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Trump extends coronavirus social distancing guidelines to April 30

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The latest updates from our reporters in California and around the world

The Los Angeles Times will provide around-the-clock updates on COVID-19 from across Southern California and around the world.

European airline EasyJet grounds all flights

LONDON — Popular European airline EasyJet says it is grounding its entire fleet of aircraft amid a collapse in demand because of the COVID-19 crisis.

The carrier, based in Luton, England, has parked all 344 of its planes, removing a significant cost as it copes with the impact of the virus.

EasyJet says it has a strong balance sheet and is in “ongoing discussions with liquidity providers.” The budget carrier also announced that it had reached an agreement with the Unite union on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew.

The announcement comes as Scottish regional airline Loganair said it expected to ask for a government bailout.

Britain’s government has so far demurred from creating a rescue package for aviation but has said it is ready for negotiations with individual firms once they had “exhausted other options.”

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China reports 31 new coronavirus cases

China’s National Health Commission on Monday reported 31 new COVID-19 cases, among them just one domestic infection while the others were individuals recently arrived from abroad.

As outbreaks have surged in the United States and the rest of the world, China’s reported cases have dwindled four months after the then-unidentified illness first emerged in the central province of Hubei.

The country is now easing the last of the controls that confined tens of millions of people to their homes while they sought to contain the spread of the virus. At the peak of China’s restrictions, some 700 million people were in areas covered by orders or official requests to stay home and limit activity.

The focus of China’s prevention measures has shifted to overseas arrivals, who have made up the bulk of new infections for more than two weeks. Virtually all foreigners were barred from entering the country starting Saturday.

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AIDS crisis shaped Anthony Fauci, disease expert at front lines of coronavirus pandemic

For decades, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci has been known as the hardest worker in Building 31 — the first scientist to arrive at the sprawling National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md., in the morning and the last to leave in the evening.

“He’s even found notes on his windshield left by co-workers that say things like, “Go home. You’re making me feel guilty,” President George W. Bush said in 2008 when he awarded Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead

With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal.

The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south.

But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and business remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.

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Louisiana church defies COVID-19 order, holds Sunday services

Pentecostal preacher Tony Spell didn’t just stand before his congregation on Sunday in defiance of the governor’s order to stay home: He leaped into the pews, paraded, hugged and laid hands on worshipers’ foreheads in prayer.

“We’re free people. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to cower,” the Rev. Spell said from the pulpit of Life Tabernacle Church in a suburb of Baton Rouge. “We’re not breaking any laws.”

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‘I don’t want to get sick. But if I die, I die’: Florida retirees grapple as coronavirus cases soar

A resident of The Villages, Fla., gets tested for the coronavirus with a nasal swab at a drive-through site that accommodates golf carts.
(Joe Burbank / AP)

Retirees and snowbirds have long flocked to the slew of country club-like gated communities in Florida known for their communal amenities, low taxes and year-round sun. The elderly account for close to a quarter of the state’s 21 million residents.

But now, as nearly half of the U.S. adjusts to stay-at-home orders put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus, life at many of Florida’s retirement villages has come to a standstill, with complaints from some and calls for additional safeguards from others.

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Plácido Domingo, once opera’s biggest star, has been hospitalized in Mexico with coronavirus

Plácido Domingo has been hospitalized in Mexico with complications related to COVID-19, Opera News reported on March 28.

In a press statement, a spokesperson for the opera singer reported that he is in stable condition but will remain the hospital for “as long as the doctors find it necessary until a hoped-for full recovery.”

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Inside a Long Beach distillery churning out hand sanitizer to battle COVID-19

The floor is sticky, and the air smells like booze.

At Portuguese Bend Distilling in Long Beach, a skeleton crew in medical masks and Carhartt work shirts clambers around the copper still and stainless-steel fermenters that, in normal days, would be churning out vodka and gin.

But these aren’t normal days.

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Coronavirus outbreak at Yucaipa nursing home leaves 12 infected, one dead

San Bernardino County officials said 12 people at a Yucaipa nursing facility tested positive for the virus Saturday after a resident of the facility died of COVID-19 earlier in the week.

At least one of the people who tested positive worked at the facility, which officials did not immediately name.

The 89-year-old woman had underlying health conditions and died Thursday, officials said.

In addition, a resident of a second Yucaipa nursing facility has symptoms of the illness, officials said. County public health staffers are working with both facilities to expedite testing of all residents and employees, they said.

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Governors shrug off Trump’s insults as they plead for federal aid

Wary of President Trump’s criticism that they were ungrateful for his management of the coronavirus crisis, governors of several of the hardest-hit states sought gingerly Sunday to avoid provoking him anew and risk losing desperately needed federal aid.

Despite the drastic shutdown of much of the country, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease specialist, warned Sunday that 100,000 to 200,000 Americans might die before the pandemic eases. More than 2,400 had died as of Sunday.

Several governors made clear they fear inadvertently harming their own citizens if they are too strident in demands for desperately needed medical supplies, or if they clash too publicly with Trump over pandemic policy as the contagion spreads.

So they took a new tack, articulating their states’ needs while ignoring Trump’s insults and demands.

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Trump extends federal social distancing guidelines to April 30

President Trump announced Sunday that federal social distancing guidelines, which were to either expire or be renewed on Monday, would be extended to April 30.

Speaking at a briefing held in the Rose Garden of the White House, Trump said the voluntary guidelines, which were originally to have lasted 15 days, would be extended to “slow the spread” of coronavirus.

Previously, the president had expressed impatience with isolation measures, which have virtually shut down large parts of the economy.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease specialist, called the extension a “wise and prudent” decision.

“We feel that the mitigation that we’re doing right now is having an effect,” said Fauci, speaking at the same briefing.

We’ve really built this on scientific evidence,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force’s coordinator, said of the decision to keep the guidelines in place until the end of next month. She acknowledged the “sacrifices” being made by ordinary Americans.

“That was aspirational,” Trump said of his earlier stated hopes of restarting the economy by Easter, which falls on April 12. Now, he said, “Easter should be the peak number” of infections.

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Former USC football player Quinton Powell hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms

Quinton Powell
Linebacker Quinton Powell celebrates a win in 2016.
(Getty Images)

Former USC linebacker Quinton Powell has been hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19 and is pleading for others on social media to “stay inside and stop playing with this.”

Powell, who underwent a test for the coronavirus, made his symptoms public with an Instagram post Saturday. In the photo, Powell is lying on a hospital bed, wearing a mask and gown, with medical equipment along the wall behind him.

“Been scared since yesterday man,” Powell wrote in the post. “Y’all really stay isolated. ... be all fun and games til u in the hospital getting a shot in yo ahh and Qtips stuck up your nose til it touch your brain. This isn’t a message for sympathy cause I know who really cares about me and my well being, but this is a message so everyone really stays inside and stop playing with this. Everybody stay safe. Real talk. Peace, love and happiness.”

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Joe Diffie, country music star, dies at 61 from complications of COVID-19

Joe Diffie, a country music star who won Country Music Assn. and Grammy awards and charted five No. 1 country singles in the 1990s, died Sunday from complications of COVID-19. He was 61.

The news was confirmed by Adkins Publicity, which announced his death in a news release. Diffie revealed his positive coronavirus diagnosis on Friday.

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Surfer who ignored beach closure is fined $1,000, Manhattan Beach police say

A man received a $1,000 citation for surfing in Manhatthan Beach on Saturday after he ignored numerous warnings by police and lifeguards cautioning him not to go in the water because of the coronavirus beach closures.

Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Mike Sistoni said it was the only citation for failing to follow the stay-at-home orders the department had issued.

“Everybody else was in compliance,” Sistoni said. “People have been pretty good about it.”

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5-minute coronavirus test gets FDA approval

Abbott Laboratories is unveiling a test for the coronavirus that can tell if someone is infected in as little as five minutes, and it’s so small and portable it can be used in almost any healthcare setting.

The medical-device maker plans to supply 50,000 tests a day starting Wednesday, said John Frels, vice president of research and development at Abbott Diagnostics.

The molecular test looks for fragments of the coronavirus genome, which can quickly be detected when present at high levels. A thorough search to definitively rule out an infection can take up to 13 minutes, he said.

Abbott has received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the company said.

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Indie bookstore Powell’s Books rehires more than 100 employees as online orders soar

After laying off more than 300 staff members, Portland’s cherished indie bookstore Powell’s Books has rehired more than 100 of its workers on the strength of online orders, the company’s CEO announced on Facebook Sunday.

“Your kind words, messages of encouragement, ideas for perseverance and orders for books have taken our breath away,” said CEO Emily Powell in a Facebook post. She also announced that the rehired staff were all full time and receiving benefits.

“We’ve made an internal commitment to only pay for expenses that keep folks employed, and the lights on, for the time being,” she wrote. “Right now … our focus is on keeping Powell’s moving, keeping our community healthy, taking care of our wonderful customers and having as many folks working with health insurance as our sales can support.”

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CBS News executive who contracted the coronavirus dies

Maria Mercader
(CBS News)

CBS News veteran Maria Mercader died Sunday from complications of COVID-19, the first media executive to die as a result of the pandemic.

The network confirmed that Mercader, 54, died in a New York hospital. A former producer who spent her career at the network, she was director of talent strategy at the news division.

Mercader, who lived in Manhattan, had been on medical leave from CBS since late February. She was a cancer survivor who had undergone numerous treatments and surgeries that left her among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus.

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California received 170 broken ventilators from feds; Silicon Valley is fixing them, Newsom says

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, second from right, tours the Bloom Energy Sunnyvale, Calif., campus Saturday.
(Associated Press)

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday said the federal government sent Los Angeles County 170 ventilators that arrived “not working,” and now a Silicon Valley company is fixing the equipment amid the coronavirus outbreak.

California and other states have been stocking up on ventilators in anticipation of a shortage at hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Newsom said he learned about the problem with the federal government’s ventilators when he visited Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday.

“Rather than lamenting about it, rather than complaining about it, rather than pointing fingers, rather than generating headlines in order to generate more stress and anxiety, we got a car and a truck,” Newsom said. Bloom Energy is fixing them, he tweeted Saturday.

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Illinois infant with COVID-19 dies; exact cause of death unknown

CHICAGO —An Illinois infant with COVID-19 has died, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Saturday. The cause of death is unknown, and an investigation is underway.

A state employee also was among 13 new deaths reported Saturday as Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike urged people to do all they could to prevent the spread of the virus.

“If you haven’t been paying attention, maybe this is your wake-up call,” Ezike said.

The risk of death and severe illness from COVID-19 is greater for older adults and people with other health problems. In most cases, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization.

Children have made up a small fraction of coronavirus cases worldwide. A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Chinese researchers earlier this month reported the death of a 10-month-old with COVID-19. The infant had a bowel blockage and organ failure, and died four weeks after being hospitalized.

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U.S. can expect ‘millions of cases’ and more than 100,000 deaths, Fauci says

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said Sunday the U.S. could expect “millions of cases” of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and a possible death toll of “between 100,000 and 200,000.”

Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The death toll presently stands at more than 2,000.

The scientist, who has at times corrected President Trump’s statements about the outbreak, was careful in his wording when asked if there should be a rollback of guidelines on social distancing in less affected parts of the country.

That should happen, Fauci said, only if there is stepped-up testing in those places to ensure they are not about to become new hot spots for the virus.

“We’re going to have millions of cases” of COVID-19, Fauci said, but added that the pace of infection was a “moving target,” and that projections of cases and deaths were based on many factors.

While Trump has said he would like to see the economy reopen by Easter, which is April 12, Fauci has been much more conservative in terms of social-distancing requirements, saying they should be dependent on the widespread availability of testing with swift results.

“It’s going to be a matter of weeks,” he said. “It’s not going to be tomorrow, and it’s certainly not going to be next week.”

Also expressing caution on the easing of social distancing measures was Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Inglesby said that isolation measures already put into effect lagged behind the spread of the virus.

“We’re still at the very beginning of this outbreak,” he said. “We should expect it to continue for some time, and focus on social distancing as one of the main interventions to stop it.”

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Coronavirus cases in California soar past 5,000 as hospitals fill up

COVID-19 cases in California surged past 5,000 — with 121 deaths — as intensive care unit hospital beds began filling up with patients, and officials tried to enforce unprecedented social distancing measures they believed were the state’s best chance to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Los Angeles County has seen 32 deaths and more than 1,818 cases; Santa Clara County, the second hardest-hit county in the state, has reported 25 deaths and 591 cases.

On a sunny Southern California weekend, beaches, hiking trials, recreation airs and many streets were empty amid calls for people to stay at home except for essential trips and exercise in their neighborhoods. Police were out in force, turning away people trying to used closed facilities.

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Stranded at LAX since Christmas Eve. Homeless. Then the coronavirus hit

Seth Tom Davis realized how serious the coronavirus outbreak was when he went to buy lunch at the Earl of Sandwich at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX.

He sat down and laid his jacket on the seat beside him. Poppy, his seizure-alert dog, jumped up and made herself comfortable. Then the Jack Russell terrier-Dalmatian mix sneezed a very big sneeze for a very little dog. The woman beside him, Davis said, “freaked out.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom had yet to order Californians to stay at home in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. People were still going to work and traveling. The airport was still bustling; the grocery stores, more or less stocked. But “people got really scared,” the 30-year-old said. “They were scared of my dog. They were afraid because she sneezed.”

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This is what it’s like to deliver food during a pandemic

With restaurants dining rooms closed, conventional wisdom would suggest that more people are ordering in. And that means better business for app-based food delivery drivers and bike couriers, right?

Wrong, says Justin Zemlyansky, a bike courier who has delivered food on and off for the last three years for delivery platforms such as Grubhub, Caviar and DoorDash.

More people than ever are turning to gigging in the food delivery space, Zemlyansky said. “They’re coming and trying to do these kinds of jobs because it’s the only money and revenue they can get,” he said.

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‘She hadn’t showered in nine days.’ L.A. makes it hard to be homeless, avoid coronavirus

Harry Sanchez knows how important it is to wash your hands these days, but he’s never certain when he’ll have access to soap and water.

Tinkering with a handheld radio while his belongings sat in a bag leaning against a mountain bike in Lincoln Park last week, the 58-year-old maintenance man was as concerned as anyone about catching the novel coronavirus. Homeless since 2014, Sanchez says he usually tries to keep clean by visiting businesses with public restrooms or cobbling together enough change to buy hand wipes.

