The Latest: Another US immigration detainee has virus
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
TOP OF THE HOUR:
— WHO director says “millions could die” without aggressive action.
— With more than 6,000 new infections in Italy, worldwide total exceeds 500,000.
— China temporarily bars all foreign nationals.
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WASHINGTON — A 52-year-old man detained in New Jersey has become the second person in U.S. immigration detention to test positive for COVID-19.
The unidentified man was being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark.
A statement Thursday from the county says the man was admitted to a local hospital on March 22 for an issue unrelated to the outbreak. But the county says the man started to show symptoms of the coronavirus. A test came back positive for the virus.
U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement had no immediate comment.
The agency previously reported a positive test of a 31-year-old man held in Bergen County, New Jersey.
It comes as immigrant advocates around the country urge the government to release migrants from detention centers because of the risk of a potential outbreak among detainees.
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FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen says it is extending the shutdown of its German car, truck and parts plants for another four days until April 9.
At the same time, the company said it is working “a comprehensive package of measures” to restart production when that becomes possible.
The company said it would use its experience from China, where its plants have resumed production “and the market seems to be gradually returning to normal.” The company said it had no cases of coronavirus among its employees in China.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s police chief on Thursday ordered the cancellation of leave for all police officers for two weeks, the latest measure intended to enhance the fight against the coronavirus in the island nation.
There have been 102 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka.
Leave will be canceled for police officers until April 10.
Police have already set up about 600 special roadblocks across the country to prevent nonessential travels. The government is urging people to stay home to prevent the disease being spread.
A nationwide curfew has been in effect since March 20 and the government has banned nonessential travel between Sri Lanka’s 25 districts. The Indian Ocean island nation is divided into 25 districts for administrative purposes.
Police are strictly enforcing the curfew. During the last six days, police have arrested 3,296 people and seized 794 vehicles for violations.
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MEXICO CITY — More than a year into his term, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador attended his first international summit Thursday, though the topic — the coronavirus pandemic — meant he didn’t have to leave home to get there.
López Obrador, who has not left Mexico since taking office in December 2018, urged the online gathering of the world’s top 20 industrialized economies to help those with fewer resources. He proposed that the United Nations take control of “everything related to medicine and equipment” to combat the virus so that there is an even playing field.
“When these things occur, he with the greatest economic possibilities hoards,” he said at his daily news conference, which followed the G20 session.
López Obrador specifically noted the ability of the neighboring United States to spend billions of dollars on in-demand items like ventilators for those in most critical need, making them harder for other countries to find and driving up the cost.
López Obrador has long maintained that he has too much to do in Mexico to spend time traveling abroad like other heads of state. He has delegated that work to his foreign secretary while at the same time sharply curtailing international travel by other government officials as part of his austerity measures.
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GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization has warned G20 leaders that “without aggressive action in all countries, millions could die” from the new coronavirus outbreak.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a video message to the leaders of the world’s top powers, said “only time will tell” what the full economic, political and social fallout will be.
“But we know that the price we end up paying depends on the choices we make now,” Tedros said. “This is a global crisis that demands a global response.”
He noted “sacrifices” made by some countries including “drastic social and economic restrictions” like shutting schools and businesses and urging people to stay home.
“These measures will take some of the heat out of the epidemic, but they will not extinguish it,” he said. “We must do more.”
Tedros called for training and deployment of health workers to test, isolate and treat cases — and trace their contacts. He decried a global shortage of personal protective equipment that endangers front-line responders. He urged countries to boost output of such items, and lift export bans and boost distribution of them.
“The actions we take now will have consequences for decades to come,” he said. “We are at war with a virus that threatens to tear us apart — if we let it.”
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BERLIN — Germany’s central state of Hesse says it is taking in 14 patients from Italy and France who are seriously ill with the new coronavirus.
Authorities said Thursday that 10 patients from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region and four from Grand-Est in France would be transferred to Hesse.
