VIRUS DIARY: Isolation and patience on a quiet Gaza farm
By FARES AKRAM  4/10/2020

In this April 9, 2020, photo, Fares Akram’s family’s farm is seen in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, and on the horizon the Israeli border. Akram hadn’t spent more than a single night at his family’s farm on the northern edge of Gaza since an Israeli airstrike killed his father there more than a decade ago. But the arrival of the coronavirus has upended his family’s notions of danger and refuge. (AP Photo/Fares Akram)

BEIT LAHIYEH, Gaza Strip (AP) — I haven’t spent more than a single night at my family’s farm on the northern edge of Gaza since an Israeli airstrike killed my father there more than a decade ago. But the arrival of the coronavirus has upended our notions of danger and refuge.

During the three wars and countless skirmishes fought between Israel and Hamas since the militant group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, the borderlands were the front line. Israel would carry out airstrikes, shelling and sometimes full-scale incursions, usually in response to Palestinian rocket fire.

During the wars, Israeli strikes could happen anywhere, at any time. But I felt a little safer in Gaza City. I assumed that media offices were less likely to be targeted.

The virus has different rules of engagement.

It preys on crowded areas where it can leap undetected from one host to another, quietly carried by human breath. Since the first cases were reported late last month, Gaza City feels much more dangerous, with every crowded sidewalk a potential source of contagion.

Read more: Virus Diaries

A broader outbreak in Gaza, where 2 million Palestinians are confined in a narrow, impoverished coastal strip, would be catastrophic. Our health infrastructure has suffered from years of conflict and a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. There are only around 60 ventilators, and most are in use for other ailments.

As the virus invaded country after country, many Gazans hoped we would finally enjoy some benefits from the blockade. We have no tourists or cruise ships. Travel is heavily restricted. And Israel and Egypt sealed their borders early on.

But a couple of Palestinians returning from Pakistan tested positive, and now authorities have reported a total of 13 cases. Hamas insists it has isolated all the cases and says the situation is under control. Many Gazans seem to accept that.

On a recent grocery run, I saw streets and markets bustling. Hamas has closed schools, mosques, wedding halls and cafes, but few people appear to be social distancing. We are accustomed to sheltering at home during wars, but Gazans have never faced an enemy like this.

I stocked up on food and cleaning supplies and returned to the farm, where I am isolating with my mother and sister. It’s a pleasant change from the city, where I live in a small apartment and the power is out for more than 10 hours a day.

We awaken to the smell of orange and clementine blossoms from the orchards outside, and songbirds instead of car horns. Nearby, the heavily guarded frontier is quiet. In the pandemic, Israel and Hamas appear to have found a common foe.

Conflict, though, is never far from my mind.

I was born and raised here. I have spent my career reporting on the blockade, the wars and the astonishing resilience of my fellow Gazans.

As tranquil as the farm is now, I cannot forget that it was here where my father, Akram al-Ghoul, was killed. He was a judge with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and stopped working when Hamas took over. He retired to the farm, where he tended to his flower garden and raised cattle. During the war, he insisted on staying to feed the animals.

On Jan. 3, 2009, an Israeli bomb landed on the farmhouse, killing him and another relative. Human Rights Watch, where I was employed at the time, sent a letter to the Israeli military seeking an explanation. We have yet to receive a response.

Gaza contains many stories like mine. We’ve been trained by hard experience to expect the worst, and we’ve mastered the art of patience along the way. Now, facing a very different threat and waiting here on our farm — this farm that was my father’s — I hope that patience will see us through.

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“Virus Diary,” an occasional feature, will showcase the coronavirus saga through the eyes of Associated Press journalists around the world. Fares Akram is the AP correspondent in Gaza. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/faresakram

THIRD WORLD USA
Nurses weigh their principles vs safety in virus fight

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This Tuesday, March 31, 2020 photo provided by emergency room nurse Cynthia Riemer shows her at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, wearing a welder’s mask from a hardware store and other hospital-issued protective gear. Nurses are supplementing their hospital PPE with items such as the welder’s mask to conserve hospital supplies. (Cynthia Riemer via AP)

Paramedics rushed another critical COVID-19 patient into the emergency room, and Chicago nurse Cynthia Riemer felt her adrenaline kick in.

