From the same article:
When the stranded cruise ship passengers on the Diamond Princess were repatriated the government held them in a separate quarantine facility. Since then everyone else just waltzes home with relatively no checks and is just told self-isolate for 2 weeks. At this rate this is never going to be over.
Taiwan’s response was featured on PBS a day or two ago. They have more control over the spread of the virus due to several things:
Actual immigrant here, from Russia. There are some people in the Russian immigrant community who miss Russia and some who returned to Russia (often for economic opportunities), but there are lots who have nightmares about being there and not being able to leave. Sure, I miss the friends of my youth. Many of them live all around the globe now anyway. Incidentally, if someone mention Russia as being my “home” now, it sounds offensive to me. My home has been here for decades. It may be very different, of course, for very recent immigrants or seasonal workers, but please do not generalize.
More on Wisconsin’s primary: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/wisconsin-primary-april-7-coronavirus/index.html
Who’s generalizing? I’m sharing my experiences and specifically stated so. Not once did I use “all” or “never” or similar. I’m glad you’re happy here. I’m glad I’m happy where I’ve chosen to live in the US which is hours away from where I grew up.
In my ideal world there would be loose borders and everyone could choose to live where they were they liked vs where the birth lottery put them. Humans have different preferences in gov’t, geology/geography, weather, and probably a hundred other things. Why force anyone to stay where they don’t want to stay just because another human says they must?
Look at what’s happening in NYC and you can imagine. The hardest hit areas are some of, if not the poorest neighborhoods in NYC, where scores of people cram together in small apartments. Those very sick people are the ones crowding NYC emergency rooms and dying. What happens when this hits crowded areas with poverty – you get the level of infections, hospitalizations and deaths that we’re seeing right now in NY. I would think the same statement can be made about Detroit and New Orleans.
What’s worse is when this hits third world countries in Africa, with minimal health systems.
One county in China locks down after three new asymptomatic virus cases
In a sign of how fragile China’s recovery from the coronavirus’ spread is, one region has ordered a lockdown after the emergence of new cases.
Jia county in Henan province — just north of the Chinese epicenter of the virus, Hubei province — has been locked down after local authorities confirmed three doctors, who showed no symptoms, had tested positive for the disease on Tuesday, according to state-owned online news outlet The Paper.
All public transport has been halted, and residential compounds must launch strict quarantine monitoring, according to an online statement from the Jia county government. China’s National Health Commission announced Thursday that all levels of authorities must report asymptomatic cases within two hours and complete an epidemiological investigation within 24 hours, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The report added that those who test positive for the virus must remain in quarantine until they test negative twice.
European Commission chief says next EU budget must resemble ‘Marshall Plan’ for the region
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the next European Union budget should take the form of a ‘Marshall Plan,’ Reuters reported Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference, she said the bloc must find “quick answers” in order to fast-track the region’s economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
The Marshall Plan was a U.S. initiative designed to help resuscitate the European economy after World War II.
China defends its coronavirus data after report says US intelligence doubted numbers
China denied that it hid the true number of its people who have been infected and killed by the coronavirus outbreak, decrying accusations of concealment as a “despicable attempt to put political interests above human life.”
The blistering statement came a day after Bloomberg, citing three U.S. officials, reported that a classified U.S. intelligence report concluded that China’s public tally of COVID-19 infections and deaths is purposefully incomplete.
In a statement to CNBC, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said that Beijing “has fully honored its obligation of notification prescribed by the International Health Regulations, and has been updating the statistics of its confirmed and death cases in an open, transparent and responsible manner.” —Kevin Breuninger
FDA eases blood donation restrictions to address blood supply shortage
The FDA revised guidelines to make it easier for some people to donate blood who were previously restricted.
The revised guidelines lift blood donation restrictions on those who have recently gotten tattoos and piercings, as well as sex workers and injection drug users. People will be able to donate blood three months after getting a new tattoo or piercing rather than one year. Sex workers and injection drug users were previously not allowed to give blood, but can now do so after refraining from sex work or injection drug use for three months.
Gay men will now be able to give blood if they refrain from sexual contact with another man for three months instead of one year.
These changes may be able to address issues with the blood supply in the U.S., according to the FDA. “As a result of this public health emergency, there is a significant shortage in the supply of blood in the United States,” the FDA said in the revised guidelines.
