This briefing is no longer updating. Read the latest developments in the coronavirus outbreak here.
Stocks soared on Tuesday on expectations that Congress was close to producing a stimulus bill to stabilize Americas faltering economy and offer lifelines to industries on the brink of collapse because of the coronavirus.
A plan to bail out companies and send checks of up to $1,200 to Americans had been stalled since Sunday over objections by Democrats. But on Tuesday, top Democrats and Trump administration officials said they were optimistic about finalizing an agreement on a roughly $2 trillion plan.
The S&P 500 had its biggest daily gain since 2008, rising more than 9 percent. Stocks in Europe climbed, led by Germany, where stocks rose more than 10 percent.
It wasnt clear whether the rally would continue into Wednesday. Stocks in Asia rose in early trading, with Tokyo and Seoul shares up more than 4 percent, but futures markets predicted a lower opening for Wall Street.
Shares of hard-hit industries likely to receive aid, such as casinos and cruise lines, soared on Tuesday. Norwegian Cruise Lines was the best performing stock in the S&P 500 on Tuesday,jumping more than 40 percent, and MGM Resorts rose more than 30 percent. Airlines climbed, with American Airlines rising nearly 30 percent. Delta, United Airlines and Boeing were all up more than 20 percent.
The gains came even as investors were presented with more evidence of the economic toll of the outbreak. Companies, from General Motors to the Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, detailed the impact of production shutdowns on their business, and new survey of activity in Europe showed a plunge in business across the region. Also on Tuesday, Japan said the Summer Olympics in Tokyo would be postponed for a year a blow to broadcasters and advertisers who bet big on the viewership of the games and India said it would impose a three-week lockdown.
The jump on Tuesday was in part a rebound from a difficult stretch for stock investors. On Monday, the S&P 500 fell about 3 percent as Congress struggled to overcome differences on the aid bill and traders remained cautious about the Federal Reserves ability to cushion the economys fall. Stocks are down almost 30 percent since their peak in February.
After a month of mind-bending turns in the market, investors are still fragile and could sour on stocks if the promised deal hits a snag again, or as further evidence of the economic damage caused by containment efforts becomes evident. The U.S. government will report weekly jobless claims on Thursday, and some analysts expect the data to show that millions of Americans became unemployed last week.
High traffic strains Facebook as its employees work from home.
Facebook is struggling with a challenge during the coronavirus pandemic: keeping the site up as usage goes through the roof.
As the coronavirus spread, phone calls over Facebooks apps more than doubled. In many countries, messaging on Instagram and Facebook soared by more than 50 percent, while group calls in Italy jumped by more than 1,000 percent.
The skyrocketing traffic is stressing Facebooks systems just as its 45,000 employees are dealing with working remotely for the first time. The companys executives have long preached internally that face-to-face meetings and in-person collaboration were central to Facebooks success.
The company is also trying to keep its users data secure while employees who sift through posts to moderate content do so from home. At the same time, Facebook has added to its workload by promising to do more to limit virus misinformation.
Were just trying to keep the lights on over here, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, said in an interview last week.
WeWork is trying to lure workers back.
In a turbulent past six months, WeWork called off an initial public offering as investors balked at its losses and corporate governance, laid off hundreds of employees, changed its top leadership twice and was bailed out by SoftBank, WeWorks dominant shareholder.
That was all before the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the outbreak, the company, a provider of shared work spaces, has kept most of its locations open even as many offices close, saying that it provided essential services that many state and local governments have allowed to continue operating.
That doesnt mean anyone is in them. In Midtown Manhattan, home to several WeWork spaces, the usual heavy flow of customers has dwindled to a trickle, according to two employees who work in or are monitoring those locations, and who asked not to be named because they feared losing their jobs.
WeWork has allowed employees who normally staff its locations to work from home, but this week it started to entice some to go in with $100-a-day bonuses, according to an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times.
Gig economy workers struggle to receive unemployment benefits.
Unlike workers employed by restaurants, hotels and retail establishments, gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers typically have not been able to collect unemployment benefits or take paid sick leave because they are independent contractors, not employees.
Even California, which passed a law last year intended to reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers, is failing to approve many unemployment claims from drivers, potentially leaving thousands in the lurch as their earning power collapses. The companies have chosen not to report drivers income to the state, as is required of employers, while the law faces a legal challenge from Uber.
A spokeswoman for the California department that oversees unemployment benefits said by email that applicants who were not eligible for benefits because the state lacked their wage information could follow up, and that the department would investigate, awarding benefits if it deemed them misclassified.
In 2018, New York States unemployment insurance appeal board, its highest executive branch authority on such questions, ruled that three Uber drivers were eligible for unemployment benefits, along with all similarly situated drivers.
But the state has yet to require Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies to contribute to its unemployment insurance fund on workers behalf while it identifies which drivers are similarly situated to those in the appeal boards ruling. In the meantime, gig economy workers must prove their employment status themselves.
