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Promising Treatments for Coronavirus

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. (NIAID-RML via AP)

By Lieba Nesis

There is currently a race to come up with the next coronavirus cure with dozens of medical companies feverishly testing the next panacea.  The financial stakes are great and everyone knows it.  The question is not “if” but “when” as the world waits with baited breath for the results of various clinical trials.

Zhang Linqi, at China’s Tsinghua University, said his team had discovered various antibodies that could block the virus from entering cells when used in medicinal form.  Moreover, the three most talked about drugs Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin and Remdesivir could be significant “game-changers” as echoed by the president.  China initially became interested in Hydroxychloroquine when it observed 80 patients with lupus in its dermatology ward remained immune to coronavirus despite the widespread outbreak in the hospital.  Wuhan hospital treated 20 patients with the drug and within 5 days a chest CT scan showed significant absorption improvement in 19 of them-remarkable results.  Similarly in France, an 80-person study found four out of five patients received favorable outcomes when treated with Hydroxychloroquine.  According to Dr. Gautret 65 of the 80 patients were discharged from the hospital in less than 5 days.  These patients had fairly mild symptoms but the recovery rate is astounding nonetheless.  Anecdotal evidence confirms this success, as Dr. Vladmir Zelenko said that in 699 patients he treated with the drug there were Zero intubations, Zero deaths and four hospitalizations.  To date there has been a hoarding of these medicines as many doctors use them prophylactically on themselves to prevent contraction of the virus upon consistent interaction with sick patients.

Similarly, Remdesivir, a novel antiviral drug categorized as a nucleotide analog has shown immense promise.  The World Health Organization has touted it as the best remedy currently available.  Gilead Sciences is producing the drug-a broad based antiviral that was initially developed to treat Ebola.  There are three ongoing clinical trials across China and The United States which will hopefully prove Remdesivir’s efficacy in blocking the enzyme that viruses use to copy their genomes.  Numerous patients on ventilators have reported miraculous results after near-death experiences with Remdesivir; along with laboratory experiments confirming the drug reduces viral loads and improves respiratory functions in a mouse model of SARS.

The final and most potent tool in the arsenal to inhibit the virus are 40 vaccines which are currently in the pipeline to be ready in 12 to 18 months-when the typical time frame for approval is 10 years.  Experts are warning not to rush too quickly through safety trials as the effects on the public could be devastating.  The “need for speed” at this critical juncture is clear; however, potentially sacrificing lives is only advisable in a last resort situation.

21st Israeli dies of COVID-19 as Cases Reach 5,591; Unemployment hits Record Highs

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Cleaning workers disinfect the Western Wall in the Old city of Jerusalem on March 31, 2020, as preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus. on March 31, 2020. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** ?????? ????? ????? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????

As Israel saw its 21st coronavirus fatality on Wednesday and confirmed infections in the country hit 5,591, the Israel National Employment Service (INES) announced that the number of unemployment claimants has exceeded 1 million for the first time.

Israel’s 21st coronavirus casualty was a 98-year-old woman who had “serious and complicated” pre-existing conditions and had been hospitalized at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. According to Israel’s Health Ministry, she represents the second victim to have contracted the virus at the Mishan nursing home in southern Jerusalem, with 12 other residents also testing positive, at least three of whom remain in serious condition.

By Wednesday, more than NIS 1.5 million ($422,000) had been raised by Lod residents for the orphaned 4-year-old children of 49-year-old Lod resident Tamar Peretz-Levi, who was hospitalized with coronavirus for less than a week before passing away on Tuesday. Her husband had died three years ago of a heart attack.

Of Israel’s 5,591 cases, 97 are in serious condition, with 76 on ventilators. Another 122 are in moderate condition and 5,121 have minor symptoms, according to the ministry. Some 226 Israeli coronavirus patients have recovered.

As Israel’s medical establishment battles the epidemic, INES Director-General Rami Garor said on Wednesday that nearly 90 percent of the more than 1 million Israelis now claiming unemployment benefits have been placed on unpaid leave. Israel’s unemployment figure, which before the crisis stood at 4 percent, has now reached more than 24 percent, with nearly 850,000 people applying for benefits since March.

 

JNS NEWS

New York State’s Virus Deaths Jump To More than 1,900

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By ROBERT BUMSTED, MARINA VILLENEUVE and MICHAEL HILL (AP)

Coronavirus deaths soared. New York City playgrounds were targeted for shutdown to help slow an outbreak projected to grow worse for another month. Overtaxed hospitals began transferring patients north of the city. And residents near one struggling hospital have become all too used to ambulance sirens.

“It’s very eerie. I think everyone’s just doing what they can, but at the same time it bothers you. Especially if you’re around Elmhurst because you can hear all the ambulances,” said Emma Sorza, near Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

NUMBERS UP, NO RESPITE

New York’s COVID-19 death count more than doubled in 72 hours to 1,941.

One month after New York discovered its first infection — a health care worker returning from Iran — the state tallied more than 83,000 positive cases. The 1,941 deaths were up from 965 Sunday morning. New York logged its first virus-related death March 13, an 82-year-old woman with emphysema.

With more than 12,000 people hospitalized, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the latest outbreak projections show no respite this month.

“What we’re looking at now is the apex — the top of the curve — roughly at the end of April, which means another month of this,” Cuomo told a state Capitol news briefing.

One model cited by Cuomo projected 16,000 deaths in New York once the outbreak runs its course in the coming months. Though the governor stressed it’s unclear how the pandemic will end.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen. And I understand the need for closure, the need for control,” he said. “We’re at a place we’ve never been before.”

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CLOSING PLAYGROUNDS

Upset that people were still packing into New York City playgrounds despite social-distancing rules, Cuomo said he is working with city officials to have them closed. Green spaces would be kept open.

“So use the open space in a park. Walk around, get some sun, great,” Cuomo said. “No density. No basketball games. No close contact. No violation of social distancing, period.”

