Half-million infected worldwide as economic toll rises

March 27, 2020

(AP) The human and economic toll of the lockdowns against the coronavirus mounted Thursday as India struggled to feed the multitudes, Italy shut down most of its industry, and a record-shattering 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in a single week. The U.S. surpassed official Chinese government numbers to become the country with most reported infections.

As the number of cases worldwide topped a half-million and deaths climbed past 24,000, the damage to people's livelihoods and their well-being from the effort to flatten the rising curve started to come into focus.

In India, where the country's 1.3 billion people were under orders to stay home, legions of poor were suddenly thrown out of work, and many families were left struggling for something to eat. “Our first concern is food, not the virus,” said Suresh Kumar, 60, a bicycle rickshaw rider in New Delhi whose family of six relies on his daily earnings of 300 rupees, or $4. “I don’t know how I will manage.”

India has the world's second-highest number of people living in extreme poverty, with produce peddlers, maids and other low-wage workers living day to day. The government announced a 1.7 trillion rupee ($22 billion) economic stimulus package to deliver monthly rations of grain and lentils to 800 million people.

Around the globe, the death toll rose to about 8,200 in Italy, 4,300 in Spain and 1,700 in France, including a 16-year-old. The U.S. had about 1,300 deaths, about 400 of them in New York State, the worst hotspot in the nation. Most of those victims were in New York City, where hospitals are getting swamped.

A running count kept by Johns Hopkins University showed the United States now had the most reported cases of any country Thursday, with more than 85,000. Italy and China, the latter of which was the origin of the outbreak late last year, both had reported more than 80,000.

Louisiana was quickly becoming another smoldering hotspot. The number of new cases there jumped by more than 500 Thursday, for a total of over 2,300, with 86 deaths, including a 17-year-old, the health department said. The higher infection numbers reflected an increase in testing. New Orleans was gearing up for a possible overflow at hospitals, with plans to treat as many as 3,000 patients at the city’s convention center.

From New York's Fifth Avenue and London's Piccadilly Circus to the boulevards of Paris and the streets of Rome and Madrid, restaurants, hotels, airlines, giant chains and small shops are all shuttered, and factories across both continents have ground to a halt, as cities, states and entire countries have ordered the closing of nonessential businesses and instructed people to stay home.

Companies in Europe are laying off workers at the fastest pace since 2009, according to surveys of business managers. And the U.S. is bleeding jobs as well: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week was nearly five times the old record, set in 1982.

Dann Dykas, 37, of Portland, Oregon, was laid off from his job helping design and set up displays for trade shows. “Everything is so surreal," he said. "I can't even get an interview for another job, and we now have to worry more about being careful and taking care of ourselves.”

In Georgia, 33-year-old Ian Smith was let go from his job at a wine bar and is working “side hustles” and relying on the generosity of friends. “On my worst days, it’s hopelessness, and on some of my better days, it’s ‘What possibility can I create in all of this?'” he said. “I can’t pretend that I always feel that, though.”

In a rare positive sign, stocks rallied on Wall Street for the third straight day after an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package to help businesses, hospitals and ordinary Americans pull through the crisis won passage in the Senate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 1,350 points, or over 6%.

The rescue plan, which is expected to be voted on in the House on Friday, would dispense checks of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, announced that federal officials are developing guidelines to rate counties by risk of virus spread, as he aims to ease the restrictions meant to slow the outbreak.

Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the task force is concerned about certain counties in the Midwest that appear to be seeing a rapid increase in cases. She listed two: Wayne County in Michigan and Cook County in Illinois.

Montana joined the growing list of U.S. states ordering residents to stay home to fight the virus' spread. Italy, the eurozone's third-biggest economy and a major exporter of machinery, textiles and other goods, became perhaps the first Western developed nation to idle most of its industry, extending a shutdown on smaller, nonessential businesses to heavy manufacturers.

Among the companies in Italy that have shut down or rolled back production: Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari, Pirelli tires and Luxottica eyewear, maker of Ray-Bans and Oakleys. The industrial lobby Confindustria estimates a cost of 70 billion to 100 billion euros ($77 billion-$110 billion) of national wealth per month if 70% of companies are closed, as anticipated.

“We are entering a war economy,’’ said Confindustria president Vincenzo Boccia. Elsewhere around the world, South Africa, with the most industrialized economy in Africa, headed into a three-week lockdown starting Friday. The country is already in recession, with an unemployment rate of 29%.

