This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/world/coronavirus-news.html

The article has changed 64 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Coronavirus Live Updates: Most Americans Now Under Orders to Stay Home Coronavirus Live Updates: Crisis Builds From Coast to Coast in U.S. as Death Toll Nears China’s
(32 minutes later)
新冠病毒疫情最新消息新冠病毒疫情最新消息
To fight the pandemic, leaders worldwide are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance. new item here.
Israel’s prime minister has shut down courts and begun an intrusive surveillance of citizens. Chile has sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters. Bolivia has postponed elections. In Hungary, the prime minister can now rule by decree.
In some parts of the world, new emergency laws have revived old fears of martial law. The Philippine Congress passed legislation last week that gave President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers and $5.4 billion to deal with the pandemic. Across Asia, countries that thought they had the coronavirus pandemic under control are now worried that people from outside their borders will import cases and cause a new wave of outbreaks.
Even in robust democracies like Britain, ministers have what a critic called “eye-watering” power to detain people and close borders. Invasive surveillance systems in South Korea and Singapore, which would have invited censure under normal circumstances, have been praised for slowing infections. In a flurry of recent moves, China, Hong Kong and Singapore barred foreigners from entering altogether. Japan has banned visitors from most of Europe, and is considering further bans of travelers from countries including the United States. Last Sunday, South Korea imposed stricter entry controls, requiring incoming travelers from all foreign countries to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Taiwan has also banned foreigners.
Governments and rights groups agree that these extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and many of these actions are protected under international rules, constitutional lawyers say. In China, international flights to the country have been cut back so severely that students abroad wonder when they will ever be able to get home. In Singapore, citizens who have returned to the city-state from overseas receive daily text messages from public health authorities, signaling them to check in from their phones to prove they are sticking to government-ordered quarantines.
But critics say there are few safeguards to ensure that their new authority will not be abused. With large swathes of the globe now grappling to control a pandemic that started in China, countries in Asia are now moving to insulate themselves from outsiders they fear could reintroduce the virus into stabilized environments. They are even treating some of their own citizens almost like criminals — simply for the sin of having traveled abroad in the age of the coronavirus.
“We could have a parallel epidemic of authoritarian and repressive measures following close if not on the heels of a health epidemic,” said Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. “It seems like leaders will sometimes lurch from complacency to an almost panicked lockdown approach,” said Karen Eggleston, director of the Asia health policy program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.
While many states have issued stay-at-home directives to try to slow the virus’s spread — with Maryland, Virginia and Arizona becoming the latest to do so on Monday — in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, had resisted the step, favoring local action over statewide mandates. “It’s not entirely clear which one in the end is going to lead to the greater costs but at this point in the pandemic, when we have exponential growth,” closing borders, she said, “can be the prudent approach.”
But on Monday Mr. DeSantis said that he would sign an order codifying a patchwork of local rules urging residents in the densely-populated southeast corner of the state — including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties — to stay home.
Local Florida governments have taken wildly different approaches to restricting interactions. While the city of Jacksonville shut down its beaches, St. Johns County to the south did not. A striking photo taken over the weekend showed bare beaches on one side of the county line and crowded sand on the other. (St. Johns County later closed its shoreline.)
Roughly three out of four Americans are or will soon be under instructions to stay indoors, as states and localities try to curb the spread of the coronavirus before their hospitals are overwhelmed.
Virginia and Maryland both issued new statewide orders on Monday, and Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, directed his state’s residents to stay home until the end of April.
“We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home — we are directing them to do so,” Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, said.
And in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, ordered all residents to stay home, closing the state’s beaches and campgrounds and insisting that people only go out for food, supplies, work or medical care.
“I want everyone to hear me: Stay home,” Mr. Northam, a Democrat, said.
President Trump on Monday expressed optimism about the federal government’s ability to provide adequate testing for the coronavirus and suggested it would soon be producing so many ventilators, masks and other personal protective equipment that it would be able to send stocks of supplies to other countries.President Trump on Monday expressed optimism about the federal government’s ability to provide adequate testing for the coronavirus and suggested it would soon be producing so many ventilators, masks and other personal protective equipment that it would be able to send stocks of supplies to other countries.
America’s governors painted a different picture on the ground.America’s governors painted a different picture on the ground.
In a conference call with governors on Monday, President Trump said that he “hasn’t heard about testing in weeks,” suggesting that a chronic lack of kits to test people for the coronavirus is no longer a problem. Yet one governor said his state was “one day away” from not being able to test anyone at all.In a conference call with governors on Monday, President Trump said that he “hasn’t heard about testing in weeks,” suggesting that a chronic lack of kits to test people for the coronavirus is no longer a problem. Yet one governor said his state was “one day away” from not being able to test anyone at all.
Hours later, Mr. Trump’s comments at a White House Rose Garden news conference suggested he thought the scarcity of ventilators and other supplies, which has become an emergency in some states, will soon be ending.Hours later, Mr. Trump’s comments at a White House Rose Garden news conference suggested he thought the scarcity of ventilators and other supplies, which has become an emergency in some states, will soon be ending.
But in New York, where the state’s deaths from the coronavirus jumped above 1,200 and a hospital ship arrived to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo warned that the worst of the coronavirus outbreak was yet to come.But in New York, where the state’s deaths from the coronavirus jumped above 1,200 and a hospital ship arrived to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo warned that the worst of the coronavirus outbreak was yet to come.
“You have to prepare before the storm hits. And in this case the storm is when you hit that high point, when you hit that apex,” the governor said. “How do you know when you’re going to get there? You don’t.”“You have to prepare before the storm hits. And in this case the storm is when you hit that high point, when you hit that apex,” the governor said. “How do you know when you’re going to get there? You don’t.”
In Virginia, Maryland and Arizona, governors from both parties issued new stay-home orders for their citizens.In Virginia, Maryland and Arizona, governors from both parties issued new stay-home orders for their citizens.
In Washington, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency approval permitting the use of two long-used malaria drugs to treat coronavirus patients, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said in an interview that it was only a matter of time before Congress would act on a fourth relief measure to try to contain the economic fallout of an outbreak that now sees three of four Americans under orders to stay home.In Washington, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency approval permitting the use of two long-used malaria drugs to treat coronavirus patients, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said in an interview that it was only a matter of time before Congress would act on a fourth relief measure to try to contain the economic fallout of an outbreak that now sees three of four Americans under orders to stay home.
“This isn’t about how fast we can do it,” she said. “It’s how fast we must do it.”“This isn’t about how fast we can do it,” she said. “It’s how fast we must do it.”
And in the nation’s jails, prisoners worried about their health as they wiped down communal phones with prized alcohol wipes and washed down cell bars and table tops with diluted shampoo.And in the nation’s jails, prisoners worried about their health as they wiped down communal phones with prized alcohol wipes and washed down cell bars and table tops with diluted shampoo.
As the videoconferencing platform’s popularity has surged, Zoom has scrambled to address a series of data privacy and security problems.As the videoconferencing platform’s popularity has surged, Zoom has scrambled to address a series of data privacy and security problems.
The videoconferencing app is under scrutiny by the office of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.The videoconferencing app is under scrutiny by the office of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.
On Monday, the office sent Zoom a letter asking what, if any, new security measures the company has put in place to handle increased traffic on its network and to detect hackers, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times.On Monday, the office sent Zoom a letter asking what, if any, new security measures the company has put in place to handle increased traffic on its network and to detect hackers, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times.
While the letter referred to Zoom as “an essential and valuable communications platform,” it outlined several concerns, noting that the company had been slow to address security flaws such as vulnerabilities “that could enable malicious third parties to, among other things, gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams.”While the letter referred to Zoom as “an essential and valuable communications platform,” it outlined several concerns, noting that the company had been slow to address security flaws such as vulnerabilities “that could enable malicious third parties to, among other things, gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams.”
