At a time of isolation, people in many European cities hit hard by the new coronavirus are taking at least a minute each night to come together in gratitude.They stand at open windows or on balconies in Rome, Madrid, Paris, Athens and Amsterdam, singing, cheering and applauding even though they know their intended audience is too busy to listen.The adulation is for the doctors, nurses and other health care workers putting themselves at risk on the front lines of the pandemic that is forcing most residents to stay home. A 52-year-old nurse on Thursday became the first medical professional in Spain to die of COVID-19.People applaud from their houses in support of the medical staff in Rivas Vaciamadrid, March 14, 2020.In Italy, where the number of virus-related deaths surpassed those in China, 2,900 health care providers have been infected, or 10% of the country’s total. Italian broadcasters regularly feature exhausted doctors and nurses begging people to stay home and expressing a sense of abandonment over inadequate protective gear.The Dutch health minister collapsed from exhaustion in the midst of a parliamentary session on Wednesday.A man applauds from his window in support of the medical staff in Madrid, Spain, March 15, 2020.”We’re clapping tonight out of respect and to say thank you to all the health care workers in the Netherlands who are protecting us against this horrible coronavirus,” King Willem-Alexander said while observing the ritual Tuesday night with his family at Palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague.The word spread mostly through the WhatsApp messaging service. In France, where the head of the national doctors’ federation picked up the virus from a diabetic patient, the call went out seemingly spontaneously by text messages hours after a nationwide lockdown went into effect Tuesday. Windows opened promptly at 8 p.m. then and again on Wednesday.Health workers react as people applaud them from their houses, Barcelona, Spain, March 16, 2020.”In this period of crisis, we are going to see the most beautiful things humanity has to offer, but also perhaps the darkest,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said.In Brussels and other cities, the intended audience for the nightly chorus of thanks was expanded to everyone working to keep essential services running in Belgium, such as firefighters, supermarket workers and trash collectors.In Spain, people are singing Mónica Naranjo’s popular cover of the disco-era tune “I Will Survive” with the lyrics tweaked to say, “I will survive/I’ll look for a home/Among the rubble of my loneliness/Strange paradise/Where you are missed.”Parisians applaud the caregivers and police for their work, Paris, France, March 18, 2020.Workers at one hospital responded with a video recorded in the facility’s corridors. Standing in a small group and wearing masks, they held up one sign after another with messages that included, “We are all in this together.” Then, they gave a minute of applause for their home-bound admirers.
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South Africa’s 21-day lockdown could be the biggest challenge the nation has faced in decades, the country’s president warned as he announced the harsh measure Monday night.  On Tuesday, top officials sought to explain the lockdown and justify the need for strong action as the nation sees a large rise in cases of the highly contagious coronavirus.  As if to underscore the gravity of the situation as the nation scrambled to prepare Tuesday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize noted that the caseload had risen by more than 100 cases overnight, and that two patients had gone into critical care.  Meaning the lockdown, which begins late Thursday night, is necessary, Mkhize said.  “Our strategy, we said, has to be about flattening the curve,” he said. “In other words, we allow the infection to be drawn out in such a way that we get as few people infected as possible so that it does not grow so rampantly as to overwhelm our health services. In that way, we have to behave or take certain decisions that will make it more easier for us to manage it and more difficult for it to spread.” A store assistant gives people hand sanitizer as shoppers stock up on groceries at a Makro Store ahead of a nationwide 21-day lockdown in an attempt to contain the coronavirus disease outbreak in Durban, South Africa, March 24, 2020.Health officials have estimated that hundreds of thousands of South Africans could be infected if the coronavirus is allowed to run rampant. The nation already has the world’s highest burden of HIV, meaning millions of South Africans are already prone to opportunistic illness.  The government has also brought in the national army to support the lockdown by limiting movement. On Monday, the day the lockdown was announced, soldiers were seen on main roads in Johannesburg, the nation’s largest city.  People found in violation of the lockdown could face a fine or one month’s imprisonment. However, officials assured panicked South Africans that essential businesses such as pharmacies, laboratories, banks, the stock exchange and financial organizations, supermarkets and gas stations will remain open, and health care providers will be available.  Mkhize, a physician, then prescribed his nation a bitter pill: patience.  “The numbers, we mustn’t be shocked when we see them increase,” he said. “But these measures,  if we all work together, must turn the curve around. But it won’t happen tomorrow. It won’t happen next week. If there’s any change, it will probably take us a couple of weeks before we can see a turnaround.” On that note, he said, Good Friday and Easter — usually a highlight of the South African calendar, celebrated with great fanfare in April — were canceled this year.  
 
