A US Navy special warfare operator has tested positive for the coronavirus

Fellow service members who were in contact with the sailor have been quarantined at the base "out of an abundance of caution."

Covid-19: disaster declared in New York as fears grow over lack of ventilators

* Widespread shortage of equipment including gloves and masks * Cuomo: administration is ‘scouring the globe’ for suppliesNew York is preparing to ration its ventilators for sick coronavirus patients as a major disaster was declared in the city as it struggles to cope with the deadly outbreak.The disaster declaration comes as New York prepares guidance on how to deploy vital ventilators amid a widespread shortage of key equipment that also includes masks and surgical gloves, and medical supplies such as blood.The draft guidance on ventilators, prepared by a state taskforce in 2015 for a possible influenza pandemic, has reportedly been updated for the coronavirus crisis, though new guidelines have not been finalized.According to Sam Gorovitz, a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University and member of the taskforce, the revisions to the ventilator allocation guidelines include the formation of designated triage committees to determine which critically ill patients will or will not receive life-supporting respiration.Gorovitz told the Guardian he is “100% certain” that New York health administrators will face ethical decision-making in the near future about whom to ventilate – just as it is now making decisions about the allocation of masks and protective equipment.“Consider a patient, 85 years old, on a ventilator, out of hospice care. Along comes a 45-year-old, with a family, and in fundamentally good health and a good prospect of full recovery from coronavirus if treated with the best available treatment.“Is it not only acceptable but ethically necessary to take grandpa off the ventilator and switch him to palliative care, wipe away the tears, and switch the ventilator to the younger patient?” he said.“These decisions are already being faced with regard to protective equipment that are inadequately supplied,” Gorovitz said. “That’s not the same as ventilator allocations, but everyone knows it’s coming and those decisions are likely being made right now.”At a press conference on Saturday New York state governor Andrew Cuomo said that his administration was “literally scouring the globe looking for medical supplies”.Cuomo added that New York is doing more tests than China or South Korea, calling the 45,000 tests to date a “great accomplishment.”The announcement came as New York state recorded 10,000 infections. Forty to 80% of New Yorkers, or 7.8 million to 15 million people, would likely be affected by the virus in the end, Cuomo said.“You don’t have to wait til the end of the movie to know what happens,” he said, saying that the measures being taken would ease pressure on medical facilities and allow the authorities to cope with the influx of the infected.The Trump administration late Friday issued a major disaster declaration for New York, the center of the US coronavirus outbreak, as infections spike across New York City to 5,000 as one person an hour dies from the coronavirus.The emergency declaration was issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to allow the state to access billions of dollars in aid from the disaster relief fund, as the number of confirmed New York cases soar.“With no time to waste, the administration heeded the call and approved the nation’s first major disaster declaration in response to the coronavirus, right here in New York,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.“With more and more cases confirmed here each day, it’s imperative that the federal government does everything within its power to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus.”The disaster declaration allows for the US military to be called in, and the US Army Corps of Engineers may take over hotels, sports arenas, college dormitories and other buildings as needed.Under the declaration, Fema will be authorized to send its personnel and resources to set up mobile coronavirus testing centers, disinfect public facilities, and provide the state with medical supplies that are in high demand such as masks, gloves and surgical gowns.The vast Jacob Javits convention center on the west side of Manhattan could be used as a makeshift hospital, state officials have said.New Yorkers are already living under shutdown conditions that from Sunday night will see all residents, except for certain vital professions, expected to stay at home. Only a few vital businesses – like supermarkets and pharmacies – will remain open and citizens will be asked to only venture outside on vital tasks and not in groups.On Friday, New York mayor Bill de Blasio said: ‘We constitute 30 percent of the cases in the US and 70 per cent of the cases in New York State. Whether we like it or not, we are the epicenter.’New York certainly needs help: it has become the main focus of the epidemic in the US, outstripping the original “hot zone” of Washington state.New York state has about 6,000 intensive care unit ventilators, and state health officials fear the pandemic will overwhelm the roughly 3,000 ICU beds available.With cases of coronavirus in the state spiking from around 800 to 8,000 in a week, Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, has estimated that the state may require 30,000 ventilators to meet demand.“It’s ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. That is the greatest need,” Cuomo told reporters on Friday after ordering a statewide shutdown of non-essential businesses. He also directed health facilities to turn over any non-essential ventilators to the department of health.“We will purchase it from you if you could lend it to us. But we need ventilators, and anyone who has them now please call the New York state department of health,” he said.Warnings of a ventilator shortage comes two days after Trump invoked wartime powers to harness private business to slow the spread of coronavirus to a manageable infection curve.But in New York and other major metropolitan areas, a shortage of basic masks and scrubs is threatening the effort even as testing ramps up.In Los Angeles, health officials are instructing doctors to only test sick people if a diagnosis would change how they would be treated, according to the LA Times.The LA Times reports that the county health department sent a letter to doctors this week saying they should only administer tests if “a diagnostic result will change clinical management or inform public health response”.The decision is part of a shift “from a strategy of case containment to slowing disease transmission and averting excess morbidity and mortality,” according to the paper.

