network," Lorna says, adding that her parents are great for minding Emilia and help also with five-month-old Harry. The couple rented first in Celbridge, near her parents' home, to make sure Alan would like the village, and when he did, they bought their first home there. It was while decorating this house that Lorna really connected with the Insta community and started posting herself under the name 'for the love of greige'. She came up with the name because she loves grey, but likes to add warmth as well. "A lot of social media can be negative, but the Insta home community is a like-minded community; most people have babies and it's very positive,' Lorna says. "We support each other; we get ideas from each other." While Lorna gets some ideas from others, her following built up because of the great ideas she created and posted herself. "It could be something simple like a flower arrangement, or it might be a project," she says. "For example, I bought a playhouse for Emilia and upcycled it; I create lots of DIY projects. I might make a gallery wall and take a photo and post it on my page. I like it to happen organically; when I do post, I like it to be purposeful. I follow a lot of small Irish businesses and I love to give them a shout-out, but only if I like something of theirs," she explains. Having done up the Celbridge house to her satisfaction, the couple felt they needed a bigger house after Emilia arrived. "We loved the house, but new builds can be very narrow and we began to notice that just with one child, we were getting very cramped. We could have turned the third bedroom into a playroom, but with Alan's family abroad, we needed to have a spare room so we decided to move." They were hoping to find the right house in Celbridge, but they fell in love with a house in a tiny enclave in Straffan and bought it. It was only 13 years old but Lorna decided to change everything. "It had great potential. I was like Kirstie Allsopp from Location Location Location - I like to tap walls and see what I can knock," she offers, adding: "I broke down some walls and built up others." Upstairs, the house was three-bedroomed, and had a walk-in wardrobe that Lorna turned into an extra bedroom - with baby Harry, four bedrooms are now necessary. Downstairs, she knocked walls and moved the kitchen so that it got better light; she took out windows and put in French doors; and she got storage that went to the ceiling. "I did all my plans on the computer, showed them to a builder and asked if they were possible. He agreed to do it," Lorna says. "We bought the house in September 2018, we moved out in February 2019 and stayed with my parents, and we were back in, with everything done, in April 2019." Lorna opted for calming shades in her backdrop and more colour and texture in her accessories and, of course, she implemented many of the ideas she had picked up over the years on Instagram. She also returned the favour to Instagram by posting tutorials on how to achieve certain projects she had completed. "The panelling in Harry's room, I did that myself and posted a little tutorial about it," she says. "I love to do carpentry, My grandad was a carpentry teacher, maybe I got that from him. And my Dad loves carpentry." In fact, the kids' playroom is home to a little house her dad made for Lorna when she was a child. No doubt Emilia and Harry will be keeping that kitchen Lorna upcycled for their kids. Facebook and Instagram @for.the.love.of.greige Edited by Mary O'Sullivan Photography by David Conachy (CNN) President Donald Trump on Saturday warned that "there will be a lot of death" in the coming weeks as the number of people who had died from the coronavirus in the United States surpassed 8,000. "This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week," the President said in a White House briefing Saturday. "And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done," he said, referring to certain mitigation tactics. At least 301,902 people in the United States have been infected by the coronavirus and 8,175 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University's running case count. Health officials urged Americans to continue following social distancing guidelines, with Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease calling it "our most important tool." He pointed to Washington state, where social distancing measures appear to be paying off. "I want to actually just plea ... to the American public, you know, as sobering and as difficult as this is, what we are doing is making a difference," Fauci said. "So we really need to continue to do that." White House experts earlier this week predicted at least 100,000 Americans could die from the virus and that's if residents strictly abide by federal social distancing guidelines, which were extended for another month. State-by-state coronavirus cases States don't have adequate supplies, leaders warn Several states have seen large jumps in their number of cases, including Louisiana, which reported 2,199 new cases Saturday, and New Jersey, which reported 4,331. But along with the rise in cases, some state leaders have said they're still missing vitals tools to combat the virus and slow it's spread. New York state, which has been desperately searching for ventilators, will receive 140 ventilators from Oregon, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday in a news conference. "This was unsolicited, but the 140 ventilators will make a difference," Cuomo said, adding the gesture was both "kind" and "smart." "We're all in the same battle here," the governor said. "And the battle is stopping the spread of the virus." China is donating another 1,000 ventilators, Cuomo said. Those are expected to arrive Saturday. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said his state doesn't even have enough tests to get a clear idea of the scale of the outbreak. "Everything about the tests are very difficult to come by, and there's no federal plan for this, so every state is on their own," Pritzker said. "As I've said, it's the Wild West out here." North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called on the federal government to ramp up efforts for more personal protective equipment, or PPE, saying the state had received some but not all it had requested. He said the state is "grateful" for the supplies, but had only received a third of what it asked for. "This pandemic is a war," he said. "And we need the armor to fight it." "Governments at all levels, hospitals, law enforcement and others are competing against each other for a scarce amount of personal protective equipment," Cooper said. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on residents to donate equipment they may have, saying there's a great need for gloves. He said officials in his state have tried to boost hospital bed capacity and buy more personal protective equipment, but "it's really hard." "The federal government buys most all of it," he said. President Donald Trump this week said the US Strategic National Stockpile is nearly depleted. White House announces new face cloth guidelines People are now advised to wear cloth face coverings when in public, the White House announced Friday upon recommendation of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's really going to be a voluntary thing," Trump said. "I'm not choosing to do it." The President's announcement came days after a panel of experts advised the White House on new research that suggests coronavirus could be spread by talking and possibly even just breathing. Still, experts at the CDC said they felt "pressured" by the White House to draft the recommendations on face coverings, a senior federal health official involved in discussions said. How to make your own face mask "The CDC would not have gone this direction if not for the White House," the official told CNN. "We would have tried more to understand about asymptomatic transmission. We would have done more studies if we had more time." CDC experts were under "intense pressure" to draft the new guidelines quickly, the official said. Not yet reached the apex Several states have reported jumps in cases, including Louisiana, where there were nearly 12,500 cases a 21% increase and more than 400 deaths on Saturday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. To deal with the influx of cases, officials are converting a New Orleans convention center into an emergency hospital. "Look at the magnitude of this. We are still very much in this," Dr. Joseph Kanter, assistant state health officer for the department, said in a news conference. "In fact we haven't even hit halfway." New York state has more than 113,000 cases, with more than 10,000 reported on Friday a "new high" Cuomo said Saturday. At least 3,565 people had died. The state has yet to reach the peak of its curve, Cuomo told reporters, saying projections forecast the apex is between four and eight days away. At that point, New York's health care system will face its "ultimate challenge," Cuomo said. "But there's part of me that says it's good we're not at the apex because we're not yet ready for the apex either," he said. "We're not yet ready for the high point. We're still working on the capacity of the system. The more time we have to improve the capacity of the system, the better." To achieve that, the governor said he will sign an executive order to allow medical students who have yet to graduate to begin practicing. In all, the state has 85,000 medical volunteers, he said, including 22,000 from out of state. Meantime, an emergency hospital facility at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan will provide 2,500 beds, treat Covid-19 patients and be staffed by the federal government, Cuomo said. The US Navy said Saturday that a "few patients" brought to the USNS Comfort tested positive for Covid-19, though the ship is not meant to treat coronavirus patients. They were isolated upon their arrival to the Comfort, which is docked in New York City, while they awaited test results. When those results came back positive, the patients were transferred to the Javits Center. Nurse says patients appear sicker than last week A New York hospital intensive care unit nurse says the patients she and her colleagues are treating this week appear sicker compared with last week. And it's not just the lungs, Kelley Bradshaw said. Patients' heart and kidneys are being affected as well. "There's just a lot of unpredictability with these patients and it just feels like the longer someone battles this virus and the more critically ill they become, the harder our job gets," she said. The ICU has expanded to handle more patients, Bradshaw said, and while health workers still have all the protective equipment they need, they're careful not to exhaust it in case they still have a lot of coronavirus patients three weeks from now. "They do have to keep it very it is very regulated, meaning that we can't just blow through it, because we don't know what's coming next," she said. State officials in New York have planned to redirect ventilators and medical supplies from institutions that aren't using them to overwhelmed downstate medical facilities under an executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo is asking upstate hospitals to loan up to 20% of their unused ventilators. "Moreover, when the pandemic wave hits upstate New York, the governor will ask downstate hospitals for similar help," Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, said in a statement. "We are not upstate or downstate we are one state and we act that way." This story was first published on CNN.com 'US coronavirus death toll tops 8,000 as Trump warns 'there will be a lot of death'' Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) The Catholic Church observed Palm Sunday this year while embracing technology amid the coronavirus crisis. With the government order for everyone to stay at home in place, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines urged the public to follow the mass on radio, television, or online. CBCP said in a circular that the faithful could hold their palm branches at home as the priest recites the prayer for blessing. Father Aris Sison, parish priest of Saint John Paul II in Quezon City, admitted that celebrating mass in an empty church is a challenge, as he cant interact with parishioners in real time. Mahirap mag-misa na ang kaharap mo cellphone and one sacristan, Fr. Sison said. [Translate: Its difficult to lead a mass while facing a cellphone and one sacristan.] However, whats important is that hes able to get Gods message across to parishioners through livestreamed masses, he said. The priest added that he hopes the enhanced community quarantine will strengthen peoples faith in God, since they will have more time for prayer and reflection. We do have the time, the chance to be quiet, to open the Bible and to reflect on the Lord, on his passion and our relationship with Him, he said. Meanwhile, Pope Francis also celebrated Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter's Basilica without public participation. The church is located in Italy, which has recorded the highest number of fatalities worldwide due to the viral disease. According to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 global tracker, Italys death toll so far stands at over 15,000. Globally, there are over 1,218,400 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of April 5. Of these, some 66,000 resulted in death, while a total of over 252,000 patients have recovered. CNN Philippines' Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report. By Express News Service CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah dialled DMK president MK Stalin to discuss the Coronavirus pandemic and the measures to curtail its spread. The call has come as a surprise to DMK cadres who said that at a time when even Chief Ministers dont have discussions with the States opposition leaders, the two national leaders have chosen to do so. DMK Lok Sabha floor leader TR Baalu told The New Indian Express, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah spoke with our leader MK Stalin on Sunday. During the conversation, they discussed the Coronavirus outbreak and measures that have been taken to curtail its spread. They also enquired about each others health and that of their family members. TR Baalu further added that the DMK has received an invitation for Prime Minister Narendra Modis all-party meeting which has been scheduled on April-8 and that Baalu will attend the meeting on behalf of the DMK. He further added that during the conversation MK Stalin had assured that DMK would offer its constructive suggestions to combat the Coronavirus in the all-party meeting. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K Palaniswami had refused the demand of DMK president MK Stalin when he sought to convene an all-party meeting last month to discuss the measures to be taken to combat the Coronavirus outbreak. A man who allegedly spat in the face of a police officer while claiming to be infected with coronavirus has been arrested on the NSW south coast. Police said the 37-year-old Nowra man punched a senior constable in the face and then spat at the injured officer during a struggle about 8.30am on Saturday. A struggle between the man and the injured officer ensued before other officers uses pepper spray to restrain him. The man was arrested and taken to Shoalhaven Hospital under police guard and was later discharged. A man allegedly punched and spat in the face of a police officer while claiming to be infected with coronavirus in Nowra (pictured) on the NSW South Coast on Saturday He was later taken to Nowra Police Station and charged with two counts of assaulting police officer in execution of duty causing actual bodily harm, assault officer in execution of duty. and intimidating police in execution of duty. He was refused bail and is due to appear in Nowra Local Court on Sunday. Two senior constables were injured during the incident (stock image) The male senior constable suffered bruising and abrasions to his face. Another senior constable who assisted in the arrest sprained her wrist. The latest incident comes a week after a separate incident incident in Sydney's south-west, where a woman allegedly spat in an officer's face during an arrest, where she claimed she was on her way to get tested for coronavirus. Hannah Ayoub, 25, will face court in June over the alleged incident. Two people were booked for providing shelter to 10 foreign nationals in Darbhanga, said police on Saturday. Darbhanga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Babu Ram said the accused were identified as Mohammad Salim and Mohammad Jaifee. The duo was booked under the Foreigners Act following the statement of the station house officer (SHO) H N Singh. The SSP said the matter came to light when police headquarters informed them that a foreign national was hiding in a mosque after attending the Nizamuddin Markaz function. Following the information, a special police team was dispatched to investigate the matter and found that about 10 Myanmar nationals had been illegally staying in the mosque till March 21, said the SSP. All of them left for Delhi via Patna on March 24, he said. They came here on tourist visa and got involved in religious activities in violation of the visa rules, the SSP added. They didnt inform the local intelligence office or the SSPs office about their arrival in the Darbhanga town and their guides hid their movement from authorities, which was also violation of the Foreigners Act, Babu Ram said. He told that the police also informed immigration department about the same and requested them to cancel their visas. The SSP also directed to all the participants of the Nizamuddin event or those who came in contact with the Myanmar nationals to get checked and declare their travel and contact history at the earliest. Bihar police have identified more than 100 foreign nationals, who had come to the state at different stages on tourist visas but some of these foreigners joined the Jamaat.The police said that the local imams (priests) of the mosques did not inform the authorities about the presence of the foreign nationals had attended the recent religious event at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi. Meanwhile, the ministry of home affairs directed the Bihar police to sternly deal with anyone not cooperating with the authorities. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Avinash Kumar Avinash, a senior correspondent, reports on crime, railways, defence and social sector, with specialisation in police, home department and other investigation agencies. ...view detail Holy Name Medical Center is located in Bergen County, the epicenter of New Jerseys coronavirus outbreak, and hospital officials there arent waiting to expand its capacity to care for the illest patients. The hospital converted space on its campus that was being used for storage into a facility that can hold 36 intensive care beds exclusively for coronavirus patients, said Holy Names Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adam Jarrett. There were 40 patients at the hospital on ventilators as of Saturday afternoon, Jarrett said. Holy Name now has the capacity with this latest addition to care for 60 of the most sick patients, or the ones who need ventilators to stay alive. Were preparing for a lot more, said Jarrett. Weve been really good about staying ahead. We want to stay ahead. By the end of next week, the hospital plans to convert a conference room into a facility that would hold COVID-19 patients, bringing the hospitals capacity to care for those with the virus to 110. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Bergen County has 5,760 of New Jerseys 34,124 positive coronavirus cases, according to the state health department. At least 846 throughout the state have died after contracting the virus, and 179 of those fatalities were in Bergen County. The 36-bed intensive care unit was converted in about a week and was a shell space that was intended to eventually be used for operating rooms. The facility is negative pressure, a ventilation system that ensures air can come in but doesnt flow out of the room. Holy Name Medical Center converted a shell space for operating rooms on its campus into 36 beds for coronavirus patients. Credit: Jeff Rhode, Holy Name Medical CenterJeff Rhode/Holy Name Medical Center The building is designed so that monitors and intravenous drips are located outside of the space. This allows medical staff to give patients direct care while reducing the need to change high-in-demand personal protective equipment like gowns, Jarrett said. Gloves, however, will be changed from patient to patient. It cost Holy Name about $750,000 to make the conversion, which includes all the monitors, ventilators and other equipment. Jarrett said the hospital is cautiously optimistic that the funds for the work will be reimbursed through the federal government. Gov. Phil Murphy started to use the states National Guard to build pop-up field hospitals to handle the surge of coronavirus patients, but Holy Name did not work with any military engineers for its conversion. The hospital was previously using four negative pressure pods to care for COVID-19 patients, which have about four beds in each. Only one pod is in use now that the 36-bed unit came online. The regular intensive care unit is not in use right now, but was moved to a different location in the hospital. Holy Name is keeping the original intensive care space on standby since its negative pressure and could be used for more coronavirus patients if needed, Jarrett said. There are about 12 intensive care beds for patients without coronavirus right now, Jarrett said. Doctors at Holy Name have said ventilators are running low. And while hospital staff is confronted with a lot of death, theyre still able to find glimmers of hope. Its difficult because weve seen a lot of patients die, but weve also seen a lot of people get better, Jarrett said. 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. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico. New Jerseys fatality and infection rates are still dwarfed by New Yorks, where, as of Saturday, more than 113,000 people had been infected and more than 3,500 had died. The virus appeared to be spreading fastest in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, where there were more than 24,000 cases, only about 10,000 fewer than in all of New Jersey. Calgary-area sewers, quilters and hobbyists are flocking to a new and urgent task creating face masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. One Facebook group, Mask Makers YYC, has made it their goal to mobilize quick-fingered sewers across the province to make and distribute the face masks. This week, the women of the Pincher Creek Hutterite Colony joined the cause. Volunteer Mary McDonald said a physician from Calgary, Dr. Janet Tapper, connected one of the women in the colony, Catherine Hofer, with the Mask Makers YYC Facebook group. "In just three days, Catherine has mobilized a group of women and they are well on their way to making about 200 masks," McDonald told Daybreak Alberta. Submitted by Dorothy Gross The plan, McDonald said, is to distribute the masks to the local community, including the Kainai and Piikani First Nations and to other organizations in the community of Pincher Creek in the fight against COVID-19. Any masks not needed locally will be shared with Mask Makers YYC to distribute to areas of need, McDonald said. Mask Makers YYC was formed March 26 as a Facebook group and already has more then 1,660 members. The group is focused on making face masks that conform to a standard. McDonald said the masks are cotton and use wire for the nose piece. "It's got really nice fabric ties, it's got a little pocket inside the mask so that you can put some type of HEPA filter in there," McDonald said. "It's got pleats in there to make them comfortable, and properly folded so that the breath goes down. "They put a lot of thought and effort into these patterns and they really seem to have it perfected." Submitted by Dorothy Gross Though Alberta has yet to offer a formal recommendation on masks, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said Friday that there is evidence that masks can limit the spread of infection from those who are infected to others. Canada's chief public health officer and health minister said medical-grade masks should be reserved for front-line health workers, but homemade masks are an option. Story continues "It's nice that Health Canada has seen that. Also, we've seen other countries you know, South Korea and places like that, that have implemented the use of masks for the public and they're flattening the curve," McDonald said. "And to me it just makes common sense, it's spread by droplets. "If there is a way that you can stop those droplets reaching another person's face and nose area, what can it hurt?" The Mask Makers YYC Facebook group also provides information for the safe use of non-industrial masks. "[It's about] knowing how to take them off properly, how to wash them and maintain them, so that we're not increasing the spread of this disease but rather just really trying to help with the protection aspect of it," McDonald said. McDonald, who is a former nurse, said she couldn't help but get involved in this volunteer movement. "I have a nephew and niece who are both physicians in Calgary," she said. "I've been in health-care most of my career and I just knew that that need was overwhelming. Then when I saw what they were doing, I just thought, you know what, we could bring this a little bit further and I really wanted to support that great cause." But she gives all the credit to the sewers and those who are coordinating the distribution. "I thought it would be great to give a big shout out to these wonderful ladies who are donating their time and supplies to help the various organizations within their community," she said. "And Mask Makers YYC have done an amazing job in coordinating the efforts of so many volunteers." McDonald said she knows there are other groups of quilters and sewers working independently, and hopes they will soon join in. Those who want to lend a hand can find out more on Facebook at Mask Makers YYC. The Oregon Health Authority reported 69 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Oregon up to 1,068. Officials also reported one new death, bring the states total number of deaths to 27, as of 8 a.m. Sunday. The most recent person to die of COVID-19 was a 62-year-old woman in Multnomah County, officials said. She tested positive on Thursday and died at home on the same day. The Oregon Health Authority said it doesnt know if she had any underlying medical conditions. The new cases were reported in the following counties: Clackamas (6), Columbia (3), Klamath (1), Lane (3), Linn (2), Marion (10), Multnomah (24), Polk (2), Sherman (1), Umatilla (2), Washington (12) and Yamhill (3). The counties with the most cases are in the Portland area: Washington County now has 259 cases, and Multnomah County has 233 cases. Other counties are reporting large numbers as well. Marion County has 198 cases and Clackamas County has 84 cases. Linn County has 43 cases, Deschutes County has 39, Jackson County has 33, Lane County has 27 reported cases according to state officials and 28 according to county officials, Yamhill County has 26, Polk County has 24, Benton County has 19, Klamath County has 15, Josephine County has 13, Douglas County has 11, Umatilla and Wasco counties each have seven, Columbia County has 6, Clatsop and Lincoln counties each have four, Tillamook and Union counties each have three, Hood River, Malheur and Marrow counties each have two and Crooks, Grant, Sherman and Wallowa counties each have one. So far, Oregon has tested 20,624 people. Of those, 19,556 have come back negative. Of those testing positive with the virus, 258 have been hospitalized and 670 have not. The health authority does not have information about 140. CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS Gov. Kate Brown announced Saturday she would be sending 140 ventilators to hard-hit New York. At this stage in Oregon, our social-distancing measures are helping to ensure that our hospitals have enough ventilators for our current number of COVID-19 patients, Gov. Browns press secretary, Charles Boyle, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. If Oregon later finds itself in need of ventilators, New York and other states will respond to our call for assistance. After the ventilators are sent out, Oregon will still have more than 750 available. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now recommending all Americans wear a protective face covering when interacting with other people. -- Lizzy Acker 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. JUNEAU, Alaska - The states chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, has become the explainer-in-chief for Alaskans during the coronavirus outbreak, a regular at news conferences who has become known for providing information in a straight-forward, easy-to-understand manner. Shes gotten praise from residents for her approach and inspired a poem from a Juneau city official. U.S. Rep. Don Young, who was criticized last month for downplaying the seriousness of the virus in a speech to fellow seniors, has jumped on the bandwagon with a website where people can submit thank you notes to Zink. Colleagues of the emergency medicine physician arent surprised. Dr. Jay Butler, a former chief medical officer for Alaska who now works for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Zink can translate data for others, always with an eye to the humanity in health care and public health. State health Commissioner Adam Crum said Butler was among those who suggested Zink for her current role, which she started last year. Crum said he thinks Zinks emergency medicine experience where your normal is chaos helped prepare her for this time. In emergency medicine, nothing is ever going to be exactly as you need it but you still have to make sure you take care of the patient and you have to make sure that youre communicating ... with possibly very upset and emotionally distressed family members, he said. In regular news conferences with Gov. Mike Dunleavy that also often feature Crum, Zink provides updates on the number of cases of COVID-19 in Alaska, state preparations, ways Alaskans can prevent the spread of the virus that causes the disease, testing and scientific developments. The typically hour-long news conferences are streamed online and have been carried on a statewide public affairs channel. Thursday, nearly the entire news conference, which stretched about 90 minutes, was devoted to Zink, who gave a lengthy presentation and fielded questions. She often begins responses by saying, I appreciate that question. In news conferences and short videos, she reminds Alaskans to be kind to one another. She also has admitted mistakes. For instance, Zink apologized for misspeaking Tuesday about a case involving an oil-field worker, saying she wasnt able to fully discuss it with her epidemiological team in gathering information ahead of a news conference. The details were quickly corrected. Zink, who has practiced medicine in Palmer, was on a sabbatical, travelling the world with her family, when Crum first contacted her about possibly becoming the states chief medical officer. The next time they spoke, she had read four books by other chief medical officers ... to see what their perspective was. Thats Dr. Zink, Crum said. Shes always bettering herself, he said. The Associated Press on Tuesday submitted a request to speak with Zink through the health departments communications office. A department spokesman said hed provide an update on the request when he had one. Zink told the Alaska Landmine podcast last year she grew up in Colorado with physician parents. She worked as a mountaineering guide in Alaska during college and in pursuing medicine gravitated toward emergency care. I love being able to take care of a CEO right next to someone whos homeless right next to a kid. Like, its just this whole variety of life. And you really realize how human we all are, she told the podcast. David Scordino, a medical director at Alaska Regional Hospital who has known Zink for several years, said she is authentic. Everything that you are seeing is her genuine self. Shes intelligent and capable and well-mannered and thoughtful and that expression of caring comes out in every interaction you ever have with her, he said. Juneau City Manager Rorie Watt, in an ode to Zink, included these lines: Oh Alaska, I love you and it feels like we are teetering on the brink/ who can guide and steer us? The unflappable Dr. Zink! Watt said the poem was meant to show appreciation and remind people worried or scared about COVID-19 they can just trust our expert. Andrew Halcro, executive director of the Anchorage Community Development Authority, is a Zink fan, too. He recently said on Twitter that when she approaches the podium to speak, I feel like everything is going to be alright. Zink has since started attending news conferences remotely. Crum said she wants to practice the social distancing she preaches. Halcro said he likes Zinks concise manner. The difference is, if you ask Dr. Zink what time it is, she will tell you what time it is. If you ask anybody else on that stage what time it is, they will tell you how to build a watch, he said, adding later: In times of crisis, people want facts. They want to be reassured. ... They want to know whats coming. MADISON Just days after confirming that a 76-year-old Madison woman had died of coronavirus-related health issues, local officials announced the small beachside towns second death due to COVID-19. First Selectman Peggy Lyons struck a stern tone in the release she issued Saturday morning, indicating that social distancing was not optional. She referred to Gov. Ned Lamont Executive Order 7N, which prohibits gatherings of more than five people. The police department would step up its efforts enforce the order, especially at beaches, according to Lyons. This isnt a recommendation, it is a mandate from the Governor, and applies to all Madison residents no matter what age, she said. We will be implementing other local policies to ensure community education and compliance, especially for those young people flagrantly violating the law. Whats more, a town employee also tested positive for the virus, according to Lyons, who stressed that the employee had not served in a public interfacing role, had been quarantined since the onset of symptoms and was doing well. Yesterday was a difficult day in Madison, she wrote. We learned the unfortunate news that another Madison resident passed away due to complications related to COVID-19. Our deepest sympathies are with the family. It was just the latest news in a tumultuous week for the town. On Thursday, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice announced his resignation after officially accepting a position as the Westport schools chief, meaning the Madison Board of Education must find a replacement by July. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environment Protection announced earlier in the week it would limit visitor capacity at Hammonasset Beach State Park. The decision came on the heels of reports of large outdoor gatherings that worried First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons, who urged residents to practice social distancing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. 21 Madison residents have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, according to Lyons Saturday release. meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com Chandigarh, April 5 : Punjab on Sunday reported one more coronavirus death, taking the state's death toll to six. The state saw three new cases. With this, the total number of cases rose to 68, said the state's medical bulletin. Among the three positive cases, one patient was a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, who returned from the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March. He was reported in Ludhiana city. A spokesperson for the state government said six Tablighi Jamaat members tested positive till date. He said samples of 350 members were collected and out of them 117 people tested negative. Of the 18 people originally infected, seven reported negative on Sunday. One was tested negative on Saturday, raising the number of patients recovered to eight, Special Chief Secretary K.B.S. Sidhu informed in a tweet. The eight were related to the deceased Baldev Singh, a resident of Banga town in Nawanshahr district who died of a heart attack but was diagnosed coronavirus positive after his death. He is suspected to have infected 27 people, including 14 of his family members. A coronavirus-infected 69-year-old woman, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Ludhiana, died on Sunday, taking the total COVID-19 death toll in Punjab to six, while three more persons tested positive in the state, a health official said. She died at a private hospital in Ludhiana today, said Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Rajesh Kumar over phone. She was a heart patient and also had high blood pressure and sugar, he said. A resident of Shimlapuri area in Ludhiana, the patient earlier had tested positive for coronavirus and had no travel history. She was admitted to a private hospital in Ludhiana in a serious condition on March 31. Earlier she had gone to Mohali to meet her relatives. Meanwhile, three more persons tested positive in Punjab, taking the total count of confirmed cases of infection to 68 in the state. Among fresh cases was a person from Ludhiana who had attended Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi's Nizamuddin area, as per the medical bulletin here. A 44-year-old woman from Barnala district tested positive for the infection and she had no travel history, official said, adding the contact-tracing was being conducted. Another person, who tested positive for coronavirus infection, is a 42-year-old man from Dera Bassi in Mohali. He has been admitted to the sector 32 hospital in Chandigarh. Among 68, maximum number of 19 cases have been reported from Nawanshahr, followed by 15 from Mohali, eight from Amritsar, seven from Hoshiarpur, six from Jalandhar, five from Ludhiana, three from Mansa and one each from Patiala, Rupnagar, Faridkot, Barnala and Pathankot, as per medical bulletin. One patient is critical and is on ventilator support, as per the medical bulletin. Of the total 68 COVID-19 patients, six died while four have been cured and discharged from hospital. A total of 2,208 samples had been taken so far in the state and of which, the 1,711 samples were negative and reports of 429 samples were still awaited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jeff grew up in Montello, and Jenny near Lime Ridge. Theyve been married for seven years but have been together for 19. Jeff has worked in construction and tree trimming, while Jenny toiled away as a waitress. In 2002, Jeff adopted his first tiger, Kahn, from a zoo in Illinois. A year later he acquired a tiger cub from a facility in Weyauwega and then got two lions from a private owner in Iowa. Kozlowski, who at the time was living on 10 acres outside of Rock Springs, thought he could make money by charging customers to have their picture taken with the tiger cubs. He charged $200 to $300 per setting but he only did it for a few months after realizing that it wasnt safe for children and was harmful to the cubs. I really didnt know a lot about it, Kozlowski said of his foray into animal photography. I figured wed try it and then I went and talked to other people at rescues and they told me the whole story behind taking pictures with cubs and what happens to them and how many extra there are. The practice can create a never-ending cycle of breeding. Lion and tiger cubs grow quickly and after four months are too big and dangerous. New mission All over India are millions of tourists, students, and migrant workers who are fleeing from big cities and are walking back to their villages after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the countrys 21-day lockdown on March 24 to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Photo : Pixabay) All over India are millions of tourists, students, and migrant workers who are fleeing from big cities and are walking back to their villages after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the country's 21-day lockdown on March 24 to curb the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Modi asked 1.3 billion Indians to stay home; however, this request caused millions of migrant workers to leave their cities and walk home. These migrant workers are crucial to the country's economy, and many of them work in big cities to construct buildings, deliver takeaways, serve in diners, work in automobile and plumbing enterprises, among others. The lockdown has made people into refugees upon the closure of their workplaces. Men, women, and children have begun their journeys. The scenes on India's streets are regarded as reminiscent of the exodus that occurred during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 - a migration that displaced over 15 million people. The Indian lockdown is considered as the world's largest lockdown that has resulted in the closure of all factories, shops, markets, and even places of worship. The majority of public transportation has also been suspended. The Indian government has requested its citizens to stay home and practice social distancing after its confirmed cases have risen. Currently, the number of confirmed cases in India has reached to almost 3000. The director-general of the World Health Organization expressed that lockdowns intended to slow down the COVID-19 transmission have resulted in "unintended consequences", particularly to the poorest and most vulnerable in the population. He called on countries to ensure that these members of society have food and essentials in this pandemic. The lockdown has been a control measure to catastrophic projections given that the country is the world's second-most populous nation with large numbers of people living in poverty. Many Indians also live in crowded conditions, and the country has a weak public health system. For every 1000 persons, India has only 0.7 hospital beds and less than 50,000 ventilators. To help address the challenge at hand, the Indian government announced on March 26 a $23 billion economic stimulus plan to support the poor, provide food and cooking gas rations to families, as well as cash transfers to millions of women. The government's economic package aims to distribute 5 kilograms of free wheat or rice for each person every month with 1 kilogram of pulses for low-income families. The stimulus plan aims to feed about 800 million poor people for the next three months. The Indian government has also announced other control measures to prepare for worse days ahead. A $2 billion package was also cleared last week to purchase personal protective gear for health care workers, increase the number of testing facilities, conduct mass testing, and train health care workers from all over the country. India is also importing 10,000 ventilators from China and 30,000 others from various domestic manufacturers. Former Indian health secretary K. Sujatha Rao also believes that India has to ramp up testing because lockdown or social distancing without testing is only delaying the surge. The government has called upon social media companies to take much swifter action in tackling crackpot conspiracy theories linking 5G networks to the coronavirus pandemic, after a number of mobile masts were set on fire over the past week. Authorities have received several reports of criminal damage to phone masts and abuse of telecoms engineers inspired by baseless online theories, with culture secretary Oliver Dowden set to discuss the issue with several tech firms in the coming week. Masts in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside have all been targeted in recent days, while Vodafone told the BBC it had recorded four incidents over the past 24 hours at both its own sites and those shared with O2. Warning internet users against crackpot conspiracy theories circulating online, a spokeswoman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: Those responsible for criminal acts will face the full force of the law. We must also see social media companies acting responsibly and taking much swifter action to stop nonsense spreading on their platforms which encourages such acts. DCMS did not confirm which tech companies are being summoned. Footage which appeared to a show a telecommunications box on fire in Aigburth, a suburb of Liverpool, was shared on YouTube and Facebook over the weekend. The video made claims of a link between 5G technology and Covid-19. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said it was investigating a blaze it extinguished at a 5G mast in the village of Melling, north of Liverpool, on Friday night. In Birmingham, a 70ft tower was set alight at a telecommunications site on Thursday, though West Midlands Police said the cause of the fire was yet to be identified. Along with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, rumours and false theories are also being spread on smaller platforms such as Nextdoor, Pinterest and the petitions site Change.org, which has removed a number of petitions making unsubstantiated health claims about 5G, a spokeswoman for the organisation said. Facebook meanwhile said it was taking aggressive steps to stop misinformation, and had debunked several posts which falsely claim a link between 5G and coronavirus. We are removing content which encourages the destruction of phone masts and are working closely with the government, other tech companies and major news organisations in the UK to flag and remove harmful misinformation, a spokesperson told The Independent. Twitter said it was making the latest facts easy to discover by placing them with a dedicated event page at the top of peoples timelines and within the Explore tab. Speaking during the governments daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday, cabinet office minister Michael Gove said conspiracy theories linking 5G with Covid-19 were just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well. Industry lobby group Mobile UK said attacks on phone masts and telecommunications boxes were disrupting efforts to maintain networks that are supporting home working and providing critical connectivity to the emergency services, vulnerable consumers and hospitals. British network operator EE described the incidents as reckless, harmful and dangerous. Stephen Powis, NHS Englands medical director, has meanwhile expressed his anger at conspiracy theorists who are spreading misinformation and hysteria among the population The 5G story is complete and utter rubbish, its nonsense, its the worst kind of fake news, he said during Saturdays briefing. The reality is the mobile phone networks are absolutely critical to all of us, especially when were at home and unable to see families and friends. I am absolutely outraged and disgusted that people would be taking action against the infrastructure we need to get through this crisis. British broadcasters have also been warned by media regulator Ofcom that they face possible sanctions if they give airtime to false health advice about coronavirus. Ofcom confirmed it was monitoring television and radio reports on the causes and origins of Covid-19 that have the potential to undermine peoples trust in the advice of mainstream sources of information during the crisis. The Independent has contacted YouTube for comment. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 19:48:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Top View: The vision of a community with a shared future for mankind is essential in the battle against the novel coronavirus, said Robert Kuhn, Chairman of the Kuhn Foundation and a leading U.S. expert on China. (Xinhua/Yang Shilong, Hu Yousong) "Their presentation has been enormously helpful to us all -- it can help prepare us to treat COVID-19 patients more effectively in the U.S.," said Dr. Chris Carol, head of the CHEST Critical Care Network. LOS ANGELES, April 4 (Xinhua) -- During a two-day online conference earlier this week jointly sponsored by the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and the Chinese Association of Chest Physicians, the Chinese physicians and scientists shared some important findings with their U.S. counterparts. Professor Cao Bin, head of the antiviral drug Remdesivir's clinical trial program, speaks at a conference in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min) "We want to share our success and failures," said Dr. Bin Cao, a respiratory expert and vice president of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital (CJFH) in Beijing, who attended the online seminars with some other Chinese experts, including Chen Wang, president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and president of the Chinese Association of Chest Physicians (CACP), and Qingyuan Zhan, chief of Medical ICU at CJFH and chair of the CACP's Critical Care Committee. "China has a three-month head-start on the frontlines of the outbreak and has amassed enormous amounts of valuable data to share," Cao said. Screenshot of the American College of Chest Physicians' tweet about the webinar on March 31, 2020. One of thousands of Chinese physicians and scientists, who have been working around the clock to seek potential COVID-19 treatment and develop drug therapies since the outbreak of the epidemic, Cao and Zhan have served on the frontlines in the Chinese city of Wuhan and are now leading clinical trials of key anti-viral drugs used to effectively treat patients in China. China has been engaged in important clinical trials on a host of anti-viral drugs they used to treat COVID-19 patients, such as Remdesivir, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Favipiravir, Ribavirin, Galidesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Chloroquine, and Medrol, among others, Cao said. A management staff member checks the production of medicines at a workshop of Youcare Pharmaceutical Group CO., LTD in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) These trials ensure that the drugs they give to patients will be effective in treating the disease and helping them recover. Lopinavir/Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor, and Remdesivir, a nucleotide analogue, appear to be among the most effective and were found to have significantly better outcomes in a shorter time than the control groups, Chinese experts said at the conference. According to their exchange via the online conference, another promising treatment involves using "humanized antibodies" to help prevent the virus from invading host cells. "Humanized antibodies" are from animal species whose proteins have been modified to increase their similarity to human antibodies so they can be effective in humans too. A medical worker looks out of a window of the Brooklyn Hospital Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) Since the virus needs to convert "negative" genetic material into "positive" genetic material in order to replicate itself in the host cell, drug therapies like Meplazumab also seem effective in reducing the virus' ability to convert and reproduce. China also advocated the efficacy of certain traditional Chinese medicine treatments, such as Lianhuan-Qingwen, to lessen symptoms, as well as the older, tried and true technique of using convalescent plasma to treat some patients. Convalescent plasma is the liquid part of blood that has viral antibodies present in the plasma that can help ward off infection. Dr. Chris Carol, professor of pediatric critical care at the University of Connecticut Hartford and head of the CHEST Critical Care Network moderated the online seminar."Their presentation has been enormously helpful to us all -- it can help prepare us to treat COVID-19 patients more effectively in the U.S.," Carol said, referring to the Chinese guest speaker physicians. (Article by Julia Pierrepont III) But beneath the veil of silence, there are indications that the situation may be graver than records show. The coronavirus may have begun to spread through the Hungarian population nearly a month ago, in a process technically known as community transmission, according to a secret readout written by a foreign diplomat who had been briefed in early March by the country director for the World Health Organization, Dr. Ledia Lazeri. The readout was later obtained by The New York Times. Dr. Muller, the chief medical officer, said on Friday that Hungary was still in the cluster-spreading phase. She hinted that the country was on the threshold of community transmission. But according to the diplomats secret readout, the W.H.O. privately believed that community transmission had begun by the second week of March, since the diseases first known victims in Hungary moved freely through the country before being diagnosed and one even left for Serbia. The main facility used for testing at that time, St. Laszlo Hospital in Budapest, was also helping to spread the disease rather than contain it, because infected people were unwittingly mingling there with those yet to catch the disease, the readout stated. The W.H.O. also concluded that the Hungarian governments data was unreliable, since so few people were being tested, the readout said. Asked to comment on the readout, Dr. Lazeri denied making these assessments. An independent epidemiologist currently advising the government, Gergely Roth, also said the country had not yet entered the community transmission phase, and said the term had a contested definition. But diplomats from other missions said they had heard troubling information from a W.H.O. official. (Natural News) Corporate bootlicker Google has decided to share mobile phone location data with the government to help authorities track and monitor those in self-isolation due to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). To ensure that people are actually staying home and following government quarantine guidelines, Google has agreed to cooperate with the New World Order by handing over GPS data from the phones of people in 131 countries to government spooks who will then analyze it for compliance. These Community Mobility Reports, as Google is calling them, will show where people with GPS-enabled smartphones are traveling. The deep state will then have the ability to decide whether or not their travels are permitted under the new rules wherever they live. A surveillance firm known as the NSO Group is also reportedly in talks with governments around the world to allow them access to its tracking software, which is already being tested in some nation states. As for Google, which recently had one of its own employees test positive for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), billions of peoples personal travel information will now potentially enter the hands of various three-letter agencies, which will in turn gain an inside look into peoples travel histories, even though this is prohibited in the United States under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. These Community Mobility Reports, according to Google, were developed to be helpful while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and protecting peoples privacy. Google further insists that [n]o personally identifiable information, such as an individuals location, contacts or movement, will be made available at any point. But if this is actually the case, then of what value is this data to the government deep state? If no personally identifiable information is being procured, and users location data isnt being shared, then how can this possibly work? Answer: Google is lying once again. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, addresses new White House projections that a minimum of 100,00 people will die from the pandemic: Google has already been tracking movement in Italy Googles claim is that the only data being shared is generalized traffic movement from February 16 to March 29, which includes public transit movement. And Google has already been using this technology in Italy, which has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Googles location data reportedly shows that Italians were obeying their countrys lockdown rules, with visits to retail stores and recreation locations, including restaurants and cinemas, falling 94 percent. Likewise, visits to places of work also fell by 63 percent. Even visits to supermarkets and pharmacies, which are considered essential businesses, dropped by an astounding 85 percent throughout Italy, while visits to area parks dropped by a whopping 90 percent. In the United States, and particularly California, which was the first state to implement a statewide lockdown, visits to retail and recreation locations reportedly dropped by half, while in places like Singapore and the United Kingdom, visits to these same places actually increased. Facebook is also said to be cooperating with deep state governments around the world by procuring the location data of its users for whoever demands it. But unlike Google, the Mark Zuckerberg empire has not yet published any official findings. In a statement addressing peoples privacy concerns, Google claimed that Google Maps uses aggregated, anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are. It further helps to identify when a local business tends to be the most crowded. We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat Covid-19, a Google blog post, authored two higher-ups at the company, further indicates. To keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), be sure to check out Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: Silicon.co.uk NaturalNews.com There will be up to 30 unnecessary coronavirus deaths in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks due to government inaction, an infectious disease expert has warned. It comes after Health Minister Robin Swann ruled out the possibility of purchasing an extracorporeal membrane oxygentation (ECMO) machine for use here. Dr Michael Donnelly, a clinical epidemiologist, has called on Mr Swann to make the service available in Northern Ireland to save as many lives as possible during the Covid-19 surge. And he has rejected claims by Mr Swann that the equipment is too specialised and that highly infectious patients here will be transferred to hospitals in England for the life-saving treatment. Dr Donnelly said: "The coronavirus attacks the lungs and after a few days it attacks the bottom of the lungs, where oxygen gets out into the blood stream. "The ventilator simply pumps air in and out of the lungs, it doesn't get the oxygen into the bloodstream, so when the lungs become too damaged you can ventilate a patient all you want but it won't make any difference. "The ECMO is attached to the patient and the blood is oxygenated in the machine and returned to the patient. "It gives the lungs a chance to repair and recover from the damage caused by the virus. "Robin Swann has said patients who need ECMO will be transferred by air ambulance to England but that simply won't happen. "Can you imagine at the height of this that a patient from Northern Ireland will be taken to England? "All the ECMOs will be in use for English patients, and as we have seen with the testing and personal protective equipment, Northern Ireland has to look after itself. "If there was an ECMO in the Nightingale Hospital at the City in Belfast, it would make all the difference." Dr Donnelly, who may be rediverted to work in a Covid ward at Belfast City Hospital, said he and his colleagues will be faced with harrowing conversations with the families of patients in the coming weeks. "We will be telling them that there was nothing more we could do for their loved one when that isn't the case," he continued. "If we had an ECMO in Northern Ireland, there is no doubt that lives could be saved. "Between 27 and 30 patients in Northern Ireland could be saved by an ECMO, it is all too easy to get carried away in the abstract of all this, but these are people. "They will not be very elderly people at the end of their lives, they will be young, in the prime of their lives, they will be economically active, with young families. "They will die unnecessarily because we know there is something that could help them. "ECMO machines have been used very successfully in the likes of Thailand, South Korea and China. "It isn't enough to say it is a very specialised treatment. Everything in medicine is specialised but we still learn how to do it. Are we saying this treatment is too sophisticated for the medical profession and their patients in Northern Ireland? "Following on from the Hyponatraemia Inquiry and the comments of Mr Justice John O'Hara that there is a requirement for a duty of candour from doctors, Mr Swann must now be honest. "The politicians have a duty of candour to tell people in Northern Ireland that because they will not buy an ECMO machine, they are willing to let 27 to 30 people die. "For my part, I would tell relatives that we did all we could in the circumstances. "Actually the duty of candour is with the commissioners and the politicians and their decisions about testing, PPE, staff, ventilators, drugs, and public advice." Alliance Party health spokeswoman Paula Bradshaw said Mr Swann must ensure that coronavirus patients in Northern Ireland receive the same treatment as patients elsewhere in the UK. "I asked Mr Swann how many ECMOs he has ordered at the Assembly Health Committee last week and was disappointed to be advised that he had not ordered any," she said. "I very much share the concerns of Dr Donnelly - these ECMOs are in wide use around the world during this pandemic and I believe that we should be providing our Covid-19 patients with the optimal treatment, to ensure that we prevent as many deaths as possible." A spokesman from the Health and Social Care Board said: "The provision of ECMO is a highly specialised service provided at a small number of hospitals across the UK. "If people in Northern Ireland require ECMO they are normally transferred to one of these specialist centres. There is no local ECMO service in Northern Ireland." In a 2009 paper that was published in Nature, researchers famously showed that Google searches related to the flu had been closely tracking weekly data on influenza rates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers used these search terms to build a model to try to help detect epidemics before the official data was collated. Although the model did work initially, it struggled during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. The problem was that flu was in the news so often, many people were searching for flu not because they were feeling symptoms but because they were feeling curiosity or fear. Concern about flu and Google searches about flu were more in the air than actual flu. Recently, scholars have produced new methods to improve Google-based disease prevalence modeling and helped revive the influenza-tracking project. They have found that it is crucial to key in on the types of searches that are most likely to be reports of symptoms rather than searches related to news. These tools are being used right now by researchers studying how searches might track Covid-19. Searches like I cant smell are particularly useful because the form of the query suggests that someone may have the disease, whereas other queries related to loss of smell may instead suggest curiosity in the topic. There is another way we can use search data during this pandemic: to better understand symptom patterns of the disease. Our understanding of the progression of symptoms of the disease is still developing. It took until March 20 for widespread reports of the relationship between Covid-19 and loss of smell to surface, even though it now appears to be among the most common symptoms. There is already some evidence that clues to this symptom were evident earlier in search data. Joshua Gans, a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, found that searches for non sento odori (I cant smell) were elevated in Italy days before the symptom was reported in the news. Iran also saw an enormous rise in searches related to loss of smell weeks before media reports of the symptom became common. In Madhya Pradesh, Nahru Khan, a 62-year-old man from Mandsaur has developed an automatic sanitisation machine and donated it to Indira Gandhi District Hospital. He said, I made this machine by watching YouTube and completed it in 48 hours. This will benefit many people. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday said that there are 3,072 coronavirus positive cases in India, including 2,784 active cases, 213 cured/discharged/migrated people and 75 deaths. Madhya Pradesh: Nahru Khan, a 62-year-man from Mandsaur has developed an automatic sanitization machine and donated it to Indira Gandhi District Hospital. He says, "I made this machine by watching YouTube and completed it in 48 hours. This will benefit many people" #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/i1j3CDRXlA ANI (@ANI) April 4, 2020 PadCare Labs, a start-up based in Pune developed a sanitisation unit to disinfect the surface area, in an attempt to fight coronavirus pandemic. Ajinkya Dhariya, an entrepreneur said, This sanitisation unit works on the principle of UV mechanism. This sanitisation unit can disinfect 80 sq ft area by 99.99% bacterial reduction in 15 minutes. Within next week we will be installing these sanitization units at a local hospital. A Wisconsin creamery cooperative is offering dairy farmers an incentive to quit an industry stung first by years of low milk prices and then by the coronavirus. A letter from the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery board of directors to members offers to pay their equity in the cooperative from 2010 to 2019 if the farmers meet certain criteria, WSAW-TV reported. We know we have farmers that are not sure whether they are going to exit farming this year or next year, cooperative spokesman Paul Bauer said. We felt that this was a way to incent our farmers to exit the business, perhaps a little earlier than what they expected, for the betterment of the entire patron base. Paul LIppert, who runs a Wood County dairy farm with his father and brother, said the cooperative is trying to help its farmers. He said theres a glut of milk and it doesnt look like things are going to get better very quickly. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the industrys troubles. Several farms throughout Wisconsin have been asked to dispose of their milk while production plants struggle to keep up with the milk that is being produced. Director/ Actor George Ogilvie, who helmed productions of The Dismissal, Bodyline and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, has died, aged 89. He had a long directing career in Australia in all mediums; ballet, opera, theatre, television and film. Ogilvie began as an actor with the Canberra Rep Theatre before moving to the UK and returning to Australia in 1965. He became Associate Director with the Melbourne Theatre Company where he directed some 23 plays. It was followed by 4 years (1972-1975) as Artistic Director of the South Australian Theatre Company and later as freelance director working with the Australian Opera, the Australian Ballet Company and various Australian theatre companies and teaching at NIDA and Actors Centre Australia. He directed The Dismissal (in which he also played Senator Jim McClelland), Bodyline, The Shiralee, The Feds, The Last of the Ryans, Touch the Sun, Blue Heelers and films Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, The Crossing and The Place at the Coast. He last appeared on screen in 2014s The Water Diviner. In 1983 he was made aMember of the Order of Australia for his services to the theatre and the performing arts. Source: Australian Plays, Wikipedia, IMDb Louis CK has released a new stand-up special in which he makes light of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him. In 2017, The New York Times published an expose including accusations from multiple women that CK exposed himself and masturbated in front of them. CK later admitted the sexual misconduct. On Saturday (4 April), the comedian uploaded a surprise stand-up special titled Sincerely Louis CK to his website, which he said was for those who need to laugh during the coronavirus pandemic. How was your last couple of years? he asked the Washington DC crowd during the show. Anybody else get in global amounts of trouble? I learned a lot. I learned how to eat alone in a restaurant with people giving me the finger from across the room. He added: I thought I should leave the nation. Thought it was a good idea. Would have left the planet if they had another one of those. The comedian also discussed the allegations of him masturbating in front of women, saying: I like jerking off, I dont like being alone, thats all I can tell you. I get lonely, its just sad. I like company. I like to share. Im good at it, too. If youre good at juggling, you wouldnt do it alone in the dark. Youd gather folks and amaze them. On the topic of consent, CK said: If you want to do it with someone else, you need to ask first. But if they say yes, you still dont get to go, Woo! and charge ahead. You need to check in often, I guess thats what Id say. Its not always clear how people feel. Men are taught to make sure the woman is okay. The thing is, women know how to seem okay when theyre not okay. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up CK did not stop there, and later in his set made a comparison between women's experiences of non-consensual sex and slaves singing while being forced to work. Its kind of like a Negro spiritual, he said. Its sort of similar. So to assume that she likes it is like if they heard slaves singing in the field and youre like, Hey, theyre having a good time out there.' Throughout the special, CK also made jokes about necrophilia, paedophilia, terrorism, people with disabilities and the Holocaust. Last year, a group of women gathered outside CKs stand-up show in Tel Aviv, Israel, to protest against his appearance. They held up signs reading: "I don't want to see your d**k. Vietnam protests sinking of fishing boat: Vietnam has lodged an official protest with China after the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near islands in the disputed South China Sea. The Vietnamese fishing vessel, with eight workers aboard, was operating near the Paracel Islands on Thursday when it was hit by the Chinese vessel, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The crew was picked up by the Chinese vessel and transferred to two other Vietnamese fishing vessels nearby. Vietnam and China have for years been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of water, called the East Sea by Vietnam. The worlds maritime sector is standing in solidarity with communities around the world battling the coronavirus pandemic by joining Abu Dhabi Ports initiative Horns of Hope. In a world-first campaign, all ships in harbours around the world will sound their horns in 15-second bursts each evening in recognition and support of the maritime, healthcare, and critical sector personnel who continue to work in mission-critical roles to address the impact of Covid-19. The initiative which was launched on March 31, received a welcome boost today when both the International Maritime Organisation the 174 member state strong United Nations specialised agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the Arab Sea Ports Federation formally committed their members to the cause. Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Abu Dhabi Ports Group CEO, said: It is deeply humbling and touching to witness the wide regional and global response to our call to sound the Horns of Hope. This initiative spreads hope around the world and highlights the vital importance of our maritime and logistics lifelines at a time of crisis. We are proud of all essential critical infrastructure workers administrative and core operations employees who are still working on ground, and around the clock, to drive business continuity, both in Abu Dhabis ports as well as all teams working in all ports across the world. We highly appreciate all the government efforts to face the Covid-19 consequences, and its strong commitment to support all business sectors. Abdulla Al Muharrami, Head of the Regional Office of Arab Sea Ports Federation, said: Arab sea ports are the regions lifeline to the world; they are the single greatest source of our supplies, both raw materials and finished goods, from Cairo to Fujairah and Kuwait City to Jeddah. Across all Arab sea ports, we are honoured to sound our horns of hope in unison to show our genuine thanks for the efforts of so many, in so many different areas of service, who continue to overcome the daily challenges presented by Covd-19 to fully undertake their professional roles, so that the rest of us may remain safely at home. In the short time since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic, cases continue to soar. More than half the worlds student population is not attending school, offices are working remotely when possible, borders have been closed, airlines have been grounded, and lives disrupted. However, port workers, mariners, equipment operators and administration staff are continuing to maintain the steady movement of cargo in the face of emergency. Their hard work and dedication help guarantee that supply lines remain open, ensuring that shelves remain stocked and hospitals secure needed medical supplies. The Horns of Hope campaign expects to see vessels within the worlds port harbours signalling solidarity by sounding their horns each day at 18:30 hours for the remainder of the ongoing global battle against Covid-19. TradeArabia News Service Maharashtra is presently dealing with the twin crises of rising coronavirus cases and ensuring the welfare of its large migrant population. As India is fighting the spread of the novel coronavirus on a war footing, one of its biggest challenges has been to fend for its huge population of migrant workers, which, according to the 2011 Census, accounts for 37 percent of the total population. A significant proportion of migrants comprises those who travel far from their native places in search of livelihood. According to the Economic Survey for 2016-17, an average of 9 million people had moved states in search of work each year between 2011 and 2016. The survey also notes that Maharashtra is among the states that witnesses a net in-migration (which means that the number of people migrating into the state is greater than the number of people migrating out of the state). It is therefore not surprising then that the crisis of the migrant exodus in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown is particularly acute in Maharashtra. This means that Maharashtra is presently dealing with the twin crises of rising coronavirus cases and ensuring the welfare of its large migrant population. Till 2 April, the state had reported 335 cases and 16 deaths. Mumbai is by far the most seriously affected in the state, accounting for 181 infections and 12 fatalities. Thus, Mumbai's experience in dealing with the migrant crisis in the wake of a grave coronavirus outbreak can hold important lessons for the rest of the country. Authorities in the financial capital are presently grappling with the challenge of preventing the exodus of migrants from the city, while also ensuring that essential services reach them. On 31 March, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started a helpline for homeless people and stranded migrants/workers. The helpline is intended to help such people get in touch with civic authorities if they need food, shelter or any other such help. A person at a call centre is expected to note down the details of the assistance required, and convey it the local ward officer. However, several activists have flagged inadequacies in the mechanism set up by the civic body for migrants. Sitaram Shelar, convenor of the NGO Pani Haq Samiti, has said that while the helpline is functional, it needs to be given more publicity so that more people can access it. Mahim-based activist Irfan Machiwala said, Many people repeatedly called the helpline in the hope that the BMC could make some arrangement for food. However, they could not get through as the phone was busy, although they tried several people. The BMC should ensure that that there are enough operators, so that it can cater to the large number of poor migrants presently living in Mumbai. Another inadequacy is that the helpline is not functional for 24 hours a day, but only from 9 am to 9 pm. It is unclear if there is a mechanism for migrants to reach out to the BMC at night. Responding to these concerns, Jayashree Bhoj, additional municipal commissioner in the BMC, who is presently in charge of the helpline, said, On the day that the helpline was started, we had only one line, but on 1 April, we increased it to four lines. In the coming days, we plan to expand it to ten lines. This will certainly help to streamline the process. When asked what was the nature of the requests that people make through the helpline, Bhoj said, Many people have called to say that they need food, and a relatively fewer number have called to say that they need shelter. The BMC has opened several food distribution centres in each ward for the former. The objective is that a person should not need to walk for over a kilometre to reach a food distribution centre. Most migrants have also said that they want transport facilities so that they can go back home. However, that is not possible as of now, since the state borders are sealed. Indeed, in the past few days, several migrants have tried to get back to their native states despite the lockdown being in place. On 30 March, the Mumbai Police intercepted a tempo carrying 17 migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh in Andheri. On 26 March, the Maharashtra Police also found over 300 migrant workers holed up inside two container trucks meant for carrying essential commodities from Telangana to Rajasthan. Efforts by NGOs The civic body has roped in NGOs and some branches of the Rotary Club of Bombay to assist in the distribution of food to migrants across the city. Bhoj said, Several such organisations have been assigned one or multiple wards, as per their capacity. We have asked ward officers to seek the assistance of these organisations. On the food distribution mechanism, Sitaram Shelar, whose organisation has been coordinating with the BMC on this issue, said, It is clear that the BMC is making efforts to ensure the welfare of migrant workers. However, at present, much of its work is dependent on NGOs and voluntary organisations. It would be better if the civic body is able to allocate its own resources for the task. The civic body has also set up 13 shelters across the city, with a total capacity to house about 25,000 people. Speaking about the shelters, Bhoj said, A large shelter facility has been created at the Bombay Exhibition Centre at the NESCO complex in Goregaon (E). Several other places are also being used as shelters, one of them being the Uttar Bharatiya Sangh Hall in Bandra (E). State governments role On Sunday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also said that his government will take care of migrant workers and provide them with basic necessities such as food and water. Thackeray said that the state government has set up 163 centres across the state to provide food and water to the migrant labourers. The state government has earmarked Rs 45 crore for this purpose, of which the maximum amount of Rs 15 crore has been set aside for the Konkan division, which includes Mumbai. Among the other divisions, Pune division has been given Rs 10 crore, while Rs 5 crore each has been allocated to the Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur divisions. An official in the state governments food and civil supplies department said, Maharashtra is one of the states where the initiative of ration card portability has been implemented. We are making use of this initiative in the present situation, to ensure that migrants can get cheap foodgrain at any fair price shop, even if they are not in their home district. This is applicable for migrants within the state, as also for migrants who are from outside the state. The official also said, People who are eligible for subsidised foodgrain under the public distribution system (PDS) will be given 5 kilograms of rice for three months from April to June. Leading Irish private equity figure Nick Corcoran has written to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe outlining the rationale for debt forgiveness for SMEs to overcome the current crisis. Corcoran, co-founder of Cardinal Capital, believes rapid recovery is possible with the right policies. Writing in today's Sunday Independent, he said: "Rapid economic recovery and substantial re-employment are possible post-crisis, but can only be achieved by widespread debt forgiveness." "Debts incurred by companies and individuals, debts which would not otherwise exist in the absence of the Covid-19 crisis, could incapacitate the economy." This could lead to a decade of depressed growth and sustained high levels of long-term unemployment, he argued. "A failure to effectively reassign debt to the State will ensure otherwise viable businesses face permanent closure, with a corresponding permanent removal of employment and future taxation streams," he said. Turkey Hill Minit Market at 55 Morgan Hill Road in Williams Township closed Friday night after an employee reported a positive test for the coronavirus, the convenience store chain said in a news release. The store off Interstate 78 closed at 10 p.m. and will be cleaned and sanitized by an industrial cleaning crew before reopening in the next few weeks, the release states. We are taking all appropriate steps and following guidance from local health officials, states the release sent out Saturday. That same employee also worked for about three hours in the Turkey Hill Minit Market at 1140 Hellertown Road in Bethlehem, assisting the stores management team, according to the release. We followed our enhanced cleaning protocols in the store and are in the process of completing an especially deep clean of the area where the team member worked, which was the office, Turkey Hill Minit Markets release says about the Bethlehem store. We are grateful to all our customers for your patience and understanding during this time, the release continues. The release goes on to say all employees at both stores have been contacted and advised to follow U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended guidelines on the COVID-19 illness. We are making every effort to provide the impacted Team Member and our broader team with the necessary resources and support, Turkey Hill Minit Markets release states. Pennsylvania health officials on Saturday said the statewide total of positive cases is now at 10,017 in 64 of the states 67 counties, with 136 deaths. Turkey Hill Dairy is a separate company from Turkey Hill Minit Markets, and did not have an employee with COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to a news release from the dairy company. 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. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. TDT | Manama The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed its appreciation of the efforts of the government, led by His Royal Highness the Prime Minister, to reduce the scope and impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In a letter to HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed the organisations pride in the support of HRH the Prime Minister in creating an urgent and widespread community momentum to end the pandemic as soon as possible. HRH the Premiers role in promoting solidarity between peoples is crucial to the success of the national and international responses to tackle the coronavirus, Dr. Ghebreyesus said. He noted the importance of HRH the Prime Ministers role in a unified international community that is trying to overcome the virus that knows no geographical or political borders. The WHO director general praised the political leadership of HRH the Prime Minister, stressing its indispensability to harness domestic and international efforts to confront the pandemic. The WHO official informed the Prime Minister of his meetings with international diplomatic missions in Geneva to brief them on the latest developments regarding the coronavirus and the strategic plan to combat the disease. The gathering was held in order to help direct international efforts, according to the special situation of each country. HRH the Prime Minister stressed that the government, as soon as the virus was announced, had put in place rapid prevention plans to deal with the pandemic and that the Cabinet has succeeded in limiting its spread. Everyone in Bahrain, each according to their capacity, are soldiers who protect their country and society from the enemy, HRH the Prime Minister added. The governments actions were not based on reactions or on dealing with the issue according to the development of the situation, HRH the Premier said. To the contrary, the government was proactive in taking preventive and precautionary measures. These included mobilisation, media education, stimulation of the sense of responsibility and promotion of a culture that every citizen is responsible for protecting the country and society from the global health crisis, and the adherence to directives and instructions of the government, he said. HRH the Premier praised WHOs great efforts in sharpening and uniting international efforts in the face of the coronavirus and stressed that the competent government agencies in Bahrain have been directed to be in constant coordination with the WHO, to keep it abreast of the latest developments in the Kingdom and the measures adopted to combat the pandemic. HRH the Prime Minister said that the government, under the guidance of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, took all measures to combat the disease on the health, economic and commercial levels, including activating emergency protocols, confronting disasters and developing a national plan to tackle the disease. He lauded the successful efforts of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, in this regard. WASHINGTON Marine Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Meyer does his best recruiting face-to-face. He can look people in the eye, read their body language and get insight into whether they would make a good Marine. But coronavirus quarantines have shut down most recruiting stations. So Meyer and other recruiters have turned increasingly to social media. And that has its drawbacks. They usually wont run away if youre talking to them in person, said Meyer, noting that if potential recruits are online or on the phone, they can just hang up. They just stop responding, and the conversation just ends without a conclusion. As the coronavirus pandemic worsens and the country turns increasingly to the military for help, Americas armed services are struggling to get new recruits as families and communities hunker down. Recruiters scrounging for recruits online are often finding people too consumed with their own financial and health care worries to consider a military commitment right now. The services, as a result, could fall thousands short of their enlistment goals if the widespread lockdowns drag on, forcing them to pressure current troops to stay on in order to maintain military readiness. This is going to have somewhat of a corrosive effect on our ability to have the numbers of people that we really need, said Maj. Gen. Lenny Richoux, director for personnel for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The concern, it is growing. He said the military is watching and knows that it could take a very long time to rebuild the force. To entice prospects, recruiters are shifting to a softer sell, talking more broadly about service to the nation in difficult times. And theyre hoping to get a recruiting surge during the peak summer months. They may also benefit from the exposure the military has gotten as Navy hospital ships, Army field hospitals and National Guard troops roll into communities to provide aid and health care during the crisis. And the military could be a popular option for those facing lingering unemployment because of the pandemic. But shutting recruiting stations is a problem. And the lack of in-person contact with recruits hits the Marine Corps particularly hard. The Corps has long excelled in what it calls the kneecap-to-kneecap sales pitch. The heart of our recruiting effort is sending handpicked Marine sergeants and staff sergeants out there to go recruit their own image, said Maj. Gen. James Bierman, commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command. And were never more comfortable than we are when were sitting down face-to-face with a young man or woman. Lolita C. Baldor is an Associated Press writer. President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Washington. Associated Press/Patrick Semansky President Donald Trump on Saturday warned that "there will be a lot of death" and the United States could be facing its "toughest week" yet in the fight against coronavirus. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, told reporters that the New York City, Detroit, and New Orleans areas would hit the peak of their outbreaks in six or seven days. New York state has been reporting hundreds of deaths daily, and hit a record 630 deaths within 24 hours, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in a Saturday press conference. As of Saturday afternoon, more than 300,000 coronavirus cases had been reported across the US, with 8,376 deaths. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. President Donald Trump on Saturday warned the United States could be facing its "toughest week" in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak sweeping across the country. "This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week," he said. "There will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn't done. But there will be death." He said New York City, which has become the epicenter of the US's outbreak, will soon receive a deployment of 1,000 military personnel, including doctors, nurses, and respiratory specialists. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, also emphasized the coming days and weeks as crucial in halting the spread of the virus. "The next two weeks are extraordinarily important," Birx told reporters. Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Washington. Associated Press/Patrick Semansky She said models have shown that New York, Detroit, and New Orleans and their surrounding areas are "hotspots" that will likely hit the peak of their outbreaks within the next week. "They're all on the upside of their curve of mortality," she said. New York state has been reporting hundreds of deaths daily, and hit a record 630 deaths within 24 hours, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in a Saturday press conference. Story continues Cuomo also reported that the outbreak's peak would likely hit within the seven-day range. As of Saturday afternoon, more than 300,000 coronavirus cases had been reported across the US, with 8,376 deaths. Cuomo said the death toll for New York state has risen to 3,565. Read the original article on Business Insider As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. India does not have an effective insurance fraud law despite the fact that frauds burnt a Rs 45,000-crore hole in the Indian insurance industry's pocket in 2019. Elsewhere, the insurance frauds clocked $100 billion in the US, $4 billion in Australia, $3 billion in the UK and $2billion-$3billion in other EU countries the same year. In percentage terms, most insurers lose between 10%-15% across all lines of their business, whereas health insurance fraudulent claims can even touch 35%. Further, about 90% of auto insurance frauds are the result of padding claims (which means to add damages, injuries and fictitious passengers to insurance claims). The other 10% of insurance frauds come from organised accident-staging. In the life insurance segment, most frauds are seen where the sum assured is between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 12 lakh. Most of the advanced countries where the insurance industry has matured, have put insurance fraud laws in place. Insurance fraud is classified as a crime in all the states of the USA. Of these, 19 states, require companies to form programmes to combat frauds and in some cases to develop investigation units to detect the frauds. 41 of the states have their own insurance fraud bureaus. In Canada, the Insurance Crime Prevention Bureau was formed in 1973 to fight insurance frauds, collect information on insurance frauds and carry out investigations. Also Read: This startup helps customers fight insurance claim rejection In the UK, the Fraud Act 2006, defines insurance fraud as a crime. The Insurance Fraud Bureau in the UK focuses on detecting and preventing organised and cross-industry insurance frauds. In Denmark, the Forsikring & Pension (F&P), the Danish pensions and insurance association, organises exercises at the Danish Police Academy on how to combat insurance frauds. In India, there is no specific provision in the Indian Penal Code for insurance frauds. A few sections that have some relevance are-Section 205-false impersonation for the purpose of act or proceeding in suit or persecution; Section 420-cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property; Section 464-making a false document including signs, seals and forgery and Section 405-criminal breach of trust. However, these provisions are not adequate to prosecute a fraudster legally under the current scenario of organised insurance frauds. Due to the mounting backlog of pending judicial cases in our courts, taking legal action against insurance frauds is not a common occurrence and frauds of amounts not big enough are let go off as opposed to the heavy investment of time and energy in pursuing the same. As India's insurance industry matures, fraud risk management is going to be a major concern for insurers and business leaders. Insurers will have to continuously reassess their processes and policies to manage and mitigate the risk of frauds. Fraud risk in the insurance value chain can emanate from internal and external factors. The risk of employees misusing confidential information and colluding with fraudsters is on the rise and insurers will need to put in place internal checks and balances to minimise such issues. External fraud risk can arise at various stages: registration of clients, underwriting, reinsurance and the claims process. The severity of the frauds can range from a slight exaggeration to deliberately causing loss of insured assets. Business leaders are aware of the need to address this risk, but the lack of a comprehensive and integrated approach to fraud risk management continues to be a concern. Insurance frauds pose a significant problem, and affect the lives of innocent people, both directly through accidental or intentional injury or damage and indirectly as these crimes cause insurance premiums to rise every year. Honest customers should not have to pay the price for fraudsters through higher premiums. Compared to other crimes, court sentences for insurance frauds are lenient, reducing the risk of severe or extended punishment. Today, when India's insurance industry is working towards reducing costs, one of its main focus areas to control or reduce costs is by proactively arresting frauds, which can be achieved through an effective fraud risk assessment programme and having special investigating units in each organisation. "The government should make provisions so that just as banks can determine the creditworthiness of an individual by querying the Credit Information Bureau of India Ltd (CIBIL), insurers in future may be able to get details of an individual's insurance history and his claims record whenever they get a new proposal," says Sandeep Malik, a reputed Insurance & Risk Management Consultant who specialises in insurance fraud. The sharing of knowledge and data should be a common practice amongst all insurers and the regulator and more so with the victims of fraudulent insurance claims. This data should include fraud patterns and case studies, fraud customer list and intermediaries, fraudulent providers and investigators. Importantly, awareness should be brought about the due legal process to be followed before reporting a case. The central and state governments shall also have to seriously think about having specific laws to counter the insurance frauds and setting up insurance fraud bureaus. This is urgently required as the Indian Insurance Act does not contain a definition for insurance frauds. "Neither do we have any specific laws connected to insurance frauds which are spelled out in the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Indian Contract Act, 1872 also does not have any specific laws pertaining to insurance frauds. Even though the sections related to forgery or fraudulent acts can be applied in the IPC, it does not succeed in deterring the commission of insurance frauds," says the Head-Fraud Control of a leading life insurance company in India. Academicians around the world and fraud control practitioners working in the insurance industry feel that India should consider Insurance Frauds Control Act on the lines of acts in different states of the USA as the beginning point for discussion and bringing the bill in the parliament for discussion as soon as possible. (The author is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Insurance Foundation of India and the Founder Director of Ria Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd.) FILE PHOTO: A man walks in a corridor near a sign with instructions about the coronavirus and social distancing following the implementation of stricter social-distancing and self-isolation rules to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) By Lidia Kelly MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian health officials said on Sunday they were cautiously optimistic about the slowing spread of the coronavirus in the country but warned social distancing restrictions are to stay in place for months. Confirmed cases rose by 139 during the 24-hour period to Sunday afternoon, bringing the national total to 5,687, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said. The death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, rose to 34. This suggests the daily rate of infections was below 5%, about a fifth of what Australia saw in mid-March. "We are increasingly confident that if people continue to adhere to what we've been asking them to do we can prevent a situation like we've seen in many other countries in the world," Murphy said in a televised briefing. Australia has barred people from leaving homes for anything but the most necessary activities and limited public gatherings to just two people. State borders, cafes, clubs, parks and gyms have been closed. Several states have also given police the power to enforce the rules via hefty on-the-spot fines and potential jail terms. Only on Saturday, Victoria's police issued 142 fines for breaking social distancing rules, according to officials. Health Minister Greg Hunt warned over the weekend, however, that despite the good signs, Australians will still have to keep their distance from others for a "difficult" six-month period. "Some other countries or some other individuals may talk about the fact that we could magically stop everything for two weeks and it will all go away: that's not an honest assessment in our view," Hunt said on Sky News Australia. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said on Sunday while there has been some "wonderful success" in slowing coronavirus spread, Australians "have a long way to go". Nearly a third of Australia's deaths have been attributed to a Carnival Corp's Ruby Princess cruise ship, which was last month allowed to disembark passengers in Sydney, many of whom later tested positive for COVID-19. Story continues New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Sunday a criminal investigation will be launched into the case. The South Pacific nation of Fiji recorded on Saturday five new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 12, according to the government. In New Zealand, which was fast to introduce strict restrictions that have ordered more people to stay home, trips to retail and recreation facilities, such as restaurants, cafes or shopping centres were down 91 percent, according to Google. New Zealand recorded 48 new cases on Sunday, bringing the total to 872. One person has died so far of the flu-like respiratory disease, according to the health ministry data. Premier Jacinda Ardern said on Sunday that "going hard and going early" seems to be working. "While compliance has been generally strong, there are still some I would charitably describe as idiots," Ardern said in a televised briefing. (Editing by Jacqueline Wong) At a time when the world is in the throes of the deadly COVID-19, two new books on the contagion seek to help readers to better understand the novel coronavirus and subsequently discuss the way forward in the fight against the invisible enemy. The books, "How Contagion Works: Science, Awareness and Community in Times of Global Crisis" by Italian physicist Paolo Giordano and "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs" by epidemiologist Michael Osterholm and author Mark Olshaker, will hit the stands in May, announced publishing house Hatchette. While "How Contagion works", a slim read, is a mix of author's moving account of putting up under lockdown Italy, decoding maths behind the contagion and interconnected lives in the times of globalization, the "Deadliest Enemy" is an attempt to explore the "resources and programs" to keep people safe from infectious diseases. According to the publishers, it was Giordano's article "Contagion by numbers" -- explaining how contagion works and why people should limit their exposure to the outside world -- which contributed to a shift in the public discourse around the virus in Italy. The article, which in essence is Giordano's real-time account of the coronavirus crisis, has also been included in the book. Italy is one of the worst-hit countries as it has recorded more than 15,000 coronavirus deaths. Giordano's first novel, "The Solitude of Prime Numbers", was translated into more than 40 languages worldwide and won the Premio Strega, the most prestigious Italian literary award. "Deadliest Enemy", as per the publishers, is a "high scientific drama, a chronicle of medical mystery and discovery, a reality check and a practical plan of action". "The authors show how we could wake up to a reality in which many antibiotics no longer cure, bio-terror is a certainty, and the threat of a disastrous influenza or coronavirus pandemic looms ever larger. Only by understanding the challenges we face can we prevent the unthinkable from becoming the inevitable," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Whether it was Bach or Chopin, Ray Charles or Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Alicia Keys or Norah Jones, there was someone whose mastery on the piano made you think, wow, I wish I knew how to do that. It's a singular, almost timeless skill and if you love music, there's no better place to start a formal education than in front of those 88 keys. Andhey, whattaya know, you just happen to have a little extra free time lately, right? Now's the time to take the plunge you've been thinking about for years with the training found in The Learn to Play the Piano and Music Composition Bundle. Even if you think you've never had a musical bone in your body, this five-course collection might make you rethink that since it takes an innovative new approach to get you playing immediately. And Pianoforall is definitely not memorizing Chopsticks. Designed for adult players who want to start playing now, this system that already helped more than 160,000 students learn the ways of the keys starts with a flourish of popular rhythm style piano not unlike Billy Joel, John Lennon or Chris Martin. Over 200 lectures and 10 hours of content, students employ the Pianoforall method across all genres ranging from blues to jazz to ballads to improv, all with an eye toward ultimately creating melodies of your own. Of course, being able to play the piano is one half the experience. The remaining four courses in this package round out your education, including in-depth examinations of music theory, arrangements, employing chords, triads and other advanced composing tricks and even a Music Production 101 courses that will have you composing, arranging, recording and producing a song from scratch while you document the entire process. If you spent time as a kid dreading that hour a week of piano lessons (or just felt lucky that that wasn't you), this is the method for diving into the keyboard that you never knew you needed. The Pianoforall instruction and ebook set is a $240 value on its own, but right now, this whole piano training package is available for just $34.95. CCP Virus Revelations Cast Suspicion on Chinas Unrestricted Warfare Efforts Commentary Theres no current evidence to prove how the CCP virus was unleashed on the world, but with 900 million people under pandemic lockdowns, China is set to wage unrestricted warfare to economically and militarily benefit from the pain of Western nations. The spread of the CCP virus has triggered suspicions of a coverup of Chinas biological warfare efforts. The publication Caixin Global alleges that samples of a SARS-like pathogen were distributed to labs across China and then were destroyed a month before the CCP virus was publicly disclosed. The CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, has now spread to at least 180 countries, and the pandemic is threatening to cause economic depression in Western nations. It was known that the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory had received a sample from a patient who was admitted to a hospital in Wuhan for pneumonia-like symptoms, and identified a SARS-like virus on Dec. 30, 2019. The facility is Chinas first biosafety level 4 (BSL4) lab, certified by the World Health Organization, and qualified to handle the worlds most dangerous pathogens. Caixin investigators found that virus samples had already been distributed by Dec. 24 across China to at least three other genetic laboratories, including Beijing Institute of Genomics (BGI) in Shenzhen, Vision Medicals in Guangzhou, and CapitalBio Medlab in Beijing. After all the labs confirmed a SARS-like coronavirus and sequenced its genome, Chinas National Health Commission issued a gag order on Jan. 3, telling all labs, including the Wuhan BSL-4 lab, they were not qualified and must destroy all tests. As a result, determining the origin of the CCP virus as natural or man-made is impossible. At the 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue, Asias premier annual defense summit, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and House Armed Services Committee members expressed significant concerns regarding Chinas increasingly aggressive behavior. Chinas threats to the world include undermining democratic principles, disregarding human rights, hindering Indo-Pacific transit, failing to respect territorial rights, and ignoring international law. Defense experts stated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership engages in a long-term strategy that was first outlined in a book called Unrestricted Warfare: Chinas Master Plan to Destroy America. The book was written in 1999 by Cols. Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui from the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force. The book encourages China to pursue a broad array of threats, including military provocations in the South China Sea, to cause the United States to spend resources by deploying aircraft carrier task forces; and economic warfare with the United States thats meant to be difficult for Americans to spot and appropriately counteract. By waging a multi-front war, China seeks to systematically destabilize the United States through a combination of just enough military provocation and commercial decline. A major key to Beijings unrestricted warfare strategy is its Made in China 2025 initiative that was released in 2015 with plans to target 10 industries, including biopharmaceuticals. Experts warned that by 2020, China had already met its interim biopharmaceutical goal of supplying more than 90 percent of all U.S. antibiotics, vitamin C, ibuprofen, and hydrocortisone. China intends by 2025 to be competing directly with its U.S. biopharmaceutical customers. It has formed 100 companies to produce patented biotech pharmaceutical products certified under the World Health Organization and prepped for export to the USA, EU, and Japan. With Chinas ports and factories gradually opening, Chinese authorities directed state-owned banks to fund GDP growth of 4 to 5.6 percent, to create another 11 million new jobs. Numerous reports document that China is already producing and selling tens of millions of dollars of medical equipment to the West. In addition to ventilators and protective gear, Beijing Institute of Genomics is selling COVID-19 test kits, while Vision Medicals just received the CE-IVD trademark for its SARS-CoV-2 Clinical Sequencing assay. On the military side, the Chinese regime launched a series of provocations over the past four weeks by the Peoples Liberation Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Maritime Militia in the East and South China seas against Taiwan, Vietnam, and Japan. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which moved into the region in March to protect Americas vital interests, was forced to make an emergency withdrawal after about 100 sailors contracted the CCP virus. Interpreted through the lens of Chinas unrestricted warfare strategy, one of the United States top theater-domination systems that cost $4.5 billion to build, has been quickly rendered combat ineffective at virtually no cost. As Western nations began pandemic lockdowns in February, the PLAs Eastern Theater Command launched joint naval and air force drills near Taiwan, and naval exercises off the coast of Cambodia, according to the South China Morning Post. Beginning April 1, Chinese warplanes conducted a 36-hour intensive drill that combined reconnaissance aircraft, and two groups of fighters performing tactical aerobatics staged a confrontation in a combat scenario. Chriss Street is an expert in macroeconomics, technology, and national security. He has served as CEO of several companies and is an active writer with more than 1,500 publications. He also regularly provides strategy lectures to graduate students at top Southern California universities. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Rapid Mobilization Process Established for Reservists Supporting COVID-19 Response Navy News Service Story Number: NNS200404-02 Release Date: 4/4/2020 10:15:00 AM From Commander, Navy Reserve Force Public Affairs NORFOLK (NNS) -- In support of the Navy's Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response, the Navy has instituted a Distributed Mobilization process allowing a more efficient path to recall Reserve Sailors to active duty in support of the COVID-19 response. NAVADMIN 099/20, released Apr. 3, provides details on the DM process for COVID-19 mobilizations for Selected Reserve (SELRES) Sailors. The process will allow the rapid and efficient leveraging of existing Reserve commands and facilities to meet COVID-19-related mobilization requirements. SELRES Sailors identified for a possible mobilization will be contacted directly by their Navy Reserve Activity (NRA) or Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC). Once a SELRES Sailor has received official mobilization orders to active-duty, they will be pre-screened, activated, processed, and then proceed directly to their supported command. The NRA or NOSC performing COVID-19 mobilization processing will maintain responsibility for the Sailors it processes throughout the full mobilization cycle. There are currently no plans to involuntarily recall IRR Sailors. The Navy Reserve has prioritized the mobilization of SELRES before recalling IRR Sailors for the COVID-19 pandemic response. However, IRR Sailors should familiarize themselves with Navy Personnel Command (NPC) regular requirements for readiness, which can be found on NPC's official website. For 105 years, the Navy Reserve has been a ready, agile force that provides valuable, vital support to the Navy and the Nation. The Ready Reserve Force consists of approximately 49,550 Selected Reserve (SELRES) Sailors, 10,163 Full Time Support (FTS) members, 48,815 Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) members and over 422 civilians. This force of over 100,000 delivers strategic depth and unique capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps team, and the Joint Force in times of peace and war. For more information, please read NAVADMIN 099/20 at https://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/NAVADMINS/Pages/NAVADMIN2020.aspx. Reserve Sailors with additional questions should contact their NRA or NOSC chain of command. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Addison Bevere on 'life-changing' reason every Christian should identify as a 'saint' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In a society where the term Christian increasingly has negative connotations, Addison Bevere is breathing new life into the word saint, an ancient term he believes is key to unlocking the meaning, identity, and purpose many believers crave. In an interview with The Christian Post, Bevere, COO of Messenger International, an organization that impacts millions of people in over 150 countries through its various initiatives, admitted he hasnt enjoyed calling himself a Christian in nearly two decades. Im not ashamed of Jesus, but I dont like the stereotypes and labels and stigmas that have attached themselves to what it means to be a Christian. It doesnt resonate with me, he shared. Its not that Christian is a bad word, but for me, its become something that feels cheap. When you Google Christians, so often youll see words like judgmental, hypocritical, backward, out of touch with reality. It almost feels like the world looks at Christians and says, We tried Christianity. We tried this pathway and it didnt work, so now were pursuing something else, a secular, do-it-yourself spirituality. My response is, we never tried it, really. The Gospel message is big enough for our big world. Five years ago, Bevere, son of popular ministry leaders John and Lisa Bevere, was reading a book where the author made mention of saints, describing them as people who participate in the mystery of the final day. That, he said, wasnt the picture of a saint I had in mind. I always associated saint with stained glass windows and being a part of a special, elite, unattainable group. But according to Bevere, the term Christian is used only three times throughout Scripture, whereas the Greek word hagios translated as saints is used more than 60 times. This, he said, indicates something special about the archaic term. As I read the Bible, I wondered, Why are so many people identifying as saints? Why would Paul address entire letters to saints? he said. I realized that the idea of a saint isnt something that belongs to people once they die; its something that identifies and energizes and gives meaning and purpose. It's a prophetic declaration. Its how God works. He sees us as we should be. He loves us along the spectrum. According to Bevere, a saint is someone whose life is marked by a hope and a purpose that astound our world and point people to the One who is life. I believe, he added, that when we view ourselves as saints, it's lifechanging. We find the meaning and purpose that so many of us crave. I believe that until we discover the life were created for, were going to find ourselves frustrated with existence and religion. Its time we re-think what it means to be a saint. In his new book Saints: Becoming More Than Christians, Bevere uses Scripture and personal stories to unpack what it means to be a saint and invites readers into the wonder of following Jesus as God intends. He challenges readers to reimagine what it means to follow Christ as they journey through a compelling retelling of ancient wisdom. For me, it was going back to the New Testament and really look at the person Jesus, why He came and chose to reveal God to us as He did, Bevere said. Jesus favorite subject was the idea of the Kingdom of God. He talked about it more than anything else. He calls us to be agents of reconciliation for our world and to our world. The Gospel message is supposed to cover every space and subvert cultural norms and reconcile people, he stressed. Weve lost sight of that. Weve been content to stay in our church space and make Christianity a mere reflection of that pursuit. But the Kingdom of God intersects at relationship. Thats where meaning and significance happens, he said, explaining that to be a saint is to be "plunged into Gods original design for humanity." One of Satans greatest tactics, the author said, is convincing us that meaning is in anywhere but the present. He doesnt want us to wake up in the present and see that this moment is the most significant thing, he said. The future and past is Gods, all we have is the present. If he can steal the present from us, he can undermine our work and sense of value and frustrate our efforts. Far too many Christians have a small view of both themselves and of God, Bevere said. Gods grace breaks that down and pulls off those layers and masquerades and reveals us as He sees us. When we see ourselves the way God sees us, we see the world the way He sees it. We need to change the way we see ourselves so we can see the world differently. Viewing oneself as a saint is only possible as we humble ourselves, Bevere argued. "Its the proud who cant see themselves the way God sees them. As we dive into what a saint is, we find it has everything we crave, undertones of meaning, purpose, and belonging," he said. Through his book, Bevere said he hopes readers discover that everything they do is sacred and learn to see themselves within Gods greater story of redemption and reconciliation. Its an invitation to toward understanding God-given purpose, identity, and loving a fallen world more fully. Ever since the enlightenment, weve forfeited so much to the secular world, he said. "We need to reclaim this space. The Apostle Paul was writing to gentiles, to people who didnt belong, and calling them saints. He was telling them, Your everyday, mundane life is significant and full of purpose. Whether we are parents, CEOs, mechanics, or wherever we find ourselves, I want people to see their lives as meaningful and valuable. I want people to realize how being a follower of Jesus intersects and gives meaning to our secular lives. So much is being stolen from people and its because we have a small view of God and the Gospel. Saints are people who refuse to not be astonished by God. They stand in awe of Him and go into the world and reveal His goodness and power." N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Shannex employee was in close contact with other Quispamsis case An employee at the Jubilee Hall retirement home in Quispamsis has tested positive for COVID-19. Lisa Snodgrass, an infection control specialist with Shannex, said the employee worked in both Jubilee and Concorde Halls in Quispamsis and was diagnosed Saturday. "Due to the nature of this employee's work they are required to spend time in the other buildings," she said. She said Public Health determined the employee was in close contact with another confirmed case in Quispamsis. Because of privacy concerns Snodgrass said she can't share the employee's exact occupation, but said the employee does not generally have close contact with residents. [The employee] would not have had symptoms while they were on the premises. - Lisa Snodgrass, Shannex Employees at two Nova Scotia Shannex locations also tested positive: Arborstone Enhanced Care in Halifax and Harris Hall in Dartmouth. The employee last worked on March 29, Shannex spokesperson Isabelle Landry told Radio-Canada. The Quispamsis location, called Parkland in the Valley offers retirement living, assisted living and nursing home care. Snodgrass said Jubillee Hall is not a licensed long term care home, but a private retirement living community. Concorde Hall on the other hand, where the employee spent "brief amounts of time" is a licensed assisted living facility. "Certain individuals would still receive some care services in that area and a lot of the residents that live there are fairly independent on their own," she said. Snodgrass said residents have been told about the case, and are being asked to monitor themselves for symptoms. Residents who need help will have staff check their temperatures and ask them questions every day, she said. She said Shannex does their own contact tracing, and have decided to ask all residents to self monitor, not a select number. "With this employee we ended up asking all of our residents at this time just to follow Public Health recommendations to self monitor even though it would be a low-risk kind of situation," she said. Story continues Snodgrass said Shannex has been screening employees for the past few weeks. She said they ask employees questions about symptoms and check their temperatures before allowing them in. She said this employee was not showing symptoms when they were working. "They would not have had symptoms while they were on the premises," she said. The facilities have been closed to visitors, and physical distancing was implemented at all locations, Snodgrass said. "While these are unsettling times for our residents and team members, our entire organization is focused on supporting our communities through this challenging time," a Shannex news release said. "We are communicating this news to all employees and to all residents and families at each location and will continue to provide updates as more information is available." Province case count climbs to 101 The province has three more cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 101, said a news release Sunday. The cases were identified in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton regions. In the news release the province reminded residents to self-isolate at home, keep travel to a strict minimum, and avoid all non-essential errands. "Enforcement officers are now fining people for violating the mandatory order," the release said. "Failing to obey the order has serious consequences." The release says fines range from $292.50 to $10,200. The release said playgrounds are closed, but municipal public parks and walking trails are open. People going outside must keep two-metres away from each other and "not form a crowd," the release said. New Brunswick has done 195 new tests since Saturday, with a total of 5217 negative tests. No new recoveries, investigation continues Of the 101 cases, 58 are travel-related, 32 are close contacts of confirmed cases and five cases are the result of community transmission. The province is still investigating the mode of transmission of six cases. The number of people who recovered for the infection remains at 28. The new cases, which are under investigation, are: A person aged 40-49 in Zone 1 (Moncton region) A person aged 30-39 in Zone 2 (Saint John region) A person aged 50-59 in Zone 3 (Fredericton region) Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health, asked New Brunswickers to be "sensible" and "kind." "I urge you to think about your mental health the same way. Take care of yourselves so you can take care of others." In the release, Premier Blaine Higgs said there will be more cases. "That is why we are doing everything we can to fight this," he said. Higgs thanked politicians of all parties for being "united." "We have all put politics aside to make the tough decisions. It has been a shining example in this country of how politicians from different stripes can work together," he said. Fredericton call centre confirms case among its employees An employee at the CIBC call centre at King's Place in Fredericton has tested positive for COVID-19, the company confirmed Sunday. "Enhanced cleaning has been completed at the location in addition to our ongoing cleaning measures," said CIBC spokesperson Trish Tervit in an emailed statement. "We have notified local public health officials and are following their protocols." CBC News Property manager for King's Place Stephanie O'Regan said she was notified by Public Health of the positive case on Friday night. She said an email was sent out to all tenants in the building this weekend notifying them of the positive case. O'Regan said the entire floor the call centre is located on has been deep cleaned, and so have all of the building's common areas. Public Health spokesperson Bruce MacFarlane said Saturday the province can not comment about this case. MLA creates COVID-19 taskforce MLA Megan Mitton has teamed up with a handful of local leaders to create a COVID-19 taskforce for her riding of Memramcook-Tantramar. The Tantramar COVID-19 Task Force will coordinate the community's response efforts during the pandemic, and will focusing on issues of food security, infrastructure, volunteers, and mental health services. In a news release Mitton said the taskforce will "ensure communication and cooperation is maintained with other [New Brunswick] initiatives." The taskforce will have representatives from municipalities, First Nations, non-profits, faith communities, local schools, Mount Allison University and nursing home workers. It will be co-chaired by Carolle de Ste-Croix, director of alumni engagement at Mount Allison, and David McKellan, the president of the Sackville Rotary Club. Nearly the entire top brass of Madhya Pradeshs health department is under quarantine after 11 of department, including two Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and the director of health services, have tested positive for Covid-19 since Saturday. Eight of them have tested positive on Sunday. The number of officials who tested positive on Sunday, including an additional director, a joint director and four deputy directors, has thrown the health department into a tizzy and has driven several other officers from health and other departments into self-quarantine. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic All the officers were a part of meetings held in the state secretariat and health directorate to discuss plans to combat the disease and monitor implementation of the measures mandated by the government across the state. The Char Imli locality, where most of these bureaucrats reside, has been gripped with fear as an IAS officer, who has tested positive, insists on being treated at home so that she can continue her work with the department. The Bhopal district administration tried to convince her into being hospitalised, but she refused. However, the administration pasted a sticker outside her bungalow on Sunday advising people not to visit her. An IAS officer said, She should understand the gravity of the problem and cooperate with the administration. A hospital-like facility cant be created at home, and it is beneficial for her and all other officers in the colony that she be treated at a proper health facility. The officer did not respond to phone calls. However, the officer in a video message on Sunday evening said, I was working with health department personnel. It is possible that I got infected from any of them. But I dont have any symptom of Covid-19 and I am completely healthy. As per doctors advice, I am working from my room. I am having no problem. A government officer, who didnt want to be named said, At least 50 officers including several IAS officers from various departments have chosen to self-quarantine and they are working from home. An officer of the health department, on the condition of anonymity, said, I am having no symptom unlike a few of my colleagues but our samples have been sent for the test. We are waiting for the reports. Chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Bhopal Sudhir Kumar Deharia said, Out of 97 samples sent for test 23 have been found positive for Covid-19. Most of these people are either related to health department or from Jamaatis who came from outside. However, there is no situation of community transmission in Bhopal. Hence, Bhopal people need not to be worried. In addition to them, 13 Jamaatis, who attended different Nizamuddin religious congregation, also tested Covid-19 positive, taking the total number of corona virus positive cases in Bhopal to 40. Madhya Pradesh has 193 cases with majority of them from the business city of Indore. Test reports of several other Jamaatis is awaited, official said. Four Jamaatis had tested Covid-19 positive in Bhopal on Saturday. As per the health departments state bulletin the number of Covid-19 patients rose to 193 on Sunday, half of which were in the business city of Indore. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON SAN FRANCISCO As health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic plead for personal protective equipment, volunteer efforts to create hand-sewn masks and deliver them to medical professionals have quickly sprung up across the internet. But those efforts were hampered by Facebooks automated content moderation systems over the past week, according to sewing organizers who have used the social network to coordinate donation campaigns. Facebooks systems threatened to ban the organizers of hand-sewn masks from posting or commenting, they said, landing them in what is colloquially known as Facebook Jail. They said it also threatened to delete the groups. The issue has affected do-it-yourself mask makers in states like Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, they said. Facebook has long struggled to distinguish between innocuous and malicious content on its site. While the Silicon Valley giant has relied on automated systems to flag and remove posts that violate its terms of service, those systems can have trouble spotting nuance and can sometimes be overly aggressive or make mistakes in identifying what may need to be taken down. New Delhi, April 5 : The Congress has demanded increase in the state disaster risk management fund (SDRMF) for states that have registered maximum number of Covid-19 cases. "The Centre must consider number of Covid-19 cases & hotspots to decide allocation of State Disaster Risk Management Fund to states," senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted. Under the current scheme, states like Delhi, Kerala and Punjab that had large number of Covid-19 cases were receiving little funds from SDRMF. "I request Home Minister Amit Shah to include Covid-19 as a criterion apart from the Finance Commission criteria for disbursement of funds to states," he said. The Union Health Ministry on Sunday said 77 deaths were reported due to coronavirus, and total number of cases had risen to 3,374. The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra increased by 26, taking the total from 635 to 661. At least two persons are suspected to have died due to Covid-19 in Pune and Thane on Sunday, but the health authorities declined to confirm or share details. Till Saturday, Maharashtra had recorded 32 covid-19 deaths, with maximum 22 deaths in Mumbai. The Congress Working Committee on Thursday reviewed the coronavirus pandemic and demanded a "common minimum relief package". Christopher McKnight Nichols Nichols is a history professor and director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University. He is the author of Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age, and the forthcoming Rethinking American Grand Strategy. The biggest thing we have had to fight in the influenza epidemic, argued a Portland health official in February 1919, has been apathy, or perhaps the careless selfishness of the public. Admonishing citizens is never good politics. But in the case of pandemics past and present, its good medicine. At the end of the day, restrictions to shelter in place, socially distance and work for the greater good are on us. We the people must practice these policies to our very best abilities. Or they simply will not work. Honest information and proactive public policy linked to principled, clear, and coherent state and local messages and actions are crucial in an epidemic. These are the central insights revealed by the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. That pandemic infected 20-30% of the worlds population, accounting for as many as 50 million deaths including roughly 675,000 Americans. In the U.S., induction camps, cramped quarters, wartime transport and industry generated optimal conditions for the flu to spread. In fact, the U.S. military lost more personnel to disease, including influenza (63,000), than combat (53,000). In wartime, nationalist pressures led the Wilson Administration to push for passage of the Sedition Act, which criminalized press and other public statements that undermined the war effort. Such measures shut down paths to timely information that might have helped to slow the path of the virus. Lets consider Oregons actions in the fall of 1918. They show how even a slow or gradual response is better than none at all. And they demonstrate how important it is for local and state officials to brave the criticisms and the painful costs of closure decisions. Based on subsequent reporting, the first case of influenza appears to have arrived in the region in mid-September, when sick sailors came by train from Philadelphia to Washington state. The flu spread first in Camp Lewis, Washington, then to Fort Stevens near Astoria. Astoria locked down fairly rapidly, despite protests. In Portland, Mayor George Baker wasnt sure if Astoria was suffering from the flu or just the common cold. His city remained open for business. The first clear case did not arrive in Portland until Oct 4. Again, it was a case spread via a soldier, too sick to travel onward to training in Texas. The citys health board leader was a staunch advocate of a city-wide mask ordinance. But localsfrom ministers to theater ownersopposed anti-crowding measures and quarantine laws. Gatherings continued. Schools, stores, and theaters remained open. As more people fell ill, Portlands widespread denial began to wane. The flus ravages could no longer be understated or underreported. As cases mounted, the citys auditorium was converted to an emergency hospital facility. Nevertheless, many wanted exemptions or thwarted rules. Pushback against an aggressive campaign of school, church, theater, restaurant , and other closures was significant, yet by this point the spread and the states heartache could no longer be minimized. Coos Bay ran out of child-sized caskets. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 500-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification. Too many city and state politicians and health officials were involved in the decision-making, slowing decisive action. Eventually, well into October, they cited federal recommendations to justify more draconian efforts. Businesses remained open, but stores were ordered to halt special sales (which they were running to try to keep afloat but were drawing crowds); windows were removed from streetcars; essential business hours were restricted; signs were posted on the doors of the quarantined. And in a crucial development, people took it into their own hands to wear masks, stay apart, and practice what wed now call social distancing. They recognized that the successor failureof stopping the virus was ultimately up to them, just as its ultimately up to us today. At Oregon Agricultural College, now Oregon State University, the administration established an effective quarantine and care program; the University of Oregon built its first infirmary to nurse the sick. Out of the 50,000 Oregonians infected, only 3,675 died. The suffering in Oregon was terrible. It was worse than the national average and the cities and areas that embraced proactive policies early and kept them on longer, letting data and disease dictate reopening, not market-based logics. But Oregon and Portland fared far better than cities such as Philadelphia and states such as Pennsylvania that only took the threat seriously after the illness was rampant. If the efforts of city, state, and national figures flatten the curve, the worst of the spread, deaths, and economic damage can be mitigated. If not, or if the broader citizenry rejects these policies, history hints at a much worse fate looming around the corner. So what does the 1918 influenza epidemic tell us today? We may be the biggest thing we have to fight. And yet, since individual action is the greatest weapon against this virus, we also have more power than we know. A day after the family of former Golden Temple Hazuri Raagi and Padma Shri recipient Nirmal Singh blamed doctors for his death due to coronavirus, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh assured full support for the treatment of his relatives and those associated with him. The chief minister called the victim's son Amiteshwar Singh and nephew Jagpreet Singh, assuring them of the full government support in the treatment of their members of family and others who had tested positive for COVID-19, a government release said. The family of Nirmal Singh on Saturday had alleged that he died because of doctors' negligence. A few hours before his death, the former Hazuri Raagi had even claimed that he was not getting "proper treatment", his family claimed on Saturday. The CM said all patients currently being treated for COVID-19 would be provided proper care in line with the government's medical protocol. The health department will closely monitor their progress, he said, asking them to personally contact him in case of any assistance. Nirmal Singh's aunt, son, grandson, his associate and associate's wife had tested positive for coronavirus. The CM enquired about the well-being of members of the former Hazuri Raagi's family who had tested positive for COVID-19 and were undergoing treatment, said an official release here. Terming as unfortunate the delay in Nirmal Singh's cremation due "unfounded fears of some local persons in Amritsar", the CM said this was because of misinformation and issued directives that no such incident take place in future. The CM said he has asked the chief secretary and the DGP to ensure proper compliance of the government instructions by all health and other officials at the district-level. "Every deceased person deserves proper cremation and there is a laid down health protocol on handling the body of a deceased COVID patient. This must be duly followed," said the CM. He said officials should dispel fears that the cremation of a COVID patient may spread the disease in the area. A group of residents at Verka village on Thursday had refused to allow the cremation of the Gurbani exponent, fearing the spread of the disease. The 62-year-old ''Gurbani'' exponent, who had tested positive for coronavirus, had died on Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/4/2020 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Tuesday, July 23, 2019, file photo, Hawaii Gov. David Ige, left, exchanges breath, or honi, with kupuna Napua McShane Burke during a visit to the ninth day of protests against the TMT telescope at the base of Mauna Kea on Hawaii Island. People in Hawaii are changing how they express aloha in the time of coronavirus. Some residents say social distancing is the antithesis of tradition in the state, where people greet each other with hugs, kisses and lei, and families are close-knit. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, File) WAIANAE, Hawaii - Glen Kila has long greeted people in the traditional Native Hawaiian way. Foreheads touching, he breathes in the person's ha, or breath. "Face to face, eye to eye," he explained of the custom, called honi. "It's sharing the spirit of each other." That stopped, and he began adopting the bow used in some Asian cultures, when a new term emerged: social distancing. The 6-feet-away (2-meter) rule used to curb the transmission of the coronavirus is the antithesis of tradition in Hawaii, where cultural norms revolve around intimacy greetings with hugs, kisses and lei and families are close-knit, Kila said. "Its really taking away that aloha from our culture," said Kila, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner in Waianae, a coastal Oahu town home to one of the largest concentrations of Native Hawaiians. "Its really sad, but we must abide by these safety rules." Like many people around the world, Hawaii residents are putting deeply ingrained customs and social norms on hold as stay-at-home orders and social distancing rules curb everything from European cheek-kissing to the communal sharing of mate, an herbal tea popular in some South American cultures. In 2006, amid concerns about a virulent and deadly form of avian flu known as H5N1, Hawaii's then-health director, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, warned that the Aloha State would have to change its ways in a pandemic. In this Tuesday, March 31, 2020 photo, comedian Frank De Lima wears a masks and maintains social distancing while wiping a package of bananas at a Sam's Club store in Honolulu. People in Hawaii are changing how they express aloha in the time of coronavirus. Some residents say social distancing is the antithesis of tradition in the state, where people greet each other with hugs, kisses and lei, and families are close-knit. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher) "Here in Hawaii, we're very touchy-feely people we kiss each other when we say hello,'' she said at the time, during a state influenza summit. "What we do know is that in a pandemic, those simple social graces will need to be set aside for a period. ... Don't kiss everybody all over the place." Fears of spreading the coronavirus recently forced a group of protesters made up largely of Native Hawaiians to dismantle an encampment blocking construction of a giant telescope on the Big Island. "Its been a real challenge for us to not greet each other warmly and not be physical. Some people still really have a hard time doing it," said Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, considered a kupuna, or elder, and a leader in the fight against the Thirty Meter Telescope. "Thats the hardest thing for us to not greet the babies, the young children, with hugs. But we have to." It's important, partly because of Hawaiians' history, she said. "Historically we were never able to withstand the diseases that were introduced into our community," Wong-Wilson said of illnesses that decimated Hawaiians since Captain James Cook arrived in 1778. Cook's crew and the Europeans who followed brought smallpox, measles and syphilis. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. Stifling physical expressions of aloha will be temporary, but is necessary, Kila and Wong-Wilson said. Hawaii is under a statewide stay-at-home order that allows for essential activities including outdoor exercise and grocery shopping while keeping distance. Anyone arriving in the state must undergo a mandatory 14-day self quarantine. "In the end, after a few months, it will be OK," Kila said. "It will come back to aloha where the honi will be practiced, the lei-giving will be practiced." Wong-Wilson said protesters will return to Hawaiis tallest mountain to continue standing in solidarity against the telescope, which they believe will desecrate sacred land, once it's again safe to gather and practice traditional greetings. Popular Hawaii comedian Frank De Lima is trying to stay away from his "hangout," Honolulu's Keeaumoku Street Sam's Club. Before the pandemic, his trips to the warehouse store were filled with handshakes and hugs. "Its just part of my Sams Club day," he said. "I just walk and up down the aisle for exercise." But on a recent visit, he had to block someone with his shopping cart because it seemed they were getting too close. "I love people. I want to go and accommodate them, but its my fault, too, for moving in a direction where its cluttered." De Lima, who is Native Hawaiian, stars in coronavirus public service announcements for the state. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Refraining from hugging and kissing should be the least of Hawaii's worries right now, he said, but he understands interpersonal contact is an automatic reaction here. There are other authentic Hawaii ways to greet each other, he said, including the subtle chin raise and the shaka thumb and little finger extended outward from a closed fist, known outside Hawaii as a "hang loose" gesture. "This shaka can reach 6 feet, braddah no worry, no need get any closer," he joked in Pidgin, Hawaii's creole language. "They cannot be hard head," or stubborn. "But Hawaiians as far as hugging and kissing and breathing on each other. Well, you know, even I have a hard time with that breathing thing. Especially after you went to an Italian restaurant," he joked, "and you had garlic spaghetti." ___ Follow Jennifer Sinco Kelleher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenHapa Australian Federal Police recruits threw a party at their residential campus in a clear breach of coronavirus social distancing restrictions. The cadets held the party at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) college in the Canberra suburb of Barton on Friday night. An AFP spokeswoman confirmed trainees at the college hosted the event. The cadets held the party at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) college in the Canberra suburb of Barton on Friday night (pictured) 'The AFP is aware of an internal recruit gathering at the AFP College,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'ACT Police can confirm it attended a gathering and spoke with those involved. The matter has been handed to the AFP to investigate further and take any action deemed necessary.' She said cadets are isolated as much as possible to comply with the social distancing restrictions which their senior colleagues are enforcing across the nation. The incident is being investigated. An AFP spokeswoman confirmed trainees at the college hosted the event. Pictured: AFP College An AFP spokesperson told the ABC it expects recruits to obey the law. 'Any breaches of the code of conduct will be dealt with in line with AFP professional standards framework,' they said. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a nation-wide ban on gatherings of more than two people to curb the spread of COVID-19. Australians are also expected to maintain a distance of 1.5metres away from others at all times as the number of infections soars beyond 5,000. Matt Hancock has revealed he has lost two people to coronavirus - as he pleaded with people to stick to lockdown rules. Delivering today's press conference, the Health Secretary confirmed that the UK's Covid-19 death toll had risen by 621 to 4,934, and that he had 'lost two people that I was fond.' Mr Hancock added: 'I understand what a difficult time this is for the country' - before calling on the 'small minority' to stop risking their own lives and those of others. He also offered his 'profound sympathies' to the families and friends of those who have died. This afternoon Mr Hancock backtracked on a threat to ban outdoor exercise if people do not comply with the coronavirus lockdown, saying such a move is not 'imminent'. Health Secretary Matt Hancock today backtracked on a threat to ban all public exercise after people continued to break the coronavirus lockdown rules Mr Hancock earlier blasted sunbathers for flouting the rules and warned the government is willing to ban 'all forms' of public exercise if a 'small minority' refuse to stay at home. However, speaking at the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference he said he did not want anyone to believe that a further crackdown was in the works as he praised the 'vast majority' of people for sticking to the government's guidance. Mr Hancock said the end of lockdown will be determined by 'how much people follow the rules on social distancing' and 'the more people follow the rules then the faster we will all be through it'. He then issued a direct plea to people who are 'breaking the rules or are pushing the boundaries', telling them: 'You are risking your own life and the lives of others and you are making it harder for us all.' The latest government coronavirus slides published today showed that the number of new UK cases has spiked to 5,903 Meanwhile, hospitals in London have seen a large increase in the number of coronavirus admissions while hospitalisations in the North West went up by 25 per cent The UK continues to track slightly below the coronavirus death rate recorded in other European countries like Italy, Spain and France He concluded: We have included exercise as one of the things that you can leave your house to do because exercise is good for our physical and our mental health but please do not bend or break this rule. We cant rule out further steps but I dont want anyone to think that any changes to the social distancing rules are imminent because the vast majority are following the rules. Mr Hancock said this morning that he thought it was 'quite unbelievable' that some people are not staying at home, saying it is 'not a request, it is a requirement'. The government has said that people should only leave their home for food, for medicine, for exercise or to get to work if they absolutely cannot work from where they live. A large group of cyclists ride around Regents Park in London today as people are urged to stay at home A number of other countries have banned outdoor exercise in a bid to slow the spread of the disease and Mr Hancock said the government was prepared to follow suit. He said: 'My message is really clear: If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home, then you have got to follow the rules.' Meanwhile, Boris Johnson repeated the importance of staying at home this morning as he tweeted he knows it is 'tough' but it will mean 'saving lives'. Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson's interventions came after a south London park was shut indefinitely yesterday after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' not to as green spaces and beaches across the UK filled up. Police have been pulled off of their usual duties to prevent gatherings in parks as thousands of sunbathers came out in London to take advantage of the good weather. Pictured: Primrose Hill in London People in Roath park in Cardiff are spoken to by police after appearing to ignore social distancing and government advice to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson's interventions came after a south London park was shut indefinitely yesterday after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' not to as green spaces and beaches across the UK filled up. Pictured: Police question a group in Normand Park, Fulham Officers had been using megaphones to tell sunbathers and others not sticking to the rules that they should return home. Pictured: Southwark Park, South London Mr Hancock said staying at home is 'the best way to control the spread of this virus and the fastest way to get us out of this' as he said the guidance is 'absolutely clear' that people should not be out sunbathing in public. Meanwhile, Mr Hancock admitted this morning that hitting his promise of 100,000 coronavirus tests by the end of April will be 'hard' and that people involved in the efforts will have to 'put their shoulders to the wheel' to hit the target. He also insisted Mr Johnson is 'okay' despite still being in coronavirus self-isolation, with the Health Secretary saying the PM 'has very much got his hand on the tiller' of the crisis. Mr Hancock's comments came as: Health experts said the UK is now seven to 10 days away from the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Sadiq Khan hit out at commuters for failing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for coronavirus. Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson's pregnant fiancee, said she had spent the last week in bed suffering coronavirus symptoms, but is 'on the mend'. Health chiefs fear more than 50 doctors could die 'if the PPE dries up and we have no choice but to treat our patients without the right equipment'. The Ministry of Justice said hundreds of risk-assessed prisoners within two months of their release date are to be temporarily released. The total number of confirmed deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus in hospitals in England has risen to 4,494, up 555 on the previous day's update Police on horseback patrolling Regents Park, London, on Sunday. Officers are keeping an eye out for anyone visiting the park who isn't there for their daily exercise allowance. Sunbathers, including this man next to the River Cam in Cambridge on Sunday, have been seen up and down the country flouting social distancing guidelines and leaving their homes to enjoy the sunny spring weather Regents Park in London is still busy with families out wealking and joggers exercising by the water. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reminded the country that orders to stay inside except for essential exercise or food shopping were 'not a request' Officers can be seen speaking to a family sitting on a bench on Primrose Hill, the warm weekend weather has seen a large amount of people flout social distancing rules and instead head out to sunbathe Prime Minister Boris Johnson today urged people to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown, as some people are tempted outside by the blue skies and sunshine this weekend The nation will tonight hear from the Queen as the monarch delivers an address in which she will urge Britain to prove that this generation is 'as strong as any'. There are fears the current warm weather could tempt people to disobey social distancing measures and the government will be hoping the Queen's address will persuade people to stick to the rules, especially as the sun shines. Lambeth Council tweeted yesterday to say that Brockwell Park had been shut because of the 'unacceptable' behaviour of some people. Sadiq Khan hits out at commuters who refuse to stay at home after 'devastating' deaths of five bus workers Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. Meanwhile, trade union Unite said the deaths were a 'terrible tragedy'. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' So far coronavirus has taken the lives of 4,313 people in the UK, with 41,903 cases of the disease. Advertisement Mr Hancock today said ending lockdown measures 'depends on how people behave' as he urged everyone to stay at home but failed to set out a timeline for life to go back to normal. He told Sky News: 'Every single person watching this programme can do their bit to get us out of this faster and they do their bit by following the social distancing rules.' Labour's new leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party will back the government if it decides to ban public exercise. He told the BBC: 'Yes, we would. We do have to take whatever steps are necessary and social distancing, staying indoors is really difficult for people but we have got to get through this and every time people break the guidance from the government they put other people at risk.' It came as it emerged that Mr Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are locked in a battle over when to lift the economically devastating lockdown. Mr Sunak has made 'robust' representations to the Health Secretary, arguing that unless a path is mapped now for a swift return to normal economic activity it could cause lasting damage to the country. Government critics of Mr Hancock argue his 'careerist' fear of being personally blamed for a collapse in the NHS is blinding him to the dangers of a protracted lockdown. But allies of Mr Hancock hit back last night, saying: 'He is just doing his job, which is to protect the NHS.' A formal decision about the extension of the strict social distancing rules cannot be made until Good Friday the earliest point at which its effects would register on the infection figures. Matt Hancock today took aim at sunbathers flouting coronavirus lockdown rules as he said it was 'unbelievable' a 'small minority' of people are not staying at home This group of men and women were exercising together in Roath Park in Cardiff, the public has been advised to only go out in groups with people from your household, to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus between homes Police were parked up in Roath park to deter anyone who was not exercising to leave the park in Cardiff on Sunday Police pour water over couple's barbecue Police in Sussex were forced to pour a helmet full of water over a couple's barbecue after they refused to follow the government's lockdown rules. The pair started a barbecue on Hove beach yesterday. Police confirmed a 31-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman, both from Hove, are set to be summoned to court for breaching Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. On social media Sussex Police said they were disappointed that the couple showed 'disregard for public safety'. A message on the Sussex Police Facebook page read: 'We can only express disappointment in the two people who showed disregard for public safety and started a BBQ on Hove beach today. 'The severity of this public health emergency means they will be summonsed to court for breaching the Coronavirus Act 2020. 'Sunday is set to be another pleasant day and we again appeal to everyone to continue show their support for our NHS and stay at home.' Advertisement However, with more than 700 extra deaths recorded yesterday, an extension for at least another three weeks after Easter is seen as a formality. Mr Hancock today dismissed the claims regarding his relationship with Mr Sunak as he said: 'We are working very closely together and what matters is that we can get out of this as fast as possible and to do that we have to make sure that as many people as possible follow the rules so that we can slow the spread.' The Queen will tonight deliver a televised message in which she will recognise the pain felt by many families living through this 'time of disruption'. She will personally thank front-line NHS staff, care workers and others carrying out essential roles for their efforts, in what is expected to be a deeply personal message reflecting her experience in other difficult times. The UK death toll yesterday rose by 708 - bringing the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths to 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday, up from 3,605 the day before. A five-year-old child was among the victims. The Queen will say in her address to the country and Commonwealth: 'I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. 'And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. 'That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise this country.' She will acknowledge the 'grief' some have experienced, the 'financial difficulties' many face, and the 'enormous changes' the country is enduring, after almost two weeks of lockdown to tackle the spread of Covid-19. With hundreds of thousands answering the call for NHS volunteers and others supporting vulnerable people in their communities, the monarch will say she hopes in the future everyone will be able to feel 'pride' in how they rose to the challenge. Police in Regents Park as people lie in the grass during the warm weather on Sunday. Britain has been in lockdown for nearly two weeks, but people are still flouting the social distancing guidelines set out by Boris Johnson on March 23 Feeding the swans and kite flying aren't reasons to leave the house during Britain's lockdown, but people flocked to the River Cam in Cambridge nonetheless on Sunday as the sun shone above Brockwell Park in south London is now shut after thousands of people flocked there yesterday. The gates to the park are pictured today as people observe social distancing rules as they pass by There were plenty of people out in Greenwich Park today. The government has said people can leave their homes for exercise Green spaces across the UK were full of people on Saturday. Pictured is Regent's Park in central London where people can be seen lounging by the water in groups Members of the public are advised to stay at least two metres away from each other if they go outside, but as crowds head out to enjoy the sun, people were forced closer together, like these cyclists in Cambridge on Sunday morning The Queen will tonight deliver a rallying cry to the nation in which she expresses hope that the 'quiet, good-humoured resolve' of the British people will help to overcome the coronavirus crisis At any other time this weather would be perfect for a trip to the seaside, but Boscombe beach should be empty today as the government told the country to stay indoors and help stop the spread of coronavirus two weeks ago Commenting on the difficulties facing the nation, the Queen, 93, will say: 'I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. 'A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.' In reference to the warm weather, the Queen will thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. The televised address will be a rare event, with the head of state only making three previous appearances during troubled times. Speeches were broadcast after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, ahead of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral in 1997, and about the first Gulf War in 1991. Earlier today it was announced Lord Bath of Weymouth, the eccentric owner of Longleat Safari Park, died after testing positive for coronavirus. Lord Bath of Weymouth died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath on Saturday. He was 87-years-old and had been diagnosed with coronavirus Family of Lord Bath released on a statement on Sunday, in which they expressed their 'greatest appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately' Alexander Thynn was the owner of Longleat Safari Park in Warminster, but was best known for his flamboyant dress sense and affairs with as many as 70 women, which he referred to as his 'wifelets' People were seen lying on towels in Regents Park to soak up the spring sunshine. Hundreds more deaths due to coronavirus were announced on Sunday, as people continue to leave the house without good reason Cyclists gather in Regents Park and laze on the grass, police were patrolling on Sunday to stop people from gathering but it seems many people were still out in the sunshine Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath yesterday after being admitted on March 28. He was the owner of Longleat Safari Park in Warminster, but was best known for his flamboyant dress sense and affairs with as many as 70 women, which he referred to as his 'wifelets'. Viscount Weymouth gave many of his mistresses homes to live in within the grounds of his sprawling Wiltshire estate. He was married to Anna Gael, with whom he had two children, but had affairs with 70 'wifelets' who he tried to put up around the Longleat estates. Longleat Safari Park said in a statement: 'It is with the deepest sadness we have to announce Lord Bath has died at the age of 87. 'The family would like to express their greatest appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately for Alexander in these extremely difficult times for everyone.' While people were out ignoring isolation guidelines on Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer was appointed the new leader of the Labour Party. Sir Keir Starmer has attacked the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic on his first day as Labour leader. Sir Keir, pictured arriving at Broadcasting House on Sunday, became the new Leader of the Opposition on Saturday Test centres have popped up across the UK in major locations. Here a man holds a sign at a drive-through testing centre which has been built at Glasgow Airport to help stop the spread of the coronavirus disease in Scotland Beflast's SSE Arena has been converted into a makeshift testing centre to keep track of Northern Ireland's coronavirus cases so far. Staff and a patient are pictured at the centre on Sunday Manchester Airport is another airport being used as a coronavirus testing centre, centre's are being set up around the country to track the number of British cases of the global pandemic Speaking today the new Leader of the Opposition claimed 'serious mistakes' have been made by Boris Johnson and the Government over the coronavirus. Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Keir wrote: 'Let's be honest, serious mistakes have been made. 'The public is placing an enormous trust in the Government at the moment: it is vital that that trust is met with openness and transparency about those mistakes and the decisions that have been made.' As well as his calls on testing and PPE, Sir Keir said the UK should build vaccination centres in towns and cities across the country so 'the minute a vaccine becomes available, we can begin to protect the entire population'. He also said ministers should publish their exit strategy for guiding the UK out of the current state of lockdown. One in five doctors are off work because of coronavirus reveals shocking new survey as thousands of NHS staff wait to be tested despite pledge to check 100,000 people a day by the end of the month One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work, despite Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying on Thursday that there is a 5.7 per cent absence rate among doctors. The figures come just a day after Britain's death toll from the virus jumped to 708 in 24 hours, with a five-year-old child being among the 4,313 known to have died, out of 41,903 confirmed cases. The poll, conducted by The Sunday Times and the Royal College of Physicians, found that the worst-hit areas for absences are central London and the northeast, where 30 per cent of doctors are off work. One in three - 34 per cent - have been absent at some point during the coronavirus crisis. The shocking figures will pile pressure on ministers to ensure that NHS staff are told whether or not they have the virus, with thousands still waiting to be tested despite a pledge to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed Professor Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which represents 3,500 critical care medics, told The Sunday Times: 'I know there are departments where up to 50 per cent of their medical staff are unable to work because of this.' An A&E doctor at a London hospital said staff were 'dropping like flies', while as many as 27 nurses from Southend Hospital's A&E department in Essex are said to have become ill. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This is despite claims from ministers that they have distributed millions of items. At least eight NHS staff have already been killed by the virus, including three nurses, two of whom were mothers in their thirties. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work and it comes just a day after Britain's death toll jumped to 708 in 24 hours. Pictured: An NHS worker puts their completed test into a container at a testing site near The 02 in Greenwich on Saturday His mother, Gina Gustilo, 50, told The Mail on Sunday her son had not been wearing the right protective clothing at work. He returned home on Friday following a night shift, after complaining of suffering a headache and high temperature throughout the night. Ms Gustilo said her son's colleagues told her he was not wearing 'proper' protective clothing, adding: 'They wear PPE, but not totally protective of the mouth. They wear the normal masks.' Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said between 20 and 30 per cent of ambulance staff were off work either with Covid-19 symptoms or self-isolating. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. He is believed to have died after falling ill with coronavirus Yesterday, Michael Gove said at a Downing Street press conference that just under 11,000 people were tested for the virus on Friday. This is far short of the 100,000 figure which Health Secretary Matt Hancock had promised by the end of the month. Britain's biotech scientists also broke their silence on Saturday to warn that they do not have enough equipment to fulfil Mr Hancock's pledge. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) The 'frustrated' Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), which represents around 17,000 NHS lab scientists and staff, warned that Mr Hancock's plan would not work if things stay as they are. The body said there is a lack of chemical reagents, test tubes and swabs, forcing its president Allan Wilson to warn that the Government's strategy is a 'bit of a muddle'. It has forced Boris Johnson to compete with prime ministers and presidents around the world by personally calling major companies making test kits to try to secure more supply for the UK. The IBMS said it could only increase testing capacity 'if we are given what we need' and that their current supply of materials was being 'tested to the limit'. ALBANY The number of COVID-19 related deaths rose by nearly 600 people overnight, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, going from 3,565 to 4,159. But Cuomo said the number of deaths at one time has dropped for the first time over the past few days. "What is the significance of that? It's too early to tell," Cuomo said. "Hopefully it's a beginning of a shift in the data." There were 594 new deaths across the state overnight Sunday, compared to 630 new deaths the previous day. It's not the lowest number of new deaths the state has seen over the past week, but it is the first time there has been a drop. The total number of new hospitalizations also decreased overnight with 74 percent of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 discharged. Whereas on previous days over the past week, the number of hospitalizations increased by at least 1,000 each day, Sunday's increase was just 574. There were 8,327 more people confirmed to have COVID-19 statewide by Sunday morning. The state's total confirmed count since testing began last month is 122,031 people. New York state does not, however, provide what number of those have since recovered. Cuomo speculated that the state could be seeing a plateau in the data, which could signify New York is approaching or is at the apex of the pandemic's impact. However, he stressed it would be impossible to verify before watching how the data shifts over the next few days. Albany County COVID-19 deaths rise to eight overnight Majority of NYS COVID-19 death victims over 70 years old Sign up for daily newsletter tracking COVID-19 More coronavirus coverage During his announcement, Cuomo also stressed that hospitals and hospital networks will have to begin working together to manage the high burden coronavirus cases are placing on them. "You're going to be over capacity, and the only way we can make this work is if we flex the system so that we take all hospitals, all hospital networks, and we work together as one system," Cuomo said. "We have to balance the patient load among all of these hospitals." A sharing of supplies and resources is another reason for hospitals to join forces, Cuomo added. Albany Medical Center Hospital addressed the issue last week, saying that it and many Capital Region hospitals are already working together to triage where New York City cases should go to ease overflow there. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Cuomo had announced on Friday that the state would shift 20 percent of unused ventilators about 500 units from upstate hospitals to medical centers in New York City and surrounding counties, where the need is highest currently. He said he would enforce supply-sharing through an executive order, though a copy of that directive was not publicly available as of Sunday afternoon. The announcement has garnered backlash from upstate representatives both on the state and federal levels. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Sunday issued a statement saying they are "gravely concerned" about the plan, noting that the health care systems in rural communities have "long been under strain." "We stand ready to help our fellow New Yorkers, but moving needed ventilators from our region now would be devastating and counter-intuitive to all data on the spread of COVID-19," wrote the nine lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck; state Sen. George Amedore, R-Rotterdam; state Sen. Jen Metzger, D-Ulster County; and Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-Schoharie. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has also voiced concerns over the plan and asked the governor on Sunday to clarify how the state will decide to redeploy resources while also ensuring upstate hospitals have access to ventilators. Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, on Friday said the state would either reimburse upstate hospitals or return their ventilators at a later date, and, "when the pandemic wave hits upstate New York, the Governor will ask downstate hospitals for similar help." The federal government is deploying about 1,000 healthcare personnel to New York predominantly New York City hospitals to help the overburdened system, including doctors, nurses and respiratory technicians, Cuomo said. Vaccinations are also being tested, the governor said. He said there could be a vaccination in 12 to 18 months. The death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 83 and the cases climbed to 3,577 in the country on Sunday after 505 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry. IMAGE: A flock of crows on an empty road in front of Vidhana Soudha during a nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of novel coronavirus pandemic, in Bengaluru. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo The active COVID-19 cases stand at 3,219, while 274 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry stated. However, a tally of figures reported by states directly showed at least 126 deaths across the country, while the confirmed cases reached 4,111. Of them, 315 have been cured and discharged. There has been a lag in the Union health ministry figures, compared to the numbers announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. IMAGE: A vendor sells home-stitched masks during the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the coronavirus pandemic, in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Photograph: PTI Photo According to the health ministry data, Delhi has reported the highest number of confirmed cases at 503. Earlier, addressing a media briefing, Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said 11 deaths had been reported since Saturday. Madhya Pradesh reported three new deaths, while there was a fatality each in Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The death toll on Saturday night was 75. According to the ministry, Maharashtra has reported the most coronavirus deaths at 24, followed by Gujarat (11), Madhya Pradesh (9), Telangana and Delhi (7) each, and Punjab (5). IMAGE: Thermal screening of visitors being conducted outside an emergency ward at a hospital during a nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Hyderabad. Photograph: PTI Photo Karnataka has reported four deaths, while West Bengal and Tamil Nadu each have recorded three fatalities. Two deaths each have been reported from Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana each have reported a fatality each, according to the data. The highest number of confirmed cases are from Delhi (503), followed by Maharashtra (490) and Tamil Nadu (485). IMAGE: A man wearing a protective face mask looks out of the window during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease in Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters Kerala has 306 positive cases, while the number of cases has gone up to 269 in Telangana and 227 in Uttar Pradesh. There are 200 cases in Rajasthan and 190 cases in Andhra Pradesh. COVID-19 cases have risen to 165 in Madhya Pradesh, 144 in Karnataka, followed by 122 in Gujarat. Jammu and Kashmir has 106 cases and West Bengal has 80. Haryana has reported 59 infections, followed by Punjab at 57. Thirty people are afflicted with COVID-19 in Bihar, while Assam has 26 cases. Uttarakhand has 22 cases, followed by Odisha at 20 cases, Chandigarh at 18 infections, and Ladakh with 14. IMAGE: A municipal corporation tanker sprinkles water near the Red Fort as part of sanitization works during the nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo Ten cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while Chhattisgarh has nine infections. Goa has reported seven COVID-19 cases, followed by Himachal Pradesh with six and Puducherry with fix cases. Jharkhand has reported three cases, while and Manipur has reported two cases. Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported an infection each. IMAGE: Police personnel punish commuters for flouting nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, in Guwahati. Photograph: PTI Photo "State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation," the ministry said on its website. New Jersey is set to receive another 500 much-needed ventilators from the national stockpile to treat people fighting the coronavirus, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Sunday. The governor tweeted the news as New Jersey health officials have urged thousands more will be needed to treat the flood of hospital patients thats still yet to come. After multiple conversations with the @WhiteHouse, weve secured an additional 500 ventilators. Ventilators are our #1 need right now. I wont stop fighting to get us the equipment we need to save every life we can, Murphy wrote. After multiple conversations with the @WhiteHouse, weve secured an additional 500 ventilators. Ventilators are our #1 need right now. I won't stop fighting to get us the equipment we need to save every life we can. Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 5, 2020 The new shipment means the state has or will receive 1,350 of the ventilators Murphy has asked President Donald Trump to send to New Jersey. Several of the machines from the federal government, however, werent working properly upon arrival and required repair. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage More than 4,000 people with the virus in the state are hospitalized, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said on Saturday. Of those, 1,494 are in critical care, with more than 85% 1,263 on life-saving ventilators. She has said the state may need to add 6,000 more ventilators to handle the surge. Officials said the states first pop-up field hospital to help handle an overflow of patients is set to open Monday at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus. The federal government is helping build two other field hospitals in the state. One is set to open April 8 at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison and another April 14 at the Atlantic City Convention Center, officials said. New Jersey, a state of 9 million residents, has at least 34,124 cases of COVID-19, including at least 846 deaths, officials announced Saturday. The death toll is now more than the 704 New Jersey residents who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The virus has infected more than 1.2 million people across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University as of Sunday morning. Of those, more than 65,800 have died and nearly 253,000 have recovered. The United States has the most cases in the world. 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. Sign up for text message alerts from NJ.com on coronavirus in New Jersey: Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Nepal Government has decided to restrict any sort of movements inside the nation during lockdown to limit the spread of COVID-19 infection after a locally transmitted case was reported on Saturday. A Council of Ministers' meeting held at Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli residence in capital Kathmandu decided to adopt strict measures to curb people's movement to prevent further infection in the Himalayan Nation as the number of positive cases surged to 9. "For a complete implementation of ongoing lockdown, all authorities need to function well. In this context, the movement from one province to the other, traveling from one district to another and one local body to others will be controlled averting unnecessary movements," Yubraj Khatiwada, Spokesperson for the Government of Nepal said. After the report of the second case of COVID-19, Nepal is under complete lockdown since March 24th and sealed all its borders with India and China. Along with the cabinet meeting decided to hold rapid-testing for the possible infection in three districts which has become the epicenter of COVID-19 infection in Nepal. "Kailali, Kanchanpurand Baglung district will undergo rapid testing to check possible infection of the virus, we call it a rapid-diagnostic test. Those who come under suspicion of being infected with the virus will be tested again through the PCR method, it would help to confirm infection in the suspected one," Khatiwada, also the Finance Minister of KP Sharma Oli led administration added. Nepal on Saturday confirmed the first local transmission of coronavirus as a relative of a patient currently kept in isolation tested positive for the virus along with two more cases, taking the tally to nine. The local transmission was confirmed in a 34-year-old female from Kailali District. The other two imported cases were reported in two males who recently came back from India. The two imported cases are confirmed in a 21-year-old male in Kailali District itself who recently returned to Nepal from Mumbai, India and a 41-year-old male of Kanchanour who returned from Uttarakhand. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Weve heard much during the Wuhan flu crisis about a worst case scenario of two million dead Americans, a staggering number. But missing from the national conversation is something equally important: Whats the worst case scenario given our present course of action, largely locking down the country and freezing life like an insect stuck in amber? What if worse coming to worst means a great depression, a descent into tyranny, millions more dead from other causes and a permanently impoverished nation? Almost the entire virus debate has centered around whether the experts are correct about the infectivity and virulence of the disease and in their projections (which have often been drastically wrong). But even if we assume that the experts having the governments ear and there are dissenters who dont are absolutely inerrant in their expressed judgments, theres a problem with just listening to the health professionals prescriptions: Like most everyone else, these individuals have only a narrow range of expertise; they are epidemiologists, virologists, infectious disease specialists, etc. They are not epidemiologists-cum-philosophers/political scientists/sociologists/economists. So they provide counsel on how to achieve a narrow goal contemplated from a narrow perspective. This is not a put-down. It is their job to do just that. Congruent with this, these experts consider the health-related consequences of the disease, not the civilizational-health related consequences of their cure which may be worse than the disease. The latter is the job of statesmen, commentators, academics, and the wider population. All these groups, unfortunately, are found wanting in this. Unemployment claims are at a record high, but I dont have to tell you how the current lockdowns are ravaging our economy. Many businesses and jobs will never come back, yet this concern not only is just the icebergs tip, it isnt even, as critics may say, just about money because money isnt just about money. Money represents resources, peoples capacity to obtain food, shelter, clothing, health care, education and everything else that preserves life and makes it worth living. Note here that poverty is associated with a host of negative health and health-related risks, such as a higher incidence of manifold diseases, depression, anxiety, stress-related disorders, suicide, domestic violence, child abuse and crime. Yet even more must be considered. Remember now that if the following seems radical, it is a worst case scenario. And if we can consider the worst case scenario on one side of the equation, we must for balance and perspective consider the worst case scenario on the other side as well. What if locking down the nation means causing a great depression lasting a decade or more? What if this economic disaster leads, as history teaches it can, to the rise of demagogues and loss of freedom? What if there are consequently millions more deaths from other causes due to economic malaise and descent toward tyranny? What if, in other words, we essentially destroy our civilization as we know it? Will it have been worth it to ensure thered be fewer Wuhan virus deaths even two million, shocking though that number is? Civilizational destruction, something permanent, would be a steep price to pay to combat a pandemic, something temporary. Know that Im not insensitive to the vulnerables plight. Near and dear to me are two people in an extreme high-risk category and a handful of others somewhat at risk, and I have an in-law physician relative who contracted the virus and is currently treating herself with hydroxychloroquine. But I also recognize the truth of economist Thomas Sowells observation that sometimes in life there are no solutions; there are only tradeoffs. Are we making the right tradeoff now? Ill emphasize that my worst case scenario isnt at all fanciful. Many are concerned about a depression resulting from our lockdowns and about the erosion of freedom as people, as people will, trade liberty for security. In fact, The New York Times, of all entities, recently ran a headline warning, For Autocrats, and Others, Coronavirus Is a Chance to Grab Even More Power. Leaders around the world have passed emergency decrees and legislation expanding their reach during the pandemic, the paper writes in its subhead before asking, Will they ever relinquish them? Anyone who grasps the nature of power and of the power-hungry wont bet the answer is yes. Now ask yourself: If the given amount of power is currently being seized, what would happen in an infinitely worse situation such as lockdown-caused depression and social upheaval? Speaking of autocrats, the mainstream media have rightly been castigated for doing despotic Chinas bidding and touting its response to the virus; never mind that China created this problem and that its responses immediate effectiveness is actually unknown because Beijing lies like it breathes. But what if China has responded rightly, not in its tyrannical measures but in one respect? What if Beijings apparent decision to get people back to work and accept virus-related deaths leaves it stronger over the long term? There is some possibility, a scary one, that China could emerge from this as the worlds superpower a status it craves under our worst case scenario. Also consider Sweden. That it continues commerce and life largely unchanged and is striving for herd immunity may be instructive. Are we just prolonging the inevitable? Of course, one lockdown motivation is to slow the viruss spread so that hospitals arent overwhelmed. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that there wont be a true turning point until a vaccine is developed. Yet some say this could be 18 months away, an eternity in lockdown terms. In the meantime, since restoring normal commerce and freedom without experiencing increased virus contagion appears unlikely, focusing on developing herd immunity while insulating vulnerable groups may be the wiser course. Remember, too, that weve been through this before. During the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19, 675,000 Americans died; adjusted for todays U.S. population this amounts to a bit more than two million people exactly our worst case scenario number. We weathered that pandemic, of course. But people were far different then, and, correspondingly, were far different politically today. If President Trump advocated the Swedish model and there were hundreds of thousands of deaths, never mind two million, every one would be laid at his doorstep and hed likely be ousted from office (as it is, it was already suggested last month that Trump may be guilty of negligent homicide). The same could befall any governor acting likewise, never mind that he might have helped save the future because the alternate future would never be known. This is why I know certain things. No, I dont have definitive answers; this is a fluid, serious situation with many unknowns, and we all should act responsibly and not claim knowledge we dont possess. But I do know some questions, as posed above, that should be asked and maturely debated. I also know this wont likely happen, given mans nature in general and the state of our politics and media in particular. This is why wed better hope for a highly efficacious Wuhan virus treatment and fast. Because if were going to lockdown our nation for months on end, well, we may learn the hard way that we might as well have just thrown away the key. Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Gab (preferably) or Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com. Image credit: Dorothea Lange, Wikipedia, public domain In the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II will be making a rare and stately message to rally the nation, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. It's a brave move for the nation fighting rising COVID-19 cases, doubly so in light of London's historic legacy of plagues. But back at No.10, things are a bit more redolent of something different from the classics -- a human comedy. Poor Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Assuming he's going to get through this, what he's doing now is certain to endear him to the British public, who will all recognize not just Boris being Boris, but things relatable in their great British selves. According to the Daily Mail: Somehow it was typical of Boris Johnson to drag himself from his sick bed to the steps of Downing Street and to defy the cold by declining to wear an overcoat. His eyes had the tired and shot look of a man struggling with illness, his unshaven face was pallid and he seemed to have lost weight. But he remained stoically upright as he joined in the mass applause for the NHS and if the usual ebullience was missing there was at least a flicker of determination. This was the first sighting of the Prime Minister on his feet for seven days after succumbing to the coronavirus and his appearance was in stark contrast to that of Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has made a far swifter recovery from the symptoms. He went out without his coat. Where's his mum? Now he can't come out of No. 10. According to the Daily Mail, they've got him barricaded in so he can't get out, and they're feeding him prisoner-style, with trays of food left at a doorway. He's tired and sick, but he's still conducting government meetings, same way the rest of us are making-do doing, via Zoom. He's separated from his significant other, who's sort of the equivalent of his wife, so he's all alone in there and getting into mischief. The queen rallies the nation in a Shakespearian tradition, but back at No. 10, it's more like Monty Python. They can't figure out a better way to handle him? Some medic ought to go over there, insist he get his rest and order him to get well before he does another thing. His food should be brought into him hot and proper by someone in a hazmat suit, he should be given the toys he needs to stay out of trouble. He should otherwise be out of commission, understandably so, because he obviously needs to get well. He might even be more vulnerable than the other British official who fell ill and rebounded quickly, given his history of drinking and wenching. Johnson can hand the government operations over to an able lieutenant his job. All the same, and assuming he's not hurting himself too much, it's likely to endear the British public to him. It's Boris being Boris again, same as he was when he was stuck on the zipline in 2012 when he was mayor of London, jumping onto something that's more fun than smart to do, and then sure enough, finding himself stuck, dangling helplessly from above, two flags in hand, waiting to be rescued. That incident made him popular with the British public as the mainstream press harrumphed. Now this string of hapless adventures with bat soup flu, coupled as it is with something serious, which intensifies the chemistry of comedy, ought to do the same for him. Get well soon, Boris. Image credit: Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of detail from an image by International Atomic Energy Agency Director General // CC BY-SA 2.0 Captain Alvaro Farfan, head of the fire department of the department of Cundinamarca, told local media that the accident occurred in a legally operated coal mine, although he did not give details about the type of explosion. Australian police on Sunday launched a criminal investigation after thousands of passengers were allowed to disembark a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Sydney and 10 later died of the illness. The government last month allowed 2,700 passengers to walk off the Carnival Australia-owned Ruby Princess and travel to their homes around the country -- despite a ban on cruise ships docking in Australia being announced just days earlier. New South Wales state police commissioner Mick Fuller said Sunday that the ship's operators would be investigated over alleged "absolute discrepancies" between information provided to authorities and the requirements of the law. "The key question that remains unanswered, and a criminal or coronial investigation will need to be conducted, is were Carnival crew transparent in contextualising the true patient and crew health conditions relevant to COVID-19?" he said. "The international licence to enter a port is on the assurance from the captain to the authorities that the vessel is free from contagious disease." Some passengers on the ship were displaying flu-like symptoms when it berthed in Sydney Harbour. Hundreds later tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 people have so far died of the virus, including three in New South Wales overnight. Fuller said an investigation was the "only way" to determine whether national biosecurity laws and state laws had been broken. To date, cruise ships have accounted for almost 10 percent of Australia's more than 5,500 infections. The issue has become politically fraught, with local pundits dubbing the vessels "Death Ships" and one nervous state leader calling for the navy to intercept a cruise ship full of German tourists. Public attitudes hardened over the handling of the Ruby Princess, which remains anchored off the coast of Sydney with about 200 crew members exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus. Fuller said police wanted to examine the ship's records and that Carnival had offered to cooperate with the investigation. Carnival Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some passengers on the Ruby Princess cruise ship were displaying flu-like symptoms when it berthed in Sydney Harbour Uganda arrests pastor for denying coronavirus outbreak on television Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A controversial pastor in Uganda could face up to seven years of prison after being arrested for allegedly denying on television that there is a coronavirus outbreak in Africa. Augustine Yiga, the pastor of Revival Christian Church in Kawaala, was charged Monday for the alleged crime of committing an act likely to spread infectious disease. Yiga made remarks that were broadcast on several television stations including BBS TV and Spark TV last weekend. According to the Ugandan daily news outlet New Vision, the 43-year-old father of eight was remanded back into police custody by magistrate Timothy Lumunye for violating section 171 of the Ugandan penal code criminalizing conduct that is likely to spread infectious disease. Prosecutors allege that Yiga said during televised remarks that there is no coronavirus in Uganda and Africa. Yigas comments come as there are at least 48 cases of novel coronavirus in Uganda as of Saturday with no related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Worldwide, there have been over 1 million confirmed cases and over 60,100 related deaths since the start of the outbreak in December. Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango told media outlets that Yigas assertion undermines efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 and the Ministry of Health guidelines for citizens. On Monday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered a 14-day national lockdown. The actions of Pastor Yiga promotes the spread of the COVID-19 and can, therefore, be considered as a direct attack on the people of the Republic of Uganda, Onyango was quoted as saying. We appeal to the public to desist from making false or alarming utterances concerning over COVID-19 and disregard information not from authorized government structures. According to The Daily Monitor, Yiga denied the charges when he appeared on court on Monday. Although Yiga requested bail on grounds that he is diabetic, prosecutors reportedly opposed the request on grounds that they needed more time to carry out the investigation. The pastor was remanded back to detention until April 4, according to The Daily Monitor. Pastor Wilson Bugembe of Light of the World Ministries in Kampala said in televised remarks that Yiga was arrested for speaking recklessly. However, Bugembe issued a plea to Uganda police to pardon Yiga. From a long time ago, he has been speaking carelessly, Bugembe was quoted as saying through a translator. So please just pardon and forgive. Just tell him not to do it again. According to PML Daily, the Uganda Communications Commission has written letters to BBS TV, NTV and Spark TV asking them to explain why regulatory action should not be taken against them for allegedly violating Section 171 of the penal code by airing misleading remarks about coronavirus. In its program Ebyokya ku Wiikendi on March 28, BBS TV is accused of broadcasting Yigas statements on coronavirus. Spark TV is said to be responsible for comments Yiga made last Friday on its Live Wire program. As for NTV, it is accused of allowing Simon Senyonga to make objectionable comments about the virus outbreak on its Morning @NTV program on March 26. Several other pastors in Uganda have also been arrested in recent weeks for defying the presidential directive banning religious gatherings during the coronavirus outbreak. Last month, PML Daily reported that a pastor and at least 30 churchgoers at Blessed Feelings Church International in Kajjansi were arrested for participating in a Wednesday church service. Advocates are also warning that it appears that Ugandan authorities might be using the COVID-19 restrictions to target sexual minorities. This week, Ugandan police charged over 20 LGBT individuals living at a shelter in the outskirts of Kampala with disobeying rules on social distancing and a ban on large gatherings. In Uganda, homosexuality is banned and can be punishable by up to life in prison. According to Onyango, the group was charged with disobedience of lawful order and committing neglectful acts likely to spread infection of disease. In an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Onyango denied claims made by LGBT advocates that the government targeted LGBT individuals over their sexual orientation. "We still have offenses of unnatural sex in our law books," Onyango said. "We would charge them with that law, but we are charging them with those counts as you can see." The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has pressured at least 69 governments worldwide to decriminalize homosexuality. - A section of the European nations and scientists had suggested that COVID-19 vaccine test be done in Africa - They argued Africa had no capacity to fight the virus and hence the best place to launch the treatment test - Senator Moses Wetangu'la, however, sharply disagreed with the European leaders arguing Europe was the epicentre of COVID-19 and therefore any form of treatment must start from there - The senator urged African leaders to reject any attempt to use Africans as "Guinea pigs" Bungoma senator Moses Wetangu'la has condemned a proposal by a section of European nations and scientists that COVID-19 vaccine test should be done in Africa. Wetangula's objection came barely a day after French doctors suggested that Africa was the best continent for the samples to be used because it is "incapable of fighting COVID-19". READ ALSO: Captain Daudi Kibati: KQ pays tribute to senior pilot killed by COVID-19 Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangu'la has called on African leaders to reject COVID-19 vaccine test on the continent. Photo: Moses Wetangula. Source: Original READ ALSO: Mwanariadha aliyenaswa akibugia mvinyo wakati wa kafyu aomba msamaha In a strongly worded statement, the FORD Kenya party leader called on African leaders to reject any attempt to use African people as "Guinea pigs". "The epicenter of COVID-19(Coronavirus ) is China, Italy, Spain, France, US. Clinical trials on its possible cure must start there and not in any African country. African leaders must resist any attempt to use our people as Guinea pigs. Resist," he tweeted. Medics at Mbagathi Hospital preparing isolation room for COVID-19 patients. Photo: Ministry of Health. Source: UGC The proposal has irked many people on the continent with majority of Kenyans trooping to social media sites to slam European nations and scientists for attempting to use Africans as "lab rats". Globally, there are over 1 million COVID-19 infections and a total of 59, 172 deaths recorded so far. Out of these numbers, the United States (US) has the highest number of infections currently standing at 277,467 and the third-highest number of deaths at 7, 402. Italy has the highest number of deaths standing at 14, 681 and second-highest number of infections currently at 119,827. Spain has 119, 199 infections and a total of 11, 198 fatalities, being the second-highest number of deaths after Italy. Germany has 91, 159 COVID-19 infections and 1,275 deaths while China, where the disease began, has 81, 639 infections and 3, 326 fatalities. Africa as a whole has so far confirmed 212 deaths with most countries recording less than 1000 infection cases apart from South Africa whose case has hit 1, 505. Kenya has 122 COVID-19 infections which have so far resulted in four deaths. 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 Kenyan police have taken more lives than Covid-19 in Kenya | Tuko Reports | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke A New York doctor claims to have the coronavirus cure Coronavirus He is confident in his work Vladimir Zelenko is a 46-year-old rural doctor working in the New York town of Kiryas Joel and he claims to have a cure for the coronavirus. Despite working in a town of just 30,000 inhabitants, the doctor's name is now known the world over. According to the New York Times, Dr. Zelenko has developed an experimental treatment of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc sulphate that he has prescribed to patients with mild or moderate symptoms of COVID-19. The doctor says that 100 percent of them have overcome the virus without the need to go to hospital or the use of a ventilator. Mark Meadows, a White House spokesman, positioned himself in favour of Dr. Zelenko's treatment and Donald Trump gave hydroxychloroquine his backing. Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro and a number of other countries, namely Russia, Ukraine and Israel, have also shown interest. Hydroxychloroquine has been tested on a limited number of patients in France and China, with results suggesting it may be effective. But hydroxychloroquine is not recommended for all patients, as it could be harmful to some and should be provided under supervision. A woman is being held by police after she allegedly punched a nurse and spat at two security guards in Bolton. Greater Manchester Police officers were called out to the Royal Bolton Hospital on Saturday afternoon. A nurse was punched in the stomach, according to the Manchester Evening News. Police were called to the Royal Bolton Hospital on Saturday where a nurse was allegedly punched and security guards were spat at Greater Manchester Police officers were called out to the hospital on Saturday and one woman remains in custody. Stock picture GMP's South Bolton division announced a woman had been charged following the incident. Louise Adams, 58, has been charged with three assaults on emergency service workers. Sharing news of the charge on Facebook, GMP South Bolton told followers Adams has been remanded in police custody until the next available court date. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) More personal protective equipment, or PPE, is on the way to prevent more deaths among doctors amid the coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19 Response Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez said. So far, 17 doctors have died tending to patients infected with the virus, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) reported earlier. According to the association, their deaths could have been prevented if there was enough personal protective equipment for health workers. READ: Medical group cites protective equipment lack for death of 17 doctors "We were not prepared for an onslaught of infection," PMA spokesperson and former president Dr. Oscar Tinio said Sunday in an interview on CNN Philippines. "'Yun 'yung isa sa pinaka matinding dahilan kung bakit nagkaganyan." [Translation: That's one of the biggest reasons behind the COVID-19 casualties among doctors.] We lost a lot of doctors and hopefully we dont keep losing some more," he said. Department of Health Spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire earlier said it's difficult to secure PPE, with other countries rushing to get their own supply leading to a global shortage of equipment. However, Galvez assured they are normalizing the supply and demand of protective equipment in the country. Approximately a million PPE have been ordered from China, he said. 30,000 sets are also set to arrive on Monday, from resort and casino Solaire. The Philippine Air Force's C-130 aircraft will be picking up 12,000 sets of PPE, Galvez added. The government will also be charting Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific flights to transport supplies. "We are solving the problem. We want to protect the doctors," he said. PMA also urged patients to be transparent about their medical condition and travel history in order to mitigate the impact of the viral disease. Besides the shortage of PPE, Vergeire earlier cited patients not disclosing their full backgrounds as a reason behind health workers contracting the disease. Varun Dhawan Felt Director Sriram Raghavan Might Remove Him As The Lead In 21 If He Hears His Lockdown Rap, Sang It Anyway Lebanese nationals, residing in Saudi Arabia, sit in the lobby of a hotel, where they will housed, in the capital Beirut on April 5, 2020, upon their return to the country as part of a repatriation plan Lebanon on Sunday started repatriating nationals who were stranded abroad in its first flights in weeks since it closed its international airport to stem the novel coronavirus. Many Lebanese work abroad, in the Gulf or in Africa, while thousands of youth study in Europe. The first of four planes touched down at the Beirut international airport late in the morning bringing in 78 passengers from Riyadh, local television reported. A second carrying 79 passengers from Abu Dhabi followed in the afternoon, the National News Agency said. Local television showed health personnel in protective gear taking the temperature of disembarking passengers. The Mediterranean country announced a lockdown and closed its airport from March 19 as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has officially infected 527 people and killed 18 nationwide. An AFP photographer saw a dozen buses outside the airport, which the health ministry said were to transport the passengers to their homes to self-quarantine or to a hotel to await the results of tests on arrival. Health Minister Hamad Hassan said at a news conference Sunday evening that all the tests carried out on passengers arriving from Saudi Arabia were negative. But he added the passengers will still have to self-quarantine. Prime Minister Hassan Diab had arrived earlier amid heavy deployment of the Lebanese army. Authorities said more than 20,000 people had signed up to be repatriated in total this week or at the end of the month. Lebanese carrier Middle East Airlines said flights would land in Beirut later on Sunday from Lagos and Abidjan. It has also announced return trips to Paris, Madrid and Kinshasa on Tuesday. - Steep fares - Lebanese returning home must either test negative for the virus no longer than three days before their return, or be tested immediately upon arrival, according to government guidelines. They must pay for their own ticket and their families are not allowed to meet them at the airport. Story continues The government has said priority will be given to those with critical health conditions such as diabetes or cancer, those aged over 60 and under 18, and families. But critics have complained of steep ticket fares, while a financial crisis has severely restricted transactions from Lebanese bank accounts. Coronavirus is the latest crisis to hit Lebanon, which is already reeling under a crumbling economy. Due to an acute liquidity crisis, banks have since September increasingly been restricting access to dollars and have halted money transfers abroad. On Monday, however, the banking association agreed to allow dollar transfers to Lebanese students outside the country to help them face the coronavirus pandemic, the finance ministry said. Diab on Sunday told reporters the government was studying the possibility of supporting returning Lebanese students with a ticket. The public transport minister said the MEA would offer half-price tickets to students in need, while the foreign and health ministers said Lebanese donors would cover the other half, according to the NNA. Lebanese expatriates and activists have clamoured online for MEA to lower the price of its tickets and help those who cannot afford it. The airline on Friday claimed tickets were more expensive -- $650 for an economy class seat from Riyadh and $1,800 for a cheaper fare from Abidjan for example -- because planes would be empty on the way out to evacuations. The Empowered Group number 6, chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and formed by the government of India, held a series of meetings on the prevailing coronavirus crisis with international organisations, development partners, civil society organisations and industry associations. As per a government release issued on Sunday, the committee held six meetings between March 30 and April 3 with all above-mentioned stakeholders. The Empowered Group held detailed meetings with UN Resident Coordinator for India and country heads of WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, ILO, UN Women, UN-Habitat, FAO, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank. The UN in India has built a Joint Programme Response Plan and submitted it to NITI Aayog, defining their clear activities and deliverables in different sectors and States, where they are partnering with Union Ministries and State Governments, the release read. The committee also conducted deliberations with over 40 civil society organisations, development partners and NGOs working in different parts of the country and with different communities. Several challenges and issues raised by these CSOs were addressed by the EG6 to facilitate their working in the field during this crisis, the release added. Nearly 1 lakh NGOs/ CSOs registered with NITI Aayog have been urged to assist the government in identifying Covid-19 hotspots and for deputing volunteers and caregivers to deliver services to the elderly, persons with disabilities, children, transgender persons, and other vulnerable groups. The NGOs and CSOs have also been directed to create awareness about prevention, social distancing, isolation, and combating stigma; to provide shelter to homeless, daily wage workers, and urban poor families; set up community kitchens for migrants; services. Kant has also written to all Chief Secretaries urging them to instruct the local administration at the district level to utilise the physical and human resources made available by NGOs and CSOs. In deliberations with industry associations such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM and other representatives, the committee pressed for the need to produce more health equipment and PPEs. As many as 8 start-ups working in innovative healthcare solutions, 12 top industry leaders from CII, 6 CEOs from FICCI industry partners, 14 CEOs of top tech-based companies from NASSCOM, participated and deliberated on all issues ranging of estimation needs for PPE, ventilators and medical equipment, retrofitting domestic production lines to meet demand, supply chain management issues, innovative technology-led solutions, issues of certification, GST, import duties on components, issues of procurement, training, post lockdown operating procedures, etc, the release read. Industry representatives and the Group deliberated in detail and resolved several challenges on critical issues of health-care intervention, pertaining to ramping up production and procurement of ventilators, PPEs, testing kits apart from the ways to step up the relief and rehabilitation and information dissemination. Last month, the government formed 10 Empowered Groups and a strategic task force comprising senior civil servants to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak. The setting up of the groups and the task force, which together have 68 bureaucrats, is an attempt to forge a planning and implementation machinery that acts in concert to minimise the impact of the disease the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday PM chaired a joint meeting of all Empowered Groups constituted for planning and ensuring implementation of Covid-19 response activities in the country. Several of the country's research departments have been mobilised and united to help tackle the current crisis. Luxembourg has created a new task force dedicated to the research of the coronavirus. The approach sees 14 groups work closely together to coordinate their results. Luxembourg's scientific community has significantly grown over the past years. Close to 3,000 researchers are currently working in the Grand-Duchy with more than half being employed by the government. Scientific research is the key for understanding the developments of the pandemic. However, final decisions are still being taken on the political spectrum. Nonetheless, Luxembourg's small size encourages regular exchange with foreign experts, an essential process to steer the country out of the crisis. State-owned CIL's subsidiaries have set up 1,509 isolation beds in eight states in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, an official said. The eight coal bearing states are Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Assam. Of the 1509 beds, Coal India arm Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) has set up the maximum 664 beds at its hospitals in places like Bhubaneswar, Angul, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Sundargarh in the state of Odisha. Besides, Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) has come up with 200 isolation beds in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) has set up 100 beds, Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) 180 beds, Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) 144 beds,South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SEC)132 beds, Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) 75 beds and North Eastern Coalfields Ltd (NECL) 14 beds. The subsidiaries have also distributed more than 3.3 lakh face masks to people in and around the coal mines, the official added. ECL has distributed the maximum 76,367 masks, followed by NCL (66,847), SECL (64,536) and WCL (52,613), among others. CIL had earlier pledged Rs 220 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM-CARES) Fund to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output. The PSU has taken various initiatives to continue the dry fuel supply to various sectors, including power, during the lockdown period. The measures include extending the time for coal lifting and making payments, and relaxing penalty against defaulters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Morrison government has shut down the idea of extending its $130 billion wage subsidy to more casual workers one day after signalling it would be as "inclusive and reasonable" as possible. Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said the government would "refine" the plan before it went to a vote in Parliament on Wednesday but said the essential features would not be changed. Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter said on Monday morning the bill would apply the definition of casual worker announced last week, requiring someone to have been "attached" to an employer for a minimum of one year. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Porter stepped back from earlier remarks that indicated he was willing to negotiate with the Australian Council of Trade Unions on the rules for casual workers to sign up to the scheme. The government closed off that option on Monday morning with a warning that it would not change the "essential principle" of the scheme, which is available to casual workers who have worked for one employer for the past year. By Eben Kirksey The Chinese biotechnology sector has outpaced companies in the United States to develop effective tests for COVID-19. Regulators in Europe have moved quickly to approve and import clinical tests from China. It is time for the Trump administration to follow suit. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently relies on companies to submit their products for assessment. Yet this policy is not enough to address the nations emergency situation. To date the FDA has only approved 25 different coronavirus tests almost all from U.S. based companies for use by medical professionals. A non-profit organization in Switzerland, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), has identified nearly 400 COVID tests from international laboratories in various stages of development. Of these, the European Union has approved over 100 coronavirus tests that are currently unavailable in the United States. Many of these tests were developed, and proven effective, on the front lines in Chinas Wuhan province. It is time to lean into the crisis and bring these tests to the United States. It is not time for the provincial policy of America First. Rather than waiting to see which products emerge from the market, administration officials need to urgently provide more leadership. Government scientists could be identifying COVID-19 tests that have already proved to be effective in other parts of the world and targeting these tests for expedited approval. Many COVID-19 tests available in the international marketplace could be useful to the American people. For example, Liming Bio, based in Nanjing China, is currently exporting a rapid coronavirus test to Europe that is available wholesale for $10 per kit. The Liming kit looks much like a pregnancy test. Simply place a drop of blood on a plastic strip, then add a drop of chemicals. Within 15 minutes it will reveal if you have antibodies to COVID-19. This test, and others like it on the market, should not be tried at home. To work best it requires a skilled professional to take blood from your vein, rather than from a finger prick. Existing tests in the United States, which identify viral DNA rather than antibodies, are giving the wrong result a false negative for many patients who actually carry the coronavirus. We need to urgently expand our testing toolkit. I have experienced mild COVID-19 symptoms myself, and like thousands of others across the United States I have been unable to access a test. According to data released by Liming Bio, their test is highly accurate. If independent validation can confirm this accuracy, I want access. But, the government is currently standing in the way. Caution is needed before we embrace all tests available on the market. Last week, Spain announced that it would be returning 640,000 coronavirus tests to manufacturers, including some made by Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, an unlicensed company in China. But, all Chinese tests are not the same. The FDA has an opportunity to aggressively validate new tests and make the ones that work widely available to the American public. New tests pioneered by U.S. companies, like the rapid DNA test from Abbott Laboratories, have been quickly brought to market under an Emergency Use Authorization program. This same program could swiftly deliver effective tests from the international marketplace into the hands of American health care professionals. For people like me, who have already experienced symptoms, getting tested is vital. I could have suffered a mild bout of COVID-19, or I could have had a common cold. An antibody test would tell me if I have been exposed, and if I am likely immune. With a test, people like me could be out in the world shopping for groceries, helping care for loved ones with the virus, volunteering in the community without fear of a new infection. With enough tests a critical mass of us could soon be back at work, helping society recover from the pandemic. In Germany, an ambitious testing program has been proposed that will issue people a certificate if they test positive for COVID-19 antibodies and then recover. The plan would use antibody tests to certify that citizens are ready to reenter society and the workforce. Eben Kirksey is a current member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has written a book about biotechnology in China The Mutant Project which is available for pre-order with St. Martins Press. 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. Long before Guy Fieri was a famous chef and restaurateur and a ubiquitous, bleach-blonde presence on television he was just a 10-year-old kid taking one of his first trips to "Flavortown" with a hot pretzel covered in salt and mustard. In fact, the star of Food Network shows like "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" who has also opened dozens of his own restaurants around the world first found success in the food business selling pretzels out of a cart he built with his dad when he was 10 years old in his hometown of Ferndale, California. TWEETPIC The young Fieri had been struck by entrepreneurial inspiration at that same age while on a family trip to Lake Tahoe, where he ate his first soft pretzel, which he bought from a vendor in the ski lodge where his family was vacationing. "This guy [pretzel guy] steams it and he dips it in a little bit of salt and he put mustard on it, and I always loved flavors like that when I was a kid," Fieri said in a 2017 interview with "The Sporkful" podcast. The future chef had never eaten a hot, soft pretzel before and he was instantly entranced. "I ate one and the doughiness and the chewiness I'd never seen anything like that," he said in 2017. After Fieri told his parents about his discovery, his father suggested turning his newfound passion into a business. (Fieri notes in another interview with Susan Noyes, of the Make It Better Foundation, that his father had previously ended Fieri's attempts at selling lemonade and Kool-Aid after catching him "with a big purple arm" he obtained by stirring the beverage with his hands after losing his stirring stick.) "My dad says, 'If you're such a fan of these pretzels, why don't you own a pretzel business when we get back home?'" Fieri told Variety in a recent interview. Before he could do that, though, 10-year-old Fieri wanted to find out the name of the supplier where the ski lodge vendor was getting his pretzels. However, the vendor was cagey about supplying the young Fieri with the address of his manufacturer, apparently out of fear of aiding a future competitor. "'Why do you want to get the address?'" Fieri told Variety the vendor asked him. "'So you can start a pretzel business?' I said, 'How'd you know?' He goes, 'I'm not giving them to you.' I said, 'I'm a kid!'" At first, Fieri says he felt "completely defeated" by that roadblock. But he refused to give up and instead got creative. After waiting for the pretzel vendor to shut down for the day, Fieri went through his garbage to find a pretzel box with the distributor's name and address. From there, Fieri says he returned home to Northern California and for six months worked after school building a pretzel cart in a family friend's woodworking shop. "My dad made me do all of the work," Fieri told Noyes in 2011. The final product was a yellow wooden cart mounted on a three-wheeled bicycle that the young Fieri could ride to local fairs and other public events to sell pretzels. He called his business the "Awesome Pretzel Cart". NATO says plans to expand mission in Iraq Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 10:08 AM NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance has decided to expand its mission in Iraq by training personnel for the Iraqi army and security forces. Stoltenberg made the announcement on Thursday during a press conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers where the alliance's response to the coronavirus outbreak as well as the situation in Iraq were discussed. "We agreed to expand our mission in Iraq by training non-commissioned officers, mine experts and federal police cadres within the framework of its program," he said. NATO's decision comes as the US has deployed new Patriot missile systems to Iraq amid calls for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from the Arab country. The US deployment of the missile systems last week at the Iraqi bases hosting American troops came apparently as a precaution against possible rocket attacks. A member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee has strongly condemned the move as a breach of the Arab country's sovereignty. Meanwhile, the US-led military has started pulling out of several bases in Iraq, redeploying its forces to other positions in the Arab country. The coalition has already said that the transfer of US-led military forces had nothing to do with the missile attacks against Iraqi bases hosting the coalition forces, or the outbreak of COVID-19 the disease caused by the highly contagious new coronavirus, in Iraq. Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Hashd al-Sha'abi, and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier. Later on January 9, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraqi prime minister, called on the United States to dispatch a delegation to Baghdad tasked with formulating a mechanism for the move. The 78-year-old politician said Iraq rejects any violation of its sovereignty, particularly the US military's violation of Iraqi airspace in the assassination airstrike. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address If you were to ask longtime horse owner Bruce Kennedy what the cost of dreaming is, he might tell you the cost is $23,000. That $23,000 figure comes from the yearling sale price of Wakizashi Hanover, the 2015 North America Cup and O'Brien Award winner who was recently retired from racing and became the newest addition to the New Vocations Racehorse Adoption program. He was a spectacular two and three-year-old and we always had plans of continuing to race him as an older horse. He had some issues along the way - a throat issue, that he had two surgeries on in six months. He recovered and came back and continued to race well. He actually came back and set his lifetime record of 1:47.3 at the Meadowlands. But then he developed a bit of an ankle issue. We addressed it, and laid him up for some time, Kennedy recalled. As with all iron-tough horses, no matter the setback, there is always a comeback. His issue solidified and he came back to race again, he chuckled. We tried to start racing him intermittently, and while he seemed to be okay we were getting further between starts and racing against tough company every week, and we decided that after a couple years of sparse racing we should give him a break. He raced well his whole life, he served us well his whole life, and he made us proud his whole life. We wanted to be good and kind to him the same way he was to us. The best way to do that was to race him less, so we made the final decision to bring him home to Nova Scotia. We did some acupuncture on him, shockwave therapy, we did everything we could to help him be as comfortable as possible. My brother-in-law and one of my partners worked on him every day." After some time off and rehabbing on Canadas picturesque East Coast, Wakizashi Hanover made a qualifying appearance at Truro Raceway in June of 2019. His first start under the care of Brent MacGrath was a winning one in 1:54.4. He wasnt really ready to race that day, but he raced well. It was very exciting for the crowd to have him home and watch him race and we were more than grateful to have him home. We had him ready to race in some Maritime events and things just didn't work out for us. We couldnt get into one race because we had only one start on the East Coast, and it just wasnt fair to the horse to be travelling all over the Maritimes to race. You also never know with the weather if you will be able to get back across the nine mile bridge. So I called Jim King and told him what our situation was and he offered that they would be more than happy to have him back in Delaware. He was racing good, but his big money making days were behind him. He was still having to race against tough company and we decided that it wasnt fair to race him like that. So we retired him. The multiple stakes winning son of Dragon Again will be gearing up to give someone else the same thrills and joy he gave Bruce Kennedy and the rest of his connections. Wakizashi Hanover, 2015 Three-Year-Old Pacing Colt O'Brien Award winner. Left to right: Percy Bonnell, Diane Bonnell, Sheila Kennedy, Bruce Kennedy, Shannon Doyle, Jo Ann Looney King, Jim King, Wyatt Beaver Wakizashi Hanover, 2015 Three-Year-Old Pacing Colt O'Brien Award winner. Left to right: Percy Bonnell, Diane Bonnell, Sheila Kennedy, Bruce Kennedy, Shannon Doyle, Jo Ann Looney King, Jim King, Wyatt Beaver We checked out New Vocations and discussed it with all the partners and we did it. We think it was the right thing to do, retiring him while he still has the ability to perform. New Vocations was thrilled to have him in their program - and that brought a lot of heartfelt emotion to us all, knowing that he is going to be well taken care of and loved the way we always loved him. He is going to be broke to saddle and hopefully he behaves himself and takes to it well. I dont think he is going to be an Olympic jumper, but he is a personality horse and he is going to make someone one heck of a companion. Even being miles away from him the majority of his racing career, he was a great companion for us, too. Its bittersweet because we had really thought and planned to have him around here [Maritimes] to race but we made the right decision and now with everything going on with COVID-19, we really made the right decision. The retirement marks a joyous ending to a fabulous career for grateful partners. While Wakizashi Hanovers presence on the track will be missed, Bruce Kennedy has another young hopeful in the pipeline. I have a share in a Control The Moment two-year-old colt back home in training here with Barry Whidden. He is out of Isabella Blue Chip, who was a great mare and produced some good horses. He looks awesome and is doing everything right. Were really looking forward to seeing what he can do someday. Id like to say he is our next Wakizashi, but you never get two of them, Bruce laughed. He [Wakizashi] was a dream-come-true horse. We only had so much to spend at Harrisburg that fall when we bought him and we spent it all to get him. Now we have memories and smiles to last us all the rest of our lives. When he won the North America Cup, that may have been the biggest thrill of my life. The fact that he became a free for all horse was something we never even dreamed about. He peaked at all the right times in his career - maybe he will become a champion hunter/jumper some day. I dont know how you could even dream of having a better run than we did with Wakizashi, Bruce added. (Photos courtesy of New Image Media) New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called former presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, two former PMs Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda apart from heads of different parties, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, to discuss the situation in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and the steps taken by the Centre to contain the pandemic. The Prime Ministers outreach came two days ahead of his meeting with the floor leaders of different political parties. Wednesdays meeting will be held thorough video-conferencing. The PM also spoke to West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Biju Janata Dal president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Telangana chief minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief MK Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal. The PM informed the leaders of the steps taken by his government to contain the pandemic, people familiar with the matter said. He also stressed on the need to put up a united front in the fight against coronavirus and also sought suggestions from the leaders. For her part, Gandhi pointed out that there is a health pandemic and an economic pandemic and both needs to be fought aggressively, a Congress functionary said on the condition of anonymity. The Congress has been demanding adequate personal protection equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses and other health workers apart from aggressive testing to fight the coronavirus. She again wrote to the Prime Minister on April 1, seeking advance payment of 21 days wages to 80 million rural workers to help them tide over the crisis due to the lockdown. The Congress has been demanding adequate personal protection equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses and other health workers apart from aggressive testing to fight the coronavirus. I think its close to criminal, the way theyre dealing with this guy. The idea that this man stood up and said what had to be said, got it out that his troops, his Navy personnel, were in danger, in danger look how many have the virus, Biden said in an interview on ABC Newss This Week. My children, Dylan and Saoirse, and I love to be outdoors, and with two dogs, any weekend away needs to be nearby. West Waterford has a huge amount to offer, and it's just up the road from where we live in east Cork. My partner, Paul, will come from Dublin, so Waterford is a halfway point. We'd stay at Nire Valley Eco Camp. They had me at 'bedroom in a meadow', and they welcome pets. The thought of putting up a tent, with two children and two dogs, most likely in the rain, brings me out in a rash, so this new take on 'glamping' is perfect! It'd be good old spag bol from home for dinner, and then we'd put the wellies on for a walk. With no Wi-Fi on site, Uno and Connect 4 would save the night. On Saturday after breakfast, we'd head to Clonea Beach. Waveworld run brilliant activities and my two are water babies, so while they have fun at the watersports camp, we'd walk the legs off the dogs. In the afternoon, we'd head to Comeragh Mountain Farm. It's a bit of a busman's holiday, but I love to meet local food producers, plus I'm considering getting hens, so where better to learn how best to mind them! Saturday night dinner would have to be at AndChips in Dungarvan, and eaten on the quay. On Sunday morning, we'd have eggs from the Comeragh Mountain Farm before taking the Bunmahon Cliff Walk for some final fresh air. Karen O'Donohoe is head of development at GIY and co-presenter of 'Grow Cook Eat' at 7.30pm, Wednesdays, RTE One GOLDEN, Colo., April 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Minerals Company (NYSE American and TSX: AUMN) (Golden Minerals, Golden or the Company) is pleased to announce positive results from the updated Mineral Resource Estimate and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for its Velardena Properties, a 100%-owned silver and gold project located in Durango State, Mexico. PEA Financial and Economic Highlights Tetra Tech, an independent engineering company, has prepared the PEA for the Company in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects (NI 43-101). The PEA assumes prices of $1,324/oz gold, $16.23/oz silver, $0.90/lb lead and $1.25/lb zinc. Preliminary results of the economic analysis are shown in pre-tax U.S. Dollars as highlighted below. The complete PEA will be published on SEDAR within 45 days of this press release. Pre-tax net present value (NPV): (US)$85.9 million at an 8% discount rate Pre-tax Internal rate of return (IRR): 138.6% Pre-tax Payback period: 1 year Total pre-production capital cost: $10.27 million, including 10% contingency* Post-production and sustaining capital: $ 15.93 million, including 10% contingency Pre-production development time: 1 year Life of mine (LOM): 10 years LOM contained silver: 12.3 Moz; LOM contained gold: 188 Koz LOM average silver grade: 337 grams per tonne (g/t); LOM average gold grade: 5.15 g/t LOM pre-tax free cash flow: $130.2 million LOM payable silver: 10.2 Moz; LOM payable gold production: 119 Koz LOM payable Ageq: 19.7 Moz (Au and Ag only at a ratio of 80Ag:1Au) *Capital estimate for bio-oxidation plant includes additional contingency Golden Minerals President and Chief Executive Officer Warren M. Rehn remarked, The Velardena mines now present an attractive scenario for a potential restart. The most difficult challenge we previously faced at the Velardena mines was the low payable gold recovery, a challenge which we believe is solved with the addition of a relatively low-cost bio-oxidation circuit at our existing processing facility. Because we already have most of what is required for recommencing mining and processing, the capital needs for the project are modest. The one-year payback on pre-production capital signifies a very robust project. The projected cash costs for silver production at less than a dollar per ounce net of byproducts points to the strong projected profitability of this operation. Story continues Pre-Tax Technical Economic Model Results Item Total per Tonne ($000s) of Material Gross Payable $375,728 $330.19 TCs, RCs and penalties ($33,130) ($29.12) Freight & Insurance (1) ($12,311) ($10.82) NSR $330,288 $290.21 Operating Costs Mining costs ($94,303) ($82.87) Milling costs ($54,241) ($47.67) Site Administration ($15,656) ($13.76) G&A ($8,014) ($7.04) Federal Mining Royalty ($1,651) ($1.45) ($173,866) ($152.79) Operating Margin $156,423 $137.46 Capital Costs Mine Development ($10,791) ($9.48) Process Plant ($9,460) ($8.31) Infrastructure ($782) ($0.69) Other Non-Operating Costs* ($5,158) ($4.53) Cash Flow $130,232 $114.44 NPV 8% $85,914 IRR 139% Payback (years) 1 * includes contingency equal to 10% of capital costs above Cash Costs Cash cost per payable Ag ounce, net of by products $0.92 All in Sustainable cost per payable Ag ounce, net of by products $3.48 The updated PEA has been prepared to incorporate new and updated elements of the project database and mine plan, most notably the inclusion of bio-oxidation treatment of gold concentrates. In late 2019, Golden obtained successful results from testing Velardena gold concentrate material using Finnish firm Outotecs BIOX process. BIOX is a unique and sustainable technology that was developed to pre-treat refractory ores and concentrates ahead of conventional cyanide leaching. The gold in these types of mineralized material, such as those found at Velardena, is encapsulated in pyrite and arsenopyrite which prevents the gold from being successfully cyanide leached. BIOX utilizes bacteria to oxidize these sulfide materials, thereby exposing the gold for subsequent cyanide leaching and increasing overall gold recoveries. Golden Minerals believes this technology is key to unlocking successful and sustainable value from production at Velardena. Indeed, 2019 BIOX testing of Velardena material achieved gold recoveries of 92%, compared to sub-30% gold recoveries realized when Golden last operated Velardena in 2015. In the coming months, the Company plans to continue to optimize the mine plan and processing details in preparation for future test-mining and processing in advance of establishing a definite schedule for restarting commercial production at the Velardena mines and the installation of the bio-oxidation circuit. Mine Planning Given changes to the resource models and project parameters, a new preliminary mine plan was developed. Mine staff performed test mining to prove a selective mining minimum width of 0.7 meters. Based on the new resource models, new dilution calculations and the updated NSR, the mining areas have changed from the previous PEA. The 2015 PEA considered only a limited subset of areas and tonnes, whereas the update considers all principal veins for the mine plan. This updated mine plan includes 1.14 M tonnes of sulfide material, with a mine life of approximately 10 years at a rate of 310 tonnes per day. The table below shows the potentially minable material within the preliminary mine plan. Mine Plan Category Total/Avg Tonnes 1,137,949 NSR ($/T) 290 Ag (gpt) 337 Contained Ag oz 12,325,300 Au (gpt) 5.15 Contained Au (oz) 188,250 Pb (%) 1.32 Contained Pb (lbs) 33,096,126 Zn (%) 1.63 Contained Zn(lbs) 40,886,729 Sensitivity Tables Project sensitivity to metals prices, capital and operating costs are shown below. The project is most sensitive to metals prices, and to silver slightly more than gold. Given the low remaining required capital expenditures, the project is least sensitive to capital. A graph accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/676813d4-fb5b-429c-8c60-bccc6291ed7b Updated Mineral Resource Estimate The updated Mineral Resource Estimate incorporates work completed on the project database since the previous Technical Report (February 20, 2015: Tetra Tech, NI 43-101 Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment, Velardena Project, Durango State, Mexico). The database was evaluated and intervals were re-coded by vein, which led to an update of the principal veins (CC, C1, A4, F1, G1, San Mateo, Roca Negra, Hiletas, Terneras, Chicago and Escondida), including wireframe models. The new wireframe models were created in Leapfrog software for the principal veins. Resource estimations for these veins were completed using a 3D block model with a block factor. Estimation of secondary veins was conducted in the same manner as the 2015 resource estimate, using point models based on vein surfaces, but with updated parameters including minimum 0.7 meters dilution, updated mined out shapes, updated property boundaries and the new NSR cutoff value of $125 per tonne of ore. The updated Resource Estimate is shown below: Classification Mineral Type NSR Cutoff Tonnes Grade Ag g/t Grade Au g/t Grade Pb% Grade Zn% Ag toz Au toz Pb lb Zn lb Measured Oxide 125 135,000 260 5.55 1.72 1.54 1,130,000 24,000 5,120,000 4,570,000 Indicated Oxide 125 301,000 250 4.89 1.7 1.47 2,420,000 47,000 11,300,000 9,750,000 Measured + Indicated Oxide 125 436,000 253 5.1 1.71 1.49 3,550,000 71,000 16,430,000 14,310,000 Inferred Oxide 125 372,000 399 4.82 2.52 1.46 4,770,000 58,000 20,680,000 11,950,000 Measured Sulfide 125 269,000 346 5.38 1.53 1.88 3,000,000 47,000 9,100,000 11,140,000 Indicated Sulfide 125 645,000 327 4.62 1.43 1.94 6,790,000 96,000 20,300,000 27,530,000 Measured + Indicated Sulfide 125 915,000 333 4.84 1.46 1.92 9,790,000 142,000 29,410,000 38,670,000 Inferred Sulfide 125 1,393,000 342 4.7 1.51 1.97 15,320,000 211,000 46,380,000 60,400,000 Measured All 125 404,000 317 5.43 1.6 1.76 4,120,000 71,000 14,220,000 15,710,000 Indicated All 125 946,000 303 4.71 1.52 1.79 9,220,000 143,000 31,610,000 37,280,000 Measured + Indicated All 125 1,351,000 307 4.92 1.54 1.78 13,340,000 214,000 45,830,000 52,990,000 Inferred All 125 1,765,000 354 4.73 1.72 1.86 20,080,000 268,000 67,060,000 72,350,000 Notes to accompany Mineral Resource table (effective date December 31, 2019): 1) Resources are reported as diluted Tonnes and grade to 0.7-meter fixed width 2) Metal prices for NSR cutoff are 3-year trailing average as of December 2019: (US) $16.30/troy oz Ag, $1,305/troy oz Au, $0.99/lb Pb and $1.27/lb Zn 3) The cutoff value was calculated based on mining and milling costs from the 2015 operation and estimated payable recoveries including smelting and refining fees 4) Columns may not total due to rounding 5) Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability PEA Information and Cautionary Note Regarding Inferred Resources The discounted cash flows in the PEA are provided pre-tax and are prepared in compliance with NI 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators. The following Qualified Persons from Tetra Tech will co-author the technical report that will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of this news release: Dr. Guillermo Dante Ramirez Rodriguez, Mr. Leonel Lopez, Mr. Randolph P. Schneider, and Ms. Kira Lyn Johnson. Each of these Qualified Persons has reviewed and approved the information presented in this news release that was derived from the sections of the PEA study for which they were responsible. Each of the named Qualified Persons is independent of Golden Minerals. The mine plan evaluated in the PEA is preliminary in nature and additional technical studies will need to be completed in order to fully assess its viability. There is no certainty that a production decision will be made to reactivate the Velardena mine or that the economic results described in the PEA will be realized. In addition, we may determine to proceed with a production decision without completion of customary feasibility studies demonstrating the economic viability of reactivation of Velardena. A mine production decision that is made without a feasibility study carries additional potential risks which include, but are not limited to, (i) increased uncertainty as to projected initial and sustaining capital costs and operating costs, rates of production and average grades, and (ii) the inclusion of Inferred Mineral Resources, as defined by NI 43-101 that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be converted to a Mineral Reserve, as defined by NI 43-101. Mine design and mining schedules, metallurgical flow sheets and process plant designs may require additional detailed work and economic analysis and internal studies to ensure satisfactory operational conditions and decisions regarding future targeted production. In addition, the results of test mining may impact projected capital and operating costs, with the result that the projected NPV, IRR and cash flows may be adversely impacted. No mineral reserves have been estimated for the project. