The Latest: LAPD wants virus test for everyone arrested

By | May 18, 2020

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:

— Los Angeles Police Department wants virus test for everyone arrested.

— Canadian acrobatic jet crashes into British Columbia neighborhood.

— Trump calls into golf tournament, promises speedy return to normalcy.

— Brazil’s Bolsonaro greets supporters, does push-ups.

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LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department wants to test everyone its officers arrest to determine whether they are infected with the coronavirus.

Police Chief Michel Moore told the department’s civilian oversight body last week that jails are testing all new arrivals, but the results take days to come back. He said real-time data from a rapid-result test would help authorities isolate sick detainees, keep others detained in local jails safe and quickly alert officers to any potential exposure.

Moore is asking city officials to purchase a rapid-result testing system, but it’s unclear whether such a system will produce accurate test results.

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KAMLOOPS, British Columbia — A Canadian acrobatic jet crashed into a British Columbia neighborhood Sunday during a flyover intended to boost morale during the pandemic, killing one crew member, seriously injuring another and setting a house on fire. Video appeared to show at least one person ejecting.

The crash left debris scattered across the neighborhood near the airport in the city of Kamloops, 260 miles (418 kilometers) northeast of Vancouver. Canada’s defense department said emergency crews were responding. The Snowbirds are Canada’s equivalent of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds or U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce that one member of the CF Snowbirds team has died and one has sustained serious injuries,” The Royal Canadian Air Force said in a tweet.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Operation Inspiration started in Nova Scotia earlier this month and features the team’s signature nine-jet formation. It was aimed at boosting morale amid the pandemic.

The Snowbirds have performed at airshows across Canada and the U.S. for decades and are considered a key tool for raising awareness about — and recruiting for — the air force. Eleven aircraft are used during shows, with nine flying and two kept as spares.

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called into a charity golf tournament broadcast Sunday and promised Americans a speedy return to normalcy that sounded far more optimistic than most experts say is realistic.

Trump hailed the event — broadcast on NBC — and said he’d like to see crowds packing into sports venues by this fall, whether or not a cure for the coronavirus is developed.

He said, “We’re looking at vaccines, we’re looking at cures and we are very, very far down the line,” adding: “I think that’s not going to be in the very distant future. But even before that, I think we’ll be back to normal.”

Experts, however, say finding a cure that fast is far from certain and have warned that easing restrictions too quickly could cause the virus to rebound.

Trump said events would likely resume with small crowds — if any — but hopes that by the time The Masters is played in November, the crowds can return.

“We want to get it back to where it was. We want big, big stadiums loaded with people,” he said. “We want to get sports back. We miss sports. We need sports in terms of the psyche, the psyche of our country.”

The TaylorMade Driving Relief is being played at Seminole Golf Club in Florida to raise money for COVID-19 relief. There are no crowds, no caddies and a limited TV crew, all following social distancing guidelines.

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MANILA, Philippines — Crowds and vehicular traffic returned to shopping malls in the Philippine capital after a two-month coronavirus lockdown was partially relaxed over the weekend, prompting police to warn of arrests and store closures.

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Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the massive quarantine in the main northern Luzon region, home to more than 50 million people, was slowly being eased to revitalize the economy “and not because we are safe.” The economy contracted in the first quarter and more than 2 million people have lost their jobs or faced pay cuts due to lockdowns.

The Philippines has reported more than 12,500 infections, and 824 deaths due to COVID-19. It has only been able to conduct about a third of a daily target of 30,000 coronavirus tests.

Roque warned against public complacency “after we received reports of people who trooped to the malls with complete disregard of social or physical distancing.”

Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar warned shopping malls not only of closures but of criminal charges against the owners if they fail to regulate crowds.

Only metropolitan Manila and two other high-risk areas remain under a strict lockdown, but manufacturing plants were allowed to reopen with half their workforce from Saturday through the end of May. Essential businesses have reopened, too, but gyms, barber shops, movie houses and other recreation activities remain shut.

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PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon health officials say hospitals will be provided with an experimental drug that has shown some promise treating the coronavirus.