But with more and more businesses closing as the number of coronavirus cases in L.A. County balloons, Sanchez says his already short list of options to maintain basic hygiene has dwindled toward none.

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Sick and angry: Some public health officers are showing stress of coronavirus

MENLO PARK — After Bay Area county leaders ordered residents to stay home to stem the spread of the coronavirus on March 16, residents packed into parks, supermarket aisles and beaches the next weekend. That pushed one public health officer seemingly near the edge.

“If you decide you want to do your own thing and follow your own rules, you disrespect us all,” wrote Dr. Scott Morrow, public health officer for San Mateo County in a letter posted Monday to the county website. “You spit in our face, and you will contribute to the death toll that will follow.”

Morrow’s missive astonished some of his peers and constituents, but it also reflects the pressure health officials face in the Bay Area and elsewhere as the pandemic takes a rising toll. As of Saturday evening, there were 1,700 cases and 38 deaths in the Bay Area, the early epicenter of the virus.

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TV pilots, a big employer in L.A., are in limbo. How the coronavirus could change the industry

This year’s batch of TV pilots included some ominous names: “Triage,” “Wreckage” and “Housebroken.”

Now, those show titles also describe network TV’s pilot season, which has been upended by the coronavirus outbreak.

Broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW were gearing up to employ thousands of workers in Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York and beyond when film and TV production shut down two weeks ago.

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Central America fears Trump could deport coronavirus

GUATEMALA CITY — Marcelo Ibate waited outside the big black door, eating tortillas out of a sweating plastic bag. A line of camouflaged soldiers stood beyond with large weapons and face masks.

Ibate didn’t know which day his son Eduardo would arrive or whether he’d be carrying coronavirus with him on the deportation flight from the United States, now the epicenter of the global pandemic.

“Of course I am afraid for my son, but I think he is OK,” Ibate said in Spanish as he waited outside the Air Force base where returnees were being processed, attached to the commercial airport in Guatemala City. “If he’s sick, there’s not much we can do — we can only wait and care for him. I’m his father; I am responsible for him. I have to.”

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Army vets fought to mass produce $100 ventilators. They hit roadblocks

SACRAMENTO — For the last month, Army reservist Lt. Colonel Kamal Kalsi, an emergency room doctor in New York, has been scrambling to find a way to quickly mass produce ventilators, equipment that could save the lives of thousands of coronavirus victims nationwide.

Two weeks ago, he thought he’d found a company in Sacramento with the perfect answer.

But then, as he tells it, necessity took a back seat to business.

The firm Kalsi contacted wanted tens of millions of dollars before they’d help him, he said.

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No running water. No electricity. On Navajo Nation, coronavirus creates worry and confusion

Lisa Robbins worries about the coronavirus spread in Navajo Nation.
As the coronavirus spreads in Navajo Nation, Lisa Robbins worries for her mother and for her own weakened immune system.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

CAMERON, Ariz. —Lisa Robbins runs the generator attached to her family’s mobile home for just a few hours most mornings. With no electricity, it provides heat in this rural high-desert stretch of the Navajo Nation where overnight temperatures often linger in the low 30s this time of year.

Robbins first started hearing the whispers earlier this month — the fever, that sickness, something called coronavirus — but most people in this town of about 900 didn’t seem too worried. It was far off, neighbors told her, a world away in the big cities.

So, Robbins, who rarely has access to the internet or TV news, continued with her daily routine, which includes helping her mother who sometimes suffers from side effects of a surgery years ago to remove a cancerous stomach tumor.

Then came the bang on her door and a stark warning from local leaders.

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Mexico’s president shifts tone on coronavirus, urges people to stay home

MEXICO CITY — As the coronavirus pandemic spread globally, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been criticized at home and abroad for what many call a lackadaisical posture — urging people to hug, shaking hands and kissing well-wishers as he’s stumped and extolling his personal good-luck charms such as Catholic scapulars, a shamrock and a $2 bill.

“Because of our culture, Mexicans are very resistant to calamities,” the president said in a video filmed a week ago in a Oaxaca city eatery and circulated on social media.

“Continue bringing the family to eat in restaurants,” López Obrador advised compatriots, arguing that such activity bolsters “the popular economy.”

But the president and his team have shifted their message radically in recent days as virus cases have begun surging, urging people to stay home and to practice social distancing — and warning of dire results if that advice is ignored.

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Knicks owner James Dolan tests positive for the coronavirus

New York Knicks owner James Dolan has tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced Saturday.

The first major U.S. sports owner to reveal he’s tested positive for the virus, Dolan is experiencing few to no symptoms, the team said. He has been in self-isolation and continues to oversee business operations for the Knicks and the Madison Square Garden Co.

Last week, Dolan and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer agreed to a $400-million deal for the Forum in Inglewood, clearing the way for the Clippers to build their arena.

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From helicopters and cruisers, police try to keep public off beaches, trails amid coronavirus

Authorities were out in force Saturday enforcing orders to keep beaches, parks and hiking trails clear as part of unprecedented restrictions on public movements to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Most beaches, trails, recreation facilities as well as nonessential businesses were closed because of the state and local orders, and many obeyed.

A Ventura County Sheriff’s Department cruiser could be seen guarding the entrance to a popular trail in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, upon which hundreds of hikers and families descended on Saturday. In Venice, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter was seen circling a skate park, announcing that people who did not leave the area would be “arrested for trespassing.”

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CDC urges residents of of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days, effective immediately.

The advisory does not apply to workers for critical infrastructure industries, such as truck drivers, public health professionals and those in financial services and food supply. “The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will have full discretion to implement this Domestic Travel of Advisory.”

Earlier Saturday, President Trump said he was considering some type of enforceable quarantine to prevent people in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut from traveling. He later tweeted that a quarantine would not be necessary and said he asked the CDC to issue the travel advisory, to be administered by governors.

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Coronavirus patients in California’s ICU beds double overnight

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks in front of the Navy hospital ship Mercy on March 27.
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks in front of the Navy hospital ship Mercy on March 27.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

SACRAMENTO — The number of coronavirus patients in California’s intensive care unit beds doubled overnight, rising from 200 on Friday to 410 on Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

The number of hospitalized patients testing positive for the coronavirus that causes the disease known as COVID-19 rose by 38.6% — from 746 on Friday to 1,034 on Saturday, Newsom said.

“We’re blessed that we’re just at 410, devastating for the individuals there and their family members and loved ones,” Newsom said at a press conference in Sunnyvale on Saturday. “But by comparison and contrast to other parts of this country, that number seems relatively modest.”

California has reported more than 100 deaths and more than 5,500 cases of coronavirus around the state as of Saturday.

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Pentagon struggles as pandemic hits bases and ships

Washington — The Pentagon was waging a two-front war against the coronavirus outbreak Saturday, ramping up military assistance in hard-hit states as commanders battled to prevent widespread infections in the ranks that could force them to curtail military operations around the globe.

The Pentagon already has canceled or curtailed several large-scale training exercises, halted the movement of troops overseas and domestically, confined the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt to port in Guam after an outbreak aboard the warship, and shuttered many of its recruiting offices around the country.

President Trump flew to Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia on Saturday to watch as the 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship Comfort departed for New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, where it will take patients who have tested negative in an attempt to relieve overwhelmed civilian hospitals. The sister ship Mercy docked in the Port of Los Angeles on Friday to perform the same role there.

“We will win this war, and we will win this war quickly — with as little death as possible,” Trump said, standing on the pier with Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The use of the two hospital ships highlighted the growing military role in assisting beleaguered state officials as they try to contain the contagion. As of Saturday, public health officials had confirmed more than 121,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and more than 2,000 deaths.

More than 12,000 members of the National Guard were mobilized as of Friday to help run testing sites, move supplies and build makeshift tent hospitals in dozens of states where infection numbers are rising and threatening to overwhelm civilian medical facilities.

At the same time, senior Pentagon officials and top commanders grappled with the potential effect on military operations and the potential risks to national security if thousands of U.S. military personnel become sick or need to be quarantined.

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Second Colorado Avalanche player tests positive for the coronavirus

A second player on the Colorado Avalanche has tested positive for COVID-19, the club said in a statement released Saturday. That brings to four the number of NHL players known to have tested positive, following positive tests on two players on the Ottawa Senators.

The statement said the Avalanche were informed of the second positive late Friday.

“The player is in self-isolation. All other Avalanche players, staff and others who might have had close contact with the player have been informed and remain isolated as per prior League direction and are monitoring their health and will be in touch with Club medical staff as necessary,” the statement read. “No other Avalanche player or staff member has shown symptoms at this time.”

The four players who are known to have tested positive all played the Kings at Staples Center in the last few days before the NHL suspended play March 12 in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. The Avalanche faced the Kings on March 9, and the Senators played the Kings on March 11.

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Orange County coronavirus cases jump past 400 with 4 deaths

Orange County on Saturday said total coronavirus cases jumped to 403, including four deaths.

The rise came as the county is doing more testing. As of Saturday, the county had performed more than 4,800 tests.

Officials on Friday began released city-by-city coronavirus cases, with Anaheim, Irvine and Newport Beach having among the highest totals.

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How bad will the next few weeks be for California as coronavirus cases surge?

Looking east, California can envision its coronavirus future in the overflowing hospital wards of New York City. Looking west, it can draw hope from the disease’s swift decline in Asian nations that quickly imposed strict physical-isolation measures on infected people.

Two months after its first confirmed case of the deadly respiratory illness in California, the state is preparing to confront what public health authorities agree will be the cruelest month — an April that portends a peak in sickness and death.

How cruel remains to be seen. Officials hope that sharp limitations on work and public activity, imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 19, and subsequently ratcheted up in some cities and counties, will hobble the COVID-19‘s racehorse spread.

The enormous social reengineering of recent days has closed businesses and emptied public places. But its ultimate effectiveness remains one of multiple unknowns — dependent on innumerable actions by millions of Californians.

Preparing for the worst, hospital administrators across the state continued Friday to clear all available beds for an influx of patients. San Francisco ordered priority testing for doctors and nurses to try to prevent sick health practitioners from becoming super-spreaders of the disease. Los Angeles County shut all of its beaches to limit social interaction. And the Navy hospital ship Mercy cruised into the Port of Los Angeles, with 1,000 beds and 800 staffers ready to help easy the county’s healthcare system.

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Trump declares a major disaster in Michigan in response to coronavirus pandemic

President Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan on Saturday, providing additional money to address the coronavirus pandemic as a top health official warned that the situation in Detroit, a national hot spot for new cases, will worsen.

Michigan officials reported nearly 1,000 new cases and 19 additional virus-related deaths Saturday.

The disaster declaration makes money available for crisis counseling and other emergency measures. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had sought funds to set up field hospitals and help provide food and housing to people affected by the virus.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on “CBS This Morning” on Friday that Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans “will have a worse week next week.”

The 993 additional COVID-19 illnesses reported Saturday were the largest daily increase so far and brought the state’s total to 4,650 cases. At least 111 people have died from the virus in the state.

Three counties in the Detroit area — Wayne, Oakland and Macomb — account for 87% of the state’s deaths and 82% of the illnesses.

The declaration follows a sometimes bitter back-and-forth between Trump and Whitmer, a Democrat who has criticized the Trump administration for being slow to respond to the pandemic.

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U.S. coronavirus hotspots grow as Italy passes 10,000 deaths

As the United States led the world with confirmed coronavirus cases, cities such as Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans grew as hotspots Saturday, while the virus continued to pummel New York City and made its way into rural America.

Elsewhere, Russia said its borders would be fully closed as of Monday, while in parts of Africa, pandemic prevention measures took a violent turn, with Kenyan police firing tear gas and officers elsewhere seen on video hitting people with batons.

Worldwide infections surpassed the 650,000 mark with more than 30,000 deaths as new cases also stacked up quickly in Europe, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world in reported cases with more than 115,000, but five countries exceed its roughly 1,700 deaths: Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France. Italy alone now has 10,023 deaths, the most of any country.

New York remained the worst-hit U.S. city. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said defeating the virus will take “weeks and weeks and weeks.” The U.N. donated 250,000 face masks to the city and Cuomo delayed the state’s presidential primary from April 28 to June 23.

But Cuomo said he knew nothing of President Donald Trump’s suggestion of some kind of quarantine for New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, all hit hard by the coronavirus.

The federal government generally does not have the power to impose such restrictions on states. Trump made the comments on his way to Norfolk, Virginia, to see off a U.S. Navy medical ship en route to New York City to help with the response there.

Cases also have been rising rapidly in Detroit, where poverty and poor health have been problems for years. The number of infections surged to 1,381, with 31 deaths, as of noon Saturday.

“At this time, the trajectory of Detroit is unfortunately even more steep than that of New York,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, the medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the Detroit Medical Center.

“This is off the charts,” she said.

Chopra said many patients have ailments like asthma, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. She also acknowledged that in Detroit, one of the nation’s largest African American cities, there is a distrust among some in the community of the medical system and government due to systemic racism.

“In Detroit, we are seeing a lot of patients that are presenting to us with severe disease, rather than minor disease,” said Chopra, who worried about a “tsunami” of patients.

Louisiana has surpassed 3,300 infections, with 137 dead from COVID-19, according to the health department. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the region was on track to run out of ventilators by the first week of April.

Officials urged residents and businesses to donate protective gear such as masks, gloves and face shields at New Orleans’ fire stations.

Worried that people would flee New Orleans, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered anyone arriving from Louisiana to self-quarantine. He said the Florida Highway Patrol and sheriff’s deputies will set up checkpoints to screen cars from Louisiana.

Cases in Chicago and suburban Cook County accounted for about three-fourths of Illinois’ 3,026 total as of Friday. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot closed popular lakeshore parks after people failed to practice social distancing, despite a statewide shelter-at-home order.

Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan, providing money for the outbreak. He has done the same for New York, Louisiana and Illinois.

The governor of Kansas also issued a stay-at-home order to begin Monday, as the virus takes hold in more rural areas, where doctors worry about the lack of ICU beds.

The virus is straining health systems in Italy, Spain and France. Lockdowns of varying degrees have been introduced across Europe, nearly emptying streets in normally bustling cities.

Germany has fewer deaths than some neighboring countries but still closed nonessential shops and banned public gatherings of more than two people until April 20. But it still had its share of grim news, with 12 residents of a nursing home in the northern town of Wolfsburg dying since Monday after being infected, news agency dpa reported.

