Coronavirus in the US

Parent Cafe
11821

Public Health Wales has urged the country’s 440,000 smokers to quit now to reduce the risks from Covid-19 and said it has seen a sharp rise in the number of people asking for help to stop, reports Steve Morris.

It says smokers are more at risk from Covid-19 because they have weakened lung defences and more regular hand-to-mouth contact, giving more chances for picking up the virus. Many also have existing lung conditions caused by smoking.

According to Public Health Wales, hundreds of smokers have contacted the NHS Help Me Quit helpline since the outbreak began and in response more telephone support advisers have been drafted in.

Meanwhile, the website of the tobacco control campaign group ASH Wales has seen a 40% increase in visitors, mostly searching for online advice on how to quit.

Ashley Gould, a public health consultant at Public Health Wales, said: “Seven in 10 smokers in Wales say they would like to quit – there might never be a more important time than now to try harder than ever.

“We know that Covid-19 is mainly a respiratory disease and research on similar viruses shows tobacco smoke increases the risks of this type of infection, and how serious it can be.“

Suzanne Cass, the CEO of ASH Wales, said: “We know that giving up smoking can be incredibly tough but there really is no more important time to quit. The health benefits kick in within minutes of stubbing out that last cigarette and continue to grow with time.” CNBC

Senators to airlines CEOs: Give travelers cash refunds

Several U.S. senators urged airline CEOs on Tuesday to ensure customers are given full cash refunds of trips they cancel because of COVID-19.

Many U.S. airlines including United, Delta and American, are allowing travelers to cancel their tickets but they will receive a credit with the airline, instead of a refund. Congress last week approved $58 billion in aid, including payroll grants, for U.S. airlines in the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. “The ongoing pandemic is placing enormous financial strain on millions of Americans, and families need cash to pay for essentials such as food, housing, and medical care,” wrote Senators Edward Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Robert Casey, and Christopher Murphy to 11 U.S. airline CEOs.

Aircraft carrier captain pleads for help after more than 100 crew are infected with coronavirus

WASHINGTON — The captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that has more than 100 cases of coronavirus wrote a stunning plea for help to senior military officials.

In a four-page letter, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt described a disastrous situation unfolding aboard the warship, a temporary home to more than 4,000 crew members.

“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. “The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating.”

He proposed offloading the majority of the crew, quarantining those infected, testing others for the virus and professionally cleaning the ship. He explained in his letter that by keeping the crew on the vessel the Pentagon was taking “an unnecessary risk” that “breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

USNS Comfort arrives in Manhattan as makeshift hospitals come to NYC
The latest revelation of the coronavirus exposure aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is currently docked in Guam, follows a recently completed port call to Da Nang, Vietnam.

Fifteen days after leaving Vietnam, three sailors from the USS Roosevelt tested positive for the virus. The infections were the first reports of coronavirus on a vessel at sea.

Last week, Thomas Modly, the acting Navy secretary, told reporters at the Pentagon that the trio of sailors and those who had been in contact with the individuals were identified and quarantined.

And while port calls for U.S. Navy ships have since been canceled, Modly defended the decision to complete the port call by saying that at the time, the coronavirus cases in Vietnam were less than 100.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/coronavirus-infections-aircraft-carrier-captain-pleads-for-help.html

11822

Coronavirus expected to cripple US auto sales

Automakers are offering 0% financing, deferred payments and online tools in an attempt to salvage sales as the coronavirus pandemic cripples the auto industry.

Automakers this week are expected to report their worst sales declines in years.

J.D. Power expects auto sales to decline at least 32% in March compared with a year ago. Edmunds forecasts sales to fall 35.5% this month, capping an 11.8% decline in the first quarter. Cox Automotive, citing the “volatility of the U.S. economy,” decided not to provide a sales forecast.

March sales are expected to be the lowest in the U.S. since January 2014 and the lowest first quarter since 2012, according to Edmunds. (CNBC)

Portugal’s TAP to lay off 90% of staff

Portugal’s flag carrier TAP will temporarily lay off around 90% of its employees due to the growing coronavirus crisis that led to a fall in demand for travel, according to an email sent by the airline to staff on Tuesday and seen by Reuters.

