March 13 coronavirus news

The mayor of New Rochelle — the New York City suburb that is inside a containment zone — said the National Guard’s purpose in the community is to assist with operations and logistics including the delivery of meals to public school students, the distribution of supplies, cleaning public facilities.

While they are in uniform, they are unarmed and driving around in rented mini vans, Noam Bramson said.

He added it’s not as though the community is under “lock down” or “martial law” but adds we are “facing a serious challenge and our community is rising to the occasion."

He describes the containment zone as “an area within which large gatherings within large institutions are prohibited which is a sensible means of mitigating the spread of the virus in an area which has a high concentration of positive tests."

He added “it’s not an exclusion zone, it’s not a quarantine zone.” 

His message to the community this weekend is to moreover practice “common sense public health practices” 

When asked if people should dine in restaurants, he said while he and his family dined out yesterday in the heart of the containment zone to support the local community “everyone needs to make a decision based on their own circumstances”

“It’s about striking the right balance.”

The Australian state of Queensland is preparing for an infection rate of up to 25%, while the state of New South Wales is predicting a 20% infection rate.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr. Jeannette Young told a media briefing on Friday: "We are preparing up to 25% of the Queensland population getting this infection in the next six months."

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Queensland's population is 5 million, meaning health officials are preparing for 1.25 million infections. Dr. Young added that of those, 20% or 200,000 people will "do worse" and may require hospitalization.

In a state government hearing on budget estimates on Thursday, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr. Kerry Chant said: "We are anticipating 20% of the population in the first wave will be infected."

According to the ABS, the NSW population is 8 million, meaning Dr. Chant estimates that 1.6 million people will be infected. Dr. Chant added that every person that has the novel coronavirus will pass it on to an average of 2.68 other people.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Cabinet will not quarantine, despite meeting with Home Minster Peter Dutton on Tuesday, according to a tweet from his office. 

Dutton, who tested positive for the virus on Friday, also met with Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr last week.

The UK government's chief scientific adviser has explained the country's plan to "delay the peak" until summertime and attempt to create "herd immunity" to the novel coronavirus.

Patrick Vallance, Britain's chief scientific adviser, told Reuters that the UK's strategy -- which has not yet included closing schools, banning events or advising people to work from home -- was aimed at preventing the National Health Service from being overwhelmed.

He said the goal was to "protect people in the most infectious period" and "delay the peak and to push the peak down" until the summer months, when the NHS is less overburdened, according to Reuters.

The UK is thought to be about four weeks behind Italy and other European countries, with between 5,000 and 10,000 people believed to be infected.

As of Thursday morning, the UK had tested 29,764 people. There have been almost 600 confirmed cases and eight people have died. 

France's soccer league has joined its counterparts in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US in bringing a halt to its season.

The top two French divisions have been suspended “until further notice” because of the coronavirus outbreak, the governing body for the country's major leagues confirmed on Friday.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) said in a statement after an emergency meeting that the decision had been taken “unanimously” to stop playing with immediate effect in both Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.

European soccer's governing body UEFA will meet on Tuesday to discuss further implications for international soccer.

In other sporting cancelations, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to suspend the Indian Premier League (IPL) until April 15.

The IPL was scheduled to commence in India on March 29.

Ethiopia has reported the first case of coronavirus in the country.

The patient is a 48-year-old Japanese citizen who traveled to Ethiopia from Burkina Faso on March 4, according to a statement published by minister of health Lia Tadesse. Tadesse says the patient is “currently isolated at our facility undergoing medical follow up” and is in stable condition.

The statement also said the government has allocated “additional budget for the prevention effort and mobilizing more resources,” has established quarantine and isolation centers, and is working to hire more staff. 

CNN is collecting your questions about coronavirus. We'll be answering some of them here throughout the day.

More and more of us are working from home as the novel coronavirus spreads -- including many top lawmakers and world leaders.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to run his country in self-isolation after his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, tested positive for coronavirus.

He joins a long list of officials who have removed themselves from public life, including top US lawmakers, a British health minister, Iran's deputy health minister, France's culture minister and the president of the European Parliament.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is currently waiting for the results of a coronavirus test, his son Eduardo Bolsonaro tweeted Thursday, after his press secretary Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for it.

US President Donald Trump is telling people close to him that he is concerned about coming into contact with people who have the coronavirus, including Wajngarten, who was recently with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, CNN's Jim Acosta reports. (However the White House said that contact was minimal and testing is not required.)

Separately, nine US lawmakers -- some of whom had recent contact with Trump -- are now taking steps to self-quarantine as a precaution after coming into contact with another infected person.

Read the full story here.

One of India’s most influential people has shared a poem on Twitter about how to prevent the spread of coronavirus in a country of more than a billion people.

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan posted a video of himself reciting a few lines of verse that he had “doodled.”

The poem talks about listening to government advice such as washing your hands regularly, staying indoors and practicing social distancing.

"They (officials) ask us to stay at home and they say, 'do not say hello without washing your hands with soap or stay at home.' Yes, we will do what you ask us to do,” says Bachchan as he recites the Hindi poem for his 40.3 million followers.

“Big B,” as he is known across India, also posted a photo of himself preparing to record a message on coronavirus for UNICEF and the Indian government.

Considered a national institution in India, Bachchan has starred in more than 200 movies and hosts the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

He is known for promoting social causes. In 2016, he starred in the courtroom drama “Pink," in which he plays a lawyer fighting for three young female victims of unwanted sexual advances in New Delhi, often considered one of the most unsafe cities for women in India. 

In 2018, he cleared more than $560,000 worth of debt owed by farmers amid an agricultural crisis that had forced many into extreme poverty.

A group of first responders in Washington state, a scientist in California, a woman at an assisted living facility in Florida -- all worried because they believe they might have coronavirus but say they can't get tested.

They and many others tell CNN they're suffering symptoms associated with Covid-19, and are worried they may have come into contact with someone who has the virus. They are angry and frustrated after trying to get tested, only to be turned away.

Their stories came into CNN's tip line even as Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday told CNN's morning show, "New Day," that anyone with a doctor's order could get tested.

A primary care doctor in Massachusetts said Pence's assertion that anyone with doctor's orders for testing can get it is "totally false."

There is strict criteria for testing: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is only approving testing for people who are critically ill, have been exposed to an infected patient, or who have recently traveled to certain heavily impacted countries outside the US.

Even if a patient is approved for testing, there just aren't tests on hand to use, said the physician, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read the full story here:

RELATED

Coronavirus: Anxiety and confusion over testing