NYC: Only test those that are hospitalized as protective equipment 'extremely limited'
New York City's hospitals are sounding the alarm about a critical lack of Personal Protective Equipment, PPE, and are limiting tests of COVID-19 to those that are hospitalized in the "epicenter" of the coronavirus outbreak and to stop testing outpatients, documents obtained by NBC News show.
NBC News has reviewed a letter from NYU Medical Langone Hospital which says that the capacity to test for COVID-19 at labs in the region remains "critically limited."The letter says that as of Friday NYU has told staff that the testing of COVID-19 was to be restricted to hospitalized patients only. In part, the letter says, because supplies of test swabs and other necessary testing components remains low.
NYU's directives come on the heals of a sweeping memorandum from the New York City Department of Health. The directive says, "there is a national shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), collection swabs, and viral transport media supplies and it is critical that laboratory testing be prioritized for hospitalized patients."
The memo says that applies to testing first responders who aren't hospitalized either and says, "outpatient testing must not be encouraged, promoted or advertised."
Coronavirus cases in Switzerland jump 25 percent in a day
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Switzerland has jumped from 2,650 to 6,113 in the last 72 hours, NBC News numbers show.
Swiss officials said the number of coronavirus went up 25 percent in just 24 hours, with hospitals in Ticino, which borders hard-hit Italy, under pressure, Reuters reported.
The number of deaths in Switzerland is at least 56.
Coronavirus economic relief package could total $2 trillion, Kudlow says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said that the new economic emergency package to combat the coronavirus pandemic could total more than $2 trillion.
“The package is coming in at about 10 percent of GDP,” Kudlow said to reporters as he arrived at the Capitol Saturday morning to continue negotiating a deal with a bipartisan group of senators, adding that it would likely come out to be more than $2 trillion.
“We’re just trying to cover the right bases,” he said, declining to provide any further details on what agreements Senate Republicans and Democrats were nearing.
Lawmakers spent all Friday meeting in the Capitol to hammer out a deal, but failed to reach Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s ambitious midnight deadline to come to an agreement. They reconvened Saturday morning to finish negotiations.
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Coronavirus cases in New York State now top 10,000
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday morning that the number of coronavirus cases in the state has increased by more than 3,000 and now tops 10,000.
New York City alone has 6,211 cases, an increase of about 1,800, Cuomo said.
The state has conducted 45,437 tests, he said, and now has a total of 10,356 coronavirus cases.
"The more tests you take, the more positives you find," he said, adding that New York is now conducting more tests per capita than China or South Korea.
Why hospitals in the eastern U.S. are already sounding the alarm
Confined by lockdown, Frenchman runs marathon on his balcony
In the age of confinement, Elisha Nochomovitz figured out a way to run a marathon anyway - back and forth on his 23-foot-long balcony
He saw the 26.2 miles as a physical and mental challenge, but he told the Associated Press that he also shared the images online as a way "to extend my support to the entire medical personnel who are doing an exceptional job,"
Like athletes who ran around their Wuhan apartments or cyclists who found ways to train in their locked-down Abu Dhabi hotel rooms, Nochomovitz said he wanted to show others from his apartment in Balma, a suburb of the southern French city of Toulouse, that it is possible to stay fit as virus containment measures tighten around the world.
He also wanted to lighten the mood. "It was about launching a bit of a crazy challenge and bringing a bit of humor, to de-dramatize the confinement situation," he said.
What could follow mild early coronavirus symptoms?
As physicians across the country diagnose and care for a growing number of people with COVID-19, distinct patterns are emerging, giving clues about how the illness manifests in patients.
Very often, people start off with minor physical complaints — slight cough, headache, low-grade fever — that gradually worsen.
"Patients tend to have symptoms for about a week before either getting better, or getting really sick," said Dr. Joshua Denson, a pulmonary medicine and critical care physician at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans.
Denson, who estimated he's treated 15 to 20 patients with the coronavirus, described that first phase of the illness as "a slow burn."
Jordan blares sirens for start of nationwide curfew
Sirens blared out as Jordan began a nationwide curfew on Saturday, limiting the mobility of its 10 million citizens to combat the spread of coronavirus. The government ordered all shops to close indefinitely and all people to remain off the streets until at least Tuesday.
Amman-based academic Nadwa Dawsari filmed the curfew coming into effect in Jordan, with sirens and restrictions read from mosque loudspeakers.
Anyone violating the curfew — which restricts movement beyond emergencies and essential services — can be jailed up to a year, the army said. Thousands of soldiers have been deployed in cities and on main highways.
Jordan’s Health Ministry said on Friday that 85 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in the country.
China gives first COVID-19 vaccine to volunteers, local media reports
Clinical trials of coronavirus vaccines are being conducted on volunteers, local media in China reported on Saturday.
Chen Wei, the project leader — a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering — explained the process to the Tech Daily newspaper as constructing the vaccine using genetic engineering methods to "express the new coronavirus antigen."
There are not many volunteers required for Phase I trials, the newspaper reported. They are limited to residents of Wuhan, and residents of the Wuchang, Hongshan and Donghu Scenic Areas are preferred.
Volunteers will be divided into three groups of low-dose, medium-dose and high-dose groups, with 36 people in each group, Tech Daily said.
Hundreds of thousands defy Iraq's curfew to visit martyred imam's shrine
The Iraqi government has been forced to deploy troops after hundreds of thousands of people defied coronavirus and attempted to visit a shrine sacred to Shiite Muslims, two senior security sources with knowledge of the situation told NBC News.
An estimated 300,000 to 400,000 people arrived at the shrine of Musa al-Kadhim, the seventh of the 12 imams who are considered to be the spiritual and political successors of the Prophet Muhammad, to the north of the country’s capital Baghdad, one of the sources said Friday. More were expected Saturday.
“Security forces closed the area around the shrine in order to prevent people from entering them, gathering inside,” he said, adding: “We believe that the number of infected people will increase next week because of this visit.”
Iraq imposed a weeklong curfew Monday after 10 deaths were recorded in the country. Another three people have since died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and 195 cases have been confirmed.