Tag Archives: COVID-19

Stuck at home and jobless, Americans confront growing costs of coronavirus

By Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the U.S. government said on Thursday, after another four states told residents to stay at home in the latest signs of the human and economic cost of the coronavirus.

Initial jobless claims rocketed as more states imposed stay-at-home orders, forcing large and small businesses to curtail output or shut altogether. More than 80 percent of Americans in 39 states are now under orders to remain at home to contain the spread of the virus.

Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Nevada told residents to stay home on Wednesday, when the death toll soared by 925 to more than 4,800 nationwide. Confirmed U.S. cases climbed to 214,000, nearly double that of Italy, with the second most.

Globally, the number of confirmed infections approached 1 million with nearly 47,000 fatalities, led by Italy with over 13,000 dead.

More gloomy news came on Thursday when the Labor Department reported a whopping 6.6 million people filed for jobless claims in the past week, double the previous record set a week ago.

“It takes your breath away,” said Justin Hoogendoorn, head of fixed income strategy and analytics at Piper Sandler in Chicago. “Obviously the immediate reaction to something like that is going to be fear, especially when (jobless claims) were just about double what economists were even predicting, thinking dire scenarios.”

The new evidence of the pandemic’s impact on the economy follows a growing consensus by health experts that the respiratory illness could kill 100,000 to 240,000 people even if lockdown orders remain in place and Americans abide by them.

To deal with the mounting number of fatalities, the U.S. Defense Department is looking to provide up to 100,000 body bags after the Federal Emergency Management Agency placed an order for that many, a Pentagon official told Reuters on Wednesday.

New York City crematories are extending their hours, burning bodies into the night, with bodies piling up so quickly that city officials are surveying cemeteries elsewhere in the state for temporary interment sites.

Funeral homes and cemetery directors describe a surge in demand unseen in decades as COVID-19 cases, the respiratory ailment caused by the novel coronavirus, surpassed 40,000 infections in the city, killing more than 1,000.

“We’ve been preparing for a worst-case scenario, which is in a lot of ways starting to materialize,” said Mike Lanotte, executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association.

NEW ORLEANS HIT HARDThe coronavirus is even more lethal in New Orleans, which has a per-capita death rate much higher than in New York City. Doctors, public health officials and available data say the Big Easy’s high levels of obesity and related ailments may be part of the problem.

“We’re just sicker,” said Rebekah Gee, head of Louisiana State University’s healthcare services division.

The outbreak will get worse and social distancing is the only way to contain it, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“We just have to do it,” Fauci told NBC’s Today show on Thursday. “That is our major weapon against this virus right now. We don’t have a vaccine that’s deployable. This is the only thing we have.”

He called on U.S. states to review the exemptions they have granted to their stay-at-home orders when he was asked whether businesses such as hair salons and florists should remain open.

“I urge the people at the leadership at the state level to really take a closer look at those kinds of decisions,” Fauci said.

An emergency stockpile of medical equipment maintained by the U.S. government has nearly run out of protective gear for doctors and nurses, as governors and healthcare providers across the country clamor for protective gear and medical equipment such as ventilators, which help COVID-19 patients breathe.

New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, has appointed former police commissioner James O’Neill to oversee the city’s medical supply chain.

U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called on Trump to follow suit and appoint a national czar with military experience to oversee the production and distribution of medical supplies.

“The system that the administration has in place is horrible,” Schumer told MSNBC, adding he would send a letter to Trump later on Thursday.

Fellow Democratic Senator Dick Durbin echoed Schumer, telling CNBC, “We are begging, pleading, scratching around at every way, shape or form to bring in the protective equipment that we need” for his state of Illinois.

Trump tweeted that New York has received more federal aid than any other state and said the man he describes as “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” and local officials should stop complaining, saying they should have stocked up long ago.

Trump also said on Twitter that 51 large cargo planes with medical supplies were on their way to the states and the federal government was “sending many ventilators today” without giving details.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller)

 

New York City crematories work overtime as coronavirus brings backlog of bodies

By Nick Brown and Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City crematories are extending their hours, burning bodies into the night. The state has started a running tally of all cremations and burials. City officials are surveying upstate cemeteries for temporary interment sites.

The destructive spread of the coronavirus through New York has not yet reached its peak, but those who put the dead to rest have never been busier.

Funeral homes and cemetery directors described a surge in demand unseen in decades from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus that has infected tens of thousands and killed roughly 1,400 in New York City.

“We’ve been preparing for a worst-case scenario,” said Mike Lanotte, executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association, “which is in a lot of ways starting to materialize.”

