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South Koreans stood in socially distanced lines, disinfected their hands, and wore face masks and gloves inside polling stations as they participated in one of the world’s first major elections of the coronavirus era. Having already rapidly slowed the spread of the coronavirus, South Korea is implementing wide-ranging measures to ensure Wednesday’s parliamentary vote does not lead to a resurgence of the disease.  Standing one meter apart, voters began lining up at 6:00 a.m. local time at polling stations, which were disinfected ahead of the election. Poll workers provided a squirt of hand sanitizer and disposable plastic gloves, while checking voter temperatures with contact-free thermometers. Those with symptoms voted at separate booths.  Voters in quarantine or self-isolation will be allowed to cast ballots after regular voting ends later in the day.  South Korea’s experience could be instructive for other countries planning elections during a time of social distancing. Experts have warned that bringing millions of voters to the same locations could allow the disease to spread rapidly.  Postponing: not an option  Some other countries where the virus has not been contained already have delayed elections.  But postponing the vote was out of the question for South Korea, said Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group. “South Koreans have trauma from two authoritarian regimes between 1963-1988, so elections are particularly essential to their democracy,” she said. “Not even the Korean War stopped them from voting in the 1952 presidential race.”  Referendum on Moon People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s New Year’s speech at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020.Wednesday’s vote effectively serves as a midterm referendum on South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Moon’s political fortunes have rebounded after he oversaw one of the world’s most effective coronavirus responses.  South Korea was initially one of the countries hardest hit by the virus. But it quickly became a global model for coronavirus containment, after the government implemented a mass campaign of testing, data-driven investigations of infection paths, and effective treatment and isolation of those exposed to the virus. The number of new daily infections in South Korea has recently slowed to about 30, and officials in Seoul are now considering how to begin reopening the economy. Amid the pandemic, Moon’s approval rating has surged above 50% – putting him in an unusually comfortable position for a South Korean president entering the second half of his single, five-year term in office. The coronavirus has largely overshadowed other issues plaguing Moon, including a sluggish economy, a corruption controversy involving his now-resigned justice minister, and an inability to advance talks with North Korea.  North Korea: not a big factor In a reminder of how Moon’s outreach to Pyongyang has failed, North Korea launched a series of short-range missiles Tuesday, just a day ahead of the South Korean vote. North Korea often conducts military provocations ahead of South Korean elections –ostensibly to influence the vote or pressure the government in Seoul.  “This cycle, there has been less debate in Seoul about relations with Pyongyang because COVID-19 has taken up so much political bandwidth,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “The Kim regime, however, will not be ignored and may even be a bit annoyed about South Koreans practicing their democracy on [North Korean founder] Kim Il Sung’s birthday,” which also is on Wednesday, Easley added. North Korea has conducted five rounds of short-range missile tests this year, after conducting 13 rounds last year. The launches have received relatively little media coverage in South Korea, meaning they may not affect the vote.  Turnout concerns There are concerns the pandemic may persuade many of South Korea’s 44 million eligible voters to stay home.  Some of those concerns were allayed after the country saw a record number of early voters cast ballots last week – a factor that could prevent overcrowding on election day.  But some problems couldn’t be fixed. Only about half of eligible South Korean voters living in foreign countries were able to vote, because of coronavirus-related lockdowns overseas. Additionally, COVID-19 patients being treated at hospitals or other facilities were able to vote by mail only if they applied during a five-day period in late March.  Preserving democracy Despite those challenges, South Korea moved ahead with the election – setting an example for other countries that will try to preserve democracy, as well as voter health in future elections.  “If we had postponed the election, we would have to fight COVID-19 without a legitimate government, which is far more dangerous than infection from voting booths,” said Lee Sang-sin, a research fellow who focuses on political science and public opinion at the Korean Institute for National Unification. “The best cure for the COVID-19 is, so far as we know, competent and responsive leadership.”  “So, it is not that South Korea is holding an election in spite of the virus,” he says. “We need an election to fight the disease now more than ever. Democracy is not a luxury. It is essential.”  
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U.S. funding to the World Health Organization is being halted by President Donald Trump, who blames it for creating “a 20-fold increase” in COVID-19 cases worldwide.The U.N. health agency, according to Trump, made a “disastrous decision” to oppose his restrictions on travel from China and put “political correctness above life-saving measures.”  The action had been expected as Trump repeatedly signaled the move after accusing the WHO of having a bias in favor of China, despite the United States being its largest single funder.President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus pandemic in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 14, 2020.The president said the freeze on funds for the global agency will remain in place “for 60 to 90 days” while a review of its response to the outbreak of the coronavirus is conducted.Trump contends that the WHO failed in its “basic duty” to investigate early reports out of China about the virus in December of last year.FILE – Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2020.”Withholding funds for WHO in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century makes as much sense as cutting off ammunition to an ally as the enemy closes in,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee and ranking member of the subcommittee on State Department and foreign operations.”The White House knows that it grossly mishandled this crisis from the beginning, ignoring multiple warnings and squandering valuable time, dismissing medical science, comparing COVID-19 to the common cold, and saying ‘everything will be fine,'” Leahy said.After a backlash, including from several key senators in his own Republican Party, Trump modified his assertions of the previous day that he would use his “ultimate authority” to soon lift stay-at-home directives and reopen the country’s economy.Reopening individual statesTrump announced he would allow each governor to decide on how and when they would reopen their individual economies.”We’ll open it up in beautiful little pieces,” he said, explaining that in his view 20 of the 50 states are “in extremely good shape” and have been spared, until now, the brunt of the coronavirus.According to the president, some states not hard hit by the virus could reopen before May 1, the day after the social distancing extended guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are to end.Trump on Monday said he “calls the shots,” in reply to a question from VOA about whether consortiums of states developing their own reopening plans pose a challenge to his authority to declare a national reopening amid the pandemic.FILE – New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the press at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, March 27, 2020.”They can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States,” Trump said.In response Tuesday, the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, said Trump was “clearly spoiling for a fight” with state leaders, but “I am not going to fight with him,” explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 25,000 Americans, is no time for any division between the federal and state governments.Asked about Cuomo’s remark that he was acting more like a king than a president, Trump replied: “I didn’t declare myself as king.”Adam White, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA, “The president has some rhetorical authority, that’s why he’s giving all these press conferences and speeches. But day-to-day authority really does reside first and foremost with state and local governments and it always has under our system of government.” COVID-19 testingDr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, on Tuesday, told the Associated Press that the United States does not yet have the critical testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the nation’s economy.FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, April 13, 2020.”We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” Fauci said.Governors also said this week they do not have sufficient testing supplies to carry out mass surveillance.Trump said the federal government is going to insist states test people at their borders for COVID-19.Cuomo and five other governors of northeastern states began deliberations Tuesday on a regional plan to reopen their economies. The governors of three Western states, California, Oregon and Washington, also announced Monday they are similarly taking a unified approach. The East and West Coast consortiums together represent about 100 million people, nearly a third of the country’s population.Trump also announced on Tuesday the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups to suggest guidelines on reopening the country. The members will include business and labor union leaders, as well as economists, religious leaders and politicians.”They already know what I want,” the president said. “I don’t have to give them instructions. These are very sophisticated people. These are the best people in their fields.”The new grouping is viewed as a potential counterweight to the primary task force focused on public health. Neither Fauci nor another high-profile member of the initial task force, Dr. Deborah Birx, spoke at Tuesday’s event.Airline industry bailoutTrump also announced his administration has reached an agreement in principle with 10 U.S. airlines over the terms of a $25 billion bailout to prop up an industry crippled by the pandemic.The president of the Association of Flight Attendants union, Sara Nelson, called the payout “an unprecedented accomplishment,” but she criticized Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for delaying the funds and for asking that airlines repay a portion of them.”We welcome the news that a number of major airlines intend to participate in the Payroll Support Program,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “This is an important CARES Act program that will support American workers and help preserve the strategic importance of the airline industry while allowing for appropriate compensation to the taxpayers.” Patsy Widakuswara and Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
  