And Britain unveiled another relief effort, this time aimed at the gig economy, many of whose workers are facing financial ruin. The government will give the self-employed grants equal to 80% of their average profits, up to 2,500 pounds ($2,975) per month.

In other developments:

New York state’s death toll jumped by 100 in one day, pushing the number to 385, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. He added that experts expect the number to increase as critically ill patients who have been on ventilators for several days succumb to the virus. “That is a situation where people just deteriorate over time,” Cuomo said.

China’s National Health Commission on Friday reported 55 new cases of the virus, including 54 it said were imported infections in recent arrivals from overseas. Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the provincial capital where the coronavirus emerged in December. China said it is temporarily barring most foreigners from entering as it tries to curb imported cases.

In the Mideast, Saudi Arabia announced a total lockdown on the capital, Riyadh, and Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in addition to a nationwide curfew. In the United Arab Emirates, authorities announced an overnight weekend lockdown and used drones to tell people to stay home.

The leaders of the Group of 20 major industrialized nations held a video summit for safety reasons and vowed to work together to confront the crisis but made no specific commitments. __ In Brazil, the country's governors are defying President Jair Bolsonaro over his call to reopen schools and businesses, dismissing his argument that the “cure” of widespread shutdowns is worse than the disease. As of Thursday, the country had more than 2,500 cases and 59 deaths.

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.

So far, more than 120,000 people have recovered, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

Long reported from Washington, Rising reported from Berlin and Schmall from New Delhi. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Italy hopes virus is easing but fears new onslaught in south

March 27, 2020

ROME (AP) — Doctors and nurses in Italy's overwhelmed northern hospitals have welcomed a slight stabilizing in the number of coronavirus infections but fear the virus is still silently spreading in the south two weeks into the West's most extreme nationwide shutdown.

As the dead in Italy keep piling up, virologists warn that the actual number of Italy’s positive cases is up to five times as high as the official count of 80,539. That means infections will still climb even with Italians ordered to stay home for all but essential activity.

Italy, the epicenter of Europe's pandemic, has by far the most virus deaths of any nation in the world, a grim tally of 8,165. On Friday, Italy is on track to surpass China in its infection count and have the most cases of any nation behind the U.S.

‘’It is something devastating,’’ said the Rev. Mario Carminati, who has turned over a church in the tiny Lombard town of Seriate to host coffins before they are taken by military convoy to be cremated. This week, dozens were lined up in two neat rows down the central aisle, and were immediately replaced by new ones when they were taken away.

“At least the relatives and family know that someone is taking care of them, with a prayer and a benediction before they are taken away,’’ he said. Despite the toll, officials have also expressed cautious optimism that the exponential spread of the virus is starting to slow in the hard-hit north, thanks to two weeks of military-enforced stay-at-home orders. For several days this week, new infections and deaths showed signs of slowing down, and emergency rooms weren’t seeing the tsunami of sick that characterized the first weeks of the pandemic following Italy's first positive test Feb. 20.

“The numbers are still high, but for a few days now the numbers have stopped rising, thank God,” said Dr. Luca Lorini, head of intensive care at the Pope John XXIII hospital in Bergamo, one of the hardest hit of Italy’s public hospitals.

Some 500 medical personnel at the hospital are infected, and Lorini said he has found himself treating colleagues, friends, children of friends and parents of friends in his overwhelmed 88-bed ICU that serves a city of 120,000.

He marvels that he is still standing and wonders if maybe he was infected early on with slight symptoms and developed immunity. Nationwide, at least 33 doctors have died and 6,414 medical personnel have tested positive

“We know it before we go into battle, and we accept it,” Lorini told The Associated Press. Elsewhere in Bergamo, the Italian army’s Alpini mountaineering forces are building a field hospital to be staffed, in part, by some of the 150 medical personnel sent by Russia, one of only a handful of countries along with China and Cuba to respond to Italy’s urgent appeal for medical equipment, protective masks and personnel.

But the need is also growing in the south, where hospitals are even less prepared and equipped than the prosperous north. In one week, Puglia in the “heel" of the Italian peninsula went from 478 cases to 1,182, with a doubling of ICU patients. Campania also doubled its caseload to 1,310 and tripled the number of people in ICUs.