A majority of New Yorkers choose cremation over burial, but the most-populous U.S. city has only four crematories: one in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn and two in Queens. Directors at two of those locations said their daily workload has jumped from around 10 bodies to 15 or more, straining resources.

New York state has relaxed air-quality regulations to allow crematories to burn for longer hours. Still, in interviews with Reuters this week, the crematory directors reported phones ringing off the hooks and days busier than any in decades.

“No one could really imagine this happening,” said J.P. Di Troia, president of Fresh Pond Crematory in Queens, calling the pandemic among the most devastating events in his 52 years in business.

The crematory at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is taking between 15 and 20 bodies a day of late, nearly double its usual load, according to cemetery president Rich Moylan.

Like Di Troia, Moylan struggles to remember a time in his 48 years at Green-Wood when he has seen so many deaths from a single cause. “The closest comparison is September 11th,” he said, referring to the al Qaeda attacks on New York City in 2001.

Funeral homes report longer waits for cremations.

“My fridge is full,” said Andrew Nimmo, manager of Bergen Funeral Service Inc, which can store about 40 bodies. “I can’t get people out (to crematories) right away.”

That backlog is trickling down to hospitals. The Brooklyn Hospital Center said in a statement on Tuesday that the bodies of deceased patients were spending more time than usual in its morgues because “grieving families cannot quickly make arrangements.”

New York’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has sent refrigerated trucks and tents to hospitals to house more bodies. So far, that has mostly been enough. OCME buildings can store about 800 to 900 bodies, but the trucks have increased that to around 3,500, according to Aja Worthy-Davis, an OCME spokeswoman.

The body count is only expected to rise.

Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, unveiled modeling on Wednesday showing the U.S. death toll could reach as high as 240,000, as President Donald Trump called stay-at-home guidelines a “matter of life and death.” New York is the current epicenter of the pandemic in the United States.

ISLAND INTERMENTS

For the first time, the New York State Division of Cemeteries is requesting daily reports from cemeteries on the number of cremations and burials each day, according to David Fleming, legislative director for the New York State Association of Cemeteries.

Fleming has been working with city and state emergency planning officials to survey cemeteries and crematories in upstate New York that could ease the strain if the death rate surges higher. Some cemeteries may set aside land for temporary interments.

“It’s not a crashing system. We do have plans in place if there needs to be release of capacity from the city to more outlying areas,” Fleming said.

Hart Island, off the Bronx’s east shore in Long Island Sound, may also serve as a site for temporary interment, according to an OCME planning document for dealing with a surge of deaths from a pandemic.

The island is home to the city’s potter’s field, a cemetery for people with no next of kin or whose families cannot arrange funerals.

In normal times inmates from city jails each week bury some 25 New Yorkers there. But the number of burials on Hart jumped in the last week of March to 72, according to Jason Kersten, a spokesman at the Department of Correction, which oversees the island. Kersten referred questions about causes of death to OCME, which did not respond.

ABRIDGED GOODBYES

The pandemic is taking a toll on the funeral industry’s clientele, too – an emotional one. New York’s ban on public gatherings means families must curtail goodbyes to their loved ones.

Green-Wood is asking mourners, no more than 10 per funeral, to stay in their cars until casket-carriers have left the grave site to try to prevent the spread of the virus. Bergen Funeral Service is limiting wakes to immediate family only, its manager said.

At the Lawrence H. Woodward Funeral Home in Brooklyn, director Kendall Lindsay is asking mourners not to touch caskets. “If you have (COVID-19), you’re going to put it on the casket, and we have cemetery gentleman who have to touch it,” Lindsay said.

With services in synagogues canceled, Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue in Manhattan said some mourning families are coming together through video apps like Zoom.

“It’s important to honor the dead, but another conflicting principle is the sanctity of life,” Schneier said. “This is the conflict that families endure.”

(Reporting by Nick Brown and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Ross Colvin and Will Dunham)

Most Americans huddle indoors as coronavirus deaths keep spiking

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Four new states imposed sweeping stay-at-home directives on Wednesday in response to the coronavirus pandemic, putting over 80% of Americans under lockdown as the number of deaths in the United States nearly doubled in three days.

The governors of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Nevada each instituted the strict policies on a day when the death toll from COVID-19 shot up by 925 to more than 4,800 nationwide, with 214,000 confirmed cases, according to a Reuters tally.

President Donald Trump said he saw no need for the federal government to issue a nationwide decree, with 39 states and the District of Columbia now requiring residents to stay home except for essential outings to the doctor or grocery store.

