npr--2020-03-30--Central Park And Home Of Tennis' U.S. Open To House Hospital Beds For New York

Central Park And Home Of Tennis ' U.S. Open To House Hospital Beds For New York As New York City 's hospitals begin to buckle under the weight of the coronavirus crisis , two public spaces that are popular recreation spots in better times are being turned into field hospitals .
One such facility has been set up in Central Park , in the East Meadow .
It 's a grassy space normally populated by sunbathers , but as of Tuesday , it will be a 68-bed respiratory care unit opened in partnership between the relief organization Samaritan 's Purse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is about to be built at the home of the U.S. Open Grand Slam tennis tournament .
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the city will build a 350-bed space in Queens , at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , which is also the largest public tennis facility in the world .
Additionally , the tennis center 's Louis Armstrong Stadium will become a commissary that will package 25,000 meals per day for medical professionals and others .
Construction may begin as early as Tuesday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ welcomed the arrival of the USNS Comfort , a Navy hospital ship .
The ship , which has about 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms , will treat patients who need urgent medical care , but who do not have COVID-19 .
The New York City metropolitan area is already being hit hard by the virus .
As of Monday afternoon , the city counted 38,087 positive cases and 914 deaths .
New Jersey had 16,636 positive cases and 198 deaths , particularly clustered around the cities , towns and suburbs closest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York Gov .
Andrew Cuomo announced that the state had completed the construction of a 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center , on the far west side of Manhattan .

Central Park And Home Of Tennis' U.S. Open To House Hospital Beds For New York
Enlarge this image toggle caption Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images
As New York City's hospitals begin to buckle under the weight of the coronavirus crisis, two public spaces that are popular recreation spots in better times are being turned into field hospitals.
One such facility has been set up in Central Park, in the East Meadow. It's a grassy space normally populated by sunbathers, but as of Tuesday it will be a 68-bed respiratory care unit opened in partnership between the relief organization Samaritan's Purse and Mount Sinai Health System.
Another is about to be built at the home of the U.S. Open Grand Slam tennis tournament. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the city will build a 350-bed space in Queens, at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which is also the largest public tennis facility in the world.
Additionally, the tennis center's Louis Armstrong Stadium will become a commissary that will package 25,000 meals per day for medical professionals and others. Construction may begin as early as Tuesday.
On Monday morning, the city welcomed the arrival of the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship. The ship, which has about 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms, will treat patients who need urgent medical care, but who do not have COVID-19.
The New York City metropolitan area is already being hit hard by the virus. As of Monday afternoon, the city counted 38,087 positive cases and 914 deaths. New Jersey had 16,636 positive cases and 198 deaths, particularly clustered around the cities, towns and suburbs closest to New York.
Last Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state had completed the construction of a 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, on the far west side of Manhattan.


npr--2020-03-30--NCAA Division 1 Athletes Get Another Shot At Spring Sports

NCAA Division 1 Athletes Get Another Shot At Spring Sports When the NCAA shut down college sports earlier this month because of the coronavirus outbreak , the most dramatic cancellation was March Madness – the wildly popular men 's and women 's D1 basketball tournaments .
But thousands of athletes in less prominent spring sports — baseball , lacrosse and golf to name a few — had their seasons end too .
Now , they 'll get another chance .
Monday , the NCAA 's Division 1 Council voted to let schools offer spring sport athletes an extra year of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ season .
Obviously the impact is greatest on graduating seniors , but in fact , the decision applies to all athletes whose spring seasons were interrupted by the outbreak .
They 'll all have the opportunity to have their lost season restored .
Winter sports were not included in the decision because much of their regular seasons were finished .
Meaning all those basketball players will forever wonder , who would 've won March Madness in 2020 ?
The Council earlier had said it supported eligibility relief for spring athletes .
But it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ details before making an official announcement .
Some of the details include : • Financial aid rules were adjusted to allow teams to carry more athletes on scholarship , expanding the limit to include those who return .
• Schools wo n't have to offer the same level of scholarship to returning senior athletes , as they had this season .
But , schools can draw on the NCAA 's Student Assistance Fund to help pay for athletes who take advantage of this extra eligibility .
• An athlete can come back for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But any scholarship they 'd get at the new school would count against that team 's limit .
Some details still have to be ironed out .
For instance , if a senior graduates this year and wants to come back for another years of sports , what are the academic requirements ?
That 's one of the issues on Katie Hoeg 's mind .
She was a star senior attacker on the University of North Carolina 's No .
1-ranked women 's lacrosse team this season .
Hoeg is scheduled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back to play would require her to take on another major or graduate classes .
`` I 'm very grateful to be at a school [ like ] UNC , '' she says , `` where their education is something I would still love to pursue . ''
Hoeg says she 's also waiting to see what happens with her full scholarship , which she had for her senior season .
As of right now , Hoeg says , `` my heart is definitely sold [ on ] coming back .
I 'm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ] I believe it 's a step in the right direction . ''

NCAA Division 1 Athletes Get Another Shot At Spring Sports
Enlarge this image toggle caption Wade Payne/AP Wade Payne/AP
When the NCAA shut down college sports earlier this month because of the coronavirus outbreak, the most dramatic cancellation was March Madness – the wildly popular men's and women's D1 basketball tournaments. But thousands of athletes in less prominent spring sports — baseball, lacrosse and golf, to name a few — had their seasons end too.
Now, they'll get another chance.
Monday, the NCAA's Division 1 Council voted to let schools offer spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility so they can play an extra season. Obviously, the impact is greatest on graduating seniors, but the decision applies to all athletes whose spring seasons were interrupted by the outbreak. They'll all have the opportunity to have their lost season restored.
Winter sports were not included in the decision because much of their regular seasons were finished. Meaning all those basketball players will forever wonder, who would've won March Madness in 2020?
The Council earlier had said it supported eligibility relief for spring athletes. But it had to work out many of the details before making an official announcement. Some of the details include:
Financial aid rules were adjusted to allow teams to carry more athletes on scholarship, expanding the limit to include those who return.
Schools won't have to offer the same level of scholarship to returning senior athletes, as they had this season. But schools can draw on the NCAA's Student Assistance Fund to help pay for athletes who take advantage of this extra eligibility.
An athlete can come back for another season and transfer to another school. But any scholarship they'd get at the new school would count against that team's limit.
Some details still have to be ironed out. For instance, if a senior graduates this year and wants to come back for another year of sports, what are the academic requirements?
That's one of the issues on Katie Hoeg's mind. She was a star senior attacker on the University of North Carolina's No. 1-ranked women's lacrosse team this season. Hoeg is scheduled to graduate in May and wonders if coming back to play would require her to take on another major or graduate classes.
"I'm very grateful to be at a school [like] UNC," she says, "where their education is something I would still love to pursue." Hoeg says she's also waiting to see what happens with her full scholarship, which she had for her senior season.
As of right now, Hoeg says, "My heart is definitely sold [on] coming back. I'm glad the NCAA made this decision [and] I believe it's a step in the right direction."


npr--2020-03-30--National Guardsman Is First Service Member To Die After Testing Positive For COVID-19

National Guardsman Is First Service Member To Die After Testing Positive For COVID-19 A New Jersey Army National Guardsman who had tested positive for the coronavirus and been hospitalized since March 21 , died Saturday , according to the Department of Defense .
The service member was identified as by Gen. Joseph Lengyel , head of the National Guard Bureau , as Army Capt .
Douglas Linn Hickok , a physician assistant , who served in the U.S. Army Medical Command .
The death marks the first service member to have died from the coronavirus .
Hickok was not on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to a statement from Lt. Col. Barbara Brown , a spokesperson for the New Jersey National Guard .
`` Our thoughts are with his wife , children , and their family , '' she said .
`` Today is a sad day for the Department of Defense as we have lost our first American service member - active , reserve or Guard - to Coronavirus , '' said Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in a statement .
`` This is a stinging loss for our military community , and our condolences @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , civilian co-workers and the entire National Guard community . ''
There are over 1,000 cases of the coronavirus within the Defense Department community .
Of those cases , 633 service members have contracted the virus , according to Stars and Stripes .

