Tag Archives: COVID-19

Pandemic could trigger social unrest in some countries: IMF

Pandemic could trigger social unrest in some countries: IMF
By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New waves of social unrest could erupt in some countries if government measures to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic are seen as insufficient or unfairly favoring the wealthy, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) said in a new report on Wednesday.

Governments had already spent nearly $8 trillion to combat the pandemic and mitigate the economic fallout, but more fiscal stimulus would be needed once the crisis abated, the global lender said in its semi-annual Fiscal Monitor.

The spike in spending would sharply widen fiscal deficits, with global public debt set to rise 13 percentage points to more than 96% of gross domestic product in 2020, it said.

On Tuesday, the IMF forecast the global economy to shrink 3.0% during 2020 as a result of the pandemic, but warned that its forecasts were marked by “extreme uncertainty” and outcomes could be far worse.

Efforts to halt the disease have shut down large swaths of the global economy, with emerging market and developing countries likely to be hardest hit.

While mass protests are unlikely with strict lockdowns in place, unrest could spike when the crisis appeared to be under control, Vitor Gaspar, director of the IMF’s fiscal affairs department, told Reuters in an interview.

To avert further unrest following numerous protests in many parts of the world over the past year, policymakers must communicate with affected communities to build support for measures to tackle the virus, he said.

“This is something we have emphasized: it is crucial to provide support to households and firms that are made vulnerable by the crisis,” he said. “The goal is to support and protect people and firms that have been affected by shutdowns.”

Tensions are already becoming evident as lockdowns leave day laborers and many in the informal economy without jobs or food.

In India’s commercial capital of Mumbai, thousands of jobless migrant workers protested on Tuesday at a railway station, demanding to be allowed to return to their homes in the countryside, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended a lockdown of the population of 1.3 billion.

Unemployment has almost doubled to around 14.5% in India since the lockdown began in late March, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private think-tank.

In India and elsewhere, shutdowns have sparked an exodus of millions of workers from city jobs in small industries and service jobs back to their home villages.

Daily wage earners are particularly vulnerable, and many are already having to skip meals, say World Bank officials.

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said previous crises and disasters had fostered solidarity, but there could be a different outcome this time.

“If the crisis is badly managed and it’s viewed as having been insufficient to help people, you could end up with social unrest,” she told Reuters.

To avoid future protests, she said it was critical for the international community to play a supportive role for poorer countries through concessional financing and debt relief.

The report said government spending to date included direct fiscal costs of $3.3 trillion, public sector loans and equity injections of $1.8 trillion, plus $2.7 billion in guarantees and other contingent liabilities of $2.7 trillion.

It forecast lower output and said government revenue was now forecast to be 2.5% of global GDP, lower than was projected in October.

Gaspar said it was hard to predict how much more spending would be needed, but broad-based fiscal stimulus would be an important tool to foster recovery once the outbreak abated.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Despite coronavirus, Americans fight for their right to a birthday party

By Barbara Goldberg

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (Reuters) – Reuben Goodman’s parents had to think fast and get creative when the COVID-19 pandemic scuppered their plans to throw a New Jersey bowling party to celebrate their son’s fifth birthday.

Emily and Dan Goodman instead decided to combine a variety of coronavirus-safe activities for their son, an avid Star Wars fan. The day includes a social-distancing treasure hunt of sorts; dancing in the streets in his Storm Trooper costume, with friends kept at a contagion-proof distance; and a virtual Zoom party featuring treats delivered to the homes of Reuben’s playmates and left outside their front doors.

Reuben Goodman dressed as Star War Trooper dances outside of his house on his 5th birthday party during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in South Orange, New Jersey U.S., April 14, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Their aim was to make their pre-schooler feel like the center of the universe on his special day, even though he was unable to have a traditional party this year.

“Parents are trying very hard to create positive birthday memories,” said Emily Goodman, a communications executive who has been working at home in self-quarantine since mid-March under orders of her office in New Jersey. “He knows we can’t be close to our friends because of the invisible germs.”