Over the last few weeks, internet trolls have exploited a Zoom screen-sharing feature to hijack meetings and do things like interrupt educational sessions or post white supremacist messages to a webinar on anti-Semitism — a phenomenon called “Zoombombing.”Over the last few weeks, internet trolls have exploited a Zoom screen-sharing feature to hijack meetings and do things like interrupt educational sessions or post white supremacist messages to a webinar on anti-Semitism — a phenomenon called “Zoombombing.”
To fight the pandemic, leaders worldwide are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance.
Israel’s prime minister has shut down courts and begun an intrusive surveillance of citizens. Chile has sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters. Bolivia has postponed elections. In Hungary, the prime minister can now rule by decree.
In some parts of the world, new emergency laws have revived old fears of martial law. The Philippine Congress passed legislation last week that gave President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers and $5.4 billion to deal with the pandemic.
Even in robust democracies like Britain, ministers have what a critic called “eye-watering” power to detain people and close borders. Invasive surveillance systems in South Korea and Singapore, which would have invited censure under normal circumstances, have been praised for slowing infections.
Governments and rights groups agree that these extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and many of these actions are protected under international rules, constitutional lawyers say.
But critics say there are few safeguards to ensure that their new authority will not be abused.
“We could have a parallel epidemic of authoritarian and repressive measures following close if not on the heels of a health epidemic,” said Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights.
The experts keep telling us to plan for this to last for a long time. And with many communities a week or more into being homebound, the novelty is beginning to wear off. Here are some tips to help you fight the burnout you are likely beginning to feel, manage your antsy teenagers, and even freshen up your home to make it better suit your new needs.The experts keep telling us to plan for this to last for a long time. And with many communities a week or more into being homebound, the novelty is beginning to wear off. Here are some tips to help you fight the burnout you are likely beginning to feel, manage your antsy teenagers, and even freshen up your home to make it better suit your new needs.
How could North Korea claim to not have a single coronavirus case while countries ​around the world stagger under the exploding epidemic?How could North Korea claim to not have a single coronavirus case while countries ​around the world stagger under the exploding epidemic?
​North Korea has taken some of the most drastic actions against the virus and did so sooner than most other nations. It sealed its borders in late January, shutting off business with neighboring China, which accounts for nine-tenths of its external trade. It clamped down on the smugglers who keep its thriving unofficial markets functioning. It quarantined all diplomats in Pyongyang for a month. ​The totalitarian state’s singular ability to control the movement of people​ also bolsters its disease-control efforts.​North Korea has taken some of the most drastic actions against the virus and did so sooner than most other nations. It sealed its borders in late January, shutting off business with neighboring China, which accounts for nine-tenths of its external trade. It clamped down on the smugglers who keep its thriving unofficial markets functioning. It quarantined all diplomats in Pyongyang for a month. ​The totalitarian state’s singular ability to control the movement of people​ also bolsters its disease-control efforts.
But decades of isolation and international sanctions have ravaged​ North Korea’s public health system, raising fears that ​it lacks the medical supplies to fight an outbreak, which many fear has already occurred.But decades of isolation and international sanctions have ravaged​ North Korea’s public health system, raising fears that ​it lacks the medical supplies to fight an outbreak, which many fear has already occurred.
“You can see immediately what’s going to happen if you get a surge of Covid-19 patients streaming in,” said Dr. Kee B. Park, ​a ​lecturer at Harvard Medical School who has worked alongside North Korean doctors to help improve the country’s health system. “It will overwhelm the system very quickly.”“You can see immediately what’s going to happen if you get a surge of Covid-19 patients streaming in,” said Dr. Kee B. Park, ​a ​lecturer at Harvard Medical School who has worked alongside North Korean doctors to help improve the country’s health system. “It will overwhelm the system very quickly.”
Austria will require all residents to wear face masks when they shop for groceries starting this week, as a growing number of experts have questioned the prevailing guidance that healthy people don’t need to wear masks.Austria will require all residents to wear face masks when they shop for groceries starting this week, as a growing number of experts have questioned the prevailing guidance that healthy people don’t need to wear masks.