From April 1 to at least May 4, TAP will only use its fleet to repatriate citizens, transport medical supplies and operate flights to the Portuguese islands of Azores and Madeira, the company said on the email.

All other flights will be suspended. —Reuters

Canada spending $1.4 billion for medical supplies
From CNN’s Paula Newton in Ottawa

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the challenge facing nearly every world leader right now, finding live-saving medical supplies that are dwindling around the globe.

“We know that the demand for critical equipment and supplies will grow in the coming weeks, so we need a sustainable, stable supply of these products,” Trudeau said during his daily press conference in Ottawa. "And that means making them at home and we’re optimistic that they will be available in the coming weeks.”
The Canadian government is spending $1.4 billion to “support diagnostic testing and to purchase ventilators and protective personal equipment, including for bulk purchases with provinces and territories.

Personal protective equipment includes things like more masks and face shields, gowns, and hand sanitizer.” said a written statement released to CNN.

Government officials characterized it as one of the most broad-based and aggressive procurement processes in Canadian history.

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Small business owners can apply for loans from $349 billion Payroll Protection Program starting Friday
From CNN’s Vivian Salama

Small business owners will be able to apply for loans to weather the economic downturn set off by Covid-19 on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning Friday as part of the newly-passed stimulus package.

The Payroll Protection Program aims to provide $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses, to help them maintain employee payroll, make rent or interest payments on their mortgages, pay utilities or cover other overhead costs, according to administration officials. Businesses are expected to receive their checks within three weeks of applying, administration officials said.

Borrowers will be charged 0.5% interest as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to offer funding to small businesses so they continue operating during the current slowdown, according to the Treasury Department.

The new legislation also provides a “generous” processing fee that’s paid by the government for facilitating these loans to incentivized banks and other lenders to issue the loans, administration officials said Tuesday.

Administration officials hope that the loans will help small businesses meet payroll and cover overhead, provide incentives for larger businesses to keep employees on the payroll, provide enhanced unemployment insurance for workers who are laid off and protect distressed industries that are critical for the country’s national and economic security.

All loan payments will be deferred for six months and receive a 100% guarantee from the Small Business Administration.

Planned Parenthood will comply with Indiana’s order to cancel all elective or non-urgent procedures, including abortions
From CNN’s Rob Frehse

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky said they would comply with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s executive order to postpone or cancel all elective or non-urgent procedures, including abortions, to conserve medical equipment.

Holcomb said Tuesday that he would leave it up to a doctor to determine if postponing or cancelling any of those procedures would cause harm to the patient.

“Any and all medical expertise and PPE first needs to go toward defeating Covid-19 in this window and the sooner the better for all of us,” he said.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky CEO Chris Charbonneau said they would comply with the governor’s directive but noted that their top priority is “ensuring that every person can continue accessing essential health care, including abortions.”

“As Hoosiers do their part during this COVID-19 pandemic, Planned Parenthood is doing our part to conserve needed resources and protect the health and safety of our patients and staff. Together, we’ll meet this challenge, no matter what,” Charbonneau said in a statement to CNN.

11824

That’s poppycock. Cuomo is focusing on the areas of greatest need at the moment. If you are talking about a politician who is pandering to his base to get re-elected, you are talking about a different politician.

11825

" I can’t wear it properly because my glasses fog up. Any suggestions? (Can’t wear contacts due to an unusually bad astigmatism.)"

I’ve read that glasses will keep you safer over contacts from viruses so at least you have that going for you. :slight_smile:

11826

Research (from the recent past but prior to Covid 19) on masks. Shows they can work.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/risa.13181

‘When 80% of the population deploys RPDs, an epidemic can be prevented with the use of many RPDs. The prevalence of infection, and cumulative incidence of infection, were essentially zero for all adult and children’s forms of protection considered, except the low‐filtration adult surgical mask. For the low‐protection adult surgical mask, the prevalence was reduced to about half of the no‐protection value (Fig. 1d), and the cumulative incidence rate asymptotes at roughly 90%.’