“It’s a matter of hours, not days,” the governor of the Campania region that includes Naples wrote to the central government, complaining that his urgent requests for ventilators had gone unheeded. “There is a real chance of adding a tragedy of the south to the tragedy of the north.”

Cateno De Luca, mayor of the Sicilian city of Messina, took the extraordinary step of recording a warning to residents in his nasal, gravelly voice for drones to play as they fly over the seaside city monitoring residents’ movements.

“Don’t go outside! That is an order from Mayor De Luca!” the drone blasts. Italy’s high death toll and aggressive spread of the virus has led Italian epidemiologists to estimate that the true number of infected could be as high as 450,000, and that under-testing is putting Italians at risk of further contagion. Currently, Italy only tests people showing symptoms, because its labs cannot process any more, and to date more than 360,000 tests have been performed.

Virologist Dr. Andrea Crisanti, director of molecular medicine at the University of Padua and a consultant for the Veneto regional government, points to the only controlled epidemiological study done in the outbreak, in the tiny Veneto town of Vo’Euganeo, as evidence that Italy’s true numbers of infection are much higher — and that the risk of not testing more widely is enormous.

Italy recorded its first death in Vo, and the town was locked down Feb. 22 and the entire population of 3,300 tested. According to the study, 3% of Vo’s residents were infected, but between 50%-75% of them were asymptomatic. But because all positive cases were identified, isolated and quarantined, regardless of whether they were symptomatic, Vo has seen its new infections crumble.

“This tiny town has taught us a lot," Crisanti told state-run RAI radio. Crisanti said the Vo study showed that even asymptomatic people transmit the virus, since the few new infections registered between tests were within households of asymptomatic people. The only way to stop the spread, he told RAI, is more testing, active surveillance of all positive cases and quarantine.

Based on the Vo results, Veneto Gov. Luca Zaia is planning to vastly ramp up testing across the region, aiming to reach 20,000 tests a day and hand out protective masks to each family. Already, Veneto has tested nearly 80,000 people, and compared to hard-hit Lombardy next door, has a comparatively low mortality rate with 287 dead and 6,935 positive cases.

The government on March 10 imposed a nationwide lockdown after an initial quarantine of a dozen small towns in Lombardy and Veneto failed to stop the spread of the virus. On Thursday, Italy idled all non-essential production and industry, the most widespread manufacturing shutdown in the world.

The industrial lobby Confindustria has estimated it could cost 70 billion-to-100 billion euros ($77 billion-$110 billion) of national wealth a month if 70% of companies are closed. Two weeks in, the measures appear to be having their effect on the virus, slowing new infections and relieving pressure on the health system. By Thursday, more than 10,000 of Italy’s 80,000 infected had been cured.

Twenty days after coming down with a fever, and after nearly a week in an air-pressurized helmet pumping oxygen into his virus-ravaged lungs, Fausto Russo is now breathing on his own and hopes to go home as early as Sunday from the Santa Maria Goretti hospital in Latina, near Rome.

“It’s a horrible sensation, not being able to breathe,” said Russo, a 38-year-old fitness trainer. “Imagine putting your head under water.” Lorini, the doctor, knows well the toll that the virus takes on both patients and hospital staff. When he goes home each night, a five-minute walk from the hospital, he allows himself a few minutes to listen to music and “unplug” from the intensity of the ICU ward.

His current favorite song is Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden.” He smiles as he thinks about the lyrics. “You've gone a million miles/ How far'd you get/ To that place where/ You can't remember/ And you can't forget.”

“Listen to it today,” Lorini suggested. “It will give you a sense of tenderness.”

Barry reported from Soave, Italy.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

UK's Johnson tests positive for virus, deaths soar in Spain

March 27, 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday he has tested positive for the coronavirus, while the number of infections in the United States surged to the most in the world and Spain announced a record number of virus deaths overnight.

Johnson's office said the prime minister was tested after showing mild symptoms for the new coronavirus and is self-isolating and continuing to lead Britain's response to the pandemic. “Be in no doubt that I can continue, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology, to communicate with all my top team, to lead the national fightback against coronavirus," Johnson said in a video message, adding that he had a temperature and persistent cough.

Several weeks ago, Johnson had pledged he would "go on shaking hands with everybody.” Johnson, 55, was the first leader of a major nation known to have contracted COVID-19; German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been in isolation since her doctor tested positive for the virus, but her first two tests have been negative.

