Live updates: U.S. death toll climbs, but signs emerge that new coronavirus cases may be leveling off – The Washington Post

ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities will begin tracking the cellphones of people infected with the coronavirus to make sure they remain isolated and will send warnings to those who violate quarantine rules, officials said this week.

Turkey is among a growing list of countries trying to use location data to curb the spread of the virus. Health experts have argued that the use of such data — to limit the movement of infected patients, or to warn the uninfected about areas to avoid — has proved effective, including in Asian countries battling the pandemic.

But the use of such data has raised privacy concerns and fears of unregulated spying by governments that could continue after the danger of the pandemic has passed.

The program in Turkey, called the “Pandemic Isolation Tracking Project,” sends warning messages to the phones of infected people if they violate quarantine guidelines. “If they do not return to isolation, necessary administrative measures and sanctions will be implemented,” the state-run Anadolu news agency said, adding that patients’ data “will not be used for any other purposes.”

Participation in the program appeared to be mandatory: Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said Tuesday that infected patients would be required to download an application to use on their phones.

Turkey is struggling to contain one of the fastest growing coronavirus outbreaks in the world. Nearly 40,000 people have tested positive for the virus and 812 have died, according to the latest ministry figures.

The government has restricted international travel, movement between Turkish cities and ordered elderly and young people to stay at home. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been reluctant to impose a lockdown in the country’s largest cities, including Istanbul, which has the country’s highest rates of infection.

The patients were in the emergency room hallway of a Brooklyn hospital when one of them, an 86-year-old with dementia, stopped to hold on to the other’s intravenous pole.

Cassandra Lundy, 32, claimed the elderly woman got too close, saying she was “in my face” and could be spreading the coronavirus, according to police.

The woman, Janie Marshall, had not in fact contracted the illness. But Lundy nonetheless shoved her onto the ground, causing her to lose consciousness as her head hit the floor. Several hours later, Marshall was dead.

Lundy was arrested and charged with assault and manslaughter this week for her role in the grim incident, which has spurred outrage in New York and beyond, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

Marshall’s niece, Eleanor Leonard, said she was “thrilled” to find out her aunt could be getting justice.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around a person having such insensitivity to the elder people in our world.” Leonard told the New York Daily News. “I just have to ask myself, how was she raised, not to respect her elders, not to care about the elderly people.”

As The Post’s Meagan Flynn reported, police have reported at least a few cases of spontaneous assaults that seem to have been motivated by a perceived dispute over “social distancing.” But Lundy’s alleged assault may mark the first such episode that ended in death.

LONDON — Wednesday’s BBC Newsnight program began like no other.

“Hello, good evening,” began host Emily Maitlis before launching into what has been hailed on social media as an “impressive” and “extraordinary” commentary that called out the use of “misleading language” and drew attention to those who are most at risk during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Emily Maitlis with powerful words that needed saying tonight,” wrote one user, who shared a minute-long snippet of the powerful monologue which has since been viewed more than 2 million times.

“You do not survive the illness through fortitude and strength of character, whatever the prime minister’s colleagues will tell us,” Maitlis said. “This is a myth that needs debunking.”

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson battles the virus from the intensive care unit at a London hospital, his stand-in, Dominic Raab, President Trump and other lawmakers have sent well wishes, deeming Johnson a “fighter” who “doesn’t quit.”

Maitlis continued: “The disease is not a great leveler, the consequences of which everyone — rich or poor — suffers the same.” She then went on to list those who are most exposed and vulnerable: the nurses, the shopkeepers, the public transport drivers, those who live in small housing without gardens, those with manual jobs who are unable to work from home. Those with lower paid jobs.

“This is a health issue with huge ramifications for social welfare and it’s a welfare issue with huge ramifications for public health,” she said firmly, before leaving viewers with the question: “What kind of social settlement might need to be put in place to stop the inequality becoming even more stark?”

On Thursday morning, the name “Emily Maitlis” continued to trend on social media as the segment from Wednesday’s program circulated online. “Truth,” wrote Labour lawmaker David Lammy on Thursday as he tweeted the video of her monologue.

Two weeks after her 39-year-old husband died alone in an intensive care unit in Fort Myers, Fla., Nicole Buchanan is quarantined at the home they shared with their 12-year-old daughter, wrestling not only with grief but also with why and how the coronavirus could steal someone so young and healthy.

