April 10 coronavirus news

Melinda Gates says she’s very concerned that vulnerable, poor populations in developing countries will not be able to handle the coronavirus crisis.

“It’s going to be horrible in the developing world. And part of the reason you're seeing the case numbers still don't look very bad, it’s because they don't have access to very many tests,” said Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is putting billions of dollars behind eight potential vaccines for the coronavirus. 

Gates said that the coronavirus pandemic will set the world back in terms of gender equity as well. 

“70% of the health care workers around the world are women. Women do more than two times the unpaid labor in their homes. So they're caring for people in the health system and they’re caring for people at home,” she said.

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At least 16,703 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

There are at least 466,396 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to the Johns Hopkins tally. 

So far on Friday, Johns Hopkins has reported 646 new cases and 19 reported deaths. 

Tokyo's Metropolitan Government announced the highest one-day spike with 189 new cases, bringing the total to 1,708 on Friday. 

Tokyo's local authorities have announced three days of rising positive cases: 144 on Wednesday and 181 on Thursday.

The government will ask businesses to close starting this weekend as part of its measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Entertainment facilities such as bars and internet cafes, universities & education centers, sports and amusement facilities, theaters, assembly halls & exhibition centers, and commercial facilities such as shopping centers, will all be asked to close from Saturday. 

Restaurants will still be allowed to operate between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. local time, but will be asked to stop service of alcohol after 7 p.m. 

The government of Tokyo says it will provide additional financial aid to the businesses. Businesses with one store will receive $4,600 USD (about 500,000 Japanese Yen) while businesses with more than two stores will receive $9,200 USD (1M Japanese Yen). No time frame yet has been announced on when those payments will start.

Tokyo was scheduled to host the Olympics this summer, but the Games have been postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic.

Singapore has announced the suspension of Zoom for in home-based learning after a security breach was found, the Ministry of Education said in a statement Friday.

Aaron Loh, divisional director of the Educational Technology Division, said the ministry has been made aware of a number of "very serious incidents" involving the use of Zoom, and has decided to suspend the software to ensure online security.

Zoom said in a statement it was "deeply upset" to learn about the security breaches and added it has recently changed its settings to increase online security. 

"Zoom is committed to providing educators with the tools and resources they need on a safe and secure platform, and we are continuing to engage with all of our users on how they can best use Zoom and protect their meetings," according to the statement.

Earlier this month, Singapore moved to home-based learning across all levels of schooling to combat the spread of the virus.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says the military is sending another 300 medical personnel to help New York City hospitals. 

Appearing on CBS “This Morning” Esper said, "we've deployed to 11 New York City hospitals 350 doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists and today we will be deploying another 300 to help those local hospital workers who've been struggling mightily to keep on top of the (coronavirus) cases help them out provide them some additional relief from the Department of Defense".

CNN reported earlier this week that DoD would be “flooding the area with medical teams.” 

The Pentagon said Tuesday that 325 military medical personnel have arrived in New York and would start embedding in 11 public hospitals on Wednesday.

The deployment of military medical personnel directly to hospitals represents a recent change in tactics for the Defense Department. At first the military wanted to transfer equipment to the civilians and stay largely out of the way. Then it agreed to do overflow and non-coronavirus patients, then coronavirus overflow and now hundreds of military doctors are surging on the frontlines in New York-area hospitals.  

The state of New York has more cases than any other country in the world, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

New York is reporting 161,807 coronavirus cases according to a tally by JHU.  

Spain (No. 2), the country with the second most coronavirus cases behind the US, has 157,022 cases. Italy (No. 3) is reporting 143,626 cases. France (No. 4) and Germany (No. 5) are both reporting more than 118,000 cases, according to tallies by JHU. 

At least 50 Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees have died from coronavirus, MTA Chair and CEO Pat Foye said in a radio interview on WBCS 880 this morning. 

At least 5,200 of 25,000 MTA employees are under quarantine — down from 6,000 as previously reported by the MTA, he said.

Nearly 1,900 employees have tested positive for Covid-18, up from 1,571 people, as previously reported. 

Ridership continues to decline, Foye said. As of Thursday, New York City subway ridership is down 93%, Long Island Rail Road is down 93% and Metro North is down 95%.

Bridge and tunnel traffic is down by about two-thirds.

The largest known concentration of coronavirus cases outside of hospitals is in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, where at least 276 detainees and 172 staff members have tested positive for the virus. 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says that while the jurisdiction of the jail doesn’t fall under the city, but with the county, Chicago officials have been providing public health assistance. 

"First and foremost, no one should be locked up if they're not a danger to the community or flight risk and certainly not because they can't afford to pay bail," Lightfoot said. "But what we have been doing is giving guidance to the sheriff about decompressing the dorm-like setting that exists in the jail." 

Lightfoot also addressed racial disparity among those affected by the virus. About 70% of the deaths in Chicago have been in the African-American community, according to the city's Department of Health.  

"We put together a racial equity rapid response team that is a compendium of public health experts, medical doctors, social workers nurses, and street outreach folks, folks normally out there trying to interrupt violence but have deep roots and connection into these neighborhoods," she said. 

Lightfoot encourages finding local, credible sources to get updates on the coronavirus, slamming President Trump’s remarks on the pandemic. 

"What we have seen coming out of the President's mouth and his daily press conferences is a series of half-truths, myths, it is not grounded in facts or science," she said. "And it is terrible because the President of the United States has the loudest megaphone in the world and people want to be relying upon the things he says or does, but unfortunately, you can't do that with this President."

Lightfoot said residents should stay home while celebrating Easter and Passover, even as the city starts to see a flattening of the curve.

"This is deadly serious. And you can express your faith in lots of different ways, but it can’t be by congregating," she said.

Spain's health minister warned that the country is not in a "de-escalation phase" even as his government prepares measures to slowly end the current movement restrictions in place to tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A reduced number of so called "non-essential" workers who have been off for two weeks, from certain sectors, such as construction, will be allowed return to work on Monday. Trains and other public transport will slowly start ramping up their operation, but the health minister called on all those who could, to continue working from home.

Those returning to work on Monday will have to follow strict social distancing rules, Illa said.

“It is very important to maintain a social distance of a minimum of one meter, preferably of two meters, during your commute to work,” he said, adding the same measures need to be guaranteed in work places and any “business that is open to the public.”

 Illa went on to say that Spain has been able to “slow down the pandemic," reducing the rate of infection and the climb in the number of deaths due to Covid-19.

“The data shows that we are meeting our objectives, but we remain in an important phase of the pandemic,” he said, warning that contagion is still taking place and new cases continue to be diagnosed.