“Your heart starts racing,” she said. “You’re thinking, ‘How quickly and safely can we get them intubated?’ Because if we don’t, in the next five or 10 minutes, they could stop breathing. You’re thinking: ‘What’s my next step? Do we need more help?’ The more people in the room, the more exposed, so staff stand outside the glass door and you say, ‘Hey, get me this! Hey, get me that!’”

Her protective gear: a hospital-supplied yellow gown, foot covers and an N95 mask — plus, from Home Depot, a welder’s mask, which she says “helps conserve what we have.”

Riemer is 41, a few years younger than a New Orleans ICU nurse who died last week from the virus. She and others became nurses to relieve suffering, to save lives. But with supply shortages, changing guidelines and evolving science, some now are asking: “Did I sign up to be a hero?”

One nurse in Baltimore, a father with young children, said he began to think about quitting his job after reading a scientific report that said the virus might spread not only in droplets, but also in tinier aerosolized particles. He worries, too, about mask shortages and poor crisis planning.




“Nobody wants to go to work and feel like they’re gambling,” said the nurse, who requested anonymity because he feared retaliation from his employer. “Very few of us get into this field to be heroes.”

Each day brings new questions for nurses, who are deciding how much they’re willing to sacrifice, said Cynda Rushton, professor of nursing and bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.

“Who am I? What do I stand for? How can I have integrity in the midst of this chaos?” she said. “How do I live with myself at the end of the day?”

One nurse posting in an online forum wrote Feb. 28: “The nightmare is real — and it has come home.” The posts will be collected and published in a report after the pandemic subsides. It already has a title: “Never Again.”

For weeks, hospitals and clinics across the United States have struggled to stay afloat amid a crippling shortage of personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, which filter out 95 percent of particulates in the air. The masks are typically thrown away after a single use, but nurses and doctors are now being instructed to clean and recycle their masks, with some using a single mask for a whole week.


“Absolutely I’m conflicted,” said Amber Weber, 38, a labor and delivery nurse at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, who has been cross-trained in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 patients. An eight-hour shift refreshed her knowledge of central lines and feeding tubes, equipment she hasn’t used since she graduated from nursing school 15 years ago

“More than one family member has told me I should quit, that it’s not worth it,” said Weber, who has two young children. But her professional values won out.

“I didn’t go into the nursing profession to abandon my patients when their need is greatest,” she said, “or to abandon the other health care workers in the hospital when they’re drowning.”


Nurse practitioner Katharine Billipp, 38, stands with her husband, Jay Lawson, and daughter, Genevieve, outside their home in Baltimore, Md., on Friday, April 3, 2020. 

In Baltimore, nurse practitioner Katharine Billipp, 38, works with patients who are poor, very sick and staying in shelters, encampments or abandoned buildings. Two weeks ago, her husband came down with a fever and a dry cough, classic symptoms of COVID-19. She stayed home while awaiting his test results, which didn’t come back negative for almost two weeks, making her feel “completely useless” as she read about the worsening crisis.

Now back at work at Health Care for the Homeless, Billipp was given one surgical mask to last a week, which comes off only when she needs another cup of coffee.

“Reusing masks is a problem,” she said. “It’s a petri dish to collect any airborne particles throughout the day,” Still, one mask for a week is better than no mask.

“The gray area of all of this, it takes a mental toll,” Billipp said. “We find ourselves on the front lines, without proper equipment, being the potential vector of disease to our underserved and most at-risk patients.”

The University of Illinois Hospital, where Riemer works, last week granted the hazard pay requested by the Illinois Nurses Association.

For his safety, Riemer and her husband are keeping six feet apart inside their house, but “you can’t just give up because it gets tough. That’s not an option,” she said. In her free time, she is sewing cloth masks for co-workers.

“Do we cry? Sure, absolutely, we cry,” she said of her colleagues. “We get angry, we get frustrated. But the majority of us are not willing to give up.”
___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

THIRD WORLD USA
Groups used to serving desperately poor nations now help USA

In this March 31, 2020 photo, a Samaritan's Purse crew erects privacy tents at a 68 bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York's Central Park, in New York. International charity groups which usually provide support to war-torn or impoverished countries are now sending humanitarian aid to some of the wealthiest places in the United States to help manage the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)


In Santa Barbara, forklifts chug through the warehouse of Direct Relief, hustling pallets of much-needed medical supplies into waiting FedEx trucks. Normally those gloves, masks and medicines would go to desperately poor clinics in Haiti or Sudan, but now they’re racing off to Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California and the Robert Wood Johnson Hospitals in New Jersey.

Direct Relief is just one of several U.S. charities that traditionally operate in countries stricken by war and natural disaster that are now sending humanitarian aid to some of the wealthiest communities in America to help manage the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are responding to the greatest unmet needs,” said Direct Relief CEO Thomas Tighe.

He is organizing flights of supplies directly from the group’s own manufacturers in China to the Santa Barbara warehouse, and also coordinating shipments from other producers around the world. After spending two decades providing relief to disaster zones, Tighe exudes a calm in the midst of this emergency.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders spent months fighting coronavirus around the world and is now trying to save lives just down the street from their New York offices. The group is supporting soup kitchens, setting up hand-washing stations, and training local officials how to prevent the spread of infection. Samaritan’s Purse International erected a 14-tent field hospital with an ICU in Central Park.

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is part of an ongoing investigation by The Associated Press, the PBS series FRONTLINE, and the Global Reporting Centre that examines the deadly consequences of the fragmented worldwide medical supply chain.

That international aid groups are supporting the U.S. healthcare system shows how dire the need is domestically, and how inadequate the federal response has been.

“We now see nonprofits that traditionally help weak governments coming in to substitute for our national government,” said Evelyn Brodkin, political scientist and professor emerita at the University of Chicago. “We’re lucky they’re here. But it tells you something about the abdication of the federal role in this crisis.”

U.S. blunders related to testing have hindered efforts to contain the virus’ spread, and the government was late to respond to critical shortages as imports of medical supplies plummeted.

“Clearly, we have been caught flat-footed,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard University’s Global Health Institute. “The fact that resources from these organizations are coming to the U.S. is, on one hand, helpful to Americans, but pathetic in terms of what it says about American responsiveness.”

President Donald Trump, by contrast, has said the administration has done a “really good job” responding to the outbreak.

CARE, a 75-year-old humanitarian group, is sending relief packages to medical workers, caregivers and individuals in need.

“CARE has never delivered in the U.S. before now, but this pandemic has meant a scale up in our response internationally and here at home as well,” said CEO Michelle Nunn.

Feed the Children, meantime, is distributing aid to all five of its hubs across the country.

Experts say charities can’t substitute for a coordinated national response. But they’re trying.

For the first time, MedShare, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that repacks surplus medical supplies and sends them to clinics around the world, is delivering protective gear to major U.S. hospitals including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

“It’s very unusual, but there’s a clear need and we want to help,” said spokeswoman Nancy Hunter.

Still, hospitals across the country are running short of supplies, and have to ration gear such as masks and gowns, a common practice in medical facilities in less stable countries.




AP Video

Dr. Rasha Khoury, who’s been on surgical missions in Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Cote d’Ivoire, Iraq and spent more than a year in Afghanistan as a member of Doctors Without Borders, is back at her regular job in a Bronx, New York, hospital. But she’s using lessons learned in her overseas experiences every day.

“This is the first time I’ve ever felt a parallel between my work in precarious situations and my work here in the U.S.,” she said.

Abroad, for example, she gets one N95 respirator mask every two weeks, so she’s accustomed to rationing protective gear. In humanitarian medicine, she says, she quickly trains specialists to practice areas of medicine they’re not used to. High patient volumes, blood shortages and teams in crisis are all familiar challenges.