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North Korea is among a handful of countries in the world claiming to be free of COVID-19. The country is also among the most ill-prepared for a coronavirus outbreak.”I do think the North Korean government is very well aware of how weak their health care system is,” said Katharina Zellweger, director of KorAid, a Hong-Kong-based non-governmental organization. “They’re afraid they can’t cope with an outbreak, and this is why all these measures were put into place so early.”Zellweger, who has been providing humanitarian aid to North Korea since 1995, spoke during a conference call Monday hosted by the Wilson Center.She explained that North Korea sealed off its border with China at the end of January, quarantined foreigners and enforced domestic travel restrictions.Crumbling medical systemNorth Korea ranked 193th out of 195 countries surveyed, followed by Somalia and Equatorial Guinea, in the Global Health Index, in a study released last October by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.FILE – Volunteers carry out disinfection work during an anti-virus campaign in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this image released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), March 4, 2020.The index gauged each country’s level of preparedness for a major infectious disease outbreak. North Korea scored “nil” in the category of infection control practices and the availability of equipment.”The system of testing and diagnosing an infectious disease is nonexistent in North Korea. Only a few hospitals can conduct blood tests,” a Western expert familiar with the medical system in Pyongyang told VOA. The expert requested anonymity.”North Korea’s medical system is fragile and weak, and they’re only able to treat only a handful of critically ill patients,” Kee Park, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said at a forum hosted Tuesday by the U.S. Institute of Peace.Park, who has been working alongside North Korean doctors for the past 13 years in medical aid programs, cited epidemic modeling by Imperial College London to explain how COVID-19 cases in North Korea will quickly exceed hospital capacity.Upholding North Korea’s claims of virus-free status, Park said he thinks “the North Koreans succeeded in flattening the curve and maybe completely squashed it,” but he still advises Pyongyang to “continue to apply the comprehensive preventive measures until treatment and vaccine becomes available.”Economic blowIn a recent report, the World Food Program put North Korea among 49 poor countries at risk of facing devastating economic consequences from the coronavirus. Aid workers say a negative impact is already being felt on the ground.FILE – People review information explaining the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Phyongchon District People’s Hospital in Pyongyang, North Korea, April, 1, 2020.”Spring and early summer have always been a difficult period with (food) stocks depleting — the so-called barley season,” Zellweger said. “And now with trading at nearly a halt, long quarantine for cargo, international transport problems, a possible lack of fertilizer supplies, seeds, plastic sheeting and other agricultural inputs, add additional pressure.”Scott Snyder, director of the U.S.-Korea Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, cautions that North Korea’s COVID quarantine measures may give more control to the regime.”Quarantine increases the scarcity of goods and in turn increases internal dependency on the leadership. … Scarcity, I think, also indirectly serves the state’s desire to reassert centralized economic control over distribution and availability of goods,” Snyder said.Other experts point to potential regime instability after the outbreak.”My fear is that a coronavirus outbreak in North Korea could have devastating effects on the Korean people, on the military and on (the) regime elite, which can lead to internal instability for the regime,” said David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, at the forum hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace.William Kim contributed to this report.
 
