Social Distancing Cartoons

US nears China’s virus death toll as New York calls for help

NEW YORK (AP) — The mounting death toll from the virus outbreak in the United States had it poised Tuesday to overtake China’s grim toll of 3,300 deaths, with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying up to 1 million more healthcare workers were needed. “Please come help us,” he urged.

Hard-hit Italy and Spain have already overtaken China and now account for more than half of the nearly 38,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that while attention has shifted to epicenters in Western Europe and North America, the coronavirus pandemic was far from over in Asia.

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“This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard,” said Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. “We need every country to keep responding according to their local situation.”

In Japan, the countdown clocks were reset and ticking again for the Tokyo Olympics after organizers announced new dates following the postponement from this summer. The clocks read 479 days to go, with the games now scheduled to kick off on July 23, 2021.

In New York City, Cuomo and health officials warned Monday that the crisis unfolding there is just a preview of what other U.S. communities could soon face. New York State’s death toll climbed by more than 250 people in a day Monday to more than 1,200, most of them in the city.

“We’ve lost over one thousand New Yorkers,” Cuomo said. “To me, we’re beyond staggering already.”

Even before the governor’s appeal, close to 80,000 former nurses, doctors and other professionals were stepping up to volunteer, and a Navy hospital ship had arrived with 1,000 beds to relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.

News also came of the first U.S. service member to die from the disease. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the death of the New Jersey Army National Guardsman strengthened their resolve to work more closely with partners to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“This is a stinging loss for our military community,” Esper said in a release.

More than 235 million people — about two of every three Americans — live in the 33 states where governors have declared statewide orders or recommendations to stay home.

In California, officials put out a similar call for medical volunteers as coronavirus hospitalizations doubled over the last four days and the number of patients in intensive care tripled.

“Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days,” President Donald Trump told reporters Monday. “The more we dedicate ourselves today, the more quickly we will emerge on the other side of the crisis.”

In contrast, the crisis is continuing to ease in China. On Tuesday, officials in the world’s most populous nation reported just 48 new COVID-19 cases, all of them brought from overseas.

In Wuhan, people were ready to jump, cry and “revenge shop” as the Chinese city once at the center of the global virus outbreak reopened.

“I’m so excited, I want to cry,” said one woman at the Chuhe Hanjie pedestrian mall, where about 75% of the shops had reopened. Shopkeepers were limiting the number of people they were letting in, dispensing hand sanitizer and checking customers for signs of fever.

More than three-quarters of a million people worldwide have become infected and over 37,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia. More than 160,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

Italy and Spain saw their death tolls climb by more than 800 each on Monday, but the WHO’s emergency chief said cases there were “potentially stabilizing.” At the same time, he warned against letting up on tough containment measures.

“We have to now push the virus down, and that will not happen by itself,” Dr. Michael Ryan said.

Italy’s death toll climbed to nearly 11,600. But in a bit of positive news, the numbers showed a continued slowdown in the rate of new confirmed cases and a record number of people recovered.

“We are saving lives by staying at home, by maintaining social distance, by traveling less and by closing schools,” said Dr. Luca Richeldi, a lung specialist.

At least six of Spain’s 17 regions were at their limit of intensive care unit beds, and three more were close to it, authorities said. Crews of workers were frantically building more field hospitals.

Nearly 15% of all those infected in Spain, almost 13,000 people, are health care workers, hurting hospitals’ efforts to help the tsunami of people gasping for breath.

Tenor Placido Domingo said Monday he is resting at home after catching the new coronavirus.

“I feel fine,” Domingo said in a statement.

The 79-year-old was reportedly hospitalized in Mexico after publicly acknowledging on March 22 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and said he was going into isolation. He’d suffered from a fever and a cough.

The opera singer’s illness comes after his own glittering career had recently been marred by sexual misconduct revelations.

Israel said 70-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quarantining himself after an aide tested positive for the virus. And In Britain, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne who tested positive, ended his period of isolation and is in good health, his office said.

Moscow, meanwhile, locked down its 12 million people as Russia braced for sweeping nationwide restrictions.

