Researchers in US give first shot to person in experimental COVID-19 vaccine test

According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle begin an 'anxiously awaited first-stage study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed in record time'.

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Corantine: Even Indians from EU, Turkey, UK barred entry

In measures aimed at containing Covid-19, the government on Monday extended the travel ban beyond affected countries and prohibited entry of all passengers, including Indian nationals, from the European Union, European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the UK to India with effect from March 18.

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New story in Health from Time: As U.S. Braces for Coronavirus to Spread, Hospitals Worry About Shortages

As doctors in the U.S. have watched Italy’s health care system buckle under the sudden strain of the coronavirus, the magnitude of the problems that could be heading their way have begun to sink in. The crises Italian medical staff have been reportedly facing — overwhelming conditions, choosing which patients get treatment, and desperately working to expand their manpower — are all things that hospitals in the U.S. could encounter if the virus continues on its path, doctors say.

“For me it flipped from, ‘This is a real concern, I wonder what’s going to happen’… to ‘Holy cow, I think we’re in trouble,’” says Laurel Fick, a residency director and an internal medicine physician at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital Indianapolis hospital, when she realized how grim the situation in Italy had grown.

As of Monday, the U.S. had more than 4,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, only a fraction of the approximately 28,000 cases in Italy. But the slow start of rolling out testing has made it impossible to know exactly how widespread the pandemic actually is in the U.S. What is clear is that the rate at which cases are increasing is similar to Italy’s trajectory. The Surgeon General said Monday that the U.S. is two weeks behind Italy.

“When you look at the projections, there’s every chance that we could be Italy,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News on Monday.

As health care professionals watch the potential future unfold across the Atlantic, they are growing increasingly anxious that the novel coronavirus, which is particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions, could overrun the American healthcare system. As public officials and businesses try to enforce social distancing to slow the spread, hospital staff say they are concerned about shortages of specialized equipment like ventilators, hospital beds, masks and personnel. If the system grows too stretched, they worry they may ultimately have to ration health care.

For now, hospitals can only prepare for the worst. One estimate reportedly presented by the American Hospital Association predicts there could be 96 million cases of coronavirus in the U.S. in the next couple of months, with 1.9 million intensive care unit admissions, 4.8 million hospitalizations, and 480,000 deaths associated with the virus.

“We are not ready. We are not ready virtually anywhere in the country for that kind of onslaught on our health care system,” says Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.

For instance, Redlener estimates that there are 95,000 intensive care beds in the country, but “even in the moderate attack rate of the coronavirus,” he believes there could be a need for more than double that number. He also believes the U.S. has only a “fraction” of the mechanical ventilators that could be needed, a device that will be crucial for a virus that aggressively attacks the lungs and for which there is no good substitute. A 2010 survey estimated that there were likely around 62,000 mechanical ventilators in U.S. hospitals.

The Trump Administration has slowly begun to publicly recognize the gravity of the situation hospitals and medical staff are facing. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar acknowledged during a White House briefing on Sunday that a “pandemic like this runs the risk of exceeding our health care system capacity.”

In a sign of how difficult these resources are to come by as the pandemic spans the globe, Trump held a call with governors on Monday telling them they should seek crucial equipment on their own, according to a New York Times report. “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,” Trump reportedly said. “We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.”

Some of these supplies are available in the federally managed, secretive Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), which distributes supplies during crises like this one. On Sunday, Azar said there are “thousands and thousands” of ventilators available in the SNS, but cited national security reasons for not disclosing specific numbers of the supplies available.

Knowing their facilities cannot handle experts’ worst-case scenarios, doctors have been aggressively calling for social distancing to “flatten the curve,” or slow the rate at which the population gets infected and therefore keep the health care infrastructure from being overwhelmed. On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control put out new guidelines recommending events with 50 or more people be cancelled for the next eight weeks, as well as events of any size where social distancing could not be incorporated.

By Monday, Trump was urging people to avoid gatherings of groups of more than ten. Several cities have now started cracking down on social life, closing restaurants and bars and asking residents to “shelter in place,” and businesses across the country have sent employees to work from home.