Earlier this week Britain's Prince Charles said he had tested positive. Spain's Health Ministry reported another 7,800 infections overnight for a total of 64,059. Deaths climbed by 769 to 4,858 — the world's second highest total after Italy's 8,214 fatalities.

“It’s true that we have more deaths than what we saw yesterday, but it’s also true that the percentage increase today is similar to that of he past three days and it appears there is a stabilization,” said Fernando Simón, the head of Spain's health emergency coordination center.

In Washington, the House was set to pass the sprawling $2.2 trillion measure later Friday after an extraordinary 96-0 Senate vote. President Donald Trump marveled at the unanimity and is eager to sign the package into law.

The vote ran into complications, however, as a Republican lawmaker threatened to delay passage until most lawmakers return to Washington, which could make a Friday vote impossible. The situation in countries with more fragile health care systems grew more dire with Russia, Indonesia and South Africa all passing the 1,000-infection mark. India launched a massive program to help feed hungry day laborers after a lockdown of the country's 1.3 billion people put them out of work.

South Africa also announced its first two deaths from the virus as it began a three-week lockdown. The U.S. now has 85,996 confirmed cases, and Italy was set to pass China's 81,782 infections later Friday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The three countries account nearly half the world's nearly 549,604 infections and more than half of the 24,863 reported virus deaths.

Analysts, however warned that all those infection figures could be low for reasons that varied in each nation. “China numbers can't be trusted because the government lies,” American political scientist Ian Bremmer, president of the Euraisa Group think-tank, said Friday in a tweet. “U.S. numbers can't be trusted because the government can't produce enough tests.”

Italian epidemiologists warn that the country's numbers are likely much higher than reported — perhaps five times as higher — although two weeks into a nationwide lockdown the daily increase seems to be slowing, at least in northern Italy.

“It’s a horrible sensation, not being able to breathe,” said Fausto Russo, a 38-year-old fitness trainer who is one of 10,000 Italians whose infection has been cured. “Imagine putting your head under water.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Johns Hopkins reported 127,531 people have recovered, about half in China. New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, reported 100 more deaths in one day, accounting for almost 30% of the 1,300 fatalities nationwide. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of deaths will increase soon as critically ill patients who have been on ventilators for days succumb.

“That is a situation where people just deteriorate over time,” Cuomo said. The White House's coronavirus response coordinator, Deborah Birx, said counties in the Midwest around Chicago and Detroit are seeing a rapid increase in cases.

On Thursday, Louisiana reported the number of known coronavirus cases in the state leapt 28% overnight, and New Orleans has begun gearing up for a possible overflow at hospitals, with plans to treat as many as 3,000 patients at the city's convention center if necessary.

Louisiana has surpassed 2,300 people known to be infected, with 86 residents dead from the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus, according to the state health department. A 17-year-old from New Orleans was among the latest deaths, the first in the state of someone under 18, and Gov. John Bel Edwards said it shows “everyone is at risk.”

Washington, D.C., confirmed 36 new cases, raising its total to 267. The district is under a state of emergency, its major attractions like the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo closed and White House and Capitol tours cancelled. Police have blocked off streets, bridges and traffic circles to prevent crowds from coming to see Washington’s blooming cherry blossom trees.

Russian authorities ramped up testing this week after widespread criticism of insufficient screening. The stay-home order for India's 1.3 billion people threw out of work the backbone of the nation’s economy — rickshaw drivers, fruit peddlers, cleaners and others who buy food with their daily earnings. The government announced a $22 billion stimulus to deliver monthly rations to 800 million people.

India's massive train system was also halted to stop the spread of the virus but that might not work. Jobless workers are now attempting to walk hundreds of miles to their home villages from India's major cities.

In China, where the virus was first believed to have started, the National Health Commission on Friday reported 55 new cases, 54 of them imported infections. Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the provincial capital where the coronavirus first emerged in December. China is barring most foreigners from entering.

In a phone call Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Trump that China "understands the United States' current predicament over the COVID-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support within its capacity," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The pandemic appears to have peaked in China, even while the government remains on guard against imported cases. Beijing is sending medical teams and equipment abroad, especially to Europe. But it has strongly protested U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's repeated references to the outbreak as the "Wuhan Flu," saying that promotes bias against China and Chinese Americans.