As Italy’s deaths topped 10,000, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte told the nation Saturday night that he has signed a decree freeing 400 million euros ($440 million) for coupons and packages of food aid, to be delivered door-to-door if necessary.

“People are suffering psychologically. They’re not used to staying in their homes. But they are also suffering economically,” Conte said. Italy has almost completed a three-week lockdown, with no end in sight.

In Spain, where stay-at-home restrictions have been in place for nearly two weeks, the death toll rose to 5,812.

Another 8,000 confirmed infections pushed that count above 72,000 cases. But Spain’s director of emergencies, Fernando Simón, saw hope in that the rate of infection is slowing and figures “indicate that the outbreak is stabilizing and may be reaching its peak in some areas.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, meanwhile, called for a more vigorous response from the European Union. Spain, Italy, France and six other EU members have asked the union to share the burden of European debt, dubbed “coronabonds” in the media, to help fight the virus. But the idea has met resistance from other members, led by Germany and the Netherlands.

“It is the most difficult moment for the EU since its foundation and it has to be ready to rise to the challenge,” Sánchez said. “

As the epicenter has shifted westward, the situation has calmed in China, where some restrictions have been lifted. Some subway service was restored in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, after the city had its virus risk evaluation reduced from high to medium. Five districts of the city of 11 million people had other travel restrictions loosened after their risk factor was reduced to low.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and lead to death.

More than 135,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

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Scenes from an empty downtown Los Angeles

Words on the Orpheum theater marquee try to bring levity to the current situation along the normally bustling commercial area on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, which is largely deserted because of the coronavirus lockdown.
(Luis Sinco/Luis Sinco)
Downtown L.A. in the coronavirus
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -MAR. 26, 2020. A security guard walks around the Grand Centrral Market downtown, where restaurants are limited to takeout or delivery orders only because of the coronavirus lockdown. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
(Luis Sinco/Luis Sinco)

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Vatican: Pope and his closest aides are not involved with six COVID-19 cases

The Vatican says neither Pope Francis nor any of his closest aides are involved with six cases among Vatican residents or employees who tested positive for COVID-19.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni has confirmed news reports earlier in the week that an official of the Holy See’s secretariat of state office tested positive for the coronavirus. Bruni also has confirmed that the official lives at the Santa Marta hotel where Pope Francis lodges, too.

The health condition of the official “doesn’t at the moment present any particular critical” aspects, according to Bruni. But as a precaution, the official has been admitted to a Rome hospital for observation.

Bruni says more than 170 COVID-19 tests have been conducted on Vatican employees and residents of the hotel. The Vatican hasn’t specified if Francis was testified. But Bruni added: “I can confirm that neither the Holy Father nor his closest collaborators are involved” with infected cases.

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Italy sees a slight drop in its death rate

Don Marcello Crotti, left, blesses the coffins with Don Mario Carminati in the San Giuseppe church in Seriate, Italy, Saturday, March 28, 2020.
Don Marcello Crotti, left, blesses the coffins with Don Mario Carminati in the San Giuseppe church in Seriate, Italy, Saturday, March 28, 2020.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Italy’s COVID-19 deaths are down slightly from the previous day.

Civil Protection officials said there were 889 deaths in a 24-hour period ending Saturday evening in the country, where intensive care units have been overwhelmed at the heart of the outbreak in the north. That compares to 969 a day earlier, which was a one-day high in the country which has the world’s highest number of deaths of persons with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The day-to-day rise in new cases was just under 6,000, about the same as the previous day’s figure. Overall, Italy has at least 92,472 cases of COVID-19 and days ago surpassed the total of China, where the outbreak began in early 2020.

The current national lock-down decree expires on April 3, but health experts have said the need to try to contain contagion in the outbreak will likely last weeks beyond that.

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Spain orders a two-week ban on commuting to non-essential businesses

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced his government will order a two-week ban on commuting to all non-essential businesses starting on Monday.

Sánchez says in a publicly televised address that all workers are ordered to remain at home “as if it were a weekend” to “intensify” efforts to stem the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Spain is approaching the end of the second week of stay-at-home rules and the closing of most stores, but workers were allowed to go to offices and factories if they were unable to work from home.

Spain reported 832 deaths Saturday for a total of 5,690 fatalities, to go with 72,248 infections. Its health authorities say, however, that the rate of infection growth appears to be slowing.

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Kansas governor orders residents to stay home to curb virus

In this Thursday, March 26, 2020 photo, a sign posted at a Mission, Kansas playground, serves as a reminder to parents that use of the playground is prohibited, in compliance with social distancing guidelines. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Heather Hollingsworth)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued a statewide order Saturday requiring people to stay in their homes to slow the spread of the coronavirus, waiting until nearly three-quarters of the state’s residents were already facing such directives.

Kansas joins nearly two dozen states in ordering residents to stay at home. The Kansas order is effective at 12:01 a.m. Monday through April 19.

“As governor I left the decision to local health departments for as long as possible,” Kelly said. She called the current “patchwork” of local orders problematic and said she believes the statewide order was necessary because Kansas “isn’t ready for the peak” of the pandemic.

Kelly, a Democrat, issued the order for Kansas’ 2.9 million residents after at least 25 counties, including all of the state’s most populous ones, issued their own stay-at-home orders. Kelly said the new order supersedes the local orders.

The order directs people to stay at home except for essential business such as trips to the grocery store or to get medical care. Outdoor exercise is allowed as long as social distancing is maintained, Kelly said.

“You can leave your house. You can still go outside. You are not under house arrest,” Kelly said.

Conservatives in the Republican-controlled Legislature said that Kelly overreached this month when she ordered all of the state’s K-12 schools closed for the rest of the semester and complained that the state’s economy was being damaged too much. Legislative leaders have the power to review — and revoke — her orders related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman, Majority Leader Dan Hawkins and Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, all Republicans, said in a joint statement that the new order “will no doubt impact our families and our businesses. As members of the Legislative Coordinating Council we have a duty to carefully assess this executive order and the reasons for it. Over the coming days we will consult with the Attorney General, health care professionals, the business community, and the state’s emergency management team to make sure we are on the right path.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

Kansas health officials reported 202 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus as of Friday, an increase of 34 from Thursday, and four deaths, all in the Kansas City area.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said more than 100 complaints about alleged price gouging related to the coronavirus have been filed since the state’s anti-profiteering law was triggered by Kelly’s declaration of a state emergency on March 12. Some complaints have been assigned to investigators within the attorney general’s office or to local prosecutors.

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Trump raises idea of quarantine in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut; Cuomo doesn’t ‘know what that means’

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with some governors and was considering some type of an enforceable quarantine to prevent people in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut from traveling.

Trump told reporters at the White House that it would be for a “short period of time, if we do it at all.” He said he had spoken with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., the country’s epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Cuomo said he did not talk about any quarantine with Trump.

“I don’t even know what that means,’’ Cuomo said during a briefing in New York. “I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable, and from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing. ... I don’t like the sound of it.”

It isn’t clear whether the federal government has the power to impose such restrictions on states. Under the country’s constitutional system, states have the power and responsibility for maintaining public order and safety. The federal government is empowered under the law to take measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases between states, but it’s not clear that means Trump can order state residents to stay put.

Trump made the comments on his way to Norfolk, Virginia, to see off a U.S. Navy medical ship en route to New York City to help with pandemic response there.

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As coronavirus spreads, LAX is becoming a ghost town

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Using malaria drugs off-label to treat COVID-19 can be risky, doctors and experts warn

The prospect that a pair of malaria drugs will become go-to medications for treating COVID-19 before they’ve been rigorously tested is prompting new safety warnings from heart specialists and other doctors and experts.

President Trump has touted the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a potential “game changer” for patients sickened by the novel coronavirus, and federal officials have asked pharmaceutical manufacturers to make their stocks of these drugs available for immediate use.

But as the medications begin pouring into hospital pharmacies and physicians begin prescribing them, their potential side effects are raising alerts.

An article published this week in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings warns that both drugs could prompt dangerous and potentially deadly heart arrhythmias in the 3 million people worldwide who have a congenital cardiac condition — called long QT syndrome — that can cause the heart to beat erratically and lead to sudden death.

In addition, millions of people in the United States take medications that prolong the heart’s “QT interval,” the span of time it takes the heart’s electrical system to recharge between beats. Those people — including patients who take common antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs or any one of a wide range of antibiotics — are probably also at risk of developing a dangerously irregular heartbeat if they take one of the malaria drugs without being closely monitored by a doctor, the article’s authors said.

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New York delays presidential primary

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was delaying the state’s presidential primary from April 28 to June 23, when the state plans to hold legislative congressional and local party primaries.

“I don’t think it’s wise to be bringing people to one location to vote,” the Democrat said.

New York joins over a dozen states that have delayed some elections. A smaller group including Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, Indiana and Kentucky have also postponed their presidential primaries.

The governor’s decision came as election commissioners across New York warned they were “risking” their health and safety to meet impending deadlines for testing machines and preparing ballots ahead of the April 28 date.

Local election boards have said they were facing shortages of polling places and inspectors and had called on legislative leaders and Cuomo to allow for increased use of absentee balloting for quarantined individuals and greater flexibility for elections officials to run June elections.

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United Nations says 86 staffers around world reported cases

The United Nations says 86 staff members around the world have reported cases of COVID-19.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said most of the infected staff members are in Europe, but there are also staffers in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the United States that have the coronavirus.

To try to reduce transmission, he said the vast majority of U.N. staffers are working from home.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, where a normal day would see staffers’ passes swiped 11,000 times, the number of swipes Friday morning stood at 140, Dujarric said.

In Geneva, he said, the number of staff at the U.N. office has dropped from around 4,000 people on a regular day to just about 70 on Thursday. In Vienna, more than 97% of U.N. staff are now working remotely, he said. And, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 99% of staff are working from home.

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Here’s what you can’t do this weekend

Hermosa Beach is all but empty days after all beaches in parks were closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
(Robert Gauthier/Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Southern California officials have one message to residents already a bit stir crazy from more than a week of unprecedented restriction on movements due to coronavirus: Stay home.

This weekend brings even more restrictions than last weekend, when officials were alarmed by crowds flocking to beaches, parks and hiking trails.

Most beaches, trails, recreation areas and other points of interest are closed, including trails in Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles. The state has also ordered parking lots closed at dozens of state beaches and parks.

But L.A. officials said it’s fine to walk or jog in your neighborhood or through neighborhood parks as long as you social distance.

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See’s Candies suspends chocolate production for first time since World War II

See’s Candies, a California chocolate institution, is suspending production because of the coronavirus. It’s only the second time in See’s 99-year history that production has been interrupted, when it was halted because of rationing during World War II.

“Given the current events with COVID-19, and our concern for the health and safety of our employees, we have made the decision to initiate an interruption once again,” the South San Francisco company said in a statement. “We will work to keep you updated as we develop plans to safely resume operations.”

The first See’s store opened in Los Angeles in 1921 by a trio of Canadian immigrants: Charles See, his wife, Florence, and his mother, Mary. That grandmotherly face on See’s trademark black-and-white boxes belongs to Mary See, and her recipes were the foundation of the operation.

In 2017, See’s Candies was expecting to sell between $400 million and $450 million of candy, and had 1,500 employees, with more workers added during the winter holidays.

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Joe Biden calls for a national lockdown to contain the coronavirus

Former Vice President Joe Biden called for an immediate nationwide stay-at-home order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, saying the main mistake that leaders can make in a pandemic is “going too slow.”

The Democratic presidential candidate told CNN on Friday that he agreed with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that the uneven patchwork of state and local lockdowns in effect in the United States will inevitably cost lives and prolong the economic catastrophe.

“Why would we not err on the side of making sure that we are not going to have a repeat?” Biden said from his home in Wilmington, Del.

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L.A. expands sick leave amid coronavirus — but only for employees at big companies

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to increase paid leave for workers who have fallen ill or need to care for family — but only for workers at businesses with 500 or more employees nationwide.

Council members scaled back a proposal that would have required most employers to provide 10 additional days of paid leave amid the coronavirus crisis, on top of the six currently required under city law. The decision followed protests from business owners who said they couldn’t afford the measure and are already struggling with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m reminded of the first line of the Hippocratic oath — ‘First do no harm,’” said Councilman Joe Buscaino, who argued that the original proposal would have decimated small businesses.

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Strip club pressured into coronavirus compliance shut downs

A Los Angeles County strip club at the center of a television news sting because it refused to comply with coronavirus guidelines was shut down Friday.

Bliss Showgirls strip club, in Avocado Heights off Valley Boulevard, hung a sign on its locked gates and doors that read, “Sorry we’re closed. The wheels fell off.” It’s not certain if the establishment closed voluntarily.

Calls to a phone number listed on Bliss’ Instagram page were not returned.

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Citing virus, judge orders release of two men from California immigrant detention center

A federal judge Friday ordered the immediate release of two men held in the Adelanto detention center after their attorneys cited their severe risk of contracting coronavirus.

The two — Pedro Bravo Castillo and Luis Vasquez Rueda — are among a number of detainees who have been ordered released across the country since the pandemic broke out.

“They’ve been spared a potential death sentence,” said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel, which — along with Kaplan Hecker & Fink — represented the two men. “Hopefully now ICE is going to do its part to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.”

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Big L.A. restaurants ordered to pay workers two weeks’ worth of sick leave amid shutdown

Large Los Angeles restaurants will be required to pay their employees 80 hours of sick leave, part of a sweeping city effort to provide financial assistance to workers who have been affected by business closures related to the coronavirus outbreak.

City councilmembers voted on Friday evening to pass the ordinance. It applies to all employers within the city of Los Angeles that have more than 500 employees.

The 500-employee stipulation was added to the proposal just hours before it was put up for a vote, effectively sparing many owners of small restaurants from almost certain bankruptcy. That’s because with all restaurants closed to dine-in service, and many choosing to temporarily close during shelter-in-place restrictions, they’re pulling in little to no revenue.

The original version of the ordinance would have required all businesses with fewer than 500 employees to pay 80 hours of sick leave at an employee’s regular rate. It was also retroactive, and would have required paying those employed between Feb. 3 and March 4, too.