The coronavirus pandemic has so scrambled the global economy that commercial airlines have started doing what was once unthinkable: flying planes without any passengers but loaded with cargo.
After consulting an internal crisis playbook, American Airlines on Friday carried out the first such cargo-only trip in 36 years, using a Boeing 777, which can normally seat more than 300 passengers. The airline did two round-trip test flights, ferrying cargo in the planes belly from Dallas to Frankfurt and back.
The world is in such a state, were in such a state, its worth trying and figuring out, said Rick Elieson, president of cargo and vice president of international operations for the airline.
The test flights, which concluded on Monday, carried medical supplies, mail for active U.S. military troops, telecommunications equipment and electronics. They also proved profitable enough that American is planning to run more cargo flights, possibly as soon as this week, Mr. Elieson said.
American is not alone. Delta Air Lines announced similar cargo flights last week and United Airlines said on Sunday that it was doing the same.
Global airline revenue is on track to be $252 billion lower this year than in 2019, representing the worst economic crisis in the history of aviation, the International Air Transport Association said on Tuesday. That figure is more than double the worst-case scenario the industry group laid out earlier this month.
Shopify, a popular technology company that has helped open thousands of online retail sites, has become a favorite tool for fly-by-night businesses looking to cash in on the coronavirus pandemic.
New e-commerce sites that use the companys services are filled with wildly exaggerated claims about virus-fighting products that may not even exist.
The New York Times analyzed registrations with Shopify, which allows just about anyone with an email address and a credit card to create retail websites. The company has registered nearly 500 new sites over the past two months with names that include corona or covid, The Times found. Untold others have been started using other names.
Amy Hufft, a Shopify spokeswoman, said the company last week closed more than 4,500 sites related to the virus. She said sites that did not back up the medical claims they made were suspended from the platform. By Monday, nearly all the sites identified by The Times had been removed.
The Olympics are delayed. Advertisers are scrambling.
Companies with billions of dollars tied up in the Olympics are now rushing to put backup plans in place after officials in Japan postponed the games.
More than $10 billion in advertising arrangements, sponsorship deals and promotional events were linked to the summer games, which had been scheduled for July, according to the market intelligence service Sportcal. Companies often create elaborate campaigns around the Olympics, the most-watched sporting event in the world, recruiting athletes to star in Olympics-themed commercials and scheduling products to debut in promotional tie-ins.
Companies such as Coca-Cola, Airbnb, General Electric, Procter & Gamble and Visa had signed on as sponsors for the 2020 games.
But on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said that the games would be delayed, possibly for a full year.
Now, commercial plans four years in the making are being hastily rewritten around the world, said Conrad Wiacek, head of analysis and consulting for Sportcal, in a statement.
NBCUniversal, the main American broadcaster of the Summer Games since 1988 and the Winter Games since 2002, had already sold more than $1.25 billion in advertising commitments for 7,000 hours of planned broadcast, streaming and social media content. The media giant was set to send more than 2,000 people to Japan for the games.
NBC Universal said in a statement on Tuesday that it was actively working with our advertising partners to navigate this postponement.
Universal Studios said on its website on Tuesday that it would extend the closure of Universal Orlando Resort, including its theme parks and entertainment district, through April 19.
Campbell Soup Company said sales of soup jumped nearly 60 percent in the four weeks that ended March 15 from the same period last year, while sales of Prego pasta sauce were up more than 50 percent. The company, which also owns snack lines such as Goldfish, Cape Cod and Kettle potato chips and Snyders of Hanover, is offering extra pay to employees who work during the coronavirus crisis.
Citigroup will temporarily shut down 10 to 15 percent of its roughly 700 branches by the end of the week in response to shifts in foot traffic and market dynamics, a spokesman said. Other branches will have shorter operating hours.
General Motors said it would draw down a $16 billion credit line as it aggressively pursued austerity measures to mitigate the business impact of the coronavirus.
Business activity in the eurozone plunged in March at record rates, according to surveys by IHS Markit. Britains index fell to 37.1 from 53 in February, the lowest point since comparable figures have been available.
Reporting was contributed by Noam Scheiber, Mike Isaac, Sheera Frenkel, Matt Phillips, Michael H. Keller, Taylor Lorenz, Tiffany Hsu, Niraj Chokshi, Elaine Yu, Ben Dooley, Jason Karaian, Carlos Tejada, Jim Tankersley and Daniel Victor.
Vehicle owners will be granted a 6-month exemption from MOT testing, enabling them to continue to travel to work where this absolutely cannot be done from home, or shop for necessities.
All cars, vans and motorcycles which usually would require an MOT test will be exempted from needing a test from 30 March 2020. Vehicles must be kept in a roadworthy condition, and garages will remain open for essential repair work. Drivers can be prosecuted if driving unsafe vehicles.
