March 24 coronavirus news

A new emergency order from Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak prohibits people from gathering in groups of 10 or more due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The order does not apply to private homes or essential services. 

It comes as Sisolak says the state is still struggling to determine how many people have been affected by Covid-19. 

"Nevada has submitted four requests for Covid-19 testing components,” the governor said. “We have received zero shipments for Covid-19 testing components.”

Hours after Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Pete Gaynor told CNN the administration will start wielding the powers in the Defense Production Act for 60,000 tests kits and "use the allocation portion of the DPA,” FEMA press secretary Lizzie Litzow said the agency was able to procure the kits from the private market.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump and Gaynor contradicted each other on whether the Defense Production Act was being used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, Trump tweeted, "The Defense Production Act is in full force, but haven't had to use it because no one has said NO! Millions of masks coming as back up to States." 

Minutes later, Gaynor told CNN the administration was going to use the law.

"Just a little while ago my team came in and we're actually going to use the DPA for first time today," Gaynor said. In addition, FEMA will "insert some language into these mask contracts we have of 500 million masks," Gaynor said. "DPA language will be in that today."

Trump suggested at Tuesday’s afternoon briefing that his recent authorization of the DPA serves as enough “leverage” to compel companies to produce medical supplies without invoking the act to force them to start up production. 

The Nevada primary scheduled for June 9 will go ahead as scheduled, but will be conducted only with absentee ballots, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske announced Tuesday evening. This decision does not affect the results of Nevada’s presidential caucus that took place in February. 

The state said all active registered voters will automatically receive a ballot in the mail. Voters can either mail in their ballot or drop it off at a designated location in each county. 

Every county will have at least one poll worker in at least one location to accommodate voters who registered too late to receive an absentee ballot. Mail-in ballots can be postmarked by Election Day, but must be received by election officials within the following seven days to be counted.

More half of New Orleans' medical emergency services personnel is under quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s mayor told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. 

With New Orleans hospitalizations expected to exceed their capacity in 11 days, according to the Louisiana Gov. John Bell Edwards, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she is looking for the federal government’s major disaster declaration to get a long-awaited relief.

There have been at least 375 cases of coronavirus and 26 deaths in New Orleans so far, the mayor said.

Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Hollywood Resort announced Tuesday that they will extend their closures until April 19, according to both resorts’ websites. 

A Disney Global Parks and Consumer Products spokesperson told CNN that Disney has not officially announced any extension of closures at this time.

Australia banned overseas travel and extended social restrictions in order to tackle the spread of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Tuesday.

The decision to ban overseas travel is aligned with Australia's upgraded "Level 4: do not travel" and comes under the Biosecurity Act of 2015, Morrison said.

To that effect, the Australian prime minister unveiled stricter social distancing measures that include weddings with a maximum attendance of no more than five people and funerals with no more than 10 people, with one person per 4 square metre (or at least 6 feet apart).

Australia reported a jump of 429 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the national tally to 2,252 cases of which eight have died, according to the country's Department of Health. 

Chicago Police Department has six confirmed Covid-19 cases, Supt. Charlie Beck announced Tuesday.

"Two of these cases came from the same facility. And two of the officers are hospitalized," he said.

As for law enforcement since Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order last week, Beck said, "We have issued zero citations and zero arrests for violations of the health order. We have also seen significant evidence that Chicago is staying home."

Beck also said that 911 calls are down 30% this month. 

Brandon Waltman went to visit his newborn baby girl in the neonatal intensive care unit of an Alabama hospital Monday night. His daughter Emmarie Grace Waltman has been in NICU at the University of South Alabama Women’s Hospital for the past month, but last night, he was told she had been moved to a different part of the hospital.

Waltman said he was told Emmarie was taken to a different room because a nurse tested positive for coronavirus and is being isolated as a precaution. After watching the news about the spread of the virus over the last few weeks, Waltman said he wasn’t surprised.

“I felt like it was inevitable,” he told CNN. Born February 20, Emmarie was in the NICU for issues associated with feeding, her father said.

Now he and his wife can only visit Emmarie one at a time in a low pressure room in order to prevent any potential spread of coronavirus.

Gary Mans, an associate vice president for Marketing and Communications at USA Health, said in a statement that a staff member within the health system had tested positive, but declined to say in which department. 

Waltman said he is anxious to get his daughter home to Mississippi to quarantine together as a family, but he isn’t sure when Emmarie will be released. The family’s home is about an hour away from the hospital.

He said his daughter isn’t showing any symptoms of Covid-19 and he hopes it’ll stay that way.

“I don't think she's going to test positive,” he said. “She's one of the, probably the biggest and the healthiest babies in the NICU.”

London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has hit back at government criticism over the capital's tube network running a reduced service amid the Covid-19 outbreak, telling local news outlets that Transport for London (TFL) is operating the maximum number of tube services it can, while maintaining safety. 

"We’re running the maximum tubes we can, as safely as we can. That roughly means that there are 55% of the tubes running," Khan said Tuesday in an interview with Channel 4 News. 

The London's mayor's remarks come after images of London's tube services circulated Tuesday morning depicting crowded trains, despite the virtual lockdown imposed by the government on Monday. 

Earlier on Tuesday, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock criticized Transport for London's decision to run a reduced service, suggesting that an increase in the number of tubes running would allow members of the public to adhere to the government's social-distancing guidelines, while traveling on the underground network.

"TFL should have the tube running in full so that people travelling on the tube can be spaced out and further apart, obeying the two metre rule as best possible," Hancock said during the government's daily COVID-19 press briefing. 

"There is no good reason in the information that I've seen that the current levels of tube provision should be as low as they are. We should have more tube trains running," the Health Secretary added. 

Speaking to BBC London, Khan denounced the "blame game being played" by Hancock, highlighting the "heroic" work being carried out by TFL staff, and the pressure placed on TFL by the number of staff members who are off work.

"About a third of TFL staff are off work, mainly because of themselves having COVID-19, or members of their family having the symptoms, which means they are self-isolating...TFL are running the maximum service they’re able to do safely, with the number of staff that they have got," Khan asserted.