April, 2020 | últimas notícias

Reopen Illinois rally planned for Loop this Friday – Chicago Tribune

“The notion that we are going to open up before the data and the science tell us that we’re ready is really foolish, and we would be putting lives at risk to do so,” Lightfoot said. “I’m very mindful of what’s happening in other states that haven’t taken the steps that we have taken here in Illinois. And what are we seeing? We’re seeing a doubling of cases at an unbelievable rate, even six weeks into this crisis. So I feel very comfortable about the steps that have been taken here. As far as Chicago, we’re staying the course.”

Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-chicago-reopen-protesters-thompson-center-20200429-w5jta6h7mzfzvbdnr3vaxvruma-story.html

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What the Polls Say About A Mitch McConnell vs. Amy McGrath Kentucky Senate Race – Newsweek

The Kentucky Senate race between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his likely Democratic opponent Amy McGrath is shaping up to be one of the tightest, most contentious and expensive contests of the 2020 election cycle.

Polls have shown the race to be incredibly close, with the candidates either being tied or separated by single digits.

In a Change Research poll conducted earlier this year, McGrath and McConnell were deadlocked at 41 percent support among likely voters. In another survey from Garin-Hart-Yang, McConnell was ahead of McGrath by 3 percentage points—although his victory was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Still, it could be too early to tell—for now, nonpartisan election forecasters estimate that the race will go to McConnell. The Cook Political Report has rated the election as “likely Republican.” Sabato’s Crystal Ball from the University of Virginia has also favored the contest as “safely Republican.”

Before she can take McConnell head-on, McGrath still has to win the state’s Democratic primary. There are still two other candidates in the running, progressive farmer Mike Broihier and state representative Charles Booker. The contest was scheduled for May has been pushed back to June 23 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

She’s also the most prolific fundraisers among Democrats with more than $14 million cash on hand. She even outraised McConnell by more than $5 million in the first three months of 2020, according to the latest federal campaign finance data.

So far this year, McGrath hauled in $12.8 million in contributions compared with McConnell’s $7.8 million. McConnell still has roughly the same amount of cash on hand as McGrath, with $14.8 million in the bank.

The massive amount of fundraising has spurred an ad war between McConnell and McGrath that dates back to the summer of 2019—an entire year before Election Day. McConnell’s latest ad, which aired statewide, slammed McGrath and touted his work on the coronavirus relief packages.

“Amy McGrath attacks Mitch McConnell for leading passage of the biggest economic rescue in American history. But while McGrath attacks, Mitch is working across the aisle to get hundreds of millions in federal dollars for Kentucky’s hospitals,” a narrator said in the video. “McGrath attacks. Mitch McConnell leads.”

McGrath fired back with an ad of her own, in which she called out McConnell’s controversial comment on favoring state bankruptcy amid the pandemic. The top Senate Republican has been under fire from governors on both sides of the aisle after he floated the idea of states declaring bankruptcy rather than passing another half-trillion-dollar coronavirus bill.

“Special interests win, we lose,” the narrator said in the 30-second ad.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/what-polls-say-about-mitch-mcconnell-vs-amy-mcgrath-kentucky-senate-race-1500989

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson And Fiancée Carrie Symonds Announce Birth Of Son – NPR

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, shown here in March, announced Wednesday that she gave birth to a “healthy baby boy at a London hospital earlier this morning” and both mother and baby are doing well.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, shown here in March, announced Wednesday that she gave birth to a “healthy baby boy at a London hospital earlier this morning” and both mother and baby are doing well.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a father again. He and his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, announced Wednesday morning that she gave birth to a baby boy. Mother and baby are doing “very well,” according to a spokesperson for the couple.

Johnson and Symonds thanked the “fantastic NHS maternity team” for their work delivering the child at a London hospital. This is the second time this month Johnson has personally thanked England’s National Health Service. The first was after he was treated in an intensive care unit for COVID-19.

After a three-week absence, Johnson returned to work Monday and urged the nation to continue to adhere to the national lockdown, warning of the risk of another spike in coronavirus cases.

“This is the moment when we can press home our advantage,” said Johnson, referring to a declining number of COVID-19 cases in hospitals. “It is also the moment of maximum risk.”