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Кабінет міністрів не бачить потреби в реструктуризації державного боргу – про це пресслужба уряду заявила вночі проти 24 березня.

«Незважаючи на нові виклики, уряд не бачить жодних підстав для реструктуризації державного боргу та закликає не спекулювати на темі боргової політики. Україна входить в турбуленті часи з набагато сильнішими позиціями, ніж це було під час попередніх криз: міжнародні резерви на найвищому за останні роки рівні, інфляція – рекордно низька, державний бюджет – збалансований, а показник державного боргу до ВВП впав до рекордно низьких 44,3%», – йдеться в заяві Кабінету міністрів.

Читайте також: Карантин через COVID-19. Як захистити економіку і допомогти українцям?

Пресслужба також цитує й прем’єр-міністра Денисв Шмигаля, який заявляє, що Україна більш підготовлена до ймовірної кризи, ніж у 2008 році.

Натомість ще напередодні, увечері 23 березня, Шмигаль заявляв в ефірі каналу ICTV, що Україна повинна реструктурувати зовнішній борг.

«Зовнішні борги – ми дійсно повинні їх реструктуризувати, і ми почали переговори з нашими міжнародними партнерами», – сказав тоді голова уряду.

Станом на кінець січня 2020 року, за даними Міністерства фінансів, державний та гарантований державою борг України становив 83,43 мільярда доларів, з них 40,58 мільярда – зовнішній борг.
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Amazon has temporarily closed a Kentucky warehouse after an unspecified number of workers tested positive for the coronavirus. The online retailer said Tuesday that the warehouse at Shepherdsville was undergoing “additional sanitization.” “We are supporting the individuals who are now in quarantine and recovering,” the company said in a statement. “We are following all guidelines from local officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site.” The company did not specify how many employees have been infected with the virus. News outlets reported that three COVID-19 cases were confirmed at the Amazon warehouse. “Out of an abundance of caution, and in addition to our enhanced daily deep cleaning, we are temporarily closing the Shepherdsville, Ky., site for additional sanitization,” the company said. For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. 
 
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Ціни на продукти в деяких регіонах України зросли, заявляє Антимонопольний комітет України 24 березня. 

За даними комітету, таких висновків він дійшов на основі монторингу цін по всій країні, повідомлень у пресі та звернень громадян.

«Станом на сьогодні в деяких регіонах ми бачимо, що з початку березня ціни на гречану крупу зросли більше ніж на 50%, пшоно – на 24%, цукор на 16%. Значне підвищення цін зафіксовано в деяких мережах і на овочі: майже на 60% подорожчала картопля, вдвічі піднялися ціни на цибулю та моркву», – зазначають у АМКУ.

Читайте також: АМКУ погрожує штрафами за «необґрунтоване» підняття цін на медичні товари через коронавірус​

Комітет вимагає від рітейлерів «оперативно надавати повну інформацію про закупівельні та роздрібні ціни на крупи, хліб, цукор, борошно, найпопулярніші види м’яса, овочі».

15 березня голова Київського обласного територіального управління АМКУ Олексій Хмельницький анонсував розслідування через ціни «Міжнародної авіакомпанії України» на авіаквитки.

