Cases of virus around world top 1 million; pandemic’s U.S. death toll for one day exceeds 1,000

Evan Demaree, a Heartland Disaster Response Team emergency medical services attendant and firefighter from Lafayette, Ind., talks with a friend Thursday at the Coney Island boardwalk in the Brooklyn borough of New York, during a break before the next call for assistance. Demaree’s unit and others like his have been contracted by FEMA to help the New York Fire Department’s overburdened 911 emergency responders.
(AP/Kathy Willens)
Evan Demaree, a Heartland Disaster Response Team emergency medical services attendant and firefighter from Lafayette, Ind., talks with a friend Thursday at the Coney Island boardwalk in the Brooklyn borough of New York, during a break before the next call for assistance. Demaree’s unit and others like his have been contracted by FEMA to help the New York Fire Department’s overburdened 911 emergency responders. (AP/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK -- The number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide topped 1 million Thursday with more than 52,000 covid-19 deaths, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The true numbers are believed to be much higher, because of testing shortages, many mild cases that have gone unreported, and suspicions that some countries are covering up the extent of their outbreaks.

The death toll and economic devastation reached staggering new levels in the United States on Thursday as officials reported more than 1,000 deaths from the pandemic in a single day and revealed that more than 6.6 million Americans had sought unemployment benefits in a single week.

The United States has over 245,000 people infected with the death toll nearing 6,000.

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Elsewhere around the world, the number of people applying for welfare benefits in Britain increased nearly tenfold to almost 1 million in the past couple of weeks. At least 1 million people in Europe are estimated to have lost their jobs over the same period, and the actual number is probably far higher. Spain alone added over 300,000 people to its unemployment rolls in March.

With its health care system in dire shape, Spain reported its highest one-day number of deaths from the virus, 950, bringing its overall toll to about 10,300, despite signs that the infection rate is slowing.

Italy recorded 760 more deaths, for a total of over 13,900, the worst of any country, but new infections continued to level off.

France recorded a running total of about 5,300 deaths in hospitals, 471 just in the past day. But officials expect the overall toll to jump significantly because they are only now starting to count deaths in nursing homes and other facilities for older people. More than 880 such deaths have been tallied.

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RACE FOR VITAL SUPPLIES

The competition for ventilators, masks and other vital supplies was intense.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that the state could run out of breathing machines in six days. He complained that the 50 states are competing against each other for protective gear and breathing machines, or are being outbid by the federal government.

At the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about 9,000 additional ventilators are on hold as officials seek to determine where they are needed most urgently. States have been warned not to expect any shipments until they are within 72 hours of a crisis.

In France, a top health official in the country's hard-hit eastern region said American officials swooped in at a Chinese airport to spirit away a planeload of masks that France had ordered.

Nine leading European university hospitals warned they will run out of essential medicines for covid-19 patients in intensive care in less than two weeks.

The Trump administration was formalizing new guidance to recommend that Americans wear coverings such as nonmedical masks, T-shirts or bandannas over their mouths and noses when out in public, while reserving medical-grade masks, particularly the short-in-supply N95 variety, for those dealing directly with the sick.

Vice President Mike Pence said guidance on the topic would be issued in coming days.

But coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx on Thursday said officials worry that encouraging mask use might interfere with the White House's previous social-distancing guidance, which calls for people to stay home, avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and keep a safe distance from nonfamily members.

"The most important thing is the social distancing and washing your hands, and we don't want people to get an artificial sense of protection because they're behind a mask," Birx said. "When the advisory comes out, it will be an additive piece, if it comes out, rather than saying this is a substitute for" social distancing.

President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act on Thursday in hopes of boosting production of medical-grade masks by Minnesota-based 3M to assist first responders.

Washington is also trying to crack down on a growing black market that is driving up the price of protective medical supplies, Defense Production Act policy coordinator Peter Navarro said.

Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, the Navy's supply chief, said the federal government had shipped 27.1 million surgical masks, 22.4 million pairs of protective gloves, 5.2 million face shields and more than 7,600 ventilators, and were scouring the globe for more supplies. But Trump also lashed out at state leaders, saying that some were "complainers" or had "insatiable appetites" and that they should have built more reserves locally.

"Long before this pandemic arrived, they should have been on the open market, just buying," Trump said.

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For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia. Over 200,000 people worldwide have recovered, by Johns Hopkins' count.

ANTIBODY TESTING

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a new test for coronavirus antibodies, the first for use in the United States.

Currently available tests are designed to find fragments of viral genes indicating an infection. Doctors swab the nose and throat, and amplify any genetic material from the virus found there.

The new test, by contrast, looks for protective antibodies in a finger stick of blood. It tells doctors whether a patient has ever been exposed to the virus and now may have some immunity.

