Austria will massively expand coronavirus testing in coming days to locate and isolate infected people and avoid an Italian-like overload of its health system, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Tuesday.
 
The Alpine republic with a population of 8.8 million has tested around 28,400 people so far with nearly 4,900 cases and 28 deaths confirmed.
 
It was one of the first European countries to put severe restrictions on movement and close shops and schools in response to the developments in neighboring Italy and a strong increase in coronavirus infections in its western regions.
 
In coming weeks, Austria plans to test up to 15,000 people per day, the chancellor said.
 
“We will also launch rapid tests, to test hundreds of thousands of people, as quickly as possible,” Kurz told a news conference.
 
He referred to brand new tests that are comparably cheap but take longer than laboratory tests used up until now.
 
Broad testing is key to getting a clear picture of the real infection rate and an idea of how many people have developed immunity against the virus, the chancellor said.
 
Top priority was to delay the peak of infections as long as possible to avoid a situation like in Italy or Spain, where the health systems are overwhelmed.
 
“Our goal is that the number of infections doubles only every 14 days and not every two, three or five days and that we will set the right measures to keep it that way once we ramp up social life again,” Kurz said.
 
Austria’s strict measures are in place until April 13, and Kurz said there was hope that a gradual withdrawal could start the day after.
 
A government task force developing scenarios for the “ramp up” was currently dealing with questions such as in which order schools, businesses and production should restart.
 
Lessons from other countries showed that it was crucial to remain disciplined and to make use of “big data.”
 
Asked what he meant by “big data,” Kurz said: “We are currently working with the Red Cross and other enterprises on ideas that could be implemented in Austria and in Europe, and which are suitable for our system and our democracy.”
 
Austria’s Red Cross is promoting a so-called “Stop Corona” app, which enables a user to digitally store who he meets and when. If a person shows symptoms of corona disease, these contact persons can be notified.
 
Austria’s mobile carrier A1 Telekom Austria is already sharing results from a motion analysis application that visualizes the movement flows of groups of people with the health authority.
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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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Health authorities say Spain has registered a daily record increase in its daily virus infections and deaths.  Spain announced 6,584 new coronavirus infections Tuesday, bringing the overall total to 39, 673. The number of deaths also jumped by a record number of 514 to 2,696.
 
