April 7 coronavirus news

The union representing flight attendants for American Airlines says about 100 flight attendants have tested positive for the coronavirus. 

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, representing more than 27,000 flight attendants, disclosed the figure in a message to its membership and said the airline has “agreed to start providing face masks for frontline team members while at work should you choose to wear one.” The union said masks are being distributed this week. 

The APFA president said Tuesday the union has “been pushing the Company since January” to provide personal protective equipment for flight attendants.  

“We have consistently advocated for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all of our Flight Attendants to be available on every aircraft, for social distancing between passengers and crew jump seats, for thermal scanning in the airports, and to receive immediate notification of Flight Attendants who have tested positive for the virus,” said Julie Hedrick. “Flight Attendants are aviation’s first responders who are transporting medical personnel and supplies into COVID-19 hotspots, and they need to be treated and protected as such.”

In another message to its membership, the union indicated it expects only about one in four of its flight attendants to be flying in May, due to major cuts in the airline’s schedule. 

Egypt will keep its mosques closed even during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as a precautionary measure due to the spread of the coronavirus, the country’s Ministry of Religious Endowments said today in a statement.

The ministry said it will also suspend all Ramadan activities and group iftars, which are congregational breakfast tables that offer food to the poor and passers by at sundown in Ramadan. 

Ramadan is set to start on April 23.

Dominic Raab — the UK's foreign secretary, who Prime Minister Boris Johnson deputized as he was hospitalized for coronavirus — said the prime minister is stable and called him a fighter.

Raab added that Johnson, “is not just the Prime Minister, for all of us in cabinet he is not just our boss – he is also a colleague and also our friend.”

Raab ended his update on Johnson's health saying, “if I know one thing about this Prime Minister, he is a fighter.”

Lufthansa is further reducing its fleet size and will discontinue the services of its low cost airline Germanwings as part of a broad overhaul amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The German airline is cutting its Lufthansa and Eurowings fleet and will reduce capacity at Frankfurt and Munich airports.

This is the first permanent capacity reduction — roughly 10% of its fleet according to a Lufthansa spokesperson — the airline has made in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Lufthansa said in a news release that the restructuring programs already initiated at Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines will be further intensified and both companies are working on reducing their fleets. 

Lufthansa said talks with unions and workers will be arranged to discuss new employment models in order to keep as many jobs as possible. 

More than 1,300 New York City fire department personnel who either tested positive or were suspected of being exposed to Covid-19 have returned to work, the FDNY said on Twitter today.

“FDNY members are responding to a record number of medical calls, and they continue to meet this unprecedented challenge head on,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro in a tweet posted by the department.

The coronavirus pandemic is overwhelming, and one of the most excruciating parts for many people is the feeling of utter helplessness in the face of widespread suffering and hardship.

Here's how to help medical efforts in your community during the coronavirus pandemic.

CNN’s Impact Your World has compiled a list of donation opportunities and tips to help those affected by the crisis. You can read the full list here.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is trying to work through plans to get back to playing, including having games at a central location once the coronavirus pandemic has improved. 

"MLB has been actively considering numerous contingency plans that would allow play to commence once the public health situation has improved to the point that it is safe to do so," the league said in a statement Tuesday.

According to ESPN, MLB is considering playing games as early as next month. The league is also looking at getting all 30 teams in Arizona, according to multiple reports. 

Why Arizona? Half of MLB holds their spring training in the Phoenix area and the stadiums are all within about 50 miles from each other. This would allow teams to quarantine in a hotel and not have to travel far for their games.

With this plan, they would also use Chase Field where the Arizona Diamondbacks play. But all of this would happen without fans in the stands. 

ESPN also is reporting that the league is discussing using an electronic strike zone so the plate umpire would not have to be right on the catcher and hitter. 

"While we continue to interact regularly with governmental and public health officials, we have not sought or received approval of any plan from federal, state and local officials, or the Players Association," MLB continued.

"The health and safety of our employees, players, fans and the public at large are paramount, and we are not ready at this time to endorse any particular format for staging games in light of the rapidly changing public health situation caused by the coronavirus.”

MLB Players Association had no comment to this story.

The UK's coronavirus death toll has risen by 786, according to new figures released by the Department of Health and Social Care.

More than 55,000 people have tested positive.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his team were asked today about the race breakdown of coronavirus victims in the state. The officials said that the hospitals don't report the race of patients to them so there has been a lag in getting that information.

The officials said that the state wants that information and is planning on getting it this week.

Some context: States and municipalities around the country have been reporting numbers that show that coronavirus is inflicting minority communities to a greater degree in some places.

For example, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said yesterday that 72% of all Chicago deaths related to Covid-19 have been black Chicagoans.