12 березня загалом по Україні розпочався карантин через загрозу епідемії коронавірусної інфекції та для недопущення поширення COVID-19. Він триватиме три тижні – з 12 березня до 3 квітня.
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Spain started storing bodies in an ice rink converted to a makeshift morgue Tuesday, as coronavirus deaths mounted there and around the world, with the World Health Organization warning the pandemic was still in a nascent stage with infections expected to increase “considerably.”  
Some 85% of new infections came from Europe and the United States, according to the WHO, with Spain registering a record daily increase of 6,584 new infections and a leap of 500 in the death toll to 2,696.
A Japanese TV network reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would propose postponing the upcoming Tokyo Olympics by a year because of the outbreak.  
In Madrid, vans driven by workers in protective suits and masks brought bodies to the Palacio de Hielo — Ice Palace — mall to store at its indoor skating rink until they can be buried or cremated after other facilities became overwhelmed.  
The Spanish capital last week adapted two hotels to serve as emergency hospitals to help with the overflow of COVID-19 patients. It plans to convert five more, and Madrid’s hotel association has offered a total of 40 of its buildings to be used. The city has also set up a field hospital in the Ifema trade fair complex, not far from the makeshift Ice Palace morgue.  
As health care workers worked around the clock, they also struggled with scarce supplies.  
“All over the country, you see examples of workers inventing homemade suits using plastics,” Olga Mediano, a lung specialist at a hospital in Guadalajara, a city east of Madrid, told The Associated Press.  
“The protective suits are fundamental because without health workers we won’t be able to do anything.”
More than 387,000 people worldwide have been infected by the new coronavirus and more than 16,700 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.  
For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever or coughing. But for some older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. More than 101,000 people have recovered, including more than 60,000 in China.
Japan’s NHK television reported that Abe will propose a one-year postponement for the Tokyo Olympics during talks with IOC President Thomas Bach. Abe said a postponement is unavoidable if the 2020 Games cannot be held in a complete manner amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Abe held telephone talks with Bach after the IOC said it would make a decision on the Tokyo Games over the next four weeks.
In Geneva, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris cited a “glimmer of hope” in hard-hit Italy after two days of slight declines in the number of new cases and deaths, while cautioning it’s “early days yet” — and the trend needed to be monitored.
In another positive sign, Chinese authorities said they would finally end a two-month lockdown in hard-hit Hubei province where the coronavirus outbreak first began.  
Still, Harris said the scope of the global outbreak was “enormous” and that cases were expected to increase “considerably.”
“Just to put it in proportion: It took two years in the worst Ebola outbreak we ever had, the West African outbreak, to reach 11,000 deaths,” Harris said.
In a sign of hope, Chinese authorities said they would finally end a two-month lockdown in hard-hit Hubei province where the coronavirus outbreak first began, while nations in Europe, North America and elsewhere pressed harder to enforce the stay-at-home restrictions placed on 1.5 billion people worldwide.  
In the U.S., the government was expected to pass a $2 trillion spending plan that would prop up businesses, which has been stalled for days.  
There have been more than 46,000 infections and 530 deaths in the U.S. as the virus continues to spread.  
In New York, now one of the world’s biggest virus hot spots, authorities rushed to set up the thousands of hospital beds they will need in just weeks to protect the city’s 8.4 million people. The mayor warned that the city’s hospitals are just 10 days away from shortages in basic supplies, while the state’s governor announced plans to convert a New York City convention center into a hospital.
In Italy, Spain and France, the pandemic has already pushed national health systems to their breaking points.  
The outbreak has killed more than 6,000 Italians, the highest death toll of any country. Officials said Monday the virus had claimed just over 600 more lives, down from 793 two days earlier.
Amid the spiking numbers in Spain, relatives of elderly people and retirement homes’ workers are expressing growing concern about the situation in retirement homes across Spain, especially in Madrid.
“We live in anguish, we have no information whatsoever,” said Esther Navarro, whose 97-year-old mother with Alzheimer is at the Residencia Usera in Madrid where some of the cases have been identified.
Spanish prosecutors are launching a judicial probe after Spanish army troops disinfecting elderly nursing homes discovered elderly people living among death bodies of those who had allegedly contracted the new coronavirus.
Confusion rippled through Britain on the first morning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a three-week halt to all nonessential activity. The government has told most stores to close, banned gatherings of three or more people and said everyone apart from essential workers should leave home only to buy food and medicines or to exercise. But photos showed crowded trains Tuesday on some London subway lines.
“I cannot say this more strongly: we must stop all non-essential use of public transport now,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted. “Ignoring these rules means more lives lost.”
Asian stock markets reacted positively Tuesday, markets in Japan and South Korea posting significant gains after the Federal Reserve said it will lend to small and large businesses and local governments to help them through the crisis.
The move toward lockdowns has been influenced by the success of such measures in China, where the virus was first found late last year in the central city of Wuhan. China barred people from leaving or entering the city on Jan. 23, and soon expanded that to cover most of Hubei province, home to 70 million people.
On Tuesday, after more than a week in which China said the vast majority of new virus cases were imported from abroad, authorities said the restrictions in Hubei would end. People cleared by health authorities would be able to leave the province after midnight. Wuhan itself will remain locked down until April 8.  
In contrast to other European nations, German health authorities offered some hope that the country has flattened the exponential spread of the virus, which has already infected nearly 30,000. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government approved a massive new aid package to cushion the economic fallout of the outbreak, offering more than 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) to tide small companies and entrepreneurs through closures and to pump capital into bigger companies.
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Cuba is launching its most restrictive measures Tuesday to stop the spread of the coronavirus- banning citizens from leaving the island without authorization and placing foreign tourists under quarantine. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said in a televised address Monday that just over 32 thousand tourists will have to stay in hotels until they secure a flight home.  Cuba had resisted imposing the restrictions because tourism is the lifeblood of the island nation’s economy.  Authorities in Cuba on Monday also announced schools and universities will close. Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health on Monday confirmed 40 cases of the virus and doctors are monitoring more than 37- thousand other Cubans showing symptoms similar to the coronavirus. So far, Cuba has confirmed one death, an Italian tourist.  
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Національна енергетична компанія «Нафтогаз» пропонує встановити ціну газу при оплаті комунальних послуг за березень на рівні 3,4 гривні за кубічний метр, повідомив голова правління компанії Андрій Коболєв увечері 23 березня.