National Guardsman Is First Service Member To Die After Testing Positive For COVID-19
Updated at 11:11 p.m. ET
A New Jersey Army National Guardsman who had tested positive for the coronavirus and been hospitalized since March 21, died Saturday, according to the Department of Defense.
The service member was identified by Gen. Joseph Lengyel, head of the National Guard Bureau, as Army Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok, a physician assistant who served in the U.S. Army Medical Command.
The death marks the first service member to have died from the coronavirus.
Hickok was not on active duty status when he fell ill, according to a statement from Lt. Col. Barbara Brown, a spokesperson for the New Jersey National Guard.
"Our thoughts are with his wife, children, and their family," she said.
"Today is a sad day for the Department of Defense as we have lost our first American service member — active, reserve or Guard — to Coronavirus," said Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in a statement. "This is a stinging loss for our military community, and our condolences go out to his family, friends, civilian co-workers and the entire National Guard community."
There are over 1,000 cases of the coronavirus within the Defense Department community. Of those cases, 633 service members have contracted the virus, according to Stars and Stripes.


npr--2020-03-30--4 Boston Hospitals Report Significant Numbers Of Employees Have The Coronavirus

4 Boston Hospitals Report Significant Numbers Of Employees Have The Coronavirus Four of Boston 's largest and best-known hospitals said on Monday that in all , 345 of their employees have tested positive for the coronavirus , putting additional pressure on the area 's already stretched medical resources .
Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed to NPR on Monday afternoon that 115 of its staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 ; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center told NPR on Monday afternoon that it has 62 employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus .
Additionally , Boston television station WBZ reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employees who have tested positive .
Additionally , a WBZ reporter stated on Monday afternoon that Brigham and Women 's Hospital said that it had 107 employees who were positive for COVID-19 .
All four institutions are prominent teaching hospitals .
MGH , BIDMC and Brigham and Women 's are all affiliated with Harvard University ; Tufts is the primary teaching hospital for Tufts University .
Just last Friday , MGH said that 41 employees had received a positive diagnosis — so there has been a 180 % increase in four days .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 5752 confirmed cases of the coronavirus ; over 2900 of those positive cases were for people in Middlesex , Essex and Suffolk counties — an area which includes Boston and many of its close suburbs as well as smaller cities and towns .
In all , more than 43,000 people have been tested in the state so far .
There have been 56 deaths .
While those numbers are not at the level of hot spots like New York City and its metropolitan area , New Jersey or California , officials anticipate a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the next few weeks .
At a press conference on Monday , Gov .
Charlie Baker said that the state expects to see a surge in positive cases sometime between April 7 and April 17 — and that he anticipates a great deal of need in the health care sector , including for medical supplies , beds and ventilators .
At a Monday afternoon news conference , Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that nearly half of the people currently diagnosed with the illness are under the age of 39 , according to television @ @ @

4 Boston Hospitals Report Significant Number Of Employees Have Coronavirus
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jodi Hilton/Getty Images Jodi Hilton/Getty Images
Four of Boston's largest and best-known hospitals said on Monday that in all, 345 of their employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, putting additional pressure on the area's already stretched medical resources.
Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed to NPR on Monday afternoon that 115 of its staff members have tested positive for COVID-19; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center told NPR on Monday afternoon that it has 62 employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Additionally, Boston television station WBZ reported Monday that Tufts Medical Center has 61 employees who have tested positive.
Additionally, a WBZ reporter stated on Monday afternoon that Brigham and Women's Hospital said that it had 107 employees who were positive for COVID-19.
All four institutions are prominent teaching hospitals. MGH, BIDMC and Brigham and Women's are all affiliated with Harvard University; Tufts is the primary teaching hospital for Tufts University.
Just last Friday, MGH said that 41 employees had received a positive diagnosis — an increase of 180% in four days.
As of Monday, Massachusetts has reported 5,752 confirmed cases of the coronavirus; more than 2,900 of those positive cases were for people in Middlesex, Essex and Suffolk counties — an area that includes Boston and many of its close suburbs, as well as smaller cities and towns. In all, more than 43,000 people have been tested in the state so far. There have been 56 deaths.
While those numbers are not at the level of hot spots such as New York City and its metropolitan area, as well as New Jersey or California, officials anticipate a ramp up in positive cases in Massachusetts over the next few weeks.
At a press conference on Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker said that the state expects to see a surge in positive cases sometime between April 7 and April 17 — and that he anticipates a great deal of need in the health care sector, including for medical supplies, beds and ventilators.
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that nearly half of the people currently diagnosed with the illness are younger than 39, according to television station WHDH.


npr--2020-03-30--Tomie DePaola, Beloved Children's Author And Illustrator, Has Died

The beloved children 's author and illustrator Tomie dePaola , whose imaginative and warm-hearted work crossed generations and continents , died Monday at age 85 .
His death was announced , without details , on social media by his assistant , Bob Hechtel .
The Associated Press has reported that he died at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon , N.H. , from complications from surgery that followed a bad fall last week .
DePaola 's work stretched over many realms of his imagination , from a magical faux-folk tale centered on a kindly and crafty Calabrian grandmother — Strega @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Award in 1976 — to retelling the inspiring Comanche story of The Legend of the Bluebonnet .
In 2000 , he won a Newbery Honor for his book 26 Fairmount Avenue , which was one of his more autobiographical projects that recounted his early childhood .
By dePaola 's own count , he worked on some 27o books , as the author , illustrator or both — the first in 1965 , and the most recent published last year .
In 2011 , he won a lifetime prize , the Children 's Literature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was called the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award ) , which hailed his `` substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children . ''
In all , nearly 25 million copies of his books have been sold around the world .
Born in Meriden , Conn. , on Sept. 15 , 1934 , dePaola earned a BFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before earning higher degrees from the California College of Arts in Oakland and Lone Mountain College in San Francisco .
Along with his work as an author and illustrator , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ colleges in California , Massachusetts and New Hampshire .
For many years , he made his home in New London , N.H .
In 1998 , dePaola told All Things Considered that he hoped to recognize children for all their capabilities .
`` As a grownup , '' he said , `` I want to give children the credit for everything I can : their courage , their humor , their love , their creative abilities , their abilities to be fair , their abilities to be unfair .
But I do wish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of credit for these ephemeral kind of qualities that they have . ''

Tomie dePaola, Beloved Children's Author And Illustrator, Has Died
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jonathan Fickies/Getty Images Jonathan Fickies/Getty Images
The beloved children's author and illustrator Tomie dePaola, whose imaginative and warm-hearted work crossed generations and continents, died Monday at age 85. His death was announced, without details, on social media by his assistant, Bob Hechtel.
The Associated Press has reported that he died at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., from complications from surgery that followed a bad fall last week.
DePaola's work stretched over many realms of his imagination, from a magical faux-folk tale centered on a kindly and crafty Calabrian grandmother — Strega Nona, which won the Caldecott Honor Award in 1976 — to retelling the inspiring Comanche story of The Legend of the Bluebonnet. In 2000, he won a Newbery Honor for his book 26 Fairmount Avenue, which was one of his more autobiographical projects that recounted his early childhood. By dePaola's own count, he worked on some 27o books, as the author, illustrator or both — the first in 1965, and the most recent published last year.
In 2011, he won a lifetime prize, the Children's Literature Legacy Award (which, until 2018, was called the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award), which hailed his "substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." In all, nearly 25 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.
Born in Meriden, Conn., on Sept. 15, 1934, dePaola earned a BFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before earning higher degrees from the California College of Arts in Oakland and Lone Mountain College in San Francisco.
Along with his work as an author and illustrator, dePaola taught art and theater at various colleges in California, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. For many years, he made his home in New London, N.H.
In 1998, dePaola told All Things Considered that he hoped to recognize children for all their capabilities. "As a grownup," he said, "I want to give children the credit for everything I can: their courage, their humor, their love, their creative abilities, their abilities to be fair, their abilities to be unfair. But I do wish that we grownups would give children lots of credit for these ephemeral kind of qualities that they have."


npr--2020-03-30--FACT CHECK: Trumps' Claims On U.S. Testing And Seoul's Population

FACT CHECK : Trumps ' Claims On U.S .
Testing And Seoul 's Population During his coronavirus task force briefing Monday evening , President Trump repeated his claim that the United States has done `` more tests by far than any country in the world . ''
He was asked by PBS White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor : `` You 've said several times that the United States has ramped up testing .
But the United States is still not testing per capita as many people as other countries like South Korea .
Why is that and when do you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ par with other countries ? ''
Trump replied , `` It 's very much on par . ''
`` I know South Korea better than anybody .
It 's a very tight — do you know how many people are in Seoul ? ''
he asked .
`` Do you know how big the city of Seoul is ? ''
`` Thirty-eight million people , '' Trump said , '' That 's bigger than anything we have .
Thirty-eight million people , all tightly wound together . ''
That 's incorrect .
Seoul @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The population of South Korea itself is roughly 51.5 million .
It 's unclear where the 38 million number came from , though there was some speculation .
That includes a tweet about a potential mix-up between population and elevation : While the United States has overtaken South Korea in the total number of tests administered , the country has tested far fewer per capita .
The U.S. population is around 327 million — more than six times the population of South Korea .
As of Saturday , the U.S. has performed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Giroir , assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services .
But despite a ramp-up of testing , the United States still lags behind other countries like South Korea when it comes to testing on a per capita basis .
According to The Washington Post , as of March 28 , the United States had performed 2,250 tests per million — two-thirds of what South Korea did three weeks prior .
`` We have vast farmlands , we have vast areas where they do n't have much of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have no problem whatsoever , '' Trump said .
`` We have done more tests .
I did n't talk about per capita .
We have done more tests by far than any country in the world , by far . ''

