AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
New Zealand tames virus; France, Spain reveal lockdown exits
PARIS (AP) — France and Spain, two of the worst-hit countries in the coronavirus pandemic, were laying out separate roadmaps Tuesday for lifting their lockdowns, while signs emerged the virus has been all but vanquished in New Zealand and Australia.
But on the other side of the globe, Brazil is emerging as a new hotspot for infections. And new doubts were raised over whether Japan would be able to host the already postponed Summer Olympics next year without the development of a vaccine.
In Europe and elsewhere, the key question of when to reopen schools loomed as nations seek to ease lockdowns and restart their battered economies.
Although the coronavirus seems to affect children far less seriously than adults, many officials, teachers and parents are concerned about the health risks that school openings pose. Some point to the difficulties of ensuring that children stick to social distancing and frequent hand washing, and teachers themselves fear risks to their own health.
But many parents would struggle to return to work without schools being open, hampering efforts to restart the economy.
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The US reopening is coming, but 'normal' is still a ways off
NEW YORK (AP) — Everyone wants to know: When, oh when, will it go back to normal?
As some governors across the United States begin to ease restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, hopes are soaring that life as Americans knew it might be returning. But plans emerging in many states indicate that “normal” is still a long way off.
White House adviser Dr. Deborah Birx says social distancing will be with Americans through the summer. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warns of a “different way of life” until there is a widely available vaccine — maybe not until next year. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says: "There is no return to yesterday in life.”
From the beginning, the pandemic forced impossible choices: physical health or mental health? Economic well-being or medical safety? Most states joined the world and turned the dial down hard, closing shops and restaurants, factories and schools. Asking people to largely keep to their homes. Now, the dial is beginning to inch in the opposite direction.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp is pushing one of the most aggressive reopening plans in the United States. Barbershops, gyms and nail salons were allowed to reopen Friday, and dine-in restaurant service and movie screenings were freed to resume Monday — despite warnings that, without sufficient testing, the state could see a surge in infections.
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Trump urges states to consider opening schools before summer
President Donald Trump says states should “seriously consider” reopening their public schools before the end of the academic year, even though dozens already have said it would be unsafe for students to return until the summer or fall.
Trump made the comments Monday in a call with governors discussing how to reopen their economies, among other topics.
“Some of you might start thinking about school openings, because a lot of people are wanting to have the school openings. It’s not a big subject, young children have done very well in this disaster that we’ve all gone through," he said. While addressing Vice President Mike Pence, Trump added that it's something "they can seriously consider, and maybe get going on.”
None of the governors on the call responded to the suggestion, according to a recording obtained by The Associated Press.
Trump made the comments as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked to finalize guidelines for reopening the economy. For schools, that included putting students' desks 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart, serving meals in the classroom instead of the cafeteria and closing playgrounds.
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A look at past disappearances of NKorean leaders, officials
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — While Kim Jong Un's two-week absence has inspired speculation and rumors that he is gravely ill, he is not the first member of North Korean's ruling elite to disappear from public view.
Some absences were caused by real trouble, including deaths, illness or purges. But frequently the so-called disappearances have simply shown the disconnect between insatiable curiosity about what's happening inside the isolated, nuclear-armed nation and the thick cloak of secrecy surrounding its leadership.
A look at past cases of missing North Korean officials and when reports about the demise of leaders were premature:
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KIM IL SUNG
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Russian doctors, nurses face more risks as virus cases grow
MOSCOW (AP) — A patient who had routine surgery at a hospital in St. Petersburg suddenly developed a fever after an operation. Doctors insisted on testing him for coronavirus and results showed that he had it.
And so did the Russian doctors, nurses and other patients who had unwittingly come in contact with him.
“It just snowballed from there,” said Dr. Dmitry Ptashnikov, head of the spinal surgery ward at the Vreden Institute for Traumatology and Orthopedics and one of the many medical workers who became infected. More than half of its staff and patients — dozens in all — eventually tested positive for COVID-19.
Reports of infected medical workers are emerging almost daily as Russia copes with the virus. Last week alone, more than 200 doctors in Moscow and St. Petersburg were reported to have it, with some turning to social media to make their plight known.
It's unclear how many Russian doctors and nurses overall have been infected. The Health Ministry did not respond to requests for comment but news reports from a dozen regions in the past two weeks suggest at least 450 medical workers have had COVID-19, with 11 doctors and five nurses dying.
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Washington mental hospital staff call virus testing unsafe
SEATTLE (AP) — Workers who had been exposed to the coronavirus at Washington state’s largest psychiatric hospital were herded into a small building to be tested. Inside, few wore masks. They were given test kits by people without gloves and told to swirl a swab inside their noses.
The method was designed only for people showing symptoms, but the staffers said none of them did. Many told The Associated Press that the flawed testing process this month likely produced inaccurate results and exposed them to the virus again.