Shares skidded early Friday in Europe after a mixed day in Asia, where Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped while Australia's benchmark sank 5%. U.S. futures also were lower after major Wall Street indexes jumped more than 6% overnight, bringing the S&P 500 up 17% since Monday ahead of the expected approval of the American coronavirus relief package.

Rising reported from Berlin and Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.

British Prime Minister Johnson tests positive for virus

March 27, 2020

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the first leader of a major nation to contract COVID-19, but he insisted Friday that he remains in charge of the U.K.'s response to the outbreak.

Johnson, 55, said he was tested Thursday on the advice of the chief medical officer after showing “mild symptoms, of a temperature and a persistent cough. “I’ve taken a test, that’s come out positive so I am working from home, I am self-isolating, and that’s entirely the right thing to do," he said in a video message posted on his Twitter account.

“But be in no doubt that I can continue, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology, to communicate with all my top team to lead the national fightback against coronavirus.” Johnson is the highest-profile political leader to have contracted the virus, which has infected more than 500,000 people around the world.

Politicians may be especially exposed, since they meet large numbers of people and hold multiple meetings daily. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were all tested and found to be negative. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is self-isolating after his wife tested positive for COVID-19.

Britain's government is run from a series of interconnected buildings centered on 10 Downing St. and adjoining buildings — a warren of rooms and narrow corridors that is both the prime minister's home and the workplace of hundreds of people.

Johnson's spokesman, James Slack, said the prime minister was self-isolating in his apartment, which is above 11 Downing St., and would have his meals left outside his door by staff. "For now the prime minister’s symptoms are mild and he is continuing to do all of the same functions he was performing before. The only difference is he will now have to do that by teleconferencing," Slack said.

He would not say whether Johnson's fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant, was currently living in Downing St. Slack said several other Downing St. staff are self-isolating but he did not know of any other confirmed cases.

The government said that if Johnson is unable to work, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will replace him. Johnson has met in person with some senior ministers and officials this week, and has appeared at press conferences alongside his top medical and scientific advisers.

On Thursday evening, Johnson stood outside his front door to join in a national round of applause for health care workers. Slack said the prime minister was careful to observe social distancing rules while he did so, standing several meters away from Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, who also took part.

Earlier this week Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, announced that he had tested positive for the virus. His mother, 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, is self-isolating at Windsor Castle as a precaution.

Downing St. said Johnson had not recently met the queen. The pair have held their weekly audience by phone for at least the past two weeks. Johnson has been criticized by his opponents for the government’s initial reluctance to impose tough restrictions on movement and the economy to try to stem the spread of the virus.

Early this month, Johnson recounted shaking hands with medics treating coronavirus patients at a hospital and said “I continue to shake hands.” The government’s initial advice was that people should wash their hands frequently. As the number of cases soared, they escalated to include the closure of schools, bars, restaurants and non-essential shops, a nationwide order for everyone but key workers to stay home.

Johnson's diagnosis comes at the end of a week when he effectively closed down much of the British economy and introduced strict curbs on people's day-to-day movements. In his Twitter video, Johnson thanked everyone in the public services for their “amazing national effort,” and praised everyone who is staying at home.

“That’s the way we’re going to win," he said. Johnson's political opponents wished him well. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, wished the prime minister a speedy recovery and relayed his hope that his family is “safe and healthy.” Corbyn said everyone’s health “depends on everybody else.”

'We are collapsing': Virus pummels medics in Spain and Italy

March 25, 2020

MADRID (AP) — By the time Patricia Núñez’s cough started, she was already familiar with the dreaded dry hacking sound tormenting patients who had for weeks been filling the Madrid emergency ward where she works.

“We were fed up of hearing it at the hospital, so it was just a matter of time before I would contract it,” said Núñez, a 32-year-old nurse who tested positive for the new coronavirus about a week ago.

Speaking via video call from her home, Núñez said she is eager to recover, so she can relieve overworked colleagues dealing with a rising wave of patients and dwindling numbers of healthy nurses and doctors.

“The worst thing is that you need to stay at home, worried about infecting relatives, while knowing that you are dearly needed at work,” she told The Associated Press. The coronavirus is waging a war of attrition against health care workers throughout the world, but nowhere is it winning more battles at the moment than in Italy and in Spain, where protective equipment and tests have been in severely short supply for weeks.

Spain’s universal health care system is a source of national pride and often hailed as a reason for its citizens’ legendary longevity, but the outbreak is exposing its shortcomings, some of which are the result of years of budget cuts.