При цьому йдеться про ціну без податку на додану вартість, націнки газзбутів та витрат на транспортування газу, уточнив він. Таку ціну Коболєв назвав найнижчою з 2016 року.

Очільник компанії пояснив, що така ціна можлива завдяки запасам газу, зробленим наприкінці минулого року, а також загальному зниженню ціни на європейському ринку.

«Уважні споживачі помітять, що ціна «Нафтогазу» знизилась більше, ніж навіть на газовому хабі TTF, який ми маємо використовувати як індикатор ціни для населення. Пояснюю: уряд встановив результати торгів на TTF як максимально допустимий рівень. Однак в Україні в березні Оператор Газотранспортної системи провів торги на значні обсяги газу, на яких ціна опустилась нижче, ніж в Європі. Тому з двох індикаторів «Нафтогаз» обрав найменший», – написав Коболєв.

Читайте також: Ціни на газ: «Нафтогаз» заявляє, що АМКУ офіційно не сповіщав про розслідування зловживань​

Водночас він нагадав, що остаточні рахунки більшість українців отримують від приватних газзбутових компаній, які не входять до очолюваної ним структури.

«Якщо ціна газу в платіжці буде відрізнятись, є сенс звернутись до регулятора з проханням перевірити сумлінність свого постачальника газу», – припустив Коболєв.