“I actually worry that there are a lot of individuals who are not taking it seriously,” says Avital O’Glasser, medical director for the Preoperative Medicine Clinic at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. “I worry about the banter that people are still saying, ‘I’m going out to bars. I want to go celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. This isn’t going to affect me. I’m young and healthy. Why do I have to isolate myself?’”

If the country is unable to reduce its infection rate, the nation’s health care infrastructure will not be able to cope, and it could result in a decline of adequate care both for coronavirus patients and people suffering everyday health issues, complications or trauma, experts across the country worry.

On Friday, the American College of Surgeons released guidance on minimizing, postponing, or cancelling elective operations in the midst of the pandemic. The Surgeon General also tweeted for hospitals to consider stopping elective procedures, citing the tax it would put on personnel needed for coronavirus response. If there aren’t enough resources to provide proper continuing care to people with chronic illness, medical professionals say that in itself may also have long-term consequences in the health care system.

And while medical professionals are thinking that far ahead, they have more urgent advice. “If we don’t keep that curve flat, and try to keep the critical cases down to a minimum, we’re going to get to a point where we just don’t have enough resources,” says John Hick, medical director for emergency preparedness and emergency physician at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis.

Hick worries about the number of ventilators available, as well as the number of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, systems, which function like an external blood pump. “So that’s kind of what we’re wrestling with right now — in addition to just space and the staffing,” he said.

He also pointed to appropriate hospital beds as something difficult to work around, describing how unrealistic it would be, for example, to place an 80-year-old patient on a makeshift cot. “Their skin breaks down. A lot of times we have to position those patients differently in order to ventilate them appropriately,” he said. “There’s just no substitute for a good, quality hospital bed.”

Hospitals are also increasingly concerned about the short supply of the personal protective equipment (PPE) used to keep health care workers safe and healthy, like gowns, N95 respirators, surgical masks, gloves and eye protection.

“We’re seeing significant shortages of personal protective equipment and [a] shift to having to really conserve personal protective equipment to make sure that our nurses, physicians and others are adequately protected,” says Paul Biddinger, Vice Chairman for Emergency Preparedness in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Every health care system has been having to very carefully determine how they allocate and use their PPE so that they try to preserve it to protect the workforce.”

As an increasing number of first responders are likely to come in contact with and contract coronavirus — and therefore be unable to continue working themselves — staffing could become a major problem. Facing furloughed workers, or workers simply exhausted after endless hours on the job, trained professionals out of the workforce may be looked to as standby substitutes. Health care professionals who are not normally considered frontline workers are also figuring out how they can jump in and get involved in the fight.

“I think we’re having to all get comfortable with the idea of practicing outside of our comfort zone,” Fick says. “I’m an internal medicine physician, I’m trained in critical care for my residency, but that was 10 years ago. I haven’t operated a ventilator in 10 years, but I’m preparing to rapid-fire relearn that skill in the event that I have to use that.”

New story in Health from Time: ‘It Will Have Effects for Months and Years.’ From Jury Duty to Trials, Coronavirus is Wreaking Havoc on Courts

When Joanna Lin appeared for jury duty in New York City on March 12, she noticed the other 180 prospective jurors in the Manhattan waiting room were trying to avoid one another, choosing seats as far apart as possible. Some wore masks, and just about everyone, including the court clerk, was discussing the coronavirus.

“After all these other things are canceled,” Lin, 34, recalls thinking, “there’s still jury duty.”

The next day, that changed. New York and several other courts across the country had suspended jury selection and postponed new criminal and civil trials to try to stem the spread of the virus. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it was postponing upcoming oral arguments for the first time in more than 100 years; the last time it did so was in 1918 in response to the Spanish flu epidemic.

Jury duty cancellations no doubt are being met with relief by many prospective jurors who feared having to sit in a room teeming with strangers for hours at a time when health officials were urging people to keep their distance from each other.

“You’re in close quarters,” says Lin. “If one person gets sick, you’re screwed.”

And while closing courtrooms and halting jury duty makes sense for public health reasons, some legal experts warn the delays could create an overwhelming backlog of cases and have legal ramifications, since defendants are guaranteed a speedy and fair trial under the Constitution.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” says Raffi Melkonian, an appellate lawyer in Houston. “This truly is unprecedented. It will have effects for months and years after we are back to normal.”