The country’s hospitals are groaning under the weight of the pandemic: Video and photos from two hospitals in the Spanish capital showed patients, many hooked up to oxygen tanks, crowding corridors and emergency rooms. At the 12 de Octubre University Hospital, patients could be seen on the floor as they waited for a bed in recent days. The hospital says the patients have since been accommodated elsewhere.

On Wednesday, the number of medical personnel infected was nearly 6,500 nationally, health authorities said, representing 13.6% of the country's 47,600 total cases and about 1% of the health system's workforce. At least three health care workers have died.

“We are collapsing. We need more workers,” said Lidia Perera, a nurse who works with Núñez at Madrid’s Hospital de la Paz, which has 1,000 beds. This week, 11 of the hospital’s 14 floors are devoted to caring for those suffering from COVID-19, and there is still not enough room: The patients with less serious cases of the disease are being put in the hospital’s gym or in a large tent outside.

“If you had told me three months ago that I would be working in these conditions in Spain, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Perera said, adding that staff at La Paz are only being tested for the virus if they have symptoms. “If they did (regular testing), they might end up without any workers.”

Widespread infections among health workers reflect the universal difficulty of stemming the spread of the pandemic. But sick health workers do double damage: They add to the toll while also hampering the ability to respond to the crisis. On top of that, they raise the specter of hospitals becoming breeding grounds of infection.

Spain's experience has been reflected elsewhere. The World Health Organization's director-general this week called reports of large number of infections among health workers “alarming.” "Even if we do everything else right, if we don’t prioritize protecting health workers, many people will die because the health worker who could have saved their lives is sick,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists.

In Italy, where nearly one-tenth of more than 74,000 infections are among medical workers, doctors and nurses have been begging the government daily to provide more masks, gloves and goggles. “Please don't leave us alone: Help us help you," Dr. Francesca De Gennaro wrote in an open letter, asking for gear. De Gennaro heads a small private medical clinic in hard-hit Bergamo — where some 90 of 460 workers have tested positive.

In addition, 33 doctors have died, according to the Italian federation of doctors, although it was not clear if all were in service at the time. There was no immediately available data on infections among health care workers in the United States. Neither Iran nor France is disclosing those figures.

But in China, where the outbreak started and where more than 80,000 people became infected in three months, over 3,000 medical workers were believed to have fallen ill by the end of February, according to Dr. Liang Wannian, the leader of a team of Chinese experts working with WHO to study the outbreak.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms 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.

Spanish authorities have repeatedly said that protecting medical staff is central their efforts to do what's known as “flattening the curve”: spreading out the time period of over which infections occur, in order to reduce the burden on intensive care units. But health workers say that even simple things such as gowns and masks are still in short supply, as are tests.

“All over the country, you see examples of workers inventing homemade suits using plastics,” said Dr. Olga Mediano, a lung specialist in Guadalajara, some 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of Madrid. Unions blame budget cuts during the decade that followed the last global economic crisis for leaving Spanish hospitals ill-prepared.

In response to the criticism, authorities have promised to distribute hundreds of thousands of masks and COVID-19 fast tests this week. On Wednesday, Health Minister Salvador Illa announced a 432-million-euro purchase of Chinese medical material, including 500 million masks, 5.5 million test kits and 950 ventilators.

Authorities have also called up over 50,000 additional workers, including recent graduates and retired doctors and nurses. Asked about supply shortages, the head of Spain’s health emergency coordination center acknowledged that the country has struggled to secure the necessary equipment.

“There is an international fight now to acquire the needed supplies,” Fernando Simón said Wednesday. For many health professionals, the virus itself is only one part of the equation: The overwork, the constraints on physical contact with patients, and the stress of knowing they are putting their own loved ones at risk also have an emotional toll.

Perera said watching patients die alone is “killing all of us inside.” “Physically this is extremely complicated, but psychologically it is appalling,” said Núñez, the recovering nurse. “But we need to deal with the outbreak first, and then we'll think later how to deal with the knock-on effects that it leaves in each of us.”

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Nicole Winfield and Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Maria Cheng in London, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Virus sends a nation of restaurant-goers back to the kitchen

March 23, 2020

(AP) Last Tuesday night in Tennessee, bluegrass musicians David and Virginia Blood were busy making sandwiches. In Pittsburgh, real estate agent Michelle Bushee was stirring a pot of homemade black-bean chili in her kitchen instead of shepherding curious buyers through potential dream homes. Marty Prudenti, whose nights are usually spent working backstage at New York City's Lincoln Center, was in his Long Island backyard grilling burgers for his twins.