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L.A. officials text an urgent message: Stay home this weekend to slow coronavirus

Los Angeles city and county officials on Friday night sent emergency text alerts urging residents to avoid nonessential public activities this weekend as part of an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

“Stay home this weekend, and weekends until April 19. Only travel to seek medical care, do essential business and run necessary errands,” L.A. County said in its alert.

Across Southern California, communities closed beaches, trials, recreation areas and other public spaces.

All L.A. County beaches, as well as public trails and trailheads, are closed to the public effective immediately, officials announced Friday.

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Hollywood is shut down and facing losses. Can the insurance industry bail it out?

For three decades, Brian Kingman has been helping film and television companies find insurance policies to protect them from fires, accidents or A-list stars who’ve gone rogue.

Now, instead of being in his Glendale office, Kingman is working the phones from home, video chatting with clients and colleagues around the world as cases come flooding in from production companies roiled by the coronavirus outbreak.

“We’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of claims coming in from productions shut down due to the coronavirus,” said Kingman, managing director of the entertainment practice at Illinois-based insurer Gallagher. “We’re in uncharted waters and it’s certainly an unprecedented time for everyone.”

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Orange County releases list of all communities with coronavirus cases

Orange County is continuing to see a dramatic uptick in coronavirus cases — with confirmed infections swelling more than threefold over the course of less than a week.

The numbers

— Orange County reported 321 cases of coronavirus infection on Friday, up from 95 as of the previous weekend and 256 on Thursday.

— Three deaths have been confirmed so far. One was a county resident in his 70s who had underlying health conditions. Officials have not released information about the other two.

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Clippers owner Steve Ballmer helps donate $25 million to fight the coronavirus

After its $10 million donation this week to the University of Washington Medicine’s emergency response fund, a philanthropic group founded by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, says it has pledged more than $25 million thus far toward organizations working to blunt the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Ballmer Group said its latest donation toward the healthcare system in Seattle, where the Ballmers live, will be used to accelerate testing for a virus vaccine. The group has also continued to give grants for short-term, immediate needs in southeastern Michigan, where Ballmer grew up, and Los Angeles, the home of his NBA team.

Last week, the group announced $1 million in gifts toward the Los Angeles County’s Office of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District and to help low-wage workers and the homeless. Since then, more funds in Los Angeles have been granted toward providing childcare for first responders, healthcare workers and workers deemed “essential”; and helping workers at small businesses and nonprofits access publicly available funds.

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Mississippi’s governor tries to shut abortion clinic, but won’t order residents to stay home

RIDGELAND, Miss. —Traffic was heavy in this suburb of Jackson, Miss., on Friday as residents perused department stores and auto dealerships, joined friends dining on the patio of local restaurants and dropped children at day-care centers to romp on playgrounds.

“If we’re going to do something, we should do it now to stop the expansion of the virus,” said Ethan Williams, 23, a salesman eating with a friend during their lunch break at Basil’s Café at the Renaissance at Colony Park mall here.

In Texas, bars and restaurants have been blocked from serving customers on site. In Louisiana, the deadly coronavirus is spreading, by some measures, faster there than anywhere else in the world. In Alabama, nonessential businesses — including nightclubs, gyms and barbershops — were closed on Friday.

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Who qualifies for the coronavirus stimulus payments?

Congress has passed, and President Trump has signed, a $2-trillion economic stimulus package — the largest of its kind — designed to send money directly into Americans’ pockets while also aiding hospitals, businesses and local governments struggling during the pandemic.

In addition to providing many Americans with a one-time payment of up to $1,200, the bill includes $500 billion in loans to struggling businesses, $377 billion in loans and grants for small businesses, $150 billion for local, state and tribal governments facing a drop in revenue and $130 billion for hospitals dealing with an onslaught of patients.

Under the expanded unemployment program, assistance would be available to people who had the promise of a job that was postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus threat and to those whose workplaces closed because of it.

So who qualifies for the stimulus? The short version: All U.S. residents are eligible as long as they have a work-eligible Social Security number and meet the income requirements.

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Downtown L.A. court is placed on lockdown after confusion over coronavirus quarantine

Fears that an inmate who was supposed to be in quarantine was mistakenly brought to court led to a partial lockdown of the downtown Los Angeles Criminal Justice Center on Friday morning, as concerns about the coronavirus continue to sow discord in the county’s largest court system, officials with knowledge of the situation said.

A section of the county’s largest courthouse was effectively shut down after concerns grew that an inmate who was supposed to be among 500 under quarantine in the county’s jails was placed in a holding area in the court, according to three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter candidly.

A number of hearings were postponed Friday as a result, and court proceedings were “disrupted,” two sources said.

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L.A. city ordinance would reserve grocery shopping times for the elderly and disabled

Employees of the Trader Joe's store in Monrovia, Calif. talk to customers waiting in line before the store opens its doors.
Employees of the Trader Joe’s store in Monrovia, Calif. talk to customers waiting in line before the store opens its doors.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The City of Los Angeles has passed an ordinance that will require retail food stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores to dedicate the first hour of business to the elderly, the disabled and those who care for them.

It’s a move many retailers voluntarily implemented last week in response to the increased demand brought on by the recent COVID-19 shutdowns, but the measure — which passed by a unanimous vote during a City Council meeting Friday — makes it standard across the board. It is now awaiting the mayor’s signature.

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Robert Durst murder trial delayed two more months due to coronavirus pandemic

The ongoing murder trial of New York real estate heir Robert Durst, the infamous subject of an HBO biographical series, has been delayed two more months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Judge Mark Windham informed jurors Friday that the trial would resume May 26, according to Los Angeles Superior Court officials.

Durst is accused of killing his confidante Susan Berman at her Benedict Canyon home in 2000, and prosecutors allege Berman’s death was the second in a trifecta of killings by the multi-millionaire that traced back to the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen. In 2003, a Texas jury acquitted Durst of killing his neighbor Morris Black, despite his admission of dismembering Black’s body.

The 76-year-old Durst is currently housed at a jail in Chinatown, Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where he has undergone treatment for several medical ailments.

Opening statements in the long-awaited murder trial began earlier this month, but testimony was cut short as concerns about the novel coronavirus forced courts in California to halt jury trials and cut back on public services.

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‘Record stores struggle to stay afloat amid coronavirus crisis

A customer peruses the records at Permanent Records in Highland Park.
(Jenna Schoenefeld / For the Times)

The city permit that Amoeba Music had been anticipating came on March 18: After a years-long search to finally lock in a new home for its 31,000-square-foot Sunset Boulevard location, the city’s Department of Building and Safety approved construction applications for a new space a few blocks away at the corner of Hollywood and Argyle.

Little could Amoeba have known when its owners submitted the paperwork that a pandemic of Slayer-esque proportions would prompt the company, which as the country’s largest independent record store employs about 400 workers across its three California locations, to close the same day it got the go-ahead to start work.

Across Los Angeles and the country, similarly baffled music retailers await word of how the $2-trillion relief package approved by Congress will aid their plight. In the short term, prospects seem dim. Record retail’s most profitable day, April’s annual Record Store Day initiative, has been postponed.

Nationwide, more than 120 independent shops have temporarily shuttered, according to Billboard, either out of caution or government-dictated stay-at-home orders.

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Is Los Angeles going to see a New York-level coronavirus disaster? Here is what we know

A worker at Eisenberg Village nursing home screens all incoming for symptoms of the coronavirus on Wednesday in Reseda, Calif.
A worker at Eisenberg Village nursing home screens all incoming for symptoms of the coronavirus on Wednesday in Reseda, Calif.
(Jason Armond/Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Is Los Angeles going to be the next New York when it comes to coronavirus?

Coronavirus cases have risen dramatically over the last week, and officials warn that things will get much worse in the next few weeks.

“A week or two from now, we will have images like we’re seeing in New York here in Los Angeles.” Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday

It will be bad — but how bad remains a question.

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Firearms activists sue California, L.A. County over gun shop closures tied to coronavirus

A gun store customer that gave his name only at John waits in line, Sunday, March 15, 2020, in Burbank, Calif.
A gun store customer that gave his name only at John waits in line, Sunday, March 15, 2020, in Burbank, Calif.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

A coalition of gun owner groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state and county health officials seeking to block the closure of gun shops during the coronavirus shutdown.

Sheriff Alex Villaneuva closed gun stores in L.A. County Thursday to everyone except police and licensed security company employees after the governor deemed that firearms sellers are considered nonessential businesses during California’s shutdown of commerce in an effort to limit and slow the spread of the coronavirus.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday seeking declaratory relief, the gun owner groups characterized the closure as a clear violation of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

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Fox Business lets go anchor who called coronavirus ‘impeachment scam’

Trish Regan, who was pulled from her prime-time slot on Fox Business Network after calling the coronavirus an “impeachment scam,” will not be returning to the channel.

Fox Business — the sister channel of Fox News — issued a statement Friday saying it has parted ways with the host, who had been with the channel since 2015.

Regan had been a staunch supporter of President Trump on her nightly prime-time opinion program. But her tenure was apparently doomed by her March 9 commentary in which she said described the coronavirus as a scam being used by the Democrats in attempt to politically damage the president.

Regan’s remarks occurred after other Fox News opinion hosts had shifted away from downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic. She was pulled off the air after her March 13 telecast. The company called it a “hiatus” so that Fox Business Network resources could be used to cover the volatile stock market during the day.

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Hard-hit cruise lines don’t get U.S. coronavirus stimulus money

The massive $2-trillion coronavirus relief package signed into law Friday by President Trump will likely not set aside funding for one of the industries hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak: the cruise lines.

While the package — the biggest funding bill in U.S. history — is expected to help the ailing airlines and hospitality companies, cruise lines that have all but stopped sailing, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, don’t appear to qualify for loans or relief grants.

The stimulus package includes $500 billion in loans for struggling businesses, $377 billion in loans and grants for small businesses, $150 billion for local, state and tribal governments facing a drop in revenue and $130 billion for hospitals dealing with an onslaught of patients.

But a segment of the funding bill that would apply to the cruise industry limits aid to “an entity or business that is domiciled in the United States with significant operations and employees located in the United States.” That restriction would likely exclude companies such as Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

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Despite widespread shortages, Trump hasn’t come up with a plan to get medical supplies where needed

With shortages of medical supplies for hospitals and doctors treating coronavirus patients intensifying nationwide, elected officials, hospital administrators and doctors are increasingly questioning whether the administration has a plan that can assist the country’s medical providers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has never finalized a system for getting and distributing medical supplies in an emergency, federal records indicate.

And administration officials have refused to provide answers to questions from lawmakers, governors and healthcare leaders who are desperate for federal assistance with masks, ventilators and other equipment.

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Joe Biden lays out how he would handle coronavirus in virtual roundtable

Former Vice President Joe Biden applauded the Trump administration for directing General Motors to start manufacturing ventilators under the Defense Production Act but warned the move came far too late, and is still too little action from the White House as the virus continues to surge.

“The president has just finally implemented the act,” Biden said in a virtual roundtable with first responders and nurses, which he hosted from the studio in his Wilmington, Del., home. “We were suggesting to do that over a month ago. … But now the president needs to use all the authority … and he has to do it today.”

Biden said Trump should be using his authority under the act to mandate the production of masks, gowns, testing kits and other equipment that hospitals desperately need. He said he is bewildered by concerns the president has expressed that the states may not need as much equipment and supplies as they are requesting.

“During World War II there was not a concern about whether we had too many landing craft to liberate Europe,” Biden said, pointing to Trump branding himself a wartime president as the nation fights the virus. “That is the wrong way to think about this. What do we need now?

“Let’s not worry about too many. Too many is not a risk.”

Biden continued to warn that Trump’s push to reopen businesses and end social distancing restrictions by Easter threatens to exacerbate the public health crisis.

“It would be catastrophic to reopen things around the country without a plan and then have a spike in cases to shut it all down again,” he said.

The roundtable comes as Biden has struggled to be a bigger presence in the coronavirus discussion. He has been careful not to be too critical of the president, while also drawing a distinction between how he would handle the crisis and the actions the current White House is taking. Trump’s approval ratings have bumped up modestly amid the pandemic, following a historic pattern for presidents in the early days of a national crisis.

“It’s all about management and execution,” Biden said, as conversation turned to the programs promised through the massive stimulus package approved this week. “How do we now get these things done?”

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Orange County confirms two new coronavirus deaths, as total number of cases reaches 321

Orange County health officials on Friday confirmed two additional coronavirus deaths, as the total number of cases in the country climbed to 321.

Officials did not release any details about the victims, but said their deaths underscore how important it is for residents to follow orders from health officers to stay home as much as possible and to practice social distancing when outdoors.

“Community members need to know that we expect more cases and, unfortunately, more deaths in the coming days and weeks,” said county Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick.

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How do you work from home? Send us a video

Working from home is the new normal while we try to avoid getting and spreading the coronavirus. What’s your new normal look like?

Send us a video showing us what you’re wearing to work, what you’re cooking, how you’re working out and what you’re doing to stay sane as you stay home. Submit your video via our form below or upload via social media with the hashtag: #howiWFH

We’ll be creating a video of your submissions to share with all of you, so any tips or advice you have is welcome!

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How coronavirus cases hit Los Angeles differently from New York City

Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is largely deserted because of the coronavirus lockdown.
(Luis Sinco/Luis Sinco)

Los Angeles recorded its first case of coronavirus five weeks before New York City, yet it’s New York that is now the U.S. epicenter of the disease.

Public health officials are keeping a wary eye and are warning that L.A. could end up being as hard hit as New York in coming weeks, in part because a planned increase in testing may uncover a dramatic surge in cases. Testing in Los Angeles County is expected to increase from 500 per day to 5,000 by the end of the week.

“I would love to be able to say with all certainty that’s where we’re not going,” Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said when asked about New York’s numbers. “We would be foolish not to prepare for a similar scenario here in LA County.”

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A beloved Beirut restaurant survived civil war. Now it must endure COVID-19

It was always rush hour at Barbar. The restaurant sprawls over several buildings in Beirut’s Hamra district, where you could glimpse white-clad workers at all hours slicing shawarma meat, frying up falafel or prepping smoothies with Carmen Miranda-like crowns of fruit.

Barbar never opened its doors because they were perpetually open. Now they’re closed. And a vital part of this city’s life has been forced to confront a new reality.