With the fast-moving coronavirus already affecting thousands of people in the United States, federal and state courts throughout most of the nation have implemented new measures—from restricting who can enter the building to delaying jury trials—in an effort to contain it.

In Los Angeles, the high-profile murder trial of real estate scion Robert Durst has been put on hold for three weeks, a judge announced Sunday. The 76-year-old was arrested and charged in 2015 with his friend Susan Berman’s murder as HBO was airing The Jinx, a documentary series that delved into the disappearance of Durst’s wife Kathie in 1982 and Berman’s murder in Los Angeles 20 years ago. Durst’s highly anticipated trial has been slated to last about five months.

Courts in several states, including New York, Washington state, Texas, Connecticut, Missouri, Florida, Arizona, Ohio and Virginia, have suspended jury trials. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has additionally postponed all misdemeanor, traffic and petty offense cases.

In Michigan, an executive order issued Monday by the state Supreme Court granted trial judges the power to adjourn any civil and criminal matter if the defendant is not in custody, and to try to use videoconferencing if the defendant is in custody.

“We are not in a position right now to call citizens in for jury duty in big groups. It’s not responsible,” Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget McCormack said at a news conference.

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Some courts have not yet taken drastic measures, Melkonian says, highlighting a disparity in how various jurisdictions are dealing with the pandemic. In California, for example, while Durst’s case in Los Angeles has been paused, many courts in different counties have not made major changes to their operations. Some have only barred access to people who have recently visited disease-battered countries like China and Italy, or to those who have flu-like symptoms.

The pandemic has resulted in at least 65 deaths in the U.S. and more than 7,000 deaths globally. Millions of Americans have been urged to stay home as cities and states, including Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, Washington state and New York City, have ordered bars to close and restaurants to halt dine-in services. Schools and colleges also have been closed.

A judge in Dallas expressed his concerns about delays in court while weighing how to proceed. In a statement on March 12, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he was suspending civil jury trials, but not criminal ones, because the “inability to guarantee a speedy trial could result in cases being dismissed.”

Advocates also worry the delays will mean defendants have to languish in already-overcrowded jails for months or even years.

“The idea that we might not have jurors really would amplify the problem that already exists,” says Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, a criminal justice researcher and Brown University sociology professor. “The pandemic is exerting a real influence on people’s basic rights and dignity and their ability to go free.”

Van Cleve says she fears defendants who can’t afford bail and become desperate will take plea bargains just to get out of jail instead of waiting for their day in court.

“Imagine the fear of being arrested for a really small crime and the next thing you know, your public defender says, ‘Well, if you plead guilty, we can let you go. But if you stay and wait trial, which could be weeks or months or unknown, then you’d have to wait in the jail with a pandemic,” Van Cleve says.

“These aren’t really choices anymore,” she adds. “These are human rights at stake.”

 

 

New story in Health from Time: ‘Is Ordering Takeout Unethical?’ A Medical Ethicist Answers Some of the Most Common Moral Questions Around Coronavirus

An epidemic is a test not just of our mettle but our morals. In a time of lockdowns and quarantines, restaurant closings and shuttered schools, the temptation is often to bend the rules, relying on the familiar just-this-once or it-couldn’t-hurt dodge. Even when we’re trying to behave well, there are moral conundrums that present themselves—situations in which we have to choose between one of two options and neither one is risk-free. TIME spoke to Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, about some of the most common moral dilemmas associated with the coronavirus.

If I’m a young, healthy person and my city has not shut down entirely yet, should I stay in as part of social distancing or should I go out, support local businesses and tip well at restaurants?

You should stay in. If you want restaurant food, order out and tip generously that way. You should not be sitting in groups in public places. Remember, even if you’re young and healthy, you’re still at risk of turning into a disease vector who could infect others. Merely getting to the restaurant may have required a bus or an Uber, which could expose you to the virus. The businesses can take the two- or three-week shutdown better than grandma can take the virus.

But isn’t ordering takeout unethical too? After all, I’m contributing to the delivery person’s being exposed to me and to others.

I think you can still order; just have the delivery person leave the food at the door and go. That’s the protocol now. Don’t exchange paper money, don’t have any physical contact. This is one reason it’s good to order online and have everything paid by credit card or otherwise electronically.