He also told a White House briefing on Wednesday he was considering a plan to halt flights to coronavirus hot spots.

“We’re certainly looking at it, but once you do that you really are clamping down on an industry that is desperately needed,” Trump told a White House news briefing.

Such a plan might conceivably shut down traffic at airports in hard-hit New York, New Orleans and Detroit.

“We’re looking at the whole thing,” Trump said of curtailing domestic flights already greatly reduced as demand has fallen.

White House medical experts have forecast that even if Americans hunker down in their homes to slow the spread of COVID-19, some 100,000 to 240,000 people could die from the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

A Pentagon official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the U.S. Department of Defense was working to provide up to 100,000 body bags for use by civilian authorities in the coming weeks.

Since 2010, the flu has killed between 12,000 and 61,000 Americans a year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 1918-1919 flu pandemic killed 675,000 in the United States, according to the CDC.

A healthcare worker walks outside a newly constructed field hospital in the East Meadow of Central Park during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid

New York state remained the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for more than a third of the U.S. deaths. Governor Andrew Cuomo told police on Wednesday to enforce rules more aggressively for social distancing.

“Young people must get this message, and they still have not gotten the message. You still see too many situations with too much density by young people,” Cuomo, a Democrat, said in imposing rules to close playgrounds, swing sets, basketball courts and similar spaces.

“How reckless and irresponsible and selfish for people not to do it on their own,” Cuomo said.

CALIFORNIA CASES SURGE

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference the city was contracting with hotels as part of a massive effort to add 65,000 additional hospital beds by the end of the month.

De Blasio, also a Democrat, said the city had arranged to add 10,000 beds at 20 hotels, which have lost most of their guests as travel has stopped.

“This is going to be an epic process during the month of April to build out all that capacity,” de Blasio said. “But this goal can be reached.”

California saw the number of coronavirus cases surge by roughly 1,300 over the day before to nearly 10,000 as Governor Gavin Newsom warned that even as stay-at-home policies appeared to be having some effect, the state would run out of intensive- care hospital beds equipped with ventilators within six weeks.

Newsom said California could still manage to “bend” the state’s infection curve more, saving the need for additional beds, if residents were rigorous in staying home and avoiding contact with others.

“We are in a completely different place than the state of New York and I hope we will continue to be, but we won’t unless people continue to practice physical distancing and do their part,” the Democratic governor told a news conference in the state capital, Sacramento.

But Americans under lockdown and largely unable to work struggled with making ends meet as rent came due on Wednesday, the first day of the month.

In Oakland, California, Alfa Cristina Morales said she had been surviving on money saved for a U.S. citizenship application since losing her job at a coffee shop. Morales had sought unemployment benefits to support her two-year-old son.

“We’re worried that it won’t be enough,” she said.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said a six-week-old baby had died from COVID-19, in what he called “a reminder that nobody is safe from this virus.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News that Broward County would likely allow two cruise ships with coronavirus outbreaks carrying a total of 2,500 people to dock in Fort Lauderdale, despite his misgivings about potentially contagious foreign nationals.

“We were concerned about a deluge into the hospitals, but I think it turns out that there will probably be some who need to go, but it’s very manageable and the local hospital system thinks that they can handle it,” DeSantis, a Republican, told Fox.

At Fort Lauderdale, Floridians aboard the ships would be taken home and flights arranged for foreigners, he said.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Tim Ahmann, Daniel Trotta, Maria Caspani, Nathan Layne, Stephanie Kelly, Peter Szekely, Lisa Shumaker, Sharon Bernstein, Jeff Mason, Mohammad Zargham, Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Tarrant, Cynthia Osterman and Peter Cooney)

Factbox: Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world

(Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) voiced deep concern on Wednesday about the rapid escalation and global spread of the coronavirus. “In the next few days, we will reach 1 million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths worldwide,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

DEATHS, INFECTIONS

** More than 935,000 people have been infected across the world and over 46,900 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

** For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

** U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

EUROPE

** Italy’s daily death toll on Wednesday was the lowest in six days, but the overall number of new infections grew and the government extended a national lockdown until at least mid-April.

** Britain’s prime minister promised to ramp up testing after his government faced criticism for being slower than some European peers to roll out mass checks.

** France became the fourth country to exceed 4,000 deaths, while Spain’s death toll topped 10,000.

** The restrictive measures Ireland put in place last week may well be extended beyond the initial deadline of April 12, deputy prime minister said.

