Thirty-nine Australians who were on board the Costa Luminosa, and are now trapped in quarantine in Rome, have gotten word that at least two of their international shipmates have died, Matilda Boseley reports for the Guardian.
Italian authorities demanded the group isolated for two weeks before returning to Australia after Coronavruis infections broke out on board their cruise ship. They may soon be joined by 200 Australian’s on the Costa Victoria.
Updated
The Australian state of New South Wales has confirmed 212 new cases of the virus since yesterday, bringing the state total to 1,617 confirmed cases. The state is the worst-affected by the virus.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said 84,907 people have been tested and excluded. Of those infected, 22 are in intensive care.
There was a death overnight: a 91 year-old woman who was a resident of the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility.
The death toll in the state is now eight.
Australia has the 19th-highest number of cases worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.
The total number of cases is 3,378, according to the health department.
From midnight on Saturday all people arriving in Australia will be put into a mandatory 14 day quarantine in hotels and other accommodation.
Updated
Hospital ship arrives in LA as California braces for crisis on par with New York
The Mercy hospital ship docked on Friday morning at the Port of Los Angeles, joining California’s battle against the coronavirus as the state prepares to meet New York City levels of demand on hospitals, possibly within days.
The Mercy is one of two supertankers the navy converted to a floating hospital. Typically deployed to provide disaster relief, the ship has fully equipped operating rooms, a 1,000-bed hospital facility, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, and a landing deck for military helicopters.
Speaking from an afternoon press conference, with navy ships as a backdrop, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said the Mercy was fully staffed and operational with 800 medical staffers and 12 operating rooms. It would be ready to start taking patients as early as tomorrow, Newsom said.
Today, at the end of that contentious and partially accurate White House coronavirus briefing, a reporter asked Dr. Anthony Fauci – who has become a trusted figure for many Americans overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic – whether over the course of his career he had experienced anything like the past month in the United States?
While the HIV/AIDS epidemic was incredibly devastating, the suffering and deaths unfolded more slowly than what people around the world are experiencing now, Fauci said.
“What we’re seeing now, in actual real time, is something that’s unprecedented. This is something we have never seen before, at least in our generation. They’ve seen maybe something like this 100 years ago.”
“We’re really being challenged to not only learn in real time, to be able to respond in a way that’s helpful an effective, we’re also in uncharted waters. That is the thing that I find different…”
“It isn’t as if we have an example of how to do it.”
During briefing, Trump feuds with state governors, makes false claims
Two key moments from Trump’s coronavirus briefing earlier today.
Trump tossed out barbs at state governors he said have been insufficiently gracious to him, and said he advised the vice-president, Mike Pence, just not to return their calls. (But added that Pence called them anyway.)
Daniel Dale
(@ddale8)! Trump says he’s told Vice President Mike Pence not to call the governors of Washington or Michigan.
“They don’t treat you right, I don’t call.”
He says Pence is a different type of person and will call anyway.
And asked if his administration’s belated push to manufacture or obtain 100,000 ventilators meant that everyone who needed a ventilator will be able to get one, he lashed out at the reporter asking the question, calling him a “wise guy” and complaining about all the problems he had inherited.
Yamiche Alcindor
(@Yamiche)Incredible moment.@jonkarl asks multiple times: Will everyone who needs a ventilator have one?
President Trump: “Don’t be a cutie pie. Everyone who needs one?”
US cases rise by 15,000 bringing nationwide total to over 100,000
Doctors and nurses on the front lines of the US coronavirus crisis pleaded on Friday for more protective gear and equipment to treat waves of patients expected to overwhelm hospitals as the number of known U.S. infections surpassed 100,000, with more than 1,600 dead, Reuters reports.
Physicians have called particular attention to a desperate need for additional ventilators, machines that help patients breathe and are widely needed for those suffering from Covid-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the highly contagious novel coronavirus.
Hospitals in New York City, New Orleans, Detroit and other virus hot spots also have sounded the alarm about scarcities of drugs, medical supplies and trained staff while the number of confirmed US cases rose by 15,000 on Friday to just over 100,000.
That was down slightly from more than 16,000 new cases reported on Thursday, the largest one-day US surge to date, but kept the United States as the world leader in the number of known infections, having surpassed China and Italy on Thursday.
No new domestic infections in China
China’s National Health Commission said on Saturday that 54 new coronavirus cases were reported on the mainland on Friday, all involving so-called imported cases.
There were 55 new cases a day earlier.
The total number of infections for mainland China now stands at 81,394, with the death toll rising by 3 to 3,295, it said.
