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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched its first satellite into space Wednesday, dramatically revealing what experts described as a secret military space program that could advance its ballistic missile development amid wider tensions between the Islamic Republic and the U.S.  Using a mobile launcher at a new launch site, the Guard said it put the “Noor,” or “Light,” satellite into a low orbit circling the Earth. While the U.S., Israel and other countries declined to immediately confirm the satellite reached orbit, their criticism suggested they believed the launch happened.Iranian state TV late Wednesday showed footage of what it said was the satellite and said it had orbited the earth within 90 minutes. It said the satellite’s signals were being received.The launch comes as Iran has abandoned all the limitations of its tattered nuclear deal with world powers that President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from in 2018. Trump’s decision set off a monthslong series of escalating attacks that culminated in a U.S. drone strike in January that killed a top Iranian general in Iraq, followed by Tehran launching ballistic missiles at American soldiers in Iraq.As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and historically low oil prices, the missile launch may signal a new willingness to take risks by Iran. Trump himself later tweeted he told the U.S. Navy ” to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” both raising energy prices and renewing the risk of conflict.  “Now that you have the maximum pressure campaign, Iran doesn’t have that much to lose anymore,” said Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.The three-stage satellite launch took off from Iran’s Central Desert, the Guard said, without elaborating.  Hinz said based on state media images, the launch appeared to have happened at a previously unacknowledged Guard base near Shahroud, Iran, some 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of Tehran. The base is in Semnan province, which hosts the Imam Khomeini Spaceport from which Iran’s civilian space program operates.The paramilitary force said it used a “Qased,” or “Messenger,” satellite carrier to put the device into space, a previously unheard-of system. It described the system as using both liquid and solid fuel. Such a system may allow Iran to more quickly fuel a rocket, something crucial in an offensive weapon system, Hinz said, while stressing more information was needed about the launch.Wednesday marked the 41st anniversary of the founding of the Guard by Iran’s late leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. An image of the rocket that carried the satellite showed it bore a Quranic verse typically recited when going on a journey, as well as a drawing of the Earth with the word Allah in Farsi wrapped around it. It remained unclear what the satellite it carried does.”Today, the world’s powerful armies do not have a comprehensive defense plan without being in space, and achieving this superior technology that takes us into space and expands the realm of our abilities is a strategic achievement,” said Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard.The Guard, which operates its own military infrastructure parallel to Iran’s regular armed forces, is a hard-line force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.International criticism of the launch came quickly.  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “Iran needs to be held accountable for what it’s done.”  At a Pentagon news conference Wednesday, senior officials called the satellite launch a provocation.”We view this as further evidence of Iran’s behavior that is threatening in the region,” said David Norquist, the deputy secretary of defense.Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the launched vehicle “went a very long way.” He said it was too early to say whether it successfully placed a satellite in orbit.Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the launch as a “façade for Iran’s continuous development of advanced missile technology.” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger warned that “the Iranian rocket program has a destabilizing effect on the region and is also unacceptable in view of our European security interests.”U.S. Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, a Pentagon spokesman, told The Associated Press that American officials continue to monitor Iran’s program.”While Tehran does not currently have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), its desire to have a strategic counter to the United States could drive it to develop an ICBM,” Lodewick said.The U.S. alleges such satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Iran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.Iran, which long has said it does not seek nuclear weapons, previously maintained its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. The Guard launching its own satellite now calls that into question.Tehran also says it hasn’t violated a U.N. resolution on its ballistic missile program as it only “called upon” Iran not to conduct such tests.  Wednesday’s launch, however, raises new questions. While Iran isn’t known to have the know-how to miniaturize a nuclear weapon for a ballistic missile, any advances toward an intercontinental ballistic missile would put Europe and potentially the U.S. in range. Iran long has said it limits its ballistic missiles’ range to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) under Khamenei’s orders, which puts the Mideast but not the West in its reach.  Iranian commentators described Wednesday’s launch as honoring Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a Guard commander who led its missile development until his death in 2011 in a massive explosion at a facility outside of Tehran that killed 16 others. The state-run IRAN newspaper around that time quoted the slain commander’s brother as saying he worked on an ICBM program, though the brother later denied that in subsequent interviews.  Iran has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent months. A separate fire at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in February 2019 also killed three researchers, authorities said at the time.A rocket explosion in August drew even the attention of Trump, who later tweeted what appeared to be a classified surveillance image of the launch failure. The successive failures raised suspicion of outside interference in Iran’s program, something Trump himself hinted at by tweeting at the time that the U.S. “was not involved in the catastrophic accident.”Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space.