** The separatist government of Spain’s Catalonia region abandoned its initial reluctance and asked the national military for assistance.

** Serbia will revoke a decree giving the government control over information on the outbreak, following protests and the detention of a journalist for reporting a major hospital lacked protective gear and properly trained staff.

** Poland may face a peak in infections in April, government spokesman said, adding that further curbs on people’s movements could not be ruled out.

** EU executive chief expressed concern that restriction measures taken by Hungary went too far and insisted they should be limited in time and subject to scrutiny.

AMERICAS

** Four new states imposed sweeping stay-at-home directives on Wednesday, putting over 80% of Americans under lockdown as the number of deaths in the United States nearly doubled in three days.

** About 1,000 sailors from a virus-hit U.S. aircraft carrier were under quarantine at a U.S. naval base on Guam on Thursday.

** Presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro discussed cooperation between United States and Brazil, as Brazil’s health minister warned that infection rates and lack of medical supplies were a big concern.

** Brazil confirmed its first indigenous coronavirus case deep in the Amazon rainforest.

** Mexico’s president urged companies to keep paying workers or face public scorn, even as criticism of his economic management grows.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

** Mainland China logged fewer new infections on Thursday, but measures restricting movement were tightened in some areas due to a fear of more imported cases.

** India reported its biggest single day increase in cases as officials raced to track down some 9,000 people exposed to the country’s biggest infection cluster during a Muslim missionary group’s gathering last month.

** Facing calls to declare a state of emergency, Japan’s prime minister was derided on social media for instead offering people cloth masks, pointing to growing frustration with his handling of the crisis.

** Indonesia plans to give special assistance to residents of Jakarta within two weeks to limit the exodus from the capital during the Ramadan holiday period.

** South Korea will allow coronavirus patients to vote by mail or as absentees in parliamentary elections this month.

** WHO expects the number of cases in Malaysia to peak in mid-April, saying there are signs of a flattening of the infection curve.

** Singapore suffered its fourth death on Thursday, a day after it reported a record number of new cases that took its total to 1,000.

** Australia’s most populous state said police enforcement of restrictions on personal movement would last three months.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

** Iran’s president said the United States had missed an opportunity to lift sanctions on his country, though he said the penalties had not hampered Tehran’s fight against the virus which has killed more than 3,100 people in the country.

** Turkey’s tourism minister said he expected flights to return to normal by the end of June, as the country planned to step up measures if the virus keeps spreading and people ignore “voluntary” quarantine rules.

** Israel’s health minister and his wife were diagnosed with the virus.

** Egypt has ordered manufacturers to channel medical protective equipment to public hospitals.

** Zambia recorded its first death.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

** World stocks were pinned down on Thursday by the rising death toll and deepening economic pain, with another record week of jobless claims expected in the United States. [MKTS/GLOB]

** World food prices fell sharply in March, hit by a drop in demand and a plunge in global oil prices, the United Nations food agency said.

** The European Commission will propose a package to help the EU economy, including a short-time work scheme, easier access to funds for farmers and fishermen, and financing for development projects.

** British consumers will receive a three-month freeze on loan and credit card payments, under plans outlined by the financial regulator.

** Kuwait’s central bank announced a stimulus package to support vital sectors and small and medium enterprises.

** China will relax or remove restrictions on car purchases in some regions to help sales of new vehicles, while accelerating plans to boost the scrapping of old ones.

** Light vehicle sales in the United States fell nearly 27% in March, compared with a month earlier.

** Mexico’s economy is forecast to contract by as much as 3.9% in 2020, the finance ministry said on Wednesday, adding that the numbers incorporated a “drastic” virus impact.

** Factories fell quiet across much of the world in March as the pandemic paralyzed economic activity, with evidence mounting that the world is sliding into deep recession.

(Compiled by Sarah Morland, Milla Nissi, Aditya Soni and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, William Maclean, Sriraj Kalluvila)

France passes 4,000 coronavirus deaths

PARIS (Reuters) – French health authorities reported 509 new deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the total to 4,032, making the country the fourth to pass the 4,000-fatalities threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States.

After speeding up the previous two days, the rate of increase of deaths has decelerated in France, which is now in its third week of lockdown to try to slow the spread of the virus.

The daily government tally still only accounts for those dying in hospital but authorities say they will very soon be able to compile data on deaths in retirement homes, which is likely to result in a big increase in registered fatalities.

State health agency director Jerome Salomon told a news conference that the number of cases had risen to 56,989, a rise of 9%, versus +17% Tuesday.

