COVID-19)Novel Coronavirus Update 060700APR20
Online John Hopkins CSSE Coronavirus Dashboard
WHO Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) website
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Novel coronavirus in China page
The number of cases worldwide continues to climb. According to health officials, there have been 1,277,962 confirmed cases of COVID-19. More than 264,439 people have recovered, and 69,555 people have died. The pandemic has spread across 184 countries.
LOUISIANA
Please go to http://ldh.la.gov/Coronavirus/ for official information on Positive Test Results and locations. It is updated 12 noon daily. LDH officials’ latest report: As of last report there are 61 of 64 parishes reporting with 13,010 cases of COVID-19 and 477 deaths across the state.
Reported COVID-19 Patients in Hospitals 1,803; 561 of those on ventilators
4,368 Tests Completed by State Lab; 55,957 Commercial Tests Completed
SEE ATTACHED SPREADSHEET FOR LATEST PARISH INFO UPDATE WILL BE AT NOON TODAY
NATIONAL
In the U.S., President Trump says this will be the “toughest week” yet of the coronavirus crisis with a national death toll now nearing 10,000. Additionally, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams stated: “This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized.” The U.S. currently has 337, 646 cases with the outbreak growing into thousands of new cases each hour. The White House announced Sunday that at least 1.6 million people in the United States have been tested for COVID-19 and been given results. With the vast majority of the U.S. under stay-at-home orders, President Trump says the mass-testing considered vital to understanding and battling the spread of COVID-19 has ramped up dramatically, with more than 1.6 million tests conducted to date. But as top U.S. epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci warned over the weekend, even when all the sacrifices start to pay off and new infection rates begin to come down, the death toll will still be catching up.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued a new directive requiring anyone on DoD property, installations, or facilities to wear a cloth face covering when they cannot maintain six feet of social distance in public area or work centers.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday there are 114 cruise ships, carrying 93,000 crew members, either in or near U.S. ports and waters. This includes 73 cruise ships, with 52,000 crew members, moored or anchored in U.S. ports and anchorages. Another 41 cruise ships, with 41,000 crew members, are underway and still in vicinity of the United States.
Over the last 24 hours, the federal government has delivered an additional 500 ventilators to New Jersey, 200 to Louisiana, 300 to Michigan, 600 to Illinois, and 100 to Massachusetts.
TEXAS – In the Houston Metro area, the number of cases climbs to 2,435 with 39 deaths, with 349 recoveries. In a news briefing Sunday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city’s parks would begin taking down volleyball nets Monday to encourage social distancing in amid the coronavirus outbreak. Turner also added he has redirected more of the city’s employees to monitor parks and ensure visitors are engaging in social distancing. Mayor Sylvester Turner asked Houstonians, wherever they may be, to collectively stop and observe a moment of silence or say a prayer at noon on Thursday, Apr. 9.
MICHIGAN – Hydroxychloroquine will be used in a trial of 3,000 patients at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and the results will be tracked in a formal study and the White House added that they are “more than prepared” to make hydroxychloroquine available to doctor’s offices and pharmacies in the Detroit area “as they deem appropriate.” An official of the Supply Chain Logistics Task Force said that the government is working to put out millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine into areas with increasing numbers of coronavirus cases.
FLORIDA – A third passenger from the Coral Princess cruise ship, docked in Port Miami, Florida, has died after being transported by a private ambulance to a hospital in Hialeah, according to a press release from Miami-Dade County. The passenger, who was left off an initial emergency evacuation plan, died Saturday night, hours after being evacuated from the ship. Miami-Dade County’s Jackson hospital system sent a team to assess severely ill Coral Princess passengers, and county paramedics were dispatched to the port to assist. By Sunday evening, at least seven additional passengers were transported from the Coral Princess to local hospitals. Information on the conditions of those patients is not known.
WASHINGTON STATE – Washington state is sending 400 ventilators back to the federal government’s stockpile to be redistributed to other states that need them more.
NEW YORK – On Monday, the federal government will deliver 600,000 N95 masks to New York, NY. Meanwhile, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials stated that VA hospitals are starting to make beds available to increase the capacity for coronavirus patients, including 100 beds in New York. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 over the past few days has been dropping “for the first time,” according to the Governor of New York during a press conference Sunday. New York has a total of 122,031 cases of COVID-19 across the state as of Sunday, April 5. There are 4,159 deaths in state as of Sunday, which is up from 3,565 the day before. There were also 575 new hospitalizations across the state as of Sunday, April 5. Of those hospitalized for COVID-19, 74 percent have been discharged, Cuomo said.
MASSACHUSETTS – Additionally, the Governor of Massachusetts announced Friday that the state government is establishing a COVID-19 community tracing collaborative with a nonprofit that will begin operating at the end of the month. The governor said Massachusetts is the first state in the country to create such a tracking program, which will be staffed by roughly 1,000 people who will contact patients to check on their recent activities and confirm they have not spread the highly infectious illness. “The call center will get contact information for as many people as possible that they have come in contact with and potentially exposed,” the governor said. “People will be contacted and informed so that they can stay healthy, isolate when appropriate and prevent further spread,” he said.
The CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately. This Domestic Travel Advisory does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply. These employees of critical infrastructure, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security (https://www.cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-critical-infrastructure-workforceexternal icon) have a special responsibility to maintain normal work schedule. The Governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will have full discretion to implement this Domestic Travel Advisory.
The US State Department has issued a “Do Not Travel” health advisory. The Department of State advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19. In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period. U.S. citizens who live abroad should avoid all international travel.
INTERNATIONAL
In Italy, further signs of hope in the coronavirus outbreak as the daily death toll was at its lowest in more than two weeks and its infection curve was finally on a downward slope. Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s Civil Protection agency on Sunday, said there were 525 deaths in the 24-hour period since Saturday evening. That’s the lowest such figure in the country since 427 deaths were registered on March 19. Italy now has a total of 15,887 deaths and nearly 129,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. A day shy of one month under a national lockdown that the Italian government ordered, the lower count of day-to-day deaths brought some encouragement. The number of intensive care unit beds occupied by COVID-19 patients has also showed a decrease in the last few days, including in northern Lombardy, Italy’s most stricken region. Borrelli also noted with a measure of satisfaction that the number of those hospitalized but not in ICU beds also has decreased. Italy recorded 4,316 new cases Sunday. Earlier in the outbreak, daily increases in caseloads topped the 6,000 mark. “The curve, which had been plateauing for days, is starting to descend,″ national health official Silvio Brusaferro told reporters, referring to graphs indicating daily numbers of confirmed cases. But Borrelli warned: “This good news shouldn’t make us drop our guard.”
In Spain, another 674 people have died of coronavirus in the past day, the lowest daily rise in percentage terms since early March. The country has now seen 12,641 deaths from its devastating outbreak, the most anywhere in the world apart from Italy. But the evidence strongly suggests that the nation is through the worst of the pandemic, with the pace of new cases and deaths decelerating. The Health Ministry’s data shows there are now 131,646 cases, an increase of 1,488 from Saturday – but also the smallest daily rise since March 17. The rise in the number of new cases has been declining in percentage terms since March 24. However, there was an uptick of 329 in the number of people admitted to intensive care units since the pandemic began – compared to Saturday’s number of 116. The ministry also reported that 38,080 have now recovered from the virus – nearly 4,000 more than the number reported Saturday. For the first time since statistics were made available the daily increase in active cases was under 2%.
In the UK, Queen Elizabeth II addressed the nation Sunday in a rare televised speech and called for unity amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it,” the Queen said. “I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge.” Speaking in a pre-recorded video shot at Windsor Castle, the Queen also thanked frontline staff at the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, careers and others carrying out essential roles. “The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children,” she said. The Queen concluded by again calling for unity saying, “we will succeed.” “This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed — and that success will belong to every one of us,” the Queen said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to the hospital for tests, Downing Street said Sunday, after days of coronavirus symptoms. “On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, adding that the tests were part of a “precautionary step” due to Johnson’s lingering symptoms. The U.K. has 48,440 cases and 4,934 associated deaths due to COVID-19.