 
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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg will help the state of New York design and fund a program to trace coronavirus infections as part of its strategy to contain the spread of the virus. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative Wednesday, saying it would be done in unison with the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut, and would launch in weeks. FILE – Billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jan. 19, 2020.“Mayor Bloomberg will design the program, design the training, he is going to make a financial contribution also,” Cuomo said of Bloomberg, who was the city’s mayor from 2002 to 2013. “He’s going to put together an organization that can help hire the people.” Other partners include Johns Hopkins University and global health organization Vital Strategies.   Bloomberg, who spent over a billion dollars of his own fortune earlier this year on a failed bid to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, is a well-known philanthropist. He has given away over $8 billion of his wealth to fund causes including climate action and gun control.  The governor’s office said Bloomberg is making an investment of “upwards of $10 million” in the coronavirus tracing initiative. There is an additional $1.3 billion in federal funds available to New York for tracing. In this April 18, 2020, photo, provided by the Office of New York State’s Governor, Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaks at a coronavirus press conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol in Albany.“He has tremendous insight both governmentally and from a private sector business perspective on this,” Cuomo said, pointing to Bloomberg’s offices in China and Europe having gone through coronavirus-related shutdowns and reopenings. New York state has confirmed more than a quarter million COVID-19 infections. More than 15,000 people have died, but the governor said Wednesday that deaths have stopped rising and are on a “gentle decline.”  Cuomo said that the state’s effort to double its testing capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 tests per day, plus the launch of a massive tracing operation, will help New York move into the low-level transmission phase and ultimately, be a key part of how it reopens its economy. Bloomberg plans to start with the state’s current corps of about 225 tracers and build it into the thousands. Cuomo said that the state and New York City’s public universities have about 35,000 medical students who will be an important resource for recruiting tracers. “We are going to have to hire many, many more tracers — the capacity is going to have to expand,” Cuomo said. He said the concentration of tracers would be in proportion to where infection rates are.Currently, the northern part of the state has only about 7% of the total infections, while New York City and its immediate suburbs account for 93%.  
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South Africa’s pharmacists are often overlooked as frontline healthcare workers in the fight against Africa’s worst outbreak of coronavirus, despite frequently being the first in contact with those showing symptoms.  In the rural town of Mokopane, in South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province, pharmacist Bronwyn van Heerden and her colleagues provide medicine to hundreds of patients daily.  Reporter Marize de Klerk brings us van Heerden’s story, told in her own words.
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China will pay close attention to clusters of coronavirus infections, especially in hospitals, according to a top level meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.
 
China’s northeastern city of Harbin has had several clusters of infections in local hospitals.
 
The government also called for efforts to increase coronavirus testing capability and produce more effective testing equipment, according to a statement on the state council’s website.
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Leading U.S. doctors’ organizations are urging the Trump administration to collect data to show who is dying from COVID-19. Data collected so far shows that the coronavirus is killing African-Americans at an alarmingly higher rate than it’s killing white people. More from VOA’s Carol Pearson.