[ Yikes. ]
Chanos says gig economy companies like Uber will emerge from coronavirus crisis ‘harmed’
Billionaire investor Jim Chanos: Coronavirus pandemic is going to hurt the gig economy
The coronavirus pandemic may not be the boon for gig economy companies that some believe it will be, Kynikos Associates Founder Jim Chanos said on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”
“I think the gig economy companies are going to come out of this harmed, not enhanced,” said the billionaire investor and famous short seller. “I know there’s a body of thought that oh, well everybody will just do food delivery and we’ll all take Ubers and no one is going to buy a car again and I think the flip side of it is that the labor pool issue for the gig economy companies is going to loom very very large coming out of this crisis.”
Chanos said the unemployment benefits being paid to gig economy workers, as outlined in the $2 trillion relief bill, could highlight certain issues with the models of companies like Uber, Lyft and GrubHub. Because these companies classify drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees, the companies have avoided paying into unemployment programs the way a traditional employer would, meaning the payments fall on taxpayers.
Walgreens sees surge of sales in first part of March before dropoff as lockdown orders went into effect across the US
Walgreens Boots Alliance Global Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe said the company saw a surge in sales in the first part of March and then a noticeable drop as lockdowns took effect. He said the company cannot reliably forecast the impact of COVID-19.
Walgreens executives dialed in from different locations to report fiscal second-quarter earnings as they hunkered down and socially distanced from one another.
The international drugstore chain offered clues about how retailers still open during the pandemic may fare. Walgreens leaders described the complexities of predicting business trends, as customer patterns shift rapidly during a global crisis. For example, they said, some customers bought many months of prescriptions. On the other hand, heavily trafficked stores like those on the Las Vegas Strip have been hit hard by closed casinos, restaurants and nearby businesses.
Amazon blocks sale of N95 masks to the public, begins offering supplies to hospitals
Amazon is no longer offering N95 masks to the general public, as it prioritizes the delivery of essential supplies to hospitals, government agencies and other groups amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier this week, the company rolled out a new section of its website dedicated to COVID-19 related supplies. There, any U.S.-accredited hospital or state or federal agency can fill out a form to access necessary items like N95 masks, surgical masks, facial shields, surgical gowns, surgical gloves and large-volume sanitizers. News of the website was first reported by Vox.
The site states it is not accepting requests from the general public, noting: “We are not accepting requests from individuals or non-qualified organizations at this time.” Amazon also noted it will not make a profit from the orders. —Annie Palmer
CNBC
Even with 6.6 million more workers seeking unemployment, millions more still need to file
The 6.6 million claims workers filed for unemployment benefits last week is not expected to be an accurate reflection of the real number of Americans who found themselves suddenly out of work.
The number is expected to continue to grow by millions this month.
Weekly jobless claims for the week ending March 28, was double the already shocking 3.3 million record filings of the week earlier. It also is well above the 3.1 million consensus forecast of economists, which had become irrelevant by Wednesday, as a number of major firms put out estimates that were closer to 5 million.
Chime pilots way to get $1,200 stimulus checks to users instantly after talks with Mark Cuban
Chime, the biggest U.S. digital bank start-up, is piloting a way for its users to receive their federal $1,200 stimulus checks instantly, weeks before the government is expected to send the payments.
The San Francisco-based company said it randomly picked 1,000 of its customers to get the payments Thursday using a feature called SpotMe that typically allows members to go negative in their accounts without incurring fees.
Since the bank is using its own capital to front the money until the government makes those payments, part of the historic $2 trillion coronavirus relief package signed into law last week, it is taking on some risk, according to CEO Chris Britt. If he gets reassurance from the government that Chime users can’t redirect stimulus payments to other bank accounts, he plans on expanding it to more of the bank’s 8 million users, he said.
Small landlords struggle as renters either can’t or choose not to pay amid coronavirus layoffs
As job losses climb into the millions due to the coronavirus pandemic, laid-off workers increasingly can’t make the rent. That’s also bad news for small landlords.
Unlike large real estate companies and REITs that own multiple rental buildings, small, so-called “mom and pop” landlords have neither the cash nor the credit availability to cover their costs when the rent runs out.
There are about 8 million individual landlords in the United States, meaning those who typically own between one and 10 properties. They own and manage half the rental properties in the nation and house about 48 million renters, according to Avail, a software company that sells them the type of online rental platforms used by larger landlords.
[ I know there are CC posters who are landlords. What has your experience been? Or is it too early still to see the impact? ]
Dallas Fed president: Expect a severe economic contraction in the second quarter
U.S. unemployment will peak in the “low- to mid-teens” before falling to about 8% by the end of 2020, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said Thursday.
From there, the recovery likely will be more U-shaped as consumers struggle to recover from an economic near-stoppage brought on by efforts to contain the coronavirus, the central bank official said during a “Squawk on the Street” interview. Kaplan said he anticipates a “severe contraction” in the second quarter spilling into the third quarter before a recovery begins.