Salomon said 6,017 people were in a serious condition needing life support, up 8% compared with Tuesday.

France has increased the number of beds in intensive care units from 5,000 to about 10,000 since the start of the crisis and it is scrambling to reach 14,500.

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Alison Williams)

Amazon warehouse workers protest near Detroit

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday said a handful of workers staged a demonstration at one of its warehouses near Detroit, reflecting the ongoing concerns among its staff about contracting the coronavirus on the job.

Less than 15 of Amazon’s more than 4,000 employees at its Romulus, Michigan fulfillment center participated, following confirmation that a worker based there had tested positive for the virus, the company said.

Those protesting have demanded Amazon shut down the facility for additional cleaning and cover all medical bills for associates and their family members who contracted COVID-19 from the site, according to a Facebook live stream of the demonstration.

(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese)

What’s in the $2.3 trillion U.S. coronavirus rescue package

(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump signed the largest federal stimulus package in history into law on March 27 to help cope with the economic downturn inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic and shore up medical providers on the front lines of the outbreak.

Here are major elements of the plan, which is estimated to cost roughly $2.3 trillion. Cost estimates are provided by congressional committees and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan policy group.

DIRECT PAYMENTS TO AMERICANS

Direct payments of up to $1,200 each to millions of Americans, with additional payments of $500 per child. Payments would be phased out for those earning more than $75,000 a year. Those earning more than $99,000 would not be eligible.

Estimated cost: $292 billion

ENHANCED UNEMPLOYMENT AID

Payments for jobless workers would increase by $600 per week. Laid-off workers would get those payments for up to four months. Regular benefits, which typically run out after six months in most states, would be extended for an additional 13 weeks.

Self-employed workers, independent contractors and those who typically don’t qualify for unemployment benefits would be eligible. The government would also partially make up wages for workers whose hours are scaled back, in an effort to encourage employers to avoid layoffs.

Estimated cost: $260 billion

SMALL BUSINESS LOANS AND GRANTS

Loans for businesses that have fewer than 500 employees could be partially forgiven if they are used for employee salaries, rent, mortgage interest and utility costs. The bill also includes emergency grants for small business.

Estimated cost: $377 billion.

AID TO AIRLINES, LARGE BUSINESSES

The bill sets up a fund to support a new Federal Reserve program that offers up to $4.5 trillion in loans to businesses, states and cities that can’t get financing through other means.

Companies tapping the fund would not be able to engage in stock buybacks and would have to retain at least 90% of their employees through the end of September. They would not be able to boost executive pay by more than $425,000 annually, and those earning more than $3 million a year would see their salaries reduced.

The fund would be overseen by an inspector general and a congressional oversight board. The Treasury secretary would have to disclose transactions.

Businesses owned by President Donald Trump, other administration officials or Congress members, or their family members, would not be eligible for assistance.

Loans are set aside for airlines, air cargo carriers, airline contractors and “businesses important to maintaining national security,” widely understood to be Boeing Co.

Total cost: $500 billion

GRANTS FOR AIRLINES

Airlines, air cargo carries and airline contractors also could get grants to cover payroll costs. They would have to maintain service and staffing levels, and would not be able to buy back stock or pay dividends. The U.S. government could get stock or other equity in return. Executive pay above $425,000 a year would be frozen for two years, and those who earn more than $3 million annually would see their salaries reduced.

Total cost: $32 billion

HOSPITALS AND PUBLIC HEALTH

– $100 billion for hospitals and other elements of the healthcare system

– $16 billion for ventilators, masks and other medical supplies

– $11 billion for vaccines and other medical preparedness

– $10 billion for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other health agencies

– $20 billion for veterans and military health systems

– $20 billion for the Medicare health program for seniors

STATES, EDUCATION, TRANSPORTATION

– $150 billion for state, local and Native American tribal governments

– $45 billion in disaster relief

– $32 billion for education

– $25 billion for mass-transit systems

– $10 billion in borrowing authority for the U.S. Postal Service

– $1 billion for the Amtrak passenger rail service

– $10 billion for airports

– $4 billion to suspend airline ticket, cargo and fuel taxes

TAX CUTS

– A refundable 50 percent payroll tax credit for businesses affected by the coronavirus, to encourage employee retention. Employers would also be able to defer payment of those taxes if necessary. Cost: $67 billion

– Loosened tax deductions for interest and operating losses. Cost: $210 billion

– Loosened rules for retirement funds, allowing people to withdraw money early or postpone withdrawals from accounts such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) that have been hurt by turbulence in financial markets. Cost: $8 billion