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Businesses around the world are struggling to survive amid the lockdown restrictions imposed in many countries to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus pandemic.  In Malaysia, a popular hamburger chain is among those coping with a shutdown order for restaurants to close in the evening – a measure that is severely cutting the chain’s earnings.  More from Dave Grunebaum in Kuala Lumpur.  
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For people who lost homes to the deadly tornadoes that rampaged across the South, there are no comforting hugs from volunteers or handshakes from politicians. There are no Red Cross shelters for homeless families, who are staying instead in hotel rooms to avoid large gatherings.The disaster response reflected how the coronavirus pandemic has changed relief efforts: Workers are still trying to provide all the comfort they can, but from a distance.Within hours of the tornado onslaught, which began Sunday, church groups were out in affected communities, and Southern Baptist volunteers were told to avoid holding hands with people as they pray, said Sam Porter, director of disaster relief for the nearly 15 million-member denomination. Hugs also are out.”You’re talking about a very hard change in procedures,” Porter said Tuesday. “It’s agonizing. Jesus touched people all through his ministry. He created us as emotional beings. But we are trying to comply with the guidelines.”People work at a damaged home in Chattanooga, Tenn., April 14, 2020.About 550 people in four states were staying in hotel rooms funded by the Red Cross since mass shelters were not an option during the pandemic, said Brad Kieserman, a vice president of the organization.People are being fed catered meals delivered to the hotels instead of through a mass kitchen, he said, and workers are wearing masks, gloves and other gear when dealing with people affected by the storms. Other agencies are making similar provisions, he said.”How ironic is it that the very thing that may unify people and unify communities is the condition in which we have to remain 6 feet apart,” Kieserman said.The death toll from the outbreak rose to at least 34 as officials said a 12th person had died in Mississippi. There, Gov. Tate Reeves, who toured damaged areas, said the pandemic was making a bad situation worse.”The fact that the coronaviruses exist is complicating the recovery from the tornado, while the tornadoes are complicating our efforts to make sure that we do everything in our power to stop the spread of the virus,” Reeves said during a stop in tiny Soso. “It is it is exceptionally complicated, and it’s tough on all of us.”A twister left shingles, insulation and other debris strewn across Chattanooga, Tennessee. 
Almost every official on a tour of storm damage wore a protective mask, and some wore gloves. Instead of hugs and handshakes, Gov. Bill Lee and Mayor Andy Berke offered elbow bumps while talking to affected residents.Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, center, talks with residents as he visits a storm-damaged area in Chattanooga, Tenn., April 14, 2020.”We need money! We need that stimulus check now!” a person in a passing pickup truck yelled out to Lee as he visited with people cleaning around their home.The storms claimed lives in at least six states, and the National Weather Service said preliminary assessments found evidence of at least 27 twisters. The strongest confirmed so far was an EF-4 tornado that devastated southeastern Mississippi with winds as strong as 170 mph (273 kph).Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed across the regoin, and heavy rains caused flooding in some areas. Nashville, Tennessee, broke a 71-year-old record by receiving 2.23 inches (5.66 centimeters) of rain in a day, the weather service said. A day later, on Tuesday morning, the city saw snow flurries.Damage occurred up the East Coast, with a flurry of tornado warnings issued in Delaware after storms left the Southeast.With the economy already faltering because of business shutdowns and job losses linked to the pandemic, the Mississippi State University Extension Service said storms hit the state’s $2.9 billion poultry industry. At least 90 poultry houses were damaged or destroyed, many near the city of Collins.”Although some houses were between flocks and empty, many of these houses had chickens in them,” poultry specialist Tom Tabler said in a statement. “Some would have been chicks just a few days old, while others would have been flocks nearly ready for harvest.”
 
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China has approved clinical trials for two more experimental vaccines to combat the novel coronavirus, officials said Tuesday, as the world’s scientists race to beat the pandemic.   The vaccines use inactivated coronavirus pathogens, and the approvals pave the way for early-stage human trials, Wu Yuanbin, an official from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology told a regular press briefing.   China’s state food and drug administration on Monday approved one vaccine developed by a Beijing-based unit of Nasdaq-listed Sinovac Biotech, Wu said.   Another vaccine, being developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was approved on Sunday, he added.   China now has three different clinical trials for three possible coronavirus vaccines in the works.   Beijing approved the first trial for a vaccine developed by the military-backed Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Hong Kong-listed biotech firm CanSino Bio on March 16.   That day the U.S. drug developer Moderna said it had begun human tests for their vaccine with the U.S. National Institutes of Health.   “Vaccination of subjects during the first phase of clinical trials and the recruitment of volunteers for the second phase of clinical trials began on April 9,” Wu said.   “It’s the world’s first novel coronavirus vaccine to initiate Phase II clinical studies.”   There are currently no approved vaccines or medication for the COVID-19 disease, which has killed more than 120,000 people worldwide and infected nearly two million.   Chinese teams were also racing to develop vaccines using other methods including using attenuated influenza virus vectors or injecting specific nucleic acid.   Several of these projects are currently undergoing animal testing and quality inspections, Wu said.   “The vaccines using the above technical methods are expected to be submitted for clinical trials in April and May,” he added.   Experts have raised hopes that a vaccine could be ready within 18 months. 
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In Italy, bookstores, stationary stores and shops selling baby clothes and supplies were allowed to open nationwide on Tuesday, provided they could maintain the same social-distancing and sanitary measures required in supermarkets.
 
But there was no coherency to the openings, with some regional governors and individual shop owners still deciding to keep their doors shut for now.
 
Hard-hit Lombardy and Piemonte kept their bookshops and stationary shops closed, while central Lazio postponed any opening for another week to allow stores to put in place sanitary measures to protect both staff and shoppers alike. Veneto was allowing them to open two days a week under a gradual loosening that the governor termed “lockdown light.”
 
Another segment of workers allowed back on the job Tuesday were forestry workers, to clear dead trees ahead of the warming weather that brings with it forest fire season.
 
While the list of commercial activities allowed to reopen seemed random, officials offered the explanation that students needed to restock up on school supplies, new parents needed to outfit their growing babies. And Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini argued that books were an “essential good” for Italians cooped up at home.
 