Read advice on keeping a vehicle in a good condition.
People should stay at home and avoid travel. The only reasons people should leave their homes is set out in the government guidance.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:
We must ensure those on the frontline of helping the nation combat COVID-19 are able to do so.
Allowing this temporary exemption from vehicle testing will enable vital services such as deliveries to continue, frontline workers to get to work, and people to get essential food and medicine.
Safety is key, which is why garages will remain open for essential repair work.
Legislation will be introduced on March 30 and will come into immediate effect for 12 months, following a short consultation with key organisations. Drivers will still need to get their vehicle tested until the new regulations come into place, if they need to use it.
If you cant get an MoT thats due because youre in self-isolation, the Department for Transport is working with insurers and the police to ensurepeople will not be negatively affected as a result ofthings that are out of their control.
Practical driving tests and annual testing for lorries, buses and coaches have been suspended for up to 3 months.
This was incredible kindness, and, for me, incredible luck. If not for them, I would be at work right now, getting ready to clean down deli slicers, change my gloves and hope desperately for my own safety, and the safety of my spouse, friends, family, co-workers and customers.
Now I sit at home and think the same things, knowing Ive more or less certainly been exposed. I feel guilty but at least slightly safer, while my brave co-workers (most of whom have no other choice) carry on without me. I start work again the week of March 31, assuming I feel safe enough to do so. Im trying to take things a day at a time.
The human beings who are helping you at supermarkets, at gas stations, at whatever stores are still open are people too. We are exhausted. We have already been working for so long, for so little, afraid or not allowed to take sick days, afraid or not able to afford a vacation.
Service workers have families and friends we are concerned about. We are scared for ourselves and for each other. We are here, working, while you enjoy what may be the last good days for a long while, because the crisis is almost certainly going to get a lot worse.
A good day for me, before the virus, was one where no one screamed at me over rotisserie chicken, or when a salad they were under no obligation to buy didnt suit their tastes. A bad day was one where customers screamed at me more than once.
Now, as things get harder as our collective stress level rises I beg you to show kindness to service workers. I beg you not to take out your fear, frustration and despair on the courageous people who show up every day to help you. All of them would surely love to be at home but most cannot, despite their years of hard work, afford to step away for even a moment.
Dont let the weight of your grief and anger fall on the shoulders of service workers. They are already carrying enough.
Dylan Morrison (@dylan_thyme), the author of Juniper Lane, is a food service worker at a supermarket in Cleveland.
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The Covid-19 pandemic became very real in the Pacific islands this week, as the region recorded its first death and the total number of confirmed cases climbed to 57, as of Tuesday afternoon.
Though the number of cases is relatively small, fear and misinformation surrounding the virus is widespread, so starting today, each Wednesday the Guardian will be publishing a round-up of coronavirus news from the region.
Strains on public infrastructure and equipment are already appearing. Vanuatu has only two respirators, and other countries are similarly ill-equipped. Many countries are reliant on having to send samples overseas for testing.
Economic prospects for the region, which is heavily dependent on tourism, are dire. Calls for an international bail-out are already circulating in policy circles.
Guam is the first Pacific island nation to report a death due to Covid-19. A 68 year-old woman died on Saturday and had significant underlying health issues. The territory now has 29 confirmed cases.
French Polynesia is one of the worst-affected Pacific states, with 18 confirmed cases. Half were discovered in people recently returned from France, only one has been hospitalised so far, the others remain in isolation.
New Caledonia now has seven confirmed cases. Radio Rhythme Bleu reports that a crowd of about 60 people attacked the territorys only international airport to protest against continuing air service.
Papua New Guinea announced its first confirmed case on 20 March. The person was flown to Australia on Sunday and the government is attempting to track down everyone who may have come into contact with him.
Fiji has four confirmed cases, three of which are from the same family: a man, his mother and his one-year-old nephew. Both the 47-year-old woman and the baby appear to have contracted the virus from the 27-year-old man, who is a flight attendant. Fiji Times reports theyre stable. A fourth case was announced Tuesday. He was identified as a 28 year-old man who traveled from Sydney to Suva last Sunday.
The island of Aneityum in Vanuatu is in lockdown following reports that passengers or crew from the cruise ship Voyager of the Seas may have interacted with locals during an overnight visit on 11-12 March. On Tuesday the New South Wales government said seven people onboard the ship, which disembarked in Sydney on 18 March, were diagnosed with Covid-19.
Samoa reports that six test results for Covid-19 had come back negative. Seven further samples have been sent to New Zealand for laboratory testing, and results are pending for these cases.
