Thursday, April 23 coronavirus updates
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth. It is Thursday, April 23. Here are top news briefs.
The Labor Department said 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total amount of people applying for benefits to 26 million over the past five weeks.
President Trump said last evening that he strongly disagrees with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen some businesses this Friday, but that he won’t stop him. It was surprising to see Trump say this because he has called on for states to be liberated and said on Tuesday that Kemp knows what he is doing. Kemp responded on Twitter that he would still continue with his plan to reopen businesses.
Sweden has not ordered strict lockdowns or mass closures of elementary & middle schools, restaurants, or gyms. News images show people eating out in restaurants. Sweden has instead told residents to stay home as much as possible and be socially responsible when going out. Sweden has closed high schools and universities and banned gatherings of more than 50 people. Most people can go out and interact. Sweden’s neighbors Norway and Finland have imposed strict lockdowns similar to most of Europe and the majority of U.S. states. According to the Johns Hopkins map of worldwide COVID-19 cases, Sweden has almost 17,000 cases and 2,021 deaths. Norway has 7,300 cases and 200 deaths. Finland has 4,200 cases and 170 deaths. So Sweden has far higher numbers.
There is a controversy in Sweden on whether Sweden’s approach is working. A top Sweden official, Dr. Anders Tegnell, who is leading the policies, told CNBC that there is a plateau in new cases and that the country is nearing herd immunity. He said that more than half of the country’s 2,000 deaths is associated with elderly people who lived in nursing homes, so Sweden is looking on how they can do better in protecting them. Dr. Tegnell thinks that this approach is sustainable in the long term. Many are watching Sweden to see what happens in the days and weeks ahead.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) said his oldest brother Don Reed died from the coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He was a Vietnam War veteran. Warren said it was hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say “I love you” one more time and that there would be no funeral.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif) said her sister is now dying of coronavirus in a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.
The House is expected pass a $484 billion package to provide more funds for small business loans, to hospitals, and for coronavirus testing. The package has already been approved by the Senate and President Trump said he would sign the bill. This does not include another round of stimulus payments to Americans — this is only for small business loans and hospitals/testing.
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) said he doesn’t support federal money going to states who are seeing their budgets dry up. He suggested that laws be changed to allow states to declare bankruptcy. Several Democratic state governors said it was a terrible idea.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said last night that he is confident that we will still have coronavirus in the fall.
Tyson Fresh Meats announced they would stop production of a beef processing facility in Washington state after at least 91 positive cases of COVID-19 were linked to workers.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the test results of about 3,000 people in New York state who took coronavirus antibody tests at supermarkets. Cuomo said that out of 1,300 people in New York City that were tested, 21% had coronavirus antibodies. Out of 3,000 people tested across New York state, almost 14 percent had coronavirus antibodies. An antibody is a protein in our blood that can “identify” the presence of the SARS-CoV-19 virus and “lead” our immune system to stop it. The tests, if accurate, means that more than 2.6 million people in New York state became infected but many have recovered and that the fatality rate is 0.5 percent. So it is both good and bad news — the good is that the fatality rate is lower than thought, but the bad news is that the virus might be way more widespread in our population than thought, although many have not exhibited symptoms.
Tonight is the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft and it will all be done remotely for the first time. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who usually makes announcements of the players who are selected, showed a video of his basement that has been converted into a studio. All 32 NFL teams and over 150 other homes or locations will be connected virtually.
USA Today reported that there were 28 tornadoes in southern U.S. states from Wednesday evening into Thursday. There was also flash flooding. At least seven people died. One Oklahoma person’s body was found 1/4 of a mile from a factory where he worked. Another person in Oklahoma died when his vehicle was blown off a highway — his body was found on a highway median and the vehicle was in a field. Three people from Polk County, Texas died from a tornado. In Louisiana, a woman died from severe storms that caused downed trees and power lines and a man died when he was swept away in a flooded drainage ditch.
Tomorrow will be the first day of Ramadan, a holy month in Islam in which adult Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Arab News said this year’s Ramadan will be different from previous ones because many mosques and holy sites are closed due to coronavirus.
That’s all the news updates I have for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://www.axios.com/unemployment-filings-coronavirus-f57ac359-17e9-4749-906a-9fc76f894b09.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-reverses-course-says-too-soon-georgia-reopen-n1190061
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-disagrees-strongly-with-georgia-governors-plan-to-reopen-some-businesses
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/nyregion/coronavirus-new-york-update.html
https://twitter.com/GovKemp
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/23/congress-coronavirus-small-business/
https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1253332675315724289
https://www.foxnews.com/world/sweden-coronavirus-deaths-rise-guidelines
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/23/politics/maxine-waters-sister-coronavirus/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/world/asia/pakistan-coronavirus-ramadan.html
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/commissioner-roger-goodell-virtual-nfl-draft-include-fan/story?id=70303361&cid=clicksource_4380645_17_hero_post_bsq_hed
https://twitter.com/nflcommish/status/1253344899283337222
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/commissioner-roger-goodell-virtual-nfl-draft-include-fan/story?id=70303361&cid=clicksource_4380645_17_hero_post_bsq_hed
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/no-lockdown-in-sweden-but-stockholm-could-see-herd-immunity-in-weeks.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-sweden-and-norway-handled-coronavirus-differently-2020-4
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2020/04/23/mississippi-tornado-watch-storm-deaths-oklahoma-texas-louisiana/3010088001/
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1660636/saudi-arabia