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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has targeted the second half of May as his country’s “horizon of de-escalation,” as his government and others start to plan an exit from strict coronavirus containment measures. Speaking to parliament Wednesday as he requested an extension of current lockdown orders through May 9, Sanchez said when Spain does begin to ease restrictions it will be a “slow and gradual” process. That would be in line with warnings from public health officials who in recent days have urged governments to be careful when lifting restrictions on businesses and public life, saying that moving too quickly would risk a resurgence of infections. Healthcare workers of the Medical Emergency Services of Madrid (SUMMA 112) UVI-6 unit wearing protective suits speak to the wife of a man who has fallen ill at home in Madrid on April 19, 2020.Spain has been one of the world’s most hard-hit countries, with more than 208,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 21,700 deaths. A strict lockdown went into effect in mid-March.  Some businesses have been allowed to reopen, and after public criticism the government said starting Sunday children under the age of 14 will be allowed to go outside for walks. FILE – Medical staff members of a government-run medical college collect swabs from people to test for COVID-19 at a newly installed Walk-In Sample Kiosk in Ernakulam in the southern state of Kerala, India, April 6, 2020.Focus on testing
With many countries around the world focused on testing programs to find the infected, isolate them and trace down their close contacts, there are concerns about areas where widespread testing is not available and where people are living in close quarters. That includes refugee camps, and on Wednesday the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees reported the first confirmed case among refugees in a camp in eastern Lebanon. UNRWA said the woman is a Palestinian from Syria and that she has been taken to a hospital in Beirut.  The agency says it is doing everything necessary to aid her family in isolating themselves, and that it is sending a team to the camp to carry out coronavirus tests. Governments are also eager to find a vaccine for COVID-19, a milestone that would help prevent future massive outbreaks. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that a second wave of infections later this year just as flu season begins “could be even more difficult” and put a massive strain on the health care system. Healthy volunteer receives injection in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle, Washington.The United States and China are among countries currently conducting trials of coronavirus vaccines, with officials cautioning it could take until at least early next year before a vaccine is available to the public. British health officials said Oxford University is set to begin testing a vaccine candidate on  people on Thursday. “In normal times, reaching this stage would take a year,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told reporters.  He cautioned that vaccine development is a process of “trial and error and trial again.”  
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Several countries around the world, including Germany and South Korea, and a number of U.S. states are easing their coronavirus lockdown restrictions this week. But experts caution that a number of conditions need to be in place before people leave their homes and head back out to churches, shops, restaurants and beaches. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story.
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The Trump administration is ordering a 60-day suspension of immigration into the United States, specifically for individuals seeking permanent residence, also known as a green card. Trump said the move is necessary to protect American workers already suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.  
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Canadian police said Tuesday they believe there are at least 22 victims after a gunman wearing a police uniform shot people in their homes and set fires in a rampage across rural communities in Nova Scotia over the weekend. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they have recovered remains from some of the destroyed homes. Earlier, authorities had said at least 18 people were killed in the 12-hour attack.  Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was shot and later died on Sunday. Authorities did not provide further details or give a motive for the killings.  The dead include a 17-year-old as well as a police officer, a police news release said. All the other victims were adults and included both men and women. There were 16 crime scenes in five different communities in northern and central Nova Scotia, it said. “Some of the victims were known to Gabriel Wortman and were targeted while others were not known to him,” the police statement said.  Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers stand in line for a procession as a hearse carrying the body of Constable Heidi Stevenson passes by, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, April 20, 2020.Authorities also confirmed Wortman was wearing an authentic police uniform and one of the cars he used “was a very real look-alike RCMP vehicle.” “This is an unprecedented incident that has resulted in incredible loss and heartbreak for countless families and loved ones. So many lives will be forever touched,” the police statement said.  In an earlier news release, authorities had said they believed there were 23 victims, but Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Daniel Brien later clarified the death toll included 22 victims and the gunman.Authorities said Wortman made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser, allowing him to travel easily within a 30-mile (50-kilometer) area.Police warningsAs the attack ensued, police warned residents in Portapique to lock their doors and stay in their basements. The town, like all of Canada, had been adhering to government advice to remain at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, and most of the victims were inside homes when the attack began. But no wider warning was issued, and questions emerged about why a public emergency alert was not sent province-wide through a system recently used to advise people to maintain social distancing. Police provided Twitter updates, but no alert that would have automatically popped up on cellphones. “There should have been some provincial alert,” said David Matthews, who said he heard a gunshot while walking with his wife Sunday. Shortly after they returned home, their phone started ringing with warnings from friends that there was an active shooter in the neighborhood.  Several bodies were later found inside and outside one house on Portapique Beach Road, police said. Bodies were also found at other locations in Nova Scotia and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly as he drove around.Suspect’s historyAuthorities said Wortman did not have a police record, but information later emerged of at least one run-in with the law. Nova Scotia court records confirm he was ordered to receive counseling for anger management after pleading guilty to assaulting a man in the Halifax area on Oct. 29, 2001. The guilty plea came on Oct. 7, 2002, as his trial was about to begin. He was placed on probation for nine months, fined $50 and told to stay away from the man, and also prohibited from owning or possessing a weapon, ammunition or explosive substances. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki said police were still determining what weapons were used in the attacks. Cheryl Maloney, who lives near where one victim, 54-year-old Gina Goulet, was killed, believes she was likely saved by a warning message Sunday morning from her son that read, “Don’t leave your house. This guy is at the end of your road and he’s dressed like a cop.” “I really could have used that provincial warning, as I walk here all the time and I’ve been in the yard all week,” she said. 
 
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The Institute for International Education (IIE) has committed $1 million to aid international students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks nominations for students in need of that funding. As U.S. colleges and universities have shut down their campuses and asked students to return home for the duration of stay-at-home orders, many of the more than 1 million international students attending school in the U.S. face additional burdens.  “The necessary but abrupt campus closures are devastating for many international students,” wrote IIE President Allan E. Goodman on the institute’s website. “Some are unable to go home to be with their families — border closures and canceled flights make it impossible. Others made the difficult decision to remain in the U.S. anticipating they might not be able to return when their university reopens.” IIE’s one-time Emergency Student Fund is worth $2,500 for selected students enrolled at IIE network member institutions and pursuing associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees. The global membership network is comprised of more than 7,000 professionals at 1,300 higher education institutions around the world, according to  
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: Phil “Dr. Phil” McGraw said there are 360,000 annual deaths in the U.S. from swimming pools. He’s since said he was citing the worldwide number and “misspoke.”Verdict: FalseRead the full story: “Dr. Phil’s faulty point about the coronavirus and swimming pools,” PolitiFact​. Social Media Disinfo​Bill GatesCirculating on social media: Claim that Microsoft owns patent “666,” which involves inserting microchips into people to mine their activity for cryptocurrency purposes.Verdict: Mostly FalseRead the full story at: “Does Microsoft Own Patent ‘666’ About Implanting Microchips in People?” — Snopes​ Factual Reads on CoronavirusA New Doctor Faces the Coronavirus in Queens
A front-line physician at Elmhurst Hospital sees how closely socioeconomic status is tied to the disease, and tries to help patients who are dying without their families.
— The New Yorker, April 20Coronavirus myths explored
As the coronavirus continues to make the news, a host of untruths has surrounded the topic. In this special feature, we address some of these myths and conspiracies.