City police have been patrolling the city’s parks, playgrounds and other public spaces, cautioning people to stay six feet apart and breaking up groups violating the rules. Police have even sent marked patrol cars through big city parks blaring recorded reminders about the importance of social distancing.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the rules were being followed at most playgrounds, but had closed a handful where violations were rampant. The mayor said Wednesday he respects that Cuomo is approaching the issue with “an abundance of caution” and will work with him.

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HOSPITALS UNDER PRESSURE

A medical advisory council is telling paramedics in New York City they shouldn’t take fatal heart victims to hospitals to have them pronounced dead.

The temporary protocol issued this week by the Regional Emergency Medical Service is meant to ease the burden on city hospitals, some of which have begun transferring patients more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) north to the Albany area.

Albany Med said it accepted 14 transfer patients late Tuesday who have either confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19. The hospital said it accepted patients from hospitals in Jamaica and Flushing in Queens.

Data released by the city shows that the disease is having a disproportionate effect in certain neighborhoods, mainly in Brooklyn and Queens.

“I’m terrified to go outside and also to walk along this strip, because everyone that’s headed to the hospital, which we can see from here, is going through here,” said Nicholas Corsini, near Elmhurst Hospital.

An emergency field hospital with 68 beds opened Wednesday in Central Park near The Mount Sinai Hospital. A temporary hospital in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and a Navy hospital ship docked off Manhattan were also taking patients.

De Blasio said the city is engaged in the “epic process” of increasing hospital capacity from 20,000 beds to 65,000 beds by the end of April. He said the city needs over 5 million masks, 100,000 gowns and 400 more ventilators by Sunday just to be prepared for next week. He said the city will need up to 3,000 more ventilators during the next week.

The virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has spread rapidly across the globe. It causes mild symptoms in many of those infected, but it can cause severe symptoms or death for some, including older adults and those with underlying medical conditions such as respiratory ailments.

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SUPPLY CZAR

New York City is enlisting its recently retired police commissioner as a coronavirus supply czar, making sure hospitals on the front lines of the fight have sufficient supplies and equipment.

James O’Neill, who left the NYPD in November, is taking the role on a voluntary basis and will remain a senior vice president and global security chief at credit card giant Visa Inc.

O’Neill was with the police department for 36 years, the last three as commissioner.

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

At least 82,000 people have volunteered f or New York’s reserve force of medical workers — a group that includes recent retirees returning to work, health care professionals who can take a break from their regular jobs and people between gigs, according to health officials.

Report: U.S. Intelligence Concludes China Is Lying About Coronavirus

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Yuichiro Kakutani _ Washington Free Beacon

A U.S. intelligence report concluded that China lied about the impact of the coronavirus within its borders, under-reporting total case numbers and deaths in public figures, according to Bloomberg News.

China today claims to have roughly 82,000 confirmed cases and 3,300 deaths, but skeptics have long doubted the veracity of those figures, citing accounts from Chinese crematoriums that are processing thousands of urns with coronavirus remains every day. The classified report, which Bloomberg said was submitted to the White House, found that China’s coronavirus figures are “intentionally incomplete,” corroborating circumstantial evidence that China falsified its figures.

“A *single mortuary* in Wuhan reportedly ordered more urns in two days than the Chinese Communist Party has reported total deaths in the whole country,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) tweeted on Sunday. “I’m sure you’re shocked by evidence of Chinese lies.”

Beijing has reported a steady drop in new COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks, painting a rosy picture while the rest of the world struggles to fight the pandemic. However, China’s official count changes by the day as the Chinese Communist Party routinely shifts the standards for who is included in the statistics. For instance, the country started to release its daily tally of new asymptomatic patients starting Wednesday, after the public expressed concerns that asymptomatic carriers might unwittingly transmit the disease.

The report comes as Republican congressional leaders such as Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) push to hold China accountable for exacerbating the coronavirus outbreak. These measures have encountered pushback from Democrats, who accuse Republicans of inflaming racial animosity.

In addition to falsifying its figures, China also launched an aggressive disinformation campaign in March, accusing the U.S. military of bringing the virus into Wuhan. The legislation being pushed by Banks seeks to counter those efforts by urging China to disavow that falsehood.

“The House of Representatives calls on the Chinese Government to (A) publicly state that there’s no evidence that COVID–19 originated anywhere else but China; (B) denounce the baseless conspiracy that the United States Army placed COVID–19 in Wuhan,” the bill states.

Washington Free Beacon

Eden Roc Passover Scam?? Brooklyn Yeshiva Files Breach of Contract Suit

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By Denis Cyr

As the Coronavirus continues to keep New Yorkers sequestered at home, all travel plans for the upcoming Passover holiday have cancelled.  It now appears that an ugly legal dispute has arisen between a Brooklyn school and a Miami Beach hotel.

Click to see the full complaint filed

According to published reports, Brooklyn’s Magen David Yeshiva had planned to spend their Passover holiday at the iconic Eden Roc hotel in South Beach, however the deadly pandemic that has been ravaging the world has prevented New Yorkers from leaving home.

The private school, established in 1946 and rooted in Sephardic Jewish tradition, services students from pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade. As with schools across the nation, the viral outbreak has forced the Brooklyn campus to shutter and move classes online, as was reported  by the Miami Herald.

Working with the tour operator, Elegant Travel, the school first booked a Passover trip in 2018, and followed up with another in 2019. Then, it signed a three-year contract to keep the event at the hotel.

Because of rapid spread of the Coronavirus, Magen David had no other option but to cancel the trip. Eden Roc, however is refusing to issue a refund to the school for its down payment of  $2.3 million. The school had rented 621 rooms at the iconic hotel for 10 nights for their 1200 guests to enjoy all of the amenities that the hotel provided.

According to the breach of contract lawsuit filed by Magen David’s attorney in Miami-Dade circuit court, the school has cited a passage in the contract that would allow for a cancellation in the event of a “disease outbreak.”

