Here are some significant developments:
- New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said Friday night that his state has secured about half of the 30,000 ventilators it needs. “We need ventilators and we need them now,” Cuomo told Chris Hayes on MSNBC. “If I don’t have the ventilators in 14 days, Chris, people die.”
- New York state reported 134 new coronavirus patient deaths in 24 hours, Cuomo announced Friday, a jump from 100 deaths reported the previous day. Friday’s number amounts to almost one death in the state every 10 minutes.
- Airports are set to reopen Sunday in China’s Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak was first recorded late last year, as the number of locally transmitted cases in mainland China dramatically decreased in recent weeks.
- Three unaccompanied migrant children in American custody tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) said Thursday, marking the first confirmed infections among children detained by the U.S. immigration services.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey would suspend all international flights and restrict domestic travel, taking more drastic measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus after the infection rate surged by 50 percent or more for two days in a row.
U.S. Navy locks down Yokosuka base after sailors test positive
After two more sailors tested positive for the novel coronavirus — unrelated to the first positive case on the base announced Thursday — the U.S. Navy has ordered a lockdown of its Yokosuka base, home of the Seventh Fleet and the most strategically important naval base in the Pacific.”
The origin of these two cases has not been identified,” said Yokosuka Capt. Rich Jarrett said in the statement posted on Facebook. Residents, he said, should remain at their quarters “to the maximum extent possible.”
In an update Saturday morning, the commander of fleet activities posted on Facebook that “this is not a time to do lawn maintenance, take the dog for a long walk, or go for a run. Time outdoors should be for necessities only, and should be conducted as quickly as possible.”
The first sailor to test positive on the base was believed to have contracted the virus on a trip to the United States, and returned to Japan on March 15. The sailor had been confined to a room, and started exhibiting symptoms about 10 days later. He was placed in isolation at the Naval Hospital in Yokosuka. He was the first serviceman in Japan to test positive.