And she worries that if New York, one of the most heavily resourced health care systems in the world, is struggling to get what it needs to care for COVID-19 patients, then infection control, triage and providing basic care are all going to be that much more of a crisis in impoverished countries.

Dr. Jean Fritz Jacques, a general surgeon in Haiti who runs Healing Arts Mission Clinic, is bracing for the worst.

His country is utterly unprepared for the pandemic, and he’s watching the group’s U.S.-based donors supply American institutions. In Haiti, private hospitals are closing for lack of supplies and equipment, and public hospitals aren’t ready, he said.

“We are just praying that the chaos will not happen,” Jacques said.
__

Kate McCormick of the Global Reporting Centre contributed to this report.

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

THIRD WORLD USA 

Schools struggle to safely get free meals to needy students 

HUNGRY STUDENTS UNDERNOURISHED BECAUSE OF BEING THE 

WORKING POOR WHO ARE IN NEED OF A LIVING WAGE
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Brandy Oveal, with the Houston Independent School District Nutrition Services, prepares to help distribute bags of food Monday, April 6, 2020, in Houston. HISD relaunched their food distribution efforts throughout the district Monday, with a streamlined process that will implement increased safety measures. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When schools started closing across the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic, they scrambled to keep feeding millions of students from poor families who depend on free and reduced-price meals every day.

Cities big and small quickly ran into problems: food workers, teachers and volunteers manning curbside pickup locations came down with the virus themselves or were too scared to report for duty. Some districts have been forced to suspend their programs altogether.

That’s left families already struggling to put food on the table more desperate and schools searching for ways to keep serving those in need safely. Among the biggest school districts to suspend its federally assisted meal program was in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, after a worker was exposed to the coronavirus.

“We said, ‘Oh, my God, we have to close down because we don’t know what’s happening,’” said Betti Wiggins, nutrition services officer for the Houston Independent School District.

It stopped giving out meals for more than a week. When the program reopened this week, it had a new way of packaging and handing out food. Instead of providing small meals every day citywide, the district now has fewer, centralized locations where people pick up 30-pound bags stuffed with chicken, potatoes, apples, juice and more. They’re designed to last a family of four several days.



Among those getting food this week was Maria Robles, who arrived two hours before pickup opened — at 7 a.m. — and the line of cars behind her already stretched for more than a mile. Some without cars pick up food in anything they can, including baby strollers.

Robles, 49, is unemployed and depends on the meals to help feed her teenage son, who typically eats twice a day at school. Plus, her house is now crowded with four more children after her niece saw her work hours slashed and moved in.

When Houston schools temporarily halted meals, Robles’ family went to food banks, where pickings were often slim.

“Food is scarce right now,” Robles said, fighting back tears. “It’s hard for the adults because we have to see our children go through it. ... It has gotten real scary. There are times I will not eat to make sure they will get something.”

During a normal school day, about 22 million students nationwide receive free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch, according to the School Nutrition Association, a nonprofit that works with more than 55,000 school food providers



The group surveyed about 1,800 members just as schools began to close in mid-March, and their top concerns were children going hungry and protecting the safety of staff and families receiving food.

The problems have affected rural and urban districts alike.

Detroit, which has been hit hard with a surge of coronavirus cases, shut down its meal program for two days last month when a worker tested positive. Like Houston, it reopened with a drastically reduced number of places to pick up food.

In Charleston, West Virginia, the state’s largest school district limited food pickup to once a week at school bus stops after staffers began to worry about their exposure to the virus.

Schools in Durham, North Carolina, and nearby Johnson County suspended their meal programs last week after an employee tested positive.

Other regions hit with closures include Memphis, Tennessee, parts of Louisiana, California and south Texas.

Houston restarted its program after packing food bags in one place and reducing the number of workers needed. There are fewer places to pick up meals, but they rotate through the city every day. Workers put bags into cars to reduce interaction, said Wiggins, the schools’ nutrition officer.

