AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Lockdowns multiply globally as virus strains health systems
Major streets and highways were deserted in many parts of the world Saturday as curfews and lockdowns multiplied in the face of a rapidly advancing virus that is severely straining many health systems.
Three American states with a combined population of 70 million are moving to restrict residents to their homes. California started Friday and New York and Illinois were to follow this weekend. Connecticut and Oregon were preparing to do the same.
Once bustling outdoor plazas fell quiet in Bavaria after it became the first German state to tell people to stay home, except to go to work, buy food, visit the doctor or exercise. Colombia became the latest South American country to announce a lockdown, and Sri Lanka closed all expressways for a weekend curfew.
With hospitals already under pressure, officials in many countries are desperate to prevent - or at least limit - a repeat of what has happened in China and southern Europe. The coronavirus outbreak overwhelmed medical services in the central Chinese city of Wuhan earlier this year and now is pushing them to the limit in Italy and Spain. Britain has asked 65,000 retired nurses and doctors to return to work.
More than 275,000 cases have been confirmed globally, including more than 11,000 deaths, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. At least 88,000 have recovered.
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Imports of medical supplies plummet as demand in US soars
The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The Associated Press has found.
Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics in the U.S. have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks.
The United States counts on receiving the vast majority of its medical supplies from China, where the coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,200. When Chinese medical supply factories began coming back on line last month, their first priority was their own hospitals.
The government required makers of N95 masks to sell all or part of their production internally instead of shipping masks to the U.S.
The most recent delivery of medical-grade N95 masks arrived from China about a month ago, on Feb. 19. And as few as 13 shipments of non-medical N95 masks have arrived in the past month - half as many as arrived the same month last year. N95 masks are used in industrial settings, as well as hospitals, and filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.
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Trump keeps talking during market hours; stocks keep tanking
WASHINGTON (AP) - When President Donald Trump speaks, financial markets gyrate and quiver in real time.
But that hasn't stopped the president from holding forth almost daily about the coronavirus pandemic and its economic implications without waiting until markets have closed for the day.
While many of his predecessors worked consciously to not affect the markets, Trump has overtly made market movements and performance a measure of his effectiveness and central to his argument for a second term.
Earlier this week, public health officials announced a surge of infections in the U.S. as leading economists predicted unemployment spiking to 10% or more. Trump, meanwhile, took the White House podium in the middle of the trading day to offer an optimistic take on his administration's response to the crisis.
'œOne of the elements that is being worked on very much so on the Hill is to keep the jobs going so that when we do get rid of the virus, we're going to be able to just really...go like a rocket,'ť said Trump on Thursday as at the market spiked more than 300 points, then dove into negative territory and then inched back into positive territory over the course of his 77-minute press conference. 'œI think the economy is going to be fantastic.'ť
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Congress toils on $1 trillion rescue, Trump unleashes fury
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Negotiators from Congress and the White House, narrowing differences on a sweeping $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package, were set to resume top-level talks Saturday after President Donald Trump unleashed fury on those questioning his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
It was an extraordinary moment in Washington: Congress undertaking the most ambitious federal effort yet to shore up households and the U.S. economy and an angry president lashing out at all comers. All while the global pandemic and its nationwide shutdown grip an anxious, isolated population bracing for a healthcare crisis and looming recession.
When one reporter asked Trump what he would tell a worried nation, the president snapped, 'œI say that you're a terrible reporter.'ť
Despite the enormous pressure on Washington to swiftly act, the challenges are apparent. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers and administration officials labored late into the evening over eye-popping sums and striking federal interventions, surpassing even the 2008-09 bank bailout and stimulus.
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Trump vs Fauci: President and doctor spar over unproven drug
WASHINGTON (AP) - In an extraordinary exchange, President Donald Trump and the government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, publicly sparred Friday on whether a malaria drug would work to treat people with coronavirus disease.
The scene played out on national television during the daily White House briefing on the outbreak. Anxious for answers, Americans heard conflicting ones from a just-the-facts scientist and a president who operates on gut instinct.
Reporters asked both men - first Fauci then Trump - if a malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine could be used to prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. A day earlier, when Fauci wasn't with him at that briefing, Trump had called attention to the drug.
On Friday, Fauci took the reporter's question and got right to the point.
'œNo,'ť he said. 'œThe answer ... is no.
