CoronaVirus in US - Updates & Discussion

[ghazi52]

A lifeline for fast-food outlets: the drive-through.

Cars waiting at a Popeyes drive-through in Stroudsburg, Pa.Credit...Leah Frances for The New York Times
For decades, the fast-food drive-through has been a greasy symbol of Americana, a roadside ritual for millions of travelers with a hankering for burgers and fries.

Now, the drive-through, with its brightly colored signage and ketchup-stained paper bags, has taken on a new importance in the age of social distancing.

Over the last month and a half, the pandemic has forced small, independent restaurants to close and Michelin star chefs to experiment with takeout. But the nation’s drive-throughs have continued to churn out orders, providing a financial reprieve for chains like McDonald’s and Burger King even as fast-food workers have become increasingly concerned about the threat of infection.

While restaurant dining rooms sit empty, many people have started treating drive-throughs like grocery stores, making only occasional trips but placing larger orders. Popeyes has introduced “family bundles” to capitalize on the demand for bigger meals. Taco Bell is offering a promotion — free Doritos Locos Tacos on Tuesdays — that has increased traffic at some of its drive-throughs, overwhelming employees. And dine-in chains like Texas Roadhouse have converted empty parking lots into temporary drive-through lanes.


“For many restaurants,” said Jonathan Maze, the executive editor of Restaurant Business Magazine, “it’s an absolute savior.”

.................

Lawsuits mount as lockdowns squeeze businesses.

A protest outside Michigan’s House of Representatives on Thursday.Credit...Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal, via Associated Press

The timing and the extent of lockdown restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have prompted a raft of lawsuits across the United States.

All manner of rights are being asserted. Individual rights. Commercial rights. Free speech rights. Property rights. A mariachi band is suing to get back to work.

“The constitutional and other themes are profound across the board,” said James Hodge, the director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University. “It really is becoming quite a resistance across the country to what has been the most profound use of public health power in this century.”

Initially, in March, there was a certain consensus, grudging at times, that the “police powers” granted to states gave them broad authority to impose measures to protect the public health. As stay-at-home orders stretched from weeks into months, however, those powers are being scrutinized and questioned.

Butzel Long, a suburban Detroit law firm, filed a federal case in the Western District of Michigan on behalf of five businesses seeking to reopen. “The courts really need to get involved to decide how far can a governor’s emergency authority extend,” said Daniel McCarthy, the lead lawyer.


In Los Angeles, a diverse group of small businesses including a gondola service and a pet grooming spa have sued in federal court. “We cannot keep up with the number of people who are basically crippled by this and do not understand it,” said their lawyer, Mark J. Geragos.

 

[ghazi52]

Your Life or Your Livelihood: Americans Wrestle With Impossible Choice


As states begin to loosen restrictions, the act of reopening will be carried out not by governors or the president, but the millions of individuals being asked to do it.

A motorist on an empty street in downtown Topeka. Kansas’ stay-at-home orders expire May 3.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press
By Sabrina Tavernise, Jack Healy and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

• May 1, 2020

When Maine finally announced this week that hair salons could reopen, Sarah Kyllonen, a stylist in Lewiston, stayed up late wondering what to do, feeling overwhelmed.

The virus still scared her. It seemed too soon to open up. Then again, her bills had not stopped and her unemployment benefits had not started, and she was starting to worry about next month’s rent.

Around midnight on Thursday, she finally drifted off. But she woke an hour later, and did not sleep much after that.

“It’s an extremely hard decision for all of us,” she said. “I want to go back to work. I want to have the money. I want to see people. But it’s hard because I’m worried about the virus coming back around.”


She added: “I can’t get my mind off it. It’s very stressful.”

As states begin to loosen restrictions on their economies, the act of reopening has come down not to governors or even to President Trump, but to millions of individual Americans who are being asked to go back to work.

It is not an easy decision. In homes across the country this week, Americans whose governors said it was time to reopen wrestled with what to do, weighing what felt like an impossible choice.

If they go back to work, will they get sick and infect their families? If they refuse, will they lose their jobs? What if they work on tips and there are no customers? What happens to their unemployment benefits?

Until recently, only those designated as essential workers had to face such dilemmas. On Friday, as at least 10 additional states, including Texas, began to lift stay-at-home orders or reopen some businesses, more Americans ventured out of their doors to work, but often with a sense of dread — that they were being forced to choose between their health and their livelihood.