He was among at least 759 people under age 50 across the United States who have perished amid the deepening pandemic, according to a Washington Post analysis of state data. These deaths underscore the tragic fact that while the novel coronavirus might be most threatening to the old and compromised, no one is immune.

For the very young — people under the age of 20 — death is extremely rare in the current pandemic. But it happens: The Post identified nine such cases. The risk appears to rise with every decade of age.

Read more here.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that the European Union could fail if leaders do not overcome their differences as they face what he described as “the biggest test since the Second World War.”

Speaking to the BBC, Conte said the region’s leaders are “facing an appointment with history.”

“If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real,” he said.

His comments came as European finance ministers failed on Wednesday to agree upon an economic rescue plan for the bloc. Italy and Spain, two of the countries hit hardest by coronavirus, have pushed for measures that would allow them to borrow money at lower rates to help manage their coronavirus outbreaks. But other countries in the bloc have pushed back against “coronabonds” over concerns they would have to share the burden of cost if the debt was not repaid.

Conte also defended the Italian government’s timeline in its response to the coronavirus outbreak, including its decision to lock down parts of the country as the death toll mounted.

“For us to severely limit constitutional freedoms was a critical decision that we had to consider very carefully,” he told the BBC. “If I had suggested a lockdown or limits on constitutional rights at the start, when there were the first clusters, people would have taken me for a madman.”

Although Italy is not yet ready to lift its nationwide lockdown, Conte said that depending on scientists’ assessments, the country “might begin to relax some measures already by the end of this month.”

TOKYO — The Japanese government has set aside more than $2 billion in its coronavirus economic recovery package to help firms shift production out of China, after the pandemic disrupted supply chains and exposed an overreliance on its huge neighbor.

Officials say auto manufacturers in particular ran into problems when key parts stopped arriving from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the pandemic that is also a major hub for the auto parts industry.

“Diversification is very important,” a senior official said, requesting anonymity to speak openly to a small group of reporters. “We were too dependent on China, especially Wuhan. Probably, manufacturers will go to Asia and Africa in future.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised an economic rescue package worth 108 trillion yen ($990 billion), or around 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The money includes $2.3 billion to “reform supply chains,” including $2.0 billion to help companies move production back to Japan and $215 million to help those “seeking to diversify production bases” to other countries, according to details posted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

China is Japan’s biggest trading partner, but imports from China slumped by almost half in February, after factories there were closed to curb the spread of the virus, disrupting supplies of vital components to Japanese manufacturers, Bloomberg reported.

The World Trade Organization said this week that the virus had already badly undermined global trade, but warned the impact will be greater “in sectors characterized by complex value chain linkages, particularly in electronics and automotive products.”

Taiwan hit back Thursday after the chief of the World Health Organization accused the island’s government of participating in a racist campaign to smear and intimidate him, deepening the political furor surrounding an agency in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for its alleged pro-China bias.

The Taiwanese foreign ministry said allegations made by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus were groundless and demanded an apology from the United Nations official a day after he told reporters in Geneva that Taiwan has been abetting a campaign of racist slurs and death threats against him for the past three months.

Tedros, a former Ethiopian health and foreign minister, has faced growing criticism of his handling of the covid-19 outbreak since January, when the U.N. body repeatedly backed positions espoused by the Chinese government and praised Beijing’s epidemic response.

Read more here.

The rule is now familiar, if not utterly routine, for anyone who has ventured outdoors in the middle of the pandemic: Whether walking the dog, buying groceries, or taking out the trash, you should stay more than six feet apart to contain the novel coronavirus.

But anyone who goes outside to exercise may need to keep an even greater distance from other runners and joggers, a new European study says, in order to properly practice social distancing.

Researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands found that someone infected with the virus could pass on respiratory droplets to people more than six feet behind them through a kind of vacuum they form as they cut through the air.

“When you are moving — running, cycling, walking — you are actually creating an area behind you that is often called a slipstream,” Bert Blocken, who coordinated the study, told the Brussels Times.

Athletes often use these slipstreams to run or bike at a higher speed, Blocken said.

According to a series of simulations run by his team, a jogger moving at about 2.5 miles per hour was likely to come into contact with the slipstream, and thus, the droplets, of someone exercising as much as 50 feet ahead.