“The issue is, what’s the strength of the rebound?” he said. After unemployment peaks, Kapan said he sees it slipping “below 10%, probably closer to 8%.” —Jeff Cox
Trump administration awards $25 billion in emergency transit funding
The U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced it was allocating $25 billion in emergency funding grants to public transportation systems to address a massive falloff in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The funds, including $5.4 billion to the New York City area, were approved by Congress last week and transit systems should start receiving payments in the coming weeks.
CNBC
New York Gov. Cuomo says coronavirus outbreak in Long Island is ‘troubling’ as state cases surge to 92,381
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a coronavirus outbreak in Long Island is “troubling” as the infection has now spread to every county across the state, surging to 92,381.
“You look to see in Nassau County 1,000 new cases, Suffolk County 1,141 new cases. That is troubling news,” Cuomo said Thursday at a press conference in Albany, referring to the two counties that comprise Long Island. Suffolk County is home to the Hamptons, the wealthy playground for Manhattan’s rich.
Cuomo said the COVID-19 outbreak isn’t just hitting urban areas. The coronavirus has spread to Parts of upstate New York have more cows than people. New York state, don’t think of just New York City. Upstate New York is a rural community and you see that is not just urban areas, it’s suburban areas that’s Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk. … In many ways New York state is a microcosm of the United States”
Google relaxes its broad ban on ads that mention coronavirus
Google is relaxing its policy on some ads related to COVID-19 after originally blocking all ads related to the pandemic.
Under its “sensitive events policy,” Google said it started blocking ads related to coronavirus in January. That policy was designed to block ads attempting to capitalize on shorter-term events like natural disasters, but as the pandemic continues as a major issue, the company said it’s adjusting enforcement “to ensure that we are protecting users while prioritizing critical information.”
The policy change comes as analysts believe Google is set to take a significant hit in ad revenue as the online advertising space slows down. Axios first reported the news Thursday.
Another record-breaking spike in U.S. jobless claims hit Americans across the country, but varied in impact by state as each governor takes a different tact in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Claims for state unemployment benefits were most concentrated in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington state and Massachusetts with claims of 73, 62, 50, 47 and 47 per 1,000 workers, respectively. The data is for jobless filings through the end of last week.
DOJ and HHS partner to distribute medical supplies confiscated from price gougers
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services plan to distribute more than half a million of personal protective equipment, or PPE, including approximately 192,000 N95 respirator masks, to health care workers in New York and New Jersey fighting the coronavirus, HHS said in a press release.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation confiscated the supplies during an enforcement operation by the DOJ’s COVID-19 hoarding and price gouging task force on March 30. In addition to the N95 respirator masks, the supplies found included 598,000 medical grade gloves and 130,000 surgical masks, procedure masks, N100 masks, surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitizer, and bottles of spray disinfectant, the release said.
HHS said it will pay the owner of the hoarded PPE pre-coronavirus fair market value for the supplies.
[ Does this stuff get tested to ensure quality? ]
CNBC
NYS update:
92,381 positive cases, up by 8,669
18,031 tests run yesterday (48% positive)
The current NYS ventilator stock pile may run out in as few as 6 days.
After that the following will be used:
Last night 600 ventilators were distributed to NYC (400), Long Island and Westchester (200 total)
13,383 currently hospitalized people
1,152 newly hospitalized people [pretty stable over the last few days]
3,396 current ICU patients
374 new ICU patients [pretty stable over the last few days]
313 new intubations
discharged 7,434 patients (+1,292) 
2,373 deaths (+432) 
number of cases per county/NYC
NYC 52K (+4.3K)
Westchester 11.6K (+0.9K)
Nassau 10,6K (+1K)
Suffolk 8.7K (+1.1K)
Rockland 3.8K (+0.4K)
Orange 2K (+0.2K)
Grubhub gives independent restaurants $250 to help drive delivery sales
Grubhub is giving independent restaurants and regional chain franchises $250 each to offer customers a promotion of $10 off any order of at least $30. Grubhub said that participating restaurants have seen sales spike 30%, compared with those who are not offering the promotion.The third-party delivery provider plans to spend almost $30 million through April on the program. Grubhub reported revenue of $1.3 billion in 2019.
Amazon will start taking workers’ temperatures and provide face masks after public outcry
Amazon is taking greater steps to protect warehouse workers following weeks of public outcry.
In a blog post, Dave Clark, who runs Amazon’s retail operations, said the company will start taking employees’ temperatures when they report to work and supply them with face masks.
