It seems I am being joined by 70 million other Americans who are enjoying a “stay-cation,” thanks to China!
The Governor of Illinois has announced a stay at home order, making it the latest state to shut down after New York and California as President Trump refuses to issue a national quarantine in the battle against coronavirus.On Friday, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a total ban on non-essential businesses and warned there would be strict fines for any businesses that do not comply. It will go into effect on Sunday evening and is indefinite.California issued its own stay-at-home order on Thursday night. It applies to all 40 million people in the state who do not work in crucial industries like healthcare services, public transportation, grocery stores, pharmacies, news organizations and internet providers, and is indefinite.Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced similar measures later on Friday. There were 422 cases of the virus in Illinois on Thursday.
I am seeing a lot of social media rumors regarding a national lockdown. A top National Guard general on Friday refutes these reports.
“I hear unfounded rumors about #NationalGuard troops supporting a nationwide quarantine,” tweeted Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “Let me be clear: There has been no such discussion.”Lengyel’s tweet comes as many people across the U.S. reported receiving text messages warning of martial law, prompting authorities to assure residents the messages were fake.Top Pentagon officials said there are no plans to introduce martial law and that National Guard troops are not being called up at the federal level to impose a quarantine.The rumors were planted by foreign actors intent on cultivating panic among Americans, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and his Vice Chairman, Gen. John Hyten, said Friday. Hyten serves on the coronavirus task force headed by Vice President Mike Pence.
Remember all those hotels California Governor Gavin Newsom was commandeering? It wasn’t for potential patients but for the homeless population.
State models show that 60,000 homeless people could be hit by the novel coronavirus in the next eight weeks, with up to 20% of them needing hospitalization.That would mean California would need 12,000 hospital beds just for those living on the streets — a formidable task for a state that is already struggling to find extra capacity to manage the pandemic before it’s too late and hospitals become overcrowded and unsafe with too many patients.To avoid that prospect, the governor has directed local governments to procure hundreds of facilities statewide — hotels, motels, recreation centers — to house the most vulnerable. Some cities and counties are already moving forward.
Taiwan officials assert that the World Health Organization’s relationship with China led to its failure to act on early warnings of human-to-human transmission of the Wuhan Coronavirus.
Taiwanese health officials alerted WHO of the infectivity of coronavirus in late December 2019, but the organization failed to report the claims to other countries, according to a Financial Times report.Weeks after receiving Taiwan’s warning, on Jan. 14, WHO repeated China’s claim that coronavirus was not contagious among humans.Taiwan reported its concerns to a WHO framework called the International Health Regulations on Dec. 31, 2019. The IHR framework is intended to be an exchange of epidemic data between 196 countries.“While the IHR’s internal website provides a platform for all countries to share information on the epidemic and their response, none of the information shared by our country’s [Centers for Disease Control] is being put up there,” Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-Jen told the Financial Times.
Another country that has seen its ties with the U.S. strengthened by Trump’s actions steps in to assist us with the coronavirus crisis.
Israeli generic drug giant Teva announced Friday that it will provide ten million doses of its anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which could potentially prove effective in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, to US hospitals free of charge.The company said six million doses will be delivered to US hospitals by March 31, and more than ten million in a month.“We are committed to helping to supply as many tablets as possible as demand for this treatment accelerates at no cost,” Teva executive vice president Brendan O’Grady said.
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