At least five of Germany’s 16 states have made similar offers, with some already taking in patients.
Hesse’s governor, Volker Bouffier, said that “in the crisis we stand together.” He said the patients would be distributed across several hospitals in the state of about 6.2 million.
Germany’s foreign ministry tweeted that the country has so far offered to take in 47 patients from Italy. The number of patients from France wasn’t provided.
Germany has confirmed more than 43,000 cases of COVID-19 but so far just 239 deaths, a far lower rate than most European countries.
Experts said Thursday that the country has prepared a large number of specialist hospital beds for what is expected to be a continued rise in the number of patients requiring intensive treatment.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is planning a virtual commemoration of the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 52 years after he was killed in the Tennessee city.
The museum will produce a digital broadcast on April 4 featuring segments from past ceremonies, with remarks from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. James Lawson, friends and colleagues of the late civil rights leader. A choir performance, an excerpt of his famed speech “The Mountaintop” and a moment of silence also are planned.
King was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of the old Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.
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LONDON — The British government has unveiled another massive income support scheme, this time for 5 million or so self-employed people, many of whom face financial ruin from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.
Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said the new Self-Employed Income Support Scheme will replicate the one he announced last week for those workers that firms retained rather than lay off.
At a virtual press briefings, Sunak said the government will pay self-employed people, who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak, a grant worth 80% of their average monthly profits over the past three years, up to 2,500 pounds ($2,975) per month.
He said the scheme will cover 95% of Britain’s self-employed and will only be open to those who make the majority of their income from self-employment so only the “genuinely self-employed” benefit.
He said the scheme, which will be open for at least three months, should be in a position to start handing over the grants by the start of June.
“The scheme I have announced today is fair. It is targeted at those who need it the most and crucially, it is deliverable,” he said.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The president of Ukraine says the country’s borders will be entirely closed by the end of Friday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the closure includes Ukrainian citizens abroad. He charged diplomats with taking responsibility for Ukrainians outside the country.
“Today we don’t have time to wait. We faced a difficult choice between citizens who are still abroad and the security of 40 million citizens within the country,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine has recorded 156 cases of novel coronavirus infection and five deaths.
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MIAMI — Miami-area hospitals say they are treating crew members from two Costa Cruise ships, the Magica and Favolosa.
The ships remain offshore, but about a dozen sick crew members were sent Thursday to Jackson Health, the University of Miami and Baptist Health.
The hospitals said in a joint statement that “while we are all committed to preserving resources for our own residents, an international community like Miami would never turn our backs on people aboard ships at our shores.”
Carnival Corp., which owns the cruise line, says the ships are empty except for crew members. They both were last in port at the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, the Magica on March 17 and the Favolosa on Saturday, according to vesselfinder.com.
The cruise line says about 30 crew members have shown flu-like symptoms, but only about a dozen have been evacuated so far. The Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection and local agencies are working to get the sick crew members to shore.
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FRANKFURT, Germany — German airline Lufthansa and its budget arm Eurowings are leaving neighboring seats empty on all flights from and within Germany as a means of ensuring physical distance.
The distancing measure takes effect on Friday, the airline said in a statement Thursday.
Passengers will board at terminal gates and not by bus whenever possible. The airline said the distancing measure would not apply to flights to Germany in order to help as many German residents as possible get home.
Distancing measures have already been implemented at check-in and during on-board service.
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ROME — Italy has reported 6,153 new coronavirus infections, pushing the global total over half a million, based on a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Italy now has 80,539 cases, almost as many as China. Italy’s Civil Protection Agency reported 662 deaths on Thursday, bringing the country’s death toll to 8,165, which is the highest in the world.
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MOSCOW — The Russian military said its personnel have deployed to Bergamo in northern Italy on to help local clinics treat coronavirus patients.
Russian Maj. Gen. Sergei Kikot said the Russian military personnel is split in eight teams, each having doctors, nurses and support workers.