Large majorities still approve of shutdown orders as a way to protect public health, but the tremendous surge of jobless claims since mid-March has created a crosscurrent: an urgent need for income.


The hyperpartisan wrangling between Mr. Trump and governors over whether to reopen has obscured the way many Americans are thinking about the issue. They are not always neatly dividing into two political tribes, with Republicans wanting to see restrictions lifted and Democrats wanting to remain shut down. Even within each person there can be conflicting instincts.

A salon owner in Greeley, Colo., cleaned up as she prepared to reopen for business. Colorado’s monthlong stay-at-home order expired on Monday.Credit...Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images


Andrea Pinson has not been paid since March 18, the last day she worked at a bingo hall in Fort Worth, taking customers’ orders and cooking and serving their meals. But earlier this week, she received a short text from her boss, telling her to show up for work on Friday, when Texas reopened restaurants, shops, churches and other gathering places.

The demand was direct — be there at 5 p.m. — and Ms. Pinson, 33, was agonizing over how to respond. If she stayed home, she could lose wages or even her job. If she went to work, she risked bringing the coronavirus back to her great-uncle, 73, who lives with her and has health conditions.

“We need the money for sure, but I don’t want to put his life at risk just so we can have money,” she said on Thursday. “He’s had open-heart surgery, he’s got asthma, there’s no way he could come back from that. I can’t lose him.”

Ms. Pinson said the bingo hall would require customers to wear masks, but she was sure people would take them off — they would have to in order to eat the burgers, nachos and other food she makes.

She was leaning toward showing up, hoping that people followed the state’s guidelines and kept their distance. If they did not, she said, she would probably ask her boss to let her take additional time off.


“Hopefully he would understand,” she said. “Me and him do have a pretty good relationship. But he just kind of expected me to show up to work.”

On Friday afternoon, less than five hours before her shift was to begin, Ms. Pinson was relieved when her boss texted her again, saying the bingo hall was not allowed to reopen after all.

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“I had so much anxiety over this,” Ms. Pinson said. “But now I don’t have to worry about it.”

Unemployment benefits through states are tied to employment, and workers cannot keep their benefits once their bosses call them back, even if they believe it is unsafe to go to work. There are some exceptions, granted by the federal relief package known as the CARES Act: They include those who are sick with the virus or who are caring for children whose schools or day care centers remain closed.

Republican leaders in Iowa and Oklahoma have threatened to withhold unemployment benefits from people who refuse to return to their jobs. In both states, employers whose workers do not show up have been asked to report them to state authorities so they can stop providing them with the benefits.

As Americans have started receiving unemployment benefits and stimulus checks, freeing some of them from having to worry as much about paying for food and rent, they have been able to shift their focus toward protecting their health.

The reopening date for one business in Minneapolis is up in the air.Credit...Tim Gruber for The New York Times

The sign on a flower shop in Minneapolis tells customers it is open.Credit...Tim Gruber for The New York Times


Bianca, a dental assistant in Denver, said she was dreading getting called back to work. She and her wife are getting by on $600 in weekly unemployment, supplemented by an extra $600 approved for workers weathering the current crisis.


But her practice began seeing routine patients again this week as Colorado’s stay-at-home order expired. And she is concerned her clinic does not have enough protective gear to go around.

“Most of us are afraid to go back, but dentists are like, ‘I’ve got a business to run,’” said Bianca, who asked to be identified only by her first name, for fear that she would get fired for speaking up.

Bianca cleans teeth inches away from people’s faces, and even before the coronavirus struck, she picked up colds and flus regularly from patients. She said she was petrified of getting infected at work or spreading the disease to her family, especially her father, whose immune system has been battered after he underwent six months of chemotherapy.

In Ohio, the authorities said manufacturers could begin operating on Monday. But Kim Rinehart, a worker at a transmission plant in Toledo, said she had heard nothing from her union or her company about when she might return to work. She is collecting unemployment and the additional $600 in benefits, and is feeling fine about staying home, particularly given the state’s limited testing capacity and the virus’s stealth.

“If you had a murderer in the plant, and you didn’t know where but you knew he was there, would you go back into that plant?” she said.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp allowed restaurants to start dine-in service on Monday. But a large group of restaurateurs and chefs have pledged to remain closed for the time being, because it was safer.

