Your opinion. Others - including economists and doctors - have different opinions. And economic realities have changed a bit since the 14th century, so invoking the black plague is a bit of a moot point.
Louisiana governor just said that a 17 year old resident of New Orleans has died from COVID-19.
Source: Louisiana governor in a press conference, just televised on MSNBC.
South Florida doctor who tested positive for coronavirus has died
From CNN’s Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt
A doctor from South Florida who tested positive for coronavirus has died.
Dr. Alex Hsu, 67, died on Tuesday, according to the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office.
He had recently traveled to China and had complained of shortness of breath, nausea, diarrhea and cough, according to the medical examiner’s office records. Hsu was transferred to the ICU where he was placed on a ventilator.
Hsu’s positive result for Covid-19 was received Wednesday, documents from the medical examiner’s office show.
New Hampshire tells residents to stay home during outbreak
From CNN’s Sheena Jones
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has issued a stay-at-home order starting at midnight Friday. The order will last until the end of May.
Nonessential businesses are also expected to close by the end of the day Friday, he said at a news conference Thursday.
Sununu acknowledged that it was an “incredibly big ask.”
[ Other sources are citing through May 4th. ]
Canada says it is strongly opposed to the US putting troops on the border
From CNN’s Paula Newton in Ottawa
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that the US is requesting American troops be placed within 20 miles of the US-Canada border to help with border surveillance especially at irregular crossings. Trudeau indicated his government did not believe that was necessary at this time, but that talks were ongoing.
“Canada and the United States have the longest un-militarized border in the world and it is very much in both of our interests for it to remain that way. We have been in discussions with the United States on this,” Trudeau said during a news conference outside his Ottawa home where he remains in quarantine.
Later at a government news conference in Ottawa, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland revealed Canada had made its opposition known to many levels of the US government, including the Defense Department and US Homeland Security.
"Canada is strongly opposed to this US proposal and we’ve made that opposition very, very clear to our American counterparts,” she said. “We understand the concerns of our American neighbors and friends. What we have said is we really do not believe at all that there would be a public health justification for you to take this action.”
In blunt terms Freeland underscored that, in her opinion, this was not the way treat a trusted friend and military ally.
Some context: Canada borders 13 American states and before the Covid-19 crisis the two countries shared one of the most lucrative trading relationships in the world. Both countries jointly decided to close the border to nonessential traffic earlier this month. Essential commercial trade and traffic has continued with enhanced medical screening.
Hilton employees brace for more furloughs
From CNN’s Cristina Alesci
Hilton employees are bracing for the possibility of additional furloughs, two people familiar with the company’s plans said.
The company, which includes brands like Waldorf Astoria and Embassy Suites, has already begun furloughing employees at hotel properties it manages.
A new round of reductions, which is expected any day now, will hit the company’s corporate staff, according to two people familiar with the plans. It’s possible Hilton will find a way to avoid furloughs but it’s highly unlikely, said one of the people.
As members of the Trump administration continue to downplay Thursday’s unemployment claims number, business and labor groups, as well as employees who are facing the reality of losing their jobs, are coming forward to talk about the hardships ahead.
Earlier Thursday, the flight attendants union criticized Treasury Secretary’s Steven Mnuchin’s claim that the unemployment statistic is “not relevant.”
By the numbers: Hilton has 60,000 direct employees in the US but that figure includes workers at Hilton owned and managed properties. It’s unclear how many corporate employees the company has.
Coronavirus death toll in France climbs by more than 300 in 24 hours
From CNN’s Barbara Wojazer in Paris
At least 1,696 people in France have died after contracting coronavirus, France’s Director-General of Health Jérôme Salomon said Thursday.
The new total, which marks an increase of 365 in just 24 hours, went "against expectations,” Salomon added.
Speaking during a news briefing in Paris, Salomon said at least 29,155 people have tested positive for the virus.
According to Salomon, 3,375 patients are currently being treated in intensive care; of these cases, 34% are under the age of 60, he added.
Rhode Island is requiring anyone traveling from New York to self-quarantine
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo today said she is “mandating, not suggesting” a 14-day self-quarantine for anyone traveling to her state from New York.