Truck drivers and more unsung heroes of the coronavirus pandemic

They're the ones keeping the store shelves stocked, and yet they're largely going unrecognized in the fight against coronavirus.

South Korea says detected North Korea missile fire 'inapproriate' amid coronavirus

North Korea fired two projectiles that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles on Saturday, South Korea's military said, calling the action "highly inappropriate" given the global coronavirus pandemic. The suspected missiles were fired around 6:45-50 a.m. KST into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula from around Sonchon, North Pyongan province, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. Sonchon is above Pyongyang, near the northwest corner of the Korean peninsula.

Senate working overtime to put together stimulus package, but negotiations reportedly see 'tremendous' progress

There's no rest for the Senate this weekend, as lawmakers are set to dig in for a weekend session beginning at noon Saturday so the chamber can expedite an agreement on a stimulus package to provide relief from the coronavirus pandemic. The final bill could reportedly cost at least $1 trillion.Negotiators said they're getting closer to an agreement, but they missed the original Friday night deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after haggling for about 12 hours over issues like increased unemployment insurance payments, financial assistance for hospitals and health-care providers, and funds to cover for state governments' revenue shortfalls, Politico reports. But Congress remains under pressure to get something done quickly, and Republicans — who hold the majority — reportedly believe Democrats won't block any rescue bill with time running short.Eric Ueland, the White House director of legislative affairs, is optimistic consensus is right around the corner. He singled out the debate over unemployment as an area where "tremendous" progress has been made thanks to bipartisan support for rebate checks. Read more at The Hill and Politico.More stories from theweek.com Government officials reportedly 'just couldn't get' Trump to do anything about coronavirus early on The small-government case for giving everyone a big check The FDA expedited the approval of a rapid coronavirus test

With many under orders to stay at home, the party has moved online.

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A group of friends still played basketball, with modifications: hazmat suits and respirators.

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Army Corps of Engineers races to provide 10,000 hospital rooms for coronavirus response

The Army Corps of Engineers is planning to create more than 10,000 ICU-type hospital rooms in hotels, dormitories and other available buildings in New York City over the next few weeks, its commander said Friday. 

How the coronavirus has disrupted education for one California family — my own

As a reporter and editor at Yahoo News who has written often about the impact the growing coronavirus outbreak is having on American life, my assignment to investigate how education was being impacted took me to a not-so-exotic location — my own kitchen table.

Remains of missing Colorado boy, 11, found in Florida

Investigators want to know if anyone saw suspect Leticia Staunch in the Panhandle in early February

Italy coronavirus deaths surge by 793 in a day, lifting total death toll to 4,825

The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 793 to 4,825, officials said on Saturday, an increase of 19.6% -- by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago. On Thursday, Italy overtook China as the country to register most deaths from the highly contagious virus.

Hong Kong Records Its Biggest Rise in Coronavirus Cases as New Wave of Infections Crashes Into Asia

Hong Kong saw a dramatic rise of 48 new coronavirus cases Friday, majority of whom were travelers returning from abroad

Senate Republicans propose $1,200 cash payments in coronavirus economic rescue package

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell laid out the outlines of a major assistance package for families and businesses hurt by the coronavirus.