Solomon Islands had three suspected cases, but all tested negative. Meanwhile the countrys central bank has revised its growth prediction for the economy to 2% in 2020 with the governor flagging the possibility of a recession
Papua New Guinea: A two-week state of emergency began on Tuesday, with measures including stopping all domestic flights; no movement from one province to another for a 14-day period except for approved cargo, medicine and security personnel; the bringing froward of school holidays to start on Monday 23 March; all non-essential workers to stay at home; and for all people who arrived in Papua New Guinea from 7 March to report in to a government hotline. The Australian government has provided an additionaln US$500,000 (PGK1.7m) to assist with preparations for dealing with the impacts of Covid-19.
Fiji: The city of Lautoka, where the first three cases were detected, is in lockdown with road blocks and patrols. The military has been called up to assist with perimeter security. The government is urgently seeking 82 passengers on three flights, whom they believe may have been in contact with the confirmed cases. The prime minister has urged people to avoid non-essential travel within Fiji.
Solomon Islands: the country announced a 90-day ban on arrivals of cruise ships and yachts on 20 March and has reduced international flights. All international travellers are required to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival.
Vanuatu: State-owned carrier Air Vanuatu has suspended all international flight operations. Inbound travel on other carriers is restricted to citizens, residents, diplomatic corps and humanitarian workers responding to the Covid-19 crisis.
Samoa: A state of emergency has been declared and borders are closed. Public gatherings are restricted to no more than five people. Failure to comply may lead to a fine of up to US$3,400 or a period of imprisonment of two years.
Tonga: A state of emergency has been declared. Borders are now closed. Nightclubs and bars will be closed from 25 March and gatherings of more than 20 are prohibited.
In Samoa a young woman who had been tested for Covid-19 endured harassment after her name was published in the media and the prime minister revealed the name of her village in a radio show. It was later confirmed that the womans test has come back negative.
This will be a test of our character, our inventiveness, leadership and compassion ... It is an uncharted territory and we may end up asking the World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank for a rescue package. I hope we do not reach this stage because the pill could be bitter.
- Odo Tevi, former Vanuatu ambassador to the United Nations.
Resorts have emptied of tourists, and some countries have found their spacious and secluded grounds useful quarantine sites. One young mother stuck in Noumea with two children said shed never stayed in such posh digs in her life.
Famous people are used to hearing the echo of applause and crowds of compliments everywhere they go. When they are suddenly confined to their homes, surreal things start to happen.
Maybe thats one good thing to come from this unprecedented time: that we have the pleasure and sometimes the intense displeasure of watching celebrities squint intensely at their phone screens, looking for connection, looking for transcendence, looking for someone to request that they sing an unplugged version of their 1997 hit single Angels.
Here are some celebrities who are regularly posting delightful videos to keep us company.
For some days now, Robbie Williams has been livestreaming himself on Instagram and taking song requests from his followers. He calls it Corona-oke. He has sung his own songs, and also Elvis Presley songs and Oasis songs. Sometimes he refuses to sing certain things he didnt sing My Way by Frank Sinatra because it starts with the line, And now, the end is near.
I dont want to sing that! Robbie said, and sang Three Little Birds by Bob Marley instead. As with all Instagram live stories, you cant watch them after 24 hours but some lovely people on Twitter have recorded the best bits and shared.
Subscribe to Robbie Williams on Instagram.
About five days ago, Australian singer Tina Arena started doing Instagram Live videos from her home. In these videos she refers to herself as QuarenTina Arena. She urges the government to protect the arts. She calls Johnny Young from Young Talent Time to see what he reckons about the coronavirus. Danni Minogue comments frequently. Its like Australias entire entertainment history in one feed.
Ill be back really, really soon with more stuff to talk about, Arena assured us a few days ago. So have an awesome, awesome day amongst this complete bullshit pandemonium that were all living how hilarious! But do take care.
Subscribe to Tina Arena on Instagram.
Actress Florence Pugh is very good on Instagram partly because its fun discovering that shes extremely English and just did very good accents in Little Women and Midsomma, and partly because her stories just involve her yelling quite simple recipes at you.
Despite her yelling, which just seems to be the natural tenor of her voice, there is something soothing about seeing Florence Pugh pottering around her huge kitchen, holding up bruised tomatoes and eating bits of sausages off a cutting board. I found this on the floor in a shop, she said yesterday, holding a butternut squash and justifying why shes about to clean it. She even has a tab for Cooking in her profile.
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New Zealand actor Sam Neill has always been very active on social media, but has used this crisis as an opportunity to post more content (content often meaning pictures of his pigs). He also posts lots of videos, sometimes talking about wine as if you have just run into a particularly chatty stranger at a vineyard, or reading a bedtime story (for instance, Hairy MacLary and Friends).
A couple of days ago he read out some poems about love to make us feel OK about social distancing. Each to their own!
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Like many musicians, Ben Gibbard has been streaming live concerts to make us all feel better about staying inside. The irony is that the music Gibbard makes as a solo artist, and in his bands Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service tends to be quite glum. The thought is still nice.
