Coronavirus update: Shops reopen in Wuhan, New Zealand fears local outbreak
More than 87,000 people have recovered so far, mostly in China.
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 271,000 people and killed more than 11,000. The COVID-19 illness causes mild or moderate symptoms in most people, but severe symptoms are more likely in the elderly or those with existing health problems. More than 87,000 people have recovered so far, mostly in China.
TOP OF THE HOUR:
• Some stores in Wuhan allowed to re-open after no new virus cases for third straight day
• Seattle closing playgrounds, ballfields to follow COVID-19 social distancing guidelines.
• Health authorities say New Zealand could have first local outbreak
• Pandemic taking toll on U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal businesses
WUHAN’S STAGGERS SLOWLY BACK TO NORMAL
While entry and exit from Wuhan remains tightly restricted, businesses such as supermarkets, convenience stores and shops selling fresh fruit, vegetables and other daily necessities can re-open.
Only one person per household bearing a special pass can go out each day, with shopping time limited to two hours.
Wuhan, the virus outbreak’s epicenter, reported no new or suspected cases for a third straight day.
Meanwhile, Premier Li Keqiang on Friday urged “efforts to stabilize and support market entities to strengthen the engines for economic recovery,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Li “stressed a stronger sense of urgency on the work and production resumption, as well as the recovery of economic and social order,” including financial assistance to small and medium-size enterprises that form a core source of employment and key links in supply chains.
“Unreasonable restrictions that hinder the resumption of work” should be lifted, Li said. “With effective prevention and control measures, necessary health monitoring and emergency response forces in place, epidemic prevention and work resumption can be advanced in a synchronized way.”
Among measures to help people find new jobs, the central government has launched a website that it hopes will help fill 10 million vacancies by the end of June.
SEATTLE IMPOSES TOUGHER LOCKDOWN MEASURES
The city of Seattle and the surrounding King County are closing playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, picnic shelters, ballfields and other active recreation areas in order to follow COVID-19 social distancing guidelines.
Officials made the announcement Friday night, saying ballfields and playing fields will remain open for walking and other non-team activities. Parks, natural lands, regional trails, backcountry trails, and beaches where social distancing can be maintained remain open, officials said. Washington state has the most deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus with at least 83.
“With schools closed and people adapting to new work habits, our parks and open spaces can provide an important break in these stressful times. It is clear, however, that we must continue to be vigilant in these places, as well, and make sure all our residents put into practice Public Health directives,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said.
WUHAN REPORTS ZERO CASES FOR 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS
The virus outbreak’s epicenter of Wuhan reported no new or suspected cases again for a third consecutive day.
Overall, China on Saturday reported 41 new cases detected over the previous 24 hours, all among people traveling from overseas, and another seven deaths, six in Wuhan. China now has a total of 81,008 cases and 3,255 deaths.
A total of 71,740 people have been declared cured and released from hospital. Wuhan must go 14 straight days without a new case in order for draconian travel restrictions to be lifted.
People are now better able to move around in the surrounding province of Hubei, although its provincial borders remain closed to the rest of the country. Beijing and other cities are increasingly vibrant as the government attempts to mitigate disastrous effects on the world’s second largest economy, but social distancing and quarantines for new arrivals remain the norm.
NEW ZEALAND FEARS A LOCAL COVID-19 OUTBREAK
For the first time in New Zealand, health authorities say there might be a local outbreak.
Health authorities on Saturday announced 13 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 52. They say two of the cases can’t be linked immediately to overseas travel, as has been the situation for all the previous cases.
In a rare address to the nation, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged people aged over 70 to stay home and all other New Zealanders to avoid non-essential travel. She introduced a new alert system, placing the country at 2 on a scale where 4 is the highest. The country has already closed its borders to everybody but citizens and residents and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Ardern said most schools will remain open, for now.
COVID-19 IMPACTS TRUMP’S BUSINESSES
The coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on President Donald Trump’s personal businesses.
Several of his golf clubs, hotels and resorts have scaled back operations or shut down entirely, the Trump Organization says. Among them is Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida, club where Trump spends many weekends during the winter months.
Some are open, but adopting social distancing measures — like prohibiting golfers from sharing a golf cart.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization says: “Various facilities are temporarily closed given local, state and federal mandates. We anxiously await the day when this pandemic is over and our world-class facilities can reopen.”
