Thursday, April 16 coronavirus updates
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth. It is Thursday, April 16. Here are updates on the coronavirus pandemic.
As of this afternoon, there are over 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world with 141,000 deaths. USA has 654,000 cases with 31,000 deaths.
Canada has 30,000 cases with 1,200 deaths. Mexico has 5,800 cases with 450 deaths.
Although those numbers are very high and are bad news, there are positive reports from many countries that they are seeing the numbers of new hospitalizations and deaths reach their peak point and going into a plateau. Many have gone into self-quarantine and practiced social distancing with government-ordered lockdowns and shutdowns, so those measures have controlled the spread of the virus. Hopefully the numbers will start to go down.
5.2 million people filed for unemployment claims last week. There are now 22 million people who have filed for unemployment, a very high figure.
The New York Times reported that the Small Business Administration (SBA) has run out of the $349 billion allocated from the CARES Act to provide loans to small businesses with 500 or fewer employees so they could continue to pay their employees. Republicans want to add about $250 billion to the fund, while Democrats, who agree on additional funding, want to make rules to make sure the money is able to go to minority-owned businesses or disadvantaged companies. The two sides are negotiating.
President Trump was on a call with state governors this afternoon. News reports said he told them that the states would “call their own shots” in making decisions on how they would reopen. President Trump has said in the past that he wants the country to start reopening on May 1st. Trump will announce more details during tonight’s press conference, which has not started at the time I’m signing. I’ll recap it tomorrow.
Seven governors in Midwest states have announced they would work together on a coordinated plan to reopen their economies, following similar agreements in place with states on the West and East coasts. The Midwest coalition is Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kentucky.
Emirates, an airline based in Dubai, UAE, announced they have pricked the fingers of their passengers for a blood test before they went on flight to Tunisia. The tests were done on-site. The airline released images of health workers pricking customers’ fingers. The test results are available in 10 minutes on whether they tested positive or negative for COVID-19. Emirates said they are the first to do this and would expand testing to include other flights.
I wonder if this means that in the future, if you want to fly, you’ll have to remove your shoes, your belt, your laptop, get X-rayed, and finally get your finger pricked.
CBS News reported that Russia now has almost 30,000 cases of COVID-19. Their president Vladimir Putin announced they would postpone their annual Victory Day military parade. This year is their 75th anniversary of defeating Nazi Germany in WWII.
The PGA Tour said they would resume their season in June but with no fans.
Police in Andover, New Jersey said they found 17 bodies in a nursing home’s morgue, which only had capacity for four bodies. That particular nursing home had 68 people who died recently, with 26 of them testing positive for COVID-19.
Axios reported that at least 5,670 nursing home residents in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus
Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” actor Michael Che posted on Instagram an offer to pay one month’s rent for 160 families who live in a public housing building in New York City where his grandmother used to live in. His grandmother recently died of the coronavirus and Che wanted to do this in honor of her. Che is calling on New York officials to waive rent payments of those who live in public housing during the coronavirus.
That’s all the updates for today. Check out the two Deaf News stories we will post today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/coronavirus-government-response-updates-trump-speak-governors-hell/story?id=70182774&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_hero_hed
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/midwest-states-partner-reopening-economy-70189878?cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed