COVID-19 News from Around the Web

A week after unveiling a stunning projection for the number of people who would die from coronavirus in the US -- 100,000 to 240,000 -- White House officials have yet to fully explain how they arrived at those numbers. Some administration officials are now saying the number could be lower than they originally warned -- but it comes as there are continued questions about how the administration got to the high number. The final number could end up being higher or lower than the dramatic estimates released one week ago in a briefing by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, according to federal health officials and researchers who are creating models to forecast the outbreak.

“They’ve been wrong about a lot of things,” Trump said. “We’re going to put a hold on money [sent] to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it.” Later in the briefing, Trump said his announcement was not a decision to end all U.S. funding for the agency, but rather a chance to give his administration the chance to “look at it.” The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. has provided the agency with $893 million during the agency’s current two-year funding period, which includes about $236 million in dues. That funding accounts for about 14.67% of the WHO’s total funding, according to the organization’s website.

Despite federal health recommendations, thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in long lines outside overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday so they could participate in a presidential primary election that tested the limits of electoral politics in the midst of a pandemic. Thousands more stayed home, unwilling to risk their health even as Republican officials pushed forward with the election amid a stay-at-home order.

China has ended its lockdown of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, as the city reemerges from a deadly outbreak that is now raging across the globe. But even as Wuhan reopens its borders after 76 days, some restrictions within the city will remain in place, and officials warn that the threat of further infections remains far from over. The metropolis of 11 million, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, had been sealed off from the outside world since January 23 in an unprecedented effort to contain the outbreak.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent the night in the intensive care unit of a London hospital with the new coronavirus, but is not on a ventilator, a senior government minister said Tuesday, as pressure grew on the government to release more details of Johnson’s condition. Johnson was admitted to St. Thomas’ Hospital late Sunday, 10 days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, the first major world leader to be confirmed to have the virus. He was moved to the ICU Monday after his condition deteriorated.

The virus killed 1,264 over 24 hours in the U.S. as of 2:05 am ET on Tuesday, according to NBC New's tracker. A total of 10,906 have been recorded killed by COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said on Monday he was "cautiously optimistic" that the worst projections could be avoided "if we keep our foot on the accelerator" — referring to social distancing policies in force throughout much of the country.

Mainland China reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since the pandemic began, and a drop in new cases, a day before the central city of Wuhan, where the virus emerged late in December, is set to lift its lockdown. China had 32 new infections by Monday, down from 39 a day earlier. For the first time since the commission began publishing nationwide data in late January, Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan saw no new deaths, joining the rest of mainland China, which has recorded none since March 31. Wuhan, a city of 11 million that reported only two new infections in the past fortnight is due to allow residents to leave the city on Wednesday, for the first time since it was locked down on Jan. 23 to curb the spread of the virus.

Wisconsin's primary will go forward Tuesday, with polling places opening for in-person voting and absentee ballots required to be postmarked by Election Day, after courts halted Democratic efforts to delay the primary and extend the deadline for ballots to be returned by mail. The state Supreme Court on Monday evening blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' executive order signed Monday to delay the primary until June. Shortly afterward, the US Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that had given voters six more days to turn in their absentee ballots -- ruling that only those postmarked by Tuesday and arriving by April 13 be counted. Of nearly 1.3 million absentee ballots requested, about 550,000 had not yet been returned as of Monday morning.

President Trump and his advisers said during Sunday’s White House briefing that parts of the country are nearing a peak in cases of the novel coronavirus, suggesting the hard weeks ahead could foretell the turning of a corner. “We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel,” Trump claimed at a White House briefing. This came just hours after U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams warned that the coming week could be a national catastrophe comparable to Pearl Harbor or the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Covid-19 deaths countrywide have pushed past 9,500, but experts say the true count is certainly higher.

Three out of four U.S. hospitals surveyed are already treating patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, according to a federal report that finds hospitals expect to be overwhelmed as cases rocket toward their projected peak. A report due out Monday from a federal watchdog agency warns that different, widely reported problems are feeding off each other in a vicious cycle. Such problems include insufficient tests, slow results, scarcity of protective gear, the shortage of breathing machines for seriously ill patients and burned-out staffs anxious for their own safety. “There’s this sort of domino effect,” said Ann Maxwell, an assistant inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services. “These challenges play off each other and exacerbate the situation. There’s a cascade effect.” The inspector general’s report is based on a telephone survey of 323 hospitals around the country, from March 23-27. With hundreds of new coronavirus cases daily, the situation is becoming more dire for many the nation’s 6,000 hospitals. Others can still scramble to prepare. “Hospitals reported that their most significant challenges centered on testing and caring for patients with known or suspected COVID-19, and keeping staff safe,” the report concluded.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to a hospital because of “persistent” coronavirus symptoms, a spokesman confirmed Sunday. Johnson tested positive for the virus 10 days ago and had been self-isolating at his official residence. He hospitalized overnight in what his office described as a “precautionary step” after persistent symptoms. The 55-year-old Conservative leader, who had a fever for days, is the first known head of government to fall ill with the disease.

Yet Britain’s outbreak was headed in the opposite direction as the country reported more than 600 deaths Sunday, surpassing Italy’s daily increase for the second day in a row. Lacking enough for protective gear against the virus, British doctors and nurses were using goggles from school science classes, holding their breath when close to patients and repeatedly reusing single-use masks, Dr. Rinesh Parmar, head of Doctors’ Association UK, told Sky News.

Queen Elizabeth II made a rare televised address on Sunday, appealing to Britons to rise to the occasion, while acknowledging enormous disruptions, grief and financial difficulties they are facing. “I hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” the 93-year-old monarch said. “And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.”

The first known infection in an animal in the U.S. Other tigers and lions have become sick. Nadia, the 4-year-old Malayan tiger that tested positive, was screened for the COVID-19 disease after developing a dry cough along with three other tigers and three lions, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, said in a statement. All of the cats are expected to recover, it said. The virus that causes COVID-19 is believed to have spread from animals to humans, and a handful of animals have tested positive in Hong Kong. But officials believe this is a unique case because Nadia became sick after exposure to an asymptomatic zoo employee, Paul Calle, chief veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo, told Reuters. Calle said they did not know which employee infected the tiger.

More than a million cases of coronavirus have been registered globally, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University - another grim milestone as the world grapples with the spreading pandemic. Nearly 53,000 people have died and more than 210,000 have recovered, according to the US university's figures. The US has the most cases, and more than 1,000 died there in the past day. The disease, Covid-19, first emerged in central China three months ago. Though the tally kept by Johns Hopkins records one million confirmed cases, the actual number is thought to be much higher.

The Trump administration is formalizing new guidance to recommend that many Americans wear face coverings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, as the president is aggressively defending his response to the public health crisis. The recommendations, still being finalized Thursday, were expected to apply to those who live in areas hard-hit by community transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19. A person familiar with the White House coronavirus task force’s discussion said officials would suggest that non-medical masks, T-shirts or bandannas be used to cover the nose and mouth when outside the home — for instance, at the grocery store or pharmacy. Medical-grade masks, particularly short-in-supply N95 masks, would be reserved for those dealing directly with the sick.