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Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Tucker blasts feds over medical masks, says 'stop lying to us' about why we shouldn't buy them

Tucker Carlson claimed Monday that the federal government has not been forthright about the supply of crucial N95 medical masks amid the coronavirus outbreak.
"In any crisis, trust is critical -- the government can't coordinate a national response if the public doesn't believe what it says and doesn't believe the government is looking out for its best interest," the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host said. "That's why honesty is essential at times like this. When the government lies, people know.
"From the beginning of the Chinese coronavirus epidemic, mask shortages have been a major problem. Some people hoarded hundreds of thousands of them and manufacturers couldn't keep up."
TRUMP SHOWS OFF NEW RAPID COVID-19 TEST KIT AT PRESS CONFERENCE
According to Carlson, federal officials initially told Americans not to buy masks because they wouldn't prevent healthy people from contracting the virus, rather than simply admitting health professionals were facing critical shortages.
He cited a Feb. 29 tweet from Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who wrote: "Seriously, people -- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare [sic] providers can't get them to care for sick patients it puts them and our communities at risk!"
Carlson added that the CDC and mainstream media backed Adams' assertion.
Quoting a CNN report from the same day as Adams' tweet, Carlson read: "The CDC says that healthy people in the U.S. should not wear them because they won't protect them from the novel coronavirus. In fact, facemasks might actually increase your risk for infection if they aren't worn properly, but medical workers who treat patients ... do need them."
The host went on to quote a March 4 Time.com headline from earlier this month that read: "Health experts are telling healthy people not to wear face masks for coronavirus. So why are so many doing it?"
"The article suggested believing in masks [is] some kind of superstition like not walking under ladders or being afraid of black cats," Carlson said. "It's insulting. It's ridiculous."
In addition, Carlson said, the claim that the masks only work for health care professionals, but not for healthy civilians is baffling, since the pandemic has no regard for people's occupation.
"So look, we understand there's a shortage of masks," Carlson concluded, addressing the federal government. "We understand only certain people should get them because it's a triage moment, we get it. But stop lying to us."

Stock futures trade higher after Monday's rally

U.S. equity futures are trading higher after the S&P 500 rose for a fourth session in the last five to begin the week.
The major futures indexes are indicating a rise of 0.9 percent when trading begins on Tuesday.
Asian shares traded mixed Tuesday after a rally in U.S. stocks.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei fell 0.8 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.2 percent and China's Shanghai Composite was off 0.1 percent.
In Asia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore eased policy Monday, and the central bank of China has also cut a key interest rate.
China’s manufacturing rebounded in March as authorities relaxed anti-disease controls and allowed factories to reopen, an official survey showed Tuesday, but an industry group warned the economy has yet to fully recover.
In Europe, London's FTSE gained 1.9 percent, Germany's DAX rose 2.4 percent and France's CAC added 1.5 percent.
The Wall Street rally tacked more gains onto a recent upswing for the market, which is coming off the best week for the S&P 500 in 11 years, albeit after falling into bear market territory. Optimism is building that the worst of the selling may be approaching, but markets around the world are still wary as leaders work to nurse their economies through the pandemic. The S&P 500 remains 22.4 percent below its record set last month.
The S&P 500 rose 3.4 percent Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3.2 percent and the Nasdaq gained 3.6 percent.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	22327.48	+690.70	+3.19%
SP500	S&P 500	2626.65	+85.18	+3.35%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	7774.151261	+271.77	+3.62%

A surge for health care stocks led the way at the week's open. Johnson & Johnson leaped 8 percent after saying it expects to begin human clinical studies on a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 by September. Abbott Laboratories jumped 6.4 percent after saying it has a test that can detect the new coronavirus in as little as five minutes.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
JNJ	JOHNSON & JOHNSON	133.01	+9.85	+8.00%
ABT	ABBOTT LABORATORIES	79.34	+4.78	+6.41%

Stocks jumped last week after the Federal Reserve promised to buy as many Treasurys as it takes to get lending markets running smoothly and Capitol Hill reached a deal on a $2.2 trillion rescue package for the economy.
Forced selling by investors needing to raise cash is easing, according to Morgan Stanley strategists. They say another pullback in stocks is likely, but current levels offer some buying points for investors willing to wait six to 12 months.
Economists expect a number of weak reports on the economy to come in through the week. The lowlight will likely be Friday's jobs report, where economists expect to see the steepest drop in the nation's payrolls since the Great Recession.
The number of known infections around the world has topped 780,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number in the world, more than 160,000.
Most people who contract COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause pneumonia and require hospitalization.
More than 37,000 have died worldwide due to COVID-19, but more than 160,000 have also recovered.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.