“Some of these curbside distributions were uncontrollable. Volunteers were coming out of the woodwork,” Wiggins said. “You can’t handle the food like you were at a picnic. I think we’ll be more successful on this outing.”

But small school districts may struggle to duplicate Houston’s model, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association. They may not have enough staffers or the facilities to prepare meals with proper social distancing, she said.

Many programs have avoided any shutdowns so far.

Austin High School Principal Cyndi Severns-Ponce said she’s confident the program in El Paso, Texas, has enough workers trained to quickly step in if anyone gets sick.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak

On a recent afternoon, school cafeteria manager Reyna Trejo and food specialist Elva Rangel donned face masks, gloves and long plastic aprons as cars drove up. Trejo held up two fingers to confirm how many meals were needed and told a driver: “Roll your windows up!”

Any meal shutdown would be a problem, which would only get worse if job losses spike.

That’s what Viola Jones sees in her Houston neighborhood.

“People have to make a decision: Do I buy food? Do I pay rent?” Jones said as she picked up meals this week.

“People were going hungry even before this. Now with children out of school, more food is needed,” Jones said. “Living from paycheck to paycheck before this was already hard. Now it’s even harder.”

#KAKISTOCRACY

Calling Trump: When connections help steer virus supplies

FILE - In this March 19, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump attends a teleconference with governors at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Washington. From left, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health. There’s the standard process for getting urgently needed coronavirus equipment: send a request to FEMA. Then there’s the other way: have a buddy who can pick up the phone and call the Trump White House. Trump’s team has proudly recounted instances where a call to the White House has produced fast results for those who have an in with the president. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Poolm, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — It was early on a Friday when Jared Kushner said he received a call from his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. Trump was hearing from friends in New York that the city’s public hospital system was running low on critical supplies to fight the new coronavirus — something city officials, nurses and doctors had been saying for weeks.

Kushner, who has taken a lead role in the federal government’s response, called Dr. Mitchell Katz, who runs the city’s hospital system, to ask what was most needed.

And not long after, Trump was on the phone with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be sending a month’s worth of N-95 masks to the city’s front-line workers.

“The president’s been very, very hands-on in this,” Kushner told reporters. “He’s really instructed us to leave no stone unturned.”

It was a happy ending to one chapter of a dreadful story: Critical supplies went to a place with critical needs.

But the president’s intervention underscored what watchdogs say is a troubling pattern when it comes to how the Trump administration is doling out lifesaving resources. Despite building a data-driven triage system in which FEMA allots supplies based on local needs, those who are politically connected and have the president’s ear have, at times, been able to bypass that process and move to the front of the line.

White House officials reject the notion that the process is being circumvented, stressing that everyone has been working to quickly get supplies to the places that need them most. That includes navigating complicated global supply chain issues and coordinating complementary efforts by private companies like Apple and billionaires including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Chinese business giant Jack Ma. If state and local leaders need assistance, they said, all they need to do is call.

“It’s outrageous that some would even speculate that the resources being delivered by the federal government to the states is somehow based on politics,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. “This is about saving lives.”

But sometimes it helps to know those in charge.

It was just after 8 p.m. last Saturday when Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York took to Twitter to sound the alarm about critical needs on Long Island, a coronavirus hotspot with about 25,000 people infected. Suffolk Count’s stockpile had run out of personal protective equipment — PPE — needed by local hospitals, nursing homes and first responders, including masks and gowns.

“We need fellow Americans who can help to PLEASE send us PPE ASAP!” Zeldin wrote.

Minutes later, his call was answered.

“I posted a tweet and I received a call within minutes — literally within minutes — from Jared Kushner wanting to help,” said Zeldin. A day later, the congressman said, 150,000 surgical masks were delivered by a company he’d been connected with by someone close to the White House who had also seen his message. And 250,000 N-95 masks were delivered by the federal government days later.

“Honestly I couldn’t be happier with how quick the turnaround has been,” Zeldin said earlier this week.