The executive order – effective immediately - also applies to anyone who has traveled to New York in the last 14 days.
The governor said she plans to execute the mandate by stationing members of the National Guard at bus terminals and train stations and will require anyone arriving from New York to check in and provide their contact information.
State police have also been instructed to flag down cars with New York state license plates as they come into Rhode Island.
“This is unusual… this is radical,” the governor said of the plan to execute the mandate.
Raimondo said Rhode Island has added 33 cases of coronavirus since yesterday, bringing the state’s total to 165 cases.
17 detainees test positive for coronavirus in Illinois
From CNN’s Brad Parks and Melissa Alonso
Fifty detainees in Illinois have been tested for coronavirus after “exhibiting flu-like symptoms” at one of the largest jails in the country, according to a Cook County Sheriff’s Office statement.
According to the statement, of those detainees at Cook County Department of Corrections:
17 have tested positive
2 have tested negative
31 people have pending test results
Additionally, four correctional staffers and one deputy have tested positive, the statement said.
“The reasons for the high mortality rate during the black plague wasn’t just because of the disease. It was actually because the economy shut down and people starved. That’s why so many of the upper-class survived. If we don’t get the economy moving again, we won’t have money left for anything.”
@coolguy40 - Others have indicated the historians’ perspective that this was reversed.
But even if it were true - I don’t like your implication that “we” wouldn’t have any money while the “upper-class” would have money, and that this is somehow a rational outcome of disease/shutdown.
Nearly everyone posting on CC lives under some kind of representative democratic government with taxation, as opposed to a “let them eat cake” monarchy. And all of us live in 2020.
Finally, as a matter of historical fact, the Black Death led to the rise of the middle class and a great development of wealth to many more people than had had a monopoly on it before. Not to mention the Enlightenment and the Renaissance. (This was largely due to the unfortunate dearth of people which led to a much higher value put on human labor.)
Iowa announces more business closures through April 7
From CNN’s Shawn Nottingham
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the closure of many Iowa retail businesses, including book and clothing stores and restaurants and bars until April 7 at a news conference Thursday.
The new measures go into effect at 10 p.m. local time today. Reynolds also announced that nonessential medical procedures will also be suspended.
By the numbers: Iowa now has at least 179 cases of coronavirus, Reynolds said.
Illinois announces 673 more cases of coronavirus
From CNN’s Hollie Silverman
At least 673 new cases of novel coronavirus have been identified in the state of Illinois, state Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said during an afternoon press conference.
Of those new cases, 7 new deaths have been reported, Ezike said.
The state’s total cases is now at least 2,538, including 26 deaths, Ezike said.
Toyota will keep its North American plants closed until April 20
From CNN’s Alison Kosik
Toyota is extending the closure of all its North American automobile and components plants until April 20.
Toyota North America said Thursday in a statement it will continue to suspend production due to “the ongoing pandemic and decline in vehicle demand.” The company added that “service parts operations and finished vehicle centers will continue to operate to meet the needs of our customers.”
This is the third shutdown extension for Toyota. Originally, Toyota said it would reopen facilities on April 6.
Some context: Chrysler also announced Thursday it would keep its North American operations closed until April 14. Ford recently announced it would reopen plants on April 6.
Rio de Janeiro’s town hall is reportedly trying to convince elderly favela residents to abandon their homes and move into hotels in a bid to shield them from coronavirus.
The local newspaper O Globo reports that social workers have today been knocking on doors in Rocinha, one of Latin America’s largest favelas, and asking the elderly to move into temporary accommodation.
The town hall has reportedly rented 1,000 rooms in three hotels to house those people. They will not be able to receive visitors while there.
Rio’s densely populated redbrick favelas are home to about two million of the city’s seven million residents and often lack basic services such as sanitation and water. For that reason there are fears about the toll coronavirus could have on such areas. This week it emerged that gangs in some favelas had imposed curfews and were handing out soap in a bid to stop its spread. Favela activists are also promoting donation and awareness campaigns.
More coverage of Trump wanting to militarize the borders:
Prime minister Justin Trudeau says he is in talks with the White House to prevent what would be an unprecedented presence of troops on the US-Canada border.