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Cautionary Note to United States Investors Regarding Estimates of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources This press release uses the terms "mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources" which are defined in and required to be disclosed by NI 43-101. We advise U.S. investors that these terms are not recognized under the SEC Industry Guide 7. Accordingly, the disclosures regarding mineralization in this news release may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by Golden Minerals in the reports it files with the SEC. The estimation of measured resources and indicated resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of proven and probable reserves. The estimation of inferred resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources. US investors are cautioned not to assume that any or all of Mineral Resources are economically or legally mineable or that these Mineral Resources will ever be converted into Mineral Reserves. In addition, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant reserves as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit amounts. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 10-K and other SEC filings. Review by Qualified Person and Quality Control On behalf of Tetra Tech, the technical contents of this press release have been reviewed by the Qualified Persons for the purposes of NI 43101. Tetra Techs QPs have extensive experience in mineral exploration, mining engineering and metallurgical processes, and are QP members of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America and the SME RM. Non-GAAP Financial Measures Cash costs per payable silver ounce, net of by-product credits, and all-in sustainable costs per payable silver ounce, net of by-product credits, are non-GAAP financial measures calculated by the Company as set forth below and may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other companies. Cash costs per payable silver ounce, net of by-product credits, include all direct and indirect costs associated with the physical activities that would generate concentrate and dore products for sale to customers, including mining to gain access to mineralized materials, mining of mineralized materials and waste, milling, third-party related treatment, refining and transportation costs, on-site administrative costs and royalties. Cash costs do not include depreciation, depletion, amortization, exploration expenditures, reclamation and remediation costs, sustaining capital, financing costs, income taxes, or corporate general and administrative costs not directly or indirectly related to the Velardena Properties. By-product credits include revenues from gold, lead and zinc contained in the products sold to customers during the period. Cash costs, after by-product credits, are divided by the number of payable silver ounces generated by the plant for the period to arrive at cash costs, after by-product credits, per payable ounce of silver. All-in sustainable costs per payable silver ounce, net of by-product credits, begins with cash costs per payable silver ounce, net of by-product credits, and also includes pre and post-production capital and sustaining capital. Cost of sales is the most comparable financial measure, calculated in accordance with GAAP, to cash costs. As compared to cash costs, cost of sales includes adjustments for changes in inventory and excludes net revenue from by-products and third-party related treatment, refining and transportation costs, which are reported as part of revenue in accordance with GAAP. About Golden Minerals Golden Minerals is a Delaware corporation based in Golden, Colorado. The Company is primarily focused on advancing its Velardena Properties in Mexico and its El Quevar silver property in Argentina, as well as acquiring and advancing mining properties in Mexico and Nevada. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains 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, and applicable Canadian securities legislation, including statements the Velardena PEA results (including cost estimates, assumption of commodity prices, development timing, expected cash flows and life of mine and production expectations); future activities at Velardena, and the possibility of future development; and estimates of mineral resources for the Velardena project. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including: the reasonability of the economic assumptions at the basis of the results of the Velardena PEA and technical report; changes in interpretations of geological, geostatistical, metallurgical, mining or processing information and interpretations of the information resulting from future exploration, analysis or mining and processing experience; declines in general economic conditions; fluctuations in exchange rates and changes in political conditions, in tax, royalty, environmental and other laws in Mexico; new information from drilling programs or other exploration or analysis; unexpected variations in mineral grades, types and metallurgy; fluctuations in commodity prices; and failure of mined material or veins mined to meet expectations. Additional risks relating to Golden Minerals may be found in the periodic and current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Golden Minerals, including the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. For additional information please visit http://www.goldenminerals.com/ or contact: Golden Minerals Company Karen Winkler, Director of Investor Relations (303) 8395060 SOURCE: Golden Minerals Company Hundreds of faulty home COVID-19 test kits arrived in Perth last month, prompting the federal government to urge all Australians to be wary of unapproved medical devices. The Government is urging Australians to be wary of faulty home COVID-19 tests. Australian Border Force intercepted 200 units of the tests on March 16 that were sent by air cargo from China to Perth via Singapore. A week later, 50 similar tests were again discovered by ABF officers in Perth and a further 39 in Melbourne on March 27. Both of those batches originated in Hong Kong. Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said these tests could present a serious risk to public health and warned they would undermine the vital, lifesaving work of health professionals. Inaccurate results could prevent people from seeking the medical help they need, or alternatively, discourage people who should be self-isolating from doing so, he said. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has ruled the test kits as unapproved medical devices. Mr Dutton said these tests were risks the Australian community could not afford to be taking at this critical time. Our ABF officers at the border are on alert for any unauthorised or homemade COVID-19 products and they will continue working day and night to ensure these dangerous goods dont make it into Australian households and communities, he said. The TGA has confirmed the test kits are not registered for use in Australia and the importers did not have approval to import them. The only approved tests for COVID-19 in Australia are laboratory-based tests or tests that can be used by health professionals at the point of care such as in hospitals or clinics. There are growing signs Spain's strict coronavirus lockdown may be working, as the country records its lowest death toll for a third consecutive day. The country has said a further 674 people died from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking its total to 12,418. This marks a drop from yesterday's 809 deaths in the world's second-worst hit country. Coronavirus cases also rose by 6,023 to 130,759, the lowest rise for the fifth consecutive day. Spain's death toll has continued to decline recently as its strict lockdown continues Spain's lockdown has been extended for the third time. Pictured is Pedro Sanchez visiting a medical factory in Mostoles, Spain,on Friday Prime minister Pedro Sanchez extended Spain's State of Emergency for another 15 days yesterday until April 26, but said the 'top of the curve is in sight'. He told the country they are 'close' to defeating the virus and said Spain would begin to make a transition to 'recover some of our economic and social life'. He added that the extension was needed 'in order to give time to the health system to recover'. He also said the State of Emergency could not be lifted due to the continuing escalation in deaths. It marked the second time it has been extended since coming into force on March 14. Madrid, the capital, has recorded the highest number of deaths from coronavirus in the country, at 4,941, followed by Catalonia, which has recorded 2,637 deaths. Andalusia, which includes the Costa del Sol, has recorded 8,301 cases and 470 deaths. Funeral workers pictured preparing to bury a coffin as Spain is gripped by coronavirus Mortuary workers wear face masks and gloves as they carry a coffin in Madrid yesterday Spain recorded its highest number on Thursday this week, at 950. Health chiefs say although the actual number of coronavirus infections is stabilising, the situation could worsen if confinement orders were lifted. The government's current strategy aims to lift the restrictions after the Easter holidays, reports El Pais. Spain has recorded the second highest number of deaths from coronavirus in the world, with its numbers only being surpassed by Italy. Two workers and a relative attend the burial of a coronavirus victim in Madrid yesterday A woman cheers for health workers from her home in Ronda, south Spain, on April 3 The Prime Minister needs the support of Spain's lower house, the Congress of Deputies, to extend the alarm but Pablo Casado, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP) has been increasingly critical of the government's handling of the crisis. He recently accused the Socialist leader of 'improvising' and said his way of dealing with the coronavirus crisis was an 'explosive cocktail of arrogance, incompetence and lies'. Spain is also working on new advice and measures, including advising all Spaniards to wear face masks when outside. At the moment, however, there are insufficient stocks to give to the entire population. To the editor, For decades the right in America has chosen to ignore the obvious facts that taxcuts for the rich, union busting and deregulating corporations does nothing at all to help most people, in fact makes things worse for most people and only benefits the already very well off. They choose to willfully ignore the facts because the people who espouse the facts are not part of their collective, and thus they reject the truth because We aint lettin no libtards tell us nuffin! As such over the last few decades the working and middle classes in America have shrunk, and have far less of a share of Americas total wealth than they did before 1980. The poor population has expanded. All America has suffered the consequences of the rights rejection of facts, because they want to believe their alternate facts and decided to move to a post fact society lead by fox news, who specialized in alternate facts and post truth reporting. Now along comes the coronavirus. We have the right deciding to trigger the libs by ignoring the advice of educated medical experts. Several deep red states have refused to enact shutdowns in defiance of what the experts advise, basically out of hateful childish spite. The governor of Alabama, a state in which reality has long since had no effect on law and government, decided not to impose emergency measure because, We are not California. Well, thats true. California is known for its universities, its high tech industries and its forward thinking policies. Alabama is most know for its extreme racial injustice, regressive mindset and sentencing people to prison for murder despite the fact they did not kill anyone. Im sure California will be relieved to know Alabama doesnt consider it to be like California. Mississippi has followed suit. The state governor, in a grand display of big gubmint issues a decree banning cities from imposing lockdowns after some cities in Mississippi did just that. I guess big gubmint is Ok when its pushing the conservative agenda Several churches have defied orders against large gatherings. Some preachers have encouraged people to show defiance of the corona virus and the left by shaking hands and hugging each other in church. These people are pretty much treating the coronavirus like theyve treated science and truth for decades: Sneering at it, giving it the finger, striking their tongues out at it and basically daring it to do something about it. For decades America as a whole has suffered the consequences of the farther and farther right ignoring facts and voting based on spiting the left. Now it looks like the right is setting itself up for a situation where it will bear the brunt of the consequences of its stupidity. As it looks now, covid will hit states refusing to enact medically recommended policies harder than those that do. I only mourn those who follow expert advice and become victims of the right due to being infected by them. Russ Bullman East Alton MADISON, Wis. Republicans stalled a move by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to push back Tuesday's election, quickly adjourning a special legislative session to deal with voting issues during the coronavirus pandemic. With only a few lawmakers present Saturday, the Legislature did not take up Evers' effort to extend the election date to May 19 and convert entirely to mail-in voting. The election features the Democratic presidential primary between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Also Saturday, the Republican National Committee and state Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a judges ruling that would allow absentee ballots to be counted in the days after Tuesdays election. Elections: More than a dozen states have delayed their primaries because of coronavirus Wisconsin state Sen. Tim Carpenter, left, and Senate Clerk Jeff Renk attend a five-second-long special session on delaying the election April 4 at the state Capitol in Madison. Only two of 33 members were present, and the Senate took no action but left open the option of returning April 6. U.S. District Court Judge William Conley determined Thursday that absentee ballots should be counted if they are received by clerks by April 13 because tens of thousands of voters probably wont get their absentee ballots until after Tuesday. Voters who requested ballots by the legal deadline deserve to have their votes counted, he ruled. Conley extended online voter registration and allowed an extra day to request absentee ballots. Wisconsin stands apart from other states in trying to hold to its April election date even though Evers issued a statewide stay-at-home order. Wisconsins chief medical officer credited the order for helping slow the rate of infections. The state had more than 2,260 cases as of Sunday. The political action Saturday at the Capitol in Madison was brief. In the Assembly, the session lasted for 17 seconds. In the Senate, it was even shorter. Assembly Speaker pro tem Tyler August, the only Republican to show up in either house Saturday, refused to talk to reporters after gaveling the session to a close. In the Senate, no Republicans made an appearance. Instead, they had their appointed chief clerk, Jeff Renk, bring the Senate into session and immediately end it. Two Democrats Jon Erpenbach and Tim Carpenter, both wearing rubber gloves watched from the Senate floor. Story continues Erpenbach said the Republican majority should go along with Evers and push back the election over health concerns. People will get ill if they dont, he said. "The math will tell you people will get sick. It doesnt matter if youre in a polling place or youre in a convenience store or youre doing pickup, it doesnt matter, he said. Its around. I know theyll practice social distancing and do what they possibly can to keep people safe, but I dont know how somebody wont get sick. In a statement, Evers accused legislative Republicans of "playing politics with public safety and ignoring the urgency of this public health crisis." Republicans said they believe clerks will be able to take enough steps to keep voters safe. They stressed the importance of preserving a core democratic institution: the right to vote. They accused the governor of trying to make changes at the last minute after he repeatedly said he wanted to keep in-person voting on schedule. Contributing: Ricardo Torres and Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel, Natalie Brophy of USA TODAY-Wisconsin, The Associated Press This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus: Wisconsin Legislature stalls move to postpone election A couple has found themselves trapped in an eternal honeymoon in Maldives after the rapid spread of the highly contagious coronavirus forced airports in their country to shutdown. Newlyweds Olivia, 27, and Raul De Freitas, 28, were only supposed to spend six days in paradise at the Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives before heading back to South Africa, where they are citizens. The De Freitas arrived in Maldives on March 22 and were supposed to head back home the following weekend. Due to the mounting travel restrictions in multiple countries, the couple had made sure to check with their travel agent before embarking on their journey, according to The New York Times. Newlyweds Olivia, 27, and Raul De Freitas (pictured together in Maldives), 28, were only supposed to spend six days in paradise at the Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives before heading back to South Africa, where they are citizens The De Freitas arrived in Maldives on March 22 and were supposed to head back home the following weekend Due to the mounting travel restrictions in multiple countries, the couple had made sure to check with their travel agent before embarking on their journey At that point, no restrictions for their itinerary had been announced and their agent told them that all South African citizens would be allowed back home. However, that wasn't the case and the De Freitas are now stuck in Maldives. 'Its incredible that we get this extra time,' Olivia told the Times, adding that they are getting a generous discount off the usual $750 per night resort, but each day is cutting into their savings. 'Everyone says they want to be stuck on a tropical island, until youre actually stuck,' Olivia said. 'It only sounds good because you know you can leave.' The couple explained that they were in the fourth day of their honeymoon when they received notice that South Africa's airports would all be closed by midnight the following day. They told the Times that flights back to South Africa are five hours to Doha, Qatar, where they would be subject to a three-hour layover, and then nine hours to Johannesburg. The couple explained that they were in the fourth day of their honeymoon when they received notice that South Africa's airports would all be closed by midnight the following day The De Freitas are staying at the Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives (pictured) And due to those complexities of leaving paradise, they would've never made it back to South Africa ahead of the country's airport closures. The De Freitas said they considered other options like taking an hour-and-a-half speedboat ride to the main island's airport. But the Maldives had also announced their own lockdown around the same time, banning foreign travelers. They also feared that if they left the resort, they might not be allowed back in. The De Freitas said they will know if flight permissions have been sorted out on Monday despite South Africa's lockdown lasting until at least April 16. New Delhi, April 5 : Two more nursing staff at the Delhi State Cancer Institute have tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Sunday. Three nursing staff and a doctor at the institute had tested positive for the infection last week, following which the hospital was sealed for disinfection. While the doctor got the infection from his relatives, the nurses were tested after they came in contact with the doctor. Not just Cancer Institute, but doctors from AIIMS, Safdarjung and Mohalla Clinics have also tested positive for the infection in the last few days. Thank you, to President Donald Trump for going to bat for the Permian Basin. We dont know what the long-term impact will be of your conversation with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, but if the Saudis and Russians cut oil production by about 10 million barrels, that would be a big win for the region. President Trump, you didnt have to do this. In fact, it might have been easier for you politically to not be seen as aligned with oil at this time. A vast majority of the country doesnt know and probably doesnt care what the energy revolution in the Permian has done for America. It has made the country safer, less dependent on people who dont like us and brought down the costs of energy, while providing tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in regions such as the Permian. Most of the rest of the country enjoys cheap gas always have and always will and those people from coast to coast dont care about the reason behind it. It is easy to score political points on the gasoline issue, and the people of the Permian Basin have seen the president do so. But last week, the tweets and communications from the White House took a very non-populist tone. Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, and I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 million barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry! He followed that tweet with the following, .. Could be as high as 15 Million Barrels. Good (GREAT) news for everyone! Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia didnt confirm a production cut, instead calling for an urgent meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia, according to state-run media. Crude, however, still rose nearly $4.50 Thursday on the news. We are hesitant to get too excited about any of this in the longer term. We need to see more from the Saudis and Russians in terms of declining output. We need to see demand increase. We, then need to see a unified front from producers in Texas. If Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield was right when he said there are companies he identified ExxonMobil as one that want to leave the independents for dead, that is a huge concern. We also worry that Texas Oil and Gas Association doesnt have the back of the independent producer, just as Sheffield said. We dont see life as being better with independent after independent going bankrupt, and the biggest of Big Oil coming in to pick up the scraps. But that is what Sheffield said is a possibility if the current price downturn continues. As you know, theres about 74 public independents; theres only gonna be about 10 left at the end of 2021 that have decent balance sheets, Sheffield told CNBC late last month. The rest become ghosts, or zombies. Essentially, were going to have about 65 public independents that are going to have to debt-to-cash flow or debt-to-EBITDA at about 5 to 1. And you havent asked me about consolidation. Consolidation wont happen because too many companies have too much debt. As for today, we can be satisfied that our region caught a break. Thank you again, President Trump. As for the future, its not so clear cut, and our way of life can use all the help it can get. Blank checks are run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 11, 2005. (William Thomas Cain/Getty Images) TurboTax, IRS Start Free Website for Americans Who Dont File Taxes The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) created a new stimulus check registration website on Saturday for the 10 million or so Americans who didnt file income tax because they didnt make enough. Direct deposit payments could reportedly be made as early as April 9 while paper checks will be mailed out later. The agency partnered with tax filing software giant TurboTax to come up with the website. Americans can submit their current direct deposit information or mailing address via the website. There are as many as 10 million Americans who are not required to file a tax return, TurboTax said in a news release. Because the IRS will use the federal tax return to determine and send individual stimulus payments, these individuals are at risk of not receiving their stimulus payment. Users simply answer a few questions and then choose to receive their payment via direct deposit or check. Social Security recipients will receive the stimulus money, which was included as part of a $2 trillion spending package that was passed in Congress last month amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, in the same way they receive their benefits. In order to get a receive payment you need to have an adjusted gross income of below $99,000 if one a single filer, $136,500 if you file as head of household, or $198,000 if youre married and file jointly. The IRS will then calculate and automatically send the payment, with no action required by most Americans. For Americans who have not yet filed their returns for 2019, the IRS will use information from their 2018 tax filing. DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) - Dubai imposed a two-week lockdown Saturday night and Saudi Arabia sealed off parts of the Red Sea city of Jeddah as Gulf states tightened measures in big cities to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Dubai had been under an overnight curfew along with the rest of United Arab Emirates since March 26. Its Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management said the lockdown would now run around the clock for two weeks, state news agency WAM said. In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, authorities announced a lockdown and a partial curfew in seven neighbourhoods of Jeddah also starting on Saturday as part of measures to contain the outbreak, the interior ministry said in a statement. Saudi Arabia is worst hit in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) group of Arab oil monarchies. It had reported 2,179 cases of confirmed infections up until Saturday and 29 deaths. In Dubai, mobility will be restricted and legal action taken against violators though supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as food and drug delivery services would continue normal operations, WAM said. People can only leave their homes for essential purposes and just one family member is permitted to go out at any one time. People working in vital sectors, or those exempted from restrictions, will not be affected. Dubai's metro and tram service will be suspended for two weeks and free bus transportation and a 50% discount on taxi rides will be offered during the lockdown. The emirate, which had previously sealed of the Al Ras area where there is a large migrant population, will conduct extensive medical tests across densely populated areas. DISINFECTION DRIVE The United Arab Emirates, where infected cases have jumped by 840 since April, also extended its de facto overnight curfew indefinitely to disinfect public areas by spraying streets, parks and public transport facilities. Abu Dhabi's government on Saturday extended closure of malls, cinemas, entertainment facilities and gyms until further notice, Wam reported. Story continues The oil-rich federation has reported an uptick in coronavirus cases with several hundred people diagnosed since April 1. On Saturday, UAE reported 241 infections and one death over the past 24 hours, taking the total confirmed cases to 1,505 and the death toll to 10, according to government tweets. The UAE recommends that people wear masks when leaving home, a health ministry spokeswoman told a news conference on TV. In Saudi Arabia, said residents in seven Jeddah neighbourhoods could only go out for grocery shopping and medical care between 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) and 3 p.m and movement in and out of the areas will be restricted. Similar measures have been announced in the past few days in other Saudi cities, including the Gulf port of Dammam, the main entry point for supply to the kingdom's oil industry. Kuwait announced its first death from COVID-19 on Saturday. The total number of people diagnosed with the disease in the country rose by 62 over the past 24 hours to 479, Kuwait's state news agency KUNA said, citing the health ministry. Kuwait and Oman are the GCC countries least affected by the pandemic. Oman had reported 277 cases and one death up until Saturday while Qatar last updated its official COVID-19 page on Friday, reporting 1,075 cases and three deaths. (Reporting Alexander Cornwell, Marwa Rashad, Ahmed Tolba and Lisa Barrington; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Helen Popper, David Clarke and David Gregorio) Seamless coordination ensured that there are just 38 local terrorists active in Kashmir Army presents sweets to Pak Army at LoC in Kupwara on New Year 5 terrorists gunned down in last 24 hours in Kashmir Valley; 3 jawans martyred India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Apr 05: Three soldiers of the Indian Army have martyred and five terrorists killed on Sunday during an anti-infiltration operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, officials said. "Unfortunately, two more soldiers succumbed to their injuries and others are presently undergoing treatment. Total three soldiers have been martyred," Colonel Rajesh Kalia, the spokesperson of the army, said. "In an ongoing anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of North Kashmir, alert troops braving inclement weather and hostile terrain have so far eliminated five terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the LoC," defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. He said in this operation, one soldier has died while two others are critically injured. "Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," he said, adding the operation was still in progress. During the operation, one Indian Army soldier lost his life while two others and two others are critically injured in this operation. On April 4, four terrorists belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen terror group, were gunned down by security forces during an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir. Giving details about the encounter, the Jammu and Kashmir Police in a statement said that a Hizbul Mujahideen group of 3-4 terrorists was killing civilians over the last 12 days. Police informed that four civilians were killed by them in South Kashmir, following which an operation was launched in Kulgam. On the streets of Belgrade, heavily armed Serbian soldiers walk the streets. The army guards a large complex of buildings that have been turned into a temporary hospital. The buildings are lined with beds ready for possible COVID-19 patients. The countrys president, Aleksandar Vucic, has warned citizens that Belgrade will not have enough space to bury the dead if people ignore his lockdown orders. Vucic announced a state of emergency on March 15. Serbia has put into effect some of the strongest measures in Europe to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Parliament is suspended under the orders. Serbian borders are closed and a 12-hour curfew is in effect. The measures also bar people over the age of 65 from leaving their homes. Critics say Vucic's actions are unconstitutional. Rodoljub Sabic is Serbias former Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection. He said the president of Serbia holds only ceremonial responsibilities under the countrys constitution. But, he said Vucic has taken total power of decision-making during the crisis. He said, He issues orders which are automatically accepted by the government. No checks and balances. Several European leaders are ordering similarly strong measures on the public. These include unrestricted government observation of cell phone use and long jail sentences for those who violate lockdown orders. Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir leads the democracy and human rights agency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. She said she understands the need for fast action to protect the public from COVID-19. But she said the newly announced emergency orders should include time limits and parliamentary control. A state of emergency, whether it is declared and for whatever reason, must be proportionate to its aim, she said. In times of national emergency, countries often take action that restricts civil liberties. Such action can include spying on citizens, ordering curfews, banning travel, and limiting rights of free expression. China ordered lockdowns of whole cities earlier this year to stop the spread of the virus. India ordered a countrywide lockdown. Amnesty International researcher Massimo Moratti said states of emergency are permitted under international human rights law. But he warned that they should not become a new normal. He said emergency orders should remain in effect only as long as the danger remains. In the European Union member-country of Hungary Monday, parliament passed a number of severe new laws. One permits the government unrestricted power to order laws during the state of emergency. Another sets prison terms of up to five years for people who spread misinformation and up to eight years for people who violate orders that restrict movement. Critics say the Hungarian action creates the possibility for an unending state of emergency. They say Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government will be able to control the press and restrict human rights without any supervision. Tanja Fajon, a member of the European Parliament, was among the critics. She said Orban had abused coronavirus as an excuse to kill democracy and media freedom. Other governments have also taken extreme measures. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahus government passed several emergency measures, including laws that expand the governments right to spy on people and to slow judicial activity. This resulted in a postponement of Netanyahus own trial on corruption charges. In Russia, law enforcement agents are repressing COVID-19 discussion on social media. They are also acting against media that criticize the governments actions connected to the crisis. Almost 800 coronavirus infections and 16 deaths have been reported in Serbia, says Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. However, testing has been extremely limited and experts think many more COVID-19 cases exist. Pictures from inside the huge temporary medical center in Belgrade have caused public fear. Many say the place looks like a detention camp. The Serbian president said that this is a good thing: if people are frightened of the image, they should obey orders to stay home. Im Jonathan Evans. The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story lockdown - n. the total shutdown of a community automatically adj. something that happens without being controlled by a person proportionate adj.a size or number directly related to something else judicial - adj. having to do with the courts or the legal system Tyranny Of Political Numbers In ITGoNU In South Sudan "Peace in our country is a source of pride for all of us and we must jealously guide it from spoilers and bloodthirsty individuals who are doing everything possible to undo it." By Mading Peter Angong. I read with tears of joy falling down my cheeks in February when our rival leaders finally put their differences aside, embraced and promised to work together for peace and end years of ruinous conflict that has wiped out over a quarter of our population and forced millions from their homes. This was after Dr. Riek, the First Vice President, was sworn in alongside Taban Deng and Rebecca Nyandeng. Like all other South Sudanese who are tired of this senseless war, I found myself dancing. Until now I am yet to explain how I found myself jiggling to the soundless music ringing in my head but I dont regret it. Peace in our country is a source of pride for all of us and we must jealously guide it from spoilers and bloodthirsty individuals who are doing everything possible to undo it. Allow me to congratulate my fellow compatriots for proving our haters wrong to achieve tranquility and wish our country a permanent peace, development and prosperity. However, we need to address an immediate concern after the formation of our government. Now for claritys sake, this article is meant to provoke debate on the composition of our government and avoid future pitfalls that may negatively impact our hard-won peace. It is not intended to incite anyone. On Thursday March 12, 2020, President Salva Kiir announced a full cabinet, ending an anxious wait for the formation of Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU). Many pundits and observers were quick to applause this step and declare it as historic and long-awaited. Again, I welcome this new government and I hope the sons and daughters tasked with various responsibilities will live up to peoples expectations. However, as citizens of this nation, we have responsibility to speak out when something is not right. I dare say something is not right with the composition of this government and must be pointed out without fear or favor. To be blunt, our government is beset by tyranny of majority, an African disease that seems to be perfected by South Sudanese. Stuart Mill in his 1859 book on liberty stated that tyranny of majority is an inherent weakness to majority rule in which the majority of an electorate pursue exclusively its own interests at the expense of those in the minority. This results in the oppression of the minority groups comparable to that of a tyrant or despot. Is South Sudan falling into the trap of majority rule? What are the consequences of this trajectory for our nation? To understand the problem of majority rule, which in our case is synonymous with ethnic domination, we need to look at the demography of our country. As of 2019, the latest census figures and projections from Trading Economics estimated South Sudan population at 11.1 million people. There is a dispute over the actual figure but that is a topic of another day. Our constitution legally recognizes 64 ethnic groups though other sources put it at 60 while still other at 80 ethnic groups. Our Constitution describes the country as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-racial entity where such diversities peacefully coexist. It is from this lens that we need to judge the composition of our government. According to WorldAtlas, the Muonyjang (wrongly called Dinka) are the largest of many ethnic groups making a total of 36% of the population follow by the Nuer at 16% and Azande, Bari, Shilluk and Toposa at 6%, 4%, 3% and 2 % respectively among many other different groups. The other remaining groups make a total population of 33%. Let us be fair to ourselves for once and look at our government with somber mind. Statistically speaking, The R-TGoNU is made up of Presidency (5 members), Ministries (34 Ministers) and 10 Deputy Ministers. Let us exclude the governors, county commissioners and ambassadors for now because as per the writing of this article, they were yet to be appointed. Excluding the President and his Deputy who are national symbols, Muonyjang has 2 Vice Presidency, 12 Ministries and 7 Deputy Ministries. If one combines the 2 Vice Presidency positions to 12 Ministries, then Muonyjang controls 37.83% and 70% of Deputy Ministries. On the other hand, the Nuer controls 1 Vice Presidency and 8 Ministries, translating to 24.32 %. The two large ethnic groups therefore control a total of 62.15% excluding the Deputy Ministries. My analysis is open to correction but one cannot dispute the fact that tyranny of numbers is at play here. One can conclude that this domination is because the top guys holding power come from these communities or because of their numbers. Either way you look at it, numbers count as much as power control was at play in the way our government was formed. Now it is worth noting that our leaders have always warned about ethnic domination and its potential consequences for us as a nation but I suspect that they are simply paying lip service to this matter and are not serious about fixing it. After six years of war, we seem to have learned nothing and still follow the old ways that took us into the dark tunnel in the first place. The proof is lying bare before us. Two ethnic groups occupy more than half our government. If these ethnic groups control a vast majority of government, what happens to the other remaining 62 ethnicities? Are they insignificant? To build an inclusive nation where everyone is proud to call home, all the parameters of South Sudanese society must be included in the governance. I know some argued that the government is too small to accommodate everyone and they are 100% right. However, is it legally and morally justifiable for two groups out of the 64 to have a major share at the dinner table at the expenses of others? We must shun the politics of majority and domination of the minority. Dr. John Garang, arguably the founder of our nation once said this in his speech after signing the CPA in 2005: In our view, the attempts by various Khartoum-based regimes since 1956 to build a monolithic Arab Islamic state with the exclusion of other parameters of the Sudanese diversity constitutes the fundamental problem of the Sudan and defines the Sudanese Conflict. The Sudanese state hitherto has excluded the vast majority of the Sudanese people from governance and therefore their marginalization in the political, economic and social fields. This provoke resistance by the excluded. There have been wars and there continues to be wars in the Sudan simply because all the Sudanese are not stakeholders in the governance. As South Sudanese, we would be wise to heed such a message and avoid this simply mistake of exclusion in the name of majority that often prove to be costly. By excluding others in the name of the government being too small while others take more than their legal share, it will provoke resistance and conflict. The consequences are unmanageable and must be avoided by all means through dialogue and fairness to all. Dr. Garang once reminded that no ones anyone majority or minority. If we are to avoid the mistakes that split us from the old Sudan and took us through the dark tunnel for the last 6 years, we need to reassess our relationship and try as much as possible to bring everyone on board in governance. Directly talking with each other to chart our common destiny is cheap, easy and most importantly the only best way forward for now. The alternative is confrontation and destruction and we have already seen enough of that. In this sensitive time of political reconciliation among ourselves, it is important that we honestly engage each other, address our fears and move forward as a unit. To that end, we must shed the mentality of majority and dismantle the politics of numbers and equally share our national construction burden base on qualification and prudent deployment of human resources to build our institutions. We must take pride in our diversity and celebrate it. God did not err by putting us together as a nation. Once again, I wish our people permanent peace, development and prosperity. The author, Mading Peter Angong is a South Sudanese Student at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya. He can be reach via madingyar@gmail.com United States President Donald Trump said hed use tariffs if needed to protect the domestic oil industry as global crude oil prices crater. Trump made the comment Saturday at a White House press briefing. If I have to do tariffs on oil coming from outside, or if I have to do something to protect thousands and tens of thousands of energy workers, and our great companies that produce all these jobs, Ill do whatever I have to do, Trump said. Low oil prices are going to hurt a lot of jobs, he said. On Friday, Trump suggested he wasnt inclined to target Russia or Saudi Arabia with oil tariffs. Its a free market. Well figure it out, he told reporters in Washington on Friday after the gathering with the heads of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and other major producers. Ultimately, the marketplace will take care of it. Read more about: The authorities in Punjab have traced 422 persons who attendedTablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi's Nizamuddin area. A total of 432 persons from Punjab had attended the religious congregation and 422 out of them have been traced so far, an official spokesperson said on Sunday. Of those who had been traced, 350 were in Punjab and their samples have been collected for the coronavirus test, spokesperson added. Six persons have tested positive for the infection while samples of 117 have been found negative, the spokesperson said, adding the reports of 227 samples were still awaited. Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta had earlier said some 200 persons from Punjab had visited Nizamuddin and returned here, at different times, with 12 districts believed to be affected. The Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz mosque in Nizamuddin West is feared to have emerged as an epicentre for coronavirus spread, following which a large area around the mosque has been sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders. The Telangana government on Monday had said that six people who attended the religious congregation between March 13 and 15 died due to coronavirus. Authorities across the country subsequently swung into action to trace the contacts of those who went to the gathering, attended by thousands of people, including those from from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Belfast born doctor, who is Scotland's chief medical officer, has apologised after being pictured at her second home during the coronavirus lockdown. Dr Catherine Calderwood, who lives in Edinburgh with her family, is facing criticism after pictures were published in The Scottish Sun newspaper today. Dr Calderwood attended Methodist College in Belfast. In a statement released on Sunday morning, she said: "I wish to apologise unreservedly for the issue reported in the media today. "While there are reasons for what I did, they do not justify it and they were not legitimate reasons to be out of my home. "While I and my family follow the guidance on social distancing at all times, I understand that I did not follow the advice I am giving others, and I am truly sorry for that. "I know how important this advice is and I do not want my mistake to distract from that. I have a job to do as chief medical officer to provide advice to Ministers on the path of this virus and to support the medical profession as they work night and day to save lives, and having spoken with the First Minister this morning I will continue to focus entirely on that job." Dr Calderwood said she was also at her second home last weekend with her husband. It has since emerged that police have visited Dr Calderwood and issued her with a warning. Scotland's Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said in a statement: "Earlier today, local officers visited Dr Catherine Calderwood and spoke to her about her actions, reiterated crucial advice and issued a warning about her future conduct, all of which she accepted. "The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone." Just days earlier, the 51-year-old doctor tweeted a photo of her family from their main residence in Edinburgh as they clapped for the frontline NHS staff working to stop the spread of Covid-19. The paper says the home in the capital is just two-and-a-half miles from the Scottish Government building where Dr Calderwood delivers daily briefings on the virus with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Earlsferry is a drive of more than an hour from Edinburgh. The images emerged amid continuing advice from the CMO and other leading medical professionals and politicians to stay at home in order to save lives and protect the NHS. Last month, the Scottish Government issued a travel warning criticising the "irresponsible behaviour" of people with second homes and campervans travelling to the Highlands in a bid to isolate. On Friday, the Scottish First Minister said the upcoming Easter break would be "a holiday period unlike any we've had in our lifetimes". Dr Calderwood also stressed people should adhere to the restrictions, and said it was looking less likely summer holidays will take place this year as they have done previously. Dr Calderwood's colleague, Scotland's National Clinical Director Jason Leitch said nobody knows the social distancing guidelines better than her and she would not have put people in the area of her holiday home at risk. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said: "My understanding is that she has worked like the rest of us 24/7 on this for weeks now and that family do have a home a little bit away from Edinburgh and they went to check on it. "They observed social distancing throughout, so they were very safe. Nobody knows those guidelines better than Catherine and the rest of us. "So I'm confident that she was safe during that, her family were safe and those around them were safe." A Scottish Government spokesman said on Saturday: "Since this start of this epidemic, the CMO has been working seven days a week preparing Scotland's response. "She took the opportunity this weekend to check on a family home in Fife as she knows she will not be back again until the crisis is over. "She stayed overnight before returning to Edinburgh. "In line with guidance, she stayed within her own household group and observed social distancing with anyone she was in passing in the village." Nicola Sturgeon said: "The chief medical officer made a mistake in travelling away from her home. Whatever her reasons for doing so it was wrong and she knows that. She added: "All of us, including me, will make mistakes in these unprecedented times we are living in. When we do we must be candid about it and learn from it." She said the CMO is learning from her error, and added: "Over the past few weeks, as we have been dealing with this crisis, her advice and expertise has been invaluable to me." She added that "not withstanding her mistake on this, she is doing extremely well". Ms Sturgeon said Dr Calderwood had offered to do whatever is in the best interest of the country. The First Minister added: "In my view, that would not be her resignation." Michigans two U.S. senators are calling on the Trump administration to ensure veterans, as well as those who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, receive their stimulus checks automatically. In an April 3 letter to the administration, Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, and Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, said those recipients should not be required to file a tax return. They asked for the checks to be issued automatically through the Department of Veteran Affairs and the SSI program, administered by Social Security. RELATED: Sunday, April 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan In a Sunday morning press release, the senators assert that there are a large amount of non-filers in the two groups and that the federal government has the data necessary to deliver the checks automatically. Treasury should not require people with disabilities and low-income veterans and seniors to file a form to receive stimulus payments when the federal government already has the information it needs, the letter reads in part. This is the fastest, most-effective way to provide desperately needed help to more than 3 million low-income veterans, seniors, and people with disabilities. The SSI program pays benefits to disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources. The senators say the process for getting SSI and VA beneficiaries payments would mirror the process that it is using for seniors and people with disabilities receiving Social Security. Treasury can match its data against the Social Security Administrations and the Department of Veterans Affairs data to determine those SSI and veterans beneficiaries who arent part of a tax filing unit and then issue them automatic payments for the amounts which Congress intended them to receive," according to the letter. Stabenow and Peters also announced legislation on Saturday that would make all dependents including older children and adult dependents count toward what a family receives in federal COVID-19 relief payments. MLive has complete coverage on coronavirus COVID-19, including maps of known cases, at mlive.com/coronavirus. Also on MLive: Sunday, April 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Stabenow, Peters sponsor bill seeking $500 coronavirus payments for older dependents New coronavirus cases in Michigan take a dip, deaths climb to 540 Michigan orders quicker reporting of coronavirus deaths by physicians, funeral homes Younger coronavirus patients make up 40% of Michigan cases, have potential to spread the illness Twenty-five people from Ambad in Maharashtra's Jalna district who came in contact with eight people who tested positive for novel coronavirus in Latur have been admitted in the isolation ward of a government hospital here, officials said on Sunday. The eight, all hailing from Andhra Pradesh, were apprehended from a mosque in Nilanga in Latur, some 250 kilometres from here, where they were staying after returning from a religious event in Ferozepur Jhirka in Haryana, an official said. The reports of the eight returned positive on Saturday, he added. "The 25 from Ambad belong to two families. They met the eight COVID-19 patients, who were part of a group of 12 people, over tea at Shahagad in Jalna. The 12 left for their native Kurnool in AP by a private vehicle but were left at Nilanga by the driver. They were apprehended by police from a mosque in Nilanga on Friday," he said. The samples of the 25 have been sent to NIV, Pune for testing and the area where they stay has been sealed off as a precautionary measure, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Daniel Hauser and Juan Carlos Ordonez Hauser is a policy analyst with Oregon Center for Public Policy. Ordonez is communications director of Oregon Center for Public Policy. Rarely have public services been as essential as they are today. The coronavirus pandemic threatens us all, requiring the state to shore up hospitals, ensure public safety and protect the most hard-pressed families all while maintaining many other essential services. Our public sector is the ultimate expression of how we pull together to get through this crisis. But, as Gov. Kate Brown warned last month, public services are at risk. The pandemic has triggered one of the fastest economic crashes ever, with a record-shattering jump in unemployment claims. And when the economy goes down, so do revenue collections that pay for public services. This decline in revenue comes just when the state will need to spend more to contain the virus and prevent Oregonians from dying, and just when more Oregonians battered financially by the crisis will turn to public services to make it through. While there is no easy path forward, decisions Oregon lawmakers make now can either mitigate the pain or make matters worse. Lawmakers can limit the damage from the economic crash and set up a more equitable, faster recovery by taking the following steps. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 500-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification. First, lawmakers should avoid cutting services that protect the most financially strapped and vulnerable Oregonians. Oregonians living paycheck-to-paycheck before this crisis now find themselves in even greater peril. Other members of our community, such as Oregonians living with disabilities and foster children, rely on public support to survive. Not only is it essential to protect the most vulnerable in our community, these dollars get cycled back into our states economy quickly. Our economy is stronger and more resilient when every Oregonian can afford to survive. Second, Oregon must maximize federal assistance. Last month, Congress approved a third emergency relief package totaling $2 trillion. It includes an estimated $1.64 billion to support the response of state and local governments to this public health emergency. Oregon, however, will lose some federal dollars for laid off workers, unless the state waives an outdated rule forcing workers to wait a week before being eligible for unemployment. Oregon should also make sure it is fully investing in the Oregon Health Plan. The Oregon Health Plan provides health care for hundreds of thousands of Oregonians, and every dollar the state spends in the program is matched with even more federal dollars. Third, lawmakers should reject calls for new corporate tax cuts and for delaying collection of the corporate activity tax. While its likely that most businesses are suffering, some are seeing a surge in orders, the Oregonian recently reported. Cutting taxes wont do much for businesses that have shut down as they would have little to no taxable income or receipts to be taxed. Instead, broad tax cuts will provide a windfall to corporations able to thrive during the crisis. For truly struggling businesses, lawmakers should explore targeted ways Oregon can fill remaining gaps left after the nearly $900 billion Congress has appropriated to assist businesses. Fourth, once we have maximized federal funds, we will need to tap Oregons reserves. Our state has saved billions of dollars in the rainy-day fund and other reserves. We squirreled away resources for a rainy day, and right now there is a deluge of need. Though we wont have a clearer sense of how big the economic storm is until May, when the next state economic and revenue forecast comes out, Oregon lawmakers should consider using as much of the reserve funds as permitted to avoid budget cuts. Finally, if a shortfall persists, then lawmakers should raise revenue from those with the greatest ability to pay profitable corporations and the rich. Oregon did this very thing during the Great Recession, and our economy bounced back more strongly than that of nearly every other state. This could take the form of closing tax loopholes for the rich and corporations, higher tax rates for these same groups, or both. During this crisis, we need to pull together to pull through. This means protecting the most vulnerable among us while asking more from those best able to ride out the crisis. And it requires sound fiscal policy from Oregons elected leaders. President Trump said on Saturday that the federal government was placing millions of doses of a malaria drug in the federal stockpile of emergency medical supplies to make it available for coronavirus patients, even though the drug has not been approved for Covid-19 treatment and his top coronavirus advisers have warned that more study is needed to determine its safety and efficacy. Though advisers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have cautioned many times that more data is needed on the drug, hydroxychloroquine, Mr. Trump, in a White House briefing, went so far as to urge patients to take it. What do you have to lose? Take it, the president said. I really think they should take it. But its their choice. And its their doctors choice or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine. Try it, if youd like. During the briefing, as Dr. Fauci and other advisers looked on, the president talked about the potential of other medicines, too. He mentioned azithromycin, often referred to as a Z-Pak, which has been given to some patients along with hydroxychloroquine. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) - As the end of the island-wide enhanced community quarantine draws closer, a lawmaker again stressed the need for an extension to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in the country. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Joey Salceda reiterated his call to extend the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, saying it will allow government to protect many lives and recover economic losses faster. According to Salceda, history and economics show that an extension is not a tradeoff between lives and economic growth. "If anything, the more lives we lose and the more panic this virus creates if it gets worse, the less our chances are of any quick recovery," Salceda said in statement. "Our people and our confidence these are the two greatest resources in any economy, and they are the only irreplaceable ones," he added. Salceda cited two studies, one from the 1918 Flu pandemic and another from the 2008 pandemic, which showed that cities with longer lockdown periods effectively reduced the mortality rate and increased employment rates in the medium term. "Bank assets, manufacturing, the economy of those who imposed a lockdown, performed better than areas where there are more aggressive na mga lockdowns o tinatawag nilang non-pharmaceutical health interventions up to the pandemic," Salceda said in an interview on CNN Philippines. [Translation: Bank assets, manufacturing, the economy of those who imposed a lockdown, performed better than areas where there are more aggressive lockdowns or what they call non-pharmaceutical health interventions up to the pandemic.] Salceda told CNN Philippines there are major risks of premature lifting of the quarantine. For this reason, the congressman is pushing for an extension of 15 days. "There are a lot of studies which say that you have to do at least 49 days in order to ensure that you have already more or less cleansed or at least isolated or prevented this virus from essentially in terms of its infection intensity," he added. Some members of the Senate and House of Representatives called on Friday for an extension of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine. READ: Lawmakers back extension of quarantine period to contain COVID-19 spread Salceda said the government has already prepared for a possible extension. "Nasa budget na po natin yan. We budgeted for two months and in fact, yung atin pong assistance, yung tinatawag nating social amelioration, nakabudget po yan, two tranches, one in every month," Salceda said. [Translation: That's already in the budget. We budgeted for two months and in fact, and in our assistance package, what we call social amelioration, we budgeted for two tranches, one in every month.] Salceda also called mandatory mass testing for persons under investigation, and intensified contact tracing in order to identify infection clusters in the community level. To minimize the economic costs, the most important thing is to keep the lights on. To maintain the pre-covid structure of the economy with as little loss in jobs as possible. Thats why its important to lend cheap credit to businesses, provide subsidies to the people, and keep our logistics moving," Salceda said. The Luzon-wide quarantine, which was imposed to avert the spread of COVID-19, is scheduled to end on midnight of April 13. Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, on Sunday, took a boat ride across a popular lake to visit 28 communities that were displaced after recent attacks by Boko Haram. Agrarian communities around Lake Alau, the second known lake in Borno State, were recently attacked by suspected ISWAP and Boko Haram insurgents who caused residents to abandon their homes. Majority of the displaced persons are still in camps in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Mr Zulum was ferried in a military boat. The Nigeria military counterinsurgency force has naval, army and air force components that are currently fighting Boko Haram. Before now, it is believed Boko Haram has a large presence around the Alau lake communities. Located about 20km from Maiduguri, Alau lake provides a large part of the vegetable and fish needs of the city and serves the states largest water dam. With the recent rescue of communities once held by Boko Haram, the state has begun to initiate programmes that would see to the return of irrigation farming around Alau lake. Isa Gusau, the governors spokesperson, said in a statement that Mr Zulums trip to the agrarian communities was to explore how irrigation activities can be restored in order to create livelihoods for settlers. We are purposely here to look into ways we can bring back irrigation activities along the shores of this lake Alau, the statement quoted the governor as saying at the communities. As we know, 28 communities were displaced and we will look into the possibility of resettling our brothers and sisters. The governor acknowledged the militarys commitment towards protecting lives, saying his administration will liaise with them to ensure sustained security of lives and property. Earlier, the governor visited the water pumping station at Alau to assess the ongoing maintenance works and equipment there. He was also at Maiduguri water treatment plant to see the turn around maintenance carried out by the Borno state ministry of water resources, said Mr Gusau. The governor was pleased with the quality of work being undertaken at the water treatment plant by the management and staff of the ministry of water resources. Mr Zulum reiterated his governments commitment to providing potable water to the residents. We must do everything for our people to continually supply clean water to citizens, he said. Only a few of the communities have returned. Many are still in the camps in Maiduguri. Only weeks ago, thousands of Chileans were filling the streets of Santiago for regular Friday protests against cost-of-living pressures, uneven growth and rising inequality. The left-leaning demonstrators made demands that included the resignation of the president and the end of capitalism. Then came the novel coronavirus. And just like that, large gatherings were banned, and the demonstrations died. "The virus is just what the government needed," said Antonio Cueto, a volunteer rescue worker who provided medical assistance to protesters. "It's saved them for a bit." Across the globe, the coronavirus outbreak is slamming the brakes on dreams of social change, halting a season of civil unrest from Hong Kong to Lebanon to Chile. Stay-at-home orders issued by authorities, often enforced by police officers or soldiers and backed up by detentions, along with activists' own calls to stand down in the name of public health, are zapping the momentum from pro-democracy movements, civil rights marches and protests for everything from women's rights to more drastic steps to fight climate change. Yet instead of killing these movements outright, the pandemic is compelling them to evolve. Some are adopting creative tactics for protest in the era of social distancing. In Hong Kong, eight months of political unrest over Beijing's tightening grip on the semiautonomous territory had begun to dwindle in size and ferocity in the face of a resolute government response when the outbreak hit. There, the coronavirus provided a new opportunity for the movement to prove its value beyond street protests and slogans. Rather than continuing to plug mass demonstrations, anti-government activists have used the networks they built during months of organizing to import more than 100,000 medical masks and distribute them to people in need. They've taken to social media and message apps such as Telegram to post recommendations and reminders on avoiding the coronavirus. Labor unions that popped up during the unrest started flexing their muscles. A medical workers' strike in February, for instance, became a major embarrassment for the government, eventually prompting Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to shut a majority of her territory's borders with the mainland - a step she previously was unwilling to take. "Of course the strike was about employee welfare, but it was also grounded in the idea that the Hong Kong government is still too beholden to Beijing," said Antony Dapiran, the author of "City on Fire," a book about the Hong Kong protests. "It was a really interesting case study of how last year's protest movement had tangible results." Despite new social distancing rules, the Hong Kong protests continue, particularly on days considered significant to the pro-democracy movement. In the past week, demonstrators gathered at the Prince Edward subway station to commemorate a violent police crackdown there in August. To get them to disperse, police invoked a new law - a ban on gatherings of more than four people - and warned of fines and jail time. Tens of thousands of women filled the streets of Buenos Aires in February to support a bid to legalize abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis. But Argentina has since instituted a national lockdown, and a government poised to introduce a landmark abortion rights bill instead turned to the job of battling the coronavirus. "The delay now is because of the measures the country needs to take to fight the pandemic," said attorney Soledad Deza, an abortion rights activist from the northwestern Argentine province of Tucuman. "Next it will be because the country will need to focus on rebuilding after the pandemic. "The bitter truth is that, deep down, we don't know when the right moment will come again." In Chile last fall, Fridays became days of protest. The nation of 18 million had been a model of development and an island of stability in South America. Demonstrations that erupted in October against transit fare increases broadened to take in multiple grievances. As protesters set buses, metro stations and government buildings ablaze, authorities deployed soldiers in the streets of the capital for the first time since the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990. President Sebastian Pinera promised to suspend fare increases, raise the minimum wage and hold a referendum on whether to replace Chile's dictatorship-era constitution. Still, the protests raged into March. Then confirmed coronavirus cases shot up from less than 50 to more than 3,000 in a matter of weeks. Santiago's Plaza Italia, ground zero for the weekly demonstrations, now stands eerily silent. Calls to march have given way to pleas, even by activists, to stay indoors. The referendum has been put off until October. On Friday, Pinera sparked outrage when he was photographed in the now largely empty square. The images quickly went viral. He described the incident as a spur-of-the-moment move on his way home from work. Furious protesters said it smacked of political gloating. But they're also moving to adapt. They've been callingcacerolazos - balcony-bound pot-and-pan-banging protests traditional in Latin America - loud enough to drown out music and conversation inside homes. An artist's collective, Intermediate Depression, published an illustrated "manual for protesting from home" on Instagram, encouraging Chileans to deck their balconies with protest signs, "share [their] favorite songs with [their] neighborhood" and engage in cyberactivism. "Being safe can't simply mean abandoning the historic movement we've been seeing in our country," said Emilia Schneider, president of the Student Federation of the University of Chile, which has been involved with the protests. Virus-proof protesting has, in fact, gone global. Seventeen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg - who recently declared that she had symptoms of the coronavirus - has begun calling "virtual strikes" on Fridays. Followers are posting climate messages on their windows, snapping photos and blitzing social media with hashtags such as #DigitalStrike and #ClimateHowl. In some countries, zero tolerance during national lockdowns is putting an abrupt end even to scaled-down demonstrations. In India, for example, women protesting an anti-Muslim citizenship law trimmed their months-long landmark sit-in in New Delhi to just five participants. Still, authorities hauled off the demonstrators. Hundreds of similar protests across the country have ended, either shut down by police or disbanded voluntarily over virus fears. Repressive and corrupt governments are reaping at least temporary rewards from the pause in protests. In socialist Venezuela, the U.S.-backed movement to oust authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro had already been losing steam when the pandemic hit. Strict new limits on movement, coupled with a decision by opposition leader Juan Guaido to stop his street rallies in the name of public health, have crippled the effort. "This could be the end of the Guaido movement," said Dimitris Pantoulas, a Caracas-based political analyst. In Iraq and Lebanon, measures to contain the outbreaks have extinguished what remained of protests that had rocked those nations for months. Both countries are now under nationwide curfews. Protesters concede they've lost their momentum, even as they watch the government corruption and mismanagement they decried hamper authorities' efforts to respond to outbreaks. In Baghdad and across southern Iraq, protesters were still joining rallies by the thousands as recently as a few weeks ago. Some are home now, for the first time in months, watching Netflix and sharing photos online from their uprising's headiest days. Mohamed Khalili, 24, was wounded repeatedly during five months of street clashes with police in the capital. "I didn't want to leave, but it's the right thing to do," he said. "If we'd stayed, we would have been seen as irresponsible." The movement hasn't been silenced completely. Young men in the southern city of Nasariyeh gathered in the street on Friday to vent frustrations at their restrictive curfew. Riot police responded with what appeared to be live ammunition. In Brazil, Latin America's largest nation and the one hit hardest by the coronavirus, the pandemic has brought a novel twist. Rather than quell a social movement, President Jair Bolsonaro's response to the coronavirus appears to be fueling one. Bolsonaro has dismissed the virus as "a little cold" and a "fantasy." While Brazilian state governors have ordered quarantines and lockdowns, Bolsonaro has encouraged Brazilians to get out and go to work. Now the people of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are taking to their balconies nightly for earsplitting panelacos- the Brazilian version of cacerolazos - to demand that the president take social distancing more seriously. - - - Faiola reported from Miami; Wessel from Santiago; and Mahtani from Hong Kong. The Washington Post's Louisa Loveluck in London; Ana Vanessa Herrero and Mariana Zuniga in Caracas, Venezuela; Terrence McCoy in Rio de Janeiro; and Niha Masih in New Delhi contributed to this report. With six more persons testing positive for coronavirus in Nuh and Gurugram districts, the number of cases in Haryana rose to 76 on Sunday, the state health department said. While Nuh reported five fresh infections, Gurugram reported one, it said. The total of 76 includes 15 patients who have been discharged. There are 61 active cases in the state, the health department said in its afternoon bulletin. The total also includes four Sri Lankan nationals, one Nepalese national and 20 people from other states of India, the bulletin said. Haryana has reported one death due to COVID-19 so far. Health Minister Anil Vij said 29 Tablighi Jamaat members were among those who have tested positive for coronavirus in the state so far. On reports claiming that there could be more Jamaat members in the state who were yet to be tracked down, Vij said, "We believe we have tracked all of them. But still if a few of them are hiding, they should themselves report to the concerned district administration so that they can be quarantined. "However, if they fail to do so over the next couple of days, then strict action as per law will be taken against them," he said. Earlier, Vij had said as many as 652 of the 1,300 Tablighi Jamaat members who came to Haryana had been traced to Nuh alone. Over 1,300 Tablighi Jamaat members, including 107 foreigners, came to Haryana before the lockdown came into force on March 25, Director General of Police Manoj Yadava had said on Friday. All of them have been quarantined, he had said. Vij on Sunday said tenders had recently been floated and four firms will supply 1,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits each for doctors, nurses and paramedical staff at the frontline of the battle against coronavirus. On the lockdown in the state, he said initially it did take a couple of days to persuade people to stay indoors, but now they are complying with the government orders. "People are showing great restraint and cooperating with the authorities," the minister said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Berlin's city government has accused the US of 'an act of modern day piracy' after a shipment of 200,000 protective face masks was hijacked on its way from China to Germany. The masks had been ordered by Berlin's police force from an American manufacturer producing in China. But, according to Berlin authorities, they were confiscated in Bangkok and diverted to the US. As the coronavirus pandemic worsens, demand for crucial medical supplies, such as masks and respirators, has surged worldwide, leading to unprecedented buying practices and countries outbidding each other. New York state had its largest single-day death toll in the pandemic so far.The state now accounts for nearly half of all virus-related fatalities in the country. As hospitals continue to face critical shortages of medical equipment, New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, has issued an executive order to seize critically-needed supplies across the state and bring them to where they're needed most. Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sergio Perez and Raul Cadenas (Reuters) Madrid, Spain Sun, April 5, 2020 18:08 645 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fd8800 2 News Spain,Hotel,resort,refugee,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,venezuela Free In a complex of holiday bungalows to the east of Madrid, Venezuelan refugees and homeless people have replaced the tourists, business meetings and wedding parties that usually fill the premises. The owner of the La Ciguena resort has turned the facility over to some of Madrid's most vulnerable families, after he had to close the hotel because of the coronavirus outbreak sweeping through Spain. "Since we've arrived, they've attended to our every need," said Stephanie Paez, an eight-month pregnant Venezuelan refugee accompanied by her partner and mother. She said her aim was to find a job, an apartment and get her residency papers once the coronavirus crisis was over. Spain is in strict lockdown as it battles one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks. The country's death toll has surpassed 11,000, second only to Italy. Bars, restaurants and shops selling non-essential items are closed. Read also: Hotels in Paris to house the homeless The resort is housing 12 families with children, around 65 people, most of them Venezuelan refugees. Although the staff have been temporarily laid off while the complex is shut to paying visitors, they come in to help voluntarily. Families receive breakfast, lunch and dinner and come to the dining room, which overlooks a lake, in a staggered schedule so they can keep a distance of two meters between people. "We thought, 'What can we do, we have to do something' and it took one second to offer," Miguel Angel Carnero, the manager of the La Ciguena resort, told Reuters. "It's a way to do our bit, to contribute during this pandemic" he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 16:16:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions. The following are the updates on the contagious disease. - - - - WASHINGTON -- The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has topped 1.2 million, according to a new tally from Johns Hopkins University on Saturday evening. A total of 1,201,591 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus across the world, with a death toll of 64,703, showed the tally updated by the university's Center for Systems Science and Engineering. - - - - KATHMANDU -- China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), a Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO), has handed over materials needed for hand wash stations to Nepal's Mithila Bihari municipality. The materials, including buckets and sanitizer, were handed over recently to the municipality located 9 km away from the province's popular city Jankapur. - - - - HANOI -- Vietnam reported no new COVID-19 case on Sunday morning, with the total confirmed cases in the country remaining to be 240, according to the Ministry of Health. "It is the first time the country has been able to record zero cases since March 6," Vietnam News Agency reported Sunday. - - - - KABUL -- The number of cases tested positive for COVID-19 has reached 337 in Afghanistan, spokesman for Public Health Ministry Wahidullah Mayar said Sunday. According to Mayar, 38 new positive cases including 10 in Kabul affected with COVID-19 have been confirmed in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the number to 337. An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has rejoined the Irish medical register and is set to work a session a week during the coronavirus crisis, according to a report by The Irish Times. Before entering politics, he has studied medicine and worked as a doctor for seven years. It says that he was taken off the medical register in 2013. However, the report noted that he had rejoined the medical register in March as the coronavirus pandemic began to hit the country. It is understood that he will work in an area suited to his qualifications. Last month, the HSE appealed last month for all healthcare professionals not working in the profession to register in a mass recruitment drive to deal with the crisis. Some 50,000 people applied in less than three days. It is understood the Taoiseach will help out in phone assessments. A$AP Rocky is a controversial figure, theres no doubt about it. The rapper has been involved in multiple lawsuits and scandals, and these days, he is as well known for his run-ins with the law as for his musical accomplishments. Most recently, A$AP Rocky landed in a world of trouble in Sweden, and for a while, it looked as though he might be stuck in the country for an extended period of time. Still, he received help from an unlikely source an old friend who has proven to be a very controversial figure himself. A$AP Rocky has gotten in trouble on multiple occasions A$AP Rocky was born Rakim Mayers in 1988. Born in New York City, he moved to Pennsylvania with his family before he was ten years old. He began rapping when he was only a child, showing a great deal of promise. Sadly, he experienced a lot of tragedy in his life, with going to jail when A$AP Rocky was only twelve years old, and his brother getting murdered when he was thirteen. Still, the sadness fueled his desire to create and perform music and after a period of time as a drug dealer, he joined a collective of rappers, writers, and other creative types. By 2011, A$AP Rocky was getting attention from fans as well as serious radio play. He became famous, in short order, with his songs climbing to the top of the charts all over the world. Although his talent was undeniable, A$AP Rocky just couldnt stay out of trouble. Beginning with his drug dealings in the early 2000s, A$AP Rocky seemed intent on tangling with the law. In 2012, 2013, and in 2016, he was involved in troublesome lawsuits, fights, and various legal entanglements. What happened to A$AP Rocky in Sweden? In July 2019, A$AP Rocky was in Sweden for work, when he got in trouble yet again. The rapper, as well as some members of his entourage, were filmed as they reportedly attacked a man on the street. The man, Mustafa Jafari, was allegedly beaten with broken bottles by the rapper and his friends. In the wake of the incident, A$AP Rocky was arrested and jailed for aggravated assault. Many reports claimed that the rapper could spend up to six years in a Swedish prison. While many fans leaped to his defense, protesting his innocence and stating that he was being unfairly targeted, there was little that his followers could do from half a world away. Surprisingly, A$AP Rockys luck hadnt quite run out, and he received help from one of his good friends in the music industry. How did Kanye West free A$AP Rocky? Kanye West | Gary Gershoff/WireImage Reportedly, United States officials attempted to free the rapper by working with the Swedish government but didnt have much luck. That is, until Kanye West made a phone call to the White House on behalf of his incarcerated friend. According to a recent report, West called Jared Kushner at the White House. Donald Trump called less than an hour later after West had climbed out of the pool and was eating breakfast. Following that phone call, President Trump reportedly reached out to Swedish government officials and worked on securing A$AP Rockys release from prison. Although the rapper still had to remain in the country for the duration of his trial, he was eventually able to return to the United States after paying a hefty fee. While A$AP Rocky might be at somewhat of a career standstill while he plots his next move, he has certainly made some friends in high places. The country's second largest national oil marketer Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd has developed a novel technology to test the quality of crude oil at a fraction of the cost and time that it takes now through the lengthy lab tests. The technology, which has a number of patents including those from the US and the EU, is a 'crude horoscope predictor tool' called BPMarrk, which can optimise varied properties from the crude. The company is also in talks with leading international players in the crude assaying industry like Aspen, the largest in the segment, Honeywell, and Emerson, R Ramachandran, Director (Refineries), at BPCL said. "The traditional way of assaying takes 30-45 days for a complete testing and the cost averages at Rs 25 lakh. But the BPMarrk takes around 30 minutes for a four-stage test. We can offer it at a fraction of the present cost but we haven't decided on the pricing part yet," he told PTI. Ramachandran also said the company is planning to use the technology as an advance control product for product optimisation and is going to apply for patents for this as well. On talks with American bodies, he said, "we have made presentations to Aspen, Emerson and Honeywell but no deal has been finalised yet". BPCL has been developing the technology since FY16 and reached commercial production stage two years ago. Since then, it has made a detailed presentation to the American Petroleum Institute which is the global body that codifies the testing standards for the industry. The institute was keen to develop this tool as an alternate standard, provided BPCL shared the entire details, but the company refused, a source at the company said. A salient and industry-friendly use of the tool is that it can help update the crude assays of oil wells wherein the properties get changed with ageing, according to Ramachandran. "Gone are the days of lengthy laboratory tests called assaying for crude. The R&D team of Bharat Petroleum has developed a crude horoscope predictor tool called 'BPMarrk' to correctly predict crude oil properties," he said. Describing their innovation as a game-changer, Ramachandran said BPMarrk can predict around 500 properties of any crude using four parameters and can help generate the output within an hour compared to the other conventional processes which require three-four weeks of laboratory testing. The tool has been built by testing more than 100 types of crudes from different regions. This universal tool can be used by multiple stakeholders across the crude value-chain for fast business and operational decisions related to crude buying/ booking and price negotiations. BPMarrk can also enable oil suppliers, international trades and supply-chain optimisation for advanced planning, crude selection and also for process engineers for unit-level optimisation of refinery operations. BPCL is in the process of partnering with a leading international consultant for real-time optimisation. The development could be highly useful for small downstream players like domestic companies and standalone refiners, given the fact that industry majors like Aramco, Exxon, Shell, Total or BP would have their own independent tools to do faster assaying as they are all into the entire value chain of the oil and gas sector, say analysts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It takes considerable commitment to construct a green building, from the use of materials, attention to immediate environment and ensuring energy efficiency. Traditional building materials consume a large amount of resources and create hazardous waste. Certain materials like polymers cannot be recycled easily. A report by the Vietnam Institute for Building Materials says construction works in the country account for around 17 percent of the water used, 40 percent of energy, 25 percent of timber and 40 percent of construction solid waste. Of later, the demand for sustainable building materials has led to an emerging trend in Vietnam, with hi-tech solutions and smart products replacing traditional construction materials to save materials, energy and become more eco-friendly. Corrugated galvanised iron, which is fire resistant and insulated, can be used as a substitute for ordinary corrugated iron. Photo by Quynh Tran. Giap Van Thanh, general director of the Phuong Nam Soundproofing Insulating Co., said: "Green building means to create a sustainable and clean living environment. A so-called green building must satisfy many factors, including suitability for that particular soil, climate, weather and light conditions. It should also maximize use of environment-friendly materials." In fact, before beginning work, builders need to consider environmental factors at the construction site including underground elements, water and air, he added. Both the buildings design and its construction must clearly seek to protect the environment, connect with the community and adapt to climate change. The construction process needs to minimize the use of natural resources, make use of rainwater and wastewater, conserve groundwater, use natural sunlight and renewable energy, and properly manage garbage. Safety must be a paramount concern in implementing a project. To obtain the internationally recognized LEED certification of a green building, the construction works must meet a list of criteria like efficient use of water and energy, emit less CO2, make good use of local resources, and minimize energy use in building and operation. A U.S. Green Building Council report shows there are more than 100,000 buildings with the LEED certification. Of these, 44,000 are in the U.S. and the remaining 56,000 in other countries. There are only around 100 LEED-certified buildings in Vietnam, emphasizing the lack of investor awareness about green buildings, their importance and the need to protect the environment and ensure sustainability. The walls of Phuong Nam Co.s plant are built entirely with insulation panels. Photo by Quynh Tran. Thanh said that one problem with the use of green materials is the high installation cost. Other barriers include limitations with the design team, contractors, investors, and investment capital. Drawing up on more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing insulation panels for large domestic and international enterprises, Thanh noted that the three main factors that impact a green project are consulting costs, certification costs and additional costs. Variable costs include those associated with management, material inspection, application of prescribed standards and investor checks on contractors daily work outcome. The difference between a project using environment-friendly construction materials and one without them is the former often last longer and are more cost-saving in terms of operation over their lifetime. At the Phuong Nam insulating panel factory. Photo by Quynh Tran. Thanh gave the example of building a cold storage facility with temperatures of 0 to minus 10 degrees Celsius. He said that for such a facility, the wall would need to be 400 mm thick if traditional construction materials were used, but Phuong Nams Pisocy panels allow a thickness of just 100 mm, leading to significant cost savings. Furthermore, it takes four times the electricity to maintain a temperature of minus 10 degrees Celsius using traditional materials, he added. A 25,000 sq.m factory built using Phuong Nams Pisocy panels can be completed in just three months and can last for up to 30 years. "Building a production facility or a warehouse using Pisocy panels will cost developers just one fifth of the expenses using traditional construction materials. It can also help save energy in operating the facilities," Thanh said. Phuong Nam specializes in manufacturing high-class heat-insulating panel products. The companys main product line is Pisocy, which has a high insulation coefficient of up to minus 50 degrees Celsius, preventing heat loss during operation. Pisocy meets level B2 fireproofing standards and is heat-resistant for 180 minutes at 300 degrees Celsius. Thanh said: "This hi-tech material can overcome the weaknesses of traditional construction methods caused by weak foundations and land subsidence. The use of insulation panels helps investors and contractors save construction time, too." By PTI WASHINGTON: Describing the upcoming period of the coronavirus pandemic as a "Pearl Harbor" and a "9/11 moment" for the US, the country's top doctor on Sunday warned this week is going to be the hardest and the saddest one for most Americans. His warning came as the number of people infected people in the US has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 9,000; more than 4,000 of those deaths are in the New York state. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome Adams said the coronavirus pandemic rivals some of the darkest moments in US history, including the two worst foreign attacks on American soil: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the September 11 terrorist attacks. "The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment. It's going to be our 9/11 moment; it's going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives," he said. "And we really need to understand that if we want to flatten that curve and get through to the other side, everyone needs to do their part," Adams told "Meet the Press" Sunday talk show. His remarks came a day after President Donald Trump said that the next week is going to be a "very very difficult" time for the country. Members of the White House Task Force on the coronavirus have predicted between 100,000 to 200,000 lakh deaths in the next several week. Peak in New York is expected in the next six-seven days, during which US authorities are urging people to strictly enforce the social mitigation measures including social distancing. Nearly 95 per cent of the country's 330 million population are under stay-in-home orders. "Ninety per cent of Americans are doing their part, even in the states where they haven't had a shelter in place," the Surgeon General said in a passionate plea to his countrymen. I wish every governor would encourage the people in their states to follow these guidelines for 30 days, that's what I want. But I want them to do what they can within their states," he said. In addition to declaration of a national emergency, President Donald Trump has notified major disaster declaration in more than 42 of the 50 states. "This is going to be a hard week, it's going to test our resolve. It's going to be the hardest week of our lives, but I'm confident based on the numbers in Washington and in California and Italy and in Spain, we can get through this, we will get through this. I know the American people will do the right thing and stay-at-home," Adams said. The US armed forces have deployed more than 50,000 of its soldiers, including 1,000 doctors and nurses in the fight against coronavirus. They have built or is in the process of building 30 hospitals. "We will soon be taking over the Javits Center, a 2,500-bed capacity. To show you how all in we are, the United States military will soon be running the largest hospital in the United States. That shows you our commitment," US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said. The US Navy has deployed two of its hospital ships - in New York and Los Angeles - to treat the rush of COVID 19 patients. "Whether it's the ships, the field hospitals, or our preparation of eight sites around the country where we built hospitals, another 22 that will come online in the next two weeks, we have stayed ahead of need here. That's factor number one," he said. State and industry officials are urging employers to follow certain protocols if they have workers from other states or countries coming to North Dakota, as COVID-19 cases in the state surpass 200. The state Department of Health on Sunday reported 21 additional cases of the disease that results from the new coronavirus, pushing the state total to 207, with 31 hospitalized, 63 recovered and three deaths. The new numbers are for Saturday. They include three new cases in Burleigh County, pushing the county's total to 37. Neighboring Morton County has 16. Cass County, which had six new cases reported Sunday, leads the state with 54. Two more cases were confirmed in Stark County, raising the total there to 25, and Mountrail County had six more cases, raising its total to 19. Cass County is home to Fargo, Stark County is home to Dickinson, and Mountrail County includes the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Other new cases reported Sunday were in Grand Forks, McKenzie and Emmons counties. The Emmons County case is the first confirmed in that south central county. Emmons County Public Health Executive Officer Bev Voller issued a statement urging the county's 3,200 residents to take seriously precautions such as social distancing, washing hands and staying home when sick. It is our hope this confirmed case doesnt change your day-to-day approach to personal safety because you are already utilizing these steps to help keep yourself, your family and your neighbors safe, Voller said. However, if you had been ignoring these recommendations, or believing COVID-19 couldnt happen here, it is here. We will all work together to get through this. But we need your help in taking this pandemic seriously. The new cases also include a child younger than 10 in Stark County. State and private labs have tested 6,787 people, with 6,580 being negative. The number of people tested is up 580 from the previous day. Gov. Doug Burgum has stressed that because testing data lags and not everyone is tested, the actual number of positive cases in the state could be 10 times higher. The department reports case numbers to the news media, on social media and on its website at: www.health.nd.gov/coronavirus. Seasonal workers Agriculture, construction and other seasonal workers will soon be coming to North Dakota for spring employment, and officials including Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring are stressing the need to take precautions. Agriculture producers are ramping up for springs work and getting ready to get out into their fields. Many of these producers rely on H-2A (foreign) workers and workers from other states to fill employment gaps, Goehring said. Producers who have workers arriving from other countries or states should follow proper procedures upon their arrival. Associated General Contractors of North Dakota Executive Vice President Russ Hanson urged employers to familiarize themselves with state Department of Health travel quarantine orders specific to their industry. Most importantly, we encourage everyone to exercise good judgment and be safe, he said. Protocols include having workers fill out a travel survey, quarantine for 14 days and take basic precautions such as washing hands frequently. Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation President Randy Hatzenbuhler said all employees coming from out of state for seasonal work at Medora will be quarantined for two weeks. While quarantined, those employees will be paid their normal wage and will have meal delivery available to them, he said. Reach Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. People of Bihar joined Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to light candles and 'diyas' at their homes on Sunday, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call in expressing resolve to collectively fight COVID-19. In state capital Patna, people burst firecrackers, besides coming out on their balconies and rooftops to light candles and 'diyas', and switching on their mobile flashlights. The scene was similar in other parts of the state. Governor Phagu Chauhan lit candles at Raj Bhawan, while Kumar lit candles at his official residence. In his message, the chief minister said that with the entire country showing unity, India will be successful in fighting the coronavirus outbreak. He said that people joining the prime minister's call has strengthened the determination and will power. The governor thanked the people of the state for showing solidarity and unity in the fight against coronavirus. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi along with his wife Jessy Modi also lit 'diyas' at their residence in Patna. Some people lauded the prime minister and said that lighting 'diyas' and candles will have a positive impact on society. When I went to my rooftop, it gave me a sense of togetherness and I felt that I am not alone. It boosted morale. It led to bonding among people who have been leading a lonely life in their homes," said Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Ram Nagri Mor area here. There were no reports of any power disruption in Patna, officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The couple who died from Covid-19 just 12 hours apart were laid to rest yesterday. Belfast husband and wife Christopher known as Arty and Isobel Vallely died in hospital last weekend after being struck down by the virus. While Arty (79) was cremated at Roselawn, his wife Isobel (77) was buried in Milltown cemetery in the west of the city following a private service for the pair. Mourners were not allowed to the Mass due to the risk of spreading the disease but instead had to watch an online stream. Friends and loved ones were allowed into the graveyard for Isobels burial but forbidden to go to the crematorium. The couple, who were married for 53 years, are survived by a daughter Fiona and two sons, Mark and Chris. They lived for some time in England before returning to Belfast in 2003. Isobel was from the west of the city, where the couple lived until their deaths, while Arty hailed from Ardoyne. Christopher, who was suffering from lung cancer, took ill and was first brought to the Royal Victoria Hospital but was transferred to the coronavirus centre at the Mater Hospital following a positive test. Isobel, who was recovering from a stroke, also took ill and was taken to the Mater where she was put in the same room as her husband. Their daughter Fiona (above), who lives in Tenerife but came back to care for her mother after her stroke, was able to say goodbye to her parents in the hospital. I was 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 havent had that chance, she told the Belfast Telegraph. To lose both parents so close together in these circumstances is horrible. It hasnt fully sunk in and I dont think it will for a while. Fiona described her mum as a very family-orientated person while her dad was a larger than life character. By Casey Lartigue, Jr. If you have been out to dinner with South Koreans, it is likely that you have arrived at The Paycheck Moment (TPM): Who will have the honor of paying for the night? Some people physically push each out of the way to get to the cash register first. Some argue about who should pay this time, with both or all sides saying they should. I have seen people sneaking out midway through dinner to pay and really determined people giving their credit cards as soon as they arrived. For the ultimate one-upmanship, someone will buy the restaurant during dinner to say, "Dinner will always be on me." When people rush to the cash register to pay, I am like a bullfighter meekly waving a red handkerchief. Others could crawl, and still beat me to paying the check. They say when in Rome to do as the Romans do, but I am perfectly happy with losing an argument about who should pay. When I have argued, it has been with the enthusiasm of an accused criminal confessing to a major crime. There have been a few times that I was determined to pay, and found myself in tornadoes of arguments with skilled debaters. It seems I haven't read the debating guide, "How to destroy arguments of people trying to pay for your dinner, Volume 1." However, I had a worthy paycheck fight after my organization engaged with North Korean refugees recently relocated. With a small space in the corner of the kitchen, we hosted Chanyang Ju, a North Korean refugee student in our program. She is a superwoman public speaker, TV personality, YouTuber, college student, mom, even more super than she was when I wrote about her six years ago. She now has started an online business, selling jewelry she handmakes. I had thought about this before, but with an imminent move to a slightly larger office, I asked Chanyang if she would like to set her up her online business (Seoune) in our office in the days leading up to White Day on March 14. Our internet and telephone wouldn't even be on yet, but we would do our best to publicize her jewelry making workshops. March 12-14, Chanyang was at our office, showing visitors how to make jewelry. The first day, I bought jewelry for all of our female staffers (hoping that would buy me at least a few weeks of peace). As we wrapped up, Chanyang wanted to give a commission to thank us for welcoming her. The Paycheck Moment had arrived. I wasn't about to wave ole. Of course, it was great that she wanted to give a commission. That we had come to this moment was a celebration for the organization. Thanks to our donors and fundraisers, we have a slightly larger office. Why not allow one of the special refugees in the organization to have space to promote and run her business? Hopefully the day will come that she will have her own location. Just a few years ago, we were on the move. Finally, Kim Chung-ho of the now-defunct Freedom Factory welcomed the then-fledgling TNKR as a project. After two years of being office-less, my desk at Freedom Factory became TNKR's office. Almost seven years later, we are hosting one of our students in our office. That Paycheck Moment had arrived for both of us. There was no cash register for Chanyang to run to, she couldn't force us to take a commission. I wasn't about to accept it. We were at a standoff. To break the deadlock, I reminded Chanyang that she had said before that she would like to set up a fundraiser for TNKR. She enthusiastically agreed. She could support TNKR by asking her friends and fans to donate to her fundraiser. I turned my head, and she did her bum rush to our online cash register. She made a donation, not given a commission, arguing like a lawyer making a distinction without a difference. To avoid me, she started talking in Korean with TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee. She explained she had wanted to set up a fundraiser before, but wasn't sure how. She was giving a donation because it would not look good if there were no donations at her fundraiser, others wouldn't donate to nothing. I had slipped on my own petard, caught up in a tornado of arguments with a lady who was determined to show her appreciation. I assured her we wanted her to return to our office and hoped her business would take off. I made a note to myself to start drafting my own debating guide to destroy arguments of North Korean refugees trying to give a commission or to donate to show their appreciation. Casey Lartigue, Jr., co-founder along with Eunkoo Lee of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR), is the 2017 winner of the "Social Contribution" Prize from the Hansarang Rural Cultural Foundation and the 2019 winner of the "Challenge Maker" Award from Challenge Korea. Before there was coronavirus and a city shut down, there was an AIDS crisis and a city struggling to keep up with a mounting death toll. Nearly 40 years may separate the two crises. But San Franciscos response to AIDS then informs how the world is tackling a new pandemic today. While the two viruses are hardly alike the coronavirus spreads easily and manifests within days; AIDS is a much slower virus and, at the time, almost always resulted in death I think theres a lot to be learned from the comparison, said Paul Volberding, director of the AIDS Research Institute and a pioneer in treating people with HIV. Many of todays most visible public health leaders, from Anthony Fauci in Washington, D.C., to Grant Colfax in San Francisco, were on the front lines during the 1980s as AIDS claimed thousands of lives. And many of the local models and institutional connections developed those decades ago are coming to bear now, as this new coronavirus threatens to infect millions and kill hundreds of thousands nationwide. Volberding can tell you, to the day, when he began working at San Francisco General Hospital. On July 1, 1981 his first day he saw his first patient with Kaposis sarcoma, a cancer that doctors would learn was common in patients with AIDS. This was the beginning of the crisis to come. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle In the years that followed, San Francisco responded quickly to the epidemic though HIV/AIDS activists would likely point out more could have been done even as the national government ignored the growing number of dead. We for generations had a really strong health department and had a really closely linked health department with the UCSF physicians and researchers, Volberding said. We responded to the AIDS epidemic by very aggressively trying to understand how the disease was being spread and who it was affecting. The parallels with today are clear. San Francisco and surrounding counties were the first in the nation to order residents to shelter in place last month, while the federal government has been less forceful in its response. That perspective and that focus on responding appropriately to data science and facts was in some ways, perhaps in many ways, informed by the citys response in the early days to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, says Grant Colfax, San Franciscos public health director. Just as in that epidemic, we did not wait, we could not wait for outside direction. We took it really upon ourselves. Part of that, he says, comes from the institutional memory. San Franciscos Department of Public Health is full of doctors and scientists who led the fight against HIV then, and lead the fight against coronavirus now. Colfax himself moved to San Francisco in the 1990s to work on San Francisco General Hospitals Ward 5B, the nations first ward for AIDS patients. The experience shaped him. It resonates with him. It really resonates with him, said George Rutherford, head of infectious disease and epidemiology at UCSF. Hes seen the devastation that HIV has wrought. Hes not afraid to go to the mayor and say, Weve got to be heavy-handed here. Thats not an easy message to deliver in San Francisco. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle Rutherford, for his part, came to San Francisco in 1985, not long after the city had ordered all bathhouses closed to slow the spread of HIV. He worked for the Centers for Disease Control then, helping the city develop programs to manage the epidemic. Now, in another parallel, hes helping the city develop a coronavirus contact tracing program for when the city manages to flatten the curve and ease restrictions. There are national parallels, too. Deborah Birx spent much of her career specializing in HIV/AIDS research and now serves as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. And Anthony Fauci started as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Together, they are the nations leading scientific voices, appearing almost daily during White House press briefings, during one of which, Birx invoked the plague. We had another silent epidemic: HIV, she said on March 16. And I just want to recognize the HIV epidemic was solved by the community: the HIV advocates and activists who stood up when no one was listening and got everyones attention. Fauci, in particular, has become a reassuring voice for many during uncertain times. Those in San Francisco who worked with Fauci during the 80s and beyond say they see a man applying what he learned from that epidemic to how hes handling this one. Fauci definitely learned and appreciated in the HIV epidemic that investing in basic science is critical, that understanding the nature of the enemy is important, Volberding said. I think hes taking that and applying it to I know he is to the coronavirus. And again hes just a model communicator. ... At a time when people were really afraid he was a very consistent voice, really like today. MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images Mervyn Silverman, who served as health director during the first years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, remembers ACT UP staging a protest outside Faucis office. Most government officials, in fact probably 99.9%, would have just ignored them, he said. He invited them in, had them come sit around the table. It was two sides working together for a common purpose. 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 relationship would have its ups and downs, but even longtime AIDS activist and author Larry Kramer, one of Faucis biggest critics, recently told the New York Times that the two are friends. He had even emailed Fauci to check in. As much as AIDS took from San Francisco, it left behind a city with strong ties among government, medicine, science and community and a (potentially uniquely) strong public health apparatus. San Francisco devoted untold resources to fight the virus, state Sen. Scott Wiener recently wrote for Buzzfeed News. Our city built a massive public health infrastructure to prevent infections and improve care. San Francisco has the best Department of Public Health in the nation perhaps the world and part of the reason is our incredible response to the HIV pandemic. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle That legacy is being tapped as the city mounts a new fight against a new epidemic. Diane Havlir, head of UCSFs HIV/AIDS division, and Monica Gandhi, the medical director of Ward 86, the HIV clinic at the San Francisco General, have seen their days transformed. But theyve learned to pivot quickly from years spent treating HIV/AIDS patients. Gandhi and her staff already contribute to freshly formed committees that focus on curbing the inequalities around COVID-19 and the communities it impacts. That to me is extremely reminiscent of what we all did in the early 80s, she said. It is the same people who were working on HIV then and their successors who are working on COVID now. And now Havlir spends her days applying the San Francisco Model of Care a holistic approach to medicine developed during the AIDS crisis to a new threat, to protect her patients who deal with chronic illness. This is a global trauma, a national trauma, a citywide trauma, and certainly to people who have survived through many, many challenges, this is yet another one, Havlir said. But the spirit of the HIV community is like no other. Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RyanKost A Senior New South Wales Police Officer has issued a warning to the cast of Channel Nine's Married At First Sight not to 'waste their time with trivial complaints'. According to The Sunday Telegraph, the unnamed officer said overworked staff are 'bemused and frustrated' when stars arrive to file reports with paparazzi in tow. 'It has happened a lot this year. We take all police reports seriously, but what's happening with MAFS contestants is a gee-up. We are in the midst of 24/7 dramas,' the anonymous police officer said on Sunday. 'We are in the midst of 24/7 dramas': A Senior New South Wales Police Officer has issued a warning to the cast of Channel Nine's Married At First Sight not to 'waste their time with trivial complaints'. Pictured: Mikey Pembroke filming the show on October 22 in Sydney The police source said they plan on speaking to Channel Nine, production company Endemol Shine Australia and celebrity agents about this going forward. They want the contestants to 'be warned' about wasting police time and resources. In recent months, current star Natasha Spencer filed a complaint after a nude video of her leaked, and Mike Pembroke filed a complaint over online threats. 'We take all police reports seriously, but what's happening is a gee-up': The unnamed officer said overworked staff are 'bemused and frustrated' when stars arrive to file reports with paparazzi in tow. Pictured: Former star Nasser Sultan at Redfern Police Station in May 2018 They follow a string of complaints from contestants on previous seasons, with most of them photographed by paparazzi as they exit police stations. There is no suggestion the stars tip-off photographers themselves. Instead, the source believes it is possibly their agents 'trying to get them some cash for stories' and drum up publicity, likely without their knowledge. Complaints: In recent months, current star Natasha Spencer (R) filed a complaint after a nude video of her leaked, and Mike Pembroke (L) filed a complaint over online threats The source concluded: 'I have cautioned commanders not to be dismissive of reports, but to be mindful that paps will often be present when someone presents because they were coming thick and fast.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Police and Channel Nine for comment. If there is some kind of crisis, there might be some disturbance in the supply chain, he explained. Two weeks ago, as the countrys coronavirus cases ticked up by Sunday, the country had recorded more than 1,880 cases and 25 deaths the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health ordered that stored masks be sent to hospitals around the country. The masks are old but they are still functioning, Mr. Lounema said by phone. There is little publicly available information on the number of masks and other supplies that Finland has or where exactly they are stored. All information considering those warehouses is classified, Mr. Lounema said. But though details are kept a state secret, the authorities confirmed that the stockpiles are kept in a network of facilities spread across the country and that the current system has been in place since the 1950s. That has placed Finland in a more solid position to confront the pandemic. As officials in other countries like the United States lament the shortage of masks, ventilators and gowns and the global coronavirus cases increased to more than 1.2 million by Sunday, with more than 64,000 deaths, tales abound of international skulduggery and domestic price gouging. Nations are competing for medical supplies and racing to create a vaccine. Bollywood stars have been contributing to the central and state governments relief funds for those affected by COVID 19. But the one contribution that stood out has been that of Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan. The couple, under the names of their companies, Red Chillies, Meer Foundation and Kolkata Knight Riders have pledged money and support for everyone who needs it in these unprecedented times. Not just that, the couple also offered their 4 storey building to convert into quarantine facilities in Mumbai. Thanking them for their gesture, Brahinmumbai Municipal Corporation tweeted yesterday, We thank @iamsrk & @gaurikhanfor offering their 4-storey personal office space to help expand our Quarantine capacity equipped with essentials for quarantined children, women & elderly. Responding to their message of gratitude, SRK posted today, When we say mybmc then its with a sense of ownership and pride in all the efforts your teams are putting up to fight covid 19. We both are thankful that we could be a part of your attempts to help and care for Mumbaikars. aaaa Mumbai aaaaBM C Now hasnt he proved once again that he has the biggest heart of them all? The Lucknow district administration has directed all educational institutes in the district not to exert pressure on parents to deposit advance fee of their children. In an order issued here on Sunday, District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash said, "In the duration of emergency following the outbreak of COVID-19, parents should not be pressured to deposit fee and no students should be deprived of online classes. Nor the name of any student be struck-off." Once the emergency ends, quarterly fee can be adjusted and parents be informed about it, he said. The Lucknow DM also said that action will be initiated against those who violated this order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, April 5 : The railways has passed the test conducted by DRDO for the Personal Protection Equipment manufactured by Jagadhari workshop to fight Covid-19. A statement issues by Deepak Kumar, CPRO Northern Railways, said: "Northern Railway Jagadhari Workshop becomes the first workshop whose two PPEs/ Coverall sample passed the DRDO test. This will be helpful in fighting the war against Covid-19. "The railways can now contribute to mitigating the shortfall in PPEs to the extent possible by manufacturing it in-house." said the statement. There are reports of shortage of PPE and many videos have hone viral where doctors are facing lack of PPE. The opposition Congress on Sunday hit out at the government on shortage of medical equipment, saying the country needs at least 62 lakh PPE kits. The Delhi government has given the nod for procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits by city hospitals from local manufacturers and suppliers at market rate not exceeding Rs 1,087.47, amid an increasing demand. Speaking to IANS, a Delhi Health Department official said on Sunday that the decision was taken as the city hospitals were facing severe shortage of the kits. Boris Johnson British Prime Minister at a daily COVID 19 press briefing at Downing Street London on 22 March 2020. Photo: Getty/Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror The pound against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) fell by over 1.5% as of 9:50pm local time after the UK government confirmed that British prime minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital for tests, 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus. Johnson tested positive for coronavirus on 27 March and has been working from home ever since. He chaired a coronavirus meeting via video-link on 3 April. The Department of Health said that 47,806 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, as of 9am local time today (5 April). Another 621 coronavirus-related deaths have been recorded in the past day, bringing the death toll in the UK to 4,934. Chart: Yahoo Finance A UK government spokesperson said: "On the advice of his doctor, the prime minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests. "This is a precautionary step, as the prime minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus ten days after testing positive for the virus." "The prime minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the government's advice to stay at home, protect the NHS, and save lives." READ MORE: UK coronavirus deaths increase by 621 to 4,934 The news comes just hours after health secretary Matt Hancock told the public that it was "mission-critical" to follow social distancing rules in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus as well as protect the National Health Service (NHS). "The more people follow the rules than the faster we will all be through this," he said. He also added it was quite unbelievable that some parks in London and elsewhere were reportedly full of people despite lockdown pleas. He said that this behaviour could not go on. Within an hour of the Johnson announcement, Scotland's chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood resigned after she was photographed by The Scottish Sun visiting her holiday home on the east coast of the country over the weekend. It was the second time she had done so during the lockdown, she admitted. Story continues "As well as this weekend, it's important to be clear, that I also was there last weekend with my husband," Calderwood told the Scottish government's daily coronavirus briefing earlier today. "I did not follow the advice I am giving to others. I'm truly sorry for that." Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK Answering Ayatollah Sistani's call, Iraqis support those in need amid coronavirus outbreak Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 5:32 PM Thousands of people across Iraq have begun a full-fledged campaign to support those in need in the Arab country following a call by the country's most prominent Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to help the people, irrespective of their race or religion, amid the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic. Social media activists reported that volunteers have gathered in mosques and congregation halls in the capital Baghdad, the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, the port city of Basra and elsewhere in the country to keep low-income families supplied with food. People deliver food to the poor and seniors safely, as they are at greater risk of serious illness from COVID-19, making sure they're not left on their own. On Friday, the Iraqi Health Ministry announced in a statement that there were 820 confirmed cases of infection with novel coronavirus and 54 deaths in the country. Out of the 48 cases confirmed during the past 24 hours, five were recorded in Baghdad, 12 in the southern province of Dhi Qar, 11 in the Kurdish-populated eastern city of Sulaymaniyah, nine in Najaf, four in Basra, three in Erbil, one in the provinces of Kirkuk, Muthanna, Babil and Anbar each, the statement noted. No deaths were registered during the day. Separately, Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesman of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Iraqi expatriates has reached 161, of whom seven have died. Sahaf added that the highest number of the total infected cases outside the country was in Norway with 37 cases followed by Sweden, where 22 Iraqi nationals have contracted the virus. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Queen Elizabeth II will urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak, in a rare special address to Britain and Commonwealth nations on Sunday. In extracts released Saturday of what royal officials said was a "deeply personal" speech, the 93-year-old monarch will say she has faith that people will respond, despite the difficulties. The broadcast, scheduled to air at 1900 GMT on Sunday, is only the fourth time in her 68-year reign that she has made a special televised address outside her annual Christmas Day message. It comes as daily deaths in Britain hit a record high of 708, including a five-year-old child on Saturday, taking the overall toll to 4,313 -- and as the country prepared for a third week of lockdown. According to Buckingham Palace, the queen will personally thank frontline healthcare staff and other key workers for their efforts during the crisis. "I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time," she will say in the speech, which was recorded at Windsor Castle, west of London. "A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all." British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has tested positive for COVID-19, has put his government on a war footing, calling for a collective response to the outbreak. Some 750,000 people responded to his call for volunteers to support the state-run National Health Service (NHS), the elderly and vulnerable currently in self-isolation. The initial appeal was for 250,000, while business and industry have been mobilised in a way unseen since World War II. The queen will say: "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. "And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. "That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country." The queen and her 98-year-old husband Prince Philip moved to Windsor Castle on March 19 as a precaution because of their age, which puts them in a high-risk category. Royal officials have said the couple were in good health and following government guidelines. Her eldest son and heir Prince Charles, 71, has been in self-isolation on her sprawling Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland after developing mild symptoms of COVID-19. As a precaution, he officially opened by videolink a new 4,000-bed field hospital in east London which will treat the most seriously ill patients on Thursday. The royal family has cut its engagements, and Sunday's speech was recorded by a single camera operator wearing personal protective equipment, royal officials said. Specific advice from royal doctors was sought to mitigate any risk to the queen and others, they added. The queen's intervention is her first at troubled times since the death of her mother in 2002. Before that, she addressed the nation on the eve of Diana, princess of Wales' funeral in 1997. She also broadcast a message in 1991 during the first Gulf War. A fourth message in 2012 was to thank the public after celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee, marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British holidaymakers who spent weeks stranded on a cruise ship due to a fatal coronavirus outbreak have finally returned to the UK. More than 200 UK nationals arrived at Heathrow Airport on Sunday afternoon after the government arranged a charter flight to bring them back from Florida. During the MS Zaandam cruise liner's journey, which began in Buenos Aires on 7 March, more than 190 developed flu-like symptoms. Several countries refused to let the ship dock over coronavirus fears and four passengers, including Briton John Carter, 75, died onboard. It was held up for several days attempting to get clearance to pass through the Panama Canal, only for the governor of Florida to refuse to allow passengers to disembark at Ford Lauderdale. He eventually relented following an intervention by Donald Trump and federal officials. Rodger Robertson, 72, of Worcestershire, told reporters at Heathrow: Humanitarian grounds went out of the window, the Americans being the Americans. Eventually they had to capitulate. Asked how he thought the ships were treated, he replied: Not very well. His wife Anne, 65, said the captain and his crew did everything they could to arrange medical evacuations for those who were seriously ill, but nobody would open their doors, which was really sad. Morven Rae, 70, from Kenley, Surrey, added: We felt very sorry for the people whose families had died and the countries that didnt allow them to be airlifted off bear some responsibility for that. Her husband Ian, 73, also praised the staff on the cruise ship for an amazing job, adding: We had food, we were locked in our cabins but we were safe. Fourteen critically ill patients were wheeled off the Zaandam on stretchers to be taken to local hospitals before their fellow passengers disembarked, with Florida residents allowed off first. A total of 214 British nationals were able to board the flight to Heathrow, while more than a dozen others were forced to remain because they still had coronavirus symptoms. The cause of Mr Carters death has not been confirmed but it was reported that he had been on a ventilator before he died on 22 March. Holland America Line thanked Mr Trump and Florida officials for allowing their two ships to dock. These travellers could have been any one of us or our families, unexpectedly caught in the middle of this unprecedented closure of global borders that happened in a matter of days and without warning, said Orlando Ashford, president of the company. Additional reporting by agencies Thousands of people have ignored warnings on social distancing and flocked to beaches on Queensland's iconic Gold Coast to soak up the sun and surf. Tempted by the sunny 28C weather, sunbakers and surfers could not resist the white sand and crystal clear water at Burleigh Beach just south of Surfer's Paradise. Queensland currently has 907 of Australia's confirmed 5687 coronavirus cases. Hordes of sun-seekers have flocked to beaches at Queenslands Gold Coast, ignoring the warnings on social distancing Surfers pictured at Burleigh Beach on the Gold Coast as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warns residents not to flout social distancing guidelines 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 But with tight restrictions on public gatherings of over two people and the closure of its borders to everyone except residents and essential workers, the number of new infections in the state has slowed over the past four days. There were 57 cases on Thursday, 39 on Friday, 25 on Saturday and just nine on Sunday. We need to keep up the great effort that Queenslanders have been doing, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters at a media conference. 'Queenslanders are doing the right thing, we are seeing that number come down for the positive cases and that means the social distancing and stopping of mass movements and gathering is working. But the Premier warned that any relaxation of the tough measures could quickly increase the spread. This is not going to end internationally, nationally or even by state until there is a vaccine, she said. On Saturday we saw crowds at markets and, guys, it's not on. If I see that happen again, they're going to be shut down immediately because people are not observing social distancing from each other. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (above) is seen giving a coronavirus update at a media conference in Brisbane A policeman approaches sunbathers at Surfers Paradise Beach on the Gold Coast as strict social distancing measures remain in place to slow the spread of coronavirus Images from the popular Jan Powers Powerhouse Farmers' Markets in Brisbane on Saturday morning showed large crowds of shoppers packed into narrow paths. An angry local told the Courier-Mail it was 'insane' the marketplace was so crowded with shoppers. I was walking along and thought surely the markets arent on, she said. I couldnt believe it. What is wrong with people? Lots of the people there were older people. If you looked at one stall, there were probably six people milling around the one stall.' As a result of the backlash, Director of the Market Astrid Power said they will now be limiting the number of people allowed in the markets at any one time, after conversations with police. A popular farmer's market (pictured) has been flooded with people ignoring social distancing measures around COVID-19 Earlier, Queensland's health minister urged the state's residents to show their appreciation for frontline workers' handling of the coronavirus crisis. Health Minister Steven Miles said doctors, nurses and paramedics had been working hard to protect the state from COVID-19. "They are working tirelessly, around the clock to make sure we are all safe. They do because they are passionate about caring for us," he said. "(So) if you are standing behind them in the queue at a cafe, shout them their coffee. Do something nice for them Clothing giant Arcadia, which owns brands including Topshop and Dorothy Perkins, is preparing to close a huge number of its 550 stores as the coronavirus lockdown tears through the high street, it has been reported. Arcadia, owned by Sir Philip Green who has an estimated personal fortune of 950million, has called in accountants from Deloitte as it is 'on its knees', according to the Sunday Times. Department store giant Debenhams is also sliding towards possible collapse putting 22,000 jobs at risk, as COVID-19 keeps customers at home. Arcadia, which owns brands including Topshop, is reportedly preparing to close a huge number of its 550 stores due to coronavirus (Pictured: Its store on Oxford Street, London) Debenhams is also sliding towards possible collapse at it calls in accountancy firm KPMG, putting 22,000 jobs at risk Arcadia is owned by Sir Philip Green, pictured above in 2014, who has an estimated personal fortune of 950million Arcadia has already furloughed 14,500 out of its 16,500 members of staff, cancelled orders from suppliers and halted payments to landlords as it struggles to stay afloat. Brands in the company's stable also include Miss Selfridge, Burton and Wallis. Debenhams has called in accountancy firm KPMG in a bid to make 'contingency plans' to secure its future. The retailer has also told suppliers to expect delayed payments, and requested a rental holiday from landlords. Carluccio's has also filed for administration, with the owner saying it has been mothballed until the coronavirus lockdown is lifted High street chain BrightHouse has also gone into administration during the lockdown A spokesman said: 'Like all retailers, Debenhams is making contingency plans reflecting the extraordinary current circumstances. 'Our owners and lenders remain highly supportive and whatever actions we may take will be with a view to protecting the business during the current situation. 'While our stores remain closed in line with government guidance, and the majority of our store-facing colleagues have been furloughed, our website continues to trade and we are accepting customer orders, gift cards and returns.' Rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse and Italian restaurant chain Carluccio's collapsed into administration last week, putting 4,400 jobs at risk, as the lockdown bit into businesses chances of survival. Carluccio's owner, Geoff Rowley, said he was hoping to mothball the business under the government scheme which would provide employees with 80 per cent of their wages. Accountancy groups Grant Thornton, Chris Laverty, Andrew Charters and Sarah O'Toole have been appointed as administrators for BrightHouse. They said in a statement that the business will not be making new loans, and that existing clients should continue to make payments as normal. Arcadia said in a statement: 'No decisions have been taken at this time.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 14:43:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SANTIAGO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- "It is a final guide for ordinary people," said Monica Tejos, director of Simplemente Editores, a publisher that distributes a manual written by Chinese doctor Zhang Wenhong on COVID-19 prevention and control in Chile. The manual titled "Prevention and Control of COVID-19," which elaborates on the novel coronavirus, including its symptoms, treatment and prognosis, the susceptible population and the incubation period, also focuses on the importance of the wearing of masks and social distancing, Tejos told Xinhua. Zhang, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Fudan-Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, has led a team of medical experts to fight the epidemic in Shanghai since January 2020. The professor participated in the treatment and control of SARS in 2003 and H7N9 avian flu in 2013. "We chose this book from among others because it is very didactic and it is written in easy language that can reach the general population," said Tejos, adding that it is the most important instructional work of its kind. She discussed how the book supports the wearing of masks, a measure that has not been fully adopted in Chile and caused a great deal of confusion among the citizens. The book was published in China in February, the Chilean publisher said, adding that Simplemente Editores proposed editing it in March and now has the global copyright of the Spanish edition. Sun Xintang, the book's coordinator, told Xinhua that the book is very popular in China and other countries in Asia. According to data, the book has so far sold more than a million copies in China and abroad, with 1.6 million downloads of its digital versions. It has been translated into Spanish, English, Italian, Persian, Russian, Thai, and Vietnamese. "I think it is necessary to present these experiences to the Chilean public and I am very happy that the publisher Simplemente Editores has translated and published it with extraordinary efficiency," said Sun. "I am convinced that this knowledge and advice will be a timely and useful contribution to overcoming this pandemic that is attacking us in a way that is unprecedented in human history," Sun added. FLORENCE, S.C. The S.C. Army National Guard is offering high school students who might miss a chance to take the ASVAB test because of school being out another shot at it. Sgt. Darrin Martin said students can call him at 843-621-0844 to arrange to take the test. "High school students don't need to miss out on educational and career development opportunities because the COVID-19 virus has shut the school systems down," Martin said. Air raid sirens sounded across China and flags flew at half staff in tribute Saturday to victims of the coronavirus pandemic, including the health care martyrs who have died fighting to save others. With the highest number of infections in Europe and their hospitals overwhelmed, Spain and Italy struggled to protect medical staff on the front lines of the outbreak, while 17 medics in Egypt's main cancer hospital tested positive for the virus. As the number of infections has grown to more than 1.1 million worldwide, health care systems are straining under the surge of patients and lack of medical equipment like ventilators as well as protective masks and gloves, giving rise to growing concerns about the exposure of hospital personnel. Italy and Spain, with combined deaths of more than 25,000 and nearly a quarter-million infections, have reported a high percentage of infections among health care workers. Track live updates on coronavirus here Carlo Palermo, head of Italy's hospital doctors' union, fought tears as he told reporters in Rome of the physical risks and psychological trauma the outbreak is causing, noting reports that two nurses had committed suicide. It's a indescribable condition of stress. Unbearable, he said. I can understand those who look death in the eye every day, who are on the front lines, who work with someone who maybe is infected, then a few days later you see him in the ICU or die." U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Friday he would prevent the export of N95 protective masks and surgical gloves to ensure they are available in the U.S. - prompting neighboring Canada's prime minister to respond that cross-border aid goes well beyond supplies. I think of the thousands of nurses who cross the bridge in Windsor to work in the Detroit medical system every day, Justin Trudeau said. These are things Americans rely on. The number of people infected in the U.S. has now exceeded a quarter-million, with the death toll climbing past 7,000. New York state alone accounts for more than 2,900 dead, an increase of over 560 in just one day. Most of the dead are in New York City, where hospitals are swamped with patients. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned African leaders of an imminent surge in coronavirus cases on the continent, urging them to open humanitarian corridors to allow the delivery of badly needed medical supplies. Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases More than half of Africa's 54 countries have closed air, land and sea borders to prevent the virus' spread but that has delayed aid shipments. Virus cases in Africa are now over 7,700, and the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned some nations will have more than 10,000 cases by the end of April. In the Philippines, Sen. Richard Gordon, who is also head of the local Red Cross, said lockdown measures have meant millions of poor families are unable to fulfill basic needs. "A lot of people are hungry. They're asking for milk, they're asking for diapers. They say it's not going fast enough, Gordon said, threatening to have local officials arrested if they steal from government aid for dirt-poor families. Eleven Russian military planes carrying disinfection experts landed in Serbia on Saturday, which Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said shows "that we are not alone. The transport followed last month's deployment of a similar Russian coronavirus task force to Italy and the delivery of medical supplies to the United States. Russian officials have angrily rejected claims that the Kremlin is seeking political gain by providing aid to other countries. Russia has reported a relatively few 4,700 cases and 43 deaths, and its southern neighbor Georgia said Saturday it has registered its first death from the virus, among 156 confirmed cases of infection. In China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, authorities have cautiously lifted restrictions amid dropping numbers of infections. On Saturday it reported just one new confirmed case in the epicenter of Wuhan and 18 others among people arriving from abroad. There were four new deaths for an official total of 3,326. ] In the nationwide tribute to the victims, the government singled out the more than 3,000 health care workers who contracted COVID-19 and the 14 reported to have died from the disease. Among them was doctor Li Wenliang, who was threatened with punishment by police after publicizing news of the outbreak but has since been listed among the national martyrs. As the outbreak spreads in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, the news that 17 health care worker tested positive for the virus at the National Cancer Institute raised fears of what the virus might do to the country's hospital system. Spain's Health Ministry reported 18,324 infected health workers as of Saturday, representing 15% of the total number of infections in the country. To help boost its ranks of health workers, Spain's government said that it had hired 356 foreign health workers living in Spain. It has also hired medical and nursing students to help. In Italy, more than 11,000 medical personnel have been infected - just under 10% of the official total - and some 73 doctors have died, according to the National Institutes of Health and the association of doctors. Significantly, not all the doctors were working in hospitals. Many were general practitioners or dentists, who were believed to have been exposed via respiratory droplets. Palermo, the doctors' union head, said a key reason for the high rate among general practitioners was that flu was raging at the same time in the early part of the year. Peter Martin doesnt get it. Workers who have suddenly lost their livelihoods due to the COVID-19 crisis are receiving $2,000 a month from Ottawa to keep them afloat. And soon students will be getting between $1,250 and $1,750 a month to make up for the loss of summer jobs. Yet Martin, 59, a former constitutional lawyer who lost everything about a decade ago after a mental breakdown, struggles to survive on just $1,169 a month from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), the provinces welfare program for the disabled. Its a very frustrating situation, he said from his Junction-area apartment where he is self-isolating with his black cat. They are getting $2,000 when they have a house to live in and supports and sometimes savings as opposed to people like us who live cheque to cheque, he said. Martin and other Canadians on social assistance live between 40 and 60 per cent below the poverty line and are forced to rely on community supports such as drop-in meal programs and food banks to survive. As physical-distancing orders push many of those programs to close, Ottawa and Ontario are pumping $350 million and $200 million respectively into social service agencies to fill the gap. But Martin wonders why there is a federal plan for workers and students but no financial help for people like him. They are giving money to agencies to provide food to people who come out of isolation to get it, he said. Why not just give the money to us so we can buy our own groceries? It is a question supporters of a basic income were asking long before the coronavirus struck China earlier this year and exploded into a global health crisis. And it is a demand they have since amplified through an online petition signed by more than 30,000 calling for an emergency basic income to help Canadians weather the storm. Ottawa responded March 26 with the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), a monthly payment of $2,000 for four months that will go to any worker who earned at least $5,000 in the past 12 months and has lost their job as a result of the pandemic. The benefit was expanded earlier this month to include anyone earning less than $1,000 a month. Its not the unconditional basic income that Canadians across the country asked for when they signed our petition, acknowledged Toronto businessman Floyd Marinescu, founder of UBI Works Canada, which launched the petition March 16. But its a signal that our leaders recognize the value of a basic income as an economic recovery measure. This emergency basic income will open the door for our government to learn about the benefits of a UBI as an economic stimulus that will benefit all Canadians and act to make it reality, he said in a statement on the campaigns Facebook page. The reason unemployed workers are being treated so much better in this crisis than people on social assistance is that middle-income voters swing elections and societys most vulnerable often dont vote, Marinescu said in an interview. And that is why this is a historic opportunity. As many as four million Canadians are going to be applying for the CERB and will see just how precarious their own situation is. With that real, lived experience, we can rally the centre to implement a basic income for everyone, he said. Businesses automate to survive when times are tough, and this global crisis will see even more jobs lost to automation, Marinescu added. He predicts more than two million Canadians who will receive a temporary basic income through the CERB may not have jobs to come back to when it runs out. Now is the time to push for a UBI so this next recession can be shorter and we can all come out better off, he said. Former Tory senator Hugh Segal couldnt agree more. He helped design Ontarios ill-fated basic income pilot project, introduced in 2017 by Kathleen Wynnes Liberal government in 2017 and scrapped by Doug Fords Progressive Conservatives when they swept to power in June 2018. Because the experiment ended prematurely, the province and researchers watching around the world were not able to determine if sending unconditional cash payments to low-income residents improved their health, education, housing and employment prospects. But informal surveys of those who participated showed promise. A majority who had low-wage jobs before the trial remained in the workforce. Many went back to school, and mental health improved dramatically. Segals model was similar to the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors that kicks in when incomes drop below a certain level. It brought incomes for working-age adults up to about 75 per cent of the provincial poverty line, or about $1,400 a month. Individuals with disabilities got a monthly top-up of $500. It was a stark difference compared to Ontarios current monthly social assistance benefits of $733 for people deemed able to work and $1,169 for those with disabilities. And unlike social assistance, Segal argues his basic income model encouraged people to work because those with annual incomes of up to $34,000 or about $12,000 above the poverty line would still receive some support. On social assistance, onerous monthly reporting requirements allow people to keep just $200 in earnings a month before clawbacks. It means someone on Ontario Works (OW) deemed employable can earn only $1,666 a month or just under $20,000 a year before they get kicked off. Compared to the $100-billion-plus COVID-19 federal relief package, the Parliamentary Budget Office in 2018 estimated it would cost Ottawa just $43 billion in new funding to provide a national, guaranteed minimum income, similar to the one Ontario was testing. And it would support about 7.5 million working-age Canadians. Segal, the Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy at Queens University, says the global pandemic highlights the vulnerability of precarious workers and people with disabilities struggling to survive on social assistance. Once the pandemic is under control and people can relax a bit, the public and policy-makers will be taking a hard took at what went wrong and what we could do better, he said in an interview. And one area for reform is the lack of agility our existing social cash-transfer systems have with respect to getting money to low-income people quickly when necessary, he said. Polling shows close to 70 per cent of Canadians support basic income, Segal noted. We already have a basic income for children through the Canada Child Benefit and the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors and a tiny bit of help for low-income people through the GST tax credit, he said. Its not really the worlds largest construction job to put those things together and find a way to do this through a basic income guarantee for all ... Its just a question of political will. Public sector unions and those who worry about the collapse of social programs will oppose it, he predicted, as will those who argue paying people to do nothing will cause them to abandon the labour force. But basic income is about more efficient cash transfers to people, not about cutting services, Segal said. And 70 per cent of people living in poverty have a job, he noted. Often more than one. A basic income could supplement that low-wage work and lift them out of poverty, he said. The other roadblock will be government finance officials who would see such a large, annual expenditure as a limit on their ability to design and craft new initiatives, Segal said. Those three groups of opponents are going to be just as dug in after (the pandemic) as they are now, he predicted. Adding to the challenge, will be the call for fiscal restraint to bring down a deficit that will likely top $200 billion due to the crisis. But in a minority government anything can happen, Segal said, suggesting the NDP and others could make basic income a condition of support. I remain really optimistic, he said. But I think we have to be realistic about the constraints that were going to have to face. University of Manitoba economist Evelyn Forgets research on Manitobas minimum basic income experiment in the late 1970s has been a major force behind renewed interest in the concept. One of her promising findings from the rural town of Dauphin, where most low-income families received the benefit, was a drop in hospital admissions and an increase in high school graduations. Basic income is always discussed during times of economic collapse, most recently during the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, she noted. But once the economy recovers, the idea falls by the wayside. One of the things we are seeing now is how limited existing programs are, and how hard it is to make them work together to make sure nobody falls through the gaps, she said in an interview from Winnipeg. Its because we dont have a basic income. Thats going to be hard for people to ignore going forward, she predicted. The limitations of those programs are becoming very, very apparent. Basic income could gain more acceptance after the pandemic if todays economic measures to support business and ordinary Canadians are successful and remain popular with the public, she predicted. But we are at a point where things could go in either direction, she said. If the governments action is shown to be excessive or wasteful, the idea of more broader basic-income-type measures could fizzle. One hopes basic income doesnt have to wear any mistakes they might make, she added. Economist Armine Yalnizyan, however, says a basic income for everyone is the last thing Canada needs when the crisis is over. Basic income helps people make the choice of not going to work, said Yalnizyan, the Atkinson Charitable Foundations fellow on the future of workers. And when this is over, we are going to need all hands on deck. We can already anticipate labour shortages in the essential services and non-profit sector, in health care, child care, first responders work that robots cant do. For Yalnizyan and labour activists, basic services child care, pharmacare, dental and vision care and more affordable, reliable public transit are a better bet for the same public investment. Building a robust system of basic services for everyone will grow the middle class and allow its members to spend money on more discretionary items, she argued. With an aging society, Canada will need its working-age population to have enough discretionary income to keep the economy growing, she added. Yes, we have to focus on the most vulnerable. Yes, we have to stabilize the economy from the bottom up. Yes, we have to fill in the cracks in the floor so the whole building doesnt collapse, she said, noting governments are scrambling to do that now in the eye of the pandemic. But when we get through to the other side ... we have to also set our sights on making sure those who are able to work, and can work full-time, are working. And that their work is valued. Increasing incomes valuing the caring work that this crisis has highlighted is a better economic strategy than giving people basic incomes to bolster lousy pay, she argued. Toronto social policy expert John Stapleton is also a skeptic who says a basic income for every Canadian from cradle to grave would never fly, particularly with seniors who would oppose any attempt to tinker with their hard-earned benefits. But the former provincial social services bureaucrat says the pandemic may provide an opening for a less overbearing and dehumanizing welfare system. The ministrys move in March to suspend mandatory monthly income reporting for people on social assistance during the crisis largely due to the need for physical distancing brings the program one step closer to a basic-income-type delivery model, Stapleton said. It could be the beginning of streamlining the system and making it less onerous on people and (case) workers, he said. Its kind of like basic income through the back door. Yalniyzan agrees that COVID-19 may force governments to rethink support to the most vulnerable working-age adults, those who are too ill to work or who cant work full-time. And a federal program, based on a basic income, may be the way to go. Through this experience, more eyes have been opened to the reality facing a lot of our neighbours, she said. And we have seen in real time our ability to respond together when we view ourselves as in it together. The question is whether that sense of solidarity will last. Peter Martin certainly hopes so. In ordinary times, Martin pays $740 of his $1,169 monthly ODSP cheque on rent and about $300 on medical marijuana to control his severe PTSD. The remaining $129 goes toward transportation to the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC) for meals and socialization and where he earns $30 a week as a peer support worker. But to keep staff and community members safe, PARC has suspended all peer support work and is limiting drop-in meals to people who are homeless. Martin is paying a friend to buy him groceries out of the money he usually spends on TTC fare while he self-isolates due to an underlying health condition that makes him vulnerable to the virus. There are an awful lot of people on ODSP right now who are really, really scared, he said. Were talking about not paying our rent because we need to buy food. Martin admires the heroism of health-care workers and others on the front lines helping the sick and vulnerable. And he is buoyed by the collective concern of Canadians pulling together to get through the crisis. But for people like us, this is not a crisis, he said. It is just another crisis. I just hope people remember us when this is over. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:49:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Sanaa Kamal RAMALLAH, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of local volunteers from the Jenin city village of Jalabon have been deployed in their town, which is located in Area C in the West Bank, in order to implement the Palestinian Authority's instructions to curb the spread of COVID-19. Area C, which takes up over 60 percent of the West Bank's area of 5,655 square km, is under Israeli control according to the Oslo Accords, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government in 1993. At that time, West Bank was divided into three areas: Area A under Palestinian control, Area B under control of both sides, and Area C. Depending on the accords, PA cannot carry out its duty towards the population in Area C, so it decided to form emergency committees to implement measures against COVID-19 inside it. Nidal Ahmed, 39 years old, one of the volunteers, took his place with four others at a checkpoint near the Israeli wall, separating Palestinian lands and Israeli cities, to monitor the entrance and exit and prevent the movement there. The father of two told Xinhua that he and his colleagues are protecting the Palestinian residents in Area C from the spread of the virus by implementing the Palestinian government's strict measures. "More than 3,000 residents were left alone to confront the virus," said Ahmed. "There are no Israeli checkpoints here, and it seems that they gave up their duties." "We have to hold our responsibility and prevent the Palestinian workers' attempts to leave the village to Israel," he said. The procedures and instructions for the emergency state are implemented based on direct coordination between the committees, governors, and local government, in addition to the Palestinian information security services, according to Ahmed. Not only at the exit but also inside the village, some guards are providing necessary services to the residents. Walid Omar, 33 years old, is another volunteer who teaches the residents how they can follow the protective measures. "I teach people how they can sterilize their cars, houses, and tools," Omar told Xinhua while holding a box of gloves. He added that each member in the community can help by implementing the protective instructions, especially in Area C. "Israel intends to leave us alone to challenge the virus, despite the fact that we live under its control," said Omar. These committees fill the vacuum created by the lack of Palestinian security services in Area C, monitoring Palestinian workers and providing services to citizens, said Majdi al-Saleh, local minister. He explained that there are about 396 emergency committees that have been formed in various Palestinian villages, towns and cities, including Area C, noting all of them coordinate with the competent authorities to avoid any deficiencies or obstacles. Palestine has witnessed a significant increase in the number of coronavirus cases, which so far reached 226, including 12 in the Gaza Strip and the rest in the West Bank. For a month, the Palestinian people live under strict precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus among the residents. On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared extending the state of emergency in the Palestinian territories for 30 days. When you talk about how did the experience that we had back then inform what Deb and I do now, its kind of like deja vu all over again, Fauci said. Here we are up on the stage in the press room in the White House. Turn back the clock 35 years, and thats us talking about HIV. So thats what we mean when we sort of look at each other and sort of say under our breath, Been there, done that. Expressing solidarity with India's fight against coronavirus, Israel Embassy here lighted up lamps on Sunday in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to all to participate at '9 pm for 9 minutes' event. "The team at @IsraelinIndia joins our brothers and sisters in India as we light up the darkness at #9pm9minutes Let's spread light, positivity and hope as we stop the spread of #COVID19," tweeted Israel in India. Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong also expressed solidarity, saying Chinese and Indian people are standing together. "Light a Diya to stand in solidarity with people of #India in the fight against #COVID19. Pay tribute to all medical workers. At this difficult time, #Chinese & Indian people are standing together through thick & thin. Wish India an early victory against the epidemic. #9pm9minute," Weidong tweeted. The entire country came in unison on Sunday night, in line with the Prime Minister's appeal, to light candles, diyas and flashlights to signal India's resolve to defeat coronavirus. Modi had requested everyone to switch off all lights of their houses today at '9 pm for 9 minutes' and just light candles or 'diyas' to mark the fight against coronavirus, which has claimed 83 lives in the country so far. President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and various political leaders lit up earthen pots and lamps. In Chennai, people formed the map of India by lighting earthen lamps, while in Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lit earthen lamps to form an 'Om' at his residence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SsangYong Motor Board Chairman and Mahindra & Mahindra Managing Director Pawan Goenka arrives at the Korea Development Bank on Yeouido, Jan. 16. Yonhap By Nam Hyun-woo SsangYong Motor CEO Yea Byung-tae Mahindra & Mahindra said it cannot deliver promised aid to its cash-strapped unit SsangYong Motor, in what is seen as an ultimatum to the government, demanding it to provide aid from the state coffers. Mahindra's move is interpreted as a demand for the Moon Jae-in administration to choose between a bailout from state-run lenders or the collapse of SsangYong, which is a conundrum for the government and the ruling party wanting to avoid any job-related dent in their campaign ahead of the April 15 general election. According to Mahindra, it held a special board meeting Friday night and decided not to inject "any fresh equity into SsangYong," urging the company to find "alternate sources of funding." "India is under an unprecedented 21-day complete lockdown, and only emergency services are operating while, everything else is closed," Mahindra said in a statement, citing the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The board hopes that the employees and management at SsangYong understand the magnitude of the unfortunate and unforeseen crisis created by the COVID-19 virus, which has compelled it to take the difficult decision." In January, SsangYong Motor Board Chairman and Mahindra Managing Director Pawan Goenka told the SsangYong union the company would need 500 billion won over three years for normalization, and Mahindra had the intention to inject 230 billion won ($186 million). Citing this, Mahindra requested at least 170 billion won in aid from the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), adding SsangYong will secure 100 billion won by unloading assets and downsizing. The KDB has been tepid about this, saying Mahindra should fulfill its responsibility first. While closing the window for SsangYong, however, Mahindra said it will "consider a one-time special infusion" of up to 40 billion won to SsangYong over the next three months to "help the company to continue its operation while exploring alternate sources of funding." This is interpreted as Mahindra setting a three-month deadline, as the KDB did not show the desired response to its January request for government aid as the cost for the Moon administration's apparent intervention on the rehiring of laid-off SsangYong workers. SsangYong launched a mass layoff in 2009 and 119 workers have staged a protest demanding their rehiring over the past 10 years. In July 2018, President Moon met Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra and mentioned these workers, which was soon followed by the Presidential Economic, Social and Labor Council's pledge of support for SsangYong after the company rehired them. A SsangYong Motor plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of SsangYong Motor Some of Uganda's poorest people used to work here, on the streets of Kampala, as fruit sellers sitting on the pavement or as peddlers of everything from handkerchiefs to roasted peanuts. Now they're gone and no one knows when they will return, victims of a global economic crisis linked to the coronavirus that could wipe out jobs for millions across the African continent, many who live hand-to-mouth with zero savings. "We've been through a lot on the continent. Ebola, yes, African governments took a hit, but we have not seen anything like this before," Ahunna Eziakonwa, the United Nations Development Program regional director for Africa, told The Associated Press. "The African labour market is driven by imports and exports and with the lockdown everywhere in the world, it means basically that the economy is frozen in place. And with that, of course, all the jobs are gone." More than half of Africa's 54 countries have imposed lockdowns, curfews, travel bans or other measures in a bid to prevent local transmission of the virus. They range from South Africa, where inequality and crime plague Africa's most developed country, to places like Uganda, where the informal sector accounts for more than 50% of the country's gross domestic product. The deserted streets in downtown Kampala, Uganda's capital, underscore the challenge facing authorities across the world's poorest continent, home to 1.3 billion people: how to look after millions of people stuck at home for weeks or even months of lockdown. With some governments saying they're unable to offer direct support, the fate of Africa's large informal sector could be a powerful example of what experts predict will be unprecedented damage to economies in the developing world. Among the millions made jobless are casual laborers, petty traders, street vendors, mechanics, taxi operators and conductors, housekeepers and waitresses, and dealers in everything from used clothes to construction hardware. Unless the virus' spread can be controlled, up to 50% of all projected job growth in Africa will be lost as aviation, services, exports, mining, agriculture and the informal sector all take a hit, Eziakonwa said. The UN Economic Commission for Africa has said the pandemic could seriously dent already stagnant growth in many countries, with oil-exporting nations like Nigeria and Angola losing up to USD 65 billion in revenue as prices fall. Economies in sub-Saharan Africa are seen as especially vulnerable because many are heavily indebted and some struggle just to implement their budgets under less stressful circumstances. Now the continent might need up to USD 10.6 billion in unanticipated increases in health spending, and revenue losses could lead to debt becoming unsustainable, UNECA chief Vera Songwe said in March. Urgent calls for an economic stimulus package have followed. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has spoken of an "existential threat" to Africa's economies while seeking up to USD 150 billion from G20 nations. A meeting of African finance ministers agreed that the continent needs a stimulus package of up to USD 100 billion, including a waiver of up to USD 44 billion in interest payments. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa backed the calls for a stimulus package, saying in a recent speech that the pandemic "will reverse the gains that many countries have made in recent years." Several African nations have been among the fastest-growing in the world. The International Monetary Fund on March 25 said it had received requests for emergency financing from close to 20 African countries, with requests from another 10 or more likely to follow. The IMF has since approved credit facilities for at least two West African nations Guinea and Senegal facing virus-related economic disruption. Further challenges exist. Rampant corruption in many African countries feeds inequality, and poor or non-existent public services stoke public anger that sometimes escalates into street protests and deadly violence. Measures to control the spread of COVID-19 could make that worse as people trapped at home go hungry. UNECA has called for emergency actions to protect 30 million jobs immediately at risk across Africa, particularly in the tourism and airline sectors, saying the continent will be hit harder than others with an economic toll that will exacerbate "current fragilities". After Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced that food markets could remain open under orders to decongest crowded areas, some fruit vendors were assaulted by armed men and had goods confiscated, drawing an apology from the army commander. Museveni later announced an effective lockdown, closing public transport and all but essential businesses. On a continent where extended families are common, some say, one job loss can spell doom for up to a dozen or more people. "Sitting down is not an option because they don't have money locked away," said Eziakonwa, the UNDP official in charge of Africa. Some governments such as Rwanda are distributing food to those who need it, but there are questions about sustainability. "We do know what to do to bring the economy back to life. What we don't know is how to bring back people to life," said Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo. He has created a virus alleviation fund to look after the neediest and has donated the equivalent of his salary for three months. But many want to see more support, including tax relief that benefits a wider section of the urban poor. In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced temporary tax relief to people described as low-income earners those earning up to USD 240 in monthly wages as well a reduction in the maximum income tax rate from 30% to 25%. He also gave USD 94 million to "vulnerable members of our society" to protect them from economic damage. But other leaders say they cannot afford such benefits. Noting that "the rich countries are unlocking staggering sums" to stimulate their economies, Benin's President Patrice Talon said that his West African country, "like most African countries, does not have these means". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fox News host Tucker Carlson has criticised infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci over his national recommendations to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Mr Carlson used time on his show on Friday evening to release a diatribe against the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and his suggestion of a nationwide lockdown. "More than 10 million Americans have already lost their jobs," Mr Carlson said. "Imagine another year of this. That would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least." The criticism from Mr Carlson comes after Dr Fauci appeared on CNN and was asked why every state was not under stay-at-home orders during the pandemic. "I don't understand why that's not happening," Dr Fauci said. "If you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that. We really should be." Already about 90 per cent of Americans are under stay-at-home orders, which were all decided by state governors. Dr Fauci, who also works on the White House coronavirus task force, never made suggestions that the US should be closed "another year" to combat the spread as the host claimed. Mr Carlson went on to say that Dr Fauci was asking for "extreme measures" across the US until "there are no more coronavirus infections and no more deaths." But, in the Fox News host's opinion, he thought that would be detrimental socially and economically. "Our response to coronavirus could turn this into a far poorer nation," Mr Carlson said. "Poor countries are unhealthy countries, always and everywhere. In poor countries, people die of treatable diseases. In poor countries, people are far more vulnerable to obscure viruses, like the one we are fighting now. You want to keep Americans from dying before their time? Then don't impoverish them." While he called Dr Fauci an "impressive man", he thought the infectious disease expert could be wrong about just how much the virus could impact communities. "That doesn't mean he's never wrong. On the question of the pandemic, Fauci has been wrong repeatedly," he added. Coronavirus cases in the US rose to more than 300,000 infections and a death toll of 8,162, according to Johns Hopkins University. March 20, 2020 Beach Lake, PA Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River is announcing modifications to operations to implement the latest guidance from the White House, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and Pennsylvania Governors Administration to close any non-life sustaining facilities to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. As of 3/20/20, Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational Rivers offices will be closed, and non-essential employees will be teleworking. Where it is possible to adhere to the latest health guidance from the CDC, outdoor spaces such as river accesses, and trails will remain open to provide healthy options for the public. The Tollhouse and restrooms at Roebling Bridge will remain closed until further notice. Please go to www.nps.gov/upde to visit Upper Delawares virtual tour, link to social media or to become a Jr. Ranger. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at Upper Delaware is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working with the federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website and social media channels. The NPS urges visitors to do their part when visiting a park and to follow CDC guidance to prevent the spread of infectious diseases by maintaining a safe distance between yourself and other groups; washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds; avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth; covering your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze; and most importantly, staying home if you feel sick. For high-risk populations, such as the elderly and people with underlying conditions, we ask that they take extra caution and follow CDC guidance for those at higher risk of serious illness. Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus. Please check with individual parks for specific details about park operations www.nps.gov About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close- Up to 4,000 prisoners in England and Wales could be released early amid fears that coronavirus will spread rapidly through crowded jails and put increasing strain on the NHS. Justice Secretary Robert Buckland announced the move on Saturday after weeks of resisting demands. 'Low-level' offenders, such as those prosecuted for theft and drug possession, who were eligible for release within the next two months will now be let out within a matter of days. Three prisoners and two prison workers have already died with coronavirus as the number of confirmed cases across the UK soars to 41,903 with a current death toll of 4,313. Up to 4,000 prisoners in England and Wales could be released early amid fears that coronavirus will spread rapidly through crowded jails and put increasing strain on the NHS (stock image) Ministry of Justice sources said that they had initially been looking to ease any prison overcrowding by transferring inmates to alternative Government accommodation including immigration detention centres, army barracks and police custodies. But it was ultimately decided that they had little option but to go ahead under emergency powers. Prisoners will be thoroughly assessed before their temporary release in order to reduce the risk posed to members of the public and all will be subject to electronic tagging. Those inmates who have been convicted of violence or sexual offences as well as those who pose a threat to children or national security will not be eligible. Justice Secretary Robert Buckland (left) announced the move on Saturday after weeks of resisting demands from those such as former chief inspector of prisons Lord Ramsbotham (right) Mr Buckland said: 'This Government is committed to ensuring that justice is served to those who break the law. 'But this is an unprecedented situation because if Coronavirus takes hold in our prisons, the NHS could be overwhelmed and more lives put at risk.' Most prisons have already taken significant steps in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly pathogen. Two employees at the same prison die after suffering from coronavirus symptoms sparking fears of further jail outbreaks Pentonville Prison Two staff members at north London's Pentonville Prison have died after suffering Covid-19 symptoms, the Prison Officers' Association said. Bovil Peter and Patrick Beckford were both support staff workers at the Category C jail and were believed to be aged in their 60s. POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst described Mr Peter as 'an experienced member of staff' who was working at operational support grade at the prison, and 'he died earlier this week due to Covid-19 symptoms. He said: 'My thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved with these tragic deaths - two at the same prison is very concerning.' It is not known if either of the men had any underlying health conditions. Mr Fairhurst added: 'We are on the front line doing a commendable job on behalf of society and he will be sadly missed by all his colleagues. 'We wish the best for his family and friends.' Advertisement Offenders are being kept locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day and with no family visits being allowed. And nearly 70 pregnant women and mothers with babies have already been released early to protect them from the virus. But former chief inspector of prisons Lord Ramsbotham recently called on authorities to go further. Lord Ramsbotham said he was 'very worried' about the effect of the crisis on the country's jails, saying prison staff would not be able to handle the crisis. 'The remand prisoners in particular should be let out,' Lord Ramsbotham wrote in a letter to The Daily Telegraph co-signed by 50 fellow members of the House of Lords as well as police and crime commissioners, leading academics and charities. 'They should also examine indeterminate sentence prisoners.' Two of Britain's leading prison charities echoed Lord Ramsbotham's remarks and warned that failure to enforce more drastic measures could lead to loss of life on an 'unprecedented scale'. It comes after three prisoners and two prison workers have already died with coronavirus. A further 88 prisoners and 15 staff have tested positive for Covid-19 across 29 jails. The first inmate to die, Edwin Hillier, was jailed for sex attacks on young girls in the 1970s. He was rushed to hospital with suspected sepsis on March 20 but post-mortem results showed he had also contracted coronavirus. An inmate at HMP Manchester died in hospital on March 26 after testing positive for coronavirus. He was already terminally ill and receiving end-of-life care. And 77-year-old man with underlying health conditions became the third prisoner to die yesterday at HMP Littlehey, a category C prison for sex offenders - where Hillier had died just two weeks before. There are also now concerns about staffing levels as nearly one in four - 8,700 prison officers are absent from their roles with many self-isolating due to exhibiting coronavirus symptoms. Prison Officers' Union Chief Dave Cook has called for the military to be drafted in as back up. The Indian High Commission in Pakistan lighted up lamps on Sunday night in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to all to participate in '9 pm for 9 minutes' event to defeat the coronavirus. Indians rose to the occasion in unison and lit candles, diyas to signal India's resolve to defeat the coronavirus. Modi had requested everyone to switch off all lights of their houses today at '9 pm for 9 minutes' and just light candles or 'diyas' to mark the fight against coronavirus, which has claimed 83 lives in the country so far. President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Modi and various political leaders lit up earthen pots and lamps. In Chennai, people formed the map of India by lighting earthen lamps, while in Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lit earthen lamps to form an 'Om' at his residence. This comes days after the people had come out in their balconies and clapped and clanged utensils to express their gratitude to medical professionals -- who are at the forefront of the country's fight against coronavirus. The number of positive cases of coronavirus in the country continues to surge. As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 3,577 with 83 deaths. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of medical workers prepare to take samples for mass testing of Covid-19 in Hanoi, March 31, 2020. Photo by VnExpres/Giang Huy. A 20-year-old Vietnamese student returning from the U.K. has tested Covid-19 positive, taking the country's tally to 241, the Health Ministry confirmed Sunday. "Patient 241" is a resident of the Thao Dien area in HCMCs District 2. On March 21, he flew home from London on Vietnam Airlines flight VN0050, landing at the Can Tho Airport in the Mekong Delta on March 22. He was asymptomatic on arrival and sent to a centralized quarantine facility at a military school in southern Bac Lieu Province. His swab samples tested negative for Covid-19 on March 25, but on March 31, he developed fever and had a sore throat. A day later, he was taken to the Bac Lieu General Hospital for treatment and a testing of his samples showed he was infected with the novel coronavirus. Nine people in the same room at the quarantine facility continue to be asymptomatic, but their health is being monitored closely and they are quarantined for another 14 days. Of the 241 Covid-19 cases in Vietnam, 91 have been discharged. Many of the 150 active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from abroad, mostly from Europe and the U.S., and more than 60 people are related to the two major Covid-19 hotspots in the country the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi and Buddha Bar & Grill in Ho Chi Minh City. The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to more than 200 countries and territories, claiming more than 64,000 lives. A major dog rehoming charity is expecting a huge influx of unwanted dogs when people no longer have to stay at home because of Covid-19. Corina Fitzsimons of Dogs Trust said it was a lot like Christmas now because people had lots of time on their hands. We have heard anecdotally from people we know who work in pet shops that people are buying puppies online. We expect there will be a huge influx of requests to surrender a dog from people who had rushed out and bought dogs at this time. Because they are at home they probably think it is a great time to get a dog, she said. The dog welfare charity that is solely reliant on the public to continue their work across Ireland received an average of six requests to surrender a dog every day during January. Between December 2019 and January 31 this year, the charity recorded an alarming 185 calls and 50 emails from people trying to relinquish their dog. Many people do not consider all aspects of dog ownership including the essential socialisation and training needs, the cost involved and life-long commitment of dog ownership. Ms Fitzsimons said it was also important that people who are at home with their dogs at this time should distance themselves from them for an hour or two during the day. Obviously, if there are children around you have to supervise all interactions, she said. I have dogs and right now I am upstairs in my office. My dogs are downstairs and I have given them something to do for an hour or two. If I go back to work and I have been with them 24 hours a day they will get really upset. Dogs Trust has closed its dog rehoming centre to the public because of coronavirus but staff are caring for the dogs as usual. However, it has been overwhelmed with people asking to foster dogs at this time and there had been an increase in the number of people asking to adopt. We have had over 500 requests from people wanting to foster for us. "We are looking for people to foster in Connaught and Munster because we have 80 dogs in boarding facilities and we have to find homes for them. People cant obviously visit our centre but there are lots of things we can do to get the adoption process rolling online. We can do virtual home visits for fostering and adoptions and have the forms filled online. We can also bring the dogs safely to people and maintain social distancing. Meanwhile, Cork Dog Action Welfare Group has announced it will not be homing dogs because of coronavirus. The charity, founded in 2007, has a shelter in Charleville, where they currently have around 20 dogs and a further 20 are with fosterers. Avril Kelly is one of five women with Cork DAWG who rescue abused, straying, surrendered and abandoned dogs and give them a second chance at finding a loving home. Ms Kelly said they had people waiting to adopt dogs but they could not see the dogs because they would have to go into their fosterers homes. It is affecting us but, in saying that, last week we appealed to people to foster dogs and we got a fantastic response. A lot of people who are off work because of Covid-19 have offered to foster dog. When the fosterers go back to work we could be in a bit of trouble but we will get the dogs homed then hopefully, she said. Asked how the sanctuary will survive beyond the coronavirus crisis, Ms Kelly said she did not know. Our fundraising activities have all been crucified by coronavirus. We have no money coming in, she said. My rehoming job is at a standstill until people can start to come out of their houses and meet the dogs. Ms Kelly said their phone was still hopping with people calling to say they no longer wanted their dogs. We have great fosterers and people have been so good but I dont know how we are going to keep going. We could be in trouble but we will never ignore a stray dog. "We will always take the animal in and find somewhere for it." ZANZIBAR-based political parties yesterday asked the government to put the Indian Oceans islands under three-week quarantine in efforts to quell the deadly corona virus. We, leaders of political parties in Zanzibar, are, in good faith, advising the government to impose a 21-day quarantine to ensure the fatal COVID-19 virus does not spread further, Demokrasia Makini Secretary General, Ameir Hassan Ameir read the joint statement on behalf of 12 political party leaders. The leaders pleaded with the Ministry of Health to spray all crowded places and offices to protect Zanzibaris against the virus that has destabilised the world. They asked wananchi to remain calm during this trying period and observe all directives issued by health experts and government leaders. The politicians commended the Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi, for voluntarily observing a 14-day selfisolation after returning from a trip abroad. They urged all public leaders to emulate Ambassador Iddi by taking precautionary measures upon return from their foreign trips, especially after visiting Corona hard-hit countries. In their joint declaration before reporters here, the political leaders censured hate speeches by some misguided politicians particularly now that the country is heading to the general elections later this year. We condemn in the strongest terms statements by ACTWazalendo National Chairman (Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad), accusing Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) of colluding with the House of Representatives to enact the law that would bar him from standing for the presidency, Mr Hassan said. The leaders dismissed as baseless claims that ZEC, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi and the revolutionary government were conspiring to disrupt peaceful and harmonious 2020 general elections. The ACT National Chairman has on different occasions unjustifiably accused CCM of organising hooligan groups to sabotage his party, the leaders statement read in part, imploring him to embrace civilized politics. The leaders condemned all individuals who attempted to intentionally disrupt the issuance of national IDs to Zanzibar residents as well as registration and verification of eligible voters in the permanent voter register. They applauded President Ali Mohamed Shein for his prompt intervention to ensure that the exercise was conducted smoothly to allow free and fair democratic elections later this year. The leaders described the current ZEC as the best and highly independent, saying: Before it (ZEC) was formed, President Shein convened a meeting of all national leaders of political parties and we aired our views, which were fully accommodated in the commissions formation. They called for another referendum on the fate of the national unity government system, saying they were not satisfied with the pace of involvement of all political parties in building the nation. The leaders faulted the 2000 referendum, which provided only CCM and Civic United Front (CUF) with an opportunity to participate in running government affairs. Parties behind the joint statement are Demokrasia Makini, Sauti ya Umma, United Democratic Party, National League for Democracy, Democratic Party, Tanzania Labour Party, Chama Cha Kijamii, Tanzania Democratic Alliance, Alliance for Farmers Party and the ruling CCM. Local and international experts have warned of a surge of cyberattacks on companies and institutions. The causes can be traced back to a number of factors: mainly the transfer of a major part of business to the Internet, the increased electronically-generated provision of services and products, as well as a direct result of the outbreak of the coronavirus, Covid-19, which has further stressed the Internet as so many are working remotely. According to experts, the current situation is tempting cybercriminals to launch more destructive attacks aimed at stealing money or data or obtaining a ransom through other malicious targets. Whats more concerning is that it is likely that employees of telecom operators and IT companies will be amongst the first to come under attack, although the finance industry seems to be the most tempting target. Reasons for these attacks are many. They could be for spying purposes and financial theft. In addition, they state there culd be a rise in the number of frauds especially to be expected in the tourism industry (refund centers of airlines, hotels, etc.) Moreover, insiders whose salaries are reduced due to switching to remote working, may also cause harm to their organisations. Yaqoob Al Awadhi, the CEO of NGN International, a systems integrator and IT consultant, warned that cyberattacks will target financial institutions in particular. He said that since most banks have stopped providing many services through their branches, and have asked their customers to conduct their transactions via the Internet, this has resulted in an increase in the number of people who use electronic payment channels instead of cash payments, and, at its most benign, these may carry a virus of an electronic nature. Al Awadhi outlined the situation by stating: Corporate businesses have also made their presence on the Internet more active under these current circumstances. A number of institutions, such as restaurants, are obliged not to receive customers at their main outlets and are only providing their products or services through their external delivery system, which in turn is mainly based on using the Internet. Also, we notice an increase in the number of institutions that sell items or provide services that rely on online shopping to get paid. In addition there is an increased reliance on electronic platforms that provide video conferencing services and online learning platforms, as well as an upsurge in subscriptions to streaming video services, and mobile phone applications to deliver food and other items. Al Awadhi stressed that coronavirus has imposed on employees of many public and private sector institutions, to work remotely or work from home. This makes the corporations correspondence, documents and dealings more vulnerable to cybercrime due to their increased exposure to the Internet. A huge number of people around the world are sitting in their homes all day and night spending a large portion of their time connected to the Internet. Group-IB, an international provider of cybersecurity solutions and a partner of NGN International, issued a list of recommendations to ensure secure and trouble-free remote work. These recommendations include applying remote access to the organisation's network strictly with two-factor authentication, avoiding access to the corporate network through third-party services that use intermediate servers, and making sure that there are up-to-date protection software systems in place on home computers. The responsibility lies with all users who should beware of using e-mail that may transmit harmful viruses, Al Awadhi stated. -- Tradearabia News Service A leading Chinese human rights lawyer has been released from prison after almost five years behind bars, his wife said Sunday. Wang Quanzhang, 44, was first detained in 2015 in a sweeping crackdown on more than 200 lawyers and government critics in China as President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on power. But Wang has yet to return home to his family in Beijing and was instead escorted Sunday to a property he owns in eastern Shandong province for 14 days in quarantine as a precaution against the coronavirus, according to wife Li Wenzu. Li told AFP from Beijing, where she lives with the couple's young son, she feared Wang would be placed under house arrest despite his release from prison, and would be subject to surveillance. "I think (authorities) have been lying to us step by step," Li said. "They used the pretext of the epidemic as an excuse to quarantine him for 14 days when he should have been able to return to his home in Beijing according to the relevant legal guidelines." Calls to the prison went unanswered Sunday and Shandong's justice department did not respond to enquiries from AFP. Wang's initial detention in 2015 came as part of the so-called "709" crackdown, nicknamed as such because it began on July 9 that year. But it was not until January 2019 that he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for "subverting state power" in a closed-door trial. A prominent lawyer who has defended political activists and victims of land seizures, Wang was held incommunicado prior to the trial. "I am really worried they plan on putting him under long-term house arrest and will prevent us from being reunited as a family," said Li, who has tirelessly campaigned for her husband's release. Police had forcibly evicted tenants from Wang's property in the city of Jinan to make way for his return to Shandong, his wife added. Li said she believed his stay there was not out of choice. "His speech is being restricted. He phoned me yesterday saying he would go to Jinan," she said. "Is this what a rational person would do after being separated from their wife and child for almost five years?" Li's first trip to see her husband since his detention in 2015 came in June last year when she was granted a prison visit after repeated denials, she said. "My husband's health has deteriorated during the long incarceration, he has lost so much weight," Li told AFP at the time. - 'Positive development' - Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since Xi took power in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of speech and detaining hundreds of activists and lawyers. The European Union welcomed the release as a "positive development", but said that reports of Wang undergoing "serious mistreatment and torture" in detention must be "thoroughly investigated". "The European Union expects that Mr Wang's release will be unconditional, with particular regard to his freedom of movement and to establish residence, including the possibility to reunite with his family," it said in a statement on Sunday. Eleven human rights and legal concern groups -- including some based in Hong Kong and Taiwan -- also released a joint statement calling on authorities to ensure Wang's freedom from house arrest, surveillance or any other form of control. "Wang Quanzhang is one of many lawyers, activists, writers, and others who never should have spent a day in jail -- he committed no crime," said Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch's China Director. "Chinese authorities can begin [righting] that wrong by respecting his freedom, but if the past is any guide he will continue to be arbitrarily surveilled and constrained." And Doriane Lau, China Researcher at Amnesty International, warned his release may offer "merely the illusion of freedom." Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 16:22:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NANCHANG, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A black-faced spoonbill, a critically endangered bird species, was spotted at Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake in the eastern province of Jiangxi. The wader was discovered by staff of the Administration of Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve when patrolling the lake region in Duchang County, the first time the bird was found in Duchang, a major stop on birds' journey to Poyang, since last winter. Listed in the International Council for Bird Preservation bird red data book, the black-faced spoonbill is one of the most endangered birds in the world, due to its limited distribution area and extremely rare population. As an important wetland worldwide, Poyang Lake welcomes hundreds of thousands of rare migratory birds every year, providing a suitable habitat with its favorable ecological environment and biodiversity. THE charity behind an Air ambulance which has been deployed to dozens of emergency incidents in Limerick has warned it will be forced to ground the aircraft by this weekend due to a lack of funding. Based at Rathcoole in North Cork, the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) is being led by Irish Community Rapid Response (ICRR) and delivered in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service and the Department of Health. The service which operates under the call sign Helimed 92, went live on July 30, 2019 and has been tasked almost 400 times since well in excess of what had been anticipated. Operations Manager for the charity, Ruth Bruton says the current Covid-19 restrictions have led to the suspension of almost all fundraising activities meaning the air ambulance is likely to be grounded from this Friday due to a lack of funds. We are incredibly upset that lives will be lost due to the grounding of this service at this time, especially given how vital frontline medical support is during the Covid-19 pandemic and how incredibly successful the service has been to date, she said. ICRR had already implemented harsh cost cutting measures in an effort to continue which included the laying off of non-essential staff, cutting hours of current staff and the already introduced five day operational week. Our sincere thanks to the people of Ireland who supported this service and kept it flying for the last eight months, you have all been part of a community that has saved hundreds of lives and impacted many, many families. We could not have gotten off the ground without every single person who donated money, gave their time to fundraise or share our mission Ms. Bruton added. A major social media campiagn was launched by ICRR in recent days seeking online donations from members of the public. The government has also been requested to provide immediate interim support to ensure the service remains available during the current public health emergency. (ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) Missouri Western State University officials are discussing the possibility of cutting certain majors and minors in the next few years. In an email sent out to Missouri Western students Saturday afternoon, school president Matthew Wilson explained the possible changes. "As part of this review process, we convened an Academic Review Board (ARB) to assess each major and minor that does not meet the states annual graduation guidelines (10 students/year) or sustainable enrollment levels. The ARB reviewed data such as enrollments, graduates, student credit hours, faculty counts, etc. together with external employment data to better understand student demand for majors/minors, program viability, and career prospects," Wilson wrote. The phasing out of certain majors and programs would take place over the next two years. Wilson added that the campus community will be discussing and making written comments about the proposed actions. The Board of Governors will vote on some of the recommenations at the end of April. Wilson said that university provost Douglas Davenport released his recommendations to suspend new student enrollment and phase out certain programs on Saturday. In the email, Wilson noted that this should not impact current students and more than 75% of the student body is enrolled in higher enrollment programs and not affected by the recommendations. If a major or minor is phased out, courses in the impacted programs will be offered for a couple of years. Wilson also addresses several other possible concerns throughout his email: What happens if a program is designated to be phased out due to insufficient enrollments? Note that courses in the majors/minors approved to be phased out will continue to be offered during the upcoming academic year. If a program falls into the phase out category, two things will happen upon Board approval: o New student enrollments into the program will be suspended. (Phasing out a degree does not necessarily mean that courses will no longer be taught in a subject, just that a student will no longer be able to major or minor in that subject.) o We will have a pathway for students to complete degree requirements if they have already declared their major in a program designated for phasing out. Students will have two years to finish any program requirements. We will carefully guide and direct students through the process. What if I am in one of the programs affected? You do not need to change degree programs if you have declared your major in one of the programs designated to be phased out. We have a pathway to degree completion for you. You can complete that program through a teach-out arrangement here on our campus or through one of our partner institutions. You will have two years to finish your program requirements. Please be assured that we will do our best to minimize any negative impact on students while helping them obtain a Missouri Western degree. If the Board approves the recommendations, a plan will be implemented to assist an impacted student with advising, academic progress and degree completion. Why is the University phasing out certain programs? We need to make MWSU more efficient, responsive, and effective in light of financial pressures caused by lower enrollments, higher expenses, reduced state assistance, and other factors, including COVID-19. We are trying to keep tuition and fees reasonable. Unfortunately, student tuition from the programs with larger enrollments can no longer be used to subsidize many of the degrees where we have small enrollments. As a result, personnel adjustments have become necessary in programs with insufficient enrollments. Just over three-quarters of our graduates (76%) come from less than one-third (31%) of our majors. By phasing out degrees with lower enrollments, we can intensify our efforts on the larger programs and better serve our students overall. In short, we cannot be everything to everyone. Rather, we need to focus on areas where we have strong enrollments, majors that attract and graduate students, and applied learning opportunities that directly lead to careers. Of note, other universities are experiencing these same challenges and the pandemic has made them even more immediate and serious. Note that phasing out a degree does not necessarily mean that courses will not be taught in a given department; it only means that a major, for example, will no longer be available. What is the process? Input about suspending enrollment into the majors listed below will be taken until April 15th when the Provost forwards his final report to me in my capacity as President. Wilson will then make his recommendation to the Board of Governors for final approval by the end of the month. When will the decision be made about phasing out programs? April 29th is the anticipated date. All recommendations have been and will be made based on objective data, financial considerations, and employment opportunities. At the same time, feedback is being solicited from the campus community until April 15th. The Student Government Association has received a full copy of the report. It can receive feedback and present this to the Provost. Here is a list of the majors and minors that could potenially be phased out: Arts Studio Art Art Music Music Performance & Industry Music Technology & Industry Musical Theatre Theatre/Cinema/Dance Theatre Speech and Theatre Cinema (Minor in cinema remains) Biology (Three main degrees remain) Biology Botany Biology- General Biology-Zoology Biology- Biotechnology Natural Science-Biology Chemistry (Med. Lab Science remains) Chemistry Natural Science- Chem/ChemBus Natural Science- Chem./Forensic Science Natural Science- Chem./Health Professions Communications/Journalism (Strategic Communications remains) Speech Communication Convergent Journalism Speech Communication History History History/Teacher Certification History (B.S.) History/Teacher Certification (B.S.) Philosophy/Religion Philosophy Philosophy (B.S.) Philosophy/Religion CS Math Applied Computer Technology Computer Science/Com. Info. Mathematics Mathematics/Teacher Education Modern Languages English Spanish French English English/Creative Writing English/Literature English/Tech. Communications English/Language & Culture English/Professional Applications Poli. Science Political Science Political Science (B.S.) Sociology Sociology Economics Economics Psychology (Psychology/General (BS) remains) Psychology/Psyc Org Leadership Criminal Justice Criminal Justice/Corrections Criminal Justice/Juvenile Justice HPER Recreation Sport Management Physical Education/Teacher Ed. Physical Education/General SNHP Health Information Management Eng.Tech.Mgmt. MAS App. Science/Eng. Tech. Mgmt. Interdisc. International Studies MINORS Art History Minor Ceramics Minor Drawing Minor Illustration Minor Painting Minor Photography Minor Printmaking Minor Sculpture Music Technology Minor Musical Theatre Minor Dance Minor Theatre Minor Chemistry Minor Journalism Minor Speech Communication General History Minor History European Minor History US Humanities Minor Philosophy Minor Religion Applied Computer Technology Minor Computer Info. Systems Minor Mathematics Minor Physics Minor Spanish Minor French Minor German Minor Creative Writing Minor English Education Minor English Studies Minor Literature Minor Technical Communication Political Science - Am Gov Political Science - Int'l Studies Sociology Economics Recreation Sport Management Wellness Health Informatics & Info. Mgmt. Gender and Power Studies Leadership Peace and Conflict Studies Minor International Studies "Even though we are gradually phasing out these majors and minors, please remember that you will still have access to these majors and minors for the next two years. Also, even when these majors and minors are no longer available, classes in many of these disciplines will still be offered with respect to other majors, minors, or general education sections," Wilson added in his email. Photo: KGH Foundation Donations of PCR technologies to KGH's Larissa Yarr Medical Microbiology Lab are having a tremendous impact in local response to COVID-19. The Kelowna General Hospital Foundation has established a COVID-19 Response Fund to help hospital staff. Over the last several weeks, KGH and other hospitals in the province have been faced with many challenges in order to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic. All units at KGH have been impacted, while resources and equipment have been re-allocated to prepare for COVID-19 patients. During this time, the KGH Foundation has had an outpouring of requests from community members looking to support the hospital in any way they can. The impact of giving to support KGH right now will actually go beyond COVID-19, says KGH Foundation CEO Doug Rankmore. The COVID-19 Response Fund allows us to be responsive and nimble to our hospitals areas of greatest need, as they emerge." "The fund will also help ensure our doctors, nurses and staff have the resources and equipment they need to deliver the highest quality care to all KGH patients, during and in the after-math of this world-wide pandemic. Two years ago, the microbiology lab at KGH received a second set of polymerase chain reaction equipment, thanks to Colin Pritchard, who also gifted the first set in 2016. These instruments allow KGH microbiologists to find and identify viruses at a faster rate than ever before. When we received the PCR technology, we couldnt have known that we would be facing a global pandemic just a few years later," says KGH medical microbiologist and discipline director for IH medical microbiology Dr. Amanda Wilmer. "Without PCR technology at KGH, we would not have any capacity for COVID-19 testing in Interior Health, and would continue to wait for long periods of time for results, which isnt good for patients or infection control in the hospital. "There is not a single day that goes by that we in the lab are not grateful for the support of the community. I hope people know its making a difference. I hope they know it is saving lives today and will continue to save lives in the future. Those wanting to donate to the COVID-19 Response Fund can do so online here. Mailed donations are also accepted at: KGH Foundation, 2268 Pandosy Street, Kelowna, BC V1Y1T2. Or by phone at 250-862-4438. For offers of in-kind supplies or service, email [email protected] Oil prices fell on Monday amid ongoing uncertainty around the prospect of production cuts. The move lower came even as the CEO of Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF told CNBC that Moscow and Riyadh were "very close" to an oil deal, and as Russia reportedly said it was ready to reduce output, according to Reuters. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 7.97% to settle at $26.08 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude futures dipped 3.1% to settle at $33.05 per barrel. "I think the whole market understands that this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close," Kirill Dmitriev of the Russian Direct Investment Fund told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Monday. Brent prices edged into positive territory shortly after Dmitriev's optimistic comments, but quickly pared those gains. On Monday the U.S. Department of Energy said that Secretary Brouillette participated in a "productive discussion" with Saudi Arabia's energy minister about the "ongoing challenges and instability in global oil markets." According to the statement the two energy ministers agreed to "continue this dialogue through a G20 Energy Ministers meeting in the near future." Oil briefly rebounded from its session low during afternoon trading after Reuters reported that Russia was ready to substantially reduce its production, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Earlier, WTI fell more than 10% after a meeting between OPEC and its allies, initially scheduled for Monday, was delayed. The postponement stoked fears on Wall Street that a production cut might face hurdles. Oil surged last week WTI and Brent are both coming off their best week on record as Saudi Arabia called a meeting between OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, signaling there could be progress on a production cut. The organization's March meeting ended with no deal after Russia rejected the 1.5 million barrels per day cut that Saudi Arabia had proposed in a bid to prop up falling oil prices as the coronavirus outbreak sapped demand. This kicked off a price war between the two powerhouse producers. The Monday meeting was set after President Donald Trump said to CNBC on Thursday that he expected Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to announce a deal to cut production by up to 15 million barrels, and that he had spoken to both countries' leaders. Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman al Saud at a ceremony to sign joint documents following Russian-Saudi talks at the Al-Yamamah Royal Palace. Alexei Nikolsky | TASS via Getty Images But, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia escalated on Friday, and the meeting will now "likely" be held on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the matter. "It's probably going to crater," Again Capital's John Kilduff said of oil. "There was a lot of optimism priced into oil Thursday and Friday. With this new Saudi, Russia spat, it doesn't look like it's going to come together." Both Saudi Arabia and Russia have sought U.S. cooperation in balancing the world oil supply. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer behind Saudi Arabia, is also in favor of global action. On Sunday the nation's oil minister said the 13-member cartel and its allies need support from producers "outside of OPEC+." His statement mentioned the United States, Canada and Norway, specifically. American drillers are still pumping near-record levels as the world is coming to the edge of its ability to store oil. "The details of the emerging framework are complex, even if the overall picture seems clear on the surface: All in or no deal," said Eurasia Group's Ayham Kamel. "Politically and economically, Putin and Prince Mohammad need US participation in some shape or form." U.S. oil executives met with the president Friday at the White House, and there was speculation he would ask them to cooperate in cuts. No agreement came of the meeting, but Trump did seem to reflect an industry view that market forces should determine prices. "These are great companies and they'll figure it out," he said at a White House briefing following his meeting with the energy CEOs. "It's a free market, they'll figure it out." The president also said that tariffs are "certainly a tool in the tool box." "A breakdown of these [OPEC+] talks would most likely lead to a US ban or tariffs on non-North American oil imports to support WTI prices, though that would provide only temporary relief before the pressure to shut-in production rises again," Kamel added. The impact on the global economy may last for an entire generation I was speaking yesterday to a friend from Bangalore who has lived in the United States for most of his life. He is employed by a software firm and his work requires him to travel to India three times a year. I have known him for about a quarter century and he has been coming with regularity. It has been his routine and he spends at least 60 days each year in India on work. However, he will not be coming to Bangalore next month, as he was supposed to do, and he does not know when he would next be sent. Companies and businesses will not put their employees at risk any time soon, especially those firms based in America and Europe. They have laws which individuals can use if they feel they have been endangered and their safety jeopardised by their employer. Till there is a vaccine for Covid-19, this situation will remain uncertain. Of course, this will have an impact on the airlines. Already there is a ban on international travel pretty much across the world. Europeans cannot go to America and vice versa. No passenger flights are operating in India. Even when the lockdown is opened in mid April, the number of people flying on work internally will be low and after an initial couple of days when those who are stuck go immediately to where they need to be, the traffic will be lower each month than it was last year. How will airlines, which operate on very thin margins and sometimes operate at a loss as we have seen in India, manage? They will not be able to and the state will need to decide whether to bail them out (meaning tax payer money to be used on airplane leases and pilot and crew salaries) or let them die. From a position where India was about to sell its national carrier, Air India, we are faced with the possibility that the government buys stakes in a few more and possibly all airlines. Tourism employs something like 10 per cent of the worlds population. My friend stays in a hotel in Bangalore and that place will also lose income from business travellers for the foreseeable future. Restaurants will be hit for the new few months as people will continue remaining home unless absolutely required to be in public spaces. Similarly, malls and cinema halls and all those sorts of places which have high levels of mingling and crowds will suffer crushing losses of revenue. How will we cope and what will our new economy look like? We do not know at this point and we will need to learn as we go along. The chief economist of HDFC bank has written this week that the cost of Covid 19 to the Indian economy will be $100 billion, or Rs 7.5 lakh crore. That is equal to what India spends on defence plus all central government schemes (MNREGA, education, health, PM Awas, Smart Cities, Swachch Bharat, Mid Day meals, drinking water, irrigation etc) combined. Meaning that either we do not spend on all these things, which is not possible, or we borrow or print the money required to do all this. It is hard to imagine a sector which will not be violently affected by the health crisis, the lockdown and what will come after. The sales for cars and automobiles in March were 50 per cent lower in India than they were in March 2019. This is despite the fact that we lost only about eight days due to the lockdown that month. In April the hit will be bigger because half the month is part of the lockdown. Power consumption was 25 per cent lower this week than in April 2019. This is entirely because factories are shut down and will lose three weeks of output at least. After that, they will hope that their workers return from villages and that is not going to happen soon. There are three or four estimates on what the cost to the Gross Domestic Product of India will be. The most positive one says that we will lose two per cent points of GDP growth. The most negative says we will lose four per cent. The truth is that nobody knows at the moment what will come in April and May, just as nobody anticipated in February that March would turn out the way that it did though the Coronavirus story was already in the headlines then. It will occupy the world for the rest of 2020 and perhaps even beyond that and will have medium and long-term ramifications. The short term ones, the ones that we have described above, are immediate and visible. But there will be others, especially on the future of the global economy, that may impact us for an entire generation. Because we are currently in the middle of the immediate health crisis, there has not been much discussion of this so far but it will start soon. It is a very difficult task ahead for the prime minister and for the nation, even after the lockdown ends. Oversharing on Zoom In this era of social distancing, youve probably grown well acquainted with Zoom, the videoconferencing tool that millions of people are now using for remote work check-ins and virtual family dinners. But what you may not know is just how well acquainted Zoom is with your personal data, and how readily it shared that information with Facebook and other people in your Zoom meetings even when you had your privacy settings on. The company said on Thursday that it had disabled the data-mining feature, but not before it had allowed millions of people to surreptitiously snoop on each others LinkedIn profiles. Another security issue the company is working on? Zoombombing when trolls hijack meetings to display graphic or disturbing images. Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara Whats Next? (April 5-11) Cautious Hope The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given emergency approval for the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to be prescribed to patients with Covid-19. Its too early to know if the drug actually works, and the research is inconclusive so far so its basically the medical equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall. But one thing is for sure: Social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are being used to spread claims of its efficacy, and some messages have gone too far. All three tech companies removed videos of a speech by President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil where he claimed that hydroxychloroquine was curing the disease. But with many experimental treatments flying around, itll be extra tough for tech platforms to monitor for harmful misinformation. A Change of Plan Remember when WeWork made a disastrous attempt to go public last year and was bailed out by SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate? (Remember when people still went to co-working spaces?) Well, now SoftBank doesnt want to follow through with its initial deal to buy $3 billion in WeWork stock from other shareholders, which leaves many of the companys top executives including its much-maligned former chief executive, Adam Neumann holding the bag. WeWorks board committee said it was surprised and disappointed that SoftBank was backing out of the share purchase, which is probably an understatement. It also means that Mr. Neumann, who has been widely blamed for the companys implosion, wont walk away with the millions he was originally promised. Deal or No Deal President Trump caused a record surge in oil prices this past Thursday when he tweeted that he was expecting an oil deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia that would end their weekslong price war. But Russian officials denied that any such negotiations with Saudi Arabia had taken place, and it appears that the deal might not actually exist. The combination of lower demand for oil and a falling-out between two of the worlds largest oil producers has wreaked havoc on the energy industry, although it has made gas much cheaper not that you may have noticed, since youre (hopefully) staying home. On Friday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it was planning to hold a teleconference on Monday to do damage control and discuss world oil supplies, but then on Saturday, that meeting was postponed. 05.04.2020 LISTEN Popular Nigerian actress, Tonto Charity Dikeh, and her Foundation are collaborating with non-profit body, Prosperity For Africa, to provide food aid to thousands of Nigerians desperately in need due to the outbreak of coronavirus. Major cities in Nigeria are on a lockdown and Ms Dikeh believes it is time to step up and help the needy. As such, the collaboration has given birth to what is now termed Raw Food Bank. The Raw Food Bank initiative seeks to reach out to an estimated 5,000 Nigerians who might not be able to afford to stock up. The reality is that a good number of the general populace struggling with basic needs, and this pandemic season is critical for them, and this inspired the Raw Food Bank Drive by the Tonto Dikeh Foundation, Ms Dikeh wrote on her official Instagram account. She said items to be donated include: 400 bags of 25kg, 50kg and 100kg Rice, 300 cans of tomatoes, 10,000 bags of pure water, 10,000 cartons of noodles, 10,000 loaves of bread, 130 bags of rice, 130 bags of beans, 2,000 multivitamin, 2,000 immune booster, 10,000 milk for infants. This initiative is aimed at helping the common man, and the Tonto Dikeh Foundation is committed to selfless acts in these perilous times, she added. ---Daily Guide Keir Starmer replaces Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 2:46 PM As widely expected Keir Starmer has been elected to the leadership of the Labour Party and will replace outgoing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, with immediate effect. Starmer, who is 57, won on the first round of voting with more than 50 percent of Labour party members' ballots cast. The former director of public prosecutions won 56.2 percent of the vote, ahead of early favorite Rebecca Long-Bailey, who received 27.6 percent, and Lisa Nandy who secured only 16.2 percent of the votes. Starmer described his ascent to the leadership as the "honor and the privilege of my life". "I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and hope, so that when the time comes, we can serve our country again in government", Starmer added. Whilst many observers expected Starmer to win, nevertheless his victory is more decisive than many expected with the former high-ranking judiciary official securing majority support in every section of Labour's "selectorate", including 13,000 registered supporters who paid a one-off 25 fee to participate. In total, just over 490,000 Labour party members voted, out of the 784,151 people eligible to take part. As a centrist, Starmer is expected to take the Labour party in a radically different direction than former leader Corbyn, who was from the authentic left-wing of the party. In that context, Starmer's victory can be described as a huge turning point in so far as, for the foreseeable future at least, the Labour Party is not expected to offer a radically different vision of state, society and economy than the ruling Tories. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address With an acceptance letter from Australia's Deakin University, 21-year-old Triptha Luthra was on cloud nine a month back but is now glued to TV following updates from across the globe about the coronavirus pandemic as uncertainty surrounds her study abroad dream. For Anoushka Ray, who had plans to go to New York for the session beginning in September, the development is demotivating but not a factor to change her entire life plan. However, Tara Osan, who had acceptance letters from multiple colleges in Canada and Italy, believes its time to look for a plan B and apply for colleges in India. The three are among, several students whose study abroad plans have either been shattered or delayed due to lockdown restrictions imposed in various countries across the globe leading to suspension of classes and visa processes due to the COVID-19 situation. "I had plans to study Masters in Architecture at Deakin University in Australia. I was supposed to go there soon and was waiting for my exams for undergraduate degree to be over. I wanted to go before classes begin to look for internships as well as get accustomed to the place and surroundings. But now it feels like time has frozen," she told PTI. "I had not applied for further studies in any college in India and the option of taking up a job or internship also looks a distant dream here with the economic slowdown on the doorstep once the lockdown is lifted," she added. Tara Osan, a Shri Ram School student, who wanted to study Advertising either in Italy or in Canada, believes that for students who opted for IB curriculum, studying abroad was a plan in mind since long. "Two months back, I was elated to be counting the number of options I had but now it is a very demotivating phase. Our class 12 exams are also suspended and will be evaluated on basis of internal assessments. So its a feeling that lot needs to be done to get future plans in order but everything is on hold. "Studying abroad does not look like a possible thing this year so I will now look for a plan B and start applying for colleges here," she said. However, for Anoushka Ray, who wanted to study Liberal Arts in New York, the plan is only deferred but not cancelled. "Planning to study abroad is a long process, I have invested way too much both financially as well as mentally in the process so altering an entire life plan because of the situation at the moment, does not seem to be wise decision. I will go for next session but I will go. I am reaching out to my university in New York to see if my admission can be considered for next fall," she said. According to Study Abroad counsellors, the situation looks grim and might affect long term plans for many. "There are many students who have already got admission but are now reconsidering because the classes have moved online and there is no clarity by when situation will improve. So for students who actually want to live abroad, paying a heft fees just to attended classes online does not seem to be a lucrative option," Anupam Singha, who runs a Study Abroad consultancy firm in Delhi, told PTI. Interviews and announcements for several fellowship opportunities are also on hold in view of the uncertainty, putting plans on hold for many, who depend on funding help for studying abroad. However, "Chevening" which is a prestigious international awards programme run by the UK government and has helped over 50,000 professionals to study in the country since 1983, is working to ensure plans are not affected. "At this current time, we are liaising closely with local British embassies and High Commissions, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and host institutions to make arrangements for Chevening Fellowships due to commence soon. "For applications in process, we are aware that many countries are currently in various stages of lockdown or have in place other restrictions due to coronavirus. We are working to reduce disruption to interviews as much as possible. This may mean your interview will be conducted online or by telephone. We will make every effort to ensure your interview can still take place," the Chevening Secretriat said, in a message posted on its website. More than 11 lakh cases of infection, including 60,457 deaths, have been reported in 190 countries and territories around the world since the virus first emerged in China in December, 2019.Italy has the highest official death toll with 14,681 fatalities. Spain follows with 11,744, the United States with 7,159, France with 6,507 and Britain with 4,313. In India, the number of COVID-19 deaths inched towards 100 on Saturday and the count of confirmed infections rose by a new single-day record of over 600 to cross 3,600, but the government said there was no need to panic as the rate of spread was less than in many other countries and just "one place" accounted for 30 per cent of detected cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) OTTAWACanadian hospitals should not throw out used masks and other protective equipment because public health officials are investigating whether it will be possible to disinfect and reuse them, Canadas public health chief said Sunday. In her daily briefing to Canadians, Dr. Theresa Tam also said chief medical officers are working on recommendations to the general public for the best uses of homemade masks. Tam said every stop is being pulled out to keep front-line health workers safe in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. In Ontario alone, nearly 275 front-line health workers have tested positive for COVID-19. In Italy, one of the worst-hit countries by the novel coronavirus, almost one-tenth of the people with COVID-19 are health care workers. While Canada continues to try and secure new shipments of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) both from domestic and international manufacturers, Tam said trying to find a way to reuse the masks and equipment the country has is also important. I think it is one of the most important and I think worthwhile lines of pursuit for PPE right now, she said. Tam said part of the solution is science, to figure out how decontamination can happen. She also said there are multiple entities in the country that could do the decontamination work once the science is clear. But for now she said keeping the used equipment somewhere safe is a necessity. Also then signalling to provinces and territories that certain things shouldnt be thrown away right now, so that we can actually implement this should we find the actual people who can do this, she said. Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is confident Canada will succeed in convincing the United States not to ban exports of protective equipment to Canada. I am confident we are going to be able to solve this, Trudeau said. Canada is focusing its efforts on proving to the Americans how much Canada provides to its medical system, including doctors and nurses who cross the border to work in American hospitals in border cities like Detroit. Canada also exports raw materials used in the production of face masks to the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that provides the power to redirect U.S. manufacturing capacity in times of national crisis, to compel American producers of PPEs and ventilators to ramp up their production and prioritize orders for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 3M, one of the countrys largest producers of the medical-grade face masks known as N95 respirators, said in a statement Friday it had been told by the White House to stop exporting the equipment to markets in Canada and Latin America a charge the White House has denied. Late Friday, the White House issued a statement that suggested the purpose of its order was to target what it called wartime profiteers unscrupulous brokers, distributors and other intermediaries operating in secondary markets. Such parties could include some well-established PPE distributors with the ability to unscrupulously divert PPE inventories from domestic customers, such as hospitals and state governments, to foreign purchasers willing to pay significant premiums. Nothing in this order, the statement concludes, will interfere with the ability of PPE manufacturers to export when doing so is consistent with United States policy and in the national interest of the United States. Media reports suggest Trump and trade adviser Peter Navarro singled out 3M after a Fox News report accused the Minnesota-based companys American distributors of selling its masks to foreign buyers that were outbidding U.S. customers. Trudeau said he wasnt going to answer hypothetical questions about Canada retaliating if the U.S. does prevent shipments to Canada, but said Canada will do whatever it takes to protect Canadians. Seven new novel coronavirus cases including five who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, were confirmed taking the total number of patients in the state to 151 on Sunday, said the Karnataka Health department. Those who joined the list of COVID-19 patients comprised a couple from Bengaluru, four from Raibagh in Belagavi and one person from Ballari, health department said in its daily bulletin on Sunday. The 151 cases include four deaths and 11 discharges, the department added. According to the bulletin issued by the department, a 68-year old man and his 62-year old wife who hail from Madiwala in Bengaluru had returned from Dubai on March 22. They were quarantined at a private hospital and have been asymptomatic. Of the five COVID-19 patients who attended the Markaz of Tabhligh-e-Jamaat, four are from Raibagh in Belagavi while one person is from Ballari. The Markaz attendees included three women and all of them are from Belagavi. While the Belagavi patients have been isolated at the district hospital in Belagavi, the Ballari patient has been quarantined at MDRS, at Alipur in Ballari and he is asymptomatic, the bulletin said. The department said the contract tracing of all the patients is underway. The government appealed people who had attended Tablighi Jamaat Congregation in New Delhi to contact 080- 29711171 Arogya Sahayavani, the medical helpline number. The department said the Indian Council of Medical Research has issued an advisory to start rapid antibody based blood test for COVID-19 as a strategy for areas reporting clusters (containment zone) and in large migration, gathering or evacuees centres. The department said out of 151 patients 12 have been discharged and 135 are active cases and four deaths have taken place. The deaths took place in Kalaburagi, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapura and Bagalkote. Of the 151 cases in Karnataka, maximum 57 has been reported in Bengaluru, 28 in Mysuru, 12 in Dakshina Kannada, 10 in Bidar, eight in Uttaara Kannada, seven in Belgavai, six in Ballari, five in Kalaburagi, three each in Davangere and Udupi and one each in Dharwad, Kodagu, Tumakuru, Bagalkote and Bengaluru rural. In view of the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the state, Chief MInister B S Yediyurappa appealed to the people to strictly adhere to the lockdown. Expressing his concern over the gradual increase in the cases, Yediyurappa said the damage caused by the COVID-19 worldwide is known to everyone and accordingly, the Prime Minister has announced nationwide lockdown till April 14. "In our state, the number of coronavirus patients is increasing in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Bidar, Kalaburagi. Besides shutting down borders, prayers at all the religious places have been stopped and various other measures have been taken to prevent the COVID-19 from spreading further," the Chief Minister said in a statement. He said people have to understand the importance of lockdown as the disease is dangerous for the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Given that the coronavirus outbreak has left most Britons house-bound, and its uncertain when we will be permitted to travel for leisure, its looking like many of us will have ample amounts of annual leave to take once the restrictions are lifted. Meanwhile, many people who had booked time off have had to cancel it due to the pandemic. Then there are the key workers delivering key frontline services, such as NHS staff and supermarket workers, many of whom will be unable to take annual leave in the coming weeks. Many companies have strict rules and regulations surrounding annual leave, which has prompted concerns that individuals could end up losing weeks of unused time off due to the pandemic. Read on to find out what coronavirus means for annual leave. How many days of annual leave am I entitled to? Almost all workers are entitled to 28 days of statutory annual leave including bank holidays each year. However, under normal circumstances, most of this entitlement cannot be carried between leave years, meaning workers lose their holiday days if they do not take them. Why are people not taking annual leave? The majority of key workers, such as supermarket staff and NHS workers, will be unable to take annual leave due to the increased demand for their services. Meanwhile, non-key workers might be less inclined to take their annual leave given that they are unable to travel and will be forced to spend time off at home. Will I be able to carry unused annual leave over to the next year? On Friday, the government announced that all employees, including key workers, will be entitled to carry over unused holiday for the next two years. The new measures are aimed at businesses under particular pressure from the impacts of Covid-19 and will allow them the flexibility to better manage their workforce. But while the new guidelines state that anyone is able to carry their annual leave over, it is up to the employer to decide whether or not an employees ability or inclination to take annual leave has been impacted by coronavirus. This means that while some non-key workers will be able to carry their annual leave other, others will not. Environment secretary George Eustice said: From our fields to our supermarkets, we are hugely grateful to the many people working around the clock to keep the nation fed. At this crucial time, relaxing laws on statutory leave will help ensure key workers can continue the important work to keep supplies flowing, but without losing the crucial time off they are entitled to. How can I find out if I will be able to carry my annual leave over? If you are unsure whether or not your employer will allow you to carry unused annual leave over, you should consult with your human resources department. By lighting diyas at his house here with his family members, Union minister Nitin Gadkari responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal to switch off the lights for nine minutes on Sunday night. The Gadkari family lit the lamps in the balcony of their house. "Me and my family are with the country in lighting the torch of unity. We have also made a resolution of unity in this time crisis," Gadkari tweeted. Meanwhile, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and its general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi also performed deep prajavalan' (lighting of lamps) at the Sangh headquarters here. Most people in the city responded to the PMs lights- out call by switching off the lights at their houses for nine minutes and by lighting lamps and candles in the galleries or on the terraces. At some places, people even burst crackers. Modi on Friday urged people to switch off the lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to display the country's "collective resolve" to defeat coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump and a growing number of Republican leaders are aggressively challenging efforts to make voting easier as the coronavirus pandemic disrupts elections, accusing Democrats of opening the door to fraud - and, in some cases, admitting fears that expanded voting access could politically devastate the GOP. Around the country, election officials trying to ensure ballot access and protect public health in upcoming contests face an increasingly coordinated backlash from the right. Much of the onslaught of litigation has been funded by the Republican National Committee, which has sought to block emergency measures related to covid-19, such as proactively mailing ballots to voters sheltering at home. "I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting," Trump, who voted absentee in New York in 2018, said at a news conference Friday, offering no examples. "I think people should vote [in person] with voter ID. I think voter ID is very important, and the reason they don't want voter ID is because they intend to cheat." Democrats and their allies in the civil rights community are also seizing the moment, arguing that the current crisis has created an urgent need for many of the voting policies they have pushed for years, including mass expansion of mail balloting and relaxation of voter ID, signature and witness requirements. With tense legislative and legal fights underway in three key states - and fresh battle lines being drawn in at least a dozen more - the viral outbreak has intensified a long-running partisan fight over ballot access into a battle now playing out on multiple fronts. The latest action was set to occur Saturday in Wisconsin, where Republican lawmakers were gathering for a special legislative session to consider pleas from Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, voting advocates, election officials and even a federal judge to cancel in-person voting scheduled for Tuesday and extend the deadline for mail-in ballots. GOP leaders indicated Friday that they planned to ignore those requests. "Here's the bottom line, folks: If, as elected officials, we're going to expect the people of our state to make sacrifices to keep all of us safe, then, by golly, we better be willing to do our part, too," Evers said in a video posted to Facebook on Friday. The RNC is expected to spend more than $10 million on legal battles related to voting this year and is involved in lawsuits in Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, Florida and New Mexico, in addition to Wisconsin. Party officials said their efforts are driven broadly by concerns that looser rules could lead to fraud. "Our position is really about protecting the integrity of the process," said RNC chief counsel Justin Riemer, who is helping to coordinate litigation at the state level. "The paramount concern is not on whether they help us win. . . . Our views on these issues are based on principle." Some in the party have also publicly acknowledged concerns that higher voter turnout would harm the GOP's electoral fortunes - including those of the president himself. Late last month, Trump said a proposal by House Democrats to expand mail balloting "had things - levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." The Georgia House speaker, Republican David Ralston, offered a similar view this week, saying that an expansion of absentee voting would be "extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia." Later, Ralston sought to clarify his remarks, saying absentee voting is more prone to fraud. Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, said such comments reveal that the "facade" is falling away for Republicans, revealing a "brazen desire to restrict access to voting." "That's dangerous," she said. "It's just dangerous when we're not even pretending to adhere to our country's core Democratic principles. . . . When those get challenged by our leaders, they erode." Within the GOP, there is some apprehension that seeking to block attempts to make voting safer during a pandemic could backfire. With millions of Americans fearing for their safety and hoping to vote by mail in upcoming primaries and the general election in November, GOP resistance could thwart their own voters as much as it does Democrats. "I understand they want to win elections, but it's not clear to me that we gain advantage," said Republican Trey Grayson, the former secretary of state of Kentucky. "I also worry about the signal that it sends because there are people who are bothered by this. We look as a party like we don't care." On the local and state levels, efforts to relax rules around voting do not break easily along party lines. Of the 18 states that have taken steps to ease absentee voting in response to coronavirus, many have Republican governors or secretaries of state. And of the six states that have promised to proactively mail absentee ballot request forms to eligible voters, five are deep red. Still, national party officials have argued that efforts to expand voting access are not needed now in response to coronavirus. They say that could change, depending on the course of the pandemic. However, voting administrators say they are running out of time to expand mail voting for November. Tensions are high in Wisconsin, where voters and poll workers have expressed fears about risking their health to participate in Tuesday's primaries and municipal elections. In Milwaukee, election administrators planned to open only five voting sites instead of the usual 180. Republican leaders have argued that moving the date would sow confusion, but their opponents say they are seeking to take advantage of the low turnout most officials expect on Tuesday to help them win a closely contested race for a state Supreme Court seat. The Wisconsin Senate's majority leader, Republican Scott Fitzgerald, said last year that lower turnout would give Justice Dan Kelly a "better chance" of winning a new term on the court. Earlier this month, GOP lawmakers rejected a proposal from Evers to send a mail ballot to every voter and waive photo ID and witness requirements. At the time, Evers did not seek to cancel in-person voting despite health officials' predictions of a wave of new infections across the state during the first two weeks of April. Republicans are also fighting U.S. District Judge William Conley's decision Thursday to extend the receipt deadline for mail ballots to April 13 and to allow voters to forgo a witness requirement if they are unable to find one. On Friday, a panel of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Conley's ruling regarding the receipt deadline but granted a stay that blocks the counting of ballots with no witness signature. GOP legislative leaders vowed to appeal the latest ruling to the Supreme Court. Although Conley declined Democrats' and election officials' request that he cancel in-person voting Tuesday, he admonished both Evers and lawmakers for not doing it themselves. "Wisconsin is obviously the real canary in the coal mine here that we're all concerned about," Weiser said. "Seeing the breakdown there in the Wisconsin legislature is a warning sign and something that raises significant concerns." Republicans in New Mexico are staking out similar territory, with the state GOP filing a lawsuit this week to block an effort by county clerks to hold the state's June primary by mail. GOP leaders suggested that the switch would lead to voter fraud. In North Carolina, Republicans are opposing recommendations from the State Board of Elections to ease absentee voting restrictions, including a requirement for signatures from two witnesses or a notary. The debate is complicated by the fact that those rules were enacted just last year, on a nearly unanimous vote, following an explosive ballot fraud investigation that prompted North Carolina officials to toss the results in a congressional race and redo the election. Among other irregularities, campaign operatives were accused of illegally collecting, forging and turning in absentee ballots. "In the very last election there was fraud that took place. There was fraud here," said the state's Senate president, Republican Phil Berger, in an interview. "What responsible leader would want to go back to the policies that allowed that to take place?" While some Republicans may be taking advantage of the moment for political gain, Berger said, Democrats are doing the same - and, in some cases, he said, trying to enable fraud for political gain. Yet resistance to loosening the rules could make it difficult - if not impossible - for some voters to cast ballots at a time when many communities are under orders not to congregate. Voting-rights advocates say the risk is profound in urban areas with unreliable mail service, and among African American voters, whose forebears spilled blood for the right to vote and who are mistrustful of mailing a ballot rather than feeding it directly into a tabulating machine. Elderly voters self-isolating with underlying health issues fall into the risk category too, with greater likelihood of struggling with an unfamiliar process or being unable to find a witness, experts said. The voting challenges created by the pandemic come during a pivotal presidential election that already faces a range of threats, including attempts by foreign powers interfere in the campaign. Coronavirus first collided with the Democratic primary process on March 3, following the first hints of an outbreak in the U.S., when election officials in Super Tuesday states began providing hand sanitizer for voters. In the intervening month, initial small steps to protect the public's health have given way to primary delays in 17 states and a reinvigorated push by Senate Democrats to offer funding for vote-by-mail systems around the country. The recently passed stimulus bill included $400 million in funding to support state election officials during the pandemic, a far cry from the $2 billion to $4 billion some advocates believe is necessary to prepare for November. Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: Five militants and three soldiers were killed in an ongoing gunfight near Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector in the border district of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir. A Defence spokesman in Srinagar said the army launched an anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of Kupwara district despite inclement weather and hostile terrain. He said that troops have so far killed five militants, who had attempted to infiltrate to this side of LoC by taking advantage of bad weather. Despite inclement weather, the two injured were evacuated, but they succumbed to their injuries, the spokesperson said. "Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," he said, adding the operation was still in progress. The army has been conducting the operation in the Keran sector for the last three days and a large number of troops are involved in the search operation. (With inputs from PTI) New Delhi/Hyderabad, April 5 : Criticism of the Prime Minister's various initiatives is not something unusual from his rivals and detractors. But the Prime Minister's call for a 'lights out- lamps on' show of defiance on Sunday night is raising hackles on the other side of the political divide. Rivals like former Karnatak Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy have alleged that the event is a backdoor tribute to the BJP and its origins in the erstwhile Jan Sangh. On April 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made yet another of his cryptic announcements -- this time about a video message that he would release at 9 am on April 3. Caught up in the throes of an unfolding COVID-19 crisis, the nation, as usual, did not fail him and tuned in to their television sets on the dot. The Prime Minister's message, coming on the tenth day of the 21-day national lockdown, was short, crisp and to the point. Complimenting his countrymen for their support and discipline in implementing the lockdown, the Prime Minister called for a demonstrative expression of national unity and will in the fight against the coronavirus. "To defeat the darkness of despair and light our lives with hope, let us switch off all lights for nine minutes at 9 p.m. on Sunday (April 5) and illuminate our surroundings with candles, diyas, torch or mobile flashlights. Let us maintain social distancing during this," Prime Minister Modi urged the people in his widely televised video address to the nation on Friday morning. The reactions from different quarters, to the Prime Minister's latest call for a demonstration of national resolve to fight Corona, came on predictable lines. The Congress camp led by Rahul Gandhi criticised the move with statements such as "flashing lights in the dark will not tackle coronavirus". Others like Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to toe the Prime Minister's line and there have been veiled threats from the TMC camp that switched off lights would help identify BJP supporters in TMC land. Down South, the reactions have been mixed. The Telugu states' chief ministers have welcomed the move and lent their support to it. While the ruling BJP in Karnataka is all set to make the April 5 night event a success, former Karnataka chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy literally threw a spanner in the works with his early morning tweet on Sunday. "Has the PM slyly asked the nation to observe a candle light vigil on the eve of foundation day of BJP? April 6 being its foundation day, what else can explain the choice of date & time for this event? I challenge the PM to offer a credible scientific and rational explanation." Kumaraswamy went on to castigate the Prime Minister for resorting to such tasks instead of focusing on measures to defeat coronavirus. However, the BJP has been quick to shoot down the allegations as political petty-mindedness. Party's spokesperson Zafar Islam shot down the insiniuation as preposterous. "This appeal should not be seen from the prism of politics. The only idea behind the appeal to light diyas is to unite the country and honour those warriors who are saving is from coronavirus. Sad that even such an issue is being politicised." The Prime Minister's detractors point out that the BJP was founded on April 6 in 1980 and go on to state that the symbol of the party's predecessor, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, had a 'diya' or earthen lamp as its symbol. But Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, national vice president of the BJP termed the date as mere coincidence. " It is painful to come across such petty mindedness. Exploiting a purely coincidence that Monday is April 6...to suggest the call given by PM tonight is to celebrate BJP's foundation day is reprehensible. This has only one agenda: to unite India." Ever since the coronavirus crisis began brewing a storm in India, the Prime Minister has been at the forefront of the fight -- through a series of initiatives aimed at building up national solidarity. He had called for a 'Janata Curfew' on March 22 and on the same day, he had urged Indians to come out of their homes and applaud the country's health sector workers for their contributions to the fight against COVID19. The nation had responded overwhelmingly to both the calls from Modi. Meanwhile, people could be seen preparing for the event by purchasing earthern lamps in places such as Hyderabad and elsewhere. Vijayalakshmi, a senior citizen in Hyderabad said, I will switch off the lights in my home at 9 pm and all 5 members in my family will light diyas to support the Prime Minister's call." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Over the past week, Etihad Airways has been operating special flights which have allowed stranded passengers to return home, and to support the UAE Food Security Program as part of previously announced plans to utilise belly-hold capacity of passenger aircraft for cargo. These services give citizens of other nations who are unable to leave the UAE due to current Covid-19 restrictions, the opportunity to fly home. In some instances, Etihad has also been able to repatriate UAE citizens, and carry fresh produce as belly-hold cargo, on the return segments back to Abu Dhabi. To date, these services have covered a number of destinations, including the US, Australia, and Sri Lanka. All of these operations have been approved by the UAE Government and we continue to work closely with the authorities on the continuation of these types of operations, with a view to expanding the number of flights on the basis of approaches from a number of foreign governments. Etihad will continue to offer such services, and from April 5, will operate a regular service to a number of destinations starting with Seoul Incheon, and following with others such as Melbourne, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta and Amsterdam. These destinations are subject to government approvals. Once approved, these flights will be available for booking through etihad.com, the mobile app, by calling the Etihad Airways Contact Centre on +971 600 555 666 (UAE), or through a local or online travel agency. - TradeArabia News Service Several high profile Irish economists have suggested implementing austerity post Covid-19 would be "economic suicide". As government formation talks continue, both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have informally agreed that austerity measures should be ruled out, on the basis that the public would not be able to handle further cuts ten years after the financial crash. Economic experts agree, however, say tax cuts, which were floated by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a way to jump start the economy, are not advisable. Jim Power, former Treasury Economist at AIB Group and former Chief Economist at Bank of Ireland, said any cut in public services or higher taxes as the country rebuilds after the pandemic would drive the country into depression. "If you start increasing tax to get finances back in balance, you will destroy any possibility of recovery," he said. "Whenever the lock down ends, households and businesses are going to be in a serious state of poor health, imposing austerity in those circumstances would be tantamount to economic suicide. "We will need to make sure that all of those businesses are still around to pick up the pieces, part of that is supporting households to make sure that they remain financially viable." Mr Power, who now lectures on economics at UCD, says he is more concerned by what the country is facing post-Coronavirus than he was during the last recession. "We have no idea when this will end, that was an economic and financial crisis," he said. "This is a health crisis, applying an economic prognosis to a health crisis is a waste of time." Leo Varadkar hinted that tax cuts could be used by a future government in order to respond to the oncoming recession, however Mr Power says focus should be elsewhere. "Tax cuts would not be top of my agenda at this point, to me what's essential in the short term is that businesses are given every support possible to keep them alive," he said. "That's kind of the approach that has been adopted at the moment, but the risk would be if we come out with a lockdown that suddenly all of those supports for households and businesses are ended, that cannot be the case, there would have to be strong remedial support given to households, and business for at least the next 12 months." Jim Power Likewise, Andrew Webb, Chief Economist for Grant Thornton said that society would not "stomach" austerity again. "We've seen how the taps can turned on when they need to be, and to then come off the back of this and say 'We're all in this together, we need to tighten our belts', it just feels like it wouldn't fly with society," he said. "Austerity was a choice, and there are options there in terms of how not to do austerity. "The big fear is that we don't have that V-shape (bounce back) that people are hoping for, we're undoubtedly going to have a massive contraction. "It's hard to see the economy bounce back, just as quickly as it turned off, without some sort of stimulus. "It's really about what can the government do to jump start everything as quickly as possible. "I don't think long term, given the amount of money that's had to the expended on this crisis, tax cuts would be a long term game plan. "I think at some point we're going to have to think about getting over the amount of stimulus that it is going to take to nurse the economy, so there will have to be choices around how to do that. "Possibly looking at increased tax in a fair and balanced way, that could touch on corporation tax rates, or other taxes, but I think if it's a choice between austerity and other options, I think other options should be looked at well in advance." Mr Webb also says the Coronavirus has exposed gaps in provision as a result of austerity, and will force a national conversation about priorities. "Without using language like chickens coming home to roost, if you don't invest in your health service and there comes a time like this when you really need it, it exposes those gaps in provision," he said. " I think there will be a shift in the national conversation that wouldn't be misplaced around where our priorities are. "I would say austerity is definitely something that wouldn't be stomached because a decade of austerity probably put our public services in this place where they struggle with the scale of demand." The number of coronavirus cases in Russia has risen by 658 over the past day to 5,389 in 79 regions, the crisis center told reporters on Sunday. A total of 355 people have recovered and 45 others have died. "As of today, some 5,389 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in 79 regions in the Russian Federation. Over the past day, 22 people have been discharged after recovering. The number of recoveries over the entire period is 355. Over the past 24 hours, two patients have died in Moscow. Forty-five people have died in Russia to date," the crisis center said. New coronavirus cases have been registered in 14 regions, with the bulk of them in Moscow - 536. Other cases have been reported in the Moscow Region (45), the Nizhny Novgorod Region (22), St. Petersburg (20), the Tula Region (10) and the Leningrad Region (10). Four cases have been recorded in the Krasnoyarsk Region, three in the Khanty Mansi Autonomous Region, two in Crimea and Kamchatka, one in the Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, Khabarovsk and Novosibirsk Regions. Over the past day, four patients have been discharged in Moscow, three in the Moscow and Arkhangelsk Regions, two in the Voronezh and Tambov Regions, and the Republic of Mordovia. One person has left hospital in the Penza, Lipetsk, Samara, Pskov and Stavropol Regions and the Chuvash Republic. Experts: Uneven Stay-at-Home Orders Could Mean Wider Pandemic By Steve Baragona April 04, 2020 Everyone in the United States should be under orders to stay home in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci told CNN on Thursday. With nearly 300,000 infections and close to 7,000 deaths, the U.S. COVID-19 toll is the largest in the world. But 12 states have not issued these orders, and President Donald Trump has resisted issuing a nationwide directive. "If you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that," Fauci said. While Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming and South Carolina have no statewide orders, cities and counties within those states have issued them. Five states -- Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa -- have no orders at the state or local levels. Estimates that tens or even hundreds of thousands of Americans will die are based on governments implementing, and citizens following, social distancing policies. The longer those measures are delayed, the higher the estimates get. People traveling from areas that do not have restrictions can seed new outbreaks in areas that do. The states that have not issued stay-at-home orders are largely rural. The largest outbreaks so far have been in urban areas: New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles. "These things aren't all apples to apples," Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has declined to issue an order, said. "There are some states that don't have much of a problem," Trump told reporters Wednesday. That's a dangerous assumption to make given the fact that both the number and accuracy of tests are falling far short, Harvard University immunologist Yonatan Grad said. "Our estimates of the number of cases are almost certainly wrong," he said. "We are underestimating the number of cases that are really out there, and we don't know by how much." Isolation may have protected rural communities somewhat so far. "It just takes more time to show up there," Grad said. "But it will." Plus, there is a lag of several weeks between when cases start to appear in official tallies and when the peak hits. And COVID-19 has demonstrated in China, Italy, Spain and New York City that it can quickly overwhelm the health care system. "The sooner you're able to slow the spread of the virus, the more you're able to flatten the curve and mitigate the risk to your health care infrastructure," Grad said. When it does hit, rural areas are likely even less prepared than their urban counterparts. In small towns in eastern Washington, for example, "there's only one doctor or two doctors," University of Washington epidemiologist Ali Mokdad said. "We can't afford to have it there." In Missouri, major cities and a growing number of smaller communities have issued stay-at-home orders. But without a statewide order, much of the rural state is not covered. "If you get this illness in one of these rural communities, they're going to have to go to the urban centers to be cared for," infectious disease physician Jason Newland, at Washington University in St. Louis, said. States reluctant to issue orders are relying on citizens to take personal responsibility and follow recommendations to stay home. "It's a community effort, everybody pitching in makes everybody safer and protects the elders and vulnerable people in our community," James Lawler, co-director of the University of Nebraska Global Center for Health Security, said. Lawler is advising Nebraska's Gov. Ricketts. "If we all make the effort and work together, then we'll be successful," he told The Omaha World-Herald. But government orders carry more weight than recommendations, Newland, of Washington University, said. "I think we all know a recommendation and an order are pretty different things in someone's mind," he said. "An order is like, 'Oh, I guess they're really serious about this. This is a whole other level.' " Data from the United Kingdom bear that out. At the beginning of the outbreak, the government advised social distancing but didn't require it. Restaurants and bars stayed open. Scientists studying population movement using cellphone and other data didn't notice much of a change in people's behavior. "We didn't see big drops until it actually became government policy," University of Southampton epidemiologist Nick Ruktanonchai said. Washington state had the first COVID-19 case in the United States and the first big outbreak. It was also among the first to close schools and cancel large events. These measures are working, Mokdad said. "In my own state, what we have projected early on for mortality, we're seeing smaller numbers coming up," he said. The economic consequences of the shutdowns are devastating. However, "it's also important to understand that there are huge economic consequences to not doing so," Harvard's Grad said. When the outbreak explodes and overwhelms the health care system, "we won't have the infrastructure to treat the people with heart attacks, to treat the people who have strokes, to treat the people who have appendicitis and need to go in for surgery," he said. "It's quite natural to understand why people want to say, 'Look, we don't see it now. Why do we have to do anything?' " Grad said. "Look at what happened in northern Italy. Look at what happened in Spain. Look at what's going on in New York City," he said. "That is what we can all anticipate." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police / Contributed Photo NORTH HAVEN A 22-year-old Bridgeport man was killed Saturday night after his vehicle went off Route 15 and struck several trees. Jose Gilberto Olive-Figuero, of Central Avenue, was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. ARMED Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of-Staff Felimon Santos Jr. has recovered from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). AFP spokesperson Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo said Santos has been found negative for the novel coronavirus, or Sars-CoV-2, based on the test results released Sunday, April 5. Arevalo said Santos has not manifested any symptoms of the virus ever since he went on home quarantine on March 24 after coming in contact with a senior military official who also tested positive for the virus. Santos had also tested positive for the new coronavirus based on test results released on March 27. Other security officials, Philippine National Police Chief Archie Gamboa and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana have tested negative for the virus. Two senators, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Aquilino Pimentel III, have tested positive. Zubiri immediately went on home quarantine while Pimentel was widely criticized after he broke quarantine rules by bringing his wife to the hospital. (SunStar Philippines) Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the Himachal Pradesh government asked all the Tablighi Jamaat attendees in the state to identify themselves by 5 PM on Sunday. The government would otherwise initiate action against the defaulters, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Jairam Thakur said in a video message to the people of the state Sunday. "Total 13 Coronavirus positive cases reported in the state so far, 6 out of them had attended Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi. We appeal to everyone, who attended Tablighi Jamaat, to disclose their identity by 5 PM today otherwise govt will be forced to take action," Jairam Thakur also said. Seven people tested positive for coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 14, news agency PTI reported citing Additional Chief Secretary, Health, R D Dhiman. Two of them have already recovered, as many have died and 10 are active cases, he added. Fifty-four samples were tested for the infection on Saturday, out of which seven came out as positive, he said. Meanwhile, religious congregation at the Nizamuddin faction of the Tablighi Jamaat emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus after many people tested positive for COVID-19 following which a major area was sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders.The participants later spread to different parts of the country. The police registered an FIR against Maulana Saad of the Nizamuddin centre under sections of Epidemic Disease Act and other sections of the Indian Penal Code for violating government orders on the management of the Markaz in relation to a social, political or religious gathering. Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Maharashtra worst-affected state with 490 COVID-19 cases; death tally at 24 Also Read: 9pm lights-out: How power system will be managed during light-a-candle event On Twitter, Dr. Craig Spencer shared the evolving reality of his experience treating patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus The volume and severity of cases hitting the emergency room is new to the doctor, who's an emergency-room doctor at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. "Our ERs are ICUs," Spencer tweeted. That's taking a toll on the staff at the hospital. Spencer noted that every day he's had colleagues calling him crying. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The coronavirus pandemic has transformed everyday life in hospitals around NYC. "Our new reality is unreal" Dr. Craig Spencer wrote in a tweet Thursday night. "The people and places we've known so long & so well have been transformed. Our ERs are ICUs." The reality is different than it was just a few days before. "Just one week and it's a whole different world," he tweeted. Spencer's an emergency-room doctor and the director of global health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. He has a unique perspective on the coronavirus pandemic, and has shared what a day in the ER is like amid the pandemic before on Twitter. ADVERTISING After caring for patients with Ebola in Guinea in West Africa, he became New York City's first and only Ebola patient in 2014. He thinks about that experience as he looks at the tents set up outside his hospital in upper Manhattan. The last time he worked in a tent was in West Africa, he tweeted. Never miss out on healthcare news. Subscribe to Dispensed, Business Insider's weekly newsletter on pharma, biotech, and healthcare. "In those same tents, I saw too much pain, loneliness, and death. People dying alone. I never thought I'd have to see or experience that ever again. I never wanted to. Once was painful enough," he tweeted. "We have no other option now." Inside the emergency room, the only patients he's seen have COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. "Working in the ER means walking through a corridor of coughing," he tweeted. "All a slightly different pitch & different frequency, but all caused by the exact same thing." Read more: A leaked presentation reveals the document US hospitals are using to prepare for a major coronavirus outbreak. It estimates 96 million US coronavirus cases and 480,000 deaths. The volume isn't the only new normal hitting Spencer. It's also how severely ill the patients are, often in a state of respiratory arrest that requires being put on ventilators to help support breathing. There's also new challenges to the job, such as determining which patients might be stable enough to go home. There's also heartbreaking interactions with families who over video chat have to make tough decisions about withdrawing care and saying goodbye to their loved ones. NYC hospitals aren't allowing visitors to prevent the disease from spreading. It takes a large emotional toll on the workers in the ER. "You can't help but cry. This isn't what we do," Spencer wrote. Already, he wrote, he can tell his colleagues are tired from the physically draining shifts. The mental exhaustion, he wrote, is starting to set in as well. He said he's had colleagues call him crying every day. "How long will they hold? How long will I hold?" Spencer wrote. Being on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic puts healthcare workers at even greater risk of contracting the virus. Many have already fallen ill, and some told Business Insider they aren't being tested. "I've never seen my colleagues so afraid, so unsettled," Spencer tweeted. "But I've also never seen them all work so well together. I've never seen us more unified, more focused, more sincere." The worry is there that they don't have enough personal protective equipment as they need. The worry about lacking medications to care for patients is also there, Spencer said. "Yes, we worry about each other. But I've never seen so much sense of purpose. So much honor to do this job." It's what he thinks about as he comes home from work, he said. "Clothes in a bag. Hot shower. Look in the mirror. Indentations of the goggles still deep on my face. Blisters on the bridge of my nose," he wrote. "How long will we hold?" New Delhi, April 5 : As nearly 1.5 billion students adjusting to learning from home globally, Google is leveraging Chromebook accessibility tools to help students with disabilities, who are finding this adjustment even more difficult without hands-on classroom instruction and support from teachers and learning specialists. For educators and families using Chromebooks, there are a variety of built-in accessibility features to customise students' learning experience and make them even more helpful. To support students with low-vision, one can increase the size of the cursor, or increase text size for better visibility in Chrome OS. "Add a highlighted circle around the cursor when moving the mouse, text caret when typing, or keyboard-focused item when tabbing. These colourful rings appear when the items are in motion to draw greater visual focus, and then fade away," said Laura Allen, Programme Manager, Chrome and Chrome OS Accessibility at Google. For students with light sensitivity or eye strain, parents can turn on high-contrast mode to invert colours across the Chromebook (or add this Chrome extension for web browsing in high contrast). Features that read text out loud can be useful for students with visual impairments, learning and processing challenges, or even students learning a new language. "Select-to-speak lets students hear the text they choose on-screen spoken out loud, with word-by-word visual highlighting for better audio and visual connection," Allen said in a statement. With 'Chromevox', the built-in screen reader for Chromebooks, students can navigate around the Chromebook interface using audio spoken feedback or braille. "To hear whatever text is under the cursor, turn on Speak text under the mouse in ChromeVox options. This is most beneficial for students who have significant vision loss," said Google. Add the 'Read&Write Chrome' extension from Texthelp for spelling and grammar checks, talking and picture dictionaries, text-to-speech and additional reading and writing supports- all in one easy to use toolbar. Students with dyslexia can try the 'OpenDyslexic Font Chrome' extension to replace web page fonts with a more readable font. "Or use the BeeLine Reader Chrome extension to colour-code text to reduce eye strain and help students better track from one line of text to the next. You can also use the Thomas Jockin font in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides,' informed Allen. Students can use their voice to enter text by enabling dictation in Chromebook accessibility settings, which works in edit fields across the device. If dictating longer assignments, students can also use voice typing in Google Docs to access a rich set of editing and formatting voice commands. "Dictating writing assignments can also be very helpful for students who get a little stuck and want to get thoughts flowing by speaking instead of typing," she noted. Students with mobility impairments can use features like the on-screen keyboard to type using a mouse or pointer device, or automatic clicks to hover over items to click or scroll, said Google. While film stars have always had a huge influence on people, politicians in the country need to emerge as role models in times of crisis, believes actor Arshad Warsi. Citing the example of Janata Curfew, Arshad said many actors had urged their fans to not step out of their homes, but it didn't help. Via Janata Curfew, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked people to come to their balconies and clap to pay tributes to the healthcare workers, police force and other essential service providers working tirelessly as India fights the coronavirus pandemic. The actor said people tend to listen more to their leaders than cine stars. It is important for an actor to be a role model, as much as possible, and I must say that they are. Most of the actors and including myself, we urged everyone not to come out and start celebrating after the Janata Curfew was over. But unfortunately, that's exactly what everyone did. The fact is people don't listen to actors, they listen to politicians. More than actors, it is the politicians who need to be role models, Arshad told PTI. A day after Janata Curfew on March 22, the prime minister announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown. Arshad, 51, said during his time at home, he is working on a few scripts which he intends to direct someday. Creatively, there is a lot to do from home. I am working on scripts that I would like to direct. Besides, I am helping out on the scripts that I am acting in, reading scripts that have been given to me. The actor added self-isolation is not a challenge for him as he prefers to stay at home. All my friends know that this is how I spend most of my time in isolation. I like to work and I like to stay home. I don't overburden myself with work and I barely socialise. I love being home with my family. Arshad's latest on screen outing is Voot Select web series Asur for which he is receiving rave reviews. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ira Einhorn (pictured March 2000), 79, died early Friday at SCI-Laurel Highlands prison in western Pennsylvania of natural causes A former hippie guru who lived the high life in Europe for years after murdering his ex-girlfriend in Philadelphia in the 1970s has died in prison. Ira Einhorn, 79, died early Friday at SCI-Laurel Highlands prison in western Pennsylvania of natural causes, according to Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. McNaughton said Einhorn's death was not related to the COVID-19 virus. Einhorn was serving life in prison after being convicted twice once in absentia for the murder of Holly Maddux, who disappeared in 1977. Eighteen months later, her mummified remains were found in a locked steamer trunk in the West Philadelphia apartment they shared. Einhorn vanished just before his trial in 1981, and was convicted in absentia in 1993. He was living under assumed names across Europe before he was finally caught in 1997 in a converted windmill in France, where he lived with his Swedish-born wife. Einhorn was brought back to the United States four years later, after the French government was assured he would be given a new trial and not face the death penalty. Einhorn was serving life in prison after being convicted twice once in absentia for the murder of Holly Maddux (left and right), who disappeared in 1977 He was convicted again at a high-profile trial in 2002. Afterward, one juror said Einhorn had a God complex and the district attorney mocked his image as an Age of Aquarius wise man. Judge William J. Mazzola called him 'an intellectual dilettante' who preyed on people. Friends and family members of the then 30-year-old Maddux said she had been planning to leave Einhorn before she disappeared. Einhorn, the final trial witness, acknowledged that Maddux had complained about his womanizing, but he denied killing her and said he was surprised when her remains were found in his closet. After the verdict, District Attorney Lynne Abraham said: 'Metaphorically speaking, Ira Einhorn and his Virgo moon are toast.' He was living under assumed names across Europe before he was finally caught in 1997 in a converted windmill in France, where he lived with his Swedish-born wife. Einhorn (pictured in 2001) was brought back to the US four years later Justin Theroux is a doting dog dad. While under coronavirus lockdown in his NYC apartment, the 48-year-old Leftovers star cooked up a storm for his 'dainty lady' Kuma, who he adopted in 2018 in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Harvey. In addition to preparing two extraordinarily plated options, he also served his beloved Pit Bull mix at the table across from him. Dog dad: Justin Theroux cooked up a storm for his ''dainty lady' Kuma, who he adopted in 2018 in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Harvey 'Tadaaaa,' he captioned the first snap of his dog with a pink heart GIF over her head and a lit candle on the table on his Instagram Story. In another video of his pup gleefully devouring her plate he wrote, 'That's it. That's the post.' Theroux has been treating his sweet girl with love, since saving her life when she was left homeless in Conroe, Texas, after the 2018 natural disaster. Grateful: Theroux has been treating his sweet girl with love, since saving her life when she was left homeless in Conroe, Texas, after the 2018 natural disaster Spoiled: Kuma has been a staple in Theroux's latest snaps, as he remains in quarantine At the time, Kuma was named Sylvia, and she suffered from multiple medical issues that caused her fur to fall out, revealing the pink skin underneath, according to The Dodo. Her eyes were also nearly crusted shut, due to mange caused by a parasite. When a notice was posted online about the dog needing a forever home, the local shelter got a message from the president of the Austin-based shelter Austin Pets Alive that a VIP client was interested in the dog. Adorable: Last week, Jennifer Aniston's hunky ex-husband filmed another hilarious set of Instagram Stories, as his fur child interrupted his workout Bulging biceps: Theroux has been treating his sweet girl with love, since saving her life when she was left homeless in Conroe, Texas, after the 2018 natural disaster The VIP turned out to be Justin, who was in Texas at the time and made the multi-hour drive to visit Sylvia, whom he'd rename Kuma, Japanese for 'bear.' The two have become inseparable since then, and the actor is regularly spotted out and about with her. She's also a visible symbol of his commitment to dogs and their rights, particularly Pit Bulls. Bonded pair: The two have become inseparable since he brought her home, and the actor is regularly spotted out and about with her Last week, Jennifer Aniston's hunky ex-husband filmed another hilarious set of Instagram Stories, as his fur child interrupted his workout. He barely got in two reps of push-ups, before Kuma leaned in to lick his face as he moved up and down. Eventually, the American Psycho actor stopped what he was doing to let her jump up on her hind legs for a hug and petting. Tripura Chief Minister, Biplab Deb, who used to make news headlines for his absurd claims, faux pas and getting history wrong, has found himself in a familiar position yet again. This time for getting the Coronavirus figures wrong, and that too not even his state. While speaking to local media Deb, had claimed that Tripura had closed the state's borders with Assam and Manipur after 16 and 19 cases each of the viral infection were reported from the two states. BCCL/FILE In our neighbouring Karimganj, as many as 16 COVID-19 positive cases were recorded. Nineteen cases were recorded in Manipur. Thats why we have sealed the Tripura border, Deb had claimed. However, according to official data, only one COVID-19 case has been reported in Karimganj and Manipur has recorded just two cases of the viral infection. Now, Tripura Congress leader Gopal Roy has filed an FIR against him under IPC-182, 505 (1)(b) accusing the state Chief Minister of spreading fake news on COVID-19 outbreak in Northeast India, which he said has created massive panic in the region. AFP 'Kindly accept this letter under IPC Sections 182, 505 (1) (b) for spreading fake information, news by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on 2nd April at GB Hospital (in Agartala) where he said to Press that 19 coronavirus cases were found in Manipur and 16 in Karimganj (Assam,). As of 2nd April 2020, as per Central and state government data, (there were) only one case in Karimganj and two cases in Manipur', Roys FIR reads. Fake news about the spread of Coronavirus has been one of the major challenges that India has been facing ever since the outbreak began. This includes claims such as consuming turmeric, rasam, etc can cure Coronavirus. There have also been several unsubstantiated claims such as the virus cannot survive in temperatures above 30 degrees and reverberation from clapping hands and utensils can kill the virus. AFP Last month, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an advisory to social media companies over the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 on their platforms. It had stated that unverified messages related to the pandemic must not be circulated. It also lists the legal provisions under which action can be taken against such violations, and provides a link to a form to report unverified postings and forwards. It urged social media platforms to initiate awareness campaigns on the platforms for users to not upload or circulate false news concerning coronavirus, which is likely to create panic and disturb social tranquility. KALAMAZOO, MI Olde Peninsula Brewpub and Restaurant is struggling. The sit-down eatery, a staple in downtown Kalamazoo, is trying to ride out the coronavirus pandemic with delivery and carryout orders, but its barely enough to cover wages for a dwindling crew. Business is down about 80 percent. Servers, hosts, bartenders and dishwashers are gone. Remaining staff that can or will work wonder when the other shoe will drop. On top of everything, Olde Peninsula is sitting on a mountain of green beer purchased for St. Patricks Day alcohol worth thousands that few people want to drink after the holiday. And high commission fees charged by third-party services like DoorDash, UberEats and Grubhub are eating into whatever delivery business the restaurant is able to get. Marie Blinn, who has owned the restaurant with her husband for 24 years, said a business shutdown order that lasts into June would probably kill the business for good. Its grim, said Blinn, who already closed the couples other bar, Harveys on the Mall. Weve applied for any aid that we can find, but nothing has come through yet. We cant keep open at this pace. Help is on its way this week maybe. Local economic development committees have been working overtime this weekend to sift through thousands of applications for financing submitted by Michigan businesses with less than 50 employees struggling with payroll, utilities, rent, mortgages and other expenses while temporarily closed by government order. On March 23, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shut down most businesses throughout the state, only exempting those necessary to sustain or protect life. Dine-in service at bars and restaurants has been closed even longer. Whitmers stay-home order is set to expire April 14, but she has not ruled out extending it to further prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected 14,255 and killed 540 as of April 4. To help struggling employers, the Michigan Small Business Relief Program is sprinkling $20 million throughout the states 83 counties, split evenly between grants and low interest loans. The money comes from the Michigan Strategic Fund. Individual grants are capped at $10,000, but loans are going out between $50,000 and $200,000. Local economic development organizations are expected to begin disbursing initial payments as early as this week. We expect the first money to start being in the hands of small businesses any day now, said Josh Hundt, vice president of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). Unfortunately, the money is not nearly enough to alleviate the struggles facing small businesses in Michigan. Hundt said the program aims to support about 11,000 businesses. Thats a fraction of the estimated 873,700 small businesses in the state, which together employ about 1.9 million people and account for nearly half of Michigans total private workforce. The widespread economic hurt is evident in the states overwhelmed unemployment system, which is groaning under the weight of 311,000 claims and counting. The hurt is also evident in the volume of relief applications. The Right Place is disbursing $1 million throughout 11 counties in West Michigan. In Kent County alone, there were 1,930 submitted during the weeklong window that ended Thursday, said Tim Mroz, vice president of strategic initiatives. The Lansing Area Economic Partnership (LEAP) has to winnow down from 1,875 applications submitted in Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, said LEAP CEO Bob Trezise. The organization received enough to cover 60 grants and perhaps a dozen loans. In northern Michigan, the Target Alpena Economic Development Corporation is disbursing $200,000 between five counties. Local economic development director Mike Mahler said hes been juggling hundreds of emails because some applications require lots of back-and-forth communication to get ready. Hes struggling a bit away from office resources. I dont even have access to a good printer Im working in my kitchen, he said. Its all kind of piecemealed together. Its been a crazy week. The volume of email is just incredible. Who is applying? Many restaurants and lodging businesses. Tons and tons" of massage parlors, yoga studios, hair salons and barbershops, Mahler said. Many are self-employed people whom he thinks might be better off filing for unemployment under the new allowance for independent contractors, gig, and low-wage workers created by the federal CARES Act. In West Michigan, Mroz says applicants range from sole proprietors like a massage therapist to companies with worker counts exceeding the 50-employee threshold but still hoping to have access, and everything in between. In the Lansing area, the applicant list includes office professionals, attorneys, dentists, doctors and numerous types of retailers. But the list is ultimately dominated by restaurants." Restaurants and food service businesses are notorious for operating on very thin profit margins. Even short-term cash-flow disruptions can be a death knell. Trezise said a recent survey in the Lansing area showed a shocking amount of small businesses which said that if we dont make it through this next 1-2 months, well never reopen. Trezise was surprised how many childcare providers were among that group. Its really important we get them this money as soon as possible, he said. Mroz and Trezise both said community foundations and other entities have reached out to offer tentative support to businesses that arent selected for MEDC funding. What that looks like is to be determined, but our community partners have stepped up and said, dont throw those applications away. We may want to support them, Mroz said. Related: As small businesses struggle to stay alive, some help is out there In Detroit, the funding pool to help small businesses is about $4.7 million a total that includes $1.6 million in state grants plus local dollars from the city and economic development organizations. The first payments are expected April 10. Metro Detroit has been hit hard by the coronavirus. As of April 4, there were 3,958 cases and 131 deaths in Detroit a quarter of all state deaths. Infections and deaths are up in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties as well, compared to the rest of Michigan. The virus struck as Detroits economy was continuing to rebound following the citys municipal bankruptcy. Detroit was starting to see organic growth in its small business community before the pandemic, said Ned Staebler, president and CEO of TechTown, a startup incubator. TechTown launched its own effort to aid local business owners, creating a $600,000 small business stabilization fund to help 350 Detroit small businesses using philanthropic money from a Quicken Loans Community Fund grant and other foundations. Payments are going out this week to retail shops, restaurants, childcare facilities and hair salons. Staebler said its been devastating to watch Detroiters who were finally realizing their dream and breaking a cycle of intergenerational poverty being shut down by a pandemic. This is a brutal time, Staebler said. All of us know people in the hospital or who have passed away in the past week or two. In Lansing, Trezise said hes hopeful the economy can rebound this summer, although the uncertain duration of the lockdown sets this economic fallout apart from past recessions, when unemployment rose but business fundamentally continued. That uncertainty was cited Friday by Lt. Gov Garlin Gilchrist and Small Business Association of Michigan president Brian Calley in an announcement of a new website to help facilitate applications for $349 billion in Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration. The application period opened April 3. I am still holding out hope we can flip a switch in June or July and August and it comes back on. I feel like that still is possible, Trezise said. Thats why its so important to brutally lock down entirely through April and part of May, at least. Thats just my gut feeling. In the meantime, if we can just get these business some cash so they can pay rent and utilities; if we can just help them get through the next one, two, three months, I think a lot of them can survive but not much beyond that, Trezise said. Then it really does become a disaster. Related stories: Tulip Time cancellation is double whammy on Holland economy Pandemic closes Kalamazoo bars, restaurants on eve of St. Patricks Day Michigan economy faces corona-depression as businesses close Business owners have started issuing face masks to their employees amid anger over the Government's stance, after it emerged that countries where wearing one is advised have lower rates of coronavirus infections. Advice from Public Health England and the World Health Organisation currently states that face masks are not an effective way to protect against the virus. However countries like Austria and Slovenia have demanded citizens wear masks, which has meant officials in the UK are now facing scrutiny to change their recommendations to protect workers and the wider public. This weekend Marks and Spencer gave plastic face shields to its front-line employees, Sainsbury's gave masks to employees who wanted them and Asda gave them to those at their pharmacies and opticians. Countries advising its people to wear face masks to stop the spread of coronavirus have had lower rates of infection, data shows. Pictured: a man wears a face mask in Berlin today Amazon also told The Daily Telegraph it had ordered 'million of masks' for their workers which will be used from early next week. Unlike in the UK, the Czech Republic are ordering people to wear masks in crowded places and the mayor of New York suggested people should wear them. It comes as countries advising its people to wear face masks to stop the spread of coronavirus have had lower rates of infection, data shows. While other measures will affect results such as testing and social distancing, it is clear that many Asian countries where face masks have been widely worn are suffering fewer cases of Covid-19. Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea have all reported far fewer infections than countries in the West, despite being far closer to the source of the pandemic in China. The countries where the pandemic is most pronounced, in Italy, Spain, the US, France and the UK, face masks have not been advised by their respective governments. These countries have reported both higher infections and higher death rates than the Asian countries where face masks have been widely worn. The latest figures for the UK have shown that there are now 47,806 confirmed cases of coronavirus with a death toll of 4,934. The situation in the US is much worse with reports of more than 311,600 cases and 8,000 fatalities. But these numbers seem monumental in comparison to statistics from South Korea, Japan and Singapore where, with a combined population of 182 million, only 260 deaths have been reported. The three Asian countries combined have confirmed 14,484 cases of the virus well below the numbers seen in the West. There has been much debate about the effectiveness of the masks ever since the outbreak of coronavirus. The British Government has long held the view that the cheap paper masks offer little protection against catching the virus. This is because they are thin, loose-fitting and porous - which make it easy for the tiny viral particles to pass through. But experts have always maintained that, while the masks may not shield someone from contracting the illness, they stop the wearer from infecting others. In countries including South Korea (pictured), the rate of infections and deaths is much lower As well as on surfaces, the virus can be transmitted via droplets that are released when a patient talks, breathes, coughs or sneezes. And experts say masks stop people from touching their face, which cuts the chance of viral microbes on their fingers entering the body through the mouth or nose. This may have been more important than initially thought now that researchers know infected people are contagious for several days before they have symptoms. Professor Ian Jones, a virologist from the University of Reading, said the mass-issuing of masks 'should now be considered' in the UK. Warning that the crisis is spiralling rapidly, he told MailOnline: 'Anything that reduces the rate of transmission will bring it under control sooner.' It comes after President Donald Trump said on Friday that the Center for Disease Control was now recommending that Americans wear non-medical cloth masks. 'So it's voluntary, you don't have to be doing it,' the president said from the briefing room podium. 'This is voluntary, I don't think I'm going to be doing it.' There has been much debate about the effectiveness of the masks ever since the outbreak of coronavirus Minutes later, first lady Melania Trump tweeted that Americans should take mask-wearing seriously. The World Health Organization is reconsidering its decision to tell healthy people not to wear face masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus. A recent study found that coughs and sneezes can spread virus particles up to 27ft (8m) in a cloud around an infected patient. Professor David Heymann, now an in-house expert at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the WHO was reopening its discussions about masks. He said officials could decide to advise people that masks are beneficial - but people would have to wear ones with a proper seal around the nose and wear them all the time. Professor Heymann said: 'There is right now a debate about the usefulness of masks because Hong Kong has provided some evidence that masks may be useful in protecting individuals from infection. It's not clear yet whether or not that's true. 'But as the evidence becomes available, it seems there will be a debate trying to decide whether masks play a role at some point in the outbreak.' George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, this week said the 'big mistake' in the US and Europe was that 'people aren't wearing masks'. He told Science magazine: 'This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role you've got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. 'Many people have asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.' A fifth Queenslander has died from COVID-19, as the state records its lowest increase in cases for weeks. Queensland Health has confirmed the 78-year-old man passed away in Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane this weekend. It's understood he had underlying conditions in addition to contracting the novel coronavirus. The man was a passenger on the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has more than 600 cases and 10 other deaths connected to it. He is Queensland's fifth death from the coronavirus and the fourth linked to a cruise. The other fatality, a 77-year-old woman who died after travelling to NSW, contracted it from her daughter who had travelled from overseas. Hyderabad: People in the city seem to be enjoying driving on the empty roads during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Most of them, unmindful of the alarming increase in the number of coronavirus positive cases, are giving absurd reasons to step out of their homes for a joy ride. Ironically, many have been flashing a doctors prescription when stopped by the police manning the streets. More bizarre is that some are travelling long distances for a packet of curd, wheat flour or even boric acid used to play carrom. Although cops have been registering 12,000 cases on an average every day, it is no deterrent to the joy-riders. More so, police personnel were roughed up in the Old City on Friday when the locals were asked to maintain social distance. "We have been toiling hard to prevent movement of citizens. However, 99 per cent of them are armed with a medical prescription and get into confrontations when asked to stop at the temporary check post, said a police official near Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) in Secunderabad. He said that a couple on a two-wheeler was in a hurry to get a packet of curd from Uppal since ration shops and super markets nearer home were running out of stock. Though police mandate that two persons should not travel on two-wheelers, many care a hoot. A person, accompanied by an eight-year-old, said that he was rushing to a pharmacy near Clock Tower to purchase medicine for his child. When he was caught at the check post a little later, cops were shocked to learn that he had gone to purchase boric acid as his child was feeling bored during the lockdown period. Police at checkpoints near RTC crossroads, Liberty Circle, Tarnaka, Habsiguda, Musheerabad and several other places said that people have been stepping out like any other normal day. The helplessness of the police is that everybody is citing medical reasons for venturing out. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, city police commissioner Anjani Kumar said that it has become an even more herculean task to contain people than checking the spread of coronavirus. "We have been booking 12,000 cases on a daily basis for violation of Covid-19 guidelines. People in Old City roughed up a constable when they were urged to maintain social distance. Awareness is the only way forward to contain the virus and I urge the media to publicise about the coronavirus spread," he added. Gulzar Saab doesnt really need an introduction, simply because of one fact - the oeuvre of his work, and the manner in which he has contributed to Indian cinema put him on a pedestal that no one else perhaps will ever be worthy of. Be it the lyrics of his songs, or the numerous screenplays he has written, people of all ages and from all walks of life actually take immense pleasure when they consume his creations. BCCL Apart from being a lyricist, a director, and a screenplay writer, Gulzar Saab has written a number of films as well, which have gone on to garner a cult following on their own. Here are some of finest films that Indian cinema has seen, that comes to us courtesy, of Sampooran Singh Kalra, aka Gulzar. BCCL Maachis We begin the list with Maachis, a period political film which was both, written and directed by the maestro. The 1996 cult classic had a stellar cast - Chandrachur Singh, Om Puri, Tabu and Jimmy Sheirgill. The film is based on the turn Indias political climate in the aftermath of Operation Bluestar, and how, the climate that a boy grows up in, shapes him, in spite of the best of intentions. Given our current situation, politically and otherwise, this makes for a poignant watch. Masoom Wiki Commons Another cult classic that is considered by many people to be the finest Indian Film ever made, Masoom is a film that has found an audience in all subsequent generations. One of the finest bildungsroman or coming of age films, Masoom warrants at least one watch. Released in 1983, the film saw the directorial debut of Shekhar Kapur, who went on to give India some of the best films the world has seen. Focusing on the dynamics of how a family unit is supposed to work vis-a-vis how it often actually does, Masoom still holds relevant to this day. Oh, and the stellar performances by Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, Saeed Jaffrey, Jugal Hansraj and Urmila Matondkar. Namkeen Youtube/bollywoodclassics Not as popular as the aforementioned films, Namkeen still warrants its place in the list of all-time classics that would go on to define Indian cinema. Co-written by Gulzar and an accomplished Bengali writer named Samaresh Basu, this film was directed by Gulzar as well. The film focuses on the life of three sisters, and how they valiantly struggle to survive in an unfair and exploitative society. One of the finer women-oriented films, the ending of the film has often been dissed because of the plot of the film is resolved. Still, like most of the films written by Gulzar, in 1982, it was radical for its time. Mausam Wiki Commons Yet another film that was directed by Gulzar, and co-written by him, Mausam is actually a very poignant film, and perhaps a great example of how brilliantly Bollywood at times would strike the perfect balance between a mainstream film and an art film. At its core, Mausam is a tragic romantic drama. However, the manner in which the plot and several aspects of the film have been dealt with gives it a different aspect. The story perhaps best shows Gulzars ability to look for the out of place, on the fringe characters, and bring them to the limelight, something which he has masterfully done, with almost every film that he has written, after this 1975 film. Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein Wiki Commons Finally, we have a film that has perplexed a number of experts and audiences over the years. Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein had everything that a commercially viable film could have asked for in 1977. It had Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini as the main leads, both of whom were at the peak of their careers and their abilities, it had a very rounded and nuanced story, and it was actually a big banner film. And yet, the film failed to perform in terms of business. Even the numerous overwhelmingly positive reviews and its music wasnt enough to help it through. However, over the years, the film has gained cult status, thanks to the role television telecasts played. Days after he was removed from his position as commanding officer of a Navy aircraft carrier, Capt. Brett Crozier has reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus illness he warned was spreading rampantly on his ship. Crozier tested positive for COVID-19 after exhibiting symptoms before he was removed from the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, The New York Times reported Sunday. The paper cited two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier's who are familiar with the situation. Navy officials did not immediately respond to questions about the officer's condition. Crozier was recently relieved of command after a letter he wrote to Navy leaders was leaked to the media. In his letter, he pleaded with Navy leaders to evacuate his carrier to help slow the spread of COVID-19 among the crew. Related: Carrier Commanding Officer Fired Over Plea for Resources that Went Public "Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote in a letter that was later published by the San Francisco Chronicle. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset -- our Sailors." Top Navy leaders first told reporters Wednesday that, while they wished the letter hadn't made its way to the press, unless Crozier was found to have leaked it, he was not out of line in speaking up about the situation on the ship. About 24 hours later, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly reversed course and announced that Crozier had been relieved of command. That was despite Modly saying it was not known whether Crozier had, in fact, leaked the letter to the media. Modly said Crozier had copied people outside of his chain of command when emailing the candid letter. The acting Navy secretary said the captain caused unnecessary panic on and off the ship,and, for that reason, Modly said, he lost confidence in Crozier's ability to lead. David Ignatius, a columnist for The Washington Post, reported this weekend that Modly told a colleague ahead of the relief that President Donald Trump wanted Crozier fired. Modly told reporters Thursday he faced no outside pressure, including from the White House, on the decision to remove Crozier from his position as the Roosevelt's commanding officer. Since Crozier's letter was made public, the Navy has been working to move thousands of sailors off the carrier and into hotel rooms and other locations on Guam while the ship is cleaned and disinfected. Modly said Thursday that 114 members of the Roosevelt's crew had tested positive for COVID-19. As of Friday, the Navy had 372 coronavirus cases among uniformed personnel. That amounted to nearly 40% of the military's 978 cases at the time. In his letter, Crozier warned that the number of cases on the ship was likely to get much higher, citing tight living quarters, shared restrooms, and food that was prepared by people who'd been exposed to the virus. COVID-19 has caused a global health crisis as cases worldwide have surged past 1 million, killing more than 65,000 people. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Read more: Petition to Reinstate Fired Carrier Captain Goes Viral as Lawmakers Call for Probe Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick, the former fiancee of comedian Drew Carey, is believed to have fought her killer in the moments before the was strangled and thrown from a third-floor balcony at her home. An autopsy report released by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner indicates how Harwick, 38, was found with wounds on her hands and fingers 'consistent with a combination of defense and assault type wounds, suggestive of an altercation.' It was previously announced by the medical examiner how Harwick had been killed after falling from the balcony of her home in the Hollywood Hills. Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick (pictured), 38, fought for her life against her attacker on the night of her death, an autopsy report reveals Former partner Gareth Pursehouse, 41, who met Harwick at a go-go dancing gig in early 2010, was arrested in February and charged with her murder and first-degree residential burglary The coroner's office ruled Harwick's death a homicide and attributed the cause to blunt force injuries, according to its website The more detailed autopsy report details injuries to Harwick's hands and fingers Pursehouse (pictured circled in red) allegedly harassed Dr Harwick at the XBiz Awards on January 16 where he worked as a photographer She was found with blunt force injuries to the head and torso and had been strangled but this new report suggests that had been in a fight for a her life in the final seconds before her fatal fall. Officers found evidence of a struggle and a forced entry to the home, police said. Harwick's ex-boyfriend Gareth Pursehouse, 41, has been charged with murder, residential burglary and lying in wait, a charge which makes him eligible for the death penalty. The autopsy report which was first seen by The Blast also has a statement from a sheriff's deputy describing how Harwick's roommate 'was awoken by sounds of a female screaming. He was able to tell the screaming was coming from up above his residence and could hear sounds of some type of physical fight; he then realized that it was [Amie] screaming.' Dr Harwick had been attending a XBiz adult-industry awards ceremony on January 16 when she was allegedly harassed by her ex-boyfriend Pursehouse (left and right) was arrested in Playa Del Rey and soon charged with murder and first-degree residential burglary The report details Harwick 'sustained severe injuries of her brain, liver, and pelvis in an apparent fall from a height. Injuries of her neck, particularly strap muscle hemorrhage, are consistent with manual strangulation.' Pursehouse had dated Harwick ten years ago but had allegedly continued to stalk her in the years since. She had filed two restraining orders against him but the final one had expired in 2015. Pursehouse is currently jailed without bond. Harwick's website described her as a marriage and sex therapist. She appeared on TV and radio and wrote a book called The New Sex Bible for Women. Dr Harwick was found unconscious after falling from a third-floor balcony in her home (pictured) after officers responded to a radio call of a 'woman screaming' The Playboy model-tuned sex therapist was formerly engaged to the Price is Right host Drew Carey (left) but the pair split in November 2018 Drew Carey dated Harwick for two years before the pair split in 2018, months after announcing their engagement. 'I hope youre lucky enough to have someone in your life that loves as much as she did,' Carey said on Twitter upon learning of her death. Harwick, who was a well-known sex therapist and former Playboy model, issued restraining orders against the photographer, Pursehouse, in 2011 and 2012 detailing a series of physical attacks. Court documents reviewed by DailyMail.com earlier this year detailed how he once pushed her out of a car on the freeway, and in another incident forced her onto the ground and viciously kicked her in the face. Harwick accused Pursehouse suffocated her in May 2011, saying he punched her, slammed her head onto the ground and covered her mouth to keep her from yelling after they got into a fight. He then kicked her leaving her covered in bruises and unable to walk. 'There were multiple arguments in which Gareth Pursehouse choked me, suffocated me, pushed me against walls, kicked me, dropped me to the ground with force, force-restrained me, slammed my head into the ground and punched me with a closed fist,' she wrote in court paperwork dated June 22, 2011. On June 18, 2011 Pursehouse is said to have pushed her out of a car and left her on the freeway late at night. Harwick obtained a temporary restraining order against Pursehouse in 2011 and was granted another one less than a year later, which expired in April 2015. In California the maximum length of a restraining order is five years. Harwick had seen Pursehouse in January this year at the XBiz adult-industry awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles where he was working as a photographer. She was a guest at the show, hosted by porn star Stormy Daniels, and was pictured posing on the red carpet. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 02:01:19|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A health worker disinfects a public area in Rabat, Morocco, on April 5, 2020. A total of 107 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Morocco on Sunday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 990, said the Ministry of Health. (Photo by Chadi/Xinhua) RABAT, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 107 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Morocco on Sunday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 990, said the Ministry of Health. A total of 69 deaths from COVID-19 were reported while 71 patients have recovered, according to the ministry. Since the detection of the first COVID-19 case in Morocco on March 2, a total of 3,890 tests on suspected cases have been conducted with negative results. Earlier on Sunday, Moroccan King Mohammed VI granted pardon for 5,654 prisoners, and ordered strengthening the protection of detainees in prisons against the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. On March 22, the North African country declared a one-month state of medical emergency until April 20. Morocco has closed all its land and sea borders, and suspended all international passenger flights starting from March 15. As 16 more attendees of the religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin were traced in Gujarat on Sunday, the number of such people found in the state so far has gone up to 126, of whom eight have tested coronavirus positive, a top police officer said. Talking to reporters, Gujarat DGP Shivanand Jha said of that of the 16 persons, 11 were traced in Junagadh district, two in Ahmedabad, and one in Chhota Udepur. "With this, total 126 people have been traced in Gujarat so far, who had attended the Nizamuddin event and returned to the state. Their medical examination and quarantine process are being carried out," he said. "Earlier, one of the attendees had tested positive for coronavirus, and one such patient had passed away due to the infection. Six more of these attendees- five from Ahmedabad and one from Chhota Udepur- have also tested coronavirus positive," he said. According to the DGP, the video footage provided by around 179 drone cameras and several CCTV cameras across the state are being used extensively by the police to implement the lockdown, with as many as 11,383 FIRs lodged so far on the basis of drone footage, leading to the arrest of 3,601 violators. Similarly, 188 FIRs have so far been lodged on the basis of CCTV footage, and 400 persons have been held, he said. Jha also said that the media that as many as 533 retired police personnel have been roped in to work for the department to implement lockdown in the state as per the home ministry notifications. "So far, 533 retired police personnel have been recruited back. Of them, 496 had retired in the last one year," he said. As many as 3,420 persons have been held in the state for violation of government notifications regarding lockdown, and 8,718 vehicles seized so far, Jha said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Korea Development Bank Chairman Lee Dong-gull drinks water during a National Assembly audit on Oct. 14. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyung Korea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman Lee Dong-gull is in a growing dilemma over how to handle the corporate fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic with a growing number of local firms are asking for financial support for restructuring. The aviation industry has been hit hardest by the global pandemic. Korean Air, the nation's largest carrier, recently announced its plan to place 390 foreign pilots on unpaid leave for three months due to the global spread of the virus forcing the firm to reduce capacity on international and domestic routes by 90 percent. Things are worse for Asiana Airlines, the second-biggest carrier, which a consortium led by Hyundai Development Company (HDC) received a license to acquire. But the takeover process hit a snag with the airliner facing its worst-ever crisis sparked by the virus. HDC is expected to delay legal procedures for finalizing the deal to the latter half of this year. The KDB is the main creditor bank and is willing to offer financial aid if HDC makes specific requests to close the deal. The HDC-led consortium was named as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of Asiana in November, but the airliner's stock price has since more than halved in the aftermath of the pandemic. HDC signed the deal for 2.5 trillion won, which is three times the current market value. Last week, the lender gave financial support of 70 billion won to the nation's low-cost carriers, including Eastar Jet, whose operations have been suspended due to the pandemic. The pandemic has cast a wider-than-expected impact on every local industry, pushing other cash-strapped companies into the corner. SsangYong Motor, which has suffered decade-long financial setbacks, is in a crisis over its future after controlling shareholder Mahindra & Mahindra, a carmaker based in India, announced Sunday it would not inject funding into the cash-strapped unit. SsangYong Motor reported a 289.1 billion won operating loss in 2019. A man went on a knife rampage in a town in southeastern France on Saturday, killing two people in what is being treated as a terrorist attack. The attack in broad daylight, which President Emmanuel Macron called "an odious act", took place with the country on lockdown in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The reasons behind the stabbing spree remain unclear although Interior Minister Christophe Castaner spoke of the suspect's "terrorist journey" and counter-terrorism prosecutors are now leading the investigation. The assailant, understood to be a refugee from Sudan in his 30s, was arrested after his rampage in a string of shops in Romans-sur-Isere, a riverside town with a population of about 35,000. According to witnesses cited by local radio station France Bleu Drome Ardeche, he shouted "Allah Akbar!"(God is Greatest) as he attacked his victims. David Olivier Reverdy, assistant national secretary of the National Police Alliance union, said the assailant had called on police to kill him when they came to arrest him. "All the ingredients of a terrorist act are there," he told BFMTV. - 'Jumped over the counter' - The suspect first went into a tobacco shop where he attacked the owner, town mayor Marie-Helene Thoraval told AFP. "His wife got involved and she was wounded as well," she said. The assailant then went into a butcher's shop where he seized another knife before heading to the town centre where he entered another store. "He took a knife, jumped over the counter, and stabbed a customer, then ran away," the shop owner Ludovic Breyton told AFP. "My wife tried to help the victim but in vain." Castaner, who visited the scene, said two people were killed and five others injured. "This morning, a man embarked on a terrorist journey," he said. The initial investigation has "brought to light a determined murderous course likely to seriously disturb public order through intimidation or terror", according to the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office (PNAT). It said that during a search of the suspect's home, "handwritten documents with religious connotations were found in which the author complains in particular that he lives in a country of non-believers". Macron was quick to denounce the attack in a statement on Twitter. "All the light will be shed on this odious act which casts a shadow over our country which has already been hit hard in recent weeks," he said. France is in its third week of a national lockdown over COVID-19, with all but essential businesses ordered to shut and people told to stay at home. The country has been on alert for terrorist attacks since a wave of deadly jihadist bombings and shootings in Paris in 2015. burs/txw/jj Eric Smith didnt rob a bank, terrorizing a teller with a pistol. As Macomb Countys prosecutor, he didnt cut a deal with a drug czar for a lesser sentence in return for cash. But according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Eric Smith may be the biggest public official crook ever in Macomb County. Nessel said Smith, who resigned this past week from his $157,716 elected position, misused about $600,000 from an off-the-books account generated mostly from impounded vehicles of repeat drunken drivers. Nessel claims Smith treated the money as a personal slush fund. It is supposed to go law enforcement but records show spending on parties, flowers, gifts and a security system at Smiths luxury home. The criminal charges include: one count of official misconduct in office, a five-year felony; tampering with evidence in a civil proceeding, a four-year felony; accessory after the fact to embezzlement by a public official, a five-year felony; conducting a criminal enterprise, a 20-year felony; five counts of embezzling by a public official for years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018; conspiracy to commit forgery, a four-year felony and a $100,000 fine. Nessel said the funds were utilized for Prosecutor Smiths personal benefit and the benefit of others chosen by him, including being used to procure gifts. These gifts garnered good will, a valued commodity for an elected official. Also facing charges are chief assistant prosecutor Derek Miller, former chief of operations Benjamin Liston who retired three years ago, and William Weber, owner of a Mount Clemens-based security company. If the charges against Smith are true, what made a now 53-year-old, highly thought-of prosecutor turn from being a crime-buster to a criminal? In a word, arrogance defined as unwarranted pride and self-importance, overbearing, haughty. Thats not just my opinion. Since the investigation began last year, Ive asked a handful of attorneys, public officials and community leaders about Smith. Each noted his arrogance. When he resigned, Smith said, in part: After much reflection, I know that for the betterment of my family, my health, and the citizens of Macomb County, it is time for me to step aside so that the Macomb County Prosecutors Office can continue its great tradition of serving and protecting the county. Smith said he will whole-heatedly defend myself against these allegations. He also said I have absolute confidence our cherished justice system will bring forth the truth and exonerate me. Really? A few days later The Detroit News reported Smith is pursuing a deal to plead guilty to forthcoming federal corruption charges. Its often said the term tragic flaw dates back to the assessment of Hamlets inability to make a decision in William Shakespeares popular drama. Eric Smiths tragic flaw is his endless arrogance. Sadly, the Smith case isnt a work of fiction but a real life tragedy. Ken Kish, a retired Macomb Daily editor and contributing columnist, may be reached at Kennethkish12@gmail.com The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) on April 5 asked the Overseas Labour Management Department to order businesses to suspend sending workers abroad until the end of April. Illustrative image It has also requested leaders of agencies under municipal and provincial Departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to step up urgent measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Overseas Vietnamese labour management boards should encourage Vietnamese labourers to stay calm, observe host countries regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control, and avoid trips to disease-hit areas, while ensuring rights and interests of the labourers who are affected by the epidemic. In its document sent to relevant agencies, the ministry said that scheduled inspections will be also halted at this time, adding that online inspections in the sphere of labour are encouraged. The ministry urged medical declaration at the request of the Ministry of Health, especially among the elderly and sick people, and ensuring safety during social welfare payment./. Japan, Taiwan top places for Vietnam's labour export in 2019 Taiwan (China) and Japan are expected to remain the top destinations for Vietnamese workers this year with 90 percent of all overseas employees working there. By Trend Taking into account the rapid spread of coronavirus in the world and the relevance of the problem in Azerbaijan, Baku Media Center has prepared another video footage within the social responsibility, Trend reports referring to Baku Media Center. In accordance with the video footage, it is recommended not to leave houses without urgent necessity. It is also recommended to study and work via the internet, as well as through other online resources. The video footage emphasizes the importance of observing the requirements of a special quarantine regime to reduce the risk of infection. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Workers at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, are in fear after two doctors tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday. It was gathered that the two affected doctors worked at the facilitys Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology departments. A senior medical officer at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two doctors were currently in isolation in their different homes. The source said the doctors became infected after attending to two patients without protective gear and unknown to them that the patients were carriers of the virus. ISTH is a World Health Organisation-recognised centre for Lassa fever research and treatment in Africa. According to the source, the doctors began to exhibit the commonly known symptoms of COVlD-19 after attending to the patients. The tests ran on them however came out positive. This came as the number of cases in the country rose to 214 on Saturday with five new cases recorded in Bauchi and the Federal Capital Territory. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates A resident of a Lancaster County retirement community has died as a result of the coronavirus. Officials with the Brethren Village Retirement Community in Lititz announced Saturday that a skilled nursing memory support resident passed away Saturday morning. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family of our deceased resident, officials said in a statement on the villages website. According to officials, one resident of that unit tested positive previously and continues to be in stable condition. Three other residents were tested due to possible exposure. Two of those tests came back as positive Saturday, and one of the residents who tested positive died. The third test came back negative. Both of the residents who have the coronavirus are currently isolated, and the staff at the Brethren Village continues to monitor the symptoms of the other residents. Public health officials have been notified. An administrative staff member in a non-care-giving role had tested positive last week and is in isolation at home, officials say. Read more: How do you make your own mask to protect against COVID-19? 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. By Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Keir Starmer was elected as the leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party on Saturday, pledging to bring an end to years of bitter infighting and to work with the government to contain the raging coronavirus pandemic. Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions who was known for a forensic attention to detail when opposing the country's exit from the European Union, won with 56% of the vote. By Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Keir Starmer was elected as the leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party on Saturday, pledging to bring an end to years of bitter infighting and to work with the government to contain the raging coronavirus pandemic. Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions who was known for a forensic attention to detail when opposing the country's exit from the European Union, won with 56% of the vote. The comprehensive defeat of an ally of the outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the election of Angela Rayner as Starmer's deputy, heralds the end of the party leadership's embrace of a radical socialism that was crushed in the December election. Starmer, who takes over immediately, said he would work constructively with government when it was the right thing to do, while testing Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's arguments and challenging the failures. "Our purpose when we do that is the same as the government's, to save lives," he said in a statement that was pre-recorded due to the pandemic. Starmer added that once the country emerges on the other side, once the hospital wards have emptied and the threat subsided, it would need to build a fairer society, where key workers on the front line receive decent salaries and better chances in life. "In their courage and their sacrifice and their bravery, we can see a better future. This crisis has brought out the resilience and human spirit in all of us," he said. Johnson said on Twitter he had congratulated Starmer and the two agreed on the importance of working together. The party of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown endured its worst election performance since 1935 in December, when infighting over strategy, a confused policy over Brexit and allegations of unchecked anti-Semitism turned traditional voters away. Starmer pushed for a second Brexit referendum but said the election result had blown away that argument. Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey came second in the party's vote with 28% and Lisa Nandy was third with 16%. Many centrist Labour politicians celebrated the result as a sign that the government would finally face proper scrutiny. "A fresh Labour leader will challenge the Tories where necessary and give the party the chance to renew itself in time for the next election," Alf Dubs, an opposition Labour lord who fled to Britain as a child to escape the Nazis, told Reuters. Starmer acknowledged the scale of the task ahead. Well ahead in opinion polls, Johnson's Conservatives have also occupied much of traditional Labour territory, with the coronavirus crisis prompting the ruling party to deliver unprecedented state support to workers and businesses. "This is my pledge to the British people. I will do my utmost to guide us through these difficult times, to serve all of our communities and to strive for the good of our country," Starmer said. "I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and with hope." (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The fact that were having this conversation, folks this is real, said Mr. Murphy, who enacted a statewide stay-at-home order just over two weeks ago. New Jerseys fatality and infection rates are still dwarfed by New Yorks, where, as of Sunday, more than 122,000 people had been infected and more than 4,100 had died. The virus appeared to be spreading fastest in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, where there were more than 27,000 cases, only about 10,000 fewer than in all of New Jersey. The outbreak in New Jersey is most serious in Bergen County, the states most populous county. It has recorded 6,187 confirmed virus cases and at least 189 deaths. Teaneck, one of the countys biggest townships, has reported 421 cases. Ms. Acito said she expected her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, who were not on ventilators, to fully recover. She said that she considered it a blessing to be able to visit with her relatives in person. We know how fortunate we, as a family, are to have me on the inside, she said in an interview on Thursday. With hospitals closed to most visitors, nurses are the lifelines connecting patients and their families. At Holy Name, iPads wrapped in clear plastic to shield germs offer some patients the ability to communicate face-to-face with loved ones. Our role is not only to provide all this care, under these circumstances, Ms. Acito said. Its to be their advocate, their family member, their provider. AMSAT EA providing administrative support for AMSAT Nepal SanoSat-1 Spain's AMSAT EA is registering the AMSAT Nepal SanoSat-1 satellite with IARU and the ITU, due to the difficulty of carrying out this procedure in the Asian country A translation of a post by the Spanish national amateur radio society in Spain URE says: This is a one-off collaboration, which will allow said satellite to fly under the Spanish flag, being launched jointly with the EASAT-2 and Hades satellites of AMSAT-EA, predictably with SpaceX later this year. SanoSat-1 is a 5cm side pocketQube 1P designed and developed affordably for the hobbyist community by using readily available commercial components (COTS). The SanoSat-1 satellite integrates a gamma radiation sensor as a payload. Its main mission will be to measure space radiation while orbiting, and periodically transmit its level to Earth using RTTY-FSK modulation. All radio amateurs will be able to receive and decode radiation measurement data. The secondary mission of the SanoSat-1 satellite is also to demonstrate the storage and forwarding concept, which will be useful in remote disaster-prone locations. The satellite will collect data from ground sensors, store it on board and transmit it to Earth's main station. The design and kit for the ground sensors will be made available to the general public. One of AMSAT Nepal's goals is to encourage more people to join the group of radio amateurs by receiving data from SanoSat-1, which will also issue a CW beacon with its internal status. Another activity scheduled to promote radio amateurs and satellite technology to science and technology students around the world is the organization of hands-on workshops on the construction of pico-satellites and ground stations. There will be an opportunity to build an affordable open source ground station (SatNOGS) and a dedicated GFSK receiver ground station to receive the data. The design of the satellite itself will be open source as well. Source URE https://tinyurl.com/SpainURE Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 04:34:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DUBLIN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China was the largest contributor to the operational income of the Irish aircraft leasing sector between 2009 and 2018, according to the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland. During the ten-year period, the accumulated operational income of the Irish aircraft leasing sector stood at 86.8 billion euros (about 94 billion U.S. dollars), of which China was the largest source, providing 11.2 percent of all the operational leasing income, showed the figures in a CSO report entitled "Aircraft Leasing in Ireland 2018." The next largest contributor was the United States, which contributed 9.1 percent, followed by Ireland (6.7 percent) and Russia (5.8 percent), said the report. According to the report, in 2018 the Irish aircraft leasing sector made a total operational leasing income of 15.2 billion euros, accounting for nearly 85 percent of its total income which stood at 17.9 billion euros in the year. Operational leasing income refers to the income generated through the leasing of aircraft while total income includes income from other sources such as interest and dividends. In 2018 the after-tax profit of the Irish aircraft leasing sector stood at 4.7 billion euros, said the report. This indicates that the Irish aircraft leasing sector is a highly profitable sector as its 2018 profit ratio was as high as more than 26 percent. The report said that by the end of 2018, the total assets of the Irish aircraft leasing sector were valued at 140.1 billion euros, up by over 200 percent compared with its 43.2 billion euros worth of assets in 2009. In 2018, the sector employed almost 2,000 people. Ireland is an aircraft leasing hub in the world mainly due to its attractive 12.5-percent corporate income tax. Of the 10,000-odd leased commercial aircraft around the world, the number of the aircraft operated by the leasing companies based in Ireland accounted for about 60 percent, according to the statistics provided by Industrial Development Authority, a state agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment into Ireland. (1 euro=1.081 U.S. dollars) (Natural News) Chinas coronavirus epidemic isnt over by a long shot, warns no less than the countrys top disease expert. In a rare contradiction to Beijings official narrative, Zeng Guang, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Preventions chief epidemiologist, said on Thursday that the virus is still rampant in the country and that it has now entered a new phase where its likely to infect more people. The novel coronavirus has spread to more than 200 countries, and infected much more people than SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome]. In the end, the virus may infect more than 100 times the number of people during SARS, he told state-run newspaper Health Times. Pandemic response marred by propaganda, horse-trading Its been 17 years since the SARS outbreak first hit Guangdong Province in China. The outbreak, caused by the eponymous virus, spread to the rest of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as parts of Southeast Asia and North America. At the height of the epidemic, the country was accused of trying to cover up the extent of the outbreak, which ultimately resulted in around 800 deaths. With the emergence of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the country is scrambling to regain public trust, with government officials insisting theyve learned from past mistakes. Since the SARS outbreak, the country has placed stringent measures for handling major health threats. (Related: Chinas response to COVID-19 is the latest in string of COVER-UPS and suppression.) With relatively complete prevention and control systems for sudden and infectious diseases in place since SARS and with the support of the broad masses of the public, we are confident of victory, said Li Bin, a vice minister at the National Health Commission (NHC), the countrys lead agency to combat COVID-19. In particular, Chinese President Xi Jinping has trumpeted his countrys response to the current coronavirus pandemic; from his cabinet members saying that the country is doing much better, taking less than a month to announce the outbreak to the public, to him rallying for global coordination to manage the pandemic. The current narrative is a stark difference to Beijings early response to the pandemic, where it detained Dr. Li Wenliang for spreading false rumors after he warned other doctors of a new SARS-like disease in early December, a month before authorities went public with the outbreak. The government has since exonerated Li, who died from the virus in early February. The move drew sharp criticism from the public, as the report maintained that the late doctor did not verify the information before sending it and that it was not consistent with the actual situation at the time. Dealing with the next phase of the pandemic For Zeng, the next phase of controlling the epidemic in China is a two-pronged approach aimed at preventing infected people from entering the country and identifying potential patients early on. [We should] maintain our capacity to find patients at an early stage, control the outbreak when it first starts, and prevent the next big outbreak, he added. The NHC, in a surprise announcement Tuesday, revealed a total of 1,541 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. According to the agency, all cases have been put under medical observation. Following the report, Wu Zunyou, a disease specialist at the China CDC, downplayed the potential risk of spread of the newly identified cases. Theres a small possibility that asymptomatic carriers will cause an outbreak [in China], he added. The asymptomatic carriers wont spread the virus in society. The NCH, in its website, provided opposing guidance: There are diagnosed patients who were infected by asymptomatic carriers in our national research and some provinces studies. During an epidemiological investigation, we found asymptomatic carriers caused clusters of infections. Learn more about the novel coronavirus pandemic at Pandemic.news. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com WHO.int Reuters.com CNBC.com TheGuardian.com EconomicTimes.IndiaTimes.com The unanswerable question is what politics will be like after coronavirus. Will it return to the usual fare, or will the trauma of the death of our mostly oldest and wisest generation leave its mark on the national psyche? And will that mark dictate that those politicians in, or about to step into, the breach now, be rewarded in time or punished when the final bill comes to be settled? And will that final bill come at a cost as severe as the years of austerity after the national humiliation of 2008? There are many in the Greens who think they know the answer to those questions. Expand Close New Labour leader Alan Kelly. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp New Labour leader Alan Kelly. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins That is why they are running a mile from government formation talks, wrapped in a cloak of cynicism unsuited to their image. In time the likes of Neasa Hourigan, the new Green Party TD in Dublin Central, may be proven right, but she might just as easily be wrong, because the public mood is different this time. The hope for a stable government rests on the shoulders of the new Labour leader, Alan Kelly, this weekend, and with him the Social Democrats whose joint leaders face a last spin of the merry-go-round before time passes them by. Labour's current position is that it too wants to head for the opposition benches, and the relative luxury of rebuilding a party which has always manned up in the national interest. That would leave Fianna Fail and Fine Gael together, with a clutch of Independents, sitting on a three-legged stool, facing into the consequences of the greatest national reckoning in living memory. And if that does not prove to be enough - both party leaders have said another of the smaller parties is required - we could be back to a day of reckoning sooner than we thought, in the form of another election. Expand Close Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald. Photo: Steve Humphreys Such an outcome might not be so bad for Fine Gael, whose generation of politicians has come of age during the coronavirus crisis. But how would other parties fare? The Greens, for example, who look set to turn their backs on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to effect real change on the issues which matter most to them? Not very well, some would argue. Or Labour, who as things stand look set to abandon a tradition of acting in the national interest, the consequences be damned. Or the Social Democrats, who up to now have removed themselves from the frame at a time when the country has come to bury its dead by webcam? Right now it is doubtful that Leo Varadkar is doing 'what ifs', but if he is in the privacy of his own thoughts he must be wondering what if he had taken Micheal Martin at his word and delayed the calling of the recent election until after Easter. He would now be looking at a postponed election in September and a people grateful for the manner in which Fine Gael has managed this great national trauma so far. The cynics out there would have it that Varadkar is preparing to manipulate such a situation anyway. That the Taoiseach, who heretofore would not have changed his socks without assessing the political consequences, is preparing to collapse the talks on the grounds of instability of outcome, to take advantage of a popular outpouring toward his party. That may be so, but if he is, it would be a risky strategy. No, it is more likely that Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are serious about their intention to put together a good and stable government, as will be required. And that takes us back to the Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats. There are other possibilities within the matrix, of course. A chunk of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party want no truck with Fine Gael, and when the moment presents, before the second wave hits, might choose to dump their leader and turn to Sinn Fein. Similarly, all other possibilities exhausted, Fine Gael might also turn to Mary Lou McDonald. In that scenario, it is easier to see the radical chic wing of the Greens scrambling to get on board. Which tells us how deeply engrained in the DNA of some smaller parties is an antipathy not towards Sinn Fein, but towards Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. How post-modern of them. But the exhausting manoeuvrings within such a matrix seem too complicated at this stage. The clock is ticking in Leinster House. The need for a new government to be put in place sooner rather than later is the imperative. What would happen if new legislation is needed to contend with the consequences of the first wave of coronavirus, or the second? According to the Attorney General, such a scenario could lead to a full-blown crisis of paralysis within the Oireachtas because the Seanad would not be properly constituted. No, it would seem we are where we are. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will shortly arrive at a deal and then turn to Labour, and after that to the Social Democrats should Labour come on board. Cometh the hour, cometh the man What will Alan Kelly do? There is talk of Labour facilitating the potential new government from opposition, but that will hardly do either. Neither would it satisfy the Alan Kelly ego, one would imagine, in the nicest possible way. There is a kind of poetic symmetry to it all: the three parties which have formed part of every government since the foundation of the State coming together to lead the country through the consequences of the greatest national trauma since the Spanish flu in 1918. In Sinn Fein and the Greens, and in parties on the left, they would present such an outcome as a sign of their own importance. The supporters of these parties will never tire of telling us of how politics has changed and changed utterly. Look, they will say, and point toward such a government - civil war parties, and the oldest party in the State - dwindled in numbers, huddled together. Aren't we great? And they will clap themselves on the back and present this as a validation of themselves. There will even be talk of the emergence of a left-right divide, and the "normalisation" of politics, even the Europeanisation of it. And they will sit back and carp and complain and pretend that they could have done it better. Give us a chance, Sinn Fein and the Greens and others will cry. Well, this is their chance, and some have abandoned it; worse than that, they have run from it in the most cynically opportunistic way imaginable. So, to answer the question, what will politics be like after coronavirus? Look around you, at your family, your friends, your neighbours, at the random strangers who have come to bury their dead, and tell us the story of their father or mother dying alone with nothing but the plastic-wrapped mobile phone of a hero nurse held to his or her ear. And tell me, who will you vote for when next you come to choose a government, the people who stood up to be counted now, or those who hid in plain sight? Dear Editor, There is no question that Ulster County and New York state should immediately ban the use of customers reusable grocery bags. Please contact Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan and Governor Andrew Cuomo to ban customer grocery bags, which could be spreading the coronavirus now. Stores are now offering free single-use plastic and paper bags, but that is not good enough. The customers reusable bags must be banned. Ralph Mitchell, Kingston, N.Y. Job Title: Human Resource and Administration Manager Organization: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda Reports to: Finance and Administration Director About US: We are hiring! Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is currently recruiting for a Human Resource and Administration Manager for an upcoming five year USAID-funded Social and Behavior Change (SBC) project in Uganda. At CCP, we believe in the power of communication to save lives, by empowering people to adopt healthy behaviors for themselves, their families and their communities. Good health is critical not only to an individuals well-being, but also to community and national development, impacting educational and economic success. With projects in more than 40 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America along with work in our hometown of Baltimore, CCPs portfolio spans the globe. Job Summary: The Human Resource and Administration Manager will oversee all administrative and human resource activities of a five-year USAID-funded project in Uganda, pending funding confirmation. This position will support the Finance and Administration Director. She/he will ensure the efficient and effective operation of the Administration department and HR functions including sufficient staffing levels and coverage. The HR and Admin Manager will manage security and will work to ensure office safety both for the staff and the HR systems. The HR and Admin Manager will work with the appropriate team members, liaising with HQ HR and support team as needed, to recruit, hire, and orientation all staff, maintaining compliance with local labor law. She/he will ensure confidentiality is maintained and staff have a safe space to work. Travel within Uganda may be required. Key Duties and Responsibilities: Administration Ensure the efficient and effective operation of the Administration department and HR functions including sufficient staffing levels and coverage. Draft SOWs to prequalify vendors annually that provide routine and general contractual services or goods e.g. stationary, hotels, venue spaces, catering, vehicle maintenance, equipment maintenance, printing/photocopying, etc. Manage security company, ensuring safety and security protocols are implemented as per contract. Communicate to and ensure adherence by staff of security and safety protocols for the office. Be the main contact person for the security company, which requires being on-call 24/7. Verify accuracy of invoices and deliverables before and forward them for payment processing. Establish and maintain the key and access management system to safeguard office spaces and assets. Receive vendor and consultant invoices, review for accuracy against contract or order payment terms and deliverables. Investigate accidents and prepares reports for insurance carrier. Human resources Coordinate the clearing and forwarding of goods for office and expatriates and TCNs. Make arrangements and liaise with appropriate host government ministries to obtain work permits for all expatriates and TCNs. Finalize job descriptions, advertise positions, short-list applicants, check references, and organize interviews. Assist in recruitment process of new staff, liaise with recruiting firms, and arrange interviews. Coordinate initial orientation with department leads. Orient all staff on office policies and procedures, HR manual, the organizational code of conduct, ethics policies and procedures, benefits and compensation packages. Obtain and file all relevant labor documents/policies and advise managers appropriately. Liaising with health insurance service provider to ensure all staff policies are up to date. Respond to inquiries regarding policies, procedures and programs. Assist managers in resolving and moderating staff conflicts. Ensure confidentiality for staff matters and records is observed. Consult local legal counsel, Baltimore CCP HR and represent CCP UG in labor matters as directed including but not limited to the investigation and resolution of employee issues, concerns and conflicts. Identify legal requirements and government reporting regulations affecting human resources functions and ensures policies, procedures, and reporting are in compliance. Collect timesheets monthly from staff. Review and apply policies from field finance manual and HR manual. Review timesheets for accuracy and completeness (e.g. leave type, tracking, project allocation). Collect leave request forms and update leave tracking. Follow-up with staff until all timesheets are received. Review and provide guidance on CCP HR policies and host country labor laws. Forward timesheets and leave requests to Finance for payroll processing. Manage the annual APR process timely ensuring completion of APR forms, issuance of annual increment letters and submission to Baltimore. Maintain accurate and complete personnel files in accordance with UG labor laws and CCP HR policy. In the case of promotions, reclassifications, etc. ensure that job descriptions are up-to-date, accurate, appropriately approved and filed in the personnel files. Ensure that CCP HR receives a copy of all letters, contracts and personnel correspondence for the main personnel files kept in Baltimore. File personnel records in a way that records can be accessed and sent easily in soft or hard copy when needed. Notify staff in advance of office closings due to public holidays or ad hoc closings prompted by the Country Director or University. Conduct assessment of medical insurance for market comparison and renewal annually or as needed ahead of expiration. Prepare employee separation notices and related documentation, and conducts exit interviews to determine reasons behind separations. Follow appropriate protocol for reporting suspected internal controls violations. Staff Supervision Responsibilities Manage the work of direct reports and provide supervisory responsibilities. Promote staff development through training, counseling, and performance evaluation of the staff of the CCP UG under your supervision. Ensure that direct reports are implementing duties as assigned. Conduct timely annual performance reviews for direct reports. Manage performance of direct reports timely and in a way that facilitates growth and improvement in accordance with CCP Baltimore HR guidance. Qualifications, Skills and Experience: Minimum of a University degree in Administration, Business Management, Human Resources, or other related field. At least seven (7) years experience in the NGO sector within Uganda in office administration. At least five (5) years experience supporting USAID-funded projects. Uganda national. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Ability to perform under extreme pressure and take initiative in resolving problems. Ability to work independently in a high profile, fast-paced and multi tasked environment. Strong interpersonal and team building skills. Oral and written fluency in English. How to Apply: All candidates should apply online at the web form below. Click Here Deadline: 15th April 2020 For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline By ANI NEW DELHI: Using famous 'Friends' character Chandler Bing's expression of hiding pain through sarcasm, actor Matthew Perry on Saturday used the reference to talk about coronavirus pandemic. Taking to Instagram, Perry re-created one of his iconic dialogues from the show and posted a picture that said, "Could we BE in any more of a pandemic?" Perry portrayed the character of Chandler Bing in the beloved 90's show which celebrated its 25th-anniversary last year. Chandler Bing, the IT procurements manager with a specialization in 'Statistical analysis and data reconfiguration,' had a habit of using sarcasm as a defense mechanism to cover his misery. "Could this BE... any more .....?" is one of his famous reference that he used several times throughout the 10-season-long show. As the world is at the largest of its misery amid the coronavirus crisis, Perry once again used the reference in real life. 'Friends' featured Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc, besides Perry. A much-awaited reunion special episode of the sitcom which was scheduled to be shot and telecasted this year on HBO Max has also been shelved until May due to the outbreak of the virus. According to WHO, COVID-19 has affected over 10 lakh people across the globe and has claimed the lives of more than 50,000. CAIRO (Reuters) - Dubai announced a two-week lockdown starting on Saturday at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) to disinfect the emirate and contain the spread of the coronavirus, state news agency WAM said, the citing Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management. Dubai warned that mobility would be restricted and legal action taken against violators, WAM said, adding that supermarkets and pharmacies as well as food and drug delivery services would continue to operate as normal. CAIRO (Reuters) - Dubai announced a two-week lockdown starting on Saturday at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) to disinfect the emirate and contain the spread of the coronavirus, state news agency WAM said, the citing Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management. Dubai warned that mobility would be restricted and legal action taken against violators, WAM said, adding that supermarkets and pharmacies as well as food and drug delivery services would continue to operate as normal. The oil-rich federation has reported an uptick in coronavirus cases with several hundred people diagnosed since April 1 and a total number of cases of 1,505. (Reporting by Marwa Rashad, Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Samar Hassan; Editing by David Clarke) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, on Sunday, said the Nigerian Army would embed journalists in the front line of the ongoing counterinsurgency operation in northeast Nigeria on the condition that they respect the national interest.. Mr Buratai, a lieutenant-general, said this at a dinner organised in honour of the former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Olusegun Adeniyi. But he did not elaborate on what he meant by national interest. The army has already invited applications from interested journalists to apply to the army for recruitment as war correspondents who would be embedded in the over decade-long war on the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east. Mr Adeniyi, a major-general, was last week removed from his command, days after a video that later became viral featured him lamenting about Nigerian soldiers being outgunned by the Boko Haram insurgents. In his remark at the dinner in Maiduguri, Mr Buratai said journalists would henceforth be embedded in counterinsurgency operation as part of the military renewed strategy aimed at defeating Boko Haram. The army chief, however, said certain guidelines will be given on issues relating to national security as a condition for embedded reporting. And for our friends, the journalists, who have seen it all right from the beginning, we are inviting you to join us to go to the field and see what our troops are doing, he said. You are so invited so that whatever happens, you will have first-hand knowledge, but of course, with a very strong position and understanding of the implications of whatever happens here on national security. So your reports must reflect and conform to our national interest. Be rest assured, if youre embedded with us, we will guide you and ensure we get the right thing across so that our country will be proud and everybody will appreciate the efforts you put in place to keep our country safe, Mr Buratai said. He appealed to willing Nigerian journalists to embed in the future operations as a way of keeping Nigerians adequately informed. Mr Buratai, who has been in command of the army since 2015, said under the reorganised command at Operation Lafiya Dole, all strategies aimed at defeating Boko Haram would remain topmost secret. He called on troops at Operation Lafiya Dole to brace for busy times ahead. Addressing the new theatre commander, Farouq Yahaya, the army chief said, we will not disclose our plans, but Im sure that as you settle down, you will have a very busy time. And all the new commanders should prepare for a very busy period. Reiterating his confidence in the gallantry of the Nigerian soldiers, Mr Buratai said: the insecurity can not be forever but we have to work collectively to ensure that we bring the situation under control, and effective control so that is our target, this is what we hope to achieve in the nearest future. Adeniyi commended Dispelling the rumor that the erstwhile theatre commander was removed because he made public the firearm inadequacy of troops on the frontline, Mr Buratai said Mr Adeniyi had performed extremely well while serving as head of the theatre. He said what the media reported was a misleading rumour. Addressing Mr Adeniyi, Mr Buratai said, Your leaving here is not for any other reason apart from the normal routine administrative functions that we have to carry out from time to time. Whatever insinuations that had been in the air are just the mere imaginations of those people who are peddling the rumor or write-ups. I will like to congratulate you for a very successful tenure as the theatre commander. We are here to honour, Maj. Gen O J Adeniyi. It is an honour that is well deserved. He has shown a very high level of understanding of the operational environment that has placed him in a very good stage to have really achieved tremendous success as the commander of Operation Lafiya Dole. He came at a time when things were virtually crumbling, and his leadership style turned things around to bring us to where we are today. He never led from the rear; hes always in front. Thats the type of leadership that is required, Mr Buratai said. Advertisements Mr Adeniyi is now to resume work at the Nigeria Army Resource Centre as a Senior Research Fellow. The marketing in-charge of a Food Corporation of India's godown near here has been booked after the depot was found short of nearly 2,700 quintals of food grains, which are suspected to have been sold illegally to private traders, an official said on Sunday. District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said an FIR against the depot in-charge of the FCI's Syana depot was lodged on Saturday after the godown was found short of 1,046 bags of wheat and 1,611 bags of rice, each weighing 100 kgs during an inventory check of the depot. It is suspected that these stocks were sold to private traders, he added. The other two Depots at B B Nagar and Gulaothi were found up to the mark, the DM said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thousands of Brits ignored the strict lockdown rules yesterday to sunbathe during a mini heatwave, forcing a park in London to close. Police in the UK capital were also forced to break up an 18th birthday attended by 25 guests who flouted the social distancing guidelines set out by the government amid the coronavirus outbreak. Brockwell Park will shut today after 3,000 people descended on the green space despite the UKs chief nurse begging Brits to stay at home in memory of two hero nurses who lost their lives fighting coronavirus. In a tweet, Lambeth Council said locals had ignored clear instructions and the council would shut Brockwell Park for the wider safety of the public. Pictures show people clearly ignoring social distancing guidelines and sunbathing, some in large groups. And police in Newham, East London, busted a birthday party ordering some 25 guests to go home, tweeting: This family thought law relating to social distancing shouldnt apply to 18th birthday parties. 25 guests moved on. In Clapham Common, police were seen reminding groups of sunbathing Brits of their social distancing responsibilities. The Rickmansworth Aquadrome in Hertfordshire was also forced to close its car park. Police were also out in force in Brighton in case Brits descend on the seaside town to enjoy the mini heatwave. In Regents Park, cyclists were snapped riding close together in the sunshine against government advice to keep 2m apart. Groups of people could also be seen running and stretching their legs in the busy central London park as temperatures rise to 20C today. In Paddington, a group of men were pictured working out in a tight-knit group while others, who appeared to be personal trainers, gave them advice. Some were seen using resistance bands anchored to a wall without gloves on. Cops have warned anyone who refuses to follow the UKs lockdown guidelines this weekend will be arrested. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 00:01:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Djibouti's Ministry of Health (MoH) disclosed on Sunday the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the horn of Africa nation has risen to 59. These figures were reached after eight more people were confirmed on Sunday to have been infected with COVID-19 virus. "We conducted medical tests on 252 people in the last 24 hours, with eight people testing positive for COVID-19," Djiboutian health minister Salah Banoita Tourab said in a press statement "We declare nine people who tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized have recovered," said Tourab. Djibouti confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 18. Djibouti, which lies on a key location connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, hosts a number of foreign military bases and is the main sea outlet for landlocked Ethiopia. Confined and isolated astronauts and their supporting programmes have answers and an online tool you can use now. Since were stuck at home, thank goodness space exploration programmes have given us the memory foam in our mattresses, instant pot noodles, and perhaps most importantly satellite TV, without which there would be no binging on Netflix. At this time, when many of us are confining ourselves inside our homes to shelter in place and to stop the spread of COVID-19, astronauts, cosmonauts and the programmes that support them have some space-worthy advice to share. In a virtual Asteroid Day event held recently, Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu illustrated to his fellow spacefarers the challenge billions of people across the globe now face: the psychological risks of long-duration isolation, in a confined space, away from friends, colleagues, and even family, in a dangerous environment. Now Im with my wife in [our] house. We are isolated in a way, self-isolated. We are feeling well but what happened around, it is crazy. It is very dangerous now, said Prunariu, who is Romanias first cosmonaut. If you stay too long in [an] isolated place, you start to talk to things, to the plants, to the dog and so on. The worst thing is when they start to answer to you, he joked but just partially. More than 1.2 million people across the planet are confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19, and the virus has claimed nearly 65,000 lives, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys COVID-19 tracker. With healthcare systems across the world either bracing for or overwhelmed by a tsunami of sick and dying patients, governments have instituted draconian measures to keep their citizens and residents isolated in their homes. Understanding our vulnerability Because Prunariu was part of the Soviet-era Salyut programme, which launched cosmonauts into orbit to conduct science experiments, he is no doubt mindful of the experience of Valentin Lebedev. In 1982, Lebedev spent 211 days with only his crewmate for company on the Salyut 7 space station. In his book Diary of a Cosmonaut, Lebedev revealed the psychological distress he experienced during a mission with fellow crewmate, Anatoly Berezovoy. Lebedev wrote: July 11: Today was difficult. I dont think we understand what is going on with us. We silently pass each other, feeling offended. We have to find some way to make things better. Lebedev recalled that he and his crewmate went weeks without speaking to each other, lost interest in their work, snapped at ground-control crew, and eventually stopped looking out of the portholes. These are normal reactions, Gro Sandal, the deputy dean for research in the Department of Psychosocial Science at the University of Bergen in Norway, told Al Jazeera. Sandal was the principal investigator for the Mars500 project, an experiment that put six mock cosmonauts under observation for a 520-day simulated space mission. She said that social and sensory monotony make us vulnerable to depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and problems concentrating. It can also make us less than generous towards the people locking down with us. Your annoyance about another persons behaviour may be more a psychological reaction to isolation and confinement than a reflection of the bad qualities of the other person, she said. Participants of the Mars500 experiment, which simulated a flight to Mars in a mock-up that included an interplanetary spaceship and Mars lander, were isolated for 520 days to test human endurance [File: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters] Losing and taking back control Bear in mind that cosmonauts and astronauts the men and women with the right stuff choose to spend long periods of time in space, away from family and friends and confined within the International Space Station (ISS). Sandal, who is now working with Russias space agency Roscosmos to study cosmonauts, said, One difference between our subjects and people during this coronavirus crisis is that the former group is highly motivated and prepared for how to deal with different challenges. British astronaut Tim Peake, who has spent a total of 185 days in space over three missions, also took part in the Asteroid Day discussion. He said maintaining habits and routine is what he and his colleagues used aboard the ISS to manage expectations and accomplish tasks. I think we need to embrace that here at home. We call it normalising the abnormal. On the space station, what that means is getting up, having a cup of tea, having a bacon sandwich and going to work. Youre in a very abnormal situation, but actually the routine of your everyday life, by having that structure, that schedule, it keeps everything on track, he said. British astronaut Tim Peake, who has spent a total of 185 days in space over three missions, advises those coping with lockdowns to normalise the abnormal, which on the ISS means getting up, having a cup of tea, having a bacon sandwich and going to work [Reuters] Online tools designed by an astronaut that you can use The disruption of everyday work-life rhythms and being confined to home can cause overwhelming feelings of vulnerability and therefore a loss of control. That can trigger depression and serious interpersonal problems, experts say unless we pull ourselves out of destructive mood ruts. What happens is that people with depression just stop working on problems, Dr Jay Buckey, an astronaut and the director of the Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine in the United States, told Al Jazeera. In partnership with NASA, Buckey and his team created a self-guided online programme called PATH to manage conflict, stress, and depression. Anyone who wants to can access and use the programme. Buckey said the intent of the online programmes depression module is to guide people in identifying problems that they do have some control over, that can be solved in a short period of time, with a good chance of success. Its not for a problem that they cant solve, like you know their boss is a jerk. Youre not really going to solve that. But you can solve other things like youre not interacting with people, or youre not taking care of the house, he said. Buckey said that a challenge many will face in confinement is the strain it will place on significant relationships, such as between parents and children, spouses and close friends. He said managing conflict and preserving important relationships are essential to strengthening our interpersonal support network. One of the problems of having a small group of people live in isolated and confined environments is dealing with interpersonal conflict. The long-term relationship matters, he said. Its not like having a difficult negotiation over a used car. Its really important that people become good at managing conflicts. Buckey said that the programmes conflict resolution module was originally designed for use by astronauts, but that the strategies offered can be used here on Earth. He said that while we all differ in our ability to manage interpersonal conflict, we can be trained to do better. The idea behind the programme is to give people self-guided tools that they can use, because when you are in a closed environment, I mean who are you going to talk with? Where are you going to get training about this? From the people you are already in conflict with? You need to have some tool that you can use, he said. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- The number of deaths on Staten Island as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has dipped over the past two days, falling in line with what might be encouraging data statewide. Over a two-day period -- from Friday to Sunday -- nine deaths were reported at Staten Island University Hospital, while 10 deaths were reported at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton. To put that into perspective: From Wednesday to Thursday, a combined 14 deaths were reported at borough hospitals. From Thursday to Friday, 21 deaths were reported. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** The number of deaths reported statewide over a 24-hour period fell for the first time since the pandemic reached New York: From 630 on Friday to 594 on Saturday, data shows. A total of 4,159 New Yorkers reportedly had died as a result of the virus, including 145 on Staten Island. HOSPITALIZED VS. DISCHARGED From Friday to Saturday, the number of new hospitalizations for coronavirus-related illnesses across New York dropped from 1,095 to 574, data shows. Its an interesting blip maybe in the data, or hopefully the beginning of a shift in the data and the number of cases," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a press conference Sunday in Albany. On Staten Island, 240 patients were being treated at SIUHs Ocean Breeze location, and 53 patients were at the Princes Bay location. The hospital had discharged a total of 437 patients, a spokeswoman for SIUH said. At Richmond University Medial Center in West Brighton, 146 patients were being treated, as of Sunday, which included 34 in the intensive care unit. A total of 86 patients had been treated and released from the hospital. Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED STORIES Coronavirus: New York state issues list of deaths by age Coronavirus deaths drop; Cuomo says NY might have reached apex 3 more NYPD members die of coronavirus Crime down, except for burglaries, across NYC amid coronavirus shutdown Staten Island healthcare facilities to receive funding to battle coronavirus Data analysis: Three weeks in, how the coronavirus has spread in our borough Data shows which Staten Island zip codes have the most coronavirus cases At least 5,000 coronavirus patients will be in citys ICU beds, mayor says, as NYC waits for supplies, military personnel from DC EMTs to stop taking patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals if resuscitation isnt successful Rita Wilson recently contracted the coronavirus along with husband Tom Hanks while in Australia. But the beloved couple has since recovered and returned home to Los Angeles after a flood of well wishes from their fans. She graced their loyal fans with a beautiful rendition of the national anthem Sunday for her first performance after beating COVID-19. She's back! Rita Wilson graced her loyal fans with a beautiful rendition of the national anthem Sunday for her first performance after beating COVID-19 The 63-year-old sang The Star-Spangled Banner for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a virtual alternative for the racing league. She was filmed by her and Tom's youngest son Truman, 24, from outside their Los Angeles home. Rita and Tom returned to the United States last week after they became some of the first celebs diagnosed with the coronavirus earlier in March. They were treated in Australia, where he was starring in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presley biopic, starring Austin Butler as 'The King.' Working from home: She was filmed by her and Tom's youngest son Truman, 24, from outside their Los Angeles home Live performance: The 63-year-old sang The Star-Spangled Banner for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a virtual alternative for the racing league Full recovery: Rita and Tom returned to the United States last week after they recovered from the coronavirus in Australia It came five years after she beat breast cancer on March 29, 2015, having undergone a bilateral mastectomy. She wrote in an Instagram post: '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.' The Mixed Nuts star concluded: '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.' Over the past day, almost 11,000 people returned to Ukraine. Almost 5,200 arrived without their own transport. This was reported by the press service of the State Border Service of Ukraine. It is noted that over the past day, border guards completed more than 17,000 control operations. "In the morning, there are no queues of people traveling with their own vehicles and pedestrians at the checkpoints. Over the past day, almost 5,200 people arrived in Ukraine without their own vehicles. Vehicles provided by the local authorities and the State Emergency Situations were involved in their transportation," the statement reads. As noted in the State Border Service of Ukraine, on April 4, border guards, in collaboration with representatives of the sanitary-quarantine units, conducted temperature screening and a survey on the health status of 12.6 thousand people who were sent to Ukraine According to the results of an additional check by doctors, no signs of Covid-19 were found. Also, in the prescribed manner, informative self-isolation agreements were drawn up and relevant memos were provided. In addition, more than 5 thousand people left Ukraine during the day, of which almost 2 thousand were foreigners. As we reported, as of 10:00 on April 5, in Ukraine, 1251 cases of infection with the coronavirus Covid-19 were recorded. During the day, 156 new cases were diagnosed A 30-year-old man was arrested for impersonating a senior customs official and using a forged identity card to avoid the lockdown restrictions on the movement of private vehicles across Delhi-NCR, the police said on Sunday. The police seized a Swift Dzire car from the man along with the forged identity card. The man, identified as Suraj Singh Bisht, was driving the Dzire car which had Government of India written over it, the police said. They also seized a police uniform from him. Bisht is private driver by profession and used to work for a government official, a senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic On April 3, the officer said, a police team from the Patparganj Industrial Area police station was deployed at Anand Vihar to implement the lockdown and prosecute those motorists who were violating the prohibitory orders. Around 6.30 pm, the policemen stopped the white Dzire car and asked its driver to show his curfew pass-issued by Delhi Police and Delhi government for the movement of essential service providers. The driver produced a government identity card in the name of Suraj Singh Bisht which mentioned his designation as an assistant commissioner from the customs department. The police said that the identity card looked suspicious and the driver was asked to furnish another identity card. The driver then produced his driving license. When the policemen looked at the minute details mentioned on the identity cards, they detected that date of birth mentioned on both the identity cards was different. When the driver was questioned, he confessed that the identity card showing him as assistant commissioner was forged. He said he got it prepared by scanning the original identity card of a government official, a statement by the police said. During questioning, Bisht also confessed that he had got forged the identity card to cross toll plazas and was using it to drive around Delhi-NCR amid the lockdown, the officer added. A case was registered in the matter at the Patparganj Industrial Area police station under sections 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. Johnson, one of the first world leaders to be diagnosed with covid-19, had continued to work and lead cabinet meetings via teleconference from his flat, aides said. He has posted short videos on Twitter urging Britons to remain indoors except to go shopping, visit the doctor or exercise. In his most recent video, on Friday, he looked ragged, with puffy eyes and pale skin; he said then that he had one symptom the temperature and would continue in self-isolation. A police and crime commissioner has warned that isolation fatigue could damage the effectiveness of the coronavirus lockdown if it is extended beyond Easter. Hardyal Dhindsa, the elected official for Derbyshire, said the restrictions would be increasingly tested in two or three weeks as the public becomes frustrated. How long can we keep a lockdown going?, he asked. In this early phase of isolation, peoples awareness is quite high, but the longer it goes on, peoples frustration at not being able to do what they want to will grow. He made the comments to The Observer as government ministers, police and local officials urged the public to take social distancing measures seriously in order to save lives during the outbreak. The government is widely expected to extend the lockdown beyond its current end date of Easter Monday. On Saturday cabinet secretary Michael Gove suggested that younger people in particular appeared to be flouting the new rules. There has been evidence that for some young people, there has been a lower level of compliance, he told the daily briefing. It may be that young people feel that they are less likely to be affected and less likely to be infected. Recommended People seen flouting lockdown by sunbathing and going for picnics It came as increasing numbers of people were tempted outside to enjoy the warmest weekend the UK has seen in six months. Images posted on social media showed large crowds in London Fields in Hackney and Battersea Park. Lambeth Council in south London responded to a surge in visitors to Brockwell Park by announcing it would be closed on Sunday. Despite clear advice, over 3000 people spent today in Brockwell Park, many of them sunbathing or in large groups, the council tweeted. This is unacceptable. In the North East, surfers were pictured on the beach at Tynemouth, while two people in East Sussex were caught breaching lockdown regulations by having a BBQ on Hove beach. Several councils have closed car parks to deter people from travelling to the countryside and open spaces during the lockdown. The Met Office are forecasting temperatures of up to 24C next week, particularly in England and Wales. JINAN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A working group sent by east China's Shandong Province has shared experience of its fight against COVID-19 in Britain, according to a press conference held in the province on Sunday. The working group held three video conferences with the British Ministry of Health and other departments, sharing the province's experience and measures and providing guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of specific cases. The group also provided psychological consultation and other services for more than 460 Chinese citizens in Britain. "I introduced some specific measures such as establishing a joint working group composed of community workers, medical staff and police officers to British officials and experts," said Zhang Ke, a member of the group. "They said they were inspired by our tracing system with big data and hoped to strengthen cooperation and share experience in the future." The province also offered 48 tonnes of anti-virus materials including medical masks and detection reagents to Chinese students and other personnel in Britain. Piers Morgan has slammed Lord Sugar over his latest 'reckless and stupid' tweet, that suggested it was OK for Britons to sunbathe in public during the coronavirus lockdown. The journalist, 55, took to Twitter earlier today to denounce the minority of 'selfish' members of the British public who had ventured out to sunbathe in the good weather amid the government imposed measures. His comments were rebuffed by The Apprentice star Lord Sugar, 73, who claimed that there was nothing wrong with sunbathing in areas with 'big fields'. Lord Sugar tweeted: 'I can't for the life of me understand what @piersmorgan is on about in respect to sunbathing. Piers Morgan (left) and Lord Sugar (right), with 12.5 million followers between them, have been known to spar on Twitter, however Mr Morgan insisted this dispute was 'not a f****** game' 'If you are 10ft away from the next person in the open what's wrong with that. In Essex we have big fields if you are in the middle of one chilling out in the sun what's wrong with that?' Mr Morgan hit back, sharing the businessman's tweet with the caption: 'Billionaire hiding safely in his luxury Florida home demands the right for British people to all go out sunbathing, in direct contravention of Govt instructions, as UK #coronavirus death toll rockets incl more & more NHS staff on the frontline. What an utter disgrace.' Asked why he didn't just let the Twitter spat with Lord Sugar go, Mr Morgan tweeted: 'I'm done with @Lord_Sugar, trust me. His behaviour over this crisis has been an absolute disgrace, especially for a peer. Lord Sugar suggested it was OK for Britons to sunbathe in public during the coronavirus lockdown Mr Morgan tweeted: 'I'm done with @Lord_Sugar, trust me. His behaviour over this crisis has been an absolute disgrace, especially for a peer' 'But when he actively encourages British people to go out sunbathing, I can't just sit back & say nothing. His reckless, shameful stupidity will kill people.' Others, including a frontline NHS nurse, also responded to Lord Sugar's tweet. Alice Payne, a nurse at North Bristol Trust, shared a picture of herself battling through a shift in protective gear in response, with the caption: 'Would have loved to have sunbathed with my kids yesterday but I will go to work and risk my life for your suntans. It's not hard to stay at home until this is over.' Others, including a frontline NHS nurse, also responded to Lord Sugar's tweet The high profile pair, who have 12.5 million Twitter followers between them, have been known to have the odd Twitter sparring match, however Mr Morgan insisted this particular dispute with Lord Sugar was 'not a f****** game'. Earlier today Matt Hancock blasted sunbathers for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules as he warned the government will ban 'all forms' of outdoor exercise if a 'small minority' refuse to stay at home. The Health Secretary said it was 'quite unbelievable' some people are still not following government guidance and stressed the plea not to go outside apart from in very specific circumstances was 'not a request, it is a requirement'. President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Americans of a lot of deaths as he sought to urge them to brace themselves for the toughest wee yet in the fight against the coronavirus that killed an average of more than a 1,000 people last few days infected thousands. This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and the next week, the American president told reporters at the daily briefing by the White House coronavirus task force. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. More than 8,500 Americans had died in the outbreak till Sunday morning, over 1,000 from the previous day; and the number of confirmed cases climbed to 312,000. New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Louisiana states remain the hardest hit, with New York City bearing the brunt of it. Washington DC, Colorado and Pennsylvania are emerging worries, health officials have said. Washington state, which reported the first death in February, and California, which was the first state to issue stat-at-home orders, have kept their numbers low are being touted as the model for social-distancing for others. The next week will be tough, as US officials has been warning fora while.. They have warned of 100,000 to 240,000 fatalities in all despite the social-distancing measures in place, without which deaths could be as high as 2.2 million. And in anticipation of the peak, they stepped up preventive measures to include as a recommendation, not mandatory masks or face covering in public, and stepped up procurement of protective gear for health workers such as gowns, masks and gloves. The next two weeks are extraordinarily important, said Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response coordinator. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing their hands. The grim warning came amidst projections that that the New York, Louisiana and Detroit in Michigan, the three hotspots regions with the highest incidence of cases, will be hitting their peaks together in six to seven days. New York state had reported 3,565 fatalities till Sunday morning, with 2,624 in New York City along; the total number of cases in the state that continues to be the epicenter of the American coronavirus epidemic. Followed by New Jersey with 846, Michigan with 504 and Louisiana with 409 deaths. While the situation remains dire in the New York, governor Andrew Cuomo said at his daily briefing Sunday that over the last few days the number of deaths has been dropping for the first time.. But he hastened to add it was too early to know what to make of it, though new hospitalizations are also down. The struggle for resources continued, despite Trump administrations claims to the contrary. New York was still short of ventilators that are needed for several ill COVID-19 patients. The number of beds doesnt really matter any more. We have the beds. Its the ventilators, and then its the staff, the governor said. He has appealed to other states to send over their supplies and health professionals to help the state at this time, promising to reciprocate when they needed it, in a rolling pattern. Over 66,000 people have died in the pandemic globally and there have been more than1.25 million confirmed cases. It has wreaked havoc on economies around the world, including the richest nations an estimated 10 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last two weeks. Developing countries are expected to be hit the hardest. In three to six weeks, Europe and America will continue in the throes of this but there is no doubt the center will move to places like Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Monrovia, said Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, to the Washington Post. We need to be very worried. Vogue Williams ensured she got her fair share of sunshine on Sunday morning as she stepped out in London. With temperatures expected to be their highest in six-months, the pregnant TV personality made the most of the pleasant weather during a rare appearance without husband Spencer Matthews and their infant son Theodore. Opting a for a nautical striped top and leggings, Vogue, 34, ensured she caught the eye while making her way towards Heart Radio's Global House in Leicester Square. Fresh air: Vogue Williams ensured she got her fair share of sunshine on Sunday morning as she stepped out for her hour-long exercise allowance in London The Irish star added to her look with a pair of peep-toe ankle boots, while heavily tinted sunglasses rounded things off. Accessorising tastefully, Vogue gave an otherwise muted colour scheme an added splash of vibrancy by carrying a distinctive pink Chanel bag over one arm. Vogue was making her latest public appearance after amid claims that reality show Spencer, Vogue and Baby Too will no longer air on E4. Here she comes: The pregnant TV personality made the most of the pleasant weather during a rare appearance without husband Spencer Matthews and their infant son Theodore Looking good: Opting a for a nautical striped top and leggings, Vogue, 34, ensured she caught the eye while making her way towards Heart Radio's Global House in Leicester Square Finishing touches: The Irish star added to her look with a pair of peep-toe ankle boots, while heavily tinted sunglasses rounded things off A Channel 4 Spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Weve loved following Spencer and Vogue from the beginning as they welcomed baby Theodore, right through to finally celebrating with the wedding ceremony of their dreams, and were looking forward to working with them on other projects in the future. Separate sources had previously claimed the show was shelved after a drop in ratings during its second series. An insider told The Sun: 'Spencer and Vogues first show, which followed their journey into parenthood, was really successful, but the second instalment, which covered the run-up to their wedding, failed to set the world alight. Bold choice: Accessorising tastefully, Vogue gave an otherwise muted colour scheme an added splash of vibrancy by carrying a distinctive pink Chanel bag over one arm 'When there were talks about making a third series, it was eventually decided it wasnt commercially viable, plus, Spencer and Vogues team tried to negotiate a bigger and more lucrative package and it wasnt working. 'There was talk about following their journey into becoming parents for a second time after Vogue announced her pregnancy earlier this March, but it all just fell through.' The insider added there was further talk the show could move to another network but it's 'still very much up in the air' at the moment. It is unwise to assume Fianna Fail's membership will support a coalition with Fine Gael, according to one TD. Eamon O Cuiv, the Fianna Fail TD for Galway West says that there is "serious disquiet" brewing among membership of the party that they are headed for another five-year government formation with Leo Varadkar's party. "There seems to be an assumption in media reporting over the last few days that members will automatically endorse an agreement arrived at by leadership," he said. "From what I hear speaking to FF local reps and members across the country, this could be way off the mark. There is serious disquiet within the party about forming such a long-term coalition. "Since the proposal to go into long term with Fine Gael, as proposed in this two and a bit party coalition, there has been disquiet about it. "The main issue among members is they don't think the two parties are compatible, the same reason that The Greens and Labour have given. "The impression is that an agreement has already been made in Fianna Fail, but it's the members who will decide, and people are taking it for granted." Mr O Cuiv added that Fianna Fail is a membership-led organisation and that the members themselves are the "ultimate authority within the party". There seems to be an assumption in media reporting over the last few days that FF members will automatically endorse an agreement arrived at by leadership of FG and FF. From what I hear speaking to FF local reps & members across the country,this could be way off the mark. Eamon O Cuiv (@eamonocuiv) April 5, 2020 A Fianna Fail Councillor told the Examiner that the party is now split on the issue, as the Coronavirus pandemic puts the need for government to the fore. "There are a lot of mixed feelings within the party, a lot of people think we should avoid Fine Gael, personally we had a meeting of Councillors and communicated to headquarters that we'd prefer to go into opposition, but everyone understands the need for government now, so it's hard to gauge." Last month, Ogra Fianna Fail, the party's youth contingent also repeated their stance that they would oppose any coalition at an Ard Fheis, and expected that to be reflected across the wider party membership.override Mr O Cuiv's comments come as Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are hoping to have their "framework for government" policy paper finished this week. The two traditional parties have agreed that a broad programme for government should be designed by respective negotiating teams, before being distributed to parties with whom they would be interested in speaking. Both parties have remained tight lipped on the contents of the framework, which is being drawn up by the likes of Fianna Fail's Dara Calleary and Tanaiste Simon Coveney via teleconference due to social distancing measures, but it has been acknowledged that the document itself will be concise and a shorter document than would be expected, as this is "only the second step" in government formation, according to one Fianna Fail source. "Once the other parties have seen the initial outline of what we see as viable policies, they can have a read of that and see if it's workable for them, but it's a work ongoing," the source added. The negotiating teams have agreed that the contents would be confidential and when finalised will be reviewed by their respective reference groups before being shared with other parties. The Greens, Labour and Social Democrats are the most attractive options to provide the "third leg" of government, to both parties, who have ruled out working with Sinn Fein, however the three smaller parties have all publicly stated they are unlikely to be involved in a coalition, citing irreconcilable differences on policy and outlook for the future. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are eight short of a majority, with 72 TDs between them, and have both privately said that they would prefer not to pin the future of the government on independent TDs, who do not provide enough stability. "It's a broad framework to be able to go to other parties with because we are very strongly of the view that stable government cannot be formed without a third party," Fine Gael Party Chairman Martin Hayden said. "What we want to do is put together, is a of a set of agreed principles that we would have as a basis for programme for government and ask other parties for their input. "It will be up to is each party to look at it, to come back with their own viewpoint, and you'd hope other parties would engage in a productive way." Eric Wang first noticed something was wrong on March 9. It was a Monday morning, and the co-owner of Thamee, a Burmese restaurant in D.C. that had just been named a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, was doing his routine count of reservations for that evening. Usually, the number of bookings will rise between Sunday night and Monday morning, as guests making last-minute dinner plans sign up for tables online. On March 9, Wang saw the reservations drop by half overnight. Advertisement Many restaurants operate on wafer-thin margins, with little financial cushion to sustain the business through prolonged periods of diminished income. Thamee, which opened in May 2019 and made the Washington Posts list of best restaurants of that year, was no different. The restaurant had only just completed its first five straight weeks of profitability when those reservation cancellations started rolling in. Like many new restaurants, Thamee was still in debt, with just about one months worth of rent and one pay periods worth of wages on hand. Wang, 39, and his Thamee co-ownersSimone Jacobson, 35, and her Burma-born mother, 67-year-old executive chef Jocelyn Law-Yonehad to act quickly to avoid bleeding money on hourly staffers who might show up at the restaurant to find empty tables and not enough work to do. Advertisement Advertisement The owners took one server off the schedule each night and had a bartender do double-duty serving tables. They dismissed members of the kitchen staff two hours early during every dinner service. As their customers began to avoid restaurants for fear of contracting or spreading the novel coronavirus, Thamees management could only try to keep the business afloat. At that point, Wang said, there was still no signal from government officials that public establishments should do anything differently to protect their employees or guests, or that there might be assistance coming for employees whose hours were dwindling. There were no guidelines other than wash your hands and dont touch your face, Wang said. For two weeks, that was really all we got, from the end of February to when the shit hit the fan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Every town has had its own shit-hitting-fan moment in the coronavirus timeline, when official response escalates from personal hygiene PSAs to business closures and isolation mandates. For D.C., it came on Sunday, March 15, when Mayor Muriel Bowser handed down an order requiring restaurants to eliminate bar seating and keep 6-foot gaps between all tables. Thamee had finished its brunch service and was less than an hour from welcoming dinner guestsboth meals with a smaller-than-usual crowdwhen Jacobson, the only owner in the restaurant that day, got the word. I just went into crisis mode, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Jacobson pulled out a tape measure and started mapping out a new table configuration, reducing available seats from 40 to 12. She called seven staffers on the schedule and told them she couldnt afford to bring them in for the evening; some didnt get the message in time and were sent back home as soon as they arrived. I had a bartender, two line cooks, and methats it, Jacobson said. It wasnt our best service ever, but we gave it our absolute best. It was a lot of chaos and confusion. And really, that day was sort of a blur, because we didnt know what was going to happen next. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres what happened next: Bowser banned dine-in service altogether on March 16, in an order that took effect just a few hours after it was issued. Some D.C. restaurants pivoted to takeout and delivery. Thamee management opted to close. All 28 employees, including the owners, have been out of work for more than two weeks, with no idea when theyll be able to earn a paycheck again. Many have applied for unemployment benefits but have yet to receive any payouts. That week, I felt like I lived a year in about seven days, line cook Leeda Bijani, 26, told me. I love being out in my city and working really hard. My livelihood, my happiness, my sanity is cooking and being in a kitchen. And it was gone overnight. Advertisement As the U.S. economy staggers under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic and its attendant lockdowns, the hospitality sector is hemorrhaging jobs and revenue. Thousands of restaurants around the country have shuttered or curtailed operations under orders from state and local officials. In a recent survey of 5,000 restaurant operators, the National Restaurant Association found that 44 percent had temporarily closed their businesses, 3 percent had permanently closed, and 11 percent projected that theyd have to close for good within the next month. The association estimates that 3 million restaurant workers were laid off in the first three weeks of Marchabout one-fifth of the entire U.S. restaurant workforce. April will look even worse. Its like youre a parent, and suddenly someone waved a magic wand and said, Your previous toddler human child is now an armadillo. Figure it out. Simone Jacobson This gutting hasnt been distributed evenly across the industry. Spending at fine dining restaurants has dropped 98 percent from the pre-coronavirus average. Chain restaurantswhich are more likely to have drive-through or takeout optionsare faring better: Fast-food restaurants, for instance, have only seen a 45 percent decline in spending. For a small, mid-to-upscale independent restaurant like Thamee, abruptly converting to a takeout and delivery operation was a tall order. At first, Wang thought it might work: The restaurant could keep just the salaried staff members on board to cook, package, and deliver food. When Thamee bar manager Richard Sterling, 34, heard that the D.C. Council had passed emergency legislation to allow restaurants to sell wine, beer, and liquor with takeout and delivery orders, he saw it as an exciting challenge. I was like, Lets go, lets do thisthinking about smaller portions of our cocktails, thinking about larger carafes we can seal, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But when Wang, Jacobson, Law-Yone, Sterling, and general manager Jordan Lee sat down to talk through their options two days after the mayors order to end dine-in service, the prospect of hastily fashioning a takeout joint out of a restaurant known for its warm, familiar ambiance, lively open kitchen, and frequent tableside visits from the owners felt increasingly grim. The logistics alone were prohibitive: Thamee has an exclusive deal with the Caviar/DoorDash family of delivery apps, so theyd have to renegotiate that, sign up for all the other apps, and launch an aggressive delivery marketing campaign to maximize sales. And even if they could boost their app orders, the numbers wouldnt make sense. Youre being asked to change your business model overnight, Jacobson said. Its like youre a parent, and suddenly someone waved a magic wand and said, Your previous toddler human child is now an armadillo. Figure it out. Advertisement More importantly, the team couldnt reconcile how they would run a restaurant without endangering their employees or their customers. Law-Yone had been spending more time away from the restaurant since early March, as she started hearing reports about the acute dangers the coronavirus posed to people her age and older. As executive chef, she knew it would be next to impossible to operate a kitchen during a pandemic without some risk of viral transmission. As a proud mother figure for her staffThamee means daughter in Burmese; several employees said Law-Yone, or Chef Jojo as they called her, cares for them like familyshe worried for the safety of workers forced to commute to the restaurant and interact with customers. Advertisement Our entire leadership team is immigrants or first generation, Jacobson said. In our parts of the worldMexico, Tajikistan, China, Taiwan, Burma, Jamaicayou listen to the elders. My mom was adamant that the moral thing to do was to close. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, March 18what Jacobson calls the worst and hardest day of my lifeshe called each employee to share the news: Everyone who worked at Thamee, including all management, would be laid off. She sent them information on applying for unemployment benefits and invited them back to the restaurant to pick up their final paychecks that Friday. For me, personally, it was kind of bleak and a little depressing to see everyone I know be out of a job in an instant, said Geoffrey Chang, 32, a bartender at Thamee. But I was more concerned about Simone. She invested a lot of time and money into opening the restaurant, and it hasnt even been a whole year yet. Its a really hard blow for her. Advertisement Jacobson had been through the restaurant grind before. She and Wang met years earlier on OkCupid. The romance part didnt work out, but we respected the hell out of each other, Wang said. A few months after their introduction, when they ran into each other at a cafe in their neighborhood, Jacobson told Wang that she was trying to open a Burmese falooda shop with her mother, who was retiring from a high school teaching career. Wang said he wanted to support the venture with what little money he hadit was a lot of money to me, Jacobson saidand a business partnership was born. The enterprise, Toli Moli, was an introduction to restaurant ownership for all three partners. Over the course of its nearly four-year run, it grew from a sporadic pop-up to a permanent stall to a full bodega before closing late last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For two years, Jacobson didnt take a salary for the work she did at Toli Moli. She supported herself as an arts consultant instead but gave up that career pathand took on a lot of debtfor Thamee. Opening the restaurant was a sacrifice for me in some ways, she said. I knew my mom really wanted this restaurant. I wanted to be able to actualize that dream with her, and I knew if we didnt do it, someone else would be right behind us. This was not my dream, but Ive made it my dream. And if I wasnt sure before, Id better be sure now that this is really what I want to be doing. My livelihood, my happiness, my sanity is cooking and being in a kitchen. And it was gone overnight. Leeda Bijani Jacobson and her co-owners remain optimistic that Thamee will reopen, though they say those chances decrease with every month its closed. Their survival plan depends on a confluence of government policy, local funding, and community support. D.C. halted all evictions and utility cutoffs, and lifted restrictions on unemployment insurance, allowing Thamees employees to apply for benefits without having to look for other work, because there is none. That helped the team decide that laying everyone off was a safer bet for the restaurants future than depleting its resources to keep the staff employed for another week or two. (Thamee, according to its owners, did not employ any undocumented workers when it shut its doors. So unlike many other restauranteurs, Jacobson, Wang, and Law-Yone did not have to worry that their staff members would be ineligible for unemployment insurance.) The owners are also applying for a D.C. small-business recovery microgrant, a James Beard Foundation grant, a grant funded by the Bumble dating app, and loans from the Small Business Administration to help pay expenses until the restaurant can open its doors again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That money will buy Thamee a bit of time with no cash flow, but bills are still coming in. The week Thamee closed, the restaurants management team went through their profit and loss statement line by line to see what services they could put on hold. A shuttered restaurant doesnt need trash removal, oven hood cleaning, liquor liability insurance, or a towel provider. (When Sterling, the bar manager, called Thamees towel vendor to cancel their order, the vendor was feeling down, too, after having had to lay off several members of his own staff.) But Thamee is still on the hook for property taxes, pest control, a security system, and rental payments for its ice-maker and dishwashing machine, among other monthly fees. Right now, those costs add up to about $2,500 a month. Come June, if the owners arent able to negotiate any further payment deferrals or rent abatement, theyll be spending $14,000 a month just to keep hibernating. Wang says Thamee is in a better position to weather a short closure than most other new restaurants because of the particular nature of its debt. Most of Thamees initial funding came from the Latino Economic Development Center, a local organization that offers loans to small businesses owned by members of underserved communities, which has paused repayment requirements until the coronavirus crisis passes. The restaurant has also benefited from the kindness of its small-time landlord, a Korean American man who told Jacobson, Were family, well get through this together, when he agreed to waive Thamees April rent and use its security deposit for Mays. (The landlord will let Thamee build that deposit back up through smaller payments over time.) Were working with a lot of individuals who have been understanding and accommodating, Wang said. For them, its just as important that we have a restaurant to open after this is all over. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The same could be said for Thamees fans. In one 24-hour period after Bowsers shutdown order, individuals purchased nearly $10,000 worth of gift cards for the restaurant, to use when it reopens. One buyer said he and his wife had been looking forward to having dinner at Thamee for some time but hadnt yet made it over. He put down $1,000 toward their future meals. We were so humbled by that, Jordan Lee, 34, told me. I think all of us kind of cried a little bit, just to really see the impact we have on people. Nobody knows exactly what to make of this cataclysmic event in the restaurant industry, and the world. Were the last few weeks the start of a brief period of hardship, followed by a colossal government bailout and the eventual return of a thriving independent restaurant economy? Or were they a comparatively peaceful lull before a monthslong wave of permanent closures and job loss? How long can converted takeout and delivery joints stay open before their staff members fall ill? How many landlords will be as understanding as Thamees, and for how long? Will half of our favorite restaurants be Chopts or Potbellys by next spring? Right now, Wang places Thamees chances of surviving its coronavirus closure at 100 percent, but his calculations change every day. If the restaurant is still shut down by June, itll be closer to 50-50. Theres just no way to make informed predictions. Thats the part that makes me really anxious, he said. The known unknowns. When Thamees employees recall the abrupt closure, they describe a feeling of momentum stalled. New plans for the restaurants upper level were on the verge of completion. Law-Yone, whod spent months building up her kitchen staff, said she had finally landed on a team that clicked. They had plans for a tasting menu to celebrate Burmese New Year in mid-April, and a new spring menuour best yet that had long been in development was about to hit the dining tables. Thamee cooks have now taken to calling it the spring-summer-fall-winter menu, determined to resurrect it once they return to the kitchen, whenever that may be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When even epidemiologists cant forecast the shape of the plague to come, and with so much riding on variables Thamees owners cant controlthe distribution of relief funding, the acceleration of viral spread, the citys long-term coronavirus containment strategyJacobson, Wang, and Law-Yone are trying to focus on what they can. Jacobson and a few other former Thamee staffers are volunteering with World Central Kitchen, the Jose Andresrun relief organization that has mobilized to feed health care workers, seniors, and those experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic. Law-Yone has been writing stories for her granddaughters, who live nearby but havent been able to visit for the past several weeks. One is about a pangolin, the adorable armored anteater that may have been an intermediate host for the virus now keeping Law-Yone and her family apart. The rest of the Thamee staff is making do however they can. Some are living with their parents. Sterling has been hosting live cocktail classes online, and Bijani is considering a venture into pizza-making video tutorials. People are looking for silver linings in the gloom: One sous-chef is eating three meals a day for the first time in a long time, freed from the punishing schedule of the service industry. Line cook Mike Powers, 28, now sleeps 16 hours a night. At first, when the restaurants closed, he was playing catch-up after a long stretch of working 70-hour weeks at his two jobsbut these days, hes just bored as hell, and theres nothing else to do. Always the general manager, Lee is encouraging his staff members to relish in this rare opportunity to rest, if theyre able, because their work will be essential when the pandemic subsides. I dont think people understand what makes a restaurant special to them. Its not just the food. Its the all-encompassing hospitality, that I walked in here and its warm and I can feel like a guest in someones home, Lee said. Because of social distancing, everyone cant get that right now. Once this is all over, theyre going to need the best of us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two days after Thamee closed its doors, almost every employee returned to the restaurant to pick up what will be their last paychecks until some indeterminate crisis endpoint beyond the scope of current imagination. A midpandemic reunion of laid-off workers at their shuttered restaurant sounds like it would be unbearably somber. Instead, Bijani said, it ended up feeling more like an end-of-the-world party. They shotgunned beers and danced to a killer playlist. Sterling treated each employee like a valued guest at the bartheyd give him their preferred flavor profile, and hed whip them up a custom cocktail. Someone FaceTimed Law-Yone so she could join the festivities from her home. The now-former staffers set up the dining room like a grocery store, stocked with every remotely perishable food item in the building. Among the cache was more than $500 worth of duck that had been dry-aged for three days in preparation for the weeks entreesenough for everyone to take home an entire fowl. The free groceries were a godsend. Powers, who lives with another laid-off restaurant worker, usually keeps nothing but beer and condiments in his refrigerator. Now, its packed full of food from their shut-down restaurants. Powers isnt sure what to expect in unemployment benefits. So far hes gotten one $367 payment, much less than his normal weekly take-home pay of between $800 and $900 for working at Thamee and Momofukus now-shuttered D.C. outpost; he and his roommate have been making kimchi jjigae and freezing chicken parts to stretch out their vegetables and meat for as long as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former employees are also using their Thamee stashes as an excuse to stay in touch. On a staffwide WhatsApp chat Wang calls a little support group, they are sharing cooking tips and photos of their creations alongside memes and updates from the mayor. Theres a lot of, Hey what do I do with the duck, Ive never seen a duck before, from the front-of-house staff, Law-Yone said. Invariably, one of the cooks will say, Its already been confit-ed, just warm it up! Were all a bit naturally competitive, so now we have elevated to this level of plating our breakfasts really nicely, Bijani said. Even if its just eggs and bacon, were making it extra nice so we can post it on the WhatsApp. So I made hot dogs and mac n cheese, but I shingled the hot dog against the mac n cheese, so it looked real chef-y. Theyre also making meals they learned from Law-Yone. Nine months ago, myself includedwe had no idea about Burmese food, Lee said. And now, Chef Jojo gets to see her whole staff making Burmese-inspired food. Thats what touches me the mostwhen she started this, no one knew what mohinga was, he said, referring to the catfish stew widely considered the national dish of Burma. Now, people are making their riffs on mohinga at home. Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial. Gov. Andrew Cuomo today continued to justify his plan to move hospital equipment around the state as the need for ventilators to fight coronavirus continues to stress Downstate hospitals. Were not going to lose a life because we didnt share resources among ourselves, he said during his daily briefing in Albany. Cuomo last week said he was ordering the National Guard to take unused ventilators from across the state down to hospitals where patients needs were overwhelming existing supplies. That directive concerned many in Upstate, where the virus, in most places, has caused far fewer patients needing intensive care. Overall, more than 4,100 people have died in New York due to coronavirus. New York City has had nearly 75% of the fatalities. Long Island has had another 16 percent. Today, Cuomo said the effort is to take inventory of the machines and to see how many are in use at any given time. I understand the fear, he said of some Upstate leaders and residents reactions to his order to reshuffle equipment. All were asking is for ventilators that youre not using now and you dont foresee using in the foreseeable future. Cuomo said he would take 20 percent of unused ventilators if needed. He estimated that would be as many as 500. I want to know where they are, if we need them, he said. The governor also said that its in Upstate communities best interest to help fight the virus elsewhere, before it gets worse at home. He compared the spread of the virus to the spread of a fire. Putting out the fire when its further away, he said, protects the communities where the virus numbers are lower. If Im sitting in Upstate New York right now and I see that fire coming, I say lets go put out that fire, he said, adding thats why Oregon has lent New York 140 ventilators. He also promised that the help would run in all directions, that hospital equipment not needed on Long Island could be sent to Buffalo. This virus will overwhelm the resources of any single community, he said. Well help one another. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Coronavirus in NY: State releases deaths by ages, counties Coronavirus deaths turn more common in CNY: Where we stand after 20 days Coronavirus Tips: How to make a mask without sewing (DIY video) Upstate Hospitals COVID soldiers: Behind air-locked doors, doctors and nurses battle a mysterious virus Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. New Delhi, April 5 : The Delhi government has issued an SOP for disposal of the dead bodies of Covid-19 affected persons to ensure that no further infection is caused. The SOP is an addition to the one issued last month by the city government and on the basis of the guidelines issued by the Centre on Covid-19 dead body management. The Delhi Health Department has categorised such deaths into two categories -- deaths at the hospital and death due to virus outside the health care facility. For the death at the hospital, it said the hospital should provide trained healthcare workers to handle and pack the body. "Hospitals should store the body in the mortuary after ensuring proper disinfection of the body and the body bag. It should decide whether to carry out an autopsy or not," the SOP said. It also said that the hospital should provide a hearse van to carry the body to the cremation or the burial ground to ensure that no further infection is caused. "The trained health care workers should accompany the van. They should wear proper protective gears all the time." It says the van must be brought back to the hospital and disinfected before letting it go. For the second category -- death due to coronavirus outside the healthcare facility, the SOP says the relatives of the deceased should immediately inform the District Magistrate concerned, who "shall immediately inform the nearest COVID-19 designated hospital". The Health Department also said that if an unclaimed body was found at a public place, the Delhi Police will handle theAbody in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central government and bring it to the nearest Covid-19 hospital. "The hospital should provide trained healthcare workers to handle and pack the body, ensuring proper disinfection of the body and body bag." The SOP also said that the hospital should provide a hearse van to carry the body to the cremation or burial ground to ensure that no further infection is caused. "The trained health care worker should wear proper protective gears all the time.AThe van used must be brought back to the hospital and disinfected." Delhi has reported six deaths since the outbreak of coronavirus infection. The number of cases in the city are increasing constantly, however, the government says the local transmission has not started yet. Till Sunday morning, 445 positive coronavirus cases were reported in Delhi. There is yet no respite from the coronavirus scourge which has plagued the world for the past four months. The virus continues to spread and has been reported in over 200 countries across the world. As more countries impose quarantines and social distancing on the people, the fear of contagion and income losses is increasing uncertainty around the world. Meanwhile, Nigeria is still battling other diseases such as Lassa fever which has killed over 180 people this year. Here are some of the stories which made headlines last week: Coronavirus: Nigeria records 10 new cases, total now 224 Nigeria on Sunday recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 as the number of infected persons rose to 224. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed on Twitter that the new cases were reported in Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Edo. Of the total 224 confirmed cases, 27 people have recovered and have been discharged while five deaths have been recorded. Nigerias COVID-19 cases double in past week The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the world hard and Nigeria is not spared from the scourge. In a week, the number of cases recorded in Nigeria doubled, a review of official data showed. COVID-19 is a viral respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. As of Saturday, March 28, the tally of Nigerian confirmed cases was 97 with a death recorded and three patients discharged after they fully recovered from the disease. However, a week later, by the end of Saturday, April 4, confirmed cases in the country had risen to 214. Also, four deaths have been recorded while 25 persons recovered and have been discharged. Coronavirus: Global figure of infections exceeds 1,000,000 The number of people infected with Covid-19 globally rose above one million with over 65,000 deaths reported as of Sunday. As of Sunday,13:30 GMT, 1, 224, 894 people have been infected with the virus with 66, 497 deaths. All is, however, not grim as 253,821 people have been treated, recovered and discharged globally. There are about 904, 576 active cases of which 859,873 are mild and 44,703 severe. The five countries with the highest death rates are Italy 15,362; Spain 12,418; US 8, 454; France 7,560; and UK 4,932. Coronavirus: Scientists say anti-parasite drug can kill virus Australian researchers have published a study revealing that a single dose of the anti-parasite drug, Ivermectin, can kill COVID-19 within 48 hours. According to Newsweek, a study by researchers at Monash University showed a single dose of Ivermectin could stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in cell culture. We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA (effectively removed all genetic material of the virus) by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it, one of the researchers, Kylie Wagstaff, was quoted as saying. Advertisements Lassa Fever: Nigerias death toll reaches 185 The death toll from the ongoing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has risen to 185, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Thursday. Amidst the global coronavirus outbreak, Nigeria has also been battling a Lassa fever outbreak since the beginning of the year with 951 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection. As of last week, the number of deaths from the fever was 176, meaning nine people died from it within the week. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: More than 90 countries have sought emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, according its MD Kristalina Georgieva. The 189-member-nation multilateral agency has indicated that it will put to use its $1 trillion war chest to help countries cope up with the ensuing crisis. Stating that emerging markets and developing economies have been hit hard by Covid-19, Georgieva said that about $90 billion investments have already flowed out of these markets, far more than during the financial crisis. The IMF has begun disbursing funds to requesting countries, including Rwanda, with requests from two additional African nations to be reviewed, she added. This is, in my lifetime, humanitys darkest hour a big threat to the whole world and it requires us to stand tall, be united and protect the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens, Georgieva said in a video interaction with media late Friday. This is a crisis like no other. We have witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill. We are now in recession. It is way worse than the global financial crisis of 2008- 09, she said. On Friday, the IMF and the World Health Organisation called for an emergency aid to strengthen health systems, pay doctors and nurses, and buy protective gear. They urged advanced economies to step up their efforts to help emerging markets and developing countries survive the economic and health impact. Over 1 million have been infected with Covid-19 globally, and more than 53,000 have died as per latest estimates. Even though central banks and finance ministers have taken bold steps to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and stabilise markets, more work is needed to keep liquidity flowing among emerging markets and outside. To that end, she urged central banks and particularly the US Federal Reserve to continue offering swap lines to emerging economies. Also, the IMFs board will meet soon to review a proposal to create a short-term liquidity line to help provide funds to countries facing problems. Meanwhile, World Bank President David Malpass in a separate note said that beyond the health impacts from the coronavirus pandemic, they were expecting a major global recession. We intend to respond forcefully and massively with support programmes, especially for poor countries, Malpass said, adding that he planned to speak soon with the leaders of Ethiopia, Kenya and other countries. And unfortunately over a time series, as you see were climbing the number of people who have it, the number of people who are passing away. And so I dont want to predict on a certain day that were going to hit a peak, but I will say that its very important for us to track this. And the reason its important to track it is, obviously it helps us determine what to do with patients who are in certain conditions," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 17:36:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A researcher from PSG Namibia, a Namibian financial services firm, said on Saturday that the country's economy "will suffer a huge blow" amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Eloise du Plessis, head of research at PSG Namibia, said Namibia is set to record another significant contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) this year. In 2019 the Namibian economy contracted by 1.1 percent. "We will determine the exact magnitude of this contraction in an interim forecast in the coming weeks," du Plessis said. With 14 COVID-19 cases so far, the country has ordered a partial lockdown for 21 days starting on March 27, which includes the Khomas region, where the capital Windhoek is located, and the western Erongo, an important mining region. "Namibia will soon move from a partial lockdown to a countrywide lockdown," she said. "The restrictions on local and international travel are a massive blow to the tourism and hospitality industries." Du Plessis added that all non-essential businesses that are not allowed to operate during the lockdown, including mining, will suffer significant revenue losses. "Furthermore, the outlook for the diamond industry has also dimmed dramatically," she said. "Even if production resumes, global diamond demands are very depressed." The second global sightholder sales of De Beers, a world-leading diamond company, recorded a sharp drop, registering a decrease in demand for rough diamonds during the second sales cycle of 2020. What's more, the diamond giant has canceled the third sales event, the researcher noted. Things we'd never heard of The crisis has provoked the use of certain words at unprecedented levels, like unprecedented, and it has introduced us to concepts that few of us had ever heard of, such as furlough. Last weekend there was another - recoverable paid leave. The Spanish government announced that non-essential work activities had to cease up to and including Holy Thursday. Workers, such as those on building sites who were now deemed not to be essential, would receive this recoverable paid leave. In other words, they were having to take time off. The employment minister, Yolanda Diaz, stated that all parties must give. "It is a period of eight working days, and nobody loses their rights." There were some signs of hope. In the Balearics, we were suddenly clinging to something else we had never previously heard of - basic reproduction number, or R0 as epidemiologists know it. The number in the Balearics was below one, and when the number is below one, the epidemiologists can be thinking about advising governments that confinement might just be relaxed a tad. Economic figures red and redder The economic numbers, however, offered very little hope. March unemployment, to no one's surprise, went up. This was by 8,000 compared with March 2019. The regional employment minister, Iago Negueruela, made a statement of the obvious when saying that the March numbers only gave a partial idea as to the impact of the pandemic on employment. April's will show the full magnitude. Predictions as to the economic effects continued to be offered. Negative growth will be worse than it was at the height of the financial crisis. It could be almost minus ten per cent, albeit this was something of a global figure that Goldman Sachs had come up with. The Exceltur alliance for tourism excellence reckoned that Balearics tourism GDP will crash by 41%, the equivalent of just over 6,000 million euros, and this was based on an assumption that things might start getting going again in July. Perhaps they will. The government's reboot President Armengol offered us the notion of "de-confinement", announcing that the government was working on scenarios for such a happy state of affairs. An implication of one of these scenarios was that tourism might just have to wait. Would progressive internal de-confinement (internal to the islands, that is) be preferable to opening the ports and airports again? Possibly so, and from a health point of view, probably very wise. However, as the president observed, the Balearics do not have the type of industry for which a button can just be pressed to spark everything back into economic life. The government's promise of a "reboot plan" will depend enormously on tourism, but the economy in the Balearics is that much more complicated than other regions because of this dependence. Closing the drugs supermarket There was a touch of somewhat dark humour, and it came from a surprising source - Son Banya. The residents had decided to barricade the road into the shanty town. They didn't want the virus affecting them. The 'drugs supermarket' was closed for business, and one of the residents said that - as a consequence - they were expecting Prime Minister Sanchez to give them an ERTE. "Out of responsibility, we can't work." The barricade wasn't observed by everyone. Users were dodging it and entering in order to buy drugs. Stones were thrown at their cars. The police, more used to going into Son Banya to carry out raids or assist at demolitions, needed to intervene between desperate addicts and their normal suppliers. The barricade, as it was to turn out, didn't seem to have the desired effect. The police, all twenty of them, had to return in order to remove a woman with coronavirus symptoms who was refusing to be taken to hospital. Always take the weather March, Aemet informed us, was the third warmest on record, having followed what was the remarkably warm February. But then came April, and the first day made fools of us, especially the farmers in Muro and Sa Pobla. Torrential rain and hail affected the potato fields. Up to 2,500 tonnes of potatoes for export could have been lost. On December 3rd, the British Columbia (B.C.) government put an end to commercial logging in the Skagit headwaters. The vast cross-border coalition of over 100 tribes, environmental groups and politicians committed to protecting the Skagit River watershed didnt have long to savour their hard-won victory, however. The environmentally precious river remains threatened by the proposed construction of an open-pit gold and copper mine by one of Canadas most notorious polluters: Imperial Metals. Canadian authorities have yet to take Imperial to task, financially or otherwise, for some of its past environmental misstepsand similar stories abound throughout the country. From a flooded mine in the Yukon Territory to a lagoon in Nova Scotia blighted by a nearby paper mill, both the Canadian taxpayer and environment are paying for decades of Ottawa letting its polluting industries off lightly. Puget Sound threatened Environmentalists and First Nations groups on both sides of the Washington-B.C. border are alarmed by Imperials planned mineand for good reason. In one of Canadas worst environmental disasters, the dam holding back tailings ponds at the companys Mount Polley Mine collapsed, spilling over a billion gallons of pollution into a spawning habitat for salmon. Despite occurring in 2014, Imperial has yet to face any serious consequencesor to foot the bill for cleaning up the environmental damage. Canada cant afford a similar ecological cataclysm in the Skagit headwaters. The river, which provides more than 30 percent of the freshwater flow into the Puget Sound, is one of the Pacific Northwests most critically important ecosystems. A population of over 4.2 million depend on the rivers health as well as the myriad species it sustains. However, Imperial Metals track record does little to inspire confidence that it will protect this vital waterway, nor do the details of the prospective mine, including a planned wastewater collection pond estimated to fill up in about 10 minutes. The potential ecological catastrophe in which heavy metals flood the Puget would cause decades-long damage. The Skagit is the only major river system in Washington to contain all five major species of salmon native to the Pacific Northwest, now threatened by the proposed mine. Research shows that even low concentrations of heavy-metal pollution can devastate salmon populationsa risk which Ottawa should deem unacceptable. Related: U.S. Shale Ready To Fire Back In The Oil Price War The Skagit mine is one amongst numerous projects that are currently threatening Canadas vital ecosystems. Legislation in Ottawa is failing to hold highly polluting industries accountable. Ineffective Canadian legislation Many of these mining projects could provoke international disputes, as they affect communities downstream in the U.S. More than 33 mines (active and under exploration) in B.C. are located within 60 miles of the Washington border; over a dozen are located within a similar distance to the Alaska, Idaho and Montana borders. In June 2019, an exceptional bipartisan effort took place, with U.S. senators representing the bordering states pressuring B.C. Premier John Horgan to take measures to stop cross-border water pollution. This is far from an idle threat. Decades of mercury contamination from a lead and zinc smelter in Trail, B.C. crossed the border, contaminating Washingtons Lake Roosevelt and the Columbia River. A lengthy legal battle to cover $1 billion clean-up costs remains unresolved owing to Canadas lack of effective regulation. If an American mine in Washington ejects waste into B.C. waters, the liability is covered as state law requires mines to post bonds that cover 100% of reclamation costs. However, in B.C., such requirements do not exist. According to Calvin Sandborn, an environmental law expert, B.C. law makes it far too easy for mines to extract resources now, while leaving the clean-up to future generations, [putting] rivers across the province, including many that flow into the US, at risk of long-term ecological disaster. Cost of poor regulation A consequence of this inefficient regulation: Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for environmental mishaps. In Yukon, the provincial government is locked in a legal battle to get Yukon Zinc, a bankrupt Chinese company, to pay the $25 million needed to clean up its contaminated Wolverine mine. Related: What Really Caused Oil To Rally By 25%? Mine owners in Yukon are required to pay security fees for the provincial government to use for environmental damage. Yukon Zinc, however, was consistently late in its payments, and the government only managed to collect more than a third of the funds due. Now that Yukon Zinc has collapsed into receivership, Whitehorse is arguing that it needs the proceeds from the companys assets to treat the contaminated water filling the mine. Nova Scotian taxpayers, meanwhile, are looking down the barrel of a $100 million clean-up bill to reverse the damage done by decades of toxic wastewater from the recently closed Northern Pulp paper mill. Once a vibrant estuary full of fish playing an important role in the livelihood of the nearby Pictou Landing First Nation, Nova Scotias Boat Harbour is now brown and foul-smelling. The provincial government, which loaned Northern Pulp millions over the years it was in operation, will likely have to pay for the inlets clean-upunless it manages to recoup funds from the mills owner, Paper Excellence, which is currently a party in an ongoing arbitration case. Looking for solutions All across Canada, deficient compliance and legal enforcement regimes risk taxpayers money and fail to prevent ecological disasters from happening. PM Justin Trudeau took office on the promise of modernizing Canadas environmental laws; however, little has changed. In the case of Northern Pulp, for example, Trudeau brushed off reporters questions about whether the federal government would get involved in the Nova Scotian issue. This has led to questions about the sincerity of Trudeaus promises of preserving Canadian ecosystems. Public pressure is rising, therefore, on provincial and federal government officials to take action. A first test will be whether Premier John Horgan and B.C.s Ministry of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources will deny Imperial Metals request to drill. However, long-term solutions must be found to protect Canadas environmentstarting with ensuring that industries post financial assurances upfront. This will motivate them to act more responsibly and minimize the potential for disaster. By Global Risk Insights More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russian Aerospace Forces Send 2 More Planes to Serbia to Fight COVID-19 Sputnik News 02:14 GMT 04.04.2020 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The seventh and the eighth planes of the Russian Aerospace Forces have left for Serbia to help the Balkan nation fight the coronavirus outbreak, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday. "The seventh Il-76 military transport plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces has taken off from the Chkalovsky Airfield in Moscow Region to the Republic of Serbia to provide assistance in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease", the Ministry said in a statement. A bit later, the Russian Defence Ministry added that the eighth plane had also left for Serbia. On Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said it would send 87 military epidemiologists and medics, as well as protective gear and disinfectant to Serbia on 11 flights starting Friday. According to the local Health Ministry, Serbia has confirmed 1,476 cases of COVID-19 so far, with 39 fatalities. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address One Gnarly Big Supermoon in April for Oregon, Washington, Coast Published 04/04/2020 at 6:24 PM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Oregon Coast) Nick Drake would be proud: this Pink Moon will be a massive one. Oregon, Washington and their coastlines are about to get seriously mooned with the largest supermoon of the year. Also called the Grass Moon or Egg Moon, its the second of three such supermoons happening in 2020, happening on April 7. Jim Todd of Portlands OMSI said it will be the closest and largest of the whole year, but other than that and the possibility of some stellar comet sightings its not too unusual. At least two, or perhaps a half dozen, occur each year, Todd said. So, this phenomenon is not unusual or unheard of. From the Portland area, the precise instant of full moon comes to pass on April 7, at 7:35 p.m. (times will differ in places like Seattle, Ashland or the Washington coast and south Oregon coast). It will be just barely rising above the horizon. Earlier in the day, this 'supermoon' will be below the horizon at perigee, or its closest distance to earth, at 11:08 a.m. PDT, at a distance of 221,773 miles from earth, Todd said. On Tuesday, the near full moon will rise directly from the east at 7:32 p.m., followed by sunset at 7:47 p.m. in the west. Full moons happen in the middle of the lunar cycle of 29.5 days, and its recognizable by a near-perfect spherical shape. In strictly technical terms, the full moon actually only lasts for about one second a difference that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Without a telescope, it is difficult to distinguish between a moon that is 100% illuminated and a moon that is 99% illuminated, Todd said. While the Moon may only be 100% full for about one minute, it looks full for about three days. On Tuesday, April 7, Todd said the precise instant of full moon happens at 7:35 p.m. when it is just before sunset and barely above the eastern horizon. The orbit of the moon around the Earth is an ellipse shape, which brings it closer in towards Earth and then farther out. When its at its most distant that is called apogee, an average distance of 251,966 miles from us. Perigee is when the moon is closest, which is an average of 225,744 miles away. On average, the distance from earth to the moon is about 238,855 miles, Todd said. During every 27-day orbit around earth, the Moon reaches both its apogee and perigee. What youll see at perigee is a moon that looks 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual, hence the term supermoon. Have you ever wondered what would happen if there were no moon? The Washington coast and Oregon coast would be vastly different. In fact, both would be much farther inland than where they are now. Sea levels would be on average some 30 feet higher and there would virtually be no tides not much of a difference in fluctuation at all. The sun does affect tides some, but only about one foot or less. Its the gravitational pull of the moon that really creates the tides we know. The difference in night and day could also be extremely small, only about six hours of night and six hours of day. Things were vastly different just after what is called the great impact - when a large planetary mass collided with the proto Earth billions of years ago, and the subsequent debris from both formed the moon. For a long time, Earths spin was so fast that day and night were only about six hours. It was the interaction between it and the moon that slowed down our spin to what it is today. More moon photos below: See Washington Coast Weather - Oregon Coast Weather More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Advertisement By The Associated Press Apr. 05, 2020 | WASHINGTON By The Associated Press Apr. 05, 2020 | 10:25 AM | WASHINGTON Surgeon General Jerome Adams offered some of the starkest warnings yet Sunday as he braced Americans for the worsening fallout from the new coronavirus, warning this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans lives, quite frankly." The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,400; more than 3,500 of those deaths are in the state of New York. Much of the country is under orders to stay home, and federal officials said that have seen signs that people are listening to the message about social distancing. But the Trump administration also is also emphasizing that the worst is yet to come for many communities. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only its not going to be localized," Adams said on Fox News Sunday. He added: Its going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that." 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, and death. A few states have declined to order residents to stay home. Adams was asked on NBC's Meet the Press" if they should join the rest of the country. Ninety percent of Americans are doing their part, even in the states where they havent had a shelter in place," Adams said. But if you cant give us 30 days, governors, give us, give us a week, give us what you can, so that we dont overwhelm our health care systems over this next week." Hyderabad, April 5 : The Telangana police chief on Sunday denied reports that he ordered all police officers to undergo Covid-19 test. Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy clarified that there is no truth in reports circulating on some WhatsApp groups that police commissioners and district SPs were directed to undergo the test. A statement from the DGP office said those spreading such false news would be identified and legal action would be taken against them. Minister of Police Bheki Cele has said he wishes that South Africas alcohol ban could stay in place after the national 21-day lockdown. Speaking to the City Press, Cele said the ban on alcohol sales has resulted in a significant drop in violent crime. It is a known thing that alcohol is part of the crime generators, Cele said. While he wished he could continue to enforce the ban on alcohol beyond the lockdown period, he admitted this was impossible. My first prize would be that we shut down alcohol, but I know we cannot do that, Cele said. Nothing tells me that taking alcohol will make life any easier. Impact on crime Cele said the lockdown and the ban on the sale of alcohol have resulted in a large drop in crime across the board, with violent crime seeing a significant decrease. Murder has gone down in South Africa. Even in the butcher of the republic, the Western Cape, murder numbers have really gone down. Regarding the Western Capes recent announcement that it would allow stores in the province to sell cigarettes together with essential goods, Cele said the provincial government was not able to contravene the national regulations. The Western Cape is part of South Africa and this is national law. Everybody should respect a national law, Cele said. He told the City Press that people can live without cigarettes, and disregarded studies showing otherwise. Calm before the storm The number of coronavirus cases in South Africa has risen to 1,585 as of 4 April 2020 increasing by 80 cases over the previous day. The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in South Africa is currently trending below estimates recently laid out by the Department of Health. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told journalists the government had expected the total number of confirmed cases to have reached between 4,000 and 5,000 by 2 April. Mkhize has warned against South Africans becoming complacent, however, stating that while the numbers are lower than anticipated, the lull in new coronavirus cases may be the calm before the devastating storm. The minister said the government still does not have a good understanding of infection rates in densely-populated areas like townships. He said they will therefore embark on wall to wall testing and finding all COVID-19 affected people in the country. This is needed to get a better understanding of where there are COVID-19 infections and break the cycle of transmission, Mkhize said. In Turkey, where the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the worlds leading jailers of journalists, figures are released daily for the number of people who have died or been infected with the virus, as well as the number of tests health officials have conducted. But authorities for weeks kept a tight lid on other information, including the location of cases in Turkey, on the grounds that publicizing the information might lead to an exodus from trouble spots and further the spread of the virus. LifeStyle The best Lifestyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel Lifestyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Shaynna Blaze and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand. ST. JOHNS, N.L.The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador confirmed Saturday he had removed a member of his cabinet after the minister revealed she had been served with a warrant alleging a breach of trust involving cabinet secrets. The warrant, as described to me by the minister, was about cabinet confidences, Premier Dwight Ball told a news conference via telephone. He said Sherry Gambin-Walshs role in cabinet, as the minister responsible for Service NL, would be assumed by Finance Minister Tom Osborne, who was sworn in on Saturday. The Liberal premier did not disclose the nature of the allegations against Gambin-Walsh, but he confirmed the RCMP were investigating allegations related to actions she took after June 2018. He stressed that no charges had been laid. Its an investigation that is ongoing, but any time you get any minister that is under investigation for a breach of cabinet confidence, theres really no choice, Ball said. As premier, as leader, the privileges of being a cabinet minister will be removed for an ongoing investigation. Ball said Gambin-Walsh will continue to represent PlacentiaSt. Marys in the provincial legislature and he confirmed she had not been removed from the Liberal caucus. The premier said he learned about the RCMPs general warrant on Friday when he received a call from Gambin-Walsh. Ball admitted he felt frustrated having to deal with removing a cabinet minister at a time when the country is facing a health-care crisis. Of course, it can be frustrating, he said. But we took swift action to deal with this. The premier said his priority is focusing on leading the province through the COVID-19 pandemic. Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said cargo flights with essential commodities and medical equipment are reaching the northeastern region regularly and there is no dearth of any item. Singh also said a consignment of 30,000 N-95 masks has already been dispatched to Guwahati for distribution in the entire region. "Regular cargo supplies, including essential commodities and medical equipment, are reaching the northeast and there is no dearth of any item nor any possibility of any dearth in the days to come," he said in a statement. Singh, the Union minister of state for Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region, said soon after the declaration of the lockdown, a decision was taken following an intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that cargo flights carrying essential supplies will be operated on priority to the northeastern region as well as other distant regions, including Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Thereafter, cargo flights by Air India as well as the Indian Air Force started operating, he said. Giving details, the minister said the first consignment through Air India landed in Guwahati on March 30 night. On March 31, an Indian Air Force cargo flight landed at Dimapur in Nagaland. Ever since, consignments are regularly being delivered through cargo flights, he said. Nagaland and Manipur have so far received three huge consignments each, Singh said. On the demand for the face masks, the minister said a consignment of 30,000 N-95 masks has already been dispatched to Guwahati for further distribution in the region. He appreciated the efforts of self-help groups, which have come forward to prepare masks and sanitisers through their own efforts. Singh said arrangements are in place for delivering consignments at short notice in future. "There is also a mechanism in place for real-time monitoring and we are in constant touch with all the state governments," he said. At the same time, Singh informed that the international borders measuring about 5,500 kms in the northeast stand fully sealed. This has, in turn, helped in containing the spread of coronavirus, he said. The northeast shares borders with China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More While Sensex tanked 674 points to 27,590, the Nifty closed at 8,083, down 170 points on April 3. Indian markets will remain shut on April 6 on account of a public holiday. Experts suggest that 7,800 would be a crucial level to watch out for. If it breaks, then it could touch 2020's lows. "Technically speaking, the Nifty needs to sustain above 7,800 levels in the current leg of downswing to retain a positive bias which will subsequently give a life line to the bulls," Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol. Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates on the novel coronavirus pandemic and its impact Here are the top 10 stocks that moved the most last week: Top gainers Balrampur Chini, up 39 percent Share price of Sakthi Sugars surged over 39 percent for the week as investors bet on demand for the commodity remaining strong despite the ongoing 21-day lockdown. Hopes of sugar producers in Uttar Pradesh securing permission from the state government to manufacture hand sanitisers also boosted sentiment. Lupin, up 17 percent Share price of Lupin jumped over 17 percent in the week after the company received received an EIR from the USFDA. The company has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the USFDA for its Aurangabad, India facility. Lupin received an establishment inspection report from the US drug regulator. The company received the EIR for its Inhalation Research Center located at Coral Springs, Florida. The facility was inspected by the Food and Drug Administration between February 19 and February 26, on behalf of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for Lupins generic Fostair application to the UK regulator. Morgan Stanley initiated an overweight call on the stock with target of Rs 948 per share. Brokarage firm Motilal Oswal has a buy rating on the stock with target at Rs 815. While near-term outlook may be subdued, the broking house remain positive on the company. Cipla, up 16 percent Cipla share price added over 16 percent in the week gone by after the pharma company announced the successful completion of Phase-3 clinical study for a generic version of GSK's Advair Diskus. "This is an important milestone and is a testament to Cipla's strong respiratory capabilities and will go a long way in strengthening our respiratory franchise in the US," Umang Vohra, MD and Global CEO said. "Cipla will now file the product with the USFDA (another three-four months). Being a complex product and based on past experience with other players (Mylan, Hikma, Sandoz), it is highly likely that the approval pathway will be longer than the usual one-year cycle," said Emkay. The brokerage has a buy call on the stock with a target at Rs 522, implying a 26 percent potential upside. ITC, up 13 percent Share price of tobacco manufacturer ITC was up 13 percent for the week after reports emerged that the company was looking to acquire spice maker Sunrise Food. ITC, however, in a BSE filing on April 2 denied any such development. "We would like to inform that the company has not entered into an exclusivity agreement for the acquisition of Sunrise Foods Private Limited," the regulatory filing by ITC said. Top losers RBL Bank, down 32 percent Shares of private sector lender RBL Bank plunged more than 32 percent after the management forecast rise in provisions from credit card business in the first quarter of FY21. "Microfinance book was in good shape through March, but disbursals in microfinance will be a concern going ahead. We will see a rise in provisions on credit card business in Q1FY21," Vishwavir Ahuja, Managing Director & CEO at RBL Bank told CNBC-TV18. Current spending in credit card business dropped to 40 percent, he said, adding but the net income of the bank is the highest in any quarter for Q4FY20. The bank has managed to maintain its operating profit & liquidity position, he said, adding the revenue-generating and earning capacity remained strong. "Maharashtra, particularly, withdrew money from some private banks. We have seen a decline in our wholesale book," Ahuja said, adding two-thirds of liability base is from retail customers. IndusInd Bank, down 28 percent IndusInd Bank share price shed over 28 percent this week as the bank is looking to raise as much as $500-750 million in 'confidence capital' from global firms, attempting to allay investor's fears after the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, The Economic Times reported. The private lender, backed by the Hinduja family, also saw an outgo of one-tenth of its deposits after Yes Bank went through a crisis. Global private equity (PE) funds such as Blackstone, Apax Partners, General Atlantic (GA), Advent, TPG, Carlyle and others have been contacted, the report said. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. IndusInd Bank has asked Morgan Stanley and Citi to approach PE players, the report said, adding that the promoters are considering diluting their stake by 5-10 percent, subject to approval by The Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The bank is looking at three-to-four investor who have patient long-term money to invest, sources told the publication. Investors will most probably negotiate board seats and other affirmative rights, which the banks promoter family and management will take into consideration, the report added. TVS Motor Company, down 21 percent Share price of TVS Motor Company fell 21 percent after the company reported a 55.5 percent decline in total sales in March at 1,44,739 units. The company, which primarily makes two-wheelers and three-wheelers, had sold 3,25,323 units in March 2019, TVS Motor Company said in a statement. "There has been a huge impact on the company's production and sales this month because of COVID-19 lockdown across the country," it added. Total two-wheeler sales during the month stood at 1,33,988 units as against 3,10,885 units in March 2019, down 56.9 percent. Domestic two-wheeler sales stood at 94,103 units last month as compared to 2,47,694 units in March 2019, a decline of 62 percent, it added. Total exports declined 34.3 percent to 50,197 units last month as compared with 76,405 units in March 2019. Ashish Chaturmohta of Sanctum Wealth Management has a sell recommendation on the stock with target of Rs 235. He is of the view that the stock is in long-term downtrend forming lower top and lower bottom on the weekly chart. It has broken major support zone of Rs 340-320 with high volumes and long body bearish candle, indicating selling pressure. Kotak Mahindra Bank, down 18 percent Share price of private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank fell 18 percent this week after the bank talked of increased risk and cost due to extended moratorium and warned of default if recovery was delayed. While addressing conference call, the country's fourth-largest private sector lender said it was seeing problems in unsecured personal loans such as credit cards and consumer durables, especially from customers who are fence-sitters and have the ability to pay but not the will. "Extra efforts are required to remind them through calls," it said. "Defaults are expected to rise due to which recovery will be delayed. The bank is focusing to protect balance sheet rather than looking for balance sheet or income statement growth," said the lender. Maruti Suzuki, down 17 percent Auto major Maruti Suzuki share price shed 17 percent after the countrys top car maker reported a 47 percent fall in sales for March. The company sold 83,792 vehicles in March against 1,58,076 units in year-ago period. Shares of Maruti ended 1.03 percent lower. Total sales include 76,976 units in the domestic market, 2,104 units of domestic OEM sales and 4,712 units of exports. Shitij Gandhi Technical Analyst at SMC Global Securities has a sell on the stock with target price at Rs 5,000. He is of the view that the stock after consolidating in the range of Rs 7,000 to Rs 7,500 levels has given a sharp breakdown below its 200-days exponential moving average on the daily charts and went below Rs 5,000 levels to mark its 52-week low of Rs 4,803 on March 13. On the lines of General Motors and Ford in the US, Indias automotive giant Maruti Suzuki is stepping in to help produce critical medical equipment and supplies. Car market leader Maruti Suzuki will assist three different companies in producing ventilators, masks, and protective clothing the Delhi-based company informed on March 28. Eicher Motors, down 14 percent Eicher Motors share price was down 14 percent this week after the company declared its sales figures for the month of March. Eicher Motors on April 1, 2020, said its total two-wheeler sales declined 41 percent to 35,814 units in March 2020 as against 60,831 units in March 2019. On a month-on-month basis, total Royal Enfield sales declined 43.63 percent in March 2020 from 63,536 units in February 2020. Total two-wheeler exports jumped 33 percent to 3,184 units in March 2020 compared with 2,397 units in March 2019. Along with other auto manufacturers, Eicher Motors is also feeling heat from the lockdown due to coronavirus. : The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Express News Service By NEW DELHI: Rows and rows of empty trucks parked in godowns and pit stops across the country have become a grim reminder of the economic cost of Indias 21-day lockdown. With most industrial activity grinding to a halt after PM Narendra Modis March 24 lockdown call, over twothirds of Indias 52 lakh medium and heavy duty trucks and their crews have been left with little to do even as freight costs begin soaring. Sporadic obstructions to freight movement created by local police, for notified essential commodities in some cases, have only added to the industrys woes. But, even the MHAs March 30 notification allowing the free movement of all goods, regardless of whether they are essential or non-essential, is unlikely to bring road freight back to normal in a hurry. The real problem, experts say, is the complete collapse of the manufacturing and infrastructure value chain, since most factories, retail outlets and construction sites have shut shop for the period unless theyve been classified as essential. As far as the government is concerned, there are no obstacles to freight movement on paper now. But, 60% of the road cargo pie comes from the manufacturing sector, another 10-15% from infra and export-related activity. These sectors are hardly operating now, pointed out S P Singh, senior fellow, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training. Indias trucks haul an average of 6,000 mn tonnes of goods per annum, or 500 mt a month, but the lockdown has taken out nearly 75% of this business out of the equation, according to the IFTRT. Freight costs of essential goods skyrocket as trucks stay off roads ONLY 30% or 15-odd lakh trucks are plying on roads. Police units obstrusive This figure stands even lower in states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. M R Venkatesh, president of the Tamil Nadu State Lorry Owners Federation, says only 5-6 per cent of the states 4.5 lakh trucks are active. Of Andhras 3 lakh trucks, less than 1 per cent may be active, they say. Drivers are not ready to operate vehicles for fear of infection. Also, all factories and warehouses are shut... with no raw material and finished goods to be transported, said AP Lorry Owners Association general secretary YV Eswara Rao. Police harassment in some cases has made matters worse. Despite the order from the Central government, the highhandedness of personnel manning check posts, and in some cases harassment, extortion and beating of drivers, creating panic among them, remains a concern, said Kultaran Singh Atwal, president, All India Motor Transport Congress, Either the directions from the top have not percolated down to personnel on the ground effectively or it is being willfully ignored. Many trucks carrying goods from other states, especially from northern states, are being stopped at their states for no reasons, noted KK Hamza, state president, Kerala State Lorry Owners Federation. In many states, large numbers of drivers have also been put into 14-day quarantines. According to S Jawahar Basha, vice-president, South Indian Motor Transport Association, trucks with large consignments are stuck at state borders. Our drivers are stranded with no food or water arrangements, making it highly difficult for us to manage the situation, he said. Rates for essential goods transport rising This confluence of factors has resulted in a rather counterintuitive increase freight costs for essential commodities even as over 75 per cent of demand has been taken out of the picture. In the normal course, a trucker transporting mangoes from Hyderabad to Delhi-NCR, for instance, would have the opportunity to load up industrial goods for the return haul. However, with most factories now shut, truckers are charging twice or thrice the earlier rate for one-way transport in order to cover return trips with empty cargo holds. So a trucker who used to charge `1.1 lakh for a Hyderabad- Delhi round trip, is now charging `95,000 for oneway trip. This is leading to freight costs soaring for essential commodities too, and they will begin reflecting in retail prices, Singh warned. (With inputs from Sesa Sen, Arshad Khan, Binita Jaiswal, S Anil, M Sabari, Anbuselvan B, Bismah Malik, Donita Jose and Jonathan Ananda) It's hiring 100,000 workers at a time when 10 million people filed for unemployment in just two weeks. It's prioritizing the products that people need at a time when online shopping has surged. And its cloud computing platform is more important than ever as millions of people are working from home. That's not even to mention the scientists and researchers who are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to find therapies and--hopefully--a vaccine for Covid-19. It may also provide some escape from the chaos and anxiety of the world around us through good books on our Kindles or by renting a movie to watch with our kids. Sure, it isn't the only place you can find either of those, but right now, every little bit helps. Oh, and Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million to food banks to help people who just lost their jobs and can't afford to feed their kids. Don't tell me how that's no big deal because it's basically pocket change to him. $100 million is real money no matter how you count it, and the people whose children will be fed couldn't care less how much he has left over. And that doesn't mean that the company doesn't have issues. For example, employees at one of its facilities in Staten Island went on strike earlier this week over concerns that it isn't doing enough to protect workers. Then, the company faced backlash for firing the strike organizer, who Amazon said violated company policy by coming back to work after being asked to self-isolate due to his potential exposure to a coworker who tested positive for Covid-19. Amazon, though, is certainly in a unique position. Not only is it one of the most valuable companies on earth, it also happens to be one of the few that has the ability to directly impact so many aspects of our lives and communities. It's one of the few organizations that has the infrastructure in place to deliver many of the products and services that we need right now at a scale to meet the current demand. It also has some $55 billion in cash, allowing it to continue operating despite the extraordinary challenges facing every business in the world right now. Will it be perfect? No. But we need Amazon to be at its best right now. What does the best look like for Amazon? Honestly, it's the same as it is for every company right now--just on a different scale. Take care of your customers, take care of your people. There's no question that's harder than ever right now, but I doubt it's the first time you've had to do hard things. You didn't start your company by being afraid to step up and do something challenging. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 22:03:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WUHAN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Around 5.57 million people in central China's Hubei Province, hit hard by the novel coronavirus outbreak, had returned to work by Friday, according to the provincial department of human resources and social security. Among them, a total of 3.46 million people had been back to their workplaces outside Hubei, with Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces as the top three destinations. An official with the department said Hubei had arranged over 22,600 chartered bus trips and 60 trains to send 630,000 migrant workers directly from their homes to factories outside the province at a time when plants across China are rushing to resume work. No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported Saturday in Hubei. The province has so far reported 67,803 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,008 in the provincial capital of Wuhan, Hubei health commission said Sunday. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Sunday requested Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to provide mid-day meal to the students of government schools at their homes during the lockdown period. In a letter written in Hindi, former Chief Minister, Singh requested the Chouhan to provide food to the children registered under the Midday Meal Scheme in Madhya Pradesh on the lines of Punjab in the time of crisis. Meanwhile, two senior officials of the Madhya Pradesh Health Department on Saturday were tested positive for COVID-19. This came hours after it was announced that people who came in contact with COVID-19 positive J Vijay Kumar, the director of Bhopal Health Department, are being quarantined. The total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of these cases, 3030 are active cases, 267 have been cured or discharged, while 77 deaths have been reported so far in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two young girls have been hospitalized after they ate THC-infused candy from a Utah church food distribution. The girls, ages 5 and 11, and three others ate medicated 'Nerds Ropes', which were given out in 63 food bags distributed Friday by the First Baptist Church of Roy, which had gotten the donations from the Utah Food Bank, police said. The candy had 400 milligrams of THC, which is about 40 times a normal dosage for an adult who uses marijuana regularly, say authorities. The packaging on the candies even encourages people to 'Tear & Share'. Two young girls ate THC-infused Medicated Nerds Ropes and were hospitalized after they got the medicated treats from a Utah church food distribution. Pictured are the medicated 'Nerds Ropes', that were eaten the children, ages 5 and 11, as well as three others, police say The First Baptist Church of Roy had gotten the donations from the Utah Food Bank, police said The candy had 400 milligrams of THC, which is about 40 times a normal dosage for an adult who uses marijuana regularly, say authorities. The above chart describes the effect level of THC, depending on the dosage size An investigation is now being conducted by the food bank and police to learn how the cannabis treats ended up among the donations, KUTV reports. The father of the 5-year-old, who asked that he and his daughter not be identified, said his daughter is in the Intensive Care Unit at Children's Primary Hospital. He said his daughter was at her grandmother's house, who had picked up the food donation earlier Friday when the child ate the THC-spiked nerds. 