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Pakistan temporarily halted all international incoming and outgoing flights Saturday to try to curtail the spread of coronavirus as the national tally of confirmed infections grew to nearly 700, including three deaths.
 
Top government officials made the announcement at a news conference in Islamabad, noting the number of suspected patients had increased to more than 4,000 with around 3,400 under quarantine.
 
The two-week air traffic suspension covered passenger, charter and private flights but not those transporting cargo or diplomats, said Moeed Yusuf, an aide to the Pakistani prime minister on national security.
 
“We are aware of the difficulties this decision will create for roughly 200,000 passengers, a majority of them Pakistanis, who were due to arrive in Pakistan in the next two weeks,” Yusuf told reporters in Islamabad.
 
The government was making tough decisions as part of an all-out effort to ensure the safety and security of its people in the face of the growing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, he stressed. 
 
Pakistan says a majority of its confirmed and suspected cases are Shiite Muslim nationals who recently traveled to pay homage to religious sites in Iran, one of the worst-hit countries.A man wearing a face mask as a precaution against COVID-19 offers Friday prayers with others in Peshawar, Pakistan, March 20, 2020.Return of pilgrims
 
Health Minister Zafar Mirza said that within the last three weeks, more than 6,000 pilgrims have come back from the neighboring country, where the virus has killed more than 1,300 Iranians and infected thousands more.
 
Pakistani officials say around 5,000 of their nationals remain stranded in Iran and they are expected to return in the next few days, fueling fears of a rise in the number of coronavirus cases.
 
Pakistani nationals traveling back from countries, including Syria, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Iraq, are also suspected of importing the virus.
 
National Disaster Management Authority chief General Muhammad Afzal said the government was working to import medical equipment from abroad to establish new hospitals at key points in the country to boost national anti-coronavirus efforts.
 
The general said emergency aid, including 20,000 virus testing kits, scanners and ventilators, had also been received from neighboring China, where the virus originated and killed more than 3,200 people.
 
“Starting next Friday, a bridge of aircraft will be established with China to bring medical supplies and other essential equipment to Pakistan,” he said.Schools shut, assemblies banned
 
Pakistan, a country of 220 million, has closed all educational institutions and banned public meetings and wedding parties to try to prevent the pandemic from spreading in the country.
 
Islamabad has temporarily sealed its borders with Iran, Afghanistan and India for all human and trade traffic. It has also delayed the post-winter reopening of the country’s only overland crossing with China.
 
Prime Minister Imran Khan, however, has rejected domestic calls for a nationwide lockdown. “A lockdown means a curfew-like situation that will spark unrest in the country. We cannot afford that. It would make poor people more vulnerable,” Khan argued while talking to reporters on Friday.Khan also urged the United States to lift punitive sanctions against Iran to help the country fight the coronavirus. “It is extremely cruel that they [Iranians] are dealing with an outbreak at this massive scale and remain under international sanctions at the same time.”U.S. case
 
Local media reported Saturday that a U.S. diplomat had tested positive for the coronavirus at Islamabad airport after he arrived from Doha.
 
The American Embassy said in a statement it was aware of reports of a COVID-19 case related to an embassy employee but did not share additional information, citing privacy concerns.
 
“We are aware of reports that a separate embassy employee arrived at Islamabad airport on March 21 showing signs of illness.  That employee is currently being evaluated,” it said.
 
The embassy noted that in coordination with Pakistani authorities, the U.S. diplomatic mission was implementing all appropriate measures to help control the spread of the virus.
 
Washington has responded to the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan with initial aid of $1 million.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an order Thursday night for all residents to stay at home in the most populous state in the U.S. until further notice.
 
In Los Angeles, a city infamous for its congested roads, traffic is now light. Playgrounds are empty, and restaurants are only open for takeout and delivery.
 
With the new order, dine-in restaurants, entertainment venues, health clubs and public events will have to close. Only essential services, such as gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, laundromats and banks will remain open.  
 
“Eerie, it’s eerie out there,” M.J. Shoenberg, a Los Angeles resident and preschool teacher, said.
 Stress on businesses  
 
Grocery stores have become a stressful experience, with lines out the door because some stores are limiting the number of people who can shop inside at the same time.   
 
Items such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer and even eggs are hard to find.Restaurants are open for take-out and deliveries but dining inside a food establishment is not allowed. (Elizabeth Lee/VOA)“If I were to get sick, it seems very clear to me that I would get sick from being in a grocery store, touching handles, pushing carts, opening doors, listening to conversations, people coming and asking me questions,” Sadie Verley, an Oakland resident, said. She noticed that many people were not observing the recommended social distancing while waiting in line to check out.
 