“This is the tough week,” Fernando Simón, the head of the Spanish health emergency coordination center, said at a daily briefing.  Simon also said some 5, 400 health workers were infected.
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Health experts say Nigeria isn’t likely to meet the United Nations’ 2030 tuberculosis eradication target, as the nation still accounts for the highest fatality rate from the disease in Africa. Officials say they’re trying to address major factors like inadequate awareness and funding by offering free screening and treatment.  For VOA, Timothy Obiezu has more from Abuja as the world marks Tuberculosis Day on March 24.
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The American Cancer Society says one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime and one in 41 will die from it. Several news studies offer hope that these number could decrease with early and accurate diagnosis.  A new study based on a randomized controlled trial on 300 prostate cancer patients in Australia has found that a molecular imaging technique is more accurate than conventional medical imaging that uses CT (computed tomography) and bone scan.  Prostate cancer is treated by surgery to remove the prostate or by intensive radiotherapy that targets the tumor.  Doctors often use CT and bone scans to determine if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. A team led by Professor Michael Hofman conducted trials on prostate cancer patients in 10 hospitals in Australia using the prostate-specific membrane antigen PET-CT scan.  “We inject a radio-active small molecule intravenously. It finds its way to prostate cancer cells and we then image the whole body on a positron emission tomography scanner, i.e. PET (positron emission tomography) scanner and this enables us to visualize the distribution of disease spread with striking tumor-to-background contrast,” said Hofman. The trials showed that prostate-specific membrane antigen PET-CT scan had a 27% greater accuracy than that of conventional imaging, which proved to have lower sensitivity.  That means the new imaging has 92% accuracy compared to 65% of a CT bone scan. A follow-up trial conducted after six months confirmed the initial results. The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, says that “the primary outcome was accuracy of first-line imaging for identifying either pelvic nodal or distant-metastatic disease.”   Hofman’s research team recommends the use of new scans in routine clinical practice instead of the current CT and bone scans for better accuracy. They say a more accurate imagery can help doctors determine whether to use targeted treatment or more advanced treatment for the whole body. A more accurate diagnosis cuts the need for repeated radio-active testing and thus cuts a patient’s exposure to harmful radiation. It also is likely to reduce the number of cancer relapse cases.  Hereditary Study of Prostate Cancer Another study may help identify men who are more likely to get prostate cancer than others. Researchers at the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, have identified haplotypes, ancestral fragments of DNA, associated with hereditary prostate cancer.  They compared genetic data of two groups of men with prostate cancer, one with a strong family history of the disease and another without a family history of prostate cancer.  They analyzed the haplotypes of 2,300 men at a location of chromosome 8.  The Vanderbilt team has earlier found that a gene on chromosome 8 is particularly associated with prostate cancer susceptibility. “We’ve taken a comprehensive shotgun approach to investigate data at this location and have been able to deconstruct how it contributes to risk, including which of the haplotypes impact age of onset and also aggressiveness,” said researcher Jeffrey R. Smith. The study, published in Nature Communications, says roughly 9% of prostate cancer is linked to heritability. But one mutation increased risk as much as 22-fold. Another mutation increased risk 4-fold, and was observed even among men without a strong family history. The study is believed to be the first to identify haplotypes comprehensively from all associated genetic variants.  Vanderbilt researchers earlier found that a mutation in a particular gene predisposes men of European descent to prostate cancer.  They found the mutation to be rare but carrying an 8% risk of prostate cancer among those who inherit it.  Finding Active Cancer                                                           Another new study says that a test that checks for prostate cancer DNA in blood could provide the earliest evidence that prostate cancer is active. The study by researchers at Britain’s University College London Cancer Institute says that prostate cancer leaves a detectable “fingerprint” in blood. “This test could be the first to tell us cancer has gotten into blood before the spread is large enough to see on imaging,” said Mark Emberton, dean of the faculty of medical sciences. “This could allow targeting of treatment for men at the highest risk of prostate cancer spread.” The study published earlier this month in The Journal of Clinical Investigation says the finding could help doctors monitor tumor behavior, see if it has spread and choose the best treatment.  