April 7 coronavirus news

Uruguay's foreign ministry said there is a "high number of positive (coronavirus) results" aboard the Australian cruise ship Greg Mortimer, currently docked off the coast of the South American country.

The ship's operator announced earlier today that at least 81 passengers and crew on the ship have tested positive.

Six passengers on the ship required specialized care and were transferred to medical centers in the capital city Montevideo for treatment, said a statement from the ministry.

"The remainder of the passengers and crew have been classified as asymptomatic or with mild symptoms," the statement said.

The ministry also said that passengers will not be able to disembark the ship unless a humanitarian effort can be organized. 

The cruise ship originally had 128 passengers and 83 crew members onboard. More than 120 passengers and staff onboard were tested for Covid-19. Some 45 have tested negative, and another 90 test results are expected to be processed over the next 12 to 24 hours.

New Zealand Health Minister David Clark has been demoted after going on a beach trip and breaking the rules of the nationwide lockdown.

“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a statement today. 

Instead of being fired, he will be stripped of his role as Associate Finance Minister and demoted to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings.

“I expect better, and so does New Zealand,” said Ardern.

The beach trip: In a separate statement, Clark said he had driven his family to a beach for a walk, on the first weekend of the lockdown.

"This trip was a clear breach of the lockdown principles of staying local and not driving long distances to reach recreation spots," he said.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency has released its official timeline of the coronavirus pandemic, from the original outbreak in mainland China to its global spread by March 31.

Full of praise for the government's efforts to control the outbreak, the lengthy timeline makes no mention of international criticism of the country's secrecy around the first cases of the virus nor their official response.

According to Xinhua, the outbreak was first detected in late December 2019, contradicting reports from the Wuhan health authorities who said cases were found as early as December 12.

There is no early mention of doctor Li Wenliang's attempts to raise awareness of the virus on December 30 or how he was summoned to a police station on January 3, where he had to sign a statement promising not to commit further "unlawful acts."

The timeline only reports that Wuhan announced a pneumonia outbreak in the city on December 31.

Li, who died of the coronavirus in February, is mentioned once in the official timeline on March 19, when the Wuhan Public Security Bureau officially apologized and revoked his reprimand letter. Why he was reprimanded is not mentioned.

The timeline explicitly says that China began to inform the United States about the outbreak on January 3.

Two of Nevada’s Native American nations are enforcing mandatory curfews for their members in an attempt to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony near the California border is requiring all members to stay in their homes from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., except for people who have an essential task to do or need emergency medical treatment. 

Even a first-time offense can result in a $500 fine. The third violation could result in jail time. The curfew is set to expire on April 30, but may be extended.

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, located 35 miles northeast of Reno, established its own curfew effective today, which begins each night at 10 p.m. Violations of that law will result in a $100 fine. The curfew does not have an expiration date.

The two jurisdictions have a total of approximately 2,500 tribal members.

Colorado is extending its statewide "stay at home" order for another two weeks, said Gov. Jared Polis in a televised state address today.

The extended order is now planned to end on April 26.

"If there is any way to safely end it sooner, I will. And likewise, if Coloradans are not staying home and the number of dying or dead continues to pile up, it could go longer," Polis said.

At the start of the national outbreak, Colorado was seeing its cases double every one and a half days. Now, it has slowed to doubling every six or seven days.

"That means the spread of the virus is beginning to slow," Polis said.

As infections spike in the United States, hospitals are running out of space, beds, and equipment like ventilators.

To address the issue, some states are instead turning to other spaces as alternative medical sites.

In Alaska, the Alaska Airlines Center sports arena is being fitted with more than 150 hospital beds to prepare for a possible surge in patients. The center is located at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, and can typically seat 5,000 people.

The similarly-sized Carlson Center in Alaska's Fairbanks is also being prepared to admit patients.

Meanwhile in New Orleans, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has been turned into a medical monitoring station with 1,000 beds.

The facility frees up ICU beds in hospital. All patients will arrive directly from hospitals and there will be no walk-up admission.

This coming week is critical to the pandemic's path forward, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has warned.

Los Angeles saw a 7% increase in coronavirus cases Monday -- the first time this daily increase percentage has been in the single digits since March 14, Garcetti said.

There were 420 new confirmed cases in LA County today, the public health department announced. That brings the county total to 6,360 infections.

Garcetti called the reduced rate of increase “good news,” but cautioned that data releases on Mondays have historically been lower than other days of the week.

“But this is good news, it shows that what you are doing is working,” the mayor added.

The United States now has at least 367,507 cases of the coronavirus and 10,908 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Some 29,887 new cases and 1,265 deaths were reported on Monday alone, according to JHU.

The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.

Wyoming is the only state not yet reporting a death from coronavirus.

CNN is keeping track of coronavirus cases across the US and an interactive map can be found here:

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