“There is a lot of tension in the grocery store. I noticed that people are kind of crowding the grocery store,” Verley said.  
 
“I was glad that the farmers market was open,” said Shoenberger, who by chance saw a small outdoor farmers market by a park that consisted of three vendors. She bought some fresh vegetables without having to wait in line.  
 
One of the vendors, a Mexican food stand operator, said since the pandemic, he has lost 80% of his business.
 
If California were a nation, it would be the fifth-largest economy in the world. The impact the governor’s order has on the economy will depend on how long the pandemic lasts and how many weeks the order will be in place.Lines outside grocery stores are not uncommon. Items such as toilet paper and sanitizers are in high demand and hard to find. (Elizabeth Lee/VOA)New normal  
 
Families are adjusting to the new normal.  
 
For the past week, Mia McNiece’s three children, 5, 7 and 10 years old, have been out of school and home schooling online.
 
McNiece has also been working from home. So when the governor ordered everyone to stay home, it did not immediately make a big difference to her family, but she said, “It is a little more scary.”
 
“So far it’s been good. It’s just kind of this weird new world that we’re all adjusting, but as the weeks go on, I think it’s definitely going to become more challenging,” she said. “My youngest is already saying she misses school and she misses her friends, and that’s heartbreaking to hear.”
 
If there is a bright side to this order, Californians said they see more adults and children going outside for walks, and McNiece said there is now more family time.
 
“It’s nice to be able to spend more time together, uninterrupted time, and go on walks. We see other neighbors out and about,” McNiece said.   
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The NBA plans to pay full salaries to players as scheduled on April 1 but could begin cutting salaries to recover money from canceled games by April 15, ESPN reported Saturday.Citing a league memo shared with NBA clubs on Friday, the sport network’s website said the league might soon begin recovering salary based on a “force majeure” clause in its collective bargaining agreement with players.The NBA halted its season on March 11 after Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down sports league throughout the United States.The memo said the league will inform teams about its plans before the April 15 payment date. That’s the day the league’s regular season was set to end before the schedule was suspended by the COVID-19 outbreak.Under terms of the NBA-union deal, the league can withhold a percentage of a player’s salary for a catastrophic situation that forces games to be canceled, including a pandemic.It’s uncertain when, or if, the NBA might be able to resume its campaign, which had just over a month remaining, or stage any playoffs.The league could keep back money under the disaster clause in the short term and pay players later should the games eventually be contested.NBA owners, preparing for major financial losses if the season does not resume, have reportedly been seeking arena dates into August in hopes of bringing the 2019-20 campaign to some sort of conclusion. 
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U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s campaign in February spent less than one-third the amount spent by rival Democrat Bernie Sanders, according to disclosures by the campaigns filed Friday.Despite being outspent, Biden’s campaign finished the month surging at the polls with a victory in the February 29 nomination contest in South Carolina.Since early March, the former vice president has led the Democratic contest to be the nominee to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November presidential election.In February, Biden’s campaign spend $13.1 million, compared to $45.8 million spent by Sanders. His campaign manager said this week he was reassessing his bid.The presidential race has changed dramatically since February, however, as a deadly coronavirus outbreak has led campaigns to suspend rallies and fundraisers.The outbreak is also causing swaths of the U.S. economy to shut down as state and local officials order businesses closed and, increasingly, people to stay in their homes.The outbreak could lead campaigns to rely more on television and digital advertising.Biden spent only around $5 million on ads in February, compared to more than $26 million spent by Sanders.With Sanders’ future in question, a potential match-up of Biden versus Trump has come into view. At present, the Republican appears to have a substantial funding advantage.Biden finished the month with $12.1 million in the bank. Trump’s campaign, which has been burning through the money it raises much more slowly than Biden’s campaign, ended the month $94.4 million in cash.
 