FACT CHECK: Trump's Claims On U.S. Testing And Seoul's Population
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
During his coronavirus task force briefing Monday evening, President Trump repeated his claim that the United States has done "more tests by far than any country in the world."
He was asked by PBS White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor: "You've said several times that the United States has ramped up testing. But the United States is still not testing per capita as many people as other countries like South Korea. Why is that and when do you think that that number will be on par with other countries?"
Trump replied, "It's very much on par."
"I know South Korea better than anybody. It's a very tight — do you know how many people are in Seoul?" he asked. "Do you know how big the city of Seoul is?"
"Thirty-eight million people," Trump said,"That's bigger than anything we have. Thirty-eight million people, all tightly wound together."
That's incorrect. Seoul has a population of nearly 10 million. The population of South Korea itself is roughly 51.5 million.
It's unclear where the 38 million number came from, though there was some speculation. That includes a tweet about a potential mix-up between population and elevation:
While the United States has overtaken South Korea in the total number of tests administered, the country has tested far fewer per capita.
The U.S. population is around 327 million — more than six times the population of South Korea.
As of Saturday, the U.S. has performed 894,000 tests, according to Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services.
But despite a ramp-up of testing, the United States still lags behind other countries like South Korea when it comes to testing on a per capita basis.
According to The Washington Post, as of March 28, the United States had performed 2,250 tests per million — two-thirds of what South Korea did three weeks prior.
"We have vast farmlands, we have vast areas where they don't have much of a problem. In some cases, they have no problem whatsoever," Trump said. "We have done more tests. I didn't talk about per capita. We have done more tests by far than any country in the world, by far."


npr--2020-03-31--Coronavirus Lockdown Sends Migrant Workers On A Long And Risky Trip Home

Under lockdown , well-off Indians isolate indoors , work from home and get groceries delivered .
But outside their windows , it 's a different story : Poor laborers amass in the streets , hungry and homeless .
In a video posted on Twitter , a woman calls down to a crowd of people gathering below her window .
They yell back up to her , desperate : `` There are 400 of us here without food .
We need help .
There are lots of children . ''
Emptied of most vehicles , Indian highways are instead lined with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all their worldly belongings in bundles on top of their heads .
Some cradle infants in their arms .
`` I just want to go home , '' one man sobs to an Indian TV reporter .
He says he 's trying to walk from the capital New Delhi , where he worked , to his home in the eastern state of Bihar — at least 600 miles away .
Even though the coronavirus toll in India appears to be low — the government is reporting about 1,200 active cases and 35 deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed one of the world 's strictest and biggest lockdowns , ordering all residents to stay in their homes for 21 days starting on March 25 , with a few exceptions for essential workers in food shops or law enforcement .
The lockdown has left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed .
They 're often from rural areas but live most of the year in India 's mega-cities , serving as day laborers , construction workers or domestic help .
Most are thought to have no savings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now shut , and got stranded when the government halted bus and train service last week .
They 're vulnerable to starvation and infection .
Advocates for the poor say that while they support the lockdown to save lives , the way it 's been rolled out – with apparently little guidance for the poorest of India 's poor — may mean the lockdown itself endangers more lives than the coronavirus .
`` The staying power of India 's poor is very , very short .
People like casual laborers , rickshaw pullers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hand to mouth at the best of times , '' Jean Dreze , a Belgian-born Indian economist , told NPR in a phone interview from his base in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand .
`` Now suddenly overnight they are told that they have to spend 21 days inside their homes ?
Naturally many of them are already running out of food . ''
Activists across the country have been sending videos of hardship to Anjali Bhardwaj , a food rights activist in New Delhi , who 's been posting them on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people carrying their little ones on their backs and walking hundreds of miles to go back to their villages from cities like Delhi , '' she tells NPR .
`` There needed to be much better planning for this kind of a lockdown , '' Bhardwaj says .
Many of India 's migrant workers — who are believed to number at least 120 million , possibly more — are now trying to walk to their home villages , hundreds or thousands of miles away from the urban areas they 'd migrated to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in road accidents en route .
All non-essential travel is banned under the nationwide lockdown .
Buses and trains have been halted , and airports shut down .
`` Scores of people who were trying to get back to their villages got stranded along the way because public transport was suddenly stopped , '' Bhardwaj says .
On a highway outside of Delhi , a family walks with their 10-month-old child .
`` If we stay here , what will we eat ? ''
a woman asks a TV reporter .
Last week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sitharaman , announced more than $ 22 billion dollars in coronavirus relief money .
The government 's top priority , Sitharaman told reporters , is `` to reach food to the poorest of the poor , to reach money in the hands of those who need it immediately . ''
But many economists say that 's not enough .
`` We need a much , much larger stimulus – at least two or three times that amount , '' says Jayati Ghosh , professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indications that the government is worried about supply chains and how to maintain them . ''
Any disruption in food supplies could be especially deadly for the poor .
But India already runs the world 's biggest food ration distribution system and also boasts the largest food stockpiles in the world .
Government officials have said they have enough grain to feed the poor for at least one and a half years .
Dreze called on the Indian government to start releasing those stockpiles .
`` The government could very easily open the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ migrant workers or anyone who is at risk of hunger , '' Dreze says .
`` But there is a lack of sense of urgency [ in terms of food aid ] and a tendency to hope that things will be O.K.
, and that the government can get away with a limited relief plan . ''
Ghosh , the Delhi-based economist , says India 's coronavirus response has instead focused too much on elites .
`` There 's been a lot of fanfare about bringing back Indians stranded abroad – a few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NPR .
`` But these migrant workers , they have to go very , very long distances .
They 're not just vulnerable to hunger .
They 're also vulnerable to many diseases . ''
On Saturday , authorities in India 's most populous state , Uttar Pradesh ( population 200+ million ) announced a humanitarian gesture : They would dispatch 1,000 buses to ferry these migrant workers home .
Within hours , hundreds of thousands of people packed into Delhi 's Anand Vihar bus station .
Police beat them with long sticks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was no social distancing .
The fear is that these migrants could spread the coronavirus from urban areas where they worked to rural areas — where there are not enough hospitals .
With a fraction of the hospital beds and ventilators per capita of developed countries , Indian doctors and public health experts warn an explosion of coronavirus cases could overwhelm their hospitals on a greater scale than what 's happening in Italy and the United States — and lead to many millions of deaths .
Since the weekend , hundreds of makeshift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to accommodate migrants remaining in cities .
On Tuesday , India 's Supreme Court ordered the government to ensure the safety of all migrant workers in transit .
In his weekly radio address Sunday , Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized — particularly to the poor — for the chaos caused by India 's lockdown .
`` I made some decisions that caused you suffering , my poor brothers and sisters , '' Modi said .
`` But for a nation like India , this was necessary . ''
Many of the migrants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the severity of the coronavirus crisis , and respect the government 's lockdown – but have no other option but to travel .
`` I realize the police have stopped movement of people as a security measure , '' said a migrant worker named Bhanwarlal , who goes by one name .
`` But I have no other option .
My family is alone , and now I have no work — so I ca n't send them any money . ''
An Indian TV interview with Bhanwarlal has gone viral , transforming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this mass exodus .
Originally from Rajasthan in northern India , Bhanwarlal works as a day laborer in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh , and had recently been injured on the job .
His left leg was in a plaster cast .
On Tuesday , Indian TV filmed him sitting on the side of a highway outside the city of Bhopal , peeling bandages off his foot .
He 'd managed to hitch a ride for more than 300 miles , toward his hometown .
But he had 150 more to @ @ @ @ @