How the House approved the coronavirus bill

So now you’re wondering exactly what in the world went on the other day on Capitol Hill. That’s when Congress struggled to adopt the coronavirus bill. What was going on with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)? And why, oh why couldn’t lawmakers vote from the comfort of their living rooms – while watching Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Mike Krzyzewski, of course?
So, let’s explore what happened during the coronavirus debate last week.
Let’s start with the controversy in the House about taking a “recorded vote” on the coronavirus bill.
Some suggested the House somehow “cheated” or used a shady backdoor method to approve the $2.2 trillion coronavirus package.
Under normal circumstances, lawmakers would insist on their presence to vote on the plan. The bill is the largest in U.S. history and could prove to be the most consequential piece of legislation of the modern era. The Senate voted 96-0 on the plan. Ninety-six of all 100 sitting U.S. senators were present and voted in person on the measure. The four who missed the vote either tested positive for coronavirus or were quarantined.
The House Democratic and Republican leadership teams worked together in hopes of okaying the coronavirus measure via voice vote. That’s where everyone in the chamber hollers “aye” and those opposed shout “no.” The chair judges the decibels. Thus, the loudest side prevails. Leaders on both sides hoped to approve the bill with just a skeleton crew on hand. Consider this: the House approached the coronavirus vote with 430 members. That’s 330 more members than the entire Senate. The push for a voice vote was about health and safety. The leaders - as well as U.S. Capitol Attending Physician Dr. Brian Monahan – were genuinely concerned about amplifying the health risk to the country by dragging hundreds of lawmakers back to Washington, exposing the public, exposing the lawmakers to one another, exposing Congressional staff, exposing U.S. Capitol Police officers, exposing Congressional maintenance workers and custodians, exposing the Capitol press corps…
You get the idea.
So, it would be more hygienic to pass the bill with just a few members in the chamber. And, a voice vote allowed those both for and against the issue to express their positions – albeit vocally.
However, Massie was determined to drag everyone back to Washington to vote. One could argue it may be critical for the House to take a full roll call vote on such an incredibly expensive piece of legislation – even if only a handful of lawmakers were likely to vote nay.
But this is an extraordinary time. And the very idea of lugging hundreds of lawmakers together in the same room flies in the face of every piece of public health guidance disseminated anywhere in the world over the past month.
A “voice vote” isn’t some special gambit to rig the system. The House approves bills, amendments and resolutions via one of four methods:

1. Voice vote: Explained above.
2. Division vote: Division votes are rare in the House these days. If the House orders a division vote - perhaps because the Speaker wasn’t certain as to which side was more boisterous on a voice vote - then those in favor rise to be counted. Then, those opposed stand and are counted, too. That’s the “division.”
3. Unanimous consent: This is where a lawmaker on the floor asks that the House approve a given measure via “unanimous consent.” It means just that. All members in the House, and, more superficially on the floor, must be in favor of that matter. However, if any member on the floor vocally interjects “I object,” then it lacks unanimous consent. In short, all 434 members of the 435 member House (if the House was at full membership) could favor passage of a bill. But it only takes one member to object, thus blocking unanimous consent.
4. A recorded, roll call vote: The House instituted an electronic voting system in the chamber in 1973. Each member is given a plastic voting card. They insert their card into various machines sprinkled around the chamber and press buttons reading either yea, nay or present. The House had already taken 102 roll call votes through March 14 for this calendar year. Massie wanted a roll call vote so every member was “on the record” regarding the gargantuan, $2.2 trillion package.

