G20 leaders to inject $5T in global economy to curb coronavirus effects

Residents in Beijing, China, wear protective face masks to guard against the coronavirus disease. No new local cases were reported in China on Thursday. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

March 26 (UPI) -- Leaders of the G20 nations on Thursday pledged to inject more than $5 trillion into the global economy to minimize the economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world leaders announced the pledge in a joint statement after holding a virtual summit via videoconference. They pledged to conduct "bold and large-scale" fiscal support in response to the crisis.

"We are currently undertaking immediate and vigorous measures to support our economies; protect workers, businesses -- especially micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises -- and the sectors most affected; and shield the vulnerable through adequate social protection," the leaders said.

They called on the International Labor Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to monitor the pandemic's impact on employment and said they would work with the World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group as well as multilateral and regional development banks to develop a financial package.

"We stand ready to strengthen the global financial safety nets," they wrote. "We call upon all these organizations to further step up coordination of their actions, including with the private sector, to support emerging and developing countries facing the health, economic and social shocks of COVID-19."

The European Union on Thursday approved $40 billion in funding to tackle the coronavirus pandemic as the global death toll from the virus surpasses 23,000.

The funding is expected to go toward creating the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative. The fund will go toward spending on healthcare and financing for small- and medium-sized businesses.

The United Nations, meanwhile, launched a $2 billion COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan to assist the world's most vulnerable countries.

Also Thursday, the Spanish Parliament voted early to extend its state of emergency to allow the country's lockdown measures, in place since March 14 that prohibit its more than 45 million people from leaving their homes, to continue until April 11.

The vote followed its Ministry of Health announcing Wednesday it recorded a spike in deaths, surpassing China as the nation with the second-most number of deaths.

Italy's caseload has surpassed 74,000 and edges closer to overtaking China, but Italian health officials on Thursday reported a decline in new cases for the fourth straight day.

Beijing's health commission reported zero local transmissions of the virus on Thursday but dozens of new imported cases, a trend that has continued to increase this week. China's total caseload is more than 81,200.

In Japan, the government said Thursday it will establish a new coronavirus task force after its health ministry reported dozens of new cases, increasing its total to more than 1,200.

"I told Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe there is a high risk of coronavirus spreading widely," Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters following a meeting with the prime minister.

However, he said Abe was not considering a state of emergency that would arm governors with the power to order citizens to remain indoors and close schools.

Wednesday, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike asked residents to stay home over the weekend after dozens of new cases appeared in the city. Tokyo is within an "important phase in preventing an explosive rise in the number of infections," the governor said.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has called on governments to protect those behind bars as part of their measures to contain the disease.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement the virus has begun to appear in prisons, jails, immigration detention centers and other facilities built to detain people, and urged the governments to release those vulnerable to the virus and people detained without legal merit.

"Now, more than ever, governments should release every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views," she said.

Detention facilities are often overcrowded, unhygienic and offer inadequate health services to their vulnerable populations, she said, adding that social distancing and self-isolation are "practically impossible" in these institutions.

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Pew Research Center: Over half of American families have stock assets

Fifty-two percent of U.S. households have some level of investment in the stock market, the Pew Research Center said Thursday. 

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
March 26 (UPI) -- Though the economic stimulus package to cope with the coronavirus recently restored some optimism in the stock market, the Pew Research Center said Thursday the losses will still impact the majority of American families.

U.S. markets saw a third consecutive day of gains Thursday after the Senate passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package.

The U.S. stock market lost three years of gains in a matter of weeks because of the coronavirus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed above 22,000 Thursday after closing Monday at 18,591.93, its lowest closing level since November 2016, and receding from a record-high close of 29,551.42 on Feb. 12.

A small share of Americans, 14 percent, are directly invested in individual stocks, but a majority, 52 percent have some level of investment in the stock market, mostly from retirement accounts, the Pew Research Center said.

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Roughly four in 10 U.S. workers have access to employer or union-sponsored retirement plans with the values of many plans linked to the stock market.

The analysis based on 2016 data, the latest available, found that shares in the stock market increased as household income level rose.

For families with annual income less than $35,000, about one in five had assets in the stock market. That rose to 44 percent for those households making $35,000 to $53,000 and jumped to 66 percent for families making $53,000 to $100,000 and 88 percent for families making six figures or more.

Demographic data showed that 61 percent of white households were invested in the stock market compared with 31 percent of black households and 28 percent of Hispanic households. Families headed by an adult age 35 or older but younger than 65 were more likely to be invested in the stock market. Still, 41 percent headed by an adult under age 35 owned some stock.

