GOVERNOR WILL SEIZE VENTILATORS
YORK» With coronavirus NEW deaths surging in New York, the governor announced Friday that he will use his authority to seize ventilators and protective gear from private hospitals and companies that aren’t using them — one of the most aggressive steps yet in the U.S. to relieve severe shortages of equipment needed to fight the pandemic.
“If they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. He characterized it as a “sharing of resources,” and promised to eventually return the equipment or compensate the owners.
The executive order that he said he would sign is aimed at the kind of shortages worldwide that authorities say have caused frontline health care workers to fall sick and forced doctors in Europe to make life-or-death decisions about which patients get a breathing machine.
Governor calls legislative session to change voting process. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers called the state legislature into a special session Saturday to cancel in-person voting in Tuesday’s primary and instead switch to an all-mail-in vote with an extended deadline in response to the pandemic.
Evers’ executive order asks lawmakers to take up a bill to send ballots to every registered voter in the state by May 19 and extend the window for ballots to be submitted until May 26.
The executive order is the latest twist in a weekslong battle between the Democratic governor and the Republican-controlled legislature over the primary. Wisconsin is a holdout as 15 states have delayed their primaries in recent weeks over fears for public health.
Crisis grows in Louisiana.
ORLEANS» The situation NEW grew more dire in Louisiana, where more than 10,000 people have tested positive and deaths reached at least 370, up nearly 20% from the day before. Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that the hard-hit New Orleans area is projected to run out of hospital beds in a little more than a week.
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge has gone from one unit dedicated to coronavirus patients to seven. Nurse Christen Hyde said nurses call families twice a day to give updates on their relatives, in some cases delivering bleak news.
“To have to call a family member and tell them that their family member is not doing well and they are probably going to be passing soon is just devastating,” said Hyde, who has had four patients die.
As for the patients, “the last thing that they see is us telling them that they are going to have a tube placed down their throat to help them breathe,” she said. “It’s awful. It’s horrible. It’s really affected me.”
Florida finally takes cruise passengers, some on stretchers.
FORT
FLA.» Passengers LAUDERDALE, from an ill-fated cruise were freed from their cabins and allowed to touch dry land Friday for the first time in weeks, after the removal of 14 critically ill people who were wheeled off to hospitals bracing for an onslaught of coronavirus patients.
The exodus from the Zaandaam and its sister ship, the Rotterdam, could extend into Saturday, officials said. Floridians disembarked first, followed by other passengers.
Buses were taking passengers who were showing no symptoms after being screened and cleared by third-party paramedics directly to the airport, escorted by deputies on motorcycles.
French virus fatalities hit 6,507 in deadliest day of outbreak. France reported its deadliest day Friday as the number of deaths at the country’s hospitals rose. The tally included more fatalities from nursing homes.
Still, daily intensive-care admissions fell for a fourth day, adding to signs that lockdown measures across Europe may be helping to bring the outbreak under control.
The health ministry reported 588 new hospital deaths from the coronavirus Friday, the most yet, bringing the figure to 5,091 since the beginning of the outbreak.
In addition, it reported 1,416 deaths from nursing homes, bringing the total number to 6,507.
Russia detains activists trying to help hospital. MOSCOW» An activist doctor who had criticized Russia’s response to the coronavirus outbreak was forcibly detained as she and some colleagues tried to deliver protective gear to a hospital in need.
Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva of the Alliance of Doctors union was trying to bring more than 500 masks, sanitizers, hazmat suits, gloves and protective glasses to a hospital in the Novgorod region about 250 miles northwest of Moscow on Thursday when she and the others were stopped by police on a highway.
They were accused by police of violating selfisolation regulations. The group was taken to a police station and held for hours, and the activists had to ask hospital workers to come to the station to pick up the gear.
After a night in custody, Vasilyeva appeared in court on charges of defying police orders. Two long court hearings later, she was ordered to pay fines totaling $20.
Russia to the rescue? U.S., Moscow spar over characterization of aid delivery. WASHINGTON»
An odd new front in the U.S.-Russian rivalry has emerged as a Russian military cargo plane bearing a load of urgently needed medical supplies landed this week at New York’s JFK airport.
Russia cast it as a magnanimous aid contribution to a struggling country in need — its old Cold War rival.
The State Department insisted that Wednesday’s shipment was a mere commercial transaction: that the U.S. had paid Russia for the supplies and they were certainly not a gift.
Yet President Donald Trump on Thursday referred to the shipment as “aid” and said the United States had accepted “a very nice offer” from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
University of Wyoming plans virtual graduation. CHEYENNE» The University of Wyoming has canceled traditional graduation and will instead hold a virtual ceremony because of the coronavirus.
University officials said Friday they plan to broadcast the virtual ceremony live on May 16, the same date traditional graduation was planned.
Wyoming is the only state without any known deaths from the COVID-19 virus. The state had at least 162 cases confirmed in 16 of its 23 counties as of Friday.