US EVACUATES NATIONALS FROM HONDURAS
At the request of the U.S. State Department and at the direction of U.S. Southern Command, a U.S. Air Force C-130 is transporting 89 U.S. citizens who were previously unable to return home from Honduras, to Joint Base Charleston, S.C.
The C-130 mission is the second Air Force mission supporting the U.S. State Department’s ongoing efforts to assist American citizens unable to return home from the Central American country.
A U.S. Air Force C-17 flew the first mission out of Honduras’ Soto Cano Air Base, landing in the U.S. earlier today with passengers that included approximately half of the U.S. women’s football team.
Both flights were the result of close coordination between U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
The C-130 is scheduled to arrive at Joint Base Charleston later today with the remaining players, as well as other U.S. citizens who made their journey home with help from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Air Force.
Through its Active, Reserve, and Air National Guard components, Air Mobility Command has been supporting the U.S. government’s ongoing COVID-19 mitigation response efforts and executing rapid global mobility operations in support of the DHHS-led, whole-of-government effort to combat the Coronavirus outbreak.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFER TESTS POSITIVE
The White House says a member of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff has tested positive for coronavirus.
Pence’s spokeswoman Katie Miller said Friday that the staff member, who is not being identified, did not have “close contact” to either the vice president or President Donald Trump.
Miller said contact tracing, or contacting everyone the individual has been in contact with, is being conducted in accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Miller says Pence’s office was notified Friday evening of the positive test result.
CUBA BANS TOURISTS
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel says the country is temporarily barring tourists in order to prevent the introduction of more cases of coronavirus.
Díaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said in an announcement on state television that only residents of the island would be allowed to enter for the next 30 days starting Tuesday.
As of Friday, Cuba had announced 16 cases of COVID-19 and one death, all in people who had traveled overseas or been in direct contact with a traveler. Díaz-Canel and Marrero said exceptions would be made for people involved in commercial importation, like crews of merchant ships, and for tourism industry workers who need to help tourists leave the country.
Marrero said there were about 60,000 tourists in Cuba as of Friday evening.
The Cuban economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which had already slowed dramatically due to U.S. sanctions tightened by the Trump administration.
8 DEAD DUE TO CORONAVIRUS FROM WASHINGTON
Washington state health officials reported eight new coronavirus deaths on Friday, bringing the total to 83.
Seven of those deaths were in King County, the epicenter of the outbreak in the state.
More than 1,500 people have tested positive across Washington.
GERMAN BAKER FEARS BUSINESS CLOSURE
A German baker’s tearful appeal for customers not to abandon their local stores during the coronavirus outbreak has been met with a wave of sympathy.
In a video posted on social media Friday, Gerhard Bosselmann said his bakery chain that employs more than 200 people at 20 stores in and around Hannover could collapse within weeks.
Many small and medium-sized companies in Germany have expressed concerns about their future as customers stay at home, relying on deliveries or dashing to supermarkets for bulk buys.
“We need a certain minimum revenue or our company will die within six to eight weeks,” Bosselmann said in the video, which drew more than 2 million views by late Friday.
“You, our customers, can help us by standing by us in bad times, the way we do too,” he added, choking back tears.
Germany had confirmed almost 20,000 coronavirus cases as of Friday, including 67 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
MEMPHIS SHUTS DOWN ELVIS PRESLEY MUSEUM
Elvis Presley’s Graceland is temporarily closing in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Memphis, Tennessee-based tourist attraction said Friday that tours of Presley’s former home-turned-museum have been called off. Graceland said on its website that it will be temporarily closed from Saturday through April 3.
The tourist attraction is centered on the life and career of the late singer and actor. Presley died in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977. He was 42.
About 500,000 people, including international travelers, visit Graceland each year. In addition to the museum, Graceland features restaurants, exhibition halls and a concert venue.
Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter said Friday that there are 30 confirmed cases, up from 10 the day before, in the area that includes Memphis.
Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray said food preparations and community-wide food distribution have been suspended indefinitely in response to the rising number of cases, as well as a central nutrition services employee testing positive for the virus.
Ray said the district has begun working to identify people the employee had been in contact with. In the interim, he asked for the help from the community, including food pantries, to feed children while schools are closed.
WASHINGTON FACES SHORTAGE OF CORONAVIRUS TESTING KITS
Testing supply 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 “real, immediate, wide-scale shortages.” The groups said only patients with COVID-19 symptoms who are elderly, have high-risk medical conditions or are medical staff should be tested.
“Testing for individuals who are not in these three groups is not recommended until sufficient testing supplies and capacity become more widely available,” said the joint statement, issued with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
Officials in the nation’s capital are extending at least through April restrictions that include school closures, closed movie theaters and gyms and restaurants and bars serving only takeout.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser made the announcement Friday as health officials confirmed the first coronavirus death in Washington, D.C.
Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, the director of the district’s health department, said the 59-year-old man had a “complicated medical history” and was admitted to a hospital last week. She said the man tested positive for COVID-19 on March 18. Officials believe he potentially had contact with someone who had the virus.
The district’s restrictions to stop the spread of the virus will remain in effect until April 25.
That means all restaurants and bars will continue to able to offer to offer carry-out to customers or to food delivery services. All dining or drinking in the establishments is prohibited.
Officials said DC public schools would remain closed and distance learning would take place until schools are scheduled to reopen on April 27.
Bowser also loosened some restrictions for residents to apply for unemployment benefits and announced a $25 million recovery fund for local businesses.
There are no immediate plans in Washington state to enact more stringent social distancing requirements to fight the spread of coronavirus like those imposed by California, New York and other states, Gov. Jay Inslee’s chief of staff said Friday.
“We don’t feel it’s necessary to take that next step today,” David Postman told reporters.
Washington has reported at least 74 deaths from COVID-19, the most in the United States, and more than 1,300 confirmed cases.
The state has already closed schools through the late April, banned events and ordered bars to close and restaurants to serve only take out or delivery options.
Gov. Jay Inslee asked President Donald Trump to declare Washington a state in major disaster. Such a declaration would enable additional federal assistance to residents affected by COVID-19.
Those benefits include expanded unemployment assistance and basic food benefits.
“The state urgently requires additional supplemental federal emergency assistance in order to save lives, protect public health and safety, and limit further spread of the disease,” Inslee wrote.
MEXICO ANNOUNCES FINANCIAL MEASURES TO CURB ECONOMIC IMPACT
Mexico’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate from 7% to 6.5%, and reduced by about $2 billion (50 billion pesos) the amount of deposits that banks are required to keep at the Bank of Mexico.
Both moves are aimed at loosening up credit in the face of the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Mexico banks are currently required to keep reserve deposits of 320 billion pesos.
Mexico’s elderly have long supplemented their meager pensions by working as baggers at grocery stores. But their income took a hit Friday when Walmart de Mexico, by far the nation’s largest retailer, sent them home.
The chain said that because they were at greater risk from coronavirus, any bagger over 65 would no longer be allowed to work at their stores. It said that while the baggers are considered volunteers, not employees — they make their money from tips — the chain would provide them with an unspecified “economic assistance.”
Mexico’s Social Security Institute also announced that high-risk employees — those over 65, or with underlying health conditions — would be allowed to work from home where possible.
IN NEW YORK, COVID-19 TESTS ONLY FOR SEVERELY SICK
New York City health officials have directed medical providers to stop giving patients tests for COVID-19 except for those sick enough to require hospitalization. Widespread testing is exhausting supplies of protective equipment.
In an advisory issued Friday, the health department said outpatient testing should stop unless results would impact treatment for the patient.
“Persons with COVID-like illness not requiring hospitalization should be instructed to stay home. It is safer for the patients and health care workers,” the advisory said.
It said demand for unnecessary testing is contributing to a national shortage of masks, gowns, collection swabs and other supplies, all of which need to be discarded by health care workers after each test.
It also directed health care providers not test asymptomatic people, including health care workers or first responders.
The order came amid a huge surge in testing in New York.
After a slow start, testing sites have proliferated and many officials have said that widespread testing is a key to fighting the spread of the disease.
As of Friday morning, more than 32,000 people had been tested in the state, almost a third of them in the last day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
More than 7,000 New Yorkers have tested positive. More than 1,200 have been hospitalized.
ARKANSAS REPORTS 100 CASES OF CORONAVIRUS
Arkansas health officials say there are now nearly 100 cases of coronavirus in the state, including at least 13 residents and staff of a Little Rock nursing home.