“The same distancing and security measures as supermarkets will be required, but they’ll reopen,” Franceschini tweeted. “It’s not a symbolic gesture, but the recognition that even books are an essential good.”
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Listeners are mourning the coronavirus death of legendary Jamaican radio broadcaster Gil Bailey.  Media outlets say he died of complications from the virus at age 84 on Monday in New York, where he was championed as the voice of Jamaican and Caribbean radio for five decades. Bailey’s Saturday radio program was a must listen in the metropolitan New York area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, which has a large Jamaican and Caribbean community.  Since last July, Bailey also hosted a YouTube program, where he showcased West Indian music of all forms, including calypso and gospel. Bailey was considered a pioneer among radio personalities, many of whom followed his format of using entertainment to inform the Caribbean community in greater New York.  Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, Olivia Grange, expressed her condolences, saying she was a friend of Bailey’s and worked with him for years in promoting Jamaica. 
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Vietnam’s cities have set up checkpoints in their fight against COVID-19, in some cases conducting virus tests on all who enter as they ramp up measures to prevent a second or third wave of the virus from hitting the nation. 
 
The northern city of Hai Phong was the latest to ramp up restrictions, beginning Saturday, when the People’s Committee issued a regulation suspending new permits that allow drivers to transport goods in and out of the city.  
 
The committee joined larger cities Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang in setting up checkpoints to more closely monitor the flow of people and goods through its borders.  
 
Bigger cities went a step further. Photos from government media show municipal officials in blue plastic body suits screening all drivers with contactless thermometers to check for fever at the borders.  
 
“We have won each battle, but the whole battle is still ahead,” Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said. 
 
Authorities are ramping up measures out of concern that people will become complacent since Vietnam was able to limit the first wave of COVID-19 to fewer than 100 reported cases in February.  
 
One sign of this is the presence of motorbike drivers racing in Ho Chi Minh City, taking advantage of the empty roads since the Southeast Asian nation began lockdown on April 1.  
 
Although there is a national restriction of public gatherings of more than two people at a time, illegal motorbike racing also is happening in the capital city of Hanoi along with gatherings around lakes and other public places, particularly among young people.The central beach town of Danang is among those in Vietnam that set up checkpoints to limit movement. (VOA News)The Hanoi People’s Committee said Monday it has asked police to fine those who go out without approved reasons. The committee has issued a regulation to penalize those who violate quarantine, fail to submit health declaration forms, recycle used masks, produce fake medical products, or price gouge products in high demand. Pharmacies in the capital are also required to inform authorities of possible coronavirus cases. 
 
There are “still many people going out during the period of social distancing, while many world health experts warn that not distancing will lead to unpredictable consequences,” the committee said in a statement. It warned people if they do not stay inside, “in the near future, there will be a high risk of infection for the community with new cases.” 
 
Out of Vietnam’s 265 cases of COVID-19, Hanoi has the most at 114 cases, about twice as many as Ho Chi Minh City. So far, the nation has reported no deaths. Its mobility restrictions are among the strictest in Southeast Asia, with Thailand also checking temperatures at checkpoints, and the Philippines using checkpoints to ensure people aren’t traveling unless they have documented permission.  
 
To increase compliance with the stricter measures, Hanoi has them announced over the city’s public speakers on the street, while Ho Chi Minh City has officials drive around in vehicles equipped with speakers to make the announcements.  
 
Private companies are participating in domestic efforts to encourage confinement, as well. When people make phone calls, all the major phone service providers play a recording asking people to stay inside before they connect the calls. Restaurants and supermarkets have increased delivery service. 
 
One bank, Standard Chartered Vietnam, has introduced cash incentives for e-commerce, food delivery and pharmacy transactions to encourage people to stay home. It also offered some customers interest payment waivers and loan restructuring. 
 
“We understand that individuals and businesses in Vietnam are facing unprecedented challenges,” said Nirukt Sapru, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Vietnam. “We hope that the relief measures will help our clients get through this stressful period.” 
 
Some street vendors are still riding bicycles around town, selling baguettes and fruit, and motorbike races can still be heard on the road. However, most Vietnamese are broadly supportive of the stricter measures. For instance, the national lockdown was set for April 1-15, but Linh Son Ngo said he would support an extension.  
 