‘Hence the scenarios considered in this article were favorable to an epidemic in the absence of protection’

‘when the compliance rate reaches 50%, epidemic prevention or substantial reduction in the spread of epidemics begins to happen.’

'or example, the average (over all four barriers) cumulative incidence rate for the adult barriers is nearly 100% in the absence of protection, and about 35% with 50% compliance. ’

  1. CONCLUSION A risk assessment model previously developed in general form was used to estimate the effectiveness of different types of protective equipment in reducing the rate of infection in an influenza outbreak. It was found that a 50% compliance in donning the device resulted in a significant (at least 50% prevalence and 20% cumulative incidence) reduction in risk for fitted and unfitted N95 respirators, high‐filtration surgical masks, and both low‐filtration and high‐filtration pediatric masks. An 80% compliance rate essentially eliminated the influenza outbreak. The results of the present study, as well as the application of the model to related influenza scenarios, are potentially useful to public health officials in decisions involving resource allocation or education strategies.

Above article’s title and authors, etc.
Modeling the Effectiveness of Respiratory Protective Devices in Reducing Influenza Outbreak (published in Risk Analysis)

Jing Yan (Departments of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

Suvajyoti Guha (Division of Applied Mechanics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA)

Prasanna Hariharan (Division of Applied Mechanics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA)

Matthew Myers (Division of Applied Mechanics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA

Address correspondence to Matthew Myers, Division of Applied Mechanics, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, Building 62, Room 2231, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA; tel: 301‐796‐2525; fax: 301‐796‐9932;
E-mail address: matthew.myers@fda.hhs.gov)

First published:19 September 2018
https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13181

11827

Trump calls for $2 trillion infrastructure package

Four days after signing an unprecedented $2 trillion relief bill to blunt the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump called for the U.S. to spend another couple trillion bucks on a massive infrastructure package. In a tweet, he wrote that “this is the time” to craft an infrastructure overhaul with U.S. interest rates at zero during the crisis.

“It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4,” the president said, referencing the three pieces of emergency legislation lawmakers have already passed to combat the outbreak rampaging across the U.S. (CNBC)

Goldman gives staff 10 days paid family leave

Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is offering employees 10 days of paid family leave to care for children or elderly parents who are at home during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo sent to staff on Tuesday that was seen by Reuters.

Several banks have been extending extra paid time-off to employees, as the flu-like virus has shut down schools and forced many to stay at home. —Reuters

Pelosi and Khanna ask Trump administration to protect start-ups

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents a large part of Silicon Valley, are asking the Trump administration to protect start-ups as it carries out relief payments for small businesses under the CARES Act.

The California Democrats wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza Tuesday to warn that a narrow interpretation of the relief recipients could hurt Silicon Valley companies. They wrote that “an overly strict application” of an SBA rule could exclude many businesses from eligibility for the relief bill’s Paycheck Protection Program, which is meant to help cover costs for small businesses through the crisis.

Khanna explained on Twitter Saturday that even though most start-ups have fewer than 500 employees, the Small Business Administration may not view them as small businesses if they are venture-backed. That’s because the SBA considers all start-ups backed by the same venture capital firm as the same business. These criteria would bar many emerging and early-stage businesses from aid. (CNBC)

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4 ways the coronavirus rescue package pays small businesses to keep workers

The $2 trillion coronavirus relief law signed by President Donald Trump last week has several incentives for struggling businesses to retain their employees instead of laying them off.

Small business loans
Employee retention tax credit
Tax deferral
Unemployment

The financial help in the CARES Act includes forgivable loans for small businesses, tax credits and deferrals, and measures around unemployment. They come as employers are getting walloped by the economic fallout from COVID-19.Lamborghini starts production of surgical masks for hospital use
Lamborghini is converting departments of its super sports car production plant to make surgical masks and protective plexiglass shields, the company said. The luxury auto brand is donating these masks to the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna, Italy to help fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It hopes to produce 1,000 masks and 200 units of medical shields per day.

“During this emergency, we feel the need to make a concrete contribution. …We will win this battle together by working in union, supporting those who are at the forefront of fighting this pandemic every day,” said CEO Stefano Domenicali.