One of the chefs, Craig Richards, the co-owner of Lyla Lila in Atlanta, said he did not want anyone to get sick as a result of his decisions. And he is not excited about opening a place that is depressing to visit, with workers in masks.


“I don’t want to open a restaurant that looks like an operating room,” he said. “That’s not a restaurant. To me a restaurant is about connecting people.”

To some degree, governors are leaving choices to individuals by design.

“It is the people themselves that are primarily responsible for their safety,” Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota said this week, announcing a “back to normal” plan.

Though she never issued a formal stay-at-home order, Ms. Noem said moving toward reopening would put the power back into the hands of the people, “where it belongs.”

“They are free to exercise their rights to work, worship and to play,” she said, “or to stay at home and to conduct social distancing.”

A couple walked by closed motels in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Gov. Janet Mills announced tentative plans to allow for the reopening of lodging, campgrounds and bars on July 1.Credit...Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press


But for many people trying to protect themselves in cities and towns that were reopening, the effort mostly felt clumsy and frantic.

Morgan Bard has spent hours driving from supermarket to supermarket across Northern Colorado, scrounging the empty shelves for gloves, sanitizer, wipes and other supplies that are now required for retailers as they reopen to the public.


Ms. Bard and her father were reopening their business selling Celtic jewelry, crafts and art in the mountain tourist town of Estes Park, Colo., on Friday.

“It’s hard to find anything,” she said. She has enough hand sanitizer for herself, but not enough to set out for customers. She is low on disposable gloves.

After agonizing over what to do, Ms. Kyllonen, the Maine hairstylist, has decided to brave it. The salon opened on Friday, but her first day back is not until Wednesday because social distancing means only five hairdressers can work at once.

She will follow pages of state guidelines. Wear a mask, and a face shield. Have customers wait in their cars. Ask them about symptoms. Take their temperature. Disinfect seats and surfaces and change towels and gloves.

“I’m worried we are doing this — I hate to say it — too soon,” she said. “There’s a lot of things we have to do and it’s scary.”

Richard Fausset, Emily Badger and Sarah Mervosh contributed reporting.

 

[PakFactor]

Yeah, he lives in NYC. It was a difficult time, but thankfully it didn’t get too serious, And require hospitalization.

He’s fine now

Thanks for asking

Good to hear.

 

[ghazi52]

United States


Coronavirus Cases:
1,156,217



Deaths:
67,224


Recovered:
170,201


CLOSED CASES
237,425

Cases which had an outcome:

170,201 (72%)
Recovered / Discharged

67,224 (28%)
Deaths

 

[riscol]

The most sensible thing to do is to keep the lockdown in place to prevent further worsening but as the situation stands it probably is too late to contain it in the US.

 

[grey boy 2]

On May 1st Friday, US has reported a NEW grim record of "33,000" new cases in a 24 hrs span and now came the easing of lockdown policy......
Updates: "1,160,585" total cases along with "67,441" death toll

 

[ghazi52]

USA

USA Total......................... 1,160,774 .... Deaths ........ 67,444

New York........................... 319,213.............................. 24,368
New Jersey...................... 123,717............................... 7,742
Massachusetts................... 66,263 ..................................3,846
Illinois............................. 58,505.................................. 2,559
California .........................53,606.................................. 2,188
Pennsylvania................. 50,915................................... 2,776
Michigan......................... 43,207................................... 4,020
Florida ..........................35,463.................................... 1,364



..................

 

[ghazi52]

United States


Coronavirus Cases:
1,162,164

Deaths:
67,494

Recovered:
173,910

CLOSED CASES
241,404


Cases which had an outcome:

173,910 (72%)
Recovered / Discharged

67,494 (28%)
Deaths

 

[grey boy 2]

As those "Wannabe White Americans" keep searching whole day long hoping for anything that may draw people attention towards blaming anyone but themselves for their own incompetence is getting funnier day by day
Worst of all meanwhile US is adding "100,000" new cases on a weekly basis.....
Updates: "1,170,184" total cases along with "68,002" death toll

 

[riscol]

 

[ghazi52]

The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen, according to WHO

MAY 2 2020
William Feuer@WILLFOIA

KEY POINTS

• The U.S. saw 2,909 people die of Covid-19 in 24 hours, according to the data, which was collected as of 4 a.m. ET on Friday.
• That’s the highest daily death toll in the U.S. yet based on a CNBC analysis of the WHO’s daily Covid-19 situation reports.
• The country’s deadliest day comes as state officials weigh reopening parts of the economy and easing stay-at-home orders.

