Daily Coronavirus Global Update in the Secular and Jewish Communities March 24th

 by Lieba Nesis

1.  The United States reported a one-day 22.09% increase- the third largest amount of cases at 53,794 with a 25% increase of deaths at 712.  New York State continues to spike as cases reached 25,665, almost half the total cases in the US, with New York City reporting more than 14,904 cases with 131 dead.   The breakdown by borough is Queens (4,364), Brooklyn (4237), Manhattan (2,887), Bronx (2,328) and Staten Island (935).  Governor Cuomo said the rate of infections is doubling every three days predicting more than 140,000 beds will be needed when only 53,000 are available.  The Kentucky governor warned against “coronavirus parties”; where a sick patient developed the disease from attending a party flouting the social distancing guidelines.  De Blasio announced New York City will open up specific streets for exercise in each of the 5 boroughs to be enforced by the NYPD.  De Blasio keeps repeating New York is “the epicenter of the crisis” as he released 300 inmates from Rikers Island.

2.  In a Fox News Town Hall President Trump said he would love the country to open by Easter-April 12th.  Trump believes the country has to get back to work and compared this to the seasonal flu which has a far higher death rate-according to Trump 50,000 this year (the CDC reports 23,000 deaths).  The White House advised traveling New Yorkers to self quarantine for 14 days upon arrival as New York is considered a hotspot.

3.  The Dow had its best day since 1933 as Congress neared a deal on a $2 trillion economic stimulus package.  The Dow index rose 11.3% to 20,704.91, the Nasdaq increased 8.12% to 7,417.86 and the S&P 500 hit 2,447.33 for a 9.38% increase.

4.  Italy continued the grim news with its death toll rising by 743 in one day to 6,820 with 69,176 cases-the second highest number of deaths by the country.  The number of new cases has gone up by 7%, the third day in a row that the rise has slowed-indicating Italy’s trend may be downward.  A doctor from Milan attributed its large number of cases to a heavy Asian population because of the industrial nature of the economy,  the high amount of pollution and its containing the 2nd oldest population in the world.  What’s becoming clearer each day is China’s claim of 81,171 cases with 3,277 deaths is a lie.  The probability that the place of origin, the Wuhan wet market, has less fatalities than Italy is nearly zero.  Moreover, the population of more than 1.4 billion in China makes it extremely vulnerable to medical disasters.  China’s lack of transparency since the start of the pandemic in mid-November, has been extremely dangerous for the entire globe.  It is time to demand China reveal the truth about the extent and nature of the illness, or face punishment.

5.  Information about the World Heath Organization (WHO) continues to show it was sleeping at the wheel.  Yesterday, Director-General Tedros Adhanom claimed “the pandemic is accelerating.”  The WHO wrongfully declared on January 15th “there is no clear evidence of sustained human-to-human transmissions and there are no infections reported among health care workers.”  Was it not their duty to investigate whether China’s claims of containment were true.  Moreover, the WHO criticized Trump for closing travel from China on January 31st.  Their naming of the virus “Covid-19” was deliberately done to downplay its fatality so as not to blame the Chinese-knowing that if they called it by its correct name SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) the public would become alarmed.  Finally, the WHO outrageously waited until Wednesday March 11th to call the disease a pandemic despite knowing there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of cases worldwide.  If they were not aware of the true numbers that reveals their delinquency.  It is time to get a new Director General, or have someone overseeing the WHO as it has proved itself to be both incompetent and partial to China.  On February 23,2020 Dr. Bruce Aylward came back from a WHO trip to China and gave reporters a rosy report saying the disease was contained there and, “you don’t have to lock down cities is the big message from China, in fact.”  At a news conference in Geneva in February WHO Director General Tedros said, “Does this virus have pandemic potential?  Absolutely it has.  Are we there Yet? From our assessment not yet.”  WHAT!!!!  The WHO was quick to name obesity, which is comparatively within our control, a pandemic but waited three months to name a globally fatal outbreak a pandemic.  The term pandemic-meaning simultaneous global transmission of a disease to a high proportion of the population- while not determinative, would have helped now decimated countries realize the challenges they would soon face.

6.  Israel has reported 1,930 cases with two more deaths (a total of 3), and 34 patients in serious condition.  Prime Minister Netanyahu held a seven-hour meeting on Monday where he said 1 million could be infected with a possibility of over 10,000 deaths.  Meanwhile, public transportation was completely suspended in Israel with medical care limited to that which was urgent, and exercise only allowed within 100 meters of homes.  The IDF has designated battalions to enforce this 7-day national lockdown.  On Tuesday morning, a large police force stormed Mea Shearim in Israel to ensure non-essential businesses were closed.

7.  The Brooklyn Jewish Community is praying for the speedy recovery of Jewish luminaries Stanley Chera and Harry Adjmi who are pillars of the community, along with Eli Beer and Rabbi Sholom Lipskar who are ailing in Florida.

8.  The number of Coronavirus NYPD members surged to more than 200-with 3,000 cops out sick.  On Monday detectives were told to prepare to be assigned to patrol.

9.  Japan and the International Olympic Committee have agreed to postpone the Olympics to no later than summer 2021-unlike Comic Con which plans to hold its convention at the Javits Center in October.  States under lockdown have increased to Louisiana, New Mexico, Washington and West Virginia-who have all issued stay-at-home orders.

10.  The second-state run coronavirus testing site in New Jersey opened Monday morning at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.  On Monday, it stopped letting cars into the line a half hour before it opened, after hitting capacity.   New York has run more than 80,000 tests  and is now testing more than 16,000 people per day.