“I absolutely feel it was a misuse of the testing materials,” said Dr. Lauren Smith, a forensic psychologist at the hospital. “In addition to that, the manner in which they did it put us all at risk.”
Employees say it’s another example of the state’s failure to protect staff and patients at Western State Hospital. The 850-bed facility south of Seattle has been the target of multiple state and federal investigations, including one launched when a man accused of torturing a woman to death escaped. There's a pattern of violent attacks by patients and a failure to meet health and safety requirements.
The violations led the facility to lose its accreditation and federal funding, and staffers say mismanagement during the pandemic could cost lives. They fear a repeat of the Seattle-area nursing home that became the first U.S. cluster of COVID-19 deaths, with 43.
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Federal inmates battle mixed messages on home confinement
WASHINGTON (AP) — She never thought her husband's punishment for selling drugs would be a death sentence. But as the new coronavirus rips through the U.S. prison system and into the facility where he is serving eight years, she fears it could be.
The 24-year-old inmate suffers from severe asthma at the medium-security South Carolina prison. He has tried and failed to get released to home confinement, while his wife on the outside watches high-profile inmates go free.
“He is at a way higher risk and it’s not fair,” said the woman, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared her husband would suffer retaliation. "I don’t want to lose my husband for something he did years ago, to an illness he can’t help.”
The Bureau of Prisons has given contradictory and confusing guidance how it is deciding who is released to home confinement in an effort to combat the virus, changing requirements, setting up inmates for release and backing off and refusing to explain how it decides who gets out and when.
And it's unclear who is getting released, aside from high-profile inmates like Michael Cohen and Michael Avenatti. More than 1,500 inmates have have been placed on home confinement so far, but prisons officials will not give out any demographic information.
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As virus cases rise, UAE adjusts to a new normal in pandemic
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In a Dubai industrial park, workers weld, drill and build what one entrepreneur sees as key to the near future of this desert city-state amid the coronavirus pandemic: disinfection gates.
Husam Zammar's company builds such gates for government and commercial clients. He believes the new safety measures will find wide acceptance, just as metal detectors did after the 9/11 terror attacks. “If we consider two people, one has a knife and one has coronavirus, the second one is a hundred times dangerous than the first one,” he said.
Fear of the virus is palpable in Dubai and elsewhere in the the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms where foreigners make up 90% of the population. Yet even as confirmed coronavirus cases spike, the UAE is opening up its cavernous malls and restaurants in a gamble to stimulate its economy while still trying to fight off the pandemic.
That's led to a new normal here of temperature checks, social distancing monitors at supermarkets and marked-off empty seats on the city's driverless Metro. But crowds already have come to the malls and others are leaving their homes after weeks of a lockdown, eager to party in a city known for its nightlife and increasing the risk of the virus spreading.
In lifting more stringent restrictions, the UAE cited the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began late last week. Dubai also lifted a weekslong quarantine order on a neighborhood along the Dubai Creek that's home to many low-wage workers late Sunday, saying it had detected no new coronavirus cases there for two days.
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`Infecting our dreams': Pandemic sabotages sleep worldwide
For millions of people around the world dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, sleep brings no relief.
The horrors of COVID-19, and the surreal and frightening ways it has upended daily life, are infecting dreams and exposing feelings of fear, loss, isolation and grief that transcend culture, language and national boundaries.
Everyone from a college teacher in Pakistan to a mall cashier in Canada to an Episcopalian priest in Florida is confronting the same daytime demon. Each is waking up in a sweat in the dead of night.
Experts say humanity has rarely experienced “collective dreaming” on such a broad scale in recorded history — and certainly never while also being able to share those nightmares in real time.
“It’s that alarming feeling of when you wake up and think, ‘Thank heavens I woke up,’" said Holly Smith, an elementary school librarian in Detroit. “Once it hits your dreams, you think, ‘Great, now I can’t even escape there.'”
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AP PHOTOS: Finding joy amid pandemic's anxiety and heartache
Joy is visible during the pandemic, just not with the usual, recognizable cues.
Is a laugh or smile any less heartwarming if it’s hidden from view? Are eye crinkles the new prompts of a smile covered by a mask?
Associated Press photographers, tasked with reporting on the crisis, have looked for bliss, as well. And amid so much heartache and anxiety, they’ve found it.
There’s no mistaking the kinship between humans and pets in the image taken in Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asuncion, Paraguay. Dumas the Labrador doesn’t know the passenger heading to Miami, but they greet paw to hand and nose to nose.
Just being able to inhale deeply is a universal theme of contentment. In Beijing, after two months of staying inside, a man pushes aside his mask and throws his arms wide as he stands alone to enjoy spring among the cherry blossoms in Beijing’s Yuyuantan Park.