The state said the number of coronavirus cases had risen overnight from 62 to 96. The new cases include 13 residents and staff of the Briarwood Nursing Home and Rehab.
The Health Department said there are also cases at a nursing home in Pine Bluff and another in Centerton.
Arkansas has imposed sweeping restrictions because of the outbreak and closed its schools until April 17.
5 NEW DEATHS REPORTED FROM TURKEY
Turkey says five more people have died from the coronavirus outbreak, raising the number of deaths in the country to nine.
The number of infections meanwhile, jumped to 670 on Friday, with 311 more cases detected in the past 24 hours, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter. The surge comes as Turkey increased the number of tests to screen for COVID-19.
Koca said the five who lost their lives on Friday were elderly with “weak resistance” to the virus.
COVID-19 COULD BE DEVASTATING FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN WAR ZONES: UN
The United Nations says consequences of the coronavirus could be devastating for the 100 million people living in war zones and other emergency settings.
It noted many people are living in cramped conditions with little or no access to proper sanitation and basic health services.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said humanitarian officials are concerned people who depend on U.N. assistance are able to keep getting life-saving help while trying to avoid “the catastrophic impact that the COVID-19 outbreak could have on them.”
He said relief agencies are also concerned “about the limited surveillance systems in countries with large numbers of vulnerable groups, while the additional burden of COVID-19 could mean that other current outbreaks such as cholera, measles and yellow fever receive less attention.”
Dujarric said overcrowded camps for internally displaced persons in some of the world’s humanitarian hot spots are also high-risk areas for COVID-19.
He said U.N. humanitarian officials will be launching an appeal for funds early next week to deal with the coronavirus threat. The U.N. has already released $15 million from its emergency fund to deal with the coronavirus in vulnerable areas, and U.N.-managed funds in Afghanistan, Sudan and Jordan have also been released to scale up preparedness.
US STATE OF KANSAS IN DIRE NEED OF COVID-19 TESTING KITS
The top administrator at Kansas’ health department said it could run out of coronavirus testing kits over the weekend — forcing the state to rely on private labs and potentially delaying results.
Dr. Lee Norman said that testing wouldn’t stop altogether because the agency would hold back a few of its tests for infected people who have been hospitalized.
Norman also said four private lab companies already are doing some testing, but they typically take longer to report their results than the state’s one-day turnaround.
Norman said the state has enough testing kits for about 300 patients, and it’s doing testing for between 150 and 300 a day. He said his agency has been providing free testing for local agencies and hospitals, and private lab tests will come with a cost of roughly $200.
Kansas has had more than 40 cases of COVID-19, including one death, with 10 new confirmed cases reported Friday alone.
ISRAEL REPORTS FIRST CORONAVIRUS DEATH
Israel has reported its first death from the coronavirus.
Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek Hospital said the 88-year-old man died late Friday, a week after he was hospitalized. The hospital said the man had a history of health problems.
Israel has reported more than 700 cases of COVID-19.
BOLSONARO TO GO FOR THIRD COVID-19 TEST
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said he may receive a third coronavirus test even though he says he’s twice tested negative for the virus.
Local paper O Globo reported 22 members of the committee that traveled with Bolsonaro to the U.S. earlier this month have tested positive for COVID-19.
“Maybe I will do a third test, maybe, because I’m someone who has contact with a lot of people,” Bolsonaro said in Brasilia.
TURKEY ENLISTS PRIVATE HOSPITALS TO FIGHT COVID-19
Turkey is enlisting private hospitals to ease the burden on state hospitals and their staff in the fight against coronavirus.
The Health Ministry designated all state, private or foundation hospitals with ICU units and at least two specialists in infectious diseases, microbiology, internal medicine and pulmonology as “pandemia hospitals” to treat COVID-19 patients.
The virus has so far claimed four lives in Turkey, while the number of confirmed cases reached 359.
OKLAHOMA ORDERS CLOSURE OF OFFICES
The state of Oklahoma will close the legislature to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“Senators and our staff remain in constant contact with the governor and other executive branch officials in health care and education, our federal delegation and various leaders from key private sector industries as we work to address this serious health care crisis,” Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat said in a statement.
House staff will work from home, and representatives will return to their districts for “constituent work and identifying priorities that need to be addressed in this unusual year,” said John Estus, spokesman for House Speaker Charles McCall.
