March 18 coronavirus news

Members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration are being tested for coronavirus as a precautionary measure, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Pesksov told state media today. 

Peskov added that journalists planning to cover Putin’s trip to Crimea today are also being tested for coronavirus, and said journalists who had recently traveled outside Russia should avoid applying for accreditation for future events involving Putin. 

The Kremlin has been checking the temperatures of all journalists covering President Putin’s events for about a week now, Russian state media RIA added.

Russia has 114 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Just yesterday, Putin said the Russian government had managed to bring the spread of coronavirus “under control,” even as cases in the country continued to rise.

Russia has closed its borders with China, restricted flights to and from the European Union, and will be partially and selectively closing its borders to foreign arrivals on Wednesday. 

After months on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong increasingly looks like a model for how to handle it.

Despite having numerous transport links with mainland China, where the first cases were detected, and a mobile population working on either side of the border, through intense efforts, including having millions work at home and exercising social distancing, Hong Kong has kept its number of cases comparatively low.

To date, Hong Kong, which is home to more than 7 million people, has fewer than 170 cases and four deaths, while other countries and cities have reported hundreds, even thousands, of infections.

The biggest visual sign of the city's continued effort has been the almost complete ubiquity of face masks, which began appearing soon after the first coronavirus cases were reported in China, (despite a technical ban on them related to last year's anti-government protests), and soon were seen everywhere, sparking concerns about shortages and long queues at pharmacies that did stock them.

But now, fears are growing of a potential second wave of cases -- imported from outside the territory.

Some who left the city early in the outbreak are starting to return, while others are being forced to -- many countries which attract large numbers of Hong Kong students are closing universities and going into lockdown -- raising concerns they will bring the coronavirus back with them.

On Tuesday, the city's government issued a red notice for all foreign countries, requiring anyone arriving from overseas to undergo a 14-day home quarantine.

Read the full analysis here.

A hockey player for the Ottawa Senators, part of the North American National Hockey League (NHL), has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The player was not identified, but a statement from the team said the player was experiencing mild symptoms and was in isolation. The team is now working with health officials to conduct contact tracing. All the other team members are also being isolated..

This is the first publicly known instance of an infected NHL player.

Season suspended: The NHL announced last week that it is pausing the rest of the season's games because of the pandemic.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the move was directly related to the news that an NBA player for the Utah Jazz team had tested positive.

The NBA and NHL share facilities and locker rooms, leading to the suspension decision.

Taiwan is banning most foreign nationals from entering the country in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus, announced the island's Epidemic Central Command Center today.

They added that travelers coming to the island will be subjected to a mandatory 14-day home quarantine.

The restrictions will go into effect tomorrow local time.

The numbers: Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking cases reported by the World Health Organization and additional sources, puts the total number of cases worldwide at more than 198,000, with at least 7,900 deaths.

Emergency funding: The White House Office of Management and Budget is requesting the US Congress for an additional $45.8 billion in the face of a pandemic and Spain has approved a 200 billion euro (almost $220 billion) aid package.

More flights suspended: Sri Lanka has suspended all flights arriving into the country for two weeks, effective midnight today. Meanwhile, United Airlines is cutting even more domestic and international flights, following the US restrictions on travel from the UK and other European countries.

Travel restrictions widen: European leaders have decided to ban non-essential travel to the EU for 30 days. US-Canada border crossing limits are expected. Macao has banned all travelers from overseas countries from entering. And Taiwan is banning most foreign nationals.

Asylum seekers affected: The US administration is pushing to pass tough immigration restrictions including blocking entry to asylum seekers. A plan to turn back all migrants seeking asylum would have its most immediate effect on the US-Mexico border.

Saudi Arabia: All work in private sectors is being suspended for 15 days. On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia banned Muslims from conducting five daily prayers and Friday prayers inside mosques as a precautionary measure.

More action needed: Countries in Southeast Asia must “urgently scale-up aggressive measures” and widespread testing to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further, said World Health Organization officials.

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the US, states are taking emergency measures to combat the pandemic. Here are some of tonight's latest developments:

And the virus finally reached West Virginia, the last uninfected state, today. All 50 states now have cases of the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization didn’t offer Covid-19 tests to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told CNN on Tuesday.

There were no discussions between the WHO and CDC on providing tests, according to Jasarevic, who added that the US typically has the capacity to manufacture its own tests, so it doesn't usually rely on the WHO for them.

Separate manufacturers: On January 17, the WHO published a protocol from German researchers with the instructions necessary for any country to manufacture coronavirus tests. 

The US pursued its own design and began testing for the coronavirus at the CDC in Atlanta. On February 5, the CDC announced it would begin shipping test kits to public health labs in the US.

One day later, the WHO said it had shipped 250,000 tests to more than 70 laboratories around the world.

Delays and stumbles in US testing: Days after CDC’s tests shipped, some labs reported that the test kits were not working as expected, which eventually required tests to be re-manufactured. 

On March 1, an official at US Health and Human Services said the agency had launched an investigation into a manufacturing defect in the CDC tests.

As of March 9, public health labs in all 50 states and Washington, DC, are able to test for the coronavirus.

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have committed $25 million to support organizations responding to the coronavirus outbreak, the company said in a news release Tuesday. 

The funds will be distributed in grants to address public health needs, food security, and other community needs both locally and internationally, said the release. The first grants are expected to be issued this week.

Here's how it breaks down:

“In times of need, we see communities come together to do extraordinary things. This pandemic is no different,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer for Walmart and president of the Walmart Foundation.

"We hope these grants will help to expand critical response efforts as we continue to work together to address the impact of Covid-19.”

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, the US administration is pushing to pass tough immigration restrictions including blocking entry to asylum seekers, according to US officials briefed on the plans.

A plan to turn back all migrants seeking asylum would have its most immediate effect on the US-Mexico border. It has run into opposition from several government agencies, in part because of concerns that it would violate US and international law, including treaties on how to deal with refugees and victims of torture.

Officials are working on a plan to deny entry to all asylum seekers, according to multiple sources. That may include a plan to return all illegal border crossers without due process.

US citizens and legal permanent residents will continue to be allowed to enter the US, the official said, adding that the ban won't apply to cargo shipments. However, it is unclear whether others will be allowed to continue to cross legally.

One official said immigration hardliners have long looked for ways to try to stop asylum seekers from even having their claims heard by immigration officers, and that the coronavirus threat was being used as an excuse to accomplish what they had so far been unable to.

Read the full story here:

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