Medics at Egypt’s main cancer center test positive
At least 17 medics in Egypt’s main cancer hospital have been quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus, officials said Saturday, raising fears the pandemic could prey on health facilities in the Arab world’s most populous country.
Egypt has reported around 1,000 confirmed cases and 66 fatalities from the global pandemic. Authorities have closed schools and mosques, banned public gatherings and imposed a nighttime curfew to prevent the virus from spreading among the population of 100 million, a fifth of whom live in the densely-populated capital, Cairo.
The government has not yet imposed the kind of total lockdown seen in other countries in the region, but officials have said there are plans for stricter measures if needed.
The worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East is in Iran, where the Health Ministry on Saturday reported another 158 deaths. That brings the overall number of fatalities there to 3,452, amid 55,743 confirmed cases.
-The Associated Press
5 things to know about the virus pandemic from Dr. Tom Inglesby
President Trump on Friday announced new voluntary guidelines that Americans should wear non-medical cloth masks when out in public to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, joined the “CBS Evening News” to speak about the benefit of masks for the general public and a possible vaccine.
Click here for the five major takeaways from the discussion, and watch the interview below.
Barr tells BOP to focus on three prisons most impacted by COVID-19 when considering home confinement
Attorney General William Barr on Friday instructed the Bureau of Prisons to focus their assessment of eligibility for home confinement on the three prisons most affected by coronavirus: Louisiana’s FCI Oakdale, Connecticut’s FCI Danbury and Ohio’s FCI Elkton.
The announcement comes after he issued a directive last week requesting that the BOP prioritize home confinement for inmates that qualify, including the elderly and those with preexisting conditions.
“We have to move with dispatch in using home confinement, where appropriate, to move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions,” Barr wrote.
As part of the directive, he told the BOP to assess all inmates at risk of contracting the virus at the three institutions.
“You should begin implementing this directive immediately at the facilities I have specifically identified and any other facilities facing similarly serious problems,” Barr wrote.
Even if chosen, inmates will still be subject to a 14 day quarantine.
Despite the directive to expedite the process, Barr maintained that public safety is paramount. “We cannot simply release prison populations en masse onto the streets,” he wrote. “Doing so would pose profound risks to the public from release prisons engaging in additional criminal activity, potentially including violence or heinous sex offenses.”
“We’re all in this together”: Food bank teams up with online marketplace to provide jobs and feed families
Thousands of people in Dallas, Texas, lined up on Thursday for free meals provided by the school district. In many places, there aren’t enough helping hands to keep pace with the demand for food. But one program is hiring workers laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic to help feed families in need in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Texas.
Typically, volunteers at the North Texas Food Bank prepare the 77 million meals the bank distributes each year — but COVID-19 has kept them away. The solution? A partnership between the food bank and Shiftsmart, an online marketplace connecting workers with employers.
One of those workers is Anna Morris, who lost her bartending job a few weeks ago.
“This is great money, and a good opportunity to— to keep my spirits high,” Morris said.