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The vice president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizing committee, Toshiaki Endo, said Saturday the committee is not in the position to decide whether to postpone or cancel the event.“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the one making the final decision. We will firmly continue our efforts to host the event in July,” Endo told Kyodo news. Endo’s statement came after Norway’s Olympic committee requested that Tokyo 2020 Olympics be postponed until the coronavirus spread is contained.Norway’s call followed similar moves from Colombia and Slovenia on Friday. The U.S. governing body of competitive swimming has also called for the Tokyo Summer Olympics to be postponed for one year. Athletes and sport officials from around the world have urged the International Olympic Committee, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee and the Japanese government to postpone the Games.The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are scheduled to run from July 24 to August 9, followed by the Paralympics from August 25 to September 6.Meanwhile, despite the concerns over the coronavirus spread, hundreds of spectators attended the Olympic torch event as the flame arrived from Greece on Friday at Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Matsushima base in northern Japan.  The traditional relay, scheduled to start in Fukushima on March 26, will pass many famous Japanese landmarks, including Mount Fuji, Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park and Kumamoto Castle, before entering the Olympic stadium July 24.
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U.S. Senator Richard Burr has sought an ethics review of his sale of $1.7 million in stocks last month ahead of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as he and other lawmakers face condemnation over the sales.  Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, denied Friday that his decision to sell was based on information contained in private congressional briefings, saying he relied solely on public news reports.  In a statement Friday, he asked the Senate Ethics Committee to “open a complete review of the matter with full transparency.” Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, is one of several lawmakers who sold large amounts of stocks recently after attending congressional briefings on the pandemic, prompting widespread criticism.  FILE – Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, speaks during a re-election campaign rally in Marietta, Georgia, March 9, 2020.Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, also sold more than $1 million in stocks in recent weeks. Loeffler said on CNBC Friday that her stocks were sold “at the decision of our investment managers” and said she and her husband didn’t learn about the sale until later. Loeffler’s husband, Jeffrey Craig Sprecher, is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.  Two other senators – Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma – also are reported to have had financial transactions in the stock market after congressional briefings on COVID-19.  Feinstein sold $1.5 million to $6 million shares of stock in mid to late February, while Inhofe sold about $400,000 in equities in late January. Both senators denied that they attended closed Senate briefings on coronavirus that could have informed their stock decisions.  It is illegal for members of Congress, congressional staff and federal officials to use inside information to their financial advantage.  Common Cause, an advocacy group, said it is filing complaints with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission against all four senators. President Donald Trump was asked at a White House news conference Friday whether he is “concerned about members of Congress using information they learned from updates to sell stocks and profit off” that information.  “I don’t know too much about what it’s about,” Trump replied. “But I find them to all be very honorable people. That’s all I know. And they said they did nothing wrong.” 
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The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The Associated Press has found. Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics in the U.S. have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks. The United States counts on receiving the vast majority of its medical supplies from China, where the coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,200. When Chinese medical supply factories began coming back on line last month, their first priority was their own hospitals.  A woman walks into a pharmacy to purchase N95 face masks in advance of the potential coronavirus outbreak in New York City, Feb. 27, 2020.The government required makers of N95 masks to sell all or part of their production internally instead of shipping masks to the U.S.  The most recent delivery of medical-grade N95 masks arrived from China about a month ago, on Feb. 19. And as few as 13 shipments of non-medical N95 masks have arrived in the past month — half as many as arrived the same month last year. N95 masks are used in industrial settings, as well as hospitals, and filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.  No masks for governors to buy Governors across the country are becoming panicked as states run out of equipment. President Donald Trump has urged them to buy masks on the open market, but few if any are available. “Without adequate protection, more of our hospital staff could become ill, which would mean there wouldn’t be people to care for patients,” said Nancy Foster, the American Hospital Association’s vice president of quality and patient safety policy.  Some hospitals are down to just a day or two of personal protective equipment, she said. Will Swanson, a registered nurse from Columbia University, picks up personal protective equipment and other supplies at a New York State emergency operations incident command center during an outbreak in New Rochelle, N.Y., March 17, 2020.The AP found that in the past month, hand sanitizer and swab imports both dropped by 40%, N95 mask imports were down 55%, and surgical gowns, typically sourced from China, were at near normal levels because the sourcing was shifted to Honduras. Typically, medical supplies are delivered along both coasts. But almost all the supplies that did arrive in the past month came into Newark, New Jersey, across the country from the earliest and most severe coronavirus outbreaks. The AP identified the falling imports by looking at shipment data maintained by ImportGenius and Panjiva Inc., services that independently track global trade. Tariffs add to cost, reduce options In mid-February, the World Health Organization warned that global demand for safety gear for medical providers was 100 times higher than normal. Prices were 20 times higher, stockpiles were depleted and there was a four- to six-month backlog. Despite this, federal contracting data shows there was no big effort at that point to submit orders. Trade policies haven’t helped. Tariffs on medical supplies made them more expensive, and they were only lifted March 5, even though health care associations asked the administration last year to exempt items like masks, gloves and gowns. And now countries including South Korea, India and Taiwan are blocking exports of medical supplies to save them for their own citizens, leaving the U.S. with fewer options.  “The lag time could be weeks. It could be upward of months,” said Khatereh Calleja, CEO of the Healthcare Supply Chain Association.  Doctors, nurses and first responders in the U.S. are resorting to spraying their masks with bleach at the end of each day and hanging them up at home to dry to use for another day, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. “There is a little bit of anxiety, as you can imagine, going to work and not knowing if you will have enough personal protective equipment,” said Dr. David Tan, president of the National Association of EMS Physicians. Workers bottle hand sanitizer produced by J. Rieger and Co., a Kansas City, Mo. distillery, March 20, 2020. People waited as long as two hours to buy the sanitizer, made from overproof gin, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.No swabs, no sanitizer The decline in swabs included multiple varieties, not just ones needed to test for COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has for weeks warned state and local health departments about shortages of swabs, which are needed for the testing that is critical to containing the pandemic. Even over-the-counter medical shipments are decreasing. Ten shipping containers filled with medical thermometers arrived at U.S. ports a year ago this month. But in the last 30 days, there were just five.  Hand sanitizer, also commonly sourced from China, has disappeared from U.S. stores, and it may stay scarce. Last year by this time, 223 shipments had arrived. This year, since January, just 157 shipments have come. The shortages affect patients because they can’t get tested and their providers may be carrying the virus from one person to the next. But the far greater risk is to medical personnel: Already, there are reports of dozens of doctors, nurses and medical staff who have contracted the virus. Wearing a gown, mask and gloves, critical care nurse Molly Spaeny, left, with St. Vincent Healthcare speaks with a patient after administering a coronavirus test in a drive-thru testing center outside the hospital in Billings, Mont., March 20, 2020.Nurses across the country report that they are not receiving the proper personal protective equipment and their hospitals don’t have the isolation rooms they need to safely care for COVID-19 patients, according to National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S. “It’s not safe at all. Nobody is safe,” said Consuelo Vargas, an emergency room nurse at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. On Friday morning, after a possible exposure at work, she went to a local hardware store and bought all the painter booties and jumpsuits they had to wear while caring for people.  “It’s so frustrating because we feel like health care workers are being asked for a lot — and that’s fine, we can do our job. We’re just asking for the equipment we need,” she said.  Well-stocked, then suddenly not The shortage doesn’t affect only health care. The humanitarian medical firm Direct Relief thought it was heading into 2020 well-stocked, with several million N95 masks. The organization had increased its orders in 2019 after massive wildfires in the West filled cities with smoke, squeezing its supplies in recent years. But then bushfires overwhelmed Australia with smoky skies and so Direct Relief began sending the masks there, vice president Tony Morain said.  When the coronavirus hit China, the organization began shipping the masks to Wuhan — the outbreak’s epicenter — in an effort to contain the disease.  Morain said they’ve ordered 2 million more masks and are awaiting the shipments. Those typically take at least five weeks to arrive: two weeks to make the masks, two weeks of shipping and a week to get through the port. Meanwhile, he said, Direct Relief has received more than 100 requests from hospitals and health centers down to their last boxes. Various N95 respiration masks at a laboratory of 3M, that has been contracted by the U.S. government to produce extra marks in response to the country’s novel coronavirus outbreak, in Maplewood, Minn., March 4, 2020.3M ramps up In an effort to fill the gap, Minnesota-based 3M is running its Aberdeen, South Dakota, plant around the clock, producing millions of N95 masks per month. The company is also ramping up production of surgical masks and commercial cleaning solutions, CEO Mike Roman said.  Nonetheless, one federal contract with 3M for $4.8 million of N95 masks dated March 12 says the masks will be delivered April 30 — seven weeks later, according to public contract data.  A number of Chinese companies told the AP this week that they will be resuming exports, which bring higher prices, but that they are overwhelmed and can’t meet demand.  “Chinese mask manufacturers have received too many orders from abroad, but have no time to produce all of them and make a delivery,” said David Peng, manager of Ningbo Buy Best International Trading Co. Ltd. Trade data shows importers have managed to maintain some supplies by shifting to factories outside China. Shipments of surgical gowns, for example, have dropped less than 5% since December, since they are now coming from Honduras. The same is true for medical gloves, which are now primarily coming from South Korea. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announces that a state of emergency would go into effect during an update on coronavirus preparedness and planning at the Statehouse in Boston, March 10, 2020.Governors not getting what they need The federal government said a national stockpile was being made available at the state level, but governors said they weren’t getting what they need. “I think every governor in the United States has been banging on the door of the federal government with respect to the stockpile. We certainly have, and we’re going to continue to,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said at a news conference this week. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco, said he was alarmed by new CDC advice for hospitals that run out of masks. “For the CDC to say people can wear bandanas is actually quite frightening,” he said. “I never thought the CDC would say something like that. We’re in the United States of America in 2020, and we have a recommendation to use bandanas?” 
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday capped a tumultuous week as Americans faced sweeping life changes and massive Wall Street losses amid the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak by turning to a familiar playbook: attacking the media.
 
