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US
deaths
top
1,000 as
$2.2
trillion
in virus
aid
approved
By
JENNIFER
PELTZ
and
COLLEEN
LONG
apnews.com
NEW
YORK -
U.S.
deaths
from the
coronavirus
pandemic
topped
1,000 in
another
grim
milestone
for a
global
outbreak
that is
taking
lives
and
wreaking
havoc on
economies
and the
established
routines
of
ordinary
life.
In a
recognition
of the
scale of
the
threat,
the U.S.
Senate
late
Wednesday
passed
an
unparalleled
$2.2
trillion
economic
rescue
package
steering
aid to
businesses,
workers
and
health
care
systems.
The
unanimous
vote
came
despite
misgivings
on both
sides
about
whether
it goes
too far
or not
far
enough
and
capped
days of
difficult
negotiations
as
Washington
confronted
a
national
challenge
unlike
it has
ever
faced.
The
880-page
measure
is the
largest
economic
relief
bill in
U.S.
history.
Worldwide,
the
death
toll
climbed
past
21,000,
according
to a
running
count
kept by
Johns
Hopkins
University,
and the
U.S. had
1,050
deaths
and
nearly
70,000
infections.
Spain’s
death
toll has
risen
past
3,400,
eclipsing
that of
China,
where
the
virus
was
first
detected
in
December,
and is
now
second
only to
that of
Italy,
which
has
7,500.
Lidia
Perera,
a nurse
at
Madrid’s
1,000-bed
Hospital
de la
Paz,
said
more
workers
were
desperately
needed.
“We are
collapsing,”
Perera
said.
The
Spanish
parliament
voted to
allow
the
government
to
extend
strict
stay-at-home
rules
and
business
closings
until
April
11.
Such
measures
are
becoming
increasingly
common
in the
U.S.,
where
New York
is the
epicenter
of the
domestic
outbreak,
accounting
for more
than
30,000
cases
and
close to
300
deaths,
most of
them in
New York
City.
Public
health
officials
in the
city
hunted
down
beds and
medical
equipment
and
called
for more
doctors
and
nurses
for fear
the
number
of sick
patients
will
overwhelm
hospitals
as has
happened
in Italy
and
Spain.
A
makeshift
morgue
was set
up
outside
Bellevue
Hospital,
and the
city’s
police,
their
ranks
dwindling
as more
fall
ill,
were
told to
patrol
nearly
empty
streets
to
enforce
social
distancing.
In
Washington,
President
Donald
Trump
has
called
for
Americans
to
dedicate
themselves
to
social
distancing
for 15
days,
including
staying
home
from
work and
closing
bars and
restaurants
to help
try to
stall
the
spread
of the
disease.
Yet,
he has
also
grumbled
that
“our
country
wasn’t
built to
be shut
down”
and
vowed
not to
allow
“the
cure be
worse
than the
problem”
—
apparently
concerned
that the
outbreak’s
devastating
effects
on
financial
markets
and
employment
will
harm his
chances
for
reelection
later
this
year.
“The
LameStream
Media is
the
dominant
force in
trying
to get
me to
keep our
Country
closed
as long
as
possible
in the
hope
that it
will be
detrimental
to my
election
success,”
Trump
tweeted
Wednesday.
Democrats
say that
Trump
was
prioritizing
the
economy
over the
health
and
safety
of
Americans.
“I’d
like to
say,
let’s
get back
to work
next
Friday,”
said Joe
Biden,
the
front-runner
for the
Democratic
presidential
nomination.
”That’d
be
wonderful.
But it
can’t be
arbitrary.”
Biden
said the
congressional
aid
package
addressing
the
outbreak
“goes a
long
way,”
but that
“meticulous
oversight”
is
required.
“We’re
going to
need to
make
sure the
money
gets out
quickly
into
peoples’
pockets
and to
keep a
close
watch on
how
corporations
are
using
the
taxpayers
funds
that
they
receive,
to make
sure it
goes to
help
workers,
not rich
CEOs or
shareholders,”
the
former
vice
president
said.
Brazil
President
Jair
Bolsonaro
has also
called
to
reopen
schools
and
businesses,
contending
a
clampdown
ordered
by many
governors
will
deeply
wound
the
economy
and
spark
social
unrest.
He
called
for only
high-risk
people
to
quarantine
and for
governors
to lift
their
stricter
measures.
The
country’s
governors
resisted,
saying
his
instructions
run
counter
to
health
experts’
recommendations
and
endanger
Latin
America’s
largest
population.