Наприкінці лютого компанія «Нафтогаз» анонсувала, що ціни на газ в березні будуть нижчими, ніж у попередньому місяці.
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Italy, which has suffered by far the deadliest consequences of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported Tuesday a third consecutive day in which its daily deaths and new infections declined. The 601 deaths recorded Monday are still a staggering figure, but one that is a vast improvement from nearly 800 on Saturday. Italy has reported more than 6,000 deaths and has the second highest overall number of cases.  Officials put the entire country on lockdown two weeks ago in hopes of stopping the spread of the virus that has reached nearly every country on the planet. South Korea, which once held the position of being one of the hardest-hit nations showed its own continued progress, reporting Tuesday a daily rise in new cases of 76.  That was its 13th consecutive day below 100. Meanwhile China continues to report its own improvements with just four locally transmitted cases in its latest figures Tuesday.   But worries persist about a comeback for the virus in China, the place it was first detected in late December, due to cases among people who arrive from elsewhere in the world.  China reported 74 such imported cases Tuesday. Medical experts from China stand at the Nikola Tesla airport after arriving with medical supplies to help country’s fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Belgrade, Serbia, March 21, 2020.Those fears have prompted governments all over the world to institute travel restrictions. Beginning Tuesday, Cuba is barring all tourists from entering the country.  Those already there will go into mandatory quarantine, while Cuban citizens will not be able to leave the island. In the United States, about one-third of the population is under stay-at-home orders issued by state governors.  The latest was the governor of Hawaii telling people to not go out except for essential trips, while the governor of the western state of Washington tightened an existing order to include closing non-essential businesses. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order Monday which criminalizes the stockpiling of personal protective equipment that medical personnel need to stay safe while treating coronavirus patients. With the national and global response to the outbreak taking an economic toll, U.S. political leaders met late into Monday night trying to finalize an agreement on a massive economic rescue package.  They expressed confidence they can reach a deal on Tuesday. 
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President Donald Trump’s top disease expert says some of what Trump expresses in coronavirus briefings “could lead to some misunderstanding” about the facts. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has become a household name and a familiar face because of the daily White House coronavirus briefings. In an interview with Science magazine, Fauci said Trump listens. He said while he doesn’t disagree with the president in substance, he would express it differently. “He goes his own way. He has his own style. But on substantive issues, he does listen to what I say,” Fauci said. But the doctor says there isn’t much he can do when Trump makes a misstatement. “I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down. OK, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time,” Fauci said Fauci told the magazine that he will never call the coronavirus the “China virus,” which is what Trump consistently calls it during the briefings. The doctor indicated that these daily White House press gatherings make him a bit uneasy because of relatively large number of people at the podium and reporters in the room.   “I keep saying, ‘Is there any way we can get a virtual press conference?’ Thus far, no. But when you’re dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things one, two, three, four times, and then it happens. So, I’m going to keep pushing.”  Fauci said that Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the coronavirus task force, is much more of a “bear” than Trump in keeping people apart. Fauci said it is premature to try to figure out why the U.S. was underprepared for the outbreak. But for now, he said people need to follow the fundamental guidelines in preventing the spread while maintaining what he calls a “delicate balance” when considering more drastic steps. “There’s a compromise. If you knock down the economy completely and disrupt infrastructure, you may be causing health issues, unintended consequences, for people who need to be able to get to places and can’t. You do the best you can.” 