Kikot leads the group of Russian military medics sent to Italy earlier this week on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders to help fight the epidemic. At Italian authorities’ request, they will be sent to sanitariums for the elderly patients in Bergamo to assist the local medical staff.
The Russian group also has disinfection equipment.
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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian lawmakers on Thursday voted to shut down Parliament because of fears over the spread of the coronavirus. The Balkan country is in a state of emergency until April 13 and until then, sittings will only be convened when emergency laws are adopted.
The ruling parties said the temporary shutdown was a preventive measure to protect lawmakers who are sitting too close together in the chamber. The government’s advice for social distancing requires everyone to stay at least 2 meters (7 feet) away from each other to limit contact.
But opposition lawmakers voiced fears that the move could jeopardize democracy and open doors for dictatorship.
Bulgaria has confirmed at least 264 cases and three deaths from the coronavirus. Of those infected with COVID-19, eight people have recovered.
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s top health official has resigned, the second to do so in less than two weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Interim Health Secretary Concepción Quiñones stepped down on Thursday. She was appointed after former Health Secretary Rafael Rodríguez resigned earlier this month after the governor and others complained about how the department was handling COVID-19 cases.
A new health secretary has not been announced for the U.S. territory, which has reported two coronavirus deaths and more than 60 confirmed cases.
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WASHINGTON — The Navy says an outbreak of COVID-19 infections aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific has forced it to divert to Guam so that all 5,000 aboard will undergo testing.
The acting secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, told reporters that the carrier remains “operationally capable.” Even so, other officials said the number of infected sailors has risen sharply, from three reported initially to “dozens” as of Thursday.
Modly said the carrier, which is the first U.S. Navy ship to have a reported outbreak while at sea, had about 800 COVID-19 test kits aboard and more were being delivered. He said the initially reported cases were sailors with relatively mild symptoms.
The Navy said earlier this week that the Theodore Roosevelt’s most recent port call was in Vietnam.
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JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s coronavirus cases are closing in on 1,000 as the total number of cases across Africa have risen above 3,000.
On the eve of a three-week lockdown, the South African government said Thursday it has 927 cases, the most of any African country. Its brief statement did not mention any deaths.
Forty-six of Africa’s 54 countries now have the virus. At least 73 deaths have been reported across the continent, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government has been in discussions with the White House about persuading the U.S. not to put troops on its border with Canada amid the pandemic.
Trudeau noted Canada and the United States have the longest un-militarized border in the world and it is very much in their mutual interests for it to remain that way. He says it has benefited both economies tremendously.
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BRUSSELS — European Union leaders are calling for urgent and “massive” coordinated international action to stop the coronavirus pandemic.
Following a videoconference with G20 leaders, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel said in a joint statement that “fast, massive and coordinated global action is necessary on the health and economic fronts to save lives and avoid a further economic crisis.”
Michel and von der Leyen thanked G20 leaders for the solidarity shown to Europe. They stressed that the EU is determined to assist countries vulnerable to the crisis outside the 27-member bloc, “especially in Africa.”
The duo also insisted it’s crucial to keep trade flows and supply chains open in the economic response to the crisis in order “to maintain our ability to manufacture and provide the necessary protective and medical equipment.”
The EU also asked G20 members “to assist each other in repatriating citizens stranded abroad who wish to return home.”
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BEIJING — China is temporarily barring all foreign nationals from entry as it seeks to curb the number of imported COVID-19 cases.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that foreign nationals with residence permits will be prevented from entering the country starting on Saturday. All visa-free transit policies also will be temporarily suspended.
Diplomatic workers will be exempt, while foreign nationals coming to China for “necessary economic, trade, scientific or technological activities or out of emergency humanitarian needs” can still apply for visas, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The suspension is a temporary measure that China is compelled to take in light of the outbreak situation and the practices of other countries,” the statement said.
As the number of China’s reported domestic COVID-19 cases has dwindled, it has had to contend with imported infections from recent overseas arrivals. These individuals have accounted for the majority of China’s new cases for more than a week.