Coronavirus Lockdown Sends Migrant Workers On A Long And Risky Trip Home
Enlarge this image toggle caption Bhuvan Bagga/AFP via Getty Images Bhuvan Bagga/AFP via Getty Images
Under lockdown, well-off Indians isolate indoors, work from home and get groceries delivered.
But outside their windows, it's a different story: Poor laborers amass in the streets, hungry and homeless.
In a video posted on Twitter, a woman calls down to a crowd of people gathering below her window. They yell back up to her, desperate: "There are 400 of us here without food. We need help. There are lots of children."
Emptied of most vehicles, Indian highways are instead lined with bedraggled, poor pedestrians, many carrying all their worldly belongings in bundles on top of their heads. Some cradle infants in their arms.
"I just want to go home," one man sobs to an Indian TV reporter. He says he's trying to walk from the capital, New Delhi, where he worked, to his home in the eastern state of Bihar — at least 600 miles away.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Amal KS/Hindustan Times via Getty Images Amal KS/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Even though the coronavirus toll in India appears to be low — the government is reporting about 1,200 active cases and 35 deaths in a country of 1.3 billion — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed one of the world's strictest and biggest lockdowns, ordering all residents to stay in their homes for 21 days as of March 25, with a few exceptions for essential workers in hospitals, food shops and law enforcement.
The lockdown has left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed. They're often from rural areas but live most of the year in India's megacities, serving as day laborers, construction workers or domestic help.
Most are thought to have no savings. Many lived in factory dormitories, now shut, and got stranded when the government halted bus and train service last week. They're vulnerable to starvation and infection.
Advocates for the poor say that while they support the lockdown to save lives, the way it has been rolled out — with apparently little guidance for the poorest of India's poor — may mean the lockdown itself endangers more lives than the coronavirus.
toggle caption Bhuvan Bagga/AFP via Getty Images
"The staying power of India's poor is very, very short. People like casual laborers, rickshaw pullers and migrant workers are basically living from hand to mouth at the best of times," Jean Dreze, a Belgian-born Indian economist, told NPR in a phone interview from his base in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. "Now suddenly overnight they are told that they have to spend 21 days inside their homes? Naturally, many of them are already running out of food."
Activists across the country have been sending videos of hardship to Anjali Bhardwaj, a food rights activist in New Delhi, who has been posting them on Twitter. "Heart-wrenching videos and pictures of people carrying their little ones on their backs and walking hundreds of miles to go back to their villages from cities like Delhi," she tells NPR.
"There needed to be much better planning for this kind of a lockdown," Bhardwaj says.
Many of India's migrant workers — who are believed to number at least 120 million, possibly more — are now trying to walk to their home villages, hundreds or thousands of miles away from the urban areas they'd migrated to for work. Dozens have been killed in road accidents en route.
All nonessential travel is banned under the nationwide lockdown. Buses and trains have been halted and airports shut down. "Scores of people who were trying to get back to their villages got stranded along the way because public transport was suddenly stopped," Bhardwaj says.
On a highway outside Delhi, a family walks with their 10-month-old child. "If we stay here, what will we eat?" a woman asks a TV reporter.
Last week, India's finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced more than $22 billion in coronavirus relief money. The government's top priority, Sitharaman told reporters, is "to reach food to the poorest of the poor, to reach money in the hands of those who need it immediately."
But many economists say that's not enough.
"We need a much, much larger stimulus — at least two or three times that amount," says Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "And we need some clear indications that the government is worried about supply chains and how to maintain them."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Yawar Nazir/Getty Images Yawar Nazir/Getty Images
Any disruption in food supplies could be especially deadly for the poor. But India already runs the world's biggest food ration distribution system and also boasts the largest food stockpiles in the world. Government officials have said they have enough grain to feed the poor for at least one and a half years.
Dreze called on the Indian government to start releasing those stockpiles.
"The government could very easily open the warehouses and provide immediate relief to these migrant workers or anyone who is at risk of hunger," Dreze says. "But there is a lack of sense of urgency [in terms of food aid] and a tendency to hope that things will be OK and that the government can get away with a limited relief plan."
Ghosh, the Delhi-based economist, says the way India has responded to the global coronavirus crisis reveals "class bias." Authorities hosed down a group of migrant workers with disinfectant last weekend in the northern city of Bareilly, and sprayed soap solution on another group in the southern state of Kerala.
By contrast, Ghosh notes how the government has organized special rescue flights for Indian elites.
"There's been a lot of fanfare about bringing back Indians stranded abroad — a few relatively well-off people," Ghosh told NPR. "But these migrant workers, they have to go very, very long distances. They're not just vulnerable to hunger. They're also vulnerable to many diseases."
On Saturday, authorities in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh (population 200-plus million), announced a humanitarian gesture: The state would dispatch 1,000 buses to ferry these migrant workers home. Within hours, hundreds of thousands of people packed into Delhi's Anand Vihar bus station.
Police beat them with long sticks, trying to keep order. There was no social distancing.
The fear is that these migrants could spread the coronavirus from urban areas where they worked to rural areas — where there are not enough hospitals. With a fraction of the hospital beds and ventilators per capita of developed countries, Indian doctors and public health experts warn that an explosion of coronavirus cases could overwhelm their hospitals on a greater scale than what's happening in Italy and the United States — and lead to many millions of deaths.
Since the weekend, hundreds of makeshift soup kitchens and shelters have been set up to accommodate migrants remaining in cities. On Tuesday, India's Supreme Court ordered the government to ensure the safety of all migrant workers in transit.
In his weekly radio address Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized — particularly to the poor — for the chaos caused by India's lockdown.
"I made some decisions that caused you suffering, my poor brothers and sisters," Modi said. "But for a nation like India, this was necessary."
Many of the migrants traversing India this week say they realize the severity of the coronavirus crisis and respect the government's lockdown — but have no other option but to travel.
"I realize the police have stopped movement of people as a security measure," said a migrant worker named Bhanwarlal, who goes by one name. "But I have no other option. My family is alone, and now I have no work — so I can't send them any money."
toggle caption Bhuvan Bagga/AFP via Getty Images
An Indian TV interview with Bhanwarlal has gone viral, transforming him into a famous "everyman" of this mass exodus. Originally from Rajasthan in northern India, Bhanwarlal had been working as a day laborer in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and was recently injured on the job. His left leg was in a plaster cast.
On Tuesday, Indian TV filmed him sitting on the side of a highway outside the city of Bhopal, peeling bandages off his foot. He'd managed to hitch a ride for more than 300 miles, toward his hometown. But he had 150 more to go — on foot.


npr--2020-03-31--Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word 'Coronavirus'

Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word 'Coronavirus' The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan claims it has no coronavirus cases .
But if you happen to utter the word `` coronavirus '' while waiting , say , for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat , there 's a good chance you 'll be arrested .
That 's because the Turkmen government , run since 2006 by the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov , has reportedly banned the word , according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ( RSF ) .
Citing reports from Chronicles of Turkmenistan , which RSF describes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this notoriously secretive and restrictive country , the press freedom organization says Berdymukhamedov 's government has forbidden state-controlled media from writing or uttering the word and has ordered its removal from health brochures distributed at hospitals , schools and workplaces .
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents in Ashgabat report that plainclothes police officers are also arresting people who wear face masks or discuss the pandemic in public .
`` This denial of information not only endangers the Turkmen citizens most at risk , but also reinforces the authoritarianism imposed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Reporters Without Borders ' Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk , said in a statement .
`` We urge the international community to react and to take him to task for his systematic human rights violations . ''
Turkmenistan 's neighbor to the south , Iran , is one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus .
Other neighboring countries in Central Asia have hundreds of confirmed cases .
Turkmenistan is ranked last in RSF 's World Press Freedom Index .
It 's a place where speaking out is punished and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country for no reason , says Alexander A. Cooley , director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and an expert on Central Asian politics .
`` Banning the term 'coronavirus ' might seem to us obscene and extreme , '' Cooley says .
`` But in reality , when the state controls all of the media and all of the digital nodes coming in and out , it 's not that outrageous .
My sense is that they 'll try and keep [ the pandemic ] under wraps as long as they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely anticipates a big post-pandemic economic collapse in a country highly reliant on the sale of natural gas to China .
`` That probably spurred the government on to this new kind of more denialist type of posture , '' he says .
Berdymukhamedov does n't want to look weak , he says , because he `` portrays himself very much as a superman of all trades , the one in charge , the one to be revered and listened to . ''
Before banning talk of the pandemic , Berdymukhamedov had reportedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a book he authored on medicinal plants .

Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word 'Coronavirus'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Alexei Druzhinin/AP Alexei Druzhinin/AP
The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan claims it has no coronavirus cases. But if you happen to utter the word "coronavirus" while waiting, say, for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat, there's a good chance you'll be arrested.
That's because the Turkmen government, run since 2006 by the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has reportedly banned the word, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Citing reports from Chronicles of Turkmenistan, which RSF describes as a rare independent media outlet in this notoriously secretive and restrictive country, the press freedom organization says Berdymukhamedov's government has forbidden state-controlled media from writing or uttering the word and has ordered its removal from health brochures distributed at hospitals, schools and workplaces.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents in Ashgabat report that plainclothes police officers are also arresting people who wear face masks or discuss the pandemic in public.
"This denial of information not only endangers the Turkmen citizens most at risk, but also reinforces the authoritarianism imposed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov," Jeanne Cavelier, the head of Reporters Without Borders' Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. "We urge the international community to react and to take him to task for his systematic human rights violations."
Turkmenistan's neighbor to the south, Iran, is one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus. Other neighboring countries in Central Asia have hundreds of confirmed cases.
Turkmenistan is ranked last in RSF's World Press Freedom Index. It's a place where speaking out is punished and where the government frequently shuts down the country for no reason, says Alexander A. Cooley, director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and an expert on Central Asian politics.
"Banning the term 'coronavirus' might seem to us obscene and extreme," Cooley says. "But in reality, when the state controls all of the media and all of the digital nodes coming in and out, it's not that outrageous. My sense is that they'll try and keep [the pandemic] under wraps as long as they can."
Cooley says the government likely anticipates a big post-pandemic economic collapse in a country highly reliant on the sale of natural gas to China.
"That probably spurred the government on to this new kind of more denialist type of posture," he says.
Berdymukhamedov doesn't want to look weak, he says, because he "portrays himself very much as a superman of all trades, the one in charge, the one to be revered and listened to."
Before banning talk of the pandemic, Berdymukhamedov had reportedly offered remedies to battle the virus from a book he authored on medicinal plants.


npr--2020-03-31--Report Of Drop In Hospitalizations Sounds Like Good News, But There's A Catch

Report Of Drop In Hospitalizations Sounds Like Good News , But There 's A Catch Could it really be true that hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19-like symptoms actually dropped 20 percent last week in Washington , according to state numbers reported last night by the Seattle Times ?
In San Francisco , hospitalizations are rising , but not as steeply as feared , leading to speculation that the perceived `` stability '' could allow the re-opening of other medical services that had been put on hold .
UCSF Medical Center is re-starting some of the surgeries that had previously been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wave of COVID-19 patients .
But there 's reason to think the relative calm in some hospitals is deceptive .
First , those Washington State figures are not complete .
Not all hospitals reported , and even those that did likely did n't include many patients who were admitted with other kinds of symptoms , and subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus .
In the Seattle area , University of Washington hospitals are still seeing steep increases in the total number of admitted patients who are coronavirus-positive .
According to an internal patient @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such patients on March 23 .
One week later , that number had reached 97 .
Hospitals are also more reluctant to admit patients with respiratory symptoms , which may be holding down COVID-19 in-patient totals .
`` Our threshold is going up , '' says a Seattle-area primary care physician , who 's not being named here because the physician 's employer does n't allow such interviews .
`` With all the telehealth we 're doing , we ask more , 'Can you manage at home ? '
'' This is part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resources .
But some doctors worry that it may go too far , especially when patients with symptoms that might otherwise get them admitted are now being asked to shelter at home .
For now , hospital administrators in Seattle are assuming the worst of the wave is still coming , possibly in two to three weeks , and they expect emergency resources and staff to be stretched to the limit .

Report Of Drop In Hospitalizations Sounds Like Good News, But There's A Catch
Could it really be true that hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19-like symptoms actually dropped 20 percent last week in Washington, according to state numbers reported last night by the Seattle Times?
In San Francisco, hospitalizations are rising, but not as steeply as feared, leading to speculation that the perceived "stability" could allow the re-opening of other medical services that had been put on hold. UCSF Medical Center is re-starting some of the surgeries that had previously been put on hold in anticipation of the wave of COVID-19 patients.
But there's reason to think the relative calm in some hospitals is deceptive.
First, those Washington State figures are not complete. Not all hospitals reported, and even those that did likely didn't include many patients who were admitted with other kinds of symptoms, and subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus.
In the Seattle area, University of Washington hospitals are still seeing steep increases in the total number of admitted patients who are coronavirus-positive. According to an internal patient "census," they had 56 such patients on March 23. One week later, that number had reached 97.
Hospitals are also more reluctant to admit patients with respiratory symptoms, which may be holding down COVID-19 in-patient totals.
"Our threshold is going up," says a Seattle-area primary care physician, who's not being named here because the physician's employer doesn't allow such interviews. "With all the telehealth we're doing, we ask more, 'Can you manage at home?'"
This is part of the broader strategy to preserve hospital resources. But some doctors worry that it may go too far, especially when patients with symptoms that might otherwise get them admitted are now being asked to shelter at home.
For now, hospital administrators in Seattle are assuming the worst of the wave is still coming, possibly in two to three weeks, and they expect emergency resources and staff to be stretched to the limit.


npr--2020-03-31--Are Hospitals Seeing A Surge Of Coronavirus Patients? Some Officials Aren't Saying

Are Hospitals Seeing A Surge Of Coronavirus Patients ?
Some Officials Are n't Saying With tests scarce , epidemiologists are looking at hospitalizations as an indicator of how the novel coronavirus is spreading .
But in some of the areas of the country worst-hit by COVID-19 , states and counties are n't releasing that data .
The result is an incomplete picture of where the pandemic is surging , even in hotspots such as Washington and California .
`` So as long as people are n't being turned away , we must focus on hospitalizations and ICU cases , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stanford University 's associate dean of Clinical and Translational Research .
`` The more reliable numbers , aside from the number of deaths , are how many people get sick enough to be in the hospital and in the ICU .
That 's what we need to know . ''
Many public health departments , such as New York City 's , are publishing daily updates on the number , age and location of hospitalized patients .
Louisiana is reporting the number of patients on ventilators .
Still , other hotspots are n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health officials are overwhelmed by the crisis and are still compiling the numbers or for reasons they declined to explain , even though they are compiling the numbers internally .
The San Francisco Bay Area , in particular , is releasing incomplete data despite being an early epicenter of the U.S. outbreak , according to an investigation by NPR and member station KQED .
`` We do n't have the capacity to extract information and provide to the media or the public , '' Preston Merchant , public information officer with San @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heart of Silicon Valley that has reported more than 300 cases of COVID-19 .
Several other Bay Area counties say that as they brace for a surge in cases , they are still aggregating the data or simply that they are monitoring the numbers internally , but not sharing them publicly .
Officials are hopeful the increase in patient numbers will arrive slowly due to shelter-at-home orders put in place two weeks ago .
During a Tuesday news conference , California Gov .
Gavin Newsom reported that statewide , hospitals were currently treating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ double that from just four days ago .
Weeks after it has become routine to release such data publicly in many places , state health officials in California did not clarify where the cases are located .
An email from California 's Department of Public said the agency is `` continuing to aggregate hospitalization data by county and we are working hard to provide it to you as soon as possible . ''
In Washington , the State Department of Health website says hospitalization information is currently `` under development and will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state 's outbreak epicenter with 150 coronavirus deaths , is not releasing information yet either .
`` We 're working to collect it , but it requires our team to review hospital records and we just do n't have this compiled yet , '' King County spokesperson Kate Cole said by email .
Due to a lack of coronavirus tests , many states have restricted them to patients with pre-existing conditions or to those known to have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus .
Testing has also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ places .
California is still waiting on results for a backlog of over 50,000 coronavirus tests — more than 65 % of all tests given .
As a result , reported coronavirus cases are an unreliable indicator of the pandemic 's spread in the U.S. , or as epidemiologist Steven Goodman says , `` a number to be almost completely ignored . ''
That leaves only a few reliable benchmarks : hospitalizations , ICU admissions and deaths .
With a clear hospitalization rate , epidemiologists can predict how many people may eventually die @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a hospital system will need as the virus spreads .
Hospitals and medical groups are scrutinizing that information in real-time , but many refuse to share it publicly .
`` Out of respect for patient and employee privacy we are not able to disclose the number of positive COVID-19 patients in our facilities or under our care , '' Angie Sheets , director of media relations for Sutter Health , one of the largest medical groups in Northern California .
Kaiser Permanente in Northern California , which has a network of more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their patient numbers publicly .
Still , according to information obtained by NPR , as of Monday evening , 184 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized by Kaiser , putting the doubling rate at more than seven days .
During the peak of New York City 's surge , the doubling rate of hospitalizations was every three days .
Across Kaiser 's hospitals , 63 of those patients are in the ICU and an additional 197 patients are under investigation .
Some hospitals across the country are choosing to share information .
Bob Wachter , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is tweeting out the number of patients in that hospital system each day .
`` The organization has chosen to be remarkably transparent ( the right call , in my view ) , '' he tweeted .
Kevin Stark of KQED contributed to this story .