Here was the problem for Massie:
When debate time expires on almost every bill or amendment, the House usually conducts an automatic vote by voice. Again, all members in the chamber shout either yea or nay. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) presided over the coronavirus debate. When the voice vote popped up, it was obvious there were far many more ayes than noes.
“The ayes have it,” said Brown, technically passing the bill.
But, one can contest that the House is not finished at that stage. That’s where Massie requested “a recorded vote.”
Things get tricky here. In most instances, lawmakers want to be on the record. They want a recorded vote. House Rule XX requires that only “one-fifth of those present” stand on their feet to demonstrate solidarity with the request for a recorded vote. That’s just a fraction of those in the chamber. In most instances, members rise. But not on Friday. They sat on their hands. They opposed a recorded vote.
Usually, at this stage, the presiding officer announces that “a sufficient number having arisen, members will record their vote by electronic device.”
But not Friday.
After a quick scan of the chamber, Brown determined that “a recorded vote is refused.” Hardly anyone was on their feet.
But another issue lurked for those who wanted to dispense with the coronavirus bill quickly and hygienically. A member could lodge a “point of order.” A point of order is essentially a grievance that the House isn’t operating within the rules. It wasn’t so much that Massie might order a roll call vote. The worry was that the House may lack a quorum to conduct business. Such a scenario would prompt the point of order. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution requires a quorum be present in the House and Senate to execute business. A quorum constitutes just over half of all members. Former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is now White House Chief of Staff. So, the total population of the House declined to 429 members. But on Friday, the House had 430 members. That meant the House needed 216 members present to qualify for a quorum. Otherwise, Massie or any other member, may have been able to stymie the House from voting on the bill through making a point of order. You can’t go to a roll call vote if the House lacks a quorum.
Passage of the coronavirus bill was never in doubt. But the issue was whether the House could have a quorum on hand to validate the voice vote. That’s why so many lawmakers rushed back to Washington. The key was constituting a quorum in the House chamber. And that’s why so many lawmakers of both parties have nothing but enmity for Massie. They believe the Kentucky Republican singlehandedly jeopardized the health and safety of the House – to say nothing of the people lawmakers may have encountered just to scurry back to Capitol Hill.
In other words, it’s a healthier in today’s circumstances to pass a bill with ten people in a big room as opposed to at least 216.
So, back to the House floor on Friday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) signed off on a plan to throw open every door to the House chamber – both on the floor and in the public viewing gallery one level above. The doors stood open in an effort to aerate the room. Lawmakers spread out on both floors to practice social distancing.
After Brown informed Massie that not enough members stood up to require a call recall vote, Massie went the quorum route.
“I object on the basis that a quorum is not present and I make a point of order that a quorum is not present,” said Massie.
“The chair will count for a quorum,” responded Brown.
Again, the Maryland Democrat briefly surveyed the chamber.
“A quorum is present,” intoned Brown. “The motion is adopted.”
Brown then reached for the gavel and rapped it on the dais.
The bill was passed – by voice vote – two steps prior.
Not enough members rose to trigger a recorded vote. And, Brown deemed a quorum was present. Brown then quickly adjourned the House. Massie was stuck.
Was it pretty? Not really.
Much of the sausage-making in Washington is pretty ugly, frankly. Consider the verbal contretemps which erupted on the Senate floor recently as senators raged about the coronavirus bill.
This won’t be the last bill Congress approves to respond to coronavirus. But until then, you can go back to watching reruns of Duke basketball.

Townhall Cartoons March 2020

Grandma is gone: Coronavirus keeps kids from older family

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A few weeks ago, Debbie Cameron saw her grandsons most days, playing the piano, making after-school snacks or singing nursery rhymes with the baby in her Chandler, Arizona, home.

Then the cornavirus crisis hit and the boys were suddenly gone. Cameron is 68 and has asthma, making her one of the people most at risk of getting seriously ill or dying. Now she sees her grandchildren from behind the glass of a window or a phone screen.

“Looking at them through the window and not being able hug them, it’s just a dang killer,” she said.

For grandparents all over the world, being protected from the pandemic has meant a piercing distance from their loved ones. While children don’t seem to be getting seriously ill as often, they can be infected and spread the virus. It’s been a jolting change for many.

Cameron and her husband, both retired teachers, usually watch their older grandchildren, aged 8 and 11, after school and their 7-month-old baby grandson four times a week. One of their three daughters is due to have another child in July.

But as the effects of coronavirus spread, the family decided that caring for the boys was too risky. While most people who catch the disease suffer from symptoms like fever and cough and recover in a few weeks, some get severely ill with things like pneumonia. COVID-19 can be fatal, and older people who have underlying conditions like Cameron are the most vulnerable.

