Officials in the northwestern US state of Washington on Wednesday expressed concern over reports of people organising “Covid-19 parties” to intentionally spread the virus. “Gathering in groups in the midst of this pandemic can be incredibly dangerous and puts people at increased risk for hospitalization and even death,” warned John Wiesman, the state’s secretary of health. “Furthermore, it is unknown if people who recover from Covid-19 have long-term protection,” he said. “There is still a lot we don’t know about this virus, including any long-term health issues which may occur after infection.”
Nearly a fifth of young children in the United States are not getting enough to eat since the coronavirus pandemic erupted, according to research out Wednesday highlighting the broader health impact of the crisis. The Brookings Institution report said a survey found that 17.4 percent of mothers with children aged 12 or under reported that their offspring were not eating enough due to lack of money. “It is clear that young children are experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times,” said lead researcher Lauren Bauer.
Most ethnic groups at greater virus risk: A new study into ethnicity and the coronavirus by Britain’s national statistics agency suggests that people from almost all minority ethnic groups — except Chinese and those identifying as “mixed” — are at greater risk of a coronavirus-related death than the white population. In particular, the analysis said that after accounting for age, black men are 4.2 times more likely than white men to die after contracting the virus, and black women are 4.3 times more likely to die compared to women of white ethnicity. The Office for National Statistics said people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani, Indian, and mixed ethnicities also had an increased risk of Covid-19 deaths.
Moscow residents will be required to wear masks and gloves when using public transit and visiting public spaces starting Tuesday because of the coronavirus. The announcement by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin comes after the decision to reopen industrial plants and construction sites in the capital on that same day.
Buddha Jayanti was celebrated in central Nepal’s Lumbini on Thursday, recalling Siddhartha Gautama’s teachings on world peace and spiritual awakening. This year the 2564th Buddha Jayanti, which is observed on the full moon day in Baishakh month of the Lunar calendar.
About 66% of the coronavirus infection cases requiring hospitalisations in New York were people who were predominantly staying home, a trend described by the state’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo as “shocking”. Cuomo outlined the results of new hospitalisation data that was collected from hospitals in new targeted effort to further reduce number of new hospitalisations per day. The state received 1,269 survey responses from 113 hospitals over 3 days and found majority of individuals hospitalised were not working or traveling, predominately located in downstate New York and were predominately minorities, older individuals, non-essential employees and those that were staying at home.