Are Hospitals Seeing A Surge Of Coronavirus Patients? Some Officials Aren't Saying
Enlarge this image toggle caption Elaine Thompson/AP Elaine Thompson/AP
With tests scarce, epidemiologists are looking at hospitalizations as an indicator of how the novel coronavirus is spreading. But in some of the areas of the country worst-hit by COVID-19, states and counties aren't releasing that data.
The result is an incomplete picture of where the pandemic is surging, even in hotspots such as Washington and California.
"So as long as people aren't being turned away, we must focus on hospitalizations and ICU cases," says Steven Goodman, an epidemiologist and Stanford University's associate dean of Clinical and Translational Research. "The more reliable numbers, aside from the number of deaths, are how many people get sick enough to be in the hospital and in the ICU. That's what we need to know."
Many public health departments, such as New York City's, are publishing daily updates on the number, age and location of hospitalized patients. Louisiana is reporting the number of patients on ventilators.
Still, other hotspots aren't releasing numbers at all, either because public health officials are overwhelmed by the crisis and are still compiling the numbers or for reasons they declined to explain, even though they are compiling the numbers internally.
The San Francisco Bay Area, in particular, is releasing incomplete data despite being an early epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, according to an investigation by NPR and member station KQED.
"We don't have the capacity to extract information and provide to the media or the public," Preston Merchant, public information officer with San Mateo County, an area in the heart of Silicon Valley that has reported more than 300 cases of COVID-19.
Several other Bay Area counties say that as they brace for a surge in cases, they are still aggregating the data or simply that they are monitoring the numbers internally, but not sharing them publicly. Officials are hopeful the increase in patient numbers will arrive slowly due to shelter-at-home orders put in place two weeks ago.
During a Tuesday news conference, California Gov. Gavin Newsom reported that statewide, hospitals were currently treating 1,617 people for COVID-19, a figure double that from just four days ago.
Weeks after it has become routine to release such data publicly in many places, state health officials in California did not clarify where the cases are located. An email from California's Department of Public said the agency is "continuing to aggregate hospitalization data by county and we are working hard to provide it to you as soon as possible."
In Washington, the State Department of Health website says hospitalization information is currently "under development and will be available soon." King County, the state's outbreak epicenter with 150 coronavirus deaths, is not releasing information yet either.
"We're working to collect it, but it requires our team to review hospital records and we just don't have this compiled yet," King County spokesperson Kate Cole said by email.
Due to a lack of coronavirus tests, many states have restricted them to patients with pre-existing conditions or to those known to have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. Testing has also taken four to six days in some places. California is still waiting on results for a backlog of over 50,000 coronavirus tests — more than 65% of all tests given.
As a result, reported coronavirus cases are an unreliable indicator of the pandemic's spread in the U.S., or as epidemiologist Steven Goodman says, "a number to be almost completely ignored."
That leaves only a few reliable benchmarks: hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths. With a clear hospitalization rate, epidemiologists can predict how many people may eventually die from coronavirus and estimate how many beds a hospital system will need as the virus spreads.
Hospitals and medical groups are scrutinizing that information in real-time, but many refuse to share it publicly.
"Out of respect for patient and employee privacy we are not able to disclose the number of positive COVID-19 patients in our facilities or under our care," Angie Sheets, director of media relations for Sutter Health, one of the largest medical groups in Northern California.
Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, which has a network of more than 20 hospitals, also declined to report their patient numbers publicly.
Still, according to information obtained by NPR, as of Monday evening, 184 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized by Kaiser, putting the doubling rate at more than seven days. During the peak of New York City's surge, the doubling rate of hospitalizations was every three days.
Across Kaiser's hospitals, 63 of those patients are in the ICU and an additional 197 patients are under investigation.
Some hospitals across the country are choosing to share information. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF's department of medicine, is tweeting out the number of patients in that hospital system each day.
"The organization has chosen to be remarkably transparent (the right call, in my view)," he tweeted.
Kevin Stark of KQED contributed to this story.


npr--2020-03-31--To Stop The Pandemic, Seema Verma Is 'Getting Rid Of A Lot Of Regulations'