'I'm heartbroken this happened when we were trying to offer help,' says Roy Baptist Church head minister John Thomas, responding to the botched distribution. It was the church's first food distribution in weeks. A statement from the food bank advises anyone who received the nerds to immediately contact the Roy police at (801) 629-8221 to have an officer come and retrieve the candies with 'no questions asked.' A statement from the Utah Food Bank (pictured) advises anyone who received the nerds to immediately contact the Roy police at (801) 629-8221 to have an officer come and retrieve the candies with 'no questions asked' Ginette Bott, president of the food bank said that 'everyone involved is mortified' Ginette Bott, president of the food bank said that 'everyone involved is mortified.' Donations come to the food bank from different sources. Bott says efforts are underway to track down how the nerds were accepted with other donations. 'We're using the information we have in our inventory system and reached out to carriers and will do everything possible to try to track down that specific location where it came from,' she said. Bott warned that charges may be filed against the source. 'Any time any kind of a product like this comes into a food chain or food supply, this is a criminal offense,' she explained. 'This is something not to be taken lightly.' Maureen Boland, 52, of Wyncote, Pa., High School English Teacher at Abington High School, poses for a portrait inside her home in the living room on Wed. April, 1, 2020. Boland was tested positive for Coronavirus and was hospitalized on Saturday, March 21, 2020. She was later let out after five days and was told by Doctors that her and her family was okay to go grocery shopping and follow normal social distancing guidelines. I was almost put on a ventilator, Boland said. I was scared. My two girls were going through my mind. Its something you watch on the news and you dont think it affects you, but it did. Read more TL;DR: The first time some people heard Joel Freedmans name was when Mayor Jim Kenney accused him of trying to make a buck by seeking a high rent for the site of the former Hahnemann University Hospital. City officials had considered the idea that the property could be used to treat patients during the pandemic, but when the deal fell apart Freedman became the target of vandalism and public shaming. Make sure you check Inquirer.com/coronavirus for the latest news and please feel free to tell your family and friends to sign up. Allison Steele (@AESteele, health@inquirer.com) What you need to know: Nationwide COVID-19 cases topped 330,000, with more than 9,400 deaths. Pennsylvania now has more than 11,500 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and New Jersey has more than 34,000. Former Eagles kicker Tom Dempsey died of coronavirus at age 73. The Democratic national convention planned for August may have to go virtual, Joe Biden said. A fake post on Facebook falsely claimed a Gloucester County police officer died from COVID-19. Local coronavirus cases As of Sunday evening, there are more than 7,000 reported cases in the Philadelphia area. Track the spread here. PHILADELPHIA: 3,189 confirmed cases (up 181 since yesterday) SUBURBAN PA: 2,546 confirmed cases (up 278 since yesterday) SOUTH JERSEY: 1,351 confirmed cases (up 183 since yesterday) As Philadelphia officials began scrambling to expand the citys hospital capacity to prepare for an expected surge of coronavirus patients, they spoke with Joel Freedman, owner of the building that housed the former Hahnemann University Hospital. The California businessman said his offer to rent the property for almost $1 million a month was reasonable and heartfelt," noting it was lower than rents for comparable properties. Mayor Kenney accused him of jacking up the price. To his detractors, the incident made Freedman the villain of the coronavirus crisis, and sparked a widespread public shaming campaign. His Philadelphia house has been egged and graffitied with phrases like Joel Kills. Meanwhile, city and state officials have said Hahnemann which has been gutted and without beds for months would have needed extensive work just to be used as quarantine space. Lying in a hospital bed, struggling to breathe, Maureen Boland read about herself on the internet: Anesthesiologist, Teacher Among New Confirmed Covid-19 Cases in PA. The Abington High School teacher, 52 and healthy aside from a history of asthma, was hospitalized last month after contracting COVID-19 and narrowly escaped being put on a ventilator. CNN was streaming into my room 24/7 and I watched the death numbers rise every day, she wrote in her harrowing account. Now on the mend, she said the experience left her traumatized and fearful about the fate of other victims of the disease, particularly those without access to the support and medical care she had. Helpful resources Lets take a quick break South Philadelphias homeless population has tripled in a year, and advocates say the area doesnt have the resources to help them. The Inquirers Jeff McLane, EJ Smith and Les Bowen shared their picks for an Eagles All-Decade team. The Philadelphia region celebrated Palm Sunday with livestreamed services. Social distancing tip of the day: Make a face mask with this template Now that state and federal officials are recommending that everyone wear cloth masks outdoors, heres a step-by-step guide for making your own. All it takes is some fabric, and its okay if you dont have a needle and thread. Have a social distancing tip or question to share? Let us know at health@inquirer.com and your input might be featured in a future edition of this newsletter. What were paying attention to Turns out, the TV show M*A*S*H has all the advice you need for working from home, washing your hands and even dealing with a toilet paper shortage. Its all compiled in one video. Billy Penns Layla A. Jones looked at emergency relief options for local small-business owners. Concerns over foster youth in group homes and youth in juvenile justice facilities are spiking, Steve Volk wrote in Philadelphia Weekly. Its not all horrible Eastern Airlines, a little-known, Wayne-based company with an old name and old jets, has rescued more than 8,000 stranded Americans in Central and South America in recent weeks. By Tuesday, it will have flown three more rescue missions. News about coronavirus is changing quickly. Go to inquirer.com/coronavirus to make sure you are seeing the newest information. This is the moment cops prepared to Taser a male who armed himself with a pitchfork This is the moment cops prepared to Taser a male who armed himself with a pitchfork during a tense stand-off in Lurgan. The incident in the Dill Avenue area on Friday was filmed by shocked neighbours, some of whom were forced to take refuge in their homes when they saw police draw their weapons. The male they were chasing was eventually arrested after jumping from a roof. The PSNI said: A 22-year-old male was arrested in the Dill Avenue area of Lurgan yesterday evening, Friday April 3 on suspicion of a number of offences including breach of bail and assaulting police. The male was spotted in the Church Place area and made off from police. When located he had armed himself with a pitchfork and became aggressive assaulting a number of officers. He was subsequently subject to Taser deployment. NANJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (XCMG), a leading Chinese machinery manufacturer, has delivered its first batch of multi-function mist cannon trucks to Qatar through charter flights Friday. The five mist cannon trucks, with each weighing 18 tonnes, have arrived in Qatar, the company said, noting that by adding disinfectant into the water, the trucks can be used as large disinfection equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trucks can nebulize disinfection water through high pressure and spray it from air cylinders, with advantages such as flexible operation and long-range spraying, the company said. According to XCMG, the overseas order was completed through its e-commerce platform, which only took about 10 days, and local customs also gave customs clearance priority to help speed up the delivery. XCMG is a multinational heavy machinery manufacturing company with products exporting to more than 183 countries and regions worldwide. (Natural News) Theres a word used by many people living in the Northeast to describe the unmitigated gall surrounding a plea from editors and executives at The New York Times: Chutzpah. As noted by John Nolte at Breitbart News, it seems that coronavirus-related business slowdowns and changes in online advertiser algorithms (and maybe a healthy dose of karma) are putting a serious dent in the Times revenue. As such, the paper has begun laying off staff and cutting salaries while daring to demand a taxpayer-funded bailout that would have to be signed by a president the paper has been trying to help depose since he took office. First, a little background. On Monday, it was reported that the Tampa Bay Times would be cutting print coverage effectively immediately due a dramatic fall-off in revenues to just two days per week, Sunday and Wednesday. The company reported a surge in traffic to its website and growth in digital subscriptions over the last few weeks but the pandemic sent advertising sales into a plunge. In just the last two weeks, [advertising] cancellations have cost us more than $1 million, and there is no sign of quick recovery on the horizon. We must act now, the paper noted. Coronavirus-related slowdowns are also occurring elsewhere in the media industry. Gannett, one of the countrys largest newspaper conglomerates, which publishes titles like USA Today, the Des Moines Register, and the Arizona Republic, also announced it would be cutting staff as well. According to a memo from Gannett CEO Paul Bascobert, the company is asking employees to make a collective sacrificeas soon as this week. Our plan is to minimize long-term damage to the business by implementing a combination of furloughs and pay reductions, the memo continues. (Related: Facebook to push more left-wing FAKE NEWS by flagging real news as fake.) Poynter reports that this action is being taken in response to big advertising declines. Lets transition into a national statist news conglomerate much on the model of Chinese propaganda media Other newspapers are following suit, including Chicagos Daily Herald, which is reducing newsroom pay by 15 percent and salaries at the parent company by 20 percent. None of this is due to a lack of clicks, Nolte points out. Rather, it has much more to do with how Left-wing groups like Media Matters and Sleeping Giants have so altered the traditional online ad-buying dynamic to hurt conservative publishers that they created a beast which is now destroying their precious Left-wing publishers too. Read about it here (the latter half of the article). Which brings us back to the NY Times and their solution to this problem of low ad revenues at a time of higher viewership (that they helped create): Have newspapers transition from a for-profit model to being supported by sugar daddy donors: The time is now to make a painful but necessary shift: Abandon most for-profit local newspapers, whose business model no longer works, and move as fast as possible to a national network of nimble new online newsrooms. That way, we can rescue the only thing worth saving about Americas gutted, largely mismanaged local newspaper companies the journalists. Translation: Lets transition into a national statist news conglomerate much on the model of Chinese propaganda media. And for good measure, since this nimble new network is supported by sycophantic donors, there will be zero market pressure on it to be fair, balanced, or factual. If a news organization has no need to cater to truthfulness and honesty in order to attract and retain readers, then how bad do you think the fake news and lying will get? Think of the Washington Post as a singular national network owned/supported by billionaires like Jeff Bezos: There would never be any negative, factual coverage of Amazon. The Times is suffering now under the weight of a situation it helped to create. Karma is a you-know-what. Sources include: Breitbart.com Poynter.org NaturalNews.com With revenues in the aviation sector having drastically reduced amid the 21-day lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, Air Deccan announced on Sunday that it is ceasing its operations until further notice and all employees are being put on sabbatical without pay with immediate effect. In an email to his employees, Air Deccan CEO Arun Kumar Singh said, "In view of the recent global and domestic issues and subsequent directive by the Indian regulator (to suspend all flights till April 14), Air Deccan has no choice but to cease its operations until further notice." "With heavy heart, I am also compelled to inform that all existing employees of Air Deccan (permanent, temporary and contractual) are being put on sabbatical without pay with immediate effect," he added in the email, which has been accessed by the PTI. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. 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. 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. JORHAT, INDIAFor nearly two years, Mamoni Rajkumari, a lawyer, spent her days deciding who was an Indian citizen and who was not, as part of a tribunal reviewing suspected foreigners in the state of Assam. Then, she says, she was dismissed for not declaring enough Muslims to be non-citizens. I was punished, she said. Rajkumari, 54, has found herself on the front line of Indias citizenship wars. In addition to the tribunals, which Assam has operated for decades, the state has also recently completed a broader, separate review of every residents paperwork to determine if they were citizens. That review found that nearly two million of Assams 33 million residents, many of them desperately poor, were possibly foreigners. Now this group which is disproportionately Muslim is potentially stateless. Whats happening in Assam is a preview of what may be coming to India as a whole as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to pull the country away from its foundation as a secular, multicultural nation and turn it into a more overtly Hindu state. The New York Times interviewed one current and five former members of the Assam tribunals that review suspected foreigners. The five former members said they had felt pressured by the government to declare Muslims to be non-citizens. Three of them, including Rajkumari, said they were fired because they did not do so. State and central government officials declined to comment. Modis Bharatiya Janata Party has its roots in a Hindu nationalist world view, and during last years national elections, party leaders vowed to apply the same type of citizenship checks used in Assam to the rest of India. Modi has recently denied he has any such plans. Like Assam, India is majority Hindu, with a large Muslim minority. In December, Indias national government passed a sweeping new immigration law that gives a fast track to citizenship for unauthorized migrants from nearby countries as long as they are Hindu or one of five other religions. Muslims are excluded. The upshot is that any Hindus left off Assams citizenship lists after its broad review, or declared by tribunals to be foreigners, will likely be affirmed as citizens because of the new immigration law. Muslims may not. Increasingly, it is looking like Muslims are becoming a target, said Binod Khadria, an expert on migration who is a former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Its a charged situation. Even before the citizenship review, an Indigenous rights movement in Assam, in northeast India on the border of Bangladesh, had been agitating for the government to expel foreigners. The police sometimes acting on reports from private citizens had referred more than 433,000 residents as suspected foreigners, according to parliamentary documents, and sent them to tribunals like the one Rajkumari sat on to produce documents or witnesses to prove they are truly Indian. Now, the citizenship review has produced 1.9 million new suspected foreigners. So Assam is adding more foreigner tribunals to adjudicate their cases. The entire tribunal process has troubled Rajkumari and some others who have served as tribunal members, generally hearing cases on their own. Many poor Indians lack the required paperwork to prove citizenship, like parents voting records and land ownership documents that have been certified by authorities as authentic. Whats more, the choice of who is labelled a suspected foreigner seems to have a religious bias to it, with a much higher percentage of Muslims sent to the tribunals than Hindus, according to Rajkumari and the tribunal members interviewed. Some of those current and former tribunal members spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals from the government. Although the tribunals are not technically courts, they function as if they were. If they find that someone cannot prove his or her citizenship, that person can be sent to detention, often within a jail. Kartik Roy, a lawyer and another former tribunal member, said most of the references that police officers made to his tribunal to investigate suspected foreigners were against Muslims. He said the pressure was clear: You have to declare foreigners means you have to declare the Muslims, he said. Tribunal members who declared more people foreigners had their performance rated as good, which increased their chances of keeping their jobs, according to court documents viewed by the Times. The performance of those who didnt declare enough people foreigners was marked as not satisfactory. Both Rajkumaris and Roys names appeared on that review list with a note against their names, saying they may be terminated. That is exactly what happened. The terms of Rajkumari and Roy were not renewed in 2017. They both said that because the bulk of people in front of the tribunals were Muslims, the expectation was that they would declare Muslims as foreigners, paving the way to deport them, incarcerate them or take away fundamental rights. The director general of police in Assam and other state officials declined to comment. Modi and top officials in his party have denied targeting Muslims in the Assam citizenship check, saying it was meant purely to identify migrants in the country illegally. The Home Ministry in New Delhi, which ultimately oversees citizenship and residency rules in India, also declined to comment, citing the demands of the coronavirus crisis. Dozens of people in Assam whose citizenship has been questioned have killed themselves, according to Indian media reports. Countless others fear being expelled from India or thrown in jail. Modis government doesnt seem to be devising any plans to deport millions of people. But it is expanding its capacity to incarcerate foreigners; an enormous detention facility is under construction in the Goalpara district of Assam, where up to 3,000 people are likely to be held. Read more about: Three Indian Air Force personnel, including one who had been near Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz -- the headquarters of Tablighi Jammat, have been sent to home quarantine, sources said on Saturday. Delhi Police had found a IAF Sergeant was near Nizamuddin Markaz during religious congregation. He was traced after his mobile phone was located over. Police later informed the force and thereafter IAF Sergeant was placed in quarantine. It was also found that two IAF personnel came in contact with the Sergeant so both of them were also sent to quarantine as per standard operating procedures. The religious congregation at Delhi's Nizamuddin organised by Tablighi Jamaat sparked off nationwide search for its attendees with reports emerging from various states of new clusters of coronavirus infected people linked to the event. The congregation was organised by Mohammad Saad, the Tablighi chief, wherein workers from 41 countries took part and later went to different parts of India. It has been found that over 95 percent of the coronavirus cases reported over the last two days in India have been found to have links with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi. Pakistan has quarantined 20,000 worshippers and is still searching for tens of thousands more who attended an Islamic gathering in Lahore last month despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic, officials said Sunday. Authorities said they want to test or quarantine those who congregated at the event held by the Tablighi Jamaat -- an Islamic missionary movement -- between March 10-12 over fears they are now spreading COVID-19 across Pakistan and overseas. More than 100,000 people went to the meeting, organisers said, undeterred by government requests for it to be cancelled as the virus hit the country. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have so far quarantined 5,300 Tablighis or Islamic preachers who attended the Lahore meeting. "Health officials are conducting tests for coronavirus and some of them have tested positive," Ajmal Wazir, a spokesperson for the region, told AFP on Sunday. Wazir said thousands of Tablighis from his province were stranded in other regions because of the closure of major highways across the country. About 7,000 have been quarantined in the central Punjab city Lahore, while in southern Sindh province up to 8,000 Tablighis have been quarantined, government officials said. Dozens more have been forced to self-isolate in southwestern Balochistan province. The Tablighi mosques and the movement's other places of worship were shut down or marked as quarantine centres at the end of March. At least 154 worshippers who went to last month's Jamaat had tested positive for coronavirus, with two fatalities, authorities told AFP. Coronavirus has killed at least 45 people in Pakistan but with only limited testing available, observers worry the number is far higher. Tablighi Jamaat is considered one of the world's largest faith-based movements, with millions of followers, particularly in South Asia, and sends preachers to countries to spread Islam's ideas. Numerous foreign nationals attended this year from countries including China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Afghanistan, organisers said. About 1,500 foreigners are now quarantined in Pakistan, but others left the country without being tested. Gaza's health ministry confirmed last month its first two cases of coronavirus were Palestinians who had attended the gathering. Pakistan's science minister Fawad Chaudhry earlier expressed exasperation that the event had gone ahead, blaming the "stubbornness of the clergy". Organisers said they cut the gathering short following advice from the authorities, however at the time they said it was due to rainy weather. Similar Tablighi Jamaat congregations held in Malaysia and India during the coronavirus pandemic have been blamed for spreading the virus to other nations. Vietravel Airlines will headquarter at Phu Bai International Airport Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has just approved the investment guidelines for the aviation project Vietravel Airlines operated by local tourism company Vietravel Group. According to Decision No.457/QD-TTG dated April 3, 2020, the newcomer will have nine months for preparation before officially taking off in 10 months. With the total investment of VND700 billion ($30.43 million), Vietravel Airlines operation timeline will be 50 years. The airline will be headquartered at Phu Bai International Airport (the central province of Thua Thien-Hue). In the first year, it will exploit three flights, which it will steadily raise to eight by the fifth year. The prime minister also requires Thua Thien-Hue Peoples Committee to direct the airline in completing the project following the recommendations of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and other relevant ministries. Moreover, the local authority was put in charge of supervising the implementation of the Vietravel Airline project, especially capital mobilisation. The Ministry of Transport is responsible for collecting suggestions from the relevant ministries during the appraisal and licensing process, in accordance with regulations. Moreover, the ministry's tasks will also include conducting the project's fleet development, ensuring that it aligns with the capacity of the local aviation infrastructure as well as security requirements. Previously, in a report sent to the prime minister about the projects appraisal, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the airline will make VND3.65 trillion ($158.7 million) in local added value and contribute VND3.185 trillion ($138.48 million) to the economy. Finding a secure place to live has not been easy for Nez Marquez, 23, who has experienced homelessness for the past five years. Born in Mexico and raised in New York, he left home at 18 because his family did not accept his gender identity and sexual orientation, he said. Marquez is staying at Sylvia's Place, an emergency shelter for LGBTQ young adults on the bottom floor of a Manhattan church. He said shelters that specifically cater to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are safer for him because he has been subjected to homophobic attacks at general-population shelters. But now, in addition to anti-gay violence and the inherent dangers of life on the streets, Marquez has another fear: the coronavirus and its ripple effects. Image: Nez Marquez (Courtesy of Nez Marquez) "I've been worried about not having housing," Marquez said in an interview. "If where I'm staying shuts down, I'll be out of options." Not only does he worry about being "forced to live in a homophobic environment," but he also has a congenital lung issue, putting him at higher risk for adverse outcomes if he were to get COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. LGBTQ youth and young adults, like Marquez, make up a disproportionate number of homeless young people, and this vulnerable demographic is facing unique hardships amid the global health crisis. With countrywide shutdowns of schools and youth programs, diminished office hours at LGBTQ community centers and, for many of them, unsupportive family members, these young Americans and the organizations that serve them are forced to find new ways to get and provide support. Increase in needs, decrease in services LGBTQ adults make up an estimated 4.5 percent of the U.S. population, but recent studies have found that 20 percent to 45 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, and among young adults ages 18 to 25, LGBTQ people have a 2.2 times greater risk of homelessness than their non-LGBTQ peers, according to a new research brief by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law. Story continues Many homeless LGBTQ young adults rely on the approximately 260 LGBTQ community centers across the U.S. for their vital needs and general well-being. During the pandemic, however, many of the centers are reducing their hours and services or closing their doors completely to protect staff and visitors. New York City's LGBT Community Center, at the center of the pandemic in the U.S., closed its Manhattan location and suspended its in-person operations indefinitely on March 13. It is providing some services remotely, such as individual counseling sessions, 12-step support groups and youth social programs. Similarly, the Los Angeles LGBT Center has canceled all nonessential meetings and limited its youth programs to lunch services and critical needs while keeping its housing center open. Detroit's Ruth Ellis Center, which includes drop-in services, a health clinic and an overnight shelter, has also reduced some of its services. Before the coronavirus crisis, the drop-in center offered hot meals and showers daily and professional skills training three days a week. Now, the center is open only to distribute groceries from its front doors on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Staff members are still doing videoconference appointments for behavioral health and primary care. "The need for services is increasing, and the availability of services is decreasing," said Kate Barnhart, executive director of New Alternatives, a New York City-based nonprofit for LGBTQ homeless youth. Barnhart said the pandemic has further complicated her clients' already inconsistent access to care, particularly when it comes to their health needs. "Our clients rely on nonprofits to provide health care, and a lot of those places have closed or shut down hours," she said, saying a client of hers recently ran out of psychiatric medication when all her go-to medical providers were closed because of the crisis. Barnhart said a third of her clients are living with HIV, and she fears what will happen if they are unable to get their daily medication. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak For LGBTQ youth and young adults who are able to find beds at one of the few overnight shelters across the country that cater to them, there is a different set of challenges and risks. Brad Schlaikowsky, co-founder of Courage MKE, a Milwaukee organization that operates a group home for LGBTQ youth, said soap, hand sanitizer and other hygiene products many of which are crucial to help prevent contraction of the coronavirus have been hard to come by for people who are housing insecure. Due to the contagious nature of the virus, his organization is not accepting food and clothing donations. "This is a huge expense on the budget, and it's hitting everyone hard right now," Schlaikowsky said. "The best way people can help any organization is through financial support." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone physically distance themselves from others by about 6 feet to reduce the chance of contracting the virus. The CDC has issued interim guidelines for the country's thousands of homeless shelters if someone does get sick, including confining symptomatic clients to individual rooms or moving them to alternative facilities if possible. However, at many shelters, the guidance is impractical. "We don't have a private room," said Wendy Kaplan, director of Trinity Place Shelter, an LGBTQ youth shelter in New York City. "It's unrealistic, out of touch and makes us feel like the government isn't able or prepared to protect some of our most vulnerable members of society." 'Serious implications' for mental health In addition to the physical well-being of LGBTQ homeless youth and young adults, there are also concerns about the unique mental health challenges they may face. The Trevor Project, a national nonprofit that focuses on LGBTQ youth in crisis, released a white paper Friday outlining the "serious implications" the COVID-19 crisis could have on the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer young people. The organization cited the physical distancing, economic strain and increased anxiety related to the pandemic as being among the most worrisome problems. "LGBTQ young people ... are already at risk of discrimination and isolation, which can impact their mental health," Amit Paley, the organization's CEO, said Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC. "For a lot of LGBTQ young people, the main sources of support that they get are at their schools, at clubs, at community centers, at physical spaces that they no longer have access to. ... Not being able to connect with some of those really important, positive influences in your life can be extremely challenging for LGBTQ youth right now." Paley said the Trevor Project, which operates a 24/7 crisis hotline, has had a steep increase in the number of LGBTQ youth who have been reaching out. "We saw nearly twice the level of young people reaching out, and we know that this pandemic is having an impact, that young people are not sure where they can turn to for support," he said. 'It's most important they know they're not alone' Local and national organizations that serve LGBTQ homeless youth are working to acclimate to the new normal, developing innovative pathways to accommodate the changing and expanding needs of this vulnerable population. Lilianna Angel Reyes, director of the Ruth Ellis Center's drop-in service, said staff members at the Detroit facility "aren't waiting for people to create a solution." "They're creating them, and we're helping [our clients] be the healthiest they can," she said. With schools closed, staff members at the center's group home, Ruth's House, have developed an educational curriculum for their residents, who are ages 12 to 17. And at the drop-in center, which typically caters to teens and young adults ages 13 to 30, staffers have turned the large open space into a makeshift classroom for their group home residents. Reyes said the Ruth Ellis Center is a safe space that "can be built anywhere" including online, where the center has ramped up its presence. Staffers are now offering some services through digital video platforms, like its tobacco cessation program for transgender women, and clients can connect with staffers on social media, including Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. Reyes said that overcoming obstacles and a lack of resources "isn't new" for the youth and young adults whom the Ruth Ellis Center serves and that this may ultimately help them get through the pandemic and its ripple effects. "Most of our youth have had long histories of trauma, and they're extremely resilient," she said. Trinity Place Shelter, which caters to LGBTQ New Yorkers ages 18 to 24, is typically open only in the evening and overnight, but during the pandemic, it is operating 24 hours a day. The extended hours give the center's 10 residents a place to socially distance, three meals a day and somewhere to wash their hands. "The less time they're on the subway and out interacting with the public, the safer they are," the Rev. Heidi Neumark, the shelter's executive director, said in an interview. Neumark, who is a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, which houses Trinity Place Shelter, said that now it is "particularly important that we offer a lot of extra reassurance." "Most of the young people are here because they have been rejected by their families and do not have the support system and comfort that some people can count on," she said. While Milwaukee schools and most of the city's youth programs are closed, Courage MKE has tripled the number of onsite staff members working at its group home, Courage House, the only LGBTQ youth shelter in Wisconsin. The increase is intended to help ensure that the organization's clients get the extra support they need during the pandemic while also keeping burnout low and morale high among the staff. "We're 24/7 for the next 30 days, and it's not always sunshine and daisies, so we want to protect them, too," Schlaikowsky said of his staff. Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak Schlaikowsky said Courage MKE's staffers are also trying to keep a brave face on for the youth and young adults they serve. "If we show fear, it will rub off on the kids and make their anxiety even higher," he said. In addition to getting help, Courage MKE's clients are helping others by preparing sandwiches for people in the community in need of food. Schlaikowsky said that making 300 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches has been an effective distraction for the organization's clients and that feeding others has been an affecting way to thank the broader community for all the support it has given the nonprofit since it launched in 2015. In his interview on MSNBC, Paley of the Trevor Project spoke directly to LGBTQ young people, telling them they "are deserving of love and respect" and are not alone. He also stressed that "social distancing is not the same as social isolation." "There are places you can reach out to for support," he said. "There are always organizations like the Trevor Project that are here 24/7." The Trevor Project provides multiple round-the-clock services for LGBTQ youth in need, including TrevorSpace, a social networking site specifically for LGBTQ youth, and a network of trained crisis service counselors who can be reached through TrevorChat, TrevorText and TrevorLifeline (1-866-488-7386). In its new report, the Trevor Project also encourages LGBTQ young people who are in distress because of the negative social impacts of physical distancing to participate in shared activities online, like gaming, watch parties and physical activity classes. As for Nez Marquez, he has been staying indoors most of the day at his shelter, which is offering extended hours. He said that while his circumstances were not ideal before the coronavirus emerged, he longs to return to his pre-pandemic life. "I was applying for housing, I was applying for jobs and had interviews, and I can't do that anymore," Marquez said. "I just can't wait for this to be over and I can go back to my life to do what I need to do." Follow NBC Out on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram Photograph: Marco Bello/Reuters A coronavirus-stricken cruise ship docked in Florida on Saturday, carrying two dead passengers and at least 12 people who have tested positive for Covid-19. Related: Luxury resorts face coronavirus crisis as the 1% flee cities for holiday hideaways The Coral Princess pulled into Miami with 1,000 passengers and 878 crew aboard, after being refused permission to dock in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. At least one person was rushed off the boat, put in an ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital. The ship had been outside US waters, waiting for permission to pull into port, since two other ships overcame political objections and got permission to dock at Fort Lauderdale with four dead and many ill. The Coral Princess, owned by Carnival, which also owns the two other ships, spent Friday floating near Puerto Rico. US coast guard officials in south Florida denied the ship the right to pull into Fort Lauderdale. Based on the hazardous conditions on board your vessel, the south Florida coast guard said in an order to the company obtained by the Miami Herald, I have determined your vessel poses an unacceptable risk of medical emergency due to the inherent and high probability of transmission of Covid-19 aboard, which presents a risk to the safety of the personnel aboard your vessel, first responders and ports within the seventh district. Southern California resident Lori Bessler, who has been trying frantically to get her mother and stepfather off the ship for weeks, told the Guardian at least one of the deaths onboard, of a woman from South Carolina, came as the coast guard was denying the right to dock. The other woman who died was from Florida, she said. The family members are devastated and filled with disbelief, said Bessler, who said she had been discussing the situation with other families of passengers in a private Facebook group. How could the coast [guard] deny these people access to their own country, when they are out there dying? Story continues Holland Americas Zandaam and Rotterdam were able to unload passengers on Friday after days of tense negotiations with politicians, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who said he didnt want sick passengers dumped in his state. All the ships started their cruises in South America in early March. The Coral Princess was supposed to dock in Buenos Aires on 19 March but only passengers from South America were allowed to leave the ship then. It steamed north, without a port, for nearly two weeks. All of us at Princess Cruises are deeply saddened to report that two guests passed away on Coral Princess, said the Princess Cruise line in a release. Our hearts go out to their family, friends, and all who are impacted by this loss. The company said it would take several days to unload all the passengers, most of whom will be put on planes to fly home. Crew members will be required to stay onboard, as will any sick passengers who do not need hospitalization. Those with any respiratory symptoms, or who are still recovering from being ill previously, will remain on board until medically cleared by the ships doctors, the company said. Bessler said her family members were safe, though anxious to get off the ship. She said she and other families and passengers were furious at the company for failing to communicate and for apparently proceeding to bring the ship to Florida without first getting an agreement for it to dock. Im relieved that they are in, she said. I just couldnt breath last night after hearing the coast guard wouldnt let them dock. Petty Officer Jonathan Lally, a regional spokesman for the US coast guard, said it allowed the ship to come into port as soon as an urgent request was made. We did not receive an at-sea medical evacuation request from Coral Princess and we cleared the ship to enter port once a request was made, he said in a statement, adding that the coast guard has worked tirelessly to facilitate the disembarkation of 250,000 cruise ship passengers, to help cruise lines cease operations during the pandemic and to reduce the unique threat of COVID-19 in the maritime domain. Vulnerable groups and health inequalities are also evident in developed countries. What does it mean to be vulnerable? Vulnerable groups of people are those that are disproportionally exposed to risk, but who is included in these groups can change dynamically. A person not considered vulnerable at the outset of a pandemic can become vulnerable depending on the policy response. The risks of sudden loss of income or access to social support have consequences that are difficult to estimate and constitute a challenge in identifying all those who might become vulnerable. Certainly, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable groups are not only elderly people, those with ill health and comorbidities, or homeless or underhoused people, but also people from a gradient of socioeconomic groups that might struggle to cope financially, mentally, or physically with the crisis. The strategies most recommended to control the spread of COVID-19social distancing and frequent handwashingare not easy for the millions of people who live in highly dense communities with precarious or insecure housing, and poor sanitation and access to clean water. Often people living in these settings also have malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. In South Africa, 15 million people live in townships where the incidence of HIV is around 25%. These immunocompromised populations are at greater risk to Covid-19. Another concern in African countries is that the response to COVID-19 will come at the expense of treating other diseases. For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the response to Ebola resulted in the resurgence of measles. The effect of the policy response on children in the fight against COVID-19 is also a concern. On March 23, UNICEF reported that in Latin America and the Caribbean over 154 million children are temporarily out of school because of COVID-19. The impact of this policy is more far-reaching than just the loss of educationin this region, school food programmes benefit 85 million children, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization assessed that these programmes constitute one of the most reliable daily sources of food for around 10 million children. Questioning whether appropriate evidence exists to support the reduction of transmission through school closures, Richard Armitage and Laura Nellums considered the long-term risks of deepening social, economic, and health inequities for children in a letter published in The Lancet Global Health. A 2015 UN report analysing the socioeconomic effects of Ebola in Africa also highlighted the increased risks of pregnancy in young girls, school dropout, and child abuse. The most vulnerable children are part of families in which parents have informal jobs and are not able to work from home. This predicament is particularly concerning in countries like India, where over 80% of its workforce is employed in the informal sector and a third of people work as casual labourers. In socioeconomically fragile settings, a lockdown policy can exacerbate health inequalities and the consequences need careful consideration to avoid reinforcing the vicious cycle between poverty and ill health. Human Rights Watch has reported that the lockdown in India has disproportionately affected marginalised communities because of the loss of livelihood and lack of food, shelter, health, and other basic necessities. Under this unprecedented challenge, governments must be mindful that strategies to address the pandemic should not further marginalise or stigmatise affected communities. Vulnerable groups and health inequalities are also evident in developed countries. The USA is a stark reminder of the divide that exists in countries without a universal health-care system. For people who do not have private medical insurance, this pandemic might see them face the choice of devastating financial hardship or poor health outcomes, or both. During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the USA, individuals with poorer health outcomes were those in the lowest socioeconomic groups. This same group of vulnerable people have now been caught in the middle of a major health emergency as a result of long-standing differences in affluence. ovid While responding to COVID-19, policymakers should consider the risk of deepening health inequalities. If vulnerable groups are not properly identified, the consequences of this pandemic will be even more devastating. Although WHO guidance should be followed, a one-size-fits-all model will not be appropriate. Each country must continually assess which members of society are vulnerable to fairly support those at the highest risk. Courtesy: The Lancet - Editorial Imagine getting a behind-the-scenes look at Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in all their domestic glory. Thats exactly what happened in 1968 when the British royal family agreed to open up their private lives to cameras for a BBC documentary, Royal Family, that aired in 1969. British TV stations debuted the documentary in black and white on June 21, 1969, according to Town and Country, and a week later audiences got the chance to watch it again but in color. The documentary then went international before returning to TVs in the U.K. for five more broadcasts. An estimated 40 million people tuned in to watch the 1969 broadcasts including 68% of adults in Britain. Since it aired in 1969, the nearly 2-hour film has yet to be seen again in its entirety. Luckily, a small number of photographs were snapped during the making of the documentary. Ahead, check them out and get more details on Royal Family. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II on a private jet | Syndication/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images Filming lasted 75 days spanning 172 locations Filming for the documentary kicked off at the Trooping the Colour ceremony on June 8, 1968. In all, there were 75 days of filming and the crew captured footage of the family in 172 locations. All of the moments captured by director Richard Cawston, BBCs head of documentaries, had to first be approved by a group of TV executives who sat on a committee headed up by Philip. Prince Philip painting in June 1969 | Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images With the goal of showing a relatable, more personal royal family, the queens former press secretary, William Heseltine, came up the idea for a documentary and got Philip to help him. While the queens husband had been all for a documentary about the family as real people, he didnt personally like to be in front of cameras. Prince Philip became less enthusiastic when it came to being filmed himself, which he hated, Heseltine told Town and Country. Princess Margaret with her children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones | Bettmann / Contributor Princess Anne: I thought it was a rotten idea A then-18-year-old Anne, Princess Royal had been against Royal Family and said as much in 2002 during an interview for a documentary about her mother, the queen. I certainly never liked the idea of the royal family film. I thought it was a rotten idea, she said. The attention that had been brought on one ever since one was a child, you just didnt want any more. And the last thing you needed was greater access. I dont remember enjoying any part of that. Below, see a young Anne eating lunch across from her brother, Charles, Prince of Wales and their parents Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip having lunch with two of their children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne | Hulton Archive/Getty Images Looking back on the experience, Heseltine recalled Queen Elizabeth being initially unsure. The Queen was a reluctant convert, but became much more aware of the possibilities and was prepared to participate when it came to actual filming, he said. Royal Family documentary delighted Queen Elizabeths press secretary When the documentary premiered, the response from the public had been mostly positive. And the queens press secretary, Heseltine, had been happy with the result too. I was delighted with it, actually, he said. Of course, not everyone had been a fan of the documentary but Heseltine recalled there being very few critics at at the time. Below, check out Philip and the queen admiring a Christmas tree. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II | Bettmann / Contributor Reportedly because of the small criticism Royal Family received, the queen had the documentary put in the royal archives only to be seen in full with her permission. The last time any member of the public got a glimpse of the documentary was in 2011 when 90 seconds of Royal Family were released for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. BRUSSELS Area fruit trees are blooming right now, and those who grow peaches and other seasonal delicacies hope COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted in time so they will have mid-summer buyers for the ripe fruit. The crop is looking good so far, the peaches are blooming here right now, said Toppmeyers Orchard owner Alan Toppmeyer. They are really pretty pink flowers, and the apple trees are just getting their leaves. Toppmeyers five acres near the Calhoun County community of Brussels includes some early June peaches as well as September-ripening apples. It should be a good year as long as we can get rid of them with this COVID deal going on, Toppmeyer said. As long as our farmers markets stay open, and our grocery stores, or wherever we can get rid of them. Just down the road in Golden Eagle, Jacobs Orchard owner Roy Jacobs also has his eye on the COVID-19 restrictions and what it might mean for his business. Ive been thinking about it quite a bit here, Jacobs said. I think we are going to be OK. But it kind of depends on how long this thing lasts. It would be a pity if the restrictions cut into this years fruit sales, because Jacobs is expecting a bumper crop from his peach and plum trees that are now in full bloom. It will probably be one of the biggest crops weve had in 10 years, Jacobs said. You dont have peaches until youve got em. I think it was in 2007 we had an Easter freeze that pretty much wiped the whole peach crop out. But its looking good so far. Calhoun peaches those raised in the county surrounded by the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers are seasonally sought after by fresh fruit aficionados, and for good reason. Weve had people stop in from Georgia, the Peach State, and I give them a nice tree-ripe Calhoun peach to try, Jacobs said. And you know how the Southerners talk, they say, I live in Atlanta, Georgia and I aint never tasted a peach like this! I dont know if it has to do with our rivers or the soil, but I cant argue with the taste. Dennis Ringhausen has peaches, plums, blackberries and nectarines at Ringhausen Orchards in Jerseyville and Fieldon. Right now some plums and early peaches are blooming. I really dont anticipate any problems unless things get really cold, Ringhausen said. It wasnt that bad of a winter. It never got super cold but it got them dormant, which is what you want. Ringhausen said the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 has him concerned about the sales of his peaches, which ripen in July, and blackberries that will be ready near August. Who knows how this virus is going to affect things, Ringhausen said. Kruegers Orchard in Godfrey sells most of their produce at farmers markets. We do four farmers markets a week. But if those are cut back because of COVID, customers will probably come out here to get their fruit, said orchard owner Paul Krueger. But we might raise all of this stuff and then wont be able to get rid of it. I have a couple of acres of peaches, and they look real good, Krueger said. They are in full bloom right now, and it looks like a full crop. Krueger added that his 30 tart cherry trees are getting ready to bloom but its harder to predict how much those trees will yield until the fruit starts to form. Stan Amy, Gun Denhart, and Tom Kelly Amy, Denhart and Kelly founded the Oregon Business Association in 1999, which merged with another trade group in 2017. Amy co-founded New Seasons Market. Denhart co-founded Hanna Andersson. Kelly is president of Neil Kelly Co. Last year, the number one concern of business executives surveyed across our region was homelessness. Some might find this surprising given that the Portland metro region has seen one of the strongest decades for economic growth on record. While this has been a boon for the business community, this has also resulted in an affordability and homelessness crisis, as an influx of new residents and businesses has exacerbated wage inequality and a housing shortage. The affordability problem has affected far too many families: according to an ECONorthwest report, 56,000 households in our region are one paycheck away from slipping into homelessness. Now, due to COVID-19 and the very real human and economic tragedies we see unfolding, some suggest we should put off helping the most vulnerable in our community. That isnt the community we want to live in. Now, more than ever, we must show that we are here together. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 500-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification. As business leaders, were also problem solvers. If we threw up our hands and walked away when faced with tough business challenges, we simply wouldnt be in business anymore. Tough public policy issueslike our regional homelessness crisisdemand the same kind of focused attention. This is why we applaud the HereTogether coalition, which has been hard at work for over a year to create a measure that will fund the proven solutions needed at the scale necessary to help the thousands of people in our region right now who are experiencing chronic homelessness transition into stable housing. Waiting any longer to take action will allow the crisis to grow exponentially, making it even harder to address. We must act now. The Metro regional government referred a measure to the May ballot that, with voter support, can raise up to $250 million a year for increasing homeless services starting in 2021. This amount will be raised via a 1% tax on personal income for high-income earners and a 1% tax on the local profits of large businesses. The 1% tax on large businesses is a reasonable and fair approachand the need is undeniable. That is why, as business leaders in our region, we urge voters to say yes to Measure 26-210. The companies to be taxed are only those with over $5 million in sales a year. As a result, this measure exempts 94% of all businesses in the region; most notably small and medium-sized businesses. Business owners, some of whom will be subject to this tax, sat at the HereTogether table to help figure out how to address the homelessness crisis as a region. More than 2,000 businesses represented by the Portland Business Alliance and Business for a Better Portland were part of crafting this thoughtful measure. Any large businesses so negatively impacted by COVID-19 that they don't turn a profit will not be paying this tax. Likewise, individuals whose earnings fall below the threshold won't pay either. Truly, only a very small number of people and businesses who can afford to pay a very small tax will do so, amounting to the very large sum of money necessary for impactful solutions for homelessness in our region. In addition, there are also strong accountability measures built into this measure, including community oversight, independent audits, a 5% cap on Metros administrative overhead, and a sunset after 10 years, giving voters the opportunity to amend, terminate or re-approve the measure. This funding will be locally directed in each of the three Metro counties Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas to serve those currently experiencing chronic homelessness, as well as people at extreme risk of experiencing homelessness. The people who will be served come from our communitys most vulnerable populations. Local communities will guide plans for how to best use the funding, recognizing that solutions that work well in downtown Portland may not be the best option in Oregon City or Hillsboro. Individuals are not the only ones who suffer from homelessness. Children suffer. Families suffer. Businesses suffer. And most of all, our community suffers, both materially and in the values that the very word represents. Were proud to see that this measure exists because so many in the business community understand that those two words business and community need not be seen separately. Its up to all of us to come together, now more than ever, to scale up our efforts and support solutions that can meet the size of the problem head-on. Were committed to being part of the solution, and we hope youre here together with us, too. Meghan Markle's celebrity facialist Sarah Champan has recalled 'fond memories' with the 'very kind and down-to-earth' Duchess of Sussex in a gushing Instagram post. British facialist Sarah Chapman, who set up her skincare brand Skinesis in 2008, has worked with the Duchess of Sussex, 38, for two years. She was responsible for her glowing wedding day complexion in May 2018, as well as her final royal appearance last month at the Commonwealth Day Service. Yesterday, she shared an Instagram post about her 'dear friendship' with Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan, saying: 'I feel very grateful to be a small part of their journey observing the passion for everything they do and compassion for the causes and people they meet, but also to witness the moments other people dont see. 'Who they are at home, as parents, as partners, and friends, the kind and very down to earth people they are when no one is watching.' Meghan Markle's celebrity facialist shared a gushing Instagram post yesterday revealing the Duchess is 'very kind and down to earth when no one is watching' Alongside the Instagram post, the award-winning facialist shared five pictures of the Duchess with a glowing complexion that she helped to create. The pictures included the Duchess on her wedding day in May 2018, as well as the couple's final royal engagement at the annual Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey last month. In a lengthy caption, Sarah said: 'Through my work I am fortunate to meet some incredible, interesting and inspirational people and over the past two-and-a-half years I feel honoured to have spent much time with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.' 'With Meghan, what began as a client relationship quickly turned into a dear friendship and she welcomed me into their lives.' British facialist Sarah Chapman, who set up her skincare brand Skinesis in 2008, posted five 'glowing skin moments' of Meghan that she helped to create Sarah added how she has seen the couple behind closed doors and has observed them as 'parents, partners and friends' in moments that are not often shown in public. She continued: Every day we learn something new and I have been taught so much by them, and I always leave our time together feeling fulfilled and inspired to help people in any small ways I can. 'I am happy to share with fond memories some of these glowing skin moments I helped create for Meghan with our natural approach to beauty and look forward to many more in the future.' Sarah, who counts Victoria Beckham as a fan of her products, said she wished the 'down-to-earth' couple 'love and positivity' following their relocation to Los Angeles after stepping down as senior royals last month. The celebrity facilialist shared several snaps on Instagram of moments she had worked with Meghan on her glowing skin, including her wedding day She said: 'And to Meghan, Harry and little Archie: sending lots of love and positivity during this transition. In her final message, she wrote: 'I know there will be so many ways you will continue to touch peoples lives and enable positive change and we cant wait to see what you do next. See you soon and thank you for everything you do. SC x.' Meghan and Harry are currently living in LA, having flown there with Archie from Canada last week before the borders closed due to coronavirus. The pair shared their final post on the Sussex Royal Instagram account on March 30, ahead of officially stepping down as working senior royals. The British skin expert also revealed she had helped Meghan capture a glowing complexion while attending the Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House in March Last week royal expert Camilla Tominey claimed the couple have put all plans to rebrand 'on ice' amid the pandemic crisis. They were rumoured to be revealing their new brand and charity this week, with Instagram being their launch platform of choice. However, appearing on This Morning, royal commentator Camilla claimed that all plans to 'rebrand as celebrities' have been put 'on ice'. Working with Victor was one of the great privileges of my modeling career, said Cindy Crawford in a statement. He was my first mentor and taught me so much about the art of modeling and photography. Those years I spent on his set under the beautiful lighting being directed by a true artist, prepared me for my life in fashion, but also, his elegance and sophistication shaped my definition of a true gentleman. He will be missed. The Coral Princess cruise ship arrives at PortMiami during the CCP virus outbreak, in Miami, on April 4, 2020. (Lynne Sladky/AP) Canadians Aboard COVID-19 Stricken Cruise Ship to Start Coming Home Today OTTAWACanadians aboard another COVID19 stricken cruise ship are expected to start coming home today. The Coral Princess arrived in Miami Saturday with 97 Canadian passengers and two Canadian crew members aboard, and Princess Cruises said disembarkation of guests who are fit to fly would begin Sunday. The company has said that a dozen people on board have tested positive for COVDI-19, while others are experiencing flulike symptoms. Canadas COVID19 caseload grew by 1,471 Saturday for a total of 14,018 confirmed and presumptive cases, while the virusrelated death toll rose by 46, to 233. But amid that grim news, there was also some cause for optimism. British Columbia medical health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the curve in the number of cases in her province appears to be flattening. BEIJING, April 5 (Reuters) - Luckin Coffee Inc said on Sunday it will maintain normal operations at its stores and apologised to the public, days after it announced an internal investigation had shown its chief operating officer and other employees fabricated sales deals. Shares of Luckin, which competes in China with Starbucks Corp, sank as much as 81% on Thursday in New York after it said the investigation had found that fabricated sales from the second quarter of 2019 to the fourth were about 2.2 billion yuan ($310 million). "Regarding the suspected financial fraud and the extremely bad impact it has caused, Luckin Coffee hereby sincerely apologizes to the public," the company said in a post on its official Weibo account. China's securities regulator said on Friday it would investigate claims of fraud at Luckin Coffee and sources said some of the banks involved in the Chinese chain's successful U.S. IPO last year were reviewing their work in the listing. Founded in June 2017, Luckin's IPO had attracted a number of prominent U.S. investors, including hedge funds. Like others in the industry, the company has been hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic. In late January, it was forced to temporarily close an estimated 200 coffee shops in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the outbreak, as well as many in other cities. (Reporting by Brenda Goh, Yilei Sun and Sophie Yu; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) The UK and the US are set to join a list of countries that have been evacuating their stranded nationals from India, with the Boris Johnson government on Sunday announcing the first wave of seven charter flights for some 20,000 Britons in different states. The UK government has said it will provide 75 million for special charter flights, where commercial routes do not exist, to bring home thousands of Britons stranded in different countries. The flights from India will depart from Goa on April 8, 10 and 12, from Mumbai on April 9 and 11, and from New Delhi on April 9 and 11. The flights cost each adult 681 from Goa, 600 from Mumbai and 581 from Delhi, and infants under the age of two will travel free. The UKs acting high commissioner to India, Jan Thompson, said: We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India. I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need. Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge. The UK government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible. Officials said the charter flights are for British travellers who normally reside in the UK and their direct dependants. A number of seats will be reserved for those deemed vulnerable. On Saturday, 113 of the most vulnerable British nationals left Goa on an Irish flight. An estimated 35,000 British nationals are currently in India but only some 20,000 have expressed a desire to return. The US, which flew out some 200 citizens from India on March 31, is set to operate a steady flow of flights from Delhi and Mumbai this week. People familiar with developments said several thousand Americans, most of them stranded tourists and travellers, will be evacuated by these flights. The US embassy announced on Sunday there will be flights from New Delhi to San Francisco (April 6, 7 and 8) and from Mumbai to Atlanta (April 7 and 10). We do not know for how long US government-organised flights returning to the United States will continue after this week. We urge US citizens who want to return to the United States to take advantage of the current opportunities, the embassy said in an alert posted on its website. The embassy said it will also facilitate transportation to Delhi from some cities in northern and eastern India, including flights from Dehradun, Amritsar and Chandigarh, and bus services from Ludhiana and Dharamshala. It will also arrange flights from Chennai and Hyderabad to Mumbai. A total of 22 countries evacuated almost 14,000 people from India till late last week, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Germany has flown out some 3,000 citizens in about 10 flights from different Indian cities, Japan about 2,300 in some 10 flights, Malaysia about 2,100 citizens in 13 flights, Israel about 1,600 citizens in eight flights, and Russia almost 1,100 citizens in four flights. France, which has so far evacuated 400 nationals in one flights, has plans to evacuate almost 1,600 more stranded tourists and travellers. Special arrangements have also been made by the countries to arrange movement permits in view of domestic travel restrictions currently in force across India. These permits call on Indian authorities to allow passage, without delay or detention, to the foreign nationals. The people cited above said there are currently no plans to arrange flights to bring back Indians stranded abroad. The government recently advised stranded Indians to stay put and Indian missions have been tasked to help them. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Covid-19 has affected 23 of the 33 districts in Telangana, with Hyderabad recording a chunk of all positive cases recorded in the State. The number of Covid-19 positive cases continued to rise in Telangana on Saturday with the State recording 43 more positive cases, taking the total number of positive cases to 272. Fortunately, no deaths were recorded on Saturday. Currently, 228 active cases are being treated at various designated hospitals in the State. In all the affected districts, containment process has been initiated and till date 1,376 teams have been deployed, 1.07 lakh households have been surveyed, which includes survey of 4.45 lakh individuals and 147 symptomatic persons have been shifted to hospitals. According to a media release issued by the the Department of Health, all new positive cases recorded on Saturday were of the people who had either returned from Delhi after attending the Tablighi Jamaat programme at Markaz-Nizamuddin in Delhi or those who were in contact with them. The release also said tests are being conducted on samples collected from all 1,090 people who returned from the Delhi convention. District-wise break-up For the first time, the State government released a district-wise break-up of all the Covid-19 cases recorded in the State. Of the 272 positive cases recorded till Saturday, 104 were recorded in Hyderabad, 22 in Warangal (Urban) district and 18 cases in Nizamabad. According to the media release, the State government has purchased five lakh N-95 masks, five lakh PPE kits, five lakh viral transmission kits, 500 ventilators, four lakh Covid-19 testing kits, 20 lakh surgical masks and 25 lakh gloves while 1,500-bedded hospital would be ready at Gachibowli in a couple of days. The media release also said that till date, there is no evidence of community transmission in Telangana. All the quarantine facilities have doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and have N-95 masks and PPE adequately available. It also said that strict action would be initiated against any person who attacks doctors. Video conference is being conducted every day from 9 am to 11 am by Chief Secretary with all Health Department senior officials. Six labs are working 24 hours. Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: The public is getting aware of the fact if they do not isolate themselves and not follow the norms of social distancing they are likely to get infected with COVID-19. After 12,800 villages in Punjab self-quarantined themselves, those living in the urban areas in many towns and have sealed their localities and are allowing any outsiders. Sources in the police department said that in many localities in various cities and towns of the state, the public has self-imposed restrictions If one has to buy vegetables and fruits then one is allowed to go to the check post (naka) which is erected on the entry of the locality. Except for the milk vendors, nobody else is allowed to enter these localities. ALSO READ: India's 'super spreader' home-quarantines 26,000 people in 24 Punjab villages "If one has to go out in case of an emergency, he or she is interrogated by a team guarding the locality. Unless the team is satisfied and is given a genuine reason to go out, no individual is allowed to leave. On return, he or she has to sanitise before entering the locality," a senior police officer informed. He said that many localities in Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Batala have sealed their localities (mohallas) on their own. Also, the small bylanes in their areas have been sealed by erecting ropes or barricades. ALSO READ: 2 villages in Patiala with 2k population sealed after youth tests positive Meanwhile, Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said that drones have been deployed in 34 locations across ten districts of Mohali, Sangrur, Fazilka, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar, Barnala, Jalandhar (Rural), Moga, Ropar and Fatehgarh Sahib after it was found to be highly effective in coverage of large areas for ensuring effective enforcement of curfew and for efficient utilisation of manpower. THE National Identification Authority (NIDA) has transferred 25 staff to new duty stations and others assigned different duties, towards enhancing efficiency. The move comes three days after Minister for Home Affairs George Simbachawene said he would undertake a comprehensive reshuffle within the authority that would see underperforming staff transferred to new duty stations. Speaking at a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, NIDA Director-General, Dr Anorld Kihaule said that transferred staff were from various cadres. "The changes have involved some high-rank officials and other officials and have been implemented per the rules, regulations and procedures of public service; this transfer is an implementation of government directives by Minister Simbachawene," he noted. Dr Kihaule assured Tanzanians that despite these changes, NIDA would continue to fulfill its obligations to register and issue National Identification Cards to Tanzanian citizens and legal residents. So far, as of March 27, 2020, about 21 million people have been identified and registered out of 27 million targeted people; 17.8 million people have National Identification Number (NIN) and 6 million people have been issued with the Identity Cards. On April 1, 2020, Mr Simbachawene said the government purchased a new machine that would facilitate quick issuance of national identity cards after the previous one failed to operate and caused long queues at NIDA offices. He said the 8.5bn/- machine will start operations by the end of this month and will have a capacity to produce 9,000 IDs per hour. According to the minister, NIDA targets to identify and register 27.8 million Tanzanians, refugees living in the country and resident immigrants countrywide. He also said that within the short period he had been in office, he had received several complaints from the public over dissatisfaction with the way NIDA officials treated them. He directed all regional and district commissioners to make sure that they closely supervised NIDA officials in their areas to ensure that they discharged their duties effectively. The major shakeup at NIDA has come almost four months since President John Magufuli publicly expressed his disappointment with the slow pace at which the National Identification Authority was conducting the registration process. While addressing residents at Msamvu area in Morogoro in November last year on his way to Dodoma, President directed Nida Director General Mr Arnold Kihauleto open registration offices across the country in a bid to make sure that the exercise was smoothly implemented. He issued the directives after one of the residents told the president that most of the citizens were forced to travel long distances to be registered because the registration centres were only located at district headquarters. One of the residents told the president that most of them had failed to register for the national IDs due to the costs that they were forced to incur. The president, who, at that very occasion spoke to the Nida director general on the phone, ordered Nida to make sure that registration centres were opened at each district council headquarters across the country. New Delhi, April 5 : As a preventive measure against new coronavirus (COVD-19) pandemic, the Health Ministry has issued fresh guidelines for disinfecting public places including offices in areas reporting COVID-19. For ease of implementation, the guideline divided these areas into (i) indoor areas, (ii) outdoor areas and (iii) public toilets. According to the ministry, outdoor areas have less risk than indoor areas due to air currents and exposure to sunlight. Indoor areas such as office spaces, including conference rooms should be cleaned every evening after office hours or early in the morning before the rooms are occupied. The guidelines said that prior to cleaning, the worker should wear disposable rubber boots, gloves (heavy duty), and a triple-layer mask. All indoor areas such as entrance lobbies, corridors and staircases, elevators, office rooms, meeting rooms, cafeteria should be mopped with a disinfectant with one per cent sodium hypochlorite or phenolic disinfectants. "Frequently touched areas like tabletops, chair handles, pens, diary files, keyboards, mouse, mouse pad, tea/coffee, dispensing machines etc. should especially be cleaned," said the guidelines. Also, high contact surfaces such elevator buttons, equipment like telephone, printers/scanners, and other office machines should be cleaned twice daily by mopping with a linen/absorbable cloth soaked in one per cent sodium hypochlorite. Hand-sanitizing stations should be installed in office premises (especially at the entry) and near high contact surfaces. In addition, all employees should consider cleaning the work area in front of them with a disinfecting wipe prior to use and sit one seat further away from others, if possible, according to the guidelines. In outdoor areas, such as bus stops, railway platforms, parks, roads, etc., cleaning and disinfection efforts should be targeted to frequently-touched contaminated surfaces. For public toilets, sanitary workers must use a separate set of cleaning equipment for toilets (mops, nylon scrubber) and a separate set for sink and commode). They should always wear disposable protective gloves while cleaning a toilet. According to the guidelines, workers must disinfect all cleaning equipment after use and before using in other area and buckets by soaking in bleach solution in hot water. Wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while carrying out cleaning and disinfection work, it added. The forest Division Pathankot is making special efforts to ease the situation arising after the COVID-19 outbreak by providing essential services to the people, officials said. "Forest officials are adhering to social distancing protocols, are providing essential services to people on one hand, they are also in collaboration with social welfare organisations to contribute towards serving the humanity," a press release stated. "After the Covid-19 breakout, Divisional Forest Officer Pathankot had himself requested the DC to give him the responsibility of Dhar Kalan block as nodal officer. After getting the responsibility, Tewari prepared a model to ensure supply of essential items at doorstep of people which included supply of milk, medicines and vegetables," the press release stated. "He also identified two volunteers from each village to assist in this project, who are following all health norms while delivering basics at doorstep. Seeing good results, Tewari has apprised the DC to implement this across the district. Various social welfare organizations have come forward in facilitating task of supplying free ration to needy persons. Vans of forest department and help of officials is being utilized for this purpose," the press added. "Forest division Pathankot with help of self-help group and village forest committee has also prepared cloth masks which would be made available to district administration at very low cost. An order for 10,000 masks has been places which would be provided to the district administration," the press release further added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the recent alarming spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu, the state has launched what is probably the largest house-to-house survey in the country to identify people with Coronavirus symptoms. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has launched a massive survey where health workers will survey every house within the city limit to identify people with fever, flu or other symptoms of COVID-19. In the next 90 days, the GCC has aimed to cover some 10 lakh houses in the city limits. Some 16,000 health workers of the GCC will be assigned with the massive task. BCCL For the survey, the city has been divided into 13,100 clusters of 75 to 100 houses each. State Minister for local bodies, S P Velumani said that the exercise would be carried out every day for the next 90 days. For regular cough and cold, the corporation staff themselves may provide treatment advice, an official release from the government stated. If further treatment is required, the person would be referred to the nearest government hospital, the minister said. Elaborating further, Velumani said health workers will collect every detail about fever or flu would be tabulated and a database would be created after each days survey for further study. BCCL The staff who will be deployed for the survey will be given special training and safety kits including suits, gloves, and masks. Orders to procure 11.5 masks have already been issued. The workers will also be paid Rs 15,000 per month for this. The move attains significance due to the high number of foreign returnees in the city. Some, 23,308 people who have come from foreign countries have been home-quarantined in the city. So far, Tamil Nadu has the second-highest number of COVID-19 positive cases in the country after Maharashtra. As of Sunday morning, the state had a total of 485 confirmed cases, out of which 474 are under treatment, while 8 have recovered and 3 have lost their lives to COVD-19. At 91, Chennai has the highest number of cases in the state. BCCL The state began seeing a rapid spike in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in recent days after those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi started showing symptoms of the infection. On Saturday alone 74 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the state out of which 73 were related to the Tablighi event. As many as 1,500 people from the state had attended the congregation in Delhi, leading to a scramble to trace, test and isolate them. Guwahati/Agartala, April 5 : With a 57-year-old ex-BSF jawan tested positive for coronavirus from northeast on Sunday, the total number of cases in this region went up to 30, including 26 in Assam, ministers and officials said. "One more Covid-19 positive case from Cachar District (in southern Assam) has been confirmed, taking the total count in Assam to 26. The patient took part in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi," Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a tweet. Of the 30 positive cases in four northeastern states - Assam (26), Manipur (2), Mizoram (1) and Arunachal Pradesh (1) -- 27, took part in Delhi congregation, while a Manipuri girl and a Mizoram man had tested positive last month after they returned from the UK and the Netherlands, respectively. Another 52-year-old Assam trader of Kamrup (Metro) district also infected with the nCoV as his swab samples tested positive.The latest positive case for nCoV in Assam is that of the former BSF jawan, who voluntarily retired from service in 2007 to do the religious activity, now being treated in Silchar Medical College and Hospital. Besides, 30 positive cases in the northeastern region, four persons from Assam and two people from Tripura, who attended the congregation, have tested positive for COVID-19 and they are in northern India hospitals. Sarma told the media in Guwahati that out of the 1,529 people's swab samples, including 812 Nizamuddin attendees, collected so far -- 1,308 have tested negative, 26 tested positive and remaining test reports are awaited. Quoting central government communications, Sarma had earlier said that over 550 to 600 people from Assam had attended the Tablighi meet. "I am very angry and frustrated as despite our repeated appeals, none of the participants reported to the authority. Why are you hiding your cases?" Sarma told the reporters. The minister along with other ministers met Tablighi Jamaat leaders in Guwahati on Saturday and requested them to share the complete list of attendees to test their samples or to provide quarantine. In Agartala, Tripura Health Secretary Debashish Basu said that two people from Tripura, who had participated in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, have tested positive for novel coronavirus and now they are in a quarantine center at Bikaner in Rajasthan. "Eleven people from Tripura's Boxanagar areas (western Tripura) attended the Tablighi Jamaat event. After attending the meet all the eleven people went to Rajasthan. The officials of Rajasthan government verbally informed us that two of the eleven people have tested positive for novel coronavirus," Basu told the media. According to different official sources, at least 800 people from several northeastern states, mostly from Assam, had either attended or were in vicinity of the Tablighi congregation, forcing all seven states to launch an all-out search to identify and test these persons. The attendees' family members and the people they came in close contact with are also being examined or sent to quarantine. Tripura Health Secretary also said that swab samples of 50 people who attended the Tablighi meet or went to the Nizamuddin area, have tested negative.Three northeastern states -- Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura -- are yet to report any positive coronavirus case. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Afghan security forces have arrested 37 members of the so-called Islamic State Khorasan Province terrorist module that had targeted a Kabul gurdwara last month. The arrests were made in the last 24 hours after Afghan forces caught Aslam Farooqui, the Pakistani national who led the terror group ISKP known to have strong links with Pakistans ISI that carries out off-the-shelf jihad at its instance. Among the 37 who have been arrested are 14 women and children. A majority of them are Pakistani nationals. Aslam Farooqui and the members of his module are being interrogated in the presence of US security agencies outside Kabul, people familiar with the developments in Delhi and Kabul told Hindustan Times. Afghanistan vice president Amrullah Saleh cheered the Afghan intelligence agency for the breakthrough. I am sure he is already singing & will sing more to the dismay of his patrons in & out. A treasure of intelligence. Make him talk, tweeted Saleh, who earlier headed the Afghan intel agency National Directorate of Security. The reference to Farooquis patrons is seen to be pointing to Pakistans intel agency ISI. Watch: Watch: Mastermind of Kabul Gurudwara attack, ISKP terrorist Farooqui, captured The Farooqui-led module had targeted Sikh worshippers at Gurdwara Har Rai in Shor Bazaar Kabul on March 25. The Taliban had rushed to deny its involvement in the gurdwara attack. The ISKP came forward to claim responsibility. But its assertion that the strike was revenge for Muslims in Kashmir was a dead giveaway for Pakistani deep state, people mentioned above said. ISKP chief Aslam Farooquis links with Pakistans ISI have been too well known. Farooqi, also known as Abdullah Orakzai, is a former commander of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba with direct links to the ISI. Also Read: ISKP chiefs arrest for gurdwara attack brings out clear link to Pakistans ISI: Official His 4,000-strong ISKP group operates with other groups like the Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed. It largely comprises defectors from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and other Islamic terrorist outfits active in the Afghan-Pakistan area along the Durand Line including elements from the LeT, Jaish and Haqqani network. The LeT already has a presence in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces and is in expansion mode. It is trying to get a foothold in the adjoining Nuristan and Laghman provinces and is reported to have set up a training camp in Waygal area of Nuristan. Counter terror operatives in Delhi and Kabul suggest that the Lashkar was in the process of opening two new centres in Kunar province. Under directions from the ISI, the LeT has been involved in planning and conducting attacks on Indian interests, including Indian Embassy and consulates in Afghanistan in coordination with the Haqqani network, an Indian government official said. The Jaish-e-Mohammed, another anti-India proxy for the ISI, maintains close links with the Haqqani network and Al Qaeda. The Jaish has dedicated commanders for 12 provinces including Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Arwan, Kundu, Ghazni, Nimroz, Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, an official said. JeM activities in Afghanistan are controlled by the outfits leaders based in Pakistan. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shishir Gupta Author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (2011 Hatchette) and Himalayan Face-off : Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (2014). Awarded K Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 by Indian Defence and Strategic Analyses (IDSA) and the 2011 Ben Gurion Prize by Israel. ...view detail The family of a 65-year-old tribal man, out to buy essential items, in Madhya Pradeshs Dhar district has said he was beaten to death by the police on Saturday, a charge denied by the force. The son of Tigoo Adivasi, a resident of Mandleshwar in Khargone district, said his father had gone to Gujari village under Dhamnod police station in Dhar district, three to four kilometres away, to buy some essential items of daily need on Saturday morning. The eyewitnesses told me that my father was at a shop about 7am when police personnel in three to four vehicles reached there and beat him up with canes while accusing him of violating lockdown restrictions. He died on the spot, Raju Adivasi said. The local legislator Panchilal Meda also blamed the police for the tribal mans death. The dead body of the deceased bore signs of canes which suggest that he was beaten up by police and it caused his death. Strict action should be taken against guilty police personnel, Meda said. Also read: Community spread worries swirl in MPs Covid hotspot Indore Aditya Pratap Singh, Dhar districts superintendent of police, admitted that a police team was there at the village market but said the man didnt die because of any action taken by police. There was a vegetable market in the morning when a sub-divisional officer of police (SDoP) and town inspector of police reached there with their team to make people follow the norms of social distancing, Singh said. When the team reached there, people who were there started running away on seeing the police vehicles. While the police team was returning it got information that a man was lying unconscious. The police personnel took him to a hospital where he died, he said. Singh said an inquiry is being conducted into the incident. Also read: At least 10 infected with Covid-19 after attending mass feast in Madhya Pradesh It is only after the inquiry that the cause of death can be established. The post-mortem is being conducted by a panel of three doctors to allay any apprehension in the mind of the family members about the cause of death. Divya Patel, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), said the tribal mans family has been given immediate financial assistance of 20,000. Since the deceased belonged to Mandleshwar we are trying to contact the administration over there to know if he had any below poverty line (BPL) card so that more assistance could be given to the family, Patel said. More than 100 people have contracted the coronavirus disease in Madhya Pradesh and six people have died till date, according to the Union health ministry data. That's the end of the Brisbane Times blog for today, a day that saw just 14 positive cases added to Queensland's COVID-19 tally of 921 and the national death toll rise to 40. Thirty-two mystery cases, in which no confirmed link to previous cases, has prompted Queensland Health to extend its testing regime to all people unwell with respiratory symtoms, not just the previously eligible testing groups, to gauge community transmission in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Cairns. Of the 921 confirmed Queensland cases, 173 have recovered. Nationally, the death toll stands at 40 after the deaths of two NSW men in their 80s and a woman in her 80s, a man in his 50s in Victoria, and a fourth victim in WA. There are 5797 confirmed infections in Australia. Meanwhile, Maritime Safety Queensland is processing requests from cruise ships to enter the Port of Brisbane to refuel and stock up prior to their April 8 deadline to leave Australia. We'll be back tomorrow morning. In the meantime, stay safe and stay home! Saudis Lash Out Over Russia's Claim That Kingdom Withdrew From Output Deal By RFE/RL April 04, 2020 Saudi Arabia's energy minister has rejected Russia's allegation that the kingdom withdrew last month from a deal to cut oil production. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman was quoted early on April 4 by Saudi state news agency SPA responding to comments made the day before by his Russian counterpart. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud also commented on the ongoing dispute with Russia, saying that a statement attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the kingdom's withdrawal from the OPEC+ deal was not correct, and that Russia was the one that withdrew, SPA reported. Russia and Saudi Arabia have been at odds since failing last month to agree on a deal to curb output as the coronavirus pandemic spread around the globe. The pandemic has worsened since, freezing economic activity worldwide and sending oil prices into a steep decline. The world's oil-producing countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia have been discussing a deal to cut production in hopes of reversing the crash. Prices have dropped to about $34 a barrel, down from about $65 a barrel at the end of 2019. A deal to cut production, however, would require participation from countries outside the OPEC+ group and from ones that do not exert state control over output, including the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump on April 3 pledged help for the U.S. industry during a White House meeting with oil company and industry executives, but there was no commitment to cutting output. He said he did not make any concessions to Saudi Arabia and Russia, such as agreeing to a U.S. domestic production cut, a move that would violate U.S. antitrust laws. Trump was asked during a White House briefing about the meeting and the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia. He said both countries were being "hurt unbelievably badly" by the crash in the price of oil, but he added, "I think they are going to settle their dispute very quickly." He also said the dispute was hurting the rest of the world, and that "Ultimately the market is going to get them to stop." Trump said on April 2 he spoke with both Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and claimed to have brokered a deal on cutting production, but no specifics emerged. A meeting of OPEC+ has been scheduled for April 6. The alliance includes OPEC members, Russia and other producers, but excludes oil-producing countries such as the United States, Canada, Norway, and Brazil. The head of the International Energy Agency told Reuters that a deep cut in production would not be enough to prevent a huge buildup of global crude inventories in the second quarter. Fatih Birol said a production cut of as much as 10 million barrels per day that might be discussed at the April 6 meeting would still result in a 15 million-barrel daily buildup in the second quarter. With reporting by Reuters and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/saudi-oil-production- output-russia-opec/30529688.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address BEIRUT - Unknown gunmen fatally shot and stabbed a member of the militant Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon and an investigation was launched, Lebanese security officials said Sunday. The body of Ali Mohammed Younes was found next to his car Saturday evening near the southern town of Nabatiyeh, said two security officials. One of them said Younes was shot with four bullets in the chest and had at least two stab wounds. The motive behind the killing was no immediately clear, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Lebanons state-run National News Agency said a suspect was detained shortly afterward Saturday. Irans semiofficial Fars news agency described Younes as a commander with the Iran-backed Hezbollah. It added that Younes was involved in anti-espionage missions. Fars also posted a photo said to be of Younes in blue jeans and bloodied white shirt next to his car. Iran-backed Hezbollah is Lebanons strongest military force and a political powerhouse, and also boasts significant organizational and services might in the country. There was no official comment from Hezbollah on the killing. A source in the organization confirmed Younes was a member, but would not provide further details. Hezbollah has fought in neighbouring Syrias civil war to back the Iranian-allied government in Damascus. Hezbollah is also bitter enemies with Israel, and the two sides fought to a stalemate in a monthlong war in 2006. March 25, 2020 Christie Anastasia , 207 288-8806 BAR HARBOR, ME Acadia National Park, in response to guidance from the State of Maine Department of Health and Human Services, is announcing additional modifications to operations to support federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As of March 26, 2020, Acadia National Park will offer no services outside those that support resource protection. At Acadia National Park, the following services and operations will be suspended in order to comply with state and local orders: Acadia has closed the Park Loop Road including Ocean Drive and all restrooms, carriage roads, campgrounds, visitor centers, and visitor services. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, local communities, and partners at Acadia National Park is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website nps.gov/acad and social media channels. The NPS encourages people during this pandemic to adhere to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health authorities. The NPS encourages people to take advantage of the many digital tools already available to explore Acadia National Park, including: YouTube ... https://www.youtube.com/user/AcadiaNPS Second Century Stewardship Series ... https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/photosmultimedia/second-century-stewardship.htm Webcams ... https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm Arts in Acadia ... https://www.nps.gov/acad/getinvolved/arts.htm Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus. The most recent information about current operations at Acadia National Park are posted at https://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/conditions.htm. COVID-19: What you need to know now The State of Kuwait announced today, that it recorded the first death from the Coronavirus, and 62 new cases during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recorded cases to 479. The Kuwaiti News Agency quoted the official spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health that the death was due to a resident of Indian nationality, aged 46, who had contracted the virus and was receiving treatment in intensive care for several days. He pointed out that the number of cases of contact with the 62 new cases was 37. The Kuwaiti Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basil Al-Sabah announced earlier today that he had recovered 11 cases of infected cases, bringing the total cases of recovery to date to 93 cases. Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) The equipment were sent from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, then to Vientiane, Laos on late April 3. The remaining from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City on April 4 morning, which will be transported to Cambodia by road. Over the past time, millions of face masks have been produced to not only meet domestic demand but also for international relief. Earlier, Vietnam Airlines also carried over three tonnes of protective clothing and medical masks from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi free-of-charge, and 10 ventilators funded by Temasek Foundation from Singapore to Vietnam. In the near future, the carrier will run similar flights, as part of its "Flights of Nation" campaign for the sake of people and national interests. On March 28, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that his government had begun the formal process for designating anti-influenza drug Avigan as Japans standard treatment for Covid-19. A critical step in that process involves clinical trials, one of which will conclude by the end of June, according to a report by Wired. And while there is not yet any detailed data supporting Avigans effectiveness in treating Covid-19, there are some reasons for optimism. One of them came up on March 17, when Zhang Xinmin, an official at Chinas ministry of science and technology, said that Favipiravir, the generic version of Avigan, had proved to be effective in treating Covid-19 patients at hospitals in Wuhan and Shenzhen. Zhang told Wired that it was "very safe and clearly effective" for treating Covid-19 patients. And while the data and methodology behind Zhang's claims have not been made public, he did announce some of the conclusions doctors had drawn from them. At a hospital in Shenzhen, Zhang claimed Covid-19 patients treated with Favipiravir tested negative for the virus after a median of four days, rather than the 11 days it took for members of the studys control group to test negative. In another study carried out in Wuhan, patients taking the drug allegedly recovered from fever nearly two days earlier than those who did not take the medication. Such results, preliminary and unconfirmed as they are, would seem to conform with the way Favipiravir works. Unlike most other influenza treatments, which inhibit the spread of the virus across cells by blocking the enzyme neuraminidase, Favipiravir works by inhibiting the replication of viral genes within infected cells, thereby mitigating the viruss ability to spread from one cell to another. What this means, in practical terms, is that patients who take the drug while their viral load is low or moderate may prevent it from making them any sicker. Meanwhile, according to a report by Bloomberg, Gilead Sciences Inc. said it is donating 1.5 million doses of its experimental anti-coronavirus drug remdesivir, which could treat 1,40,000 patients. The drug will be offered for "compassionate use" and will treat patients with severe symptoms, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel ODay said in an letter accessed by Bloomberg. The company is also boosting its supply of remdesivir to more than 500 treatment courses by October, and to more than 1 million by the end the year. Production time has also been accelerated to six months from one year, he said. "While we are working with the utmost sense of urgency on the immediate needs before us, we are also looking forward," he said. "Over the next weeks and months, we will be able to further increase our supplies of remdesivir as raw materials with long lead times become available for manufacture." The drugmaker said last week its switching to "expanded access" from a "compassionate use" program under which remdesivir was given to more than 1,000 Covid-19 patients. The move will accelerate its emergency use for multiple severely ill patients. A World Health Organization panel said in January that remdesivir was considered to be the most promising therapeutic candidate based on its broad antiviral spectrum, and existing data based on human and animal studies. The medication was developed initially for Ebola and studied in patients in Eastern Congo. Multiple clinical trials are investigating the drugs effects in Covid-19 patients in China and elsewhere. THE BISHOP of Limerick says that with the Covid-19 peak predicted over coming weeks, we must remember we are an "Easter people" and will rise again. Bishop Brendan Leahy said while we have immediate and unprecedented concerns for our own and our loved ones health this Easter, we must also remember and pray for those "under the radar" that will be deeply affected. In a statement at the end of Mass at St Johns Cathedral this Palm Sunday, Bishop Leahy said that the prioritisation of the elderly and those with underlying conditions has been right and understandable. But, he said, we must think of others who will be deeply impacted. "We think of those who at times like this might fall beneath the radar of our attention those normally considered on the edges: the homeless, people with addictions, residents of the Direct Provision centres, refugees, prisoners, people in socio demographic categories typically most impacted when the pendulum swings. In particular, I am mindful of those in Direct Provision. Some of them are elderly and with underlying health conditions. Lets not forget them. They are not cocooned but neither should they in their Direct Provision centres be left exposed to risk. We have a duty of care also to them." Bishop Leahy said that we must think also of people further afield, in the "developing world", people from the worst socio-economic disadvantage. "We cannot but be fearful of the horrendous direct and collateral damage the coronavirus will visit on cities and remote rural communities in those regions of the world. Many deaths, sufferings without the benefits of healthcare, big gaps in public health possibilities. Many deaths in silence, the rest of us completely unaware of their plight. Bishop Leahy said that in thinking of these people, we must also be grateful for all who are working on their behalf. "There are many charities active in outreach. But these charities too are under threat. So we need to remember them the Vincent de Paul, Simon, Trocaire, the McVerry Trust, Doras Luimni and many, many more. Though many of us are struggling financially, perhaps there are others who can keep up donations to these charities. However, he expressed concern regarding what lies ahead for our nation generally over the coming weeks. Not alone, he said, are the numbers of deaths set to rise, but issues around being with loved ones at the time of death and, indeed, funerals will deepen the trauma. "Well over one hundred have now died, many are struggling for life, and we know that thousands more are infected. All the indications also, very worryingly, that we are entering the peak period here in Ireland. Behind those statistics will be devastation for families and friends of those who pass on. "The circumstances of the crisis bring an extra layer of suffering to the bereaved and to those accompanying the seriously ill. Not least in that it will not be possible for some of the close relatives to be by their loved ones side to accompany them in their final moments. Not being able to hug them afterwards. Desolate funerals, heart-breaking farewells and so few around to console. Its difficult to believe that we are actually living through these times. Bishop Leahy concluded: "But we are an Easter people. As Christians, we are to be heralds of the Resurrection. This year our world is shrouded in darkness. But our Easter faith reminds us to be apostles of light and hope." Medical staff wear protective uniforms before going into a quarantine room at Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, March 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Vietnam has not recorded new coronavirus infections Sunday morning, keeping the countrys tally at 240, the Health Ministry said. On March 6, Hanoian Nguyen Hong Nhung was confirmed Covid-19 positive after returning from Europe. Before that Vietnam had gone 22 days without recording a new infection. However, since then, new infections have been recorded every day. On Saturday, the health ministry confirmed just three new infections - a 17-year-old girl from Ha Tinh and a 29-year-old woman from Bac Giang Province, both returning from Thailand, and another person related to Hanois Bach Mai Hospital. Vietnam had recorded 19 new Covid-19 infections on March 22, , marking the highest number in a single day. Of the current 240 Covid-19 cases, 90 have been discharged and 150 are active. As many as 149 cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from abroad, mostly Europe and the U.S., and more than 60 people are related to the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi and Buddha Bar & Grill in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's biggest Covid-19 hotspots. The country entered a 15-day nationwide social distancing campaign starting Wednesday, not allowing gatherings of more than two people and asking people not to leave their homes to contain the spread of the pandemic. The step was taken citing a crucial two-week period in the nations Covid-19 fight. The government also suspended all inbound international flights and halted road transport services until April 15 to limit travel in the country of 94 million people. The Covid-19 pandemic has so far spread to more than 200 countries and territories, claiming more than 64,000 lives. Iya Aladuke Music legend, Alhaja Hawawu Alake Aminulahi, popularly known as Iya Aladuke Abolodefeloju, speaks to TUNDE OYEKOLA about her experience as a musician, her life and music genre, Senwele You are popularly known as Iya Aladuke, how was the name derived? My name is Alhaja Hawawu Alake Aminulahi. My husband is Alhaji Aminulahi Adisa. The name Iya Aladuke which people call me was derived from the name of one of my daughters. People call me Iya Aladuke (mother of Aladuke) When did you become a musician? I started singing about 75 years ago, but I didnt go into commercial music then. It used to be done as a pastime. I sang at social functions like christenings or marriages and while doing chores like picking vegetables or pepper. At such times, I would sing so that the work would not be boring. That is how I started singing but at that time, there was no drumming. I started playing proper music when I was grown, and by that time, my children had grown and got married. How did you learn to sing? I didnt learn it from anybody. It is a gift from God. I was selling food at the time and my friends encouraged me to go into music. I told my husband about it and he said I could do it. Is your husband a musician? No, he is neither a drummer nor a musician. He endorsed it wholeheartedly. How did you come about the type of music that made you popular, Senwele? I am the originator of Senwele music. When I started, anytime I went for christenings or marriages with other women from my husbands family, and whenever I was chopping okra or things like that, I would be singing: Olomo lo pe mi o, Senwele o. So, Senwele was the chorus of the song that I used to sing. Eventually, anytime someone had to do christening, they would send for me Iya Senwele to come and perform. Senwele music originated from there. Senwele was not known before then How many records have you produced? So far, I have 21 records in the market. Which one is your first record? My first record is, Won lasewo ni wa (Were called sex workers) and the marketer is Kade Aweda in Oshodi, Lagos. He is a native of Idofian in Kwara State. That record brought me fame. My second record is titled Wonderful and it also did very well and was sponsored by Bomode Oku from Ijebu Ode. Mo tun gbe tuntun de was sponsored by Igbalaye in Osogbo, Osun State. They all did very well commercially. Many people criticised you when you recorded Won lasewo niwa, how did you handle the public criticism? Yes, they questioned me for singing the song because I said, Won lasewo niwa; ale mesan lawa ni (They call us sex workers, we have nine lovers). But I justified it. Then they took my case to the Emirs palace. The inspiration of the song came from what men used to say about women who dressed well; they would call such a woman a sex worker. I turned it into a song which people embraced well and it thrust me into the limelight. When did you record your first song, Won lasewo niwa? I recorded it about 41years ago. How old were you then? Im over 80 years old now. I celebrated my 80th birthday few years ago. Taye Currency and Wasiu Alabi Pasuma entertained guests at the occasion. Is Won lasewo niwa your best record? No, it is not my best record but it was the one that thrust me into the limelight. Before you went into music, were your parents alive? Yes. What was their position? My father opposed it, but my mother supported me and convinced my father to allow me to go into music since all my children were already grown by then. They were already married. Later, my father succumbed and my husband supported me to go into music. What other profession would you have gone into if you had not gone into music? I was a food vendor and I had a shop. I had two apprentices before I delved into music so if I had not become a musician, I would have continued as a food vendor. Do you sometimes get criticised by your fans? No, they dont criticise me. Although some of them used to complain that I didnt praise them in my songs, I appealed to them that I would do that in subsequent ones. Has any of your children gone into music? No, none of my biological children is into music. Did you prevent them from singing? I started singing at an old age. So if they like, they may also go into music in their old age. And if they decide to go into music, I will encourage and support them. Senwele music and Waka music (played by Salawa Abeni) are unique; did you ever have any collaboration or are you planning to do that? Though, we are close, there is no plan yet to collaborate and do a record together. Anytime she comes to Ilorin, she visits or calls me to tell me where she will be staying and I go there to see her. Anytime I go to Lagos too, I usually visit her, but as for music collaboration, we have not planned it. You said you did not want to go into commercial music until people pushed you into it Yes, they pushed me into it and when people push you, you have to take the plunge. Music took you to so many places in Nigeria and outside, where are some of the places you have performed? Yes, music took me to so many places. People would invite me to come and entertain them and I would go perform for them. Ive lost count of the number of shows I have done in Ilorin. I have been to Kaduna; Kano; Sokoto; Yauri, Kebbi State; Jos, Plateau State; Ibadan, Oyo State; Lagos; Osogbo, Osun State; Iseyin and Shaki in Oyo; Abuja; Abeokuta, Ogun State, etc. Outside the country, I have been invited to perform in Cotonou and Ajase in Benin Republic; Togo; Accra, Ghana; and Abidjan in Cote DIvoire. Which of the outings can you say fetched you the kind of money that you can never forget? I went for an outing in Lagos; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu invited me to the installation of Iyaloja and Lai Mohammeds (now Minister of Information and Culture) wife was also installed as Aseto Ilu. They invited Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and me. We were sprayed with naira notes and I was able to spend the money realised that day on something tangible. Another one happened in Togo, where 13 people jointly invited me to play for them. It was an all-expenses-paid trip to Togo. I didnt know that 13 people could jointly invite a musician to come and play for them. We all laughed from Togo back home. From Togo, we went to Abidjan and then went to Cotonou. When we went to Kaduna, we were given a great welcome and in Jos, they welcomed us very well. For someone who is appreciative, those occasions are things to remember with joy. Sometimes, thugs threaten to disrupt performances if they are not paid, how do you handle such issues? They come to every function but we always pay them so that they will not constitute a nuisance. There is no place where we go to perform and we wont make provision for them. Any musician that does not make provision for them is doing so at their own peril. It is compulsory for us to give them money before we are allowed to perform. They send messages to high profile musicians that they need to settle (pay) them first. Do you play at night parties? Well, we play at night parties if it is allowed by the government of the state. In Kwara here, night parties are not allowed; it has been banned by the government. You cannot perform any time after 7pm or when they are observing the Muslim prayer because at that time, drumming or music is not allowed. You will have to stop the music until after the prayer session. Has there been any experience that really embarrassed you? In 1992, I went to perform for somebody and he gifted me a car. On the third day, the car was involved in an accident and one of my granddaughters died in that accident. The vehicle was a complete write-off. The death of that girl was very painful and it affected me. Anytime I see her peers, I remember her but I believe the accident was an act of God. But the person that gave me the car is a nice person. The accident happened in Ilorin Township. When he learnt about the accident, he was sad. He pitied me and came to sympathise with me. We often hear about musicians using juju to try to prevent rivals from performing, do you believe in it? That type of situation is happens a lot. We were invited to a place to perform and our instruments did not work. We were at another place and people did not allow us to pass. We were at another place where our vehicle had a breakdown and we were at another place where we could not perform because of a heavy rainfall. We have various experiences. These problems affected my band members but they were not caused by any musician. Sometimes, I was the only musician invited to the functions. Do you believe in the existence of juju? Yes, it exists. In those days, rival artistes used to do such things. If you wanted to sing, they could make you to start vomiting blood or lose your voice. But civilisation has changed that; musicians dont do that anymore. The world has passed that stage. Even in those days, a musician might bury juju at a site where their rival was expected to perform or tell your admirer not to invite you to perform at their event, but those things dont happen again. How did the parents of your granddaughter who died in an accident in your new car take the loss? The father took it as the will of God. The girl that died was not my only granddaughter in the car; they were about three. When the father got to the police station, the police wanted to prosecute the case but he said he was not interested. He said he believed that the accident was the will of God. What about the rest of the children? Yes, they are all alive. They have been married. It was the saddest day of my life because that day, we lost a soul. The car was badly damaged and we also lost a child. It was a period of trial from God. You spoke about your saddest day, what day would you describe as your happiest day? That would be the day I went to Mecca on holy pilgrimage. We landed in Saudi Arabia, climbed Mount Arafat and performed all Hajj rights. After that, we arrived in Ilorin safely and my children brought a car to bring me home. I was very happy that I went to the house of God to worship him. I became an Alhaja and got a car. That has been my happiest day; my mother was alive then. She was also very happy. How would you describe your life as a spinster? I was a beautiful lady and I behaved like one. Many boys ran after me as they saw me as a pretty lady. They all wanted to marry me. Many guys fought over me as they all wanted to marry me. Later, my mother and father called me and advised that I should choose one of them so that they would stop fighting over me. So, I chose one of them and started my life. It was after I got married that the guys stopped fighting over me because they knew I was married. When do you plan to retire from music? Retirement! No, Im not retiring. Even in some weeks time, I have a show in Ilorin. A musician can retire if they like, but musicians dont really retire unless people dont like them again and dont invite them to perform for them at events. That is when a musician can retire. I have no plan to retire. Anytime we are invited for a show, I get my band together and we play. My band is always ready to play at any event. When are you likely to release another record? I have a record currently in the market titled Package. It was a video recording that featured Mukaila Senwele and Saheed Osupa. I also have a record that will soon be released but I cant say whether it will be in video or audio as it depends on the producer. I have collaborated with Dauda Epo-Akara in the past. Has any record producer refused to pay your entitlements? Yes, that was over 30 years ago when a producer in Osogbo did that to me. The matter was taken to court. He said he gave me money for two records and I said he paid for one. He later accused me of breaching the contract by recording an album instead of two albums that he paid me for. He took the matter to court and I told the court that I was illiterate and didnt know how to read and write. I said he deceived me by telling me to put my thumbprint on a document that I did not know its content. What advice do you have for upcoming musicians? They should love one another so that the music industry can continue to grow. What they should strive for is to succeed in their music career. They should love one another and respect their leaders. Many musicians have adopted my style of music. We have Mukaila Senwele and many other musicians who play Senwele music. Among my band members, some of them sing Senwele. Many musicians also borrow from my style of music but they acknowledge me by announcing that they are copying Iya Aladukes Senwele music. Musicians in the past sang about current affairs, why are you not singing about current affairs? I dont compose music about current affairs so as not to run afoul of the law or get into trouble with the government of the day. Some politicians invite me to their campaigns but I wont abuse the opposition in my songs. I dont abuse politicians. What is the title of the song that you said would soon be released? I cant tell you the title because it is the producer who determines the title of the record because a woman cannot be pregnant and the unborn child will be given a name when it has not been delivered. You cannot put a price on a fish that is still in the river. *** Source: Sunday PUNCH Police checkpoints are being set up along the Louisiana border in a move to further cut off travel from a neighboring state that has been among the hardest hit by the new coronavirus. The checkpoints are along all major arteries into Texas, according to an advisory Sunday from the Louisiana state police. The screenings are related to the COVID-19 pandemic and motorists are urged to exercise caution and remain alert for traffic congestion when traveling west into Texas, the advisory said. The Texas Department of Public Safety did not issue a public advisory, though House Speaker Dennis Bonnen tweeted Sunday that troopers would be gathering forms from travelers about their destination. Its important for those entering TX from LA to be prepared to stop, Bonnen said. The new screening comes a week after Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order requiring all travelers from Louisiana to self-quarantine for 14 days. The department of safety said then that it would increase patrols but would not create checkpoints. Commercial, military and emergency travel, as well as health workers entering the state to help with the pandemic, are exempted. A sheriffs department along the border said in a Facebook post that they had been informed of a total closure by 8 a.m. Sunday, except for essential travel. Traffic along Interstate 10 at the border was relatively light. Troopers allowed 18-wheelers to stay on the highway, while passenger vehicles were detoured toward the Texas Travel Information Center. The checkpoint appeared to delay travelers for less than five minutes. DPS had approximately a dozen vehicles at the Interstate 10 location. All of the officers were wearing personal protective equipment. Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said all six county judges in the Southeast Texas Regional Operations Center supported the screening. They are letting 18-wheelers through, he said. If you have someone that is working in Alabama, but coming back home to Texas, I think they will let them come in. On Sunday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the state could run out of ventilators by the end of the week. Louisiana had 13,010 confirmed cases and 477 deaths from COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Louisiana Department of Public Health. Im very concerned, Branick said about people coming into the county from Louisiana. Im concerned that having had Mardi Gras, which attracted so many people, was not a good move for the state of Louisiana. The county judge said he suggested that Southeast Texas refineries, which have essential workers who travel back and forth to Louisiana, stay in Texas. He said he had not heard back from the refineries as of Sunday afternoon. The Texas DPS said in the news release that, although the department does not discuss specifics related to its operational plans regarding enforcement, we want the public to be prepared for increased patrols and additional law enforcement presence along the Texas/Louisiana border as we work to enforce the governors executive order. The department said drivers should be prepared to stop and fill out forms that require travelers names, vehicle information, driver license number, home address, phone number and location at which the traveler will be quarantined. Those among the million of stranded Britons abroad who are desperately trying to return to the UK have revealed what it's really like to be in lockdown without their friends or loved ones nearby. While the government have been urging British people to fly back home for over a week, many have found it challenging and near-impossible - having forked out thousands of pounds on flights, only to have them cancelled. Here, FEMAIL speaks to those who are either stuck themselves, or have family members who are still trying to make a desperate bid to get themselves home - including one Brit who spent over 3000 on five cancelled flights, but managed to get the last boarding pass out of Bali. Elsewhere, a concerned daughter told how her father, who has been stuck in the Philippines for two weeks, visited a medical centre, where local nurses started screaming 'infected' and running away from him out of fear he had the virus, while another revealed he couldn't afford to pay the 4, 500 for a flight home. Holly Lacey-Freeman (pictured), 29, was travelling with her boyfriend Tom Robinson, 32 - and theey were about six months in before the coronavirus pandemic struck in New Zealand Holly Lacey-Freeman, 29, and her boyfriend Tom Robinson, 32, quit their corporate jobs in London on September 19 to take a year out travelling - and were about six months in before the coronavirus pandemic struck in New Zealand. 'Being British is a complex issue at the best of times- remember Brexit? Seems so simple these days. But a global pandemic combined with a distance of 11,426 miles, no route home due to transit restrictions and a New Zealand Level 4 'State of Emergency'' and things get really complicated. I'm writing this from one of the last 'freedom' campsites that remain open, although in a matter of hours it will be closed. There are others around me attempting to comply with the New Zealand governments (rightly) strict self-isolation policy whilst in their camper vans, but the majority are German citizens going about their daily COVID-19 routine knowing their government has pledged nearly 50 million on rescue flights - some of which have already left this weekend. For us Brits, it's not that simple. In fact, it's pretty desperate. For the estimated thousands of us stuck in New Zealand during the lockdown, we feel pretty much deserted. Holly and Tom (pictured together in New Zealand), from London, booked a flight to leave Auckland on the 24th March via Dubai - only to be refused boarding at the airport as she wasn't an UAE citizen Holly says she is in various WhatsApp Groups filled with stories of nurses trying to return to the UK to help the overstretched NHS, vulnerable Brits running out of essential medication. Pictured, with boyfriend Tom A form has been sent around by the consulate to gather our details, but daily updates consist of 'we are doing all we can to support you,' with little evidence to support this is the case so far. We didn't leave earlier as we rather naively followed the FCO's travel advice, and were only advised to return to the UK once it was too late. In the end, with the coronavirus pandemic developing by the hour in New Zealand -the country progressed from Level 2 to the most severe Level 4/National State of Emergency in around 48 hours - much quicker than any changes implemented in the UK - I booked a flight to leave Auckland on the 24th March via Dubai. Only, I was refused boarding at the airport as I wasn't a UAE citizen. Unfortunately, I am not the only Brit in this situation. Far from it. Three WhatsApp Groups, a Telegram Group, Twitter accounts and a signed petition with over 10,000 signatures prove that. They are filled with stories of nurses trying to return to the UK to help the overstretched NHS, vulnerable Brits running out of essential medication - and that's without mentioning those of us who have bankrupted ourselves paying for flights that will never run. Holly says that she, who is one amongst thousands of others stuck in New Zealand, is feeling 'pretty much deserted.' Pictured, with boyfriend Tom during her travels The New Zealand Civic Defense were here yesterday, to take down our details and check on our welfare - did we need clothes to keep warm? Counselling in this stressful time? Reassurance was provided there would be help finding accommodation. Locals in our rural town of Onewhero showed up last night offering space to park our campervans, providing numbers to call if we were stuck. I am not ashamed to say the level of compassion brought tears to my eyes at a time when I feel desperately overwhelmed. Now, following the cancelled flight previously mentioned, we are looking at getting home next week on a commercial flight - but all of the prices are hugely inflated. Right now there is no solid guarantee the flight or route will remain open - some people have either had their flights cancelled (again) or been unable to board the plane due to the airlines overbooking. We will survive, but it will be through the support that stranded British nationals show each other, combined with the generosity of the New Zealand government and its people that will ensure we handle this lockdown and get a grip on coronavirus.' Tonicha Spencer, 23, Nottingham, says her father Malcolm Spencer, 59, has been stranded in Sagay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines for over two weeks and currently, cannot get a date as to when he can return back. 'My father visited Negros to see his mother-in-law during a tour of the Philippines. A few weeks ago, domestic travel between towns and consequently, between islands in the Philippines by plane, boat or automobile were banned overnight, which means my dad had no way of reaching an international airport for the flight home. On the 26th March 2020, a large majority of airlines suspended international flights out of the Philippines - leaving him with no options. Tonicha Spencer, 23, Nottingham, says her father Malcolm Spencer, 59, has been stranded in Sagay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines for over two weeks (pictured, together) He is stranded 70 miles from a domestic airport, 450 miles from an international airport and 6, 650 miles from his family and his home. Sagay City is not a regular tourist destination; it is not filled with backpackers or honeymooners. Therefore, any tourist sticks out like a sore thumb and is very often singled out by the local inhabitants. Within the past few weeks, my dad has been victim to many scapegoat scandals, based on the misconception that 'as a foreigner, he must have coronavirus.' Due to the strict measures introduced by the Philippine government, the government officials and police officers have asked him to self-isolate for 14 days; even though he has been in the country since January. Yesterday, following the completion of his 14 days in isolation, he visited a local healthcare centre to obtain medical certification showing he is coronavirus-free. Malcolm (pictured right) has sought out every avenue to try and get him home as soon as possible and has been doing so for more than three weeks Upon arrival, nurses were screaming and running away from him out of fear as they had branded him 'infected'. Understandably, anxiety and fear consume everyone's minds at this current time, however, no one should be subjected to this form of discrimination, let alone be stranded in a place where you are feared and judged by everyone around you. Due to development of coronavirus, my dad has sought out every avenue to get him home as soon as possible and has been doing so for more than three weeks now. For those of you who are lucky enough to have your loved ones home and safe during lockdown, hold them close and appreciate this time spent together - whether or not it is government enforced.' Joe Caswell, 24, from West Kirby, Wirral is stranded in The Philippines with four companions - 760 miles away from Manila on the remote Siargao Islands, with no prospect currently of getting off 'It's been a very strange situation as we had intended to travel for about seven months, and were only about seven to eight weeks in when it all started unfolding. My two friends and I left the UK on the 27th January to travel South East Asia for seven months. We had decided before we set off to go to the Philippines to meet three other friends who flew in from Melbourne. Joe Caswell (pictured), 24 from West Kirby, Wirral is stranded in The Philippines with four companions Joe says with so many flights being cancelled at sky high prices and no guarantee of a refund, she didn't know where to look. Pictured, the road Joe is currently living on We all arrived in the Philippines on the 4th March and had spent 10 days moving from island-to-island before we got to this island we are currently on. We set about planning where we wanted to go and organsied to stay in an Airbnb for four days. However, we were told on the evening before our planned check out that all ferries and planes were being suspended indefinitely, the local town (General Luna, which were we are currently situated) was being placed into lockdown and unfortunately, he couldn't let us extend our stay to protect his family. Along with that, the WiFi wasn't working very well and none of us had an international Sim card, so we wouldn't speak to the Embassy or anything. The next day we checked out and asked our taxi driver to take us somewhere to get some WiFi so we could make some contact, and also find somewhere else to stay. On the 18th of this month the general consensus from the UK Embassy on the government website was to speak with our airline on possible solutions. But this wasn't an effective solution for us, we needed to know how to get off the island if everything was suspended indefinitely. It wasn't until the 24th that we received any sort of information deemed valuable which was an official announcement made by Dominic Raab urging Brits home. But by this point it was much, much too late. The 24-year-old says a checkpoint, stop and interview system is in place in General Luna which means only one authorised individual can make the trip to the market to collect essentials. Pictured, Joe and the two companions he went travelling with in Singapore We know that other European countries helped stranded nationals get onto three repatriation flights, but with so much unreliable information being passed around a WhatsApp group, we didn't know whether to risk going or staying. There were people talking about others sleeping on cardboard outside the airport, and others saying there were no shops open meaning no food or water, as the airports were only open for flights. And with so many flights being cancelled at sky high prices and no guarantee of a refund, we didn't know where to look. A checkpoint, stop and interview system is in place in General Luna (the town we are living in) which means only one authorised individual can make the trip to the market to collect essentials. Legally the other four are not allowed to leave until the lockdown is finished and we don't know when that will be. Our day-to-day lives really involve, reading new books, learning a new hobby, cooking new dishes, exercising and lying in the sun, so in the grand scheme of things it's not too bad. The stresses we find ourselves in thousands of miles away from home is the feeling of entrapment. Joe's day-to-day life now involves reading new books, learning a new hobby,and cooking new dishes. Pictured, Joe with the five people he is currently living with in the home-stay Taking each day as it comes and consistently having to email and follow Embassy news feeds is draining. The flights from Manila are now about 4, 500, but a lot of them are being cancelled. You could pay that and then it could be cancelled and you're not liable to get your refund for at least six months. It's like, 'how on earth are you meant to be able to get another 4,500 and chance it to pay for another flight?' We're all alright and we're all healthy, but it's a bit of a strange one not knowing what will happen each day. I think like many other stranded tourists we are trying to make light of a negative situation and appreciate that we are all healthy with no cases of coronavirus on the island. We have safe place to stay with food, water and we are managing. Chelsey Pollard, 31, from Manchester, was on a two-and-a-half holiday in Bali with her friend Ben, and spent thousands on cancelled flights - before managing to get the last boarding pass out of Bali to Dubai. I was on holiday with my friend Ben - we're both personal trainers - and we tried to get flights home as soon as we heard about the lockdown. But that proved to be a nightmare. I had initially paid 700 for a flight home from Bali on 30 March back in December, but when the time drew nearer and the threat of coronavirus grew, that got cancelled - along with the interconnecting flight. I then had to fork out for another plane ticket for a flight on 27 March, but as the only option left were business class flights, I had to spend 900 on one ticket. Chelsey Pollard, 31, from Manchester, was on her two-and-a-half holiday in Bali with her friend Ben, and spent thousands on cancelled flights Then just two hours later, a notification popped up on my phone telling me that both flights - including the interconnecting one - had once again been cancelled. I was like, 'that's 900 just gone!' I stayed up until 5am in the morning searching for more flights, and managed to find one from Bali to Dubai for 1, 100 on March 24, so I re-booked once again - and this flight ended up being the last one out of Bali. And, because my previous interconnecting flight had been cancelled too, I ending up paying 600 to get me from Dubai to England. But that wasn't without its issues. I checked in during the taxi ride there, and queued at the airport for four hours only to be told I couldn't get on the flight I had paid for because I didn't have a connecting flight. I had one booked for the next day, but they still said no. I then queued for another hour to speak to a manager and showed him all of my cancellations and proof that I had another flight booked to get out of Dubai, and I was eventually given a boarding pass. Chelsey (pictured at the airport) spent hours queuing at the airport and had to show proof of her cancellations in a bid to board the final plane leaving Bali In total, I had five flights cancelled - including two interconnecting flights - and have spent over 3000 on flights that never happened. It was honestly horrendous. I was trying to do everything I could within my power to cover all areas. I was trying to get closer to the airport just in case, and had bought every flight ticket I could have done. I had even been trying to contact the airlines over a week before, as I had been watching the news and keeping an eye on everything, but every time I booked a flight I got a text telling me it has been cancelled. To top it all off, I am also self-employed, so I have come home to no job, too! A Foreign Office Spokesperson, who says staff are working round the clock to get people home, and have so far already managed to help hundreds of thousands of Brits to do so, commented: 'We know it's a difficult time for many British travellers abroad especially those with challenging circumstances. 'Our Consular Teams are doing everything they can, especially for those in difficulty, to keep Brits informed on the latest developments and help them return - on commercial flights where they are still available or special charter flights as well. We'll continue working around the clock to bring people home.' WASHINGTON Top Democratic lawmakers have urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to quickly provide American airlines with direct payroll assistance and to avoid insisting on overly restrictive terms that could deter companies from taking the money. Major airlines began submitting their applications for government support to the Treasury Department on Friday but there is growing concern within the industry that Mr. Mnuchin will demand strict terms to ensure that taxpayers are compensated, such as large equity stakes in the companies. Some of the airlines, which have seen demand plummet as the coronavirus pandemic has stalled global travel, are wary of giving the government too much control over their businesses and accepting strict conditions tied to the aid. Democrats fear that if Mr. Mnuchin drives too hard of a bargain, airlines will balk and lay off more workers. In a letter that was sent to Mr. Mnuchin on Sunday, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned that it would not be in the public interest if the airlines were to choose to declare bankruptcy. Assistance must not come with unreasonable conditions that would force an employer to choose bankruptcy instead of providing payroll grants to its workers, they wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times on Sunday. When President Muhammadu Buhari ordered residents of Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja to stay at home for 14 days to curb the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, many people, especially couples, knew they had a lot of adjusting to do. Adjusting to a new lockdown life comes with a price to pay but one of the most concerning is the economic burden of staying put without recourse to work or income. This is perhaps the most gruesome reality they now have to deal with. But, of more concern is the underlying fear of the unknownhow to make it through the pandemic and the lockdown. For Samson Abubakar, 49, it was the first time in his 16 years of working as a public servant in Abuja, to be grounded at home all day long. Ive never experienced it in my entire working life. Im used to the rat-race life of leaving for work in the morning and returning home in the evening. And on weekends, I go to church. Im not used to this domestic life of staying at home for 24/7, he said. Mr Abubakar has been married for more than 12 years. His wife is a primary school teacher at a top private school in the heart of Abuja city. He complained of the financial implication it was having in his pocket. It is even exasperating that one has to spend more money now at home. It is all about giving out and nothing is coming in. As if to worsen the situation, the electricity supply is always cut short here in Bwari, he said. But it is not all grim. I believe there is good in every bad situation, he noted. Love in time of Coronavirus With the lockdown comes a surfeit of time to spend with familya time to rekindle the love between spouses. Psychologists have found that during a crisis or anxiety-bound period, people tend to bond more and connect to distract themselves away from pangs of uncertainty and fear. Couple therapists have also noted that the lockdown can test any relationship. For Mr Abubakar, rediscovering new things about his wife through the great time being spent together gives him joy beyond words. Not only has he been able to brainstorm about future plans with his wife during the time, but he has also found a new side of himself being extremely playful. Naturally, Im not an outgoing type and Ive spent time with my wife but not to this level because of work. Now, we play like kids and also make future plans for our home. In fact, the little house project we are currently doing came from the brainstorming we had on the first day of lockdown, he said. Like Mr Abubakar, Khadija Adisa, 34, a teacher, believes the lockdown has impacted her relationship with her husband positively. It has really improved our relationship, she said. For Idris Oladipo, 32, the stay-at-home order has provided time to discuss pertinent personal issues with his wife which has kept their relationship waxing stronger every day. Advertisements It has kept the relationship cordial and we fight new fights, learn new lessons and get stronger and happier together, he said. No doubt, the stay-at-home period is a blessing for family bonding. As the head of Digital Innovation, Skool Media, in the commercial city of Lagos, he often finds it hard to have a family moment at home in the day because he returns home late at night. Though a native of Ibadan, Mr Oladipo has been working in Lagos since 2013; he got married four years ago and now has a kid. For many of us, we ordinarily wouldnt have been able to spend some beautiful time with our family when we spend the bulk of our hours at work and on busy Lagos roads. The stay at home allows us more time with the family, husbands can get more intimate with their wives and children, this time no welcoming of guest(s), no partying. We can have some fun time with our daughter, have good conversations, tell stories and tales, crack some jokes and yet teach her valuable life lessons, he said. Asked how the period has impacted his marriage, he said, I now pay closer attention to domestic issues especially those that have to do with my daughter. I help with chores Naturally, most women enjoy seeing their husbandsnow homeboundassist with house chores so as to make them see how much domestic work they do. This is not uncommon to see in the homes of recently wedded couples. However, the shelter-place period is seemingly bringing new sides of couples regardless of how long they have been married. For Saheed Ademola, 26, assisting his wife with some house chores is no big deal but a gesture of love. As a businessman in Lagos, I hate that I dont have enough time to assist with domestic work. But now that I have the opportunity to partake in it, I must assist her, he said. This effort is also mirrored by some married men. For Shakirat Adetona, 34, a Quantity Surveyor, sharing chores with her husband has reduced her workload, which was divided between working from home and taking care of the family. It is not easy working from home when you have a kid to look after but my husband has been helpful in sharing chores with me. He is trying his best on this, she said. READ ALSO: My husband helps sometimes but not for long, another respondent, Temilola Andrew, told PREMIUM TIMES. But for Mr Abubakar, he wouldnt assist in doing domestic work because Im lazy in that area and we have a house help. I cook, babysit Like many who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES, Poto Rahman believed the stay-at-home order has helped family bonding and enriched spousal relationships. Mr Poto Rahman with his wife He said there is an uptick in family time spent together and in domestic duties he has involved himself with. Ive had more time with my family in the last few days than ever and Ive been involved in more domestic duties. Im now tasked with the responsibility of making breakfast and I spend more time babysitting than before, he said. I miss social life The lockdown has put a strain on all social events in the three statesLagos, Ogun, and FCT as large gatherings have long been banned to slow the pace of the spread of the pandemic. This also means the closedown of churches, mosques, wedding ceremonies, pubs where social life is at its peak. As a diplomat working in an embassy in Abuja, Ismail Abiola, 46, has got used to spending the night attending dinners and banquets, due to the nature of his work. He, nevertheless, enjoys lone family moments at home whenever he can. In the past two days, this, he said, has been interesting and fun. But, he misses social life. No doubt, family time is the best. I get to discover more about my wife and children. Yet, I miss the high-life of social events, dinners we usually organise at work, he said. No sex While scientists are scrambling to understand how the virus has killed millions across the globe, couples have been cautioned that there is a likelihood that the virus is present in respiratory droplets and because of this, countries like France have discouraged people from kissing on the cheek. Some couples are adhering to this precaution but many are finding it hard to live by the no-sex rule for long. To fight off any likelihood of contracting the virus, Mr Oladipo said he and his wife had agreed to abstain from coupling for now. Mr Idris Oladipo We observe all-important precautions, not moving around, no shaking of hands and hugging or sex. We (do) regular washing of hands, application of hand sanitizer, eating healthy, and maintaining personal hygiene, he said. Health experts have said that the practice of social distancing and personal hygiene could make it easy to flatten the curve of the pandemic spread. READ ALSO: Mrs Andrew believes social distancing is unachievable between couples adding that adhering to the no-sex rule seems too superficial to deal with. Social distancing cannot work between couples. How will one not have sex with ones spouse because of the fear of contracting one disease? Its difficult; I cannot do it, she said. Asked what measures were being taken to fight the likelihood of an infection, she said, We just make (sure we) wash our hands frequently and apply our hand sanitiser regularly. Like her, many others who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES said they are taking the recommended measures to fight off the virus at home. Some have even deployed more romantic moves to get their spouses into sticking to the hygienic conditions. Whenever my husband returns from work, I make sure he takes his bath and washes his hands thoroughly first before any welcome home hug every weekend, said Mrs Adisa whose husband works in Oyo state but lives in Ogun State. Lockdown matter of life and death While many Nigerians have groaned over the pains of being in lockdown, Mr Buhari, in his recent address to Nigerians said the development is a matter of life and death. He said the containment period is to identify, trace and isolate all individuals that have come in contact with confirmed cases of COVID-19. All citizens in these areas (Lagos, Ogun, and FCT) 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. It is a matter of life and death, he said. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 By Huseyn Safarov Trend: The new deal of OPEC+ will increase oil prices, which, in particular, is important for the influx of new investments in energy projects of Azerbaijan, analyst at the Russian National Energy Security Fund, expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Igor Yushkov told Trend, commenting on the upcoming meeting of OPEC+ countries. The meeting will be held in the format of video conference on April 9. The new deal will increase the price of oil of the producing countries, including Azerbaijan, which is important for the influx of new investments in energy projects. In the current conditions of low prices, investors around the world have reduced investment in projects, the analyst noted. The expert believes that the return to negotiations is a positive fact, since this means freezing of plans on increasing production in the current absence of production quotas. Indeed, earlier the plans of Saudi Arabia to increase production by 3 million barrels per day led to a collapse in prices, said the analyst. At the upcoming meeting, the parties should agree on quotas for the second quarter - 10 million barrels per day. It is a very large amount of reduction. The parties can agree on such a volume only if Saudi Arabia assumes more than half of it, the expert stressed. It will be difficult for Russia to assume commitments on reducing production by more than 0.5 million barrels per day. At the same time, Russia is hinting that if low prices harm all producers, then everyone, including the US, should participate in the reduction, the analyst emphasized. A positive scenario would be concluding an agreement on non-increasing oil production in the second quarter compared to the level of the first. And for the second quarter, it would be possible to really estimate the volume of reduction that needs to be done in order to balance the market, since by that time at least part of demand will recover. China is already reaching normal oil consumption, as it cancels quarantine measures, Yushkov added. Earlier, OPEC countries recommended an additional reduction in oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day until the end of 2020. However, at the March 6 meeting, the OPEC+ countries failed to agree on either an additional reduction or extension of the deal under current conditions. The new jobless statistics should guide Congress and the president as they consider how to craft what seems an inevitable next phase of their economic response to the coronavirus crisis on top of the recent $2.2 trillion Cares Act. The economy is experiencing a deep, sudden blow to hard-working but vulnerable people and businesses that employed them. Many of those firms are small companies, 24 percent of which may have already gone on temporary shutdown, according to a survey released Friday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Among those small businesses that havent ceased operations yet, 40 percent consider it likely they will do so within the next two weeks, at least temporarily, according to the survey. Coronavirus test centre opens up at SSE Arena in Belfast. Healthcare workers are being tested. Eight more people in Northern Ireland have died after contracting the coronavirus, it has been confirmed. The Public Health Agency said that 94 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed as of 9.50am on Saturday. It brings the total number of deaths associated with Covid-19 to 56, with 998 confirmed cases to date in Northern Ireland. It comes as healthcare workers begin getting tested at the SSE Arena in Belfast. The Health Minister said the SSE Arena site is part of the UK-wide NHS initiative on staff testing in which Randox and Deloitte are key partners. Robin Swann also said that the opening of the new testing facility will allay some of the concern and speculation we have had of late. The PSNI has also urged the public to stay at home this weekend as warm weather is forecast for Northern Ireland. Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said: "With warmer weather forecast and the longer, lighter days following the clocks changing, many people will want to get out and about and enjoy the fresh air this weekend so I am urging everyone to continue to follow the health advice, stay at home to prevent the spread of infection." ACC Todd said police understand the importance of exercise and fresh air, but urged the public to do so responsibly. See how Saturday unfolded: Washington While Wisconsin struggles to hold its primary on Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Democrats are bickering over how to provide voters with safe and secure access to a ballot as the coronavirus pandemic rages in the U.S. and threatens to extend into the fall, affecting the general election. With another economic rescue package in the works, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she wants money to give more voters the chance to cast their ballot by mail, an option that would allow people to vote without the concern over the safety of polling places. But Trump opposes voting by mail and is leading Republicans in a battle to limit its use, arguing that it would encourage fraud and lead to so many people voting that his party could not win. But the 2020 presidential election is creeping ever closer, and there are no signs yet of the pandemic abating, nor any word on when Americans on orders to stay home can resume normal life, so lawmakers are trying to figure out how to allow for voting in a world where face-to-face contact causes anxiety at the least and possibly sickness and death. In recent weeks, as Democrats nationwide have argued the country must prepare for voting largely by mail, Republicans have objected to or blocked expansions of such voting in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. "It shouldn't be mail-in voting. It should be you go to a booth and you proudly display yourself," Trump told reporters Friday evening. Earlier this week on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends," he claimed the Democrats had a plan "that if you ever agreed to it you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. More than 290,000 people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus so far, prompting more than a dozen states to delay their presidential primaries. Health officials are warning that the virus has the potential to return with a second wave during the next flu season, putting voters and poll workers in a dilemma where fulfilling a civic duty means putting their health at greater risk. Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington already provide registered voters with a ballot in the mail for all their elections, according to a Congressional Research Service report. California and Utah are among the states that give counties the option of mail-in voting. Proponents say it can improve participation, particularly with voters who have to work on election day, go to school or have mobility issues, such as the elderly or the sick. It could reduce the number of poll workers needed, as well as the long lines. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 09:35:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIGALI, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) said Saturday that it has arrested five soldiers accused of alleged "criminal misconduct" against civilians in Nyarutarama, a Kigali city suburb. "Military prosecution department has launched investigations into allegations of criminal misconduct against citizens by few indisciplined Rwanda Defense Force soldiers in Nyarutarama, Remera Sector, Gasabo District," the country's national army said in a statement. "Five suspects have already been detained," it said, adding that the incidents occurred within the last two weeks. The move came days after recent media reports quoted some residents in Nyarutarama as saying that people in military uniform on law enforcement duty, with nametags removed, had raped some women and beaten up other residents. Assuring the public of justice, the RDF said in the statement that the court hearing shall be held in public at the scene of the alleged crimes. It also "strongly" condemned any violation of Rwandan law, or its ethics and values by its personnel. Justice, security, and support for the affected community are the utmost priority, it added. RTHK: 594 deaths in a day take New York toll past 4,000 The coronavirus death toll in New York state rose to 4,159, the governor said on Sunday, up from 3,565 a day prior. The spike by 594 deaths showed a slight decrease in the day-to-day number of lives lost compared to the previous day. It was the first time the day-over-day toll had dropped on Saturday it hit a record of 630 deaths in 24 hours but Governor Andrew Cuomo told journalists it was too early to tell whether that was a "blip". The peak of the pandemic in New York the US area hardest hit thus far by the fast-spreading virus could arrive over the next week, Cuomo said, though he cautioned it was still unclear if the apex would be a point or a plateau. "We could be on that plateau right now," Cuomo said at his daily briefing. "We won't know for the next few days, does it go up, does it go down." The state has now reported 122,031 positive cases of Covid-19, which has much of the United States under stay-at-home orders. New York City remains the nation's epicentre but the governor warned over the weekend that nearby hotspots were emerging on Long Island and in the neighbouring state New Jersey. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-04-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. All of us who have faced loss in life know the weight and sadness of grief, and have been through the process of walking our way through it. We are at a moment where everyone is facing some loss due to the novel coronavirus, and we are all facing a collective loss. We must understand the grief we feel, whether it is the death or sickness of a cherished person, the loss of a job or the societal loss of a way of life that we had taken for granted just over a month ago. For many, like me, it brings up the wounds of earlier losses and the grief we felt in those moments. I remember so indelibly the nine months spent more than a decade ago in the neonatal intensive care unit with my identical twin daughters. The memory is seared into me washing our hands every time we spent time with our premie daughters, the care given by nurses and doctors around the clock and the constant state of the unknown of what would happen. I remember the bells and whistles of medical devices that became background noise, the constant state of alert and the pit in my stomach when the phone rang with an update. There was our daughters' fight for survival, and the evening one of our daughters was no longer going to make it. I held her mom, as she held in her arms one of our daughters as she breathed her last breath. The tiny, innocent life never got the chance to live outside of that room in the hospital. MORE: 'You are not alone': Chaplains provide emotional support to COVID-19 patients We also knew we had to be strong for our other daughter who was still fighting for survival in the hospital and who would not breathe on her own until she was a 1-year-old. In that time, there was shedding tears in private, in the car or in the shower as the water mixed with the salty tears. As more good days outnumbered the bad, we could finally see the light at end of that journey, and began to believe again that we would ultimately bring one of our daughters home. And today that daughter is a beautiful, bright, adorable 17-year-old young woman. Story continues We lost not only one of our daughters, but the life we had envisioned ahead when we got the new bedroom ready to welcome two healthy, active children home. The dream one holds of joy and laughs and love of a normal birth process turned into a new and different reality. PHOTO: A view of the sign at Lake Park Baptist Church as all church activities have been suspended due to the coronavirus on March 30, 2020 in Augusta, Ga. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Our country, and each of us, is going through a similar trauma as we confront the reality of a new way of life in the midst of this pandemic and the unknown ahead. The life we all knew a month ago is now gone -- whether it be how we relate to one another, the normal joys of daily living we experienced before, the devastating effect on our economy, or the mystery of a new world we weren't prepared to sail into before this. We each need to acknowledge this collective loss and allow our hearts, minds and bodies to experience the grief we each hold. Having experienced not this exact loss, but a devastating loss nonetheless, I have a few key pieces of advice that helped me come out a more open, compassionate and understanding person. First, look for opportunities, no matter how small, for moments of gratitude. Even in the midst of tears and grief we can all find things to be grateful for -- a warm cup of coffee, the beauty of a sunrise, the laughter of friends and family or the discovery of something about ourselves that gives us an opening into our mystery as a human being. Second, let us look for opportunities to serve or help others in the middle of our own grief and sadness. When we were in the NICU we looked for ways to help out the nurses and doctors we were blessed to have. We even brought in a huge cake in the first month for those helpers to share amidst all the sorrow and chaos. We never suspected after that first month we would end up bringing in nine cakes for the nine months we were there. There are so many opportunities for us to help the people who are on the front line in this crisis as well as so many in our communities who are struggling. PHOTO: A sign of support is hung outside a hospital during the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City, April 2, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) Third, understand that although we are in a new and different world, there doesn't have to be a tragedy in the aftermath. It is and will be vastly different, however, let us look at what is ahead creatively and open ourselves to maybe a different way of living. Let us use it as an opportunity to know what is truly most important, let us live a simpler more-meaningful life, let us find the joys in entirely different kinds of moments that we no longer take for granted, and let us relate to each other with greater compassion and understanding. We will get through this moment and all the losses we will face. It is OK to hold onto a deep sadness, and it is also OK to be angry as we experience this loss unfolding. In fact, I was very mad at God for a lengthy period over the losses I faced until I understood it was my faith that gave me the strength to get to a better place. Allow yourself to sit with the grief of the loss of the world as we knew it and know that everyone in their own way is sharing with you in this collective loss. Let us be kind and patient with others as they struggle and let us all help lift one another's hearts so the tears become less and the smiles become more. And let us push back against the fears with a love that is more powerful. We are all experiencing loss from coronavirus. Let us push back with love: OPINION originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Bergamo, Italy, Bishop Francesco Beschi, center, performs a benediction while project director Sergio Rizzini, left, and Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori, right, listen. (Janna Brancolini / For The Times) Italys historic mountain infantry, the Alpini, got ahold of pavilion B at the convention center in Bergamo in late March under emergency conditions brought by the coronavirus. At that time, pavilion B amounted to nothing more than 6,500 square meters of empty hall space, pavement and ceiling ducts. By April, members of the infantry wearing the Alpinis iconic pointed green hat with black feathers were on their hands and knees, scrubbing the new wooden floors of a COVID-19 field hospital complete with intensive-care units, physician changing rooms, oxygen hook-ups and test labs. Sergio Rizzini, general director of the National Alpini Assn.'s field hospital division, explains how the hospital is divided into red, yellow and green zones to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Janna Brancolini / For The Times) The local chapter of the National Alpini Assn. which includes current, former and reserve infantry members had led a 300-volunteer effort to complete the 142-bed hospital in nine days instead of the usual 60 to 90, organizers said. We are the people who dont give up, they sang while they worked. Starting Monday, coronavirus-infected patients will either be transported to the field hospital from their existing hospital, admitted directly from their homes or some combination of both, depending on the healthcare needs at the time, hospital officials said. Italy has been among the countries hardest hit by the global pandemic, with about 125,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the highest number of deaths with about 15,300 people as of Sunday. The country's 60 million residents have been on lockdown since early March, when the government ordered most businesses to close and said residents could leave their homes only for such reasons as work, medical issues and grocery shopping. Bergamo, nestled in the foothills of the Alps in the country's Lombardy region, has about 120,000 residents. The city has experienced more than 9,600 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,000 attributed deaths, though officials worry the actual number could be much higher. The military has been transporting coffins to cities as far away as Florence more than 200 miles to the south to be cremated, because the local funeral services have been so overwhelmed. Many patients are dying alone, because visitors are banned from coronavirus wards to help stop the the disease from spreading. Story continues The atmosphere in Bergamo has been one of sadness at not being able to say goodbye and not being able to do anything to help, said Sergio Rizzini, an Alpini reservist who took over as general manager of the National Alpini Assn.s field hospital division in 2015. Theres a sense of powerlessness that were slowly overcoming; this project is helping. When the Alpini put out a request for 12 additional builders to join their group of about 100 volunteers, more than 200 responded to donate their time and materials. An Alpini volunteer checks the wiring on a sterilization unit. (Janna Brancolini / For The Times) When they started raising money in the third week of March, local families and businesses donated nearly the entire project budget of 3 million euros' worth (about $3.2 million) of funds and equipment. When the region of Lombardy delayed building authorization because of personnel concerns, more than 115,000 people signed a petition demanding the work begin. The Italian national heathcare system is managed at the regional level, which means the regional government needed to approve the field hospital project. In mid-March, officials from Lombardy hesitated to grant permission because they said they werent sure they would have enough doctors to staff the facility once it was completed. The region apparently wanted to divert all of its resources to a new hospital under construction in nearby Milan, even though Milan had only half as many cases. After the petition was launched, though, officials soon agreed to let the work begin. Over the next nine days, volunteers wearing leather bracelets engraved with the words Mola mia Never give up in the local dialect worked a total of 16,000 hours to complete the hospital. The hallways in the Alpini field hospital were designed to be extra wide, and the patient wards have walls but no ceilings to help the air circulate better and prevent the disease from spreading to healthcare workers. (Janna Brancolini / For The Times) Work is at the heart of this regions culture, Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori said Thursday as volunteers were putting the finishing touches on the field hospital. We roll up our sleeves and get things done. The Alpini also have deep ties to the city and the community that allowed them to mobilize local contractors, electricians and specialists who could install equipment such as medical gas lines for free, Gori said. The Alpini infantry was formed in 1872 to secure the northern border of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy. It is famous for its esprit de corps forged in the mountains harsh natural environment, Rizzini said. Today, eight regiments carry out both military and civilian aid missions around the world, including setting up field hospitals in response to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Rizzini said he had studied the Ebola crisis response as part of his Alpini reserves training. He drew on that knowledge and worked with Bergamos existing hospital, Papa Giovanni XXIII, to design a field hospital specifically engineered to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The convention centers cavernous halls have allowed organizers to put more space than usual between beds and to build hallways that are extra wide. Air will circulate more freely than in a normal hospital and will be purified with a special system. The entire space is divided into red, yellow and green zones, with physical barriers and special sanitation protocols in place for each section. Radiology, sanitation and analytical labs are housed in classic field hospital containers. A main goal was to protect not just patients but also medical workers, who account for 12% of coronavirus cases in Italy, Rizzini said. Doctors from Papa Giovanni XXIII will manage the facility, and the staff will include medical workers from Russia as well as the medical nonprofit organization Emergency, which provides healthcare in crisis zones. Alpini volunteers will continue to help with logistics. The structure is very complete from a technological point of view, said Vanna Toninelli, spokeswoman for Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital. Its value is very, very high. Toninelli said one of the difficult aspects of COVID-19 is that patients need intensive care for prolonged periods of two to three weeks. Before the coronavirus, Papa Giovanni XXIII had about 1,000 beds total, 80 of which were for intensive-care patients. Now, any procedures deemed not urgent have been suspended, and all available space such as operating rooms has been converted into intensive-care units. About 90 ICU beds have been dedicated to coronavirus alone. It will be quite some time before new cases of coronavirus stop and healthcare can get back to normal, Toninelli said. Officials expect the field hospital to remain operational for at least six months, or as long as the coronavirus crisis persists. Residents of Bergamo, Italy, fly the Italian flag and display signs saying, "Don't give up, Bergamo." (Janna Brancolini / For The Times) Brancolini is a special correspondent. Regional media outlets are preparing to stop news bulletins and shut down some broadcast signals altogether as they face the prospect of running out of cash this financial year due to the COVID-19 crisis. Commercial free-to-air regional broadcasters Prime Media Group, WIN Corp and Southern Cross Austereo are asking the Morrison government to underwrite their businesses help them through the pandemic, as advertising revenue falls as much as 50 per cent. COVID-19 has put already under pressure regional media companies in a state of emergency. Credit:Jessica Hromas The three broadcasters have plans to stop producing news bulletins across Australia within weeks, according to senior sources familiar with the businesses. This would leave the ABC as the sole broadcaster of regional television news. In most areas WIN is affiliated with Ten, Southern Cross is affiliated with Nine and Prime is affiliated with Seven. But in some areas one regional media company broadcasts all three signals such the NSW town of Griffith which is entirely covered by WIN. In these places WIN, Prime and Southern Cross are considering only broadcasting one signal to save money. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Sunday appealed to the people to strictly adhere to the lockdown in view of increasing number of coronavirus cases in the state. Expressing concern over the gradual increase in cases of COVID-19, Yediyurappa said the damage caused by the virus worldwide is known to everyone and accordingly the Prime Minister has announced nationwide lockdown till April 14. "In our state too the number of coronavirus patients is increasing in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Bidar, Kalaburagi. Besides shutting down borders, prayers at all religious places have been stopped and various other measures have been taken to prevent the COVID-19 from spreading further," the Chief Minister said in a statement. He said people have to understand the importance of lockdown as the disease was dangerous for the country. According to the health department, the total number of cases in the state has gone up to 146. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Express News Service BENGALURU/MYSURU: On a day the country witnessed the biggest single-day spike in Coronavirus cases, Karnataka too witnessed a similar trend with 16 new cases, driving up the states tally to 144. Of them, seven cases were from Mysuru alone, while four were from Bengaluru Urban, two from Dakshina Kannada who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, and one each from Hosapete and Udupi. This apart, a 60-year-old man hailing from Cochin in Kerala (Patient 133-K), who had travelled to Germany and returned to Bengaluru, also tested positive. In Mysuru, of the seven who tested positive, five are the members of Tablighi Jamaat but did not attend the congregation at Nizamuddin in March. Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar said they (P-134 to P-138) are residents of Delhi in the age group of 19 to 54 years, and were intercepted at the Mysuru district border on March 30. All are admitted in KR Hospital, Mysuru. According to the DC, they arrived in Mysuru in January-end but left for Mandya on March 13. They were returning to Mysuru from Mandya on March 30, but were intercepted at the district border as they were outsiders. With their travel history, we decided to keep them under quarantine and send their swabs for testing. Out of the 10 who were tested, five have tested positive, he said. Be cautious in coming to conclusions If the air isnt flowing, microdroplets wont move. And since they cant move on their own, they stay in place for some time, Yamakawa explained. What is important is to create two openings. Do this at least once an hour, says Tateda. However, studies done so far are all contradictory of each other. Whilst LAN showed viral RNA around hospital locations, there was no proof of infectivity from these particles. Singapore studies did not favour airborne particles. WHO till date maintains droplet transmission over airborne transmission. Since this is a new disease, emerging evidence will be dynamic and we need to be cautious in coming to conclusions. Any aerolisation procedure on a COVID- 19 patient needs full personal protective equipment. Wearing mask in public may reduce your chances of transmission to others. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been under pressure from the USA to advise people to wear masks in public. This is a departure from what was being advocated till date, said Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD and Consultant - Respiratory Medicine and Sleep Medicine, Manipal Hospital, Old Airport Road. Energy companies will face a fresh wave of economic woes once the calendar turns to 2021. Thats when the oil price hedges, which are supporting a number of oil and gas companies, come to an end. Andy McConn, principal analyst with Enverus, said 2021 could be even more challenging for operators. These are dire circumstances, he said in a phone interview. These hedges are valuable, and the fact they go away at the end of the year underscores the importance of the industry recovering by the end of the year. McConn and his team at Enverus and RS Energy Group Intelligence estimated there is 2.5 million barrels per day of aggregate 2020 oil-hedge volumes among public traded North American exploration and production companies at an effective hedge price above $50 West Texas intermediate. Their analysis estimates most oil-weighted E&P companies have hedged between 25 and 90 percent of their anticipated production for the year. They estimate the value of these financial-derivative assets exceeds 10 percent of respective enterprise values for the majority of E&P companies. But, come 2021, hedged oil volumes decline by 85 percent. McConn said E&P companies can still enter into hedges. The problem is, now the markets have priced in current conditions. Companies could hedge, but the hedges would reflect current prices. Strategically, what companies need to do is cut spending as much as they can, he said. Be proactive with their lenders in negotiating new terms. Its all about cutting capital expenditures and working with lenders (for) terms that are best for all stakeholders the company, the lender, investors. And that may be bankruptcy. How well companies are hedged for 2020 will be a big factor in how they navigate the next nine months, he said. For some companies, bankruptcy may be an option. For others, being acquired will be an option. But McConn cautioned that there is a limited pool of companies that can acquire other companies because so many companies are distressed by low oil prices and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Generally, when theres uncertainty in a market like this oil market, theres less consensus, making it difficult for parties to come to an agreement, McConn said. There are a few well-capitalized producers with the unique opportunity to make acquisitions and take a countercyclical view. They may see acquisitions as a contrarian move, but they have to be selective. And while cutting expenditures is a companys first job, he said that could be difficult because of contracts with service providers. E&P companies will need to negotiate deals with their service companies that benefit both sides. A 37-year-old man hanged self to death in Himachal Pradesh's Una district on Sunday morning after allegedly facing "social boycott" by some villagers, who suspected him to be suffering from COVID-19 despite testing negative for it. Mohammad Dilshad committed suicide under a shed at his residence in Una's Bangarh village, a day after health officials dropped him at his village following his negative report, an official said. He was taken to a quarantine facility a few days ago where he tested negative for the disease. Una Sadar SHO Darshan Singh said Dilshad was one of the contacts of a Tablighi Jamaat member who had returned from New Delhi's Nizamuddin. Commenting on it, DGP Sita Ram Mardi said, "Some villagers pointed out that this man was a suspected COVID-19 patient. He was quarantined and tested negative for the infection. When he returned to his village, he was discriminated against and socially boycotted by villagers. At this, he committed suicide." However, the SHO told PTI that the matter was being investigated whether he was discriminated against or socially boycotted by villagers. "I have sent an ASI on the spot. So far, no issue of social boycott or discrimination has come to the fore. I will be able to say anything in detail about this at around 5 pm after the ASI's return," He added. Meanwhile, the DGP urged people to maintain social distancing (to check the spread of COVID-19), which "does not mean social discrimination". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Stay home. Essential travel only. Save lives." An electronic bulletin board in London shows these words on an empty street. The British government on Thursday doubled fines for leaving homes to 60 pounds ($75). All restaurants, pubs and shops are closed, with the small exception of supermarkets. Economic activity has frozen in cities around the world as the coronavirus pandemic rages, leaving only an eerie silence. Governments are telling residents to refrain from nonessential outings. People and cars have disappeared from roads, including in Japan's two major population centers of Tokyo and Osaka, which joined the stay-at-home movement this weekend. But not all is lost. Data shows renewed activity in the flow of goods in China, as well as at ports worldwide that do business with the Asian country. The global economy's hopes hinge on this bud of recovery. Online reservation service OpenTable says restaurant bookings have plunged this month in the world's major cities, such as London and New York. Restaurants are unable to open as people stay indoors. Tokyo, which initially seemed exempt from this collapse, has begun to witness a drop in reservations, according to TableCheck, a restaurant and bar reservation website. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's call for all residents to stay home on weekends has had a profound impact. A similar slowdown can be seen in road traffic. Dutch location technology specialist TomTom reports that weekend traffic jams have all but vanished from major cities worldwide, with the lone exception of Tokyo. Though historically low oil prices usually portend more outings, the fear of infection has dampened such sentiment. "There's no work," a London taxi driver in his 40s said. "I cannot live like this." But the flow of goods is rebounding in China, where the coronavirus initially wreaked havoc, as the outbreak there appears more under control. The number of vessels leaving Shanghai, the world's largest trading port, has surged since mid-March, said Orbital Insight, a U.S. company that analyzes satellite images. A representative of a Chinese logistics company noted a gradual increase in transportation of steel and chemicals by river from inland cities such as Chongqing and Wuhan to eastern coastal regions. Part of that demand comes as an alternative to trucks, which have been unable to move freely. The signs of economic life are not limited to China, with the detection of an uptick in cargo leaving Singapore, the world's second-largest port, and the European hub of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. "The recovery in cargo movement is a direct reflection of the resumption of Chinese production," said Simin Ngai, Dashboard Editor Asia at Cirium, a travel data and analytics company. The resurgence of China, which as "the world's factory" is largely responsible for intermediate processes in the production of goods, has triggered the movement of ships worldwide that had been stranded or stalled. "Now that China is ready to accept in ships, cargo movement has temporarily increased in Rotterdam and elsewhere," said a representative at A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company. The shipping industry is bracing for a downturn in volume as major consumption hubs such as India are under lockdown. But if demand in China were to return, that could kick-start a frozen global economy. Nikkei Pakistani officials say 20,000 worshippers have been quarantined and authorities are still searching for tens of thousands more who took part in a religious gathering in Lahore last month despite the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100,000 people went to the meeting of the Tablighi Jamaat -- an Islamic missionary movement -- organizers said, despite calls by the government for the event to be canceled as the outbreak hit Pakistan. Authorities said they want to test or quarantine those who attended the gathering between March 10-12 over fears they are now spreading the coronavirus across Pakistan and overseas. Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, has a population of more than 11 million people. About 7,000 people have been quarantined in Lahore, while in southern Sindh province up to 8,000 Tablighis have been quarantined, government officials said. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have so far quarantined 5,300 Tablighis, or Islamic preachers,who attended the Lahore meeting. "Health officials are conducting tests for coronavirus and some of them have tested positive," Ajmal Wazir, a spokesperson for the regional government, said on April 5. Wazir said thousands of Tablighis from his province were stranded in other regions because of the closure of major highways across the country. The Tablighi mosques and the movement's other places of worship were closed or turned into quarantine centers at the end of last month. Coronavirus has killed at least 45 people out of some 31,00 confirmed infections in Pakistan but with only limited testing available, observers believe the number is far higher. Numerous foreigners attended this year's Tablighi Jamaat congregation from countries including China, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan, organizers said. About 1,500 foreign citizens are now quarantined in Pakistan, but others left the country without being tested. Similar Tablighi Jamaat gatherings held in Malaysia and India after the start of the outbreak have been blamed for spreading the virus to other countries. Tablighi Jamaat has millions of followers, particularly in South Asia, and sends preachers to various regions of the world to spread Muslim faith. With reporting by AFP and dawn.com Netflixs true-crime series, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, documents the life of Joe Exotic a big cat breeder and zookeeper who hired a hitman to kill his rival. His ex-husband, John Finlay, is one of the series breakout stars. With people talking about a potential feature film, Finlay has his own ideas on who could play him best. Joe Exotic | Netflix Who is Tiger King star John Finlay? As shown on Tiger King, John Finlay was Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotics second husband. The two met in 2003 when Finlay came to work for him. When I first met Joe, I was like a month out of high school, Finlays says in the docuseries. He showed me love, and I learned how big my heart was, and how much to care. Finlay spent much of his time at Maldonado-Passages G.W. Zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. He helped his husband take care of hundreds of exotic animals, including tigers, lions, ligers, bears, monkeys, and reptiles. In 2014, Finlay and Maldonado-Passage had a three-person wedding with 19-year old Travis Maldonado. But only one year into their marriage, things started to fall apart. The two got into a physical altercation that ended up with Finlay being charged with battery. Finlay came back to work at the zoo and started a relationship with the secretary, who then ended up having his baby. Finlay left the zoo in late 2017, right around the time Maldonado-Passage started having financial and legal troubles. While the zookeeper was under federal investigation, he attempted to hire a hitman (an undercover federal agent) to have his rival, Carole Baskin killed. He was convicted in 2019, and sentenced to 22 years in prison in early 2020. Rumors of a potential Tiger King movie are swirling Has anyone seen Tiger King on Netflix?!?! It is crazy!!!! Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 22, 2020 Since it premiered in March, Tiger King has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Along with the rest of the world, celebrities like Kim Kardashian West, Cardi B, and David Spade are now obsessed with its story. The documentary series is now so popular, that people are waiting for a feature film to be made about Maldonado-Passages life. In fact, actors like Dax Shepard, Edward Norton, and Jared Leto all took to Twitter to express their desire to play Joe Exotic if a movie were ever to be made. Um, step aside, pal. Youre way too young and buff and you know it. You could probably pull off Maldonado still, actually. Wouldnt that be fun? Edward Norton (@EdwardNorton) March 26, 2020 If I dont get cast as Joe Exotic in the eventual biopic, Hollywood is broken, Shepard wrote in a tweet. Um, step aside, pal, Norton responded to Shepard on Twitter. Youre way too young and buff and you know it. You could probably pull off Maldonado still, actually. Wouldnt that be fun? Finlay already has ideas on who could play him best When talking to CNN, Finlay said either Shia LaBeouf or Channing Tatum could play his role if a film were to be made. Maldonado-Passage has suggested Brad Pitt could play his role. But when CNN asked Finlay about that casting choice, he wasnt exactly on board. Brad Pitt, no, he said about his exs suggestion. Dax Shephard, he would probably be the better choice. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the Federal Bureau of Prisons created a virtual billboard. Its a webpage with a continuously updating tally of COVID-19 cases among inmates and staff in the nations prisons. The site couldnt keep up with the data. Officials changed their notification strategy, citing the rapidly evolving nature of this public health crisis. Likewise, the nations jails institutions through which tens of thousands of people regularly cycle are other increasingly dire sites of coronavirus infection. So too are immigration detention centers and juvenile centers. All can easily become petri dishes with no safe space in which to shelter from infection. In Rikers Island, the infamous New York City jail complex, confirmed cases of COVID-19 jumped from one to nearly 200 in the span of 12 days, causing more than 800 inmates to be placed in quarantine. Rikers lead doctor has been sounding the alarm for weeks, labeling the conditions a public health disaster unfolding before our eyes, according to The Guardian. Rikers rate of infection is seven times that of New York City now the American epicenter of the pandemic and 87 times higher than the rate of the nation at large. And the runs on supplies the rest of us experience are replicated in prison. In one Midwest state prison, coffee and dried soup are going fast, lawyers for the Midwest Innocence Project report. Inmates are buying up the items from the canteen, fearing a lockdown. Now imagine watching news of these exploding COVID-19 caseloads from inside a prison cell. Lamar Johnson is. Hes in a Missouri prison, serving a life sentence with no parole for first degree murder. The twist is that dozens of district attorneys across the United States believe that he likely shouldnt be in prison in the first place let alone at risk of contracting COVID-19. The St. Louis chief prosecutor, Kim Gardner, found overwhelming evidence of innocence in his case. A paid witness who testified against Johnson has recanted. Two men have signed affidavits that they were responsible for the 1994 shooting death for which Johnson has spent the last 24 years of his life in prison. But Missouris attorney general, Eric Schmitt, argues that Gardner has no authority or legal avenue to ask for the new trial. Instead, a process of appeal should have been followed years ago to introduce new evidence. Johnsons case is a compelling story as is the movement of newly elected prosecutors nationally who call for re-examining past wrongs within the justice system. Those are stories for another day. The immediate threat to Johnson and millions of other inmates is a pandemic that could put their lives in greater danger than the general public. Americas incarcerated dont generate much pity. People forget, or simply dont realize, that a large number of inmates are being held in jails pre-trial in other words, they should enjoy the presumption of innocence. Now is the short window of time when a bit of mercy might be afforded, before the escalating COVID-19 cases overwhelm the public. Advocates are pleading for the judicial system to speed up release dates of those nearing parole, as well as of nonviolent offenders, the geriatric and prisoners in their final days from incurable illness. Decreasing density in prisons and jails is imperative. Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, points out that that seriously ill prisoners are often sent to public hospitals. God forbid that they will need it, but if you want a hospital bed or a ventilator to be available for you or your loved one, support efforts to ease crowding in the nations prisons and jails. Some states and municipalities have been complying, including Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, California, Georgia, Utah and Rhode Island. Its comforting to think these states are releasing prisoners as humanitarian gestures, acts of mercy to save lives. More likely its risk management. A budget-breaking array of lawsuits might follow if COVID-19 sweeps through cell blocks, infecting guards and other underappreciated and underpaid staff. The decisions prison authorities make now will either save or cost lives inside and outside of prison walls. Theres still time to do the right thing. Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumn@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn. London, April 5 : The office of UK's Prince Charles has dismissed a claim made by an Indian Union Minister that the British heir to the throne was cured of COVID-19 through ayurveda and homeopathy treatment from a Bengaluru-based holistic resort. Prince Charles' office said he had only followed the medical advice of the NHS and "nothing more". Speaking to the media, a Clarence House spokesman said that "this information is incorrect", adding that the Prince of Wales "followed the medical advice of the National Health Service in the UK and nothing more". On Thursday, Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik claimed: "I got a call from Dr. (Isaac) Mathai, who runs the SOUKYA ayurveda resort in Bengaluru. He told me that his treatment of Prince Charles through ayurveda and homeopathy has been successful." Naik added that a special task force put together by his Ministry would study the medicinal formulations used by Dr. Mathai to treat the heir to the British throne. Prince Charles was diagnosed for coronavirus late last month. He spent seven days self-isolating in Scotland after testing positive and displaying mild symptoms. The Duchess of Cornwall was tested but did not have the virus. Air India recently found a rather unexpected praise from an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of Pakistan New Delhi: Air India recently found a rather unexpected praise from an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of Pakistan. Air India was operating special flights from India to Frankfurt with relief materials and evacuated European nationals, who were stranded in India as coronavirus swept across continents, perishing millions and crippling the system of passenger planes crisscrossing the world. "It was a very proud moment for me as well as the entire Air India crew when we heard Pakistan ATC praising our special flight operations to Europe," one of the senior captains of the special flights told ANI. "As we entered in Pakistan's Flight Information Region (FIR), the Pakistan Air Traffic Controller (ATC) greeted us 'Assalaam Alaikum!' This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the senior captain quoted the Pakistan ATC as saying. "Confirm are you operating relief flights for Frankfurt," the Pak ATC further said. "AFFIRM," said the Air India captain in Pakistan's airspace. "You are cleared direct to exit point Kebud request estimate crossing Kebud (Exit)," came a response from the ATC. Air India captain replied, saying "Cleared direct Kebud, Thank you." After this, the Pakistan ATC showered praise on Air India. "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" "Thank you so much," responded the captain of India's national carrier. Furthermore, when the AI captain, who commanded the special flights, asked the Pakistan ATC that he is not getting the next radar for the Iran airspace, Pakistan conveyed the Indian jet's position to the Tehran airspace and provided details of the two AI special flights. Many crew members of AI's Boeing-777 and Boeing 787 were deployed for the special evacuation flights for European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai and Delhi. Before taking off from Mumbai airport, the ATC there, besides giving permission praised the national carrier's efforts amidst the crisis, saying "we are proud of you". The Captain also replied back stating that they were also proud of working with the ATC and all other services as a sign of mutual respect. After Pakistan airspace, the special AI flight entered Iran. As the captain told ANI, it had never happened before in his entire pilot career that the Middle East country had given a direct route of over 1000 miles. "First time in my entire career as a pilot, Iran gave a direct routing for about 1000 miles a privilege guess enjoyed as special flights, in all especially in the recent tense situation in the Iranian airspace," he said. Iran has rarely given a direct route to any of airlines because the direct route of Iran airspace is strictly kept reserve for their defence purposes only. Before leaving Iran airspace, the ATC there also wished us 'all the best'," the AI captain told ANI. After Iran, the AI special flights entered into the Turkey airspace and then Germany's. "All ATCs from Bombay to Frankfurt welcomed the special flights of Air India and wished us very proudly," the Captain said. The two special Air India flights flew out stranded European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai. All crew members including the pilots wore the mandatory COVID-19 coveralls for over 20 hours at a stretch (to/from and ground time at Frankfurt). They will now remain in self-quarantine for 14 days. To prevent of the spread of COVID-19 virus, India has announced a 21-days lockdown with no passenger air and rail traffic, leaving many of foreign nationals stranded in several parts of the country. Britain's biggest care providers have been denied coronavirus tests even as the disease has ravaged some of their homes, it emerged last night. Three major care home firms told the Mail no staff or residents had been tested despite a spate of deaths from suspected outbreaks. One boss said it was 'almost impossible' to follow official advice and isolate sufferers without knowing who was infected. There have been at least 40 virus-related deaths in UK care homes, but the lack of testing means experts can't know the true scale of the crisis or how many residents and workers already have the illness. Britain's biggest care providers have been denied coronavirus tests even as the disease has ravaged some of their homes, it emerged last night (stock image) One care worker told how staff lived in fear of catching the virus and passing it to their families or those they look after. The mother of three, who works in a home for dementia sufferers, said: 'None of us has been tested and we have very little access to protective equipment. 'We are like cannon fodder. We are being made to risk our lives and the lives of our loved-ones for 8.37 an hour.' Don't criticise 'Die At Home' advice to elderly, Tories told Controversy: Morecambe GP Andy Knox Tory MPs have been told not to criticise doctors advising the elderly they may be better off dying at home than going to hospital if they get coronavirus. It came amid claims that residents of some care homes have been asked to sign 'do not resuscitate' forms in the event of becoming ill with Covid-19. Many doctors have stepped up palliative care plans for terminally ill patients to prepare for the virus's peak in the coming weeks. But some Conservative MPs say it will needlessly frighten the elderly and those at 'high risk' from the disease. They claim the approach is being driven partly by the lack of intensive care hospital beds. The Daily Mail understands the Government is backing a British Medical Association campaign for GPs to be 'upfront' and have 'difficult conversations' with the elderly if the death toll continues to rise. But some Tories have questioned the plan. One MP said: 'If the Government thinks it is OK for elderly people to be leant on to die at home instead of being kept alive, they should say so publicly.' The disclosure came amid fears the NHS will be unable to treat everyone hit by the virus, as the death toll rose above 4,000 yesterday. Those most at risk will be urged to draw up a coronavirus emergency plan, stating in advance if they want to be put on a ventilator or resuscitated if they have a heart failure. A Whitehall source told the Mail ministers are 'ready to support the BMA approach'. However, some MPs and religious groups claim the guidance is akin to 'assisted dying' currently illegal in Britain and are worried at the implications of using it on a large scale. The controversy surfaced last week when the Mail reported how Lancashire doctor Andy Knox made a film asking high-risk patients if they wanted to refuse hospital treatment for coronavirus and die at home. By Simon Walters Advertisement One group boss said GPs had stopped visiting care homes, adding: 'You just feel completely abandoned.' Government guidance published last week said it would 'aim to offer more comprehensive testing' to the sector when 'capacity increases'. But some big care chains say they have not had a single test, with staff simply being advised to isolate suspected cases at the home. FSHC runs more than 200 homes, but has had no tests for residents or staff, with none at one home, Burlington House in Glasgow, where 13 residents died from a suspected outbreak in just one week. Half its 13,000 staff are self-isolating, and two have tested positive in hospital. MHA, which runs 222 sites, has had nine Covid-19 resident deaths. None of its 6,000 residents or 8,000 staff have been tested. More than one in ten staff are isolating. Colten Care, which has 21 nursing homes in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Sussex, has had three residents admitted to hospital for other health reasons. While in hospital, however, they tested positive for Covid-19 and died, although their deaths are not thought to have been related to coronavirus. The group still has no access to testing for its staff or other residents. Staff at Shedfield Lodge Residential Care Home in Southampton are sleeping in caravans outside to protect their families after a resident died from coronavirus. They have not been given any tests. The UK's largest care home group, HC-One, said none of the staff at its 320 homes had been tested. Bupa Care Homes, which operates over 120 sites, said no staff had had access to testing. Government guidance also states that if there is an outbreak in a home, a maximum of five residents can be tested. Rachel Beckett, chairman of the Wellburn group, which has 14 homes across the North East, said this was 'ludicrous', adding: 'The guidance from Government and regulators has been a disgrace.' Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, said: 'It feels like the entire care system is being swept under the carpet. How is it that the most vulnerable have found themselves at the bottom of the heap?' Gavin Edwards, of the union Unison, said infected care homes were 'the canaries in the mine'. But Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, insisted last night that testing during outbreaks at care homes was 'happening now'. She added: 'They are in the prioritised list already, so the groups routinely tested and have been ever since we have started responding to this incident include potential outbreaks in care homes. That's been going on from the start.' CLEVELAND, Ohio The state of Ohio on Saturday confirmed 17 more people in Cleveland had tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the citys total of infected people to 181, Mayor Frank Jacksons administration said. The cases, confirmed by the Ohio Department of Health, involve both men and women ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s. 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 state reported 781 cases for Cuyahoga County. Thirteen people have died, two of whom were Clevelanders. The state said Saturday that 3,739 people have tested positive in Ohio for COVID-19 coronavirus. One hundred two people have died. Saturdays total was up from 3,312 cases in 75 counties reported Friday. The number of deaths increased from 91. Saturdays report included the first case for Adams County in southwest Ohio. There have been more than 300,000 confirmed cases and 8,100 deaths related to coronavirus in the United States as of Saturday. More coronavirus coverage Cleveland Clinic doctor says coronavirus cases steady the last 6 days, hospitals still planning for a surge Projections show COVID-19 coronavirus will be one of Americas deadliest events -- Heres the numbers Why are Ohios gun shops still open? State says its a nod to constitutional rights His administration has quarrelled with various inspectors general and more than a dozen such positions are currently unfilled. When Trump signed the $US2.2 trillion ($3.7 trillion) coronavirus relief package, he issued a signing statement saying he will not allow a special inspector general created by the law to monitor spending to send reports to Congress without his supervision. On Friday night, even as he fired Atkinson, Trump installed Brian D. Miller, a White House aide, as the special inspector general for the relief spending, raising questions about how beholden he will be to the President in scrutinising the execution of the largest such stimulus program in history. Fired: Michael Atkinson, the inspector-general of the intelligence community. Credit:AP Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said Miller's selection missed the point of what such an oversight official's mission should be. "To nominate a member of the President's own staff is exactly the wrong type of person to choose for this position," Schumer said on Saturday. Schumer's office released a letter that Atkinson sent the senator on March 18 in response to concerns about whistleblowers. "As you know, the past six months have been a searing time for whistleblowers and for those who work to protect them from reprisal or threat of reprisal for reporting wrongdoing," Atkinson wrote. Promised protections are meaningless if whistleblowers are "vilified, threatened, publicly ridiculed or perhaps even worse utterly abandoned by fair weather whistleblower champions." Trump's dismissal of Atkinson was the latest instance of the president continuing to pursue his personal and policy agenda while the nation has been consumed by the pandemic. He rolled back car pollution rules and used the virus to justify tougher controls at the border with Mexico and a new rule undercutting federal unions. Trump acted against the inspector general two months after the Senate voted almost entirely along party lines to acquit him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to incriminate Democrats while withholding desperately needed security aid. But even as he has been managing the pandemic response, impeachment remains on Trump's mind. In a Fox News interview this past week, Trump blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi for impeaching him rather than facing the looming coronavirus threat. "All she did was focus on impeachment," he said. "She didn't focus on anything having to do with pandemics, she didn't focus on she focused on impeachment and she lost. And she looked like a fool." That is a theme other Republicans have picked up, arguing that the focus on ousting Trump over what they called bogus charges distracted the country. "It diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment," Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, told radio host Hugh Hewitt. Trump, however, denied that it distracted him. "Did it divert my attention?" he replied to a reporter. "I think I'm getting A-pluses for the way I handled myself during a phony impeachment. OK? It was a hoax." "I don't think I would have done any better had I not been impeached. OK?" he added. "And I think that's a great tribute to something; maybe it's a tribute to me. But I don't think I would have acted any differently or I don't think I would have acted any faster." McConnell later told The Washington Post that he meant Congress was distracted, not the government. The Senate trial ended February 5, just days after Trump ordered the country closed to most travellers from China, where the virus outbreak began. During the trial and long after it was over, Trump was playing down the seriousness of the coronavirus, likening it to the ordinary flu and predicting that "like a miracle it will disappear." It was not until March 11, five weeks after the trial, that he first addressed the nation from the Oval Office, and not until March 13 that he declared a national emergency. After the Senate trial ended, Trump began removing officials seen as enemies. The target list was long and varied, including Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a national security aide who testified before the House under subpoena, and his twin brother, Lt Col Yevgeny Vindman, who had nothing to do with impeachment other than being family. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, another witness, was removed. Ambassador William Taylor, the acting chief diplomat in Ukraine who also testified, was brought home early. John Rood, the undersecretary of defence, was ousted. Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, was pushed out early. Elaine McCusker, a Defence Department official who questioned the aid freeze had her nomination to be Pentagon comptroller withdrawn. Jessie Liu, who prosecuted Trump's friend, Roger Stone, had her nomination to be undersecretary of the Treasury withdrawn. Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, who admitted at a news briefing that the security aid was held up in part to leverage Ukraine to investigate Democrats (and then tried to take his statement back), was fired on March 6 even as the pandemic was beginning to spread more widely. As the intelligence community's inspector general, Atkinson received the whistleblower complaint filed last August by a CIA official about Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Atkinson concluded that he was required by law to disclose the complaint to Congress, but the Trump administration initially refused until pressured by lawmakers. Trump said on Saturday that Atkinson should not have forwarded the whistleblower's complaint because it was fake, but in fact the bulk of the information included in it was verified by witness testimony and other evidence collected by House investigators. "Why was the whistleblower allowed to do this?" Trump asked. "Why was he allowed to be you call him fraudulent, or incorrect transcript. So we offered this IG I don't know him, I don't think I ever met him. He never even came in to see me. How can you do that without seeing the person? Never came in to see me. Never requested to see me. He took this terrible inaccurate whistleblower report right? and he brought it to Congress." Atkinson's dismissal Friday night, a time often used by a White House to bury news it prefers not to gain widespread attention, was disclosed in a letter to Congress but not announced by the White House press office. While it had been anticipated, it still sent waves of concern among lawmakers and intelligence veterans. "It's awful. He did everything right," General Michael Hayden, a CIA director under President George W. Bush, said of Atkinson. Trump, he added, was flouting the purpose of an inspector general. "He's just doing it because he can do it." Democrats issued statements of protest Saturday. "Weakening our national security institutions is bad enough during a time of global calm," said Senaor Dianne Feinstein. "During the current instability we're faced with, it's particularly dangerous." Senator Charles Grassley said Trump should provide more justification for firing an inspector general. "They help drain the swamp, so any removal demands an explanation," Grassley said in a statement. "Congress has been crystal clear that written reasons must be given when IGs are removed for a lack of confidence. More details are needed from the administration." Senator Richard Burr, , chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was more tempered, noting that an inspector serves at the pleasure of the president. "However," he added, "in order to be effective, the IG must be allowed to conduct his or her work independent of internal or external pressure. It is my hope the next nominee for the role of ICIG will uphold the same important standards laid out by Congress when we created this role." Wartime leadership involves, most crucially, two things. The first is steely honesty in the face of grim facts. My company commander modeled this for me in his response to the estimate of 70 percent casualties within our ranks. He gathered the officers and staff noncommissioned officers. He told us that he didnt know whether the 70 percent figure was accurate but that we should assume it was. He also told us that it didnt matter. We had a job to do, and our competence in doing it was the only way to keep that figure down. The second component of wartime leadership is affirming the capabilities of those you lead. The senior enlisted Marine in our division, a sergeant major and 30-year Marine veteran, excelled at this. Two days before the battle, he addressed a large group of us who were headed into the assault. He reminded us that we were part of a legacy stretching back to battles in the Argonne Forest in World War I, to Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima in World War II, to Hue City in Vietnam and up to this very day. He placed the battle we were about to fight in a broader context. We were Marines, he affirmed, a link in a chain. As those who came before us did, wed rise to our challenge. Mr. Trump seems as though he is coming to terms with the facts on the ground. In his press briefing on Tuesday he was more sober and direct than he has been at any time during the crisis, acknowledging an estimate provided by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. Deborah L. Birx of a death toll from 100,000 to 240,000 Americans. I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead, Mr. Trump said. Were going to go through a very tough two weeks. In fact, the struggle against this pandemic will last far longer than two weeks. If Mr. Trump aspires to a legacy as a wartime president, he must dispense with the equivocations and rosy predictions that have characterized his administrations response to the coronavirus pandemic. He has to deal with the American people honestly, be straight with us about the facts of this crisis while affirming that were completely capable of rising to any challenge as a nation. From Sept. 11 to Pearl Harbor and back to our nations founding, Americans know how to come together. E pluribus unum: Its in our DNA. Its also embroidered on the flag behind the presidents desk if he cares to look. This was one of the lessons I learned in Falluja. The night before the battle, when I brought my platoon together for a last-minute pep talk, Id benefited from the example of my company commander and the sergeant major. Standing by the trucks that would drive us to our jumpoff point, the platoon gathered in the headlights. And I knew exactly what to say. I didnt tell them I hoped the casualty figures wed heard were low or that I had a hunch the battle wouldnt last too long. Instead, I told the Marines that I didnt know what was going to happen when we entered the city. I told them that didnt matter. We knew one another and could rely on one another. That would be enough. Controversial senator Catherine Noone has criticised the treatment of women in politics after she failed to get re-elected to the Seanad. Speaking to party members in a private WhatsApp group, Ms Noone also took issue with Fine Gael asking her to run in two general elections - in both of which she failed to be elected. The two-time senator's comments came after Fine Gael failed to elect any women to the Seanad. "Politics gets tougher by the minute for women, we are held to a higher level of account and much more severely criticised," Ms Noone said. "This isn't sour grapes, that's not how I'm wired - it's an observation of many colleagues over the last number of years. The majority of men think it's not an issue at all and that's part of the problem," she added. In the message, which was posted in a Dublin Bay South WhatsApp group, Ms Noone took aim at the party for asking her to run as a general election candidate in other constituencies. In 2016, she ran as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's running mate in Dublin West and in the recent general election she contested the Dublin Bay North constituency. "I've always been proud of having been a member in Dublin South East/Dublin Bay South and should probably have just stayed put and not acquiesced to requests the party made of me in successive general elections for little personal gain," she said. "Politics is tough - even when you feel you've made a decent contribution, put your neck on the line and worked hard on issues that matter - that's often not recognised and eaten bread is soon forgotten," she added. Her comments followed a discussion in the WhatsApp group about politics and gender as it was emerging that Fine Gael's female Seanad candidates were not likely to take seats. After she posted her message, Ms Noone left the group. During the general election, Ms Noone was criticised after she described Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as "autistic" and "on the spectrum". She later sought to defend the comments she made to the London Times by giving examples of what she saw as offensive words that could be used out of context, including "special" and "n***er". She subsequently issued a statement apologising for her "inexcusable" remarks. She received 2,279 first preference votes in the general election. In the Seanad election, she received 18 first preference votes and was eliminated on the 15th count. She was among several unsuccessful Fine Gael female candidates, including outgoing senator Gabrielle McFadden. The party returned 12 senators, all of whom were male. Fine Gael controversially did not select high-profile TD Kate O'Connell for their Seanad ticket after she missed out on a Dail seat. Ms O'Connell's sister, Mary Newman, did run for by the Seanad but was unsuccessful. Fianna Fail were the big winners in the Seanad with 16 seats after counting was completed, including three women, Fiona O'Loughlin, Lisa Chambers and Catherine Ardagh. Nine Independent senators were elected. Sinn Fein and Labour had five each and the Greens had two. The final 11 Taoiseach's nominees to the Seanad will not be selected until the next government is formed. Mr Varadkar will be expected to appoint female candidates to the upper house if Fine Gael is part of the next government. Editor: Harry Truman had a sign on his desk, "The Buck Stops Here." The phrase refers to the notion that the president has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. The federal government has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of its citizens. We are now two or more weeks into the "Stay at home" order. I reviewed in my mind the sequence of events over the last several months. It is clear the Trump administration was aware of the ferociousness of COVID-19 as early as January ("19" in COVID-19 stands for "2019"). In mid-January, health screenings began at three major airports for anyone who traveled to or from Wuhan China. How has Donald Trump handled this virus? The lag in taking the necessary precautions (early testing, early call for social distancing, stockpiling protective equipment) led to the exponential growth of cases in this country. On Feb. 28, Trump held a rally downplaying the severity of the virus and likening it the common flu. He said the Democrats' criticism of his handling of the outbreak was "their new hoax." When asked if he took any responsibility for the spread of this virus, Trump said "I take no responsibility at all." After his own task force called for "social distancing", Trump stated he wanted to "pack the churches" by Easter. By contrast, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given daily public updates about the virus. He has called for Americans to work together, for states to share supplies and called on all people to do their duty by observing social distancing practices. He mentions and commends health care workers who put their life on the line to care for others. For me, it's these people who deserve to put a sign on their door that says "The Buck Stops Here." Mary Hilliard, Lake George Love 3 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Jersey officials Saturday made a plea for more people with medical experience to volunteer as hospitals especially in the northern part of the state continue to see a surge of patients with the coronavirus. Officials were expecting to see a surge by the second week in April, lasting into May. But multiple hospitals have hit divert status in recent days meaning the whole hospital or a part of it reached capacity and had to divert patients to other facilities. We believe part of that surge is just starting, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli at the Trenton War Memorial during the states daily coronavirus press briefing. Persichilli said nine hospitals in North Jersey hit that status Friday night because of staffing issues and critical care capacity as the state copes with the second-most cases among U.S. states, after New York. She added that the state is sending out a crisis alert Saturday for help from those with a medical background. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage We need volunteers to assist us in this effort, Persichilli said, calling on people to visit Covid19.nj.gov/volunteer if they can help. Added Gov. Phil Murphy: Goodness knows, we need you. Murphy said New Jersey is trying to add more hospital capacity as quickly as we can, including adding more critical car beds, reopening closed hospitals and wings, setting up field hospitals, and possibly using hotel rooms and college dormitories. This is an enormous effort to bring thousands of new beds online, the governor said. Every hospital in the state, Persichilli said, is working to increase critical care capacity. Some are using recovery rooms and cafeteria areas to care for patients, she said. More than 4,000 people with the virus in the state are hospitalized, Persichilli said. Of those, 1,494 are in critical care, with more than 85% 1,263 on life-saving ventilators. New Jersey, a state of 9 million residents, has at least 34,124 cases of COVID-19, including at least 846 deaths, officials announced Saturday. The death toll is now more than the 704 New Jersey residents who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Persichilli has said the state may need to add 6,000 more ventilators to handle the surge. Murphy said the federal government has sent 850 so far, but hes asked for 1,650 more. Officials said the states first pop-up field hospital to help handle an overflow of patients is set to open Monday at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus. The federal government is helping build two other field hospitals in the state. One is set to open April 8 at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison and another April 14 at the Atlantic City Convention Center, officials said. Meanwhile, officials said the state is considering using hotels and dorms to house medical workers close to hospitals especially ones near colleges in New Brunswick and Newark. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. No fewer than 13 churches were on Sunday sealed by the Enforcement Team on COVID-19 in Ovia South-West Local Government Council of Edo state, for failure to adhere to the states social distancing order. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Vice Chairman of the council, Mr Fred Aimienwanwu, led the task force team on the exercise. According to Aimienwanwu, the team had visited some worship centres in order to ensure total compliance with the state governments order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the state. The enforcement team was, however, mandated by the council boss, Mr Destiny Enabulele, to enforce compliance and seal off the churches defying governments order. He noted that following a tip-off by some people, his sprang into action. These observers reported that some churches directed their members to attend service in spite of the lockdown order by the federal, state and local governments, he said. He further warned businesses and worship centres within the council area to adhere to the orders given by President Muhammadu Buhari, Gov. Godwin Obaseki and by extension, the local government chairman. There will be no hidden place for defaulters, the vice chairman warned. Aimienwanwu was accompanied by other members of the committee, Secretary to the Local Government, Obateru Oladimeji and the Divisional Police Officer, Iguobazuwa division, Adenodi Bamidele, among others. (NAN) WASHINGTON Governors' warnings of life-threatening shortages of ventilators have emerged as a flashpoint between President Donald Trump and the states as the coronavirus crisis deepens. "Some states have more ventilators than they need," Trump told a news briefing Saturday. "They don't even like to admit it. They'll admit it when everything's over but that doesn't help us very much. Governors in hard-hit states like New York, Michigan and Louisiana say doctors could be forced to make life or death decisions about who will get ventilators and who won't if hospitals starting running out of the machines when the peak of the crisis hits. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has said his state is expected to exhaust its supply of ventilators by April 6. Though Louisiana has received some ventilators from the national stockpile, Edwards said his state still needs thousands more. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has estimated his state will need as many as 30,000 ventilators and could start facing shortages by the middle of next week. Cuomo dismissed the suggestion that he was overstating the needs. He said New York was prepared to pay for 17,000 ventilators it had ordered on its own but didn't get them because of competing demands. "We were not looking to spend a penny that we didn't have to spend," Cuomo said. Wartime powers: Trump hasn't ordered any ventilators from GM, despite saying he was using his authority to force production US coronavirus map: Tracking the outbreak Without naming a specific governor Trump said Saturday he was frustrated that some states that have already received ventilators from the federal government were insisting they needed more. "And then the media meets with the governor and they say, 'Oh, you got more. Well, it's not enough. The president should have sent more,'" Trump said, adding "that's politics." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the press at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, on March 27, 2020. The tensions between governors and the Trump administration grew this week when Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser and the president's son-in-law, referred to the federal stockpile of medical supplies as "our stockpile." Story continues "It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use," he said. Trump has said the federal government is ready to help the states but needs the "flexibility of moving the ventilators" to virus hot spots. He and his aides say the administration will mobilize the equipment to areas where it's most needed days in advance but they're also urging states to tap their own stockpiles and do what they can to obtain their own supplies. Birx: Virus hotspots will see a spike in deaths over next 6-7 days Cuomo: New York getting 1,000 ventilators from China to help in coronavirus battle Several governors want the federal government to use its clout to buy more ventilators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency could then distribute to states in the greatest need, the governors argue. "Why would you create a situation where the 50 states are competing with each other and then the federal government, FEMA, comes in and competes with the rest of it?" Cuomo asked. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer have also expressed frustration over competing against one another and the federal government in bidding for supplies in the private market, which has led to price-gouging. So how many ventilators are likely to be needed, how many are there now and why are they in such short supply? Here's an overview of what led to the problems and the debate over how to solve them. How many ventilators are available? Trump has declared the U.S would produce 100,000 ventilators in 100 days and told reporters Thursday that 11 companies were behind the effort to expedite production. While General Motors and Ford have said they would manufacture ventilators, it wasn't immediately clear what other companies were producing the machines. Most of the 100,000 ventilators Trump promised to have by June will not be available until the end of the month at the earliest, FEMA officials told the House Oversight Committee this week. FEMA said there were just 9,500 ventilators in the national stockpile, with about 3,200 expected to be added by the week of April 13, according to documents from the agency released by the committee's Democrats. The U.S. coronavirus crisis is projected to peak by the middle of April, when nearly 32,000 ventilators will be needed to address the outbreak, according to data from the Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. FEMA acknowledges "that the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) alone could not fulfill all requirements at the State and tribal level" in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an agency spokesperson. How a mechanical ventilator works. FEMA officials have told the House Oversight Committee the demand for ventilators "outstrips the capacity" of the national stockpile as well as the 1,065 machines donated by the Department of Defense. As of April 2, FEMA officials have shipped 8,100 ventilators from the national stockpile, a FEMA spokesperson said, adding that the agency is expediting critical medical supplies from the global market to medical distributors across the country. Six flights carrying medical supplies from Asia have arrived in the U.S. since March 29, including two flights that arrived Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, early on Friday, according to the FEMA spokesperson. The agency has scheduled 27 additional flights through April 18. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announces the state's first two cases of coronavirus, at the Michigan State Police headquarters in Windsor Township, Mich. on March 10, 2020. The medical supplies will be given first to medical distributors in areas of greatest need and the remainder "will be infused into the broader U.S. supply chain," the FEMA spokesperson said. FEMA also points to the $16 billion allocated to build up the stockpile in the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress last week that will help address the shortage. Why is there a shortage? The Strategic National Stockpile, which is managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, consists of several secretly located warehouses across the U.S. that contain emergency medical supplies. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who served as health secretary under former President George W. Bush and oversaw the response to outbreaks of anthrax, SARS and Monkeypox, said the number of warehouses was expanded to 12 from eight after the 9/11 attacks. Thompson, who said he offered a federal plan for preparation for a pandemic before he left office, said Congress failed to appropriate funding to replenish the depleted stockpiles over the years. "They were maintained, but they were not expanded," he told USA TODAY. "I think it was lack of attention. I don't think you blame the governors. I don't think you blame the president. I think that everybody neglected filling these sites with what was needed." Greg Burel, who served as head of the SNS for more than 12 years before he retired in January, said the stockpile was not initially designed for pandemic influenza but Congress began investing funds in preparation for such an event in the early 2000s. "We always knew that even then, it wasn't as much as some of the models suggested we would need if it was a 1918 sort of an event," he said, referring to the flu pandemic of 1918. "Even with the pandemic influenza money, it was going to be almost impossible fiscally, to stockpile our way out of that kind of a problem." Burel said Congress never saw fit to fund the replacement of materials exhausted during the the 2009 flu epidemic, which played a hand in today's unfolding coronavirus crisis. He added that local and state health departments lack the funding needed and the private health care supply chain operates in "just-in-time" basis that hinders any sort of wide-scale response to a pandemic. 'We're not an ordering clerk' Trump has said federal government's stockpile can help the country through the crisis but has also criticized states for having "insatiable appetites" for equipment and not doing enough to build their own supplies. States should have been building their stockpiles, he added. Were a back-up, were not an ordering clerk, he said. But the existence of the stockpile is aimed directly at helping states, according to Josh Gotbaum, a former assistant secretary of defense for economic security and executive associate director for Office of Management and Budget under former President Bill Clinton. "The whole purpose of emergency stockpiles is to protect the nation in an emergency. Even if the stockpiles are inadequate, they still must be used for the entire nation," he said. "It's not to make sure there's enough ventilators for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The Defense Department already takes care of that." Coronavirus: Will I get a check? Where do I find peanut butter? What crisis-hit Americans are asking lawmakers amid coronavirus Cuomo said Friday the government should send more ventilators and medical supplies that New York could then redeploy to other hard-hit localities where demand is surging. "What is the alternative to the crisis that we see looming nationwide?" he said. "New York is in crisis. Help New York and then pick up the camp and go to the next place as this rolls across the country." Thompson said while Cuomo and other governors are rightly focused on their states, Trump has to assess where the life-saving machines are needed most across the country. "The stockpiles are federal...the president is responsible for all the states," Thompson said. "So he's got to make that tough decision." Can Trump use wartime powers to get more ventilators? Trump has shown ambivalence about using the full authority of the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to compel private companies to make ventilators, masks and other equipment. He has at times likened the wartime authority to nationalization of private industry and invoked Venezuela's economy as an example of the dangers of the approach. While Trump announced a week ago that he was activating the DPA to force General Motors to manufacture ventilators for coronavirus, the administration had not formally ordered any machines as of Thursday, USA TODAY has learned. President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House. Trump this week announced a fresh request to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to use the act for several other companies, including General Electric, Hill-Rom Holdings, Medtronic, ResMed, Royal Philips, and Vyaire Medical. But the latest order provided no more detail on how the government would compel those companies to make ventilators than the order targeted at General Motors. The order also did not clarify how many ventilators the administration is requesting. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump says states playing politics in ventilator requests Even as Yiyun Li's work is set as much in China as in America, she continues to have a complicated relationship with the country and maintains that shed rather not have her books translated into Chinese. For Yiyun Li, writing is much more than simply telling a story. It is about having a conversation with someone elses writing and establishing a dialogue through her work with the writers she enjoys reading. A MacArthur genius as well as the recipient of several literary accolades such as the PEN/Hemingway Award, Li has recently added another feather to her literary hat on winning Yale Universitys Windham-Campbell Award for Fiction along with Zambian writer Nampwali Serpell. Of a total of eight awards given away each year, the 2020 edition witnessed seven women take home the sumptuous 165, 000 purse awarded to each winner. I was in my car waiting to pick up my child from school, and I was excited, thrilled, incredulous, and of course feeling very lucky and honoured, says Li, recalling the moment she found out that she had won the prestigious literary award, which follows an anonymous process where the jury and the nominees remain a secret even after the prizes have been declared. On winning the Windham-Campbell Award, Li had said: Writing is a solitary activity; each book is a message sent out in a bottle. And one day, a phone call, coming out of the blue, tells an astonishing story of those bottles journey not known to the sender: they have arrived, and they are in good hands. Lis literary career spans over nearly two decades, however, when she first left her home in China in 1996, it was to arrive in the United States as a student of immunology at the University of Iowa. The shift from science to writing was born out of her quest to find something less certain and unknown, an idea which was further thrust into sharp focus with the looming uncertainty of her immigration status. I loved immunology, and I loved my experience as a scientist, but when I was in my late twenties, I could see my entire life unfold in front of me if I followed the scientific career, she recalls. Then, thinking what could the least certain thing be, then pursuing a writing career? she enrolled for a Master of Fine Art (MFA) in Creative Writing at Iowa which led up to her MacArthur Fellowship, book publishing deals and her first collection of short stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005). Oscillating between China and America, the stories explore a mixed bag of characters: a pregnant woman who takes a bus from Nebraska to Chicago to get an abortion; the lookalike of a Chinese dictator who seeks redemption by going to extraordinary lengths; and the protagonist of the title story, a retired rocket scientist who visits his daughter in America and ends up forming an unlikely friendship with an Iranian woman in spite of not sharing a common language. Through her works, Li brings forth the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution in China. Her debut novel The Vagrants, tells the story of a provincial town, Muddy River, in which a young woman is about to be executed for dissent in the late 1970s. In her stories, the author speaks of the oppression and turmoil the revolution left behind in its wake but simultaneously manages to delve deep into personal relationships, capturing her characters in their struggles to cope with the undesirable situations they are caught in. Also read: Raghu Karnad on winning Windham-Campbell Prize, his book on India's role in WWII, and forgotten histories Yet, even as Li's work is set as much in China as in America, she continues to have a complicated relationship with the country and maintains that she would rather not have her books translated into Chinese. This and her relationship with her family, particularly her mother, are part of the subject matter of her memoir, Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life. The collection of essays, which borrows its title from one of Katherine Mansfields journal entries, was written following the Chinese-American writers breakdown in 2012. In the summer and autumn of that year, she tried to twice kill herself and the contemplation that came after, translated into her first autobiographical work. The book, she opines, is less about my life but about my reading life, and I consider that writing non-fiction is a way to clear my mind and to make some space for my fiction. In keeping with this purpose, the memoir is in a way a commentary on passages from the works of some of her favourite writers including Ivan Turgenev, Thomas Hardy and Elizabeth Bowen. As well, what she also writes about is how she wished to escape from the darkness brought on by the Tiananmen-era in Beijing and more prominently, her desire to free herself of the Chinese language. Lis writing is transparent in this regard, so much so that in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, a daughter tells her parent that speaking in English makes her feel like a new person. Particularly poignant passages in her memoir are those that divulge her difficult relationship with her mother and how utterly impossible it was to escape from the pain she was trying to leave behind. Family, the author remarks, is one of the first and one of the most everlasting factors forming everyone's life (and for some, lack of a family). But when asked if the escape she was looking for in her move to America ever leaves her with a sense of alienation from her roots, she points out, I try not to think whether I feel alienated or not from my roots; I don't feel a strong longing for anything that would call itself a home. A writer has to be able to live in an almost homeless mind, at least, that is how I feel. Also read: Windham-Campbell Prize winning author Danielle McLaughlin on the power of short stories, and her creative process Currently a professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University, Li has worked with short fiction, non-fiction and longer novels, each having its own distinct narrative structures. However, she remarks that there may not be a major difference between writing short stories and writing novels. The lengths are different, she says, but one's responsibility to the character, whether s/he is in a story or in a novel, is the same. In 2019, Li published her latest work, Where Reasons End, an imaginary conversation between a mother and her son, who kills himself. The author lost her own teenage boy to suicide and in this book builds up a conversation between a precocious son and his mother unravelling, over what would seem simple questions or discussions of normal, quotidian life, the suffering of her characters. While Where Reasons End has been categorised as autofiction, the author herself says that it was written during a specific moment in her life for a specific reason which was to find words for what words cannot say. In borrowing the title from Argue, a poem by Elizabeth Bishops she drives home the point that in the end when we write, we are always trying to reach a place beyond any reason. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) Officials in Corpus Christi said theyre looking at ways to discourage vacationers from visiting the popular South Texas city amid the coronavirus outbreak in the state. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Mayor Joe McComb is looking at possibly restricting residential vacation rentals in his coastal city during the upcoming weeks. Were going to be looking at the possibilities of trying to convince them that coming down here is not in their best interest or our best interest, McComb said. Because the traveling bug comes with them and we just want to protect our citizens. The majority of COVID-19 cases in Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, are travel-related, according to public documents. Texas has more than 6,100 cases and at least 105 related deaths, state health officials said Saturday. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause pneumonia. The World Health Organization said this week that 95% of the deaths in Europe were of people over 60. ___ Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak During the 33 years Ive owned my book shop, my daily priorities are in order of importance: (1) selling books; (2) writing; and (3) maintaining the place. To say that priority No. 3 which includes mundane tasks such as dusting, vacuuming and straightening up the premises is a distant third doesnt even begin to do it justice. Theres always the occasional neatnik who points out a bit of cat hair on the carpet or a cobweb in a corner. I respond by noting that such imperfections merely serve to give my book shop character and ambiance. The overwhelming majority of my patrons take an unsorted pile of books or two in stride. I often welcome first-time customers with a facetious request. Feel free to browse around, but please dont muss up the place, I tell them. Try to leave my book shop as neat as you found it. My plea never fails to get a laugh. And then the coronavirus struck our nation. I knew it was just a matter of time before my book shop would be ordered to close, so I warned my regulars to stock up. If youre suppose to avoid crowds, I told them as they browsed my shelves, this book shop is about as safe a place as you can hang out. Crowds have always been just a rumor here. My patrons and I agreed that the governments decision to regard grocery stores as essential but book shops as non-essential is shortsighted. Of course people need to feed their bodies, but what about feeding their minds? E-reading can do only so much. I can still be found in my book shop these days. Although the shop is closed for business, its still ideal for writing. And Im also using this period of forced closure to clean up the place. I just finished sorting through the piles of debris that stood behind my checkout counter. Some of the finds were nothing less than astonishing. I discovered a mint condition copy of the Raymond Chandler Mystery Map of Los Angeles, which depicts the real-life locations of events that occur in Chandlers novels. I havent carried such literary maps since my book store was at its original location: 117 Market Street on Lincoln-Douglas Square. I moved from that address in 1992! Other finds saddened my heart. Wedged in a corner was a photo of Mr. Otts, Briskette and Bewitched, three of my book shops most beloved felines. Mr. Otts, once so hearty and robust, is obviously emaciated from kidney failure. I regularly took him to the vet to be given intravenous fluids and even acupuncture. We both fought for his life but to no avail. Mr. Otts died on Jan. 5, 2007. Briskette died in 2015 and, as readers of The Telegraph surely recall, Bewitched died last autumn at age 24. The most poignant discovery was a photocopy of Continental History of the 987 Field Artillery Battalion, 6 June 1944 8 May 1945. My late father, John Jack Dunphy, served in this battalion during World War II. Dads original copy, which is kept at my home, was written on a manual typewriter and features a black and white photo of a self-propelled 155mm M12 glued to the cover. According to War History Online, the M12 was nicknamed doorknocker because its shells could punch through seven feet of concrete even when firing from 2,000 yards! It was also nicknamed Bunker Buster and King Kong. A choppy sea prevented Dads battalion from landing on Normandy until June 7, but it went directly into firing position to support the British 50th Division. This history summarizes the battalions role in five major campaigns: Normandy; northern France, Rhineland; Ardennes, which includes the Battle of the Bulge; and central Europe. The history concludes, The War In Europe is officially over 8 May 1945. When do we go home????? Dad disliked discussing his wartime experiences. Reading this history helps me to understand why. John J. Dunphy is an author, the Godfrey 15th Precinct Democratic Committeeperson and recording secretary for the Godfrey Democrats. The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a man in connection with the December violence near the Jamia Millia Islamia university New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a man in connection with the December violence near the Jamia Millia Islamia university, officials said. He has been been identified as Aashu Khan (38) from Jamia Nagar, they said. Khan was sent to two-day police remand by a court, the officials said. On 15 December, scores of people, including Jamia students and policemen, were injured, four DTC buses were set afire and over 100 private vehicles were damaged when protesters opposing the amended citizenship law turned violent and clashed with police near New Friends Colony. Police had used batons and tear gas shells to disperse the protesters and entered the Jamia campus where several students were beaten up and detained. (Bloomberg) -- Turkey imposed stricter measures to slow the spread of the countrys coronavirus outbreak by placing 31 cities under quarantine and banning people under the age of 20 from leaving their homes nationwide. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the measures -- which prohibits entries into and exit from Turkeys largest cities, including the commercial hub Istanbul for 15 days -- in a televised address on Friday after the death toll from the disease rose 19% to 425 and the number of confirmed cases rose 15% to 20,921. Turks over the age of 65 have been told not to venture out since March 22 as authorities seek to protect some of the nations most vulnerable citizens. A board of top scientists urged the government to broaden those restrictions to younger people, whose mobility has emerged as a key weakness in the strategy against the virus, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Below is a brief summary of the Turkish presidents speech: The quarantine initially holds for 15 days and applies to Turkeys major cities such as Istanbul, where a bulk of the cases have been identified. The province of Zonguldak, where respiratory illnesses are more common than elsewhere, is also includedWearing a mask in public places and crowded factories is now mandatory for everyoneThe governments strategy is to make sure that people leave their homes only for work or to meet basic needs Turkey Imposes Curfew for People Over 65 as Virus Toll Rises The quarantine marks a possible turning point for Turkey, which has so far avoided strict lockdowns imposed in other parts of the world. Earlier in the outbreak, Turkey suspended flights from abroad, intercity travel was banned unless officially authorized and schools will remain shut for at least another month. 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. Your browser does not support the audio element. The health conditions of most novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients who were previously considered as serious cases have improved thanks to the relentless efforts of doctors in Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Health, patient No. 19, a 64-year-old Hanoi woman, no longer needs support from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). She has also tested negative for the disease three times so far. Her health condition turned bad on March 15 during her COVID-19 treatment at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh District, Hanoi. The situation continued to get worse on March 19, thus the patient needed to undergo the ECMO therapy. The health of three other serious patients, including two Britons and a Vietnamese, have also improved and they no longer need support from ventilators. Two out of the three have also tested negative for COVID-19 three times since receiving treatment. Doctors assessed that it would take another week to know for sure if they are no longer in bad health, but everything has proved good so far. An 88-year-old woman is the only one left who requires support from a ventilator. She was infected with COVID-19 during her treatment for another illness at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi in March. All of Vietnams five severe COVID-19 cases have been treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Thirty experts and doctors were brought together to monitor their health and determine the best treatment for them. The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected nearly 1.2 million people and killed more than 64,600 globally as of Sunday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics. Vietnam has announced 240 COVID-19 patients so far, with 90 having recovered. No fatality associated with the disease has been reported in the country to date. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The special team of Delhi Police on Sunday headed back to the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat that has emerged as the single-biggest source of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections in the country and seized documents including a crucial register that contains details of foreign Tablighi workers in the country. We have started the probe, a top Delhi Police officer told Hindustan Times after a team of the Crime Branch seized the register. Police in the national capital had registered the first case against the Tablighi workers (FIR number 63) and its leadership for multiple offences. Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla had this week ordered other states to start filing criminal cases against the foreign Tablighi workers as well. A Home Ministry official said they had started receiving confirmation from states that police stations across the country had started registering cases under the penal provisions against these workers.. Faced with the legal proceedings against them, the foreign nationals attempted to escape India in special flights for evacuating Malyasian and Indonesian nationals. But they were stopped from boarding the evacuation flights at Delhi and Chennai airports under instructions from the home ministry. Among those stopped was a group of 8 Malaysians who had boarded the flight to Kuala Lumpur but were stopped by immigration officials minutes before take off. The religious congregation at Tablighi Jamaats Nizamuddin headquarters has been linked to a third of coronavirus infections in India. In the national capital, according to a Delhi government document seen by HT, 320 out of the citys total of 503 cases are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat. The number of Covid-19 infection cases are expected to go up as foreigners later picked up from various mosques in Delhi and other parts of the country are being tested for the virus. Also Read: Markaz leadership resisted, then NSA Ajit Doval dropped by at 2 am Officials recall how the Tablighi Jamaat leadership resisted efforts to get them to vacate the premises when health authorities sounded an alarm at scores of people showing symptoms of the disease. On March 28, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had to test his relationship with Darul-Uloom, Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind and Al-Hadees leadership to convince Markaz emir to ask his supporters to vacate the Banglewali Masjid. It was only then that the Jamaat workers came out and boarded the buses lined up for them. By then, 24 of them had already tested positive and 200 showed symptoms of having contracted the infection. The discovery of the hot spot had triggered alarm in several circles of the government and triggered a nation-wide search for foreigners and Indians alike who had been to the Markaz, or come in contact with someone who did. The Home Ministry said 21,200 Tablighi Jamaat workers and their contacts had been placed under quarantine. At his daily briefing on Sunday, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal underlined how the Jamaat-linked cases across 17 states had fuelled the spike in Covid-19 cases in India. Indias Covid-19 cases have doubled in 4.1 days due to the Tablighi Jamaat cases, he said. If it were not for the congregation, Indias rate of doubling that is the number of days the cases double would have been at 7.4 days, Agarwal said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Posco Enery's fuel cell factory in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of Posco Energy By Kim Jae-heun Posco Energy said Sunday it will sue FuelCell Energy (FCE) for providing a defective component and power-conditioning (stabilization) equipment that caused it nearly 1 trillion won ($809 million) in economic loss. The local private energy supplier noted that it had been working to address the issue with the American hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer. However, the company said negotiations can no longer settle the problem and so it will now take legal action. According to Posco Energy, FCE has been supplying them with modular fuel cell stacks for converting hydrogen into electricity, but key components turned out to be defective. The local energy firm has already suffered economic losses from the faulty power-conditioning equipment, which is used to stabilize power across fuel cell stacks and affects the efficiency of the generators. In January and March, Posco Energy filed compensation suits with the Seoul Central District Court for 2 billion won in losses resulting from the faulty power-conditioning equipment and 8.6 billion won in losses from the faulty fuel cells. Every year, Korea Southern Power Co., Ltd. pays approximately 8 billion won to the American firm for maintenance of operations at the energy facility. A Posco Energy official said the energy producing company will suggest mediation by International Chambers of Commerce in Singapore. "The amount raised at arbitration is 10 billion won," a Posco Energy official said. In response, FCE warned that it would also take legal action against Posco Energy saying the firm violated a licensing contract Feb. 20. The American firm added if the matter was not resolved within 60 days, it will cancel the deal. However, Posco Energy denied the allegation and claimed the fuel cell manufacturer attempted to enter the Korean market without prior negotiations with them. A source aware of the matter said FCE's argument that Posco Energy violated their contract was absurd considering the nearly 1 trillion won in losses the American firm caused by providing defective parts and equipment. "Posco Energy needs to take legal action over this and this is the right decision for the local fuel cell market too," the source said. Chidambaram advocates aggressive testing for coronavirus India pti-PTI New Delhi, Apr 05: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday urged the government to start aggressive testing as lockdown for coronavirus will be effective only if "we test, detect, isolate and then treat". He also welcomed the ICMR's advice to the government for starting antibody tests in hotspots, as it was overdue. "CWC in its resolution pointed out that limited testing was a flawed strategy. Epidemiologists have demanded extensive and aggressive testing. Let government start aggressive testing today. "A lockdown will be effective only if we TEST, TEST, DETECT, ISOLATE and TREAT. That is the lesson from Japan, South Korea and Singapore," he said on Twitter. The Congress leader also said, "I welcome ICMR's new advice to government to do 'rapid antibody tests starting in hotspots. According to many doctors, this advice was overdue." Restrictions on movement and trade as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a significant shift in consumer behavior in Saudi Arabia, with locals increasingly turning to digital channels, said a report by Oxford Business Group (OBG), the global publishing, research and consultancy company. Worldwide, cases of Covid-19 have risen to 859,000 and 42,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus as of the morning of April 1. Saudi Arabia has recorded around 2,179 cases so far, while the number of those who died has risen to 29, health officials said on Saturday. The kingdom had recorded its first case of Covid-19 on March 2, and the first virus-related fatality a 51-year- old Afghani resident in the country on March 23. The first death coincided with the introduction of a 21-day nationwide curfew, also announced on March 23, which prohibits people from leaving their homes between the hours of 7pm and 6am. This was followed two days later by a tightening of measures designed to stop the spread of the virus. The government announced a lockdown of the capital Riyadh and Makkah and Madinah. It also extended the curfew in all three places, bringing forward the start time to 3pm, while forbidding movement between all provinces in the kingdom. In terms of international movements, all international flights were suspended on March 15 for a period of two weeks, although this could be extended. Big boost for e-commerce Despite the comparatively limited medical impact on the kingdom, the threat presented by the virus - alongside efforts to maintain social distancing - has led to a significant shift in lifestyle and consumer habits, with e-commerce experiencing a rapid spike in growth. In late March, local online retailer BinDawood Holding told local media that, since the escalation of the Covid- 19 crisis, its average sales on a 10-day basis had increased by 200%, while its average order value rose by 50% and app installations by 400%. The company has two e-commerce platforms BinDawood and Danube which are connected to their respective supermarket and hypermarket chains, enabling customers to purchases groceries and other goods online, said the report. While the economic impacts of the virus have seen many businesses close and millions of people lose their jobs globally, BinDawood officials say the rapid growth in activity has helped the company buck these trends. All of the companys 72 stores remain open, including the newest Danube store, which opened last week in Riyadhs Al Andalus district. The company has also hired more packers and drivers to keep up with demand for online deliveries. Elsewhere, fellow Saudi grocery delivery app Nana has also benefitted from the recent turn towards online shopping, raising $18m in a Series B funding round in late March to expand operations across the Middle East, with investors including venture capital funds Saudi Technology Ventures and Middle East Venture Partners. This follows a Series A funding round that raised $6 million last year. The company has expanded capacity three-fold following a surge in demand associated with the Covid-19 outbreak. This is expected to continue in light of the Saudi governments decision to impose tighter curfews in major cities. Looking ahead, retailers may need to adapt their supply chains in response to shifting market dynamics. "Vertical integration is a pivotal development strategy, especially considering the recent spike in demand for e-commerce and fresh food delivery, which Saudi Arabia's supply can hardly meet," Seifallah Sharbatly, the managing director of Sharbalty Fruit, told OBG. The emergence of online retail, albeit during a time of crisis, aligns with some of the goals of Saudi Arabias overarching strategies. As part of the Financial Sector Development Programme itself part of Vision 2030, the Kingdoms long- term development plan the government hopes to increase the proportion of online payments to 70% by 2030, up from the 2020 target of 28%, stated Sharbatly. To help incentivise this growth and ensure long-term sustainability in the segment, the government has also sought to improve the regulatory framework, he added. Hans-Peter Huber, chief investment officer of investment bank Riyad Capital, said: "The impact of Covid-19 and the most recent drop in oil prices on foreign trade will affect the Saudi balance of payments this year and beyond. The magnitude of this impact will largely depend on Saudi export oil prices." "On the other hand, as there are major travel restrictions in place globally, the virus will affect both inbound and outbound tourism, so the direct net impact of Covid-19 on the trade balance should be relatively small," Peter Huber told OBG. "Furthermore, the lower oil prices and virus-related lockdown should lead to lower domestic growth, which in turn has a dampening impact on import demand," he stated. Furthermore, the Economist Intelligence Unit has forecast that the Saudi economy will contract by 5% this year, down on initial predictions of 1% growth, he added.-TradeArabia News Service LISBON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Amid heated debate over whether to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa admitted Saturday that he wears a face mask when shopping, Lusa News Agency reported. During a visit to a tomato farm in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, in the suburbs of Lisbon, Rebelo de Sousa told reporters that when he goes shopping, once or twice a week, he wears a face mask and gloves, Lusa reported. "I wear a mask. This is an idea that came from [one of] my grandchildren. He learns from the Chinese example. China has another tradition of using masks," the 71-year-old president was quoted by Lusa as saying. "I think that when I go to a commercial store to shop and there is a meeting with more people in a closed environment, I should wear gloves and a mask, so as not to [directly] touch food products and other things, packaging, etc.," said the president, quoted by Lusa. The head of state had been in self-quarantine for 15 days when a school in the north was closed after one student tested positive early last month. He received a group of students from the school at the Palace of Belem several days before. The president, having tested negative twice since then, said his quarantine is to give a reinforced example of prevention and demonstrate high civic maturity for the Portuguese people. However, in Portugal, going out with a mask as a self-protective measure is still not very popular, even after the president declared a state of emergency on March 18 and renewed it on April 2 for another 15 days to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Directorate-General for Health (DGS) Graca Freitas has repeatedly claimed that wearing a mask is not necessary and only gives a false sense of security, adding that no single measure in the fight against COVID-19 "is miraculous." "We know to date that there is no single measure that is completely effective. In other words, it is only in the set of measures that we are able to flatten the curve and lower the number of cases each week," she said at her daily press conference on Friday. Faced with criticism from Fausto Pinto, the president of the Council of Portuguese Medical Schools, Freitas said that the widespread use of masks will be decided in line with international recommendations. "Portugal is in line with the recommendations of the WHO, the European Center for Disease Control and the medical literature, and I have always said that if there is new scientific evidence, we would do it according to them," she said. Pinto has criticized the DGS for lack of guidelines for the widespread use of protective masks, saying that the DGS's argument that masks are not effective is not true, and that it is an excuse because there are not enough masks in the country. "It has been shown that the use of masks reduces the potential for contamination," he said. Portugal has recorded 10,524 confirmed infections with 266 deaths, according to the bulletin of the DGS on Saturday. New Delhi, April 5 : The Union Health Ministry on Sunday said the total tally of cases in Delhi has left behind the worst-hit Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. With 503 in the national capital, the total tally of coronavirus cases reached 3,577. The updated data was put out by the Health Ministry in the evening. At least 274 people have recovered from the deadly coronavirus across the country. However 83 deaths have also been reported from different states. The total number includes 65 foreign nationals and one person has migrated. There are now, 3,219 active cases of COVID-19, said the ministry. According to Health Ministry data, Delhi has left behind the worst hit state of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and has 503 cases, while there are 490 cases in Maharashtra, 485 cases in Tamil Nadu. Kerala has 306 cases, Telangana reported 269 cases, Uttar Pradesh has 227, Rajasthan has 200 cases so far. Other states and UTs that have reported the novel coronavirus cases, are Andhra Pradesh (190), Gujarat (122), Jammu and Kashmir (106), Karnataka (144), Madhya Pradesh (165), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (10), Arunachal Pradesh (1), Assam (26), Bihar (30), Chandigarh (18), Chhattisgarh (9), Goa (7), Haryana (59), Himachal Pradesh (6), Jharkhand (3), Ladakh (14), Manipur (2), Mizoram (1), Odisha (20) Puducherry (5), Punjab (57), Uttarakhand (22) and West Bengal(80). Speaking to media, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said, "The doubling rate, which means in how many days the number of COVID-19 cases double, at present is 4.1 days. But if cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat event had not come, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days." He said at least 274 districts have covid cases in India. According to the Health Ministry, at least 472 new cases and 11 new deaths have been reported since yesterday. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Cancer survival rates will fall if the coronavirus crisis continues to put pressure on the NHS and cause delays in diagnosis and treatment, according to a leading cancer expert. Professor Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said that the delays may mean that some tumours will grow and become inoperable. So far 4,313 people in the UK have died from coronavirus and a whopping 41,903 are infected with the disease. Cancer survival rates will fall if the coronavirus crisis continues to put pressure on the NHS and cause delays in diagnosis and treatment, according to a leading cancer expert. Pictured are passengers walking through arrivals in Heathrow after returning from Florida today There is some suggestion that surgeries, screenings and diagnoses for early-stage cancers are being delayed by some NHS trusts in England. Mr Swanton told The Times: 'If the coronavirus outbreak continues to press resources for months and it could easily press resources for three to four months that's a worrying delay to the critical interventions required to diagnose and intervene in early stage cancers. 'That risks lowering the rate of survival and that is what we are so worried about at Cancer Research UK.' Early diagnosis and treatment are the best ways to beat cancer, in the case of breast, bowel and ovarian cancers - there is a 90 per cent chance patients will survive if the disease is found early. Professor Charles Swanton (pictured), Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said that the delays may mean that some tumours will grow and become inoperable There is some suggestion that surgeries, screenings and diagnoses for early-stage cancers are being delayed by some NHS trusts in England Mr Swanton added: 'There is a risk that trusts may have to make a choice between ventilatory support for an acutely unwell patient with Covid-19 at the expense of an elective admission for primary surgery for a potentially curable tumour requiring a short post-operative stay in intensive care.' Survival rates in some cancers have doubled in the past 40 years as a result of routine screening. However, UK survival rates fall behind other other countries. For bowel cancer, the UK survival rate is 58.9 per cent, compared with 70.1 per cent in Australia. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 21:29:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KAMPALA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has started evacuating nationals of its member states from Uganda because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vianney Luggya, the communications officer of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, told Xinhua by telephone on Sunday that several aircraft were being permitted to land at Entebbe International Airport at the request of EU. "On Saturday, a Brussels Airline plane landed at the airport and carried away some Europeans," Luggya said. He added that the planes come in without passengers on board and carry away the Europeans. "It is not the first one to land here. Even the U.S. embassy has previously written to the government through the ministry of foreign affairs to evacuate their people," Luggya said. According to Luggya, the planes are granted special clearance under emergency category. President Yoweri Museveni late last month banned all passenger planes from landing in Uganda in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19. However, the President said only emergency and cargo planes would be given access. Luggya said even when the lockdown has just started, there were two flights by KLM which carried away Americans and Europeans. "Yesterday's flight departed with over 200 people on board," he said. He also said cargo flights continued coming in and leaving the airport, although the volume of cargo had gone down. "Some of our cargo was coming in through the belly of passenger planes. That is no longer coming in," he said. Uganda has confirmed 48 cases of COVID-19, with no death, according to the ministry of health. President Trump said Saturday that he was tempted to allow churches a social distancing exemption to celebrate Easter. 'And I brought it up before, I said, "maybe we could allow special - for churches - maybe we could talk about it, maybe we could allow them for great separation outside on Easter Sunday,' he said at the White House press briefing. 'But somebody did say that, "well, then you're sort of opening up to that little - do we want to take a chance in doing that when we've been doing so well?"' The president then said like many Americans he would watch both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday services by laptop. President Trump said Saturday that he was tempted to allow exemptions for churches on social distancing guidelines to celebrate Easter Sunday Trump said he'll be watching Palm and Easter Sunday services on his laptop. Here he's photographed with daughter Tiffany and wife Melania at the Bethesda-by-the-Sea church in Palm Beach, Florida on Easter 2018 After the briefing President Trump tweeted Saturday night that he'd be listening to pastor Greg Laurie perform Palm Sunday services 'I'm going to be watching tomorrow live from Riverside, California, great church,' the president said. He later tweeted more details saying he would be tuning into pastor Greg Laurie's sermon from the Harvest Church in the California town. Laurie is a vocal supporter of the president. Trump said he would do the same in a week, marking the Easter holiday. 'I think on Easter maybe I'll be watching on a laptop,' he said. The president then bemoaned how social distancing to combat the coronavirus spread has impacted holy week for those of Christian faiths. The annual White House Easter Egg Roll has already been cancelled. Trump indicated he'll be watching Palm and Easter Sunday services from a computer this year 'How said is it we have ... Palm and Easter Sunday and people are watching on laptops and computers,' he said. The large White House event, the annual Easter Egg Roll, has been cancelled. At Saturday's press briefing, Trump tried to prepare the nation for what is expected to be a rough week in terms of coronavirus deaths. 'There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done,' he said of the stay at home orders almost every state has in place, as well as the federal government's social distancing guidelines. Vice President Mike Pence made sure to point out that the week was also Holy Week for American Christians. The president had originally wanted to start reopening American businesses by Easter Sunday but changed his tune last Sunday announcing the federal social distancing guidelines would stay in place until the end of April. MEMBERS of the Mandaue Anesthesia Specialists Co. (Masc) expressed their heartfelt gratitude to all their donors who have financially and materially supported them in the battle against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). To all our anonymous donors, we may not know who you are, but our Heavenly Father knows who you are, read a portion of the groups press release. The MASC said it used the donations to continually replenish and upgrade its personal protective equipment (PPE), which include gowns, gloves, head covers, shoe covers, masks and face shields, among others. The group also assured its donors that it shared with other health care workers and frontliners the PPE gowns and gear it had accumulated to continue to serve and help save lives. Presently, we are approaching the apex of the Covid-19 spread in the Philippines. The fight ahead of us is long and daunting, but together with your support and prayers and our Almighty Fathers protection, we shall be victorious against Covid-19. Our unity and solidarity is a manifestation of Gods presence in our lives. He will lead us to the path of victory, the group said. It further said: We continue to accept donations, be it in cash or in kind. Every little bit counts and does not go unnoticed. The group encouraged everyone, especially its donors, to follow its Facebook page under @MandaueAnesthesiaSpecialistCo for updates and information regarding how their donations have been effectively utilized. Donations can be deposited in the UnionBank account number 000260040897. The account name is Mandaue Anesthesia Specialist Co. (PR) Human Intelligence, a weapon used for busting terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir, has come in handy to trace people who concealed their travel history, besides in retracing the steps of coronavirus positive patients, in an operation that led to tracking of over 1,000 people who have since been quarantined in various parts of the union territory. Fighting this new battle, officials said the authorities roped in the state intelligence machinery who were tasked to track, identify and bring such people to quarantine facilities. The intelligence personnel along with the regular police, which remain at the forefront in the fight against terror groups in the union territory, were now complementing the district administration in its efforts to ensure the success of the lockdown, besides tracking people who hid their travel history from the authorities. According to a report submitted to the Centre, over 1,000 people who had either traveled out of the state or abroad were brought to quarantine centres between March 15 and 31 and their identification and verification was going on, the officials said. Also, more than 28,000 people are under surveillance which included 10,600 who have been either quarantined at government facilities or in home-isolation, the officials said. There have been 92 positive cases so far in the union territory out of which two have died. A total of 34 hotspots have been identified in Jammu and Kashmir which include: seven in Pulwama, five in Srinagar, and four each in Bandipora and Budgam; two in Shopian, one each in Ganderbal and Baramulla in Kashmir division; and five in Rajouri, four in Jammu and one in Udhampur district of Jammu division. The process was intensified after the death of a COVID-19 positive Kashmiri businessman on March 26. The immediate need was to track people whom he had met since his arrival in Jammu from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh during which he had attended the Tablighi Jamaat function at Nizamuddin, the officials said. Upon his arrival in the Union Territory, the businessman held a congregation at Samba in Jammu before returning to Sopore in North Kashmir where he participated in a religious function. "We knew that it's a chain reaction. He would have met one and the chain continues. So it was necessary to immediately break the chain," said an official of the JK administration, spoking on condition of anonymity. During all this, intelligence officials had to move in their resources of human intelligence to track people he had met and the result was that some coronavirus positive cases were located in parts of Jammu as well as Kashmir, the official said. The information shared by the intelligence also helped in tracking people who had travelled in trains and flight, the official said. All field units were geared up to meet this new kind of challenge unlike an anti-terror operations where a militant was tracked and a crack team carried out an encounter, the official said. From early March, there were inputs that some people, who had gone on religious pilgrimages, started breaking their journeys upon their arrival in India and preferred to travel by train or road to various districts of Jammu and the valley, said an official on condition of anonymity. An immediate plan was drawn up and passports issued to residents of Jammu and Kashmir were scanned through immigration office in the national capital and ascertain who all have traveled abroad and did not go for health check-up which had become mandatory by the middle of March, the officials said. Police teams were fanned to homes of those who had traveled abroad and the persons were taken to quarantine centres, they said, adding at some places altercation took place while and others there was no resistance. The operation has also been able to identify and sent to quarantine as many as 139 people, who were either at Tablighi Jamaat headquarters at Nizamuddin in Delhi or had come in contact with its members who had traveled to Jammu and Kashmir. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ruth Langsford has admitted she was 'embarrassed' when a checkout woman asked her if she 'really needed' three bottles of tomato ketchup. The presenter, 60, who hosted today's This Morning with husband Eamonn Holmes, 60, confessed she put some of her food shopping back on the shelves after a Waitrose employee pointed out she had three bottles of the same thing. Admitting that she put the items away because she knew she 'didn't need them', she confessed that 'nobody is perfect', and said that everyone will have to adjust to a 'new way of shopping' in these 'unprecedented times.' Ruth Langsford (right), 60, appeared hosting This Morning with husband Eamonn Holmes (left), 60, and spoke about a surge in online shopping Speaking about an influx of online shoppers, which means vulnerable people are unable to get have their shopping delivered, Ruth said: 'Well it's unprecedented times.' 'Nobody is perfect. We have to get our mindsets out of how we used to shop and how it used to run so smoothly. Because they're doing their best, it seems to me. She went on: 'And not taking too much. In Waitrose yesterday I picked up three things of ketchup and the lady said to me, "Actually, do you need three of those?". 'I felt really embarrassed because, actually I don't need three. But I picked up three because we use a lot of ketchup.' Twitter users were not impressed with her admission, with one viewer commenting: 'You should feel bad Ruth! Three bottles of tomato sauce!' Another agreed: 'Greedy Ruth, why three?' A third fumed: 'Glad Ruth was pulled in Waitrose!! Shouldnt be so greedy, should she? Not like she cant go out another day is it??' She admitted she was 'embarrassed' when a checkout woman asked her if she 'really needed' three bottles of tomato ketchup She confessed that 'nobody is perfect' and feels everyone will have to adjust to a 'new way of shopping' in these 'unprecedented times' It comes as the CEO of Tesco encouraged shoppers who are fit and healthy to use stores in order to free-up delivery slots for online orders to the elderly and vulnerable. But the boss of Ocado told people to 'make their meals work', adding: 'The first thing is 'don't panic'. There isn't going to be no food tomorrow. Nobody will starve.' NHS England national medical director Stephen Powis accused panic buyers of depriving healthcare staff of the food supplies they need, adding: 'Frankly we should all be ashamed.' Pictured, empty shelves of Waitrose supermarket as customers look for food amid the worsening coronavirus crisis Consumers shifted online as they feared supermarkets could become breeding grounds for the virus, after panic-buyers stripped shelves bare, stockpiling everything from pasta to toilet paper and paracetamol. But the move has now led to home delivery slots being largely unavailable until mid April. Ocado has been operating at full capacity during the crisis and said yesterday it had around ten times more demand for its services than it did before the outbreak began. Online orders are now limited to one per week per customer, while some items have also been limited to just two per person. Iran hits back at Pompeo over alleged assassination attempt in Turkey Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 5:30 PM Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman has lashed out at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for accusing "Iranian diplomats" of involvement in an alleged "assassination" in Turkey last November. "Undisputed fact: US "diplomats" have long been in the business of coups, arming terrorists, fueling sectarian violence, supporting narcotics cartels, bullying governments & companies, spying on even US allies, flirting with dictators, butchers and terrorists, etc," Abbas Mousavi said in a tweet on Saturday. However, Mousavi added, the US secretary of state, who is a former CIA agent and also known as secretary of hate, and his masters have taken the "job" to a whole new level that is called "medical terrorism." "That's why he has a conscience so filled with guilt that resorts to such psychological projection," the Iranian spokesperson added. Mousavi's tweet came after Pompeo, President Donald Trump administration's most notorious Iran hawk, leveled the accusation in an earlier tweet, calling Iranian diplomats "agents of terror" who "have conducted multiple assassinations and bomb plots in Europe over the past decade." Iran's ambassador to the United Nations also on Thursday reacted to Pompeo's accusation and said nobody will be duped by Washington's campaign of disinformation against Tehran. "The US administration's Iran-bashing is limitless," Majid Takht Ravanchi tweeted, adding that despite Washington's efforts to spread disinformation about Tehran, "No one is fooled." Pompeo's claims came amid pressures on the US to lift unilateral and illegal sanctions it returned against Iran after leaving a UN Security Council-endorsed nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic and other major powers -- Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany -- back in 2015. The United States has refused to lift sanctions on Iran and even tightened them several times in recent weeks, making it almost impossible for the Islamic Republic to access life-saving medications and medical equipment necessary in the fight against the deadly new coronavirus pandemic. Iran says the unilateral US sanctions have seriously hampered its fight against the pandemic. In a Saturday letter to Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, Iran's Ambassador to Belgium Gholam Hossein Dehqani warned of the adverse consequences of unilateral and illegal US sanctions on the Islamic Republic's battle against the new coronavirus, urging the European Union to oppose Washington's restrictions. Dehqani added that the "unilateral and illegal sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran under the guise of its 'maximum pressure' campaign undermine the country's ability to effectively battle the virus without any international support in the long run." Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN office in Geneva Esmaeil Baqaei Hamaneh also said on Friday that the United States' medical sanctions against the Islamic Republic constituted an "unprecedented threat" to global public health, urging the international community to react in earnest to Washington's restrictions. In a letter to Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Baqaei Hamaneh said imposition of the cruel and illegal sanctions on Iran, which has resulted in the ordinary Iranian people being denied access to medicine and medical equipment and services, clearly exemplifies a crime against humanity. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lucknow: Its not every day that you see a police vehicle drive up to a house to pick up prescription papers, drive away and then return with medicines. AK Bose, 76, a diabetic with severe osteoporosis, heaved a sigh of relief on Friday, when Lucknow police home-delivered a months stock of his medicines at his Indira Nagar house. Responding to the gesture, Boses 40-year-old son, Angshuman, tweeted: I am indebted to the police for the whole of my life. They took my Babas prescription, went around 10 km, got the full months medicines to our home. Thank you is a small word. UP police re-tweeted it. Bose and his wife live near Aurobindo Park in Indira Nagar. He retired as deputy general manager from State Bank of India, is a pensioner, and under his pension benefits gets his medicines. He receives the medication free of cost, but from an assigned shop in Hazratganj. I work in Noida but had come to Lucknow before the lockdown. Under the lockdown rules, travelling to a locality outside ones own is prohibited. And I had no pass to go beyond, said Angshuman Bose, adding: My mother called UP112 at 9.30 am. They responded, but at the time the medicine shop couldnt have been open. At 11.45 the 112 patrol car came. They took the prescription book, delivered the medicines, and left. Earlier, on March 27, on a distress call from Vivekananda Hospital, four Lucknow police constables rushed and gave a unit each of their blood for a critically ill 68-year-old patient on dialysis and saved his life. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON West Bengal govt suspends all flights coming from UK to Kolkata Bengal imposes fresh Covid curbs: Schools shut, all offices to work with 50% staff from Monday Bengal in throes of third Covid wave, infections curve may rise more Bengal: 1,506 held for violating lockdown norms India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Kolkata, Apr 05: Altogether 1,506 people have been arrested and 261 vehicles seized across West Bengal since Friday for violating the lockdown norms, police said on Saturday. Those arrested will be prosecuted under IPC sections dealing with disobedience of order duly promulgated, a senior police officer said. Police arrested 800 people and seized 148 vehicles on Friday, while the figures were 706 and 113 respectively till 8 pm on Saturday. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 8:53 [IST] Sujita Sharma is a masters level student at the Central Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Tribhuvan University. Her second-semester examinations were scheduled to begin on March 22, but they got postponed just two days before the first paper as the government announced to close all educational institutions due to the growing coronavirus fears. The lockdown was yet to be announced then. First, I felt I was in a state of euphoria as soon as I heard the exams got postponed. I thought that I would have sufficient time to prepare for them. I had plans to sharpen my knowledge during this leisure time utilising the available sources, Sharma says, But, I started regretting my childish wish as I realised this would only push my entire career back. Consequently, this lady in her early 20s is now much worried and fearful as there is not any sign of improvement in the situation. The authorities are clueless when the postponed exams will take place and how in these hard times. Sharma says, I am frustrated. She is just one among the many students, of different levels, going through a similar emotional rollercoaster, after examinations were postponed in the eleventh hour. Experts argue that as examinations are held hostage to the authorities indecisiveness, the students are at the receiving end. Shared problem The governments decision to postpone the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) created a lot of hullabaloo in the media. However, the SEE was not the only exam that got postponed. If one minutely calculates the numbers, the students preparing for other levels of examinations were also almost equal in number as the SEE candidates. For example, Amnusha Chhetri wonders why her problem was ignored by the media and others. This 12th grader at Everest Innovative College in Kathmandu had achieved an impressive score last year, hence is under pressure to maintain the level this year also. But, she is not in the mood to prepare as she does not know when the exams will be held next. Her pre-board examinations also got postponed, and she feels, If only I could get any certainty about the board examination schedule from the concerned authorities, I would easily figure out when and how I should prepare. The concern is not only about academic examinations. There are many young men and women who have been preparing for the scheduled Public Service Commission examinations. Many students were taking language and scholarship tests to go abroad for further study. Today, all of them are confused. Psychological concerns and cures A psychosocial counsellor with a rich experience of working with students, Manita Dharel, asserts that recent postponements have left the students at the receiving end. Dharel opines that this uncertainty about next examination schedules has led to hopelessness in the students regarding their life goals surging their mental stress levels. In general, most of the students in Nepal rarely take examinations with ease. They are often stressed out and worried about the questions. Their minds are occupied with mental pressure and anxiety both prior to and during examinations. With the postponement of the examinations, their stress regarding examinations has definitely stretched out, she assumes. Dharel says there are, of course, some students who have taken this decision very lightly while there are many others who are excessively worried about it. Consequently, over-thinking, increasing heartbeats, unusual sweating from palms and legs, etc. can be seen. As of now, almost every student is free and during this free time, students rarely can concentrate deeply on their studies. As the family and society expect more from them, such pressure and confusion are even greater in the students like Chhetri who have already achieved excellent scores, she views. If the students prepare for the exams from the beginning of the session, there is a better chance that they properly understand the course. It means they do not need to be worried about examinations in the last hour, Dharel observes the mental state of many Nepali students, However, for those students who solely prefer last-minute preparations, this uncertainty is depressing. Some other problems are quite peculiar. For example, Bikas Baral, an SEE candidate, complains that his parents are constantly putting pressure on him to study harder, and top the class. Even for a minute, if he switches to television or social media, he has to hear the things like, Why are you wasting your time watching television instead of studying? from his mother. It has left Baral restless all the time. But, Dharel believes that the parents should try to understand their childrens mental state and emotions, their hopes and support from the family and instead of putting pressure on them to study hard every time, they need to motivate them to pay proper attention to their studies by creating a healthy, cooperative and entertaining environment. To overcome other issues of the students and give them psychological ease, she has a long list of recommendations. Deep breathing, practising yoga and meditation, some exercises, playing games, sharing and having a conversation and playing intellectually engaging games with the parents alongside the studies can be fruitful for the students, suggests Dharel, But if problematic symptoms last over 10 days, it is a must that one consults a professional. Turning the tables Further, the counsellor also advises that the students can turn the table and utilise the delay in their favour. While waiting for the exams, the students need to utilise the available time wisely, studying hard, she suggests. One should think that they have got more time for preparations and act accordingly by making a daily timetable allocating time for different subjects to study, with time to spend with family and time for the social world. The students should be able to wisely use the internet and other communications facilities not only to entertain them and communicate with others but also to gain knowledge and information useful for their study, she suggests. Noted educationist Bidya Nath Koirala agrees with her and says the postponement of the examinations is not a big problem. Rather, the bigger problem is the way the education administrators have perceived the examination, he argues. Our idea of examination is that we should not let the students know the questions beforehand, we should arrange them in a conventional seating arrangement and they should be invigilated, Koirala says, Unless they change, postponing the exams like the situation today is sure to hamper the students life in many ways. Their valuable time is being wasted, there will be negative impacts on their learning attitude, and their life goals will be affected. Hence, Koirala suggests some policy changes are needed to avoid such problems in the future. Maintaining regular contact between teachers and students using mobile apps and social media, taking online examinations and classes as practised by open universities and schools incorporating factual, analytical and perspective questions as per classes and levels and giving home assignments regularly should be practised by every academic institute. For want of any policy heading towards that, Koiralas suggestions are not likely to be implemented anytime soon. But, it seems very likely that the students like Sharma, Chhetri and Baral could be happier if their schools really considered his advice. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 22:12:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close "We are not looking at retaliatory measures or measures that are punitive. We know that it is in both of our interests to continue to work collaboratively and cooperatively," Trudeau said. OTTAWA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that his government will not take retaliatory measures against the United States after President Donald Trump ordered 3M company not to export N95 masks to Canada. Trudeau told his daily press conference that Canada is not seeking retaliatory measures against the United States, such as blocking Canadian nurses from crossing the American border to Detroit to help local patients. People line up with a social distance to enter a Home Depot store in Toronto, Canada, April 3, 2020. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) "We are not looking at retaliatory measures or measures that are punitive. We know that it is in both of our interests to continue to work collaboratively and cooperatively," Trudeau said. He said that he will speak with U.S. President Trump in the coming days to protect the flow of goods across the border and he is confident they will be able to find a solution. "We're working to engage at all levels with the administration, having very constructive conversations, highlighting that the flow of goods and services that are essential to both of our countries flow both ways across the border," he told reporters outside of his home in Ottawa. A resident selects vegetables at a Chinese public market in Richmond, Canada, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua) On Friday, Minnesota-based company 3M revealed the Trump administration had ordered them to cease exporting N95 masks to Canada and Latin American countries. Trudeau tried to assuage Canadian concerns over shortages by announcing that Canada is set to receive a shipment of millions of masks from China in the coming two days. Security guards walk outside the emergency entrance of Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, April 1, 2020. (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua) "We're working around the clock to get Canada the resources we need," Trudeau said. "In the next 48 hours, we will be receiving a shipment of millions of masks by a chartered cargo flight. We are also working with provinces to transport their medical supplies when possible." As of 2:00 p.m. Saturday Canada Eastern Time, there were 13,860 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 228 deaths in the country, according to CTV. State-owned Indian Bank on Sunday said its 43,000 employees have voluntarily donated their one day's salary, amounting to ?8.10 crore, towards the PM-CARES Fund to fight the COVID-19 crisis. "The bank's 43,000 employees have shown their commitment to the nation by voluntarily contributing one day's salary totalling to ?8.10 crore to the PM-CARES Fund towards control of COVID-19 in the country," according to a statement. Separately, LIC-owned IDBI Bank said it has donated ?3.9 crore towards the fund. "IDBI Bank cares about the health and wellbeing of our fellow citizens, and through this contribution, we support the efforts of the government in fighting the coronavirus pandemic," the bank's Managing Director and CEO Rakesh Sharma said in a release. The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) was set up on March 28 to raise money for combating the coronavirus crisis and to provide relief to the affected. Political leaders, corporates, defence personnel, employees of public sector undertakings such as railways, and Bollywood personalities are among a cross-section of organisations and people who have announced their contribution to the PM-CARES Fund. Also Read:Coronavirus in India: 8 crore women beneficiaries receive cash benefits Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Maharashtra worst-affected state with 490 COVID-19 cases; death tally at 24 A criminal investigation will be launched into how the cruise line operator Carnival Australia was allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess and spread the coronavirus A total of 622 passengers on board the cruise liner, which docked in Sydney Harbour on March 19, have tested positive for COVID-19 - including 342 NSW residents. 'The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation,' NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Sunday. He said there was clear evidence coronavirus has come off the Ruby Princess and at least 10 passengers have died in Australia because of it. The Ruby Princess sits off the coast of Sydney on Sunday. A criminal investigation will be launched into how the cruise liner was allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour and spread the coronavirus 'From my perspective, there are many unanswered questions, and I certainly can't answer those for you today,' Mr Fuller said. 'There were thousands of witnesses out there who were passengers on the ship, who will have crucial information in relation to their health coming off of the ship.' The investigation will cover the actions of the port authority, ambulance, police, the NSW Health deportment and Carnival Australia. Detective Chief Inspector Jason Dickinson will lead the investigation and the coroner will be notified. Mr Fuller said it was 'too early to tell' whether a crime was committed, but said there was 'no doubt' coronavirus was brought off the ship. The NSW government is under fire after leaked emails revealed results of onboard swab tests from the cruise ship's passengers who were showing signs of influenza would have been available the same day passengers disembarked. Mr Fuller said there was clear evidence COVID-19 has come off the Ruby Princess (pictured off coast of Sydney on Sunday) and at least 10 passengers have died in Australia because of it NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller speaks to the media on Sunday afternoon as he announced a criminal investigation will be launched into the Ruby Princess' docking in Sydney Health Minister Brad Hazzard is standing behind his staff who had allowed the Ruby Princess cruise ship to disembark in Sydney on March 19, despite knowing the results would be known within hours. Explosive phone calls between Ruby Princess officials, NSW Port Authorities and NSW Ambulance officers, who were called to help ill passengers, reveal the debacle could have easily been avoided. In fact the NSW Port Authority initially told the ship's captain not to dock as planned because of concerns passengers had COVID-19, before a midnight phone call that changed everything, The Sunday Telegraph reports. Logs from that night by NSW Port Authority officials - who oversee the entrance of all ships to Sydney Harbour - reveal they refused the Ruby Princess entry about 11.30pm on March 18. Ruby Princess is pictured docked at Circular Quay as passengers disembarked in Sydney on March 19 That decision was made after emails between the ship's doctor and NSW Health that outlined concerns over 110 sick passengers onboard. Among the sick were 17 with 'temperatures over 38C' and six who had 'muscle aches and diarrhoea, severe vomiting or headaches' - all common coronavirus symptoms. 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 In a conversation between a Ruby Princess official and a NSW Ambulance officer just before 9pm that night, it is clear there were concerns that some passengers may be suffering from the virus. The cruise official requested two ambulances upon docking. Carnival cruises representative: 'The doctor has told me they have been tested for corona so precautions need to be taken, so (they) possibly (require an ambulance).' NSW Ambulance Officer: 'And (for the next patient), the same as before, has she been tested for coronavirus?' Carnival cruises representative: 'Yeah, she has been swabbed for coronavirus... (but the) influenza test negative.' At about 11.30pm on March 18, the harbour master told the Ruby Princess they would not be allowed to dock in Sydney. It came two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a 30-day ban on all cruise ships arriving in Australia. But the harbour master reversed the decision just an hour later. Despite being expected to dock at 6am the next morning, the ship arrived at port at 2.30am. It led to confusion among two ambulance officers who were called to tend to the ill Ruby Princess passengers. In another explosive phone call the two officers debated the competing advice they had received from Ruby Princess officials as to whether passengers were suspected of having the virus and whether tests had come back negative. How a midnight phone call that led to coronavirus-stricken Ruby Princess cruise being able to dock in Sydney Harbour in the dark The doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship was set to be stopped from entering Sydney Harbour until a last minute backflip by port authorities, leaked phone calls reveal. A total of 2,700 passengers - ten of who have since died from coronavirus - were able to disembark without health checks under the cover of darkness at 2.30am on March 19. More than 620 of the ship's passengers have since been confirmed to have the virus. But explosive phone calls between Ruby Princess officials, NSW Port Authorities and NSW Ambulance officers, who were called to help ill passengers, reveal the debacle could have easily been avoided. In fact the NSW Port Authority initially told the ship's captain not to dock as planned because of concerns passengers had COVID-19, before a midnight phone call that changed everything, The Sunday Telegraph reports. Logs from that night by NSW Port Authority officials - who oversee the entrance of all ships to Sydney Harbour - reveal they refused the Ruby Princess entry about 11.30pm on March 18. That decision was made after emails between the ship's doctor and NSW Health that outlined concerns over 110 sick passengers onboard. Among the sick were 17 with 'temperatures over 38C' and six who had 'muscle aches and diarrhoea, severe vomiting or headaches' - all common coronavirus symptoms. In a conversation between a Ruby Princess official and a NSW Ambulance officer just before 9pm that night, it is clear there were concerns that some passengers may be suffering from the virus. The cruise official requested two ambulances upon docking. It came two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a 30-day ban on all cruise ships arriving in Australia. But the harbour master reversed the decision just an hour later. Despite being expected to dock at 6am the next morning, the ship arrived at port at 2.30am. It led to confusion among two ambulance officers who were called to tend to the ill Ruby Princess passengers. In another explosive phone call the two officers debated the competing advice they had received from Ruby Princess officials as to whether passengers were suspected of having the virus and whether tests had come back negative. When the Ruby Princess left Sydney Harbour for a trip to New Zealand it was seen to be a medium risk of having coronavirus passengers. By the time it was halfway through the trip, that ranking had somehow been reduced to low risk - a decision that was defended by NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant. NSW Police have since launched an investigation into the handling of Ruby Princess' arrival in Sydney. Advertisement Officer 1: '(The Ruby Princess has) booked two ambulances for non-COVID related (patients). Officer 2: '(No, I believe they are) COVID-related. Anyone who has any respiratory issues or breathing problems we ask them all the questions about corona.' Officer 1: 'They're saying that it's not but we still can't raise the Ruby Princess yet. 'I'll just let you know the cruise had gone to New Zealand before coming back here. During that time five people have been suspected of having coronavirus. They've all been tested and they've all come back negative.' Officer 2: 'The information that we got was that these two patients have been tested but the results haven't come back.' When the Ruby Princess left Sydney Harbour for a trip to New Zealand it was seen to be a medium risk of having coronavirus passengers. By the time it was halfway through the trip, that ranking had somehow been reduced to low risk - a decision that was defended by NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant. Private hospitals rushed through hundreds of non-urgent elective surgeries ahead of the April 1 ban imposed by the Morrison government, which could have exposed patients and staff to COVID-19, while placing further strain on dwindling medical supplies. Some surgeons have been accused of flouting restrictions by falsely classifying routine procedures as critical. Credit:iStock Some surgeons, anaesthetists and dentists with private practices have been accused of placing their commercial interests ahead of the safety of nurses and other theatre staff by performing non-critical procedures, some of which can result in complications that require further surgery. In the week before the April 1 deadline, surgeons performed dozens of routine operations, including arthroscopies, wisdom-teeth extractions, gastroscopies and bariatric surgery to combat obesity, while the nation's public health system scrambled to prepare for the expected peak of the pandemic in June. After taking a financial beating during trade wars the last two years alleviated to some extent by federal bailouts the agriculture sector in Iowa now must cope with the ramifications of the coronavirus epidemic. Americans have had to change dining habits. According to the U.S. Department of Agricultures household resilience index, food purchased away from home for hotels, restaurants and institutions previously accounted for 54% of total food expenditures, and eating at home was 46%. Now restaurants can no longer offer dining in, hotels are largely empty and schools are closed. Fruits and vegetables have been in danger of quickly rotting while awaiting rerouting. The growers association recently implored USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue to have the agency buy $1 billion worth of perishables. Some of that produce has gone to food banks. Iowas agriculture industry a leading producer of corn, soybeans, hogs, eggs, cattle and dairy is also feeling the pain. Beleaguered dairy producers, who never seem to catch a break, are hurting with school cafeterias closed, while restaurants and hotels have less need for milk and cream. According to CNBC, grain futures in recent weeks have been grim. Corn futures were down 10% and soybeans 4%. Corn-based ethanol is caught in the crosshairs of the oil war between the Saudis and the Russians, which have increased production while COVID-19 has reduced consumption. With an oil glut, prices have tanked at $20 per barrel and storage space is running out. For the U.S. oil producers, its also an opportunity to drive down competitors in ethanol and fracking. The Trump administration reneged on promises to help the former, then vowed more help. The latter is awash in debt with conservatives and environmentalists opposing a possible bailout bid. With fewer Americans eating out, demand for beef, pork, chicken and fish has declined. Futures prices for lean hogs decreased 12% over a recent two-week period and cattle prices 13%. Iowa farmers have had to assess the risk theyre willing to take amid an uncertain future. One question is whether China will honor its commitment to buy $40 billion to $50 billion in farm goods that President Donald Trump maintained in February was a condition of an interim trade pact. Prior to the two-year trade war, China bought $20 billion in U.S. farm products, which fell to $8 billion annually. Because African swine fever has wiped out nearly half of its hogs, more pork purchases are expected. China presumably wants to keep Trump happy, even if forgoing soybean deals with Brazil, which has its own problems. But Iowa farmers concerns are compounded by the availability of seasonal workers willing to take jobs Americans wont even in times of high unemployment. They come from Mexico, Central and South America as well as migrants from other states often U.S. citizens who detassel and process corn; walk beans; work in hog confinements, on dairy farms and in egg production; and assist with a variety of other crops. The availability of workers qualifying for H-2A guest work permits had been in doubt with consulates closed at the border due to COVID-19. The federal government recently waived the required in-person interview for first-time and many returning applicants. Whether workers will make the trek, though, is questionable. COVID-19 cases reported in Mexico are significantly less than the U.S. Many Mexicans may be hesitant to leave their families to take health risks. Yet the Mexican government until recently was reluctant to shutter its economy. Its testing also lagged far behind the U.S. 65 tests per million compared to 2,250 per million in the U.S., according to the Washington Post. That should raise issues in the agriculture community about health precautions for workers from social distancing to wearing gloves and the need for testing. The recent economic rescue package passed by Congress helps. It provides agriculture with a $50 billion safety net, up from $30 billion. Farmers received 24% of their income from government programs in 2019. John Deere is being whipsawed by COVID-19 as well. Farmers are expected to spend less on new equipment because of lower crop prices. Deere stock dropped 21 percent in recent weeks, although J.P. Morgan upgraded it from Sell to Hold. Deere is designated as an essential critical infrastructure business, requiring it to maintain domestic operations, although it recently suspended work in Dubuque and Moline, Ill., after a worker tested positive in both locations. Its situation in Brazil is more precarious. COVID-19 forced it to stop production at six plants. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is indifferent, calling it a measly cold and belittling precautions. Brazilians, he said, can be dunked in raw sewage and dont catch a thing. With limited testing, it has 6,836 cases and 240 deaths. While health workers and first responders on the front lines are rightfully applauded, behind-the-scenes farmers should be recognized for aiding our well-being in turbulent times. Hezbollah unveiled its own measures put in place to combat the Covid-19 during a press tour on March 31 in Beirut's southern suburbs. Disinfecting several Lebanese regions, not only its strongholds, was another demonstration of force. These measures were in response to many criticisms that have been targeting Hezbollah since the first patients who got infected in Iran returned to Lebanon. But they were also seen by some observers as "political exploitation" (of the coronavirus crisis) by Hezbollah. Last week, Hezbollah announced that it had mobilized 1,500 doctors, 3,000 nurses and rescuers, as well as 5,000 healthcare and service workers to fight the pandemic across the country. Raja Zreik, head of the party's civil defense in Beirut, told L'Orient-Le Jour that his party had implemented sanitary measures throughout the country, similar to the ones that were adopted in Beirut's southern suburbs; Hezbollah's main stronghold . We have 34 Covid-19 testing centers in the country and 25 ambulances equipped with respirators. We are there to support the state and associations, and we work with the local authorities, said Zreik, who assured that Hezbollah complies with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). "At one point, the Order of Physicians complained about disinfection campaigns we are carrying out, arguing that they are harmful and unscientific. But we are complying with WHO recommendations. We are raising awareness and providing psychological support. People feel reassured this way." In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah conducted massive disinfection of public places in the market town of Nabatiyeh and its surroundings, as well as in Iqlim al-Tuffah, the coastal Ghazieh village and the suburbs of Sidon city; regions where the party exercises preponderant influence. But it is worth noting that Hezbollah, in coordination with the municipalities of the region, also disinfected last week streets and even some houses in Sidon itself as well as churches and Christian villages at the request of the religious authorities, according to our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah. Quarantine and "Sanitary Roadblocks" In the eastern Bekaa region, Hezbollah has imposed quarantine on many people who have recently returned from Iran. "People are not forcibly held in their villages, as some claim, but Hezbollah has asked those who recently returned from Iran to isolate themselves for 14 days," said our correspondent Sarah Abdallah. The returnees are mainly pilgrims, students or families of martyrs who were offered religious trips to Qom by the Shiite party. In the Mount Lebanon district of Byblos (Jbeil), members of Hezbollah have erected "sanitary" roadblocks to quickly measure the temperature of passers-by and carried out disinfection campaigns in Shiite or mixed towns. A number of Christian families disapproved Hezbollah's move, according to Jbail's former MP Fares Souaid. Since the crisis, people from the Shiite villages of Jbeil, most of whom live in Beirut's southern suburbs, have returned to the region. In recent days, a car with Hezbollah flags has been touring the villages to give health advice and ask people to stay confined," said Souaid. "These are not parades for sanitary purposes, and anyway they have little effect. Its a display of power, similar to the display of its political and military power. Hezbollah's measures have caused tension in mixed villages where some called on the municipality to conduct disinfection itself. The issue has since been resolved, but Souhaid denounces the "partisan reaction to the epidemic, not only on the part of Hezbollah, but also of other political forces such as the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb or the Free Patriotic Movement. Asked by the OLJ about Hezbollah's health campaign, a political analyst noted that "all of the political forces are now trying to take advantage of the situation, but Hezbollah knows better how to promote its actions. The analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah knows very well how to benefit from crises to show that it is the strongest and is concerned about the safety of all the people, even if they are not among its supporters." He concluded by saying: "This mise-en-scene (Hezbollah's March 31 press tour in the southern suburbs of Beirut) is meant to say: We are a statelet and can protect you medically, after having protected you militarily against Israel." (This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 4th of April) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sam Nussey (Reuters) Tokyo Sun, April 5, 2020 10:03 646 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206fc694e 2 World COVID-19,Japan,Tokyo,Masayoshi-Son,SoftBank-Group-Corp Free More than 80% of respondents to a Twitter poll initiated by SoftBank Group Corp's CEO Masayoshi Son would support a declaration of a state of emergency to fight the coronavirus, as the number of cases exceeded 100 in Tokyo for the first time on Saturday. The poll by Son, who has 2.5 million Twitter followers, showed 82% of almost 240,000 respondents indicated support for tighter controls by authorities to fight the spread of the virus. The poll closed on Saturday evening. A second, ongoing poll by Son indicated a similar level of backing for a unilateral declaration of a state of emergency by the Tokyo government. While Tokyo authorities have urged people to stay home over the weekend, Son has joined other prominent figures including Rakuten Inc CEO Hiroshi Mikitani and rock musician Yoshiki in putting pressure on the central government to introduce stricter social distancing measures. A poll of users of chat app Line conducted in partnership with Japan's Health Ministry found that among more than 24 million respondents most are taking measures such as washing hands and avoiding crowds, but only 5.6% are teleworking. Kim Brent / The Enterprise Whenever a national crisis strikes you can expect more than a few oddball theories that spread anxiety and disinformation, and the coronavirus is no exception. One of the nastiest going around now is that the restrictions on public gatherings are somehow targeted at people of faith and part of a larger war on Christianity. Right-wing news media and social media zealots are churning out this nonsense at the very time our country should be as united as possible. For the record, those claims are utterly ridiculous. The bans in Texas and many states on gatherings of 10 or more people make no distinction on the organization that would be affected. They apply as they should to everything from Little League to business conventions. Churches are not exempted, nor should they be. You can catch or spread the coronavirus from the most faithful person in your town, or an atheist. The virus isnt choosy about who it infects, so all of us must be protected. SEATTLE - Experts and health officials who are trying to plan a response to the coronavirus outbreak are missing a critical piece of information the number of health care workers who have tested positive for the disease. Washington state faced the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in the nation, but health officials have not kept track of how many doctors and nurses have the disease. New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, also lacks infection figures for medical staff, according to Jill Montag, spokeswoman with the New York State Department of Health. That information can help save lives, said Dr. Grete Porteous, an anesthesiologist in Seattle who has worked on health care emergency preparedness and crisis management. It previously helped reduce risks to medical personnel during the much smaller SARS outbreak of 2003-04, she said. With the medical profession facing shortages of basic protective gear, the question should be asked: are there ways that we can improve what we do to make care safer for everyone? Porteous said. Without regional and national public health data on COVID-19 infections in health care personnel, it is difficult to envision how to start answering this question. During the SARS outbreak, Porteous said, data about an alarmingly high rate of infection and death in medical staff led to improved rules around infection protocol and use of personal protective equipment. Ruth Schubert, spokeswoman for the Washington Nurses Association, said that same data are needed for COVID-19. We are urging the (Department of Health) and the emergency operations team at the state level to begin collecting and reporting this information, she said. Experts who create models for how the coronavirus will impact the countrys health care system say they also want the data to better determine how severely hospitals will be impacted. While health officials count ICU beds and calculate hospital capacity to plan for a surge in cases, Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, has created a model for predicting COVID-19 deaths. It also predicts the number of hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators each state will need. Murray is also trying to include things like how many workers are needed to care for patients. But without access to the number of infected health care workers, hes unable to make that determination. Murray hopes that will change. Thats a really important piece of information to know, he said. Ill add that to the data that well ask for from governments. As of Saturday, Washington state had more than 7,500 cases and New York had counted more than 110,000. Neither state knows how many of those cases are health care workers. Ohio, on the other hand, reported at least 16% of its cases involved health care workers, while in Minnesota, it was 28% on Wednesday. Other countries are reporting COVID-19s impact on their health care community. Spain has said at least 12,298 health care workers have tested positive for the disease 14.4% of the total reported cases. More than 60 doctors have died in Italy. Johns Hopkins Universitys online map tracking the spread of the virus doesnt include a subset of data on how many health care workers have become sick. The platform wasnt built to collect data on workers, said university spokesman Douglas Donovan. CDC charts also dont break it out. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has recommended hospitals keep a log of staff with COVID-19. Those who have recovered could work on units devoted to COVID-19. But data on infected staff may not be available because hospitals want to protect that information, fearing it may appear they have unsafe conditions, said Dr. Angela Gardner, an emergency physician and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Having data on how many health care workers are sick would help with planning, she said. Hospitals also need better parameters for how long a worker should stay away from patients if exposed to COVID-19, she said. CDC recommendations say a doctor or nurse can return three days after they are asymptomatic. But if a worker was exposed and didnt have symptoms or even tested negative, theyre required to be quarantined 14 days. Although the Washington state health department isnt collecting the data, some counties are. At least 88 health care workers in Snohomish County have tested positive for the coronavirus, out of 1,300 total cases. In Yakima County, its more like 30%. However, officials in King County, home to the highest concentration of cases, dont know how many health care workers have the disease. University of Washington Medicine began testing employees with symptoms on March 5, said spokeswoman Susan Gregg. Since that time, we have tested approximately 1,304 UW Medicine health care workers in our drive-through clinics, she said. About 95.6% tested negative and 4.4 per cent tested positive, she said. Many have already recovered. Colorado health officials also want to find out whos infected by implementing a testing program for all health care workers, said Micki Trost, a spokesperson for the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. This testing strategy helps strengthen our medical capacity, she said. Nagaland has received from the Centre its first instalment of Rs 20.50 crore under the State Disaster Response and Mitigation Fund (SDRMF) for the year 2020-21, a senior official here said. Talking to reporters, Johnny Raungmei, officer on special duty, Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), said the state government would use 25 per cent of the total amount received from the Centre to bolster its efforts to fight the COVID-19 crisis. The disaster management authority in all 11 districts of Nagaland has been sanctioned Rs 5 lakh each for extending relief and support to the daily-wage earners and the poor at the state's quarantine centres, amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown, he said on Friday. This would be in addition to Rs 31 lakh it had earlier approved for the districts, he said The NSDMA had also dispatched 35,000 quintal of rice amounting to Rs 4.94 crore for the unorganised sector workers. The health department had been allotted Rs 28 lakh for purchase of medical equipment, Raungmei said, adding that state executive committee - headed by the chief secretary - might sanction more funds, if and when required. "We are hoping for the best, but also preparing for the worst in this fight against COVID-19," Raungmei said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Question: In 2016, I purchased a 2016 Scion tC. A car-guy friend suggested it when I wanted to replace my Monte Carlo SS. I wanted another two-door sporty car, only smaller. I love it. Does the tC stand for too cute? I never read anything about the tC and have never seen one for sale. C.J., Douglassville Answer: Toyota, Scions parent company, chose the letters to signify touring coupe. Designed to attract young buyers, it was the best-selling Scion. The Scion division lasted from 2004 to 2016 and, as sales dropped and young folks became attracted to Toyotas, Scion was killed. If you do a little shopping, you can still find them at places such as CarMax and car dealerships. *** Question: I find it strange that I can get out of my car and lock it while it still is running. This is a safety factor. I have stated this to GM, but have heard nothing. My car is a Buick Encore. What do you think? C.L., Chicago Answer: Yes, it is indeed a safety factor. If you park in an attached garage and forget to turn off the engine, your home could fill with deadly carbon monoxide. Many cars, especially hybrids, run so quietly that people have neglected to press the stop button, locked them and walked away. Keyless ignition systems make it easy to forget to turn off the car, so keep your key fob close at hand and check to ensure the engine is off before you get out of your car and lock it. Carmakers, by the way, have attempted to fix this problem by having many of their vehicles try to warn drivers that theyve left the engine running. They sound an external chime or horn beep if drivers leave the engine idling and walk away with the fob. *** Question: I have a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport with all the bells and whistles. Sometimes when I travel on highway I-65 and/or I-465, my front windshield gets cracked by stones or rocks. This has happened three times already. My daughter lives in Indiana, so I have no choice but to use these highways when I visit. Is this just bad luck or something else? L.K., Park Ridge, Ill. Answer: Has a black cat crossed the road in front of you? Though you may have some bad luck, you may not be the only motorist with glass issues. Because of the road construction around Indianapolis, there is likely a lot of stuff being slung from the tires of vehicles ahead of you, especially trucks with wider tire treads. I hope your insurance comprehensive coverage takes care of the damage. *** Question: A car issue thats very often ignored and not written about is the car title. I have my 2018 Mazda titled in just my name. This is my only asset that doesnt have a beneficiary when I pass on. Wouldnt it be better to have the car titled in two names? S.B., Delray Beach, Fla. Answer: On the Investopedia website, it states that joint tenancy with rights of survivorship, or JTWROS, is a type of account that is owned by at least two people. In this arrangement, tenants have an equal right to the accounts assets. They are also afforded survivorship rights in the event of the death of another account holder. When one partner or spouse dies, the other receives all of the money or property. That is why many married couples and business partners choose this option. It makes a lot of sense for married couples, but I would be careful who I chose otherwise. But, please, consult your lawyer, not this newspaper columnist. Bob Weber became an ASE-certified Master Automobile Technician in 1976. Webers work appears in professional trade magazines and other consumer publications. Send questions along with name and town to Motormouth, Rides, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Fifth Floor, Chicago IL 60611 or motormouth.tribune@gmail.com. The title of the new PBS Masterpiece series World on Fire seems oddly appropriate. As people around the world battle the coronavirus, the network is getting ready to unveil a drama about how people in four different countries responded to a different global crisis that happened 80 years ago: World War II. The seven-part series originally broadcast on the BBC in the U.K. in 2019 follows ordinary people in Britain, Poland, France, and Germany in 1939 and 1940, as they confront the effects of war on their lives. It premieres Sunday, April 5, at 9/8c on PBS. Helen Hunt, Sean Bean star in World on Fire Helen Hunt as Nancy Campbell in World on Fire | Courtesy of Mammoth Screen World on Fire has an all-star cast including Oscar-winner Helen Hunt, Sean Bean from Game of Thrones, and Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville. Hunt plays an American reporter broadcasting from Warsaw and Berlin who is trying to uncover the truth about the Nazi regime. Bean is a WWI vet turned pacifist who is coping with shellshock while also trying to protect his working-class family. Manville known for Phantom Thread portrays an English fascist sympathizer who ends up sheltering a young refugee. The cast also includes Jonah Hauer-King as Manvilles son, an idealistic, upper-class British translator and army officer. He is involved with the daughter of Beans character (Julia Brown). But after hes posted to Warsaw, he falls in love with a Polish resistance fighter (Zofia Wichlacz). Blake Harrison plays a stalwart English sergeant, while Brian J. Smith is an American doctor working in occupied Paris and Parker Sawyers is the jazz musician he falls for. The show is told from multiple perspectives Jonah Hauer-King as Harry Chase and Julia Brown as Lois Bennett in World on Fire | Courtesy of Ben Blackall / Mammoth Screen 2019 World on Fire does feature some major events, like the evacuation at Dunkirk and the Nazi invasion of Poland. But the focus is on ordinary people and how the war changes their lives. The drama is told from a multinational perspective, writer Peter Bowker told PBS. I wanted to write a drama where we invested in a Polish family, a French family, just as much as we emotionally invested in a British one. The design of the show is such that there are connections between these families scattered across the world, but sometimes only the audience knows what those connections are. How to stream World on Fire You can watch World on Fire on PBS on Sunday nights through May 17, airing at 9/8c. If you miss the broadcast, the episodes will also be available to stream online or on the PBS Video app. Want to binge-watch the entire series? PBS members with the Passport benefit can stream all seven episodes beginning April 5 at 9/8c. Head here for more information on how to sign up for Passport and stream new PBS dramas as well as classic shows such as Downton Abbey. Read more: Already Binged The Crown Season 3? Why You Should Add PBSs Victoria to Your To-Watch List Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 Trend: The rent fee will not be charged from entrepreneurs for state property and state land in Azerbaijan until the end of this year, Executive Director of Azerbaijans Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication Vusal Gasimli told Trend. To increase the export of non-oil products, it is planned to accelerate the sale of goods with export bills and apply privileges on customs duties on customs clearance, control and issuance of permits (certificates), Gasimli said. A new model of economic growth will be introduced in the post-pandemic period, the executive director said. Construction, mining, petrochemical industry, digital economy, transport, trade, logistics, telecommunications, domestic tourism, agriculture and processing industry will be the main priorities of the countrys economic policy. The State Investment Holding will be established to manage the companies in the Single Center, increase transparency and economic efficiency of their activity, including investment programs, and ensure competitiveness, Gasimli said. A new privatization program will be developed." To create a new mechanism for the development and implementation of strategic projects in the construction sector, the Azerbaijan Construction Corporation will be created to accelerate the development of cities and districts, the executive director added. This corporation will ensure long-term management of the portfolio of strategic projects, the development of new projects, attracting investors and the implementation of a pilot project. "Some 280 million manat ($164 million) will be allocated for vital passenger transportation, Gasimli said. One of the main goals of supporting employment and social security is to prevent unjustified dismissal of 1,574,000 employees in the public and private sectors, as well as to keep the salaries of the employees who are on vacation." The temporary employment of the unemployed will be ensured through the creation of 50,000 paid public jobs while a temporary allowance in the amount of 190 manat ($111) will be paid to 200,000 unemployed people within two months. The self-employment program will cover 11,000 people and up to 20,000 people will receive the unemployment insurance benefits. The limit of monthly preferential electricity consumption by people will be increased by 100 kilowatts per hour in April and May. Some 40 million manat ($23 million) is envisaged for paying the training costs of students from the families belonging to the low income layers of the population. Gasimli stressed that the latter sphere is called macroeconomic and financial stability. To implement the Action Plan with a big financial capacity, a new macroeconomic framework must be developed. In accordance with the changes in fiscal policy, monetary policy faces new challenges. Stability will be ensured in the financial and banking sector of the country. "In general, the main objective of the Action Plan is to protect the population and entrepreneurs from the negative consequences of the pandemic, preserve the functionality of the economy and apply a new model of economic growth in the post-pandemic period, the executive director said. Besides 2.5 billion manat ($1.5 billion) allocated upon the presidential decree in accordance with the Action Plan, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the State Social Protection Fund will also allocate 343.6 million manat ($202 million), Gasimli added. Taking into account the donation worth 110 million manat ($57 million) to Azerbaijans Fund to Support Fight against Coronavirus and 10 million manat ($3 million) initially transferred to the Cabinet of Ministers, Azerbaijans budgetary funds envisaged for the crisis reaches three billion manat ($1.8 billion) or 12.3 percent of state budget revenues, which is 3.6 percent of GDP, the executive director said. Moreover, the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic sold funds worth $1.9 billion to stabilize the manat rate, the only currency that did not devalue during the crisis in the post-Soviet area in March 2020, Gasimli said. Under the leadership of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan allocated the biggest share of GDP in the post-Soviet area to combat the crisis caused by the pandemic, the executive director said. The goal was to bring our country to a more advantageous position in the post-pandemic period." (1 USD = 1.7 manat on April 5) Drivers can get better car insurance rates if they become safe drivers and make smart coverage selections., said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Given the current pandemic and economic crisis, it is important to manage our finances and start looking for better prices for essential services. Insurance expenses can rise to several thousand dollars per year. It all depends on several factors, including the model of the vehicle, driving experience and history, coverage limits, annual mileage and so on. Drivers can get better rates if they: Look for discounts. The auto insurance market provides a high number of discounts. However, each company grants them after meeting certain demands. Ask the current carrier for a list of discounts and check for how many the requirements are met. The most common discounts include affinity discount, no-claims discount, safety gear discount, and low-mileage discount. Improve credit score. Having an Excellent FICO credit score will also increase the insurability score. Companies place more trust into people who have proven that they can manage their payments. Ask for credit score reports first and check if everything is fine. If things are not that bright, look for ways of repairing the score, like using balance transfer credit cards. Bundle policies and plans under the same contract. In many cases, signing for home and auto insurance with the same company will help drivers get a generous discount. Also, providing coverage for multiple vehicles from the same company will also grant access to a discount. Adjust deductible limits. By increasing the deductible levels, drivers assume more financial responsibility. When filing a claim, clients pay first the sum of money agreed upon, then the company covers the rest. Selecting a high deductible will lower the premiums. Park the car in a garage. Insurance companies usually provide lower premiums to those that keep their car in a garage. Using a garage has multiple advantages. Car theft becomes less probable. Another advantage is the lower chance for your vehicle to be damaged by severe weather, vandalism or rioters. Keep a clean driving record. Clients can qualify for a good driver discount if they keep a clean driving record for 3-5 years. That means no claims or traffic violations. The discount ranges from 10 to 20 percent. Keep a good credit score. Persons with average or poor credit scores pay more than those with an excellent score. There are several ways to improve credit score, including taking a short-term loan from a Credit Union. Drive fewer miles. People who retire, use mass public transportation or carpooling should consider asking for low-mileage discounts. Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. For more information, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org. Moscow officials say the QR system remains an option in the capital, which has about 70 percent of Russias confirmed coronavirus cases. Sobyanin, the citys mayor, said the QR-code passes are ready for use and will be required in case of an unfavorable development in the epidemiological situation or in the case of an increase in the number of violations of the stay-at-home order. The east bank regional levee authority has asked the Orleans Parish Civil District Court to enforce a July 2019 agreement that was supposed to have transferred pump stations and drainage ditches managed by the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District to the St. Bernard Parish government. That turnover was supposed to have occurred on Jan. 1, but in November 2019, the parish notified the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East which oversees the levee district that it would not comply with the requirements set out in the deal. Under the agreement, the levee authority was supposed to make a one-time $3 million payment and two $1.9 million annual payments to the parish government; they would have been due on Jan. 1 of this year and Jan. 1, 2021. The money was supposed to come from the Lake Borgne district's budget. Fight between east bank levee authority and St. Bernard over drainage costs heads to court The six-year fight between the east bank regional levee district and St. Bernard Parish over who should shoulder the financial burden of the p Those payments would be funded by the $1.4 million the levee district raises from a 4.36-mill property tax on St. Bernard property owners, plus $500,000 from the district's existing revenue. That property tax expires this year, and the deal required St. Bernard to hold an election to renew that millage and to continue to use that money for drainage expenses. That election has been moved to July 25 from May 9 because of the coronavirus pandemic. A yes vote would mean an 8-mill property tax for 10 years for St. Bernard Parish drainage that would raise just over $3 million a year. The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority also agreed to pay St. Bernard $4 million to be used for capital improvements to the drainage system, including repairs to several pump stations. The lawsuit, filed March 24, was authorized in votes by the levee authority in November 2019 and January 2020. The dispute has its roots in the post-Hurricane Katrina creation of the regional levee authority to oversee individual parish levee districts, and the differences under state law in how those individual districts are funded. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The rebuilt levees in St. Bernard actually provide a reduced risk of hurricane storm surge flooding to St. Bernard as well as to portions of New Orleans and even Jefferson Parish. St. Bernard residents twice voted down a proposed 7.5-mill property tax that would have raised new money for levee maintenance. They already pay an 11.33 mill tax to the levee district that mostly goes to cover levee costs. If the increase had been approved, the total millage would have been reallocated, with 15.4 mills going to levees and 3.43 mills going to the parish for drainage. But St. Bernard officials, and voters, contended that the increase required them to pay the full cost of the levees, even though the levees also help protect other parishes. After the defeats, the levee authority decided to reduce its support of drainage maintenance in the parish, which led to negotiations that ended with the agreement to return the drainage assets to the parish. In January, levee authority President Herbert Miller said the Lake Borgne district would continue to operate its portion of the internal drainage system while the lawsuit plays out in court. St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis said last week that he could not comment on a pending lawsuit. In its legal petition, the authority asked the court to declare that the Lake Borgne district's drainage assets became the property of St. Bernard Parish on Jan. 1; that McInnis, the Parish Council and the parish are in breach of the contract; and that McInnis or the parish government is required to execute the documents necessary to complete transfer of the drainage system to the parish, and to be responsible for all internal drainage and pumping within the parish. The petition also asks for unspecified financial damages. No date has been set for the case to be heard. Actions on most lawsuits filed in Civil District Court have been delayed until at least April 13 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mark Schleifstein covers the environment and is a leader of the Louisiana Coastal Reporting Team for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. Email: mschleifstein@theadvocate.com. Facebook: Mark Schleifstein and Louisiana Coastal Watch. Twitter: MSchleifstein. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday urged people to switch off lights for nine minutes at 9 pm and illuminate home and surroundings with candles and lamps, as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Taking to Twitter, the CM also emphasised the importance of social distancing, amid the spurt in COVID-19 cases across the country. "To defeat the darkness of despair & light our lives with hope, let's switch off all lights for 9 mins at 9 pm tonight & illuminate our surroundings with Candles, Diyas, Torch or Flashlights. Let's maintain social distancing & do it carefully as advised by PM @narendramodi ji, he tweeted. Meanwhile, a senior official here said that the third consignment of medical essentials - required in the state's effort to combat COVID-19 - has reached Imphal. The chief minister had on Saturday stated that the consignment comprises personal protective equipment, sanitisers and gloves, among other things. "IL-76 aircraft has just landed at the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, Imphal with 14 tonnes of medical supplies, PPE, masks, sanitizer, hand gloves, Sodium Hypochlorite etc. Thanks to the #IndianAirforce, he had tweeted. Manipur has reported two COVID-19 cases so far. The first patient is a woman with travel history to the UK, while the second man, who contracted the disease, had attended a congregation at Delh's Nizamuddin. Family members of both the patients have tested negative for COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) About the show A weekly programme that examines and dissects the worlds media, how they operate and the stories they cover. Watch The Listening Post every Saturday at 0830GMT With millions of Americans urged to work from home to further prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, many are dependent on at-home tech devices more so now than ever. That's getting harder, and more expensive, with a sudden in crush in demand for screens, batteries, USB headsets, webcams or laptop docks online. Many items like these are either out of stock or prices have gone up, according to Will Evert, an IT professional in New York City, the current epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S. Evert regularly buys these peripherals online for his users. "A webcam that normally costs $50-60 is now around $100, and a dock that should be about $180 is $320 on Amazon Prime," Evert told ABC News earlier this week. As of Saturday, the webcam Evert saw was listed as out of stock altogether. While a New York City emergency rule makes it illegal to jack up the price of products that could help contain the spread of coronavirus, like hand sanitizer, it generally does not apply to products that make is easier to live and work through the viral threat, and prices have gone up with demand. PHOTO: Working from home. (Reza Estakhrian/Getty Images) Like most people, the switch to working from home happened quickly for Matt Naylor, a biotechnology researcher in Massachusetts. He realized that his home office was not equipped enough to efficiently perform his job. A frequent Amazon customer, when Naylor first started looking online for cheap devices they were completely out of stock. He said he then tried alternate retailers and various semi-boutique sellers. Naylor, who says webcams add a personal connection by actually seeing his colleagues and family via video, was surprised that he was unable to find even a cheap popular webcam anywhere online. When he eventually found one, he said he felt the pressure to decide between buying a brand with which he was unfamiliar or face a month-long back-order for more recognizable names. MORE: Faces of the coronavirus pandemic: Remembering those who died Story continues Naylor said that there is also a rapidly depleting stock of other add-ons like headphones and USB microphones. A monitor he purchased one day was out of stock on the same site a few days later, he said. "It used to be that Amazon or the cheapest retailer wins," he said. "At this point, I'm more looking for who has anything at all that meets the minimum standards." In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson told ABC News that sellers on the site set their own prices, "and we have policies to help ensure sellers are pricing their products competitively. "We actively monitor our store and remove offers that violate our policies," the statement said. "We have implemented additional measures to keep prices low and our global teams are working 24/7 to monitor prices in our store." PHOTO: Amazon distribution center. (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images) According to Steve Koenig, vice president of research at the Consumer Technology Association, shortages for consumer technology products are likely the result of increased demand and manufacturing disruptions not just now, but earlier this year. But he hopes any disruptions would be resolved quickly. "The market for consumer technology products is highly competitive," Koenig told ABC News. "In the current crisis, most retailers are competing beyond price to offer flexible delivery and return options." It varies with the brand and availability, but prices of many of these technology items appear to have gone up. MORE: No surgical or N95 mask? Wear DIY face cover during coronavirus outbreak: CDC While the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has received over 4,600 complaints of price gouging and issued more than 1,000 violations total since March 5, none of those related to portable devices like webcams, laptops, monitors, and USBs, according to Melissa Barosy, spokesperson for the department. The consumer protection agency has issued an emergency rule under the Citys Consumer Protection Law that makes price gouging illegal for any personal or household good or any service -- disinfectants, soap, and cleaning products, diagnostic products, medicines, and tissues -- that is needed to prevent or limit the spread of or treat new coronavirus patients. "We will prosecute businesses using this public health crisis to take advantage of New Yorkers who are concerned for their health and we urge consumers to file a complaint if they are overcharged," department head Lorelei Salas said in a recent announcement. "To the business community, if you incurred additional costs to supply these items, we will take that into account but what we cannot tolerate is businesses that are knowingly preying on vulnerable consumers for a profit. Do the right thing. Dont overcharge." But the message wasn't aimed at consumer electronics sellers. PHOTO: Online shopping. (Stock photo/Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images) One way to avoid overpaying is to go for quick fixes for broken devices, rather than trying to buy a brand new replacement. "Repairing a broken screen is far more efficient, quicker and economical than any other option," Evert said. Device repair shops are currently closed to retail clients in New York, because they are not considered "essential" businesses in the time of a citywide lock-down. MORE: Coronavirus map: Tracking the spread in the US and around the world But even stores who offer in-home repair services are facing unique challenges due to the shortage of parts. Joe Natanz, owner of i Can Fix It For You, a mobile, tablet and computer repair store, said he gets many of the devices' parts from factories in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus, and other parts of China. He said parts that would generally take about three to 10 business days to arrive, now can be delayed up to 14 days. Natanz said he's seen the price for the parts increase as well, about 15%, while the quality has declined. Parts dont come pre-assembled or are partially pre-assembled, as they did before -- and that labor must be done here in the U.S. "We believe this to be short term, so we have decided to eat costs at the current time," he said. "If the pandemic continues, we might have to relay that cost to the consumer due to shrinking profit margins and decreasing labor." 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 US and Worldwide: coronavirus map 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. As millions work from home, some online buyers see shortages, price jumps in at-home tech originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Shakeel-ur-Rahman last saw his ailing mother in December when she came to Delhi from Bihar's Samastipur district for treatment. It turned out to be their last meeting. I thought I would meet her once the lockdown is lifted, but not everything goes as per our plans, the 40-year-old businessman said on Sunday as he readied to drive to Ashram chowk with food for labourers battling hunger amid the 21-day lockdown to contain coronavirus. Rahman, who runs a travel agency here, lost his mother on Friday morning. When his friends told him to go home to see his mother one last time, he said, I am needed here in Delhi. I need to ensure that no one's mother dies of hunger. We (friends) could have requested the administration to allow him to visit his family, but Rahman refused. He said if he is able to help the needy caught in this crisis, it will the best tribute to his mother, Muslim Mohammad, Rahman's friend and social activist, said. She had not been keeping well for some time. Yes, I wanted to meet her, to see her one last time, lekin saari icchyaein poori nahi hoti (not everything we wish for comes true), Rahman said. While his relatives performed the last rites of his mother, Naushaba Khatoon, Rahman was busy distributing food packets to the needy, homeless people and migrant workers across Delhi. A family member called him at 7 am Friday, informing him about the passing away of his mother. A few hours later, he drove out carrying dry and cooked food for homeless people, Mohammad said. Rahman and his friends have so far been able to help around 800 families in various parts of the national capital. We are a group of friends who have been receiving support from relatives and acquaintances. We generally get calls or WhatsApp messages requesting food for the needy, Rahman said. Over the last few days, the group has provided free food to destitutes, homeless workers in Malviya Nagar, Ashram, Zaidpur, Ismailpur Tughlaq Road, Okhla etc. The Delhi government has also made arrangements to feed more than 10 lakh people bearing the brunt of the lockdown. Citizen groups, NGOs and voluntary organizations have also been providing free food to the needy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the National Assembly should scrutinise the N500 billion proposed by the President Muhammadu B... The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the National Assembly should scrutinise the N500 billion proposed by the President Muhammadu Buhari government as an intervention fund against COVID-19. The call was made in a statement Saturday night by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan. PDP stated that it was important for the lawmakers to ensure that the fund got to the desired targets. It advised them to examine the expenditure layout, put adequate clauses to eliminate diversion and ensure prudence. The PDP spokesperson cited the allegations of diversion of funds in the recent disbursement of N20,000 social palliative. It urged the legislature to demand full details of how the N500bn would be spent to fight coronavirus. The PDP insists that such information should also include details of what each state of the federation gets; the parameters for allocations, the monitoring system and foolproof measures to block all loopholes and check fraud. This money, which is to be mopped up from various special government accounts, belongs to Nigerians. As such, the National Assembly must ensure that it is fully utilised for their well-being, it added. The party urged the National Assembly to involve trusted and transparent Nigerians from the private sector to guarantee accountability and Nigerians confidence. The coronavirus death toll in New York state rose to 4,159, the governor said Sunday, up from 3,565 a day prior. The spike by 594 deaths showed a slight decrease in the day-to-day number of lives lost compared to the previous day. It was the first time the day-over-day toll had dropped -- on Saturday it hit a record of 630 deaths in 24 hours -- but Governor Andrew Cuomo told journalists it was too early to tell whether that was a "blip." The peak of the pandemic in New York -- the US area hardest hit thus far by the fast-spreading virus -- could arrive over the next week, Cuomo said, though he cautioned it was still unclear if the apex would be a point or a plateau. "We could be on that plateau right now," Cuomo said at his daily briefing. "We won't know for the next few days, does it go up, does it go down." The state has now reported 122,031 positive cases of COVID-19, which has much of the United States under stay-at-home orders. New York City remains the nation's epicenter but the governor warned over the weekend that nearby hotspots were emerging on Long Island and in the neighboring state New Jersey. Bodies are moved to a refrigerator truck serving as a temporary morgue outside of Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn on April 4, 2020 in New York Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 15:50:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Profits of China's electronic information manufacturing sector declined in the first two months of 2020 as the novel coronavirus outbreak hurt the industrial chain, official data showed. Total profits slumped 87 percent year on year, while operating revenue dropped 14.7 percent from a year earlier, according to a statement by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). In breakdown, profits of the communications equipment manufacturing sub-sector dived 357.3 percent from a year earlier, while that of the computer manufacturing sub-sector went down 139.7 percent. In the first two months, mobile phone output fell 33.8 percent year on year, with smartphone production down 32.5 percent. The output of laptops and tablet computers dropped 31.1 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively. By the end of March, China's manufacturing sector has steadily advanced production resumption, with 98.6 percent of major industrial firms nationwide having restarted work, according to the MIIT. Around 89.9 percent of employees in industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.84 million U.S. dollars) had returned to their posts, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of the MIIT. CAIRO An Egyptian security source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur March 28 that the Egyptian air force launched airstrikes against the strongholds of takfiri (extremist) and other terrorist groups south of the Egyptian city of Rafah, killing 16 of them and wounding six others. Three four-wheel-drive vehicles were also destroyed in the operation. The source said the air raid came in response to the armed groups blowing up five electricity towers in al-Kharouba village in Sheikh Zuweid March 26. Mustafa Sanjar, a journalist who specializes in Sinai affairs, explained in a phone interview with Al-Monitor that armed men affiliated with terrorist groups in Sinai bombed five electricity towers that transmit power from the provincial capital of el-Arish to the cities of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah in the northern Sinai Peninsula. As a result, the electricity supply to the two cities was disrupted for three days in a row. Sanjar said citizens informed the government-affiliated Sinai Electricity Department about the power outages March 26. A group of technicians accompanied by a security force headed to the site and found five destroyed electricity towers that had collapsed completely after their bases were bombed. He added, "The security forces found, next to the destroyed electrical towers, warning messages from the bombers, threatening to pursue all technicians and security members involved in repairing the damage. He said the bombed power line was new and became operational in February to solve the crisis of repeated power outages. The project had cost 65 million Egyptian pounds ($4.2 million). He noted that the power outages in the Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah areas led to the interruption of water pumping from the underground wells that feed the city of Sheikh Zuweid. This has caused a major crisis for the residents in light of fears of an outbreak of the coronavirus and the need for water for personal hygiene, sterilization and hand-washing, among other preventive measures. Following the power outage in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, the repair teams in the Sinai Electricity Department reconnected power to the two cities on March 28. A source in the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company confirmed to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk that the repair teams managed to reinstall five current-carrying towers from el-Arish after their collapse March 26. The source indicated the completion of the repairs and the reconnection of power to Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah. Mohamed Hajras, chairman of the Sheikh Zuweid Center Council in the northern Sinai Peninsula, said March 30 the state is implementing a plan to replace the overhead electrical power lines with ground lines. He said the plan would cover all parts of the city with ground lines instead since armed groups target overhead lines. For years, the Egyptian army and police forces have engaged in deadly confrontations with armed groups in the Sinai Peninsula, especially in the northern Sinai area. Wilayat Sinai, which is affiliated with the Islamic State (IS), is the most prominent of these groups and has regularly bombed gas lines that extend between Egypt and Israel. The latest incident occurred Feb. 2 after the Egyptian government announced it would start importing gas from Tel Aviv. The group also blows up power lines in Sinai occasionally. An informed security source said on condition of anonymity that Egyptian authorities issued orders prohibiting the publication of any news related to the bombing of the electricity towers as well as the operation carried out by the armed forces in response to the attack. The source clarified in a phone interview with Al-Monitor that some officers in the National Security Department at the Ministry of Interior who are responsible for monitoring newspaper publications and satellite channel programs gave clear instructions not to circulate the news. They only allowed the publication of the news of the towers' collapse, provided there was no mention of the reason they collapsed or that IS or any other terrorist group was behind the operation. The source said this decision was made because the circulation of such news threatens Egyptian national security and shows that the security forces do not control the situation in Sinai. There is no reason to publish alarming news at this stage when the state is fighting a war against terrorism and beefing up its health insurance efforts for citizens to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, which is draining the financial and human capabilities of the state and citizens alike. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, a human rights lawyer and director of Al-Haqanya Center for Rights and Freedoms, told Al-Monitor neither Egyptian authorities nor the Ministry of Interior is allowed to issue instructions banning newspaper publications and satellite channel content, as this violates the Egyptian Constitution. He explained that the Egyptian Constitution explicitly states in Article 65, Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed. All individuals have the right to express their opinion through speech, writing, imagery, or any other means of expression and publication. Article 71 of the constitution states, It is prohibited to censor, confiscate, suspend or shut down Egyptian newspapers and media outlets in any way. Abdel Aziz said this proves these measures violate the law and the constitution, and they are senseless, as any news can spread in non-Egyptian news sites or Arab or foreign media at the same time. Local censorship is pointless consequently, he concluded. Aerial photo taken on March 27, 2020 shows farmers harvesting Choy sum, or Chinese flowering, in Damazhuang Village in central China's Henan Province. (Xinhua/Feng Dapeng) A series of "unconventional measures" that aimed to ensure a stable grain production has allowed China to hold firm its "rice bowl". BEIJING, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese officials said Saturday that the country can hold firm its "rice bowl" despite the novel coronavirus impact, with ample grain reserves and measures to boost production. The country has recorded a long streak of bumper years, with grain output reaching a record of 663.85 million tonnes last year. With measures to boost grain production "we have the confidence and determination to hold firm our 'rice bowl,'" Pan Wenbo, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told a press conference. The bumper harvests supported the country's efforts to boost social and economic development as well as fight the novel coronavirus outbreak, Pan said in response to questions that whether some countries' grain export ban would strain China's grain supply. Pan said China has unveiled a series of "unconventional measures" to stabilize grain production, including setting region-specific grain plantation targets, offering subsidies for farmers and raising minimum prices for state procurement of rice, which secured a good start this year and would ensure stable grain production for the whole year. The country's grain reserves have run at a high level, with those of rice and wheat being sufficient to meet the country's consumer market demand for one year, said Qin Yuyun, an official with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration. Qin said the administration will continue efforts to ensure abundant supply and stable prices. It has been nearly two weeks since India went into lockdown, a desperate measure to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the country. However, despite the attempts by the government to 'flatten the curve', in the two weeks that the country has been under lockdown, the number of those testing positive for COVID-19 has only increased at an exponential rate. Read more Three Indian Soldiers Martyred, Five Terrorists Killed In Jammu And Kashmir Three Indian soldiers lost their lives during an anti-infiltration operation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Keran sector on Sunday. AP The heavily armed terrorists were intercepted by the Indian Army soldiers on Sunday morning while they were trying to infiltrate the LoC through the Rungdori Behak area of Keran sector. Read more In A First, Infected AIIMS Doctor's COVID-19 Positive Wife Gives Birth To A Healthy Baby Just days after both husband and wife tested positive for COVID-19, the wife of a resident doctor of AIIMS delivered a healthy baby boy. The baby was born on Friday night at the AIIMS in Delhi, where the couple has been under treatment for COVID-19. UNSPLASH This is the first baby to be born to a COVID-19 positive mother in Delhi. The mother and the child have been kept in the isolation ward. Read more Madhya Pradesh Woman Dies After Hospital Staff Fail To Find Key Of Locked ICU At a time when the medical services across the country are supposed to be at their highest efficiency - due to the COVID-19 outbreak - a woman lost her life due to the sheer careless attitude of a hospital. BCCL/ FILE The woman, identified as Laxmibai Chauhan, a resident of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, had complained of breathlessness and high blood pressure, so she was taken to hospital. Read more 'I May Take It Too': Trump Asks PM Modi To Allow Export Of Hydroxychloroquine To Treat COVID-19 United States President, Donald Trump, has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to release the US order of Hydroxychloroquine tablets, so that coronavirus patients can be treated. AFP During a press briefing at the White House, Trump said he spoke to Modi on the phone and urged him to allow the export of hydroxychloroquine. Read more Since March 25, Delhi Police Has Booked 66,000 People For Violating The Lockdown India has been under lockdown since March 25. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people have been ordered not to go out of their houses. The lockdown is scheduled to last till April 14; so far, no official statements have been made with regard to whether or not this will be extended. BCCL While most people are abiding by the regulations, there are quite a few who seem to have little, if any, regard for the rules. Many people have violated the lockdown and several have been booked for it. Delhi Police alone has booked 66,000 violators. Read more Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 03:25:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SANAA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- At least six women were killed and 28 other female prisoners wounded on Sunday in artillery shelling from Houthi militia on a prison in Yemen's embattled city of Taiz, said Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Iryani. "We strongly condemn the hideous terrorist massacre committed by Houthis militia by bombing ... the central prison in Taiz with eight shells, which killed according to initial report six women, as well as a child who was visiting her mother, and wounded 28 others," Iryani said on Twitter. Residents and medics said the shelling came from the 50th Street on the outskirts of Taiz, where the Houthi fighters are stationed. The central prison is located in al-Dhabab area in southern Taiz city. Taiz, the country's third largest city, is under control of the government, while its surrounding mountainous outskirts are under control of the Houthi group. Yemen has been mired in civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. In Malaysia, It's Out With the New, in With the Old By Zsombor Peter April 04, 2020 With parties championing Malaysia's Malay Muslim majority back in power following February's spectacular collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's reformist Pakatan Harapan, or Coalition of Hope, government, many expect a conservative turn with more race-based policies that risk raising tensions in the multiethnic country. Pakatan, which had toppled the long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition at the polls in 2018, had watched its popularity nosedive as Barisan heavyweight United Malays National Organization and the Islamist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, played up fears that Malay Muslims and other indigenous groups, or Bumiputra, were being sidelined. Fearing Pakatan would lose the next poll, a handful of its lawmakers broke away in February to ally with UMNO and PAS. Then-Prime Minister Mahathir resigned in protest, setting off a leadership tussle that saw the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, name Mahathir's interior minister and fellow Bersatu party member, Muhyiddin Yassin, the winner. "I am a brother to the Malays, the Chinese, the Indians, the Sikhs, the Ibans, the Kauaians, the Dusun, the Murut," Muhyiddin, a Malay Muslim, said in his first public address after taking power. "I am your prime minister." Many have their doubts. "The core of this government coalition is really the three most popular ethnic Malay conservative parties. That means that these politicians are likely to push for a revival of the kind of racial policies that we have seen prior to the 2018 election," said Harrison Cheng, an associate director with consulting firm Control Risks who follows Malaysia. Malaysia's ethnic Malays and Bumiputra draw on a raft of affirmative action benefits that help placate a deep-seated complex about losing out to the country's generally better-off ethnic Chinese. With the main Malay and Muslim parties at his back, Cheng said, Muhyiddin will likely push those benefits forward by increasing the majority's promised quotas for jobs and public contracts, even at the risk of scaring off some foreign investment. Parliament is not due to reconvene until May 18, after Muhyiddin postponed the original March 9 start date to give himself time to shore up support in case of a no-confidence vote. Ahmad Martadha Mohamed, a professor of government at Utara Malaysia University, said the new government has begun beefing up subsidies for Malays and Bumiputra already. Because they make up a disproportionate share of the lowest-income earners, he said they will also benefit most from the economic stimulus plans sure to follow the coronavirus outbreak. "After all, UMNO, PAS and Bersatu, these are the Malay groups, they get the support from the Malays, so of course what they are doing now is to make sure that they are targeting this group first," Martadha Mohamed said. The return of UMNO and PAS to power also comes with a fear of more race-baiting politics. "There is nothing in UMNO and PAS' track record in opposition in the past 18 months [to suggest] that they would shy away from using inflammatory rhetoric to stir up public anger against the Chinese and the Indians," said Cheng. "That is their modus operandi, and I don't think they're going to move away from that, because they have seen how it has helped them to secure several by-election victories in the past 18 months as well as propel them into federal office now." How high Malaysia's racial and religious tensions run will turn heavily on how hard PAS pushes its Islamist agenda, including the federal application of Islamic law. The party has imposed a degree of it in the few states it runs but had efforts to take it nationwide rebuffed by UMNO during its first stint in power. The new government has sought to allay fears of an Islamist push and conspicuously passed PAS over for the religious affairs portfolio. Cheng and Martadha Mohamed said the new government could not afford to rile other groups and parties too much before its strength in parliament is tested and proven but added that PAS may be given more rope if and when it is. "I'm sure sooner or later it will come time when, you know, they will try to push for their own agenda ... now [that] they are also part of the government, because that's been the objective of the party," Martadha Mohamed said. Before its demise, Pakatan had lined up several reform-minded bills to make the government more open and accountable. They included a bill that would set up an independent committee to hear complaints against the police and another to make the funding of political parties more transparent. In an article for Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia, an advocacy group Tricia Yeoh of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, a Malaysian research group, said those bills "will likely be shelved." Thomas Fann, chairman of the Malaysian democratic rights group Bersih, said the country was in for the return of a more repressive brand of government as well. In the days that followed Pakatan's collapse and Muhyiddin's rise by royal decree, protesters took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the capital, complaining of a "backdoor" government and calling for new elections. Police ordered them to stop. Some were called in for questioning and investigated for sedition. "They were very quick to call people in for questioning, and even people who showed up to show solidarity were also called in for questioning. So that was, I think, a sign that the police are taking their cue from the new government that they should crack down more on any sort of dissent," said Fann. "We do expect that this government ... will be less tolerant of civil rights." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address OTTAWA - The federal government is looking at ways to speed up the introduction of skills-training for out-of-work Canadians, say groups involved in helping implement the program. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/4/2020 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The employment insurance section of the Government of Canada website is shown on a laptop in Toronto on April 4, 2020. The federal government is looking at ways to speed-up the introduction of skills-training help for out-of-work Canadians, say groups involved in helping implement the program. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jesse Johnston OTTAWA - The federal government is looking at ways to speed up the introduction of skills-training for out-of-work Canadians, say groups involved in helping implement the program. The training help was scheduled to arrive at the end of the year in the form of an annual tax credit and time off through the employment insurance system for workers who wanted to upgrade their skills, or learn something new to help their job hunt. Promised in last year's budget, the training benefit was the subject of intense discussions among senior government officials and post-secondary training institutions immediately before the pandemic landed in Canada. Now, the conversations have turned to how to use the economic shutdown from COVID-19 as a catalyst to speed up the training benefit's introduction, says Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada. Groups say the thinking is how to get workers now stuck at home or out of work to take programs to prevent their skills from becoming rusty while they don't use them regularly. More than 2.1 million people have applied for EI in the last two weeks. "It is a chance to upgrade your skills, to sharpen your skills, and, as we say, to be ready to help accelerate Canada in a recovery faster," Davidson said. Denise Amyot, president of Colleges and Institutes Canada, says the thinking is to prepare for after the pandemic and reduce the time needed for an economic recovery. Also factoring into decisions, she says, is that not every business may make it through the sharp downturn the country is facing. A recent survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business of the small- and medium-sized businesses it represents suggested about one-third that are closed due to COVID-19 aren't sure that they'll ever reopen their doors. Amyot said there is a need to measure which skills the economy will need after the public health response to ensure there isn't a vacuum of skills. "Right now, if we have jobs or businesses that are completely disappearing, it means we need to ensure that people are training for those jobs that will get through this pandemic," Amyot said in a telephone interview. "We need measures that can be implemented quickly." She added that some workers may also be taking time at home to reconsider their career paths and may be looking at retraining options that can be done remotely. "They don't want to lose their skills so they're looking for training opportunities," she said, before adding that some skilled-trades training "is not that easy to do online." Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. One big question is how to help workers who want it to pay for training, especially if federal help barely covers the cost of necessities. The Liberals' pre-election budget last year put aside more than $1.7 billion over five years to create a tax credit and pay for dedicated time off for workers to take skills-training programs. It was aimed to be in place by December 2020. Canadian workers earning between $10,000 and about $150,000 a year would receive an annual $250 refundable tax credit, accumulating over time, to offset the costs of learning new job skills. The idea was to help workers throughout their careers to adapt to changes within their chosen fields, or to help them acquire a whole new skill set to change professions. Some of the thinking behind it was to avoid some of the negative ripples from automation. Federal policymakers weren't considering a sudden downturn when they drafted the program. The program also envisioned a tuition component, but the change in circumstances may give governments a chance to see if there's a way to step in with some help, Davidson said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2020. Advertisement New York City police were forced to break up a large funeral for a rabbi who recently died from the coronavirus just days after crowds packed the streets for another rabbi's procession. Hundreds of mourners, including children, gathered in the streets of Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood on Sunday for the funeral of Rav Yosef Kalish, a 63-year-old Amshinover rebbe who was hospitalized with COVID-19 last week. Video circulating on social media shows NYPD officers attempting to break up the crowd because mourners were violating the city's social distancing guidelines aimed at stemming the spread of the disease that killed Kalish and at least 2,624 others in New York City. Scroll down for video New York City police were forced to break up a large funeral for a rabbi who recently died from the coronavirus in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood on Sunday because mourners were violating social distancing guidelines Hundreds of mourners gathered in the streets of Borough Park on Sunday for the funeral of Rav Yosef Kalish, a 63-year-old Amshinover rebbe who was hospitalized with COVID-19 last week Some of the mourners, including children, were seen wearing face coverings during the funeral procession Two men are seen loading a casket (pictured) in the back of a hearse outside a funeral home on Sunday Photos of the service show two men loading a wooden casket into a hearse outside a funeral home in the area. Images also show mourners standing closely together, which goes against the six-feet apart guideline as suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An NYPD squad car blared its siren as it approached the large crowd near 55th Street and 12th Avenue, prompting mourners to disperse quickly. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week that those who defy social distancing orders could potentially be fined up to $500, but it's unclear if anyone attending the funeral was fined on Sunday. Kalish is survived by his two sons and three daughters. A second funeral was held elsewhere in Brooklyn on Sunday for Rabbi Shalom Gurewicz, according to Collive.com. The procession for Gurewicz occurred outside of 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, at 12.30pm. Video of the procession shows mourners appearing to be at least six feet apart, which is in compliance with the CDC guidelines. A man speaks as hundreds of members of the Orthodox Jewish community wearing face masks attend the funeral for Kalish Mourners are seen Sunday wearing masks while attending the rabbi's funeral in Brooklyn Men and children are seen standing close together during the funeral of a rabbi who recently passed away Members of the Orthodox Jewish community are seen standing at least six feet apart after attending a funeral for a rabbi who passed away Mourners are seen wearing masks over their faces during the funeral while others weren't wearing any protection Sunday's funerals came just days after hundreds gathered in Brooklyn last Wednesday for the funeral of 96-year-old Yosef Leifer, who was the rabbi of Congregation Karnei Reim on Avenue N. Leifer was a Holocaust survivor who became a rabbi of the Ukrainian Hassidic dynasty known as Nadvorna, which is named after the city in Ukraine in which the dynasty originated. That funeral procession made headlines after many of the mourners were seen close together without any facial coverings. New York City is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States - with more than 64,500 cases and 2,472 deaths as of Sunday afternoon. Hundreds gathered in Brooklyn last Wednesday for the funeral of 96-year-old Yosef Leifer. That funeral procession (pictured left and right) made headlines after many of the mourners were seen close together without any facial coverings Also on Wednesday April 1, police in New Jersey broke up a funeral attended by up to 70 people and issued summonses to 15 of them, including a 100-year-old man, in the predominantly Orthodox Jewish town of Lakewood. It was the fourth consecutive day in which police were called to Lakewood to cite members of the secluded religious community who were found to be flouting stay-at-home orders aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Officials said that 'about 60 to 70 individuals gathered for a funeral' on the corner of Eighth Street and Madison Avenue. The street corner is very close to a Jewish synagogue and a cemetery. 'This gathering was in violation of (Gov. Phil Murphy's executive order), which bans gatherings of individuals, whether they be at weddings, parties, celebrations, or other social events including funerals,' read a statement from Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D Billhimer and Police Chief Gregory Meyer. 'As officers tried to disperse the crowd, the crowd became unruly and argumentative.' So police had to ask for assistance from the Ocean County Sheriff's Office and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Officers charged 15 men, including 100-year-old Nossom Strulovic, of violating the state ban on public gatherings. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 20:09:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Mainline video: U.S. President Donald Trump issues an order under the Defense Production Act (DPA) on April 2 to ensure that private companies are able to build as many ventilators as the country needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) "The lack of availability of PPE represents a clear and present danger to nurses and other healthcare professionals caring for patients diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19." SAN FRANCISCO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has called on government and the public to take action in providing sufficient personal protective equipment. Without immediate action, limited supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and other lifesaving equipment will cause greater loss of life and increase the toll from COVID-19, the association warned Friday. Photo taken on April 3, 2020 shows medical workers outside Ronald O. Perelman Center for Emergency Services in New York, the United States. (Xinhua) Providing adequate protection and lifesaving equipment is crucial to changing the course of the COVID-19 crisis, according to California-based AACN, which represents more than half a million acute and critical care nurses, many of whom are caring for patients with COVID-19. "The lack of availability of PPE represents a clear and present danger to nurses and other healthcare professionals caring for patients diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19," said Megan Brunson, president of the AACN board of directors. "The failure to provide the necessary PPE to nurses and our healthcare colleagues puts the entire healthcare system at risk," Brunson said. "Working without this equipment places nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists and others at an inordinately high risk to contract the virus." People wait to enter a tent set up to test for COVID-19 in front of the Brooklyn Hospital Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) AACN suggested that the federal government immediately use its authority to enact the full Defense Production Act and order the rapid production and distribution of PPE, businesses donate any excess PPE inventory to hospitals and other healthcare settings, and manufacturers able to produce PPE begin to act right now to help increase the inventory nationwide. AACN President-elect Elizabeth Bridges said, "This pandemic is quickly depleting supplies and causing staffing shortages. We have rapidly moved from contingency planning to a crisis orientation, and the peak of the national surge in patients is still to come." (Article by Xinhua Reporter Wu Xiaoling) Granted, its only been one day since season 4 of Money Heist dropped on Netflix, but many fans have already watched all eight episodes. Were with you. The wait, the ride, and the final episode had everyone glued to their seats for a Friday binge-fest that took viewers through the entire wheel of emotions. Joy, pain, fear, anger, loathing you name it and all of its ilk showed up to the party. This season of La Casa de Papel picked right up where it left off in part 3, with Nairobi clinging to life and Professor in war mode over what he believed was Lisbons death. If youve finished watching the new season, then you know whose lives were lost and the need for at least one more season. With a major character gone and one in peril, the events in part 4 will fold nicely into a new installment. Its the perfect set-up. [Spoilers Ahead: Do not continue reading if you havent watched Money Heist season 4] Money Heist part 4 | Tamara Arranz Ramos/Netflix Nairobis death was a gut-punch If there was one thing that fans were looking forward to in season 4, it was the matter of Nairobis survival. That gunshot to the chest left the robbers and viewers reeling, and no one knew if shed make it. The crew rallied with Tokyo stepping up to finish the surgery after communication was cut with the doctor. Nairobi was saved. After she wasnt allowed to leave and chaos broke out, Gandia made it his personal mission to kill her. He tried three times before succeeding during a standoff in episode six, shooting Nairobi in the head and leaving everyone in shock. The despair was palpable as her body crumpled to the ground and Helsinki dropped to his knees. She was supposed to have a baby. She was supposed to live. And somewhere in the middle of the heist, she found love with Bogota. Helsinkis tears, Bogotas broken heart, Palermos guilt, and the rest of the teams pain now fuel something else. What will happen with their grief? For Nairobi! is a battle cry By the end of episode eight, Raquel/Lisbon is reunited with the group and the new chant is For Nairobi! With Gandia subdued and most of the band back together, theres a newfound hope they can complete their mission. Heading into a fifth season, it would make sense for Nairobis death to be their new motivation to finish the heist. But will vengeance be worked in there somewhere too? Fans hope For Nairobi! brings a fresh energy and victory in war. The Professors dilemma is a new storyline At the end of part 4, the Professor and Marseille are the only two on the outside. Professor had a brief moment to celebrate with the team remotely and ended his call with For Nairobi! But that sociopath Alicia found his hideout, and this is the first time weve seen him caught by a true enemy. There is no romantic chemistry to save him, and no one around with a gun to overtake the pregnant, disgraced inspector. What is present however, is the perfect segue into a new season. How will he wiggle his way of out this and save his crew? This is a wrench in the plan, or is it? Season 5 is rumored Netflix has not confirmed a fifth season of Money Heist (La Casa de Papel), but there are rumors that the series was already given a green light. In January, the Spanish outlet Bluper reported Vancouver Media creator Alex Pinas company has plans in the works for part five. Fans should stay tuned for a formal announcement from Money Heist showrunners and Netflix in the coming months. The Ministry of Health is attempting to track down people who came in close contact with COVID-19 patient 183, a 43-year-old reporter in Ha Noi who tested positive on March 29. Infographic courtesy of zing.vn The patent tested positive for the new coronavirus after interviewing patient 148, a 58-year-old Frenchman, on March 12. According to an urgent notice issued by the MoH late Sunday, she attended Moc Linh Oriental Medicine Centre at 182 Ngoc Ha Street, Ba inh District on March 17 from 8am to 8.30am; on March 18 from 10.30am to 11am; on March 22 from 12pm to 3pm; on March 23 from 3.30pm to 4.30pm; and on March 24 from 12pm to 2pm. She also visited Jc Caze Clinic at 5 Hang Chuoi Street on March 18 from 1.30pm to 2pm, and on March 19 from 10am to 11.30am. On March 18, the patient visited Huong Sen Healthcare Centre at 5 Le Van Thiem Street from 9am to 10.30am. On March 20, she visited the Sheraton Hotel at 11 Xuan Dieu Street, Tay Ho District from 9am to 12pm. The ministry has urged anyone who visited these areas during the aforementioned time to immediately contact local centres for disease control and prevention for guidance. As of Sunday, Viet Nam had reported 241 COVID-19 infections, with 91 patients confirmed recovered. VNS Health Ministry traces people in contact with 237th COVID-19 patient The Ministry of Health has issued an urgent notice to trace all people in close contact with the 237th COVID-19 patient, a 64-year-old Swedish man, who was reported infected with the coronavirus on April 1 after being hospitalised for a accident. Public health scientists predict that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States. Andrew Rundle, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues expect that COVID-19-related school closures will double out-of-school time this year for many children in the U.S. and will exacerbate risk factors for weight gain associated with summer recess. The Perspective article appears in Obesity, the journal of the Obesity Society. In many areas of the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools and some of these school systems are not expected to re-open this school year. The experiences in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore suggest that social distancing orders if lifted after short periods will have to be periodically re-instated to control COVID-19 flare-ups. While much has been written about poor food and lack of physical activity in schools, the data show that children experience unhealthy weight gain primarily during the summer months when they are out of school. Unhealthy weight gain over the summer school recess is particularly apparent for Hispanic and African-American youth, and children who are already overweight. "There could be long-term consequences for weight gained while children are out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic," says Rundle, who specializes in research to prevent childhood obesity. "Research shows that weight gained over the summer months is maintained during the school year and accrues summer to summer. When a child experiences obesity, even at a young age, they are at risk for higher, unhealthy weight, all the way into middle age." Staying at home during the pandemic may contribute to obesity As households stock up on shelf-stable foods, they appear to be purchasing ultra-processed, calorie-dense comfort foods. In regards to physical activity, social distancing and stay at home orders reduce the opportunities for exercise, particularly for children in urban areas living in small apartments. Sedentary activities and screen time are expected to expand under social distancing orders; available data show that online video game usage is already soaring. Screen time is associated with experiencing overweight/obesity in childhood, likely because of the dual issues of sedentary time and the association between screen time and snacking. How to prevent childhood obesity during the pandemic The authors present several interventions for reducing risk factors for unhealthy weight gain during the school closures: Some school districts are offering students grab-and-go meals at school sites or via buses running along their regular pick-up routes. Research shows that food insecurity is associated with unhealthy weight among children, and addressing food insecurity will likely have long term benefits for child health. Farmers markets, which often provide specialty and ethnic produce and prepared foods valued by immigrant communities. As such, cities and states should consider them as part of essential food services, but also create social distancing plans for such markets. As schools build their remote teaching capacity, they should make physical education a priority, with home lesson plans for physical activity and/or streaming exercise classes. The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for widespread sickness and death, straining healthcare systems, shutting down economies, and closing school districts. While it is a priority to mitigate its immediate impact, it is important to consider ways to prevent its long-term effects, including new risks for childhood obesity." Andrew Rundle, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health By ANI NEW DELHI: Air India recently found a rather unexpected praise from an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of Pakistan. Air India was operating special flights from India to Frankfurt with relief materials and evacuated European nationals, who were stranded in India as coronavirus swept across continents, perishing millions and crippling the system of passenger planes crisscrossing the world. "It was a very proud moment for me as well as the entire Air India crew when we heard Pakistan ATC praising our special flight operations to Europe," one of the senior captains of the special flights told exclusively to ANI. "As we entered in Pakistan's Flight Information Region (FIR), the Pakistan Air Traffic Controller (ATC) greeted us 'Assalaam Alaikum!' This is Karachi's control welcoming Air India for relief flights to Frankfurt," the senior captain quoted the Pakistan ATC as saying. "Confirm are you operating relief flights for Frankfurt," the Pak ATC further said. "AFFIRM," said the Air India captain in Pakistan's airspace. "You are cleared direct to exit point Kebud request estimate crossing Kebud (Exit)," came a response from the ATC. Air India captain replied, saying "Cleared direct Kebud, Thank you." After this, the Pakistan ATC showered praise on Air India. "We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights, Good Luck!" "Thank you so much," responded the captain of India's national carrier. Furthermore, when the AI captain, who commanded the special flights, asked the Pakistan ATC that he is not getting the next radar for the Iran airspace, Pakistan conveyed the Indian jet's position to the Tehran airspace and provided details of the two AI special flights. Many crew members of AI's Boeing-777 and Boeing 787 were deployed for the special evacuation flights for European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai and Delhi. Before taking off from Mumbai airport, the ATC there, besides giving permission praised the national carrier's efforts amidst the crisis, saying "we are proud of you". The Captain also replied back stating that they were also proud of working with the ATC and all other services as a sign of mutual respect. After Pakistan airspace, the special AI flight entered Iran. As the captain told ANI, it had never happened before in his entire pilot career that the Middle East country had given a direct route of over 1000 miles. "First time in my entire career as a pilot, Iran gave a direct routing for about 1000 miles a privilege guess enjoyed as special flights, in all especially in the recent tense situation in the Iranian airspace," he said. Iran has rarely given a direct route to any of airlines because the direct route of Iran airspace is strictly kept reserve for their defence purposes only. Before leaving Iran airspace, the ATC there also wished us 'all the best'," the AI captain told to ANI. After Iran, the AI special flights entered into the Turkey airspace and then Germany's. "All ATCs from Bombay to Frankfurt welcomed the special flights of Air India and wished us very proudly," the Captain said. The two special Air India flights flew out stranded European and Canadian citizens from Mumbai. All crew members including the pilots wore the mandatory COVID-19 coveralls for over 20 hours at a stretch (to/from and ground time at Frankfurt). They will now remain in self-quarantine for 14 days. To prevent of the spread of COVID-19 virus, India has announced a 21-days lockdown with no passenger air and rail traffic, leaving many of foreign nationals stranded in several parts of the country. PHILIPSBURG/ MARIGOT:--- The French side represented by Prefet Sylvie Feucher, President Daniel Gibbs and Commandant of the Gendarmerie Stephan Basso confirmed during a live press conference on Sunday with Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs that the French side of the island has decided to respect the decision of the Prime Minister of St. Maarten Silveria Jacobs when she declared the State of Emergency on Saturday. Prefet Sylvie Feucher said that the border at Bellevue and Belle Plain (Belvedere) will be manned by joint forces 24 hours during the countrywide shutdown. The border at Oyster Pond and in Low-Lands will be physically closed. Feucher said that this is done to further protect the citizens on both sides of the island. She said that reinforcement of gendarmes arrived on the island on Saturday which will assist the Gendarmerie. Feucher said that due to the lack of manpower a decision was taken to physically close the border and at Oyster Pond and Lowlands. Feucher said residents who have urgent needs to cross the border must obtain an attestation from the Prefecture. These attestations will only be given for emergency and essential services. Persons are not allowed to cross the border of leisure purposes. President Daniel Gibbs who called in by phone confirmed the statements made by Prefet Feucher, while the Commandant of the Gendarmerie Stephan Basso said that the plans to further re-enforced the borders were done in conjunction with their counterpart of KPSM. He said during this period the Gendarmes will also reinforce the measures implemented on the French side since March 17th, 2020. Basso said that some residents have been lapsing and as such fines will be issued. The Commandant of the Gendarmerie also pleaded with the community to respect the measures that were put in place for everyones safety. Asked if the French side will be delivering food to the vulnerable and elderly during this period. Gibbs said that the French side is already delivering food to those people. He said meals are being prepared by CTOS and some associations just recently joined forces with the Collectivity and CTOS to deliver food. Media personalities that have the Disaster Pass issued by DCOMM will be allowed to cross the border strictly to cover the news. Those media personality that does not have the Disaster Pass should ensure they obtain an authorized form from the Prefecture or the Chief of Police Carl John. Emails can be sent to Chief of Police Carl John at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs urged the residents on both sides to respect the restrictions as it is for everyones safety. She said the borders are not closed but at the moment it will be manned to reduce the movement of people. Head of CPS Fenna Arnell also announced that the emergency supplied that are provided by the Netherlands arrived on the island today (Sunday). She said the 12 beds that are complete with ventilators were delivered to the St. Maarten Medical Center. Epidemiologist Eva de Weever said test kits are limited and that persons who develop symptoms while in confinement will be tested. She said at the moment there are not sufficient kits to test everyone. De Weever said that St. Maarten is following international regulations to curb the spread of COVID-19. She said the best way to control and protect each other is social distancing and right now everyone should stay home. During this shutdown, no physical activities will be allowed outside of anyones home or yards. Persons that have pets and do not have space to accommodate their pets' daily needs will be allowed to take their pets outside of their homes but this must be done in close proximity to their homes. Employees that were not paid by their employers and have an urgent need for food should fill in a form on the Government website or Facebook page in order to receive assistance from the government. Jacobs said everyone that is vulnerable including the undocumented. The USNS Comfort arrived in New York Harbor to support the national, state and local response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) K.C. Wilsey/FEMA The 1,000-bed US Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is only treating a small number of patients in New York City, and part of the problem has been requirements and restrictions for treatment aboard the ship. The Department of Defense announced Friday that the USNS Comfort will no longer require a negative COVID-19 test for a patient to be treated. Additionally, the Navy is looking at loosening the restrictions on what type of patients can receive treatment on the ship. The purpose of the USNS Comfort is to relieve the pressure on the New York City hospitals and medical facilities currently overwhelmed by the coronavirus. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The 1,000-bed US Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is only treating a small number of patients in New York City, but the military is trying to change that. The massive hospital ship, which deployed to relieve the stress on New York's hospitals by treating patients with non-coronavirus related health issues, arrived in New York Harbor on Monday. President Donald Trump visited the ship as it was preparing to leave last Saturday. As of Thursday, however, the USNS Comfort is treating only 20 patients 2% of its operating capacity according to The New York Times. Earlier in the day on Thursday, Capt. Patrick Amersbach, the Comfort's commanding officer, told reporters that he was looking forward "to seeing a significant increase in patients being transferred to the Comfort." "There's no question in my mind that's going to get resolved very quickly and you're going to see that number grow," Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, said Friday on CNN's "New Day." The Department of Defense announced Friday that the patient screening process for the USNS Comfort is being streamlined and "will now occur pier-side in an effort to reduce the backlog at some nearby New York hospitals." Story continues Patient screening will include a temperature check and a questionnaire. A negative COVID-19 test is no longer required for treatment aboard the hospital ship, DoD revealed, adding that "this assistance will further unburden the local hospital and ambulance systems in these areas, allowing them to focus on the more serious COVID-19 cases." DoD said that these changes will take place immediately. While the hospital ship is accepting asymptomatic patients who have been screened, these patients will be isolated and tested upon arrival, the Navy said in response to a query from Insider. Another problem that has been preventing the ship from taking on patients is a restrictive list of 49 different ailments that would exclude an individual from receiving treatment aboard the hospital ship, The Times reported. "We are fine-tuning our patient acceptance criteria in order to open the aperture and take on more patients in a timely manner," the Navy said in a statement. "We are conducting data analysis on those patients who were not previously approved in order to determine what changes we need to make in order to meet the needs of the city." The Navy is working with local health officials "to make sure that we are able to provide the relief valve we came here to provide," according to the statement. A Navy official said that the hospital ship will be bringing on additional patients throughout the day. As of Friday, New York had more than 100,000 coronavirus cases. In the state, the virus has claimed just under 3,000 lives. Read the original article on Business Insider French tourists arrested for hookah party in Kamala PHUKET: Kamala Police have arrested seven French tourists at a house in Kamala for violating the Emergency Decree by holding a gathering and for illegal possession of hookahs, called baruku in Thailand. Sunday 5 April 2020, 08:20PM Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Rungrote Thakurapunyasiri announced the arrests at a news conference in Kamala at 5pm today (Apr 5). The arrests were made at a house in Moo 5, Kamala at about 00.30am today, Maj Gen Rungrote said. The seven arrested were named as: men Abao Hakin, 28; Hrarat Sani , 31; Hassane Nordine , 36; Janeledokme Elidrissi, 27; and Elhedli Mehdi, 31; along with women Roune Yasmino, 20, and Zied Larbita, 26. Among the evidence seized in the raid were four hookahs, two packages of the unused inhalant and 21 pieces used inhalant. It was not made clear whether the inhalant was tobacco-based or otherwise. Regardless, the seven have been charged with forming an illegal gathering in breach of the health regulations introduced under the Emergency Decree to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Maj Gen Rungrote said. They were also charged under the Customs Act for illegal possession of illegally imported untaxed items, he added, which is how the Thai law describes hookahs and the substances used with them. The management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital has accused a professor of medicine on its staff of conniving to conceal from his colleagues vital information on a suspected case of COVID-19 who died at the hospital last week. The federal facility said the suspected case had been on self isolation on arrival to Ilorin prior to his presentation at the Accident and Emergency unit of the hospital on the advise of the Professor who brought him. It said the information of self isolation was concealed from the frontline medical personnel at first contact in the A&E, an act that the hospital management considered HIGHLY UNETHICAL! The death of the 57-year-old UK returnee generated controversies among Kwara residents and even social media users. The state government had denied that it was a COVID-19 related case, adding that all the six samples of suspected cases taken in the state have been negative. The Kwara State Technical Committee on COVID-19 wishes to clarify that the state has not recorded any confirmed case of COVID-19. As of now, all the six samples tested from Kwara State have returned negative, Rafiu Ajakaye, spokesperson of the Kwara State Technical Committee on COVID-19, had said in a statement in Ilorin. But in the reaction of its hospitals medical advisory committee, which was first circulated online on Sunday, the hospital said the deceaseds travel history was concealed and his case presented as food poisoning. The hospitals statement was signed by the committee chairman, Olorogun Emerhor, and the chief medical director, Yusuf Abdullah. A 57-year old, male, was brought into the Accident and Emergency Department on the night of Wednesday, April 1st, 2020 in the company of one of the hospitals Professor of Internal Medicine (a specialist in infectious diseases); with history of abdominal discomfort/stooling, following ingestion of rotten pineapples. He was then admitted and managed as a case of food poisoning. The patient later died in the early hours of the following day, 2nd, April, 2020, the tertiary hospital said. UITH said it was not informed about the deceaseds travel history until after his corpse had been released to a relative for burial. Following the patients death and release of his corpse to the managing Professor (who happens to be for immediate burial in accordance with Islamic rites), the hospital management received several anonymous calls disclosing information of recent travels by the patient and his wife to UK and having been on self isolation on arrival to Ilorin prior to presentation at A&E (on the advise of the Professor who brought him)- Information that was concealed from the frontline medical personnel at first contact in the A&E, an act that the hospital management considered HIGHLY UNETHICAL! Based on the annonymous information, the hospitals management and its COVID-19 Committee labeled it a Suspected Case and notified the Kwara State COVID-19 Committee Response Team. The hospital said it facilitated a proactive fumigation of the hospitals Medical Emergency Department and advised close contacts of the patient to self-isolate while they are followed-up by UITHS COVID-19 Committee Team. Nonetheless, the laboratory samples from the deceaseds wife, the professor, and all others identified as very high risk contacts were collected for testing, using National COVID-19 guidelines. Panic PREMIUM TIMES learnt that a similar case sprung panic in Offa, a local government in the state last week. This paper reliably gathered that an England returnee was suspected to have contracted the disease in a private hospital. Meanwhile, when the results of the diagnosis were released, it was discovered that he was suffering from diabetic coma and tested negative to Coronavirus. Diabetic coma is a life-threatening emergency that affects diabetes patients. A diabetic coma patient is either suffering from high blood glucose (hyperglycemia) or low blood glucose (hypoglycemia). As of Sunday afternoon, Nigeria has recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 as the total number of infected persons rose to 224. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed on Twitter that the latest cases were reported in three states: Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Edo. According to the public health agency, six of the new cases were reported in Lagos, two in the FCT and two Edo. Of the total 224 confirmed cases, 27 people have recovered and have been discharged while five deaths have been recorded. Advertisements A breakdown of the data shows that Lagos as at Sunday morning has recorded 115 cases, FCT 45, Osun 20, Oyo 9, Akwa Ibom 5, Ogun 4, Edo 9, Kaduna 4, and Bauchi 6. Enugu and Ekiti have two cases each, while Rivers, Benue and Ondo have recorded one each. Four more people have died in Oklahoma after contracting the coronavirus, bringing the states death toll to 42, state health officials reported on Saturday. Another 171 Oklahomans have tested positive for the virus as the total number of cases reached 1,159, the State Department of Health reported. The four new deaths were two women and two men, with three of them over age 65. The victims were from Cleveland, Latimer, Osage and Washington counties. On Friday, KFOR-TV reported that four of the deaths in Oklahoma were at Grace Living Center, a nursing home in Norman. The nursing home also had 36 positive cases, with 33 being residents and three being staff members, the television station reported, citing information from the State Department of Health. The department had previously announced it was setting up mobile testing sites at 19 locations across the state. 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. The Labour Ministry has presented a system of aid for entrepreneurs. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Our paywall policy: The Slovak Spectator has decided to leave all the articles about the coronavirus available for everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope. Slovakia's entrepreneurs who have lost income due to the coronavirus will be able to request financial aid from the state as of Monday, April 6. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement For those who have had to close their businesses due to the anti-pandemic measures, the request form will be available as of Monday at 12:00. Employers and the self-employed who have lost part of their revenues due to the coronavirus measures will be able to request the aid as of Wednesday, April 8, also at 12:00, the TASR newswire reported. The websites where the form will be available are www.pomahameludom.sk and www.neprepustaj.sk. State could start sending money on April 15 "The two websites will feature the same content and will be regularly updated based on the situation and the needs [that will arise]," Labour Minister Milan Krajniak of Sme Rodina told the press conference on Sunday. The phone numbers of the call centre will also be published on the websites. As of April 14, the labour offices will start sending agreements to those who request the aid. Entrepreneurs will be able to send the signed forms back electronically or sign them in person at their respective labour offices within 24 hours. The state will start sending money to those who ask for it as of April 15. The labour minister called on entrepreneurs to state true data in their requests, to avoid sanctions in the future, including criminal ones. Krajniak also asked for patience, since the state expects about 250,000 aid requests. Big companies to get aid too Big employers will also be able to request state help. Krajniak admitted. "On Friday, April 3, the respective EU bodies ruled that we do not have to apply the upper limit for aid [at 200,000]. We will have this confirmed in some kind of formal process, and during the next week we will decide how to provide the stated or similar aid to employers with more than 250 employees," Krajniak said as quoted by TASR. He said that the big employers can request aid under the current rules, but only for up to 250 employees. Krajniak said the government is also negotiating with employers about introducing another form of help, the so-called kurzarbeit, as it is known in Germany. Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine signed an order Sunday providing direction for maintaining and cleaning buildings for businesses authorized to maintain in-person operations under the states life-sustaining business orders announced March 19. According to the Building Safety Measures order, Cleaning, disinfecting, and other maintenance and security services performed by building service employees are critical to protecting the public health by reducing COVID-19 infections in the commonwealth. In the order, Levine wrote, Based upon the manner of COVID-19s spread in the commonwealth and in the world, and its danger to Pennsylvanians, I have determined that the appropriate disease control measure is the direction of building safety measures as outlined in this order to prevent and control the spread of disease." You can see the full order here. The measures outlined in the order are for owners of buildings of at least 50,000 square feet used for commercial, industrial or other enterprises, like warehousing, manufacturing, commercial offices, airports, grocery stores, universities, colleges, government, hotels, and residential buildings with at least 50 units. In addition to maintaining pre-existing cleaning protocols, the order outlines these new protocols: Clean and disinfect high-touch areas routinely in accordance with CDC guidelines, in spaces that are accessible to customers, tenants, or other individuals. Maintain pre-existing cleaning protocols established in the facility for all other areas of the building. Ensure the facility has a sufficient number of employees to perform the cleaning protocols effectively and in a manner that ensures the safety of occupants and employees. Ensure the facility has a sufficient number of security employees to control access, maintain order, and enforce social distancing of at least 6 feet, provided the security employees are otherwise responsible for such enforcement. The order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday. 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. 110 Tablighi congregation attendees traced in Gujarat India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Ahmedabad, Apr 05: Gujarat Police have traced seven more persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month, taking the total number of the attendees who have been identified so far to 110, a top officer said. Police have also filed cases against 10 such attendees hailing from three districts in the state on the charges of violating the lockdown norms. "Legal action will also be taken against other such violators who had attended the congregation," said state Director General of Police (DGP) Shivanand Jha. The seven persons traced on Saturday are from Navsari district. 69 Tablighi Jamaat members yet to be traced "Their health check-up is being conducted, after which they will be quarantined," the DGP said. He said that two of the attendees from Gujarat who had visited the Nizamuddin Markaz had earlier tested positive to coronavirus. One of them had died of the infection. "We have traced seven more persons in Gujarat who attended the Nizamuddin Markaz, taking the number of such persons identified so far to 110," he said. On registration of cases, the top cop said the police have registered four FIRs against at least 10 attendees for travelling back to Gujarat in violation of the lockdown norms. "We are also taking action against other such persons. So far four FIRs have been registered-- two in Botad, and one each in Bhavnagar and Navsari," Jha said. The Nizamuddin congregtion has reportedly fuelled the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country. Over 600 COVID-19 cases were reported among people who participated in Tablighi Jamaat activities from 14 states as on Friday. Massive efforts continue as 22,000 Tablighi members, contacts are quarantined Meanwhile, Jha said that police are taking technical help including drones and CCTV cameras to track down violators of the lockdown. So far, 2,770 persons have been arrested in Gujarat while 1041 FIRs have been registered. He said at least 234 persons were nabbed on the basis of CCTV camera grabs. "As many as 144 drones are being used by the police to track down the violators. Apart from drones and CCTVs, automatic number plate recognition system software is also being used to identify vehicles plying frequently on a particular route," Jha added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 9:05 [IST] There's no let-up in attempts to disturb the peace in the valley even at the time of coronavirus pandemic, as five terrorists and a soldier were killed in a gunfight in Kupwara woods of north Kashmir where the Army had been carrying searches from the last five days. While the country battles the coronavirus threat, inconsiderate terrorists continue to compound problems in the Union territory by trying to infiltrate and attack. This comes even as the number of COVID-19 cases rose to 92 in Jammu and Kashmir, with 17 fresh cases being reported on Saturday, according to the health department here. Defence ministry spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said that the slain terrorists were infiltrators and the operation was still going on. "In ongoing anti-infiltration operation in Keran Sector of north Kashmir, alert troops braving inclement weather and hostile terrain have so far eliminated five militants attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control (LoC) taking advantage of bad weather," Kalia said He added that one soldier has been killed and two others were critically injured. "Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," Kalia said. On the fourth day of the operation on Saturday evening, the army rushed elite paratroopers to Rangdoori, Guguldara and Teen Behak area of Jumgund. Sources said that firing continued throughout the night, reaching at peak wee hours of today. The operation was launched initially by Army's 8 JAT after intercepting movement a group of terrorists on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Army sources said, as many as nine terrorists have been killed by the Indian Army in the last 24 hours in Kashmir valley. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Covid-19 positive cases in Andhra Pradesh shot up to 192 by 9 pm on Saturday, with a total of 28 new cases reported since 10:30 pm on Friday. Among the new cases, Guntur district alone accounted for 10 confirmed cases. With the addition of the new cases, the total number of cases in Guntur district stood at 30, making it the district with the second highest number of cases after Nellore (32). As per the medical bulletin issued by the State government on Saturday, the number of cases increased to 180 by 10 am on Saturday and by 9 pm, it went up by another 12 cases. ALSO READ | 65-year-old man dies of coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh, toll rises to two One more death reported in Anantapur district. One more person, who tested positive, recovered and was discharged from the hospital on Saturday, taking the total number recovered cases to five in the State. Already, one each in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Ongole and Nellore have recovered from coronavirus. The 24-year-old youth from Vijayawada One Town area was admitted to Government General Hospital on March 20 with Covid-19 symptoms. He returned from Paris (France) via Delhi. After 14-days of isolation battling the virus, he recovered. After he tested positive, doctors tested his samples twice and on both occasions, the results came negative. Meanwhile, State official machinery is engaged in tracking the people who attended a religious meeting Delhi in Mid-March and returned to various places in the State. CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES The majority of the 190 confirmed cases of the virus in the State are the people who returned from Delhi after attending the religious conference there. State Nodal Officer for COVID-19 released the towns and districts of those who attended Delhi meeting and tested positive for the virus. Details of a total of 89 patients were released and the rest would be released soon. The medical bulletin said that all those who came in contact with the people tested positive for coronavirus were either kept in isolation or shifted to quarantine centers. Samples of all of them had been collected and sent for testing. Meanwhile, samples of another 116 people, both symptomatic and asymptomatic from across the State, were collected on Saturday and sent for testing. The number could be more as officials of Krishna and Anantapur district refused to disclose the details of the samples collected from the people on Saturday. In Visakhapatnam, since Friday night, as many as 27 people were shifted to the isolation ward at Chest Hospital and their samples were sent for testing. In Srikakulam district, nine new suspected Covid-19 cases from Kaviti, Meliaputti, Kanchili, Srikakulam mandals were admitted to GGH at the district headquarters. Three COVID-19 suspected cases in Vizianagaram district were admitted to the isolation ward at GGH on Saturday. Samples were taken and sent for testing. Six more people, who were suspected to have been in contact with people tested positive for the virus, were admitted to the isolation ward at Kakinada GGH. Though there were no new cases admitted in West Godavari district, results of as many as 244 samples are awaited. In Guntur, as many as 47 people from Mangalagiri, Guntur and other places in the district were shifted to isolation wards and their samples were sent for testing to the new testing laboratory set-up in Guntur city. In Prakasam district, only one person, suspected to have been in contact with people tested positive, was admitted to the isolation ward and samples were sent for testing. In Tirupati of Chittoor district, three family members of a person, who had tested positive, were shifted to the isolation ward. In Kadapa, samples of 20 people, who were in contact with people who tested positive, sent for testing. They were sent to home quarantine. In Kurnool and Nellore districts, no new suspected cases of the virus were reported. However, results of over 70 samples in Nellore and around 250 in Kurnool are awaited. A top chef has revealed her secret to creating the perfect salad dressing at home - and you only need seven ingredients. Danielle Alvarez - who's the head chef of Fred's restaurant in Sydney's Paddington - shared the recipe to make her 'irresistible' Italian dressing for salads or marinade for grilled meats or cooked fish. The ingredients include extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, garlic, lemon, dried oregano, chilli flakes and shallots or onion. 'It's not just any salad dressing, this is my irresistible Italian dressing that can keep for up to a week (or maybe more) in the fridge,' she said on Instagram. Sydney-based head chef of Fred's, Danielle Alvarez, revealed the recipe on her Instagram page to her 9,906 followers The recipe is simple to make and consists of six easy to follow steps anyone can do. To begin start by finely chopping the garlic and shallots into small pieces - Danielle said onions can also be used instead of shallots if desired. Pour both into a small pot, add in the extra virgin olive oil and sizzle for five minutes on a low heat. The seven-ingredient dressing is ideal for cabbage or lettuce salads and is bound to impress guests After the five minutes has passed, add the chilli flakes and dried oregano and stir through for one minute Then pour the mixture into a jar and allow to cool before adding the vinegar. Juice half a lemon and add a dash salt into the mixture, then close the jar and shake well before drizzling onto the salad. 'Seriously this dressing is my [favourite] for home and you can also use it as a marinade for grilled meats or drizzled on cooked fish,' Danielle wrote online. After the five minutes has passed, add in the chilli flakes and dried oregano and stir through 'Seriously this dressing is my [favourite] for home and you can also use it as a marinade for grilled meats or drizzled on cooked fish,' Danielle wrote online This isn't the first creative recipe chefs have revealed online to assist those in quarantine. For the last few weeks chef and nutritionist Lee Holmes has been sharing her tips for staying healthy while in isolation - including how to make delicious scrambled eggs with a 'supercharged twist'. Lee has also recently created a 14-day guide to healthy 'stockpiling', which she says should consist of nutritious 'colourful' ingredients. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 23:47:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KAMPALA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Containment of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) requires huge resources and this is a struggle Uganda is facing as it strives to curb the anticipated spread of the disease. The country's President Yoweri Museveni in a televised address on Friday urged the public to contribute to government's efforts in fighting the disease. Museveni urged factory owners to contribute vehicles which can be used to coordinate efforts at the district level in case the disease spreads across the country. The country has so far registered 48 cases and government anticipates the number to rise since some of the patients had already interacted with the public. "I call upon our rich people to contribute one new vehicle. I want a brand new four-wheel drive so that I build this fleet against COVID-19. We have 5,000 factories. If each can give us a new vehicle. This can be a fleet for the ministry of health. Contribute and we use it to fight this virus now," Museveni said, noting that the country has 135 districts, which all need vehicles. Already some factory owners including Chinese have contributed vehicles to the cause. Museveni also called for donation of relief food through the national task force to combat COVID-19. He argued that the urban poor especially those in the capital Kampala and the neighboring Wakiso district are likely to face food shortage after government announced a 14-day lockdown to contain the spread. Government also suspended public and private transport which was a source of income for some people. Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda on Saturday flagged off the distribution of relief food to over 1.5 million urban poor. The beneficiaries include the elderly, sickly, lactating mothers and commuter taxi drivers in Kampala and Wakiso. According to the ministry of health, the country is in dire need of protective gear for the health workers who are at the forefront of fighting the disease. According to the ministry, the country has only 10 percent of what is required. Government has ordered for more protective gear but the process is complicated by the huge demand of the gear internationally, which may delay the delivery. As the country awaits the delivery, government is working on using the local factories to produce the gear for instance gloves, masks among others. "We are working with our scientists and factories to produce them here. They are going to give us the specifications of what is to be produced. These products can be produced here," Museveni said while assuring the health workers of government's efforts to avail protective gear. The ministry of finance recently said that it would seek support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to help reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the economy. Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija said government would seek a concessional loan of 100 million U.S. dollars next financial year and another 90 million dollars the year after from the World Bank. The loans would be used to deal with the financing gap in the national budgets in the respective financial years, according to Kasaija. Tony Thompson, World Bank Country Manager on Friday said the Bank would support the fight against COVID-19 in Uganda with 15 million dollars re-allocated from another project. The funds would be used to fast-track the ministry of health's efforts to contain the disease. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Much of Santa Fes economy has been shut down or put on hold since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered most businesses to close their doors March 24 to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. So many unattended businesses have left some fearing they will become the target of property crimes. And there appears to be some truth behind the concern. Between March 27 and April 2, six businesses in Santa Fe were burglarized, along with several motor vehicles, according to Santa Fe Police Department incident reports. One of those businesses was Mikes Garage, a midtown car repair shop that specializes in Subarus. Ray Griego, owner of Mikes Garage, said someone broke into their work sheds the night of March 29, breaking locks and cutting through gates, and stole nearly $2,000 worth of equipment. They got into our sheds and took some car ramps, oil buckets, and some wheels and tires, he said. Griego said he believes the burglary at his shop and the coronavirus pandemic are not mutually exclusive. They know that everyones on lockdown, so they know theres probably less people to catch them, he said. Even the cop I spoke with to file the report said the same thing. Other burglarized businesses include Santacafe on Washington Avenue, where someone shattered a window and stole $500 from the cash register. Burglars broke into a Subway franchise on St. Michaels Drive on March 28, taking a cash register worth $300. Someone entered the Lensic Theater when it was closed, although the suspect was arrested after the owner called the police. When compared to last year, motor vehicle burglaries in Santa Fe have dropped off, according to statistics released by the Santa Fe Police Department. However, department officials have acknowledged that, with many residents stuck inside their homes, property crime is an issue in need of addressing. Were hoping that those property crimes go down, Chief Andrew Padilla said in a phone interview last week. Part of that strategy is continuing Operation Downtown Focus, an initiative the SFPD started in late February to deter crime in and around the Santa Fe Plaza. The focal point of Downtown Focus will shift from protecting businesses that are open to making sure those that are closed are not burglarized, Padilla said. The department originally planned to use officers on bicycles for Downtown Focus, but it is unclear if that practice will continue. Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said last month that one of the Departments primary focuses would be on protecting businesses in Santa Fe. However, some business owners are turning to other methods to ensure their buildings are not broken into. Some are hiring security companies, such as Chavez Security Inc., to patrol their businesses at all times of the day and night. Peso Chavez, owner of Chavez Security Inc., said many businesses have called him asking for help since the pandemic started. He said empty businesses can make easy targets for would-be thieves. People are going to want their properties protected, because theyre incredibly vulnerable right now, he said. Griego at Mikes Garage has increased security measures at his business, but knows there is still a chance someone could try to steal his equipment a second time. Its not out of the question that they would come again, he said. Thats whats been on everyones mind small businesses having trouble with business and (criminals taking) advantage of the situation. Iran to start building 6,000-ton destroyer, able to produce nuclear submarines: Defense Ministry Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 9:23 AM Iran's Defense Ministry says that the country is planning to start the construction of a 6,000-ton destroyer this year and that it has the ability to produce nuclear-powered submarines. Speaking in an exclusive interview published by the Mehr News Agency on Friday, Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari, head of Defense Ministry's Marine Industries Organization, said the destroyer will be a trimaran ship a vessel consisting of multiple hulls equipped with "very special capabilities". "This destroyer will extend the capabilities of the Iranian Navy for longer operations in the seas with very special defensive and offensive capabilities," Rastegari said. The ship can "conduct operations for at least two months without docking for supplies", he added. Rastegari expressed hope that the construction of the vessel is expected to start this year. 'Iran can produce nuclear submarines' "Submarines are a vital asset in naval conflicts and their production is a matter of state-of-the-art technology across the world," Rastegari said, adding that Iran has the capability to produce nuclear submarines. "Thankfully we have acquired such a knowhow and capability," he said, adding, however, that "we have not yet received orders" to produce nuclear submarines. The rear admiral stressed that the production of nuclear-powered submarines does not go against Iran's commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal. 'Iran outpacing US in fast-attack craft' Rastegari added that Iran has fast-attack craft which can sail to speeds of up to 130 kmph and is currently developing craft with can reach speeds of up to 170 kmph. "We truly do not have high-speed craft that can travel beyond 130 kmph and carry missiles and military radar systems with them produced anywhere," he said. "The Americans have high-speed craft which can travel about 105 kmph at most," he said. The rear admiral explained that the development of the fast-attack craft was a very "complex field" which demanded advanced designs that allow the craft to travel at high speeds without detaching from the water level. Highlighting other undergoing projects of the marine organization, Rastegari added that all Iranian ships under development will be equipped with point-defense systems. The rear admiral also underlined plans for future production of the "Pirouzan" hovercraft and a complete composite-body minesweeper. Asked whether Iran was interested in producing aircraft carriers, Rastegari said that producing such vessels is not within Iran's military doctrine despite Iran having the capability to produce them. Iran has taken great strides seeking to attain self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and defense systems in the face of decades-long sanctions and arms embargoes on the country. The country consequently produces a wide variety of advanced weapons systems and equipment based on its own technological capabilities. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hardware engineering is mostly document-based. A typical satellite might be described in several hundred thousand PDF documents, spreadsheets, simulation files and more; all potentially inconsistent between each other. This can lead to costly mistakes. NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one engineering team used metric units while another used English units, for instance. Germany-HQd Valispace, which also has offices in Portugal, dubs itself as "Github for hardware. In other words, its a collaboration platform for engineers, allowing them to develop better satellites, planes, rockets, nuclear fusion reactors, cars and medical devices, you name it. Its a browser-based application, which stores engineering data and lets the users interconnect them through formulas. This means that when one value is changed, all other values are updated, simulations re-run and documentation rewritten automatically. That last point is important in this pandemic era, where making and improving medical ventilators has become a huge global issue. Indeed, the company is currently partnering with initiatives that develop open-source hardware solutions to the COVID-19 crisis. They are partnering with several initiatives that gather thousands of engineers working on the problem, most prominently the CoVent-19 Challenge and GrabCAD, as well as Helpful Engineering. Engineers working on ventilators can apply here for free accounts or email engineering-taskforce@valispace.com. Valispace has now raised a Seed Extension funding round of 2.2M / $2.4M lead by JOIN Capital in Berlin and was joined by HCVC (Hardware Club), based in Paris. The funding will be used to expand into new industries (e.g. medical devices, robotics) and expansion of the existing ones (aeronautics, space, automotive, energy). The company is addressing the Systems Engineering Tool market in Europe which is worth 7Billion, while the US market is at least as big. Its competitors include RHEA CDP4, Innoslate, JAMA and the largest player Status Quo. Story continues Marco Witzmann, CEO of Valispace said: Valispace has proven to help engineers across industries to develop better hardware. From drones to satellites, from small electronic boxes to entire nuclear fusion reactors. When modern companies like our customers have the choice, they chose an agile engineering approach with Valispace. Tobias Schirmer from JOIN Capital commented: Browser-based collaboration has become a must for any modern hardware company, as the importance of communication across teams and offices increases." The company now counts BMW, Momentus, Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Airbus as customers. Witzmann previously worked on Europe's biggest Satellite Program (Meteosat Third Generation) as a Systems Engineer, while his Portugal-based co-founder Louise Lindblad (COO) worked at the European Space Agency, developing satellites and drones. As satellite engineers, both were surprised that while the products they were working on were cutting edge, the tools to develop them seemed to be from the 80s. In 2016 they launched Valispace as a company, convincing Airbus to become one of their first customers. In Baltimore, Maryland, the news came during Act 1 of Puccinis La Rondine. Johns Hopkins University students were performing their final dress rehearsal of the production at the Peabody Conservatory. Then members of the university community received an email from the schools president. He was cancelling all nonessential gatherings because of the coronavirus. The students quickly contacted their friends, who came to watch what would be the shows only performance. It was not the only event Johns Hopkins recently cancelled. The school has cancelled ceremonies for students who successfully complete their study programs. It also cancelled many other events and traditions for seniors -- students in their final year. So have many other colleges and universities across the United States. Most of these schools have asked students to return home because of the spread of the virus. Nick Grace is a senior at Endicott College outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He told The Associated Press (AP) he took one last walk around the grounds of the school before leaving. Ive been following the news, and it doesnt look like (graduation) is going to happen any time soon, said Grace. If we dont have our celebrations, were kind of robbed of our end-of-year ceremonies. At Peabody, Hannah Alexandra Noyes started crying during her performance in La Rondine. She said it was not because the story they were performing was sad, but because her final year of school was. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is world famous and active in medical research on the coronavirus. Johns Hopkins reports that by the end of March, over 140,000 Americans were known to have COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. As of last Monday, there were at least 2,500 COVID-19-related deaths. As millions of people worldwide have sheltered in place to slow the pandemic, most U.S. colleges have taken action to protect their students and employees. They have cancelled sporting events and artistic performances and sent students home to finish the spring term online. For seniors preparing to graduate, it was a sudden end to what was not exactly four years of late-night friendships and all-night studying. And with widespread bans on large gatherings soon to come, many students hurried to create one more memory from their college days. In New York State, Colgate University senior Caroline Barrett joined other students in an all-night vigil followed by a swim in nearby Taylor Lake. At that point it was we either do it this night or never. Tomorrow we shouldnt be doing anything in bigger groups, she said. Other Colgate seniors hurried to give out their Torch Medals, which honor a member of the school or local community who influenced their time there. Before the cancellations, more than 500 Boston College (BC) seniors stayed up all night to watch the sunrise over the Chestnut Hill reservoir. Louisa MacEwan is a senior at BC. She said the past three years have already been difficult for her, so she was hoping this year would be better. Since speaking with The AP, MacEwan has developed signs of COVID-19 and remained in her off-campus apartment home. Its going to be different receiving a diploma in the mail versus walking across the stage, and sharing those experiences with my friends, MacEwan said. It is a tradition at Elon University in North Carolina for all first-year students to receive the seed of an oak tree as a gift. Normally, the school then gives seniors a small tree to plant at their next home. I wasnt super upset about it, but its kind of sad that were the only class thats not going to be able to do it, in however long thats been going on, Elon senior Ari Denberg said. All those things I was planning to do over senior week, its hard not getting that closure. At Rice University in Texas, students traditionally walk through the schools main entrance, known as the Sallyport, only twice. They do it once during their first-year welcoming ceremony, and again at graduation. After being told they would likely finish the term online from their homes, senior Christina Tan created a Facebook group to organize an unofficial ceremony. About one-fourth of Rices 1,000-member senior class took part. People were crying when they saw how many people were there, said Tan. Students were worried the school would oppose the event because of an expected limit on large gatherings. Instead, some professors took part and even Rice President David Leebron came out from his office to take pictures. I was just so moved by the whole thing, he said. (There was) that sense of sadness, but taking that difficult situation and finding something to do that made everybody who is there feel a little bit better. Im Pete Musto. Jimmy Golen reported on this story for the Associated Press. Pete Musto adapted the report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. Quiz - US Seniors Miss Out on Their Final College Memories Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story dress rehearsal n. the final practice of a play that is done with all the costumes and scenery that will be used in the first real performance before an audience nonessential adj. not completely necessary graduation n. the act of receiving a diploma or degree from a school, college, or university pandemic n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people over a wide area or throughout the world vigil n. an event or a period of time when a person or group stays in a place and quietly waits or prays especially at night campus - n. the area and buildings around a university, college, or school diploma n. a document which shows that a person has finished a course of study or has graduated from a school versus prep. used to present two different things or choices that are being compared or considered upset adj. angry or unhappy CROOKED traders are bilking consumers by selling fake hand sanitisers, raising fears cheated members of the public might be exposed to the coronavirus. The global outbreak of Covid-19 has led to an exponential rise in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) like hand sanitisers, face masks and surgical gloves. Established PPE dealers are fast running out of stock and finding it increasingly difficult to replenish. Naturally, prices have been adjusted upwards. Pharmacies in the capital are selling a 125ml bottle of hand sanitiser for US$3 (or the equivalent in local currency). Before the crisis, the same product used to sell for less than US$1. Dodgy traders have since emerged to fill the gap with cheap yet fake products. The Ministry of Health and Child Care believes that the country needs at least 2,3-million litres of hand sanitiser liquid to provide every citizen with 150ml of the liquid per month. Treasury has since disbursed $33 million to help universities that are manufacturing hand sanitisers and face masks to ramp up production. Most of the institutions are currently producing an average of 12 000 litres of hand sanitisers and 15 000 face masks per day. Sanitisers contain antiseptic agents and can be conveniently used to cleanse hands when soap and water are not readily available. They offer protection by preventing or reducing bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that can cause infections. Investigations by this publication established that an assortment of dangerous chemicals with a high concentration of ethanol are being packaged and sold as sanitisers. One such chemical is glutaraldehyde or cidex a potentially harmful liquid containing dangerous substances, which can cause irritation to the skin, eyes and throat if inhaled or swallowed. As a disinfectant, it is commonly used to sterilise surgical instruments, among others. But backyard manufacturers of the fake sanitisers maintain that their products are genuine. The stuff is not bad. All components used are not hazardous. However, some of the chemicals we use are for manufacturing toilet disinfectants, but again, that is not bad since they all act against bacteria or viruses, revealed the manufacturer, who declined to be named. Unbranded sanitisers have noticeably flooded most high-density suburbs around the country. The products, however, are beginning to take a toll on some victims. I felt a burning sensation and irritation at night after spending the day applying a hand sanitiser I bought on the street. I then woke up the following day with my hand partially bruised and burnt, recounts Munashe Tanganai from Tynwald South. Tanganai bought his 500ml bottle of hand sanitiser in the streets of Harare a day before the 21-day lockdown began. His hands are visibly burnt and he says he is not the only one affected. I bought a big bottle, at bargain price, so that I could share with my other family members. My elder brother also complained after using it but his case is not as severe as mine, he adds. Doctors opine fake sanitisers not just come with a false sense of safety but can also have side effects. There are dangerous as these often have side effects on the human skin. People are using sanitisers to get rid of viruses but if the product is fake, it exposes the user to potential harm not only from the virus, but also the dangerous chemicals used, said Dr Boniface Mariga, a pulmonologist and part-time lecture at a local university. Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said law enforcement agents were working with relevant authorities to protect citizens from unscrupulous traders. The public should feel free to approach relevant authorities so that police investigate and arrest these culprits. The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) last month arrested at least 121 individuals involved in mass production of fake masks, sanitisers and supposed coronavirus spray across 90 countries. As a result, the public, according to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), have to be vigilant and report any suspicious cases. The public needs to understand that not only unlicensed traders sell knock-offs, thus they need to be cautious every time. We urge them to report to us or the police any cases so that culprits are brought to book, said CCZ deputy executive director Mrs Rosemary Mpofu. A pharmacist, Mr Aaron Mutendi, said some industry players were trying to enrich themselves by taking advantage of the unfolding global health crisis. It has always been the nature of businesspeople to try and capitalise on a crisis like this one, but it is not the right thing to do, he said. There are dubious products on the market. (The) good thing is most of our consumers are aware. A circular has since been issued requesting consumers to buy masks and sanitisers from licensed dealers, said Mike Karimazondo, who operates pharmacies in various high-density suburbs in the capital. Health experts say washing hands with soap is a much more effective method for disease prevention than hand sanitisers. AS MOST Filipinos celebrated Palm Sunday to usher in this years Holy Week, the Department of Health (DOH) reminded the public to maintain physical distancing while praying together or reading the Bible as a measure against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the agency believed that Filipino families are creative enough to find ways to be spiritually together, yet physically apart, during the Holy Week. This Holy Week, even if we are physically apart, may we find a way for us to be spiritually together. Hindi po natin kailangan na maging (We dont need to be physically close to be spiritually united, Vergeire said during the daily virtual press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak Sunday. She said families could still pray together or read the scriptures or Bible together while observing social distancing. Habang tayo ay nakapirmi sa ating mga tahanan ngayong mahal na araw, maging kahit ano pa man ang inyong pinaniniwalaang relihiyon, huwag nating kakalimutan na mag-practice ng physical distancing, lalo na kung may mga kasama po tayong matatanda o may sakit sa bahay, Vergeire said. The recommended distance between two persons is one meter. Disinfection of surfaces that are often touched at home is also advised, using a mixture of seven tablespoons or 100 ml of 0.5 percent bleach solution and one liter of water. Vergeire noted that the last time Catholics and other Christians did not observe Holy Week in public was in 1945, during World War II. Palm Sunday Masses, which mark the start of the Holy Week and commemorate Jesus Christs entrance to Jerusalem, were mostly live streamed from Catholic churches across the nation. Instead of making crosses out of palm leaves, some Catholics used whatever leaves were available in their homes and held these up for the priests virtual blessing. The Holy Week marks the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Normally, Catholics and other Christians mark the week with a visita iglesia, the practice of visiting seven churches, on Holy Thursday and doing the Way of the Cross on Good Friday. The week ends with Easter Sunday, which falls on April 12 this year. Story continues Because of the Covid-19 outbreak, Filipinos are preparing to do the visita iglesia and Way of the Cross virtually. Meanwhile, Vergeire reiterated the DOHs call to stop discrimination or social stigma against infected individuals and exposed health workers. Nakikiusap po kami, huwag po nating hiyain ang mga taong may Covid-19. Lahat tayo ay maaring mahawa ng Covid-19 tulad ng ibang sakit. Wala itong sinisino. Wala po itong pinipili kung sino ang ma-e-exposed, she said. (We implore you, let us not shame those who have been found positive for Covid-19. All of us could contract the disease.) Hindi dapat ito maka-apekto sa pakikitungo natin sa ibang tao o gawing dahilan upang manakit ng iba, (This should not affect how we treat other people and should not be used as a reason to harm others.) The social stigma against infected person could discourage those who are sick from disclosing their symptoms or seeking medical help. Disclosure of full medical, travel and exposure history is mandated under the law. Some patients who failed to make such a disclosure ended up infecting their attending doctors and nurses. The Philippines is under a state of public health emergency, state of calamity and state of national emergency because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The entire Luzon and several other areas in the country, including Cebu, have been placed on enhanced community quarantine. Public transport systems have been suspended and most of the countrys 105 million population have been mandated to stay at home. As of April 5, novel coronavirus (or Sars-CoV-2) infections in the Philippines have increased to 3,246 with 152 mortalities and 64 survivors. Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has surged to 1.093 million persons as of April 5, with 58,620 mortalities, in 209 countries. (MVI/SunStar Philippines) Six pockets in Kanpur district have been declared 'red zones' after six Tablighi Jamaat members, including two foreign nationals, who attended a congregation in Delhi and visited a number of places here, tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Sunday. District Magistrate Brahmadeo Ram Tiwari said Halim Primary Masjid in Chamanganj, Humayun Masjid in Colonelganj, Suffa Masjid in Babupurwa, Badi Masjid in Baripal village in Sajeti, Naubasta and Ghatampur visited by Tablighi Jamaat members, including the six who have tested COVID-19 positive, have been declared as 'red zone'. Police have deployed drones in the 'red zone' areas to monitor people's movement and unlawful assembly amid the lockdown. "The decision to barricade the area of around one kilometre of each hotspot was taken on Saturday night after six Tablighi Jamaat members, including two foreign nationals, were found coronarvirus positive in a single day," Tiwari said. He said, "Red zone is marked in a radius of one kilometre from the spot visited by the Tablighi Jamaat members. Instructions have been issued to sanitize the area properly and restrict movement of people." Kanpur Chief Medical Officer Dr Ashok Shukla said 31 people had returned from the religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin. "Twenty-two are admitted in Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital. Of these, six have tested positive for coronavirus. Nine are admitted in Ursula Hospital," he said. Those who have come in contact with any Tablighi Jamaat member or was present at the religious congregation in Delhi have been requested to self-identify themselves. "We are also making efforts to zero in on those who came in contact with the COVID-19 positive positive people. Once traced, they all will undergo a medical checkup and quarantined for the stipulated time period," the Kanpur district magistrate said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday warned the people of his country that they are not immune to the threat posed by the coronavirus. He, however, exuded confidence that Pakistan would emerge stronger from the challenge. Nobody should have the false notion that they will be safe from this (coronavirus)...Look at New York where most of the rich people live, he said on Saturday. Khans remarks came as he visited Lahore to oversee the measures taken by the Punjab government as the number of coronavirus patients in the largest province of the country crossed 1,000. Khan visited a 1,000-bed makeshift hospital set up by the provincial government at a short notice to accommodate the coronavirus patients. As of Saturday, Pakistan has recorded 2,818 cases of Covid-19. There have been 41 deaths due to the disease in the country, though with only limited testing available, observers worry the number is far higher. Punjab - the hotspot of the viral infection in Pakistan - reported a total of 1,072 cases, followed by Sindh at 839, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 383, Balochistan 175, Gilgit-Baltistan 193, Islamabad 75 and 11 cases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Khan earlier in the day again rejected the possibility of a total lockdown. The Pakistan government on Saturday informed the Supreme Court that the number of coronavirus patients in the country could reach up to 50,000 by the last week of this month. According to the breakdown provided in the report and widely reported in the media, around 7,000 cases of the total are expected to be critical in nature while around 2,500 could be a cause of concern. The government estimates that a further 41,000 cases could be of a mild nature. The report noted that confirmed cases are expected to be lower than that of countries in Europe, and assured that the government is trying to maximise its testing capacity. Officers began interviewing witnesses and were told that a 34-year-old man had been at the location prior to the womans death and had a dispute with the female victim, according to a police media notification. The man ran off before officers arrived, and Garduno said a physical description was not immediately available. Education Minister Peter Weir is set to determine how Northern Ireland's examination grades will be decided. This summer's GCSE and A-level exams will not be sat due to the coronavirus crisis. In England Ofqual has announced that teachers will assess grades using a variety of work and results for those studying for qualifications set by the AQA, Eduqas, OCR and Pearson examining bodies. Most school and college pupils here sit exams set by local body the CCEA. In a statement yesterday, the CCEA said it has "finalised a number of options" for how qualifications should be decided. Mr Weir is to consider these options and his department told this newspaper that the minister hopes to take a decision next week. In the statement the CCEA said it wanted to reassure students, parents and teachers that they are doing "everything we can" to ensure attainment is "fairly recognised". A CCEA spokesman said: "We understand the urgent need for clarity for both students and teachers, and plan to rapidly implement the arrangements, once these are set out by the minister of education. "We will also publish the process that we will follow to ensure grades are fair across all schools and colleges in Northern Ireland. "We want to reassure students, parents and teachers that we are doing everything we can to ensure that the full attainment of all students is fairly recognised, during this unprecedented time. "As further information becomes available we will update schools and colleges with the guidance and also via www.ccea.org.uk." Mr Weir said: "I understand that students and teachers are seeking urgent clarity in relation to the arrangements for this year's GCSE and A-level examinations in Northern Ireland. "I want to assure everyone that we are working as quickly as possible to resolve this issue but we want to take the time to get this right. "I hope to be in a position to take the necessary policy decisions for Northern Ireland students in the next week, at which stage my department will issue an instruction to CCEA to implement those decisions," the minisrer added. The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days presently but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said there had been 472 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths since Saturday. The total coronavirus cases stand at 3,374 and the death toll now stands at 79. He said 267 people have recovered. However, a PTI tally of figures reported by states directly showed at least 106 deaths, while the number of confirmed cases had reached 3,624. Of the total, 284 have been cured and discharged. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the numbers announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. Asserting that there was no evidence that COVID-19 was airborne, an ICMR official said, "We need to understand that in science whoever does experiments some will have a 'for opinion and some against' but we need to take a balanced, evidence-based approach. "For example, if it was an air-borne infection then in a family whoever has a contact they all should come positive because they are living in same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in hospital, other patient would have got exposure (if it was air borne) but that is not the case, the official said. Talking about the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, Agarwal said, "If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days." Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday held a meeting on COVID-19 with district magistrates, superintendent of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries and district health secretaries and chief secretaries, Agarwal said. District officials shared the strategies adopted by them to combat the pandemic like how they delineated containment and buffer zone, how they carried out door-to-door survey through special teams, how through telemedicine and call centres the passengers who had come were monitored. The districts from where many cases were reported like Agra, Bhilwada, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Pathan Mitha, East Delhi also shared their experiences and strategies adopted by them. The main points that came from the experience shared by districts were proactive and ruthless containment implementation at field level and second is preparedness to the extent of being over prepared so that cases can be handled at any stage, Agarwal said. All DMs were instructed pharma units making devices and medicines must run seamlessly, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The coronavirus pandemic has pushed many issues state lawmakers are facing to the back burner. The price of electricity shouldnt be one of them. Thats why were sounding this alarm that power bills for northern Illinois ratepayers will shoot up soon if the Legislature doesnt act. Last week, a company named PJM, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, filed a so-called compliance plan under a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order. The plan would have devastating consequences for Illinois consumers. If nothing is done, power bills will soar for ratepayers, job opportunities will be lost and the environment will suffer enormous harm. The Legislature can prevent that, though, by enacting legislation along the lines of the proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act. But it has to get the job done before the end of the current legislative session, and this is a complicated bill that has a lot of working parts. Because of the way energy markets work, if the Legislature misses this opportunity, it wont get another crack at making a fix for years, possibly until 2025. Billions of dollars would be shunted to fossil fuel-burning power plants, at least one nuclear power plant might shut down and the growth of renewable energy sources would be slowed to a trickle. If that happens, it would be very difficult to get back even to the point where we are now. It would helpful if we had more time to deal with this when there are so many issues related to the coronavirus to consider. But we dont. Building on earlier legislation, the Clean Energy Jobs Act is designed to ramp up renewable energy, create jobs, assist economically challenged communities that are being hit hard by the effect of the coronavirus and aid workers who are losing their jobs as coal-fired plants close. The bill also would allow the Illinois Power Agency to take over the management of the states capacity market a system set up to ensure states have enough energy capacity to meet peak loads. That would insulate Illinois from the Trump administrations effort to favor fossils over renewables. We know the governor and lawmakers have a lot on their plate right now. But the CEJA bill already was unnecessarily delayed when lawmakers thought they had plenty of time to deal with it. They dont anymore. The legislative session is set to end May 31. Chicago Sun-Times Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 15:54:04|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), a Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO), has handed over materials needed for hand wash stations to Nepal's Mithila Bihari municipality. The materials, including buckets and sanitizer, were handed over recently to the municipality located 9 km away from the province's popular city Jankapur. It is difficult for most patients living in southeastern region of Nepal to find a comfortable place to wash their hands when they visit public hospitals in Province 2, the most densely populated province of the Himalayan nation. Anita Kumari Shah, deputy mayor of Mithila Bihari municipality in Dhanusha district, expressed her gratitude towards the NGO from China for setting up hand wash stations in 11 different locations of the municipality. "At a time when the country is fighting COVID-19 crisis, it's a great help from China and the Chinese people. We have already received good feedback from the public. I hope such assistance will be continued in future as well," Shah told Xinhua. Stating that majority of the people in the rural villages are not used to good hygiene practice, while they also lack access to sanitizers and soap, the deputy mayor believes that the hand wash stations are a good start for the community to adopt health lifestyle. She said the stations have been set up in front of government hospitals, police stations, community centers and in major junctions of the municipality. "We are also setting up similar hand wash stations in two other municipalities of the district, namely Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City and Nagarayan Municipality next week," said Sanjay Kumar Shah, local officer at CFPA. According to CFPA, a washing center will be operated for at least two weeks, while it will be managed by the local community as per the need once the nationwide lockdown is over. "Since the districts have a dominance of people with poor economic condition and illiteracy, we are hopeful that the wash stations could be helpful to prevent the virus infection in the local population," Zou Zhiqiang, country director of CFPA Nepal, told Xinhua. Starting to work in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake, the NGO has carried out over a dozen projects in disaster relief, livelihood, food, water and sanitation, disinfection treatment and health care among others in various districts. The Chinese organization plans to build more than 180 hand wash stations in various parts of the country including in Kathmandu valley to help fight the outbreak. Nepal has reported nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday, including one recovered and eight active cases. The whole nation is under a nationwide lockdown since March 24 to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Attack Submarine USS Delaware Joins Fleet Navy News Service Story Number: NNS200404-01 Release Date: 4/4/2020 10:04:00 AM From the Office of the Navy Chief of Information WASHINGTON (NNS) (NNS) -- The Navy commissioned USS Delaware (SSN 791), the 18th Virginia-class attack submarine, April 4. Although the traditional public commissioning ceremony was canceled for public health safety and due to restrictions on large public gatherings, the Navy commissioned USS Delaware administratively and transitioned the ship to normal operations. Meanwhile, the Navy is looking at a future opportunity to commemorate the special event with the ship's sponsor, crew and commissioning committee. "This Virginia-class fast-attack submarine will continue the proud naval legacy of the state of Delaware and the ships that have borne her name," said Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly. "I am confident that the crew of this cutting edge platform will carry on this tradition, confronting the many challenges of today's complex world with the professionalism and agility the American people depend on from the warriors of the silent service." Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander, Submarine Forces, said he is pleased to welcome the ship to the U.S. submarine fleet and contribute to its unmatched undersea warfighting superiority. "The U.S. Navy values the support of all those who contributed to today's momentous milestone and will look for a future opportunity to commemorate this special event," Caudle said. "The sailors of USS Delaware hail from every corner of the nation and from every walk of life. This crew, and the crews who follow, will rise to every challenge with unmatched bravery and perseverance to ensure the U.S. Submarine Force remains the best in the world." The ship's sponsor, Dr. Jill Biden, offered congratulations to everyone who played a role in delivering USS Delaware to service. "I know this submarine and her crew of courageous sailors will carry the steadfast strength of my home state wherever they go," she said. "The sailors who fill this ship are the very best of the Navy, and as you embark on your many journeys, please know that you and those whom you love are in my thoughts." Delaware's commanding officer, Cmdr. Matthew Horton, said today marks the culmination of six years of hard work by the men and women who constructed the submarine and are preparing her to become a warship. He said he is especially thankful to the crew and their families, Dr. Biden, the USS Delaware Commissioning Committee and the Navy League of Hampton Roads for all their hard work and support. "As we do our part to maintain the nation's undersea supremacy well into the future, today marks a milestone for the sailors who serve aboard USS Delaware. Whether they have been here for her initial manning three years ago, or have just reported, they all are strong, capable submariners ready to sail the nation's newest warship into harm's way," Horton said. "I am equally proud of the families who have stood by through the long hours of shift work, testing, and sea trials and supported our mission with patriotism and devotion." This is the first time in nearly 100 years the name "Delaware" has been used for a U.S. Navy vessel. It is the seventh U.S. Navy ship, and first submarine, to bear the name of the state of Delaware. Delaware is a flexible, multi-mission platform designed to carry out the seven core competencies of the submarine force: anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; delivery of special operations forces; strike warfare; irregular warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and mine warfare. The submarine is 377 feet long, has a 34-foot beam, and will be able to dive to depths greater than 800 feet and operate at speeds in excess of 25 knots submerged. It will operate for over 30 years without ever refueling. Delaware's keel was laid April 30, 2016, and was christened during a ceremony Oct. 20, 2018. It is the final Block III Virginia-class submarine, before the next wave of Block IV deliveries. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NEW YORKOne inmate used an alcohol pad that a barber had given him after a haircut to sanitize a frequently used Rikers Island jailhouse phone. Another used a sock to hold a phone during a 15-minute call. A third said he and others have used diluted shampoo to disinfect cell bars and table tops. In the nearly two weeks since the coronavirus seeped into New York Citys jail system, fears have grown of the potential of a public health catastrophe in the cellblocks where thousands are being held in close quarters. Public officials have been working to release hundreds of people in jail to lessen the potential of a public health catastrophe, but while that effort is moving forward, law enforcement officials concerned about public safety have urged caution. Inside the jails, meanwhile, inmates including some of those waiting to be released have been struggling to protect themselves from the virus. Youre on top of one another no matter what you do, said one man who was released from Rikers Island recently, who asked to be identified by his first name, Jimmy, because he feared retribution from law enforcement officials. Theres no ventilation. If anything is floating, everybody gets it. As public officials across the country scramble to release their own vulnerable populations in jails and prisons as a result of the coronavirus, New Yorks complex on Rikers Island has provided a case study in the difficulty of balancing public safety and public health concerns. On Monday, for instance, after weeks of co-operating with city officials, the citys five district attorneys attacked the seemingly haphazard process by which people, including some accused of violent crimes, were being released. Even at this difficult time, our society must have the ability to safeguard those who are incarcerated, to avoid violating their rights or endangering the community, the district attorneys wrote in a scathing letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio, adding that conditions at Rikers were now consistent with recommendations by federal health officials. For the past two weeks, de Blasio has been pushing prosecutors and judges to release as many inmate as possible, after dire warnings from public defenders and jail health officials about the toll the disease could take inside lock-ups. Fear of the virus has grown among inmates and correction officers, several said in interviews. Some incarcerated people have refused to do the work assigned to them or have started disturbances, demanding more cleaning supplies and masks. Others said that correction officers who are assigned to taking people to clinics have ignored their requests for medical attention. Some correction officers said they did not have the necessary equipment to protect themselves from the virus, and that they had received little guidance from leadership. Peter Thorne, a spokesperson for the citys Department of Correction, said in a statement that the city is doing everything we can to safely and humanely house people in our custody during the epidemic. The city correction commissioner, Cynthia Brann, declined to be interviewed. Two weeks ago, the department put out an action plan that included stepping up cleaning of inmate housing areas and staff common areas, having detainees sleep head to toe and asking them to stay a metre away from each other and to wash their hands frequently. Jail officials also said they had given correction staff members masks and other supplies. 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. Some infirm inmates waiting to be released have been in a legal limbo, as one public defender described it. Take, for instance, a 24-year-old who violated his parole when he was arrested on a drug charge. He tested positive for the coronavirus and was transferred to a special quarantine unit, a room with 10 people, all of whom were also infected. Prosecutors, health officials in the jail and the parole board had all consented to a plan to release the man, who has diabetes and pulmonary disease, but as of Monday morning, he remained stuck in a thicket of bureaucratic procedures, his lawyer, Lara Belkin, said. Some jail staff members, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs, said they do not have protective gear like masks and gloves. They have been told to bring their own soap into work and to check their own temperature, they said. Health-care workers who are exposed to a person who has tested positive are expected to continue working unless they develop symptoms. Everyone is wondering how were supposed to do the job, one Rikers civilian staff member said. Its really scary how unsanitary it is. These correction officers also described sloppy quarantine procedures. In one instance, clothes belonging to a detainee who had tested positive were left in the guards work area. In another, an inmate with flu symptoms got a test for the virus, but was sent back to his cellblock to await the results. Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, said jail officials had been taking as long as a week to notify officers that they had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. He urged the department to form a task force to better co-ordinate a response. When is the department going to be proactive? Husamudeen asked. Are they really ready for whats coming? But some of his allies fret that, even before the pandemic, Biden was far behind President Trump, who has been raising money for the general election since 2017. They worry the current environment which makes it impossible for Biden to hold intimate, in-person gatherings with wealthy donors, and in which Trump has much more visibility may deepen his challenges. Eight Malaysian citizens, who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, were caught by immigration authorities at the IGI Airport in Delhi while trying to flee the country through a special flight arranged for the stranded travellers of that nation, officials said on Sunday. The eight Malaysian Tablighi activists were hiding in the Delhi-NCR region and they tried to take the advantage of a special flight arranged by the Malaysian high commission for their citizens stranded in India due to the coronavirus-triggered 21-day lockdown. The eight, however, were caught by the immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here before boarding the special flight, a government official said. The eight Malaysians were debarred from boarding the flight as the central government has directed all state police forces to take action against those foreigners who had come to India on tourist visa and participated the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. The government has already blacklisted 960 foreigners and cancelled their visa for violating visa conditions. The eight Malaysians have been handed over to the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police by the immigration authorities. All eight will be put in quarantine, officials said. So far, more than 400 COVID-19 positive cases and about 15 deaths in the country were found to have links with the Nizamuddin Markaz. Action against the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members were taken after over 2,300 activists, including 250 foreigners, were found to be living at its headquarters located at Delhi's Nizamuddin last week despite the 21-day lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus. At least 9,000 people had participated at the congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz last month after which many have travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works. The participants include citizens of 41 nationalities. They are 379 Indonesians, 110 Bangladeshi, 77 Kyrgyzstan, 75 Malaysian, 65 Thai, 63 Myanmarese and 33 Sri Lankan citizens besides others. The home ministry had also asked Delhi Police and police chiefs of other states, where these foreigners are currently living, to take legal action under the Foreigners Act and the Disaster Management Act. The home ministry had said about 2,100 foreigners have come to India since January 1 and indulged in Tablighi activities in different parts of the country. A Meath mother who had to give birth alone because of Covid-19 hospital restrictions had to Facetime her partner so he could meet his new little daughter. Emily Watson's father who flew home from the UK to see his new grandchild also had to greet the baby through a window when they arrived back from hospital to their home in Trim The 32-year old gave birth to her fourth child, little Charlotte Hope in Mullingar Hospital on March 28 last with the support of only the midwives and other women who were well separated in the ward. Little Charlotte arrived into world, weighing 8lb 4oz at 5.28pm and had to meet her father Tommy Collins through Facetime a short while later. However, Emily was full of praise for the midwives, who she says were getting abuse over the phone from family members of other women in hospital expecting babies who weren't allowed birthing partners because of the Covid-19 restrictions "I was brought in to be induced and had to stay overnight because the first induction wasn't successful," said Emily who already had two boys and a girl. "I had been told that I wasn't allowed have any birthing partners so I was prepared for it and the midwives were amazing. One stayed with me the whole time minding me and a further two arrived to help with the birth. "After Charlotte was born and as soon as I was able, I Facetimed Tommy to show him his new daughter. Of course we were upset he couldn't be there but we both knew this measure was going to keep the baby safe "There were lots of angry dads and family members ringing and giving the midwives abuse but it's not their fault. These measures were taken by the HSE to keep us all safe. I have to admit I was anxious about going into the hospital after reading about a Covid-19 case there but all was fine. "Nurses did constantly have to ask the same questions to see if I had symptoms but neither I or the baby were tested. "There were other women in the ward, all socially distanced and we all supported each other. It was harder for the first-time mums who didn't know what lay ahead and God forbid anything went wrong, that would have been hugely difficult to deal with on your own. "My dad Neville came home from the UK to meet Charlotte but he could only see her through the window. He's home for a while now but we don't know when he'll be able to cuddle her. "My mum has met her on Facetime and Tommy's parents have been sent pictures on Facebook so it's a really tough and emotional time for all of us. "My teenage daughter Eleanor gave Charlotte her middle name - Hope. It's all everyone can do right now to see the end of his virus." Islamabad: The growing havoc of Corona has become an enemy of people's lives today. Everyday, thousands of people are dying from this virus somewhere which is also becoming a concern. Millions of people are getting infected every day due to this virus infection. The number of people dying from this virus is increasing every day. The fear of corona has increased in the hearts of people so much that people tremble as soon as they hear its name. Death toll around world increases, WHO surrounded by questions According to the information received, the coronavirus in Pakistan is increasing rapidly. The cases of corona infection in Pakistan have increased to more than 2,800. In Punjab province alone, the number of infected people has exceeded one thousand. So far 41 people have died due to infection in the country. Corona crisis continues in America, situation going devastating As of now it has been learned that out of this, 1131 cases in Punjab province, 839 cases in Sindh, 383 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 175 cases in Balochistan, 193 cases in Gilgit Baltistan, 75 cases in Islamabad and 12 cases in POK. 41 patients have lost their lives due to coronavirus. On the other hand, on Friday, the World Bank approved funding of $ 200 million (more than 1500 crore rupees) to Pakistan to fight the corona epidemic. Britain now becomes corona victim after Italy, virus infected institution Its no secret that Blac Chyna has been at odds with the Kardashian family for a really long time. It started in 2014 and hasnt been settled to this day. The latest turn appeared to come on April 4 when Blac Chyna shared a post that people believe shaded Khloe Kardashian for saying she would beat Kourtney Kardashian in a fight. (L-R) Blac Chyna and Khloe Kardashian | Paras Griffin/Getty Images North America; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images North America Khloe Kardashians comment on Kourtney Kardashian made the comment in response to the April 2 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which saw Kourtney get into a fistfight with Kim Kardashian West. Kim had been talking about Kourtneys lack of work ethic when the Poosh founder threatened to f*ck [her] up if she didnt stop criticizing her. You act like I dont do sh*t But also if I didnt want to work my a** off and wanted to be a stay at home mom, thats f*cking fine, the mom-of-three said before throwing a water bottle at Kim. She then got in Kims face and pushed her, sparking a physical altercation. The sisters began slapping, scratching, and kicking each other as Kardashian tried unsuccessfully to intervene and separate them. As the episode played out, Kardashian wrote on Twitter that if she had been in Kims place, things wouldve turned out a lot different. I would demolish Kourts a** lol dont play. Im 510, she tweeted. Shes 5 feet on a good day. Blac Chynas apparent response to Khloe Kardashians comment about beating Kourtney Shortly after Kardashians comment made its rounds around the Internet, Blac Chyna took to Instagram with a message that said: What about 52? While she didnt call out anyone in specific, fans are convinced it was a response to Kardashians tweet and that she was trying to start something with the reality star. One person said in the comment section that Chyna been wanting all the smoke with the Kardashians. And someone else said she was justified, claiming Khloe [has] started a lot of sh*t with chyna! Whats going on with Blac Chyna and Khloe Kardashian? Things have certainly seemed to worsen between Blac Chyna and Kardashian over the past few months and that might be because of Rob Kardashians recent attempt to get primary custody of his daughter, Dream, whom he shares with Blac Chyna. Rob claimed in court documents obtained by TMZ in January that Blac Chyna had become a danger to dream, citing her alleged drug use and other alarming behaviors. Kardashian backed her brother in the documents. She reportedly. said that Dream is more in defense mode and decidedly more aggressive when she comes over from Blac Chynas house. She also allegedly said that she once heard Dream say that she doesnt want to go back with her mom. On Feb. 27, The Blast reported that a judge had denied the request for primary custody. In response to the motion, Blac Chynas lawyer shared a statement to E! News that said: Chyna will not back down from Rob and his familys attempt to take away her agreed-upon custody of Dream. She will continue to take all necessary steps to protect her children, including defeating Robs and his familys latest attempt to undermine Chynas joy as a mother to Dream and her ability to make a living as a single mother without any child support from Rob. The entrepreneur later suggested through her lawyer that Dream was in more danger when in Robs care. She pointed to an alleged incident in February where her daughter had returned from Robs house with a first-degree burn on her leg. Rob denied that he was the direct cause of the injury, saying it happened in the care of a nanny and that Blac Chyna had been trying to smear his name. As of writing, its one of the latest updates in the legal saga. Clearly, theres a lot of tension here, but cmon guys. Cant we all just get along? On Friday, California paid tribute to those whove been killed by coronavirus in Spain as City Hall in San Francisco was lit up with the colours of the Spanish flag as a mark of solidarity. The iconic building dates back to 1915 and is often lit up in different colours for big events and anniversaries and is a popular haunt with tourists. Its neoclassical architecture and large dome has also made it a popular location for film shoots and the building has appeared in numerous movies, including Dirty Harry, Indiana Jones & The Lost Ark and Invasion of The Body Snatchers. In 1978, Americas first gay Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor, Harvey Milk were assassinated in City Hall by former Supervisor, Dan White who was charged with voluntary manslaughter. The light sentence handed down to White caused outrage amongst the citys gay community and led to the White Night Riots. This is the second time that a government building has been lit up in solidarity with Spain, at the end of March, City Hall in Tel Aviv in Israel also displayed the colours of the Spanish flag. I n film and television, the score is one of the last pieces of the puzzle to come together. In some cases, its being mixed and dubbed mere hours before an episode premieres. Scottish composer Paul Leonard-Morgan is used to working fast, often spending the month leading up to deadline pulling all-nighters to write and record scores - ensuring the music not only matches the emotions communicated on screen, but sounds unhurried while doing so. But in the midst of composing the score for the new BBC One drama The Nest, everything stopped. On Friday March 20, Leonard-Morgan - who also scored the new Amazon sci-fi series Tales From the Loop with Phillip Glass - was at his home studio in LA, planning to record a string quartet (sat safely apart) for the premiere episode of The Nest, which was airing the following Sunday. But the night before, a text message from the government ordered the suspension of all non-essential work, axing their ability to record just three days before the episode was due to air. Paul Leonard-Morgan. (Anna Read) / Anna Read (WildKat PR) During the sleepless night that followed, social media became his saviour. Days previously, for an unrelated project, Leonard-Morgan had put out a call for musicians who had remote recording facilities. Suddenly, that became a lifeline, as Leonard-Morgan frantically searched for musicians who could self-record pieces of the score to send back to his studio. We were sending out tweets, getting in touch with other people, or people had been tweeting: You should get in touch with this person!' says Leonard-Morgan, over the phone from LA. I think we had [musicians from] Berlin, Glasgow, London and LA in the end. The Nest stars Sophie Rundle and Martin Compston as Dan and Emily, a Glaswegian couple trying to conceive, with Mirren Mack as the young woman who agrees to carry their baby, and Leonard Morgan wanted a lot of kind of samples, weird electronica and soundscapey stuff - as well as beautiful strings to explore the emotional rollercoaster that Dan and Emily, the central couple, are on. Sophie Rundle and Martin Compston in The Nest / BBC Leonard-Morgan sent sample recordings of what he needed to the various musicians, along with the sheet music for the parts he wished them to play. In a matter of hours, he was receiving recordings from across the world that he then weaved together to create the score. They started sending it back on Friday afternoon, we started chopping up the parts here and then we're sending it to my mixer whos on the other side of LA," he says. "He's then working overnight on Friday, and that day sending me mixes when he's finished so I can listen to them, and I'm then giving him feedback on the mixes. Once a score is completed, however, it needs to go through the dubbing mixer, who balances all the audial elements of an episode. The mixer for The Nest was over 5,000 miles away. "We then send it to [Kahl Hendersons] dubbing suite in Glasgow, says Leonard-Morgan. He's then dubbing The Nest overnight [on Saturday], and then having it run out on the Sunday night. So I mean - it's insane. You wouldnt know it for listening to The Nests beautifully atmospheric score, which features a seamless blend of instruments old and new. It seems astounding that Leonard-Morgan was able to collate such high-quality recordings in one day, but he credits social media with bringing some of the best musicians in the business to his attention. (Anna Read) / Anna Read (WildKat PR) What was quite good on the Twitter thing was someone would say, Oh, hi, I'm available, - I think it was someone who played on Radiohead's album - and then another bunch of composers would come on and thumbs it up and go, yeah, I can vouch for her, she's great, I can vouch for him, hes great, he says. It was like a Yelp system for musicians. So fortunately, all the stuff that came back was bloody amazing. And amidst all the chaos, Leonard-Morgan began to realise he was utilising social media in a way hed never thought to before. Not only was he suddenly exposed to a wealth of exciting new collaborations, but he was observing a supportive community rally together during a time of isolation. Musicians are just wonderful people, and there's this lovely community out there, he says. It wasn't a case of: I'm going to try and stop everyone else from seeing that tweet because I want the work - it really was that people started tagging other people, going hey, check this out. It was a real eye opener. Martin Compston in The Nest / BBC / Studio Lambert / Mark Mainz The experience also introduced new creative frontiers to his composing. [Usually] I'm looking for specific instruments - I want a cello player, I want a violin player, he says. But what I hadn't really comprehended was all these other players came up with instruments I've never even heard of, going, I play the tuba - or things that I just wouldn't have necessarily thought of. Suddenly I've got the possibility of dealing with musicians in Persia; I think there was one in Qatar, there was one in Australia, and god knows how many in Europe. It's a brave new world, and it's made me realise I can try things out that I wouldn't necessarily before. It opened up my eyes to a new way of working. (Anna Read) / Anna Read (WildKat PR) And despite the near-disaster, Leonard Morgan says scoring The Nest during lockdown - which he is still working on, with episode three due to air tonight - was a timely reminder of technology's ability to foster genuine human connection. The human connectivity here is coming from literally reaching out to other humans that you've never spoken to before and then creating this community, he says. Instead of saying, no, don't use them for cello, I'm the best cellist - it's like, Them! they're great!. People suddenly seem to actually be becoming a bit more of a collective as far as a society online, but the irony being that you're speaking to them more Its helping you stay connected to other people at a time when you're not gonna have any literal connection for a long time. Mumbai Polices crime branch arrested two accused in two separate cases from Nagpada and Dharavi and seized 54,000 three-ply masks worth 14 lakh. During inquiry, police learnt that the accused, both of whom generally stitch leather bags, started manufacturing three-ply masks illegally and selling them in the black market after seeing the demand for the same rising in view of coronavirus outbreak. According to the police, crime branchs unit 2 got tip-off that one Mohammad Meraj Shamshul Alam Siddhique, 36, was illegally storing and selling three-ply masks, following which a team led by inspector Sanjay Nikumbhe raided his shop in Nagpada and seized 30,300 masks worth 7.57 lakh. A case was registered with Agripada police and Siddhique was handed over for further legal action. The second raid was conducted by crime branchs unit 5 wherein the police team led by Yogesh Chavan seized 24,000 three-ply masks from Dharavi and arrested Faiz Ali Hyderali Shaikh, 21. The government has included hand sanitisers and masks in the list of essential products. The crime branch officers have been conducting raids on illegal mask suppliers in the city. Raids so far: March 31: Crime Branchs unit 7 raided a factory at Sakinaka which was manufacturing hand sanitisers without valid license. Police seized hand sanitisers and other chemicals worth 22.13 lakh and arrested Dilip Gokul Chamaria, 32. March 24: Unit 9 seized around 25 lakh masks worth 15 crore and arrested four. March 27: Unit 8, unit 10 and unit 11 conducted raids in Govandi and Mahim, and seized hand sanitisers and face masks worth 1.5 crore. April 2: Unit 2 raided in Mahalaxmi and seized three-ply masks worth 8.25 lakh and arrested Abdulsamad Subroti Ansari. AFP via Getty Images Michael Gove described the conspiracy theory linking new 5G masts to the coronavirus pandemic as dangerous nonsense as the UK death toll rose by more than 700 to 4,313. The cabinet secretary spoke out at the governments daily Covid-19 briefing after NHS England confirmed that a five-year-old child with underlying health conditions had become the youngest victim of the outbreak. Mr Gove also paid tribute to the seven healthcare workers who have so far fallen victim to the outbreak as he urged the British public to stay at home this weekend despite the warm weather. It comes as Donald Trump, the US president, announced new federal guidelines recommending Americans wear face coverings when in public to help fight the spread of Covid-19, but immediately said he had no intention of following the advice himself, saying: Im choosing not to do it. Meanwhile, the global number of deaths surged passed 60,000 and confirmed cases passed 1.1 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Follow the latest updates Please allow a moment for the live blog to load Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram The City of Midland Health Department is currently conducting their investigation on two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Midland, bringing the overall case count to 24, according to a press release from the citys spokeswoman. The 23rd confirmed case is a male in his 20s, who was tested by a private provider. His isolation period is complete. The source of exposure is related to international travel. SINGAPORE Stay home, unless you work in an essential service, are buying groceries or exercising. Minister for National Development and COVID-19 multi-ministry taskforce co-chair Lawrence Wong did not mince words when he spoke at a taskforce press briefing on Sunday (5 April). The points should be very clear: if your business is not in the list of essential services, then you either have to telecommute 100 per cent, or you stop work altogether. There are no two ways about this. It's straightforward, he said of the upcoming set of circuit-breaking measures that will take effect on Tuesday. Wong added, Likewise for individuals, the rules are very clear: you stay home. Do not go out, go out only for essential activities, which would include work that is considered essential, or buying food and groceries, or if you were to do an individual exercise or with your immediate family member, these are allowed. Other than that, you have to stay home. He made these remarks as Singapore confirmed a single-day high of 120 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, of which 116 were locally transmitted. This brings the total number of novel coronavirus infections in the country to 1,309. Emerging clusters are also occurring within foreign worker dormitories, and the government has taken steps to contain these. I think making these adjustments will be difficult. We understand it's not easy. Many Singaporeans have set routines and habits, said Wong, who acknowledged that the elderly like to socialise in hawker centers and coffeeshops, while young people tend to frequent malls. But all of this cannot be tolerated anymore, he emphasised. So we really need everyone to make individual sacrifices, make these necessary adjustments for this one month period of circuit breaker to be effective. And again, if we all do our parts, if we all work together, we have a chance of controlling the spread of the virus and together, we will be able to protect ourselves, our family members and save lives. Story continues On Friday, the government had announced that the circuit breaker includes the closure of most workplaces, except for essential services and those in key economic sectors. Educational institutions will also close and roll out full home-based learning from Wednesday. Ring-fencing and containment There has been an increasing number of clusters in the past few days, said MOH's director of medical services Kenneth Mak, and this reflects to some extent the fact that a number of individuals have been exposed and subsequently manifesting with infection before authorities could ring fence and isolate them. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong added, As we see more clusters and more cases, it is important to take this circuit breaker very seriously. This will help us minimise the number of unliked cases. Even if there are clusters forming, we will be able to help to stop the transmission going forward and therefore, contain the size of the cluster. Very often, I find people asking me, Can I do this? Can I do that? Can I go to the park, can I share a meal with my friends, I miss them very much. All these are very important things, he said. But, he concluded, And the question is not whether you can do so, but whether do you need to do so. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Singapore stories: COVID-19: 88-year-old permanent resident is Singapore's 6th coronavirus-related death COVID-19: Most workplaces to close from 7 April; schools to roll out full home-based learning COVID-19: Singapore 'quite a distance' from Dorscon Red Gan Kim Yong COVID-19: Wearing face masks will no longer be discouraged PM Lee COVID-19: Singapore confirms 65 new cases with 3 new clusters, including Ce La Vi and SCC [April 05, 2020] LegalShield Launches Free Coronavirus Resource Center in Response to Increased Demand for Legal Services During the Global Pandemic LegalShield, the world's leading provider of affordable legal and privacy protection plans, wants consumers to know their legal rights during the coronavirus pandemic. With their mission of equal justice for all, LegalShield has launched the LegalShield Coronavirus Resource Center to provide free guidance on the coronavirus' most frequently searched topics including employment, healthcare, estate planning, travel, finances, events and childcare. "The Coronavirus pandemic has raised a lot of legal questions, and we want to serve all citizens with this helpful website," said Jeff Bell, CEO of LegalShield. "Getting sound legal advice and support at a time like this can go a long way in reducing stress and protecting rights. LegalShield lawyers have been working around the clock to provide our 4.4 million members the guidance and support they need and we are committed to remaining open throughout the pandemic to provide legal support." The LegalShield Coronavirus Resource Center is being updated in real-time and touches upon a vast array of critical legal questions that consumers are concerned about as the pandemic evolves. Below are some of the hot topics that are trending currently: Employment Law and Your Income Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the economy. LegalShield lawyers are available to discuss any issues or concerns about employment including remote work policies and unemployment law. By speaking with a lawyer, members can get step-by-step instructions for protecting their rights. With Congress passing new employment-related legislation on a daily basis, issues are fluid. Frequently asked questions include: My employer does not provide paid sick leave. Can they force me to come to work? Stay home without pay? I'm supposed to travel for work. Can my employer fire me for refusing to travel? Can I use my FMLA time even if I'm not infected? If you have been laid off, what are your rights and options related to unemployment and your bills if your income has stopped? Healthcare, Health Insurance & Estate Planning Issues LegalShield lawyers are on call to answer questions, provide advice and even make phone calls or write letters for members to make sure they are getting the care they need. Also, member benefits include drawing up critical estate planning and legal documents like Wills, Living Wills, healthcare directives and powers of attorney to help manage care and protect finances. Frequently asked questions include: Is your health insurance provider legally required to cover doctor-ordered tests, including the coronavirus test? Should you give someone power of attorney if you become ill? What legal documents are needed if you are admitted to the hospital? Travel Related Issues Whether members are preparing to travel or are currently away and lookingto get back home, LegalShield lawyers can answer questions and take action for members to provide solutions and resolve disputes. Frequently asked questions include: Do you have the right to be refunded for travel expenses such as hotel deposits or airline fees if you choose to cancel a trip? Can you demand a refund if your travel plans were canceled due to a travel ban or other government action? If you have traveled overseas, are airlines required to help you get home in the event of a travel ban? Financial Concerns LegalShield's network of provider lawyers include many specializing in finance and real estate law. They are available to give actionable advice that members can use to stabilize current situations involving rentals, leases and mortgages. Frequently asked questions include: Will the bank foreclose on my home if I miss a mortgage payment due to governmental action and lost wages? What are my rights if there is a run on the banks? Are there any specific legal steps I can take to protect my wealth? Can my landlord evict me, or can the electric company disconnect me if I don't pay my bill one month? Events and Shelter in Place Mandates While many events have already been cancelled, questions remain. Also, conflicting state, federal and local government rules regarding the movement of people in and out of certain areas are confusing. Event related issues that deal with basic contract law may be simple for a lawyer to address. Pandemic specific issues can be more complex and fluid. Frequently asked questions include: How large of an event can I throw or attend? I have a wedding coming up. Can I get deposits back? Can I ask vendors to reschedule without penalty? Can the government force me to stay in my home? What happens if I go outside during a shelter in place mandate? Issues Related to Children and Childcare School closings are causing a lot of chaos. Some students are stranded overseas. Other students have been forced to leave a college that they've already paid for. A lawyer can help you know your rights. Frequently asked questions include: My child's school or daycare is closed but I have to go to work. Can my employer punish me if I'm forced to stay home to care for my child? My child is overseas and needs to get back to the US. What options do we have? Can I get a refund for the semester I'm forced to miss but already paid for? The LegalShield Coronavirus Resource Center is available at https://covid19.legalshield.com/legal. A personal plan from LegalShield allows consumers to speak with a lawyer about any legal issue for as little as $24.95 per month. By joining today, consumers can speak with a lawyer about any legal issue in as little as 4 hours. LegalShield lawyers are available without leaving the comfort of one's own home through the mobile app or 1-800-654-7757. As a member, consumers are connected with an attorney with an average of 22 years of experience. Additionally, through the LegalShield mobile app (available on iOS and Android (News - Alert)) there are several free services to help aid consumers and small businesses. About LegalShield and IDShield A trailblazer in the democratization of affordable access to legal protection, LegalShield is one of North America's largest providers of online legal subscription plans covering more than 4.4 million people. Its IDShield identity theft solution for individuals and families has more than one million members. LegalShield and IDShield serve more than 141,000 businesses. In addition, over 40,000 companies offer LegalShield and IDShield plans to their employees as a voluntary benefit. Both legal and identity theft plans start for less than $25 per month. LegalShield's legal plans provide access to qualified law firms and their lawyers with an average of 22 years of experience in family matters, estate planning, financial and business issues, consumer protection, tax, real estate, benefits disputes and auto/driving issues. Unlike other legal plans or do-it-yourself online services, LegalShield has dedicated law firms in 50 states and all provinces and territories in Canada that members can access at a fraction of typical law firm hourly rates. IDShield provides identity monitoring and restoration services and is the only identity theft protection company armed with a team of Licensed Private Investigators to restore a member's identity. For more information about LegalShield, visit: https://www.legalshield.com/ or for more information about IDShield, visit: https://www.idshield.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200405005017/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi, April 5 : Congress leader Ahmed Patel has demanded that the central government increase disaster risk management funds to states with high number of cases of coronavirus. "Central government must consider number of Covid-19 cases and hotspots to decide allocation of state disaster risk management fund to states," he tweeted. The Congress leader said that under the present situation, states like Delhi, Kerala and Punjab have a large number of positive cases but were receiving very little money from SDRMF. "I request Union Home Minister Amit Shah to include Covid-19 as a criterion apart from the Finance Commission criteria for disbursement of funds to states," said Patel. The Health Ministry on Sunday said 77 deaths had been reported across the country due to coronavirus so far, with the total cases up to 3,374. Photo: Contributed If flights are cancelled, regardless whether it's outside an airline's control, new rules only require alternate arrangements and not a refund. Photograph by YVR. You were looking forward to your dream vacation or nice little getaway before coronavirus now travel restrictions are in place and your flight has been canceled. Dont count on the airline giving you a cash refund, but you will likely get a voucher. Barb Mills with Tsawwassen Insurance said the Canadian Transportation Agency says airlines are not required to refund passengers for flights cancelled due to the COVID-19 or other reasons outside an airline's control. Mills noted airlines are only obliged to ensure passengers can complete their trip and are offering customers vouchers, adding most airlines are offering at least a year for people to use those vouchers. The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association says in the past, travel service providers usually provided consumers with refunds where the service provider was unable to provide service, but over the past month, that changed and they are now offering vouchers or credits that consumers can use for future travel. On March 25, the Canadian Transportation Agency updated its endorsement of the use of vouchers or credits as an appropriate approach for Canadas airlines as long as the vouchers or credits do not expire in an unreasonably short period of time. Travel insurers are advising policy holders that if you have been offered this type of full credit, or voucher for future use by an airline, train or other travel provider, in many instances, under the terms of your insurance policy you will not be considered to have suffered an insurable loss, a news release by the association notes. The association also notes disputes over refunds and credits should be directed to travel service providers, transportation carriers or the Canadian Transportation Agency. Scientific research suggests that prayer has the power to calm the mind, increase resistance to temptation and make people happier. One thing prayer can't do, however, is stop the coronavirus. So far, two members of one Sacramento church have died from COVID-19. Four other members of the church are infected. It's important to note that these infections took place before Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials issued stay-in-place orders on March 19. In Sacramento County, 71 members of the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church near Rancho Cordova have tested positive for the coronavirus. One person has died and the church's pastor is sick, but the leaders of the church which has members in Yolo and Placer counties have refused to communicate with county health leaders. The coronavirus is hitting the faith community hard. More than 100 of Sacramento County's 314 coronavirus cases are connected to churches, said Dr. Peter Beilenson, Sacramento County's health chief. This fact prompted county health officials to issue "a special plea for congregations to stop holding services and prayer groups," according to the Sacramento Bee's Tony Bizjak and Dale Kasler. Sacramento is not the only place where the coronavirus has killed or sickened people of faith. In Washington State, 60 members of a church choir attended practice despite the fact that the virus was spreading in nearby areas. "Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead," according to the Los Angeles Times. In Arkansas, nearly three dozen people who attended a church event got the coronavirus. In North Carolina, "multiple cases" of infections have been linked to a church meeting that took place despite a stay-at-home order from Gov. Roy Cooper. In Illinois, 10 people at one church tested positive for the virus. In Virginia, one pastor died of COVID-19 after downplaying its seriousness and accusing the media of "pumping out fear." In Italy a country where 83 percent of the population is Christian at least 13,155 people have died from COVID-19. This includes over 50 priests. This much is certain: The coronavirus spreads through droplets from infected people, and it does not discriminate based on nationality, race, creed, color or religion. Yes, it can infect you in church. Yes, it can sicken or kill the faithful. Yes, religious leaders who insist on holding church gatherings despite the high risks are putting lives in danger. Unfortunately, some pastors around the country have decided to make the coronavirus a deadly test of faith for their members. They are publicly defying stay-at-home orders and insisting on in-person church services. Despite a rising number of dead or infected churchgoers, a few selfish pastors around the country are putting their prideful egos ahead of what's best for their congregations. In Lodi, Calif., for example, Pastor Jon Duncan has pledged to hold church services in defiance of the rules. "We are going to meet as often as we can meet," said Duncan, invoking the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. But state and local officials have the constitutional right to issue stay-at-home orders to protect public health. They have also canceled gatherings in parks, restaurants and gyms. Lodi police are rightly threatening to shut down Duncan's services. Police in Louisiana and Florida recently arrested two megachurch pastors who went ahead with large church gatherings in defiance of public health rules. The Florida pastor, "diehard Donald Trump supporter Rodney Howard-Browne," held another church service after his release. On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally issued a 30-day stay-at-home order after weeks of deadly delay, but he exempted churches. He essentially gave careless pastors permission to spread the virus. But let's be clear: Good pastors protect their flocks. Pastors who willfully expose their congregations to this deadly virus do not deserve the title. Church leaders who insist on putting lives at risk should be jailed and their congregants should find new leaders who respect the sanctity of their lives. This is not an easy thing to say. Faith plays an important role in American life, and bans on gatherings offend our common sense of freedom and individual rights. But in a public health emergency, "social distancing" rules are necessary to save lives. Besides, the rules ban all large gatherings, not just those in churches. In this holy season of Easter, Passover and Ramadan, prayer plays a critical role. And people of all faiths can still pray in their homes, pray on the phone or take part in worship services through video services like Zoom and Skype. Nothing prevents believers from calling upon the calming and soul-healing power of prayer in these troubling times. In fact, the world could use a few extra prayers right now. The above editorial appeared in the Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.). It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency. In the short term, the aid Congress has already authorized must be pushed out with far greater urgency. As of now, it could take up to five months for some Americans to get their one-time relief checks. Independent contractors and the self-employed faced delays in applying for help under the program for small businesses. For the rest, rules were issued only at the last minute, and some borrowers fear banks are favoring existing customers. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has claimed that it is still actively engaged in the response to the coronavirus pandemic despite not having delivered a public briefing since March 9. Robert Redfield was questioned on whether he feared that the agency had been sidelined after President Donald Trump established a coronavirus task force headed up by Vice President Mike Pence in March. Redfield admitted that the CDC may now seem 'invisible' to the public but was 'at the table in every decision' when it came to the country's response to the outbreak He warned that there may be a second wave of the virus in the fall or winter after a lull in this first major outbreak. There are now more than 311,000 cases of coronavirus in the United States and 8,503 deaths. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield testifies about coronavirus preparedness and response to the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee on March 12. He denies the agency have now been sidelined President Donald Trump departs after speaking at a coronavirus task force briefing. To his far left stands Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has warned that a lull in the summer may lead to a greater outbreak in fall and winter The CDC has been at the forefront of the response to other previous health threats, including the H1N1 flu pandemic and the Zika outbreak, but have been relatively silent in the last month following the establishment of the White House task force. The agency's last public briefing was on March 9. Before this, the CDC had been delivering their own updates on the national outbreak. They have been replaced with first Pence, and now Trump, who delivers daily press conferences about the national emergency. It was claimed that the sudden silencing of the CDC was down to a conflict over messaging, as the Trump administration sought to initially downplay predictions of how the outbreak would hit the country. Upon his return from a trip to India in February, Trump lit into aides about Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had provided a dire warning about the virus' potential impact. Messonnier is no longer in charge of the outbreak response at the CDC and has been replaced by Anne Schuchat, CDCs principal deputy director. Redfield claims this has no connection to Trump's unhappiness with her warnings and says that it was a natural progression as the outbreak evolved. 'It was an evolution. Nancy really activated her center for the response in very early January when China probably still had less than 50 cases. But it was clear that this was going to be a broader agency wide response,' he told Stat News. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Nancy Messonnier during a press conference on January 29 on the coordinated public health response to coronavirus When pushed on whether the CDC should be the face of the national response to the crisis, Redfield argued that the agency was still heavily involved, even if they were not the people delivering the press briefings. 'I dont think theres any way you can even overstate how aggressively the CDC is involved throughout this nation in operationalizing the response,' he said. 'You may see it as invisible on the nightly news, but its sure not invisible in terms of operationalizing this response. And all you have to do to find that is go talk to your state and territorial health departments. Go out and look at the outbreaks. Go look in the field. So I guess it depends on how you define visibility.' He added that the CDC is still working with the task force on a daily basis and is involved in all the decisions being made. 'CDC is at the table in every decision. Were at the task force meeting every single day. Were giving our public health guidance and our recommendations,' he said. 'Weve got literally thousands of people working 24/7 gathering data all over this nation, not to mention sending people across this country to help with outbreak responses. So I think were fully engaged in the operations of the response. 'You know, if others seem to communicate some of that, thats a decision that the administration can make. But I will guarantee you were 100% engaged 24/7 in operationalizing the response throughout this nation.' Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, listens as President Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing on March 22. The CDC last delivered its own media briefing on March 9 as the White House took control on messaging Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaks with Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield. The CDC director says the agency works daily on the response Redfield warned, however, that even if this wave of infections experiences a lull, there may be a second wave coming later in the year. He claims that the second widespread outbreak could be more severe as it would hit the nation when flu season would normally see more people falling ill. The combination between coronavirus and the flu could be disastrous for the nation's healthcare system as they are both respiratory illnesses which require the same equipment for treatment. This would see coronavirus patients and flu patients battling for resources but Redfield hopes that a lull over the summer months will allow for hospitals to plan and prepare. 'I think theres a reasonable probability that this virus is going to have a seasonality to it, Redfield said. 'And that means that theres a potential global catastrophe that may, in fact, be on its way to the Southern Hemisphere, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. And we need to prepare for that. 'Related to us, that means that we may, in fact, get through in the weeks ahead, the months ahead into a lull. But I would say [if] were lucky enough to have that we need to get very prepared because next late fall and early winter, like most respiratory viruses, coronavirus 19 will be an enemy that were going to have to face again. 'Now were going to have time to prepare. Were going to have, I think, hopefully time to reinforce our public health capacity in many parts of the nation so that we can do early diagnosis, isolation, contact tracing, prevent large community clusters, prevent what we call sustained community transmission,' he added. 'Just one of our challenges next season is going to be two simultaneous outbreaks: coronavirus 19, second wave, and our regular flu season. And they both compete for the same hospital resources.' Redfield was also pressed about the recent announcement that the CDC will advise for faces to be covered when people leave their homes. President Trump announced at his Friday press briefing that the Centers for Disease Control was now recommending that Americans wear non-medical cloth masks - but pressed that it wasn't a mandate. For days, top experts, including members of Trump's coronavirus taskforce said they were debating whether or not to put out a mask recommendation. One concern is that Americans not working in the medical field would scoop up masks needed to protect doctors, nurses, first responders and others on the front lines. For days, Trump suggested that Americans could simply wear scarves to get by. But on Friday he said the CDC was putting out the new recommendation for masks. 'From recent studies we know that transmissions from individuals without symptoms is playing a more significant role in the spread of the virus than previously understood, so you don't seem to have symptoms and it still gets transferred,' the president explained. 'In light of these studies the CDC is advising the sue of non-medical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public health measure,' he said. The president suggested cloth or fabric masks that could be ordered online or made at home. They should also be able to be washed. 'I want to emphasize that the CDC is not recommending the use of medical grade or surgical grade masks and we want that to be used for our great medical people that are working so hard and doing some job,' the president said. Redfield reiterated this advice stating that he the CDC 'strongly continue to recommend that N95 masks and surgical masks really be committed to the health care workers that are on the frontlines'. He stressed that social distancing is still one of the best protections that can be used against the coronavirus spread, deeming it a 'powerful weapon' as it cannot jump further than six feet. 'We actually have one of the most powerful weapons that we need to defeat the spread of this virus. And I know a lot of people may not see it as a powerful weapon, but it is. And thats social distancing. This virus cannot jump 6 feet. So this is why the presidents recommendation is to slow the spread of the coronavirus,' Redfield said. 'Now that said, theres probably greater numbers of individuals that are without symptoms, and have this virus and can shed this virus than I think was originally appreciated. 'So we are discussing in detail whether a face covering, a face barrier, whether that would modify the ability of those of us that may be infected and dont know it to actually infect others.' During a press briefing on Saturday evening, Trump thanked the sacrifices Americans are making with 96 per cent of the country now on lockdown. He warned there will be many American deaths in the coming week in a somber start to his daily briefing on the coronavirus pandemic Saturday at the White House. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States have increased by over 100,000 in the past three days as the death toll stretched over 8,500 on Saturday. Dr. Anthony Fauci said at Saturday's briefing that he's seen evidence that the social distancing policies being recommended by the federal government are making a difference in slowing the spread of coronavirus across the U.S. People are urged to stay six feet apart from others 'This will probably be the toughest week - between this week and next week,' Trump told reporters. 'There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done,' he added of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus. The president was joined Saturday by coronavirus taskforce members including Vice President Mike Pence. Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci were also on hand, as was Dr. Stephen Hahn of the Food and Drug Administration. The president had originally wanted to open up the country by Easter, but on Sunday decided to keep the federal social distancing policies in place through the end of April. Fauci, taking the podium early in the briefing, said that the doctors have seen that the policies of social distancing have had an effect in slowing the spread of the virus. 'I want to actually just plea as I do ... as sobering and as difficult as this is, what we are doing is making a difference,' Fauci said. Bhubaneswar, April 5 : The Odisha government on Sunday said it would not extend the 48-hour shutdown enforced in state capital Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Bhadrak town as no threat of community transmission of coronavirus was found in the areas. Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the 48-hour shutdown will end at 8 on Sunday in the three places whereas the 21-day lockdown will continue across the state till April 14. Dispelling apprehensions of community transmission in the state, he said the government will focus on hotspot containment strategy in next 7-10 days. District administrations have been asked to enforce containment strategy at the hotspots where patients have no travel history and are asymptomatic, for the rest of the lockdown period, said the Chief Secretary. After the Surya Nagar and Bomikhal positive cases in Bhubaneswar, the state government had apprehended that these were instances of community transmission. However, the government later found that the cases had links to other states. "The motive behind the shutdown was to investigate whether the outbreak of the virus in the city was due to community transmission. However, during the investigation, it was found that there is no community transmission in the city as the two cases have linkage to other states," said Tripathy. He appealed to the people not to overcrowd markets after 48-hour shutdown ends at 8 pm. If people do not maintain social distancing and again create chaos at markets and vegetable shops, the government will have no option but to take stern action, warned Tripathy. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to work together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to combat the coronavirus threat. The governor also expressed regret over the state government not informing him about the steps taken to tackle the deadly virus. "The entire world is fighting this pandemic. This is not the time to hold on to political differences but to forget those and work together as one. "It would have been good had the chief minister attended the recent video conference by the PM. I would request her to work together with the Centre in combating the disease," he said, while responding to the prime minister appeal to switch off lights at homes at 9 pm. The electric lights of the Raj Bhavan were switched off at 9 pm for nine minutes to express solidarity with the people at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. The governor said he has not been updated about the steps being taken by the state government in combating the disease. "I am not complaining but I think I should have been informed," he said. Dhankhar, who has been at the loggerheads with the state government on a range of issues since taking charge in July last year, had recently praised the chief minister for her efforts in fighting the pandemic. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The start of spring is usually a profitable time for Sergio Gomez, a strawberry farmer in southern Spain, but the coronavirus pandemic has completely disrupted his harvest this year. "We have been losing money for five days now!" he said. Spain, like much of the rest of Europe, has been in a lockdown since mid-March to curb the spread of the virus and this has altered consumers' habits, with people making fewer trips to the supermarket and no longer eating out. The closure of Spain's borders has added to the burden, leaving farmers struggling to bring in crucial temporary workers to pick produce and care for animals. One of the hardest-hit crops has been strawberries from Huelva in the southern region of Andalusia, which supplies Europe with 90 percent of the fruit at this time of the year. Demand for strawberries has been halved this year, according to farmers' unions. And with the border with Morocco closed, only one-third of the temporary workers who usually come to pick strawberries were able to make the trip. "The whole sector is very frightened," said Gomez, who exports 70 percent of his crop to France, Poland and the Czech Republic. Demand is "on a roller coaster", he added. "One day I have an order and I have to work an hour extra, the next I am twiddling my thumbs." Manuel Piedra, secretary general of the UPA farmers' union in Huelva, said people were shopping as little as once every 10 days, causing sales of perishable goods to plunge. "Consumers have completely changed their habits," he said. - Missing sheep shearers - Uncertainty also reigns in the "Sea of Plastic", some 20,000 hectares of greenhouses in the province of Almeria where much of Europe's fruits and vegetables are grown. "We don't know how the market will react, it's a lottery," said Juan Antonio Criado, a local farmer who next week will start harvesting watermelons for export to Germany. Adoracion Blanque, head of the provincial branch of farm union ASAJA, said foreign demand for vegetables has "remained practically the same" but farmers were struggling with a shortage of workers due to lockdown restrictions. The government has pledged 236 million euros ($258 million) to help growers hire 200,000 workers. "All food products are arriving (in stores) in absolutely normal quantities and qualities," Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said this week. Livestock farmers will also suffer from travel restrictions. Gaspar Gonzalez of the Fovex Sat cooperative in the sparsely-populated southwestern region of Extremadura was counting on bringing over workers from Uruguay to shear 100,000 sheep between April and June. They will arrive this year in May at the earliest. Finding local replacements will be hard because "here, unfortunately, this profession has disappeared," said Gonzalez. - Falling prices - Meanwhile the price of meat has fallen, especially for lamb which has dropped nearly 40 percent. Demand for meat and fish is down because bars and restaurants that buy a lot are closed. "Everything sells, but at lower prices," said Jose Malvido, a fisherman from the northwestern region of Galicia who said he had earned nearly half of what he usually does from the sale of turbot and sole. His wife "moves around a lot" to sell his catch door to door to elderly people during the lockdown, he added. The price of fish caught by Spanish boats in European waters has dropped by more than half, according to European fishermen's organisation Europeche. In the Mediterranean, more than 90 percent of boats have simply stopped fishing out of fear of being infected by the virus and a lack of protective equipment, said Basilio Otero, president of the Spain's National Federation of Artisanal Fishing. In the Bay of Biscay off Spain's northern coast, fishermen have launched their annual mackerel campaign however, even though prices have almost hit rock bottom. The CDC released a statement Friday recommending all people to wear cloth masks to help prevent the spreading of COVID-19. This advisory came the same day that Gov. Kay Ivey placed a stay-at-home order for Alabama until April 30. Under the order people are only able to leave their home to perform essential activities including getting food for people or pets, prescription medicine, gasoline and materials needed for work or education. The CDC is advising the use of non-medical, cloth-based coverings as a voluntary public health measure, the president said during his daily briefing on the health crisis. Many Alabamians began wearing masks even before the CDC recommendation. Several statewide health care providers and churches have been giving masks to individuals for several weeks now. I feel like a lot of people were already wearing masks before (the CDC recommendation) but I definitely see more now, especially with homemade masks, said Courtney Barnes, shift supervisor at the CVS pharmacy on West Valley Avenue in Birmingham. Hannah Hutson, an essential employee working in commercial insurance in Birmingham, was given a mask at Church of the Highlands. Hutson believes that wearing masks is a necessary precaution. You never know if youre a carrier, even if you dont have any symptoms you could still have the virus and spread it, said Hutson. People feel a sense of security around you while youre wearing a mask and it helps with not passing (COVID-19) off to other people you might see at the grocery store or just walking around outside. CDC also recommends making your own personal mask with fabric around your home. Cloth face coverings should fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face, be secured with ties or ear loops, include multiple layers of fabric, allow for breathing without restriction and be able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or change to shape. By PTI JOHANNESBURG: An 80-year-old South African Muslim cleric, who recently returned from India after attending the Nizamuddin congregation, has died after contracting the novel coronavirus, according to his family members. Moulana Yusuf Tootla attended the March 1-15 Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the Nizmuddin area, that has emerged as the epicentre for the spread of the coronavirus in different parts of India and abroad after thousands of people took part in it. Tootla, who died on Tuesday, was buried after his body was collected in a bag by the Islamic Burial Council (IBC). The Nizamuddin area is famed for the shrine of the 14h century Sufi mystic Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya. FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE Indian authorities have launched a nationwide search for participants of the huge religious gathering amid fears that thousands present there could have carried the infection to the length and breadth of the country. Various nationals, particularly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan come for Tabligh activities in Delhi. Tootla's daughter Saeeda, while speaking to South Africa's online publication News24, said that the cleric began showing flu-like symptoms on his return from India. "Since he travelled and showed symptoms, as a precaution we took him to Lancet for testing. The results were confirmed by the lab. He had fully recovered at home by this past weekend. On Monday evening, he felt a bit distressed He then peacefully returned to his maker," Saeeda, who is in self-isolation, said. Tootla was reportedly advised not to travel to India for the gathering, but he was adamant to go. He had participated in scores of similar gatherings across the globe, according to fellow clerics, but none of whom could confirm if other South Africans had also attended. He (Tootla) said his fate is in Allah's hands, as He (God) had already decided when he would recall him, a family member on the basis of anonymity said. Saeeda said that the family has accepted his death as "the will of God". "He's in a better place than us. We are grateful that he lived a full life of 80 years and that we were near him to witness how beautifully and peacefully he returned to his creator," she was quoted as saying in the report. Tootla's extended family is in self-isolation for 14 days, although none of them have tested positive for the virus. "By the grace of God, we are a big family and have the support of each other. We have no fear and we firmly believe that nothing can afflict you if God has not destined it for you," she said. "We are all keeping well and showing no symptoms". IBC chairperson Salim Kazi said small adjustments were made for Muslim burials to ensure compliance with the government guidelines during the 21-day nationwide lockdown which is now in its 8th day. The guidelines restrict the number of people who can attend a funeral, so hundreds of people who had known the Islamic leader had to be advised to offer prayers for him in their homes. Goolam Dhoodat of the KwaDukuza Muslim Burial Service helped to coordinate the cleric's funeral arrangements, the News24 report said. He said the body was transported to Durban, where a dedicated nurse supervised the general procedures. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, South Africa has 1,585 COVID-19 cases and nine people have died of the disease in the country. Meanwhile, majority of the people who tested positive for the disease in New Delhi are those who took part in the religious congregation. According to Delhi's Health Department, 301 patients out of the 445 cases in the state are those participated in the Tablighi Jamaat. Chief Minister Kejriwal said that the number of cases could spike as all 2,300 people evacuated from the Tablighi's 'markaz' were being tested. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Lucknow: The Military Intelligence (MI) branch at Army cantonment in Lucknow alerted the police about the presence of 14 Tablighi Jamaat members with symptoms of COVID-19 hidden in a market adjacent to the cantonment. Acting on the tip-off, the city police and civil authorities located the Jamaatis, put them in quarantine facilities and sanitised the mosque. The swift act is certain to have averted the threat of the highly contagious infection spreading inside the cantonment which houses both both military personnel and civilians. It was learnt that the MI Branch came to know through its sleuths that sealed food packets are being provided to some unknown occupants at the Alizan mosque inside Sadar Bazar, Lucknow Cantonment. On further investigation they found that some non-local Tablighi Jamaat members with symptoms of COVID-19 are hiding inside the mosque with support from certain locals. The information was shared with the Lucknow Commissionerate who then decided to take promt action. During the police raids on the mosque on April 1, around 12 Tablighi Jamaat members from Saharanpur were found hiding inside. All of them were part of the crowd at Nizamuddin (Delhi) Markaz. They were examined for symptoms of COVID-19 and their samples were sent for confirmation. Then the group was sent to quarantine facility run by the state. An FIR was lodged against the twelve Jamaatis and their two associates at Sadar Bazar Police Station on April 3 (Friday) under sections-188 (acts of disobedience against the orders passed by a public servant), 269 (spreading infection dangerous to life), 270 (punishment for spreading infection dangerous to life), 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule), 3 (punishment for offence beyond India) and 56 (Sentence of Europeans and Americans to penal servitude). On Sunday, at least eight of the them have reported to be positive for COVID-19. It was also learned that, Dr Asif Khan the practitioner at Zara Clinic, adjacent to the Alizan mosque, was aware about the Jamatis in the mosque and was treating them for COVID-19 symptoms. The doctor was apprehended and he is likely to be booked under relevant sections of IPC for facilitating the Jamatis in hiding with symptoms of COVID-19. The mosque was inside Sadar Bazar of the cantonment and had several essential shops around it. The location was frequented by service personnel and civilians for procuring fruits and vegetables even during lockdown. As incident was being probed, the military authorities on April 3 declared entire Sadar Bazar area as "out of bound" for service personnel. Names of Jamatis at Sadar; Jabir Hasan (49), Aftab (71), Tanvir Alam (32), Kurban (50), Afzal, Farman (30), Nasim (54), Intezaar (46), Rafiq, Danish, Kurban, Irfan (71), Athar, Mirajuddin S. The corrective actions taken by both military and civil authorities are believed to have averted a certain risk of exposing service personnel and civilians of Lucknow cantonment to COVID-19. Pledging her commitment to foster the learning and joy that students have come to expect from the Ridgefield Public Schools, new Superintendent of Schools Susie Da Silva opened her tenure as leader of the towns public schools with a letter to students and parents. Dr. Da Silvas letter follows: Dear Families, It is an extraordinary time to join a new community and to be a Superintendent. I am in awe and admiration of educators across our globe who stand together to transform schools and classrooms. Together, barriers and obstacles have been torn down and vulnerabilities have taken a back seat to the needs of students, families and the profession. Homes across the world adjusted quickly to the new normal. I would like to express my gratitude to Interim Superintendent of Schools, Dr. JeanAnn Paddyfote. Through her leadership, I now have the opportunity to look ahead and continue the work in this ever-changing journey. Over the next few weeks, I will look to find creative ways to connect and collaborate with the Board of Education, staff, students, families and the community. You can expect frequent communication in doing this, I ask for your patience, as I too am new to this style of social interaction and engagement. I look forward to getting to know you, and you me, but for now it will have to be through this new digital world. During these difficult and unprecedented times, the work of the District will continue, albeit remotely. The road ahead requires the on-going assessment of our practices, modifying and adjusting where needed and navigating the Budget implications of now and the challenges of the future. We will plan and prepare for students return, and as typical of school districts during the spring season, begin making preparations for the summer months. As days turn into weeks, and the possibility of weeks into months, creating parallels to the classroom experience will be essential. We will look to foster the learning and joy that students have come to expect from the Ridgefield Public Schools. I am fully aware of how this unusual moment in history has impacted our students. While I wish we could turn back the clock, the best gift we can give now, is our spirit, drive, and endless energy. So, yes, it is an extraordinary time. The importance of leadership has never mattered more, and I look forward to serving Ridgefield as your Superintendent of Schools. Stay safe and healthy. Respectfully, Susie. Ridgefield, April 1. Pia Miller, 36, and her Hollywood agent beau Patrick Whitesell, 55, confirmed their romance in December, after months of speculation. And now there are rumours swirling that the pair may be planning to tie the knot after the coronavirus pandemic calms down and travel bans are lifted. According to Woman's Day on Monday, an insider claimed the loved-up couple are 'ready to walk down the aisle' and hope to say 'I do' in the near future. Wedding bells ahead? Rumours are swirling Pia Miller and her Hollywood agent beau Patrick Whitesell could tie the knot after she posted a VERY cryptic Instagram post and wore a very a very large diamond ring back in February. Pictured: Pia, 36, and Patrick, 55, in February Wedding in the works? The publication claims a comment by Pia about 'some magical and joyous days ahead' when she mentioned a plan to return to Italy's Amalfi Coast later this year sparked rumours of a wedding The publication claims a comment by Pia about 'some magical and joyous days ahead' while mentioning a plan to return to Italy's Amalfi Coast later this year sparked rumours of a wedding. They also pointed to a recent photo of Pia wearing a large diamond ring in February. At first glance the model's huge rock takes centre stage, but while it was the correct hand for an engagement ring, the sparkler was placed on her middle finger and not her ring finger. Pia was actually holding her mobile device with her right hand, as the placement of her cameras showed the image had been flipped in the mirror. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Pia Miller's agent for comment. Staying connected: Pia posted a sweet screenshot of a FaceTime call with her US-based beau Patrick to Instagram on Sunday, using Marvin Gaye's song Distant Lover in the background The coronavirus pandemic has seen international travel banned for at least six months, as the world struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). While Pia would often travel back and forth between Los Angeles and Australia prior to the outbreak, the couple appear to be using technology to stay connected. The brunette posted a sweet screenshot of a FaceTime call with Patrick to Instagram on Sunday, using the song Distant Lover by Marvin Gaye in the background. Keeping her private life private: Pia said she went 'back and forth between Los Angeles and Australia' prior to the outbreak of the killer virus. She also hinted at FaceTime being the secret to keeping the spark alive In an interview with Now To Love in March, the Sydney-based actress hinted at FaceTime being the secret to keeping their spark alive. '[I have] friends and family that live all over the world... let's just say FaceTime has really gotten a run for its money recently!' she revealed coyly. The former Home and Away star made her relationship 'Instagram Official' in December by posting a romantic snap of the pair from their June trip to Paris. Together: In December last year, Pia made her relationship with Patrick 'Instagram Official'. Pictured in February Super agent: Patrick is the CEO of Hollywood talent agency WME, and represents the likes of Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Hugh Jackman. Pictured in February in Los Angeles As of the morning of Monday, April 6, the total number of people diagnosed with the virus is 5,750 cases, including 37 deaths. They are believed to have started dating in May 2019, following the breakdown of Patrick's marriage to Lauren Sanchez, who is now reportedly engaged to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. Pia and Patrick had kept their romance under wraps for months, despite embarking on several holidays around the world last year. Patrick is the CEO of Hollywood talent agency WME, and represents the likes of Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Hugh Jackman. Patrick is worth an estimated US$440million (AU$630million), according to Forbes. By IANS BENGALURU: A couple, who returned to the city from Dubai in the UAE two weeks ago, tested positive for coronavirus, taking the number of such cases to 146 in Karnataka, an official said on Sunday. "The couple -- husband, 68, and wife, 62 -- with a travel history returned from Dubai on March 22, and tested positive for the virus," said the official in a statement here. The duo was quarantined in Akash hospital at Devanahalli on the city's northern outskirts and near the international airport on landing. "The couple was kept in isolation at the hospital, it remained asymptomatic till Saturday but displayed the Covid-19 symptoms on Sunday", added the official. Last week saw a quiet death. A song-thrush taken by the cat died, warm in its rescue-box, in a dawn it saw but did not announce. It was last Tuesday, the start of the third week of Italian quarantine, where, in the hills, the first light seems to amplify the birdsong, the city no longer stirs at the peal of the bells below. Over time, the quarantine silence has deepened, broken only by the sirens of the ambulances, the pots and pans beaten at noon, the national anthem blasted at 6pm, as people stand on their balconies, reeling from the abattoir figures of the daily press conference. But at over 14,000 deaths, it seems the Slaughterer God might be appeased. At last, in Italy, Covid-19 is starting to peak. The storming of waiting rooms, wards, sub-ICUs, acute-ICUs by the gasping and suffocating is easing. The plateau is being reached. Across the north, doctors hope they are reaching the time when the unspeakable they have spoken to patients, families, each other, will be consigned to the past in its degrees: perfect, historic, remote. In World War I, in the mountains to the north, Italians fought what they called a "vertical war". A century later, their descendants are fighting a horizontal war. Line on line of anesthetised patients lie intubated, ventilated, defended from the invisible enemy, by an army of doctors, nurses, technicians, cleaners, porters, priests. As military trucks take the war dead away, among them high-ranking officers of that goggled, gowned and gloved defensive force, stripped now of their authority and defiance, of their uniforms of electric blue and green, a whole peninsula and its diaspora holds its breath. For a nation in respiratory failure, the action is apposite. At this stage of quarantine, what's losing four weeks to those of us who managed to lose a whole 20 years to parenthood? We blinked and our children went from first kick and breath and cry, to first tooth and step, then first day at school to first Christmas play, first date to first broken heart. Like many, I feel lucky not to be spending quarantine on the front line - be it on a till, or stacking shelves, or making urgent deliveries or impossible choices about life support. I feel luckier still to spend it with my adult children. Friends who are separated from their sons and daughters in Spain, France and America describe their absence, the suddenness of the enforced separation, the uncertainty of when - or if - they will see them again, as a weight in the chest, dead and dread. In our 50s, with what we hope and imagine to be many good years ahead of us, the realisation is icy. In Ireland, the mainstream and social media is crawling with advice on Getting Quarantine Done - redolent of Boris Johnson riding his mini-digger through a polystyrene Brexit wall. The country is alight with what are we doing right, what we are getting wrong. I recall that in February, Ireland's CMO Dr Tony Holohan went on Prime Time and predicted that Ireland could see "individual cases" of Covid-19. So now that we are at over 4,600 cases and counting, I wonder if this prediction affected Ireland's virus readiness and planning? But when quarantine becomes an episode to experience, as opposed to one to endure, the big and perhaps unwelcome questions come within both reach and touch. With the world in hiding from a virus it cannot see, the real quarantine questions are about survival and mortality. Our helter-skelter existence of constant production and consumption encourages us to live as though we will never die. Death is a discrete event to be medically avoided, practically ignored. Accommodating death as a process in our lives? You must be kidding. Aren't we down enough? Can we not have positivity? It doesn't do to dwell, does it? Only it does. If "dwell" is, as they say, to live deeply, then dwelling on, and with, death is something we can do, should do. Quite a few people have told me that in quarantine they are thinking about their dead. I'll admit to being among them. I'm thinking about my father, godmother, grandmother, aunts and uncles, am missing the comfort of a relationship, the security of blood, the certainty of knowing one's 'place', in this time of sudden danger and confusion where anything can happen. Chatting with the local pharmacist about family and the virus, I was surprised when this artist and skydiver brought up the movie Gladiator - specifically, where Russell Crowe is reminded that we must all of us die, the only question is when and how. But a starker line from the movie is this: "Have you ever embraced someone dying of the plague, Sire?" In Italy and everywhere, it is the question of the moment. In wards and ICUs, Covid- 19 is robbing us of the usual end-of-life kindnesses and gentleness, the human comforts expected and depended on, given and received. In the months and years ahead, the virus-load of PTSD in Italy's doctors and nurses will be so off the scale as to be unreadable. ICU doctors breaching protocol, wrapping their own cell-phones in plastic, for patients to say goodbye, is about the most writeable or readable of the corona moral and psychological obscenities. Quarantine, then, is the time for us to ask and answer the uncomfortable questions. With Covid-19, what is it that we want? Do we want to be hospitalised or do we want to stay home? Even if staying home involves the inevitable? If we get the "ground glass" in our lungs, do we want to be ventilated or do we not? And even if we do want to be ventilated, can we be? In an ICU crisis, with ventilation decisions made not on the basis of age alone, but general health, benefit and likely outcome, it might not be possible. For people with existing conditions, especially lacerated lungs, that last question is sobering. At 87, my mother is the sole survivor of her birth and marriage family. An avid reader and gifted writer, all week on the phone, she has been considering the virus and its implications for herself and her daughters. Never a woman given to emotion, out of the blue, she asks if I think we will see one another again. I tell her I think we will. "I mean while we're alive," she adds. With 2,000 quarantine kilometres between us, she talks a lot about the childhood walks we took with her and my father, up Fairhill, out past the Fair Field, the Gallaghers's house to the right, the Small Shop to the left, on over to O'Sheas's The Croppy, down on to the Blackstone Bridge. "You started the hayfever then." I did, I say, and make her laugh, telling her about sneezing on a walk the other day, the masked woman coming towards me, diving into the hedge with horror. "I miss your father," she says then. I remind her he's with her. "He's not," she says, practical again. "I sent him over to you and the children." And there it is. Since his death, my father had been a stranger. But in quarantine he is making his presence felt. Often now, he's there on the walks, or when we watch the daily press conference, or when we open the wine or when his grand-daughter announces there are 3.9 billion people under lockdown - half the earth's population. "The things we worry most about never happen," he used to say. But in the quarantine evenings, as the dead man raises his glass with us, we know the trouble with the pandemic of Covid-19 is that we - the world - didn't worry at all. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 02:54:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Aug. 9, 2019 shows a view of the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Pandemic Uncertainty Index (WPUI) related to the COVID-19 is three times the size of the uncertainty during the 2002-03 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, and about 20 times the size of that during the Ebola outbreak. WASHINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- A new measure of global uncertainty around the coronavirus has surged to a record high, according to a blog post released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Saturday. "The coronavirus continues to spread. As more countries impose quarantines and social distancing, the fear of contagion and income losses is increasing uncertainty around the world," Hites Ahir and Davide Furceri, officials at the IMF's Research Department, and Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, wrote in the blog post. To quantify uncertainty related to the coronavirus crisis and compare it with previous pandemics and epidemics, the three researchers developed the World Pandemic Uncertainty Index (WPUI) for 143 countries starting in 1996. As of March 31, the WPUI is three times the size of the uncertainty during the 2002-03 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic and about 20 times the size of that during the Ebola outbreak. "The level of uncertainty around the coronavirus is expected to remain high as cases continue to rise and it is still not clear when the crisis will end," the researchers wrote, warning high uncertainty historically coincides with periods of lower growth and tighter financial conditions. "The current level of uncertainty related to the coronavirus crisis is no exception as the economic impact is already visible in the countries most affected by the outbreak," they said, noting that "increased coordinated action" will be key to boosting confidence and providing stability to the global economy. The increasing uncertainty came as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has exceeded 1.14 million with over 60,000 deaths, according to the tally from Johns Hopkins University. "We're now in recession, it is way worse than the global financial crisis," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Friday at a joint press conference with the World Health Organization (WHO), noting the "dual crisis" -- health and economic crisis -- caused by COVID-19 outbreak is unprecedented in the history of IMF. Georgieva stressed that saving lives and protecting livelihoods ought to go hand in hand as the coronavirus sweeps across the globe. The Deputy Health Minister of Iran, Iraj Harirchi, on April 4 warned that greater Tehran area may face a coronavirus resurgence as many residents ignored the advisories to stay home. As the countrys New Year holidays ended on April 4, crowded streets and traffic jams across the city were reported. Harirchi said that the authorities are still concerned about the virus outbreak as several stores re-opened despite a closure order on non-essential services and businesses. On a televised speech, Harirchi said, We are still concerned about the virus, for example with the level of traffic in Tehran today and queues of cars stuck on freeways because these people can take the virus to their homes or workplaces. Even a medium level of the virus here can spread to nearby cities with a high level of job-related traffic between nearby cities and Tehran. READ: Iran Blames Israel's Spy Agency Of Running 'clandestine Operations' & 'nabbing' Test Kits He further cautioned about a probable return of coronavirus in case of negligence and said social distancing measures were absolutely necessary. As per reports, authorities have also complained that several Iranians ignored appeals to stay at home and cancel travel plans for the New Years' holidays. In a bid to contain the spread of the virus, officials also imposed inter-city travel bans on March 25. Violent prison disturbances Currently, Iran has more than 55,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed almost 3,452 lives in the country. Last week, Iran temporarily also released almost 100,000 prisoners to contain the spread of the virus, however, authorities reported unrest in several prisons. While speaking to a local media outlet, Governor Enayatollah Rahimi said that the prisoners broke cameras and caused other damage in two sections housing, violent criminals. READ: Iran Says Virus Contagion Slows For Fourth Day According to reports, around 70 inmates had also escaped Saqqez Prison in western Kurdistan province. The prisoners reportedly also started beating the guards during the chaos. Currently, 50,000 prisoners are reportedly behind bars, including violent offenders and so-called security cases. The families of detainees have also accused Iran of holding the prisoners for political reasons or use them as bargaining chips in negotiations. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended his governments action to combat the outbreak while also dealing with a crippled economy. Rouhani also said that new way of life that has been adopted is for everyones benefit and that the changes will likely have to stay in place for some time. He further said that the country must prepare to live with coronavirus until a treatment or vaccine is discovered. READ: Iran Reports 158 More Virus Deaths READ: Coronavirus: Iran's Death Toll Jumps To 3,294, Total Cases Surpass 53,000 Toronto police are searching for a man suspected of striking a cyclist with a car before beating him with an object Saturday morning in Rexdale. Police say the victim was riding his bike in the area of Hinton Road and Harefield Drive around 7:15 a.m. when a man struck the cyclist with his car. The man then beat the victim with an object before attempting to flee in a nearby TTC vehicle, police say. Police say the man fled on foot after a TTC driver prevented the man from boarding. The victim was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. David Pajon Ramos, 29, is wanted on warrant for attempted murder. He is described as 5 feet 6 inches and 175 lbs., with a dark complexion, short black hair and a receding hairline. He was last seen wearing a black hoodie with a white stripe on the right shoulder, and black pants with a white Puma logo. Police are seeking the public's assistance in finding the suspect. New York's Times Square is virtually empty on Friday. (Angela Weiss / AFP-Getty Images) The flags at Rockefeller Center fly over a desolate concrete canyon. Photojournalists with long-lens cameras wander through Times Square to capture the solitude on one of the worlds busiest thoroughfares. White tents have been erected on the northern section of Central Park to accommodate the overflow of patients from Mount Sinai Hospital a grim tableau evoking a previous century. As the national death toll of more than 6,500 from the pandemic doubles the number of fatalities from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, New York has been transformed, and new habits formed. Many of the 4 million people who come to work in Manhattan are now staying connected with their jobs remotely. The restaurants and cafes that remain open have become takeout stops as they struggle to stay afloat. Public transportation has seen as much as an 80% drop in passengers. After months of devastating loss and unfathomable fear following 9-11, the nation's most populous city proved its resilience, rebounding more prosperous than ever. Experts believe the city will endure significant pain before experiencing that kind of comeback, given the pandemic's death toll (more than 1,500 as of Thursday evening) and catastrophic economic losses pegged at $5 billion by one financial watchdog group. At the very least, months, if not years, of uncertainty lie ahead. I think people were afraid after 9-11, but they werent afraid to go out and eat, said Melissa Fleischut, president and chief executive of the New York State Restaurant Assn. As long as the pandemic continues to go on, I think the prospects for the majority of restaurants to come out on the other side is slimming. I think it is an altering event a moment of change for the industry for sure. A recent survey by the National Restaurant Assn. showed that 5% of New Yorks restaurants have closed due to the restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic. On March 20, all workers in nonessential businesses across New York state were ordered to stay home by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Story continues An additional 12% expected to close permanently in the next 30 days if the current situation did not improve. The growth of the restaurant business had already been slowing due to the states $15-an-hour minimum wage. We had already seen life get more challenging for the restaurant owner and operator throughout the state, Fleischut said. They were trying to manage with labor costs that have increased dramatically. Rent was always concerned. Profit margins are slim, and they have no savings to speak of to get them through a catastrophic event like this. Nearly half of restaurants in New York are closed even with the provision that they can serve food and alcoholic beverages for takeout and delivery. Dante, a 105-year-old cafe on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, has its bartenders preparing their specialty cocktails to go, offering them in glass containers that are lined up on tables that would otherwise have seated customers. Were bottling these, Jessica Friedman, a server at Dante, said. Its keeping us all employed. Bartenders Liam Pierce and Jessica Friedman are making their drinks to go at the Greenwich Village cafe Dante. (Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times) Fleishcut said one restaurant proprietor had remodeled so he could sell meal kits for customers to heat and serve at home. She expects an acceleration in the number of restaurants converting to a fast casual service, especially if social distancing continues after the pandemic abates. Caterers and event planners are also anxious over how long it will take for the public to feel comfortable going back to business conferences, trade shows, conventions, social galas, festivals and award presentations, which brings an influx of billions of dollars to New York. Midtown's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, normally host to trade shows like Book Expo America, has been turned into a field hospital. David Adler, founder and chief executive BizBash, a New York firm that advises the event business, said he has been on calls with companies trying to determine when normalcy, whatever that is, will return and how to navigate the economic shutdown. Its all about how you not cancel events but postpone them, Adler said. The problem is nobody knows when they can postpone till. There is all of this unknown in the markets. A lot of people are living off deposits for future events. Cash flow is an issue, Adler said, and many operators serving the event business will eventually fold or be forced to sell while other entrepreneurs step in. "There will be a lot of carnage," he said. Long term, Adler does not believe the meeting and event business will experience a negative impact from the growth in web conferencing services such as Zoom and Webex that businesses are being forced to use. There will be a pent-up appetite for human connection once the pandemic passes, Adler said. But it will take work to bring the business back. In the years following 9-11, he was part of a coalition that held numerous events at Gracie Mansion the official residence of the mayor and lighting displays at the Empire State Building to signal to businesses that the city was ready to return as a convention and meeting destination. New Yorkers are very vibrant in that they worked hard in getting people come back, Adler said. It doesnt happen by accident. But the number of New York-area residents forced to work at home while their offices are shut down is likely to become a permanent situation for some of them, according to Sam Schwartz, who heads a transportation planning and engineering firm in New York. Im realizing, Hey, do I really need to take that extra floor?' he said. A lot of people were able to get a lot done remotely, including me. You will see some employers offer an alternative to work at home. Schwartz puts the current percentage of New York employees working remotely at 2% to 3% and sees it doubling as a result of the pandemic. But he doesnt see it making commuting any less crowded. Subway ridership fell off dramatically in the months after 9-11 as people feared another attack. Ridership bounced back after a year, and in the following decade, the city saw record numbers of passengers. Schwartz noted that the drop in the number of cars crossing the Hudson River into Manhattan has dropped about 25% to 30% in March, far less than the steep declines in trains, buses and ferries making the same trip. But he does not believe prolonged fear of COVID-19 will put more commuters back in their cars. Schwartz said that would be unsustainable and ultimately paralyze the city; moreover, New York is moving to install a "congestion charge" on driving in the most heavily trafficked parts of Manhattan, starting next year. Rockefeller Center in New York. (Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times) New York has endured numerous catastrophes the sinking of the steamship General Slocum in 1904, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, the near-bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, numerous plane crashes and even terrorist attacks and always bounced back. "There are a lot of people traveling today who barely know 9-11 they were children," Schwartz noted. "Now they make up a big chunk of the commuting population. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 Trend: Trend news agency and Azerbaijani stars have joined the #Evdqal (stay home) campaign with a special video project. All efforts have been mobilized in Azerbaijan to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection and to get out of this difficult situation with minimal losses. From the first day, the situation in the country was taken under strict control by President Ilham Aliyev, the necessary preventive measures were taken, and a special quarantine regime was strengthened. President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, explaining in their appeals to the people the need for unconditional compliance with the rules of the special quarantine regime, called on people not to leave home. The #Evdqal campaign was joined by well-known political figures, representatives of culture and art, as well as other celebrities. Having joined the #Evdqal campaign, Trend news agency prepared an interesting music video in Azerbaijani, Russian and English. The project manager is Sahil Karimli, the coordinator is Vugar Imanov, the author of the idea is Fidan Mirbabayeva. The music producer is Tunzala Aghayeva. Performers are Tunzala Aghayeva, Lala Mammadova, Zamig Huseynov, Khayyam Nisanov and Murad Arif. Words to the music belong to Zahra Badalbeyli and Fariz Zeynalov, wind instrument performer is Teymur Suleymanbeyli and project sound engineer is Emin Karim. We present the readers this video project: Bullies arent just a problem in the schoolyard. They can be bothersome and disruptive in the workplace and can impact the bottom line. The costs attached to workplace bullying are numerous and include possible litigation as well as costs associated with a loss in productivity. Today, as the world faces a crisis due to the coronavirus, this health threat can be just one issue that can cause or exacerbate bullying in the workplace. In Connecticut, bullying in the workplace can fall under laws that prohibit discrimination, harassment and retaliation. There is a law in Connecticut that says that employers must maintain a safe work environment for employees. Bullying can create an unsafe workspace. An employee also can bring claims against an employer for a variety of reasons, including being targeted by a supervisor for demeaning work assignments or demoted based on race or sex. If youre subjected to repeated acts of verbal and/or physical abuse by a coworker or supervisor based on your sexual orientation, religion or country of origin you can bring a claim against an employer. Other reasons an employee can sue an employer include: If you have to endure sexual advances or comments about your appearance. Repeated comments about your pregnancy status designed to make you quit or transfer to a different position. Not receiving a reasonable accommodation for your disability. Then, there are types of workplace bullying that are legal. For example, there isnt a law preventing a co-worker from criticizing your work with excessive profanity unless it is to such an extent it creates a hostile environment. If a co-worker spreads erroneous rumors about you, you can attempt to file a lawsuit against the employee for defamation. An employer could face vicarious liability under respondeat superior (let the boss answer). Other costs associated with workplace bullying include losing productivity because skilled employees cant take it anymore and quit, or repeatedly call out sick. Bullying also may lead to more workers compensation claims and a damaged reputation to the company. Victims of workplace bullying suffer from stress, which leads to many health problems that affect their ability to perform well at work. Those health problems can include depression and anxiety, difficulty sleeping, heart problems and more. There is evidence that those who witness bullying regardless of whether they are targeted also suffer from stress, and people who work in a workplace where bullying occurs have less job satisfaction and decreased morale. They also tend to lack motivation and fear offering suggestions for improvement. There are times the target of bullying is so fearful of losing their job that they never take time off. But that has negative consequences, too, because the worker is not typically an engaged worker, and not as productive as they would be if they were happier. Bullying also can damage a companys reputation. People talk. Bullying rarely stays in house, which makes it harder to attract quality employees. The bottom line is that companies need to have policies stating that this type of conduct wont be tolerated. The workplace policy needs to include information about how to report bullying and needs to make it clear that anyone who reports bullying wont face retaliation. Employers also should document and investigate every report of workplace bullying that comes across their desk bullying can easily develop into the kind of harassment that could result in expensive, public legal action. But thats not all. Companies need to provide training, education, information and awareness on workplace bullying for all employees. Like in the schoolyard, where a teacher monitors behavior and issues a time-out to a bully, everyone in the workplace should be attuned to this behavior, too. Attorney Reese Mitchell is an associate at Stratford-based Mitchell & Sheahan, P.C. He is involved in handling all types of employment matters, including through all stages of the litigation process. He can be reached at ReeseMitchell@mitchellandsheahan.com or at 203-873-0240. Sergio Rossi died on Thursday in Italy's Cesena, a city in Emilia-Romagna, one of the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Celebrated Italian shoe designer Sergio Rossi has died at the age of 84 from complications over novel coronavirus. The shoemaker died on Thursday in Italy's Cesena, a city in Emilia-Romagna, one of the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Riccardo Sciutto, CEO of the Sergio Rossi Group, shared the news of the designer's demise on Instagram. "Today everyone at Sergio Rossi joins me in remembering our dear Sergio, the inspiring founder of our dream. Sergio Rossi was a master, and it is my great honour to have met him and gotten to present him the archive earlier this year. His vision and approach will remain our guide in the growth of the brand and the business, Sciutto said. "He loved women and was able to capture a woman's femininity in a unique way, creating the perfect extension of a woman's leg through his shoes. Our long and glorious history started from his incredible vision, and we'll remember his creativity forever, he added. Rossi was born in 1935 and started making shoes at the age of 14. His designs were used by couturiers such as Azzedine Alaia, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbana in their collections. Celebrities such as Lupita Nyong'o, Rihanna, Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria, Cameron Diaz, Laura Dern and Ariana Grande have frequently worn Rossi's creations. His son, Gianvito Rossi, joined the shoe industry in 2006, and his designs have been picked by Demi Lovato and British royal Kate Middleton. Italy has seen about 120,000 cases of the coronavirus, resulting in about 14,000 deaths. In a shocking statement, Himachal Pradesh's Director General of Police (DGP) S R Mardi, on Sunday, warned all Tablighi Jamaat attendees that 'murder and Attempt to murder charge' will be slapped on them if they fail to voluntarily inform the police. He gave all attendees a deadline till 5 PM this evening to inform their whereabouts to the police. Himachal Pradesh had traced and quarantined 204 Markaz attendees till Friday. CM Uddhav reveals 'Didn't permit Tablighi Jamaat event in Maharashtra'; state tally at 423 Himachal Pradesh DGP threaten 'attempt to murder charge' "If Nizamuddin attendees has returned from Markaz, then inform the police by 5 pm today. Else strict action will be taken. If it is later found out then murder, and attempt to murder will be registered against them," said the DGP to reporters. Gujarat HC issues notice to Centre & state over Markaz congregation becoming COVID hotspot What is the Nizamuddin COVID-19 scare? On Monday, sources reported that a religious programme was organised at Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters Markaz Nizamuddin mosque between 13-15 March which had over 3400 attendees from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan and from several states in India. After attending the meeting, prior to the nationwide lockdown, 1500 of these attendees returned to several parts of the country, possibly spreading the COVID-19 virus. The mosque has claimed that while they were letting small groups of attendees leave from the venue prior to the Janta Curfew, several were stuck in the area owing to the nationwide lockdown. All 2631 occupants have been evacuated and the building has been sanitised. The Delhi Crime Branch which has booked the Markaz chief Maulana Saad for violating lockdown is currently searching for him by raiding possible hideouts. Over 200 Nizamuddin congregation attendees from Himachal traced, quarantined Markaz attendees throughout India The Health Ministry stated that 1032 attendees have tested positive till date - which amounts to over 30% of all positive cases in India. Overall 3400 people had attended the event - Tamil Nadu: 1500 - 110 have tested positive, rest in quarantine; Gujarat: 1500 attendees - tracing ongoing (29 attendees tested negative); Telangana - 1100, 65 are being traced; 6 have died, 76 tested positive; Uttar Pradesh - 569 (most in quarantine); Haryana- 503 (all traced & quarantined); Himachal Pradesh - 157 (All traced & quarantined); Madhya Pradesh - 107 (trace ongoing), Chattisgarh - 101, Bihar -81, West Bengal -71, Assam -100 - (67 still in Delhi, others quarantined, 1 positive); Arunachal Pradesh -1. Currently, India's COVID-19 tally is at 3374 with 77 deaths. Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India's COVID-19 tally increases to 3374; 77 casualties reported Bhopal/Indore, April 6 : Midway through the 21-day lockdown in Madhya Pradesh coronavirus cases kept up a rising trend. The total corona positive cases touched 215. Figures in Bhopal recorded a big jump, from 18 to 40 by late Sunday evening. Chief Medical and Health Officer, Bhopal Dr. Sudhir Kumar Daheria said 22 persons tested positive on Sunday. According to Sunday night bulletin 97 samples were sent for examination of which 23 tested positive. Most persons affected are either related to the Health Department or to the Tablighi Jamaat. However, the health authorities said there is no need to panic. After a major vegetable whole-seller in Bhopal tested positive on Saturday vegetable markets in Bhopal were sealed till further orders. Collector Tarun Pithode ordered closure of all except milk and medicine shops till further orders. The food delivery system and the home delivery system authorized by the competent authority by the Municipal Corporation will continue to operate. On Friday, IAS officer and Health Corporation MD J.J. Vijay Kumar had tested COVID-19 positive. On Saturday, 12 IAS officers of the COVID-19 core group were home quarantined. Pallavi Jain Govil and Veena Sinha were admitted to Bhopal AIIMS and their family members were also quarantined. Around 150 employees of the Health Department are under medical supervision. Even the Health Department hierarchy had crumbled under the burgeoning crisis with its Principal Secretary Pallavi Jain Govil and Additional Director (Health) Veena Sinha testing positive for the dreaded virus. Both Jain Govil and Vijay Kumar had attended meetings even through their sickness causing an alarm in the state secretariat By Sunday night the overall figure of the infected in the state touched 215. Of these 135 were found in Indore, 12 in Morena, 40 in Bhopal, eight in Jabalpur, seven in Ujjain, four in Khargone, three in Barwani, while two each were affected in Gwalior, Shivpuri and Chhindwara. There have been 12 deaths so far. Eight died in Indore, two in Ujjain and one each in Khargone and Chhindwara. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 Trend: Turkic Council Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev praised the cooperation, resilience and solidarity among the Turkic Council Member States, Trend reports citing Turkic Council. Stressing that the international community should exert coordinated and determined efforts in the fight against COVID-19, he emphasized that the global community must undertake united action against this global crisis. He also noted that the current cooperation mechanism has enabled the Member States to take concerted action. The Secretary General stated that the Turkic Council Member States, namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan as well as the Observer State Hungary have demonstrated their resolve to tackle the challenges due to deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of global spread of the pandemic, Leaders of the Turkic World have been in close communication with each other and instructed relevant ministries and institutions to take necessary measures such as arranging safe evacuation of their citizens, closing borders, halting international flights, sharing experience and information as well as providing medical assistance and supply. As part of these joint efforts and cooperation, Turkey was the first country to send test kits to Azerbaijan and helping this brotherly country to reach the necessary capabilities for diagnosing the first patients suffering from this illness. Moreover Turkey agreed the Kyrgyz-Turkish Friendship Hospital in Bishkek, which was jointly managed by Turkey and Kyrgyz Republic, to be utilized by the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyz Republic in combating COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan, humanitarian aid was sent to neighboring Kyrgyzstan to alleviate the suffering of this brotherly nation. In a similar fashion the Government of Kazakhstan assisted with the airborne evacuation of Kyrgyz citizens from China and India. In this difficult period, the Turkic Council Member States became the first countries extending medical support to Hungary immediately after the initial news pointing to a spread of the epidemic in Europe. Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkey delivered medical supplies including much needed face masks to Hungary. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in his statement on 16 March 2020 conveyed his heartfelt gratitude to the Turkic Council Member States for their prompt response and assistance. He also indicated that these aids serve as another concrete indicator of strong solidarity with the Turkic World. Furthermore, Turkish private sector was also instrumental in terms of extending support to Kazakhstan. Ankara based Turkish company YDA Group has delivered a considerable aid package, containing medical materials, face masks, safety glasses and gloves that were subsequently transferred to various hospitals in Kazakhstan last week. Secretary General B. Amreyev underlined his firm belief in sustained determination and close cooperation among the Member States. He is of firm conviction that the Turkic World will stand in solidarity with the rest of the international community in this global struggle against COVID-19. He said the Turkic Leaders are resolved to maintain this high level consultation regarding this issue and their joint efforts to overcome this period of unprecedented challenges by taking any additional measure that could be required. A British citizen expressed his gratitude to Vietnamese doctors in the local language when he was discharged from a hospital on Sunday, following almost three weeks of treatment for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Quang Nam Central General Hospital, located in the namesake province in central Vietnam, declared C.P.S., a 66-year-old patient from the UK, free of the virus and released him from the institution. S. appeared moved upon his discharge, saying cam on, which means thank you in Vietnamese, to health workers at Quang Nam Central General Hospital, located in the namesake province in central Vietnam, who had whole-heartedly cared for him. C.P.S. (R), a 66-year-old British COVID-19 patient, holds a discharge certificate at Quang Nam Central General Hospital in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, April 5, 2020. Photo: Le Trung / Tuoi Tre I was treated better than I had expected, he said. I feel really happy and grateful for it. He and his wife presented flowers and a gift box to health workers at Quang Nam Central General Hospital as a symbol of gratitude. C.P.S. (R), a 66-year-old British COVID-19 patient, and a doctor hold a discharge certificate at Quang Nam Central General Hospital in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, April 5, 2020. Photo: Le Trung / Tuoi Tre He had been treated for COVID-19 for nearly three weeks and tested negative for the virus twice, meeting standards to be discharged. He was the only patient to undergo treatment for the disease at a hospital in Quang Nam. The patient is in good health and spirits, said Dinh Dao, director of the Quang Nam Central General Hospital. The Briton will continue to be quarantined and have his health monitored for another 14 days, in line with the Ministry of Healths regulations, said Nguyen Van Hai, director of the Quang Nam Department of Health. C.P.S., a 66-year-old British COVID-19 patient, gestures upon his discharge from Quang Nam Central General Hospital in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, April 5, 2020. Photo: Le Trung / Tuoi Tre S. arrived in Hanoi on March 9 aboard flight VN0054 operated by national carrier Vietnam Airlines. A flight attendant then tested positive for the virus. The British man went on to visit Quang Nam and displayed symptoms of the disease. Health workers took a sample from him and sent it to the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang, a coastal city in south-central Khanh Hoa Province, which returned positive. He was hospitalized on March 16. One new case has been recorded in Vietnam as of the time of writing on Sunday, with the countrys tally standing at 241, including 150 active cases and 91 recovered patients. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! THE Principal Judge, Dr Eliezer Feleshi, has advised stakeholders, including the Police and Prison Forces, to cooperate with the Judiciary in providing justice through online system especially during this time when the world is struggling against spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Dr Feleshi said on Friday that the Judiciary had already embraced Information and Communication (ICT), thus advising the Police and Prisons to prepare to work online especially during this period of the epidemic. The principal judge was speaking during his official tour in Mkuranga, Kibiti and Rufiji districts when he inspected various judicial activities. "The Judiciary of Tanzania will make sure the doors of justice are open so that citizens can get justice on time," Dr Feleshi said. According to him, the Tanzanian Judiciary was ready to go to prisons and conduct cases if the Prison Department would be ready to cooperate. "Just change the venues, we will come and hear cases there," he pointed out. Addressing judiciary staff members in areas he visited, the principal judge called upon them to act honestly and ethically to protect the integrity of the Judiciary of Tanzania. Reading the report for Mkuranga District Court, Resident Magistrate in Charge Herrieth Mwailolo explained that between January and March, 2020, a total of 127 cases were determined. During that period, the Court registered 128 cases, while the remaining cases for the previous period were 196. On part of the primary court, Ms Mwailolo said that a total of 133 cases were registered between January and March, of which 110 were heard and decided. Dr Feleshi is continuing with his special tour in Morogoro Region, where he will visit the Morogoro Magistrates Court, the Mvomero District Court and the Morogoro, Mvomero and Kingolwira primary courts. In his first day of the visit, the principal judge toured Kigamboni, Temeke and Ilala District Courts, as well as Temeke, Mbagala, Ukonga, Buguruni and Ilala primary courts and has inspected the construction of the Integrated Justice Centre at Changombe area in Temeke District, Dar es Salaam. He directed all magistrates and other judicial officers to continue serving the people judiciously despite the challenge of the current outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, which is currently shaking the world. The principal judge said that every magistrate should remember his constitutional duty as provided for under Article 107A and B of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania as well as the oaths of office they took. This period of the epidemic does not stop conflicts from occurring in society, so everyone must discharge ones duties. It is the period that reminds us how best to improve the justice service delivery in the country, the principal judge explained. In addition, Dr Feleshi urged Magistrates in Charge of Kigamboni, Temeke and Ilala District Courts to continue improving co-operation with other stakeholders of the judiciary on ensuring that justice is delivered on time. He paid tribute to all magistrates and other judiciary staff of courts that he visited for supporting efforts by senior leaders of the Judiciary to ensure that the justice was delivered fairly. Apart from inspecting judicial functions, as well as developments on implementation of justice services delivery, Dr Feleshi will also review how best the High Courts Dar es Salaam Zone has taken precautionary measures against covid- 19s disaster in ensuring the safety of staff and court clients. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday sought the cooperation of various religious leaders in the battle against coronavirus, saying the deadly disease it causes does not distinguish between religions and hence it is necessary that "we fight it together". In a video conference with the leaders, he mentioned the Tablighi Jamaat event, which has emerged as the biggest hostspot of the virus in the country, and said religious leaders are respected by the society, so they can play an important role in spreading the correct information about COVID-19. Adityanath said timely steps taken by the central government "stagnated" the spread of the virus in the second stage but "things suddenly changed" due to the Jamaat incident. Saying that the situation has been brought under control, he added, "It (COVID-19) is an infectious disease that does not distinguish between religions. Hence, it is necessary that we fight it together." The chief minister cited the US, Italy, Spain, and Iran the countries most affected by the virus and said the powerful nations are now seeking India's cooperation to fight this fight. Adityanath assured the religious leaders that their suggestions will be implemented. Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, the mahant of Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi, suggested all religious leaders should ask people to follow the lockdown restrictions. Maulana Masood Madni from Saharanpur said the administration should ensure the infected people put in quarantine should not feel they are under arrest. He also said wrongly attributing the spread of the virus to a religion should not be encouraged. Chief Minister Adityanath assured him that police would not take any coercive action. Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali from Lucknow said religious leaders should record an audio on preventive measures and mosques can play it regularly to raise awareness. He also suggested creation of a "Corona Warriors Committee" to spread awareness. Kalbe Jawwad from the Shia community said everyone should respect the doctors and follow government rders. Father Noon from Agra said despite this week being an important week for Christians, because of Good Friday, they are adhering to social distancing and have deferred all events. Religious leaders from Ayodhya suggested creating a lab in the town as many foreigners visit there. Adityanath assured that the government is preparing to open a lab in every district. Other religious leaders also shared their vies and suggestions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Trump again touted the use of the Malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for use during the coronavirus crisis at Saturday's press briefing, telling reporters that he might even give it a try. 'In fact, I may take it. I may take it, I'll have to ask my doctors about that. But I may take it,' he told the reporters sitting in the room. The president has pushed hydroxychloroquine for weeks as a possible coronavirus fix and on Saturday peddled a theory that people with Lupus - a disease in which hydroxychloroquine is used to treat - are not as susceptible to COVID-19, teasing that it might be proof the drug works. President Trump floated a theory Saturday that Lupus patients are less likely to get the coronavirus because they're already on the drug Hydroxychloroquine, which he's been touting for several weeks Hydroxychloroquine is currently used to treat Malaria and also Lupus and comes with a laundry list of side effects 'I'll just speak for myself, it's been out a long time, it's a Malaria drug, it's also a drug for Lupus,' Trump said. 'And there's a study out that people with Lupus aren't catching this horrible virus, they're not affected so much by it.' 'Maybe that's correct, maybe that's false, you'll have to check it out,' the president added. DailyMail.com asked Anthony Fauci, one of the medical experts in Trump's coronavirus taskforce, what the medicine said about Lupus patients and whether they have higher or lower rates of coronavirus. Fauci also attended Saturday's White House press briefing. 'Right now this is being looked at in a natural history study, we don't have any definitive information to be able to make any comment on that,' Fauci replied. 'It's an obvious good question because it might be a way for us to get some interesting and potentially important data to the role of those medications,' the doctor added. Trump then took back the podium to tout the drug's worth again. 'I'll tell you waht. What do you have to lose? We have it stockpiled and we have a lot of it. We're getting more of it,' he said. Earlier in the briefing he said he talked to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about getting more of the drug imported to the U.S. from India. 'I've seen some results,' the president added. 'They should look into the Lupus thing. I don't know what it says. There's a rumor out there because it takes care of Lupus very effectively,' Trump said. Besides Fauci saying there was no data yet on the issue, the Lupus Foundation of America also warned its membership that they were at higher risk of infections like the coronavirus. Hydroxychloroquine itself can't be used by all Americans. It has a laundry list of side effects including slowing the heartbeat, arm, leg and back pain, symptoms of heart failure, hair loss, worsening of skin conditions, stomach and abdominal pain. The mental health side effects alone include anxiety, depression, rare thoughts of suicide and hallucinations. When the coronavirus shut down Ridgewood High School and schools across New Jersey, sisters Lili and Jane Weissberg were confined to their homes, using virtual learning to replace their school days. Outside of their online lessons, the two wanted to do something to help people on the frontline against the pandemic. So they started making bracelets. Lili, a junior, and Jane, a freshman, used those bracelets to launch Stringing Together Ridgewood in order to raise money to purchase meals and supplies for healthcare workers at The Valley Hospital in the Bergen County town. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage As orders started to pile up, the team of two expanded to 16 Ridgewood girls making the bracelets, and the group has raised more than $1,000 so far toward purchasing food and equipment. Obviously, everythings not great, but its really good to know that were doing something thats going to help, Lili Weissberg said. Even if its just small, it just feels really good that were using our time instead of just sitting on the couch all day on our phones, watching Netflix. Were doing something good for our community. And I think along with helping healthcare workers, its really brought our community together. Photo courtesy of Lili Weissberg Both sisters attended camps for years, where making bracelets became second nature, and they wanted to put that skill toward their charity effort. They launched an Instagram page and shared it among Facebook groups in Bergen County to help grow the cause. A Google Form allows people to order custom bracelets, and the sisters and friends then separately go to work making them. They disinfect all bracelets before shipping, and all donation payments are handled electronically. The girlfriend of the sisters father works at the hospital, and she helped the two connect with the right people to start making donations. The sisters goal is to contribute more money each week. At first we werent really sure about whether we were going to donate to an outside person who had been donating money and buying gloves supplies for the hospital, or if we were going to actually donate it straight to the hospital, Lili Weissberg said. A lot of the money goes to buy meals for the nurses who have been working for a while, and also supplies, masks, gloves and stuff. 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. Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 01:36:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BUDAPEST, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A batch of medical supplies, part of which donated by the Bank of China, has arrived in Budapest from China Saturday, said a press statement by the bank's Hungarian branch on Sunday. The medical supplies include 80,000 surgical masks donated independently by the bank to the Hungarian government, said the statement. It added that the masks will be delivered immediately to Hungary's relevant department. The other medical products in the same shipment are 15,000 KN95 masks, 41,000 surgical masks, and 300 protective suits -- jointly donated by the bank and China's Fudan University, said the statement. Xu Haifeng, CEO of the Bank of China Limited Hungarian Branch, was quoted as saying that the bank firmly supports the Hungarian government's efforts to combat and overcome the pandemic. According to official figures, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Hungary stood at 733 on Sunday, with 66 reported recoveries and 34 fatalities. Flash Across-the-spectrum cooperation, not blame game with ulterior motives, is desperately needed now to prevail over the COVID-19 pandemic that has indiscriminately wreaked havoc throughout the world. Many brilliant minds are fully aware of the importance of global solidarity and international cooperation, especially between the world's two largest economies, in this battle. A group of 100 Chinese academics on Thursday published an open letter to U.S. media, calling on Washington to end the political blame game and work together with Beijing to defeat the virus that has infected over 1 million people worldwide and paralyzed the global economy. "Political bickering does nothing to contribute to the healthy development of Sino-U.S. relations, nor will it help the people of the world to rationally and accurately understand and cope with the pandemic," the letter said, urging cooperation between "two of the great countries on Earth" in order to bring a more positive outcome for all humankind. The world needs such rational and calm voices to truly rise to the occasion. Prominent policy experts on the other side of the Pacific also acknowledged cooperation between the United States and China is essential to save lives in America and around the world. A total of 93 U.S. bipartisan, former high-ranking government officials and experts released a joint statement Friday, stressing that no effort against the coronavirus will be successful without cooperation between the United States and China. Unfortunately, they arrogantly stick to the habit of scapegoating and blaming others, ignoring China's great efforts and sacrifice. The experts repeated in their statement unfounded allegations by some U.S. politicians, accusing China of mishandling the health crisis and turning a blind eye to the fact is that China's quick and decisive response to stem the virus' spread bought the world time and drew praise from the international community. Despite having very little knowledge of the novel coronavirus, China perceived the graveness of the viral outbreak and significance of global cooperation to tackle it from the very beginning. Beijing has been sharing information on coronavirus prevention and control with the world in a timely and transparent manner. It has also provided help to other countries where support and medical supplies are in dire need. In an opinion piece published by the Guardian, Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, said: "under immense pressure, as the epidemic exploded around them, they (Chinese scientists) took time to write up their findings in a foreign language and seek publication in a medical journal thousands of miles away. Their rapid and rigorous work was an urgent warning to the world." However, Washington neglected the alarm raised by China, with some politicians busy with evading responsibilities and finger pointing, which only led to a waste of precious time and to a worse scenario. As of Saturday, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States have topped 278,000, with the death toll surpassing 7,100. The blame game serves neither the interests of the United States nor China's. Such a counterproductive trick needs to stop. China and the United States share far more interests than differences in the battle against their common enemy, the coronavirus. The final victory will only be achieved through global solidarity and cooperation. Bill Gates has called the COVID-19 pandemic a 'nightmare scenario' but said fewer Americans will die than the 240,000 that modeling predicts, if the government is smarter about who and how they test. Gates the founder of Microsoft predicted in a TED talk five years ago that 'microbes not missiles' would be more likely to kill millions of people around the world. Now he has pushed a nationwide shutdown, limited domestic travel and administering more targeted testing to stop the overflow of patients at hospitals unable to cope with the surge in numbers. 'Well, if we do the social distancing properly, we should be able to get out of this with the death number well short of that,' Gates told Fox News Sunday. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Fox News Privacy Policy Bill Gates admitted on Fox News Sunday: 'This is a nightmare scenario because human-to-human transmittal respiratory viruses can grow exponentially' Pictured are the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US since January up until now 'This is a nightmare scenario because human-to-human transmittal respiratory viruses can grow exponentially. And you know, if we had kept on going to work, traveling like we were, you know, that curve would never bend until you had the majority of the people infected and then a massive number seeking hospital care and lots of lots of deaths.' The US is predicted to see its worst day in the coronavirus outbreak in 11 days when more than 2,000 people are expected to die. Gates believes that by obtaining test results within 24 hours, the US will be able to quickly identify those an infected person has come into contact with so they can be isolated and slow the spread. While there are strict international travel restrictions, Gates focused on the importance of domestic boundaries too. 'Well, when you have finite resources you need to allocate them to where there's the most need,' Gates told host Chris Wallace. 'Certainly because people move around the country, we have to have the shutdown or else you'll have exponential growth. It will spread back into other parts of the country.' The outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China in November with the first case in the US January. As early as February, before any lockdowns, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $10million to help fight the virus. President Donald Trump stands in front of a chart labeled Goals of Community Mitigation showing projected deaths in the United States after exposure to coronavirus as 100,000 - 240,000. Pictured during the daily coronavirus response briefing at the White House in Washington on March 31 Bill Gates said: 'If we do the social distancing properly, we should be able to get out of this with the death number well short of that' Gates has criticized the government's delay in taking precautions and serious action after the outbreak. 'Between 2015 and 2020, less than 5 percent of what should have been done was done,' Gates said. During the interview from Microsoft's Skype service, Gates admitted that he wakes up every morning thinking the pandemic is only the subject of his nightmares. But he said compared to a disease like small pox, COVID-19 'isn't the worst case'. 'The one percent mortality rate when your system is not overloaded if that was small pox that would be 30 percent,' he explained. 'So this is super, super bad, but we will eventually get a vaccine. Even before then, if we do the right things we'll be able to open up significant parts of the economy,' he said. 'Once you're in the crisis you're doing your best to deal with this.' He added: 'I'm sure you know, once we get past this, we'll look back, understand what we could have done differently, and make sure that we're not letting it happen again, particularly because it could be even worse in terms of the fatality rate.' Gates is pictured in a 2015 TED talk where he warned about 'microbes' being the enemy in the next pandemic. 'Between 2015 and 2020, less than 5 percent of what should have been done was done,' Gates said Sunday PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-05 22:13:01 Press Information Goldstein Market Intelligence 99 Wall Street ,Suite No- 527, New York, NY 10005 +44 7520 644482 Dennis Abraham Digital Marketing Research +44 7520 644482 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com # 632 Words 99 Wall Street ,Suite No-527, New York, NY 10005+44 7520 644482Digital Marketing Research+44 7520 644482 China Consumer Durables Market Outlook 2017-2025 By Goldstein Market IntelligenceAccording to the Goldstein Market Intelligence report, the next stages of Chinas transition away from economic equilibrium with the United States will likely create volatility in market growth and require conservatism in some areas and bold moves in others.China's economy, despite sizeable challenges such as trade tensions and the unfinished deleveraging campaign, barring a severe correction in the housing markets of major cities, growth in domestic consumption will probably be close to the double digits. , even if there is a shortfall in exports due to trade tensions, this can easily be made up through a measured dose of fiscal stimulus, thus allowing domestic investment to make up for the shortfall in the external sector. The government has stepped up its efforts on the fiscal front already and in 2019 China will probably have a moderate current account deficit.Report is available at:- https://bit.ly/39HhJEj Market dynamic / Drivers & Restraints to Market GrowthChina market is emerging as one of the largest consumers & manufacturer of electronics and electrical engineering due to their population size, economic power, and sophisticated demand.However, We believe that In order to address this problem all recyclers in China should be forced by law to meet the EN treatment standards and report their volumes of treated WEEE under official statistics. Current EU law requires member states to inform the China Commission about the amount of electronics they recycle, export and collect.Request for Sample Report at :- https://bit.ly/3aIyro7 Covered in this China Consumer Durables Market Report areChina Consumer Durables Market Outlook 2030 by Goldstein Market Intelligence contains detailed overview of China Consumer Durables Market in terms of market segmentation by analysis basis, therapy type and geography. The Report highlights the competitive outlook of major global players that includes the business strategies, product portfolio, revenue distribution, financial analysis, R&D activities, and investments. The in-depth analysis of China Consumer Durables Market report will help the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space.Major players covered in this China Consumer Durables Market report are:Legend HoldingsHuawei Investment & Holding Co. Ltd.Hangzhou Robam AppliancesSuofeiya Home CollectionSonySamsungLG DurablesPanasonicKoninklijke Philips N.V.Haier Consumer Durables GroupLogitech InternationalOnida DurablesToshibaVideoconHitachiHisenseTCLBlue StarDaikinFurther, China Consumer Durables Market Report encompasses the major trends & opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors of the market. China Consumer Durables Market outlook also comprises of key challenges, risk analysis, BPS analysis, SWOT Analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also highlights the expert analysis to provide a complete overview of the market including the PESTLE analysis of each region and country.About Goldstein Market IntelligenceBased in the US, Goldstein Market Intelligence currently has a strong presence in the American and Asian countries. In the next five years, we strive to expand our reach to 50+ nations spanning across Europe, Asia and parts of the Middle East and Africa.Goldstein Market Intelligence helping businesses to be successful at strategy and take informed decisions to grow the business in future. Goldstein Market Intelligence is one of the leading professional services firms, providing Intelligence Services, Consulting & Advisory and research related services to clients. We, at Goldstein Intelligence Group (GIG) practice works side by side with chief executives and their teams to create effective strategies and secure alignment across the organisation. Goldstein Intelligence Group (GIG), a network of worldwide professional services firms, as a leading group with a strong commitment to establishing itself as a truly global-minded professional firm that can provide professional services across the world.Contact for more Info:Dennis Abraham(Global Sales Head)UK: +44 7520 644482Email Us :- dennis.abraham@goldsteinresearch.com The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the finance ministry may take up the issue of relaxation in the delinquency period for the classification of banks non-performing assets (NPAs) to 180 days, from the current 90 days. The rescheduling of accounts classified as overdue, stressed or NPAs as of December 2019 without being downgraded, and fresh funding (with a minimum repayment period of 18 to 24 months) is to be considered. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, April 6 2020 Following a decision to cancel the national exam for elementary and high school students because of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joko Jokowi Widodo has instructed the Education and Culture Ministry to seize the opportunity to overhaul the national evaluation system for primary and secondary education. Jokowi said that, while the latest report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that Indonesias education system had become more inclusive in the past 18 years, it also showed that Indonesian students scored poorly in science, reading and mathematics. The report that I received showed that [Indonesias] PISA score average in 2018 has decreased in three areas of competence, with the greatest decrease in literacy, Jokowi said in a videoconference with Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim on Friday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login By PTI MUMBAI: Two employees of Mumbai's civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) who were quarantined at a civic hospital ran away from the facility blaming inadequate services and food on Sunday, an official said. He said the duo were put into quarantine at VN Desai Municipal Hospital in suburban Santacruz after they came into contact with a person, who later died of COVID-19. "The two employees have run away claiming that they were not getting enough food and other facilities," he said. ALSO READ| Maharashtra: BJP MLA Dadarao Keche defies coronavirus lockdown, invites people for his birthday Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said she would look into the issue. The mayor visited the hospital on Sunday afternoon, a day after staffers held a protest lleging lack of sufficient equipment, material and food. "The entire staff in the hospital on Saturday suspended the work over the issue. They resumed work only after getting an assurance from officials of the BMC," said a staff member. Meanwhile, Pednekar said at least 17 staffers were suspected to have exposed to the patient who died due to coronavirus. At present, none of them have shown any symptoms and have been put under quarantine for 14 days beginning Friday. When asked about the two staffers fleeing the hospital, she said the BMC is hopeful of tracing them. With 29 fresh cases on Sunday, Mumbai's COVID-19 count now stands at 406. Legendary humour merchant, Ali Baba has disclaimed controversial ex-lawmaker, Dino Melaye as being a comedian. It all started with Kayode Ogundamisi, a popular political commentator sharing a clip of the former lawmaker making claims that 5g network is responsible for coronavirus. Sharing the video, the popular commentator described the former lawmaker as a famous Nigerian comedian. Read Also: COVID-19: I Hope Ignorance Will Not Kill Africans Comedian Ali Baba In a swift reaction, Ali Baba replied by saying he is not one of them. He wrote: He is not one of us we take beg God you New South Wales' top cop says the seriousness of COVID-19 is somehow yet to sink in among residents in some of country's richest suburbs. Manly Beach was finally closed by local authorities on Sunday after a second straight weekend where thousands of locals flocked to the beach, putting sunny skies ahead of the coronavirus threat. Its closure came eight days after all beaches in Sydney's eastern suburbs - including Bondi and Coogee - were shut off to the public. Sydney's south-east has 580 confirmed cases, while the northern beaches have 468, ranking them the worst two districts in Australia. Asked about people in these areas who continued to go to the beach until they were forced to shut, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the 'she'll be right attitude' needed to change. New South Wales' top cop says the seriousness of COVID-19 is somehow yet to sink in among residents in some of country's richest suburbs such as Manly (pictured) where thousands of people were out and about on Sunday morning People were seen ignoring social distancing laws introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The northern beaches of Sydney - of which Manly is the focal point - has the second most number of cases of coronavirus in NSW Authorities were finally forced to close Manly Beach on Sunday afternoon, despite similarly popular beaches in Sydney's eastern suburbs - another COVID-19 hotspot - being shut down last weekend 'I think the Australian culture is everything will be all right, it's a nice sunny day and I am going to see it out at the beach,' Commissioner Fuller said. 'I think because the mortality rate hasn't been like overseas because we've managed it so well, I think there's still a relaxation in some people. 'We have done such a great job, but we still have winter coming and I think it is going to be one of our biggest challenges. 'We know the temperatures, we know what's going to be a hot day - local governments need to get out early (and shut beaches).' Despite the strict crackdown on non-essential public gatherings being in place since last Sunday, people continued to flaunt the rules over the weekend. Incredible photos from Manly showed people stopping to talk and chat in groups of more than two as they walked along the beach. The brazen disregard for COVID-19 measures comes despite four coronavirus deaths in NSW on Saturday, all men aged 61, 76, 80 and 91. Three of the men were passengers on the doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship. NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller (pictured) said the 'she'll be right attitude' needed to change Beachgoers continued to put sunny skies ahead of the coronavirus threat on Sunday (pictured) despite news that four more people had died from the virus on Saturday There are more than 5,600 confirmed coronavirus cases in Australia, with a total of 34 deaths Also on Sunday, Commissioner Fuller announced a full criminal investigation into the handling of the Ruby Princess debacle. 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 A total of 622 passengers on board the cruise liner, which docked in Sydney Harbour under the cover of darkness on March 19, have tested positive for COVID-19 - among them 342 NSW residents. The deaths of three passengers on Saturday sees the cruise ship total rise to 10. Mr Fuller said it was 'too early to tell' whether a crime was committed, but said there was 'no doubt' coronavirus was brought off the ship. 'The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation,' Mr Fuller said. 'From my perspective, there are many unanswered questions, and I certainly can't answer those for you today.' NSW Police homicide squad boss Jason Dickinson will lead the investigation and the state coroner will be notified. MIDDLETOWN March has turned to April in Middlesex County and across our great nation. These continue to be tough times for the business community and for the community at large as we all grapple with the fallout from the Covid-19 situation. I continue to be very inspired and proud of the efforts of my chamber team, and by the strong and continued leadership of our public officials during this crisis. From our local leaders on the municipal level in Middlesex County, to our governor and legislative delegation at the state level, and to our partners at the federal level, everyone is stepping up to do whatever they can to be a constructive partner during this difficult period. I am also very proud of the resilience and the faith being shown by our membership at this time. While everyone is impacted in some way, we are seeing countless examples of individuals stepping up and offering help of some kind, in some way, and we are seeing it every day. We are so grateful for the efforts of Vin Capece and his amazing team at Middlesex Health. They, along with our first responders, are true professionals, and they are doing remarkable work on the front lines of this crisis in our region. The outstanding staff at the chamber continues to provide top- level service to our membership at a time when it is needed the most. The chamber remains operational, and has transitioned to video conference meetings for the near future. Last week featured well-run and productive meetings of our Portland and East Hampton Division, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, Central Business Bureau, and Chester, Deep River and Essex Division. I appreciate all of the support of our members who are jumping onto these important online meetings and calls. On Wednesday afternoon, we were honored to be joined for a special Zoom meeting with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who did a great job breaking down the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, better known as the CARES Act, and he provided some important insight for our members into which programs might be most appropriate for them and for their industry sector. I very much appreciate the fact that he took the time out to visit with our members during this tough time for all of us. The senators staff recorded the conversation and has sent it to our staff. It is available on the chamber website if you are interested. The meeting was led by our Chairman Don DeVivo and Legislative Committee Co-Chairman Rich Carella, who both did an excellent job steering the conversation. The chamber is holding another Zoom meeting Monday with U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney, who represents Connecticuts 2nd congressional district. We plan to follow the same format as the meeting with Sen. Blumenthal, and look forward to another productive discussion for the benefit of our members. I also thank Congressman Courtney for his willingness to join us, and for staying in constant touch with our team. Sticking with the Zoom theme for a moment, a very productive webinar was held last Friday afternoon featuring Jim Jackson, CT Small Business Development counselor, who went over in detail the many small business relief options that are available through the U.S. Small Business Administration. He was able to cut through some of the confusion and answered important questions about the difference between disaster loans, PPP Loans, EIDL, how to access relief if you are an existing SBA borrower, how to access professional business counseling during this crisis, and best practices for the application process. Jim is an excellent resource that we are fortunate to have in Middlesex County, and I appreciate his continued hard work in support of his clients and of the entire business community in our region. This week is sure to be another busy one for the chamber team and for our membership. It kicks off on Monday with a Zoom Executive Committee meeting led by our Chairman Don DeVivo. The Executive Committee features a variety of business and community leaders from a number of industry sectors. This meeting will feature an update from key chamber members and staff, along with a breakdown of our efforts to support the business community through this crisis. We look forward another productive meeting, and I thank our members for hanging in there with us. The second installment of the chambers new Tuesday Tips campaign is coming up this week. It provides critical information from the legal community via informative webinars. This weeks session on the CARES Act will be led by retired judge Robert Holzberg, and three of his partners from Pullman and Comley. The CARES Act in Bite Size Portions will focus on providing practical answers to the three most frequently asked questions about the federal package: Is my business eligible for assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program? What does my business need to know about unemployment and family leave policies? What are my obligations to workers who have Covid-19 or whose family members are sick? Tuesday Tips will alternate on a weekly basis between Pullman and Comley and Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, two outstanding members of ours from the legal field. We are grateful to both firms for their support of this initiative, and of our chamber. This week features also virtual meetings of our LEAD CT Steering Committee, Durham and Middlefield Division, Cromwell Division, Health Care Council Steering Committee, and Real Estate Council. The chamber will continue to deliver for our members, and we will all get through this together. I continue to urge our members to hang in there, and to lean on the chamber and other resources available to you, or will become available to you in the coming days. Just a reminder that if you visit the chambers website, you can access the Coronavirus Tool Kit, which includes a survey which will help us help you, along with a number of resources which we will be updating on a regular basis as more information becomes available. We have also created a social media campaign which allows our members to share the creative ideas they are employing to stay operational and helpful to their fellow community members during this period. Please connect with the chambers Shout It Out! campaign, and let us know what you are up to. This is a tough time for all industry sectors, but particularly for our area restaurants, many of whom are staying open for takeout orders. The chamber website has a section dedicated to promoting the restaurants that are open for business at this time. This information is also available through our social media platforms. Please support them if you are able to do so safely. It is also a good time, if you are able, to support the local business community through the purchase of gift cards. All businesses, large and small, are part of the fabric of this community. It is time to come together to support each other so we can weather this storm and come back strong. If you need anything at all, please contact the chamber office for support. Thank you, and be well. The sun always shines in Middlesex County! For information, visit middlesexchamber.com. Larry McHugh is president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce in Middletown. The most interesting one is mounted on the wall in the living room. This clock five feet tall and about 20 inches wide was made in the late 19th century by the E. Howard Clock Co. of Boston. A tarnished brass plaque visible through the glass door on the front boasts of the various patents the company held and describes the timepiece as an Electric Watch Clock. [April 04, 2020] Womply Registered as Loan Agent for SBA Paycheck Protection Program to Help Dying Small Businesses Get Stimulus Cash Fast Womply, a software and API company serving small businesses and app developers, today announced that it is helping American small businesses get faster access to Paycheck Protection Program loans as a verified loan agent for multiple SBA 7(a) lenders. Womply is working with banks and financial institutions approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration to make forgivable PPP loans. As a loan agent with formal relationships with approved PPP lenders, Womply helps small businesses get a jumpstart on their PPP loan application, collect the required documentation, and save their place in line with SBA-approved lenders. Womply is also helping other technology and service companies that serve small businesses streamline the PPP application process for their merchant customers. For more information, reach out to [email protected]. "Millions of small businesses are on the brink of death and need urgent access to capital," says Womply Founder and CEO Toby Scammell. "Many of these businesses have days, not weeks, before they will never be able to reopen. To help avoid a mass extinction event among small businesses, we're dedicating all our resources to help them access capital immediately." In late March, the federal government approved $349 billion in emergency funding for small businesses through the PPP provision of the $2 trillion CARES Act for economic relief from the COVID-19 outbreak. The PPP enables private lenders, approved by the SBA, to facilitate these forgivable loans to small businesses. To expedite payment, Womply has partnered with approved lenders to streamline the pre-lending processes so small businesses can reduce the time required to get cash in hand. Womply serves more than 450,000 small businesses and has been facilitating the pre-lending process on behalf of other private technology companies that serve millions of small businesses. Smal businesses have faced outsized financial challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the U.S. economy to an unprecedented slowdown. According to Womply analysis, small business revenue has seen a steep and sustained decline since COVID-19 pressures came to a head in the U.S. in mid-March, with potentially millions of businesses effectively shutting down as transaction volume completely dries up amid stay-at-home orders to flatten the coronavirus curve. "We've never seen an economic situation like this before, and small businesses that make up half of the U.S. economy are exposed more than any other sector of the economy," Scammell says. "The PPP loan initiative is a vital first step to stabilizing these businesses, and our goal is to make the process as fast, efficient, and effective as possible. We are not a lender, but we can connect small businesses to lenders faster than anyone. Time is of the essence for millions of businesses at imminent risk of dying." In addition to connecting small businesses directly to approved PPP lenders, Womply has been reviewing all federal guidance on the program and helping small businesses make sense of it. If you run a business, you can review a detailed FAQ on the PPP program, see which documents your lender will likely need, and apply for a PPP loan right away. Womply's dedicated support team is also standing by to help. About Womply Womply's mission is to help small businesses thrive in a digital world. Founded in 2011, Womply is the leading provider of data and software to local businesses and the top software partner to the payments industry. Our AI-powered data platform powers our CRM and marketing software, which serves more than 450,000 small businesses in every corner of America. In addition, Womply's data platform helps innovative developers create more powerful software for businesses and consumers alike. To learn more, visit www.womply.com or email [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200404005009/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Trend Azerbaijans State Oil Company SOCAR is not highly dependent on international crude oil prices, since the bulk of the oil produced directly by SOCAR is refined and sold domestically at an internal tariff, Ibrahim Ahmadov, Deputy Head of the public relations and events department at SOCAR, told Trend. I expected that the countries cooperating in the format of OPEC+ would return to the negotiating table sooner or later, since a strong decline in oil prices in the long run does not reflect the interests of these countries, whose economy is largely associated with oil revenues. It was not clear how soon this would happen, said Ahmadov. He added that two scenarios shown up in this case. In the first scenario, the leading producers of conventional oil could continue to increase production for several more months, or to maximally weaken the market position of the shale oil until the end of 2020 as much as possible. The second scenario could accelerate the start of negotiations, which implied a wider format of cooperation. When I suggested a few weeks ago that OPEC+ could hope for other countries to join the process of regulating oil production and oil prices, this hypothesis was hard to believe, he said. However, as we see, in the context of the aggravating economic crisis amid the pandemic, the US actively joined the diplomatic process, which prompted OPEC+ to resume negotiations now, Ahmadov noted. Now experts are discussing a scenario, in which, countries that still not participating in the OPEC+ format could also contribute to the total reduction in world oil production in order to jointly regulate prices, he stressed. The reduction in production by 10-15 million barrels per day is probably implied not only by Saudi Arabia and Russia, but also by connecting other major oil producing countries to quotas. So, those producing companies whose existence has been in question due to the current level of oil prices, may possibly continue operation by joining the international cooperation in one or another format, Ahmadov added. He stressed that SOCARs position is to support all the undertakings of the Azerbaijani government aimed at stabilizing and growing the country's economy. As a rule, short-term swings in the international market do not affect the stability of the country's economy, and there is reason to believe that the current situation in the markets can change for the better either in the short or medium term, Ahmadov concluded. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz New Delhi, April 5 : Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued an advisory for carrying out antibody testing for all symptomatic individuals in coronavirus hotspots in the country. Rapid antibody testing ensures speedy detection of viral cases and normally takes around 15-30 minutes to give the result. The test is approved by the United States Food and Drugs Association and validated by Indian Council of Medical Research - National Institute of Virology, with marketing approval by the Drug Controller General of India. "As a matter of abundant precaution, all symptomatic ILI (influenza-like illness) are to be monitored in health facilities. Any surge in cases to be monitored and brought to the notice of the surveillance officer or CMO for additional investigation," the advisory said. According to the guidelines, district health authorities would monitor people showing symptoms of cough, cold, low grade fever or sore throat and each of them would be advised 14 days home quarantine. If the antibody test comes positive, the patients must be admitted to the hospital. "After clinical assessment, treatment in hospital or isolation as per protocol to be initiated for contact tracing," the advisory said. If the test comes negative in symptomatic patients, Real Time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests can be carried out, if warranted. If it comes out positive, then the patient has to be isolated and admitted in the hospital for further treatment. PCR tests detect novel coronavirus from throat or nasal swab samples of people with symptoms. It takes about five hours for the results to come out. "If the PCR test is not done, home quarantine and repeat antibody testing after 10 days of the last rapid antibody test will be done," it added. The government on Sunday directed all district officials to ensure that pharma units making devices and medicines run seamlessly, a day after India imposed curbs on exports of most diagnostic kits, as the Health Ministry assured that there was no evidence that COVID-19 was an airborne infection. Also Sunday, eight Malaysian citizens who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin here were caught by immigration authorities at the IGI Airport while trying to flee the country on a special flight arranged for the stranded travellers. They had emerged fro hiding in the Delhi-NCR region and made their way to the airport to try and get on a special flight arranged by the Malaysian High Commission for their citizens stranded in India. The Union Health Ministry reported 11 more COVID-19 deaths, taking the toll to 79, and nationwide tally of confirmed cases to 3,374 with 472 new patients being recorded in the last 24 hours. However, a PTI tally based on figures reported by states directly showed at least 106 deaths, while the number of confirmed cases had reached 3,624. Of the total, 284 have been cured and discharged. Asserting that there was no evidence that coronavirus was airborne, the health ministry also said the rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days currently, but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days. "If it was an airborne infection then in a family -- whoever has a contact -- they all should come positive because they are living in same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in hospital, other patient would have got exposure (if it was air borne) but that is not the case, an official of the Indian Council of Medical Research said. Unsure of what turn the COVID-19 pandemic will take in India, various key ministries and departments have cautiously started to chalk out re-emergence plans and strategies to come out of the 21-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Globally, the pandemic has claimed more than 65,600 lives gand inflicted over 12 lakh people The focus of the Central and state governments currently appeared to be on two key aspects ---continuing with efforts on a war footing to contain the fast-spreading virus, and working on exit and staggered re-emergence from the lockdown. During his interaction with chief ministers last week through video conferencing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pitched for formulating a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ended. While making it clear that a decision on how and when to restore passenger services will be taken in coming weeks, sources in the Indian Railway said several proposals were being looked at as it was gearing up for the end of the lockdown on April 14. From making passengers wear masks to using the Arogya Setu app to check their health status before allowing them to travel and encouraging social distancing on board are a few proposals that are being looked at, sources said. With all schools and other educational institutes closed in the country due to the coronavirus lockdown, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said the government will take a decision on reopening of schools and colleges on April 14 after reviewing the situation. In an interview to PTI, he said the safety of students and teachers is of utmost importance to the government and his ministry is prepared to ensure there is no academic loss to students if schools and colleges needed to remain shut beyond April 14. In continued efforts to fight the virus, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba instructed district level officials to ensure that pharma units making devices and medicines run seamlessly. The direction came a day after India put curbs on exports of diagnostic kits with a view to discourage shipments and meet domestic requirement. Gauba met Sunday with district magistrates, superintendents of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries and district health secretaries and chief secretaries, Joint Secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said. There were 472 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths since Saturday, Agarwal said, adding the total coronavirus cases stand at 3,374 and the death toll now stands at 79. He said 267 people have recovered. There has been a lag in the Union health ministry figures, compared to the numbers announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. As per the Union health ministry, there were 3,030 active cases on Sunday as compared to Saturday's tally of 2784. Meanwhile, the prime minister spoke to several leaders, including his predecessor Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former president Pranab Mukherjee, on the situation arising out of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Sources said Modi also called up various leaders, including Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, DMK's M K Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal. Modi spoke to former president Pratibha Patil and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda to discuss issues related to the deadly COVID-19 (coronavirus disease). The prime minister will also interact with floor leaders of various political parties via video conference on Wednesday. With a rise in number of coronavirus cases in the national capital, Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has directed the health department to identify private hospitals which can be taken over by the government, official sources said on Sunday. They said the government has limited resources and hence ICU wards, beds and other facilities of private hospitals can be used to deal with the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases. Officials have been asked to prepare a list of private hospitals that can be taken over if needed. "In a recent meeting, the LG directed officials to prepare a list of private hospitals which can be taken over by government in case a need arises and their infrastructure can be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The government will provide treatment to coronavirus patients admitted at these hospitals," a source said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Manish Anand By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Aiming to plug all communication gaps as the country is facing its gravest challenge in decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reached out to former Presidents of India and leaders of various political parties, including a rare outreach to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Since the coronavirus pandemic has created a national crisis, Modi appears to be keen that the country puts up a united fight against the pandemic. Sources said he spoke to former Presidents Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee and then reached out to his predecessors Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda. The PM also spoke to Sonia Gandhi (Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool), Navin Patnaik (BJD), K Chandrashekar Rao (TRS), Edappadi K Palaniswami (AIADMK), M K Stalin (DMK), Parkash Singh Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal), said a senior government official. COVID-19 LIVE | India 'turns-off' light to show solidarity in fight against coronavirus Deve Gowda claimed the PM sought his support during the phone call. As a former prime minister, I agreed to cooperate in the fight against #Coronavirus that has devastated not only our country but also the whole world, he tweeted.Hon PM @narendramodi invited me over phone to participate in the all-party meeting on April 8 on behalf of the AIADMK, the TN chief minister later tweeted. ALSO READ: Early data shows why coronavirus death rates differ across Indian states While officials termed the outreach to Sonia as a first of its kind under such circumstances, sources said Modi is keen that all political parties make a bipartisan effort to deal with the situation. The PM has been clear from the beginning that communication is the key to containing the virus. That was why he reached out to SAARC countries despite knowing that Pakistan will misuse the forum. The next few days are going to be crucial for which he has sought wider consultations, said another senior official. The Congress has been unsparing in its attack on Modi for allegedly not taking timely action during the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. While Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram kept up a barrage of criticism, Sonia Gandhi accused the government of going in for an unplanned lockdown. Officials recalled that previously, former Union minister Arun Jaitely used to speak to Sonia at times of Parliamentary gridlock. This is no time for politics. Barring a few, most of the political parties are focused on meeting the challenges. The PM is listening to all. There must be a national response to Covid-19, said a senior BJP functionary. There have been 10 cases of the novel coronavirus linked to the Wyoming Behavioral Institute as of Thursday night, a Natrona County health official said. The number of cases associated with the facility has more than doubled in short order; an official with WBI told the Star-Tribune on Wednesday that the facility had four cases, three of which were adult patients and the fourth was a staff member. The 10 cases confirmed Friday are five patients and five staff members. In a Friday press conference, Casper-Natrona County Health Department spokeswoman Hailey Bloom provided details on several of the WBI-linked cases. The patients there include two females in their 50s; a male in his 20s; two males, whose ages werent described; two females in their 20s; and a female in her 40s. The patients are in strict isolation, Emily Quarterman-Genoff, WBIs head of business development, said in an email. We have followed the Health Departments treatment and notification requirements. The staff members are at home under strict isolation. We have reduced hospital capacity to ensure everyones well-being, creating isolation areas while still being able to meet the needs of those in crisis. The 10 patients make up nearly 50 percent of the 21 confirmed coronavirus cases in Natrona County, a count most recently updated Friday evening. Dr. Mark Dowell, an infectious disease expert and Natrona Countys health officer, called the situation at WBI very significant and said it was an example of the danger of people who have no symptoms exposing others to the respiratory disease thats sickened at least 166 Wyomingites as of Friday. Its an example of asymptomatic shedding, he said, adding that the spread of the disease there was not the fault of anyone at WBI. You can be spewing virus for up to two or three days before you become ill, and thats what we think happened there. WBI and other county officials declined to offer any specificity on the number of cases there Thursday. Bloom said that officials believe there are three distinct clusters in Natrona County: one linked to domestic travel, another to international travel and the third to WBI. She declined Thursday to say how many patients were in each cluster and said that information would be provided later. The hospital previously said it was testing patients frequently and many were negative. Dowell said the facility was a high priority for testing, which has been rationed to only high-risk populations. Dowell said its unclear how much of WBIs facility was exposed to the virus. According to state data, the hospital has 90 inpatient beds. The hospital says it has 85 beds. WBI doesnt treat only patients from Natrona County, nor can it discharge all of its patients because they may have mental health issues that make them a danger to themselves. Its a tricky situation because they take people from all over the state, and they take patients that are not safe at home with psychiatric issues or substance abuse, Dowell said. Were trying to find what you can do to discharge. Some of them are not safe to be discharged, they have nowhere to go or theyre a suicide risk. He added that the number of patients tied to WBI could increase. It might, sure, he said. Health officials have warned that the worst place for the virus to spread is within long-term facilities and hospitals, where people are in close quarters and where health care workers and those with chronic health conditions are susceptible to infection. WBI is the second-known cluster within a health care facility in Wyoming. The first, at a Lander assisted-living facility, led to one of the worst outbreaks here. Only in recent days has the case total there been surpassed by cases in Cheyenne and Teton counties. But health officials in Fremont County say that hundreds of patients with symptoms have been directed to self-isolate and assume theyre sick. Photos: Casper copes with COVID-19 Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Five Army personnel and as many militants were killed in a fierce gun battle between the forces and a terrorist group that had infiltrated from across the Line of Control in Keran sector of north Kashmir, officials said here on Sunday night. A Srinagar-based defence spokesman had earlier said that three Army personnel had fallen to the bullets of the militants in the higher reaches of Keran, which falls under Kupwara district. However, later, the officials said that the number of soldiers killed in the gun battle was five and an equal number of terrorists had been killed in the operation which had been going since the intervening night of April 3 and 4. The terrorists are believed to have entered the Indian territory from Shamsabari range and were hiding in 'Gujjar Dhok' (temporary shelter for nomads) in the Poswal area of the sector, they said. Earlier the defence spokesman had said that "in an ongoing anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of north Kashmir, alert troops braving inclement weather and hostile terrain have so far eliminated five terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the LoC." "Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," he said, adding the operation was still in progress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CLEVELAND, Ohio A man was found dead Sunday morning in the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland police said. The mans body was discovered in the water before 9 a.m. He was located near the West Bank of the Flats, near Shooters on the Water, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said. The mans identity has not been confirmed or released by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office. No additional information about the discovery was available Sunday afternoon. This post will be updated if more details are provided. More crime stories: Maple Heights police search for man accused of opening fire into home U.S. attorney general says officials must prioritize releasing inmates at federal prison in Ohio due to coronavirus outbreak Cleveland man claimed he had coronavirus and spit on medic at MetroHealth, police say Almost every day over the last few weeks, the words of William B. Travis at the Alamo keep popping into my mind: I now want every man who is determined to stay here and die with me to come across this line. Our producers in the Permian Basin are under attack. That is not hyperbole. We are in a price war with the Russians and the Saudis. That price war may have begun with them. The focus of that war, however, is now with U.S. producers, and in particular with, Permian Basin producers. That point is abundantly clear from all recent reports. It is not our first fight with foreign producers. Some remember the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Many remember the 1980s oil price collapse. All of us remember the 2014-2015 price war. We won, but as with any war, there was destruction. What makes this one different is that we are also fighting an invisible enemy, the coronavirus. It has shut down economies and destroyed the demand for oil. The impact on Permian Basin and nationwide employment will be devastating. On March 27, the U.S. Department of Labor released weekly unemployment insurance claims data for the week ending March 21. Nationally, new jobless claims leaped more than 3 million the largest weekly increase in history. In Texas, new claims rose from 16,176 to 155,657. And, unfortunately, if we dont take serious action to fight an unprecedented threat, this will only be the beginning of our economic challenges. While the first wave has resulted in a dramatic price change for production, the next wave in this battle is going to be storage. The pipelines began sending letters to producers last week to cut production because they have no place to store the oil. As Travis sent letters for help, you should know the Permian Basin Petroleum Association has been calling upon our elected officials, including the White House and the governors of New Mexico and Texas, for reinforcements. Unlike Travis, we are getting help. You should know that Congressman Jody Arrington (R-Lubbock) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have become the leaders in responding to those calls. You should know several other members of the Texas delegation have responded, as well. We greatly appreciate those efforts. We are not asking for a bailout. Our free-market principles make that a bridge too far. The stimulus bill proves that point. We appreciate the Small Business Administration loan program which was included. We hope people make appropriate use of the programs availability. Here are some of the asks that we have made: --Use the full force of the United States of America to demand that the Russians and the Saudis stop their flood of cheap, government-subsidized oil into the world markets. We are working hard to explain the need for President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to aggressively intervene to protect domestic producers and that they have tools in their toolbox --ranging from tariffs, import licenses and other trade restrictions to investigations, safeguard actions and sanctions -- to protect domestic producers. --Fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with domestically produced oil. Please do not fill it from the world oil market with foreign-produced oil. --Remove the tariffs on steel used to produce domestic oil. Permian Producers are price takers. All we control are costs. A 25 percent tariff on the steel we use is a cost now and especially when we begin to come out of this war. We received partial relief here last week when President Trump lifted all tariffs for three months. Unlike Travis, we will win this war. That is not to say there wont be any casualties. The United States is the No. 1 producer in the world because of the technology, innovation and hard work of Permian Basin producers. We, as producers, the state and the country, must do all that we can to protect our ability to produce domestic oil. We understand that low gasoline prices are a bright spot in the current economy, but we also understand if we lose this war, then gasoline prices will go up and we all will be subject to another Arab/Russia oil embargo. The future of the domestic oil and gas industry, thousands of jobs and the recovery of the United States economy are at stake here. We need help, and we need it now. Ben Shepperd is president of Permian Basin Petroleum Association. Indian Army said on Sunday (April 5) that a total of nine terrorists have been eliminated in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir by security forces in the last 24 hours. According to army, the terrorists were killed in two separate operations. One soldier got martyred and two suffered serious injuries during the operation and were evacuated to 92 BH amidst heavy snow and rough terrain conditions. Op Rangdori Behak (Kupwara). Five terrorists eliminated, Total NINE TERRORISTS eliminated in last 24 hours in two separate operations. One soldier martyred & two seriously injured, and being evacuated to 92 BH amidst heavy snow & rough terrain conditions. Operation in progress. Chinar Corps - Indian Army (@ChinarcorpsIA) April 5, 2020 Five terrorists were killed on Sunday during an anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of North Kashmir. The terrorists were killed when they were trying to infiltrate across the Line of Control (LOC) by taking advantage of the bad weather. On Saturday (April 4), four terrorists were killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district. The encounter ensued at Khur Batpora village near Damhal Hanji Pora of Kulgam district in the early hours of Saturday morning at 5.45 am. The troops of the 18 battalion of CRPF, SOG of JKP and 9 Rashtriya Rifles were conducting a cordon and search operation in the area when they made contact with the terrorists affilated with Hizbul Mujahideen. After a brief encounter all four terrorists were killed. The terrorists had reportedly killing civilians over the last 12 days, four such killings took place in South Kashmir. The police was successful in tracking them down and an operation was launched this morning by Police, Special Forces and the Army in which all four of them have been neutralized. (CNN) A priest in the Lombardy region of Italy has been celebrating mass in an empty church, except for photographs of parishioners he has taped to the pews. Don Giuseppe Corbari told CNN that the idea of having pictures of his faithful came to him because we've started holding masses without the faithful since February 24. He said he found delivering mass to empty pews was difficult at the beginning. I felt isolated, it didn't seem real to me, Corbari said. Corbari said when he thought to ask parish members to send him their pictures, he didnt expect the response he got. I didn't expect such a collaborative reaction. I was inundated by pictures, and I printed them. ...now I see that other parishes, even around the world, are doing similar things," he said. So far, the church, Santi Quirico e Giulitta a Robbiano di Giussano, has been broadcasting mass over the radio but it plans to start live streaming soon. This story was first published on CNN.com. "Italian priest celebrates mass with photos of parishioners who can't attend due to quarantine." Crew Las Vegas Donates Monies to Support 702 Prep Providing Food to First Responders The Commercial Real Estate Women of Las Vegas, CREW-LV, a chapter of the national CREW Network, donated $500 to support the efforts of 702 prep and their Hospital Medical Workers Relief Fund. They are feeding our first responders at local #SouthernNevada hospitals and our donation sponsored 50 meals! 702 Prep, is a Las Vegas healthy meal prep delivery service to take the work and guessing out of eating healthy. The desire of our CREW Cares Committee is to better our community of Southern Nevada through outreach and charitable donations. With the needs of our community changing daily Im proud of our organizations ability to switch gears and help where the need is today. Our board jumped through hoops to approve allocating some of the funds for events that have been canceled or postponed and direct them to where they are urgently needed today, says, Wendi Schweigart, Chair of Crew Cares. A chapter of the national CREW Network, is a non-profit organization, consists of 75 CREW chapters within the United States and Canada, with over 9,000 members and growing. CREW-LV is committed to encouraging and expanding opportunities for involvement in networking, education, leadership development and civic philanthropy, for women in all facets of commercial real estate. For more information, visit the website at, www.Crewlv.org When he was 20, studying for a business degree at the University of Aarhus, Peter Muhlmann had to sit an exam. He found himself sitting at a desk with about a hundred other students in the room. You could smell the anxiety, he says. It was so quiet you could hear the scratching of pens on paper. About an hour into the exam he got up and walked out. Then he dropped out of university. I realised that none of it really mattered. It didnt make enough of a difference. So he remained ungraded. The ironic thing is that he then went on to create Trustpilot, the consumer review website, in which everybody can give a grade to anything and everything. When we meet in a cafe (4.5 stars) around the corner from Victoria station, he kindly offers to speak either in Danish or English. I would rate his English as five stars, whereas my dansk is around one star at best, so that was a no-brainer. Muhlmann was born 36 years ago in a small Danish town near the German border. His mother was a nurse and his father was a doctor, and before he dropped out he had been a straight-A student who always did his homework. But at a certain point I got frustrated with writing essays. You spend a lot of time writing it and then someone sticks a mark on it in five minutes. He didnt trust the grading system. Scotlands chief medical officer has apologised for breaking coronavirus lockdown measures to visit her second home in Fife, which first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she was wrong to do. Dr Catherine Calderwood apologised unreservedly and said she would continue to focus on her job in a statement. She added her reasons for visiting her second home were not legitimate reasons to be out of my home and understood she did not follow her own advice. While I and my family followed the guidance on social distancing at all times, I understand that I did not follow the advice I am giving to others, and I am truly sorry for that. I know how important this advice is and I do not want my mistake to distract from that, added Dr Calderwood. I have a job to do as chief medical officer to provide advice to ministers on the path of this virus and to support the medical profession as they work night and day to save lives, and having spoken with the first minister this morning I will continue to focus entirely on that job. The apology comes after The Scottish Sun published photos of Dr Calderwood and her family near a coastal retreat in Earlsferry, more than an hour away from Edinburgh, late on Saturday. Days before, the 51-year-old posted a photo of her family at their main residence in Edinburgh on Twitter, as they joined the rest of the nation in clapping for front line NHS workers. In the daily coronavirus press briefing on Sunday, Ms Sturgeon said: The chief medical officer made a mistake in travelling away from her home. Whatever her reasons for doing so, it was wrong and she knows that. All of us, including me, will make mistakes in these unprecedented times we are living in. When we do we must be candid about it and learn from it. She said Dr Calderwood is learning from her error and has offered to do whatever is in the interests of the country, adding: In my view, that would not be her resignation. Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou Dr Calderwood was visited by local police in Earlsferry and issued a warning about her future conduct, said Police Scotland. Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said in a statement: The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone Individuals must not make personal exemptions bespoke to their own circumstances. It is vital that everyone adhere to these requirements. Police officers and staff are putting themselves in harms way day and night to explain these instructions to our communities, encourage co-operation and, where necessary, enforce them. In a joint statement, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie and Wendy Chamberlain, the MSP and MP respectively for the area where Dr Calderwood has her second home, said: It is difficult to see how the chief medical officer will be able to carry the important messages about the virus and the lockdown if she has not even followed it herself. They added: If we are going to get through this pandemic we need medical leaders who everyone can follow. It is with great regret that we say that the chief medical officer will need to go. Scotlands constitution secretary Mike Russell said there was no doubt Dr Calderwoods visit was ill-advised. The Scottish Government confirmed it was an overnight stay to check on a family home. Mr Russell said she would be answerable for her decision when she appears at the daily coronavirus briefing with Nicola Sturgeon later today. He added: Im saying to everybody... do not go out except in the very exceptional circumstances that are listed, think about these things and remember by breaking them you are risking lives. Scottish Police Federation general secretary Calum Steele said policing the pandemic had been made more difficult and stressed checking on a second home is not one of the reasonable excuses providing an exception to emergency coronavirus legislation. He tweeted: In defending the indefensible has the Scottish Government not just thrown the CMO under the bus? Checking on a 2nd home is not one of the prescribed reasonable excuses. Monica Lennon, MSP for central Scotland, said in a statement on Facebook: As the chief medical officer for Scotland, Catherine Calderwood beams that message into our homes on behalf of the government every single day, however, she has failed to practice what she preaches. Not only is this hypocritical, it is irresponsible and the first minister cannot accept this conduct. Hundreds of Scots have died and there is no sign of the spread of the virus slowing. The CMO has undermined Scotlands pandemic response and if she doesnt offer her resignation the first minister should sack her. Reporting by PA The government has started working out the possible post-lockdown scenarios and is considering another booster shot to minimize the impact of coronavirus and revive the economy but nothing has been finalised yet, senior officials said on Sunday. The focus is on issues that may come up after the lockdown is lifted on April 15, an official said. There have been discussions about a package but nothing has been finalised yet, the official said, adding that the idea is to revive consumption, "so some measures might be needed." If a package is announced, it would be the third major initiative by the government to tackle the challenges thrown up by the rapid spread of coronavirus. On March 24, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a countrywide lockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of relief measures for taxpayers and businesses. 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 Two days later, Sitharaman announced a Rs 1.7-lakh-crore relief package for those hit hardest. On Sunday, the officials said they are also looking at the possibility of redesigning some welfare and other government schemes to suit the post-lockdown situation. Various options are on the table such as scholarships and fellowships given by ministries, harvesting of rabi crops and the government has started to address them one by one, they said. Out of the 10 empowered groups of senior bureaucrats constituted by the prime minister to prepare India's response to COVID-19, one group is tasked to suggest economic measures. An informal group of ministers, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is also looking into various aspects of the lockdown. President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo has strongly condemned the spreading of foreign videos purported to be that of Ghanas security operatives. He said those behind the spreading of such videos will be dealt with when found. Social media was flooded with several videos of security operatives manhandling citizens following the implementation of a partial lockdown in Greater Accra and Kumasi. However, most of these videos have been described as 'fake' by the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF). Speaking to this in his 5th address to the nation, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, President Akufo-Addo said: "I'm extremely perturbed by the actions of a few unpatriotic persons who are deliberately circulating old videos of alleged brutality by members of the security agencies but largely of foreign origin and presenting them as though they were new incidence by Ghanaian security personnelit is sad, unfortunate and must end. There is nothing to be gained in the distribution of such videosWho gains from such conduct? Nobody in their right senses! " 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. Featured Video (Natural News) Berberine is a compound found in various medicinal plants. It is extensively studied by scientists because many of its properties are beneficial to human health. In fact, berberine has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine for centuries. Berberine can be obtained from many sources, such as the Chinese medicinal herb called goldenseal, the tart, red berries of the barberry plant, the roots and stalks of Oregon grape, and the herbaceous shrub known as tree turmeric or Indian barberry. In China, berberine is known as an over-the-counter antibacterial remedy that can relieve diarrhea. However, numerous studies also suggest that berberine can be used for the treatment of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, hyperlipidemia, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. The health benefits of berberine Berberine is a powerful compound that can influence the body at the molecular level. TCM and Ayurveda practitioners believe that it has various modes of action inside the body and can even cause changes within cells. Scientists also credit berberine with having multi-target effects, which allow it to address several diseases with minimal side effects. Here are the many health benefits associated with berberine. It helps treat bacterial infections. Research suggests that the antimicrobial activity of berberine is unique. In a recent study published in Nature, researchers found that berberine not only prevented methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from forming biofilm a process that involves bacterial attachment to a surface and growth it also enhanced the bactericidal activity of antibiotics against MRSA. On its own, berberine can also damage the cell membranes of bacteria and stop them from producing DNA and proteins, which eventually causes their death. It can reduce inflammation. Inflammation has long been linked to chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases and cancer. Hence its reduction is viewed as an important step in disease prevention. According to studies, berberine has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which can neutralize oxidative stress the imbalance between the levels of antioxidants and harmful free radicals, which triggers inflammation. These properties allow berberine to prevent the development of inflammatory diseases. It can help treat diabetes. Besides reducing inflammation, berberine is also known for lowering blood sugar levels. A recent review published in the Endocrine Journal found that berberine treatment for 90 days significantly decreased the fasting blood sugar, postprandial blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels of patients with Type 2 diabetes. Another study, which appeared in the journal Biochemistry and Cell Biology, reported similar results, and noted that berberine is a safe alternative to anti-diabetic drugs for patients with diabetic complications like liver dysfunction, kidney disease and heart disease. It helps lower blood cholesterol levels. Berberines ability to lower blood cholesterol is one of its most notable properties. Iranian researchers confirmed this in a recent study when they reviewed the results of preclinical trials involving berberine. They reported that besides hypolipidemic properties, berberine derived from barberry also has anti-diabetic, anti-obesity and blood pressure-lowering effects. According to Chinese researchers, berberine is able to lower bad (LDL) cholesterol levels by increasing the expression of the LDLR gene. This gene is important for the synthesis of the LDL receptor protein, which increases the clearance of LDL in the liver. This results in a decrease in LDL cholesterol in the blood. It may treat polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a condition marked by high levels of male hormones in women. Described as both a hormonal and metabolic imbalance, PCOS is one of the causes of infertility and obesity in women. Berberine is believed to be effective for the management of PCOS. An evaluation of berberines effects on PCOS patients with insulin resistance showed that it is just as effective as the anti-diabetic drug metformin in alleviating insulin resistance and improving glycolipid metabolism and reproductive endocrine condition. It can fight cancer. According to a recent study, berberine has anti-cancer effects. Researchers from Changchun University of Chinese Medicine in China reported that berberine from the herb known as Chinese goldthread can stop the growth of several types of cancer. These include colorectal cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer and cervical cancer. Berberine is a potent medicinal compound that can be used to treat a variety of health problems. Besides its plant sources, berberine can be found in herbal supplements, which are considered generally safe for consumption. However, to ensure that berberine does not interfere with your current medication, seek professional advice before taking berberine. Sources include: Link.Springer.com Healthline.com MedicalNewsToday.com Nature.com NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov 1 NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov 2 Hindawi.com 1 Hindawi.com 2 JStage.JST.go.jp NRCResearchPress.com Oncotarget.com FrontiersIn.org Several truckers, belonging to the Muslim community, were allegedly beaten up in Arunachal Pradesh, following which they fled to neighbouring Assam, leaving their vehicles behind, officials said on Sunday. The incident, which follows several people across the country testing positive for coronavirus after attending a religious congregation at the Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz (headquarters) in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month, is likely to affect the supply of essential commodities, they said. In a letter to the deputy commissioner, Kurung Kumey district Food and Civil Supply Officer Chukhu Jirjo said the truckers, who unloaded rice at Koloriang, were beaten up by a group of men on Saturday at a place between Sangram and Palin in Kra-Dadi district. Their trucks were also damaged in the attack, following which they left the vehicles behind and fled to Assam, the letter said. Jirjo urged the deputy commissioner to take up the matter with the DCs of Kra-Dadi and Lower Subansiri districts to ensure the safety of truck drivers and their helpers, without which transportation of essential commodities would be affected. Sangha Tagik, the chairman of the Parsi-Parlo-based Tani Taw Multipurpose Cooperative Society and a wholesale dealer of PDS items, alleged that Muslim workers were being chased away, forcing them to flee to Assam. When contacted, Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and Inspector General of Police Chukhu Appa expressed concern over the matter and said the DCs and superintendents of police of the respective districts were asked to take action immediately. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Market forces rained on the parade of China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:144) shareholders today, when the analysts downgraded their forecasts for this year. Revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecasts were both revised downwards, with analysts seeing grey clouds on the horizon. Following the latest downgrade, the current consensus, from the eight analysts covering China Merchants Port Holdings, is for revenues of HK$8.6b in 2020, which would reflect a discernible 3.8% reduction in China Merchants Port Holdings' sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are supposed to crater 56% to HK$1.10 in the same period. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of HK$9.7b and earnings per share (EPS) of HK$1.37 in 2020. Indeed, we can see that the analysts are a lot more bearish about China Merchants Port Holdings' prospects, administering a substantial drop in revenue estimates and slashing their EPS estimates to boot. View our latest analysis for China Merchants Port Holdings SEHK:144 Past and Future Earnings April 5th 2020 The consensus price target fell 9.7% to HK$14.26, with the weaker earnings outlook clearly leading analyst valuation estimates. The consensus price target is just an average of individual analyst targets, so - it could be handy to see how wide the range of underlying estimates is. Currently, the most bullish analyst values China Merchants Port Holdings at HK$16.00 per share, while the most bearish prices it at HK$10.08. There are definitely some different views on the stock, but the range of estimates is not wide enough as to imply that the situation is unforecastable, in our view. 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 sales are expected to reverse, with the forecast 3.8% revenue decline a notable change from historical growth of 3.8% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 6.3% annually for the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear that China Merchants Port Holdings' revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry. Story continues The Bottom Line The biggest issue in the new estimates is that analysts have reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds lay ahead for China Merchants Port Holdings. Regrettably, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and the latest forecasts imply the business will grow sales slower than the wider market. After such a stark change in sentiment from analysts, we'd understand if readers now felt a bit wary of China Merchants Port Holdings. So things certainly aren't looking great, and you should also know that we've spotted some potential warning signs with China Merchants Port Holdings, including dilutive stock issuance over the past year. Learn more, and discover the 4 other concerns we've identified, for free on our platform here. Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free 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. We werent sure what to do. My husband, 3-year-old daughter and I had been cooped up in our house all week as most of us are. By Saturday, we were ready to do something outside, but the U.S. Forest Service had closed trailheads near our Laramie home, and we didnt want to drive for hours in the midst of a pandemic. Fishing was an option. But the Miracle Mile and Gray Reef sections of the North Platte River have been packed with anglers antsy to get outside, so we tried the Laramie River outside town. We were alone when we arrived. Three vehicles with Colorado license plates were parked nearby when we returned from the water. Maybe fishing wasnt the best plan. But if water is out, high country still snowed in, and many trailheads and campgrounds are closed, what should an outdoors person responsibly do to recreate in the age of COVID-19? Forget the parks; seek out the spaces in between, the backyards and alleys, wrote Western author Craig Childs in a recent essay in High Country News. Its a great time to explore an irrigation ditch or the woods at the edge of town to see whats around you. Be as local as you can. In the face of a pandemic raging across the country and world, killing tens of thousands of people and landing hundreds of thousands out of work, discussing where we can recreate seems trivial at best and self-centered at worst. But even the doctors telling us to stay away from one another and reduce the possibility for transmission also say fresh air, sunshine and exercise is necessary. Time outside stems depression, said Dr. Mark Dowell, the Natrona County health officer and a specialist with Rocky Mountain Infectious Disease, and it boosts our immune systems. But theres also a difference between driving five hours to climb, ski or mountain bike and taking a walk around the block, jogging through a nearby stretch of prairie, or hiking alone through a bit of national forest. Unsure, as many of us are, about what to do, I turned to medical experts and government officials for their recommendations for how to stay sane and safe while being responsible. *** First, the bad news. While Wyoming doesnt have a statewide, shelter-in-place order as of deadline Friday afternoon, many outdoor recreation areas are already closed. Wyoming State Parks have closed all overnight camping facilities including cabins, yurts, group sites and shelters, showerhouses, some non-essential restrooms and playgrounds. State historic sites are also closed. Wyoming Game and Fish hasnt closed its habitat management areas or fishing accesses, yet, but some places like Teton County have issued shelter-in-place orders meaning people need to stay home. The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest has closed most of its trailheads, cabins and restrooms, and the Bridger-Teton National Forest closed most of its campgrounds at least through the end of April. Our neighbors to the north and south both have shelter-in-place orders right now. Some counties in Colorado are concerned enough theyre giving tickets to anyone parking on the sides of certain roads from other counties. But what about Wyomings fishing accesses full of out-of-state license plates? Are there any rules for movement in Wyoming, or for someone from another state showing up here? Yes, as of Friday, said Brian Nesvik, director of Wyomings Game and Fish Department. A directive from Gov. Mark Gordon released Friday afternoon said anyone coming here from another state or country for non-work-related purposes should immediately self-quarantine for 14 days. For visits fewer than 14 days, that individual must self-quarantine for the duration of the visit, the governors news release stated. The directive is intended to discourage out-of-state visitation during the pandemic and reduce the spread of COVID-19. Gordon is telling people from out of state not to come here, Nesvik said, for any kind of outdoor recreation or anything not related to work. This isnt the time to do it. *** So what can you do if your health and sanity requires you be outside? Be reasonable, steer clear of other people and stay close to home, Dowell said. Use common sense. If you pull up to a fishing access, and its packed with cars and fishermen, dont stop. If a trailhead has people lingering at the start, keep moving. Stay 6 feet away from anyone not in your household at all times, no matter what. If you dont socially distance, you may introduce the virus into your family and be really sorry. Or you can introduce it into the community and end up hurting someone older, Dowell said. Dont go traveling all over the state. Stay within the county. Hunker down for a moment. You can still go hiking if you avoid others. You can go for runs around town or in the prairie. Turkey seasons are already open in some places, and more will open soon. But if you go, keep to yourself and stay close to home. Dont, as many experts have advised, go on more risky outings like backcountry skiing, mountaineering or climbing that could land you in a hospital. Were lucky enough to live in a state like Wyoming where we all have quick access to bits of sagebrush flat or mountainside. The benefit of being the least-populated state in the nation right now is our ability to still go outside while staying away from everyone else. I dont like it any better than anyone else, Dowell said. Better times are ahead, but we have to do this right now. Maybe fishing wasnt the best plan. But if water is out, high country still snowed in, and many trailheads and campgrounds are closed, what should an outdoors person responsibly do to recreate in the age of COVID-19? The COVID-19 situation is very worrying, indeed, alarming matter, not just as a global health and biosafety issue, but potentially as a global security challenge, too. While the pandemic is being dealt with by the World Health Organisation (WHO), along with other relevant United Nation Specialised Agencies (UN SA), the situation is deteriorating rapidly and could easily get out of control. This of course, if it is not effectively contained. In such a (more and more likely) scenario, it would be engulfing the entire world, whose effects and impact would be akin to that of a Third world war, though initially of a different kind. We are amazed as to why the Security Council has not stepped in. It should have done so as to address the Covid-19 and surrounding scenery in the way it clearly deserves to be dealt with, given its devastating impact on the entire international community on almost every dimension, including international peace and security, which indisputably falls under its mandate under the UN Charter. As the Council has often dealt with issues which are sometimes not ostensibly related to international or regional security, and of much less importance or urgency than this dreadful pandemic, we are puzzled, indeed alarmed, as to why it has chosen not to come to grips with the pandemic as a matter of the utmost urgency. If the members of the Council, for their own internal reasons, have not felt compelled to do so, shouldnt the other members of the world body, individually or collectively as international or regional groupings, such as the European Union (EU), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) - G-77, African Union (AU), or ASEAN, take the much-desired initiative to call on the Security Council to imperatively address this global pandemic, even as the WHO and other concerned UN agencies, much to their credit, are dealing with the issue from their own (narrow) perspectives and yet rather limited mandate and resources. In this regard, especially the EU, would be well-positioned to exert the much-need pressure on the UNSC, given the devastation that the Virus has wreaked on a number of its members, notably Italy and Spain, among others. Such an Urgent Meeting, indeed, Emergency Special Session of the UN Security Council at this point in time would be greatly applauded by the entire international community as it would accord the world body the leadership role that its members expect it to play at this most critical point in the post WWII human history. Gens una sumus. Concordia patria firmat In this dire situation, the big powers should put aside their ideological and policy differences, or power play, and focus instead on galvanizing concerted international actions of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the entire human race. By decisively and urgently acting, the UN Secretary-General and the UN SC would be sending a bold and clear yet tranquilising signal to the entire humanity. More importantly, such a unison voice would be also welcomed and well understood as a referential (not to say a norm setting) note by other crucial agencies, such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), World Tourism Organisation (WTO), as well as by the Red Cross (IFRC), Bretton Woods institutions, Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Federation of Trade Unions, including other specialised or non-UN FORAs, most notably developmental entities such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Asia Development Bank (ADB), Africa Development Bank (AfDB), etc. In the following period while witnessing indeed a true historical conjuncture, we need a global observance and protection of human rights and of jobs, for the benefit of economy and overall security. Therefore, the measures imposed these days cannot be disproportionate, unrelated, indefinite, unbalanced and only on societal expenses or democracy recession. Recovery which from now on are calling for a formidable biosafety, too will be impossible without social consensus. Clearly, it will be unsustainable if on expenses of labour or done through erosion of basic human rights embedded in the UN Charter and accepted as essential to the very success of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Indeed, countries are not just economies, but most of all societies. (The truth is plain to see: Planet has stopped, although the Capital remains intact. We came to a global halt because the Labour has been sent home. Hence, the recovery comes with labour. Historically, labour has never betrayed, while capital has failed us many times. By the same token, human rights never betrayed the state and its social cohesion, but the states and much glorified markets far too many times in history have failed humans. Therefore, there is no true exit from the crisis without strengthening the labour and human rights.) For a grave planetary problem, our rapidly articulated global accord is badly needed. Therefore, multilateralism as the most effective planetary tool at our disposal is not our policy choice. It is the only way for human race to (socio-economically and politically) survive. Covid-19 is a challenge that comes from the world of biology. Yet, biology and international relations share one basic rule: Comply or die. To remind us; it is not the big that eat the small, rather it is a fast which eats the slow. It is hight time to switch off the autopilot. Leadership and vision now!! Vienna/Kuala Lumpur 04 APR 2020 NEW YORK (AP) A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday. The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia, and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill, are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasn't yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. The first animal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York. 'GASPING FOR AIR': 11 things that helped this Houston woman battle the symptoms of COVID-19 We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution" and aim to "contribute to the worlds continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo's chief veterinarian. The finding raises new questions about transmission of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which confirmed Nadia's test result at its veterinary lab, says there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock. There doesnt appear to be, at this time, any evidence that suggests that the animals can spread the virus to people or that they can be a source of the infection in the United States," said Dr. Jane Rooney, a veterinarian and a USDA official. The USDA said Sunday its not recommending routine coronavirus testing of animals, in zoos or elsewhere, or of zoo employees. Still, Rooney said a small number of animals in the U.S. have been tested through the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories, and all those tests came back negative except Nadia's. BEHIND THE CURVE: Here's why Texas lags behind on releasing timely information on the coronavirus The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven by person-to-person transmission, experts say. There have been reports of a small number of pets outside the United States becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldnt pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners. Some researchers have been trying to understand the susceptibility of different animal species to the virus, and to determine how it spreads among animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health. The American Veterinary Medical Association and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been recommending that out of an abundance of caution, people ill with the coronavirus should limit contact with animals. In general, the CDC advises people to wash their hands after handling animals and do other things to keep pets and their homes clean. At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions developed dry coughs, and some of the cats exhibited some wheezing and loss of appetite, Calle said. In a question of being thorough, we did want to specifically test for the virus that causes COVID-19, he said. Only Nadia was tested because it takes anesthesia to get a sample from a big cat. Her temperature was taken at the same time, and it was normal, Calle said. The seven sickened cats live in two areas at the zoo, and the animals had contact with the same worker, who is doing OK, zoo officials said. They said they are taking appropriate preventive measures for the staffers that care for the ailing animals, and there are no signs of illness in other big cats on the property. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and can be fatal. ___ Associated Press Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed. Residents of Laguna Woods Village protest outside Ayres Hotel on Saturday after learning it would be used to house some homeless people who have COVID-19. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) A plan to house homeless people with the coronavirus in a hotel near a gated Orange County retirement community is causing outrage among some residents. County officials recently entered into an agreement to use two boutique Ayres hotels as temporary housing for those without shelter amid the COVID-19 pandemic. One hotel is just outside Laguna Woods Village, a community with thousands of residents older than 55. County officials say they have few options as they try to quickly move people indoors amid fears that an outbreak among the homeless population could further strain health systems. They say the facility will be locked down, with patients unable to have visitors or leave freely. Residents of the retirement community, where the average age is about 78, say they fear having homeless patients or the staff that cares for them nearby because their age puts them at high risk of death from the virus. On Saturday afternoon, dozens of residents gathered outside the hotel at times shouting Dont kill us, while others circled nearby in their cars, honking their horns. Laguna Woods city officials have said they are deeply concerned by the county's decision and are exploring legal action. "There are empty hotels and motels all over the county that would love the big bucks from this contract," Mayor Pro Tem Shari Horne said. "I dont know if they were asked. I dont know if they looked." Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who represents Laguna Woods, said she too was not happy about the decision to use the hotel, which was made by the countys Emergency Operations Center, because of its proximity to elderly residents. She said county officials tried to secure contracts with at least a dozen other hotels but were unsuccessful. June and Brian Gilmore take part in the demonstration Saturday outside an Ayres Hotel in Laguna Woods. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) As far as I know, we do not have an alternate location. I believe we are still looking but we have a very short period of time," she said. "This is about saving lives." Story continues The county has to move quickly as it prepares for a surge in cases in the coming weeks. On Sunday, county officials reported that there have been 786 coronavirus cases and 14 deaths. Officials across the state have been working to get homeless people off the street amid the health crisis but the efforts have met with mixed results. Gov. Gavin Newsom has allocated $50 million to purchase or lease hotels and motels in order to shelter homeless people, and counties across the state are now trying to secure those rooms. A recent study by researchers at Boston University, the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA estimated that the pandemic is likely to kill more than 3,400 homeless people and lead to the hospitalization of more than 21,000. The population is particularly vulnerable to severe outcomes from coronavirus because of the advanced age, underlying health conditions and often weak immune systems of people who live on the streets. Bartlett said the county is working to make sure the hotel is what she called a self-isolation lockdown facility. "I will do everything in my power to secure this facility," she said, adding that homeless people "dont have a home to go to and self-isolate. So theyre either out there on the street infecting others or we place them into a self-isolation lockdown facility." The 138-bed hotel will house medically stable people who test positive for COVID-19, or who have symptoms. It will start receiving clients sometime between Thursday and Sunday, county officials said in a statement. In order to stay at the hotel, homeless people have to be referred for a medical screening and intake by shelters providers, county staff and contractors, hospitals or law enforcement. Residents will get meals on site and will not be allowed to have visitors. They can leave only in a van provided by staff in order to go to the hospital or to another shelter. Four security guards and other staff will be at the site 24 hours a day, and Bartlett said she is working with county staff to also have sheriff's deputies at the site. In a statement, Donald Ayres III of Ayres Hotels said the company had "weighed the decision very thoughtfully and decided our community would be better served by Ayres providing our buildings to help Orange County mitigate this current health crisis." The other hotel that will be used by the county is in the city of Orange. The company stopped taking reservations for guests at the two hotels Tuesday, the statement said. Residents of Laguna Woods Village, meanwhile, say they don't believe the facility will ever be completely locked down, and they worry about staff shopping in nearby stores. They say the county should have consulted with the city and residents before making its decision. So far, there have been few if any cases of coronavirus in the city. The county reports the number of cases in cities with populations less than 25,000 only if they have more than five cases. So far Laguna Woods had not met that threshold, and residents say they want to keep it that way. We just feel like we have paid our dues. And we deserve to live the rest of our lives in an environment that is safe and secure and feel that opening up the Ayres hotel to the homeless people really jeopardizes our sense of security and well-being, said Annie McCary, 65, a retired nurse practitioner who lives in the village. Hyderabad, April 5 : Telangana reported 62 new positive cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, officials said. However, there were no deaths. With the new positive cases, the state's total number rose to 334 but the Health Department put the number at 289 after excluding 11 deaths and 33 cases cured and discharged. With 145 cases, Hyderabad tops the list of worst-hit districts in the state. Second highest (23) are from Warangal Urban. Officials said six labs were working round the clock to meet the diagnostic demand. Almost all deaths and a majority of positive cases are of those who participated in Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month. The Health Department said those attended the meet and their contacts were being tracked, tested and treated. "Containment activity has been taken up in all the districts where the positive cases are reported," it said adding that till date there is no evidence of community transmission in the state. 05.04.2020 LISTEN In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with Gods will.(Romans 8:26-27 NIV). When we pray, we think we know exactly what we want and many of us want instant answers to our prayers the same way we presented them to God. We want instant healing, instant end to our sufferings, instant provisions of money, food, clothing, shelter, and happiness. The Apostle Paul does not need much introduction. God used Paul mightily to spread Christianity and to perform miracles. Here are a few miracles performed through Paul. Paul healed a man crippled from birth (Acts 14:8-10); cast out the evil spirit from a girl (Acts 16:16-18); and healed a man afflicted with fever and dysentery (Acts 28:8). In addition, handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul were taken to the sick and their diseases and illnesses were cured and evil spirits left them (Acts 19:11-12); and he raised a young man from death (Acts 20:7-12). In spite of all his power, Paul had his own personal problem, a stubborn thorn in the flesh that would not go away. In Pauls own words, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NIV). Paul did not tell us exactly what the thorn in the flesh was, but it must have been very bad. We know that because it came from Satan and it tormented Paul enough for him to have prayed to God three times to take it away from him. God answered Pauls prayers alright, but not exactly the way Paul wanted it. Paul wanted the Lord to take the thorn away from him, but the Lord answered that His grace was sufficient for him. The people of Israel suffered a similar fate on their wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Israelites spoke against God and Moses for leading them from slavery in Egypt through the wilderness where, according to them, there was no bread or water and they did not like the manna God had provided as food for them. (Number 21: 4:9). As their punishment, God sent venomous snakes among them which bit some of them to death. The people came to plead with Moses and told him they had sinned against God and him, and that he should pray to God to forgive them and take the snakes away from them. Moses prayed for the people as they had requested, and God answered their prayers, but in a different way. God told Moses to make a snake and put it up on a pole so that if anyone was bitten by a snake and that person looked up to the snake, he or she would live. Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Whenever anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he or she lived. Note that the people wanted God to take the snakes away, but God did not do so. God did not protect them from snakebites, either. Instead, God provided a perfect cure for those who suffered snakebites and looked up to the bronze snake on the pole for healing. It took faith for Paul to accept Gods grace as the cure for the thorn in his flesh. It took faith for those bitten by the snakes to look up to the bronze snake on the pole for healing. It also demonstrated trust and dependency on the Lord. These days, we need faith and trust in the Lord even more. The prophetic symbolism of the bronze snake on the pole was clear to Jesus. Jesus told Nicodemus, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15 NIV). Those who looked up to the bronze snake on the pole were cured of snakebites. Those who look up to Jesus on the cross for salvation will be saved and granted eternal life. It takes faith, belief, and trust in the Lord. The Lord does not always answer our prayers exactly the way we want. Sometimes, we do not even know or understand what we are asking. The Lord answers our prayers according to His will, and His will is always the best for us. The thorn remained in Pauls flesh, but it was overpowered by Gods grace; and the snakes lived among the people of Israel, but their deadly venom was neutralized by the bronze snake on the pole. The sufficiency of Gods grace as an answer to our prayers should not be trivialized. Grace - Gods grace - is enough for anyone blessed or fortunate enough to receive it. What we need is faith even a little faith exercised according to Gods will, and God will take over from there. The hand of God is there somewhere in our current difficult situation. Therefore, before we give up, we should look longer, higher, deeper, and wider for answered prayers. Prayer is the key. May God grant us the grace to seek Him daily through our prayers. Dr. Daniel Gyebi, Attorney-at-Law, Texas, U.S.A., and Founder, PrayerHouse Ministry, Kumasi, Ghana. PrayerHouse Ministry is dedicated to providing a quiet facility for Christians to pray individually by themselves without any intermediary priest, pastor or any other person. This is a free service. No money is demanded or accepted. One facility is located at Kyerekrom / Fumesua, near Building and Road Research Institute Offices, one mile off the Kumasi-Accra Road and next to a house called Grace Castle. If you are interested, please contact Agnes at 054-7498653. Another is located at Kantinkyiren, at the junction of Kantinkyiren and Konkori, off the Kumasi-Obuasi Road, branching left at Trede junction. Contact Kwadwo at 020-8768461 / 0246-989413. "I was withdrawing my request to even discuss my increase in budget until after we have gotten our negotiations done with the FOP, until we find where we have money that we can give our officers some additional salary," she said. In addition to prioritizing police officer raises, Gibson said withdrawing the requests goes back to one of her campaign promises. She said she pledged to be more progressive and listen to the needs of the town's officers and residents about things that needed to change and progress in Merrillville. The requested $66,0000 increase to the clerk's budget included $20,000 for training, subs and dues and education; $16,000 for a financial adviser; and $30,000 for an attorney, Gibson said. The same day she withdrew her salary increase request, she also submitted a revised budget increase request, removing the financial adviser from the list of requested line items. Ultimately, the submitted $50,000 request was reduced by half, with Gibson requesting $15,000 for training and education and $10,000 for an attorney, records show. 05.04.2020 LISTEN The National Lottery Authority(NLA) as part of efforts to ensure business continuity shall resume the daily Lotto Draws for 5/90, VAG Lotto, Daywa 5/39 and Super 6 Games on Monday, 6th April 2020 with enhanced Prize Structure of 240 for 5/90 and VAG Lotto Games. However, the following protocols shall be observed in accordance with the directives from President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo and subsequent directive from the Public Services Commission: 1. NLA Staff: Employees of the Authority shall continue to be at work on SHIFT as already established while observing strict hygiene and social distancing protocols. 2. Lockdown Areas: Lotto Marketing Companies in the lockdown areas are NOT Permitted to sell lotto to the staking public in their respective lotto kiosks. In order not to affect the business and finances of Lotto Marketing Companies, a training programme has been instituted by the Authority for Lotto Marketing Companies and relevant stakeholders on the National Lottery Authority (NLA) Official Short Code *890# However, we would like to urge the Staking Public and Lotto Marketing Companies in the lockdown areas to stake 5/90 and VAG Lotto Games via the National Lottery Authority (NLA) Official Short Code *890# via MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo effective 6th April 2020. 3. Areas Outside Lockdown: Lotto Marketing Companies outside the Lockdown areas shall continue to work as usual while strictly observing hygiene and social distancing protocols. The Staking Public and Lotto Marketing Companies are encouraged to take advantage of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) Official Short Code *890# to stake 5/90 and VAG Lotto Games via MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo effective 6th April 2020. Let us all support Government in these difficult moments of Coronavirus pandemic. Issued by: Public Relations Unit of NLA NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons will step down just months after leading the state through the horror bushfire season to head up a new disaster and recovery agency. Mr Fitzsimmons, 50, will retire as boss of the fire service this month and, from May 1, will become the first commissioner of a new agency to be known as Resilience NSW. NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons will step down to take on a new role. Credit:Cole Bennetts Resilience NSW will be responsible for "disaster preparedness and recovery" for NSW in the wake of the bushfires, drought and the worsening coronavirus health crisis. Premier Gladys Berejiklian will announce the new agency on Monday. Mary Traynor, the wealthy widow of one of the most controversial financiers in recent history, has left more than 10m in her will. Her husband, Des Traynor, was known as "Charlie Haughey's bagman" and was the mastermind behind the former Taoiseach's finances and the elaborate Ansbacher Cayman scheme which held close to 100m belonging to prominent Irish citizens in secret offshore bank accounts on the Caribbean islands. Mr Traynor was also chairman of Guinness & Mahon Bank and Ireland's biggest company CRH. He was a director of New Ireland Assurance and a government-appointed director of Aer Lingus as well as a "close and personal friend" of Mr Haughey for many years until his sudden death in May 1994 at the age of 62. Despite his complex offshore dealing and tax schemes for some of Ireland's wealthiest businessmen and their families, he kept much of his own 1.7m fortune in the ICS Building Society, according to probate documents lodged in the year 2000. However in 2007, 13 years after his death, his estate made a settlement of 4m with the Revenue Commissioners - at least some of which suggested that perhaps he had availed of his own advice and had a stash of money hidden away in some secret location. The settlement comprised of 1.25m in undeclared taxes and 2.8m in penalties. His widow, Mary Josephine Traynor, who lived in a large detached house on the fashionable Howth Road, Dublin, and later in Malahide, said she was unaware that she was a director of Amiens Investments, the company used to settle bank loans running into millions for Mr Haughey. Des Traynor was born in Dublin where his father had a motor garage in Kingham Lane off Fitzwilliam Street. Educated at the Westland Row CBS he became an articled clerk in Haughey Boland, where Charlie Haughey, who was six years older, was a partner. They became close personal friends. When Haughey went into politics Mr Traynor took over his often chaotic financial affairs. "Throughout my public life, the late Des Traynor was my trusted friend and financial adviser," the former Taoiseach told the McCracken Inquiry. "He was held in very high esteem in business circles and was widely regarded as a financial expert of exceptional ability. I never had to concern myself about my personal finances." Through his friendship at Howth Yacht Club with John Guinness, Traynor, a heavy smoker but a non-drinker, became a director of Guinness & Mahon Bank and was chairman of the private bank from 1969 until 1986 when it was taken over by a Japanese finance company. In 1976 he established the Guinness Mahon Trust in the Cayman Islands where many of Ireland's wealthy elite opened offshore accounts. He negotiated the settlement of Mr Haughey's 1.4m overdraft with AIB for 500,000. Haughey didn't have the cash, so his friend organised for him to get a loan for the same amount from Guinness & Mahon which was routed through Amiens Investments of which Mr and Mrs Traynor were directors. A 110,000 "debt of honour" with the bank was never settled. Mr Traynor was also organising a syndicate of six wealthy individuals to bail out the Fianna Fail leader - but when he was approached, Ben Dunne Jnr famously told Traynor that Christ had 12 apostles and one of them had betrayed him - so he would put up all the money. Eventually 1.3m was routed through Amiens Investments, now based in Jersey, through a myriad Irish and international banks to Mr Haughey's accounts. Mr Dunne later taunted his sister Margaret, who wrested control from the Dunnes Stores retail empire from him: "You can look all you like but you'll never find them" (speaking of the three cheques to Haughey). Mr Haughey said he only became aware of the Ben Dunne payments in 1993, years after they were made. Mr Traynor kept the secret files in his office but always carried with him a 'black book' which held the codes for his personal clients. Mr Haughey's secret accounts were later identified as S8 and S9. Mr Traynor's clients included many other wealthy and influential people in Ireland. He used the foyer of the old Burlington Hotel in Dublin as his office before becoming chairman of CRH in Fitzwilliam Square. In 2003 it was reported that Mrs Traynor, who inherited 310,000 shares in the building materials firm CRH from her husband, cashed them in making a 3.5m profit. According to documents lodged in the Probate Office in Dublin recently, Mary Traynor, of Back Road, Malahide Road, Co Dublin, and formerly of Howth Road, who died on February 18, 2019, left estate valued at 10,179,923. Two of her sons, Anthony and Mark (an accountant and a solicitor) were her executors. In her will, which was drawn up in 2002, she left 25,000 to Fr Eamon Byrne and 10,000 to the Columban Fathers, as well as bequests to her two sisters and sister-in-law. The residue of her estate was left in trust for her family. Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Washington: President Donald Trump has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug. Trump said he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxychloroquine - an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria - for the US. "I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of Hydroxychloroquine. India is giving it a serious consideration," Trump said at his daily news conference at the White House on Saturday. India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on April 4 banned the export of Hydroxychloroquine and its formulations with immediate effect and made it clear that there will be no exceptions. Trump said he would appreciate if India releases the amount of Hydrocoralline that the US has ordered. "And I said I would appreciate if they (India) would release the amounts that we ordered, he said, without mentioning that quantity of Hydroxychloroquine that has been ordered by US companies from India. With more than three lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and over 8,000 fatalities, the US has emerged as the global epicentre of the deadly coronavirus disease to which there has been no cure. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended the anti-malarial drug for those involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus and also, for the asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases. Scientists across the world are racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus that has so far killed more than 64,000 people and infected 1.2 million in more than 150 countries. Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine for the successful treatment of coronavirus. Following a quick provisional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration last Saturday, the malaria drug along with a combination of some other drug is being used in the treatment of about 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York, the epicentre in the US. According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven. In the next several weeks, health experts in the US have projected between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, which due to human-to-human transmission is spreading like a wildfire in the country. In anticipation of it being a successful drug in the treatment of coronavirus, the US has already stockpiled some 29 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine. It is in this context Trump requested Modi to help US get millions of doses of Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that can be produced at mass scale in India. Prime Minister Modi on Saturday said he held a detailed discussion on the coronavirus crisis with President Trump and resolved to deploy the full strength of the Indo-US partnership to fight the global pandemic. "We had a good discussion and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19," Modi wrote on Twitter on his "extensive" telephonic conversation with Trump. The prime minister and the US president exchanged views on the pandemic and its impact on the global well-being and economy, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said. Stressing on the special relationship between the two countries, Modi reiterated India's solidarity with the US in overcoming this global crisis together. "The two leaders agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to resolutely and effectively combat COVID-19," the PMO said. Modi and Trump also exchanged notes on the steps taken in their countries for mitigating the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. The two leaders also touched upon the significance of practices such as yoga and ayurveda for ensuring physical and mental well-being in these difficult times, the PMO statement said. They agreed that their officials would remain in close touch on the global health crisis, it added. Modi also conveyed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the US and his prayers for an early recovery of those still suffering from the disease. The discussion came at a time when both countries are in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration has made Hydroxychloroquine as part of its Strategic National Stockpile. Following the viral video of Actress Funke Akindele, her husband and those close to her partying, Nigerians have taken to social media to call her out. Social media users expressed their disappointment at the ace actress for ignoring the importance of social distancing at a time like this. Some users pointed out that she was a wrong fit in the awareness video from the NCDC that asked people to practice social distancing. READ ALSO Funke Akindele Celebrates Husband On His 43rd Birthday (Photo) The party she threw has aggravated many as a few users called for her arrest. See Reactions Here: As many as 10 Malaysian attendees of a recent Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi were on Sunday offloaded from a special chartered flight to Malaysia from here, officials said. Of the 167 Malaysian Tamils who boarded the flight, 10 people, were offloaded after it was ascertained that they had participated in the recent meeting at the national capital, they said. The flight departed with 157 passengers after some delay, officials added. After participating in the meeting, they had visited Tenkasi district in southern Tamil Nadu and had stayed there before coming here to board the flight. It is, however, not immediately known if the Jamaat participants will be quarantined by health authorities or not. All the passengers were Malaysian Tamils who had got stranded in different parts of Tamil Nadu before the commencement of lockdown on March 24. RICHMOND The Virginia Department of Corrections said Saturday that 14 inmates - 13 of them in two women's facilities - and five staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Seven of the cases are at the Central Virginia Correctional Unit #13, a female facility in Chesterfield County; six are at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women, in Goochland County; and one is an inmate at an undisclosed hospital. Also diagnosed is: one staff member at the Indian Creek Correctional Center; two at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women, one a contract nurse; one at the State Farm Correctional Center; and one with probation and parole. The department, with nearly 12,000 employees, manages some 30,000 inmates in more than 40 facilities across the state. Critics and inmate advocates have been asking Gov. Ralph Northam's administration to release many of the elderly and ailing inmates believed most vulnerable to the virus. Officials have said they are expediting geriatric conditional releases. 4.