– Allows people to use tax-advantaged savings accounts to buy menstrual medical products. Cost: $9 billion

– Tax write-offs to encourage charitable deductions and encourage employers to help pay off student loans. Cost: $3 billion

– Waive tax on distilled spirits used to make hand sanitizer

INCREASED SAFETY NET SPENDING

– $25 billion more for food stamps and child nutrition

– $12 billion more for housing programs

– $5 billion more for child and family services

OTHER ELEMENTS

– Temporary ban on foreclosures and evictions for people who rely on federal housing and mortgage programs

– Defer payments and interest on federal student loans

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Peter Cooney, Steve Orlofsky, Jonathan Oatis and Sonya Hepinstall)

U.S. CDC reports 186,101 coronavirus cases, 3,603 deaths

(Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday reported 186,101 cases of coronavirus, an increase of 22,562 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 743 to 3,603.

The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on March 31 compared to its count a day ago.

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.

(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

New York Governor closes city playgrounds to combat virus

(Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday he would close down the playgrounds in New York City in an effort to bolster social distancing and limit the number of coronavirus-related deaths, which are approaching 2,000 in the state.

The move expands on an announcement a day earlier by Mayor Bill de Blasio that he would close 10 of the city’s playgrounds where there had been people crowding in close proximity, threatening to further spread the virus that has hit the nation’s most populous city particularly hard.

“Young people must get this message, and they still have not gotten the message, you still see too many situations with too much density by young people,” Cuomo said. “So we’re going to take more dramatic action. We’re going to close down the New York City playgrounds.”

Cuomo added that open spaces in parks would remain available for people to “walk around, get some sun.”

The governor said that the number of coronavirus cases in his state had increased to 83,712, up from 75,795 from a day earlier, with deaths rising to 1,941, up from 1,550, by far the most in the United States.

(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut and Maria Caspani in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Chinese scientists seeking potential COVID-19 treatment find ‘effective’ antibodies

By Martin Quin Pollard

BEIJING (Reuters) – A team of Chinese scientists has isolated several antibodies that it says are “extremely effective” at blocking the ability of the new coronavirus to enter cells, which eventually could be helpful in treating or preventing COVID-19.

There is currently no proven effective treatment for the disease, which originated in China and is spreading across the world in a pandemic that has infected more than 850,000 and killed 42,000.

Zhang Linqi at Tsinghua University in Beijing said a drug made with antibodies like the ones his team have found could be used more effectively than the current approaches, including what he called “borderline” treatment such as plasma.

Plasma contains antibodies but is restricted by blood type.

In early January, Zhang’s team and a group at the 3rd People’s Hospital in Shenzhen began analysing antibodies from blood taken from recovered COVID-19 patients, isolating 206 monoclonal antibodies which showed what he described as a “strong” ability to bind with the virus’ proteins.

They then conducted another test to see if they could actually prevent the virus from entering cells, he told Reuters in an interview.

Among the first 20 or so antibodies tested, four were able to block viral entry and of those, two were “exceedingly good” at doing so, Zhang said.

The team is now focused on identifying the most powerful antibodies and possibly combining them to mitigate the risk of the new coronavirus mutating.

If all goes well, interested developers could mass produce them for testing, first on animals and eventually on humans.

The group has partnered with a Sino-U.S. biotech firm, Brii Biosciences, in an effort “to advance multiple candidates for prophylactic and therapeutic intervention”, according to a statement by Brii.

“The importance of antibodies has been proven in the world of medicine for decades now,” Zhang said. “They can be used to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases.”

The antibodies are not a vaccine but could potentially be given to at-risk people with the aim of preventing them from contracting COVID-19.

Normally it takes around two years for a drug even to get close to approval for use on patients, but the COVID-19 pandemic means things are moving faster, he said, with steps that would previously be taken sequentially now being done in parallel.

Zhang, who posted the findings online, hopes the antibodies can be tested on humans in six months. If they are found to be effective in trials, actual use for treatment would take longer.

Other experts urge caution.

“There’s a number of steps which will now need to be followed before it could be used as a treatment for coronavirus patients,” Hong Kong University infectious disease specialist Ben Cowling said when the finding was described to him by Reuters.

“But it’s really exciting to find these potential treatments, and then have a chance to test them out. Because if we can find more candidates, then eventually we’ll have better treatment,” Cowling said.

(Additional reporting by Roxanne Liu; Editing by Kim Coghill; Editing by Tony Munroe, Kate Kelland and Kim Coghill)