If I have children, can I take them to the park so they can get out of the house?

Yes, but practice social distancing. Let them run around, but keep them away from other kids. Watch out for your own child or someone else’s sneezing or coughing. And if you have very small kids, watch out for what they put in their mouths. They can either be picking up or spreading viruses through playground toys.

Suppose I’m a parent and have to work from home. Is it immoral to have my nanny come watch my kids so I can get my work done?

I honestly don’t think nannies are going to be going out no matter what, so you’re probably stuck. Even if they do, remember that if you live in a city, they may have traveled to you by subway or bus, where they could have become infected. It’s not the risk of their being in the house, it’s the risk of their getting there. I mean, if you live in an apartment building and a nanny lives down the hall, then sure, since you’ve all remained indoors. But that’s not a terribly common situation.

Is it OK to have sex with my partner?

No. I would say unless you’ve just been tested and waited five days that you shouldn’t. No kissing either. I think it’s just too much of a risk that one of you might be infected. Also, we have to remember that older people have sex too and they’re especially in danger. In nursing homes it’s important to explain these risks to the residents.

Is it morally irresponsible to visit a sick relative—and in this case let’s assume the illness isn’t coronavirus since that raises other issues?

I think relatives vary. I don’t have to visit my 23-year-old nephew if he’s sick. I can Skype him and stay in touch via email or text. My mother is in a nursing home and I wouldn’t visit her. But in between? I think it’s OK to visit. A sick relative may need a meal or other assistance, especially if they’re cognitively slipping. There are also risks of falls if someone isn’t there to help them. But be mindful of how you get there in the first place. Walk or ride a bike if you can. [Ed note: If a homebound patient is immunocompromised, you should check with a doctor before visiting.]

One more question for parents: If daycare remains open, is it OK to send your child?

Daycare won’t remain open. It’s a nonstarter. They’ll either close them or the kids won’t show up. If there are any daycare centers that do remain open, I worry more about the child bringing something home that’s going to hurt you or someone else in the household. They come back and they’re going to make older people sick. Again, in the spirit of social isolation, this isn’t business as usual.

Can I go to the pharmacy if I need to?

If you have to pick up medication of course you should, but more pharmacies are doing home delivery now. They are also waiving 30-day limits on pills and allowing you to get a 90-day supply. In all cases, if you go to the pharmacy, try to get everything all at once.

Is it ethical to go to your doctor for a non-urgent problem?

No. Call your doctor; you may also be able to have a visit via WebEx or Skype. I think that’s going to linger on after the epidemic; there’s going to be a lot more telemedicine in the future. If there are appointments that have to be conducted in person but aren’t urgent—like annual checkups or six-month follow-ups on a hip or knee replacement—it’s better to postpone till later.

Is it ethical to rat out a friend or colleague who is showing symptoms and ignoring them—mentioning the problem to the person’s spouse, say, or to your mutual boss?

Yeah, I think in times of pandemic, it’s important to have people who seem sick take care of themselves. Hopefully you can talk to them first before talking to a third party. I don’t normally pester someone who’s not paying attention to their rash or something. But yeah, in this case I think it’s OK.

New story in Health from Time: Coronavirus Fears Are Leading to Blood Drive Cancellations at ‘Unprecedented’ Rates in the U.S.

Winter is not a boom time for blood donation centers in the U.S. Bad weather, plus circulating flu strains, tend to deter people from giving blood. And the ongoing outbreak of the new coronavirus in the U.S. has worsened an already lean time. According to the American Red Cross, about 1,500 of their blood drives across the country have been canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus. The organization estimates that they’ve lost out on roughly 46,000 donations as a result. Meanwhile, the demand for blood is still strong.

“We’ve not seen anything like this at the Red Cross,” says Chris Hrouda, president of Biomedical Services for the American Red Cross. “The pace of the cancellations is unprecedented…within a week, we’ll be at critical levels of inventory.”

The Red Cross relies on schools, colleges, churches and civic organizations to partner with them in hosting blood drives. But host sites in more than 30 states—and not just areas that have higher numbers of COVID-19 cases, like California or New York—have canceled because of the virus, Hrouda says. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages people to avoid crowds and practice “social distancing,” more people are staying home.

