U.S. toll now world’s highest
Case surge is dreaded in Midwest
CHICAGO — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy’s to become the highest in the world Saturday, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims.
The news comes as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he hopes for “a real degree of normality” by November.
With the New York area still deep in crisis, fear mounted over the spread of the scourge into the nation’s heartland.
Twenty-four residents of
an Indiana nursing home hit by covid-19 have died, while a nursing home in Iowa saw 14 deaths. Chicago’s Cook County has set up a temporary morgue that can take more than 2,000 bodies. And Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been going around telling groups of people to “break it up.”
In Europe, countries used roadblocks, drones, helicopters, mounted patrols and the threat of fines to keep people from traveling over Easter weekend. And with infections and deaths slowing in Italy, Spain and other places on the continent, governments took tentative steps toward loosening the weekslong shutdowns.
Spring weather across Europe posed an extra test of people’s discipline.
“Don’t do silly things,” said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the virus emergency. “Don’t go out; continue to behave responsibly as you have done until today, use your head and your sense of responsibility.”
The outbreak’s center of gravity has long since shifted from China to Europe and the United States, which now has by far the largest number of confirmed cases — over a half-million — and a death toll eclipsing Italy’s count of nearly 19,500, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The death rate — that is, the number of dead relative to the population — is still far higher in Italy than in the U.S., which has more than five times as many people. And worldwide, the true numbers of dead and infected are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, different counting practices and concealment by some governments.
‘STAY THE COURSE’
About half the deaths in the U.S. are in the New York metropolitan area, where hospitalizations are nevertheless slowing and other indicators suggest lockdowns and social distancing are flattening the curve of infections and staving off the doomsday scenarios of just a week or two ago.
New York state on Saturday reported 783 more deaths, for a total above 8,600. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the daily number of deaths is stabilizing, “but stabilizing at a horrific rate.”
“What do we do now? We stay the course,” said Cuomo, who like other leaders has warned that relaxing restrictions too soon could enable the virus to come back with a vengeance.
With authorities warning that the crisis in New York is far from over, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city’s 1.1 million-student school system will remain closed for the rest of the academic year. But Cuomo said the decision is up to him, and no such determination has been made.
De Blasio, like Cuomo a Democrat, had said that it was not an easy decision to close school buildings in favor of online learning, but “it is the right decision and it’s also a decision made a little clearer by the fact that the distance learning is working more and more every day.”
The goal, he said, is to reopen schools by September, adding that high school graduates may have to go without a commencement ceremony.
“I understand the mayor’s position, which is he wants to close them until June, and we may do that, but we’re going to do it in a coordinated sense with the other localities,” Cuomo said. “It makes no sense for one locality to take an action that’s not coordinated with the others.”
When a reporter suggested that the mixed messages would confuse parents, Cuomo said, “We just clarified it. It’s not going to be decided in the next few days because we don’t know.”
The governor, whose national profile has risen as his virus briefings have become must-see TV, said again Saturday that he is not interested in running for president.
When a reporter said some Democrats would prefer Cuomo to former Vice President Joe Biden as their party’s presidential nominee, Cuomo said, “That is on one hand flattering. On the other hand, it is irrelevant.”
“I have no political agenda. Period,” he said. “I’m not running for president. I’m not running for vice president. I’m not running anywhere. I’m not going to Washington. I’m staying right here.”
MIDWEST WORRIES
In the Midwest, pockets of contagion have alarmed state and city leaders and led to stricter enforcement.
Nearly 300 inmates at the Cook County jail have tested positive for the virus, and two have died. In Wisconsin, health officials expect to see an increase in coronavirus cases after thousands of people went to the polls during Wisconsin’s presidential primary Tuesday.
Michigan’s governor extended her state’s stay-athome order with new provisions. People with multiple homes may no longer travel between them.
And in Kansas, the state Supreme Court heard arguments in a dispute Saturday between Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican lawmakers who overturned her executive order banning religious services and funerals with more than 10 people.
Elsewhere around the world, Italian authorities set up roadblocks around Milan to discourage people from going on Easter weekend trips. British police kept a close watch on gatherings in parks and at the seaside on one of the hottest days of the year.
And France deployed some 160,000 police, including officers on horseback who patrolled beaches and parks.
“It’s useless to pack your bags for a vacation,” Paris police tweeted.
With religious leaders around the globe urging people to observe Easter safely at home, the archbishop of Turin, Italy, allowed a video streaming display of the Shroud of Turin, believed by the faithful to be the burial cloth of Jesus, so that they can pray in front of it during the epidemic.