“Although I really want to talk to people already, if it is necessary then extending for one more week is OK,” he said via Facebook. 
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The police department of Ghazni province in Afghanistan said it has distributed protective kits to security forces in their efforts to combat the coronavirus. However, Afghan police officers say their safety could be at risk, as there is not enough equipment for every member of the force. VOA’s Asef Hussaini reports from Ghazni, Afghanistan. 
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Our new normal will not be life as we knew it before the coronavirus traveled around the world.That is what Dr. Tom Frieden said April 13 in a Zoom remote event sponsored by STAT, a news publication about health.Frieden is head of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health initiative. He is also the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In a wide-ranging discussion, he compared fighting the coronavirus to fighting a global war. He described the virus as an infectious and deadly enemy and said the more we learn about it, the more fearsome it appears.Frieden warned that we are at least a year, perhaps many years, away from having a vaccine.FILE – President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 8, 2020.President Donald Trump and some of his advisers have been anxious to reopen businesses that have been shuttered since mid-March, but Frieden said health officials must first “box in” the virus.The four corners of the box include widespread testing, so health officials know where the virus is going, finding people who are sick, tracing their contacts and mandating a 14-day quarantine for all contacts, whether they test positive or not, and finding ways to isolate or treat everyone with COVID-19.”If any one of those four sides is weak,” Frieden said, “the virus will escape, will get out, and will spread widely in society.”Frieden added that before the U.S. is ready to reopen, deaths have to decrease, the health care system has to be more robust, health care workers have to be protected from infection, and people with severe coronavirus disease have to be well cared for, as well as those who have chronic health conditions.Even with these actions, Frieden said the virus will still be there.”We’re going to need to keep it at a simmer rather than let it explode,” he said.And when society reopens, Frieden said life will not be the same as before. We may have to continue with more social distancing, more telecommuting, fewer business meetings and no handshaking, in addition to other changes.”There is no immunity to it in society, as far as we know,” Frieden said. “This is a virus that should never be underestimated. It is very hard to fight.”WATCH: Dr. Tom Frieden talks about COVID-19 pandemic 
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday formally endorsed his erstwhile rival, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, for U.S. president in the November national election against Republican President Donald Trump. “We’ve got to make Trump a one-term president and we need you in the White House,” Sanders told Biden in joint virtual appearance on a Biden webcast. “I will do all that I can to see that that happens, Joe,” Sanders vowed. “I want to thank you for that,” Biden responded. “It’s a big deal. Your endorsement means a great deal, a great deal to me.” Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., March 12, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos BarriaSanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, was Biden’s last challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, but suspended his campaign last week in the face of Biden’s seemingly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates to the party’s national presidential nominating convention in August. Sanders had pushed for several significant U.S. policy changes that Biden has resisted, such as a government takeover of medical health insurance — Medicare for All, Sanders called it — and free tuition for college students at public universities.When Sanders ended his active campaigning after the Democratic presidential primary in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin last week, Biden adopted modified stances on the Sanders health insurance and tuition positions, an effort to woo Sanders supporters to his candidacy. Biden, on his third run for the U.S. presidency over three decades, said that rather than a full government takeover of health insurance, Americans should be able to adopt government-assisted care at age 60 instead of the current 65. On tuition, Biden called for writing off student debt for low-income and middle-class families who attended public colleges and universities and some private institutions. Sanders had said since the outset of his 2020 campaign that he would do whatever he could to help the eventual Democratic nominee, if it wasn’t him, to defeat Trump.  But it remains unclear whether the most ardent supporters of Sanders’ progressive policy stances will follow him to support Biden. In 2016, even though Sanders eventually endorsed the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, after losing to her in a long party nomination campaign, post-election polls showed about 12% of Sanders supporters voted for Trump over Clinton as she lost the national election. 
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Taiwan’s long-running campaign for a role in the World Health Organization is getting fresh backing in response to its successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has included assistance to other suffering nations.The public in Taiwan, considered a breakaway Chinese province by Beijing, were ecstatic when the European Union, in a break with past policy, included an image of Taiwan’s flag on a Twitter posting last week expressing appreciation for a donation of face masks.”Our flag has appeared on the EU’s official tweet,” Taiwan’s Central News Agency gushed.A worker packs surgical masks on the production line in a factory in Taoyuan, Taiwan, April 6, 2020.It was a breakthrough of sorts for Taiwan after decades of being blocked from any significant role in the WHO by China, which opposes any action that would appear to confer nation status on the autonomously ruled island. Beijing has long been accused of using its economic and political power to pressure member countries to support its stand.The issue has become more immediate in the face of COVID-19 which has caused about 1.9 million reported infections and more than 118,000 reported deaths worldwide. Despite having one of the world’s best records in fighting the disease Taiwan has been excluded from WHO emergency meetings on the crisis.However, Taiwan officials are encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing last month of the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act, designed to bring pressure on countries whose actions serve to undermine Taiwan’s alliances.Taiwanese army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant on a road to prevent community cluster infection, in New Taipei City, Taiwan, March 14, 2020.Amid the diplomatic back-and-forth, Taiwan has made its case by simply doing a better job than almost any country of containing the coronavirus. Despite its close proximity to China – where the contagion began – and being one of the first places to be affected, it has held its caseload to just 393 people with a mere six deaths.Speaking electronically to a conference at the A medical staff collects a sample for testing during a drill organized by the New Taipei City government to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Xindian district, Taiwan, March 14, 2020.Medical institutions were “rearranged,” he said, enabling the establishment of “160 testing facilities around the country,” along with “134 facilities to treat milder cases, or 50 large regional centers for more severe cases.” In order to prevent in-hospital outbreaks, Wu said, hospitals “were clearly demarcated internally.”The minister also cited Taiwan’s national health insurance policy, “which has 99% of the population enrolled,” as key to enabling health authorities to trace patients’ contacts and to permitting an equitable society-wide distribution of medical supplies.Each adult citizen, upon showing proof of citizenship, is allotted nine face masks every two weeks, which come at a cost of 17 cents apiece, and can be obtained at local pharmacies, and now even vending machines. Children are allotted a higher number of masks.At the heart of Taiwan’s success story, Wu said, is its chosen way of governance. He contrasted the democratically ruled island with rule on the mainland by the Communist Party of China, which has been accused of failing to promptly report the initial contagion and is still suspected of hiding its full extent.“I would say the most important factor is transparency and honesty,” Wu said.  “[While] we in Taiwan cannot afford to conceal or to lie, Chinese communists are institutionally incapable of telling the truth.” 