Sales of computer monitors and laptops are surging as we all work from home

Microsoft ‘might be the best tech stock in this market,’ Jim Cramer says
Coronavirus COVID-19 has kept us indoors and, as a result, there’s been a surge in sales of computer accessories like keyboards, mice, monitors and laptops, NPD said. People are outfitting their home offices, some with stipends from their companies.

The surge in PC peripheral sales are a bright spot for companies such as Dell, Samsung, HP, Lenovo and TPV, while the rise in laptop sales suggests the downturn might not be as bad as feared for the PC industry, including giants such as Microsoft and Intel, which have surged more than 18% and 25% respectively from lows in mid-March. Microsoft warned investors in February it would miss quarterly guidance for the segment including Windows because of supply chain interruptions, but said at that time that demand was “strong.”

NPD said computer monitor sales doubled in the first two weeks of March to 80,000 units. Sales of laptops, mice and keyboards all increased by 10%.

‘This is the right thing’ — PayPal is the latest company to take a no coronavirus-layoffs pledge

PayPal will not layoff any employees due to the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Dan Schulman said, making the digital payments provider the latest company to make such a pledge.

“We don’t intend to do any layoffs as a result of COVID-19,” Schulman said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “This is the right thing to step up, to make sure they know that we’ve got their back.”

“If they’re sick, we pay them. If an office closes, we pay them,” he added. “We really need to be sure that we have their health and their finances at heart as we deal with this crisis right now.”

Later on Tuesday, Marvell Technology CEO Matt Murphy also told CNBC the semiconductor provider has “no plans” to layoff employees because of the global pandemic.

CNBC

11829

I’m guessing this was already posted but I can’t keep up with all posts here and I"m just seeing it now.

Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html

‘First, many health experts, including the surgeon general of the United States, told the public simultaneously that masks weren’t necessary for protecting the general public and that health care workers needed the dwindling supply. This contradiction confuses an ordinary listener. How do these masks magically protect the wearers only and only if they work in a particular field?’

‘Second, there were attempts to bolster the first message, that ordinary people didn’t need masks, by telling people that masks, especially medical-grade respirator masks (such as the N95 masks), needed proper fitting and that ordinary people without such fitting wouldn’t benefit. This message was also deeply counterproductive. Many people also wash their hands wrong, but we don’t respond to that by telling them not to bother. Instead, we provide instructions;’

'Third, of course masks work — maybe not perfectly and not all to the same degree, but they provide some protection. Their use has always been advised as part of the standard response to being around infected people, especially for people who may be vulnerable. World Health Organization officials wear masks during their news briefings. ’

‘It is of course true that masks don’t work perfectly, that they don’t replace hand-washing and social distancing, and that they work better if they fit properly. And of course, surgical masks (the disposable type that surgeons wear) don’t filter out small viral particles the way medical-grade respirator masks rated N95 and above do. However, even surgical masks protect a bit more than not wearing masks at all. We know from flu research that mask-wearing can help decrease transmission rates along with frequent hand-washing and social-distancing. Now that we are facing a respirator mask shortage, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that surgical masks are “an acceptable alternative” for health care workers — again, obviously because some protection, even if imperfect, is better than none. In the face of this, publicly presenting an absolute answer — “You don’t need them” — for something that requires a qualified response just makes people trust authorities even less.’

'Fourth, the W.H.O. and the C.D.C. told the public to wear masks if they were sick. However, there is increasing evidence of asymptomatic transmission, especially through younger people who have milder cases and don’t know they are sick but are still infectious. Since the W.H.O. and the C.D.C. do say that masks lessen the chances that infected people will infect others, then everyone should use masks. ’

'Fifth, places like Hong Kong and Taiwan that jumped to action early with social distancing and universal mask wearing have the pandemic under much greater control, despite having significant travel from mainland China. ’

'Given that there is indeed a mask shortage and that medical workers absolutely do need these masks more, what should the authorities have said? The full painful truth. ’