'He must resign from the Senate': Fox News host demands Richard Burr's ouster after bombshell report suggests he dumped up to $1.72 million in stocks before coronavirus crisis

"There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis," the Fox News host Tucker Carlson said.

The gang-rape and murder that shocked India

Four men were hanged Friday, more than seven years after a gang-rape and murder that stunned India. Jyoti Singh, 23, was returning home from the cinema with a male friend when they boarded a private bus on the evening of Sunday December 16, 2012. The five adults and one juvenile were charged with 13 offences in February 2013 by a fast-track court.

Sen. Lindsey Graham Says Government Could Underwrite ‘70 Percent’ of U.S. Payroll if Coronavirus Containment Continues

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Friday warned that federal and state governments could be forced to support a large segment of the American workforce if measures designed to contain the Wuhan coronavirus remain in place."I talked with [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin this morning. Here's the challenge, and we've just got to tell the public the truth: we're going to be floating probably 70 percent of the nation's payroll," Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill. "The federal government in some form, working with the states and the private sector, but mostly the federal government is going to underwrite 70 percent of the payroll in this country if the containment policies continue to be this aggressive."Graham said the economic stimulus currently being hashed out by senators in conjunction with the White House will be much more expensive than originally thought."It's going to be a hell of a lot more than $1 trillion," Graham said. Other Republican and Democratic senators have privately agreed that the stimulus will exceed the $1 trillion mark, CNN reported on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the body would be ready to vote on the stimulus by Monday."We expect to have an agreement by the end of today,” McConnell told CNN. “The game plan remains the same. We will be voting on a final package in the Senate on Monday."The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has caused large swaths of the U.S. to implement closures of schools, theaters and other public venues, with New York and California ordering nonessential workers to stay at home and residents to remain home as much as possible. Jobless claims have surged by 281,000 since March 8, the highest rise since September 2017.

How do you do social distancing in a refugee camp?

Gov. Andrew Cuomo: New York just boosted its total number of coronavirus tests by almost 50% in the past day. Here's how the state is doing compared to other countries.

Cuomo said at a Friday press conference that New York was testing at a similar rate as South Korea or China. The state still has a long way to go.

Taiwan reports 18 new coronavirus cases, all imported

Taiwan reported 18 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, all imported from people coming from countries including the United States, Britain, South Africa and Indonesia or those having contact with them, bring the total number of infected to 153. While Taiwan's initial efforts to control the spread of the virus have won praise at home and abroad, it is now facing an upsurge in cases from people bringing the virus with them to the island, as are some other countries in Asia. Taiwan has reported two deaths, while 28 have been released from hospital.

Trump says Congress 'very close' on coronavirus stimulus, Pence says he'll be tested - live updates

In a letter to Democratic colleagues released Friday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the stimulus "as written" a "non-starter."

Governments and Companies Race to Make Masks Vital to Virus Fight

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The Hottest Parties in Town Are Now Online

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Is spring break over? Local Florida officials close beaches after gov refuses to.

At the height of the spring break rush, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he would not order the beaches closed.

It's the 'coronavirus,' not the 'Chinese virus,' but Trump is right: China made it worse

President Trump has taken pains over the past week to link the coronavirus outbreak to China, calling it the “Chinese virus” at daily briefings over objections that doing so unfairly stigmatizes an entire nation, and might encourage hostility toward Asian-Americans.

Trump would agree to block executives from using stimulus funds for stock buybacks and bonuses

During a coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday, President Trump said he would agree to provisions that would prohibit companies from using stimulus funds for executive bonuses or stock buybacks.

National Guard chief says 'tens of thousands' of Guardsmen expected to be called up to fight the coronavirus

There are more than 2,000 National Guard troops responding to the coronavirus, and that number is expected to double by the weekend.

Iran judicial authority says liaising with France over prisoner swap

Iran's judicial authority said Friday Tehran was liaising with Paris over the release of a French prisoner held in the Islamic republic after France released an Iranian threatened with extradition to the US. The Iranian, Jallal Rohollahnejad, "has been freed today", the Iranian judiciary's news agency Mizan Online reported, without disclosing the identity of the French detainee. Iranian state TV later Friday said he was already on a flight back to Tehran.