The World Health Organization asserts that masks should only be worn by people who are sick and those who are caring for them, and that there is little data showing that they protect the general public in everyday life. But some experts and government officials say they could offer some protection.The World Health Organization asserts that masks should only be worn by people who are sick and those who are caring for them, and that there is little data showing that they protect the general public in everyday life. But some experts and government officials say they could offer some protection.
The debate over protective masks for healthy citizens has created tensions as protective gear, including N-95 masks, has been in woefully short supply for front-line medical workers, leading officials to try to discourage hoarding and panic-buying by people all over the world.The debate over protective masks for healthy citizens has created tensions as protective gear, including N-95 masks, has been in woefully short supply for front-line medical workers, leading officials to try to discourage hoarding and panic-buying by people all over the world.
At the same time, some places that adopted nearly universal mask-wearing and intensive social distancing early on, like Hong Kong, were able to contain their outbreaks. George Gao, the director-general of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has called not wearing face masks “the big mistake in the U.S. and Europe.”At the same time, some places that adopted nearly universal mask-wearing and intensive social distancing early on, like Hong Kong, were able to contain their outbreaks. George Gao, the director-general of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has called not wearing face masks “the big mistake in the U.S. and Europe.”
Two months after China brought its economy to a near halt to contain the coronavirus, the country’s mighty industrial machine is showing signs of renewed life, according to official sources. So many New Yorkers flocked to the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II to build warships that it was nicknamed the Can-Do Shipyard.
A measure of factory activity released on Tuesday showed a rebound in March, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said. The organization, which surveys purchasing managers at Chinese factories, said activity rebounded to 52 on its closely watched index, from 35.7 in February. In recent years, it has become a hub of independently owned and innovative manufacturers that include artisanal distillers and industrial metal fabricators.
A number above 50 on the index indicates growing activity, though the figure could overstate the improvement. It does not show to what degree factories have resumed production, meaning those that have opened could still be operating well below capacity. But with the coronavirus ravaging New York City, the old Navy Yard — one of few large manufacturing centers remaining in the city — is again pitching in during a national crisis as a hub for fighting the pandemic, producing desperately needed medical supplies, such as face shields, hand sanitizer and hospital gowns.
China’s government has taken a series of top-down measures to get the world’s No. 2 economy humming again. As the number of new infections reported each day has fallen, local officials have become more confident about allowing people to return to work. It has returned to “a wartime factory,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio as he toured a former shipbuilding hangar there on Thursday.
But even if factories and workplaces are back in business, that does not mean the economy is entirely back on its feet. In the epidemic’s wake, cash-strapped families may be reluctant to spend. Businesses fear that their partners and suppliers might default on payments for goods and services. Demand for Chinese exports may be weak as the epidemic continues to worsen in many countries around the world. That hangar had become an events space called the Duggal Greenhouse, part of Duggal Visual Solutions, a graphic display and printing company that typically makes printed glossy graphics for such brands as Estee Lauder and Coach.
Nationwide, major industrial enterprises are operating at an average of 98.6 percent of capacity, said Xin Guobin, China’s vice minister of industry and information technology, at a news briefing on Monday. And nearly 90 percent of employees at these businesses are back at work. But with the greenhouse’s scheduled events canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak, the space has been repurposed as a factory for making disposable face shields. The operation includes more than 300 workers, many recently laid off from restaurant jobs or nonessential businesses that the state ordered to temporarily close.
Kings County Distillery, a small-batch whiskey and bourbon company, has begun distilling alcohol for hand sanitizer in partnership with EcoLogic Solutions, which makes green cleaning products.
Reporting and research was contributed by Donald G. McNeil Jr., Selam Gebrekidan, Maria Abi-Habib, Sameer Yasir, Raymond Zhong, Knvul Sheikh Melissa Eddy, Choe Sang-Hun.Reporting and research was contributed by Donald G. McNeil Jr., Selam Gebrekidan, Maria Abi-Habib, Sameer Yasir, Raymond Zhong, Knvul Sheikh Melissa Eddy, Choe Sang-Hun.