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For those who are trying to understand what’s going on with the immune system in a Covid patient’s lungs, I thought this article in Science was accessible to non-scientists (like me). It also added to my hopes that we are figuring out this virus, and will conquer it: https://www.aaas.org/news/newly-described-cells-may-regulate-inflammation-viral-lung-infections

Quote from the article (Kamal Khanna is an associate professor of microbiology at NYU School of Medicine):

We know from their clinical studies that when the Chinese gave steroids (to calm the immune system) to Covid patients, it didn’t work, and in fact doubled death rates. DH thinks that could be because they gave the steroid too early, when the patient still needed their immune system to be ramped up to fight the virus. The problem comes when the immune system doesn’t properly regulate the response, and it goes overboard, damaging the body. Doctors are trying to figure out the right timing to give patients steroids, and other targeted immune inhibitors.

The researcher from the article, Khanna, studies a subset of white blood cells that reside in the lungs called NAMs. Another quote:

11831

I agree with the observation that Florida is not taking this pandemic as seriously as some of the northern states seem to be. It will definitely be interesting to see the final numbers as to fatalities. So far, there has been no real stress on the hospital system, and numbers of hospitalized (~500 iirc) and dead (~75) from coronavirus are very low for a state of Florida’s size.

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I think that the fact that hospitals are running out of room to put people and they are putting staging areas in Central Park and on ships is telling us that the numbers are already large and going to get worse. i don’t think the doctor in the article could be right that this isn’t a big deal because we see those things happening and those things are a big deal.

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How is your state or county doing on social distancing…

You can check it here:

https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard

11834

Trump says the federal government is holding back almost 10,000 ventilators
From CNN’s Matthew Hoye

President Trump said that there are almost 10,000 ventilators being “held back” from distribution because “the surge is coming.”

“We also are holding back quite a bit. We have almost 10,000 ventilators that we have ready to go. We have to hold them back, because the surge is coming and it’s coming pretty strong and we want to be able to immediately move it into place without going and taking it, so we’re ready to go," Trump said.

Trump previously said he thinks it would be difficult to get equipment back from states and redistributed once they have been issued to hospitals.

Louisiana pastor says church doors will be open on Sunday despite charges
From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch

Mark Anthony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, told CNN the doors to his church will be open on Sunday, despite charges Tuesday for violating the governor’s executive order.

Spell said that opening the church is no more risk than the hundreds of people going and shopping at stores.

When asked why he will not follow the governor’s mandate, Spell said: “We have a mandate from the word of the Lord to assemble together. The first amendment says that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the exercise of religion.”
Spell said that officers came to him today and read him his rights. They did not arrest him. He said he was asked to stop having services and he told them that he would not stop.

“We aren’t breaking any laws,” Spell said. “The doors to the church will be open on Sunday.”

People in the Italian city of Naples have been filling bread baskets with hot and cold food, and lowering them from their balconies for homeless people and those struggling during the nationwide lockdown.

The initiative started in one street, but has been copied by other residents in the city. Lucarriello, who filled a basket, said it was important to look after each other while people waited for state intervention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKm9e0P8H0&feature=emb_logo

Guardian

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Will have more data in a few months, by comparing expected mortality with actual mortality for each month of the year ( like the previous article was describing ). The excess mortality could be attributable to COVID.
There is a panic element to people’s reaction : a lot of them call for runny nose, cough. In a normal year, they would buy some NyQuil and call it a day, now they worry about ending intubated. The truth is, most of them don’t ( even from the diagnosed ones, which are the sickest ). My state tests the sick ones ( fever, shortness or breath ) and milder cases in healthcare workers.
Detroit has probably a large amount of infected asymptomatic/ mildly symptomatic cases that have been spreading maybe since January and what you see in the hospital are the bad cases.
Now, I have a question for all these governors : every week, I take a look in the pantry and see what i’m running low and needs to be replaced. Then I look at the soap, toilet paper, detergent, etc. Every 6 mo I ask the kids if they need new clothes, shoes, etc. Every year we plan ahead about the lifespan of each car and major appliances in the house, so that we can budget. That is called housekeeping. If we would run our household the way some of them run their states, we would end up wiping our… with leaves from the trees behind the house.