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Singer, actor, 'The Gambler': Kenny Rogers dies at 81
Actor-singer Kenny Rogers, the smooth, Grammy-winning balladeer who spanned jazz, folk, country and pop with such hits as 'œLucille,'ť 'œLady'ť and 'œIslands in the Stream'ť and embraced his persona as 'œThe Gambler'ť on record and on TV died Friday night. He was 81.
He died at home in Sandy Springs, Georgia, representative Keith Hagan told The Associated Press. He was under hospice care and died of natural causes, Hagan said.
The Houston-born performer with the husky voice and silver beard sold tens of millions of records, won three Grammys and was the star of TV movies based on 'œThe Gambler'ť and other songs, making him a superstar in the '~70s and '80s. Rogers thrived for some 60 years before retired from touring in 2017 at age 79. Despite his crossover success, he always preferred to be thought of as a country singer.
'œYou either do what everyone else is doing and you do it better, or you do what no one else is doing and you don't invite comparison,'ť Rogers told The Associated Press in 2015. 'œAnd I chose that way because I could never be better than Johnny Cash or Willie or Waylon at what they did. So I found something that I could do that didn't invite comparison to them. And I think people thought it was my desire to change country music. But that was never my issue.'ť
'œKenny was one of those artists who transcended beyond one format and geographic borders,'ť says Sarah Trahern, chief executive officer of the Country Music Association. 'œHe was a global superstar who helped introduce country music to audiences all around the world."
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China, on virus PR offensive, sends masks and experts abroad
BEIJING (AP) - As the fight against a new virus shifts to Europe and beyond, China is supplying millions of masks and other desperately needed items to struggling governments, hoping to build political ties and defuse criticism that it allowed the disease to spread early on.
Serbia's president plans to be at the airport this weekend to welcome a shipment of medical supplies from his "brother and friend," Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi's government has flown gloves and protective clothing to Liberia. It is sending 100,000 test kits to the Philippines. More than 10 flights carrying millions of masks and other supplies are bound for the Czech Republic this week.
China, said Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, is 'œthe only country capable of supplying Europe with such amounts.'ť
It's part of an effort by the Communist Party to reshape the narrative, from one of early missteps to a nation that acted decisively to bring the outbreak under control. China is touting its deliveries of ventilators and masks overseas and dispatching its medical experts to share the lessons of its success.
China hopes to benefit from a realization in the West of how difficult it is to bring the virus under control, said Julian Ku, a law professor at Hofstra University in New York.
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US virus testing faces new headwind: Lab supply shortages
WASHINGTON (AP) - First, some of the coronavirus tests didn't work. Then there weren't enough to go around. Now, just as the federal government tries to ramp up nationwide screening, laboratory workers are warning of a new roadblock: dire shortages of testing supplies.
The shortages are the latest stumble in a botched effort to track the spread of coronavirus that has left the U.S. weeks behind many other developed countries. Dwindling supplies include both chemical components and basic swabs needed to collect patient samples.
There are "acute, serious shortages across the board" for supplies needed to do the tests, said Eric Blank, of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local health labs.
Late Friday, Blank's group and two other public health organizations recommended that testing be scaled back due to 'œreal, immediate, wide-scale shortages.'ť The groups said only patients with COVID-19 symptoms who are elderly, have high-risk medical conditions or are medical staff should be tested.
'œTesting for individuals who are not in these three groups is not recommended until sufficient testing supplies and capacity become more widely available,'ť said the joint statement, issued with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
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Endangered gray wolf population on the rise in southwest US
THE EDGE OF THE GILA WILDERNESS, N.M. (AP) - A voice interrupted the crackle of the radio at basecamp: 'œStarting pursuit.'ť
The rest of the team on the ground was anxious to hear those words after the low-flying helicopter crew had been working all morning to get close to one of the Mexican gray wolves that had been targeted as part of an annual survey of the endangered predators.
For months, crews combed the rugged mountains of the southwestern United States, tracking collared wolves and looking for evidence of new packs to build the most accurate picture possible of just how many wolves are roaming the wild in New Mexico and Arizona.
The results of the painstaking effort were finally released Wednesday, revealing there are more wolves in the wild than at any time since federal wildlife managers initiated efforts to conserve the animals decades ago.
Since the first wolves were released in 1998, the program aimed at re-establishing the species across its historic range has had its share of fits and starts due to illegal shootings, courtroom battles and politics. The challenges are mounting as ranchers and rural residents say the situation for them has become untenable as 2019 marked a record year for livestock kills.
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AP Week in Pictures, Global
MARCH 14-20, 2020
This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or
published by the Associated Press around the world.
The gallery was curated by AP photo editor Patrick Sison in New York.
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