AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Workplace worries mount as US tracks new COVID-19 cases
NEW YORK (AP) — Even as President Donald Trump urges getting people back to work and reopening the economy, thousands of new coronavirus infections are being reported daily, many of them job-related.
Recent figures show a surge of cases in meat-packing and poultry-processing plants. There's been a spike of new infections among construction workers in Austin, Texas, where that sector recently returned to work. Even the White House has proven vulnerable, with positive coronavirus tests for one of Trump’s valets and for Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary.
The developments underscore the high stakes for communities nationwide as they gradually loosen restrictions on business.
“The people who are getting sick right now are generally people who are working,” Dr. Mark Escott, a regional health official, told Austin’s city council. “That risk is going to increase the more people are working.”
Austin’s concerns will likely be mirrored in communities nationwide as the reopening of stores and factories creates new opportunities for the virus to spread.
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Doctors and nurses suffered as Iran ignored virus concerns
CAIRO (AP) — They are regarded as heroes, their fallen colleagues as martyrs. But for doctors and nurses still dealing with Iran’s growing number of coronavirus infections, such praise rings hollow.
While crippling sanctions imposed by the U.S. government left the country ill-equipped to deal with the fast-moving virus, some medical professionals say government and religious leaders bear the brunt of the blame for allowing the virus to spread -- and for hiding how much it had spread.
Those medical workers say they were defenseless to handle the contagion. And as a result, doctors and nurses in Iran have been hard hit by the virus. During the first 90 days of the virus outbreak alone, about one medical staffer died each day and dozens became infected.
“We are heading fast toward a disaster,” said a young Isfahan doctor who has been working tirelessly, checking dozens of suspected coronavirus patients before referring them to hospitals.
It is no secret that Iran has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Official government figures show that around 100,000 people were infected by the virus and around 6,500 have died. But a report by the research arm of Iran’s parliament said the number of cases could be eight to 10 times higher, making it among the hardest hit countries in the world. The report said the number of deaths could be 80% higher than officials numbers from the health ministry, about 11,700.
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Expert warns many countries are driving blind as they reopen
NEW YORK (AP) — India's trains will start rolling again and millions in the Philippines will be able to leave their homes, even as an expert warns that many countries are driving blind as they reopen because they haven't set up strong systems to track new outbreaks of the coronavirus.
In the United States, some of the leading experts on infectious diseases are due to speak via video link Tuesday at a Senate hearing — a setting where President Donald Trump will not be controlling the agenda. Democratic senators are expected to ask tough questions about the death toll in the U.S., its testing capabilities and perceived administration failures.
In India, a strict lockdown has so far helped keep confirmed virus infections relatively low among the population of 1.3 billion. Rail, road and air services were all suspended in late March. But in recent days, as the lockdown has eased and some businesses have resumed, infections and deaths have been increasing.
As the colossal rail network begins reopening, special trains will depart from select big cities, including New Delhi and Mumbai, and run at full capacity. Passengers will be allowed to enter stations only if they are asymptomatic and clear thermal screening.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said the country's lockdown, which has restricted millions to their homes and taken a heavy economic toll, will be eased. He warned that people who want to return to work must follow safeguards to avoid more deaths and a second wave of the virus.
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'Express burials' cast doubt on Nicaragua's virus figures
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Roger Ordoñez was hospitalized with breathing problems last week.
When his son Enrique came to visit the next morning, the 69-year-old retiree was already being buried by government workers in protective white full-body suits in a cemetery on the outskirts of Chinandega, a city of 133,000 people in northwest Nicaragua.
The hospital warned the Ordoñez family to self-quarantine for two weeks but said their patriarch did not have the novel coronavirus, even though they were shown no test results.
President Daniel Ortega’s government has stood out for its refusal to impose measures to halt the coronavirus for more than two months since the disease was first diagnosed in Nicaragua. Now, doctors and family members of apparent victims say, the government has gone from denying the disease’s presence in the country to actively trying to conceal its spread.
“I begged the doctor to tell me what happened to him,” Enrique Ordoñez said. “I needed to know if he was infected. I have an 18-month-old girl, my mother has a variety of ailments and we need to know if it was COVID.”
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Atlanta-area DA, 3rd outside prosecutor, to take Arbery case
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Georgia's attorney general appointed a black district attorney from the Atlanta area Monday to take over the case of a white father and son charged with killing a black man, making her the third outside prosecutor in a slaying that's prompted a national outcry over suspicions that race played a role in delaying arrests.
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was fatally shot Feb. 23 by the men who told police they chased him because they believed he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video. Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, were arrested last week, more than two months later, after video of the shooting appeared online and provoked outrage. Federal prosecutors are also considering hate crimes charges, the Justice Department said; that would allow for a separate case in federal court.
Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes takes over the case from prosecutor Tom Durden, who the state's attorney general said asked to be replaced by a prosecutor with a large staff as “this case has grown in size and magnitude.” Holmes is based in metro Atlanta, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the coastal Georgia community in Glynn County where the shooting happened.
“District Attorney Holmes is a respected attorney with experience, both as a lawyer and a judge,” state Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, said in a statement. "And the Cobb County District Attorney’s office has the resources, personnel and experience to lead this prosecution and ensure justice is done.”