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Well, of course there is stress. It would be impossible and incredibly inefficient to set up a hospital system in advance that can handle something like this. As we can see from Europe, none of those countries appears to have such a system either.

Consider, however, that this ramp up in cases and death is simply the normal behavior of a highly infectious disease that affects some portion of the population. What percentage of the population is vulnerable, and what the fatality rate is among that group, are far from understood parameters.

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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/anthony-fauci-on-dealing-with-coronavirus-and-trump

Interview with Dr. Fauci in Vanity Fair.

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But it is happening in other places if you read the articles I’ve been posting about New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit and even places like rural Georgia. Their local resources are overwhelmed, they’re building overflow in outside locations and places like stadiums as well. They don’t have access to the same media attention, but it’s happening. Same thing with clearing hospitals - happening all over the country.

As for the assertion that NY’s hospitals are full so need help - so are the hospitals in many areas. Again, read the articles posted about how NY has chronically underfunded hospitals and by design has fewer ICU beds than most other places.

As for the idea that the rest of the country helps NY first and hope NY helps them later, NY’s attitude about how it handled testing - taking a disproportionate share of testing supplies and keeping all state testing capacity for itself - when this first started does not really inspire that sort of trust. When NY had most of the materials and capacity to test, where was this idea of do unto others or we’re all in this together? If it really isn’t an “us vs them” thing then testing would have been evenly distributed and proportional to population across the US so we’d know what’s happening.

Until testing is widespread across the US, we don’t know if one place has more infection than another. To have one state monopolize the testing materials and testing capacity, declare itself the “epicenter” then demand all the federal, shared resources is something we should all question, not respond to. If NY wants help, it should have offered to pitch in with the testing shortage. It started with the bad faith actions and now expects the rest of the country to ignore that when deciding where to allocate scarce national resources when the entire country is hurting (or will be soon)? Not reasonable.

If/when testing is widespread and allocated across the US population, then we should decide where to send the national help. That very well could be NY. Until testing is widespread, there’s no way to know.

11839

I think the fogging happens due to the moisture in exhaled breath, so if you could sew something that either blocked or diverted the breath outward so it couldn’t flow upward to fog the glasses, that would help. When I wear a full face cover and sunglasses, the sunglasses fog less if I roll the balaclava or suncover enough so the air doesn’t pass through as well or separates them a little to provide a break the air can escape through. So if your rolled terry would be thick enough to block or divert breath, that would help or try some other barrier.

11840

Almost 28% of coronavirus cases in Minnesota are healthcare workers
From CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian

­­­Out of the 629 cases of the novel coronavirus in Minnesota, 173 of them are health care workers, Minnesota Department of Health spokesperson Doug Schultz told CNN.

These numbers suggest that seven in 25 of those who tested positive for COVID-19 in Minnesota are healthcare workers.

Schultz pointed out that “our testing is focused on healthcare workers so the proportions are probably higher than otherwise would be.”

He also noted that not all healthcare workers contracted the virus from their workplace and that most of the positive cases are travel-related.

Trump warns of “very painful two weeks” ahead in US
From CNN’s Jason Hoffman

President Trump warned the nation that everyone will be facing a “very very rough two weeks” in the coronavirus pandemic.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks,” Trump said at the daily coronavirus task force briefing on Tuesday.

He says he hopes after that the country might see some “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Trump added: “And then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting, after having studied it so hard, we’re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel, but this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks."

UN chief: ‘COVID-19 worst crisis since WWII’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world faces the most challenging crisis since World War II, confronting a pandemic threatening people in every country, one that will bring a recession “that probably has no parallel in the recent past.”

There is also a risk that the combination of the disease and its economic impact will contribute to “enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict,” the UN chief said at the launch of a report on the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19.
(Al Jazeera)

Teenager dies in London after testing positive for coronavirus

A 13-year-old boy in London who tested positive for coronavirus has died, a UK hospital said.

“Sadly, a 13-year old boy who tested positive for COVID-19 has passed away, and our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this time,” King’s College Hospital said in a statement.

“The death has been referred to the coroner and no further comment will be made.” (Al Jazeera)