“We need people to start turning out in force to give blood,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a statement. (Blood donation centers are regulated by the FDA.) Donations are used for blood transfusions, which are given after serious injuries, surgeries and childbirth, and to help treat people for anemia, cancer, blood disorders and more.

“Unfortunately, this is our only source of blood in the United States,” Hrouda says. “We can’t get it any other way than having donors come in and donate.”

Hardy Dealerships in Dallas, Georgia, did not cancel its Red Cross blood drive on March 13. But only 11 people attended the five-hour blood drive, which typically draws about 25 people when the auto group holds it every few months. “While I was having blood drawn, I asked [the phlebotomist] if they had host organizations cancel, and they had three cancel yesterday,” says Justin Fuller, controller at the Hardy Family Automotive Group. “Schools had asked them not to come, and some churches were also closing.”

Bloodworks Northwest, a nonprofit blood donation organization that serves hospitals in Washington state and Oregon, also saw a recent rise in cancellations. As schools closed and new work-from-home policies began in those areas, host sites dropped out and people canceled appointments. They lost 100 blood drives (which means about 2,500 donations) as a result, says Curt Bailey, president and CEO of Bloodworks Northwest.

At the beginning of March, “we sounded the alarm and said the blood supply is going to collapse,” says Bailey. “We used that word, which we had never used before, to make it very clear to people: this is it.”

After public officials urged people to give blood and media began writing about the crisis, “we started to see a significant influx of newly scheduled appointments, and we started to see new organizations raise their hands and offer to host a blood drive,” Bailey says. The trend reversed. “Now, our blood supply is healthy and our inventories are very strong.” The challenge, he says, will be converting crisis donors into ones who give regularly to sustain them through the coronavirus outbreak.

To convince people that giving blood is safe, the Red Cross is asking those who have traveled to China, Hong Kong, Macau, Iran, Italy and South Korea not to donate for a month after their trip, and for people diagnosed with COVID-19 (or who have had contact with a person suspected to have the virus) to postpone donating for a month. “But that’s just out of an abundance of caution,” says Hrouda. “There are no data or evidence that this coronavirus can be transmitted by blood transfusion.”

Workers are also taking people’s temperatures before they enter blood drives (not after they get inside, the typical practice), Hrouda says. Donors are placed farther apart from one another. “We already had a very tight cleaning process, but we’re cleaning everything down between every donor and making sure our staff wears appropriate PPE [personal protective equipment],” he says.

He hopes that the extra measures, and the need, encourage people to donate. “Our concern is we’re going to see a pretty dramatic and pretty rapid drop in the inventory of blood in the U.S., both with the Red Cross and non-Red Cross blood centers,” Hrouda says. “That’s going to put a very important source of care for hospital patients at risk.”

New story in Health from Time: Are People With Asthma at High Risk for Coronavirus?

Every year, people with asthma brace for seasonal colds and flu, which can aggravate wheezing and coughing. Asthma, a common long-term lung condition, can cause difficulty breathing and shortness of breath and accounts for 9.8 million doctor visits and 1.8 million hospital visits in the United States per year.

This year, people with asthma also have COVID-19 to worry about. Like other coronaviruses, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 attacks the respiratory system, has infected over 135,00 people and killed nearly 5,000 as of March 13. According to health officials, those most at risk are older populations or people with pre-existing medical conditions. Now, many sufferers of asthma are asking themselves whether their condition puts them at a higher risk.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says yes. It lists asthma, along with diabetes and heart disease, as conditions that make someone “more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.” The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America also lists asthma as a chronic medical conditions which makes one more at risk, noting that asthmatics should “take precautions when any type of respiratory illness is spreading in their community.”

But experts told TIME there is little definitive evidence to say whether asthma increases the likelihood of catching the virus or of experiencing more severe illness. “The data that we have so far from China and South Korea does not identify people with asthma as being at risk of getting the virus or having more severe illness with the virus,” Sebastian Johnston, a professor of respiratory medicine & allergy at the U.K. National Heart and Lung Institute tells TIME.