Gibbard has done eight of these hour-ish-long streams, some of which are fundraisers for various causes. He plays Death Cab and Postal Service songs, but also covers other artists in videos that are then available to watch on YouTube, with the originals compiled into a Spotify playlist. The other day he covered the song Motion Sickness by Phoebe Bridgers, in which she says of her ex-partner Ryan Adams: Why do you sing with an English accent? I guess its too late to change that now which is funny because sometimes Gibbard also sounds like he has an English accent. But hes from Washington! Crazy stuff.
Subscribe to Ben Gibbard on YouTube.
This week actor Richard E Grant started uploading daily videos of himself reading select quotes from his 1987 film debut, the British classic Withnail and I. In almost all of the videos he appears to either be sitting under a curtain or beneath the striped canopy of a four-poster bed.
In many of the videos he starts laughing about how funny Withnail and I is. Where did he come up with these lines! he says, of the films writer and director Bruce Robinson.
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If you dont already follow model, TV personality and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen on Instagram, youre missing out. Teigen is a regular poster, usually uploading stories about her cute kids, cooking tips or videos making fun of her husband John Legend (who hosted his own Instagram Live concert, which Teigen made fun of).
This time of quarantine, though, has brought out some truly fantastic and deranged content. First, Teigen was so bored that she asked people to take photos of their pantries so she could create custom recipes using the ingredients she could spot.
Then she offered to bake banana bread for anyone who had romaine lettuce in her area (This trade will be made six feet apart, she warned.) Someone called Chris had romaine lettuce! The trade was arranged. The cake looked good.
Follow Chrissy Teigan on Instagram and Twitter.
Pop star Charli XCX has been uploading self-isolating livestreams on Instagram, in which she invites her famous friends to do digital activities with her and lets us watch.
The first episode was an emo chat with Christine from Christine and the Queens, in which the two musicians discovered creativity, and Charli wore a ski mask. Then Charli and Diplo did an at-home workout routine together. A couple of days ago she streamed an art class with musician Clairo.
Shes also just going slightly mad.
Follow Charli XCX on Instagram.
Madonna has been posting Quarantine Diaries from her home, which are puzzling to say the least. On the first day (18 March) she posted a black-and-white, film noir-esque video of herself typing on a typewriter while jazzy music plays in the background. She says that she is quarantined out of honour and respect for Covid-19, which is a spicy way to put it.
Subsequent videos involve her singing a version of her hit Vogue that is about eating fried fish, and sitting in a bathtub full of flower petals discussing how Covid-19 doesnt care about how rich you are. Its certainly compelling.
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The coronavirus established itself early on in Italy where reported deaths are now in excess of those recorded in China.
But is the crisis witnessed in Italy about to play out in the UK? And when are lockdowns and other interventions likely to start to make a difference?
Though there are some similarities the picture is complex
The death toll in Britain is roughly two weeks behind that of Italy, according to researchers who have analysed the data.
In week 10 of this year, ending 6 March, Italy announced 176 new Covid-19 deaths, comparable to the 166 deaths the UK reported in week 12.
If the spread of the pandemic in the UK tracks Italys closely, the domestic death toll could soon rise sharply.
Italian authorities recorded 1,066 new Covid-19 deaths in week 11, the equivalent of this week in the UKs outbreak.
It looks as though we are two weeks behind Italy in number of Covid-19 deaths, said Prof Sheila Bird, formerly of the MRCs Biostatistics Unit at Cambridge University.
But all this means is that we have comparable population sizes and had a comparable number of deaths in week 12 as Italy had in week 10. We may be on a less steep trajectory than Italy, but its too early to know yet.
On Monday, a new analysis of data from both countries showed that deaths may indeed be rising marginally more slowly in Britain than they did in Italy. Prof David Spiegelhalter, at Cambridge Universitys Statistical Laboratory, looked at the numbers of deaths reported in the 14 days since the fifth fatality in each country. The figures suggest that UK Covid-19 deaths have risen on average about 30% per day, versus 37% during the equivalent period of Italys epidemic.
Spiegelhalter stressed that the outlook was all very uncertain at the moment not least because the two populations and their nations responses to the outbreak differ so much. There was some reason for hope, he said of the UK situation, although we will must be ready for having hundreds of deaths a day.
The same analysis hints that Italy may be approaching a peak in its epidemic, but the answer will only be clear if the country continues to report falling numbers of new deaths over the coming days and weeks.
The UKs peak may not be so severe if the UKs response to the outbreak has been effective, Spiegelhalter said, but the answer to that is not yet clear.
Compared with Britain, Italy had less time to prepare, the virus may have been circulating more widely before it was detected, and the country has more older people who are more tightly connected to family and friends.
However, comparisons present problems, as its not possible to truly compare like-with-like.