“Canada and the United States have the longest un-militarised border in the world and it is very much in both of our interests for it to remain that way,” said Trudeau during his daily briefing on Thursday.
Plans to militarise the border—first reported by Global News— appears intended to target illegal border crossers from Canada who may be infected with the coronavirus. The concern is puzzling, however, given the dramatically higher rates of infection of the Covid-19 in the United States than in Canada.
New York state, which borders Canada, has more than 30,000 confirmed cases of the virus—nearly ten times the total of Canada.
Increasingly, a number of cases in Canada are coming from the United States, where many Canadians vacationed for spring break.
Both countries temporarily closed their 5,500 mile border to any non-essential travel last week in wake of the coronavirus outbreak, but have pledged to keep supply chains intact.
Bruce Heyman, a former US ambassador to Canada, condemned the proposal, calling it a “misuse of resources” on Twitter.
“So much needs to get done in protecting our health care workers, getting test kits and PPE, ramping up hospital beds and equipment. This would be a very dangerous and inappropriate use of US Troops,” he wrote.
Guardian
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has exempted churches from coronavirus lockdowns by classifying religious activity as an essential service, heeding requests from evangelical leaders.
Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist elected with massive support from evangelical voters in 2018 because of his conservative social views, has said publicly that churches should remain open because they are “the last shelter” for many people.
His executive decree, published in the official gazette on Thursday, contradicts measures taken by state governors and city mayors to ban religious assemblies.
Evangelical leaders welcomed the presidential decree as upholding the constitutional right of Brazilians to freedom of religion, which they said no governor or mayor could overrule.
“In this pandemic of panic, no hospital can calm people down, but religion can,” said Silas Malafaia, the leader of one of Brazil’s largest pentecostal churches, the Assembly of God, and a staunch backer of Bolsonaro from his pulpit.
Last week, Malafaia went to court over his plans to keep the church open, despite warnings that large gatherings will help spread the coronavirus.
Confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil have quadrupled in less than a week to 2,433, according to health ministry data released on Wednesday, with 57 deaths.
Doctors in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have gone on strike over a lack of protective gear guarding against coronavirus, joining thousands of nurses who walked out of the wards this week, their association said Thursday.
Tapiwa Mungofa, treasurer of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), told reporters in Harare most of the doctors across the country’s government hospitals were not at work.
Some 15,000 hospital nurses downed tools on Wednesday over a lack of protective gear and water shortages.
Fashion brand Armani will start making single use medical overalls for hospital workers at all four of its Italian factories.
The group - whose brands include Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani - said they would be used for “the individual protection of healthcare workers engaged in the fight against the Coronavirus disease.”
Founder Giorgio Armani has donated 2 million euros in recent weeks to hospitals around Italy, including Bergamo and Piacenza in the hard-hit north, the company said.
UK sees biggest daily rise in deaths
The number of people who have died from coronavirus in UK hospitals has risen by 115 in a single day to 578, as of 5pm on Thursday. It is the biggest daily rise in deaths across the country since the outbreak began.
As of 9am on Thursday, 11,658 out of 104,866 people who have been tested for the virus were confirmed as positive cases.
The online rentals platform Airbnb announced on Thursday that it wants to expand globally a scheme currently running in France and Italy to provide free accommodation to medical professionals.
The company said it aimed to pair 100,000 healthcare professionals and first responders with hosts willing to provide their rental apartments for free use, and would waive all the fees it usually takes for bookings.
Fabio Calarco, the president of an association of Italian rental apartment hosts that is already running a programme together with Airbnb in Italy, said so far around 650 doctors had applied for the scheme.
“It’s really important right now to support those who are on the frontlines to save lives,” he said. He said the doctors and nurses involved were often those who had been posted to hospitals far from their homes.
People in tourist hotspots where many rental apartments are now sitting empty have already set up their own schemes to help doctors. Nora Balogh, who owns a short-term rental apartment in Budapest’s central sixth district, handed it over to a doctor who is a family friend and wanted to stay away from his family so as not to expose them if he got infected with coronavirus.
She realised there was demand, and set up a Facebook group to match apartments near hospitals to medical staff who need them. Currently, she has placed 48 doctors and nurses in apartments.
“At the beginning I was only getting two messages a day but today I received more than 20,” she said.