The U.K. has confirmed more than 161,000 COVID-19 cases, with more than 21,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

I’ve spent the past week in bed with the main symptoms of Coronavirus. I haven’t needed to be tested and, after seven days of rest, I feel stronger and I’m on the mend.

— Carrie Symonds (@carriesymonds) April 4, 2020

Symonds, 32, also displayed symptoms of the respiratory disease during her pregnancy. Earlier this month, she announced that she was feeling better.

Johnson, 55, is the father of at least six children, four with his second wife, Marina Wheeler, from whom he is divorced, and one with art consultant Helen Macintyre, with whom he had an affair.

Asked during the election campaign last December by LBC radio how many children he had, the prime minister declined to answer, saying he didn’t think the nation wanted to hear about it.

“I love my children very much,” Johnson said, “but they are not standing at this election.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847813195/british-prime-minister-boris-johnson-and-fianc-e-carrie-symonds-announce-birth-o

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‘Governors Don’t Do Global Pandemics’: Cuomo Faults Others Over Virus – The New York Times

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Cuomo said in an interview that he had no regrets about his comments.

“I posed the question, because the American people deserve the answer so this doesn’t happen again, and I speak truth to power,” he said, reiterating his criticism that domestic and international health organizations, intelligence agencies, and “international newspapers” like The Times and The Journal should have alerted the world last fall.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/nyregion/andrew-cuomo-bugle-coronavirus.html

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Coronavirus testing chief says ‘no way on Earth’ US can test 5 million a day, despite what Trump says – CNBC

President Donald Trump said he thinks the U.S. will “very soon” be able to test 5 million people a day for the coronavirus – but there’s “no way on Earth” the country can reach that goal, according to the government’s top testing official.

“There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day,” Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government’s testing response, told TIME in an interview he gave Tuesday morning that was published later in the evening. The interview took place before Trump’s remarks about testing.

The U.S. will be able to test 8 million per month by May, Giroir told Time.

Giroir was responding to a new study’s findings. Harvard University published a report last week that said the U.S. would need to ramp up testing capacity to at least 5 million tests a day by early June, and 20 million per day by late July, in order to reopen the economy. Giroir told TIME that the assessment is “an Ivory Tower, unreasonable benchmark,” adding that it’s not needed based on current modelling.

Trump, when asked at a news briefing about the 5 million figure later Tuesday, said, “We’re going to be there very soon.”

The U.S. has run just 5.7 million total Covid-19 tests since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project. The most tests the nation has run on a single day was 314,182 on April 22, according to the volunteer project designed to track testing data launched last month by The Atlantic.

Representatives for the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. continues to increase testing capacity as commercial companies boost production of tests. The Food and Drug Administration has also granted emergency use authorization for several new tests that analyze samples from blood and saliva, which could be more efficient than the standard diagnostic tests, which depend on a nasal swab.

The capacity to test broadly for Covid-19 will be key to preventing a resurgence of the virus as states ease restrictions and reopen businesses, public health specialists and state officials have repeatedly said.

The White House’s official testing data shows that 5.1 million Americans have been tested as of Monday, up from 3.3 million on April 15, according to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

“The United States has done double the number of tests of any country in the world,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Tuesday after Trump’s remarks. “We have exceeded all expectations and continue to lead the world in testing capacity as we assist governors in ensuring they have the capacity to reopen their states in a safe manner.”

When asked for comment Wednesday about the Giroir interview, the White House sent the same statement from the press secretary it passed along Tuesday night.

Trump’s critics have zeroed in on the nationwide shortages of effective coronavirus tests, testing supplies and labs able to process test results as a central failure of the federal government’s response to the deadly pandemic. Trump has rejected this criticism.

“States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing,” he said in a tweet last week.

On Monday, the administration released a new testing “blueprint” that described what it called a “partnership” between states, the federal government and the private sector. The so-called partnership featured a very limited role for the federal government, however, and left the lion’s share of responsibility for funding, designing and executing coronavirus testing plans to individual states.

— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/29/coronavirus-testing-chief-says-no-way-on-earth-us-can-test-5-million-a-day.html

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Anthony Fauci: Sports might not happen this year – New York Post

Major League Baseball may be plotting a return, but Dr. Anthony Fauci has some bad news for everyone hoping for team sports to return.

Fauci, the infectious disease expert who’s a part of the White House’s coronavirus task force, says that without widespread testing and quick results, sports may be sidelined for the duration of 2020.

“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” Fauci told the New York Times. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.’”

Fauci, the 79-year-old head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said earlier this month “there’s a way” for sports to come back if they don’t have fans and quarantine teams in hotels between games.

The Post’s Joel Sherman reported Tuesday that MLB is growing more hopeful it can play games this season, with the current plan targeting games starting in early July.

“I would love to be able to have all sports back,” Fauci told the Times. “But as a health official and a physician and a scientist, I have to say, right now, when you look at the country, we’re not ready for that yet.”

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2020/04/29/anthony-fauci-sports-might-not-happen-this-year/

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Dem VP shortlisters condemned Kavanaugh: Here’s their response to Biden accusation – Fox News

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Carrie Severino: Dems protecting Biden, uninterested in finding facts

Carrie Severino discusses the mainstream media’s double standard after refusing to cover sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden

Nine U.S. senators who have gotten buzz as potential picks to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate were in the Senate in 2018 when Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh‘s confirmation process was roiled by accusations of sexual assault.

They did not hold back in their condemnation of the court pick and in their calls for the accusers’ claims to be fully investigated. Now, Biden’s presidential campaign also is grappling with a developing accusation of sexual assault from the 1990s — which aides have adamantly denied. But most of those same senators have not commented on this allegation, or have downplayed it.

A woman named Tara Reade previously had accused Biden of inappropriate touching last year before her story resurfaced in an article in The Intercept on March 24. Podcast host Katie Halper then interviewed Reade, which is when she made the more serious allegation that Biden “penetrated me with his fingers and he was kissing me at the same time and he was saying some things to me.”

Biden himself has not addressed the Reade allegations but his deputy campaign manager has issued a statement.

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TARA READE CALLS FOR RELEASE OF BIDEN’S SENATE RECORDS: ‘WHY ARE THEY UNDER SEAL?’

“What is clear about this claim: it is untrue. This absolutely did not happen,” Kate Bedingfield said.

Reade previously vocally supported Biden’s primary opponent Bernie Sanders’ campaign.

Reade’s story has been further supported since her initial interview with Halper, with The New York Times reporting that two of her friends remembered her speaking about the alleged incident. Further, a video resurfaced last week of a woman Reade claims is her mom calling in to “Larry King Live” in 1993 and alluding to her daughter’s “problems” working for a prominent senator. The woman on the call never explicitly spoke about sexual assault and never used Biden’s name. (Senate aides, however, reportedly have either denied the account or said they don’t recall Reade’s complaint.)

Here’s what the senators who voted against Kavanaugh’s confirmation in 2018 had to say then, and what they have to say about the allegation against Biden now.

Elizabeth Warren

2018: “Republicans want to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and they will ignore, suppress, or shout down any inconvenient facts that might give the American people pause about this nomination. Republicans are playing politics with the Supreme Court, and they are willing to step on anyone — including the victim of a vicious sexual assault — in order to advance their agenda.” – Oct. 4, 2018, in a floor speech opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation

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BIDEN SILENT ON TARA READE SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION, AS DENIALS COME FROM CAMPAIGN

2020: Fox News has reached out to Warren for comment multiple times on the Tara Reade allegations, including on Wednesday. She has not responded. Fox News was also unable to find any public comments from Warren on the Reade allegation, which broke more than a month ago.

Amy Klobuchar

2018: “She was so graceful and so dignified, went through every question you could imagine… What she was doing was basically laying out the fact that you have so well articulated during the show, is that she actually has talked about this in the past, she said it to a therapist, her husband had remembered the name Brett Kavanaugh, she has with some detail remembered the assault. And all she’s asked is that the FBI figure out when Mark Judge was working at this Safeway when she saw him later because that would help her get the exact date.” – Sept. 27, 2018 to MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow

TARA READE BLASTS HILLARY CLINTON AFTER BIDEN ENDORSEMENT: SHE’S ‘ENABLING A SEXUAL PREDATOR’

2020: “[I]n this case — and your listeners should look at the story — there was a thorough review by The New York Times. And I think that’s very important to have, especially involving public figures. But I think when I look at — when I see Vice President Biden, someone I worked with, I see him on — a leader on domestic abuse — led the bill before people were even willing to talk about those horrific crimes and has really been a champion of abuses of power against women and has used his voice on the domestic abuse front in such a big way.” – April 14, 2020 to NPR

Fox News reached out to Klobuchar for comment after the “Larry King Live” video resurfaced, which occurred after the interview with NPR, but did not receive a response.