Pope Francis celebrated an Easter vigil Mass in an empty St. Peter’s Basilica. He likened coronavirus fears to anxiety felt by Jesus’ followers after his crucifixion.
“For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour,” he said, encouraging people to “sow seeds of hope, with small gestures of care.”
Meanwhile, Austria aims to reopen small shops Tuesday.
Spain, with more than 16,400 dead, plans to allow workers in some nonessential industries to return to factories and construction sites Monday. Spanish authorities said they will distribute 10 million face masks at major train and subway stations.
“We think that with these measures we will prevent a jump in infections,” Health Minister Salvador Illa said.
Italy continued to include all nonessential manufacturing in an extension of its national lockdown until May 3. But Premier Giuseppe Conte held out hope that some industry could reopen earlier if conditions permit.
Arcuri, the emergency commissioner, said the exit from the lockdown will include increased virus testing, the deployment of a voluntary contact-tracing app and mandatory blood tests as Italy seeks to set up a system of “immunity passports.”
India extended its lockdown of the nation of 1.3 billion people by two more weeks.
IRAN STARTS REOPENING
Government offices outside Iran’s capital, Tehran, reopened Saturday with a third of all employees working from home, state media reported. Women who have young children were given priority in deciding who works remotely. Businesses outside the capital were also allowed to reopen Saturday, the first day of the workweek.
Businesses in Tehran will be allowed to reopen next Saturday, provided they register with authorities and follow guidelines on social distancing set out by the Health Ministry. Government offices in the capital will reopen with two-thirds of employees coming in.
The Health Ministry meanwhile reported another 125 deaths, bringing the overall toll as of Saturday to 4,357. Iran has reported more than 70,000 confirmed cases, and authorities say more than 40,000 have recovered.
Authorities have defended their response, saying they have to consider the economic impact of any quarantine measures since the country is under U.S. sanctions. President Donald Trump imposed heavy sanctions, including on oil exports, after withdrawing the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The U.S. has offered humanitarian aid to help Iran combat the outbreak, but Iran’s leaders have rejected it, instead demanding that the sanctions be lifted.
In Indonesia, inmates set fire to a prison on Sulawesi island during a riot, apparently angry over restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. There were no reports of riot-related deaths.
In Egypt, police used tear gas to disperse a group of villagers who tried to stop the burial of a physician who died from the covid-19 illness caused by the virus. The villagers feared the burial would spread contagion.
Residents of the village of Shubra el-Bahou in the Nile Delta blocked the road to the cemetery to prevent the physician’s burial, Egyptian officials said. At least 23 people were arrested for allegedly inciting villagers to prevent the physician’s burial, the officials said.
The physician died at a quarantined hospital in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia and her body was being transferred to her husband’s village for burial. The officials say police fired tear gas after the villagers halted the ambulance carrying the body.
There were no reports of any serious injuries.
Ahmed el-Sayed, a village resident, said the police intervened after security and health officials failed to persuade the villagers to open the road.
Egypt has reported 146 fatalities among 1,900 confirmed cases.
Britain on Saturday reported 917 more deaths from the coronavirus, down from the peak of 980 recorded a day earlier. The country’s overall death toll neared 10,000. At the same time, data suggest that the number of hospital admissions in Britain is leveling off.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first major world leader confirmed to have covid-19, continued to recover at a London hospital, where he was able to take short walks, according to his office.
It is unclear how long Johnson’s recovery will take. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is standing in for the prime minister.’
HOPE FOR VACCINE
Sarah Gilbert, a vaccinology professor at Oxford University, told the Times of London in an article published Saturday that the vaccine her team has developed could probably be ready in the fall “if everything goes perfectly.”
Matt Hancock, Britain’s health secretary, told Sky News, “I know quite a lot about the Oxford project, and it is really great to see some hope, especially on the front page of the newspapers.”
The Oxford team is among dozens around the world — including ones at U.S. firms Moderna and Inovio — working nonstop to develop a vaccine for covid-19.
The vaccine will begin human trials within two weeks. Gilbert told the Times of London that “nobody can promise it’s going to work,” but “there’s a high chance that it will work, based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine.”
Worldwide, as of Saturday, confirmed infections rose above 1.7 million, with more than 108,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. More than 400,000 people have recovered.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older people and those with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms such as pneumonia.
Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Foody, Amy Forliti, Geir Moulson, Amir Vahdat, Samy Magdy, Karen Matthews and Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press; and by Derek Hawkins, Karla Adam, Kim Bellware, Sarah Dadouch, Erin Cox, Meryl Kornfield, Marisa Iati, Pamela Rolfe and Eva Dou of The Washington Post.