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Fears Iran would serve as a launching pad for the coronavirus pandemic, potentially wreaking havoc on the Middle East, are coming true, according to U.S. officials, who point to a growing volume of evidence. The State Department Monday accused Iran of transmitting the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, to multiple countries, saying that, in at least five instances, a country’s first case of the virus was “directly imported from Iran.” “The Wuhan virus is a killer and the Iranian regime is an accomplice,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters during a visit to Afghanistan. “The regime continues to lie to the Iranian people and the world,” Pompeo added in a statement. “They put Iranians and people around the world at greater risk.” Separately, other State Department officials voiced concern that the extent of the damage could be far worse, both for Iran and the region.   “The ​Iranian regime is hiding a significant amount of information about the coronavirus outbreak,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA. “This lack of transparency poses a significant health risk to the Iranian people, as well as to Iran’s neighbors.” COVID blame game   Tehran, which has been hit harder than any other Middle Eastern country with more than 23,000 cases, has blamed the United States for its struggles. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif Monday decried U.S. sanctions on Tehran as “mass punishment,” preventing Iran and the world from being able to effectively counter the pandemic. Iranian people appreciate the growing global campaign of government & civil society leaders calling for lifting of illegal U.S. sanctions.U.S. is NOT listening, impeding global fight against Equally worrisome for Western officials are the airline’s ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force, for which it has been sanctioned by the U.S, since 2011.  Officials say the IRGC has been on the frontlines, a public face for Iran’s response to the pandemic while, at the same time, continuing to act as an intermediary with Iranian proxy forces across the Middle East. Reports in Iranian state media late last week indicated at least one pilot for Mahar Air died after contracting the coronavirus.  And other reports from the region suggest, Iranians operating in countries like Syria have also fallen victim to the virus. COVID-19 threat to Syria Last week, the local Syrian news outlet Deir Ezzor 24 quoted sources as saying at least two Iranian militia members in the city of Al-Mayadin had been quarantined after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday said the number of Iranians diagnosed with the coronavirus in Al-Mayadin had risen to at least 11, with more cases possible. But officials and analysts say the IRGC and Iranian-backed militias are engaged in a concerted campaign to show they are fighting back against the virus and not falling victim to it. “Hashd al-Sha’abi [Iranian-backed militias in Iraq] did a press photo series showing the umbrella group has response teams,” Phillip Smyth, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA. “Other individuals, mainly leaders, have tried to show off they’re not infected by posting videos and photos of themselves being tested.”   Despite such public relations campaigns, Israeli officials have said they see indications that some of Iran’s malign activities have decreased of late.   Only some former Israeli military intelligence officials doubt Iran will back off for long.   “That is not going to happen,” said former Israeli National Security Adviser, retired Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror. “They [will] continue when they see opportunities and when they believe that it might help them,” he said. “It is easier in Iraq when they have Shiite militias, which they can use. It will be more complicated in Lebanon, which is in a broken state.” That has raised concerns that IRGC operatives will continue to spread the coronavirus, possibly even to high-risk populations in the region, including refugees and displaced persons. “The thing that I’m most concerned about from an early stage was how this could spread in refugee camps that Iranians come in contact with, whether that’s in Syria or Iraq or elsewhere,” said Colin Clarke, a senior fellow at The Soufan Center, a global security research group.  “You’re talking about highly vulnerable populations with little to no resources.” Humanitarian groups, like the Norwegian Refugee Council, have warned of “carnage” if and when the coronavirus takes hold in Syria and other areas deprived of adequate health care. 
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The United States is “considering all options” to help citizens return home from countries that have suspended air travel or closed their borders to stem the spread of the coronavirus, U.S. officials said Monday. Thousands of Americans are said to be stranded abroad and are desperate to return the United States amid the COVID-19 global pandemic.   “We’re tracking some 13-and-a-half thousand U.S. citizens abroad who are seeking assistance in being repatriated,” a senior State Department official said during a press call Monday.  U.S. citizens are encouraged to first use commercial flights to return home while they are still available, the senior official said. After that, military aircrafts and private charters — through the congressional authorized special funds for unexpected emergencies — will be used to help them return. Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, March 2, 2020.In another briefing, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. military is always available for evacuating Americans trapped abroad but that the military is a less likely role than commercial options. Americans are encouraged to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) that allows U.S. citizens traveling and living abroad to enroll their trip with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate for the most up-to-date information, according to the State Department. A 24/7 call center has also been set up to help: 1-888-407-4747 (inside the U.S.) or 202-501-4444 (from overseas.)  The U.S. has brought back about 5,700 people — largely through State Department-chartered aircrafts, including bringing more than 800 people out of Wuhan, China, in January; more than 300 out of Yokohama, Japan; about 1,200 out of Morocco last week; and others out of Central America recently, according to the State Department. “We’re looking at 16 or so flights the next five days,” the senior official said. “We’ve got, at this point, over 1,600 passengers identified for those flights.”   
