April 10 coronavirus news

New York officials say that Hart Island, which for decades has been used as the final resting place for those who died unclaimed, will now also be used for unclaimed coronavirus victims.

"It is likely that people who have passed away from (coronavirus).... will be buried on the island in the coming days," New York City Mayor Press Secretary Freddi Goldstein told CNN.

Drone pictures on Thursday showed bodies being buried on the island.

The move comes as New York continues to respond to its devastating coronavirus outbreak. More than 161,000 cases and 7,067 deaths have been reported in the state, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Hart Island has been used by the city as a public cemetery for over 150 years and is managed by the Department of Corrections. The Hart island burials are mostly people who have been unclaimed at the city's morgue for anywhere from 30 to 60 days, Goldstein said.

Over one million people are interred there. The city is transferring unclaimed bodies to Hart Island to make way for other coronavirus victims whose bodies will be claimed, Goldstein said. New rules from the medical examiner's office say bodies will be taken to the island if they go unclaimed for two weeks.

Only people who have not been claimed by relatives or a loved will be buried there, Goldstein highlighted. Despite the new rule from the medical examiner, Goldstein said as long as morgue officials make contact with a relative within 14 days, they will not be moved to Hart Island.

"These are people who, for two weeks, we have not been able to find anyone who says 'I know that person I love that person I will handle the burial,'" Goldstein said. "These are people who we have made zero contact with the family."

Usually, about 25 people are buried on the island each week, Goldstein said. But since coronavirus began claiming victims in the US, she said there are 25 people buried there each day.

More than half of the coronavirus patients infected with coronavirus in Iran have "recovered," the country’s health ministry spokesperson Kianush Jahanpoor announced on Iranian state television today.

Iran recorded 122 more coronavirus-related deaths in the past day, bringing the total death toll to 4,232, Jahanpoor said.

The spokesman urged the owners and managers of all businesses to fill out a questionnaire from the health ministry to register data on the health of their workers. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday on CNN's "New Day" the idea of Americans carrying certificates of immunity to prove they have tested positive for the antibodies to the coronavirus might "have some merit under certain circumstances." 

 Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Alisyn Camerota immunity certificates are being discussed.

Fauci added that these antibody tests will be important for medical workers and others on the frontline who are fighting the current pandemic.

"If their antibody test is positive, one can formulate strategies about whether or not they would be at risk or vulnerable to getting re-infected. This would be important for health care workers, for first-line fighters," he said.

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says antibody tests, which show who has already been infected with the coronavirus, will be available soon. 

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, said testing of people who currently have the coronavirus and antibody tests will be done in parallel.

Fauci also said the prospect of Americans carrying certificates of immunity to prove they have tested positive for the antibodies to the coronavirus might "have some merit under certain circumstances." Immunity certificates are being discussed in the White House coronavirus task force meetings, Fauci said.

"It's one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not."

Fauci declined to give a concrete date when the US can reopen businesses and begin to relax restrictions. “The virus kind of decides whether or not it's going to be appropriate to open or not,” he said. “I would want to see a clear indication that you are very, very clearly and strongly going in the right direction. Because the one thing you don't want to do is you don't want to get out there prematurely and wind up back in the same situation,” he added.

Fauci said that Americans should still practice social distancing guidelines during Passover and Easter. He predicted there will be many deaths in the next week, but “deaths tend to lag behind what the driving elements of the outbreak are,” and there should be fewer hospitalizations and intubations. 

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “just beginning his recovery” from Covid-19 and continues to be in “very good spirits” after being moved out of the intensive care ward, his official spokesman said Friday.

Johnson will be taking the advice from his medical team, the spokesman said, but will not be going to the Prime Minister’s countryside retreat Chequers.

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will continue to stand in for Johnson, who entered intensive care on Monday and left the unit on Thursday.

The Spanish Government is working to introduce a preliminary version of a universal basic income as soon as possible, to help Spaniards face the economic fallout of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country. 

“This [health] crisis has placed on the table the urgency of a universal basic income, that it is essential and fundamental to guarantee dignity and a minimum purchase power for many Spanish families that are in a desperate situation,” the second deputy Spanish Prime Minister, Pablo Iglesias, said in an interview with national broadcaster TVE on Friday.

“There are people who cannot take advantage of unemployment benefits or furloughs. There are people that have difficulties, today, to go to the supermarket and buy the essential products their family need.”

“It is essential and fundamental to help families that are in a desperate situation,” Iglesias, who is also the Minister for Social Rights, added.

According to reports in Spanish media, this temporary universal basic income would be of around $550 (€500) per month.

Iglesias went on to say it could take a few months to implement a proper universal basic income system in a country such as Spain, which has different benefit systems across each region, so the government in Madrid will put forward plan that will serve as a “bridge” in the meantime. 

“This is an urgent matter that we in government are working on and that we hope we can implement as soon as possible,” Iglesias said. “This ‘bridge’ universal basic income is essential.” 

Spain has previously announced a €200 billion ($216 billion) aid package, amounting to about 20% of the country's GDP, as it tackles the economic impact of its coronavirus outbreak -- the deadliest anywhere in Europe.

The nation registered an increase in unemployment of 302,265 people in March compared to the previous month, according to Spanish Labor Ministry data.

France's flagship aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle has 50 confirmed coronavirus cases on board, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday. 

A medical team arrived on board on April 8, according to the Defense Ministry.

The flagship carrier is in the Atlantic, with an anticipated return to the French city of Toulon on April 23.

If you've been having bizarre dreams during the pandemic, you're not alone.

Those who are sharing their #pandemicdreams on Twitter are either amazed at the peculiarity of their dreams or distressed by plots that center on death, fear and strange new worlds.

"In my dream, I called an Uber, but a hearse showed up instead. Not liking these #pandemicdreams," posted Sarah Schachner on Twitter on March 23.

According to experts, these cryptic responses are normal. Our brains' way of understanding the stressful information we take in during the day can manifest in nightmares.

Or we might dream of past chapters in life that were less stressful.

"This [pandemic] is something that they've never experienced before," said sleep medicine expert Dr. Meir Kryger, professor of pulmonary medicine and clinical professor of nursing at Yale School of Medicine.

"And it's possible that their brains are trying to find a time when things weren't like that. It's like when sometimes people are trying to fall asleep and they can't turn their minds off. They will try to think about a time when things were better."

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Hungary's restrictions on movement have slowed the spread of coronavirus but the "real test" has yet to come, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday in an interview with state broadcaster Kossuth Radio.

According to the Hungarian Government website, "[Orban] said he regards the containment effort as successful in as much as that they have slowed down the spread of the epidemic, and as a result, they have gained time. However, 'the great trial, the real test is yet to come.'" 

"In the context of the epidemic, Mr Orban also said he can see that there are countries which are “already heading towards the exit”; however, in Hungary he 'cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel.'"

Orban said when infections peak in Hungary, the nation will need about 8,000 intensive care beds and ventilators, adding that in "peace time" Hungary has about 2,000 ventilators. 

The populist leader was last week given powers to rule by decree after a vote in Hungary's Parliament, a move criticized by international human rights watchdogs.

Hungary has 1,190 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 77 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.