The virus has killed more than 34,000 people worldwide and continues to spread at a rapid pace. Efforts to curb the outbreak have led to the global disruption of daily life and the economy, as schools and workplaces shutter in hopes of slowing transmission.
HuffPost reporters around the world are tracking the pandemic and the measures being taken to flatten the curve of transmission.
Read the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic below. (To see the latest updates, you may need to refresh the page. All times are Eastern. For earlier updates on the pandemic, go here.)
Arizona Schools To Remain Closed For Rest Of Academic Year — 3/30/20, 11:35 a.m. ET
Arizona schools have been ordered to remain closed through the end of the academic year, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) and the state’s superintendent of public instruction, Kathy Hoffman, announced Monday.
“Today’s announcement is intended to give parents and educators as much certainty as possible so they can plan and make decisions,” Ducey and Hoffman said in a joint statement. “While this isn’t the outcome any of us wanted, we are grateful for the partnership of schools around the state, who have stepped up to offer virtual and take-home learning opportunities for our students.”
Several other states, including Virginia and New Mexico, have already closed schools for the remainder of the school year. Kansas became the first state to do so on March 17.
― Hayley Miller
Hungary’s Strongman Prime Minister To Rule By Decree — 3/30/20, 11:30 a.m. ET
Opposition parties have described a bill that would give Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the right to rule by decree during the coronavirus pandemic as the beginning of a “dictatorship.” The legislation extending a state of emergency, which has no expiration date, has triggered criticism from opposition parties, human rights groups and the Council of Europe, Europe’s main human rights forum.
The powers give Orbán the right to close Parliament, change or suspend existing laws and block elections, while those who publish “fake news” face up to five years in jail, HuffPost Italy reported. Orbán has gradually increased his power during his decade in office, bringing him into conflict with the European Union and human rights organizations. Hungary declared a state of emergency on March 11 in response to the spread of coronavirus, which has so far infected 447 people in Hungary and led to 15 deaths.
— James Martin
Maryland Governor Issues Stay-At-Home Order ― 3/30/20 11:25 a.m. ET
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Monday issued a statewide stay-at-home order, joining dozens of other governors who have issued similar executive orders in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
“No Maryland resident should be leaving their home unless it’s for an essential job or an essential reason, such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking urgent medical attention or for other necessary purposes,” Hogan said during a press conference. “In two weeks’ time, the D.C., Maryland and Virginia areas could look like the New York and tri-state area.”
Three days earlier, the USNS Mercy docked in Los Angeles to provide relief for hospitals on the West Coast. The ship is also equipped with 1,000 hospital beds and will treat non-coronavirus patients. The Navy announced Monday that the floating hospital was officially “open for business.”
— Hayley Miller
President Donald Trump said he believes New York, the state with the largest number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 by far, should be “fine” and has “more than enough supplies” to handle the outbreak. His statement came just days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said his state needed 30,000 ventilators based on projections.
“New York is really in trouble, but I think it’s going to end up being fine,” Trump said during a nearly hour-long phone interview with “Fox & Friends.” “We’re giving them a lot of things that they never thought they’d be getting.”
The president complained that the federal government shipped 4,000 ventilators to New York but the state hasn’t used them. Cuomo has said repeatedly that New York is creating a stockpile of ventilators based on what could be needed during the potential apex of the outbreak expected to occur in the next few weeks.
“We’re planning for that worst-case scenario, which the models predict,” Cuomo said during a news conference Saturday.
― Hayley Miller
Netanyahu To Self-Quarantine After Aide Tests Positive — 3/30/20 8:33 a.m. ET
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will quarantine himself after an aide tested positive for COVID-19, his office said Monday.
The 70-year-old took a test for the coronavirus and plans to remain isolated until either the results come back negative or he is cleared by medical doctors. Advisers that he had been in contact with are also voluntarily quarantining themselves, his office said.
— Nina Golgowski
2020 Olympics Will Now Be Held An Entire Year Later — 3/30/20, 8:10 a.m. ET
The 2020 Olympic Games are now set to take place an entire year later, with the opening ceremony scheduled for July 23, 2021, and the closing ceremony on August 8, organizers in Tokyo announced.
Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced he and the International Olympic Committee agreed to postpone the games “to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021.” Read more here.
— Marina Fang
Spain Emergency Chief Tests Positive As Infection Rate Slows — 3/30/20, 6:55 a.m. ET
The daily infection rate in Spain has slowed since the introduction of lockdown measures, with new cases now rising at roughly 12% a day, compared with around 20% before March 25.
The country’s total number of coronavirus cases rose today to 85,195 from 78,797 on Sunday, becoming the third country to surpass China after the U.S. and Italy, according to the latest data.
HuffPost Spain reports (in Spanish) that the death toll rose by 812 in the past 24 hours to 7,340, 26 fewer than recorded the day before.
It was also revealed today that Fernando Simon, the health emergency official who leads Spain’s response to COVID-19, has tested positive for the virus.
Amazon Workers In New York Plan Walkout Over Coronavirus Fears — 3/30/20, 5:40 a.m.
Up to 200 Amazon employees at the e-commerce giant’s Staten Island, New York, warehouse are planning to walk off the job Monday after at least one worker at the facility tested positive for COVID-19.
Organizers said workers would remain on strike until the company agrees to shutter the warehouse — where some 2,500 full-time employees work — and sanitize it.
“People are scared … We’re unsafe. There are thousands of employees at risk,” Chris Smalls, a manager assistant who is leading the walkout, told the New York Post.
Workers in at least 13 of Amazon’s U.S. warehouses have tested positive for COVID-19 since mid-March.
UK Cabin Crew To Staff New Coronavirus Hospitals — 3/30/20, 5:30 a.m. ET
Cabin crew in the U.K. will help staff the new hospitals built to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet have been invited to volunteer at the new 4,000-bed clinic being built at the Excel center in east London, and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester in England.
The news came as EasyJet announced it was grounding its entire fleet due to “unprecedented travel restrictions” caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, with bosses saying “there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights.”
New York State’s Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 1,000 — 3/29/20, 10:25 p.m. ET
New York state’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 1,000 on Sunday, less than a month after the state’s first confirmed infection.
New York City reported Sunday evening that its death toll had risen to 776. The state’s total coronavirus fatalities aren’t expected to be officially released until Monday, but the at least 250 additional deaths recorded outside the city as of Sunday morning makes New York’s total at least 1,026.
The first known case in New York state was confirmed March 1 in a health care worker who had recently returned from Iran. By March 20 ― when Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a stay-at-home order for the state ― 35 New Yorkers had been killed by COVID-19. Nine days later, that number has exceeded 1,000.
Coronavirus has ripped through New York at lightning speed, making it the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city had just one week’s worth of medical supplies to care for infected residents, and that area hospitals are in desperate need for ventilators.
For earlier updates on the pandemic, go here.
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