Sikh families demand investigation into Afghan temple attack

Bodies of victims killed in the Sikh temple attack are burned during a ceremony Thursday in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Jawad Jalali/EPA-EFE

March 27 (UPI) -- The families of multiple Sikh worshipers killed this week in an attack at a temple in Afghanistan's capital are demanding a government investigation.

Authorities say militants attacked the temple Wednesday and killed 25 people before police ended the siege. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said eight were injured.

"The Sikh community of Afghanistan are among the most resilient, peaceful and country-loving citizens," Afghan activist Samira Hamidi said. "There are so many of them who have preferred living in Afghanistan despite all the threats against them."

The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack but some Afghan government officials believe the Haqqani Network may have been involved in retaliation for violence against Muslims in India recently, tied to its controversial law that establishes citizenship for non-Muslim refugees..

"The Taliban and other terrorist groups sponsored by the governments in our region have in the past also attacked our society and tried create divisions among people," Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council, said. "Such past events instill fear and insecurity within the community and can affect the unity of the nation, too."

Wednesday's attack led to calls for solidarity within Afghanistan's Sikh community, whose numbers have dwindled drastically over nearly two decades of war.

"[The Organization of Islamic Cooperation] strongly condemned suicide attacks on a Sikh place of worship in Kabul," Huseyin Avni Botsali, an ambassador of the OIC in Kabul, said.

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The families of some of the victims want the government to do more.

"We want investigations," relative Dip Singh said. "Our 25 people have been killed."

Some say the attackers took their violent crusade too far by attacking a place of worship.

"In which book do you come to attack a mosque and attack a [temple]?" asked relative Andar Singh. "In what religion does that happen?"

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Maduro, Venezuelan officials reject U.S. drug trafficking charges

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro welcomes supporters at an "anti-imperialist" protest at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 23, 2019. File Photo by Prensa Miraflores/EPA-EFE

March 27 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the government in Caracas have dismissed drug trafficking charges from the United States, arguing that they have actually been aggressive in fighting the narcotics trade.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced the indictment Thursday, which charge Maduro and a few other senior officials in his administration. The charges accuse them of helping "manage" and "lead" efforts to smuggling cocaine into the United States.




Maduro responded late Thursday by saying his administration has led the region in the drug war and credit its role in the Colombian peace process.

"Our spirits are high," he said. "We've had record numbers of drug busts in the past 15 years, ever since we got rid of the [U.S.] Drug Enforcement [Administration]."

Former Venezuelan Army Gen. Cliver Alcala, who now lives in Colombia and was also named in the U.S. indictment, said he's innocent but Maduro is guilty.

"The Colombian authorities know where I am," he said. "They know I'm at home, and have no plans to run away. I support the indictments against the Maduro regime but I'm a false positive. I shouldn't be included."

Venezuelan Prosecutor General Tarek William Saab said he has opened an investigation of Alcala and opposition leader Juan Guaido.

"Guaido and his North American advisers planned to bathe Venezuela in blood," Saab said.

The United States and several other Western governments recognize Guaido as Venezuela's interim leader.

Toyota ready to build face shields for healthcare workers

Toyota Motor North America said on Friday that it will begin manufacturing 3-D-printed face shields in its Huntsville, Ala., plant next week, to be used by healthcare workers involved in the coronations pandemic. Photo courtesy of TMNA

March 27 (UPI) -- Toyota announced Friday it is prepared to begin manufacturing face shields next week for healthcare workers dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The company will make the 3-D-printed face shields at its Huntsville, Ala., plant, idled by the pandemic, and seeks a partner to make filters to make standard face masks. In a statement on Friday it added that it is finalizing agreements with at least two undisclosed companies to produce critically needed ventilators and respirators.

Toyota joins General Motors, Ford and Tesla in preparing partnerships for ventilator production.

"With our plants idled and our dealers focused on servicing customers, we are eager to contribute our expertise and know-how in order to help quickly bring to market the medical supplies and equipment needed to combat the COVID crisis," said Ted Ogawa, incoming CEO of Toyota Motor North America Inc. "Our message to the medical equipment community is: we are here to help, please utilize our expertise."
THE ANARCHY OF THE MARKET - MARX
The first face shields will be sent to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and hospitals in Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

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British should've sought death penalty assurance for terror suspects, court says

March 25 (UPI) -- The British Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the British government acted unlawfully when it decided not to pursue assurances from the United States that it wouldn't seek the death penalty for two Islamic State fighters.

The case concerns two British-born militants, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, known in some circles as the Islamic State Beatles. Kurdish fighters caught the two men in February 2018 during fighting in Syria.