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Its like suddenly they realized we are here contributing, Nancy Silva told The New York Times. Silva, a 43-old undocumented immigrant who has been picking fruit on American farms for most of her life while constantly evading immigration authorities, made this statement in response to the federal government deeming her and other farmworkers essential employees. The Department of Homeland Security determined such farmworkers to critical to the food supply chain. In other words, the work people like Silva do is vital to the sustenance and survival of all of us in America, just as are the grocery workers, truck drivers, workers in food processing plants, and every other worker making it possible for Americans to access food, not just during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, but always. The current pandemic is simply putting a magnifying glass on the vital importance of, and our populations absolute dependence, on these workers for our existence, for making our lives possible. The work is vital, and hence these workers lives are vital to us all. Put another way, farmworkers lives matter. Undocumented farmworkers lives matter. Recognizing our interdependence with, our dependence on, these workers calls into question a lot of our practices and policies. For sure, it asks us to consider the efficacy of, and indeed our self-interest in, the racist and xenophobic immigration policies and practices that enable and encourage the deportation of these undocumented workers upon whom our ability to feed ourselves depends. Are racism and nativism really salutary belief systems for Americans if they result in removing from the nations economy those upon whom we rely for our well-being and nourishment? Collectively, it would be healthy for the nation to reflect on this question. The recognition of that these lives matter also raises a more fundamental question about how we determine peoples value in our current political economy and society. The way our market economy determines the value of particular kinds of work, and thus be extension the value of the life of the workers performing the work, is not at all distinct from the moral valuation of lives in American. When we talk about American values, we have to recognize that the economic and moral dimensions of determining value are inextricably intertwined in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic pushes us to look more closely at how we determine value, particularly how we value lives. Silva is suggesting the moment is ripe for reconsidering our valuesand the so-called market determination of valuesin her statement, Its like suddenly they realized we are here contributing. In other words, the federal government and DHS asserted the crucial value of these workers lives to our world, to all of us. And you would think if I recognized that my life depended on someone elses labor, I would really want to ensure the well-being of that person. But while estimates indicate that 75% of crop hands in the U.S. are undocumented, little is being done to ensure their safety from deportation; and little is being done to ensure their well-being, especially during this pandemic. Labor journalist David Bacon draws the situation starkly: For the first time in U.S. history farmworkers have been officially declared essential workers. Without their labor, there would be no fruits, vegetables or dairy products in the stores. Yet the economic situation of farmworkers has never reflected that essential status nor does it now. The last National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2017 found that the average farmworker family had an annual income between $17,500 and $20,000. More than half relied on at least one public assistance program, with 44 percent using Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). A third received either food stamps or WIC nutrition assistance. But most telling for families facing the pandemic, less than half of farmworker families have health insurance, and among them, only a third got it from their employer. A third of farmworker families paid cash for doctor visits, and a quarter relied on Medicaid or Medicare. Bacon additionally highlights the unsanitary and close working conditions for farmworkers, leaving them particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Are we valuing these workers lives, recognizing they matter crucially to us? That our survival depends on them? Put another way, have we properly assess these workers merit? Doing so, Ill suggest, should make us re-think meritocracy itself. As a culture, we largely take the justness and legitimacy of meritocracy for granted because few people question why a doctor, lawyer, politician, or banker earns a higher salary than a custodian, postal worker, grocery store cashier, fast food worker, social worker, or teacher. Certain work, the belief goes, deserves a higher remuneration than others. In short, according to the story, people get what they deserve, and the market determines what people deserve just fine. This belief in meritocracy thus enables us to justify poverty, people not having access to proper health care, not being able to afford college, not being able to afford food or housing, and so forth. With their thinking shaped by this framework, it has just come to make sense to most Americans, even if we are all performing socially necessary labor that makes all of our lives possible, that some people on the basis of what they do deserve to live in nicer neighborhoods, own larger houses, eat healthier foods, have access to better education, and drive better cars. They deserve greater access to social resources, a larger piece of the pie. They deserve to consume more. And yet, as we see with these farmworkers, de-valuing their work means de-valuing their lives by denying them access to the basic care and resources necessary for their well-being. When we recognize this dependence, does this kind of valuation of lives make sense? Does it make sense, given our interdependence, to have a hierarchy of merit, of valuing lives? This pandemic is pushing us to reconsider how we determine merit and how we value lives. Downing Street has been criticised for telling the public to give parks a miss just 90 minutes after saying they could visit parks for exercise once a day. The contrasting guidance was issued by the prime ministers official Twitter feed on Sunday amid an escalating row over the use of public spaces during the coronavirus lockdown. It followed warnings that the UK government could ban outdoors exercise if members of public continue to flout strict coronavirus guidelines on social distancing. Health secretary Matt Hancock said that people sunbathing in parks during the warm weather were breaking restrictions outlined by Boris Johnson almost a fortnight ago. The guidance has so far allowed people to leave their homes to exercise once a day as long as they are either alone or with members of their household, and not in groups. At 1.38pm, 10 Downing Street repeated the guidance in a tweet headed: Can I go to the park. It added that gatherings of more than two people were banned and police had powers to disperse groups and issue fines. However, at 3.30pm the same official account urged the public to give the park a miss, adding: Spending time in the park this weekend could put lives at risk. Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. TV presenter Piers Morgan was among those criticising the governments approach, commenting: Yet more stupidly dangerous mixed messaging. You literally said an hour ago its ok to go to the park, another user added, while another asked: So are we allowed out to exercise or not? If No 10 thinks the rules are insufficient then No 10 need to change the rules. All they are doing now is sowing seeds of confusion. Others called for the government to close parks or highlighted the failure of Scotlands chief medical officer to follow lockdown rules. In London, Lambeth Council made the decision to close Brockwell Park after complaining that more than 3,000 people had visited on Saturday and that the level of sunbathing was unacceptable. Mr Hancock said: If you dont want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then youve got to follow the rules. Lets not have a minority spoiling it for everybody. When an entire branch of our nation's workforce must collectively gear up day after day for life-threatening work, with little to no protection, they deserve hazard pay. Health-care workers are engaged in what is more and more often being described as a "war" against the covid-19 pandemic, and the casualties are mounting. In China, an estimated 3,000 health-care workers have been infected by the virus responsible for covid-19; at least 22 have died. In Italy's Lombardy region, 1 in 5 health-care professionals has become infected, and many fear the United States could soon be headed in that same direction. More than 50 of Italy's doctors are already confirmed dead. Domestically, we lost our first physicians and nurses to covid-19 two weeks ago. With dozens more surely to follow, when is enough, enough? Being a resident physician in internal medicine, I work as part of a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. For us, caring for patients with covid-19 on the hospital floors and in the intensive care units has become our new norm. And as our direct contact with infected patients has exponentially increased over the past few weeks, the water cooler chatter has heated up. We wonder aloud what we're going to do when we run out of personal protective equipment (PPE), where we're going to quarantine ourselves when we get sick, and how best to keep our loved ones safe. As Thomas Kirsch, an emergency physician in Washington, put it in a recent Atlantic article: "How much risk do health-care workers have to take? Or, more bluntly: How many of us will die before we start to walk away from our jobs?" Hazard pay is loosely defined by the Labor Department as "additional pay for performing hazardous duty or work involving physical hardship." With or without proper PPE, health-care workers are putting their physical health on the line every day during this pandemic when they leave their shelters and families to treat those with covid-19. If you have any doubt, the proof is in a viral tweet that reveals the emblematic bruises - lines of capillaries shattered under the pressure of an N95 mask - now marking the faces of Italy's strained health-care workers. And they are the lucky ones, for at least they're still alive. Pandemics do not spare those who care for the sick. In 2003, nearly half (44 percent) of SARS infections in Toronto were health-care workers. Our jobs, by their very nature, put us at great risk for exposure to novel infectious diseases. We are in proximity to known infected people and spend a disproportionately large amount of time with these infected people compared with the general public, both known risk factors for contracting covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal government, meanwhile, has exacerbated these inherent hazards of our work by failing to secure and distribute PPE to essential health-care personnel. For instance, while the Strategic National Stockpile of N95 respirators was already known to be woefully inadequate at a total of 17 million masks, many of these masks were recently found to be past their expiration date. Perhaps revelations such as these are what prompted the CDC to ultimately encourage health-care institutions to use expired masks anyway, despite acknowledging that they "might not perform to the requirements for which they were certified." Still, many of America's health-care professionals are at the front lines of this pandemic with far less effective PPE than an expired respirator. Some are wearing the once-ubiquitous surgical mask, which doesn't filter out airborne particles like N95 respirators do. But many health-care institutions are already running short on these, too. Where some practitioners were previously requiring a dozen or more disposable face masks per shift, we are now being relegated to one per week. Others of us, left with no better option, may be soon forced to resort to the CDC's latest contingency "plan" - using homemade masks, bandannas and scarfs as PPE. By armoring our front lines with mere swaths of cloth, shown in the medical literature to be nearly 97 percent ineffective, we are armoring our only hope with little more than a false sense of security. If we cannot properly equip them, should we not at least properly pay them? Retail and supermarket employees - essential staff just like health-care workers - are already beginning to lobby for hazard pay. J.M. Smucker (yes, Smucker's like the jelly) announced March 23 that it would be granting hazard pay for its 5,700 employees "serving on the ground." Doctors started calling for hazard pay for front-line clinicians in mid-March. One district of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees has filed a complaint against a New Mexico hospital for refusing to enter negotiations for hazard pay for its employees. And in the same amount of time, a Change.org petition for hazard pay for nurses, doctors, and other health-care professionals has racked up nearly 400,000 signatures. Politicians, too, are catching on to the idea of hazard pay for those on the front lines. On March 30, President Donald Trump said in a "Fox & Friends" interview that his administration was "looking at" providing health-care workers with hazard pay through a future relief package. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin agreed, saying in a subsequent Fox Business Network interview that it was "definitely something we'll put in the next bill." On the Democratic side of the aisle, Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Joaquin Castro of Texas and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York have taken to Twitter to voice their support for including hazard pay for health-care workers in the next coronavirus stimulus package. Political rhetoric notwithstanding, let me be clear: This is not just about money. Far more than money, I want people to wash their hands and to stay home, and when they come into the hospital, I want access to appropriate PPE to treat them with. But for the phlebotomists who have to expose themselves to draw the blood tests I order, for the respiratory therapists who have to change the ventilator settings I request, for the nurses who have to dispense the medications I prescribe, and for my fellow residents who will have to cover my shifts when I inevitably get sick, I want hazard pay - for them and for their families. This is about showing support for our health-care workers during a pandemic in the same way we support our troops during a war. The American people are good people, which we've already seen in our hobbyists sewing homemade masks, philanthropists donating to research efforts, and corporations switching gears (quite literally) to produce ventilators and PPE. Commensurately, let us not delay in honoring our nation's health-care workers - my colleagues and friends - as they risk their lives battling for our collective health on the front lines of the covid-19 pandemic. - - - Wood is a primary care internal medicine resident at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn. US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Americans of a lot of death as he sought to urge them to brace themselves for the toughest week yet in the fight against the coronavirus that killed an average of more than a 1,000 people in the last few days and infected thousands. This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and the next week, the American president told reporters at the daily briefing by the White House coronavirus task force. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. More than 8,500 Americans have died in the outbreak till Sunday morning, over 1,000 from the previous day; and the number of confirmed cases climbed to 3,12,000. New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Louisiana states remain the hardest hit, with New York City bearing the brunt of it. Washington DC, Colorado and Pennsylvania are emerging worries, health officials have said. Washington state, which reported the first death in February, and California, which was the first state to issue stay-at-home orders, have kept their numbers low and are being touted as the model for social-distancing for others. The next week will be tough, as US officials has been warning for a while. They have warned of 100,000 to 240,000 fatalities in all despite the social-distancing measures in place, without which deaths could be as high as 2.2 million. And in anticipation of the peak, they stepped up preventive measures to include as a recommendation, not mandatory masks or face covering in public, and stepped up procurement of protective gear for health workers such as gowns, masks and gloves. The next two weeks are extraordinarily important, said Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing their hands. The grim warning came amidst projections that New York, Louisiana and Detroit in Michigan, the three hotspot regions with the highest incidence of cases, will be hitting their peaks together in six to seven days. New York state had reported 3,565 fatalities till Sunday morning, with 2,624 in New York City along; the total number of cases in the state that continues to be the epicenter of the American coronavirus epidemic, followed by New Jersey with 846, Michigan with 504 and Louisiana with 409 deaths. While the situation remains dire in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at his daily briefing on Sunday that over the last few days the number of deaths has been dropping for the first time. But he hastened to add it was too early to know what to make of it, though new hospitalizations are also down. The struggle for resources continued, despite Trump administrations claims to the contrary. New York is still short of ventilators that are needed for several ill Covid-19 patients. The number of beds doesnt really matter anymore. We have the beds. Its the ventilators, and then its the staff, the governor said. He has appealed to other states to send over their supplies and health professionals to help the state at this time, promising to reciprocate when they needed it, in a rolling pattern. Over 66,000 people have died in the pandemic globally and there have been more than1.25 million confirmed cases. It has wreaked havoc on economies around the world, including the richest nations an estimated 10 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last two weeks. Developing countries are expected to be hit the hardest. In three to six weeks, Europe and America will continue in the throes of this but there is no doubt the center will move to places like Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Monrovia, said Ashish Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, to the Washington Post. We need to be very worried. After facing stiff protest over cremation of COVID-19 victims, the West Bengal government seems to have convinced people that there is no health risk involved and adequate precautionary measures are taken during the process. The state health department issued an advisory to ensure hassle-free cremation of those who died of the disease after persuading people that ashes from the burning of such bodies do not automatically put residents of the nearby surroundings at risk, a senior official said on Sunday. Apart from sensitizing the masses, especially those residing near cremation grounds earmarked for burning mortal remains of COVID-19 victims, the health department along with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have taken up measures like educating people through mikes that they should not fall prey to rumours. The intervention seems to have paid off. Earlier, we have seen huge problems in burning dead bodies of coronavirus infected patients. People used to think that the smoke released during the burning of bodies spread the virus... we made them understand that it is a wrong belief... it was quite a tough job, the official said. Civic bodies in the districts have also started awareness programmes like miking and distributing leaflets containing details about why there is no harm in burning dead bodies of coronavirus patients at the crematorium ground. The state health department in its advisory underlined that no risk was involved in the process if standard directives were followed. It said COVID-19 spreads through droplets coughed or sneezed out, and that there were no chances of airborne transmission. We have told them that the temperature generated during cremation is 800 to 1,000 degrees Celsius, under which, the virus can no longer remain viable. People seem to have understood the reality, the official said. We take all standard precautions so there is absolutely no risk of infection from a body to healthcare workers, family members, or people in the locality, he added. The advisory also quoted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to underline that no such case has come to the fore where a person is known to have contracted the disease following his exposure to bodies of COVID-19 victims. Hence, it is clarified that if the protocol prescribed for transportation and disposal of dead bodies of COVID-19 positive persons is followed, there is no risk of any virus infection, the advisory stressed. On March 23, locals in the Nimtala area of the city had staged a demonstration to stop government officials from cremating the body of a COVID-19 victim. Senior officers took over two hours to convince the residents that adequate measures have been taken to avoid contamination. Residents staged similar protest in Dhapa locality subsequently against burning the body of another coronavirus deceased in a crematorium in their place. The KMC has reserved a two-furnace crematorium at Dhapa, Topsia and a burial ground at Baghmari for coronavirus cases. West Bengal has reported a total of 68 coronavirus cases so far out of which three people lost their lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MILFORD Two guns were seized after troopers responded to a reported threatening incident Friday morning, Connecticut State Police said. It was nearly 6:30 a.m. on April 3, troopers from Troop G in Bridgeport responded for a report of a disturbance on a passenger bus. Initial reports indicated the disturbance involved a passenger with a gun, state police said. Troopers found the bus off Exit 40 in Milford. When the troopers removed the passengers from the bus, one man started to resist troopers for an unknown reason as they tried to identify him, police said. He was issued a misdemeanor summons for interfering with an officer. He was released on a $5,000 bond. After he was detained, troopers spoke to the complainant, who told officer they were threatened with a gun as he got on the bus in New York City, police said. The troopers quickly identified the suspect a resident of Springfield, Mass. and detained him. State police said the troopers searched the area where the Springfield man was sitting and found two guns. State police did not further identify the Massachusetts resident. He was taken to Troop G to be charged with possession of the two firearms without a permit. The man was unable to post his $25,000 bond. The New York Police Department was informed of the details and the arrest since the initial threatening incident happened in the city. Christian artist/songwriter Hannah Kerr married Jason Earley last weekend in a private ceremony in Tennessee in lieu of their planned wedding due to the pandemic. Our wedding day was truly the best day of my life!!! It was nothing like we planned, but perfect in every way. it was just us, our immediate family, and the minister. My brothers sang in the ceremony. I did my own makeup. Our friend and photographer did my hair AND took these incredible pictures. It was sunny, blue skies, and 70 degrees all day. We cut a tiny cake and did our first dance in the chapel right after the ceremony. We drove away at 6 pm in Jason's car, and we both felt so happy that truly nothing else mattered. The whole day felt so special, so holy, and so sweet. This coronavirus stuff has felt heavy and sad for weeks, but this day was a bright spot that reminded us that good is still happening!! God is still watching out for the tiny details and cares deeply for each one of us. I love my husband and marriage is the best! - Hannah Kerr Touted as a "compelling" and "encouraging" artist by CCM Magazine, Black River Christian artist/songwriter Hannah Kerr's current EP Listen More is available now. The six-song project, all co-written by Kerr, features the Top 20 radio hit "Split the Sea," which has more than four million streams, earning Kerr more than 55 million total streams. Partnering with award-winning composer David Hamilton (Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban), Kerr debuted a new arrangement and music video last summer for "Split The Sea." Hannah Kerr's current single, "Ordinary," debuted in the Top 30 on the Billboard AC Indicator chart. The single, from her latest project, EP Listen More, released last fall. Kerr was awarded the Most Played Song award at the 2018 ASCAP Christian Awards for co-writing Matt Maher's Top 5 hit "Your Love Defends Me." Her original version of the song appears on her debut album Overflow which has earned more than 20 million streams and features the Top 15 hit "Warrior." She has shared the stage with major Christian artists including Casting Crowns, Matt Maher, Building 429, Jordan Feliz, Jonny Diaz, Matt Hammitt, as well as for KING & COUNTRY, Newsboys, and Kari Jobe. In 2019, Kerr graduated from Belmont University with her degree in Christian Leadership. For all of the latest information about Hannah Kerr, visit HannahKerrMusic.com Tags : hannah kerr hannah kerr news hannah kerr wedding hannah kerr marriage Jason Earley Stargazers across Michigan will have a few fun things to seek out Sunday night as they turn their eyes to the sky. With clouds moving in on Monday, this might be your only night to view with nearly full Pink Supermoon. Its the third supermoon of the year, and some say its expected to be the largest yet. It wont be full until Tuesday, but it should look pretty good tonight. Another treat for night sky lovers is the chance to see the ISS glide overhead for about 4 minutes. Mostly clear skies tonight will give northern Michigan one last shot at seeing the International Space Station this weekend! National Weather Service meteorologists in Gaylord posted on their Facebook page today. To check viewing times for your city: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/index.cfm Look lower in the southwestern sky about 9:18 p.m. Need some help finding the ISS? Download a free star-finder app like Sky View Lite on your phone, then hold your phone up to that section of the sky around that time. A little space station icon will show you where it is. Night sky apps like that are also a great way to get kids involved in spotting constellations and planets. A little note on this weeks Full Pink Supermoon: it wont actually look pink. Its name comes from the early pink-colored phlox flowers that tend to bloom in the eastern United States around this time in spring. READ MORE: You can get the garden started this weekend; Heres what to plant now in Michigan Several Great Lakes may reach highest water levels ever experienced in modern records Satellite photos show Northern Lights flowing across U.S. UAE altering demographics of Yemen's Tai'zz to dislodge fmr. pro-Saudi govt.: Former official Iran Press TV Saturday, 04 April 2020 6:54 AM The former governor of Yemen's southwestern Ta'izz province has said that the United Arab Emirates is manipulating the demographic composition of the province to weaken pro-Saudi forces, exposing further rift in the Saudi-led coalition. "Forces affiliated to the UAE have rented certain homes in the coastal areas of Tai'zz and are financially supporting certain individuals who seek to overthrow the [Saudi-installed] government," Ali al-Moamari was cited by Al-Jazeera as saying on Friday. "By providing money and arms to certain coastal populations, the UAE is seeking to prepare them to attack forces loyal to [Saudi-allied] Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi," he said. "The coasts of this province are no longer under the control of forces loyal to Mansur Hadi and it is now the UAE which reigns over the area," Moamari added. The UAE joined Saudi Arabia in 2015 in the war seeking to install the pro-Saudi former president Hadi and crush the Yemeni popular Ansarullah movement. However, with the Saudi-led campaign being brought to a standstill due to the Yemeni resistance, increasing rifts have emerged between Saudi-led mercenaries loyal to Hadi and UAE-affiliated forces. Tensions reached a climax last summer, when months of bloody infighting broke out, resulting in heavy casualties between the two sides before a power-sharing settlement was signed in November. A new round of clashes was, nonetheless, reported last month after UAE-backed separatists announced that they have pulled out of committees implementing the agreement in January. Saudi Arabia steps up operations in Yemen's Socotra Control over the strategic Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea has also been a source of rising tension between the UAE and the kingdom. The Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday that Riyadh has launched "new projects" related to "air and road transport" on the island. The Saudi occupation of Socotra comes as previous reports said the UAE had been seeking to exploit the natural resources of the UNESCO-protected island, also known as 'Jewel of Arabia', and turn it into a permanent military outpost-cum-holiday resort. The development projects in the strategic island also come as the Saudi war has devastated vast regions of Yemen. The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi war has claimed more than 100,000 lives in Yemen since 2015. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are now in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Capules family remembered him as a cheerful and inquisitive man who was known as a peacemaker. He pored over his fathers National Geographic magazines and read the dictionary and encyclopedias as a child. He was fond of British shows, such as Doctor Who, and trivia games. For eight years, he organized a trivia fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Dupont Circle, his wife said. He even appeared on one episode of Jeopardy! in 2015. President Akufo-Addo is scheduled to update his fifth update on measures taken against the spread of coronavirus in Ghana. The address is expected to be delivered around 9pm. The Rundown So Far Mr Akufo-Addo delivered his first address to the nation on March 11, 2020 when Ghana had around 57 suspected cases of Covid-19. A day after that address, Ghana recorded two confirmed cases of the virus. In his first address, he called for precautionary measures to be observed. He went on to deliver his second address on March 15, disclosing that he had directed the Finance Minister to release $100 million towards the fight against the virus. In the second address, he imposed a ban on public gatherings including church services. The President again held another address on March 21, the third of its kind, ordering among other things, the closures of Ghana borders land, sea and air for two weeks. His fourth address came with an imposition of a two partial lockdown of Accra, Kumasi and Tema. The lockdown took effect at 1pm on Monday, March 30, this year. It is yet unclear what measures the President is going to introduce tonight. Ghana as at April 5, had recorded 214 cases of coronavirus and five deaths. Daily Guide The network of village volunteers introduced by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to extend the benefits of various schemes to the beneficiaries at their doorsteps is now coming in handy for monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the state. According to official statistics, around 2.5 lakh volunteers village volunteers in rural areas and ward volunteers in the urban areas have so far screened 1.39 lakh families out of the total registered number of 1.44 families in the state, for coronavirus. Follow coronavirus live updates here. Each volunteer has been entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the health status of 50 families by conducting a door-to-door survey. This survey helped the government identify and track 10,000 people who had returned from various foreign countries after February 10. Of them, 140 had shown symptoms for Covid-19, while the remaining 9,860 were asymptomatic, an official in the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) familiar with the development said. The volunteers network was also helpful in tracking around 1100 people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month. Taking the inputs from the police and also the medical and health department, the volunteers having the database of the people in their respective jurisdictions could quickly track the Delhi returnees and help the authorities quarantine such people, the official said. The volunteers are also focusing on tracking even those without a travel history. Anybody who is found to have symptoms of cold and fever are being identified and reported. This is to ensure that there is no community spread of the disease. They have been entrusted with the task of identifying those people whose details arent mentioned in the GOI records and those who intentionally hide their travel history, he said. Each volunteer is responsible for 50 households. If there are any symptomatic persons or foreign returnees in these 50 households, the volunteers make an entry in a mobile application given to them. These entries are directly monitored by the district health authorities and primary health care centres. Depending on the need of the specific case, health teams are rushed to the spot and appropriate action is taken, the official said. Apart from tracking the foreign and Jamaat returnees and keeping them under surveillance during the quarantine period, the volunteers are also playing a major role in spreading awareness about the dos and donts among the families in the villages and urban areas. There are currently 226 positive cases of coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh. Four people have been discharged after they recovered while one person has died. Health minister Alla Nani said focus was mostly on urban areas, which reported higher number of positive cases. Each ward is being e monitored by two teams. The primary team comprising ward volunteers and Asha workers monitors the health status in every household. If there are any suspects, they report to the secondary team which comprises a doctor along with paramedical staff, who take the follow-up action, the minister said. During a video conference last week, chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy appreciated the work done by these volunteers, who he said, were risking their lives daily for the wellbeing of the state. He said the volunteers would not only conduct the survey to trace anybody with symptoms irrespective of travel history, but also play an essential part in delivering essentials and services at the grassroots level during the lockdown. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Odisha recorded the highest single-day surge in positive Covid-19 cases on Sunday with 18 cases being reported from the state capital Bhubaneswar hours after the government allayed fears of community transmission. From 21 cases till Saturday, the number of positive cases surged to 39 on Sunday as 16 cases were reported from Bomikhal area of the city that has been declared as a containment zone since Friday night with entry and exit points sealed. On Friday, three brothers of the area living in a duplex apartment tested positive for Covid-19 sparking fears of community transmission after which the Bhubaneswar municipal administration sealed the area. The state government said the number of Covid-19 positive cases have surged in Bhubaneswar during the last 3 days. Residents of the temple city are urged to take responsibility, stay indoors and work from home. During these challenging times we request people to remain calm. All possible contacts of the Covid positive cases shall be traced, isolated and tested. That is the only way to contain further transmission. Every citizen can break the chain by staying indoors, the Twitter handle of the state health and family welfare department said. Incidentally, the surge in positive cases was reported hours after chief secretary Asit Tripathy clarified that community transmission of the disease is yet to happen in Odisha due to the lockdown and social distancing measures undertaken. As the travel history of the fifth Covid-19 positive patient, a 60-year-old man with co-morbidity conditions was not found initially, we were scared of seeing more positive cases due to community spread. But, we contained it by sealing the area and enforcing a shutdown in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Jajpur. We have actively contained the Covid-19 hotspots during the 48-hour shutdown and hope to continue the same in the near future. The local administration has been empowered to implement the closure of possible infection hotspots for containment of the deadly virus, said Tripathy. The chief secretary further said through door-to-door surveillance in the containment zones and meticulous planning, tracking of contacts of the positive cases, the findings established that the infection of Covid-19 was brought from outside the state. The state governments optimism in containing the spread of the virus, however, did not last till evening, when a staggering 16 cases were reported from Bomikhal, a small locality with more than 3000 houses. Cluster containment has been put in place and house to house survey is going on. All suspects and contacts shall be isolated and tested. Citizens are urged not to panic and stay indoors, health department officials said. Doctors said the surge in community transmission may have begun in Bhubaneswar and in the next few days the cases would jump. We are yet to see the peak. There would be more cases from clusters in newer districts. The government needs to contain areas and go for massive testing. The 3T of testing, tracing and treating is the only solution. More number of medical colleges should be roped in for tests, said Prof Binod Patro, a professor of community medicine in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar. Health secretary NB Dhal said state-owned Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited has been ordered to supply triple layers of surgical masks for all field workers doing surveillance work, staff providing essential services, and ambulance drivers. He asked the Municipal Commissioners, Collectors and Chief District Medical officers to provide triple layer surgical masks to people under quarantine at home and in facilities. Visitors line up outside of the Supreme Court on Oct. 13, 2015, as the justices begin discussing prisoners who were sentenced as juveniles to life without parole. The court has repeatedly limited such sentences and is set to consider further limits in the Mississippi case of a 15-year-old killer. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) Despite their robes, judges are not wizards. They have no conjuring superpowers that allow them to see through juvenile offenders and know the course of their adult lives in prison. Nor are they equipped to determine, today, whether any particular offenders will have a sufficient change of heart, mind and spirit that would warrant their release 10, 20, 30 or more years in the future. So it is absurd to grant judges the power to brand any particular juvenile they see in front of them as incorrigible or so beyond redemption that no future judge or parole board should ever be able to consider how the offender had lived his or her life as an imprisoned adult. The issue arises because the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review the case of Brett Jones, who at 15 killed his grandfather and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Jones appealed on the ground that the judge imposed the sentence without first making a finding that the teen was permanently incorrigible. The state of Mississippi argues that such a finding was unnecessary. Arguments are not yet set, and the case may not be heard until the next term, which begins in October. Over the last several years, the high court has begun to acknowledge what has long been known by most psychologists, neurologists, nations, state courts and, indeed, average people: Juveniles are not the same as adults. Their still-undeveloped brains make them more impetuous, more emotional, less capable of making moral judgments, more capable of eventual rehabilitation. Less moral capacity means less criminal culpability and a different level of punishment. In 1988, the court banned the death penalty for offenders under age 15. In 2005, the court extended the ban to offenders under 18. In 2010, it ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole for non-homicide cases. In 2012, it banned automatic life sentences without parole for juveniles. In 2016, it said the previous ruling applied retroactively. Story continues The justices have acknowledged again and again that juveniles are different and should be treated differently but theyve done it incrementally and at a creeping pace that leaves the United States as the only nation on the globe where it is still possible to sentence people to life without parole for crimes they committed before they turned 18. They made a point of noting that theyd left a window open for the rarest of juvenile offenders, those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility. Unfortunately, the question before the court in Jones vs. Mississippi is not whether Jones judge had the superhuman ability to foresee whether the offender would change in prison, but whether it matters that he failed to make a finding on the record of incorrigibility or irreparable corruption or irretrievable depravity or any other term that suggests that a judge can magically know more about a young offender today than anyone else would know in the future. These are all terms that, as applied to juvenile offenders, are as meaningless as abracadabra. They cannot imbue any judge with access to a young killers future psyche, no matter how horrid the details of the crime. Reading a crime for evidence of the defendants imperviousness to change makes no more sense than reading his palm. Rather than being magic, words like incorrigible actually indicate superstition and fear. They symbolize the folk belief that we can know the full measure of a man based only on his heedless actions as an adolescent, or the companion belief that some young people are superpredators, essentially subhuman, and unable ever to live in civilized society. Thats at stark odds with our societys religious faith that people can change and our scientific knowledge that they often do. Prison may not be an ideal place for teenagers to grow into adulthood, but it is there that young killers will mature and have time plenty of time to look back on the crimes of their youth with the developed brains and perspectives of adults. They may take the opportunity to seek education. They may learn empathy. They may feel remorse. They may be rehabilitated. Or they may not, but whos to know? Their lives and their progress should be reviewed by parole boards or judges who have the benefit of considering the perpetrators' adult conduct over many years in prison. The justices one day will have to acknowledge that their exception for incorrigible youth says less about any offender than it does about adult fears, prejudices and superstitions. Its a shame that they wont be discussing that question in the case of Brett Jones. Advertisement Matt Hancock this afternoon backtracked on a threat to ban outdoor exercise if people do not comply with the coronavirus lockdown as the Health Secretary said such a move is not 'imminent'. Mr Hancock this morning blasted sunbathers for flouting the rules and warned the government is willing to ban 'all forms' of public exercise if a 'small minority' refuse to stay at home. However, speaking at the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference he said he did not want anyone to believe that a further crackdown was in the works as he praised the 'vast majority' of people for sticking to the government's guidance. Mr Hancock said the end of lockdown will be determined by 'how much people follow the rules on social distancing' and 'the more people follow the rules then the faster we will all be through it'. He looked emotional as he added that he had lost 'two people I was fond of', adding that he 'understands how difficult' the lockdown has been. He then issued a direct plea to people who are 'breaking the rules or are pushing the boundaries', telling them: 'You are risking your own life and the lives of others and you are making it harder for us all.' He concluded: We have included exercise as one of the things that you can leave your house to do because exercise is good for our physical and our mental health but please do not bend or break this rule. We cant rule out further steps but I dont want anyone to think that any changes to the social distancing rules are imminent because the vast majority are following the rules. Mr Hancock said this morning that he thought it was 'quite unbelievable' that some people are not staying at home, saying it is 'not a request, it is a requirement'. The government has said that people should only leave their home for food, for medicine, for exercise or to get to work if they absolutely cannot work from where they live. A number of other countries have banned outdoor exercise in a bid to slow the spread of the disease and Mr Hancock said the government was prepared to follow suit. Health Secretary Matt Hancock today backtracked on a threat to ban all public exercise after people continued to break the coronavirus lockdown rules He said: 'My message is really clear: If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home, then you have got to follow the rules.' Meanwhile, Boris Johnson repeated the importance of staying at home this morning as he tweeted he knows it is 'tough' but it will mean 'saving lives'. Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson's interventions came after a south London park was shut indefinitely yesterday after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' not to as green spaces and beaches across the UK filled up. Mr Hancock said staying at home is 'the best way to control the spread of this virus and the fastest way to get us out of this' as he said the guidance is 'absolutely clear' that people should not be out sunbathing in public. A police officer is seen asking a visitor to leave beach in Brighton amid Britain's coronavirus lockdown. The traditional holiday hotspot hit temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius this afternoon A police officer is seen talking to visitors to London's Southwark Park. The capital has become a main epicentre for Britain's virus outbreak A large group of cyclists ride around Regents Park in London today as people are urged to stay at home Police have been pulled off of their usual duties to prevent gatherings in parks as thousands of sunbathers came out in London to take advantage of the good weather. Pictured: Primrose Hill in London People in Roath park in Cardiff are spoken to by police after appearing to ignore social distancing and government advice to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic Police are pictured driving past sunbathers in London's Regents Park after temperatures there topped 20 degrees Celsius Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson's interventions came after a south London park was shut indefinitely yesterday after 3,000 people visited 'despite clear advice' not to as green spaces and beaches across the UK filled up. Pictured: Police question a group in Normand Park, Fulham Officers had been using megaphones to tell sunbathers and others not sticking to the rules that they should return home. Pictured: Southwark Park, South London He said: 'Of course I understand how difficult this is but the problem is that when you go out it is not only that you might directly interact with somebody closer than two metres, it is also that you can spread the virus through touching something which somebody else then touches. You could pick it up that way. 'We are crystal clear in the guidance on what people should and shouldn't do. That guidance is backed up in law. It is not a request, it is a requirement in law and people need to follow it.' Meanwhile, Mr Hancock admitted this morning that hitting his promise of 100,000 coronavirus tests by the end of April will be 'hard' and that people involved in the efforts will have to 'put their shoulders to the wheel' to hit the target. He also insisted Mr Johnson is 'okay' despite still being in coronavirus self-isolation, with the Health Secretary saying the PM 'has very much got his hand on the tiller' of the crisis. Mr Hancock's comments came as: Health experts said the UK is now seven to 10 days away from the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Sadiq Khan hit out at commuters for failing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for coronavirus. Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson's pregnant fiancee, said she had spent the last week in bed suffering coronavirus symptoms, but is 'on the mend'. Health chiefs fear more than 50 doctors could die 'if the PPE dries up and we have no choice but to treat our patients without the right equipment'. The Ministry of Justice said hundreds of risk-assessed prisoners within two months of their release date are to be temporarily released. The total number of confirmed deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus in hospitals in England has risen to 4,494, up 555 on the previous day's update The nation will tonight hear from the Queen as the monarch delivers an address in which she will urge Britain to prove that this generation is 'as strong as any'. There are fears the current warm weather could tempt people to disobey social distancing measures and the government will be hoping the Queen's address will persuade people to stick to the rules, especially as the sun shines. Lambeth Council tweeted yesterday to say that Brockwell Park had been shut because of the 'unacceptable' behaviour of some people. Mr Hancock today said ending lockdown measures 'depends on how people behave' as he urged everyone to stay at home but failed to set out a timeline for life to go back to normal. Police on horseback patrolling Regents Park, London, on Sunday. Officers are keeping an eye out for anyone visiting the park who isn't there for their daily exercise allowance. Sunbathers, including this man next to the River Cam in Cambridge on Sunday, have been seen up and down the country flouting social distancing guidelines and leaving their homes to enjoy the sunny spring weather Regents Park in London is still busy with families out wealking and joggers exercising by the water. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reminded the country that orders to stay inside except for essential exercise or food shopping were 'not a request' Officers can be seen speaking to a family sitting on a bench on Primrose Hill, the warm weekend weather has seen a large amount of people flout social distancing rules and instead head out to sunbathe Prime Minister Boris Johnson today urged people to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown, as some people are tempted outside by the blue skies and sunshine this weekend Sadiq Khan hits out at commuters who refuse to stay at home after 'devastating' deaths of five bus workers Sadiq Khan has hit out at commuters who are refusing to stay at home following the deaths of five London bus workers who tested positive for Covid-19. The mayor of the capital said he was 'absolutely devastated' following the coronavirus deaths. He tweeted a statement saying that 'lives depend' on people following Government rules to stay at home unless travel is essential. Meanwhile, trade union Unite said the deaths were a 'terrible tragedy'. Mr Khan said: 'I have been clear that our incredible public transport staff on the buses, tubes, trams and trains are critical workers, making a heroic effort to allow our NHS staff to save more lives. 'But we need to play our part too and that means fewer Londoners using the public transport network. 'Please follow the rules. Stay at home and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely unavoidable.' So far coronavirus has taken the lives of 4,313 people in the UK, with 41,903 cases of the disease. Advertisement He told Sky News: 'Every single person watching this programme can do their bit to get us out of this faster and they do their bit by following the social distancing rules.' Labour's new leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party will back the government if it decides to ban public exercise. He told the BBC: 'Yes, we would. We do have to take whatever steps are necessary and social distancing, staying indoors is really difficult for people but we have got to get through this and every time people break the guidance from the government they put other people at risk.' It came as it emerged that Mr Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are locked in a battle over when to lift the economically devastating lockdown. Mr Sunak has made 'robust' representations to the Health Secretary, arguing that unless a path is mapped now for a swift return to normal economic activity it could cause lasting damage to the country. Government critics of Mr Hancock argue his 'careerist' fear of being personally blamed for a collapse in the NHS is blinding him to the dangers of a protracted lockdown. But allies of Mr Hancock hit back last night, saying: 'He is just doing his job, which is to protect the NHS.' A formal decision about the extension of the strict social distancing rules cannot be made until Good Friday the earliest point at which its effects would register on the infection figures. However, with more than 700 extra deaths recorded yesterday, an extension for at least another three weeks after Easter is seen as a formality. Mr Hancock today dismissed the claims regarding his relationship with Mr Sunak as he said: 'We are working very closely together and what matters is that we can get out of this as fast as possible and to do that we have to make sure that as many people as possible follow the rules so that we can slow the spread.' The Queen will tonight deliver a televised message in which she will recognise the pain felt by many families living through this 'time of disruption'. Matt Hancock today took aim at sunbathers flouting coronavirus lockdown rules as he said it was 'unbelievable' a 'small minority' of people are not staying at home This group of men and women were exercising together in Roath Park in Cardiff, the public has been advised to only go out in groups with people from your household, to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus between homes Police were parked up in Roath park to deter anyone who was not exercising to leave the park in Cardiff on Sunday Police pour water over couple's barbecue Police in Sussex were forced to pour a helmet full of water over a couple's barbecue after they refused to follow the government's lockdown rules. The pair started a barbecue on Hove beach yesterday. Police confirmed a 31-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman, both from Hove, are set to be summoned to court for breaching Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. On social media Sussex Police said they were disappointed that the couple showed 'disregard for public safety'. A message on the Sussex Police Facebook page read: 'We can only express disappointment in the two people who showed disregard for public safety and started a BBQ on Hove beach today. 'The severity of this public health emergency means they will be summonsed to court for breaching the Coronavirus Act 2020. 'Sunday is set to be another pleasant day and we again appeal to everyone to continue show their support for our NHS and stay at home.' Advertisement She will personally thank front-line NHS staff, care workers and others carrying out essential roles for their efforts, in what is expected to be a deeply personal message reflecting her experience in other difficult times. The UK death toll yesterday rose by 708 - bringing the number of coronavirus-related hospital deaths to 4,313 as of 5pm on Friday, up from 3,605 the day before. A five-year-old child was among the victims. The Queen will say in her address to the country and Commonwealth: 'I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. 'And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. 'That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise this country.' She will acknowledge the 'grief' some have experienced, the 'financial difficulties' many face, and the 'enormous changes' the country is enduring, after almost two weeks of lockdown to tackle the spread of Covid-19. With hundreds of thousands answering the call for NHS volunteers and others supporting vulnerable people in their communities, the monarch will say she hopes in the future everyone will be able to feel 'pride' in how they rose to the challenge. Commenting on the difficulties facing the nation, the Queen, 93, will say: 'I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. 'A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.' In reference to the warm weather, the Queen will thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. Police in Regents Park as people lie in the grass during the warm weather on Sunday. Britain has been in lockdown for nearly two weeks, but people are still flouting the social distancing guidelines set out by Boris Johnson on March 23 Feeding the swans and kite flying aren't reasons to leave the house during Britain's lockdown, but people flocked to the River Cam in Cambridge nonetheless on Sunday as the sun shone above Brockwell Park in south London is now shut after thousands of people flocked there yesterday. The gates to the park are pictured today as people observe social distancing rules as they pass by There were plenty of people out in Greenwich Park today. The government has said people can leave their homes for exercise Green spaces across the UK were full of people on Saturday. Pictured is Regent's Park in central London where people can be seen lounging by the water in groups Members of the public are advised to stay at least two metres away from each other if they go outside, but as crowds head out to enjoy the sun, people were forced closer together, like these cyclists in Cambridge on Sunday morning The Queen will tonight deliver a rallying cry to the nation in which she expresses hope that the 'quiet, good-humoured resolve' of the British people will help to overcome the coronavirus crisis At any other time this weather would be perfect for a trip to the seaside, but Boscombe beach should be empty today as the government told the country to stay indoors and help stop the spread of coronavirus two weeks ago The televised address will be a rare event, with the head of state only making three previous appearances during troubled times. Speeches were broadcast after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, ahead of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral in 1997, and about the first Gulf War in 1991. Earlier today it was announced Lord Bath of Weymouth, the eccentric owner of Longleat Safari Park, died after testing positive for coronavirus. Lord Bath of Weymouth died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath on Saturday. He was 87-years-old and had been diagnosed with coronavirus Family of Lord Bath released on a statement on Sunday, in which they expressed their 'greatest appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately' Alexander Thynn was the owner of Longleat Safari Park in Warminster, but was best known for his flamboyant dress sense and affairs with as many as 70 women, which he referred to as his 'wifelets' People were seen lying on towels in Regents Park to soak up the spring sunshine. Hundreds more deaths due to coronavirus were announced on Sunday, as people continue to leave the house without good reason Cyclists gather in Regents Park and laze on the grass, police were patrolling on Sunday to stop people from gathering but it seems many people were still out in the sunshine Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, died at the Royal United Hospital in Bath yesterday after being admitted on March 28. He was the owner of Longleat Safari Park in Warminster, but was best known for his flamboyant dress sense and affairs with as many as 70 women, which he referred to as his 'wifelets'. Viscount Weymouth gave many of his mistresses homes to live in within the grounds of his sprawling Wiltshire estate. He was married to Anna Gael, with whom he had two children, but had affairs with 70 'wifelets' who he tried to put up around the Longleat estates. Longleat Safari Park said in a statement: 'It is with the deepest sadness we have to announce Lord Bath has died at the age of 87. 'The family would like to express their greatest appreciation for the dedicated team of nurses, doctors and other staff who cared so professionally and compassionately for Alexander in these extremely difficult times for everyone.' While people were out ignoring isolation guidelines on Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer was appointed the new leader of the Labour Party. Sir Keir Starmer has attacked the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic on his first day as Labour leader. Sir Keir, pictured arriving at Broadcasting House on Sunday, became the new Leader of the Opposition on Saturday Test centres have popped up across the UK in major locations. Here a man holds a sign at a drive-through testing centre which has been built at Glasgow Airport to help stop the spread of the coronavirus disease in Scotland Beflast's SSE Arena has been converted into a makeshift testing centre to keep track of Northern Ireland's coronavirus cases so far. Staff and a patient are pictured at the centre on Sunday Manchester Airport is another airport being used as a coronavirus testing centre, centre's are being set up around the country to track the number of British cases of the global pandemic Speaking today the new Leader of the Opposition claimed 'serious mistakes' have been made by Boris Johnson and the Government over the coronavirus. Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Keir wrote: 'Let's be honest, serious mistakes have been made. 'The public is placing an enormous trust in the Government at the moment: it is vital that that trust is met with openness and transparency about those mistakes and the decisions that have been made.' As well as his calls on testing and PPE, Sir Keir said the UK should build vaccination centres in towns and cities across the country so 'the minute a vaccine becomes available, we can begin to protect the entire population'. He also said ministers should publish their exit strategy for guiding the UK out of the current state of lockdown. One in five doctors are off work because of coronavirus reveals shocking new survey as thousands of NHS staff wait to be tested despite pledge to check 100,000 people a day by the end of the month One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work, despite Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying on Thursday that there is a 5.7 per cent absence rate among doctors. The figures come just a day after Britain's death toll from the virus jumped to 708 in 24 hours, with a five-year-old child being among the 4,313 known to have died, out of 41,903 confirmed cases. The poll, conducted by The Sunday Times and the Royal College of Physicians, found that the worst-hit areas for absences are central London and the northeast, where 30 per cent of doctors are off work. One in three - 34 per cent - have been absent at some point during the coronavirus crisis. The shocking figures will pile pressure on ministers to ensure that NHS staff are told whether or not they have the virus, with thousands still waiting to be tested despite a pledge to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. One in five doctors in the UK are off work because of coronavirus, a shocking new survey has revealed Professor Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which represents 3,500 critical care medics, told The Sunday Times: 'I know there are departments where up to 50 per cent of their medical staff are unable to work because of this.' An A&E doctor at a London hospital said staff were 'dropping like flies', while as many as 27 nurses from Southend Hospital's A&E department in Essex are said to have become ill. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This is despite claims from ministers that they have distributed millions of items. At least eight NHS staff have already been killed by the virus, including three nurses, two of whom were mothers in their thirties. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. The poll of more than 2,500 doctors found that 18 per cent are off work and it comes just a day after Britain's death toll jumped to 708 in 24 hours. Pictured: An NHS worker puts their completed test into a container at a testing site near The 02 in Greenwich on Saturday His mother, Gina Gustilo, 50, told The Mail on Sunday her son had not been wearing the right protective clothing at work. He returned home on Friday following a night shift, after complaining of suffering a headache and high temperature throughout the night. Ms Gustilo said her son's colleagues told her he was not wearing 'proper' protective clothing, adding: 'They wear PPE, but not totally protective of the mouth. They wear the normal masks.' Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said between 20 and 30 per cent of ambulance staff were off work either with Covid-19 symptoms or self-isolating. The latest nurse to die, John Alagos, 23, collapsed and died at home after an exhausting 12-hour shift. He is believed to have died after falling ill with coronavirus Yesterday, Michael Gove said at a Downing Street press conference that just under 11,000 people were tested for the virus on Friday. This is far short of the 100,000 figure which Health Secretary Matt Hancock had promised by the end of the month. Britain's biotech scientists also broke their silence on Saturday to warn that they do not have enough equipment to fulfil Mr Hancock's pledge. The survey also found that nearly one in four doctors have struggled to get hold of sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) The 'frustrated' Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), which represents around 17,000 NHS lab scientists and staff, warned that Mr Hancock's plan would not work if things stay as they are. The body said there is a lack of chemical reagents, test tubes and swabs, forcing its president Allan Wilson to warn that the Government's strategy is a 'bit of a muddle'. It has forced Boris Johnson to compete with prime ministers and presidents around the world by personally calling major companies making test kits to try to secure more supply for the UK. The IBMS said it could only increase testing capacity 'if we are given what we need' and that their current supply of materials was being 'tested to the limit'. American actor Zac Efron admitted that he has no desire to get back in the extremely good shape he was in while filming the movie 'Baywatch'. According to Fox News, the 32-year-old actor appeared on the latest episode of 'Hot Ones' with host Sean Evans. While he tried to choke down some spicy chicken wings, Efron answered questions about his career in Hollywood as well as the body transformation he underwent to star alongside Dwayne Johnson in the 2017 flick. Effron admitted that "that was actually an important time to do Baywatch," because he realized that when he was done with the shooting of the movie, "I don't ever want to be in that good of shape again. Really. It was so hard." The 'High School Musical' star added, "You're working with almost no wiggle room, right? You've got things like water under your skin that you're worrying about, making your six-pack into a four-pack. S*** like that it's just not ... it's just stupid." Efron also noted that he's glad his physique made the movie look good and even admitted he would do it again if the right project absolutely demanded it. The '17 Again' actor said,"I'm good. Take care of your heart, take care of your brain and you're good." However, this isn't the first time the 'We are your friends' star criticised his own body. In May 2019, when he appeared on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' and the host gave him a chance to meet his new Madame Tussauds wax figure face-to-face. "Whoa, oh whoa, Weird -- whoever did this, I'm very impressed and scared," Efron said after seeing the statue for the first time. "They did a good job. It's a little bigger than me," he added. DeGeneres then pointed to a vein on the wax figure's torso and said, "Look at the vein right there." Effron said, "That's real," after which he lifted up his shirt and showing off his chiselled abs while the crowd erupted in screams and applause. "That's too big. For guys, that's unrealistic," But, Efron noted, "referring to the statue, which was modelled after his look in 'Baywatch'. "I'm telling you, I got very big and buff for that movie. But I don't want people to think that's the best way to be. Be your size," he said, again to the applause of the crowd. "I don't want to glamorize this," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ATLANTA Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed a shelter-in-place order on Thursday, shutting down restaurant dining rooms, barbershops, bars and gyms across the state. He called it an effort to buy critical time as Georgia braced for a surge in cases of the coronavirus. Yet as soon as the order went into effect the next evening, the sandy beaches on Tybee Island, which had been closed for two weeks, were once again open to the public. The executive order signed by Mr. Kemp, who had been among the governors resisting more-stringent measures, has stirred a backlash from some local officials as it superseded their efforts to curb the viruss spread, particularly in coastal communities that had moved to close beaches on their own. No one wants to walk on the beach more than I, Shirley Sessions, the mayor of Tybee Island, a community of about 3,000 people just below the South Carolina state line, said in a letter to Mr. Kemp. However, I firmly believe it is a small sacrifice to pay in the long run to help conquer this Covid-19 enemy. While the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic bringing most of the US to a standstill, its government space agency - NASA, on Sunday, has successfully deployed its James Webb telescope's primary mirror for the first time. Earlier, NASA had paused all the work related to the telescope due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused a delay in the launch of the telescope. The US which is currently the epicenter of the pandemic has reported 3,27,871 cases with 9325 deaths till date. World's largest radio telescope SKA - backed by India - must raise $1 bn to become reality Webb's mirror unfolded Recent reports state the James Webb telescope was able to successfully extend and unfold its entire length covering 6.5 meters primary mirror. The mirror was tested by reportedly being hooked to specialized gravity-offsetting equipment that simulated the zero-gravity environment in space. While the mirror deployed the full mirror, it also successfully achieved it in a space-like environment. NASA's James Webb telescope assembled, ready to succeed iconic Hubble NASA's Webb telescope assembled In August, NASA announced that its engineers have fully assembled the two halves of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) for the first time at Northrop Grummans facilities in Redondo Beach, California. After mechanically connecting the telescope, NASA then connected the two halves electrically and then tested its connection. Engineers are also set to test the five-layer sun shield of the telescope which is designed to keep Webb's mirrors and scientific instruments cold by blocking infrared light from the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Currently, the newly assembled telescope is going through additional environmental testing. The Earth is 'standing still' claim seismologists citing less human activity during Covid What will Webb do? Touted as NASA's most powerful and complex space telescope, the Webb Telescope will explore the cosmos using infrared light, from planets and moons throughout the universe, according to NASA. Webb - NASA's Hubble Telescope's successor, is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Canadian Space Agency. Using Webb, NASA aims to explore our solar system in a deeper manner. Webb will also probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and the earth's place in it. This will be the world's premier space science observatory, as per NASA. COVID-19: 4 top universities receive funding to develop equipment to fight novel virus Ham radio operators serve important role KPC News reports on the important role of radio amateurs during natural disasters The article says: While the internet, email and social media enable us to communicate with just about anyone, when the power goes out, so do those sources. Amateur ham radio operators, however, are still able to communicate and send messages on very limited power or even battery power with people around the world. Of the four northeast Indiana counties, Steuben has the most amateur radio operators with 161. DeKalb County has 157 licensed operators. Noble has 142 operators, and LaGrange has 45 licensed operators. Two of them, Auburn resident Jack Dold, call sign W9OWO, and Mark Hansbarger, call sign AA9MU, shared how they became interested. Read the full story at https://www.kpcnews.com/covid-19/article_3a7871ce-2733-5db3-aab0-80138f0f4006.html A staff member wears a face mask with a Taiwanese flag design, as protection due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at a factory for non woven filter fabric used to make surgical face masks, in Taoyuan, Taiwan, March 30, 2020. Reuters Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 12:38:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close FUZHOU, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A team of 12 medical experts departed from Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province, for the Philippines Sunday morning to aid the archipelagic country to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. The team comprises medical experts from three hospitals and the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) of Fujian, as well as two liaison staff from the provincial foreign affairs office. The experts specialize in various areas, including respiratory, intensive care, hospital infection control, nursing, integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and microbiological testing. Their missions will include sharing China's experience in the testing, treatment, and prevention and control of COVID-19 with local hospitals and experts, and providing treatment advice. On March 24, medical experts from eastern China's Zhejiang Province shared COVID-19 treatment experience with peers from the Philippines via an online meeting. The medical team is expected to arrive at Manila this afternoon. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 21:15:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Medical experts heading to the Philippines pose for a group photo before departure in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, April 5, 2020. A team of 12 medical experts departed from Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province, for the Philippines Sunday morning to aid the archipelagic country to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.(Xinhua/Jiang Kehong) China's respect for life knows no borders or races. It has been cooperating with the international community in containing the pandemic and saving lives in an open, transparent and responsible manner. BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China's national mourning on Saturday on those who died in the coronavirus outbreak shows the country's respect for life. The considerable sacrifice it has made to bring the pandemic under control should be remembered. But a few western politicians have been keen on smearing China's efforts. It can not be more indignant. In the past months, China fought a fierce battle against the coronavirus, building the first line of defense and winning precious time for the world to prepare. Before it was made, China has paid a high price. People pay a silent tribute to martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and compatriots who died of the disease in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Qing) More than 3,000 lives were lost in the Chinese mainland. On Saturday, also the Tomb-sweeping Day in China, the whole country stood in silence in remembrance. It was the first time that China launched nationwide mourning due to a major public health emergency. Life is of paramount importance. Since the battle began, China has been doing everything it can to save lives. The top leadership has always stressed the need to put people's lives and health in the first place. Respect for life is the key for China to effectively bring the pandemic under control in such a short period of time. But a few western politicians and media outlets have never stopped bashing, smearing and attacking China's efforts out of deep-seated ideological bias. They are fond of hyping up the abuse of human rights rhetoric but turn a deaf ear to the pandemic information China shared at the beginning, wasting the precious time that China has earned. They openly adopt the "double standard" and shift blame to China to cover up their inability. They air racist and xenophobic remarks, showing full malice on China. Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attempted to write the "Wuhan virus" into the communique of the G-7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting and played his same old tune of attacking China for spreading false information. It makes him fail to live up to the decency of his capacity but underlines his shameless and immoral image. Members of Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team (R) communicate with their Lao peers about the situation of confirmed COVID-19 patients in Lao government-designated Mittaphab Hospital (Hospital 150) in Vientiane, Laos, April 2, 2020. (Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team/Handout via Xinhua) Recently, 100 scholars from China wrote an open letter, calling for cooperation and solidarity to fight the common enemy of mankind. Over 90 bipartisan, former high-ranking government officials and experts from the United States also released a joint statement urging cooperation with China to combat COVID-19. Such rational, calm and positive voices are welcome at this moment. China's respect for life knows no borders or races. It has been cooperating with the international community in containing the pandemic and saving lives in an open, transparent and responsible manner. It provided emergency assistance to more than 80 countries and international organizations and has sent medical teams and expert groups to many countries for treatment. China's diagnosis and treatment solution plans were also shared in a timely manner with more than 180 countries and international and regional organizations. China's respect for the lives of all humanity demonstrates its grand vision of building a community of shared future for mankind. People need to stay more united until the pandemic is brought to an end. It can be a good consolation to those who now rest in peace. Ten Philippines nationals have been booked for residing in Navi Mumbai without informing authorities, police said on Sunday. The ten had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month and then come to Navi Mumbai, an official said, and three of them had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. "They were staying in Nurul Islam Trust premises in Vashi between March 10-16 without informing police. They have been booked under IPC, Epidemic Diseases Act, Foreigners Act and Maharashtra COVID-19 Measures," Inspector Sanjeev Dhumal of Vashi police station said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around Connecticut residents who are stuck at home have been making signs, putting messages in windows and doing other artistic measures to share positive and other thoughts as coronavirus spreads through the state. Some signs have shared messages to stay safe and stay healthy, some of them posted by state or local officials. The messages are shared here. A nurse who believed she contracted COVID-19 while treating a patient at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit was found dead alone in her Michigan home just days after she was twice denied a coronavirus test because she did not show severe symptoms. Lisa Ewalds body was discovered inside her living room in Dearborn, Michigan, by a friend on Wednesday just days before her 54th birthday. Friends and family described Ewald as a happy and optimistic person who was known to have asthma. Despite her underlying health condition, she was willing to risk her life to help others, according to her family. She dedicated her life to obviously healthcare and helping other people, but also to my grandmother, Ewalds niece, Candace Ewald, told WXYZ-TV. Lisa Ewald, 53, a nurse who was known to have asthma, died after contracting COVID-19 Ewald, a nurse at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, was found dead in her living room on Wednesday in Dearborn, Michigan Ewald was turned down for a coronavirus test twice by the hospital where she worked (above) Joseph Lenard, a friend of Ewald, said: We all knew the initial news that this was going to hit the US but she gave no care or concern for herself but only care and concern for others. There are not adequate words to describe how saddened we are, Wright Lassiter III, the president and CEO of the Henry Ford Health System, said on Friday. Our hearts ache for our employee's family, friends and colleagues. As health care providers on the front lines of this pandemic, we know we are not immune to its traumatic effects. We continue to fight with every resource we have to protect our employees and provide the safest care to our patients. Because of patient privacy obligations, we cannot share additional information. Ewald had been working at Ford Hospital for the past 20 years as a nurse. She most recently specialized in post-surgery rehab, according to the Detroit Free Press. Her niece and nephew, Mandi and Micah Standifer of Shelby Townships, described Ewald as a jokester and a nerd in the best way. Ewald was a frequent visitor at the annual Motor City Comic Con. She was also a huge fan of the Star Trek series and the Harry Potter franchise. Its hard to believe this even happened, because she was so full of life, said Micah Standifer, 35. Shes the person you would expect to beat it. Ewald also loved to travel and was an active member of the Wayne County Republican Party. Divinia 'Debbie' Accad, 72, a nurse at the Detroit VA Medical Center, died of complications from COVID-19 Mandi, 32, told the Free Press that Ewald believed that she contracted coronavirus while treating a patient who would later test positive. Ewald told Standifer that she was not wearing a mask while tending to the patient. In late March, when Ewald twice asked hospital staff to be tested for COVID-19, she was turned away because her symptoms were not severe enough at the time. Carly Ewald, another niece, told WJBK-TV that her aunt lost her sense of smell and taste as her condition deteriorated. By the time she managed to get tested, it was too late. She tested positive while exhibiting full-blown symptoms of COVID-19, including a persistently high fever and a cough. I'm sorry she was alone, and I that I love her, Carly said. She just loved the family and she just loved everybody and she just wanted to make sure everybody was okay all the time, another niece, Candace Ewald, said. She always wanted to make sure everybody was okay. When asked about testing employees, Henry Ford Health System said: Regarding employee testing, we adhere strictly to the CDC guidelines. Currently, the CDC recommends testing employees only when they become symptomatic. Michigan this past weekend has been reeling over the deaths of two other healthcare professionals who contracted coronavirus. Divinia Accad, 72, a long-time nurse at the VAs John D. Dingell Medical Center in Detroit, died on Monday of complications of the coronavirus. Accad died as she planned to retire from nursing, her son, Mark Accad, told the Free Press on Friday. Mark Accad said his mother spent 11 days in the hospital after she was diagnosed with pneumonia. He said he was able to see her twice, but was denied a third visit. Mark Accad said his final visit with his mother was at the morgue. James House, a 40-year-old nurse at a Detroit nursing home, died earlier this week after falling ill. James House, 40, a nurse at a Detroit nursing home, died on Tuesday after he exhibited symptoms of coronavirus Though he was never tested for COVID-19, his sister Catrisha House-Phelphs told the Free Press Friday that her brother worked at Omni Continuing Care on Conner in Detroit. Before he died, House exhibited symptoms of the disease, including shortness of breath, dry cough, and a low-grade fever. House, a resident of Warren, started feeling sick two weeks ago, according to House-Phelphs. She said that when he tried to get tested at a drive-up site, he was turned away. House was told to go home and wait a week. On Tuesday, he went to work, but within hours he fell ill. A few hours later, he was hospitalized. That same day, he was pronounced dead. 'Things moved so fast,' she said. 'It was like within a couple of hours of him being admitted, he had passed away.' Irelands premier is making a return to the health service to help in the battle against coronavirus. Leo Varadkar is a qualified medical doctor but has been working full-time in politics in recent years. He has now rejoined the medical register to offer his services and will work one session a week. The Taoiseach was one of thousands across Ireland who answered the call to return to the health sector. A spokesman told the PA news agency: Dr Varadkar rejoined the medical register last month. He has offered his services to the HSE for one session a week in areas that are within his scope of practice. Many of his family and friends are working in the health service. He wanted to help out even in a small way. COVID-19 success stories After a 15 day battle in the hospital and receiving critical care for COVID-19, Christina Paz, the 47-year-old mother of five was discharged from Staten Island University Hospital - South and reunited with her husband. Christina, thank you for letting us share this wonderful news and thank you to everyone working so hard to get us through this very difficult time! Stay home and stay safe! #COVID19 #StatenIsland #InThisTogether Staten Island USA #Hope #NorthwellLife Posted by Staten Island University Hospital on Saturday, April 4, 2020 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island mom who spent more than two weeks hospitalized with coronavirus reached a major milestone in her recovery Friday as she was discharged and reunited with her husband -- and the staff who treated her marked it with an unforgettable send-off. Christina Paz, 47, had been battling the disease for 15 days at Staten Island University Hospitals (SIUH) South site. During that time, she was away from her five children and husband. In a video shared by SIUH, Paz is wheeled out of the hospital through hallways lined with applauding medical staff, all wearing protective face masks. A clearly emotional Paz, also in a face mask, waves to the staff. She becomes tearful as she sees her husband, getting up to give him a long-awaited hug. SIUH Executive Director Brahim Ardolic says that Pazs story exemplifies the strength in those saving lives and those fighting the virus. This is a testament to the courageous providers who cared for this woman as well as her own fight to live. We are incredibly proud of all the providers that took care of her and the providers across the country, Ardolic told the Advance/SILive.com. This shows that we are much stronger together than this terrible virus ever could be," Ardolic added. According to the latest data from Staten Islands hospitals on Friday, 431 patients have been treated for coronavirus and released from the boroughs two private hospitals, SIUH and Richmond University Medical Center. On Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that a full two-thirds of people who had been hospitalized in the state for coronavirus treatment have since been released. On Friday, April 3, a total of 1,592 people had been discharged from New York state hospitals, up 10% from the previous day. *** Be the first to know: Sign up for our newsletters; get breaking news and top stories pushed to your phone with the SILive.com mobile app. Sign up for text message alerts from SILive.com on coronavirus: RELATED COVERAGE: At least 5,000 coronavirus patients will be in citys ICU beds, mayor says, as NYC waits for supplies, military personnel from DC EMTs to stop taking patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals if resuscitation isnt successful Crime down, except for burglaries, across NYC amid coronavirus shutdown Staten Island healthcare facilities to receive funding to battle coronavirus Data analysis: Three weeks in, how the coronavirus has spread in our borough Data shows which Staten Island zip codes have the most coronavirus cases KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade says Gov. Mike Parson's statewide stay-at-home order - issued Friday - is not enough. In a statement from Quade, she says the order is not what was advertised and what health care professionals and residents have been demanding. The Army's Central Command has directed its soldiers here not to visit Sadar Bazaar, which comes under the Lucknow Cantonment Board, after police sealed the area when a group of Tablighi Jamaat members who had been to the Nizamuddin event and tested COVID-19 positive were found staying in a mosque here. Lucknow Police Commissioner Sujit Pandey had said that 12 members of Tablighi Jamaat were found staying in a mosque in Sadar area on Friday. "They had tested positive for coronavirus. As soon as, the information was received, Sadar was turned into a sterile zone to prevent spread of the virus." Public announcements were made in the area asking people to stay in their homes. A Defence PRO said, "Following directions of the government, there has been lockdown in cantonment. After getting COVID-19 cases in Sadar, it is out of bound for soldiers. Directions have been given to soldiers to not go to Sadar area." She added that in a dedicated COVID-19 cell is functioning in the Central Command to provide help to its personnel. Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi has said that the area has been sealed as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of coronavirus. Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash on Sunday told PTI, "No curfew has been imposed. Sanitisation has been done, and contact tracing is being done by medical teams." Vishal Mehrotra, a resident of Sadar Bazaar said, "There is complete lockdown in the area. Strict vigil is being maintained by the police, district administration and the military. No one is allowed to leave their houses, except to get medicines. Policemen are helping the local residents to get vegetables, but no one is allowed to venture in the market area. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said 1,205 people, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month and later returned to the state, have been quarantined so far. Speaking to reporters here, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said, "A total of 1,499 have been identified from the state so far who had attended the Jamaat. This includes 301 from Meerut zone, 281 from Bareilly zone, 67 from Kanpur zone, 232 from Varanasi zone, 108 from Lucknow zone, 147 from Agra zone, 56 from Prayagraj, and 213 in Gorakhpur. Of the 1,499, as many as 1,205 persons have been quarantined so far." Among the attendees, 305 people were foreigners with passports of 249 of them seized, he added. Fourty-two FIRs have been registered in 20 districts of the state and cases registered against 295 foreigners while efforts are on to ascertain the places they had visited since the event took place, Awasthi pointed out. He also said 138 of the attendees have so far tested COVID-19 positive. "The number has increased and this is a cause of concern for us," the senior officer said. Religious spots, homes and other places where they had stayed are being ascertained through massive contact tracing, Awasthi said. Police are using drones to oversee the places in some of the districts for effective monitoring of the lockdown. "The Tablighi Jamaat attendees who tested COVID-19 positive are being monitored as we had got complaints about them not cooperating with the hospital staff," Awasthi said. He added that if there are others who had attended the congregation and are still left out, they should voluntarily come forward and inform the government. Regarding the condition of prisoners in the state, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) informed that 10,732 inmates have been released from UP jails so far. As many as 31 production units of personal protective equioment (PPE) and 99 factory units of hand sanitisers have become functional in the state, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Neolithic populations have long been credited with bringing about a revolution in farming practices across Europe. However, a new study suggests it was not until the Bronze Age several millennia later that human activity led to significant changes to the continent's landscape. Scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Plymouth led research tracing how the two major human migrations recorded in Holocene Europe -- the northwestward movement of Anatolian farmer populations during the Neolithic and the westward movement of Yamnaya steppe peoples during the Bronze Age -- unfolded. In particular, they analysed how they were associated with changes in vegetation -- which led to Europe's forests being replaced with the agricultural landscape still much in evidence today. Their results, published in PNAS, show the two migrations differ markedly in both their spread and environmental implications, with the Yamnaya expansion moving quicker and resulting in greater vegetation changes than the earlier Neolithic farmer expansion. The study -- also involving the University of Gothenburg and the University of Cambridge -- used techniques commonly applied in environmental science to model climate and pollution, and applied them to instead analyse human population movements in the last 10 millennia of European history. It showed that a decline in broad-leaf forest and an increase in pasture and natural grassland vegetation was concurrent with a decline in hunter-gatherer ancestry, and may have been associated with the fast movement of steppe peoples during the Bronze Age. It also demonstrated that natural variations in climate patterns during this period are associated with these land cover changes. The research is the first to model the spread of ancestry in ancient genomes through time and space, and provides the first framework for comparing human migrations and land cover changes, while also accounting for changes in climate. Dr Fernando Racimo, Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen and the study's lead author, said: "The movement of steppe peoples that occurred in the Bronze Age had a particularly strong impact on European vegetation. As these peoples were moving westward, we see increases in the amount of pasture lands and decreases in broad leaf forests throughout the continent. We can now also compare movements of genes to the spread of cultural packages. In the case of the Neolithic farming revolution, for example, the two track each other particularly well, in both space and time." The research made use of land cover maps showing vegetation change over the past 11,000 years, which were produced through the University of Plymouth's Deforesting Europe project. Scientists working on that project have previously shown more than half of Europe's forests have disappeared over the past 6,000 years due to increasing demand for agricultural land and the use of wood as a source of fuel. Dr Jessie Woodbridge, Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth and co-author on the study, added: "European landscapes have been transformed drastically over thousands of years. Knowledge of how people interacted with their environment in the past has implications for understanding the way in which people use and impact upon the world today. Collaboration with palaeo-geneticists has allowed the migration of human populations in the past to be tracked using ancient DNA, and for the first time allowed us to assess the impact of different farming populations on land-cover change, which provides new insights into past human-environment interactions." Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 18:38:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Members of the Chinese medical team attend a briefing session with DOH officials at the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) headquarters in Manila, the Philippines, on April 6, 2020. The medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived in Manila on Sunday to assist and advise the Philippines in its ongoing efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. The 12-member Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team comprises medical experts in the fields of infectious disease prevention and control, clinic treatment, and laboratory testing. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) MANILA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived in Manila on Sunday to assist and advise the Philippines in its ongoing efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. The 12-member Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team comprises medical experts in the fields of infectious disease prevention and control, clinic treatment, and laboratory testing. Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said the team, which arrived on a chartered flight, is among the first three teams sent by China to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. Huang said in a statement that most of the team members have had frontline experience in fighting against the epidemic. Huang expressed hope that "the arrival of this team will help the Philippines improve its ability of epidemic prevention and control as well as diagnosis and treatment, so as to boost the confidence of the public in overcoming the COVID-19." Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin and Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque were on hand to welcome the Chinese team. Locsin and Duque thanked China for its help to the Philippines in combating the fast-spreading viral disease. "To the Chinese people, thank you so much! We are so grateful because this is a new virus, and the only ones who can really tell us how to handle it are those who fought it on the ground and those are the experts in China," Locsin told Xinhua, adding China's gesture is "deeply appreciated, (and) never be forgotten." Duque said the Philippines is grateful to the Chinese government and its people for "their benevolence, their generosity," adding the Philippines will benefit from the support. Besides dispatching the medical expert team, China also donated to the Philippines a new batch of medical supplies, including 300,000 surgical masks, 30,000 medical N95 masks, 5,000 medical protective suits, 5,000 medical face shields, and 30 non-invasive ventilators. "Virus respects no borders. We always say that a friend in need is a friend indeed. During the time of crisis, the Chinese government and people feel keenly for the health and safety of the Filipino people," Ambassador Huang said. Huang said that since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Philippines in early March, China has been providing support and assistance to the Philippines to the best of its ability. As of Sunday, the Philippines said it has tallied 3,246 COVID-19 cases, including 152 deaths and 64 recoveries. Getting a will was never a big priority for Donald and Charlene Kilinski. The coronavirus pandemic has changed all that. The Wall couple, in their mid-50s, have been practicing social distancing. They said theyre anxious, and they only go out for walks or to buy groceries. Donald, 56, recently retired after serving 35 years for the postal service. Charlene, 54, works in the travel industry and has been able to work from home. People are dying so quickly from COVID-19, Donald Kilinski said. Wed like to be financially prepared if anything should happen to us. The couple doesnt have children, but theyd like their estate to go to their nieces and nephews. But how can someone get a will in the age of coronavirus? Is an online will valid? Are estate planning attorneys working remotely? Heres what you need to know. Are more people looking for a will? The pandemic has unquestionably encouraged individuals, many younger and who had never prepared a will, to start the process, said Catherine Romania, an estate planning attorney with Witman Stadtmauer in Florham Park. She said since the middle of March, her firm has had a number of new clients, both in the medical field and outside of the medical field, asking about estate planning. Some clients who we were working with prior to the pandemic are suddenly anxious to have their documents completed and signed, she said. In addition, existing clients who already have signed estate planning documents have contacted us over the past several weeks to request simple changes to their documents as a result of the pandemic. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage For example, Romania said, some want changes because of the fall in the stock market and the decrease in the size of their overall estate. Others wish to do more sophisticated estate planning to take advantage of the lower value of their current holdings in anticipation of an increase once the pandemic is over. Eric Goldberg, member and co-chair of the Elder Law Practice at Mandelbaum Salsburg in Roseland said he hasnt had requests specifically from health care workers or others on the front lines of the fight against coronavirus, but he is seeing a steady flow of inquiries from the general public. Some are from the adult children of our current or prospective senior clients and others are from those individuals stuck at home with time to think, he said. My feeling is that [health care workers] are so busy right now and are thinking less about their planning than the crisis in front of them." Why do I need a will? Pretty much everyone should have a will. Without a will, state law will decide what happens to your property and assets, and who will be the guardian of your minor children. What makes a will legal? Under New Jersey law, a will needs to be in writing and signed by the testator the person creating the will, said Shirley Whitenack, an estate planning attorney with Schenck, Price, Smith & King in Florham Park. It also needs to be signed by two witnesses who watched the testator sign the will. She said a notary is not technically required. However, unless the two witnesses and a notary sign an additional form making the will `self-proving either at the time of the execution or after the will is executed, the witnesses would actually have to go to the surrogates office after the testator dies, Whitenack said. What about wills that are sold online? There are companies that sell will templates online, but these arent a slam dunk. You should make sure an attorney reviews the will to make sure it was done properly and reflects the law in New Jersey. Are handwritten wills legal in New Jersey? Yes, New Jersey recognizes handwritten wills, also referred to as holographic wills. It is valid in New Jersey if it is in the handwriting of the deceased and is signed by the deceased, said Andrew Novick, a certified financial planner and estate planning attorney with The Investment Connection and Brookner Law Offices in Bridgewater. Witnesses are not required for a holographic will but a handwriting analysis will likely be required to prove it was the deceased's handwriting/signature. But these wills can only be probated by a court, which is more expensive than submitting the will to the surrogate, Whitenack said. She recommends those who handwrite a will because of social distancing consider executing a formal will as soon as possible. What about other estate planning documents? In addition to a will, you should also get a general durable power of attorney, which allows you to designate someone to act on your behalf in financial and property matters if you are unable to do so. This must be signed at least one witness and a notary. Then you should also get a health care proxy, which allows you to name a person to make medical decisions on your behalf if youre unable to do so. This document, also called an advance directive, requires two witness who are not designated as the health care agent or a notary or attorney-at-law. How are estate attorneys dealing with coronavirus? Estate planning attorneys are getting creative and prioritizing. While they and their staff work remotely because of the stay at home order, theyre using email, telephone calls and video technology to stay connected. But when a document needs to be signed with witnesses and a notary, it gets complicated. Thats in part because the state does not allow for notaries to act electronically. There is a bill that would allow this practice during the current state of emergency. It passed in the Assembly but the Senate doesnt have a new session scheduled yet. Even even if the bill is passed by the Senate and signed into law, wills are specifically excluded from the bill. This has caused some attorneys to postpone the execution of any new wills because of the need for two witnesses and a notary. Goldberg said hes recommending that all non-emergent matters wait until after the quarantine period to sign. We had some creative methods until it was determined that all non-essential businesses must shut down, he said. Others are taking precautions. Whitenack said she did one will signing in a very large room that can normally hold more than 30 people. She used something of a four corners approach. My witness and notary were in opposite corners of the room and the client and I were on the other side of the room in opposite corners, she said. I wiped down the pens with disinfectant in the presence of the client. The witness wore gloves and a mask her preference. She said the contents of the documents to be signed were explained to the client in detail by phone ahead of time. I tabbed the pages the client needed to sign and notary needed to sign, she said. I then invited the client to keep her pen and go home. The signing took about 15 minutes. Romania is using a different strategy. Although each case is unique, she said shes been advising many clients that provided they can prove the client intended the document to be his or her will and particularly when they dont expect a family to contest a will in the unlikely event of their death prior to the signing of their documents the law is on their side. She said they should be able to rely on N.J.S.A. 3B:3-3 that said a document or writing not properly executed should be treated as a Will. Thus, we document, with various correspondence and emails, the clients intention that the document be the clients will and have the client sign the document at this time without witnesses or a notary, Romania said. Once the pandemic is over, the client will come in and sign the document with the proper formalities. 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. Sign up for text message alerts from NJ.com on coronavirus in New Jersey: Have you been Bamboozled? Reach Karin Price Mueller at Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KPMueller. Find Bamboozled on Facebook. Mueller is also the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Stay informed and sign up for NJMoneyHelp.coms weekly e-newsletter. The Ruby Princess, which had docked in Sydney just days earlier, was already shaping up as the benchmark of what not to do with a passenger vessel during a global health emergency. Loading The Premier already knew the Magnifica and Vasco da Gama cruise ships were heading his way when the situation aboard the Artania changed and an urgent request for help was made by its captain, Morten Hansen. Despite news the ship was carrying 25 passengers with suspected COVID-19, he stood firm. He had already seen off the Magnifica not without its own drama and plans were in place for Vasco da Gama passengers to be taken to Rottnest for 14 days of quarantine. The Artania [... needs] to leave and go back to [its] port of origin and leave as soon as possible, Mr McGowan told reporters on March 25. I will not allow what happened in Sydney to happen in Western Australia. The following days during what the Premier referred to at the time as a fiasco involved ever-changing plans, pleas for Commonwealth assistance, and mercy flights home for more than 800 Artania passengers. By the time the specially chartered Condor jets took off from Perth airport last Sunday carrying what was believed to be the entire complement of passengers from the stricken ship, Mr McGowan must have thought his Artania-related woes were about ready to be farewelled, too. Then Christian Porter went on 6PRs morning show with Gareth Parker and dropped a bombshell. The 'missing 'passengers It should have come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to the ongoing cruise ships crisis, but when the Australian Attorney-General told 6PR listeners last Wednesday morning some passengers had remained on board the Artania, all hell broke loose. Phoenix Reisen had made public the very same information two days earlier in a press release published on its website. The statement couldnt have been more clear: 16 travellers also decided to stay with the crew on board [the] Artania under the care of Captain Morten Hansen and cruise director Klaus Gruschka." It was curious enough when just hours after Mr Porter made the on-air claim, Premier McGowan said he had only found out about the remaining passengers last night or this morning. Loading But even more curious was the discrepancy between the number of passengers Phoenix Reisen said had stayed on board 16 and the number Mr Porter, and later Mr McGowan, said remained 12. Later that afternoon, after a WA government spokesman confirmed to WAtoday the number of remaining passengers had indeed been 12 and after the same 12 passengers were taken to an inner-city hotel to be quarantined for 14 days the question had to be asked, werent there now four passengers for whom nobody could account? When asked to clarify how many passengers had stayed on board the Artania after more than 800 were flown home, the same spokesman said he understood the Premier was told of 12-15 passengers that remained on board yesterday. Phoenix Reisen was asked to either confirm or amend the number of passengers they said had stayed on board. No figure was provided. Instead, WAtoday was pointed to the companys website and its most recent media statement, which said only that the remaining passengers had to be taken ashore. 'The safest thing would have been to stop the trip' March 13 was a red letter day in terms of Australias pandemic timeline. While the national tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country sat at just 156, it was on this day things really started to escalate. What began with a few cautious announcements early in the morning ended with tens of thousands of events cancelled. For many it was the last day they worked from the office. It was also the day 618 guests joined those already on board the Artania in Sydney. The ship was still in harbour two days later when its operators were told South Pacific ports had been closed to cruise ships. Those aboard were given the opportunity to fly home, and 199 passengers disembarked on March 16. At 7pm on March 18, the ship departed for Fremantle with 832 passengers and 515 crew on board. The following week at sea, while Australians were adjusting to social distancing, self-isolating, and constantly sanitising their hands, Artania passengers were dining and socialising together, according to since-evacuated guests in an online chat forum. A party went ahead even after it was known unwell patients were on board and passengers had been told to stay in their cabins. Loading Last week WAtoday reported an entertainer on the Artania continued to perform and mix with guests while suffering with a sore throat. Of most concern was a claim by one passenger that a sick doctor aboard the vessel had been from cabin to cabin, absolutely unprotected. Disgruntled passengers are now blaming Phoenix Reisen, with some calling the cruise ship operators grossly negligent, and others questioning why they were allowed to board prior to arriving in Western Australia at all. The safest thing would have been to stop the trip in Sydney, one wrote. Without Phoenix we wouldnt be in this situation. Numerous requests for comment on why passengers were allowed to embark in Sydney and questions surrounding claims of negligence have been sent to Phoenix Reisen. So far, no response has been received. Docked and locked, the Artania stays Before the Artania cruise ship docked in Fremantle a little more than a fortnight ago, the Premier was on guard. We may well need Commonwealth support to ensure that they don't declare an emergency and try and get all their crew and passengers off, he said on March 25. At that time WA had 205 confirmed cases, up from just 14 on the day the Artania left Sydney. In the week it took the vessel to arrive in Fremantle, Australia recorded 2267 new cases. On March 28, when the WA government first started providing specific figures for Artania-related cases, there were nine being treated in Perth hospitals. There are now 53. As of Monday morning there were 5697 infected people in Australia, with estimates 10 per cent of these cases can be directly linked to cruise ships. NEW YORKThe flags at Rockefeller Center fly over a desolate concrete canyon. Photojournalists with long-lens cameras wander through Times Square to capture the solitude on one of the worlds busiest thoroughfares. White tents have been erected on the northern section of Central Park to accommodate the overflow of patients from Mount Sinai Hospital a grim tableau evoking a previous century. As the national death toll of more than 6,500 from the COVID-19 pandemic doubles the number of fatalities from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, New York has been transformed, and new habits formed. Many of the four million people who come to work in Manhattan are now staying connected with their jobs remotely. The restaurants and cafes that remain open have become takeout stops as they struggle to stay afloat. Public transportation has seen as much as an 80 per cent drop in passengers. After months of devastating loss and unfathomable fear following 9/11, the U.S.s most populous city proved its resilience, rebounding more prosperous than ever. Experts believe the city will endure significant pain before experiencing that kind of comeback this time, given the pandemics death toll (more than 1,800 as of Friday) and catastrophic economic losses pegged at $5 billion (U.S.) by one financial watchdog group. At the very least, months, if not years, of uncertainty lie ahead. I think people were afraid after 9/11, but they werent afraid to go out and eat, said Melissa Fleischut, president and chief executive of the New York State Restaurant Association. As long as the pandemic continues to go on, I think the prospects for the majority of restaurants to come out on the other side is slimming. I think it is an altering event a moment of change for the industry, for sure. A recent survey by the National Restaurant Association showed five per cent of New Yorks restaurants have closed due to the restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic. On March 20, all workers in non-essential businesses across New York state were ordered to stay home by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. An additional 12 per cent expected to close permanently in the next 30 days if the current situation does not improve. The growth of the restaurant business had already been slowing due to the states $15-an-hour minimum wage. We had already seen life get more challenging for the restaurant owner and operator throughout the state, Fleischut said. They were trying to manage with labour costs that have increased dramatically. Rent was always a concern. Profit margins are slim and they have no savings to speak of to get them through a catastrophic event like this. Nearly half of restaurants in New York are closed even with the provision that they can serve food and alcoholic beverages for takeout and delivery. Dante, a 105-year-old cafe on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, has its bartenders preparing their specialty cocktails to go, offering them in glass containers that are lined up on tables that would otherwise have seated customers. Were bottling these, said Jessica Friedman, a server at Dante. Its keeping us all employed. Fleischut said one restaurant proprietor had remodelled so he could sell meal kits for customers to heat and serve at home. She expects an acceleration in the number of restaurants converting to a fast-casual service, especially if social distancing continues after the pandemic abates. Caterers and event planners are also anxious over how long it will take for the public to feel comfortable going back to business conferences, trade shows, conventions, social galas, festivals and award presentations, which brings an influx of billions of dollars to New York. Midtowns Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, normally host to trade shows like Book Expo America, has been turned into a field hospital. David Adler, founder and chief executive BizBash, a New York firm that advises the event business, said he has been on calls with companies trying to determine when normalcy, whatever that is, will return and how to navigate the economic shutdown. Its all about how you not cancel events but postpone them, Adler said. The problem is nobody knows when they can postpone till. There is all of this unknown in the markets. A lot of people are living off deposits for future events. Cash flow is an issue, Adler said, and many operators serving the event business will eventually fold or be forced to sell while other entrepreneurs step in. There will be a lot of carnage, he said. Long term, Adler does not believe the meeting and event business will experience a negative impact from the growth in web-conferencing services such as Zoom and Webex that businesses are being forced to use. There will be a pent-up appetite for human connection once the pandemic passes, Adler said. But it will take work to bring the business back. In the years following 9/11, he was part of a coalition that held numerous events at Gracie Mansion the official residence of the mayor and lighting displays at the Empire State Building to signal to businesses the city was ready to return as a convention and meeting destination. New Yorkers are very vibrant in that they worked hard in getting people to come back, Adler said. It doesnt happen by accident. But the number of New York-area residents forced to work at home while their offices are shut down is likely to become a permanent situation for some of them, according to Sam Schwartz, who heads a transportation planning and engineering firm in New York. Im realizing, Hey, do I really need to take that extra floor? he said. A lot of people were able to get a lot done remotely, including me. You will see some employers offer an alternative to work at home. Schwartz puts the current percentage of New York employees working remotely at two to three per cent, and sees it doubling as a result of the pandemic. But he doesnt see it making commuting any less crowded. Subway ridership fell off dramatically in the months after 9/11 as people feared another attack. Ridership bounced back after a year, and in the following decade, the city saw record numbers of passengers. Schwartz noted the drop in the number of cars crossing the Hudson River into Manhattan dropped about 25 to 30 per cent in March, far less than the steep declines in trains, buses and ferries making the same trip. But he does not believe prolonged fear of COVID-19 will put more commuters back in their cars. Schwartz said that would be unsustainable and ultimately paralyze the city; moreover, New York is moving to install a congestion charge on driving in the most heavily trafficked parts of Manhattan, starting next year. New York has endured numerous catastrophes the sinking of the steamship General Slocum in 1904, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, the near-bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, numerous plane crashes and even terrorist attacks and always bounced back. There are a lot of people travelling today who barely know 9/11 they were children, Schwartz noted. Now they make up a big chunk of the commuting population. New Zealand officials have released a confronting projection showing up to 33,600 people across the country could die as a result of the coronavirus. The shocking figures come after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered a month-long shutdown to slow the spread of the deadly virus. Guided by the nation's pandemic modelling, the Kiwi leader shared the information with the public as a way to reassure them the lockdown was necessary. Experts have criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison's decision not to follow Ms Ardern's lead and release Australia's COVID-19 modelling. A nurse (above) tests a member of the public at a COVID-19 drive through testing centre in Auckland, New Zealand Not a single car on Wellington's State Highway 1 in New Zealand after the country declared an month-long lockdown 'Modelling will help inform Government decisions on when, how much, and for how-long, the country can ease the lockdown and other measures,' the New Zealand Ministry of Health report said. 'It's critical to understand that each of the models presents a number of potential future scenarios; there are no predictions.' After crunching the numbers based on the rate of infection, public health experts in New Zealand came to the conclusion that the most likely 'plan for' scenario was 12,600 to 33.600 deaths. While it's understood the Australian Government also has modelling projections which are informing their own decision-making, they have chosen to keep the figures secret. 'The modelling efforts should be shared,' Professor Raina MacIntyre, head of the University of New South Wales Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute, told Daily Mail Australia. 'Most other countries with modelling being done to inform the response have released modelling, including the UK, New Zealand and US. 'In the UK we saw the dramatic impact modelling had on debunking the false theory of herd immunity.' Hesitant to release the figures, Mr Morrison said there are 'no guarantees,' when it comes to accurate numbers on COVID-19. 'This virus writes its own rules,' he said. But according to Australian Medical Association New South Wales President Kean-Seng Lim, even if the modelling is not 'perfect' the government should still release it for the sake of transparency. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (above) says there are no guarantees on COVID-19 modelling: 'The virus makes its own rule' Faced with a projection of 33,600 deaths in New Zealand due to the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered a month-long shutdown 'It's important that we're all able to maintain trust in the system,' Dr Lim said. 'As a community, [we need] to be able to see the data which has been used for modelling and to have an informed discussion.' Professor MacIntyre believes unveiling the data will help the community understand the gravity of the situation. 'The purpose of modelling is to inform disease control strategies, and to engage and bring people along with the necessary measures to control COVID-19,' she explained. 'The modelling is quite important to inform the community and elicit their cooperation with public health disease control measures.' Over a million people suffer from coronavirus all across the globe while more than 60,000 people have died from the infection and more than 2 lakh people have recovered. The United States and Europe continue to struggle to contain the spread of coronavirus and mitigate the number of cases and deaths. Here are the key updates from across the globe: 1. Queen Elizabeth II will call on Britons amid the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday. 2. In a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, Dubai imposed a two-week lockdown Saturday night. 3. Saudi Arabia sealed off parts of the Red Sea city of Jeddah as a preventive measure against Covid-19. 4. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the government would be deploying thousands of military personnel to help states deal with the coronavirus crisis. 5. Spain to extend the lockdown for 15 days until April 26. The rate of new coronavirus cases and deaths showed signs of slowing down in one of the worlds worst-hit nations. 6. Britain witnessed over 708 deaths in 24 hours, the highest daily rise so far. 7. Japan is considering increasing the stockpile of Fujifilm Holding Corps Avigan anti-flu drug, also known as Favipiravir, to treat 700,000 people if used by coronavirus patients. 8. Trump warned Americans against a big spike in coronavirus fatalities in the country. Theres going to be a lot of death, he said. 9. In France, the total number of Covid-19 deaths reached a new high on Saturday. 441 new deaths were reported on Saturday - less than Fridays toll of 588 fatalities. 10. Mainland China on Saturday reported 30 new coronavirus cases, up from 19 a day earlier. New Delhi, April 5 : There was -77 per cent decrease in peoples movement at retail and recreational places in India at the end of March, along with -65 per cent drop at grocery and pharmacy locations, according to Googles first 'COVID-19 Community Mobility Report. Google is now offering user location data to help public health officials spot increase or decrease of movement across high-level categories of places, to help them flatten the curve of coronavirus pandemic. While there were -57 per cent decrease in people's movement at parks, India saw -71 per cent drop in mobility at places like public transport hubs such as subway, bus, and train stations. The decrease at workplaces was noticed at -47 per cent while there was 22 per cent increase in residential areas, as people stayed home. The Google baseline is the median value, for the corresponding day of the week, during the 5-week period (like Jan 3-Feb 6, 2020). The community mobility reports are now available for 131 countries, including India. "The reports show trends over several weeks with the most recent data representing approximately 2-3 days ago-this is how long it takes to produce the reports," said Google. Google said it calculated these insights based on data from users who have opted-in to Location History for their Google Account, so the data represents a sample of our users. "As with all samples, this may or may not represent the exact behaviour of a wider population," said the company. The reports use aggregated, anonymized data to chart movement trends over time by geography, across different high-level categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. "We'll show trends over several weeks, with the most recent information representing 48-to-72 hours prior. While we display a percentage point increase or decrease in visits, we do not share the absolute number of visits," according to Google. To protect people's privacy, no personally identifiable information, like an individual's location, contacts or movement, is made available at any point, said the tech company. This information could help officials understand changes in essential trips that can shape recommendations on business hours or inform delivery service offerings. Similarly, persistent visits to transportation hubs might indicate the need to add additional buses or trains in order to allow people who need to travel room to spread out for social distancing. "Ultimately, understanding not only whether people are traveling, but also trends in destinations, can help officials design guidance to protect public health and essential needs of communities," said Google. Days after 10 people tested positive for coronavirus after attending a funeral feast organised by a man on his return here in Madhya Pradesh from Dubai, over 26,000 of their contacts and family members have been places under home quarantine, officials said on Sunday. The man, who worked as a waiter at a hotel in Dubai, returned to Morena from Dubai on March 17 after getting information about his mother's death, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) R S Bakna said. "He organised a customary feast on March 20 to mark the 13th day of mourning after his mothers death," he said. The man initially hid his travel history, but revealed it after he and his wife tested positive for coronavirus on April 2, Chief Medical and Health Officer R C Bandil said. The couple came to a hospital on March 27 after their condition deteriorated. Since doctors suspected coronavirus, the couple was immediately sent to an isolation ward and their samples were taken which came out positive following which the man revealed his travel history, he said. On April 3, 10 more people who came in contact with the couple tested positive for the deadly viral infection, alarming the district administration. The authorities later came to know that 1,000 to 1,200 people attended the feast organised at the man's residence. "This caused the spread of infection. The administration has sealed the entire ward no.47, where the man resides," Bakna said. According to Bandil, total 27,881 people have been home quarantined in the district so far. "Nearly 26,000 of these people are those who attended the feast, their family members and contacts," he said. As many as 24 people have been admitted to the district hospital after their screening during contact tracing of these patients, he said. People from other areas who attended the feast have also been identified and home quarantined and their health is being monitored by doctors, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 168 Shares Share I am a physician. I have worked hard to get where I am in life. I went into medicine for many reasons. The intellectual challenges. Being in a field with lots of human interaction. And of course to help people. I went into emergency medicine because I ultimately couldnt decide on a single specialty. I liked something about each one. When I rotated through the emergency department early in my fourth year of medical school, I fell in love. In love with the fast pace of the department. In love with the variety of patient presentations. In love with being able to treat multiple sick patients at the same time with skills that literally save lives. When I graduated from residency, I started work in an emergency department staffed by a small independent physician-owned group. They contracted out to staff physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in the emergency department at the hospital where I began working as a newly minted doctor. I felt valued as an employee of this group, and my voice felt heard. I loved the doctors in my group. We were an amazing team. But unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Eventually, our hospital became one of the hundreds across the U.S. to switch from independent small staffing groups to a large contract management group or CMG. This happened throughout the entire hospital system. As there was no other option for work at emergency departments in our city, the physicians at my hospital all stayed on and signed contracts with the CMG. Things were fine for a while. But there were noticeable differences. Small things. Annoyances. I had a needle stick injury and had an incredibly hard time finding out who to speak to about it. I ended up getting billed for the needle stick and was threatened with a collection agency. After many months of emails and phone calls, we finally got in contact with the right employee at the CMG, and the bill was handled. With my old group, there was one secretary a phone call away who handled issues like this efficiently. We worked for the CMG for many years without ever seeing our new bosses face to face. We never received a pay raise or bonus despite our emergency department volumes going up and our patient population becoming sicker and more complicated. One year, our volumes went down, and the response of our employer was to cut hours. Cutting hours cuts our pay. When working for a CMG, there are never bonuses for working harder. But there are punishments when things are slow. They make money off the backs of hard-working physicians. We are now in the midst of a health care crisis of epic proportions. The novel coronavirus infection has spread like wildfire across the globe. It has affected every single country at this point. Some with dire consequences as hospitals are inundated with critically ill patients. As the infection spread throughout the U.S., people were advised to social distance and stay home. This led to many of our low acuity or less sick patients staying away from our emergency departments. Of course, the volumes went down. Which means fewer patients to bill and less revenue. The response of our CMG was to cut our hours even further. The crisis is deepening. The number of infections in the state where I live goes up daily. It is only a matter of time before the lull in our emergency department reverses itself and becomes a full-on surge. Instead of preparing for this surge and doing drills while things are slow, my employer is trying to save money by cutting hours for the physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Now we are being asked if we will be willing to help out in other departments if and when the surge happens, stretching our upstairs colleagues thinner than ever. My fellow emergency doctors and I initially bristled at the idea of volunteering to help out in the ICU. For one, we will likely be overworked and stressed in the emergency department as this situation worsens. For another, we do not feel obligated to put our lives at risk to give more free labor to our short-sighted for-profit health care system and contract management group. The ironic thing is, I would happily volunteer my time off to help out in a crisis if things were different. I have long been an advocate for some form of socialized health care in America. With a socialized health care system, the government would be my employer. The same government that is elected to represent the people. I would be a doctor of the people, by the people, for the people. I would feel pride in helping anywhere I could. Our current for-profit health care system has beat down my spirit. I do not feel like volunteering my precious days off to give free labor to a company that makes money off the backs of hard-working physicians. I know there are small independent physician groups out there still. I know they are hurting and cutting hours too. Still, I would love to be in a group like that, as I know we would all be in the same boat. With my CMG, I feel like us docs, NPs, and PAs are the steerage class passengers being asked to bail water from the sinking ship while the CEOs and administrators are up there in first-class loading into the lifeboats. I feel horrible and guilty about these thoughts. I used to be an idealistsomeone who wanted to help people. But I think I have been working for the man for far too long. Ive become jaded. I am a cog in the wheel. I am an employee. No longer do I feel like the bright-eyed lets change the world doctor I started out as. My hope is that when all the dust settles from this coronavirus crisis, that we will take a good hard look at our health care system in America. The system that bankrupts people who cannot afford their medical bills. The system that should be the best in the world but has horrible outcomes with regards to infant mortality, life expectancy, and maternal health. Our hospitals should not be centers for profit-making. They should be centers for healing and science. I hope with all my heart that one day we will have a health care system where everyone can receive the best care in the world. The author is an anonymous physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com March 27, 2020 Kathleen Sandt , (570) 234-9144 In response to Executive Orders 107 and 108 issued by New Jerseys Governor Murphy and guidance from the CDC and local, county, and state public health officials, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is announcing additional modifications to operations to support federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Public restrooms, volunteer and partner-operated buildings and the visitor information desk at Bushkill Meeting Center were closed on March 17. While most of parks outdoor spaces remain accessible to the public, the Kittatinny Point area in New Jersey, including the parking lots and the picnic area, will be closed until further notice as of 8 am on Friday, March 27. Additionally, Worthington State Forest and the New Jersey Department of Transportation will close the state-owned parking areas on the westbound side of Interstate 80, including the Dunfield Parking Area. For more information on New Jerseys state parks visit their website at https://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/. The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and will provide updates on our website and social media channels. The NPS encourages people who choose to visit Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area during this pandemic to adhere to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health authorities to protect visitors and employees. As services are limited, the NPS urges visitors to continue to practice Leave No Trace principles, including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces safe and healthy. Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus. Updates on Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area can be found on our website at www.nps.gov/dewa and on our Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/DelWaterGapNPS. MONTGOMERY Responding to the rapid growth of the coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey announced a stay-at-home order for the state of Alabama from April 4-30. The order directs Alabama residents to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible as public health officials aim to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, as it pertains to education in Alabama, the order does NOT conflict with or affect services related to any public education continuity plans approved by the State Superintendent of Education. It also does NOT affect plans to distribute, pick up or receive meals provided to eligible students. State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey said continuing education through the COVID-19 pandemic is an essential function as we plan to return to some sense of normalcy. With the country in a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, 30-year-old Arif had only way to meet his ailing father: cycle 2100 km from Mumbai to Jammu's Rajouri district, where the 60-year-old lives in a remote village along the Line of Control. Arif, a watchman, set out on the daunting journey hoping some miracle would happen and he would be able to see his father, who had suffered a massive stroke and was in critical condition. And miracle did happen, when the CRPF came to his help. The paramilitary force gave him and his father 'wings', quite literally. Arif's father Wazir Hussain was on Sunday airlifted from the Panjgrain village on a special chopper after the CRPF's Kashmir-based 'madadgaar' helpline came into action. On April 1, a week after the 21-day lockdown began, Arif came to know that his father had suffered the "massive stroke". The man, who is employed as a watchman in the financial capital of the country, found that there was no mode of transport that could take him to his village along the India-Pakistan LoC. The next day, he decided to cover the huge distance on his bicycle. "The madadgaar was informed by a media outlet about Arif's journey. The helpline immediately got into action, called up Arif and got logistics arranged through CRPF establishments spread across five states. On Sunday, he was provided with lunch, Rs 2,000 cash, sanitiser, masks and some dry fruits at Vadodara in Gujarat." "We asked him to stay out at our base due to the lockdown restrictions with an assurance that we will take care of his father," CRPF Special Director General (JK zone) Zulfiquar Hasan told PTI. Arif, however, insisted he wanted to meet his father. So, we then arranged him to travel in a truck, with the help of the Gujarat Police, carrying essential items, Hasan said. "The truck will drop him near Jodhpur in Rajasthan by Monday noon and we will further arrange his travel," he said. In the meantime, the IPS officer said, a special chopper was sent to Rajouri from where his father was airlifted and admitted to a government medical college in Jammu. The 'madagaar, another official said, had initially got Arif's father admitted to the Rajouri district hospital with the help of its troops posted about 15 km from his village, but as he required better medical care, it was decided to shift him quickly to Jammu. "The madadgaar will do whatever it takes to help more such Arif's in the future too," Hasan said. The helpline also posted the endeavour on its official Twitter handle saying "for any assistance 24X7 call @CRPFmadadgaar on 14411. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KYODO NEWS - Apr 5, 2020 - 14:32 | All, Japan Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will return to the International Space Station, this time transported by a spacecraft developed by U.S. aerospace manufacturer Space X, according to the Japanese government. Noguchi, 54, will be manning Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s first operational Crew Dragon spacecraft, science minister Koichi Hagiuda said at a recent press conference. He stopped short of saying when the spaceship will be launched. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, to which Noguchi belongs, previously said he is expected to stay at the ISS for around six months, and said last July he will start training for a mission aboard a new U.S. spaceship. At the time, it was unclear whether he would be boarding a spacecraft developed by Space X or Boeing Co. Noguchi, who previously resided on the ISS for 161 days from December 2009, will travel on the Crew Dragon with three other astronauts. In March last year, the unmanned Dragon spacecraft of Space X made a successful round trip to the ISS, but a Crew Dragon exploded on the ground during an engine test the following month, triggering safety concerns. Noguchi will board the Crew Dragon, which will lift off following the launch of a spacecraft carrying two astronauts from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration planned for mid-May. The Crew Dragon was developed by Space X, founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, to transport astronauts to the ISS after NASA's Space Shuttle retired in 2011. Related coverage: Kyoto Univ. observatory to open to public on weekends for fundraising Olympics: "Gundam" satellite promoting Tokyo Games launched JAXA to start flight tests in June to develop reusable rocket tech An man accused of sneaking out of a coroanvirus quarantine hotel after travelling interstate faces fines of up to $50,000. The 35-year-old arrived in Western Australia on March 28 from Victoria and was required by law to self-isolate for two weeks to slow the spread of COVID-19. He was provided with a hotel room in Perth until the quarantine period ended on April 13 but allegedly left the property on multiple occasions. WA Police said he allegedly wedged open a fire door and used it to creep in and out without being seen by police. He was provided with a hotel room in Perth until the quarantine period ended on April 13 but allegedly left the property on multiple occasions. Pictured: a quarantine hotel in Perth The man allegedly used public transport to travel within the metropolitan area - potentially infecting other with the deadly virus. He was arrested and charged on Sunday with two counts of failure to comply with directions. 'The man remains in custody as he was refused bail on the basis that he will likely continue or repeat the offence, which endangers another persons safety,' WA Police said in a statement. Fines breaking quarantine in WA range between $5,000 and $50,000. WA Police said he allegedly wedged open a fire door and used it to creep in and out without being seen by police. Pictured: A police officer looks on as cruise ship passengers arrive at the Duxton Hotel, Perth International and domestic Australian citizens who arrive in Perth are taken to a quarantine hotel for 14 days. Pictured: Travellers being taken to a quarantine hotel 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 WA has closed its border to non-residents and introduced fines for people who cross out of their region. Premier Mark McGowan said the state will completely isolate itself from midnight on Sunday, and urged locals currently inter-state to return home immediately. 'In effect, we will be turning Western Australia into an island within an island. Our own country,' Mr McGowan said at a press conference on Thursday. 'These are drastic steps, but also sensible and workable. It will give us the best chance of combatting the virus and minimising the spread throughout our community. 'That's why we've taken the unprecedented step of introducing regional boundaries and brought in tough measures to restrict movement and social interaction.' Premier Mark McGowan said the state government 'will be turning Western Australia into an island within an island' Mr McGowan said WA's isolated position in relation to the rest of the country will help stop the spread of the virus 'It wont be forever it is a temporary closure... Some might think its over-the-top and unnecessary. I can assure them that its not.' Mr McGowan urged West Australian residents who are currently in other states to fly back home now. 'Were finalising the arrangements but I want the message to be absolutely clear to any West Australian who is thinking of coming back to WA: you need to come home to Western Australia and come home now,' he said. 'I cannot stress that enough. If you are an eastern stater and thinking about visiting Western Australia, forget about it.' Exemptions for the hard border closure apply to essential services, including healthcare and emergency services workers, transport freight and logistics, people with specialist skills not available in WA, national or state security and governance, and courts and judicial services. WA has recorded 453 cases of COVID-19 in total, including three deaths. Since mid-March, officers of travel firms say that 99 percent of visitors to their offices have come to cancel tours. More than 500 workers of a leading travel firm in HCM City lost their jobs in March. Other travel firms have also become paralyzed. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) predicted that the revenue of domestic airlines will decrease by VND25 trillion in 2020. Vietnams tourism industry has never witnessed such a terrible crisis, said the director of a travel firm on March 18, when the government announced the postponement of visas to foreign investors. Business activities in all three markets, inbound, outbound and domestic, are frozen, he said. A report found that the occupancy rate of hotels in the entire country has dropped by 65-85 percent. Hotels mostly receiving guests from Europe, China and South Korea have seen the sharpest decreases. Some travel firms reported that inbound tourists have canceled tours until September 2020, and outbound tourists until June, while domestic tourists have canceled all the tours. The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) estimated that if the epidemic ended in Q1, the tourism sector would incur the loss of $2.3 billion, while the loss would be $5 billion if the epidemic lasts until the end of Q2. Khanh Hoa province, which received 7.2 million travelers in 2019 and earned VND27 trillion from tourism, has become deserted because of the epidemic. Hoang Van Vinh, chair of the Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Tourism Association, said local tourism has been hit hard by the epidemic with hotel room occupancy rate at below 20 percent. In HCM City, director of a 5-star hotel in district 1 said the occupancy rate of the hotels in the city was below 30 percent in March, while the rate is expected to be in single digits in April and May as guests have canceled bookings. A report found that the occupancy rate of hotels in the entire country has dropped by 65-85 percent. Hotels mostly receiving guests from Europe, China and South Korea have seen the sharpest decreases. Working capital of travel firms is low, while the cost is quite high, accounting for approximately 90 percent of net revenue and the profit margin is no more than several percent. A survey of SSI Research found that the NPM (net profit margin) from travel services of some large firms is just 0.8-1 percent. With these characteristics, ensuring a stable workforce for 3-6 months and waiting to resume operation is a challenge for most enterprises. Linh Ha Tourism industry calls for relief measures as coronavirus shuts down travel The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has severely affected many industries, but tourism is arguably one of the hardest hit. When he was diagnosed with Covid-19 on March 15, the 33-year-old man from Odishas Bhubaneswar was a little nervous and demoralised. The research scholar at University of Milan in Italy got to know he had contracted the coronavirus disease when the Regional Medical Research Laboratory in Bhubaneswar messaged to doctors in Capital Hospital that his swab report had tested positive. He became Odishas first Covid-19 patient that night. Discharged on April 3 from Capital Hospital, two days after the second Covid-19 patient was released from AIIMS Bhubaneswar, the man sent a video message thanking the doctors for their support. I urge people not to panic over the situation and stay positive, the man wearing a surgical mask is heard saying in the video. Also read: Odisha asks thousands to self-quarantine as postman tests positive He has been advised to remain under home quarantine for another 14 days and avoid any cold food. He has also been asked to call doctors if there any health complications during this period. His father and their cook were kept in an isolation ward of the same hospital for coming in contact with him and released a few days ago as they tested negative. Confusion and clearance On March 14, when the man and his father came to the hospital along with their cook over suspected symptoms of Covid-19, he had an upset stomach. They were asked to stay in the isolation ward along with another man, who had arrived from Belgium and showed symptoms of the viral attack. On the night of March 15 when the mans first test report arrived, there was some confusion as the result showed his was a suspected case while the report of the other who had travelled to Belgium was positive. However, soon the confusion was cleared as the second report confirmed that the 33-year-old man had Covid-19 while the other tested negative. When I took the youth to his cabin, he was already having loose motions and seemed very nervous. He kept on asking if he will survive. I assured him that he would be alright, the doctor who attended him said requesting anonymity. Cocktail of drugsBooks, phone As there are no prescribed medicines for the coronavirus disease, the doctor at the Capital Hospital consulted his retired teachers and read up international medical journals to get an idea about the drugs. So, we administered hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin and Oseltamivir to the youth. Luckily after a few days, it started showing results, said the doctor. But more than that I took to chatting with him over the phone to lift his morale. That was very important as he was alone in that cabin. If a patient gets demotivated, then his situation may worsen, he said. Also read: With 15 new Covid-19 cases, Odisha sees a 3-fold jump; 3 towns shut down completely The mans father, who was kept isolated in the same hospital, said he just saw his son across the glass door a few times. The hospital authorities would keep his food outside his cabin on a table. He would then take the tray inside and eat. Inside his cabin, he had just his mobile phone to keep him busy for about 20 days, he said. He had also books and magazines to keep him busy. The man would have been discharged a little earlier but his second sample could not be tested due to a surge in cases at the laboratories. So, a third sample was sent a couple of days earlier which came out negative for Covid-19. The doctor who treated him lived in a servant quarter of his government accommodation and his family stayed several metres away. Doctors at Capital Hospital said the third Covid-19 patient, a 60-year-old banker who retired last month, was also improving. He was suffering from pneumonia which is what Covid-19 does. But we tried the same cocktail of medicines that we tried with the first patient and luckily it worked. He would hopefully be discharged after his reports test negative twice in a span of 24 hours, said the doctor. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON India's coronavirus cases have crossed 3,000, and governments - Central as well as states - are bracing up to face possible surge in infections requiring large scale hospitalisations and intensive care units (ICUs). Efforts are also on war-footing to procure more protective gears, diagnostic kits, ventilators and so on. One missing piece could be the country's preparedness to build local capabilities to supply intellectual property rights (IPR) protected products, ingredients or spare parts that are essential in the fight against COVID-19, if the situation warrants it. If the UK, Netherlands and Italy face some supply issues, India is no better placed. Last week, international media reported that politicians in the UK and Netherlands accused Swiss multinational Roche, world's leading diagnostic kit maker, of withholding the chemical formulae for a reagent, a buffer used in its polymerase chain reaction-based test for COVID-19. The politicians blamed Roche's inability to supply sufficient volumes of this reagent as one of the reasons for delay in the scaling up coronavirus tests in their respective countries. Apparently, the politicians wanted Roche to share the chemical formulae to allow local firms to mass produce the reagent. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Varanasi reports first death; Noida police extends Section 144 till April 30 Around the same time, reports from Italy said that a local firm made 3D printed copies of a particular value that goes into ventilators after an Italian hospital ran out of supplies and was struggling to run its ventilators amidst a surge in patients needing intensive care. The original spare part from the ventilator maker reportedly costing $11,000, was not available, while the cost of the copy was just $1. Roche was well within its legal rights to not share its IPR-protected formulae, and the ventilator maker Intersurgical must have seen its IPR violated. However, the fact remains that the problem arose in the first place due to the heavy demand, making timely supply of essential items in adequate quantity, a challenge for the IPR holders and posed a bigger threat to governments in a public health emergency. Also read: Coronavirus: Companies assure employees of no layoffs as businesses take a hit Incidentally, two of the medicines, Fevipriavir and Remidisivir, which are undergoing clinical trials to see if they can be repurposed for COVID-19, are patent protected in India. Unless the patent holders insist upon its IP rights, access to these medicines should not be a concern for India as the domestic generic industry has proven its ability to produce low cost medicines in short time. But several countries are not depending on the magnanimity of IP holders. Some have already gone ahead and issued orders to facilitate compulsory licenses for any IP protected products for the use of COVID-19. Chile is one, Israel is another. Even Germany is known to have amended its Patent Act to facilitate compulsory licensing. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) coronavirus treatment protocol has a lengthy list of products that are needed at different stages of the disease outbreak. World Trade Organisation (WTO) estimates the size of global trade of COVID-19 related medicines and medical products to be $597 billion. While patents on medicines are rather well known and better tracked, the same may not be true for most other products, the IPR status of many of which are not even clear. Also read: Coronavirus in India: Over 83% patients below 60 yrs, says govt Carlos Correa, Executive Director of developing world centric think tank South Centre says global organisations like WHO, WTO or World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) should support WTO member countries that invoke the 'security exception' contained in Article 73 of the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), to take 'actions it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests' in the wake of COVID-19 threat. "The use of this exception will be fully justified to procure medical products and devices or to use the technologies to manufacture them as necessary to address the current health emergency," he points out. In fact, in an open letter to the heads of WHO, WTO and WIPO, Correa said that in their official capacities, they should "support developing and other countries, as they may need, to make use of Article 73(b) of the TRIPS Agreement to suspend the enforcement of any intellectual property right (including patents, designs and trade secrets) that may pose an obstacle to the procurement or local manufacturing of the products and devices necessary to protect their populations". India's response is awaited. Also read: Coronavirus fallout: Life insurance policyholders get 30 more days to pay premium INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic. Tech firm Workvivo has "aggressive growth plans" with remote working now the norm and organisations looking for ways to keep dispersed workforces engaged. The Cork company, which has built an employee communication platform over the last three years, recently received 500,000 investment from US tech entrepreneur Eric Yuan, whose video conferencing company Zoom is the undoubted technology star of the coronavirus era, hosting everything from board meetings to family table quizzes. Workvivo had already signed up big Irish companies such as Bus Eireann, Woodie's, VoxPro, Laya Healthcare and Cubic Telecom for their internal communications before the Covid-19 crisis struck. International clients include Morgan McKinley and Staffordshire University. The platform has more than 120,000 users and chief executive John Goulding said the Cork firm is aiming for more than a million by next year. The company does not have any significant need for further investment "but we'll have decisions to make this year as regards further accelerating our growth and I'm sure we'll have options around that", he said. "The enterprise collaboration and communications market is expected to be worth more than $3bn by 2023 and we are set up to be a market leader in it," said Goulding. "We began building the platform in 2017 but in 2019 it just really took off for us and we are now seeing big interest and opportunity in the US," he said. "Essentially, we've taken the communications experience people are used to in their personal lives and applied it to business to allow organisations keep people informed." The lockdown has further fuelled growth as organisations seek ways to maintain effective communication among dispersed staff. "We're definitely seeing increased market appetite. There is a lot of evidence that remote working can be very effective for organisations and what we are seeing now compressed into one month is a change that would have happened over the next five to 10 years anyhow. There is now such an acceptance of working at home that I don't think it is going to go back to what was normal before all of this," he said. Zoom has hit the headlines in recent days over security concerns but Goulding said the investment from Yuan was "a fantastic milestone". "When we showed him our platform he loved it. He was very impressed. He asked us if we would be willing to take him as an investor, which was incredible. He has been fantastic. We've big ambitions, but he is definitely prodding us in the right direction in terms of ambition. We were thinking big. Eric helps us think bigger," he said. "We're seeing great demand now and we have aggressive plans to grow the business. We're proud of our Cork heritage and will be adding more jobs in the area. We're also seeing significant interest from the US, so will also be opening up offices and recruiting over there too." Until the coronavirus, I did most of my worrying about small things. A leaky faucet, for example, could drive me crazy. That made me a small person, but I was happy being small. Its different now. Our world is beset; much of daily life has ground to a halt. This leaves us hungering for the personal connections that have fallen away during shelter-in-home. Thats even true for me, and I get to not-shelter-in-home for 40 hours a week when I go to the Register office. I spent a big chunk of last Sunday reaching out by phone to relations in Tennessee, Indiana and Southern California, while Cheryl set up a Zoom studio in the living room for a 70-minute video chat with her three children in Oakland, Sacramento and Sonoma. How effective are video conferences as tool for family togetherness? Judging from the eruptions of hilarity seeping from the living room, very. There was as much laughter and emotional volatility in this Zoom chat as from any flesh-and-blood gathering that, in normal times, we would be having on Easter or Mothers Day. Indeed, maybe more. Everyone was staring directly into the faces of everyone else. No flicker of emotion got missed. Meanwhile, in the family room, I was picking off my distant relations one by one. Theres a term for this: binge calling. And that is so NOT me. I may frequently think warm thoughts about you, but rarely will you hear the sound of my voice. This was my first talk with my sister Dorothy since she and her husband canceled a planned mid-March Napa visit their first in 40 years. Just a few short weeks ago, California was a COVID-19 hot spot and Nashville was an oasis of public health. Not now, Dorothy said. Their school closures and sheltering-in-home edicts mimic Californias. To stay sane, Dorothy was playing bridge online and using Zoom for her Bible study group. Ousted from his workplace, her husband had thrown himself into home projects. Hes been power washing everything, she said. Next I reached out to Ellen in Indiana my brothers widow who had returned from a pre-lockdown reunion with girlfriends. Their craft activity reflected the times: They had made a batch of sanitizer. If Joe were alive, the coronavirus pandemic would have terrified them both, she said. His immune system, weakened by multiple myeloma, would have been no match. She was glad Joe wasnt here to experience this terror, she said, then caught herself. Of course she would want him here ... Me too, I said. When I reached my son Dennis in Long Beach, I found him cooped up at home where hes been working side by side with his wife, a teacher, and their perpetually-in-motion 18-month-old daughter who can no longer go to daycare. Id caught Dennis in a somber moment. His family was surviving the densification of daily life, but at a considerable loss of sleep. At least Helena and the family cat appeared to be thriving, he said. If all you knew of their household was toddler Helenas Instagram, youd think the family was swimming in goofy moments. Helena staggers around with a box over her head. In another video shes wearing pants as a hat as she bobs and weaves and chortles to herself. Then there are the videos of Dennis and Helena making blubbering sounds and distorted facial gestures into the phone. Nobody is losing it. Everything is normal, he comments dryly. This is quite the change for Dennis, who in regular times works in a law office on non-goofy business matters. Not only has this coronavirus shutdown reduced him to blubbering, but hes letting his red beard grow and reported giving himself his first home haircut. The Dennis that now stares out from my cell screen is barely recognizable. Is he going feral? Is that what home confinement can do to a man? 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/. Kevin can be reached at 707-256-2217 or Napa Valley Register, 1615 Soscol Ave., Napa, 94559, or kcourtney@napanews.com. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. There's a tiresome journalistic tradition of boasting about previously accurate predictions. They invariably begin with some formulation on the words: "As I wrote back in (insert date as appropriate)." It's just hubris. Unsurprisingly, journalists are less keen on admitting when they're wrong, and yet there really needs to be a collective "mea culpa" for those of us who argued before the 2013 referendum that the Seanad should be retained. Looking back, there was a strong case for the defence. The Fine Gael/Labour coalition had the largest majority in Dail history. It seemed essential to retain a second, upper chamber as a corrective to that otherwise unchallengeable executive power. There was also a sense of wanting to give a bloody nose to an arrogant government which had won power on the back of telling fibs about what it would do in office - "Labour's way, not Frankfurt's way", not least. There was even a distant possibility that there might, just might, be reform of the Seanad, if the referendum was defeated. That it could be made, after decades of promises, fit for purpose. Instead, once the referendum was defeated, Taoiseach Enda Kenny took a bit of a huff, and the programme of reforms was put once again on the back burner. It could have been a glorious opportunity to drag the Seanad into the present day; but it wasn't taken. None of the institutions were reformed in Ireland during the post-recession period. Everything which had failed to work for years was left as it was, failing still. Seven years on from the referendum on the 32nd amendment of the Constitution, the latest round of Seanad elections has proven what a dreadful mistake it was not to put the institution out of its misery when we had the chance. As the counts dragged on through the week, the same gaggle of inflated egos, time-serving mediocrities and failed election candidates took their places in the Seanad, each convincing themselves that a handful of votes from some of the most exclusive electorates in the democratic world represents some magnificent mandate. The graduates of one single university, Trinity College, still elect half the University Panel. And who have they plumped for? David Norris, who's been there since 1987; and Ivana Bacik, there since 2007. Lynn Ruane, the third pick, does come from outside that privileged, private education background, having left school at the age of 15 and become a single mother; but her liberal, left-of-centre politics certainly don't challenge the smug Trinity bubble. Over in the National University of Ireland constituency, where graduates of all the other universities are allowed a say, the winners were Ronan Mullen (also a senator since 2007), Michael McDowell (a former tanaiste and minister for justice), and Alice Mary Higgins (the daughter of the president). Change? Who needs it? The Cultural and Educational Panel presents an equally static prospect, having returned two members from Fine Gael, two from Fianna Fail, and one from Sinn Fein. Four of the five names are different from last time, but they're hardly new brooms. The Seanad remains what it always was, the rottenest of rotten boroughs, and the most rotten of all are those candidates who scramble for a seat having previously argued for its abolition. It's not all bad news. The ability of pro-life advocate Ronan Mullen to provoke a collective meltdown in the politically correct, who remain continually astonished that the real world doesn't correspond to their expectations, will always have its pleasures. The left wing revolutionaries who haven't even stepped up to help form a government, because they'd rather stay pure, had a bad week too, a welcome reminder that Irish voters don't take kindly to candidates who duck the serious business of compromise. But these small joys are nowhere near sufficient to justify the Seanad's continued existence, and it's somewhat mortifying now to recall the intellectual energy which so many heavyweights put into the rearguard action back in 2013 to save the Seanad. The late barrister and political analyst Noel Whelan passionately and eloquently went out to bat for the "safeties and protections within the democratic process" that the Seanad represented. Speaking in a debate at the National Women's Council, he insisted: "Transformed, it could be the means for a radical transformation of the gender breakdown of our politics". Just a week before the referendum, Olivia O'Leary made an equally persuasive plea on radio for an upper chamber filled with "even more of the WB Yeats, the Dubhghlas De Hides [Douglas Hydes], the Mary Robinsons, the Catherine McGuinnesses, the Mary Henrys, the Gordon Wilsons". These, she said, "were people of ideas and there is nothing in the world more powerful than ideas... we will be much poorer without that dissenter tradition". What these various arguments had in common was a genuine idealism about what the Seanad could be, if freed of its constraints. This was the first campaign Noel Whelan had personally got involved in since the first election of President McAleese in 1997. That's how strongly he felt about it, and he insisted throughout that his desire to keep the Seanad was because he believed in change, not in keeping things as they were. Revisiting his contributions again last week, against the backdrop of the latest Seanad election, was to be reminded of what the country lost when the government elected in 2011, as Whelan put it, "failed to implement any of the substantial reforms it proposed". A similar trawl back through the archives of the MacGill Summer School finds no end of closely reasoned papers putting a similar case for reform, now gathering dust. At one point, there were five separate proposals on the table, from Professor John Crown among others, and none of the changes advocated were unrealistic or airy fairy. All came to nothing. The campaign to retain the Seanad was called Democracy Matters, and was based on a number of fine premises, including that rejecting the referendum would "force real parliamentary change in the Dail"; that it would revive a moribund economy by bringing in "new expertise"; and "offer more diversity and bring new faces and fresh thinking into politics". Each of these can now be seen as a fantasy, as the latest Seanad confirms, being another talking shop stuffed with the usual suspects. There is no appetite for "new expertise" and "new faces". Ali O'Shea Abbas, originally an Iraqi refugee who wanted to represent "the new Irish", stood for the universities panel. He got 81 votes. Castlebar businesswoman Anne Staunton Barrett, who could have provided some real-world commercial experience to the Oireachtas right now, got just over one per cent of the vote in NUI. Marcus Matthews, who is involved in the campaign to offer a cheaper alternative to the National Broadband Plan, and who promised not to use the Seanad as a launching pad to the Dail, got fewer votes still. The arguments in 2013 just don't stack up when faced with reality. Defenders of the Seanad would no doubt insist that it can still transmute into a shining beacon on the hill of Irish democracy, but who are we kidding? The Seanad will never be reformed, and the new government doesn't look likely to represent anything new either. All is unchanged, unchanged utterly. A terrible inertia is born. Africa is facing the complete collapse of economies and livelihoods unless the spread of coronavirus can be contained, UN official Ahunna Eziakonwa has warned. More than half of the continents 54 countries have imposed lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions and other measures in a bid to prevent the local transmission of the virus. There are now more than 1.2m cases globally and the disease has caused more than 65,000 deaths, with China, the US and Italy worst-hit. Africa has so far recorded just 8,000 cases of Covid-19 and 334 deaths, while 702 people have recovered, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. While the region's most developed country, South Africa, has proven itself ruthlessly efficient in responding to the virus, setting up drive-through testing centres and mobile medical units, others are likely to prove far more vulnerable. Weve been through a lot on the continent, Ms Eziakonwa, the UNs development programme regional director for Africa, told the AP. Ebola, yes, African governments took a hit, but we have not seen anything like this before. 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 The African labour market is driven by imports and exports and with the lockdown everywhere in the world, it means basically that the economy is frozen in place. And with that, of course, all the jobs are gone. Unless the diseases spread can be controlled, up to 50 per cent of all projected job growth in Africa will be lost as aviation, the service industry, exports, mining, agriculture and the informal sector all suffer, Ms Eziakonwa added. We will see a complete collapse of economies and livelihoods, she warned. Livelihoods will be wiped out in a way we have never seen before. The UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) has meanwhile said the pandemic could seriously hinder already stagnant growth, with oil-exporting nations like Nigeria and Angola losing up to 52bn in revenue as prices tumble. Economies in sub-Saharan Africa are regarded as especially at risk because many are heavily indebted and some struggle just to implement their budgets under less stressful circumstances. Now the continent might need up to 8.5bn in unplanned increases in health spending while revenue losses could lead to debt becoming unsustainable, Uneca chief Vera Songwe commented in March. Urgent calls for an economic stimulus package have since followed. Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed has spoken of an existential threat to Africas economies while seeking up to 120bn from G20 nations. A meeting of the continents finance ministers agreed that Africa needs a stimulus package of up to 80bn, including a waiver of up to 35.4bn in interest payments. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa backed the calls for a rescue package, saying in a recent speech that the pandemic will reverse the gains that many countries have made in recent years. Recommended Zimbabwe doctors walk out over lack of protective equipment The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on 25 March it had received requests for emergency financing from close to 20 African countries, with requests from another 10 or more likely to follow. The IMF has since approved credit facilities for at least two West African nations Guinea and Senegal facing virus-related economic disruption. Further challenges remain. Rampant corruption in many African countries feeds inequality and poor or non-existent public services stoke public anger that sometimes escalates into street protests and deadly violence. What we may currently be experiencing is the calm before a heavy and devastating storm, South Africas health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday, warning against complacency. Unless we move fast we will soon be swarmed. There will therefore be no further warning before the pounding descends upon us. There will not be time to prepare what we will not have put in place in the next seven days, Dr Mkhize said. We dont as yet have a true picture of the size of the problem. Additional reporting by AP Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Saturday agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to resolutely and effectively combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Modi on Saturday spoke to the US President over phone about mounting a joint effort in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. The two leaders exchanged views on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on global wellbeing and economy. Modi conveyed deep condolences for the loss of lives in the US, saying he was praying for the early recovery of those still suffering from the disease. Stressing the special relationship between the two countries, the Prime Minister reiterated India's solidarity with the US in overcoming this global crisis together. The two leaders agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to resolutely and effectively combat Covid-19. The Prime Minister and the US President exchanged notes on the respective steps taken in each country for mitigating the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. "The two leaders also touched upon the significance of practices such as yoga and ayurveda for ensuring physical and mental wellbeing in these difficult times. They agreed that their officials would remain in close touch with respect to the global Covid-19 crisis," said a statement issued by the Centre. Modi also took to Twitter to announce, "Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realDonaldTrump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19." As on Saturday evening, India had over 3,000 active coronavirus cases besides reporting 75 deaths. The situation in worse in the US where the number of cases have reached 277,613 so far. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 11:20:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday held a special meeting as part of efforts to fight COVID-19 amid the fast spread of the pandemic. The meeting to assess progress and challenges on the implementation of the nationwide lockdown to curb the virus was the first virtual meeting of the Presidential Coordinating Council. As of Saturday, the total number of coronavirus cases in South Africa stood at 1,585, an increase of 80 from the previous day, with nine deaths, according to the country's Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. In Saturday's meeting, Ramaphosa urged the government and society at large to rethink how the government, businesses and communities function and relate to each other in the fight against the epidemic. The president reasserted that the national lockdown, although causing inconvenience, has proven to be effective, given the fact that some countries that took similar measures have contained the spread of the virus. The meeting discussed a report from the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure, which included adherence to the national lockdown regulations, continuous tracking of contacts, accommodation requirements, identified quarantine sites and the roll-out of the mass community testing program. A total of 5,400 workers have been trained and deployed across the country so far, while thousands more remain to be trained, according to a presidential statement issued after the meeting. Priority districts and 993 wards have been identified, which are composed of the most vulnerable and at-risk communities as well as areas with high rates of infection, the statement said. Provinces are working with the National Health Laboratory Services to identify testing sites which will include both fixed and mobile test facilities, it added. Through the COVID-19 Data Management Center, the government is receiving potential clusters of infections and thus deploying pre-emptive targeted testing in identified areas, presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko said. In addition to daily estimates of infections, it also assessed local healthcare capacity and the efficacy of the 21-day lockdown, which began nine days ago, said Diko. Georgia singled out as a success story in fight against COVID-19 - GeorgianJournal It's official, Western Australia is now an "island within an island". WAxit is in full swing. The hard border was enforced from midnight, with many West Australians scrambling to get back to the state before it was too late. WA has shut itself off from the rest of Australia and effectively become "an island within an island", Premier Mark McGowan said. Credit:File Today there are six domestic flights due to arrive at Perth Airport, with all passengers on board to be met by Australian Federal Police officers who will decide whether they can remain in the state or not. Any passenger who does not meet the exemption criteria will be sent back to where they came from and anyone caught lying could face 12 months in prison or a fine up to $50,000. Sowmya Mani By Express News Service TIRUCHY: On Saturday afternoon, seven tired young men were walking on the Cauvery bridge near Thiruvanaikoil. They had just completed a 1000 km journey from Solapur in Maharashtra to Tiruchy. Arun, who runs a photo studio here spotted these boys. Looking at their state, he stopped and asked them where they were going. Hailing from places in Thiruvarur & Nagapatinam, these men were on their last leg to home. Arun immediately contacted the Collector and got the permission to ferry these men. He then gave them food and refreshments. I saw these boys on the Cauvery bridge on Saturday afternoon. They looked worn out. I asked them where they were going. I wanted to help them so I got the permission to drive them home, said Arun of In Out studio. Working in a company that manufactures agri products in Solapur, these boys wanted to return home during the lockdown, despite being given proper food and accommodation. We were all placed together with 100 other people. We were also being given food. However, our families were worried as Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in India. We were also scared of being there with so many people. So we decided to come back home, said 20 year old Rahul, one of the boys who came back. 22 of these men working in Solapur left from there on 29th March with some clothes and water. They walked, took lifts from people who were willing to help, sat in lorries, heavy transport vehicles and reached Musiri. They say they faced the most difficulty in terms of transportation after reaching Tamil Nadu. They walked from Musiri to Tiruchy. They crossed Maharashtra, Karnataka and reached Tiruchy in 4 days.We managed with whatever food we got on the way and slept under any roof we could find. Our employer was helpful so we would not lose our jobs. We just wanted to come back home, said another boy from the group. They plan to return to Maharashtra post the lockdown. All of them are qualified and have completed B.Sc, M.Sc or Engineering. A man was killed in a clash between two groups of villagers allegedly over setting up of a quarantine centre at a village school in Birbhum district on Saturday night. The incident occurred in Talibpur village under Parui police station. A clash broke out between two groups of villagers. Prima facie a man succumbed to bomb injuries, Superintendent of Police Shyam Singh said. Police forces have been deployed in the village where the situation is tense but under control, he said. The police, however, did not say anything on the reason behind the clash. Local sources claimed that the administration has decided to set up a quarantine centre for suspected COVID-19 cases at a school in the village and it was not liked by a section of villagers while others were in favour of it. An altercation on the issue between members of the two groups led to a clash and a middle-aged was killed, they said. Since President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster to address the spread of COVID-19, Internet traffic in South Africa has climbed substantially. This is a global trend, and Internet usage in South Africa is only expected to increase as the 21-day lockdown continues. Looking at the trend in more detail, Packet Clearing House senior manager for interconnection policy and regulatory affairs Gael Hernandez recently analysed traffic patterns at Internet exchanges across Europe. Traffic graphs from several large Internet exchange points suggest there was a sudden surge in Internet usage from around 10 March 2020 and that the traffic did not return to its previous normal levels. Cloudflare reported seeing similar trends in Seattle, Northern Italy, and South Korea. NAPAfrica Over 1Tbps of traffic NAPAfrica, one of South Africas major Internet exchange point providers, has also seen a substantial increase in Internet traffic. On 5 March, 10 days before the president declared a national disaster, NAPAfrica announced a major milestone. It had seen combined peak traffic of over 1Tbps through its exchanges in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town. The day after President Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would enter a period of lockdown for three weeks, NAPAfricas peak traffic across all its exchange points was around 1.04Tbps. On 25 March, the evening peak through NAPAfrica was over 1.1Tbps. Weve seen a reasonable increase in video content consumption, but also saw an interesting increase in social media traffic, NAPAfrica told MyBroadband. ISPs urged to upgrade capacity Before South Africa went into lockdown, NAPAfrica had urged several Internet service providers to upgrade their capacity at its exchange points. We have been following developments at exchanges in the rest of the world, and the advice from all of them has been to upgrade as much as possible, as quickly as possible, since nobody knows exactly where this will end, NAPAfrica said. It explained that it typically asks networks to upgrade when they have used around 60% of their capacity. This gives enough time for the upgrades to happen before a service provider starts seeing congestion on its network. At around 80% we start to see packet loss because of the bursty nature of the Internet, NAPAfrica said. As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, NAPAfrica asked everyone who was using at least 50% of their capacity to upgrade. The Internet is going to play a vital role during this event and all operators need to plan for all eventualities, NAPAfrica said. SEACOM 15% Internet traffic increase SEACOM, which operates one of South Africas major undersea fibre cables, said it has seen a 15% increase in Internet traffic across its network. It expects that figure to increase further. SEACOM has seen a marked increase in traffic since early March, as more and more companies avoid international business travel, avoid meetings and gatherings, and encourage their employees to work from home, it said. This increase has happened across all segments and all markets in Africa that SEACOM operates in, such as Service Provider, Corporate, SME, and FTTH. SEACOM said it has seen increases in video, VPN, and remote collaboration tools, as well as standard web browsing. In anticipation of increased traffic growth it added more backbone upgrades before the lockdown was announced. Much higher Netflix traffic Cool Ideas told MyBroadband that in the two days after the president declared a state of national disaster, it saw a substantial increase in the amount of Netflix traffic on its network. Sunday is usually the biggest day for Internet traffic on the Cool Ideas network, but the ISP said that by Wednesday (18 March) its Netflix usage was peaking at 32% higher than Sunday. Global reduction in video quality As a result of national lockdowns globally and the surge in Internet traffic, platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube reduced the quality of their video streams in Europe to help networks cope with the increased demand. More recently, Facebook revealed it had seen a surge in the usage of its services in countries most affected by the virus. Facebook said it had seen voice and video messaging more than double on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Total messaging increased by over 50% in the past month. In Italy, views on Instagram and Facebook Live doubled in a week, while group calling increased by over 1,000% during the past month. Corrine "Corky" Casserly, 91, has been virtually cut off from her 95-year-old sister Ruth Sorney, who has mild dementia and lives in an assisted-living facility nearby. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) Since childhood, 91-year-old Corrine Casserly and her 95-year-old sister Ruth Sorney have been the closest of friends. As young women coming into their own in Hollywood in the late 1940s, they'd put on their little black dresses most Saturday nights and pretend to be rich by treating themselves to chicken a la king at Tom Breneman's restaurant by Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. They'd celebrate their Italian American heritage later in life at "Club Italiano" socials at St. John Eudes Catholic Church near their homes in the San Fernando Valley. There were hair appointments every Friday at 10 a.m. at a salon in Woodland Hills, and twice a year the sisters would take the shuttle with their church's senior club to a casino in San Bernardino, always splitting their winnings 50-50. It seemed as if nothing could keep the sisters apart, not even the family's decision to move Sorney into a long-term care home at the beginning of the year. Casserly, who lives only a few blocks away in Tarzana, visited every day. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The residence where Sorney is being cared for has been placed on a precautionary lockdown. Visitors are no longer allowed, and Sorney, who has mild dementia and can't walk on her own, is suddenly off limits. I need to be there for her, Casserly said. To stay away even for a short time, she says, is not my nature. Corrine "Corky" Casserly, 91, left, and her sister Ruth "Ruthie" Sorney, 95, hold hands in this photograph from 2018. (Courtesy of Corrine Casserly) The coronavirus has prompted the families and friends of the elderly to accept behaviors that wouldve seemed unthinkable just weeks ago. To prevent the spread of the deadly respiratory disease among the sick and elderly, who are more susceptible to it, federal officials have ordered a nationwide temporary ban on visits by all but essential staff at senior-care homes and hospices. Even in cases in which a resident is near death, special arrangements must be made to allow visitation by next-of-kin. In this bizarre new age of social distancing, worried families have dreamed up novel ways to break down the walls that separate them from their relatives living inside these complexes. They wave at them from a distance, holding up handmade signs with loving greetings, and carry on conversations through closed windows. Story continues Casserly says Sorney has called every day to let her know she's all right and, like families around the country who have seniors living under outbreak-related lockdowns, the two have started using FaceTime to video chat. Its very annoying, Casserly said. I can call her on the phone thats the best I can do. The fact that I cant go there, see her and talk to her or watch a couple of game shows with her from outside as we sometimes do now thats gone." Before the outbreak worsened in recent weeks, she was permitted to keep her sister company by sitting in the patio that leads into her room so the two could chat through the screen of a sliding door. I used to kiss her goodbye now we blow kisses at each other, Casserly said before she found out last week that she would no longer be allowed on the patio. The new normal that she, the nation and the world have been thrust into comes as a blow to the bond that she and her sister have built up over nine decades. "I always tell people we're like twins except we were born about five years apart," Casserly says. The sisters moved from Rochester, N.Y., to Los Angeles with their Italian immigrant parents in 1945. Their older brother Henry Sorney, who died in 2006, joined the family after serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II. Casserly, who goes by the nickname "Corky," was 16. Sorney, who goes by "Ruthie," was 20. Ruth "Ruthie" Sorney, left, and Corrine "Corky" Casserly are photographed in their hometown of Rochester, N.Y., a year before their family moved to L.A. (Courtesy of Corrine Casserly) Not long after arriving in the city in their 1936 Ford Woody station wagon, the family bought a house in Hollywood. And even though Sorney was older, Casserly enjoyed having her sister join sock hop house parties and horse-drawn hayrides with her and her friends from Hollywood High School. Casserly got married and became a stay-at-home mom, raising five children in the house she bought in 1950 and still lives in as a widow twice over. Sorney moved in with her parents as an adult and bought a house in Encino with them in 1964. She still owns that home. For much of her career, she worked as a telephone switchboard operator at a television station. If you wanted to be friends with Casserly, you had to befriend Sorney too. Casserly says it was a package deal that even her second husband was warned about before they started dating in 1989. "By golly it was true!" she says with a laugh. "We took her everywhere." A big Dodgers fan, Sorney would draw giggles from Casserly's children during family gatherings as she yelled vulgarities at the players on the TV screen whenever they made an error. Oh, my God, she curses like a sailor! Casserly recalls. She knows every player and when they trade, she has a fit. Each week for nearly 70 years, Sorney joined for Sunday dinner at Casserly's house in Tarzana. The dinners were large affairs at first, with Sorney accompanying her parents. After they died, she came alone. By last year, Sorney had become too physically weak to drive, so Casserly would simmer pasta sauce on Saturdays and drive dinner to her sister's house to keep the Sunday ritual alive. The family's decision to take Sorney's car keys away and move her into the senior care home wasn't easy. Many families already deal with feelings of guilt over having to place their loved ones in senior facilities. Not having access to them during the pandemic only adds to their grief and concern, says Barbara Wogh, a registered nurse in Woodland Hills who helps families access medical care for their aging relatives. They really feel bad that their relatives are in that situation they picture them being lonely and sad, Wogh said. To make Sorney's bedroom feel more like home, Casserly and her daughters brought in some of her furniture a nightstand, a lamp, a chair from her living room and a TV for her to watch game shows and her beloved Dodgers. I'd sit by the bed and watch TV while Sorney napped," Casserly said of her daily visits before the outbreak. "I had dinner with her a few nights a week. Going to see her every day was a joy for me." But Casserly says that given the danger posed by "this damn virus," as she puts it, maybe it's wise to accept the idea that some things don't need to be done in person right now. "I feel disconnected to a degree," she says, "but the underlying emotional and spiritual bonds, they don't break. "We're still very much together." Gordon Ramsay will appear on the first week of the rebooted MasterChef series. The Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday that the British chef will dominate the first week of MasterChef Australia: Back to Win. This will leave new judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo playing second fiddle for the show's relaunch on April 13. Leading man: Gordon Ramsay (pictured) will appear on the first week of the rebooted MasterChef, a new report claims. The Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday that the British chef will dominate the first week of MasterChef Australia: Back to Win 'When Gordon became available, schedules were adjusted to ensure production could have him for all of the first week,' Ten executive producer Rick Maier told the paper. 'The contestants may have thought they were mentally prepared to return to the kitchen but they had no idea they were going straight back in the deep end. 'The look on their faces when they see Gordon looming at the top of the kitchen is unforgettable.' Back-burner: This will leave new judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo playing second fiddle for the show's relaunch on April 13. Pictured from left to right: new judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo It comes after news that there will be only one immunity pin for the entire season, upping the stakes. As reported in The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, the coronavirus pandemic has also caused a 'dire situation' for producers. International judges Nigella Lawson and Heston Blumenthal have had to cancel their scheduled appearances, while outdoor challenges with crowds have been shelved. Planned travel has also been cancelled, while shooting outside of the set has been banned. Changes: International judges Nigella Lawson and Heston Blumenthal have had to cancel their scheduled appearances, while outdoor challenges with crowds have been shelved due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nigella is pictured with former judges George Calombaris (left) and Matt Preston (right) The publication understands producers have made it their priority to ensure greater hygiene procedures are followed, including contestants wearing gloves. Contestants will reportedly serve up individually-sized dishes for judges to sample, as opposed to share plates. One drawcard for the program, however, is having filmed segments in advance with Gordon, Curtis Stone and American pop star Katy Perry. MasterChef - Back To Win premieres Monday, April 13 at 7.30pm on Channel 10 Celebrity cook Julie Goodwin has bravely opened up about her private hell which saw her spend five weeks in a mental health facility. The MasterChef winner and much-loved food personality shocked fans and listeners of her breakfast radio show in February when she revealed her long battle with depression and anxiety. The mother-of-three, 49, shed more light on her crippling mental breakdown in an interview with The Project co-host Lisa Wilkinson, which will air on Sunday night. Her battle with depression was so severe she could barely function, unable eat or sleep. 'I found myself in hospital having suffered a massive episode of depression and anxiety and a whole lot of stuff I couldn't manage It was quite a shock to me to land there,' Goodwin said in a segment preview. Julie Goodwin has revealed her husband Mick (pictured together) made the agonising decision to admit her to hospital, unable to deal with her mental breakdown 'It wasn't just a feeling, it became physical. My hands shook so hard that I couldn't put a fork full of food to my mouth. It really was quite frightening. I wasn't sleeping.' Goodwin paid tribute to her husband of 25 years when asked by Wilkinson as to what saved her. 'I'm very grateful to my husband Mick for making that decision (to go to hospital) He just said to me, I'm not equipped to deal with what you're going through right now, and I need some help with this,' Goodwin said. 'If I hadn't been taken there, I don't know where I'd be now.' 'What I know from like the very centre of my soul is that he is looking out for me and that his motivation is my wellbeing.' Goodwin saw no light at the end of the tunnel during her darkest days. The 2009 MasterChef winner (pictured) will open up about her battle with anxiety and depression on The Project on Sunday night 'The joy was gone,' Goodwin said. 'I was stuck in a situation of my own creation and I couldn't get out, I couldn't see a way out. And it wasn't that I didn't want to be alive anymore, but I couldn't figure out how to be alive. 'I just had voices that were despairing and dark and wrong, telling me the wrong things.' Goodwin says she's now on the mend, thank to the support of her husband and three sons. 'Everyone just rallied around and I guess I slowly, incrementally got better,' Goodwin said. 'You know it wasn't the end of the world. I'm not that important, I'm a cog in a wheel and we all need a break sometimes.' Julie Goodwin (pictured MasterChef season one runner-up Poh Ling Yeow) rose to overnight fame when she won the first season of the cooking show in 2009 Goodwin has come to terms with the fact that her mental health 'will always be a work in progress. The candid interview comes after she was recently forced to temporary close her cooking school on the NSW Central Coast due to the coronavirus lockdown. 'Wishing health and safety to all in these uncertain times. At #juliesplace we're closing our doors for a little while. We're sad for our clients and our staff. We look forward to seeing you all on the other side of this surreal situation. We'll still be posting recipes and fun stuff you can do at home,' Goodwin posted last month. In February, Goodwin took to Facebook with a heartbreaking letter explaining to listeners of her 'Rabbit and Julie Goodwin' morning radio show on Friday for reasons off going off the radar. 'Disappearing like this has created difficulty for a lot of people. I have essentially disappeared from my scheduled life, failed to meet my obligations, and I owe an explanation,' Ms Goodwin wrote. 'I just had voices that were despairing and dark and wrong, telling me the wrong things,' the much-loved cooking and television personality revealed She revealed she'd been battling depression and anxiety on and off over many years. 'On the surface I know I dont seem to be depressed or anxious. Ive denied it to myself for a long time, and certainly put a lot of energy into making sure it wasnt obvious to the people around me. 'I have never been one of those brave people who can lay these things out in the open for others to look at and comment on,' she wrote. 'But this time around the happy facade didn't just slip a little bit, it fell off and smashed. And I find myself thinking, stuff privacy. Let's talk.' She explained that when she started her cooking school four years ago alongside taking up a breakfast radio show her schedule became packed and she fought hard to stay on top of it. 'I have changed my sleep and social habits, I have exercised and been to see counsellors and hypnotherapists, I have done my level best to keep on juggling and keep all those balls up in the air,' she said. Julie Goodwin (pictured at the 2011 Logies) first revealed to her fans in February she had battling depression and anxiety on and off over many years. The mother-of-three said six months ago she decided to acknowledge that her mental health was not great and she was professionally diagnosed with depression and anxiety and put on medication. At the end of 2019 Ms Goodwin said she would resign from her Star radio show as of Easter in an attempt to rework her priorities. Christmas 2019 was her breaking point. 'I was physically sick in the guts for weeks, my mouth and nose full of ulcers, my hands wouldnt stop shaking. Emotionally I was just spent,' Goodwin wrote. 'Anxiety kept coursing through me like electricity. I felt like I was trapped under a wet woollen blanket and every move was a massive effort. 'Eventually all of this became so much that I just had nothing left. No joy, no excitement. I couldnt see a single thing to look forward to, and putting a smile on my face involved remembering which muscles to use and arranging them properly.' Julie Goodwin (pictured left with runner-up Poh Ling Yeow at the 2009 MasterChef finale) says she was accepted her mental health 'will always be a work in progress' While Goodwin describes the experience as a shock, she says she has learned valuable lessons and getting much needed help. 'Be as kind to yourself as you try to be to others,' she says. 'If you're struggling, ask for help. Do it before you can no longer hear the logical voices, the clear and good voices. Do it before it's too hard to see a way forward. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for the ones who love you the most.' Goodwin rose to fame after she won the first season of MasterChef in 2009. She has released multiple cookbooks, and appeared on 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.' She was fined $600 fine and had her licence suspended for six months after she was caught drink driving in 2018. For confidential support in Australia contact LIFELINE on 13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au, or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467. Three people became the first in Hanoi to be fined for leaving the house for non-essential reasons on Sunday morning, pursuant to this weeks order by the capital citys chairman barring people from going outside under unnecessary circumstances to staunch novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Each of the three was required to pay VND200,000 (US$8.5) in administrative penalties as they went out in Truc Bach Ward, Ba Dinh District, an official told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. They were fined in accordance with a government decree issued in 2013, detailing penalties for those breaching regulations on infectious diseases. One of the three resides in the ward while the other two live elsewhere, the official said. One went out to sell flowers and the remaining two went fishing. All three complied, paid the fine, and promised to adhere to guidelines to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Truc Bach is the first ward in Hanoi to have fined people for leaving their home for non-essential reasons. The wards officials said that they would continue asking residents to stay home, except for essential trips outside. Police have patrolled many streets in the capital to remind locals of not leaving the house for no justifiable reason. Hanois chairman Nguyen Duc Chung on Friday ordered that authorities fine anyone going outside under unncessary circumstances, at a time when Vietnam practices social distancing between April 1 and 15. Fine all those people! he emphasized at a meeting on COVID-19 prevention. If people keep going out and only ten percent of the population fail to comply, the social distancing measure will fall through, Chung said. Citizens can go out for food, medicine, and emergency care, however. Hanoi is exerting all efforts to stall the virus spread during the social distancing, which Chung said would decide the result of the citys battle against the disease. The municipal Department of Justice has detailed fines for those breaking rules on COVID-19 control, ranging from VND300,000 ($12.7) to VND20 million ($850). The capital is Vietnams largest epicenter, with 103 infections, including 65 active cases. The Vietnamese government believes that anyone possibly carrying the virus in the country will show symptoms during this physical distancing period, for Vietnam has already halted inbound flights, denied entry to all foreigners, and quarantined infected patients, their close contacts, as well as those exposed to the pathogen. Vietnam has reported 240 COVID-19 patients so far, with 90 having recovered, according to data collected by Tuoi Tre. No fatality has been recorded as yet. The country has announced no new cases as of Sunday afternoon. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Automobile dealers fear of losing thousands of crore as they have not been able to sell a huge chunk of BS-IV stocks due to lockdowns. They said the 10-day relaxation given by the Supreme Court (SC) on March 27 wont help their situation. Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) said that the VahanPortal, used for vehicle registrations, was also is disabled and if it was not opened, dealers would face huge losses as they will not be able to liquidate BS-IV stocks. The dealers can only sell BS-IV inventory till April 24, under the current situation. The SC had said ... By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/04/2020 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice is mourning the death of her father, Giacinto Gorga.Giacinto died on Friday morning at age 76, but his cause of death has yet to be disclosed, E! News reported Teresa confirmed her father's passing, which comes three years after his wife Antonia died from a battle with pneumonia at age 66, via Instagram on Friday."My father, my protector, my hero, God took you early this morning to be with mommy, I saw you peacefully pass & I know you kept fighting for my daughters and I," wrote Teresa, who is mom to four daughters."I have so many amazing thoughts of you, every day seeing you in the kitchen at my home, teaching my girls to cook, my partner in crime on shopping trips, your love of the shore & my travel buddy. You always wanted everyone to have a good time, eat great food, have a stiff drink and enjoy life."Teresa's tribute to her father was paired with a video that captured special moments in his life. Teresa and Giacinto's grandchildren were featured in many of the sweet slideshow pictures."You are the absolute strongest man I know & I know you missed mommy so much but you stayed for us. Thank you for being the best husband, father & Nonno," Teresa continued."Your devotion to mommy was one for the record books, you were the true example and a gentleman and devoted husband. You visited mommy every single day & would go twice for the days you missed while traveling or if you were to sick to go, my silver lining is knowing you'll be together now."Teresa concluded, "Thank you for showing us all what true love is. Love you Papa Rest In Peace. 4-3-20."Teresa has since shared three other posts about her dad on Instagram. In addition to writing, "I love you always," she also gushed of Giacinto he was "a fighter" and "so loved.""Everyone fell in love with you. You were always the life of the party. RIP," Teresa added.Teresa's brother Joe Gorga and his wife Melissa Gorga are also grieving this immense loss in their lives."I can't believe he is gone. The world lost an amazing man human being today. He was exactly what a true father and husband should be. I will miss you more than you know, But go find your wife because I know that's all you want and all you've ever talked about for the past 3 years," Joe captioned a photo with his dad on Instagram."You will be missed every single day. You had energy that lit up a room and everyone fell in love with you. You were truly one of a kind. I'm so happy you're in no more pain. Rest In Peace Finally 4-3-20."And Melissa mourned how Giacinto was the only dad she's known for the past 16 years."Heaven just got another angel... You were such an incredible man and such a loving Nonno.. They don't make them like you anymore," Melissa wrote on social media."Thank you for teaching my husband how to treat his wife the way you treated yours. Thank you for teaching me how to cook everything I make. Thank you for all the energy you've always brought everywhere you went. Run to your wife. She's waiting for you.i RIP we will miss you forever."Teresa revealed her father was "struggling" in a Thursday post on Instagram, but she did not share details on Giacinto's condition or health."At this trying time I'm graciously asking for any extra prayers, good vibes, love... please send my fathers way," Teresa wrote at the time."My father is struggling and my girls and I need him, we need his love, his presence & his strength. #thepowerofprayers."Giacinto was loved by seven grandchildren in total, according to People: Teresa and Joe Giudice's girls Gia, 19, Gabriella, 16, Milania, 15, and Audriana, 11, and Joe and Melissa's daughter Antonia, 14, and sons Gino, 12, and Joey, 9.Giacinto's health has apparently been failing in recent months because Teresa previously announced he was hospitalized in both October and November 2019.Prior to his death, Giacinto had been living with Teresa and her daughters, and he reportedly often appeared on Bravo's of New Jersey.of New Jersey just wrapped its tenth season last month. Tourist accommodation establishments operating in Ho Chi Minh City will be permitted to receive new arrivals, under the condition that they fully comply with the requirements aimed at preventing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism released a document outlining the steps that tourist accommodation facilities must take when receiving guests amid the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. It requested that all establishments move to update information on their list of guests and send it to the department before 10:00am each day. Accommodation facilities in the city will be required to conduct medical supervision and take preventive measures to ensure the safety of guests and workers in line with regulations. Some of the steps taken include asking guests to don face masks when going out in public and halting the option of ordering a buffet when room service is called. In addition, if guests display any symptoms of the COVID-19, hotel owners must immediately contact their local districts preventive medicine centre and the Health Department's hotline in order to receive instructions on how to implement the first stages of a quarantine. Moreover, these facilities should be fast in reporting any relevant information to the citys Department of Tourism, so that necessary prevention measures can be implemented. VOV Hotels in Hanoi support fight against COVID-19 Hanois accommodations are willing to host quarantined people and reduce the overload of in mass isolation centers. However, criteria for hosting quarantined people have not been released. Since Chinese officials disclosed the outbreak of a mysterious illness to international health officials on New Years Eve, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the United States on direct flights from China, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed restrictions on such travel, according to an analysis of data collected in both countries. The bulk of the passengers, who were of multiple nationalities, arrived in January, at airports in Los Angeles; San Francisco; New York; Chicago; Seattle; Newark, N.J.; and Detroit. Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, as American public-health officials were only beginning to assess the risks to the United States. Flights continued this past week, the data show, with passengers travelling from Beijing to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, under rules that exempt Americans and some others from the clampdown that took effect on Feb. 2. In all, 279 flights from China have arrived in the United States since then, and screening procedures have been uneven, interviews show. Trump has repeatedly suggested that his travel measures impeded the spread of the virus in the United States. I do think we were very early, but I also think that we were very smart, because we stopped China, he said at a briefing on Tuesday. But the analysis of the flight and other data by The New York Times shows the travel measures, however effective, may have come too late, particularly in light of recent statements from health officials that as many as 25 per cent of people infected with the virus may never show symptoms. Many infectious-disease experts suspect that the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks after the first American case was confirmed on Jan. 20, and that it had continued to be introduced. During the first half of January, when Chinese officials were underplaying the severity of the outbreak, no travellers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus. Health screening began in mid-January, but only for a number of travellers who had been in Wuhan and only at the airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. By that time, about 4,000 people had already entered the United States directly from Wuhan. The measures were expanded to all passengers from China two weeks later. Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesperson, described Trumps travel restrictions as a bold decisive action, which medical professionals say will prove to have saved countless lives. The policy took effect, he said, at a time when the global health community did not yet know the level of transmission or asymptomatic spread. In interviews, multiple travellers who arrived after the screening was expanded said they received only passing scrutiny, with minimal followup. Former Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Catholic Church, Anthony Okogie says Coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria is a blessing in disguise. According to Okogie, the pandemic has exposed Nigeria as a country where the quality of leadership is of low grade. He said, But COVID-19 is also revelatory, a blessing in disguise, because it has exposed Nigeria as a country where the quality of leadership is of low grade. What we have known but has been denied for so long is now shown to us as an incontrovertible fact: that the quality of leadership in our country must improve. In the midst of poor-quality leadership, however, Nigerians must speak in laudatory terms about Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, his Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, and his entire team for rising to the occasion. For right or wrong reasons, Lagosians have been critical of his government since its inauguration on May 29, 2019. Read Also: NCDC Confirms 10 Fresh Cases Of Coronavirus Thanks to our countrys constitution dubbed federal, government in Nigeria is embarrassingly big, sinfully expensive, prone to corruption, and scandalously inefficient. Nigeria cannot adequately invest in the sectors of health and education because, among other reasons, the constitution of Nigeria has established offices that will require an endless flow of petrol-dollars to maintain. By the time low-grade leadership combines with big government and the seemingly irresistible tendency to steal and or waste Nigerias money, you find a country whose hospitals are reduced to mere consultation rooms. It is therefore insufficient for our legislators to forfeit their salaries for two months, as they have offered. It is also unsatisfactory for Senators to donate half of their salaries to tackle COVID-19. COVID-19 has revealed to us that if we do not do something positive about our hospitals in Nigeria, if we do not invest our money in medical research, we shall one day find ourselves in a situation where we cannot even board a flight out of Nigeria to go on medical tourism. Let us make hay while the sun shines, he added. But if we continue to run the affairs of our country with a constitution that impoverishes and disables the citizens by establishing offices that do not serve the people, then we would not have learnt good lessons from this pandemic. According to him, COVID-19 had also revealed to Nigerians that there were false prophets living among them, saying that in a country where once you grab a Bible and a microphone you become a pastor or prophet or apostle, where you can become founder of a church without any serious theological formation, we have seen how some of our religious leaders have resorted to dishing out false prophecies. Many people have been negatively impacted by the current situation across the country. It is not easy to deal with the changing environment. We are adjusting to a new kind of normal that doesnt have a foreseeable end. There are a lot of things changing and up in the air, but everyone is doing their best to find a routine. One thing that people are worried about the most is their finances. With many people working reduced hours or not at all, budgets are getting tighter and tighter. Hyundai is offering different assistance programs to help their customers. Hyundai owners who lose their job can be eligible for the Assurance Job Loss Protection program that can cover payments for a time. For newer purchases, there are some programs to help cover or defer payments. For more precise details or assistance, customers are highly encouraged to reach out to Carter County Hyundai with any questions. The dealership can be reached via their website or e-mail and social media profiles. Carter County Hyundai can also be reached over the phone at 580-319-4949. The dealership is located at 616 Holiday Dr, Ardmore, OK, 73401 for the customers who wish a more direct interaction. Jaipur: A large hall on the first floor of the Jaipur Police Commissioners office, near the government press, is buzzing despite the 21-day national lockdown. On the left, it has three rows of eight workstations, each with three computer screens. About 30 other screens are mounted on a wall in front. The people who inhabit this workspace are tracking every movement, mapping every activity, on Jaipurs streets by going through the feed from more than 800 CCTV cameras, and 15 drones hovering over the walled city. Any suspicious or illegal activity is flagged, and immediately reported to the concerned police station concerned. To the right, an additional 16 screens are tracking calls made to the police. This is the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) war room set up by the Jaipur Police. We monitor live feed from cameras across the city. One-hundred-and-fifty of the 800 them are PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras that can rotate 360 degrees. The rest are fixed cameras, said Adarsh Choudhary, additional superintendent of police and one of the three officers in charge of the war room. With the help of these cameras and drones, Jaipur Police are ensuring compliance of the lockdown in the city and the curfew in the walled city areas. One-hundred-and-seventy-six cameras are in the walled city alone, and 22 of them are PTZs. Constables in plainclothes monitor rotate the PTZ cameras for better views, if needed. The drones fly over rooftops to detect any illegal activity, such as gatherings of more than five people, in narrow and congested lanes. The drone footage is also monitored by respective police station areas, said Jitendra Singh Rathore, station house officer of Manak Chowk police station, which is on a gateway to the Ramganj area, which was the first to be put under curfew after a 45-year-old man tested positive for Covid-19 on March 26. At least 20 of his family members also tested positive later, sparking fears of widespread local transmission. The areas that fall under seven police stations in the walled city Ramganj, Kotwali, Manak Chowk, Brahmpuri, Nahargarh and Galta Gate have been under curfew since March 28. Our cameras are in the marketplace and at other prominent locations. We can track activities on main roads with them. For lanes and bylanes, we needed more eyes in the sky to keep track, especially because of the curfew, said Ajay Pal Lamba, additional commission of police (law and order). Lamba, who led the police action against Asaram Bapu in 2013 as deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Jodhpur West, also gets drone footage on his mobile phone (He keeps checking it intermittently even as he is speaking to this reporter). There were some reports of people rushing to their rooftops to see the whizzing drones flying over them but the police had no problem with that. As long as they stay indoors and maintain social distancing, we have no problem, Lamba said. In the war room, three additional SPs are in charge in three shifts 6am to 2pm, 2pm to 10pm and 10pm to 6am. The call facility has two PRI (primary rate interface) lines that can handle 60 calls at a time. Four more screens on the left wall display all calls in progress. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A 35-year-old man, who was admitted in the coronavirus isolation ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JLNMCH) here, died on Sunday during the course of treatment, a senior hospital official said. The deceased, a resident of Beldaur village in Khagaria district, was admitted in the isolation ward of JLNMCH with symptoms of high fever and high blood pressure, hospital Superintendent Dr R C Mandal said. His swab sample was sent to the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRI), Patna for the COVID-19 test after his death on Sunday evening, the superintendent said, adding that further procedure will be followed after receiving the report. The body was handed over to his family members on their insistence, Mandal said. It may be noted that a 65-year-old man from Naugachia in Bhagalpur district with a travel history to the United Kingdom had earlier tested positive for coronavirus. This was the first active coronavirus case in the district, which was confirmed following a test at RMRI, Patna on Saturday. Fourteen persons, including a doctor, who had attended to him have been kept in quarantine at the Naugachia Sadar Hospital, Bhagalpur Civil Surgeon Dr Vijay Kumar said. According to the State Health Society's bulletin issued on Sunday evening, the total number of coronavirus cases stood at 32, including one death, in Bihar. A 38-year-old man from Munger, who had returned from Qatar a month ago, died at AIIMS, Patna, on March 21. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Long-lasting marriages in Hollywood arent too common. However, rapper turned actor Tracy Ice-T Marrow and his model wife, Nicole Coco Austin Marrow, seemed to have beat those odds. Theyre not the first two people youd think would go the distance but somehow, Ice and Coco have a strong partnership based on mutual respect and yes, sexual chemistry. These two have survived 18 years of marriage and show no signs of splitting up anytime soon (despite those pesky rumors). Whats their secret? Embracing the unconventional nature of their union and letting it make them stronger. Rapper Ice-T and Coco Austin | Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for iHeartMedia Ice-T captured Cocos heart with a cheesy pickup line There was a 20 year age gap between the pair when they met she was 22, he was 42 but that didnt stop them from starting up a romantic relationship almost immediately after meeting. Strangely enough, Coco had no idea who Ice-T was at first. I was working as a model in California, on a movie set that Ice was doing a video for, Coco explained in a blog post. Ice was having a grumpy day so his friend/producer for the video wanted to cheer Ice up and grabbed me. I wasnt told who I was going to meet; I was just pulled in the direction where Ice was sitting She continued: Then he goes on to say Have you ever thought about dating a gangster rapper? Now me being a white girl from the valley I had never heard of a gangster rapper So I responded to him, Well, if hes nice and Ice responds with, Well baby if you take the N off nice you get ICE. That line made me laugh. An unlikely body part caught Ice-Ts attention first Ice-T and Coco have made no secret about their mutual physical attraction and their active sex life. Though the rapper said the first thing he noticed about his wife wasnt her ample bosom it was her teeth. and then I saw her boobs, he confirmed to Daily Mail. And then she turned around, that big butt. Still, Ice-T wasnt just looking for a good time, he was at a place where he wanted to settle down. There was an instant physical attraction, but I was at a point in my life where I was ready to slow down, he continued. I wanted a partner. I wasnt in a position to be dating a beautiful psychopath. The couple got married just two months after meeting for the first time. Coco believes in total submission in the bedroom Though her comments are controversial, Coco has gone on record saying she believes in being completely submissive in bed and suggests the same for others. I think all women should do it, she told Andy Cohen. Im a slave to him 15 years, its worked out. Yet Ice-T has a deep respect for his wife. I applied the stereotype that everyone does to Coco that she just wanted to party and have a good time, Ice-T said. But she was just an honest and giving woman. Shes the nicest person, man or woman, Ive ever met. They had to quit their reality show, Ice Loves Coco Like many reality show stars who came before them, Ice-T and Coco eventually got sick of letting cameras into their lives and watching the drama play out on screen. The show based on their lives had great ratings, but they decided to walk away after two seasons. [Producers] create chaos because theyre trying to entertain people, Ice-T told HuffPost, Trying to entertain people with your life is dangerous. Its hard to do for a long period of time. So we got in and got out. The duo tried to launch a talk show called Ice & Coco but it never got picked up. The couple has some controversial parenting methods, too Ice-T and Coco have one daughter, Chanel Nicole, who was born in 2015. Fans question several aspects of her parenting including extended breastfeeding into her toddler years and allowing Chanel to swim with sharks in the Bahamas. Regardless of the criticism, Ice-T and Coco defend their choices and insist their daughter is well cared for. Coco said of motherhood: I mean, [Chanels] like my real-life doll. I get to dress her up and we get to match all day. Its funny. I didnt even think I was going to be that parent, but I turned into one. And parenthood has brought Ice-T and Coco closer, too. This couple might be a surprising pair, but somehow, it all just works. As the sanction-stricken country continues to strike a balance between handling the pandemic due to highly contagious pathogen, and the sinking economy, Rouhani reportedly said that putting either health or economy over the other would be incorrect. Iranian President even accused the foreign media of over-exaggerating situations and laid emphasis on the fact that resuming of certain industrial activities does not imply that citizens would not adhere to the rules of social distancing and advised others to remain at home. Rouhani reportedly said, "Someone at some corner says something to the foreign media and they exaggerate the issue." Even though the coronavirus cases in Iran have continued to spike, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on April 5 that the government will eventually ease some of the restrictions imposed on the country to stem the spread of COVID-19. The state media reported the Iranian governments plan to allow low-risk businesses including printing houses, clothes stores, book shops to resume activities on April 11 as the countrys death toll due to coronavirus has spiked to 3,603 and infection count remains 58,226. Read - COVID-19: Rouhani Says 'low-risk Economic Activities' To Resume In Iran From April 11 Read - Iran Says Virus Deaths Reach 3,603 Rouhani reportedly said that he wants the protocols issued by the countrys Ministry of Health to be followed without carelessness. The reopening of low-risk businesses in the Iranian capital, Tehran, will be allowed later, on April 18. This declaration by the Iranian President came as the country recorded over 2,480 cases in just 24 hours with 151 deaths. Rouhani also claimed that there are no disagreements between the Ministry of Health and mInistry of Industry, Mine and Trade over the precautionary measures that the country takes to combat the pandemic. Read - COVID-19: Tunisia Deploys Robocop To Ensure Citizens Follow Lockdown Rules Coronavirus outbreak After originating from Chinas wet markets, the coronavirus has now claimed over 65,841 lives worldwide as of April 5. According to the tally by international news agency, the pandemic has now spread to 206 countries and has infected at least 1,218,124 people. Out of the total infections, 253,818 have been recovered but the easily spread virus is continuing to disrupt many lives. Major cities have been put under lockdown in almost all countries and the economy is struggling. Read - Iran Warns Of Coronavirus Resurgence As Residents Ignore Stay-at-home Advisory Read - Iran Bames Israel's Spy Agency Of Running 'clandestine Operations' & 'nabbing' Test Kits (Image Source: AP) Enemy forces continued using proscribed weapons, namely 82mm and 120mm mortars. Russia-led forces mounted 14 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, on Saturday, April 4. Read alsoUkraine Army reports enemy death toll in Donbas over March "The armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire 14 times on April 4," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on April 5, 2020. The enemy engaged Ukrainian troops with proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms. Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the villages of Shyrokyne, Taramchuk, Novomykhailivka, Slavne, Vodiane, Opytne, Pavlopil, Orikhove, Novotoshkivske, Novo-Oleksandrivka, Pivdenne, and Novoluhanske. Joint Forces returned fire in response to enemy provocations, employing available means. On Saturday, the armed forces of the Russian Federation also opened fire from grenade launchers on Verkhniotoretske, which is located near the contact line. As a result of a grenade rupture, a local female resident received a shrapnel wound to her leg. She was taken to a hospital and provided with medical assistance, the report said. According to intelligence data, on April 4, two Russian occupiers were killed and another one was wounded. Ukrainian troops also destroyed an enemy drone and a tripod-mounted man-portable antitank gun. "Since Sunday midnight, Russia-led forces have mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions near Kamianka, using grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms," the update said. No casualties were reported in Ukrainian Army ranks on Sunday morning. We probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war, during a World War One or Two or something, Trump said at the White House. Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images From Town & Country Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have now transitioned to their new arrangement, after officially stepping back from their working royal roles on April 1and they're beginning this new era in sunny Los Angeles, Meghan's hometown. While this is an easy move, legally speaking, for both Meghan and little Archieboth of whom are U.S. citizensit's a little more complicated for Harry. The Prince's financial situation and more could soon change drasticallyif, that is, he and his family plan to settle in America for the long haul. Here, the tax and immigration hurdles that Prince Harry will have to overcome, should he choose to stay. If Harry lives here for too long, he'll have to pony up for U.S. taxes. Whether or not someone is considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes is dependent on how many days they spend in the country. A (somewhat complicated) formula is used to calculate the requisite number of days: if a person has spent 31 days in the U.S. during the current year, and a total of 183 days during the current year and the two years priorthough the days from those two previous years each count less than a full day (each day in the previous year counts for 1/3 of a day, and each day in the year before that counts for 1/6 of a day)they're considered a resident. An easy shortcut, explains Dianne Mehany, a lawyer specializing in international tax planning, is to make sure not to spend more than 121 days a year in the U.S. But as Henry Bubel, a lawyer who works with wealthy and cross-border families, explains, there is a way to bump up that number. "If he's able to show that he has a closer connection with England, then he could stay more days under the U.S.-UK tax treaty," Bubel says, estimating that the Prince might be able to get up to around 150 days. Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images This argument is made a little more complicated given Harry's well-publicized decision to step back from his role as a senior royala move that could be seen as a "decisive split with the United Kingdom," notes Mehany. Still, he and Meghan have retained a residence in the U.K. (Frogmore Cottage in Windsor), and have repeatedly expressed a desire to support the Queen and the Commonwealth. Story continues Mehany believes that especially in 2020, this could be Harry's out. "Honestly, if he's less than 183 days, I think that is very likely a strong argument," Mehany says, adding, "Someone who has spent very little time in Los Angeles until 2020and was essentially trapped here because of the way the world has shut downyou have a compelling argument that you're not truly a resident of the United States." So, interestingly, the ongoing pandemic could help Harry's case. But it would be hard to use this going forward. "If you try to claim it too many years in a row, at a certain point the IRS is going to say, 'No, you don't have a closer connection to another country, because you're routinely spending 6 months a year in the United States,'" Mehany says. There is also the possibility of Harry pursuing a "tiebreak" position under the U.S.-UK treaty, which would allow someone who accidentally becomes a resident (in other words, oversteps the number of days allotted) to avoid U.S. income taxes. There is also a downside to claiming this: while Harry would avoid paying taxes, he'd still have to file a boatload of paperwork and disclosures. "You still have to file a myriad of information returns, disclosing your worldwide assets, disclosing your trust positions, disclosing your controlled foreign corporations, disclosing your foreign investments," Mehany says. And like claiming a closer connection to another country, the IRS is less likely to permit this each time it's claimed. All this, of course, is still presuming that he spends less than half of the year in the U.S.and it's not clear at the moment if that's the case. Photo credit: Pool - Getty Images Yes, this means the IRS might get a peek at the royals' finances. Even if Harry has no income, if he is required to file in the U.S., he'll have to disclose information about his bank account holdings. "That wouldn't tell you anything else about the rest of the royals' finances except by implication," Bubel says. "However, if he were the beneficiary of trusts, where he received distributions from that trust while he was a resident, there'd be some complicated reporting and some complicated tax analysis that would have to be done." If Harry owns more than 10% of a foreign company, he'd have to file information about that companywhich might shed some light, depending on the company. However, the royals' finances as a whole are opaque, and it's not clear if Prince Harry holds anything in his own name, or is simply the beneficiary of trusts. But Harry's taxes are also dependent on immigration. There are a couple visas that would exempt him from the requirements outlined abovebut they each come with their own challenges. Technically, Harry could go back to school to get around the limits. If he applied for a student visa and attended a qualified program, his days as a student wouldn't count toward that 120-day number. "You'd be surprised, but many people his age group may do that, just sign up and enroll, even in doctoral programs," Bubel says. (Harry never enrolled in university, instead pursuing a career in the military, so he'd be pursuing a bachelor's.) Although it is a neat solution to his tax woes, Harry probably won't become a student anytime soon. Another option? Obtaining a diplomatic visa. Harry has certainly engaged in diplomatic activities in the past, but now that he's stepped back from his senior royal roleand as Buckingham Palace has stated, he and Meghan "can no longer formally represent the Queen,"it seems unlikely that he'd get a diplomatic visa. "That would be really at the discretion of the British government," explains Parisa Karaahmet, a partner at immigration law firm Fragomen. "He would have to be undertaking a role that's consistent with that of being a governmental representative." And really, as Bubel notes, "He's coming as a private citizen, not as a government official." Photo credit: WPA Pool - Getty Images And there are some taxes he'd never be able to avoid. Harry and Meghan have made it clear that they plan to earn their own incomeand if that income is made in the U.S., they'll have to pay taxes on it. For example, even before the Sussexes moved to L.A., it was reported that Harry was paid for a speech in Miami. Unless it was to benefit a charity, that payment "would be considered personal services income and he would owe tax in the United States, regardless of whether he was a resident or a non-resident," Mehany says. "Because it would be termed what we call U.S.-sourced income." Taxes aside, if he wants to stay in the U.S. for awhile, Harry will need a visa. All of the tax scenarios outlined above presume that Harry would want to avoid being classified as a residenteither in order to avoid taxes, or simply because he doesn't plan to spend more than 121 days per year in the U.S. But it's not known what he and Meghan are planning for their future, and it's entirely within the realm of possibility that they're hoping to stay in L.A. for the long haul. If that's the case, Harry will need to deal with immigration. British citizens are able to stay in the U.S. for 90 days at a time under America's visa waiver program. Under that arrangement, "He's not allowed to work. He's not allowed to reside or that sort of thing here. And he can't extend that time, but he can leave the US and then return at a later date for another subsequent 90 day period," Karaahmet says. Still, that's not a long-term solution. "So it might work initially but, eventually, if he's going to spend a lot of time here, he's going to end up by going with one of these visa options or even applying for permanent residence," Karaahmet explains. In terms of visas, in addition to the student and diplomatic options above, Harry could pursue an O-1 visa, for "Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement." Says Karaahmet, "It is quite common for individuals to apply for O-1 classification if they can show that they rise to a very high level of accomplishment in their fields." Being famous alone wouldn't be enough for Harry, but perhaps he could claim extraordinary achievement in philanthropy, or something of the like. He'd also have to be able to show that he was working in that area of expertise while in the U.S.and likely require an employer or organization to sponsor his application. "The drawback of the O-1 is it does have to be renewed periodically and it requires him to continue that relationship with that organization," Karaahmet adds. "So it's a work visa, really." One organization that might work well? The non-profit Harry and Meghan are planning to launch. Though details on the project are scarce thus far, it could theoretically provide the Prince with the sponsorship he needs to obtain the O-1. "The organization would be such that there's real structure around it and it has payroll and other individuals and maybe an actual office, physical office," Karaahmet adds as a caveat. "So, more than just a shell company type of thing. But yeah, it is possible for an organization that he and his wife establish to sponsor him." Photo credit: Pool/Samir Hussein - Getty Images Harry could also pursue permanent residency. This is where Meghan's American citizenship could really come in handy. As the spouse of a U.S. citizen, Harry's eligible to apply for permanent residencythough that would take awhile. Under normal circumstances, an applicant would be looking at several months; given that the current pandemic has shuttered U.S. consulates around the globe, it'd be even longer. (It's not out of the question that Harry's application might be processed quicker than others', given his status, but there's no guarantee that it would be.) The advantage, however, is that Harry wouldn't have to work to continue living in the U.S., or worry about renewing a visa. Still, Karaahmet thinks it's unlikely he'd pursue this option "for many, many reasons, not the least of which are tax-related." It may be some time before the public learns of Harry and Meghan's long-term plansbut whatever schemes they're formulating now, they're surely taking these legal queries into account. You Might Also Like Donald Trump has praised Queen Elizabeth II ahead of her televised address in the United Kingdom Sunday. The president shared his admiration for the monarch as he retweeted an announcement from that her broadcast would air in the UK at 8pm tonight. 