It’s perhaps a measure of the coronavirus threat that Barbar, famous for serving customers with no interruption for more than 40 years through some of Lebanon’s toughest times, including civil war and assassinations, must now turn customers away. It’s part of a wider evisceration of Lebanon’s famed restaurant industry, which is facing losses estimated at more than $200 million a month nationwide, according to the country’s Syndicate of Restaurants, Cafes, Clubs and Patisseries.

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Gov. Newsom orders statewide ban on evictions for renters affected by coronavirus

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a temporary ban on evictions statewide for those affected by the novel coronavirus.

The measure prevents the evictions of renters over the nonpayment of rent through May 31. It covers those who have lost work because of the pandemic, have become sick or have had to take care of family members with COVID-19. Law enforcement and the court system also would be prohibited from executing evictions while the order is in effect.

Renters would still be required to evenutally pay all the rent they owe, and must notify their landlords in writing within seven days of their nonpayment, according to the governor’s executive order.

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The recovery of Paradise was already fragile after the Camp fire. Then came coronavirus

The Camp Fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

The ribbon cutting last month was the kind of optimistic civic photo op that means a lot these days in the town of Paradise.

With a pair of oversized scissors, a grinning Mayor Greg Bolin sliced a big red ribbon outside the Building Resiliency Center, a new one-stop-shop for the hundreds of people applying to rebuild their homes after the 2018 Camp fire destroyed most of the town.

The ribbon cutting was Feb. 7. City leaders hoped to see the place bustling.

But by mid-March, as California began shutting down public life to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, the building got quiet. Visits had to be by appointment only, with calls and emails preferred to in-person trips. Staffing was reduced. Employees started wearing gloves.

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Trump to use Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators

President Trump announced Friday that he would use the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was made, he said, after negotiations with the company became bogged down.

“Our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” Trump said in a statement.

“GM was wasting time. Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.”

Critics have accused Trump of dragging his heels in utilizing the Korean War-era law to compel industries to produce vital equipment.

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What does COVID-19 stand for anyway?

By now, you probably know the disease at the center of the global pandemic is called COVID-19. But perhaps you don’t know why.

The answer is that COVID-19 a shorthand for “coronavirus disease 2019.”

The World Health Organization made it official back in February, with the name written in all capital letters.

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Disneyland and Walt Disney World to remain closed until further notice

A Disneyland employee walks through the entrance to Disneyland amid rain showers in Anaheim, Calif., on March 12, 2020.
A Disneyland employee walks through the entrance to Disneyland amid rain showers in Anaheim, Calif., on March 12, 2020.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

If you were wondering how long the coronavirus outbreak will keep the Disneyland and the Walt Disney World resorts closed, you’ll have to keep wondering.

After closing in mid-March with the promise to reopen by the end of the month, Disney announced Friday that both parks would remained closed until further notice.

The Walt Disney Co. said it has been paying its employees since the parks closed and “in light of this ongoing and increasingly complex crisis, we have made the decision to extend paying hourly parks and resort cast members through April 18.”

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Coronavirus surges in L.A. with 5 new deaths; mortality rate is higher than New York’s

The coronavirus continued to surge in Los Angeles County, with officials reporting five more deaths, bringing the county’s total to 26.

The county reported an additional 257 cases, bringing the total to 1,481.

The mortality rate in L.A. County is about 1.8%, which is higher than the mortality rate in New York City and the United States overall, Ferrer said. One factor in that is that Los Angeles County has tested far few people than New York, meaning it does not have as good a sense about the number of people with the virus.

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Coronavirus stimulus lets struggling Americans tap retirement accounts early

Lawmakers in Washington are making it easier for Americans struggling with the fallout from the coronavirus to draw on the trillions of dollars in their 401(k)s and other retirement accounts.

For a limited time, Americans would be able to withdraw money from tax-deferred accounts without penalties under a stimulus package approved by Congress on Friday. Rules on 401(k) loans would also be relaxed, and some retirees would avoid required minimum distribution rules that might have been onerous.

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From an L.A. living room, an unlikely coronavirus hero emerges: ‘Club Quarantine’s’ DJ D-Nice

Nearly two decades ago, Derrick Jones’ career as a recording artist ended in unceremonious fashion: the record industry dumped him.

“Record companies really didn’t have patience back then, especially with hip-hop,” D-Nice says. “Rap didn’t age well. You were considered ‘old school’ really quickly, once you hit a certain age. That’s why I’ve always fought to remain relevant.”

Today, no one is disputing D-Nice’s relevance. Over the last week and a half, as the COVID-19 pandemic has sent billions around the world scrambling into quarantine, D-Nice, 49, has emerged as perhaps the hottest name in pop culture, a majordomo of a music universe that is reconstituting itself online in performances livestreamed on social media platforms.

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15 Los Angeles police employees test positive for the coronavirus so far

The number of Los Angeles police employees testing positive for the coronavirus has reached 15 as of Thursday evening, continuing a trend of climbing about three extra a day, officials said.

At present, according to sources, four members of the command staff that lead the department are among the sick.

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Fearing coronavirus will sicken their families, doctors are begging for more armor

Dr. Jessica Kiss’ twin girls cry most mornings when she goes to work. They’re 9, old enough to know she could catch the coronavirus from her patients and get so sick she could die.

Kiss shares that fear, and worries at least as much about bringing the virus home to her family — especially since she depends on a mask more than a week old to protect her.

Kiss’ concerns are mirrored by dozens of physician parents from around the nation in an impassioned letter to Congress begging that the remainder of the relevant personal protective equipment be released from the Strategic National Stockpile, a federal cache of medical supplies, for those on the front lines.

They join a growing chorus of American health care workers who say they’re battling the virus with far too little armor as shortages force them to reuse personal protective equipment, known as PPE, or rely on homemade substitutes. Sometimes they must even go without protection altogether.

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Column: Nikki Haley attacks stimulus money for the arts, but culture is sick too

Nikki Haley took to Twitter on Thursday to complain about a few items in the $2 trillion stimulus bill that the Senate passed Wednesday and the House passed today.

She could have objected to the White House’s reluctance to spend $1 billion on life-saving ventilators, but that would have put her in President Trump’s Twitter cross-hairs. She commendably stepped down from the board of Boeing in protest of its coronavirus bailout bid. But she had little else to say on Twitter about the proposed $500 billion corporate slush fund that uses taxpayer dollars to bail out private companies and their exorbitantly paid CEOs.

What really offends Haley is the inclusion of a cheapskate tip for the arts and the humanities in the stimulus bill.
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Mexican border state to quarantine deported migrants

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican border state of Chihuahua said Thursday it will set up a shelter to house deported migrants for a two-week quarantine.

The state said the shelter would be set up in “the next few days” to house migrants returned to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The state government says an average of 65 migrants are deported through Ciudad Juarez every day, for a total of about 5,200 so far this year.

The quarantine move is part of a series of measures announced Thursday to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The United States has over 81,000 cases, while Mexico has 585, though testing is far less frequent in Mexico.

Dirvin García Gutiérrez, the head of migrant services or Chihuahua state, said officials would also try to ease crowding at migrant shelters in Ciudad Juarez that currently hold about 1,400 people, most of whom are from Central America. The city’s 14 shelters — most of them privately run — should hold no more than 50 to 80 people apiece, he said.

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L.A. County closes all beaches to deter crowds flouting coronavirus restrictions

Even after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared his policy of "safer at home," to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, people have been coming to the beach.
Even after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared his policy of “safer at home,” to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, people have been coming to the beach.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County has closed all its beaches in an effort to reduce crowds as officials try to enforce social-distancing guidelines to slow the spread of coronavirus.

“The crowds we saw at our beaches last weekend were unacceptable,” said County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement. “In order to save lives, beaches in L.A. County will be temporarily closed. I understand that this is a huge sacrifice for everyone who enjoys going to our beaches. But we cannot risk another sunny weekend with crowds at the beach spreading this virus. This closure is temporary and we can always reopen these beaches when it is safe to do so.”

The county’s public health officer, Dr. Muntu Davis, signed a public health order shutting down the beaches on Friday, Hahn said. The order also applies to beach bike paths, bathrooms, piers and promenades, she said.

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Emmy voting schedule and some eligibility rules shift

The latest entertainment dominoes to fall before the COVID-19 pandemic affects the run-up to the 2020 Emmy Awards and screening rules for the next Golden Globes. The ceremony date for the 72nd Emmys remains unchanged at Sunday, Sept. 20.

Friday morning, the Television Academy announced some procedural and qualifying changes to accommodate for production delays caused by the outbreak, including eligibility rules and the voting timetable.
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Lakers’ Anthony Davis to help Staples Center workers find jobs during shutdown

Like many Americans, Lakers star Anthony Davis has personal connections to the coronavirus pandemic. He’s consumed the news daily, but his mother also shares updates with him. She has sisters who are health care workers.

“They’re around it a lot and they’re at a high risk of being exposed to it because they’re in the hospital,” Davis said. “One of my aunties got sent home. I think they took a test and it hasn’t come back yet. … That’s the risk they’re willing to take to save so many lives.”

Davis has been thinking about the consequences of the pandemic for weeks now, both on health care workers and the economy. On Friday, he announced a partnership with Lineage Logistics, the world’s largest cold food storage company, in hopes of helping in both arenas. The first arm of the partnership will help Staples Center workers find jobs with Lineage, which has about 300 jobs to fill in the Los Angeles area as demand for frozen foods rises.

Davis and Lineage will also match up to $250,000 in dona
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Patient who was first known case of community-acquired in U.S. recovering

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Northern California doctors said Thursday that a critically ill patient who was the nation’s first known case of community-acquired coronavirus infection is now recovering at home.

The woman first sought treatment last month at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, a city of more than 100,000 people about 59 miles (95 kilometers) from San Francisco. She was then transported on a ventilator to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

She is believed to be the first person in the U.S. to contract the highly contagious coronavirus without traveling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it.UC Davis Health said in a statement that “The patient has since been discharged and is recovering at home.”

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Kaiser Permanente facility in San Bernardino closes

A Kaiser Permanente medical facility in San Bernardino recently closed after the medical group announced that it was temporarily closing some buildings, consolidating locations, postponing appointments and moving many to virtual visits amid an increase in COVID-19 cases.

The move came in an effort to protect staff and Kaiser members, support a potential increase in the number of people who need hospitalization, conserve personal protective equipment and protect against possible staffing shortages.

“We are at a critical moment in our fight against COVID-19. The situation is rapidly evolving, and we are doing everything we can to keep our members, staff and communities as safe as possible,” Kaiser Permanente said in a statement.

The new measures follow a recent decision to temporarily postpone non-urgent surgeries and procedures to ensure that more critically-ill patients take priority.Most urgent-care locations will remain open.

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Social distancing rules: People, 6 feet. Bison, at least 75 feet

In these days of social distancing, the National Park Service is reminding people that 6 feet between humans is now the rule. But for wildlife, it’s much farther. For example, if you’re less than 75 feet from a bison in the wild, you’re too close.

Yellowstone National Park, which hosts a herd of more than 5,000 bison, is now closed to visitors because of the coronavirus outbreak. On Wednesday, the park tweeted a video of Montana TV reporter Deion Broxton who quickly cut short his broadcast when he saw a herd coming toward him.

“A perfect example of what to do when approached by wildlife! Thanks Deion for putting the #YellowstonePledge into action!” the park’s tweet said.
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Bosses are panic-buying spy software to keep tabs on remote workers

The email came from the boss.

We’re watching you, it told Axos Financial Inc. employees working from home. We’re capturing your keystrokes. We’re logging the websites you visit. Every 10 minutes or so, we’re taking a screen shot.

So get to work — or face the consequences.

“We have seen individuals taking unfair advantage of flexible work arrangements” by essentially taking vacations, Gregory Garrabrants, the online bank’s chief executive, wrote in the March 16 message reviewed by Bloomberg News. If daily tasks aren’t completed, workers “will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
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John Wayne Airport control tower closed over possible case; airport remains open

The air-traffic control tower at John Wayne Airport has been closed because of a possible case of coronavirus, the airport said Friday morning. The airport remains open to commercial aircraft.

According to the airport, the case is “suspected but unconfirmed.” No further details were released.
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TSA agents will get masks to help prevent coronavirus spread

The union representing the nation’s 46,000 Transportation Security Agency officers said Friday it has convinced the agency to supply screening officers with respiratory masks to wear while on duty.

TSA officers, who already wear gloves while checking identification and screening passengers, will be supplied with N95 respiratory masks before each shift.

The American Federation of Government Employees said it had been requesting the masks for its members since January and was notified of the TSA’s decision Wednesday.
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Celtics say guard Marcus Smart in good spirits

Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens says guard Marcus Smart is doing well and remains in good spirits following his positive test for coronavirus last week.

Smart announced his diagnosis on March 19, seven days after Utah Jazz All-Stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for COVID-19. Boston played the Utah Jazz on March 6.

Celtics players and staff were also tested as a precaution and those tests have all come back negative.

Stevens said he and team officials have been checking in with Smart and the rest of the team regularly via conference calls.

“I’m proud of how he kind of took the initiative to tell people that he had it and that he felt good and that he got online, just continued to ask people to practice social distancing and self-isolation right now,” Stevens said. “It’s just, you know, it’s a really unique, unsettling time for everyone.”

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California once had mobile hospitals and a ventilator stockpile. But it dismantled them

They were ready to roll whenever disaster struck California: three 200-bed mobile hospitals that could be deployed to the scene of a crisis on flatbed trucks and provide advanced medical care to the injured and sick within 72 hours.

Each hospital would be the size of a football field, with a surgery ward, intensive care unit and X-ray equipment. Medical response teams would also have access to a massive stockpile of emergency supplies: 50 million N95 respirators, 2,400 portable ventilators and kits to set up 21,000 additional patient beds wherever they were needed.

In 2006, citing the threat of avian flu, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the state would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a powerful set of medical weapons to deploy in the case of large-scale emergencies and natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and pandemics.
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Burbank’s Pope puts pro basketball career in Europe on hold in wake of pandemic

Overseas in Europe, Austin Pope was been enjoying an impressive campaign for the Vaerlose Hawks basketball team when the unexpected happened.

No, the former Burbank High boys’ basketball player didn’t suffer a season-ending injury. Rather, Pope found himself scrambling after the BasketLigaen, a professional league in Denmark, canceled the remainder of the season earlier this month because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Pope suddenly had plenty on his mind and much to deal with in a short time, beginning with his well-being.
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Has your favorite shop or restaurant gone out of business?