The Oregon Health Authority said Sunday that the state has received enough doses of remdesivir to treat all patients who met the medical criteria for using the drug as of Saturday.

Recent early results for the drug suggested it could help patients recover from the coronavirus faster, although longer-term data is still needed to confirm any benefit.

The health authority is not taking a position on whether it should be used or not, leaving that decision up to doctors and their patients.

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LOS ANGELES — Among the 7,000 homeless moved into hotel rooms to ride out the pandemic are people with compromised lungs and hearts.

California counties have leased more than 15,000 hotel rooms as part of Project Roomkey, which Gov. Gavin Newsom launched in March to protect vulnerable homeless people.

The state has an estimated 150,000 homeless, which is the most in the country.

County officials say it’s been more difficult than expected to find appropriate hotels, negotiate leases and set up operations. People in the program must follow rules, including curfews and temperature checks whenever they return from outside. Some people have been coaxed inside after years sleeping on rough streets.

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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Health officials say the first outbreak of the coronavirus at a nursing home in Wyoming has infected at least nine people.

The Wyoming Department of Health said Sunday that five employees and four residents at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation have been found to have COVID-19 so far.

A department spokesperson said more test results were pending but officials believe all the residents and employees at the facility have been tested.

The testing began after staff members became sick and sought medical care but it’s not clear how the virus was introduced into the facility. There was an outbreak at an assisted living facility in Lander in March but none at a nursing home until now.

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BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is holding an entirely mail-in primary for the first time as the state works to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ballots must be requested by Tuesday and returned by 8 p.m. June 2, with results announced that evening.

Democratic voters will see one high-profile name on their ballot: Former 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Paulette Jordan of Plummer is running against former congressional candidate Jim Vandermaas for a chance to challenge GOP Sen. Jim Risch in November.

Jordan garnered national attention during her 2018 campaign amid hopes from supporters that she could become the first Native American governor in the United States.

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Businesses that defy Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order could face a misdemeanor under emergency rules his administration has filed.

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The change took effect Friday when the rules were filed, but legislators on a bipartisan committee have the chance to review it on Wednesday.

If they don’t reject it, it’ll remain in effect for 150 days. Class A misdemeanors are punished by a fine between $ 75 and $ 2,500.

The Pritzker’s administration’s general counsel Ann Spillane likens it to a traffic ticket. However, some Republicans called it an overreach of Pritzker’s powers.

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro greeted hundreds of supporters — and joined some in a series of push-ups — who gathered before the presidential offices Sunday to back his open-the-economy drive even as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the country.

Demonstrators in Brasilia and Sao Paulo defied local stay-at-home orders to join the pro-Bolsonaro rallies at a time when the president is facing increasing pressure over his handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 15,000 Brazilians.

“We hope to be free of this question soon, for the good of all of us,” Bolsonaro told the crowd in Brasilia. “Brazil will come back stronger.”

Bolsonaro later invited a group of about 20 paratroopers, who were taking part in the protest, to join him on the stoop of the presidential office. The men, wearing camouflage trousers, black Bolsonaro T-shirts and red berets, swore allegiance to the president and his family, stretching their right arms, before some joined him in a series of push-ups.

Supporters have gathered daily at the presidential residence, with larger crowds turning out on weekends.

Some display banners denouncing Congress and the Supreme Court, which they believe are part of a plot to derail Bolsonaro’s presidency.

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NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo got tested for coronavirus on live TV Sunday as he announced all people in the state experiencing flu-like symptoms are now eligible for tests.

Any New Yorkers experiencing flu-like symptoms or those who will be returning to work as part of phased reopenings across the state can now get tested, Cuomo said.

The state is expanding eligibility as it deals with a surplus of testing capacity. Cuomo said drive-thru and walk-in testing sites are performing about one-third of the 15,000 tests they’re capable of each day.

In all, the state is testing about 40,000 people per day.

An agreement with CVS will allow samples to be collected at more than 60 pharmacies across the state, Cuomo said. Testing in New York City is being expanded to 123 CityMD walk-in clinics.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also made an urgent appeal Sunday for blood donations, saying coronavirus-related blood drive cancellations have led supplies to dwindle to about two days’ worth, which could mean postponing some surgeries.

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WASHINGTON — One of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers is criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s early response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying it “let the country down” after initial delays with testing.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro declined to say when asked Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether Trump had confidence in the CDC to lead the U.S. pandemic response, saying that was a question for the president.

But Navarro says the CDC “set us back” in the early weeks of the outbreak.

CDC struggled to develop its own diagnostic test for the coronavirus in January, later discovering problems in its kits sent to state and county public health labs in early February.

It took the CDC more than two weeks to come up with a fix, leading to delays in diagnoses as the virus rapidly spread.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday said he disagreed the CDC had let the nation down. He told CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “I believe the CDC serves an important public health role.”

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KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistan’s minority Christians attended Mass for the first time in two months on Sunday after authorities allowed them to reopen doors of churches following the easing of coronavirus lockdown in the predominantly Islamic nation.

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However, the worshipers were seen adhering to social distancing guidelines at churches across the country.

At one such church in Karachi, Reverend Shahid Anwar preached to a small group of congregants who sat apart from each other adhering to social distancing regulations. Most of the worshipers wore face masks when they entered the churches.

In recent weeks, Pakistani authorities had also allowed Muslims to worship at mosques by following social distancing regulations, but most of them defied these guidelines by closely standing to each other at mosques.

Sunday’s move of allowing Christians to worship at churches came after Pakistan reported one of the highest single-day 39 deaths from coronavirus, raising overall fatalities to 873 and confirmed cases to 40,151. Pakistan lifted the six-week-long lockdown earlier this week in a bid to revive the country’s ailing economy.

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CAIRO — Egypt has announced it will close shops, malls, beaches and parks during the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in an effort to prevent the coronavirus’ spread.

Prime Minister Mustaf Madbouly told a news conference Sunday that during the week-long holiday, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a nighttime curfew will be in place from 5 p.m. until 6 a.m. starting May 17. All public and private transportation will also be halted until May 29.

Madbouly said his government intends to gradually ease virus restrictions by mid-June, including bringing back sports activities and reopening restaurants.

Since mid-March, Egypt has shuttered schools, mosques, churches and archaeological sites. It has also ordered restaurants, coffee shops, malls and gyms to close to encourage people to stay home. A curfew is now in place from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

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Britain is reporting that 170 more people have died from the coronavirus, raising its overall death toll to 34,636.

It’s the U.K.’s lowest daily death toll since the day after the country’s lockdown was announced on March 23. Weekend figures are usually lower because reporting lags when compared with weekdays.

Another 3,142 people in Britain tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number of total confirmed cases to 243,303.

However, Sunday’s figures don’t give a full picture because some testing data from Northern Ireland was not available as a result of technical problems, Business Secretary Alok Sharma told a daily news briefing.

Britain has Europe’s highest virus death toll as well as the most confirmed cases.

The British government is pumping more money into national efforts to develop a vaccine, by giving an additional 84 million pounds ($ 102 million) to researchers working on separate vaccine trials at Oxford University and Imperial College London.

Phase one participants in Oxford’s trial have already been given their vaccine dose last week, Sharma said.

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NEW DELHI — India has extended a nearly two-month-old stringent lockdown by another two weeks with Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and some other key regions still battling to control the rising curve of coronavirus infections.

The government-run National Disaster Management authority said in a statement on Sunday that fresh guidelines will be issued that keep in view the need to open up economic activity.

A government statement said travel by air and metro will remain shut down nationwide until the end of May. Schools, hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping malls, cinemas and places of worship will also be closed nationally.

On May 4, the government eased some restrictions, allowing reopening of neighborhood shops and manufacturing and farming in rural areas. It also resumed running a limited number of trains, mainly to carry the stranded workers.

The Health Ministry on Sunday reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the number of confirmed cases to 90,927, with 2,872 deaths. India had less than 500 positive cases and nine deaths when the lockdown was first imposed on March 25. The number of daily deaths in India is around 100.

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

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