Vehicle theft spikes during pandemic
The coronavirus hasn’t been kind to car owners. With more people than ever staying home to lessen the spread of COVID-19, their sedans, pickup trucks and SUVs are parked unattended on the streets, making them easy targets for opportunistic thieves.
Despite silent streets and nearly non-existent traffic, vehicle larcenies shot up 63% in New York and nearly 17% in Los Angeles from Jan. 1 through midMay, compared with the same period last year.
And many other law enforcement agencies around the U.S. are reporting an increase in stolen cars and vehicle burglaries, even as violent crime has dropped dramatically nationwide in the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a low-risk crime with a potentially high reward, police say, especially when many drivers leave their doors unlocked or their keys inside.
WHO drops hydroxychloroquine testing
The World Health Organization said Monday it will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement after a paper published last week in the Lancet said people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those who were not.
Other treatments in the study, including the experimental drug remdesivir and an HIV combination therapy, are still being pursued.
Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program said “an immediate second peak” may occur in countries that are showing a decline, but lift measures intended to halt the outbreak too soon.
Nursing home testing goals won’t be met
Nearly two weeks ago, the White House urged governors to ensure that every nursing home resident and staff member be tested for the coronavirus within 14 days.
It’s not going to happen.
A review by the AP found that at least half of the states are not going to meet the White House’s deadline and some aren’t even bothering to try.
Only a handful of states, including West Virginia and Rhode Island, have said they’ve already tested every nursing home resident.
Many states said the logistics, costs and personnel needs are too great to test all residents and staff in a two-week window. Some say they need another week or so, while others say they need much more time.
And still other states are questioning whether testing every nursing home resident and staff, regardless of any other factors, is a good use of time and money.
Trump calls for schools to reopen ‘ASAP’
As some Americans await to see if students will be going back to school buildings in the fall, President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday night that schools should reopen “ASAP,” citing the “very good information” on coronavirus that’s now available.
Schools across the nation quickly shifted to online learning this spring and are largely staying away from in-person classes through the end of the 20192020 school year. Many educators have yet to make call on returning in the fall.