While Zeldin isn’t considered a top Democratic target, Trump has also helped vulnerable Republicans secure supplies, raising concerns from critics that he may be using the shipments to bolster political allies.

The president tweeted Wednesday that he would be “immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado” at the request of Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican who is considered among the party’s most vulnerable senators. To Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat, that looked like “playing politics w/ public health.”

On Friday, another vulnerable GOP senator, Martha McSally, took to Twitter to relay the “huge news” that Arizona would be getting 100 ventilators and to thank “President Trump and @VP for hearing our call.”




Allies of the president have intervened in other ways. Republican fundraiser Ray Washburne helped arrange a call between Trump and high-end restaurateurs including Wolfgang Puck and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a tenant of Trump International in New York. Trump quickly embraced a proposal to restore the tax break allowing corporations to fully deduct the costs of restaurant meals and entertainment.

“I’ll just get the president on the phone,” Washburne recalls telling the group. “He was fantastic.”Members of Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club also have contacted the White House, asking for advice about where to send supplies they had privately procured.

Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, said it’s always problematic when presidents make decisions based on what they’re hearing from friends, business associates and customers.

“But when we’re talking about life and death decisions that will affect the future of not just individuals but whole communities, it’s particularly appalling that these decisions are made based on the whim of the president and the input of the people who happen to have his phone number,” Bookbinder said.

Billionaire philanthropist Ken Langone, namesake of New York’s NYU Langone Medical Center, panned the idea that anyone was receiving special treatment and applauded the administration’s efforts to make sure everyone gets what they need.

“I’m very impressed with the team effort that’s going on,” he said, adding, “I wish my having known Trump had got me special treatment.”

“There is none of that ... otherwise we wouldn’t have shortages.”

As for Zeldin, the congressman said he had been relying on the process set up by the White House, in which states go through FEMA to get supplies. But “when the stockpile gets down to zero,” he said, “then you have to find another way.”

In any case, he said, now isn’t the time to point fingers.

“There will be an after-action report that is done here and part of what will be done here is analyzing the process of how the federal government communicates and works with the states and how the states communicate and work with the counties,” he said. But for now, “Everyone’s in the same foxhole with their rifles pointed in the same direction and that’s the only way to get through this.”

AP

Indian women stand in marked circles to maintain distance as they wait to receive face masks, gloves and hand sanitizers distributed by the Rapid Action Force (RAF) during lockdown to control the spread of the new coronavirus in Ahmedabad, India, 
Saturday, April 11, 2020. 

The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A truck bearing Weld County insignia sits outside the administrative office entrance at JBS USA in Greeley, Colo., Wednesday, April 8, 2020. 

Health officials are investigating working conditions the beef plant in northern Colorado where dozens of employees have tested positive for COVID-19. 

Officials said concerns at the JBS USA facility include the proximity of workers to each other and employees working while they are sick.(Alex McIntyre/The Greeley Tribune via AP)

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Crime drops around the world as COVID-19 keeps people inside

In this April 9, 2020, photo, amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, Dallas ISD police officers Mylon Taylor, left, and Gary Pierre push a car that ran out of gas while waiting in line for the weekly school meal pick up for students in Dallas. The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too. (AP Photo/LM Otero)


CHICAGO (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too.

In Chicago, one of America’s most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42% in the weeks since the city shut down, compared with the same period last year. Part of that decrease, some criminal lawyers say, is that drug dealers have no choice but to wait out the economic slump.

“The feedback I’m getting is that they aren’t able to move, to sell anything anywhere,” said Joseph Lopez, a criminal lawyer in Chicago who represents reputed drug dealers.

Overall, Chicago’s crime declined 10% after the pandemic struck, a trend playing out globally as cities report stunning crime drops in the weeks since measures were put into place to slow the spread of the virus. Even among regions that have the highest levels of violence outside a war zone, fewer people are being killed and fewer robberies are taking place.

Still, law enforcement officials worry about a surge of unreported domestic violence, and what happens when restrictions lift — or go on too long.