'A great & wonderful woman!' Trump posted online a few hours ahead of the programming. Last month, the President used his second ever Oval Office address to outline new restrictions on travel and trade to the United States in the fight against Covid-19. Trump has long been a strong advocate of the Queen, who does not personally operate royal social media channels. He has previously said he is a great friend of the UK. His latest post about the 93-year-old came shortly before one of her extremely rare royal addresses, with the exception of her annual Christmas message. On Sunday, President Trump tweeted that Queen Elizabeth was 'A great & wonderful woman!' He shared his feelings for the British monarch on social media ahead of her speech about the coronavirus pandemic TRump and Queen Elizabeth II are pictured at Buckingham Palace in London on June 3, 2019 They come in times of war, such as the Gulf conflict in 1991, and at times of great sorrow. There was a broadcast after the shocking death of Princess Diana in 1997 and another on the eve of the Queen Mothers funeral in 2002. On just one occasion, for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Her Majesty took the opportunity to mark a joyful celebration. Never before, however, has there been a Royal address in quite such extraordinary circumstances as these. When, on Thursday, the Queen took her seat in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle to record the broadcast that will be screened tonight, it must have seemed one of the strangest and most troubling duties of her 68-year reign. Trump recently tweeted his admiration for the Queen despite the fact she does not operate on social media on a personal level Prince Harry is pictured left on June 3, 2019. Queen Elizabeth II and Donald Trump view displays of US items from the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace in London (right). Britain's Prince Charles the Prince of Wales (left) is suffering from coronavirus. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, US President Donald J. Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump are pictured attending the commemorations for the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Southsea Common, Portsmouth, Britain, June 5, 2019 Several yards distant, stood a solitary cameraman in latex gloves and a surgical mask. Such arrangements are in keeping with the bizarre new way of living that has swept up the Palace just like the rest of Britain. And the Royal Household, too, has been profoundly disrupted. As the pandemic established its hold on the country, the Queen kept on top of the situation with regular briefings from officials at a safe distance. And from the moment it was understood just how serious the coronavirus would be, it was likely that she would have a vital role to play. Initially, there had been talk among aides of organizing an Easter Day address, a good time for the monarch to offer a message of hope. But as the situation worsened by the day, a more rapid response was needed from an institution not usually known for its dynamic pace. One source said there was also a Diana factor the memory among courtiers of the troubling time when the Queen was criticized for waiting nearly a week before addressing the nation following the sudden death of the Princess of Wales. No such mistakes would be made this time. Never in her reign has there been so much at stake, as the nation struggles with lockdown, the economy reels and the death toll mounts. A Palace source said the message, written by the Queen and her aides, was deeply personal to Her Majesty and reflected her experience in other difficult times. And for just over four minutes, the Queen looks into the camera and, speaking about the challenge facing the nation, acknowledges the sacrifice people are making. Royal addresses by the Queen are exceedingly rare, with only four during her reign. Her last address came in 2012 to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee They come in times of war, such as when the land offensive was due to begin at the start of the first Gulf War in 1991. The Queen called on people to unite and pray that the offensive would be 'as swift as it is certain' In 1997, the Queen broadcast live from Buckingham Palace on the eve of Princess Diana's funeral, where she spoke as 'your Queen' and 'a grandmother' of Princes William and Harry. The 93-year-old previously gave an address from Windsor Castle, where she is currently isolating, on the eve of the Queen Mother's funeral in 2002 To do so, she mentions those sacrifices Britain and her allies made during the Second World War, making the point that we have come through bad times together before thanks to our strength of character and spirit of unity. In this way, she evokes the spirit of the speech her father King George VI made at the start of the Second World War when he said there would be dark times ahead but offered hope that the British spirit would see the country through. There will also be gratitude in the message tonight, however, as the Queen rallies the strength of the British people. A source said: The message will include a thank-you to those on the NHS front line, care workers and those carrying out essential roles. It will also recognize the pain already felt by many families who have lost loved ones and thank those who are following the official guidance to stay at home to protect the vulnerable. The monarch, who turns 94 this month, has been self-isolating at Windsor Castle, the residence where she feels most at home. The 98-year-old Duke of Edinburgh is there with her. For days leading up to the filming of tonights broadcast, conversations had been taking place between Palace aides and Government advisers, with input and advice from the Queens personal physicians, known as the Medical Household. The question that kept cropping up was: How can we do this safely to mitigate the risk to the Queen and others? And in order to comply with the Governments social distancing regulations, unusual measures were put in place. Chosen for practical reasons, the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle was considered by staff as the best location as it allowed for sufficient distance between the Queen and the camera operator. Pictured: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert relaxing in the White Drawing Room at Windsor castle (1848) Windsor Castle was turned blue in a salute to local heroes during Thursday's nationwide Clap for Carers NHS initiative to applaud NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic The Queen would record the poignant message to the nation with just one other person present. It had never been done like this before. For the recording, a microphone had been set up in advance and a team of sound engineers and other technical staff were watching and listening via screens and speakers in the neighboring Green Drawing Room. While the format of tonights address will be familiar to viewers of the Queens Christmas message, the framed family photographs that typically accompany Her Majesty during happier broadcasts are absent. Gone too from the recording session were the behind-the-scenes staff the six to nine Palace aides who normally watch over proceedings to ensure all goes smoothly. The monarch, 93, will evoke the spirit of the speech her father King George VI (pictured in 1939) made at the start of the Second World War when he said there would be dark times ahead but offered hope that the British spirit would see the country through The Queen is known by Palace staff past and present for her skill at being able to execute her broadcasts in just one take which any television host will tell you is no mean feat. But Her Majesty was required on this occasion to repeat the message several times so that the sole cameraman could reshoot from different angles. A royal source said: A decision was taken to just use a skeleton crew which reflected the time and the seriousness of the subject. Chosen for practical reasons, the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle was considered by staff as the best location as it allowed for sufficient distance between the Queen and the camera operator. The White Drawing Room itself, in which this historic address was recorded under extraordinary circumstances, could have been destroyed in the blaze, which more than 200 firefighters battled to contain. Pictured: The Queen in the room in 1981 With portraits of royal ancestors on the walls, an ornate circular carpet and carved gilded wooden panels, the room is usually the setting for happier occasions. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, who will mark their 15th anniversary later this week, posed for photographs in the room on their wedding day. Less than two years ago, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank also used the room as a backdrop for their wedding photographs. A clearly delighted Queen could be seen beaming widely for the camera alongside her granddaughter. On Thursday, however, the atmosphere was notably somber. Throughout her reign, the Queen has seen and endured a great deal. Who could forget her annus horribilis Christmas message of 1992 the year a fire tore through Windsor Castle and the marriages of three of her four children fell apart? The White Drawing Room itself, in which this historic address was recorded under extraordinary circumstances, could have been destroyed in the blaze, which more than 200 firefighters battled to contain. Fortunately, however, the magnificent state room and the 62 carved, gilded wooden panels in the three drawing rooms of the most damaged wing of the castle survived. It took four years and a 37million ($45,399) project to restore the rooms to their former glory. Yet restored they were. Palace aides say the choice of Windsors White Drawing Room for tonights broadcast was driven by pragmatic considerations. But it could hardly have been a more fitting backdrop to provide the country with a much-needed message of hope and renewal. OPEC+ countries and Russia Ministry of Energy of Russian Federation OPEC countries as well as Russia have postponed negotiations on a reduction in oil production scheduled for April 6 to a dispute between Moscow and Riyadh about who is to blame for the fall in fuel prices. It is reported by Reuters, citing a source in OPEC. The delay came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilize global oil markets. Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 due to a slump in demand caused by lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of OPEC and other producers led by Russia to extend a deal on output curbs that expired on March 31. OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut the production of oil equivalent by about 10% of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort including the United States. Washington, however, has yet to make a commitment to join the effort and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday put the blame for the collapse in prices on Saudi Arabia - prompting a firm response from Riyadh on Saturday. The Russian Minister of Energy was the first to declare to the media that all the participating countries are absolved of their commitments starting from the first of April, leading to the decision that the countries have taken to raise their production, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement reported by state news agency SPA. Putin, speaking on Friday during a video conference with government officials and the heads of major Russian oil producers, said the first reason for the fall in prices was the impact of the coronavirus on demand. The second reason behind the collapse of prices is the withdrawal of our partners from Saudi Arabia from the OPEC+ deal, their production increase and information, which came out at the same time, about the readiness of our partners to even provide a discount for oil, Putin said. The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud disputed Putins claims, saying Russia had withdrawn and that statements about the kingdoms withdrawal from the OPEC+ deal were devoid of truth, a state agency (SPA) reported on Saturday. OPEC sources, who asked not to be identified, said the emergency virtual meeting planned for Monday would likely now be postponed until April 9 to allow more time for negotiations. New Delhi: With 472 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 3,374, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday. "A total of 3,374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in India till now as 472 new cases were reported since yesterday. Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak here Total of 79 deaths have been reported so far including 11 deaths reported since yesterday," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, told media. As many as 267 persons have recovered from COVID-19 in the country so far, Aggarwal said. "A total of 274 districts across the country have reported coronavirus cases till date," added Agarwal. KIGALI The first four coronavirus patients in Rwanda have recovered and are set to be discharged, the New Times, state owned publication has reported. The patients, had tested positive for the coronavirus last month after returning to country from Dubai and Europe. Much as Rwanda is the second East Africn country to cross the 100 marks since the first case was confirmed on March 13, its yet to record any case of coronavirus related death. However, the number of patients rose to 102 as of April 04, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. Julien Mahoro Niyingabira, the Director of Media Relations at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), told the New Times that four patients were set to be discharged. For one to be discharged, they have to test negative at least twice, Mahoro said. Once they get discharged, he explained, they have to self-quarantine for 14 days and then tested again. The virus emerged in Wuhan, China last December and has spread to at least 190 countries and territories. The WHO has declared the outbreak a pandemic Related Newly-elected Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of making serious mistakes in its response to the coronavirus crisis. The leader of the opposition pledged to engage constructively with the Conservatives, but criticised ministers for being too slow at explaining why the UK is so far behind on testing. He also called for blockages in the system which are delaying the delivery of protective equipment known as PPE to front-line workers to be addressed quickly. Writing in the Sunday Times after his landslide victory in the contest to replace Jeremy Corbyn, Sir Keir said: There will be many times when, and there are many issues upon which, I will fundamentally disagree with the Prime Minister. However, there will also be times when Labour can and must engage constructively with the Government. Now is such a time. Coronavirus is a national emergency. It is also a global emergency. Everyone is anxious about what the next few months will bring, but we know we must be resolute in our determination to see this virus defeated, as it will be. I want to see the Government succeed in this: to save lives and protect livelihoods. This is a national effort and all of us should be asking what more we can do. He said Labour would do our bit to offer solutions but would also speak for those who have been ignored, and expose mistakes where they are found to ensure that they are rectified as soon as possible. Sir Keir wrote: And lets be honest, serious mistakes have been made. The public is placing an enormous trust in the Government at the moment: it is vital that that trust is met with openness and transparency about those mistakes and the decisions that have been made. Sir Keir said the UK should build vaccination centres in towns and cities across the country so the minute a vaccine becomes available, we can begin to protect the entire population. He also said ministers should publish their exit strategy from the measures to defeat coronavirus. We should know what that exit strategy is, when the restrictions might be lifted and what the plan is for economic recovery to protect those who have been hardest hit, he said. There will be many more difficult days ahead. Great sacrifices must be made because of a crisis that was unimaginable only a few months ago. But Britain is a great country and we will get through this. Press Association NORWALK There were 39 new confirmed coronavirus cases and one death announced Sunday, bring the citys total to more than 500 cases and 20 deaths. It is truly sad that another resident has died as a result of this terrible virus. I offer heartfelt condolences to their family and loved ones during this very difficult time. Unfortunately, we know more positive cases are coming, and that means, more people dying. We can all do our part to slow the spread of coronavirus by treating this crisis seriously, Rilling said. The CISF is "augmenting" COVID-19 protective gear and healthcare paraphernalia for its over 40,000 personnel who will begin having close physical interaction with lakhs of passengers once airports and the Delhi Metro re-start operations, a top official said. The force has "spruced up" measures on anti-coronavirus protection for its troops after 11 of them in Mumbai tested positive for the viral infection that has claimed thousands of lives and infected about 10 lakh people globally. These personnel are understood to have picked the pandemic infection from a trooper who was on duty of physical frisking and baggage screening at the Mumbai international airport. "We are augmenting our resources in terms of better masks, gloves and sanitisation facilities. Security desks are being re-done to ensure proper distance between passengers and personnel without security protocols being compromised. "We will have more robust logistics in place during the next round of operations at airports and Delhi Metro, whenever they begin," CISF Director General (DG) Rajesh Ranjan told PTI. The CISF has 63 civil airports of the country under its security cover at present along with the Delhi Metro and they witness lakhs of passenger footfalls every day. "We are confident that we will have much better equipment to handle the situation (in the coming days) at these two large public transport facilities where our personnel have a close physical interaction with passengers as well as other units," the force chief said. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) deploys about 32,000 personnel as part of its aviation security group (ASG) to guard airports and about 12,000 troops to protect the Delhi Metro which is the lifeline of national capital region including Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad. The government has not announced as to when operations at these vital public transport facilities, shut till April 14 due to the ongoing nation-wide lockdown due to coronavirus, will resume. A force spokesperson added that the ICICI Bank "has donated 16,000 masks and 10,000 gloves for CISF personnel deployed at the Delhi Metro." "We are incredibly thankful to the bank for this humane gesture and noble deed. It will certainly help front-line warriors of CISF in the war against COVID-19," he said. DG Ranjan said his troops remained steadfast in the line of duty during the first phase of the COVID-19 when the "numbers of passengers were quite overwhelming" due to the incoming and outgoing evacuation and regular flights. "We created an ideal scenario in terms of social distancing at the airports but the resources were not in surplus and the task was demanding," the DG said. The airport units helped in the entry and exit of numerous flights that brought in Indians evacuated from virus affected countries and ensured proper security-cleared departure of special and regular flights as the global airspace started closing, he said. "At the Delhi airport a special triage area was created at the tarmac to assist incoming passengers," he said. "These personnel are still at the airports ensuring that special flights with citizens of other countries fly out safely," the DG said. The force, he said, has also created isolation facilities in all its 349 units of deployment across the country. "We are enhancing beds in these isolation wards so that more personnel can be accommodated in case of requirement," the DG said. The about 1.62 lakh personnel strong force has its maximum duties in one-to-one public interaction domain whether it is securing public or private sector enterprises, government ministries and departments and vital nuclear and aerospace installations. The first positive case in the force was reported on March 28 after a head constable was found infected in Mumbai. Officials said he has been found negative in three more tests conducted for COVID-19 till now. "Even the 10 other personnel who were found positive and are in isolation now were asymptomatic when their samples were taken. It was the foresight of our commanders who thought of testing all the personnel who resided in the same campus where the first positive person was living," the DG said. This CISF camp in Navi Mumbai has now been vacated and sanitised and all 145 personnel living there have been quarantined by the force at various other facilities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - The government has indicated its intent to use $200 million out of the Stabilisation Fund to combat the spread of the coronavirus - According to the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the decision is in line with Section 23(3) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) - He said this on the floor of Parliament when questioned about the measures being implemented to deal with the epidemic Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The government has announced plans of using $200 million from the Stabilisation Fund to combat the spread of the coronavirus in Ghana. According to the minister of finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, the government would lower the cap on the Fund from the current $300 million to $100 million in line with Section 23(3) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA). He added that the $100 million would then be transferred into the Contingency Fund (CF) consistent with Section 23(4) of the PRMA. READ ALSO: Reports say it may take 3 years for African economies to fully recover from the COVID-19 Per a report by the Ghana News Agency, he explained that the money would then be used to fund the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP). Ofori-Atta mentioned this when he briefed Parliament on measures being taken to reduce the impact of the epidemic on the economy. He also noted that the government is also arranging with the Bank of Ghana to defer payments on non-marketable instruments estimated at GHC1.222 billion to 2022 and beyond. Ofori-Atta went on to say that the government would also adjust expenditures on goods and services as well as Capex downwards by GHC1.248 billion, secure both World Bank and IMF credit facility of GHC1.716 billion and GHC3.145 billion respectively, and also reduce the proportion of Net Carried and Participating Interest due GNPC from 30% to 15%. YEN.com.gh earlier reported that President Akufo-Addo announced a $100 million package to combat the COVID-19 menace. Addressing Ghanaians on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo opined that he has directed the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to release the cedi equivalent of $100 million to boost the countrys measures and preparedness against the COVID-19 illness. Ofori-Atta later announced that Ghana has received the $100 million with which it would fight the epidemic. In another report, he indicated that Ghana intends to secure funds from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Stabilisation Fund to support Ghanas economic as the coronavirus continues to affect people and lead to deaths. Ofori-Atta also mentioned that there is a likelihood of a review of the 2020 budget as the outbreak has distorted Ghanas economic objectives for the year. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Ghana and other African countries to enjoy a 1-year extension to pay debts Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana Coronavirus in Ghana: Disinfection of Accra Markets against COVID-19 | #Yencomgh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: YEN.com.gh CAIRO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The League of Arab States renewed on Saturday calls for a permanent cessation of military operations in Libya, especially around the capital Tripoli. In a statement, the Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit expressed "deep regret" that the military battles between the UN-backed government and the eastern-based army of Libya have been ongoing for one year in the western regions of the country. The conflict has undermined peace efforts sponsored by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, and resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent civilians, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents, Aboul-Gheit said. "Silencing the guns throughout the Libyan territories is an essential condition for building the lost trust between the two parties of the conflict," he said. He condemned all forms of foreign military interventions in Libya, the multiple violations of the arms embargo imposed on the country, as well as bringing "terrorists" to the battlefields, in violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions and the obligations undertaken by the parties that participated in the Berlin Summit. The eastern-based army has been leading a military campaign since April 2019 in and around the capital Tripoli, attempting to take over the city and topple the UN-backed government. The fighting killed and injured thousands of people and forced more than 150,000 civilians to flee their homes. The rivals have agreed to cease fire on January 12. However, both parties exchanged accusations of breaching the truce. Two staff of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have tested positive for novel Coronavirus. The two are a nurse and a doctor who work at the Department of Medicine and Department of Child Health respectively, an internal communique sighted by Citi News indicated. The two are currently being taken care of in the hospital and are responding to treatment. We wish to inform staff we are working to establish the primary source of the infections. Staff are therefore entreated to remain calm and follow the basic hygiene protocols. Management is committed to ensuring that all staff are safe and protected. As we distribute PPEs to all departments, measures are far advanced to procure adequate protective gears for all staff, the communique added. Korle-Bu doctors threaten to withdraw services These cases come in the wake of concerns from health workers about inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana. A few days ago, doctors at the Department of Accident and Emergency at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital expressed dissatisfaction with the level of preparedness of the department in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In a Memo signed by the Doctors to their Head of Department and sighted by Citi News, they decried the usage of a sideward as an isolation centre without the necessary PPEs. We write to express our general dissatisfaction with the preparedness or lack thereof of the department to combat the current COVID-19 pandemic. We also wish to express our displeasure with the events surrounding the hospital's first confirmed case. Firstly, the pandemic; an existential threat to us, you will agree has to be handled with decisiveness and transparency. It is based on this that, we are aghast at the actions or inactions taken before, during and after the case had been confirmed. The said ward, according to the doctors hosted the first patient who tested positive at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. They threatened to withdraw their services if a proper isolation centre is not provided and a quick testing of all staff of the department for Coronavirus is not done. We will like to remind management of the department that, it has failed woefully in providing adequate protection for the staff and as such, we're left with little choice than to resort to protecting ourselves in the face of clear and present danger. We will like to state; with no fear of equivocation that, if these measures are not put in place, we will be forced to stop attending to patients to the endangerment of the patients, ourselves, our loved ones, and Ghana as a whole, portions of the memo said. COVID-19: Nine new cases push Ghana's count to 214 Nine new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Ghana has increased the country's case count to 214 as at 0600GMT on Sunday, April 5, 2020. Six of the cases were confirmed in the Greater Accra Region while the remaining three were recorded in the Ashanti Region. One of the patients who contracted the disease in the Greater Accra region, a 37-year-old woman, had no travel history, neither did she have any contact with another confirmed case. In the Ashanti Region, one of the three new patients also had no travel history and had not come into contact with any of the already confirmed cases. Among the cases from Greater Accra, one is a 37-year-old woman with no history of travel nor contact with a confirmed case. One is a repeat test of a traveller under quarantine who was initially negative but converted to positive on repeat test. Four are contacts of confirmed cases with no symptoms and were detected during the enhanced contact tracing and testing, the Ghana Health Service indicated. It added that, Of the three (3) cases from Ashanti region, two (2) are Ghanaians who travelled to Ghana from France within the past 14 days and the third one is a Ghanaian who has no history of travel out of the country nor contact with any confirmed case. citinewsroom Queensland Police doled out $1334 AUD fines to each person apprehended at a rally of over 150 vehicles in Rochedale late on Saturday, April 4, for disobeying COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings. Around 10pm police were alerted to a gathering at Brickworks Place involving approximately 150 cars and a large number of people congregated in a warehouse carpark, Queensland Police said in a press release. Multiple police units responded with many of the cars attempting to flee the area, with some driving across grassland and becoming bogged in the process. As of April 5, Australia reported 5,687 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 34 deaths due to the disease. Credit: Queensland Police via Storyful New Delhi, April 5 : According to a recent survey conducted by the Indian Psychiatry Society, there has been a 20 per cent rise in mental illness cases. The lockdown has completely changed people's lifestyle as their movements are restricted. Isolation, social distancing, uncertainty in jobs, constant fear of contracting the virus are causing panic and anxiety attacks among the people. Online consultation at Practo which is growing at a rate of 100 per cent week on week has been seeing a steep rise in the number of consults coming in for psychiatry. According to the Practo Health Insights: Mental health has seen a significant growth among online consult users in India, not just in metro cities but also for people from non-metro cities following the lockdown Online queries for Psychiatry on Practo's eConsult platform grew by 50% in the last two weeks. Most of the queries are coming from people in the age group of 21-30 There has been a significant increase in the number of consultations coming from people aged 60 and above. People in this age group are the second largest group in terms of mental health queries, only behind people in the 21-30 age group 74 percent of all mental health-related consults come from men, while 26% were from women Queries on mental health grew by 80% in the metro cities in the last two weeks while consultations in tier 2+ cities grew by 35% Most of the queries related to mental health were from Delhi NCR, followed by Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai. In Non-T7 cities, most of the queries came from Phagwara, Rewa, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur Top queries discussed were loneliness, anxiety and stress management, and panic attacks Dr. Alexander Kuruvilla, Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer, Practo, says "eConsults are empowering patients and practitioners across the country by improving access to quality health services in difficult situations like these. Fear of the disease, anxiety/loneliness due to social distancing can take a toll on the overall wellbeing during these situations and consulting a specialist will provide them with the much-required support and clarity. Doctors on our platform are consulting patients 24*7 to ensure their patient's physical and mental health wellbeing. We are committed to our vision of making quality healthcare accessible to all Indians and will continue to provide more support in the coming days."(This article is website exclusive and cannot be reproduced without the permission of IANSlife) The United Nations has warned that an outbreak of coronavirus in Libya could be worrisome and catastrophic for the country's Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and other 700,000 refugees in the country. Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees said, "In war-torn countries (like Libya) it will be impossible to contain #COVID19 unless parties agree to stop fighting, as asked by Secretary-General @antonioguterres. Peace today is thus vital to everybody's health, and war exposes us all to the pandemic. The country has been in turmoil since 2011 when the country's long time leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a NATO-backed uprising. The Country has been further divided by a devastating civil war since 2014. The civil war is between two sides claiming the control of the country. The fight is between the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj against the House of Representatives, allied to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA). UNHCR also said, "Despite the tentative agreement on a humanitarian truce in Libya, fighting escalated significantly in the past week. 300 civilians have been killed and 150,000 others displaced from their homes since last April." Libya has so far reported 17 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, including one death. Libya has also enforced a nation-wide curfew to control the spread of the virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tan Sri Hasmy Agam & Anis H. Bajrektarevic 05.04.2020 LISTEN The COVID-19 situation is very worrying, indeed, alarming matter, not just as a global health and biosafety issue, but potentially as a global security challenge, too. While the pandemic is being dealt with by the World Health Organisation (WHO), along with other relevant United Nation Specialised Agencies (UN SA), the situation is deteriorating rapidly and could easily get out of control. This of course, if it is not effectively contained. In such a (more and more likely) scenario, it would be engulfing the entire world, virtually akin to as the Third world war, though initially of a different kind. Having served twice on the Council (referencing one of the co-authors, Ambassador Agam), we are amazed as to why the Security Council has not stepped in. It should have done so as to address the matter in the way it clearly deserves to be dealt with, given its devastating impact on the entire international community on almost every dimension, including international peace and security, which indisputably falls under its mandate under the UN Charter. As the Council has often dealt with issues which are sometimes not ostensibly related to international or regional security, we are puzzled, indeed alarmed, as to why it has chosen not to come to grips with the pandemic as a matter of the utmost urgency. If the members of the Council, for their own internal reasons, have not felt compelled to do so, shouldnt the other members of the world body, individually or collectively as international or regional groupings, such as the European Union (EU), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), G-77, African Union (AU), or ASEAN, take the much-desired initiative to call on the Security Council to imperatively address this global pandemic, even as the WHO and other concerned UN agencies, much to their credit, are dealing with the issue from their own (narrow) perspectives and yet rather limited mandate and resources. In this regard, especially the EU would be well-positioned to exert the much-need pressure on the UNSC, given the devastation that the Virus has wreaked on a number of its members, notably Italy and Spain, among others. Such an urgent Meeting of the UN Security Council at this point in time would be greatly applauded by the entire international community as it would accord the world body the leadership role that its members expect it to play. Gens una sumus. Concordia patria firmat In this dire situation, the big powers should put aside their ideological and policy differences, or power play, and focus instead on galvanizing concerted international actions of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the entire human race. By decisively and urgently acting, the UN Secretary-General and the UN SC would be sending a bold and clear yet tranquilising signal to the entire humanity. More importantly, such a unison voice would be also welcomed and well understood as a referencing (not to say a norm setting) note by other crucial agencies, such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as by the Red Cross (IFRC), Bretton Worlds institutions, Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Federation of Trade Unions, including other specialised or non-UN FORAs, most notably developmental entities such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Asia Development Bank (ADB), Africa Development Bank (AfDB), etc. In the following period witnessing indeed a true historical conjuncture, we need a global observance and protection of human rights, of jobs, for the benefit of economy and overall security. Recovery which now presupposes formidable biosafety will be impossible without social consensus. Clearly, it will be unsustainable if on expenses of labour or done through erosion of basic human rights embedded in the UN Charter and accepted as essential to the very success of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Indeed, countries are not just economies, but most of all societies. (The truth is plain to see: Planet has stopped, although the capital remains intact. We came to a global halt because the labour has been sent home. Hence, the recovery comes with labour. Historically, labour has never betrayed, while capital has failed us many times. By the same token, human rights never betrayed the state and its social cohesion, but the states and much glorified markets far too many times in history have failed humans. Therefore, there is no true exit from the crisis without boldening the labour and human rights.) For a grave planetary problem, our rapidly articulated global accord is badly needed. Therefore, multilateralism as the most effective planetary tool at our disposal is not our policy choice. It is the only way for human race to (socio-economically and politically) survive. Covid-19 is a challenge that comes from the world of biology. Yet, biology and international relations share one basic rule: Comply or die. To remind us: it is not the big that eat the small, rather it is a fast which eats the slow. Leadership and vision now! About the authors: Ambassador (ret.) Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, former Malaysias Ambassador to UN NY (incl. term in UN SC), Head of the Diplomatic Academy, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) retired. Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic, chairperson and professor in international law and global political studies, Austria; author of 7 books and numerous articles on, mainly, geopolitics energy and technology. Ljubljana/Vienna/Kuala Lumpur, 5 April 2020 A member of Basque terror group ETA has been acquitted of a bomb attack on two Costa Blanca hotels, which left a British student among the injured. Ellie Carr, 20 at the time of the July 2003 blast, needed 20 stitches after it rocked the Hotel Bahia in Alicante next to the Spanish school where she was studying. Four police officers were hurt when a bomb went off ten minutes later at the Hotel Nadal in Benidorm, as thousands of terrified Brits ran for cover. Asier Eceiza, 42, has been acquitted of a bomb attack on two Costa Blanca hotels in July 2003 State prosecutors had demanded a 268-year jail sentence for Asier Eceiza when he went on trial at a court in Madrid at the end of February. They accused him in a pre-trial indictment of reserving and then cancelling rooms in a false name at the two hotels targeted, before an accomplice convicted over the terror attacks made new reservations and left the bombs in suitcases in two rooms. Police discovered dynamite, detonators, maps and bomb-making manuals in a 'safe house' Eceiza and convicted bomber Jon Joseba Troitino Ciria were said to have rented in the nearby city of Valencia. Twenty-five of the 194 fingerprints found in the property were reported to be Eceiza's. This picture was taken just minutes after the July 2003 bombing at the Hotel Nadal in Benidorm, which left at least five people injured The 42-year-old, born in the Basque coastal city of San Sebastian, admitted at his trial to spending time at the apartment, but claimed he had never seen any explosives and insisted he was not in Spain when the bombs went off on around midday on July 22, 2003. The three trial judges at Spain's Audiencia Nacional court acquitted Eceiza of involvement in the attacks in a ruling made public on Sunday. They ruled it was proven he belonged to ETA and stayed at one of the flats the terror group used in Valencia, but concluded there was 'not enough proof he participated in the crimes.' None of his fingerprints were on the explosives discovered in the apartment raided by police and the material they found did not coincide with the make-up of the bombs that were used to blow up the hotels. It was not immediately clear on Sunday if prosecutors will appeal the acquittal, Spanish daily El Pais said. Troitino Ciria was jailed for 268 years at the same court complex in June 2011 after being convicted of 14 counts of attempted murder and two counts of terrorist acts. Outside Hotel Bahia in Alicante before the attack, which left eight injured from the blast Ellie, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, said from her hospital bed after being caught up in the Alicante blast: 'I was in the middle of a Spanish lesson when there was this massive explosion and the whole building fell in around us. 'Before I knew it, I was covered in blood. I couldn't get down the stairs. I couldn't feel my head, but eventually I found a fire exit and ran outside.' The Spanish language student, who suffered injuries to her head, arms and the side of her body, added: 'It felt like the bomb was in the room. Two other students were also hurt.' ETA admitted to being behind the Benidorm and Alicante blasts, but blamed Spanish authorities for the devastation the bombs caused in a communique sent to Basque newspaper Gara. 'In the explosion at the Hotel Bahia in Alicante, two people were injured as a result of the ETA warning not being taken seriously enough,' it said. 'The responsibility for what happened rests entirely with the Spanish authorities.' Shortly after the Costa Blanca blasts the Spanish government claimed ETA terrorists were planning to strike against targets on the Costa del Sol. A spokesman for Spain's Interior Ministry said at the time, ahead of Eceiza's prosecution and acquittal: 'Having identified the two terrorists responsible for the bomb attacks on Benidorm and Alicante and discovered the location of the flat they were using in Valencia, the police found a series of street maps of Spanish cities. 'Subsequent investigations have revealed that the terrorists' next step would have been to move to the Costa del Sol. 'They had reserved rooms in two hotels in Torremolinos and Malaga at the end of July. 'It's possible they were simply intending to seek refuge among the millions of tourists who choose to holiday on the Costa del Sol at this time of the year. 'But another possibility is that they were planning bomb attacks on the two hotels where they had room reservations. 'The modus operandi would then have probably been the same as it was in Benidorm and Alicante - book the hotel room, leave a suitcase packed with explosives in each room and then detonate them within minutes of each other.' ETA killed 829 people, including 340 civilians between 1968 and 2010. It was classified as a terrorist group by the European Union, the US and Canada. It declared a series of ceasefires, before announcing in April 2017 it had given up its weapons and explosives. In a public letter published a year later, the group announced that it had dissolved its structures and ended its political initiative. Chennai, April 5 : With the death of two more persons attributed to coronavirus, the death toll due to COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu went up to five on Sunday and the number of persons who had tested positive for virus infection was 86, said a senior official. Speaking to reporters here, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said with 86 more Covid-19 cases, the total number of persons who tested positive for Coronavirus in the state jumped to 571. Bulk of the total number of persons who have tested positive are those who had attended the conference held by Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi last month. Queried about the handing over the body of a 71-year-old patient to the relatives who had tested positive for coronavirus, she said: "The person had a travel history to Dubai. He was under home quarantine and came to the hospital at the last moment. His blood sample was taken for testing. Rajesh said with two hours of getting admitted to Stanley Hospital, his condition turned critical and he died. Rajesh evaded a question to why the body was handed over to the relatives before the test results. K. Navas Kani, Member of Parliament from Ramanathapuram, has demanded action against Stanley Hospital for alleged carelessness in this regard. He said that the delay on part of the hospital authorities to report the victim's corona positive status had created a big scare among those who attended his funeral. "The body was taken to Keelakarai in Ramanathapuram district for funeral from Chennai. And many attended the funeral. Had it been known that he was a Covid-19 patient, the body wouldn't have been brought to Keelakarai," Kani told IANS. Rajesh said the focus is on preventing the state getting into Stage 3 of virus spread-community spread and containment action is implemented vigorously across the state. She said as a part of containment action plan, about 9.22 lakh households having about 38.88 lakh people were surveyed by the health workers across the state. According to her, testing of persons is done judiciously and there are seven Covid-19 patients in private hospitals. WASHINGTON A coroner in Indiana wanted to know if the coronavirus had killed a man in early March but said that her health department denied a test. Paramedics in New York City say that many patients who died at home were never tested for the coronavirus, even if they showed telltale signs of infection. In Virginia, a funeral director prepared the remains of three people after health workers cautioned her that they each had tested positive for the coronavirus. But only one of the three had the virus noted on the death certificate. Across the United States, even as coronavirus deaths are being recorded in terrifying numbers many hundreds each day the true death toll is likely much higher. More than 9,400 people with the coronavirus have been reported to have died in this country as of this weekend, but hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners say that official counts have failed to capture the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic. The undercount is a result of inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of decision-making from one state or county to the next. In many rural areas, coroners say they dont have the tests they need to detect the disease. Doctors now believe that some deaths in February and early March, before the coronavirus reached epidemic levels in the United States, were likely misidentified as influenza or only described as pneumonia. With no uniform system for reporting coronavirus-related deaths in the United States and a continued shortage of tests, some states and counties have improvised, obfuscated and at times backtracked in counting the dead. We definitely think there are deaths that we have not accounted for, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, which studies global health threats and is closely tracking the coronavirus pandemic. Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance for how to certify coronavirus deaths, underscoring the need for uniformity and reinforcing the sense by health care workers and others that deaths have not been consistently tracked. In its guidance, the CDC instructed officials to report deaths where the patient has tested positive or, in an absence of testing, if the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty. In infectious outbreaks, public health experts say that under typical circumstances it takes months or years to compile data that is as accurate as possible on deaths. The reporting system during an epidemic of this scale is particularly strained. And while experts say they believe that virus-related deaths have been missed, the extent of the problem is not clear. But as mayors and governors hold daily news conferences reporting the latest figures of infections and deaths related to COVID-19, Americans have paid close attention to the locations and numbers of the sick and dead one of the few metrics available for understanding the new and mysterious disease threatening their communities. Public health experts say that an accurate count of deaths is an essential tool to understand a disease outbreak as it unfolds: The more deadly a disease, the more aggressively authorities are willing to disrupt normal life. Precise death counts can also inform the federal government on how to target resources, like ventilators from the national stockpile, to the areas of the country with the most desperate need. For families who have lost a loved one in the midst of this epidemic, there is an urge simply to know: Was it the coronavirus? Lingering Questions As the coronavirus outbreak began sweeping across the country last month, Julio Ramirez, a 43-year-old salesman in San Gabriel, California, came home from a business trip and began feeling unwell, suffering from a fever, cough and body aches. By the next day, he had lost his sense of taste and smell. His wife, Julie Murillo, took him to an urgent care clinic several days later, where he was so weak he had to be pushed in a wheelchair. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, a cough syrup and gave him a chest X-ray, but they did not test for the coronavirus, she said. Just over a week after he returned from his trip, Murillo found him dead in his bed. I kept trying to get him tested from the beginning, Murillo said. They told me no. Frustrated, Murillo enlisted friends to call the CDC on her behalf, urging a post-mortem test. Then she hired a private company to conduct an autopsy; the owner pleaded for a coronavirus test from local and federal authorities. On Saturday afternoon, 19 days after the death, Murillo received a call from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, she said. The Health Department had gone to the funeral home where her husbands body was resting and taken a sample for a coronavirus test. He tested positive. In a statement, the health department said that post-mortem testing has been conducted on a number of cases but did not provide specifics or comment on Ramirezs case. The work of counting deaths related to the virus falls to an assortment of health care providers, medical examiners, coroners, funeral homes and local health departments that fill out Americas death certificates. The documents typically include information on the immediate cause of death, such as a heart attack or pneumonia, as well as on any underlying disease. In coronavirus cases, that would be COVID-19. The federal government does not expect to produce a final tally of coronavirus deaths until 2021, when it publishes an annual compilation of the countrys leading causes of death. A New York Times tally of known COVID-related deaths, based on reports from state and local officials, showed 9,470 deaths as of Sunday. On Friday, the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC, began publishing preliminary estimates of coronavirus deaths, although a spokesman said that information would have a lag of 1-2 weeks. Its first estimate noted 1,150 deaths, based on the number of death certificates that included COVID-19 as an underlying disease. It is not a real time count of COVID deaths, like what the states are currently reporting, Jeff Lancashire, a spokesman for the National Center for Health Statistics, said. But those who work with death certificates say they worry that relying only on those documents may leave out a significant number of cases in which the coronavirus was confirmed by testing but not written down in the section where doctors and coroners are asked to note relevant underlying diseases. Generally, certificates require an immediate cause and encourage but do not require officials to take note of an underlying disease. Then there are the many suspected cases. Susan Perry, the funeral director from Virginia, said that she was informed by health workers and families that three recently deceased people had tested positive for the virus so that she and her staff could take necessary precautions with the bodies. Only one death certificate mentioned the virus. This probably happens all the time with different diseases, but this is the first time Im paying attention to it, Perry said. If we dont know the numbers, how are we going to be able to prepare ourselves and protect ourselves? Now Were Having the Aha! Moment Early in the U.S. outbreak, virus-linked deaths may have been overlooked, hospital officials said. A late start to coronavirus testing hampered hospitals ability to detect the infection among patients with flulike symptoms in February and early March. Doctors at several hospitals reported treating pneumonia patients who eventually died before testing was available. When I was working before we had testing, we had a ton of patients with pneumonia, said Geraldine Menard, chief of general internal medicine at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. I remember thinking it was weird. Im sure some of those patients did have it. But no one knew back then. An emergency department physician in San Francisco recalled two deaths that were probably caused by the coronavirus but not identified as such. One patient died at home; a relative in the same home later tested positive for the virus. Another patient was an older man who came to the hospital with typical coronavirus symptoms and who had been in contact with someone recently traveling to China but arrived at the hospital before testing was available. In New York City, emergency medical workers say that infection and death rates are probably far higher than reported. Given a record number of calls, many ambulance crews have encouraged anyone not critically ill to stay home. The result, medics say, is that many presumed coronavirus patients may never know for sure if they had the virus, so any who later die at home may never be categorized as having had it. Across the country, coroners are going through a process of reevaluation, reconsidering deaths that occurred before testing was widely available. Coroners and medical examiners generally investigate deaths that are considered unusual, result from accidents or suicides, or occur at home. Joani Shields, the coroner in Monroe County, Indiana, said she wondered about a man diagnosed with pneumonia who died in early March. A coronavirus test was requested at the time, but the local health department denied it, Shields said, on the grounds that the supply of tests was too limited. I wish we could have tested him, she said. In Shelby County, Alabama, Lina Evans, the coroner, said she was now suspicious of a surge in deaths in her county earlier this year, many of which involved severe pneumonia. We had a lot of hospice deaths this year, and now it makes me go back and think, wow, did they have COVID? Did that accelerate their death? she said. Evans, who is also a nurse, is frustrated that she will never know. When we go back to those deaths that occurred earlier this year people who were negative for flu now were having the aha! moment, she said. They should have been tested for the coronavirus. As far as underreporting, I would say definitely. Disparate Reporting, More Waiting Even now, as testing is more widely available, there is a patchwork of standards about information being reported by state and local health officials on deaths in the United States. Around the world, keeping an accurate death toll has been a challenge for governments. Availability of testing and other resources have affected the official counts in some places, and significant questions have emerged about official government tallies in places such as China and Iran. In the U.S., uncertainties and inconsistencies have emerged, and health departments have had to backtrack on cases of previously reported deaths. Florida officials rescinded an announcement of a COVID death in Pasco County. In Hawaii, the states first announced coronavirus death was later recategorized as unrelated after officials admitted misreading test results. LA County officials announced that a child had died from the virus, then said they were unsure whether the virus caused the death, then declined to explain the confusion. Adding to the complications, different jurisdictions are using distinct standards for attributing a death to the coronavirus and, in some cases, relying on techniques that would lower the overall count of fatalities. In Blaine County, Idaho, the local health authority requires a positive test to certify a death the result of the coronavirus. But in Alabama, the state Health Department requires a physician to review a persons medical records to determine whether the virus was actually the root cause of death. This is in the interest of having the most accurate and most transparent data that we can provide, said Karen Landers, a district medical officer with the Alabama Department of Public Health. We recognize that different sites might do it differently. So far, the state has received reports of 45 people with the coronavirus dying but has only certified 31 of those deaths as a result of the virus. Experts who study mortality statistics caution that it may take months for scientists to calculate a fatality rate for the coronavirus in the United States that is as accurate as possible. Some researchers say there may never be a truly accurate, complete count of deaths. It has happened before. Experts believe that widespread news coverage in 1976 of a potential swine flu epidemic one that never materialized led to a rash of deaths recorded as influenza that, in years prior, would have been categorized as pneumonia. Were still debating the death toll of the Spanish flu of 1918-19, said Stephane Helleringer, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. It might take a long time. Its not just that the data is messy, but because the effects of a pandemic disease are very complex. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged all countrymen to switch off their lights for 9 minutes at 9pm on Sunday and asked them to light diyas, candles or use the flashlight of their mobile phones as a sign of solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister made the appeal in a video addresshis third in two weeks. Before that, Modi had called for resolve and restraint to fight coronavirus disease on March 19 and also announced a Janta Curfew on March 22, a Sunday. On March 24, he had announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the deadly virus. Also Watch | Why PM Modis call to light candles on April 5 is not mere symbolism What PM Modi said about 9 minutes at 9pm On April 5, on Sunday, I want 9 minutes from all you, at 9pm. Listen carefully, on April 5, at 9pm, turn off all the lights in your homes, stand at your doors or in your balconies, and light candles or diyas, torches or mobile flashlights for 9 minutes. I repeat, light candles or diyas, torches or mobile flashlights, for 9 minutes at 9pm on the April 5, Modi had said on April 3. At that time, if you have turned off all the lights of your homes, and each one of us in all directions has lit a diya; we will experience the superpower of light, clearly illuminating the common purpose we are all fighting for. In that light, in that lustre, in that radiance, let us resolve in our minds that we are not alone, that no one is alone! 130 crore Indians are committed, through a common resolve! he said. Also read: New plan holds clues to unlocking country Friends, I have one more prayer in this regard, that no one must assemble or gather anywhere while participating in this program. Please do not go out on to the roads, lanes or your localities, do it at the doorstep or balconies of your own homes. One must never cross the Lakshman Rekha of social distancing. Social distancing should not be breached under any circumstances. This is the only panacea to break the chain of coronavirus, he said. So, on April 5 at 9pm, sit in solitude for some time and reminisce about Ma Bharati, picture the faces of 130 crore Indians. Experience the collective resolve, the collective superpower of 130 crore Indians. This will give us the strength to fight, as well as the confidence to win, in this hour of crisis, he said. Busting myths After Prime Minister appealed for a show of solidarity in the countrys collective fight against the coronavirus pandemic, social media was full of videos and posts about its scientific benefits. This led the government to dismiss these as rumours and unscientific through the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Dont fall for the rumours/unscientific reasoning on the appeal for lightning Diya/candles/flash/torch on 5th April at 9pm. This initiative is to show solidarity and confidence in our collective fight against #Covid19, PIB tweeted Please maintain #SocialDistancing to keep #Covid19 at bay, it said. Power grids Modis appeal to citizens to switch off lights across India on Sunday to mark the coronavirus fight also raised concerns that a surge in voltage due to a steep dip in power demand could harm the grid and cause widespread outages. The power grid has seen a 30% drop in demand due to the absence of commercial activity amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown. There were fears that the Prime Ministers call could encourage people to switch off everything, reducing demand even more. The Union ministry of power then clarified that Modis call would not cause instability to the power grid amid concerns over a possible grid-collapse. Also read: What you need to know today Some apprehensions have been expressed that this may cause instability in the grid and fluctuation in voltage which may harm electrical appliances. These apprehensions are misplaced. The Indian electricity grid is robust and stable and adequate arrangements and protocols are in place to handle the variation in demand, the power ministry said in a statement. The appeal of the Hon Prime Minister is to simply switch off the lights in their homes from 9 pm to 9.09 pm on the 5th of April. There is no call to switch off either streetlights or appliances like Computers, TVs, Fans, Refrigerators and ACs in the homes. Only lights should be switched off, it added. PM Modis earlier appeal Modi had called on people to go on a self-imposed Janta Curfew and stay inside their homes and avoid going outside between 7am to 9pm on March 22. He also asked people to come to their doorways, balconies and windows to clap or ring bells at 5pm to thank those working toward essential services. Hundreds of thousands across the country had responded to the Prime Ministers appeal to cheer doctors, nurses, police officials and others who are working to fight the coronavirus pandemic. India has seen a rise in the cases of Covid-19 since then and 3072 people, including 212 recoveries and 75 deaths, have contracted the coronavirus disease till Sunday morning. No educational institution across Noida and Greater Noida can force parents of any student for fees during the COVID-19 lockdown or bar pupils from attending online classes, an official order here stated. The violation of the order can attract legal action, entailing up to a year-long jail term or stringent fine, or both against the offender, Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas L Y said in an order, issued on Saturday. COVID-19 has already been declared a disaster in Uttar Pradesh, while a complete lockdown is in place to fight the pandemic across the state and the country till April 14. In such a situation, all educational institutions in Gautam Buddh Nagar are directed not to force parents of any student for fees during the lockdown period, nor bar students from online classes, Suhas stated. Any violation of the order will invite legal action under provisions of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 which includes a one-year jail term or fine or both. And if there is any loss of life or property during the violation, the jail term can extend up to two years, the order stated. All schools and colleges across the district were shut down in March like other public places amid an outbreak of coronavirus. Gautam Buddh Nagar has recorded 58 positive cases of COVID-19 sofar, according to officials. PrimeMinisterNarendraModihad announced a 21-day lockdown across India till April 14 with an objective to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed thousands of lives worldwide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In Iran, a 106-year-old man became the oldest patient to recover from the fatal Coronavirus in the Qom province of the country. According to state media reports, the patient spent 14-days in quarantine before recovering. Currently, Iran has more than 55,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed almost 3,452 lives in the country. READ| Iran blames Israel's spy agency of running 'clandestine operations' & 'nabbing' test kits On March 18, Iranian state media reported that a 103-year-old woman was cured of the deadly virus, becoming the oldest woman then to recover. The Deputy Health Minister of Iran, Iraj Harirchi, on April 4 warned that greater Tehran area may face a coronavirus resurgence as many residents ignored the advisories to stay home. As the countrys New Year holidays ended on April 4, crowded streets and traffic jams across the city were reported. Harirchi said that the authorities are still concerned about the virus outbreak as several stores re-opened despite a closure order on non-essential services and businesses. He further cautioned about a probable return of coronavirus in case of negligence and said social distancing measures were absolutely necessary. As per reports, authorities have also complained that several Iranians ignored appeals to stay at home and cancel travel plans for the New Years' holidays. In a bid to contain the spread of the virus, officials also imposed inter-city travel bans on March 25. Elderly survivors of Coronavirus Amidst the soaring number of COVID-19 cases in India and the growing crisis, a positive report emerged on Friday as a 93-year-old Kerala man recovered from Coronavirus. The 93-year-old man and his wife were discharged from the hospital today making the Kottayam resident India's oldest survivor of the virus. The couple had contracted the virus after coming into contact with their son and his family who had returned from Italy. A 95-year-old from Italy became the oldest woman in the country to recover from coronavirus. The recent development has come as a ray of hope for the country when it is battling probably the worst health crisis in its history. According to reports, Alma Clara Corsini was admitted to hospital in Pavullo on March 5, where doctors and specialists saw her remarkable recovery to make her the oldest woman in the country to overcome the deadly disease, which is considered more vulnerable for the elderly. READ| BIG: Twitter alleges Egypt & Saudi states plotted to push anti-Turkey & Iran agenda; acts The Housing Authority of the Birmingham District hosted a virtual town hall on Facebook Live Saturday in partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham to discuss COVID-19s impact on the black community. Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers, senior vice president of medicine at UAB, encouraged the community to stay at home, wash your hands and stay out of public gatherings greater than five people. Vickers also noted the increased death rates among the African American population in places like Milwaukee and Detroit. In Michigan, a state with 14 percent African American population, 35 percent of COVID-19 cases are African Americans and 40 percent of the deaths are African American. Not only can we get it, Vickers said. But when we do get it, we tend to do much worse. COVID-19's Impact on the Black Community A conversation with health experts and faith leaders. Posted by Housing Authority of the Birmingham District on Saturday, April 4, 2020 Vickers said the uptick could be because of pre-existing chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, but could also be due in part because of a lack of access to adequate medical care. He said there is not enough data in Alabama yet to determine COVID-19s effect on the black population in the state. Vickers reminded the community of the realities of death and dying during COVID-19, that many times it is alone due to the hospitals strict rules on visitors. He said UAB usually operates with 92 percent of beds full, but at this time the hospital is operating just above 50 percent full, due to normal operations being suspended and all efforts being directed toward COVID-19 patients. In addition to medical information, the town hall also addressed spiritual connectedness in times of social distancing. Dr. Thomas Beavers, senior pastor at New Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church, and the Rev. Dr. Christopher Hamlin senior pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church, both discussed the importance of being in community amid the COVID-19 crisis. Dont see it as a problem. See it as an opportunity to spend more time with the people you love, Beavers said. This is an opportunity to go back to our first ministry, our first love, spending time with our family and strengthen those relationships. Beavers grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Tommy C. Chappell, died on March 25. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, Beavers was not able to provide the funeral the family had initially anticipated. Instead of an in-person gathering, Beavers family invited musicians and eulogists into the church one at a time to record their individual performances and then combined the footage into a funereal video that was played for the family and on screen at a park for church members to watch in their cars. Beavers and Hamlin both stressed the importance of staying connected online through their churchs social media channels. Pakistan on Sunday accused India of violating the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people by changing the domicile law for Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan Foreign Office's remarks came a day after India hit out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for commenting on the domicile rules for Jammu and Kashmir, saying repeated attempts to interfere in India's internal affairs will not make its "untenable" claims acceptable. Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said in a statement that the latest Indian action is aimed at further usurping the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people through changing the domicile law at a time when the world is busy fighting COVID-19 pandemic. Under the new law, anyone who has resided for 15 years in Jammu and Kashmir or has studied for seven years and appeared in Class 10 and Class 12 examinations in an educational institution located in the Union Territory is a domicile. India's incessant regurgitation of the claim that Kashmir is an internal affair will neither turn this falsehood into truth, nor make this illegality legally valid, said the FO. The FO said that Pakistan and its leadership will never flinch in their support for the just and legitimate cause of the Kashmiri people. 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 4.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Former CNN anchor, current executive producer, and talk show host Soledad OBrien criticized comments from U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Sunday, resulting in a back-and-forth between the two in which OBrien appeared to suggest Adams was not a credible voice during the coronavirus crisis. During an interview with Adams on NBCs Meet the Press, the Surgeon General encouraged state governors who hadnt yet enforced stay-at-home orders to do so, telling them, you got to do your part. Adams comments come as President Donald Trump has notably defended governors for not issuing out such orders. OBrien took issue with the statement, and pointed out that Adams had early on said that coronavirus was not anything to worry over. She found a tweet of his demonstrating as much, in which the Surgeon General had written a poem about the importance of a flu shot versus getting worked up over COVID-19. The tweet from Adams was important as it encouraged people to get flu shots, which are needed, but it downplayed the worry early on for coronavirus. Adams responded to OBrien, saying at the time he was making commentary based on what he and others knew about the virus: Maam: youve met me. You know I always try to give the best information I can based on the best available evidence. Circumstances change but was a true statement at the time it was made. Adams statement doesnt fit with historical record. His tweet, which was written on February 1, came a day after the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a global emergency. OBrien responded to the tweet with Adams by pointing out that he was not a reliable voice for people to listen to during the crisis, notably because he frequently praised the president in spite of Trumps many errant and misleading comments about the virus. Sir: you are a medical professional and a public health professional. Your job is not to suck up to the President of the United States, but factual information. Your quote: The President is healthier than what I am was obviously untrue. You undermine the public trust, sir. https://t.co/thmxYeqxeI Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) April 5, 2020 Sir: you are a medical professional and a public health professional. Your job is not to suck up to the President of the United States, but [to provide] factual information, OBrien said. She pointed out to a specific instance of him inappropriately heaping praise onto Trump. Your quote: The President is healthier than what I am was obviously untrue. You undermine the public trust, sir, OBrien said. Adams is 45 years old. Trump is 73 years old, and though hes often received positive health assessments from his doctors, many have questioned whether theyre as accurate as he claims them to be, especially since hes technically obese. (ANSA) - Trieste, March 18 - The first of around 100 Italian soldiers deployed to control Slovenian-Italian border areas took to the streets on Wednesday. The first patrols are operating near the Fernetti Pass on the Slovenian border and are stopping cars to check drivers' 'self-certification' forms to comply with Italy's coronavirus lockdown. Pope Francis blesses attends the Palm Sunday Mass in an empty Vatican Basilica of St. Peter's due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, on April 05, 2020 in Vatican City, Vatican. Franco Origlia/Getty Images Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday Mass alone for the first time in history as The Vatican modified traditions in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. St. Peter's Basilica hosted a small number of top clergy members and nuns in the service that marks a Holy Week that will see some scrapped traditions that comply with social distancing guidelines. Churches have urged by experts to close its doors to members of the public to avoid large gatherings and spreading the novel coronavirus. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday Mass, which marks the first of several Holy Week services that will be celebrated across the world, with no members of the public in the latest world event to nix audiences in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Francis was joined by a small group of top clergy members and nuns who were spread out during the ceremony, with some sporting medical masks. See the first audience-free Mass as churches across the world embrace technology to keep their congregations healthy. Italian Carabinieri and police officers stood guard in an empty St. Peter's Square after the Vatican announced it would scrap traditional processions and services in accordance with the current bans on gatherings. palm sunday Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Getty Images The grand St. Peter's Basilica served as a backdrop for millions of people who observed the service online or via radio and television. Pope Francis celebrates Palm Sunday Mass behind closed doors in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2020, during the lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus. Alberto Pizzoli/AP Despite the new spin on attendance, the Mass featured the traditional palms. Pope Francis holds a palm branch as he celebrates Palm Sunday Mass behind closed doors in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2020, during the lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus. Alberto Pizzoli/AP In another likely first for the traditional service, some attendees sported face masks. A prelate wearing a face mask holds a palm branch as waits for the start of the Pope's Palm Sunday Mass behind closed doors in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2020, during the lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus. Alberto Pizzoli/AP The service's attendees included top clergy members and nuns, who were dutifully spaced out in accordance with social distancing guidelines. Attendees sit by palm branches as Pope Francis celebrates Palm Sunday Mass behind closed doors in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2020, during the lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus. Alberto Pizzoli/AP The Holy Father's remarks during the service addressed young people in particular, whom he urged to consider "real heroes," who are not rich and famous but "those who are giving themselves in order to serve others." Story continues Pope Francis celebrates the Palm Sunday Mass behind closed doors inside St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican during the lockdown due to the spreading of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, on April 05, 2020 in Vatican City, Vatican. Vatican Pool - Corbis/Getty Images Source: Vatican News Palm Sunday marks the first of several Holy Week services that will be celebrated across the world. A Catholic priest sits on an empty bench due to social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus outbreak inside the Jesus de Medinaceli church on Palm Sunday in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, April 5, 2020. Bernat Armangue/AP One Catholic church in Madrid seemed to more closely resemble a production set as the priest celebrated Mass on a live stream. Catholic priests prepare to live video stream the Palm Sunday mass inside the Jesus de Medinaceli church in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, April 5, 2020. Bernat Armangue/AP Churches have been a major point of warning for experts urging members of the public to avoid large gatherings, so the virus has marked a critical point for celebrants to warm up to technical alternatives. Catholic priests live video stream the Palm Sunday mass inside the Jesus de Medinaceli church in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, April 5, 2020. Bernat Armangue/AP Source: Quartz Read the original article on Insider An invisible enemy brings life to a halt. People become isolated and panic. Neighbors start seeing one another as threats. If life during the Covid-19 pandemic makes it seem like you've entered "The Twilight Zone," that seminal sci-fi series about dread and paranoia, than you're more right than you realize. On March 4, 1960, it aired a classic episode that's a cautionary tale about how social order can quickly break down when an unseen threat causes fear to go viral. The episode, titled "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," examines what happens to a leafy suburban neighborhood when it's suddenly hit with an unseen menace. The power goes out and rumors spread of an alien invasion. The residents of Maple Street suddenly see sides of their neighbors that shock them. Part of the genius of Rod Serling, the "Twilight Zone's" creator, is that he depicts how people react to fear and paranoia in ways that remain timeless. But perhaps no episode of Serling's celebrated show captures so well what so many Americans are experiencing now -- and how grim life could quickly get if people aren't careful. "One of the themes of the show was disorientation, the idea that the ground beneath our feet may not be as firm as we once thought," says Nicholas Parisi, author of "Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination." "People who have never seen the series -- you say to them, 'I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone,' and they know what you're talking about." It's been 60 years since that episode aired. But there are some eerie parallels between what happened on Maple Street and what's going on across America today. And they show us how not to act during this pandemic. Mass fear can create scapegoats The episode begins with a cheery Saturday in suburbia, with the sound of children's laughter and ice cream trucks. But then there's a roar and a flash of light, and everyone on Maple Street suddenly loses power. Cars won't start. People feel trapped in their neighborhood because they can't leave. A boy suggests there's been an invasion by aliens who have infiltrated Maple Street and are indistinguishable from humans. People scoff, but as night approaches and more inexplicable events occur, they focus their suspicions on an eccentric neighbor whose car suddenly starts. A mob forms and confronts the man. "Wait a minute now. You keep your distance -- all of you," the neighbor says. "So I've got a car that starts by itself -- well that's a freak thing, I admit it. But that doesn't make me so kind of criminal or something?" His pleas are ignored and fear becomes an accelerant. Soon, the neighbors panic, turn on each other and descend into violence. This is also a popular theme in dystopian fiction like Stephen King's "The Stand," or in shows like "The Walking Dead" or "The Strain." People sometimes turn on each other when confronted by a common threat. We can already see signs of that happening now in America. People have attacked Asian-Americans in public, blaming them for the pandemic. A man in Maine said armed neighbors prevented him from leaving his home because they believe he's infected. Panicked buyers are emptying supermarket shelves and stocking up on guns and ammo. The pandemic is dividing blue cities from red states as Democratic mayors battle Republican governors over the proper response. And an engineer in California was arrested after prosecutors accused him of intentionally derailing a train near a hospital ship because he believed it was involved in a Covid-19 conspiracy. No wonder a recent poll found that "tens of millions" of Americans say the coronavirus is harming their mental health. "Some disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes, can bring people together, but if history is any judge, pandemics generally drive them apart," columnist David Brooks recently wrote in The New York Times. "These are crises in which social distancing is a virtue. Dread overwhelms the normal bonds of human affection." An unseen threat is harder to fight Then there is the nature of the threat on Maple Street. It's like a virus -- invisible to the human eye. No Maple Street resident has ever seen a monster, or an alien. That lack of a tangible object to fear makes it more terrifying. That type of fear can reveal "how quickly we can turn on each other when faced with situations that should bind us together," Phil Pirrello, an editor and Los Angeles-based writer, wrote in a recent essay on the Maple Street episode. "Turning against our better instincts to follow our lesser ones leads us down a path that deceptively feels like survival, but it's ultimately a dead end," says Pirrello, who adds it's easier to avoid self-destructive behavior when a group of people faces a visible threat, such as in war. He cites how the nation came together after Sept. 11, 2001. "If it [Covid-19] came in a way that people could process more acutely, maybe we could be more galvanized in our response," Pirrello says. Unseen threats can also cause people to be more callous to fellow human beings, says Ulrich Lehner, a Catholic theologian at the University of Notre Dame. Lehner says he sees the onset of what he called "pandemic Darwinism," the notion that in times of an epidemic the fittest should survive, and that we should accept the suffering of some people to keep the economy going. That kind of thinking reminds him of a dark period in his native Germany, says Lehner, author of "God is Not Nice: Rejecting Pop Culture Theology and Discovering the God Worth Living For." "As a German who lose family members in the camps, I feel sickened by the attitude of assigning dollar sings to lives," he says. "When we begin to accept that some people are more valuable than others and that some have to be sacrificed or are expendable, we are not much better than the Nazis." But we can create 'pockets of humanity' Serling thought people could be much better than that, and he offered glimpses of that goodness in the "Maple Street" episode. Some people on Maple Street stand up to the mob. One, Steve, shouts, "You're standing here all set to crucify -- all set to find a scapegoat -- all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor! Well now look, friends, the only thing that's gonna happen is that we'll eat each other up alive!" Serling was a World War II veteran who fought in the South Pacific and lost many of his comrades. But he was an optimist at heart, says Parisi, author of the Serling biography and a member of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation. "He really did believe in our ability to rise above our baser instincts," Parisi says. "His advice for today would be [that] we have to believe in one another ... we have to connect. We can't be on our own -- we have to help one another." In recent weeks plenty of ordinary Americans have already been doing that. A Minnesota state trooper pulled a doctor over for speeding but gave her a N95 face mask instead of a ticket. In Rhode Island, a police officer bought groceries for an elderly shut-in who had no food at home. Homebound people are rallying online to buy groceries for elderly neighbors and raising money for food banks. Nurses and home-care aides are now being treated as national heroes -- not unlike the firefighters who went into the burning towers on Sept. 11. Pirrello calls these events "pockets of humanity." He describes it as good infection, a chain of altruism that prevents civic breakdown. There are some situations so extreme. though, that no one can predict what they will do until they happen. We may be facing one now. What do you do when a neighbor who you think might be sick asks you to take them to the hospital? Will you go to the bedside of an ailing family member even if it means risking your health? Will you hoard food and supplies at the expense of others who may need them more? Those are the kind of choices Serling wrote about 60 years ago. So can we build pockets of humanity in the months ahead? Or will we turn into the Monsters of Maple Street? The country has controlled the spread of the pandemic, it wrote, and had recorded over 200 cases but no fatalities by the end of March thanks to the Governments rapid response. It mentioned the closure of all schools, the suspension of all flights, the application of a 21-day quarantine period for an entire commune in Vinh Phuc province, where many workers came from China's Wuhan city - the epicentre of the epidemic, and mandatory quarantine measures for people coming from overseas as among the effective measures adopted by the Government. Vietnam, unlike wealthy countries in Asia, cannot conduct COVID-19 tests on all of its citizens and so focuses instead on basic measures such as selective testing and controlling the situation, which have been lauded by the international community, the article noted. It stated that Vietnam has been a role model for many other countries on how to contain the coronavirus at a minimum cost. Barricade at Cold Shivers Overlook NPS Photo Joshua Denny April 3, 2020 Contact: Arlene Jackson, 970-858-2833 Fruita, CO Colorado National Monument, in response to guidance from Mesa County Public Health Department, is announcing additional modifications to operations to support federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). In consultation with the Mesa County Sheriff and in accordance with Mesa County Public Health Department COVID-19 guidelines, monument staff are closing Cold Shivers Overlook. Based on evidence of a pattern of groups meeting for after-hours partying and recent vehicle accidents associated with illegal activity at Cold Shivers Overlook, it will be closed for public safety and resource protection. This overlook does not have trails associated with it. As of April 3, Colorado National Monument is continuing to offer very limited services outside those that support visitor or resource protection. The following services and operations continue to be suspended in order to comply with the Colorado and Mesa County health guidance: Saddlehorn Visitor Center is closed Saddlehorn Campground is closed Devils Kitchen and Saddlehorn Picnic Areas are closed Cold Shivers Overlook is closed The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at Colorado National Monument is our number one priority. The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website (www.nps.gov/colm) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/ColoradoNM). Outdoor spaces remain accessible to the public in accordance with the latest federal, state, and local health guidance, in addition to entry fees being waived for visitors. Rim Rock Drive and all overlooks with the exception of Cold Shivers are open All trails are open If contemplating a visit to a national park during this pandemic, the NPS asks visitors to adhere to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local public health authorities to protect visitors and employees. As services are limited, the NPS urges visitors to continue to practice Leave No Trace principles, including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces safer and healthier. -www.nps.gov- About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice. The Palm Sunday liturgy at Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia was live streamed, off of an iphone, to the Archeparchy of Phiadelphia with captions, on April 5, 2020. Read more Inside the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Bishop Andriy Rabiy told the story that many Christians have heard before. At first, Jesus entered Jerusalem to a jubilant welcome. Days later, many of the same people who celebrated him would cheer at his crucifixion. Over the course of Holy Week, Rabiy explained from the cathedral to a congregation that was live-streaming, theyd be following the gospel to that fateful day. We will hear how everything seems to be getting darker, and darker, and darker, he said in English at their Sunday bilingual service. Its always the darkest before the dawn. And so is the history of salvation." The bishop was holding pussy willows. This is a long-held tradition in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, where Palm Sunday is also called Flowery Sunday, and pussy willows are used because, historically, it was difficult to get your hands on palms in Eastern Europe. Although palms may have been tricky to access this year because of coronavirus restrictions, old pussy willows would work just fine, Rabiy told the faithful watching at home. We all have our pussy willows, Rabiy said. Find them. And hold onto it. Hold it for a moment there. And even say ... as the children of Jerusalem were saying today: Hosanna! Many places of worship have converted to closed livestreamed services due to the pandemic. And with this, palm distribution was widely canceled or postponed. Palm Sunday always ushers in the most sacred week on the Christian calendar but this week appears in a way that Christians today havent experienced before. As the regions Roman Catholics tuned into feeds of the Archdiocese of Philadelphias virtual Mass at 11 a.m., they were greeted with technical glitches such as no sound, triggering considerable frustration. A feed of the service at Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul that did have sound was Deaf Catholic Phillys YouTube, where worshipers were later directed to watch. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia apologizes for audio issues that occurred for users today during the live-stream of the Mass, spokesperson Ken Gavin said in an email Sunday. Deviating from usual in-house production, the archdiocese Sunday worked for the first time with a service provider to include real-time closed captioning for the Mass for the benefit of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. During that process there was a technical glitch that affected live audio. A replay of the Mass with full audio is now available on all channels, including Archbishop Nelson Perezs Facebook page, he said. While ideas for paper palms floated around the internet ahead of Sunday, Rothe Florists in Mount Airy continued to field orders for real ones that could be arranged for no-contact pickup by appointment. Owner Herb Rothe said palm sales were down by 50% this year; however, the diligent were still calling. Customers had discussed plans for no-contact palm sharing, such as leaving palms churchside for other worshipers to grab on their own. Everybody is doing something a little different. Everybody is trying to do their best, Rothe said. The folks who are really trying to make it happen are making it happen. Alexandra Sawchyn, a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, joined Facebook so she could stream the cathedrals liturgies from home. It was only a couple of Sundays ago that she was watching church with her mother, Vera, and sister Roma. But last Sunday, while limiting time outside of her own home and thanks to her sisters pointers, she pulled up the stream by herself. If this were a normal year, the sisters would have been at the cathedral decorating for Sundays festivities. Facebook was confusing, Alexandra Sawchyn said, but if she didnt have a stream, she thinks she would have done nothing for Palm Sunday. It was lovely, said Alexandra Sawchyn, who kept pussy willows nearby and considers Holy Week streams convenient. On Easter, she figures that she will call her relatives rather than have the meal theyd typically share together. Itll be sad, but were blessed. We have homes. ... This is the time where we need to do what we need to do. Roma Sawchyn, who neighbors her sister in the Fishtown-Kensington area, said that the time spent praying separately hasnt been all bad. The experience, she said, in some way, its really special. It does something to bring us closer to the spirit of the parish, she said. And I dont know, its opened up this whole other opportunity to communicate with each other. There are many rituals, Penn religious studies professor Anthea Butler pointed out, that are being carried out online: such as getting a reading from an Ifa priestess, or paying for cloud tomb-sweeping, an option that was available in China for Saturdays Qingming Festival, a holiday dedicated to honoring ancestors. If you cant do the ritual in person, you cant go to that place, you cant bow down, whatever. It doesnt mean that that doesnt mean the same thing for you, Butler said. It just means its happening in a different space and you have to decide whether or not that space works for you. This isnt the first plague, Butler pointed out. During the Black Death, ritual had to adjust. Butler measures that celebrating Holy Week during a pandemic should push Christians to think of the holidays differently. This is really tough because everybody points to the resurrection as a happy time and everything else, but now youre going to really have to focus on the death, Butler said. Theres people who are going to have people die this week and theyre not coming back. And I have to hear this for myself, too, right? she continued. Do you believe that message [on Easter] or do you dont believe that message? The transition to digital ministry has been tough for Roman Pitula at Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Northern Liberties. The cathedral rector enjoys counseling parishioners in person. I could never imagine something like that, that I would tell people Stay at home. Dont come to church. Thats very unusual. He zoned in on the matter of not being able to receive Communion. In the Soviet era, the Ukrainian Catholic Church endured brutal repression. After dictator Joseph Stalin dissolved the church, Ukranian Catholics carried on in secret, facing harsh consequences from detainment to exile in Siberia. During this time, Pitula explained, Ukrainian Catholics who couldnt receive the Eucharist, would receive Communion spiritually. As Communion cant be received through live-stream, Pitula said, its critical to remember to receive spiritual Communion now. Staff writer Pranshu Verma contributed to this article. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx walked side-by-side in the 1980s on hospital rounds, watching young men die of a mysterious disease that had no cure. The disease was so deadly that when Birx lost a large amount of blood giving birth in 1983 at the hospital where she worked, she screamed at the physician not to give her a transfusion, concerned tainted blood might come from men with the mysterious disease. After childbirth, she resumed researching the disease under Fauci's tutelage. That disease would soon be known as HIV/AIDS. Birx and Fauci have worked together every year since on successful efforts to manage the illness and on a continuing search for a cure and vaccine. Now, 37 years after they first worked together, the longtime allies often stand at the White House with President Donald Trump to brief the nation about the coronavirus, while they privately join forces to try to convince the president that more economically painful measures are needed to stem the outbreak. In doing so, and in walking a tightrope between their science-driven views and the president's reliance on gut feelings, they have drawn criticism from the left and the right. The story of how they walk that line is rooted in the way they have relied heavily on each other for decades, and on the lessons they learned fighting another disease that initially had no treatment, they both said in separate interviews with The Washington Post. "No one will understand what it was like to be a fully trained physician at a time when you thought you were relatively knowledgeable and have patients dying and unable to stop it. And unable to know what it was," said Birx, 64, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator. "And I think that drew both of us to conquering infectious disease ... because once you had that devastating experience you don't want to live that in any epidemic again." Fauci, 79, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, recalled it similarly. "We've known each other so long, and we've been through so much, the good times and the bad times, the successes, the failures," he said. "So we're kind of like two veterans that have been through a bunch of wars together." When they realized they were going to work together advising the White House on how to fight coronavirus, Fauci said they told each other: "Well, here we go again, we're back together again." The two doctors and a number of their associates said that even though HIV/AIDS is a very different disease from covid-19, the lessons from their prior work are clear. In both cases, there was early misunderstanding about the seriousness of the illness, the government was slow to react and the initial response relied on behavioral changes while a longer-term solution was sought. Now their task is to apply those lessons, but their effort to work alongside Trump has led to some jarring statements, and there were some initial questions about whether they were entirely in sync. Fauci has been both hailed and pilloried for his blunt refutation of some of Trump's declarations, such as when he told Science magazine, "I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him down" when the president makes an incorrect statement. Birx, meanwhile, recently told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the president "has been so attentive to the details and the data," adding that he has been "attentive to the scientific literature." Given Trump's well-documented aversion to reviewing written briefing materials, her comment was mocked by President Bill Clinton's former press secretary Joe Lockhart, who derided her on Twitter for having "drunk the Kool Aid" and urged that she tell the truth to Trump about the depth of the crisis. Birx defended her comments, telling The Post her job as a public servant is to make sure Trump understands the data, and she said he has "asked the right questions." By the time Birx and Fauci briefed Trump about what would happen if social distancing guidelines were lifted prematurely, they presented such a unified voice that the president dropped his desire to end restrictions in time for Easter Sunday and agreed with them that at least an additional 30 days were needed. Birx, according to Fauci, is in a more difficult position because she is a political appointee who can be dismissed at any moment, while he is relatively protected in his role as an administrator in the NIH system. While they both have served presidents of both parties going back to the Reagan administration, he is used to speaking bluntly without fear of reprisal. "She has to be a little bit more deferential because of the fact that she is a political appointee," Fauci said. "But when it comes to presenting the science, we're really like, one unit, there's no separation between us at all." That has been the case since the two first met in 1983. Birx was an Army colonel working at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland, and Fauci worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he would become director the following year. After Birx gave birth to her eldest daughter in 1983 and rejected a blood transfusion due to safety concerns, she devoted herself to discovering a treatment for the disease killing so many around her. That work evolved as she served her fellowship in Fauci's laboratory, and the two then spent several decades working together to find a therapy or cure for HIV/AIDS. "We were in the middle of it," Fauci said. "We were both taking care of HIV-infected individuals, me here at NIH, her across town at Walter Reed. And it was dark years for both of us. We were taking care of patients, and they were all dying." Birx recalled that she would make rounds at the clinical center at NIH and then return to her post at Walter Reed, where hundreds of soldiers in their 20s and 30s suffered from a little-understood disease. "You can't imagine the devastation," Birx said. "And I think that's why both of us, when we see what's happening at the front lines with the health care workers (caring for coronavirus patients), that's an experience we have both been in." - - - Nelson Michael, who worked with Fauci and Birx at the time, said the bonding experience of watching patients die was "no different than combat veterans" who saw soldiers killed in combat. Michael, who now is director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said he told Fauci recently that the current fight against the coronavirus reminded him of their fight against HIV in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he agreed. "For those of us who grew up and fought the HIV war, and are still fighting it quite honestly, this pandemic hits us really hard," Michael said. After a decade of research, scientists who received funding from Fauci's institute discovered a combination of antiretroviral drugs could be used to manage, but not cure, the disease. "That success changed both our lives at the same time," Fauci said of himself and Birx. They pivoted to how to help HIV patients around the world and to finding a cure. Fauci and Birx soon pushed for one of the most difficult challenges in medicine: a vaccine to prevent HIV. Unlike a vaccine against infections such as the coronavirus, which theoretically can be based on how a person's immune system fights back, an HIV vaccine would have to work differently and is considered far more difficult. Birx, in her role as the director of the HIV research program at Walter Reed, pushed for a vaccine trial in Thailand, working with that country's military. The idea was criticized by some in the scientific community who doubted the test could be successful and thought funds could be better spent on managing the disease. Birx was far short of the needed funding. Then, in 2001, the Pentagon proposed eliminating her budget to fight HIV/AIDS. Fauci came to the rescue. After meeting with Birx, he helped convince the Pentagon to keep its funding and then pledged his institute's money to bolster the vaccine budget. It was a defining moment in their relationship, he said. "When I invested those tens of millions of dollars to support Deb's trial, people criticized me for that," Fauci said. "People in the scientific community said, 'You are wasting money, you shouldn't be spending money on a trial that may not work.' But we forged ahead." The trial started in Thailand and resulted in an efficacy rate of 31 percent, which Fauci considered "one of the high points" of his partnership with Birx, a modest success that was good enough to lead to larger trials in South Africa. Birx, after serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control Division of Global HIV/AIDS, was named in 2014 by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. ambassador on global efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. At her swearing-in ceremony, she praised Obama for "his bold leadership" and lauded her new boss, Secretary of State John Kerry, for his "amazing, long-standing and unyielding commitment" to fighting HIV/AIDS. She remains in her ambassadorial role during the Trump administration, making her a Obama holdover. While she said she and Fauci spend "every working hour" on science related to infectious diseases, she said they have often crossed paths personally. She said they both have daughters who participated in the same cross-country meets, and she has seen him "cheering on his daughter like I cheered on mine. I've seen him as a father. I've seen him as a husband ... We've shared things on a scientific and a personal level. He's just been a fixture in my life for the entire time." Given their partnership, they have been together on countless panels, including a December 2017 appearance at an AIDS forum at The Washington Post, at which they expressed optimism about the vaccine trials in South Africa. In January, it was announced that one of the trials had failed, but Fauci stressed in the interview that others are continuing and hold promise. - - - It was around that time that the seriousness of the coronavirus was becoming apparent in the United States. In late February, while Birx was attending an AIDS conference in Africa, Vice President Mike Pence named her as White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. After an overnight flight from Africa, Birx arrived at the White House for a meeting of the virus task force, on which Fauci was already serving in his role as the government's leading infectious disease specialist. A key challenge for Fauci and Birx has been to deliver realistic, science-driven assessments of the growing crisis to the public, even as the president sometimes delivers conflicting and incorrect statements and espouses his own theories. Over the past several months, Trump has said the virus "miraculously goes away" by April, that "we have it totally under control" and that anyone who wants a test can get one. A photo of Fauci at one briefing with Trump, in which he puts a hand to a lowered forehead as if in disbelief, has been widely published. Myron Cohen, who has known Fauci and Birx since the 1980s, said the pair are too driven by science and data to be subject to political pressure. "They're scientists, and they're public health officials," said Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina's Department of Medicine. "They're not politicians. They lay out the facts. ... This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and these are the right people." About a week ago, Fauci and Birx faced their greatest challenge so far in advising the president. Trump had declared he wanted to end social-distancing requirements by April 12, which the two doctors believed would result in a massive death toll. They traveled to the White House to convince Trump to drop his idea. Birx, the data expert, brought along a series of charts. Fauci, who has excelled in communicating complex ideas in layman's terms, brought his blunt style and backed Birx. Fauci and Birx stood in the Oval Office with their charts, leaned over the Resolute Desk and asked Trump to examine the data. The charts showed that if Trump's idea was pursued, more than two million people could die. But if social distancing and stay-at-home policies were followed nationally for 30 days, then there would be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. "I guess we got to do it," the president said. Speaking at a White House briefing on Tuesday, Trump essentially said he had entrusted the nation's future to what he was told by the pair of doctors, whom he referred to as Tony and Deb. When a reporter asked Trump what he believed the death toll would be if the public followed social distancing restrictions, the president said, "I'd rather them say the numbers." As crushing as the virus crisis has been, Fauci said he and Birx are confident this fight is winnable, in part because a vaccine against coronavirus likely can be developed with known scientific strategies that should pay off within the next 18 months, much faster than their continuing efforts to eradicate HIV/AIDS. "When you talk about how did the experience that we had back then inform what Deb and I do now, it's kind of like deja vu all over again," Fauci said. "Here we are up on the stage in the press room in the White House. Turn back the clock 35 years, and that's us talking about HIV. So that's what we mean when we sort of look at each other and sort of say under our breath, 'Been there, done that.' " A 28-year-old man was allegedly shot dead on Sunday after a quarrel when he blamed Tablighi Jamaat members for the spread of coronavirus. The altercation took place at a grocery shop in Bakshi Modha village in Kareli police station area when some people were discussing a newspaper report. Lotan Nishad blamed Tablighi Jamaat for spreading coronavirus across the country, police said. Some others objected to his remarks and there was scuffle. Later, he was shot in the head with a countrymade gun and died while being taken to hospital, police said. A senior police officer said Mohammed Sona and another man have been arrested. Eight other have been booked for the crime and police are trying to trace them. A large police force has been deployed in the area to maintain peace. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed strict action against those involved in the murder and announced financial help of Rs 5 lakh for the victim's family. In Lucknow, officials said 278 coronavirus cases have surfaced in the state so far. About half of them are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Warren Buffett has built his reputation over the years by succeeding with investments in a variety of industries. However, the specter of the coronavirus pandemic has cast a somewhat dark cloud over Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) stock portfolio. Their status as Warren Buffett stocks did not necessarily make these companies immune to the COVID-19 stock sell-off. Still, declines do not necessarily negate the Buffett philosophy. Warren Buffett famously stated, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." Thus, today's environment could suit those who want to buy under this philosophy well. While numerous Buffett stocks could produce higher returns, investors should pay particular attention to these three: American Express (NYSE:AXP), Restaurant Brands International (NYSE:QSR), and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV). 1. American Express The fintech industry generally has benefited as society grows increasingly cashless. However, one war on cash stock that appears underappreciated is American Express. Buffett bought this early pick in his portfolio in the early 1960s after a bad loan led to doubts about the company's long-term survival. The company recovered, and it has delivered enormous gains for Buffett over the last few decades. American Express differs from other payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard in that it also acts as a lender. Much like in the early 1960s, it may again have to deal with bad loans as COVID-19 shutters businesses across the country. This challenge may partially explain why its stock has fallen by nearly 45% from its 52-week high as of the time of this writing. This has taken its forward P/E ratio to around 9.0. However, even after revised estimates, analysts expect revenues to rise from 2019 levels. Moreover, even with expectations of falling profits, earnings should exceed 2019 levels by 2021. Profits are also expected to grow by an average of 9.5% per year over the next five years. Furthermore, the coronavirus-induced slowdown will likely not reverse the trend toward a cashless society that benefited American Express stock in previous years. For these reasons, investors should not allow a temporary hiccup to turn them away from American Express stock. 2. Restaurant Brands International Restaurant Brands International, like most restaurant companies, has found its dine-in business decimated by efforts to stop the coronavirus. However, one can also argue that its restaurants are best prepared for this slowdown. As the owner of Tim Horton's, Burger King, and Popeyes, it has long-established take out and drive-thru options. For this reason, these businesses are well-equipped to continue to serve customers, even under COVID-19-related restrictions. Despite this somewhat brighter outlook compared with other restaurant peers, Restaurant Brands stock has fallen by about 45% from its February high. This means that since investing in the Canada-based restaurant giant in 2014, Buffett has seen most of his non-dividend returns wiped out. It now trades only modestly above the $35.05 opening price where the stock debuted in December 2014. However, this has created an opportunity for new investors. Buying at current prices not only brings investors a dividend yield of about 5.7%, but it also allows them to benefit from the company's substantial profit growth. Moreover, this has placed its forward P/E ratio at around 8.8. This appears cheap considering that analysts expect earnings to rise by an average of 19.1% per year for the next five years. Furthermore, thanks to the recent swoon, it trades at a massive discount from the 34.6 average current P/E ratio the company has maintained over the last five years. Once coronavirus passes and society returns to normal, it could help Restaurant Brands stock move closer to its average P/E. 3. Southwest Airlines Warren Buffett first acquired Southwest Airlines stock in 2016. As of the time of this writing, it is Berkshire's largest airline holding measured by market value, worth slightly more than its Delta position for now. Southwest Airlines stock traded higher than 2016 levels for most of the time Buffett has owned the airline. However, while solid, Southwest stock is not immune to turbulence. All of Buffett's gains disappeared as Southwest stock recently lost around 45% of its value from its February high. Still, this presents a unique opportunity for new investors. The recent drop takes the forward P/E ratio down to 10.9. This trades at a discount since the average current P/E ratio for the last five years has come in at about 13.1. In the end, investors buy Southwest for stability. The fact that its cash position exceeds its long-term debt testifies to this financial strength. For this reason, investors may tolerate some degree of lackluster results. For one, profit growth forecasted to average only 3.3% per year over the next five years. The current dividend yield of just over 2.2% is also slightly below S&P 500 averages. Moreover, Southwest appears poised to see its first quarterly loss since 2009. Nonetheless, Southwest recently celebrated 47 straight years of annual profits. If current analyst estimates prove correct, that streak will continue despite the airline industry's current troubles. That will help bring buyers back once passengers return to flying. Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Los Angeles: Actor Logan Williams, who played young Barry Allen in The Flash, has died at the age of 16. The young actor died on Thursday, his mother Marlyse Williams confirmed to the Tri-City News of British Columbia. Marlyse said the family is "absolutely devastated. She added that the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing restrictions have made the family's mourning even more difficult. "I am not able to hug my parents who lost their only grandchild. It's hard." Actor Grant Gustin, who plays the grown-up version of Barry Allen and his titular alter ego, paid homage to Williams. My thoughts and prayers will be with him and his family during what is I'm sure an unimaginably difficult time for them. Please keep Logan and his family in your thoughts and prayers during what has been a strange and trying time for us all. Sending love to everyone, Gustin wrote alongside a photo of himself, Williams, and Jesse L. Martin on set. Actor John Wesley Shipp who played Barry Allen in the early 1990s adaptation of The Flash as well as the character's father, Henry, in the remake also issued paid tributes to Williams. As many as 62 new positive cases for Covid-19 were reported in Telangana on Sunday, taking the cumulative number of positive cases in the state to 333. According to a late-night bulletin issued by the state health department, 33 patients have been discharged till date while 11 have died. Hyderabad has so far recorded the maximum number of cases 145, followed by 23 in Warangal (urban), 19 in Nizamabad, 13 in Nalgonda, 12 in Medchal, 11 in Ranga Reddy, 10 in Adilabad and eight cases in Kamareddy. Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who held a high-level official meeting till 10 pm on Sunday, reviewed the measures taken by the government in containing the spread of the virus in the state. He said all those who had the symptoms are being treated without fail and those who came in contact with them were also quarantined. He directed that the government should keep special focus on the protection of the staff of the medical and health department. Special measures are taken for the protection of their health. As on date, for tests for those coming to offer medical help, test kits, PPEs, Masks and other medicines are available in adequate numbers. Even if there was increase in patients in future, PPEs and Masks will be procured as per the demand, an official release quoting the chief minister said. The CM instructed the officials concerned to take all the protective measures for the medical and health employees. He wanted funds donated for the CMRF should be utilised to procure PPEs, masks and medicines for the staff. He wanted an action plan should be made ready even if there was an increase in patients in future. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh recorded as many as 60 positive cases for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the overall number of infections in the state to 258, including five discharged and one deceased. A medical bulletin released by the state government said 36 cases were reported between Saturday night to 10 am on Sunday morning and another 24 cases till Sunday evening. Of the total number of positive cases recorded till now, only 23 patients 11 foreign returnees, six of their contacts and another six locals, who came from the other states. All the remaining 235 patients were those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting and their direct contacts, the bulletin said. So far, the government had disclosed the details, including their age, gender and district, of as many as 190 patients who had connections with Jamaat meeting and said details of others would be disclosed in due course. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Photo credit: Neil Mockford - Getty Images From Town & Country Tomorrow night at 8 p.m. UK time, Queen Elizabeth will address the public, offering what it understood to be a deeply personal message of support and solidarity amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. She will speak of the challenges the United Kingdom is currently facing, and will acknowledge the work of both essential employees and those NHS doctors, nurses, and volunteers on the front lines fighting this disease. I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all, reads a preview of her speech, which was recorded at Windsor Castle. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. Photo credit: KIRSTY O'CONNOR - Getty Images Specific measures were taken to protect the Queen's health during the recording of this message, as her age puts her at risk for serious illness from the novel coronavirus. On March 27, following the news that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had tested positive for the virus, Buckingham Palace issued a statement that the Queen "remains in good health," but the Palace have not commented on her well-being since then. The room at Windsor Castle where she makes her address was chosen so an appropriate distance could be maintained between the British monarch, and the cameraman, who was wearing appropriate PPE. It is also understood that all other staff helping to facilitate the recording were in a separate room connected by speakers. The UK has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. As of April 4, 41,903 have tested positive for the disease and 4,313 have died. Last week, after experiencing mild symptoms, Prince Charles tested positive for the coronavirus. He has since recovered from the illness, and is said to be in "good health." You Might Also Like : Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy led the people of Andhra Pradesh in lighting the lamps after switching off lights, for nine minutes from 9 PM on Sunday in response to the nation-wide call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All the electric lights were switched off at the Raj Bhavan in Vijayawada as the Governor and the First Lady lit the traditional diyas as a mark of solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus. At his residence in Tadepalli, the Chief Minister held a candlelight vigil along with Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Director General of Police D G Sawang, Principal Secretary Praveen Prakash and other officials. Ministers also took part in the event at their respective residences. In Guntur, BJP state president Kanna Lakshmi Narayana lit the traditional lamps. In Rajamahendravaram, enthusiastic youth painted the Indian map on a street and lit lamps along the outline and chanted Bharat Mata ki Jai. In Anantapuramu, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan national vice-president S Vishnuvardhan Reddy took part in the lamp lighting event, while in Vijayawada city, some people burst crackers as the clock struck 9 PM. At important junctions in all cities of the state, police officers and men came onto the streets and held candles in their hands as people cheered them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Singapore has announced that it will be expanding its stay-home notice (SHN) this weekend, like countries like France, India, Switzerland and all of the ASEAN region. According to reports, the decision was reported by the ministry of health in a statement. The SHN will require the Singaporeans, long-term pass holders and permanent residents that return from the above-listed nations to self-isolate themselves at home for 14 days. Singapore has reported 1,189 coronavirus cases and only 6 deaths till now. Aa total of 297 people has already recovered from the coronavirus in Singapore. Stricter measures in Singapore Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reportedly announced stricter social distancing measures across the country, that included shutting down all workplaces and schools, except for essential services. The situation across the country wasnt near-end worse but the infections have seen a considerable jump by 65 tallying the total to 1,114 as of April 3, Lee said addressing a press conference. The number of those infected, however, has been fewer than what was reported earlier, he added. The death toll in Singapore stood at 5, one new fatality emerged in the past 24 hours as per reports. Read: Singapore Reports Sixth Death From COVID-19, Total Cases Reach 1,114 Read: COVID-19: Singapore Announces One-month Lockdown After Rapid Increase In Daily Cases Lee was quoted as saying that the rate of the transmission and the trend in other nations worries him, and therefore, all non-essential services will remain shut until further notice. He said that there was a need to impose sweeping measures for the containment of the spread of the COVID-19 among the communities. Unless the country took further steps, things were gradually going to get worse or another cluster of the infection was going to push things over the edge, the Prime Minister was quoted as saying. He also mentioned that the government was reconsidering the guidelines on wearing protective masks. Lee declared the toughened social distancing measures for over the next few weeks and insisted that the government makes a decisive move now, to pre-empt escalating infections in the weeks ahead, as per media reports. Read: Indian-origin Singaporean Jailed For Shouting 'corona', Spitting On Hotel Floor At Airport Read: Coronavirus: Singapore PM Announces New Measures, Urges Citizens To 'stay Calm And United' (Image Credit PTI) An unexpected downgrade to the finalised March UK services PMI saw the Pound Sterling to New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) exchange rate come under fresh pressure ahead of the weekend. As the index was found to have plunged from 53.2 to 34.5 on the month this represented the sectors worst monthly performance since records began. With the UK economy looking set to experience a major slowdown in the first quarter, thanks to the impact of the Covid-19 shutdown, investors saw little reason to support the Pound at this stage. Although the latest US jobs data showed a fresh slump, however, this was not enough to give the New Zealand Dollar any significant boost. With confidence in the global economic outlook still muted risk appetite proved lacking, limiting the potential for NZD exchange rate gains. Business Confidence Decline Set to Weigh on New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Exchange Rates The mood towards the New Zealand Dollar could sour once again on Monday if the first quarter NZIER business confidence weakens as forecast. Fresh evidence that sentiment within the New Zealand economy deteriorated sharply over the last three months would offer investors renewed incentive to sell out of the antipodean currency. A deeper plunge into negative territory may fuel speculation that the economy is on course for a weaker performance in the early months of 2020. Any renewed bout of market risk aversion may also weigh on NZD exchange rates in the days ahead as investors continue to assess the ultimate impact of the Covid-19 crisis. The relative strength of the US Dollar could also keep a dampener on the New Zealand Dollar in the near term. Weaker UK Construction Performance May Have Limited Pound Sterling (GBP) Exchange Rates Impact While the UK construction PMI looks set to slip into a state of contraction in March, following in the footsteps of the corresponding manufacturing and services indexes, this may have a limited impact on the Pound. As the construction sector only accounts for a relatively minor fraction of the UK gross domestic product investors could shrug off another negative reading. With the impact of the weak services PMI already largely priced into GBP exchange rates the potential for further downside pressure could prove limited. Even so, growing anticipation ahead of the release of Februarys monthly UK gross domestic product reading on Thursday may still keep the GBP/NZD exchange rate on the back foot. Unless the month can deliver a stronger growth performance the Pound looks set to experience fresh selling pressure. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 5) Almost 200 lawmakers from the House of Representatives have already agreed to donate their full salary for the month of May to help the government address the coronavirus disease. Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano made the announcement Saturday, a day after majority of Cabinet members pledged to donate 75 percent of their salaries to government programs aimed at containing COVID-19. "Almost 200 congressmen already will donate our whole sweldo ng [salary for] May, the initial target is 50 million," Cayetano said in a virtual presser. He added that they are hoping to even reach 100 million by expanding the initiative to their personal networks. "I think nasa mahigit 40 million na po tayo ngayon. So 'pag umabot ng 50 million, mananawagan din kami sa mga personal din naming kaibigan if we can get 100 people to donate 500,000 or 50 people to donate a million kasama 'yung aming sweldo," Cayetano said. [Translation: I think we have already reached more than 40 million now. So if we get to raise 50 million, we will also call on our friends if we can get 100 people to donate 500,000 each or 50 people to donate a million including our salaries.] The newly-created Defeat COVID-19 Committee in the lower chamber is set to hold a hearing this Wednesday to discuss government efforts on the pandemic. Cayetano said the hearing will help congressmen deliberate where to allocate the funds that they are raising. "Doon na rin pag-uusapan kung after hearing from the DOH (Department of Health) and DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), kung saan sila dapat i-spend...we want to use the money where it will be most effective," he said. [Translation: We will tackle in the hearing with the DOH and DSWD where the funds will be spent...we want to use the money where it will be most effective.] Inter-Agency Task Force spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that most of the Cabinet members will voluntarily give 75 percent of their monthly pay to help address the crisis. Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, President Rodrigo Dutere is given additional powers to act on the pandemic, including the appropriate allocation of the hefty 275 billion budget granted to him while the country is under a state of emergency. The Philippines has 3,094 total COVID-19 cases to date with 144 deaths and 57 recoveries. Aides and allies of Sen. Bernie Sanders have encouraged him to step down from the presidential race, according to the Washington Post. One in the group reported to be advising him to step down is Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir, amid sensitive private discussions reported to the Post by an anonymous source. According to the source, Rep. Pramila Jayapal who is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus has also been reported to have lost hope for the Sanders presidential bid and is advising him to step aside. Jeff Weaver, Sanders 2016 campaign manager is slightly different in that he is advising Sanders that opting out of the race would help with future influence with former Vice President Joe Biden. On Tuesday Sanders became the first remote guest on NBCs Late Night with Seth Meyers amid the COVID-19 outbreak that has thrown campaigns for a loop as politicians stay home and as Americans avoid gatherings of more than 10, let alone a political rally. There is a path, Sanders said. It is admittedly a narrow path." A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found that the former vice president has a six-point lead over President Donald Trump. Bidens advantage grew by one point since a similar poll was conducted in early March. Sanders said during the interview that if he wasnt going to be the Democratic nominee, I will do everything I can to see that Joe Biden is elected president. Related Content: Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 18:08:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUWAIT CITY, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait reported on Sunday 77 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the country to 556, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Among the new cases, there are one Kuwaiti citizen who returned from France and 74 cases who have a history of contact with infected patients, according to the ministry statement. Another two cases are still under investigation, the statement said. So far, 456 patients are still receiving treatment, including 17 in ICU, it noted. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Minister of Health Bassel Al-Sabah announced the recovery of six patients from the coronavirus, raising the number of the cured in the country to 99. Kuwait reported on Saturday the first death case of COVID-19. 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 pastor at Rayavaram village was arrested for defying lockdown guidelines and conducting a Mass on Sunday. This incident took place in the state's East Godavari district when the prelate conducted prayers with almost 150 people at a local church marking the beginning of the Holy Week for Christians. "Pastor Naati Vijayaratnam (53) has been booked under Sections 188 and 270 of IPC; Sections 2 and 3 of Epidemic Diseases Act and Section 51 of Disaster Management Act," Srinivas Naik, the Sub Inspector at Rayavaram Police Station, told ANI. "In the wake of coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown, all religious worship places have been advised to prevent any huge congregations. However, a church in Rayavaram village was opened this morning wherein almost 150 people gathered for the prayers," he added. Various religious communities have suspended activities at their places of worship to help contain the people-to-people spread of coronavirus. For the first time in history, the Pope celebrated the Mass of Palm Sunday alone in the Vatican City's St Peter's Basilica. The annual holy mass was held without a congregation even as millions of people from around the world joined in via live streaming. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, has received ventilators from China and the state of Oregon too pledged to send the life saving equipment as authorities here grappled with insufficient medical supplies to treat over 100,000 coronavirus cases in the state. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday said New York had ordered 17,000 ventilators from the federal government, which had a stockpile of about 10,000 ventilators for the nation. He said demand for the life-saving medical equipment surges across the US, which now has more than 312,100 COVID-19 cases. China has sent 1,000 ventilators to the US, while Oregon will dispatch 140 ventilators to New York. China is remarkably the repository for all of these orders. Ventilators, PPE, it all goes back to China. Long term, we have to figure out why we wound up in this situation where we don't have the manufacturing capacity in this country. "I understand supply chain issues, I understand the cost of manufacturing, but there's a public health reason, as we've all learned the hard way, why we need the capacity in this country to do this, Cuomo said. In order to meet this demand for ventilators, New York has been shopping in China, he said. The Governor said he asked the White House to help the state navigate China and he spoke to the Chinese ambassador and we got really good today. The Chinese government is going to facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that came in to John F Kennedy Airport. That's going to be very helpful this is a big deal. It's going to make a significant difference for us, he said. The state of Oregon is also sending 140 ventilators to New York, an assistance Cuomo called just astonishing and unexpected. It's also smart from the point of view of Oregon. Why? Because we're all in the same battle and the battle is stopping the spread of the virus, right? Look at what they did in China. It was in the Wuhan province. First order of business was contain the virus in Wuhan. Why? Because you want to contain the enemy. That's always the first step, he said. According to a report in the New York Times, the influx offered some hope after the governor repeatedly warned that the state's supply of the vital machines would be exhausted in days if the number of critically ill coronavirus patients kept growing at the current rate. Cuomo said Saturday that New York at one point made purchase orders for 17,000 of the devices, but only 2,500 came through. You get a call that says, We can't fill that order', he was quoted as saying in the report. Cuomo has signed an executive order allowing the state to redistribute ventilators and personal protective equipment from hospitals, private sector companies and institutions that don't currently need them and redeploy the equipment to other hospitals with the highest need. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator. The state had recorded the highest increase in the number of deaths from COVID19 in a single day between April 2 and 3 when 562 people died of the disease. In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to 630, all-time increase up to a total of 3,565, an increase from 2,935 on Friday morning, Cuomo said. The daily death toll in New York continues to grow at record numbers as the state remains the most impacted in the US from coronavirus. Coronavirus cases in New York State now stand at 1,13,704, out of the country's total of 3,12,146. New Jersey, the second most affected state in the US, has about 30,000 COVID-19 cases. New York City alone has 63,306 coronavirus patients, up from 57,169 in the last 24 hours, and 2,624 deaths. Cuomo said the apex in the state, the point where the number of infections on a daily basis hits the high point, is still about 4-8 days away. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Alex Stein was almost late to her surprise thirtieth birthday party when she forgot to log into Zoom for a weekly call. Stein, whose birthday is April 5, started doing regular weekly Zoom happy hour video calls with some of her best friends once the stay-at-home order went into effect. Last Thursday, it was scheduled as usual for 7:00 p.m. One of her close friends, Lauren Desiderio, was waiting among 16 of Steins close friends for her to dial in to the Zoom call for her surprise birthday party. Desiderio, a Tompkinsville resident, has known Stein for over ten years. They met at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and have been celebrating birthdays together ever since. Alex, Julia (a mutual friend), and I do a girls trip every year since college, and birthdays were always together, she explained. Were really close. Julia Wiech and Lauren Desiderio, who organized the surprise party, alongside birthday girl Alex Stein. (Courtesy Lauren Desiderio) The idea for a surprise Zoom party was the work of Desiderio and her friend Julia Wiech. Since theyd already been having regular calls every week, they knew it was the perfect opportunity to surprise her. I sent out the link to 15 of [Alexs] friends from high school, college, to now, so we had everyone get on Zoom ten minutes early to surprise her, she explained. Since this is her 30th, we wanted to make it special. Stein explained that she was sitting on her balcony in Hoboken, N.J. to listen to the cheers for first responders and completely forgot to log on. I was getting some text messages from the girls teasing me for forgetting to log onto our recurring happy hour, she told the Advance/SILive.com. I jumped on the call ten minutes past seven, and you can see in the video that Im so stunned. Once Stein logged onto the call, everyone made sure to have a drink in their hand to do a cheers for her. The whole group also contributed to a slideshow with pictures that made her cry, Desidero said. Of course, they also sang Happy Birthday to her over the call, as well. Initially, Stein was planning to travel to Miami for a girls weekend to celebrate, but it is no longer possible given the stay-at-home order. In place of it, shes planning to lay low, have a video call with family and a glass of wine. Because her birthday seemed to be cancelled this year, the surprise party was especially moving. She told the Advance/SILive.com that she cant thank her friends enough. Its a humbling and totally different experience to celebrate the way that I did, but I honestly wouldnt have traded it for the world," she said. My heart was bursting." Studying abroad is very common for Chinese students. In 2018, the total number of Chinese students who pursued overseas education reached 662,100, a peak in history, and notably, 90% of them were self-financed; this figure increased by 53,700 when compared to 2017. According to the Ministry of Education, it is estimated that since the opening of China in 1978, around 58.5 million Chinese had studied overseas, and more than 62% of them returned to China after graduation. Chinese students studying abroad can be dated back as early as the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The first generation of these students was officially sent by the authorities to the United States. The pilot attempt, named the Chinese Educational Mission, was initiated and promoted by a group of reform-minded officials. The pioneering mission marked the start of overseas educational activities. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, only a limited number of students studied abroad. It was not until 1972 that such international educational activities were restored. In 1978, China began to send up to 3,000 students and academic intellectuals abroad each year, aiming to promote its future development. However, only a minor share of these students opted to study abroad at their own expense. Before long, the government opened up the overseas education policies entirely, and by 1987, the figure surged dramatically to 100,000. Soon in the mid-1990s, self-funded students became the majority of outgoing Chinese students. The education industry took off in a new direction. With favorable conditions brought by rapid economic growth and increasing domestic competition, more parents gradually decided to send their children abroad. In 2009, Chinese students represented the largest international student group in the United States, surpassing India for the first time. Such massive outflow turned out to be problematic as it is reported that China suffered severe brain drain since then. Between 1978 and 2006, the China Statistical Yearbook reported that only 230,045 out of 919,012 students and scholars returned to China. However, many overseas returnees have devoted themselves to national development, and their efforts have contributed to China's boom in economics and technology in particular. In turn, this has caused more international students to come back to China and become essential pillars of the national labor force. A report by the Centre for China and Globalization, "2019 Chinese Overseas Returnees Employment and Entrepreneurship Report," stated that 42% of surveyed returnees have a positive attitude towards China's future economic development, and 60% wished to reunite with their families. Meanwhile, it is reported that work visa restrictions and changes in international relations have facilitated their decision to return. These surveyed students tended to prioritize an excellent "fit" and preferred employments that closely match their interests; simultaneously, the report claimed that they chose to enroll in majors that meet market demands. Not surprisingly, information technology, finance, and retailing were the most popular fields as compared to other occupational options. Admittedly, it remains debatable whether these overseas returnees are more competitive in the domestic recruitment market. It is thought that they would stand out among candidates due to their foreign language skills. Nevertheless, the report also pointed out that a significant share of them worried about their lack of adequate knowledge of the current job market. In recent years, local authorities have taken various measures to help them adapt to the domestic employment environment; for example, overseas returnees can enjoy preferential household registration (hukou) policies in cities such as Shenzhen. What is more, motivated by the "going out" strategy, Chinese businesses are looking for talents, especially those with global perspectives, and they believe that these returnees would help pave the way for their further expansion and potential overseas investment. No longer talent-starved in this era, China is still in need of talents to fuel its development. Thus, for Chinese authorities, effective policies and a favorable environment are vital determinants to lure more overseas returnees and advance its national power. On the other hand, overseas Chinese are the best representatives for telling a good Chinese story, which would help to further facilitate the international community's exchange with China. Mathew Wong is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Education University of Hong Kong. Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. Lights off at 9 mins at 9 pm today: Power sector on high alert India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 05: For 9 minutes today at 9 pm all lights would be switched off, following an appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All grid operators are on high alert to avert any crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Friday said that all should turn off the lights in their homes at 9 pm on Sunday and light candles, diyas or flash the torch for nine minutes. Following this announcement, the Power Ministry went into a huddle. The Ministry however said that the event would not impact the national power grid much. Power Minister, R K Singh held discussions with the Power Grid Corporation of India and the Power System Operator Corporation. It was informed that they were up to the task and could maintain grid stability for the event. It was also said that the extent of fluctuation would be minimal. However the Power Ministry has asked all state and regional load dispatch centres to be prepared. Lights of at 9 for 9 minutes says Modi in a video at 9: Here is what is shared on WhatsApp Meanwhile several state power corporations are taking steps to ensure that there is minimal load on the grids. In Uttar Pradesh, load shedding across the state has been ordered to prevent the power grid from collapsing due to the sudden drop in demand for electricity. It has been estimated the demand for electricity is likely to slump by as much as 3,000 MW following the lights being switched off for 9 minutes. In UP, it has been advised that all reactors be kept in service during the period. All generating stations must be ready to generate power in such a manner that the reactive power be absorbed to the limiting value of their capability curve. Load shedding in a staggered manner may be done starting from 20.00 hours to 21.00 hours, it has been decided in Uttar Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu too measures are being taken to handle the event at 9 pm yesterday. All capacitor banks to be monitored for appropriate operation and if necessary tap changers may be operated in consultation to maintain correct voltage profile, it has also been instructed. State-run Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO), which is responsible for integrated operation of the grid, is working towards ensuring there is no pressure on the grid due to the possible grid collapse and resultant blackout throughout the country. The Central Electricity Regulatory Authority (CERA) necessitates permissible range of the frequency band of 49.95-50.05 Hz for normal running of grid and if there is any discrepancy in the same with sudden increase or decrease in power flow, it might result into grid collapse. Turn off lights, stay home, dont come on the streets says PM Modi Meanwhile, the Centre has clarified that there is no call to turn off the street lights or appliances at home at 9 pm today. The Power Ministry has said that only lights should be switched off. The lights in the hospitals and other essential services will remain on. Local bodies have been advised to keep the street lights on for public safety, the Power Ministry also clarified. The ministry also said that there are some apprehensions that this may cause instability in the grid and lead to voltage fluctuations, which may harm electric appliances. These are misplaced the ministry also said. A case has been registered against a cleric in Pakistan for gathering around 400 people for Friday prayers at a prominent mosque here, despite a ban on such religious congregations imposed by the authorities to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The deadly virus has infected more than 2,800 people and claimed over 40 lives in Pakistan. According to the Dawn newspaper, a case was registered against former Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and six others for disobeying a government order and gathering people at the mosque for Friday prayers. Around 400 people had gathered at the mosque, the report said on Sunday, adding that police officials deployed around the mosque informed the cleric of the ban on prayer congregations and the misuse of loudspeakers, but he ignored. Aziz was also charged for spreading fear and inciting people against the state, it said. The case was registered on Friday. However, no arrest has been made so far. In a similar case, a 'khateeb' (a person who delivers sermons during Friday prayers) was arrested for violating the government order on prayer congregations. The 'khateeb' and his two aides had gathered 200 people in Bilal Masjid here for Friday prayers, police said. A case has also been registered against the two aides, who are currently absconding, they said. The capital administration has asked police to compile a data on mosques, 'khateebs' and imams who violate the ban on prayer congregations. A total of 121 cases of disobeying the administration's order have been registered in Islamabad since the ban was announced in March-end. Also, some 424 people have been arrested for violating ban on various activities, including social and public gatherings, riding pillion, driving passenger vehicles and hoarding essential commodities, police said. These restrictions have been put in place to combat the coronavirus crisis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Northern Ireland Ireland couple were among more than 1,000 cruise ship passengers who were preparing last night to step on land for the first time in a month - but not before two died of Covid-19 and at least 10 more took ill. Limavady couple Heather and David Lynch are in good health but were devastated last night when the captain of the Coral Princess announced two people had died onboard. The liner finally docked yesterday in the Port of Miami after the sea odyssey that saw the ship barred from disembarking passengers at several South American ports. Approximately 400 UK citizens, including at least eight from Northern Ireland, are preparing to fly home from Florida on chartered flights either today or tomorrow. Two female passengers from the United States and travelling in the same party died of Covid-19 after contracting the coronavirus. A further 10 are confirmed to have contracted the virus, five guests and five crew. Heather and David Lynch, who were quarantined in their cabin from last Tuesday, said they were in good health. Expand Close David and Health Lynch, stranded on the Coral Princess / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp David and Health Lynch, stranded on the Coral Princess But David described it as "terrible news" when the captain announced that two passengers had died. He added: "We are now docking at Miami. The very sick passengers are to get off and then Americans. "We appear to have flights for Sunday or Monday. We all are to be health checked and if we're OK allowed to go to the airport. "Heather and I are in good health so far. Princess Cruises have been terrific dealing with this nightmare, they are doing all they can for us. "I feel so sorry for the medical team onboard because they are really overwhelmed." Princess Cruises said: "Disembarkation of guests is expected to take several days due to limited flight availability. Guests requiring shoreside medical care will be prioritised to disembark first." There were 1,898 people on the ship - 1,020 passengers and 878 crew. The ship set sail on March 5 from San Antonio near Santiago in Chile and was scheduled to end in Buenos Aires on March 19, but was refused entry to the city's port, then at Montevideo in Uruguay and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In Argentina, some passengers were allowed to leave the ship to catch flights, but returned after missing them. Health officials also spent six hours onboard the vessel carrying out health checks on passengers. On Friday, the ship's operators were told it could not dock and disembark at its expected destination, Port Everglades near Fort Lauderdale, by order of the US Coast Guard, which described the vessel as "an unacceptable risk of medical emergency". Two cruise ships, under the Holland America brand and like Princess Cruises owned by Carnival Corporation, were allowed to dock on Thursday evening. Four people died on one of the ships. During a Friday evening Press conference, President Donald Trump said he made the final call: "We could have let them float aimlessly into the ocean looking for port, as they've been doing for a long time. And I made the decision we had to take them in." Yesterday morning, it was abruptly announced that the ship would be allowed to dock in Miami. 04.04.2020 LISTEN The Deputy Ranking Member on Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee of Parliament Hon Yusif Sulemana who is the Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi has briefed the press on what Ghana Link / UNIPASS brings on. Hon Yusif Sulemana also mentioned some issues of concern with regard to copyright and matters arising. MINORITY PRESS CONFERENCE ON UNIPASS ADDRESSED BY HON. YUSIF SULEMANA, DEPUTY RANKING MEMBER ON THE TRADE, INDUSTRY AND TOURISM COMMITTEE ON FRIDAY 3RD APRIL, 2020 IN PARLIAMENT HOUSE WHAT EXTRA DOES GHANA LINK/UNIPASS BRING ON? 1. In 2000, the then Rawlings Government initiated steps for the establishment of a system as Ghana looked at automating its port operations. The system sort to eliminate the rigidities and inefficiencies inherent in the manual operations and by so doing improving Government revenues. The Kufour Government implemented the full roll out between 2002 and 2006 including establishing the Ghana Community Network Services Ltd (GCNET) and since then, successive Government s have built upon it. 2. GCNET, as we are aware, is a Public-Private Partnership in which Government of Ghana through its agencies holds 35% shares. 3. In 2015, GCNET combined with West Blue Consulting Ltd (West Blue) to provide an integrated end-to-end processing platform to deliver the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW), Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS) and its Trade Facilitation Single Window Platform (TFP) -components which meets ISO 9000 and 27000 standards. 4. Since its introduction in 2015, Government revenues have consistently risen except in 2019 when Government reduced benchmark values at the ports. The accumulated growth in customs revenues between 2015 and 2018 was about 76% i.e. rising from some GHC7.5 billion in 2015 to about GHC13.2 billion in 2018. 5. For this stellar performance, GCNET and West Blue which are currently contracted till the end of 2023 and 2020, respectively; are paid a combined fee of 0.54% of Free on Board (FOB) i.e. taking into consideration Government s 35% shares in GCNET. 6. However, without any concrete reason, the Akufo-Addo Government after assuming office in 2017 has been bent on getting rid of the two companies and replacing them with a company with no credible track record in delivering similar solutions; Ghana Link Network Services Ltd (Ghana Link). 7. In 2017, President Akufo-Addo through the Ministry of Trade and Industry procured Ghana Link and its collaborator, Customs UNIPASS International Agency (CUPIA) through sole-sourcing to takeover the operation GCNET and West Blue without regard to proper procedures, sanctity of contracts and the fact that GCNET is partially owned by the State. ISSUES OF CONCERN We in the minority note a number of issues that should be of concern to all well-meaning Ghanaians. 8. Single-sourcing Section 40 of the Public Procurement Act (ACT 663) provides the conditions under which sole-sourcing is allowed. Section 40. (1) states: A procurement entity may engage in single-source procurement under section 41 with the approval of the Board, (a) where goods, works or services are only available from a particular supplier or contractor, or if a particular supplier or contractor has exclusive rights in respect of the goods, works or services, and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists; (b) where there is an urgent need for the goods, works or services and engaging in tender proceedings or any other method of procurement is impractical due to unforeseeable circumstances giving rise to the urgency which is not the result of dilatory conduct on the part of the procurement entity; (c) where owing to a catastrophic event, there is an urgent need for the goods, works or technical services, making it impractical to use other methods of procurement because of the time involved in using those methods; (d) where a procurement entity which has procured goods, equipment, technology or services from a supplier or contractor, determines that (i) additional supplies need to be procured from that supplier or contractor because of standardisation; (ii) there is a need for compatibility with existing goods, equipment, technology or services, taking into account the effectiveness of the original procurement in meeting the needs of the procurement entity; (iii) the limited size of the proposed procurement in relation to the original procurement provides justification; (e) where the procurement entity seeks to enter into a contract with the supplier or contractor for research, experiment, study or development, except where the contract includes the production of goods in quantities to establish commercial viability or recover research and development costs; or (f) where the procurement entity applies this Act for procurement that concerns national security, and determines that single-source procurement is the most appropriate method of procurement. Having regard for this Act, we note that none of the six conditions under which sole-sourcing is allowed was occasioned in 2017 to trigger Sections 40 and 41 of ACT 663. As such, we wish to assure those involved in this procurement that they will answer for it when we takeover in 2021. We also wish to warn Ghana Link/UNIPASS that a contract that is illegally procured is void and so they enter into this contract at their own risk. 9. Capacity of Ghana Link The GCNET/West Blue system has been audited by both local and international agencies and has been acclaimed globally for its robustness and efficiency; receiving some of the highest ISO certification for this as well as several local and international awards. West Blue, for instance, has won some of the most recognised national and international awards; be it the World Customs Organisations International Best Practice Award, the National Information Technology Development e-Governance Award 2015, the Anas Aremeyaw Anas Transparency Award at the 2017 Ghana Shippers Awards or Best Technology and Innovative Award at the 2017 Ghana Maritime and Shippers Award. Unsurprisingly, the system the two companies have put together has not had any system breaches since its inception. Indeed, the systems robustness in the midst of expanded port operations has been remarkable as evidenced through the increased revenues delivered year-in-year-out. So why will our Government seek to replace such companies with a sole-sourced company with no proper track record in the business and with no verifiable superior systems? The closest anyone can affiliate Ghana Link to port services delivery is through its subsidiary Africa Link Inspections Company Ltd (ALIC) in Sierra Leone. ALIC was contracted by Sierra Leone to deliver an end-to-end system in 2012 but as at January 2020 when their contract was being terminated, they were yet to deliver. The Company was found not only to have failed to implement important and vital components of their contract but also to have in connivance with their parent company, Ghana Link, allegedly manipulated financial records for tax evasion purposes. Again, the Sierra Leonean Authorities also found that ALIC had allegedly failed to pay taxes to the tune of Le45 billion. The Government has accordingly initiated steps for the abrogation of their contract with the company. In Ghana also, its earlier scanning and valuation service was noted to be poor. In spite of these negative factors, our Government led by President Akufo-Addo has decided to replace companies that have been delivering improved services and revenues; companies that are acclaimed globally for their capacity and transparency (as shown by the awards mentioned earlier), with a Company that has been found not only to be incompetent and incapable of delivering a Single Window system but also allegedly, very corrupt. The only reason this can happen is when there are ulterior motives. 10. Contract Fees Furthermore, why will any Government replace a cheaper system that is delivering its mandate with a more expensive one that is unproven to be superior? As noted earlier, the combined fees paid to GCNET and West Blue for their services is 0.54% of FOB. With this Ghana Link/UNIPASS deal, Government of Ghana has decided, for whatever reason, to pay 0.75% of FOB. This was after granting Ghana Link duty- and tax-free importation of their inputs (which GCNET and West Blue do not enjoy). Our question to President Akufo-Addo is; what specific addition is Ghana Link/UNIPASS bringing on to warrant the extra 0.21% of FOB? Why is Government providing Ghana Link with inordinately higher fees for a service that is being provided at a lower cost? Ghanaians want to know why they will be paying more for this unproven system. 11. Contract Termination Another strange concession President Akufo-Addo has decided to dash to Ghana Link/UNIPASS is the conditions under which their contract can be terminated. Our Government has committed that if it had to unilaterally abrogate or it materially breaches the contract with Ghana Link/UNIPASS, Ghana will pay graduated fees of US$93 million to US$12 million in the first to the tenth year, to the company. The strange and worrying issue about these clauses is that Ghana is committing to pay US$93 million for terminating a contract whose total value over the 10 years is US$40 million. What would have been logical will be to pay Ghana Link/UNIPASS the remaining value of their contract in the event of a unilateral termination of the contract by Ghana. If it is the contention of Government that this is not the logical thing to do, then on what basis are they in a letter signed by Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo proposing to pay GCNET the value of the unspent term of their contract? Government needs to furnish Ghanaians with the reason why they accepted US$93 million as the termination fee for year 1. 12. West Blue sues Ghana Link/UNIPASS over copyright infringement In addition, as we speak, West Blue is in court suing Ghana Link/CUPIA and another company, World Smart Ltd at the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court for allegedly cloning their software illegally. West Blue alleges that the software for the system that Ghana Link and its partners are currently seeking to roll out is stolen. It is therefore seeking, among others, for the court to restrain Ghana Link and its partners, affiliates and assigns from using the software. Assuming after Ghana Link takes over the port services, the court were to grant this relief restraining it from using the software, what happens? How does Government propose coming out of such a conundrum? CONCLUSION 13. Government is recklessly trying to erode the gains made by successive Government s since the year 2000. This GCNET concept is one of the only projects that each Government in the Forth Republic has built upon. The Akufo-Addo Government will be the only one to depart from this. And strangely, they are doing so, so recklessly that the potential of saddling the country with substantial judgement debt couldnt be higher. Our believe is that the puppet masters pulling the strings for this transaction could only be motivated by what they stand to gain privately. Those people must be reminded that dawn is on the horizon and they will answer. In the meantime, we ask the following questions. i. Why is Government seeking to replace companies and systems that are tried and tested with those that are not? ii. Why is Government seeking to replace competent, internationally recognised, indigenous home-grown companies and systems with foreign systems, particularly in this era of self-sufficiency and Ghana Beyond aid? iii. Why will Government be sole-sourcing a system of this kind when an international competitive process will have given Ghana better value for money? iv. Why is Government ignoring the record of Ghana Link and its subsidiary in Sierra Leone in this whole transaction? v. Why is Government agreeing to pay US$93 million in case of a termination for a contract worth US$40 million? vi. Why is Government choosing to abrogate cheaper contracts for more expensive one? vii. What is the problem with current system that warrants its replacement? viii. And most importantly, what is Ghana Link/UNIPASS bringing onboard that the current service providers dont have? ix. Where is the feasibility study which is a condition precedent in the agreement they signed with Ghana Link to show the extraordinary benefits that are expected from the Ghana Link contract? Tory activists are ConservativeHomes special subject, but we dont always find them easy to read. So were doubtless taking a chance by seeking to interpret the mood of Labours. However, we will have a go. The party members and others who voted in its leadership contest know that Jeremy Corbyn failed. But they are not yet at that stage of the political cycle at which they look for a leader who can not only win back lost voters but also gain new ones. Furthermore, many still expect Boris Johnson, with his near-landslide majority, to win another term in 2025 or so. They have therefore plumped for brains, which Corbyn lacks; for competence, which his inner circle fell short of; for articulacy, which Rebecca Long-Bailey, the Corbynite continuity candidate, didnt manage, and above all for keeping the Labour family together. That means Keir Starmer. If the usual swings and roundabouts apply in 2025, the Conservatives will go out and he will come in. But these should arguably have applied last year which saw a Tory Government take office for the fourth election running. Which illustrates the double-headed electoral challenge confronting Starmer and his party. Right at the start, he must grapple with a short-term and a longer-term problem. The short-term one is that Brexit upended the norms, allowing Boris Jonhson to present the Tories, in a move of stunning audacity, as the change option last December. The longer-term one is that the EU referendum and its aftermath intensified an anguish gnawing away at established parties of the left throughout the western world. They have changed from being the party of the workers to the party of woke. At the last election, the Conservative lead among C2DE voters was bigger than among their ABC1 counterparts. The most damaging factor in this transformation for Labour has been its permissive stance on immigration. The most contemporary one is the partys troubles over an issue of preoccupation only to a tiny minority of voters: trans. Its heartland is no longer the manual workers of the industrial provinces, but the public sector managers, media workers, and right-on lawyers of north London especially in that slew of seats running southwards from Enfield towards the Thames. This is Starmer country: his own Holborn and St Pancras seat nestles there. He is likely to do nothing to make the party more uncomfortable with two sources of voter strength in which the capital abounds: ethnic minorities and younger people. But it needs a leader of exceptional agility, imagination and appeal to make it the natural choice for the rest of the country in 2025. The party was handed over to Tony Blair, Labours biggest post-war election winner, in workable condition for government. Neil Kinnock had gradually seen the hard left off, and taken control of the party. He had also junked the worst parts of its policy platform. Blairs task was to smarten the rest up and sell it to the people. By contrast, Starmer is not in control of Labour not yet, anyway. His supporters have no clear majority on its National Executive Committee. He inherits a Corbyn-flavoured economic programme that was well judged in 2017 but which over-reached last year. Above all, he is no Blair, running in opposition to his partys recent history, and with a different flavour to its usual leaders. Blairs father was once a Conservative Association Chairman. By contast, Starmers parents named him after Keir Hardie. He is from a particular slice of what was Labours natural demographic: the working-class south. And if Johnson bears a weakness of journalists (namely, a greater facility for the broad sweep than for grinding detail), Starmers story to date suggests a weakness of lawyers: a preoccupation with detail and a tendency to caution. It served him well, though Labour not so well, as the Brexit story ran on. The anti-semitism saga provides a classic illustration. Starmer has Jewish family connections, and will understand the issues. But he kept his head down: not until Corbyns leadership was effectively dead and buried did he denounce its record. That is either moral cowardice or impactful timing or perhaps both. It is certainly all of a piece with his durable, workmanlike first speech as Labour leadership yesterday. He said that the party has a mountain to climb and added that where that requires change, we will change. A bolder leader would have scorned that evasive qualification. The NHS. The welfare state. SureStart. Equalities legislation. His speech ticked Labour boxes but didnt even try to open others. There was nothing much to push the patriotic buttons of the provincial working class or the Unionist ones of many Scottish voters: and how after all can Starmer win a majority without Scotland? If all this sounds like writing him off at the start, we should add that it aint necessary so. The old saw about oppositions not winning elections but governments losing them applies, and the Coronavirus has the potential to shake British politics up on a Brexit-like scale. But Starmer will have to be more than a kind of North London John Smith if he wants to do more than profit from others mistakes and misfortunes. One source who has worked with him told ConservativeHome is that his reflex response when presented with a problem is leave it to me. After which, he goes away and unwinds it patiently and systematically as a good lawyer does. But he wont be able to do so much himself now, and will need to reach beyond the Labour tribe, and the history of engagement with civil liberties that he pushed during the leadership campaign. (By the way, there was nothing much about the climate crisis from him yesterday.) Above all, he will need to surprise. Does he have it in him? And how should his leadership begin? In 2001, Iain Duncan Smith was deprived of a platform for his ideas, immediately after his election as Tory leader, by 9/11. He found himself having to respond to it in Parliament. Starmer has an even more troublesome problem as ponders the Coronavirus. This time round, the Commons isnt even sitting. Some Conservative MPs believe that hes less formidable in Parliament than his c.v would suggest. But he is undoubtedly a methodical inquisitor, and the Governments record and performance on the Coronavirus is right for his kind of orderly skills. So expect to see Starmer push soon for a recall. He will have a point. The Commons should not be suspended for a moment longer than necessary: not with strategic choices of this magnitude to be made; not with emergency powers so sweeping on the statute book. The time has come for Ministers to look hard at what can be done virtually and what cant be. Starmer wont win the next election by making the case and nor is it the ideal launching pad for him. But it would be a bit of a start. And he may be encouraged by this thought: after Corbyn, the only way is up. A case study of a patient in Wuhan, China, suggests that the immunosuppressant tocilizumab may be an effective COVID-19 treatment for very ill patients who also have multiple myeloma and other blood cancers. The report, published in Blood Advances, also suggests that blood cancer patients may have atypical COVID-19 symptoms. The patient, a 60-year-old male who had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and was on maintenance therapy, was hospitalized in February for chest tightness and shortness of breath. Although he did not show symptoms of cough or fever, he tested positive for COVID-19 and his illness was classified as severe. Treatment with antiviral and corticosteroid therapies did not fully resolve his symptoms. On the second day in the hospital, a chest CT scan showed that the patient had ground glass opacities in his lungs, which are a characteristic of pneumonia. His levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, were high. After one intravenous administration of tocilizumab, the patient's IL-6 levels decreased. Three days after tocilizumab treatment, his chest tightness had resolved; 10 days later, his CT scan had cleared and he was discharged from the hospital. Our patients with hematologic malignancies are immunosuppressed, which may put them at higher risk for novel coronavirus infection. What are the characteristics of COVID-19 in patients with blood cancers? What is the optimal treatment approach? Everything is unknown, and that was the motivation for this study." Changcheng Zheng, MD, of the University of Science and Technology of China and the study's lead author Tocilizumab is commonly used to treat cytokine release syndrome, a systemic inflammatory response that occurs in response to treatment with certain types of immunotherapies. Dr. Zheng and his team suggest the agent may treat COVID-19 by addressing the acute severe inflammatory response, or "cytokine storm," that the virus triggers. However, they emphasize the need for more research into the potential mechanisms of action. Dr. Zheng also suggests that because the patient had chest tightness and shortage of breath without other COVID-19 symptoms, specifically cough and fever, clinical symptoms of the virus may not be typical in patients who have hematologic malignancies. The research team hopes this case study may offer insights and stimulate more research. "Tocilizumab was effective in the treatment of COVID-19 in this patient with multiple myeloma, but further prospective and randomized clinical trials are needed to verify the findings," said Dr. Zheng. In March 2020, the FDA approved a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intravenous tocilizumab for the treatment of adult patients with COVID-19. Blood Advances, is a peer-reviewed, online only, open access journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders. Blood Advances is a registered trademark of the American Society of Hematology. Upper East Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage, says the pregnant woman diagnosed with COVID-19 in the region is in good condition. The patient is in good condition and under isolation. Contact tracing has been initiated, the Minister said in a post available to DGN Online. Upper East Region on Friday, April 3, recorded its first confirmed case of Covid19 involving a 33-year-old woman with no travel history out of the country. According to the Minister, the woman had traveled to the Western Region for a week and returned to Bolgatanga on 27/03/2020. On 28/03/2020 she presented herself to the UE Regional Hospital with symptoms consistent with Covid19, she said. Samples were sent to Kumasi for laboratory confirmation. On 03/04/2020 GHS received the laboratory feedback indicating a positive result for Covid19 out of 20 cases so far investigated. The general public is urged to remain calm: theres no need for panic, she said. Source: Daily Guide 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. Featured Video Jan. 17 seems like a lifetime ago. This was the first time the novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19, was brought to my attention. The outbreak was in full swing in Wuhan, China and as an epidemiologist, it immediately captured my attention. Four days later, the U.S. had the first case identified in a traveler. It was then that the John Hopkins coronavirus interactive map became a permanent fixture on my computer. Little did we know that day what the next week, and every week thereafter would bring. On Jan. 26, Glens Falls Hospital began planning for what, at the time, seemed like a long shot possibility of experiencing this in our community. That work started with a gap analysis. Through preparedness drills and scenario planning, we quickly identified any areas of vulnerability and put policies and procedures in place to address them. For example, we implemented a flagging system in our electronic medical records that identified patients who, through travel, could have been exposed to the virus. We educated all employees on COVID-19 and provided specialized training to providers and caregivers on the front lines. In February, we began planning for a COVID-19 patient surge. As part of that, weve seized opportunities to deploy additional clinical resources in areas of need by cross-training physicians and nurses who have the skill set needed to care for the sickest patients. We remain in close coordination with the CDC and local/state health officials to increase our understanding of the virus. As health care professionals, we are called to be on the front lines to care for people who are affected by the virus, but we all have a role to play in putting an end to this pandemic. We are at a critical point, and the decisions we make today will have a lasting impact on our future. I strongly encourage all members of our community to do their part by following the guidelines established by the CDC and New York Department of Health for social distancing, proper hygiene and respiratory etiquette. These are challenging times, to be sure. People are fearful, anxious and worried for themselves and their loved ones. The nature of this pandemic requires us to distance ourselves physically, but its important to remember that were all in this together. In the days and weeks to come, thank your local health care providers, grocery store employees and other people on the front lines, be patient with yourself and others and continue to safely offer help to neighbors in need. As this situation continues to unfold, know that the dedicated providers, nurses and other caregivers at Glens Falls Hospital are here for you. Were prepared to offer the best possible care to our friends and neighbors throughout the region. Help us help you, stay home, keep your distance, and wash your hands frequently. Hillary Alycon is the director of Infection Prevention and Control at Glens Falls Hospital. ICICI Bank has donated as many as 16,000 masks and 1000 gloves to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel deployed at metro stations in Delhi. "I would like to place on record our sincere thanks, appreciation and valuable support rendered by ICICI Bank by providing much-needed masks and gloves to our personnel deployed in DMRC during this hour of need (16,000 masks and 10,000 gloves approximately)," the letter by Sudhir Kumar, Inspector General read. "The @ICICIBank has donated 16000 masks & 10000 gloves for CISF personnel deployed at DMRC Delhi. We are incredibly thankful to ICICI Bank for this humane gesture & noble deed. It will certainly help frontline warriors of CISF in the war against #Covid19. #IndiaFightsCorona," CISF tweeted. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday said that there are 3030 active cases of coronavirus in India, out of which 266 have been cured/ discharged/ migrated. A total of 77 people have lost their lives to the infection so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) About 21,200 people linked to a gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat in the Capitals Nizamuddin Basti, which has emerged as a hot spot of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), have been quarantined in India, according to government officials. The number includes 2,000 foreigners. As of Sunday morning, at least 1,023 cases in 17 states and Union Territories, or over 30% of Indias total Covid-19 infections, could be linked to the mid-March gathering that has prompted authorities to launch a complex exercise to trace the footsteps of those who fanned out across the country. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic The foreigners register maintained by the Jamaat headquarters, also known as the Markaz, has been seized by the Delhi Polices crime branch. Also, the Jamaat head Maulana Saad has been booked for defying restrictions on public gatherings. Police stations in other states, too, have registered cases under relevant laws. In an operation that began on March 29 and ended on March 31, the police and health authorities evacuated over 2,300 people, including about 250 foreigners, from the Jamaats headquarters in the Capital. They were taken to hospitals and quarantine centres. Of the 503 positive cases in Delhi till Sunday evening, 320 were linked to the Jamaat markaz, which also has a large following in states such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Rajasthan. As Jamaat workers were agitated when authorities moved in to vacate the six-storey building on March 28, national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval put to the test his relationship with the influential Darul-Uloom, Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind and Al-Hadees to convince the Tablighi leadership. It was only after that the Jamaat workers came out and boarded the buses lined up for them. The home ministry has already blacklisted and cancelled the visas of 960 foreigners from over 40 countries who participated in Jamaat activities in India. As HT reported last week, most of them came to the country on tourist visas when they should have applied for conference or missionary visas. Faced with legal proceedings, some foreigners linked to the Jamaat were also found trying to escape India through special flights being run to evacuate Malaysian and Indonesian nationals. On Sunday, Indian immigration officials stopped Jamaat workers from boarding such flights at the Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai airports. Questions are also being raised on whether due diligence was followed while giving tourist visas to Jamaat workers by Indian missions abroad, and how such a large movement escaped the knowledge of law enforcement agencies. Similar Jamaat congregations have been blamed for driving up cases in Malaysia and Pakistan. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Shimla, April 5 : A 38-year-old man belonging to the Gujjar community in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday committed suicide owing to social boycott by locals for his links with those who returned from the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March. Director General of Police S.R. Mardi told the media that one person hanged himself at his home in Una district. "When he returned to his village from quarantine and his coronavirus test was negative, he faced social boycott and for his reason, he committed suicide, Mardi said in a video message. "I want to tell everyone, social distancing does not mean social discrimination. Such type of behaviour will not be tolerated at any cost," he warned. The victim has been identified as Dilshad Muhamud who ran a shop in Una town. Mardi said 85 members of the Tablighi Jamaat have been booked in the state for deliberately hiding the information. "A total of 277 people belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat have been quarantined. I have asked all those who returned from the Nizamuddin Markaz and even came from foreign travel to reveal their identity, otherwise they will be booked for attempt to murder under Section 307 of the IPC, besides the Disaster Management Act," he said. The Jamaat district heads would be booked for murder under Section 302 of the Indian penal Code (IPC) if any person is found infected with coronavirus due to their negligence, he said. The police chief said six coronavirus patients have been undergoing treatment in the state, while four belonging to a business family are hospitalized in Vedanta in Delhi. But while some aspects of New Yorks situation in the 1970s and beyond were unique, the larger problems the city faced were those confronting the entire country. And the AIDS epidemic, too, spread throughout the nation. Blaming New York was a way to let the federal government off the hook. Today, the scapegoating of the city could have consequences even more profound than during the 1970s. It could mean the city not getting the federal money it needs or a sufficient supply of ventilators and masks and enough support for health care workers. What is more, the suggestion that New York is uniquely susceptible can support the dangerous illusion that allowed the coronavirus to gain traction here in the first place: that we are able to cordon ourselves off from one another, that one region of the country or the world can be separated from the rest. Acting on this fantasy would be the real danger to states like Florida, Vermont and Tennessee. At the same time, painting a picture of the entire city as equally at risk may make it harder to address the likelihood that the coronavirus will probably have the most devastating impact on working-class and poor people who are less likely to have good access to health care, whose underlying health may be worse to begin with and for whom the economic penalties of social distancing are more profound. The dense urban spaces of New York City are empty now the libraries and public schools closed, the playgrounds and streets notably quiet. But the social solidarity that they nurture still has the capacity to offer lessons that might help the rest of the country. Ive seen this even in my own apartment building, where people have mobilized in support of the most at-risk residents all from a distance of six feet. High school students are offering virtual tutoring to homebound elementary school kids, younger tenants are picking up groceries for elderly people for whom a trip to the store might be more dangerous, the most organized among us are keeping phone lists so that tenants can call one another if any of us get sick and need help. And as is happening in places around the world, every night at 7 people come to the windows and the balconies of my apartment complex to cheer for the heroism and dedication of the citys health care workers the E.M.T.s, ambulance drivers, physician assistants, janitors, cooks, orderlies, doctors and nurses. As we chant and clap, we can see one another from the windows and across the courtyard, and even in this moment of devastation, the collective life of our city offers sustenance and hope. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Amid coronavirus (COVID-19) challenges, Pastosa Ravioli has announced it will close its Eltingville store on April 13, until further notice, according to the owner. Pastosa management said in a Facebook post the high demand at the store from an influx of customers trying to stock up, coupled with an increasing number of staff who are asking for time off in order to protect their own health, has made it an impossible situation. Now it is time for us to be responsible and put the health of our employees and customers before all else, said Pastosa in a Facebook post. The Italian specialty food shop said that it will stay open for another week in order to serve loyal customers who will turn to Pastosa for Easter goods. Management of the Forest Avenue location and the Richmond Road location have not made an official closure decision. They said they hope to open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the time being. "Were going to be open as long as we are capable to be, a Pastosa employee of the Richmond Road location told SILive. When asked about the closure of the Forest Ave Pastosa location, owner Vincent DAntuono Sr. said: Im not ready for that, it may be an option, but Im not ready to go there. Im in business here a long time. I went from 30 employees to 10," DAntuono said. "Some people dont want to work, and I dont blame them. Its really a horror story out there. NOTICE ABOUT STORE CLOSING BEGINNING MONDAY, APRIL 13th: Each day brings a new challenge where we find ourselves making... Posted by Pastosa Ravioli on Saturday, April 4, 2020 The Facebook post also gives a window into the extreme challenges that a small grocers of face amid the coronavirus outbreak. Weve seen extremely long wait times for our customers (especially when we first open our doors in the morning)," reads the Facebook post. "Weve seen customers who now need to wait outdoors until permitted to enter. Weve seen employees who now have to stock the store with constant fear that they are standing too close to customers. Weve seen limited or zero stock on many items in our store and vendors who dont know when those items will return. Weve seen inability of staff to answer questions and often the inability to even answer phone calls. 42 NYC on pause: A month into the battle against deadly coronavirus In addition to the store closure, Pastosa of Eltingville recently announced its new store hours starting Monday, April 6: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Easter Sunday it will service customers from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The new times will allow employees to safely stock and sanitize the store before and after hours of operation. Union power minister (Independent Charge) R K Singh Sunday night congratulated power grid operators for dong a great job during the nine-minute lights out at 9 PM flowing Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal to switch off lights and light candles or diyas in a symbolic drive to mark the fights against coronavirus.. National grid operator POSOCO and the national, regional and state load despatch centres did a great job with support from all generators; NHPC, NEEPCO, THDC, SJVNL, BBMB, NTPC, all state gencos and IPPs, Transcos and Distribution companies and their officers and staff, Singh said according to ANI. The minister said voltage was kept stable during the period of the lights out. Demand went down from 117300 Megawatts at 2049 hrs to 85300 MW till 2109 hrs; a reduction of 32000 MW. Then it started increasing. Frequency was maintained within a band of 49.7 to 50. 26 Hz, which means voltage was kept stable, he said. Singh, along with the Power Secretary and other senior officers monitored the power grid operations from National Power Monitoring Centre in Shram Shakti Bhawan in Delhi during the period of lights off. The minister said there was huge response to Prime Ministers call to switch off lights. On Saturday, the power ministry had clarified that the PMs call for switching off lights would not cause instability to the power grid amid concerns over a possible grid collapse. The demand for power has dropped 30% demand due to the absence of commercial activity in the wake of the nationwide lockdown, and there were fears that the Prime Ministers call could encourage people to switch off everything, reducing demand even more. A drop in demand could have resulted in a sudden change in grid frequency, leading to a potential blackout. More than $9 billion in new spending and tax deferrals to combat the coronavirus crisis coupled with a slump in state revenues will push the NSW budget deep into the red. But economists warn NSW should not rush to repair the budget despite a law passed by the Coalition in 2012 that includes rules to maintain the states triple-A credit rating. Treasurer Dominic Perrottet says plans for economic recovery in NSW are already under way Credit:SMH Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the governments immediate goal was to keep people in jobs and businesses in business but planning for the recovery was already under way. Its important to remember the fiscal impact and our support measures are temporary nothing about this crisis has shaken our commitment to responsible financial management, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 04:39:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Julia Pierrepont III LOS ANGELES, April 5 (Xinhua) -- One of China's leading physicians who helped lead the battle against COVID-19 in Wuhan, China's COVID-19 epicenter, advised American physicians that controlling the virus requires a coordinated effort from the top on down, a system many American officials and physicians are also clamoring for. "American physicians should have national guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19," urged Dr. Bin Cao, a respiratory expert and vice president of China-Japan Friendship Hospital (CJFH) in Beijing on a conference call with American physicians early this week. Cao was among the first wave of stalwart medical professionals who raced to Wuhan to support the overwhelmed healthcare system on the verge of collapse. He and his team used their extensive experience to set up and implement the emergency system that saved countless lives that had been hanging by a thread. Facing the brutal coronavirus outbreak during the Chinese Lunar New Year's holiday in January, Chinese doctors, public health officers and government officials kicked into overdrive to contain the rapidly spreading virus. Now, seeing the United States in the same predicament, Cao expressed concern that the United States would have a hard time containing the outbreak if the efforts to contain COVID-19 are not coordinated. "So far we have seen that many institutes in the U.S. have their own guidelines for the coronavirus," he noted. At present, the White House has not issued strict public health protocols that are required to be followed by every state and U.S. hospital to stop the virus nationwide. Hospitals across the country have to invent their own protocols or decide which of the CDC recommendations they feel like following. Cao believed that leadership must come from the top so that every medical facility in every state is following the same guidelines and using the same effective techniques as those that worked successfully in China and South Korea. Cao's advice mirrored the call for federal government intervention that has risen to a clamor in the country too. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and a host of American medical professionals have all urgently called for White House and America's top health officials to step up and establish comprehensive and proven guidelines for all the states to follow to slow the raging outbreak in the nation - which is now the worst in the world. "This is truly frightening," said Governor Cuomo, "I've handled a lot of emergencies as governor and in the federal government ... but nothing comes close to this in terms of the need for intelligent, rigorous, muscled government to respond quickly and smartly." He added, "States don't do public health emergencies. If it's beyond the capacity of the local state, then the federal government has to step in. No state is equipped to handle this on their own." China's successful control of the COVID-19 created a roadmap for others to follow, based largely on the efforts of Chinese doctors who managed the most challenging public health disaster in decades. Dr. Qingyuan Zhan, the Chief of Medical ICU at the CJFH in Beijing and Chair of the Critical Care Committee of the Chinese Association of Chest Physicians, spearheaded the medical response in the Wuhan hospital designated to treat the most severe COVID-19 cases. He stressed the vital need to learn how to establish temporary medical facilities virtually overnight and discussed how to be better prepared and how, in the future, to have a well thought out Standard Operating Procedure in place well in advance that can kick into effect in a crisis like this. He told over 1,500 members of American College of Chest Physicians joining the online conference that the need for doctors and hospitals everywhere to do what they can to immediately organize adequate medical facilities and supplies and ensure an adequate supply of vitally important ventilators, life support equipment, monitors, testing kits, mobile x-rays, among other equipment. Zhan also advised that the doctor-nurse respiratory critical care team should be led by a designated team leader and include specialists in nosocomial infection control, CPR and urgent intubation, PICC insertion, percutaneous tracheostomy, bronchoscopy exams, and ECMO establishment, and respiratory therapists, who should work in six-hour shifts to avoid exhaustion and over-exposing themselves to the virus. Based on China's experience, Zhan said that the U.S. pattern for COVID-19 is likely to match China's which was 80 percent mild cases, 15 percent severe patients and 5 percent critical ones -which would need prioritized treatment. "COVID-19 is all around us. COVID-19 is our common enemy," he said. This illness is coming, and it is changing us all We are watching life as we knew it dismantled in real time as the spectre, but not yet the reality, of COVID-19 rips through our communities, leaving behind a very different world. And as we all work blind, fighting a disease we cannot see, waiting for symptoms we have yet to feel, in a timeframe unspecified and with a cure still unknown, it is the uncertainty of when or where this will end that is affecting us all. We may all be in this together, with a virus that recognises no bounds and where the principle of collective responsibility has had no higher value, but in the wee small hours, we are all going through our personal hells. Our uhtcearu: that fitful unease, the predawn anxiety, waiting for the light to dispel the darkness. But then, when you awake, the nightmare has no end, playing on, as it will for some time yet, into another day. Living in a constant state of hypervigilance is tough, and at times I can feel myself sinking. We all are. But ultimately, this will be a big story of how a contagion changed the world, how society as a group altered its behaviours simply to survive. And stripped down, it will be about each and every one of us playing our small role and understanding that what we did altered history. Individual heartbreak, single acts of heroism, small acts of kindness, grand charitable gestures, community-led initiatives and massive programmes of state intervention, they will all play their part in how this plays out. Its just a fortnight since we were forced into lockdown. And even then, politicians were cautious to call it by its name. Curfews, rules on exercise, group gatherings, who could work, who could not, and when to take your dog for a walk, all were covered, although sometimes without the clarity one required. But then needs must in an emergency. Only a few days have passed since police were charged with enforcing the laws designed to prevent us leaving our homes. And in a country that cherishes its liberty that has been sore, but one that will save lives. Already our country is unrecognisable. The streets of the capital quiet, the few people that are around wear face masks. Runners step onto the road to avoid close contamination from others and every cough is greeted with a recriminatory stare. Shops shut, bars empty, schools locked and homes with their doors tightly closed. This illness is coming, and it is changing us all. Governments working together, politicians putting differences aside. And at a stroke, political orthodoxy torn asunder with state intervention on a scale unimagined by any Tory prime minister. And with his chancellor writing blank cheques to save jobs, pay mortgages, stop evictions and to keep the self-employed afloat. And with private sector employees now effectively instruments of the state, transport nationalised and the health service now being recognised, not just in warm words, but with much-needed hard cash, it is not too hard a stretch to see that Jeremy Corbyn has left the Labour leadership safe in Boris Johnsons hands. Low-skilled workers, once devalued and disrespected, have become essential actors to the national effort. Immigration is now a necessary tool of recovery and prisoners, once victim to the lock em up and throw away the key mentality of successive home secretaries, are now a population to be treated with some degree of empathy and literally, for some, a sense of freedom. But it has been brutal. Social distancing will save lives, but that is cold comfort to families who face the agony of being separated from elderly parents, barred from giving that much-cherished hug, and even when mourning, unable to find comfort in the arms of others. And I have been angered by some in my own circle whose cavalier attitude to collective responsibility has meant that breaking the rules to travel to work or to visit loved ones is a sign of largesse rather than idiocy. So far, we have been assuaged by the daily death toll prefixed with the words underlying health conditions or selfishly ticked the boxes that dont personally apply. But then there are the growing number of victims that dont fit with the norm and the fear begins to grow. Look at Italy, so familiar and yet now so foreign. A cosmopolitan country of culture and grace, where corpses are so many that they are now left where they lie and in overrun hospitals, doctors are making heart-breaking decisions about who gets to live. And even as we argue about the naming of an emergency hospital in Glasgow rooted in the ridiculous assertions of constitutional divides, we are distracted from the reality of why we are converting a vast venue for festivals and fun into a dormitory for the sick. This illness is coming. And the fear of what is still to arrive is growing. I find myself overcome by almost everything right now, when even a bee awakening from its hibernation and struggles on a window frame to find its escape brings me to tears. But then seeing the fortitude with which my elderly mother is carrying the burden of trying to fend off a disease she hadnt calculated for is humbling. Her life has changed immeasurably over the last five years: first a devastating stroke that left her disabled and housebound, the death of my dad which has left her alone, and now this, the virus that threatens to kill her but also keeps her from the people that she loves the most and who have provided her with the emotional sustenance needed to keep on going. She is now the one telling us to take care and keep our distance. In the last few weeks, we have changed habits of a lifetime, even become conscious of how often we touch our face, how little we washed our hands, and ignored the personal space of others. The powers we are living under are draconian, and the consequences monumental. Our economy is wrecked. After this, there will be a reckoning and there will be things we can fix. But as the First Minister has reminded us, you cant breathe life back into the dead, so stay home and stay safe. China has stepped up the propaganda accompanying its global distribution of face masks and other medical equipment. After accusations of being the source of the virus, Beijing is trying to turn the tide using aggressive counter-arguments while flooding infected countries with what is often unusable equipment. On the day that China commemorates its dead (see box bleow) Beijing claims it has the coronavirus crisis under control, that deaths are close to zero, and that the only new cases are people who entered China from abroad. But critics question the veracity of China's official claims and figures, and a renewed lockdown of certain areas, including the epicenter Wuhan last week suggests that the virus far from being under control. Now, both China and the US areusing the coronavirus pandemic as a tool of propaganda in an increasingly nasty war of words. Chinese scientists did report the outbreak In spite of sharp US criticism, China did report the virus early. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission did start reporting to the WHO on a pulmonary disease in a first statement on December 31, 2019, saying that 27 people had been infected after being in contact with the Huanan Fresh Seafood Market. The market was closed on January 1. On January 7, Chinese scientists identified that the illness was caused by what was dubbed a novel coronavirus. In a fifth report on January 11, the Commission said that 41 cases were found between December 8 and January 2, but that after January 3, no new cases were detected. The WHO then issued a statement on January 12 saying that 41 cases of coronavirus were diagnosed of which one person died. A last statement, clearly underestimating the danger, claimed that no additional cases were detected after January 3. Meanwhile, Chinese scientists, who initially named the virus the WH (Wuhan)-Human 1 virus had submitted a deep digging report on January 7, which was published by Nature magazine at the beginning of February. The article describes samples taken from a 41 year old man who was working at the Wuhan Huanan Seafood market, showing a 91% similarity to a SARS-like coronavirus that is found in bats. An article by 28 Chinese virologists published on 24 January by The Lancet, details test results on the 41 positive cases. Three days after the article in Nature, Dr. Xiao Botao from South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, and Dr. Xiao Lei, from Wuhan University of Science and Technology, published an article describing a researcher who was once attacked by a bat and the blood of the bat shot on his skin, after which he self-isolated for 14 days. It also states that experiments with bats were performed in the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is only 280 meters away from the Seafood Market. Speculation was that Sars-CoV or its derivative might leak from the laboratory, writes Xiao, adding that in addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer virus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. ... but the government played them down After these initial revelations, China quickly cracked down. The article by Xiao Botao and Xiao Lei disappeared from the international academic data base Research Gate, but can be re-traced through the Wayback Machine, the Internet's archive At the same time, authorities muzzled whistleblowing doctors, until one of them, Li Wenliang died, causing a massive outcry on social media leaving Beijing no other option than admitting the problem. The China National Health Commission started to publish daily updates of newly infected cases, death rates and recoveries, numbers that peaked at the end of February, causing another about face. After President Xi Jinping's visit to Wuhan on March 10, China turned from patient to doctor, exporting millions of face masks, tens of thousands of ventilators accompanied by medical personnel, initially to its Belt and Road allies, later also to more sceptical partners, such as France and the US. The People's Republic Strikes Back After China's about face and the spread of the virus to virtually all other countries in the world, Beijing faced increasing criticism by the US and some of its Western allies. US diplomats, following President Donald Trump's criticism on China, launched a volley of criticism against Beijing, accusing it of lack of transparency and reporting the virus too late. Zhao Lijian, an official spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggested that the virus may have originated in the US, and his remarks were echoed by ambassadors worldwide. China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters after the newspaper ran an article saying that "China is the real sick man of Asia" and increasedfootage of the bulky Russian Antonov 124 planes that brought millions of face masks, medical equipment, doctors and nurses to the worst hit areas. Critics not silenced But it didn't manage to silence the critics who say that China is "using the coronavirus crisis to split the EU". American diplomats also say that Beijing's official figures are heavily under reported. One photo report, on the more liberal Caixin online publication, says that on two days in a row, trucks shipped in about 2,500 urns into one of Wuhan's eight mortuaries. Another picture published by Caixin showed 3,500 urns piled up on the ground inside. It does not say how many urns were actually filled, but these count suggests a much higher number of deaths that the less-than-3000 number for Wuhan for the whole period from the beginning of the outbreak until now. The countrys health authorities had before now said that only the sick, or those caring for patients of coronavirus, should wear masks, but newer studies suggest that covering up ones face is important to prevent inadvertent transmission. Former Bachelor Tim Robards used his platform for the greater good on Sunday. In an Instagram post, the chiropractor-turned-actor encouraged his fans to use self-isolation as a time to 'check-in and reassess' our values. The TV personality accompanied the motivating message with a photo of himself wearing a white muscle tank and leaning across a glass table. 'Are we living life to our own values?' Ripped former Bachelor Tim Robards (pictured), 37, encouraged Instagram fans on Sunday to use self-isolation as a time to 'check-in and reassess' 'It's a great time for some self-reflection... A time to check in with ourselves and reassess if we are living life to our own values,' Tim began. 'Do we even know what they are? Why do we think, say and do certain things? And quite simply... what makes us happy and are we doing enough of it?' Tim accompanied the reflective caption with a selfie presumably taken during self-isolation, at his Sydney home shared with wife Anna Heinrich. Thoughts amid self-isolation: The Neighbours star was in a reflective mood, asking his followers whether they are doing all that they can to ensure they lead happy and fulfilling lives Rumour mill: Meanwhile, should rumours be true, Tim certainly has a lot to be grateful for Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged Australians to stay at home unless absolutely necessary, as the fight to prevent the spread of coronavirus continues. Meanwhile, should rumours be true, the Neighbours star has a lot to be grateful for. According to Woman's Day magazine last week, Tim and Anna are expecting their first child together. Bun in the oven? According to Woman's Day magazine last week, Tim and wife Anna Heinrich (pictured) are expecting their first child together The publication claimed that the lawyer, 33, avoided drinking alcohol at a social event recently, 'opting for soda water instead'. The couple have declined to comment on the speculation. Tim and Anna met on The Bachelor in 2013, and wed in Puglia, Italy, in June 2018. Web Toolbar by Wibiya Since the beginning of the outbreak, claims on the link between the effects of the new 5G technology and coronavirus have progressively gained more attention. From renowned physicians to celebrities, many people have hypothesised about this issue, and now a group of British activists has also raised its voice against 5G technology, stating that it could be acting as accelerator for the coronavirus disease. According to an article published on British online newspaper The Daily Star, a new conspiracy theory has found an eager audience: that the symptoms of the virus high fever, coughing and shortness of breath are actually the human body responding to exposure to 5G. Anti-5G critics based in the UK believe the virus likely began in a market in Wuhan and travelled here through transmission, The Daily Star informs. But they're concerned the ultra-fast network currently operating in almost 100 locations around Britain could be helping it to spread more quickly, it continues. Two activists, Louise Thomas from Somerset, and Tanja Rebel from the Isle of Wight College, expressed their concern about the consequences of 5G devices on peoples health. We can't say 5G has caused the coronavirus, but it might be exacerbating it, Ms Thomas declared to The Daily Star. Many studies show that Electro-Magnetic Radiation (EMR) suppresses the immune system and that it helps viruses and bacteria thrive. So EMR and in particular 5G could act as an accelerator for the disease. We do not know for sure, but common sense and the precautionary principle decree that we urgently need a moratorium on the roll-out of 5G until we can show that it is safe, Ms Rebel explained. For this reason, the Isle Of Wight College lecturer believes that it is critically urgent that the British government adopts strict control measures over the 5G rollout. Especially in today's situation it is paramount that we do not play further with lives, she said. "Anything else would be deeply reckless", she added. Draw your own conclusions I invite you to read Peter Tremblay's book Justin Trudeau, Judicial Corruption and the Supreme Court of Canada: Aliens and Archons in Our Midst if you want to explore the world of corruption and manipulative aliens as background to the so-called "coronavirus". The manipulate aliens he cites in his book appears to be connected with the current "coronavirus" pandemic simulation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-05 09:38:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TUNIS, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian security forces killed two terrorists in the western province of Kasserine, the Interior Ministry said Saturday. This operation "is the result of intelligence work carried out by the national counterterrorism units as part of a preventive operation," the ministry said in a statement. The security units succeeded in foiling a scheme of the terrorists who tried to infiltrate into civilian gatherings to obtain supplies, the statement said. The two terrorists were members of 'Jund al- Khilafa,' or the Soldiers of the Caliphate, linked to the terrorist organization Islamic State, according to local media. OPEC and Russia have postponed a Monday meeting to discuss oil output cuts until April 9, OPEC sources said on Saturday, as a dispute between Moscow and Saudi Arabia over who is to blame for plunging crude prices intensified. The delay came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilise global oil markets. Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 due to a slump in demand caused by lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of OPEC and other producers led by Russia to extend a deal on output curbs that expired on March 31. OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut the production of oil equivalent by about 10% of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort including the United States. Washington, however, has yet to make a commitment to join the effort and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday put the blame for the collapse in prices on Saudi Arabia - prompting a firm response from Riyadh on Saturday. "The Russian Minister of Energy was the first to declare to the media that all the participating countries are absolved of their commitments starting from the first of April, leading to the decision that the countries have taken to raise their production," Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a statement reported by state news agency SPA. Putin, speaking on Friday during a video conference with government officials and the heads of major Russian oil producers, said the first reason for the fall in prices was the impact of the coronavirus on demand. "The second reason behind the collapse of prices is the withdrawal of our partners from Saudi Arabia from the OPEC+ deal, their production increase and information, which came out at the same time, about the readiness of our partners to even provide a discount for oil," Putin said. The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud disputed Putin's claims, saying Russia had withdrawn and that statements about the kingdom's withdrawal from the OPEC+ deal was devoid of truth, state agency (SPA) reported on Saturday. OPEC sources, who asked not be identified, said the emergency virtual meeting planned for Monday would likely now be postponed until April 9 to allow more time for negotiations. OPEC sources later downplayed the Saudi-Russia row, saying the atmosphere was still positive, although there was no draft deal yet nor agreement on details such as a reference level from which to make the production cuts. "The first problem is that we have to cut from the current production level now, not to go back to the one before the crisis," one of the OPEC sources said. "The second issue is the Americans, they have to play a part." OIL RISES FROM LOWS Oil recovered from this week's lows of $20 per barrel with Brent settling at $34.11 on Friday, still far below the $66 level at the end of 2019. Prices had their biggest one-day gain ever on Thursday when Trump said he expected Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce a major production cut. The United States is not part of OPEC+ and the idea of Washington curbing production has long been seen as impossible, not least because of U.S. antitrust laws. Still, the oil price crash has spurred regulators in Texas, the heart of U.S. oil production, to consider regulating output for the first time in nearly 50 years. But U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, in a call with oil industry leaders on Friday, did not mention the possibility of U.S. production cuts, a source who listened to the call said. On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump focused instead on tariffs as a response to the oil price crash. "If I have to do tariffs on oil coming from outside or if I have to do something to protect our ... tens of thousands of energy workers and our great companies that produce all these jobs, I'll do whatever I have to do," Trump told reporters in a briefing about the coronavirus outbreak. "The President has now told us what Plan B is: tariffs," said Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Russian state media he understood that the United States had legal restrictions on output cuts but it should still be flexible. Other oil producers that do not belong to OPEC+ have indicated a willingness to help. Canada's Alberta province, home to the world's third-largest oil reserves, is open to joining any potential global pact. Also Read: Coronavirus impact: IMF may delay release of third tranche of $6 bn loan to Pakistan Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live Updates: Maharashtra worst-affected state with 490 COVID-19 cases; death tally at 24 US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the US government would be deploying thousands military personnel to states to help them deal with the coronavirus epidemic. "We're going to be adding a tremendous amount of military to help," Trump said in a daily briefing with reporters. He added that 1,000 military personnel are being sent to New York City, including military doctors and nurses. Star power that helped Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee either win Lok Sabha and Assembly seats or project the states image has now come to her aid in the fight against Covid-19 days after her government announced austerity measures amid soaring expenditure. Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, who is also Bengals brand ambassador and owner of the IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), made a generous donation to the chief ministers emergency relief fund on Thursday. He also announced that KKR and his NGO, Meer Foundation, will give 50,000 personal protection kits for health workers to Bengal and Maharashtra. Using Bengali script Khan, on Friday, tweeted, Didi I want to extend my arm to help you in your selfless and humanitarian work and quoted a line from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. Follow coronavirus live updates here. On Saturday, Banerjee thanked Khan in a tweet for the undisclosed amount the star contributed. Thank you @iamsrk, your contribution will help assist a lot of distressed people during these challenging times. Such humane benefaction will keep inspiring millions in this country who look up to you as their role model with respect and reverence, she wrote. Three people have so far died of coronavirus in Bengal. Four others who had tested positive also lost their lives but the government says they might have died of co-morbidity. The seven dead were among a total of 68 people infected by the virus. In Kolkatas film industry, commonly referred to as Tollywood since most of the old studios are located at Tollygunje in south Kolkata, people aware of the developments said contributions have also been made by popular actress Rituparna Sengupta and her husband, a businessman, and actors Rudranil Ghosh and Sohini Sarkar. Bengals superstar Prasenjit Chatterjee, director Arindam Sil and music director Jit Ganguly have also contributed to a fund for film technicians since all studios are closed due to the lockdown. Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar whose acrimonious relation with the state government has been in news for months, contributed 10 lakh to the chief ministers emergency relief fund and 5 lakh to the Prime Ministers relief fund. Faced with huge unexpected expenditure, the Bengal government had announced austerity measures on Thursday under which no new scheme will to be taken up and all constructions will stop except urgent repairs and maintenance for which approval has to be taken from the finance department. The government will not allow purchase of new cars, computers, IT related accessories, televisions, air-conditioners, water coolers, officer equipment, furnishings and renovation of chambers of public officials. Unless approved by the government, there will be no recruitment and engagement of manpower and no hiring of vehicles. The government will also not allow air travel in executive and business class. Last month, Banerjee had publicly appealed to people and the corporate world to help with money or materials. Four days ago she contributed 5 lakh each to state fund and the Prime Ministers fund. I do not take any salary as MLA or chief minister and I have also forgone my MP pension despite being a seven-time member of the Parliament. I come from limited means. My primary source of income is from my creative pursuits, the royalty I generate from my music and books, she tweeted. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 4 By Nargiz Sadikhova Trend: Total number of coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan amounted to 500 cases as of 12:00 (GMT +6) on Apr.4, 2020, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Ministry of Healthcare. One more lethal coronavirus case has been reported in countrys Turkestan region. The patient has been hospitalized on Mar. 29. He was diagnosed with coronavirus-associated pneumonia. He also had chronic diseases - diabetes and hypertension. The patient was undergoing treatment; however, this morning the patient's condition worsened, and he passed away, the ministry said. The ministry also noted that the patient has been self-medicating at home prior to hospitalization having hidden the fact that he arrived from Almaty city on Mar. 19. Distribution of overall coronavirus cases in Kazakhstans region is as follows: Total infected Total recovered Total deaths Nur-Sultan city 202 16 1 Almaty city 109 19 Shymkent city 12 Akmola region 19 1 Aktobe region 7 Almaty region 9 Atyrau region 20 East Kazakhstan region 4 Zhambyl region 9 West Kazakhstan region 2 Karaganda region 26 1 Kostanay region 1 Kyzylorda region 26 Manystau region 3 Pavlodar region 1 North Kazakhstan region 25 Turkestan region 23 1 TOTAL 500 35 4 The 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 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. The outbreak of the coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan (an international transport hub), at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease is nearing 59,000. Over 1.1 million people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 226,700 people have reportedly recovered. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. --- Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh NEW YORK - Janett Perez sings to her patients, though few can hear her. They are sedated, intubated, pushed to the brink of death by covid-19. They lie unconscious in their beds as she tends to them. "They can still hear you," the intensive care nurse at Brooklyn's Maimonides Medical Center said. Besides, she is all they have. "They don't have family around. So we have to be their family." The pandemic that has disrupted everything about the way people live has mercilessly altered the way they convalesce and die. Like every hospital in New York state, Maimonides has banned almost all visitors until the final hours before death,when a single family member is allowed to witness the passing. The hospital is frantically expanding for the coming surge of covid-19 patients, although officials acknowledge it will almost certainly overwhelm their efforts. Before that happens, its leaders allowed The Washington Post access to some of the hospital's intensive care units and other floors last week, on the condition that patient privacy be protected. Eighty percent of the approximately 600 adult patients in the hospital Wednesday were infected with the new coronavirus. That proportion will surely increase until nearly every bed is filled with its victims, officials said. Everyone at Maimonides is working harder, under more dangerous conditions, than ever before. In addition to mastering unfamiliar medical responsibilities, nurses like Perez stand in as spouse, child, sibling or parent to their patients. 3 1 of 3 Washington Post photo by Jon Gerberg Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Washington Post photo by Jon Gerberg Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Perez bustles between patients, some now two to a room meant for one. She moves quickly but purposefully, checking a monitor, gently rearranging limbs and tubing. And keeping up her chatter: The weather. The Lakers. Last week's television show. "I talk to them like I would talk to my family or my friends," she said. "Positivity goes such a long way. Positivity can heal a person. Positivity, good energy can just take away all the bad and infuse someone with goodness. That's really what nursing is about." It is a remarkable perspective. There is little reason for optimism on Tower 8, the surgical ICU floor where just a few weeks ago Perez saw people after strokes, car crashes and major operations. Most of the patients who reach this floor will die, often after lingering for two or even three weeks on ventilators, the desperately needed machines that force oxygen into clogged and inflamed lungs. "Many covid patients pass away," Perez said. "But you can't determine that others won't do well. . . . That's what we have to hold on to, is that hope that people will do better. And we have to treat them with the expectation that they will." The overworked health-care workers are now the only bridge between patients and their family outside. At perhaps the worst moment of their lives, relatives crave every scrap of information, good or bad. It must substitute for being there themselves. Only women in labor and children are allowed to have one person with them. "I talk about the ventilator," said Cheryl Martines, a nurse in the medical ICU, a floor below Perez on Tower 7. She explains to heartsick families how much work the machine is doing, why it's important to wean the patient off the breathing device. She speaks in layman's terms. "I let them know we're here for them," Martines said. "Their family member is not alone, that we're with them. We talk to them. We encourage them. And we're praying for them." But there is no denying the bleak prognosis for most. "It's breaking our hearts to see people dying, without having, really, anything to help them," said Monica Ghitan, associate director for infectious disease. "One of the reasons that always attracted me to [infectious disease] is the fact that we cure people. We make people better. We give them medication, and they go home and enjoy their lives. "And now we have very little, if anything, to give." - - - An independent teaching hospital in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood, Maimonides is named for a 12th-century Jewish philosopher and physician. Its ethnically diverse staff serves a patient population that speaks more than 70 languages, including Urdu, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Yiddish, Creole and Russian. As the virus approached, the hospital's leadership began building, staffing and equipping the equivalent of a second hospital on the fly, inside and outside its walls. Maimonides's official capacity is 711 beds. In a week or two, officials intend to have 1,400. An enormous tent outside the hospital's front lobby will hold 80 to 100 beds. There are beds in a rehab gym. The number of beds in an older, smaller cardiothoracic ICU were more than doubled. Like most major medical centers, Maimonides had separate intensive care floors for heart patients, children and others. But in effect, they are all covid-19 ICUs now. Nearly everyone else has been discharged to make room for coronavirus patients - sent to a rehab facility, perhaps, or home. Or told not to come in. Few people with complaints other than covid-19 are even bothering to show up at the hospital. On Wednesday, every bed in the medical ICU, whose capacity was increased from 20 to 26, held a covid-19 patient. The surgical ICU, now at 25 beds, held 21 covid-19 patients. Soon its capacity will rise to 39. It is barely enough now, and even with the expansion it probably won't be. Maimonides has not yet experienced shortages of ventilators and protective garb that plague other hospitals. But there is a backlog of patients waiting for critical care beds. They are intubated in the emergency department, where a never-ending procession of ambulances brings patient after patient to a hastily erected triage tent outside. "Our biggest issue is that the people we are caring for who are acutely and critically ill, it takes a very long time for them to show any signs of recovery," said Stephan L. Kamholz, chief of pulmonary critical care. "And some of the very first people who ended up on mechanical ventilation three, three-and-a half weeks ago, are still on it - if they're still alive." One patient who was successfully taken off a ventilator recently was put back on after breathing problems recurred, Kamholz said. "He died last night," said Omar Taha, a pulmonary and critical care specialist. Doctors and nurses hurry through the surgical ICU hallway, bathed in yellow light. There is no time for wasted motion. They wear white lab coats or blue gowns, with hair coverings, gloves, face masks and goggles, their shoes protected by disposable booties. Signs with colorful illustrations remind them of the importance of each measure. Without looking, they poke at ubiquitous hand-sanitizer dispensers and rub their hands as they speed by. Staff members have been repurposed. On Wednesday, a urologist, a trauma surgeon and a surgical oncologist were among the physicians working on Tower 8. With elective surgeries canceled, orthopedists are pitching in elsewhere. They are all covid-19 doctors now. "A lot of the disease process, we're learning on the go," said Mehr Qureshi, the trauma surgeon, whose patients normally follow a steadier trajectory of improvement once they reach the ICU. "The things that we thought were working before are not really working anymore. . . . These patients can start to turn the corner, and then they get very sick very fast." Monitors and IV poles have been moved into the hallway. This minimizes the number of times nurses must enter the rooms of infectious patients, limiting their exposure to the virus and preserving the precious masks and gowns in short supply at other hospitals. Long plastic tubes run beneath the doors to the patients, bringing medication and sedatives. The monitors beep. Their lights blink. Overhead, speakers blare orders with varying degrees of urgency. In patient rooms, it is calmer, almost placid. On this sparkling spring day, large windows allow sunlight to wash across the motionless figures in the beds. Outside, the squat brick buildings of south Brooklyn stretch for miles. - - - In a hospital full of a deadly, highly contagious virus, front-line medical workers protect themselves with face masks, stoicism and prayer. Only a handful of Maimonides staff have tested positive for covid-19 disease, though more have served 14-day quarantines after exposures. The hospital declined to release exact numbers. The workers discuss the risk matter-of-factly. They measure it, take precautions and try to do their jobs. "At the end of the day, it has to be done. Somebody has to take care of these people," said Taha, the pulmonary specialist. "There's no time to be too concerned for ourselves. We take the proper precautions, and we do what we have to do for the patients." Perez, the nurse, has moved from her home to a nearby apartment. She was afraid she would bring the virus home to her parents, her sister and her brother-in-law, who live with her. Earnest, plain-spoken, she harbors no doubts about her role in the pandemic. She knows it will end sometime. Until then, her fate is in God's hands, she said. "This is a battlefield, and we've turned ourselves from nurses into soldiers, in a sense," she said. "We all took an oath, and we all have a responsibility to our patients. This is what every single nurse was meant to do. This is what we were born to do." Parita Soni, another pulmonary and critical care specialist who gave birth Jan. 27 at Maimonides, has also moved out. She pumps breast milk during the day and drops it off with her husband, who bottle-feeds their daughter. But she lives in a small apartment five blocks from the hospital, separated from her firstborn by the virus. Soni returned to work in recent days. "I was very scared. But at the same time, all my colleagues are in this war, and I just can't stay home," she said. The circumstances are taking a toll. "We're seeing stress, seeing despair, seeing concern," Kamholz said. "People who are appropriately capped, gowned and masked still have a concern about their own illness, and then, when they go home, they have concern about the safety of their loved ones and family. That's a little bit different than other diseases." Before each shift, Perez said, the staff on Tower 8 gets together to pray. Sometimes the group is led by a Jew, other times by a Christian, still others by a Muslim. The day's prayer comes from the leader's faith, but it is, of course, for all. "Every single morning, we pray together as a team, whether they're religious or not religious," she said. "We pray in Islam. We pray in the Christian faith. We pray in the Jewish faith. We include everybody, and we pray every single morning. As a team." About four thousand of violators were released in the UK, five thousand in France, more than four thousand in the US The British Department of Justice announced on Saturday a decision to release about 4,000 prisoners from their prisons to curb the spread of coronavirus, as The Hill reported. According to the British Ministry of Justice, low-risk offenders or pregnant prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes are eligible for release. Persons convicted of violent or sexual crimes, or for offenses related to coronavirus, including coughing for healthcare workers, or theft of protective equipment, will not be considered for release. According to officials, prisoners will be tracked through electronic controls. They should stay at home. There are more than 80,000 prisoners in Britain. 88 violators and 15 prison staff tested positive for COVID-19, at least three prisoners died from coronavirus. Prisons continue to operate, although more than a quarter of the staff are absent or isolated. France released 5,000 of its prisoners last week. In the United States on Tuesday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced its intention to release 3,500 prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes from state prisons. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also said earlier this week that 900 prisoners were released from prisons in his city to avoid the risk of a dangerous virus spreading. As we reported, the number of Ukrainians with coronavirus abroad has increased to 170 people. Kabul Gurdwara attack was masterminded in Pakistan by ISI-former Lashkar commander India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Apr 05: Mawlawi Abdullah alias Aslma Farooqi, the emir of the Islamic State Khorasan has been arrested in Afghanistan in connection with the Kabul. Gurdwara attack. It may be recalled that nearly 25 persons were killed in the attack. Farooqi, a former commander of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba had been roped in by the ISI to handle the Afghanistan wing of the ISIS. Following the attack, Indian agencies had said that this was a classic covert false flag operation by the ISI. While the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, investigations had found that operatives of several other terror groups were part of the operation. When the ISIS was setting up its modules in Afghanistan, the ISI provided a large number of operatives from its proxy outfits in a bid to aid the outfit. Kabul: The ISIS-ISI bonhomie was spoken about in this 2019 IB report Farooqi asked to take over the leadership of the ISI at the behest of the ISI. The ISI stepped in to aid the ISIS in Afghanistan for various reasons. For one attacks by the ISIS could take the heat away from the Taliban and the ISI itself. Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that the ISIS in Afghanistan has since day one been nurtured by the ISI. It has provided the outfit with logistics, men, women, arms and ammunition. The brief for the ISI was clear and that it should recruit as many from the sub-continent, the focus being largely on India. The ISIS has been successful in radicalising a large number of Indian Muslim youth and also taking them into its fold. Over 20 persons from Kerala alone have joined the ISIS in Afghanistan. Kabul attack: A classic false flag operation by the ISI The Indian intelligence says that in the Kabul attack, there is a clear ISI hand. It is not possible for the ISIS to carry out an attack of this magnitude without the help of an agency such as the ISI. The ISIS Khorasan is relatively new in the region and needs the support of agencies such as the ISI. Moreover if one looks at the composition of the ISIS Khorasan, there are operatives from various groups in it. There are operatives of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Taliban part of the outfit and each one is handpicked by the ISI. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 8:32 [IST] Topics related to social distancing and news from the Health Ministry are top topics that interest Vietnamese internet users amid the Covid-19 pandemic. "Social distancing" and related topics started to gain more popularity last month, after Vietnam confirmed the 17th Covid-19 patient on March 6 after going 22 days without new infections. Notably, the number of Vietnamese googling these keywords skyrocketed on March 31, a day before a nationwide social distancing campaign was implemented, Google said Friday. The social distancing campaign also sparked an increase in searches related to delivery services, online shopping and online learning. With many working from home and all eateries closed, the search tool was also deployed by many for information on electric devices and home appliances such as printers, computers, air fryers and cookers. Previously, the number of searches related to the Covid-19 virus and disease had topped on January 31 and decreased gradually before March and gone atop again on March 29. Masked Saigonese maintain some distance between each other while waiting to use a local ATM on March 31, 2020, a day before the national social distancing campaign. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. Google also revealed that at the beginning of the pandemic, many people were looked for information from the World Health Organization (WHO). However, most Vietnamese are now reading the news released by the Ministry of Health. The search engine has listed five most popular topics related to the pandemic in March among Vietnamese users: updated information about the disease; the number of infections in the country; symptoms; provinces recording infections; and the total number of infections. Around 64 million users, or over half the Vietnam's population, are online. As of Sunday morning, 240 Covid-19 infections have been confirmed in the country. BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5 Trend: The Armenian armed forces continue to make provocations on the state border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Azerbaijani State Border Service told Trend on April 5. The Armenian armed forces deployed near Berkaber village of Armenias Ijevan district intensively fired on the military and civilian vehicles by using heavy machine guns and sniper rifles on the main road leading to Abbasbayli, Farahli and Mazam villages of Azerbaijans Gazakh district on April 4 from 22:20 to 23:05 (GMT+4). For this reason, traffic along this main road was restricted. Armenias provocation was prevented. The combat positions of the Armenian armed forces were suppressed as a result of the return fire. The movement of vehicles was restored. 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.