So instead of chasing after little boys, she’s doing puzzles, listening to old radio shows or watching the Hallmark channel, trying to fill the hours in her much-quieter house. “I just go day by day, and when the dark thoughts come in I try and do something to take them away,” she said. “I cry. Sometimes I cry.”

Still, she feels lucky doesn’t have to leave the house to work, and that she has close family ties. Sometimes she re-reads a letter her mother wrote her father while he was deployed to the Philippines during World War II, laying out her raw emotions about how much she missed him as she cared for their first child without him. “My mother is a really strong woman, and in this one she was struggling,” she said. “If my mom did that, I can do this.”

The sudden change has been challenging for kids’ parents too, many of whom are trying to work from home and balance childcare. Cameron’s daughter Julie Bufkin is at home with her 7-month old son Calvin, working from home as a project coordinator at Arizona State University while her husband goes into the office as an analytical chemist for Intel.

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She’s been taking webcam calls and answering emails while breastfeeding the baby and trying to keep him entertained, even after coming down with a fever and headache, symptoms similar to the new coronavirus. In line with the advice of public-health officials, she stayed at home to recover and wasn’t tested for the virus, since she’s young and healthy and didn’t become seriously ill. She’s now on the mend, but it only deepened her mother’s feelings of helplessness.

“Imagine if your child is sick you can’t go help them,” Cameron said. “That’s the hardest part.”

But for her daughter, it further confirmed that staying physically separate for now is the right decision.

“We want my mom to survive this,” Bufkin said.

And the grandparents can still step in remotely — Bufkin sets up a phone or a tablet in Calvin’s playpen, where they can sing songs, show him around the yard, look at the cat or play piano over FaceTime.

“Anything we can, even five to 10 minutes to give her a little rest. That makes my day,” Cameron said.

They’re only 5 miles (eight kilometers) away in suburban Phoenix, and for a time Bufkin was dropping off food weekly, then touching hands or exchanging kisses through the window. More often, they’re sharing their lives through a phone or tablet screen.

The baby watches his grandparents on the screen, looking up from his own games to smile and laugh at his grandpa or focus on his grandmother playing the saxophone.

Other grandparents are also looking for moments of brightness. They’re replacing chats on the porch with friends with Facebook conversations, or connecting with church congregations through video-messaging apps like Marco Polo.

Others are turning the technological clock back. Margret Boes-Ingraham, 72, used to drive her 14-year-old granddaughter to choir practice a few times a week near Salt Lake City, then stay to listen to her sing. Without those rides spent listening to show tunes, she’s encouraging her granddaughter to keep a journal.

“I asked her if I could read, and she said no!” Boes-Ingraham said with a laugh.

For grandparents who live alone, hunkering down during the crisis can increase their isolation. Terry Catucci is a 69-year-old retired social worker and recovering alcoholic of 30 years in Maryland. She has seven grandchildren nearby in the Washington, D.C., area including a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old who she helps care for sometimes. She tries not to think about the little changes she’s missing during the years when children seem to grow every day.

“When you’re in a time of crisis, you want to be with people you love, and we can’t,” she said. “I’ve run the whole gamut of the five stages of grief at any given day.”

But she’s getting by, talking with her family and checking in daily with her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. Every night, neighbors in her retirement community set up lawn chairs at the end of driveways to chat with friends walking by at a safe distance.

“We’re all learning how to survive in this time,” she said, “to live a little bit the best we can.”

Trump extends US virus restrictions; Moscow goes on lockdown

MOSCOW (AP) — In an abrupt turnaround, President Donald Trump extended lockdown measures across the United States as deaths in New York alone from the new coronavirus passed 1,000. Moscow went on its own lockdown Monday as all of Russia braced for sweeping nationwide restrictions.

The health systems in Italy and Spain, which have been crumbling under the weight of caring for so many desperately ill patients at once, hoped that relief was coming as infection rates drop each day. Together the two European nations have seen more than half the world’s 34,000 deaths from the virus that has upended the lives of billions of people and devastated world economies.