Is online school illegal? With schools closing from coronavirus, special education concerns give districts pause

As school moves online during the coronavirus outbreak, parents say schools are struggling with how to provide special education -- required by law.

'Buy as much as possible' - Taiwan sees boon to panic buying

People in Taiwan were told to buy as much as possible during the coronavirus outbreak, as the island's premier struck a distinctly different approach to panic buying by advising them there was plenty to go around and it would support the economy. While Taiwan has only reported 108 cases of the virus, large rises in recent days from people returning from overseas has prompted some people to rush to supermarkets to stock up, even as the government says there is no need to panic and it will punish hoarding and profiteering. Writing on his Facebook page late on Thursday in a post entitled "Buy as much as possible, there's plenty of goods", Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said it was the ideal opportunity to buy more Taiwanese products in a boon for the economy.

Lebanon FM summons US envoy over American being flown out

Lebanon's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador Friday after an American on trial in Beirut was taken out of the country by a U.S. warplane — a move that the powerful militant group Hezbollah called a “blatant violation” of Lebanese sovereignty and laws. The Lebanese-American man, Amer Fakhoury, was ordered released Monday by a judge in Lebanon because more than 10 years had passed since he allegedly tortured prisoners at a jail run by an Israel-backed Lebanese militia. Fakhoury has denied the charges.