One factor that will have a substantial impact on deaths is the capacity for hospitals to care for the most seriously ill patients, and this differs markedly from country to country. When you hit the capacity of intensive care beds then you might get an additional shift up which could reset the rate of increase thereafter, said Bird.
One reason for Italys high death rate could be the countrys demographics 23% of its population are aged 65 and over. The UK is younger on average with 18% of its population in this age category. Covid-19 is more dangerous for older people.
Testing and the number of confirmed cases is also an issue.
Differences in testing policy, for example, will account for some of the variations in mortality rates as testing more patients will increase the number of confirmed cases, and is likely to reduce the overall mortality rate. Data on patient characteristics such as age and underlying health conditions is another factor we dont know about.
Germany, where 21% of the population are over 65, appears to have one of the worlds lowest death rates. The country has reported just 94 deaths from 24,873 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The reasons for this are not yet clear, but they could include differences in data gathering or its high testing rate.
As Adam Kucharski, who is modelling the outbreak at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, points out, deaths reported today do not reflect the state of the epidemic at the moment.
Those who die are typically infected about four weeks earlier. Strictly speaking we should say something like: transmission in the UK four weeks ago was where Italy was about six weeks ago, he said.
For the same reason, the impact of the cascade of lockdowns across Italy, and ever more stringent restrictions on movement brought in across the UK, will take time to show up in the daily death tolls. A wave of Italians fled to the countrys south when news leaked on 8 March that the government intended to quarantine 16 million people in the high-risk north. If those people carried the infection with them, the deaths that result are not likely to show up until at least the start of next week.
In the UK, where pubs, clubs, restaurants and theatres shuttered only days ago, and school closures began this week, any resulting impact on deaths will not be apparent until mid-April soonest. Its quite likely to be at least three weeks before we see a slow down in the deaths. And they will potentially still be increasing. It depends how much social distancing weve managed to achieve, said Bird.
Its a dynamic, the president warned during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, governors must be aware of.
Its a two-way street, Trump said during a Tuesday interview on Fox News. They have to treat us well, also. They cant say, Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.
Unable to hear the roaring cheers at his campaign rallies due to coronavirus cancellations, the president has turned to his daily press briefings to get national attention and hear congratulatory remarks, sometimes at the expense of delivering accurate statements about the disease. The president is hyper aware of TV ratings, which are compiled weekly for him in the White House, and viewership of the briefings during the daytime hours have seen a notable spike as Americans anxiously watch from home.
Administration officials say its an opportunity for experts from the task force to answer questions, but it also gives the president a national platform to assure the public and offer himself a pat on the back.
Many doctors, Ive read many, many doctors, cant believe the great job that Ive done, Trump said, without offering specifics, even as health professionals have publicly warned of severe equipment shortages.
Europe was just designated as the hotspot right now, and we closed that border a while ago. So that was lucky or through talent or through luck. Call it whatever you want, Trump said, referring to his decision to cut off most travel from Europe and China to the United States.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Rikaart said his symptoms started a few weeks ago with a slight cough and gradually got worse. He was then misdiagnosed with pneumonia.
"I just tested positive for coronavirus," he wrote, adding, "I am a pretty healthy 43-year-old who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink much, eats well and exercises regularly and this has been the hardest experience of my life."
He said while everyone in his house had a slight cough, they got better and he grew sicker.
"Two+ weeks ago, everyone in my house had a bit of a cough and my son came home from school with a high fever. Everyone recovered, but I deteriorated. I isolated from my family and have been in solo quarantine since Saturday the 14th. I had a fever for 11 days, difficulty breathing and was diagnosed with pneumonia."
He said he is finally starting to feel better.
"I'm confident that I have finally turned the proverbial corner and am fever free today for the first time since this all started. I was told to stay isolated for another 72 hours before I acclimate back into my family. So, nice try coronavirus, but I have another 4-5 decades worth of experiences to have with these guys. Furthermore, I want to thank you all for the well wishes and I hope you heed the warnings. Stay safe, stay healthy and stay inside."
Rikaart has appeared on the soap opera since 2003.
LONDON A day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a virtual lockdown on Britain, Londons subways teemed with rush-hour passengers while a tugboat plied its way up the Thames, a speaker serenading the handful of pedestrians ashore with the Monty Python song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
It was a day of confusion and contradictory images in Britain, as people struggled to adapt to a national shutdown that, while unprecedented in the post-World War II era, still fell short of those in force in France, Spain or Italy.
Much of London was deserted, as Britons responded with stoicism and greater acceptance than they had shown to previous efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But the new restrictions raised vexing questions, particularly about what kind of jobs were vital enough to warrant leaving home.
On Monday evening, Mr. Johnson asked Britons to stay in their houses for the next 21 days, except for occasional trips out for food, medicine, or exercise. He carved out an additional exception for people commuting to work where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home, but left it to employers to decide whether to tell their staff to work from home.