The United States and Britain negotiated which country should prosecute the two men for terror-related crimes. The men were ultimately placed in U.S. custody in October.

But the British high court said Home Secretary Sajid Javid should have sought an assurance from the United States that it wouldn't consider the death penalty as a punishment for the men. Britain abolished the death penalty in 1998, but the United States still uses the form of punishment.

"The most fundamental of the rights protected by the European convention [on human rights] is the right to life. This is an absolute right, not qualified by the possibility of restrictions or interferences which are 'necessary in a democratic society,'" the judgment by Justice Brenda Hale read.

Elsheikh and Kotey are suspected of operating a four-man Islamic State cell that sought to abduct and kill Westerners, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Their Syria cell drew the nickname "Islamic State Beatles" because it included four British-born members, the same number in the legendary rock band that emerged from Liverpool in the early 1960s.

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COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool
Outil d'auto-évaluation des symptômes COVID-19

Coronavirus disease questions answered

COVID-19 in Canada

March 28, 2020, 3:00 pm EDT

Number of people tested

184,201

Confirmed cases

5,264

Probable cases

39

Deaths

59
Provincial and territorial case numbers

GOOD NEWS TOO
Plasma transfusion shows promise for COVID-19 treatment, says China study

Iranian medical personnel wearing protective gear take care of an Iranian patient infected with coronavirus at a quarantine section of the Rassolakram hospital in western Tehran on March 11. Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/UPI | License Photo

March 27 (UPI) -- Donor blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 appears to work as a treatment for the virus, a new analysis has revealed.

Published Friday by JAMA, the study involving five patients from Shenzhen, China, treated with the approach saw many of their symptoms resolves within several days.

It's believed that the blood of those who recover from the infection may contain elevated levels of antibodies that can be used to bolster the immune systems of patients with the disease. The approach has been tried with other serious infectious diseases, including Ebola and SARS, another coronavirus.

New York earlier this week announced plans to start a trial of the treatment in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in the state. The Manhattan-based New York Blood Center has been cleared to begin collecting blood from patients who have recovered from the virus, but this process isn't likely to start until more of them actually do.

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"Even though the cases in the report by Shen et al are compelling and well-studied, this investigation has important limitations that are characteristic of other 'anecdotal' case series," Drs. John D. Roback and Jeannette Guarner, of Emory University School of Medicine, wrote in a linked commentary, also published by JAMA. "The intervention, administration of convalescent plasma, was not evaluated in a randomized clinical trial, and the outcomes in the treatment group were not compared with outcomes in a control group of patients who did not receive the intervention. Therefore, it is not possible to determine the true clinical effect of this intervention or whether patients might have recovered without this therapy."

In addition, the Emory authors, who were not part of the Shenzhen study, noted, patients received numerous other therapies -- including antiviral drugs and steroids -- "making it impossible to disentangle the specific contribution of convalescent plasma."

They added that the treatment was also administered up to three weeks after the five patients had been admitted to the hospital, "and it is unclear whether this timing is optimal or if earlier administration might have been associated with different clinical outcomes," the added.

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At this point, though, there is no proven cure for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, which has since sickened more than 500,000 people worldwide. To date, more than 26,000 people have died from the virus.

All five patients included in the Shenzhen study were critically ill at the time they started the experimental treatment, suffering from high fever and acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, or the significant shortness of breath caused by the severe pneumonia that comes with advanced COVID-19. The patients ranged from 36 to 65 years of age, and two were women.

Each of the patients received two consecutive transfusions of 200 to 250 milliliters of convalescent plasma -- 400 milliliters total -- on the same day it was obtained from the donor. The patients received antiviral agents continuously until the SARS-CoV-2 viral loads became negative.

Following plasma transfusion, four out of five of the patients had a normal body temperature within three days. These patients also showed signs of recovery from the organ failure -- primarily kidney and liver -- caused by the virus.

In addition, within 12 days, the new coronavirus was no longer detectable in their blood, and levels of antibodies against the virus in their blood were increased. Four of the patients also no longer had ARDS 12 days after transfusion, and three "were weaned from mechanical ventilation" within two weeks of treatment.

Of the five patients, the authors reported, three have been discharged from the hospital after stays of more than 50 days. The other two are in stable condition 37 days following plasma transfusion.

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MORE GOOD NEWS
FDA fast-tracks 15-minute COVID-19 test

Virginia Hospital Center workers screens patients for testing for COVID-19 as they arrive onsite for testing in Arlington, Va., on March 19. A newly approved test could produce results in 15 minutes. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo
March 28 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration has fast-tracked the authorization of a COVID-19 test that could produce results in less than 15 minutes, the maker of the test said.