Kamala Harris

2018: “Ours was not a search to determine whether a crime occurred. Ours was not a search to determine whether we had enough facts to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had occurred. No, ours was an investigation to figure out enough about what happened to determine if Brett Kavanaugh is fit to serve on the highest court in our land. Is he fit to be a jurist in the place where we have said justice in our country occurs? In the house where we listen to evidence and truth and make determinations based on the veracity and truthfulness of what has occurred. That is our role when it comes to Dr. Ford’s allegations, and we fell short. We fell short. We did not do her justice. We did not do the American people justice.” – Oct. 5, 2018, in a floor speech opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation

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JOE BIDEN SUPPORTER ALYSSA MILANO CHANGES TUNE ON HIS ACCUSER TARA READE AMID NEW DEVELOPMENTS

2020: “First of all, I have spent the bulk of my career fighting against abuse of women and children and for empowerment of women and children and all people. Listen, this woman has a right to tell her story and I believe that and I believe Joe Biden believes that, too. I’ve spent my whole career fighting like you said, Joe, to give women a voice and this brings up I think a bigger structural issue frankly, which is that women must be able to speak without fear of retaliation. And I can only — on the issue of Joe I mean I can only speak to the Joe Biden I know. He’s been a lifelong fighter in terms of stopping violence against women. He’s been the leader, I think really most people would agree, in the United States Senate on VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act. So, you know, as I said she has a right to tell her story and she shouldn’t face any repercussions for that, but the Joe Biden I know is somebody that really has fought for women and empowerment of women and women’s equality and rights.” — April 17, 2020 to the “It’s All Political” podcast by San Francisco Chronicle

Fox News reached out to Harris for comment after the “Larry King Live” video resurfaced, which occurred after her interview with “It’s All Political,” but did not receive a response.

Kirsten Gillibrand

2018: “I believe Dr. Blasey Ford. Here’s why I believe her: She’s risked everything – her own safety – to come out on the record to say Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. She told her therapist and her husband about it five years ago. She told a friend about it a year ago. She told a reporter about it before Kavanaugh was ever named. She’s even taken a lie detector test. So why are my colleagues moving so fast – as fast as they possibly can – to confirm this judge?” – Sept. 26, 2018 floor speech opposing Kavanaugh confirmation

EXCLUSIVE: BIDEN ACCUSER TARA READE ‘LOST TOTAL RESPECT’ FOR CNN’S ANDERSON COOPER FOR NOT ASKING FORMER VP ABOUT ASSAULT CLAIM

2020: “So when we say believe women, it’s for this explicit intention of making sure there’s space for all women to come forward to speak their truth, to be heard. And in this allegation, that is what Tara Reade has done. She has come forward, she has spoken, and they have done an investigation in several outlets. Those investigations, Vice President Biden has called for himself. Vice President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations and I support Vice President Biden,” Gillibrand said before a reporter asked if there was a “contradiction” between how Democrats have handled the Biden allegations and the Kavanaugh allegations. “No, and I stand by Vice President Biden. He has devoted his life to supporting women and he has vehemently denied this allegation.” – April 28, 2020, according to The Hill

Tammy Baldwin

2018: “I have read Dr. Ford’s letter and I find the allegations deeply disturbing, serious and credible. There should be no vote on this lifetime nomination for our highest court until this matter is fully investigated and Dr. Ford and the nominee appear before the Senate Judiciary Cmte.” – Sept. 17, 2018, on Twitter

2020: “The allegations are being aired publicly… There’s a statement that Joe Biden and his team have put out and there is a report, I believe in The New York Times, indicating that there’s no corroboration. … I would feel more comfortable had I read every word of the article before commenting at greater length.” – April 15, 2020, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Fox News reached out to Baldwin for comment after the “Larry King Live” video resurfaced, which occurred after her interview with the Journal Sentinel, but did not receive a response.