Five additional coronavirus cases were confirmed Friday in Oklahoma, the state Department of Health reported, rising from 44 to 49.
The number of deaths due to the virus remained at one, the department said.
GERMANY REPORTS 9 DEATHS
Authorities in southern Germany say nine residents of a nursing home in the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg have died from coronavirus.
News agency dpa reported that officials at the facility said Friday all of the dead were over 80 and had previous illnesses. Of the 160 residents, five are sick with COVID-19 and are being treated at hospitals in the city. Another 10 are being cared for in isolation in their rooms after testing positive.
In addition, 23 carers are quarantined at home after testing positive. It wasn’t clear what the source of the infections was. The home banned visitors last week.
Germany had 19,711 confirmed coronavirus infections as of Friday, including 53 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
SEMINOLE TRIBE CLOSES DOWN FLORIDA CASINOS
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is closing its six casinos statewide Friday night. The casinos generate billions annually and employ 14,000 people.
As a sovereign tribal nation, the Seminoles did not have to follow the governor’s orders to limit gatherings or close outright, but the tribe said in a statement it no longer felt operating the casinos was safe.
At the tribe’s Hard Rock Casino near Fort Lauderdale on Friday afternoon, vacationers, gamblers and bored locals enjoyed the last few hours of play, but the noisy clangs from the machines were muted. Nearly half the machines were disabled to force players, some wearing gloves, to use machines feet apart.
Dr. Brian Cheung, a 34-year-old Miami anesthesiologist, had planned a trip to Nashville this week, but when it got canceled he came to stay at the Hard Rock’s hotel and gamble in the casino. The hotel will remain open for now.
“Hopefully the pool is still open,” Cheung said, walking down an empty hallway of shuttered restaurants.
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CHICAGO — Southwest says it has not canceled all flights out of Midway International Airport and instead has only scaled back traffic out of its Chicago hub.
The limitations come after federal authorities closed the airport’s control tower after technicians tested positive for the coronavirus. Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said the Dallas-based airline canceled about 170 of its roughly 250 daily flights in and out of Midway due to the airspace restrictions that followed the control tower’s closure.
“We’ve had to pull that back by canceling around 170 flights. We’re averaging four to six flights per hour,” she said. “There are only so many flights they’re letting in and out of Chicago.”
King said it’s not clear how long the airline will keep its reduced flight level in and out of Midway, and that decision is tied to how long the airspace restrictions continue.
Earlier reports were that Southwest Airlines had canceled all flights in and out of Midway, which King denied.
ILLINOIS DECLARES EMERGENCY
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to add Illinois to the list of states ordering residents to remain in their homes except for essential needs to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Two government officials with knowledge of the directive told The Associated Press that Pritzker’s order will still allow the state’s 12.6 million residents to seek essentials including groceries and medicine. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the governor’s announcement expected Friday.
The Chicago Tribune was the first news outlet to confirm the state shutdown that will come into force Saturday.
PARIS SINGS AWAY LOCKDOWN BLUES
Tooting horns or playing ragtime, French people in lockdown added a musical touch to their nightly round of applause for medical professionals fighting the new virus.
For the fourth straight night, Parisians opened apartment windows at exactly 8 p.m. and applauded and cheered.
And to mark the first Friday night when all restaurants across France were closed, people played music or raised toasts from their balconies this time, too.
Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” rang out from one neighborhood, church bells from another. A pianist played “The Entertainer,” while others enthusiastically blew horns.
The evening applause is among gestures by people around Europe showing solidarity even when people can’t gather together.
UKRAINE FACES TRANSPORTATION WOES
The mayor of Kharkiv says Ukraine’s second-largest city is suffering a transport collapse because of restrictions imposed by national authorities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Authorities this week ordered the subway systems in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro closed and limited the number of people who can ride on other mass-transit vehicles to 10.
Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes said in an open letter to the Ukrainian government released Friday that the restrictions have provoked widespread disorder in the city of 1.5 million, including people storming buses and beating drivers.
Some drivers are refusing to work, he said and appealed to the government to allow limited use of the subway system.
ROME INTENSIFIES SOCIAL DISTANCING PROTOCOLS
All parks, public gardens and playgrounds will be closed in Italy starting Saturday for at least five days.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza signed an ordinance Friday that also aims to crack down on citizens who have ignored rules stipulating that exercise outside of one’s home must not be done in groups and that people must stay at least one-meter (yard) apart.