The NY Post reported that on March 9, the school told the hotel that many of the families who were traveling with the elderly wouldn’t be able to attend because of the “escalating problems presented by COVID-19,” the court documents say. The Miami Herald reported that after Magen David made this announcement, the hotel’s vice president of sales, Sergio Rivera, responded by “demanding” that Magen David pony up an additional $1.2 million toward the rest of the cost of renting out the hotel.

An attorney representing the hotel “did not recognize or acknowledge the mushrooming COVID-19 catastrophe,” the court filings declare.

On March 18th, the school (working with the tour operator Elegant Travel) formally cancelled the trip. Within days, New York’s governor issued a statewide “shelter-in-place” order that forbade travel and Miami Beach ordered hotels to cancel existing reservations, according to the Miami Herald report.

At about the same time, the Eden Roc’s summarily rejected the notion that disease outbreak was a legitimate or credible reason for the trip to be canceled and according to the court filings, said that the Eden Roc will ‘retain the entirety” of the school’s deposit.

Magen David’s attorney, Daniel Blonsky of the Miami law firm, Coffey Burlington, told the Jewish Voice that the contract agreed upon by Magen David, Elegant Travel and the Eden Roc includes a provision entitled “Force Majeure” which grants legal permission for the school to cancel the contract for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the outbreak of disease. The lawsuit reveals that the other matters include “acts of G-d,  natural disasters, union strike, terrorist attacks in the city in which the hotel is located, or declared war on the United States.”

Moreover it includes the following: “In the event that the Force Majeure event causes Group (Magen David) to cancel the Event, all monies paid to the Hotel shall be returned to Group.”

The hotel is insisting the event be rescheduled or “proceed as scheduled with whomever was foolhardy enough to travel from New York to Miami Beach for the Passover 2020 event,” according Mr. Blonsky.

The suit also said that the hotel showed an “utter and contemptuous disregard of the health and safety” of attendees and locals due to the inherent dangers of the virus.  Mr. Blonsky added that the school hoped to avoid a lawsuit and reach a business resolution, but that it was forced to file suit when the Eden Roc refused to recognize what was happening with the pandemic and claimed that the entire deposit was forfeited when the Force Majeure provision was invoked.

The Jewish Voice has made repeated attempts to contact the Eden Roc for comments on this case but calls have not been returned by Julie Cabaleri of the public relations department or  general manager Michael Chin.

According to an unnamed source familiar with the case, the obstinacy on the part of the Eden Roc is emanating from the ownership, which is based in Mexico. The source also revealed that the Eden Roc is an asset of Key International (key-international.com) and is managed by brothers Inigo and Diego Ardid, who are co-presidents. Said the source, “Diego seems to be the one responsible for the Eden Roc. They’re originally from Spain.”

More information here

 

 

 

Coronavirus Updates: New York and Beyond 4/1

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JV web editor

Here is the latest information from New York, Around the country and around the world

Cuomo Press conference

  • New York has confirmed 83,712 cases of coronavirus, marking an increase of 7,917 since yesterday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo  announced.  The virus has now claimed 1,941 lives in New York state, up from 1,550 yesterday
  • New York governor Andrew Cuomosaid the coronavirus crisis is expected to hit its peak in the state at the end of April.
  • Cuomo said the timing of the apex of the crisis would depend upon how well New Yorkers respected social distancing guidelines. New York governor Andrew Cuomonoted there are several different projections on when the state will hit the peak of this crisis. Some projections say the apex of the crisis will come in seven days, and others say it will come in six weeks. The model Cuomo has cited is a moderate projection, predicting the apex will come in late April.
  • If America sees 100,000 deaths in the coronavirus pandemic, projections show New York could lose 16,000 of its residents, governor Andrew Cuomosaid.
  • “Look at us today, see yourself tomorrow,” Cuomo said of Americans living in other states.
  • New York governor Andrew Cuomoannounced New York City playgrounds would be closed due to lack of compliance to social distancing guidelines. “Compliance is still not where it should be,” Cuomo said. Officials had hoped to keep the playgrounds open, but it became untenable, the governor said.
  • Cuomosaid he thought Americans would be living with the consequences of the pandemic for a long time to come. “I don’t think we get back to normal,” Cuomo said. “I think we get to a new normal.”
  • Cuomosaid his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, is doing well after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

New York News

  • More than 1,400 NYPD employees, including more than 1,000 officers, have contracted COVID-19 as emergency calls in the city hit record highs, CNBC reported.  6,100 uniformed officers, or about 17% of the 36,000-strong workforce, called out sick Wednesday, Police Chief Terence Monahan said.
  • 1 in 5 hospitalizations are occurring in people under age 44, according to data released by the city’s health department
  • NYC released a map showing coronavirus cases via zipcode 
  • One thousand nurses have been added to the city’s hospital system, with more to come in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has deployed 250 more ambulances to New York City to deal with a record number of 911 calls, Guardian reported.

National News 

  • US statistics 211,408 cases,  4,718 deaths
  • Surgeon general Jerome Adams told ABC News “We’ve learned there’s a fair amount of asymptomatic spread, and so we’ve asked the CDC to take another look at whether or not having more people wear masks will prevent transmission of the disease to other people.” Reversing their  previous stance of using masks in fear of a shortage due to hoarding .
  • Govorner DeSantis has issued a “stay at home” order for South Florida, but he has expressed concerns about how a statewide order would affect the economy. DeSantis has also noted that the federal government has not explicitly told governors to issue statewide orders
  • Maryland governor Larry Hogan announced Monday that he was issuing a statewide “stay at home” order to mitigate the spread of the virus. Hogan warned the number of cases in the Washington metropolitan area had more than quadrupled over the previous week, predicting the region would be part of the “next wave of hot spots.”
  • The US intelligence community has reportedly concluded that China underreported its numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths, Bloomberg reported.
  • Wisconsin will use the Army National Guard to work the polls next week for the state’s presidential primary. The state faces a severe shortage of poll workers for its April 7 election amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The Wisconsin Elections Commission said Tuesday that its own survey showed 111 municipalities throughout the state do not have enough workers to staff even one polling place. Bernie Sanders is calling for the election to be postponed