To Stop The Pandemic , Seema Verma Is 'Getting Rid Of A Lot Of Regulations' In New York City , emergency hospital beds are multiplying — inside tents set up in Central Park , on a hospital ship docked on Manhattan 's West Side and in the Javits Convention Center , which now houses about 1,000 beds .
To give the rest of the country similar flexibility in addressing the wave of COVID-19 patients expected to need hospital care soon , the federal government is relaxing a lot of what are usually thought of as safety requirements , says Seema @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Medicare and Medicaid Services , and a senior member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force .
Hospitals can now operate inside dorms , for example , as well as gyms , schools , and parking lots .
Right now , Verma tells All Things Considered Host Mary Louise Kelly , thousands of civil servants at CMS are moving heaven and earth to make it easier for hospitals to care for patients during the coronavirus crisis .
The agency has a huge reach — it runs Medicare , with 60 million enrollees , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also works in partnership with states to administer Medicaid , with 74 million enrollees , and oversees many nursing homes , managing inspections and quality ratings of the facilities .
On Tuesday , Verma spoke with Kelly about how the Trump administration thinks `` relaxing safety rules '' and easing licensing restrictions might help patients , and why widespread testing continues to be such a problem .
The interview has been edited for length and clarity .
These tents we 've all watched being pitched in Central Park .
Can you give us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you envision this actually looking like in other American cities ?
Sure .
FEMA is doing an incredible job setting up these temporary hospitals in New York and other parts of the country .
But we want to empower local communities to also be able to take action and to tap into their local resources .
So , for example , hospitals do n't need to be thinking about only providing services within their four walls .
You know , right now there are surgery centers that are out there — about 5,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those surgery centers are not performing elective surgeries .
So they have some capacity there , they have medical equipment .
And that could be a place where hospitals say , 'We 're going to direct all of our cancer patients there .
We 're going to perform infusion therapy there . '
And so they 're allowed to go beyond their four walls .
That allows us to also treat patients that may not have just [ coronavirus ] — there are people out there that need medical care , whether it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of care .
It allows facilities to create separation , so you can put infected patients in one place and coronavirus in another — it allows them that flexibility to triage patients .
They could even do that outside of the emergency room — in the parking lot — and figure out where people need to go .
This is still up to states — they can decide what they want to do — but your goal is to kick the door open and make this easier for them ?
That 's exactly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lots of different regulations .
One is this concept of hospital without walls .
So a hospital that may be located close to a college university — a lot of the universities have gone virtual , so the dorms are empty .
And they could say , 'We 're going to provide services in these dorms ' and they can already start working on that to prepare for the surge .
And that way , the hospital can focus on the most complex patients .
The other thing that we 're doing for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boost their workforce .
There are a lot of rules and regulations in terms of credentialing , and we 're relaxing those a little bit .
They still have to defer to their state law , but the federal government 's not getting in the way of that .
This is things like relaxing supervision of residents and nurse practitioners and others ?
Exactly .
And then letting some of those paraprofessionals — whether it 's physician assistants or nurse anesthetists — to allow them to operate at the top of their license @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nurse anesthetist .
They can perform or assist in a surgery — putting somebody under — and they do n't necessarily need to be supervised by an anesthesiologist .
They can do that and their license would allow them , but there [ are ] sometimes federal barriers that do n't allow them to do that .
And that becomes really important , because you can imagine when you 're worried about the workforce , you may want to have your anesthesiologist in the ICU and have the nurse anesthetist in a different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So it just allows us to really maximize the entire workforce , to make sure that they can deal with the surge in patients .
This is all on an emergency basis — temporary basis ?
These rule changes will be rolled back once the coronavirus crisis becomes less acute ?
That 's exactly it .
This is under the president 's emergency declaration , an emergency rulemaking , so we will be bringing some of these flexibilities back .
One of the other things that we 're doing is that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It 's a very weedy policy issue , but that law essentially does n't allow hospitals to give incentives to their workforce .
Now , we 're going to waive that so that they can help their workforce — they can provide meals and childcare and laundry services to basically support their health care workers on the front lines .
So we 're waiving those rules as well .
Those rules were in place to deter health care fraud .
The safety standards were all in place for a reason , primarily to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How do you navigate that fine line when presumably quality care and deterring fraud remain priorities , too ?
Quality is top of mind , but this is an unprecedented crisis for the health care system , and we 've got to make sure that we provide enough flexibility so that they can give quality care , that they can give care .
If they 're in a surge capacity where they do n't have beds available , that 's a worse situation .
So we want to empower our hospitals and our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frontlines and give them the flexibility to deal with the crisis at hand .
One other change to ask you about , which is for emergency rooms .
They have also been granted greater flexibility — being allowed to use telehealth services .
Walk me through what that would look like if I were sick or injured and walked into my E.R .
It allows them to screen patients through telehealth , and they can also provide those services outside of the emergency room .
And that 's really important because we know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're trying to be very conservative with .
If you have everybody coming into the emergency room , they have to use more protective equipment .
By allowing telehealth and more flexibility , they can screen people before they even come into the facility .
That 's safer for the patient , and it 's also safer for the health care workers .
Relaxing these rules — this comes as we are now three months into what 's become a global pandemic .
Is the administration — and your agency included — are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think that we 've been responsive to the health care community .
Some of these waivers that we put out yesterday — we have been having conversations with different states and localities and they had actually received these waivers already .
This is a rapidly changing situation , and we are trying to be as responsive as the needs arise .
I think if we had done this a month ago , I think the issues around fraud and abuse would have been more paramount .
I think people have a better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care system may face , and I think these flexibilities are coming exactly at the right time .
You 're saying you think hospitals and states might 've pushed back more had you done this a month ago ?
I think they would have been less understood .
I think people would have said , 'Why are you doing this ? '
And now I think people understand why .
And there 's a lot of support .
Just this morning we 've received a lot of support from the ambulance community , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that really appreciate the flexibility because they 're understanding that they 're going to need that to be able to deal with the surge .
We 've had daily calls with providers across the health care system — whether it 's nursing homes , home health agencies , hospices — and we 're having a dialogue with them , and they 're telling us this is the flexibility that we 're going to need to deal with this unprecedented health care crisis .
NPR is interviewing governors in state after state who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tests they need , even as the president insists the testing problems are over .
Does the president not have accurate information ?
I think from a high level , we are seeing testing ramping up every single day .
We have completed over a million tests — I think that was announced yesterday .
I think we 're also seeing incredible examples of innovation from the private sector , [ like ] the Abbott test that [ the task force ] talked about yesterday , which is a point-of-care test that can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get results in a matter of minutes .
I do have to push back , though .
We had Maryland Gov .
Larry Hogan on NPR this morning saying no state has enough testing .
And he speaks for all of them — he 's also chairman of the National Governors Association .
Fair to say , we need to do more testing , and this is changing .
I think there is a lot of innovation that 's going on that 's going to help address those concerns that governors and other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still so hard to come by ?
Why are they not getting to states that need them ?
I think there 's been progress from where we started , and it continues to get better every day .
That being said , we certainly recognize that there 's more that needs to get done and that we need to be able to test more .
I can tell you from my perspective , we have oversight of the nursing homes .
Those nursing homes being impacted need to be able to test their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients that are sick .
One of the things that we did just yesterday with our regulations is we said to labs , we will pay you to go into a person 's home that 's homebound — so they ca n't leave — or to go into a nursing home and to test all those patients .
I think that those types of policies are also going to encourage and increase the amount of testing .
The president yesterday on a conference call with governors said he has n't heard about testing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind us .
I mean , what is your understanding of what is the disconnect there , where you 're hearing such different things from the White House and from the people leading states , from governors ?
I think the president is acknowledging all of the private sector innovation that we 've seen .
You 've seen that the private sector come up with different types of tests and it 's happened very quickly .
You 're seeing the FDA removing regulatory barriers to allow for rapid approval .
So I think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better .
That being said , obviously there 's more work to be done .
I can tell you there 's a very active force — that Dr. Giroir from HHS is leading — to increase the number of tests .
A question about testing that 's specific to your agency , which is now asking hospitals around the country to report back , COVID-19 test results .
But [ it 's only ] asking hospitals — why not require them to report their test results back ?
And why not have done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ great collaboration with the hospitals .
What we 're asking them to do is something that they have n't done before , so we put out this letter .
We have n't gotten any pushback .
I personally talked to all of the hospital associations and they understood the need to do this and they were supportive .
Can you put any rough number on a percentage of hospitals around the country that are reporting the results back ?
You know , we have about 4,500 hospitals nationwide — that letter just went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there 's about 9,000 labs , so a lot of the hospitals may have multiple labs .
I think we 're getting a great response on that , and that 's important because as we are considering the next 30 days , we need this information to understand how the virus is spreading .
We also need to understand the acuity of the patients that these hospitals are serving , so how many people are in the ICU ?
We also want to understand the supplies that they have at hand : Where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do they have ?
Part of that is also getting better information on supplies — so we can target those high-need areas and make sure we can support hospitals .
Do you have any tools to help enforce that — to help ensure that hospitals comply and report the numbers back ?
So far , we have n't seen a problem .
If there is an issue , obviously , the administration could take steps .
But I 've got to tell you , our hospitals have been terrific and they 've been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your sense of how much worse this [ coronavirus epidemic ] might get before it gets better ?
It 's hard to tell .
What I will say is we 're seeing the same type of pattern in different communities — it 's not different in terms of how it spreads .
That 's why I think that all of the recommendations that the White House has made in terms of staying at home , hand-washing and social distancing is so important .
What 's hard to know is : What type of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have ?
But I think it 's necessary that each and every American take those recommendations seriously .
It must be as chilling to you , as a White House Task Force member , as to any of us , to hear your colleagues on it — Dr. Birx , Dr. Fauci — give numbers like 100,000 Americans , 200,000 Americans might die .
We 're trying to do everything that we can to make sure that it does n't get to those numbers .
All of the efforts that CMS is making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care system [ are being done ] to make sure that they 're better prepared to deal with this surge .
If we know that people can get good medical care , that 's also going to help us keep down those numbers .
Another thing that 's going to help us keep down those numbers is just preventing these infections from happening in the first place .
If people take those precautions , that 's going to make a big difference .
Will you be creating a special enrollment period [ for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coverage to get it , as coronavirus rips through the country ?
We continue to look at that .
Also , we are now looking at the CARES Act that passed and there was the $ 100 billion for the health care system .
And so we 're looking at that funding stream and looking at how that might support the needs of the uninsured .
Noah Caldwell and Christopher Intagliata produced and edited this story for radio .
Selena Simmons-Duffin and Ina Jaffe contributed reporting .