As the coronavirus outbreak spreads within the United States, some businesses in Los Angeles have made the difficult decision to close permanently. To chronicle the economic impact of the pandemic in our communities, we are compiling a list of local businesses that have shut their doors.

Have any of your favorite shops, restaurants or other businesses closed for good as a result of COVID-19? If so, we want to hear your memories of the business and what it meant to you.

Please use the following form to share your story:
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Dead deals, slashed prices: Coronavirus drags down Southern California home sales

At the start of 2020, the Southern California housing market was heating up, juiced by cheap money and a growing economy.

Then a global pandemic hit.

Deals are now falling out of escrow. Sellers are cutting prices. Certain types of financing are drying up.

As Rick Cirelli, a mortgage broker in Laguna Beach, put it: “Everybody is backing out.”
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Crime fell sharply in March due to coronavirus restrictions, LAPD and sheriff report

Crime in Los Angeles fell sharply in March as the city imposed strict new rules on residents and businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Violent offenses in the city dropped 14% and property crime declined 12% through March 25 compared with the same period last year, according to figures from the Los Angeles Police Department. The department had reported single-digit reductions before this month.

Homicides have dropped slightly so far this month from 15 to 12, department figures show. Robberies were down 22% along with an 11% decrease in aggravated assaults. Meanwhile, thefts fell 18% and burglaries were down 7%. The only categories to see increases were vehicle theft, up 10%, and rape, which ticked up 2% during that time.
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San Diego County reports third death, fifth cluster

SAN DIEGO —A third San Diego County resident has died of COVID-19 and a new cluster of infected people has been identified at an assisted-living community in Rancho San Diego, local health officials reported Thursday.

“It’s obviously with deep remorse and regret that we extend our condolences to that family and that individual’s loved ones,” county Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nick Yphantides said in announcing the death of an 87-year-old woman.

As of Thursday evening, the county had reported 341 cases of infected residents, an increase of 64 in one day.
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Why Goodwill is begging all of us: Stop leaving your stuff at our door!

March is normally the month when people start to think about spring cleaning, but nothing is normal right now as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country.

As people are forced to stay home and shelter in place, the pandemic has prompted many to tackle long-overlooked decluttering projects.

So much so, in fact, that Goodwill SoCal has been overwhelmed by dropoffs at stores and dropoff centers in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
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Patients from Norway, Spain to be enrolled in a globe-spanning trial, WHO says

Patients from Norway and Spain are being enrolled in a globe-spanning trial to test several drug treatments against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the head of the World Health Organization.

“This is a historic trial which will dramatically cut the time needed to generate robust evidence about what drugs work,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, said at a briefing Friday.

The Solidarity Trial tests four different drug combinations against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has sickened more than half a million people and killed well over 20,000 around the globe, officials said. The trial includes Remdesivir, a failed Ebola drug; chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug; hydroxychloroquine, a drug used against lupus and other autoimmune disorders; and Kaletra, an HIV antiviral. More than 45 countries are contributing to the trial and others have expressed interest in joining, officials said.

“The more countries who join the trial, the faster we will have the results,” Tedros said.

In the meantime, the director-general warned against using treatments that haven’t been proven effective against the new coronavirus.“The history of medicine is strewn with examples of drugs that worked on paper, or in a test tube, but didn’t work in humans or were actually harmful,” he said.“We must follow the evidence,” he added. “There are no shortcuts.”

A vaccine against the coronavirus, he added, is still at least 12 to 18 months away.

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House approves $2 trillion rescue package

WASHINGTON —Overriding the objection of a maverick Republican, the House approved a $2-trillion economic relief package Friday aimed at pumping money directly into Americans’ pockets while also helping hospitals, businesses, and state and local governments struggling with the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian conservative from Kentucky, sought to delay a vote by demanding a majority of members be present to vote. His insistence came despite withering attacks by President Trump on Twitter, calling for Massie to be ousted from the party.

House leaders had hoped to hold a simple voice vote, to protect members from potentially contracting the coronavirus by traveling and gathering in the Capitol. Based on Massie’s earlier threat that he would insist on a quorum — 216 members at the moment — they summoned lawmakers back.
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U.S. cases top 92,000

NEW YORK — The United States continues to lead the world in coronavirus infections even after a spike of new cases reported in Italy.

According to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has more than 92,000 cases of the virus. Italy reported a total of more than 86,000 infections on Friday.

Italy has recorded the most deaths of any country, with 9,134. More than 1,200 people have died in the U.S.

Worldwide, more than 560,000 people have contracted the virus and more than 127,000 have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

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Citing coronavirus, EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws

The Environmental Protection Agency has abruptly waived enforcement on a range of legally mandated public health and environmental protections, saying industries could have trouble complying with them during the coronavirus pandemic.

The oil and gas industry were among the industries that had sought an advance relaxation of environmental and public health enforcement during the outbreak, citing potential staffing problems. The EPA’s decision Thursday was sweeping, forgoing fines or other civil penalties for companies that failed to monitor, report or meet some other requirements for releasing hazardous pollutants.

The move was the latest, and one of the broadest, regulation-easing moves by the EPA, which is seeking to roll back dozens of regulations as part of President Trump’s purge of rules that the administration sees as unfriendly to business. Civil and criminal enforcement of polluters under the administration has fallen sharply.
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What’s safe and open this weekend? Parks, beaches in Southern California

Southern Californians can still walk, hike and bike outdoors this weekend without violating Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order, but options are narrowing as public agencies move to stop many activities, including hiking in Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Mountains, golf, court sports, and parking at many beaches and state parks.

The U.S. Forest Service on Thursday closed campgrounds, picnic areas and other developed recreation sites in its forests statewide, including Cleveland, Angeles, San Bernardino and Los Padres forests, which cover a large swath of Southern California.
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Italy overtakes China in coronavirus infections

ROME — Italy has become the second country to overtake China in coronavirus infections, recording a total of 86,498 on the same day it recorded its single biggest leap in coronavirus deaths, with 969 more victims.

The gruesome milestones nevertheless came on the same day Italian health officials said they were seeing a slight slowing down in new positive cases, two weeks into a nationwide lockdown.

Italy has recorded more virus-related deaths than any other country in the world. On Friday the death toll reached 9,134.

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Masks from Mexico: On the front lines, a midnight dash across the border

WASHINGTON —Tom Banning was fielding increasingly anxious pleas from doctors across Texas when he got a call from a golfing buddy with an unusual offer.

Banning’s friend, who had connections in the oil and gas business, had 350 cases of surgical masks from a factory in Mexico. He’d managed to get the shipment over the border, navigating drug cartels and border agents demanding payoffs. Did Banning know anyone who could use them?

Banning, who heads the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, didn’t have to think twice.

“We had physicians tying bandannas around their faces,” he said. “It was like they were fortifying the big urban hospitals and leaving the front-line soldiers to fight without defenses.”

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The virus can be ‘viable’ on cardboard for a day, experts say

MILWAUKEE — Tests led by U.S. government scientists found the coronavirus can remain viable on cardboard for up to a day.

Julie Fischer, a microbiologist at Georgetown University’s global health security research center, says it was a controlled lab situation and doesn’t reflect what might happen in daily life or with other materials.

“In the real-world environment, those packages and envelopes would be moving from place to place under various weather, temperature conditions that are affected by air and sunlight” that could impact viral viability, she said.

Even if virus was on the mail, it would need to make its way to the mouth or nose to cause infection.

“As long as you wash your hands thoroughly and regularly after opening it and don’t touch your nose and mouth ... that mail itself, that package, poses very little risk,” Fischer said.

She says postal workers are at risk because they are coming into contact with each other and the public. She notes “the biggest risk is still exposure to an infected person.

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Chinese, U.S. leaders talk by phone about the pandemic

WASHINGTON — Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump that China “understands the United States’ current predicament over the COVID-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.

The White House said only that the two leaders spoke on the phone Thursday and “agreed to work together to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and restore global health and prosperity.”

According to the Chinese news agency, Xi also urged Trump to take “substantive action in improving bilateral relations.”

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Republican plans to delay House stimulus vote by demanding majority be present

WASHINGTON —A maverick Republican said he would demand that a majority of House members vote in person on a $2-trillion economic relief package Friday, which would delay passage of the bill aimed at pumping money directly into Americans’ pockets while also helping hospitals, businesses, and state and local governments struggling with the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

The move by Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian conservative from Kentucky, would delay a vote until Saturday when enough members have returned to Washington. His insistence came despite withering attacks by President Trump on Twitter, calling for Massie to be ousted from the party.

House leaders had hoped to hold a simple voice vote, to protect members from potentially contracting the coronavirus by traveling and gathering in the Capitol. Based on Massie’s earlier threat that he would insist on a quorum — 216 members at the moment — they summoned lawmakers back. It was unclear if enough members were present Friday, because they were told to avoid coming to the House floor before a vote.
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Women in New York giving birth alone may be facing their ‘worst nightmare’

NEW YORK —Heidi Schreck spent a long time trying to get pregnant — “a very, very long time,” she says.

After years of frustration and multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization, she and her husband, who both work in the theater and put off having kids while they were establishing their careers, found out last year they were going to have identical twins. Since Schreck is in her 40s and the babies share a placenta, the pregnancy is considered high-risk. But she was lucky enough to avoid most of the numerous potential complications.

Then came the coronavirus.

“We managed to make it through all of those phases only to confront this very unexpected thing at the end,” says the playwright and actress, now 32 weeks pregnant, by phone from her home in Brooklyn. “The pandemic.”
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Will the virus make permanent our diminishing need for human contact?

SEOUL —Before dawn, bags of groceries ordered online are plopped at my front door by deliverymen (-women?) whose faces I’ll never see.

I summon taxis on my smartphone, rendering unnecessary even the brief conversation to give the driver my destination or discuss an optimal route. All manners of food — from steaming stews to sushi to the seemingly most ephemeral of dishes, shaved ice — can be ordered for delivery within the hour. If I so choose, I can avoid even a split-second of face time by requesting, in an app, that the food be left outside my door.

In Seoul, one of the most densely packed metropolises in the world, I can glide through a day dining out, shopping and even singing karaoke on my own without ever interfacing with another human. My world is one of apps, tablets and self-service screens. It’s almost as if the city was girding itself for this moment in history, when each and every face-to-face interaction has come to feel like a game of Russian roulette.
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American consumers, once bulwark of economy, are rapidly losing confidence

WASHINGTON —After years of riding high, American consumer confidence dropped rapidly in March in another warning sign of how punishing the coronavirus pandemic may become for the U.S. economy, according to a closely followed survey released Friday.

Consumer sentiment, as measured by the University of Michigan’s monthly survey, saw its sharpest drop since October 2008 during the Great Recession.

And even then, analysts said, the current decline significantly understated the coronavirus toll as two-thirds of the survey interviews were conducted before lock-down and physical distancing orders in mid-March shut down hundreds of thousands of shops, restaurants, offices and other large parts of the American economy.
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San Bernardino reports third death

San Bernardino County reported a third death linked to the coronavirus Thursday night.

The number of confirmed cases has tripled this week to at least 55, up from 17 Monday. The increase is largely because of expanded testing, health officials say.

The three deaths include two men — a 50- and a 46-year-old — who both had underlying health conditions. The third death was of an 89-year-old woman who also had underlying health conditions, according to local reports.
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Hospital ship Mercy, with 1,000 beds, arrives in L.A. to ease healthcare strain amid crisis

The hospital shp Mercy arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday to offer assistance during the coronavirus crisis, which is expected to tax local hospitals.

The Mercy has roughly 800 medical staffers, 1,000 hospital beds and 12 operating rooms.

The ship will house patients who do not have COVID-19 in an attempt to free up regional hospital beds for those who do. Some patients who are already hospitalized in Los Angeles County will be transferred to the ship for ongoing treatment, port officials said Thursday.
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Work-from-home ‘tips’ for those going stir-crazy avoiding coronavirus

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We asked authors what they read, hear and watch in quarantine. Here’s Laila Lalami’s diary

The Times asked authors to track what they do in isolation. Today, “The Other Americans” author Laila Lalami writes about coping with fear, in part by listening to the Beatles, watching “28 Days Later” and falling asleep with “The Bell Jar.”
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Philippine President in quarantine after exposure

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will quarantine for more than a week after meeting officials who were exposed to people with the coronavirus.

Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go says Duterte will go into quarantine Saturday, the president’s 75th birthday, to April 7. He’ll continue working in his residence at the presidential palace in Manila.

A test cleared Duterte of the COVID-19 illness two weeks ago. But he has since had meetings with Cabinet members and other officials who have been exposed to infected people.

Health officials have reported 803 cases of the COVID-19 disease, with 54 deaths. The main northern region of Luzon, home to more than 50 million people, is on a monthlong lockdown in a drastic move to contain infections.

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Italy’s infections are slowing down

ROME — The head of Italy’s National Institutes of Health says Italy’s coronavirus infections are slowing down, but it hasn’t reached the peak of the curve.

Dr. Silvio Brusafero says the infection curve began to flatten around March 20, some 10 days after Italy imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the virus in Europe’s epicenter. He urged continued isolation measures to keep the virus from spreading.

Dr. Franco Locatelli, head of the government’s health advisory council, says he thinks it’s “inevitable” the industrial shutdown currently scheduled to last through April 3 will be extended.

Italy has reported more than 8,100 dead, more than any other country. Most have been elderly or with previous medical conditions.

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California facing perilous two weeks as coronavirus cases, deaths surge

Faced with a major jump in both coronavirus deaths and cases in California over the last two days, officials warned of significantly worsening conditions over the coming weeks as the virus spreads dramatically and hospitals fill up.

The number of coronavirus cases in California topped 4,000, but that number is expected to skyrocket as testing expands. Eighty-three people have died.

Confirmed cases in Los Angeles County rose by more than 50% in a single day, reaching 1,200. Nine new deaths were reported in the county, bringing the virus’s toll to 21.

Of the people in Los Angeles County who tested positive, 253 — or roughly 1 in 5 — were hospitalized at some point, said Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
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Pot Heads: We’re plants. We’re stuck inside. We’re making it work

The Pot Heads are living life indoors these days, too. Just trying their best to get by.

(Olivia Asis)

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Trump lambasts Republican congressman threatening to delay to stimulus package

President Trump on Friday lambasted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Twitter, saying the congressman should be thrown out of the Republican Party for threatening to temporarily delay the passage of the stimulus package.