Holmes served four years a magistrate judge in suburban Cobb County before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her to fill the vacant district attorney's position last July. According to the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council, Holmes is one of only seven black district attorneys in the state.
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India to start limited trains as it looks to ease lockdown
NEW DELHI (AP) — India is set to reopen some of its colossal rail network on Tuesday and run limited trains as the country looks at easing its nearly seven-week lockdown while coronavirus infections are increasing.
Special trains will depart from select big cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, and run to full capacity. Passengers will be allowed to enter stations only if they are asymptomatic and clear thermal screening; they must maintain social distancing on board and will be given hand sanitizers on entry and exit. More than 45,000 people had purchased train tickets within hours of sales resuming, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Indian Railways also mandated that passengers download a government-run contact tracing smartphone app before boarding the trains. Critics say the Aarogya Setu app endangers civil liberties in how it uses location services and centralizes data collection.
India’s rail, road and air services were suspended in late March as part of a nationwide lockdown. Its strictness has helped keep confirmed coronavirus infections relatively low for a population of 1.3 billion. But in recent days, as the lockdown has eased and some businesses have resumed, infections and deaths due to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, have shot up.
India has confirmed 70,756 cases of coronavirus including 2,293 deaths, but experts believe its outbreak is far greater. Almost a fifth of India’s confirmed infections are people from densely populated cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Ahmedabad, which also are major centers of economic activity.
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Object lesson on a fickle virus frames hearing on reopening
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nobody planned it this way, but a Senate hearing on reopening workplaces and schools safely is turning into a teaching moment on the fickle nature of the coronavirus outbreak.
Senior health officials scheduled to testify in person before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee on Tuesday will instead appear via video link after going into self-quarantine, following their exposure to a White House staffer who tested positive for COVID-19. The chairman of the committee, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, also put himself in quarantine after an aide tested positive. He'll participate by video, too.
Even before the gavel drops, the hearing offers two takeaways for the rest of the country, said John Auerbach, president of the nonprofit public health group Trust for America's Health.
“One thing it tells you is that the virus can have an impact in any workplace setting or any community setting," said Auerbach. “All businesses will find it very challenging to ensure safety when there are cases."
Another lesson is that the public officials involved are taking the virus seriously by not appearing in person. “They are following the guidelines that they are recommending to others," said Auerbach. “There is not a double standard.”
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Virus unleashes wave of fraud in US amid fear and scarcity
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 39-year-old former investment manager in Georgia was already facing federal federal charges that he robbed hundreds of retirees of their savings through a Ponzi scheme when the rapid spread of COVID-19 presented an opportunity.
Christopher A. Parris started pitching himself as a broker of surgical masks amid the nationwide scramble for protective equipment in those first desperate weeks of the outbreak, federal authorities said. Within weeks, Parris was making millions of dollars on sales orders.
Except there were no masks.
Law enforcement officials say Parris is part of what they are calling a wave of fraud tied to the outbreak.
Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is leading a nationwide crackdown. It has opened over 370 cases and so far arrested 11 people, as part of “Operation Stolen Promise,” according to Matthew Albence, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Report: Anti-Semitic incidents in US hit record high in 2019
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — American Jews were targets of more anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 than any other year over the past four decades, a surge marked by deadly attacks on a California synagogue, a Jewish grocery store in New Jersey and a rabbi's New York home, the Anti-Defamation League reported Tuesday.
The Jewish civil rights group counted 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, finding 61 physical assault cases, 1,127 instances of harassment and 919 acts of vandalism. That’s the highest annual tally since the New York City-based group began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979. It also marked a 12% increase over the 1,879 incidents it counted in 2018.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s CEO, attributes last year's record high to a “normalization of anti-Semitic tropes,” the “charged politics of the day” and social media. This year, he said, the COVID-19 pandemic is fueling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
“Anti-Semitism is a virus. It is like a disease, and it persists,” Greenblatt said. “It's sometimes known as the oldest hatred. It never seems to go away. There truly is no single antidote or cure.”
The ADL's count of anti-Semitic assaults involved 95 victims. More than half of the assaults occurred in New York City, including 25 in Brooklyn. Eight of those Brooklyn assaults happened during a span of eight days in December, primarily in neighborhoods where many Orthodox Jews live.
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Lives Lost: Victims of the virus, remembered for tomorrow
Across the world, the devastation caused by the coronavirus is told in the voices of those left behind.
In England, the brother of Amged El-Hawrani, a Sudanese immigrant who became a successful doctor, says a rock of the family has been lost. “We would all lean on him very heavily.”
In the United States, the son of Isaiah Kuperstein says although his dad studied one of humanity’s darkest chapters, the Holocaust, he was a light to those around him. “Every picture that I see now makes me sad, but I see this twinkle in his eyes.”
In Brazil, family worry about the future of baby Alice, whose mother, 28-year-old Rafaela de Jesus Silva, died a week after giving birth. “My heart is broken,” said Rafaela’s aunt. “Her child will never even sit on her lap.”
Many countries have stories like these. They are about lives well lived or cut short, of love, of perseverance, of heartache, of dancing, of laughing and being silly, of sacrifice and bucket lists, and for loved ones left behind, being forced to contemplate a starkly different future after life was upended by an enemy the eye can’t see.