It’s rare for a city to see a double-digit drop in crime, even over a much longer period. During New York City’s 1990s crime decline, one of the biggest turnarounds in American history, crime dropped about 40% over three years. That makes the drop-offs occurring now — in a period of just a couple of weeks — even more seismic.

Across Latin America, crime is down to levels unseen in decades.

“Killings are down, and the gangsters aren’t harassing so much,” Eduardo Perdomo, a 47-year-old construction worker, said while getting off a bus in San Salvador. “I think they’re afraid of catching the virus, and they aren’t going out.’’

El Salvador reported an average of two killings a day last month, down from a peak of 600 a day a few years ago.

Much of the decrease has taken place because of tougher security policies and gang truces. But the imposition of near-total limits on movement is likely driving it down further, according to analysts and national statistics.

In Peru, where crime levels fell 84% last month, Lima mortician Raúl González usually has as many as 15 bodies a day — many are homicide victims. This week he napped on a bench after six hours without a client.

There are almost no killings or car accidents these days,” González said.

In South Africa, police reported a stunning decline during their first week of lockdown measures. Police Minister Bheki Cele said reported rapes were down from 700 to 101 over the same period last year. Serious assault cases plummeted from 2,673 to 456, and murders fell from 326 to 94.

The U.S. virus epicenter in New York saw major crimes — murder, rape, robbery, burglary, assault, grand larceny and car theft — decrease by 12% from February to March. In Los Angeles, 2020 key crimes statistics were consistent with last year’s figures until the week of March 15, when they dropped by 30%.

“There’s a lot fewer opportunities for criminals to take advantage of,” said Joe Giacalone, a former New York Police Department sergeant who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Most burglars, they wait for you to leave the house.”

Policing has also changed in the face of the pandemic. Officers are increasingly getting sick; the NYPD, the country’s largest department with more than 36,000 officers, has more than 7,000 officers out and more than 2,000 diagnosed with COVID-19.

And U.S. authorities say they’re issuing citations instead of making low-level arrests, policing social distancing and putting detectives into patrol cars — which could, in turn, bring down crime rates.

While departments are unlikely to announce they’ve backed off policing certain crimes, “that’s going to be the case,” said Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson.

In this April 10, 2020, photo, Detroit Police Capt. Jevon Johnson, right, talks with Lt. Pride Henry outside the TCF Center, in Detroit. The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

“In many respects, over the next weeks, they’re really in survival mode,” he said.

But while narcotics arrests are down, drug sales continue, with dealers likely forced to change their strategies, said Rodney Phillips, a former gang member in Chicago who now works as a conflict mediator in the city.

“These guys already face poverty and death in these areas,” he said. “They might be selling more online now. But they aren’t going to give up just because of the coronavirus.”

A Maryland man accused of operating a Darknet store selling prescription opioids boasted on his vendor page: “Even with Corona Virus the shop is running at full speed.”

He told an undercover FBI agent he was just waiting for a shipment because “this corona virus (sic) is (expletive) up inventory,” according to court documents.

Other crimes, however, may be fueled by shutdown orders.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the city’s aggravated assaults were up 10% in the last three weeks, and half of those were domestic violence, a significantly higher proportion than normal. Calls to Missouri’s child abuse and neglect hotline dropped by half as the virus first struck the state. Advocates said the calls aren’t made because the kids aren’t in school.

And Chicago did see a spike in gun violence this week, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported 60 shootings — 19 fatal — between Sunday and Thursday.

San Jose, California, Police Chief Eddie Garcia hopes the downward trend will continue after the pandemic is over. But his officers are preparing for the worst.

“The longer we’re in a lockdown,” he said, “the more we’re playing with fire.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia. More than 1.5 million cases have been diagnosed worldwide.

In this April 9, 2020, photo, a Tesla police car sits in front of the City/County Building after red and white lights were illuminated to show support and gratitude for first responders and medical personnel during the outbreak of the new coronavirus in Denver. The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Dazio reported from Los Angeles, Briceno from Lima. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Don Babwin in Chicago, Michael R. Sisak in New York, Don Thompson in Sacramento, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia, Colleen Long in Washington, and Gerald Imray in Cape Town.