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The USNS Mercy hospital ship has left its San Diego port for Los Angeles on Monday to help support the city’s response to an overwhelming number of coronavirus cases. “This is a big day for the Mercy, Navy medicine and our national response to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Capt. John Rotruck, the ship’s commanding officer.  Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Monday at the Pentagon that the Defense Department was working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to set the conditions for the Mercy’s arrival in L.A. later this week. The U.S. military’s two hospital ships and other military assets, such as field hospitals, will provide triage and urgent care but will not treat coronavirus patients, because they are not designed with segregated spaces needed to treat infectious diseases. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper gestures during a news conference, March 5, 2020.Instead, the military hospital ships and field hospitals sent to overwhelmed cities will free up local hospital beds and local medical professionals so they can devote more of their resources to isolating and treating those with the highly contagious COVID-19. Esper said Monday the Mercy will focus on helping “some of L.A.’s most heavily-stressed hospitals.”  Though San Diego and Los Angeles are only about 200 km apart, the ship will take multiple days to get to the Port of Los Angeles because its crew must first perform a number of operational certifications “at sea, underway, prior to any arrival,” according to Navy officials. Rotruck said the medical professionals on board will use that time for training, with plans to stay in L.A. as long as needed and travel to another overwhelmed city, if tasked. The Mercy has more than 800 Navy medical personnel and support staff on board, along with more than 70 civil service mariners, according to the Navy.  Key medical staff for the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort hospital ships reported for duty last Thursday to get the ships ready to deploy. The Comfort is undergoing maintenance in Norfolk, Virginia, and will deploy to New York Harbor in the coming weeks.   Both ships are preparing for a 1,000-bed mission, the largest mission set these ships can accommodate, U.S. Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham said last week. In addition to the hospital ships, Esper said Monday that five of the U.S. military’s expeditionary medical units are on “prepare-to-deploy orders,” and he anticipates the Pentagon will send field hospitals to Seattle and New York City. U.S. National Guard members stand beside crates of medical supplies at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, March 23, 202. New York City hospitals are 10 days from running out of “really basic supplies,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to convert thousands of New York City hotel and dormitory rooms into temporary medical units to help combat COVID-19. The U.S. Air Force has flown a patient staging system for the Italian Ministry of Defense, capable of supporting 40 patients in a 24-hour period, to Aviano, Italy. On Friday, an Air Force crew flew the U.S. women’s football team home from Honduras after the country closed its borders. President Donald Trump on Sunday authorized the use of the National Guard under Title 32 status, which means the troops will be federally funded but remain under state control. “This is not a move toward Marshal Law, as some have erroneously claimed,” Esper said Monday, referencing the president’s legal, yet limited, authority to impose direct military control over what are normally civilian functions in response to an emergency. The National Guard stands in formation at the Jacob Javits Center, Monday, March 23, 2020, in New York.More than 8,000 U.S. National Guard personnel are responding to the coronavirus pandemic in all 54 states, territories and the District of Columbia, according to officials. Tasks range from delivering meals to screening symptoms for testing facilities. “We are in this for the long haul,” National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Joseph Lengyel said Sunday, while cautioning that the Guard has the supplies needed in the near term but is “concerned about longer-term supplies.” As of early Monday, 243 coronavirus cases around the globe were related to the U.S. military — 133 service members, 44 civilians, 35 dependents and 31 contractors — the Pentagon said. One U.S. defense contractor in northern Virginia has died from the virus.  
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