Temperature checks began last Sunday at select sites in the U.S. and will now begin to roll out to Amazon’s entire operations network and footprint of Whole Foods Stores in the U.S. and Europe by early next week, Clark said. Anyone who registers a fever over 100.4 will be told to go home and will only be allowed to return after they’ve gone three days without a fever, he added.
[ I’ve seen other screens using temps of 99.5. ]
Ex-FDA chief warns ‘parts of our lives’ will stay shut down without a coronavirus drug by fall
The coronavirus will continue to disrupt daily life in the fall unless there is an effective drug to treat it, said former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
“If we don’t have it, this virus is going to come back in the fall and it’s going to continue to shut down parts of our lives,” Gottlieb said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“This is going to circulate in the background. The consumer is not going to bounce back. People are going to be afraid to go out and we’re going to continue to see people succumb to this virus,” he added.
Gottlieb said the sense of “urgency” being applied to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine needs to be applied to developing a therapeutic.
San Diego hospital prepares for ‘slow-moving tsunami’ of coronavirus cases
San Diego-based hospital system Scripps Health is preparing for coronavirus cases in the city to “spike” in what CEO Chris Van Gorder describes as a “slow-moving tsunami” — even as it is already running out of surgical masks and doctors prepare to convert anesthesia machines into ventilators in a pinch.
“We know it’s coming,” he continued. “We can actually see it. We’ve got the early stages of it already coming ashore. You can see that with the positive patients we have in our hospital. But we don’t know how big that tsunami is actually going to be.”
Scripps Health operates five hospitals with 1,453 beds, 28 outpatient centers and treats roughly 600,000 patients each year. As of Monday, it had processed 4,822 coronavirus tests, identifying 217 COVID-19 patients, Van Gorder said. They had just nine coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit and five of them were using ventilators as of last week, he said.
CNBC
Pennsylvania is reporting more than 1,200 new coronavirus cases today
From CNN’s Daniel Shepherd
Pennsylvania is reporting 1,211 new cases today of novel coronavirus, according to Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine.
There have been 90 coronavirus related deaths in the state and all are adults, Levine said.
So far, 730 people have been hospitalized since March 6 and 216 of those hospitalized needed intensive care, according to Levine.
She added that 345 of the state’s cases are healthcare workers.
According to Levine, 10% of the 695 nursing homes in Pennsylvania currently have at least one case of Covid-19.
[ That’s over 7K cases in total. ]
There are now at least 2,900 cases of coronavirus in Ohio
From CNN’s Hollie Silverman
As of Thursday afternoon, there are 2,902 cases of coronavirus and 81 deaths in the state, Dr. Amy Acton, Director of the Ohio Department of Health, said during a news conference.
Acton said that social distancing is making a difference in the case counts.
The peak for the state is expected between April 15 and May 15, Acton said.
More than 468,000 people in Ohio applied for unemployment in the last two weeks
From CNN’s Hollie Silverman
There are 468,414 people in Ohio who have applied for unemployment in the last two weeks, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said during a press conference Thursday.
That figure represents 100,000 more people that have applied in the first three months of 2020 than the total of people who applied in 2019, Husted said. In 2019, there were 364,603 jobless claims statewide.
The state has created a job search website on their coronavirus website to help people find jobs.
Additionally, the state has expanded staffing and hours to continue to process unemployment applications, Husted said.
Ohio extends stay-at-home order until next month
The state of Ohio has extended its stay-at-home order for all non essential workers and businesses until May 1, Gov. Mike DeWine said during a news conference.
The previous order was set to expire on Monday, DeWine said.
Anyone coming into the state has been asked to quarantine for 14 days. Exceptions can be made based on locations and work schedules, according to DeWine.
Additional provisions in the new order include a dispute resolution panel, stores establishing new occupancy numbers to account for social distancing and stores creating lines for social distancing, DeWine said.
The dispute resolution panel is for cases where similar businesses are being treated differently in different health districts. There are 113 health districts in the state, DeWine said.
The state will not be regulating weddings or funerals and will be leaving “it up to people’s good judgment,” DeWine said. Receptions have to follow rules, not more than 10 people coming together.
State parks will remain open — but they could be closed if people don’t stick to social distancing guidelines, DeWine said.
CNBC
Has this been posted?
Disaster in motion: 3.4 million travelers poured into US as coronavirus pandemic erupted
Travel data of passengers arriving in the United States from China during the critical period in December, January and February, when the disease took hold in that country, shows a stunning 759,493 people entered the U.S.
“This is an astonishing number in a short period of time, illustrating how globalized our world has become. Just as people can hop continents with amazing ease, the infections they carry can too,” said Dr. Vinayak Kumar, an internal medicine resident at the Mayo Clinic and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
Those travelers from China included more than 228,000 Americans returning home and hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals arriving for business, academics, tourism or to visit family.