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Like tens of millions of South Africans, VOA’s Southern Africa correspondent, Anita Powell, is stuck at home through the nation’s lockdown. While her suburban street is deserted and quiet, her family is trying to bring some life to the streets —from a safe distance — with spontaneous musical performances. 
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Spring is not turning out the way Russian President Vladimir Putin might have planned it. A nationwide vote on April 22 was supposed to finalize sweeping constitutional reforms that would allow him to stay in power until 2036, if he wished. But after the coronavirus spread in Russia, that plebiscite had to be postponed — an action so abrupt that billboards promoting it already had been erected in Moscow and other big cities. Now under threat is a pomp-filled celebration of Victory Day on May 9, marking the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The holiday has become the most important on Russia’s calendar, and this year is the 75th anniversary, with world leaders invited to a celebration highlighting the country’s exceptional role in history. Every year, thousands gather in Moscow, including many elderly veterans proudly wearing their medals. Military units have already rehearsed the traditional Red Square parade, drilling outside Moscow, and leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron and India’s Narendra Modi had promised to attend. It would seem impossible to have such a gala now, with much of Russia and the world locked down to stop the spread of the virus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week no decision has been made on whether to postpone it but authorities are considering “options,” one of which is to hold it without the veterans, a group especially vulnerable to the virus. Peskov added the Kremlin would understand if foreign leaders decided not to come due to the pandemic and added the celebration would take place even if it doesn’t happen on May 9.  Initially underestimated by Russian authorities, the pandemic has posed an unexpected challenge for Putin, whose political standing now depends on whether he can contain the damage from it.  Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, wearing a protective suit enters a hall during his visit to the hospital for coronavirus patients in Kommunarka settlement, outside Moscow, Russia, March 24, 2020.On March 24, Putin was shown donning a yellow hazmat suit  to visit a hospital for infected patients.  Officials then indefinitely postponed the vote on the constitutional reforms that would have allowed Putin to serve two more six-year terms after 2024. The amendments already have been approved by lawmakers but the government wanted nationwide balloting to give the changes a democratic veneer. Campaigns promoting the vote had already kicked off in dozens of Russian regions. In preparation for the vote and Victory Day, Russia’s state news agency Tass had begun releasing parts of a three-hour interview with Putin, with the 67-year-old leader talking about what he had done for the country in the past 20 years and what more needs to be accomplished. But Tass suspended daily extracts of the interview, saying it was no longer relevant to an audience more concerned about the coronavirus.  FILE – A medical worker sets up medical equipment in the Central Clinical Hospital “Russian Railways Medicine”, redesigned to receive patients with coronavirus in Moscow, April 3, 2020.The outbreak has completely reset the Kremlin’s political agenda, said Nikolai Petrov, a senior research fellow in Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program.  “Everything that was happening before [the outbreak] has basically been wiped out,” Petrov told The Associated Press. “That whole political agenda [of constitutional reform], that had been unfolding since mid-January is over.” He added that for the moment, “I think we can forget about the constitutional amendments.” The coronavirus crisis presents many difficulties for Putin,  whose approval ratings — steadily dropping in the past two years — reached 63% in March – the lowest since 2013.  It comes as the prices of oil, Russia’s main source of income, plummeted amid a price war with Saudi Arabia, causing a sharp drop in the ruble. The pandemic brought with it the prospects of more economic devastation. As much of Russia went into lockdown, which Putin sugarcoated  by describing it as “nonworking days,” many business operations came to a halt, prompting fears of a mass shutdown by companies and leaving millions unemployed.  The Chamber for Trade and Industries, a government-backed business association, predicted 3 million companies could go out of business and 8 million people — almost 11% of Russia’s working population — could end up jobless. A Russian police officer wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus, speaks to a group of people, some of them wearing face masks, as he patrols an area at an apartment building in Moscow, April 11, 2020.A weakening economy and worsening living conditions, widely seen by analysts as the driving force behind Putin’s souring ratings, have already become the dominating fear among Russians. With the crisis still unfolding, it is likely to hurt his standing even more, said Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the independent Levada polling center. When people start fearing things getting worse “then the ratings start plummeting,” Volkov told the AP. The Kremlin’s response to the crisis has raised questions at home and abroad.  Domestically, Putin has been widely criticized for paying little attention to the epidemic at first, and then for distancing himself from it by delegating difficult decisions on lockdowns  to regional governments and the Cabinet.  Some in the West have questioned the low number of official virus cases in Russia and dismissed its widely publicized effort  to send planeloads of medical aid to Italy, the U.S., Serbia and other countries as a PR stunt. Putin sought to reassure the nation in a TV address on April 8, but part of his message comparing the coronavirus to invaders from the 10th and 11th centuries brought mockery on social media instead. “Our country went through many serious challenges. It was tormented by the Pechenegs and the Cumans, and Russia got through all of it. We will defeat this coronavirus bug, too,” Putin said. Social media users pointed out that not only did Putin use this line in 2010, he might have borrowed it from an anecdote from the 19th century.  “The risks of him [Putin] looking out of touch are very real,” Samuel Greene, director of the Russia Institute at the King’s College London, told the AP.  Putin used to be able to regain control of the political agenda by shifting the focus from domestic hardships to Russia’s geopolitical grandeur, rallying people around the 2014 annexation of Crimea or fighting what he called terrorists in Syria. But this time, as Russia is forced to confront a truly global crisis, that tactic seems much harder.  “There can be nothing that would interest people more than the hardship they are going through and will continue to go through for a long time,” said Petrov.  
