Coronavirus updates: Death toll nears 22,000 as U.S. marks solemn Easter

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said Sunday that there were 1,672 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 20,852 since the beginning of the pandemic, CBS Chicago reports. Another 43 people have died of the virus, for a total of 720 fatalities.

“I’ve spoken about a bending of the curve,” Pritzker said. “The percent of those tested positive is the same as it has been in the last two weeks and the death toll is lower than it has been in the last six days.”

The governor said he prays the trends continue, and if they do, people adhering to the stay-at-home order will be to credit. He noted that Illinois was the second state to issue such an order, and experts say it “now seems to be reaching a peaking term.”

Top elected officials including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu welcomed a FedEx plane Sunday carrying about 91,000 pounds of personal protective equipment at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.

The Republican governor was joined by Democratic U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Dean Kamen, who helped spearhead the effort.

The cargo plane departed Shanghai, China, on Saturday night.

“This has been an incredible team effort,” Sununu said from the tarmac with the plane behind him.

Sununu said the gear will be distributing to areas of greatest need as part the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

— The Associated Press

Andrea Bocelli gave a special performance this Easter.

The Italian opera star performed a solo concert — Andrea Bocelli: Music for Hope — from the Duomo cathedral in Milan, Italy, on Sunday. The event was live-streamed on his YouTube channel as the Duomo and many other venues have been closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bocelli was joined only by cathedral organist Emanuele Vianelli as he sang songs like “Ave Maria” and “Sancta Maria” to an empty venue, ET Online reported.

“On the day in which we celebrate the trust in a life that triumphs, I’m honored and happy to answer ‘Sì’ to the invitation of the City and the Duomo of Milan,” Bocelli previously said in a statement. “I believe in the strength of praying together; I believe in the Christian Easter, a universal symbol of rebirth that everyone — whether they are believers or not — truly needs right now.”

“Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earth’s pulsing heart, this wonderful international forge that is reason for Italian pride,” he added. “It will be a joy to witness it, in the Duomo, during the Easter celebration which evokes the mystery of birth and rebirth.”

Read more here and watch the performance below:

Andrea Bocelli: Music For Hope – Live From Duomo di Milano by Andrea Bocelli on YouTube

he death toll in Britain has surpassed 10,000 after more than 700 people died Saturday, putting the country behind only the U.S., Italy, Spain and France in the total number of deaths so far. Health Secretary Matt Hancock called it a “somber day in the impact of the disease.

U.K. government advisers have warned the country could be the hardest-hit in all of Europe. Scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance previously said it would be a “good outcome” for the U.K. if the number of deaths from the virus could be kept below 20,000, BBC News reports. 

Hancock said Sunday that “the future of this virus is unknowable, as yet because it depends on the behavior of millions of people.”

Kashkari says Fed is being “as aggressive as possible” in coronavirus response

The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis praised the central bank for its response to the coronavirus, saying the Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, are being “as aggressive as possible” as the nation grapples with the devastating economic fallout from the pandemic.

“Our chairman is being very, very aggressive,” Neel Kashkari, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Fed, said Sunday on “Face the Nation,” referring to Powell. “He’s learned from our experience in 2008 and the whole Federal Reserve is being as aggressive as possible. That’s the right thing to do.”

Kashkari, who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program during the 2008 financial crisis, said Congress has likewise been “very aggressive” in its response to the coronavirus, but warned lawmakers may have to do more to prop up the economy until a vaccine is ready.

“It goes back to the progression of the virus,” he said. “If we’re going to have economic distress until we have a vaccine, then it’s going to be up to Congress to keep coming back to provide support to the American people.”

Read more here.

Gottlieb says WHO should investigate China’s handling of initial coronavirus outbreak

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated the world.

“Going forward, the WHO needs to commit to an after-action report that specifically examines what China did or didn’t tell the world and how that stymied the global response to this,” Gottlieb said Sunday on “Face the Nation.”

The coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China, and has since spread to more than 180 countries. There have been more than 1.7 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide.

President Trump has criticized the WHO for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and said last week he is considering ending U.S. funding to the agency.

Gottlieb said he disagreed with pulling funding entirely, as some countries in the Southern Hemisphere will likely be hit hard by the coronavirus in the near future and need resources, but said Mr. Trump raised “valid concerns.” 

“China was not truthful with the world at the outset of this,” he said. “Had they been more truthful with the world, which would have enabled them to be more truthful with themselves, they might have actually been able to contain this entirely. And there is some growing evidence to suggest that as late as January 20, they were still saying that there was no human-to-human transmission and the WHO is validating those claims on January 14, sort of enabling the obfuscation from China.”

Read more here.

New York’s death toll on Saturday was 758, a slight drop from Friday, which Governor Andrew Cuomo said is indicative of a leveling-off.

“You’re not seeing a great decline in the numbers,” he said. “But you’re seeing a flattening.”

At a press briefing Sunday, Cuomo said he is not making any assumptions about when to reopen businesses and schools, saying “we need to be smart” about how it is done. 

Additionally, Cuomo said he is signing an executive order requiring all employers to provide essential workers with masks.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says coronavirus “devastating our communities” of color

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday that the coronavirus is “devastating” black communities in part because of the underlying health conditions that disportionately impact people of color.

Lightfoot said on “Face the Nation” that the high number of deaths from the coronavirus among African Americans is not unique to Chicago, but rather tracks closely with the death toll in large cities nationwide.

“The answer that we believe is right is because of the underlying conditions that people of color and particularly black folks suffer from, whether it’s diabetes, heart disease, upper respiratory illnesses, the kind of things that we’ve been talking about for a long time that plague black Chicago, that lead to life expectancy gaps,” Lightfoot said. “This virus attacks those underlying conditions with a vengeance.”

In Chicago, 72% of those who have died from the coronavirus are black. African Americans make up 30% of the city’s population.

“it is devastating our community,” Lightfoot said.

Read more here.

New Jersey governor says reopening economy too soon “could be throwing gasoline on the fire”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy cautioned Sunday against a swift reopening of the economy as the country continues to try to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, saying an economic reboot that comes before the virus is under control could be like “throwing gasoline on the fire.”

“Any sort of economic reopening or recovery depends first and foremost on a complete health care recovery,” Murphy said on “Face the Nation.” “Getting that sequencing right, I think based on the data and the facts that we’re seeing, is incredibly essential and that, if we either transpose those steps or we start to get back on our feet too soon, I fear based on the data we’re looking at, we could be throwing gasoline on the fire.”

New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the nation, sits between two hotspots in the coronavirus pandemic: New York City and Philadelphia. The state has had more than 58,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

Read more here.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been discharged from the hospital and says he owes his life to the National Health Service staff who treated him for COVID-19.

“I can’t thank them enough,” Johnson said in his first public statement since he was moved out of intensive care Thursday night at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. “I owe them my life.”

A Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement Johnson will not return to work immediately based on the advice of his medical team and said the prime minister “wishes to thank everybody at St. Thomas’ for the brilliant care he received.”

Johnson, 55, was diagnosed over two weeks ago, becoming the first world leader confirmed to have the illness. His coronavirus symptoms at first were said to have been mild, including a cough and a fever, and he was working from home during the first few days.

But he was admitted to St. Thomas’ on April 5 after his condition worsened and he was transferred the following day to its intensive care unit, where he received oxygen but was not put onto a ventilator. He spent three nights there before moving back to a regular hospital ward.

The federal Bureau of Prisons announced Saturday that 335 federal inmates and 185 BOP staff have tested positive for coronavirus. That’s up from the 318 inmates and 163 staff announced Friday.

So far, 15 inmates and 12 staff have recovered, according to BOP.