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In a situation unimaginable only a month ago, Italian officials were cheered when they reported only 756 deaths in one day.

In a stark reversal of his previous stance, Trump extended federal guidelines recommending that Americans stay home for another 30 days until the end of April to slow the spread of the virus. The comments came after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said up to 200,000 Americans could die and millions become infected if lockdowns and social distancing did not continue.

“We want to make sure that we don’t prematurely think we’re doing so great,” Fauci said.

The U.S. now has more than 143,000 infections and 2,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, while around the world almost 725,000 people are infected. The true number of cases is thought to be considerably higher because of testing shortages and mild illnesses that have gone unreported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked all citizens to stay at home,and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin began enforcing a strict lockdown for all city residents except those working in essential sectors.

“The extremely negative turn of events we are seeing in the largest European and U.S. cities causes extreme concern about the life and health of our citizens,” Sobyanin said.

He said an electronic monitoring system will be used to control residents’ compliance with the lockdown and warned “we will steadily tighten the necessary controls.”

Moscow, a city of 13 million, accounts for more than 1,000 of Russia’s 1,836 coronavirus cases and the numbers have been rising rapidly. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has told regional governors to prepare for the same strict lockdown as the capital.

In Italy, which has seen by far the most deaths from the virus worldwide, officials expressed cautious optimism that the drastic measures they have taken to keep people apart are having an impact.

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Italy has reported 97,689 infections and 10,779 deaths so far, but on Sunday said the number of positive cases in the last day increased just 5.4%, and the number of deaths have shifted down about 10% a day since Friday.

’’These are big changes that reflect the fact the health system is responding and of the impact of the measures that have been put in place,″ said Dr. Luca Richeldi, a lung specialist, told reporters. ’’We are saving lives by staying at home, by maintaining social distance, by traveling less and by closing schools.″

Experts say the critical situations in hospitals in Italy and Spain will be soon heading toward the United States.

Coronavirus patient Andrea Napoli, 33, told The Associated Press he didn’t remotely expect that he would be hospitalized, struggling for his life from the virus, since he was a young, very fit man. But what he saw at a Rome hospital shocked him.

While he was being treated, three patients died in his ward. He saw doctors stressed and exhausted from the long hours, out of breath from pushing equipment around, dressed in protective masks, suits and gloves.

’’What I saw was a lot, a lot of pain. It was very hard,” Napoli said. ‘’I heard screams from the other rooms, constant coughing from the other rooms.’’

In Spain, where 6,803 people have died and 80,110 have been infected, hotels have been converted into makeshift hospitals and a Madrid ice rink has been turned into a temporary morgue.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia and can be fatal. More than 152,000 people have recovered.

China’s National Health Commission on Monday reported 31 new COVID-19 cases, among them just one domestic infection. At the peak of China’s restrictions, some 700 million people were in areas ordered to stay home, but those rules are easing.

New York state remained the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with the vast majority of the deaths in New York City. But infections were spiking not only in cities but in Midwestern towns and Rocky Mountain ski havens. West Virginia reported its first death, leaving only two states — Hawaii and Wyoming — with none linked to COVID-19.

The virus is moving fast through nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other places for vulnerable people, spreading “like fire through dry grass,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

The pandemic is also taking its toll economically around the world.

A lockdown in India covering the country’s 1.3 billion people has put day laborers out of work and left families struggling to eat. With no jobs, those living in the country’s crowded cities are walking back to their native villages.

In Europe, budget airline EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of aircraft — parking all 344 planes — amid a collapse in demand due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. announced that its auto plants in Europe will halt production at least until April 20. Toyota has facilities in France, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Turkey and Portugal. At the same time, all its plants in China resumed normal production Monday, spokeswoman Kayo Doi said.

Asian markets started the week with fresh losses. Japan’s benchmark fell nearly 3% and other regional markets were mostly lower. Shares in Australia, however, surged 7% after the government promised more recession-fighting stimulus.

Australia announced a 130 billion Australian dollar ($80 billion) plan to subsidize businesses, paying up to 6 million people a minimum wage for the next six months.

“We want to keep the engine of our economy running through this crisis,” said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

U.S. futures rebounded, gaining nearly 1%, but oil prices were lower.

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Rising reported from Berlin; Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.