AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT
20,000: US death toll overtakes Italy's as Midwest braces
CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy's for the highest in the world Saturday, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims and moved to snuff out smoldering hot spots of contagion before they erupt.
With the New York area still deep in crisis, fear mounted over the spread of the scourge into the nation’s heartland.
Twenty-four residents of an Indiana nursing home hit by COVID-19 have died, while a nursing home in Iowa saw 14 deaths. Chicago's Cook County has set up a temporary morgue that can take more than 2,000 bodies. And Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been going around telling groups of people to “break it up.”
In Europe, countries used roadblocks, drones, helicopters, mounted patrols and the threat of fines to keep people from traveling over Easter weekend. With infections and deaths slowing in Italy, Spain and other places on the Continent, governments took tentative steps toward loosening the weeks-long shutdowns.
Glorious weather across Europe posed an extra test of people's discipline.
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The Latest: Venezuela extends quarantine additional 30 days
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
TOP OF THE HOUR
— Venezuela extends nationwide quarantine for another 30 days.
— Japan's PM sends stay-at-home message with his own home video.
— New Zealand reports only 18 new cases of COVID-19 and no deaths.
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Biden beats Sanders to win Alaska Democratic primary
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Joe Biden has won the Alaska Democrats' party-run presidential primary, beating Sen. Bernie Sanders days after Sanders suspended his campaign.
Biden beat Sanders Saturday 55.3% to 44.7%. A total of 19,759 votes were cast.
Biden gets 11 delegates and Sanders gets 4. Overall, Biden has 1,228 delegates and Sanders has 918, according to the count by The Associated Press.
Casey Steinau, chairwoman of the state party, said Sanders, along with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who also have suspended their campaigns, asked to be included in the tallies.
Sanders suspended his campaign this week but said he would keep his name on the ballot in states that haven’t yet voted. He aims to collect delegates as part of an effort to influence the party’s platform at this year’s Democratic National Convention.
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What you need to know today about the virus outbreak
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy’s to become the highest in the world at more than 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims. Meanwhile, the coronavirus crisis is taxing New York City’s 911 system like never before.
President Donald Trump and his officials have made critical promises meant to reassure a country in the throes of the pandemic. But Americans are still going without medical supplies and financial help from the government at the very time they need it most — and were told they would have it.
Europe is trying to persuade its residents to stay home ahead of the Easter holiday and the anticipated sunny weather while grappling with how and when to start loosening the weekslong shutdowns of much of public life.
Doctors around the world are frantically trying to figure out how COVID-19 is killing their patients so they can attempt new ways to fight back.
Here are some of AP’s top stories Saturday on the world’s coronavirus pandemic. Follow APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for updates through the day and APNews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak for stories explaining some of its complexities.
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Trump leaves trail of unmet promises in coronavirus response
WASHINGTON (AP) — For several months, President Donald Trump and his officials have cast a fog of promises meant to reassure a country in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump and his team haven't delivered on critical ones.
They talk numbers. Bewildering numbers about masks on the way. About tests being taken. About ships sailing to the rescue, breathing machines being built and shipped, field hospitals popping up, aircraft laden with supplies from abroad, dollars flowing to crippled businesses.
Piercing that fog is the bottom-line reality that Americans are going without the medical supplies and much of the financial help they most need from the government at the very time they need it most — and were told they would have it.
The U.S. now is at or near the height of COVID-19 sickness and death, experts believe.
There's no question that on major fronts — masks, gowns, diagnostic tests, ventilators and more —- the federal government is pushing hard now to get up to speed. Impressive numbers are being floated for equipment and testing procedures in the pipeline.
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Doctor gambles on clot-busting drug to save virus patients
WASHINGTON (AP) — The woman was dying. New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital was about to call her husband and break the news that there was nothing left to try. Then Dr. Hooman Poor took a gamble.
With high-stress, high-stakes decisions, doctors around the world are frantically trying to figure out how COVID-19 is killing their patients so they can attempt new ways to fight back. One growing theory: In the sickest of the sick, little blood clots clog the lungs.
Poor couldn’t prove it. The tests required would further endanger his staff, who were already at risk of getting the virus. But the lung specialist saw clues that were “screaming blood clots.” So Poor pulled out a drug best known for treating strokes, and held his breath.
“I said, ‘What do we actually have to lose?’” Poor told The Associated Press. “That’s when I decided to give not just a blood thinner but a blood clot buster.”