The Goodmans are not the only Americans who have had to adapt to restrictions on social life in the wake of the pandemic, which has forced the cancellation of traditional birthday bashes for both young and old.

U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus have topped 25,400, doubling in one week, according to a Reuters tally, as officials debate how to reopen the economy without reigniting the outbreak.

Despite the outbreak, Americans are still finding ways to have fun. In many small towns across the country, local police and fire departments are staging parades in front of children’s’ homes on their birthdays, complete with flashing lights and sirens.

Friends and families are using Zoom video conferencing to throw virtual parties, featuring renditions of “Happy Birthday,” a song that has become a coronavirus anthem. (Health experts say a thorough hand-washing takes 20 seconds, about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice.)

In San Diego, California, when a former U.S. Marine couldn’t go anywhere for her 104th birthday, her friends brought the party to her front lawn.

“Well, I can’t believe it. It’s amazing,” Ruth Gallivan gasped, as honking cars festooned with birthday decorations drove by at a safe distance.

Anxiety around birthdays is spiking for children struggling with the concept of social distancing, Anthony Field, founder of the Wiggles, a popular Australian musical act, told Reuters in an email.

“Parents have told us their child is worried that if no one can come to their party, ‘Does it mean (I) still turn 4?'” said Field, better known as the Blue Wiggle.

In a new “Social Distancing” song, with more than 540,000 views since it went online March 29, the Wiggles assure fans that a video party counts as a genuine celebration, Field said.

In New Jersey, Reuben’s mother invited more than 20 neighbors to post drawings of Star Wars heroes and villains in their front windows, where her son could see them during a social-distancing walk on Tuesday, his fifth birthday.

Neighbors young and old agreed to dress up in futuristic costumes and join Reuben, wearing a new Storm Trooper outfit, as he danced on his front lawn. Adults would make sure everyone stayed at least the recommended six feet apart from one another.

Later, his friends were set to join him in a Zoom party that would feature a children’s musician strumming “Happy Birthday” and enjoy party goodie bags with toys that Reuben ordered from a local store and custom Star Wars cookies ordered from a local bakery. Reuben’s mother, wearing a face bandana and disposable gloves, planned to drop them off at his friends’ front doors, wiping down each one with disinfectant.

Reuben said he had another present for all the party-goers, who are presumably as tired of being separated from friends as he was. His special treat? “To look at me,” he said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Trump’s halt to WHO funding prompts condemnation as coronavirus cases near 2 million

By Jeff Mason and Paulina Duran

WASHINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to halt funding to the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic prompted condemnation on Wednesday from world leaders as recorded global infections approached the 2 million mark.

Trump, who has reacted angrily to accusations his administration’s response to the worst epidemic in a century was haphazard and too slow, had become increasingly hostile towards the U.N. agency before announcing the halt on Tuesday.

The WHO, which is based in Geneva, had promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak than otherwise would have occurred, Trump said.

He said WHO had failed to investigate credible reports from sources in China’s Wuhan province, where the virus was first identified in December, that conflicted with Beijing’s accounts about the spread and “parroted and publicly endorsed” the idea that human to human transmission was not happening.

“The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable,” Trump told a White House news conference on Tuesday.

A U.S. official told Reuters that Trump made the move despite pushback within his administration, especially from top health advisers. There was no immediate reaction from the WHO, which has been appealing for more than $1 billion to fund operations against the pandemic.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

Some 1.99 million people globally have been infected and nearly 128,000 have died since the disease emerged in China late last year, according to a Reuters tally.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was not the time to reduce resources for the WHO.

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said in a statement.

China, which has won WHO praise for its actions to curb the virus’s spread, urged the United States on Wednesday to fulfil its obligations to the WHO.

“This decision weakens the WHO’s capability and harms international cooperation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter: “Deeply regret U.S. decision to suspend funding to WHO. There is no reason justifying this move at a moment when their efforts are needed more than ever.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said apportioning blame did not help. “The virus knows no borders,” he said in a tweet.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the WHO was essential to tackling the pandemic.