Tammy Duckworth

2018: “Dr. Ford spent her time talking about the laughter she still hears ringing in her ears from that night: the night that an older, stronger, drunker boy forced her to learn what it was like to feel helpless. Her voice quivered. But she herself never wavered. Steadfast in the truth—in the memory of those few moments that changed her life forever. Judge Kavanaugh, meanwhile, spent his time interrupting and attacking the committee members. Shouting over senators and dressing them down—appearing belligerent and outraged that anyone would dare keep him from getting what he feels entitled to.” – Oct. 4, 2018, in a floor speech opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation

2020: Fox News has reached out to Duckworth for comment multiple times on the Tara Reade allegations, including on Wednesday. She has not responded. Fox News was also unable to find any public comments from Duckworth on the Reade allegation, which broke more than a month ago.

Jeanne Shaheen

2018: “Her [Dr. Ford’s] testimony in front of the Judiciary Committee was sincere and credible, and I believe her… Dr. Ford’s bravery has given so many women in this country the courage to tell their stories. She gave others courage and we have seen an outpouring from survivors who now feel like they too can come forward… These wounds are real. The wounds are raw. And it is incumbent on all of us in this body, regardless of where you stand on Brett Kavanaugh; it’s incumbent on all of us to not deepen those scars by diminishing the pain of these women as political theatre. This is not political theater, and it should not be viewed through a partisan lens.” – Oct. 6, 2018, floor speech opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation

2020: Fox News has reached out to Shaheen for comment multiple times on the Tara Reade allegations, including on Wednesday. She has not responded. Fox News was also unable to find any public comments from Shaheen on the Reade allegation.

Catherine Cortez Masto

2018: “Dr. Christine Blasey Ford had nothing to gain by coming forward. She told her story out of a sense of civic duty. She has done a profound public service to survivors. I am thankful for her courage and patriotism, and I believe her. By rushing this nomination process, Republicans have made a mockery of the Senate’s advice and consent role and dealt a major blow to the independence of the judiciary.” – Oct. 6, 2018 statement on Kavanaugh’s confirmation

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2020: Fox News has reached out to Cortez Masto for comment multiple times on the Tara Reade allegations, including on Wednesday. She has not responded. Fox News was also unable to find any public comments from Cortez Masto on the Reade allegation.

Maggie Hassan

2018: “When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s serious and credible allegations came to light, we saw a truly disturbing scene from both Judge Kavanaugh and my colleagues on the other side of this aisle… And while many of my colleagues in the majority praised Dr. Ford’s bravery in sharing her story, and even agreed that her testimony was credible, they blocked any serious professional attempt to get to the facts… I too will note that I watched and listened to Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony. I considered the additional evidence that would have particular weight in a court of law of her corroborating statements well prior to any suggestion that Brett Kavanaugh would be nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States. And I compared her testimony to that of Judge Kavanaugh. And I believe that of Dr. Blasey Ford.” – Oct. 6, 2018, floor speech opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation

2020: Fox News has reached out to Hassan for comment multiple times on the Tara Reade allegations, including on Wednesday. She has not responded. Fox News was also unable to find any public comments from Hassan on the Reade allegation.

All of these Democratic senators voted against Kavanaugh’s confirmation in 2018.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vp-kavanaugh-biden-accusation

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‘It’s horrific’: coronavirus kills nearly 70 at Massachusetts veterans’ home – The Guardian

Nearly 70 residents sickened with the coronavirus have died at a Massachusetts home for ageing veterans, as state and federal officials try to figure out what went wrong in the deadliest known outbreak at a long-term care facility in the US.

While the death toll at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers’ Home continues to climb, federal officials are investigating whether residents were denied proper medical care and the state’s top prosecutor is deciding whether to bring legal action.

“It’s horrific,” said Edward Lapointe, whose father-in-law lives at the home and had a mild case of the virus. “These guys never had a chance.”