The technique is still being tested on patients to determine if it can complement or replace the current prostate-specific antigen test. Less Aggressive vs. More Aggressive Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) say they have discovered a method to distinguish less aggressive from more aggressive forms of prostate cancer that eventually cause a patient’s death. The findings are meant to help doctors avoid perhaps unnecessary and harmful treatment for less aggressive types of cancer.  The new study shows how the number of aggressive cells in a tumor sample defines how quickly the disease will progress and spread. The study also reveals three new subtypes of prostate cancer that could be used to stratify patients for different treatments. “Our aim is to use more sophisticated analytical approaches to de-convolute the structure of prostate cancer transcriptome data, providing novel clinically actionable information for this disease,” said the team.  Lead researcher Colin Cooper said: “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Britain. It usually develops slowly, and the majority of cancers will not require treatment in a man’s lifetime. However, doctors struggle to predict which tumors will become aggressive, making it hard to decide on treatment for many men.” In the United States prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men after skin cancer.  The American Cancer Society says the chance of having prostate cancer rises rapidly after the age of 50 and that affects different races differently. It develops more often in African-American men and less often in Asian-American and Latino men. It says prostate cancer seems to run in some families and that several inherited gene changes (mutations) seem to raise prostate cancer risk. The new studies promise to help improve and individualize treatment of prostate cancer and save lives. 
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At a time of great uncertainty, even the seasons seem scrambled. Christmas lights in springtime?  Wrapped around a tree trunk in Colorado, fashioned into a heart in Alabama and hung high over Main Street in a New Hampshire town, holiday lights are going back up. As the coronavirus spreads, the displays are providing a bit of emotional and actual brightness. And they’re especially easy to enjoy from a safe social distance. “We live out in the country, but I know you can see them from the highway,” said Julie Check, who turned on the white lights that trace the roof line of her home in Eastman, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night. “Anything I can do to make people happy right now, I’m going to try to do.” In Farmington, New Hampshire, a roughly five-block stretch of downtown has been re-illuminated with holiday lights that swoop and zigzag between tall wooden posts. So cherished is the town’s 80-year decorating tradition that taxpayers approved spending $11,500 six years ago to erect the posts after the electric company said lights could no longer be affixed to its poles. Jason Desjardin, of the Farmington Preservation & Improvement Organization, turns the Christmas lights back on in Farmington, N.H., March 19, 2020.”It’s a small town; we don’t have a lot of traditions. That was one of them, and we just didn’t want it to go away,” said Lee Warburton, president of the Farmington Preservation and Improvement Organization, which maintains and installs the lights. At his suggestion, the 27 strands totaling 2,000-plus bulbs were tested and turned back on Thursday night. “It’s tough for everybody right now. Everyone is on edge,” he said. “We just thought it would be nice to give the folks in town something to smile about.” Police Chief John Drury was all for the idea. He remembers how pretty the lights looked when he first visited the town for a job interview on a December day 20 years ago.  “It was one of the things that actually drew me to this community when I was first looking to be a police officer,” he said. “By bringing the lights back, hopefully it gives people the sense of hope that we’re all in this together. We’ll get through it.” A lit Christmas tree hangs from a pole at dusk as holiday lights illuminate downtown in Farmington, N.H., March 19, 2020.Many of the posts on Twitter and other social media platforms point back to a Colorado man who tweeted Monday that his mom thought people should put Christmas lights in their windows “to remind each other there is still life and light” while they stay home to avoid the virus.  Rosemary Peterson, the mom in question, said Thursday she made the offhand suggestion after making the wrenching decision to indefinitely postpone the funeral for her sister, Marlene, who died on March 13. “We know we are not alone. Many are giving up events, experiences, celebrations and milestones,” she said. “So in the midst of a lot of darkness, I thought we could all use some light.” Both she and her son were surprised that his tweet took off. “He told me, ‘Mom, there are a lot of people looking at this!’ and I said, ‘Oh, no! We have to go put out some lights!'” Peterson said. “We ran out and wrapped a tree and had another light string we put around our front window. Nothing too fancy, I’ll tell ya.” Two young men walk down Main Street under Christmas lights in downtown Farmington, N.H., March 19, 2020.Since then, others have adopted his #lightsforlife hashtag to share photos of their efforts. In Huntsville, Alabama, Sarah Bang said she usually just winds a string of white lights around the railing of her apartment balcony for Christmas. But after seeing Peterson’s tweet, she made a heart shape instead. “I had Christmas lights because I’m super into Christmas, so I dug them out and decided love was a good thing to spread,” she said.  