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David Jackson, a consultant respiratory physician and clinical lead for asthma care at Guy’s Hospital in London also says that “asthma currently doesn’t seem to be a significant risk factor for a more severe infection,” adding that the new coronavirus does not seem to be affecting asthmatics in the same way as other viruses generally.

Research on COVID-19 is at a very preliminary stage, but one study of 140 infected patients found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness, has no effect on asthma. With that said, asthma has worsened with other strains of coronavirus.

However, while studies have not yet shown a link between asthma and more severe cases of COVID-19, asthmatics are at risk of more severe illness with respiratory viruses in general—and some experts say people with asthma should make additional provisions.

Johnston says people with asthma should follow all recommended precautions—such as social distancing, avoiding contact with people who have respiratory symptoms, and washing hands—but added that all asthmatics, even those with mild symptoms, should be taking their preventer inhalers “diligently” as a precautionary measure. They should also carry Ventolin—their blue reliever inhalers—with them in case of an asthma attack. Older viruses like the seasonal flu remain a threat, he notes, and people with asthma should get the seasonal flu vaccine.

Please send any tips, leads, and stories to virus@time.com.

No stone being left unturned to ensure people are healthy: PM Modi on coronavirus fight

In a series of tweets with the hashtag 'India Fights Corona', PM Modi said the encouragement from people highlighting the steps being taken to combat the virus is boosting the morale of all those doctors, nurses, municipal workers, airport staff and all other remarkable people at the forefront of the fight.

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Alembic Pharma receives 4 observations from USFDA for Panelav facility

"The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has conducted an inspection at Alembic Pharmaceuticals general oral solid formulation facility located at Panelav from 9-13 March, 2020," the drug firm said in a filing to the BSE. This was a scheduled inspection, and at the end of the inspection, the USFDA issued a Form 483 with four procedural observations.

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Exporters Line Up for Restricted API Licence

On March 3, govt restricted exports of 26 API and formulations to ensure there is no shortage of drugs in the country

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Covid-19 cases to be discharged only after 2 negative tests in 24 hours: Govt

The government has issued a discharge policy for Covid-19 cases under which a positive case shall be managed as per protocol and discharged after only two samples test negative within 24 hours and there’s evidence of chest radiographic clearance and viral clearance in respiratory samples.

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India declares Covid-19 a ‘Notified Disaster’

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the tech giant’s retail operation outside China was going online for two weeks to fight the global viral pandemic. In a lengthier online statement, Cook said Apple’s stores in China have now reopened.

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New story in Health from Time: ‘Go to Your Local Pub’: While Experts Call for Social Distancing, Rep. Devin Nunes Advises People to Leave Their Homes

Rep. Devin Nunes of California urged Americans to go out and visit bars and restaurants on Sunday, amid mounting calls by experts for people to avoid public gatherings to avoid spreading coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

In an appearance on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures , Nunes told that people should “stop panicking here.” He was concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic could harm the economy, “because people are scared to go out.”

“If you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country…go to your local pub” pic.twitter.com/jXdhOfwe9R

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) March 15, 2020

“But I just want to say, one of the things you can do: if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy,” said Nunes. “Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going… Don’t just run to the grocery store and buy $4,000 of food. Go to your local pub.”

Other countries have employed “social distancing,” the practice of reducing contact with other people, as a way to contain the virus and experts say that quick action has helped to contain the virus. Scientists have warned that there is evidence that the disease may be spread by people who are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.

Experts say that social distancing is an effective means of slowing the virus’ spread, especially to vulnerable people like the elderly and chronically ill.

In a Sunday appearance on CNN, one of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, discouraged Americans from visiting restaurants and bars.

“I would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see in restaurants and bars. Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like to see,” said Fauci.

Small businesses have reported that the outbreak is beginning to repress sales.

Coronavirus: HIV drugs can be used in severe cases, says ICMR

According to ICMR experts, the inclusion of the anti-HIV drugs for treating Covid-19 was based on earlier evidence about their effectiveness against SARS and MERS coronaviruses that led to outbreaks in different parts of the world in 2002-03 and 2012, respectively, as well as the docking studies conducted by National Institute of Virology, Pune.

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India-wide Corona infections touch 100, Maharashtra has most cases 31

The number of those confirmed infected includes 10 people who were cured and two who died.

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