Global News

  • According to data collected by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, 887,067 people around the world have become infected, 44,264 of whom have died. They also count 185,541 people who have recovered.
  • More than 4,000 people have now died in France, local authorities say; making it the fourth country to pass the threshold, following Italy, Spain and the United States.
  • The UK government has confirmed hundreds more deaths in hospitals, taking the total to 2,352; the youngest was aged just 13
  • International Monetary Fund officials say the pandemic is putting major strains on emerging market economies, but they are confident the Fund has sufficient resources to meet their needs.International Monetary Fund officials say the pandemic is putting major strains on emerging market economies, but they are confident the Fund has sufficient resources to meet their needs.
  • Israel has taken stringent measures to try to halt the spread of the virus, after recording more than 6,000 cases. At least 25 Israelis have died of Covid-19, according to Israeli health ministry data
  • The UK’s Ministry of Defense is calling up about 3,000 reservists to help with its pandemic response. That brings the number of armed forces personnel helping manage the crisis to about 23,000
  • Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, has said he was “deeply concerned about the rapid escalation and global spread of infection”. “Over the past five weeks, we have witnessed a near exponential growth in the number of new cases reaching almost every country, territory and area,” he said. “The number of deaths has more than doubled in the past week. In the next few days, we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths.”
  • Unemployment in Austria has jumped by 66% to the highest level since records began in 1946, despite a government bid to avoid mass lay-offs.
  • Another 727 people have died in Italy, taking the total to 13,155. That represents the smallest increase since 26 March. Nevertheless, figures from the Civil Protection Agency show that the number of new cases rose more sharply than a few days earlier, growing by 4,782 compared with 4,053.
  • Spain has crossed the threshold of 100,000 confirmed cases, health officials have said. According to official figures, it has had more cases than any country except Italy and the US. Spain also reached a record single-day death toll between Tuesday and Wednesday, with a total of 864 deaths. The country has logged 102,136 cases of the virus and 9,053 deaths

 

Fascinating Videos show Empty US Cities As Pandemic Spreads

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Here are some interesting videos showing exactly how empty cities have become in just a few weeks because of  the coronavirus pandemic

NEW YORK CITY

CHICAGO

DENVER

SAN FRANCISCO

https://youtu.be/0wz6bLTrWNQ

SEATTLE

LOS ANGELES

 

Coronavirus is the 3rd Highest Cause of Death in US

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COVID-19 is now killing 748 people per day in the U.S, Dr. Maria Danilychev said, citing data from Worldometers.info. Only heart disease (1,774 deaths per day) and cancer (1,641 deaths per day) are killing more people daily than coronavirus, CDC data shows.

Danilychev, a San Diego doctor, made the conclusion and charted coronavirus’ growth throughout the country.Coronavirus has surpassed Alzheimer’s, stroke, chronic lung disease and accidents in deaths per day, her data shows,  Sacremento Bee reported.

Click on the links to see these startling statistics

More than 4,100 people have died in the United States from coronavirus and there have been more than 44,000 deaths worldwide as of April 1, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. topped 1,000 coronavirus deaths March 26 and the number of deaths has continued to exponentially grow.

Trump Projects Up to 240K US Deaths from Virus; Calls for Infrastructure Bill

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President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on Tuesday, March 31st. He warned Americans to brace for a “rough two-week period” ahead as the White House released new projections that there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) House, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By: AP & VOA

President Trump on Tuesday warned Americans to brace for a “rough two-week period” ahead as the White House released new projections that there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained, as was reported by AP.

Public health officials stressed that the number could be less if people change their behavior.

“We really believe we can do a lot better than that,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force. That would require all Americans to take seriously their role in preventing the spread of disease, she said.

AP reported that Trump called American efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus “a matter of life and death” and urged the public to heed his administration’s guidelines. He predicted the country would soon see a “light at the end of the tunnel” in the pandemic that has killed more than 3,500 Americans and infected 170,000 more.

A woman watches from a park bench as the Samaritan’s Purse crew and medical personnel work on preparing to open a 68 bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York’s Central Park, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump said. “We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said the numbers are “sobering” and called on Americans to “step on the accelerator” with their collective mitigation efforts, according to the AP report.

“We are continue to see things go up,” Fauci said. “We cannot be discouraged by that because the mitigation is actually working and will work.”

Birx said pandemic forecasts initially predicted 1.5 million to 2.2 million deaths in the U.S. But that was a worst-case scenario, without efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus through social distancing.

AP reported that Birx said states that have not yet seen a spike in cases as New York has could take action to flatten the curve of rising hospitalizations and deaths.

As for the projection of 100,000-240,000 deaths, Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said: “We don’t accept that number, that that’s what it’s going to be. … We want to do much better than that.”

The comments came after Trump announced Sunday that he was extending to April 30 the social distancing guidelines that urged Americans to cease social gatherings, work from home, suspend onsite learning at schools and more in a nationwide effort to stem the spread of the virus.

AP reported that it was an abrupt reversal for Trump, who spent much of last week targeting April 12 as the day he wanted to see Americans “pack the pews” for Easter Sunday services.

Many states and local governments already have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings.

Trump spoke after another troubling day for the stock market, which has been in a free fall as the cononavirus ground the economy to a near-halt and left millions unemployed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 400 points, or roughly 1.9%, to seal the worst first-quarter finish of its 135-year history, as was reported by AP.

In his May 15, 2019 file photo shows CNN news anchor Chris Cuomo at the WarnerMedia Upfront in New York. Cuomo has announced that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. The prime-time host is one of the most visible media figures to come down with the disease. He said he’s experienced chills, fever and shortness of breath. He promised to continue doing his show while in quarantine in the basement of his home. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Also on Tuesday, Trump called for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill to serve as “Phase 4” of the federal government’s coronavirus response efforts, just days after Congress approved a massive stimulus package worth even more than that.

“With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do out decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4.”

VOA reported on Monday that Trump said the one-month extension of social distancing guidelines he has ordered could save 1 million lives in the country.

“We will have a great victory,” the president told reporters. “We have no other choice.”