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Rising seas are causing inland flooding in many parts of the world. This is especially true in southern Florida where, increasingly, high tides are flooding buildings and roads, threatening drinking water and causing soil erosion.  As we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block, human-caused climate change is the biggest culprit, but Mother Nature is lending a hand to hold back the tides.
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Now that the restaurant where he works full time in the Washington suburb is closed, server Gerardo Espiell, 23, plans to move back in with his mother and sister to make ends meet. Together, he’s hopeful they can make the mortgage.  “Honestly, it’s kind of crazy,” he says. “I’m very calm about everything. I’m just taking it day by day. I have some PTO (paid time off) saved up, so I’m using my PTO.”  Server Gerardo Espiell says he has no savings because all of his earnings go to rent and other living expenses. (Photo courtesy Gerardo Espiell)In San Francisco, Anita Reyes, who had her fourth child six months ago, usually waitresses at SanJalisco, the family restaurant owned by her mother, Delores. Her husband works there, too.  “It’s overwhelming,” she says. “I thought I’d come in and help her because she can’t afford the workers. We’re living off this food (in the restaurant refrigerator) right now. We’re taking it home to our families.”   Percy Saloman, who drives for a ride-hailing service in Virginia, is still working, but he’s putting in longer hours for less money.  “Yeah, I’m worried, because right now, this is my second shift, and I only made like $70. And usually, I finish with around $150 or something,” he says.  Saloman, Espiell and Reyes are among millions of American workers in service industries that are among the hardest hit by restrictions imposed by many U.S. states trying to stem the spread of the coronavirus known as COVID-19. Some states are telling people they must stay home. Businesses that are deemed as nonessential are closing. About one in six workers, some 17% of U.S. employees, could be impacted by social distancing, according to an analysis from Ball State University. “Four-and-a-half million retail sales folks, 3.5 million food preparation, almost 3.5 million cashiers, 2.5 million waiters and waitresses,” says Ball State University economist Michael Hicks. “So, those numbers add up pretty quickly to about 28 million workers in the United States who are immediately affected by the social distancing measures that have been taken at the federal, state and local level in the U.S … a very vulnerable share of the workforce. These are mostly low wage workers. (They) face almost immediate financial problems.” Congress is debating a relief package that could include a direct cash payment to U.S. adults. “I think something like at least a short-term universal basic income that pays everybody $1,000 a month for three, four or five, six months,” Hicks says. “We could collect some of that back in taxes from the better-off, for those of us who are unaffected by this. Those are the sorts of policies that are going to, I think, sustain households through this short-term social distancing that we’re facing right now.” Server Syndi Brooks, a married mother of one who works at a San Diego eatery, relies on tips to help support her family. (Courtesy Sydni Brooks)Money like that could go a long way for some workers.  “That would help a lot, actually,” says Syndi Brooks, a server in the San Diego area. “That would hold me over for a few months.”  The 29-year-old has a 7-year-old daughter. She and her husband, a tattoo artist whose business is also suffering, are living off money they’ve saved.  “I’m worried. I’m lucky to have some savings, and I know a lot of people don’t,” Brooks says. “This wasn’t what we intended to save for. We were intending to save for a house.”  Espiell, the server from Virginia, says help from the federal government could make all the difference, especially with money already being tight. “Not just me, but, like, everybody in the service industry sometimes live paycheck by paycheck, especially, like, it’s been very slow this winter, too,” he says. “Not a lot of people have been coming out, so, everybody’s trying to save up all that winter money by not going out and all that stuff. Or, like, you know, some people don’t eat.” Ride-hailing driver Percy Saloman, picking up a fare in Northern Virginia on March 17, 2020, is driving longer hours for less money.Saloman intends to keep driving. Beyond that, he admits to having no plan for his, and his family’s, future. “So far, the only thing that I can do day by day, is just to keep working longer shifts to be able to provide the same income that I was bringing in before,” he says. Reyes, the San Francisco server, is hopeful her family and its business can see the crisis through. “We’re staying together,” she says. “If this is only a timeout for a little bit, then we’re sticking together.” 
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Countries can’t simply lock down their societies to defeat coronavirus, the World Health Organization’s top emergency expert said on Sunday, adding that public health measures are needed to avoid a resurgence of the virus later on.
 
