USA

Washington, Apr 4 (AFP/PTI) The United States recorded nearly 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 between Thursday and Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, the worst 24-hour death toll globally since the pandemic began.

With 1,480 deaths counted between 8:30 pm (0030 GMT) Thursday and the same time Friday, according to the university's continuously updated figures, the total number of people who have died since the start of the pandemic in the United States is now 7,406.

Washington, Apr 4 (PTI) President Donald Trump has recommended Americans to cover their faces with scarves or homemade cloth masks while going outside to curb the spread of the coronavirus though he would not wear one himself.

Citing the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Trump urged people to wear face coverings like scarves or homemade cloth masks, and to keep medical-grade masks available for the health workers.

NEW YORK, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ventilators will be taken from certain New York hospitals and redistributed to the worst-hit parts of the state under an order to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

New York saw its highest single-day increase in deaths, up by 562 to 2,935 – nearly half of all virus-related US deaths recorded Thursday.

The White House may advise those in virus hotspots to wear face coverings in public to help stem the spread.

The US now has 245,658 Covid-19 cases.

WASHINGTON, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Attorney General William Barr declared that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is facing emergency conditions due to the fast-spreading coronavirus, paving the way for the agency to begin releasing more inmates out of custody and into home confinement.

Barr said under his emergency order, priority for releasing vulnerable inmates into home confinement should be given first to those housed in federal prisons that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, including facilities such as Oakdale in Louisiana, Elkton in Ohio and Danbury in Connecticut.

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the international community should focus only on the battle against its common enemy of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is sweeping the entire world and bringing tremendous socio-economic impacts.

"The global ceasefire appeal is resonating across the world," Guterres said at a virtual press briefing.

NEW YORK, April 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that Americans wear cloth face coverings to protect against COVID-19.

"The CDC is advising the use of non-medical cloth face covering as a voluntary health measure," Trump told a White House briefing. "It is voluntary. They suggested for a period of time."

More than 277,000 COVID-19 cases were tallied in the United States, with a death toll exceeding 7,100, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons on Friday to increase the use of home confinement and expedite the release of eligible high-risk inmates at three federal prisons where coronavirus cases have skyrocketed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Scarce supplies of medical equipment are leading to growing competition within the U.S. and among nations, in what one French politician called a “worldwide treasure hunt.”

The governor of New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, vowed to seize unused ventilators from private hospitals and companies, while President Donald Trump said he was preventing the export of N95 respirator masks and surgical gloves, a move he said was necessary to ensure that medical supplies are available in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A grim snapshot of the U.S. job market’s sudden collapse emerged Friday with a report that employers shed hundreds of thousands of jobs last month because of the viral outbreak that’s brought the economy to a near-standstill.

The loss of 701,000 jobs, reported by the Labor Department, ended nearly a decade of uninterrupted job growth, the longest such streak on record. The unemployment rate surged in March from a 50-year low of 3.5% to 4.4% — the sharpest one-month jump in the jobless rate since 1975.

And that’s just a hint of what’s to come.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a shift, the top leaders in Congress made it clear Friday there will be another coronavirus rescue package amid the stark need for federal resources to fight the pandemic and economic crisis.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after days of publicly jousting over what’s next, began to outline fresh priorities signaling a potential thaw to the sniping and opportunity for renewed bipartisan ground.

“There will be a next measure,” McConnell said in an interview with The Associated Press.