The president told reporters at the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing that 1 million people across the nation have now been tested for the novel coronavirus, according to the VOA report.

The number of known U.S. cases has topped 160,000 — the most of any country. More than 2,800 deaths in the country have been attributed to COVID-19. A one-day record of 486 deaths for the country was recorded on Monday, according to media reports.

Trump spoke with governors on a conference call Monday, which he said for the most part, resulted in them saying, “Thank you for doing a great job.”

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana explained that officials were struggling with contact tracing because “we don’t have adequate tests,” according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The New York Times.

The president reportedly told governors that he “hasn’t heard about testing in weeks,” suggesting that a chronic lack of kits to test people for the coronavirus is no longer a problem.

In public comments on Monday, some governors continued to sound an alarm about a shortage of ventilators to deal with the number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients they anticipate hospitals in their states will confront in the weeks ahead.

At the afternoon media briefing in the Rose Garden, Trump said there are at least 10 companies in the country now making ventilators.

“I think we’re going to be in very good shape,” he said.

Trump at Monday’s briefing also announced that the United States would be sending to Italy $100 million worth of personal protective equipment for its hospitals hit hard by a deluge of COVID-19 patients, as was reported by VOA.

Hospitals in the United States need the equipment as well, prompting manufacturers of other products to shift their operations to meet the demand. Trump said as those emergency supplies exceed the U.S. needs, then shipments would go abroad to places in need, including France and Spain.

He also said China and Russia were among the countries that have sent supplies to the United States to help fight the coronavirus.

VOA reported that during the briefing, Trump clashed with CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, who asked him whether his earlier statements had dangerously downplayed the threat from the virus.

The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort passes lower Manhattan on its way to docking in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020. The ship has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours of its arrival on Monday morning. It’s expected to bolster a besieged health care system by treating non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Calling Acosta’s question “nasty, snarky,” the president said his statements were intended to calm people.

“I could cause panic much better than even you,” Trump said. “I could do much more. I would make you look like a minor league player.”

Earlier Monday, Trump called the coronavirus “a horrible scourge” that is going to lead to a sharp increase in deaths in the United States in the coming days and weeks.

VOA reported that the day after calling for Americans to continue social distancing through April 30, Trump told the “Fox & Friends” cable television show, “There’s going to be a spike (in deaths), and then it will come down, and that will be a good day. By June 1, we think the deaths will come down.”

Asked at the press briefing how his administration would respond to a return of the virus in the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn, something task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci called likely, Trump said, “We’re prepared. I hope it doesn’t happen.

“Nobody is more worried than me about the country,” Trump said, as health experts predict that 100,000 or more Americans could die from the coronavirus pandemic, about 50 times the current death toll of about 2,400.

“If we didn’t shut it down” to continue social distancing and limiting the size of gatherings to 10 people, Trump said, the death toll could reach 2.2 million.

“We wanted to do something where we have the least deaths,” he said. “It’s a very sad thing, it’s a vicious thing.”

“If you end restrictions too soon, it comes back,” Trump said. “The worst thing we can do is declare victory” prematurely.

“The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end,” Trump said in the White House Rose Garden.

“I want our life back again,” he said.

In other related developments, the World Health Organization said Tuesday that the coronavirus outbreak is “far from over” in such as China and South Korea despite vast improvements.

“This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard. We need every country to keep responding according to their local situation,” the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, said at a briefing.

China reported one new death and 48 new cases Tuesday, none of them locally transmitted, while South Korea reported 125 new ones.

Kasai and experts at a separate WHO briefing stressed that governments need to be taking active measures and maintain pressure to halt the spread of the respiratory infection.

He said the WHO had no evidence that the rising temperatures of the coming hot season would slow down the virus, as some had hoped, and that there was no telling how much longer the pandemic would last.

Meanwhile, the staggering numbers of those dying of COVID-19 and those testing positive for it in New York City has rattled the nation and the world. The iconic Empire State Building in New York City lit up Monday night in the form of a red and white siren to honor emergency workers “on the front line of the fight.”

New York is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with more than 900 deaths as hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of patients.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo has made a nationwide appeal for more help, asking doctors and nurses in areas without an urgent coronavirus situation to travel to the area to help.

The pandemic turned personal for Governor Cuomo on Tuesday when he learned his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and would continue to broadcast from his basement.

            (AP & VOA)

US Death Toll Eclipses China’s as Reinforcements Head to NYC

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The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed past 3,500 Tuesday, eclipsing China's official count, as hard-hit New York City rushed to bring in more medical professionals and ambulances and parked refrigerated morgue trucks on the streets to collect the dead. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)

By: Nick Perry, Aritz Parra, and David Rising

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed past 3,500 Tuesday, eclipsing China’s official count, as hard-hit New York City rushed to bring in more medical professionals and ambulances and parked refrigerated morgue trucks on the streets to collect the dead.

The crisis hit close to home for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who reported teary-eyed that his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was infected.

Elsewhere around the world, hard-hit Italy reported that the infection rate appears to be leveling off and new cases could start declining, but that the crisis is far from over. Spain struggled to fend off the collapse of its hospital system. Vladimir Putin’s Russia moved to crack down on quarantine violations and “fake news” about the outbreak. And China edged closer to normal as stores in the epicenter city of Wuhan began reopening.

Worldwide, more than 800,000 people have been infected and over 40,000 have died, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Italy and Spain accounted for half the deaths, while the U.S. had around 3,550 by midday, overtaking China’s official toll of about 3,300.

New York was the nation’s deadliest hot spot, with about 1,550 deaths statewide, most of them in New York City.

The governor pronounced the disaster unlike any other the city has weathered: “This is ongoing and duration itself is debilitating and exhausting and depressing.”

A 1,000-bed emergency hospital set up at the mammoth Javits Convention Center began taking non-coronavirus patients to help relieve the city’s overwhelmed health system. A Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds that arrived on Monday was expected to begin accepting patients on Tuesday.

The indoor tennis center that is the site of the U.S. Open tournament is being turned into a hospital as well.