— Medical News Today, April 16
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Global advocates for media freedom said Tuesday that while “total impunity” for violent crimes against journalists has persisted in Pakistan, workers at the country’s leading independent newspapers and television channels continue to work without pay or with major salary cuts associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. FILE – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 16, 2020.RSF also accused Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government of trying “to step up online regulation” to encourage media censorship. Pakistani officials did not immediately comment on the report. Both the government and the military, however, have consistently denied allegations they want to curtail mainstream or social media freedoms in the country.  Journalists unpaid  Separately, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Tuesday that employees at Pakistan’s largest group of independent newspapers and TV stations, Jang Media, have not been paid for more than four months.  Pakistani journalists and activists have welcomed the IFJ statement, saying it highlights an issue that plagues almost the entire industry in the country where a majority of media workers have long complained of delayed payment or nonpayment of their salaries for months.  “Media workers in Pakistan are currently facing some of the worst of the economic pressures associated with COVID-19 after struggling with years of systematic wage theft,” lamented an IFJ statement. The Brussels-based global voice for journalists demanded the administration of Jang Media Group immediately pay the outstanding salaries and reinstate all employees it recently terminated.  There was no immediate reaction from the Jang Media Group to the allegations. Last month, Pakistani anti-corruption authorities arrested the company’s owner and editor-in-chief, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, for illegally obtaining government land more than 30 years ago.  Rahman’s group and attorneys have rejected accusations of wrongdoing in the real estate purchase deal, denouncing the arrest as an “attack on the freedom of expression.”  Shakeel Qarar, the president of the national press club in Islamabad, says newspaper owners and television channels in some cases have not paid their employees for at least 10 months.  “Those who have protested … nonpayments have even been laid off without clearing their outstanding dues,” Qarar told VOA. “This has forced a large number of journalists to look for other streams of income such as video blogging on social media while others are driving cabs or have opened shops to feed their families,” he said.  Journalists working in mainstream media say that since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Pakistan, their owners have told them to work from home for safety reasons on the one hand and have cut salaries as well as travel allowances citing a lack of outdoor activity on the other.  Most media groups had made the last bulk payments of outstanding salaries to their employees in June 2018 when they were ordered to do so by Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Media owners argue that one of the main reasons they are unable to pay or ensure timely payment of salaries to their employees is nonpayment of government advertisement charges that has strained their financial resources. Pakistani officials and independent observers question the argument, saying owners of major media companies have for decades benefited from the public advertisement system, but they have not passed on the benefit to their workers.   
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Quarantine and lockdowns in many U.S. states has moved life online including the search for love and companionship. For now, that will ha to be virtual… using dating apps. Karina Bafradzhian investigated dating during a pandemic.  
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Paris police are facing a modest uptick of unrest in the oft-troubled suburbs of the locked-down French capital, making a small number of arrests after fires were set and fireworks lobbed to shatter the calm imposed by stay-home measures to counter the coronavirus.  
A scattering of vehicle and trash can blazes and firework explosions on the outskirts of Paris this week have so far been far milder than previous outbreaks of violence. But the renewed tensions are also a reminder of policing difficulties that have long simmered in troubled neighborhoods of the city, before the virus lockdown forced most people indoors.  
Paris police said officers arrested nine people in two suburbs overnight Tuesday. They were suspected of either possessing fireworks or gathering together to commit violence.
A possible trigger for the flare-up appears to have been a traffic accident this past weekend involving a police car and a motorcyclist who was injured. Police reported that projectiles were thrown at officers following the crash on Saturday evening.
The French lockdown, in place since March 17, has been particularly tough for families jammed together in small apartments in the poorer Paris suburbs. The stay-home orders and police patrols to enforce them have also disrupted underground economies that are centered around drug-dealing and other crime in unruly projects. 
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U.S. lawmakers are close to an agreement on a $450 billion package to help small businesses and hospitals in the latest move to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. The Senate could vote as early as Tuesday on the legislation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said if the Senate gives its approval Tuesday, the House “could meet as early as Thursday” to consider the bill. The majority of the money would be targeted at small businesses that missed out on an earlier pool of rescue money.   Under that program, if a business used the aid to pay employees during the next two months then the government will assume responsibility for the costs and the business will not have to pay it back.   Officials want to help people stay employed and have businesses as ready as possible to ramp up their activity when it becomes safe for customers to return. A homeless panhandler checks his bucket for money along Wall Street where much of the Financial District stands empty as the coronavirus keeps financial markets and businesses mostly closed on April 20, 2020 in New York City.The governors of several U.S. states have announced plans to begin relaxing stay-at-home orders, including some beginning next week. Some states have seen small protests calling for a return to regular economic activity. But the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned Monday that those who are ignoring the stay-at-home orders could be hurting the chances for economic recovery. “Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going happen,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show.  “So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike (in more coronavirus cases), you’re going to set yourself back.”    Trump has praised the protesters, saying that some governors “have gone too far” in imposing restrictions. 