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Muhimman proudly writes his name slowly, carefully, one letter at a time, grinning broadly as he finishes. He’s just 11 years old and was a good student who had dreams of being a doctor.School frightens him now. Earlier this year, a cleric at the religious school he faithfully attended in the southern Punjab town of Pakpattan took him into a washroom and tried to rape him.Muhimman’s aunt, Shazia, who wanted only her first name used, said she believes the abuse of young children is endemic in Pakistan’s religious schools. She said she has known the cleric, Moeed Shah, since she was a little girl and describes him as an habitual abuser who used to ask little girls to pull up their shirts.”He has done wrong with boys and also with two or three girls,” Shazia said, recalling one girl the cleric brutalized so badly he broke her back.An investigation by The Associated Press found dozens of police reports, known here as First Information Reports, alleging sexual harassment, rape and physical abuse by Islamic clerics teaching in madrassas or religious schools throughout Pakistan, where many of the country’s poorest study.The AP also documented cases of abuse through interviews with law enforcement officials, abuse victims and their parents. The alleged victims who spoke for this story did so with the understanding only their first names would be used.There are more than 22,000 registered madrassas in Pakistan, teaching more than 2 million children. But there are many more religious schools that are unregistered. They are typically started by a local cleric in a poor neighborhood, attracting students with a promise of a meal and free lodging. There is no central body of clerics that governs madrassas. Nor is there a central authority that can investigate or respond to allegations of abuse by clerics, unlike the Catholic Church, which has a clear hierarchy topped by the Vatican.The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised to modernize the curriculum and make the madrassas more accountable, but there is little oversight.Police say the problem of sexual abuse of children by clerics is pervasive and the scores of police reports they have received are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet despite the dozens of reports, none have resulted in the conviction of a cleric. Religious clerics are a powerful group in Pakistan and they close ranks when allegations of abuse are brought against one of them. They have been able to hide the widespread abuse by accusing victims of blasphemy or defamation of Islam.Families in Pakistan are often coerced into “forgiving” clerics, said Deputy Police Superintendent Sadiq Baloch, speaking in his office in the country’s northwest, toward the border with Afghanistan. Overcome by shame and fear that the stigma of being sexually abused will follow a child into adulthood, families choose instead to drop the charges, he said. Most often, when a family forgives the cleric the investigation ends because the charges are dropped.”It is the hypocrisy of some of these mullahs, who wear the long beard and take on the cloak of piety only to do these horrible acts behind closed doors, while openly they criticize those who are clean shaven, who are liberal and open minded,” Baloch said. “In our society so many of these men, who say they are religious, are involved in these immoral activities.”In this Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 photo, Pakistani villagers gather outside the home of student Muhimman, who was allegedly abused by a cleric, in Pakpattan, Pakistan. Earlier this year, a cleric at the religious school he faithfully attended raped him…’I Want This Mullah Hanged’Police officials say they have no idea how many children are abused by religious clerics in Pakistan. The officials said clerics often target young boys who have not yet reached puberty in part because of the restrictive nature of Pakistan’s still mostly conservative society, where male interaction with girls and women is unacceptable. The clerics for the most part had access to and trust with boys, who are less likely to report a sexual assault.Eight-year-old Yaous from Pakistan’s remote northern Kohistan region is one of those boys.  
Yaous’ father was a poor laborer who had no education and spoke only the local language of his area, yet he wanted to educate his son. He had heard of a religious school in Mansehra, several hundred kilometers (miles) south of his village, where other boys from the area had gone. Too poor to even own a phone, his father went for months without speaking to his son.Yaous is small for his eight years. His features are slight. In an interview with the AP, with his uncle interpreting, Yaous’ tiny body shivered as he told of his ordeal.It was near the end of December last year — a holiday at the madrassa. Most of the students had left. Only Yaous and a handful of students had stayed behind. His village was hours away, and the cost of transportation home was too much for his parents.The other students had gone to wash their clothes and Yaous said he was alone inside the mosque with Qari Shamsuddin, the cleric. The sexual assault was unexpected and brutal. The boy said Shamsuddin grabbed his hand, dragged him into a room and locked the door.”It was so cold. I didn’t understand why he was taking my warm clothes off,” Yaous said, his voice was barely a whisper.As Yaous remembered what happened, he buried his head deeper into his jacket. The cleric grabbed a stick, he said. It was small, maybe about 12 inches. The first few sharp slaps stung.”The pain made me scream and cry, but he wouldn’t stop,” Yaous said. The boy was held prisoner for two days, raped repeatedly until he was so sick the cleric feared he would die and took him to the hospital.At the hospital, Dr. Faisal Manan Salarzai said Yaous screamed each time he tried to approach him. Yaous was so small and frail looking, Salarzai called him the “baby.””The baby was having a lot of bruises on his body — on his head, on his chest, on his legs, so many bruises on other parts of his body,” Salarzai said.Suspicious, Salarzai ordered Yaous moved to the isolation ward where he examined him, suspecting he had been sexually assaulted. The examination revealed brutal and repetitive assaults.But Solarzai said Yaous’ uncle refused to believe his nephew was sexually assaulted, instead he said the boy had fallen down. “He said the uncle finally said: ‘If news spreads in our area that he has been sexually assaulted it will be very difficult for him to survive in our area.'””He was not willing to talk about it or even think that he was sexually assaulted,” said Solarzai. But the evidence was overwhelming and the doctor contacted the police.The cleric was arrested and is now in jail. Police have matched his DNA samples to those found on Yaous. But despite the arrest, fellow clerics and worshipers at the Madrassah-e-Taleem-ul-Quran mosque located in a remote region of northwest Pakistan dispute the charges. They say Shamsuddin is innocent, the victim of anti-Islamic elements in the country. The clerics and worshippers also say the accusation is part of a conspiracy to discredit Pakistan’s religious leaders and challenge the supremacy of Islam, a rallying cry often used by right-wing religious clerics seeking to enrage mobs to assert their power.Yaous’ father, Abdul Qayyum, said he was ashamed he had not spoken to his son in more than three months before the attack happened.”I want this mullah hanged. Nothing else will do,” Qayyum said.’Forgive Me’Young boys are not the only victims of sexual abuse by religious clerics. Many young girls like Misbah, who is from a deeply conservative south Punjab village of Basti Qasi, have also been targeted by religious leaders.Her father, Mohammad Iqbal, isn’t exactly sure how old Misbah is. He thinks she is 11 because in rural Pakistan many births are not registered or are registered much later, and it is just a guess when children are born. They share their small cinderblock structures with several goats and an extended family made up it seems of mostly children who play tag and run around the dirt compound. Misbah, who struggled for words, said she was raped in the mosque next door, where she had been studying the Quran for three years.The assault happened one morning after she stayed behind to sweep the mosque. The other children had been sent home and the cleric, someone she trusted, asked Misbah to help.