The city also worked to bring in 250 out-of-town ambulances and 500 paramedics to deal with a crush of emergency calls. The fire commissioner said ambulances are responding to double their normal daily total of 3,000 calls to 911. A five-day stretch last week was the busiest in the history of the city’s emergency services operation.

In addition, New York authorities sought to bring on more volunteer health care professionals and hoped to have them on board by Thursday. Nearly 80,000 former nurses, doctors and others are said to be stepping forward, and the governor said officials are doing background checks for disciplinary actions and otherwise making sure they are fit for duty.

As for Chris Cuomo, the 49-year-old TV newsman tweeted that he has suffered from fever, chills and shortness of breath and that he would be doing his shows from his basement, where he has quarantined himself.

He said he is worried about infecting his wife and children but added: “We will all beat this by being smart and tough and united!”

“Luckily we caught it early enough,” the governor said. “But it’s my family, it’s your family, it’s all of our families. But this virus is that insidious, and we must keep that all in mind.”

Figures on deaths and infections around the world are supplied by government health authorities and compiled by Johns Hopkins.

But the numbers are regarded with skepticism by public health experts because of different counting practices, a lack of testing in places, the numerous mild cases that have been missed, and perhaps government efforts to downplay the severity of the crisis.

For example, in Italy, where the death toll was put at about 12,400, the country’s emergency coordinator, Domenico Arcuri, acknowledged that officials don’t have a handle on how many people are dying at home or in nursing homes.

Still, there was a glimmer of hope there: Dr. Silvio Brusaferro, head of Italy’s institutes of health, said that three weeks into a nationwide lockdown, the hardest-hit country in Europe is seeing the rate of new infections level off.

“The curve suggests we are at the plateau,” he said. But “arriving at the plateau doesn’t mean we have conquered the peak and we’re done. It means now we should start to see the decline if we continue to place maximum attention on what we do every day.”

With the country’s health care system buckling under the pressure, a field hospital, built in just 10 days, was unveiled at the Milan fairgrounds.

“We made a promise and we kept it,” said the head of the project, former civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso, who ended up catching the virus while on the job and had to work from his hospital bed.

In Russia, lawmakers approved harsher punishments, including prison sentences of several years, for violating quarantine rules and spreading misinformation. The chief doctor at Moscow’s top hospital for coronavirus patients said he tested positive, a week after shaking hands with Putin.

Spain reported more than 840 new deaths, pushing the toll above 8,000 and forcing Madrid to open a second temporary morgue after an ice rink pressed into service last week became overwhelmed.

Dozens of hotels across Spain have been turned into recovery rooms, and authorities are building field hospitals in sports centers, libraries and exhibition halls.

Israel’s Defense Ministry said it has converted a missile-production facility into an assembly line for ventilators.

Michigan and Louisiana were running out of breathing machines, despite promises by the White House of more equipment. Cuomo described the bidding for ventilators as like being “on eBay.”

Louisiana’s governor said the hard-hit New Orleans region is on track to run out of ventilators by the weekend and hospital beds a week later. The Trump administration has committed to sending 150 ventilators from the national stockpile, but the state hasn’t received an arrival date. Michigan said it needs 5,000 to 10,000 more.

In Florida, the Holland America cruise line pleaded with state officials to let two ships dock and carry off the sick and the dead. Dozens aboard have reported flu-like symptoms, and four people have died.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Fox News: “We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources.”

(Associated Press)

How Much $$$ Will NYS Get From the Economic Stimulus Package?

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On Wednesday leading up to the bill 3rd bill passing on Friday, Cuomo said “It would be really terrible for the state of New York,” Cuomo said at his daily press conference, claiming New York State would receive just under $4 billion in funding from the huge package. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

By: Jared Evan

The $2 trillion stimulus package, brokered between the Senate and the Trump administration, is the largest fiscal stimulus package in U.S. history, expanding unemployment benefits and providing loans and grants to businesses.

This was the 3rd relief bill passed since the start of the crisis. The first was $8.3 billion, the second was $104 billion

On Wednesday leading up to the bill 3rd bill passing on Friday, Cuomo said “It would be really terrible for the state of New York,” Cuomo said at his daily press conference, claiming New York State would receive just under $4 billion in funding from the huge package. Cuomo said the figure was a paltry sum compared to the estimated $15 billion in lost revenue New York budget officials estimate will hit the state budget, the NY Post reported. The governor said, “$3.8 billion sounds like a lot of money, but we’re looking at a revenue shortfall of $9, $10, $15 billion dollars.”

Cuomo, while having valid points, can be misleading since there were 2 previous bills passed already.

Let’s look at exactly what New York is receiving combined from 3 economic rescue bills including the hotly debated $2 trillion. You get better picture when you look at it all combines as opposed to just looking at the major bill passed Friday: Crain’s has been the only outlet to show clearly exactly in total what NY is receiving:

New York has been allocated at least $40 billion of the $2 trillion stimulus bill. Senator Chuck Schumer said billions more would be allocated soon—but the first $40 billion is intended as immediate relief, Gothamist reported.

  • First, the most important element of the package for many residents is the direct cash payments to individuals ($1,200) and families ($2,400). Taken together it’s more than $15.5 billion for state residents, Crain’s reported.
  • The maximum unemployment benefit has been raised to $600 per week above one’s base unemployment income number. And for the first time ever, unemployment benefits have been opened up to independent contractors and “gig-economy” workers like Uber drivers. In total, the new law provides $16 billion in unemployment insurance to the state.
  • More than $15.9 billion dollars will be given to New York and its agencies. This includes $5.1 billion for the state coronavirus relief fund, $1.6 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund, and $426 million for FEMA. Localities are being given stimulus funds as well, with $168 million going to nearby Westchester County.
  • The MTA is due to receive $3.8 billion in federal aid
  • There is also a $25 billion subsidy for the state’s healthcare system, which will provide $1.08 billion to New York City’s Medicaid fund and a total of $6 billion to the state’s fund. Much of the $25 billion will go toward protective equipment for health care workers, increased testing supplies, and the expansion of staffing and new construction services, according to Senator Chuck Schumer’s office
  • $350 billion in small company loans, with a maximum interest rate of 4%.