Ireland has found a readymade force in the fight against coronavirus: the postal service.
Postmen and postwomen have volunteered to check in on elderly and vulnerable people during their rounds, a potentially invaluable safeguard while such groups cocoon.
The employees suggested it to the Communications Workers’ Union which punted the idea to management and the government, who gladly accepted.
Postal workers are known and trusted by the people they serve, David McRedmond, the CEO of An Post, the Irish postal service, told a news conference.
“They’re going with a set of questions. Do they need food? Do they need pharmacy? Do they need to send out messages? And the postman or postwoman will take that back and we will look after that and make sure that gets fulfilled.”
An Post will take parcels and letters from vulnerable categories of people and deliver them for free. It will also deliver millions of blank postcards so those self-isolating at home can write to friends and relatives.
To combat misinformation the government has published a booklet on coronavirus that will be sent to 2.2m households nationwide.
“There is a sense of national pride at the moment which is fantastic,” said the health minister, Simon Harris.
“Something weird is happening, everyone pulling together, everywhere. Look at the postmen and postwomen, calling in to check on vulnerable people on their rounds. They suggested this themselves. They approached their union and said they wanted to do this for free. Isn’t that just brilliant?”
Guardian
‘No Canadian’ trends after Donald Trump floats idea of U.S. troops at border during COVID-19 pandemic
Oh as a historian, everything about this just hurt my soul.
This isn’t the Middle Ages and we don’t live in a feudal system.
I have a lot more to say but none of it will be productive so I’m just going to let it go.
Thank you blue… I won’t yell anymore (she says meekly but with a smile)
No it wasn’t, around 60% of the population died within weeks and months, and the upper class didn’t survive any better. The economy had been down for years because of bad weather and bad harvests, and the year after the plague had swept through a region, wages and food availability soared, simply because the were fewer than half of the people around to work and eat.
Things are getting stricter. "Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that he will order air travelers from COVID-19 hot spots to self-quarantine upon arrival in Texas.
The mandatory quarantine of 14 days or the length of a person’s stay in Texas, whichever is shorter, will apply to anybody flying into Texas from airports in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut or New Orleans, Abbott said."
I have been playing Words with Friends for years with a wonderful woman in the UK. We chat regularly. She just chatted " Just had an across the country clap, standing on our doorsteps in appreciation of our NHS staff. It was quite moving. "
I had tears in my eyes reading this.
This is the stuff that just gets written and consumed then amplified as if accurate. It’s bs.
Every single person said that the numbers are severe and terrible. Hence the 6 trillion dollar stimulus and fed liquidity. Plus, the rhetoric around trying to unlock parts of the country in some weeks if the data allows, is clearly in response to a potentially devastated economy.
The only thing I heard all day for the administration were that claims were “expected“
“As members of the Trump administration continue to downplay Thursday’s unemployment claims number, business and labor groups, as well as employees who are facing the reality of losing their jobs, are coming forward to talk about the hardships ahead.”
I can’t post the link but from the Guardian
People across the UK have taken part in a mass round of applause for the frontline NHS heroes who are risking their own lives battling the coronavirus pandemic.
The Clap For Carers initiative saw residents applauding from their doorsteps, windows and balconies at 8pm, with some venturing into the streets, and motorists joining in by tooting their horns. Others set off fireworks.
Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak took part in the applause while standing outside 10 Downing Street.
Meanwhile notable buildings were lit up in blue for the salute as part of the lightitblue campaign which has been organised by members of the events and entertainment industry as a way to say thank you.
I left a note for my mailman thanking him for working, explaining that the packages to go out were homemade mask donations for hcw and offering him one. Totally coincidentally, my incoming mail was left in the right place for the first time in ten years hahaha
"Louisiana governor just said that a 17 year old resident of New Orleans has died from COVID-19.
Not enough information. I can give you a few case scenarios : severe sickle cell, insulin dependent diabetes, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, etc.
I have a constitutional question. While I understand why governors would want to require people from NY/NJ and other hotspots to enter quarantine, can they actually do so legally?
Regulating affairs between states is generally the purview of the federal government, no?
There’re now already more confirmed coronavirus cases (82,174) in US than in any other country.