In a contentious press briefing, the Republican president lashed out at an NBC reporter who noted Trump’s tendency to put an optimistic spin on the situation and asked what his message was to the American people who may be scared.
 
“I say that you’re a terrible reporter. I think that is a nasty question,” Trump said.
 
Two of the nation’s most populous states, California and New York, have enacted their toughest restrictions yet, affecting 60 million people, while federal authorities this week moved to close the borders with Canada and Mexico. Nearly 200 people have died in the United States and over 16,000 cases of the highly contagious respiratory illness had been confirmed by Friday.Shift in toneTrump and top administration officials for weeks downplayed the outbreak, which began in China late last year, before shifting their tone about the severity of the health crisis more recently.
 
The president, who is running for re-election on November 3, has long sparred with the media, blasting coverage of him as “fake news” and “hoaxes” and slamming news outlets and journalists on his Twitter feed. His re-election campaign also recently filed lawsuits against several outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, March 20, 2020.Yet the crises have propelled Trump recently to give briefings with news outlets nearly every day in the White House briefing room, a place he eschewed during his first three years in office.
 
On Friday, in a particularly unusual twist, Trump’s first White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, attended the briefing and asked a question in his role working for Newsmax. Spicer repeatedly sparred with reporters during his time as a spokesman early in Trump’s term.
 
During his recent engagements with the press, Trump has sought to display unabashed optimism despite more sober comments from public health officials, medical experts, state governors and others who have sounded the coronavirus alarm.’We know that’
 
One reporter on Thursday asked about the impact on the economy as many businesses have had to dramatically shift operations or shut down during drastic measures to slow the spread of the virus.
 
“Thanks for telling us. We appreciate it,” Trump said. “What’s the rest of your question? We know that. Everybody in the room knows that.”
 