This in total is around $110 billion in total allocated to NY state. There already has ben discussions of a 4th bill needed.

As NY Virus Deaths Rise, Morgues & Cemeteries are Overwhelmed

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A body wrapped in plastic that was unloaded from a refrigerated truck is handled by medical workers wearing personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns, Tuesday, March 31, 2020, at Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

By: Mike Mustiglione

Like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie, New York City finds itself awash in dead bodies that just won’t go away.

Hospitals, morgues and funeral homes are filled to the brim with corpses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and exacerbated by protocols that place limits on cemetery shifts.

As New York State Funeral Directors Association (FDA) director Mike Lanotte told the New York Post, “They’re not able to bury as many people in a day as they normally would and that’s a concern because if there’s a large number of cemeteries that start to do this, we’re going to start to have — for lack of a better word — a bottleneck. You’re going to have people’s caskets, remains, unable to be buried and that could create a backlog and a public health problem. No one wants to see pictures like in Italy of churches with caskets stacked in them. There’s also unfortunately been some funeral directors who have fallen ill from COVID, adding a little bit of extra stress to the system.”

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, told the Post that cemeteries “have instituted safety procedures, including training cemetery workers on how to handle burials in this environment, and doing proper cleaning and disinfecting. And, they have split the workers into two teams, so that, God forbid, the members of one team get sick, the other team can continue to work. But, the burials are continuing as normal.”

The problem of what to do with corpses is a serious one, and is national in scope. In Chicago, according to the Tribune, “If a deceased person had the disease, the funeral home personnel who arrive to take the body often walk in with N95 masks. The funeral home must decide whether to permit embalming and expose the embalmer to the disease. And because Illinois is under a shelter-in-place rule, people cannot gather, at least in groups greater than 10, for a wake, visitation, funeral, shiva or memorial service.

“There will be a whole swath of the population that is going through a death and they won’t be allowed to grieve in the way they want to,” Anthony J. Lupo Jr., owner and funeral director of Cumberland Chapels in Norridge, told the newspaper. “That will have a lasting effect on a lot of people. That is going to be rough.”

Guidance for funeral firms and families planning funerals has been issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Included in this guidance is this advice: “There is currently no known risk(s) associated with being in the same room at a funeral or visitation service with the body of someone who died from COVID-19. However, individuals who are close contacts of the decedent may themselves be infected with or incubating the virus, and should not attend as they may infect others. Furthermore, any person who is experiencing a fever, cough or other symptom or has any health condition which could put them at risk should not attend services or calling hours.”

Westchester “ Patient Zero” in Coronavirus Discharged from Hospital

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By: Robert R. Kotkin

The 50-year-old lawyer who was the coronavirus ‘patient zero’ in Westchester has been discharged from the hospital, The NY Post reported.

Originally diagnosed with pneumonia, Garbuz had been on a ventilator since March 1, TJV reported 2 weeks ago after it was discovered he had coronavirus

Lawrence Garbuz “is awake and alert and seems to be on the road to full recovery,” his wife, Adina, said in a post on Facebook. She has not seen him in person, but communicated through FaceTime, TJV reported, last week

Lawrence Garbuz — who was revealed on March 2 to be the first-known carrier in New Rochelle, where the contagion quickly spread — had been so sick he was in a medically induced coma earlier this month the Post reported

When he first checked into the hospital, he figured he just had pneumonia.

The NY Times reported on March 11th: It would be more than four days before anyone figured out what actually ailed him: the new coronavirus. The discovery on March 2 that the man, Lawrence Garbuz, was infected was the first indication that the virus was circulating in New York through community spread.

The Times also pointed out: the larger realization came as state and city health investigators untangled Mr. Garbuz’s case by retracing his steps and interviewing those he came in contact with. Soon, these investigators would discover how just one undiagnosed case can wreak havoc on a hospital and spread anxiety across a region.

Essentially his case created the first lockdown. New Rochelle was locked down, due to Garbuz, being “patient zero” in New Rochelle

This was the first breakout of Coronavirus in the state, Days later after retracing his steps, by March 8th at least 80 patients were identified.

His wife wrote on Facebook “I hope the Garbuz name becomes associated not as the ones with coronavirus but the ones who were instrumental in helping get this contained,” Adina Lewis Garbuz wrote on Facebook Tuesday afternoon. “I have not wanted to speak out as I have no urge to be in the limelight and I am sure my husband would be most horrified knowing he was, but I am willing to if it in any way can be helpful to others, to allay fears and restore feelings of calm.”:

Garbutz was not the first official coronavirus victim in NY. A 39-year-old-woman who returned home from Iran, was the very first. Garbuz was very instrumental as his explained in the containment process.

The first patient with a confirmed case of the 2019 novel coronavirus in New York City is a 39-year-old health care worker who had recently traveled to Iran and acted with “textbook” and “sophisticated” diligence in her efforts to avoid infecting others, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo less than a month ago at the start of March.

Boro Park Man Arrested For Coughing on FBI Agents; Hoarding Medical Equipment

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Photo Credit: newzandar.com

By: VIN Staff

A Brooklyn man was arrested on Monday for allegedly coughing on FBI agents while claiming to have the Coronavirus, and with lying to them about his accumulation and sale of surgical masks, medical gowns, and other medical supplies, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

The suspect, a 43- year old man from Borough Park, was arrested by special agents of the FBI and charged by complaint with assaulting a federal officer and with making false statements to law enforcement.

The man had his initial appearance on Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On March 25, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an executive order designating certain scarce health and medical resources necessary to respond to the spread of the Coronavirus. Those designated materials included N95 filtering face-piece respirators, personal protection equipment (PPE) face masks, surgical masks, sterilization services, and disinfecting devices, among other things.