The FDA granted the emergency use authorization Friday.

Abbott Laboratories said the test can produce positive test results in 5 minutes and negative results in 13 minutes. The test is performed on the manufacturer's 7-pound ID NOW platform.

"Because of its small size, it can be used in more non-traditional places where people can have their results in a matter of minutes, bringing an alternate testing technology to combat the novel coronavirus," Abbott said.

The company said the platform can also be used to test for flu, strep and respiratory syncytial virus.

"Through the incredible work of teams across Abbott, we expect to deliver 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day to healthcare professionals on the front lines, where testing capabilities are needed most," said Chris Scoggins, senior vice president, Rapid Diagnostics, Abbott. "Portable molecular testing expands the country's capacity to get people answers faster."

Current coronavirus testing takes between 45 minutes to a few days to return results. Much of the testing is currently taking place at drive-through testing centers throughout the country in an effort to prevent potential COVID-19 patients from spreading the virus in hospital emergency departments.

GOOD NEWS
Coronavirus: South Korea has more recovered patients than sick

By Sommer Brokaw

A worker cleans inside the Myeongdond subway station in Seoul, South Korea, to protect against the coronavirus pandemic. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo

March 28 (UPI) -- South Korean health officials said Saturday that for the first time since the country's first confirmed coronavirus case, there have been more recoveries than active cases.

According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,881 cases are recovered and 4,597 are active.

"We believe this to be the result of selfless efforts made by the public, who worked to maintain disinfectant process while actively participating in social distancing," said KCDC Deputy Director Kwon Joon Wook during a regular briefing.

The Johns Hopkins University global trackerindicates that South Korea has the 10th highest number of cases in the world with 9,478 cases and 144 deaths. Worldwide, there have been at least 615,000 cases and 28,700 deaths.

Wook stressed that Koreans "must not let complacency take place" as some infections are still causing deaths.

He added that people should not break from strict social distancing measures until at least April 5, or else face fines or even a yearlong imprisonment.

Worldwide, the United States has topped the list of the number of cases with 104,860 cases and 1,711 deaths, according to the global tracker Saturday morning.

RELATED Pope gives special prayer for COVID-19 victims, healthcare workers

Italy has the second highest number of cases in the world -- 86,498 -- and has been hardest hit in regard to number of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic. The country has reported 9,134 deaths and recorded its worst 24 hours Friday with 919 deaths from the respiratory illness between Thursday and Friday alone.
China now has the third-highest number of cases, 81,996, and 3,299 deaths.

Spain is the second-hardest hit country in Europe with 72,248 cases and 5,690 deaths. It also reported Friday a record one-day figure for fatalities after 769 people died in 24 hours.

Germany has the fifth most cases in the world, according to the global tracker. Still, with 399 deaths in Germany, the death rate has been substantially lower than Italy, Spain and Britain.

Britain has 14,754 cases and 761 deaths.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first head of government Friday to announce he tested positive for COVID-19. So far, he's experienced mild symptoms.

RELATED 4 die aboard Holland America cruise as it tries to find port

India, which has 1.3 billion people, the second-highest population in the world next to China, has the world's largest coronavirus lockdown and thousands of migrant workers are trying to leave major cities after the lockdown left them without jobs or pay.

More than 9 million migrant workers a year move from India's rural areas to cities to find work at construction sites or factories and send money back to their families, according to government statistics. Now, many of them are left with no choice but to return home since those businesses are closed due to the lockdown.

India has 933 confirmed cases and 20 deaths, but the country has been criticized for not testing enough. Its testing rate is 6.8 tests per million, one of the lowest rates in the world. The country initially insisted on testing only those who traveled to high-risk countries or had come in contact with an infected person or health workers treating coronavirus patients, but later said anyone admitted to the hospital with severe respiratory distress should also be tested.

Only state labs in India were allowed to test for coronavirus initially and now permission has been extended to several private labs. In the past few days, the country has increased testing as the first made-in-India coronavirus testing kits reached the market.

The government-run Indian Council for Medical Research said Mylab was the only Indian company to achieve 100 percent accurate results.

Virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale, Mylab research and development chief, submitted the testing kit to the National Institute of Virology to evaluate on March 18.

"Our kit gives the diagnosis in two and a half hours while the imported testing kits take six or seven hours," she said.

Pandemic empties streets, public spaces around the world 

PHOTOS HERE 

A Palestinian wears a protective mask outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, closed because of the coronavirus restrictions, in Jerusalem's Old City on March 28. The Israeli government has imposed tight restrictions of movement, leaving only essential stores open in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo