April 4 coronavirus news

Front-line responders in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the US, are facing "battlefield conditions," said Michael Greco, Vice President of the New York City Fire Department Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (FDNY EMS) union.

“We’re now in a major triage mode," he told CNN. "If we don’t get a return of circulation, after 20 minutes we are terminating the CPR and we are not transporting.”  

The hour or so that they spend transporting patients to hospital is now "battlefield triage," he said. "We’re in wartime mode."

Greco said that before the coronavirus outbreak, he and other paramedics would see perhaps one or two cardiac arrests a week. One FDNY EMS crew handled seven cardiac arrests yesterday alone.

Emergency workers are fearing for their lives: Some members are sleeping in their cars or hotel rooms, afraid they could get infected and bring the virus to their homes and families, Greco said.

Pink tested positive for coronavirus, the singer said in a tweet.

"Two weeks ago, my three-year-old son Jameson and I are showing symptoms of Covid-19. Fortunately, our primary care physician had access to tests and I tested positive," she said.

The family stayed at home for two weeks, and tested negative a few days ago.

"It is an absolute travesty and failure of our government to not make testing more widely accessible," Pink said. "This illness is serious and real."

The star said she would donate a total of $1,000,000, split between the Temple University Hospital Emergency Fund and the Los Angeles Mayor's emergency coronavirus fund.

A total of 49 of the 211 students from the University of Texas at Austin who traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for spring break have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement from the university.

They went on the March 14-19 trip against the advice of White House officials who asked that people avoid gathering in groups of more than 10, and refrain from nonessential air travel.

Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen had a blunt message for the spring breakers.

As some of the spring breakers took commercial flights home, public health officials said dozens of other passengers are being monitored.

The students who tested positive are in self-isolation, health officials said. The Department of State Health Services has been alerted.

Kelley Bradshaw, an intensive care unit nurse at a large New York hospital, told CNN the coronavirus patients she's seeing this week seem sicker, with more advanced symptoms.

Bradshaw said she was seeing more cases of the virus affecting patients' kidneys and hearts.

It's not clear if the patients seem sicker because the virus is presenting itself in a different way, or if the patients are trying to wait it out at home, so they are already sicker by the time they arrive at the hospital.

"It just feels like the longer someone battles this virus and the more critically ill they become, the harder our job gets," Bradshaw said. "The days are really, really long ... The only thing we can expect is to expect the unexpected."

China confirmed 19 new coronavirus cases on Friday -- of which all but one were imported from overseas, according the country's National Health Commission (NHC).

There were also 64 new asymptomatic cases reported, which are counted separately. There are 1,030 such asymptomatic cases under medical observation.

The NHC also reported four new deaths.

This brings the national total to 81,639 cases and 3,326 deaths. According to the NHC, 76,751 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Hawaii has activated four units of the National Guard to assist with the state's coronavirus response, Gov. David Ige said on Friday.

“Effective immediately, there will be more than 250 men and women on state active duty," Ige said at a news conference.

Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, Jr. said the National Guard will help staff up the state’s emergency operations center and manage warehouses used to store medical and personal protective equipment. 

Some members of the Guard will also assist in airport screening, to make sure those entering the state adhere to Hawaii’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for visitors.

Los Angeles County has recorded 1,000 coronavirus cases in just 48 hours, the mayor said on Friday.

Los Angeles County had a 13% increase in cases Friday -- the third day in a row of low-teens or mid-teen increases, the mayor said. This is a decrease from the previous week, when the city saw almost a 27% increase on average each day. 

"A week ago, the rate of increase was about 50% more than it is right now," Garcetti said. "But on the other hand, before you start to get relaxed and say we can go outside, this is a moment to continue pressing on the accelerator."

More than 40,000 Angelenos have been tested for Covid-19, and Los Angeles has the capacity to do 3,500 tests a day in the coming week, Garcetti said.

It has been 15 days since California has been under stay-at-home orders -- and 19 days since Los Angeles started social distancing.

Thailand’s Civil Aviation Authority has issued an order stopping flights from arriving in the country for three days.

The order went into effect midnight on Friday and will last until just before midnight on Monday, local time.

There are exceptions for state or military aircraft, emergency landing, technical landing, humanitarian aid, medical and relief flights, authorized repatriation flights and cargo aircraft.

The ban is meant to halt the spread of the coronavirus and support containment and mitigation efforts in the country.

Thailand has close to 2,000 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Friday that it has obligated $1.1 billion in support to New York state.

New York state has 102,987 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,935 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.