|Earlier this week President Donald Trump said he wanted business and congregations back to normal by Easter Sunday, but with Covid-19 cases and deaths climbing in the US he is now considering imposing quarantines in some areas. However the horse may have already bolted, with a lot of people movement around the country over the last couple of weeks, and new cases and deaths surging.
Cases in the US currently are 105,573 (UPDATE half an hour later 112,468), with deaths now at 1,841 and climbing by hundreds each day.
NHS medical director: if the UK were to keep the number of deaths from coronavirus below 20,000, “we will have done very well”.
On Tuesday Trump’s Easter goal in war on virus a nod to faith, business
President Donald Trump’s “beautiful” idea to reopen the U.S. economy by Easter Sunday and pack church pews that day was dreamed up during a conference call among business leaders desperate to get the country back up and running.
But his target date for easing coronavirus restrictions is another outstretched hand to a group he has long courted: evangelical Christians.
Cooped up at the White House and watching the stock market tumble, Trump had already been eager to ease federal guidelines aimed at halting the spread of a virus that had infected more than 55,000 Americans when about a dozen business leaders convened a conference call on Sunday.
His rush to get back to business as usual was questioned – Trump’s plan to reopen the economy by Easter could cause more damage in the long run, according to LinkedIn’s top US economist
However, framing America’s response as a direct trade-off between the health of its people and the health of its economy could ultimately harm both, according to LinkedIn principal economist Guy Berger.
“There’s no economy without people, so getting them healthy is the way to get the economy off the ground,” Berger told Business Insider.
“That’s why the public health measures are so important and why they’re essential, even though they’re hard in the short run, that’s the only way to really end up rebooting the economy,” he said.
Easing lockdowns and social distancing measures too early, while the virus is still spreading rapidly, could ultimately cause more people to get sick, forcing them out of the workforce and causing an even more negative impact on the economy.
The message must have got through to Trump about the risk – to health, lives and to business – of rushing back to no restrictions.
Fox News: Trump mulls coronavirus quarantine on New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
“Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hotspot — New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut quarantined,” he said outside the White House.
“I’m thinking about that right now. We might not have to do it but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine — short term, two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey and certain parts of Connecticut.”
He said that if such a move happened, it would be primarily a restriction on residents of those states traveling to other parts of the country.
“This will be an enforceable quarantine, but hopefully we won’t need it,” he said.
The move would be a dramatic escalation of the efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and comes on the back of those states essentially shuttering daily life — closing schools, businesses, leisure activities and urging residents to stay at home.
But this could be too late. Movement of people has been a problem elsewhere in the country for weeks.
Fox News: Frightening cellphone ‘heat map’ shows coronavirus’ potential spread as spring break revelers went home
Heat maps that show cellphone location data in the U.S. paint a disturbing picture of the potential spread of coronavirus as the country grapples with lockdown meaures and tries to stem the virus’ tide.
Tectonix, geospatial data visualization platform, working in partnership with location company X-Mode Social, created an alarming map that shows the impact of ignoring social distancing restrictions.
Focusing on just one group of spring break revelers on part of one beach in mid-March when they left Fort Lauderdale, Fla., it quickly becomes obvious that the thousands of people who were at the beach ended up all over the country — in the Midwest, the Northeast and other parts of the South.
That’s just one example. Contract tracing must be a nightmare.
Reuters: U.S. coronavirus cases surpass 100,000
The sum of known coronavirus U.S. cases soared well past 100,000, with more than 1,600 dead, as weary doctors and nurses coping with shortages resorted to extremes ranging from hiding scarce medical supplies to buying them on the black market.
Reuters: As virus threatens, U.S. embraces big government, for now
Whatever the motivation, in the scope of two frantic weeks, U.S. elected officials and central bankers have engineered an economic intervention unparalleled outside of wartime.
All in it would supplant perhaps 30% of gross domestic product with government spending and loans, drive the federal deficit as high as needed to make that happen, and broaden U.S. social spending in ways that just a few weeks ago Republicans and President Donald Trump were branding as “socialist.”
In the time taken to put this post together (so far) US cases jumped to 112,468 – that’s how rapidly Covid-19 is growing in the US.
BBC: Number of UK deaths rises above 1,000
The number of people to have died with the coronavirus in the UK has reached 1,019.
The latest government figures on Saturday showed there were another 260 deaths in the UK in a day, up from 759 on Friday.
There are now 17,089 confirmed cases in the UK.
The jump in deaths is the biggest day-on-day increase the UK since the outbreak began. The number of deaths is 34% higher than Friday’s figure.
NHS England Prof Stephen Powis said if the UK were to keep the number of deaths from coronavirus below 20,000, “we will have done very well”.
BBC: More than 900 deaths in a day in Italy
Italy has recorded 919 new coronavirus deaths, its highest daily figure in the outbreak so far.
It means 9,134 people have now died from the virus in the country.
Earlier World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a “chronic global shortage” of protective equipment was one of the “most urgent threats” to the ability to save lives.
Italy is the worst-affected in Europe. Almost everything has been closed and people told to stay at home.
Earlier on Friday, authorities warned that restrictions were likely to be extended beyond 3 April.
That seems inevitable.
Deaths now recorded on JHU&M CRC are at 10,023, cases have jumped to 92,472 (they were 80,589 this time yesterday) so the problem is far from over in Italy.
Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 832 in 24 hours, bringing it to 5,690. However, the number of people recovering is also increasing, with a total of 12,285 out of over 72,000 cases
French PM: ‘Fight is just beginning’
The first 15 days in April will be “even more difficult than the 15 we have just left”, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has warned.
France has recorded 1,998 deaths and has been in lockdown for 10 days, a period which has now been extended until 15 April.
“I want to speak clearly to the French,” said Mr Phil
Total confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa: 3,926
South Africa has 1,170 but it is spreading across the continent.
There are improvements in places that first has major problems,
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, has partially reopened after more than two months in isolation
South Korea says it has more people who have recovered from the virus than infected.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro questions coronavirus deaths, says ‘sorry, some will die’
Following the advice of public health experts, the vast majority of the country’s 26 governors have banned non-essential commercial activities and public services to contain the outbreak in their states.
“I’m sorry, some people will die, they will die, that’s life,” Bolsonaro said in a television interview on Friday night. “You can’t stop a car factory because of traffic deaths.”
Bolsonaro said that in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic powerhouse, the death toll seemed “too large.” Sao Paulo has the most cases and deaths so far of coronavirus in Brazil, at 1,223 cases and 68 deaths.
“We need to look at what is happening there, this cannot be a numbers game to favor political interests,” Bolsonaro said.
Earlier on Friday, Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, a former Bolsonaro ally who many expect to be a rival in the 2022 presidential election, accused Bolsonaro of promoting “disinformation” by launching a TV ad campaign criticizing the restrictions, featuring the slogan “#BrazilCannotStop.”
The slogan is similar to a campaign in Milan before deaths in Italy soared.
Currently 3,477 cases in Brazil with 93 deaths.