While the majority of the travelers likely went to major population centers like New York, Seattle or Los Angeles, with so many arriving, any of the hundreds of thousands could have gone anywhere in the U.S.
President Donald Trump restricted travel from China effective Feb. 2, which likely saved lives. But by the time the president acted, much of the damage had already been unleashed, and some 18,000 Americans returned home from China in February and March, after the restrictions were in place. It’s unclear how intensive, if at all, the screening was for the Americans coming home at that point.
“The United States banned travel to China 12 days after the world heard there was an outbreak of severe pneumonia in Wuhan. … The problem was, it was too late,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, chief of Infectious Disease at South Shore Health and an ABC News Consultant. “Even though there had only been 12 confirmed cases in the U.S. on the day President Trump announces the travel ban, the reality was there were many more unconfirmed cases.”
ABC News examined data from December, January and February on travelers entering the U.S. from eight of the hardest-hit countries: 343,402 arrived from Italy, 418,848 from Spain and about 1.9 million more came from Britain.
Combined with those from China, that’s more than 3.4 million people from just four countries – nearly half, about 1.5 million, Americans returning home. Travel from Italy and Spain wasn’t shut down until March 13, with U.K. arrivals restricted a few days later.
“There was a lack of recognition that a coronavirus emerging in a market in Wuhan could be at our door in a matter of months. Now that it’s hitting the U.S., for the first time really, people are aware of the interconnection and risk.”
Wildes said, bottom line, it’s all about cooperation: “We should realize that we are all in this together. We are all at risk of being exposed to the virus, so let us fight together so we all can be healthy together.”
Also, the started producing masks and made sure the cost stayed extremely cheap and made sure all citizens have and wear them.
Taiwan also had a lot of testing up and running very fast.
This thread is going way too fast for me to keep up, so I don’t know whether this latest news has already been covered here or not, but this is quite a serious finding regarding how the virus can be transmitted:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/health/aerosol-coronavirus-spread-white-house-letter/index.html
"A prestigious scientific panel told the White House Wednesday night that research shows coronavirus can be spread not just by sneezes or coughs, but also just by talking, or possibly even just breathing.
“While the current [coronavirus] specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing,” according to the letter, written by Dr. Harvey Fineberg, chairman of a committee with the National Academy of Sciences."
I’d have to extrapolate that second-hand smoking is even worse.
UK considers “immunity certificates” for those who have recovered from coronavirus
From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio and Sarah Dean
The United Kingdom is “looking at” the idea of an “immunity certificate” — or passport — for people who have had coronavirus and have got the antibodies, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Thursday.
People with the passports would be able to show them “and get as much as possible back to normal life," he said.
Asked if an immunity passport is a possible way out of the lockdown, Hancock said: “That is an important thing that we will be doing, that we are looking at.”
However, he cautioned: “It’s too early in that science to be able to put clarity around that. I wish that we could but the reason that we can’t is because the science isn’t yet advanced enough.”
Hancock said the “number one thing people can do to get out of this as fast as possible” is to stay at home and follow social distancing measures.
It wasn’t intensive or extensive at all. Policies without teeth.
CNBC
A problem with BCG (TB vax) is that produces positive TB skin tests in the future. The current US policy is that if you test positive (even with documentation of BCG) still you need to take 9 months of antibiotics because it is not sure if the positive comes from the vax or exposure.
Michigan reports more than 1,400 new coronavirus cases
Michigan has 1,457 new coronavirus cases and 80 new deaths, according to the state’s website.
There are now 10,791 total cases in the state.
So far, 417 people have died from coronavirus in Michigan.
Arkansas governor defends decision to not issue stay-at-home order for state
From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch
Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended his decision not to issue a stay-at-home order for the state of Arkansas this afternoon during a press conference.
Hutchinson said that the aggressive measures that he has taken — including closing schools, closing restaurants and bars (except for delivery or takeout), closing salons, barbershops, massage parlors, movie theaters, bowling alleys — have helped curb the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
“So the strategy of a targeted response to this emergency virus situation Arkansas is proven to be successful in bending the curve, lowering the apex of the curve and reducing the number of cases and hospitalizations in Arkansas,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said if he was to issue a stay-at-home order, it would put a 100,000 people or more out of jobs.
Arkansas has 624 confirmed coronavirus cases and 10 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.
[ According to Covidtracking.com, Arkansas has tested around 8,460 people. ]
CNBC
For those people who suggest that the coronavirus is an overreaction and that flu kills more people (which it may, but still):