Exactly what’s going on with blood clots in at least some COVID-19 patients is a mystery.
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Easter tornado threat poses safety dilemma during pandemic
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The threat of strong tornadoes and other damaging weather on Easter posed a double-edged safety dilemma for Deep South communities deciding how to protect residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
An outbreak of severe thunderstorms was likely Sunday from Louisiana through the Tennessee Valley, the National Weather Service said. More than 4.5 million people live in the area where dangerous weather was most likely, including Birmingham and Jackson, Mississippi, the Storm Prediction Center said on its website.
The National Weather Service office in Jackson told residents to brace for the possibility of long-lasting tornadoes, wind gusts up to 70 mph (113 km) and tennis ball-size hail through Sunday evening. Waves of storms with occasional lulls could continue into early Monday, with as much as 3 inches (8 centimeters) of rain possible.
"This could be one of our bigger events we’ve had in a long time around here. Take this seriously,” weather service forecaster Gary Goggins said in a public briefing broadcast on Facebook live from the agency's Birmingham-area office.
Severe thunderstorms began erupting Saturday in Texas as a low pressure system over the Southwest funneled unstable air toward the Southeast.
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Coronavirus ravages storied New Orleans Mardi Gras group
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — On Fat Tuesday, 51-year-old Cornell Charles was taking part in a storied New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition central to the city's African American community — driving a car in the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club’s parade.
A month later his wife of three decades was watching him take his last breath, a victim of the coronavirus epidemic raging through the city.
“I talked to him. I told him how much I was going to miss him,” said his wife, Nicole, describing those last minutes on March 24. "He literally took his last breath in front of my face and that was it.”
In a city ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak, members of the Zulu krewe, one of the groups that sponsor Mardi Gras parades and balls, have paid a heavy price. Four of the fraternal organization's members have died from coronavirus-related complications, said Zulu President Elroy A. James. Two others have also died since the pandemic began, though it's not known if their deaths were caused by the virus, he said.
An additional 20 have tested positive. Some are self-quarantining at home, some were hospitalized and released, while others are still hospitalized, James said.
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The week that was: Stories from the coronavirus saga
As coronavirus cases topped 1.75 million in the world during the past week — Holy Week for Christians and Passover for Jews — deaths in the United States overtook Italy's. And fatalities kept adding up sharply in a sequestered, terrified New York City. Associated Press journalists fanned out across the city to compile a portrait, The Fight For New York, and tell the story of 24 hours in a metropolis under duress — including one account of a seventh-generation physician trying to navigate his way through.
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak started late last year, finally emerged from its slumber after 76 days of lockdown. Residents were elated to be back outside, though life is far from normal. How the city manages the transition will be closely watched by policymakers around the world as they mull their own loosening of controls. Japan declared a state of emergency months after its first cases were identified, but stopped short of issuing a lockdown order.
Meanwhile, the pandemic is posing non-medical challenges beyond the personal and the economic. It also is making it harder for first responders, straining 911 services in New York City like never before.
Associated Press journalists across the planet chronicled it all — including continuing portraits of some of the lives lost and an exploration of a pandemic in sound. This guide to some of their words and images is a diary of a world at once on pause and in the middle of the biggest fight of its generation.
HEALTH AND SCIENCE
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Chicago mayor takes hard line fighting coronavirus outbreak
CHICAGO (AP) — As large American cities try various strategies to keep people home to limit the coronavirus's spread, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has balanced a blend of stern — and occasionally scolding — news conferences with lighthearted social media to drive home her point.
Lightfoot’s hard-line approach began with an exasperated announcement in March that she was shutting down lakefront trails, adjacent parks and other crowded public spaces after Chicagoans flocked there on a 70-degree weekday.
“Your conduct — yours — is posing a direct threat to our public health,” Lightfoot chastised people spotted flouting social distancing orders.
Her tone earned the first-term mayor — the city’s first black female and first openly gay mayor — begrudging respect from some residents and inspired a wave of memes. Many edited a stone-faced Lightfoot into photos of the city’s parks or famous artwork. After weeks of quarantine-induced snacking, others printed photos of the mayor’s stern expression, captioned, “You just ate” and taped them inside fridges.
On Twitter, Lightfoot embraced the humor in a video depicting her at home as a sports fan rewatching classic games, an aspiring home baker and a guitar-picking songwriter — all with the message to “stay home, save lives.”