In South Africa, the British government announced that they will be working in partnership with Virgin Atlantic Airlines to operate repatriation flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town for British travelers currently stranded in South Africa as a result of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The special charter flights from South Africa to the UK are scheduled to begin from Thursday, April 9. Individuals wishing to utilize the repatriation flights from Johannesburg should book their tickets on the CTM website. Tickets for repatriation flights from Cape Town can be booked here. On Monday, March 23, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country will implement a nationwide 21-day lockdown from midnight (local time) on Thursday, March 26, until midnight on Thursday, April 16, to curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Individuals will still be permitted to buy food, seek medical care, and collect social grants. Emergency responders, health workers, and security services staff are exempted from the lockdown measures. All businesses will be closed except for supermarkets, pharmacies, laboratories, banks, petrol stations, health-care providers, and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In addition, nearly 20,000 police and soldiers have been deployed to maintain order and ensure that people are respecting lockdown measures. Security forces have reportedly resorted to using rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse crowds in Cape Town and Johannesburg to enforce the lockdown. As of Sunday, April 5, South Africa’s Department of Health has confirmed 1655 COVID-19 cases, including 11 related fatalities.
KBR’s Crisis Management Team will continue to diligently monitor the situation with a Zero Harm mentality focused on our employees, colleagues, and families. Additionally, KBR sites/personnel/travelers located in the impacted areas will continue to follow the guidance of public health officials and utilize appropriate health precautions.
In India, BMC has declared Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai a containment zone after 26 nurses and three doctors tested positive for Covid-19 over a week. Nobody would be allowed to enter or leave the Mumbai Central hospital till everyone in it tests negative twice consecutively, a civic official said. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said a team has been set up under the executive health officer to probe how infection spread among so many in a hospital setting. Total confirmed cases in India have risen to 4,067 with the highest number of cases in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
In Australia, the national government is intent on building what it has called “a bridge to recovery on the other side” of the health crisis through an unprecedented wage subsidy scheme that will buy jobs for 6 million people at a cost of 130 billion Australia dollars ($78 billion) over the next six months. Dubbed variously “enormous,” “absolutely necessary,” a “confidence-booster” and an “extraordinary incentive” by leading economists, the so-called JobKeeper scheme is the third and most wide-ranging antivirus rescue package unveiled so far by the conservative Liberal-National coalition government led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The total value of government support, including funding from the central Reserve Bank of Australia, is now about A$320 billion, or 16% of gross domestic product, massive amount for the country of 25 million residents. The package also puts a focus on the challenges countries face in weighing what governments can afford to roll out in order to save their national economies from sliding into a deep economic crisis.
Essentially, the JobKeeper program will pay A$1,500 a fortnight (equal to 70% of the national median wage) per employee to businesses for the next six months so they can keep full-time, part-time and long-term casual workers on their books, ready to work again when the crisis passes and the economy starts to pick up. About 300,000 businesses already have registered to take advantage of it, including large numbers of self-employed individuals who own and run their business. Australia currently has 5797 confirmed cases.
CDC recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to the following destinations. Most foreign nationals who have been in one of these countries during the previous 14 days will not be allowed to enter the United States.
- China
- Iran
- Most European Countries
- United Kingdom and Ireland
- CDC recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to all global destinations: Global Pandemic Notice
CDC recommends that older adults or those who have chronic medical conditions consider postponing travel to the following destinations: Global Outbreak Notice (Level 2 Travel Health Notice)
BUREN R. (Ric) MOORE, SGM (R)
GOHSEP Intelligence Officer
Louisiana State Analytical & Fusion Exchange (LA-SAFE) Liaison
Office: 225.925.3674
Cell: 225.936.0404
In the case of terrorism, to wait for an indication of crime before investigating it is to wait too long. There is no guarantee of success, but there has to be a guarantee of effort. Let’s make it hard to hurt us. If you see something suspicious, report it.