America has one of the world's worst coronavirus responses

The world is gripped by the coronavirus pandemic. At time of writing there were about 225,000 confirmed cases in total, and 9,300 deaths. Europe is for the moment the epicenter of the outbreak, particularly in Italy where the virus has overwhelmed the health care system, but dozens of other countries are only a week or two behind on a similar track, including the United States.However, there are major divergences between the performance of different countries. Rich and middle-income East Asian countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, and Singapore have managed to nearly halt the outbreak in its tracks, while more ramshackle countries like the U.S. and U.K. have botched it almost beyond belief.While it is obviously too early to conduct a full accounting of what works and what doesn't, some broad lessons about best practices are still apparent. America will need to learn these lessons quickly if it wants to save itself from potentially horrifying outcomes, both now and in future pandemics.It's fair to say there are three broad levels to any pandemic response, each built on top of the other. The foundation is the national health care system, which provides the necessary broad access to testing and treatment. The second is the state's administrative bureaucracy and welfare state, which coordinates additional response measures. That means stuff like setting up mass testing checkpoints at border crossings and around the country, securing stockpiles of necessary medical supplies, constructing emergency hospitals, and so on. It also means deploying income support to individuals and businesses should mass lockdowns or quarantines become necessary, to keep people from being ruined financially and the economy ticking over. The third is citizen awareness: The population must be ready to upgrade their hygiene habits, accept drastic restrictions on movement, and avoid gathering together, so transmission is limited.Of all these, mass testing deserves special emphasis, because without it any emergency response is all but hamstrung. A nation cannot fight an epidemic without knowing where the disease actually is.The best-performing countries, however, excelled on all three levels. Taiwan has a Medicare-style single-payer system (indeed, it was actually based initially on America's Medicare system, except made universal), which allowed them to deploy testing, treatment, and quarantine without any fuss. They also had pandemic response plans drawn up after the SARS outbreak in 2002, which had been regularly reviewed and practiced. Finally, their citizens had been educated and prepared to take any epidemic seriously, so that people did not try to escape lockdowns and spread the disease further.Even middle-income countries can manage this. Vietnam, whose per-capita GDP was only about $6,600 in 2018 (or about 12 percent as much as the U.S.), squelched its initial epidemic with a lightning-fast deployment of mass testing, contact-tracking, quarantine, and public education measures (though it has since been dealing with new infections from foreign travelers). If the state is on top of the situation, mass lockdowns and the associated economic devastation can be limited or avoided.European countries were considerably behind the curve. Most have good enough or better medical systems, but their bureaucracies were caught flat-footed on the response. Italy has a world-class health care system, and the state actually moved quite quickly to put through testing, lockdown, and quarantine measures, but it simply wasn't fast enough to halt the outbreak. Worse, Italian citizens initially did not take the crisis seriously enough. Many resisted social distancing advisories and continued going out to public gatherings when the epidemic was in its early stages — encouraged by mixed messages from some authorities. Notice of a mass lockdown in northern Italy leaked before it could be implemented, and thousands fled to the south, where they spread the disease. And once an outbreak has gotten out of hand, even the best health care system in the world will be overwhelmed, because none are prepared to treat such gigantic surges of critically ill patients.Still, Italy is now working to the absolute utmost to fight the crisis, and appears to have slowed the growth of new cases. Other European countries, belatedly jolted into action by the Italian example, are taking drastic steps to limit disease transmission, build up their testing and treatment capacity, and keep their populations protected in the meantime. Here the famously generous European welfare states come in handy — countries like Denmark and Norway already have generous sick leave so infected people do not have to come to work, plus unemployment benefits to catch people who lose their job, and so on. These countries were also quick to pass business support measures to limit layoffs and prevent bankruptcies until the crisis passes.The United States, by contrast, has faceplanted on every single aspect of the response. Our health care system is a bitter joke by Taiwanese or Italian standards. We do not even have universal coverage, and what coverage we have is a usurious, fragmented, Kafkaesque nightmare that routinely bankrupts people who get sick. President Trump's direct response has also been horrifically bungled. We still do not have enough tests at least two months after we should have had them. He has not secured supplies of vital equipment like masks and ventilators, and hospitals are already running short. He did not even start activating the Army Corps of Engineers until a couple days ago. Hospital ships that Trump boasted were on their way turned out to be docked for maintenance and will take days to get moving. An economic support measure (which contains some emergency paid leave and unemployment insurance provisions that are worse than what most European countries have in normal times) is bogged down in Congress.Perhaps worst of all, Trump, Republican politicians, and right-wing media consistently downplayed the epidemic for weeks as it gathered strength. As the virus quietly spread through the population, Trump was still claiming "The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA," and conservative media was claiming it was no worse than the flu. Just in the last few days, Republican hack propagandists like Sean Hannity have pivoted on a dime from "I see it, again, as like, let's bludgeon Trump with this new hoax," to "this program has always taken the coronavirus seriously. We've never called the virus a hoax." The result is a persistent partisan split in how likely Americans are to understand the threat posed by the outbreak.At any rate, this all suggests the sketch of a broad policy agenda to fix this outbreak and head off future ones. First, the wretched American health care system needs to be sharply augmented on an emergency basis and eventually replaced with something that actually works, like Medicare-for-all. Second, the federal government is in shambles and needs a total overhaul. To start with, we should copy Taiwan's pandemic systems so that response teams and supplies are always ready to go on a moment's notice. More broadly, state capacity, which has been gutted by decades of conservative austerity, anti-science, and anti-expertise dogmatism, must be rebuilt across the board. Conservatives have insisted for decades that the government is all but useless, and today we are all paying the price. Third, Trump should be turfed out of office and the conservative movement should be comprehensively defeated politically. It turns out there are some serious downsides to having a narcissistic reality TV host in charge of the country.I have little hope that very much of this will come to pass. But in a crisis, sometimes what seemed impossible can happen very quickly. Let's hope somebody is trying to learn the lessons Taiwan and other Asian democracies are teaching us.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Top coronavirus doctor puts head in hands when Trump mentions 'Deep State Department' at briefing Bloomberg's last FEC filing shows he spent nearly $1 billion on his failed presidential run Senate GOP stimulus plan would exclude up to 64 million tax filers from full rebate, economist says

Hawley, Romney Criticize GOP’s Coronavirus Cash Payment Plan: ‘Lower-Income Families Shouldn’t Be Penalized’

