State superintendent says schools may remain closed
OLYMPIA — State school superintendent Chris Reykdal said schools may remain closed for the rest of the school year in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“I don’t know if school is coming back,” Reykdal, head of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said in a weekly video briefing posted on OSPI’s YouTube channel. “And I want to be honest about that.”
On March 17, Gov. Jay Inslee closed schools until April 24 as a measure to “promote social distancing” and limit or prevent the person-to-person spread of the novel coronavirus. The first COVID-19 case in Washington was confirmed on Jan. 19.
As of late Sunday, the state Department of Health has reported 7,591 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Washington and 310 deaths.
Reykdal said it is important to health and well-being across the state to “flatten the curve” and keep the number of COVID-19 cases that require hospitalization within the state’s capacity to treat people who become seriously ill from the disease.
“If we rush back to school and put all of us in tight classrooms and get everyone back into our buildings, there’s a chance the caseloads peak back up again, and that would be the worst thing for public health,” Reykdal said.
Reykdal said that Gov. Jay Inslee, who recently extended his stay-at-home order for all non-essential employees to Monday, May 4, would make the final decision about when to reopen schools. However, he said students, teachers and families should expect to be studying from home “for quite a long time.”
“That’s the honest truth,” he added.
However, Reykdal said that this year’s high school seniors are still going to graduate. The state Board of Education has the ability to waive certain requirements, and teachers have the ability to “make independent assessments” about students, what they know and their “ability to meet standards.”
But Reykdal said he needs students to keep working.
“It does require a good faith effort,” he said. “We can’t put our pencils and pens down and say hey, we’re done. We’ve got to work through this.”
— Columbia Basin Herald
599 people in New York died overnight from coronavirus
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that New York will remain “on pause” through the end of the month, as another 599 people died overnight from coronavirus in the Empire State.
The limited shutdown —which began March 22 and requires all non-essential workers to stay at home at nearly all times —will remain in effect until April 29 at least, Cuomo said during his daily briefing from Albany.
“I know what it does to the economy, but as I said from day one, I am not going to choose between public health and economic activity,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo reported 599 people died between Sunday and Monday morning, bringing the state’s total death toll to 4,758. New York now has at least 130,689 confirmed cases of COVID-19, Cuomo said.
“New York is still by far the most impacted state,” the governor said.
The city —which is bearing the brunt of New York’s COVID-19 outbreak —reported 67,820 confirmed cases as of Monday at 9:30 a.m.
At least 219 people died from the virus in NYC between Sunday and Monday morning, bringing the city’s total death toll to 2,475, according to Health Department data.
— New York Daily News
NYC parks could become ‘temporary’ burial sites as coronavirus deaths increase
NEW YORK — New York City has plans to turn parks into temporary cemeteries if the death toll from coronavirus continues to spike, according to a Manhattan politician.
With morgues and funeral homes overwhelmed, the city will dig trenches with 10 caskets each if needed, Councilman Mark Levine tweeted Monday.
“It will be done in a dignified, orderly — and temporary — manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take,” wrote Levine, D-Manhattan.
“The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets, added Levine, who chairs the Council’s Health Committee.
He emphasized the park burials are a “contingency plan” and “if the death rate drops enough, it will not be necessary.”
“We’re monitoring capacity closely, but there are no immediate plans to do this,” a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an email.
New York City had 67,820 confirmed COVID cases and 4,758 deaths as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Health Department.
The park burial plan comes as some funeral homes have been so overwhelmed, they’ve stopped making arrangements for mourning families. The city built a massive makeshift morgue at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan last month.
De Blasio said the city has the capacity to do “temporary burials,” but did not go into detail.
— New York Daily News
British PM Boris Johnson moved to intensive care
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care after his condition worsened while being treated in hospital for his infection with novel coronavirus, Downing Street said late Monday.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will “deputize where necessary” while Johnson remains in intensive care, Downing Street said.
“Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus,” it said.
“Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.”
Asked earlier if Johnson had received oxygen or had contracted pneumonia, Downing Street declined to comment.
— McClatchy News Service
Spain reports new coronavirus cases at lowest since March 22
Spain reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases in more than two weeks, a sign that Europe’s biggest outbreak is slowing.
New infections were 4,273, taking the total to 135,032, according to Health Ministry data on Monday. The death toll rose by 637 to 13,055 in the past 24 hours, a smaller gain than Sunday’s 674 and the lowest number of daily fatalities since March 24.
With more fatalities from the disease than China, where the pandemic originated, public opinion of the government’s management of the crisis has consistently deteriorated. Just 27.7% of voters approve the administration’s actions, compared with 35.1% three weeks ago, according to a GAD3 poll published Monday by Spanish newspaper ABC.
With the entire country under lockdown since March 14, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced over the weekend that he will seek parliamentary approval to extend the current state of emergency by two weeks to April 25.
To bolster the overwhelmed health service, Spain’s government has called on the armed forces, deploying some 7,000 personnel in the military’s biggest peace-time operation. Soldiers are setting up 16 temporary hospitals, flying medical gear in from China and transporting patients, according to Defense Minister Margarita Robles.
— Bloomberg News
Half the U.S .supply of Trump-touted virus drug now cut off
Nearly half the supply of hydroxychloroquine to the U.S. comes from makers in India, a flow that has now been abruptly stanched after the Asian nation banned exports of all forms of the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a “game changer” for treating the coronavirus.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence, 47% of the U.S. supply of the drug last year came from India makers. Only a handful of suppliers in the top 10 are non-Indian, such as Actavis, now a subsidiary of Israeli generics giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. It’s likely that some of their production facilities are nevertheless located in India, the biggest maker of generic drugs in the world.
India’s export ban on the drug is aimed at ensuring it has enough supply for domestic use after the American president’s endorsement sparked global stockpiling of the medication.
While Trump said that the U.S. has secured 29 million choloroquine or hydroxychloroquine pills for its medical stockpile and American drugmakers like Mylan NV have re-started production of the tablets to meet U.S. needs, the India ban will likely push prices of the medication up in the short-term, while limiting supply in the long-term.
— Bloomberg News