“At a time like this when we need to be sharing information and we need to have advice we can rely on, the WHO has provided that,” she said. “We will continue to support it and continue to make our contributions.”

GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. – https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html

‘BLAME CHINA, NOT WHO’

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathised with Trump’s criticisms of the WHO, especially its “unfathomable” support of re-opening China’s “wet markets”, where freshly slaughtered, and live, animals are sold.

“But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot of important work including here in our region in the Pacific and we work closely with them,” Morrison told an Australian radio station.

“We are not going to throw the baby out of with the bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism.”

John Sawers, the former head of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service, said China concealed crucial information about the outbreak from the rest of the world and that it would be better to hold China responsible rather than the WHO.

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who headed the WHO from 1998 to 2003, said an attack on the organization was “the last thing we need right now” since it had the power and ability to oversee the outbreak.

In its latest Strategy Update, the WHO said countries that ease restrictions should wait at least two weeks to evaluate the impact before easing again.

It said that the world stands at a “pivotal juncture”.

More than 2,200 people died in the United States on Tuesday, a record toll according to a Reuters tally, even as it debated how to reopen its economy.

New York City, hardest hit by the outbreak, revised its death toll sharply up to more than 10,000, to include victims presumed to have died of the lung disease but never tested.

U.S. health advocacy group Protect Our Care said Trump’s WHO funding withdrawal was “a transparent attempt … to distract from his history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s failure to prepare our nation”.

Global stocks fell as oil prices dropped and warnings of the worst global recession since the 1930s underscored the economic damage done by the pandemic. The International Energy Agency forecast a 29 million barrel per day dive in April oil demand to levels not seen in 25 years.

Denmark became the latest country to ease its coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday, by reopening schools and day care centres. But concerns they might become breeding grounds for a second wave of cases convinced thousands of parents to keep their children at home.

(Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in a separate browser for an interactive graphic to track the global spread)

(Reporting from Reuters bureaux across the world; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel and Philippa Fletcher)

CDC director says 19-20 U.S. states may be ready to reopen May 1

By Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday he believes 19 or 20 U.S. states have had limited impact from the new coronavirus and their governors believe they may be ready to reopen by President Donald Trump’s May 1 target date.

“There are a number of counties within this country that have not experienced really any coronavirus despite testing,” Robert Redfield said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“There are a number of states – 19, 20 states – that really have had limited impact from it. So I think we will see some states that are, the governors feel that they’re ready, we’re poised to assist them with that reopening,” Redfield said.

Trump said on Monday evening he was close to completing a plan for ending America’s coronavirus shutdown, which has thrown millions out of work, and may restart the battered U.S. economy in some areas even before May 1. He said around 20 states were “in extremely good shape and could reopen fairly quickly.

The president took renewed aim at the World Health Organization at the briefing, saying he has instructed his administration to halt U.S. funding to the Geneva-based institution over its handling of the pandemic.

Redfield would not directly answer a question about the president’s decision but said the CDC and WHO have had a long history of working together on global health outbreaks.

“We’ve had a very productive public health relationship,” he said. “We continue to have that.”

The CDC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have put together a public health strategy to reopen parts of the country as part of the larger White House effort get Americans back to work, the Washington Post reported.

The plan cites three phases: A national communication campaign and community readiness assessment through May 1; increased emergency funding and production of testing kits and personal protective equipment through May 15; and staged reopenings depending on local conditions.

The plan said some mitigation measures would have to remain in effect and communities that would only need “low mitigation” efforts are places where the virus never took hold, the Post said.

The document warned: “Models indicate 30-day shelter in place followed by 180 day lifting of all mitigation results in large rebound curve — some level of mitigation will be needed until vaccines or broad community immunity is achieved for recovering communities.”

Redfield said mitigation steps such as people staying physically separated would also likely have to continue until a vaccine and treatments are available.

“I do think we’re going to have some social distancing that’s going to be a critical part of our strategy as we go forward,” he told CBS “This Morning” in an interview.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Alex Richardson and Steve Orlofsky)

A day fighting COVID-19: U.S. hospital staff share hardest moments on shift

BALTIMORE, Md. (Reuters) – The shifts are long and the scenes are heartbreaking inside a Maryland hospital where nurses and doctors have been treating coronavirus patients for weeks, unable to let family inside to visit loved ones on their death beds.