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The southern African country of Lesotho’s coalition government is calling for the immediate resignation of scandal-plagued Prime Minister Thomas Thabane. The 80-year-old leader has been under pressure to leave office after being linked to the murder of his estranged wife, 58-year-old Lipolelo Thabane, three years ago. The prime minister’s current wife, Maesaiah Thabane, is charged with shooting to death  Lipolelo, two days before Thabane’s inauguration in 2017. Both the government of Lesotho and South African mediators released a joint statement Monday, saying Thabane’s departure should be graceful and that he gets what is described as a secure retirement. Its unclear if that means Thabane would no longer face legal consequences for his alleged ties to his estranged wife’s murder. Thabane has also been criticized for calling up troops over the weekend to restore order in Lesotho, following his claim some leaders in law enforcement were seeking to undermine democracy in the small country surrounded by South Africa.  Observers believe the troop deployment to the capital, Maserua, was a last ditch effort by Thabane to remain in power.  A day before he called up the troops, his authority took another hit when the constitutional court ruled against his decision to suspend parliament. Although Thabane has previously promised to leave office at the end of July,  South African mediator Jeff Radebe told reporters his departure should be imminent.  
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The Oregon governor’s office on Monday circulated its own version of a three-phase federal guideline to lift restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, including allowing child care facilities and possibly restaurants to reopen in phase one. The Trump administration guidelines say there first needs to be downward trajectories, during a 14-day period, of influenza-like illnesses, COVID-19-like cases, of documented cases or of positive tests as a percent of total tests, as well as “robust testing and contact tracing.” Oregon, however, has some counties where there no or few COVID-19 cases. The draft circulating among state leaders says Oregon will likely use modified metrics, especially for rural counties who have small numbers. FILE – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown speaks at a news conference in Portland, Oregon, March 16, 2020.Democratic Gov. Kate Brown’s draft plan contains no time frame on when the drop in cases is expected to occur. It says experience in other countries and modeling says reducing social distancing too quickly will create a spike in cases. The plan comes as Republicans, a minority in the state Legislature, said they are ramping up pressure on the governor to lift economic restrictions on parts of the state that have not been hit as hard by the virus, including rural Oregon.”The rural districts my caucus and I represent should be able to return to a new normal and get back to work,” said Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass. In the federal guidelines, under phase one restaurants, sports venues, theaters and churches could open, with strict physical distancing and sanitation protocols. But the Oregon draft plan says sports venues, theaters and churches would likely remain closed. However, state officials are looking at allowing sit-down dining. And while the federal guidelines say bars should remain closed in phase one, Oregon will instead have a work group to propose a phase one plan. Oregon’s many brewpubs, wine-tasting rooms and bars have been hit hard economically by Brown’s shutdown order. Phase two and phase threeOregon is still evaluating the federal guidelines on phase two and phase three. Under the Trump administration “Opening Up America Guidelines” released last Thursday, in phase two, gatherings can increase to 50 people, nonessential travel can resume, and schools and gyms can open under physical distancing. Phase three would see mass gatherings size increases, work sites with unrestricted staffing, visitors to nursing homes allowed, restaurants and bars to have more seating. FILE – Health care workers wheel a gurney into Salem Hospital’s emergency room in Salem, Oregon, April 9, 2020.Brown’s draft plan says all that needs review by the Oregon Health Authority, Brown’s Medical Advisory Panel and local public health officials. The Oregon Health Authority reported an additional coronavirus death Monday — a 45-year-old Marion County man with underlying medical conditions — raising the overall toll to 75. It also reported 47 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases, raising the total to over 1,950. Over 40,000 residents have been tested for the coronavirus since the state confirmed its first case on Feb. 28.For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover. 
 
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