Asked last week about his role regarding the disbanding of a National Security Council pandemic preparedness team on his watch, Trump told a PBS reporter: “That’s a nasty question. … When you say me, I didn’t do it.”
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Two of the most populous states in America are now shutting down all non-essential activities. Those announcements happened as the Trump administration works to overcome a slow response to the public health crisis and lawmakers race to reach a deal that will prop up the struggling US economy. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has the latest. 
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. VOA and Polygraph.info are aggregating fact-checks here.Daily Debunk”This is a pandemic … I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”- President Trump, March 17, news conferenceVerdict: MisleadingRead the full story at: Factcheck.org Social Media Disinfo​Claim circulating on social media: It’s dangerous to take ibuprofen if you have coronavirus.Verdict:FalseRead the full story: “Coronavirus and ibuprofen: Separating fact from fiction” – BBC.com Factual Reads on Coronavirus​​Coronavirus Survives on Surfaces up to 72 Hours. Here’s How to Protect Yourself.Because the virus that causes Covid-19 is, like other microbes, so durable, thoroughly washing hands after touching surfaces that anyone else might have touched — or not touching them in the first place — is the first line of defense against infection.
— Stat, March 19
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from many sources here​.Daily Debunk”COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US​”- Article published on the website of the Centre for Research on GlobalizationVerdict: FalseRead the full story at: USA Today Social Media Disinfo​Claim circulating on social media: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said “migrants and illegals” in Malaysia were resisting COVID-19 test over fears of arrest.Verdict: FalseRead the full story: “UNHCR condemns fake nfotice which claimed refugees in Malaysia are resisting COVID-19 tests​” — Agence France-Presse Factual Reads on Coronavirus​​Can’t Get Tested? Maybe You’re in the Wrong Country​.​
Scientists say the chasm between the testing haves and have-nots reflects politics, public health strategies and, in some cases, blunders​.
— New York Times, March 20Coronavirus Death Rate in Wuhan Lower Than Initial Estimates, New Study Finds​.
“The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine, found that the death rate among people who had symptoms was 1.4% in Wuhan, China, as of Feb. 29. That rate is lower than previous estimates of mortality rates for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus, in Wuhan and China overall​.”
— Wall Street Journal, March 19​  
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trump administration officials descended Friday on Capitol Hill to launch high-stakes negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak.The closed-door convening is the biggest effort yet from Washington to shore up households and the U.S. economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country toward a likely recession. Mnuchin wants Congress to vote by Monday.”We want to lay out the need for urgency and quick action,” said Eric Ueland, the White House director of legislative affairs, entering the morning session. “The American people expect action.”With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on one side and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on the other, Mnuchin took the center seat for the rare high-level talks.  Despite the urgency to act, talks are likely to hit challenges over different opinions on how best to swiftly push out aid.McConnell laid out the Republican offer Thursday of direct payments to Americans, businesses and industry loans but Democrats said it does not go far enough to help ordinary workers and shore up the healthcare system.Schumer vowed Friday as he entered the session that Democrats will “fight hard” for their priorities. “We need to work together quickly and do something big and bold to help the American people,” Schumer said.The GOP leader’s effort builds on Trump’s request for Congress to “go big.””We need to take bold and swift action as soon as possible,” McConnell said Thursday, announcing his plan on the Senate floor.The 247-page McConnell CARES Act puts the leader’s imprint on opening talks with Democrats in Congress as lawmakers prepare to work through the weekend to fast-track perhaps the most urgent legislative undertaking since the 2008 financial crisis.  McConnell’s plan proposes $1,200 direct checks to taxpayers, $300 billion for small businesses to keep idled workers on payroll and $208 billion in loans to airlines and other industries.The negotiations are certain to encounter difficulties ahead, despite the pressure on Washington to act.  “We are beginning to review Senator McConnell’s proposal and on first reading, it is not at all pro-worker and instead puts corporations way ahead of workers,” said a joint statement from Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.The GOP leader’s plan aims to shore up households, businesses and the healthcare industry, which is bracing for an expected onslaught of patients falling ill from the virus that causes COVID-19.The one-time $1,200 stipends would be sent to individuals — $2,400 for couples — phased out at income thresholds of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 per couple. Additionally, there would be $500 payments for each child.Additionally, the McConnell bill would provide $300 billion to small businesses, with loans that would eventually be forgiven for employers who use them to meet payroll expenses.To shore up industry, McConnell’s plan would provide $208 billion in loans and loan guarantees to distressed sectors, including $50 billion for commercial airlines, $8 billion for air cargo carriers and $150 billion for other eligible businesses, but those loans would have to be paid back.Businesses would also be allowed to defer payment of the 6.2% employer payroll tax.The proposal also includes a specific provision to allow the Treasury secretary to “participate in the gains,” through stock options or other financial instruments, of companies that receive federal aid.  At the same time, caring for the expected surge of sick Americans is a priority for Congress.The McConnell proposal contains a raft of health care provisions — including permanent liability protection for the manufacturers of respirators and other desperately needed medical gear to handle the pandemic.At the consumer level, McConnell’s bill would put into federal law the commitment from insurers that coronavirus tests will be cost-free to policy holders. Additionally, the bill requires coverage of coronavirus vaccines, at no cost to patients.For the health care industry, the bill would establish a new Medicare payment for treating COVID-19 patients. It would suspend through the end of this year a 2% Medicare payment cut to providers under previously set budget restraints.Pelosi and Schumer said in statement they looked forward to working with Republicans “in a bipartisan way to deliver for the American people as soon as humanly possible.”The Democratic leaders said, however, their priority is to “make sure all workers are protected from the loss of a paycheck or that no family falls into financial ruin because of this pandemic.”The Democratic leaders called on Trump to ramp up production of medical supplies and rapidly erect temporary field hospitals under new authorities he has invoked in the Defense Production Act.Keeping paychecks flowing for idled workers as jobless claims skyrocket  is a top priority for both Republican and Democratic plans emerging from Congress.  But how best to send direct payments to Americans — as one-time stipends, ongoing payroll support or unemployment checks — is a crucial debate.Democrats have other ideas for ushering aid to Americans by pushing more money into the existing unemployment insurance system. Schumer called it “employment insurance” — which he characterized as “unemployment insurance on steroids.”Some GOP senators panned the idea of direct one-time checks, preferring instead to use the federal dollars to keep workers who are asked to stay home on business payrolls.”What I want is income, not one check,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.Meanwhile, industries of all kinds are lining up for help. The total price tag is sure to grow beyond $1 trillion, lawmakers said.Trump has already signed into law a $100 billion-plus bill to boost testing for the coronavirus and guarantee paid sick leave for millions of workers hit by it. Earlier, Trump signed an initial $8.3 billion package from Congress.For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.  The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
 