Sixty-eight veteran residents who tested positive for the virus have died, officials said on Tuesday, and it is not known whether another person who died had Covid-19. Another 82 residents and 81 employees have tested positive.

The home’s superintendent, who has been placed on administrative leave, has defended his response and accused state officials of falsely claiming they were unaware of the scope of the problem there.

The superintendent, Bennett Walsh, said this month that state officials knew that the home was in “crisis mode” when it came to staffing shortages and were notified early and often about the contagion at the facility.

Staffing problems that plagued the home for years contributed to the virus spreading like wildfire, said Joan Miller, a nurse at the home.

Because staffing was so tight, workers from one unit were constantly moving to others to help out – and bringing their germs with them, she said. At one point, a unit was shut down because there wasn’t enough staff to operate it, and those veterans were moved into close quarters in other parts of the building, she said.

“Veterans were on top of each other,” she said. “We didn’t know who was positive and who was negative and then they grouped people together and that really exacerbated it even more,” said Miller, who spoke through a mask during a break from her job at the facility.

“That’s when it really blew up,” she said.

The situation was now “somewhat contained” because there were so few veterans living there, Miller said. There were nearly 230 residents living at the home in late March and only about 100 remained on Monday, the Boston Globe reported.

‘Every day I would ask … what’s going on?’

Beth Lapointe said her father’s roommate had tested positive for the virus in March, and later died, but her father was initially denied a test because he had not showed any symptoms. As the virus spread, family members were kept in the dark about what was going on inside, she said.

Tributes to veterans cover a sign outside the care facility on Tuesday 28 April. Photograph: Rodrique Ngowi/AP

“Every day I would ask different people, ‘What’s going on in there?’ And I would never get information,” she said.

The Republican governor Charlie Baker’s administration has hired an outside attorney to conduct an investigation into the deaths. Maura Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general, is also investigating to determine “what went wrong at this facility and determine if legal action is warranted”.

And the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts and federal justice department’s civil rights division are looking into whether the home violated residents’ rights by failing to provide them proper medical care.

The death toll at the home appears to be the largest at a long-term care facility in the United States, experts said.

“It’s also symbolic of how unprepared many nursing facilities have been,” said Dr Michael Wasserman, the president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.

“Geriatricians and experts in long-term care medicine were sounding alarms at the beginning of March and we’ve essentially been ignored by everyone: federal, state, local government and the nursing home industry,” he said.

There is currently no official count of nursing home deaths across the country. The federal government has only recently required the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes to start reporting numbers of confirmed and presumed deaths and infections, but it is not yet clear when that count will be published.

In the meantime, the Associated Press has been compiling its own tally from state health departments and media reports, finding at least 13,762 deaths from outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country.

But that is probably an undercount because only about half the states are currently reporting nursing home deaths and not all count those who died without being tested for Covid-19.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/coronavirus-massachusetts-veterans-outbreak-holyoke-soldiers-home

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Coronavirus Likely to Keep Schools Shut, Despite Trump’s Wishes – The New York Times

A few small, remote districts might try to reopen this spring, including the Shoshone School District in Lincoln County, Idaho, which serves 500 students. “We’re in the category of, ‘We don’t know,’” said Rob Waite, the superintendent. With small class sizes — the largest is 22 students — children could easily sit six feet apart. And on the bus, students who are not part of the same household could be assigned to sit in every other seat.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-schools-reopen.html

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California governor Gavin Newsom says no live sports with fans until stay-at-home order ends – USA TODAY

California’s governor on Tuesday announced a four-stage plan to relax restrictions the state enacted to slow the coronavirus outbreak, with the return of live sports as one of the last steps.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he believes the state is “weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications,” but added additional progress must be made to move to Stage 2, when some “lower risk” workplaces can be reopened.

Conducting sporting events with no spectators would be part of Stage 3, in which some higher-risk workplaces such as hair salons, gyms and movie theaters can open.

The final stage, with fans at sporting events, would come after the statewide stay-at-home order is lifted and “once therapeutics have been developed.”