That is important for several reasons. People with immunity might be able to venture safely from their homes and help shore up the workforce. It may be particularly important for doctors and nurses to know whether they have antibodies.

Antibody testing eventually should give scientists a better sense of how widespread the infection is in the population -- and help researchers calculate more precisely the death rate.

The test delivers results in about 15 minutes. But just having antibodies does not guarantee immunity from the coronavirus.

The new test looks only for the presence of the antibodies and delivers a qualitative yes or no answer -- it does not say how well any antibodies are working, said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.

HELP FOR HOMELESS

Roughly 90% of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, and many factories, restaurants, stores and other businesses are closed or have seen sales shrivel.

Laid-off workers can tap money made available in the $2 trillion rescue measure passed by Congress. It adds $600 a week to unemployment benefits, extends eligibility to 39 weeks and for the first time wraps in part-timers and workers in the so-called gig economy, such as Uber drivers.

The Trump administration said Thursday THAT it is distributing about $3 billion in the first round of coronavirus aid to help the homeless find emergency shelter and communities expand testing and treatment.

Advocacy groups say the homeless population is particularly at risk during the pandemic. Many already have health problems such as heart disease or diabetes, and live in conditions that do not allow for frequent hand washing and social distancing.

The initial installment of money represents about one-quarter of the total that Congress allocated to the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a $2 trillion aid package. The agency said it will distribute the remaining $9.1 billion once new grant formulas are set.

The department said the biggest chunk of money for local governments and nonprofits will pay for new medical facilities for testing and treatment and other activities. Grant recipients can also use the money to acquire hotel buildings to accommodate the isolation of patients, or to support businesses that make medical supplies.

In California, which has the nation's largest homeless population, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has pledged thousands of hotel rooms to help homeless people. In Las Vegas, the homeless have been directed temporarily to sleep in rectangles painted on a parking lot as a way to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Also on Thursday, Newsom said small businesses in California can keep up to $50,000 in sales tax receipts for the next year.

The move means businesses with $5 million in sales or less will get up to a year to give the state up to $50,000 in sales taxes they collect from customers.

Also on Thursday, Newsom ordered water systems not to shut off service for nonpayment.

California has more than 10,700 confirmed covid-19 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The state has had 238 deaths.

PUTIN ISSUES ORDER

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered most Russians to stay off work until the end of the month as part of a partial economic shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Speaking in a televised address to the nation, Putin said he was extending the nonworking policy he ordered earlier for this week until the end of April. He emphasized that all employees should continue earning their regular salaries during the period.

Putin said some essential industries will keep operating, and grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open.

"The threat remains, and experts believe that the epidemic is yet to reach its peak in the world, including our country," Putin said.

He noted that that it would be up to regional authorities to decide which companies and organizations could keep working in their areas depending on the situation.

In Europe, nine leading university hospitals are warning they will run out of essential medicines needed for covid-19 patients in intensive care in less than two weeks as they are increasingly crushed by the pandemic.

The European University Hospital Alliance said that without countries cooperating to ensure a steady supply of these drugs, doctors and nurses might no longer be able to provide adequate intensive care for people critically ill with the new coronavirus.

The shortage of such critical medicines has led some hospitals to buy alternative drugs or to try giving patients different dosages.

"It is extremely worrying that overworked and often less-experienced nurses and doctors-in-training, drafted to fill the gaps, have to use products and dosages that they are not used to," the group wrote, on behalf of hospitals in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Spain.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Sisak, Lori Hinnant, Mark Sherman, Susan Haigh, Kevin Freking, Adam Beam, Vladimir Isachenkov, Maria Cheng, John Leicester and Nicole Winfield of The Associated Press; by Apoorva Mandavilli of The New York Times; and by Matt Zapotosky, Isaac Stanley-Becker, John Wagner, Miriam Berger, Josh Dawsey, Karen DeYoung, Andrew Freedman, Emily Guskin, Arelis R. Hernandez, Paul Kane, Hannah Knowles, Dan Lamothe, Annie Linskey, Heather Long, Katie Mettler, Siobhan O'Grady, Samantha Pell, Lisa Rein, Missy Ryan, Michael Scherer, Brittany Shammas, Felicia Sonmez, Lena H. Sun and Erica Werner of The Washington Post.

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AP

President Donald Trump pauses during Thursday’s coronavirus briefing. He lashed out at some state leaders as [ “complainers” who should have been better prepared. (AP/Alex Brandon)

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Moscow News Agency

A new hospital takes shape Thursday on the outskirts of Moscow as the spread of the coronavirus gathers pace in Russia. President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered most people to stay off work through April while continuing to earn their salaries. More photos at arkansasonline.com/43outbreak/. (AP/Moscow News Agency/Denis Voronin)

A Section on 04/03/2020

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