The study suggests that runners and cyclists may want to avoid moving directly behind another person and falling into their slipstream, Blocken said, by moving side by side or by in a staggered formation.

When such a formation is unavoidable on narrow paths or sidewalks, those seeking an outdoor workout should stay at least 15 feet apart when walking, 33 feet when running or cycling slowly and 65 feet apart for more vigorous exercise, he told the Globe and Mail.

Police in Australia have seized the “black box” from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, days after launching a criminal investigation into the vessel that has been linked to hundreds of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.

The ship, operated by Carnival Australia, docked in Sydney last month. Thousands of passengers disembarked and cases linked to the ship quickly spread, making the ship the largest known source of infections in Australia. At least 15 passengers from the cruise have since died. Earlier this week, police in New South Wales announced they would probe how the ship allowed passengers to re-enter the general population.

“Ships have a black box very similar to that of international planes and that and other evidence has been seized for further investigation,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said Thursday, according to the BBC.

In an e-mailed statement, Princess Cruises, the cruise line owned by Carnival Corp., said that the device Australian police seized is called a voyage data recorder, and that its “sole purpose is recording navigational information and radio transmissions to and from a port’s control center for use in marine accident investigations.”

“It has no bearing on the health clearance process that Ruby Princess followed to the letter,” the statement said. “Any suggestion that VDR material is relevant to the police investigation is questionable because it has nothing to do with granting health clearance.”

More than 1,000 members of the crew are still on board the ship and hundreds have fallen ill. More than a dozen have tested positive for coronavirus thus far.

After the probe was announced earlier this week, Carnival Australia said in a statement that it would “in addition to willingly participating in the investigation, [it] will vigorously respond to any allegations of which there must now be full disclosure and the basis for them.”

Fuller said the ship captain was “extremely helpful” when investigators boarded the ship, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

On Thursday, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said officials had confirmed 96 new cases of the virus, the lowest daily increase in several weeks.

President Trump is coming under bipartisan scrutiny in Congress after he ousted two inspectors general and publicly criticized a third — actions that have left lawmakers wrestling yet again with an administration that has repeatedly flouted efforts at independent oversight since Trump took office.

His resistance to the watchdog system established after the ­Watergate scandal comes on two fronts that have largely defined the Trump presidency: His impeachment, which was triggered by his attempts to pressure Ukraine into conducting a political investigation of one of his domestic rivals; and his administration’s management of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, in which trillions of taxpayer dollars are being disbursed.

Trump this week removed Glenn Fine, who had been the acting inspector general for the Pentagon and was to chair a federal panel overseeing the Trump administration’s management of the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package passed by Congress last month.

The president also was critical of Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services because her office released a report this week that found a “severe” and “widespread” shortage of testing supplies and protective gear at hospitals dealing with the pandemic.

Read more here.

China confirmed 63 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, officials there announced Thursday. All but two of the cases were confirmed in people who recently entered the country from abroad.

China’s State Council also announced new measures to control asymptomatic cases of the virus, amid concerns the country will experience a second wave of infections that could set back the progress made so far.

The new rules require health workers to report asymptomatic cases within two hours of diagnosis. Local officials then have one day to notify anyone recently in close contact with the patient. Both the asymptomatic patient and their recent contacts will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

“Asymptomatic cases are characterized by latent transmission, subjective symptoms and limited detectability,” the government statement said.

Chinese officials recently began classifying asymptomatic cases separately from other cases and is now acknowledging the risks they pose. On Thursday, the National Health Commission said 56 new asymptomatic cases were confirmed the day before, bringing the total number of these cases in the country to 1,104.

Zhang Boli, director of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, was quoted in the state-run Health Times as saying that “asymptomatic cases are less infectious, but are able to spread [the virus] nonetheless.”

Wuhan, the original epicenter of the outbreak, reopened on Wednesday after around 11 weeks of lockdown. Throngs of people rushed to leave the city as restrictions on travel were lifted for the first time.

DUBAI — Police in Dubai say that while most residents have heeded restrictions on movement to battle the spread of coronavirus, police will now start posting images of those arrested for mocking the stay-at-home campaign.

So far the Dubai police Twitter account has posted two photos of “Asian” men, one arrested for “taunting” police and the other for “mockery.” Col. Saeed al-Hajeri of the Dubai Police Cybercrime Unit said that in the past these people were just arrested for their online activities but now they will named and shamed.

