Full Coronavirus Update for New York and Beyond: April 3rd

By  JV  Web Editor

Key Points from Cuomo press conference

• Cuomo will sign an executive order to allow the state to take ventilators from hospitals with fewer coronavirus cases and give them to hospitals in need. Cuomo pushed back against a reporter who said the state would “seize” the medical equipment, but that seems like an accurate description considering the National Guard will be used for the operation.
• New York has recorded 2,935 deaths linked to coronavirus, up from from 2,373 a day earlier, marking the largest single-day increase in the death toll since the crisis struck the state. New York has also confirmed 102,863 cases of the virus.
• Officials offered a mixed message on whether everyone should wear face coverings to limit the spread of the virus. State health commissioner Howard Zucker noted there was no data to confirm face coverings help prevent transmissions, but Cuomo said it “couldn’t hurt” to wear them.
• Cuomo once again expressed bafflement and anger that the state has to rely on China for the production of medical equipment. “It is unbelievable to me that in New York state, in the United States of America, that we can’t make these materials,” Cuomo said.
• The temporary hospital at the Javits Center will begin receiving coronavirus patients, even though officials originally said the facility would treat non-coronavirus patients. Cuomo said there simply aren’t enough non-coronavirus cases right now to make that plan worthwhile

NEW YORK NOTES

• Bill de Blasio called for the creation of an enlistment program for medical professionals to help combat the pandemic. “Next week in New York City is going to be very tough — next week in New York City and Detroit and New Orleans and a lot of other places,” de Blasio told MSNBC this morning.“And unless the military is fully mobilized and we create something we’ve 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 don’t have that we’re going to see hospitals simply unable to handle so many people who could be saved.”
• The Navy ship comfort  hospital docked in New York to help the city amid the coronavirus crisis has only received 20 patients.
• Over the course of nearly five weeks, the coronavirus has killed more New Yorkers than the terrorists who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. And the death toll is only expected to grow — by leaps and bounds, Politico reported
•  More than 1,400 NYPD employees, including more than 1,000 officers, have tested positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday. That puts the police department’s infection rate at at least 3.8 percent — far higher than the city’s overall 0.5 percent, and almost as high as Rikers Island, where the estimated infection rate stands at a staggering 5.1 percent, according to an analysis by Legal Aid, Intercept reported
• Two hundred and fifty ambulances from around the country arrived to help NYC during the COVID-19 crisis and are currently staged in  Bronx Zoo  parking lot,” the zoo wrote on its Facebook page above a video of the unusual emergency operation.
• Uber is donating more than $1 million in rides and food to New York City health care workers and first responders on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, Daily News reported
• It a news conference , Governor Phil Murphy said, “If you do not need to be out, then we need you to stay at home.  Please, God, stay at home.  And even when you are at home, keep your distance between yourself and other family members.”, Fox reported

NATIONAL

• The rate of positive coronavirus tests suggests that the next “hot spots” could include Michigan, Connecticut, Indiana, Georgia and Illinois, said White House virus task-force coordinator Deborah Birx.
• Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine believe that they’ve found a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus.
• The researchers announced their findings Thursday and believe the vaccine could be rolled out quickly enough to “significantly impact the spread of disease,” according to their study published in EBioMedicine.
• ” because of some recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak, as opposed to coughing and sneezing, the better part of valor is that when you’re out, and you can’t maintain that six-foot distance, to wear some sort of facial covering,” DR  Fauci told Fox News. But the senior official emphasized Americans should still practice social distancing, adding that medical professionals would still have the highest priority in getting face masks.
• Dr Anthony Fauci,said he was baffled as to why every state does not have an order in effect.
• The US jobs report released this morning shows that the unemployment rate has risen to 4.4% after the country lost 701,000 jobs last month. The latest figure marks a 0.9% increase from last month’s rate of 3.5%, which was a 50-year low in the US unemployment rate, the unemployment rate is expected to only go up. Nearly 10 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past two weeks, and the Congressional Budget Office predicted yesterday that unemployment in the second quarter of this year would pass 10%.
• Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said $875 million in small business loans have already been processed as part of the Paycheck Protection Program created by the $2 trillion stimulus package.
• African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26% black. Milwaukee is one of the few places in the United States that is tracking the racial breakdown of people who have been infected by the novel coronavirus, offering a glimpse at the disproportionate destruction it is inflicting on black communities nationwide.
• In Michigan, where the state’s population is 14% black, African Americans made up 35% of cases and 40% of deaths as of Friday morning. Detroit, where a majority of residents are black, has emerged as a hot spot with a high death toll. As has New Orleans. Louisiana has not published case breakdowns by race, but 40% of the state’s deaths have happened in Orleans Parish, where the majority of residents are black
• Congressman Adam Schiff has drafted a bill to form a commission to probe the coronavirus response. Schiff said the purpose of the commission would to gather lessons for future crises, but Trump dismissed the idea of a commission yesterday as a Democratic “witch-hunt.”

GLOBAL NEWS

• Ran Saar, who runs a leading Israeli health care provider, told the Israeli Parliament on Thursday he believed the contagion rate was a lot higher, estimating that 38 percent of the city’s residents could be infected. That would be the equivalent of some 74,000 people, NBC reported.   In total, Israel has reported over 7,000 cases and 36 dead
• The ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, which has become a hotspot for the spread of the virus, has been put on lockdown
• Known global death toll passes 55,000. At least 55,781 people across the world have now died as a result of the pandemic, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed cases passed a million on Thursday and at least 1,056,777 people are now known to have been infected. The true scale of the outbreak is likely to be greater due to suspected underreporting by some nations.
• The number of cases of the new coronavirus detected in Egypt has jumped by more than 100 for the first time, bringing total infections to 985, the country’s health ministry has said.
• Albania has reported 27 new cases – its second biggest daily surge – and ordered a third 40-hour lockdown over the weekend to halt the spread of the highly contagious pathogen that has killed 17 in the country so far.
• The UK government’s pledge to carry out 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month is “realistic”, Public Health England’s director of public health improvement has said.
• UK endures deadliest day so far. It is confirmed that 684 more people have died in UK hospitals, bringing the total to 3,605 and making the 24 hours to 5pm on Thursday (BST) the deadliest since the outbreak began. The country’s Department of Health and Social Care says 173,784 people have been tested; of whom 38,168 were positive.
• Italy records 766 more deaths – but infection rate slows. The number of deaths on Friday was relatively steady, when compared to those seen the previous day. But new infections continue to slow down, raising hopes of turnaround. Some 85,388 people are currently infected, with an increase of 2,339 new cases; 138 fewer than Thursday. Italy remains the world’s worst-hit country, having suffered a total of 14,681 deaths.
• More than 250,000 EU citizens stranded abroad. Some 350,000 have been repatriated but that still leaves a quarter of a million EU citizens trying to get home. Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, says operations are under way to retrieve them. But he adds: “One could not imagine that there are so many Europeans stranded in the world: tourists; visitors; short-term workers.”
• Swiss death toll rises to 484. The Swiss government announced an increase in the number of deaths, adding that the number of positive cases now stands at 19,903. Switzerland has closed schools and many businesses, as well as banning gatherings of more than five people.
• WHO said countries must avoid a cycle of lockdown, relaxation, and further lock-downs  The organisation called on countries to develop a just transition strategy that gets them in  control of the virus