One of the hardest moments of a recent work day for registered nurse Julia Trainor was intubating a patient, and then calling the patient’s husband so he could talk to his wife. He was not allowed in the hospital.

“I had to put him on the phone and hold the phone to her ear as he told her that he loved her so much, and then I had to wipe away her tears,” says Trainor, who works in a surgical intensive care unit. “I’m used to seeing very sick patients and I’m used to patients dying, but nothing quite like this.”

The highly infectious COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus has infected more than 580,000 people across the United States and killed nearly 24,000.

In Maryland, where residents have been ordered to stay at home since March 30 to stem the spread of the disease, around 9,000 have tested positive for the virus and more than 260 have died.

After finishing what for many was a more than 12-hour shift, some nurses and doctors at one hospital shared with Reuters the hardest moments of their days. The hospital asked that it not be named.

The medical workers agreed that one of the toughest parts of the job – more than the exhausting schedule or adjusting to work in a new unit – was witnessing the toll on patients and families.

Because of the hospital’s no-visitor policy, which was implemented to prevent further spread of the virus, the medical staff must care for the patients’ physical needs and offer as much emotional support as they can muster in the absence of the patients’ families.

“The hardest moment during the shift was just seeing COVID patients die helpless and without their family members beside them,” says Ernest Capadngan, a nurse in the hospital’s biocontainment unit.

Communicating with the families has weighed heavily on the hospital staff. Staff cannot bend the no-visit rules, even when a family calls in desperation.

“I had a patient fall out of bed today and I had to call his wife and tell her and she couldn’t come see him, even though she pleaded and begged to come see him,” says Tracey Wilson, a nurse practitioner.

“One of the hardest moments was having to see a family member of a COVID patient say goodbye over an iPad,” says Tiffany Fare, a nurse in the biocontainment unit. “You can’t see your loved one and then they’re gone.”

There are very few opportunities to rest during a shift, although colleagues look out for one another and try to cover for each other when someone needs a break.

Cheryll Mack, a registered nurse in the emergency room, says she tries to get outside for 15 minutes during the day to breathe.

“It has given me relief, just fresh air,” Mack says.

Each shift concludes with a similar decontamination drill. Nurses and doctors must remove their personal protective equipment and shower immediately before coming in contact with their family at home.

“I take a very long, very hot shower. And then I usually sit on the couch and… read a book or watch some mindless reality show in order to destress,” says Martine Bell, a nurse practitioner.

Laura Bontempo, an emergency medicine physician, says she removes her work clothing and gear in a decontamination tent she has set up outside her home, and then wraps herself in a towel and runs inside to shower.

Then she puts the scrubs in the washing machine by themselves to not contaminate any other items.

Meghan Sheehan, 27, a nurse practitioner, says she drives home each night without turning on the radio and uses the quiet time to reflect on her shift and her patients. When she gets home, she tries hard not to dwell on the day.

“I go home, I shower immediately and try to have dinner with family, and try to not talk about it,” she said. “Nighttime is definitely the hardest because you’re constantly thinking about what the next day will brin

(Writing by Gabriella Borter in New York, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

With cheers, New York nurses greet reinforcements from across the U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – With loud cheers and applause, medical staff at New York’s Northwell Health network greeted 46 nurses on Tuesday who had arrived from all over the United States to reinforce hospitals as they battle the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 24,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally. There were nearly 583,000 confirmed cases, over 200,000 of which were in New York state alone.

Treating the large number of patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has challenged hospitals in its U.S. epicenter. They have scrambled to find enough ventilators and other equipment, as well as beds and staff.

Northwell, the largest healthcare provider in New York, said it had contracted medical staffing companies to help it buttress efforts to treat patients at 18 hospitals across New York City, Long Island and Westchester county.