And in Texas, Babette Maxwell — who would otherwise have been running at least one of her three teenage sons to sports practices or school events — was Googling recipes to engineer homemade versions of her boys' favorite Taco Bell items.

Throughout the U.S., lives have been radically upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is worry and washing of hands. But one bright spot is emerging from self-quarantine and mandatory working from home: In this nation that so often dines out or gobbles processed food on the run, Americans are suddenly cooking a whole lot more.

Before the coronavirus emerged, Kim Bierly often worked late at her office and then met her husband for a quick dinner at one of the restaurants in their central Pennsylvania neighborhood. If they didn't eat out, they'd reach into the refrigerator and choose something packaged to heat up.

"I've always enjoyed cooking," Bierly says. "But it was being saved for weekends. And by the time you get to the weekend you had all the other things you need to do. So it would be something quick or something prepared."

Now working from home, she's pulling out old recipes — the kinds of things she remembers her mother making, like stuffed pork chops or a bubbling pot of chicken and noodles. "I think we need comfort right now," she says, "and food is comfort."

Unavoidably, these home-cooked dishes come with a side of stress. We're trying to protect ourselves from germs at the grocery store, and may wonder whether supermarket shelves will become emptier in the coming weeks. But those worries are encouraging people to get creative by trying new ingredients and sharing advice on how to use unfamiliar vegetables or cuts of meat bought out of necessity.

What can you do with the canned foods that have been idling since last year at the back of your kitchen cabinets? Facebook groups like Pandemic Pantry have sprouted up as gathering places for strangers to share advice.

Michael Volpatt, owner of the gourmet Big Bottom Market in Sonoma County, California, tackled the subject of canned goods on a recent installment of the impromptu cooking show he began hosting from his kitchen on March 14. Scrolling through Facebook while gathering ingredients to make himself dinner that night, Volpatt noticed the Facebook "Live" button on his phone screen. With his store closed, he realized it was a way to connect with friends and customers, and not be alone while preparing his meal.

"Hey everybody," his first broadcast began. "I've never done Facebook Live before. But I figured since I'm kind of staying at home and going to do some cooking later on, you're going to join me." A growing audience now watches and comments nightly as he prepares everything from his mother's marinara sauce to pot pies made with his Big Bottom Market biscuit mix, which appeared on Oprah's Favorite Things list in 2016.

"It's heartwarming," Volpatt says, "and it takes a lot of the awkwardness of this whole experience away." Returning to old recipes and learning new ones can be both a necessity and a welcome distraction during this strange time.

"Cooking brings back good memories," Bierly says, "like standing there at the pot on my stove, cooking the spaghetti and thinking of when my mother used to do that." Food Network president Courtney White says her channel has seen a double-digit ratings increase in the past week, as viewers watch marathons of comfort food-focused shows like Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." FoodNetwork.com has also had a double-digit increase in visitors and page views, White says. And many of the channel's chefs have been broadcasting informally from their home kitchens via social media, while viewers pepper them with questions in real-time.

Alone at our stoves, we're realizing how good it can feel to make dinner from scratch by using just a few ingredients consciously and carefully. Families are also getting their kids involved. "Now, more than ever, we hope you’ll find moments of peace when gathering around the dinner table," the co-founders of the retail chain Savory Spice wrote in a website post to their customers over the weekend. "We hope you’ll find moments of joy when preparing food with your little ones. We hope the simplicity of a home cooked meal is a quiet reprieve from the chaos outside."

Merkel negative in 1st virus test; more to be done

March 23, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said Monday that the German leader has tested negative for the new coronavirus. Spokesman Steffen Seibert told news agency dpa “the result of today's test is negative” but that “further tests will be conducted in the coming days.”

Merkel went into quarantine at home on Sunday evening after being informed that a doctor who had administered a vaccination to her had tested positive for the new coronavirus. She received the precautionary vaccination against pneumococcal infection on Friday.

The 65-year-old, who has led Germany since 2005, was informed about the doctor's test shortly after holding a news conference announcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus. On Monday, she led a Cabinet meeting by phone from home.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever or coughing. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.