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2020/04/28/gavin-newsom-sports-back-stay-home/3043404001/

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Boris Johnson and fiancee Carrie Symonds announce birth of their son – The Washington Post

Cameron and his wife, Samantha, had a daughter shortly after he became prime minister. Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, had a son in 2000, three years into Blair’s decade in office. Before Blair, no serving prime minister became a parent for more than 150 years.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/boris-johnson-and-his-fiancee-announce-birth-of-their-son/2020/04/29/1564720e-89f9-11ea-80df-d24b35a568ae_story.html

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103 veterans have died between 2 residential and long-term care facilities in Massachusetts – CNN

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/us/massachusetts-veterans-home-deaths/index.html

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US could be in for ‘a bad fall and a bad winter’ if it’s unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns – CNN

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html

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What schools will look like when they reopen: Scheduled days home, more online learning, lots of hand-washing – USA TODAY

Imagine, for a moment, American children returning to school this fall.

The school week looks vastly different, with most students attending school two or three days a week and doing the rest of their learning at home. At school, desks are spaced apart to discourage touching. Some classrooms extend into unused gymnasiums, libraries or art rooms – left vacant while schools put on hold activities that cram lots of children together.

Arrival, dismissal and recess happen on staggered schedules and through specific doors to promote physical distancing. Students eat lunch at their desks. Those old enough to switch classes move with the same cohort every day – or teachers move around while students stay put – to discourage mingling with new groups.

Teachers and other education staff at higher risk of contracting the virus continue to teach from home, while younger or healthier educators teach in-person.

Everyone washes their hands. A lot.

Frequently touched school surfaces get wiped down. A lot.

That outline of a potential school day was drawn from interviews with more than 20 education leaders determining what reopened schools might look like come fall. In the absence of a vaccine for COVID-19, they know social distancing and hygiene will be important to limit spreading the virus. The question is how to implement those measures in schools usually filled with crowded hallways, class sizes of more than 30 people and lunchrooms of hundreds.

“The whole thing is overwhelming,” said Dan Weisberg, a former district official and the head of TNTP, a nonprofit formerly known as The New Teacher Project that helps districts recruit and hire more effective teachers.

Beyond blanket health recommendations, schools will have to figure out the rest by themselves – with little new money to pay for the changes they need to make.

“This is where federal dollars could help,” Weisberg said. “This is where state guidance could help. This is where galvanizing people behind the idea on how to plan for next year could help.”

Instead, schools are getting conflicting cues. President Donald Trump reportedly said in a call with governors Monday that they should “seriously consider” reopening public schools before the end of the academic term. That’s after 43 states and Washington, D.C., have already ordered or recommended schools be closed through the end of the school year, according to Education Week magazine.

When will schools reopen?Not soon, education leaders say, despite Trump’s declarations

A draft of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on reopening the economy recommends that schools place desks six feet apart, serve lunch in classrooms and close playgrounds, according to The Associated Press.

The CDC’s guidance for schools so far has been vague. It suggested schools look to their local health officials to make decisions on dismissals, event cancellations and other social distancing measures. The CDC never suggested outright that schools should cancel – governors and school leaders called for that on their own.

‘Economics will drive choices’ made by school districts

Reopening schools is critical to fully bring back the economy. More parents can work when their children are in school. Just as important: Many kids aren’t learning much at home. Those learning the least are students who lack devices and internet access – many of whom were already academically behind before schools closed.

U.S. schools were not prepared for an overnight shift to virtual learning, and the situation has exacerbated the inequities between students who have support and resources at home and those who don’t.

‘Historic academic regression’:Why homeschooling is so hard amid school closures

But bringing kids back to school presents major worries about health, not so much for children – who seem to be less at risk for getting sick – but fortheir teachers and parents. Preliminary research has shown that children can carry and transmit the virus without showing symptoms themselves.

Many school buildings lack the space to keep children a recommended six feet apart. That’s why education leaders foresee a need to continue virtual learning, with kids attending school in person on alternating days or weeks.

And that’s only the start. Districts also must figure out food service, especially for the 52% of students who qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches and depend on those meals. Schools must provide enough qualified staff to teach students in smaller groups. They must provide emotional support to staff and students. And they need to develop measures to help catch up children who have fallen the farthest behind.

“There is going to be attrition of teachers,” said Weisberg. “And whatever challenges exist are going to be way worse if you’re not fully staffed.”