The new measures says people who do outdoor exercise must now do it only near one’s home while practicing social-distancing. Rome had already banned exercise in parks and Turin’s mayor urged the government to do so nationwide.
MICHIGAN POSTPONES NON ESSENTIAL MEDICAL PROCEDURES
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Michigan doctors and dentists to postpone all nonessential medical procedures Friday.
Whitmer said procedures should be scratched by Saturday afternoon unless necessary to “preserve the health and safety of a patient.”
“By postponing all nonessential medical and dental procedures, we expect to reduce the strain on the health care system and protect people,” the governor said.
Whitmer also said the state has been flooded with claims for unemployment aid from residents suddenly out of work.
DUTCH MONARCH GIVES EMOTIONAL SPEECH
Dutch King Willem-Alexander made an emotional televised speech to his 17 million subjects.
The king made a rare speech to the nation aimed at praising and promoting unity and soothing fears. He praised health care workers battling the virus and other professions — from cleaners to teachers to police officers — while expressing concern for business owners facing possible financial ruin.
Willem-Alexander, his wife Queen Maxima, and their three daughters have been practicing social distancing this week in their palace in The Hague because they recently took a skiing holiday in an Austrian village where a number of people later tested positive.
The king’s speech came hours after the country’s public health institute reported that 30 people had died in the previous 24 hours, bringing the country’s death toll in the outbreak to 106. There have been 2,994 positive tests.
PENTAGON CONFIRMS CORONAVIRUS CASES
The Pentagon has its first two confirmed coronavirus cases.
The Air Force confirmed Friday an active duty airman who works at the Defense Health Agency in Falls Church, Virginia and had been inside the Pentagon on Monday has tested positive.
The individual has received medical treatment and has self-quarantined at home.
Also, an Air Force defense contractor who works in the Pentagon has tested positive for the virus and has been self-quarantined since March 7, the Air Force said.
OREGON GOVERNOR APPREHENSIVE OF SOCIAL DISTANCING
Gov. Kate Brown wants a statewide eviction moratorium, to suspend enforcement on expired automobile tabs and driver licenses and has asked the federal government for a one-year extension for compliance the REAL ID act.
Brown said she is not ready to enact more stringent social distancing requirements like those imposed by California and New York this week. Brown has already ordered a six-week statewide school closure, a ban on gatherings of more than 25 people and shutdowns of bar and restaurant operations other than takeout and delivery for at least four weeks.
SOUTHWEST CANCELS 173 FLIGHTS
Southwest Airlines has canceled all of its fights in and out of Midway International Airport after federal authorities closed the airport’s control tower because technicians tested positive for the coronavirus.
The airline’s move resulted in more than 173 canceled flights on Friday.
The Federal Aviation Administration closed Midway’s control tower on Tuesday after the federal agency said “several” technicians tested positive for coronavirus.
The FAA said in a statement that the airport remained open and operations would continue at a reduced rate until controllers and technicians have a safe working environment.
MISSISSIPPI POSTPONES PRIMARIES
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced postponing the upcoming Republican primary runoff in the state’s 2nd Congressional District to June 23rd.
Mississippi joins a number of other states that have postponed elections amid the global pandemic.
The Republican runoff originally scheduled for March 31 is between Thomas L. Carey and Brian Flowers, who are running low-budget campaigns.
The winner will advance to the November general election to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
ALASKA CEASES CLIMBING PERMITS
Officials at Denali National Park and Preserve have suspended issuing climbing permits for the tallest mountain in North America.
No permits have been issued to climb either Denali or Mount Foraker, another Alaska Range peak, this year. The climbing season in the Alaska national park about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Anchorage usually begins in late April and ends in mid-July.
No permits have yet been issued for this year’s climbing season, and refunds will be issued to those who have started the registration process.
“Considering the anticipated longevity of the international coronavirus response, social distancing protocols, and travel restrictions, park managers have determined the most appropriate course of action is to suspend all 2020 permitting,” Denali officials said in a statement.
CARIBBEAN NATION EXEMPTS CITIZENS OF WATER BILL
The British Virgin Islands won’t bill for water for the next month.
Officials also have closed schools and limited air and sea travel to certain passengers seeking to enter the British Caribbean territory.
The BVI is one of only a handful of islands in the Caribbean with no confirmed cases.