The “clap-in,” with dozens of staff cheering loudly and holding signs saying “Nurses are the heart of healthcare” and “Welcome, healthcare heroes,” was a surprise for the nurses who arrived on Tuesday afternoon for a half-day training session. Hailing from states including California, South Carolina, and Indiana, they are undergoing training in subjects ranging from operating ventilators to dealing with electronic medical records.

“It’s so heartwarming to see so many nurses come from so far away to assist us in our time of need,” said Maureen White, executive vice president and chief nurse executive at Northwell.

About 300 nurses from other areas have been enlisted over the past three weeks, said Launette Woolforde, Northwell’s registered nurse and vice president for nursing education.

Marybella Cole, who had arrived in New York from Lewiston, Idaho, said community was important to her.

“There’s no bigger calling than something like this,” she said.

Raymond Woods said he had left kids and grandchildren behind in Indiana so he could help.

“I have never been more proud to be a nurse. This is by far the most rewarding career I’ve had in my life,” he said.

(Reporting by Andrew Hofstetter; Writing by Bernadette Baum; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 24,000: Reuters tally

(Reuters) – U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 24,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as officials debated how to reopen the economy without reigniting the outbreak.

The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, has recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 than any other country. There were a total of nearly 583,000 U.S. cases with nearly 2 million reported cases globally.

On Monday, the United States reported about 1,500 new fatalities, far below last week’s running tally of roughly 2,000 deaths every 24 hours, according to a Reuters tally. U.S. deaths exceeded 24,400 on Tuesday with many states yet to report.

Sweeping stay-at-home restrictions to curb the spread of the illness, in place for weeks in many areas of the United States, have taken a painful toll on the economy. With businesses closed and curbs on travel, officials and lawmakers are debating when it might be safe to begin reopening some sectors.

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Howard Goller)

Coronavirus drives U.S. political protest off the streets and into online forums

By Elizabeth Culliford and Makini Brice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At any other time, a divisive U.S. president dealing with a national crisis that is causing severe economic dislocation might bring throngs of demonstrators to the streets of Washington and state capitals across the country.

But the spread of the novel coronavirus, which had killed more than 23,560 people in the United States and infected 584,293 as of Monday night and shut down all but essential travel and businesses, has made physical protests nearly impossible.

Activists representing nurses, flight attendants, civil rights, voting rights, African Americans, people with chronic illnesses, renters and multiple other groups are reassembling online, hoping to influence lawmakers in Congress and officials in the White House.

But their impact may be limited, experts say.

The Poor People’s Campaign, which is demanding that the government’s $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief package better serve poor and low-income people, has converted a planned June 20 march in Washington into an online gathering on that date.

“What we’ve got to do is take everything we had planned to do in the street and do it through social media,” the Rev. William Barber, the campaign co-chair, told Reuters.

“We’re going to give a platform to all of these frontline essential workers who are not being treated like they’re essential,” he said, adding the campaign was gathering advice from film producers and other experts on how to tell stories at the event.

Health Care Voter, which is pushing to preserve the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and lower prescription drug costs, had initially planned to do a bus tour in March and April, stopping in 30 cities from California to Maine.

Instead, it is holding digital events, including a March 31 national town hall featuring Democratic U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi that received 400,000 views – unprecedented for the group, campaign director Rosemary Enobakhare said.

“People are at home, honestly, and they want to be able to have these conversations,” said Enobakhare. “People are looking at ways to interact.”

March for Science, a grassroots movement that holds Earth Day rallies each year, has canceled its April street protests for virtual forums using videoconferencing app Zoom and Facebook Live to interview experts about the pandemic and public policy.

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said the anti-corruption watchdog group had shifted much of its work to research the federal government’s coronavirus bailouts for big business but that it was challenging to get information out in a news environment dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Color of Change President Rashad Robinson said the civil rights group was dealing with the rush of news by ramping up spending on Facebook and Google ads and developing media partnerships.

HONKING ACTIONS, PETITIONS

While young activists may adapt well to moving their campaigns online, their efforts may be less effective than actual street protests, said Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, whose research focuses on activism.