Commuters swarmed into Underground stations on Tuesday, where the sharply reduced service meant that trains were as packed as on an ordinary workday, and the government showed no inclination to reduce those numbers. Instead, it urged Transport for London, which is run by the citys mayor, Sadiq Khan, to restore normal service.
In work, in many, many instances, the two-meter rule can be observed, said Britains health secretary, Matt Hancock, referring to the social distancing that the government is promoting. Those who cannot work from home should go to work, he said, to keep the country running.
Part of the problem, analysts said, is that the government has not yet rolled out fiscal measures to cushion the blow to self-employed workers who lose their jobs. Britains chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said that the Treasury was scrambling to put together a package, but that it was incredibly complicated.
Britains determination to keep parts of the economy operating, even as it tries to isolate much of society, carried echoes of the debate in Washington, where President Trump has argued that shutting down the economy for several months could be more damaging than the epidemic itself.
There were signs of a split within the United Kingdom over how the new rules should be applied. The Johnson government said construction on commercial and residential sites could continue, since those workers were able to practice proper distancing. But the authorities in Scotland closed down construction of everything but hospitals.
In London, Mr. Hancock said the government would build a temporary hospital, with capacity for 4,000 patients, in the ExCel Center, a cavernous conference center in the docklands. The hospital, one of at least four planned for the country, will start treating virus patients within days, he said.
The number of reported coronavirus cases in Britain rose to 8,077 on Tuesday, an increase of 1,427 from Monday, while the death toll increased by 88, to 422, the largest single-day jump since the contagion began.
As hospitals filled up, Mr. Hancock announced a campaign to recruit 250,000 volunteers to help the overburdened National Health Service. The volunteers will also help the 1.5 million elderly people that the government has asked to quarantine themselves for 12 weeks. About 12,000 retired doctors and nurses have agreed to return to work.
Public-health experts said Britains lockdown had finally put the country on the right track after two weeks in which Mr. Johnson resisted taking stronger measures. But some still expressed anxiety that the government was not moving fast enough to expand testing and contact tracing to curb the spread of the virus.
Weve definitely bought time, said Professor Devi Sridhar, director of the global health governance program at Edinburgh University. My fear is that people will think the lockdown solves the problem. We need to do much more testing, tracing, and isolating to use the next three weeks properly.
Even members of Mr. Johnsons Conservative Party criticized the government for the sluggish pace in testing.
We appear to be testing on a daily basis virtually no more people than we were over a week ago, when the commitment was to increase the daily number of tests from 5,000 to 25,000, Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary, said in Parliament.
Testing, Mr. Hunt noted, was a vital part of the success of the suppression strategies in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
A dispute over the crowded subways suggested that politics was starting to bleed into Britains response to the crisis.
In a televised briefing from 10 Downing Street, Mr. Hancock took a swipe at Mayor Khan, a Labour Party politician.
There is no good reason in the information that Ive seen that the current levels of tube provision should be as low as they are, Mr. Hancock said. We should have more tube trains running.
Minutes later, a spokesman for the mayor fired back, saying that nearly one-third of the Undergrounds staff was unavailable, either because of illness or the need to self-isolate. He criticized the government for refusing to close construction sites or provide proper financial support to the self-employed.
There were also questions about how strictly the government plans to crack down on people who flout the restrictions.
While Mr. Johnson said the police would enforce the lockdown, and there were photos of police shutting down stores, the British police force is stretched thin. And the fine for those who violate the rules is only 30 about $35 though officials said it might increase.
The government even struggled to explain how the new rules apply to people in relationships who do not live with their partners. Asked for guidance, the deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, said the government did not want people switching from one household to another.
Perhaps, said Dr. Harries with a rare flash of humor in grim times, they should test the strength of their relationship by moving in together.
Andrew Testa contributed reporting.
Back when I was trying and failing to quit, I'd reach for any excuse to bail on my better self. A bad day. A text from my ex, or no text.
One day, a snowstorm walloped the city, shuttering my office, and I pulled on my rubber boots with a sigh as if to say, "I guess I'm drinking now."
I didn't want to be this person, passing out on the futon with the television flickering on her face, waking up to green empties mashed with cigarette butts, but I didn't know another way.
"Who cares?" I thought, as I trudged to the liquor store on sidewalks shoveled by strangers. "Why bother trying to change?" It felt that day, like many days, that the universe was conspiring to keep me good and drunk. I can't even imagine what I'd make of a shelter-in-place edict and booze on delivery.
"Who cares? Why bother?" is not just a drunk's dilemma, of course. As the planet throbs with uncertainty, as we disappear behind deadbolts with our curtains pulled shut, many of us will be called by the voice of romantic doom. Why bother getting out of bed? Who cares if I eat all the cupcakes? Why not watch Netflix all day?
