USA

(AP) --- The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

TOP OF THE HOUR:

— UN Secretary-General says pandemic is becoming human rights crisis

— Japan: 14 more crew members on Italian cruise ship test positive for coronavirus

— New Zealand announces just three new virus cases, two deaths

— China again reports no new virus deaths

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s tenure as Barack Obama’s vice president is complicating his efforts to deepen ties with Latinos who could be critical to winning the White House.

For many Latinos, Biden’s embrace of the Obama years is a frightening reminder of when the former president ejected about 3 million people living in the U.S. illegally, earning him the moniker of “deporter in chief.”

MADILL, Okla. (AP) — One person was killed Wednesday when an apparent tornado that damaged at least two businesses tore through Marshall County in southern Oklahoma.

Another damaging storm, also an apparent tornado swept, through a Southeast Texas county, causing widespread damage.

The Oklahoma storm hit Madill, near the Red River, about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, causing widespread damage to the town, including its residential neighborhoods, said Donny Raley, the city’s emergency manager.

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he “disagreed strongly” with the decision by Georgia’s Republican governor to reopen salons, gyms and other nonessential businesses that had been shuttered to contain the coronavirus, saying, “It’s just too soon.”

During the daily White House briefing, the president indicated that while he is in favor of states reopening their economies, Gov. Brian Kemp is moving a little too fast.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For weeks, the Trump administration played up the dangers of the coronavirus as it sought to convince Americans to disrupt their lives and stay home. Now, as President Donald Trump aims for a swift nationwide reopening, he faces a new challenge: convincing people it’s safe to come out and resume their normal lives.

It’s a defining question for a cloistered nation — and a political imperative for Trump, whose reelection likely rides on the pace of an economic rebound.

BOSTON (AP) — As she treated patient after patient infected with the coronavirus at a Veterans Affairs medical center in New York City, Heather Espinal saw stark warning signs.

So many nurses had called in sick, she said, that the Bronx facility was woefully understaffed. It lacked specially equipped rooms for infected patients, she said, and didn’t have enough masks, gloves and other protective gear to guard against the spread of the highly contagious disease.

NEW YORK, Apr 22 (APP): A potential second wave of the coronavirus late in the year would likely be more deadly, as it would overlap with flu season, the head of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, has warned.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Pot Post. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 22 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday called on the world community to respond to the immediate crisis caused by the ‘dreadful’ new coronavirus in a way that also solves the climate crisis.

In a special message for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the UN chief, while urging everyone to “work together to save lives, ease suffering and lessen the shattering economic and social consequence” from COVID-19’s impact, also said that climate disruption is approaching “a point of no return”, and a “deep emergency” that long predates the pandemic.

22 April 2020; MEMO: The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) “called on Lebanon and Israel to exercise restraint to reduce tensions along the Blue Line” amid rising frictions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said in his daily briefing on Monday.

Washington, Apr 22 (PTI) The World Health Organization has become a tool of the "Chinese propaganda", the Trump administration has alleged, asserting that the global health agency has lost all its credibility during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

US President Donald Trump recently announced he would put a hold on America's funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the UN health body of becoming "China-centric" during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.