Trump taps powers

These are some of the latest developments Wednesday in the world’s coronavirus pandemic:

PRESIDENT TRUMP INVOKES EMERGENCY

AUTHORITY

are postponing efforts to help patients get pregnant. Medical groups issued advice this week on how hospitals and doctors should adapt as beds and supplies are pinched and worries rise about exposing patients to possible infection.

US STRUGGLES TO PROVIDE PROTECTIVE

GEAR

The U.S. government is rushing protective equipment to states, packing dozens of flights and hundreds of trucks with supplies like masks and gloves for medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus fight. But the pandemic has exposed some of the Strategic National Stockpile’s shortcomings: The cache isn’t designed to be a long-term solution. State officials are complaining that the deliveries are falling far short of what’s needed or include expired items. The stockpile created in 1999 maintains caches of pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and vaccines in secret locations around the nation.

BEST STRATEGIES AGAINST VIRUS: TRACK, ISOLATE, COMMUNICATE

Singapore, a tiny city-state of less than 6 million people, had one of the earliest and biggest clusters of cases of the coronavirus in early February, before it began its rapid, inexorable expansion around the globe. But within weeks, the country’s tally of infections with the highly contagious virus that causes COVID-19 was overtaken by skyrocketing caseloads in South Korea, several European countries and the U.S. The experience in Singapore has shown that some strategies are proving more effective than others in containing the pandemic: proactive efforts to track down and isolate the infected, access to basic, affordable public health care, and clear, reassuring messaging from leaders.

TWO 20-SOMETHINGS EXTEND “INVISIBLE

HANDS”

Two 20-something friends amassed 1,300 volunteers in 72 hours to deliver groceries and medicine to older New Yorkers and other vulnerable people amid the coronavirus outbreak. Liam Elkind, a junior at Yale, and his friend Simone Policano call the project Invisible Hands.