“Large-scale protest events are opportunities to create collective identity for the people participating and to extend the constituency,” Fisher said.

Past in-person rallies against the Trump administration had that aim in mind rather than hoping the president might look out of the White House and change his policy, she said.

Some physical protests are still happening, but in new ways.

National Nurses United, which has 185,000 members, is pushing for Congress to get nurses proper personal protective equipment with a text campaign and protests at hospitals, said Malinda Markowitz, one of the presidents of the California Nurses Association affiliate.

“We have to make sure that we just have a very small group of nurses and they’re 6 feet (1.8 m) apart when they’re out there,” she said.

Barbara Suarez Galeano, organizing director for Detention Watch Network, a coalition of groups working to abolish immigration detention, said the network had been signing petitions and performing call-ins and “honking actions.” Last week in Chicago, people drove to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, the juvenile prison and finally the county jail, where more than 150 cars gathered to circle the building.

“There’s a lot of ways to be disruptive and still be visible,” said Suarez Galeano.

Petitions urging Whole Foods to grant paid leave to employees and for New York state to bar hospitals from banning support people in delivery rooms helped create change, activists say.

“The huge volume of petitions being created right now speaks to the urgency, concern and anxiety that millions of Americans feel as the COVID-19 pandemic dominates our day-to-day lives,” said Michael Jones, managing director of campaigns at Change.org.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Elizabeth Culliford; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Peter Cooney)

U.S. Census will ramp up count June 1, results delayed four months due to coronavirus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Census Bureau, which stopped some of its work last month because of the new coronavirus, said on Monday that it planned to ramp up again beginning on June 1 but would need more time to complete the count.

The Census Bureau, which is under the Commerce Department and counts all Americans every 10 years, suspended field collection in March but is planning to re-start on June 1, according to a statement from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Bureau Director Steven Dillingham.

The bureau also said that it would ask Congress for permission to delay its work by 120 days. This would mean that it would complete data collection by Oct. 31 and release state populations by April 30, 2021. Redistricting data would be given to states by July 31, 2021. The survey determines how the state legislatures draw voting districts during the next round of redistricting and guides the federal government in allocating $1.5 trillion a year in aid.

“In-person activities, including all interaction with the public, enumeration, office work and processing activities, will incorporate the most current guidance to promote the health and safety of staff and the public,” the statement said.

The bureau also said that 70 million households have responded, or about 48%.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

‘Here Comes the Sun’ gets U.S. hospitals through dark days of pandemic

By Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The most powerful medicine being used to bolster the morale of New York area healthcare workers at the epicenter of the U.S. novel coronavirus crisis may well be music.

Daily infusions of upbeat songs from The Beatles’ classic “Here Comes the Sun” to the theme from the hang-tough movie “Rocky” are being pumped through hospital public address systems to boost the spirits of nurses, doctors and support staff.

About 545,000 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States as of Sunday, and roughly 21,600 have died of the highly contagious illness.

A 4:30 p.m. daily dose of Australian pop singer Starley’s “Call On Me” has given strength to staff at one of Mount Sinai’s hospitals in New York City, who clap as a growing number of patients are discharged from the overwhelmed facility across the street from Columbia University.

“Some people would say to accept their fate. Well if this is fate then we’ll find a way to cheat,” Starley sings. “You know you can call on me, if you can’t stop the tears from falling down.”

In New Jersey, the “Rocky” theme song filled the air at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Paterson when Dr. James Pruden, the hospital’s director of emergency preparedness, was discharged last week as he recovered from the virus, rolling in his wheelchair past cheering staff.

On New York’s Long Island, the joyful “Here Comes the Sun” blasts overhead on the public address system at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside every time a COVID-19 patient is discharged.

In Detroit, one of the newest U.S. hot spots for the fast-spreading disease, a Beaumont Health nurse said the 1969 Beatles hit was played not just when patients are discharged but each time they are taken off a ventilator to breath on their own.

“The smiles returning to the faces. Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here,” rings out the song that George Harrison wrote about renewal after a long, dark winter.

(Additional reporting by Herbert Lash and Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)