Some of this is human and necessary, but too much is unhealthy and numbing -- and how we find that balance will be one of the many challenges of this moment.
We live in a culture that gives us so few tools to find peace in our minds and so many ways to escape it. Beer, wine, vodka it was the most reliable comfort I knew for a long time. But the more I reached for that fix, the more of a mess I became.
If you are trying and failing to quit drinking, I actually think this might be the perfect moment to get sober. The circumstances that force us to stare down our worst habits could also be the excuse we need to change.
I quit drinking nearly ten years ago, and the first months that followed were a bit like a self-quarantine. I bailed on social engagements and rarely went to bars or restaurants, where the free-flowing wine made my mouth water. I holed up inside my apartment listening to podcasts and reading books and occupying my hands with dorky crafting projects like latch-hooking a picture of a tabby. It's a bit eerie how much a society in lockdown resembles people in early sobriety -- without the devastating global consequences, of course.
I don't mean to make light of our dire moment; I only mean to point out these are the impossible circumstances under which I once wished I could give up booze. I wanted the rest of the world to disappear, to stop shoving easy happiness in my face. I could find temptation in any billboard or passing stranger. I got such a heart sink seeing a smiling couple sipping Chardonnay on the patio, or a glamorous friend hoisting her martini glass on Instagram.
For months, I felt like a woman living on the loneliest island.
The AA lifeline moves online
Recovery meetings can be a bridge back to human connection, but I struggled there too. I was allergic to Alcoholics Anonymous at first, with its corny slogans and awkward human blinking, and I used to fantasize that 12-step meetings would get canceled so I could stop feeling guilty for skipping them.
In time I came to see that a 12-step program gave me what I badly needed not only community and accountability but a way to address the problems underneath my chronic drinking. AA doesn't work for everyone, but it worked for me, and over the years I've been grateful for wisdom I never saw out there in the endless scroll of quick fixes and entertainment on demand. "One day at a time" is a corny slogan, it's true. It will also save you a world of pain.
I didn't understand when I first quit how few coping strategies I had, how much I had outsourced to the stress management system of "one more round." I had an overthinker's disdain for prayer and meditation and exercise, until I started seeing how useful they could be for lowering stress and anxiety, focusing the mind, finding calm in my own body -- so many of the things I was drinking for in the first place.
AA taught me that status, riches, intelligence and beauty are not barriers against the random lashes of fate. Alcoholism, like a virus, can strike anyone at any level of society. I consider it one of the profound gifts of my life that I've been able to sit in those hard metal chairs and discover how much of my heart might be shared with a total stranger.
Honestly, this is how I would have preferred my meetings in the beginning. I wanted to participate, but I wanted to stay safe in my home at the same time. And for better or worse, technology lets us do that.
I haven't been surprised to find other kinds of support groups popping up online, too. Happy hours, of course, but also meditation groups, parenting groups, single-person groups, writing groups and reading groups -- people linked by common interests and seeking new ways to connect. One aspect of AA meetings I've always appreciated is that you have to stay quiet when someone else is sharing, no matter how much you disagree or want to interrupt. You'd be amazed what you can learn when you're forced to listen to another human. So much better than the "everyone yell at once" rules of engagement on social media.
Each day at 5 p.m., I log on to Zoom to find 20 faces staring back at me. I'm becoming familiar with the rattle of their ceiling fans, the buttons of the couch where they sit, the titles on their bookshelves. It's a new way to have recovery meetings, but it's not that different. People talk about the pain of having a family but also having no family. They talk about the stress of their job but also having no job. The world is in crisis and the same as it ever was. People are struggling. We need each other.
Combating loneliness, together
Alcoholism is an affliction of loneliness. Whatever else chronic drinking might be a disease, a rut, a genetic inheritance, a behavioral disorder, a deficiency of dopamine or some neurotransmitter (and we can argue about this over Zoom some other time) it feeds on solitude and despair, and we have plenty on tap these days.
But as many have pointed out, this could also be a moment when we return to humble pleasures and simpler connections. I love hearing the stories of families playing board games, of old-fashioned telephone conversations, of neighbors greeting each other from 6 feet away, sometimes for the first time.
And in the end, that's the answer to the questions, "Who cares? Why bother?" Because we need each other in this battle. Nobody could blame a person for cratering to self-pity and fear, but others might be inspired by your example if you rose up instead.
In those long and agonized months when I was trying and failing to quit drinking, I was haunted by a sense that I was not who I wanted to be. I wasn't really thinking about anyone else, and I wouldn't for a while. I could rationalize continuing to drink. I could keep making excuses. But in the deepest part of me I knew it was time, and that was a feeling I never could outrun.
Yes, a global catastrophe is the perfect excuse to stay good and drunk. It is also the perfect chance to finally become the person you want to be.
Sarah Hepola is the bestselling author of "Blackout" and currently working on her second memoir.
