March 30, 2020 4:08 am
NEW YORK (AP) – New York has surpassed 1,000 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, less than a month after the first case was detected in the state. The virus has torn through New York City and its suburbs with frightening speed. Most of the deaths have happened in a span of just a few days. New York City reported in the evening that its toll had risen to 776. The total number of statewide deaths isn’t expected to be released until Monday. But with at least 250 additional deaths recorded outside the city as of Sunday morning, the state’s total fatalities was at least 1,026.
March 30, 2020 4:07 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Joe Diffie had announced on Friday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Yesterday, he died of complications from the virus in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 61, according to his publicist. Diffie was one of the mainstays of ’90s country with songs like “Home,” “Pickup Man” and “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die).” Diffie said in a 2004 Associated Press interview he chose a song not only for its melody, but for a certain sound. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and those with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
March 30, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is bracing the nation for a death toll that could exceed 100,000 people. Trump on Sunday extended restrictive social distancing guidelines through April. He was bowing to public-health experts who presented him with even more dire projections for the expanding coronavirus pandemic. It was a stark shift in tone by the president, who only days ago mused about the country reopening in a few weeks. From the Rose Garden, he said his Easter revival hopes had only been “aspirational.”
March 30, 2020 4:03 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Florida officials have arrested the pastor of a megachurch after detectives say he held two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus. According to jail records, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister says he told church leaders of the danger they are putting themselves and their congregation in by not maintaining appropriate social distancing. The county and governor’s orders require gatherings be fewer than 10 people to limit the spread of COVID-19. A live stream of Sunday’s three-and-a-half-hour church service showed scores of congregants.
March 30, 2020 4:02 am
PHOENIX (AP) – A Phoenix police commander was killed and two other officers were injured Sunday night in a shooting on the city’s north side during a domestic violence call, police said. Cmdr. Greg Carnicle was killed in the incident in the 23800 block of North 40th Drive, near Pinnacle Peak Road, the department announced on Twitter. The conditions of the other officers are not known. But the department said they are expected to recover. The shooting took place at 7:10 p.m., KNXV-TV reported. The TV station reports that a suspect is barricaded in a home near the site of the shooting.
March 29, 2020 7:48 am
NEW YORK (AP) – President Donald Trump considered and then rejected ordering a quarantine for residents of the state and neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut amid the coronavirus outbreak. However, he later announced in a tweet late Saturday that a travel advisory was the way to go. It urges residents of the states to avoid all but essential travel for two weeks. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier in the day that roping off states would amount to “a federal declaration of war.” Meanwhile, Cuomo postponed his state’s presidential primary from April to June, and nurses made anguished pleas for more protective equipment and rebuffed officials’ claims that supplies are adequate.
March 29, 2020 7:45 am
BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel has run Germany for more than 14 years and has over a decade’s experience of managing crises. She reassured her compatriots in the 2008 financial crisis that their savings were safe and led a hard-nosed but domestically popular response to the eurozone debt crisis. In 2015, she took responsibility for welcoming an influx of migrants from war-torn Syria – a stance that caused divisions among Germans. Now, in the twilight of her time in power, Merkel is rising to the occasion as she faces her biggest crisis yet – the coronavirus pandemic. Merkel is using her traditional political strengths to help reassure the German people and positioning her country to cope with the crisis.
March 29, 2020 7:43 am
STOCKHOLM (AP) – The coronavirus is not keeping people in Sweden at home even while citizens in many parts of the world are sheltering in place. Swedes still sit at outdoor cafes in the center of Stockholm. Teenagers still chat in groups in the parks of the capital. Some still greet each other with hugs and handshakes. Swedish authorities have advised people to practice social distancing and asked those over age 70 to self-isolate. But restaurants, preschools and primary schools are still open. Some scientists have criticized the country’s Public Health Agency’s approach as irresponsible. But the country’s chief epidemiologist has defended Sweden’s strategy as more sustainable than “drastic” measures like the nationwide lockdowns elsewhere.
March 29, 2020 7:42 am
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – As the coronavirus rages through Europe, and major American cities like New York and Los Angeles, more than a third of counties across the U.S. still have not reported a positive test result for infection across what are predominantly rural areas. A data analysis by The Associated Press shows that 1,297 counties have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 out of 3,142 counties nationwide. Counties with zero positive tests for COVID-19 tend to have older, rural populations with lower incomes where rural health networks might be overwhelmed. The demographics hold major implications as the administration of President Trump develops guidelines to rate counties by risk of virus spread, empowering local officials to revise social distancing orders
March 29, 2020 7:40 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A gun rights group is cheering the Trump administration’s designation of the firearms industry, including retailers, as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure during the coronavirus emergency.. The designation by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is advisory and does not override determinations by individual jurisdictions. The group Gun Owners of America says in a statement that it is encouraged that the Trump administration is not ignoring what it calls “the ability to protect yourself.” Gun rights groups have filed suit after the Los Angeles County sheriff closed gun stores in the wake of California Gov. Gavin Newsom letting counties decide for themselves whether firearms dealers are nonessential businesses subject to closure.