AP 4/11/2020

Human Rights Watch calls for arrests in killings of protesters in Sudan


Sudanese celebrate an agreement to dissolve the former ruling National Congress Party in November 2019. A human rights group called on the current government to bring those who killed protesters to justice. Photo by Marwan Ali/EPA-EFE

April 10 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch on Friday called for Sudan's transitional government to take action against those who have attacked and killed peaceful protesters who demanded changes in the country's leadership and government.

Longtime President Omar al-Bashir stepped down April 11, 2019, after months of protests over bread and fuel prices. Protests continued for the military to hand over power to a civilian government.

By some estimates, more than 100 people have died during the demonstrations.

"Scores of protesters, including teenagers and children, paid with their lives to force al-Bashir out, but a year on, the families of those killed are still searching for justice," Jehanne Henry, East Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Sudanese authorities should step up their efforts to do right by these victims. Justice should not be denied or delayed.

The report said little has been done so far to bring perpetrators of those protesters killed to justice. It charged the government with using lethal and excessive force to disperse some crowds.

"It is very disappointing to protesters, victims, and their families, to see that justice is not moving one step further one year after ousting al-Bashir," said Rifat Makkawi, a human rights lawyer and director of PLACE legal aid center.

The report also called on Sudan to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in its Darfur investigation, which has an arrest warrant for al-Bashir and two others who are in prison for crimes in Darfur.

"Sudan's leaders should not let protesters' sacrifices be in vain," Henry said. "They need to step up efforts at investigating and prosecuting those responsible for killings and other crimes against protesters, including officials at the highest levels."

Navajo leaders self-quarantine after COVID-19 exposure

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez broadcast via a virtual town hall Thursday during self-quarantine in his home after he was exposed to COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Navajo Nation.

April 10 (UPI) -- As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps through the Navajo Nation reservation, the tribe's president and vice president announced they have gone into voluntary quarantine at their homes after being exposed to a first responder who tested positive for the virus.

The total number of positive cases on the reservation is 558, with 22 deaths, said President Jonathan Nez, speaking at a virtual town hall Thursday. Almost 2,400 negative tests were tallied, the Navajo Department of Health said.

A total lockdown with a 56-hour curfew is planned for the weekend, starting Friday night, Nez said. Tickets to violators will be issued, and those found guilty could face 30 days in jail or a fine of $1,000 or both, he said.

Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer said they wore gloves and masks while on a tour of the tribal region Tuesday, adding they are "feeling healthy and doing fine."

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"No one is immune from COVID-19. You may be young and in good health, but this virus can infect anyone," Nez said.

"This is not to be taken lightly," he said. "The good news is that the majority of people are testing negative for COVID-19."

About 175,000 people live on the reservation, which overlaps the state boundaries of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. About 40 percent of reservation residents have no access to running water, which makes following federal recommended practices for coronavirus hand washing and hygiene a challenge.

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Many tribal residents are older and also have chronic health conditions that make them more vulnerable to the virus, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease and asthma.

The tribe's government signed an order in March blocking non-residents from visiting. Tribe-operated casinos also closed in New Mexico and Arizona.

The Indian Health Service runs 13 facilities, most of them clinics. About 170 hospital beds and 50 isolation rooms and 30 ventilators are available for the entire population.

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Emergency teams from Arizona National Guard and FEMA built a temporary 50-bed field hospital in March near the town of Chinle to expand capacity for patients.

Tribal leaders have proclaimed April 10 to 13 as Navajo Nation Family Prayer Weekend, in observance of Good Friday and Easter.

The leaders have asked families to pray together for family members, neighbors, health care workers, governing officials and those who are sick, as well as the families who have lost loved ones due to COVID-19.

"Let's not lose hope, but let's face the reality that this virus is going to be around for several more months," Nez said. "We have to deal with it by making smart decisions and with prayer."

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