Then schools have to figure out how to pay for it all.

“Economics will drive the choices districts make,” said Marguerite Roza, a professor and director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.

On Monday, superintendents from 62 of the country’s largest school districts called on Congress to provide about $200 billion more in educational stabilization funds to help prop up budgets, buy more technology for families and better serve low-income students and those with special needs.

In California’s Long Beach Unified School District, with 84 schools and 10,000 employees, departments are reducing their budgets in anticipation of receiving less money from the state. Superintendent Chris Steinhauser, who signed the letter to Congress, said his district expects to receive around $10 million to $15 million in federal stimulus dollars from the CARES Act, but that’s about one-quarter of the federal aid the district got in the first year of the last economic recession.

“I would argue the economic meltdown of today is going to be far worse,” Steinhauser said.

How other countries are reopening schools

U.S. leaders are watching and learning from other countries that are reopening their schools. Denmark reopened schools on April 15 for lower grades. Classrooms held no more than 10 students each, and desks were placed more than six feet apart. In some cases, children move in cohorts that remain the same day to day.

Leaders in Israel this week tentatively approved sending students up to third grade back to school starting Sunday, according to The Times of Israel. Older students will continue learning from home. Classes will be kept small, and kindergartners will be split into groups that meet on different days, according to the plan, which is contingent on infection rates staying low.

Sweden’s strategy:Top official says ‘herd immunity’ might be a few weeks away

Shanghai and Beijing started bringing some students back this week. Germany has brought middle and high school students back to complete advancement exams.

Estonia plans to start bringing back children with disabilities in mid-May, according to Jake Bryant, a former teacher and associate partner at the global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company, which released a report this week with ideas for schools to consider as they plan to reopen.

U.S. schools could consider bringing back vulnerable students first for more one-on-one help, or scheduling more days of in-person instruction for them, Bryant said. Students with disabilities, or those whose families rely on schools for food or other assistance, could attend in-person three days a week, while more highly resourced students with access to technology at home could attend two days a week.

“I don’t believe reopening will be a linear path to normalcy,” Bryant said.

He also said schools will have to get better at remote learning, whether because of a virus resurgence, a need to quarantine infected students or because school days need to be split up to create more space in classrooms.

“Students will face a steep hill to return to grade level, as they likely have less learning time until a vaccine is widely available,” he added.

Some lessons can be learned from schools in West Africa that reopened in 2015 after months of closures to contain the Ebola virus outbreak.

Deborah Malac, a U.S. ambassador to Liberia at the time, said cities and counties will probably have to adopt a patchwork of solutions, based on their rates of local infections. She said the lack of data about infections and other aspects of COVID-19 is still the greatest challenge facing U.S. health officials.

“We went through all of this (in Liberia) for months,” she said. “Once the epidemic is in front of you and you’re trying to catch up, it’s not a pleasant place to be in.”

Beyond academics, schools are burdened by meal distribution

Schools have become a key resource for families needing food assistance, which will likely continue no matter what schooling scenario takes shape.

Breakfast and lunch in buildings this fall will largely depend on how districts weather food and money shortages now plaguing emergency feeding programs that have provided meals to students ever since schools closed.

Food service workers have had to rethink traditional breakfast because of shortages of staples like milk, according to Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the nonprofit School Nutrition Association.

“Most of our school nutrition directors have been working through their (non-perishable) inventory to make sure nothing is wasted, but that means that when they get back to school they won’t have any reserves,” she said. “So they’ll have to find a way to replenish in order to give students a proper meal.”

Katie Wilson, CEO of the Urban School Food Alliance, says the 12 large school districts in her association are collectively losing $38.9 million a week by serving food to their students during school closures without the revenue they generate from students who pay for meals.

Without a federal bailout, school food programs will be forced to make cuts, meaning there may be fewer cafeteria workers to prepare meals, Wilson said. Schools will also have to figure out how to prepare and serve foods in buildings while adhering to social distancing measures.

School food workers are already running low on supplies, gloves, masks and cleaning supplies, Pratt-Heavner and Wilson said.

Daphne Duret with the USA TODAY Network contributed to this report.

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/04/29/coronavirus-schools-reopen-online-homeschool/3031945001/

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