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Pakistan said Friday thousands of its nationals remain stranded in neighboring Iran, which also is battling the deadly coronavirus, and called for the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran to help stem the spread of the pandemic in the region. Iranian officials say the virus has killed nearly 1,300 people in the country and infected more than 18,000 others in the past month.  Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur tweeted Thursday that “50 new cases of infection are detected every hour and one death recorded every 10 minutes” in Iran, making it the third most affected country after Italy and China.  “I will insist on the international community to remove sanctions from Iran,” Prime Minister Imran Khan told reporters in Islamabad. “It is extremely cruel that they [Iranians] are dealing with an outbreak at this massive scale and remain under International sanctions at the same time.”  Cars drive in Vali-e-Asr St., which usually has congested traffic, in northern Tehran, Iran, March 20, 2020.Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a statement Friday, described the situation in Iran as “dire.”  “Sanctions must be lifted against Iran in this moment of peril so that it can use its resources to save precious human lives,” Qureshi said. “We must, as leaders at time of such great challenge and difficulty, show utmost compassion.” Pakistan says the majority of its roughly 450 confirmed cases are Shi’ite Muslim nationals who returned home after traveling to religious sites in Iran. Officials in Islamabad anticipate the number of COVID-19 cases increasing as hundreds of returnees from Iran remain in quarantine camps for suspected infections. About 5,000 people, including students, are due to return to Pakistan in the next few days. A soldier wearing a face mask stands guard as buses carry pilgrims returning from Iran via the Pakistan-Iran border town of Taftan, leading to a quarantine facility zone to prevent the spread the COVID-19, in Sukkur in Sindh province, March 18, 2020.”Thousands of Pakistanis are also stranded in Iran who need to be brought back home. So, we are requesting for the sanctions to be urgently lifted,” Qureshi noted.   Pakistan has sealed its roughly 900-kilometer border with Iran for all human and trade movements.  Officials say Iranian authorities have ignored calls for holding back visiting Pakistani pilgrims, citing capacity issues in tackling the pandemic. Critics note that crippling U.S. sanctions have hit hard an already fragile health care system in Iran, which suffers from shortages of medications and medical equipment. The Trump administration has rejected calls to remove sanctions during the pandemic.  Pakistan reopens Afghan border Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has instructed authorities to reopen a major southwestern border crossing with landlocked Afghanistan for trucks transporting food and other essential commodities.  “Despite global pandemic of COVID-19, we remain committed to supporting our Afghan brothers & sisters … In time of crisis, we remain steadfast with Afghanistan,” Khan tweeted Friday. Workers clean a street near the closed Pakistan-Afghanistan border amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19, in Torkham some 54 kms from Peshawar, March 16, 2020.Pakistan also has closed all crossings at its nearly 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan, saying it would help prevent the coronavirus from spreading in the region.  Pakistani officials have reported three deaths from the coronavirus, but Afghans have reported none. Afghan officials say they have detected roughly two dozen infections in the country, blaming them on returnees from Iran, host to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees and economic migrants.  Kabul says thousands of Afghans have returned home from Iran in recent days, raising fears the number of cases could spike.  
 
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Vietnamese officials are preparing for a limited economic revival as their coronavirus caseload stays low.Despite its land border and close trade relationship with China, Vietnam reports only 85 widely dispersed coronavirus cases, and it sometimes goes for days with no new cases.The government is rolling out incentives now to revive companies including export manufacturers, a backbone of the economy that has grown around 6% per year since 2012, although the borders are largely sealed to inbound travelers.“Materials are starting to come in and [factories] picked up a little bit, but the real concern they have is tourism and foreign flow, so they’re really tightening that up,” said Mike Lynch, managing director with SSI Institutional Brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City.As with countries elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is offering tax breaks, extending tax due dates and allowing delayed land-use fee payments to companies affected by the outbreak, business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates said in an online briefing Tuesday.The central bank cut its benchmark refinance 1 percentage point Tuesday to stimulate business activity.“This is all they can do in response to the virus outbreak of trying to mitigate the impact of the outbreak on their economy,” said Song Seng Wun, a Southeast Asia regional economist in the private banking unit of CIMB in Singapore. “It’s about helping to minimize disruption and saving jobs.”A health worker sprays disinfectants to protect against the coronavirus on a beach in Hoi An, Vietnam, March 10, 2020.Epidemic controlVietnamese officials reacted to the virus early on by banning arrivals from China. People ordered into quarantine normally comply, at the risk of being scorned otherwise on social media, two authors from the Ho Chi Minh City-based University of Economics School of Government wrote in a March 17 article in The Diplomat online.The country discloses its caseload openly and doesn’t silence public discussion, the scholars said, suggesting it had tried to avoid repeating China’s response.Vietnam quit issuing visas to almost all foreign nationals for 30 days, starting March 18.  Ho Chi Minh City authorities plan to curb meetings geared for more than 1,000 people. Bars and cinemas are closed through March 31.The halt to visas will hurt hotels, airlines and travel agencies, analysts in Vietnam said. Inbound tourism had grown from 5 million to 15 million between 2010 and 2018. China and South Korea are the top two sources.People in Vietnam are staying home more often than usual, in some cases working there instead of in offices. Restaurants still operate, though sometimes for fewer hours per week than before, residents of the two biggest cities said this week.When the government declares an end to local coronavirus spread, the domestic economy is likely to bounce back as far as it can without foreign visitors including tourists, said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in Hanoi.“When that point happens, the government will say OK, it’s clear, restaurants are on and everyone can go out,” McCarty said “The domestic economy could revive and all the masks could come off, so that would be a big stimulus and that could happen in less than a month from now.”FILE – Laborers work at a garment assembly line of Thanh Cong textile, garment, investment and trading company in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, July 9, 2019.Factories are operating – for nowThe country’s economy is doing relatively well, for the moment.Factories are still operating on local labor, and export growth from January 1 through March 15 grew 6.8% over the same period of 2019.“Even with the first quarter quickly drawing to a close, the data [are] way better than what the doom and gloom crowd would have had you believe,” SSI Research said in market update note Thursday. “The Vietnamese economy actually performed to a degree that other national economies nowadays would give an arm and a leg to have.”However, demand for factory goods is expected to slump in Western countries as consumers stay home. The disease outbreak appears to be a “potent direct hit on confidence,” the Harvard Business Review said March 3.About 55% of Vietnam’s economy, more than the global average, has relied on export manufacturing from 1986 through 2018.
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Asian stock indexes were mostly up Friday after Thursday’s modest gains on Wall Street. Investor hopes that governments and central banks would provide help for the world economy in order to avert a global recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic seemed responsible for at least temporarily halting the plunge. In South Korea, stocks opened 3.44% higher than Thursday, with the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index 50.19 points up. In Taiwan the main stock index rose 5.46% or 474.03 points to 9,155.37. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index began trading up 438 points, as news of no new coronavirus transmitted cases came from China for the second day in a row but fell 900 points in in the middle of the session.  In China Shanghai Composite Index was only less than half a percent higher. In Japan, the Tokyo stock exchange was closed for a public holiday. 
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Twenty thousand years ago, humans lived in grassy tundras near the Arctic Circle. Trees were scare in these cold, dry regions, so Ice Age hunters could not build campfires using wood.  Instead, these hardy humans made campfires by burning the bones of the big animals they hunted.  Few modern people know how to make a bone fire.  Recently, a Colorado archeologist and some volunteers gave it a try.  From Longmont, Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.
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The president of Argentina says the South American nation is going into a mandatory quarantine for 11 days, in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.Speaking to the nation in a televised address Thursday, President Alberto Fernández said everyone must stay home, starting at midnight Friday, local time, until midnight March 31. Fernández said people making trips to buy groceries, and other necessities are exempt.The president said those who are unable to explain why they are on the street will face reprimands provided by the penal code.“It is time for us to understand that we are caring for the health of Argentines. We have now dictated this measure trying to make the effects on the economy as least harmful as possible,” Fernández said, explaining the new directive.Ahead of Friday’s lockdown, long lines of people converged on supermarkets and pharmacies to stock up on supplies.So far, Argentina has at least 128 confirmed infections, and three people have died with the virus. Argentina had previously closed its borders to non-residents, suspended flights and shut down schools, all in an effort to stop the spread of virus.
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