“I had just began to clean when he slammed shut the mosque door,” she said in her native Saraiki language. “I didn’t know why and then he suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into a nearby room. I was screaming and shouting and crying. She couldn’t say how long the assault went on. All she could remember was screaming for her father to help her but he wouldn’t stop, he wouldn’t stop, she repeated.It was her uncle, Mohammed Tanvir, who rescued her. He had been on his way to college but stopped at the mosque to use the washroom. He noticed a pair of child’s shoes outside the door.
“Then I heard screaming from inside, she was screaming for her father,” Tanvir said. He smashed the door down saw his niece sprawled and naked on the floor. “It looked as if she had fainted,” he said. Her blood-stained pants were in a corner. The cleric knelt at his feet.”‘Forgive me’ he kept saying to me,'” Tanvir recalled. The cleric was arrested but freed on bail.’Such Beasts Should Not Be Spared’In the wake of the attempted rape of Muhimman, the young boy who had proudly showed his writing skills, his aunt said there has been a concerted attempt to silence the family.  
“The village people say these are our spiritual leaders and the imams of our religious places, and refuse to kick him out,” Shazia saidAfter the attack on her nephew, she said, the villagers came to their home and pleaded with them to forgive the cleric, Moeed Shah, who had fled the area.”They all came to our home and they know we are poor and he is an imam and they said we should forgive him but we won’t,” Shazia said. She said her father, Muhimman’s grandfather, refused. Shah has yet to be arrested, even though the assault was filmed by several village boys who broke down the door to the washroom and frightened Shah away as he tried to rape Muhimman.Police say they are investigating and a charge has been filed, but Shah is a fugitive. Some of the neighbors near the mosque said police are not searching vigorously for him. They seemed angry but also resigned to the fact that he would not be jailed.Muhimman’s aunt was inconsolable.”Such a beast should not be spared at all,” Shazia said.
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It starts with a few people letting loose with some tentative yelps. Then neighbors emerge from their homes and join, forming a roiling chorus of howls and screams that pierces the twilight to end another day’s monotonous forced isolation. From California to Colorado to Georgia and New York, Americans are taking a moment each night at 8 p.m. to howl in a quickly spreading ritual that has become a wrenching response of a society cut off from one another by the coronavirus pandemic. They howl to thank the nation’s health care workers and first responders for their selfless sacrifices, much like the balcony applause and singing in Italy and Spain. Others do it to reduce their pain, isolation and frustration. Some have other reasons, such as to show support for the homeless.  In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis has encouraged residents to participate. Children who miss their classmates and backyard dogs join in, their own yowls punctuated by the occasional fireworks, horn blowing and bell ringing. “There’s something very Western about howling that’s resonating in Colorado. The call-and-response aspect of it. Most people try it and love to hear the howl in return,” said Brice Maiurro, a poet, storyteller and activist who works at National Jewish Health. The nightly howl is a primal affirmation that provides a moment’s bright spot each evening by declaring, collectively: We shall prevail, said Dr. Scott Cypers, director of Stress and Anxiety programs at the Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Depression Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. It’s a way to take back some of the control that the pandemic-forced social isolation has forced everyone to give up, Cypers said.  “The virus’ impact is very different for everyone, and this is a way to say, ‘This sucks,’ and get it out in a loud way,” Cypers said. “Just being able to scream and shout and let out pent-up grief and loss is important. Little kids, on the other hand, are really enjoying this.”FILE – In this March 9, 2020, file photo, the full moon rises behind the Statue of Liberty in New York. From California to Colorado to Georgia and New York, Americans are taking a moment each night at 8 to howl to thank the nation’s health workers.Maiurro and his partner, Shelsea Ochoa, a street activist and artist, formed the Facebook group Go Outside and Howl at 8 p.m. The group has nearly half a million members from all 50 U.S. states and 99 countries since they created it as Colorado’s shelter-in-place order went into effect last month. “We wanted to do this mostly because people are feeling isolated right now,” said Ochoa, 33, who works at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “I think it hit on something others needed.” Why howling?  In California, friends and family of Ochoa’s would howl at sunset; in Brazil, where she lived recently, residents would cheer at sunset. Maiurro, who also works at National Jewish Health, and fellow poets would howl at the moon during back-alley poetry readings in Boulder.  “There’s no wrong way to do it,” said Ochoa. “People can subscribe any kind of meaning they want to it.”  The couple suggest different themes for the evening howls, such as a recent “The Day of I Miss You.” Health care workers are grateful for the support — and the nightly moment’s relief from the stresses of their work. Jerrod Milton, a provider and senior vice president of operations at Children’s Hospital Colorado, makes it a point to step outside at 8 p.m. each evening. “It not only inspires me with a sense of solidarity and appreciation, but it makes me laugh a little each day,” Milton said. “I cannot tell the difference between the howls coming from fellow humans and those instinctively coming alongside from our canine neighborhood companions.” In downtown Los Angeles, thousands of people yell, scream, cheer, applaud and flash lights from their apartment balconies and windows, thanks in large part to Patti Berman, president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, who promotes the ritual conceived by council communications director Marcus Lovingood. “I never believed it would take off like this,” said Berman, who in her 70s is staying inside her apartment in deference to the health concerns of her family. Berman’s concerns are for the homeless on LA’s Skid Row, the struggling family-owned small businesses, the people she’s used to meeting and helping face-to-face in her 15 years on the council. “These people are my stakeholders and my job — and this is where the howl comes in — is to let them know that we haven’t disappeared. To preserve the human contact,” she said. Organizers say restoring and keeping that contact through such extreme adversity will be an achievement to look back upon when the crisis eventually passes. “When people look back on this and with so many sad stories, hopefully they’ll also remember this as one of the good things,” Ochoa said. 
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