The
rebellion
even
included
traditional
allies
of
Brazil’s
far-right
president.
Meanwhile,
the
governor
of a
state in
central
Mexico
said the
poor are
“immune”
to the
coronavirus,
even as
the
federal
government
suspended
all
non-essential
government
activities.
Puebla
Gov.
Miguel
Barbosa’s
comment
was
apparently
partly a
response
to
statistics
showing
that the
wealthy,
who
travel
much
more,
have
made up
a
significant
percentage
of
Mexicans
infected
to date,
including
some
prominent
businessmen.
The
country
has seen
six
deaths
so far.
“The
majority
are
wealthy
people.
If you
are
rich,
you are
at risk.
If you
are
poor,
no,”
Barbosa
said.
“We poor
people,
we are
immune.”
Barbosa
also
appeared
to be
playing
on an
old
stereotype
held by
some
Mexicans
that
poor
sanitation
standards
may have
strengthened
their
immune
systems
by
exposing
them to
bacteria
or other
bugs.
In
other
developments:
—
Thailand’s
capital,
Bangkok,
saw a
drastic
reduction
in
crowds
and
traffic
on the
first
day of a
national
state of
emergency
declared
to cope
with the
virus.
The
elevated
Skytrain
mass
transit
system
was
largely
empty
during
the
normal
rush
hour and
a main
bus
station
was
quiet
after
the
departure
over the
past
week of
many
workers
whose
homes
are in
rural
provinces.
Outside
the
usually
throbbing
city,
checkpoints
were set
up to
find
travelers
with
symptoms
of the
disease.
The
state of
emergency
allows
the
government
to
implement
curfews,
censor
the
media,
disperse
gatherings
and
deploy
the
military
for
enforcement.
—
Leaders
of four
Japaneses
prefectures
whose
residents
commute
to work
and
school
in Tokyo
asked
people
to avoid
non-essential
visits
to the
capital.
The
calls
come a
day
after
Tokyo
Gov.
Yuriko
Koike
asked
city
residents
to work
from
home if
possible
and
avoid
going
out on
the
weekend.
She said
Tokyo is
on the
verge of
a
possible
explosive
increase
in
infections.
—
Pakistani
officials
said a
representative
of an
Islamic
organization
spread
coronavirus
on the
outskirts
of
capital
by
visiting
mosques
and
going
house to
house
with
other
clerics.
Several
clerics
and
residents
are
among
the 25
people
who
tested
positive
in
Islamabad.
Pakistan’s
total of
nearly
1,100
cases
prompted
efforts
to
persuade
the
country’s
more
than 200
million
people
to stay
home.
—
Pakistan’s
giant
neighbor,
India,
began
enforcing
the
world’s
largest
coronavirus
lockdown,
a
gargantuan
task of
trying
to keep
1.3
billion
people
indoors.
Official
assurances
that
essentials
wouldn’t
run out
clashed
with
people’s
fears
that the
disease
toll
could
soon
worsen,
gutting
food and
other
critical
supplies.
—
Beginning
Friday,
South
Korea
will
enforce
14-day
quarantines
on its
nationals
and
foreigners
with
long-term
stay
visas
arriving
from the
United
States.
It
already
applies
to
arrivals
from
Europe.
South
Koreans
can be
sued and
foreigners
expelled
for
failing
to heed
the
order.
—
China’s
National
Health
Commission
says its
67 new
COVID-19
cases
were all
in
recent
arrivals
from
abroad.
Once
again,
there
were no
new
cases
reported
in
Wuhan,
the
original
epicenter
of the
illness
and
which
remains
under
some
restrictions
until
April 8.
The
government
is
trying
to
restart
the
world’s
second-largest
economy
as its
cases
subside.
Of the
more
than
81,000
people
infected,
more
than
74,000
have
been
released
from
treatment,
while
just
under
4,000
remain
in care.
—
British
Prime
Minister
Boris
Johnson
said
more
than
400,000
people
responded
within a
day to
the
government’s
call for
volunteers
to help
the
country’s
most
vulnerable
people.
—
The
Pentagon
halted
for 60
days the
movement
of U.S.
troops
and
Defense
Department
civilians
overseas,
a
measure
expected
to
affect
about
90,000
troops
scheduled
to
deploy
or
return
from
abroad.
For
most
people,
the
coronavirus
causes
mild or
moderate
symptoms,
such as
fever
and
cough
that
clear up
in two
to three
weeks.
For
some,
especially
older
adults
and
people
with
existing
health
problems,
it can
cause
more
severe
illness,
including
pneumonia
and
death.

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