The man allegedly sold certain designated materials, including N95 respirators, to doctors and nurses at inflated prices. In one instance, on March 18, 2020, a doctor in New Jersey contacted the seller via a WhatsApp chat group labeled “Virus2020!” The seller agreed to sell to the doctor approximately 1,000 N95 masks and other assorted materials for $12,000, an approximately 700 percent markup from the normal price charged for those materials. The seller directed the doctor to an auto repair shop in Irvington, New Jersey, to pick up the order.

According to the doctor, the repair shop contained enough materials, including hand sanitizers, Clorox wipes, chemical cleaning supply agents, and surgical supplies, to outfit an entire hospital. The seller later told the doctor that he had been forced to move all of those supplies from Irvington to another location.

On March 23, 2020, The seller allegedly offered to sell a nurse a quantity of surgical gowns and directed the nurse to his residence in Brooklyn. The seller also received, on March 25, 2020, a shipment from Canada containing approximately eight pallets of medical facemasks. On March 27, 2020, FBI agents observed an empty box of N95 masks outside of The seller residence.

On March 29, 2020, FBI agents witnessed multiple instances during which individuals approached The sellers residence and walked away with boxes or bags that appeared to contain medical supplies. On that date, FBI agents approached The sellers outside of his residence. After identifying themselves as FBI agents, they told The seller that they wanted to stay a distance away from him given concerns over the spread of Coronavirus.

When the agents were within four to five feet of him, The seller allegedly coughed in their direction without covering his mouth. The agents then told him that they were looking for certain PPE materials and that they had information that The seller was in possession of large quantities of such materials. At that point, The seller told the FBI agents that that he had the Coronavirus.

The seller then made false statements to the FBI agents regarding his possession and sale of personal protective equipment and other materials. He falsely told the agents, among other things, that he worked for a company that bought and sold personal protective equipment and other materials and that he never took physical custody of the materials. The seller further falsely stated that he did not possess large quantities of personal protective equipment materials and that he never sold them directly to individuals.

   (VIN)

Florida Sets Up Checkpoints to Stop NYers from Arriving in Droves

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. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee, AP)

By: Avery Mascotti

Everyone loves to go to Florida – which is why the Sunshine State is hard at work setting up checkpoints for New Yorkers fleeing coronavirus.

With New York City having the dubious distinction of being the epicenter of the coronavirus infection in the United States, Florida has announced it will introduce highway checkpoints to identify and stop escapees from New York State from arriving there in droves.

According to Governor Ron DeSantis, the checkpoint will be set up on Interstate 95. The goal is obvious: to stem the rising tide of coronavirus coming through the state’s northern border.

“I think it’s in everybody’s interest that we deal with the spread that we have here now, try to blunt it, flatten the curve, but we don’t allow importing new infections,” the governor said on Saturday, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “I think having the (Interstate) 10 and (Interstate) 95 is good, that provides the protection.”

DeSantis has already taken the same step on Interstate 10 to keep people from arriving from the state of Louisiana, which has reported in excess of 3,000 coronavirus cases. Travelers arriving from bayou country are required by law to self-quarantine for 14 days.

“While travelers flying from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut must self-quarantine for two weeks or face a 60-day jail sentence, it was unclear if motorists hailing from the tri-state would have to follow the same guidelines,” reported the New York Post. “It’s unclear how Florida plans to enforce the mandate, but Desantis said people could be “held accountable if they buck the law.”

The Florida Department of Transportation tweeted that “Under the direction of Executive Order 20-86 by Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Transportation, in coordination with Florida Department of Health (DOH) and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), is providing guidance to motorists entering Florida from areas with significant community spread.”

Effective immediately, motorists who are traveling from areas with substantial community spread including Louisiana, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, will be required to isolate for a period of 14 days upon entry to Florida or for the duration of their visit, whichever is shorter, and should be prepared for additional monitoring by DOH to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

“Executive Order 20-86 does not apply to persons performing military, emergency, health or infrastructure response, or persons involved in any commercial activity, including individuals that live in Georgia and commute to work in Florida,” it continued. “Upon entry in Florida, each arriving traveler or responsible family member (if traveling as a family) will be required to complete a traveler form. The form requires key information, including each traveler’s contact information and trip details. Failure to complete the form and failure to follow any isolation or quarantine order from DOH are a violation of Florida law.”

Trump: Harry & Meghan Will Have To Pay For Their Own Security

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According to President Donald Trump, the United States is not on the hook for what has been said to be a $1 million-a-year cost for protecting the jet-set couple, who recently relocated to California from Canada. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

By: Mike Mustiglione

Turns out Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have to dip into their own formerly royal pockets to cover the cost of their personal security.

According to President Donald Trump, the United States is not on the hook for what has been said to be a $1 million-a-year cost for protecting the jet-set couple, who recently relocated to California from Canada.

Reports say the filthy rich pair boarded a private jet to arrive in the United States before the borders slammed shut due to the coronavirus.

The spoiled couple, who have been critical of the president and some of his policies, had hypocritically intended to ask the president for help covering their security expense, since taxpayers in Britain have washed their hands of the chore.

The president tweeted on Sunday, “I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”

A statement released by Harry and Meghan read, “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the US government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.”

“As of March 31, Harry and Meghan lose their status of being “internationally protected” because of Megxit. Had they remained part of the British royal family, they would have been entitled to protection from armed US Secret Service agents during their time in America,” reported the New York Post. “It was reported that Harry would have to make a request to the State Department for US-funded protection, but the decision ultimately rested with President Trump.”

The snotty prince, a good friend of Barack Obama, recently embarrassed himself by saying that the president had “blood on his hands” due to his handling of the pandemic. Harry also told Russian hoaxers, “I think the mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry… in America, he has blood on his hands. Unfortunately the world is being led by some very sick people.”

The couple will not go hungry. “Many people expect Markle, a former actor most known for her role on “Suits,” to return to her Hollywood roots. She’s already booked a narrating role for the Disneynature documentary “Elephant,” set to debut on Disney Plus on April 3. The project marks her first role since officially stepping away from the royal family duties,” according to Variety.