“They are not only not following orders, they are also setting an example for others to follow their steps, that’s why the leadership decided to take it to the next level,” he told the local ARN news.

“People think it is a sense of humor to send some jokes, however this can lead to a snowball effect and it can lead to other people to follow their steps and disrespect authority,” he added.

Dubai, an international tourist destination and travel hub, has been transformed by the virus with residents confined to their homes 24 hours a day and forced to apply online for a permit to leave to go shopping or for medical reasons. Outdoor exercise and even dog walking has been banned.

On Wednesday, authorities announced 300 new infections, the latest in a steep increase of cases over the last few days. The United Arab Emirates has a total of 2,659 cases, three-quarters of which have been announced since the beginning of the month.

The Olympic flame, a popular attraction since its arrival in Japan last month, has been taken from display with the Summer Games postponed until next year because of the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

The flame had been on display in Fukushima since March 24 and was set to remain there through the end of April. “Tokyo 2020 will now keep the flame in an undisclosed location to prevent people from gathering,” Tokyo organizers said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Read more here.

HAVELOCK NORTH, New Zealand — New Zealand is “turning a corner” in its efforts to contain and eliminate the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday after health officials announced only 29 new cases of infection.

This marks the fifth consecutive day of decline, down from 89 on Sunday, as the country reaches the halfway mark in its four-week lockdown.

“Kiwis have quietly and collectively implemented a nationwide wall of defense,” Ardern told reporters at a daily briefing. “You are breaking the chain of transmission. And you did it for each other.”

But there would be no let-up, she said. Police were being especially vigilant Thursday, stopping motorists on highways to ensure nobody was headed to second homes ahead of the four-day Easter holiday.

New Zealand entered a complete lockdown, with exceptions for only essential workers and trips to the grocery store, on March 25. Since then, the number of infections diagnosed has dropped steadily even as testing has expanded.

But the only way to keep the number low was to institute strict new controls at the borders, Ardern said. Anyone arriving in the Pacific nation from Friday would be put into quarantine in a hotel for 14 days at the government’s expense, she said. People with coronavirus symptoms would be quarantined in two hotels where they would not be able to leave their rooms for two weeks, while others would be placed in “managed isolation” at other hotels and would be allowed to go for walks each day.

“We benefit from a very large moat. We need to make the most of it,” she said.

New Zealand last month closed its borders to everyone except citizens and permanent residents. They were trusted to isolate themselves at home for two weeks, with some police spot-checks to ensure they were sticking to the rules.

Generation Z was already politically liberal, increasingly activist and fed up with the status quo. The oldest members of the generation — which includes those born from 1997 to 2012, according to the Pew Research Center — grew up amid soaring inequality and overwhelmingly backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primaries.

Now the coronavirus crisis may solidify their political identity, experts say. As the pandemic and its economic havoc exacerbate disparities, some Gen Zers see grim validation of their support for the government-run programs and social-welfare policies less popular with their parents and grandparents.

Read more here.

The Trump administration’s demand for $250 billion in new funding for small businesses provoked a high-stakes standoff Wednesday as congressional Democrats rejected the no-strings-attached request and made an expensive counter-offer.

As of late Wednesday, Senate Republicans and Democrats planned to bring competing measures to the floor on Thursday, virtually ensuring that neither measure would pass.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said any package that included $250 billion in new small-business funding would need to include more than $250 billion in extra money for hospitals, state and local governments and food stamp recipients.

Read more here.

American consumers have relatively predictable patterns when it comes to meat consumption. They buy more in the spring and summer, experts note, so they can grill or entertain, or while they’re on vacation. Certain types of meats peak at different time of year: Think turkey on Thanksgiving or ham for Christmas.

But with society in lock down because of the novel coronavirus and the NCAA tournament canceled, that’s left a whole bunch of wings lying around, and now they’ve flooded the market. Ergo, we have a giant national surplus of chicken wings.

Read more here.

China has placed enormous pressure on foreign journalists during the novel coronavirus crisis. Bureaus have emptied as U.S. citizens have been forced out, while international travel restrictions have kept journalists from reentering the country.

But if Beijing’s intention was to limit scrutiny of its coronavirus response, it has only partially succeeded. Some of the most damning reporting on the pandemic has come from Chinese organizations, which are taking great risks in one of the world’s most restrictive media environments.

Read more here.