A sad and tired healthcare worker is seen by the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York, United States on April 1, 2020. Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images


The United States just had its deadliest day on record due to the coronavirus as states across the country begin to ease restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus, according to data published by the World Health Organization.

The U.S. saw 2,909 people die of Covid-19 in 24 hours, according to the data, which was collected as of 4 a.m. ET on Friday. That’s the highest daily Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. yet, based on a CNBC analysis of the WHO’s daily Covid-19 situation reports.


Before May 1, the next highest U.S. daily death toll was 2,471 reported on April 23, according to the WHO. State officials have previously warned that data on Covid-19 deaths are difficult to analyze because they often represent patients who became ill and were hospitalized weeks ago.

Representatives of the WHO did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The country’s deadliest day comes as state officials weigh reopening parts of the economy and easing stay-at-home orders. Public health officials and epidemiologists have warned that as the public grows fatigued by restrictions and businesses reopen, the virus could spread rapidly throughout communities that have yet to experience a major epidemic.

Protesters in at least 10 states on Friday demanded that the government lift stay-at-home orders and other emergency measures put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Among the states that saw protests are California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee and Washington.

Dozens of states have unveiled reopening plans and several, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, have already begun to allow nonessential retailers to reopen.

 

[ghazi52]

United States


Coronavirus Cases:
1,185,167

Deaths:
68,495

Recovered:
178,219

CLOSED CASES

246,714

Cases which had an outcome:

178,219 (72%)
Recovered / Discharged

68,495 (28%)
Deaths

 

[bluesky]

https://japantoday.com/category/world/pompeo-says-'enormous-evidence'-virus-came-from-wuhan-lab

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says there is "enormous evidence" that the new coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China Photo: AFP
World
Pompeo says 'enormous evidence' virus came from Wuhan lab
Today 06:19 am JST 14 Comments
By Andrew Harnik

WASHINGTON
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

"There is enormous evidence that this is where it began," he said on ABC's "This Week."

But while highly critical of China's handling of the matter, Pompeo declined to say whether he thought the virus had been intentionally released.

President Donald Trump has been increasingly critical of China's role in the pandemic, which has infected nearly 3.5 million people and killed more than 240,000 around the world.

He has insisted that Beijing recklessly concealed important information about the outbreak and demanded that Beijing be held "accountable."

News reports say Trump has tasked U.S. spies to find out more about the origins of the virus, at first blamed on a Wuhan market selling exotic animals like bats, but now thought possibly to be from a virus research laboratory nearby.

Pompeo, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told ABC that he agreed with a statement Thursday from the U.S. intelligence community in which it concurred "with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified."

But he went further than Trump, in citing "significant" and "enormous" evidence that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory.

"I think the whole world can see now, remember, China has a history of infecting the world and running substandard laboratories," Pompeo said.

He said early Chinese efforts to downplay the coronavirus amounted to "a classic Communist disinformation effort. That created enormous risk."

"President Trump is very clear: we'll hold those responsible accountable."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To all reading this post: The USA is certainly scapegoating China for CoVID-19. I have read about the Chinese laboratory in Wuhan and I know how frantically the scientists there headed by Dr. Shi have tried to find out the source of SARS virus and during the process found that the new virus also belongs to the same group. The benevolent Dr. Shi has found the main source of CoVID-19 is bats.

The PRC has already banned trades in exotic animals including bats and laboratories throughout the developed world are now nearing to finding out a functional vaccine. Chinese scientists have successfully experimented with eight monkeys. I hope China will be the fore contributor to create vaccine along with the Oxford University laboratory of the UK.

I personally deplore the USA for making an ill-effort to criminalize China when it did not commit the crime. President Trump needs to win the next election and that says why the US govt scapegoating China.

 

[riscol]

steaming towards 1.200.000 cases and 70.000 deaths in a day or two. When will some good news from the US arrive?

 

[ghazi52]

United States


Coronavirus Cases:
1,188,122


Deaths:
68,598

Recovered:
178,263


CLOSED CASES

246,861

Cases which had an outcome:

178,263 (72%)
Recovered / Discharged

68,598 (28%)
Deaths

..

USA.