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) spoke out against the Senate GOP’s plan for direct payments to Americans as part of its phase-three coronavirus relief package, calling it “regressive” and saying the structure of the plan “needs to be fixed.”“Relief to families in this emergency shouldn’t be regressive. Lower-income families shouldn’t be penalized,” Hawley tweeted Thursday night after Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R., Ky.) dropped the plan.> Relief to families in this emergency shouldn’t be regressive. Lower-income families shouldn’t be penalized> > -- Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 19, 2020The Missouri Republican clarified that he was speaking directly about the bill in a later tweet, adding that it “needs to be fixed.”> I mean the GOP bill that just got introduced in the Senate needs to be fixed https://t.co/yzEvgaXYtd> > -- Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 19, 2020The plan, which McConnell said Thursday creates “money for people, from the middle class down, period,” includes direct payments of $1,200 per person and $2,400 for couples to help offset economic losses amid the growing pandemic. But the provision that Hawley labeled "regressive" states that size of the checks will be halved for Americans with no federal income tax liability. While the Senate Finance Committee said the bill “ensures relief gets to low-income seniors and disabled veterans,” the plan will also affect poor Americans.Earlier this week, Hawley released his own plan targeted at all single parents making less than $50,000, and all married parents making less than $100,000, to assist working families with cash payments — a proposal enthusiastically endorsed by Quinton Lucas, Democratic mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.“Let’s not overthink this. These families need relief — now — to pay bills that are coming due, make those emergency grocery runs, and get ready for potential medical bills. Let’s get it to them,” Hawley said in a press release announcing the plan.Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah), who released his own proposal for a one-time $1,000 payment to every American, also criticized the final plan's payment structure."The current bill has promise but it shouldn’t give lower earners smaller checks —that’s directly contrary to my proposal. We need to fix this to ensure lower earners get equal payments," Romney tweeted on Thursday night.> Americans urgently need cash to meet immediate needs, that’s been my goal from the start. The current bill has promise but it shouldn’t give lower earners smaller checks —that’s directly contrary to my proposal. We need to fix this to ensure lower earners get equal payments.> > -- Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) March 20, 2020

Trump announces U.S.-Mexico border closure to stem spread of coronavirus

The U.S.-Mexico border will be closed to nonessential travel to further help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

People are praising New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's steady and calm leadership during the coronavirus pandemic

Many people have taken to social media to praise Cuomo, often contrasting his handling of coronavirus with Trump's bungled approach to the pandemic.

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Top National Guard general refutes nationwide quarantine claims; Pentagon says foreign actors trying to panic Americans

03/20/20 4:50 PM

It’s Dangerous to Be Ruled by Fear

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As moms navigate the pandemic, it can feel as if ‘I have five jobs.’

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Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

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Trump Cites Coronavirus as He Announces a Border Crackdown

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Neighborhood restaurants in cities large and small are facing tough odds.

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New York Joins California as Millions More Americans Are Ordered to Stay Home

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Broadway, Shuttered by Pandemic, Reaches Short-Term Pay Deal

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‘Zoombombing’: When Video Conferences Go Wrong

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How the Coronavirus Crisis May Hinder Efforts to Fight Wildfires

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Trump’s Embrace of Unproven Drugs to Treat Coronavirus Defies Science

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The No. 1 way to prevent coronavirus isn't wearing a face mask

Coronavirus masks are expensive, they only last a few hours — and they may not even help.

Senate Republicans unveil massive coronavirus bill that would include cash payments

The Republican proposal also includes emergency aid for small businesses and industries such as airline companies.

Venice canals clear as city tourist-free under coronavirus

The city of Venice is enjoying crystal clear waters in its world-famous canals due to a lack of debris from tourists and near-zero boat traffic under Italy's ongoing coronavirus lockdown. The clear waters are a tiny bright spot in the beleaguered but beautiful city, whose economy has been virtually wiped out since tourists fled the area beginning last month, spooked by the spread of coronavirus in the country's north. Images of the welcome change were first posted on a Facebook group "Venezia Pulita (Clean Venice)," with residents sharing photos of tiny fish swimming in usually opaque waters, or cormorant, egrets and other birds enjoying the lack of boat traffic in the city's canals.

Coronavirus: CDC advises health workers to use homemade masks or bandanas amid shortages as ‘last resort’

As healthcare workers and hospitals face shortages across the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has released new guidelines for using face masks.Shortages in surgical and respirator masks started after citizens panic bought boxes in stores and online so they could wear when out. But this decision has since left hospitals short of the necessary facial guard.

One chart shows different countries' current coronavirus death rates, based on the known number of cases and deaths

A country's coronavirus death rate can depend on how widely it's testing people. As of Wednesday, March 18, Italy's death rate was the highest.

Americans would get two checks under Treasury Department proposal

One check would arrive in April and another in May.

Senator Sold Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Stocks After Suggesting U.S. Was Prepared for Coronavirus

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