“What we really need to focus on is finding those who are sick, those who have the virus, and isolate them, find their contacts and isolate them,” Mike Ryan said in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
 
“The danger right now with the lockdowns … if we don’t put in place the strong public health measures now, when those movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is the disease will jump back up.”
 
Much of Europe and the United States have followed China and other Asian countries and introduced drastic restrictions to fight the new coronavirus, with most workers told to work from home and schools, bars, pubs and restaurants being closed.
 
Ryan said that the examples of China, Singapore and South Korea, which coupled restrictions with rigorous measures to test every possible suspect, provided a model for Europe, which the WHO has said has replaced Asia as the epicenter of the pandemic.
 
“Once we’ve suppressed the transmission, we have to go after the virus. We have to take the fight to the virus,” Ryan said.
 
Italy is now the worst hit country in the world by the virus, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that Britain’s health system could be overwhelmed unless people avoid social interactions. British housing minister Robert Jenrick said that production of tests would double next week and ramp up thereafter.
 
Ryan also said that several vaccines were in development, but only one had begun trials in the United States. Asked how long it would take before there was a vaccine available in Britain, he said that people needed to be realistic.
 
“We have to make sure that it’s absolutely safe… we are talking at least a year,” he said.
 
“The vaccines will come, but we need to get out and do what we need to do now.”
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As the coronavirus infects more people around the world, conservationists are warning of the risk to another vulnerable species: Africa’s endangered mountain gorilla.  Congo’s Virunga National Park, home to about a third of the world’s mountain gorillas, is barring visitors until June 1, citing “advice from scientific experts indicating that primates, including mountain gorillas, are likely susceptible to complications arising from the COVID-19 virus.”  Neighboring Rwanda also is temporarily shutting down tourism and research activities in three national parks that are home to primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees.  Mountain gorillas are prone to some respiratory illnesses that afflict humans. A common cold can kill a gorilla, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, one reason why tourists tracking gorillas are not normally permitted to get too close.  Around 1,000 mountain gorillas live in protected areas in Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, for whom tourism is an important source of revenue. But COVID-19 has led to restrictive measures.  Virunga National Park’s decision has been welcomed by conservationists in the region.  Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of the Kenya-based conservation group WildlifeDirect, told The Associated Press that “every possible effort must be made” to protect mountain gorillas because so few are left in the wild.  “We know that gorillas are very sensitive to human diseases,” she said. “If anyone has a cold or a flu they are not allowed to go and see the gorillas. With coronavirus having such a long time of no symptoms in some cases, it means that we could actually put those gorillas at risk.”  Even existing measures may not be enough to protect them.  According to Ugandan conservationist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka with Conservation Through Public Health, a study published this year by her group and Ohio University showed that measures in place to protect gorillas from humans are not effective in practice.  The rule on keeping a safe distance from the gorillas was broken almost every time a group of tourists visited, she said.  “What the research found is that the 7-meter rule was broken almost all the time … like 98% of the time,” she said. “But what was interesting is that 60% of the time it was tourists that broke it and 40% of the time it was the gorillas who broke it.”If close interaction cannot be prevented, she said, one measure that could potentially improve safety is requiring tourists to wear masks at all times.  Uganda has not announced a shutdown of gorilla tourism, although tourist traffic from Europe and elsewhere has dwindled.  A spokesman for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Bashir Hangi, said the decision on whether to shut down gorilla tourism is now academic as there is almost no business amid the outbreak.  Still, he said, the few tourists who come are screened for fever and other symptoms and must obey rules such as not standing within 7 meters (21 feet) of a gorilla family. Visitors from virus-affected countries who have gone through quarantine in Uganda need to produce what he called a certificate of isolation before they are permitted to track the gorillas.  Amos Wekesa, whose Great Lakes Safaris organizes gorilla tours in Rwanda and Uganda, spoke mournfully of “hardly any business” as tourists postpone visits or seek refunds.  The region’s mountain gorilla population dropped sharply in the past century because of poaching, illness and human encroachment. Mountain gorillas have been listed as critically endangered or endangered since 1996, although their numbers are now said to be growing as a result of conservation efforts.  But there have been painful losses. Some gorillas die of natural causes, falling from trees or being killed in fights between males for territory or dominance. A lightning strike killed four mountain gorillas in February.In Rwanda, where tourism is the top foreign exchange earner, the government has prioritized the protection of gorillas, even launching a naming ceremony for baby primates.  Tourism revenue is key in protecting mountain gorillas as authorities can use some of the money to help local communities or invest in anti-poaching activities. A gorilla tracking permit costs up to $600 in Uganda, and thousands of tourists pay each year. A similar permit costs upward of $1,000 in Rwanda.  Some worry the loss of tourist revenue during the coronavirus pandemic could further expose the primates to poachers. Virunga, established in 1925 as Africa’s first national park and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has long been vulnerable in a volatile part of eastern Congo.  “I think this is going to have a huge impact on their sustainability,” Kahumbu, the Kenyan conservationist, said of Virunga. “I call on all donors and governments that support these national parks in Africa to make it easy for the parks that need to shut down to do so and survive.”Poachers could do even more damage to gorillas if they think the anti-poaching efforts have been reduced, she said.
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Millions of Americans are under orders Saturday from their state and local governments to stay home, venturing out only for essential needs, including trips to pharmacies, supermarkets, and gas stations, and solo exercise.California and New York residents have been ordered to stay home to help stop the spread of COVID-19, a disease that claims more victims every day. Illinois residents join in the stay-at-home strategy later Saturday.Early Saturday morning the global count of infected cases was 275,452, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.New Jersey and Oregon will likely be the next U.S. states to order their residents to stay home as part of the fight against the virus that has disrupted the very fabric of life around the world.Children no longer go to school, adults are either working from home or have been laid off from work.  Weddings and sports events have been canceled.  Millions of people in the U.S. have applied for unemployment insurance.  Places of worship are closed until further notice. Nothing is the same.Medical and emergency workers who are on the front lines of the battle against the virus in the U.S. find themselves ill-equipped for the fight.  Their supply of weapons – masks and ventilators — that not only protect them, but their patients, too — is either gone or quickly diminishing.  They do not have tests either to determine who has the confounding virus that kills some people and is asymptomatic in others.  The government has been slow to act.Cuba, whose economy depends heavily on tourism, said Friday it will not allow any foreign tourists to enter the country, beginning Tuesday.  The ban will be in effect for 30 days.The drastic measure is being initiated in an effort to prevent any more COVID-19 cases, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on state television. Cuba has reported at least 19 cases of the coronavirus and one death. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyThe South Korea Centers for Disease Control reported 147 new cases of the virus Saturday.  The Asian nation has 8,799 infections and 102 deaths attributed to the virus.More than 10,200 new cases were reported Friday in Europe, which World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week had become the epicenter of the outbreak after cases began to wane in China, where the outbreak began.Spanish officials warned Friday that the situation could soon overcome the country’s health care system. They announced plans to turn a Madrid conference center into a makeshift hospital. Earlier this week, a four-star inn in Madrid was converted into a hospital.Germany, another hard-hit country, is trying to increase the number of intensive care beds, which now total 28,000, by establishing temporary hospitals in hotels, rehabilitation clinics and other facilities. There are nearly 20,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany. Officials there say coronavirus could strike as many as 10 million Germans unless proper precautions are taken, including social distancing.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shut down dining establishments, bars and other leisure businesses.
 
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