As the number of infections has grown to more than 1.1 million worldwide, health care systems are straining under the surge of patients and lack of medical equipment like ventilators, protective masks and gloves. All of which has heightened concerns about the exposure of hospital personnel.
In the U.S., governors are describing in stark terms the dog-eat-dog global marketplace they must navigate for the protective gear doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers need as they brace for an expected wave of patients afflicted with severe cases of the new coronavirus.
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As the number of infections has grown to more than 1.1 million worldwide, health care systems are straining under the surge of patients and lack of medical equipment like ventilators, protective masks and gloves. All of which has heightened concerns about the exposure of hospital personnel.
Here are some of AP’s top stories Saturday on the pandemic. Follow APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for updates through the day and APNews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak for stories explaining some of its complexities.
—South Korea has extended government guidelines urging people to social distance to slow the spread of the coronavirus for two weeks as infections continue to grow in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area. Prime Minster Chung Sye-kyun says rising infections are linked to recent arrivals amid broadening outbreaks in Europe and the U.S.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
One of the best ways to prevent spread of the virus is washing your hands with soap and water. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends first washing with warm or cold water and then lathering soap for 20 seconds to get it on the backs of hands, between fingers and under fingernails before rinsing off.
Drill down and zoom in at the individual county level, and you can access numbers that will show you the situation where you are, and where loved ones or people you’re worried about live.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
workers move a coffin with the body of a victim of coronavirus as others coffins are stored waiting for burial or cremation at the Collserola morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoEmilio Morenatti)
Law enforcement officers close Howard Street to vehicular traffic as activists protest outside Moscone Center on Friday, April 3, 2020, in San Francisco. (AP PhotoBen Margot)
Vanderbilt playground in Brooklyn's Prospect Park is closed on Thursday, April 2, 2020, in New York. On Wenesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all of New York city's playgrounds shut to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The governor followed calls from public-health experts and many City Council members to shut the playgrounds as families gathered there. But the closures presented a new challenge for families weathering a lockdown that also closed schools. (AP PhotoKathy Willens)
U.S. medical experts estimate the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could reach 240,000 nationwide. The question of where to put the bodies is worrying just about everyone as cities, hospitals and private medical groups clamor to secure additional storage.
People jog and walk on a Paris street along the Seine river during a nationwide confinement to counter the Covid-19, Saturday, April 4, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)
Here are some of AP’s top stories Saturday on the pandemic. Follow APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for updates through the day and APNews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak for stories explaining some of its complexities.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY:
—The president of the United Nations General Assembly says the 193-member world body will make a decision “in the coming month” on whether to delay the annual gathering of world leaders in New York in late September because of the coronavirus pandemic.
People jogs an walk on a Paris street along the Seine river during a nationwide confinement to counter the Covid-19, Saturday, April 4, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)
—South Korea has extended government guidelines urging people to social distance to slow the spread of the coronavirus for two weeks as infections continue to grow in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area. Prime Minster Chung Sye-kyun says rising infections are linked to recent arrivals amid broadening outbreaks in Europe and the U.S.
—America’s armed services are struggling to get new recruits as families and communities hunker down. Recruiters scrounging for recruits online are often finding people too consumed with their own financial and health care worries to consider a military commitment right now.
—The coronavirus pandemic could narrow one gaping inequality in Africa, where some heads of state and other elite jet off to Europe or Asia for health care unavailable in their nations. As countries including their own impose dramatic travel restrictions, they might have to take their chances at home.
A man crosses an empty street during a nationwide confinement to counter the Covid-19, in Paris, Saturday, April 4, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
Here are the symptoms of the virus compared with the common flu.
A man crosses a bridge during a nationwide confinement to counter the Covid-19, in Paris, Saturday, April 4, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)
One of the best ways to prevent spread of the virus is washing your hands with soap and water. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends first washing with warm or cold water and then lathering soap for 20 seconds to get it on the backs of hands, between fingers and under fingernails before rinsing off.
You should wash your phone, too. Here’s how.
TRACKING THE VIRUS:
Relatives of Rafael Catalan Villasanti, 83, react during his burial during the coronavirus outbreak at the Carabanchel cemetery in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, April 4, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoManu Fernandez)
Drill down and zoom in at the individual county level, and you can access numbers that will show you the situation where you are, and where loved ones or people you’re worried about live.
ONE NUMBER:
4,000: Britain is temporarily releasing about 4,000 inmates to ease crowding and try to slow the spread of the new coronavirus in prisons.
Coffins with the bodies of victims of coronavirus are stored waiting for burial or cremation at the Collserola morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoEmilio Morenatti)
IN OTHER NEWS:
— BODIES OVERWHELM SPAIN: With the death toll climbing to nearly 12,000, an ice rink in Madrid was turned into a makeshift morgue after the city’s municipal funeral service said it could no longer take coronavirus bodies until it was restocked with protective equipment.
— SAYING GOODBYE AT A DISTANCE: Funeral homes across the U.S. are restricting the number of mourners at services. Many families find it hard to choose which loved ones will be invited to the in-person gathering and which will be relegated to watch via livestream, if at all.
Medical personnel remove their personal protective equipment after delivering a bodies from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center to refrigerated containers parked outside, Thursday, April 2, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. As coronavirus hot spots and death tolls flared around the U.S., the nation's biggest city was the hardest hit of the all, with bodies loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks by gurney and forklift outside overwhelmed hospitals, in full view of passing motorists. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)
Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Medical personnel wearing personal protective equipment remove bodies from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center Thursday, April 2, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. As coronavirus hot spots and death tolls flared around the U.S., the nation's biggest city was the hardest hit of the all, with bodies loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks by gurney and forklift outside overwhelmed hospitals, in full view of passing motorists. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)
workers move a coffin with the body of a victim of coronavirus as others coffins are stored waiting for burial or cremation at the Collserola morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP PhotoEmilio Morenatti)
Law enforcement officers close Howard Street to vehicular traffic as activists protest outside Moscone Center on Friday, April 3, 2020, in San Francisco. (AP PhotoBen Margot)
Vanderbilt playground in Brooklyn's Prospect Park is closed on Thursday, April 2, 2020, in New York. On Wenesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all of New York city's playgrounds shut to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The governor followed calls from public-health experts and many City Council members to shut the playgrounds as families gathered there. But the closures presented a new challenge for families weathering a lockdown that also closed schools. (AP PhotoKathy Willens)