House leaders had hoped to hold a simple voice vote, to protect members from potentially contracting the coronavirus by traveling and gathering in the Capitol. But they recalled hundreds of members after libertarian Massie (R-Ky.) threatened to insist that a quorum — 216 members at the moment — be present, and force a roll call vote.

Democratic and Republican leaders have signed off on the bill, which passed with a 96-0 Senate vote Wednesday. After days of intense conference calls with House members, the leaders believe it would pass with an overwhelming majority. President Trump has vowed to sign the bill.

Still, the threat that a single representative might object left lawmakers hopping into cars to drive or finding last-minute flights back to Washington in case they need to be present to pass the largest single economic aid package in U.S. history.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tx) fired back at Trump’s attack, saying Massie is “one of the most principled men in Congress & loves his country.”

“Back off,” Roy added.

Erin B. Logan contributed to this report.

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Stocks slide on Wall Street after big 3-day rally

Stocks on Wall Street fell Friday morning as investors waited for Congress to deliver a big financial rescue package aimed at cushioning ailing businesses and households from the coronavirus crisis.

The selling erased some of the market’s gains after a strong three-day rally that has the major stock indexes on track for their first weekly gain in three weeks. Even after the winning streak this week, the market is down about 25% from the peak it reached a month ago.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 3.3% around 7:10 a.m. Pacific, but is up just above 10% for the week. The benchmark index shot up 17% over the previous three days as traders became hopeful that Congress would pass the $2.2-trillion economic aid package.
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The Theodore Payne garden tour is happening this weekend -- virtually

It lives! The Theodore Payne Foundation’s native-plant garden tours are a go for this weekend as a two-day, interactive series of live virtual tours of more than 30 landscapes around Los Angeles, hosted by the people who created them.

The foundation had canceled its in-person garden tours on March 13, due to concerns about coronavirus, but coordinator Margaret Oakley set up a task force that day to see if there was some way to move the event online. The result is happening on Saturday and Sunday, with a garden tour “social,” via Zoom, that should permit participants to watch narrated tours of two gardens every 30 minutes between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and talk to the owners and designers.
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In coronavirus quarantine, what simple games should I play with my family online?

Family game nights will, for a number of us, be virtual for the foreseeable future.

Unless you and your relatives already gather online for “Fortnite” sessions, figuring out what to play over a distance can be a challenge. Yes, of course, “Words with Friends” or the recently launched “Scrabble Go” are good staples, but here are options for mixing it up and keeping it simple.
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House hopes for voice vote approving $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package, sending to Trump’s desk

WASHINGTON —From across the country, House members hustled to return to Washington ahead of a scheduled Friday vote on a $2 trillion economic relief package aimed at pumping money directly into Americans’ pockets while also helping hospitals, businesses, and state and local governments struggling with the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

House leaders had hoped to hold a simple voice vote, to protect members from potentially contracting the coronavirus by traveling and gathering together in the Capitol. But they recalled hundreds of members after libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) threatened to insist that a quorum—216 members at the moment— be present, and force a roll call vote.

Democratic and Republican leaders have signed off on the bill, which passed by a 96-0 Senate vote Wednesday. After days of intense conference calls with House members, the leaders believe it would pass with an overwhelming majority. President Trump has vowed to sign the bill.
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With all the distractions at home, low-income students need headphones to study

In her family’s one-bedroom home every day unfolds with one distraction after another for 17-year-old Anais Hernandez: her mother cooking and cleaning in the kitchen; her disabled father watching high-volume TV news; the bustle of her younger sister in their East Los Angeles home.

There’s no escape from the noise as Anais attempts to focus on Advanced Placement Spanish literature and English and economics. Two weeks into shelter-at-home schooling, this Mendez High School senior could use a tool that would be hard for her family to afford — sound-canceling headphones.

Before March 13, when Los Angles school district officials shuttered campuses and began a difficult transition to online learning, Anais spent a lot of time at Mendez High, where she got most of her homework done.
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Here are remote jobs that could keep you working through this era

As the coronavirus continues to spread, you may be reluctant to take a people-centric job for fear of getting sick. But if you don’t want your finances to expire while you sit out the pandemic, you’ll need an alternative. Consider remote jobs for the coronavirus era.

What kind of jobs are these? They vary widely, from professional to trade positions. What they have in common is that they can be done from home — anywhere, really. And you can generally signal your availability to do them online, without ever having to meet in person. Perfect for a time when “social distancing” is trending.

What can you do from the relative safety of your own home? Naturally, the answer depends on your skills. The opportunities are decidedly better in fields that require intellect and creativity, rather than physical strength. Still, there are options for nearly everyone.
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Tourism is tanking. So RV and camper companies found business fighting COVID-19

Elise Ballard had just finished lunch and was gazing at the Pacific Ocean, enjoying the solitude of the craggy coastal bluffs of Mendocino, Calif. Soon, she and partner Jeff Fernald would be on Highway 1 again, continuing home to Seattle in a rental camper van they’ve dubbed the “mobile quarantine unit.”

“It’s so uncanny; it’s so strange,” Ballard said Monday. “We are seeing some of the most beautiful sites in the world — and they are vacant. It feels like one of the safest places to be.”

The couple’s journey in the Mercedes-Benz Metris began six days earlier, after their Los Angeles vacation was upended by the coronavirus outbreak. They didn’t want to risk flying home, and realized renting a car could put them in contact with many people, including those at hotels where they’d need to stay. But they could sleep in the Metris, which also has a stove, refrigerator and freezer.
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Russia’s caseload surpasses 1,000

MOSCOW — Russia’s coronavirus caseload surpassed 1,000 on Friday, reflecting growing infection rate in the country which for weeks has reported comparatively low numbers.

The Russian government registered 196 new infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total to 1,036, and the third death. Forty-five people have recovered, officials said.

Russian authorities have ramped up testing this week after wide-spread criticism of insufficient screening.

Earlier this week Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who leads a coronavirus task force, told President Vladimir Putin that Russia’s comparatively low caseload could reflect scare testing rather than the actual scale of the epidemic. As of Thursday, health officials conducted some 200,000 tests.

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16-year-old French schoolgirl, with no pre-existing illness, dies

PARIS — A 16-year-old French schoolgirl from the Essonne region has become the youngest person in the country to die from COVID-19.

The girl, called Julie and whose surname has not been revealed, was hospitalized Monday and died Tuesday evening at the Necker children’s hospital in Paris.

Her older sister, Manon, spoke to the French press to warn that “we must stop believing that this only affects the elderly. No one is invincible against this mutant virus.”

Manon said that Julie had no pre-existing illness before contracting coronavirus.

She recounted that Julie had a “slight cough” last week and when it worsened this weekend, they saw a doctor — from when the virus accelerated at a “violent” pace.

Even though the death rate from the virus among young people is low, France’s public health body has said that 35% of intensive care patients are under 60.

A 21-year-old woman died of the virus in Britain on Tuesday.

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War-torn countries could be overburdened by an outbreak, WHO says

CAIRO — The World Health Organization representative in the East Mediterranean warned Friday of the repercussions of a potential spread of the novel coronavirus in the region’s war-torn countries.

“The emergence of the virus in much more vulnerable countries with fragile health systems in the Region, including Syria and Libya, is of special concern,” said WHO East Mediterranean Office Director Ahmed Al Mandhari.

On Wednesday, the count of infectious cases in Syria rose to five. A day earlier, Libya recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 case.

“A country like Syria, ravaged by conflict and displacement, and with a health system already pushed to its limits, will clearly be overburdened by an outbreak of COVID-19, and the impact could be catastrophic,” he added in a statement issued Friday.

Libya’s ongoing civil war coupled with its poor health system weakens the country’s ability to respond to the new pandemic, added Mandhari.

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Spain sees 7,800 new cases

MADRID — Spain’s coronavirus cases increased by 7,800 on Friday to total 64,059 cases. There’s a total of 4,858 deaths, 769 more than a day earlier.

The day-on-day increase of infections is slightly lower for the first time since a rapid rise in early March. The country has the second-highest tally in Europe and fourth in the world.

From Wednesday to Thursday, the positives had increased in more than 8,500 cases.

Spain’s Health Ministry says nearly 10,000 people have recovered from the COVID-19 illness.

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Russian official in Putin’s administration tests positive

MOSCOW — The Kremlin says an official in Russia’s presidential administration has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the official didn’t have contact with President Vladimir Putin. He told reporters that all precautions were being taken to protect Putin.

Peskov confirmed Russian media reports that he was at a party attended by 78-year-old Lev Leshchenko, who later tested positive for the coronavirus. The presidential spokesman says during a conference call with reporters that he didn’t meet Leshchenko there.

The Russian government registered 196 new infections in the past day, bringing the country’s total to 1,036, with three deaths. In a bid to stem the outbreak, Putin declared the next week to be non-working for all Russian except those working in essential sectors.

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Here’s 24 classic Lakers games to enjoy while the team is on hiatus

After missing the playoffs the last six seasons and compiling one of the worst records in the league during that time, this was the season the Lakers fans had been dreaming about.

When the NBA season was suspended on March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lakers had a 5½-game lead atop the Western Conference and were just three games behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the best record in the league.

When or if they will be able to finish that run remains uncertain. Until then, and with everyone marooned at home, here are 24 Lakers Classics for the Quarantine. These aren’t necessarily a ranking of the greatest moments in team history but simply a list of games easily accessible in their entirety on YouTube.

Unfortunately, many complete games prior to 1980 aren’t available online so while you can look up highlights of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, their games didn’t make this list.
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What’s needed for Hollywood to get back to work safely?

Entertainment is a high-touch business. Production crews consist of hundreds of individuals crowding together in enclosed spaces. Actors interact with each other in even closer proximity, as do hair and makeup. Craft services are a communal activity, while writers huddle around a table in a small room. And grips and set designers pass equipment and props back and forth.

It’s the kind of environment where if one person falls ill, their sickness passes through the entire cast and crew like a wildfire. Film and TV work is a hyper matrix of touch, sharing and interaction.

The ongoing public health crisis has shut down Hollywood in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Yet a vaccine is at least a year away. The number of cases is rising and much of the country remains under quarantine. While the Trump administration wants the country opened up by Easter despite health experts’ warnings, Hollywood has many concerns about going back to work under these circumstances.
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Journaling the pandemic: ‘I’m scared.’ ‘Can we get a dog?’ ‘Everything just feels odd’

Kelly Milligan’s mind drifted back to the days after Sept. 11 and the Boston Marathon bombing. These days felt a bit like those did and, yet, completely distinct.

This moment wasn’t finite — it wasn’t one day, and it won’t be one week. Nobody knows exactly how long it will last.

But it already feels historic, so two weeks ago, Milligan, a 48-year-old graphic designer who works at a university and lives in Acton, Mass., cracked open her new black journal. She labeled one of the first pages: “CORONAVIRUS DAILY JOURNAL 2020.”
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It’s not too soon to think about how to give workers consistent raises

With the massive $2-trillion coronavirus rescue package now largely done, workers and employers can briefly breathe a sigh of relief, at least at signs that Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives, can work together on Capitol Hill when catastrophe is staring them in the face.

But it’s not too soon to think about what will happen after the emergency has passed — or more precisely, what happened in the American economy over the last half-century that left millions of American families without the financial resources to weather the storm.

That means examining the long, dark period of wage stagnation suffered by average households as corporate profits and the pay of top executives soar.
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‘America’s governors’: Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom take the lead

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo adopted the role of truth-teller as he delivered grave news Thursday during his daily coronavirus briefing: 100 more people in the state had died, bringing the death toll to 385. So far, about 37,000 New Yorkers had tested positive for the virus, and well over 1,000 were hospitalized in intensive care units.

Then he sought to console residents reeling from the enormity of the crisis.

“No one has been here before. And that’s why, look, it is going to change us,” said Cuomo, whose briefings have been aired live across the nation. “I can see it in my daughters’ eyes when I talk to them about this every night. I can see the fear.... They’re taking it all in. What does it mean? This is going to form a new generation and it will transform who we are and how we think. But you’re not alone. You’re not alone. Nobody is alone.”
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A’s for all? Pass/fail? Colleges grapple with grading fairness

Zuleika Bravo, a UCLA senior and low-income single mother, has tons to worry about besides grades. The coronavirus outbreak has shut down her young daughter’s school, saddling her with new demands to home-school. Her office job has cut hours — and her income — in half.

Under pressure, Bravo wants UCLA to change grading to pass/fail for all students during the upcoming spring quarter so those with myriad pressures like her won’t be unfairly disadvantaged.

“We’re not all equal,” said Bravo, 28, a political science major. “I know I have the ability to get good grades, but given the circumstances I would have to work even harder than before to compete with my colleagues who don’t have to worry about a child.”
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State Department eases bottleneck for foreign farmworkers

The U.S. State Department moved Thursday to ease a bottleneck caused by coronavirus precautions and allow more foreign agricultural guest workers to cross from Mexico to work fields in California and other states.

The emergency measures helped allay fears of a labor shortage just as the harvest of major produce crops gets underway in California, the top producer of many seasonal fresh vegetables and fruits nationwide.

Most foreign applicants no longer will need an in-person interview to obtain the H-2A agricultural guest worker permits, under the new rules announced Thursday.
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Bad luck? Lost job? Coronavirus outbreak? Hong Kong’s ‘villain-hitters’ beat all fears away

HONG KONG — Slap, slap, slap.

The sound echoed off a highway bridge overhead, cutting through the beeping and ringing of car horns and crosswalk bells. Under the bridge, a wrinkled woman in a red vest and flowery shirt hunched over on a stool, pressing a paper figurine down on a stack of bricks with one hand, raising an old slipper to the sky with the other.

She paused, taking aim at the paper person, then bashed the shoe down like a chef with a cleaver, chopping and chanting in Cantonese. Slap, slap, slap-slap-slap.

Beat your little hand, beat your little eye, beat your little foot, beat your little mouth,” she muttered, smashing the “small person,” a Chinese phrase meaning one who’s petty, villainous or otherwise a “bad guy.”
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‘This is my Vitamin C — community’: The meaning of public spaces amid social distancing

The afternoon I heard that Los Angeles was shutting down to fight the deadly new coronavirus, I did what my gut always tells me to do in times of crisis. I headed straight to the beach.

Whenever stuff is rough, whenever a reset is needed, the ocean is a salve. I’m not a boat owner, an ocean sports enthusiast or even a surfer. But I am a native coastal Southern Californian. Thus, two things were immediately clear in my mind.

First, we had to join together to fight back the COVID-19 respiratory disease. And second, we could not allow ourselves to lose our spirit as people of this land. I had to run to the beach.
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Sidelined in the final days of stimulus talks, McConnell again learns the risk of getting ahead of Trump

WASHINGTON —The negotiations over the roughly $2-trillion economic rescue package had gone on for more than three days — hour after hour of haggling to shape one of the largest government economic interventions in U.S. history.

Finally, as Tuesday night changed to Wednesday morning, two men stepped forward to tell reporters they had reached a deal — the secretary of the Treasury and the minority leader of the Senate.

The majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was relegated to role of announcing the deal a short time later on the Senate floor.
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Why a fight over homeless people could determine how much the outbreak hurts California

Despite unprecedented attention and spending, tens of thousands of homeless people are still living on the streets of California, and they are fast becoming a hazard to the state’s ability to treat everyone who needs it as coronavirus patients begin to flood hospitals in earnest.

A new study puts the risk to the larger population in stark terms: It estimates that nearly 2,600 homeless people in the Los Angeles area alone will need to be hospitalized for COVID-19, and about 900 of them will require intensive care.

If that many homeless people do indeed stream into local hospitals in the coming weeks, it could lead to competition for what public health officials have said is an already insufficient number of beds and ventilators to meet the need. That, in turn, could further crowd out other patients in need of care.
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Is the Democratic presidential contest over? Will the November election be canceled?

Just about one month and a million years ago, the Democratic presidential contest was going full tilt.

Voters in 14 states and American Samoa went to the polls — many standing less than a socially distant six feet apart — to cast Super Tuesday ballots and revive the fading presidential hopes of Joe Biden.

Today, like so much else, the contest has screeched to a virtual halt. The novel coronavirus has Biden and Bernie Sanders off the campaign trail. Political rallies — or anything, for that matter, involving large numbers of people gathered in one place — are forbidden across much of the country.

Still, the calendar moves inexorably toward summer and the Democrats’ nominating convention and, beyond that, the Nov. 3 general election. That raises a number of questions.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tests positive for coronavirus

LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the coronavirus, he announced Friday, becoming the highest-profile national leader to reveal infection.

“Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus.”

The news comes days after the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, also divulged that he had tested positive. The prince is self-isolating at a royal estate in Scotland.

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Pandemic meets pastoral mission: A transplanted L.A. couple’s Jerusalem sojourn

Rabbi Donald Goor, left, and Cantor Evan Kent, in their Jerusalem living room, with their rescue cat Archie.
(Noga Tarnopolsky/Noga Tarnopolsky/Los Angeles Times)

The word for a biblical pestilence — magefa — has survived down through the centuries, making its way into the slangy, buzzy Hebrew of modern-day Israel.

As a worldwide epidemic rages, there is scarcely a day when Evan Kent — a Los Angeles cantor who moved to Jerusalem seven years ago with his rabbi husband — does not hear it uttered amid the old stones. Kent, 60, first learned magefa long ago, in his liturgical studies.

For decades, he was a mainstay of the Westside’s Temple Isaiah, as well known for charisma and compassion as for the hauntingly melodious tones he brought to his role as cantor.

Now he and his husband, Rabbi Donald Goor, find themselves at the confluence of extraordinary events that would not be out of place in a scriptural parable. As do millions of others around the globe, Kent and Goor, 61, now face daily strictures meant to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus infection.

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Why a fight over homeless people could determine how much coronavirus hurts California

Cots are set up 6 feet apart at Westwood Recreation Center last week to shelter the homeless.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Despite unprecedented attention and spending, tens of thousands of homeless people are still living on the streets of California, and they are fast becoming a hazard to the state’s ability to treat everyone who needs it as coronavirus patients begin to flood hospitals in earnest.

A new study puts the risk to the larger population in stark terms: It estimates that nearly 2,600 homeless people in the Los Angeles area alone will need to be hospitalized for COVID-19, and about 900 of them will require intensive care.

If that many homeless people do indeed stream into local hospitals in the coming weeks, it could lead to competition for what public health officials have said is an already insufficient number of beds and ventilators to meet the need. That, in turn, could further crowd out other patients in need of care.

“It’s a really urgent thing,” said Thomas Byrne, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Social Work.

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The quinceañera is another youthful casualty of the coronavirus

Choreographer Cynthia Garcia, center, teaches dance moves to a group of youngsters for an upcoming quinceañera for 14-year-old Ashley Soltero, in El Monte on Sunday.
(Christina House / The Times)

If Ashley Soltero had turned 15 in any other year, her quinceañera would have been much, much different.

She wouldn’t have waited to announce the May 2 date to her friends, her escorts — chambelánes — wouldn’t have been nervous about coming to dance practice, and her mother wouldn’t have been laid off in the midst of paying off Ashley’s $2,500 charro-style dress.

But it’s 2020 and COVID-19 has swept the globe. Now it’s a season of lost rituals: prom, grad night, walking across a stage to receive a diploma and, for Latino families in L.A. and beyond, the quinceañera. As unsettling as postponements and cancellations may be for the young, they may be even harder for parents who have invested so much of themselves in their children.

Soltero and her mother, Evelyn Yañez, have been planning her birthday celebration for a year.

“I think she’s more excited, because I’m her only child,” Ashley said. “She wants the best for me, you know?”

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How do you connect with your faith under coronavirus self-quarantine? Take it online

On Sunday morning, Kerry Morrison shut the door of her home office, settled in at her desk and flipped open her laptop. It was prayer time in the age of the coronavirus.

Her nondenominational Christian church, Ecclesia Hollywood, has moved gatherings online amid calls for social distancing to slow the spread of the pandemic. As she sipped coffee and knitted a new scarf from the comfort of her Windsor Square home, her pastor welcomed the virtual faithful from the other side of the screen.

“For the first time maybe in modern history, the world is united in our shared experience of pain,” Pastor Jon Ritner told his live-stream congregation of around 160 households. “But in the midst of all of that, I really believe the entire world is also united in a shared prayer.”

As state and local officials ramp up restrictions on Californians’ movements, many houses of worship are moving their services, classes and prayer groups online.

Ecclesia announced its decision to broadcast Sunday gatherings earlier this month. The shift to digital worship has touched multiple faith communities, forcing mosques, churches, synagogues and Buddhist temples, among others, to roll out contingency plans.

“We’re trying to be flexible and adaptable and we’ll stay in constant communication through the Ecclesia Facebook page,” Ritner said in a Facebook video. “We also hope that that page becomes a place where our community can come together.”

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‘These are not numbers, these are neighbors,’ Garcetti says as coronavirus cases spike in L.A.

The Manhattan Beach Pier is locked, and a city sign explains why in three repeated messages: “Lot closed,” “COVID-19” and “Social Distancing.” Confirmed cases in L.A. County have topped 1,200.
(Jay L. Clendenin / The Times)

Californians completed their first full week under orders to stay at home Thursday, as grim statistics mounted in the coronavirus outbreak: Confirmed cases in Los Angeles County rose by more than half in a single day, reaching 1,200. Nine new deaths were reported in the county, bringing the virus’s toll to 21.

“Even more disturbingly, we see that if this rate of increase continues, in six days, we will be where New York is today, the same number of cases per capita as they are struggling through,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said during a somber online briefing Thursday evening.

That is not a record any city wants to break. And it is, he said, more than just a figure.

“These are not numbers, these are neighbors,” Garcetti said. “There is no projection in which a couple weeks from now, we’re doing fine. This will be tough.”

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China urges cooperation with U.S. in virus fight

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has told President Trump that China “understands the United States’ current predicament over the COVID-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support within its capacity.”

The official Xinhua News Agency said Xi delivered the message in a call to Trump on Friday, in which he also urged the U.S. to “take substantive action in improving bilateral relations.”

Even before the virus outbreak, the U.S. and China were in the midst of a trade war and in sharpening conflicts over intellectual property, human rights, Taiwan and Beijing’s policies in Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

In the phone call, Xi “suggested that the two sides work together to boost cooperation in epidemic control and other fields, and develop a relationship of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The virus outbreak was first reported in China in December and now appears to have peaked in the country, even while the government remains on guard against imported cases.

Beijing has been particularly annoyed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s repeated references to the outbreak as the “Wuhan Flu,” after the Chinese city where it was first detected, saying that politicizes the issue and promotes bias against China and Chinese Americans.

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In Iran, hundreds die ingesting a poison they wrongly believe can fight coronavirus

Standing over the still body of an intubated 5-year-old boy wearing nothing but a plastic diaper, an Iranian healthcare worker in a hazmat suit and mask begged the public for just one thing: Stop drinking industrial alcohol over fears about the new coronavirus.

The boy, now blind after his parents gave him toxic methanol in the mistaken belief it protects against the virus, is just one of hundreds of victims of an epidemic inside the epidemic gripping Iran.

Iranian media reports that nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened by ingesting methanol across the Islamic Republic, where drinking alcohol is banned and where those who do rely on bootleggers. It comes as fake remedies spread across social media in Iran, where people remain deeply suspicious of the government after it downplayed the crisis for days before it overwhelmed the population.

“The virus is spreading and people are just dying off, and I think they are even less aware of the fact that there are other dangers around,” said Dr. Knut Erik Hovda, a clinical toxicologist in Oslo, Norway, who studies methanol poisoning and fears Iran’s outbreak could be even worse than reported. “When they keep drinking this, there’s going to be more people poisoned.”

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Citing coronavirus risks, L.A. teachers union calls for new limits on charter schools

Citing the coronavirus emergency, the L.A. teachers union on Thursday called for a moratorium on new charter school approvals and a halt to new campus-sharing arrangements with charters.

United Teachers Los Angeles has long wanted to slow or stop the growth of these privately operated public schools, but cast its current opposition in terms of the ongoing health crisis of the COVID-`19 outbreak.

Union President Alex Caputo-Pearl, in a letter sent to Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner on Thursday, said it would be unfair to approve new charter schools without an opportunity for board members to hear from community members. Currently members of the public are unable to gather and it could be difficult for them to participate in scheduled board meetings, which probably would take place by video or audio-conferencing.

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Citing the coronavirus, ex-L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca asks for release from prison

Citing the threat of the novel coronavirus, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has asked a federal judge to release him from a Texas prison while he fights to have his conviction tossed out.

Baca, who was found guilty of thwarting a federal investigation into his department’s scandal-plagued jail system, is less than two months into a three-year prison term.

“Mr. Baca is nearly 78 years old and has Alzheimer’s disease. He is part of the population most vulnerable to the virus,” the motion filed by Baca’s San Diego-based attorney, Benjamin L. Coleman, said.

The filing notes that President Trump said earlier this month that the government was considering releasing “nonviolent prisoners due to the grave risk of the virus spreading in a prison environment.”

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Women in New York giving birth alone may be facing their ‘worst nightmare’

Heidi Schreck spent a long time trying to get pregnant — “a very, very long time,” she says.

After years of frustration and multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization, she and her husband, who both work in the theater and put off having kids while they were establishing their careers, found out last year they were going to have identical twins. Since Schreck is in her 40s and the babies share a placenta, the pregnancy is considered high-risk. But she was lucky enough to avoid most of the numerous potential complications.

Then came the coronavirus.

“We managed to make it through all of those phases only to confront this very unexpected thing at the end,” says the playwright and actress, now 32 weeks pregnant, by phone from her home in Brooklyn. “The pandemic.”

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California DMV closing all field offices to public to stem spread of coronavirus, memo says

Faced with concerns among workers about the spread of COVID-19, the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced in a memo to employees Thursday that it is closing all of its more than 170 field offices to the public starting Friday.

In the memo obtained by The Times that was sent to employees on Thursday, DMV Field Operations Deputy Director Coleen Solomon wrote that the closures are part of the agency “taking steps to address employee health and safety concerns, including public contact and increasing social distancing between individuals.”

Employees will be placed on paid administrative time off as the offices are closed for cleaning and disinfecting from March 27 to 31, and staff will return to work April 1 though the offices will remain closed to the public.

When employees return to work on April 1, they will receive training to process online transactions, the memo said.

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As criticism mounts, Mexican government rejects more aggressive fight against coronavirus

Resisting calls to amp up the fight against the coronavirus, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his top aides continued to defend a strategy they say balances public health needs with potential damage to the country’s faltering economy.

“We don’t want to have a cure that is costlier in social terms than the actual illness,” Hugo López-Gatell, the country’s sub-secretary of health, told reporters Thursday. “We have said many times that there are some measures that don’t have a technical basis, such as closing borders and airports.”

Mexico has taken some measures, such as extending schools’ Holy Week break, urging people to work from home and encouraging social distancing — widely disseminating a cartoon character called Susana Distancia, which means “your safe distance.”

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U.S. surpasses China, Italy in coronavirus cases; California sees spike as well

The United States has surpassed Italy and China in having the most confirmed coronavirus cases, according to a global case tracker run by Johns Hopkins University.

California now has 3,910 cases and 80 deaths, a major spike over the last few days. State officials say the COVID-19 growth rate is such that it could overwhelm hospitals in the coming days and weeks.

As of Thursday afternoon, the United States was reporting more than 82,400 cases, above China’s tally of more than 81,700 and Italy’s count of more than 80,500.

Spain has recorded more than 56,000 cases. Worldwide, there are more than 526,000 cases. Italy still tops the list of countries with the most coronavirus deaths, reporting more than 8,200.

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Massive unemployment claims during coronavirus crisis have California officials scrambling

California faces an unprecedented number of unemployment claims amid the coronavirus pandemic, sparking emergency actions by the state agency that handles jobless benefits and a waiting game to see whether the state can keep up.

The state’s Employment Development Department processed 186,809 claims for unemployment benefits last week, up from 57,606 the week before, according to weekly data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor. The total last week was 363% higher than the number of claims processed during the same week last year.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that those figures are only rising. In the past 12 days, Newsom said the state has received 1 million applications for unemployment benefits, a figure highlighting the sharp economic impact crisis-related business closures will have on California.

“To have an organization be able to ramp up overnight at that high of a level is very difficult,” said state Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco). “We’ve had a significant number of constituents say they are having a hard time reaching EDD on the phone or, due to the shelter in place order, being able to go into the office for help.”

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