To Stop The Pandemic, Seema Verma Is 'Getting Rid Of A Lot Of Regulations'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In New York City, emergency hospital beds are multiplying — inside tents set up in Central Park, on a hospital ship docked on Manhattan's West Side and in the Javits Convention Center, which now houses about 1,000 beds.
To give the rest of the country similar flexibility in addressing the wave of COVID-19 patients expected to need hospital care soon, the federal government is relaxing a lot of what are usually thought of as safety requirements, says Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and a senior member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Hospitals can now operate inside dorms, for example, as well as gyms, schools, and parking lots.
Right now, Verma tells All Things Considered Host Mary Louise Kelly, thousands of civil servants at CMS are moving heaven and earth to make it easier for hospitals to care for patients during the coronavirus crisis. The agency has a huge reach — it runs Medicare, with 60 million enrollees, overseeing provider payments and plans. It also works in partnership with states to administer Medicaid, with 74 million enrollees, and oversees many nursing homes, managing inspections and quality ratings of the facilities.
On Tuesday, Verma spoke with Kelly about how the Trump administration thinks "relaxing safety rules" and easing licensing restrictions might help patients, and why widespread testing continues to be such a problem. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
These tents we've all watched being pitched in Central Park. Can you give us a concrete example or two of what you envision this actually looking like in other American cities?
Sure. FEMA is doing an incredible job setting up these temporary hospitals in New York and other parts of the country. But we want to empower local communities to also be able to take action and to tap into their local resources. So, for example, hospitals don't need to be thinking about only providing services within their four walls. You know, right now there are surgery centers that are out there — about 5,000 of them across the country. And those surgery centers are not performing elective surgeries. So they have some capacity there, they have medical equipment.
And that could be a place where hospitals say, 'We're going to direct all of our cancer patients there. We're going to perform infusion therapy there.' And so they're allowed to go beyond their four walls. That allows us to also treat patients that may not have just [coronavirus] — there are people out there that need medical care, whether it's cancer treatment or some other type of care. It allows facilities to create separation, so you can put infected patients in one place and coronavirus in another — it allows them that flexibility to triage patients. They could even do that outside of the emergency room — in the parking lot — and figure out where people need to go.
This is still up to states — they can decide what they want to do — but your goal is to kick the door open and make this easier for them?
That's exactly it. We are getting rid of lots of different regulations. One is this concept of hospital without walls. So a hospital that may be located close to a college university — a lot of the universities have gone virtual, so the dorms are empty. And they could say, 'We're going to provide services in these dorms' and they can already start working on that to prepare for the surge. And that way, the hospital can focus on the most complex patients. The other thing that we're doing for hospitals is giving them more flexibility to boost their workforce. There are a lot of rules and regulations in terms of credentialing, and we're relaxing those a little bit. They still have to defer to their state law, but the federal government's not getting in the way of that.
This is things like relaxing supervision of residents and nurse practitioners and others?
Exactly. And then letting some of those paraprofessionals — whether it's physician assistants or nurse anesthetists — to allow them to operate at the top of their license. So, for example, a nurse anesthetist. They can perform or assist in a surgery — putting somebody under — and they don't necessarily need to be supervised by an anesthesiologist. They can do that and their license would allow them, but there [are] sometimes federal barriers that don't allow them to do that. And that becomes really important, because you can imagine when you're worried about the workforce, you may want to have your anesthesiologist in the ICU and have the nurse anesthetist in a different location, maybe performing a lower-level surgery. So it just allows us to really maximize the entire workforce, to make sure that they can deal with the surge in patients.
This is all on an emergency basis — temporary basis? These rule changes will be rolled back once the coronavirus crisis becomes less acute?
That's exactly it. This is under the president's emergency declaration, an emergency rulemaking, so we will be bringing some of these flexibilities back. One of the other things that we're doing is that we have something called the STARK law. It's a very weedy policy issue, but that law essentially doesn't allow hospitals to give incentives to their workforce. Now, we're going to waive that so that they can help their workforce — they can provide meals and childcare and laundry services to basically support their health care workers on the front lines. So we're waiving those rules as well.
Those rules were in place to deter health care fraud. The safety standards were all in place for a reason, primarily to ensure patient care and quality care. How do you navigate that fine line when presumably quality care and deterring fraud remain priorities, too?
Quality is top of mind, but this is an unprecedented crisis for the health care system, and we've got to make sure that we provide enough flexibility so that they can give quality care, that they can give care. If they're in a surge capacity where they don't have beds available, that's a worse situation. So we want to empower our hospitals and our health care workers that are on the frontlines and give them the flexibility to deal with the crisis at hand.
One other change to ask you about, which is for emergency rooms. They have also been granted greater flexibility — being allowed to use telehealth services. Walk me through what that would look like if I were sick or injured and walked into my E.R.
It allows them to screen patients through telehealth, and they can also provide those services outside of the emergency room. And that's really important because we know that protective equipment is something that we're trying to be very conservative with. If you have everybody coming into the emergency room, they have to use more protective equipment. By allowing telehealth and more flexibility, they can screen people before they even come into the facility. That's safer for the patient, and it's also safer for the health care workers.
Relaxing these rules — this comes as we are now three months into what's become a global pandemic. Is the administration — and your agency included — are you playing catch up right now?
I think that we've been responsive to the health care community. Some of these waivers that we put out yesterday — we have been having conversations with different states and localities and they had actually received these waivers already. This is a rapidly changing situation, and we are trying to be as responsive as the needs arise. I think if we had done this a month ago, I think the issues around fraud and abuse would have been more paramount. I think people have a better understanding of the surge that the health care system may face, and I think these flexibilities are coming exactly at the right time.
You're saying you think hospitals and states might've pushed back more had you done this a month ago?
I think they would have been less understood. I think people would have said, 'Why are you doing this?' And now I think people understand why. And there's a lot of support. Just this morning we've received a lot of support from the ambulance community, from the cancer community, from hospitals that really appreciate the flexibility because they're understanding that they're going to need that to be able to deal with the surge. We've had daily calls with providers across the health care system — whether it's nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices — and we're having a dialogue with them, and they're telling us this is the flexibility that we're going to need to deal with this unprecedented health care crisis.
NPR is interviewing governors in state after state who are telling us they do not have the tests they need, even as the president insists the testing problems are over. Does the president not have accurate information?
I think from a high level, we are seeing testing ramping up every single day. We have completed over a million tests — I think that was announced yesterday. I think we're also seeing incredible examples of innovation from the private sector, [like] the Abbott test that [the task force] talked about yesterday, which is a point-of-care test that can go to doctors offices and people can get results in a matter of minutes.
I do have to push back, though. We had Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on NPR this morning saying no state has enough testing. And he speaks for all of them — he's also chairman of the National Governors Association.
Fair to say, we need to do more testing, and this is changing. I think there is a lot of innovation that's going on that's going to help address those concerns that governors and other folks have raised.
Why are they still so hard to come by? Why are they not getting to states that need them?
I think there's been progress from where we started, and it continues to get better every day. That being said, we certainly recognize that there's more that needs to get done and that we need to be able to test more. I can tell you from my perspective, we have oversight of the nursing homes. Those nursing homes being impacted need to be able to test their residents, so they can isolate those patients that are sick. One of the things that we did just yesterday with our regulations is we said to labs, we will pay you to go into a person's home that's homebound — so they can't leave — or to go into a nursing home and to test all those patients. I think that those types of policies are also going to encourage and increase the amount of testing.
The president yesterday on a conference call with governors said he hasn't heard about testing in weeks, suggesting this problem is behind us. I mean, what is your understanding of what is the disconnect there, where you're hearing such different things from the White House and from the people leading states, from governors?
I think the president is acknowledging all of the private sector innovation that we've seen. You've seen that the private sector come up with different types of tests and it's happened very quickly. You're seeing the FDA removing regulatory barriers to allow for rapid approval. So I think from his perspective, testing is getting better. That being said, obviously there's more work to be done. I can tell you there's a very active force — that Dr. Giroir from HHS is leading — to increase the number of tests.
A question about testing that's specific to your agency, which is now asking hospitals around the country to report back, COVID-19 test results. But [it's only] asking hospitals — why not require them to report their test results back? And why not have done that weeks ago?
We've had great collaboration with the hospitals. What we're asking them to do is something that they haven't done before, so we put out this letter. We haven't gotten any pushback. I personally talked to all of the hospital associations and they understood the need to do this and they were supportive.
Can you put any rough number on a percentage of hospitals around the country that are reporting the results back?
You know, we have about 4,500 hospitals nationwide — that letter just went out on Saturday. Within that, there's about 9,000 labs, so a lot of the hospitals may have multiple labs.
I think we're getting a great response on that, and that's important because as we are considering the next 30 days, we need this information to understand how the virus is spreading. We also need to understand the acuity of the patients that these hospitals are serving, so how many people are in the ICU? We also want to understand the supplies that they have at hand: Where are the ventilators? How many ventilators do they have? Part of that is also getting better information on supplies — so we can target those high-need areas and make sure we can support hospitals.
Do you have any tools to help enforce that — to help ensure that hospitals comply and report the numbers back?
So far, we haven't seen a problem. If there is an issue, obviously, the administration could take steps. But I've got to tell you, our hospitals have been terrific and they've been great partners in this.
What is your sense of how much worse this [coronavirus epidemic] might get before it gets better?
It's hard to tell. What I will say is we're seeing the same type of pattern in different communities — it's not different in terms of how it spreads. That's why I think that all of the recommendations that the White House has made in terms of staying at home, hand-washing and social distancing is so important. What's hard to know is: What type of an impact are those recommendations going to have? But I think it's necessary that each and every American take those recommendations seriously.
It must be as chilling to you, as a White House Task Force member, as to any of us, to hear your colleagues on it — Dr. Birx, Dr. Fauci — give numbers like 100,000 Americans, 200,000 Americans might die.
We're trying to do everything that we can to make sure that it doesn't get to those numbers. All of the efforts that CMS is making to give more flexibility to the health care system [are being done] to make sure that they're better prepared to deal with this surge. If we know that people can get good medical care, that's also going to help us keep down those numbers. Another thing that's going to help us keep down those numbers is just preventing these infections from happening in the first place. If people take those precautions, that's going to make a big difference.
Will you be creating a special enrollment period [for HealthCare.gov] for people who need health coverage to get it, as coronavirus rips through the country?
We continue to look at that. Also, we are now looking at the CARES Act that passed and there was the $100 billion for the health care system. And so we're looking at that funding stream and looking at how that might support the needs of the uninsured.
Noah Caldwell and Christopher Intagliata produced and edited this story for radio. Selena Simmons-Duffin and Ina Jaffe contributed reporting.